The OpenXcom Files: Tips and Tricks!

[NuclearStudent]

I'm also not sure what changed, but I remember the number of Strange Life Form missions being tedious, and now even on Superhuman difficulty, I feel as if the number is fine now. I don't know if this was an actual change or just my mentality being different after a couple years time. Whatever it is, I like it.

[psavola]

There appear to be certain tradeoffs you should weigh on depending on which and how many missions you want.

Based on my rather modest SH experiences and looking/reading some LPs, you may want to rush researching all Cult Networks to get military envoy, dragonfly, etc. and get a crack at cult outposts, which enable you to get Cult Operations. Researching Cult Network stops certain basic apprehension missions, which is not a big deal. But you may want to delay researching Cult Operations until you have obtained all four, because researching operations stops the safehouses, which are easy-ish missions and have a chance to being including a lot of cash if you find money briefcases or bags. Otherwise you might end up in a bad RNG situation where you haven't had a decent chance at an outpost of some cult, so you can't get all the operations and can't get Osprey, yet you only get such cult missions which are rather difficult with 5/6/8 agents (if you don't save scum) at least with higher difficulties. So you probably want to continue churning easy-ish missions until you have captured all the key cultists to get Osprey and will be better equipped to go deal with forward bases and cult HQs. So you may want to consider how you pace your cult research to get optiomal amount and kind of missions you can deal with (and take your chances when it is beneficial for you).

The other axis is how much you do such research that starts spawning new missions (for example, undercover or zombie missions). If you want to increase the amount of missions you get, you can proceed researches that enable these missions.

In my SH campaign I noticed that in the end of 1997, after terminating one cult and researching all but one Cult Operations, the amount of missions generated was actually rather low (rarely even two missions going on at the same time, compared to the early game when there might be even three or four), and you might go for 5 days without a single mission. But this might also be partially an illusion, because in early game you would use (mostly) ridiculously slow vans to drive to the missions which would take forever and also consequently trigger overlapping missions. But now using a humvee, helicopter or dragonfly you can deal with any nearby-ish missions quickly before the next one spawns.

[krautbernd]

In my SH campaign I noticed that in the end of 1997, after terminating one cult and researching all but one Cult Operations, the amount of missions generated was actually rather low (rarely even two missions going on at the same time, compared to the early game when there might be even three or four), and you might go for 5 days without a single mission. But this might also be partially an illusion, because in early game you would use (mostly) ridiculously slow vans to drive to the missions which would take forever and also consequently trigger overlapping missions. But now using a humvee, helicopter or dragonfly you can deal with any nearby-ish missions quickly before the next one spawns.

This is not exclusive to superhuman, I have noticed this on my "normal" playthroughs as well, where in mid-game I can go days to weeks without a single mission popping up. I think this is one of the tradeoffs of how the mission system works in OXCE in conjunction with mods that have very large mission pools with low spawn chances. Spawn chance isn't cumulative - if you have 20 missions with 3% generation chance you don't have a 60% chance to spawn a mission.

[Juku121]

While the occasional dearth of missions is indeed a feature of the low-chance mission generation, I think it's more to do with the fact that good (pseudo-)randomness isn't uniform, unlike what humans intuitively think. And, conversely, you can also get more than one mission from these 20x3% spawns.

So sometimes there are stretches of activity or inactivity despite what the probability seems to want to tell you. And humans remember the outliers, even if statistically there's nothing strange in some popping up every now and then.

There's also the excessive randomness of which missions you actually end up with, which sometimes kills all progress and makes you essentially run in place, reinforcing the impression that nothing is really happening, even if missions are triggering in usual numbers.

[NuclearStudent]

Being rather casualty averse on my SH run, I've found myself *not* rushing biolabs, and instead focusing on kevlar and then getting Helicopters for my first real transport. (I don't bother with vans.) As a result, I haven't been bothering to spend the money on Dragonflies, given that it's only a 6->8 capacity increase.

Though I dunno, the next upgrade along the Skyranger path doesn't come for a long time, and Osprey is a dead-end research, which is more of a concern because I've delayed research.

Also, goddamn, shotguns with baton rounds are amazing. Love it.

[Juku121]

Dragonflies are considerably faster than helicopters, and +33% manpower is nothing to sneeze at. For milk runs, the difference isn't all that big, but when you need those extra agents, you really need them.

The night lights suck, though.

The Osprey is bigger than even a Skyranger, and doubles/triples your current squad size. It's your go-to cult base/HQ/mansion/other big mission craft until the Kitsune or Skyranger/Skymarshall come along.

Baton rounds aren't as reliable as tasers, but the range is pretty nice. Once enemies start being armoured, their usefulness kinda falls off, but for a while they're pretty nice. If only the dart guns were an actual upgrade...

[psavola]

I restarted because I wanted to test different early-game strategies and got bored with my save-scumming, and I am replaying with veteran ironman. (So far, I think I could very well have managed everything also with superhuman, because you'll need to abort a lot missions anyway, especially if there are are too many zombies or other monsters for your level of comfort.) I went for both logistics and kevlar vests and then biolabs. I also built a large storage facility early so that I would not need to worry about all the stuff for a long time. But early game research includes a lot of tradeoffs, including how aggressively you try to build up the research capacity versus do research that helps you immediately (e.g. better weapons and transports). A bit further into the game, I'm using humvee and helicopter almost exlusively, and a private car for some missions where these would take too long a time (and a van only in a few undercover missions). I ended up skipping dragonfly, because it seems to be unusable for doing night missions (unless you also use smoke) and you'd really need it only for HQs and other special missions (and it'd take one precious hangar slot). But unless you resort to save/reloads, you likely don't want to go for those missions with 8 units anyway. So I kept harvesting cult safehouses and outposts until I had all the requirements for all cult operations, and researched all of them at the same time at the end of March 1998. So far I have completely skipped exalt liquidation and black lotus party missions as those would likely be lethal. There is already one manor visible on the map and I suppose at least two others invisible (I got chased by cars in Nigeria and Thailand when going on a mission). Now I can get Osprey to go for the missions where completing them safely requires more agents and preferably also supporting units such as dogs and scout drones.

If you play ironman and/or want to avoid save-scumming, you'll need to learn how the sniper/spotter mechanic works. In early missions (apprehension/safehouse) this is not a major factor (though red dawn safehouses  also include a few units that can act as snipers), but in later cult missions this is vital. Apparently you can use various grenades and I think also all grenade launchers to take out the cultists so that they don't learn your location and the snipers start targeting you (but if you shoot anyone, the snipers will react and can target you for 2-5 turns depending on their intelligence). You could usually survive their gunfire - so far back they seldom even hit unless they have some sniper rifle - but an occasional grenade, dynamite or grenade launcher shot could wreck you. So, unless you have access to cover that protects you from enemy grenades and/or gunfire, you'll want to avoid firing at the cultists if there are snipers present. With outdoors missions, usually there is no cover, unless you hide below the dragonfly (and then you can no longer leverage the darkness and need to use smoke) or osprey. With cityscape missions, you could go for a nearby building but this is a bit risky as there may be someone inside. One challenge is that occasionally the cult missions spawn in a cityscape environment and sometimes wide-area outdoors and you don't know when equipping the squad which one to prepare for (and all-grenades tactic is risky in cityscape). So for safety, you'll probably need to equip for both and drop the gun if it's an outdoors mission like they typically are.

By always going for the cult missions at night with humvee or helicopter and using mostly grenades and grenade launchers when there are enemy sniper units, the enemy snipers haven't stood a chance and I have also avoided enemy grenades which was an occasional problem when I used sniper rifles from the dark in my previous SH run. The drawback with grenades is that you may end up destroying some of the corpses and the loot (though for example money briefcases and bags are safely stored inside a crate), but better safe than sorry.

By the way, which soldier enhancements are worth it? If I understand correctly, various early-game enhancements usually drop your sanity by some points and I am wondering whether it's worth it in the longer term. But actually, contrary to the text ("permanent cost of 20 Sanity") seems to implicate, they lower the current level, not the maximum, so you can train the lost sanity back up. So a temporary loss of sanity wouldn't actually seem like an issue? This certainly seems to be the case for bio-enhancement (one of my agents is back at the 120 stat cap) and I suppose therefore gun kata is also worth going for. Dagonization does not sound so useful in the paper, but if you can regain the 20 sanity by going on missions, why not? On the other hand, blood boosting harms the bravery and PSI skill as well, so doing that is most likely not a good idea.

[Juku121]

unless you also use smoke

Heresy! Who doesn't use smoke?!

the snipers will react and can target you for 2-5 turns depending on their intelligence)

Not unless they also saw the target with their own eyes. Spotting duration depends on the spotter's, well, 'spotter' value. And that's at most 2 for the biggest baddest cultists, and no more than 4 for endgame enemies.

It's more likely that you got spotted again during those 2-5 turns, by shooting another spotter if nothing else.

By the way, which soldier enhancements are worth it?

Bio Enchancement, Combat Pilot Training, Martial Arts and TNI are nearly mandatory, minor sanity loss notwithstanding. CPT and Martial Arts need to be done before the soldier is fully statted for best effect.

Gun Kata seems mostly useless for the cost, including the Psiclone which has other uses. You also need to do it before maxing firing to get the full effect, which is questionable since Psiclones aren't exactly raining from the sky at the time you really need that.

Dagonization has a high sanity cost for benefits that don't really seem to be worth it.

Blood Boosting has steep downsides and disallows quite a few other transformations. It does give you comparable positive boosts and is now pretty quick and cheap to do compared to the rest. Good for disposable agents, I suppose.

Sectoid Legacy and the two Helix transformations pretty much are mandatory. Especially Helix Psion with its armour boost.

So are Neoderm for dogs and Light Cycling for AIs.

Soldier type transformations are essentially what passes for character classes here. Cyborgs are probably the most generally useful, especially since they also get some stat boosts right away, including NV and some internal armour. Olympians are for actually being good at psi, zombies are for meatshields that don't die. Hybrids are an early form of Olympians, generally a bit less physical but faster, with a bit less psi skill fully upgraded (and even more minuscule psi vision) and no innate flight but better armour and NV.

...they lower the current level, not the maximum...

This certainly seems to be the case for bio-enhancement (one of my agents is back at the 120 stat cap)...

No, the sanity loss is real. It's just that you're likely picking up commendations that raise your sanity max back up again. Go check your soldier stat boosts (the '+' in soldier info screen).

[psavola]

Heresy! Who doesn't use smoke?!

In vanilla-like games and mods with shorter LOS I have certainly used it a lot. But here due to LOS being so huge, you'll either need lots of smoke, darkness and/or cover.

You don't really seem to benefit from it that much if you stay in the cover of darkness (and throw the flares out to expose the enemies), and it only hurts you outbound firing/grenade launcher accuracy.

Though it is a gambit in the sense that you don't know for certain whether an enemy unit is lurking close to you somewhere and you might become spotted more often if you don't use smoke as an additional safeguard. Nonetheless if you want to avoid getting spotted altogether you may want to deploy a disposable unit (e.g. a dog) that does more of scouting and tries to retreat to some cover if/when spotted.

Not unless they also saw the target with their own eyes.
...
It's more likely that you got spotted again during those 2-5 turns, by shooting another spotter if nothing else.

Not sure what you mean with the former, it seems to be in conflict with the last sentence? As far as I have been able to understand, spotters don't need to see you with their own eyes - it is enough that you shoot them. Are you saying that firing at the spotters far away that haven't seen you doesn't trigger the spotting/sniping mechanic? And actually, the enemy sniping/grenades that has affected me has always been caused by the spotters next to me (for example, during turn 1) and it has continued for a number of turns even though there hasn't been any new spottings?

Spotting duration depends on the spotter's, well, 'spotter' value. And that's at most 2 for the biggest baddest cultists, and no more than 4 for endgame enemies.

Quite right, I got mixed up with sniper's intelligence and spotter's spotting value. Both affect the sniper enemy units but for the purposes of firing or throwing grenades at the agents, without personal LOS, the spotter value seems to be relevant one.

No, the sanity loss is real. It's just that you're likely picking up commendations that raise your sanity max back up again. Go check your soldier stat boosts (the '+' in soldier info screen).

Yes, correct. In some cases, the combined effect of enhancement and commendations was net positive, in some cases slightly negative.

But I suppose the the original point remains: how much sanity do you actually need. If sanity damage is 1 per turn, I suppose the you could do with much less than 120. Unless there are some attacks or more serious effects on sanity.

Thanks for the summary of enhancements and transformations.

[Juku121]

You don't really seem to benefit from it that much if you stay in the cover of darkness (and throw the flares out to expose the enemies), and it only hurts you outbound firing/grenade launcher accuracy.

I have disabled the 'throw grenades/flares all over the map' exploit/feature for myself, so that no longer works for me. But even without that, in my experience smoke allows you to control vision with more precision and less micro than flares. Snipers ignore both, anyway.

I know others like night missions, and perhaps I am too attached to long-range firepower, but night-time seems to be worse for shooting enemies long-range than smoke is.

Also, LOS doesn't really matter, since it doesn't reduce the effectiveness of smoke. Defensively, smoke is as good as ever. What it does worse in this mod is limiting your own sight range, but that also applies to night, and even more so.

Not sure what you mean with the former, it seems to be in conflict with the last sentence?

I meant that the snipers' intelligence only comes into play if they see you themselves, not via spotters.

...and it has continued for a number of turns even though there hasn't been any new spottings?

How do you know that? Players have been notoriously unreliable about determining who and when spots them ever since 1994.

The only way to be sure is to examine the save every turn, have you done that?

Unless there are some attacks or more serious effects on sanity.

There are. Up to 4 per turn for the worst missions. Plus the Klein Bottle, but that's a pretty rare threat.

There is also the fact that sanity doesn't recover immediately, and there might be more sanity-draining missions than time to recover. That was the original intention behind this mechanic, anyway, an analogue to nuCom fatige or Piratez' freshness.

Sanity is also used to fuel quite a few psionic weapons, including Psi Amps and similar.

Thanks for the summary of enhancements and transformations.

You're welcome!

[psavola]

I have disabled the 'throw grenades/flares all over the map' exploit/feature for myself, so that no longer works for me. But even without that, in my experience smoke allows you to control vision with more precision and less micro than flares. Snipers ignore both, anyway.

I certainly agree that the mod would be very different if the throwing ranges would be drastically reduced. I suppose that halving them would be at least in the early game (with strengths such as 50-60) significant enough to require a change in the battlescape tactics (and prevent a stray enemy grenade, even if not a grenade launcher as well). This would also make it more important to use grenade launchers which would not necessarily be impacted by the change (at least not to the same extent).

This would be similar to what a recent update of TWoTS did to underwater throwables (extendedUnderwaterThrowFactor: 60). One could define a fixed throwRange, but AFAICS not scale down the lengths except by increasing the weight of throwables (another mod chose this path by making grenades and such 5+ weight, I think).

How do you know that? Players have been notoriously unreliable about determining who and when spots them ever since 1994.

The only way to be sure is to examine the save every turn, have you done that?

No, I haven't. This is the first mod where I have encountered this mechanic so I'm trying to understand it. The best explanation of the logic is in the early thread detailing it (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5679.0.html), but that thread does not include anything on differences how you hit the spotter (gunfire, grenades, grenade launcher - and whether it's crucial whether it's a direct hit or an area effect - and whether killing the spotter in one shot prevents from relaying that information to the snipers) which at least seems to cause a different behavior and you seem to agree that this impacts the logic. Though I'm not sure if I can easily find this in the code, so it's not inconceivable that we'd all be wrong. I'd hope that someone else would already have done a reliable analysis.

[zombieguy223]

I just did a quick test of spotter mechanics by using one hit from direct fire projectiles (rifles), explosives from a weapon (LC-HE), and timed explosives (thrown grenades) and had a save immediately before and after each hit went off, and checked if the soldier was marked as spotted by comparing the turnsSinceSpotted and turnsLeftSpottedForSnipers entries in the battlescape save data before and after. The timed one was a bit trickier, but I tried to prevent contamination by only throwing a grenade with that soldier and then running them into a corner, making sure they weren't spotted before the end of my turn (pre-explosion). I'm not sure how accurate these results are, but this is what I found:

Hit w/ Rifle (no flash): Spotted
Hit w/ Rifle (red flash): Spotted
Hit w/ Rifle (kill): Spotted
Direct impact (on enemy tile) with LC-HE: Spotted
Indirect impact (on tile near enemy, hitting with AoE) with LC-HE: Not spotted
Direct impact timed grenade: Spotted
Indirect impact timed grenade: Not spotted

The timed explosives are the results I'm least confident about, since they're pretty difficult to reliably test with this method, but everything else seems reproducible. The AoE spotting may be influenced by whether the enemy hit is within 1 tile of the explosion or further away, but I can't confirm. I hope this information is useful to someone.

[psavola]

The timed explosives are the results I'm least confident about, since they're pretty difficult to reliably test with this method, but everything else seems reproducible. The AoE spotting may be influenced by whether the enemy hit is within 1 tile of the explosion or further away, but I can't confirm. I hope this information is useful to someone.

Thanks. This is extremely useful to me. As you can confirm AoE effect with LC-HE (-> not spotted unless you actually hit the target squarely), it'd seem plausible that similar AoE would also apply to timed explosives. However, it could be conceivable that hitting 1 square off the target would be different to more squares off (because the differentiation is already done when applying the damage to under armor versus other armor), but I doubt it. Why it has appeared as if explosives don't affect spotting is likely due to the fact that you rather rarely precisely hit the target unit but rather land on some nearby square. And based on these findings, you might in some cases actually rather want to miss the target .

[Juku121]

I did some tests, too, and edited the relevant flags beforehand plus wasted all enemies facing my way to make sure only my actions mattered. And Sectoid psi-vision kept screwing things up.

My results seem to mostly agree with zombieguy223. Although, as far as I can tell, even a direct hit from a timed grenade or proxy doesn't get you spotted, even if it does get you seen.

There were a few cases when I got spotted for merely throwing the grenade, so maybe the 'nade has to actually hit the enemy? Or maybe it was psi-vision or some sort of reaction vision, since the times I did not get spotted with direct grenades I made sure there was no LoS between the thrower and any enemy.

I can add that a kill with an instant grenade doesn't get you noticed at all (or maybe it does, not sure), while in other cases you pretty much always get seen, but not spotted for snipers if the hit was indirect.

One could define a fixed throwRange, but AFAICS not scale down the lengths except by increasing the weight of throwables (another mod chose this path by making grenades and such 5+ weight, I think).

That's what I did.

Back in 2016 or so, when I fiddled more with XCF, I reduced all human-ish strength values down to 20-30 or so, which produced similar but scaling results and let power armours have the role of mortars as well. Compensated by adding ~50 'free' carrying capacity to all armours.

...whether killing the spotter in one shot prevents from relaying that information to the snipers...

Doesn't seem to matter. Nor whether you're off by one square or more.


This whole sniper-spotter thing was never intended to be given to so many enemies, but since modders use what they can get and ohartenstein refused to change anything that'd move it from 'alien death sniper/Land Raider Lascannon' towards 'cultist taking potshots', well, here we are.

Brutal AI did remove this strange spotting mechanic, but it also has aliens using blind fire and having global squadsight, so the end result is not very different.

[psavola]

Thanks for the further testing. I wonder what happens with various grenade launchers: with HE/napalm like grenades which could hit directly or miss and produce an AoE effect, or with blunt grenades which require a direct hit. I suppose that the code would not treat grenade launchers or arcing shots in general differently from direct gunfire shots. Though arguably grenade launchers are actually pretty close to turning on instant grenades option, so I would not be surprised if these were treated the same.