Messages

31

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.5.1: Around The World

« on: September 08, 2020, 10:38:27 pm »

Wait, the informer actually exists?
After god knows how many battles against MiB and sometimes Westmen and never ever meeting the informant, I have come to the conclusion, that he is just used as bait to ambush X-Com agents.
Am I wrong?

32

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: August 28, 2020, 05:24:16 pm »

For the first time ever, I've managed to reach a Black Lotus Party mission before it despawns.

Man, that was a strange experience. The pathfinding of a large portion of the enemies was broken, perhaps even non-existent.
Many of them would just wander around inside the rooms they started in, never leaving it unless panicked.
Enemies on the upper floors seemed to be especially prone to this. I only really started to notice this behavior, once I've unveiled most of the map and started using motion trackers to find hidden enemies + I could see many of them through the glass ceilings on the roof.

Attached is a save file starting from near the beginning of the mission, if that helps.

33

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: August 21, 2020, 07:17:38 pm »

Does anyone know the cause of mass equipment loss after a mission ?

I mopped up the CoP meeting, flawless mission and i got this report

I've never had that happen myself, but my first instinct tells me, that your troops got hit by explosives, while still in the craft. Probably those priests with their rocket launchers. Items on the ground are destructible - I guess your stash is no different. So far, my enemies have been nice enough to only throw incendiary grenades into my craft, which don't destroy items.

Maybe it would be better, if the stash was moved to a safer place inside the craft, usually the back. (Well, technically it IS in the back now. I mean it should be moved away from the door.)

34

The X-Com Files / Re: ending the Asylum Apparitions

« on: August 20, 2020, 08:37:35 pm »

Nah, this is a chill mission, no need for violence. Just bring your electric club and use the mission as an opportunity to train up melee and reactions. The ghosts don't do any health damage, only stun. Only way to lose is to get all your agents fall unconscious or go insane. Both very unlikely.

35

The X-Com Files / Re: Clarification questions

« on: August 19, 2020, 08:01:32 pm »

Gym. Is there exact mechanics here? Like is it +1 of every stat per day, +1 of each stat per day at % chance based on difference between zero and max, and up to rookie cap? Also, I think throwing accuracy is different than what the openxcom wiki says.

Do gyms take into account stat bonuses from awards, and do they preserve ANY of the original randomness of a soldier?

What is the meaning of stat changes when you hit the big Plus Button in the top right corner? Stats usually go up by 1 when pressed, so I guess that is the predicted improvement, but sometimes it goes up more, or not at all. I think.

I am reasonable sure, that every day there is a chance (don't know how much) for one random stat (not bravery, reaction or psi) to receive +1.
In my experience, as some stats get maxed out, the chance of the remaining stats getting a +1 decreases. Sometimes it can take months for an agent to get the last +1 to the last remaining trainable stat.

Stat bonuses from awards (and also from transformations) ignore stat caps and always get added on top.
Example: Throwing can get trained up to 55 in the gym. Suppose an agent has 54 Throw and then gets an award, which adds +1 Throw. The gym will now train Throw up to 56.

It shows an agent's stats with all stat bonuses from awards and transformations applied (but not from armours).

36

The X-Com Files / Re: Clarification questions

« on: August 18, 2020, 09:30:03 pm »

Dog Barking
I had a pair of dogs barking viciously at a giant beetle. I think 6 or so attacks hit, not sure exactly, but I kinda thought that 100+ TU damage and Morale damage would have immobilized it, or caused it to panic. However, it clearly didn't give a damn, and walked up and bit one of them in half. Maybe it beserked? Or it is deaf?

Did you have your dogs bark at the beetle on your turn or did they do it on the enemy turn?
Flashbangs reduce TUs for two turns (your turn + the enemy turn).
Barking reduces it for only one turn. But it is a snap fire weapon, so it can reaction-fire. Leave dogs with full TUs, or mostly full, if the enemy has to move some distance toward it and they will bark at approaching enemies, bringing them to a full stop. You can also protect your other troops against charging enemies, by placing dogs in front of them. Works against almost anything. Chupacabras are too fast, though.

Vampire Knight. Reacted to a Police VS Zombie battle.

Ah yes, fond memories. I had this type of mission only once before. None of my weapons could dent its armour. Luckily the thing was too busy slicing up civilians, so I could retreat to the car (or whatever craft I had then) and fetch some high explosives I had scrounged together in earlier missions. I had to expend all the hi ex + some dynamite and a lot of fire, before the vampire knight went down. Not really worth it in the end, loot-wise or score-wise (I had to blow up a lot of civvies along with the vampire), so I might as well have aborted the mission right from the beginning. But it was a fun experience.

37

The X-Com Files / Re: Training Methods / Collecting Medals

« on: August 18, 2020, 01:46:34 pm »

Well, the commendations.rul file doesn't specify anything beyond just number of reacton fires. If I interpret that correctly, you don't have to kill or even hit anything.

And thanks.

Edit: Apparently, you don't even have to fire a reaction shot, either. My scout drone got the award last mission. Thats's right. My scout drone, which doesn't even have a weapon capable of reaction fire.

38

The X-Com Files / Re: Clarification questions

« on: August 18, 2020, 05:05:06 am »

Stun damage. Looks like the default is 25%, albiet with a random factor flag enabled. So 20 damage would also deal ~5 stun damage.
That said, Zombies have stun resistance of 70%, so I would expect it to be quite a bit less likely for them to be stunned.

Lighting. Why do you have to Arm Electroflares, and why does it take so long. Why do you have to active Flashlights as well.
Do enemies with <20 sight benefit from your light sources, meaning you can do stealth by keeping in the dark, at least to an extent?
Currently, I enter missions with one hand having a weapon, and the other having a flashlight. It takes 2 TU to either flick it on, or drop it, 4 TU for both in the case of a shotgun/Huntsman Rifle.

Killing downed Enemies. Is there an easy way to execute downed enemies? Obviously I don't have reliable explosives yet. Like stab them with a knife or shoot them or something.

Rifle Bash. Is there a reason that only flashlights have a melee option?

Ufopedia, in battle. If you middle-mouse button on an enemy, and middlemouse button on their portrait, it shows data. That said, there isn't everything. It only shows, I think, their armor. Not their stats, or description, nor is there a link to it. I suppose it might require more research?

There is a difference between stun damage and stun damage. Confusing, I know. One is a damage type like electric and incendiary (which can also cause lethal damage, depending on the weapon). The other is the amount of stun an agent or enemy takes from any damage source. Both of these have nothing to do with each other. A Zombie's stun resistance has no influence on the amount of stun it takes from being shot at by a rifle, for example. An unfortunate circumstance. Piratez solved this by renaming the stun damage type to Daze.

Light sources are turned off by default, so the ones left in the stash on the ground don't illuminate your agents at the start of the battle. Standing in light, means that enemies can see you using their day vision. You want to avoid that. That's why flashlights are a double-edged sword. You can see enemies better but they can see you better, too. To avoid return fire, you would have to turn them off at the end of the turn. Personally I almost only use flares on missions against ranged enemies and flashlights and flares against creatures.

You can aim at the ground and shoot unconscious enemies that way. You will be surprised how often your agents can miss the ground, though. Explosives are more convenient but also destroy loot. Fire works really well.

Well, there is the unarmed attack already, that you can use whenever you have a free hand. Considering rifles are two-handed, this will be the case most of the time. No need to spoil the player with too many option (in my opinion).

Enemies' stats like health and reactions aren't shown anywhere ingame. In battle or otherwise. All you ever get to see is a written description, armour and anything tied to it (like night vision range) and any in-built weapons, if existant.

39

The X-Com Files / Training Methods / Collecting Medals

« on: August 18, 2020, 01:57:32 am »

Let's talk about how we train our agents, how to get the medals and which ones are worth spending extra effort on.



Training stats in combat


Not too much has changed from vanilla.

TUs, Stamina, Health, Strength still increase passively. The new stat Sanity is trained the same way.

Training Accuracy is still the easiest and needs no special attention. Same for throwing, except that there will be fewer (sensible) opportunities for throwing stuff at enemies than shooting. A high throwing stat isn't too important, unless you want to use stuff like throwing knives (I very rarely even equip them).

Bravery can now be increased by using healing items (on friends, enemies, neutrals - it all works). A small handful of weapons also train it. The Vibro Blade is the best one I have unlocked so far. There are also actions now, that cost morale, like the Track ability of dogs and rats. In controlled conditions this can also be used to train bravery. All in all, bravery is still a bit of a slog to increase. Thankfully, it is less important now, as psi attacks are very rarely used against you before the aliens show up.

The many missions against exclusively melee enemies provide ample opportunity for reaction training. Give your reaction-deficient agents a weapon with fast snap shot (i.e. pistols) and a melee weapon (many of these train reactions along with melee).

Melee training, see above. More than any other stat, Melee is difficult to train, when it is very low. For that reason, I leave highly Melee-deficient agents in the gym, before I allow them on missions.
Speaking of which:



Training stats in the gym


Not much to say here.
As far as I know, training caps are the same as max stats of newly hired agents.
I try to have as much gym space as I have agents, that haven't hit that cap, yet. Once I stop expanding my roster and only buy agents as replacements for losses, I'll dismantle most gyms.


Transformations


Again, not much to say here. GET THESE. More important than weapon or armour upgrades, in my opinion. Bio-Enhancement especially can be gotten relatively early and will save so many lives.


Commendations/Medals
Many of the commendations listed here aren't shown in the ufopedia from the beginning and must be "found" first by having them awarded to one of your agents.
If you care about such things, then consider this a !SPOILER WARNING!


Original Member, Senior - You have no influence on these.

Elite - Increasing your total stats a certain amount gives you a cool +2 bonus for every stat (not all stats at the same time, but per level). Just play normally and it will increase.
Are stat increases through commendations and transformations considered here?

Keystone - This one is increased through mission score and gives Bravery only after several levels. I find advancement to be very slow. Barely any of my agents in mid '98 have reached even level 1. Maybe later missions give much higher score. Not much you can do except doing as many missions as possible.

Solid - Plus 1 Health and Sanity bonus for doing many missions. Nice. Another one, that requires no special attention.

Night Owl - Gives a small night vision bonus for doing many night missions (+1 for every 2 levels). Easy to get for those, that actually enjoy night fighting. I don't. Chucking flares and avoiding light sources is too much of a hassle for me. Easy missions like crop circles I only do at night, though. Few of my agents have received this medal, as a result. Maybe when I have more trace flares. Maybe.

Defender - Plus 1 Health per Base Defense mission. You have little control over who gets this medal.

Stormtrooper - Plus 1 TU per Alien Base assault. Naturally you will never get this for all of your agents. But at least this time you can choose your team.

Warden of {region} - Gives sanity for doing many missions in the same region. Meh. Being warden of several regions doesn't help. Only the highest value counts.

Globetrotter - Gives an awesome +5 TU for doing at least one mission in every region. So far I haven't gotten this even once. Now that I have a large-ish craft with gloabal reach (so no more seperate ground teams in different parts of the world), this might actually happen. Then again, some regions very rarely spawn missions (Antarctica...).

Death Dealer - Awarded for total number of kills. 30 required for level 1 (Friendly kills also count). Pretty steep, especially for people, who prefer capturing enemies alive. At least the reward is good. +1 Psi Strength per level. Probably not worth altering your play style for this one. Well, I should mention, that players on higher difficulty levels will have a much easier time getting this, because they are fighting more enemies. I'm only playing on 2.

Correctional Officer - For non-lethal takedowns. 10 required for level 1. Gives 1 Psi Skill per level. Not very impressive. Another one, that isn't worth any extra effort.

Bane of {faction} - Gives 1 per level of either TU, energy recovery or Psi Strength (nice) for taking out a number of enemies of the same faction. You can influence this somewhat by having separate ground teams for different parts of the world (more than 3 is overkill, IMO), and not transferring agents between teams. This helps because the different cults also concentrate on different parts of the world. Same rule as with warden applies.

Master of the {weapon} - Each level gives +1 of either Accuracy, Throwing or Melee. You have to take out a number of enemies (15 for level 1) with the same weapon, not just weapon type. This one is tricky. The bonuses are certainly nice but you will have to do a lot of planning, if you want to make the most of this. Upgrading to better weapons will naturally throw a wrench into your efforts. Remembering who uses what is also a pain. In my case, the Black Ops Pistol (upgrading to alloy ammo keeps it useful for longer) and the electric club are most likely to get me this medal, since most of my soldiers use them at some point. Built-in weapons also count. Your dogs are most likely to reach high levels of this award.

Overwatcher - Gives bonus Reaction for performing reaction fire a certain number of times. Pretty easy to get, using normal reaction fire training.

Lucky - Plus 1 Accuracy per level for hitting targets despite low hit chance. How low isn't specified. I think it has to be below 20% at least, probably lower (after playing some more, I believe at has to be under 10% even. I would really like some confirmation on this). This one is easy. Use the minigun. It's a great weapon anyway. Use it standing up and from close range if you have to. It is possible to get several levels of the award in a single mission. Every agent gets to have a go on the minigun until they have reached the 10th award level. Then you give it to the next team member. In the end you will have a whopping +10 acc for every agent. Phenomenal.

Executioner - Plus 2 Stamina per level for performing 5 kills in a single mission. Not too difficult if you focus on it. Probably easier, if you use smaller teams. Also easier on higher difficulties, because you face more enemies.

Exterminator - Same as executioner, but more difficult. Gives 2 Health per level instead of Stamina. Noice! But not an easy feet. On low difficulties this will rarely happen, unless you really put your mind to it. (Does this mod have nukes like in Piratez?)

Ice-Cold Killer - 1 Tu per level for killing 2 enemies in a single turn. A bit similar to the one above. Melee weapons, miniguns and explosives are your friends here. Of course you are very much dependent on enemy placement. Again, players on higher difficulties will have more opportunities to make this happen. A great spot for multi-kills are the gates of cult outposts. Most enemies spawn inside the building and will pour out in large numbers. If you can get into position fast enough, you will catch a great mass of cultists squeezing through the gate.

Battle-scarred - Gives +1 Health per level for receiving wounds in battle. Nice, but not something you want to do on purpose, for obvious reasons. Unless maybe, if you have plenty of reserves and having a large number of agents in the hopsital at the same time doesn't matter to you. Just try not to get anyone killed. Rats are good enemies for that purpose, since their weak but fast attacks cause many wounds, without much risk of killing someone, if you're careful. I'm sure friendly fire also works, but haven't tried it.

Patient - Very similar to the last one but gives faster stun recovery and requires days spent in recovery, rather than wounds themselves.

Cavalier - Save all civilians in a mission and receive 1 Sanity each level and Bravery every third. Only one successful mission required for every level, so advanvement can happen pretty fast. Very cool. Probably the best way to increase Bravery, since there are many missions with civilians in them and it is often quite easy to save them all. Of course, luck still plays a huge role here, as placement of enemies can make your goal impossible, no matter how skilled you are. Higher difficulty levels often make it harder to save everyone. I like this award especially, because it gives you a real incentive to take risks for the sake of saving innocent lives. Of course, as soon as you hear the first death scream, you might as well return to a more cautious playstyle.

Takedown Specialist - Gives +1 of alternatively Strength and Health for taking out many enemies with unarmed attacks. Pretty cool and probably not too difficult to do. Still, unarmed attacks are less efficient than using actual clobbering tools, so I've never gotten around to actually doing this often enough to get an award (10 required for level 1). I should try to remember to punch more often in safe situations, instead of whipping out the trusted electric club.

Incapacitator - Gives +1 Sanity and Reactions for each level. Stun a number of enemies using dedicated stun weapons. Much easier to achieve than the above award. On the other hand, the bonuses are less valuable in my opinion. But you get more stat points in total.

Hunter-Killer - Each level increases Accuracy and Reactions by one. Awarded only to AI Units for killing enemies. Yes, AI Units can get awards, too. And not just this one. Pretty cool stuff.

Mauler - Same as above, but for dogs and rats. Gives Melee and Reactions.

Gunslinger - Pistols.
Assaulter - SMGs
Shotgun Surgeon - Shotguns
Trooper - Rifles
Sniper - Sniper rifles
Jungle Mower - Miniguns (Yay! Freebie for Lucky award chasers.)
These are all very similar. Gives 1 bonus Accuracy and 1 bonus of another stat (different for every award) at every level. Achieved by killing a number of enemies with the stated type of weapon. Easier to get than Master of {weapon} and more worthwhile to specialice for, in my opinion. Also because the reward is better. Getting several of these to a high level on a single soldier is highly unlikely. Thinking about it again, I think having a high level on a single commendation isn't any better than having low levels on several ones. In fact, diversifying should give you more bonuses in total, because the kill requirements rise (not quite) exponentially for higher levels. Good, because I don't like assigning my soldiers permanent roles. Too much management required.


The following commendations I have not yet unlocked in my own campaign. Therefore I am using the names as they are found in the commendations.rul file, which are not always the same as in-game.

Slavekills - Having mind-controlled enemies kill their brethren. Gives 1 Psi Skill per level.

Quadkill - Same as Ice-Cold Killer and same reward, but more difficult. Requires 4 kills in a turn. Simple grenades won't cut it anymore, you need more boom.

7v7kill - Same again, but even more difficult.

Betrayer - "Awarded" for killing your own agents. Gives Psi Skill, deducts Bravery on every level. Only obsessive completionists want this.

Lone Survivor - For being the last living agent to return from a mission. Gives 1 TU per level and deducts 10 Bravery every third. Sending a lone agent out on a mission doesn't work. Somebody has to actually die. The first 2 levels are actually good, but hardly worth the cost, even if you sacrifice cannon fodder.

Monster - Not exactly sure, but I think it involves using stun damage weapons to kill. It gives you +1 Health and +1 Strength per level. Pretty tempting, especially since the requirements are pretty low (just 2 for level 1). So take out your baseball bats and golf clubs and crack some skulls! Me, I'll rather stick to knives, they're more practical, and surely, there's an award for them as well.

Slasher - Kill 3 enemies in a single turn, using only blades. A difficult task. Enemies need to be close together for this to work. The reward is worth it, though. +1 TUs and +1 Reactions per level.

Rocket Scientist - Rocket launchers
Cannoneer - Cannons
Bombardier - Grenade launchers, mortars
Warrior - Melee weapons (excluding the ones in the next category)
Technician - Tools like stapler gun, wrench, chainsaw, flashlight
Traditionalist - Throwing knives, bows, crossbows (futuristic versions of these also allowed)
Gunner - Machine guns
Purifier - Flame throwers
Grenadier - Grenades
Sorcerer - Magical weapons like Psi-Amp, Storm Rose (Ancient Katana not included )
Again, weapon type-specific awards. Too many different bonuses to mention but again +1 for 2 skills per each level. Now here are many weapon types, that can also help you to farm multikills.


Out of all the commendations listed here (and I hope I haven't missed any), I think Night Owl, Overwatcher, Lucky and the easier of the multikill awards are worth it to pay special attention to and make them a part of your agents' training regimen. Everything else happens when it happens.




Phew, I think that was all. Tell us, if I've missed something, got something wrong or you have additional wisdom to share.



Whenever the requirement for a medal is taking part in a mission or a number of missions, do aborted missions also count?
Looking into the commendations.rul, only Solid specifies winning as a requirement. Theoretically this could be abused for Stormtrooper, since alien bases don't despawn after aborting the mission. Haven't had the opportunity to test it, yet.



I realise that commendations are supposed to add flavour to your agents and provide for some emergent gameplay, rather than be treated like collectibles or be part of your strategy to train your agents. Some of the approaches outlined here could be considered gamey. Don't let obsessive planning get in the way of a fun experience.

40

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: August 17, 2020, 10:57:22 pm »

Looking through the commendations.rul, I noticed the taser cannon is not considered for the incapacitator award.

41

The X-Com Files / Re: Clarification questions

« on: August 17, 2020, 09:02:04 pm »

Dogs.
Strength. Ok, I assume that any armor that effects strength/has negative weight fails to show up in the equipment screen?

Research time. So THAT is what those weird symbols are. I did a search, and found this. I assume it works the same, and that helps a HUGE amount in determining which techs are easy and which require thousands of manhours.

2 Handed Weapons. Is there a quick way to see what is 2 handed and what isn't? Also, do 1 handed weapons have a penalty for duel weilding?

Aim. Ok, so Aimed mode has less aim falloff with distance. That makes sense. Still want to know if there is some new weird equation with longer range, because openxcom wiki claims that Accuracy is more how many degrees off you end up, and with longer range, you are less accurate with the same accuracy value, so I was confused.
Also, shotguns are surprisingly medium range capable, which is awesome and realistic.

Backpack. I don't think the Leather Jacket's description tells you that. Is there a spot in the expanded info that tells you, because I can't find it.

I'm not sure I understand your question. Dog armours show up in the same places as human armours. If you mean the carrying capacity display in the inventory screen - that doesn't show negative values. Say for example your dog has 3 strength, a combat vest and carries no items. Displayed carrying capacity will be 0/3. Put a pistol clip (2 weight) on the dog and you still have 0/3. Put in a medical bag instead (weight 8) and the carrying capacity will show 2/3.

Huh, I've never noticed those symbols before. Awesome.

I thought this was answered sufficiently before. I will add pictures this time.
Two-handedness is displayed on the item itself and in more detail in the ufopedia.
One-handed weapons don't receive any penalty for dual wielding, even if you carry a two-handed weapon in the other hand. Two-handed weapons receive penalties of varying severity to accuracy, if the off-hand isn't free. Some two-handed weapons can't be used at all, if you carry something in the other hand.

Almost. Accuracy drop-off per tile is the same for every firing mode. The difference is the distance, before any drop-off is calculated at all. Look at the last picture. Auto-shot has its stated accuracy until you aim beyond 18 tiles. At that point the accuracy will drop by 3 for every additional tile. Snap-shot goes to 33. Aimed shot isn't displayed (unlimited range on this weapon).
There is also a minimum range on this weapon and other sniper rifles. That works the same way but in reverse. Targets closer than 10 tiles get progressively more difficult to hit.

No, the only way to find out, if an armour has a backpack, is to look at the inventory.

42

The X-Com Files / Re: Clarification questions

« on: August 17, 2020, 01:15:48 pm »

Tracking works by showing nearest entities that have recently moved, you should use it at the start of the round. However this and motion scanners are things i have never used in any useful way.

Gym works this way. If you go to your agents list (from base menu) there will be a sorting option but if you bring it up you will see more than that.

How you use Gym in practise is to slap 10 dudes there all the time (Or 20 if you make 2 gyms) while you use the guys not assigned in gym to train them in missions. So when you reach the point where you can field more than 6 guys, you will have reserves of atleast average troops. Not sure about exact numbers and timers of improvement so i wont comment about it.

Motion scanners come in quite handy in large, multi-story structures (like Exalt HQ, cruise liners, your own bases). The ability to see through walls, floors and ceilings makes up for the short scanning range. I'm not using it enough myself. So far, I've mostly used the ability to find ninjas.

You can also access the gym by right-clicking the building. Nice shortcut, takes two clicks less. This works on most buildings, by the way.

I am not 100% sure about this, but I think you can take agents on missions and still train them in the gym at the same time. The gym only checks, if an agent is assigned at the end of each day. Having an agent assigned to the gym does not prevent assignment to a craft and vice-versa. Only healing time can interrupt training. So you don't have to constantly shuffle around your dudes between the gym and the transport craft.

43

The X-Com Files / Re: Clarification questions

« on: August 17, 2020, 10:02:26 am »

I don't know enough about stun damage to really be able to tell you how it works. I will leave that question to somebody else.

The combat vest for dogs doesn't give strength but carrying capacity (or rather, it adds -6 weight). Try putting items in its inventory and you will see the effect.
Tracking works exactly like the motion scanner, except it also deducts some morale from each use. Because both of the dog's weapon slots are already occupied by Bite and Bark, the button for Track has been put in the upper right corner of the screen. Easy to overlook, if you don't know it's there.

Each soldier in the gym has a certain chance (don't ask me how much) to have a random stat increased by 1 each day (at midnight). Bravery, Reactions and Psi aren't trained by the gym.
There are indeed limits to how much a soldier can be trained in the gym. As far as I know, the stat caps here are the same as the maximum possible stats for newly hired recruits. You will be notified, when a soldier has reached that point. From then on, further increases are only possible through battle. Also through commendations and transformations, but those are bonuses, that ignore stat limits.

There is no way to know, which enemies you will be facing, unless the mission description outright tells you. This indeed limits the usefulness of the hazmat suit (I can only really think of one or two mission types, where it comes in handy). By far the most creatures deal cutting damage, some acid. Other damage types are very rare. Your best protection against creatures early on is the leather coat.

No display for manhours on research. The length of duration for research projects is in fact randomized to some degree. The progress (Unknown, Average, etc.) is derived from how many days are left until completion, based on the current research speed, if I remember correctly. There is probably a chart for that somewhere.

Check the info button on an item's ufopedia page. It will show 2-handedness and many other useful information. The info section is for stuff, that doesn't fit in the description because of space limitations or because it is too obscure and boring. There is no penalty for dual wielding one handed weapons.

As you've already noticed, distance can reduce a weapon's accuracy. Aimed mode can aim farther than snap and snap farther than burst, before accuracy starts to drop off. Some weapons (typically rifles) have unlimited aimed mode range. Again, specifics are in the info section of each weapon.

There is no way to help you with your forgetfulness regarding the loadout screen, except save before every mission. The loadout screen can also be accessed outside of battle, however. Under the equipment screen of each craft, you can find the inventory for soldiers assigned to the craft.

Some armours have backpacks, others don't. The suit and kevlar vest don't have one, for example. The leather coat does.

44

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: August 16, 2020, 03:22:37 am »

I need some more tips guys...

Well, there are plenty more tips in other threads, even some threads dedicated entirely to tips for beginners. You will have to do a bit of searching, though.
Here is one I remember: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,7730.0.html

As for answering the questions you posed here:
Enemy grenades are indeed a bummer. There isn't much you can do except keeping some space between all of your agents. Of course that isn't always possible and sometimes enemies will lob grenades even at lone agents. You will have to live with that.

As for smoke grenades, you can improvise. Scout drones and fire extinguishers can also generate a dense smoke screen (but smaller)! Yes, you heard right, fire extinguishers! In fact, I would consider this their main use. The reverse also works: Smoke grenades stop fires. One word of caution about smoke, though: It's no longer the all-powerful tool it was in vanilla and can even do more harm than good in some cases. Some enemies see right through it (thermovision stat), some will fire blindly into the smoke (in that case you were spotted by another enemy, or they are shooting at your last known location). Nothing beats solid cover.

Kevlar? That's indeed subpar in '98.
Helicopters are fine, though. In fact, you won't get much bigger transports any time soon. 6 agents can accomplish a lot, as long as they experienced enough...

Which might be your main problem. If your agents are as short-lived as you say, it's no surprise, that you are having trouble.
Remember, that you don't have to do every mission. Aborting even on turn 1 is no sin, if the odds are stacked heavily against you. The difficulty curve in this mod is not entirely linear and that is intentional.
Conserving the lives of your agents is all-important. That being said, losses are unavoidable sometimes. Dogs are cheaper cannon-fodder and also more likely to survive scouting.

Finally you can always lower the difficulty without starting a new game. Easily done by editing the save file. If you play on Superhuman, you deserve no sympathy.

45

The X-Com Files / Re: Staged Progression or Timed Progression?

« on: August 14, 2020, 09:21:34 pm »

There are some cases, in which it can be advantegous to delay some research.
Say for example, that you are having trouble dealing with a certain faction. You might want to avoid doing research, that triggers new, presumably harder, missions for that faction until you are better prepared.
Or you might want to continue doing some easy missions, that generate good income, before advancing.
But usually such considerations require a bit of prior knowledge about the game. No need to overthink this.

Your main concern is to be prepared for the alien invasion around January '99. That one happens no matter what.
Your goal should be to build up your organization to a level, that is equal to or better than X-Com at the start of the vanilla game by that time and also to destroy the cults.
If you haven't destroyed a single cult before the end of '98, you are doing poorly.

The tech viewer just says that it does SOMETHING, not what exactly.
It has been added, because people were seeing research topics that (supposedly) didn't do anything... and annoyed the living hell out of me asking why does it not do anything every other day... no other reason for its existence really.

I'm glad this feature exists.
X-Com unfortunately doesn't have a research preview description like many more modern games in the genre. You only know the effects of your research, once it is done. In vanilla X-Com that didn't matter yet, since all research topics were pretty self-explanatory and the research tree was rather small, anyway. Complex mods like Piratez or XCF, however, really benefit from being able to hand out some extra info.

Perhaps having it say "Affects mission/event selection" instead of "Affects game progression" would make it a bit clearer for new players?