Messages

376

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: QOL: escorts redirected to the base after the escorted craft's mission is over?

« on: November 26, 2023, 05:26:30 pm »

Wow, thanks a lot Meridian!

377

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [DONE] QOL: escorts redirected to the base after the escorted craft's mission is over?

« on: November 26, 2023, 03:41:17 pm »

When a craft is returning from a ground mission, it cannot be attacked by the alien craft. Thus there is never any need for escorts (but the escorts themselves may be in danger of hunter-killers and at any rate, it would make sense to get them back for refueling etc,). Because the escorts are usually much faster than the transports, they should always return home immediately after the craft which had a mission is on the return journey (unless the player wants to give them some other target).

Would it be feasible to make a small QOL improvement: the escorts would automatically be redirected to the base after the craft they're escorting is on its return journey (obviously, the player could redirect the escorts to do something else if needed). This would avoid all the clicking after each mission.

I'm assuring the game is aware that an escort is escorting a craft that is returning from a mission (_craft->getMissionComplete(), I suppose) and actually requires no escort.

378

OXCE Bugs FIXED / Re: Game Allows To Launch Craft Without Pilots

« on: November 26, 2023, 11:39:24 am »

Were you able to replicate teleporting soldiers? I still can't replicate that.

I only tried the flying empty craft. I now tried, but could not get a pilot to appear on the craft after changing it to patrol (but there weren't all that many details in the post as to how to do it anyway). Maybe Dioxine will provide more information. And/or the issue becomes moot if the craft pilots > 0 is checked before fly-transfer.

379

OXCE Bugs FIXED / Re: Game Allows To Launch Craft Without Pilots

« on: November 25, 2023, 11:38:52 pm »

I can reproduce the issue as follows in 7.9.18. Remove all crew from a craft. Click 'I' on the globe. Select the craft, then another base (within the dual fuel range) as the destination. Select transfer. Voila - the craft starts flying without a pilot. (And after that, you can also reroute the the craft.)

380

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.1: Lights in The Sky

« on: November 25, 2023, 03:00:20 pm »

This means that sooner or later, but the package with spartanism will be a reward for the defeated syndicate.

Yes. The chance is so low that sometimes this takes very long time (in my recent campaign, over 6 months) to get the reward. This seems a bit unfair, but it's up to SS to fix. It would be trivial to raise the odds to say, 50 or 70%.

381

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.1: Lights in The Sky

« on: November 25, 2023, 01:40:23 pm »

Please explain. I defeated the syndicate, and I received a package with spartanism. I looked at the database a bit, and found that the chance of unpacking spartanism from the packege is 25%. Does this mean that I am very lucky, or am I wrong and spartanism is a guaranteed reward for defeating the syndicate?

No, you always get spartanism from researching the parcel. You're confusing this with the monthly chance to receive the parcel after defeating the syndicate, which is 25 %:

  - type: STR_SYNDICATE_MYSTERIOUS_PARCEL
    eventWeights:
      0:
        STR_SYNDICATE_MYSTERIOUS_PARCEL: 100
    researchTriggers:
       STR_SYNDICATE_TESTAMENT_DECRYPTED: true
       STR_SYNDICATE_MYSTERIOUS_PARCEL_RECEIVED: false
    firstMonth: 0
    executionOdds: 25

....

 - name: STR_SYNDICATE_MYSTERIOUS_PARCEL
    cost: 3
    points: 3
    needItem: true
    destroyItem: true
    lookup: STR_SPARTANISM
    dependencies:
      - STR_SYNDICATE_TESTAMENT_DECRYPTED

382

The X-Com Files / Re: New Topic

« on: November 23, 2023, 04:28:42 pm »

Probably been covered but, is there any benefit at all into researching "Using flame glove".. Using Dragon staff" "Using Storm rose".. "Using"..etc..etc..
No completed research documentation ever pops for these (Ufopedia) when the research is done.

Well, yes. You can't use those items (except throw them around or some such) unless you research the "using" topic.

Of course, it's a bit illogical. You can spend quite a bit of research and figure out what the item does. Then you can decide whether you want to research it further. But it would be more logical to figure out how to use the item also in the first bit of research. If you didn't know how to use it, you shouldn't learn much of what it does either. That is, you shouldn't be able to find out what those magical items can do unless you at the same time figure out how you use them.

383

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.1: Lights in The Sky

« on: November 22, 2023, 05:21:35 pm »

Is this too late to recover from? I have not wasted time with other things, I have 15 scientiests and have quite good progress with the research I can do, got bored enough to research alien containment (sadly too late for a military shot down ufo mission but I lost barely anyway because I Could only reach it with a car... was really hoping for that cash boost but I told myself no reloading! died to the last alien and a panic that ran the other guy into the alien)

There is almost zero chance of being able to deal with military-shot-down UFO with a car (or van) without major save scumming or extreme luck. Or most other missions for that matter, especially in higher difficulty levels. Even helicopter can be risky, and I'd rather prefer the osprey. But you can get helicopter before you get all the cult networks, so part of your pain is self-inflicted for ignoring obtaining better transport.

384

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.58)

« on: November 21, 2023, 09:42:36 pm »

After having played X-Com Files with its 'sanity loss' concept (1-4 per turn on some alien missions), it certainly encourages you to go out more and not camp around in your craft. You can actually 'cheeze' almost all TFTD missions if you want, and some of them really require using this tactic (e.g. most terror missions). Another consequence is that you may need to rotate your soldiers more as they recover from the loss (1-8 per day, depending on facilities). Some similar concept could indeed be interesting. But I fear it would very tricky to get balanced properly, given that many missions in TFTD are worse bughunts and the difficulty could become excessive.

385

OpenXcom Extended / Re: OXCE (OpenXcom Extended) main thread

« on: November 21, 2023, 08:55:01 pm »

I have set up a test to build OXCE AppImage whenever a new OXCE is released. This should theoretically make it very easy to run OXCE on any linux distro (and WSL?), although I've only tested it on Ubuntu 20.04 & Fedora 38 myself.
...
Releases can be found here: https://github.com/pedroterzero/oxce-docker/releases

I wonder why the scripts are called build-latest.sh and get-latest.sh, even though they are not getting the latest version but rather the version you have to specify in VERSION. Wouldn't it make sense for the scripts to find out what's the latest version? Or name them in a different manner.

386

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.58)

« on: November 21, 2023, 06:18:59 am »

The fact that an Aquatoid Navigator can only be acquired at Terror missions is ridiculous if not horrible. Terror mission are literally the last place to look for a navigators. Navigators are supposed to be where alien navigations are -- in Usos! Is this mod is build around that a player already knows what and where to get in order to proceed?

They can be obtained, for example, from medium USOs as well. But that is heavily based on RNG as well. It is not all that likely that aquatoids launch missions in the areas covered by your radar(s) that lead to medium USOs all that soon. About 1/3 of time, I get the navigator from USO (the rest are divided between regular terror missions and the antarctic excavation mission, which is your best bet to get one if RNG gives you that mission). There typically are some such USO missions by this time, but they can be other races as well. And the tricky part of capturing one in USOs is that quite often there are hunter-killers present with medium subs, so you need to be very careful.

Also sharkmen have navigators, but capturing one a lot more painful than aquatoid, because the are much tougher. And if you chance to get a terror mission, they are accompanied by deadly biodrones (which at certain point is a welcome thing, so that you don't get locked out of sonic weapons manufacturing).

387

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.58)

« on: November 20, 2023, 08:50:43 pm »

Just for fun, I started another SH IM run. July just started, and I have seen one aquatoid terror mission (ship terror) where I was unable to capture the navigator (I think it died from overstun). I have not dared to check yet which artifact site mission I got. No sight of aquatoid missions and so medium subs, though at least gillmen have built 2-3 bases already. So still can't unlock gauss, which is making the following game quite a bit harder. In some other runs, I might have gotten lucky already in April or May.

Maybe the probabilities for aquatoid terror missions could be increased somewhat, so that your success is not so clearly at the mercy of RNG. For example, the chances for an aquatoid surface attack through months 3-7 is only 20 %, and in this mod obtaining a deep one corpse is not so crucial as in vanilla TFTD (you can get aqua plastics also from early-game xarquids).

388

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

« on: November 20, 2023, 03:02:52 pm »

FWIW, the vampire castle is otherwise very annoying as well. Almost always there are some zombies more or less lost in the catacombs below, and finding them can be painful if there are too many of them still left so that the bug hunt mode doesn't fire off. (And even if it does.) I'm doubtful if there is going to be any change to this, but I'd still suggest reducing the catacombs considerably. They serve no purpose at all.

Similar argument, by the way, also applies to the secret military base missions (e.g. the siberian base full of spiders). Why on earth should such bases be full of very small tunnels that essentially lead to nowhere, just circle around and create a jungle of paths. But I suspect this is likewise intended to more or less annoy the players.

389

The X-Com Files / Re: Chump desperately needs help :P

« on: November 20, 2023, 10:59:12 am »

Generally, throw them where your troops are, or between your troops and the enemy (closer to you). Avoid throwing at the enemy. The main reason is that smoke grenades essentially add squares to vision range. If it covers your soldiers, then you have really good control over who you can and can't see (by moving into or out of the smoke), and each square of smoke you move through means an enemy has to move through several squares. The general strategy is to deploy the smoke, walk out and spot an enemy, shoot them directly (if you can risk the reaction fire), or walk back and shoot them blindly (or with another soldier).

I'll just add one tidbit here. If you use smoke extensively *), it is often useful to have a scout drone with you, because it can see through smoke (with 50% thermal vision). The big benefit of this is that you don't need to get out from the cover of smoke and get spotted (and after that, grenaded or sniped by the snipers). So using smoke but leaving it and getting spotted may be rather risky. The worst case scenario here would be that the snipers throw grenades at your 'scout agent' that returned to the cover of the smoke, but the same grenades also would kill those agents that never left the smoke. Another alternative is using dogs and try to find the enemies within the smoke using their sniffing (sensor).

*) I say this because it may be easier to do without in most missions in the early game, by going for the cults at night and throwing out flares. That way you don't cripple your own vision (or need dogs or drones), yet can still see the enemies.

Start of game, I would say the most important research are: Logistics (Van), Kevlar Vests (basic protection for cult missions), and Promotion 1 (smoke grenades). After that, try to get Dogs (helps a ton with undercover missions which are money makers), followed by the Helicopter to get 6 Soldiers out on missions. Better weapons can usually wait a bit, since you'll likely loot plenty of rifles that you can immediately use. However, the Hunting Rifle is pretty darn good.

While all of these are important, I'd suggest also going for the Bio Lab as soon as possible (and Intelligence center, once it becomes viable later on). Being able to get 5 or 10 additional scientists (i.e. double or triple your research capacity) speeds up your research and all the others a LOT. Struggling by with 5 scientists for a long time slows your progress. While logistics is a big priority, I think trying to get Bio Lab faster makes more sense than, for example, obtaining better protection (that won't probably save you all the time anyway).

390

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.1: Lights in The Sky

« on: November 20, 2023, 07:10:00 am »

okay thanks all for advice, and yes I meant to say, Mass Driver weapons, I am wondering where you get them? The description to me sounds like a rail gun. I am assuming it is worse weapon than other late game things but I just like the idea of them lol

You can get them from the MIBs. I have never found much use for them myself, but I guess this depends on what else you have, how many MIB missions come at your way, what else you have to research, etc.

For the spotter/sniper mechanic, if the spotter is killed do the snipers still see+shoot you if the sniper themselves are not in range to see you?

The snipers will snipe/grenade you even if you kill the spotter directly.