X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[Average Manatee]

Can you download older version before the sniper spotter thing is a thing? What's best version before that? Seems like a "modders gonna mod" feature taht I don't really want

Easier/better way to have the up to date version and just remove it is to do this:

(this is in notepad++)

I do suggest playing Piratez with sniper though. Its only specific enemies/enemy types that have it and they tend to be balanced around having sniper (e.g. there's an early game bandit type unit that has it but they have pistols so its just a few very inaccurate shots per turn). For Xcomfiles though, totally do it.

 

[std::namespace]

are you redgreen colorblind? cause wtf x|

also have you tested "sniper: ..."?
that seems like a terrible idea to run on every rules file?, there is a ". match newline" toggle too

"sniper: [12345]" to "sniper: 0" should be better in one specific rules file that contains the enemies, but i wouldnt put money on it...

 

[Average Manatee]

I obviously checked what was found by my search and it was only the correct lines.

 

[Jaedar]

I do suggest playing Piratez with sniper though. Its only specific enemies/enemy types that have it and they tend to be balanced around having sniper

Sort of yes, but also... everyone in humanists/spartans/eridians has sniper+spotter, and I think basically all elite units of all factions have at least sniper? But the latter is fine imo, elite units should be scary.

I do suspect the game would be way too easy if you just removed the mechanics entirely. Get a single unit with extra sight range and you would instantly win.

 

[std::namespace]

I obviously checked what was found by my search and it was only the correct lines.

finding is the not the problem, replacing is

sniper: 3
some-text-on-new-line

will get replaced to

sniper: 0some-text-on-new-line

because the last dot in ... matches newline, no?

 

[Jaedar]

Having reached end/lategame of xpiratez, I am getting increasingly annoyed at some things.
Having to remember which shields have which interactions with which damage types is annoying. In principle it's cool, but in practice trying to find the right weapons to deal with the shield and then the armor underneath feels a lot like consulting spreadsheets.

Why is there such a reliance on underground maps, when the mapgen just cannot handle it? It frequently creates really weird deadends, stairs to nowhere, or just makes it so you have to dig through 10 tiles to connect two halves of the map. If you get asked to clear out a cellar, you should not have to bring digging equipment because what they actually meant was their and their neighbours cellar. And then there's stuff like this:
https://paste.pics/PXRT9

Some of the mid/lategame stuff just feels unfinished as well. From item descriptions that say WIP, to referencing things that don't exist (where are the gnomequests I was supposed to get from finding the highway star?)

Balancing never felt great (was there really a need for 2 shitty 1 tile pistols?), but for me to currently make tech progress I can fight high end mercs, star gods or humanists all of which are very strong. But I've also barely gotten access to shadowlands which feels like fighting nurses at the very start.

 

[lightbane]

I believe that by endgame, you can brute force missions with power armors and plasma guns, especially bigger ones. It's still regular endgame from the OG.game (and the other XCOM style games, I would say). Even with shields, you can breach them if everyone has plasma weaponry.

 

[Jaedar]

I believe that by endgame, you can brute force missions with power armors and plasma guns, especially bigger ones. It's still regular endgame from the OG.game (and the other XCOM style games, I would say). Even with shields, you can breach them if everyone has plasma weaponry.

I am not finding lategame armors to be reliable at all, compared to chainmail in the early game. Why just last mission a humanist stormtrooper walked up 3 flights of stairs and took down 2 gals, one in synthmuscle and one with juggernaught armor, in a single turn. It was melee range too, but I guess the partial evasion made deflection not work.. But yeah, plasma is a decent solution against every shield type, but not the best solution.

 

[Endemic]

Melee damage has always been relatively good in X-COM. Maybe the resistance to it is lower for X-Piratez' armor?

 

[Jaedar]

Melee damage has always been relatively good in X-COM. Maybe the resistance to it is lower for X-Piratez' armor?

"Melee damage" doesn't really exist in xpiratez. There is a melee weapon for pretty much every damage type, including plasma and laser. Melee is strong though, as even a basic rapier in the hands of a decent soldier will deal like 3x the damage of a medium tier rifle, for a fraction of the TUs.

Can someone who has played the mod before tell me on what mission types / ships the highest rank guilders and academicians appear? (and how to get those ships to appear, I can look up missions on my own if I know what I'm looking for). I'm halfway through the third year, and while I've seen about a dozen church leaders, there's been 0 signs of the other two.

Also the blacksun hq is some of the most sadistic game design I've ever seen. Wound up savescumming like there was no tomorrow.

 

[std::namespace]

"Melee damage" doesn't really exist in xpiratez.

name is "slashing" ranged weapon

mission types / ships the highest rank guilders and academicians appear

i dont think vip's generally appear in missions, cept for guild rep, which is mansion at least

scientist - science vessel
provost - base attack/defense

if you go to xpedia and on to shipping, the ships that have:

alien Rank :
0
low Qty :
1
high Qty :
1

those have 1 vip, which is rank0, onboard

 

[Jaedar]

i dont think vip's generally appear in missions, cept for guild rep, which is mansion at least

I've encountered scientists on missions (campus attack, witch coven quest). Guild rep I'm less sure about, but they're common on shot down ships.

So what I figured out is that the only(?) way to get provost/guildmaster is to provoke the faction enough that they send crackdown against you, and then shoot down the scouts until they send bigger and bigger ships and eventually they'll send cruiser/battleship which contains a leader. Feels a bit unintuitive after how easy it was for me to find cardinals, I think I've had something like 8 landed shrine ships. The church feels kinda laughably weak compared to high tier guild/academy.

 

[std::namespace]

do you have to provoke em? i think crackdowns are just randomly rolled, as is the faction
do you have to shoot down the scouts? i dont know, i believe they are just fluff

 

[Jaedar]

do you have to provoke em? i think crackdowns are just randomly rolled, as is the faction
do you have to shoot down the scouts? i dont know, i believe they are just fluff

I think if the scouts spot your base you just get a base assault ship? I think they can contain factions leaders as well, but not sure.

do you have to provoke em? i think crackdowns are just randomly rolled, as is the faction

I'm pretty sure crackdowns triggers when you shoot down ships, especially those on "peackeeping" missions?
Case in point, last month I shot down a merc ship (it was just on a merc business mission). This month they spawned 4 heavy crackdown ships within 4 hours lol (I think I shot down one or two scouts, possibly it was two different triggers happening at once). Thankfully I have a lot of good interceptors, my side base could not have handled even one of them reaching it.

 

[std::namespace]

im just going by xpedia crackdown description,
my interpretation is thus:
the waves can be shot down to interrupt the cruiser landing,
the race is random,
i havent read the retaliation scripts, triggering on dogfights is a good guess yeah, might define the race too

 

[std::namespace]

dogfights yeah

 

[Jaedar]

im just going by xpedia crackdown description,
my interpretation is thus:
the waves can be shot down to interrupt the cruiser landing,
the race is random,
i havent read the retaliation scripts, triggering on dogfights is a good guess yeah, might define the race too

Not sure if there's naming confusion, but for the for crackdowns I just went through, two of them had cruisers at the end, not battleships, and one just spawned 4 corvettes after an initial fighter.
I did also get another one that seems to just have spawned an assault transport with no scouting wave as well, not sure what that is about. I was very close to winning on turn 1 after they landed, but one guy survived and didn't panic despite all the deaths and being on fire.

 

[Average Manatee]

New xPiratez: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3626.0.html

Some interesting changes and some... interesting changes. On the down side:

- Establishing new Hideouts now requires researching it

but

- Early Game Change: lots of weak enemy ground craft to fight with
- New Enemy Vessels/Missions: Highwaymen Hoverpod, Sandcrawler, Bandit Wartruck, Bandit Car, Black Talon
- New Crafts: Gunwagon, Angry Bird, Tiger
- New Craft Weapons: Piratin' Cannon (HAND), Minigun (GR), RPG (HAND), GL (HAND), Rotogun (GR), RL (HAND), Harpoons (GR), Hefaistos (AA)
- New Craft Systems: Augmented Engines, Compressed Chem Fuel Tank, Craft Extra Armor

I guess early game is less reliant on missions and you can take a proactive approach shooting things down? I like that. Bootstrapping your way into craft weapons was always kind of awkward.

 

[Jaedar]

I guess early game is less reliant on missions and you can take a proactive approach shooting things down? I like that. Bootstrapping your way into craft weapons was always kind of awkward.

Eh, it was fine imo. Good even. Felt like a gamechanger when you finally got there.

Also how about this guy finishes or even works at all on the many things in the lategame that just say "tbd" or "to be continued", instead of adding random stuff.

Also bugeyes will get obsoleted as mages now that cats have a mage armor I suspect.

 

[eXalted]

New xPiratez: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3626.0.html

I've literally just updated to the previous version and was about to start a new game. Good timing.

 

[Average Manatee]

Also bugeyes will get obsoleted as mages now that cats have a mage armor I suspect.

Bugeyes do feel kind of left out. I guess Catgirls are more popular to make content for? Only advantage bugs have now seems to be that they get their terror/possession abilities inherently. Otherwise it was already kind of iffy before, catgirls had only 5 less max skill but monstrously better stats everywhere else. The witch catgirl armor is really good too, +7 power +21 skill.

 

[Jaedar]

Also bugeyes will get obsoleted as mages now that cats have a mage armor I suspect.

Bugeyes do feel kind of left out. I guess Catgirls are more popular to make content for? Only advantage bugs have now seems to be that they get their terror/possession abilities inherently. Otherwise it was already kind of iffy before, catgirls had only 5 less max skill but monstrously better stats everywhere else. The witch catgirl armor is really good too, +7 power +21 skill.

Does it fly? At least bugeyes have SENSE so they can use their voodoo through hull ceilings (although ufo interiors are the easiest part of ufo maps).

Also this endgame is crazy grindy. 12500 hellerium and more than 140 engineer years to be able to build one of the subcomponents of the ship that can take you to final mission. Or you can pray to RNGesus that it won't take you multiple years to get enough chrono prisms.

 

[Average Manatee]

Does it fly? At least bugeyes have SENSE so they can use their voodoo through hull ceilings (although ufo interiors are the easiest part of ufo maps).

Actually a lot of perks here, Invis 7, fly (slowly seems to mean 2x as many TUs per tile), and a small amount of sense.

 

[Jaedar]

Actually a lot of perks here, Invis 7, fly (slowly seems to mean 2x as many TUs per tile), and a small amount of sense.

No shit, that's a lot of perks. Although bad touch means you can't use the best "vanilla psi" equipment. Unless it's in the special slot as opposed to one of the hands?

 

[Average Manatee]

Nope, in the hands. The substantial voodoo bonuses do outweigh that though, your max voodoo mastery (ignoring titles) is about 40% higher.