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

[psavola]

Played 3.4 snap as SH/IM, now in Jan 1998. A few notes, especially on RNG balancing:

- Major Zombie Infestation is the only way to obtain a Zombie Infector and progress along that path (and also get TNI). The chances of getting it are however rather low. 2*10 % chance starting month 6. So far I have only had it once, and killed the infectors by accident. Maybe increase the chances a bit? At least one of the mission scripts could be higher and maybe have an additional researchTrigger STR_ZOMBIE_INFECTOR: false.

- I researched all cult networks in June 1997 (I often delaying researching them, and do all of them at the same time so that I will get at the same time promo II and explosives license; that way outposts can be dealt with more reliably). Otherwise I got relatively balanced set of outposts, but a Black lotus outpost spawned in July (where I accidentally killed the witch) and the next one in November, so I had to wait until Nov 1997 to get the Osprey. The chance of getting a hideout is 8*6 %. Maybe some of these should have a higher chance, but with researchTrigger: STR_(CULT)_OPERATIONS (or the respective liutenant) set to false. This would ensure a higher chance to get an outpost until you have managed to capture and research the relevant cult liutenant, while still keepign them spawning as currently even after researching it.

- I have made similar observations wrt. Cult Forward Bases before (sometimes you might get delayed with a cult for 6-12+ months), but this has so far not been a problem. An interesting thing was that Dec 1997 spawned two BL forward bases and also the shrine, so I obtained two BL avatars and get BL HQ in Jan 1998.

- When milking out the dossiers (I always have all the basic ~40 dossiers and then some more researched by the end of 1997), I got Natasha Morozova and her hideout mission very early, in Oct 1997. The same thing could occur with Lo Wo (I was lucky and have avoided that dossier so far). So, no Osprey yet. Luckily I had a good spawn and managed it with a helicopter. But you can get these one-time missions early, when you will have difficulties dealing with them if you get unlucky RNG. I'd suggest adding a ResearchTrigger to these, for example STR_(CULT)_OPERATIONS set to true, which would at least cut off the very early spawns. You could get into similar problems with certain other onetime missions, but they can usually be prevented. For example, you could get David Vincent's dossier early, but you can choose when you want to do that mission by not researching MIB agent until you are ready to deal with it (I usually start MIB research after Promo III in early 1998, often from a MIB pilot/executor/enforcer captured from the environment mission). Likewise, you could get Gertrud Ellison mission early (even before you have Alien Containment..), but this requires really bad luck.

Other notes wrt. 3.4 snap:
- no significant changes so far, but looking at the changelogs, I'm most curious about the changes to MIB retaliation missions, adding a stealth bomber retaliation in addition to dropship and their "final" retaliation missions. This has made me slightly more hesitant to research the MIB tree before I have something to shoot them down (i.e. Kitsune) - I don't want a stealth bomber retatiation succeeding against one of my bases at least before I'm ready to deal with them (= weapons that go through heavy MIB armors).
- SS forgot to disable "testMission" generation (which has so far fired every month) leading to increased Crop Circle zombie missions.

[Chuckebaby]

ran into an obscurity today on an Alien Terror attack mission. A dog was zombified.
At first I figured it was a new enemy but then I realized, the dog was bit by a chrysalis.
Came to this conclusion when I tried to stun it so I could take it back for research but it died,didn't show up in stats.

But have to admit, it has a minor potential for a plot. Dog zombies. It was all grey with like red eyes I believe.

[Solarius Scorch]

Major Zombie Infestation is the only way to obtain a Zombie Infector (...). Maybe increase the chances a bit?

Nah, in my experience it's high enough. Of coruse bad luck can always happen, but it's not like this is required to finish the game.

The chance of getting a hideout is 8*6 %. Maybe some of these should have a higher chance, but with researchTrigger: STR_(CULT)_OPERATIONS (or the respective liutenant) set to false. This would ensure a higher chance to get an outpost until you have managed to capture and research the relevant cult liutenant, while still keepign them spawning as currently even after researching it.

It's never easy to decide on such things, so I definitely won't say that I outright disagree, but I'd rather not do that much handholding. If you're screwed with one cult, it's not the end of the world; the Osprey is too good anyway. Same with the Cult Forward Bases.

- When milking out the dossiers (I always have all the basic ~40 dossiers and then some more researched by the end of 1997), I got Natasha Morozova and her hideout mission very early, in Oct 1997. The same thing could occur with Lo Wo (I was lucky and have avoided that dossier so far). So, no Osprey yet. Luckily I had a good spawn and managed it with a helicopter.

By your own example, it can be done. Sure, it will be much harder when done early, but I know some players who would get angry if I removed the option to do it.

Other notes wrt. 3.4 snap:
- no significant changes so far, but looking at the changelogs, I'm most curious about the changes to MIB retaliation missions, adding a stealth bomber retaliation in addition to dropship and their "final" retaliation missions. This has made me slightly more hesitant to research the MIB tree before I have something to shoot them down (i.e. Kitsune) - I don't want a stealth bomber retatiation succeeding against one of my bases at least before I'm ready to deal with them (= weapons that go through heavy MIB armors).

All these changes are irrelevant of your progress and only depend on the time passed.

In fact, things have become easier now, since the new retaliation variants are smaller than the old one (which now serves as the most advanced version).

- SS forgot to disable "testMission" generation (which has so far fired every month) leading to increased Crop Circle zombie missions.

Yeah, thanks, I fixed it already

ran into an obscurity today on an Alien Terror attack mission. A dog was zombified.
At first I figured it was a new enemy but then I realized, the dog was bit by a chrysalis.
Came to this conclusion when I tried to stun it so I could take it back for research but it died,didn't show up in stats.

But have to admit, it has a minor potential for a plot. Dog zombies. It was all grey with like red eyes I believe.

Congrats on finding this. Yep, dog zombies are a thing. Not much to do with it, though - I could add a mission with zombie dogs if it made some sense, but that's it.

[Juku121]

...I could add a mission with zombie dogs...

101 Chrysalid Puppies when?

[Irismono]

I think Zombie dogs would make a great addition to something like the vampire castle. Zombie leaders get zombie pets!

[Chuckebaby]

I think Zombie dogs would make a great addition to something like the vampire castle. Zombie leaders get zombie pets!

That's a great idea.

Maybe a few different kinds of dogs as well, similar to the zombies which would in effect, make them harder to kill.
Dogs in this game drop fairly easy, a challenging mutt, similar to the gilldog might be a good addition.

[psavola]

Speaking of which, the XCF undead (zombies, ghouls, vampires, etc.) take 100 % damage from CHOKE. Very typical undead canon in fantasy is that the undead do not need air and so do not breathe. If this applies to XCF as well, they should be immune to CHOKE.

[Solarius Scorch]

The problem with zombie dogs is that they can only be spawned by Chryssalids. I think them "naturally occurring" should not be contrary to the lore, but I'd have to think about it, and certainly make some additions (like the research).

Speaking of which, the XCF undead (zombies, ghouls, vampires, etc.) take 100 % damage from CHOKE. Very typical undead canon in fantasy is that the undead do not need air and so do not breathe. If this applies to XCF as well, they should be immune to CHOKE.

I wouldn't say immune, but they enjoy a lot of resistance to choking thanks to the alternative energy source that is bioplasma. (You know, they're not actually undead.) Still, I think it's included in their abnormally high Health.

[Chuckebaby]

Something else which I noticed today, Zombie catacombs mission.. There is a random pickaxe laying on the floor about 20 tiles from the drop off.
This is a great little surprise as sometimes it is much needed when there is one hiding inside the walls.

[Solarius Scorch]

Something else which I noticed today, Zombie catacombs mission.. There is a random pickaxe laying on the floor about 20 tiles from the drop off.
This is a great little surprise as sometimes it is much needed when there is one hiding inside the walls.

Sometimes I am a generous modder.

[coorta88]

Are there plans to add Tentaculat to underwater tassoth factory mission ? As ufopedia article for Tentaculat is still present in game I hope that this poor little critter ( ) wont remain forgotten....

[Solarius Scorch]

Are there plans to add Tentaculat to underwater tassoth factory mission ? As ufopedia article for Tentaculat is still present in game I hope that this poor little critter ( ) wont remain forgotten....

I think putting a Tentaculat in the Tasoth factory would be too harsh.
But it already appears on another mission!

[delamer]

Hello!
I have an idea to improve the functionality of the interface on the vehicle equipment screen, can I post it here?
And so: after two years of playing, I finally realized that presets for equipping a ship are incredibly cool. I am especially pleased with the fact that the missing equipment can be purchased/produced directly from the hold of the ship. But this is when loading the preset.
But what about creating a preset? I have to remember everything I'm missing, go to the store, buy it, and wait until the order is delivered to the base. But... if the gamer is given the opportunity to order missing items directly from the hold, the situation will become much more joyful. This can be done, for example, using the right mouse button, which is not used here.
How do you like this idea? 

[psavola]

In my recent game, mid-1998, MIBs retaliated and destroyed my secondary base (unfortunately, it was only protected by 10 dogs in training). I also shot down an alien scout ship, and apparently now Cerebreals are hunting for my another secondary base.

I'm curious as to how others have dealt with especially early retaliation (say, in 1998 or early 1999).

At this point in the game, you don't have enough alien alloys to build decent interceptors (raven/thunderstorm) that would provide air cover against enemies trying to find your bases (you're better off saving the alloys for improved labs). Essentially the only thing fast and useful enough is Kitsune, with relatively weak rockets and cannon, and when it gets damaged, repairing it takes forever (e.g. about 50 % damage = about 4 days).

I've always been a bit lazy in rotating people and equipment in and out of bases and I have wanted to avoid that. But it seems not doing can be risky.

Syndicate retaliation is an easy case, because their crafts are very slow and weak that it's easy to rely on shooting all of them down (but if you don't, a secondary base defense mission can be tricky).

I suppose the general advice would be NOT to shoot down ANY Alien UFOs (T'Leth subs are OK, because T'Leth does not retaliate) until later in 1999 when you have sufficient air-game to deal with it.

Whether to shoot down MIB craft is a trickier question. If you manage it and the retaliation missions properly, you get huge amounts of useful loot (also alien alloys). But this entails some risk and you may need to at least prepare your bases for their eventual retaliation missions.

[Bambu]

I'd wager anything I could say has been mentioned, but I also think saying something that's already been said to add to the consensus is of value. You'll have to forgive me for not reading through the thread to confirm whether it has or hasn't been said, because the thread is very very long, and I don't dislike myself all that much yet.

I'm playing on Veteran difficulty, having never played before. I can definitely identify a lot of points where I messed up of my own volition- researching a lot of things was probably unnecessary and has slowed my ascent through the game's tech, having only just gotten BlackOps miniguns in early 1999. I still don't even have an interceptor, which I think is an obvious issue. These are all things I recognize that fall to me.

What I want to criticize (and the mod says I'm to send criticisms here...) is the spawning. Specifically, where the dropship spawns (be it the public car or something better). It doesn't make any sense that these things are parking mere feet away from the enemy. This has always been an issue down the two years of playtime so far, where enemies are unreasonably close and can cause immense damage instantly, because this mod has greatly tuned up reaction fire and enemies start with ostensibly full time units on round one (giving them the opportunity for huge barrages of reactions against any small action by my guy, having just stepped out of the Dragonfly). This, respectfully, really sucks. Missions become slogs of finding out how to just survive round one to get into the proper gameplay. Repeating actions in sequence because I found the sequence that works (no save scumming) until the first round doesn't result in multiple deaths because a group of seven Reptoids spawn in ten tiles from the entrance of the ship with 12 shots each of reaction fire to whatever the first poor bastard off the ship does. And if that guy dies in one shot (normally does, only have armoured vests and they don't fare well), then the rest of the reaction shots are withheld for the next guy off. It's just straight up attrition, for no reason, and it makes me want to just not engage with a lot of missions. They become psychologically stressing and it doesn't make sense in-universe for it to be so. Surely the pilot (one of my soldiers) wouldn't park to be fed to the enemies immediately?

I don't know how to fix this, I know nothing of coding and programming and so on and so forth. But, I present my biggest criticism. The spawning sucks, horribly.

(sorry if this comes off as rude, I don't know how to criticize politely, I am a big fan of the mod in general, I've played this game since I was 6 years old and this is an absolute blast aside from these road bumps)