/vr/ - Retro Games

>Page 11

I didn't know we had that many pages.

>>2528185
I did pretty good in an island assault a few days ago on Superhuman, I did lose almost half of my squad but they were all rookies or otherwise expendable (Able Seamen with shitty stats).

There was one bullshit moment, where there was a Gillman standing on semi-high ground near the south-west corner of the map, and the only soldiers that had line of sight were equipped with Gas Cannons with HE rounds. He seemed to be standing on the second level of elevation on a slope, but part of his hit model was on the third level. When I kept shooting at him, my soldiers would keep aiming too high. A lot of the time they missed but they also managed to score several headshots where the HE ammo clearly connected with the alien. Unfortunately the explosion was always on the third level where he took no damage from it.

I ended up having to walk away from his line of sight to switch to AP ammo just so I could kill the fucker. Other than that, lots of HE Gas Cannon ammo and Sonic Pulsers did pretty well for me, even managed to stun a couple of Deep Ones with Tazers.

>>2527328
>>2527335
That was pretty brutal. I figured it would get tough near the end but I didn't expect my base to vanish that fast.

I wonder if it would've been possible to attack earlier and at least thin out the number of Ultralisks a bit before they all swarm in.

>>2526827
I'm in Battle.net now, my name is Asdqweasd.

>>2526803
Battle.net Europe would probably work best for me. I can play right now, or later at some point during the weekend.

By the way, I can't quite tell what timezone you're in from your posts but it's currently 21:43 here.

>>2526081
>http://www.moddb.com/mods/starcraft-coop-campaign

Sure, we could give that a shot. I've downloaded the map packs but I haven't played BW online in years, do we just get on Battle.net?

>>2525064
In To Slay The Beast my strategy was always to build up a small army of Hydras and Speedlings and take over the base north of where you begin. The tiny expansion to your west even has a geyser in it, so you can get up to three gases real fast. With that, you can take the fourth gas on the continent at your leisure, and from there you have all the time in the world to build whatever you want.

You can go full Mutalisk + Devourer at that point as Guardians aren't even particularly useful in that mission, and Devourers absolutely annihilate all Terran air. Valkyries barely scratch their high armor, and Devourer spit both cripples enemy damage output and makes your Mutalisks do more damage to the air units affected by reducing their armor. As long as you don't send your Mutalisks to hit the enemy air units first like a fool there should be no trouble, and fall back when they use Dark Swarm at the last base to the east.

Going for ground units works too, but dropping huge quantities of them or building proxy Nydus canals on different islands just requires more work. You also run the risk of losing your entire army since it's much harder to retreat with ground units from an island if the battle goes awry.

About Irradiate: It really is a nuisance at best, as is Mind Control and Spawn Broodlings. If your attack is halted by Irradiate, it's a major indicator that you're not building enough units, or that you're attacking too hastily and should build up more. You could also just try sniping the Vessels with Scourge if they're giving you trouble.

>>2525028
>These are not comparable at all

You should try the Marine-only approach, it's actually pretty fun. It plays almost exactly the same as massing Hydralisks; even though Hydras have 80 HP, you can have more than twice the number of Marines for the same price (as you're not limited by gas intake at all), and with stim and their superior damage type they're even more devastating.

It's no big deal to build a large number of Barracks when you're committing to Barracks units only. When I first tried it I thought the final BW Terran mission would give me a hard time but it turns out to be possible to produce such volumes of Marines that you can march right past even invincible Sunkens without dropships. Their only vulnerability is the same that of Hydras; Reavers and Siege Tanks in hard to reach positions.

Going straight for Muta+Guardian isn't a great idea in some missions, but Guardians are still a fantastic unit. Even a single control group of 12 is extremely devastating.

It doesn't make sense to me to say that Guardians are difficult to control while also saying that dropping Hydralisks from Overlords require "no micromanagement"; dropping units efficiently requires very precise control, and even then you're likely to lose a lot of units every time. Efficient usage of Guardians on the other hand simply means keeping them alive and at a far enough distance that they don't get overwhelmed. The easiest way to use them is having only 12 of them so you can quickly access them all and control them all at once, and hovering them over a group of Hydralisks dedicated to killing any air units that get too close. In Omega, I usually go for the white Terran first, and there especially I find a handful of Guardians very helpful for pulling enemy units out of the base to be killed by my Hydras so I don't have to run into a line of Siege Tanks supported by loads of Battlecruisers and other units.

>>2524747
I got all the way to the final Zerg mission legit, then it felt like I hit a wall. After hours of trying, that's where my POWER OVERWHELMING SHOW ME THE MONEY OPERATION CWAL etc. kicked in because I needed to see the ending.

Even when I got back to it later I still couldn't do it, so I watched a youtube video of someone else beating it and copied their style. It was weird because my friend said he didn't have any difficulty with that mission, but that he could never do the mission with the time limit where you can unlock the secret level, and I got that one on my first try.

>>2524712
Most of what you just said is pretty terrible advice in this context, but yes it's possible to beat both Zerg campaigns making nothing but Hydralisks. It's also possible to beat the Terran campaigns making nothing but Marines. I still wouldn't recommend it for someone who's clearly struggling to get through the first campaign.

Going air is the most casual-friendly strategy, since Guardians not only destroy pretty much everything on the ground but also ignore pathing issues. All you need to keep an eye on is that no individual Guardians stray off from the flock and that you always have a few anti-air units nearby. They certainly don't require MORE micro than Hydralisks, and Hydras are just as vulnerable to psi storm, in addition to all other forms of splash damage in the (vanilla) game.

>>2520936
The second campaign is Zerg, right? Start every mission by producing drones until you've got between 1 to 1,5 drones for each mineral patch and enough on gas that the Extractor is never idle. When you can afford it, build extra Hatcheries (in your base if necessary) so that you have enough larva for unit production to prevent your money from piling up. Sunken colonies are very cost-effective for early defense, so make one or two if necessary. Prioritize getting your economy going before you start building too many units.

Then, early in the campaign, mass Hydralisks and spend your excess minerals on Zerglings when you run out of gas. Start upgrading your units as soon as possible, and avoid attacking heavily defended bases until your units are fully upgraded and you've massed up an overwhelming force (generally at least a few full control groups). Later switch to massing Mutalisks and Guardians while still spending your extra minerals on Zerglings.

When it's time to attack, send your entire blob of units on attack-move all at once and try to keep your army together. Focus on keeping your expensive units alive; that is, anything that costs a lot of gas. If parts of your army start chasing stray units, select them and bring them to the rest of your force. Always be wary of anything that does splash damage like Siege Tanks, or especially Reavers and High Templars; focus fire these if possible. Upgraded Zerg units can otherwise destroy most other basic units just by a-moving.

>>2516969
If you're playing with OpenXCom you can determine the order of your soldiers in the Skyranger yourself.

>>2515809
You're right, I'm testing it in a custom battle in OpenXCom right now. That reminds me why I never bothered using autocannons much.

Autocannon HE rounds destroy wooden structures in a Farm tileset just fine, but they leave brick walls standing. Even Heavy cannon HE ammo barely punches a hole into brick walls. Autocannon AP ammo however does sometimes break brick walls.

Destroying walls is much easier with Laser weapons, anyway, so I always get those out ASAP.

What does /vr/ think of X-COM: Apocalypse?

I've never finished the game but I keep coming back to it once or twice a year because I really want to like it. The real-time combat is excellent and it's just glorious how much destruction you can cause to the environment. Somehow I still always get bored a few weeks into the game and stop playing.

I feel like I never properly got the hang of interception, and it feels like the potential for environmental destruction goes to waste because I'm always so careful not to make the city my enemy.

>>2514892
The terrain in barnyard tilesets is pretty easily destroyed, whenever there's an alien hiding behind a barn wall or a bunch of trees I just line up my guys and shoot at it from a distance until the cover comes down.

I'm not sure exactly how powerful autocannons are since I rarely use them, but I imagine one loaded with explosive ammo should do the trick nicely.

>>2514650
I never bother bringing tanks to missions unless I'm purposefully just messing around, but I can think of a couple of situation where they might theoretically be useful.

I like having a few tanks in each base in case I get attacked and don't have a solid team of soldiers ready. They could also be good when dealing with Chryssalids, since they can take a few hits and will never get zombified.

>>2511026
>>2512836
There's a limit to the number of sprites that can be on the map at once. I played a lot of 3v3 and 4v4 money map games as a kid and 4v4s especially were a contest to see who can get the units out first before the limit is reached.

Once it is reached, Carriers won't be able to spit out interceptors, Hatcheries won't produce more larva, and some units like Valkyries wouldn't be able to attack at all until the sprite count goes down again. Melee units and some ranged units like (if I remember correctly) Marines with no visible projectiles were still fine.

The rest of the area has been explored and cleared of aliens.

What do you do in this situation?

>>2512256
That was a fun surprise for me as well. One of the things that always made TFTD more difficult than vanilla UFO for me was that the aliens actually knew how to use grenades, and they used them to great effect.

I like it a lot. UFO was getting a bit samey after 20 years, so the improvements to AI in OpenXCom are a welcome change. Aliens don't get stuck nearly as much, and another thing I found out the hard way is that they can now shoot and throw grenades down UFO lifts as well.

I think they did something to reaction fire too though. I had a couple of bullshit moments where an alien did a 180 degree turn noscope reaction shot and killed my soldier that was sneaking behind it, and during terror missions I kept losing so many rookies to reaction fire that I was actually having trouble spotting aliens for my snipers.

On the other hand, you also get advantages that weren't in vanilla, such as being able to open doors without stepping through them, TFTD style.

>Playing OpenXCom
>Assault an alien base
>It's snakemen
>Huddle up around the lift planning to go down all at once guns blazing
>Hit end turn
>Find out Chryssalids can now use the lift to come into the exit zone
>Mfw my colonel is zombified on alien turn 1

>>2483326
>>2483343
Aircraft do have radar; you can use them to find alien bases or even UFOs that happen to fly past them.

If you use OpenXCom, you can see each individual radar range represented by a circle around your bases and aircraft on the globe view.

>>2483080
Tanks can't go through narrow paths or doorways, and there's a good chance they'll die from plasma fire anyway, especially if you use them for scouting ahead. Then you're down by $420,000.

For the same price, you can afford 10 rookies, 4 of which you can fit on the Skyranger if you forgo the tank, and four rookies combined have much more mobility and firepower than a single tank. High armor is nice, but I'd say the only notable advantage a tank has over soldiers is that it's immune to psi attacks.

>>2482249
If you're kicking too much ass, i.e. shooting down too many UFOs, the aliens will want to retaliate, but in order to do that they have to find you first. They'll send scouting UFOs to look for your bases, and once they've found you, they'll send battleships at you until one gets through your defenses. After a successful base defense mission they need to repeat the whole process again.

I think if you keep shooting down the scouting UFOs before they locate you, they won't be able to attack.

I don't know if it's possible to completely prevent alien bases from popping up, though. Maybe if you manage to shoot down every single UFO that's part of the alien base-building mission.

>>2481475
The original UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka UFO Defense in some regions) is excellent, and quite different from the new XCOM games. At least IMO the atmosphere is much stronger.

If you can get past the interface that a lot of people new to the series seem to find challenging, you'll find a very solid and enjoyable game underneath. One of the best games of the 90's for sure.