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Author Topic: Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N7 16-Dec-2023 Flying Tiger, Hidden Tentacle  (Read 3609348 times)

Offline KateMicucci

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2925 on: July 27, 2016, 09:31:14 pm »
Enemies don't upgrade their weapons currently? It felt like it when the blue warrior nuns suddenly started using CAWs and cannons instead of assault rifles and machine guns.

Are ammo upgrades for the boarding gun, handcannon and heavy slugthrower planned like there are for the blunderbuss? These feel like the most thematic guns for the gals to use but became obsolete very quickly in my game. A big deal is made that the girls realize they aren't limited by humie sized weapons, they play with the big guns for a bit, then go back to human weapons with ammo upgrades. The handcannon for example is only marginally useful in the first place, barely competing against nerf laspistols, eagles and magnums, and then real lasers, EP and chem rounds knock it out of consideration altogether. The boarding gun also felt very powerful at first until it became clear that it can barely scratch moderately armored enemies. The heavy slugthrower isn't outperformed in damage by human sized shotgun slugs, at least for now, but its still just a little bit weaker than it should be for a 50 pound weapon effective to 8 tiles.

Offline Surrealistik

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2926 on: July 27, 2016, 09:32:32 pm »
I don't know what you consider to be a 'tight formation' but fairly loose ones will still be menaced by Psi again because of the huge amount of TUs and Energy most gals have.

Also, any weapon that can take down an Ethereal, Osiron Security or a power armoured Provost can probably do the same to you.

Concerning melee assaults, I don't see any good way of doing it on say Cruisers or Hideouts that doesn't involve first killing off most of the enemies with conservative play.

Offline ohartenstein23

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2927 on: July 27, 2016, 09:46:33 pm »
Melee assaults don't necessarily need to be a mad dash straight for every target in sight - there's a nice balance between turtling in smoke and balls-to-the wall sprints that I've found useful in both the open-field portion of UFO assaults and attacking hideouts.  A mix of melee skirmishers, some heavier fire support, and scouts allow for rather quick clearing of the Battlescape up to the doors of the craft without being overly conservative.

As for fighting against Psi attacks, I thought I read on this forum that a gal can't be targetted unless she's been seen by some enemy.  Thus it's possible to control who will be the Psi-rod just by managing LOS.  By which I mean abusing smoke and getting a few parrots killed.  Or pick scouts that have been psi-screened, or don't carry any weapons.  Not always easy to do in practice, but certainly possible.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2928 on: July 27, 2016, 10:06:20 pm »
Concerning melee assaults, I don't see any good way of doing it on say Cruisers or Hideouts that doesn't involve first killing off most of the enemies with conservative play.

Regarding Cruisers:  My favorite tactic is using a Fusion Torch to cut into one of the Engine Compartments, then storming the craft from there, rather than the the Elevator Shaft of Death.  This approach allows me many melee opportunities in most cases.

Offline Surrealistik

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2929 on: July 27, 2016, 10:23:20 pm »
Regarding Cruisers:  My favorite tactic is using a Fusion Torch to cut into one of the Engine Compartments, then storming the craft from there, rather than the the Elevator Shaft of Death.  This approach allows me many melee opportunities in most cases.

Still risky; remember that the enemy often knows exactly where you are. More than a couple of times I've made an advance into a UFO from an 'unexpected' entry onto to have a door open and grenade tossed in my face.

Melee assaults don't necessarily need to be a mad dash straight for every target in sight - there's a nice balance between turtling in smoke and balls-to-the wall sprints that I've found useful in both the open-field portion of UFO assaults and attacking hideouts.  A mix of melee skirmishers, some heavier fire support, and scouts allow for rather quick clearing of the Battlescape up to the doors of the craft without being overly conservative.

I find that melee charges are more events of opportunity (where you can run out, shield bash, then run back into cover or stun all visible targets), OR make sense after you've substantially weakened the enemy followed by smoke grenades.

Quote
As for fighting against Psi attacks, I thought I read on this forum that a gal can't be targetted unless she's been seen by some enemy.  Thus it's possible to control who will be the Psi-rod just by managing LOS.  By which I mean abusing smoke and getting a few parrots killed.  Or pick scouts that have been psi-screened, or don't carry any weapons.  Not always easy to do in practice, but certainly possible.

The way it's apparently supposed to work is that the enemy doesn't know your location until you're spotted, after which they know it for X turns, where X is equal to the 'Intelligence' rating of the spotting character.

In practice I've had units Psi assaulted even when I'm 100% sure they weren't spotted, so who fucking knows. That said, even if they need to make initial LoS, you often get a situation where one guy gets controlled, then spots everyone, and then another guy is controlled before the Intelligence timer runs out who then spots, and thus the merry daisy chain continues.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2016, 10:27:27 pm by Surrealistik »

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2930 on: July 27, 2016, 10:32:16 pm »
In other news, Yankes helped me finally get all the bugs sorted out of my Alt-Corpses Mods!  Big Corpses are now ready for Primetime along with the neato Floor Corpse.  Use one, the other, or both!

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4424.0.html

I've played an hour with it already and I love it! :D

Offline Starving Poet

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2931 on: July 27, 2016, 10:34:37 pm »
In practice I've had units Psi assaulted even when I'm 100% sure they weren't spotted, so who fucking knows. That said, even if they need to make initial LoS, you often get a situation where one guy gets controlled, then spots everyone, and then another guy is controlled before the Intelligence timer runs out who then spots, and thus the merry daisy chain continues.

Let me just link my reddit thread with proof of how this works:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/comments/4u0qou/how_do_you_deal_with_ethereals/d5lwky5

There's savegames to test in OXC and a link to a vanilla savegame with my testing methodology.

/edit: The one thing I didn't test was whether a kill by a grenade would trigger "turnssincespotted" to 0 - and if it does whether it attributes the primer or the final thrower.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2016, 10:39:47 pm by Starving Poet »

Offline Boltgun

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2932 on: July 28, 2016, 11:16:25 am »
Ethereals fly, have high intelligence and spot more soldiers every time they succeed at mind controlling, so it's easy for them to know what to do. Also I believe that making a shot that connect also reveal your soldier. This lead them to attack your snipers who stayed out of the way.

Spoiler:
While you on the other hand, have motion scanners and the intelligence to guess where the enemy is as all shots are revealed to you. You also hear doors, and if you use headphones, you can also guess which side it came from.

The tactic of having one unarmed low psy guy still work afaik, but you have to make sure the enemy knows, ie by having peek over a wall or shooting them with a rifle then drop it.

Edit: Also, the wikis are not always right.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 11:26:20 am by Boltgun »

Offline legionof1

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2933 on: July 28, 2016, 07:04:47 pm »
Best PSI defense tactic. Spin in place. Mind control doesn't grant TUs. Burn the ones you have. And against stargods you almost never get a reaction shot opportunity because invisible.

Alternatively facing abuse. Units only "see" in a narrow cone. AI favors walking forward and then turning walking some then turn again. All the fiddling about uses about 20 TUs before it looks anywhere but in the original direction.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2934 on: July 28, 2016, 07:12:41 pm »
Best PSI defense tactic. Spin in place. Mind control doesn't grant TUs. Burn the ones you have.

Alternately, Right click on the 0 TU button to shed all remaining TUs.


Offline Meridian

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2935 on: July 28, 2016, 07:17:16 pm »
Best PSI defense tactic. Spin in place. Mind control doesn't grant TUs. Burn the ones you have. And against stargods you almost never get a reaction shot opportunity because invisible.

Really?? I almost always burn my TUs, but after mind control my soldier go crazy... same the other way, don't you always get full TU aliens when you mind control them?

Just saying, cos I'm 99% sure... but will test in the evening.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2936 on: July 28, 2016, 07:23:28 pm »
Yeah, that was my impression too.  An MC'd unit got full TUs upon changing factions.

Edit:  Maybe its a function of the TUs being available during a single round.

Issue TUs
Round One
 > Player's Turn
 > Enemy's Turn
Reset TUs
Round Two, etc
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 07:25:16 pm by ivandogovich »

Online Yankes

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2937 on: July 28, 2016, 07:36:32 pm »
TU and Energy is restored for MC unit.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2938 on: July 28, 2016, 08:09:06 pm »
Energy for nothing, TUs for free... That gives me an idea. I will add Energy and Morale cost to enemy psi attacks.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2939 on: July 28, 2016, 10:18:45 pm »
As I took my new darling Mini-Cougar SMG out for a spin in my new campaign, I noticed they were borrowing the same sprites as the ordinary SMG.  As cool as they are, I thought they deserved better. :)