aliens

Author Topic: Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N7 16-Dec-2023 Flying Tiger, Hidden Tentacle  (Read 3610162 times)

Offline RSSwizard

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8595 on: September 10, 2022, 03:06:59 am »
1/ Russia will never sign a pact.

2/ Even if all countries signed a pact, it's not game over. You can continue playing.

thanks, I always wondered about that

Offline Hadza

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8596 on: September 13, 2022, 01:32:23 pm »

And until I'm able to launch one of my ICBMs down an enemy's base-hole I'm not enthusiastic about suddenly losing craft, storage space, etc. just for the lulz. I enjoyed the game 2-3 years ago before the missiles were ever introduced, and that's how I'm going to enjoy it now.

You can launch ICBMs???

Offline RSSwizard

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8597 on: September 16, 2022, 03:15:46 am »
And until I'm able to launch one of my ICBMs down an enemy's base-hole I'm not enthusiastic about suddenly losing craft, storage space, etc. just for the lulz. I enjoyed the game 2-3 years ago before the missiles were ever introduced, and that's how I'm going to enjoy it now.
search the .rul files for the technocracy craft that searches for your bases and change its sight range to something very small like 50 kilometers. They wont be able to target you with missiles anymore.

Alternatively you can search for the mission generator for a missile strike and set its event weight to 0 so those missions are never spawned. Folks may not condone hacking but if it's affecting his game experience that badly id say take an eraser to that little part.

You should still shoot down and harvest those TEC ships though if you can, tons of terminator bots, you get nuclear batteries from them which will allow you to build Testudo suits later on for slave soldiers (does 150 armor feel good?). Just have people carrying Lasguns, Hunting Lasers or Infantry Lasers to shoot em with.

IMO trading nuclear batteries for bootleg laser discs is a terrible deal, only useful if the tech tree viewer says you got like 4 topics left that the disc can provide. Pretty much only useful for the nuclear materials topic and some other thing.

For base attacks have at least 2 spare Armored Cars or Tanks equipped by personnel, armored cars are the easy option. Id suggest HMG and Heavy Flamer. Imagine being able to wield Armored Car firepower against base invaders. Its Murder. Only trick then is having your dogs sniff out the ones in the ventilation ducts.

I also tend to fill up my Armored Car and Tank inventories with active Stun Mines, to just drop it out the porthole as i pass right by somebody. Boom 90 daze damage, maybe 2x of it too for two mines). Also tend to stack explosives in them such as Firebombs or Satchel Charges, always set for 3 Turns after mission start (counter "4" I believe) so I don't get them mixed up... and on that 3rd turn I STRIKE. Also usually at least 1 active Knockout Grenade so I can Puff on somebody the first turn.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2022, 03:23:56 am by RSSwizard »

Offline Ultimoos

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8598 on: September 16, 2022, 11:49:01 am »
Only trick then is having your dogs sniff out the ones in the ventilation ducts.

Why I've never thought of that. I'm so bad at using the tools game provide.

Offline Apocca

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 85
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8599 on: September 16, 2022, 08:15:26 pm »
What is this?  ???

Offline RSSwizard

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8600 on: September 16, 2022, 09:35:16 pm »
What is this?  ???
Apparently it is a vampire incursion, sounds like a leadup to creating an alien base (for vampires) or a series of nasty missions. Kinda like a comm wave for a ground based pogrom.

Why I've never thought of that. I'm so bad at using the tools game provide.

Dogs move like 100tu or some such. They have a built in aye-phone which costs them morale, they can only use it a few times. But you have several dogs going different places and when you've eliminated all the enemies you know of, have them all scan on the following turn. Any blip and you know where remaining enemies are. Another tip is if you have Large General Stores the ducts there are a great place to start and spread out from - also Plantation ducts are pretty easy to rule out (just hard to get immediate access to). Plantations are dangerous to have Imps in the ducts during a dark one attack, if they kill a dog its no biggie though.

For these base defenses sometimes ill give a doggie some primed Dynamite (like 2 turns) and turn him into a drone strike. If they wrestle with him he still blows up.

Note also about game tools.......

Early game you can get Grav Packs by capturing Raider Buzzards. Each one is a Grav Harness already built for you. As for capturing them, repeated shots with pistols to flash them red will give them wounds, if they dont present themselves to whop over the head they will eventually fall from grace. I find Molotovs to be tricky because they may just burn to death, and Fire Extinguishers take a LONG time to use.

(sidenote:  I find Fire Extinguishers pretty dam useless and hardly ever equip them. They take like 70 Tus to use or something insane like that. Smoke grenades too are virtually useless and hurt you more than the enemy. Since anyone worth their salt has like 40% ThV anyway and they see through it and you dont. For long range over open terrain Grenades are far more useful than guns, just as they were in original X-Com where id have 2 Grenadiers loaded with 6 grenades each, one primed in hand waiting, to kill any aliens the HWP spotted. As for putting out fires... why put them out? Don't get set on fire, watch your dam cover... don't set fire to any enemies you dont honestly want to kill. You shouldn't be killing mobs anyways you should be capturing them.)

Your fastest Gal with a Grav Harness is probably pushing 120-130 TUs.

She can carry a Hammer or Barbarian Sword (or Chainsaw, or Auto Axe...) and because Range=1 also means Above or Below you can strike somebody not on your current floor to completely ignore melee defenses. That also means being able to strike vertically at an angle 1 floor above or below too, you don't have to be directly on top or below them.

Also the whirlwind attack on a Barbarian Sword (overhanded WHOP) will hit 3 frigging times for HIGH damage and has RANGE 2. You can stab somebody 2 floors up through the elevator with that thing for like 120 x 3 damage. I believe cutting damage like this also eats many types of shields too.

You can destroy Armored Cars and Cyberdiscs this way without them blowing up. It will one-shot any power armored bodyguard dude. The raw damage number on a Hammer on a gal with good melee and top strength is probably something close to 140 and its reliable damage too (50-150%).

And you can do that pretty much right after capturing a couple Raider Buzzards (one to research, another to rob).

This was reminded to me because of the need for high TUs to chase down base defense lurkers.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2022, 11:21:34 pm by RSSwizard »

Offline Warface

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 44
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8601 on: September 18, 2022, 03:16:56 pm »
search the .rul files for the technocracy craft that searches for your bases and change its sight range to something very small like 50 kilometers. They wont be able to target you with missiles anymore.

Alternatively you can search for the mission generator for a missile strike and set its event weight to 0 so those missions are never spawned. Folks may not condone hacking but if it's affecting his game experience that badly id say take an eraser to that little part.

You should still shoot down and harvest those TEC ships though if you can, tons of terminator bots, you get nuclear batteries from them which will allow you to build Testudo suits later on for slave soldiers (does 150 armor feel good?). Just have people carrying Lasguns, Hunting Lasers or Infantry Lasers to shoot em with.

IMO trading nuclear batteries for bootleg laser discs is a terrible deal, only useful if the tech tree viewer says you got like 4 topics left that the disc can provide. Pretty much only useful for the nuclear materials topic and some other thing.

For base attacks have at least 2 spare Armored Cars or Tanks equipped by personnel, armored cars are the easy option. Id suggest HMG and Heavy Flamer. Imagine being able to wield Armored Car firepower against base invaders. Its Murder. Only trick then is having your dogs sniff out the ones in the ventilation ducts.

I also tend to fill up my Armored Car and Tank inventories with active Stun Mines, to just drop it out the porthole as i pass right by somebody. Boom 90 daze damage, maybe 2x of it too for two mines). Also tend to stack explosives in them such as Firebombs or Satchel Charges, always set for 3 Turns after mission start (counter "4" I believe) so I don't get them mixed up... and on that 3rd turn I STRIKE. Also usually at least 1 active Knockout Grenade so I can Puff on somebody the first turn.

I have the mission disabled. Might consider your option A, at least for the ships. Idk.

As for the rest, my battlescape game is pretty tight, and I recently got adv. lasgun clips online. Haven't had a base defense I couldn't handle yet -- except the Star Gods one that forced me to reload the whole month.

You can launch ICBMs???
You can make them, but not launch them.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:39:04 pm by Warface »

Offline RSSwizard

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8602 on: September 19, 2022, 01:09:52 am »
Other (simple) changes if you want to nerf or soft hack the game, for the sake of fun. Insert these at the very end of each file. Just copypasta, pretty low recoil.

globals file
Code: [Select]
costHireScientist: 100000
costScientist: 50000
initialFunding: 2648   # relevant if you are starting a new game
chanceToStopRetaliation: 100
escortRange: 200
kneelBonusGlobal: 125
noLOSAccuracyPenaltyGlobal: 67
bughuntMinTurn: 15
ai:
  destroyBaseFacilities: false
fixedUserOptions:
  battleExplosionHeight: 1  # -30 damage per floor height
recommendedUserOptions:
  customInitialBase: true
constants:
  - damageRange: 77
  - explosiveDamageRange: 60
  # causes at least some damage, effectively 10-80 for 45 points, its like 1d8s
  # makes bombs able to damage some hwps, slightly more random


piratez file
Code: [Select]
ufos:
  - type: STR_VESSEL_TEC_01
    hunterKillerPercentage: 1
    sightRange: 50
  - type: STR_VESSEL_ESCORT
    hunterKillerPercentage: 18
  - type: STR_VESSEL_SENTRY
    sightRange: 250
    speedMax: 3200
  - type: STR_VESSEL_FIGHTER
    hunterKillerPercentage: 18
  - type: STR_VESSEL_FIGHTER_HUNT
    radarRange: 125
items:
  - type: STR_ELERIUM_115
    armor: 188
  - type: STR_BOMB_LAUNCHER_PARTS
    armor: 999
  - type: STR_PLASMA_SPITTER_PARTS
    armor: 999
  - type: STR_GAUSS_CANNON_PARTS
    armor: 999
  - type: STR_GAT_LASCANNON_PARTS
    armor: 999
facilities:
  - type: STR_ACCESS_LIFT
    sickBayAbsoluteBonus: 1.0
  - type: STR_WORKSHOP
    workshops: 50
startingBase:
  scientists: 5
  engineers: 15
  items:
    STR_BIG_BONE: 1
    STR_LOKNAR_SCRIPTURES: 4
    STR_PARROT: 1
    STR_RAYGUN: 1
    STR_RAYGUN_CLIP: 3
    STR_SHIV: 5
    STR_NOOSE: 3
    STR_FLINTLOCK_BALLS: 10
    STR_SHOTGUN_G_SHELLS: 5
    STR_SILVER_BAR: 2
    STR_STAPLER_CLIP: 14
    STR_SUPER_STAPLER: 1
    STR_PIR_CANNONBALL: 3
    STR_MOLOTOV: 50
    STR_ANARCHY_BOMB: 13
    STR_TINY_DRILL: 1
    STR_ELERIUM_115: 58
    STR_JUNK_PILE: 35
    STR_BIG_ROCK: 169
    STR_SCRAP_METAL: 100
    STR_MENACING_HULL: 1
    STR_RAIDER_CORPSE: 16
    STR_MUTANT_MEAT: 32
    STR_WRENCH: 1
    STR_LAND_DEED: 1
« Last Edit: September 19, 2022, 01:36:42 am by RSSwizard »

Offline Warface

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 44
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8603 on: September 22, 2022, 07:13:40 pm »
I'd like to avoid nerfs in general; I just have no interest in the "challenge" of keeping my inventory from randomly being dumped by losing a facility. That and the 600x "capitatory tax" & 99x "big rocks" that force you to dump inventory before they arrive. Aside from that, my only difficulty lies in the research jungle; however with laser weapons (by scumming research RNG) I now feel less behind.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2022, 08:20:51 pm by Warface »

Offline Vakrug

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 261
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8604 on: October 03, 2022, 09:54:29 pm »
I have finally “finished” XPiratez. Oh, boy, that was unprecedented experience. I can't say that I absolutely love this mod. Or maybe this mod is too good for me. One thing is certain: I wasn't morally prepared for what was coming. This mod is at least 5 times more lengthier then XCOM Files is! This is not necessarily bad, but definitely something I wish to know earlier.

When progress tree showed around 40% completion, due to various reasons I decided “Enough!”. I want to see an ending and I will see it now! Most of my thoughts right are not about the current game, but about my future campaign, that I will definitely do someday. Luckily editing the save file was not particularly hard... I can't say that I had to restart the game because of some kind failed strategic decisions. No, but I would definitely do some stuff differently during next playthrough, that is for sure. The main problem is that I wasn't paying enough attention to incredible amount of weapons, equipment, armors, ship weapons, different components and so on. Partially because I wasn't sure if this mod is worth so much time spent. Now I know – it is worth it, but trying to catch up now is too daunting task, so I would better restart. After cheating an ending first...

I have not much experience with OpenXCOM mods. Earlier I played only XCOM Files. It was very surprising to discover that XCOM Files is actually a prequel to XPiratez (Solarius confirmed that). I just want to say that I may not be particularly objective in assessing quality of the XPiratez, but still I want to tell about different strong and week sided of this mod.

Let's start with strong sides. Almost immediately after I starting playing I noticed how useful BootyPedia articles are. When an item have important properties, item description says about them. No need to go to “additional info” section and patiently investigate the presence of abnormal values. Notable example is “Poison Gas Grenade”. It's real damage is not 50 despite main article says. When someone told about the same issue in XCOM Files forum, the response was something like “this is a limitation of an engine, nothing can be done about that”. I am happy to see that in XPiratez this complicated obstacle was heroically overcomed by writing an appropriate text in item's description!

Those “Piratin' Tips” from #001 to #155 were very useful (most of them). I wish they were available from the start. Most of this stuff corresponds to vanilla mechanics but this does not make them less important. First, official openXCom wiki sucks in many aspects (most notably lack of data structure and navigation), so I was happy to see important rules in game. Second, even if you know all vanilla mechanics, you can't know if and how they are altered in a mod.

As you probably already noticed, my native tongue is not English. It is Russian. Many games nowadays has localizations, but it is very often bad. Not completed or straight away a machine translation. But translation in XPiratez is amazing! Even memes that only Russians knows about are there. I even started to think that in the reality Russian language is the original one.

And now downsides. None of them are critical, but somewhat undermines strategic decisions. Some of them are related to vanilla mechanics. Some of them probably are unavoidable. I will list them from the most important to the least.

It is very easy to miss important research because of facility requirements. Most easy to miss stuff are those that require both Old Earth Lab and Workshop. Luckily I anticipated that and built a workshop in my main base despite knowing that I should not develop manufacturing in the main base because of limited space. I wish there was some kind of notification for a player like “Hey, you can't research an available topic because none of your bases possesses required facility combination.” Or “Hey, an item in your base #2 is waiting to be researched, but you should transfer it to another base with appropriate research facility”. Seriously, in XPiratez there is so much stuff to worry about and manage. Adding the additional burden I just describes is too much.

There are lot of stuff in a warehouse that require monthly cost or generate monthly profit. And yet only expenses summary is available in each base. This is not enough. Player need a proper summary. Situation is even worse because many stuff that do have monthly cost/revenue does not mention them in their corresponding articles in BootyPedia, slaves, for example. I also wish the same breakdown for the monthly score.

I don't know about others, but I really hate when after scrupulous preparation I am getting a notice that you can't use that vehicle! Some mission infos do mention that they require special craft, but not all of them. Is it too hard to add some kind of asterisk (*) to a mission info that will signalize a player about the necessity to check vehicle requirements first?

Some mission descriptions are vague. For example this mission with red barn. Do I really need to inflict as much damage to it or I just need to evade an angry peasant for 5 turns? I am not sure if it is even possible for a game to assess damage to tiles and walls done by a player and calculate a reward during debriefing accordingly. (Probably it is possible -- base defense.) Also I want to mention a mission with zombies coming out of black pyramids. Only by pure accident I discovered that portals inside those pyramids can be destroyed and their destruction is crucial for plot. This makes me rise a question: how many other similar stuff I missed?

It was very unexpected that those 3 bases (academia, Sirius and guild) never respawned after I cleared them. If I knew that earlier, I would not clear them until I kidnapped enough VIPs from them.

Despite what article about “Loot Distribution” says, non Gal/Ubers do contribute to higher rank generation. I recruited a bunch of peasants to guard my secondary bases in hopes to minimize wages, but main base uber habitants still got their promotions! This setback was not critical, but considerably undermined my trust towards this mod.

Nepped pirates does not acknowledge having already been Nepped. Just like the article said. This was not a joke. They just eat 100000$. Seriously, how did the author of this mod come up with this bullshit idea??? Do I have to comment more about this issue?

I lost 50 000 000$ due to an event. Partially I cannot complain about that, because game explicitly said that something like that could happen. But there is one important nuance: I had to click like crazy to earn that money! Printing money from air is not as simple as it sounds, especially if this involves medicine production. And this is not some kind of exploit, game itself told me that it is right thing to do: produce and sell medicine to save lives... Of course I just edited the save file and gave this 50M back. And why stop there? I decided to just give myself money using save file I would gain by producing and selling medicine instead of actually doing so. The end result is the same, but with far less clicking micromanagement and distractions. I think this stuff with printing money and stealing should be greatly reconsidered.

What does “HUGE Target” means? I don't remember this stuff was described in BootyPedia.

Few words about the storyline. Well, it was very interesting, I impatiently waited for each next piece of information form different sources like Decrypted Data Disc. But some parts were not satisfying enough. May be I didn't gathered all the pieces. (Though I am certain I cheated and researched all stuff like Grrrl Guide.) None of witches admitted that it was she who staged initial girl's escape. Origins of player's first base is not clarified. Also the conclusion with Doctor X was not very climactic. You see, escaped girls didn't really have questions that only Doctor X could answer. Why they even put so many effort to find her in the first place?

And lastly few words about balancing. The thing that bothered me greatly during whole campaign was 40% TU cost for throwing stuff, instead of vanilla's 25%. It became so much harder to use grenades and even throwable light sources. Landmines were almost useless in XCOM Files. But in XPiratez with even more restrictions (2 hands to prime, 40% TU to throw, accuracy penalty while throwing) it is completely useless! Chemical weapons are very weak. They suppose to counter armor, but do so very slowly. I observed this both while tried to use chemical weapons and while was shot using them. Also it feels like Voodoo magic is severely nerfed. I only managed to use it reliably on Megapol animals. I know, Voodoo can be much stronger, but I haven't really touched that path.

As I said earlier, I will definitely play this mod again. But this time I will not worry so much about strategic decisions, but will pay more attention to weapons and other equipment. And I will be morally ready that this game will take at least 1 real life year of moderately intense play.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2022, 11:51:04 pm by Vakrug »

Offline JustTheDude/CABSHEP

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 390
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8605 on: October 04, 2022, 11:46:50 am »
I don't know about others, but I really hate when after scrupulous preparation I am getting a notice that you can't use that vehicle! Some mission infos do mention that they require special craft, but not all of them. Is it too hard to add some kind of asterisk (*) to a mission info that will signalize a player about the necessity to check vehicle requirements first?

Basically all missions have a clear mention that only specific crafts can be used and it is rather intuitive. Underwater missions take only those that are capable of going there, space missions only take spaceworthy crafts and infiltration missions take only inconspicuous crafts.

Some mission descriptions are vague. For example this mission with red barn. Do I really need to inflict as much damage to it or I just need to evade an angry peasant for 5 turns? I am not sure if it is even possible for a game to assess damage to tiles and walls done by a player and calculate a reward during debriefing accordingly. (Probably it is possible -- base defense.) Also I want to mention a mission with zombies coming out of black pyramids. Only by pure accident I discovered that portals inside those pyramids can be destroyed and their destruction is crucial for plot. This makes me rise a question: how many other similar stuff I missed?

Yes, the game somehow counts how much damage you dealt to the barn. And I see nothing vague about that mission description, don't kill barn owner/s, destroy the barn.
You probably didn't missed much, but maybe the language barier is a bit of a problem. The satellite mission that disrupts your laboratory can be "completed" by just showing up and aborting ASAP, no need to deal with whatever lurks in space and such. It is also written clearly in mission description.

Despite what article about “Loot Distribution” says, non Gal/Ubers do contribute to higher rank generation. I recruited a bunch of peasants to guard my secondary bases in hopes to minimize wages, but main base uber habitants still got their promotions! This setback was not critical, but considerably undermined my trust towards this mod.

https://www.xpiratez.wtf/en-US##STR_LOOT_DISTRIBUTION

Where it is written in there that non Gal/Ubers don't contribute to rank?

Nepped pirates does not acknowledge having already been Nepped. Just like the article said. This was not a joke. They just eat 100000$. Seriously, how did the author of this mod come up with this bullshit idea??? Do I have to comment more about this issue?

Either an engine limit, or a little trolling for people who don't acknowledge what is written.

I lost 50 000 000$ due to an event. Partially I cannot complain about that, because game explicitly said that something like that could happen. But there is one important nuance: I had to click like crazy to earn that money! Printing money from air is not as simple as it sounds, especially if this involves medicine production. And this is not some kind of exploit, game itself told me that it is right thing to do: produce and sell medicine to save lives... Of course I just edited the save file and gave this 50M back. And why stop there? I decided to just give myself money using save file I would gain by producing and selling medicine instead of actually doing so. The end result is the same, but with far less clicking micromanagement and distractions. I think this stuff with printing money and stealing should be greatly reconsidered.

Just buy gold bars to keep your cash safely stored in base. Do that once a month at its end. Shouldn't take more than few clicks and a good mouse wheel scroll.

What does “HUGE Target” means? I don't remember this stuff was described in BootyPedia.

"Hitbox" of each unit is represented by a cylinder in-engine. "HUGE Target" most likely means that this cylinder is bigger, thus a bit easier to hit.

Few words about the storyline. Well, it was very interesting, I impatiently waited for each next piece of information form different sources like Decrypted Data Disc. But some parts were not satisfying enough. May be I didn't gathered all the pieces. (Though I am certain I cheated and researched all stuff like Grrrl Guide.) None of witches admitted that it was she who staged initial girl's escape. Origins of player's first base is not clarified. Also the conclusion with Doctor X was not very climactic. You see, escaped girls didn't really have questions that only Doctor X could answer. Why they even put so many effort to find her in the first place?

Some stuff is supposed to be vague, or shrouded in mistery, otherwise it would be lame. All of the best stories and lores have things that don't have clear answers and aren't obvious to guess.

One could assume that original Hideout was old X-Com base, but the game and story allows for a quite a big bit of a roleplay. You want to think that this base belonged to Men In Black division, who at the very end went rogue and scrapped its existance from their records? You can.

And lastly few words about balancing. The thing that bothered me greatly during whole campaign was 40% TU cost for throwing stuff, instead of vanilla's 25%. It became so much harder to use grenades and even throwable light sources. Landmines were almost useless in XCOM Files. But in XPiratez with even more restrictions (2 hands to prime, 40% TU to throw, accuracy penalty while throwing) it is completely useless! Chemical weapons are very weak. They suppose to counter armor, but do so very slowly. I observed this both while tried to use chemical weapons and while was shot using them. Also it feels like Voodoo magic is severely nerfed. I only managed to use it reliably on Megapol animals. I know, Voodoo can be much stronger, but I haven't really touched that path.

Player grenade spam is well known trick, also nade passing, where one soldier primes the nade, drops it and other picks it up.
So stuff was implemented to counter the biggest of player cheese to make stuff interesting. Yet another campaing in yet another mod where you basically ignore aiming mechanics, because RNG of bullets have to roll that one, or specific line to the target, while explosives just have to land in range.
Yet there is always a solution. Instead of using nades, use dedicated grenade launchers. Instead of throwable light sources, use bow with flaming arrows. There is a balance between one tile grenade, or light and dedicated weapon to serve the same purpose.

Landmines are supposed to be used like landmines, not proxy nades. While I do have to admit that the game is rather always pro-active where you are attacking something, so land mines aren't that usefull, outside of few specific encounters. But they sure served their purpose in my favourite part of the game, when fighting deep ones and zombies.

Many enemies have chem protection on top of their armor, not everyone is vulnerable to chem, don't take any kind of weapon and any kind of damage of be all end all solution.

Yes, mind control was nerfed, because in vanilla it is super busted to the point of allowing people to reliably beat Cydonia with one psy soldier. You could still get close to that level, it just takes a lot of resources, training and research.


Offline Vakrug

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 261
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8606 on: October 04, 2022, 02:06:37 pm »
... and infiltration missions take only inconspicuous crafts.
I wish all was so simple...

don't kill barn owner/s, destroy the barn.
Only damage to walls counts? Haybales destroyed counts? Putting stuff on fire counts? So many questions. I know, it is not very important, but still...

The satellite mission that disrupts your laboratory can be "completed" by just showing up and aborting ASAP, no need to deal with whatever lurks in space and such.
Do you mean I will receive 0 points for this mission and not receive -500 for skipping? Do you mean there are no specific requirements to actually win this mission to go forward in plot?

It is also written clearly in mission description.
Just go there and immediately retreat? I don't remember that.

https://www.xpiratez.wtf/en-US##STR_LOOT_DISTRIBUTION
Where it is written in there that non Gal/Ubers don't contribute to rank?
Non Gal/Ubers receives DIFFERENT ranks! And why would slave population increase officers count?

All of the best stories and lores have things that don't have clear answers and aren't obvious to guess.
Not receiving an answer is not the same as nobody really cares. And most such "best stories" are just an example of lazy writing or even worse -- marketing driven plots.

Player grenade spam is well known trick, also nade passing, where one soldier primes the nade, drops it and other picks it up.
This does not stopped me from using "nade passing". I you want to prevent that, grenade priming time should be less than time needed to pick a grenade from the floor. This has nothing to do with throwing time. And also this 40% TU to throw is on ALL items, not just grenades. This makes no sense to me.

Thanks for answers.

Offline JustTheDude/CABSHEP

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 390
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8607 on: October 04, 2022, 10:24:27 pm »
I wish all was so simple...

It really is. Mission always says it is an infiltration and those always require inscopicious crafts, space missions always require spaceworthy crafts and underwater missions require those who can go there.

Only damage to walls counts? Haybales destroyed counts? Putting stuff on fire counts? So many questions. I know, it is not very important, but still...

Not 100% sure, but probably just destroyed tiles count, which would be roof, 1st floor, hay bales, stairs, walls, doors and windows. Those on fire that aren't destryed at the end of 5th turn most likely don't count.

Do you mean I will receive 0 points for this mission and not receive -500 for skipping? Do you mean there are no specific requirements to actually win this mission to go forward in plot?

There might be some fluff item inside, but nothing you have to get for sure.

Just go there and immediately retreat? I don't remember that.

Yes, it is written in mission description, that your gals deal with the satellite by just showing up, since you get no infamy loss from retreating from this mission, your overall infamy is higher, because you didn't lose the ammount you would if you didn't show up there at all. To be fair, all of missions that give you infamy penalty if not responded to work this way, but they usually have civilians so just showing up and leaving will hit your infamy (mutant pogrom after joining mutant alliance, its overall better to show up and retreat than not to show up at all).

There is no need to actually do that mission, especially since it is so dangerous. Mainly in midgame, where you still have access only to basic space suit and stepping out of your craft is like a duck hunt for the opposite team.

Non Gal/Ubers receives DIFFERENT ranks! And why would slave population increase officers count?

Probably engine limitation, still, "slave" soldiers you recruit aren't just normal slaves anymore, but part of your pirate band, even slaves need their master, someone has to govern them.

Not receiving an answer is not the same as nobody really cares. And most such "best stories" are just an example of lazy writing or even worse -- marketing driven plots.

Examples like movie "Alien", or "Star Wars" old trilogy show that it truly isn't just an example of lazy writing, or "marketing driven plots". Prequels of those that explain stuff are just super bad. Sometimes it is better to not reveal something, because no matter what is the answer, it won't be better than just wondering what the answer is.
I'm not talking about "cliffhangers" as they are truly "marketing driven plots" and as such, doesn't exist in Piratez.

This does not stopped me from using "nade passing". I you want to prevent that, grenade priming time should be less than time needed to pick a grenade from the floor. This has nothing to do with throwing time. And also this 40% TU to throw is on ALL items, not just grenades. This makes no sense to me.

It is not supposed to stop you from doing that, but to slighty discourage cheese. That 50 000 000$ penalty event was designed to discourage you from hoarding money, not to outright stop you.

Offline Vakrug

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 261
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8608 on: October 04, 2022, 11:57:30 pm »
Probably engine limitation, still, "slave" soldiers you recruit aren't just normal slaves anymore, but part of your pirate band, even slaves need their master, someone has to govern them.
Text from BootyPedia:  Yes, the more GALS we have, the more and higher ranking officers we'll need. Officers will get a monthly cash bonus: Boss Gal $20k, Mistress $50k, Princess $100k, and Queen $250k. One Boss per 4 Gals, one Mistress per 3 Bosses, one Princess per 2 Mistresses. One Queen per 69 total crew and never more than one.
I checked translation: gal = girl. And again, specific ranks are mentioned, not "level 1", "level 2" and so on.
Unrelated question: how does a player can become a Queen if you already might have 1 or even more already?

Examples like movie "Alien", or "Star Wars" old trilogy show that it truly isn't just an example of lazy writing, or "marketing driven plots".

And what exactly questions there were left unanswered? I remind that in XPiratez someone freed girls, brought them to super-duper hideout, called them by phone, and after that nothing was heard about his/her! Looks like an autor himself forgot this part of the story.

It is not supposed to stop you from doing that, but to slighty discourage cheese.
Cheese to throw 3 light sources per turn? I repeat: 40% TU to throw is on every object, not just explosive ones.

That 50 000 000$ penalty event was designed to discourage you from hoarding money, not to outright stop you.
Is hoarding money is also some kind of cheese? And how does hoarding gold is not a cheese?
« Last Edit: October 05, 2022, 12:01:11 am by Vakrug »

Offline RSSwizard

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N1 29-Apr-2022 Every Day Is Caturday
« Reply #8609 on: October 05, 2022, 05:01:39 am »
Quote
Likewise the Space Freighter says your transport needs to fly at least 4000 speed... but its restricting by type not by actual speed. What if my transport has an Ethyr Drive + and a Thruster and technically goes 4100 huh. Generally the Space Freighter mission is buggy anyway, it doesn't even have an exit grid.

Actually to be specific I wanted to say the DRAKKAR which goes 3250 speed but has 3 missile slots. And since Thrusters add 300 each you can load up 3 of them for a combined speed of 4150...

And that SHOULD make it eligible to get to the Space Freighter.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2022, 11:57:25 pm by RSSwizard »