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

[Dioxine]

Eh, remember the day when we first met the Lobstermen and thought the problem can be solved by liberal application of Sonic Pulsers and Gauss fire? And how it ended...

Also, really, people. The chainsaw is NOT a giga-drill-breaker, it works up to personal-armor level, and basically only from the back But against armor value up to 25-30 (Raiders, Academy), it DOES provide a guaranteed kill.

And yeah, I'm using Smoke armor for all my snipers as well - and basically only for them. For assault units, Metal armor is the order of the day - makes no difference against hi-powered weapons, but all the world of difference against small arms, small lasers and close misses with grenades...

[pilot00]

And thats why I said from behind. Without research you dont know the armor value of those things (and I havent done either). So if you are going to attack it, "better take em from behind nay?" as an entry so fondly says.

[Arthanor]

I think it's almost always worth the extra two steps to take an enemy from behind (or at least the side) instead of the front. You get one less hit from the lost TUs, but your damage potential goes way up. They only time I wouldn't is when "training" on a panicked target.

I actually use hover armor on my snipers, and put smoke between myself and the enemy instead of on top of myself. That way smoke provides more cover (they have to look through all of it instead of only half if it is deployed on top of you) and you don't pass out. Also, get some beer or combat drugs to the snipers or anyone else who is likely to be in smoke without a helmet. It helps a lot.

Otherwise.. I don't know why, but to me sea monsters feel like they should be resistant to acid, just because they are covered in some slime already. I would think fire works well, and Dioxine already said smoke was good too. It's hard to tackle the unknown, but such a nice change from vanila where you know everything.

[pilot00]

I actually use hover armor on my snipers, and put smoke between myself and the enemy instead of on top of myself. That way smoke provides more cover (they have to look through all of it instead of only half if it is deployed on top of you) and you don't pass out. Also, get some beer or combat drugs to the snipers or anyone else who is likely to be in smoke without a helmet. It helps a lot.

I find little insentive to use the hovers I have unlocked thus far and I dont know if there is a better variant. I upgraded to heavy tacs at one point and now I have Power armor for everyone, however restricting that may be. Though I want to experiment a bit with mess for the snipers. Anyhow.

The problem with using smoke in between so to speak is that you block yourself as well and must rely on scouts to peep (taking reaction fire in the process sometimes). By throwing the smoke on yourself you simply block the LoS of the enemy. Well its up to the players preference I believe.

[Arthanor]

I like hover armour since it allows your support soldiers to move up behind the front lines and keep good lines of fire compared to staying on top of the Bonny where once you move out enough obstacles start to matter. I use personal hover armor from the XAE extensively when I play vanilla. But I haven't unlocked nearly as many armours as you have. I just researched powered armour parts but it's not much use since I only have one part now, so I am working on other stuff.

Smoke gameplay does vary a lot. I don't like sitting in smoke like Ivan does,  I use it more as a screen to charge through.  Only a few of my support soldiers actually stay in smoke. The snipers are too far behind and the scouts or breachers rush through to where the fight is too tight for smoke to matter. I like the tac armour the best for that since it doesn't reduce reactions.

[Solarius Scorch]

I think hover armours work best with heavy weapons. Like Arthanor said, they allow better firing positions, and they also allow you to use heavier items (like the HMG).

[pilot00]

I think hover armours work best with heavy weapons. Like Arthanor said, they allow better firing positions, and they also allow you to use heavier items (like the HMG).

That might be a case I havent considered. Usually my mortar chick has enough strength to wield the damn thing and just boosts it from random kills staying safely beyond the hatch. The heavy weapons I did deploy were deployed on loader armor because I need the mobility and ability to carry other things.

Plus the 40k fan in me gets a warm feeling when I see my chicks in massive suits mowing down aliens and heretics (ahem!) alike with an Iconic set of terminator weapons.

CLEANSE!PURGE!KILL!

[Arthanor]

Well, you get hover armours much earlier than you get loaders (or at least I did.. I now have 3 choices of hover, but no loader..).

For the mortar, it doesn't matter as much since you have arcing fire to fire above hills/walls/buildings. You only get in trouble if the target is in the "shadow" of something.

But for something like a heavy machine gun which needs direct fire (and works quite well against medium enemies or to soften up things like cyberdiscs, and is less expensive to supply), the ability to move and still retain some height advantage is very nice. Usually I move my gals, use the HMG if needed, and if at the end of the turn I did not need it, then I move it to somewhere that should have good firing lanes next turn.

[pilot00]

Well, you get hover armours much earlier than you get loaders (or at least I did.. I now have 3 choices of hover, but no loader..).

For the mortar, it doesn't matter as much since you have arcing fire to fire above hills/walls/buildings. You only get in trouble if the target is in the "shadow" of something.

But for something like a heavy machine gun which needs direct fire (and works quite well against medium enemies or to soften up things like cyberdiscs, and is less expensive to supply), the ability to move and still retain some height advantage is very nice. Usually I move my gals, use the HMG if needed, and if at the end of the turn I did not need it, then I move it to somewhere that should have good firing lanes next turn.

Is the boost enough to fire an HMG eh? Hm....You convinced me to start tests at least...some time.

[Arthanor]

You mean to carry it? Both the grav harness and hover armour give you a negative weight, which should allow a gal to carry an HMG. Grav harness and *removed spoilers* some other armours give you extra TUs too which help a bit with mobility (but grav harness has negative armor, so I wouldn't recommend it).

Firing a HMG will always take pretty much your whole turn, it's something like 90% of TUs. But the 10% left is enough to move just enough to clear a corner if you were hiding behind a building or something. You either shoot an enemy this turn, or have to think a turn ahead and get in position to fire where you expect to see enemies next turn. It's a fun thing to do.

Side note: Those weapons you don't take many of, but have a large, expensive ammo are a bit tricky to supply. Firing the HMG once per battle will lose you all the ammo at the end of the battle. If you had two HMG, you could fire both once or twice and still only lose one ammo belt because of the way OpenXCom counts bullets, realizes you spent less than one's worth, so only removes one from your stash. This means many weapons with large ammo capacities are best used a lot and/or by many soldiers, or not at all.

I've never had a battle where I had to reload an HMG, so having this size of clip is a waste. Would it be possible for the gals to figure out that taking a smaller ammo belt is better for them (lighter, and they won't run out any ways) and better logistically as well?

[Dioxine]

I've never had a battle where I had to reload an HMG, so having this size of clip is a waste. Would it be possible for the gals to figure out that taking a smaller ammo belt is better for them (lighter, and they won't run out any ways) and better logistically as well?

Yeah I was actually considering this for the Boarding Gun but with HMG it works as well. Naturally, while lighter, smaller clips would also be less weight-effective (say, 10 weight for 60 bullets, but only 20 bullets for 5 weight or something like that).

[Arthanor]

Just realized we're filling up Ivan's thread! I thought this was in the Piratez thread! (Sorry Ivan!)

@Dioxine: I think that'd work. You probably won't miss the fewer bullets, but 5 weight more means you can take some dynamite or a dagger, which you'll probably be happy about. And it helps with the wasted ammo issue (which we're discussing in the OXCE thread).

[ivandogovich]

Just realized we're filling up Ivan's thread! I thought this was in the Piratez thread! (Sorry Ivan!)

Lol!  I don't mind.   Its good discussions!

[pilot00]

You mean to carry it? Both the grav harness and hover armour give you a negative weight, which should allow a gal to carry an HMG. Grav harness and *removed spoilers* some other armours give you extra TUs too which help a bit with mobility (but grav harness has negative armor, so I wouldn't recommend it).

Firing a HMG will always take pretty much your whole turn, it's something like 90% of TUs. But the 10% left is enough to move just enough to clear a corner if you were hiding behind a building or something. You either shoot an enemy this turn, or have to think a turn ahead and get in position to fire where you expect to see enemies next turn. It's a fun thing to do.

Side note: Those weapons you don't take many of, but have a large, expensive ammo are a bit tricky to supply. Firing the HMG once per battle will lose you all the ammo at the end of the battle. If you had two HMG, you could fire both once or twice and still only lose one ammo belt because of the way OpenXCom counts bullets, realizes you spent less than one's worth, so only removes one from your stash. This means many weapons with large ammo capacities are best used a lot and/or by many soldiers, or not at all.

I've never had a battle where I had to reload an HMG, so having this size of clip is a waste. Would it be possible for the gals to figure out that taking a smaller ammo belt is better for them (lighter, and they won't run out any ways) and better logistically as well?

IDK what the hell I did but I got these pretty darn early. And powered armor all things considered. Though building them was another matter entirely. I have a tendency not to rely on heavy weapons up till the point my soldiers/guns have decent stats.

Regarding the clip size: Well I would dare to say its about what the hell you are facing: In the mid game there are some nasties that lets just say that a weapon that fires with 20 bursts on a 100 clip ammo, just might require reloads.

Lol!  I don't mind.   Its good discussions!

Thanks for that and sorry, as always I get carried away.

[Arthanor]

Thanks Ivan!

IDK what the hell I did but I got these pretty darn early. And powered armor all things considered. Though building them was another matter entirely. I have a tendency not to rely on heavy weapons up till the point my soldiers/guns have decent stats.

Grav harness and hover armour you get pretty early, yeah. The other one took me a while (and as far as I can tell, you don't have it yet since you asked about it ) Hover armour makes it doable to follow the gals up with a HMG, the other armour makes it not only doable, but actually a good idea.

Regarding the clip size: Well I would dare to say its about what the hell you are facing: In the mid game there are some nasties that lets just say that a weapon that fires with 20 bursts on a 100 clip ammo, just might require reloads.

Ha! Good point! Haven't seen those yet I guess My hardest were power armoured traders in this playthrough. (My aborted, no pogrom one had some TftD guys though.. Haven't seen them yet)