Recent Posts

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Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.30)

« Last post by wolwerin on Today at 04:15:28 pm »

Oh, that seems I provided wrong info, sorry about that. This run is over anyway. Well if you'll fix it next patch in would be great, now the question about changing pools a little, may be moving stairs to different place or redesign it completely.
P.S.
This mod just loves me. It's wanna kill my run again. Hey aliens why not build you base just in one mile of mine HQ base next time? Why so far now?

Any suggestion what should I do, consider what I'm just building my Barracuda? Funny stuff. Save file for enthusiasts who may want play from this moment.

As they like to do it, they did not give rest to one my base, about 7-9 times were under construction nearby. And it made it burn.

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

« Last post by tarkalak on Today at 12:29:41 pm »

In my research tree it shows the "Men in Black" researches as items.  I have the prerequisites but can't research because I don't have the item. I'm a version behind, but I didn't see it mentioned.

Look at the "Unlocked by" entities. When you research one of these you get one of the researches listed at "Unlocks one of these at random:" (don't remember actual text.).

So, in short, you need to repeatedly research MIB Coordinators, MIB Commanders and MIB Psi-Ops until one of them coughs up the "Man in Black" topic.
It is a good idea to research all the guns and other items/dossiers they unlock before interrogating them so you will minimize the chance of getting junk from a hard interrogation.

The Item "Men in Black" exists only to block researching the topic the old fasioned way.

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The X-Com Files / Re: Dossiers wanted!

« Last post by tarkalak on Today at 11:48:10 am »

....
EDIT: Can I remove the reference to the Chief Researcher? It would complicate the tech tree, and also this guy doesn't like giving credits that much.

Modify them as you see fit.

Staff input: Chief Engineer.
Prerequisites: Any Alien cool gadget after he is recruited and psiclone is researched.

Hello Commander,
I have come to inform you of the lack of respect that my fellow colleagues show to me. Somebody have drawn wolf ears and back swords on all my Ironman posters and written "WINTER IS CUMING" all over them and my personal workbench. This is a gross violation of my personal space and a mockery both to my surname and my favorite fiction character.

And this is not the worst. I have overheard that vile chief accountant saying that she had seen me sneak in the lab and take a psiclone. She called me "STARK RAVING MAD" and also claimed that I have repeatedly used the device and that I roam the corridors at night naked and babbling uncontrollably. That has happened only ONCE, for Christ sake, and I was DRUNK. Drunk, not ... What commander? Where did I get alcohol? I ... uh ... I ... uhm ... I don't remember. No, no, no, no, no, you can't break the still, we need it for the ... um ... helicopter, yes, the helicopter. It has this anti-frost mechanism where pure alcohol is sprayed on the blades to prevent icing. I am not making this up, it is in the manual.

Thank you for your time commander.

I changed the doctor with the Chief Accountant. What else do you think needs change?

And that poster vandalism sounds totally like the Intelligence lady!

She wouldn't leave any clues to who did that, would she? 
Just some giggling in the distance.

Any flying armor would be fine for the second one.

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Playthroughs / Re: Let's play The X-COM Files, shall we?

« Last post by tkzv on Today at 01:32:19 am »

30. Turn 2. Another civilian showed up. Unarmed. The shambler ignored the man with the pick and went for the agents. Chan made a reaction shot and missed. At least the beast came close enough for aimed shots.

31. Chan made it bleed. Good! Now it loses several hit points every turn. (Out of 100-150 if I remember correctly.)

32. Moved Shaman to the point where he's unlikely to hit friends. He's a better marksman than Chan. What I like about Glock is its automatic fire capability. Though the range is still too far for that, I'll use aimed shots for now.

33. Turn 3. Wounded shambler hesitated approaching the agents and kept circling the crack. Good. Let's shoot some more.

34. Turn 4. Out of 8 shots only 1 hit and shambler came closer. Should I retreat? Or one last burst from each agent? (I mean aimed shots.)

35. Turn 5. Most shots on turn 4 hit and the shambler stayed in its place. One 2 more bursts?

36. One shot was enough. Maybe I could've run to the beast and stunned it. Well, there'd be many more missions and many more shamblers.

37. Shaman hit the target more times and got more experience. Anyway, Chan is still better in everything, but accuracy and bravery.

38. I could sell the corpse, but I'll keep it for study. Much later, I'm afraid.


40. Before the 1st team returned to the base, the crew for the 2nd car arrived. At least, they are better marksmen.

Tomorrow I'll start patrolling Europe in search of UFOs. Cars have better detection probability than HQ, but very short radius.

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Playthroughs / Re: Let's play The X-COM Files, shall we?

« Last post by tkzv on Today at 12:55:47 am »

17. 1st mission.

18. In South America.

19. Some mysterious dangerous animals have killed several people.

21. Upon arrival I find that only 1 man has been killed. On lowest difficulty that means fighting only 1 monster. Good!

22. Chan is strong enough to carry both pistols and an electric club in case of close combat.

23. Shaman — not so much. Hopefully, 4 taser shots would be enough.

24. Here we are. 1 civilian and no monsters in sight. Let's move out. But be ready to retreat if the enemy proves too tough.

25. The civilian is armed with a pick. That's bad — he's more likely to attack the enemy. With rookies' precision, they may be more dangerous than the monster. Than again, unarmed civilians attack monsters with fists too.

28, 27. Here's the monster ­— a shambler ­— a giant polar sloth. Last time I tried shotguns against them, buckshot didn't work. In that mission a group of shamblers attacked a tank and tore it apart. Too far for rookies, even with Glocks. I need to come closer. And fast — before he reaches the civilians.

Waiting for the next turn...

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Playthroughs / Re: Let's play The X-COM Files, shall we?

« Last post by tkzv on Today at 12:13:11 am »

Logistics > Bio Lab is the agreed upon optimal start. Double the men on some missions, then boost your research for little investment.

I feel that Bio Lab takes forever to reach, while Leather Coat remains useful up to cult bases. Let's try your suggestion anyway.

Here's the 1st month.

0. As suggested at LOR, I moved the 1st base to the Caspian sea. Somewhere to Volgograd region of Russia.

1. I set the modules in a frequently suggested defensive way.

2. But I don't think I need the corridor.

3. Set the agents for training.

4. As requested at LOR, I renamed one of them to Shaman Ashmanovich. From Prague. At least, he'll make a fast pilot.

5. Starting equipment. Glocks are OK. I'll keep the shotguns for zombies, but won't buy any more.

11, 12. Time to buy some essentials. Taser pistols (2 more for new hires), more Glock clips (I run out of those pretty fast), lights (expensive!) and fire extinguishers that double as smoke cover. They'll arrive in 24 hours.

15. The scientists will focus on Basic Operations. I agree that 2 agents is way too few.
Edit: DAMN!!! I meant Logistics!!!! Well, lost a week.

16. And the 2-day long month is over. The score of 0 means there were no UFOs I missed.

Next month — hiring another team of 2. Should I build another base to shorten travel time? I have enough money for 1. British Columbia or Taiwan look like good locations.

P.S. Screenshots are a bit too big. Next time I'll make them in a smaller window.

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Released Mods / Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] XCR: X-COM Classic Remastered

« Last post by Coincident on June 25, 2019, 11:42:53 pm »

Version 1.1 released and added to the mod portal.

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3287.msg113764.html#msg113764

Thank you for the info. So it's confirmed that -1 means no-sprite. 

So it was a few days of hell on a genius level. But the soldiers did not want to learn to shoot straight, enemy tanks were armored, and units without armor withstand several sniper shots. Even dogs from the first shot often do not die. Keeping a balance between lost battles and won battles, it all comes down to a weak economy and long research.
My subjective opinion is that this mod is even harder to feel long war on a difficult level. My patience has run out after losing the third game in two days.

Thank you for trying the mod, and for the honest feedback.
I'm sorry that it didn't work out for you - the mod is indeed very hard even in lower difficulties, let alone genius/superhuman.

As for some specifics:
 - Soldiers with bad accuracy were also a source of frustration for me when play-testing. But that only made me value more the soldiers that got good stats after living past 6-7 missions. At that moment you can use them as snipers, safely shooting from long range, while rookies scout for enemies.
 - It helps a LOT to get early laser weapons - even the laser pistol makes quite a difference. They have the highest accuracy (good for rookie soldiers) and are excellent at killing enemy tanks. Both the Cyberdisk and the Sectopod are vulnerable to lasers.
 - The "dogs" (Reaper right?) were made slightly stronger and faster - but they are very vulnerable to explosives. Rockets are very effective, but sometimes even a grenade is enough.

(These are the sort of things you can read in the ufopedia once you get some research done, but it's also in the manual)

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XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« Last post by Eddie on June 25, 2019, 10:38:34 pm »

Is it just me, or spartans in this very early mission (survivalists) have grossly larger night vision than I do? I was shot by a scout from about 25 tiles away and kept getting pounded from all sides not even seeing who does it (I even turned off L lights, even that didn't help). Do they share their targets (as in if one sees a gal, they all do)? Also, is it intentional that we don't have clear indication of who is in darkness and who isn't?

This needs some explaining, as the mechanic at work is *very* unintuitive.

What you experience is the sniper/spotter mechanic. Spartan scouts have the *spotter* poroperty. If they get a glimps of one of your units, they know their location for x amount of turns (usually 2 or 3). No matter if they actually see them, they know the location. You can stand in complete darkness 40 tiles away and they still know the location. They have map hack on your unit.
Next: hitting a spotter enabled unit with a ranged weapon enables the spotter behaviour. You can shoot the spartan scout in the back from 40 tiles away, standing in complete darkness. If the shot connects, the scout sees the unit that made the shot.

Now to do some actual shooting or grenade throwing, the unit must have the *sniper* property. That is a value of for example 33%. This means that unit has a 33% chance to shoot at a target it can not see, but a spotter has knowledge of.
What I'm unsure about is if killing a spotter cancels the knowledge of your unit, but I would assume that is the case. Not sure if unconcious does the same.

As far as I know there is no way in game to find out which units are sniper/spotter. You have to look in the ruleset.

Bottom line, night mission or smoke tactics won't protect you from beeing shot at with sniper/spotter enemies.

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Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.30)

« Last post by Shiroi Bara on June 25, 2019, 09:56:01 pm »

Oh, that seems I provided wrong info, sorry about that. This run is over anyway. Well if you'll fix it next patch in would be great, now the question about changing pools a little, may be moving stairs to different place or redesign it completely.
P.S.
This mod just loves me. It's wanna kill my run again. Hey aliens why not build you base just in one mile of mine HQ base next time? Why so far now?

Any suggestion what should I do, consider what I'm just building my Barracuda? Funny stuff. Save file for enthusiasts who may want play from this moment.
 

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Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.30)

« Last post by Nord on June 25, 2019, 09:20:52 pm »

Have you check the save file yet? 

I have now.
It is alien containment facility, where single door is. And it is vanilla map. I can, therefore, change this map in next patch.