Re: The X-Com Files - 3.6: Exotic Energy

[Juku121]

Neat!

Something medium-large as well, perhaps? Does the Troop Ship qualify? Cruisers seem to be out, and Contact Ships are probably lore-inappropriate.

I'd kinda like to see an Abductor full of Sectoids with whips, Small Launchers and similar gear, for the laughs, but alas...

[Xylon666Darkstar]

I like aggressive alien retaliation/MiB retaliation. More variety/tiers is welcome from my POV.

[Solarius Scorch]

Something medium-large as well, perhaps? Does the Troop Ship qualify? Cruisers seem to be out, and Contact Ships are probably lore-inappropriate.

Troop Ships have their own terror mission, so no.
However... I could make an exact copy of the Troop Ship and use it for X-Com base assaults. (Same with the Cruiser actually.) It is not very elegant code-wise, but might be more elegant gameplay-wise than adding some new UFO (which is also an option).

I'd kinda like to see an Abductor full of Sectoids with whips, Small Launchers and similar gear, for the laughs, but alas...

As a joke submod, sure, easily doable.

I like aggressive alien retaliation/MiB retaliation. More variety/tiers is welcome from my POV.

You mean the aggressive retaliation option? Or do you just want more base defence missions?

[Juku121]

If so, then the Troop Ship seems more appropriate. Only one mission where it's involved, and it seems to be the aliens' dedicated ground assault vessel. Hard to kill with interceptors, too.

Five tiers of base assault craft line up with five difficulty levels as well.

[Solarius Scorch]

If so, then the Troop Ship seems more appropriate. Only one mission where it's involved, and it seems to be the aliens' dedicated ground assault vessel. Hard to kill with interceptors, too.

OK, I'll make a Troop Ship variant just for this.

Five tiers of base assault craft line up with five difficulty levels as well.

Yeah... Then again, we can always add a Demigod variant with something really unreasonable. (Although I doubt anything stronger than the Big D. would make sense.)

[Xylon666Darkstar]

You mean the aggressive retaliation option? Or do you just want more base defence missions?

Both. I like the enemy attacking me and not feel like I am the only player doing anything in the campaign.

[Solarius Scorch]

Both. I like the enemy attacking me and not feel like I am the only player doing anything in the campaign.

There should be a bit more retaliations from now on, but it's not a huge difference.
They used to be far more frequent in the past, but players complained that it takes too much time and isn't that interesting.

BTW I added this Troop Ship variant, and the associated retaliation.

[Chuckebaby]

Curious about the black lotus assassins.
They have like a stealth mode, they can't be seen unless your standing a mere few tiles away from them.

Is there a way to posses this power for your own soldiers?
I thought it might have been Martial Arts, but not sure.

Thanks

[Juku121]

Is there a way to posses this power for your own soldiers?

Not really. OXC(E) doesn't do player stealth particularly well.

The closest we have right now are rats and bats. I swear, there are going to be turtles next...

I had a Stealth Suit a long time ago. It did the ninja trick, it was passable armour and it used the same loftemps hack Piratez catgirls of old used to have. So could only be seen diagonally, and were very hard to hit directly. Was interesting, but not quite invulnerability since explosives still worked very well. And I gave the aliens a portable plasma cannon, too.

[Akamashi]

Curious about the black lotus assassins.
They have like a stealth mode, they can't be seen unless your standing a mere few tiles away from them.

Is there a way to posses this power for your own soldiers?
I thought it might have been Martial Arts, but not sure.

Thanks

Assassins - Ninja clan warriors. They have been training their skill to use camouflage since birth. Our agents are not going to get that.

[Solarius Scorch]

Not really. OXC(E) doesn't do player stealth particularly well.

Indeed; having access to such stealth would make virtually all enemies completely helpless. Maybe except for those with very strong psi vision.

The closest we have right now are rats and bats. I swear, there are going to be turtles next...

Ninja turtles!

[Chuckebaby]

Thanks for the reply's everyone. that cleared it up perfectly.

[Juku121]

Spoiler" Bellyaching about stealth":

Indeed; having access to such stealth would make virtually all enemies completely helpless.

Not quite, you still have to hit them to kill/stun them, and that reveals you. There's also the turn 20 omniscience, visibility persisting through turns and spotter extras. Plus, you never really know if the aliens have eyes on a particular soldier or not, since there's no UI for it. In general, player stealth tends to be very binary, it's either OP or useless.

X-Com was not a game built with stealth in mind, and making it one is outside the scope of most fan works. We've got some small advancements with OXCE, but a bunch of visibility checks does not make it a tactical stealth game.

[Solarius Scorch]

You are right of course, but it still falls under helpless IMO.



I'm only stating this again to make it very clear that the idea is not good, design-wise. Not on this engine.

[Chuckebaby]

I agree that giving every soldier this power would tilt the scales.

However, not every black lotus member has it. I was thinking more along the lines of only certain soldiers being able to attain this by either:
- having certain stats above a threshold ?
- completed all transformations ?
- A facility which can only train 1 soldier at a time ?

But I also understand it is probably very difficult to implement this. So no worries, was only asking.

Assassins - Ninja clan warriors. They have been training their skill to use camouflage since birth. Our agents are not going to get that.

You're right.
But Ethrals have been doing the same with PSI.. And we can use it.