Messages

16

XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

« on: December 10, 2015, 09:32:56 pm »

Yeah, i wasn't pointing fingers, just pulled general representing ideas and developed on that base.
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That's what i am doing right now, trying to figure out the way to equip the gals. I just read somewhere more about 2H vs 1H weapons. I noticed that only on hammer, as its specifically said there (and few one-handed guns), but then i realized that many other weapons are actually 2H  and should be equipped in a N/A + weapon fashion for higher accuracy, right ? Might be kinda missing from booty for starting players. I catched a glimpse of some note about 3-armed mutants, but i guess that isnt any of the gals.

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XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

« on: December 10, 2015, 08:58:53 am »

It just makes your experience much less relevant for discussion

... cheaters are just a waste of players; they will get little to none satisfaction from playing the mod it took me so much work to make, and then can say nothing meaningful about the experience. .... just cheats himself out of most of the pleasure from playing it ...

To feel completely overwhelmed, to be completely lost and unsure of things

I am pretty sure none of the questions was affected by the money part and frankly, doing so just showed ties between parts of the game i couldn't test in "new battle" feature - not worrying about base, money, whatever. I know how work and reward come together, thats not a new concept in live or playing. With all that money i wouldn't be worried about how much things cost, how should i save fuel etc. I am the one that has to decide that and i am more than capable of doing so even with 30M cash at hand - refer to previous post. (Funny thing is, the slavery question which is first question of this thread, got me wondering what the tech tree looks like.) The fact that we are discussing this on game that isnt long time top10 and its offspring to rewrite the said game and mod of that offspring to change the game's feel makes pretty clear that we are kinda fans of the game - in a hardcore notion of that. But the risk of me dropping out off the mod was (lets face it, i did have time to evaluate it for myself) real, whether you like it or not.

Granted, to ease the game with money isnt type of thing you consider something else, but that enabled me to do things described in previous parts. I have yet to play the mod for real, and i will give it a shot AFTER i've seen chunk of it. After all someone did the work to make it like that.
What i am frowning upon and why i am taking time to write this, is that changing aspect of game (and it doesn't matter if one way or the other) is something modding community is frowning upon, that's just juicy to me.

I'm not sure what the problem is? You can tell from the number you just showed how much stuff a gal carries

The problem is i dont have it there. I got this picture from my OXC, not from OXCE - XPiratez. And not sure if its part of the exe or just enabled somewhere.
edit : found it in advanced options, ty
edit2 : small typos

edit3 : what is the slot QD about ? what is it used for ?

18

XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

« on: December 09, 2015, 09:53:43 pm »

Lets just handle the cheating part first, as that seems to be the issue around here. I am new to the mod and i dont want to spend hours moving troops around field to see what the game looks like and failing on inability to maintain some production income to see if i want to use the mod. I do use selective playtesting over repetition - aka ignoring part of the game (mod) i am not interested in right now to focus on parts that i would like to know more about. One of them was tech tree, other was general combat and some basic mechanics. All that is hinted in introduction, first part of support paragraph and conclusion. I dont feel like being overwhelmed by stuff at once is a good way to be introduced to a new thing and general procedure of teaching supports that. That also covers why i gave myself cash, got so fast to slavery, ignored melee combat and didnt micromanage money part.

Explosives. Big explosives. Think like Panzerfaust explosives. Or mortars. or RPGs.

Got it. I was trying to use stuff i have cos money seems to be issue. Thats why i was stucked with "assualt cannon" and some "black powder bombs". I wasnt packing those two items anyway, it was totally "i didnt pack right" moment.

Explosives or hammer.

Good, will employ one or two gals having backpacked or equiped hammer just for that, tried fusion torch too, but seems to have really expensive clip to make it into normal equip for build breaching. I also stumbled upon

4 Breaching Charge and 5 Tranquilizer by Civilian

just dont know if its in game and accessible early on.

That's a cyberdisc

except for the run a lot for stamina part. That... that has never been a thing in X-Com.

Sure. I wasnt expecting to have the same name as in classic xcom, so i was merely describing it, my bad.
Also totally wrong on the stats part. Also my bad.

If you are talking about WEIGHT

Exactly. When i get to loading outfit, i dont have access to bootypedia anymore or even in mission if i want to exchange stuff not to lose TUs on round start - see picture in attached files.

Can you please specify which Black Market items lack Bootypedia entries? I think there shouldn't be such items.

The problem was different. I think that i was able to buy "medical supplies" before knowing them. aka i bought them, then researched to know what they are used for. i was just checking if that is true or i simply overlooked something, as buying stuff for research would be new.

As for the plane wreck blowing up, it's a "feature" introduced in the latest release and it will disappear from the next one, so you were fairly unlucky to see that.

sadly i dont have any picture, but it was standard ufo hull with real-plane-like torso (with stairs going to upper decks) tossed all around the ufo . and some barrels around and something i considered wings, but i think it was actually oil. looked pretty steelly and probably the shape was just coincidence. i am assuming that from the time and type of explosion and that the "wing" was gone after that. anyway it was quite surprising to encounter such thing first time.

Also i might have missplaced my question, if this is more suited for  general question thread feel free to move it there, ty.

19

XPZ Strategy/Tactics / Re: Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

« on: December 09, 2015, 09:15:01 am »

just downloaded the mod and used it for about 4-5 hours and now i have few questions :

1) on my first play on easiest i had first pogrom. everything went fine until i ran into armored car that massacred the gals so fast no pleasure house can deliver me substitutes. what do you use against such high armor types in the very beginning ?

2) on next play, i gave myself a bit of advantage of money just to last longer than few days and see whats the game about. i made some progress and managed to shot down couple of shippings. now on one with academics and highlanders (?) on desert i accidently shot probably oil tank. but to my suprise there was like 5 minutes of kaboom over what i previously expected to be broken wing. was that leaked oil ? does it destroy people/items when doing so ?

after that i missed few ships, as i am unable to catch them and/or afraid i will burn nuclear fuel for trying to catch them. but then pogrom appeared. i have seen the new building types and layouts before, but now actually playing them for the first time is kinda pain to me. having to run few stocks with stairs on opposite sides and multiple doors on the way made my devoted gal searching the house do that whole my battlescape time till my advance crew made it to other side of map, killed bunch of non-mutants (ehm). that also rised few needs and questions :

3) what is early accessible weapon for making holes into the buildings ? i didnt have much success with shottys and cant really blow things up on pogroms. some all around use weapon with ability to make wall holes ?

4) i managed to find hidden plasmadisc on the very far end of map, but many mutants tend to run there. i tried to stun them, do they still count as dead by my hand when i end with them stunned ?

5) standard abilities and stat training applies ? aka run a lot for stamina ?

6) there are some items that i can buy on black market but i dont know what they are. there is no bootypedia record for them. i suspect i need to buy it first, brain it and then i will know what they are for, is that right ?

7) slavery produces storage space, but slaves go where ? into storage itself ? or barracks ? are slaves endless expansion of storage ?

i think this covers my question so far, any piece of advice is welcomed. i just didnt want to jump into mod that would play sp:waw type, still not sure this one is or isnt that.

edit :
7.9) what i am missing a lot is pre-battle equip with no info of how loaded the gal actually is. or is it not important ? do i need to turn it on somewhere ?

20

Programming / Re: Aiming algorithm

« on: March 08, 2015, 11:40:06 am »

If that was implied before, I just had urgent need to point it out explicitly. No other intent behind it. Tbh from what i have seen so far this idea has support, with some adjustment for "cover" supporters.

21

Programming / Re: Aiming algorithm

« on: March 08, 2015, 12:57:46 am »

I would like to point out one more thing. I dont particularly like the idea of aimed shot getting special treatment.
The difference between auto, snap and aim shots (when ignoring amount of projectiles) is in TU needed and chance to hit with the specific shot. Those two are interchangeable in meaning - you can't expect great chances to hit when pointing gun in general direction of enemy and pressing the trigger in split of second and you also can't expect low TU usage when you need to aim carefully and guess whats target going to do next, predict his movement.
I dont like the idea volutar's proposition would be applied only to aimed shot. If anything, you are always going for the most visible part whether aiming or just spraying. The part where we differ the shots is in TU/chance to hit, not the aiming points. That part is already covered by hit/miss system. If chances for auto and snap needs to be adjusted, so be it. Or if only agents are affected by artificial number reduction for some shots. Or the larger/narrower deviation. Your call.

22

Programming / Re: Aiming algorithm

« on: March 03, 2015, 07:06:25 am »

Its reasonable to believe that alien or operative is aiming at the area that can provide best hit ratio. It wont make the obstacle hiding obsolete, it will make it more difficult to find suitable one.
But i am little worried what that means on higher levels of difficulty and gameplay wise. There is already a lot of smoke screen usage, would that make players consider minimal movement or bringing artificial walls ?

23

Playthroughs / Re: Let's Play OpenXcom: Up Close and Personal!

« on: February 22, 2015, 07:58:01 am »

Just doing my first ethereal base : apart from them using blaster bombs all over the place, its good run so far. Manufactured few improved flashbangs and sectopods are going down like candles in the sun. They should get some stun protection :X

24

Released Mods / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: February 16, 2015, 07:15:17 am »

That was the idea. Aka current gradient (displayed in last border images) is analogy of say sectoid ufopaedia entry and the cushion-like item under the medal with uniform color of the color code under the medal is analogy of sectoid autopsy ufopaedia entry.

25

Released Mods / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: February 15, 2015, 10:02:31 pm »

Must agree with volutar on this one. At first glimpse the border version looked better for me, but after checking with game it doesnt really need it at all. Just the border of medals alone did look weird, thats why I picked border version first time. Does the background of medal still work as color code ? Why not make it like some display cushion ?

26

Playthroughs / Re: Let's Play OpenXcom: Up Close and Personal!

« on: February 15, 2015, 09:11:17 pm »

Actually you wanna shot not in the rear Armor but in the front, the sensors are weak to Laser.

Dont you need headshot for this to work ? I do remember no problems with sectopods in my normal plays (aka laser rifle snap&aim spam) but this time around its like tickling the mountain. Still need to discover better strategy other than removing one quarter of the map per sectopod

Also, just finished watching bunch up to #83. Best exit of XCOM craft so far

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Released Mods / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: February 13, 2015, 09:08:13 am »

given the game is played in 1999, citing Obama from 2009 seems kinda extraterrestrial (remove the year ?)
also typo at didn't - didn?t at the very same medal

28

Playthroughs / Re: Let's Play OpenXcom: Up Close and Personal!

« on: February 06, 2015, 10:48:31 pm »

...
I'm curious as to the exact type of grenades you were using in your first encounter: standard HE? or HE Packs?  did you try alien grenades, stun grenades (from stun bomb conversion) or flashbangs (the improved flashbangs are pretty strong and may be able to do it)?
...

Normal buyable grenades and alien ones - pretty much 1:1 ratio, and HE only (no packs with blaster bombs). I have not yet researched any stun mechanics beyond zapper (and probably wont be using flashbangs or stun grenades as they are too easy to deliver, unlike the small launcher where you need to hit perfectly or have obstacle behind target close enough)
What was really dishearting was that laser try next time around, I had that one heavy laser and few laser pistols and it didnt go well too.

Also, funny sidenote : when trying to find the sectopods attributes, i bumped into article on UFOPaedia which ended with

Now you can go back to having nightmares about Sectopods

and I was like : What ? WHAT ?! 

29

Playthroughs / Re: Let's Play OpenXcom: Up Close and Personal!

« on: February 06, 2015, 08:25:32 pm »

Hey, currently at episode #40 so this could get answered down the road, but I have to ask anyway.
I am loosely playing similar scenario and got ethereal terror mission recently. Right of the Skyranger two sectopods were in sight so retreating wasnt an option, it was a must. Just for the sake of "how would it play" I tried it. Let me tell you : unloaded like 20 grenade mix with about 15 HE on single sectopod, had to cheat some mind probe, its research into save to realize that the single sectopod was down to half the hp and rear armor was damaged by 10.
I was glad that I didnt go on that mission, but that forced me into researching the heavy laser which I didnt realize it's long-range, but it was equiped anyway for close-combat the sectopods if we meet them again. Well, now I got landed terror ship with ethereals again, sectopods all over the place. When this was discovered, heavy laser was used (mary-go-round-the-skyranger-landing-gear with one sectopod) and it was disaster. After few rounds I gave up. I tried the blaster packs, but as I was using them first time and the soldiers are pretty low on strength, the result to veteran blaster pack user should be obvious. It did the job, but the guys felt like suicide bombers. And landed UFO just lost its value (well, the ground level was nonexistant after this little skirmish).
So, how do you deal with them ? Is stun damage way to go ?

small edit : i just realized i could have timed those packs better, it wasnt obvious to me at the time of usage :/

30

Released Mods / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: February 02, 2015, 03:39:07 am »

I like the old ones (Dioxine) as they fit the UFO theme more. If the graphics is being updated to higher resolution, maybe there would be a better place for Volutar's gradient.