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

[Scorrpio]

I gotta say, once I got access to Heavy Shotgun (and you can get it darn early)  I forgot all about flintlocks.     Sure, the thing lacks range, but if you can get within 7 tiles, the killing power of that thing is just amazing, and 145% snap accuracy?    Yeah!    Heavy shotguns pretty much carried me through months 2-8.   I also downed several Spartan Military Supplies which got me a nice stockpile of OK weaponry.   

 

[the Ring Dang Doo]

I just finished the game.  Thanks, Dioxine and contributors, for literally months of great gaming.  I'll be back in a while to play a later version and see where you take it!

[legionof1]

Okay played with the new shadowbat and jellyfish some. Here is what i think so far.

Jellyfish inbuilt support weapon is interesting, if of questionable quality as you cant identify good psi candidates till later in the tech tree. IF you can get STCs for it, it's okay as combat craft. But the fact remains by the time you utilize it to its fullest extent you have probably have menace class available which is much better in both combat and as a transport, outside of maxing out its STC's. Deployment is also kinda cumbersome given that the exits are on the edge of bottom deck and the crew spawn is mostly in the center of the middle deck. Spending 1-2 turns getting out the door is penalizing in harsh weather environments. Getting to check/clear immediate area without risk to crew is a plus. Long radar range is pretty nice.

Shadowbat gimmick of lighting up the area around it but not under it is really clever but again of questionable use. The initial deployment is excellent but the lit area is a two way killing ground that must be crossed. In daytime its much like any open ramp craft. 9 crew is excellent for early game. Very expensive to operate as a combat craft due to missile only armament. 

Edit: Just had a eurosysindicate elimination spawn with government troops as the rank and file. The potential score loss from killing government units completely overwhelms the 250k payout in higher difficulties. Given that score is cash being forced into a timed, no retreat map that has as 800-1000 negative score potential is not fun. Given that a third of the enemy is power armored makes getting stuns pretty tricky. Oh and 5 tanks.

Difference of the earth and Pluto between this and the rebel mutants version.

[Crazy]

I think with the new update adding in the Fusion Drives for the STC slots, the Turtle can now be outfitted so that it has 2950 speed. Also, if you somehow managed to get 3 Ethyr Drive Xs, you could build a Turtle that has a Max Speed of 11500. Yup.

[Dioxine]

Eurosyndicate mission is optional, and you are warned beforehand, if only in vague terms. You can simply ignore it although it's a 1500 score hit. I think I will add another, more powerful ES weapon to sweeten the deal, tho.

[legionof1]

I'm okay with the government troops version existing, it makes sense for a rival government general to be guarded in this fashion. But it's a damned either way situation. Ignore the mission for -1500 or go risking a valuable craft and ground team and still eating maybe as much -1000. At 300$ per score it's possible to net a 50k loss on the run. Granted not certain out come but not completely unlikely either.

More reasonably i would expect a 50-100k net profit but is that worth risking a craft and a well geared ground team which is worth probably 1-2 million when you first start doing them?

[Dioxine]

Access to the Eurosyndicate weapons is the real prize. Risk and negative score is the price to pay. That deal isn't fair, yes, because Eurosyndicate isn't fair.

[legionof1]

Mmm if that you intent okay, but i guess that means not useing them until you have shutdown pogroms. Both at once would probably kill you from score penalty/casualties rate if researched immediately. 

 

[Solarius Scorch]

You can simply research a continent the same month, these give like 2000 points.

[greattuna]

That's it. I won the game. I went on Cydonia and kicked ass of Solar Governor. And it was, as expected, hard, especially considering I got lazy and underprepared (only 10 annihilator armors, 3 bio suits, 1 loader... and a few space suits because I got dumb and thought I could bring fairies\destructors\saviours on Mars). But despite the losses and sheer amount of sectopods and mind control I persevered.

I also got an opportunity to try out some of these toys that before were too awesome to use, like master plasma pistols, blaster launchers and fairy dragons. They're all very good, but in the end, the humble heavy plasma, sharp electro-blade, hot willie petes, and magnificent BFG carried the fight.

Jack Sparrow difficulty. Ironman. Don't know why final numbers are so skewed, probably because the campaign started a lot of time ago. Now I can start a new campaign and try out the added early-game stuff.

[Devon_v]

As for the bleeding mechanics, no changes compared to vanilla. You get a random number of wounds: 0-1 for up to 3 damage, 0-2 for 4-6 damage, 0-3 for 7-9 damage, and 1-3 for more than 9, or something similar.

Huh. That's not remotely what I'm seeing. Easily 80% of damaging hits are resulting in 3 wounds so far over multiple missions. I'll keep an eye on it and see if the RNG chills out.


My concern about weather was for the early game. It's kind of a no go when you have limited strength and carrying capacity and you need to use the canteen every third or forth turn. It makes a north Africa, Brasil, or Siberia start very unattractive at least. So far the Church of Sirius only builds in bad weather as well which cut off some good early game income for me. I don't mind adapting, but I wasn't sure if there were supposed to be quite as many hard no missions right from the start.

[legionof1]

Huh. That's not remotely what I'm seeing. Easily 80% of damaging hits are resulting in 3 wounds so far over multiple missions. I'll keep an eye on it and see if the RNG chills out.
snip

1 wound is technically speaking the outlier for any instance of receiving a wound. Any instance of being wounded is evenly split between 1,2 or 3 wounds. Below 11 damage your chance to take a wound is reduced but the split remains. See link for further information. https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Fatal_Wounds

[Elemiach]

This "thing" is driving me mad. I cannot find any information on what it is and I cannot successfully intercept it, at least with my current equipment/vessels. Obviously this some sort of a NPC expedition but that's all I know. This is the second time these dudes are swarming the region, they just fuck around and then leave. This is really making me uneasy 25mm cannon is unable to hit while the 50mm version blasts them off the surface of earth. I even tried a brilliant idea of chasing them with my own expeditions - kinda dumb idea in a hindsight.

Guys please, explain this mystery to me or I swear I am going to go insane by the end of this playthrough.

btw. Great mod Dioxine! I cannot remember the last time I was so invested in a video game. XPiratez is the best thing I played in years.

[ivandogovich]

This "thing" is driving me mad. I cannot find any information on what it is and I cannot successfully intercept it, at least with my current equipment/vessels. Obviously this some sort of a NPC expedition but that's all I know. This is the second time these dudes are swarming the region, they just fuck around and then leave. This is really making me uneasy 25mm cannon is unable to hit while the 50mm version blasts them off the surface of earth. I even tried a brilliant idea of chasing them with my own expeditions - kinda dumb idea in a hindsight.

Guys please, explain this mystery to me or I swear I am going to go insane by the end of this playthrough.

This is a swarm of Ratmen looking for your base.  These are low level infiltration missions that are one good reason to ensure that all your bases have some defenders.  Might be a good use of slave troopers. I've seen two swarms, shot up some with my Jetbike and ignored others, but I haven't yet been attacked.

[legionof1]

Now that you mention it crackdown missions have been seemingly ineffective recently. I've had maybe 2-3 that actually launched the assault craft in my last year or so of play.