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

[NuclearStudent]

I also wonder if it's worth grinding dossiers for score early. I normally don't lack for score and research days are precious, but maybe more score means more funding for more labs.

[aziza]

0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
0.5 alpha: Corporate Affairs
0.5.1b alpha: Black Market Dealers
0.5.2 alpha: Wings of Fury
0.5.3 alpha: Boom, Headshot!
0.5.4 alpha: The Actual Files
0.5.5 alpha: I'll Dissect You!
0.6 alpha: The Towering Inferno
0.6.2 alpha: Cyberweb Wars
0.6.3 alpha: Super Electric
0.6.4 alpha: Up Close and Personal
0.6.5 alpha: Keep Your Enemies Closer
0.6.6 alpha: Mark of The Beast
0.6.7 alpha: Apocalypse Who?
0.6.8 alpha: Alien Hunter
0.6.9 alpha:  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
0.7 alpha: Breaking The Waves
0.7.2 alpha: Snipers in The Night
0.7.3 alpha: Dirty Money
0.7.4 alpha: Shoggoth on The Roof
0.7.5 alpha: Lizard Trap
0.7.6 alpha: Rapid Fire
0.8 alpha: Stone of Atlantis
0.8.1 alpha: Syndicate Strikes Back
0.8.2 alpha: Friends on The Council
0.8.3 alpha: It's a Long Way to Cydonia
0.8.4 alpha: Gauss Curves
0.8.5 alpha: Metal Machines
0.8.6 alpha: Night of The Lobsters
0.8.7 alpha: Into the Depths
0.8.8 alpha: The Mummy Returns
0.8.9 alpha: The Mummy's Curse
0.9 alpha: Fists of Fury
0.9.1 alpha: The Shadow Pharaoh
0.9.2 alpha: Workers Unite!
0.9.3 alpha: Napalm Death
0.9.4: We Need a Bigger Gun
0.9.5: Burn The Village Down
0.9.6: Tales of The Abyss
0.9.7: Altered States
0.9.8: X-Cool
0.9.9: They Live!
0.9.9b: Council of the Funding Nations
0.9.9c: Back to The Sewers
0.9.9d: Samael's Passage
0.9.9e: Summertime Lovin'
1.0: Judgement Day
1.1: Big Rain
1.2: Masters of the Universe
1.3: Sanity Check
1.4: Signs of Apocalypse
1.5: Shot in The Dark
1.5.1: Around The World
1.6: Life will Never Be The Same
1.7: Market Corrections
1.8: The Shores of Hell
1.9: Free Falling
2.0: We Will Be Watching
2.1: Swarm Tactics
2.2: The Inner Circle
2.3: Rise of The Cultists
2.4: Flesh and Circuitry
2.5: Silent Run
2.6: Paranormal Activity
2.7: Spectral Entities
2.8: The Lunar Protocol
2.9: The Empire Strikes Back
3.0: Beyond Human
3.1: Lights in The Sky
3.2: The Colors of Sin
3.3: Mysteries Ancient And New

[psavola]

I also wonder if it's worth grinding dossiers for score early. I normally don't lack for score and research days are precious, but maybe more score means more funding for more labs.

The most optimal early-game strategy I have found is to rush the captures of all first-level cultists, researching the first level cults (and Basic Operations) and going for Intelligence Center, and build it asap (you can use a corridor as a placeholder to skip 6 days off the construction). Then you can hire 5 additional scientists. Go for Bio Lab after it ASAP or if you fail to capture all the cultists, do it before the Intelligence Center (or restart).

This way, you should be able to start building Intelligence center in Feb/Mar 1997 timeframe and can hire the 5 scientists at the start of March or April 1997. Biolab will follow very soon after.

This way you triple your initial research capacity quickly (at the latest in April/May/June 1997) and can start focusing on other, 'real' research. Trying to do much real research with 5 scientists would cripple upgrading your research capacity. With 15 scientists you can and should also milk all the cultists all they know about dossiers, get all the staff input, etc. The next research capacity upgrades are costlier and you can defer them for a bit (science lab and/or intel/bio labs on second base).  With 15 scientists you can progress all the useful research quickly and also get very good score from dossiers on the side. Getting good scores this way will also slowly start ramping up your council funding.

[Stone Lake]

^
I'd also advise to get at-least non-std and shotty researches before/between researching cultists for nice QoL baton shots. And if you're lucky and tase/capture a madman, you can get kevlar from him, easing things further (and maybe cryptid research as a bonus, enabling promo 1).

[psavola]

On an unrelated note, I'm not a big fan of the BO auto sniper. I've been relying on HMG for long/medium ranged fires, and shotgun/CAWS for shorter ranged clearance. The auto sniper is more maneuverable and you can guarantee a hit on a distant target, but I've honestly not really needed or wanted accurate long ranged precision fires.

Shotgun/CAWS is very good against lightly armored enemies with short and medium distances. However, you also need weapons that can also damage heavier armored foes.

It is a bit unexpected to see HMG advocated for long distance, because I have thought it ill suited specifically for that purpose. I'd rather see a case for it in short distance (spray firing) or medium distances, especially with huge crowds of enemies (e.g. zombies) . Though against zombies, until you get CAWS, double shotguns are also very good (with sawed-offs as backup weapons if the enemies get too close).

I have always used sniper rifles for long distances, even medium distances. Again, due to the amount of damage they give and the armor penetration (can damage even heavily armored enemies), at the point when you agents have 90+ firing accuracy. But even those are not always needed, because with human enemies you usually want to avoid triggering spotter/sniper mechanic, so you don't even want direct hits to enemy spotter units. So in many cases you rather want a grenade launcher to cause splash damage or throw grenades yourself.

[Solarius Scorch]

I also wonder if it's worth grinding dossiers for score early. I normally don't lack for score and research days are precious, but maybe more score means more funding for more labs.

Not directly, but beating 1000 and 2000 thresholds triggers some extra rewards.

Also, the current discussion is quite informative, thank you
(inb4: no, I am not planning on changing anything related right now, I'm just curious)

[Psyentific]

I pretty much never use Sniper Rifles for long-distance targets, in both Files and Piratez. For the long-range shooter and heavy shooter niches I rely on rockets and heavy automatics respectively. Rockets are very forgiving with near-misses, especially if you're shooting down onto a lower elevation using a hill, roof, hovertroop, etc and frankly they're just more fun than Big Damage Bullet. I prefer heavy automatics over snipers because they're both proficient at dealing with single-tough targets, but the multiple shots makes automatics less susceptible to missed shots, bad damage rolls and other "Target's Still Up" moments.

But that's all just me; most people took Vahlen's chiding to heart and stopped using explosives for everything because they're scared of blowing up the loot. There's tons of people who like Aimed Shot w/ Rifle as their primary xcom problem solver and Sniper Rifle is basically the final evolution of that.

[NuclearStudent]

The most optimal early-game strategy I have found is to rush the captures of all first-level cultists, researching the first level cults (and Basic Operations) and going for Intelligence Center, and build it asap (you can use a corridor as a placeholder to skip 6 days off the construction). Then you can hire 5 additional scientists. Go for Bio Lab after it ASAP or if you fail to capture all the cultists, do it before the Intelligence Center (or restart).

This way, you should be able to start building Intelligence center in Feb/Mar 1997 timeframe and can hire the 5 scientists at the start of March or April 1997. Biolab will follow very soon after.

This way you triple your initial research capacity quickly (at the latest in April/May/June 1997) and can start focusing on other, 'real' research. Trying to do much real research with 5 scientists would cripple upgrading your research capacity. With 15 scientists you can and should also milk all the cultists all they know about dossiers, get all the staff input, etc. The next research capacity upgrades are costlier and you can defer them for a bit (science lab and/or intel/bio labs on second base).  With 15 scientists you can progress all the useful research quickly and also get very good score from dossiers on the side. Getting good scores this way will also slowly start ramping up your council funding.

I've also been wondering if I should get a secondary research base early. I was building the bio/intel labs in my first base, but if the HQ provides the research ability anyways, maybe I might as well locate the researchers in a secondary base and save room in the primary hub. The main annoyance with that is that the bodies and research material would primarily be in the first base.

[NuclearStudent]

Shotgun/CAWS is very good against lightly armored enemies with short and medium distances. However, you also need weapons that can also damage heavier armored foes.

It is a bit unexpected to see HMG advocated for long distance, because I have thought it ill suited specifically for that purpose. I'd rather see a case for it in short distance (spray firing) or medium distances, especially with huge crowds of enemies (e.g. zombies) . Though against zombies, until you get CAWS, double shotguns are also very good (with sawed-offs as backup weapons if the enemies get too close).

I have always used sniper rifles for long distances, even medium distances. Again, due to the amount of damage they give and the armor penetration (can damage even heavily armored enemies), at the point when you agents have 90+ firing accuracy. But even those are not always needed, because with human enemies you usually want to avoid triggering spotter/sniper mechanic, so you don't even want direct hits to enemy spotter units. So in many cases you rather want a grenade launcher to cause splash damage or throw grenades yourself.

My reasoning behind using the HMG for long range is that I don't really want to shoot at things at long range at all. I want the HMG for large amounts of short to medium range firepower, and I happen to use it against long-ranged enemies because I don't bother to use any other long ranged weapons.

I also never remember who is a scout tbh.

edit:

also, on a unrelated note, is there a way to beat an unconscious man on the ground with stun batons? or do you have to taze/handcuff them.

[hederino]

also, on a unrelated note, is there a way to beat an unconscious man on the ground with stun batons? or do you have to taze/handcuff them.

You can simply target the tile the body is on. To make sure the shot hits the body, move the shooter to the tile itself (which you have to if there's a wall next to it, otherwise the shots will hit the wall).
In OXCE units lying down are treated just like other units and not like objects, so all the armour and damage calculations will apply.

[NuclearStudent]

You can simply target the tile the body is on. To make sure the shot hits the body, move the shooter to the tile itself (which you have to if there's a wall next to it, otherwise the shots will hit the wall).
In OXCE units lying down are treated just like other units and not like objects, so all the armour and damage calculations will apply.

To clarify, I'm asking if I can target a unit on the ground with melee.

[Juku121]

Sadly, OXC(E) doesn't have police brutality mode.

Even sacrifices to Cthulhu were removed a long time ago.

[NuclearStudent]

I can't believe Cultist Lives Matter took off. smh

I should remark that the one use case where I occasionally pick up a sniper rifle is if there's an enemy with something long ranged like a grenade launcher I want to snipe off, or the collateral damage of a heavy machine gun is too dangerous.

I do really like how, game design wise, the explosive missile thingie in outposts gives a good reason to watch your fires. It's pretty safe to dynamite down the top levels and HMG fire *usually* won't hit the missile, but you have to balance the use of overwhelming firepower against the cash briefcases you'll explode if you hit the wrong thing.

I mean, my risk/reward calculus still generally favors dumping HMG rounds into buildings until they look like Swiss cheese, but it is a nice touch. A game is a series of interesting choices, and that is indeed an interesting choice.

[Chuckebaby]

To clarify, I'm asking if I can target a unit on the ground with melee.

You can drop a stun grenade on them and walk away or handcuff them.

In a different scenario, if an enemy which is taking a nap but you wish to become extinct.. Throw a grenade on his tile and walk away.
I actually never realized you could shoot, aim at tile to kill stunned enemies. That's pretty cool.

[Mathel]

Leave a live grenade on them if you want them dead.
Leave a primed mine on them if you want them to not cause trouble.

The second one allows the opportunity to capture if they do not wake up.