Messages

1

The X-Com Files / Re: Nations stop funding - Defeat

« on: November 07, 2022, 02:05:28 pm »

I'm not against events applying negative score: they make the world feel more alive, and they keep the player on their toes. The problem IMO comes with excessive randomness, when in one game you get -200 and in another -2500, during the same first month (even though that excess could have been due to an older OXCE version).

2

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: November 07, 2022, 01:04:12 pm »

So does that mod only covers the first turn and not reinforcements? In this case, does anyone have a quick way to include them?

3

The X-Com Files / Re: Nations stop funding - Defeat

« on: November 01, 2022, 08:36:29 pm »

I'll write here too: maybe it's irrelevant, but please check the OXCE version you are using. I had tons of those -300 random events, and they fell back to normal, manageable numbers when I updated mine to 7.7.3.

4

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.6: Paranormal Activity

« on: November 01, 2022, 08:28:33 pm »

Been really enjoying the latest version of this. Have a good feeling I'm going to have to restart and play again though, I'm getting a lot of -300 points pop up messages. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, looks like I'll have to dig deeper into what I'm doing wrong.

Great ideas and great game play.

It happened to me on my first game with this new version (I had between -2000 and -2500 points for events alone in the first 21 days). I don't know if it's relevant, but I didn't have the latest version of OXCE, if I was you I would check that.

5

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.6: Paranormal Activity

« on: October 24, 2022, 01:49:10 am »

I didn't know that other difficulties weren't 100% supported, I guess that changes things a bit. Still, I'd suggest Solarius to take my critic into account if he ever thinks about rebalancing them.

Thanks a lot for the mod link, I'll try it.

6

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.6: Paranormal Activity

« on: October 24, 2022, 12:05:37 am »

@Juku121
I get your point about it being a megamod and intended for veterans, but since the difficulty levels exist, I guess one could try to offer an entry level that is more forgiving.
I actually like some of the difficulty in tactical missions, even if sometimes it's just frustrating. I mean, I remember more advanced missions that had stuff I couldn't even scratch, but it was also exciting in some way. The one things that annoys me the most is, I think, the fact that enemies have 100% TUs during the first turn, and thus full reactions (this is also a big complaint I've heard about reinforcements): in some missions there were so many enemies around that I couldn't step out without getting riddled with bullets, and to be honest having to do the smoke screen thing is pretty boring to me.
But how different from each other are the difficulty levels in the geoscape game?

By the way, I restarted and my second mission had the dimension X stuff. I got charged by the bees, two taser gun charges didn't bring them down, and I had to flee. On the brighter side, during the whole first month I only got three negative score events this time, for a total of -198 compared to the about -2000 of my other try. That's frankly too much difference, and I'd rather have the rng be toned down a bit in that regard.

@Mrvex
Thank you for all the advice. As I wrote in my other comment, I have already played an older version of this mod for a while, so I know how to get through. I was just reporting that playing on "Beginner" can feel too punishing for a more casual player.

7

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.6: Paranormal Activity

« on: October 23, 2022, 06:25:54 pm »

I came back to X-Com Files after a few years, and tried to start a new run on Beginner difficulty. I wanted to try how survivable the game is on easiest mode when you play casually.
I start losing points to two or three random events before the first mission shows up. Ok.
I go for my first apprehension, and I start exploring the place with my two agents (equipped with Glock and stun baton). With playing casually I mean that I'm not employing any advanced tactics, but I'm not making my agents run around like headless chickens either. Rng has one of them sniped from halfway across the map, from the side he wasn't looking at; the other one reaches the cultist and attacks twice with the baton, hitting once - not enough, the bad guy turns around and shivs her to death.
One save-scum later, the cultist is safely arrested and I go on: I interrogate him, arrest several more, get a van, all in all I'm starting to make a little progress, until I get hit by two -300 events about the cults still being elusive. Then, between days 15 and 21 of the first month, such events fire two more times, with three additional negative score hits from different happenings (the missed crop circles, the CIA, and I can't remember which other); I haven't counted how many events I got in total, but my score is below -1500 since my missions can't even remotely compensate, and research is only slightly making up for those random losses.
I can definitely survive, progress with my investigations and stop the score leaks; missions will get easier when appropriate equipment will be unlocked (most of them, at least), but I still haven't faced manors with their dreaded reinforcements. I feel that my casual playthrough test has already gathered enough data.

Now, I get wanting a difficult game, that's perfectly ok. But there are five difficulty levels, and in my opinion they shouldn't be "Very hard", "Very very hard", "Extremely hard", "Almost impossible" and "Totally impossible". I see a difficulty level labeled "Beginner" as something that a beginner, indeed, should be able to go through, getting slapped only if they mess up badly; my impression instead is that it still requires a lot of skill both on the tactical and strategical layers - if you don't optimize your playing, it mercilessly makes you fall more and more behind.

What do you think?