A thread for little questions

[legionof1]

snip
1)I have made the Guerilla outfit and tried it in battle, but apart from bigger carrying capacity... What are its other advantages, anyway? I remember someone posting that he researches armor till Guerilla and Chainmail and and, after that he doesn't do any armor research till very late in the game? Do you prefer Guerilla, or Assassin? Or both? Guerilla is about camo, but I kinda don't get it...
2) I have a Killgun and 4 Smartguns. Woud you use these..?

3) Need a better moneymaker. Chateau is good, is there something better early ingame? I hear about

Spoiler:

counterfeiting?

4) How long can an enemy base stay around without disrupting your infamy? Does the location matter? I have one in Arctic, NW Groenland.

5) Would Mercs retaliate if we attack/destroy their base?

1) the 2 big points are the full inventory, and the very large reactions buff. +25 reactions drastically reduces incoming fire. Reaction checks are basically %TU remaining*Reactions, if a unit beats the moving units value it fires. Multiplication, so the +25 is a big deal. My playstyle centers on minimizing shots taken, which is mostly reaction fire, as i try to end turns in cover out of LOS. So cheap/fast to make, full size inventory, and very large boost to a stat key to my playstyle. Also relatively low tech.
2) There good use em.
3) Counterfeiting is very productive, if your willing to micro all the steps. Basically you take one tier of credit chips, and turn into 100%+ of value in the next grade down. It take a lot of work time however to do every step. Requires the mint facility, so its not super low tech. The main money maker is Chateau for quite some time. Plantations are also useful once your expanding to multiple bases. Past 3-4 bases, there mostly radar coverage posts, might as well get those extra empty tiles doing something.
4) Each base is -500 during any month it exists at the end of. And the -points for the frequent supply ship missions(most craft generate -points for time flying around and double for time landed.) So the individual supply ships, if not engaged, can rack up quite the debt. But if your doing well otherwise you can afford to float several bases. And if your comfortable engaging the landed supply ships over and over its a net gain.
5) not 100% certain, but i think the base itself doesn't count for retaliation mission spawning. Shooting down ships does.

Merc Hovertank is ridiculous. I shoot everything I got and I couldn't even break the shield. Multiple 25mm Armored Car hits, mortar fire, Panzerfausts, anti-armor melee, nothing works. Any tips?

Any shielded target is a 2 step process. First deplete shield, maximum damage per TU spent is the key. Shotguns or emp nades are the way to go. Shields have no armor value, and limited resistances, if any at all. But they do regenerate some hp per turn.  Second step is the armor underneath. There you want high armor pierce, and/or shredding weapons like the minigun. Strip shields before using the heavy hitting weapons to prevent ammo waste.

[thevideogameraptorboggle]

So Type 2 shields block everything until they're depleted? Certainly much harder to deal with than the Church's shields.

[legionof1]

Not quite everything, but the exceptions are alot more limited. Bio, Chem, and Fire will still pass through. But a fair amount of things with type 2 are resistant to those. The mentioned Merc hover tank for example is immune, 60%, and 85% resistant respectively. So the shotgun/emp then heavy weapons routine is the most efficient option left.

Shotguns are the real workhorse when shields are involved cause the shields have no Armor, so even the wimpy birdshot can do 100+ dmg per shot, assuming most of your pellets hit.

Emp is good too, but the few sources you have don't really stand up to rapid fire buckshot. The emp nade for example only does 75*250% or 187 dmg to a type 2 shield. A single shot of birdshot has an average potential of 114. Both barrels of the double barrel with BS is 400 average potential. And these actions are only handful of TU different in cost.

Even the most generous case for the emp nade, aforementioned tank is a max of 750 due to each tile of the tank taking damage from an aoe. Distance is of course a factor, shotgun only reaches so far compared to a good thrower.

[LadonLegend]

I've read a couple things about the difficulty levels in this mod, and I wanted to clarify something. I know that the mod is balanced around difficulty 3. Do increased difficulty levels increase the speed at which enemies tech up?

[Alex the KatanaCutlass]

So would 2 hellerium grenades solve the tank prob? Or more? How many more?

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Next Mercenary Pogrom I will try shotgun squad, but it was still quite OP in my opinion. In best case scenario of Armoured Car with 25mm craft cannon, auto shooting two times, three rounds each, with 75 Power times 4, because Hovertank is 4x4 means that Car did (75 Power x 4 tiles) 300 damage in one hit. Six hits gives 1800 average damage (About 888 if every hit was at 50% power and 2688 at 150%) to the shield in best case scenario. Shield should break either way.

I remember in older versions that Hovertank wasn't impossible to deal with if gals had mid tier weaponry. Cyberdisk that is Academy (I think) counterpart could be taken down with enough molotovs, while Hovertank could be damaged with recoiless rifle. Now Mercenaries are peace of cake to deal with in comparsion to their Hovertanks.
Damn, even Sectopods would fall when multiple barrel bombs exploded under their legs.

[thevideogameraptorboggle]

I've read a couple things about the difficulty levels in this mod, and I wanted to clarify something. I know that the mod is balanced around difficulty 3. Do increased difficulty levels increase the speed at which enemies tech up?

Assuming that difficulty works in the exact same way as vanilla UFO defense, the main difference is that missions have more enemies and those enemies are stronger. Every difficulty above the easiest has enemies gain a 6% bonus to Firing Accuracy and Reactions, 4% to TU's, Energy, and their Voodoo skills, and 2% to Strength. Here is the UFOpaedia entry for vanilla difficulties. https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Difficulty_Levels

[legionof1]

Next Mercenary Pogrom I will try shotgun squad, but it was still quite OP in my opinion. In best case scenario of Armoured Car with 25mm craft cannon, auto shooting two times, three rounds each, with 75 Power times 4, because Hovertank is 4x4 means that Car did (75 Power x 4 tiles) 300 damage in one hit. Six hits gives 1800 average damage (About 888 if every hit was at 50% power and 2688 at 150%) to the shield in best case scenario. Shield should break either way.

I remember in older versions that Hovertank wasn't impossible to deal with if gals had mid tier weaponry. Cyberdisk that is Academy (I think) counterpart could be taken down with enough molotovs, while Hovertank could be damaged with recoiless rifle. Now Mercenaries are peace of cake to deal with in comparsion to their Hovertanks.
Damn, even Sectopods would fall when multiple barrel bombs exploded under their legs.

Yeah the example provided the shield would break after successive AC shots too, but keep in mind AC has the standard 0-200% damage roll, and while shotguns have it too its rolled per projectile, so a shotguns rarely whiffs fully. And the AC is not effective once the shield is down. 45% concussive resist+90 armor mean the AC is incapable of harming the tank hull.

So would 2 hellerium grenades solve the tank prob? Or more? How many more?

Again good at shield, useless at at tank underneath. You need 170 or higher concussive dmg weapon to even start chipping at the tank underneath. 45% resist is no joke.

I've read a couple things about the difficulty levels in this mod, and I wanted to clarify something. I know that the mod is balanced around difficulty 3. Do increased difficulty levels increase the speed at which enemies tech up?

Only on max difficulty is the enemy progression any faster. Vanilla stat buffs also dont exist, except on max. 1 debuffs enemy stats by about 20%, 5 buffs em by the same. 2-4 the only difference is the amount of foes spawned, higher difficulty more dudes.

[Alex the KatanaCutlass]

TYVM for guerilla advice. It RULEZ. Are there NV goggles to go with it?
I got the Authorised Dealers contact.
What do you think of I-gun? Worth using? It saved my gals boobs against an Oseron.
Would Tazogun fry a Megapol Enforcer or Apeman?
What do I expect from my new Kraken craft?
WTH is camo st/st?

[Martin]

Don’t expect much form the Kraken. The thing is slow and it cannot mount anything to help with its abysmall speed. It is tough, but without shields, so it will spend a lot of time in repairs mif you use it as a tank. You don’t really need powerfull fleet anyway, your menace class is good enough for 90% of shipping you encouncer.

[Ashghan]

Are there NV goggles to go with it?

Unfortunately, there is no stand-alone NV goggles 'item'. Better NV comes as a part of some armors only. There are 2 'upgrades' for guerilla armor. One is Sniper, which has double the camo, good NV and nice firing bonus, while still being very squishy. Second one called Chromeback, buried a bit deeper in the research tree - about late midgame option. Better armor, NV and reactions, same camo. Sadly, in most of my games it comes a bit too late to make a difference.

WTH is camo st/st?

Camo basically substracts itself from the range at which your units are spotted, with values given for day/night.

Basic sight range (for most units - there are exceptions) is 40 tiles in daylight (ie. any tile that has light over 7, so decently lit squares cound as day, even at night). At night it's 9 for baseline humans with no NV equipment, 12 for gals, more for NV or mutants (sectoids/hybrids see really good in darkness). Zombies are blind (they have Sense, which detects living beings even through walls) so camo is useless against them.

Some enemies (as well as armors) have a Spot:X statistic, which reduces your camo and/or invisibility by X (up to 0 - camo can't be negative) for both day and night.

Invisibility is somewhat inverse of camo - 8/2 is the maximum range you can be seen by day/night. Invisibility:5 means you can't be spotted when you are 6+
tiles away from an enemy (barring Spot:).

[Eddie]

Would Tazogun fry a Megapol Enforcer or Apeman?

It should work ok, but you will need several shots. I use electric lassos (bounty prize: confederate gear). The lasso is very similar to the tazogun, but unlimited ammo and a bit more damage. Downside is the lasso is 2-handed and 2x2 size, while tazogun is 1-handed and 1x2 size.

[Alex the KatanaCutlass]

Don’t expect much form the Kraken. The thing is slow and it cannot mount anything to help with its abysmall speed. It is tough, but without shields, so it will spend a lot of time in repairs mif you use it as a tank. You don’t really need powerfull fleet anyway, your menace class is good enough for 90% of shipping you encouncer.

Heyhey, easy there, I've just started building my fleet:)
I am a warrior, friend. I just go in and take care of enemies. I need a strong ship or two to deal with any flying thing of manageable size. I usually send some 3 HKs to shadow it before my Metallo comes in. Then, we follow it until it lands and then we take it on the ground. But if it WON'T land, then we shoot it down, Metallo leading the sttack to draw fire on itself. Now, as there can be only 1 Metallo, I'll build 2 Krakens to be there for the Metallo, if it is too damaged, to take on the enemy together, or as a squadron with others. Of course, I wouldn't be going after Battleships and anything too strong. I know i need better stuff for those.

YARR!!

[Alex the KatanaCutlass]

It should work ok, but you will need several shots. I use electric lassos (bounty prize: confederate gear). The lasso is very similar to the tazogun, but unlimited ammo and a bit more damage. Downside is the lasso is 2-handed and 2x2 size, while tazogun is 1-handed and 1x2 size.

Yesyes, I have Lassos. So they're better than Tazos, huh? OK, will try them. I am kinda clumsy with Lassos, though. I am a gun-n-blade. The big lasso won't be a prob, though. Just take a Magnum along and ya set:) Oh yes, and primed grenades - 2-3 of each kind... And spare ammo... As much as ya can carry:)

So with lasso, I strike, then Hide, rinse repeat..?

Uh, Zombies can sense through walls..? Someone been reading the WWZ by Max Brooks? It's nice to be here with fellow ppl who like and appreciate education.

Cuzwhat else IS X-Piratez, if not a Video games Academy..?

I asked about NV goggles, cuz I saw something of the sort in a Help Loknars mission. A killed Ninja Gal had something of sorts...

About Sniper and Chromeback: I have one sniper, ain't got more kevlar material, bah. I know about Chromeback. Will take some time to get to it.

I am also making the Hover Suits.
I miss my Assassin armors... Guess that I will give them to some gals back again.

As for any camoed units - I always drag my Bloodhounds with me. Their ThermoVis and sniff sniff are irreplaceable for me.
Are Bloodhounds better with energy than Attack Dogs? My Bloodhounds tire after a couple of turns and need a break. Maybe because I make them run like hell. And they go berserk sometimes, but a dog is a dog and having its noggin blown off instead of a hand's one... Clear...

[Solarius Scorch]

Umm. It was a hitai-ate, not goggles...