Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N7 16-Dec-2023 Flying Tiger, Hidden Tentacle

[nrafield]

Getting in a melee with them is the problem, especially if they are armed with the plasma pistols. Someone's probably gonna die then. They shrug off mortar fire and any other similiarly ranged explosives. No long-ranged ballistic weapons seem to put a dent in them at all. The only reliable way to dispatch them early game, aside from closing into melee, seems to be picking up one of these plasma pistols yourself and hoping that you will hit.

Also since the crew seem to have ethical qualms about disassembling a live Mechtoid, currently they are worth more dead than alive.

[Martin]

Someone's probably gonna die then.

Parrot, dog, shitty recruit or some other expendable unit can do the dying, but generally doesn't have to, as mechtoids on most maps spawn inside their cramped vessel or equally cramped bunker and rarely wander into open space.

[Scorrpio]

They shrug off mortar fire and any other similiarly ranged explosives. No long-ranged ballistic weapons seem to put a dent in them at all

Looking at stats they are immune to concussive, and have 60 armor all around.   And 80 psi strength. I suppose dousing in acid should work well...

[legionof1]

Chem always works....eventually. The armor stripping eventually adds up even against resistant targets like mechtoids. That said strong melee will probably work faster due having exceptional raw power. Raw power is better for overcoming armor and resists due the ordering of damage calculation.

[sinisteragent]

I tend to hit them with the biggest guns and as much fire and explosions and chemical attacks as I have available. Until you cn reliably field really big guns, that's often a case of hit and run and whittling down their armour while waiting for that lucky shot that really nails them.

 Rushing them with a handful of stabbers is theoretically a good option, but I often find myself fighting them on extremely open maps like deserts or grassy hills, so it's usually a rough defensive shootout while I try to move some flankers.

I like them, I must admit. On paper the mechtoids could can sound a bit cheap, but in practice they often make for a good fight that could go either way thanks to their low numbers and slightly poor mobility. They complement the fairly flimsy but skilled sectoids well, both tactically and thematically.

[Voidflame]

This mod is great!  Countless hours were lost having fun.

For some reason the newest version aren't able hide items in manufacture screen and can't scroll to increase/decrease numbers.  Is it the executable updates hiccup?

[ohartenstein23]

Hiding items in manufacturing was removed, check the changelog for OXCE+.  For the scrolling, make sure the option is set in your settings. If it is, then this is a bug.

[ivandogovich]

Can anyone tell me what the STR_KNOCK_OUT_INDICATOR option is for?  Somehow STR_KNOCK_OUT_INDICATOR_DESC isn't that useful to explain the option...  Thanks!

The Knock Out Indicator is for the new Purple indicator boxes that indicate a unit is so stunned that it is now losing health.   This is designed alert you so you can give them some stims.  The STR_ you are getting is because you are using a newer version of the .exe than shipped with the latest version of the mod.  Either add the string your self, or wait for the bug fix version of the mod due to be released soonish

[lancev]

Alright. After almost 4 yrs in-game time, half a year real time, ~20 patches and ~6000 dead enemies I am finally finished.
And I have to say that, even in this pre v1.0 state it is the best mod i have ever played, actually better than the original game, which was already one of the best computer games. Thanks a lot to everybody who contributed!

I particularly liked:
1) The background story. The bootypedia entries contain a surprisingly large amount of wittiness, while still creating a serious enough universe (taking the original game as a basis). Despite the many scifi references it is amazing how it avoids common videogame cliches and stereotypes. When I first heard about the "all female band of mutant pirates" I was expecting some nerdy pixel-boobies fantasy. While it might still be exactly that, it is very different from all the others around. Very refreshing.
2) Things make sense. When I assaulted my first frighter i was excited to see bunk beds for the crew and a toilet. Seems trivial, but many games dont care about these things much, considering impressive visuals and artistic considerations more important. But IMHO in many cases the atmosphere profits more from a realistic and believable environment.
3) Balancing. Over the years I was using a lot of the available equipment and a lot of it turned out to be useful at least in certain situations. That was of course the big weak point of the original XCOM, where the AVENGER was not only the best craft overall, but the best in every single respect. There was hardly an reason to mix equipment, because there was always a clear best and the rest was just worse.

So in conclusion XPiratez takes a very good game and eliminates the biggest flaws, i.e. balancing and the somewhat weird premise that earth fights the Alien invasion with 2 Interceptors and ~10 soldiers that seem to hardly have any combat skills.

I hardly have suggestions for improvement, and most of what I noticed was stuff that will in all probability be included in a v1.0 (or was in fact already included in a patch, which I just missed). Most notably:
1) The maps for enemy hideouts. It doesnt make sense that they look like alien bases. Similarly for the frigate, which uses the old supply ship from XCOM. Also at some point I noticed that the lighting got improved (bright engine in one of the cutter maps), but most maps dont use that possibility. I think in a lot of cases the inside of the ships should be brighter in general.
2) At one point the game start was completely changed (I restarted my campaign at this point). While this made sense from a gameplay perspective (you now get to use much more of the low level equipment), it still felt strange. Why do you already get protection money when you just escaped the asylum? How did you get the first brainer to join? Also (when I was playing that part) you hardly got any mission, because you cant shoot anything down and civilian crafts never landed. Again, this might already have been improved.
3) On balancing: The Annihilator armor is very strong. One might consider it as a gift to the player for holding out so long, that  armors never need to be changed again. But it is unfortunate that it very quickly makes the three armors below it (Brute, Harbinger, Assault) superfluous. Other things that seemed strong to me were the Bio Suit and the Flechette Multicannon (one autoshot at short/intermediate range can kill every single unit in the game). On the other hand all flamthrowers seem weak to me. Also voodoo:excess is imho much weaker than the others (communion the best).

Again, thanks for all the work.

[legionof1]

Snip
1) The maps for enemy hideouts. It doesnt make sense that they look like alien bases. Similarly for the frigate, which uses the old supply ship from XCOM. Also at some point I noticed that the lighting got improved (bright engine in one of the cutter maps), but most maps dont use that possibility. I think in a lot of cases the inside of the ships should be brighter in general.
2) At one point the game start was completely changed (I restarted my campaign at this point). While this made sense from a gameplay perspective (you now get to use much more of the low level equipment), it still felt strange. Why do you already get protection money when you just escaped the asylum? How did you get the first brainer to join? Also (when I was playing that part) you hardly got any mission, because you cant shoot anything down and civilian crafts never landed. Again, this might already have been improved.
3) On balancing: The Annihilator armor is very strong. One might consider it as a gift to the player for holding out so long, that  armors never need to be changed again. But it is unfortunate that it very quickly makes the three armors below it (Brute, Harbinger, Assault) superfluous. Other things that seemed strong to me were the Bio Suit and the Flechette Multicannon (one autoshot at short/intermediate range can kill every single unit in the game). On the other hand all flamethrowers seem weak to me. Also voodoo:excess is imho much weaker than the others (communion the best).
Snip

For hideouts you are correct they dont quite look the part but getting the correct aesthetic is less important then functional systems. Also making new maps from scratch to replace old base game assets is ton of work. Right now time spent on maps has been to make all new environments/missions rather spruce up old stuff that's serviceable.

Annihilator is indeed intended to be the crowning point of defense but they are quite expensive and at best in only modest supply due to multiple limited non buyable resources needed for building. Even then brute and harbinger still have niches to work in. The brute is the highest STR buff available so archers and STR based melee can benefit more then annihilator. Also unlike annihilator it can buff your bravery to psi/panic immune levels, annihilator only provides marginally increased defense since it cuts your voodoo power and subs in a secondary buff. Harbinger has use for heavy weapons gals in hostile environments because it doesn't lose the backpack spaces the annihilator does.

Voodo based stuff is a case of equally unbalanced in the right hands. I swear by illusion and destruction and think communion is pants. Excess is situational useful but is not as fully fleshed out as the others in terms of what it unlocks. Its "bonus" armor was only added in last few months where as biosuit and destuctor have been around for more then a year. Heck the limitation to single branch is quite recent as well.

[lancev]

Also making new maps from scratch to replace old base game assets is ton of work.

Of course. I'm not complaining.
Still, I think it is one of the last major atmosphere breaker still in the game.

Annihilator is indeed intended to be the crowning point of defense but they are quite expensive and at best in only modest supply due to multiple limited non buyable resources needed for building.

Well, 5 Synthmuscle (which are needed for Brute) and 2 Force Circuitry. No rare materials at all.
They are a pain to build, but actually easier to get than Bio Suit or Destructor (which need gems and demonic essence).

The brute is the highest STR buff available so archers and STR based melee can benefit more then annihilator.

No, Brute gets +30 Str, while Annihilator +35. Its actually also the strongest mellee.

Also unlike annihilator it can buff your bravery to psi/panic immune levels, annihilator only provides marginally increased defense since it cuts your voodoo power and subs in a secondary buff.

They get the same +30 bravery, but Annihilator has actually one of the best voodoo defences, due to the flat +50 (effectively +30).

Harbinger has use for heavy weapons gals in hostile environments because it doesn't lose the backpack spaces the annihilator does.

Yes. The missing backpack is its one disadavtage.

Or am I considering the wrong version?

[legionof1]

huh guess there where some alterations since last really looked at end game armor closely. I retract everything but the lack of backpack. Lack of backpack severely constrains ammunition capacity/heavy weapon choice because most of the ammo is vertical 1x3 or 1x2

Sythmuscle and force circuitry are limited resources in that you cannot produce them. Only get them as drops. And mercs are the most difficult opponents in the game at present. so while yes gems and essence are more rare neither are parts for power armor unlimited. Stop seeing a faction for awhile and your supplies may dry up. 

[perekrylo]

That moment you realise one of the death moan sounds is actually from FAKK2 <333

[Bartojan]

Is there any difference between:

Code: [Select]

Special: Enemy Armor +20% and

Code: [Select]

Special: Armor +20% See e.g. STR_NITRO_EXPRESS_UFOPEDIA and STR_STUN_GRENADE_PIR_UFOPEDIA.

[RSSwizard]

just some friendly banter
and its on topic since this game has zombies
and it is the truth


Edit:
This just happened, its June 1st year and right at the start of the month I had EIGHT missions pop up all within a few hours. I took the screenshot when there were only 5 but went back to the game to see if more would show up (it stopped at 8 ).
They were: ratman rodeo, two warehouse wars, organ grinder, save a sister, blood rituals, and a temple raid.

I love the extra opportunities but its doubtful it was scripted this way, most ive ever seen come up before in short order was maybe 2 or 3.

The save was natively from 99.F1 and I just upgraded to F3.