OpenXcom Forum
Contributions => Fan-Stuff => Topic started by: experimentalunit on May 29, 2013, 09:18:20 am
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Hello, I am new on the forums.
I used to love xcom, I still do! The mood is so capturing. I am very glad about this project, thank you to everyone involved!
I find early game hard to survive, especially terror sites. Sometimes my first two soldiers off the platform get shot down immediately, smoke grenades provide enough cover to get the rest out, but damn I just had my whole team annihilated.
Is it normal to lose most (if not all) of your team the first few terror sites?
Does anyone have tactical tips for early game when your soldiers don't have personal armour or high powered laser/plasma weapons?
Here is some of my tactics. I'd love to hear improvements or learn new ones if you like to share.
I pay attention to:
- time of day: equip and use flares to increase visibility
- using the skyranger wheels as cover when moving out from the ship
- using smoke grenades whenever possible, especially if landed in a hot zone
- moving units in teams: to provide autoshot cover for each other
- keeping distance between units: to minimize splash damage from incoming fire and grenades
- snap shot over aimed shot, the 10-20% difference in accuracy makes up for the extra shots you get (in my opinion)
- I ignore pistols from the start: I go straight for rifles
- I keep F4 toggled (save TU's for autoshot) most of the time. I only override this and use all my TU's if I *must* get a soldier to cover, ASAP.
I would like to hear your tactics :)
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Laser pistols can actually be superior to laser rifles for certain UFO assault missions, FYI, although I think you might be talking about ballistic rifles and pistols, in which case you are correct.
Also, for crash sites, they'll all last long enough that you can simply wait for day- save the flares for the terror missions, or MAYBE for grounded UFOs.
Equip your first soldier with a smoke grenade, and eat the first turn so that you can deploy under smoke cover. Also, there are advantages to putting squaddies in at least the first two positions in your Skyranger. (Squaddies are pretty much as expendable as rookies but may have a few more TUs)
I've found that in the early game once you've gotten laser weapons, saving TUs for snap shots is sufficient for quite some time.
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Well, in early game using HWP is essential - especially on terror missions (mainly because it's hard to shoot down Cyberdisc with rifles). Also, keep on your team at least one rocketman and autocannon guy (with HE and I rounds in backpack), they may provide overwhelming firepower when you desperately need it. Between snap and aimed you should choose auto :). Shoot more bullets on each turn and you will win!
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I follow the rule of killing the aliens before they kill you.
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My early game approach is
1. Attempt to do every mission during the daytime.
2. equip all my units with auto cannon with explosive ammo, demolish everything you see (civilians included)
3. If 2 cannot be carried then grenades and smokes grenades.
4. Put the guy that can carry an autocannon as your first unit, and clear the area.
5. kneel your first 2 units and wait a turn
6. get off the craft to the sides not down the ramp.
7. always move in teams of 2 or 3 not more but keep them separate enough so that 1 alien grenade won't kill all.
8. Kill all aliens ;)
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Terror missions are especially brutal, so if you're going through several early on that's some bad luck; would definitely expect to lose a few guys.
Although, I've noticed there aren't always civilians since I switched to a nightly build... hmm.
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1. Attempt to do every mission during the daytime.
2. use autocannons w/explosive
3. lots of electroflares at night.
4. Select decent troops w/firing accuracy, sack the others. It's more about the time, frustration, score etc.
5. Load 2 junk soldiers at the front of the skyranger. have them absorb reaction fire.
6. Send 3-5 guys in a given direction or to an area to make sure you have enough shooters.
Finally
7. If you get a terror site: land, shoot an alien maybe, abort if its not floaters and daytime.
8. Get scientists/engineers at the beginning to reaserch lasers n stuff.
Just get the medium scouts that land, it's much easier. You should have laser rifles or even plasma rifles in time for your third terror mission most the time. I's about -200 to -500 points when you abort a terrorsite, fuckit, those civilians should eat cake.
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Don't take your time too much, you'll get absorbed, like the rest of your day :p
Don't try the same thing twice
Don't wait to build your second base
Do research alien alloys as quickly as possible
Do another batch of laser pistols to sell
Do hire as many scientists and engineers as you can
Do hire more rookies than you (think you) need
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Rocket launchers and a good supply of rookies. Keep a lot of rookies in another base, that way it only takes about ... 4 hours to replace losses.
I only worry about losing high psi strength troops in the end game. Large rockets makes up for any inaccuracies. If the first rocket doesnt' kill em', the 4th and 5th ought to...
Played superhuman on xcomutil last year, and going through this version now. Doing alright....
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Rocket launchers and a good supply of rookies. Keep a lot of rookies in another base, that way it only takes about ... 4 hours to replace losses.
You have more than one base in the early game?
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Only costs about 3 million.. less for one entrance, 1 living quarters and 1 storage. Thats about, 1.5 million actually. Small raider comes later.
I think I start building that in the first month actually. Laser, then avenger, then plasman then psi.
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Laser, alloys(armour), avenger. Can't do without armour :)
.. What's the best thing to manufacture and sell near start of a game?
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Motion Scanners. I'd also bring one or two in missions, they occasionally come in handy when breaching UFOs or setting up an ambush. Had this one terror mission where everything went to shit and in the end there was just one guy with a laser rifle, who used the motion scanner to see where abouts the last aliens were, and picked them off by rounding corners and shooting them in the face. Rocked.
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What's the best thing to manufacture and sell near start of a game?
To make cash start by selling laser pistols. Then step up to selling laser rifles as soon as you can. The last step is to be selling laser cannons. I think there are other things to be manufactured and sold for profit that will actually net you more cash - but they will require elerium or alien alloys which you will want and need for other purposes. The laser weapons require no special materials and will otherwise always be your most efficient things to make for cash. This takes into account how many you can make per man/hour as well, it's not just sale price.
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Motion Scanners and Medikits are more profitable than laser weapons (until you get the cannon).
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability
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Motion Scanners and Medikits are more profitable than laser weapons (until you get the cannon).
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability
Granted, but you may want to research lasers early to at least get laser pistols online so that you can do some reasonable damage to early aliens.
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In my first playthrough on openxcom I'm still relying on heavy rockets since my guys can't shoot anything smaller than a house.... Still takes a few shots, and its horrible when they go berserk...
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In my first playthrough on openxcom I'm still relying on heavy rockets since my guys can't shoot anything smaller than a house.... Still takes a few shots, and its horrible when they go berserk...
There is a better weapon - standard grenades. They have unbelivable accuracy with them (much better than aim shot on knees). Often with good range.
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True, true, good enough for floaters and sectoids... maybe I should quit making it hard for myself, but better than autocannon/heavy cannon...
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In my first playthrough on openxcom I'm still relying on heavy rockets since my guys can't shoot anything smaller than a house.... Still takes a few shots, and its horrible when they go berserk...
Do you have the "ranged accuracy" option enabled? That makes a huge difference trying to hit things, especially with auto fire. That said, I'm not convinced it doesn't affect the aliens a lot more than it effects the player (in terms of the AI not being able to deal with it well). I could be wrong as the AI doesn't use squad sight but the vast majority of the damage my soldiers take is during my turns from reaction fire, not from direct alien fire during their turn.
But, back to your comment, that's why I like to use HE auto cannons with rookies with not so good aim. Problem is, most can't effectively carry them due to the weight.
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Yeah, I do have this new option turned on and I'm taking lots of aimed shots. About time I did so, otherwise it was autofire every time which is unrealistic. Now its only when I manage to sneak up on an alien.
I don't know but it seems like weight is more of a problem now. I recall the old times when everyone had 4 rockets. Now they just get one and they discard the launcher right afterwards.
My laser rifle rookies can't hit anything unless its in their face. Once I get my psi troopers I'm going to start training up the elite mob. They'll have power armour, and I'll actually start doing some reloading if they get killed.... Until then, its comical the rate my rookies are dying.
Just got my avenger.... so much fun. Maybe I should start an openxcom humour thread...
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I started again, and I've removed the cannons from my craft and have both missile systems loaded on my interceptors; I've researched laser pistols, motion scanners and medikits, and seem to be doing pretty well at the minute.
I might try and restart my LP from this game, you'll miss some of the real "early" bits, but it seems to be a nice setup.
Well, hoping I get some time to LP :-\
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I don't know but it seems like weight is more of a problem now. I recall the old times when everyone had 4 rockets. Now they just get one and they discard the launcher right afterwards.
I wondered about that too, although I rather liked how it meant I had to put rockets into the backpacks of other guys and have them throw it to the rocketeer when needed.
Turns out that in vanilla, due to a helpful bug, clips or shells automatically loaded into carried weapons by the game engine for the pre-battle Equipment Setup screen are not counted for weight. (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Item_Weight) A bug which OpenXCOM fixed, ofc.
Though, a soldier equipped with nothing but overalls or armor still has an encumbrance of 8 in the equip screen, which the ufopaedia.com page doesn't mention vanilla having...
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Ah, if only guns had higher rates of fire. It would give me a good reason to carry more clips. As it is, you couldn't get the action points to discharge that much ammunition.
The old laser squad had laser weapons with high rates of fire. The Heavy laser and the ... if I recall correctly the laser....
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-Take at least 1 HWP into Terror Missions. Their health and armor makes them good recon units and they usually are the first ones at the Skyranger's exit.
-Never keep squad members too close to each other. Aliens rarely make mistakes when using grenades.
-Demolition Agents/HWPs. Aliens like to pop out, fire and go back to cover so it would easier to just blow up their cover or buildings where you suspect it might contain aliens.
-Avoid Night Missions at all costs. You probably know how bad can be to fight them in night time, so Terror Missions at night only when no choice.
-Funding is nice but is never enough. Everyone I know that plays this game turns X-Com into a Manufacturer Organization because the profits are too great. Even selling corpses can give you a nice bonus.
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I didn't see it mentioned but start an Alien Containment and possibly a large radar immediately. The containment has a long lead time and you can't start the alien origins storyline without it. For me, the long pull on the tent is having psy-ready soldiers for mid-game, and again this can't happen without the alien research.
I also start a second base immediately, because the lead times are so long. The second base will get a hangar and store room, then after 10 days the store room is complete and I can hang on the rest of the base such as barracks and large radar. The second base will become your manufacturing base for craft, first base will be the research base.
I should add that I rarely play on the highest difficulties, maybe there is some alien retaliation or something that makes the second base strategy riskier.
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Never had an early base defence problem but I've heard people having that in the first month. More bases mean more money as you have a higher probability of finding more alien activity.
The visible radar is great.
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I'm playing on genius (probably seem to be a newbie among all the guys playing superhuman), and the third UFO that came to earth was a sectoid battleship, that attacked my base :) I have even captured a commander, but he died because my alien containment was few days short to finish building...
I always was on low cash, because I think that banked money is wasted money. I spent as much, as I could if it didn't get me into loans.
what I've done is:
a) get some good soldiers -> I prefer reactions over fire accuracy, and that made me profit really well. I just hired some soldiers, fired everyone below 45 reactions, and hire some new guys. I quickly got some nice guys for the start with reactions above 50 each, and not bad shooting skill. I took 8 of my best soldiers to the skyranger, counting their value as 3*reactions + fire accuracy
b) took rifles for each of my guys except the person with the rocked launcher
c) got laser rifles equipped - this is almost all I actually needed so far throughout the whole game
d) the better armor you have, the easier it gets
e) I always used the least powerful weapons that do the job - you need to get more hits to kill the aliens, and have more chances for reaction fire, skills go up really fast. an exception is when my base is attacked, or when I attack an alien base.
f) I've made 2 additional bases quite quick, but I doubt any of them in the first month
g) at night you need tons of flares ( I had 3 per soldier )
h) grenades are a blessing. smoke grenades, high explosive and proximity grenades are really helpful, but I always used them as a last resort (except for smoke grenades, which are helpful if you don't want to get killed while getting out of the craft. when your reactions are nice ( for genius this is like 85 and more ) you don't need the smoke's anymore.
the rest I've done probably as everyone else. in my game it's july, and I have had a score like 13k.
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My early game:
- Select my two best Accuracy recruits. They are my Snipers. What is the sniper weapon of X-Com? The Rocket Launcher, of course. A crouched recruit with high accuracy will easily hit around 90% hit rate with these, and quickly reach 100% hit rate. Even missing, you're probably going to take out anything early on, and you can easily hit enemies around corners or place a rocket through a window, cleaning out any area you don't want to deal with. These soldiers should never be near the frontlines and should never even have an alien see them. Put them on a corner of the map with a good vantage, lay waste to everything, have a big stack of rockets in the skyranger with someone throwing more ammo over constantly.
- Select all of my recruits with good Reactions (50+). These are my capture crew/grenadiers. They take pistols and off-hand grenades or stun rods. They are kept in reserve when out in the open, being used for throwing their grenades over the backs of my front line and for gunning down aliens when I don't want to use explosives (i.e., when another alien has been dropped and I don't want to destroy the loot). Obviously, they are used for capturing aliens as well.
- Everyone else gets a heavy cannon with HE ammo. For the most part they are dispensable. The HE Heavy Cannon is a superb general-use weapon even throughout the mid game. These are on the front line and are the typical cannon fodder. Have some extra AP ammo to be given out if the soldier can carry it, for usage whenever explosives aren't a good idea.
- Bring a tank. A rocket tank. This is your primary scout. It has a ton of TUs, and its front armor is pretty god damned tough against Plasma Pistols and even Rifles to a lesser extend. Ideally this should be the first and last thing any alien should see before you call in the close air support sniper team. Once you've taken a good position outside the skyranger it's perfectly reasonable to spend turns 5-15 just moving around the map with your tank to scout while your soldiers provide cover. Also this thing can fire 2 rockets in a single round. Pretty awesome when push comes to shove (say, you land and multiple aliens are facing your skyranger entrance). When breaching UFOs to capture aliens, have this thing out in front to draw fire from aliens exiting while your troops hang to the sides, and make sure to exhaust its TUs so it doesn't reaction fire at your squad or aliens you are trying to capture,
For research my priorities are Medi Kits, Armor, Motion Scanners (manufacture and sell), plasma cannons and the hyper wave decoder (once you've got the hyper wave decoder and plasma cannons you've basically won the game). Research the mind probe if you find one and you don't have the alien navigator captured yet. I ignore laser weapons early on since frankly they just aren't needed, especially in openxcom where their infinite ammo is a lot less desirable thanks to the removal of the 80 item limit in the skyranger. I also skip early plasma weapons, going straight to Heavy Plasma. Stun launchers are cool, research them and capturing the navigator or psionic aliens are a piece of cake.
At first I invest just about everything I can into research. Build a lab, storage, living quarters, Large radar and Containment facility, then build another living quarters when possible. Ideally you'll be able to have a total research team of 80+ scientists early in February, if not the full 100. From there I invest in manufacturing. Ideally around March I'll have plasma cannons and Hyperwave Decoders, at which point I go back and get Laser Weapons, churn out the laser cannons to pay for bases everywhere on the map and around mid-April the entire globe is under perfect UFO defense. Everything less than a battleship has no chance and even battleships can usually be killed with 4 plasma cannon-equipped interceptors without taking losses (and usually you don't even need to engage battleships, merely shooting down their earlier UFOs will make them fail their missions). At that point the world is your oyster.
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The HWP is definitely the biggest difference you can make in the early game
$400k is a great investment
Apart from scouting (let your soldiers snipe for the kills) you can also hide behind them, or move it between enemies and your troops and take 6+ shots. Finally if you really need to you have an extra heavy weapon you can use.
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I've tried with HWP and without. I prefer without. Greater combined firepower from 4 troopers than one HWP, lower expense to replace - and I find they get killed just as often as "scout troops".
I actually now have a standard operating procedure to start any game:
Start building large radar, 2nd general stores, 2nd living quarters, and alien containment immediately.
Hire 7 soldiers and 15 scientists.
Equip avalanche launcher to interceptor #1 replacing cannon.
Purchase 2nd avalanche launcher.
Purchase additional troop weapons and ammo. I tend to go for just a couple heavy weapons troopers (str 35+) and the rest get rifles and grenades.
Purchase 8-10 stunrods and give them to all the troops with str to carry them even if they aren't going to use them for a while.
Purchase 20 electroflares - nobody steps off the skyranger without an electroflare. On night missions it is vital to LIGHT THE BATTLEFIELD and incendiary ammo alone is just not sufficient for that task.
Sell off weapons that will be unused and purchase as many avalanche missiles as your remaining base storage will allow (which won't be much).
- - - Start research on Laser Weapons
Review troops and mark for specialization and early dismissal. (I have found it best to keep simple. Str 35+ is "H", heavy weapons. Firing Acc 65+ is "S", sniper. Bravery under 30 is "X", undesirable.
Check skyranger and interceptor loadouts. When purchases arrive, check loadouts again.
H's get autocannon or rocket launcher as they're the only ones who can handle the weight (and ususally not even very good at that to start). It's actually important that the H's score kills! They need the promotion to squaddie and kills to get their strength up. I want them using rocket launchers and carrying 4 heavy rockets and a laser pistol for a sidearm. That means they generally got to get str up to 40+. If possible the heavies will rotate position in the ship and be given best available rifles for a few missions to score more kills.
S's otherwise get laser pistol first or the best available rifles first. If POSSIBLE snipers will be moved quickly to a position where they command a view of a large portion of battlefield. Very often that is not practical and in that case they don't do anything much different than the rest of the troops. Still, it's good to see at a glance from the name who has the higher base accuracy and keep them from being over-exposed to "discovery fire".
X's among the initial troops are kept only until the first wave of reinforcements arrives, otherwise you'd be way understaffed if you have to take a mission. They are then sacked outright and additional waves of troops are hired/fired until all troops have at least 30 bravery. I find that's a good break point. Troops are not so expensive and valuable as to just fire them for low bravery. They still panic a little too easily with 30 bravery but are not the SEVERE liability as troops with less than that. Panicking troops leads to a cascade of failure - one panics, gets killed, lowers morale so that more panic, get killed, and lower morale still further... Money is not so tight that you can't afford to do this.
Aliens have ALL their TU's available to take reaction fire on turn 1. You can either take that in stride or you can "game the system" just a little and burn turn #1. Personally, I shoot any aliens I see immediately, drop a smoke grenade at the foot of the ramp (sometimes do that first), but then end turn 1 without anyone stepping outside. There is a MUCH higher survival rate that way. There is little so depressing as having 4 or 5 troops die at the top of the ramp on a terror mission because there's aliens in full view to the sides of the ramp.
On recovery missions your ultimate aim is simply the loot. You just got to kill the surviving aliens to get their stuff. On terror missions your job is SURVIVAL. It is NOT to rescue civilians. That's just a side benefit. The danger of terror missions is twofold. A) you are frequently forced to handle them at night which is an order of magnitude more deadly. B) you have to deal with terror units. Terror units have a lot of TU's and take a lot of hits. You MUST advance cautiously to avoid "surprises". Most civilians are going to die in the first few turns in any case because they and the aliens will be spread all over the map and you CANNOT help them. All you can do is try to observe the alien turn, listen and watch and try to deduce where the aliens are as you sweep forward. If you know where they are but can't yet see them, don't be a hero. Don't go sniping for them. BLOW IT UP. You still get credit for kills with explosions as with a bullet.
The game itself grades your performance on missions. You can have every single civilian killed and still come out with "good" or even "excellent" after-action reports - if you keep YOUR team alive.
In 18 days your alien containment will be complete. At that point your mission efforts need to shift to taking key captives. Navigators are needed to get hyperwave decoder, psionic aliens for psilab construction, any alien for alien orgin, leaders for "Martial Solution", commanders for "Cydonia". Obviously having stun bombs is better for that, otherwise it's suicide rushes with stun rods.
You want to get multiple psilabs (multiple bases?) in operation as soon as is practical. You may be really fond of your increasingly promoted and experienced troops but the fact is that you have a final test for them. They might be Rambo incarnated on the battlefield but if they can't make or usefully resist psi attacks they're going to be almost useless to you. To get a proper selection of troops to send to Cydonia you're going to needt to test a LOT of troops. If you try to do that in lots of ONLY 10 at a time with just one psilab that will take a while.
There are more advantages than one to getting new bases started fairly early. First is radar and intercept coverage - being able to detect and shoot down UFO's all over the world increases your troops experience and cash flow from selling excess alien equipment and keeping your own troops supplied. Second is that since you don't want your bases undefended by troops anyway (in case its discovered and assaulted by the aliens) you can kill two birds with one stone - base a complement of troops there and have a psilab doing additonal screening. The sooner you know who your psionic-capable troops are the sooner you can concentrate on getting THEM all the additional combat experience prior to taking on Cydonia.
It is ultimately about ONLY those 26 guys you cram into an Avenger and send to Mars. It's THEY who need the training and experience to win.
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...drop a smoke grenade at the foot of the ramp (sometimes do that first), but then end turn 1 without anyone stepping outside. There is a MUCH higher survival rate that way. There is little so depressing as having 4 or 5 troops die at the top of the ramp on a terror mission because there's aliens in full view to the sides of the ramp. ...
My 2 cents on a major difference between the original X-Com & OpenXCom: smoke.
When I first played the original, I hardly ever used smoke due to the smoke limitation bug. Needless to say, I took a lot of casualties. In OXC with smoke working the way it's supposed to, it's become standard equipment for me. I think that, when used properly, it's one of the key factors for being consistently successful in battle.
This reminds me that in one battle, I had an ethereal walk up to the SkyRanger's ramp within 2 squares of my troops. Because of the smoke cloud, I couldn't see him and he couldn't see me. :D
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I've tried with HWP and without. I prefer without. Greater combined firepower from 4 troopers than one HWP, lower expense to replace - and I find they get killed just as often as "scout troops".
I actually now have a standard operating procedure to start any game:
Start building large radar, 2nd general stores, 2nd living quarters, and alien containment immediately.
Hire 7 soldiers and 15 scientists.
Equip avalanche launcher to interceptor #1 replacing cannon.
Purchase 2nd avalanche launcher.
Purchase additional troop weapons and ammo. I tend to go for just a couple heavy weapons troopers (str 35+) and the rest get rifles and grenades.
Purchase 8-10 stunrods and give them to all the troops with str to carry them even if they aren't going to use them for a while.
Purchase 20 electroflares - nobody steps off the skyranger without an electroflare. On night missions it is vital to LIGHT THE BATTLEFIELD and incendiary ammo alone is just not sufficient for that task.
Sell off weapons that will be unused and purchase as many avalanche missiles as your remaining base storage will allow (which won't be much).
- - - Start research on Laser Weapons
Review troops and mark for specialization and early dismissal. (I have found it best to keep simple. Str 35+ is "H", heavy weapons. Firing Acc 65+ is "S", sniper. Bravery under 30 is "X", undesirable.
Check skyranger and interceptor loadouts. When purchases arrive, check loadouts again.
H's get autocannon or rocket launcher as they're the only ones who can handle the weight (and ususally not even very good at that to start). It's actually important that the H's score kills! They need the promotion to squaddie and kills to get their strength up. I want them using rocket launchers and carrying 4 heavy rockets and a laser pistol for a sidearm. That means they generally got to get str up to 40+. If possible the heavies will rotate position in the ship and be given best available rifles for a few missions to score more kills.
S's otherwise get laser pistol first or the best available rifles first. If POSSIBLE snipers will be moved quickly to a position where they command a view of a large portion of battlefield. Very often that is not practical and in that case they don't do anything much different than the rest of the troops. Still, it's good to see at a glance from the name who has the higher base accuracy and keep them from being over-exposed to "discovery fire".
X's among the initial troops are kept only until the first wave of reinforcements arrives, otherwise you'd be way understaffed if you have to take a mission. They are then sacked outright and additional waves of troops are hired/fired until all troops have at least 30 bravery. I find that's a good break point. Troops are not so expensive and valuable as to just fire them for low bravery. They still panic a little too easily with 30 bravery but are not the SEVERE liability as troops with less than that. Panicking troops leads to a cascade of failure - one panics, gets killed, lowers morale so that more panic, get killed, and lower morale still further... Money is not so tight that you can't afford to do this.
Aliens have ALL their TU's available to take reaction fire on turn 1. You can either take that in stride or you can "game the system" just a little and burn turn #1. Personally, I shoot any aliens I see immediately, drop a smoke grenade at the foot of the ramp (sometimes do that first), but then end turn 1 without anyone stepping outside. There is a MUCH higher survival rate that way. There is little so depressing as having 4 or 5 troops die at the top of the ramp on a terror mission because there's aliens in full view to the sides of the ramp.
On recovery missions your ultimate aim is simply the loot. You just got to kill the surviving aliens to get their stuff. On terror missions your job is SURVIVAL. It is NOT to rescue civilians. That's just a side benefit. The danger of terror missions is twofold. A) you are frequently forced to handle them at night which is an order of magnitude more deadly. B) you have to deal with terror units. Terror units have a lot of TU's and take a lot of hits. You MUST advance cautiously to avoid "surprises". Most civilians are going to die in the first few turns in any case because they and the aliens will be spread all over the map and you CANNOT help them. All you can do is try to observe the alien turn, listen and watch and try to deduce where the aliens are as you sweep forward. If you know where they are but can't yet see them, don't be a hero. Don't go sniping for them. BLOW IT UP. You still get credit for kills with explosions as with a bullet.
The game itself grades your performance on missions. You can have every single civilian killed and still come out with "good" or even "excellent" after-action reports - if you keep YOUR team alive.
In 18 days your alien containment will be complete. At that point your mission efforts need to shift to taking key captives. Navigators are needed to get hyperwave decoder, psionic aliens for psilab construction, any alien for alien orgin, leaders for "Martial Solution", commanders for "Cydonia". Obviously having stun bombs is better for that, otherwise it's suicide rushes with stun rods.
You want to get multiple psilabs (multiple bases?) in operation as soon as is practical. You may be really fond of your increasingly promoted and experienced troops but the fact is that you have a final test for them. They might be Rambo incarnated on the battlefield but if they can't make or usefully resist psi attacks they're going to be almost useless to you. To get a proper selection of troops to send to Cydonia you're going to needt to test a LOT of troops. If you try to do that in lots of ONLY 10 at a time with just one psilab that will take a while.
There are more advantages than one to getting new bases started fairly early. First is radar and intercept coverage - being able to detect and shoot down UFO's all over the world increases your troops experience and cash flow from selling excess alien equipment and keeping your own troops supplied. Second is that since you don't want your bases undefended by troops anyway (in case its discovered and assaulted by the aliens) you can kill two birds with one stone - base a complement of troops there and have a psilab doing additonal screening. The sooner you know who your psionic-capable troops are the sooner you can concentrate on getting THEM all the additional combat experience prior to taking on Cydonia.
It is ultimately about ONLY those 26 guys you cram into an Avenger and send to Mars. It's THEY who need the training and experience to win.
4 troops dying out of 12 is a pretty big morale loss. At least a few more will panic or become useless
Also i am sure the tank properly used can cover more ground / do more recon than 4 rookies. It can move faster and you don't have to hide/crouch every turn to avoid dying which means even more TUs. I've had tanks take 6+ shots and survive, that's 4 rookies die much easier
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#2, whether the 4 rookies or tank is more effective is more to do with what they're going to be used for
I know for most crash land, missions I rarely use more than 8 troops. The rest stay in the skyranger as 'backup'
In other words the advantage of taking extra humans reduces the more you have
when you have 4 humans, adding an extra 4 (taking it to 8 ) might be worth 4 humans and a tank...
when you already have 10 humans, an extra 4 rookies is not worth the additional capabilities/options of a tank
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I advise to not rely on the button "reserve TU for snap shot", especially with a weapon which has a quick snap shot. Your chances of getting a reaction fire are dependant on having a lot of remaining TUs. If your front men kep less than 50% TU, they will probably not shoot first when an alien pops into view
When an alien is looking directly at the skyranger on turn 1, note that you can get a smoke from your backpack, arm it, and DROP it at your feet : none of these actions will trigger a reaction shot. You can then hit END TURN, the grenade will go off and hopefully conceil everyone.
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Is it normal to lose most (if not all) of your team the first few terror sites?
What would you say playing my Hell mod... In fact I have same problem as you for any ufo larger than Medium Scout, I have no other choice than just ignoring harder missions
Be cautious, stay near skyranger for the first turns, and flee as soon as you are surrounded.
And report to your scientists to hurry up !!!
;)
My 2 cents on a major difference between the original X-Com & OpenXCom: smoke.
When I first played the original, I hardly ever used smoke due to the smoke limitation bug. Needless to say, I took a lot of casualties. In OXC with smoke working the way it's supposed to, it's become standard equipment for me. I think that, when used properly, it's one of the key factors for being consistently successful in battle.
I totally agree
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My 3 cents...
1. You NEVER *have to* handle a terror mission at night. If it spawns at twilight close to your base, just send your Skyranger the hell out and order it to target the terror site 6 hours later. As long as the terror site is currently targetted, it won't despawn. Plus, if you think a terror is too hard, just takeoff immediately after landing. You'll get a score hit, but no bigger than 250-300 points, as opposed to 1000 for ignoring a terror.
2. Anyone with Psi Strength of 50+ is able to resist almost all psi attacks, so you don't have to be too picky.
3. Bravery is almost totally irrelevant. It won't help against psi attacks, high ranking officers provide a huge Bravery boost anyway, and if you're taking heavy losses, you can always retreat and regroup before continuing onwards - or even simply run. There are some, extremely rare (and fun) situations when you really wished all your soldiers had 70+ Bravery, but it's simply impractical to be that picky.
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1. You NEVER *have to* handle a terror mission at night. If it spawns at twilight close to your base, just send your Skyranger the hell out and order it to target the terror site 6 hours later. As long as the terror site is currently targetted, it won't despawn. Plus, if you think a terror is too hard, just takeoff immediately after landing. You'll get a score hit, but no bigger than 250-300 points, as opposed to 1000 for ignoring a terror.
Yeah... that has always felt a bit too much like cheating to me though. It's an exploit. But the point about landing at a terror mission and then bugging out being better than not going at all is much more valid. Like Viper said in Top Gun - "better to retire and save the aircraft than to push a BAD position".
3. Bravery is almost totally irrelevant. It won't help against psi attacks, high ranking officers provide a huge Bravery boost anyway, and if you're taking heavy losses, you can always retreat and regroup before continuing onwards - or even simply run. There are some, extremely rare (and fun) situations when you really wished all your soldiers had 70+ Bravery, but it's simply impractical to be that picky.
High ranking officers are often the trigger for a cascade of bravery fail. They do provide a bravery boost - but there is also a bigger bravery hit when they go down. It's a possible tactic to keep the high ranks picking their noses in the skyranger while the lower ranks do the work in order to avoid that, but that really does miss the point. You don't take higher ranks with you just for the bravery boost - they are generally more capable than other troops so you WANT them in the mud and blood.
As I suggested upthread, 30 bravery seems to me to be a useful breakpoint. Bravery of 20 or 10 is just too low to be reasonably reliable. 30 will still panic when it all goes pear-shaped but it takes a usefully fatter pear to do it. The cost of sacking a certain percentage of NEW, RAW recruits to get decently brave ones is rarely a significant consideration.
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Concerning new recruits:
Man in the Funny Hat: bad cop
Dioxine: good cop :P
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I personally use this
The smallest tactical unit in my organization is the two man squad (in early game i use the basic rifle.... all my soldier gets a frag and a smoke grande and a torch), and this two soldier will always work together. I dont use rocket launchers, cause they are too dangerous especialy if PSI is involved in the battle from the alien side. And also I tend to minimise collateral damage to property.
Second in the tactical line is the "squad" of about 4-6 (i like to keep the nubers even, cause that way i can seperate them. With here you can vary your soldiers for different posts (marksman, heavy support (i prefer autocannon with HE or IN ammo).
When the team is dispatched for a crisis situation, in day time we all head out to form circular defense around the Skyranger. After we are out from the craft, we try to locate the UFO (if crahsed or landed) then we sepearete. One team makes a sweep around the map (especialy buildings) while the other group rushes to the UFO. It is important to notice, never hurry... only if there is immidiate threat to civilians or Xcom personel. If the aliens start to shoot at us immediatly, then the smoke granades come into play. Important thing is to move from cover to cover (no matter if its soft of hard cover).
I think the medikit is a must have for all the soldiers, the motion scanner only for the officers.
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The secret to my success is Hand Grenade Relay and using 2 HWPS.
Any aliens that arent looking at me or have already fired . . . I toss them a grenade.
And while the "Instant Grenades" mod nerfs the hand grenade relay, it makes up for it by getting immediate results.
If im playing vanilla or without the Instant Grenades mod, I make sure not to move any soldiers unnecessarily in the alien's field of vision to give the grenade time to do its work.
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Early game most aliens use either Plasma Pistols or Plasma Rifles and the HWPs are remarkably resilient to those . . . you can have the tank shot multiple times with the pistol and it wont take a scratch.
The HWPs do scouting and open fire with snap shots after everyone else has gone so that way they might score a frag. They wont get veterancy for it but HWPs eventually die anyway so they're expendible.
If I sell a few plasma guns it offsets the cost.
Since you can put up to 3 HWPs in a skyranger . . . I put 2 in it and have 6 soldiers as backup.
2 HWP Cannons with 6 Soldiers.
I usually dont get HWP/Rocket, if I want rocket support I give one of my snipers a rocket launcher.
3 Grenades per Soldier (yes thats alot).
During the mission loadout screen I move the grenades to Shoulder slots to reduce the grab TUs to 3 (I dont know why this isnt the default).
Soldier weapon loadout is Heavy Cannon with HE rounds for anyone who can handle the weight. If their accuracy sucks I just fire more snap shots or I try to sneak them closer. If I want direct-fire then I give someone an Autocannon with AP rounds (and I give the extra ammo to someone else to carry if I run out, so that there is some ammo on the map Somewhere if I actually need it).
The Rifle almost always takes at least 2 shots to put someone down and its main use is supposed to be distance shooting. But when you shoot aliens they turn around and reaction-fire on you.
So the Rifle and Pistol are a deathtrap for your soldiers. I usually only use the Rifle for Auto Shot, even at a distance (where it sucks). I only do Distance shooting with the Rifle with someone who has excellent accuracy, and I make them kneel while doing it.
Again the priority is on having guys throw Grenades. If they need to use their Gun then they need to be at close range so they can hit twice with auto shot (within 8 squares).
I develop Laser Pistols as fast as I can, and I replace Rifles with them. At close range the accuracy doesnt matter and the laser is fast.
But I eventually get rid of the laser pistol for the laser rifle. Thats what im really gunning for because it does 60 damage, and an Auto Shot with that is serious business.
The first part of the game does not give you much time to do that though. You will go through probably 3 missions and a Terror Mission before the Laser Rifle is available and manufactured.
Thats why those Grenades are so dam useful.
Even against snakemen most of the time.
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With this method, you don't have a lot of money in the early game, nor do you have many promotions to hand out, but it becomes a lot easier, and losing soldiers is more common, but you lose less high ranking soldiers.
1. Take a HWP of your choice out with you every mission. Be it terror or not. Might come in handy sometime any way.
2. Have a team for every base. Meaning if you build a base every month, then you have to have at least 1 skyranger/troop transport of your choice and a team to fill it (1 HWP and 10 soldiers at least). Whenever a UFO crashes in the base's territory, then you send the team with the nearest base. (If you have a base in europe and it shot down a craft in Asia, then send a team from your asia base and so forth.) This makes it so you have more opportunity to hand out promotions in the late game, and have more than simple garrison rookies at each base, meaning base defence is easier.
3. Do not skip research. Ever. Try and use your scientists on different projects. I usually like to go 20 per project with 100 scientists.
4. As soon as you have something you can sell, DO IT. If it is useless or you will never use it, then sell it. Also, never let your engineers sit idle.
5. Always have a good stock of soldiers/rookies. Anywhere from 30-40 is good. Especially with number 2 and the multiple tactical teams.
6. Replace interceptors with better craft ASAP. Be it a modded craft (Alloy Interceptors, Raven, Retaliator, Thunderstorm, etcetera) or the Firestorm. Usually I have this within 3-4 months, due to my horrible RNG with the crafts and not getting UFO power sources (I didn't get power sources until August once)
7. Armour and weapons are priority. Mostly armour since Snakemen/Floaters/Sectoids and their terrorists are easy to kill with rifles, grenades and rockets, and Personal Armour will help against Plasma Pistols and limited protection against early game Plasma Rifles.
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...standard grenades. They have unbelievable accuracy with them (much better than aim shot on knees). Often with good range.
It is the prevalence of extremely good throwing stats that has me convinced Xcom has a minor league baseball team as a front for it's recruitment program.
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It is the prevalence of extremely good throwing stats that has me convinced Xcom has a minor league baseball team as a front for it's recruitment program.
It also explains why I get so many Julios, Joses, Angelos, and Marcos with hilariously high throwing, I must of gotten the Dominican dudes who didn't make the cut into the Majors.
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There are a few strategies that I like to use on the battlescape and I'll divide them up into a few broad tactical categories. These are assuming that you have control of the immediate area surrounding the Skyranger, but tactics for that will also be explained.
1. Slow march.
You will utilize a few men to act as pointmen/ spotters and leap frog 3-5 men in a team with interlocking fields of fire. The Point man will throw electroflares and everyone moves up incrementally while attempting to minimize exposure. Tactics like kneeling behind a stone wall before the end of a turn are highly encouraged , but you will attempt to first clear the map completely before attempting to Clear the UFO.
2. Rapid Disembark Skyranger.
to Rapidly disembark all of your men in a single turn while drawing a minimum of fire you should utilize smoke. Your first turn you should have your four front men prime a pre-equiped smoke grenade. First man throws the smoke grenade onto the ramp of the skyranger. Second man runs out into the smoke and tosses the second towards the front wheels of the skyranger. Third man throws his smoke grenade to the right, and the fourth to the left. With this much smoke, it is likely that there is no Alien that can see a damn thing and you run all of your men out spreading like ass cancer. Doing this, you can typically get all 14 soldiers out of the Skyranger in one turn. Meaning next turn you have more men with full Time units on the second turn to purge Xeno.
3. Three man Frag Tag Breach.
You have three men. One with a heavy cannon, one with a pistol and Grenade, and one with a rifle. You position your men close but not too close to a wall. The grenade guy primes the grenade. Heavy Cannon guy shoots a hole in the wall of a farm house. Grenade gets thrown into the room and explodes, rifle guy goes in to shoot or stun any survivors.
4. Two man demo team.
One guy Shoots a hole in the wall and the other tosses in an HE pack set on 1 turn. Building goes kaboom and next turn they shoot survivors or move to the next building.
5. Rocket cover busting.
Any piece of cover that might conceal an alien or provide future cover to an alien should be destroyed judiciously. Rockets are cheap. Soldiers are not.
More later... I'm tired.
-HH