Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N10 24-Nov-2024 Aurora's Dawn

[Eddie]

Regarding difficulty:
I would say the mod got harder over time, but mostly because op items/tactics got balanced. The addition of heatvision fixed smoke use, sniper/spotter made night missions less unfair for the AI. No more unlimited high damage bows, no more gauss use without research. Lots of base attacks and we have hunter killer ninjas.

But we do get more money. Earlier versions were much more money limited. Now we get so many missions with loot and captures that you are rarely hard pressed for money. Also, gambling gives you a ton of stuff for cheap and before you have researched it. But those add fun to the gameplay. The stuff you get from gambling lets you try things before you research them to see if they are worth it. More money gives you more freedom to try stuff.

Compared to other mods, having ubers sure gives you an edge. More tu and energy to get into cover, high hp makes sure your uber rarely die.

[LytaRyta]

So, Applied Chroma(todynamics)tics, you say :p ,

i like the title, and especially lead topic for this version, too ;p )

[Dakkdakk]

Honestly, at this point the mod offers you so many options that its incredibly hard for the player to be pidgeonholed into using one strat only, and thats a good thing. There's a great degree of availiable in regards to soldier types, weapon options, research branching, mission options, base facility options, craft options. The fact that choosing some things push some options away while bringing some unique or semi-unique things your way also spices this up a fair bit, me thinks.

So yea, TL;DR, game is winnable through multiple different strats as long as you prepare properly, keep the research going and dont bite more than you can chew. Really, the only thing that players really need to do in every run to not be rolled over by the game is to keep research going at a decent rate, since its not exactly easy to take down mercs using only boarding guns, and even then I think a clever/determined enough player could pull through with enough patience and luck.

Came back to this only recently, gonna prob do another run, one which mostly ignores psi related stuff since that requires a whole lot of effort to be even usable and even then its only actualy useful once you have the right tech to apply it with.

[jungybrogan]

A few questions regarding the latest version (it's been a year):

Was the function to kill unconscious units with cutting weapons disabled?  Having a body in one hand, cutting weapon in the other, no longer gives an option to execute.

Mag-lites vanish randomly when thrown--intentional?

The initial batch of werewolves I captured couldn't be tamed (only had the option to butcher them, after finishing all the research).  I butchered them thinking they'd spawn again, but sadly, I'm two years in and haven't seen another werewolf since -- blood rituals never spawn anymore :\

Finally, absolutely loving the melee combat functionality added, especially 1-tile evasion, simulating units being grappled up close.  It'd be awesome for this to be expanded further with attacks-of-opportunity when moving directly away from a unit when engaged in melee -- for example in D&D/Divinity:OS/Pathfinder/PoE, moving out of range from a unit who has a dedicated melee weapon equipped, provokes a free melee swing. However, you're able to reposition in melee without penalty, as long as you stay within range.  Perhaps here attacks-of-opportunity would also only trigger when leaving a unit's FOV, so it allows sidestepping without affecting backstabs.

Amazing work as always.

[MemoryTAS]

Mag-lites vanish randomly when thrown--intentional?

It's mentioned in the bootypedia entries for most light sources.

[legionof1]

Was the function to kill unconscious units with cutting weapons disabled?  Having a body in one hand, cutting weapon in the other, no longer gives an option to execute.

Mag-lites vanish randomly when thrown--intentional?

The initial batch of werewolves I captured couldn't be tamed (only had the option to butcher them, after finishing all the research).  I butchered them thinking they'd spawn again, but sadly, I'm two years in and haven't seen another werewolf since -- blood rituals never spawn anymore :\
snip

Execute option was removed at the engine level, not the mod itself. Mostly because it was a technical loophole in some situations, since the act didn't account for defense of target in any way. Infinite damage against a target that should have been immune to the weapon in normal conditions, isn't really balanced now is it?.

Yep most lights have a chance to break on throw now, intentional, so there is some minor cost of upkeep of light spam. And honestly aside from getting killed by an explosion, previously the same dozen odd flares lasted the whole campaign. Now imagine you treated your household flashlight, even a durable expensive model like a baseball 3-4 days a week for years, then imagine your built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[jungybrogan]

Execute option was removed at the engine level, not the mod itself. Mostly because it was a technical loophole in some situations, since the act didn't account for defense of target in any way. Infinite damage against a target that should have been immune to the weapon in normal conditions, isn't really balanced now is it?.

I see how that could be a problem with other mods, but wasn't it a toggle-able option?  Disabling it in Piratez doesn't seem to make sense, where melee builds are so prevalent; it was the only way to target KO'ed units with melee.  There are costumes/melee setups that leave little room for guns (ie. lugging around a 2-hander or anchor), moreover, having to swap to a gun or nade, wasting TU and resources to finish someone when a character is dedicated to melee, also seems like a balance issue.  If only there were a way to melee attack downed units.

[Rince Wind]

It wasn't disabled in piratez, it was removed entirely.

I hardly ever used it, because prisoners are almost always better and my melee gals usually have a pistol or submachinegun anyway.

[Dioxine]

It wasn't disabled in piratez, it was removed entirely.

And I'm thankful the devs did that, it was horrible.

[LytaRyta]

..anyway, that *executable option should have been remain untouched, - or least, should let it be as toggle-able option..

..as the function of executioning, (throat-cutting) is apparently such ..wildness pirateyz thingy..

[The Think Tank]

Unfortunately, until someone works on additional code to make it do some kind of variable and consistent damage instead of insta-killing anyone, then I don't think it'll be making a return. And I tend to agree that I would like to see it again in some form, but that is really something low on the priority list, if even at all.

[Venger]

Can someone shed some clarity on end-of-mission score calculations? I get that killing "Civilians" reduces Infamy, but is there a way to tell who is a quote "civilian" without researching them? There's a list on the wiki but it doesn't seem complete. Also, for some reason I got negative points for enemies surrendering...how is that any different from taking them as hostages?

[Ashghan]

I'll quote myself on this one.

Basically if you haven't researched (interrogated) an enemy at least once, you get a different amount of points for live capture (I think it's 2 x kill score) so a captured unresearched civilian is 'worth' even more negative points. After you researched the enemy at least once, you always get +10 points for capturing them. Everyone is the same - civvies, regular troops, even VIPs - all give the same 10 points if you captured them after researching. So research any civilians as soon as you catch them to avoid the capture penalty in the future.

Unfortunately the definition of a civilian (or rather negative score enemy, since f.ex. Govts are *not* civilians, but have negative score as well) is unclear - other than own observation (+ logic) and code diving, there is no sure way to determine who gives negative points and who gives positive.
For scoring purposes, AFAIK surrendered enemies give the same amount of points (negative or positive) as 'regular' (AKA stunned) hostages.

[mercy]

Yesterdays last mission was against two APCs with machine guns. Cannons with explosive rounds and minibombs didn't hurt them, just like Crate of Violence = no observable effect.   I reloaded that mission a painful amount of times. Then I said SHT, and got out the Hydra + Mutant lasers. Also had one Autogun +1 AP ammo. Those finally ended the MOFO APC's and the GHOULS!!!! AAAAAAAARRGH GhoooUuulls -->  we resurreccccct!  AAAAAAAARGG..

Then finally I found Krazy Hannah and ordered a shipload of heavy weaponry! YEAH BABY!!

[wolfreal]

Question about the male touch path.

It looks like that selecting male touch disallow superslave costumes and squire training and feudalism. It is totally intended?

Apart for trucks, and cheap soldiers, doesn't looks like selecting that path gives you too much. I'm going to test anyways in this run with the males soldiers.