X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[Average Manatee]

You don't "have" to look up anything. But if you get stuck then it can help.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I see where MadMaxHellfire is coming from: 20+ years ago it was expected that a manual came with the game and that it should be read. They weren't always the best of reading, and important information could be missed by plenty of players. Example: Pressing F9 to use the Tracking skill in Ultima Underworld is a fact that is lost on a surprising amount of UUW players, even to this day.

Since then there has been massive progress in game design, and implementing "teaching materials" into the games themselves has become more and more common to the point that, barring a readme.txt file or a handy reference chart, there's no longer any excuse to force a player to read a manual, especially one that is over 100 pages long.

That said, whatever documentation should be included better be up to snuff. If you're making a mod, include a full list of changes in a text file. Highlight the important parts, make sure that the player isn't left completely in the dark.

Then there's the sad part that there are developers out there that think that they don't need to tell the player anything. Some things should be left for the player to discover, yes, but when a player needs to constantly refer to an online wiki (with hundreds, if not thousands of pages on it) then the game/mod has truly and utterly Failed.

Doing this the right way isn't hard. Some work is required of course, but clearly even that's too much for some people.

 

[Jaedar]

Piratez has so much stuff. Just learning to recognize and remember all the different sprites is big task, combine it with all the different ufos, weapons, etc and it becomes insane.

There is of course in game ufopedia, but its not made to sort through 100+ entries. I'd rather just use external one at that point.

 

[kyrub]

You can middle-click to get through inventory directly to the current item's Ufopaedia entry. Fantastic improvement, it works like a treat.

The criticism here is not very fair. You can play Piratez intuitively with ease. The game is great at giving you the feeling of a (pitoresque) real postapocalyptic world with many options... and none of them shines as OP.
That said, I got crowded by multitude of items in my first playthrough as well. My item menus cluttered... Then I decided to replay with EU 2012 "autodestruct" option and it was working for me just fine.

 

[octavius]

Are there and mods with better graphics, or plans to make OpenXcom itself HD?

20+ years ago it was expected that a manual came with the game and that it should be read. They weren't always the best of reading, and important information could be missed by plenty of players. Example: Pressing F9 to use the Tracking skill in Ultima Underworld is a fact that is lost on a surprising amount of UUW players, even to this day.

Heh, that was news to me. How did you find out, and what does it do?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I knew all along because I learned early to read manuals.

The Tracking skill (if the skill roll is successful) tells you about nearby creatures. At its weakest it gives you a vague number of "creatures" in your vicinity and a direction. On higher levels you get monster names and more exact numbers and distances for them.

Something that would be immensely useful in the X-Com games, but them's the breaks.

 

[octavius]

I knew all along because I learned early to read manuals.

So it was in the manual? I thought you meant it was omitted.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, but I meant that manuals weren't always written in the best manner possible, which could lead to valuable information being buried deep in a irrelevant paragraph.

Something I could have prevented by being more clear in my typing.

 

[rezaf]

Has someone tried the XPiratez mod?
For some reason they removed your own characters emitting light, which makes night missions almost unplayable. I usually see a pitch black screen with the occasional hint of a shadow that might be actually there or not. Basically, I click on a random spot and when I get the enemy warning thing I shoot on the yellow crosshair. It's not very fun.
You CAN use torches, but it's impractical to bring enough torches to use them all the time. Is there an option for this somewhere?

 

[Jaedar]

Has someone tried the XPiratez mod?
For some reason they removed your own characters emitting light, which makes night missions almost unplayable. I usually see a pitch black screen with the occasional hint of a shadow that might be actually there or not. Basically, I click on a random spot and when I get the enemy warning thing I shoot on the yellow crosshair. It's not very fun.
You CAN use torches, but it's impractical to bring enough torches to use them all the time. Is there an option for this somewhere?

I have not the latest version. And yeah, that does seem annoying. I *think* there's a sorta early game research for night ops armor that gives night vision. And aren't the standard x-com flares buyable in the shop?

 

[Average Manatee]

You sure? Should be able to toggle your personal lights on and off with the L key (IIRC).

It's kind of weird, you want to turn your lights on during your turn to see, but turn it off before moving or doing anything that would attract reaction fire along with turning it off during the enemy turn.

 

[rezaf]

You sure? Should be able to toggle your personal lights on and off with the L key (IIRC).

I'm not sure, hence the question, but pressing L definately does nothing.
Also, I asked the same question on the mods forums and got the reply that this is WAD and a recent change.
In some missions, it's really ridiculous. Like, even a mission in twilight in a forest can prevent you from seeing a darn thing. I even cranked up my NVidia settings' gamma to max and all it does is make the few spots that are visible brighter, or in other words, it shows they have really made almost everything "invisible". It's a real pain in the arse to play this way. In desert or arctic environments, nighttime missions are not a problem.
For outdoor missions in general, I've taken to using flaming arrows like it's the ancient era. I also since researched flares, which occasionally helps, but not all that much, since obviously warfare is not stationary.
The change is especailly jarring in indoors missions like base assaults (just hat my first one) - it's extremely dark and even things that are CLEARLY intended to emit light, like monitors and such, don't. Very very annoying.

Supposedly, you eventually research armor with lights you can toggle like you described, but I've a long way to go until then I suppose.

 

[Average Manatee]

Well that's a very painful and unneeded change. Especially when the starting ship is so slow that you can't reliably tell whether you're going to land in day or night. Hopefully armor with light sources come pretty quickly.

 

[Average Manatee]

So I'm playing Final Mod Pack, and things are weird.

Date is Jul 1st. I've finished literally EVERY research available (including researching corpses/captives multiple times). I've researched the Alien Commander but I can't build the Avenger because it requires Alien Electronics (I assume I need to assault an alien base? They have none...). I have no way to access plasma weaponry. I have Psi and multiple psi labs training legions of Psi troopers, but haven't been able to build Psi amps. So far I've encountered Sectoids, Anthropods, Floaters, Chtonites and their associated terror units. Also MiB and Hybrids. I'm starting to encounter Hybrid forces but still only these types.

Is this all normal? My assumptions are that the game was supposed to be paced much longer (it only seems barely slower than vanilla), enemies were supposed to be a lot more diverse (I haven't seen Snakemen, Mutons, Ethereals, Cerebreals, Gazers, Waspites, or Reptoids yet), and that there should have been some way to unlock the missing tech by now. Did I fuck up downloading/installing something?

 

[Average Manatee]

If you are playing with Weapon Self-Destruction then you are playing a much harder, slower game. Selling alien weapons for cash allowed me to get up to 200 scientists in March. Current staff is 50 soldiers, 250 scientists and 300 Engineers (spamming out Gauss Tanks for cash). So the time frame is probably about right.

I haven't seen any Cyberdisks, that's a PITA if they are needed for certain items. AFAIK they only appear in Terror ships/mission, because I've done two sectoid battle ships with no Cyberdisks. Unless there's multiple very large ship types and only one of them has the Cyberdisk on it.

I have laser/Gauss/Grav/Psi/Elerium/Personal Armor. I've researched a few data slates but they've just given me random stuff. I hope Plasma isn't locked behind random tech picks. Gauss Sniper Rifle is insanely good though, almost a Heavy Plasma minus the autofire.

Sounds like everything is probably working fine and I've simply had some rotten luck on alien picks then. I know that the alien types are picked ahead of time for a month so that only a few types show up at once.

 

[Average Manatee]

I've probably been too good about shooting down enemy ships such that I don't get many terror missions (the ones I've had were Floaters or Cthonites), and I haven't had a base defense yet. I've found that 2-3 Ravens can demolish even Large alien ships quite well with Laser Cannons. As I said I've fought 2 Sectoid Very Large Battleships with psi Commanders/Leaders yet no Cyberdisks, when I'm pretty sure vanilla would have Cyberdisks.

Makes sense, and it does explain why last month was the Snakemen/Chrysalid hellfest. Snakes are not that bad, but Chrysalids... *shudder*

Yeah, basically the Alien AI selects two or three campaign types (infilitration, terror, base assault, harvest, etc), and each is assigned to a race type. Said race then sends out a series of UFOs over the course of the month first to scout then to do the mission. Mixed being its own race type.

 

[Average Manatee]

It's the latest version, July 1st.

Did just get a mixed ship with Cyberdisks, but I didn't get Alien Electronics from them. Do I have to disable one "alive" (i.e. with stun damage)? In the middle of a base assault right now, will try to do so if I see one.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yep, got some after stunning them and recovering the bodies.

Oddly enough, looking at the tech files it looks like Alien Electronics is a requirement to research advanced aircraft types in the first place. So somehow I recovered one of them before even though I'd never gotten cyberdisks.

Edit: Also found Reptoid Leader which unlocked advanced energy weapons and railguns. Question: what's the use of the X-Com Cyberdisk? It has disastrously low armor (34 compared to the starting tank's 90) and less TUs (62 compared to 70). Sure, it flies, but considering its a high-tech research you'd think it would perform better than day 1 tanks. And I had already unlocked the Hovertanks (100 TUs and 130 armor) before anyway, which also doesn't require me to use up one of these priceless cyberdisk wrecks. Is there some special gimmick to the X-Com Cyberdisk that sets it apart?

 

[Endemic]

If it's a copy of the alien Cyberdisc it should have a plasma cannon (which does 130 damage, more than the hovertank). What does it cost?

 

[Average Manatee]

Nah, can only equip with lasers until you unlock Plasma I think. Lasers are just as powerful as the normal tanks, Plasma is 15 points tougher but ehh that's completely irrelevant when you have almost 100 armor and 40 TUs less than hovertanks. Late game you just scout with tanks while using soldiers to snipe, psi or blaster nuke, all that matters is high TUs and armor/health (Cyberdisk does have a nice 30 health advantage).

I guess if you get it early it's your first hover unit? But it's laughably weak, tanks have enough trouble staying alive with significantly higher armor than infantry due to how easy they are to hit, and the X-Com Cyberdisk has way less. It is quite cheap if you have a wrecked cyberdisk but its not even worth the 4 spaces it takes up in the transport. You could just keep a stack of them in base for base defense I guess.

Got Railguns, they are gloriously OP. Heavy Railgun has 150 damage (enough to blow through outer UFO walls, only Blaster Bombs are supposed to do that, but now its like everyone carries their own personal drill with them) and decent aimed/autofire. It's still not as good as Heavy Plasma IMO because you can't autofire it twice, but still hot damn. Rail Sniper Rifle is probably the best sniper in the game if it outdamages the plasma variant since you only get one aimed shot either way. 135 damage and an almost guaranteed hit is amazing.

Air game is getting a bit too easy and tedious. The advanced man-made non-elerium-powered aircraft are just too good. Thunderstorm has 4.5x the health of an interceptor and can catch up to anything. Rail Cannons have ridiculous DPS, like 3x that of Plasma Cannons. They don't have the range of Plasma but the DPS means that a Thunderstorm with 1 slot is packing way more DPS than a vanilla fighter with 2 slots. I had 2 Thunderstorms take down 2 Battleships. That just should not be possible without the elerium-guzzling craft.

 

[rezaf]

Who says bitching on the internet gets you nowhere?

Not at least due to my constant complaints about this, the fine folks running the XPiratez mod finally updated the mod to include a "nightvision" like shader - it's really useful and cool.
So I can and will wholeheartedly recommend the mod again.

However, you need to be able to:
Tolerate the immature theme (nekkid tiddies ftw!).
Live with the occasional tech-deadend (to be resolved with cheating).
Accept the OXCOM UI collapsing under the weight of the mod (it has SO MUCH STUFF!!!)
Not let yourself be bothered by a ton of repetiveness. (I think I have >300! missions on some of my gals, and I haven't finished the mod)

 

[octavius]

So how long does it take before you get that nice feeling of being in control in this game?

 

[Average Manatee]

In vanilla?

 

[octavius]

In vanilla?

Yes, vanilla OpenXcom.

 

[octavius]

This game is brutal.
Playing on Easy I managed to secure two UFO sites and repel the aliens in Pretoria. But then they attacked Shanghai at night with some nasty floating saucers and killed most of my squad.
You certainly get punished for mistakes in this game.
Oh well, I guess I'have to reRTFM and experiment with various grenades.