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

[ivandogovich]

Aha!  Too right! Thanks!

[pilot00]

27x5 (potentially). It fires 5 round bursts.

[ivandogovich]

Let's Play OpenXcom PirateZ! Ep #023: Blue Lobsters!



Follow the Bouncing Ball! Surprises Await!

Cheers, Ivan

Limerick:

Spoiler:

The Shipping were strange it was true
So track it on down we must do
  To an alien plot
  Where with flamethrower shot
Try to broil the Lobster in Blue

[Arthanor]

Oh..! My..! ******* What a tease! That's just evil!

Regarding your deployment, I think it looks alright, lots of smoke is good (although you might have been able to spare 1-2 of those grenades). Deploying in front of melee enemies sitting on top of stuff is a bit awkward.

The only things I'd say are: more guns & more people on the roof taking shots. You deployed alright, but you need to score kills (or at least hurt stuff!) more than that and the way to do it is with guns. Only deads and captives won't hurt you next turn.

You don't quite have the tech for really good guns yet, but in a bit, heavy cannons with explosive ammo are great. For now rpgs, boarding guns and machine guns are good medium range weapons, heavy machine gun and sniper rifles are good too for longer range. Having 6-8 gals with good guns allows to project some hurt without risking too much.

Everybody else should have a sidearm too for when they can't reach the enemy and for taking reaction fire. An smg with acid ammo is not bad, super fast snap shot, cheap 5 round autoshots and lots of bullets!. Magnums with Acid ammo and Confederate Eagles are pretty good too for gals with good accuracy.

Oh, and the flamethrower is a two-handed weapon. Although it looks badass to fire it one-handed while holding onto a black powder bomb in the other hand, that's reduces it's already tiny accuracy! Cook 'em lobsters!

[Solarius Scorch]

I really feel like saying:



But then maybe I'm panicking. Give it a try!

Just don't use this mission to assume that some weapon sucks. It's not a good mission for judging weapons.

[Dioxine]

Oh, notice that although Ivan has little in the way of guns, he packs a hell of a lot of explosives and other throwables - those are ranged weapons too, and powerful at that. And when he runs out, he has a large stash onboard to replenish. So it ain't that bad, even if he lacks really long-range capability. Even flamers and scatterguns will be way more useful here than in a normal mission. The only resource he needs to carefully guard are living soldiers My only complains would be that he:
- didn't upgrade from Pirate to Metal yet - really, there IS a difference;
- didn't take that couple of Tech Blades that were produced in the meantime;
- and, most importantly, what's the point of taking mortar if you only take 3 rounds? It will help, no doubt, but 10 would be more like it

Anyway, this mission is going to be so climatic. A pirate gal shooting crossbow at a green sea monster, how cool is that

A (stupid) advice: Avoid/Kill guys that shoot stuff at you, especially celatids Getting hit by a Celatid is usually an instakill. Oh and save your time, Celatids ARE immune to Acid, Lobstermen ARE nigh-immune to AP, HE, Laser... Another pointer - if a guy attacked by Incendiary is set on fire, it means he DOES take some damage from fire. Immunes cannot be ever set on fire.

EDIT: Regarding the tech: Boarding gun is a good research bet, it leads to important advancements in firearms area (even if some won't be immediately evident).

[Arthanor]

I am SO looking forward to the next episode! It should be interesting with the combination of unarmored green dudes and celatids, and super armored lobsters. I hope you can cook those! (and hopefully they don't carry anything ranged.. or rush you and snap those claws at the gals!)

@Dioxine: Mortar rounds are SO expensive I don't really feel like using them. I am waiting for the runts to figure out how to make some. 3600 a pop is not negligible when you are strapped for cash (I did the same as Ivan and went research heavy.. rookie mistake? Seems like runts first, get a good rum production chain going and then invest in research might work better). Also, you need a really fast gal to be able to recharge the mortar herself and shoot in the same turn. Going through 10 rounds in one fight would be a feat.

Grenade launcher ammo at 1750 or something is not cheap either.. Luckily I've found a way to make rpg rounds now, otherwise I've been using Black Powder Bombs, Stickbombs and Dynamites mostly for my explosives, and whatever I scavenge off the npcs.

[ivandogovich]

@Dioxine: Mortar rounds are SO expensive I don't really feel like using them. I am waiting for the runts to figure out how to make some. 3600 a pop is not negligible when you are strapped for cash (I did the same as Ivan and went research heavy.. rookie mistake? Seems like runts first, get a good rum production chain going and then invest in research might work better).

I shuddered at the mention of ten rounds... just the cost alone.  My idea was only to really use them for cover destruction, and or grouped or clustered enemies.  Of course when I launched the intercept I had no idea I'd be facing  100+ adversaries on one map ( at least that is what it sounds like! ;P ).  So yep.  Mortar with my horrible economy is probably the wrong choice.  My RPGs were all lost/destroyed at Black Citadel, and the few times I have shot them I haven't hit anything.  My confidence in them as a useful tool is pretty low, but I know lots of others have great success with them, so it just must be lousy tactics on my part.

And I think you are right Arthanor.  The rookie mistake of trying to gain tech is probably hurting my game.  If I was at this point in the game, and still had only hammers (starting tools only) I'd probably be alright.  All the other stuff that I've discovered so far is kind of fluff.  The armors may be nice, but they don't make me invulnerable.  Well, I still have a lot to learn and a huge hole to try to dig out of.  We'll see how it goes.  I can't say I have a lot of faith in a successful outcome.

[Dioxine]

@Dioxine: Mortar rounds are SO expensive I don't really feel like using them. I am waiting for the runts to figure out how to make some. 3600 a pop is not negligible when you are strapped for cash (I did the same as Ivan and went research heavy.. rookie mistake? Seems like runts first, get a good rum production chain going and then invest in research might work better). Also, you need a really fast gal to be able to recharge the mortar herself and shoot in the same turn. Going through 10 rounds in one fight would be a feat.

3600 is still the cheapest, by far, for 90 HE, at least store-wise (naturally it changes once you manufacture your own explosives) Also I don't think it is possible to fire AND reload mortar in one turn no matter how fast you are - you're left with 6% TUs, and you need 15, no sir Nah with Mortars, you need mortar-based tactics to be able to get their full potential, that is, secure the LZ and slowly, meticulously pound the enemies with your artillery. Else - yeah as a support device, Ivan probably doesn't need more than a few rounds since he will be using the mortar sparingly, not as the main weapon.

[Arthanor]

Which one is it, I think it's the grav harness, or unarmored. One of them gives you bonus TUs and I thought you might be able to do it if you have a capped gal already. If not, that means you need 20 rounds to use 10, my fights outside don't last that long. Or maybe I was doing a "pick up, fire, drop, step" with an ammo runt doing "step, load, throw"? That's might be possible too.. But that's 2 gals for shooting every turn, which amounts to a gal firing every other turn.

It sort of works as an "opportunity shot" weapon, and I carry one one a sniper. She drops it charge on the floor on the turn she gets in position, then fires her heavy maching gun (which takes a turn getting in position any ways). If I find a good target, drop the HMG, pick up the mortar, give 'em hell!

I haven't had much success with the mortar though, for some reason. We all have our duds... I'm missing things and thinking "Well, that was 3600 for nothing!" and decided to go with dynamite instead as short range throwing under cyberdiscs is more reliable than long range bombing. Flamethrowers have been really great (but the heavy is much better for the added range). Armor is a must too.

[pilot00]

The mortal is a support fire and kill weapon. Its not there to be spammed. That said my mortar lady has at least 4 of them on her and only that and a smake grenade. Its usefullness comes from the way it fires (ignoring obstacles) and high damage/area of effect. Use it to destroy hard to kill targets or to get you past an emergency (and boy are you gonna use all the shells in this mission I bet).  You are not going to hit GOs with it obviously.


Also Dioxine is right that under no circumstances you can load and shoot it at the same turn.

[ivandogovich]

Let's Play OpenXcom PirateZ! Ep #024: Celatids!




Acid Spit?
Time to Split?

~ Cheers, Ivan

Limerick:

Spoiler:

Two hammer blows square on the back
Did little his shell to crack
  This big lobster git
  And Celatid Spit
Made us rethink our hasty attack

[pilot00]

And there she goes...At least she went in a blaze of (acidic) glory.

[Dioxine]

Man, I understand bravery, but challenging Celatids to opportunity fire is a bit too much. Their firepower is almost equal to Cyberdiscs Hats off to Gank Plank.

[ivandogovich]

Man, I understand bravery, but challenging Celatids to opportunity fire is a bit too much. Their firepower is almost equal to Cyberdiscs Hats off to Gank Plank.

Its fine. We'll probably lose a lot of other gals before we get out of here.   Gotta practice all those aggressive offense tactics!   And gals are cheap, right?

Cheers, Ivan