Messages

31

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 14, 2016, 03:54:20 pm »

I usually follow the very large UFO with skyranger then take it out when it lands. I seem to find everything except Commanders on the larger UFOs (but I am playing a different mod- so this could be mod specific).
Albeit, I seem to remember doing same on vanilla (the only rank that was only found in Alien Basses was Commander).
I would imagine Alien Bases being a nightmare without PA.

edit: actually now you mentioned I think i too had to attack alien base with personal Armour for the alien reproduction for alien containment. I think i found food and entertainment on larger ufos but i still had to go in without PA for the containment prereq's
Yeah... suffered a few casualties...nightmare without PA.

32

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 14, 2016, 03:33:09 pm »

Oh LOLLOLOLOLOL!!!!..... That Alien Base mission was disaster (wont spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen ep19).

I think you need better teamwork/gear. For example you send Zyzyfer to area around Alien control room (which probable see's most activity), by himself- pew pew... his dead

Teamwork, you need to work in pears as a minimum (use leap-frog tactic if needed). Speaking of teamwork you need bigger team, personally I wouldn't attack alien base without at least 14 elite troops  in power armour- but in order to get elite troops you will need to stop them from dying, did I say POWER ARMOUR!!!
This is why I don't use tanks- personally only leave tanks lying around for base defense missions, any tank in a team means you aren't getting exp. for up to 1-4 rookies who have potential to be pro one day. (later use Avenger which gives much more troop slots to attack alien bases- this is where you can employ some tanks if u want as there is plenty of room).

Did I mention PA- I don't bother attacking Alien Bases without it- I'll just make do with hunting UFO's/doing terror missions (you need to increase scientist to at least 150 by now- what are you in March/April i think!?), you need science for better equipment- You're lucky it wasn't a Muton/Ethereal base.

Your overall wearing scrubs just wont cut it, you could attack the base again but expect heavy casualties. Train up 14 elite troops get PA. Then take down Alien bases. In the mean time milk the supply ships for resources.
I personally rush PA- with PA I'd say about 2/3-3/4 shots (in front armour), wont end in a death particularly as your troops get a bit of health (any serious wounds are healed with medi-kits), the soldier is restrained to the sickbay for a few days-weeks (but is not killed and his exp. continues to grow).
Of course the whole point is not to get your guys shot in first place- but sometimes no matter how careful one plays an ailen still gets through- so its nice relief when the guy in PA survives with some wounds (even better if unscratched).

33

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 12, 2016, 03:49:43 pm »

You should really stop doing so many night missions (due to the 9:20 squares vision differences between xcom operatives and aliens), this puts you in extreme disadvantage.
Flares= 19 square diameter lighting, therefore you need to throw flares 19 squares apart in every direction (not counting diagonals as lighting is circular which results placing flares even closer), to cover every square (which is a bit complicated/messy and you're going to miss squares), and any square missed puts you at the significant disadvantage as mentioned.
Fort his reason I personally avoid night missions (this means ignoring UFO that has landed instead of risking night mission). All other encounters can always be done during day time.

Also be careful of the way you use smoke. After the initial smoke cover as you breach the transporter during turn 2. Smoke should be put between you and any unexplored direction- I usually go about 10 squares away- so in this way your men aren't inside the smoke taking smoke damage (if you have unexplored squares to the sides then you need to throw more smoke grenades to cover those sides.

There is exception to this rule- that is any xcom agent that for whatever reason is exposed can simply drop a smoke grenade (this only takes 6TU).
Point being DONT leave you scouts exposed (ever), this over time will result in a lot of unnecessary/cheap deaths. Sometimes (rarely), you can do everything well and an Alien will still get through and make the kill- not much can be done about that- what you don't need is a cheap deaths to add to your tally- veterans become very valuable as they become super soldiers (i usually get a few soldiers with over 100+ reaction stat as I approach end game).

Speaking of Reaction fire. Your men didn't react... neither did his backup (which got him killed), because they both didn't have enough time units left (you left them about 1/3 TU's which means the 60 or so reaction stat will be reduced by 2/3 or 20  (from memory I think the aliens have around 90 reaction stat depending on rank), so 20 reaction is not going to cut it (even if alien moves a little).

Besides smoke cover another maneuver (slow but useful particularly inside UFOs/alien bases), is leapfrogging (for this you need two high reaction men). One man is positioned in crouch position with full TUs (he hasn't moved- he is ready to react to any incoming aliens). The other guy leapfrogs past a few squares in front and scouts, if nothing is spotted returns and crouches 1-2 squares in front (slightly to the side), of the guy who hasn't moved. If alien comes in range the hope is the guy that hasn't moved will react fire and kill the alien (who had to move during ALIENS turn to come in the 20 square visual range or make that corner, so is in slight disadvantage), before the alien kills the leap frogging guy. The next turn their roles reverse.

34

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 05, 2016, 02:24:58 pm »

Thanks mate, glad you are enjoying the video series.

Interested in seeing more of your play style, would you consider doing a recording or two when you next play so I can see that in action? Not a full series, just a mission or two.

I will try doing a mission (we will see), I am afraid it will take about a week to upload thanks to Australian upload speeds comparable to Burkina Faso.
The Australian Government should be ashamed of themselves!!!...& we call ourselves a "developed country", more like developing country.

ps. Hurry up already with your next video I am having withdrawal symptoms. XDDD

35

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 03, 2016, 03:44:23 pm »

Kudos to you on that night mission (Ep12), & doing it without casualties. I personally would have flattened all the buildings with HEs (but I guess that is boring way), going door to door certainly makes for more suspense.
Speaking of human grenades over HEs (i use x2 dedicated grenadiers with +35 strength; reaction 50+), distance isn't really an issue  particularly after a few missions.
As my scouts gain strength I also start supplying them with HEs. The damage is well worth it for the extra strength it takes to throw over grenades.

I also use different squad setup to traditional sniper-scout setup, one major thing i do differently is I don't use tanks on missions (only leave some lying around for base defense), as 4 scouts are much more valuable (personal opinion here), over x1 tank particularity as they become universal super soldiers.

I am also very picky regarding rookies, firing/hiring happens very often within the first weeks in particular. I use x1 sniper and x1 heavy on any given team the rest are scouts and must have starting reaction +50 (even my Grenadiers must meet this prerequisite- as grenadiers get most kills their firing accuracy improves very fast and are usually the first to hit FA 100 and they do it very quickly at which point they become scouts & I rotate in new Grenadiers).
SO alot of  recruits (due to not meeting the +50 reaction stat get fired during the initial screening process).

Also it must be the mod you're playing but I am pretty sure vanilla xcom didn't stack radars; but I dunno maybe openxcom/the mod does (so I tend to use x1 of each small/large radar instead of building multiple large radars), once I get hyper=wave decoder I dismantle the large/small radars.

WOW long post...anyways looking forward to more episodes.  XDDD

36

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 01, 2016, 09:06:34 pm »

Heh, the PSI should separate the boys from the real men (I usually dismiss the PSI weak guys)...vanilla PSI turns this game upside down.

37

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: September 30, 2016, 08:25:21 am »

Nice use of smoke cover in last mission (ep10).
AND GO! me XDDD got a few kills there on my rookie debut XDDD (*btw try not to get me killed pls).

Also try to avoid night missions (particularly night terror missions), those usually don't end well. It's a bit cheesy but if you get a terror mission at night you can keep it targeted with interceptors/skyranger and as long as the terror site is targeted (by something), it wont disappear....then do the mission come day break.

38

Released Mods / Re: [FULL MOD] Awesome Guns (updated 5th September 2016)

« on: September 28, 2016, 10:08:27 pm »

Zyzyfer, thank you for playing Awesome Guns. This modification is designed for better balance, more excitement during the game and beautiful graphic, especially for conventional weapon.

Also, thank you for sharing your ideas. Auto-Cannon is a difficult weapon and how you understand, this is a handyman weapon. I will test and check your proposed param as soon as possible. Maybe you know, that snap shoot for auto-cannon and converted plasma cannon has been implemented just in Grand Release (1.3). It was necessary for reaction fire (see this topic).

I have considered the reaction fire without snap shot situation, but maybe the AC/PC shouldn't have reaction fire, and instead make up for this disadvantage in other areas.

Personally would like to see a conventional weapon that could shred through a Sectopod/Muton in one burst (as long as you can get into point blank range-while risking reaction fire from aliens), but far from being OP; takes a lot of TUs to fire (maybe make tuAuto=60), cannot react fire, & is near useless/extremely inaccurate at longer distances (high dropoff). Basically a high risk-reward weapon.

I can just imagine trying to sneak up on a Sectopod/Muton/Cyberdisc from behind while still trying to leave enough TUs to fire the thing while attempting to avoid reaction fire XDDD.
The AC would also come in handy while in close quarters such as inside a UFO.

Would add more tactical play into game (& less reliance on high explosives). As it stands there is really little point in using the AC as specialising with the HC/HE/shotgun/rocket launcher dose things better.

39

Released Mods / Re: [FULL MOD] Awesome Guns (updated 5th September 2016)

« on: September 25, 2016, 09:10:32 am »

Really enjoying your mod for past 1 week. I really like the way you balanced weapon range/dropoff and your many other ideas you have implemented (particularly enjoyed your tuned launcher idea- albeit i think it was about April before I could bring down my first UFO with Raven interceptor and tuned stingray launcher/laser cannon (maybe it was also because I am playing nightmare mode)- had to resort following UFOs with skyranger until UFO lands and doing terror missions to get by.
One of my pet peeves was how the conventional weapons were obsolete from the get go (this mod certainly addresses this issue adequately.

Albeit the Auto-Cannon needs some loving (right now it just isn't worth using the weapon- seems to perform like a jack of all trades without being particularly good at anything), maybe improving its ammo AP ability to 40x9; I-ammo to 48x5; HE-ammo to 42x5, decreasing accuracy to 30%, increasing dropoff=4 and maybe giving it slightly more range (24-28), and removing snap shot would make it work more like a large mini-gun from the fallout series (which is what I always imagined the AC to be), would give it some life too.

Anyways thanks for the great mod, I'll probably post more comments once/if I manage to defeat the alien menace or die trying!!! XDDD

40

Playthroughs / Re: Soldier Roles and Equipment layouts

« on: September 23, 2016, 07:54:11 pm »

My team layout:

x1 Sniper (+60 FA);

x1 HC (+30 str; +60 FA);

x1 RL (+35 str; +65 FA);

x2 Grenadier (+30 str; +70 TA; High Explosives);

x9 Scouts (+50 Reaction stat; using pistol/shotgun; High Explosives; smoke grenade/flare).

41

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: September 23, 2016, 07:03:17 pm »

I've been messing about with AWESOME GUNS MOD for a week and I must say it does a well done job with the range and accuracy drops.

Pistols, shotguns, rifles etc. seem to perform as they should- different type of firearms excel at a different distances- shotguns/auto cannons for short; pistols, rifles, assault rifles etc. for short-med; & sniper rifles for long range etc...
But at same time (even with sniper rifles), its not overdone like vanilla whereby you come to a point you can kill at any distance using auto shot; from across the map even (and the aliens on higher levels never missed from anywhere on map).
The mod does a good job at making sure there is no single firearm that is king, they all have their advantage/disadvantages, and even conventional human weapons become viable till the end of the game with the right techs...LOVING the MOD!!!

42

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: September 21, 2016, 05:30:21 am »

I use High Explosives (the human grenades sucks). Each scout equipped with a pistol, multiple smoke grenades, and one primed HE on belt for emergencies. I also use a dedicated grenadier and usually tagged by his side the ammo mule that carries extra HEs & rockets for my rocket launcher guy. 
I don't bother putting HEs on snipers as they are usually too far away from front.
HEs will save your butt alot, particularly in early phase of game, on terror missions its not uncommon i go through +30 HEs. Throwing also improves firing accuracy and a lot faster if you make 5 kills with one throw.

43

Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: September 19, 2016, 04:16:42 pm »

Signups are still active, you will be recruited in episode 7. (Already recorded episode 6). Any other demands, steak dinners at night, 5 star hotel? :-) Will see what I can do haha. Also how do you pronounce your name, or do you want me to just have a bash and see how we get on?

HAHA! yeah steak dinner is nice but i actually eat raw meat mixed with onion, egg, and a few spices/other ingredients graded after freezing it (then letting it warm/soften), on a toasted bread rubbed with fresh garlic.- gotta preserve the proteins, and I don't do night/graveyard shifts (can't see well in the dark) XDD.

I notice your use of tank as scout v.good tactic.
The other tactic I used was dropping primed smoke grenades (not throwing but dropping as it uses far less TUs), to protect scouts exposed (i.e. no alien contact), prior to end turn.

As you probably already learned from EP5, weapons that create smoke after explosion don't create good smoke cover. Also when utilising smoke cover (by way of grenades), don't stand at edge of smoke it seems to offer little to no protection.

Also i noticed from earlier episodes when you do missions like farms you don't want go door to door (this put x-com operative far too close to aliens and is far too dangerous- and will yield you heavy casualties over some time), you want first flatten everything/buildings/fences/clustered trees etc. with rockets/HEs and then sweep the area with scouts.

Also REACTION fire is determined by % TUs, thus if  a squaddie has reaction of 100, but has only 50% TUs left his reaction will actually be reduced to 50. So in reality if you want reaction fire your best bet is to have a squaddie kneeling that hasn't moved and therefore has 100% TUs left (preferably with starting reaction stat of 50+ in reaction fire, any lower at it becomes painful to train reaction fire), here just reflecting on your poorly planned UFO assault in EP3

Also good idea to bring along an ammo mule (high strength rookie), to carry all the extra ammo/explosives/rockets, that way you wont run out of fire power.

...AND yeah just have a bash at name I was trying to come up with name that will come up last on forum member nick/username list.

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Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: September 19, 2016, 06:39:07 am »

damn missed sign ups...haven't played this for a while but will be following this play through.

 If you recruit another rookie. Sign me up as "Zyzyfer" just give me atleast +50/55 reactions (make sure you leave 80% of my TUs so i can react fire- once I get reactions to 100 i will be awesome), and keep me safe with smoke grenades.  XDD

45

Playthroughs / Re: Newbie in need of advices!

« on: March 04, 2016, 01:10:52 am »

Are you using a grenade launcher mod or something? Because throwing grenades should improve throwing accuracy, not firing. You're the first person I see making that claim...

I am using Soldiers Diaries; Alternate smoke, & Arsenal Expanded mods. Get improvements to both  FA (when a kill is made) & TA. 
In fact my first grenadier has now a much safer sniper role as he went from about 40 FA to over 100 in about 3 months (so I had to appoint new grenadier for the job)