Out of EXALT and Red Dawn, which is the better cult to take down first?The easiest overall, imo, lotus - fragile units. But both of these are beatable in your position. Red dawn HQ is hard to fully clear, there's APCs (use gas if you have it, mines or prox grenades/blops snipers otherwise) and a lot of grunts. It's better to find any coordinator, take a red card off his corpse and skedaddle - this is enough to destroy RD.
Do I need another base, if so, where and for what purposes?You need at least single workshop base, and research/prison/radar bases. Good radar coverage is needed to spot UFOs in time. Main base is better built with a lot of stores. Don't workshop stuff there, it gets crowded with psi- labs, adv- labs and whatever labs and a lot of incoming loot and prisoners.
Research-wise: What do I need to beeline? What's the next major step weapons and armor wise? What things do I need before the aliens show up?Hard to say. Aliens can be smashed in promo 2 gear just fine, but most comfortable way is probably tanks. You need to get some cyberweb to research them, and some alien alloys to build them. Some can be get through gertrude mission dossier -> mission/abductor ship.
How important is it to bio-enhance my units at the current stage?No idea why you ask, I just bio-ex everybody, no major downsides. It's you mean other transformation, you usually get piloting + bioex + martial arts + tactical implants (right, magma mission line is important too, and opens new armor) on everybody, then helix knight, then some advanced transformations.
The easiest overall, imo, lotus - fragile units.
it would be easier if you uploaded your save so that the community can take a look at what you have in more detail, are you on a pure xcom files run or with submods?Save is attached. Pure X-COM FIles with no Submods.
What caught my eye is lack of ranking agents (manual promotions?) and generally an overflow of rookies.Manual promotions are on yes. I didn't realize that when I started the campaign. Explains why nobody's gone above Agent. Ironman really does bite and I've lost a good few vets. Also skipped a lot of missions that should probably have been training runs for rookies due to IRL fatigue - need to manage my time better.
You have Dart guns researched and electric darts available to research, these work reasonably well when you don't want to pop your HVT with blunt grenades.I've been relying on Tasers so far. Hadn't really considered darts as I never used them in previous runs. May give them a shot.
Moreover, what do you have against the G11 and the OICW? Most people do have kinda low Bravery for the G11, though. No Milkors, either.Admittedly I assumed they would be inferior to the blops stuff, and neglected to check their stats. Will put them under consideration.
Common use of BO Pistols but not shields, and a lot of just plain rifles instead of snipers, MGs, launchers and other specialist weapons.I've not used too many pistols with shields. Mostly as sidearms on my grenade launcher people. Rifle usage is a problem I need to fix though.
Only one transformation unlocked, too. Not sure how that came to be. Enhance the hell out of your agents, this is one way to make semi-rookies into proper soldiers.Severely underestimated their importance tbh, so haven't focused on them. Having seen the effect of Bio-Enhancement, I'll definitely be getting it earlier on future runs. What other early transforms are recommended?
What other early transforms are recommended?I've listed the classics.
Given my current situation, with the invasion close, bases unprepared, and force underpoweredYour "situation" is fine. There's still a lot of time before the invasion, and it's not as scary as you picture it out to be - you commonly may not see any UFOs until well into the middle of 99. You are NOT intended to go into it guns blazing with every piece of tech at your disposal. Looting aliens is one of the best ways to get money / advance techs / snowball in general. Rushing them with rookies works fine - you don't want your vets on frontlines getting one shot by plasma anyway. That's rookies job.
While I do agree, Black lotus Assassins make up for any weaknesses.As long as you master animal use as I've outlined, they do not present any real harm. To reiterate - dogs/rats/drones have motion scan (first two) and can see assassins from further away (7/9/9 tiles instead of regular 4) due to anticamo.
Do note that Dart weapons are not the best stun weapon there is, even for your time frame. If you don't mind killing some of your targets, various launcher blunts are better. KO grenades are generally at least as good and easier to deploy.
There was a discussion of darts as 'best' stun weapons roughly here (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=5047.msg161755#msg161755), with some interesting info.
Miniguns have a very special property: they strip armour even without doing damage. Fire a couple of bursts at an otherwise invulnerable Sectopod, and it'll start feeling the pain.
The flying drone likely came from the Osiron Warehouse. IDK why they have yet undeveloped X-Com tech lying around... ???That sounds likely. Little odd but a flying unit is a flying unit, regardless of its... dubious origin.
The Reptoids are the real rulers of Earth, come to end your campaign. :P
Nah, it's probably a couple of lizard boys in a kitchen, room-to-room combat with somewhat dangerous weapons, but not anything special if you've killed Sectoids before. Take dogs/rats/motion scanners, finding them in the labyrinthine mini-mansion is the most annoying part, especially with all the civilians around.Sounds good. The 2-Agent team are easily my best. They should handle it no problem.
The flying drone likely came from the Osiron Warehouse. IDK why they have yet undeveloped X-Com tech lying around... ???
It's basically Hybrid tech...Wouldn't it be more immersive to replace the loot with actual Hybrid tech, STR_ALIEN_DRONE_TERRORIST? The X-Com drone is a repurposed, X-Com specific version. It even has X-Com in the name!
Wouldn't it be more immersive to replace the loot with actual Hybrid tech, STR_ALIEN_DRONE_TERRORIST? The X-Com drone is a repurposed, X-Com specific version. It even has X-Com in the name!
Incidentally, I've noticed something about Reptoids that may or may not be a bug. They do not seem to use doors. Never in either mission can I recall hearing door sounds on the alien turn, only on the civilian. From what I can tell, part of why the first mission went so poorly was that a civilian wandered into the kitchen and let the Reptoids out, at which point they started wrecking havoc. If this is intentional that's fine, but it definitely feels a little weird. Also I'm painfully familiar with the tiles of this mansion now. It is not a map I enjoy at all. If it was maybe 1/2 to 1/4 of the size it would be a lot more bearable. I also don't wholly like the spawning locations, since even with the relatively small squad size of 8 your squad ends up spread over multiple levels, and thus more difficult to coordinate effectively.
@Solarius: It's still weird that these are called X-Com drones, but I suppose I see your point.
Reptoids and doors could be a patrol route issue (or lack thereof), Solarius might want to take a look.
Start site spawning is random, I don't think you can 100% make a unit start somewhere specific. If you had more dogs, maybe you could try playing the odds by studying Quick Battle patterns. Not sure it'd help, really.
You should be able to resurrect your downed drone with a transformation. You'll lose your flying casing, though.Drone resuscitation ordered. Casing is lost but available for research, so not all bad.
Are you doing the tier 2 manor now?
Name suggestions for the Rover are welcome.Landranger?
Kitsune should be your top priority. Abandon everything else and put all eggheads on that, pronto! :)Getting Smart Rifles online first but Kitsune is next!
Some of the Syndicate guys should have been in their variant of the Armoured Vest, too, no?Assuming you mean Syndicate Security, there were a few of them. Still no match for overwhelming firepower.
About the African base, depends on how much science infrastructure you already have. But since you're regularly losing people, I'd make a training base somewhere anyway, so why not there. Research takes a while to set up, though, so if you want both, start with that.Good reasoning. Gyms are getting set up pronto. I worry somewhat about falling behind on research, but realistically I'm not in any real danger of that.
Did you mean Bulletproof Coats? Bulletproof vests are Kevlar. :DAh, yep. Admittedly they do serve the same purpose. Coats are significantly more stylish however.
I concur that MiGs are pretty useless once you get the Kitsune. They might be of some use against cultist MiGs, Hybrid aircars and similar, but the Kitsune largely obsoletes them even in that role.Makes sense. Will probably get at least one Interceptor, but I might as well skip MiGs. I've already figured out how to draw fighters with one craft and slip in with another. It's not too difficult, especially with how amateurish Cult fighters seem to be.
The Interceptor is something you may actually want, since the next crafts require alloys which might be in short supply. And not all UFOs land. But whether those are worth pursuing is a different question. I'd get one or two of one interceptor type, MiG or Interceptor, build spare hangars to move them around, and try them out. And then upgrade.
Once you feel the need to have something worthwhile in the air, beeline for Thunderstorms, those are IMO the best early-midgame fighter crafts.
Taking down another cult depends on whether you care about stopping the manors and other minor bullshit from spawning or not. Since Hybrids will continue that anyway, and are somewhat tougher, perhaps not.I'm thinking I'll try and get Dagon down by New Years at the very least. Red Dawn can wait a little. Haven't seen a Deep One yet, and undersea missions sound like fun. Love my TFTD.
You'll also get those annyoing score-lowering Slander missions if you delay destroying the respective cults, so that's something to watch out for. Contrary to what Stone Lake is saying, destroying the cults isn't itself a pathway to new factions - usually, it's something you take from the cult's higher ranks or their HQ.
The exceptions are: Black Lotus (which is already down) - two mission arcs, EXALT (also down) -manufacturing certain somewhat useful items, Red Dawn - not really a new arc, but closure for an old one, Dagon - alternate access to the underwater arc if you miss your Deep One capture.
There are also some extra Geoscape events that give you minor penalties if you take too long.
All in all, I like farming the cults for longer, but if you're not into it and think you can handle Red Dawn snipers, armoured cars and Deep Ones Gillmen/Dagon priests raining lightning, TNT and grenades on you, go for it.
Weren't you using CAWS buckshot against Syndicate Security? Even light armour really messes with buckshot. Or was it slugs now?Slugs - I find that while Buckshot is good, most enemies will die to a slug just as easily and slugs have better range. Also had SMGs, which while not great at armor pen do shoot a lot of bullets with decent accuracy. Frankly if it weren't for the imminent arrival of Smart Rifles I might have swapped all my rifles out for SMGs.
Cult fighters will get a big boost with tier 3 manors. One of the reasons to finish them off.Good to know on both counts, especially since in all likelihood I'm going to have to deal with at least one Tier 3 Mansion.
Underwater combat is quite like TFTD in that it very much sabotages all your current advantages: limited equipment, enemies who are much more at home in the environment, including worse vision and worse movement plus other stats. It's a bit like starting all over again, although not quite.
(Combat?) knives are not accurate in the hands of agents who still have middling melee skill. Try some more beginner-friendly weapons, like machetes or billhooks. Look for "Accuracy modifier: [flat number] + [skill]" in the Pedia.Good to know, I thought that was the case given the number of misses I was getting. I'll look through my options. In future runs I'm definitely going to focus melee more. I've been training bravery up to this point by making people medics and it's been pretty effective. I don't remember his initial stats, but Jankowski was a medic pretty much up until he got his minigun, and I used medipacks and trauma packs over sprays.
Actually, going the police brutality route and poking them with the small stun sticks raises both melee and reactions, and doesn't risk anyone dying (other than the people doing the poking :D). You can also train Bravery by using pepper spray on helpless enemies. Works even when they're knocked out, since it's an area weapon.
Minigun tanks are fine, I think. Not particularly long-range, but they destroy light terrain and enemy armour. Tritanium rockets are hilariously OP, like their handheld counterparts. The flamethrower tank is suprisingly long-ranged and tends to cover the Battlescape in fire. Accuracy sucks, though.Accuracy doesn't matter too much if the goal is area denial and inflicting panic. Will probably do minigun first once I have the alloys. Right now I'm sitting at maybe a dozen alloys total across all my bases. MiB have been sparse.
You can use your money surplus to get some Smartrifles for base guards, I guess? You've killed EXALT, so I guess you could splurge on some Gun Kata for garrisons, too.Smartrifles are going to be step 1. Gun Kata isn't a bad idea. Hangers are definitely an option... but stores actually sound like the way to go. I've got a corner of Mission Control that is 3 storerooms and an empty space. I can toss in some storerooms temporarily, then demolish the current trio and put in a large. Whole project comes in at $1.45mil. Also going to add an extra hanger and an advanced intel to Kiryu-Two
What I'd do is build more hangars and radars for global detection and craft-hopping. Maybe a new base, if your current ones are covered.
How's your store situation? Dropping another big store or even a big living quarters somewhere might be useful.
Your bot likely got vaporised - there's a threshold where overkill crumps the target so hard there won't be even a corpse left. Since that's what gets resurrected, your little brave AI is no more.That's what I feared. Looks like Vortex is one for this history books, up there with Agent Martinez - Commissar Richter's first partner in the Covert Ops division and the first X-COM agent lost to plasma fire.
AI crystals are kind of a pain to get hold of, so this stings. :(Fortunately I have more than just the initial one. Got some from Osiron crates a while back meaning I have a total of 3 AIs left standing. Hopefully I'll be able to find more. Just took down a Hacienda to kick off the new year (full report will be in next post) Didn't get any shards but did get some other cool stuff.
I suppose you got the Kiryu-Kai shards, too? Osiron crates and Hybrid Embassies are probably the most accessible sources of new shards. But nothing is guaranteed, as always.Pretty sure I did yes.
What's your issue with the M.A.G.M.A. Factory?Meant M.A.G.M.A. Lab. Took until now to research an infector so I haven't had access to it. I wouldn't say I have a problem with it per se, but the way its introduced feels... I guess a little dissonant compared with the way missions are usually introduced. If it came in the form of a "Provide Security Services to M.A.G.M.A. Corporation" topic or something similar I think it would feel more... I hate to say 'immersive' but that's the best I've got. Very minor thing really.
Jarheads are good to get (as corpses), because they lead to a useful piece of kit.Figured as much, saw that the tech tree lead to another X-COM History topic and those usually lead to something useful.
Psi Strength isn't easy to raise, especially by that amount. The main sources of extra PSTR are commendations and eating cake. Literally. :DAyala has a few Bane-Of's already, all at Level 1 I think. I'll check but I might be able to increase some of them. Cake is something I hadn't heard of, but might be an option once I get psi labs, it looks to be related to dreaming which I already got the prerequisite for thanks to Lo Wo. Dagonization is definitely looking like an option as Ayala is plenty brave enough and his sanity is very high. It's going to take a while no matter what however and he's never going to be a psychic giant.
'Bane of X' might be the most accessible of the lot, and can be repeated for different factions. Note that the same level of 'Bane of X' doesn't stack, so you'd need 'Bane of X' at level 3, 'Bane of Y' at level 4, etc.
Dagonization is usually looked down upon, but can give you +5.
Knowing all classic weapons just disables the freebie event where you're given knowledge of one of them.Makes sense. Would be cool if it gave you a bonus - maybe a pop up from the chief engineer or the quartermaster complimenting you on your thoroughness.
Now that you've got a flying rat for a friend, are you also lookig to recruit the non-flying ones?It's been an option for a while but I don't have too much interest in pursuing them to be honest. I just don't particularly like the rat sprites. Maybe if I could give them hats or vests. I also think dogs should have more color options for their durathread vest - a blue would look nice alongside the tritanium vests of the regular agents.
I thought you'd killed EXALT? How are you still getting their missions?Two lingering manors which were both set up before I took them down. I've left one up intentionally for those melee training missions and free Psiclones. I'll probably take down the other one.
Very well; I added a Tritanium Vest on Fixer's interrogation.Excellent, feels like a solid reward for the Hacienda & Cruise ship. Will add the vest once my squad gets back from Ghostbusting.
Feel free to add one STR_ALLOY_VEST item to your save if you like, it won't be cheating. :)
...which made me question whether or not we were the baddies.Psst (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=11286.0). :D
...blew up basically every explosion-prone object on the map.I see you're getting into the X-Com spirit. ;D
Ah, a pity. It was a cool AAR.
I hope you return to XCF in the future, and tell us about your v2.0 campaign then.