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Author Topic: Superhuman Ironman Challenge  (Read 4275 times)

Offline NotAVirus.exe

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Superhuman Ironman Challenge
« on: December 22, 2018, 11:19:24 am »
I've managed to beat the game on Superhuman, Ironman; Twice. To do this you need:
  • Custom Initial Base:Yes
  • Field Promotions:Irrelevant
  • Predict UFO trajectory: Irrelevant
  • Explosion Height: 1(or 0,2, maybe not 3)
  • Allow PSI capture/improvement: Yes
  • Override line of fire: Definite Yes
  • No other PSI Modifiers
  • NO OTHER MODS
  • DO NOT DISABLE ENEMY PSI OR GIVE INSTANT PLAYER ACCESS

I tried about 800 times to get both of these runs, I can post pictures(first, maybe second) but the main stats are up to the user, this run is borderline impossible by 12/22/2018. The layout of the initial base is important and should be required to be custom. Player should use latest nightly build however I got the first run about 2 years ago so it shouldn't be impossible. The PSI glitch I reported for this DOES NOT effect game play as the 1st run had mediocre RNG.

Post any modifiers you have for this run below, preferably a screenshot of beating the game is all you require. I do not consider Jade's run to be valid, he obviously disabled psionics/cheated his run.

I have beaten this twice with near identical settings to the original, the first run only worked due to a Psi-Aggression math error. The second is 100% legit no significant glitches.

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: Superhuman Ironman Challenge
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2018, 11:56:03 am »
The most important thing for a vanilla superhuman run is to understand how to avoid all of the glitches and also to use good battlescape tactics. Beyond that it's actually pretty easy when you take advantage of the abundant resources you have at your disposal:

1.) Soldiers are abundant. It is good to keep them alive and getting experienced, and losing soldiers hurts morale, but a few losses here and there don't really hurt you financially. Don't waste money on armor if it isn't going to pay itself off.
2.) Money is abundant if you keep it flowing in. Go on missions where your expected monetary income is greater than your likely losses. Go on lots of easy missions, especially landed UFOs. Sell all those plasma weapons and UFO Power Sources you collect.

Another tip to make failure less likely: get a hyperwave decoder as soon as possible. Getting a lot of income early on will pay off if you spend it on seeding the world with bases that have a hyperwave decoder, a hangar, and a firestorm with at least 1 plasma beam. Once you're there, the entire game is downhill. Shoot down EVERY infiltration craft, shoot down all retaliation craft except for battleships, and pretty much ignore everything else. Take on landed missions for supplies; if you see an alien base or infiltration mission in final stages, that's a good place to catch several large landed craft.

Another tip: watch your score. Don't run out to kill all alien bases as soon as possible, rather save some for a bad month. You can do a couple of base missions to jack your score up at the end of the month as needed. Also don't be afraid to abuse the warning mechanism. If every other month you get an awful score, you're fine. It's only two in a row that kills you off.

By this point, the game is easy. You can mass-produce blaster bombs with all the elerium you get from missions you demolish by blastering half of the aliens and all their leadership on the first turn. Just make sure you NEVER misfire into your own craft. Then psi-control everything into submission. And have a backup craft/crew because no matter how good you are, you never know when a blaster bomb will end your whole crew. Using these strategies and generally good battlescape tactics, you can have a 99%+ success rate on superhuman ironman.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2018, 11:58:03 am by The Reaver of Darkness »

Offline doctordetroit8

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Re: Superhuman Ironman Challenge
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2019, 03:16:08 pm »
I've managed to beat the game on Superhuman, Ironman; Twice. To do this you need:
  • Custom Initial Base:Yes
  • Field Promotions:Irrelevant
  • Predict UFO trajectory: Irrelevant
  • Explosion Height: 1(or 0,2, maybe not 3)
  • Allow PSI capture/improvement: Yes
  • Override line of fire: Definite Yes
  • No other PSI Modifiers
  • NO OTHER MODS
  • DO NOT DISABLE ENEMY PSI OR GIVE INSTANT PLAYER ACCESS

I tried about 800 times to get both of these runs, I can post pictures(first, maybe second) but the main stats are up to the user, this run is borderline impossible by 12/22/2018. The layout of the initial base is important and should be required to be custom. Player should use latest nightly build however I got the first run about 2 years ago so it shouldn't be impossible. The PSI glitch I reported for this DOES NOT effect game play as the 1st run had mediocre RNG.

Post any modifiers you have for this run below, preferably a screenshot of beating the game is all you require. I do not consider Jade's run to be valid, he obviously disabled psionics/cheated his run.

I can't seem to get the latest nightly to work, as I posted in a recent troubleshooting thread, so here is mine from a nightly from about a year ago. If any of you have a solution for that, let me know.

Mine is Vanilla Superhuman Ironman. It's slightly different than your challenge, as the base is standard, not custom; No PSI capture/improvement; and explosion height is 3.

I annotated the video with timestamps of the battles, with brief descriptions of the tactics used. In total, the game took 10 hours, was completed on the beginning of October, and there were only about 20 casualties.