Topics

1

The X-Com Files / Spider Nest Underground

« on: June 08, 2020, 06:19:20 am »

So... How do I beat that?

Beating that onslaught of Spiders in the topside is bad enough but doable. Especially once you kill the damn red spiders.

But the underground seems impossible. No space to move or shoot. And there are stealth spiders. Fighting spiders is bad enough, but these can't be seen, so reaction shots engage too late.

Stealth Spiders seem to ignore fire, too. So no making barriers of fire, either.

Seems like the only way is to use dogs and go full melee. Or create space with High Explosives or something. Only useful guns there seem to be CQC-friendly stuff like SMGs and stuff like Double-Barrel shotties, and barely. Maybe Glock?

Might need better armor, leather coats aren't cutting it. Maybe Jumpsuits, or Bio-Exo when I finish researching it.

2

The X-Com Files / The Tyson Challenge

« on: June 06, 2020, 03:11:39 am »

So... Is it possible? Anyone try this? Beating the cults, monsters and aliens by just... Beating them with your fists? No rifles no pistols, not even bows and sticks... Just bare fists.

(Is ear biting allowed?)

I just know someone is going to be insane enough to try.

3

The X-Com Files / The Second Base - when to build it?

« on: June 04, 2020, 08:25:25 pm »

Don't think I am the only one who feels constrained by my first base, eventually. I feel like I need more vehicle space eventually. Also, the need to fight Cults with a Mudranger and get to missions faster.

Feels like once you have a million to spare, its time to get started.

Is it worth it turning the second base into another research base? Say, putting an intelligence center and prison to turn it into a interrogation base (X-COM GITMO lol), or bio lab/animal pen to start researching live captures. Or just research stuff. Or even a second headquarters, but that seems hella pricey.

So far I am using my second base as an outpost for running missions and storage. I got what should be like two million in briefcases/bags/criminal cases, and a research that doesn't go fast enough.

4

Suggestions / Weight in decimals rather than integers

« on: May 31, 2020, 07:49:55 am »

Just a small, but possibly significant thought I had.

How come we can't have that? That might seem insignificant, but could make a lot of difference. Weight of equipment can be very important in military operations, as we know well.



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5

The X-Com Files / Music Suggestions

« on: May 22, 2020, 03:03:41 am »

Hi Solarius. Love the soundtrack, too.

So... I made this thread to suggest possible new music to add to the mod. I know its a bit hard, because they got to be proper to the ambiance and mood of the game.

So I took the liberty of finding some cool music. Most of it is from obscure 90s games as well.


Project Xenocide Planetview 0.1 by Thomas Torfs:

https://github.com/astyanax/Project-Xenocide/blob/master/assets/Sound%20Department/Complete/Music/First%20Turn/10.%20Thomas%20Torfs%20-%20Planetview.ogg

Love this one, its so beautiful and mysteriously dark. Wish I could mod it into my game, but I'm using a phone so it would be a pain in the ass.

Might wanna ask for authorization to use. I think some people from Project Xenocide work on Open X-COM.


Ar'kritz The Intruder/Parasite:

https://youtu.be/usLdNVUULs8

Its an old run and gun plataformer from France made in the 90. Fun and pretty cool looking old game, its about alien convicts from a space prison invading a mining town in the US, protag is an ex-cop who gets infected by an alien parasite called Ar'Kritz, a little space cop sent to solve the situation. Both have to fight together both aliens and the authorities, who are after Jack and Ar'Kritz, with Ar'Kritz riding inside and commenting about things to Jack, while Jack is slowly turning into a monster due to Ar'Kritz inside him, so he has to both defeat the aliens and find a way to get Ar'Kritz out of him, all the while mutating and gaining new abilities, before he dies.

Its pretty fun and hard. The semi-photorealistic graphics look neat for the time, the game gets harder and harder, the Gameworld is a realistic town rather than the more abstract worlds of most plataformers back then, and the soundtrack is great and goes from sounding like an American 90s police movie and turning more sinister and sci-fi like.

The whole situation of the game also looks like something which would fit in The X-COM Files. Small town, alien, alien parasites, mutants, police and army fighting back, etc.

Some tracks would probably not fit, some might. Laboratory, City Sundown, Mines, Jail, Sewer, City Night, Headquarters, Space Base.

Its abandonware so I wouldn't worry.

Link has a google drive folder with FLACs included. YouTube kinda butchered the quality. The loading images might make cool graphics for the mod as well, I think they are there as well

I also found this one, which is the original version of Gotham from DN3D:

https://youtu.be/roCX4pmwfhc

I love how darker it is.


There's also this remix of Geoscape 2:

https://youtu.be/IxGIiiZf7Gc

I suspect a lot of Earth 2150 might fit, think the games got the files inside? Don't know where else to get good quality files.


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6

The X-Com Files / Ski Resort Missions = Night Missions?

« on: May 22, 2020, 12:58:03 am »

I recently did one and I noticed that these missions are not doable at daylight. That little lodge you start at, has so many windows, they have pretty much no cover. So the enemy can shoot you to pieces no matter where you are. I can't see how that's viable at day.

At night, on the other hand... The enemy can barely see anything. You can also use flares and flare guns to create distant light sources which do not reveal your team. Smoke helps (Extinguishers ftw). It plays more like a normal mission.

Weird. Is that intentional?

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7

The X-Com Files / Suggestion: Snubnose Pistols as Sport Gear?

« on: May 22, 2020, 12:52:04 am »

Hi. I recently went on a Ski Resort mission, and I noticed something curious: Light Pistols are considered sports gear, but Snubnose Pistols are not. Which is a pity because they seem pretty decent-ish.

Any reason why? Seems like Light Pistols get in because they're easily concealable, so Snubnose guns should fit likewise.

 

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8

The X-Com Files / Troop Deployment: Unfair?

« on: May 15, 2020, 09:46:12 am »

Hi. Loving this mod to bits. No Computer so can't study or work on my jobs. Playing on my phone. It's really helping keep my mood up during Quarantine.

Anyway... I have been thinking about a thing. Is the way Troop Deployment works in this mod unfair? Namely: Why most missions seem to start with my team surrounded by multiple enemies?

And I don't mean like vanilla, with a few enemies. I mean completely surrounded. By, say... Twenty zombies within attacking distance. Or pretty much the entire cult cell you are supposed to attack - all twenty of them pointing guns at your team.

Perhaps I am a scrub and it is totally possible to get of a situation with a dozen men in all possible directions pointing guns at four agents out of a van, ready to fire Olympic Shooter-tier scarely accurate snapshots at the smallest movement.

This is especially important because unlike vanilla, you can't just throw rookies in a meat grinder until you win.

It feels a bit luck-based to me. I like X-COM and I feel that stuff like save-scumming is innapropriate for it, but I am feeling to do it, just to try and actually have a chance of success on some missions.

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9

The X-Com Files / Cult Bases: Are they supposed to be this hard?

« on: May 15, 2020, 09:34:33 am »

I went to this Cult of Dagon base and they almost drowned me in bodies. Had a grenade launcher and a bunch of ammo (sadly, no way to buy some more), so a smoke grenade was pretty much what saved my team and allowed it to retreat to perfect cover.

Nabbed the perp I wanted, wanted to finish the mission finishing the opposition. A lot of them panicked, but kept fighting. I suspected those strange dogs of theirs and some higher ups didn't get scared. Even the "things" on their side did.

So I shot enemies. And more came. More and more and more. Eventually I realized that I had to run. Not only was my precious capture going into overstun all the time, my soldiers were losing their sanity and that meant their TUs were becoming quickly nil. Some of my men were also running out of ammo.

Interesting, guess that was what Sanity was supposed to be about.

And the enemy kept coming.

Bolted with no losses, the capture and two artifacts, and discovered, to my surprise, I had killed over fifty foes with five soldiers.

Hoooooly shit. Is that normal from Cult Bases?

By the way... Is it normal for stunned enemies that are not bleeding, to suddenly go into overstun?

Note to self: Next time I raid Cult of Dagon base, send high-SAN elites.

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10

The X-Com Files / Very Early Weapon Balance, take two (1.3)

« on: May 05, 2020, 01:45:33 am »

So... Been a while since I played this mod. I have taken to playing it again. Lemme do some thinking, regarding early guns - pre-Promotion 1 stuff, mind:

Firearms:

- Glock 18: The lowest damaging gun without crap stats. Useful mainly for early cult missions and abductions. The extended mag gives it extra life. Auto-fire helps a bit when close. The low damage helps with captures. After four months it becomes next to useless.

- Beretta: All-rounder pistol. Damage is decent, accuracy is good, speed is good.

- .45 Pistol: I used to think this was crap, but I relied on it and its actually kinda decent. Still inferior to the magnum in most senses but up close due to its superior snapshot accuracy and lower TUs to fire.

- Pump Action Shotgun: Decent but you will want to replace it with the Shotgun as fast as possible. Its inferior and less versatile than its predecessor, altrough it fires a bit faster.

- Small Shotgun: I got a lot of mileage from it back when. Not sure if I have not employed it right or whatnot, but it doesn't as good as it was back when. I mainly keep it as zom-b-gone, but these days it seems better to stay far, far away entirely and plink them out from afar.

- Magnum: Now we're talking. Two aimed shots per turn and a snap. Superior accuracy and power compared to the .45. Closest thing you will have to a proper sniping weapon, for awhile.

Taser Pistol: Its good for what it is. Kinda unrealiable and slow. Seriously thinking about just going with more baton shotguns, 2nd slot melee weapons, and forsaking those now that batons are a thing.

- Crossbow: Tried to use it as a sniper weapon like, once. Seems pretty accurate but too slow to really compare to the Magnum.

- Shotgun: Now this is where it is at. Decent accuracy, good damage and the ability to equip three types of ammo: Buckshot, Armor Piercing and Baton. Baton rounds are a new feature and quite cool. Armor piercing can turn a shotgun with a good shooter into a quite deadly guetto sniper. Buckshot is for close range.

- The Kludge: Weird gun. Its a weaker magnum but it can also take buckshot rounds. So you can turn a magnum into a shot-pistol and back, pretty much. Haven't used it much to comment further.


Melee Weapons:

Electric Baton: Not much to say, it stuns things. Mainly useful for cultists.

Wooden Club: Pretty snappy and useful for stunning in labour missions and such.

Wooden Bat: Slow, but delivers a nice heap of stunning.

Stuff I got but haven't used so far:
- Uzi
- Skorpio (seems like a bad uzi)
- Throwing Knives (seems interesting, but no strength bonus is kinda eh. Does it arc?)
- Makarov (seems like a trash .45)
- Calico
- Tonfa
- Most melee (can't use it much for the moment)



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11

The X-Com Files / A few doubts

« on: May 03, 2020, 07:10:29 pm »

Hi there! Back on this fantastic mod.

I have a few doubts, could you please help?

1. What is overstun? I've heard that is a thing, but not much of a thing it is.

2. How does the CQC mechanics work?

3. Is the AI able to run?

4. I have seen a few events that make me lose points early on, apparently missions I never found. Does that mean that I need to send my agents in patrols around the world? This is making me lose points, first month was horrible for that.

5. Do soldiers in patrol outside the base still get gym training?

6. At game start, I got a lot of data about enemy types I never met. Like gangers and stuff, pretty basic. Is this supposed to be a thing?

7. Are we supposed to research worker concealment? Seems like I got it from one of the early researchs or something. At least I got such a UFOpaedia topic.

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12

The X-Com Files / North American X-15/Rocketplanes

« on: March 22, 2018, 05:24:59 am »

I think I already suggested this once before. The North American X-15 Rocketplane is a relatively old, yet very good little piece of technology. It has managed to reach speeds well in the range of Mach 6.72, reaching the speed of speed of 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h; 2,021 m/s), tts speed record, in fact, has not been surpassed by any aircraft since. It also has flow as high as 80 miles, where its high enough to be considered space. In fact, the pilots who did that actually earned Astronaut wings!


Specs from wikipedia:

Specifications

Other configurations include the Reaction Motors XLR11 equipped X-15, and the long version.

General characteristics

Crew: one
Length: 50 ft 9 in (15.45 m)
Wingspan: 22 ft 4 in (6.8 m)
Height: 13 ft 6 in (4.12 m)
Wing area: 200 ft2 (18.6 m2)
Empty weight: 14,600 lb (6,620 kg)
Loaded weight: 34,000 lb (15,420 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 34,000 lb (15,420 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Reaction Motors XLR99-RM-2 liquid propellant rocket engine, 70,400 lbf at 30 km (313 kN)
Performance

Maximum speed: 4,520 mph (7,274 km/h)
Range: 280 mi (450 km)
Service ceiling: 67 mi (108 km, 354,330 ft)
Rate of climb: 60,000 ft/min (18,288 m/min)
Wing loading: 170 lb/ft2 (829 kg/m2)
Thrust/weight: 2.07





Now imagine something like it, but built with late 90s technology.


Something like a Rocketplane seems like a nice "hack" or alternative before/during the Interceptor phase of the game. The Rocketplane would probably be a speed-focused alternative to the Interceptor. A rocketplane like the X-15 would probably be slower and have less range once deployed with weaponry, but still outspeed the Interceptor. The Interceptor has better range, and may be more resistant.

So, my balance suggestions:
- Faster than Interceptor (say, 2x-3x times faster)
- One weapon slot only?
- Less resistance?
- Lower range.

I'm thinking it would be kind of an predecessor to that cool Scramjet X-COM can use later (I don't remember its name).

13

The X-Com Files / X-COM Files executable giving me a false positive: W32/exploit.gen

« on: March 20, 2018, 10:26:28 am »

Anyone getting such false positives? Got it from Panda Antivirus

14

The X-Com Files / Score Balance is off?

« on: January 16, 2017, 09:06:22 pm »

This is a bit of a premature thread, as I'm so far in the beginning of December 1997, althrough I'm playing Superhuman.

Alright, so the issue is - points are too easy to come by, while hard to lose.

Just a example - try shooting the same number of cultists/animals as you have of agents, and then get your agents rekt. You will be likely in the positive, because dead cultists/animals are worth more than what you lose from dead agents.

In vanilla, you also lose a LOT of points for losing the vehicle. The car and the van are pretty much valueless*, through - which does make sense, but still.

I think I only went into or near the negatives twice, in bad months. Briefly. Yet I quickly recovered. Pretty sure most of my scores were above a thousand, which is ok when one is sucessful but its a bit strange to get 1360 points in a month after failing not one but two cult investigations.

Its quite easy to go aboe 3k if you play a month well (and since the last patches you don't get as much money so balance kept!), which is ok but its quite hard to go negative.

Anyone else thinks the same?

*I bet X-COM just steal cars and vans, that one hour time sure looks suspicious to me.

[Spoiler]

15

The X-Com Files / Early gun balance

« on: January 14, 2017, 09:09:58 am »

Thread made to help Solarius with gun balance, althrough so far it seems good.

I'm going to use spoilers not to spoil people. I'm almost finishing November 1997 - more like Nightmare November.

Spoiler:

Glock: The very definition of "pop gun". Makes one appreciate the starting pistol in X-COM. The main advantage is that this is your first "burst" gun - well its more of a double tap. Good for cultist killing at close range.

.45 Pistol: Didn't like it very much, don't remember making much or any killing with it. I think its the aim shot cap that kills it. Once I got the Magnum, I never looked back even through the .45 shoots faster.

Beretta: Good little gun. Hits reliably, shoots fasts, decent-ish power. The Magnum is the "Sniper Rifle" of pistols, the Beretta is more like a very precise assault rifle. I used to use it in a Beretta/Tazer combo, and later on a Beretta/Uzi or Beretta/Small Shotgun combo. Starts to show obsolesce when you fight zombies.

Small Shotgun: At first sight it sucks at distance combat. But when zombies and other creatures starting getting on your face, you will realize its true role is a close-quarters combat weapon. I obsoleted it after I got the normal shotgun, but started using it again once I realized its a fantastic anti-zombie weapon. It can be used one-handed no prob. I use it as a side-arm for a lot of soldiers in zombie infestation missions.

Pump-Action: Will get obsolete fast, but does ok in early cultist missions. When I got a better one, discarded this entirely.

Magnum: A Divine Weapon. With it, a agent can finally hit reliably with stopping power. Closest thing to a sniper rifle you can get for a while. Until you get the Hunting Rifle and then the Nitro Express, keep using this on your most accurate agent.

Shotgun: Good weapon, decently precise, sadly not fast enough to be shot thrice. Great vs zombies.

Uzi: Good if the enemy gets point blank and lacks armor, otherwise I found it too imprecise. Obsoleted by the MP5.

Hunting Rifle: Light, precise, decently powerful. Became my sniper weapon. Nice snap shot.

HKMP5: So, this is a mini-rifle. Decent-ish accurate, burst has crap precision but I never had opportunity to use it in close-range. Good. It made Uzi and Beretta obsolete for me. Needs more testing, I want to see it vs zombies or werewolves.

Nitro Express Rifle: Used it in a few missions so far. Great gun! Cultists in my experience usually get one-shotted, werewolves survive it barely. Sadly had no chance to test on Yeti.

Guns I didn't use (yet): Flare Gun (seems like a crapshot), Minebea (I researched it just after MP5. Seems obsolete, but that x6 round burst seems to rock in CQC), AK47 (researched, got a few in storage but not enough bullets).