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

[Mrvex]

Is the UAC office raid suppose to be concealment only ? Because 14 enemies armed with deadly weapons that will easily penetrate bullet proof coats seems abit excessive. Also with - 400 score penalty if it despawns (for a concealment only mission, other missions have like minus 10 or 20 if they despawn).

[TheCurse]

the map layout makes it rather easy.
if you go in with mostly melee stun, you can have it easily in like 2-3 turns...
the easier the mission, the larger the despawn penalty.
(also urgency of the mission is kinda applied, thats why this has so much)

[Mrvex]

the map layout makes it rather easy.
if you go in with mostly melee stun, you can have it easily in like 2-3 turns...
the easier the mission, the larger the despawn penalty.
(also urgency of the mission is kinda applied, thats why this has so much)

I am not sure easier=larger despawn penalty is applicable. Pretty much all other stealth missions have minimal penalties and some of them sound serious.
Osiron staketout ? 20 points
Syndicate data seizure ? 10 points

I mentioned the massive penalty because i managed to get 3 of these mission in one month so thats - 1200 points, so thats like ignoring a terror mission and then one creature slaughter one and some minor  mission on top of it. Like that RNG was just salt in my wound after i had to fend of MiB assaulting my main base with like five tanks, sectopod, 3 power armour troopers and tons of assholes armed with plasma weapons. But even on its own, 400 its way too much.

[Solarius Scorch]

Well, I think you get too many points on average...

[Pucchimera]

I don't know if this is a mod-specific issue, but I've noticed a few times that some of my agents' deaths get attributed to another agent's (or in one case, their own!) Smoke Grenade. The couple of times that I've observed this were when an agent died from fatal damage from some previous injury while standing or lying unconscious in smoke deployed by a friendly unit. This awards the Betrayer commendation to the innocent agent who just wanted to protect their squadmates, causing severe mental trauma and reducing their Bravery score. Not a huge issue, but I thought I'd report it anyway since it's probably unintended behaviour.

[Ronios]

I don't know if this is a mod-specific issue, but I've noticed a few times that some of my agents' deaths get attributed to another agent's (or in one case, their own!) Smoke Grenade. The couple of times that I've observed this were when an agent died from fatal damage from some previous injury while standing or lying unconscious in smoke deployed by a friendly unit. This awards the Betrayer commendation to the innocent agent who just wanted to protect their squadmates, causing severe mental trauma and reducing their Bravery score. Not a huge issue, but I thought I'd report it anyway since it's probably unintended behaviour.

This is not a bug. A smoke grenade "attacks" everyone who is in the smoke zone every turn, and when someone dies from bleeding, then the last "attack" in your case falls on the smoke. This is how the whole OpenXcom works.

Likewise, you can hit someone who is bleeding with a non-lethal weapon, and if nothing else hits him and he dies of bleeding, then the murder will count towards that strike of a non-lethal weapon.

[Meridian]

This is not a bug. A smoke grenade "attacks" everyone who is in the smoke zone every turn, and when someone dies from bleeding, then the last "attack" in your case falls on the smoke. This is how the whole OpenXcom works.

Nope, that's not how OXCE works.
Smoke grenade doesn't attack every turn, only the initial blast counts towards any statistics.

And in OpenXcom, not even the initial blast counts... as far as I know.

[Bananas_Akimbo]

I don't know how serious you are about weapon realism, but I just found out about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EORd-c8EEc

Bows and crossbows don't actually work underwater. The bow limbs get slowed down so much by the water, that barely any energy is transferred into the arrow/bolt.

[Solarius Scorch]

I don't know how serious you are about weapon realism, but I just found out about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EORd-c8EEc

Bows and crossbows don't actually work underwater. The bow limbs get slowed down so much by the water, that barely any energy is transferred into the arrow/bolt.

AFAIK it mostly depends on the weapon and ammo (Tod actually mentions this  in the end). And any crossbow will perform poorly when compared to shooting above surface. But it more or less works:

Of course, many normal guns would also more or less work underwater, despite being excluded by the mod... But that's another simplification.

[HT]

I've been snooping around the github directory and so far it seems next update will be a big one, with new gear, modifications to the existing stuff and finally a reward for

Spoiler:

completing the zombie arc!

Alas, I have a doubt: It's been modified that Psi Defense now uses an agent's Bravery instead of the Psionic Strength stat, which makes cowardly agents twice as useless now. However, Bravery can be trained, which means that an agent with high Bravery but no Psionic power still has uses. The question is:
Do aliens still use as a favorite target an unit with Psionic Strength 0 ? In the original game they laser-focused on these guys due having no resistance against psychic attacks, which allowed you to use baits in order to avoid having your team being mindraped to death. With the swap of Psi Defense's stat use, does this behaviour still remain?

[Solarius Scorch]

Do aliens still use as a favorite target an unit with Psionic Strength 0 ? In the original game they laser-focused on these guys due having no resistance against psychic attacks, which allowed you to use baits in order to avoid having your team being mindraped to death. With the swap of Psi Defense's stat use, does this behaviour still remain?

I don't know exactly, but I think they still attack the weakest link. The formula to determine psi defence is different, but my guess is that the aliens only look at the final number, regardless of how it's been calculated. Still, it's just a guess.

Keep looking at the changes for more goodies

[Mrvex]

Oh yes, it does sound interesting.
What also is it seems my prayers in other thread about resistances vests and platings was heard too since we are getting a concussive resistance vest, akin to silk wear.
Also bonus props for making a new item you can make from creatures

[Empiro]

I can definitely confirm that the aliens will still attack whoever has the lowest PSI Strength (no soldiers have PSI skill yet in my game).

That actually brings up a question I have. How do aliens gain targets for PSI attacks? I remember in the original TFTD and UFO they had some weird rule that if the aliens could see any of your soldiers then all of your soldiers can be targeted, and they remembered your soldiers' positions for a few turns after (so they could keep getting targeted). This resulted in a bunch of guys in the back of the Skyranger/Triton getting attacked all the time. It was one of the lamest and most frustrating things about the original games, resulting in me quitting the game on multiple occasions. Even though I know how to deal with that now, at the time as a kid, it felt so impossible to overcome.

In my most recent encounter in X-Com Files, I had some guys outside of a UFO with the leader inside. Once some of them approached the side of the UFO, they started getting attacked. There was no way any of my those soldiers were able to be seen by any alien (though some other soldiers did get spotted a few turns past. Do the leaders have PSI sense, or is the targeting just like old-school UFO/TFTD?

[Empiro]

I also have an observation / question -- are the Cult Safehouses now completely optional? I noticed that the lowest tier cultists that you get from Investigations can give you the Network topic which leads to Outposts. I seem to remember in previous versions that the lowest tier used to only give you the safehouse, and you get the next tier (Exalt Goons, Red Dawn Lads, etc.) would give you the Network.

[HT]

I can definitely confirm that the aliens will still attack whoever has the lowest PSI Strength (no soldiers have PSI skill yet in my game).

Thanks! Sadly, that makes it just like the OG, but worse, since now you need good bravery for everyone. Thankfully it is an easy stat to gain IIRC.

That actually brings up a question I have. How do aliens gain targets for PSI attacks? I remember in the original TFTD and UFO they had some weird rule that if the aliens could see any of your soldiers then all of your soldiers can be targeted, and they remembered your soldiers' positions for a few turns after (so they could keep getting targeted). This resulted in a bunch of guys in the back of the Skyranger/Triton getting attacked all the time. It was one of the lamest and most frustrating things about the original games, resulting in me quitting the game on multiple occasions. Even though I know how to deal with that now, at the time as a kid, it felt so impossible to overcome.

In my most recent encounter in X-Com Files, I had some guys outside of a UFO with the leader inside. Once some of them approached the side of the UFO, they started getting attacked. There was no way any of my those soldiers were able to be seen by any alien (though some other soldiers did get spotted a few turns past. Do the leaders have PSI sense, or is the targeting just like old-school UFO/TFTD?

Just like the OG games, if an alien meets one of your guys, said unit can be targeted by EVERY psychic alien. Unlike you, most of the aliens don't need the "must see target" condition. I haven't checked with all aliens, but Sectoids do that IIRC. Ethereals would make sense to do as well, since they're all about psychic power.