This mod is confusing.. how do i keep failing on march?

[Rift]

even just playing it on the easiest setting, i go and do every cult apprehension mission that pops up, every strange creature that pops up, very few missions decay, yet because of the NON STOP CONSTANT random little events, im getting like -1500 score per month, which is failure by march 1st.

what am i doing wrong? im doing things as fast as i can. i dont really see what i could be doing different.  other than the score thing, the game is going great even with the limited research early on

[Juku121]

In general, RNG can screw you over. And that's not limited to just events. Quite a few missions have much bigger penalties than completion score, there may be something (UFO or not) flying around unseen, etc.

The easiest way to answer your question with precision is if you posted your immediately-before-game-over save. This way, people can look things over, offer tips (on score and more generally), check whether there might be a bug somewhere, etc.

[Rift]

ok, i can do that.  this is like 2 hours before failure.   even during my first month on several game attempts its like a -1300 score.

[Juku121]

What immediately catches my eye is "version: FtA 0.7.1". You're not using OXCE, you're not even using Brutal AI, you're using Finnik's fork.

[Rift]

i am using openxcomextended, and no, i mentioned at the start that i was using beginner difficulty to get  adjusted to the mods.  i dont know what finnik's fork is though

[Juku121]

In that case, I don't know how your save got that tag. Finnik's fork is From the Ashes.

Unless the event counters are not as straightforward as I think, there is indeed at least some 2000 several hundred negative score in events (including quite a few with under less than 2% chance of happening). And you seem to have done about 10 missions or so, with very middling scores, out of at least over 30. Not sure what's up with that negative research score, either.

I suspect FtA might be screwing up some things, but in general it looks like you were given a bad hand and you didn't play well enough to offset that.

[Rift]

not sure how i could have done better on those missions.. lol no civillians on the maps, just 1 cultist, i rush him and stun him, no deaths.  mission over.

are the events suppose to be triggering this often? its almost non stop, with maybe a day between each one. i dont see how im suppose to deal with the constant -25, -50, -100's from all that when i only get like +4 for the missions im getting

[Juku121]

Did you really get three of each "Iron Eagles Down!", "Missing Child" and "It's The Zombies!"?

Edit4: And, no, the events are not supposed to pop as often as that.




Edit: Otherwise, the problem is not doing better in missions. That is indeed not possible. But each Cult Apprehension you miss (as in, do not reach) is 200 score down the drain, and you seem to have done 9/14. That by itself is about -1000 right there.

Edit2: Two missed Madman Rampages are another -600, and the crop circles and cattle abductions are another -400. And for comparison, your total mission score is 58.

Edit3: Still not sure why you have such a negative research score. That single flaslight research is not enough for that.

Also, you seem to not have read most of the Ufopedia. Some of the problem might be there as well, if not now then in the future.



Edit5: I tried a beginner game for comparison, and the first month (with 'month 0' missions and all) gave me -3k score when I did nothing (and virtually none of that came from events). So, yes, the big lesson here is to do every mission. Because the Council is watching.

Edit6: Counterintuitively, Beginner difficulty actually makes the game harder to a degree, since there are less enemies and thus less loot and score on every individual mission.

[Rift]

i'll keep trying. i thought i was doing pretty ok but obviously i wasnt lol. i was sending people out on missions as soon as the van came back.

i didnt know i got score from reading the ufopedia entries. thats normally the first thing i do whenever i start up a new game

where are you seeing all these details though? i dont see any of that on my gameover screen

[Juku121]

The van is very slow. You need a third hangar ASAP, and also at least one car running the more time-critical missions. You might even want to preventively send a van out to the other side of the globe so you have better coverage.

Reading Ufopedia entries, at least the Field Manual, is part of getting used to the mod. You don't get score for that, heh. You get knowledge.

I read the save file. It's all plain text.



Edit: I am still not sure there's not an event-generation bug here, but at least on the face of it, the cause of your loss is clear: The Council evaluated your performance and found it wanting.



Edit2: @Solarius: Indicentally, this also seems pretty conclusive evidence that removing 'month 0' missions from at least Beginner is a good idea.

[Meridian]

This particular case is evidence for exactly nothing.

It was played with FtA, one way or another, and with a really old one as well.

Most new mission and event filters don't work in that version of FtA, so he likely got too much garbage generated that wasn't supposed to be there.

I'm not saying XCF doesn't need rebalancing... just that this particular case cannot be used for any kind of argumentation, because it's a completely invalid combination of engine and mod.

[Juku121]

Well, that'd explain some of it.

But even if all these negative events occurred due to engine mismatch, it still seems that most of the save's negative score came not from those but from missing missions due to using only one van and nothing else. Plus the 3k score hole I got myself.

[Solarius Scorch]

Fine, fine. I'll disable most missions in month 0.
*pouting*

[BishopAU]

So.. I have the same issue..

I have a fresh install of OXCE and fresh install of XCF. And I've played XCF years ago and was fine, but returning to it, I get random "Rat Infestation -50" "Beach Sightings -25" and "Old Crop circles -33" absolutely constantly.. I started a new playthrough and fast forwarded, I got 4 random negative events in the first 15 days.

Then I got 4 Cult activities and 3 Strange life forms in the first 10 days. I dont remember this mod being so busy.. Is this normal or is there an issue with the latest version?

Secondly, A mission costing -300 if you don't go and awarding like +30 for a flawless completion is so shit, especially when you've finished the cult network researches and it keeps spawning cult activities that only have basic goons at them.

Or you just go to a homicidal maniac mission, shoot one guy and get +700 points?

Anyway, this is a bit of a rant but if nothing is wrong with the version, it desperately needs balancing. I'm not saying its unplayable, but its not fun doing ~20 crap repeat missions a month.

[Juku121]

Well, if you're also constantly barraged by events, post your save. Maybe you're also using some exotic combination of engine and mod.

Although 4 negative events for two weeks isn't particularly noteworthy. Getting them every day or two, and really bad ones, is.

The very last version is supposed to have less of an overload for your very first month, i.e. much reduced double-dipping.

A normal (i.e. non-first) month should have these averages. Your 4 cults and 3 monsters are a bit higher than bi-weekly average, but not particularly abnormal. I haven't checked what exactly Solarius has disabled, but these might still be even higher for 'month 0', i.e. December 30-31 combined with January.

Points penalties are designed to be as they are, for better or worse. Like a regular job, you don't get paid extra for doing what you're supposed to, but do get your pay docked if you screw up.

Network research at least disables the 'arrest random cultists' missions, and operations kill off the small safehouses. Perhaps there should be something that also delegates outposts to locals/Salvagers/whoever, while the cult is still alive?