Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

[niculinux]

"Suffering awaits. And boobs." (cit. Dioxine, author of the mod)

Foreword: Wellcome to this (very amateur and unofficial i strongly underline ) FAQ/genaral strategy guide for the game! I hope you enjoy the info provided here, as well the real spirit of the game.  The version used to write this thread is 0.96 one, so future version may bring some changes, so better keep on eye on the main thread, updater regulairly when a new version is relased. So with no futher ado, let's start!

• Hey, what is this Extended Piratez?

"Extended Piratez" (often referred as "X-Piratez") is an enhanced total conversion of "Piratez" avaiable for win and linux OSses (as far as i know). It's labelled  as extended because, differently from piratez, uses an improved version of the openxcom executable named "Openxcom Extended" (hence the name) that brings more features and customization to the game. Game plot is actually quite intriguing: game is set in the year 2601 and player will act the part of a band of mutant pirates which have been themselves organized, struggling for power and wealth and eventually conquer the whole word ruled by the misteriuos "Star Gods". The planet earth is divided into totally different nations form nowdays, and there are many different factions that act in them, sometimes ignored sometimes supported, sometimes opposed by the local governments; the only allies the pirates may count on is the mutant population, often discriminated.

• Wow seems cool! How I download and install on my computer?

Game is avaiable on the openxcom mod portal or at a MediaFire host provided by the author, most updated link is published on this forum (if the former should be down) and comes with latest of openxcom extended executable but only the one for windows; linux users have to download the executable for their system and change file permissions to executable (linux support was intruduced way back with the0.72 version, although it did not use the exetended version of openxcom but relied on the "vanilla" one) other technical details i reported are listed here), also please check the bottom of the post for a tidbit of technical info

As for updating, just delete the old version of the mod, which is located in the subdirectory

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/user/mods/ and replace its content with the new one. Be sure also to import your saved games by moving them into the new

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/user directory (saved games instead go here). Please note that you may use the version you download with all the other mods, provided those are compatible

Ok, now since we've learned how to get the game, here we go with gameplay info/questions/tips, there are mainly three aspects players have to keep in mind engaging the game, since it was made aiming to be a real challenge even for experienced player, and requires a whole different gamestyle in comparison with other openxcom mods:

First point: Game mechanics. Game starts with very low tech weapons & tecnology, so player will be outgunned from the beginning, but still can manage to fight unarmored enemies; therefore since the parts played are the pirates one, we have to intercept other ships, you can't hunt high and low the planet, must instead carefully plan your move and choose you preys, and then only whrn you have sufficent firepower/powerful craft then think of attacking better vessels, moreover the "Bonaventura" (initial ship you're provided since the very beginning) uses "Nuclear Fuel, which can be either looted and bought at the black market, but you must once again manage with extreme caution, since if it runs out and yuo have not money to buy it, you game is substantially ended (as it says in the ship description in the bootypedia!)

Second point: Research.A s in the vanilla game is the core of it; in the mod is even more important since the pirates are using very low tech weapons, therefore investing in an oculate research progrmam is mandatory: To start, I'd recommend Spring Cleaning, which also give access to Decripted data discs, necessary in the later game, and makes possible using  "Pile Of Junk" to obtain some raw materials to manufacture things in the workshop, "Our Abilities" (to gather some basic info on the mutant pirates) and then "Primitive Weapons", "Flintlocks and Bombs" and "Basic bullet Manufactory" that are giving access respectively to bow, crossbow and barbed dagger, flintlocks weapons (pistol and musket) and the relative ammo, plus some other such as the blunderbuss one. Also interrogating alive prisoners is crucial, even more than researching looted items, since they provide important info on what you may make. Important are also"Basic Armor", that will give access to "Warrior" armor production and unlock"Tools and Blades". Eventually also "Poisons & Acids" to produce flasks of acid and later to make acid ammunitions.  "Bigger Guns" instead gives the know-how to build the boarding gun.

Third Point: Combat. There are loads of ranged weapons, each of those have different features and is for different purposes and strategies, also lots of melee/hand to hand combat weapons are present, lots of close combat occours especially in the beginning and there are lots of stuff to dispose, these are quite useful in progroms and urban combat since in these mape there is a lot of scenery that may be used for coverage, so do not understimate those. One research note: once you research "Our Abilities" you will learn that actually piratez are able to see better in the dark in comparison to humans, but to get advantage of this you must walk into battlescape mode with personal lights turned off (pressing the L button on the keyboard) only in such way you may sneak next to enemies, but if you did so and you walk into their line of sight you won't be able to ambush them anymore, so player really must watch their step.

Fourth point: Funding. There are essentially three way to finance your struggle:

• first is "protection" extorted from the nations on the planet and follows your results, the more your actilns will scare people and givernments, the more you get paid;
• Second is doing missions and assaulting ships and looting buildings and people, lots of suff can be sold for profit, once a mission is accomplished all the loot obtained is yours to use/research/sell;
• Third is manufacture, that is to say making weapons and stuff to be sold for profit, mostly alchool and valuable items.

Closing note for linux users:

First of all, it is requested the linux executable to start the mod, since the one provided with the main downoload os for wondows only; the unix one may be downloaded from the openxcom extended forum. As openxcom, xpiratez needs SDL libraries otherwise it won't start, to get these assuming you're on Ubuntu Linux type in a terminal:

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sudo apt install libsdl1.2debian libsdl-gfx1.2 libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-mixer1.2
Please use the option --no-install-recommends to avoid unnecessary packages. For Arch Linux users there's a mini-howto kindly provided by Captaincorckscrew here. If you like to have a launcher on your desktop various linux distros within their desktop enviromes provide graphical tools to get the job done, to create one manually some hints are here, here and here (the file must be saved with the .desktop extension). I am currently using the 01-16-2019 openxcom exetended executable file Also, i stringly recommend not to use the very latest executable version with linux, since there are possible some probles like i reported here. Better to stick with the one that matches the relased version.

That said, please pay a visit to Xpiratez bootypedia page, which is here. Lastly, in this thread you're gonna find also some screenshots taken during the gameplay, saved games (startin from 0.96 version and up) and some other stuff (hopefully) useful; but keep in ind that i play at "jack sparrow" difficulty level - and with the tech tree viewer disabled - so thinghs may get harder/hotter...

Good luck, don't get hurt and have a nice slaugthering!!

[niculinux]

So, first three questions:

• Once you capture any alive human and interrogate it, aside that you will be provided with the info of that particular faction he belongs, pirates are able then to research slavery, which may be sold for a random (but i've still not understand that) or used as workforce in the workshop, and also looted on the items they're carrying, but please somebody may explain this better?
  
  
• To be able to manufacture "Borading Gun" yuo must first research "Basic Rifle Bullet Manufacturing" and then "Bigger Guns", but how i do obtain third ntry in the research screen?
• And how about to make "Handacannon"? Bullets may be produced if you research "Basic Bullet Manufacturing", if i remembrer well, or i'm wrong then?

Edit: second question exposed more clearly!

[Arthanor]

1 - Slavery does it all: You get their possession (more than if you had killed them, since they were captured and nothing was broken) and you get a slave (Slaves DO NOT work in the workshop, they work in the vaults where they organize stuff so you can put more in there. In effect they "give negative space": ie it reduces the space taken by other stuff in your vault, so you can put more in the same storage size.). You can sell the slave and the price isn't random, but it is less than the ransom you would have gotten for the non-slaved prisonner.

2 - If you want to make bullets, why don't you study a few rifles to see what they need as ammunition? A lot of research is unlocked by researching guns.
3 - See above, eventually as you study guns you will know enough to make them in addition to their ammo. Note that many guns that can be bought or looted can't be manufactured.

As an aside: If you want the brainerz to tell runts how to make guns, research gunz and also anything that sounds like a new gun design. For example, when I saw "clockwork gun" in the research list, I was not particularly impressed, so it took me a year to get to doing it (other things seemed more interesting). As it turns out, since I hadn't supported the brainerz in their gunz research, they didn't come up with other things (ie researching one gun design is often needed to come up with other gun designs, so it is worth researching even though that new design may not seem all that great).

[Dioxine]

As an aside: If you want the brainerz to tell runts how to make guns, research gunz and also anything that sounds like a new gun design.

Very true! This works also for other stuff, like armors, medicine, explosives; keep pushing in one direction and there will be cool follow-ups somewhere down the road. I want the research tree to bend to where the player is pushing it, therefore making it often feel like the player took the best research path he could, no matter what was his goal. There are many cross-researches, true, but also many alternate routes to advance. One thing is always important, researching the stuff you find, as it unlocks more options.

[niculinux]

1 - Slavery does it all: You get their possession (more than if you had killed them, since they were captured and nothing was broken) and you get a slave (Slaves DO NOT work in the workshop, they work in the vaults where they organize stuff so you can put more in there. In effect they "give negative space": ie it reduces the space taken by other stuff in your vault, so you can put more in the same storage size.). You can sell the slave and the price isn't random, but it is less than the ransom you would have gotten for the non-slaved prisonner.

thanks Arthanor, but this "unlocks" O_o another question: how the heck works ransom, what i nedd and how i obtain these?

Edit: as for slavery, see also here

[Arthanor]

Ransom, in this context, is just the act of selling a "pristine" captive. Like selling that Guild Rep for $160k or something. You can also do it by right clicking on your prison and releasing prisoners (there's a big button there that says "Ransom!".

In this context, "unlocks" just means "opens up": You get new options from the research you are doing.

"Unlocking" can also be a specific mechanic, which is for example implemented in vanilla so that researching one alien "unlocks" the Alien Origins research project, which in turns "unlocks" "The Martian Solution", etc. It creates a sequence: You have to research one before the other.

As far as I know, Piratez doesn't use this mechanic much, because it complicates research a lot. You no longer need X and Y to get Z, you need X then Y to get Z, which means if you research Y first, you will have to research Y again after X in order to get Z. But that only works if Y is an interrogation or item based research, as you can otherwise not repeat research, so it is possible to create situations where it is impossible to discover something anymore.

[Meridian]

Edit: Credits to meridian, i've just addade pics he made for his playthrough (see here) but if he will tell me to remove, i'll do asap.

No problem, feel free to use it.
Btw. it is not my image, the original is here: https://tracywong.deviantart.com/art/Pirate-103923209

[niculinux]

[...]
As far as I know, Piratez doesn't use this mechanic much, because it complicates research a lot. You no longer need X and Y to get Z, you need X then Y to get Z, which means if you research Y first, you will have to research Y again after X in order to get Z. But that only works if Y is an interrogation or item based research, as you can otherwise not repeat research, so it is possible to create situations where it is impossible to discover something anymore.

Oh...so it might even prevent to winning the game, i fear? 

[Dioxine]

Arthanor said it is possible, not that it happened

[niculinux]

Oh...i'll be crossing my finger! In the meantime, on the 3 difficulty level ("blackbeard") i'm facing my sixth mutant progrom and i encountered some doom-alike enemies..but the point is: one of my gals have been sprayed with file and i cannot do anything to stop! In vanilla game, and even in the openxcom version i remembre if i run here and there fire will extinguish itself..in x-piratex seems that is not possible...my gal is doomed (emh..) or maybe there is a way to save her?

This on 0.96 version, is not peraphs in the future possibility wiil be added? Thanks! Shot attached as always! 

[Dioxine]

The fire mechanics are the same here and there. But Pirate armor is susceptible to fire, so on average it burns longer.

[Arthanor]

Oh...i'll be crossing my finger! In the meantime, on the 3 difficulty level ("blackbeard") i'm facing my sixth mutant progrom and i encountered some doom-alike enemies..but the point is: one of my gals have been sprayed with file and i cannot do anything to stop! In vanilla game, and even in the openxcom version i remembre if i run here and there fire will extinguish itself..in x-piratex seems that is not possible...my gal is doomed (emh..) or maybe there is a way to save her?

This on 0.96 version, is not peraphs in the future possibility wiil be added? Thanks! Shot attached as always! 

I'm pretty sure you can't mess up your endgame, and since Dioxine doesn't use it much, I wouldn't worry about it. In my vanilla XCom mod, I use "unlocks" and "require" a lot more (to force a sort of scientific progression, where you learn a little, then interrogate to get a breakthrough, then learn more on your own, then interrogate) and it can get confusing. But Piratez tends to use dependencies, which means the order doesn't matter.

As for fire, it does run out, I've had some gals set on fire as well. I don't think there is anything you can do to help it though. Walking around in circles would be a funny solution. Would be cool to see a chance for the fire to go out inversely with TU spent (representing effort to put out the fire) or some fire extinguisher item.

[niculinux]

Good to know! I've just started a fresh 0.96 game; i'd like to catch the chance to suggest you turn on "Custom Base Layout" for fantasy sake . As in the vanilla game, once enmies will attack the base, they would deploy in the hangar and the access lift, since player starts instead in the barracks and the vaults, planning a defendable base may save much pain when enemy factions will attack. A hint in the screenshot attached.

[Arthanor]

Yeah, I use the "Custom Base Layout" too, although it Piratez it makes less sense (the Piratez are supposed to have just discovered the base, I think). I've written a little blurb of what I like to do with my base here.

[niculinux]

Hey, I forgot: is there some time limit to the game, or time will flow endlessy unless the player beat it?