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

[Taberone]

I'm doing the Black Lotus Cult Base mission and I've killed everyone (I think) with the exception of their leader, who I've stunned. The mission still won't end, however. The shooting has stopped, and nobody's attacked or been spotted or anything for several turns. It is now turn 14, and I'm pretty sure their leader is the only survivor. Am I supposed to abandon the mission and then it will count as a success?

Also, I've discovered that throwing knives are really, really good. They kill people way better than a .45 Colt/Magnum/AK/whatever does. I'm definitely going to use them a lot more.

[ohartenstein23]

After the shooting stops is when the fun starts for Black Lotus missions. There are assassins hiding in the dark, waiting for an unsuspecting agent to pass by...

Aren't camouflaged units fun?

[Taberone]

After the shooting stops is when the fun starts for Black Lotus missions. There are assassins hiding in the dark, waiting for an unsuspecting agent to pass by...

Aren't camouflaged units fun?

Having fat-as-hell Agents that keep running out of energy searching the entire forest (and every last corner of the actual building itself) is also fun.

[mumble]

Well, at least the ninjas are last, rather than pouncing in the middle of being shot

Explosives work very well for them, incendiary grenades in particular screw ups camo.

Also, if you expose most of the map tiles and have few enemies left, you can scan for enemies in bug hunt mode.


I really do give up with the whole magma labs situation : it seems like the map is just impossible on super human, m60s, flamers, riot shields, explosives, I've tried them all but the battle of attrition is just too much, its too much HP to burn through, with too few agents (8 in the dragonfly) with not enough of a fighting chance

I seriously doubt it can be pheasably beaten on super human, because the aggressive swarp, projectiles, and several infectors / megazombies. At best I've wiped out with roughly half the zombies wiped out

I do wonder what can be done to fix this, maybe a higher density of fences / walls to slow down the zombie swarm, or possibly magma security personnel / drones trying to help the situation some. Just something of where this is beatable, because I honestly don't see it to be possible within the expected timeline : with alloy vests, m60s, rpgs and flamethrowers, I would hope it would be possible, but I just cant do it with 8 men in the dragon fly, I get surrounded and picked off too fast every time, and there isn't enough firepower to kill the hoard as fast as they come.

Sorry for the consistent complaints with this mission, but I sincerely think its flat impossible, or at least highly improbable to beat within that level of tech advancement, and I think its a bit harsh of a wall to hide cannons behind : after all they are an invaluable weapon early on, but even the relatively

Some ideas which might subtly adjust the difficulty
-Drones / turrets / security personnel around the level, similar to military operations, which attempt to thin out a few zombies (but obviously won't do everything). This would help substantially in drawing away enemy attacks long enough to get a breather from the first wave. Especially a few static turrets, or even a machinegun armored car would help, and would probably be trashed by zombies quick enough. A gun turret on a pillar in particular would be interesting, even if just 1, and the infectors combined with a few human personel would more than make up for the difficulty change.
-Restructure the level to be slightly more maze like : the industrial zones of the ghoul people in piratez, where doom monsters spawn is a very good example : winding pathways, lots of fences, stairs, and other obstacles to impeded both the zombies / xcom. A few bottlenecks here and there would go a LONG way in making the difficulty manageable.
-Add some more verticality. The flat, mostly open map gives zombies a huge advantage over xcom especially with the numbers : a few buildings that block pathways like mentioned above, or ditches / walls would help substantially in giving xcom a useful terrain to fight from. Perhaps even an approach similar to the sewer level of the cyborgs, with chemical ditches and bridges would be interesting, and give xcom a slight edge.

Sorry for the bitter complaints, but I really do think it simply cannot be done on super human until much later.

....If someone can beat this on super human, let me know. I'd like to know if I'm missing something here.

[jepeman]

I did the first magma lab mission with mega zombies, etc. by camping in the plane for a long time and reaction shooting / shooting the couple that stayed in sight. They didn't seem to want to come on board the plane? Admittedly, I'm playing on a much lower difficulty, so there might be that too.

Also, thanks for the earlier answer tkzv. Ive continued playing knowing Im in no rush since I already got pretty much all the techs you normally start the vanilla version and the mod content continues after 1999.

[Solarius Scorch]

M.A.G.M.A. lab is challenging, but perfectly doable - even on Superhuman, with the right equipment.
If you don't like the difficulty, why are you playing on Superhuman? Seriously, why is everyone playing on Superhuman? And especially, why is everyone playing on Superhuman and them come to me crying that the game is hard? What else did you expect?

[tkzv]

M.A.G.M.A. lab is challenging, but perfectly doable - even on Superhuman, with the right equipment.
If you don't like the difficulty, why are you playing on Superhuman? Seriously, why is everyone playing on Superhuman? And especially, why is everyone playing on Superhuman and them come to me crying that the game is hard? What else did you expect?

What is the difference between difficulty levels? Only the number of enemies? Do they get more hit points? Anything else?

Even this way more enemies mean different puzzles to solve. Higher chance of your transport being surrounded from the start. Crop circles becomes a real battle with unarmed farmers working as spotters for the shotgunner.


By the way, could you explain what happens with the farmer when MiB get there first? His body in Battlescape is called "stunned", but victory debriefing calls him killed. Does he live or die? Selling his body costs player $10 000 — is this the price of the funeral?

[mumble]

Well, I gave it another whack, and finally did it, albiet with a pretty exploity tactic. I used a high explosive to sabotage the ramp of the dragonfly (and bust out a hold in the side of the right engine) to give myself a platform to fight from where zombies without guns could not reach.

It took 100 turns exactly, and I STILL lost half my troops, but I did it.

....Please do not change the damage values on the dragonfly, as blowing up my own ship was legitimately my only option.

Blowing up your own ship for the win, I guess..

@TKZV : the biggest issue is the sheer amount of melee rush, it feels like I'm roleplaying terran forces fighting zerg while outnumbered out gunned and giving the zergs a few cannons to boot : on SH, the sheer amount means with 8 people its almost impossible to have enough DPS to kill the zombies as they come UNLESS you deny them pathfinding to you, which is why I was successful in blowing up my own ship to survive : no ramp, means no melee threat (though its a horrible waiting game waiting for passing zombies to plink) though the other gunner zombies are a serious threat. I had the first 2 guys with riot shields to help block cannon fire, and while I survived, one guy got killed anyway, and another guy passed out, but lived because cannon fire.

Admitably I probably could of done better, firing a flamethrower out the back of the ship is a bad idea, and got 2 guys killed because flames hitting the sides of the ship, but that really wasn't a huge deal

My conclusion is on super human, its absolutely essential to cut of melee access by any means necessary

As for the numbers, I'm not sure, I know I had over a dozen zombie troopers aand half a dozen megazombies...55 units total I think. Crazy

EDIT : also, apparently I need to capture ALIVE a zombie trooper or megazombie?...not even sure how to go about this, as surviving was hard enough... Maybe I should try the osprey ship to do this, double the amount of troops sounds like it might give me a chance. Though researching that takes a considerable delay past when the missions show up it seems

[Taberone]

How do I use surfboards on Surf Time missions? Don't see an option to buy them anywhere. Also, is there a way to preview inventory slots for the armor you're stuck with on missions such as surf time? I'm not sure if there's a way to see other than to arrive at the mission first and then discover that the either the gear you bought won't fit or that the armor you're stuck with can carry more than the default suit and tie. I got Ski Resort missions early-ish in the game when I first played this and discovering that I could use the backpack was a shock.

[tkzv]

How do I use surfboards on Surf Time missions? Don't see an option to buy them anywhere.

You don't buy them, they are just lying around the mission map

@TKZV : the biggest issue is the sheer amount of melee rush, it feels like I'm roleplaying terran forces fighting zerg while outnumbered out gunned and giving the zergs a few cannons to boot : on SH, the sheer amount means with 8 people its almost impossible to have enough DPS to kill the zombies as they come UNLESS you deny them pathfinding to you, which is why I was successful in blowing up my own ship to survive

Somehow, I always got this mission months after Skymarshall. No ramp, but doors block line of sight. Haven't played it on Superhuman yet. Though I was nearly overwhelmed even on lowest level.

[mumble]

I think maybe the arrival of it is dictated a little bit by difficulty, but also with the tech tree its highly dependent on play style.

On super human with 8 guys, this is the first win (with no captures mind you) I've had, and my goodness it felt exploity. I'll try later with an osprey, see what I can do (hopefully blowing up less buildings containing possible loot)

I have a little more confidence the osprey will work and give me a fighting chance, but i haven't even thought about captures of troopers / megas.

.... Ill need to make a game plan for capturing them, hopefully without a squad full of casualties

[Solarius Scorch]

Version 0.8 has been released.

- Updated to newest OXCE+ version.
- New weapons: G-11, Asuka 4000, Chitin Knife, Pitchfork.
- New Armor: Dog Durathread Vest.
- New items: Alien Multitool, Alien Alloy Welder, Alien Organ Sample, Alien Embryo.
- New missions: Exobiological Contamination (tiered), Alien Party, Atlantis Temple, Cyberweb Fortress Assault, Cyberweb Battleship Assault.
- New units: Cyberweb Centurion, Tentaculat, Reptoid Commando, Stealth Spider, Flame Spider, Armored Spider, Death Spider.
- New Dossier: Lo Wo (by Mumble, edited).
- Added Large Glock Clip (by tkzv).
- New death screams.
- BlackOps Pistol damage buffed.
- HMG has 10 bullets auto (was .
- Flame Glove rebalanced.
- Electro-Flares only glow after throw, but need to be primed.
- Healing Gel is now properly consumed.
- Better Reactions on dogs and their bite trains Reactions.
- Aliens now carry special tools which are important for tech advancement.
- Going to Cydonia now requires completing the T'Leth arc.
- Loadouts no longer depend on month.
- Men in Black now use alloy ammo almost exclusively (except early missions).
- Swarmids no longer show up on Monster Hunts (they are Exobiological Contamination now).
- Some new articles.
- Improved Gauss weapons sprites, by XOps.
- New inventory sprites: Cyberweb Technomad/Space Technomad, Hybrid Infiltrator, Cerebreal Larva, Cybermite, various Floaters, Jarhead, Drone, Bikini Babe, Polar Civilian, Doctor, Farmer and Hunter, all by tkzv.
- Improved Janissary Ufopaedia pics, by tkzv.
- Fixed missing Starting Conditions on Dimension X missions and other similar problems.
- Fixed Deep One Hatchet hit animation.
- Minor fixes to maps.

[tkzv]

Cyberweb is finally beatable!

EDIT: What is the newest OXCE+ version? 3088e4ac6 from 2017-12-12?

[Solarius Scorch]

EDIT: What is the newest OXCE+ version? 3088e4ac6 from 2017-12-12?

I think so, date is the same. I have used Stoddard's compiled exe.

EDIT: The exe is borked. Re-uploading the mod with the old exe for now, please download 0.8b. (It will be available in a few minutes.) Also features a few more great pics from tkzv.

[HT]

Greetings, how is it going? I was considering to start playing this again at lower difficulties to speed up to where my old playthrough was, while waiting for a few more updates for Piratez. Soo, what's new? Ooh, shiny, new weapons, missions, stuff and...

Version 0.8 has been released.

- New units: Cyberweb Centurion, Tentaculat, Reptoid Commando, Stealth Spider, Flame Spider, Armored Spider, Death Spider.

 
... KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!


Hopefully they show up late and only during the start of the alien invasion.
By the way, if you don't mind my question Solarius, how long until the Zombies (and later vampires and such) is completed? Just to know, I was considering waiting until this one was done at long last.