Messages

61

Open Feedback / Re: Increasing psionic strength beyond the point, where the skill is 100?

« on: October 13, 2017, 03:48:57 pm »

Per mission.

62

Open Feedback / Re: Increasing psionic strength beyond the point, where the skill is 100?

« on: October 13, 2017, 03:34:44 pm »

I think the same way. ;-) But I'm not really a code insider, so I hope someone can shed some light on this.

63

Open Feedback / Re: Increasing psionic strength beyond the point, where the skill is 100?

« on: October 13, 2017, 01:54:51 pm »

Thanks. But that's not exactly what I meant. Apparently, the limits work, just like intended, as an upper limit. But I noticed, that the psi skill having reached the limit, also causes the strength not to increase any more. Eben when the strength hasn't reached the limit, yet. And the question is, whether this is normal or some sort of bug (side effect of the test of the skill on the strength check).

64

Open Feedback / Increasing psionic strength beyond the point, where the skill is 100?

« on: October 11, 2017, 08:43:48 pm »

I'm not sure, whether I'm doing it wrong but I noticed something: There's that option, that psionic strength can increase, same as skill. However, afaics, the strength doesn't seem to increase any more, once the soldiers skill has already reached 100 or more. So I got soldiers with let's say 100 skill and 95 strength but using them doesn't increase their strength any more. Is this intended behavior?

65

Builds & Ports / Re: OpenXcom .deb packages and PPA repository for ubuntu linux

« on: September 23, 2017, 07:23:52 pm »

I second that!

66

Playthroughs / Re: Which is worse? Standard Terror Mission or Terror Ship Crashed?

« on: September 21, 2017, 12:52:25 pm »

Well, once you have plasma beams, they all fall after contact. It's more a problem of reaching them in the first place. In the early game you simply don't have anything, that could run 4800 knots an hour. So you will only catch them close to landing, which leaves only a small time frame, where you have a chance in the early game.. When playing without save scumming, that becomes the real problem. With save scumming you will have an idea of when they will appear and camp you the interceptors at their landing zone.

67

Playthroughs / Re: Which is worse? Standard Terror Mission or Terror Ship Crashed?

« on: September 20, 2017, 11:45:05 am »

Actual terror missions have one big drawback: Every killed civilian will give you minus points. OK, you get plus points for saved ones. But usually you don't really affect that part of the outcome (unless you lift off right after landing, which will be even better than not reacting at all). So you can end up with almost no points for your efforts, as all civilians were killed with no fault of your own. This can't happen on terror ship missions and to add to that: More loot. The ship itself holds a lot to be sold. =) And even if you don't give a damn about any loot and just can't afford to lose you soldiers at this particular time, terror ship mission is better: Just let it lay there to rot and forget about it. You can't really do that with terror missions, as not reacting will give you a hunkin big amount of minus points. A shot down UFO has already contributed a few points by shooting it down. It won't do any harm to let it vanish on its own. So if I actually have the choice to shoot down the terror ship or let it start a terror mission, I'll take shooting it down every time. I even do that on the first month, when I can. Two Interceptors with 2 fully loaded Avalanche launchers can do the trick.

68

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 09, 2017, 08:57:00 am »

I think psionic LoS makes the early and mid game far easier, as it only brings major disadvantages to the AI.

69

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 07, 2017, 02:18:01 pm »

Well, for one thing: Your rate of triggering reaction fire is smaller. More likely to survive... =)

70

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 07, 2017, 12:27:50 am »

Well, as I said: when it comes to reaction fire triggering. That's where the pistol is strong. Especially considering the lack of information about the TUs and Reaction of the enemy. The spread is less of a problem and the reaction triggering is definitely in your favor. Or another way put: You stand in front of the door of a large scout, three men. Run in, take 2-3 shots, run out. you simply can't do that as easily with rifle snap. OK, that's where auto is strong. But only once. After the first salvo, you are usually out of luck, especially if the guys missed and have to get out of there, before it's the aliens turn. Running out is usually out of the question then.  With pistols you might even set a fourth and fifth shot, before there is a chance of retaliation by reaction fire. Do that with three men, all of them getting in 2 fields, do the job and get the hell out of there. In my experience, retreating again works not as well with rifles.

71

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 06, 2017, 09:42:02 pm »

As mentioned before, the pistol gets very powerfull when reaction triggering is considered. Simply put: Where you set one, maybe two reaction shots with the rifle, you can blast around four times with 100 % TUs, as it only takes 18% TUs. And one thing hasn't even been mentioned: It is not too unlikely, that you actually need more than one shot to down the opponent. That can make rifles less of a preferred weapon, especially in CQC. Most strongly, when the target is so close that you can simply run over and make it a sieve by the time it might react.

72

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 06, 2017, 01:23:07 pm »

Well, I always found auto- and snap shots with any weapon to be too dangerous, if you had to snipe from behind your own scout.

73

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 06, 2017, 10:48:32 am »

The pistol and basic rifle are complementary weapons. Of the two, the basic rifle is hands down the better damage dealer at close range due to the auto shot. The pistol on the other hand is the superior snapshot weapon. It is the fastest snapshot weapon in the game and is just as accurate. Damage wise they are not that different. Both are effective against the enemies they are effective against (sectoids, floaters, snakemen) and ineffective against enemies they aren't (pretty much everything else ).

The short of it is: if you like to use snapshots (and by extension reaction shots), the pistol's king. The rifle for auto.

Well, that depends on how your playstyle and situation is. You can do everything with the rifle (I know, I've played that way a long time) in early game, because it has a good chance of hitting a target (saves ammo and reaction of enemies). But entering a large scout with pistols can prove to be far more effective, especially against the early opponents Sectoids and Floaters. However using Scout & Snipe tactics on the battle field will most likely not work well with pistols. ;-) Every weapon has its use, but I also tend to play a bit more conservative: Rifles & Pistols (see above), bit later only laser rifles. I also went on playing with them trough the entire game on, but I prefer Plasma Pistol and Plasma Sniper Rifle complementing each other. On CQC Plasma Caster can be also fun. But the latter two are mod weapons...

74

Released Mods / Re: HWP Tractors another reimagining of the Coelacanth for XCOM

« on: September 04, 2017, 10:11:42 pm »

Finally! This would have been a great means to get rid of all those shrubs! =) =) =)

75

Offtopic / Re: Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

« on: September 03, 2017, 05:09:34 pm »

1: Positioning of bases: I wouldn't take to much consideration into it during mid- and late game. But especially for the starting base: I wouldn't place it somewhere very remote, if I where you. AFAIK, there's one challenge, a player played: Playing with starting base on Hawaii. =) No, seriously, in the beginning, Afrika, Europe, Asia are all good, as there are plenty of nations around. In mid game it's more a priority of getting all UFOs on radar. Still, a few will slip through. But once you have covered all the continents/poles, you have only very little possibility of not finding out about their actions. The isles are a bit of a problem, as they are low priority, if you want to cover as much land mass as you can. They tend to build bases there eventually, and you will not notice them right away.
3: I don't think, there's any difference. AFAIK, there's no distinction of soldiers being left handed or right handed.
4: If the smoke reaches enough height, I think so. I am however not sure what happens, if the smoke is only on the bottom level, if this makes any difference to flying units.
5: Units standing on a tile in fire during the end of the round will either take damage or even be set on fire. AFAIK, incendiary ammo does a base amount of damage on impact (dmg starts not with 0 as the 0-200 rule dictates), but I might have understood that one wrong. I never use it...
6: I think so. You can hide behind it, if the cover is high enough. On the other hand, that also prevents you from seeing the rest or aiming at it. But yes, you can take cover like this. The biggest advantage however, is the increase of accuracy while kneeling.
7: Yes, you need line of sight for mind probes as well, if you use this mod.