OpenXcom Forum
OpenXcom => Offtopic => Topic started by: The Reaver of Darkness on September 14, 2014, 08:52:02 am
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I'm so used to knowing just about everything about the old X-Com games that I forget sometimes that others haven't played these like I have. I'd like to share with you guys some of the interesting gameplay tips I have picked up through the years. If any of you have tips to add, leave them in the comments! I'll add them to the post and give you credit. Also, I'll be updating the list with more tips as I think of them.
Tips for UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-Com: UFO Defense (MicroProse 1994) and for X-Com: Terror from the Deep are preferred, but tips for X-Com: Apocalypse or X-Com Enemy Unknown (Firaxis 2012) are also welcome, as are any tips for isometric X-Com remakes such as UFO: Alien Invasion or Xenonauts. Please do not share tips for non-isometric games, or for non-X-Com games.
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Pro Tip #1: (UFO) if you use cannons/craft gas cannons to shoot down alien craft, they land intact and you can recover the Elerium-115/Zrbite. apparently this doesn't work in most versions
Pro Tip #2: (UFO/TFTD) some aliens can be frightened by weapons fire, especially terrorists. When facing a dangerous terrorist you are unable to kill, firing shots at it may make it reconsider attacking you next turn. Sometimes this leads them to waste time units and wind up in a good position to be fired upon. Alternatively (especially) , if a soldier reacts to a terrorist's movement and fires at it, it may suddenly change its movement and give up its attack.
Pro Tip #3: (UFO) an interceptor can safely shoot down a medium UFO (Abductor or Harvester) or large UFO (Supply Ship or Terror Ship) with Avalanche missiles. A single interceptor may carry enough power to shoot down a medium if the missiles score enough hits, and at best, only 2 are needed to shoot down a Terror Ship.
Pro Tip #4: (UFO/TFTD/Apoc-turn based) the higher a soldier's reaction stat is, the less likely aliens are to react to their movements. Reactions are based on the reaction attribute of both parties as well as their current remaining percentage of TUs. For example, if your soldier has 2x the reactions of an alien with 60% remaining time units, that soldier can walk and act freely in front of that alien without fear of reaction fire until the soldier gets down to about 30% time units. You can train reactions up by giving soldiers opportunities to react. Successful reactions raise the attribute.
Pro Tip #5: (TFTD) Ion and Magnetic Ion Armor has very low armor on the sides. To avoid getting your soldiers killed, always walk around unexplored corners with high time units and preferably high reactions, or find a way around that doesn't involve exposing your sides to enemy fire. When ending a turn in a vulnerable position, have your soldier face toward or away from wherever fire is most likely to come from, and point their sides away from likely fire points.
Pro Tip #6: (UFO/TFTD/Apoc) Enemies that are difficult to kill usually have a weakness, especially if they are heavily armored. Reapers (UFO) are weak to incendiary, and also I believe they are frightened by fire (don't quote me on this). Cyberdiscs (UFO) are weak to explosives (due to their low under armor and large size). Sectopods (UFO) are weak to laser, incidentally their shot type is laser even though it looks like plasma. I do not believe the X-Com: EU Sectopods are weak to lasers. Mutons (UFO) and Lobstermen (TFTD) will generally die eventually if you just keep hitting them, as they have rather low armor and merely high hit points. Lobstermen also resist AP damage. Alternatively, you can stun a Muton or Lobsterman with sun rod/thermal tazer and detonate any explosive on its body to kill it. Triscenes (TFTD) are weak to explosives, but you still need a fairly powerful one to get through their thick under armor. Multiworms (Apoc) will not spawn Hyperworms if damaged and killed with something other than HE or AP (such as laser or plasma). Shielded aliens (Apoc) can be attacked through the shield with stun gas, alien gas, and toxiguns, leaving the shield unit intact for recovery. Even an armored human can be killed with a toxigun if you have enough ammo, as its incredible fire rate will allow you to still net a rather high damage total for time spent attacking.
Pro Tip #7: (Apoc-turn based) Brainsuckers can react during your turn. If your soldier steps next to one, it just might leap on your soldier's face during your turn. You can use this to your advantage if your soldier steps underneath something or has a low clearance over their head as the Brainsucker may fail to hit and land paralyzed on the floor. It's probably better to just shoot it from one square away, however.
Pro Tip #8: (UFO/TFTD) You can use your graphs as a real-time radar map of the whole world with 100% detection chance. It will tell you where alien activity is happening and will update instantly as it happens. This is extremely useful in the early game as it is easy to notice a region climbing in activity over several minutes or hours. Often this will give you a heads-up as to where you should patrol to find targets. Just remember to watch the numbers on the side of the screen--the spike may seem to be the same height when actually the graph scale changed to fit the new, higher value.
Pro Tip #9: (UFO/TFTD) Assuming you do not have the better reactions mod turned on, there is a mechanic in these games called Mutual Surprise. When a moving unit is spotted by an enemy and they both see each other at the same time, the enemy is initially unable to react until the unit moves again. You can use this to your advantage when entering an area in which you expect aliens--just barge in such that you will see them as they see you. To best achieve this, use a door or shoot down a wall rather than walking around a corner.
Pro Tip #10: (UFO/TFTD) The larger alien craft keep their high ranks all in one room, usually the navigation room. If in your first turn at a landed craft, you manage to kill all of the leaders, you greatly diminish the morale of the remaining units, which are already less effective in combat. This is especially effective with Sectoids (UFO) or Aquatoids (TFTD), as only the leaders and commanders (Sectoids) or navigators, technicians, and commanders (Aquatoids) are capable of using psionics/molecular control. The easiest way to accomplish this is to bring Blaster Launchers or P.W.T. Launchers. You can use the first shot to blast a hole in the side of the ship. A second may be needed to breach an inner wall. The final shot, if detonated in the navigation room on your first turn, is unlikely to leave any high ranks alive. You may be able to use this tactic in later turns as those high ranks often stay in that room anyway.
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Pro Tip #1 is incorrect. See my post in the other thread. The power sources have (and always had) a flat 75% chance of exploding in a crash, each power source separately.
Weapon used to shoot down the UFO has no effect whatsoever.
About Pro Tip #2 I'm not sure, but I think this isn't true either. I've never read or heard about "scare" mechanics, and frankly I don't think they exist in the original game, because that's just not how the game was programmed back then. AI behavior uses a lot of random decisions, though, making it seem very complicated at times.
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Pro Tip #5b. In OpenXcom there is an option available called "Alternate Movement." This allows you to run or strafe using a ctrl+click. Strafing sideways to pop past a corner allows you to confront the enemy with your front armor when you mutually both spot each other. Strafing costs 5 TUs.
Pro Tip #6b. Lobstermen are quite vulnerable to melee, and vibroblades are a fast, deadly counter to this crustacean menace.
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I think Pro Tip #1 means that if you use craft cannons then you are less likely to destroy the UFO in mid-air which can be done by avalanche missiles. And
It's impossible for a pair of cannons to destroy any UFO completely in the air
A stingray missile or laser cannon has very small chance of killing a small scout out-right and can even kill a medium scout in the air but should be fine vs everything else, and it's pretty much impossible with un-modded weapons to destroy a terror/supply/battle ship
Pro Tip #2 sounds weird, melee terror units have always had issues and reapers even more so being 2x2 so even though it looks like they should be able to kill you very often they don't. Cyberdiscs and Sectopods will pretty much always fire at you while celatids sometimes won't depending on angles, all other terrorists have issues with moving and attacking units, usually because of pathing issues and possibly because of action cost of melee attack. At least in the original, I think OXC tries to make them a little bit more clever.
Reading the ufopaedia (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=UFOs#Weapons_vs._UFOs) is much better then any of the tips though as it containst vast amounts of information.
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Agreed with Sharp.
Pro Tip #11: Read the UFOpaedia page for more Pro Tips!
Also, Pro Tip #1 definitely means what it means, and it is very wrong. Pro Tip #1 should be ashamed of his/herself.
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Pro Tip #1 is a "Troll Tip" :)
its more fun in multiplayer games
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Reminds me of Doom protips (provided by the Id Soft themselves). Example:
"Shoot enemies to kill them" :)
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"Shoot the Cyberdemon until it dies"
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#1 is definitely true, I've done this dozens of times and it has never failed. I don't know what you're doing differently if it's not working for you.
It doesn't work in Open X-Com but it works fine in the original.
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within ufo dosbox i started multiple games where i switched to cannons as the first action
2 games with medium scout
-> 1. complete
-> 2. damaged
so it is not "never failed" at least for the steam dosbox version and in the experience of others
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Since I have insomnia, let's go with these good-intended tips...
#1
Pure BS
#2
Pure BS. It didn't work in any UFO game, in OXCom it makes the aliens angrier and more prone to suicidal maneuvers, usually involving high explosives.
#3
Use the biggest, most accurate, longest-range weapons to win. I'd never think of that! It works, naturally. Massive damage always works.
#4
Technically true, but impossible to implement in the field other than in a very general manner. Too many unknowns to win by maths. Sure it tells you to leave full TU if you want to have bigger chance of shooting first, but the moment you start relying on your Reactions alone, soldiers start dying. Not every shot hits. Not every hit kills. You might have several people crowded in a defensive position. Said alien can have a grenade...
Reactions are for 2 things: 1. some people prefer risks associated with opportunity fire over the risks associated with storming UFOs/Access Lifts/other tight spaces, possibly infested with chryssalids (not an insensible approach). 2. Desperate Measures (a huge topic unto itself...)
#5
The fact that you think you're facing the alien doesn't mean its shots will always hit front. I'd rephrase it: if all else fails, try to face the alien with your last TUs, the armor is always thickest there, plus you will die like a man. Actuallty TFTD armors have a critical weakness; very high frontal armor offset by the fact that some shots will inevitably hit your sides.
#6
Yes the reapers are weak to Incendiary, but a Heavy Cannon HE shell is a guaranteed kill while Incendiary isn't. Cyberdiscs can be killed by Heavy Rockets but actually are better engaged with lasers or plasma (too heavy armor for your puny grenades). Or if you lack anything that powerful, fire kills them over time, and stun damage takes them out quite fast too. Why kill stunned mutons? Lobsters are very, very resistant to everything but Sonic (Massive Damage) and melee (stun works too). Melee is the way to go with them. Apoc turns into Easy Mode when you invent gas grenades, especially against humans who don't have any resistances. Shooting them with needless is of course possible but pointless in the light of the above. Unless you want to train reactions or whatever.
#7
True, but the odds of these things happening are astronomically low. You either shoot everything and a kitchen sink at these Brainsuckers or suddenly have a soldier braincontrolled. It's much more often (still rare) when Brainsucker's attack simply fails.
#8
No, it's neither realtime or radar. It counts alien score, generated mostly by landings and completed missions. Your craft will usually arrive post-facto and fail to catch anything. It might stumble upon the next wave, but the chances aren't high. The graph is good for occassional sweeps to find alien bases, though. You COULD watch the alien graph every 30 game minutes for any changes and able to use it pretty well to detect UFOs, yeah... thanks but no thanks, there are better things to do with one's life.
#9
As there ever was an area where you shouldn't expect aliens :) But yeah, Mutual Surprise is the way to go. Just don't forget that running away counts as "doing something" and unless there is cover 1 tile away, the alien is going to fry your ass (assuming your main force doesn't take him out as they should).
#10
Use blaster bombs to win. Yeah, great tip :) As one of the veterans summed blaster "tactics" up, "nuke large rooms first". Actually it's easier to kill your own squad with Blaster Bombs than to die from alien fire once you have a ready supply of these beauties. Btw you usually need to catch Commanders alive, and panic can be easily raised by killing large amounts of low-ranked aliens in a small amount of time...
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#8
No, it's neither realtime or radar. It counts alien score, generated mostly by landings and completed missions. Your craft will usually arrive post-facto and fail to catch anything.
I disagree. Graphs are instantaneous (not 30 minutes sweep) and UFOs gain score just by flying - which makes them even score points while flying over a country on their way to their target (it can misguide your attempt at interception). In early months, when detection is a huge problem and you're eager for any light or medium scout, graphs are invaluable. I couldn't count the number of times I actually caught a UFO this way. Going directly for the kill with interceptors is, of course, much more reliable than trying to send a skyranger while it's landed.
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since we're calling out each other's mistakes...
in OXCom it makes the aliens angrier and more prone to suicidal maneuvers, usually involving high explosives.
nonsense. i'd have remembered coding something as ridiculous as that.
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I think Diox meant "suicidal" for the player, "involving HE" meaning you get to chew some alien grenades or worse.
At least that' show I read it.
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WOUNDING them makes them act differently, sure, but shooting at them doesn't elicit a change in behaviour unless you actually HIT them. i guess that's the distinction that needs to be made, and any change it DOES result in came straight out of the original.
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WOUNDING them makes them act differently, sure, but shooting at them doesn't elicit a change in behaviour unless you actually HIT them. i guess that's the distinction that needs to be made, and any change it DOES result in came straight out of the original.
There is also the inevitable event that all your shots miss and you are at 0 TUs at the end of the turn, facing the alien that has its back turned to you. During the alien turn that alien turns around, "Oh look a soldier!" *pew pew ded*
I know a lot of people who play OpenXCOM mistake that for AI changing tactics. I know an instance where the alien keeps facing that direction and just walks to the other room without a care about the holes in the wall your "stormtrooper" made.
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Yeah I meant wounding (not killing); shots that simply miss are ignored (unless for opportunity fire), how even would AI brain such a thing?
And about the graphs I need to straighten things up: while they're technically realtime, you cannot *check* them realtime (unless you're not a human) so it makes them not-realtime. And I've never said they're useless; but certainly they're not radar. And yes flyovers generate alien score too, that's why I said "mostly".
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while they're technically realtime, you cannot *check* them realtime (unless you're not a human)
I do :-[
With "30 minutes" speed, as a speed which is not too slow and not too fast.
In vanilla I was using a UI bug, in OpenXcom it's as easy as typing G repeatedly
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1771.msg16330#msg16330
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Since I have insomnia, let's go with these good-intended tips...
#1
Pure BS
#2
Pure BS. It didn't work in any UFO game, in OXCom it makes the aliens angrier and more prone to suicidal maneuvers, usually involving high explosives.
#3
Use the biggest, most accurate, longest-range weapons to win. I'd never think of that! It works, naturally. Massive damage always works.
#4
Technically true, but impossible to implement in the field other than in a very general manner. Too many unknowns to win by maths. Sure it tells you to leave full TU if you want to have bigger chance of shooting first, but the moment you start relying on your Reactions alone, soldiers start dying. Not every shot hits. Not every hit kills. You might have several people crowded in a defensive position. Said alien can have a grenade...
Reactions are for 2 things: 1. some people prefer risks associated with opportunity fire over the risks associated with storming UFOs/Access Lifts/other tight spaces, possibly infested with chryssalids (not an insensible approach). 2. Desperate Measures (a huge topic unto itself...)
#5
The fact that you think you're facing the alien doesn't mean its shots will always hit front. I'd rephrase it: if all else fails, try to face the alien with your last TUs, the armor is always thickest there, plus you will die like a man. Actuallty TFTD armors have a critical weakness; very high frontal armor offset by the fact that some shots will inevitably hit your sides.
#6
Yes the reapers are weak to Incendiary, but a Heavy Cannon HE shell is a guaranteed kill while Incendiary isn't. Cyberdiscs can be killed by Heavy Rockets but actually are better engaged with lasers or plasma (too heavy armor for your puny grenades). Or if you lack anything that powerful, fire kills them over time, and stun damage takes them out quite fast too. Why kill stunned mutons? Lobsters are very, very resistant to everything but Sonic (Massive Damage) and melee (stun works too). Melee is the way to go with them. Apoc turns into Easy Mode when you invent gas grenades, especially against humans who don't have any resistances. Shooting them with needless is of course possible but pointless in the light of the above. Unless you want to train reactions or whatever.
#7
True, but the odds of these things happening are astronomically low. You either shoot everything and a kitchen sink at these Brainsuckers or suddenly have a soldier braincontrolled. It's much more often (still rare) when Brainsucker's attack simply fails.
#8
No, it's neither realtime or radar. It counts alien score, generated mostly by landings and completed missions. Your craft will usually arrive post-facto and fail to catch anything. It might stumble upon the next wave, but the chances aren't high. The graph is good for occassional sweeps to find alien bases, though. You COULD watch the alien graph every 30 game minutes for any changes and able to use it pretty well to detect UFOs, yeah... thanks but no thanks, there are better things to do with one's life.
#9
As there ever was an area where you shouldn't expect aliens :) But yeah, Mutual Surprise is the way to go. Just don't forget that running away counts as "doing something" and unless there is cover 1 tile away, the alien is going to fry your ass (assuming your main force doesn't take him out as they should).
#10
Use blaster bombs to win. Yeah, great tip :) As one of the veterans summed blaster "tactics" up, "nuke large rooms first". Actually it's easier to kill your own squad with Blaster Bombs than to die from alien fire once you have a ready supply of these beauties. Btw you usually need to catch Commanders alive, and panic can be easily raised by killing large amounts of low-ranked aliens in a small amount of time...
#1
there does appear to be plenty of versions in which it does not work. I don't know which it works on necessarily but I did it most back in the original DOS version of X-Com: UFO Defense (the USA release) on an IBM 486 with Windows 3.1. I don't have this version anymore and I can't find an authentic one anywhere. If you have one, let me know! I've been searching for the original sounds for a long time now!
#2
This might be a case of apophenia, but there have been plenty of times I have seen one running toward my soldiers until a shot was fired, at which time it immediately headed in a different direction or wasted time units in place. It has happened most commonly with Tentaculats (TFTD) and I think it has happened with Chryssalids (UFO). I've also seen a handful of other melee terrorists do this, like Reapers or Hallucinoids. I haven't seen enough to confirm it but it seems to work. Alternatively, they might be responding to greater numbers of soldiers in one area, which may appear to be them responding to weapons' fire because of the increased chance of reaction fire. I don't know. I'll keep trying it.
#3
Most people wait until plasma beams to shoot down the larger UFOs at all, not realizing Avalanches do the trick pretty well. I took a long time to realize mediums go down easily with Avalanches, and I had no idea that they outrange even Battleships. This means you can indeed fight these large ships in the early game with just interceptors. This is a valuable tactic for before you have completed more advanced plasma research.
#4
"Impossible" is putting it rather harshly. It would be an opinion to say that it is difficult, one I would partially agree with. Most aliens have pretty high reactions, but if you get soldiers with high reactions and are careful how many time units you spend in front of aliens, you can dramatically reduce the times they take reaction fire.
#5
No rephrasing is needed. Sure, it's possible to get the sides hit, but then it's also possible for a Sonic Blasta-rifle to hit through the front of Ion Armor for 39 damage (enough to kill some soldiers) or for a Sonic Cannon to hit through the front of Magnetic Ion Armor for 92 damage (enough to kill almost any soldier) -- if you have weapons hitting for 0% - 200% power, which is the default. Turning your front to the enemy isn't fail-safe but it is extremely effective.
#6
I had no idea a HE shell guarantees a kill on a Reaper. That's a good method then. 2x2 units are generally weak to explosives even if they don't have a weakness to HE-type damage because they can get hit by the blast 4 times, one for each square they take up.
Why kill stunned Mutons/Lobstermen? So they don't get up later. Useful for long missions, especially if they get long exactly because you are having to stun every enemy to kill it.
Lobstermen sure are weak to melee, but you don't get Vibroblades without recovering one for research. Sometimes (often, really) you'll end up fighting Lobstermen before you have sonic weapons or vibroblades.
#7
On multiple occasions I've actually had brainsuckers attack my soldiers during reactions. This isn't some fluke that rarely happens. I probably see it more than most people because I have a habit of running a soldier to point-blank range with the Marsec M-4000 Machinegun. It's generally a really good strategy for fighting most aliens but it can be good to keep a square between you and a brainsucker.
#8
Already addressed by Yrizoud (Reply #11) -- You don't have to check it incessantly. I usually check it fairly frantically (multiple times per day) for the first few days until I get myself a catch. That graph work is less work than restarting at the end of the month because you didn't shoot down any alien craft and eight nations have already reduced funding and threatened to withdraw.
#9 -empty-
#10 Actually I don't recommend nuking large rooms first usually. Overall it's just best to learn all the spawn points so you can pick good striking points. Some people like to leave the majority of the ship intact, or might want to save Elerium (either in the ship or in production of blaster bombs), or even might just want to not fit very many blaster launchers in the squad. When you're being picky about which room you'll nuke, the navigation room is a good choice for maximum damage.
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If your pro tip #1 only works on one specific build which apparently you don't even have then why do you state it? It definitely doesn't happen on any version that I have.
Pro Tip #2 is not a case at all, I have had chyrsalids do completely random things like walk through a whole group of my men and do nothing even without me firing at it (or even knowing it was there the previous turn), reapers are even more silly but mainly because they can't even reach your soldiers.
#3 Avalanches don't outrange Battleships. Fusion Ball Launchers are longest reaching weapons in the game and they are equal to battleship range.
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If your pro tip #1 only works on one specific build which apparently you don't even have then why do you state it? It definitely doesn't happen on any version that I have.
Pro Tip #2 is not a case at all, I have had chyrsalids do completely random things like walk through a whole group of my men and do nothing even without me firing at it (or even knowing it was there the previous turn), reapers are even more silly but mainly because they can't even reach your soldiers.
#3 Avalanches don't outrange Battleships. Fusion Ball Launchers are longest reaching weapons in the game and they are equal to battleship range.
Good point on #1, fixed.
#2 I'm pretty sure is the case somewhat, especially in TFTD. Yes I am aware that melee terrorist movements are pretty funny and sometimes they run up to you and don't attack, but they really do seem much less likely to approach a squad that will shoot back. I've heard some people say that tentaculats in particular are less likely to approach a soldier who is facing them, and this would also correlate with my having almost every tentaculat attack occur from behind. Sometimes they even waste time units to go around to a soldier's side. Another possibility is that hitting them can make them run by lowering their morale. The alien AI in both games does seem influenced by level of morale even on units that are not panicking.
#3 I'm not sure why I thought they did. Oh well, the rest of it is true. Fixed.
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I get you about blowing up Lobstermen (and damned Chryssalids), but why Mutons? They're defenseless once stunned. In OXCom you don't even have to worry about that - aliens start with 0 TU when they get up, so you have 1 turn to put them back to sleep. Just monitor all the sleepers if none of them has disappeared, and have soldiers in reserve to tackle the threat. Of course with Chryssalids it's often better to just blow the corpse up and be done with it.
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I get you about blowing up Lobstermen (and damned Chryssalids), but why Mutons? They're defenseless once stunned. In OXCom you don't even have to worry about that - aliens start with 0 TU when they get up, so you have 1 turn to put them back to sleep. Just monitor all the sleepers if none of them has disappeared, and have soldiers in reserve to tackle the threat. Of course with Chryssalids it's often better to just blow the corpse up and be done with it.
I can't necessarily monitor all of them when I have eight soldiers and there are sixteen or more Mutons. And if I try to monitor all of them, there is always a chance that I will fail and miss one, which might sneak around until it kills a soldier. Furthermore, I don't like wasting time hunting down an alien I've previously stunned when I could have just finished it off and not had to worry about it.
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They are defenceless in that (by default) they don't pick up weapons from the floor, mutons which are no longer stunned are just walking reaction fire training. Mutons can't kill your soldiers without weapons, even if they can pickup weapons you can just unload any ammo as well, throw the weapon over a hedge, throw the muton over a hedge.
Unexploded mutons are worth money. Useless for research but great for reaction fire practice and then sell the bullet ridden corpse to your local university/organ transplant centre.
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I was talking more about Open X-Com, as they will pick up weapons when they get up.
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if you (for some reason) need many live aliens in a game where you enabled "pickup weapons"
pick the stunned aliens up and put them in a room (without any weapons) let a soldier stand in the door so they cant walk out (if no room there putting them in skyranger works but needs two doormen)