Finally started playing this

[HT]

After having been playing X-Files, I opted to test the game that started it all. Boy, how do things change. My first "memorable" battle is my party of poorly armed pirates and a parrot against a bunch of hookers, juvenile punks and low-lifes in order to rescue a missing sister. Unfortunately, it seems that you can't reanimate her right away and that I should have tried to capture a bunch of them, judging by the low scores. Sadly, even the starting melee weapons suck, but I guess I'll keep playing and see if I can adapt to the new game-style.

By the way, what does it mean when a weapon causes Shock (ie: x4) and Reaction Disruption? I'm not sure what these two attributes mean yet.

Lastly, is there a way to restore the font color to the original one from previous versions? I was told that there's a mod lost somewhere that does that. The new one makes it a pain to read certain research texts due a poor combination of background pics and the text color, for not to mention some screens have so many words they reach the bottom and keep going, making some bits  unreadable.

[legionof1]

Shock(X) is a multiplier on the normal stun damage caused by all lethal weapons. Normally the base is .1 of damage that penetrates armor.

Less certain about reaction disrupt. But if i recall correctly its damage to TU thereby making reaction fire less likely. 

[Dioxine]

Thanks for the review!

You asked about the font. I am sure you can find a way to replace it if you want, but I want to stress that it is an intergral part of the experience that is X-Piratez and so I can't remove it.

[LuigiWhatif]

This should set the small font back to the default Xcom.  The #'s are the important part.  I find it easier to read, but I think some of the characters are slightly larger so it might send a bit more off screen.

Find the file called "AmigaFont.dat", open it in a text editor, find the following code:

Code: [Select]

  - id: FONT_SMALL
    width: 8
    height: 9
    spacing: -1
    images:
      - file: FontSmallBloax.gif
#      - file: FontSmall.png
#      - file: AmigaFontSmallDio.png

and change the last 3 lines to this:

Code: [Select]

#      - file: FontSmallBloax.gif
      - file: FontSmall.png
#      - file: AmigaFontSmallDio.png


[HT]

Thanks for the answer Luigi! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do anything. The changed lines you wrote are identical to the previous ones if that's the issue.

[Meridian]

Thanks for the answer Luigi! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do anything. The changed lines you wrote are identical to the previous ones if that's the issue.

They are not identical... they have # on different place... which makes all the difference.

[HT]

I checked again and I noticed the problem:

The font did change indeed, but the background of some pics make it difficult to read due the color difference, but at least the font is easier to read now. Also, some pics still have the problem about the text going beyond the pic.

There was a way to increase the size of these 'paedia screens without messing with the rest of the game's chosen resolution, but I can't find it right now.

[Dioxine]

Stop fixing what is not broken.

[HT]

Alright, I swapped back to the original font and the problem about text going beyond the pics is gone, even though I don't like the font choice. Oh well, I guess I'll have to go with this for the moment.

Playing the game is quite exciting, the way how is it different from XCOM is worth mentioning again, even though it's very hard even at low difficulties (I'm doing a test-run first to see how it plays and how far I can go). I have a few questions though: First, do you always get an infamy rating bonus every month to give you extra money, or does that feature disappear at some point? I believe it was done as a crutch to help players with the low income at the start, but even then it's not enough to pay for the salaries of the scientists guys/gals (just like XCOM!).

Second, are there ways of increasing the monthly income besides impressing the countries with a high score? As in, related research topics, like the Promotion I-III ones from Solarius' X-Files.

Third, I see you can use guns and stuff that you haven't researched yet, at the expense of not knowing its stats and such. However, does the gal using said weapon/item suffer some kind of penalty to damage/aim/whatever for using an "unknown" item? I suppose the most advanced stuff like plasma weaponry must be researched before using, as usual.

Fourth, I dunno if it's a bug, but I found I was able to research Crack twice: First I got it as a related research topic from an Academy Nurse, but then I was still able to research it again from one Crack I found during an academy mission. I saw in the tech tree that researching this eventually leads you to the Medicine research topic, but I dunno if it's worth researching the same thing twice besides for the global score.

Lastly, after researching certain npcs like the Academy Researcher, the game tells me I now can research new stuff such as the Experiment Victim, even though I was already able to research the latter from the very start.

Anyway, this is quite more fun than what I had expected, even though I'm not sure what I am doing at times.

[Ethereal_Medic]

1.) You get the infamy bonus every month. It won't stop at any point in the campaign. Use the extra do$h to fuel your economy.
2.) Every research done increases your monthly score. The best way to get money is looting and selling loot and selling items build in the workshops/extractors.
Try selling "X-Grog" and "Chateau de la Morte" once you can produce these items. The workshops are a very important factor to keep the campaign afloat.
3.) Unresearched guns and armors offer no penalty using them.
Stellar empire gauss and plasma weapons need to be unlocked interogating academy espers and provosts.
4.) Maybe the Nurse gave you another topic for free and this unlocked the research for Crack.

[HT]

2.) Every research done increases your monthly score. The best way to get money is looting and selling loot and selling items build in the workshops/extractors.
Try selling "X-Grog" and "Chateau de la Morte" once you can produce these items. The workshops are a very important factor to keep the campaign afloat.
4.) Maybe the Nurse gave you another topic for free and this unlocked the research for Crack.

Thanks for the info! But you misunderstood: I mean that if there are ways to increase your monthly payment besides a high score, such as researching special topics or doing certain missions. As for the Crack thing, the odd thing is that I got both the Nurse and the Crack in the same mission, yet I was able to research both without issues. Either way, I re-researched it again for some more points and hopefully open a path towards getting better medicine than alcohol (although that one is surprisingly effective).

[Ethereal_Medic]

To raise your protection-money earned by the local governments you just have to do missions in thier territory.
If you do well this month (doing alot of missions with high score) they increase payment.
Since you can't cover the whole globe early on the protection-money around your starting location rises constantly (considering you win all mission or go for broke) while some locations outside radar coverage can lower the bribe.
Your monthly 'payment' will never be enough to pay your maintaince and salaries. You've to keep money in the bank to pay it on your own.
That's why you mass produce alcohol and stuff to the world. To pay the bases and expand quickly.
The protection-money is reliable income but can't support all your upkeep on it's own.
It's not uncommon to have a difference of 10M in the maintaince due to the salaries of brainers and runts. They've to pay for themselves by rushing hundreds of tanks to arm the world.

[HT]

Thanks for the tips! Currently I unlocked more vehicles but they're all battery-powered. Worse, they don't have any weapons. Were can I find a Charge Laser? IIRC in previous versions the Air-Car started with it, which doesn't seem to be the case here. In fact, what's the best way to acquire craft weaponry? Right now I'm having trouble finding other civ vehicles to track down and loot, focusing mostly on purple missions to get my score and dollaros.

[SomeGuy]

Try to find landed ships, or try to unlock one of the codices, think all of them come with some sort of craft weapon but might be too expensive to utilise. Or you can attempt to research and make your own craft weapon, sure they won't be that powerful but enough to shoot down smaller ships. 

[KateMicucci]

The best cheap craft weapon is reticulan charger, you can get it from killing landed reticulans.