Messages

226

Suggestions / Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Z-COM: The Zombie Apocalypse

« on: February 23, 2016, 04:53:54 am »

+1 for  Z-Com, great idea. I'm a big Walking Dead fan so would love to play it.

I'm partial to the idea of it being an alien threat.  Could be retaliation from a remnant group of aliens from the previous conflicts (TFTD or EU) as a way to strike back at Earth.  If they can't conquer us, so  they want to destroy us.  You could basically tie it in to the storyline.  Maybe the final mission leads to their hideout on Earth in how they started the infection.  The materials are there to create the antidote needed to stop the epidemic.  I also like the idea that the zombie threat becomes almost like dealing with loads of Chryssalids that can zombify your units on every mission.  Maybe some of the zombies have a zombifying ranged attack (smaller numbers of course but maybe the most lethal).

I like the idea to tie the storyline into the original game, kind of like I read X-Piratez does. Maybe chryssalids or other aliens could even make cameo appearances.

227

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 11, 2016, 11:46:48 pm »

Guess I was being over optimistic when I thought my "option 2" would solve the balance issue. I think basically what is needed is some way to limit the number of psi attacks you can perform while leaving alien attacks alone, but it sounds like there is no easy way to do this in a non-exploitable fashion. You'd probably have to change too much in the code. Basically you need 1 of 2 things.

1) Have it so any soldier who does a psi attack gets KTFO for anywhere from 5 turns to the entire mission (whatever is "fair"). Medi-kits don't work on morale loss that happens due to psi attacks. Could work the same way here so we have "untreatable" stun damage. This actually doesn't sound like that confusing a mod to make, but I guess I don't know enough to really say.

2) Simply limit every soldier to one psi attack with a PU (instead of TU). Start the mission with 1 PU, go to 0 PU after using a psi attack, and don't replenish it until the mission is over. If you have an Avenger, 26 psi attacks could still be ridiculous, so I think knocking a soldier out for the whole mission is a better route.

Anyway, doesn't sound like there is any mod-friendly way to accomplish these things, so I'll just have to go the artificial self-imposed route. It feels kind of lame, but I think it'll be the best option for me because MC is just making my current campaign freaking boring. I haven't had a soldier die in a month. That's just too easy.

EDIT:

2) You don't control the victim's every move : The AI "plays" the unit's turn. No possible abuse!

That's a good idea as well.

228

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 11, 2016, 07:32:00 pm »

Anyway, I've been giving this a lot of thought and reading some other discussions on this topic on these forums and have came to a couple conclusions I think will work for me and let me have a more balanced game next time through.

First, so far I'm just playing with what I get. I don't see myself wanting to do the hiring/firing route and only take soldiers with good starting stats. Once I get more money and multiple bases, I might throw the shit soldiers as base defenders at the South Pole, but no pink slips. Only way out is in a body bag.

Then...

Option 1: Leave psi on, don't require LOS, but have a self-imposed restriction that I can't use psi amps. So I still have to deal with the alien attacks and I can't just MC them into oblivion, but I can still have psi labs so I can find my strong psi soldiers and incrementally increase their psi skill through psi lab training which will help them defend against psi attacks (unfortunately I know with the formula, psi skill isn't that helpful with attacks, but it's there).

Option 2: I saw discussions about this from 2013-2014, so I'm not sure if it's made it's way into the 1.0 version, the latest nightly, or is some kind of mod I'd have to add, but it sounded good. Alter the cost of using psi attacks so it is way higher by...

a) requiring 80 to 100% of your TUs
b) using a high percentage or 100% of your energy
c) giving stun damage so that after maybe 1 or 2 psi attacks, you're unconscious (I think 1 almost guarantees you can't exploit MC)

That would definitely tone down the power of MC for XCOM troops a TON. And it makes sense; doing these mind attacks would take a toll on the human brain/body. I'd have to do some testing and figuring out the best math (I don't quite understand the numbers on energy and stun damage), but basically you could have it so one good psi soldier could do 2 attacks every like 5 to 10 turns or something.

They only have enough TUs for one attack in a turn, then energy takes time to come back so even if they sit still it might take 2+ turns to recharge their energy and then depending on how much stun damage you apply after one or two mind attacks they are unconscious. You could have someone there to revive them right away with a medi kit, but they'd start with 0 TUs and low energy even once revived. I did some testing and it takes a lot of medi-kit to revive a person who has been fully stunned. It might take 2 turns for the "medic" (or two "medics" on 1 turn) to even revive your psi troop.

Basically the end result would be that you could use several strategically placed mind attacks during a mission and it might save a soldier or two who get stuck in a bind, but it's not going to let you MC your way to victory by taking over 10 aliens in one turn.

Even if you have an avenger with 5 psi soldiers and 5 designated medics to revive them (that leaves you a tank and 12 soldiers in the field) you might only get 10 mind attacks in a mission total. For smaller UFO crashes that's still enough to make the mission pretty easy (but at the point in the game you have an avenger, smaller UFOs should be easy anyway; they're basically just good for giving your new soldiers practice and getting some quick supplemental income) but 10 mind attacks in a base assault, battleship, terror ship or any mission with Ethereals is nothing. And that's with an avenger and several psi troops ... if you have a sky ranger and 1 or 2 psi troops, you're going to be even more limited. Again, might save a life or two or let you suicide a few aliens, but isn't winning you the day by itself.

I think I just convinced myself that option 2 would be great, but I just hope there's a relatively easy way to apply it with the current mods.

229

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 11, 2016, 06:32:58 pm »

I meant it's silly in-game - like assigning a "psi rod" with no weapons etc. Sure, it's good tactics, but it's bad that the game forces you to do that, or at least gives a strong incentive to.

I agree. I feel like I'm cheating when I do this (I usually give my weak psi soldiers small launchers and a backup weapon in their pack), but what is the alternative? Give your soldier with psi strength 1 a heavy plasma, a couple alien grenades and let them go crazy on your own troops? Basically your option is "cheat" them at their own game or willingly let them exploit your weakness.

You can only use psi strong soldiers and fire others, but then that's a different form of "cheating".

psi rods work only because the AI is a cheating bastard. If they attacked at random, it would be overall more dangerous IMO. But I guess Ethereals are too smart for their own good.

Yeah, it might be better if they randomly did psi attacks. Then your psi strength 50 soldier could become a liability, where in the current format if you have three troops with psi strength below 30 and throw them out there as scouts (aka "lightning rods"), the rest of your group should be pretty safe from psi attacks.

230

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 11, 2016, 10:41:10 am »

You have misread the name a bit, but thanks for the laugh

Haha, oops, looked too quickly. Guess I've seen too many Adam Sandler movies. "Warboy" does make more sense.

231

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 11, 2016, 10:38:39 am »

i usually disable psi as same makes game too easy/boring for me).

...Albeit zombies make good reaction fire practice for scouts. On terror missions with Chrysalids allow them to impregnate civilians for the reaction fire practice on the zombies (as zombies are harmless until they turn).

Yeah, you were very right about the mind control making it boring. In the save file I uploaded before they weren't that skilled and it was pretty new, but now that they're really good it makes most missions (even base assaults) a joke.

Next campaign I'll definitely change something with mind control. I might start a separate thread about this, but do you (or anyone else reading) advise:

a) turning it off completely for humans and aliens
b) leaving it for the aliens, but not using it yourself (even though it can be frustrating, the alien mind attacks add a fun/challenging element especially in the beginning ... but Ethereals will be a nightmare if you can fight back /at least jack up your troops psi skill)
c) add the "line of sight" option to mind control which would make it more difficult since you can't just leave one guy in the skyhanger doing nothing but mind attacks all mission
d) something else?

I've been playing beginner. I assume mind control is harder at the higher difficulties anyway. Turning it off completely has a certain appeal, but then what would Ethereal missions look like? They'd go from one of the hardest/most dangerous to basically wussy floaters.

232

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 11, 2016, 09:52:33 am »

Waterboy Warboy, thanks for the detailed explanation. That's interesting to know what in their code caused the original bug issues and how you guys fixed it. So that's good that the bug/exploit is gone, but where does that leave zombies with psi attacks? Can be mind controlled at all in OpenXCom or are they immune to it?

233

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 06, 2016, 01:01:50 am »

Also once you research hyper-wave decoders, small + large radars become obsolete so destroy them and build something in their place instead of wasting room. Also I tend to not bother with base defense structures as they waste room and also means your team wont be getting as much exp from base defense (but I guess whether you choose to use them is up to you/play style).

Good to know, thanks. What do you mean though your team won't get as much experience points? Doesn't it work like an all-or-nothing situation? If a battleship is hit, but still makes it through, it doesn't have less aliens than if you had no defenses at all does it?

And as long as I'm posting n00b questions, what is the deal with zombies? I read about it on the ufopaedia, so I think I understand how they worked in the original game. But can they not be mind controlled at all in OpenXCom? I read about this "exploit" which sounds like it was a bug and not the original intention of the game where you can "recover" zombified agents: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Exploiting_Mind_Control#Resurrect_Zombified_Agents

I reloaded a save just to try it out, but I probably tried 100 times and couldn't mind control the zombie. Meanwhile I've got lucky and mind controlled ethereals so it seemed like it just couldn't be done with zombies.

234

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 04, 2016, 07:58:45 pm »

I understand that they won't detect the base every time they fly by on a retaliation mission, but it still seemed strange to me since I've read online people complaining about getting too many base defense missions or getting them too early. And even on the super human difficulty with multiple bases, I couldn't generate even just one even though I was trying (by shooting down some UFOs, but letting others get away).

I guess next campaign I'll turn on the aggressive retaliation and give that a try.

235

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 03, 2016, 12:49:09 pm »

On beginner it could theoretically happen, chance to spawn when UFOs are shot down is small, and regular appearance is quite late.
On superhuman, they should already be annoying the hell out of you.

Can you post both your beginner and superhuman saves, so that we can have a look?

Sure, there are attached.

Just now as a test I sped up the time and let the game run in both without doing any missions or shooting down UFOs. In the SupuerHuman I just eventually lost the overall game with still no base attack on any of the three bases.

In the Beginner this actually did eventually generate a base attack in North America so it's good to know it can happen. I just quit the mission and kept letting time go. Even though there were tons and tons of "alien retaliation" missions in the zones of my other bases (including battleships) it never generated a base defense mission. When I would see a battleship with the "retaliation" mission I would assume it was going after my base, but it would just fly around and leave.

236

Playthroughs / Re: Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 03, 2016, 12:35:30 pm »

Do you get retaliation missions at all? I mean, are the aliens even trying to find your base?

If they do and they can't, you might be in one of the "sweet spots" where bases are safe, because UFOs don't fly there.

Yes, in the beginner save I have the hyper-wave decoder so I can see there are a fair number of UFOs with "alien retaliation" as their mission. I always shoot them down unless they're battleships which I can't shoot down with my current aircraft.

In the super human one I was just testing by shooting down UFOs (not actually doing missions) so I don't have the hyperwave decoder.

237

Playthroughs / Is it weird that I haven't had a base defense mission yet?

« on: February 03, 2016, 11:31:42 am »

I'm just over a year in game time, and the aliens have never attacked any one of my six bases. I've always shot down every UFO I could, gone on all the terror missions, and destroyed several of their bases, but have never had an attack on my bases.

It's in beginner mode and I have a lot of base defenses, so I started a superhuman campaign just as a test. I made three bases with no defense and shot down every UFO that I detected for 6-months, but still no base defense missions.

I only know they exist from reading about it online and how you "provoke" the aliens by shooting down UFOs/attacking their bases.

238

Playthroughs / Re: Shooting UFOs down over water ... specifically Terror ship

« on: January 30, 2016, 11:10:37 pm »

Thanks for the advice all. Sounds like ignoring a crashed UFO (terror or otherwise) is the same as crashing it into the water points wise, so doesn't matter either way. Over land just gives you the option to recover. And high risk = high reward for doing the recovery on those big ships.

239

Playthroughs / Shooting UFOs down over water ... specifically Terror ship

« on: January 28, 2016, 11:26:57 am »

I searched online, but didn't really find any specific answers to my question. Basically, if you get the chance to shoot down a UFO over water should you? I know that means you don't get to do a recovery mission, which early game can be a problem if you don't have any money. But later in the game when you have plenty of money and good soldiers you don't want to risk, would it be advantageous to shoot it down over water and not have to do a recovery mission?

Are there any penalties or bonuses for shooting it down over water? Are there penalties for shooting it down on land, producing a crash site, but not recovering it? Obviously you don't get the points/money a recovery mission produces, but are you penalized for letting the crash site disappear?

I've done plenty of terror missions, but never a terror ship recovery. I imagine this one would be a lot riskier than standard UFO crash sites, so would that be a good one to shoot down over the water? Or is the payoff for this ship worth the risk to your highly trained soldiers? In my current saved game I have the opportunity to shoot it down in the ocean, or I can wait for it to get to land.


Thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me.

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Troubleshooting / Re: Bug? Save scumming off, but different results when reloaded

« on: January 24, 2016, 06:01:41 pm »

Yes, I attached it.

Although like I said, every time I load that, the same thing happens. It was only the original time that it was different.