Let's Play PirateZ! (0.9j) Finished:Incomplete (52 episodes)

[Arthanor]

And thanks a ton for the tips on the flamers.  I had no idea that they could even touch personal armor.  The damage was low enough, that I was pretty reluctant to try.  And the short range made me feel like just getting closer and bashing people.  I am going to branch out though, for sure.

Incendiaries are this weird thing that do damage that bypasses armour. It does an average of 6 damage for each hit, that is only modified by incendiary resistance. A flamethrower has 8 shots, so that can be a decent chunk of damage. Heavy flamers can tackle personal armour dudes, one shot academy drones (the mini cyberdiscs who are rather resistant to normal bullets), raiders and even finish off cyberdiscs.

The arcing is great to reach things behind some obstacle (even burned a cyberdisc by firing above a house!) and the 8 shots means you will likely hit multiple times, each of which might improve your firing accuracy. It's not as devastating as an RPG, but it is also A LOT cheaper to get fuel than keep buying rockets (which always miss in my experience any ways! ).

Another cool weapon is the heavy machine gun. Get a gal with it on the top of the Bonny and she can kill 1 personal armoured guy a turn. (Don't move her though, HMG takes a LOT of TUs to fire). I've had more success with the HMG than sniper rifles, RPGs and even the mortar. More shots means it's more likely to connect a few times, and the damage is high enough to matter.

Anyhow, keep playing! As pilot said, I don't think you're failing even though you might not be as successful as you were hoping to be in the game. I am not watching to see the master of XCom play, I am watching to see how you face the challenge. Your LP is awesome.

Edit after watching Ep. 21: *Takes the bagpipe and plays Amazing Grace*
We can make it capt'n! I'll crank up the power feed to the cloning vats!

Some times there's nothing you can do and the game just sends you a big FU. This setup was pretty rough for a start of a pogrom. At least it wasn't at night

There's a few things that can help, like taking veterans with bombs/explosives to take out immediate threats at the front, or trying to rush enemies so they shoot at one (ideally armoured) gal instead of blowing many up, but XCom is known (and loved) because it is not trying to be nice.

Be bold Capt'n! Let's board 'em traders and get some loot! We'll show 'em next time!

[Dioxine]

A story where the heroes win all the time will be a boring story. Now let's hope the Gods of Random will throw some easy missions this month I'd recommend armoring every first-line trooper in Metal, at least those with 30+ Str - it's a very good armor against small arms and lasers (and this latter feat makes it the best early armor for Pogroms).

[ivandogovich]

Ok.  We'll see what we can do, though I have zero faith in Gods of Random.

Question for you Dioxine:  is there a chance that you could relax the maps that block your ramp with piles of junk like we saw in today's episode?  I mentioned it to Hobbes and I think he was going to change it in the Terrain Pack.   
I know it wouldn't have made a difference in today's outcome, because I was using defensive tactics and those don't work.  However, if you had landed in that location, what would you have done at the ramp?  Black powder bombed it?

Cheers, Ivan

[Dioxine]

I'd have bombed it too hell all right But since it's Hobbes terrain, I'd probably use at least Dynamite, preferably a Hi-Ex pack to be sort of sure it'd be gone It is possible that the whole grenade tragedy was caused precisely because the piles of junk blocked some of smoke's dispersal. I'd have deployed by the front hatch in the meantime (turn 2, after smoking it). Also if going defensive, I'd have pulled back those troops who were standing in the door at least, to get some cover - not sure if it'd have helped, though... The only good option was to try and kill that guy, but it's hard to risk it when you have no idea who he is or how much can he survive...

Thing is - and maybe it's not much of a consolation - that there are 4 factions that can do early Pogroms (out of eventual 7), and you got one of the the 2 harder ones to deal with, so it'd probably end up in a bloodbath anyway, especially on that terrain (it has hidden goodies, but it's also very dangerous).

As for fixing the map, I don't have the skills to help.

[ivandogovich]

As for fixing the map, I don't have the skills to help.

Hmm... so if he cleans up the terrain pack, should I go back to installing it over PirateZ files?

[Dioxine]

Hmm... so if he cleans up the terrain pack, should I go back to installing it over PirateZ files?

Yeah I don't think it'd cause any trouble, I'll probably do that myself as well.

[ivandogovich]

And your ruleset only calls certain mapsets so I don't have to worry about enabling more than I should?

[Dioxine]

And your ruleset only calls certain mapsets so I don't have to worry about enabling more than I should?

Yeah just dump new maps, terrain and rmps. At worst, try replacing AREA51 script with a new one from Hobbes (it's in Piratez_planet on my side).

[pilot00]

(it has hidden goodies, but it's also very dangerous).

?

[ivandogovich]

Let's Play OpenXcom PirateZ! Ep #022: Licking our Wounds! 



Can we recover from the Black Citadel?
Cheers, Ivan

Limerick:

Spoiler:

We must return to the chase
Despite the sharp blow to the face
  For in tempting the fates
  with "The Bloodbath Awaits"
Now half of our crew is erased.

[Arthanor]

Hi Ivan,

Nice progress on the research! I'm not sure how the timing of my previous post was relative to this episode, but just to make things clear with flamey stuffs:

- Inciendiary damage type deals on average 6 damage per hit regardless of the listed power. That's modified by armor resistance (ex.: some humans take more because they have burny clothes) but not armor.
- The Power actually determines the area covered by fire, so the heavy flamer will cover a larger area in fire than the regular flamer.
- Flamethrowers shoot 8 shots in auto, Heavy Flamers shoot 10 shots (and a clip has 50 shots, so you can autofire 5 times like the Pedia says). The multiple shots (and multiple hits) make it great at training firing skill.
- Flamethrowers shoot arcing shots, so even though accuracy is poor, you are likely to hit the ground next to the target and still deal damage. Even better as the gal gets better aiming!

And on a different kind of burny: SMGs are one handed, so even though they don't look like much, they're actually a pretty good sidearm. I neglected them too, until I unlocked acidic munitions. Also, 27 * 140% ~ 38 damage on caparace armor, which will deal damage sometimes, especially on other facings than the front (you do use UFO damage rules, right?), and the autoshot is really cheap for 5 shots.

[Dioxine]

Just be careful with the flamers, it's pretty easy to kill yourself if you come too close to the target

[Arthanor]

And make sure there is no gal in the very approprietly named "Line of Fire" Even though arcing shot means you *can* send fire above her, it doesn't mean you will! (and especially not 8-10 times in a row)

Being on fire is deadly! (sent one of my gal to the sick bay for 2 months like that!)

Too bad there isn't a "Stop, duck and roll" button.. or a fire extinguisher item.

[ivandogovich]

And on a different kind of burny: SMGs... <snip> ... Also, 27 * 140% ~ 38 damage on caparace armor, which will deal damage sometimes, especially on other facings than the front (you do use UFO damage rules, right?), and the autoshot is really cheap for 5 shots.

Thanks for the awesome breakdown on the flamer.  Yeah, I really had no clue how it worked obviously. XD

But following up on your last statement in the quote above, where is the 140% coming from??  And yes, I'm using UFO damage as Dioxine recommends.  This mod is far too balanced for me to want to try to out guess or out think his design.

Cheers, Ivan

[Dioxine]

But following up on your last statement in the quote above, where is the 140% coming from??

Pedia entry, Human Carapace Armor, ACID: 140%