Messages

16

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

« on: November 09, 2019, 03:11:22 am »

Well, maybe there was some way to get them I didn't anticipate.
Sorry!

According to my current game (not updated to 1.0 yet)'s tech tree viewer:
UFO Nav -> Alien Optical Processor -> Optronics -> Alien AI Unit -> Alien AI Unit [m]

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The X-Com Files / Re: How do you contain MC'd soldiers?

« on: November 09, 2019, 03:07:32 am »

so basically i need to prune my soldiers to high psi strength, so they can't be taken over in one turn.
i see.
how does bravery come into play there?

To elaborate on what X-Man said: assuming OXCE and XCF still mostly use vanilla-style psi, successful psi panic attacks deplete morale by 110 minus the target's bravery (e.g. 60 Bravery = Psi Panic does 50 morale damage). The lower your soldier's morale is, the higher their chance of panicking when panic checks are run. So a low psistr, high-bravery soldier is moderately resistant to psi panic, but still weak to MC.

The linked article goes into deeper detail on all the math and interactions, if you're curious.

But basically as soon as you have PsiStr evaluation (via the basic metapsych tech in XCF IIRC) I believe SOP for a lot of veteran players is to go through new recruits and just fire low-psi personnel, then hire replacements, until all of your soldiers are fairly high psi strength. I think it's actually a lot easier to do this in XCF since you can determine psi strength fairly early on, especially if you're working through the Black Lotus arc first.

The canary/psi-dummy tactic dates back as far as vanilla afaik. OXCE/XCF seem a little more lenient in that most enemies seem to need to have LoS from any one of their units to yours in order to make psi-attacks with psi units, whereas aliens in vanilla would start hitting you with psi attacks the moment your skyranger touched down, more or less.

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The X-Com Files / Re: UFO very very early

« on: November 08, 2019, 02:22:50 am »

Well, I gotta give you props for pulling that off if nothing else! I don't think you'll be able to use the plasma weapons for a long time, so you can either hold onto them or sell them off for a quick cash injection. Alternately sell off all but one. By the time you're able to use them you should have plenty more.

The UFO components, alloys, etc. will all be well worth hanging onto though. You should be able to make use of the alloys relatively soon to make tritanium armour (which is great against 99% of ballistic/man-made weapons) or tritanium ammo (which is basically standard ammo but a little stronger). The multitool is probably the nicest find there though as it's fairly important in the research path.

You can hit Q on the geoscape to bring up a tech tree viewer with a search function - up to you if you want to use it or not. It can be quite spoiler-y in some respects.

19

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.0: Judgement Day

« on: November 08, 2019, 02:13:20 am »

omg
so now they´re totally gonna suck even when they´re fully trained?
...why?
is it even worth anymore having some gyms then?

If you actually PAID ATTENTION TO THE UPDATE NOTES you'd notice that Sol has introduced new/additional advancement mechanics; there are "enhancement treatments" available (stuff like ninja scrolls, lo wo's secrets, maybe storm and others) that increase soldier stats.

Basically, the idea as I understand is that your soldiers start out less capable and can't train as high via the gym, but you gain additional ways of improving their stats as the game progresses. Your dudes won't be crazy superhumans within the first two months just from grinding zombies, rats, and spiders like you're playing some early-gen MMO.

20

The X-Com Files / Re: Surfing mission gear list?

« on: November 04, 2019, 02:06:03 am »

Is there a list of usable gear for the surfing missions posted somewhere? So far I've figured out that knives and tasers are usable

Use Stats For Nerds (hit "INFO" on a weapon's ufopaedia page); weapons have categories/tags on them that will tell you what missions they can be taken on. Weapons that you can take to the Beach should be marked "All Beach Gear".

Options include:
Nonlethal Ranged- Dart Pistol/Rifle, Taser
Lethal Ranged- Crossbow, Flare Gun*
Melee- Machete, Combat Knife, Knife, Shiv, Master's Cane, Golf Club, Baseball Bat, Club, Boombox, Surfboard, Extinguisher
Other- Flashlight, Flare, All healing items EXCEPT Healing Gel

*Technically lethal, as it does 20 incendiary damage with a small radius. It will almost certainly panic the target if you can score a hit. The crossbow does quite a bit more damage though, in good hands.

21

The X-Com Files / Re: Weapon balance / meta

« on: November 03, 2019, 09:29:57 pm »

Gauss/rail miniguns are a problem due to heat dissipation, even futuristic alien tech can't deal with this much heat.

A plasma minigun would be possible, but extremely expensive and not that practical - standard weaponry is good enough against standard infantry. The Blaster Launcher and plasma explosives in general are good enough to fill in the gaps.

tbh plasma weapons in atmosphere aren't really practical to begin with, even with alien tech involved. But that's a whole other debate.

What you could do, if you wanted to poke fun at the idea, is have a staff entry from the chief engineer/scientist. "We considered [gauss/rail/plasma/etc.] rotary weapons, but decided they were too expensive and impractical, even by our usual standards..."

I´d expect lasers not to have such a long range at all...
Even if you get the focus point modulation right (you can't just put a 30cm lens into a laser gun...) you´ll encounter air/dust etc on the way there, so lasers are mostly not really long range weapons.
also due strict focussing there is extreme heat on a small point, but no depth penetration.

RL laser ranges are pretty solid as long as the air's clear. But the problem is, well, the air needs to be clear. I doubt we'll see man-portable laser weapons for this reason more than anything; they'll likely be relegated to point-defense and anti-missile roles (which they're quite good at, as I understand, and where the range issue isn't as vital).

The various portrayals of such weapons in media is always fascinating. I recall lasguns in some 40K fiction - when they're not being laughed off as flashlights by fanbase memes - being described as leaving fairly large wounds- the initial energy blast ablates out the surface layers, leaving a wide but shallow sort of 'crater'.


Anyway, we're getting off-topic again...

22

The X-Com Files / Re: Weapon balance / meta

« on: November 03, 2019, 08:23:16 am »

On what distance are you engaging with the pistols?
Don't have shields yet...

Keep in mind when I say shields, I mean the full-size riot shields that take up one hand, not personal energy shields. As long as you have combat vests or tritanium vests, you can choose to give them a shield which improves their frontal armour by around 15-20 points or so. As such, a shield trooper is completely immune to 99% of incoming ballistic fire, and without the much higher penalties from the full-body armour.

Engagement range for shield troopers is around... I guess I'd say 12-15 tiles? The aimed mode is accurate out to 22 tiles too, but I primarily use snapshots as they're extremely cheap at only 18% TU and have a base accuracy of 80%.

Rookies get put into shield duty; they have a light, easy-to-handle gun and whilst they're considered expendable they're also well-protected and get plenty of opportunities to practice shooting at enemies. If they survive long enough (and so far, they have) they can be quite effective.

Honestly if I had the research done and enough ammo to spare I'd be issuing them laser or plasma pistols instead, but for now the blackops will have to do.

What do you do against aliens? Pretty sure it won't be BlackOps pistols... ^^

So far I'm early enough that I haven't skirmished with them very often, but for the most part the ones I do encounter are quite vulnerable to ballistics. I'm mostly trying to take captives at the moment though, especially engineers, so that means flashbangs, dartguns, and a lot of luck.

Man, it seems you fell in love with miniguns, so you can't see other options to do. And these options are exist. 
A lot of (especially inicial) weapons are useless indeed, but I think that is not a question of poor balance, but the question of variety. Isn't it cool, when you are trying this and trying that and become to the right and lovely tactics by your own?
Basing on my own experience I can't say that any type of weapon has the real and uncounter advantage.

My main philosophical idea: if you'll make everything useful, you'll make this useless at the same time. 

I think the fact we have Stats For Nerds makes it easier as well, because it allows us to make more informed decisions than the vanilla ufopaedia would. Things like rounds per mag, nonstandard range values (a very important factor; for instance the BlackOps SMG has much better effective ranges than the Mac10) and so on.

As for weapon types... maybe there's no clear overall 'winner' so to speak, but I'd say within certain brackets/groups there are undeniable best-in-class options. Early-game assault rifles/carbines for instance, I think the FAMAS is probably the best of the bunch - the AK is much too slow and the L85 not as accurate. They're then all largely made redundant by the blackops weapons, which can gradually be phased out in favour of energy weapons, and so on.

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The X-Com Files / Re: Weapon balance / meta

« on: November 03, 2019, 12:12:16 am »

Most of the time you´re facing weak enemies. Humans, Sectoids, Floaters etc., so its not about how much dmg you deal, but how many enemies a weapon can kill per turn.
Especially if you land right in the middle of them...

Boy are you gonna be in for an unpleasant surprise when you meet the Gazers...

I've generally not found saturating fire tactics particularly effective due to enemy dispersal, even in incredibly enemy-dense missions like Apocalypse Riots, Gang Wars, or Prison Breaks. Instead I've been opting for mid-low cost high-accuracy semi-automatics (black ops pistol pairs well with shields, for instance) backed up by one or two specialist weapons.

Whilst snipers are fairly mediocre early on, I think the auto-sniper shines as an example of snipers done right, in the right hands. The bonus accuracy and firepower from firing acc and reactions mean it's a real killer in the right hands, as my two specialist snipers have >200% aimed accuracy (so they can always hit targets beyond personal LOS, barring obstructions). Not only that, but the damage bonus means they essentially do double normal damage (giving them a 0-400% scale vs the baseline 0-200%).

Their burstfire turns - basically - into a rather expensive "delete enemy" button at closer ranges. That said, against soft targets I'd rather have pistols or autoshotguns for CQC.

I'm curious though; what do people prefer for nonlethal tactics? My teams use dart pistols in their QD holsters, as they have better range and accuracy than tasers and no need to close to melee like batons, but this has overhead with building ammo and researching the better ammo types.

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The X-Com Files / Re: Saving civilians

« on: October 27, 2019, 08:40:03 pm »

Yeah, it's called a dart pistol in your quickdraw slot.

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The X-Com Files / Re: Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.9e2: Summertime Lovin'

« on: October 24, 2019, 01:14:33 am »

Eh, maybe. But there are many other interesting weapons, I don't think the shotgun dominates that much.

Yeah, the CAWS' AP slugs are pretty beefy and accurate as soon as you get them, but the dedicated snipers you can get around the same time are a much better option for high-cost shooting because most of the good ones get the big damage bonuses for firing accuracy and have much better range.

You know would be really scary? AP slugs for the BlackOps Auto Shotgun.

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

« on: October 23, 2019, 09:43:59 pm »

Found some janky floating sand tiles on a desert map (highlighted with cursor for emphasis):

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

« on: October 21, 2019, 11:46:24 pm »

Probably not XCF-specific, but both kinds of wire fences around the small van/car parks in certain city maps (mostly featured in Cult of Apocalypse Jailbreak missions) seem to have some odd line of sight/fire break behaviour, especially at shallow angles.

Ed: the chain fences on the tropical village set seem to be really fucky too. like I can see through a broken fence but not shoot through it, even when force-firing.

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The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.9e2: Summertime Lovin'

« on: October 21, 2019, 09:52:48 pm »

Agreed, sounds fun.
(Actual design and then implementation would be tricky though...)

I think Meridian is playing around with something similar.

It's really not a good place for such suggestions, better visit the OpenXcom Extended subforum.

Yeah, in hindsight I probably should've done that at the time. So, I've made a thread for the ticker if anyone wants to throw in support or thoughts (ways it could be added on to/improved/etc.).

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OXCE Suggestions Archive / [SUGGESTION] Geoscape News Ticker

« on: October 21, 2019, 09:41:47 pm »

This came up in the general XCOMFILES discussion thread earlier, but something like the News Ticker from the 2012 remake could be a neat "little" addition for mods to hook into.

Simply put; in the Situation Room, there was a scrolling newsfeed underneath the geoscape that showed global panic levels (if you've ever watched any kind of live news you've probably seen a scrolling ticker) and events related to actual ingame events would occasionally scroll by. Events would be colour-coded blue-grey for neutral, green for good (you completed a mission, fulfilled a council request, etc.), or red for bad (aliens won a fight, you ignored a mission, etc.).

Some events could simply be unassociated filler, whilst others could be queued up by alien activity elsewhere in the world - potentially informing players of events outside their radar ranges without requiring them to constantly check the graphs screen.

So, along the top or bottom of the geoscape, something like the (crude) mockup attached;

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The X-Com Files / Re: UFO very very early

« on: October 21, 2019, 01:00:02 pm »

The main invasion won't start until a specific date (mentioned in your archives from the start, IIRC?) but the aliens have been peeking around for a very long time. We have abduction stories for a reason!

One of my favourite missions really early on though, was taking a Dragonfly out to raid a landed UFO (IIRC it was a two-level abductor). I did a smoke-grenade-heavy smash and grab, and managed to abduct a live Floater who spawned too close to my LZ. Unfortunately I didn't have Alien Containment yet, so the effort was wasted. But it was still a fun challenge and a very nonstandard mission by XCOM standards.