A thread for little questions

[BBHood217]

There was also the old Siberia map where you'll start with tanks and supersoldiers waiting to greet you when you disembark.

[Dogbarian]

Today's little question - I'm noticing some armors say they are a large target (example - Heavy Suit).   I'm guessing that means the gal is easier to hit (or be seen), but is there better data on that somewhere?  Are there multiple levels of this?  And are the peasants or Lok's smaller targets by default?  Just starting leveling some Loks with the eventual goal of them being my pilots.

Oh, and buying aircars has immediately paid off, I've shot down my first few craft already!  Kind of funny to see "Crash Site #1" after playing several months already, when in XCOM, that's often your very first mission. 

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Actual game sees units as cylinders, so yeah, peasants are smaller than gals etc.

[Nilex]

@Dogbarian
Someone said UFO/TFTD engine is actually 3D despite looking archaic. If you select a soldier and hit first-person screenshot (F10 default) and then open in it some picture viewer you will get some idea how game interprets stuff. If your solder is looking at small/medium/large units when you screen it you should be able to understand what relative unit sizes pertain to. Personally I never gave enough of a damn to investigate myself as it never played a noticeable role in actual gameplay. But if anyone can be bothered to display hitbox diagrams for comparison in the future I'd be interested to see that. Anyway I don't remember sizes being explicitly explained anywhere in-game besides for immersion sake in occasional armor description. If it were really that important I wager it would be a proper stat, like resistances.

[RSSwizard]

There was also the old Siberia map where you'll start with tanks and supersoldiers waiting to greet you when you disembark.

Yeahhh I think the weapons selection for the Stormtroopers was a carryover from that because some of them have Baby Nukes/DC and they're ALL underground in the new map scenario. Basically means they're just nuke givers since they usually wont blow themselves up, and the blast cant go around corners anyway.
The new setup with that blowhole exposed also makes sending a baby nuke down-the-shaft excessively easy to wipe 1/3 of the base. Just wait for a tank to appear down there and the party is on.

@Dogbarian
Someone said UFO/TFTD engine is actually 3D despite looking archaic.

Its sorta like Doom being 3D. Its not but it looks like it. Its done with voxels... consequently the Fallout: Tactics game reminds me alot of xcom in terms of map stuff.

Wanna know something none of these guys bothered to implement yet which would've been easy?

3x3 and 4x4 size HWPs. And also x2 height critters.
Because you forego using the 2x2 setup and have null tile graphics for them.
Instead you Overlay a graphic of the appropriate size centered where the object should be. So thats pretty much a "If its this type, drawa graphic here" equation. I dont even see a problem with visibility/layering of other tiles because you just check those (blank) tiles it belongs to for the layering.

In fact that would have been Exceedingly Preferable and worthwhile to implement for regular 2x2 HWPs (like, waay back in 2016 kinda thing). Yeahhh if you only see part of the HWP itd show you the whole thing, but the Map shows you the big dot anyway so you know its there.

Normally id even suggest 2x4 and 2x3 size oddly shaped ones, but I do admit that rotation pathfinding for those would likely be a pain since itd be a new routine there. Many games including D&D and C&C just make things a fatter square for that reason (lol its a Giant Snake, but lets just make it a 3x3 critter because its coiled up)

(and then Suez Canal happens to show us how much of a problem it is IRL)


But seriously I haven't played the Jack's mission with the Tiger Tank yet... is it just a turret that shoots at you and Looks like a tank that wont move?

[Dogbarian]

Happy Friday!  And happy new release day!  Gonna install that tonight or tomorrow morning.    Cheers to Dioxine!

Today's little question - I recently noticed a post about hunter-killer UFOs making Spy Zeppelins worth less (intentional space there).   Since I just got access to Pigeon, kind of made me wonder the same thing, is there a way to add stealth (either in-game or via mod) so that the HKs ignore them?  Only recently found the joy of using a radar patrol ship in modded XCOM, so the concept is pretty nifty, but sounds like I shouldn't throw the money or hangar space away in XPiratez.  Or was that post incorrect about the Spy Zepps being spotted?  (sometimes, the older posts are irrelevant now, and I'm never sure which is which).  Of course, now I can't find it again....

[Nilex]

Don't know if ship stealth can be modded in but from my experience unexpected interception (of unarmed transport full of Gals) happened only once and mostly because of jerky passage of time. Handful of times I had to manually intervene to change ship course. The one time HK mechanic is always ignored is when ships are returning from a mission, so called "homebound" state. So with that in mind two ways of adding stealth comes to mind: always set houmebound to desired ships (likely making them unresponsive), or removing HK altogether. If there's a middle ground I can't say. Also note detection isn't instant but occurs at fixed intervals (30m for base, bit less for ships) so it can happen that fast HK simply flies through if you apply head-on approach with high enough speed delta.

Much better care-free long-term payoff way of achieving radar coverage is simply by building more bases. I plopped them in zones with highest enemy activity at the time with consideration of future placements (for eventual max coverage) and thought of doing it by micro-managing ships never entered my mind (despite some guides recommending it). This if for medium difficulty, can't speak for higher ones though. Hangars are better utilized for essential crafts only to free up space for billion buildings the mod eventually throws at you. With Alenuim facility becoming far more useful in latest patch it's now possible to cover pretty much everything.

Well time to revise my base coordinates to finally encompass Hawaii hehe. Happy post-release day to you too! It's the 4th update in my own playthrough and has always been a great constantly improving experience.

[Nilex]

Looks like my beloved Seductress outfit finally got fixed (read: neutered). I was able to partially restore its original glory of training VSK again but not quite there yet. Gains are too low compared to before: now I get +1 rolls max, whereas before I could get +6 with as little as two attacks. Is there any way to increase experience gain of Powers of Seduction? Hoping it's not some kind of Bravery nerf side-effect.

[Marza]

Do more than two attacks for better experience rolls

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Experience

[Nilex]

Yeah I knew of that, thanks anyway. Even with vanilla PSI behavior I'd still be able to get few +4s (from 2 successful attacks). Multiple +1 puts it in the realm of winning a lottery low odds. I discovered a seemingly new training category (experienceTrainingMode: 27) which doubles VSK gains but even with that in place rolls don't reach L7 heights although I get an occasional +4 now where before it would have been +6. If some kind of merciless psychological bias isn't to blame VSK gains feel noticeably nerfed, either by OXCE or XPZ.

If someone would please do me a solid and do a quick test for +5/+6 VSK rolls with attached save on pre-L8 version (mine is gone). Just Seduce the final pig with special icon in top-right. Best of the notables I got in over 100 tries is a single +4 and few +3s. I'd be happy to hear if you can do better off in, say... 10 tries? (ignore missing mods message)

[Dogbarian]

Didn't actually have time to play much this weekend, so I didn't upgrade to L8 yet.  I can try your save sometime this week, and see what I get.

Did manage to get Shadowmasters to pop from a captive, so I was able to research and buy a Snake & a Scorpion.  Now ending September, and starting 3rd base.  Real shortage of aqua plastic, haven't found hardly any, so I can't build tac vests, nor have I had any good armor drop from missions or gambling.  Too bad I can't disassemble the aqua weapons or ammo I've found to get raw plastic! Hopefully get some undersea missions soon, but still trying to get to chiller armor, so those first missions might be real interesting!  Did get chainmail, so I have 2 suits of that built.  And weapon situation is pretty good.  First Deep One pogram was a little exciting, LOTS of enemy showed up.  Really glad I had some chainmail already.

Today's questions - getting back to whether stuff in old posts is still relevant, or whether things have been fixed by now.
- do I still need full radar coverage of the planet by end of the first year?  if so, I need to get cracking on bases.
- does the Snake still have lots of holes that enemy can see & shoot into?
- not seeing Jack token missions, nearly all bounties have been mutant alliance.  is that RNG?  I don't have enough Jack tokens to even unlock Confed gear (although I have had some eagles drop, and can make the ammo).
- is healing or shakeup ceremony still the only way to get/train bravery?  I seem to have a bunch of gals stuck around 50/60 bravery, plus I'd like to get some Locknars to gain bravery to use for pilots.

[MemoryTAS]

Today's questions - getting back to whether stuff in old posts is still relevant, or whether things have been fixed by now.
- do I still need full radar coverage of the planet by end of the first year?  if so, I need to get cracking on bases.
- does the Snake still have lots of holes that enemy can see & shoot into?
- not seeing Jack token missions, nearly all bounties have been mutant alliance.  is that RNG?  I don't have enough Jack tokens to even unlock Confed gear (although I have had some eagles drop, and can make the ammo).
- is healing or shakeup ceremony still the only way to get/train bravery?  I seem to have a bunch of gals stuck around 50/60 bravery, plus I'd like to get some Locknars to gain bravery to use for pilots.

1. Need is a strong word. I play pretty conservatively with base expansion and never reach full coverage by the end of year 1. Heck sometimes I don't even get a second base by the end of year 1, I like to wait until I can get large barracks to avoid having to do future renovations work. Some people will probably swear by it but unless you're using outposts, radar coverage ain't cheap. Then again, I didn't feel global coverage was as important in ufo defense as most people make it out to be so your mileage may vary. You're definitely far from completely screwed if you don't have it by the end of the first year though.
2. Don't think anything changed but honestly I don't think it was ever too bad. Really no reason to hang out in the cockpit areas which have the majority of the holes. If you end your turn in one of them, you're a lot more likely to get shot. Smoke screens can help mitigate it too.
3. Yes it's rng. Note that one can get some items leading to tokens through missions not marked as bounty missions as well (like ninja badges which are pretty much guaranteed from any fight with Sky Ninjas).
4. That was never the only way to train bravery (unless you mean what is currently available to you and even then I'd argue no). You could also get it through Wench/Seductress abilities, ropes, piloting a successful dogfight, and last but not least, the old xcom 1 method. There's probably additional items and abilities that train bravery similar to ropes and the Wench/Seductress outfits but I don't know them off the top of my head. A somewhat easy way of training bravery is, once you have steady access to hallucinogenic gas grenades via Contact:Smugglers is to repeatedly use them on your own (preferably unarmed) troops. Of course, given the likelihood of panic, I'd only consider it on an easier mission like a Watch Tower.

[Nilex]

Didn't actually have time to play much this weekend, so I didn't upgrade to L8 yet.  I can try your save sometime this week, and see what I get.

Thank you in advance. Seducing stuff is basically a fun hobby for me when using tertiary crews while also training them. Btw when you upgrade, avoid doing it when on a mission and best to unpack into another location and then transfer saves and config there.

Radar coverage is priority just as main base development. Safest method is building one right at the start of month so mission generator doesn't roll base attack on freshly built base (happens at turn of new month for that whole month). With 4 properly distributed bases you pretty much ensure global coverage because of how enemy ships fly between zones. They're bound to trigger detection on their way to target zone. Casual approach is fine as long as it remains a priority. For areas not yet covered check graphs for unusual activity spikes.

Bounties are RNG as TAS said. Zaxx were most common in my game, Mutants were rarest. Only in late-game it kinda evened out.

Additional way of training Bravery is using healing items. Although I highly suggest sticking to Piloting and Wench/Seductress for best results. Bravery is the hardest stat to raise no matter which method is used due to low increase chance. Last resort are condemnations but those take way too long before they start affecting it and have also been nerfed (Bravery wise) in L8.

[Dogbarian]

Ah, didn't know piloting a successful combat mission counted as Bravery XP, so I should probably just add a Lockner as the 3rd pilot along with my 2 good gals now in the Snake (already pulled one with great reactions and firing to be the dedicated medic in the alpha team).  Cool.

I have put low bravery gals into stress-causing outfits, but still did not panic.  Guess the other gals were killing enemy too fast, should may be a bit more leisurely on missions with lesser foes.  And yeah, I have been using healing items (even on enemies), that's been the bulk of my Bravery gains so far, but even that one is annoyingly random.  I quit even taking vodka along.

Ropes, though, I haven't tried.  Interesting!  I'll have to pack some on the Scorpion, since enemy tend to spawn nearby on many maps.  And I don't think I've even unlocked the ability to research Seductress, although I want to say Wench is available to brain. 

Good to know I'm okay on radar coverage.  I'll still probably push out slowly, but not have to strain.

Thanks for answers!

EDIT - from looking at online Bootypedia, I realize I'm missing Krazy Hanna fairly far along, I know I don't have Improvised Aerial Explosive either, so I need to check what I'm missing to pop that one (guessing Land Mine from its dependency list, pretty sure I have everything else).

[MemoryTAS]

Dog fights are far from guaranteed to raise bravery, but it's still at least another chance at an increase.