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

[Bonakva]

Sol, I discovered the UNEXCOM mod. Some of the weapons have amazing tracers. What a beautiful thing that is. Please implement something like that in your mod. These tracers are amazing.

[Xolvix]

I did a little bit more experimentation as to why I had such issues with a large negative rating. Using the debug mode I powered on quickly until about April 1999. In this month I suddenly got a LOT of UFO activity, multiple UFO craft visibly flying around. Once this happened my rating started dropping extremely quickly. I doubt there would be any legitimate way of dealing with that much activity but it was clearly scaring everyone such that it destroyed the month.

I'm not sure what one is supposed to do in this case. Maybe by this point you're supposed to have a certain type of craft that can shoot them down, but nothing I had would even get to the appropriate range. Of course the UFOs are not always alien and are sometimes jets or other human craft, but still.

EDIT: Clearly I'm missing a game mechanic or I'm a terrible player. I'm blatantly cheating now but purely because it's impossible otherwise. I'm in May now and doing every single available mission perfectly (mostly via stunning all enemies via Ctrl-J) and yet my rating is severely in the negatives. I'm gonna assume the aliens are doing something major outside of my view but I don't have any idea where. This game is brutal.

[Bonakva]

Let me see the save

[krautbernd]

Yes, upload the save please, I'd like to have a look at this.

[Xolvix]

OK, savegame for the beginning of June attached. I suspect it's another situation which if I do what I think is OK, the UFOs are gonna be wreaking havoc regardless.

Yes it's horribly cheated (look at those funds!), but I'm mostly just powering through because I'm curious how the research progresses. I already know I'm not good enough to beat it legitimately, but maybe that'll come in time.

[Bonakva]

Subjective.
From what I see, you spend too much time on secondary technology. It's much more advantageous to have 10 scientists for 1 technology.
You could have gone into promotion 3 a long time ago. It's only 1 technology.
Alloy research unlocks new armor that makes it much easier to fight people.
I don't understand why you don't use OSPREY or dragonfly. More soldiers = more damage, much easier to control territory.
The warehouse is full of unnecessary stuff. Obsolete and weak weapons. Also, the cells are full of people who are not useful. All of this can and should be sold.
After any mission, you can automatically sell unnecessary things, some missions allow you to earn over 500000 just selling junk. With this money to build new bases and cover new territories.

[Xolvix]

Well obviously with original XCOM you'd stack multiple scientists on research, but there's just so damn much research in X-Com files (and XPiratez) that it seems counter productive especially when you're not always specifically aware of what's important and what's not, so I just research as much as I can simultaneously. I know you can middle-click for the tech tree to guide your research path, but there's only so much info that unless you've played the game enough times, you won't know specifically what's actually important and what's not.

The reason I avoid craft like the osprey/dragonfly is that their range is just too damn low. I'm a one-base guy (which at this point seems like a liability), I can't reach anything before I run out of fuel.

It's been said that a major issue of XCOM back in the day was that there was no real tutorial, you'd just learn how to play through trial and error. That's still the case, but the expectation that modern mods appear to have is that players have learnt everything by now. I haven't, but I'm a little bored of vanilla XCOM hence I mess around with these mods.

[Bonakva]

It is counterproductive to explore everything with 1 scientist. You're wasting a lot more time and stalling yourself in the walkthrough.
Again, the vast majority of technology and research works on immersion. They don't globally change anything or affect gameplay.
Saul has done a great job with research chains.
Everything is quite logical and intuitive.
In order to go on a branch of cults enough to study 1 time each of the cultists. Conventionally, captured a follower = learned about the cult, opened the network, flew to a small base and captured the leader = learned about the HQ, cleared the HQ = destroyed the cult.
As you go through the cult branch, you get 2nd and 3rd promotions. And that's good weapons, armor, and transports. Re-learning cultists just unlocks lore or weapons that don't compare to the one you get from the promotions.
You want better weapons and armor study alien technology (engineers and leaders, some medics and navigators). Alloys = armor. Elerium = laser weapons. Alloys and Elerium new transports and fighters.
The aliens have some useful secondary technologies, which will cause you to have to capture and learn more than 1 time. But then again most minor technologies just give you some food for thought.
All global technologies can be obtained by interrogating each of the enemies once. Extra interrogation = nice bonuses.
You can set up budget bases as outposts without hangars with an intelligence center and/or bio labs (total of 10 scientists).
Installing the base 1000
biolab 750
Intelligence Center 750
Prison cells 120
Animal cages 100
Living quarters 400
Storage room 150
Total 3.270.000 or 2.520.000 (1 lab)
Lifting money. That's 2-3 forward cult bases or 5-6 outposts.
Later on, convert into a full-fledged base with a strike force, fighters, labs, and alien containment.
What about osprey and other transports is very wrong. Without cheats and abuse of the cult HQ is very hard to take, let alone attack alien bases and ships. You will lose simply because of the density of enemy fire. That's what extra bases are for, covering new territories.

I completely understand your interest in exploring and seeing all the content. I am the same way. I love and practice reading ufopedia...
But in my opinion fundamentally you have 2 mistakes.
1. it's not a willingness at the right moment to research a really important technology with all your powers, which will give a breakthrough to the whole game
2. the lack of new bases. New bases have a complex effect on gameplay. More scientists, faster deployment of troops, more soldiers in combat, higher chance of seeing a UFO and then shooting it down (Early fighters don't fly all over the globe...)

[Xolvix]

OK I guess I better get the basics under control first before trying a proper game. Thanks for the tips!

BTW, it's a guilty pleasure of mine in regular XCOM to try to learn all research if only because I want to get as close the research amount to 100% as possible. That's... proving rather difficult in X-Com Files/Xpiratez.

[Bonakva]

I understand...
I tried to pass Xpiratez several times.
But every time I quit at 40-60%. Too much content. Don't have that much free time...

Sadly or happily, you'll never see 100%. Xpiratez is full of mutually exclusive research. Probably somewhere between 70-80% at most...
Well unlike Xpiratez here you can see 99%))
There are a couple of mutually exclusive studies in the game.

Huh, and five years ago I discovered openxcom through FMP...
And then I saw The X-Com Files, and even later Xpiratez.
Xpiratez I never finished it, though I keep trying every half a year...
The X-Com Files is the golden mean for me.
I insanely like the beginning in these 2 mods, very exciting to watch the development of a small community into something larger, interest disappears with the growth of power, the game turns into a vanilla, with the typical shooting down and sweeping UFOs and bases.

[Bonakva]

For the sake of interest, I sold all the junk in your save (obsolete weapons, researched and useless items, corpses, prisoners from which there is no benefit). Left only current at the time of your game weapons and items that require research and need in production. The result is almost 5.500.000 income

[Xolvix]

I'm gonna do the right thing and just start again and try playing legit. I worry it's gonna be like XPiratez where I get up to a point and just lose interest, but if I just accept that it might take a very long time then it's OK.

The problem with X-Com Files/XPiratez is that they both have regular/semi-regular updates. There are ways to preserve save games even when updated, but I do like the updates and generally start new playthroughs after an update just to see what's new. No wonder I can't finish them.

[Bonakva]

I don't know how helpful this will be to you, but a couple of tips nonetheless.
The structure of the base:
Three hangars at the top.
A corridor in the form of an elevator at the far left or right wall, a corridor in the form of a warehouse (during the battle, the warehouse has a good arrangement of doors) and then the rest of the base. During an attack on the base, enemies will spawn in the hangars and the elevator. You get a corridor of death, which is convenient to defend.
Do not be afraid to sell plasma weapons, they will not be available to you for a long time, and the money is good.
Top weapons in my opinion:
glock18 (starter weapon with high DPM)->mp5 (great transition weapon)->BlackOps SMG (snap x3 imba)
stayer aug/g36 (good accuracy, snap 20 cells, ignore armor)
BlackOps Rifle (good weapon for beginners, snap 20 cells, ignore armor)
BlackOps Smart Rifle (good weapon for beginners, better accuracy, but snap 18 cells, ignoring armor)
FN Fal (snap 16 cells, bonus damage + ignoring armor, imba in the hands of experienced soldiers)
Arasaka3000 (accuracy!!! snap 24!!! cells, bonus damage + ignoring armor, IMBA)
Asuka4000 (accuracy!!! snap 26!!! cells, bonus damage + ignoring armor, IMBA)
Arasaka3000 and Asuka4000 are some of the best rifles out there. Beginners will almost always hit with good damage, veterans will destroy tanks...
BlackOps Auto-Sniper Rifle (snap 33!!! cells, bonus damage + armor ignore, IMBA). Another IMBA gun. In the hands of veterans can make a bloodbath.
MG3 (great damage especially for the stage it appears, snap x2 32 cells, auto x6 32 cells... Shoot only from a crouch because the accuracy of +160%, IMBA, hits very far, the probability of hitting is very high, the DMP is excellent)
Any Pulse Weapons with chemical ammo. A really fucked up weapon, seriously fucked up. Especially M.A.G.M.A. Pulse LMG (Catastrophic damage, bonus damage, snap 25 cells. Kills almost everything with the first salvo. Stupid IMBA). The enemy has a lot of armor and even has resistance to chemistry? I don't give a shit, after the first shot the armor will disappear, and after the second shot the enemy will disappear...
XM29 only as a grenade launcher. Direct fire and six rounds in a clip. I can't stand other grenade launchers with their hinged trajectory, they are all very slow and heavy, constantly needing to be reloaded. This thing fires direct fire several times with excellent accuracy and damage. Was an imba before the nerf, but still a great weapon.

Try to go straight into promotion 2 and personal protection. They open up armor vests that are very good defense against the kinetics of cultists. For this you need to research a living mutant (MONGORN, SPIKEBOAR, FENRIR, etc.), psiсlone (squeeze from exalt) and "get to know" the cultists . This happens very quickly. In the area of half a year. And you don't have to go in hand-to-hand to stun a mutant, it's enough to shoot him and sit in a safe place. He will go down on his own because of his injuries.

PS. I tried to go out in a good armor. I guess I lied about six months. Personally, I got it, but for a player who is just getting acquainted with the mod, it will be difficult to so rush. Well, within 1 year or 1.5 years of measured play is fine. The main thing to emphasize on the important research and in the first place to open a biolaboratory and intelligence center.

[Xolvix]

I gotta say, going back to playing this properly is both fun and tedious. I was enjoying the overpowered agents I had due to modding their characters. Now that I'm playing properly, they basically can't do much before being killed by a zombie because they can't aim for shit and their bullets bounce off the zombies, for whatever reason. It's still very early in the playthrough but I am close to my first promotion.

I think I just forgot what it means to have your characters for their lives. I got no shame in using saves; I'd never play this without them!

[flanker84]

Great mod, installed immediately after reading the change list!
I`m struggling with commendations:
1) do "master of..." and "bane pf..." bonuses stack in case I gain level1 for weapon/race A, level2 for weapon/race B, and so on?
2) I would suggest making the "master of ..." requirement 10X less and leaving "gunner", "sniper", etc as it is; the logic is following: your soldiers get better with a particular gun faster than becoming overall better in a weapon class, making "master of..." level 10 possible to obtain, because now it is not, as you change tier levels faster than killing 500 enemies with a particular gun.
3) what is the difference between "Flat Stats Change" and "Stat Bonuses" in commendations descriptions?
4) "bane of..." - i`d also suggest decreasing 10X, as it is also impossible to get 500 kills of one enemy race, same for "warden of..."
I played extensively last time without losing agents and couldn`t get to decent levels for these commendations, maybe someone could advise how to change this, so I can do it myself?