A thread for little questions

[Nilex]

Started playing for the first time after deciding for some days. It's actually the first real mod of any game I started, that's how much it peaked my interest. Anyways got a little question before a big decision: Gals or Guys? (irreversible research topic)

Wiki says one is easier than the other but it's not clear in what way. I wanted to do the Guys way but then I found out they have weaker stats, except Combat Stress (but I didn't find that an issue using starting 6 Gals on 10 missions already in 1st month). Is CS ever an issue? Do Guys' stats max out at Gals values eventually?

Is that what they meant by Guys path being more difficult? Or does unleash more challenging game mechanics: more and stronger enemies, with higher HP, and that sort of stuff. For example I'd hate if Guys TU max out at 100 while Gals get 120 or something. TU are and forever will be the most important! Couldn't find anything conclusive with search engines. Thank you for any help.

[legionof1]

Combat stress refers to the ongoing morale degen. Slaves soldiers do not suffer from it at all. Sometimes handy when missions drag out trying to find the last jerk in a closet.

The primary difference between the 2 paths is do you want hands or slave soldiers as your second buyable soldier type(first being peasants). Gals have better stat maximums for everything but voodoo and freshness, but cost significantly more. The guy path does give you a unique craft, and much earlier access to a decent armor for the slave soldiers to compensate for there weaker maximums. It is worth mentioning that Slave soldiers intial stats are quite good, even if the maximums are not as good.

Guy path is defiantly the more challenging path, it's about all it exists to be at this point of development. And it is a temporary challenge, as you eventually unlock 2 more teirs of gal quality for hire, as well as several other species. 

There are no additional encounters or battle changes tied to either path.

[khade]

The guys are more or less baseline human, so no, they can't equal the physical strength or toughness of the Uber strain gals.

To use fantasy games, think human vs half-ogre

[Zharkov]

Gals or Guys? (irreversible research topic)

Another point is that even when choose Guys, you still can find quite a number Gals on missions.

[Solarius Scorch]

And conversely, if you choose Gal, you can still recruit slave soldiers by recruiting your slaves.

It's mostly a matter of playstyle preference. The Gals Are Superior option is mostly about lightning strikes, bold advances and heavy weaponry. With the Male Hand choice, your missions will be a bit slower and more static, but also less demanding on planning every movement. Really, it's Space Marines vs. Imperial Guard.

[Nilex]

Very informative feedback, thank you all. The Gals prevailed the instant I realized I can just buy Guys off the market later, as if I choose their path. It also saves me of potential surprise dick pics in my Bootypedia. Even though opposite is possible but at much lower rate and you only get so much opportunities (getting more Gals via Guys path).
Besides that I don't see a reason for handicapping myself in the beginning, Min/Max is the name of the game for me. Future Moral issues shall even come in handy to level up that Bravery and build up VooDoo resistance earlier (if both work like in OG games).

Can you please tell me more about those yellow warning messages in some Research topics. Those affecting game progression. Figured they wouldn't be there if they wouldn't come with significant impact. I'm hoping those only unlock new missions/events/mechanics (besides new topics obviously). As in I wouldn't lock myself outta anything by researching them, or are there exceptions? Are there any such topic worth delaying to research in the early game? I know about Mutant Alliance and Pogoms obligations for example, but are there any more with such nasty jump in difficulty? Thanks again!

UPDATE
Bit the bullet and started researching everything. Can't lets my fears take over. As expected yellow topics made new ships/missions to start appearing on the map but nothing threatening. New gadgets they led to far outweigh slight disruption of my comfort zone. Finally X-Grog replaced Torch manufacturing (made enough to lit up entire Minecraft worlds). I gotta say, for its size the mod plays out perfectly fair thus far. Probably one of my largest jaw-dropper in decades of gaming was seeing overall research progress hit 1%. God damn. Right up there with first time seeing Hengsha animation in Deus Ex: HR.

[Torchwood]

Early on you can't intercept much shipping other than the occasional lucky landed small ship, so getting more missions unlocked. Most of the early ones are fairly easy, so it's a good way to get your hands on better gear and - almost as important - combat experience. Untrained ubers are far from their stat maximum and learn fast, if they live. And if the mission is not to your liking and/or everyone's too tired or injured, you can skip it. Unlocked missions typically don't have a despawn penalty. Though you should be wary of signing deals with megacorp-states that may attempt to take advantage of you if you commit to anything binding...

Spoiler:

In detail:
Bounties - D are easy. C varies - some are trivial, some are doable, others avoid. If you're experienced, you know which ones to avoid, there's always the reload button. The prizes are very valuable if you can get them early.
Hunting - lots of critters with no ranged attacks, good target practice. With something like the shadowbat, trivial, otherwise just make sure they don't get close. Always do these at daytime. Sometimes the hunt is hijacked by interlopers - ratmen are weak but many, use explosives, pest control managers are glass cannons, weak armor but good weapons, nomads all have rifles and WP grenades, and can use both. The later the game, the more likely a hijack is.
Warehouse Wars - easy. Just be ready to deal with armored guys about on par with academy medics. Bring a hammer or bombs, breaching the fence isbetter than the killbox that is the front entrance. Unlock this ASAP, you want at least one stapler.
Toppling Towers - Very crowded, but with a few decent riflegals you can manage. Camping the tower at night is preferable to storming it, since it's lit so you can just shoot anyone foolish enough to poke their heads out.
Neophyte Boot camp - Most guys have no armor but watch out for guys with panzerfausts. Bring gas, there's sometimes a high ranking church guy present.
Undersea Treasures - most are easy, but if you see hallucinoids, flee. Can be a good source of early aqua plastics and craft weapons if you luck into a Sunken USO.
Mansion Raid - varies by taste. You'll probably have to loot-and-run early, full clear is very hard without some luck and soulsense. Can get you some good stuff. The best loot is in the basement rooms and the little towers topside.
City Raid - easier if you're on the guy route. Can get you a lot of captives and there's nothing more dangerous than megapol wolfmen with shotguns, but gals can only go in holosuits or comparably stealthy outfits.
Bandit Town - like a pogrom except you're the attacker. Wait for decent armor and weapons suitable for mass slaughter.
Highway House - the one big threat here is the field gun. Neutralize it with a poison gas grenade or two ASAP.

[LuigiWhatif]

What does the

Spoiler:

DEMONIC INCURSION item you get from the demonic essence ritual

do?  I can't research it for info so it has just been sitting in my stores for several months now.

[legionof1]

At the moment the demonic arc is not fully complete so i think that item is a dead end for the time being. Hang on to hit just in case.

[Nilex]

Any way to change hard-coded "Enemy landing alert" option from No -> Yes? Setting config to read-only, or trying to hex-edit executable proved fruitless, immediately exhausting most of my hacking proves.

What's the purpose of included xpedia, created via provided batch file? Does it create full copy of online variant or does it creates only already researched topics (without spoilers). Latter would be useful as searchable text-dump database. Currently in L4 it seems to be broken. "xpedia.html" gets created but there's no useful content. UPDATE: FIX

[Ashghan]

Look into Piratez.rul. More specifically "fixed user options" (somewhere near the end of the file). Remove the hardcoded option from the list and it will allow you to change it freely from options screen.

[Nilex]

Mmm, that's quite THE file. I'm looking and I'm searching but can't find anything solid describing that exact setting (used multiple different search words). Someone high above really don't want us touching any of that stuff. Sadly "near end of the file" when it's 4 MB hardly narrowed it down for me. Could you please be more specific, thanks.

UPDATE
Never mind found it inside "Piratez_Globals.rul" -> "oxceUfoLandingAlert".

[legionof1]

snip
What's the purpose of included xpedia, created via provided batch file? Does it create full copy of online variant or does it creates only already researched topics (without spoilers). Latter would be useful as searchable text-dump database. Currently in L4 it seems to be broken. "xpedia.html" gets created but there's no useful content.

It's an offline version generated from your local data, which caused an error with the version shipped with L4. You can get a fix from the discord server or live with the online version.

[Nilex]

@legionof1: Thanks, found it.

Another day, another question(s)...
Those !Missions! are said to start appearing on the next month after you research them. I miscalculated and researched a bunch of them right at the turn of a new month (00:00 on the 1st). Have I royally blew it or will they unlock for the current month?

Found a first ENEMY HIDEOUT (lucky auto-intel report). It has a small radar range so approaching with a slow ship is impossible without detection (and consequent destruction). I also can't defeat the interceptor 1v1 with current AIRCAR (although Pilot is a beast) even after extensive loading. Is it possible to gang up multiple of your own craft to defeat a single interceptor? I reckon your ships would have to have higher top speed for that to work, if even possible.
Alternative way is using a CONVOY which I believe would do the trick (triple health and firepower), but can it attack airborne targets? Enemy ship looks like typical GOVT FIGHTER, minus the lights, with 5000 top speed. Another alternative is using AIRCAR to land instead of BLOWFISH but I'm wary of attacking with only half the crew.

It's gonna come up sooner or later but... how to reinstate finances of a country in PROTECTION screen (after infiltration or whatever it's called here)? I mean completely undoing it mechanically after it's happened. There's gotta be a way to modify a save do accomplish that. I'm already rearranging base facilities as the game keeps throwing curve balls at my direction. Devs, no matter how hard they try, can't win vs my OCD!
UPDATE: It happened while I was completely powerless to stop it. Easiest way to undo: save game just before end of month (funding country signs pact) -> open save file in text editor -> remove "newPact: true" line bellow affected country. Section you want to edit is near the top: countries -> type. County name in save differs from Geoscape. For example IRON TRIBE is called STR_UK, so use logic when making changes (and backups). It probably best gameplay-wise to do this after you destroyed enemy hideout in that area. Hopefully "Sway Local Govt" BootyPedia entry (which I discovered after the fact of course, not that it would matter) about shooting down Courier preventing this proves truthful. Although best case scenario is having ability to undo such matters after they happen, via built-in game mechanics. We can hope.

Thanks y'all.

[legionof1]

I think your gonna have to wait a month, but maybe not don't think i have ever tested the exact case. Would be interested to know myself.

You can group up you craft, set the additional craft to target your lead craft. If you not dealing with hunter killers you can minimize the intercept window when your at standoff range.

When dealing with bases you can also attempt to fake out the defense fighters, send a very quick craft to trigger the fighters and then run away. The fighters will return to base and be on cool-down for a brief time. You can use the gap to deliver an assault force. That said if your so early in the game that your employing an aircar your probably not advanced nuff to clear it anyway. Bases have multiple terror units and lots of soldiers of all ranks.