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

[karadoc]

I dont know all of what changes, but the largest influence on the game is an increase of numbers of mobs per map and consequently their diversity. More mobs means more chances to "roll" advanced units if a map allows it. More advanced units means more chances for captures and faster potential tech progression. More advanced units means more and better gear drops which means more tech and more "wealth".

There is also stat inflation but its comparatively minor. Foes just get better across the board. Something that was bad at shooting before is still bad just the scale has moved on everything. I will grant that there maybe some cases that are exceptional because much depends on equipment.

That's probably it then. The harder difficulty makes the ground battles a bit harder; but as a side effect, the base management might get a bit easier due to the extra resources. In my first game I doing calculations to work out if I should spend my money on a couple of brainers for research, or a workshop & runts for income; I'd work out how long it would take for the runts to pay for themselves, and so on. But in my current game, I just buy both - easily, and still have a stockpile of ship engines and things like that just in case. (I think the surplus is also at least in part from the extra early-game missions. Getting a ratman hideout in an apple field is a big cash boost, and I've had a few of those.)

[legionof1]

While I can empathize with bad RNG(3.5 years for me) pcm are not the whole problem. It's the toxigun that we are actually after. Shortest route just happens to be pcm because they are the only ones armed with them regularly. The alternative routes are just huge get one free pools.

[khade]

I think you can also get the research from Ghouls, but they're a nightmare to actually capture.

[Riph]

a workshop & runts for income

I'm playing difficulty 2.  My first action was a whole lot of piracy for fast cash, my second action was building up a workshop empire and selling grog for profit.  It very, very quickly pays for itself.

[niculinux]

I'm playing difficulty 2.  My first action was a whole lot of piracy for fast cash, my second action was building up a workshop empire and selling grog for profit.  It very, very quickly pays for itself.

Sure it is, but for real challenge (and pain!) i reccomend playing at 4-5 level, or even "ironman" when the stable release will be rolled out.

[Dioxine]

Mobs at Diff 5 can get quite ridiculous, as we can se eg. in Meridian's LP episode "Megascorpion Hunt"

[niculinux]

Mobs at Diff 5 can get quite ridiculous, as we can se eg. in Meridian's LP episode "Megascorpion Hunt"

Sure but as far as i remember, he's playing at level 3

[Dioxine]

Well you remember wrong, he's playing at the highest level.

[Nygmus]

I think you can also get the research from Ghouls, but they're a nightmare to actually capture.

You can, and they really are. If I tried to do it again, I'd probably have extra girls haul downed Ghouls and throw them into a chokepoint without weapons so I could move in and zap them once the mission was finished on the rest of the map.

It doesn't help that on my first blind encounter with them, I didn't realize they were immune to so many environmental effects, so I had a ton of smoke from molotovs and black powder bombs choking my girls out while everything else was going on.

[karadoc]

You can, and they really are. If I tried to do it again, I'd probably have extra girls haul downed Ghouls and throw them into a chokepoint without weapons so I could move in and zap them once the mission was finished on the rest of the map.

It doesn't help that on my first blind encounter with them, I didn't realize they were immune to so many environmental effects, so I had a ton of smoke from molotovs and black powder bombs choking my girls out while everything else was going on.

I often carried unconscious enemies to a central location where it is easy to keep an eye on them. And if the enemy is something like a ghoul or a star god,which are likely to wake up a lot, then I tend to have someone devoted to standing next to them ready to re-stun. (I use to just use cattle prods for this, but recently I've found that the seductress is the queen of all things sleep related.)

[Dioxine]

but recently I've found that the seductress is the queen of all things sleep related.)

Good, changes are coming to remedy that problem (it will be still much more effective than cattle prod, if used with right gals, tho)

[Yankes]

Code: [Select]

  - type: PARROT_ARMOR
    scripts:
      selectUnitSprite: |
        var int temp;
        var int walking;
        unit.isWalking walking;
        if eq walking 0;
          unit.getId temp;
          offsetmod temp 11 0 8; #desync animation of different units
          add temp anim_frame;
          wavegen_saw temp 8 8 7;
          mul sprite_offset 8;
          add sprite_offset 8;
          add sprite_offset temp;
          set sprite_index sprite_offset;
        else;
          add sprite_index sprite_offset;
        end;
        return sprite_index;
Fix for not animated parrot. Now parrot always use wings.

[Premier]

Hi Premier!! Welcome to this incredible universe called XPirateZ!!

The new early game is definitely challenging, as you are starting from a very primitive situation and trying to build out from there.   Early missions are somewhat dependent upon the whims of Random Number Generation, so a one mission month is not surprising.  I believe that if you research down the Survival tree, you can unlock a Scorpion hunt mission that can provide very decent cash and resources.  After about month 3 I'd say you should be averaging 3 ground missions per month, and those should allow you to do some slow expansion.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Indeed, random missions picked up from Month 2 or 3 onwards, and now average maybe 3 or so a month, plus maybe a landed UFO. Besides the scorpion hunts, I've also managed to unlock Warehouse Wars, so I'm slowly getting a wider variety of missions.

And unlike ivan, I say, play blind! Nothing like discovering a new toy or finding out your wasted time on a research or that bad guy wasn't so bad at all, but that other guy... well, you just lost your whole crew.

Well, two different opinions on how to approach research as a newbie, and I see the merit in both. I do like the idea of going in blind, but I think the game could hold the player's hand just a tiny bit more. Let me explain: suppose I have looted a World War Two Machinegun (I'm making this all up, mind you), and now I have "World War Two Machinegun" as an option in my research window. What do I get if I research it? Will I be able to buy it on the Black Market from now on? Or maybe not, because I haven't researched "How to Buy Machineguns on the Black Market" first, which I don't even know exists, since it's not even showing up as an option. Or do I get to manufacture it? Quite possibly not, because I haven't researched "How to Build Our Own Guns" yet, and I haven't done it because, again, I'm not even aware at this point that this research topic exists. It would be great if, for example, the game would somehow say "Don't bother researching specific looted weapons if you don't have the relevant prerequisite to build them yet, and if you want to get that prerequisite, then maybe you should head down Research Path X"

The way I see it, this is sort of an in-character / out-of-character distinction of knowledge, if you'll excuse my pen-and-paper RPg slang. In character, if I was an actual mutant sky pirate living in an actual gonzo post-apocalyptic word, and I already had some familiarity with flintlock muskets and pistols, and then found a Desert Eagle, I would be probably able to make some reasonable guesses about it: I would probably recognise it's generally a similar technology but much more advanced, and that if I want to make my own in the future, maybe I should start by looking at how to include tiny amounts of gunpowder inside a hollow shot and how to make metal parts so nice and smooth a.k.a. machining technology, and I would be able to get the concept across to my Brainers, so they'll know what direction to research in. This is something the Sky Pirate leader should be able to do. Out of character, however, as a human playing this computer game, I can't do this (even though my "in-game avatar" could), because the game mechanics get in the way - in other words, I only have a limited list of research topics, and maybe their names are too obscure for me to figure out which one would lead me in this direction, even though I clearly know the direction I want to go in.

Not sure how I would address this. Maybe - in the above case of looted weapons - researching any one of them (within a certain group, like "20th century firearms"), a new research item could appear titled "How to build more guns like the ones we've looted", and researching that would give you a technology report that gives you a general, partial roadmap, like "OK, we'll need to learn more about Violence, then we should learn about Primitive Firearms, then we should learn about Machining (but we'll probably need to find some equipment to study first), and THEN we'll be able to replicate specific researched weapon types." Or something like that. Basically, some extra in-game information that gives the player a partial insight into the tech tree, representing the in-character ability to say "Look, I know what I want, let me think about how to progress in that general direction." At least that's my first impression right now.

[Meridian]

I couldn't have said it better. Thanks for the in-depth explanation.

[ivandogovich]

Nice write up, Premier!  And some of what you described has recently been included in the game.  i.e. once you research a certain number of pistols, you get a "Pistols Summary" topic that gives basic info about them and can act as a further research gate, etc.   

At the most basic level, researching any weapon will tell you its stats.  If your manufacturing tech is high enough, it will either also unlock making ammo for it, or even possibly manufacturing it.  The tricky thing about researching weapons, is that there are alot of "two-fers" that may give you these for free: enemies talk about certain weapons when research, reading a Gun Almanach etc, pops these as freebies too.  So its not really clear how quickly you should rush to research weapons as you are playing.  I generally try to research all the books etc, and captives before I burn through weapons. 

But yeah, its hard to make a game that holds your hand enough, while still providing the thrill of discovery.  Part of the deliberate design of this mod is replayability.  Your first attempt is sort of expected to end in failure, allowing you to come back in smarter and enjoy it more.  Its also designed so that playthroughs will take on different characters due to the ways enemy will spawn, and certain missions will play as well.