[LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

[hellrazor]

This evenings feature is a triple helping! Something very significant happens in an upcoming episode, so releasing a few at a time this evening.

[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP14] - Labship for a lobotomy? - https://youtu.be/fvaDzT-LADY
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP15] - How many days in Feb again? - https://youtu.be/qmNtLjbSza0
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP16] - Is all the drama done, nope! - https://youtu.be/V8q04D0QHpY

Really switch Shotguns to normal rifles, you need to be able to shoot at distances in open terrain. Like episode 14 open desert terrain, 4 guys with shotguns, not usefull weaponry for clearing the outside. Ignoring the Infiltration mission uhhh... thats bold.

EDIT: Tip, once a Aliens spots you or you spot him and he also sees you, kill the alien change position of the spotted soldier slightly to avoid blaster launcher fire
Smoke does not help with that.

[hellrazor]

Before i forget it, use Incendiary Grenades. Especially in Alien Bases you can block pathways with fire. Really good against Reapers and Chryssalids.

[Lion66six]

Good thinking, I will bare that in mind for future episodes. However already recorded ep17&18. Should be up soon :-)

[Lion66six]

Two more episodes.

[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP17] - As Yet Untitled - https://youtu.be/BqcI22e2ttY
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP18] - Boosh the America dream - https://youtu.be/9SjiBSplY5s

And then its a big episode :-)

[hellrazor]

Two more episodes.

[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP17] - As Yet Untitled - https://youtu.be/BqcI22e2ttY
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP18] - Boosh the America dream - https://youtu.be/9SjiBSplY5s

And then its a big episode :-)

Just started watching and I noticed how you always check your maintenance fee's. Thats good but you will not able to finance your self with that.
Get used to a negative budget. Money comes from UFO raids.
The main cost will be personal, the base maintenance is higher then in vanilla and also eating into your budget, 10% of build price, instead of vanilla prices. Each large Radar station adds 80k maintenance per month.

EDIT: The more your progress in the research the more Scientists you will need to finish topics. Reducing your scienciest will hurt you really badly.
And sell off all those stupid alien clips, you will get plenty off supply. I do recommend to keep 1 item of each that you retrieve from the aliens for later research, even weapons. And do not sell of Blaster Launcher and Blaster bombs, you will not be able to produce them. Collecting Elerium Bombs and Stun Bombs is also a nice idea.

EDIT2: grenade launcher in a alien base? switch for Autocannon Taking on the alien base is a challenge, especially since you are outnumbered.
A few tips:
Use sidestepping, it saves a lot of lives.
Change your equipment layout for close combat (Shotguns, Rifles, Autocanons / Heavy Canons and some Rocket Launchers.)
Consider using incendiary grenades and proximity grenades to secure pathways or block them.
I can do the base mission with losing only 2-4 soldiers max.
Smoke always comes handy, Flares are not really useful but consider keeping one on each soldier in case you need to spot a distant alien.
Grenades and arking shot weapons (Grenade Launcher) have a limited range, standing 7 tiles, kneeling 9 or 10, so not really useful.
Be conservative you are up to a maximum spawnnumber of 46 enemies, 15 of them Terrorunits. The number of enemies will vary between 36 and 46.

EDIT 3:
I strongly advise reading this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_round_defence
Getting caught from behind in a alien base is really really bad. Proxy grenades help with that, at least against as a warning sign.

[Lion66six]

Thanks mate, plenty of interesting things to consider.

One thing to also mention is that the next mission has already been recorded. I did the recording about 5 days ago, so I can't implement anything you have mentioned. However, it will come in handy for later :-)

[hellrazor]

Thanks mate, plenty of interesting things to consider.

One thing to also mention is that the next mission has already been recorded. I did the recording about 5 days ago, so I can't implement anything you have mentioned. However, it will come in handy for later :-)

I will give you one more Tip, make sure you have Laser Rifles beginning of May. They are green, they like raw flesh and the love to eat x-com soldiers

[Lion66six]

Thanks mate. It appears when i preloaded episode 19 onto youtube it was set as public by mistake. I have since corrected it, but i noticed 2 views on it when i changed thr privacy setting.

If you have seen episode 19 then please dont post any spoilers etc until its officially released.

[hellrazor]

Thanks mate. It appears when i preloaded episode 19 onto youtube it was set as public by mistake. I have since corrected it, but i noticed 2 views on it when i changed thr privacy setting.

If you have seen episode 19 then please dont post any spoilers etc until its officially released.

uhhh sorry :-/ I watched it already.

[Lion66six]

No worries, its gonna be released in a few days

[Zyzyfer]

You should really stop doing so many night missions (due to the 9:20 squares vision differences between xcom operatives and aliens), this puts you in extreme disadvantage.
Flares= 19 square diameter lighting, therefore you need to throw flares 19 squares apart in every direction (not counting diagonals as lighting is circular which results placing flares even closer), to cover every square (which is a bit complicated/messy and you're going to miss squares), and any square missed puts you at the significant disadvantage as mentioned.
Fort his reason I personally avoid night missions (this means ignoring UFO that has landed instead of risking night mission). All other encounters can always be done during day time.

Also be careful of the way you use smoke. After the initial smoke cover as you breach the transporter during turn 2. Smoke should be put between you and any unexplored direction- I usually go about 10 squares away- so in this way your men aren't inside the smoke taking smoke damage (if you have unexplored squares to the sides then you need to throw more smoke grenades to cover those sides.

There is exception to this rule- that is any xcom agent that for whatever reason is exposed can simply drop a smoke grenade (this only takes 6TU).
Point being DONT leave you scouts exposed (ever), this over time will result in a lot of unnecessary/cheap deaths. Sometimes (rarely), you can do everything well and an Alien will still get through and make the kill- not much can be done about that- what you don't need is a cheap deaths to add to your tally- veterans become very valuable as they become super soldiers (i usually get a few soldiers with over 100+ reaction stat as I approach end game).

Speaking of Reaction fire. Your men didn't react... neither did his backup (which got him killed), because they both didn't have enough time units left (you left them about 1/3 TU's which means the 60 or so reaction stat will be reduced by 2/3 or 20  (from memory I think the aliens have around 90 reaction stat depending on rank), so 20 reaction is not going to cut it (even if alien moves a little).

Besides smoke cover another maneuver (slow but useful particularly inside UFOs/alien bases), is leapfrogging (for this you need two high reaction men). One man is positioned in crouch position with full TUs (he hasn't moved- he is ready to react to any incoming aliens). The other guy leapfrogs past a few squares in front and scouts, if nothing is spotted returns and crouches 1-2 squares in front (slightly to the side), of the guy who hasn't moved. If alien comes in range the hope is the guy that hasn't moved will react fire and kill the alien (who had to move during ALIENS turn to come in the 20 square visual range or make that corner, so is in slight disadvantage), before the alien kills the leap frogging guy. The next turn their roles reverse.

[Arthanor]

Sound advice. Leap frogging for scouts is very useful, or even just the "probing and retreating". With sniper/heavy weapon support too so your scouts keep their TUs for scouting and reacting.

Reaction fire is often misinterpreted as a random thing that is more likely the more TUs you have, but it is an entirely deterministic thing. In a given situation, the same outcome will happen 100% of the time and only the situation changes. In general, you're better off using that last 1/3 TUs to run and hide because it'll very rarely be enough to pass a reaction check and allow you to fire.

[hellrazor]

@ Lion66six: It may be a good Idea to turn on "Show Funds" in options geoscape section, to always see how much money you have.

How Reactions work:

Alien and X-Com Units will undergo a reaction check if they walk into each others cone of vision, there is one excepting the "Mutual Surprise Rule", which makes sidestepping extremely increasing the survivability of soldiers, with "Advanced Movement Methods".

The reaction check compares the following values:
Number of Reactionsstat value + Time Units current value.

E.g.: A alien walks into the visual field of 3 xcom soldiers. Soldier 1 has 80 TU and 70 reactions, Soldier 2 has 70 TU and 50 Reactions and Soldier 3 has only 20 TU (from 80) left but has 100 reactions.
In our case we just assume that all 3 soldiers see the alien at the same time, alien is a Muton with 60 TU (from 64) and reactions 70.

Reactioncheck values:
Muton: 130 (60 TU + 70 Reactions)
Soldier 1: 150 (80 TU + 70 Reactions)
Soldier 2: 120 (70 TU + 50 Reactions)
Soldier 3: 120 (20 TU + 100 Reactions)

Muton moves into sight range of soldiers, having 130 Reactioncheck value, Mutual surprise is not applied, because the soldiers are not directly facing him horizontically.

Soldier 1 will Fire a Snapshot with his Laser Rifle at the Mutons, since his Reactioncheck value is higher then the value of the Muton. The soldier spends 20 TU and reduces his Reactioncheckvalue to 130.

What will happen next?
Soldier hits the Muton, gaining his attention or the soldier misses the Muton and it will walk further. For the next reactioncheck it does not matter.
Soldier 1 and Muton have currently both a Reactioncheckvalue of 130.
As soon as the Muton does any action, Soldier 1 will fire at the Muton again (as long as he is not killed by the Muton with his next action).

We now assume that Soldier 1 is a terrible shot and misses the reactionshot. The Muton then walks further and Soldier 1 can fire again a Snapshot.
Reactioncheckvalues: Muton 126, Soldier 1: 110.

Soldier 1 misses again and the Muton continues his patrolling. The Muton spends 8 more TU, reducing his Reactioncheckvalue from 126 to 118.
What will happen now?

Soldier 2 and Soldier 3 have so far failed all the reactionchecks, because they only have a Reactioncheckvalue of 120, but now it is their time!
Due to the fact that Soldier 3 has 100 Reactions, he will fire first, Reducing his TU to 0 and his Reactioncheckvalue to 100, Soldier 3 now can no longer react -> TU: 0.
Soldier 2 with TU 70 and Reaction 50 will fire after him, spending 20 TU to fire his Laser Rifle, reducing his Reactioncheckvalue to 100 -> (TU: 50 + Reactions 50).

Soldier 2 and 3 are both bad shots and miss their Reactionshots, our Muton walks further for 2 fields spending another 8 TU reducing its Reactioncheckvalue from 118 to 110.
Soldier 1 is ready to make a Reactioncheck, he still has 40 TU left and Reaction of 70, so he could still fire twice with his Laser Rifle.

Muton stops and spots Soldier 1 both have still 110 Reactioncheckvalue, since it is the Mutons turns and he passed the Reactioncheck (same value will not fire), the Muton is now Free to fire his Heavy Plasma with a Snapshot hitting and killing Soldier 1. The Muton spends 22 TU firing the Heavy Plasma, reducing his Reactioncheckvalue from 110 to 88.

Soldier 3 can still react and fire his gun, TU: 50 and Reactions: 50. Soldier 3 passes Reactioncheck and fires Laser Rifle Snapshot at the Muton, reducing his Reactioncheckvalue to 80.
Mister Muton gets hit badly and has only 18 TU left, can not fire his weapon and decides to run away. He moves 3 more fields spending 12 TU's and gets shot in the back by Soldier 3, since the Mutons reactioncheckvalue was reduced to 76 and Soldier 3 still had 80.
Soldier 3 is left with 1 kill, 10 TU's and 50 Reactions.

Muton 2 steps on the fields and Snapshots both Soldier 2 and Soldier 3 with a Heavy Plasma killing them and runs away happily grinning

I hope this explains how Reaction works and why TU and Reactions are both important.

[ohartenstein23]

@hellrazor: This is a great explanation of reactions, but I have one nitpick; the reaction score used for checking is not reactions + remaining TUs, but rather reactions * remaining TUs / total TUs, or reactions multiplied by percent remaining TUs.

So, the starting reactions check values are:
Muton: 70 * 60 / 64 = 65
Soldier 1: 70 * 80 / 80 = 70
Soldier 2: 50 * 70 / 80 = 43
Soldier 3: 100 * 20 / 80 = 25
(Rounding down because Xcom hates fun)

So your reactionary super-soldier won't fire until the Muton is down to 22 TUs - well after he murders one of your mans, and Muton Buddy #2 may not even need to step in the picture.  TUs are very important for reactions!

The best assumption for getting a chance to react is that there is an alien with a heavy plasma one tile outside your vision range, so you need a higher TU percentage than that (100% remaining) for your overwatching soldier to keep your team out of body bags.

[hellrazor]

Ok just checked the sourcecode:

Code: [Select]

double BattleUnit::getReactionScore()
{
https://(Reactions Stat) x (Current Time Units / Max TUs)
double score = ((double)getBaseStats()->reactions * (double)getTimeUnits()) / (double)getBaseStats()->tu;
}

So yes indeed what you say is right. I always just assumed it was a simple addition.
And Yes having full TU and high reaction proves best in such cases.

Thanks for the correction -:)

@ Lion66six Demanding new Episode now