Messages

16

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: New experience award system / accuracy training system

« on: April 26, 2016, 02:11:59 am »

I'm still a bit iffy on grenade launchers, flamers and assault cannons training throwing as the default (I can understand why, to save making two arcing lists, but it doesn't make sense). There's plenty of ways of training throwing now, so I don't really think bows need any more help.

And for bravery training, it's fine. Want more self confidence in your ability to take on anything without whimping out? Turn up in a skimpy outfit, or nothing at all, and survive a few missions. By the end of it that gal won't be scared of anything. Boob-swing induced combat stress is very character building, even to the scaredy cats.

Q: Does the "first pellet" thing only apply to shotguns, or does it apply to auto-fire weapons too? And funny ones like flamers?

17

XPiratez / Re: The most satisfying thing you can do in this mod

« on: April 20, 2016, 05:10:08 am »

Yep. Blasts do get shaped (or nullified) by strong enough walls.

It's one of the many reasons I keep going on about the wonders of assault cannons. Like bows, but so much more useful.

One of the most satisfying things? Bouncing balls off walls, inside a ufo with no LoS, and killing a couple of enemies while remaining unscathed.

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XPiratez / Re: Mansion Mission Reports (Please Contribute)

« on: April 20, 2016, 04:36:51 am »

Ok, cool. 2x1 or 1x1 it is then. I'll do my research properly next time (like, actually play the mission rather than ruleset trawling).


edit: still a damn good gun. 50% stun damage chance might make it my ranged-hurty-baton of choice for a while. Like a spiked mace, but longer. I don't even remember it doing stun damage before. That's awesome. Kind of weird that the Linux SMG doesn't ever get PS rounds, but a stun chance makes it a great, cheap all-rounder. It looks as though virtually all cheap weapons do that now, but the Linux does it with 38 damage backing it to deal with armour/resistances. I guess my mind got set on what's "useful" too many versions ago, and I have to update my thoughts with what I've learnt since then.

19

XPiratez / Re: Mansion Mission Reports (Please Contribute)

« on: April 20, 2016, 03:57:25 am »

Haven't tried out the mission yet, but does SMGs include the Linux SMG? 38 damage and autofire standard (along with most things being relatively close) might make it a good fallback weapon that you're likely to be able to produce regardless of when the mission pops. Reasonable clip size too. As an early weapon, it seems to be good for if you're short of good pistols, or small/hitty mêlée weapons.


If I'm looking at the right weapon, the PPSH in the ruleset, it has STR_BAT_CAT_CARBINE on it, so it might be able to be taken for the mission.

20

XPiratez / Re: questions about item stats

« on: April 19, 2016, 06:02:36 am »

To take it that step further, load down the TU train with pre-primed grenades as you shuffle around, dropping them on the ground as you go (because it's cheap to do TU-wise for a decent bang).

See if you can drop a grenade beside each and every enemy first turn.

Laugh when reaction fire makes it all go horribly wrong and the whole lot goes nuclear.

21

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 18, 2016, 11:03:40 am »

STR_RUNT_CORPSE also appeared on the black market after my second downed ufo. Yep, lost a gal (and a parrot) already. I did however get 3 gauss pistols.

Zero $ sale..... She was worth something, dammit! About 25k for the next one all told
The next mission will need the pistols more than her though (large ufo, landed. Just got my prods, nothing else researched/produced. Wish me luck).

Edit: Nevermind.... Early guild security, with shotguns. Flamed, grenaded and even prodded a few. Not the right ones, but not a problem. Lotsa hellerium though. Yay.

22

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 18, 2016, 09:32:03 am »

This is probably deserving of an early-game tactics or research thread.

All I have to add is that all armour is worthwhile, as are all outfits. Starting with 20 all-round armour, and with all vendor scrap weapons being 30 damage or below, means that everything is a good boost from semi-survivable upwards. It might not be great against plasma/laser/gauss/explosive/grenades, but even 25-35 armour does amazing things against half of the early weapons you'll face. And you'll be facing at least a few of these enemies in most missions for a very long time.

I like the inventories now being side-grades, or at least something to think about for virtually any armour. Does it fit that gal's role?

Strength, TU and stamina are the most regularly upgraded stats with experience, so early armour really is a choice. And you've always got runt duds, brainer coats, gym suits or nude, really early on, so stats aren't a problem. No matter where your research goes.

Actual early armour doesn't need a huge boost due to the weakness of so many weapons, and it tends to immortalized gals against most things once you get up to "real armour". Nothing but the big guns will scratch them. Yet you've got homegrown or blackmarket options to ding the hell out of their's. But those early game options still look worthwhile using sometimes, depending on the gal and the role she's playing on the battlefield.

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XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 18, 2016, 06:53:11 am »

There are better "auto-have" researchable armours straight away. For stats or actual armour, even if it is a few research topics away.

I'll start another playthrough, but you might have just gotten RNG'd. Where did you start? While missions and factions are pretty random, having radar coverage of a few earth factions and plenty of cities does tend to help (afaik. probably very wrong. RNG again).


And yeah. On the bows, a 1-tile radius just makes <CTRL>shooting a square possible. Saves that whole "What capt'n? Arc? Yep! LoS too? What? Nah...." thing from happening with researchable (and thus apparently more useful) arrows. Just shoot beside them.

Also gives incendiary arrows plenty of "flare" value, as well as pinpoint smoking doors, pyramid-hill entrances, etc. 1-radius blast makes them a lot easier to use, for targeting or tactical use.

Like a mortar, but worse if you miss, because you might actually miss. But not as bad when you hit your own with explosives, and easier to use for fiddly stuff.


I'm pretty sure that's why all the other heroes like Hawkeye/Green Arrow. No unexpected deaths due to overpoweredness (unless he's using that specific arrow against them. Kryptonite/Hellerium-boosted WTF-arrow, etc).

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XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 18, 2016, 06:24:23 am »

I could see little AoEs from bows being legit. Smoke bombs aren't exactly high-tech, and a 1-radius blast would be tactically useful. Similarly to a low damage (but regularly hitting) explosive, but only at 15-25 damage or so. Maybe less. Same with incendiary, at even lower damage (10-12? Yet it lays a small light/fire patch).

I'm cool with the whole Hawkeye/Green Arrow toolkit warrior. And with the unrealistic "unloading" of normal ammo, "loading" a toolkit arrow, and doing "that thing", it might even be fun. And hard enough to do that even if some of these things were low-tier research, it's fine, as it just gives more versatility to the weapons. Plus pack space used, and TU's wasted, just so you can "use the right arrow for the job". You might even "load" more than one of that particular type at a time.

But bows shouldn't be able to do everything without costs or hassles. Or stand on the toes of other weapons that already do those things, but have costs associated with them. Low-tier or high.

There's plenty of ways to play xpirates, and there's always ways to come back from defeat, as long as you discover them. There is vendor trash too, but that's understandable. Those weapons can kill "them", but your gals aren't just taking on basic researchers all the time, and those weapons were designed to keep their own populations in line. You're taking on the whole world, including the star gods, and taking hostages along the way, all to both profit and win.

You're probably not going to do it all with bows. Having an option to be versatile with one isn't a problem. But there's weapons and weapons.......

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XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.98C - 17 Apr - Mad Mansion Missions!

« on: April 18, 2016, 05:10:40 am »

Now that bows use quivers, but require ammo as such, does that let me make the assumption that there's going to be some Rambo/Predator style stuff going on? Explosive arrows, flare arrows, Smoke, etc?

I, myself, am totally against it. That's an Assault Cannon's job. But I can see the use of such things. The Bow's accuracy is way too high if it gets implemented though (unless the explosions are tiny and weak). ACs/GLs do have the chance of it all going horribly wrong on the low-tech, early-tier end of things. With the correct results of it doing so.

Pebble-booms from bows might be strategically useful, but shouldn't replace actual KaBooms in gameplay.

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XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 17, 2016, 02:50:06 am »

"Oh, so you're selling out your people and the technology they have for a bit of cash?"

"Yes. I also heard you've got a woman with 3 boobs......"


One-off "faction" items and missions might be cool. Even if it's a standard mission where you have to kill/capture everyone (with that faction item being assured in loot), it would represent someone setting up their own side, but you still doing the dirty work.

The item is more-or-less like a gun almanac, just more specific, with a bit of work to do to get the second (and useful) part of it.

There's lots of stuff that could be done with this idea.

27

XPiratez / Re: questions about item stats

« on: April 17, 2016, 02:32:06 am »

If you want to train bravery for a specific gal, just set her to nude for a mission or two. As long as the mission isn't really short, the extra combat stress will eventually panic her, which she'll recover from, and train the stat. Even +20 bravery is worth it from a couple of missions, more stats if she actually does a bit of stuff. Hazing rookies is great.

It's a pretty good idea to not give her pre-primed grenades or anything though, in case deaths berserk her. If she just sits in the Bonny and throws down necessary items, she'll still panic eventually, but she's doing something kind of useful. Then again, great stamina kind of begs to be given a mêlée/energy using weapon of some sort. And does stats even better after a few swings.

I'll have to try out the flags more often. I never use them, but they might fit great with my style of play.

28

XPiratez / Re: Bootypedia (aka the wiki)

« on: April 16, 2016, 03:12:14 am »

Everything looks great and it was exactly what was needed. Thanks for all the hard work and time you took to do this, ivandogovich.

29

XPiratez / Re: How do you use Night Vision to your advantage?

« on: April 14, 2016, 07:30:21 am »

Just remember how much smoke cuts into sight, and realize that it cuts into theirs' more. An advantage in itself. 9 vision through smoke is about 3-4 tiles afaik.

Plus, once you've thrown a bit of smoke, some flares, and torched a few things, you've definitely got the advantage.

Lights on or off is situational. But it can be used to your advantage.

Smoke + "worse vision than your gals" is a walkover. They'll only see you close-up with lights on, and not all at without them. Good for when you know where they are, and they're scary.

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XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 14, 2016, 05:24:14 am »

I don't see a huge difference. Everything on the Bonny isn't on the Blackmarket screen, thus you're not using it if it's sellable.

You get notified when you can't restore Bonny socks straight after a mission.

Is it just another BM screen you're asking for, with less stuff that you probably should have already sold on it?

Fair enough, you want some base stocks, but this isn't a huge difference.