Newbe questions

[KZad Bhat]

Dioxine, that's not nostalgia glasses. That's having been able to kill them with gauss weapons where the harpoon guns would do nothing. Hence, at least you do damage rather than just waste ammunition.

Yes, sonic weapons were better, but Zrbite was pretty limited, so equipping everyone with sonic weapons wasn't going to happen until very late, if ever.

Explosives were even better, but using them was a bit time consuming, and you wouldn't be able to get many near a lobsterman when it comes out . . . one per soldier at most. Usually though a couple of alien grenades would take them out fine. (And no, I don't recall what they were actually called.) More notably the problem with explosives is that when you're fighting lobstermen at a terror site, you have a high chance to have those grenades to land near civilians and end up killing them too.

So, harpoons, no damage. Grenades, significant damage with what you can throw . . . a lot of times to civilians too. Sonic weapons, good damage, limited ammo. Gauss weapons, at least hurt and can take them down, and you can make as much ammunition as you can get the money for. Did I get something wrong?

In comparison to how things work in XPiratez . . . that vast majority of regular firearms will not harm a lobsterman at all, and I confirm for absolute certain that the Linux SMG is one of those that will always do 0 damage. You know, something to do with only taking 30% damage from piercing weapons like that. I can't say what the resistances were like in vanilla TFTD, I just know the gauss weapons did something, and the harpoon guns basically did not.

[Dioxine]

Eh... Zrbite? Limited? Seriously? And that's only IF you needed to use Zrbite at all, early to mid game was abundant with Sonic ammo (before the enemies started to be armed almost exclusively in Disruptor Launchers). In comparison, engaging Lobstermen with Gauss and/or explosives, while technically doable, was simply a waste of time, effort, and soldiers. Can't compare Gauss to Dart Rifle either, as Dart Rifle was not even worth using as a weapon. Early game was based on grenades and Gas Cannons.

As for Piratez, well, Lobster might be a wake-up call that regular firearms don't cut it in general.

[KZad Bhat]

You're not thinking in term of some of the changes made in modern rulesets, are you? In the original release of both UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep, the alien fuels were rather scarce. The only way to get them was intact engines. And intact engines were nowhere near a guarantee in a shot down craft. On the other hand, changes have been made with OpenXCom rulesets that make it possible to get it even from destroyed engines.

[Solarius Scorch]

I only played vanilla TFTD back in the 90s and I can confirm that I never had any problems with sonic ammo, and that I only tried to use Gauss weapons on my first run.
But on the other hand, I don't agree that dart rifles were useless, I used them a lot. Same with hydro-jets.

[Shrugger]

As for Piratez, well, Lobster might be a wake-up call that regular firearms don't cut it in general.

I am shocked and appalled and this is an outrage. Why have all these beautiful toys if we aren't meant to use them?

That said, this might explain why my gals are increasingly running around with nothing but Anchors and Assault Cannons.

[Zippicus]

I am shocked and appalled and this is an outrage. Why have all these beautiful toys if we aren't meant to use them?

That said, this might explain why my gals are increasingly running around with nothing but Anchors and Assault Cannons.

There's plenty of toys to play with, it's just a matter of using the right one for the job.  Basic firearms can handle most enemies with no problems, especially if you research and use the extra ammo types.  But some enemies aren't going to go down no matter how many assault rifle rounds you bounce off their armor.

[Dioxine]

You're not thinking in term of some of the changes made in modern rulesets, are you? In the original release of both UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep, the alien fuels were rather scarce. The only way to get them was intact engines. And intact engines were nowhere near a guarantee in a shot down craft. On the other hand, changes have been made with OpenXCom rulesets that make it possible to get it even from destroyed engines.

Of course not, I only played it back in the late 90s, and never felt the slightest desire to repeat the unfun experience with OXC. Afaik engine explosion in TFTD is as much likely as in UFO, so maybe every other craft is Zrbite-less? There is an awful lot of them flying around, tho...

[Rince Wind]

I used Gauss because they were more fun than sonic weapons on a 2nd playthrough. Mostly rifles as well, because the big ones are ugly af.
I still remember the mission were we first met lobstermen. It took a lot of explosions and ammo to bring down one lobster. The next ones were easy because we could loot his gun (was researched already), a sonic rifle. It was only a very small UFO, but it was one of the most tense xcom fights ever.

[Zippicus]

All this TFTD talk is bringing back nightmares of trying to find that last god damn guy hiding in one of the cabins on the cruise ship missions lol.

[Rince Wind]

For me some alien bases or whatever the other 2 stage mission was called where you had to disrupt some communication thingy were worse. I literally couldn't find some aliens there and just destroyed the thing and left without loot. Sure, you don't have that option on the ships, but I somehow remember them as not quite as bad.

[Shrugger]

Just got my first mansion mission, dressed up in Wench and Maid gear, went in and...realized I had no fucking idea what I was doing.

You're supposed to GTFO within 30-something turns? But my gals have hardly any carrying capacity for loot!

And "the cavalry" will arrive later on? Is that instant loss? I read that you can beat them, but how feasible is that?

[AgentFransis]

You have two options:
1. Take what loot you can find and escape to the roof. You can use thief outfits for extra inventory and carry capacity. Personally I have never done this.
2. Kill 'em all. Perfectly doable in time even with primitive weapons. You then get the keep all the sweet sweet loot.

[incas]

As soon as I got the interrogation tech I had 0 missions with the academy. Why is that? Do I need to wait for the Dr. X mission or something? I need a broken medic.

[Rince Wind]

RNG, it happens.

[Solarius Scorch]

As soon as I got the interrogation tech I had 0 missions with the academy. Why is that? Do I need to wait for the Dr. X mission or something? I need a broken medic.

Coincidence.

But Academy medics are very common... You should have plenty from all those Scientific Experiments mission. If you don't, just wait for a bit.