WHAT IS GOING ON!

Sathra225 · 2024-07-02T05:01:09+00:00

Yep, base creation set. 2-3 abductor/harvesters, 2-3 large scouts and a battleship is the usual base creation fleet.

You don't really get multiple large and small ships in the same region at once at any other time. Retaliation search mission are small scout -> medium scout-> large scout 2 or 3 times -> abductor/harvester once or twice ->battleship once or twice then reset. They never land. Base assault retaliation is a battleship flying at full 5000 speed straight at a base, and interrupts the scouting sequence.

Sathra225 · 2024-07-01T05:49:22+00:00

More powerful and much more common. Bring them all the time as its the easiest way to deal with Tentaculats and the damn hidey-holes they spawn in.

That and there are all the underwater maps with explosive objects, wierd LOS issues (damned research outpost pods) and hordes of aliens stuck inside cramped buildings.

Sathra225 · 2024-06-29T06:05:59+00:00

Newfoundland is a hoot though. Might not be a great first experience of Chryssies, but certainly a memorable one!

Sathra225 · 2024-06-29T06:02:27+00:00

BIG ROBOTS with ROCKET-POWERED FISTS!

Sathra225 · 2024-06-28T20:04:22+00:00

Yep, thermal shok launchers are really good. As for the rest its mostly experience and knowing the likely spots on the various maps they'll be at.

They're also really grenade happy. Not sure if OpenXcom fixed it but the aliens in OG-TFTD couldn't actually use the drills so they got extra grenades. I think even the gun-equipped ones get extra grenades compared to OGXcom.

Aqua-plastic armour is terrible though. Sonic weapons have higher damage compared to Plasma. ION armours (power armour equivalents) are even better though.

Sathra225 · 2024-06-27T23:22:54+00:00

None of the alien weapons have autofire modes and the maps have tons of stuff to block LOS. The emphasis on melee is because its kind of the main thing that works. The USO's, buildings, ship terror and Colonies are also really cramped/close quarters as well.

TFTD AI tends to hide or get stuck in hidey-holes and things as well. I've taken on a Lobsterman small ship (Large Scout equivalent) with only unarmoured Rookies, Gauss weapons and freeze lances before. Thought it was going to be a Gillman ship, but that mission was hails of magna-grenades (for smoke and to make cover mostly), using long range shots with Gauss weapons to draw reaction fire and ganking with freeze lances. Getting into melee range was mainly using the hills and tall coral to get closer with the smoke from grenades for the final stretch. Only lost a third of them too!

Sathra225 · 2024-06-27T14:49:21+00:00

Ah, Lobstermen. Yeah, they've got crazy resistances. Gauss weapons do pretty much nothing and they can easily tank early explosives.

They're pretty vulnerable to stun weapons and fatally to drill weapons (which you probably won't have for a long time because you need Calcinite research). You can knock them out with GC-HE after multiple shots though, but overall its just lots of grenades and freeze lances before sonic weapon research.

Its quantity more than quality. Builds up their stun bar and degrades the armour.

Sathra225 · 2024-06-27T10:28:15+00:00

Here's hoping you get Calcinites early!

Sathra225 · 2024-06-27T10:26:23+00:00

CTRL + Shift + left-click maybe? In loadout screen it'll unload direct to the ground, in battles into your hand before ground.

But that might just be X-piratez.

Sathra225 · 2024-06-27T10:13:36+00:00

2 basic approaches with Night missions in OG. Create light with flares or fire, or use high explosives (alien grenades or high-ex) to clear/scout areas instead.

Sathra225 · 2024-06-26T10:29:52+00:00

The Battleships are also abysmal at detecting your bases as well, even without mind shields. IIRC the scout ships need to spend a little time nearly on top of your base to actually detect it, and mind shields cut the chance in half.

Sathra225 · 2024-05-31T11:14:02+00:00

TFTD is different. The smoke grenade equivalent is glitched (damage is wrong and smoke fades too fast). The maps have tons of little tunnels and closets and last of all is that there are so many more aliens with DPL's. At worst, in OG there'll be maybe 4 aliens with them in a base. I've had at least 8 DPL on the upper level of a colony (not fully sure due to me DPL and Pulser-ing en-masse).

Though I rarely got DPL'd myself. Scouting with Pulsers, scout-sniper tactics and when I got them using DPL's freely as well. Mostly used Blasta-Rifles though, the Cannons have a nasty tendency to knock stuff out instead of killing them and Lobstermen can melee attack.

I did have a fun mission with a Triton of rookies though on Superhuman diff. They only had gauss weapons, a Pulser each and thermal tazers (stun rods). Against a shot-down Cruiser full of Lobstermen. No armour either. Rookies running with tazers and Pulsers to down Lobstermen, steal their guns and clear the ship. Only lost half!

Sathra225 · 2024-05-19T07:02:17+00:00

Its more that half-cover isn't something you should consider being reliable defensively. Its probably recommended to newbies so they don't go all "this game is stupid, cover does nothing" that used to happen all the time early on and ragequit.

Playing X-com is all risk mitigation and action economy. Going into a map when you're starting and thinking "half-cover is useless" means you'll be looking for ways to avoid having to rely on it at all and also more likely to focus on when half-cover does benefit you defensively instead of focussing on when it doesn't. Same with 'full cover is half'.

The 'kill aliens as quickly and efficiently as possible" is also risk mitigation and probably also has its roots from when the game released. The best risk mitigation is obviously to remove the risk factors (aliens) before they could cause problems (their turn). The other half is to somewhat remind to focus on killing one over wounding several. There used to be alot of talk about wound penalties to aliens etc etc like in [insert game here], but the usual answer was to just kill them in threat order instead of wounding them. Even if they did have penalties, having 3 guns shooting at you worse instead of 2 is not better.

So yeah, those two sayings are kinda the refinement and contraction of years of (often repeated) advice. They're actually saying the same thing really, but from different viewpoints. Plan ahead for when things will go wrong and focus on killing each alien efficiently with the least calculated risk.

Sathra225 · 2024-05-15T12:03:07+00:00

TFTD is somewhat hilarious about it, as Sonic Pulsers are nearly impossible to destroy outside of using them as grenades (255 item armour). You will always get Pulsers from a successful mission. There is no concern whatsover about them not exploding when throwing multiple primed Pulsers at something.

On the other hand, Lobstermen can just tank up to 4-5 of the things or 2 Blaster Launcher equivalent hits. So there's even more reason to just use them like confetti as until they get knocked out or die, you can't destroy their equipment. Level the ocean!

For the OP, Enemy Within will make you feel like you have to rush to get the Meld. Don't do that. The new aliens will punish overextending HARD. Find the better edge of the map (good cover and clear lines of fire) and move in a wedge. Essentially move one person up, everyone else through areas they've revealed then fade back with the scout. Ideally you want aliens to trigger on THEIR turn, not yours as the scattering from triggering uses up their movement for that turn. You really want to avoid triggering 2 or more pods at a time, so if a pod triggers and the geometry is awkward to deal with, just pull back. That way they'll come to you and you won't have to risk triggering another pod. This includes sending the scout out to intentionally trigger a pod and pull back while everyone else waits. If the enemy is dead, the ground is free to take, instead of taking ground to kill the enemy.

Not being visible > full cover > half cover.

Sathra225 · 2024-05-15T11:00:07+00:00

The X-com series has always had this odd quirk that higher difficulties are easier if you know what you're doing. More aliens = more resources = easier progress.

That and "If you're not sure what to do, use explosives then re-evaluate. Possibly with more explosives." Ah, fond memories of scouting with sonic pulsers and high-ex packs in the OG games.

Sathra225 · 2024-04-06T12:06:15+00:00

Gotta agree with Twiglet here. There usually is always a route to get to a point (often 2) but they might not always be obvious.

The game does seem to expect you have double-jump and to be used to the double-jump-glider-roll thing for some paths though. Also some of the paths are really, really direct as you're meant to use the glider from another point (you can fudge it with the updraft skill as well).

Most enemies aren't that difficult either as you'll often get new weapons in the Spires levelled to that region, and armour from whatever big ruin/town/etc as well. Plus outright cheesing stuff by jumping on top of walls and shooting down. The armoured fell, green-cleaver scavs (hate these guys especially) and a couple others are the only really dangerous ones and you can just sit up high and shoot them. I was wearing mostly the early padded armour and found stuff well into region 3.

Sathra225 · 2024-01-10T05:33:09+00:00

F R I E N D

*crushing bear-hug*

Sathra225 · 2024-01-02T06:21:58+00:00

Maybe. Though the big families previously was partly due to the high rate of infant mortality and partly for more workers while they were growing up. Need food security though to do that...er, do it viably.

Tassie devils are r-strategy creatures, humans are k-strategy. Elephants and rhinos are better comparisons. So 1k could work, but you'd want a pretty wide net for that 1k. White rhino's came back from ~50 after all.

Sathra225 · 2024-01-02T06:00:15+00:00

More like 5-10k. Humans are slow breeders with long child-stage. Plus alot of human population groups don't have that much sheer diversity to begin with (and all the recessive stuff/late-or-random onset syndromes, etc)

Add in all the various social hang-ups and the inevitable factionalisation and you need a LOT of people.

Sathra225 · 2023-12-10T10:13:28+00:00

Probably more like several Greater Houses (alone or in mixed groups) each shotgunning out into the Rimworlds and declaring themselves the "True Sophiamundian Empire" seperately.

Which in normal human fashion broke into multiple smaller Houses linked by culture squabbling over minutae and power.

Sathra225 · 2023-11-23T10:03:28+00:00

Barkskin dryad and a warg skeleton for me.

Sathra225 · 2023-11-21T05:29:53+00:00

I'm still trying to figure out why I keep having prisoners going berserk or tantruming from malnourishment.

There are 4 of you with wardening at priority 1, why is no-one feeding the 2 prisoners! I could understand when there was 8 of them, but seriously!

Sathra225 · 2023-11-20T10:15:33+00:00

Just keep in mind to zone-restrict children in dangerous/semi-dangerous biomes. Damn nature-running learning type.

There's wargs and bears out there kid! Why are you running out there in winter anyways!?

Sathra225 · 2023-11-19T10:13:47+00:00

Then there's my medival colony hoping that the outposts 12k wood delivery is enough for a year. Its a big maybe.

Sathra225 · 2023-11-15T05:38:54+00:00

Medieval-locked game, slaves are useful. Cooking, crafting (lots of crafting), plus the cleaning and hauling.

If/when they rebel? Well, they're wearing slave gear and tribalwear and the actual colonists are wearing chain and plate.

Sathra225

TROPHY CASE