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

[Juku121]

No, most negative score events are there for flavour and perhaps a little challenge, you cannot directly influence the results. Well, a lot of them do have trigger conditions, like research or financials, so your acctions do have some impact. And, yes, there are also a bunch of positive events, like getting Land Surveys, some gadgets or corpses in the mail. Or a mystery 500k deposit, or some score for hitting on a Councilwoman.

The staff messages are there for atmosphere, or occasionally for Solarius to lament about something (like people not RTFM-ing).

[Fiskun1]

I understand, thanks. I will wait for positive messages)
What is RTFM?

[Juku121]

RTFM.

[psavola]

Syndicate Monster Lab is an easy mission which gives Monsters Inc. files, the selling of which can give you about 1M each (which in SH gives you 3-4M).

This is probably the easiest and best mission at this stage to repeat many times for the money. Just don't research the monsters files, and there's 70 % chance of a repeat (otherwise it's only 10 %). The missions continue even after the syndicate has been defeated (possibly intentional, so that if you kill off the syndicate quickly, you can still get to the monsters final solution and stop the missions).

I wonder if the sell-off price of the Monsters files should be decreased to decrease the incentive for churning money and/or add a max-repeat in the ruleset.

[unarmed drifter]

i guess the mod still needs a few round of balancing, like manufacturing times, sell prices and so on.
Personally i've increased the sell price for the Mongorn Anzug tenfold, just out of immersion/roleplay considerations

[Chuckebaby]

I noticed a couple surprises in this latest version. Black lotus avatar lady was present on a cult forward mission.
I had to do the Black lotus HQ mission twice for some reason and before that the root of all evil.
So i saw this lady 4 times in a span of about 30 days.
Good times.

[Chuckebaby]

To be honest, those Cult forward missions are some of my favorites. Your guys have built up some stats but are still somewhat inexperienced for meyhem like this.
It can be extremely difficult and you're bound to lose a couple lives if not careful.

The guy on the roof (in the Exalt ones) with the grenade launcher is always the worst. 

[psavola]

Speaking of balancing, I think The Sound of Graves (graveyard) investigation is on the more difficult side (unless you "cheat" with saves). You can only have bulletproof coat and concealable items, and are limited to up to 8 agents. With SH there are 4-7 poltergeists which can hurt you badly with these armors (3-6 with Veteran etc.). And given that they have decent range and good camo, it's up to luck to spot them and survive the mission without many casualties.

In 3.0 there are no rewards. With 3.1 snapshot you do, eventually, get the a reward in Wilheard's voyage - 25 MIB crates. YMMV whether all of these are worth it.

IMO the biggest benefit of the ghost arc is getting PSI weapons which bypass armors and stun the enemy, so they are very useful for catching alive tougher MIBs, Gillman Hero, etc.

[SamWiseTheMoose]

If I return the military sonic weapon information, does that lock me out of getting sonic weapons? or can I return it, and still research the deep one sonic weapons to make my own?

[Juku121]

You can still research and use TFTD sonic weapons, but you will be locked out of human sonics.

[SamWiseTheMoose]

are the human sonics any good, or should I take the 5 million and run, cuss I need some more scientists and smart rifles.

[Juku121]

Well, I'm not sure they're universally good, but once you get the focused ammo, they are certainly a new and interesting tool for your toolbox. They suffer from dealing concussive damage, but have interesting dual fire modes.

But they won't make or break your campaign, so if you feel the 5M will do you a lot of good, it's certainly a viable choice.

[krautbernd]

Speaking of balancing, I think The Sound of Graves (graveyard) investigation is on the more difficult side (unless you "cheat" with saves). You can only have bulletproof coat and concealable items, and are limited to up to 8 agents. With SH there are 4-7 poltergeists which can hurt you badly with these armors (3-6 with Veteran etc.). And given that they have decent range and good camo, it's up to luck to spot them and survive the mission without many casualties.

>difficult
>Superhuman

I wish people would stop playing on the hardest difficulty and then complain about difficult missions. I find the mission adequately balanced on veteran. I did however enounter a bug where one of the ghosts was stuck in terrain and only visible in debug mode.

[Juku121]

I think psavola meant it's relatively difficult, that is, compared to other SH missions. He also pointed out why he thinks so, unlike the rebuttal.

I have certainly seen streamers struggle with this mission somewhat (they savescum a lot in general, so I imagine they are not particularly representative).

Granted, this problem exists for all undercover missions, at least at first.

[psavola]

Granted, this problem exists for all undercover missions, at least at first.

I have found essentially all undercover missions relatively easy with SH if you make best use of cover of buildings, darkness, flares, smoke grenades and/or such equipment. Some spawn locations may be tricky, however and in some cases you may want to abort if you want to play it safe. Of course, until you have dogs and motion scanners the risks are greater (but at that point, you have probably not been all that addicted to your superagents either).

None of this helps or applies to the graveyard, where there is essentially zero cover and none of the other techniques work.

Obviously, if you try to play the undercover missions the same way as everything else (especially in the beginning), you'll be wrecked.

I've actually liked various special missions a lot as they force you to adapt to different playstyles and play in a careful fashion.

FWIW, I didn't write the original post as a complaint, but rather just as something to consider. Personally, I delayed this specific mission at least 6 months until I went for it (for example, waited to obtain some laser pistols and SMGs). It's manageable, at least with some luck, but much more difficult than many other missions. Not sure if that has been intentional.