A thread for little questions

[Psyentific]

It's the third year of my campaign, July. While surveying the geoscape, I noticed a Sentry vessel bearing the StarGods flag, conducting a crackdown mission. I can't help but imagine how challenging a StarGods base invasion would be, especially targeting one of their secondary bases. Why do I deserve this? Is it simply the passage of time catching up to me? Or is it because I’ve reached the rank of Public Enemy? Could it be the consequence of raiding that landed MERC heavy gunboat?

If I had to guess it's either the mercs (you poked them with a sharp stick) or the passage of time (~2yrs+). I don't think Public Enemy has anything Star Gods-specific keyed to it; that comes later.
Either way, best of luck with those sectopods. You're going to need to crack 500hp blue shields, which means you're going to need lots of laser/plasma/elec DPS and probably some armor-stripping chem shooters too. Count yourself lucky that you've got advance warning, now you can fit out your garrisons.

[Laie]

How does one even fight Star Gods? I know how to deal with shielded tanks and expect Sectopods to be similar if tougher. But the Star Gods themselves? Oh vey.

In my world, they have established an outpost quite early (month 14 or thereabouts), which receives plenty of supply runs. This give me the opportunity to try my hand at them every so often. My ranged weapons appear to be weak, my melee attacks never seem to connect, but worst of all, I can't even see the guys until I've almost walked into them.

My weapons are bound to get better with time, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to deal with their stealthiness.

[Enoch]

How do the Stasis Pods and the Sleeping Beauty Project actually work?

Does the unit have to have the Sleeping Beauty condemnation before it dies? Is that condemnation supposed to show up on a unit's stats, because I can't seem to find any gal with it, even though plenty should have it.
Does the resurrection require another technology, if so which one?
Is there anything you have to do to ressurect a dead unit or does it just show up at your base if all the requirements are met?

[zombieguy223]

How does one even fight Star Gods? I know how to deal with shielded tanks and expect Sectopods to be similar if tougher. But the Star Gods themselves? Oh vey.

In my world, they have established an outpost quite early (month 14 or thereabouts), which receives plenty of supply runs. This give me the opportunity to try my hand at them every so often. My ranged weapons appear to be weak, my melee attacks never seem to connect, but worst of all, I can't even see the guys until I've almost walked into them.

My weapons are bound to get better with time, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to deal with their stealthiness.

My general advice would be to forget about using melee against the Star Gods (both Guardians in red cloaks and true SG's in grey cloaks) unless you're using a gal with very high melee (135+) wielding a very high base accuracy weapon, since they have an absurdly high melee dodge. The Guardians have the worst dodge at ~78 with no back penalty, and the true SG's are even more evasive. Spears and two-handed axes can still work since they hit from beyond melee range.

As far as the stealth goes, I have three bits of advice:
1) True SG's have INVIS 5, meaning by default you can only see them from 5 tiles away, but they are the only enemies on the field with that ability. They also have a unique MIND weapon they use with a distinctive projectile that you can use to get an idea of their location.
2) Use Aye-Phones or dogs to track their movements and narrow down on their location, they have a pretty good detection range and can detect enemies flying above you or behind obstacles. Do note that they can't tell you what vertical level a detected enemy is on.
3) Use armours with good SPOT, at least 5, so you can actually see them from a decent distance. SPOT counters INVIS by adding its value to the detection range, so with 5 SPOT you can see SG's from 10 tiles away instead of 5. Some options are BRAINER, CHROMEBACK, ASSASSIN (10 SPOT!), CARBON, STORMCAT or COMBAT PILOT for catgirls and CYBERPUNK for Lokk'naars. Dogs can also work decently, with 4 SPOT and being very expendable.

[Vakrug]

How do the Stasis Pods and the Sleeping Beauty Project actually work?

You are able to assign Stasis Pods far earlier than you are able to revive. "Revive Sleeping Beauty" allows to revive those who was unconscious once, and "Revive Sleeping Beauty (Nano)" allows to revive others.

[Canas]

I'm trying to play x-piratez on my phone (android) and I tried following the steps in the sub board, but it isn't working. I can get into xcom, and play XCOM and TFD, but not X-piratez. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[MaskedHuzzah]

Is there a way to turn off only the background sounds / ambient noise that I'm not seeing? I usually play while watching something else and a few maps have loud, intrusive sounds (the one the immediately comes to mind is the morning maps) that aren't tied to gameplay that I'd like to silence so I can hear the game and other things I'm doing. Been searching the forums for about an hour and not seeing anything, and figured it would be better to post here than make a new thread.

[zombieguy223]

Is there a way to turn off only the background sounds / ambient noise that I'm not seeing? I usually play while watching something else and a few maps have loud, intrusive sounds (the one the immediately comes to mind is the morning maps) that aren't tied to gameplay that I'd like to silence so I can hear the game and other things I'm doing. Been searching the forums for about an hour and not seeing anything, and figured it would be better to post here than make a new thread.

Since those ambient sounds are played from specific sound files in the resources folder, you can try replacing them with blank ones that have no actual audio. That will completely remove all of the ambient audio from the missions, to my knowledge. I did a quick test and it seemed to work without issue. This might not be the best solution, but it's quick and easy to do.

Go to \user\mods\Piratez\Resources\Sounds\Ambient\ in your XPiratez install location and replace the sixteen files there with blanks. You can do that yourself by just creating a blank .txt file and changing the name and extension to match each of the existing files. Alternatively, you can use the blank files I just made that I'll attach.
If you want the ambient sounds back, open up the original XPiratez install file and extract the sounds from it's folder to your install.

[Ultimoos]

I'm trying to play x-piratez on my phone (android) and I tried following the steps in the sub board, but it isn't working. I can get into xcom, and play XCOM and TFD, but not X-piratez. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Make sure you are placing proper files in directions. Xpiratez come in complete package to play on windows and you only want to place the mod in android oxce. Extract the "Pirates" folder from your xpiratez downloaded files and place that one in mods folder on android. You should be able to activate mod now.

[Canas]

Make sure you are placing proper files in directions. Xpiratez come in complete package to play on windows and you only want to place the mod in android oxce. Extract the "Pirates" folder from your xpiratez downloaded files and place that one in mods folder on android. You should be able to activate mod now.

That solved it, I was indeed trying to move the entire package into xcom files. This solution worked, thank you.

[Enoch]

You are able to assign Stasis Pods far earlier than you are able to revive. "Revive Sleeping Beauty" allows to revive those who was unconscious once, and "Revive Sleeping Beauty (Nano)" allows to revive others.

Understood, thanks.


How difficult are Faction Base assaults? I destroyed my first Rimrider Outpost (with some significant but not catastrophic losses on my end), would you say Faction Bases are harder or easier on average?

[deltarno]

Any idea when the next update might be?  I want to start a new game, but every time there's an update the voices demand I run it on a fresh new start, and I don't want to start a game shortly before the update.

[Vakrug]

How difficult are Faction Base assaults? I destroyed my first Rimrider Outpost (with some significant but not catastrophic losses on my end), would you say Faction Bases are harder or easier on average?

I think Rimrider Outposts are slightly easier then other Faction Bases. Definitely easier than Sirius Bases full with Chrysalids and (even worse) Valkyries. But you don't have to rush there, you can wait for better armors. Faction Bases main purpose is to get their Commanders. Rimrider Outposts main purpose is to get necessary items (mostly cat-prisoners) for Hasan and his plasma arsenal. So you probably want to raid one base multiple times (with retreating).

[Enoch]

I think Rimrider Outposts are slightly easier then other Faction Bases. Definitely easier than Sirius Bases full with Chrysalids and (even worse) Valkyries. But you don't have to rush there, you can wait for better armors. Faction Bases main purpose is to get their Commanders. Rimrider Outposts main purpose is to get necessary items (mostly cat-prisoners) for Hasan and his plasma arsenal. So you probably want to raid one base multiple times (with retreating).

Got it, thanks.
Speaking of armors I'm at the beginning of year 3 and the best I have is Tac Armors, Chainmail, and Ogres with Liquidator suits. I suspect I'm behind, any pointers as to where I should look for upgrades?

Last question from me for a while: I'm currently at Big Boss Rank, and to progress I have to make the Guild and the Academy angry with me. I tried using the XPedia for pointers but I couldn't figure it out. Is it something related to Base assaults?

[Laie]

Got it, thanks.
Speaking of armors I'm at the beginning of year 3 and the best I have is Tac Armors, Chainmail, and Ogres with Liquidator suits. I suspect I'm behind, any pointers as to where I should look for upgrades?

Last question from me for a while: I'm currently at Big Boss Rank, and to progress I have to make the Guild and the Academy angry with me. I tried using the XPedia for pointers but I couldn't figure it out. Is it something related to Base assaults?

I've done only three base assaults so far, two church one academy, all of them almost immediately after the base was established. Don't know if that matters, if bases get stronger with time.

Church was quite easy, painbringers in one hand, mace in the other. The most difficult thing was that the first time around I could only bring eight gals, which was too little to cover every corner I wanted to cover. Also, there was a bit of sniping where the painbringer wasn't exactly the ideal weapon. Next time around I brought 12 hands, four of them with proper rifles, that was fine.

I found the academy more difficult, mostly for their drones and cyberdiscs. Maybe it was just bad luck, but I'd swear that the drones were ambushing me from blind corners.

Factions getting angry is research-driven. E.g. the academy gets alarmed once you have researched Osiron Yeoman, Osiron Security, Researcher, Medic and Esper. Getting them angry requires them being alarmed, plus Provost and ESP Secrets.

I'm on my first playthrough and thought I was being slow, but you seem to be quite a bit behind me. I suspect you have few brainers? I started building minor research facilities in some of my outposts late in the first year, and by now I'm sorry that I haven't been more aggressive about it.