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

[tarkalak]

He's probably family. Must be an exciting story.


The experts are still arguing.

May be, she is his wife (pictured on the right), who is an actual Doctor (I vote for this one).

May be, no relation like Mike Tyson - Neil DeGrasse Tyson (boooooring).

May be, it is just a typo and his real name is Dr. Hydrolox.

We may never know. 

[anothrgamer1234]

Yeah, it's not very fleshed out yet.


Can someone tell me why Dr. Hadriex is in the list of X-Com's Friends on The Council ? He was missing and is hostile towards X-Com upon discovery.

As a more serious reply, it's actually a list of people who donated to Solarious's Patreon enough to get a mention in-game.

[Protagonista]

Hey everyone thanks for the tips on sanity and handcuffs! Boy, Im only in 1998 yet and theres a big dificulty spike! My agents have a lifespan of 2 missions...

Enemies have granades, all I have is flashbangs, not even smoke granades...
Still only in kevlar armor...
Still only in helicopters, and that means only 6 agents agains up to 20 zombies/spiders/warewolfs...
Every mission begins with my 6 agents surronded by cult members/monsters looking at then with full TUs, meaning reaction shots.

I need some more tips guys...

[Bananas_Akimbo]

I need some more tips guys...

Well, there are plenty more tips in other threads, even some threads dedicated entirely to tips for beginners. You will have to do a bit of searching, though.
Here is one I remember: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,7730.0.html

As for answering the questions you posed here:
Enemy grenades are indeed a bummer. There isn't much you can do except keeping some space between all of your agents. Of course that isn't always possible and sometimes enemies will lob grenades even at lone agents. You will have to live with that.

As for smoke grenades, you can improvise. Scout drones and fire extinguishers can also generate a dense smoke screen (but smaller)! Yes, you heard right, fire extinguishers! In fact, I would consider this their main use. The reverse also works: Smoke grenades stop fires. One word of caution about smoke, though: It's no longer the all-powerful tool it was in vanilla and can even do more harm than good in some cases. Some enemies see right through it (thermovision stat), some will fire blindly into the smoke (in that case you were spotted by another enemy, or they are shooting at your last known location). Nothing beats solid cover.

Kevlar? That's indeed subpar in '98.
Helicopters are fine, though. In fact, you won't get much bigger transports any time soon. 6 agents can accomplish a lot, as long as they experienced enough...

Which might be your main problem. If your agents are as short-lived as you say, it's no surprise, that you are having trouble.
Remember, that you don't have to do every mission. Aborting even on turn 1 is no sin, if the odds are stacked heavily against you. The difficulty curve in this mod is not entirely linear and that is intentional.
Conserving the lives of your agents is all-important. That being said, losses are unavoidable sometimes. Dogs are cheaper cannon-fodder and also more likely to survive scouting.

Finally you can always lower the difficulty without starting a new game. Easily done by editing the save file. If you play on Superhuman, you deserve no sympathy.

[the nomad]

Of course that isn't always possible and sometimes enemies will lob grenades even at lone agents. You will have to live with that.

*Cough cough* hybrids *cough cough*.

Indeed, you definitely gotta choose which missions to attempt or not. If you feel it is overwhelming, just go to the mission so you don't get a penalty and abort it. Shoot a couple of times for stat gains if there will be few reaction fires.

The thing that will give you the best boost imo is unlocking better armor. I forgot the exact research order though, but you do have to research history of xenonauts.

[tarkalak]

I need some more tips guys...

Open the Research screen and middle click to open the research tree, you can see the prerequisites of anything there and you can see what every research you have does. You need Armored Vests for armor, the upgrades to the Helicopter are the Dragonfly (8 agents) and the Osprey (16 agents). Those shouldn't be hard to get.

Zombies, werewolves, etc. are hardly scary. Just mow them down with shotguns. If you fail to clear the landing site, abort.

[Mrvex]

Does anyone know the cause of mass equipment loss after a mission ?

I mopped up the CoP meeting, flawless mission and i got this report

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Does anyone know the cause of mass equipment loss after a mission ?

I mopped up the CoP meeting, flawless mission and i got this report

I've never had that happen myself, but my first instinct tells me, that your troops got hit by explosives, while still in the craft. Probably those priests with their rocket launchers. Items on the ground are destructible - I guess your stash is no different. So far, my enemies have been nice enough to only throw incendiary grenades into my craft, which don't destroy items.

Maybe it would be better, if the stash was moved to a safer place inside the craft, usually the back. (Well, technically it IS in the back now. I mean it should be moved away from the door.)

[the nomad]

I agree with the user above. I always lose equipment in that mission because some culty either shoots a rocket in my craft (generally as a reaction when I step down the craft) or a tosses a grenade. It is probably it.

[Mrvex]

I agree with the user above. I always lose equipment in that mission because some culty either shoots a rocket in my craft (generally as a reaction when I step down the craft) or a tosses a grenade. It is probably it.

Hmmph, yes that might be the cause since one of my dudes who was under Kitsune got hit by 2 rockets but since he was wearing power armour he took no damage. So it seems the same couldnt be said for a dropship floor...

[Solarius Scorch]

Version 1.5 has been released.

- New mission: UAC Weapons Delivery.
- New AI chassis: Large Flying Drone.
- New armor: Assault Suit (graphics by Brain_322).
- New weapons: Incinerator Grenade (graphics by Brain_322), Chemogun Extinguisher Tank, Chempistol Extinguisher Tank.
- New items: Optronic Parts, UAC Weapon Box.
- New units: Cow, Sheep, Pig and Chicken (sprites by Vangrimar1).
- New terrain: Rice Farm (by the C.M.P. Team: Luke83, b__0 & Efrenespartano).
- Overhauled and expanded Forest Marsh terrain (now with actual marsh).
- Bigger Cydonia.
- New Dimension X Base buildings (by Wolverin).
- 1 new event.
- Added visual damage indicator (by Mistar Red).
- Improved Toxigun Flask sprite (by Brain_322).
- Added Seeker Drone, Laser Turret, Cyberweb Roboturret and Cyberweb Centurion paperdolls and examination articles (graphics by Brain_322).
- Added a special X-Com Roboturret/Minigun sprite (by Brain_322).
- Added handobs for Small Shotgun, AKSU-74, AKM and Shogg Hammer.
- Improved pitchfork handob.
- Added descriptions of Hallucinoid attacks.
- Added some new Ufopedia articles.
- Reorganized a part of the tech tree related to Optronics and Alien Electronics, and items which have them.
- Recategorized some rifles.
- Jumpsuit and Grav Module now have color variations (aesthetic only).
- Can't sell survey results.
- Rat Breeding now requires Energetic Blood Plasma instead of Elerium.
- Plasma melee weapons now cost Elerium to produce.
- Moved BlackOps Contact and associated researches a bit further down the tech tree.
- Syndicate, MiB and Hybrid Scientists talk about Zombie Infectors.
- Abomination and Ooze now need Alien Containment.
- Radar Res Processor costs more to produce.
- Increased dropoff on all pistols.
- Skulljack doesn't require Psi Skill.
- Tritanium Harpoon Dart now requires knowledge of Tritanium Blades instead of Tritanium Ammo.
- Mudranger now carries 14 people and is used in some Dimension X missions.
- Added 2 doors to one Port map.
- Deep Ones now have proper screams (by Kato).
- Updated handcuff script (by Kozinsky).
- Updated installation instructions (thanks, Justaround).
- Cleaned up the WP ammo mess (and Colt Commando too).
- Removed Criminal Records from boxes.
- Corrected how Moon missions launch.
- Taser sprites correction (by Alex D).
- Fixed Syndicate Walker floorob.
- Fixed Forest map generation.
- Fixed Alloy Cannon Rounds price.
- Fixed Drone Rockets manufacturing.
- Fixed a crash on surrendering Space Technomads.
- Removed unused corpseGeo references.
- Minor fixes.

This time it took a little longer than usual, but it's not because I was slacking off; there's a lot new content!
I would like to give special thanks to Brain_322, who made sizeable contributions to the mod graphics.

Oh, and before updating, sell all your AKM, AK47, AKSU and Groza clips, or you'll lose them.

[Mathel]

Hooray, new version. I will upgrade tomorrow.

Also, the Alien Key Decryption research last paragraph says:

"It is very likely that the aliens will change the encryption method if we attempt to storm it, even if we fail. And a successful assault will tell them how we got access to the underground facility, so this trick won't ever work again."

Does this really mean I can't destroy the second alien embassy? I just destroyed one in Australia and another one popped in Brazil. I even missed out on capturing those green ehtereals.

[Mrvex]

Version 1.5 has been released.

- Jumpsuit and Grav Module now have color variations (aesthetic only).

I was thinking about it when i saw in UFO pedia that these armours have camo-versions which look way cooler than the stock grey-ish XCOM color.
That being said, what i would like to see instead are colour/camo works for armours you have the longest in the game. Tritanium armour, Cyber armour, Power armour and the Juggernaut.
While Tritanium and Cyber armour looks badass enough. The Power armour could use a paint job so its not this grey-ish thing and the juggernaut armour so its not this ugly yellow plastic thing that looks like a toy.

But i guess such thing isnt important to do when compared to finishing other stuff like factions and their arcs...  But anyway, great work.

[anothrgamer1234]

Hooray, new version. I will upgrade tomorrow.

Also, the Alien Key Decryption research last paragraph says:

"It is very likely that the aliens will change the encryption method if we attempt to storm it, even if we fail. And a successful assault will tell them how we got access to the underground facility, so this trick won't ever work again."

Does this really mean I can't destroy the second alien embassy? I just destroyed one in Australia and another one popped in Brazil. I even missed out on capturing those green ehtereals.

Not quite- you just need to find a decrypted key from a different source. You get one from completing the Syndicate arc and another from completing the zombie arc. You're out of luck from the fourth one onward, though.

[HT]

I was thinking about it when i saw in UFO pedia that these armours have camo-versions which look way cooler than the stock grey-ish XCOM color.
That being said, what i would like to see instead are colour/camo works for armours you have the longest in the game. Tritanium armour, Cyber armour, Power armour and the Juggernaut.
While Tritanium and Cyber armour looks badass enough. The Power armour could use a paint job so its not this grey-ish thing and the juggernaut armour so its not this ugly yellow plastic thing that looks like a toy.

There was a mod in the old portal that did just that: Give you different recolors for the Personal Armor and the Power Armor, as different variations your soldiers could "wear". Alas, it is lost to time.

Not quite- you just need to find a decrypted key from a different source. You get one from completing the Syndicate arc and another from completing the zombie arc. You're out of luck from the fourth one onward, though.

So, if you take too long to complete the Alien Hybrid arc, you could end up stuck with aliens embassies/special bases that cannot be attacked then? I'm still dealing with the cults right now, so I haven't dealt with Embassies yet.