OpenXcom Forum

Modding => Released Mods => XPiratez => Topic started by: HT on August 08, 2017, 05:19:41 pm

Title: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 08, 2017, 05:19:41 pm
After having been playing X-Files, I opted to test the game that started it all. Boy, how do things change. My first "memorable" battle is my party of poorly armed pirates and a parrot against a bunch of hookers, juvenile punks and low-lifes in order to rescue a missing sister. Unfortunately, it seems that you can't reanimate her right away and that I should have tried to capture a bunch of them, judging by the low scores. Sadly, even the starting melee weapons suck, but I guess I'll keep playing and see if I can adapt to the new game-style.

By the way, what does it mean when a weapon causes Shock (ie: x4) and Reaction Disruption? I'm not sure what these two attributes mean yet.

Lastly, is there a way to restore the font color to the original one from previous versions? I was told that there's a mod lost somewhere that does that. The new one makes it a pain to read certain research texts due a poor combination of background pics and the text color, for not to mention some screens have so many words they reach the bottom and keep going, making some bits  unreadable.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: legionof1 on August 08, 2017, 08:30:55 pm
Shock(X) is a multiplier on the normal stun damage caused by all lethal weapons. Normally the base is .1 of damage that penetrates armor.

Less certain about reaction disrupt. But if i recall correctly its damage to TU thereby making reaction fire less likely. 
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Dioxine on August 08, 2017, 11:35:20 pm
Thanks for the review!

You asked about the font. I am sure you can find a way to replace it if you want, but I want to stress that it is an intergral part of the experience that is X-Piratez and so I can't remove it.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: LuigiWhatif on August 10, 2017, 04:10:36 am
This should set the small font back to the default Xcom.  The #'s are the important part.  I find it easier to read, but I think some of the characters are slightly larger so it might send a bit more off screen.

Find the file called "AmigaFont.dat", open it in a text editor, find the following code:

Code: [Select]
  - id: FONT_SMALL
    width: 8
    height: 9
    spacing: -1
    images:
      - file: FontSmallBloax.gif
#      - file: FontSmall.png
#      - file: AmigaFontSmallDio.png

and change the last 3 lines to this:

Code: [Select]
#      - file: FontSmallBloax.gif
      - file: FontSmall.png
#      - file: AmigaFontSmallDio.png

Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 10, 2017, 02:33:24 pm
Thanks for the answer Luigi! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do anything. The changed lines you wrote are identical to the previous ones if that's the issue.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Meridian on August 10, 2017, 06:33:02 pm
Thanks for the answer Luigi! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do anything. The changed lines you wrote are identical to the previous ones if that's the issue.

They are not identical... they have # on different place... which makes all the difference.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 10, 2017, 11:48:37 pm
I checked again and I noticed the problem:

The font did change indeed, but the background of some pics make it difficult to read due the color difference, but at least the font is easier to read now. Also, some pics still have the problem about the text going beyond the pic.

There was a way to increase the size of these 'paedia screens without messing with the rest of the game's chosen resolution, but I can't find it right now.

Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Dioxine on August 11, 2017, 01:16:31 am
Stop fixing what is not broken.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 12, 2017, 12:24:41 pm
Alright, I swapped back to the original font and the problem about text going beyond the pics is gone, even though I don't like the font choice. Oh well, I guess I'll have to go with this for the moment.

Playing the game is quite exciting, the way how is it different from XCOM is worth mentioning again, even though it's very hard even at low difficulties (I'm doing a test-run first to see how it plays and how far I can go). I have a few questions though: First, do you always get an infamy rating bonus every month to give you extra money, or does that feature disappear at some point? I believe it was done as a crutch to help players with the low income at the start, but even then it's not enough to pay for the salaries of the scientists guys/gals (just like XCOM!).

Second, are there ways of increasing the monthly income besides impressing the countries with a high score? As in, related research topics, like the Promotion I-III ones from Solarius' X-Files.

Third, I see you can use guns and stuff that you haven't researched yet, at the expense of not knowing its stats and such. However, does the gal using said weapon/item suffer some kind of penalty to damage/aim/whatever for using an "unknown" item? I suppose the most advanced stuff like plasma weaponry must be researched before using, as usual.

Fourth, I dunno if it's a bug, but I found I was able to research Crack twice: First I got it as a related research topic from an Academy Nurse, but then I was still able to research it again from one Crack I found during an academy mission. I saw in the tech tree that researching this eventually leads you to the Medicine research topic, but I dunno if it's worth researching the same thing twice besides for the global score.

Lastly, after researching certain npcs like the Academy Researcher, the game tells me I now can research new stuff such as the Experiment Victim, even though I was already able to research the latter from the very start.

Anyway, this is quite more fun than what I had expected, even though I'm not sure what I am doing at times.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Ethereal_Medic on August 12, 2017, 12:32:52 pm
1.) You get the infamy bonus every month. It won't stop at any point in the campaign. Use the extra do$h to fuel your economy.
2.) Every research done increases your monthly score. The best way to get money is looting and selling loot and selling items build in the workshops/extractors.
Try selling "X-Grog" and "Chateau de la Morte" once you can produce these items. The workshops are a very important factor to keep the campaign afloat.
3.) Unresearched guns and armors offer no penalty using them.
Stellar empire gauss and plasma weapons need to be unlocked interogating academy espers and provosts.
4.) Maybe the Nurse gave you another topic for free and this unlocked the research for Crack.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 13, 2017, 12:53:31 pm
2.) Every research done increases your monthly score. The best way to get money is looting and selling loot and selling items build in the workshops/extractors.
Try selling "X-Grog" and "Chateau de la Morte" once you can produce these items. The workshops are a very important factor to keep the campaign afloat.
4.) Maybe the Nurse gave you another topic for free and this unlocked the research for Crack.

Thanks for the info! But you misunderstood: I mean that if there are ways to increase your monthly payment besides a high score, such as researching special topics or doing certain missions. As for the Crack thing, the odd thing is that I got both the Nurse and the Crack in the same mission, yet I was able to research both without issues. Either way, I re-researched it again for some more points and hopefully open a path towards getting better medicine than alcohol (although that one is surprisingly effective).
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Ethereal_Medic on August 13, 2017, 02:43:02 pm
To raise your protection-money earned by the local governments you just have to do missions in thier territory.
If you do well this month (doing alot of missions with high score) they increase payment.
Since you can't cover the whole globe early on the protection-money around your starting location rises constantly (considering you win all mission or go for broke) while some locations outside radar coverage can lower the bribe.
Your monthly 'payment' will never be enough to pay your maintaince and salaries. You've to keep money in the bank to pay it on your own.
That's why you mass produce alcohol and stuff to the world. To pay the bases and expand quickly.
The protection-money is reliable income but can't support all your upkeep on it's own.
It's not uncommon to have a difference of 10M in the maintaince due to the salaries of brainers and runts. They've to pay for themselves by rushing hundreds of tanks to arm the world.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 14, 2017, 12:42:45 pm
Thanks for the tips! Currently I unlocked more vehicles but they're all battery-powered. Worse, they don't have any weapons. Were can I find a Charge Laser? IIRC in previous versions the Air-Car started with it, which doesn't seem to be the case here. In fact, what's the best way to acquire craft weaponry? Right now I'm having trouble finding other civ vehicles to track down and loot, focusing mostly on purple missions to get my score and dollaros.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: SomeGuy on August 14, 2017, 01:05:47 pm
Try to find landed ships, or try to unlock one of the codices, think all of them come with some sort of craft weapon but might be too expensive to utilise. Or you can attempt to research and make your own craft weapon, sure they won't be that powerful but enough to shoot down smaller ships. 
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: KateMicucci on August 15, 2017, 01:02:22 am
The best cheap craft weapon is reticulan charger, you can get it from killing landed reticulans.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Yataka Shimaoka on August 15, 2017, 05:05:51 am
If you want early game tactics and tricks, go to kirkaneko's thread, you will see a lot of stuff useful
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: KiriKaneko on August 22, 2017, 12:23:11 am
I got a lot of very useful advice :)
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 22, 2017, 02:47:10 pm
Yeah, they're a lot of hints and tips which I'll read once I need them. I'm already using some of them.

I also decided to start a new play-through, this time at the Veteran difficulty. Thankfully it's not as ridiculously hard nor are the maps overpopulated with enemies as I had feared... Yet. Still, it's annoying that I'm missing so many civ transports. I'm at March of the 1st year and I was torn between updating the airbus with an airvan to go to places faster, wait until I build a second hangar and get a aircar/speeder to track down shippings more easily, or do something else.

I also have another question I haven't seen answered yet: How are the "manacles" supposed to be used? Seeing that they're an automatic weapon that requires ALL TU, I believe you're meant to use them to "attack" a stunned enemy to keep them K.O.ed for the rest of the mission, right?

Also, what's the purpose of the Rope? While the choking vulnerability of most human enemies is tempting, it requires way too many TUs to be useful much.

As melee weapons currently I'm alternating between handle and small knives to hurt and weaken the enemy before capturing, as well as using a few revolvers and "recovered" pistols for ranged weaponry.

By the way, should I bother with the "primitive weaponry" gear? As in the Bone Club, the Stone Hatchet, the Spear and the like. If I want to capture enemies Handles and Stun Rods do a better job to avoid killing the enemy by accident, while if I want something dead for real the standard Ax does the job.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Ethereal_Medic on August 22, 2017, 03:11:37 pm
Manacles are used against foes allready lying on the ground.
Robes are meant as a stun weapon but a less leathal version of the handle.
Just use the handle^^
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: sinisteragent on August 22, 2017, 06:30:10 pm
The spear is decent, the bone club quickly redundant. There's very little between the stone hatchet and an axe or swords. As ever though, the best thing is to try them out for a while and see how you like them.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 23, 2017, 09:44:36 pm
So, at the end of my first year's March I have a Pogrom by Humanists. Feeling bold, I managed to win at the expense of a few wounded and some civvies dead, but it was worth it: Now I have a ton of guns way better than anything I have, including two laser guns. Having a lass wearing Barbarian armor charging a not-nazi who futilely tried to shoot her down with a laser pistol was funny.

I also got a lot of money by selling captured enemies and unnecessary stuff, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do to with the increasingly elusive Ships: I replaced my airbus for an airvan and I was considering getting an aircar to help shadowing fast ships, but so far it's not being very successful. Should I try to acquire an Expedition "ship" and patrol the regions where the charts mention more shipping going on, or try to tech up until I acquire some gun usable on my aircraft?


Also, handles are even better than I had expected, they can even stun small robots, somehow.  :)
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Ethereal_Medic on August 23, 2017, 11:19:04 pm
Expeditions are only useful if you have something like an enemy base close to the base stationing it.
It's way to slow and you can't 'explore' anything in Xcom. All missions are spawned by RNG.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: wolfreal on August 23, 2017, 11:22:11 pm
How early can an enemy base appears?
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: BetaSpectre on August 24, 2017, 02:07:26 pm
Missions I find tend to occur in city areas, just make bases where you can cover as much land as you can.
If you have two craft including expeditions you can juggle to get the right time of day for the mission.

Crashed UFO's and Terror Missions don't have a time limit when selected by a craft.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 24, 2017, 05:35:15 pm
Thanks for the tips! Currently it seems I'll have to rely on missions spawning on the ground than capturing ships for making money, getting slaves/resources and research stuff, at least until I get actual craft weaponry and/or faster ships.

However, there's something I don't understand how it works for bounty hunting: What do these numbers mean next to the prizes (ie: (A1) Silver Snake pistol)? I think they show what Bounty Hunter Level you need to unlock them, but I'm not sure what's the number supposed to mean then. The number of necessary tokens? What about these bounties that aren't implemented yet? Will these require to update my save to work once they're available?

Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: AngelicJoker on August 24, 2017, 06:13:52 pm
The Letter Prefix lets you know the unlock route for the bounties.  You have to build and research the A1 bounty to unlock building the A2 bounty.  A2 will then unlock A3 and B1 will unlock B2.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: khade on August 24, 2017, 11:34:08 pm
It's possible that they removed juggling, I know it's a possibility that they've set up the code for, but I don't know if Dioxine has used it yet.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 25, 2017, 09:44:02 pm
The Letter Prefix lets you know the unlock route for the bounties.  You have to build and research the A1 bounty to unlock building the A2 bounty.  A2 will then unlock A3 and B1 will unlock B2.

But are these affected by your current bounty hunter level? Does that one change anything except getting better missions and more tokens?

Also, I finally started the awesome process known as Slavery in this game. However, supposedly having slaves around reduces the weight of your stuff at your vaults, as well as increasing the money you get monthly. What are the specifics for the latter? Can you theoretically have an unlimited number of slaves? They don't seem to consume space but can apparently be used as "resources" for several buildings and projects.


Expeditions are only useful if you have something like an enemy base close to the base stationing it.
It's way to slow and you can't 'explore' anything in Xcom. All missions are spawned by RNG.

Well, I meant in the sense of patrolling the places where the charts say there are more ships moving around, hoping to trigger an encounter. So far though I may save them for something else (such as a special party for hard missions), as until I acquire craft weaponry I can't catch most of the shippings anyway.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: ivandogovich on August 26, 2017, 06:55:03 pm
Slaves have negative size and negative maintenance.  This means they effectively decrease the amount of space taken up in the vaults and yes, it can go negative (ie -23/150).  The negative maintenance means that you gain money every month you have a slave standing around holding stuff.  You are limited in number of slaves only by the amount you can capture and convert.  So basically infinite. ;)  Stronger slaves that carry more stuff make you more money. :)
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on August 29, 2017, 08:39:27 pm
So, I kept playing and survived another in-game month. Now though I've seeing what seem to be patrols of some kind, likely search parties looking for my base, but unfortunately I still lack the means to shoot down craft (although I got some cannon shells, likely for assembling later on). Can these patrols be destroyed through? Are they scripted to always appear after several in-game months? I suspect it has to do with ratmen though.

Another thing is that I was lucky to catch some landed ships with caparace-wearing enemies, which are quite a nasty surprise. Which kind of firearms would you recommend (besides the harpoon guns)? Which are better to weaken/stun these guys? If only to capture them later, I tried the spiked mace but that one kills them more often than not.

Thankfully, with the recruitment of several Veteran Gals I got multiple Warrior-type armors, which can reliably stop small caliber fire. However, the game mentions that these armors are considered large. How does this affect enemy accuracy?
Is it worth using them comparing with other low-tier armor/outfit? I like to use them for the entire squad to easily deal with civilian enemies and better survive pogroms.

Lastly, I was considering to build another base in order to start mass-producing Chateau and get more moneyz, but apparently the Still can't be built yet. Which technology do I need to do that? I could try building several extractors instead for the alcohol production, but that won't be as efficient I'm afraid.

Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: ivandogovich on August 29, 2017, 09:08:46 pm
Patrols:  Rats will patrol, they are super slow (100 spd iirc) and look like a little echelon of brownish figures.  They may find you, they may assault, hard to tell.  The other most likely early crackdown will be nurses coming to reclaim you for Dr. X.  Yes, this is scripted and is part of the Dr. X story line.  Let them in, wipe them out, research the papers they drop.

Carapace:  Early rifles can wear them away slowly, if lucky.  Homefront rifles, etc, esp in the back.  The best is a Boarding Gun for more convincing damage.  This early though, your spiked mace or a axe is really the best solution.  This will put them down, and not leave your gal that failed to capture them extremely vulnerable.

Armor Size:  This does have an effect on likelihood of a hit.  Smaller targets are harder to hit, Larger, easier.  From what I can tell, the sizes basically increase the height of the hitbox of a target.

Still:  Locked behind Alchemy.  I waited on building out my second production base for this too. This campaign I got it in July, Year One.  There are things you can make with extractors early for some basic cash to cover expenses (flame arrows come to mind) but they pale beside X-Grog, and ofc Chateau.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: JustTheDude/CABSHEP on August 29, 2017, 09:57:45 pm
Those ratman patrols can be destroyed and they will after one hit from even the weakest craft weapon. Since they don't carry anything good, or valuable, so destroying them could save the time needed to kill every one of them in base and risk blood hound hunt in sewers.

Warrior suit is good against early shootgun pellets and pistol bullets, so it is usefull early in the game or for capturing civilians. One of hints in the game states: "Armor is good for those who get hit". Reliable tactic is two gals, shootgun scout in warrior armor and rifle sniper in camo paint are self sufficent. But those in carapace often carry gauss weaponry that one-shot kill despite warrior armor.
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: HT on September 04, 2017, 06:10:32 pm
So, been playing for a while, but  after many sacrifices I finally started building the damn Workshop. Yay!!

At this point of the game (August 1st year) I feel a bit lost though. I began building a second base for production and storage to both get some money to pay the excessive maintenance costs as well as getting rid of some stuff. 

However, how long does it take to get better ships? I'm still stuck with the battery craft, which now that I got a contact which sells me craft weaponry I can actually use them to shoot down stuff (only the smallest ones though), but the worst part is the limited space to bring units and such. What's the fastest way to acquire/unlock a better ship? And are missiles worth it for the Airspeeder? Also, right now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the enormous amount of weapons and ammo I can bring around, I have some preferences (especially "homemade" gear), but I would like to hear your choices, especially now that I found several contacts that let you buy some expensive stuff.


Speaking about unlocking, now I will soon use the Tiny Drill to open one of the Codex choices. Which one would be best for a Piratez's newbie? I kinda liked the mind control stuff from Xcom and the magic stuff of the mod, but I read that MC is not as good here, making the Gray Codex not as good as it should. Has the situation changed now with that Sorcerer outfit as well as the 3 Schools per Codex?


Another thing to ask is that I would like to know if there are outfits that completely nullify stun damage from undersea missions, I got that battery-ship to do those as well as have more units to deploy for specific missions but I'm unsure if they're worth doing.


As for hostages, any hints about how to best deal with them? Currently I like to research one or two at once by having 2 or 3 brainers investigating them, then enslaving the "spare copies". Are missions like these "church assaults" and "Trader Warehouses" infinite, or do they expire after several ingame months?


Lastly, here's my commentary about the new recruits: The Lokk'gars rock! They do wonders as snipers, archers and night-vision capable scouts, but they're quite fragile. At least now I have a reason to use "finesse-based" weapons like the rapier, but currently I don't know if they're viable for the entire game, as they have low hp and strength and little improvement regarding these. A research article to excplain their stats like that one for Female Ubers would be good, assuming there isn't one already.

Anyway, that's all for now, thank you for reading my posts and helping me so far!!
Title: Re: Finally started playing this
Post by: Martin on September 07, 2017, 05:45:16 pm
Speaking about unlocking, now I will soon use the Tiny Drill to open one of the Codex choices. Which one would be best for a Piratez's newbie? I kinda liked the mind control stuff from Xcom and the magic stuff of the mod, but I read that MC is not as good here, making the Gray Codex not as good as it should. Has the situation changed now with that Sorcerer outfit as well as the 3 Schools per Codex?

Can’t go wrong with gray. Mind control is still solid and gray gives you Fortuna which is a decent gunship and a relatively spacious transporter capable to enter both space and sea.