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

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks, added it to my ideas bank.
No promises here, as this is probably way beyond my graphic skills; but if I find an artist to draw it, why not.
(Exact stats and such are to be reviewed.)

EDIT: Oh, and in case this comes too close to existing armours, I'd like to make it better and restricted to some specific agent type (for example to Spartans). But this is a "to be decided" thing.

EDIT 2: A little sneak peek into the upcoming cyborg revolution.

[Lone Wolf]

Hey everyone, coming back after a little while out of the game.  I was wondering, how are your squads organized? 

Obviously it can vary depending on the mission or terrain, but do you guys use the two man scout-sniper approach, or are your squads broken down into fireteams?

I've been deploying with Skymarshals or Kitsune's for 15-16 slots available.  I tend to favor ranged playstyles with a lot of heavy weapons.  I always take at least one mortar, and rocket launcher for these, along with a sniper to two.  Everybody else is a maneuver element, usually 6 agents and an HWP.  I don't have any set weapon loadout as I like to try out different weapons to see what works, but I prefer rifles.  Of course, these guys also carry grenades and sometimes a medikit. 

I don't feel like this is a great loadout.  It works for me, and I win engagements, but I feel like I'm not utilizing the full suite of weapons and equipment I have available to its full potential.  Hence, I want some advice/thoughts from the veterans? 

[Stone Lake]

how are your squads organized

About the same as you. Long range team + scouts + assault team:
1-3 heavies (preferably tactical grenade launcher, sometimes rockets or mortars)
1-3 snipers
2-6 scouts (dogs/rats/AI scouts that see through the smoke). These get partially/completely replaced by HWPs when available.
4-6 assaults/ninjas (stun rods,punches/throwing axes, knives/shotguns/grenades for long range stuff).
2-6 psi troops (when available).

[psavola]

Playing 3.0 snapshot, I stumbled upon a Betarian engineer in Chtonite Minibase Assault mission. At least according xcf.trigramreactor.net that is parsing the rulesets, that alien is not supposed to be here - not in the alien loadouts(?). I wonder how that has come to be. If this is intentional for whatever reason, I suppose the aforementioned parser is buggy.

[Juku121]

Aren't Betarians spawned through items in certain base missions?

[psavola]

Aren't Betarians spawned through items in certain base missions?

Indeed, they are spawned (STR_SPAWN_BETARIAN_ENGINEER) in certain UBASE definions. The abovementioned parser seems to be able to deal with it; at https://xcf.trigramreactor.net/master/article/STR_BETARIAN_ENGINEER, the "Deployed in" includes about 15 various bases, most of which have STR_SPAWN_BETARIAN_ENGINEER as "Spawned items" and "Betarian Engineer" mentioned as Spawned unit, but not in alien loadouts. However, for whatever reason, the minibase assault description includes neither and according to that parser it shouldn't be spawning through the item on that mission. But as it does, I suppose the parser is buggy as this happened for me. The parser has been very reliable and useful so far in being able to determine what to expect in a first run.

[psavola]

Monstrous Breed research gives access to both Monsters: Final Solution (essentially endng monsters events) and Monsters: The Aftermath. The latter description refers to dealing of remaining monsters that have avoided extermination by a special unit. It sounds as if the Aftermath research should actually by dependent on The Final Solution, not completeable before it, because the description makes little sense otherwise.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, Betiarians are supposed to spawn in Chtonite bases. Mostly because I didn't feel like making a separate terrain just without them, and their presence there isn't exactly illogical.

Monstrous Breed research gives access to both Monsters: Final Solution (essentially endng monsters events) and Monsters: The Aftermath. The latter description refers to dealing of remaining monsters that have avoided extermination by a special unit. It sounds as if the Aftermath research should actually by dependent on The Final Solution, not completeable before it, because the description makes little sense otherwise.

I can't remember now, but it's probably there in case there are some monster missions remaining, which may happen.

[psavola]

Should there be some trigger which will turn off ghost events as you complete the arc? There doesn't appear to be and IMO there should be. Though I suppose some could use these for training purposes and not complete the arc on purpose if there was a way to do it.

If I recall correctly, SS already said this arc is kinda incomplete at the moment. And I think someone also said you can just skip everything by not researching cover: scientists (which also skips most of the zombie arc?) to better focus on the main game. And it's certainly debatable, as the loot from the arc (certain PSI weapons, mostly) are not so useful as to make it worth it.

For a simple solution - while waiting for a completion of the arc -, getting "Residual Psionic Artifacts", which you can get by getting the three items from ghost missions, could turn off the ghost missions. After that you could no longer get ectoplasm though. But I'm not sure if anyone would want to use equipment using it in the longer term anyway. Currently researching that subject is a dead-end.

I'll have to correct myself here. If you want to get Gillman Hero alive and recover its very useful power suit, based on the specs about the only way I could think of doing it reliably were the PSI weapons you can get from the ghost missions. I suppose they could be otherwise useful as well against the enemies that have too good armor to penetrate otherwise. So, not completely useless after all.

[psavola]

How are you supposed to see which agents have so low sanity that they should remain at the base? As far as I can understand you can't see this when looking at the agent stats (or at least I can't parse them) and it's very difficult to see this when selecting who is going on a mission.

I think you need to calculate this manually by sorting with "Missing sanity" (which information doesn't appear to be available on the stats page) and manually subtracting that value from "sanity" stat? But what you would actually need is sorting or checking by remaining/current sanity, which doesn't appear to be available. Have I missed something or is this an engine limitation or something?

[Nerro]

How are you supposed to see which agents have so low sanity that they should remain at the base? As far as I can understand you can't see this when looking at the agent stats (or at least I can't parse them) and it's very difficult to see this when selecting who is going on a mission.

I think you need to calculate this manually by sorting with "Missing sanity" (which information doesn't appear to be available on the stats page) and manually subtracting that value from "sanity" stat? But what you would actually need is sorting or checking by remaining/current sanity, which doesn't appear to be available. Have I missed something or is this an engine limitation or something?

Use the preview button. It will start a preview mission in which you can look at each soldier sanity.
It is not perfect since you can only see soldier that are in the craft, but that is the best way I know.

[Mathel]

If you select a healthy agent, it should tell you how much time till full sanity.
If you know how fast sanity recharges at your base, you can calculate how much they are missing.

Then subtract this from their max sanity and you have how much they have left.

I would also really like a way to just see sanity% of soldiers at a glance.

[Thunderwing280]

Hey it's been a while since I was last active

I'm trying to download the mod on my laptop but the mod folder is on my onedrive, how do I move it off?

[Nerro]

Run Open X-COM Ex, Go to "Option > Folders" and change "User Folder".
(You can also change the other folders since that are at the same place by default.)

[Blazen]

If you select a healthy agent, it should tell you how much time till full sanity.
If you know how fast sanity recharges at your base, you can calculate how much they are missing.

Then subtract this from their max sanity and you have how much they have left.

I would also really like a way to just see sanity% of soldiers at a glance.

You can sort by missing sanity in both the agent list and the crew list. And if you ctrl click in the sort menu it will just display it without changing their order. It shows it as an absolute number however not a percentage.