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

[tarkalak]

Hey, man.
Thank you for the mod. Just started playing it. Looks very interesting.

I am currently reading through descriptions. Most of them are very informative and help beginners like me to understand what to do.

Few questions.
Small shotgun seems to be lighter, more precise, faster, more powerful, cheaper than pump action shotgun. It is also concealable. What is the point to use pump action shotgun then???
There are a lot of small firearms with relatively similar speed, weight, precision. Their parameters vary by few percents or something. Is there really any difference in using them? What is the best one?
The three "Medi-kit" items have same exactly description. Would you mind to specify their benefits? Like the bigger one is healing better or have more charges or something?

The Small Shotgun have range of 3, and beyond that the accuracy falls with 6 per tile I believe. You will see it on the Battlescape, when the percentage near your aiming cursor turns yellow.

There are many guns that have similar statistics, it's up to your preference. You should make a habit of checking their "info" pages, as their aiming ranges might be different, also some weapons have bonuses from different skills, so you need to check that too.

In the inventory screen, if you hold "Alt" (or was it Ctrl), the gun name will change to the damage potential. This is useful for weapons that get damage bonus from skills. Also you should enable the extra inventory stats from the options, this shows you how much aim your soldier has in the inventory screen (so you don't have to check in another screen and go back and forth).

Again you can see how many uses they have in the "Info". The small one is 1 use, the green one is 2 and the big one is 3 uses. It is that many uses of everything (heal, painkiller and stimulant). Also they weight differently so it depends on how much your soldiers can carry.

[Solarius Scorch]

[Damn, ninjad by Tarkalak. Let me post anyway.]

Hey, man.
Thank you for the mod. Just started playing it. Looks very interesting.

Hello! Thanks, and I'll hope you'll like it. (Warning: it's kinda grindy.)

Small shotgun seems to be lighter, more precise, faster, more powerful, cheaper than pump action shotgun. It is also concealable. What is the point to use pump action shotgun then???

The dropoff on the small shotgun really sucks, making it impractical to use at distances exceeding several tiles. You'll see it clearly on a mission, or check heck the INFO button.

There are a lot of small firearms with relatively similar speed, weight, precision. Their parameters vary by few percents or something. Is there really any difference in using them? What is the best one?

Many of them are indeed pretty similar, and they're mostly there for variety and accuracy - like, American cultists using different guns from Asian cultists, etc.

The three "Medi-kit" items have same exactly description. Would you mind to specify their benefits? Like the bigger one is healing better or have more charges or something?

Yes, their amount of charges varies. The INFO button should tell you about that, or you can just see it on the mission, so I didn't want to put all this info in the description.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

The dropoff on the small shotgun really sucks, making it impractical to use at distances exceeding several tiles. You'll see it clearly on a mission, or check heck the INFO button.

I see two parameters: shot range (for shot type) and dropoff. Aren't they for the same purpose? How do they play together?

---Merged your two posts, since they were posted at exactly same second, so something probably went wrong. - Solar ---

Yes, their amount of charges varies. The INFO button should tell you about that, or you can just see it on the mission, so I didn't want to put all this info in the description.

Maybe not exact capacity but some short note like "bigger containments of supplies than first aid bag". Just to hint people if they want to check this in info.

[Solarius Scorch]

I see two parameters: shot range (for shot type) and dropoff. Aren't they for the same purpose? How do they play together?

Shot range determines the cutoff after which accuracy drops. Dropoff determines how much it drops.

Maybe not exact capacity but some short note like "bigger containments of supplies than first aid bag". Just to hint people if they want to check this in info.

I guess we can, but I want to put so much references between articles... I don't know what the reader has already read. I can do something here if needed, but it feels a bit superfluous. Opinions?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

It is superfluous for experience player who doesn't read these entries anymore. For beginner like me every bit of info matters. It is sort of starter manual.
Other articles are very informative for me as a beginner. I can understand in which direction to go now.
You do add some distinctive hints in other equipment entries like "short ranged", "fast", "accurate", etc. So as well can add some distinction in medpacks.

[Solarius Scorch]

All right, I'll review these descriptions.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

One more thing about medpacks. They seem quite undistinguishable except number of meds in them. As a player I would probably take 3 small ones or 1 big one with more or less same effect. I would love to see each item having its unique benefits and drawbacks. Like the difference between small shotgun and pump action one. I would definitely need to think which one to take on which mission. With current med packs - not so much. You can keep just one without losing a bit of playability. Otherwise, uniquify them if you still want to keep them all around. Like bigger ones has something extra previous level does not but smaller ones are much cheaper/smaller/lighter/faster, etc. For example, the bigger one seems bulky so it may be curing some rare but deadly condition. So people would need to take it on a mission but not carry in a pocket while smaller one had some local and minor effect, limited usage, but fits into the pocket so it is easy to carry one around.

It is not a demand. Merely an observation and thought. 😉

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Besides having different amounts of charges, medical items also heal different amounts of HP/stamina/morale per use. Also, costs of using them are different and some can be used on self, while others can't.

[tarkalak]

One more thing about medpacks. They seem quite undistinguishable except number of meds in them. As a player I would probably take 3 small ones or 1 big one with more or less same effect. I would love to see each item having its unique benefits and drawbacks. Like the difference between small shotgun and pump action one. I would definitely need to think which one to take on which mission. With current med packs - not so much. You can keep just one without losing a bit of playability. Otherwise, uniquify them if you still want to keep them all around. Like bigger ones has something extra previous level does not but smaller ones are much cheaper/smaller/lighter/faster, etc. For example, the bigger one seems bulky so it may be curing some rare but deadly condition. So people would need to take it on a mission but not carry in a pocket while smaller one had some local and minor effect, limited usage, but fits into the pocket so it is easy to carry one around.

It is not a demand. Merely an observation and thought. 😉

There is nuances between the medikits. Every hit that produces a wound does 1-3 wounds.

First Aid kit: One heal is rarely enough and you loose more TUs, because you need to move it around in inventory for every heal.
Second medikit: Has best weight to heal ratio: 4 weight per heal, but is still not enough for the full 3 wound hit.
Big medikit: Has enough heals, but is 15 weight and limits what else your soldier can carry.

Also the later two will take up your belt 2x2 space if you don't have a backpack.

All of the starting medikits lack enough heals for a prolonged gunfight, so you will end up walking back to the craft to pick up more.

Then you have some further types of kits that you will research. And they have some more pros and cons.

[Solarius Scorch]

One more thing about medpacks. They seem quite undistinguishable except number of meds in them. As a player I would probably take 3 small ones or 1 big one with more or less same effect. I would love to see each item having its unique benefits and drawbacks. Like the difference between small shotgun and pump action one. I would definitely need to think which one to take on which mission. With current med packs - not so much. You can keep just one without losing a bit of playability. Otherwise, uniquify them if you still want to keep them all around. Like bigger ones has something extra previous level does not but smaller ones are much cheaper/smaller/lighter/faster, etc. For example, the bigger one seems bulky so it may be curing some rare but deadly condition. So people would need to take it on a mission but not carry in a pocket while smaller one had some local and minor effect, limited usage, but fits into the pocket so it is easy to carry one around.

I get your point, but I really can't see how I can make them more different with the available options. But as a player, I would prefer keeping the current number for better loadout flexibility.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Agree.

[Solarius Scorch]

I reuploaded the mod as 1.6b, to fix some issues with robots being immune to simple weapons like crowbars and fists. (Essentially they were immune, and they shouldn't be.)

[HT]

Wow, a new update right when I installed the 5th version, yay! It apparently has lots of good stuff, such as finally including the type of agent next to their names in the soldier list, freaking finally. That was a life saver. Also, AI Units are also very rare to acquire, which means I have a surplus of them due using a save before the update.

Just to know: Why make AI Units so hard to acquire, when initially they're not that good with the scout drone chassis (and the medical one as well)? Until you unlock HWP tech, they're not that good compared to any regular agent, and unless you luck out and unlock the rocket launcher scout chassis early, they won't be able to contribute much to fights.

[Solarius Scorch]

Just to know: Why make AI Units so hard to acquire, when initially they're not that good with the scout drone chassis (and the medical one as well)? Until you unlock HWP tech, they're not that good compared to any regular agent, and unless you luck out and unlock the rocket launcher scout chassis early, they won't be able to contribute much to fights.

The reasons are complex and explaining them here would be rather time consuming, but it is mostly to:
1) various late game balance issues
2) lore/common sense (AIs weren't very believable as they were before)

[krautbernd]

The reasons are complex and explaining them here would be rather time consuming, but it is mostly to:
1) various late game balance issues
2) lore/common sense (AIs weren't very believable as they were before)

I was always under the impression that vanilla HWPs were not AI controlled units, but "remotely" piloted. IIRC your original idea as first implemented was to have a "basic" AI unit that wasn't able to improve stats and an alien AI unit which could. Would you maybe think about implementing this system again, at least for early game HWP chasis (scout/first aid drone)? As far as I can tell there is no need lore-wise to straight-out require "actual" AI units, seeing how they already come with "technicians". Maybe these technicians are also trained HWP/drone operators?