Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N9.7.7 12-Sep-2024 Second Coming

[Rince Wind]

I think it is fine as it is. Now you have do decide if you want those barracks asap, or more dakka. I always went for the dakka and brought some Panzerfausts. Being able to do everything at once would make the early less tense, and also less interesting.

I can't play at the moment, but I really think it shouldn't get too easy. It is a harsh world, setbacks should occur, and sometimes the odds are just stacked against you and you loose the campaign. Then the star gods win again, probably without ever noticing you. On to the next try!
For everything else, there is savescumming.

[Dioxine]

Yeah that's pretty much what I think as well, guys. 'Just' 12 crew is not a problem, if they're well armed and get combat experience. Hell, sometimes I've even sold the Ventura right away and bought Pachyderm, which is only 8 crew. Most people will indeed build barracks straight away, but the starting Grog income isn't that stellar either, so maybe invest in better guns and only start building up when you get some serious loot?

As for the setbacks, if they kill you in the first-second month, you haven't lost that much time. If you survive for longer, you can be proud of yourself (and also game over is much, much less likely after these first 2-3 months). Yeah base defences are hard, but if there was no danger, there would be no tension - just easy cash from plasma guns. Myfacewhen I consciously disregarded base defences and then got hit by a Boarding Torpedo - a vessel that can be shot down with a single Flak Cannon... And then lost 3 veterans in that defence.

[Arthanor]

I haven't had a base defence in Piratez yet, but in general, base defenses are rather exploitable unless you are REALLY ill prepared. Trying to prepare the player with starting gear seems misguided to me. Personally, I don't use one shot wonders and having starting funds decreased because I got some weapons I am unlikely to use put in my storage seems weird.

If a player wants those weapons, they can buy it on day 1 and have them before they matter. If they die "because" they didn't buy weapons on day 1, then they can't have lasted very long so they haven't lost much, so they can buy them on their next new game.

Starting equipment should be about having enough to cover the minimums and enough funds/flexibility to enable the player to set things up to fit whichever style they prefer. Since there are multiple ways to deal with the more threatening enemies (hammers, axes, stun rods, flamethrowers, explosives and rockets), letting the player chose seems appropriate, especially as all will be delivered before they are really needed any ways.

[iciclefox]

the reason why i brought up the whole Panzerfaust was mainly to both give a hint to a beginner on what might work against the really tough enemies and also a way for unprepared newbie to have a chance with the generally VERY strong enemy in base defenses that either requires melee suicide runs to kill or long range explosives.

however i can also see the point of letting the player figure this out by himself. thus rewarding experiementing and actually reading the bootypedia.. its was mainly a suggestion to possibly avoid a situation which a beginner to piratez can see as an unfair situation. at least i struggled dealing with the white armored academician on 2 diff games... was it esper? until i simply just went F it and bought a set of loaded RPG's at the first minute of the game in order not face that hell of a situation again.




my starting setup after multiple attempts turned into getting barracks asap alongside either some rpgs or panzerfausts in order to deal with these nasty situations 3-4 cattle sticks depending on what the rookie stats were. as trivia i split my starting troops into 4 categories. which are melee, ranged, thrower and stickman(aka garbage). after i get the barracks i immediately proceed to get hands in order to reach a 25-30 hand crew depending on what my current situation is in order to keep a full 18 man crew going on majority of the missions.

on research i have been fairly split. which im finding amazing considering i have been experiementing with it for a while now.

flintlocks and bombs are an ASAP research in order to replenish the amazing black powder bomb supply.

after that i generally pick the research depending on what i feel i need in the near future

overall i have not found a truly the best research path. which i have to give a hats down for.

[Arthanor]

On Panzerfausts: Is it really worth it to give a few tools to a rookie who may not even know what to do with them, at the cost of reducing the options of everyone else? I don't think so. I remember Dioxine saying he intended people to make multiple playthroughs and learn things and making sure you have the tools to deal with all kinds of bad guys is a lesson one should learn early (as you did). It would be much more frustrating to get by on luck only to fail later, after you have invested a lot more time into your game.

Regarding starting game, that sounds about right, for starting priorities. I try to get a full crew (and some more to step up and replace wounded gals) asap. I however don't buy RPGs and other ranged explosives, the gals' aim is too bad to rely on that. They get the job done by throwing explosives, firing bombs, setting them on fire, or when all of that fails, hitting things with a hammer. Until you can make your own ammo for RPG, it is just too expensive for the unreliable effect.

I also focus on researching armor techs unless I feel I am really falling behind weapons wise (which usually isn't a problem at the beginning as the melee weapons + black powder bombs get the job done). Having good armor is key to getting gals to survive, which is means they are racking up experience instead of dying. If you can keep your gals for a long time (by being "careful" with team tactics and dog scouts) you can get really monstrous gals. I have had a few 60+ reactions, 100+ firing accuracy ones, high Str and TUs gals who could be depended on to do just about anything.

[Alex_D]

Question: There are items that need the Industrial Printer to be manufactured, but can't be made with a Factory.
The latter appears to be a expanded version of the IP and looks like it can do the same but with more capacity.
Is supposed to be like this?

[Dioxine]

Yes it is. Factory allows for huge amounts of Runts, but gives no special capabilities (as of now), while Industrial Printer has relatively low capacity but is required to manufacture some stuff.

[just_dont]

on research i have been fairly split. which im finding amazing considering i have been experiementing with it for a while now.

After a few experiments, my early research priority is always ammo production + acid. Acid blunderbuss ammo (which, with some expedience, are always available in 3 months at the latest) is a thing to tear down absolutely everything that's not highly resistant to acid. Blunderbuss in general has monstrous point-blank range damage output at a low-ish AP cost, and using acid ammo with them is enough to kill tanks, armored guys, and generally just about anything except people with hazmat protection.

And beyond that, as already was said, armor research is the key to (eventually) get highly-trained troops that can do just about anything.

PS: I'm playing Piratez with a self-imposed restriction "never use a gun until it's been researched", and after you get some experience - it's not really problematic to be prepared to an early base defense. Though generally I prefer not to attack early ships too much, as this seems to greatly lessen the chances of having a base defense in the first place.

PPS: On the note of more and less useful weapons: can we have a redesign of Stun Grenades? With 40 stun damage, they are UTTERLY useless in about every situation imaginable. Damage this low means that unless the enemy is completely unarmored, it's not going to do anything noticeable unless target is extremely weakened though repeated shots or acid. The standard grenade mechanism means that you'll need lots of TU to throw them. All together, it results in them being absolutely useless to harpoon gun (same AP, more ranged stun damage per turn, you just need a bit of accuracy) or to cattle prod (which will actually work against armored targets, unlike stun grenade).

[just_dont]

That's some... neat base-building they have there. Would be a shame if something happens to it.

Spoiler:

[Dioxine]

Update is ready. Revised Morale mechanics, as planned, plus a few additions. One that is bound to enrage many players is that Star Gods are far more cheaty now (although their armor ratings were decreased). New means to fight them will appear in the future as well, for now there is one - Piratez' own version of 'invisible' armor. Check the changelog for full changelog.

[Soyden]

Anybody manage to fire a heavy plasma pistol successfully? I crash to desktop whenever the projectile makes contact with its target. So far I've fired it the ground and a door in a alien base and crashed both times. I've been sliding my saves between versions so it may be just my game getting unstable.

[Alex_D]

Thanks for the update Dioxine!

Let's see:

Changelog:
0.95A
- Update: VooDoo Rod is no longer a separate item; now appears only in conjunction with Witch Armor; VooDoo tech tree adjusted

for a new game. I started to use the VD rod as a secondary "weapon" for my gals. But

Spoiler:

for my current game, at least the gals that often do MC, now have their VD rod permanently attached to their hand. They have Annihilator Armor. I also have some Witch armors left. I changed their armor and now both hands have VD rods! If I press X to drop the equipment the VD rod drops too. Or if I equip Annihilator armors after the Witch armor has been assigned and confirmed in the equipment screen, the rods stay with the gal. Or if I have another gal with a VD rod (from before mod update) I can copy her equipment VR rod included.
I suppose this is a glitch from a transition between mod versions (EDIT: as suspected the "excess" VD rods disappeared after a battle). I have to research the items and see what happens.

- Star Gods de-armored, they're invisible & bleed-immune instead; their weapon is much less powerful but ignores most armor & destroys morale

I have to wait a few in-game months (or years?) until the proper Star God guy can be captured. All kinds of walks of life show up but not them. Pretty much all I have when I down one of their ships are those purple spitting one-eyed monsters that are very annoying to kill.
I suppose, the Cydonia assault with SGs would be interesting. Nothing that a barrage of Blaster bombs cannot cure Else it would end in massacre.

[LexThorn]

Update is ready. Revised Morale mechanics, as planned, plus a few additions. One that is bound to enrage many players is that Star Gods are far more cheaty now (although their armor ratings were decreased). New means to fight them will appear in the future as well, for now there is one - Piratez' own version of 'invisible' armor. Check the changelog for full changelog.

Are there will be whole VooDoo armors line? Hmm...

Another question: how about some sort of more si-fy looking power armor? Annihilator is good but its look is not so sy-fy (IMHO!!).  Or some sort of mobile suit (like in Gundam franshise) as craft(with nessesary gal pilot or two)? Just ideas.

P.S. Gundam-like units seems more like idea for whole separate mod than for x-piratez.

P.P.S. if VooDoo rod is part of Witch armor it is logicall to replace it with some sort of "VooDoo Emitter" imbedded into more advenced (and more tecnological) versions of armor. 

I smell WH40k bibliary armour... or something like that.

[Dioxine]

Anybody manage to fire a heavy plasma pistol successfully? I crash to desktop whenever the projectile makes contact with its target. So far I've fired it the ground and a door in a alien base and crashed both times. I've been sliding my saves between versions so it may be just my game getting unstable.

God damn it, Murphy's law...
>check dozens of weapons, no errors
>don't check a single one, it's bugged
I'm afraid it'll be unuseable till next release, unless you replace the code (STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_LT_CLIP):

Code: [Select]

    hitSound: 19
    hitAnimation: 76

with:

Code: [Select]

    explosionHitSound: 111
    hitAnimation: 104


Another question: how about some sort of more si-fy looking power armor? Annihilator is good but its look is not so sy-fy (IMHO!!).  Or some sort of mobile suit (like in Gundam franshise) as craft(with nessesary gal pilot or two)? Just ideas.

No offense, but Gundam looks more like plastic toys than real SF to me... Although yeah, offense, since you've just offended me by saying my beautiful Annihilator is not SF... yeah certainly it'd be totally easy to build such a suit with 2015 tech

P.P.S. if VooDoo rod is part of Witch armor it is logicall to replace it with some sort of "VooDoo Emitter" imbedded into more advenced (and more tecnological) versions of armor. 
I smell WH40k bibliary armour... or something like that.

Not a f*cking chance. That was the precise goal of removing separate VooDoo Rod, so you can't have mages flying around in power armor. Now if you want to be a wizard, you gotta wear wizards' clothes. And die from just any weapon.

[doctor medic]

Dioxine it seems you really hated people winning in vanila with psi only?