|
Gilgamesh255 posted:Actually, I'm curious/forgetful, are stunned/captured enemies immune to getting finished off? They are actually still vulnerable, but will never be intentionally targeted by the AI. Stunned units are treated as items on the ground by the game engine, which allows you to shove a whole sectoid in your backpack for a capture if you want to abort and still keep your captive. Like all items on the ground they can be destroyed by explosions, which will kill the unit. They can also be killed if a strong enough shot strikes the ground of the tile they occupy. I've lost an agent this way.
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 15:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 05:51 |
|
|
Neurion posted:They are actually still vulnerable, but will never be intentionally targeted by the AI. Stunned units are treated as items on the ground by the game engine, which allows you to shove a whole sectoid in your backpack for a capture if you want to abort and still keep your captive. Like all items on the ground they can be destroyed by explosions, which will kill the unit. They can also be killed if a strong enough shot strikes the ground of the tile they occupy. I've lost an agent this way. Oh. That made me realize I completely misread the question. Yeah Neurion is right. Units on the ground can be killed by explosions and environmental hazards like fire or an attack hitting the tile they are in. but the enemy never does it on purpose. They may do it on accident though. Once I had a medic heal someone who was down and then a grenade landed at the medic’s feet. The medic survived, their patient didn’t I also once had an enemy standing on top of another enemy I had stunned, and when I shot at them, I missed and hit their friend on the ground, killing them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 16:27
|
|
|
Alternatively, if you *want* to kill an downed enemy like, for example, a zombie, all you have to do is to have a space between you and the corpse and then use Force Attack (which is to hold CTRL when clicking to shoot) to shoot into the square right in front of you, that should make the shots hit straight down on top of the one you want dead.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 19:33
|
|
|
Play the game in any which way you want and in a way that gives you less headaches. If you need to cheat to get through some bullshit mechanics then do it. I'm sure that whatever you decide to do you can fit into the narrative. We're here to witness this story play out, seeing what this mod is all about and to watch ourselves\other people get killed in horrible ways.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 23:22
|
|
|
+1. I'm following this LP to see the content of the mod and read a story, not to torture you. Play however suits you best.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 23:34
|
|
|
Yeah, I've never played x-com myself but have heard a lot of stories about needing to cheese/level entire maps in order to barely survive, and this mod seems like it keeps up the brutal difficulty spikes. We're all interested to see how to deal with this as much as we are to see the story and game itself.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 10:49
|
|
|
If the LP'er ain't having fun, I ain't having fun.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 13:29
|
|
|
File 36: Where the hell are the UFOs? *Begin Recording* Commander’s Log: January 3rd to January 24th I thought that the world was going to explode, that UFOs would be descending from the sky en mass to pick a fight with us, and that we’d have to deploy interceptors day in and day out to keep track of them. Either our current radar array isn’t good enough, or the Aliens have been keeping things… restrained so far. We have Europe, Australia, and Asia completely covered, while we have partial coverage over the Americas and Africa, and none over the poles. And so far we haven't seen a single UFO. First things first I have some bookkeeping to attend to. A huge amount of money was spent at the beginning of the month to further enhance our bases. A Psi Lab is being built in Rat Hill to help train our psychics, and a laboratory, workshop, hanger, and second living quarters are being constructed in Fox Den. In addition, a Raven Interceptor is being constructed at both Rat Hill and Kangaroo Cave.  I’ll confess it’s a bit concerning to bleed that much money but, we need to expand quickly. The Aliens are coming. For our agents, all of the rookies who could be put through Bio Enhancement (raises Strength, TUs, Stamina, and HP) did so. Sunny took a week off to train in Martial Arts (Raises TUs, Reactions, and Melee and Throwing accuracy), and all of our AI units were upgraded through Lightcycling (Raise TUs, Firing Accuracy, and Reactions) When it comes to Interceptor pilots, we came to the following conclusion. The best pilots we have are Sunny, Dak Thornson, Hound Smith, and Burnt Toast. The four surviving agents from our original 6 (the other two were Lone Badger and Icemole) All of them have the traits we look for in pilots, but they are also exceptional field agents. Making them dedicated pilots would mean essentially ending their careers as field agents and putting them on standby. Sunny agreed, for other reasons, but the others seem conflicted by the idea. Also, you know you’ve earned yourself a special place in hell when this is the first thing that hits your desk in the morning. Research on ghosts born from long term trauma. At least these are just psychic remnants and not people’s souls. At least as far as we know.  The first mission of the month was a Syndicate lab raid that went off without a hitch, outside of G255 and Grenade Baby getting caught in a grenade explosion. Grenade Baby’s vest stopped the shrapnel, G255’s… didn’t.  (I’ll admit this scared me. The man turned the corner and tossed a grenade our way. Good thing G255 is borderline indestructible) Outside of that the mission went off painlessly. The rookies got some practice in, Hydra even got to use the mini rocket on their new Scout body.  We also arranged a weapon trade with M.A.G.M.A. where we can pick up their Heavy Cannon. It’s probably exactly what you expect. The same ammo options as the light cannon, but it’s bigger, heavier, and more accurate.  It seems that Shogg and the Aliens from space may not get along, in the same way that the creatures of the deep sea don’t seem to be connected to the others. These attacks being separate is worrying, but it also means there’s a possibility of setting them against each other, of stirring up conflict between the alien forces or making a deal with one side or another. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, the first thing we do is investigate. .  We launched a probe into Dimension X, and what we discovered was pretty startling. Dimension X has their own planet based around a dying star, and appears to be a universe that has already experienced something close to an apocalypse. It’s unsuitable for human life, but it’s teeming with other kinds of life.  We have plans to send other probes to other locations to see what we can dig up. Thankfully though, the base is being staffed by Council agents instead of our agents. We won’t have to deal with them other than to repel attacks or make our own forward strikes.  After the last couple of tangles we’ve had with the ghosts and ghost cultists, I expected this to be a relatively low-key mission. I was wrong.  Lynneth: Alright rookies, let me and the psychic go first. AlakaBLAM: We’ve got some ghosts up top of the building, and one in the mountains. Lynneth: These glow so they’re easy to see. I think the uh… poltergeists don’t glow.  AlakaBLAM: I have confirmed the presence of a poltergeist. It’s throwing poo poo at me.  AlakaBLAM: Now go away!  Lynneth: There are Reclamation of Aether people here. I think this is their house or something.  Lynneth: There’s kind of a lot of them. Can we get some support? Michael Dukakes: I’m sure it can’t be that bad.  Michael Dukakes: It is that bad! Open fire!  Gridlocked: I’ve got you, Michael. We’ve got more than enough firepower in this ship to take these guys out. Michael Dukakes: Be careful by the way I see enemies on the roof too.  Hydra: This is the only weapon I have to offer. I believe it is insufficient for defeating “ghosts”  Titty Baby: Ah poo poo. Grenade! Second Badger: -coughing- It’s like someone bottled up a headache and used it as a weapon.  Lynneth: Titty Baby, a little help here? Titty Baby: Screw you I just got hit by a psychic grenade.  Gridlocked: These guys have really, really weird weapons. I guess it’s all made to fight ghosts and stuff.  AlakaBLAM: huff… huff… I’m too tired to use the flame glove.  Second Badger: We’ve still got an enemy here. Who else is left to cover us? Aces High: I hope you realize that this is extreme overkill.  Hydra: It appears ghosts can be dismissed by sufficient physical force, though it is highly inefficient.  Titty Baby: Ooh! Found four big briefcases filled with money inside. I think our final enemy is upstairs  Grenade Baby: Nothing personal kid.  Despite the relatively high volume of enemies, and the fact that only two veterans were on the mission, it went off without a hitch. And it was an excellent time for our new agents to learn and grow   We also recovered a bunch of money and a bunch of their ghost-killing/capturing equipment. This bears researching obviously, but we’re spread thin at this point. We have so much to research and so little time  The morning after that mission we finished interrogating one of the Chtonites we captured. This one explained to us the concept of UFO subtypes. Their outward appearance and armament is set in stone, but the inside can vary wildly in format. Which does a lot to explain the weirdness of alien UFOs.  Our information team has come up with a rough plan on how to battle the Syndicate, but it sadly includes more undercover work. They have connections and shell companies galore, so we can’t just go in guns blazing  In another bit of future planning, our science division has some theories about Shogg. There are civilizations down there independent from the attacking aliens, maybe even in conflict with them, but most of them aren’t super keen on us either. It’s unlikely we’ll be able to open diplomacy without capturing a few of them first  This was a bit surprising, although in hindsight maybe we should have seen it coming. The Dimension X aliens attacked our outpost, and after the Council’s agents escaped, we were sent in for clean up  Lynneth: You know I never actually saw the completed outpost. It’s looking pretty good. Could do without the weird hideous monsters though.  Sam O’varr: The Dimension X Aliens don't have armor, if you make sure to shoot accurately they’ll be cut down in short order  Sam O’varr: That could have been bad…  Lynneth:   Michael Dukakis: You weren’t kidding, I got a spitter and an arthropod in a single shot each.  Koorisch: This feels more like a shooting gallery than a mission right now.  Aces High: There is a single spitter left in the open. I will deal with it shortly  (The spitter didn’t even attack. Just tried to slither away) After that, the mission was basically over. Our team did a little sightseeing and checked inside the buildings to make sure there were no aliens present. If there was an alien present it didn’t last long   (Just wanted to show off this map a little bit. Whoever made it did a really good job. The mission wasn’t technically over yet but. All that was left was breaching buildings one by one and killing the spitters and Arthropods inside. So I just skipped it) This is another kind of mission that sat really well with the Council, protecting bases that technically belonged to them.  That said I want to try and finish our missions in Dimension X quickly because repeated exposure seems to have a negative effect on our agents  (Remember Horizon Walker slightly lowers sanity.) Got around to interrogating the “Betarian” as we’re calling it. It’s a smallish cybernetic entity that has a tritanium exoskeleton. But they don’t appear to be warriors, instead, they are engineers. Not just this one, I mean Betarians as a whole are engineers, and equipped as such.  I think this one was trying to scare us or something because it told us about the “Abductor” UFO class. Which is significantly more dangerous than the UFOs we have been battling, though I think a well-armed Raven could take it down  What do you say about these guys? They’ve gotten suckered into a cult based around psychic spirits and crap. Personally, I don’t understand the appeal. Also, why do they look so much like the old Dagon Cultists? Do they shop at the same cult store?  Our information team is doing an excellent job giving us a million leads to follow. Add this one to the pile. We’ve got the Syndicate to infiltrate, Cyberweb’s fortress to assault, Shogg to explore, the USO to rip apart and investigate, and the aliens to fight. Plus whatever else we turn up. Not much to say about this one though. It’s a fortress in Dimension X  There was a terrorist attack/rampage which we were forced to respond to. The madman almost killed a priest, but Burnt Toast was able to save their life. The “madman” was taken into custody, and will be interrogated   (I never realized being a medic was so good for bravery. Though I suppose it makes sense, looking at grisly wounds would require you to develop a resistance to gore and stuff). Something I forgot about, damaged Cyber Armor can be repaired, all it takes is a few alien alloys to replace anything that’s lost  Also, we finished constructing the Raven in Rat Hill. It will be transferred over to the Fox Den and loaded with armaments. Sooner or later someone will have to retire from field work to pilot it.  Another interrogated Engineer and another terrifying-looking alien vessel. I think we could handle an abductor, but the Contact Ship seems beyond what the Raven can reasonably handle. Maybe if we had two Ravens loaded with missiles attacking the same ship we could bring one down.  With the help of the council, we sent some probes and drones over the alien city. There is absolutely no way we can fight them. Don’t get me wrong, we could do it if we had our full force to bear, but keep in mind we can only slowly trickle in troops and resources into Dimension X. But at the same time, they can only trickle in troops and resources to our dimension. The real problem is Cyberweb building the portals and letting them in, so they’re who we’ll deal with.  Why did you put this on my desk when it’s so sparse? There’s barely any info here! As far as I can tell it's like... aquatic Elerium or something.  Detective Gumshoe, Gaspode, and some Rookies went to meet an informant in a bar, and perhaps unsurprisingly it was an ambush. But this time instead of the MiB it was the Cult of Apocalypse I think the results speak for themselves   This report worried me more than I care to admit. We’ve had really, really bad luck on underwater missions, and we lost Jane Kane in our last one. But we needed to investigate, and the mission went on.  Reasonable Achmed: I still don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Are we sure this is the right place? Hound Smith: Not really. Who knows how quickly it can move, it might be miles away by now for all we know.  Reasonable Achmed: Maybe on the other side of this coral? Oh, I found something!   Reasonable Achmed: How are we supposed to bring down a creature like that safely? Ivan: Well, we have guns and it doesn’t. Reasonable Achmed:... That's fair I guess.  In a somewhat miraculous turn of events the alien survived and was captured, though I’m not too sure what we can get out of interrogating/studying a shark man  At the halfway point of the month, we did a little more bookkeeping. The Ravens for Fox Den and Kangaroo Cave were both done, and we ordered some Avalanche missiles to fill them up with. Lynneth and a couple of rookies were ready for combat pilot training, so I sent them off, they’ll be back in about five days. Sunny has officially retired from fieldwork and is being sent to Fox Den to pilot their Raven. He has also agreed to help us with “tactical simulations” in the future.  The Hybrid network is proving awfully evasive. We haven’t found any caravans or shipments in a while, but we did manage to track down one of their genetically modified farms. And the mission went off without a hitch. Almost  Hydra will be fixed in about 3 weeks, but it still stings, especially since the council still considers them “dead”  We first got this when we were fighting those reptilian aliens… a few months ago? And we only got around to studying it now. These guns are terrifyingly powerful, but we don’t have the scientific knowledge to replicate them yet.  I’ve never been a fan of these, on account of the enemy usually getting to keep their weapons while we have to use what we can sneak past prying eyes.  It went well though.  The recruits we hired back on the 15th showed up at the start of the 18th, we welcome Whisper Williams, Arcovic II, Plaintiff, and to Rat Hill. We welcome Dr. Gee, Cheese Thief, and Mojangles the dog to Weasel Bunker. And the next day we sent them to hunt a strange creature, which turned out to be a Reaper. Remember when these things were scary as hell? When we had to run and cower in fear of finding a single one? That’s not a problem anymore. The rookies literally used it as target practice   Interrogating a member of the MiB is extremely difficult. They are trained to resist and also seem to have some kind of mental block in place. These field agents seem to be equivalent to one of our well-trained agents, though not nearly as good as our elites.  (They aren’t kidding about the mental block by the way. There’s only about 5 research topics the MiB agents can tell you about that mean anything. The rest are just “Staff Inputs” which are mostly gags.) Weasel Bunker also got lucky and found an enemy from our past, this time a bullfrog. It could have been dangerous if it was too close but, it was very far away and therefore used as target practice.  (  ) After studying the info we’ve gathered from crashed UFOs and engineer interrogations, we have most of what we need to construct our own ship based on the UFO designs. The problem is that we can’t currently figure out UFO propulsion. The microgravity modules used by the Hybrid drones point us in the right direction but, the only way to learn how to use them would be for an alien to explain it to us.  This is what the Osiron were smuggling on the beach. 10 packs of alien cigarettes, a spear, and 5 grenades.  I don’t know where we got it from, but we also picked up a UAC SMG. Like usual for UAC guns it has increased fire power, but it a bit heavier and difficult to use.  Our Intel teams went on a hunt for ghosts, and we’ve got three positives and one negative.     Unless I’m mistaken we got one of these from an earlier Osiron crate. We can’t produce one due to a lack of knowledge on working with plasma, but it seems to be partly human in design, so it should be easier to replicate.  By now we mostly understand the alien Castes and what importance they have. Soldiers are grunts with no info, Medics can be interrogated to learn about the aliens themselves, and Navigators can be interrogated to learn about their ships. Those are the three lower-priority captures. Engineers and Leaders are much higher in priority since they know about their technology and weapons. But there is a caste above them, Commander, which is sure to know even more important information.  This mission is… interesting. See, we’ve taken on pretty large groups of enemies by now. The Chtonite’s underground base, the Cult HQs. Some of these had up to 30 or more enemies. This gathering is somewhere between 60 and 80 cultists  I called Sunny to do a little predictive analysis and it didn’t look good. The Agents would be surrounded from the very beginning of the mission, and while some of the enemies are armed with knives and swords, the rest are armed with high-end UAC weapons, including rocket launchers, chainguns, and grenades.  The altar we spotted seemed to have the highest concentration of enemies, but there were dozens more in the woods  Before long the simulation showed us what the end result would be if we went into this mission with the same loadout as any other   (did you know UAC Rocket Launchers hold 5 rockets and can be fired twice per turn?) After that we planned another test with a different strategy, heavy weapons including rocket launchers, mortars, and more. It went… better I suppose   The agents are now brainstorming, trying to come up with better ways to complete this mission, but I have a different idea. See, in the olden days we would have to treat missions like this. We needed to send agents into places to deal with enemies no matter how overpowering, and it’s lost us a lot of good men over the years. We’re not X-COM, the Investigation Unit anymore. We are X-COM UFO Defense. And we have access to and permission to use military-grade weapons and alien technology. We act not in the interest of one country, but humanity as a whole. These cultists are dangerous to humanity, and we should show them no mercy. If the troops can’t come up with a satisfactory way to end the mission without any deaths, we’ll just bomb the place, and then send our agents in afterwards. … Kind of a scary note to end the recording on huh? Don’t worry about it. Commander Out *End Recording* LPer Notes Sorry if this game seems increasingly spastic and hard to follow, that’s just kinda how X-COM Files goes at this point. We started by battling 4 cults, and sometimes monsters. Now those 4 cults have been defeated, but we’re still fighting monsters, Cyberweb/Dimension X, Osiron, The Syndicate, Alien Hybrids, The Aliens from Space, The Aliens from Shogg, The Aliens from the Ocean, The Cult of Apocalypse, Ghosts/Reclamation of Aether. 10 or 12 factions depending on if you separate or combine Cyberweb with Dimension X and Ghosts with the Reclamation of Aether. Truth be told I’m usually advancing like, 3 storylines at once by this point in the game. In this month alone we’ve opened up progression for the Ghosts/Aether, The Syndicate, and Shogg, on top of the invasion “starting” (though I haven’t seen any UFOs yet which is spooky.) In other news I’m proud of myself to have made it this far without any deaths, though the month isn’t over yet. Hydra is technically a death but like, are they really dead? I don’t think so, After seeing how much income we had last month I may have jumped the gun a bit on building labs and filling them with scientists. I built a lab in Fox Den but don’t actually have enough money to recruit scientists for it. Mostly because I underestimated how much money it would take to build the Ravens. But with how rapidly our income expands by next month we should be at full research power. Good thing too, because we’ve got so much more to go. I felt justified in retiring Sunny since they were my character to begin with, but I'm a bit more hesitant to retire the others. The remaining troops from our original four would all make amazing pilots, but I'd also be sad to lose them as field agents. That said, I'm thinking Burnt Toast might be a shoe-in because they have the highest bravery of all our agents, which means they will be incredible at closing in on aliens. The Armory The Heavy Cannon is the big brother of the Light Cannon, and in my opinion, it’s better in basically every way that matters. It hits harder, it’s more accurate, and even the ammo clips are bigger. Sure, maybe it takes more time to fire and is heavier so only the best of your agents can use it, but I’ve had a really bad time trying to use the light cannon because of its accuracy and power problems. I think this is a definite fix Gauss weapons are basically the ultimate kinetic weapon. They deal so much damage that even heavily armored units can get destroyed in a few shots. This is the smallest, weakest Gauss weapon, and it’s enough to punch through the front armor of one of our tanks. But Gauss weapons are also gated behind some research we can only get from alien leaders, commanders, and engineers, and they are sort of a “brute force” option. Their ammo clips are small, their accuracy is lower than average, they are heavy, and they take a lot of TUs to fire. All of that in exchange for raw power You know the drill, has higher damage but slightly reduced accuracy. Unlike the rifle and pistol, I don’t like this one because the point of SMGs is to be fired quickly, and 3 points of damage aren’t exactly blowing the old SMGs out of the water. The Black Ops SMG fires twice as many bullets. Not a big fan, look at the accuracy. Also, we can’t make one until we know how to make plasma weapons, which is something like 5 research topics away I think
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 18:23
|
|
|
When I play Files I almost always know who's going to be retired for fighter pilot duty once I've researched Metapsychology and know the Psi Strength of all my agents. Anyone with Psi below 40 is deemed unfit for fighting aliens with psy powers, due to the increased risk they bring to being on the team. I started a new playthrough recently with the latest version of the mod... And 2/3 of my agents have low Psi Strength  I may try to train up some new recruits before the invasion kicks off.I also lucked out and got 4 flying drone AI chassis from Osiron crates, and even though I can't research them yet I can still equip them and dispatch my little flying roombas to deal with threats. I had a sticky situation where a Zombie Infestation mission spawned on a south Pacific island out of range of my helicopter and dragonfly, but turns out AIs can indeed drive a private car, so I dispatched two hoverbots. They were safe from attack, but their built-in weapon is highly inaccurate and does only middling damage. 50 turns later the zombies were dead and my drones both got rank 10 in the Lucky medal, for a sweet +10 Firing Accuracy. The mod/engine must've changed the criteria for the Lucky medal from older versions, because it used to be a shot had to connect with less than 5% hit chance for it to count, but now I've been getting it on agents who've never taken shots with such low odds. I can't complain, though, it's been a boon. Black-Ops Auto-Sniper Rifles continue to be extremely good, especially on agents with > 100 firing accuracy. Really, any gun that has bonus damage modifiers tied to the Firing Accuracy stat is indispensable.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 19:32
|
|
|
Neurion posted:When I play Files I almost always know who's going to be retired for fighter pilot duty once I've researched Metapsychology and know the Psi Strength of all my agents. Anyone with Psi below 40 is deemed unfit for fighting aliens with psy powers, due to the increased risk they bring to being on the team. I started a new playthrough recently with the latest version of the mod... And 2/3 of my agents have low Psi Strength In a funny bit of irony, Sunny's psychic potential is actually very, very low despite me making a big fuss about it. I think it is in the 50s or so. Although our rookies are for some reason hitting it out of the park. This batch all has 70+ and a few of them are in the 90s
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 19:39
|
|
|
Burnt Toast is a medic, you expect a medic to know how to fly a Raven? He'll have to patch it up afterwards when he crashes it. Can't exactly give it a blood transfusion or bind its wounds. Seriously though, if you need to make him an interceptor pilot, go for it. Though I still maintain a medic has no business flying expensive aircraft about.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 20:01
|
|
|
Just read the whole thing, also played the whole thing, and I blame you for getting me into XCF  (as an aside, if anyone wants an "Always daytime" mod for XCF, let me know. 318 loving mission types  )Spirit Klansmen, more like.  That would explain how the interiors of individual UFOs seem to differ, like you have several layouts of Large Scouts despite identical hulls Hey, I remember that one, in my UFO identification sheet it's described simply as "Melnorme Trader"  (specific UFO types aside, I love what XCF did to the air combat. Sure cannons are poo poo, but you're forced to rely on them because of the weapon slot types, plasma beams run on E-115, losing a trained pilot hurts a lot more than producing new guns for a stock-bought Interceptor, and the engine/electronic modules give some more customization. Not to mention the alien interceptor ships, when I first saw a Battleship in hunter-killer mode my interceptors did a credible imitation of a school of fish avoiding a predator) Interrogating MiB Agents also takes an unreasonable amount of time, another thing probably caused by said mental blocks. glwgameplayer posted:on top of the invasion “starting” (though I haven’t seen any UFOs yet which is spooky.) As for earlier updates, I'm happy to see you didn't take the MAGMA bait. Their stuff is good when it comes at a cost of a mission request from time to time, but the offers to share sensitive technology are massive traps. It's not even the heavy points cost from the Council that's the problem, it's the negative random events they enable, e.g. if you share tritanium ammo tech, you get an event that some assassin shot a major CEO through armored plates, instant -500 points, repeatable. I think I lost like 10000 (!) points over the entire game to that one. After that shitshow I told MAGMA to get hosed at every opportunity, the only one I had doubts about was the power armor technology. Also very interested to see what you do with the Hybrids and ghosts because they were the only "plot" threads I didn't manage to resolve by the end of the game, despite seemingly reaching the end of their capture/research lines. Pierzak fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Aug 29, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 20:24
|
|
|
glwgameplayer posted:In a funny bit of irony, Sunny's psychic potential is actually very, very low despite me making a big fuss about it. I think it is in the 50s or so. RIP to the Wizard.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 20:33
|
|
|
Hound Smith can go into retirement. I think the zombie problem is well in hand.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 20:58
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:Just read the whole thing, also played the whole thing, and I blame you for getting me into XCF Pierzak posted:Also very interested to see what you do with the Hybrids and ghosts because they were the only "plot" threads I didn't manage to resolve by the end of the game, despite seemingly reaching the end of their capture/research lines. bbcisdabomb posted:RIP to the Wizard.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 21:03
|
|
|
glwgameplayer posted:To be completely honest, I'm not sure if those paths are "finished" or not. They might be, and they might not be. Either way I'll try and see if I can reach the end for you. If the RNG isn't playing ball I might just call upon the powers of Save Editing I'll be keeping tabs on the mod in the future, it seems 99% finished up to the later-invasion stage (sometime shortly before Ethereals start appearing), which seems kind of unfleshed-out compared to earlier XCF and very uneven in its pacing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 21:33
|
|
|
The intel about a three-storey high vessel armed for war:quote:This small UFO...
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 02:01
|
|
|
Rocket Baby Dolls posted:The intel about a three-storey high vessel armed for war:
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 02:11
|
|
|
The cult supply had a big surplus after the Dagon order fell through and they're redying the robes and selling them off cheap to try and recoup their money.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 03:33
|
|
|
Also, I feel the need to mention that the Communion of Apocalypse is the smallest variant we can get since I'm on an easier difficulty. So the smallest communion of Apocalypse ranges around 60-70 troops. The Superhuman Communion of Apocalypse can reach upwards of 80-90, perhaps even 100 It's probably one of the most populated missions in the game
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 03:49
|
|
|
glwgameplayer posted:Also, I feel the need to mention that the Communion of Apocalypse is the smallest variant we can get since I'm on an easier difficulty. So the smallest communion of Apocalypse ranges around 60-70 troops. The Superhuman Communion of Apocalypse can reach upwards of 80-90, perhaps even 100 This is one of those missions where the Skymarshall, which I've already discussed, really comes in handy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 07:52
|
|
|
Sorry for the break guys, I was playing Pikmin 4. The next update is currently in the works. Look forward to -The enemy who almost killed Gaspode -Repeatedly running out of room in my storage facility and having to toss corpses and weapons into an incinerator -The Syndicate being an absolute nuisance -My capture dying partway through a mission. -The slow realization that I could probably replace all our Black Ops rifles and Assault Rifles with the Black Ops Smartgun -The Raven completely destroying some small UFOs And probably some things I forgot. Expect the actual update to be up by... Monday? Let's say Monday
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2023 22:55
|
|
|
glwgameplayer posted:-The slow realization that I could probably replace all our Black Ops rifles and Assault Rifles with the Black Ops Smartgun This is the correct course of action. Blops Smartguns are insanely good, and scoring kills with them will also earn you the Gunner medal, boosting Accuracy and Strength on each level. Most of my agents are absolute beasts now. Neurion fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Aug 27, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 04:39
|
|
|
Neurion posted:This is the correct course of action. Blops Smartguns are insanely good, and scoring kills with them will also earn you the Gunner medal, boosting Accuracy and Strength on each level. Most of my agents are absolute beasts now. It just slowly dawned on me that for a very minor reduction in accuracy and effective range (I think the black ops rifle is more accurate on a snap shot by like, 5 points) I can equip everyone with a gun that is stronger, and fires 3 bullets on a snapshot and 6 on autoshot. The only thing I have to worry about is extra bullets maybe leading to friendly fire incidents. Pistols, cannons, explosives and sniper rifles still have a niche. Being used in one hand, raw power, AOE, and massive range respectively. But the Smartgun might as well replace all SMGs, assault rifles, and rifles for the coming months
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 13:43
|
|
|
The only other downside I can think of is the weight of the gun and ammo, but that's only really a concern if you haven't been giving your agents Bio-enhancement, or your agent is a type with low overall strength, such as hybrids.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 17:38
|
|
|
As a long time Pikmin fan, hearing so many people are playing and enjoying 4 brings me a lot of joy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 17:38
|
|
|
Greenking77 posted:As a long time Pikmin fan, hearing so many people are playing and enjoying 4 brings me a lot of joy. Originally my Dandori was weak, but it has even growing stronger and stronger as I progress… I actually think I really like the shorter, challenge focused levels of Pikmin 4. The way you have long chill stretches on the surface broken up by tight Dandori challenges and less intense cave explorations. Neurion posted:The only other downside I can think of is the weight of the gun and ammo, but that's only really a concern if you haven't been giving your agents Bio-enhancement, or your agent is a type with low overall strength, such as hybrids.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 18:31
|
|
|
glwgameplayer posted:Originally my Dandori was weak, but it has even growing stronger and stronger as I progress… I actually think I really like the shorter, challenge focused levels of Pikmin 4. The way you have long chill stretches on the surface broken up by tight Dandori challenges and less intense cave explorations. Hey, do you mind if I DM you to talk about more of the game at length?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 22:09
|
|
|
Neurion posted:Hey, do you mind if I DM you to talk about more of the game at length? You can PM me if you want to. I don't mind
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2023 22:12
|
|
|
I feel like a big dumb idiot. I've discovered the reason why a bunch of my research hasn't been advancing any farther. It's because I forgot to create an Advanced Laboratory. So I've been locked out of a bunch of really good research. I guess I'll add that to my "to do" list
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 00:04
|
|
|
glwgameplayer posted:I feel like a big dumb idiot. I've discovered the reason why a bunch of my research hasn't been advancing any farther. It's because I forgot to create an Advanced Laboratory. So I've been locked out of a bunch of really good research. Protip, you can shave a few days off by building the lab on an existing corridor. There's no difference in build time between building a non-discounted building and a discounted one + corridor (and you'll probably waste some money too), but it does allow you to get the job done faster when you're starting at 25+ days' worth of delay. Pierzak fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Aug 29, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 01:04
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:Protip, you can shave a few days by building the lab on an existing corridor. There's no difference in build time between building a non-discounted building and a discounted one + corridor (and you'll probably waste some money too), but it does allow you to get the job done faster when you're starting at 25+ days' worth of delay. I didn't know you could build over corridors, that's a neat trick!
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 01:46
|
|
|
File 37: Scorpion Men and the Syndicate. *Begin Recording* Aces High’s Log: January 24th to February 13th Hello, I am the AI unit Aces High. This will be my first time contributing to the ‘log’ of X-COM’s history and efforts. Due to my relative unfamiliarity with human culture and its contributions to the English language my writing may appear dry and analytical. However, due to the purpose of this log being to remember history and send information to the council, I believe that will not be a problem. At the end of the last log, the Commander and several of our agents were discussing the viability of a plan to attack the Communion of Apocalypse in a ground mission, but after several discussions and simulations, it was decided that the best option was to bomb it from the air. Afterward, our agents were sent to clean up the remains.  (I tried a few times to beat this mission, and I can. But not without losing a couple of agents. It’s less dangerous than it appears, some enemies are basically unarmed. But still, 60-70 enemies is a tall order and some of them have UAC Rocket Launchers) Several cultists survived the initial bombing and were taken into custody. As the bombing was done by an ally, we do not get any credit for the cultists killed. The commander has a plan for how to use a similar strategy to capture enemy combatants instead.  The weapon cache the enemy possessed was truly staggering. Not included in this list is the UAC rifles, pistols, shotguns, and melee weapons ranging from swords to knives.  (Pictured, the reason why this mission is terrifying) Due to repeated issues with the storage facility in Rat Hill being unable to contain all recovered corpses and equipment from missions, many of the resources used for crafting are being moved to other facilities. The Alien Alloys are remaining here, as they will be required for Cyber Armor creation and repairs.  This is something I am sadly unable to understand. As an AI unit I have no psychic potential, nor can I be touched by psychic interference. However, I am capable of extrapolating based on available data  Many Agents possess a great deal of psychic potential, more than many of our enemies' own psychic powers. Until now the agents were forced to create and invent their own ways of using psychic attacks, or scavenging equipment such as the flame glove. With this laboratory, our agents will have a way to train and embody these psychic powers. Combined with our own psychic equipment, they can break the barrier and become powerful psionics  (We got pretty lucky with psychics. Most of our crew have a lot of potential.) A UFO was detected flying across eastern Asia. The Raven from the Fox Den was deployed to shoot it down. It flew over the ocean and was shot down. Sad due to a lack of salvage, but acceptable nonetheless.  Research into alien weapons is very important, but progressing slowly. It should be possible to create our own, but the current laboratory isn’t capable of managing the technology required. Since it is impossible to replicate, the use of these weapons will be heavily restricted.  A design for a Tritanium cannon for aircraft was finished. It has a 50% increase in both damage and range. However, the commander has not decided if this is worth investing in or not.  I am once again incapable of explaining this due to my lack of knowledge of psychic events, but this weapon appears to use psychic energy and ectoplasm to create a miniature “stun bomb” that knocks out living creatures.  The Advanced Rocket Launcher is a slightly more accurate rocket launcher that is quicker to fire. It is not quite worth the price tag, especially since it has to use optronic parts.  A Deep One village was detected near North America, and as such the Weasel Bunker team was dispatched to deal with them.  Ivan: These guys don’t have guns. Just the usual spears and stuff.  Hound Smith: I’ll be retiring to pilot soon, so consider this my last ride lads. Zore: Well, try to go out with a bang! Metaphorically.  Ivan: These guys are basically harmless. It’s so much easier when we’ve got cannons and aqua plastic suits and they’ve got sticks.  There is little to say. The village was destroyed and the deep ones have been driven out  The Klein Bottle is a grenade created by the ghost hunters that draws on ectoplasm and psychic power. It does severe mental damage and ignores armor. As a stun grenade, it is unreliable due to the fatal damage it can deal, but it is very powerful either way.  One of the Apocalypse members went into battle with this as a weapon. I’m not sure why. (Whoops, accidentally took two pictures of the Klein Bottle. The UAC Heavy Nailgun does 40-cutting damage at point-blank range.) Speaking of the Cult of Apocalypse, the Easy Riders are another subgroup making up the bulk of their membership. They appear to be anti-establishment drifters who live a semi-nomadic lifestyle  There are also the Pinky Devils, a women-dominated subgroup that is obsessed with the occult. I hold little understanding of the occult, but it appears to be related to demons and other generally negative and rebellious groups in folklore.  (Would you believe me if I told you this is the subgroup closest to the heart of the Cult of Apocalypse? Somehow.) More drifters and anarchists who hold little to no faith in humanity. I can understand the cynicism, but perhaps humanity is only in such dire straits because so many people have already given up. I may be an artificial being, but hope is something I understand well.  At the head of the Communion of Apocalypse were these men, the Brothers of Apocalypse. Angry and cynical men who serve as the ringleaders and rabble-rousers for the Cult of Apocalypse. They are human, but despite that, their fevor and rage are beyond normal.  At the beginning of February, we received our income. An increase of over 1.5 million is good, but it would be best if our income increased even more. Our improved laboratory is estimated to take 6 million to build, though its maintenance is only 200 thousand. As such we will need much, much more in the future.  At the start of February, the Ghost Neuralizer was researched. It is a psychic weapon that inflicts stunning psychic shocks. I am immune to such interference, but most living creatures would be staggered or stunned by it  The Hawkeye is a Radar craft. It can hold a medium number of troops and has a sophisticated collection of radar equipment that makes it well-suited to detecting bases on the ground, and alien UFOs. It is also impossible to detect by radar, and is specially shielded against psychic sensing.  Another UFO was detected at a similar point to last time, and Sunny was deployed in the Raven to investigate. But this time the alien ship detected our approach and turned to fight   Despite the aggressive motion, the ship was quite easily downed by the Raven’s missiles before even entering combat range. Once again it fell into the ocean where it could not be recovered. Initial theories are that it is some kind of fighter or scout.  Attacking Shogg villages is something the commander doesn’t wish to do, but sees no other way around. We can’t communicate with them, and the Crocs openly attacked us. We need to do something obviously  I’m running out of things to say. It’s another psychic gun, this time with spray and buckshot variants. It does psychic stun damage and bypasses armor.  Before we could go to the Shogg village we had a Syndicate location to raid, which we easily cleared of all enemies. It was just a warehouse, so it was lightly guarded  Frustration is an emotion I understand now. Due to my tank body, I am incapable of going through small openings. I have assumed this would not be a problem. I was wrong.  Greenking: Woah! This village is full of giant scorpion people!  (Recolored lobstermen. I’m not even joking. Thankfully these guys only have a max of 35 armor Aces High: I… cannot continue. My frame is too large. Greenking: You can watch through our mounted cameras right? Aces High: Yes. That is true. I will watch though your cameras.  (The scorpoids are impossible to see since their shells are also black, but there’s a number of them in that “watchtower”) Nick Danger: You guys can take the main entrance, Burnt Toast and I will poke around these parts of the cave.  Sam O’Varr: Huh. That’s some kind of crossbow I think. The Cyberarmor can probably block the bolts  Greenking: Sam look out! -CRUNCH-  (Cybersuit melee is pretty good actually. Its damage scales off reactions, strength, and melee accuracy) Sam O’varr: drat I’m good. Let’s see how this Heavy Cannon does.  Sam O’varr: Bah. Didn’t kill my target Greenking: Well they are giant scorpions. It makes sense their shells would be pretty hard.  G255: It seems like one precise shot is the way to go with these guys. Sniper rifles and cannons.  Nick Danger: Turns out this cave just leads to the village. I’ll be joining you guys after all!  Nick Danger: I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Toast? Burnt Toast: I’ve got your back.  Nick Danger: I got one of them, the rest is up to you!  Burnt Toast: Thank god for the Smartgun. If I was using a normal LMG we would be in trouble.  G255: There’s a lot of them but I think we can handle this. The only one who really seems to have a gun is the watchman. Sam O’varr: Don’t count them out yet. They have the home-field advantage  Aces High: So this is what frustration feels like. I don't like it. If only I had a way to break this wall…  Nick Danger: They can’t really beat our Cyber armor with their uh. Whatever gun. Toxic gun? I think that’s a chemical needle  Burnt Toast: NICK BEHIND YOU!  Burnt Toast: Oof!  Burnt Toast: Don’t worry Nick everything’s gonna be fine! I’ve just got to clear this guy and I’ll be ready to heal you  Burnt Toast: You doing alright buddy? Nick Danger: Better than I was. Burnt Toast: Great. Once you’ve got your bearings, I need you to bandage me up.  Despite that initial scare, the Scorpoids had no tricks and their only ranged weapon was insufficient. We simply cut through them with superior range and power.  We retrieved a collection of Shogg weapons, a few captives, and some pieces of alien technology.  (I tried to capture the chief, but after shrugging off 4 taser shots I tried to deal some HP damage with a magnum. Instead, I basically got a critical hit and exploded him. Whoops) The Aliens don’t seem to have any form of recreation, so the science team was shocked to discover that many of the highly colorful but seemingly useless items they possess in larger ships and bases were in fact for entertainment. Or rather, psychic stimulation resembling entertainment.  The Brother of Apocalypse seemed awfully reluctant to spill the location of their outpost, but eventually, the interrogation team managed to gather enough clues to set us on the right track. Information agents are being sent to investigate, it may take them a month or more to find the location though.  Since the Syndicate is apparently responsible for many of the monstrous creatures around the world, the Commander decided to do as much research about them as we could to determine how they were modified. It will also allow us to press Syndicate scientists more harshly. If we already have the info they are trying to share, that information is useless to us. They will have to bargain with something else (Some of these Autopsies are fairly detailed some are not. I’m making them thumbnails so you can expand or ignore them to your heart’s content.)       (None of these are really useful, I'm just getting them out of the way. Syndicate Scientists will give us one monster-related research we don't have, so if we get the easy ones out of the way they'll only give us The Good Stuff) There was another zombie at a hospital. We handled it like always   (This one actually spawned the Zombie inside the hospital, and us further away from the door. But it came running out of a room on the first floor to attack a doctor. It wasn't hard to kill it.) There was another UFO that Hound Smith was sent to shoot down this time. It was another one of those small scout/fighter ships, and once again it was completely destroyed  The Mass Driver Cannon is a bit strange compared to other cannons. It can’t fire quickly, in fact, it has a very slow firing speed. But it does incredible damage at only a slight range decrease from the Tritanium cannon. A Mass Driver Cannon shot does as much damage as an Avalanche missile. We plan on arming our interceptors with these weapons and have sent the blueprints to UAC so they can be completed.  There were several small occurrences in the next several days. Strange creatures are easily handled by our teams. But before long something more concerning came through, another Communion of Apocalypse. But this time our Commander had a plan. Do you remember the grenades full of sleeping gas the Engineers can make? Imagine that but in the form of a bomb.  (I will not apologize. And don’t worry about breaking the money game. Apocalypse grunts are sold or ransomed for an average of a thousand dollars at best) Our researchers discovered a way to put a Mass Driver onto a tank body. At my request actually. The chassis is the same as usual, but this is the weapon that would be mounted.  On February 13th we were sent to a Syndicate Monster Lab and… Error.  I do not remember what happened in the monster lab. My memory banks are completely clean of information on them. Strange… according to my records no one was killed in the mission and it is officially recorded as a success. But I am confused as to how I could forget the mission.  Oh. That’s why. Because I was trapped in a tiny dark room again. Perhaps we need to look into smaller bodies for me. This concludes my contribution to X-COM's historical logs. Until the next time I record, I hope you are doing well. *End Recording* LPer Notes Maybe I should stop making promises I can’t keep. Sorry about not uploading Monday, things happened The Syndicate Monster Lab is a mission in which you have to fight the normal Syndicate security agents, with the addition of a Security Captain with slightly higher stats, and a Bloodhound which is a Gilldog recolored to be Red Either their stats are jacked or my brain was broken but every time I did this mission a bloodhound managed to sneak up and break someone’s neck, no matter how well I protected them. I finally managed a golden perfect run where everyone lived. Guess when my capture broke. Anyway, I saved immediately after doing the mission because god knows I didn’t want to do it again, and now I would have to play all those days back if I wanted to redo the mission. So I apologize, but I really don’t want to go redo a bunch of days just to show off a pretty basic mission. I don't know how much of it is the raw number of missions and different threads pulling me in different directions and how much is the LP format but I feel like I'm getting more and more scatterbrained as we go on. There are too many factions, too many missions, and too much research. I'm still having fun but like. drat. There's so much to do. I was sadly made aware of the fact that we need an Improved Lab in order to break through a few research roadblocks, and it will take some time to get the money required to do that. In addition, we’ll need alien alloys, and for some reason, the aliens don’t seem to be giving us many of those right now. Of course we can make a foundry to fix that, but that costs money. The Armory The Tritanium Cannon for ships is a 50% increase in damage and range. Which sounds awesome, except that it’s still basically limited to knife fight range, and still isn’t particularly powerful or accurate. I don’t consider it a significant enough upgrade to go for. The Hadrex Gun is a pretty strong psychic gun when used by a powerful psychic. But it has one critical flaw. It can only hold a single round and each bullet we make is only good for a single shot. While it does great damage (average 46 when used by a psychic with 90 psi strength or more) it isn't guaranteed to knock someone down. I'm not using Alien Optronics Parts to make a Rocket Launcher slightly more accurate Now, this isn’t too powerful normally. But it does get a power boost from the user’s psi strength. Our strongest psychics could make it deal oh you know. Not much. About 78 psychic damage. We should be glad that most of the Aether troops aren't actually that good at being psychic The heavy nail gun is basically a joke weapon with pitiful accuracy and range, but it does deal cutting damage and is therefore useful at getting through most human armor. Also, it counts as “labor gear” so it can be brought on industrial investigations. For some reason. (Still no picture whoops) This is another stunning psychic weapon, I’m sure you’re shocked. It has very little power and isn’t even influenced by psychic power, but it ignores the vast majority of armor. I think I’ll stick to other stun weapons for now though. The Hawkeye is a Radar Craft that you are basically expected to send galavanting around the world looking for bases and enemy ships to fight. This will be very useful as the enemy starts getting more and more active, especially if they stay away from our normal radars. I have no idea if it’s a worthy troop transport or not. It's a psychic shotgun or spray gun. I don't know what to say anymore. I'm not a big fan of these guns in general because they're pretty short range, and psychic damage mostly works against enemies who are not psychic. They won't work all that well against most monsters and a few aliens. And I much prefer normal human weapons that don't need to be fed ectoplasm The Mass Driver Cannon is extremely important if only for the sake of saving money. Missiles are expensive, and Mass Driver bullets are much, much less expensive per shot. I’m fairly certain its DPS is lower than a Tritanium cannon but its damage per shot and accuracy are both huge improvements The Mass Driver Tank is fully capable of just exploding whatever it’s pointed at. It’s super powerful, but obviously not perfect. The reduced firing rate obviously sucks and it’s not as good against single targets. But if you level this at the average enemy, or even a heavily armored one. They wll probably explode in a single shot. Also Aces High has 133 accuracy, so a snapshot with that would be at 93% accuracy I’m pretty sure.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 16:31
|
|
|
Lol at more or less skipping straight to Mass driver cannons. The worst part about them is that they only end up using a handful of shots per sortie, but you can only buy the ammo in lots of 60. That said, the ammo is dirt cheap so it doesn't end up really costing you much other than time. They hit super hard, have fantastic accuracy for a non-missile weapon, and are extremely cheap to maintain. A+ weapon, IMO only exceeded by plasma cannons and gauss cannons. All the psi weapons are new to me, though, so it'll be interesting to see if they pay off.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 18:14
|
|
|
So what weapons do you need for making permanent changes to the landscape
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 20:25
|
|
|
Aces High posted:So what weapons do you need for making permanent changes to the landscape Technically I have a Pickaxe at the base I just never use it. I guess I should probably consider it though. There's also a laser cutter that can do the same thing, but again. Only useful for breaking walls and stuff
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 20:35
|
|
|
It's definitely worth carrying a pickaxe and a handful of high explosives around in the dropship, there's a few maps where the only way into a section of the map is through a wall (and only sometimes will the game warn you ahead of time)
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 21:19
|
|
|
Steelion posted:It's definitely worth carrying a pickaxe and a handful of high explosives around in the dropship, there's a few maps where the only way into a section of the map is through a wall (and only sometimes will the game warn you ahead of time) "It's all one," says the Sapper...
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2023 22:12
|
|
|
The HWP Lasers have infinite ammo and you can use that to dig.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2023 01:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 05:51 |
|
|
winterwerefox posted:The HWP Lasers have infinite ammo and you can use that to dig. I did try shooting the ground with Aces High’s cannon but. Sadly it doesn’t possess enough power to crack through solid dirt walls. We’ve got some more research to do before the power of lasers is ours
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2023 04:22
|
|