OpenXcom Forum
Modding => Released Mods => XPiratez => Topic started by: Starmute on October 12, 2024, 12:59:54 pm
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Hello I am really new to the game. I unlocked little bird and I'm skirting around the tech tree. I feel like I'm taking way too long without ammo for my interceptor and the ship salvage tech is very far away.
Any tips? Thank you in advance.
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Should've gone for GUNWAGON + Nitro Booster first. Anyway, Little Bird comes with its own gun (and you get 200 ammo from researching Explore Tunnels and We Need Craft Weapons, more from bandit craft), so it's fine for a while as an interceptor. The next step is reaching Rank: Rogue. This will cause Megapol patrols to start spawning. They often land, allowing you to capture their crafts and weapons. You can put these weapons on AIRCAR or AIRSPEEDER which you can buy after researching Contacts: Car Thieves (it also needs Rank: Rogue).
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in terms of dedicated fighter crafts the earliest options are the daredevil and buckaroo, both of which are roughly equal to the little bird and angry bird in terms of firepower and speed. for these you will need to research aerodynamics and necroparts recycling. the next step up is the tiger, unlocked by researching armored jetfighter, but even that only has 900 speed and can only mount weak ground weapons. when you're dealing with all this garbage and your best gun is a 14mm, keep an eye out for Gecko SAMs in the loot; those 20 damage rockets are the strongest raw damage available for ground weapons.
the next tier up from these ground vehicles and necroplanes is the aircars mentioned by delian unlocked by Contact: Car Thieves, all of which are fast but not particularly tough or killy. aircar-tier craft are good for bullying ground targets, slow aircraft, and other aircars, and they can take down excatavors and guild freighters but they will struggle against real UFOs. on roughly the same tier as the aircar/airspeeder is the faust (unlocked by contacts: blackmarch) and the piranha jetbike available as a bounty hunting prize. the faust is tougher than an aircar with 6 crew and a more defensible layout, while the piranha mounts 2 guns and goes quite fast.
once you choose a codex and unlock Shadowmasters you'll gain access to a variety of craft based on which codex you choose, all of which are servicable fighter-transports for the rest of the game. completing the Tiny Drill sequence of researching and manufacturing will also unlock a codex-specific flagship which is also good for the rest of the game. creating more conventional air-superiority fighters (ex Hunter-Killer and Predator) is unlocked by *Pirate Airforce* and Interceptor Assembly, both of which are firmly in the midgame range of techs.
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daredevil
DAREDEVIL is an IRON TRIBE-specific craft. Same with FAUST being a BLACKMARCH-specific craft.
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DAREDEVIL is an IRON TRIBE-specific craft. Same with FAUST being a BLACKMARCH-specific craft.
starting in the country makes it easier to unlock, but it's not strictly necessary. normally you need to have discovered the country's research via expeditions or interrogations, but you get whichever country you start in for free.
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The point is, they're not craft you can reliably get in the early to mid game (unless you start in those countries). The same way you can't reliably get BATTLE CAB. Researching craft and craft weapons takes too much time, which is why the best research path for interceptors is simply GUNWAGON -> LITTLE BIRD -> AIR SPEEDER/PIRANHA -> Codex craft
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As has been mentioned, after Little Bird you probably want to go to Car Thieves craft: the Aircar and Airspeeder. These require Light/Missile weapons, and cannot mount the Ground weapons the Little Bird can. The same is true of codex craft.
Your earliest options for such weapons are going to be manufacturing Air Balls or Craft Harpoons. You can also loot a Light weapon from the Highway House mission.
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Thank you very much. I'll create a new start and go for that. Games pretty rough for a newbie but I'll get it.
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It is worth mentioning that you may not go for interceptors for quite a while. It is fair at least for default difficulty. You may want to research missions - "!" marked studies.
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No, you definitely want to get guns in the air fast, and that is even more true this version than before. "Fast" meaning February if you go straight for little bird.
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No, you definitely want to get guns in the air fast, and that is even more true this version than before. "Fast" meaning February if you go straight for little bird.
From my experience on John Silver-Gals path-Reject The Power-Lazy Captain on august patch of current year:
I started my current playthrough in august this year. After a year of game time I do not see a lot of use for my fighter crafts. I mean it is a net positive to have an interceptor on every base, but more like additional income rather than anything else. I got piranhas from prizes and guns for them from contact research. With 4th base on the way and 8k rating, it looks like it is possible to skip interceptors entirely. I also don't see much critical stuff they can shoot down. Little Bird is(was) 3-4 shots from hitting the ground, it also phisically can not kill anything, rarely can chase down things.
Maybe I need tips or warnings, that is why I am writing this. But maybe it is good enough to go industry and research before interceptors.
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it also phisically can not kill anything, rarely can chase down things.
Little Bird certainty can kill things if you have good enough pilots* and a second gun to mount, with IMO the Bandit Zeppelin being the upper limit, though a bit of luck and save scumming might be required for those.
*I have a habit of editing one of the six starting Gals to have max starting stats, so my experience may be skewed.
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From my experience on John Silver-Gals path-Reject The Power-Lazy Captain on august patch of current year:
I started my current playthrough in august this year. After a year of game time I do not see a lot of use for my fighter crafts. I mean it is a net positive to have an interceptor on every base, but more like additional income rather than anything else. I got piranhas from prizes and guns for them from contact research. With 4th base on the way and 8k rating, it looks like it is possible to skip interceptors entirely. I also don't see much critical stuff they can shoot down. Little Bird is(was) 3-4 shots from hitting the ground, it also phisically can not kill anything, rarely can chase down things.
Maybe I need tips or warnings, that is why I am writing this. But maybe it is good enough to go industry and research before interceptors.
Little Bird is for the first 6ish months, not the end of 2061. Being virtually useless in December is irrelevant.
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Never used a Little Bird in my life. Never lost a Piratez campaign either. Mostly playing on Blackbird.
I think it's a valid choice, but not the only choice.
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Little bit is good for getting score early by hunting ground vehicles, imo worth to focus research towards it to speed things up. Once the ammo for the 14mm is expended, car thieves+ highway house should be on the table already.
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I got Little Bird in early March, upgraded to Buckaroo around late May, and then just waited for shadowtech (Scarab etc). Worked for both my first blackbeard run and the current jack sparrow one. I started in EA both times, which makes necroplane parts (which you need to get 14mm ammo from) a bit more common than usual though.
Never used anything other than 14mm ground chainguns and 25mm light ones either.
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The little bird is great. I used it all the way up to october when I upgraded the fleet to aircars instead. Little birds can handle anything short of an aircar/UFO, but the key is that you have to use them early and often to knock out hoverpods and bandit cars. If you do enough of those crash sites you'll get LMG and HMG weapons/ammo you can feed back into the little bird and sustain operations. Otherwise it quickly runs out of steam and is inferior to the angry bird because you can't swap the chaingun for something else.
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I usually beeline for the Angry Bird because it's a straight upgrade to the Little Bird (+1 weapon, +2 crew) at the cost of 25 speed and a few of the LB's glamour spawns. From there I aim to get a few Buckaroo necrofighters and use Bikes or Pigeon as my transports. This is also around the point I'd try and get a second base online for more hangars and radar coverage. Because of its radar range and healthy crew size, the Pigeon makes a great B-Team transport for your second base; it can put radar coverage over a region for days at a time and respond to missions or landings as it does.