X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

So how do you catch those alien bases? Every time I send the Sky Ranger the base is dismanted and they fly away before my squad arrives. Or is there a difference between landing sites and bases?
Word on the Ufopedia is that I need to capture an alien leader from a base.

There is a difference between landing sites and bases.
You have probably been landing on supply ships that are building the base.

 

[Average Manatee]

To find a base you want to send a ship out and patrol for a few hours wherever you think one is. You can tell by the score if a base is in an area, it will tick up score against you constantly. Or they'll eventually be revealed after enough months have passed.

 

[octavius]

So what's the best items to manufacture for sale that does not require Elerium-115?
Heavy Blasters seems like a good choice, but I'm too lazy to crunch the numbers.

 

[Dayyālu]

Laser Cannons. The Aircraft version.

They are shitty weapons, but they sell well.

 

[Average Manatee]

Selling laser cannons for profit is practically an exploit. But if you do it Openxcom has a feature where you can right click the arrows to produce an indefinite amount and sell immediately micro-free.

Motion sensors are the 2nd best item to sell, and one of the first things you want to research, but still a very distant second.

 

[Endemic]

I concur. Getting a Sectoid terror mission in the first month is pretty rough. Not only do you get the triple-plasma cannon fire from the Cyberdisks, but the Sectoid commander has MC ability as well.

 

[ArchAngel]

I concur. Getting a Sectoid terror mission in the first month is pretty rough. Not only do you get the triple-plasma cannon fire from the Cyberdisks, but the Sectoid commander has MC ability as well.

When I played Open Xcom on hardest difficulty if 1st Terror was that I would just leave with all my soldiers. I rather lose the country than whole squad.

 

[octavius]

I concur. Getting a Sectoid terror mission in the first month is pretty rough. Not only do you get the triple-plasma cannon fire from the Cyberdisks, but the Sectoid commander has MC ability as well.

Funny you should mention it...I restarted the game on the default difficulty since I felt I was getting the hang of this game. Then on the first month I get a terror mission before having even laser weapons. It took lots of ammo, half of it cannon shells, to bring down even one Cyberdisk, so I decided to leave Novosibirsk for Putin to handle.

 

[Endemic]

When I played Open Xcom on hardest difficulty if 1st Terror was that I would just leave with all my soldiers. I rather lose the country than whole squad.

Not sure I'd want to do that before I had any serious manufacturing ability to make up the $$$ lost.

Funny you should mention it...I restarted the game on the default difficulty since I felt I was getting the hang of this game. Then on the first month I get a terror mission before having even laser weapons. It took lots of ammo, half of it cannon shells, to bring down even one Cyberdisk, so I decided to leave Novosibirsk for Putin to handle.

Well the one upside is that it's a 4-hex unit, so it takes 4x the usual damage from explosive weapons. That means a direct hit from a large rocket will one-shot in most cases.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yeah, rockets make great snipers. Crouched aimed shot rockets can get over 100% accuracy pretty easily and just ping Cyberdisks from across the map. The problem is when you can't shoot from outside their vision range and have to risk reaction fire. Miss? 50/50 chance the Cyberdisk is looking at you and you die. Hit but not kill? You die. Even autofire laser rifles have a good chance of failing to kill with 3 shots and if you stand far enough away to not get killed by the explosion you probably won't hit all 3 either. High Explosives work pretty well though.

I concur. Getting a Sectoid terror mission in the first month is pretty rough. Not only do you get the triple-plasma cannon fire from the Cyberdisks, but the Sectoid commander has MC ability as well.

Shit, it's more than pretty rough. It's probably the roughest individual mission in X-Com if you don't get really lucky and have the Alien Leader spawn right next to your landing spot so you can kill him quickly. I'd say only the 2-part cruise liner terror mission in TFTD exceeds it in difficulty.

 

[octavius]

So a month after evacuating from the Sectoid terror team at Novosibirsk, terror strikes again again in the same place. Only two differences this time - I've got Plasma Pistols, and it's night!

 

[Endemic]

So a month after evacuating from the Sectoid terror team at Novosibirsk, terror strikes again again in the same place. Only two differences this time - I've got Plasma Pistols, and it's night!

I hope you brought a lot of flares

 

[octavius]

So after two aborted anti-terror missions in Novosibirsk against Sectoids, terror struck Berlin. Again it was Sectoids and again it was night, but this time I had Heavy Plasma and was able to destroy all but one of the Cyberdisks in one shot. Only lost two squad members, one of whom would have been fired anyway due to low mental strength, so I'm feeling rather now.

 

[Mustawd]

It's not a matter of how hard they are to kill, every enemy other than Sectopods go down pretty quickly.

Honestly Cyberdisks are worse than Chryssalids.

Agree a bit, because Chryssalids have no reaction attack.

I guess I just hate Chryssalids cuz they kill AND turn your own men against you. I get too attached to my guys


at least if your guys get taken over by psychic powers there's a chance they just panic and run.

 

[octavius]

So how do you catch those alien bases? Every time I send the Sky Ranger the base is dismanted and they fly away before my squad arrives. Or is there a difference between landing sites and bases?
Word on the Ufopedia is that I need to capture an alien leader from a base.

There is a difference between landing sites and bases.
You have probably been landing on supply ships that are building the base.

I found out a good tactic with those Large and especially Very Large (since they shoot down my Interceptors) alien ships is to use the Skyranger to follow them, and then do a ground assault when they land. This also leads to more salvage since the engines won't be destroyed. And there will be no or few aliens outside the ship, which makes it quicker.

 

[octavius]

I wish tanks could mow down/move over enemies and obstacles.

 

[octavius]

So I sent Interceptors to patrol the areas of four UFO landing sites, near Montreal, Mexico City, New Orleans and on Haiti, but only near NO did I detect an alien base. I waited until I had researched the Small Launcher and Stun Grenades and sent my 10 most square jawed soldiers to destroy the base. I managed it with two losses, both due to an enemy tossing a grenade or using a rocket launcher.
But I didn't manage to capture the (Floater) commander. How do I recognize him?

 

[Luka-boy]

The only way to know for sure in the case of Floaters is using a Mind Probe on every single one you find.

Alternatively, if you find the control room tile early in the mission before the aliens have time to scatter, the commander should be one of the many Floaters in that area.

 

[Average Manatee]

The largest UFOs also have commanders, if you're tired of waiting for a base to spawn.

 

[octavius]

So what determines how many precious TUs a soldier need to Prime and Throw a grenade? There doesn't seem to be in direct correlation with the Throwing skill.
Also, is Throwing bugged? Seems the grenades always land in the bull's eye, so to speak. Or does the skill only determine how far you can throw a grenade?

 

[Mustawd]

Or does the skill only determine how far you can throw a grenade?

Pretty sure it's just distance.

So what determines how many precious TUs a soldier need to Prime and Throw a grenade? There doesn't seem to be in direct correlation with the Throwing skill.

Actions that cost a percentage, such as firing a gun or priming a grenade, will always take a percentage of the soldier's base Time Units to perform. This means that the soldier's base TUs has no bearing on how many times the action can be performed during any given turn.

For example, if a weapon costs 25% to fire, it can only be fired a maximum of 4 times a turn, for every soldier, regardless of his/her amount of TUs. Because of this, it's smart to put low-TU soldiers in long range fire support roles.

Note: Costs are based on the maximum amount of your soldier's TUs, not the current amount. Therefore, percentage costs do not change as you use up TUs (or if you have more TUs than usual, due to going berserk).

Percentage Cost Actions
Action Cost
Firing any weapon Depending on weapon and firing mode from 18% up to 80%
Throwing 25%
Using Motion Scanner 25%
Using Stun Rod 30%
Using Mind Probe 50%
Priming an explosive 50%

 

[Average Manatee]

Skill determines accuracy. You're right that throwing is generally much more accurate than shooting. It starts with a higher base and you're always using your full % (as opposed to shooting where most guns will use 40-80% of your shooting accuracy). Plus you only have to land something nearby, not actually hit the unit.

Range is determined by the strength of the thrower and the weight of the object. In Vanilla there was a bug where soldiers that were too strong reduced your range (because they would try to throw things too high, and since the game only has 4 levels of height the grenade would go out of bounds and count as an invalid throw), but AFAIK OpenXcom fixes that and really high strength people can basically lob things across the map like artillery.

 

[octavius]

I spent a month building a Tank that Hovers, and then some Sectoturd destroys it with one shot on the first turn.

 

[Average Manatee]

Hovertanks are amazing, don't let it get you down. Damage is highly random but Hovertanks are still way tougher than anything else. Just execute the strategy of not being seen by using all those extra TUs it has to hide, armor and health is still a last resort.

You got ridiculously unlucky. Hovertanks with 130 armor and 90 health vs. Sectopods 100 damage (0-200 roll, with 130 armor that's a 65% chance to take 0 damage). I'm assuming you hovered out on turn 1 and took a shot to the bottom of the tank, which only has 90 armor? Otherwise it should be literally impossible to be taken down in one shot from them. Make sure to smoke and wait out the first turn, as always.

 

[octavius]

Make sure to smoke and wait out the first turn, as always.

I always do that, but in this case a Sectoid was staring right into the Sky Ranger. So I decided to got for an Aimed Shot with the Hover Tank and missed, and it was promptly reduced to a pile of rubbish. I bet one of the other Sectoids yelled "Great shot, kid! That was one in a million.".