Messages

16

XPiratez / Re: Stuff I'd love to see in XPiratez!

« on: June 24, 2019, 11:31:17 pm »

Would love to see melee functionality expanded further with D&D style attacks-of-opportunity:  a free melee swing attempt would trigger when moving directly away, or leaving a unit's FOV in melee (you'd be able to reposition to their sides without penalty, also attacks-of-opportunity only trigger when a unit has vision, so backstabs aren't affected).

The one tile ranged-evasion is awesome, but currently all you have to do is step 1-tile away, which somewhat trivializes its function.

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XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - J5 - 11 Jun - Applied Chromatics

« on: June 24, 2019, 11:17:57 pm »

A few questions regarding the latest version (it's been a year):

Was the function to kill unconscious units with cutting weapons disabled?  Having a body in one hand, cutting weapon in the other, no longer gives an option to execute.

Mag-lites vanish randomly when thrown--intentional?

The initial batch of werewolves I captured couldn't be tamed (only had the option to butcher them, after finishing all the research).  I butchered them thinking they'd spawn again, but sadly, I'm two years in and haven't seen another werewolf since -- blood rituals never spawn anymore :\

Finally, absolutely loving the melee combat functionality added, especially 1-tile evasion, simulating units being grappled up close.  It'd be awesome for this to be expanded further with attacks-of-opportunity when moving directly away from a unit when engaged in melee -- for example in D&D/Divinity:OS/Pathfinder/PoE, moving out of range from a unit who has a dedicated melee weapon equipped, provokes a free melee swing. However, you're able to reposition in melee without penalty, as long as you stay within range.  Perhaps here attacks-of-opportunity would also only trigger when leaving a unit's FOV, so it allows sidestepping without affecting backstabs.

Amazing work as always.

18

XPiratez / Re: ["MOD"] Lobbers use Throwing

« on: June 23, 2017, 08:38:40 am »

Thanks for the mod.

I agree, there should be more ways to train bavery besides gaming the system.  Also, I appreciate more items using throwing, so it has more use over the length of an entire campaign.

19

XPiratez / Re: MLG 180 reaction fire

« on: March 07, 2017, 03:22:28 pm »

Thanks for the explanation.  The vision aspect is really frustrating, since I'm constantly reloading just to figure out which magic tiles won't get me sniped from across the map (especially if I start using fire/torches to spot things) - the inconsistency ruins a lot of the immersion.  Perhaps there's a solution so light level thresholds correlate with the visuals, or at the very least, a way to display if a tile is illuminated?

I get how gals are supposed to start low-tech with crappy weapons, have dark age gear, etc, (and I'm completely fine with being outgunned), but the fluff indicates they're supposed to be these uber mutants superior to purebloods, whose lauded trait is enhanced vision.  Yet when enemies either hide better, or see better, their defining ability effectively amounts to jack. 

20

XPiratez / Re: MLG 180 reaction fire

« on: March 07, 2017, 04:05:27 am »

Not sure what to say - I'm outfitting my scouts with camo paint right now, which is the best I have at the moment, and I'm regularly getting attacked by units from all those factions well before I can see them.  I'm getting outspotted/outsniped in every encounter with Spartans/humanists (progroms) so I have to rely on silly ship camping and door tricks for most of the mission.   I'll start collecting a bunch of combat saves once I build up the morale to play again.

Maybe it has something to do with light levels around tiles, which seem binary; there's no way to tell when units are concealed in darkness.  Sometimes I'll be standing in a pitch dark tile and concealment will work as expected, then I move over to the next seemingly unlit tile, and suddenly everyone's shooting at me (especially in dark rooms in buildings). 

Do enemies have shared vision here?  If so, perhaps all it takes is one vision/camo superior unit to give shared vision, which would make it seem like everyone sees better, adding to the frustration.  Either way, for the experience of someone's first playthrough, the vision/camo disparity at this stage of the game, combined with the frequent 180s (since I'm being forced to overextend just to see units) is really demotivating right now.

Beyond camo paint, which line of research should I pursue to make combat like the early months again?

21

XPiratez / Re: MLG 180 reaction fire

« on: March 07, 2017, 12:46:30 am »

Naturally they will react to hits, if they can spot you - Mercs, for example, have superior vision to most of your units.

I'm at this point where pretty much everyone I go against: Humanists, Spartans, Guild security, Mercs, et all - all have units with superior vision, even at night.  Just kind of immersion breaking since superior night vision is supposed to be the ubers' special ability.  Like my camo'd units at night are getting shot by everyone from offscreen, on top of spinning on me when I do spot them and get them from behind, and it's just really tedious right now.  Early game being sneaky/stealthy and creeping up to people to ambush them was really fun, but now it feels like the only reliable way to win missions is to camp behind my craft and lob out its inventory.

Enemies will turn around and shoot you if you hit them with a molotov or a black powder bomb as it damaged them. They won't turn around if you hit them with a primed frag grenade because it doesn't blow up til your turn ends, if they survive it they will try to shoot at you but you should have time to get your person into cover, or throw 2-3 frags to make absolutely sure they die

I do tend to use a lot of instant explosions, because priming something and throwing it consumes most of the TU percentage.  Previously, I could use my forward scouts to lob molotovs, bombs, javelins/axes, then retreat back into cover - that's just not possible anymore. 

I'll have to give the primed nades more use, but it just feels so gamey and demoralizing to explode people and have them spin and instagib camo'd girls at night.  You'd think they panic, suffer consussions/shellshock, run off in fear, but it's like all the factions are now fielding hyperaware aimbot terminators with predator vision.

Now that the stealth tactics are out the window, it seems like I'd just be better off just armoring up as much as possible and fighting during the day.  I mean, even the civvies/gangsters spot me the moment I start using fire arrows/molotovs at night, despite my units being well outside of the lit area (visually) ... why can everyone see so faaar at night?

22

XPiratez / Re: How to get points?

« on: March 06, 2017, 02:37:21 am »

spartans pulling off 180 no scope headshots on my peeps when they shoot them in the back.

I hear you man.  I'm at the point where every mission now has enemies with 180 aimbot hackers that not only see you from across the map at night, but instantly noscope headshot your camo'd girls behind cover, when shot in the back.  Tactics/positioning just went out the window, it's more like a just a stat/gear check now, and the only way to win really is to camp the ship and bombard from behind cover, but it's just so tedious and unfun now that it's the only available tactic to me.

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XPiratez / Re: MLG 180 reaction fire

« on: March 06, 2017, 02:20:00 am »

I always assumed player units could only react to hits/enemies from within their vision.  AFAIK I've never seen any instances of player controlled units spin a complete 180; correct me if I'm wrong.  Ie. my Mistress with something like 140 reactions and full TU, never turns around even after a string of 15 chupacabra swings to the back on hunting missions; I *always* have to turn them manually. 

Yet the AI starts to land impossible 180s when shot in the back by gals in camo, behind cover, at night, in the forest.  FFS, they even spin on you from grenades/molotovs tossed from out of their view. 

I really don't feel like outcheating with editing, or outcheesing them with even more gamey/tedious tactics to continue (camping endlessly/bombarding with projectiles from the dropzone), but these enemies are showing up regularly now, where positioning, stealth/flanking no longer matter, and it just breaks all immersion.  If only there were a simple engine flag for "no reaction checks against out-of-vision hits" - I'd check the shit out of that box all day.

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XPiratez / MLG 180 reaction fire

« on: March 05, 2017, 10:33:25 pm »

So apparently enemies with high reactions can do 180 degree headshots from across the map when sniped in the back.

Anyone remember if this was the case in the original X-Com, and why can't player units do the same thing?

It's really frustrating in X-Piratez when enemies with massive vision advantages or high reactions start showing up - I spend a load of time carefully setting up/scouting, and then when when I finally get the opportunity to flank/snipe/backstab someone like a ninja, they do 180s that kill or take my gals out for a month.  Sucks the fun out of combat, and has pretty much halted my play because battles are getting too tedious and tactically restrictive. It's just too much, and feels like the AI is blatantly cheating, doing something the player can't; I never noticed 180s ever being an issue in vanilla (possibly because of less stat/vision disparity beween X-COM and aliens).

Absolutely LOVE everything else about X-Piratez (been my main game for the past month), but my desire to continue has plummeted with all the WTFHAX.