Re: The X-Com Files - 3.5: Whispers In The Dark

[Mathel]

In August 2000, I finaly developed Power Suits. I am not sure if it is relatively early or late, but having to fight aliens with just Cyber armors has been annoying. It did often stop people from dying, but they tend to get seriously wounded. I am not even sure, if my main base has enough healthy agents to field a full Skymarshall.
Regardless, in two hours of in-game time, elerium will arrive to my factory, and then the mass-production will start. Agents will be better protected. And Floaters will rue the days, they built bases on Earth.

A question though. How am I supposed to keep the skies clear, when the aliens can field several strikers and 2 or 3 battleships in a single day? (Alien Flyby missions) I can shoot a battleship down, but it pretty much empties missile racks of 4 Thunderstorms. Thunderstorm beats Striker, but the Thunderstorm gets damaged.

[Alex_D]

A question though. How am I supposed to keep the skies clear, when the aliens can field several strikers and 2 or 3 battleships in a single day? (Alien Flyby missions) I can shoot a battleship down, but it pretty much empties missile racks of 4 Thunderstorms. Thunderstorm beats Striker, but the Thunderstorm gets damaged.

I'd try to rush Avengers. In my late campaign I have complete air superiority, with three Avengers, armed with plasma beams and a shield generator. One of these crafts is enough to take down a Battleship single-handed. The drawback is they use quite a lot of Elerium as fuel and as ammo, so a steady supply needs to be secured. I do still keep Thunderstorms armed with Avalanches, thrusters and targeters, to deal with smaller crafts, for when the Elerium runs low.

[Mathel]

I am already researching the "Ultimate Craft". (I can already build the Tormentor, but my best cannon is Alloy Cannon, so that would be pretty useless.) But I only built my first Advanced Lab a few days ago and prioritised Power Suits over Plasma Calibration.

Plasma Calibration is next of course, to get all that Elerium out of alien clips. Then I could
A) Build Stormlances, which are significantly stronger than Stingrays (What I use).
B) Get Develop Plasma Beams and mount them on Avenger(s).

I could also develop shields and mount both shields and Plasma onto Firestorms to make them useful.

But until I had Advanced Lab, I could not even think of making Plasma Beams and Stormlances were too expensive. And the aliens were fielding many Strikers and some Battleships for some time now. Battleships are uncommon and multiple Battleships in the same day is rare, but it happens sometimes.

[Alex_D]

I only built one Tormentor. It major advantage is it can outrun pretty much anything. Its major disadvantage is it uses Elerium as fuel, seconded by it uses two pilots.
I use Avalanches as my main missile. Since they can be bought, it simplifies logistics and production in general. One Thunderstorm can carry up to six Avalanches. A Striker UFO can be downed with four to five Avalanches hits, then it flies back for reloading. A Fighter UFO can be shoot down with two or three hits. A tiny fighter only needs one.

In my last two campaigns (this one and the one before), I found that these two crafts are all what I need to win the air war with the Aliens. And while I wait for the elusive Ethereal Commander, most of my game is coordinating the UFOs interdiction on a global scale.

[Solarius Scorch]

A question though. How am I supposed to keep the skies clear, when the aliens can field several strikers and 2 or 3 battleships in a single day? (Alien Flyby missions)

Flyby missions happen when you shoot down their ships. Don't shoot down UFOs, and you won't provoke retaliations.
(As usual, catching landed UFOs is OK.)

[Alex_D]

Flyby missions happen when you shoot down their ships. Don't shoot down UFOs, and you won't provoke retaliations.
(As usual, catching landed UFOs is OK.)

And is it safe to assume that shooting down the UFO Flybys would create even more Flybys, almost in a run-away situation, or there is a cap for these cases?

[Mathel]

Flyby missions happen when you shoot down their ships. Don't shoot down UFOs, and you won't provoke retaliations.
(As usual, catching landed UFOs is OK.)

I did not realise that Flyby was equal to Retaliation.
The tons of Flybys I was getting was from shooting the Flybys in previous months then. Does the alien species that does the Flyby depend on the angered species?
If yes, it would probably explain why it is almost always Floaters. They do many Flybys, I shoot most of them down, this angers them, so they do many Flybys.

[Solarius Scorch]

Retaliations don't provoke further retaliations.

As for the race, can't remember exactly.

[DarthTheIII]

How do you start the lunar story line?  I have launched the lunar satellite, but four months have passed and I still have only done the Magma Cosmonaut mission.

[X-Man]

How do you start the lunar story line?  I have launched the lunar satellite, but four months have passed and I still have only done the Magma Cosmonaut mission.

You should interrogate ethereal commander.

[INFERNO]

Hello. I passed X-piratez. I can say one thing-X-files is better. Thank you Scorch for such a wonderful project. But there are things in Piratez that are very lacking in Files.                               
                   1-the Tanks.Instead of a rangefinder, a weapon, such as a machine gun, is installed. It is convenient when you need to kill something weak, but not to blow up the environment. In Piratez, you can make two shots from a gun or three bursts from a machine gun. This is very convenient. Also, in Piratez, a tank is a tank. It is well armored, and it will not be able to break through with a plasma pistol or rifle, but the cyberdisk is still a serious opponent. Please strengthen the armor of the tank, at least up to 120 in the forehead, so that it is useful, and does not fall apart from 3 hits of a plasma rifle.                                                     
                   2-Disguise.I was very surprised by this in Piratez. It's really useful there. Why not add a sniper costume to the Files that would give a good disguise and allow the player to use snipers. In Files, at night, the aliens see me in the corner of the map as during the day, not allowing me to implement a weapon like a Tactical sniper rifle. This is upsetting.                                             
                    3-Damage. In Piratez, you can feel the damage from weapons. In Files, it is very low. For example, I will give you a Tactical sniper rifle. To use it to kill a sectoid, you need 1-2 shots. It is assumed that this is a large-caliber rifle. A bullet of this caliber should pass through the sectoid's shield without a problem, and its head should pop like a watermelon.                     
                     This is my feeling when comparing these two projects. Thank you Scorch again.

[Solarius Scorch]

1-the Tanks.Instead of a rangefinder, a weapon, such as a machine gun, is installed. It is convenient when you need to kill something weak, but not to blow up the environment. In Piratez, you can make two shots from a gun or three bursts from a machine gun. This is very convenient. Also, in Piratez, a tank is a tank. It is well armored, and it will not be able to break through with a plasma pistol or rifle, but the cyberdisk is still a serious opponent. Please strengthen the armor of the tank, at least up to 120 in the forehead, so that it is useful, and does not fall apart from 3 hits of a plasma rifle.

Well, this is more for the Piratez thread...

2-Disguise.I was very surprised by this in Piratez. It's really useful there. Why not add a sniper costume to the Files that would give a good disguise and allow the player to use snipers. In Files, at night, the aliens see me in the corner of the map as during the day, not allowing me to implement a weapon like a Tactical sniper rifle. This is upsetting.

But there are very good stealth suits in XCF, primarily the humble jumpsuit with 10 camo during the day. Anything more would just be too much to handle by the poor AI.

3-Damage. In Piratez, you can feel the damage from weapons. In Files, it is very low. For example, I will give you a Tactical sniper rifle. To use it to kill a sectoid, you need 1-2 shots. It is assumed that this is a large-caliber rifle. A bullet of this caliber should pass through the sectoid's shield without a problem, and its head should pop like a watermelon.

Says who, and based on what?
Having said that, sniper rifles will be better in 1.4 - they will never roll very low damage.

This is my feeling when comparing these two projects. Thank you Scorch again.

Thank you as well!

[INFERNO]

Scorh, you say that the machine gun in the tank is more for the theme of Piratez, but after all, all tanks in the world have a paired or anti-aircraft machine gun. This is realistic at least. On the other hand, why can't a tank have a machine gun? After all, it is necessary to destroy infantry, and the gun is needed to fight armored targets.                                                                           
                  As for the camouflage, I only saw the coveralls. Is there something else I haven't seen? You could add a camouflage robe. It would have provided excellent camouflage, but it greatly reduced mobility. Approximately-60-70% of the action points.This would only be enough to occupy a sniper position and conduct shooting, but not for active actions.                 
                  About weapons.I would like to remind you again about the redesign of VSS. I could suggest a modification of this weapon, if I may. Also, why not add AS VAL to the game. Just cut off the sight from the VSS sprite. You may ask why it is needed? It would be nice to make this weapon an interesting property-reducing the reaction of the target. I will explain this by the fact that this weapon has an integrated silencer. Agree, it is more difficult to return fire on the enemy when you do not hear where they are shooting from.

[Solarius Scorch]

Aaaaa do something about this idiotic indentation on both ends, fixing it drives me crazy.

Scorh, you say that the machine gun in the tank is more for the theme of Piratez, but after all, all tanks in the world have a paired or anti-aircraft machine gun. This is realistic at least. On the other hand, why can't a tank have a machine gun? After all, it is necessary to destroy infantry, and the gun is needed to fight armored targets.

                                                                       

Ah sorry, I thought you were referring to tanks in Piratez!
1) I can add light weapons to tanks, but they would have to have unlimited ammo, and this is a bit meh.
2) Making tanks tougher would be way too OP. Why use anything else then? In Piratez you have a completely different balance, not to mention having Space Marines as your basic soldier type.

As for the camouflage, I only saw the coveralls. Is there something else I haven't seen? You could add a camouflage robe. It would have provided excellent camouflage, but it greatly reduced mobility. Approximately-60-70% of the action points.This would only be enough to occupy a sniper position and conduct shooting, but not for active actions.

Might be a thing, yeah. Making outfits is a lot of work, though. Maybe later.

About weapons.I would like to remind you again about the redesign of VSS. I could suggest a modification of this weapon, if I may.

You may.

Also, why not add AS VAL to the game. Just cut off the sight from the VSS sprite. You may ask why it is needed? It would be nice to make this weapon an interesting property-reducing the reaction of the target. I will explain this by the fact that this weapon has an integrated silencer. Agree, it is more difficult to return fire on the enemy when you do not hear where they are shooting from.

I already have at least 30 guns waiting to be added, already with graphics.

[INFERNO]

In the game, the VSS is presented as a sniper rifle, which requires huge skills to be used effectively. In fact, this is complete garbage, even in the hands of a professional. Terrible accuracy, completely unfounded.

My offer.
To start, change the reaction damage bonus to an accuracy bonus of 0.20-0.25 for adequate damage. The 9.39 caliber cartridge is more deadly than the 7.62 AK cartridge.

Change the initial accuracy to good. 35.75.125 (queue, offhand, aiming). Since this weapon was made for special forces, it should be easy and convenient to use. Especially weapons that were produced in the Soviet Union and Russia(the best in the world for simplicity and reliability). Such low accuracy is unjustified. The accuracy bonus changes by 0.2 of the shooting accuracy.

Ignoring the armor is left because of the features of the SP-6 ammunition.

Make a target range of 20-25 cells.The weapon is designed for urban combat, not long-range shooting.

Add a special feature to the weapon-reducing the reaction of the enemy.Because of the built-in silencer, it will be very difficult for the enemy to determine the location of the shooter and return fire.