Author Topic: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish  (Read 211999 times)

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1110 on: May 20, 2022, 10:16:45 pm »
Summary. of the mission.

No Rookies were killed in action. A resounding failure.

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1111 on: May 21, 2022, 10:41:25 am »
A few more days pass. We research UAC Smg Acuisition. I am not sure it was any good, I need to check it.

Next mission is a long anticpated one and horribly hard too. In the dark.

The night is dark and full of Aliens.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2022, 09:24:51 am by tarkalak »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1112 on: May 21, 2022, 11:35:56 am »
First UFO Catch of the day, uhm, year or two


I noticed some people in dire need of steroids at the base.

The team is ready to finally meat the main antagonists.

UFO mission one is started.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2022, 01:24:03 pm by tarkalak »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1113 on: May 21, 2022, 12:52:34 pm »
Another Ironmanish moment. I misplayed the beginning getting a few wounds and getting Mulder killed. Sigh, let's try again.

Turns 1-2.

We do the classic Skyranger landing. Drop Smoke and pretend you are not here. Works like a charm.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 12:56:32 pm by tarkalak »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1114 on: May 21, 2022, 01:28:05 pm »
Turns 3-6.

Another Death and we grind them down with sniper and that expensive grenade launcher-rifle thing fire.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 01:31:40 pm by tarkalak »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1115 on: May 21, 2022, 02:09:24 pm »
Turns 7-9.

Some clean up with the sniper spotter tactics.

I should start using more flashbangs.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 02:11:08 pm by tarkalak »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1116 on: May 21, 2022, 02:17:53 pm »
Outcome.

Not bad for a UFO. Two rookies lost and some wounds.

I should probably sell most of the stuff, as I cannot research it for a while anyway.

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1117 on: May 21, 2022, 07:34:47 pm »
Next mission is the Durathread Factory again. May be they will not expect us this time?

Also another ironmanish moment when I realized I overstayed my welcome. No rookies left == goodbye.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 11:52:16 pm by tarkalak »

Offline Vakrug

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This is awesome walkthrough!
« Reply #1118 on: May 21, 2022, 10:38:59 pm »
Hello!

This walkthrough is amazing! And only experienced players can understand that. Your playstyle is so different from mine. I have learned so much from it. Especially about shotguns. I thought they are useless because of their short range, but you showed me how efficient they may be. Also thanks to mentioning how bullets fly from a shotgun (1 leading bullet and all other with similar direction). I didn't know that and was unable to figure it out on my own on the battlefield. Also thanks for mentioning "who yet not contributed" key combination. I wish "key combination" section in ufopedia listed all of them... And your comments! They are awesome too. So much satire about silly game mechanics and art.

I have some questions about your "adventure":
  • Why have you built another prison and animal pen? I think there is no need to keep so many prisoners. You will sell them eventually. Are you afraid to sell them and not being able to research them later? But most of your inmates were easy to recapture, like low level cultist.
  • Many times you brought to missions that tiny 1x1 pistol along with Desert Eagle. Why? It would be more reasonable to bring another Desert Eagle clip instead.
  • Is there a reason why you bring on missions basically whole arsenal of weapons? I understand you need different weapons for different situations and additional ammo, but not so many. Looks like you just want to postpone the preparation phase (weapon distribution) to the very end. I was slightly satisfied when this pile of armaments blown up eventually. You were asking for it for a long time.
  • Are you planning to use "Position Marker" somehow? I find this lamppost completely useless. If only this thing was throwable like a grenade...

I wish that RNG-goddess where nice to you during your future combats. By the way, do you regret enabling "Ironman mod"? In either case, know, that you have one more follower on this thread!
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 10:40:38 pm by Vakrug »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1119 on: May 21, 2022, 11:41:00 pm »
Thanks.

You mean the Ctrl-e? I actually rediscovered it reading some of the playthrough. I should write it down in the first post. There are lot's of little features like that. They are in the documentation somewhere, but somewhat hard to find. OpenXcom Extended is like that I guess, there are lot's of things in it, it is hard to know everything.

1. I had many cultists and not enough place for them earlier. I will likely remove both later and delegate them to another base. The Rat Farm building requires 10 Giant Rats to start and this is what the second pen is for. I don't think it is that useful to have it. But it exist, therefore I have to build it somewhere and try using Rats.

2. The Light Pistol is for training Reactions. It is the hardest thing to train. The light Pistol has low damage so the targets live long enough. I usually use it on monster hunt missions after I deal with the immediate treats. 11 actions is the maximum that matters for training so after spending a clip in reaction firing everyone had 10 actions for sure. I will replace it with BlackOps Spypistols. They have exactly 11 shots and are lighter if I recall correctly Not to mention it fits on most cover ops.

I used the Dart Pistol similarly in TFTD before.

3. I am kind of lazy and most of that stuff is rather cheap. I don't want to load and unload the craft every mission, so I just have everything that I could possibly want plus some stuff I intend to test eventually. I need a shotgun for everyone for Zombies and monster hunts, rifle for about half the team, some sniper rifles, pistols for everyone, stun weapons, grenades, flares, lot's of medikits.
I arm the soldiers somewhat on a whim, so I want most of the stuff on the crafts.

There are some large zombie missions that simply need tons of ammo and I had to abandon one because I ran out. I have ran out of medkits as well and the starting ones have few charges.

I would be most annoyed if I lose the Dart Rifles, since they take a while to build.

Melee weapons have different damage depending on soldier stats, so I have a few of every one. I could probably get rid of the knifes though. If you press Alt while pointing at a weapon on the equipping screen you can see how much damage it will do and it varies with the different weapons and power bonuses, especially melee.

I do need to do some serious clean up there. And I probably will once I run out of space. :)

4. May be on some maze like mission. I don't see much use of it. May be for the Black Lotus HQ. Black Lotus Assassins do love sneaking up on you, so it may make sense to use it then. With Osprey I will have enough men to have somebody carry them around.

I don't play true ironman. I do have backups and I do restart missions sometimes. Hence ironman-ish in the title. I don't savescum for every death or small detail, though.

It is more fun I think. You do have to plan a bit more and it takes less real life time. One of the main reasons for activating ironman in the options is that it will always autosave into my save. I don't have to remember to save manually. The actual autosave gets overwritten very easily and I have lost progress to that. And I don't need to click Save-> choose file -> quit, I can just do "Save and Abbandon".
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 11:51:44 pm by tarkalak »

Offline Vakrug

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1120 on: May 22, 2022, 11:17:02 am »
But it exist, therefore I have to build it somewhere and try using Rats.
Oh! Rats... They are not completely useless, but sadly not worth 1 place in a craft. Maybe you will find a better application for them. Sadly, after middle game there is nothing for rats to eat...
2. The Light Pistol is for training Reactions. It is the hardest thing to train.
Yes, I notices your obsession with reaction training during your playthrough... But does it really worth the effort? Can you even feel, that agents with better reaction perform better? You see, if agents do not train their reaction by their own, it looks like it is not needed.
11 actions is the maximum that matters for training
Can you, please, tell more about that? Is this another arcane mechanics that only code readers know about?
May be on some maze like mission. With Osprey I will have enough men to have somebody carry them around.
The "funny" thing is: the more agents you have, the less is need for Position Marker. And yes, zombie maze map while you have little crafts is probably the only real application for those markers.
I don't savescum for every death or small detail, though.
E-e-h-h-h... All right, I will not comment about this...
One of the main reasons for activating ironman in the options is that it will always autosave into my save. I don't have to remember to save manually.
You can configure to save each turn in game options.

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1121 on: May 22, 2022, 12:58:41 pm »
Oh! Rats... They are not completely useless, but sadly not worth 1 place in a craft. Maybe you will find a better application for them. Sadly, after middle game there is nothing for rats to eat...Yes, I notices your obsession with reaction training during your playthrough... But does it really worth the effort? Can you even feel, that agents with better reaction perform better? You see, if agents do not train their reaction by their own, it looks like it is not needed.Can you, please, tell more about that? Is this another arcane mechanics that only code readers know about?The "funny" thing is: the more agents you have, the less is need for Position Marker. And yes, zombie maze map while you have little crafts is probably the only real application for those markers.E-e-h-h-h... All right, I will not comment about this...You can configure to save each turn in game options.

Reactions are used sometimes and it is better to have them than not.

So when you move in an enemy's field of vision there is a Reaction fire contest. TU x Reactions of your unit versus TU x Reactions of the enemy. If you win, they don't reaction fire, if they win they reaction fire. Then after the reaction fire there is another contest and if they win this one too, they fire again until out of usable actions. This is even more important in melee, where the enemies will turn around and react, too. Some weapons have bonuses from reactions like the BlackOps Auto Sniper Rifle and the stun rod.

Reactions are more important in maze like places, where you may need to guard some entrance. In open fields it is less useful.

Now that I have a bow, I will use it as well, since it trains Throwing and that requires wasting grenades otherwise.

The 11 action maximum is from Ufopaedia https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Experience_Training.

Please, do comment.
I mean I need to bother less with which file I save into and etc.

Offline Vakrug

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1122 on: May 22, 2022, 05:12:53 pm »
Now that I have a bow, I will use it as well, since it trains Throwing and that requires wasting grenades otherwise.
According to the same article you mentioned about training:
Quote
Throwing Accuracy is trivial to train: each time a soldier throws any object, they will get a Throwing Accuracy action. If you're positive to have killed the last alien, have your soldiers throw away all their gear before the turn ends. Unlike all the other stats, performing Throwing Accuracy actions will not trigger secondary stat increases.
So you don't need a bow, just empty your inventory!  :D Probably false info, or fixed in this mod, because I don't remember gaining experience from throwing light sources...
Please, do comment.
OK.  ::) How many "ironman-ish moments" were at this point? 28? This is more times than I reloaded during my full playthrough. But who am I to judge, I did it only on "Experienced" difficulty. (Now I am playing on Veteran.)

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1123 on: May 22, 2022, 11:55:13 pm »
According to the same article you mentioned about training:So you don't need a bow, just empty your inventory!  :D Probably false info, or fixed in this mod, because I don't remember gaining experience from throwing light sources...OK.  ::) How many "ironman-ish moments" were at this point? 28? This is more times than I reloaded during my full playthrough. But who am I to judge, I did it only on "Experienced" difficulty. (Now I am playing on Veteran.)

Open Xcom changes throwing training. You need to hit something with a grenade to get Throwing training.

Weapons also may train other things, like there could be weapons that do Bravery training instead of accuracy. You need to check in the Stats for Nerds.
Bows give Throwing Accuracy.

Normally I could just throw lots of grenades or flashbangs, but they are heavy and will take more time than I would give them.

Heh. I am at least lying to myself, so I am achieving something. :)

Offline tarkalak

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Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish
« Reply #1124 on: May 24, 2022, 10:50:22 am »
Next mission is the Durathread factory.

Position isn't that bad, with some tree cover, but not good enough for an 8 man team.

Turns 1-2