Tips and notes: playing Relaxed Eternal Lossless Superhuman (FinalModPack)

[Fins]

This is a walkthrough in progress, which i recently started, but there are some chances i'll be doing it for years to come. As such, this topic is a work in progress and will hopefully be regularly appended.

I did a similar thing in the past in No Man's Sky, and got praised for there "Tips and notes of a Permadeath Traveller" topic. It grew very lengthy there, so i will reserve several posts here for possible future use.

Current progress:
 - time: July 1st, 1999
 - losses, soldiers / aircraft: 0 / 0
 - alien bases, destroyed: 2
 - terror attacks, prevented / fought off / succeeded : 8 / 0 / 0
 - civilian casualties: 0.0

1. Terms

"Relaxed": this means i customized the game a little tiny bit to make it relaxing instead of "pulling hair out" kind of gameplay. I found a way to do it via editing just one small ruleset file of Final Mod Pack. Details are in section 2.

"Eternal": this means i intend to never go to Mars. Instead, i will defend Earth to the best of my ability. See how many years can i go on.

"Lossless": this means i play without losing any soldier nor any aircraft. The logic is simple: i deem it easier to load an earlier save than to buy / train / equip new soldiers and build new aircrafts. And, it's a goal to go for. I dare!

"Superhuman": this is the difficulty mode i play on. I decided it can't be "Relaxed" if i'd go "Ironman" - i hate losing well-developed troops; so i'll go "Lossless" instead. But hopefully lots of tips here will be useful to Ironman, too.

"FinalModPack": one of most popular mods for OpenXcom, includes dozens of good mods for the game. No other 3rd-party mods installed. Several "native" OpenXcom mods are enabled ("before" FinalModPack), being things i enjoy. Those are a part of the usual Nightly build installation of OpenXcom. So those are ones i have enabled:
- TFTD damage model;
- UFOextender: gun melee; //probably much affected by later-loading FinalModPack, but still works on some weaps; stunning a sectoid with a rocket launcher's swing is quite funny, too
- UFOextender: psionic line of fire;
- UFOextender: starting avalanches //clearly over-riden by FinalModPack though;
- XComUtil: Fighter transports //FinalModPack's extra transports are not affected;
- XComUtil: High Explosive Damage
- XComUtil: Improved Ground Tanks
- XComUtil: Improved Heavy Laser


2. Custom "Soldiers" ruleset

To make the game "relaxed" for myself, i had to change two things in the game: funding and soldiers' max stats. I did both via editing "soldiers" ruleset in the Final Mod Pack ruleset folder. The file is short and straight-forward. This may or may not be something you'd want to do, but here's what i did:

- set "max" stats to various 150 ... 250 values for all stats except Bravery. This means soldiers will be able to train those stats that high during gameplay. Since i go lossless and eternal, i naturally want to slowly grow up some "superman" soldiers. It's fun (to me);

- set starting Reaction stat being 50...60 instead of 30...60. Because i'll filter out any soldiers with less than 50 Reaction anyway in-game, so why bother having them in the 1st place?

- set starting Accuracy stat being 60...90 (substantial increase over default values). Because i find it strange how supposedly professional soldiers come with so low accuracy they can't hit a target couple dozen meters away reliably from a rifle - but in the same time, after say dozen missions, they already can;

- set starting Strength stat being some 40...70, for similar reason;

- set monthly "salary" of a soldier to -800000$ (instead of default 20000). This gives alot of extra money each month instead of taking away 20k per soldier. Because i want my economy to be relaxed, and because i deem it highly strange planet-wide inter-governmental effort (the Xcom) does not get dozens millions (at very least) of funding from said governments.

I reason here that military-industrial complexes around the globe pays Xcom "under the table" for each person (soldier) who's able to get their hands on on cutting-edge military equipment - both Earth-made and from aliens.

With those few simple edits of a single text file of the Final Mod Pack, i got my game going exactly the way i want it be. No other edits to game files were made.

Note, you'd need to re-do that edit if/when you'd update Final Mod Pack to any possible future version, if you're playing with it.

3. Tips

Tip #1: all tips will be in bold text.

This section contains tips which i deem helpful for playing OpenXcom + Final Mod Pack game. It hopefully will expand as i go on.

3.1. You can open any doors in the game without going through them: have a soldier get to it, face it, then right-click on a tile right behind the door. Highly useful!

I found this by accident. Takes 4 time units. Even double-tile doors can be opened this way. Very useful to prevent casualties.

For example, i had the classic-shape "very large" UFO mission, it has one huge lift in the middle, - opening it relealed two cyberdiscs and a sectoid right away. I opened it using the above method and had a machinegunner nearby, who took out one of cyberdiscs and the sectoid, but 2nd cyberdisc remained. Yet i was able then to step away ("around the corner" of the lift) without causing reaction fire from it, and everyone survived unhurt. Probably wouldn't be the case if someone would enter and then would come back out - them Cyberdiscs have excellent reaction fire.

3.2. Best starting ship weapons - are dual Avalanche missiles, get and use those ASAP.

This is not only because of great range of those missiles, allowing your interceptors to not take any damage in almost any UFO fight. This is also because 2 interceptors armed with 2 avalanche each - are often able to shoot down a terrorship, and they take 0 damage while doing so if they stay at max range from the terrorship, themselves. And you want to do it, because terror missions can go terribly wrong (being big negative score), and more importantly, - because you get alloys and other "loot" from a shot down terrorship in good amount. Which you don't get if you'd allow it to do its terror mission. Early-game, this is quite helpful.

And you can somewhat easily tell if any "large" UFO is a terror ship, with some experience. See, it's based on its speed: it flies significantly faster than say large UFOs which seek to establish contact with some government (the "pact" mission part of theirs), but still significantly slower than your starting interceptors.

3.3. Best starting weapons for nearly any playthrough - are Sniper Rifle + Submachinegun for most soldiers (each soldier carrying both), and Heavy Machine Gun for 1...3 soldiers in the squad (as soon as you have soldier(s) who got enough strength to carry it around without penalties).

The thing with Sniper Rifles is their huge range, of course. Practice having your snipers on elevated positions much in the "back", behind your advancing troops, and have them take beyond-visual-range shots as soon as your forward troops see one. This does two good things for you: 1st, the enemy can't do any reaction fire to your snipers, because they are beyond their visual range; second, whenever you snipers manage to kill such an enemy, - your forward troops, "scouts", remain there with all the time units still available for them for further movement and, if need be, for tactical retreats / cover. This works real well both day and night, but obviously maps with lots of trees / hills / obstacles makes it harder to do. But still very possible with mindful placement of "rear guard" snipers, and once you get some few of them having anti-grav modules, it'll be much easier.

Your forward troops - let's call them "scouts" from now on, - also benefit from having very same weaponry as your snipers: a sniper rifle and a submachinegun. Because you never know if some pesky alien will come up from a flank, so every extra sniper rifle in the squad makes it easier to deal with such unexpected "guests". Also, "snap shot" of the sniper rifle is useful mid-range for scouts themselves. As for short-range and point-blank kills - a submachinegun deals great damage with its auto mode early-game, able to drop any foe except large support units like Cyberdiscs if most of shots connect. Another important thing is that submachinegun is 1-handed weapon, so you can use it without penalty while still having the sniper rifle in another hand. And it takes few time units to both take it from the belt slot, and also to put it back into the belt (which you want to do if you resume sniping - sniper rifle is 2-hander, means you'll get penalty if you have anything in your other hand while using the rifle). Yet another thing, of course, is that submachinegun is less weight than other high-DPS close-range weapons. An added convinience of being able to carry it in one's belt, means you have extra backpack space vs using some shotgun or assault rifle as your close-range weapon of choice - seals up the deal of the "best close range weapon early-game".

As for mentioned large units like Cyberdiscs, - that's what Heavy Machinegun is for. I even say it should be a big priority early-game to designate couple good-accuracy soldiers to be your machinegunners, and you do so by checking their carrying capacity: take those with highest combined figure for strength + accuracy stats. The weapon is among the best starting weapons in terms of accuracy of automatic fire, but you will still need over 100 accuracy to achieve "1 volley = 1 dead 4-tile unit" mid-range (up to ~20 tiles away). Crouching helps to improve accuracy, of course. Its damage will improve once you research Alloy rounds and use those, to the point of dropping a cyberdisc sometimes in half of its 8-shot volley. Basically, the HMG is your answer to "i need to kill a big badass alien real quick but i can't use high-explosive charge for it because civilians / soldiers are nearby". Which is a common thing during terror missions. Another case when you would prefer HMG over high-explosive charge - is inside certain big UFOs, where up to 4 power sources and other good loot would be destroyed if using high explosives. So yep, HMG is a good thing to have around.

Of course, as your soldiers icnrease their strength, further extra weaponry may be added to their arsenal. Grenades are useful in their own way to sometimes take out that pesky alien on an UFO's roof or in a stone maze out of LOS. High-explosive packs for multi-target massacres and/or terrain levelling can come handy also. Tazer pistols and Stun Rods capturing research subjects. And for training soldiers' stats, Tazer pistols are invaluable, too. But all this is secondary to the three main weapons named above, i found. Furthermore, having a few medkits per squad is also a priority before getting busy loading all those extras. At the time i write this, the 10 soldiers of my 1st and so far only squad use all that already, and i find it exceptionally easy to clear any map doing those beyond-visual-range sniper shots and taking out any large 4-tile units with the HMGs and/or concentrated beyond-visual-range sniper fire.

3.4. Training Soldier stats: the Tazer Pistol is one awesome way to train both reaction and accuracy in the same time with no risk involved. 2nd post has kind of a guide about it.

3.5. Right click allows to do plenty cool things in the game, not just open doors. In particular:
- to assign all available scientists / engineers for a job;
- to sell all items of a kind in a single click;
- to move a soldier to the bottom or to the top of the list in a single click;
- to put all available items of the sort to or from a craft's inventory;
- to transfer huge amounts of things in one click;
- to manage alien confinement, research, production and specific crafts (right-clicking corresponding base facilities);
- to close a soldier's inventory (pressing right-click anywhere in it).
And probably more.

3.6. High Explosive trick: if you have instantly-detonating 200-damage high-explosives, then there is an alternative way to use them, which may often be safer: prime it up, then run to the spot you want it to detonate at, put it down on the ground, then run away behind some hard cover. It will explode the moment alien turn is started, not allowing aliens to move out of the blast zone.

This is really handy inside alien bases and UFOs, where plenty of hard cover is available and low ceilings often prevent your soldiers from throwing the thing far enough to stay safe, themselves.

3.7. Running - there is an option for it in OpenXcom - is not just for getting further than usually possible. Another, often more important function of running - it makes reaction fire from aliens to trigger way less often. Whenever you have enough stamina and have to move within field of view of some alien you're aware of - be running, not walking!

3.8. Early-game, there is a way to find out if some "large UFO" is a terror ship or not - before it lands and does its terror attack: send both interceptors after any large UFO you see, but do not attack it ASAP. Instead, have both interceptors follow it, maintaining both in the "possible to attack any moment" mode, and see where the UFO is going, in 5-seconds time scale, with enough zoom to see all cities. If it's a terrorship, it will head straight to some city, - so if you see it, shoot it down shortly before it'd reach the city.

Gives extra loot. But if it doesn't head straight to any city - keep chasing it, most likely it will land on its own (not a terror ship) - in which case you get extra loot by _not_ shooting it down (intact power sources, elerium, etc), if you send a team to assault the UFO which landed itself. Also saves some Avalanche missiles, of course.

3.9. Each hit counts independently for the purposes of increasing soldiers' accuracy stat, and this means that low-damage more-bullets-per-volley weapons (like submachinegun) are a good way to increase accuracy faster than otherwise possible.

3.10. Get lots of cyberdisc wrecks early and be careful where you spend them. "Alien Electronics" extracted from those are useful for more than one cool thing, among which are the best "sniper's" body armor and the Avenger. And to do that, you can use alloy swords whenever you get a chance to attack one in melee range. The trick is that multiple attacks with knives and swords do not cause reaction fire, and cyberdiscs never explode on death if sliced to pieces.

3.11. (updated) Thunderstorm with a Rail Cannon - seem to be the best "workhorse" interceptor of the game (with the mod pack) - not Raven as i thought before; for the following reasons:

- engines do not use Elerium;
- 4000 km/h speed sounds lower than top speed of bigger UFOs, but in practice it can catch them all, except battleships which do Retalliation mission against a base aliens know about;
- 450 health sounds not that much, but in practice all UFOs miss their shots most of the time, unlike against some "bulkier" interceptors;
- one weapon slot sounds like a big drawback, but Rail Cannon has outstanding DPS (8.75) - compare this to Plasma Beam (2.92) and Avalanche missles (1.1), this all is calculated from those weapon's stats: damage / accuracy / reload;
- its repair times are quite modest;
- can take out any UFO it can catch, reliably - even a battleship only damages it for ~50% of its health before succumbing to the Rail Cannon power;
- single weapon slot means halved need for Rail Cannon ammunition, vs any dual-slot interceptor;
- ammunition is cheap and fast to make, and occupies little storage space (0.1 per 60x piece).

3.12. Tormentor interceptors use times less Elerium for their engines than Avengers.

Just tested it out couple times, and it seems Tormentor will burn some 2...3 times less elerium for same-range engagement than Avernger would. Their speed being comparable, and their fuel capacity being 40 and 60 (so no huge difference, too), - this can only be explained by some hidden internal differencies. From this and (updated) 3.11, i guess that "ideal" setup for end-game "spend as little elerium as possible" aviation - would be this:

- 3 hangars in most or all bases;
- most bases having Thunderstorm (Rail Cannon) + Tormentor (dual Rail Cannons) + Avenger (dual plasma beams);
- one base, preferably closest to Europe, using the same as above, except instead of Avenger it uses Skymarshal troop carrier craft; may be two such bases, even.

This would then work the following way:
- most UFOs which do no-landing missions - are handled by Thunderstorms, elerium cost: 0. Slow-going Battleships better be engaged by a wing of 2...4 of those to reduce total damage-taken;
- in a very rare (if ever) event all Thunderstorms which could intercept are in repairs, Tormentors from bases which also have an Avenger - are a backup, elerium cost: 1...2 elerium per Tormentor flight (fuel), assuming nearest-available ones are used;
- battleships which need to be shot down before they would attack a base - also handled by Tormentor(s), and if those are in repairs - Avengers are their backup, as both go faster than battleship's top speed;
- all the crash sites / landed UFOs which are "no hurry" to land: handled by Skymarshal troop carrier, elerium cost: 0;
- any crash sites / landed UFOs which are an urgency: handled by Avenger teams, elerium cost: 1...10 elerium for fuel, depends on distance from the base to the landing site.

And may be end-game enough, it's even worth to build 4th Hangar in some bases and run with 2x Rail Thunderstorms in those. Just to be safe during any period of mass UFO activity.

~~ Length limit almost reached, see post #3 for more tips ~~

[Fins]

Tip 3.4 extended: a mini-guide about training soldiers' stats (accuracy and reaction).

Reaction is increased only when the soildier took some reaction shot(s) during a mission. However, it is extremely very risky to try and "train" reaction during usual combat, because by definition your soldier must see the enemy to take a reaction shot - which means that the enemy is likely seeing your soldier, too. And them aliens tend to kill people.

Accuracy is increased only when the soldier took some shots during a mission (both normal and reaction shots count), but misses do NOT count. While easy to increase by normal means bit by bit, it is still possible to "train" accuracy of many soldiers massively faster, if to use Tazer pitols and appropriate tactic. This is because it'd be quite impossible to have any large team - say, 10 soldiers, - to make a grand total of 110+ shots hit their target during a mission (which is the minimum required amount of shots to have all those soldiers' accuracy stat getting maximum possible increase). See,

Both stats will see the maximum possible increase if 11 or more shots are taken by the soldier during the mission: 2 ... 6 points will be given (random number). Do 10 shots or less per mission per soldier hit their target, and your accuracy stat gain will be much smaller (on average 2.5 points per mission, instead of 4.0 points average). Same for reaction shots: you want to do 11+ of those per mission to max your gains. So, if you're maxing out your troops, then you want each soldier to take 11 or more _reaction_ shots, and each of them hitting its target - in every mission this could be done.

Now how to do it and why Tazer pistols are so good for it. The latter is because shots from Tazer pistols count as weapon shots, thus allowing you to get those Accuracy and Reaction stat gains, - but in the same time Tazer shots do not kill, and aliens get back to life after few dozens turns, at which point same alien can be zapped to some more sleep again. And again. And again. As long as you need it. Cool huh?

There are certain things which make such "training missions" much easier and less troublesome than it may sound. Sort of "know how" i developed. Here it is:

- first, do not try to do "training" in any mission which involves Psi-capable enemies you want to _capture_ for research. So, that very large UFO you happily stunned some sectoid Commander with couple Leaders? Just pack up and head home, don't train your soldiers in it;

- second, do not do "training" in any mission with UFOs any smaller than "large scout". It's not efficient to do this if you can't easily have 5+ aliens stunned - and preferably, ~10 or more stunned aliens is the way to go. So, harversters and such - are perfect for this;

- third, obviously you want to kill as few aliens as possible, stun as many as possible. But the trick is to not stun _every_ living / moving alien - the mission will end if you do. So, go straight for the UFO, killing any aliens you deem difficult to stun, and then go into the UFO ASAP, with the whole team. Stun everything inside, using no more than 1 Tazer shot per each soldier (assuming your soldiers have 12 total shots - 5 spare Tazer clips - each). Stun Rods are helpful here, as are Small Launchers later on in the game. If the mission ends, this means no living enemy outside remained; well, bad luck. Otherwise, go on with the "training" mission as per the following;

- fourth, once you stunned every alien inside the UFO, - pick 'em buggers up and move their sorry butts into one single area inside the UFO, which will be your "training room". Except just one of them, - the one whom you stunned 1st when entering the UFO: this alien, move into a separate room with as few entrances as possible. Then put a soldier to entrance(s) to that isolated room and have them facing away. This guy will be "the last enemy standing" once he wakes up, ensuring your mission won't end prematurely. Make sure soldiers who block room exit(s) are standing inside the room, to prevent the alien from even trying to open any door. He'll get his portion of hot lead later on, when you'll be ready to finish your mission;

- fifth, if you play a game where aliens can pick up weapons (there is a setting for that in OpenXcom), - ensure no weapons are available for aliens to grab in those "training" and "last alien" rooms. You don't wanna 'em hurting your soldiers, eh. Also, keep an eye on this area with couple soldiers who have stun rods, and stun any who wakes up with stun rods. You don't want to spend Tazer shots on non-reaction fire. OR, if you don't mind a bit of save-scumming (i don't), - save often and notice which alien would wake up, then load previous turn and move his body into that "last alien" room, while moving the other one to the "training room". This will allow to have "the last alien" to wake up sooner, which is useful;

- sixth, with everything secured inside the UFO, - have someone with a motion scanner near entrance(s) to the UFO. It's best if they would stand there right after your team getting in, too. Use the scanner(s) every turn to see if any enemy gets close to UFO entrance(s) from outside. If they do, then open a door and either blast or stun them, if you feel they could come in and kill some of your guys. But preferably, let them in, by retreating "back into UFO" - if your "last alien" is not awake yet, that is. In any case, your goal is to ensure you wouldn't stun / kill very last non-stunned alien. If you already have "the last alien" awaken in that "sealed" room - just stun anything which tries to get in, using tactical retreats if needed to lure 'em aliens into safe "stun from behind" and such;

- seventh, optionally you want to go out and hunt any remaining aliens on the map once your "the last alien" is securely awaken in his room. Stun ones which you can, kill ones which you feel too dangerous. Pick up stunned ones and move their bodies into the UFO. You'll know when you got every one outside by the time it takes to complete an alien's turn: it will become almost instant once the only remaining alien - is harmless disarmed "last alien" inside that sealed room;

- eighth, now the training proceeds. Arrange your soldiers into a line which "cuts" some 3-tile-wide corridor or any other "somewhat long" section of a UFO in two separate passages. "Seal" all possible "way out" doors by 1 soldier each, except just 1 exit. Move aliens' bodies to the side which is furthest from that 1 remaining exit, making it so that they'd need to run around your line of soldiers to reach the exit. Now, any alien which wakes up - will have to run around, allowing your soldiers to take reaction shots, point-blank range (always hitting), if done right. Then just skip turns, and recharge Tazer pistols as nesessary - and if any alien moves "too far" around the line with tazers, just pick its stunned butt and throw it back to the other side of the line. "Sorry, pal, you'll have to run around - again", hehe. Once some soldiers run out of Tazer ammunition - send them to guard doors, while previous guards with more Tazer ammo go and take a spot in the "firing line". Make sure soldiers face directions in which they can't take any shots which are not point-black (to make misses impossible). Then just keep at it until everyone's Tazers are out of ammo.

This is it. Doing this will provide 2...6 Accuracy and 2...6 Reaction per every such mission to every soldier participating in such a training session, no matter how many shots and reaction shots they took during the rest of the mission. Turns are nearly instant when everything is done to the letter of the above, so it's very little time to skip each turn. If you "work" with as few as 5 stunned aliens and as big as 14 soldiers team, it'd probably take some ~700 turns to complete, but if you're doing some 10 soldiers and 10 stunned aliens, - chances are you'll be done before turn 250. I say that's quite reasonable for some 10 x 4 x 2 = +80 total stat gain on average per 10-man team to the two most important combat stats. +1 per ~3 turns.

But, of course, it's entirely your choice if to do this, or not. Just know that if you're not doing something like this, then your soldiers' accuracy will eventually grow itself, but their reaction will never increase oh so much. Unless you go and edit your save files to give 'em as high reaction as you'd want, of course. But there is no sport in that. Somehow. %)


Notes - continuation

Late February: things get real wild! Some time 19th, seven UFOs appeared within less than 8 hours frame from each other. One very large, two large ones, and four small ones. I knew from past experience that it's most likely base-building fleet. I managed to take out 4 of them with my main team (two big ones which landed themselves, and two small ones shot down by my interceptors - later on, crash sites remain for fairly long while). And i took out 2 more small ones with my Interceptor-flying 6-man "backup" team. But one large UFO still managed to sneak away. After the dust settled, i sent my interceptors to patrol all around the eastern China (where those UFOs swarmed), "just in case". I thought i made their mission fail, but wanted to be sure. Good thing i did! Those bastards _did_ establish a base - one of interceptors spotted it to the south of mainland China.

Well. I took it personal and wiped that base out. Was one hell of a fight, from which i invented the 3.6 "High Explosive Trick", now added to the Tips section of the 1st post. 8 Cyberdiscs and all... Phew! %) Granted, i did quite much save-scumming to make it through without any deaths. But i probably would have to do times and times more of it to make through if not for Motion Scanners. Those things are excellent!

By this time, my main team is rolling out with 2 HMGs loaded with Alloy ammo, 10 anti-matherial sniper rifles with Alloy ammo (80 damage per shot, but no snap shot mode), submachineguns, High Explosive packs, Tazer pistols x12 total ammo, few Stun Rods, few Motion Scanners, grenade + flare on each soldier, and few medkits. It takes lots of strength to carry it all - some 80...110 is what they got for now, already. It really makes up one extremely versatile and powerful combat unit, this setup.

My economy really went wild, too. Via that custom -800k "upkeep" for every one of 112 soldiers i had when January ended, i got me extra ~90 million bucks. Well guess what, i ran dry of money February 21st! Had to sell some loot, and will have to sell yet much more. Most of it spent for building all the new 7 bases up - which is far from done yet. But it really feels right, this rapid expansion: hey, it's whole Earth building up those bases, after all. I'm sure in real life, given such situation, they'd do it in about that much time indeed - 2...3 months. And it sure feels right seeing those bases to shape up quick, too. That's the way leaders of Earth defense should be operating, me thinks.

Speaking of soldiers, i hired 350 more. So the total number of hired soldiers in this game is now 454 souls. But then i checked all new recruits and sent away every one who does not have above-average Accuracy starting stat and 50+ Bravery in the same time. Which was most of them. After that, i counted how many soldiers remained in service. Amazingly - 128 guys (and gals). Which is quite a coincedence, as it will eventually allow to operate 16-man teams in each of 8 bases, which can be split either to two 8-man teams or made into one 16-man teams which one of mid-game FinalModPack transporters can move around. What are the chances? And nope, i am not making this up. It really happened.

I also decided on my bases' specializations and i am developing them accordingly, now:

- HQ, Rockies and Libreville: 200 scientists, ~80 engineers, and "main strike teams" bases of operation, each. Scientists will conviniently be able to research any captured alien teams bring in.

- Tokyo, Lima and Coral Bay: ~280 engineers each;

- LagaLaga: will be dedicated storage space;

- AmundsenScott: hangars. Later on in the playthrough i may reconfigure this one for extra storage too, if that would be desired.

But it'll take couple more months to build 'em new bases up. Meanwhile, the HQ base already got ~150 scientists and 3 labs built, who are now working on fine alloy tech - so, gauss times approaching.

Gauss Sniper Rifle is a definite improvement, especially for unexperienced rookies, because of its lower TU shot cost and a bit higher damage (90, vs 80 of anti-matherial Sniper Rifle with alloy rounds). If you find sniper rifles being your style - and i do, - then i recommend you to get those Gauss ones right after you interrogate an alien engineer. It then should allow to research alien power source, then elerium battery, which leads to Gauss tech. You'd probably need fine alloy mechanics researched, too. The gauss sniper rifle is unlocked after you research gauss rifle. One other neat thing about Gauss Sniper Rifles - they are relatively fast made, too. Heavy Gauss has certain bonuses over Gauss Sniper, but way lower accuracy.

Update: completed February, and had ALL 16 nations increasing their funding. 6773 score for the month. Was lucky to spot the 2nd terror ship in time to shoot it down, too. Very good luck for a single base radar coverage. But now, in mid March, dual large radars in all 8 bases are operational, and i hope now to remain at 0 civilian casualties for the whole game! Certainly one more goal i have set for myself, at least. Couldn't resist to make a link to the T2's corresponding scene. There is some dignity in it, even after all the years T2 film is around - remains unique to me.

In a mission March 16th, i got one of my best soldiers, Victoria Harvey, wounded very badly: 37 health left out of 118, that's after treating her fatal wounds. Night mission, floaters. Those are good shots. Definitely want to get good armor ASAP, but so far that's still far ahead, research not going fast enough. And that's with 200 scientists in the 1st base, now. Obviously my economy fix allows me to triple that quite soon - will be doubled in a few in-game days already as 4 labs in other bases are almost built now, - but for those who play with standard economy, i think it may be very worth it to focus on research in the 1st base, aiming for 300 scientists, ~35 engineers and ~15 soldiers in the 1st base, - _before_ building even the 2nd base. Assuming above described 1st base location which covers 9 nations with its large radar, of course. I definitely remember floaters were not that deadly in the original game, but here it seems they got some good boost. And colored capes, too (which is one cool feature). %)

May 10th, 1999.

Lots has happened since previous update. Hyperwave decoders became operational in all 8 bases. I shot down 3 more terror ships, keeping so far perfect record of 0 civilian casualties, preventing any terror attacks. Mind shields are now protecting every base. Twelve Raven interceptors are stationed in 6 bases, guarding whole globe 24/7, as so far no UFO they had to meet in combat had a chance to deal any damage to them (i continue to use dual-avalanche setup for each fighter, so far). Six advanced landing craft are built, each carrying up to 16 soldiers to battle, and teams to man them are set up. Each base now have two Gauss tanks just in case i'll ever need them, including possibly for base defense. And all the laboratories and workshops i planned - are now built and manned. The final setup is 2 bases with 290 scientists each, 3 bases with 290 engineers each, and 1 base with 200 + 80.

The massive boost to research from all those scientists allowed to already have psi-labs built in all 8 bases, training all 128 of my troops starting late April; psi-amp, railguns, all the best personal armor types, plasma beam craft weapon - are all available now, and further research will allow me to build Tormentors and Avengers, soon. And 950 engineers are all ready to get busy about it. Obviously i was quite successful in capturing and interrogating alien leaders and commanders to break through to all those end-game technologies, too. So far, so good.

July 1st, 1999.

Half a year done. Some 17k+ rating for June - my highest, so far!

This is because i am still going tactical to every last UFO, training my soldiers intensively. Going with full 26 soldiers squad using an Avenger, lately. Seven of them have "officially" reached "super-soldier" status by now, that's having nearly maxed TUs and other secondary stats; 100+ in firing accuracy, melee accuracy, reactions and Psi SKill; 80+ in Psi Strength. Those are truly Rambo-like personnel, able to take on practically any mission solo. Having that, i now start to relax overall training routines. Like, i don't use small UFOs for reaction training at all now, unless it's Chtonites (who are most easy to use for reaction training for their AI seem to ignore any danger of reaction fire/hits).

I dare hope those "superman" soldiers will be enough to handle any tricky battle / race / encounter the game may throw at me later on - and prevent any civilian casualties, whenever a fight takes place in any inhabited area.

Every base has at least one Tormentor and at least one Thunderstorm by now. And now i am reshaping my bases bit by bit, gradually phasing out now-excess engineers and scientists, getting more hangars and defenses instead. I developed a scheme for "universal long-term standard base" layout, too, check tip 3.23 in one of nearby posts to see it.

Science is nearly done, now. Navigators and Engineers in my alien containments can't be researched anymore - nothing left they could teach. Medics are nearly exhausted, too - i already learned about several units i never yet encountered interrogating those medics. Up to and including Sectopods, hovering artillery units, brain larva, etherials, cybermites, etc. It is amazing how much research is there in the game (with the final mod pack), seeing how even ~800 scientists need more than couple months to research it all.

[Fins]

~~ Tips section - continuation ~~

3.13. Going with "TFTD damage model" setting enabled is good for your troops' health and training their stats easier. And it's more reliable killing in combat, too. Here's how:

The setting changes damage of all hits from default 0% ... 200% random number (of listed weapon's damage) to 50% .... 150% random number. As a result,
- plasma pistols can't ever penetrate front side of Fly Suit (110 armor vs 65 x 150% = 97.5 max damage; but without the setting, it's 110 armor vs 130 max damage);
- plasma rifles can't ever penetrate front side of Juggernaut Suit (120 max damage vs 130 armor - instead of 160 vs 130);
- pistols (26 damage) can't ever penetrate armor (any side) of a Silacoid (50), means there will never be a hit which reduces its armor due to damage done - can do any number of reaction shots vs even single Silacoid using pistols;
- combat knives (40 damage) penetrate Silacoid armor (50) less often: 20...60 damage (the setting is on) damages the creature ~25% of the time on average, for an average of 5 damage (of its 115 health); while with the setting off, it'd be 0...80 damage, means it'd damage the creature ~37% of the time, for an average of 15 damage (thus killing the creature times faster, reducing number of hits - and thus points gained to melee accuracy);
etc.

Counter-intuitively, same math does _not_ make it harder to kill things when you want to kill them quick, if you use TFTD damage model - assuming you're using proper weapons for the job, means ones which have similar or higher listed damage than armor value of the enemy. Why? Because 0...200% makes you deal sequences of "low / no damage after armor" hits more often, which results in more shots needed to kill the enemy in such cases in compare to TFTD damage model. In the same time, it also would make you deal sequences of "high damage hits" similarly much more often - but not quite; thing is, any extra "overkill" damage does no difference, as soon as the enemy is dead - it does not matter if you killed it with 1 point of overkill damage, or 100 points of overkill damage. In other words, that "0...49%" part will always slow you down, while "151...200%" part will often make no difference.

An ultimate example: Heavy Gauss vs Sectoid - 100 damage vs something like 40 health and say 5 armor. With TFTD damage model, minimum possible damage is 50, means it's a guaranted instakill. 100% of the time. But without TFTD damage model, the shot would be random 0...200 damage, means there will be ~22% chance the shot will deal less than 45 points of damage, means the sectoid will survive 1st hit from Heavy Gauss, and even ~1.2% chance he'd survive two such hits (each being 22 damage or less, averaged). Quite unpleasant, eh.

This is how TFTD damage model is a win/win option. So, use it if you want an easier, relaxed game - and don't use it if you're ready to put your soldiers at the mercy of random number generator.

3.14. Once you got Hyperwave Decoders, you may want NOT to shoot down small UFOs coming in with "alien base" mission - if you want to get lots of extra loot. This is also VERY important to do near the end of the game to get certain race's commanders and rare items. Because if you shoot that small "1st" alien-base UFO down ASAP - other ones won't show up, and most likely that alien base won't ever show up, too - means you won't be able to raid it.

The difference in loot can be astronomical. See, i got such a small UFO and checked what happens. I found that allowing it to fly around spawns SIX more UFOs shortly afterwards, - 3 more small ones, 2 large ones and a battleship, - and all those 7 UFOs will land on their own, most of them - even twice, - for extended periods of time. But they never come if i shoot the 1st UFO before others would show up. I managed to capture six of those intact, using 3 ground teams, only shooting down one small UFO (wouldn't make it in time to capture it intact). So, in terms of Elerium only, i got me 650 units of Elerium extra for not shooting that 1st UFO down ASAP. And craploads of all other sorts of loot.

3.15. Melee weapons work through houses' windows, but only to "directly" adjucent tiles. Tiles which are "diagonal" which are normally reachable with melee weapons - won't be reachable if it's "through the window".

3.16. Melee hits increase both melee accuracy and firing accuracy for some strange reason. But not the other way around: shooting down enemies never increases melee accuracy.
Strange as it is, this means you can train deadly accurate sniper without making a shot.

3.17. Best end-game side-arm: Nuclear Laser Pistol, and BY FAR. Unless there is some hidden weapon research i have not discovered yet. Here's why:

- average damage per shot (46) is higher than most aliens' armor value;
- auto mode spends record-low amount of TUs among all automatic weapons - 25%, - means it can fire up to 12 shots per turn;
- pistol shape means soldiers can wear it on a belt, and it takes only 4 TUs to put it from the belt to soldier's hand;
- operates without any ammunition needed, means you'll never run out of ammo for it in combat and you'll never forget to stock up on its ammunition in geoscape;
- does not indirectly consume Elerium, like Plasma Pistol does (since its ammunition can be broken into Elerium) - except most humble production cost of 1 Elerium per pistol;
- its main drawback, which is very low accuracy of Auto mode (28%) - becomes way less important during end-game, assuming soldiers who use it have high firing accuracy.

Still, it remains close-range weapon to be efficient, yet it's exactly where and when we need it. So no big deal, in me book. And to demonstrate the sheer firepower of this pistol, consider this example: vs Chryssalid's ~95 health and some ~35 armor, each volley (3 shots) will cut away an average of ~33 points of the thing's health, means a single soldier will likely kill one full-health Chryssalid while spending only 75% of his TUs. Very same result - somewhat higher than 50% chance to kill a Chryssalid spending 75% of soldier's TUs, - is what you get from one aimed shot fired by the mightiest sniper rifle in the game (Rail Sniper Rifle, 135 listed damage = ~67-292 actual damage, vs 95 + 35 = 130 points of damage needed to insta-kill that Chryssalid; that's with TFTD damage model on). Not bad for a pistol, eh!

3.18. If you're into training reaction of your soldiers: any reaction with a combat knife seem to produce some 6...10 "reaction experience points", as opposed to any projectile weapon which only produces 1 "reaction experience point" per shot. You need 11 or more of those "reaction experience points" to max out reaction training, per soldier per combat.

This probably will be the same with any melee weapon, but so far i only am 100% sure about combat knife (which is the best weapon to train melee accuracy due to its lowest damage, of course).

I repeatedly see +5 and +6 reaction gains for soldiers who only made 2 combat knife hits reacting to an alien who tried to run through. And it doesn't matter if both hits landed or not - in a few cases i know one of them didn't, but it still counts. I discovered this while training my soldiers' melee accuracy and being lazy to hit aliens myself, instead making a "corridor or death" of soldiers armed with combat knives and letting disarmed aliens to run through it (because there is only one "exit" and they need to run through tiles adjucent to my soldiers to reach it). That's after training Psi on them, of course.

3.19. Best weapon in the game (after Psi-Amp) - is the Alloy Sword. No joke. Here's why:
- massive damage (50 + bonus from Strength of the soldier, and that bonus is BIG);
- tiny TU cost (10 time units per hit, no matter how many time units soldiers have);
- it seems it always hits once wielded by someone with 100+ melee accuracy;
- using it does not cause any reaction fire / action from enemies who see the soldier (at least, i never had any enemy reacting to its use).
The thing is total crazy and OP. Can kill MiB tanks in one hit (when done by nearly-maxed soldier in my game - 250 Strength, but that's "old X-com" stat caps as explained in section 2), so it's like more powerful than Heavy Railgun per hit for me. Its in-game description mentions the strength bonus, and mentions it can slice through armored terror units. Both is true. And both is not true for Plasma Sword, because it has no strength bonus at all (i tested it). Plus the Plasma Sword is 20 time units per hit - 2 times slower. Knives don't have Strength bonus neither.

Just in case you play OpenXcom with its default stat caps, Alloy Sword still remains the most potent damage dealer when in melee range whenever target's armor is less than 60. I made some tests, and i'm 100% sure the "bonus" is 100% of strength added as damage. With TFTD damage model "on", and standard Strength cap of 70: average damage = 120, actual before-enemy-armor damage = 60-180. Against targets with less than 60 armor, which is almost everything, the sword will dish out exactly 60 average damage per hit, and with the default TU cap being 80, up to ~6 hits per turn can be made if the target is nearby - that's 360 damage done. Heavy Railgun would manage to make a single auto shot, and even if all 3 bolts hit (which to be guaranteed requires melee range just the same), - that would still be 3 times 90 damage average, i.e. 270 damage done. Less-armored targets suffer even more from the Sword, and it has the added convinience of doing more hits per turn - great for smaller, softer targets.

Obviously, though, vs most armored target i know about (so far) - Sectopod with its 145 front armor, - Heavy Railgun will be much better than the Alloy Sword, if playing with default OpenXcom stat caps. But in my game, Strength cap is 250, and TU cap is 250 also. With those two stat cap changes, soldiers who are anywhere near those stat caps - become those insanely OP ninjas i menioned above. Ones who reached those caps will dish out 300 average damage per Alloy Sword hit (so, 150-450 before-enemy-armor damage per hit with TFTD damage model). Means, not only MiB tanks - even Sectopods will often drop dead in just one hit. And with 250 TUs total, the Sword still takes 10 TU per hit - unlike any guns, which all take set percentage of max TUs. So yeah, that's crazy and OP, those swords; they were never balanced to work with "original" stat caps of X-Com (which were 254 or 255, back in 1990s DOS X-Com editions) here in OpenXcom; i did not expect my custom ruleset from section 2 to have such an OP effect on that Alloy Sword; but hey, if my kung-fu is that good, then i think i'll go on with it.

3.20. Related to the previous tip: melee accuracy is one of harder stats to train early in the game, but i found two races which are just excellent for it. Namely:
- first, Chtonite large and very large UFOs come with Silacoids, and those have high enough armor to endure dozens of combat knife hits, each. Flying armor will allow to keep close to them without getting hit. Just don't forget to have everyone fly up by the end of every turn, of course. Don't even need Psi for this one;
- second, Anthropods' terror units - Spitters - have 60 armor in their back. Those have ranged attack, so it's needed to have Psi soldiers to keep them controlled, to avoid damage. May be Juggernaut armor will allow to withstand their attacks with impunity, though, - not sure. Toxisuits should do the trick, too. Thing is, with TFTD damage model, combat knives do exactly 20-60 damage, therefore knives can't penetrate Spitters' rear armor at all. Infinite knife hits doable! And as usual, 11 hits per soldier are needed for full training potential. Misses do not count, though, so it takes fairly long while for soldiers with low initial melee accuracy to raise it to 100+. And don't forget to hit 'em 1st, Psi them 2nd, too: hits landed on already-mind-controlled enemies do not count either.

3.21. Mind Shield may make it "harder" for aliens to detect your bases, but only if you shoot down all UFOs which come with "alien retalliation" mission - including battleships. If you don't, then aliens will find at least one of your bases in less than a montth. Possibly more. And then they will keep attacking 'em till the end of days. Tested several times with "try to go couple months ahead quickly" runs, with and without shooting down UFOs, and now i'm 100% sure about this.

3.22. Tormentors - best interceptors of the game - require ZERO Elerium for repairs, and they are times faster to be repaired than Thunderstorms after 1-on-1 Battleship and Terrorship fights (Rail Cannons installed for both, of course).
Unlike Thunderstorms, Tormentors cost some Elerium to build - but none to repair! Tested it by allowing a battleship to damage one of my Tormentors for ~80% of its hull (only ~20% remaining), then checking Elerium stocks of the plane's base during and after repairs. 1 Elerium was spent to refuel the Tormentor after it was repaired, can't be less for refueling, - and none for repairs.

3.23. Here's my "end-game" base setup, designed for maximum survivalability and air force power while having all the essential end-game facilities. Here's what each cell of a base' 6x6 grid would be used for, followed by explanation why it's best to do it this way:
1st row: hangar#3, hangar #3, hangar #4, hangar #4, large storage facility, large storage facility;
2nd row: hangar#3, hangar #3, hangar #4, hangar #4, large storage facility, large storage facility;
3rd row: hangar #2, hangar #2, access lift, empty, living quarters, empty;
4th row: hangar #2, hangar #2, empty, hyper-wave decoder, workshop, psionic lab;
5th row: hangar #1, hangar #1, empty, mind shield, mind shield, mind shield;
6th row: hangar #1, hangar #1, empty, variable, variable, variable.

The 3 slots in the bottom-right corner of the base which i call "Variable" - may have different things depending on what i want every particular base to be useful for. For example, if i'd want to be able to research captured aliens in one particular base, then those 3 slots would be: living quarters, laboratory, alien containment. If i'd want to house more than 10 Psi-training soldiers in that base, then those will have extra needed psi-labs, instead. If nothing else, additional mind shields should be constructed here: each one decreases chances that the base will be found by aliens by 50%. So, having 6 mind shield total - will cut base-detected chance by the factor of 64. I.e., with 6 mind shields, aliens are 64 times less likely to find such a base.

The 5 "empty" slots serve triple purpose in this setup. 1st, they separate hangars and access lift (in which aliens appear during any base assault) from the rest of the base. Large storage facility has wide open spaces, and aliens have to pass through it to attack base personnel - excellent space to shoot 'em down. Further down from the large storage facility, there is the narrow "choke point" of the single Living Quarters - the bottleneck which alens would have the hardest time to pass through.

2nd, the above is only needed when the base is in fact attacked. Before it gets attacked for the 1st time, though, those 5 slots can be used for 5 additional Mind Shields. With up to 6 more Mind Shields in other slots of the base, the chance for the base to be detected can presumably be reduced by the factor of 2048. If used this way, those can be deconstructed directly before the 1st assault against the base (which can be predicted by the experienced player based on speed and trajectory of the attacking battleship even before the actual assault starts), so that the above "1st" purpose of those 5 slots would be then fulfilled, if desired.

The 3rd purpose of the 5 "empty" slots, however, is to be used for building 2x Grav Shields and 3x Fusion Defenses in the event the base would be found and repeatedly assaulted by aliens _despite_ mind shields - in the event the player would prefer not to do base assault missions. Two grav shields means that each Fusion Defense will fire up to 3 times if needed, so with 3 Fusion Defenses, up to 9 shots will be made. Battleships got 3200 damage capacity, and each Fusion Defense shot is 1200 defense value with 80% probability to hit. So, out of 9 shots, 3 hits should be enough to wipe out an attacking battleship. Means 7 out of 9 shots must miss for this setup to allow a battleship through. With 80% change to hit for each of those 9 shots, chances for 7 of 9 to miss are like astronomically small.

And yes, it should still be a good idea to keep mind shields even after some alien race detected the base: other races should still be unawares about it, so mind shields can still serve to reduce the total number of attacks vs that base.

Last but not least, this setup includes four hangars. "Why so many", you may wonder. That's because later on in the game, number of UFOs increases much, and yet it's crucial to shoot most of them down. Battleships become more and more common. Means more and more of interceptors will spend time in repairs, like it or not. That's why more interceptors will be needed, sooner or later, especially for this "eternal" game i am playing here. And then there is also the matter of Elerium costs for fuel and (some) aircraft weaponry, which i try to minimize - this in turn means more damage taken by interceptors. All that together taken into consideration, i decided 4 hangars will be desirable, for the following plane setup in each base:

- Hangar #1: Tormentor / Rail Cannon x2
- Hangar #2: Thunderstorm / Rail Cannon
- Hangar #3: Thunderstorm / Rail Cannon
- Hangar #4: Tormentor / Rail Cannon x2 - OR Avenger / Plasma Beam x2

Thunderstorms will spend zero Elerium, will attack all small UFOs, and whenever the base have _both_ Thunderstorms operational (not in repairs) - the pair will also attack any Terror Ship / Battleship happening to appear near the base (in which event one of Thunderstorms will take enough damage to be in repairs for like 2...3 days). If one of Thunderstorms would already be in repairs, though, - then Tormentor attacks the big UFO instead. Even a pair of them, if it's also Tormentor in Hangar #4. Avengers would only occupy Hangar #4 in bases which have ground teams to go to missions. Perhaps just two such bases would be that, eventually.

I found that Avenger's fuel cost is always less than amount of Elerium taken from successful mission - even UFOs will all Power Sources destroyed provide some in the form of aliens' plasma weapon clips, alien grenades, small launcher bombs, etc, which can all be disassembled for Elerium. Avenger's speed makes it excellent to reach whenever on the globe quickly, allowing to do several missions a day if needed. Plasma Beams are less efficient weapons than Rail Cannons, but are still the better choice for Avengers which carry squads: Plasma Beams are long range weapons, which allows the Avenger to avoid any damage whenever it attacks anything smaller than a Battleship. And Battleships should NEVER be attacked by Avengers, as i found that they don't dodge enemy shots any well (Tormentors dodge shots amazingly well, that is), - means any fight with a battleship will damage the Avenger dramatically, which is quite very bad thing to happen to a troop carrier. For the similar reason short range of Rail Cannons makes them undesirables to be used by an Avenger. So, in rare case when there would be no other interceptor able to deal with some non-battleship UFO, the Avenger can fly out and shoot it down without taking any damage (as Plasma Beams outrange non-battleship UFO weapons).

[Fins]

Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #4

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Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #5

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Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #6 (oh yes i _can_ go over 100k, wouldn't be the 1st time)

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Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #7

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Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #8 (almost there)

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Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #9 (no really! %)

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Reserved for expected future use (this forum per-post space limit is only 20k characters) - post #10

Phew. Round 200k will be enough... Hopefully. If not... Well i guess i'll use links to later-on posts. This thing will possibly go for years on, so hey. 200k is humble.

[ohartenstein23]

Interesting premise for a playthrough, should prove fun as long as you have the patience for it.

Something you should know about OpenXcom over the vanilla game - the variable rollover won't occur at 255, since we're not using 8-bit unsigned integers.  It's much higher (64 bit, signed, I think?), so if you really want 1000 TUs as a cap, you can do that.  That might be a bit too relaxed though.

[Fins]

Oh, i see! Thanks for explaining that. I'll remove corresponding part above, now. And yep, 1000 tu is way too relaxing. I'll stick with 200s for there is still one more reason to do it: namely other Xcom versions where the thing is still an issue. May be someone from those other lands will come and read bits and pieces here in the future, i mean. Best to be relevant. %)