Messages

1861

XPiratez / Re: Talking tactics

« on: July 07, 2016, 06:33:40 pm »

I never bring flares for the reason that I'd have to place them all in inventory to keep from lighting up my LZ, and the Pachyderm's engines still give my position away.  The Deliverator was a welcome change in that aspect, but still gave off some light.

1862

XPiratez / Re: Talking tactics

« on: July 07, 2016, 04:44:02 pm »

Baby Nuke reaction fire is dangerous for everyone on the map, it forces you to learn a few new tactics, especially with respect to reaction fire triggers.  Getting a few hellerium grenades or a mortar concealed by smoke is first priority for me to deal with power-armored nuke wielders, and night ops plus the fireball launcher to light up targets comprised my SOP.

It's a fun trade-off, wanting to deploy as fast as possible to beat the timer, but not wanting to call reaction fire right into the open door of your craft.  Also, the Pachyderm's giant light-up butt is absolutely wretched for night ops - I had to spend a turn or two just smoking that ass before I could rush safely to the cover of darkness.

1863

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: Built-in TechTreeViewer

« on: July 05, 2016, 05:18:31 pm »

A built-in tech tree viewer isn't a necessity - I'd argue quite the opposite, that mod developers would rather you discover their tech tree through playing the game and using the hints they have designed.  Since middle-click is unused for vanilla, it becomes a way of 'hiding' certain features added by modded executables.

I also wouldn't say the assumption that middle-click is widely available is poor; it's the exception to find a mouse without a scroll wheel or middle-click option, and track pads offer configurable input.  Meridian has also already used middle-click to access other features such as the ufopaedia accessable from inventory screens, so this isn't unprecedented.

1864

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: Built-in TechTreeViewer

« on: July 05, 2016, 04:33:51 pm »

You should be able to set a OS option to interpret a different input as middle-click.

1865

XPiratez / Re: Talking tactics

« on: July 04, 2016, 06:57:08 am »

I'm a great fan of this tactic, as it was similar to my go-to for farming landed supply ship missions.  Send the gals on the Pachyderm for a quick response team, composed of fast melee scouts, some heavier assault armor, and lots of long-range fire support from longbows, mortars, and snipers.  Smoke the LZ, peek out with the scouts or the heavies, then bombard.  It got easier the more sniper gauss ammunition I looted from doing this.  Strong melee scouts can sometimes even solo power-armored foes if you can sneak up on them from behind.  Also, spam enough grenades at anything and it will die, even if just from bleeding out.

I found this tactic was easiest to learn when the price of failure was a baby nuke going off in one of your gals' faces.

You might not want to use it against Church missions, as a sudden chryssalid hiding in just the right shadow off the side of your Pachyderm can unravel the entire setup, speaking from experience here...

1866

Programming / Re: Minor bugfix for checking line-of-fire

« on: July 03, 2016, 03:56:30 pm »

Would it make sense/not be too much work to create a second set of checks for arcing shots?  I understand the idea that not shooting a bow at a target would make sense if the soldier can't see it, but this wouldn't this also have repercussions for other arcing weapons like mortars, grenade launchers, flamers, etc. where not having direct line-of-sight isn't as much as a problem?

Maybe this could be a thing exposed to rulesets - does this arcing shot weapon require line of sight?

1867

XPiratez / Re: Bootypedia (aka the wiki)

« on: July 01, 2016, 07:19:23 pm »

Ivandogovich and I have been discussing the air combat quite a bit, and this has lead to the creation of a strategy guide that we're thinking of uploading to the https://ufopaedia.org Bootypaedia under the empty Strategy Guide section.  I'm posting a link to the document here first; we want your feedback and suggestions to improve it!  So here's the link for the google document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xYCu-apgM69yted2Dj46dURM5p9miAS5R4gLf_f9rQA/edit?usp=sharing

Please make comments either here or directly on the document.  Thanks!

1868

XPiratez / Re: Mansion Mission Reports (Please Contribute)

« on: June 30, 2016, 09:04:58 pm »

Got a few more, now in the Spring of year three - since I don't like spending the time clearing the mansions anymore, I just search for the treasure chests and leave.  In my most recent try, I just brought two gals in destructor duds and blew apart the mansion chunk by chunk, then picked up a pair of treasure chests and left.  So satisfying to float in the middle of a blast crater you just created by the ball of annihilation, I should try blowing up the entire thing and see what loot is actually left over in the smoking ruins.

1869

XPiratez / Re: Piratez 0.99 TechTreeViewer (partial)

« on: June 30, 2016, 02:37:58 pm »

I'm alright with slow and resource-intensive for the drag scrolling - thank you very much for implementing this!

1870

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions

« on: June 30, 2016, 05:46:07 am »

I think the point is that by the time you have Avalanches, anything smaller than a Cruiser is pretty easy to down with your other weapons, and the multiple-interceptor Avalanche salvo makes the larger ships seem trivial as long as you have something to soak up the damage while the missiles are on their way to the target.

The Avalanche represents a best-in-slot against the large and very large military targets - the Hammermite comes close in raw damage, but the range and front-loaded punch of the Avalanche means it wins out in shooting down the enemy while minimizing damage to your lead craft.

1871

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions

« on: June 29, 2016, 03:48:32 pm »

As difficult as they air game may be to balance, I must say I am enjoying the slow build-up to being absolutely overpowered against everything that flies.  I took down my first battleship (Blackbeard difficulty), emboldened by the fact that I had recently manufactured a battleship, the Dragon, of my own and armed it with Railguns.  I probably should have taken some more missile firepower, but switching over manufacturing in my fast interceptor base allowed me only some leftover Stingrays on the Brave Whaler.  It was tense, watching the pride and joy of my fleet get chewed up by heavy plasma weapons, but luck was on my side, and she flew away with only 98% damage :p

And what a haul it was - fenced at least $7 million in ship parts and plasma weapons, keeping most of the plastasteel to sell as Battletanks, and I got enough parts to create two Gat Lascannons!  The plasma bombs will be fun once I get a few more parts.  I loved the map for the ship - it feels huge and intimidating, even on the ground, missing most of its lower deck to chain power source explosions.  The deck guns are a great touch, the side firing ports for enemy soldiers are an abomination; it captures the menace of a real-life battleship and hits the mark on being the capstone of enemy shipping.  Can't wait to take down another, I've got some Avalanches with a battleship's name on them!

Edit: The bomber I just looted had more plasma bomb launcher parts - my battleship's definitely getting loaded with one now!  It feels like a huge snowball effect, but I can't say I'm not ecstatic about it!

1872

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions

« on: June 26, 2016, 05:35:05 am »

I've generally found most interceptions to be brutal and short - the Crab just allows you to make sure the brutality is focused their direction.  If you invest in air combat properly though, it'll pay you back nicely, especially when those peacekeeping missions show up.  A Crab plus practically any two interceptors will take lighter military vessels, and for fighters + terror ships, an interceptor dedicated to Lancers can outrange them, leaving for easy clean up. The mid-game interceptions are all about figuring out what gives you the advantage, then leveraging it.  The payoff is teching to the Dragon and powering through everything else.

1873

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions

« on: June 25, 2016, 03:59:52 pm »

Vessels: there are no mid-game vessels at all. The Dragon vessel is best of the best: 2 x Railguns + 2 x Plasma Beams and this setup may put down about 5-7 Cruisers/Battleships/Gunships/you name it in non-stop mode. Nice replacement for well-known Avenger but I think Dragon is even better. There should be a vessel with 500-700 HP, because now you have only one choice: either 250-300 or 1200 HP...

Perhaps you missed the research for the Crab, sitting at 525 HP plus some built-in shielding?  There is also the Kraken at 900 HP, and is only one heavy weapon down from the Dragon, at the cost of speed.  I've been finding plenty of mid-game interceptors, you just have to use multiple per military vessel until you have the Dragon.

1874

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions

« on: June 24, 2016, 08:41:26 pm »

It's especially easy if you keep a light dropship at the training base to do the easy missions - give them fair armor, handles, and pistols, and they build reactions quickly too on top of the secondary stat gains.  There's the added bonus of being able to rob/enslave/ransom all the captures you get from handling everything.

1875

XPiratez / Re: Craft Weapons DPS Spreadsheet

« on: June 24, 2016, 03:28:36 pm »

The dodge bonuses listed in the bootypedia don't match avoidBonus in the ruleset - Dioxine, is avoidBonus subtracted from the UFO's accuracy instead of a multiplicative factor?