Messages

1

The X-Com Files / Re: Is there a mod for streamers? If not...

« on: October 31, 2024, 06:51:35 pm »

I don't think there's any mods specifically for streamers, but you might be able to do things to speed up the game:

- I believe the lastest OXCE (nightly) releases have more fast-forward options. I actually have a custom build that has a button to speed up the game (skip walking/projectile animations, don't center the screen when switching to next soldier, etc.). Those make the clean-up phase and long enemy turns more bearable.
- Mod the enemies so that enemies like the various beasts can surrender. You'll need to do this yourself, but it isn't super hard. Alternatively, if you want to make the game much harder (but more exciting), you can get the mod that makes all melee beasties just zombie-rush you.

2

The X-Com Files / Re: How to fight ghosts

« on: October 31, 2024, 05:36:09 am »

The first Ghost mission is basically training. Deploy a full squad though. Take plenty of Tasers and you'll be fine. If you're patient, it's even a good melee training mission with stun batons.

Later missions require more planning. It's a good time to break out any laser weapons you might have collected. There's no better time to use them.

The Laser Tank makes these missions a cakewalk, but the Rocket Tank is good enough too, because nothing can hurt it.

3

The X-Com Files / Re: How does one Fight the Flying Avatar Lady?

« on: October 31, 2024, 04:49:04 am »

I concur with the stun tactic. The grenade launcher with blunt works best. You can kneel and get decent accuracy aimed shots from beyond line-of-sight for your entire squad. Their shields are weak against stun. Don't bother with guns until their shield is down since their shield works well against Kinetic.

The best mission to do this is the Root of all evil mission.

4

The X-Com Files / Re: OMG Natasha Morozova and Co just kicked my butt!

« on: October 31, 2024, 03:07:20 am »

In addition, it's important to be aware that if you ever hit an enemy directly with gunfire, they automatically spot you. This is most noticeable if you ever do night missions against Red Dawn. You can have a sniper be fully smoked, in darkness, and away from everyone, and they will get lit up as soon as they shoot an enemy. Your best bet is to use grenades and explosives in this situation.

5

The X-Com Files / Re: Best usage for early alien alloys?

« on: October 31, 2024, 02:57:59 am »

It depends on exactly where you are in terms of enemies. However, if you can, the Heavy Tritanium Suit costs a bit more alloy, but essentially makes your agent like Robocop against conventional and laser weapons. Nothing gets past it -- not gunfire, not explosives, not the dreaded gas grenade.

I would also save just enough for a single tank (Laser is best, but if you don't have it, rocket works well too). It is super good against Ghost missions, which will be popping up.

6

The X-Com Files / Re: XCOM Files Timeline

« on: October 31, 2024, 02:48:42 am »

I would say you're at average progression. You can do faster, but it's not necessary. The biggest killer in XCF is getting blocked in research -- meaning that you're missing a pre-req that you can't easily get.

You should be trying as hard as possible to get the prerequisites for Promo II. The Military Envoy can be extremely hit-or-miss. I've had cases where I simply did not get a mission that would spawn a Black Lotus Footman mission until September, for example.

7

The X-Com Files / Re: Quick question on Bravery

« on: April 04, 2024, 12:11:18 am »

Bravery is much easier to increase in this mod compared to the base game. Early game, money is tight enough I don't reject anyone. Later on, I'll likely reject based on PSI strength than anything else.

Commendations give boosts that aren't counted against the cap (you can have more than 100 bravery this way), but they do count for requirements for trainings and enhancements.

Besides using interceptions (Bases/Embassies are great for this), Healing is a great way in combat. Just make the low-bravery agent the preferred medic, and it'll go up on its own.

One other way is using the garrote and surfboard weapons. Neither weapon is great, and you only can get surfboards on the surfs up mission.

It's really good to maximize your bravery because the Kukri is an amazing weapon due to its bravery scaling. At 140 bravery, you have +59 damage from bravery alone.

8

The X-Com Files / Re: A question on aircraft

« on: January 24, 2024, 07:32:56 am »

Interceptors are at least tough enough to stand toe to toe against medium and large scouts. They outrun the Hybrid Aircars and you can easily take them out in large numbers without risk of return fire.

MIGs though, seem to have tissue thin armor and will be blown up as soon as a UFO sneezes on them. They also have poor range and are pretty slow. I'm not sure there's a single UFO they can come out on top of, and they can't safely clear out Hybrid Aircars, which are a big risk to transports.

9

The X-Com Files / Re: Beginner's difficulty setting question

« on: January 22, 2024, 07:39:20 am »

For beginners (or even veterans), I recommend the limit TUs on first turn mod. I think the hardest and most frustrating part of the mod is how in many missions you basically start out surrounded. It was always a big source of frustration for me, and not getting trounced on the very first turn has mad the mod much more enjoyable.

10

The X-Com Files / Re: A question on aircraft

« on: January 22, 2024, 07:13:11 am »

In my current game, I've used a decent number of Interceptors. By May, I don't have any way to manufacture the alloys needed for replacing everything with Ravens, and I want to build my first Improved Lab, which takes lots of alloys. I've also used alloys for Tanks. Minigun Tanks train up Accuracy fast, and Laser Tanks make Ghost missions a cakewalk.

Interceptors can easily shoot down all of the Hybrid defense craft with little risk. It's 50/50 against alien fighters though. Those things do way too much damage.

The Mig definitely seems like it doesn't have much of a niche, because it's a straight (though expensive) shot to Interceptors. The Arrow did a good enough job against cult craft.

11

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: January 09, 2024, 11:49:57 pm »

To be precise, it allows "Unarmored (dog)" armor.
So, you rush up the stairs and...kill infector the same way you kill zombie. Or would you allow it to roam free in the hospital first? For "extra fun" and all that.

Correct, but if you try to bring an unarmored dog to the actual mission, it will not allow it. I think it's just a documentation error.

Yes, the intent of the infector is to make the mission a bit more challenging and/or unpredicable, as well as giving players another way to obtain an Infector (which can be problematic due to RNG).

The current zombie is always just a plain zombie. At most, it can kill a few of the civilians before it dies itself.

Plus, the description implies that there's an outbreak / patient 0. Right now, there is no chance of that since it's impossible for anyone else to be infected.

The spread could become kind of bad, but it won't be too bad since the created zombies are just regular zombies rather than infectors. I'm not sure if X-Com Files has the same quirk that the original X-Com and TFTD did -- where the Infector will keep attacking the same target. That would further limit the spread by effectively ensuring that only 1 zombie can be created per turn.

12

The X-Com Files / Re: Training Methods / Collecting Medals

« on: January 09, 2024, 01:18:47 am »

In my current superhuman game (mostly, but not quite Ironman), I've been farming achievements / commendations, specifically ones that give you more TUs and Health in order to maximize their melee capabilities.

So far, my best agent has 110 TUs and 120+ melee without any bonuses from armor (currently has Bio-Enhancement, TNI, and Martial Arts). Adding Synthsuit just makes them an absolute monster in melee, capable of sprinting half the map to deliver a killing blow for 6 TUs (using the Kukri). I'm lookning forward to other potential enhancements and armors that further improve this.

This is an old thread, but it has some good tips for it. I want to add a few more strategies focusing on TU improvement:

Mass Killer: kill 7+ enemies per round. The nice thing about this one is that it also grants the lower tier ones (multi-killer, and ice-cold killer). The absolute best and easiest way to get this (potentially multiple-times per mission) is to use the Rocket Launcher on either the Cult Manor or Cult of Apocalypse missions. In the Cult of Apocalypse Outpost mission, enemies are clustered near the entrance, and you can probably get this several times. Once you get a decent number of TUs, you can even get this with a melee weapon because the enemies are so close together!

Assaulter, Gunslinger, Jungle Mower -- all of these give TUs every other level. It's not too hard to get to level 3 or 4 on these for +2 TUs just by using the right weapons.

Shotgun Surgeon -- gives +1 to TU every level. It's good to try to get at least 4 levels in this.

Tasemaster / Suppressor -- both are really similar, but with different weapons. Oddly enough the Stun Rod belongs to Supressor while Electric Prod and Stun Spear belong to Tasemaster.

Technician / Purifier -- Both give +1 TU at every level, which is really nice. However, the interesting thing is that the Agricultural Flamer, Flamethrower, Macro Flamer, and Flare Gun belong to both categories, so you get double credit for them! The weapons aren't the best, however, so it's probably worth trying these on routine missions.

Whirlwind -- once you get about 100 TUs, this becomes pretty easy to do any time the enemy is even sort of close to each other.

13

The X-Com Files / Re: Zombie plot stuck

« on: January 08, 2024, 11:48:51 pm »

I've had this happen to me too. I had wait a very long time to get to Zombie Infector. I think that's the risk of low chance rolls. Even with a lot of rolls, it's quite possible for it not to come up (Using psavola's numbers, there's more than 2% chance that it never comes up in 18 months.

At least you have a good chance of getting it from the scientists, who are easy to capture.

14

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: January 08, 2024, 11:44:36 pm »

I've noticed that the Zombie Isolation / Zombie Outbreak mission has a minor bug where it says that you can bring dogs, but you actually can't.

In addition, this isn't necessarily a bug, but does anyone think that the mission would be way more fun / challenging if it were a single Zombie Infector instead of a Zombie? As it stands, the mission is basically 8 guys rushing upstairs (or if you're lucky sniping from outside) to kill the one zombie while a half dozen civvies are trying to beat it to death.

15

The X-Com Files / Most Efficient Blood Plasma Extraction

« on: January 08, 2024, 11:34:59 pm »

In the game, you often will get way more Energetic Blood Plasma than you need, even before you get the ability to produce it yourself. Since selling creature corpses and live creatures are a good way to make money, I took some time to figure out what are the best monsters to extract blood plasma from, and the best ones to sell. The following table gives the opportunity cost per unit of blood plasma, taking into account the cost of the material (versus just selling it), the project cost (usually low), and labor cost (also very low), along with what extra stuff is produced (i.e. zombie parasites).

The gist of it is that Zombies, both alive and dead, are usually good for extraction, mainly because you can sell the parasites that are produced. In the early game, you're also likely to encounter the following good candidates: Bullfrogs (though you might want some to make muskets), Spikeboars (same, but with Quillbows), Shamblers, and Mongorns.

On the flip side, anything that requires multiple corpses like rats and such are very expensive per unit, and it's usually best to sell those. Also note: anything with a * below has alternate uses or other products that you should also take into account. (I didn't count zombie parasites though).

Blood Plasma: Megazombie Corpse   2620
Blood Plasma: Zombie Boomer Corpse   3700
Blood Plasma: Zombie Corpse   4100
Blood Plasma: Fat Zombie Corpse   4360
Blood Plasma: Bullfrog Corpse*   5380
Blood Plasma: Living Battered Zombie Trooper   6073.333333
Blood Plasma: Chryssalid Corpse   6100
Blood Plasma: Living Zombie   6300
Blood Plasma: Living Megazombie   6733.333333
Blood Plasma: Spikeboar Corpse*   6940
Blood Plasma: Living Female Tomb Guard   7203.333333
Blood Plasma: Living Male Tomb Guard   7203.333333
Blood Plasma: Living Fat Zombie   7740
Blood Plasma: Shambler Corpse   7940
Blood Plasma: Living Zombie Infector   8305
Blood Plasma: Strix Corpse   8332.5
Blood Plasma: Living Strix   8905.714286
Blood Plasma: Living Shambler   8970
Blood Plasma: Living Giant Bombardier Beetle   9180
Blood Plasma: Zombie Infector Corpse   9360
Blood Plasma: Mongorn Corpse*   9750
Blood Plasma: Living Chryssalid*   10062.5
Blood Plasma: Living Spikeboar   10220
Blood Plasma: Living Bullfrog   10253.33333
Blood Plasma: Reaper Corpse   10333.33333
Blood Plasma: Living Giant Rat*   10490
Blood Plasma: Living Fenrir   10920
Blood Plasma: Tomb Guard Corpse   11013.33333
Blood Plasma: Living Giant Beetle   12360
Blood Plasma: Fenrir Corpse   12380
Blood Plasma: Living Reaper   15166.66667
Blood Plasma: Living Mongorn   15375
Blood Plasma: Owlman Corpse   15880
Blood Plasma: Werecat Corpse   15880
Blood Plasma: Werewolf Corpse   15880
Blood Plasma: Living Owlman   17940
Blood Plasma: Living Werecat   17940
Blood Plasma: Living Werewolf   17940
Blood Plasma: Zombie Trooper Corpse   18100
Blood Plasma: Living Megascorpion   20460
Blood Plasma: Living Zombie Boomer   20500
Blood Plasma: Giant Beetle Corpses   21020
Blood Plasma: Giant Rat Corpses   21300
Blood Plasma: Megascorpion Corpses   22500
Blood Plasma: Living Black Werecat   22940
Blood Plasma: Living White Werewolf   22940
Blood Plasma: Living Shadowbat*   25560
Blood Plasma: Living Chupacabra*   30460
Blood Plasma: Chupacabra Corpses   31500
Blood Plasma: Shadowbat Corpses   49800