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Author Topic: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod  (Read 74435 times)

Offline Salt Factory

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #105 on: July 06, 2019, 03:29:57 am »
Why did I bring alien HE? And it's gone, cydonia's lost. Great, how can I continue to mess this up.... Campaign 6 begins Superhuman is more than well at living up to its name. Max psi strength on all my soldiers. 2 psions with 60 skill and 80 strength, so close...
« Last Edit: July 06, 2019, 05:28:25 am by Salt Factory »

Offline Salt Factory

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #106 on: July 07, 2019, 01:27:47 am »
Ok, here it is. The winning strategy to prove that s-human is beatable.

1: don't lose my base in NA 2 times costing me millions of dollars
2: Take that cash and get firestorm production earlier to prevent nations from pulling out. (If I had it a month earlier the council would be full but instead the terror ship landed before I could intercept and it was ethereals so...)
3: Don't wipe against march chryssalid terror mission costing even more money
4: Win/farm base defenses to get blaster bombs and launchers
5: Do not enter cydonia until I have 2 100 skill and strength psions and 2 guardian hovertanks
6: Don't skip turn 1 on cydonia, rush with tanks to spot as many enemies as possible and blaster bomb them all hoping to panic ethereals or outright kill them
7: then use fusion demolition charges (which will be placed on the floor at the end of each turn they are not used for fear of psi) with suicide bombers (cause the blast radius is insane) to ELIMINATE the sectopods guarding the brain room. The end I win
8: ...
9: profit
10: Quit X-COM for good, I've been playing it for 6 years and never beat anything on superhuman/impossible
« Last Edit: July 07, 2019, 03:06:51 am by Salt Factory »

Offline Salt Factory

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #107 on: July 15, 2019, 08:58:17 am »
Scratch that! Base defense is unwinnable. I have 2 laser tanks and 25 soldiers and each time the base and it's always a steamroll. I'll build walls of missile defenses on all my bases and farm alien base assaults for bbs and bb ammo.

Offline Salt Factory

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #108 on: July 26, 2019, 07:21:32 pm »
At long last, I'm done. You know, this campaign wasn't as exciting as all the others up until the end. I guess I've grown numb to it, the rookie spinning in place and then falling down to his death is no different than hearing a bird chirp outside my house. But alas it is done, Cydonia is finished. With only 3 deaths through both stages, and a turn 1 bombardment of blaster bombs. Which were painstakingly farmed by entering an easy floater base, mind controlling blaster bomb floaters and returning them to the deployment zone. Over, and over, and over. But hey, if the alien ai wants to cheat, I have some tricks as well. And the alien ai also loved to smash its head into my walls of missile defenses, not a single nation or base was destroyed. And it wouldn't be X-COM if the alien brain wasn't killed by a blasterbomb that missed veared off course and hit the brain. That's perfect. As always thanks for the hard work on this mod and have a nice day.

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #109 on: July 29, 2019, 12:53:50 am »
Sounds like an amazing run! You really struggled with this, but you overcame the odds and achieved victory!

Offline Unmadesoldier

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #110 on: January 26, 2020, 02:24:23 am »
Hi,

I've played through this mod twice already and I havent been able to unlock the stalker or heracles crafts at all. Is there a particular way to do this or have they been removed from the mod?

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #111 on: January 26, 2020, 11:23:01 am »
Hi,

I've played through this mod twice already and I havent been able to unlock the stalker or heracles crafts at all. Is there a particular way to do this or have they been removed from the mod?

You've got to research more things, including completing research through interrogation. You can research several medics, engineers, and navigators before you stop getting new topics from them.

Offline Unmadesoldier

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #112 on: February 01, 2020, 04:01:47 am »
Apparently the heracles and the stalker are locked behind the mind shield. Who would have thought.

Plus, I would like to ask what the purpose of auto laser weapons is...

They seem like they're only useful for selling. They don't offer any significant advantages over conventional laser weapons.

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #113 on: February 02, 2020, 02:09:28 am »
Plus, I would like to ask what the purpose of auto laser weapons is...

They seem like they're only useful for selling. They don't offer any significant advantages over conventional laser weapons.

They aren't strictly supposed to be superior to the first lasers; rather they offer you a different firing style. All of the automatic weapons are supposed to be comparable in strength to their semi-auto counterparts, but faster firing and less accurate. Typically, the semi-auto weapons have a superior aimed or snap shot, while the automatic weapons have a superior auto shot. Do you use auto shots much? Let me know if you tried that and still think the weapons are out of balance.

Offline Unmadesoldier

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #114 on: February 06, 2020, 05:25:45 pm »
After testing, I found that auto laser weapons have a mixed effectiveness. They tend to work well for ufo breaching and base defense. Though the only truly useful auto laser weapon is the auto heavy laser.

Personally I find auto laser weapons to be pretty underwhelming considering that they are the next research after normal laser weapons. Their only benefit of a more accurate auto shot doesn't make them particularly appealing in general.

Plus, one thing I find strange is that power armor and flying suits dont augment strength of my troops. Is this intentional or is it a bug?


Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #115 on: February 07, 2020, 11:07:09 pm »
Plus, one thing I find strange is that power armor and flying suits dont augment strength of my troops. Is this intentional or is it a bug?

They should definitely be giving your soldiers attribute bonuses. You should get +20 strength from power suits and +10 firing accuracy from flying suits, in addition to +10 time units for either. Check if you have any other mods installed that are overwriting the suits.

- - -
I reviewed the lasers. It seems there's room for a small buff to the automatic lasers' auto shots. That might be why the first two are lackluster--their auto shot is good, but not so good as to make up for having a weak snap shot and terrible aimed shot. I'll queue the change with everything else I have coming up. Thanks for the feedback!

edit: I have released version 1.4.1 containing several updates including minor buffs to all automatic weapons. See original post for download or check the mod portal.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2020, 03:46:53 am by The Reaver of Darkness »

Offline Salt Factory

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #116 on: February 14, 2020, 12:25:33 am »
Good day Mr. Reaver, it's a been a bit since we've last talked but considering your recent update I'd like to explain what I believe to be the issue with automatic weapons.

     In order to make aliens stronger and the game more fun and challenging you have made enemies far more durable. I enjoy this change as it adds more depth to the tactical layer and more than just a spray and pray of laser rifle and later heavy plasma shots.

     The issue with this is that instead of balancing things around having heavily armored units like cyberdiscs and sectopods while also having units like snakemen chrysallids and mutons with say, beefy hp pools but low armor, it is instead the case that all alien units stronger than a floater or sectoid enjoy significant armor pools.

     In order to combat these armor pools, one must utilize concentrations of firepower. Dealing the maximum amount of damage in one shot to have the armor "apply" the least amount of times. As if you shoot something 3 times and hit, the armor got to reduce the damage multiple times. And currently the only way to shred it is AP ammo and I think incendiary.

     This fact coupled with the fact that ufo-extender accuracy for automatic weapons is painful beyond the first few tiles leads to one conclusion. Semi automatic weapons are superior in all cases. Including close combat, the 48-50 ish damage of a pulse laser rifle compared to its semi auto counterpart is pathetically weak when snakemen and mutons have 20-35 armor. Meanwhile the dreaded superhuman sectopod armor is nay uncrackable by anything but a heavy laser (heavy auto laser will not damage it on a maxroll of 200%) or one is to use extreme and dangerous explosive weapons. I enjoy the risk of either trying to chip away at the pod with heavy lasers or blast it out with 1-2 well placed fusion rockets/or an alien HE. (pro tip, do not give this to soldiers who are not psionically gifted and have less than 80 psi strength, or the ethereal will target their meager 60 psi strength and have them squadwipe you on cydonia.)

     To fix this issue, I believe a more dramatic overhaul would be needed. By making 1 tile (non 2 by 2/tank/terror) aliens have increased HP but reduced armor, this could make automatic weapons a more genuine alternative in closer combat. With semi autos still king of aimed and mid range snap shots. While keeping the tank units with their heavy armor to make semi autos still useful against them with the heavy "tank buster" semi auto weapon class.

     Lastly, it would be interesting if the arc shot of the auto-cannon was applied to all heavy semi automatic weapons. Giving them more of a role as they are currently even weaker than the auto rifles due to their TU cost. Perhaps making them arcing shots with small explosive radii (although this may change their damage type and mess up their balance) and then calling them say "laser mortar" and "terran plasma mortar".

     Of course, these are just my ideas from the time I've spent in this mod. And I understand if you haven't the time. I currently believe it to be the best available as it injects a much needed difficulty spike while sticking true to the original. FMP X-FILES and X-PIRATES seem to be too easy, add too much, and eventually develop the issue of "super soldier" syndrome from the new games. The worst offense is that psionics are still insane, where as in this version the power fantasy of "bouncing heads" with a mind control chain to win cydonia turn one is thankfully removed. Not to bash the creators or fans of these mods, it is just a game after all.

     Thanks and have a good day.

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #117 on: February 15, 2020, 06:11:07 am »
You are absolutely correct about armor, and it's a thing I had recently been tackling (finally) in my upcoming mod. Perhaps I will make a balance pass for Faithful to generate a mix of lower armor values. I had originally thought the variety was wide enough, but later testing reveals that some of the "low" values are still too high for auto weapons.

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #118 on: February 15, 2020, 10:02:56 am »
I'm releasing a stealth balance pass. I'd like some feedback from you guys on how you feel about it. It makes a few drastic changes. Autofire weapons have less damage but their auto shots fire five times. Their snap and aimed shots are faster now. This means that autofire weapons have considerably higher damage application against low-armor units but are poor for penetrating armor. In addition to this change I have made some units have less armor and more health, while some other high-armor units now have less health.

The following data contains spoilers on which aliens have heavy or light armor:
Spoiler:
Heavy armor aliens
Cyberdisc
Silacoid
Ethereal
Sectopod

Medium armor aliens
Chryssalid
Celatid

Light armor aliens
Sectoid
Floater
Reaper
Snakeman
Muton


The following data contains a comparison of weapon damage per turn, but don't rely too much on the data directly as you have to consider several other factors to make a decision. This table will help show how the automatic weapons have considerably higher damage per turn against unarmored targets.
Spoiler:
Pistol:         130
Rifle:         150
Heavy Cannon:   180
Laser Pistol:      184
Laser Rifle:      240
Heavy Laser:      230
Plasma Pistol:      300
Plasma Rifle:      360
Heavy Plasma:   260
Auto Pistol:      450
Machinegun:      336
Autocannon:      400
Laser APistol:      640
Laser PRifle:      462
Heavy ALaser:      456
Plasma APistol:   882
Plasma MachineG:   900
Plasma ACannon:   528
« Last Edit: February 15, 2020, 10:04:53 am by The Reaver of Darkness »

Offline WaldoTheRanger

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Re: [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
« Reply #119 on: February 15, 2020, 08:49:44 pm »
I'm getting a "404 attachment not found" error when I try to download it.

never mind.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2020, 06:16:51 am by WaldoTheRanger »