Lobstermen claws are harmless?

[goldnux]

I think this is a bug, but since I never played the original tftd I just wanted to confirm that this is abnormal before going to the bug tracker.

So, my guys have flying armor (not sure if that matters), and they seem impervious to lobster claws... usually. Especially on terror missions, the claws just seem harmless. They can do 4 or 5 strikes and my guys are completely unharmed. Although I've lost at least one guy to it on a uso mission. I've also seen bio drones struggle to kill civilians with their melee attack...

As an aside, is it just me or is tftd's armor far better than ufo defense's? In UFO defense my guys were still getting one-shot all the time with power / flying armor, but that hasn't been the case in tftd.

[Starving Poet]

Lobsterman claws can definitely kill you, especially if they hit you from the sides.  I have tons of video evidence of this occurring in my latest playthrough.  It's just not a guaranteed kill like the thermic lance.

You are most likely immune from the front though.  I know displacers are practically immune to lobsterman claw attacks.

It's actually a viable tactic in alien base assaults to move close enough to the lobsterman to try and trigger a melee attack instead of a dpl launch.

And yes, TFTD armor is stronger than UFO armor from the front and back, but unlike TFTD damage, if an attack hits, it's guaranteed to do some damage, so more armor is needed in general.   TFTD has a much harder early game than UFO, but it balances that out with a, I feel, more balanced end-game.

[goldnux]

OK, thanks. That feels a bit cheesy, since I know they could shoot me in the face and be far more lethal. Or they could even target the weak part of my armor. Maybe the sneaky AI does that? Well, I probably shouldn't complain about any advantage I can get over lobstermen. =P

As for the bio-drones, according to ufopaedia they have a melee accuracy of 0, which would explain why the civilians were a match for them... is that the same in openxcom?

[BBHood217]

Yeah, biodrone's melee accuracy is very low.  But it's not 0 because I've seen it kill civilians with it on rare occasions.

I guess I can ask this here.  How do I use a lobsterman's claw attack when MCing one?

[Starving Poet]

It has a melee accuracy of 1.  Though it was listed as 0 in vanilla, it did have a slightly less than 1% chance to hit.

[ivandogovich]

Or they could even target the weak part of my armor. Maybe the sneaky AI does that?

Sneaky AI only really helps them try to get behind cover at the end of their turn instead of wandering around in the open.  It doesn't make them smarter per se in how they attack a targen

[Starving Poet]

I found sneaky AI also tends to neuter melee units.