X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[baturinsky]

It's not even "bad spot". It's that nobody can literally hit the target to save their lives. I had four guys at medium distance not being able to land a single shot on single alien, ten he killed two on his turn. Or sometimes I hit, sectoid survive and one-shot back. If armor will make it possible to survive one shot, it will be possible to heal solider back with medkit or at least retreat.
Sending a tank forward helps a lot, though. Maybe I should use two.

 

[Dayyālu]

It's not even "bad spot". It's that nobody can literally hit the target to save their lives. I had four guys at medium distance not being able to land a single shot on single alien, ten he killed two on his turn. Or sometimes I hit, sectoid survive and one-shot back. If armor will make it possible to survive one shot, it will be possible to heal solider back with medkit or at least retreat.
Sending a tank forward helps a lot, though. Maybe I should use two.

A tank can help in the beginning, if you can afford the price.
The most efficient way to win firefights in UFO is to use a spotter-sniper system: secure an area (easier said than done, you might have noticed that getting out the Skyranger is sometimes quite a feat), choose some good shooters with heavy weaponry (Heavy Cannons with HE, Incendiary, Laser guns) and then cover ground jumping from cover to cover with rookies, scouts or tanks. Try to keep the FOV open for the snipers. Identify targets, annihilate targets. If you have to fight in urban areas and you are sure that there aren't civvies around, level the places with grenades: better safe than sorry.

I know, it's kind of a slow method. But in the beginning you will win some missions and learn the ropes.

Armor and medkits do not work like in most games: a medkit heals only stun damage or "wounds", and cannot be used to regain health on the field.
Armor is less important than a good position, squadmates and firepower. Case in point, in my last mission, a vet squaddie in power armor after missing six Heavy Plasma shots against a Muton two squares away, was shot dead in a single hit by the aforementioned Muton with a single Plasma rifle hit. Say goodbye to 120'000 $.

EDIT: Wohoo, Follow the Brazilian lead. They did well in Italy, I've heard. And tell us what do you think of the Snakemen terror missions after you find one: I'm very curious.

 

[baturinsky]

Thanks for advices. Just did floater terror without casualties. Missile launcher and HE ammo rocks. And a tank - easily worth 4 slots. Plasma pistols barely dent it, perfect scout.

 

[Average Manatee]

To add to what the Brazilian division of X-Com said:

- Crouched Aimed Shot Rocket Launcher = something like 140% of your base accuracy. Godlike snipers. Headshotting units across the map with rockets is *THIS MUCH FUN*. Don't overload them with ammo so they have their full TUs to work with, but have a designated Ammo-deliverer to throw your snipers more rockets whenever they run low. Have 2-3 rocket snipers at all times.
- Early game for other soldiers I go 50/50 HE Cannon and Pistol/Grenades. HE cannons and grenades are both amazing. Switch to AP cannon and pistol/stun rod for UFO breaching. Try to stun a sectoid navigator ASAP (usually in the center of the small ufos, psi probe can help find who is who). Research them and get a really nice tech. I'd recommend against Autocannon HE because the 2nd and 3rd shot can destroy loot. Explosion-killed enemies leave loot, but explosions on loot on the floor kills them depending on how tough the loot is (also the map objects inside the UFO are actual loot as well, try not to damage them too much). When you get it the Stun Launcher is absolutely amazing for capturing enemies and not damaging UFO equipment.
- Tanks are indeed awesome. I always try to roll with a rocket launcher simply as terrain clearing. When and whether to upgrade to higher level tanks is up to you.
- When to upgrade to better weapons is up to you. If you like pistols and rifles you need to go to lasers almost immediately. If you like HE and grenades you can usually survive up until the mid game before you need to upgrade. Rocket Launchers are always godlike except against a certain enemy tank unit, but by then you will have the alien launcher.

Don't sweat the difficulty. Most difficulty levels other than the easiest only mildly modify enemy stats (the easiest flat out halves their accuracy). The main difficulty impact is simply enemy numbers, but once you learn the right tactics 10 more enemies just means 10 more guns to loot.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Hahaha. 1000 damage HWP fusion bomb with a 20m blast radius . It's a shame the maps are so small and 50m blast radius would damage most of the map including the Skyranger XD .

 

[Dim]

steam sale for 250

 

[Gord]

He, (Open)XCom sure can be FUN!.
Just had a Ethereal Terror Mission on Veteran, no Heavy Plasma yet, no Psionics, pure rape.

I think the aliens are a bit more accurate (even without the grenade bug) and competent compared to vanilla, but it's been ages since my last game, so I might be mistaken.

 

[Gord]

How many remaining squad members left from the mission?

Tbh., I chickened out and reloaded an older save (right before the mission popped up) once the Ethereals had controlled half my team and killed my tank plus two of my guys by round 4. At that point a TPK seemed pretty much unavoidable (that or a retreat).
A pity, I killed 3 of them in the first one or two rounds, but it became apparent quite quickly that I would have no real chance there.

Now the mission is sitting before me and I'm contemplating how to proceed. I might be able to shoot down the UFO, since the Terror site is not too far from one of my bases, but then should I ignore the crash site or hope for slightly less rape and try to clean it up?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Hahaha. It's possible to make terror sites use 100x100 maps with 100 civilians.

 

[LESS T_T]

Yes we’re working on it



So quit asking.

http://openxcom.org/2014/07/yes-were-working-on-it/

 

[Jaesun]

Does this have an option to use the original Roland Mt-32 MIDI music? Because the Main Menu music is pretty damn sweet....

Someone DID make a MT-32 Music pack. I shall scrutinize it to see if it is a real MT-32 or not...

 

[Machocruz]

Playing a Veteran campaign right now. First time on anything above the glitched vanilla difficulty. Man, the enemy reaction fire is murrrrr-daaaah. First terror mission, at night, cyberdisks on both flanks of my ship. Smoke -tank can deploy and start spotting for threats; no smoke -tank never even gets past the first ramp tile. First base mission, more sectoids and cyberdisks. I become scummiest of the save scummers during this mission, trying to get the most optimal deployment of smoke, promixity grenades and tank scouting possible so I don't lose 2/3 of my force before the third turn. I can't even imagine what the higher difficulties are like.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Today I cleaned up a Muton alien base using mostly rookies armed with high explosives.
I had twenty soldiers, fifteen of them died in process. Nobody panicked. That was some heroic shit.
Though for some reason in my zeal to try out the new tactic, I forgot to equip them with Personal Armour, tens of which I had lying around my base.

To my great disappointment it turned out that UFO Power Sources were either not present at the base or destroyed in process of exterminating its inhabitants.

 

[baturinsky]

106 Alien Entertainment? Have you destroyed an alien Disneyland?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

106 Alien Entertainment? Have you destroyed an alien Disneyland?

Yeah :D . It looks like it was an entertainment base without power sources :D .
I guess Mutons like to have fun.

 

[Gozma]

Muton frat house

Extrovert base invasion

Or maybe introvert hoarders and you captured their storage room full of retrogaming Amigas and C64s

 

[Average Manatee]

Playing a Veteran campaign right now. First time on anything above the glitched vanilla difficulty. Man, the enemy reaction fire is murrrrr-daaaah. First terror mission, at night, cyberdisks on both flanks of my ship. Smoke -tank can deploy and start spotting for threats; no smoke -tank never even gets past the first ramp tile. First base mission, more sectoids and cyberdisks. I become scummiest of the save scummers during this mission, trying to get the most optimal deployment of smoke, promixity grenades and tank scouting possible so I don't lose 2/3 of my force before the third turn. I can't even imagine what the higher difficulties are like.

Never move out of the skyranger on turn 1; enemies have their full TUs which means they are at maximum reaction fire ability. Wait till turn 2 so that hopefully they've moved around a bit and are no longer at full reaction fire ability. Its still always very risky, the Skyranger is practically designed to give enemies the most chances to shoot you stepping down the ramp. Fucking floaters hiding ON TOP of the skyranger always manage to murder my best soldiers.

Night is always a meatgrinder. Avoid missions at night unless you are looking for a challenge.

http://openxcom.org/2014/07/yes-were-working-on-it/

Because the amounts of rape were not high enough before...

Hey, I'll take any amount of super-accurate invincible crab men in exchange for a transport vehicle that isn't designed to kill me.

 

[Gozma]

Something to keep in mind with X-Com's visibility model is that unlike something like JA2 all the enemies always see as though it were full daylight. So you don't have to worry about something I played many games assuming - that standing right by a flare on the ground would let aliens see you better. So basically throw flares everywhere to achieve sight range parity.

Edit - and specifically knowing the above lets you throw a flare, walk over it, pick it back up and throw it again somewhere else in confidence.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It would be cool if flares would blind aliens.

By the way, I hate the daylight vision range limits.

Yesterday I accidentally an ufo with an Alien Grenade:

 

[someone else]

Tried this for a bit.
Lost my newly build undefended 2nd base, radar didn't even pick up the UFO that attacked my base.

I like the no item limit on planes and the better inventory management, being able to prime a smoke grenade before combat is a life-saver. Though I got shot at when I threw the smoke grenade in the Skyranger.
Love the combat sounds.
The shotgun mod looks like fun.

On the other hand, I've played XCOM to death since 1994 so it is boring.

 

[Krash]

Feels good that I've actually never played X-Com, since it will make everything fresh and interesting when I get to it (soon).

I might post a thread to describe my experience, or just write about it here. Too lazy to do a proper LP.

On the other hand, I've played XCOM to death since 1994 so it is boring.

Try the mods.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

This is X-Com son, not SimFarm.

(Seriously, what's with all the dirt?)

 

[index.php]

Terror from the Deep now available in the nightlies!

http://openxcom.org/2015/08/terror-from-the-deep-now-available-in-the-nightlies/

DISCLAIMER: This is not a final release! We did not ignore all your feedback for the last year! There will still be many more fixes and additions before the next milestone!

Due to popular demand and the satisfactory performance of Terror from the Deep in the stream olympics, we have decided to unleash it onto the nightly builds so that everyone can try it out. Our goal here is to get as much testing of vanilla TFTD and make sure it’s fully playable from start to end, before you all decide to mod the crap out of it. Please report all bugs and inaccuracies here, and let me remind you the game being too hard / too easy does not count.

 

[Average Manatee]

Fuck yeah

 

[Nutmeg]

I just finished a binge of the piratez mod.

In the end I devised a minimum player effort strategy:

Have your girls wear gym armor, wield hammers or chainsaws depending on their strength, and equip willey petes, smoke grenades and fistycuffs. Use smoke grenades to advance with impunity, willey petes to do morale damage and fistycuffs to stun. Hammers and chainsaws can both break through walls, and one hit kill most things. Amazon armor is a potentially low hanging fruit, as are gravity harnesses.

This loadout should do for all of year 1, where your goal is to tech up to the second manufacturable fighter and hammerite missiles, and build a second base right next to an enemy faction base so you can raid the shipping routes for fuel, ship engines, slave AIs and other goodies.

The next loadout is just a matter of switching from the meelee weapons to the 60kg rifle or bozor, again depending on weight, and from gym suits to juggernaut armor and its upgrade (+ 30 carrying capacity). This can last you the rest of the game, or long enough to complete most of the tech tree. The 60kg rifle does 100 piercing damage, and there's only three or four other non area of effect weapons that do more, but they're much much much further down in the tech tree.

So, it's kind of sad to see the great variety in weapons and so on go unused, but that's the nature of these kinds of "deck building" games - it's basically just a one off optimization puzzle.