[TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.j - 9 May - Holiday Edition

[wsmithjr]

So just do your thing and ignore the whiners, to me the Piratez mod is my absolutely favorite game, I dare to say I even had more more fun with it  than playing the original XCOM in the mid 90s - and that means a lot.

I've just installed the mod and am interested in it.  That said, I find it very difficult to get into right off the bat because it's so different.  There are tons of different weapons and the enemies are pretty difficult to take down.  I suppose once you figure out what's what and know how everything works, it won't be such a big deal, but trying to get into the mod is a pretty big obstacle currently.  I even watched the 2 Let's Play videos, which was helpful, but I never would have made it through a first mission like in that video.

Anybody have some tips for getting started in the game?

Anyway, appreciate the effort by the mod maker(s) but it also shows just how impressive OpenXCom really is with the ability to handle such a mod.

[Qpoter]

Anyone thought of making a custom soundtrack for this mod? The original X-COM music isn't quite fitting.

[Dioxine]

This might be obvious, but it's very important... consider the loadouts of your troops VERY carefully. They're not trained soldiers, they tend to have debiliating weaknesses (which can be overcome with experience); most obvious problems are low Strength and low Stamina. Every soldier needs their own custom approach, just giving everyone standard gun and armor won't work. Only soldiers with decent Strength and high Stamina can handle armor. On the other hand, play on their strengths; it is entirelly possible to get a 50 Strength soldier off the bat. Such soldiers can lob dynamite two screens away or kill power-armored enemies with a single axe strike.

So track that encumbrance, get to know your weapons and custom-select them, and assign low-stamina soldiers for static roles. Counter-intuitively, equip low-accuracy soldiers with sniping weapons (which provide a huge bonus), and equip high-accuracy soldiers with heavy-hitters (which tend to be inaccurate). A good marksman equipped with an Assassin armor can reliably blast away with a Heavy Cannon, while by giving her a Hover armor, you gain a perfect fire-support platform for HMG or RPG. Just protect your investment. Recruits are cheap but armor and ammo aren't.

Another advice is to avoid prolonged firefights. They have the armor, but you have the time. And smoke grenades.

[Zharkov]

I wasn't aware that 0.73 is the newest Version, as I downloaded the mod from oxc. Perhaps more ppl could enjoy this mod, if the newest version was posted there. And, .zip is preinstalled on most OS in contrast to .rar.

I encountered a consistent crash in 0.69 when changing in Battlesphere:

[Dioxine]

Oh right, I wasn't aware that the site was finally up. I'll post it there soon. And I've never seen that error before, sorry. I'll look into that... eventually. OpenXcom has changed a lot since the latest version was written. Thanks for sending the faulty save.
About zip and rar: I think BOTH standards are absolutely abundant everywhere. But rar makes 30% smaller files. Go figure

[niculinux]

Dear Dioxine,

please may you in he future do some lowercasin wirk to the mod, see here to see how i'm suffering  >.<

[Zharkov]

This mod is great. I cannot say how great, as I don't have the words!

Taking the funny texts, the setting, and the rum, I think this is best played drunk. However, balancing seems way off even for playing sober. I just got handed my ass back from the star gods' slaves on day 8, when my hidy hole got raided with cyberdiscs, voodoo and the full load! I put up a good fight, but in the end I was out of RPGs and the cyberdiscs were still there. I rushed them with chainsaws, but to no avail. Then, everybody was dead. (3rd game on lvl 3 [blackbeard])

Don't get me wrong, I like a challange and I like playing on ironmode, however, I am not sure if I am getting this right: On which lvl should a xcom veteran start out? Is it alright to ditch the early culling missions? Do you lose the game, when factions don't bribe you anymore? Is it intended, that early weapons shoot cotton balls?

[Dioxine]

Don't say crap about early weapons. They're intended to be, well, weaker than all the better weapons. But this ties to the question of difficulty - it's about learning your equipment well, because many of the enemies are strong, and basic guns work only on unarmored targets. There are a LOT of guns, it's up to you to select your favorites. You're just a ragtag band of pirates, and you're going against powers to be. Maybe you've just learned that chainsaws aren't that good against tanks and buying some Hi-Ex might be a good idea.

About early raids on your base - it's not me. It's XCom, baby. Love it or hate it, sometimes you get raided on first week, sometimes it won't happen for years.

About the difficulty level - I'm playing it on Jack Sparrow.

About losing the game - you can't lose it that way you described, as long as your score and more importantly, bank account is above the water. And Russia will never betray you, so keep calm

[Taberone]

Is there a ending in Piratez?

[zastava128]

First of all, thanks for all the hard work you put into the mod - it's like a whole new game.

Now I've got a question: Can you produce Boarding Guns or Hand Cannons? I can't seem to either buy or produce them, but then again maybe I've just missed the prerequisite tech. These two guns are absolutely vital in the early game, since they're among the few starting weapons that can punch through Personal Armour...

[Dioxine]

There is no option right now, but indeed, there perhaps should be... I was afraid it'd make the game too easy if you could produce them early on, but then again, I have an idea where to implement it on the tech tree to keep things balanced.

[Zharkov]

I was afraid it'd make the game too easy if you [...]

Nope! Game is still too hard, weapons are too weak or armor to though, making the BattleScape very tedious.

Anyway, I have played some more and I am very impressed by your work, but I noticed a few minor problems:
- str_mission_govt_patrol_ufopedia is missing
- stun ammo for shotgun is listed at combat shotgun, but only fits domestic shotgun
- taking a hell baron alive crashes the game [actually, that is a major problem]
- disposable AT rocket vanishes after mission although unused

[Dioxine]

1. It's on the "to do" list
2. It's properly listed both in Pedia and in the shop.
3. Yeah I know. I tried everything to make catching these guys alive work but it stil doesn't. I have no idea why it doesn't work or how to fix that.
4. It's clearly explained in the Pedia. To be honest, this is a trick - it was either "unlimited reloads at the base" or that. Maybe it wasn't that great of an idea... Maybe I'll make it weaker and heavier but allow it to be reloaded for free at the base. It's not much of a rocket at this point anyway...

[Zharkov]

2. It's properly listed both in Pedia and in the shop.

sry, I meant acid not stun!

[Solarius Scorch]

Are you using en-US or en_GB? Maybe Dioxine has only one covered, and you're using the other one?