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Author Topic: [COMPLETED] Let's play X-PirateZ (182 episodes)  (Read 143959 times)

Online Meridian

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #165 on: November 25, 2015, 08:47:10 pm »
Just had a Base Defense in a parallel "training" game.
These guys come with plasma weapons, blaster launchers and psi?

I lost even after they killed 20+ of their own with missed blaster bombs... no way I'm shooting down any ships until year 2602.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #166 on: November 25, 2015, 08:54:43 pm »
Yup, those early base defenses are no joke.  I think I was pretty lucky dropping that Power Armored Guildmaster with the hammer/ax in my playthrough.  Extensive use of hidey holes helped.

Just an aside:  Should you face a similar mission with similar result in this campaign, will you refight it, or call the campaign quits and pick it up again later?

Online Meridian

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #167 on: November 25, 2015, 09:08:20 pm »
That's a very good question.

I will not re-fight it. Either I will start a new campaign from the start (on a lower difficulty, with less ridiculous chance to spawn retaliations) or start with a different mod (looking at Redux for a few weeks already).

Also, I remember Warboy did something to partially un-hardcore retaliation percentages, not sure exactly what it was. I could have a look at that and cheat a bit.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #168 on: November 25, 2015, 09:22:04 pm »
It all depends on the faction that attacks your base. Sometimes it can be a faction with squishy soldiers and not great morale, which means you can kill a bunch (rocket launchers or panzerfausts and especially baby nukes in the hangar on T1 works well) and have them panic, then using Ivan's hiding/suicide tactics, you can take out the last few armored guys. It's not an easy fight, but it's doable. On BlackBeard at least.. at your difficulty levels, the spawn numbers are kind of crazy.

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #169 on: November 25, 2015, 09:56:59 pm »
"Nuking" hangars was my favourite chill-out activity in original Xcom... but since FMP (and I believe PirateZ too) gave them storage space... you can't do this without destroying your precious(!) stuff. Unless it is a fight for very survival (i.e. last base), it's not worth it.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #170 on: November 25, 2015, 09:59:16 pm »
Did your hangar spawn with stuff in it? My hangars spawn empty..?!

There was a version of Piratez with stuff all over the hangars and it was indeed a good disincentive for nuking hangars, but I haven't had that issue in a while. I think loot is restricted to 2nd floor tiles or something on base defenses, so the runts must clean up the hangars when they evacuate the base.

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #171 on: November 25, 2015, 10:01:53 pm »
Did your hangar spawn with stuff in it? My hangars spawn empty..?!

I didn't have the luxury to get to my (single) hangar... I was slaughtered long before that. I just read in the Bootypedia they have some storage space.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #172 on: November 25, 2015, 10:16:07 pm »
They do, but luckily my runts clean up before running out. Hopefully yours do too! I've had numerous hideout defences and always nuke the hangars if possible to speed things up (I have a few spare baby nukes from taking out supply ships before I came to the conclusion that it wasn't really worth the trouble). Never had a huge list of missing items at the end of the battle because of that (nor did I notice extra empty space or anything; in fact I often run out of space from all the loot!)

Of course, if you put your elevator between your hangar and other stuff, it gets in the way of nukin'! That's why I build my hideout differently.

Also, if you faced psi, you probably faced one of the worst starting factions for base defenses. Most factions don't have psi, or overly scary terror units. But a few factions have both..!
« Last Edit: November 25, 2015, 10:20:42 pm by Arthanor »

Offline Dioxine

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #173 on: November 25, 2015, 10:21:26 pm »
Just just need a horde of soldiers (20+), some flamethrowers and good melee, plus lots of explosives to beat off a base invasion. Ivan managed to do it (with heavy losses), are you less skilled? :) But refraining from shooting at shippings until a few months in isn't a bad idea, not bad at all. You can still shoot them down more or less safely when they're on other continents.
Also base defence facilities are no longer useless, the first one you will find will have a good chance to down 20% of invading ships. To get that number to 40-50% you'll need more defences, though :)

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #174 on: November 25, 2015, 10:39:56 pm »
Was Ivan playing Jack Sparrow though? The extra armor, stats (psi related ones especially since a few more points can mean a lot more power), and most importantly extra spawns can make a big difference.

Not shooting down UFOs at first works well indeed. Many land any ways, you get more fuel, more loot (engines are worth a lot) and you don't risk the Bonny. Shipping can easily damage her and since repair happens before refuel, you can actually "run out of fuel" because the runts are too distracted to refuel.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #175 on: November 25, 2015, 10:43:28 pm »
I certainly wasn't playing Jack Sparrow. XD  Too rich for my blood.   I think it was Blackbeard, but I agree that for an LP, the greater number / toughness of the enemies can certainly make the battles longer and more grueling. 

Online Meridian

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #176 on: November 25, 2015, 10:46:59 pm »
@Dioxine: Yeah, I will stock up on heavy stuff, just in case.

Btw. what are the options of fighting on other continents early game?

a/ scouting with Bonaventura seems like a huge waste of fuel
b/ building an outpost is expensive and it has a rather small radar range
c/ pigeons are probably not fast enough to get to a landed ship?

Other options?

Also, in the meantime, I tried out all the weapons I have available... didn't find anything better than a hammer ;-) but there are a few nice surprises, which I will try to put into my inventory.

Lastly, I didn't get the idea of Battle Flag... in what situation should I use it? It gives morale in AOE, but only if the user has a lot of morale... and it drops the morale of the user. When my gals will be running around panicked like crazy AOE is useless... and trading morale on one girl just to give it to one other girl seems not useful.

And, how does a rope work? Smoke damage? Is that stun damage or something different? Also I don't understand it's special ability [Stamina 200% ?].

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #177 on: November 26, 2015, 12:13:27 am »
Scouting is difficult early on. You can buy a pigeon, but it is too slow to really follow shipping. I sent mine empty on patrols, then as soon as it finds something, send the Bonny to it since it is faster and has more gals for the upcoming battle. I would not advise scouting with the Bonny, but if you were to build a Hunter-Killer, it has better radar and more mileage so it is a bit more efficient. It is also fast enough to track shipping to their landing spot.

For me, outposts are for building a minimalist base where you can resupply your scouting crafts. You want to resupply as locally as possible as you don't want to have them cross half the globe and waste fuel.

If you pursue your interest in finding shipping, you can discover other crafts that are much better at long term patrolling. (This is a high priority for me, since, as you said, building proper radar bases is too expensive, and scouting with nuclear fuelled crafts is hard to manage.)

Hammer + beer is indeed the best, since it can't miss even if you use it one-handed, has the best damage and the beer compensates for the heavy stamina use. Eventually, your gals will be good enough that cutlasses and billhooks are worth it. Also, hammer causes reactions because it's a "gun", whereas melee doesn't. On enemies with high TUs, this can mean death if somehow your hammer blow doesn't kill them (likely on power armored enemies/very high HP/concussive resistant).

If the gals are panicking, the flag won't save you. It is supposed to be used before your gals panic, so that you don't get in trouble. You might be able to keep the flag weaver within the area of the flag and give her morale too, to compensate for the loss? Basically, picture a medieval unit all ranked up around their flag, I think that's how it is best used. Of course, once the enemy brings out the explosives, that doesn't go so well. Best solution to morale is still killing enemies.

I'm not sure how rope works because I haven't tried it yet either. But the smoke damage means that it does stun damage, but applies smoke resist instead and ignores armor. So against a power armored dude, a rope is useless (because of the resist). If you have a high armor but low smoke resist unit (power armor dude who took his helmet off?) then it'd still work fine because it doesn't care about armor. The special ability subtract twice the damage inflicted from stamina also. So if the target wakes up, they should be low on stamina and they won't run too far (representing them being tied up).
« Last Edit: November 26, 2015, 01:18:14 am by Arthanor »

Offline Dioxine

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #178 on: November 26, 2015, 12:31:25 am »
Yeah, I really have nothing to add, Arthanor may know more about the practical side of Piratez than myself :) Well, one thing: the battle flag doesn't restore Morale expended on use, that'd be rather exploitable. The wielder will probably panic, unless very high Bravery (like 90 or 100?) allows her to get above 50 Morale within one turn, thus avoiding Bravery check. But anyone who retreated to the Flag should be refilled. The radius is for now bugged at flat 2 tiles, but it will be repaired in the next version.

Offline DracoGriffin

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Re: Let's play X-PirateZ [#09] Bow Master
« Reply #179 on: November 26, 2015, 01:17:29 am »
This is probably not proper but I'd suggest checking out my videos on YouTube if you can't catch my live stream, Meridian.

Pigeons are great mobile radar stations (essentially position based on country/continent activity scores) until you can get the upgrade for it. (Trying to avoid spoilers)

Your first 1-2 extra hideouts should basically be: Outpost, Still, Hangar. (10 runts to make Grog, and at least 1 Pigeon)

Hunter-Killers are not worth it unless you are having a bad 2-3 first months, then by mid first year, you will need interceptors, so build one then if you haven't unlocked any others.

Rope is completely useless; I have not found any proper use for it, especially since it ends up killing everything instead of stunning. Cattle Prods all the way.

Battle Flag is also extremely useless; like you said, it's dumb that it consumes the user's morale with minimal range, so you essentially trade one panicked pirate for another. The ONLY thing it's good for is cheesing/gaming Bravery checks to improve your pirates' Bravery. Have a 10 Bravery Gal? Stick her with the Battle Flag and stick her on the Bonnie and keep waving it each mission until she levels up Bravery to like 50 or more. So just like throwing flares for Throwing Accuracy, Battle Flag is for increasing Bravery basically (is how I see, haven't abused it on stream yet, but I have off-stream campaigns).

I'd highly suggest checking out my videos though because I am playing rather recklessly at times due to streaming (don't feel like boring people by taking 20+ turns to attack "just right") and still doing rather well (playing on Blackbeard/Veteran difficulty). However, Piratez heavily relies on RNG on how a campaign can go: it can be a breeze or it can become a slogfest.

Lastly, Piratez doesn't get truly interesting until you hit mid-game now: decent armors (Defender/Full Plate/etc) and after Back to School (unlocks some facilities) and then enemy factions start swarming the air with ships.