A thread for little questions

[Ragshak]

Are there any special awards after completing Jack/Zax/MA challange?

[Nilex]

@Vick
- After researching !!Bounty Hunting!!. Try to unlock Level C stages which start yielding some proper tokens.
- 25mm > 30mm > 50mm > Plasma Charger (best early game vessel weapon imo), and so on. I generally skipped missiles altogether, only using them on rare case-by-case basis. Research chain is honestly too complex for me to give you precise answer but you can help yourself by using Tech Viewer (Q on Geoscape) or online pedia - 25MM CANNON. Clickity-click.
- My own continuation, from Warrior, was mixed complement of Metal > Junkmaster (Unplugged Power Armor) > Synthsuit > Stormy (flies) > Juggernaut > Assault Marine -> Annihilator (does it all). With Synth you are practically immune to all gunfire for a year, great mid-game armor. In early-game you could put some in-between armors I haven't mentioned just to soak up reaction fire, or use a vehicle. It's a broad subject so everyone will give different answers. I recommend using what feels best to you for the time being.
- They are for all intents and purposes Peasant soldiers with damsel-y look to them (purely cosmetic). Combat wise Peasants are useful in low risk missions, leaving main force time to recover, but not much more than that. They do have exclusive access to one type of mission not accessible to anyone else. I don't recall there being a noteworthy reason to peruse DILDOs over regular Peasants, more so because they are relatively rare. Maybe they start with bit higher stats, give a unique research tech, can be pimp'd (main use for me after filling up soldier rooster). In the future they may receive a higher purpose however so that's something to keep in mind. I have 10 Peasants and 10 Damsels fully trained and still use them occasionally for a little bit of fun and challenge.

@Ragshak
Reward, after completing the not so easy mission in the following month, is roughly ~1500 tokens for chosen customer. You basically sacrifice 1000 infamy (-500/+500) for Jack/Zax/MA token boost. Before you ask, there are no disposition penalties from the other two.

[Dogbarian]

Old returned player here.. I forgot so many things, that I even had to create a new account.
 
Easy early question. I'm on July-August of 2601

• Earliest aerial weapon? Which is the best chain of research?, I find weird that I could got  already several vessel but no weapons for them.. I feeling that I´m missing all the training targets of early months.
• After Barbarian-Warrior-Chain mail.. Next armour to aim? this month in many missions. I even couldn't leave the vessel with several foes aiming the door. with out being killed

Snipped the list a bit.   I agree, it's weird to have craft with no weapons - if you get your Codex craft early, you literally have 1 craft weapon for them (which is either light or heavy, depending on which codex), and you might have access to 25 mm.   I'm several more months in, just finishing March 2602, although this is my first campaign, so I had no idea what to focus on.  Spent last month or so actively trying to improve the craft weapon situation, so where I am now, I can make up to 50 mm cannon for Light, I can make Spike Rockets or Harpoons for the Missile slot (or buy Seagulls, which are expensive), and I can buy the Ramjet or use my Codex Lil' Ilya for the Heavy slot (Ramjet also very expensive).  Researching 250 mm RL for Heavy slot as well, that should be done soon. Just finished researching Gauss Cannon, and assembling my first one (but don't have enough parts for a 2nd).  Haven't even seen a Reticulan ship yet to try and get plasma charger.  So my airfleet (documented in a reply on the previous page) is mostly equipped with 25 or 30 mm cannon, 1 50mm, 1 Seagull, 2 harpoon launchers, 1 Ramjet, and 1 Lil' Ilya.  This month I will try to buy some Piranha or a Shark, I'm being harassed by Ninja Jetbikes that are too agile for me to shoot down unless I use expensive Seagulls (although I want to try a harpoon the next time I see one).

And as far as armor, I just researched full plate mail and I'm making my first 2 suits of that.  I picked Red, so the several suits of Aggressor armor from that have been quite nice to use over Warrior.  I also went up Tactical Armor (although I have very little aqua plastic), so I have a few suits of that, and 2 suits of Hover.  Also have some suits of Boss armor.  I also just built my first armored car, so I was going to see about using that, although neither the Scorpion nor the Snake can deploy it, so it may only get used on defense for now (thinking I probably need to go ahead and built my Metallo).  I've been using two gals with chain & shield as my "tanks" to absorb the opening salvo, and been lucky so far about not losing one.   Been close a few times, and the gals probably aren't too happy about that duty.    At least the Surgery Center cuts down the time lost to the disabled list!   Like you, not sure where to go from here, I'm working towards the Industrial Printer, so that should open more options.  Looking at Nilex's reply, I have Metal armor (needed for Plate), and I need research to move on, although I think I have the path open to me as far as Junkmaster.   I haven't defeated any Mercs yet, though, only seen them once, and I ran from that fight (although now I have better gear and could probably make the effort), they are a block to get to Synth.

I've recruited 1 damsel and used her as a dedicated medic, although she's leveled up pretty well.  The others I came across, I've either enslaved or pimped, they aren't any better than peasants, of which I have several for base defense and occasional rotation when needed.

[Vick]

*Snipped the list a bit.   I agree, it's weird to have craft with no weapons ....
*And as far as ar...
*I've recruited 1 damsel and..

Ty for the tips, 
 

@Vick
- After researching !!Bounty Hunting!!. Try to unlock Level C stages which start yielding some proper tokens.
- 25mm > 30mm > 50mm > Plasma Charger (best early game vessel weapon imo), and so on. I generally skipped missiles altogether, only using them on rare case-by-case basis. Research chain is honestly too complex for me to give you precise answer but you can help yourself by using Tech Viewer (Q on Geoscape)...
- My own continuation, ...
- They are for all intents and purposes Peasant soldiers ...
.

Thx I missed to manufacture BH Brass Badge (C)... wow
- I spent half of the time in the Tech viewer, I enjoying it, but the chain to get 25 mm or Krazy Hanna  ​is still far away, and thought that I was missing something obvious, like the Bass Badge.

[username]

And as far as armor, I just researched full plate mail and I'm making my first 2 suits of that.  I picked Red, so the several suits of Aggressor armor from that have been quite nice to use over Warrior.

Full Plate Mail is mostly junk outside of niche usage cases because the movement penalty is SO BAD. The armor value is okay, but not great, and hardly matters if you can't actually get to the battle.  When you're losing 20-30 TU outright, you're either slowing the entire group down or you're missing the battle anyway.

I also just built my first armored car, so I was going to see about using that

Car is a great upgrade to Ablative Peasants as far as recon and drawing fire goes, since it can soak up a fair amount of small arms fire with impunity, although you may have to do a few donuts around the zone you want to draw fire in for your TU to drop low enough to get reaction fired.

although neither the Scorpion nor the Snake can deploy it

Yeah, Red Codex ships are useless. Get used to using Expedition and Convoy.

I've been using two gals with chain & shield as my "tanks" to absorb the opening salvo, and been lucky so far about not losing one.

This is where ablative peasants come in. Their crap TU means that the moment they step off the dropship, they will immediately draw fire from everything in sight. Many of them will die for their planet. A few will be forced through a fine mesh screen for their planet. They will be the luckiest of all.

[Delian]

How does the game determine melee evasion for sides other than the soldier's front and back?

[legionof1]

the back side penalty is reduced based on angle until you reach front. so a 90 degree side is half the back penalty.

[Delian]

the back side penalty is reduced based on angle until you reach front. so a 90 degree side is half the back penalty.

And 45/135° is ¼ or ¾ the difference? Thanks.

[Delian]

How long, on average, assuming you have all the tech and missions unlocked, does it take to create one of the X-level shadowtech items, for instance, Ethyr Drive X? In other words, how many months does it take to collect 13 Shadow Orbs of the same kind?

[Nilex]

Months? HA-HA
Answer is never. Even if extremely lucky answer remains the same.

Will all the money in the world and techs unlocked your best bet for Orbs is Mystery Box lottery. Only the box is so rare that anything but reloading for desired result is unfathomable. The boxes can be gotten through highest valued coupon gambling which requires a Casino. But  that quickly introduces Jack's token as bottleneck.
Second way of getting them is through other type of boxes / RNG prize mechanics: Smuggler > Arcane > Mystery / Mad Scribblings, and probably one of two more I can't remember atm. In late-game the surest way for me was 6 Smuggler Boxes you get from raiding their hideout, which I then re-rolled until converted into 6 Mystery. Don't even think about getting enough Orbs without save-scumming which ever method you use.

Once Mystery are in possession you gotta roll 5x3 Orbs of choice until you have enough just for one X grade system. In 6 years of normal play I gotten maybe 8 Orbs as loot total (spread across 4 types), from doing regular missions, that's why your 'months' sounded hilarious to me. Last I checked they are rare and exclusive on only handful of missions.
Once you finally build an X system it justifies all the laborious work. I dumped an Ethyr Drive X (engine) and Spatial Displacer X (weapon) onto Fortuna and she basically kills everything on her own except for Silver Towers. I always wonder if two Displacer Xs would do the job but not willing to put myself through that lottery ever again.

The good news is the Orbs are said to get more attention in some future update so we can expect them to become more common as well as receive more applications than just for an odd weapon/tool and shadow tech systems.

[username]

Do weapon mastery and similar medals where you can get them for multiple different items stack, or does only the highest one count?

[legionof1]

Weapon mastery is per weapon, but due to code quirks only a single instance of each rank can apply. The engine reads the strings as: mastery rank X apply bonus assigned to rank X, if it then also read x+1 or X+2 it does it again.

For commends it for all participating items as a sum, or at least it will be shortly. I don't recall if the patched commend code made it into L9. If it didn't it take the bonus for the highest participating item.

[Thatguysenpai]

Hello, I was wondering where you find the Implosion Bomb Launcher parts? I remember I found one in my previous playthrough but I can't remember where.

I was thinking it was the bomber craft, but I've downed several and haven't found one yet so I thought I'd ask.

[legionof1]

Bomber is the right place to look, the trouble is that any engine exploding during the crash tends to destroy the item you need to recover. Keep trying till you get one fully intact.

[username]

It's the thing which just makes you go "STOP EXPLODING, YOU COWARDS!".