XPiratez Information Compilation, Starter Guide & Weapon Spreadsheet

[eharper256]

No need for any eye-rolling, I have precisely one successful (and still in progress!) game. Of course stuff will be missed!!

I do appreciate you pointing this out. If there's not enough data, strangely enough, we will end up with flawed conclusions (funnily enough, science is like that).

Again, yikes that's a subtle difference when you look at the wiki, and one with zero context (literally just a tick).

As you say, no in-game or wiki data for chokes, so we therefore can't base spreadsheets on that (if someone wants to datamine all the choke data for me go ahead, but I don't have that time!)

Unfortunately, I just have many more Heavy Lasers than I do Precision Laser (actually I have precisely 1 Precision Laser, and 2 cells for it lol). Nothing has dropped any in a while, not to mention to mention I'm the kind that goes (sigh "guys we can't have this many zero damage rolls!" lets reload the save). If there's one feature of New X-COM that Old X-COM should back convert, it's predictable damage and less RNG influence, IMHO. If Dioxine added Gaussian damage and to-hit to every weapon tomorrow I'd be the first person out there praising the shit out of that.

Yes, I do hyperfixate on range a bit. But I think it's understandable; more range is more safety and more time saved, and with how it progresses, you are constantly in danger in XPiratez, and I want to get away with less than 10 save reloads in a single tactical, and most enemies wiped out before round 10 if I can help it. I only get 3-4 hours of play a day after work, I don't want to spend it all on one Mutant Pogrom.

In any case; I will add some changes based on this.

[Delian]

Damage outcome is gaussian.

Pyramid, not gaussian (you'd need 3 rolls for gaussian distribution)

[Iazo]

Man, just saying, reloading your game repeatedly is no way to play the game, and git gud as them kids would say.

You will form very bad habits, and are ABSOLUTELY get horrible skews in your results by playing that way. You will take way more chances. And value your unit's lives a lot less.

[eharper256]

I'm pretty sure it's the traditonal X-COM way to hover over the quickload whilst praying to the RNG gods.

When I was young, I had much more tolerance for surprises in games, but then I also had much more time to spare.

I don't reload anything when it's clearly my tactical error in judgement, or if it's a few misses here an there. I've turned up to several missions and gone "nope" and just left. I have a few casualties and I have no problems with that.

It's just when stupid shit happens; like the entire squad surges out and everyone misses all their 90% chances. Or like, a no-armour enemy survives a full barrage of autofire, and you're like "I don't have the TU's to waste on that shit". Or, as I mention, a rare interrogation that I may not get another chance at in weeks NOT giving me the correct info for VITAL progress. That's just artifical difficulty and dragging out needless hours and it can go die in a fire.

[Boltgun]

Play the way you want as long as you have a good time. My current campaign is at difficulty 1 and I reload a lot in the battlescape because I keep forgetting to double check TU costs or energy.

[eharper256]

Play the way you want as long as you have a good time. My current campaign is at difficulty 1 and I reload a lot in the battlescape because I keep forgetting to double check TU costs or energy.

Yes precisely; if you love to go Ironman, go Ironman. If you love to reload every time a shot misses, do that. As long you're all having fun at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

[Vakrug]

If you love to go Ironman, go Ironman. If you love to reload every time a shot misses, do that.

The difference here is that "Ironman" player have rights to speak about game's difficulty and overall balance, while the latter don't.

[Rokksta]

The difference here is that "Ironman" player have rights to speak about game's difficulty and overall balance, while the latter don't.

Thats like saying Jack Sparrow Players don't have the right to speak, because the game is balanced on Davy Jones

[Iazo]

Thats like saying Jack Sparrow Players don't have the right to speak, because the game is balanced on Davy Jones

Well, you'll be happy to find out that Dioxine does not balance around JS.


Now, that out of the way, I didn't mean to start a holy war between saving and ironman, BUT I think it is fairly common sense that you need to note in your guide somewhere if you write a guide assuming saving and realoading, because thst ABSOLUTELY impacts the level of risk you, as a player, are willing to take while devaluing contingency solutions to almost worthless.

If you write a guide, assume the player does not play aiming to extract top tactical value from saving and loading, because that is not how the game was designed in the first place.

[eharper256]

I'll chop this discussion off now if we can, guys. Because I've seen this one before and it never ends well.

I'm just here to present a guide, and help people, regardless of how they choose to play.

EDIT: Already ninja'ed by Iazo I guess.

[Vakrug]

I'm just here to present a guide, and help people, regardless of how they choose to play.

And that is why you should focus on objective stuff, not at "which gun is better". Main difficulty in XPiratez is not even "which path to take", but "what paths are actually available?" Good example is "Cats for life" path. If you are a new player and not follow update notes, you may never know that such path even exists, because it becomes available later at the game and gets invalidated as soon as you pick other alternative available much earlier. (Cough, cough... Gudrun paths... Cough, cough...)

[eharper256]

Updated both the main document and the spreadsheet.

Main document now has two FULL pages of helpful hints and tips for starting out, as well as the Interceptor (Necroplane) section expanded quite substantially with more notes.

Spreadsheet now has a couple of extra things, updated the throwing weapons now I know more about them, and some basics for the Voodoo Rod which are still subject for change (can anyone confirm if these work the same as ye olde psi-amp? They have no damage stats on the generated wiki so I'm guessing so, and testing is inconclusive right now).

[Marza]

Pyramid, not gaussian (you'd need 3 rolls for gaussian distribution)

Pyramid distributions are still gaussian distributions; they're symmetrical with a mean and variance. To sate my professor's soul, one and even zero dice rolls are gaussian distributions as well, despite the former looking flat and the latter being unplottable.

[Vakrug]

(can anyone confirm if these work the same as ye olde psi-amp? They have no damage stats on the generated wiki so I'm guessing so, and testing is inconclusive right now).

I can just say that no matter which formula I use to calculate the success chance of a psi-attack, the obtained number never equals with the number I get when I press Alt.

[eharper256]

I can just say that no matter which formula I use to calculate the success chance of a psi-attack, the obtained number never equals with the number I get when I press Alt.

Yeah, ALT also reports a presumably entirely off number for Rod of Hellfire and basically most voodoo stuff from what I can see. Choking Wand is absolutely way better than it reports, Firebolts is way worse (well actually incendiary type damage in general always feels way weaker than the raw numbers imply).

Incidently, I've added "research Bounty Hunting early" as a tip and someone on my discord says that's gone in the most recent patch lol. Guess I need to update again.