Messages

136

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 27, 2021, 07:15:09 pm »

Really last couple of questions:

1) How to capture a Hovertank? Discovered I haven't researched a "live" one, same with 85mm Tank. EMP again seems like the way to go but its enormous energy pool suggests I should let it drive around for several turns to lower its energy closer to its health levels or EMP would just destroy it before stunning. Is there a better way maybe, some method to sap his energy so I don't have to wait? UPDATE: Hmm seems like Reticulan Electrogun will do the trick of sapping energy then Zzz... it off with EMP.

2) Are Stormrat and Xenforcer implemented or WIP? Govt Siren I reckon is in those Govt Fusion Cruisers I was avoiding to shoot down. Those few are basically the last researchable topics I am still missing besides hard-coded mutually exclusives.

137

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 27, 2021, 06:55:00 pm »

I added Cacodemon corpse to your main base but you won't be able to research it until you build Study or Personal Labs (recommended). My suggestion is nuking Data Centre and replacing it with Prs. Labs. I got Caco corpse tech by researching Arcane Tomes which to me seems like the most easiest and natural route. Only after that did mission that regularly spawn Cacos started appearing in my game.

Just added that one line if you wish to continue from your save, if not you can add it yourself to current save progress by opening file in better text editor (notepad++) and searching "Desert Crab" (your 2nd base). Scroll a short bit up from there until you get to "items:" - your main base storage. Somewhere there add "STR_DOOM_CACODEMON_CORPSE: 1" line. That's it. Backup file before saving changes and load it within game.

Btw, why in God's name you emphasize kill counts after solders names of all things?

138

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 26, 2021, 09:30:16 am »

He probably talks about either 'pink desert' terrain or ones with smoke substance that trigger at end of each player's turn.

As to why you lose:
Some time ago I came across a pretty extensive list of everything that happens when you do end turn in vanilla UFO:EU. A long list of things being sequentially calculated I'd never think of, so long and detailed it put a new perspective on complexity I didn't knew was there. It is simply likely that your units' status is being checked before the enemy's (despite you triggering a win condition) and game makes you lose the battle on the spot. As vanilla didn't have complex post-win triggers it never become a problem. So I reckon X-PirateZ may have overlooked an odd inheritance of ancient engine code. Or more simply even, the spraying action is still considered player's turn so when you die, you lose.
You could reload the final turn as the 'spray' is randomized so it will probably not catch all of your solders every time.

UPDATE: Found the list - Turn Order. Just noone ask me to be the troubleshoot guy

139

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 25, 2021, 01:17:13 pm »

Heavy Particle Accelerator with its expensive ammo (mind the power drop-off over distance), until you can use Plasma Rifle/Heavy. Heavy Plasma is universally excels at killing stuff at distance, only topped by Scorcher for 2x2 shielded targets. Before I discovered early effectiveness of HPA I resorted to classic Laser stuff against them, even trusty Scoped/Super Magnums for a short while. Mercs are the toughest opponents imo solely for their grenade abuse, but also great overall stats and armament, not to mention Hovertanks.

In b4 Blood Ax serial slayer.

140

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - L6 06-Dec-2020 Bag Of Tricks

« on: February 23, 2021, 03:36:09 am »

It uses Superconductive Cannonball which ignores stun immunity 2x2 demons have (Neural Whip don't work there), blast is 7 square radius, and isn't an overkill like Ion Cannon. And I need em alive (primarily Imps and Barons, others for essence).

In following Harbinger of Doom I field tested a crew of 12 with 4 Kraken carriers (3 shots each) with other 8 having just Shock'a'Fist + Neural Whip combo and managed to capture 95% without problems. All wearing Annihilator suit ofc, with added cutting resistance.

141

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - L6 06-Dec-2020 Bag Of Tricks

« on: February 22, 2021, 04:10:36 pm »

It was some kind of unusual spawn oddity from Harbinger of Doom, but very very exciting lol. Had to take a break and return twice coz I got too excited just looking at it and fantasizing how to proceed. There were almost double more in that same little area, obscured by front line demons, as became obvious soon after. Due to impenetrable Demon bunker all attempts of capture failed (need essence) so I settled on a single proven and reliable Baby Nuke (BFG was in another castle). When they died (around 50) the death sounds formed a spiral pattern. It was sooo beautiful... I must admit OXC(E) as an engine is the most stable thing ever coded as nothing I put it through managed to crash it.

There was a lone Imp hiding in NW corner of the map, inside a derelict plane cockpit. As a finishing blow I put a Plasma Scorcher round to take him out together with whole frontal plane. As the structure collapsed so did another 8 Imps fall out of it. Reminded me of poking a mother spider with many baby spiders on its back. Pretty satisfying ordeal overall which I'm eagerly trying to reproduce.

In that case I'll be better prepared because after couple of investigative hours Kraken Cannon turned out to be the perfect area effect capture weapon for the occasion. Interestingly up to that point it held the record as the fastest dismissed weapon after being researched. Only to come back into life much later in most unexpected role.

142

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: February 21, 2021, 09:38:36 am »

Aside handful of known and mentioned but as of yet unobtainable items I haven't seen Warhammer reported yet. It's in the tech tree (part of Tomb Guardian armor?) but cannot be obtained as far as I looked into it.

Next report is unusual because mechanically it works normally but rather illogically:
Combo of #065 and MASOCHIST's Blood Magic results in not getting VPW training unless targeting enemies with the Blood Magic buff. Which is comical because the wearer is blind so 50% accuracy penalty is always applied in that case. Not to mention feeding enemy reaction fire (double masochist). If possible I recommend an exception for Blood Magic targets so that hitting allies also train VPW.

143

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: February 20, 2021, 09:39:24 am »

Inaccurate MA token cost in Master Crafted Weapon Parts bootypedia entry.

144

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 20, 2021, 03:00:46 am »

Gotta be one of these from the picture.
More info HERE. Note that you need Computer Core service to research Higher Studies, which ZUBRIN does not need.

145

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - L6 06-Dec-2020 Bag Of Tricks

« on: February 19, 2021, 08:06:21 am »

Ever heard the phrase: "When Hell freezes over"? Have you? Well...

146

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: February 19, 2021, 03:23:58 am »

Yeah that was one possibility. Usually WIP stuff is more obvious, that one felt more like a bug.

This one I'm not too sure if it's supposed to be happening or me not understanding full mechanic at play:
Gal in Annihilator, both hands occupied with non-melee weapons, retaliates with Super Gauntlet anyway.
From what I've gathered it shouldn't be possible. End turn in attached save (7z coz +6MB) to demonstrate.

Situation can be useful unless a weak enemy needs to survive which is the case here. Not the first time it happened too, is just how it is.

147

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 18, 2021, 07:41:22 am »

@legionof1
Only relevant stat I could find in analysis is "Immune to morale loss/fearImmunity: false" so I guess too he can surrender with low morale. I'll also bring TU & Morale damaging weapon and see how that goes. Thank you for all your diligent help in last 4 months!
(exactly tomorrow will be 4 whole months for this playthrough of mine, Jesus Christ)

@Greep
After my post and digging in discord I got the same idea, you just confirmed it. Although just the presence of such building shows Dio is apt at understanding when to give player what in order to lessen the burden. Hopefully Horus facility makes it into the the final cut at some point. Consequently it also means it's not possible to achieve 100% research even with all Codex unlocked. And looks like I'll have to rebuild the Casino again (replaced with Printer, sill under construction lol) to get enough Mystery Boxes for those Shadow Orbs. FML
Big thanks for the "Summary" tip. Is better than expected so it'll have to do. I hardly pay any attention to commendation mechanic so I'd never find that little screen.

148

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 18, 2021, 03:41:04 am »

Last few lingering questions from me:

1) "Not your business" research topic - unobtainable as of L6? Can't unlock White Dragon "Experimental weapons" without it. It unlocks some very cool items for purchase as well as very mysterious Eye of Horus facility. In the rules it's discouragingly called STR_UNOBTAINABLE.

2) Is EMP Minibomb really the best way to capture a live Technomancer? Followed by using Manacless on the body, and even Rod of Bliss for good measure. Last time I had to kill him because he just kept waking up every turn (restores 33 stun points) and knocking him out with Shock'a'Fist kept reduced his HP pool too much so he died. They are super rare (sole encounter came from zombified space freighter) so I wanna be prepared.

3) Where to get "Cyberzombie Database" and "Necronomicon" items, required for Red Mage finally to move in?
UPDATE on 3: nevermind found it myself by digging through rules. Both are found in Crypt of the Technomancer mission (Black Mask's Origins research related I presume). Funnily enough the mission is set to spawn 15 game days after my latest save, but many months and several hundred Megapol cars after I researched the damned topic. Guess I'll find out if my EMP theory holds true sooner than I thought.

4) This one is tricky...
Is there an easy way to determine if a soldier has reached peak capacity in any given skill using normal methods (via just plain battle XP)? Will explain using Bravery as an example. Normal peak is 100 but can go over the limit with Commendations (COM) and suit buffs. But let's focus solely on COM and ignore suits. The problem is when a soldier reaches let's say 80 Bravery but together with COM it gets pushed to 110 and you have no way of knowing if you should stop leveling it or is there room for 20 more that's hidden by COM.
I could probably read it from save or carefully subtracting every earned COM award to get normal unbuffed value but that's way too labor intensive. Hoping there's an easier way... maybe from reading unit stats graph better? Pretty much all skills are affected by this situation, some more than others. Ideally there would exist a button that, when pressed in stats menu (or anywhere stats are shown, such as hands ordering), would show unbuffed skill values (maybe even allowed peak next to it in brackets).

149

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: February 17, 2021, 10:28:16 am »

After researching Market of Wishing and all available listed items, Cannon and Flamer remain non purchasable.
Cannon apparently can only be obtained via MoW for its research, unlike the Flamer which is a RNG box reward.
This may even make Mega-Cannon the only item that can be purchased before being researched but it don't work.

150

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: February 17, 2021, 07:45:32 am »

1) Pretty sure damage to missile is irrelevant but who knows. Radars you meant for baiting or for increased detection? On "Blackbeard" my 1st missile strike arrived late into 2nd game year (may actually be triggered by research) just to give you an idea. By that time 3x Armored Vaults proved defensive enough. But I couldn't intercept a missile not matter what because it's way to fast. I could prevent it by shooting those HK-117 (not easy) before the actually missile shows up on map however. Higher difficulties notably harden the situation so my case may not apply.
Someone smarter than me will probably advise you better on the details but I'll say a good idea for initial base defense is using lots of inexpensive expendable units (dogs, peasants). Glass cannons if you will. Then slowly build up from there or just dot it with defensive facilities to skip the whole thing. My 1st unavoidable (main) hideout defense happened in Sep 2062, delivered by Breaker @ 6250 speed & 900 HP. Mission is relatively easy if you manage to finish it fast (3-5 turns) before the enemy force scattered.

2) Depends on your play style if they're worth it I guess. You can cover losses with money and/or good tactics plus patience. I do it by save scumming to kingdom come (no one dies on my watch since Dune 2 lol). The two main tools which carried my troops were Manstoppers and Scoped Magnums (freeing up a hand for Cattle Prod or whatever). Infantry Laser was the first real breakthrough though.
Enemy ships incur score penalty as they enter zones, depending solely on time passing by. Flying or landed it's all the same so that's why aborting only marginally shortens global penalty as ship flies away from that zone (and starts increasing it in another probably) before disappearing.