The OpenXcom Files: Tips and Tricks!

[jackmoodles]

I have a couple of questions.

1. What is the outrunner? Is it a vehicle like a Humvee? How do I use it (i've manufactured one but can't seem to use it)

2. I'm at the end of 1998 and most times a forward base or even a cult HQ appears, if I try to fly to them then I get attacked by at least 2 ufo's  (white dots on the map not red)  They fly much faster than my little bird. Sometimes my LB can knock them out but not always.  When can I be looking at better interceptors, weapons against ufo's etc?

Thanks in advance!

[Solarius Scorch]

1. What is the outrunner? Is it a vehicle like a Humvee? How do I use it (i've manufactured one but can't seem to use it)

It's not a vehicle, it's a chassis for AI units (basically an armour).

2. I'm at the end of 1998 and most times a forward base or even a cult HQ appears, if I try to fly to them then I get attacked by at least 2 ufo's  (white dots on the map not red)  They fly much faster than my little bird. Sometimes my LB can knock them out but not always.  When can I be looking at better interceptors, weapons against ufo's etc?

For proper interceptors, this you'll have to get Promotion III. This makes your first HQ extra challenging.

[Chuckebaby]

1. What is the outrunner? Is it a vehicle like a Humvee? How do I use it (i've manufactured one but can't seem to use it)

This took me a bit to understand but if you go to you Agents menu and click on an AI unit (normally where you would assign Armor) you can use adaptions. Eco skeleton,  etc.

2. I'm at the end of 1998 and most times a forward base or even a cult HQ appears, if I try to fly to them then I get attacked by at least 2 ufo's  (white dots on the map not red)  They fly much faster than my little bird. Sometimes my LB can knock them out but not always.  When can I be looking at better interceptors, weapons against ufo's etc?

Thanks in advance!

Your best bet now (until you get your hands on the raven, interceptors) is to purchase a Land Rover. It holds 5 solders and will allow you to slide in undetected by air craft.
FYI- The Van is not the same. Land Rover is much faster (speed).

[SBBurzmali]

2. I'm at the end of 1998 and most times a forward base or even a cult HQ appears, if I try to fly to them then I get attacked by at least 2 ufo's  (white dots on the map not red)  They fly much faster than my little bird. Sometimes my LB can knock them out but not always.  When can I be looking at better interceptors, weapons against ufo's etc?

If you just want to complete the mission, you can bait the base's interceptors into chasing a speedy or disposable aircraft and sneak in with your team. Enemy interceptors can't target your craft when they are returning to base after a mission. From what I've seen, the AI can't relaunch its interceptors for a while, even if they aren't destroyed, so just getting them to pop out in a controlled manner is enough to give yourself some space.

[Chuckebaby]

What changed the game for me was getting access to the Black Opts Sniper rifle (with Tritanium clips).
It's a "Swiss army knife" weapon and works well on almost everything in the game besides Sectopods and Ethrals. For those I used Heavy Gauss. Heavy Plasma need not apply.

Black Opts S.R is very similar to the way the Assault rifle is in X com Vanilla. Basically a good, all around weapon. But will not take you all the way to the dance.

Plasma is a great weapon in XCF. But it literally vaporizes almost everything. That's little help when trying to recover or weaken enemy's.

[psavola]

First time playing this mod (superhuman, to see how it really is, yet using saves now and then; if I like it, I'd probably do an ironman with some difficulty later). What I'd have wanted to see a bit more is certain general tips and tricks for the early game - especially the strategic aspects how you should focus your game in, say, first 6 months or so, to get everything ramped up to a good start. The first message had some, but mostly related to, for example, battle tactics. I guess this aspect is more like "play and find out - and then start again".

For example:
 - Severely limited research capacity (5 scientists) means that you can progress any real research very slowly (even those with relatively small cost of 50 or so, for example logistics, personal protection, kevlar vests, many others I would like to do) with a couple of researchers, yet can accomplish trivial investigations very quickly. So far I have spent 2-4 researchers on a major topic and the rest on progressing those trivial ones (such as interrogating the prisoners and getting weapons updates). But not sure if this is the right thing to do. I also delayed researching the cults before I had access to kevlar vests, because I suspect - reading several threads here - that going after much more than basic apprehension missions would likely be deadly unless you're suitably prepared. (Already getting bored with maybe 20-30 of these cult apprehension missions, but they have been a good exercise for the soldiers.) So far there seems to be no chance at getting more scientists in the near future.
 - "Base-wise" there isn't much you can do. Build a third hangar and 1-2 additional gyms, so that they you are able to expand, you already have many trained agents. I can't figure out anything else you should be spending your money on (current stockpile at 1.5M). I suppose I could get started on another base, to increase the coverage (see below), but it wouldn't help with research or much else (would need 3M to get a second HQ anyway).
 - While logistics and the van is nice to get 4 agents on the field, the van is too slow to catch all events even if you would be willing to do them at night. (For example, if your HQ is in Europe, you won't be able to get to Australia/NZ in time, and some Americas is probably also a no-go with a van.) So you need to keep at least one car as backup. (In a way, this is a nice design decision because it leaves you with a tradeoff you need to deal with.) Even by looking at the rulesets, I couldn't figure out the lifetime of the spawns so that I could know whether the van is quick enough to get there in time. You can only guess and/or reload.

[Juku121]

Early research protip: rush Bio Labs, then Intelligence Centers, then build a new base and repeat. Intel Centers do require basic cult research, though. Don't build HQs, build more bases and Bio Labs. You need the transport coverage, anyway, even if interceptions aren't happening any time soon and even - and especially! - if you use the transport transfer trick.

Kevlar vests are the Personal Armour of early XCF: will cut down on getting one-shot, but are by no means a guarantee against even the dinkiest handgun.

Vans are ridiculously slow and I've sped them up a little for my own use while still preserving the dichotomy between the two. Some people have used a great number of vans patrolling all over the globe as a quick reaction force. Others have recoiled in horror when told about this.

I always feel the need for a big warehouse to store all my shinies in, and some extra prisons for all the cultists getting conked on the head. Some others go for a fourth hangar off the bat.

Ruleset diving: mission durations (in hours) are under 'duration' in alienDeployments_XCOMFILES.rul. Some can vary quite a bit. You can also check your save for the actual value, if you're so inclined.

Superhuman has ridiculously inflated enemy counts and somewhat inverted difficulty if you can handle those, due to all the extra loot (and score/exp).

[psavola]

So what are the next points of strategic focus after that?

In July I'm up to 15 researchers in the primary base, just had a first MiB (4 persons) mission, have researched or researching all 4 cult networks, done a couple of outposts, and working on Black Lotus Witch now -> BL Operations. Recently obtained a helicopter for 6-person transport. A Black Lotus party mission just spawned up, but based on a quick look it seems like a very difficult fight with this few people unless (maybe) you hide in a hole and take out the enemies one by one as they appear. Having looked at several people in YT and they seem to be way back in the curve, even doing outpost/party/etc. missions in 1998 rather than mid-1997.

[DoxaLogos (JG)]

Work your way towards DragonFly/Osprey for carrying more troops to the bigger parties.   

Armored Vests help out a whole lot and getting BlackOps Sniper Rifles and other BlackOps assortment. 

I think both of those are gated by Promotion II.

[Juku121]

I think as a general strategy, this post applies here as well.

Although your immediate goals should be Promotion II and then starting to work on Promotion III, getting actual labs and workshops set up, Dragonflies and Ospreys, Armoured Vests/Shields and then Heavy Tac Suits for dunking on cultists, BO weapons or maybe some Russian ones (SVD is very nice, PKM is fine, AKs kinda suck). Better stun weapons because boy do you have to capture stuff in this mod. Melee weapons and dogs are worth trying out, they are surprisingly effective even against pretty hardcore enemies. Shadowbats have their own niche, but might be hard to get hold of. 

[psavola]

What are the priorities with getting more scientists versus other things? I have delayed building a workshop, radar or a sickbay, and even (large) warehouses could be an asset with all the junk I'm always having to sell. Instead, I've built two bases and the primary one is now building a science lab (2M). I'm in Dec 1997 and have just gotten Dragonfly, BO gear, Armored vests for a while, etc. I have done the Black Lotus avatar mission and raided a red dawn forward base (lots of money there, but very tricky with ~60 enemies who apparently had some night vision), but skipped HQ for now. Some UFOs are already appearing but I can't do anything with them. I wonder if I ramping up the research is still more important than those other base improvements (or, for example, a third base in the US). I think I might be inclined to still use the money for hiring more scientists, up to the total of 50. Can you use engineers to produce and sell stuff to improve finance in this early game, or would the workshop + engineers just sink your money? I think currently the only thing I can't manufacture is a taser cannon.

[Juku121]

Well, the thing with focusing on tech progress is that you need to implement said tech as well, which costs money and soon enough also engineer hours. And you need to pay the scientists, which is one of the biggest expense items on your budget.

Radars aren't very useful at this point since you likely don't have interceptors or fast enough transports to take advantage of them yet.

Sickbay's main function is IMO access to transformations, not the recovery speedup. Your own Stormies first, then the brain implants, maybe Blood Boosting for more disposable agents. If you don't have at least one of those, or the time/money to put your people through those, sickbays can be ignored for a while.

You need at least one workshop to get all sorts of advanced gear soon enough. And, no, Solarius has thoroughly eradicated manufacturing for profit. At best, you can cover most of the expenses (workshop upkeep and salaries). Don't let the GUI's "profit" line mislead you.

Red Dawn do have a bit of night vision, but not a significant amount. Many a player has confused sniping outside of vision range with night vision, or some sneaky enemy being near their smoke cloud.

[psavola]

...
Red Dawn do have a bit of night vision, but not a significant amount. Many a player has confused sniping outside of vision range with night vision, or some sneaky enemy being near their smoke cloud.

This might be a useful discussion for this tips & tricks thread. What I have done with most cult missions is arrive there at night and have a few pre-primed flares on each guy. (Sometimes with easier missions I also arrive during day but drop a few pre-primed smokes immediately and skip to the next turn, unless I can safely shoot the nearby cultists.) After dealing with the guys next to you (or alternatively seeking cover positions), throw out the flares far enough (maybe 25 squares or so) so that they expose the cultists but don't expose you. Then shotgun those that come close and snipe down the rest. You can usually accomplish the mission without moving more than a couple of squares, because the majority will come out eventually and the rest will panic and surrender. The same tactic works brilliantly with the shady tavern missions: stay as far back as you can, while lighting up the tavern and shooting (often by reactions) those that wonder in the lighted areas.

For some reason, I had difficulties with this tactic in the red dawn forward base. Even though my guys were supposed to be in the dark, dozen or even two dozen cultists kept shooting at me from far away (even 30+ squares off). I wonder if something was messing up "staying in the dark", for example, does the helicopter have some lighting of its own (I think I recall reading something about vehicle lighting earlier). From what I get from your point, this tactic should still work (and be very easy, even cheesy, although depending on RNG on where you end up in the map).

[Stone Lake]

What Juku refers to is sniper/spotter mechanic. Basically some (usually higher-tiered) "sniper" enemies will shoot at you even if they don't see you, granted you've been spotted by other cultists ("spotters") or hit "spotter" with direct attack in recent turns (usually 1-4 turns, depending on "spotter" stat).

Night still helps somewhat as anyone not seeing the target directly suffers (usually) 50% debuff to accuracy. But it also makes it harder to scout out dangerous enemies.

[Juku121]

Dragonfly has lights, which are a giant pain during night missions. I think all the other transports don't, but not 100% sure.

Red Dawn are all spotters and only the vatniks are not snipers (although the lower ranks were scaled back a bit some time ago). So they can shoot you from a distance without having eyes on you a lot. Even if not a single cultist is ever in vision range - because you have to kill them, and that makes you spotted and thus a sniper target, as Stone Lake said.

You have always been able to do the same, but the 50% aim penalty encourages the use of sniper rifles and HE projectors for long-range firing.