/vr/ - Retro Games

>>2554915
Does fire burn items on the ground?

>>2554928
If they're flammable stuff like vegetation, yes.

>start new game
>it's mid-January
>so far so good
>UFO 5 detected - Very Small

Fuggin' A, a retaliation attack already? God. Dammit.

I hate trying to capture a live alien navigator, I really do.

So I have a question.

Who likes Apocalypse's real-time mode more than the turn-based modes?

Because I may be the only one, but I'm sticking to it because I cannot go back to turn-based X-Com after squad-based combat.

>>2555386
I've actually never played Apocalypse, but I'm kind of interested now.

Might give it a look.

>>2555413
Basically instead of moving turn-based, you assign members to squads and move the whole squad.

And in turn-based mode, which you can pick before every mission, you can move an entire squad as part of their turn. So no more moving one at a time.

That said, the interface is bad with lots of folding menus. Plus you need to ignore the city management parts to really enjoy it because playing sim-city in x-com doesn't work out well.

>>2555417
You also have to pay for all damage caused to civilian property during missions.

I'd just like to state for the record: I was here when the faggot wars started on /vr/.

>>2555386
I haven't played Apocalypse, but when I played Fallout Tactics I kept it on real-time most of the time. Much more fun.

>>2554915
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkLvpt9Z3fA

Best gun for fighting the darkness.

>>2555386
In apocalypse, real-time gives a huge advantage over turn-based, and the game itself is balanced against real-time tactical usage.
For one, it's much easier to deal with brainsuckers and poppers with real-time combat due to how fast they move (they get huge action point pool as a result).
Then you can dual wield weapons on both hands and actually fire them simultaneously on real-time, something you can't do on turn-based.

>>2555493
If go prone your guys, the brain suckers just jump and knock themselves out.

I can think of a few things I might have liked in the original UFO Defense although I understand that they wouldn't have been very practicible in 1994.

For example, it always bugged me that you can attack a landed UFO, shoot up the aliens, damage parts of the UFO, and then if you abort the mission, the thing takes off like normal. If you shoot it down again, the UFO has a full crew and no damage (assuming the power supplies didn't blow up). To me, it should be that if you damage an otherwise intact UFO (say, puncturing the hull with a Blaster Bomb) it shouldn't be able to take off again. Also any aliens you killed shouldn't magically respawn.

Also I would have liked to see weather added as a factor. The game starts in January, but everything is always verdant and green. It would be cool if the trees and stuff were bare during January-March and then filled in to green as you got into springtime. The day-night cycle should also change depending on the time of year, thus shorter days in the Northern Hemisphere in January and shorter in the Southern Hemisphere as you get into spring.

Maybe also different cityscapes depending on where you're fighting. Tokyo should look unique and New York and so forth.

>>2555524
I think the features regarding day-night time is already available in OpenXcom, and there are several mods that adds battlescape variations (to include tundras, cities, etc.).

>>2555524
>The day-night cycle should also change depending on the time of year, thus shorter days in the Northern Hemisphere in January and shorter in the Southern Hemisphere as you get into spring.

Actually this feature would have been very easy to add to the original 1994 game engine and required relatively minimal coding effort.

>>2555493
That gif alone makes me want real-time pew pews.

>>2555540
Adding mod packs for different terrain types is cake nowadays, it just wasn't possible yet in 1994.

>>2555548
I tell you though, for a 20 year old game, nighttime missions still manage to scare the heeby-jeebys out of you.

>click End Turn
>plasma shots out of the dark take out your best sergeant
>zero idea where the shot came from
>move one square
>more shots
>realize you're inches from a Cyberdisc which you can't shoot because it will blow sky-high and kill your soldier

>>2555606
It was less difficult due to proprietary enforcement and constraints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-gfjyqPQLw&list=PLD91BACF0E36EE427&index=10

Too bad this limey cannot into kneeling when he shoots stuff. Also why just riflemen? Why not rocket launchers and other heavy weapons?

>>2555976
autism

>>2555976
>terror site
To shoot down terror ships or not shoot them down:

Pros:

*You get to fight the battle on your own terms. You can shoot down the TS and go after the crash site in broad daylight instead of having to fight the cocksuckers during nighttime and you may be able to drop it on nice, open terrain like a desert.
*No civilians to deal with
*You get to recover all the shit from the UFO
*Some of the aliens die in the crash if the power supplies explode
*If the TS is crewed by Sectoids, capturing the leader to learn psionics is pretty easy as he can generally be found on the bridge

Cons:

*Terror ships have a powerful plasma cannon on them that can destroy an Interceptor in 1-2 shots. Two Interceptors with twin Avalanches will reliably take them out, but I've never done it without losing one of them in the process.
*The aliens will be focusing all of their attention on your team as there's no civilians to preoccupy them

>>2555980
>>2555976
I always carry one rocket launcher and four auto cannons until getting heavy plasma, at which point I phase out the auto cannons. Also I don't understand some longplays where the guy keeps on using laser rifles. They don't use ammunition, but they just can't match the raw power of heavy plasma.

In the last thread, I mentioned that I went after a Floater base in early March when I had just laser rifles. I lost eight men taking the thing out, so I reloaded and decided to wait until later in the month when I'd researched heavy plasma. Damn, did that make the base easier. I lost just three guys this time.

>Reapers only take 1-2 shots to drop instead of 4-5
>cut a few extra doorways through the wall surrounding the command center (the outer wall with the alien entertainment panels, not the inner security wall that only a blaster bomb can penetrate

>>2556009
So you caught a case of the eggplant?

>>2556016
If only I got your jokes, my good sir.

>>2556025
You got it nigger...

>>2555976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P_zaLi7sB8&list=PLD91BACF0E36EE427&index=12

Snakemen build a base in Australasia during February. It's pretty rare for them to show up that early, although I've seen it happen before.

>>2556052
He's lucky that wasn't Sectoids. I don't find Chryssalids that much of a problem outside of terror sites. No civvies to munch on. Cyberdiscs however are bad news no matter where you fight them.

That and mind control.

>>2556052
Snakemen pretty much only do base/infiltration/terror missions. There's a very small chance of them doing a research or harvest mission and they never do abduction. It also seems as if they always do the April terror attack. I've never seen an LP where that wasn't Snakemen and I've never played a game myself where Sectoids or Floaters did an April terror attack.

Mutons do all missions but abduction and Ethereals are base/infiltration/terror only. Abduction is 100% a Sectoid/Floater activity and the other guys don't ever do it.

Speaking of which, what's the current progress of the TFTD part of OpenXcom and OpenApoc anyway?
Haven't heard anything for weeks now.

>>2555386
Always preferred the real time for Apoc. It helps that it was both easier and faster most of the time. Even before you get really abusable shit like teleporters.

What sort of markers do you anons use in your soldier names to identify them?

>>2556720
I copied the idea from Lord Finisher's playthrough to use "Heavy" and "Sniper" tags.

>>2556720
OpenXcom statstrings. Problem solved.

>>2555992
I started a new game with a base in North America and it put the January terror mission on my home turf.

Terror missions go like follows:

Medium Scout -> Large Scout -> Terror Ship -> Terror Ship

This is the only alien mission not opened by a Small Scout and the first terror ship is just there for scouting while the second one does the actual attack. If you shoot it down, you prevent the terror attack from happening.

I may try to shoot down the terror ship when it comes because my Interceptors have twin Avalanches and it's just Floaters so no big deal fighting them. I'd already taken down their Medium and Large Scouts so the mission is a little later than usual.

>>2555386
Apocalypse is meant to be played in realtime. Turns weren't planed initially.

>>2555386
Well...I think they were mostly taking advantage of new technology because by the late 90s, PCs had gotten fast enough to allow real time combat (eg. games like Total Annihilation). UFO Defense was developed in 93-94 when PCs were 33Mhz 486s. The hardware of that time wasn't up to it.

>>2557018
For those who don't know, mission scheduling works like this:

*There are two alien missions per month from January-May, one of which is a terror attack
*January is hard coded to produce a Sectoid research mission in your base's home region and a Floater terror mission in a random region
*From June onward, there will be two missions a month+a terror attack
*Aliens never repeat a mission in the same region except Terror, Retaliation, and Base Resupply
*The bulk of alien activity will be concentrated on Eurasia and North America
*The polar regions and Pacific do not have any populated areas, so they only ever get research and base missions
*Siberia never gets infiltration missions and Russia is immune to infiltration
*When aliens do a base mission, the base will never be placed in a funding country's borders
*For comparison, a base created as a result of infiltration will be within the border of the infiltrated country
*Retaliation happens at random following a successful shootdown of a UFO and will be in either the region the Interceptor is based in or the region the shootdown occurred
*Base resupply missions occur once per week for each alien base and are not scheduled in MISSIONS.DAT

>>2554915
I've got X-COM: UFO Defense on my steam account which I was not able to get into because I played XCOM first. Does UFO Defense have any mods that might ease me in?

>>2557262
>I've got X-COM: UFO Defense on my steam account which I was not able to get into

Are there any specific questions about playing the game you have?

>>2557291
Like how do I get started and win missions and stuff?

>>2557291
I may have spoiled myself by having played XCOM and could not understand the low res UI or how to get missions started. Once I was in the game, the game's UI was overwhelming and unclear I had to guess what some buttons did. Is there anything out there that improves the UI? Using OpenXcom by the way.

>>2557316
Firstly, you want to restructure your base so aliens can't get into it when retaliation attacks happen. They always spawn in the access lift and hangars, so you want to create a "choke" point.

You will need to hire more scientists and engineers - eventually you should have a minimum of 50 each and 35 soldiers (which is the minimum to have a commander, the highest X-Com rank).

Start researching laser weapons ASAP as conventional rifles and pistols are little more than pea shooters.

If you wish, you may start researching heavy plasma early and skip laser rifles.

Don't ever sell Elerium as this is one commodity that you cannot produce yourself, only recover it from UFOs or alien bases.

Don't manufacture alien ammo as it consumes Elerium and you should be able to recover plenty from missions.

High explosives are your best friend, but later you can research alien grenades which aren't as powerful, but weigh less.

Give your soldiers tags to designate their particular strengths (physical strength, firing accuracy, etc).

Don't go after crashed UFOs at night - always wait until morning (you won't have this option with terror sites or landed UFOs)

Two Interceptors with dual Avalanche launchers can shoot down all UFOs except Supply Ships and Battleships, but then you shouldn't be shooting those down anyway.

>>2557336
When beginning a mission, throw out a smoke grenade for cover. Also don't step off the Skyranger on Turn 1 as the aliens will have full TUs and reaction fire.

Laser cannons are useless as armament, but sell for $$$ so manufacturing and selling them is a great source of income.

When fighting on farmland, aliens will use buildings for cover and as sniper's nests, so be sure to bomb all of them. On terror sites, you can't really do this because of the risk of civilian deaths. If a farmhouse has open doors that your soldiers didn't open, it should be treated with suspicion.

Try to conserve TUs so you can get off reaction fire during the aliens' turn.

Your soldiers' firing accuracy improves by about 10% while kneeling.

>>2557332
All I can say is "Read the manual".

Games back then didn't really have good interfaces at all, and screen real estate was at a premium. This lack of experience and resolution had a really detrimental influence on games until the late 90s.

Soldiers' stats are improved through use - each time they fire and hit the target successfully, firing accuracy goes up. Carrying heavy stuff increases strength. Morale increases if the soldier's morale drops below 50% and he doesn't panic. Psy strength increases each time aliens try to mind control the soldier and fail.

In order to learn mind control, you must capture a live Sectoid leader/commander or any Ethereal. This is a lengthy process since it will take time to research Psionics, build a Psi Lab, and train soldiers, but you will not survive Ethereal missions without it.

>>2557336
Rotate out your troops frequently to ensure that everyone gets enough experience.

During nighttime missions, your soldiers can only see six squares ahead versus the 20 squares of daytime. Aliens however get full visibility always.

>>2556074
As I see it, Sectoids and Floaters are considered the "lightweight" aliens in the early game who do all the missions and Snakemen the "heavies" who only do base, infiltration, and retaliation attacks. Later in the game, Mutons take over for Sectoids/Floaters and Snakemen get replaced by Ethereals as the "heavies".

>>2557589
That's funny because IMO, Sectoids are far more dangerous that Snakemen who really are a pushover outside of terror sites.

>>2557609
Example...I did a mission where I cleared a Snakeman Battleship on Superhuman with just two casualties. If that were Sectoids, I'd probably lose 6-8 soldiers.

>>2557018
Hook shot! Took down the Terror Ship with only minor damage to one Interceptor.

Updates to follow later.

The aliens were strangely non-aggressive - my soldiers encountered nothing but Reapers during their deployment. One squaddie died when a Floater hocked a grenade in a barn, but all that really did was clear some room (the barn was situated between the Skyranger and the UFO) and allow us to easily torch two aliens. Later, another soldier spotted a Floater on the roof of the UFO, but her auto cannon shots missed. He eventually came around to the other side of the ship and fell victim to a rocket. One Floater near a barn was shot and then we started heading inside the UFO. A soldier got taken down at the entrance, but the alien was quickly killed. I sent four soldiers inside with another four as the backup team. After killing yet another Reaper, I spotted one in the floorless room above.

Sometimes terrorists spawn in these floorless rooms and if it's a double-width one (Reaper, Cyberdisc, or Sectopod) they get stuck up there. With the latter two, this can be really bad since they're able to snipe at you. In this case, you should sneak along the north wall on the first floor to avoid their shots. Luckily Reapers can't shoot back, so we easily took the trapped furry fucker out along with one Floater. As we were preparing to take the grav lift upstairs, the leader came down and shot one of my guys, so we responded in kind. Probably should have just captured him, but we didn't have any stun rods and I'd rather get a Sectoid leader for understandable reasons.

The second floor had no Floaters in it, but the left side floorless room had another Reaper trapped inside, so we had to go back downstairs and take him out. After that, there was only one Floater soldier left who panicked, but we found him weaponless near a barn and he was disposed of.

And here's the results. Only three casualties for a basically cakewalk mission, but hey, we're talking Floaters here. Also there were a fucking lot of Reapers - in fact 10 of them.

But there's another terror mission coming up soon and this time, it won't be in America where we can take their ship down. It'll be somewhere else, most likely at night. And it will be absolutely horrible.

>shoot down medium scout
>it's more Floaters
>the UFO is little more than rubble
>kill one guy in the rubble
>search for the remaining aliens, but this is a pretty open map with mostly just farm fields
>the aliens are obviously in the barns next to the Skyranger
>send rookie upstairs to investigate
>he gets shot
>blast the upstairs level with rockets, but no alien death sound
>bomb the first floor with an HE but still nothing
>suddenly shots from the other barn
>spot one alien up there
>shoot a rocket
>suddenly three aliens up there
>fuggin' A
>they down one sergeant
>go around and blow up the first floor with an HE
>the aliens are now down on the bottom
>kill one one of them
>the other two shoot a rookie dead
>it's time to let the pros handle this
>my captain and a sergeant blast the aiyys
>mission over with 5 casualties

Can't believe I lost five guys taking on a little bitty scout ship while I lost just three fighting a terror ship.

Also if you didn't know, the AI doesn't know how to move Floaters/Ethereals down staircases. They can go up stairs, but not back down again, which resulted in these three Floaters being stuck in the loft of this barn until we "freed" them with a grenade.

>>2556720
Fodder: self explanatory, shit stats all around good for cannon fodder
Lloyd: Shit bravery but otherwise good stats
Register: Good bravery but shit stats
Cap'n: Good stats all around

Regardless of marker if the soldier survives and gets stats boots he/she eventually gets a nickname

>>2557332
OpenXcom has keyboard shortcuts, which mean you can avoid most of the battlescape UI. Geoscape is pretty much fully labeled anyway.

So this happened last night:

>Scout crash lands in Scotland.
>It's dusk, I can get there before night.
>Nope.
>"Oh well, night time mission it is then"
>Farm house directly opposite the Skyranger.
>Move slot 1 cannon fodder down the ramp.
>Plasma rifle shot drops him instantly.
>Sniper moves to cannon fodder's starting spot.
>Aimed shot through first floor window hits something.
>*SCREECH* Dead Sectiod
>Time to roll out.
>Squad starts to deploy.
>End turn.
>Another shot rings out from the window, dropping my Sarge.
>Hidden Movement.
>He's gone into cover.
>Unable to throw here!
>Unable to throw here!
>Unable to throw here!
>Sniper is still standing on slot 1.
>Picks up a rocket launcher.
>Dual weilding with a sniper rifle like a fucking psycho.
>Aimed shot blows the entire corner out of the building.
>*SCREECH* Dead Sectiod
>Mission complete

And that's how my sniper became a fucking badass, he got a promotion out of it too.

>>2557884
>Reapers spawn in those upstairs rooms
No big deal. Just shoot them.
>Cyberdiscs spawn up there
Throw an HE in the room
>Sectopods
Have a guy in a flying suit launch a Blaster Bomb at the outside wall of the UFO next to the room or have him drop it on the roof.

>>2554915
>>2555493

>playing apoc
>downed enemy UFO
>set up men on both sides of the hill looking into the valley
>that feel when the door opens and you light it up with explosive and incendiary ammo
>that feel when sending a rocket right through the door to the tune of "Hostile unit has died"

>aliens terrorize Wellington, NZ
>thank Jesus it's during the day
>and Floaters on top of it
This mission was cake. I only lost two guys, unfortunately both happened to be sergeants wearing expensive armor.

As you all know, the game cheats like a mofo. The aliens always know where all your guys are and they automatically know who's a high ranking officer.

Like an idiot I have been carefully searching every building like a swat operation with overlapping fire. When I could have just leveled it. Well I always got all the aliens goodies. Grenades really are gods.

>>2559596
On that terror mission I just did, I was busy focusing on an apartment building where most of the aiyys were hanging out. There was a small warehouse next to the Skyranger, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to that, assuming it was empty. Well no, a Floater popped out from around the corner, took a shot, and ducked back into cover. Just tossed an HE over there and he was done.

Unfortunately all the civilians died, but I still got an Ok rating for the mission.

What happens when you destroy every wall of a ground floor of a multistory building?
Does building collapse, or is it floating against gravity?
I mean in UFO Defense.

>>2559687
It just floats there. Apocalypse has things that collapse, but the earlier engine wasn't up to it.

>>2556720
Get Warboy's statstrings for openxcom, it will name all your soldiers according to their abilities.

Here's how to tell different alien ranks on the Battlescape:

>soldiers
Spawn anywhere on the map. They carry plasma weapons always.
>navigator
Spawns on the bridge of UFOs or in the command center of a base. Carries plasma weapons.
>engineer
Spawns in the engine room(s) of UFOs or the power supply center in a base. The smallest UFOs don't have an engineer. On Large Scouts/Abductors/Harvesters/Terror Ships/Supply Ships, they carry a Small Launcher. On base missions and Battleships, engineers have a Blaster Launcher. If the power supply of a crashed UFO blew, the engineer is usually dead.
>medic
Only Sectoids and Floaters have these. Found on everything but scout ships, they pack Small Launchers. In alien bases, they spawn in the garden things, on Abductors/Harvesters in the exam room, and on other missions have no particular spawning location.
>leader
Capturing them alive is necessary to learn about alien origins and (if Sectoids) psionics. Spawns on the bridge of all UFOs bigger than scout ships. Sectoid leaders can use mind control, so you need to neutralize them ASAP. On battleships and base missions, they may carry Blaster Launchers but sometimes just plasma weapons. On medium and large UFOs, they just have plasma weapons.
>commander
Found only on base missions and battleships, capturing him alive is necessary to learn about the alien HQ on Mars. Spawns on the bridge of a battleship or a base's command center and normally packs a Blaster Launcher. Sectoid commanders can use mind control.

Mutons lack leaders, commanders, or medics. Snakemen lack medics, and Ethereals have only soldiers, leaders, and commanders. In the case of Mutons and Snakemen, extra soldiers will replace the missing ranks while Ethereals will replace them with extra leaders. Note that the replacement aliens will still be carrying whatever weapons the missing rank would have.

>>2559972
Note that medics and engineers may still be carrying plasma weapons instead of small launchers. I've seen plenty of terror missions where all of the aliens had plasma weapons and there were no SLs anywhere to be seen.

>try to capture navigator from downed Large Scout
>send out a bunch of rookie meat shields
>no aliens anywhere
>this is too quiet and I don't like it
>make our way to the UFO entrance without encountering a single alien
>peep inside
>there's the Floater navigator+one soldier
>head back out
>where's the rest of the aliens?
>it's a pretty much open map with mostly farm fields
>send two rookie scouts out
>spot one alien in a wheat field way the fuck down in the lower right corner of the map
>shoot him
>notice that he had a Small Launcher
>the fuck? the engineer survived the power supply blowing up and he's also halfway across the map from the UFO
>move along and see a barn in the upper right of the map
>$10 says there's aliens in there
>send out my rocket launcher guy
>my other two soldiers are playing a cat and mouse game with the aliens inside the ship
>shoot the soldier dead, but be careful not to hit the navigator
>go inside again and find the navigator right next to the entrance, his back facing us
>zap him 3x with a stun rod, but nothing happens
>what the fuck man
>meanwhile, two Floaters in the top of the barn shoot one soldier dead
>have my rocket guy shoot a large rocket up there, but nothing
>reload and fire
>the alien blasts my rocket launcher guy dead
>back at the UFO
>surprise, surprise the navigator steps outside and we easily stun him
>with that problem taken care of, send my team off to get those dudes in the barn while leaving one to guard the stunned navigator
>shoot the alien in the top of the barn while another downstairs gets killed from reaction fire
>suddenly hear the UFO door opening
>what? There's still one more guy inside? How did we miss him?
>quickly send a soldier in and shoot the alien just inside the door
>realize he was unarmed
>wait a minute, I didn't just do what I think I did, did I?
>click End Turn
>Mission Over
>yfw you realize that the navigator got up and you just shot him

>>2555493
I just like how Xcom Apocalypse and Xcom Interceptor handles dynamic music.

>reload and try again
>six soldiers killed and still no live navigator
Fuck this shit, I'm just going to research the small launcher.

>>2560320
>Xcom Interceptor
For all the flak it gets, I actually liked it somewhat, especially the strategic parts.
It just needs more contents in terms of weapons/ships/mission types and it should be good.

Come to think of it, if they had multiplayer co-op, that would be golden. AIs are a bit janky in that they're either too bad they often just die, or too good that they will kill all the UFOs and leave none for you.

>>2560456
And I did. I stunned that cocksucker as he stepped out of the UFO. Thank. Fucking. God. That monkey is off my back at last.

>>2560482
> Lushy
Julie you fully functional slut

>>2561180

Does anyone have the Knock Knock It's Motherfucking XCOM pic?

>>2561236
>>2561180
That doesn't even get into how the aliens have full 20 square visibility at night or how they always know what soldiers are officers and target them first. I'm not kidding. If you have four casualties in a mission, it's a safe bet that two of them will be sergeants, a one a captain.

>>2561240
>not learning how enemy ranking works and targeting higher value individuals

Do you even army¿

>>2561256
>you in charge of reading comprehension
I meant that the game cheats so the aliens automatically know who your officers are while you of course have to guess what aliens are what rank.

>>2555976
Why bother? Soldiers are cheap and replaceable, weapons aren't.

>>2561262
The point was more that your life is so much easier when you can actually hit stuff and you have weapons that take fewer than six shots to work,

>>2561259
You don't have to guess, you can infer from information the game gives you such as type of UFO and where the alien can be found on the map. They've got 20 square visibility, it's a safe bet that they would be able to identify the rank on the uniform and see who is giving orders on the battlefield. That's why they'll attack civilians on terror missions, because they don't shoot back - although that would be a great mod, you know, for terror missions in burgerland.

>>2555976
Props on linking one of the ONLY decent LP'ers. He actually plays games and acts like a human being rather than a shrieking man-child. I've ended up playing through a number of games that I first saw on his channel.

>>2561321
>You don't have to guess, you can infer from information the game gives you such as type of UFO and where the alien can be found on the map

I covered that in >>2559972. The problem is that some ranks like engineers don't always carry special weapons like a Small Launcher; sometimes they just have plasma pistols, making them harder to identify. Leaders are also rather difficult to identify at a terror site.

>>2561342
>I've ended up playing through a number of games that I first saw on his channel

I've tried doing a playthrough once in a while as well, by editing MISSIONS.DAT to have the game run the alien missions as they occur in the LP. Occasionally though, you can't always figure out what's going on. But usually if it didn't result in an infiltration or base construction, I tend to assume it's an abduction/harvest/research mission.

>>2556720
[H] - heavy weapons
[S] - sniper
[A] - assault (expendable)
[G] - grenadier
[P] - psionic
[O] - officer (stays in back of skyranger to keep morale up)

I tend to bring the high ranking officers along on big missions like terror and alien bases while leaving them at home for things like recovering scout UFOs.

>>2561960
Floater leaders have better armor than the grunts, but Sectoid leaders don't. When you drop one, the only clue is that mind control attacks cease.

>>2555615
I wish there was some reason to fight night missions. Scout/sniper tactics + smoke make day missions too easy. Even if you don't abuse the terror mission flight waypoint exploit to get all day missions it's generally better to abort night time terror missions, and doing any other mission at night is obviously stupid.

>>2562296
Battleships/Supply Ships. You don't want to shoot those down, so often fighting landed ones at night isn't an option.

>shoot down Snakeman medium scout
>two days later, a Battleship comes charging straight for my base
>ok we're under attack
>throw proxies at the entrance lift and put soldiers in a row to reaction fire the incoming aiyys
>no good - the Snakemen are faster shots than my guys and they've exhausted all their TUs and can't stop Chryssalids from coming in and zombifying everyone
>after losing about 60% of my squad, I think Yeah fuck that shit
Lucky I saved the game prior to shooting down the scout and triggering the retaliation attack.

Are Firestorms worth my time in UFO Defense or not? If so what weapons should I use on them?

>>2562464
If you really want, you can just use Interceptors with twin Avalanches until Avenger time since they can shoot down anything that isn't a Battleship or Supply Ship and also >>2562323

Shooting UFOs down ensures that you're never forced to go after them at night, but it destroys the power supply and Elerium (25% chance this doesn't happen), plus it doesn't kill any aliens except the engineers.

>>2562695
Also UFOs always land except on Retaliation missions. Terror Ships don't land while performing a terror attack, although their preceding scouts do.

>>2562323
Lord Finisher claimed on his LP that he hates fighting Supply Ships more than Battleships and I kind of agree. Battleships are actually pretty easy once you figure out that you can just surround the entryway with your soldiers and reaction fire everyone who comes outside.

>>2562701
Too bad most of the guys on these LPs don't know some of the tricks like hocking HEs through a UFO's diagonal wall. That makes Large Scouts oh so much easier. Also Lord Finisher thinks the Elerium/power supply has a greater chance of survival if you just use Stingray/Cannon on your Interceptors? Of course this is silly; it doesn't matter what you shoot the UFO down with, there's always a 75% chance that the power supply exploded.

When I was a little kid, I used to think farm missions were fun but now I just find them annoying. I'd rather shoot down a UFO in desert or forest or jungle or anywhere that I don't have to step off the Skyranger and have my soldiers die instantly from snipers in a barn.

>start new game
>lose 10 soldiers on a fucking daytime Floater terror mission

This happened unfortunately because my squad was way too inexperienced. The only mission I'd done to that point in the game was a recovery of a medium scout and apparently I have to wait until February for anything else to show up.

You really, really need those early game scout missions to build up your squad's stats before you can do a terror mission and unfortunately the game decided to throw me for a loop.

>>2562920
True, but still losing 10 dudes on a daytime Floater terror mission is just...yeah.

>>2562994
The mission went well at first. I killed like 4-5 Floaters and a Reaper in the first few turns, but then I didn't get my deployment done fast enough and four guys got grenaded. This caused most of the remaining soldiers to panic, so two more got shot by dint of standing there like idiots babbling to themselves. I gradually dug my way out of the hole and managed to kill all of the aliens, although I ended up with just four survivors. Got a Poor rating due to all the casualties and because no civilians survived. Then Russia got upset and cut their funding at the end of January, but fuck them.

>last day of February
>aliens terrorize Karachi
>fuck, it's at night
>more Floaters
>this time we are changing tactics - we are not going to bunch up and get grenaded, we are using buildings as cover
It worked and well. I literally only lost one rookie when an alien beaned her with a heavy plasma shot (he was grenaded shortly thereafter). Even more bizarre, another alien committed suicide. I swear I'm not making this up. A Floater soldier panicked and on the next turn, threw his grenade, killing himself and an adjacent Reaper.

Eventually the alien navigator panicked. It was obvious that there wasn't anyone else left, however finding him proved a frustrating exploration of the map. He was in a shopping center in the lower left of the map. Alas, I really needed a live navigator, but didn't bring any stun rods, so I had to just shoot the poor bastard.

>>2561342
He does an Antarctica Challenge, but never makes it to Mars - the aliens attack his base and push his shit in. Game over.

>>2563496
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bnG0b0RABE&list=PLD7DE1C42D89C81C0&index=12

Uggh, this guy's tactics are awful.

>launch piecemeal attacks with single soldiers instead of going in with overwhelming force
>don't bring any explosives or heavy weapons
>not researching heavy plasma before going into an alien base
>shooting the Sectoid officers in the command center when they're your meal ticket to psionics
>not kneeling before you shoot

I did that on a Floater base - waited until late March to attack it by which time my troops had HP. That made everything miles easier.

Also you can't begin to know how much I loathe and despise Sectoid terror missions. I don't care what people say about Snakeman terror missions, Sectoids are worse by a mile, plus you get them earlier in the game when you don't have as powerful of a squad.

-

Favorite X-Com stories?

>the time I killed all aliens on a Sectoid terror site, only to have a camper hiding behind a building
>go after him with six elite soldiers in personal armor
>well shit, the alien turns out to have elite stats as well and succeeds in downing everyone with his killer reaction fire

I think practically everyone has made the mistake at one time or another of equipping a psy weakling with a Blaster Launcher.

>>2564762
That happened to me as well, but involving a camping Floater who grenaded my squad and resulted in me losing the Skyranger.

>touch down at terror site
>it's during the day
>kill a Reaper
>daytime Floater terror site - this is going to be cake
>now let's get our guys deployed and...
>next turn
>a Floater casually strolls past the Skyranger and hocks a grenade inside
>12 soldiers killed and the two survivors mortally wounded

...

The first story that comes to mind is when I shot down an Ethereal scout and since I didn't have psionics, I decided to send a couple of rookies out to take one alive. The rookies had laser pistols+stun rods. Killed the first alien they saw. Eventually the rookies took out all but one Ethereal. It fired and shot a hole in the side of a wall, allowing my troops to open fire and kill it.

This happened in my last no-psionics Superhuman run.

>load up the Skyranger with 3 of my surviving elite soldiers and 11 rookies to attack a Snakeman base
>the 3 vets were each carrying a Blaster Launcher and every available space on their body stuffed with BBs

See, before this I had tried and failed three times to conquer a Sectoid base and each time my squad was annihilated by Blaster Bombs and mind control, which is where I lost most of my elite soldiers. The Sectoid base was still operating and I had inflicted a grand total of one casualty on them in those three attempts.

But this time was going to be different. I was seething mad and out for revenge, so I decided to take out my rage on a Snakeman base. As soon as I got there, I shot Blaster Bomb after Blaster Bomb through the place. Each turn was filled with the sound of Snakeys and Chryssalids dying, along with plenty of my troops falling as well. I managed to clear the base (which was mostly blackened rubble) with just four survivors.

Less than a week later, the Snakeys were thoroughly pissed and I had a Battleship knocking on my door. Worst of all, my troops had just six laser rifles available (thx 80 item limit) but lots of grenades. I lined up my few armed soldiers for reaction shots while everyone else chucked proximity grenades at the access lift. For about 10 turns, the air inside my base echoed with explosions, gunfire, and Snakeman/Chryssalid death sounds.

And then they stopped coming and I started getting concerned. Cautiously, I started moving my troops outward. As we entered the hangar, there were plasma weapons strewn everywhere. The whole scene was freakin' eerie. Then I saw it - about 15 Snakemen in the hangar, all of whom had panicked and dropped their weapons. The commander still had his Blaster Launcher, but he was just facing the wall and not looking at my troops.

How do you defend against psionic attacks? Even against small Ethereal UFO's I lose lots of soldiers due to mind control.

>>2564810
This was the most hilarious thing I ever saw. The commander I imagine was having a nervous breakdown and pounding his head against the wall in frustration as his troops were running around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEEE!!!"

Yeah that was exactly what I wanted to do after those failed assaults on that Sectoid base. I decided to just ignore the base for the remainder of the game. Also I evidently gave the Snakemen some tremendous scare because I never saw any again that game.

>>2564813
If you haven't researched psionics by the time you encounter Ethereals, you're basically screwed.

>>2564829
How would I get psionics? I have to capture a sectoid leader right?

>>2564836
Yes; a Sectoid leader, commander, or any Ethereal. All larger Sectoid UFOs will have a leader on them (of course also terror sites and base missions).

It's still a large undertaking though since you then have to research psionics, build a psy lab, psy amps, and then soldiers will take almost a month to complete psy trainings, during which time they will be unavailable for missions. When you've done all that, you get to see on the soldier's stat screen his psy strength and resistance ratings.

>>2563620
They're tolerable on lower difficulty levels, Superhuman Sectoid terror missions (where there's a minimum of 6 Cyberdiscs) are tough.

The January terror mission is usually Floaters, but occasionally you get Sectoids which really sucks. It does motivate you to get laser weapons ASAP because if you have just rifles at a Sectoid terror site, you're basically screwed.

>>2565003
I find if I hire 30 scientists, I can generally have at least a few guys armed with laser rifles by the first terror site, even completely skip laser pistols.

How to easily win the game: always fire everyone below 60 accuracy.

>>2565009
The best tactics you can use are A. Going in with overwhelming force instead of piecemeal attacks and B. Using buildings for cover, esp. on terror sites

That and save TUs for reaction fire always.

>>2565019
And squat when you shoot. Although occasionally this results in the alien firing reaction shots.

Successful recovery of a Floater Battleship trying to put a base in Patagonia. This was fun; I lined up my soldiers like British redcoats and shot the aliens as they came out the entrance, but then they got scared and wouldn't come outside. After shooting one dude who did come out, the remaining crew starts panicking. One of them shot a Blaster Bomb down the grav lift, but it didn't do anything except blow a hole in the entry door.

I waited some more, but they still weren't coming out. There were a few tense moments when the aliens shot a Blaster Bomb outside, but it winged harmlessly over my soldiers' heads and went off the screen. And since I'd brought a Small Launcher along, it was just a matter of sending the soldier equipped with it up the grav lift where she knocked out three aliens huddled on the first floor of the UFO. They turned out to be two engineers and two leaders.

It's nice getting a leader and having Blaster Launchers in my possession (and preventing an alien base from getting built), but I really would have rather gotten the commander and I have no idea where he went. Maybe he just had a plasma rifle and my guys shot him, thinking he was a mindless soldier.

1 Soldier, 1 Blaster Launcher, Superhuman Difficuty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4SQIzjq7pY

Pistols only on Superhuman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7rAuTLXcaY

>>2565203
I was a little apprehensive because half my squad were rookie. It was a little crazy to commit so many redshirts to a fucking Battleship mission, but two of them became sergeants afterwards.

>two uneventful weeks pass since the battleship mission
>now late March
>just twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the monthly terror attack to start
>out of the blue, a battleship shows up, lands in Patagonia, and takes off
>what the...?
>send Skyranger to patrol
>alien base appears
Fuck, I should have known the game won't let you off that easy.

>>2565553
You are gonna do a base mission and you are going to like it.

>>2565554
Oh well, at least it's just Floaters. If this were Sectoids, I'd be throwing the computer out the window right now.

>>2565019
Saving TU for reaction firing can be ineffective though, since the whole reaction fire thing works on TU and Reactions, the more the better. You won't be that effective if you leave just the TU for a shot, so it's just better not to rely on them and charge relentlessly, taking out every alien as soon as possible.

The last terror mission I did, I kept most of my guys in buildings for cover. A few grenades got thrown at them, but they just blew out the sides of the buildings and sometimes also the thrower.

For the most part, the same tactics can be used on Floaters/Snakemen/Mutons with Sectoids/Ethereals requiring completely different strategies as they have psionics and terrorists that can shoot back.

>aliens terrorize Delhi
>gettherebeforenightgettherebeforenightgettherebeforenightgettherebeforenightgettherebeforenight
>fuck, it's night
>ok everyone grab a flare
>oh well whaddya know, it's only dusk - we won't need the flares
>step off Skyranger
>Reaper right next to it
>oh hello there, I...whoa nigger
>two Floaters a few squares away
>ok I'm just gonna give you guys a little taste of auto cannon
>another Floater next to the Reaper
>backup please!
>we kill them and another Floater in an alley nearby
>my first guy out sustained a serious wound from a plasma shot
>that's what med packs are for, right?
>two turns in and we've already taken out five aliens
>deployment cautiously proceeds
>some guys use a ruined house for cover, others a warehouse
>send two dudes to the roof of the warehouse and take up sniping positions
>more guys explore inside the warehouse and around it
>a couple soldiers next to the Skyranger get into a firefight with some aliens in the street
>almost hit by a stun bomb - that's gotta be either the alien medic or engineer
>shoot the engineer and a plasma pistol-wielding alien, but the former is merely stunned
>one of the soldiers here was the guy who got the fatal wound earlier

>he gets hit by careless friendly fire and dies anyway
>my soldiers on the warehouse roof are sniping away at aliens in the street
>one Floater with a plasma rifle takes 3 shots to down (with laser rifles) - must have been the leader
>the engineer gets back up and we drop him
>plus one now weaponless aiyy who threw a grenade earlier (it just harmlessly blew out part of the warehouse wall)
>trying to find the remaining aliens, I realize that there's a gas station in the lower left of the map that we haven't explored yet
>but first, let's check out this house on the far side of the warehouse
>my sniper guys jump from the roof and join with the auto cannon dude who was exploring the inside of the warehouse
>along with some other guys, they start slowly converging on the house
>surprise Reaper!
>furry fucker rushes out and uses one of my soldiers as a chew toy
>oh, you jackass
>approach cautiously and throw an HE over there
>Reaper is blasted to bits
>and mission over
Three casualties in quite probably one of the easiest terror missions I've ever done.

>>2564810
>>2564817
You might have given all the snakemen survivors ptsd

I've always been interesting in this series but I don't know where to start.
Which game do you guys recommend?

>>2566748
TFTD is the same game engine as UFO Defense with a reskin. The later games are completely different.

>>2562323
Pros of attacking landed UFOs:

>get fully intact UFO back, including guaranteed Elerium recovery
>no risk of triggering a retaliation mission
>no risk of your Interceptors getting damaged/destroyed

Pros of shooting down UFOs:

>some of the aliens will have died if the power supply explodes, thus less of them to fight
>the damage caused to the UFO by the power supply exploding will make it easier to get inside and clear the UFO
>you never have to fight at night since you can just wait until morning to attack them
>the next UFO in the mission will be delayed a week, giving you more time to replenish ammo/lost soldiers
>some UFOs don't land voluntarily (Terror Ships on a terror mission or UFOs on a retaliation attack)

In general, I always prefer to go after landed UFOs if I can get there during the daytime and of course Battleships/Supply Ships should never be shot down.

>>2561342
Nah, he's actually pretty annoying. His tactics are basically shit as well.

>aliens terrorize Bogota
>and it's at night
>aw, for the love of crumb cake
>find that we're next to a pitch-black park
>even better
>throw out a flare
>one soldier gets bombarded with mind control
>and it's Sectoids
>at night
>god help us all
>incoming 8-10 casualties
>spot a Cyberdisc in the park and blast it to kingdom come
>noice
>as we're deploying, one of my rookies gets mind controlled and fires off six auto cannon HE rounds
>lucky the guy he shot had personal armor, so he only got a wound
>we'll just get the med pack and fix him up
>next turn you're going to be disarmed, buddy-boy
>get into a shootout with Sectoids by an apartment building
>slowly advance through the park
>on the far side, two Sectoids are out in the street
>my "crack" riflemen miss, so it's up to the rocket launcher guy
>and he does it
>both aliens fall
>torch another Cyberdisc by the apartment
>move through the park

>at least three grenades get thrown at my troops, but fail to do any damage
>take out s'more aliens and a Cyberdisc, which kills a Sectoid when it blows
>the guy who got wounded earlier is shot dead
>oh well
>this is turning out quite well, it would seem
>unfortunately the remaining aliens are probably hiding behind the buildings across the street with infinite reaction shots
>fucking fuck
>wait, we must have killed the Sectoid leader - no more psy attacks
>get your gun, faggot
>the aliens' turn is getting short - there can't be more than 1-2 left
>spot a Cyberdisc shooting a civilian
>move around carefully and see it
>the Cyberdisc shoots and wounds one soldier
>god bless personal armor
>can we tag him?
>and we do - the thing blows sky-high
>ok let's get the medi pak and patch up my wounded guy
>good as new
>click end turn
And that's it. 18 aliens iced with only three casualties despite being a nighttime Sectoid terror mission. I deserved better than a Poor rating, I really did.

>Floater Harvester touches down in Iceland
That's a strange place to do it since the entire Icelandic diet consists of rotten fish. Not much livestock there. Anyway, this screencap is well-titled. This was uber rapeage. My squad gunned down 10 aliens in the first five turns. But hey, ice is the easiest of all terrains to fight in.

After clearing the outside, we headed in for the remaining buggers and since Harvesters have two entrances and a completely fucked up layout, I sent in two separate squads. The less experienced/armored guys went through the side door while my crack troops took the front. We did not shoot the cow's head off, tempting though it is. The redshirts got zinged by what I assume was the medic, as he was in the exam room and was wielding a small launcher. After shooting him, two rookies fell to aliens coming around the corner. Meanwhile, my veterans went into the front foyer and headed upstairs, where the remaining aliens had panicked and dropped their weapons. And that was pretty much it.

I think this mission was the X-Com equivalent of the Battle of Fredericksburg in the Civil War where the Union troops zerg-rushed the entrenched Confederates on Marye's Heights and were all mowed down in waves.

>>2568140
Bragging about your awesome victory against Floaters is like bragging about your NFL team beating up the Cleveland Browns.

Floaters have a nasty habit of getting trapped on the upper floors of buildings because the AI doesn't know how to walk them down stairs, only up them.

>>2568140
too bad that wasn't an abductor mission - I'd love to save Bjork from having her lady bits probed by alien scum

>>2568272
>Implying she's on our side anyway.

I've been playing online on epicport. It's great except it freezes increasingly as the game progresses. I don't know if the java and firefox combo is my issue. The original version I dl'ed from steam is so clunky in comparison though.

Any recommendations?

>>2568152
I agree. Winning a battle against Floaters is like racing in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded.

I would argue that the game is easier on Superhuman due to the greater amount of aliens per mission translating into more surplus weapons/bodies and thus more $$$.

>>2568237
I know...a lot of times I've seen as many as three Floaters all hopelessly stuck in a barn loft.

>>2568140
It's pretty rare to encounter Harvesters/Abductors on ice terrain because most of that is in the polar regions which don't get any missions other than base construction and research.

>>2568140
It's a bit easier to assault an intact Harvester than one you shot down because the aliens will all pile into the front foyer and you can blast them like fish in a barrel. If the power supplies blew up, it creates an open space between the front entrance and the exam room.

>step inside front door
>get your soldiers knocked out by a stun gun wielding Medic

>>2570183
Harvesters have two medics on them and two engineers, so theoretically you can have four Small Launcher-wielding aliens. Note however that they may have plasma pistols instead.

Another little point is that Snakemen and Ethereals don't perform harvest missions, thus you'll only encounter Sectoids/Floaters/Mutons on them. Mutons don't have medics and will just carry additional soldiers, however they'll still be armed with whatever weaponry that rank carries. This means that the Muton soldiers who fill in for medics on Harvesters most likely are still carrying Small Launchers.

Protip: When you're doing farmland missions, demolish the fuck out of all buildings. Don't let aliens use the things as a sniper's nest.

I took out the second Harvester, this one landing in Denmark. A nasty bloodbath that killed five soldiers. Several also got knocked out by a Small Launcher-wielding medic. The aliens shot dead most of the soldiers I was going to storm the UFO with, but one surviving sergeant singlehandedly took out at least five of them and saved the day.

Also a Battleship landed, but I'll just ignore that one since I need to replenish my ammo stocks. I had enough rookies to replace the dead guys, but they're rookies and also don't have any armor until I get some manufactured.

>>2570858
Is the best option for that high strength + HE or should you use something like an autocannon with HE rounds and just auto shot the fuck out of the map?

>>2571113
Auto cannon HE rounds don't have a big explosive radius and have a hard time with tougher structures. I just use high explosives and rockets.

Notice I said farmland missions. You can't really apply this strategy to terror sites because of the risk of civilian deaths.

Note that proximity grenades don't count towards your soldiers' total kills. I did a Sectoid large scout on Superhuman where there can be between 6 and 13 aliens. Threw a few proxy grenades into the UFO and killed about three, but when the mission ended it told me I only got five. So it was probably eight aliens on the ship, but the game only counted five towards my kills.

A little peculiarity about the game engine is that it spawns soldier aliens anywhere on the map at the start of a game (except of course the tiles occupied by your transport ship), but mission specialists (engineers, leaders, etc) spawn in the UFO in whatever part of the ship their job is to manage (or if an alien base, the part of the base they're responsible for).

This is why sometimes you step off the Skyranger and find like 10 aliens there waiting to gun you down, but other times it's completely quiet - they all spawned inside the UFO. Of course on terror sites, there is no UFO so the mission specialists' spawning locations are completely random.

>>2571192
Essentially, navigators, leaders, and commanders always spawn on the bridge of the UFO, the engineers by the power supplies (obviously), and medics (which only Floaters and Sectoids have) appear in the exam/surgery room of Abductors/Harvesters or the food container room of Supply Ships. If it's a base, the command center takes the place of the bridge and medics will spawn in those garden thingies.

Also for some reason, Floaters and Sectoids will also have medics on Terror Ships, in which case they just spawn on the first floor.

>>2571192
This shit is why I hate raiding downed battleships.

If there's a hull breach, you get fuckers with blaster launchers popping out of it like hornets.

>>2571237
That's why you don't shoot down battleships, dummy. ;)

Aside from it being extremely hazardous to your combat aircraft to fight a battleship, you'll lose the Elerium if the power supplies blow and also create the situation you mentioned. I always just wait for them to land and then go after them, unless it's at night in which case I'll just ignore the thing.

>>2570858
I agree. Given a choice, I'd do battles on anything but farmland. Unfortunately, it's the most common terrain type.

>Floater terror mission in Novisibirsk
>in the daytime thank god
>shoot up some aiyys around the Skyranger
>we're next to a huge-ass warehouse
>ok let's go ins...
>soldier instantly dropped by reaction fire
>I guess we can't go in the main entrance - let's use the side door
>four guys go in and to the upstairs observation deck while leaving most of the squad in the Skyranger
>kill a buncha Reapers around the outside
>the door leading to the main warehouse is open and there's two civvies there
>I assume the one Reaper can't get to us, so we ignore him and proceed to head upstairs
>surprisingly, he can go through that space since the door is open and the wall next to it blasted out
>he munches one civvie before we take him down
>two soldiers with just laser pistols go to the roof
>they spot a couple of Floaters down in the dark of a gas station
>a bizarre firefight ensues where we shoot blindly at enemies
>all the while that half our squad is still in the Skyranger
>they kill one Reaper near the gas station and a Floater in a ruined house (now even more ruined once we sent a large rocket through the front)
>one guy on the roof gets taken down by a sharpshooting Floater
>other aliens try to take potshots at the guys in the Skyranger and one throws a grenade at the ramp
>two men go down, but we manage to kill the attackers
>after shooting more Reapers, the one guy on the roof drops down to the ground, only to find an alien several squares away in the alley
>laser pistols have fuck all accuracy, but we have to try
>and we do - he's dropped
>more guys come out and ice the remaining aliens around the Skyranger
>I remembered that one alien was merely stunned and he got up and ran off
>fuck, where did he go
>no wait he's just inside the warehouse
>run in and shoot
>we're done

I've seen some bizarre battles before, but this is one for the record books.

bump

Beware of all larger Sectoid UFOs until you get psionics.

>>2572937
???

Just disarm all your psy weakings until the alien leader is killed/incapacitated.

>>2572943
I know, but it does require a bit of save scumming since (prior to researching psionics) you don't know who's psy-weak. What usually happens is that one dude gets randomly mind controlled and ends up dropping an HE in the Skyranger as you're trying to get your troops deployed.

Did a Sectoid terror mission the other day where a guy with an auto cannon got mind controlled. He shot up the soldier next to him, but no serious damage was done because everyone had personal armor and the auto cannon just had HE rounds in it. The guy who got hit sustained one wound that we patched up with a med pak.

So I just disarmed the psy weakling the next turn.

>>2572950
I usually equip four dudes with HE-loaded auto cannons until I have heavy plasma and phase them out. They allow easy kills of Sectoids, Floaters, Reapers, and Snakemen. Won't do anything to Chryssalids or Cyderdiscs though.

If you ever needed proof of just how much the game cheats, this is it. A heavy plasma-wielding Floater actually _shot_ through the wall to hit my captain. He didn't even have line of site, but he knew I had a high ranking officer on the other side of the wall.

BTW, this is a Supply Ship in the Patagonian Desert. There's a base in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, but first I decided to eat one of the Supply Ships before going after it because easy source of loot.

>>2573963
Barrack Obama 16...

What happened to 1 - 15?

>>2574028
Rookies get the name "Barack Obama" as it's a synonym for "worthless". They receive proper names if they prove themselves worthy in battle. Since rookies are considered valueless cannon fodder until getting promoted.

>>2574028
Rookies get the name "Barack Obama" as it's a synonym for "worthless". They receive proper names if they prove themselves in battle. Since rookies are considered valueless cannon fodder until getting promoted.

>>2574057
>>2573963
Barack Obama 16 is now Entei. She rendered yeoman service on this Supply Ship mission, throwing a couple of proximity grenades at once of the entrances and leading the charge inside the other entrance. Took out four alien scum (the game doesn't include proximity grenade kills on a soldier's stats) after having spent two terror attacks in the back of the Skyranger with the reserve troops and not doing anything.

She'll probably get decapitated by a plasma rifle shot when we go after the alien base.

-

>>2574057
Kill yourself, Rethuglican.

>xcom apocalypse
>raiding cultists for monies
>3rd raid on them in the first day of my campaign
>no casualties on previous raids
>open door and see a dozen cultists
>literally rain of grenades onto my soldier
>they throw in a HE rocket to top it off
>soldier including everything around him gets repeatedly obliterated
How do you deal with this shit? There were so many explosions not even running away would have mattered.

>>2574072
It was fun. Threw proxy grenades at the left entrance of the UFO and downed at least three aliens this way. By the time my troops went inside, I'd killed enough of them that the remaining Floaters started to panic and drop their weapons. There were at 3-4 that I encountered with no weapon in hand.

>>2574072
Or not. We defeated the alien base with just four casualties, one of which was a useless meat shield. There were a lot of Floaters guarding the entrance lifts, so I had to send soldiers down, shoot one, and go back up for a few turns before it was safe to begin deployment.

Most of the aliens around the command center had panicked and dropped their weapons. I moved one guy too far and expended his TUs so he got shot down by a Floater who still had his heavy plasma. The alien was revenge killed on the next turn. Also there was a Reaper guarding the entrance to the command center like the beast guarding the Egyptian tomb. It was difficult to get at him and he eventually munched one soldier before being taken down.

I sent a wounded squaddie into the command center and he was promptly gunned down. Entei (who again proved to be an elite soldier, now boasting 9 kills on 2 missions) took out the alien. She deserved a promotion to sergeant, but none of my officers died so no positions opened up. And that was it. Mission over.

>clean out Floater terror site
>most of the aliens are dead, but there's still gotta be one or two left somewhere
>one shoots out of a warehouse and kills a soldier
>fuck, he's way back in the warehouse and nobody's in position to launch a rocket or HE over there
>one rookie manages to get an HE and blow out the front of the warehouse
>end turn
>the Floater fires, hits another soldier, and fuck, there's actually two of them!
>one is a stun bomb-wielding engineer/medic
What happened next is truly one for the record books.

>alien shoots stun bomb
>4-5 soldiers are knocked unconscious at once
>but the other guys simultaneously down both aliens with reaction fire
>mission over

>>2576487
Kek.

>>2576527
I know. It's pretty bizarre. I literally ended the mission with five passed out dudes. If those weren't the last remaining aliens, I'd have to spend 15 turns collecting the med packs and waking them up.

bump

>>2576281
>Also there was a Reaper guarding the entrance to the command center like the beast guarding the Egyptian tomb. It was difficult to get at him and he eventually munched one soldier before being taken down.

I can only imagine just how fucked you'd be if this were a Chryssalid or a Cyberdisc.

>>2573963
No proof needed man. I've had aliens shoot at me through the outer wall of UFO's. There were no holes, they just shot through walls.

I got revenge though. Got some flying suits, had a few UFO's with holes blown in the top. Grenades and High Explosives go in the hole. Angry aliens come running out right into a firing line of plasma rifles and rocket tanks.

>>2577853
>I've had aliens shoot at me through the outer wall of UFO's. There were no holes, they just shot through wall
Sometimes aliens will throw a grenade if you have soldiers on the other side of a building, although they usually miss and blow themselves up (love when that happens)
>Got some flying suits, had a few UFO's with holes blown in the top. Grenades and High Explosives go in the hole
Also known as "Operation Can Opener". On larger UFOs, you usually send a guy with a Flying Suit/Blaster Launcher to the roof and shoot into the control center, which kills the alien officers and usually causes the remaining aliens to panic.

>thanks to my sexy new Hyperwave decoder, I can see exactly what the aliens are up to
>detect a Snakeman Terror Ship heading to North Africa
>this looks bad
>ok let's shoot it down in the Sahara - we can fight during daytime in open, unobstructed terrain
>nope the Interceptors run out of gas and have to go home
>two days later
>ALIENS TERRORIZE CAIRO
>and of course we arrive there in the dead of the night
>did I mention this was a Snakeman terror site?
>this looks bad
>really, really bad
>cautiously deploy and see a Chr*sallid
>gun the creature down
>suddenly Snakemen everywhere
>send two soldiers to hide in a warehouse for cover
>an apocalyptic battle rages around the Skyranger as aliens are popping out from every building
>my rocket launcher girl expends almost all of her ammunition in the desperate struggle
>we learn that small rockets won't kill a Chr*ssalid and in many cases, it takes a few taps with the Heavy Plasma (this is the first mission so far that my squad was fully armed with them)
>lucky we took along six large rockets and ended up using every one of them
>send one soldier to the second floor of a house to use it as a sniper's nest
>she spots two Snakeys and downs one of them, but misses the other
>the second Snakeman kills her with near-perfect reaction fire
>I'm really concerned about one Chr*ssalid that got knocked unconscious, but luckily he doesn't get back up again
>one poor rookie meat shield gets zombified, but we kill it and the beast that did him in
>how many fucking Snakemen are there? It seems like I killed at least 30
>by this point, the houses near the Skyranger and a convenience store are little more than charred rubble
>spot one more Snakeman and a zombie standing in the ruins of a house
>manage to take both out

>the aliens' turn is getting short, so let's go search for the remaining ones
>I'm lucky I kept those two soldiers hidden in the warehouse as a reserve force
>get a message that the Snakeman leader panicked, but I can't quite determine where he is
>slowly move along the street
>turn a corner and spot him weaponless
>should have brought a Small Launcher, but oh well just shoot him
>we're not done yet
>suddenly SURPRISE CHR*SSALID
>zombifies one soldier, but luckily we're travelling in a pack so easily manage to gun down the alien and zombie
>still not done yet
>this is really bad - chances are very high of the last alien being a Chr*ssalid waiting behind some building to ambush us
>move in a clockwise direction past the Skyranger, but still encounter nothing
>the last unexplored part of the map has gotta be down in the lower right
>rookie meat shield out in front as our scout, we turn into a little tree-filled grove and there's a Chr*ssalid sitting in there
>the rookie hits once and misses, but one of my sergeants takes out the little punk

Mission over. This was one of the most brutal terror missions I've ever seen. Never has one rocket launcher been used this hard. Yet even with six casualties and no civilians surviving, I still got a Good rating.

worst I had was a terror from the deep terror mission. Bug that locks everything into hardest level.

Killing aliens left and right. They are everywhere. Finally take out my tank. Hunt down the last one in a warehouse in the top right corner I got two guys left. Fuck it I don't need this shit.

Anyone know if the locked on hardest setting is true in terror from the deep. And maybe how to fix it?

>>2578146
and apocalypse is cool even if the worm things are a little overpowered.

>Used to play with my best friend in junior high
>We were complete shit but loved it, played every single weekend
>Had one soldier named Ivan
>Completely worthless stats
>Night mission (No flares because braindead)
>Ivan autoshots at a fairly close range floater
>Kills 2 squaddies that were nowhere near the alien
>Survives a ton of missions without any hits
>Eventually becomes the big cheese
>Never advances stats much at all due to never hitting aliums
>Was the last member to die on the mission where that squad finally got wiped

I always name my highest ranked soldier Ivan in his honor. And in honor of the friend, who unfortunately passed away

>>2578160
>nine aliens spotted at one

That was pretty much this Snakeman terror mission in a nutshell. The maximum amount of aliens you can get on a terror mission is 23, so I guess there were probably 17 Snakemen and six Chryssalids at the start, but I ended up with 26 kills because of zombies.

>try to capture navigator from a Sectoid large scout
>do the usual tactic of running inside, shooting one alien, and running back out again
>take down two soldiers (I assume that's what they were)
>next turn
>send guy inside with a stun rod+laser pistol
>confronted by an alien with a Small Launcher
>that would be the engineer, but we don't need him
>shoot the alien, but the inaccurate laser pistol misses and the engineer promptly knocks him out with a stun bomb
>at least stun bombs aren't a lethal weapon
>still annoying though
>send in my sergeant to take out the alien
>next turn
>sound of door opening
>peek inside
>alien with a plasma pistol by the right door
>I assume that's the navigator - we don't want to shoot him
>quickly grab the stun rod from the unconscious soldier and duck back outside
>next turn, he wakes up and finds himself standing literally face-to-face with the alien, who's also moved right next to the UFO entrance
>quickly rush my sergeant inside and zap him with the stun rod
>what did we get?
>shit, it is the navigator
>success
>mission over

That was pretty bizarre, but I'm not gonna complain.

>watching Lord Finisher's Superhuman Antarctica challenge

Weird, he makes it all the way to July and not a single Muton/Ethereal shows up. He gets four Snakeman terror attacks in a row (April through July). Also Sectoids infiltrate the US and Canada back-to-back so he has to go and destroy a base in the exact same location twice. I didn't know aliens could do multiple infiltrations in the same region, but I looked it up and apparently they can.

So as best I can figure out, the alien missions in his game (up to June) are...

>January
Sectoid research, Antarctica+Floater terror, Siberia
>February
Floater base, South America+Floater terror, Central Asia
>March
Sectoid infiltration, North America+Floater terror, Europe
>April
Unknown mission in Southern Africa (probably abduction or research)+Snakeman terror, North Africa
>May
Sectoid infiltration, North America+Snakeman terror, South America
>June
Snakeman base, North America+Snakeman base, North Africa+Snakeman terror, Australasia

BTW, if you didn't know, the game starts doing three missions a month in June (two random and one terror).

>Abductor lands in Siberia
>Woo, free Elerium.
>Surgical strike neutralizes Sectoids in the surrounding area, and first floor.
>Lose 1 man because LOL CANT SHOOT STRAIGHT.
>Head upstairs to second floor, kill 1 sectoid in corridor
>Stack up to breach the command center
>End turn
>Commander comes out of door, spins in a circle, throws grenade onto floor.

Killed himself and the 3 rookies by the door.
MISSION END. RATING: OK.

Worst / absolutely disgusting / stupid as hell mistakes?

> Superhuman Ironman run on OpenXCom
> Kind of my summer holiday project of one month, play on and off
> Playing 100% careful, don't want to lose all my hard work, countless hours spent
> Still 150-200 soldiers gone until I get psionics,
> Start training team for Cydonia, dozens of missions, go through hundreds of soldiers for high psi strength
> Ufo count 700's and every month 20-30 ufo missions
> Finally can't grind for stats anymore after losing two of the best psi guys to friendly reaction fire on a disarmed muton
> Come up with mad strategy for Cydonia start, minimizing the risk of casualties at start
> Have every soldier of the group of 18 start Cydonia assault with only psi amp in hand
> Plasma weapons, blaster launchers etc waiting in a pile to be picked up later
> Spawn right next to lift area
> Postpone using the lift and picking up weapons because "I'll clean the map so I get the launcher tank also"
> Mission goes well, minor casualties. Carefully go through the whole pyramid map chaining psi control
> Last alien killed, mission ends
> Find out the hard way that no ordnance from the first map floor is allowed on 2nd level if 1st level ends in clean map

> Start 2nd level with only psi amps and two guys with plasma rifles used to finish off the last alien

> End up winning anyway on the first turn because of muh psionics. Had three 100 psi strength soldiers and three 99's

>easy cleanup of a nighttime Floater terror mission with only one casualty
>the fuck did all the Reapers go? I have't seen a single one.
>mission over, 14 aliens killed

How the fuck did I get bounced back to Beginner mode? I was on Superhuman and had patched the difficulty bug.

>>2578424
I usually grab a navigator from one of the Sectoid large scouts in January. Even with shooting them down, sometimes the UFO is still intact and you're faced with up to 12 aliens when your soldiers don't yet have any armor. Nothing beats stepping off the Skyranger and being zerg-rushed by 6 aliens at once..

>>2564762
Snakeman terror mission. Nighttime. No casualties with lots of recruits and one or two officers.

Didn't make it past the skyranger until there was one enemy left because of everything charging each turn. Chryssalid almost got around to bite the troops' backsides, but a quick look behind the firing line and good dose of laser fire killed it quickly.

Also the one mission where a trooper shot an enemy from halfway across the map and killed it.

>>2580714
I once took out a Snakeman Battleship with a mere two casualties, both in the first five turns. Admittedly it was in very favorable conditions (ice terrain during daytime). The Chryssalids never managed to get within 10 squares of my troops before being gunned down and eventually I ended up bringing the commander home alive when he panicked and ran around the entry lift like an idiot, making it a matter of just poking him with a stun rod.

>>2574057
>republican noise in /vr/
what are you, 80?

>>2580817
>>>/tumblr/
>>>/lgbt/

I am a Republican

I am a Republican because I think we should give huge tax breaks to the top 2% of income earners
I am a Republican because I want to deny two consenting adults in love the right to be legally united
I am a Republican because I think ancient fairy tale books should be used to determine public policy in the 21st century
I am a Republican because I think women have no place in the workforce or any role except being mindless baby factories
I am a Republican because I think it's ok to deny the dangerous reality of climate change
I am a Republican because I think it's ok to bomb brown children for cheap gas
I am a Republican because I think women shouldn't be allowed to make their own reproductive choices
I am a Republican because I think we should give taxpayer money to the apartheid state of Israel
I am a Republican because I think nonwhite people are only fit for being butlers, maids and farm labor
I am a Republican because I think it's ok to throw an African-American teenager who sells a Zip-Lock bag of marijuana in jail for 15 years
I am a Republican because I think it's ok to endlessly deadlock Congress and prevent the president from passing bills needed to undo his Republican predecessor's mistakes
I am a Republican because I think it's ok to demean and insult the office of the president every day since January 20, 2009 with childish insults, name-calling, and lies
I am a Republican because I want to deport hard-working immigrants because their skin isn't light enough

>>2580831

I'm pretty sure much of /vr/ is on the liberal side, so you're only preaching to the choir. We were born into a generation where fundamentalist Christians were the ones constantly having shit censored from the media, especially video games.

Sure, radical feminists and tumblrites may be doing the same thing now, but I think newer generations are ignoring the fact that it's a problem originating from both fronts. The fundies are still working just as hard to push their authoritarian-Christian government on the entire nation. These newfangled kids just aren't taking notice because the fundies have started to back away from their favorite forms of media to focus on other issues.

>>2580969
See >>2580819

>>2580831
>I am a faggot and a shitposter
shortened for you.

>>2573963
Vat?

Where did my screencap go?

Difficulty bug explained:

The difficulty setting for a game is stored in the IGLOB.DAT file in your save game directory, specifically the last four bytes of the file. DOS versions of UFO Defense forget to save this bit, so the game thinks it's always on Beginner.

If you go to the save file directory and the IGLOB.DAT for that file is 60 bytes in size, then it's missing the ending part and will always play on Beginner mode. It should be 64 bytes.

I think actually Superhuman is easier because more aliens means more bodies+surplus weapons to sell, so more money.

>>2582775
I was going after a downed Sectoid Large Scout and there were only like 6-7 aliens, so I thought "Is this on Beginner? I'm sure I was on Super..."

>check IGLOB.DAT
>nope it's 64 bytes like it should be
>check UFOpedia
>Superhuman Large Scouts have anywhere from 6 to 13 aliens

Nope it's good.

This terror site had a very bad setup - Skyranger parked next to one of those huge-ass marketplaces which are incredibly awful to fight in. I sent three soldiers to the top floor to use it as a sniper's nest and bagged several aliens this way. They all went down, but the second wave succeeded in cleaning the place up. It's a pity that I lost one of my best marksmen who'd been with the team since the beginning.

Needless to say, Superhuman terror sites can be quite an experience. The aliens in the pic were ones all taken down by my snipers. No civilians survived, but I got an OK rating.

>>2582967
I used to savescum if I got a poor setup on terror sites, but now I just figure "Fuck, let's roll with it." If I end up getting clobbered, a simple change in tactics usually works. It's like solving a puzzle.

>>2582967
>Snakeman terror site on Superhuman
>at night
>yfw

>>2583151
I saw one LP on Youtube where the guy touches down at a terror site, sees it's Sectoids, and takes off again. He was too pussy to do a nighttime terror mission on Beginner mode.

For chrissake, I beat a nighttime Snakeman terror mission on Superhuman the other day. Didn't run away like a little bitch.

>>2583250
Is that >>2578035

>aliens doing an infiltration job in my backyard
>several UFOs land
>pick a large one hoping it's a Supply Ship
>nope it's a Terror Ship
>godfuckingdammit

I lost 11 soldiers and ended up having to abort the mission since there was a Cyberdisc on my tail and I had no way to kill it. The worst part was that it was the last remaining alien. I lost most of my equipment as well, yet somehow I managed to capture a live Sectoid leader.

Not convinced that it was worth the massive loss of troops and equipment. Probably should have gone after the Battleship. There's not as many terrorists on those and I can get a commander.

>>2583517
If it's an infiltration mission, they're eventually going to build a base so you should just get a commander from there.

>attack landed Supply Ship
>this is Sectoids, so we better be careful for obvious reasons
>spot alien moving through a barn next to the Skyranger
>have one guy casually stroll inside and pepper the place with auto cannon HE rounds
>that alien never knew what hit him
>hate this setup - the entrances of the UFO are on the opposite side of the ship from the Skyranger
>divide our squad into two groups and make an exhausting trek around both sides of the UFO
>spot the alien engineer packing a stun launcher
>quickly take him out
>meanwhile, one rookie gets psy-bombed and panics
>quickly disarm him on the next turn
>slowly move inside
>alien turns around a corner
>throw HE there
>it blows, but he already moved - too late
>lose a few guys in a firefight near the grav lifts
>send a group of four up to the third floor while ignoring the second floor - besides, I think all the aliens from up there came down and got shot
>two of the group going to the bridge have stun rods 'cos we're taking that leader alive
>I need psionics - badly
>move cautiously along the hallway
>meanwhile two dudes downstairs get mind controlled, drop their weapons and run for it
>at least they can't hurt anyone
>alien turns a corner, takes a shot, and ducks back into cover

>he's easily taken care of by a proximity grenade
>now we zerg rush the leader and poke him unconscious
>and shoot the other navigator, who's panicked
>hell fucking yes - psionics, here we come
>stuff the alien in one soldier's backpack and make for the grav lift back downstairs
>meanwhile there's a heavy plasma-packing alien outside that I missed earlier
>my rocket launcher guy panicked
>the alien guns down one of the auto cannon guys
>great, rocket guy has panicked and he's blocking the only entrance out of the UFO since I'd mined the other one with a proximity grenade
>next turn he's still panicked, trapping my other guys inside
>fuck, this Sectoid leader is heavy - the rookie carrying him loses half her TUs
>go on a diet, you lardass Reticulan
>still have at least three guys running around like chickens with their head cut off even though the leader has been incapacitated for 10 turns or something
>the alien outside shoots rocket launcher guy
>I don't care - good riddance
>send one of my trusted veterans (here since day 1) outside to gun down the alien
>uh oh, there's still one dude wandering around on the second floor
>prepare to send one rookie up as a kamikaze agent
>nope, the alien instead comes downstairs and we shoot him down
>the end

Five soldiers lost, but most of them were useless rookies/psy weaklings anyway. And we got a leader. Cheers.

By the way, I don't know if you guys care about anything but greentexting or copypasting stuff from UFOpaedia, but it seems that TFTD is going to come out soonish on OpenXcom, at least in the nightlies. They also posted a stream of it, dye grenades even work as intended, as in they only cover 1 tile.

>>2585260
I thought dye grenades were the TFTD version of smoke? Why would you ever want 1 square coverage?

>>2585326
TFTD, what else. In theory, they were meant to initially release a small puff that gradually gets wider and wider with turns passing, but the result was simply a 1 tile of smoke that gets thinnier and thinnier as it spreads, which is also another pile of dumb. Seems OXC recreated faithfully the first part, but not the second one, for now.

>start February
>go after landed small scout
>it's a Sectoid
>wonderful they're about to do something here in my backyard (South America)
>week later
>medium scout pops up on the radar
>shoot it down
>after a costly battle which takes out four soldiers, I restock my ammo and hire new recruits
>two days later, another small scout shows up
>realize that I triggered a retaliation mission

Oh. No. God. Damn. It.

I read somewhere that the game starts giving you two alien missions per month in June, but after watching some LPs on Youtube, it appears to actually be May when this starts.

>>2588437
>>2588167
You can start getting Snakemen in February, but they never do terror missions before April. Similarly, Mutons start showing up in April for base/infiltration missions. They start doing research/harvest in May and terror attacks in June. I don't know when Ethereals show up and thankfully most reasonably competent players are off to Cydonia before this happens.

>>2585260
Just hoping there's compatibility with UFO Defense and mods that combines the two together.

>>2588445
IIRC Snakemen only do base/infiltration/retaliation/terror.

>>2588452
That is correct. Sectoids and Floaters are the only aliens that have all ranks (soldier, engineer, medic, leader, and commander) and perform all mission types.

I never felt that Chryssalids were a huge problem outside of terror sites. The reason why they're so dangerous there is the shitton of targets they have. When you're not facing them in a terror mission, they can only go after your soldiers, who unlike hapless civilians, are armed to the teeth. I took out a Snakeman Battleship once on Superhuman and the crabbies never got within 10 squares of my soldiers. I lost only two guys the entire mission, both to reaction fire.

>>2556056
Laser rifles usually drop Cyberdiscs in three shots. Chryssalids are tough to kill without heavy plasma. I just got done with a Sectoid terror mission and the Cyberdiscs turned out to be the least of my problems. At least much less than having two soldiers (including my captain for god's sake) become utterly useless due to mind control.

The problem being that this was the first terror mission in January and it's hard to fight Sectoid terror shit at this early point when you don't have any armor yet.

Is there a way to add melee weapons to ufo defense? I thought they were baller in TFTD

>>2589893
Don't think so. Even if you mind control an enemy with a melee attack like Chryssalids, the game won't let you use it.

>>2589959
There's an option in OpenXCom to allow melee attacks with your ranged weapon. Pistol whipping isn't as powerful as smashing someone in the face with a rocket launcher too which is a nice touch.

>>2589959
IIRC, Celatids are the only terrorists that you can MC and use their attack. Which if you've ever MC-ed Celatids, it's pretty fun. I watched one LP where the guy MCs a Celatid during the assault on the Cydonia base and manages to 2HKO a Sectopod. That acid is powerful stuff.

>>2590113
Kikoskia is the only LPer who seems to not turn into a screaming manchild on his videos.

>>2590117
This wasn't his LP, it was someone else's. I did watch Kikoskia's UFO Defense LP though - he manages to conquer Cydonia without any mind control capabilities. A lot of these LPers are more cautious than I would be. For example, late game when they have loads of stored up Blaster Bombs and don't ever use them.

>shoot down Ethereal terror ship and just ignore it because >Ethereals

If I was playing, I'd just riddle the damn UFO with BB rounds. Sectopod on your ass? No problem. The only concern is that your Blaster Launcher ends up in the hands of a psy weakling, which could be bad or that you accidentally destroy the Elerium in the power supplies.

>>2590123
If only he'd learn that kneeling improves your firing accuracy.

How about a good ol' LP? I will be posting screenshots of my trek through UFO Defense.

Mission 1. January 8th. Moldavia.

Stepping off the ladder, Barack Obama 1 (each soldier gets the name Barack Obama until proving themselves in battle as it signifies worthlessness) spots a Sectoid. She hits the bugger three times but somehow still doesn't kill him (friggin' pea shooter rifles). After calling for backup, the alien is brought down.

The UFO is smoking pretty badly, meaning there's probably not much of value left inside. Therefore no harm is done in exploiting the diagonal wall trick.

The blast did not generate any alien death sounds, indicating that they're all outside somewhere. Moving forward, we spotted another Sectoid but four soldiers failed to bring him down. Somebody's death seemed all-but inevitable.

On ending our turn, the alien took a shot, missed, and walked off. We quickly caught up with him and sent a rifle round through his skull.

The last remaining alien was discovered by exploring around the barn next to the UFO. He took down two soldiers before being laid out on ice. As expected, nothing much was recovered except some alien bodies and weapons.

Three soldiers have proven themselves and received proper names.

>>2590371
>John Redcorn
I genuinely laughed.

Mission 2. January 14th. A Large Scout touches down in Bulgaria.

One alien was shot down in this wheat field. The other was spotted inside a barn, but throwing an HE next to it was enough to take him out.

Another Sectoid appeared in front of the Skyranger. As they say, explosives solve all of the world's problems.

At least three other aliens were shot down in that wheat field. Meanwhile, an alien with a Heavy Plasma kept dodging in and out of the UFO. My rocket launcher guy was given this one and bagged his first kill.

We then threw an HE through the rear diagonal wall of the UFO. It killed something, most likely the navigator. However there were still more inside. The two shot down here were (I'm guessing) the engineers.

While that was going on, some other alien wandered up to the Skyranger ramp and shot a guy. He was quickly disposed of. Then there was just one more dude inside the UFO, which we took out shortly thereafter.

Two casualties for 10 aliens killed and a fully intact UFO. All but one of my troopers have also been promoted and given proper names.

Alien bases are visited by a Supply Ship once every week. Despite the penalty you incur for leaving bases up, you may choose to ignore it and just keep looting the Supply Ships for an easy source of cash and Elerium. On the other hand, shooting them down might trigger a retaliation mission so better to just attack the ship on the ground.

>>2590997
yeah i was playing a game where I took out a Floater base in North Africa. There's also a Snakeman base in Antarctica that I'm too scared of Chryssalids to go after. I did want to loot a supply ship or two but they always land during nighttime.

I watched both Kikoskia and Lord Finisher's LPs and both of them just shoot down Ethereal terror ships and ignore the crash site. They don't even try to tackle that shit. Probably smart move.

>>2591023
If you bring along plenty of Blaster Bombs, you might be ok. Just pray that they don't get assigned to a psy weakling.

>>2591029
You can't shoot random Blaster Bombs around a terror site or risk killing civilians and getting penalized for it. If you shot down the Terror Ship, you might be ok but then I don't see much point in assaulting a crashed Ethereal terror ship. The Elerium probably blew up, so you're facing extremely dangerous enemies for little gain.

t. those guys were right to just shoot down Ethereal terror ships and ignore them

>>2591023
You get more points for shooting a UFO into the water than crashing it on land and ignoring the crash site.

Mission 3 - Large UFO, France. Object: Capture a live alien navigator so we may have a Hyperwave Decoder.

While deploying, an alien wandered up to the front of these outbuildings and was blasted with auto cannon rounds. Another alien was picked off shortly afterwards.

The UFO's interior was thoroughly gutted, giving us a clear firing line from the door to the bridge. Although one alien inside was quickly taken down, the navigator proved to be a tougher nut to crack. He would not budge from his command post and instead reaction fired two rookies who tried to b8 him into coming out.

Now, based on my experience with Large Scouts, generally the navigator/engineer won't come out to fight you until all of their soldiers are out of action. So this meant we had to search the map and find who was out there. Fuzzy Lumpkin took a pretty foolhardy solo exploration of some barns. He turned a corner and confronted the alien. At great risk to himself, he fired his inaccurate laser pistol and succeeded in dropping the bugger. Thank you for the near heart attack, game.

With that alien down, we at last began to hear doors opening inside the UFO. There were in fact two aliens - the navigator and some other dude with a plasma rifle. The latter was quickly dispensed with. Now we waited until the navigator got a little closer to the door. Daffy Duck rushed in and was grievously wounded by a plasma shot, however he succeeded in draining the alien of TUs, making it easy for Barack Obama 11 to rush in with a stun rod.

And we did it. We got our prize.

Two casualties on this mission. The only promotion was Barack Obama 11, who for his heroism is now Sergeant Al-Khahib. Also Daffy Duck is out for 45 (!) days.

>>2591228
>Mission 3 - Large UFO
Large Scout, I mean.

Capturing a live navigator often results in (see pic) so it's good when I manage to do it easily and effortlessly.

>>2556074
Snakemen have a small (about 10%) chance of performing a research mission, but they never do harvest missions.

Do you have an opinion on rebelstar tactical command ?

>>2562713
>Glitch abuse cheese is preferable to proper gameplay

Please go.

>>2591659
It makes things a bit easier, although flushing the aliens out of large scouts isn't that hard anyway. You just duck in and out of the entrance and shoot the aliens as they come into the front foyer. Like I mentioned above, the navigator generally won't come outside until all of the soldiers are dead, although the engineers sometimes come out earlier. Optionally throw proximity grenades inside to blast them as they come (doesn't work with Mutons as the PGs generally aren't powerful enough to kill them).

Also if the power supply blew, there's often a gaping hole in the roof which you can just throw a grenade into.

>>2556074
The April terror mission has a roughly 60% chance of being Snakemen. Occasionally Sectoids or Floaters, but it is usually always Snakemen.

Theoretically, you only need to perform two missions to beat the game - one to capture an alien navigator and the other to capture a commander.

After several quiet days...yeah.

Uncle Ed quickly flattened two Floaters out of the gate. As it turned out, both were merely stunned and had to be shot later.

And another one.

A fierce firefight happened to the left of the Skyranger, and it was here that most of the aliens were taken down.

The dropped rifle was from a Floater medic who apparently got stunned, woke up later, and panicked.

While this was going on, one of the Barack Obamas used the rocket launcher to shoot a hole in a fence around the apartment building, which Fuzzy Lumpkin then used for a sniper's nest.

Uncle Ed was the real hero of this mission, taking out five aliens and exhausting an auto cannon ammo clip (the other auto cannon users were my officers so I didn't really commit them to battle). Fuzzy Lumpkin meanwhile went to the top floor of the apartment and spotted a Floater down in the shadows, but was unable to hit him.

The last remaining aliens were a Reaper to the left of this house and the Floater engineer, who panicked but still had his gun. Two Barack Obamas approached and Fuzzy shot a hole in the upstairs wall of the apartment to exit. We tried and summoned our rocket launcher girl over here, but she was 1/3rd of the way across the map. Fuzzy Lumpkin meanwhile was mortally wounded by the alien and died two turs later.

The two rookies both had grenades on them, so I took the gamble of hocking a proximity grenade up onto the second floor. And it worked. The Floater walked over to the hole in the wall and blew himself up. After that, all we needed to do was shoot the Reaper behind the house.

And that was it. Fuzzy Lumpkin was the only casualty.

Lot of promotions/soldiers to rename.

Minutes into February, a medium scout appeared over Egypt. It was brought down deep in the Sahara.

Anyway, not a lot to say about this mission other than that a dumbass Sectoid killed himself trying to throw a grenade at our troops and two rookies got to earn their stripes.

At least we know where the new terror mission is going to be. And it will have Cyberdiscs and mind control. Yay.

Ok I forgot to take screenshots, but I lost six fucking dudes taking out a Sectoid large scout in Ethiopia. Then the terror mission happened in Cairo. Pretty easy except when one rookie got mind controlled and killed another soldier standing next to him. As it turned out, the last alien left was the leader, standing in the ruins of a house tormenting my more pudding-brained soldiers.

Also Australia has been getting extremely busy as of late, so time to check that place out.

>>2593182
Also I lucked out getting another daytime terror mission. Next one's gonna be in darkness, I know it.

Little patrolling in Oz discovered...yep.

I'm currently researching heavy plasma and I think I'll wait until that's done before going after this thing. Updates to follow later.

Since this is February-March, the alien base is most likely Sectoids. Possibly Floaters. There's also a smaller chance of it being a Snakeman base, which is why I'm not going after it until I have heavy plasma because Chr*ssalids are tough stuff to kill. Though even Reapers are much easier to kill with it. Plus you can punch an extra doorway in the wall around the command center.

Then again, this gives us an early chance to bag a commander. And possibly psionics if it's Sectoids.

>play on Superhuman terror site
>somehow end up with 14 aliens when there should be 18 minimum
Wut?

>>2593350
I noticed this too. It seems to be a bottleneck caused by the game not having enough spawning nodes. In particular some map blocks have just one spawning node which ends up generating fewer aliens than there should be.

>>2593205
Why are you playing using DOSBox instead of using OpenXCOM?

>>2593350
I replayed the March terror mission (Sectoids attacking Dallas) two times from my save file and I kept getting only 14 aliens despite it being on Superhuman. Seems to be a result of exceeding the 80 item limit. I took the proximity grenades off the Skyranger (had eight of them) and it worked. Got 19 aliens this time.

>dat casualty total
>only six alien bodies recovered

And now you see just how bad that terror sites on Superhuman can get. This wasn't even a nighttime one.

>>2593359
I replayed the March terror mission (Sectoids attacking Dallas) two times from my save file and I kept getting only 14 aliens despite it being on Superhuman. Seems to be a result of exceeding the 80 item limit. I took the proximity grenades off the Skyranger (had eight of them) and it worked. Got 19 aliens this time.

>dat casualty total
>only six alien bodies recovered

And now you see just how bad that terror sites on Superhuman can get. This wasn't even a nighttime one.

>>2593469
It's not the 80 item limit, it's certain buildings on the map that don't have enough spawn nodes. If the game generates a map with these, you'll get <18 aliens despite being on Superhuman.

Yep, it was a Snakeman base. And I couldn't take the commander alive because I forgot to bring any stun rods. I was a little annoyed because at the very end when I was hunting down the remaining aliens, a Chryssalid leapt from the shadows and zombified a soldier. I reloaded my save file 3-4x and the same thing kept happening. Eventually I decided there was nothing I could really do about it and had to accept the loss of the guy.

Base assaults require a lot of patience and saving every 1-2 turns in case something horrible happens.

>>2594749
A little pointer about base missions is that the bulk of the aliens will be concentrated around the command center, so once you've cleared that area, there shouldn't be much else to worry about. Also I didn't bring any officers along except one sergeant (who survived) because I was not willing to risk them.

Ultimately I didn't wait for heavy plasma to get researched and just went in with laser rifles. Not the best solution (Chryssalids are tough to kill without HP), but it worked.

>begin April
>medium scout pops up over North America
>I had recently gotten a second base online over there
>and a hyperwave decoder so we know exactly what's going on
>shoot it down
>send Skyranger and...oh cheesy poof it's Snakemen
>we at least know where the terror mission's going to be
>and what race is going to be doing it
>errrghhhh...
>meanwhile, Sectoids doing abduction shit in East Asia
>shoot down Abductor
>yay, mind control
>on cue, one idiot rookie gets MC-ed and shoots the guy standing next to him
>then panics and blocks the main entrance to the UFO for several turns
>clean out the thing with three casualties.
>few days later
>Muton large scout, Siberia, alien harvest
>shoot it down
>Mutons aren't hard to kill or anything when you have heavy plasma, but they sure have impressive reaction fire
>and blend in with the Siberian forest really well
>did I mention that the Muton death sound in the floppy version of UFO Defense is incredibly wtf
>Snakemen are also trying to retaliate against my North American outpost

So in short, aliens kidnapping people and cows everywhere and Chr*ssalid terror coming soon

bump

If you're real lucky, Ethereals don't start showing up until September or even better, you don't see them until Cydonia. I played one game however where they terrorized Pretoria, South Africa in June. At night. I took along a rocket tank and a couple of soldiers had personal armor. One guy had a power suit. The rest were just wearing their skivvies. I had laser rifles, one or two heavy plasma, flares, and a few grenades. Not nearly enough equipment to deal with Ethereals, but this was before I knew better.

We landed in a field between several small houses near the upper right corner of the map. There was a house up there and a house to the south of it on the left side of the Skyranger. On the right, two more houses in a similar configuration, then a street and more houses on the other side. There was also a small warehouse southeast of the Skyranger. Directly in front of the Skyranger's cockpit to the south is a large park area. Everything beyond was invisible due to darkness.

I start off by unloading the rocket tank, sending it down the ramp to see what's going on. It immediately spots two Ethereals. I unload a rookie and have him shoot his laser rifle; firing on one fails to kill it. I send other soldiers into the alley between two houses on the right, hoping to get them in a secure area before I try to tackle the immediate threat. Long story short, I get my guys out of the Skyranger and manage to kill the first two Ethereals, and position the tank facing the park. Half my squad goes to the left, and the other half goes to the right set of houses. End turn.

I get one of the guys in the park-facing house fired upon by Sectopods, which ends up taking out several wall chunks, exposing the soldier. Then another shot from another Sectopod hits that soldier as he tries to flee to cover, killing him. GODDAMN REACTION FIRE! More reaction fire erupts as I try to get the others positioned. One stands by the door with 'nades, and the other two head upstairs. They make it, barely.

Meanwhile, I have panicking soldiers and one mind-controlled idiot near the Skyranger constantly trying to shoot my tank. The tank spots not one, not two, but THREE Sectopods in the park (which explains all the reaction firing on the guys in the house). I blast one of them with rockets; two direct hits and barely a dent is made in its crazy thick armor. The Sectopods try to retaliate against my tank, but its frontal armor manages to resist them, though it does start taking heavy damage.

On the other side, my rocket guy panics, drops all his gear, and runs out into the street. So does Marielle in the power suit. Marielle later falls back under my control and I manage to get her back to her gear. The rocket guy isn't so lucky; he gets shot by an Ethereal and dies. The soldiers in the warehouse, including a couple vets, manage to deliver tons of laser fire support at the Sectopods and Ethereals in the area, but only manage to kill one Ethereal despite hitting another with tons of lasers. Reaction fire, grenades, and misfired rockets from the damaged tank end up taking out just about every single wall of the warehouse, leaving only the boxes inside for cover.

Marielle keeps panicking and running back to her gear. This happened like three times. I lose more soldiers to Sectopod fire, leaving only two soldiers in the house near the park and three near the warehouse, including Marielle. I'm basically screwed. The tank runs out of rockets with three Sectopods remaining. Patricia Bryant, one of the vets in the warehouse, hides behind the last standing wall, ducking out from behind cover to take shots at Sectopods and Ethereals when she can, as does another vet. Marielle eventually gets her shit together and hunts down an Ethereal, killing it, only to die to another one later.

In the house, Kevin Carr, a rookie, is on the upper floor, and a squaddie with 'nades is near the now-blown-open door. I have the squaddie prime a grenade and run outside. She chucks a nade at two Ethereals and a Sectopod. The mind-controlled rookie is still at large, and he finally kills the now-empty rocket tank (they only carry eight rockets). The nade chucker manages to kill one of the Ethereals AND the Sectopod, but gets sniped and dies. Now Kevin Carr is alone upstairs, shooting out the windows/holes in the wall with a laser rifle and little else.

Patricia Bryant's partner dies. Patricia keeps ducking out from behind a wall, shooting at just about anything. She singlehandedly kills two Sectopods, which had gradually had their armor and health ground down after many turns of being fired on, and several Ethereals. Somehow, one of the Ethereals that had mind-controlled the laser rookie dies, so I regain control over that soldier. Then that soldier proceeds to get sniped by a Sectopod near Kevin Carr. FANTASTIC

But ultimately, after an extraordinarily brutal battle, Kevin Carr blasts the last Sectopod with a 'nade and lasers, and Patricia Bryant kills the last Ethereal that was still at large after shooting Marielle dead. Everyone else died. All the civilians were dead within the first few turns, probably by Sectopods, which explains why they didn't show up immediately.

But you know what? I goddamn CHEERED with joy when I saw that victory screen and a "Terrible!" -500+ rating, because I BEAT THOSE BASTARDS. Not only that, but I now had two ultra-badass soldiers: Patricia Bryant and Kevin Carr. Patricia would serve in many more missions, but ultimately die to a Chryssalid in a Snakeman base assault. Kevin Carr, though, wound up surviving until he achieved the rank of commander, the highest rank available, and with a flying suit, laser rifle, and tons of high explosive charges, he blew his way into dozens of UFOs and alien bases, flanking enemies and destroying countless aliens. He lead the final mission in the game and, ultimately, he was the soldier who destroyed the alien brain and beat the game. What a hero.

>>2597629
That's quite a wall of text there. Anyway, Sectopods are actually pretty easy to kill once you realize that their rear armor is very soft and a few shots to the butt will drop them quickly.

>>2597632
>That's quite a wall of text there

Not him, but I did a nighttime Snakeman terror attack that was pretty horrendous. It seemed like there were about 150 aliens. But then I did another one more recently that was during daytime and due to the spawn node bug, the game only gave me 14 aliens despite being on Superhuman. Actually ended up killing 22 due to extra Chryssalids created from zombifing people.

>>2597653

>>2597624 here. I once had my entire fucking squad annihilated doing a Snakeman terror mission.

HRURURGRGRHRH

I reloaded and played that mission again, landing in a similar configuration. This time, though, I wasted no time getting everyone into the warehouse and up the stairs. EVERYONE. The tank was the only thing left on the ground, and literally two turns after I detonated the stairs with grenades, it was hacked to pieces by Chryssalids. The entire warehouse was swarming with them.

And you know what else? To make a long story short, I STILL HAD MASSIVE CASUALTY RATES. EVERYONE DIED EXCEPT FOR ONE ROOKIE SOLDIER. EVERYONE. So... much... death.... so many Chryssalids....

I had most of my soldiers on the second story of the warehouse, shooting at Snakes through the windows overlooking all the crates and supply racks inside. As stuff entered the warehouse, I fired everything I had upon it: lasers, incendiary rockets, auto cannon rounds, grenades, HEs, the works. But the Snake assholes still managed to snipe most of my soldiers from the windows or the rooftops. I ended up winning with one soldier who ran around collecting grenades and HEs off of dead soldiers after the last Snake died by bombarding all the Chryssalids (which had gathered near the destroyed staircase as if they were interested in trying to climb up) with grenades.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.

My worst ever terror mission...

>touch down during daytime
>it's Floaters
>this is gonna be cake
>next turn, a Floater casually strolls past the Skyranger and chucks a grenade inside
>12 soldiers killed and the remaining two horribly wounded

By the time Ethereals show up, you should have blaster bombs and flying suits. Just blow the shit out of everything. Don't worry about civilian casualties; you need to take the bastards out as fast as possible.

>>2597684
>ethereal
>terror mission

im-fucking-plying

anything other than floaters or mutons get an instant land and abort

the negative score is nothing compared to the cost of lost personnel and equipment

>>2597783

>>2578037
>>2578035
This was a Superhuman Snakeman terror mission at night and I didn't run away from it like a little bitch. The only terror mission I'd probably abort would be an Ethereal one because, yeah, fuck that shit. I'd only fight an Ethereal terror site if I had psionic-capable soldiers with flying suits and Blaster Launchers.

>>2597619
Forgot part.

Shit. Hits. The. Goddamn. Fan. Mindrape out the ass: Ethereals start mind-controlling rookies near the Skyranger and making just about everyone else panic or go berserk. One of them snipes somebody in the head with heavy plasma. Dead. A mind-controlled rookie starts firing at the tank with lasers, though not dealing much damage. I get about 4 guys into the house closest to the park on the upper left side of the map, including a medic and one guy armed with several grenades. Other soldiers pile into the medium warehouse and dig in.

If you shot down enough UFOs during the month, you can generally make up for whatever negative score you got from aborting the terror mission.

I hate, hate, hate doing Sectoid terror ships. I have a harder time with those than I do an actual Sectoid terror attack. I've done other larger UFOs like Abductors and Supply Ships that were Sectoid crewed and on those, mind rape was a nuisance but not a serious one. Usually just 1-2 guys get targeted so I have them drop their weapons and that's that.

As for terror ships, the addition of Cyberdiscs makes for a whole new level of hell. There can be up to 10 of the bastards while the spawning limitation on terror sites often prevents you from getting that many, plus mind rape. I nearly always have like 50% casualties with Sectoid terror ships.

>>2597653
What's the spawn node bug?

>>2597849
If you play on Superhuman, terror sites should have between 18 and 22 aliens. However, you often only get 14 and sometimes no terrorists at all because some of the larger structures/tilesets have just one spawning node, preventing the game from putting down the full number of aliens.

The Snakeman terror site I mentioned above had lots of small buildings with no big park thingies or whatever, so I ended up getting a full complement of about 20 aliens.

>>2597828
Negative scores from aborted terror missions aren't bad.

Maybe -300 per aborted mission? You can easily make up for that by milking a Floater base or shooting down a few UFOs.

Btw, you can now play TFTD on the openXCom nightlies.

Hi /vr/,

i'm absolutely new to xcom (i've only played the most recent iteration of the series by firaxis on console a while ago) and want to start playing some of the early titles.
Is it wise to just start the first one, or are there later, easier titles that are recommended as a first playthrough. Skimming through the thread i read that Apocalypse is real-time for example, something i didn't know of and i'm not looking for.

Thanks in advance.

>>2598968
If you play the original DOS version of UFO Defense, make sure to use XComUtil to patch several bugs in the game, most notably the difficulty one.

>>2599002
thanks for the advice anon

>Name a soldier barrack of obama and another named duke nukem
>Duke nukem dies from obama's friendly fire and he ends up becoming the commander

>>2598968
If you want an even easier version of xcom you can try openxcom why has a lot of features that help new players such as showing you the number of TU you will have remaining when you move,the ability to change to TFTD's 50%-150% damage formula and much more,
it also has sneaky AI as an option for harder aliens and mod support which is were you activate some of the xcomutil options such as day missions only and mods from the community's mod site
and of course it has all of the xcomutil features such as fixed difficulty after the first mission.

>>2599626
First mission of the game and Floaters are doing a terror attack in your home region. You're lucky it's not Sectoids because occasionally the first (January) terror attack is done by them and you probably should just abort if that happens. Taking on Cyberdiscs before you have personal armor is not a smart move.

>>2599626
it's funny because Floaters look like a purple Darth Vader. In fact I'd be wholly unsurprised if he wasn't the inspiration behind their design. Of course they're nowhere near as scary as him. More like a nice way for soldiers to boost their firing accuracy. See >>2568140.

>>2599671
>>2599674
We also had a really good pilot in this mission

>>2599674
>>2599626
I love how Floaters get stuck in the upper floor of a building because the AI doesn't know how to walk them down staircases, only up.

I once cleaned out a Floater battleship on Superhuman with like three casualties. You start missing them in the later game when most alien missions are being done by Snakemen and Mutons.

>>2599676
Wait a minute. You wouldn't be this dude, would you?

http://lparchive.org/X-COM-UFO-Defense/Update%2046/

The one annoying thing about Floaters is that they seem particularly grenade-happy. I've lost more soldiers to Floater grenade attacks than any other aliens. When I'm doing a Floater terror site, I take special care to spread my guys out and not bunch them up.

>>2599683
No but im happy someone finaly figured the reference from my favorite xcom story

Does it matter on what soldier's hand I put weapons in? Like if I put a Laser Pistol on the wrong hand will I suffer accuracy penalties?

>>2599834
Don't think so.

Guys, how common is it to get a base defense mission on the first month?

>>2599854
Depends on the difficulty level since the chance of getting a retaliation mission go up. I've had aliens come knocking on my door two weeks into the game.

>face an entire Sectoid battleship crew with psionics, blaster launchers, and Cyberdiscs when I have like 10 guys with no armor and pea shooter rifles

I just restart the game if this happens.

Psst, hey guys

Did you that the latest nightlies of OpenXCom now support TFTD?

That's right, TFTD with no crippling tech tree bugs, or bad AI on trawler missions, or collision problems in maps. A TFTD that now is virtually playable.

So what are you waiting for?

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

>>2599950
Err wrong thread?

>>2599950
I've been waiting for OXC support for TFTD forever, but I'll probably wait until it gets added to the stable (?) release or whatever. Can't wait to get assfucked by lobstermen!

>>2599969
It works fine already. The game is 100% finishable, and many streamers have already tried it out with great success. Also there are no more ammo bugs inbetween 2 part missions.

>>2599785
Yeh, the AI has certain features (bugs? quirks?) with different enemies that you have to figure out. For example, the best defense against Chryssalids is keeping your soldiers in groups since they seem more reluctant to attack them.

On battleships crewed by Floaters, Snakemen, and Mutons, you can just line your squad up around the entrance lift and fire away at everyone who comes outside. Also throw proximity grenades at the entrance. This tactic is less effective with Sectoids and won't work at all for Ethereals.

>>2599990
Thanks! I went ahead and gave it a go. Playing on beginner to see what the weapons are like. First mission was a resounding success. I really like how the trails from the bullets hang around a little, makes tracking aliens beyond line-of-sight much easier.

>finish up Floater terror mission
>one squaddie gets wounded for 41 days
Sorry, but that recovery time isn't worth it for a squaddie.

>>2597852
All of the tilesets have one spawn node, but those large structures like gas stations take twice as much of the map meaning fewer aliens. If you have a lot of little houses like you mention, more aliens. Also the game engine places the regular aliens before the terrorists, which is why sometimes there aren't any of the latter.

>>2600679
especialy if you have a super soldier with 57 hp he is going to be staying in med bay for a whole month

And lets not mention the mods in openxcom where soldiers could have up to 70 hp

>>2600271
Warboy will change the pitifull 10 stun stun dye grenade to 100 but they will keep the biodrones shitty melee attack

>>2601007
I'll give you a tip. Biodrones are way more deadly with a useless melee attack than an actual damaging one.

>>2599990
It does crash on multi-part missions. I had one cargo ship mission and beside taking more time than usual between actions, I think I still lost the stuff I left in the Triton.

>>2601473
I swear all of TFTD's enemies were specifically designed to troll the shit out of people.

>>2601726
TFTD is the way it is because people complained that UFO Defense was too easy, all thanks to the difficulty bug that the devs were completely oblivious to.

>>2601730
Searching for the last alien in TFTD is literally Hunt The Wumpus.

>>2601968
It's not like that anymore using OpenXCom. It turns out monster closets were caused by an AI bug preventing proper pathfinding and made monsters stay stuck in small rooms and divisions. The new AI makes it so aliens are always able to find their way to you without getting stuck.

>>2602346
Sounds like the AI bug in UFO Defense where Floaters can't go down staircases, only up, and end up being trapped in the upper floors of buildings.

So no equivalent of Snakemen in TFTD. Lobstermen take the place of both Snakemen and Mutons in exchange for you getting an additional terror species.

>>2601968
TFTD maps have millions of hills, ridges, and tiny rooms all over buildings that aliens can hide in; much more complicated and hard to navigate layouts than UFO Defense.

>>2602431
Gillmen. Both of them are basically upgraded Sectoids/Aquatoids, both of them pretty ineffective unless you are very early in the game.

>>2602592
Not to mention multipart mission having become the norm. Ship liners, cargo ships and bases are a frightening pain in the ass, and then there's the second part. The cargo bay in the cargo ship is pure noneuclidean space, seriously, who made the terrain generation algorithm was a pretty sadistic guy.

How do I get into X-com?

>>2603529
Mythos didn't develop TFTD; it was some British studio that they gave the UFO Defense source code to. These guys were evidently pretty sadistic especially when you read some of the UFOPedia descriptions of TFTD aliens. Much more gross and nightmare fuel than UFO Defense.

>>2603741
You play it. If you have questions you read the manual, like people did in the 90s.

It's been suggested that the Aquatoids are an independent race of aquatic spacefaring aliens and that some of them were captured, mutilated, and enslaved by Ethereals, thus becoming Sectoids and so they're locked into the Ethereals' technology base.

>>2604040
>If you have questions you read the manual

...or UFOPedia.

>>2603529
Random unscheduled attacks on shipping in addition to the monthly scheduled terror attacks.

>>2601726
>Gillmen are accompanied by Deep Ones on terror missions
>if however you fight a terror ship underwater, Deep Ones mysteriously disappear and are replaced by a completely different enemy

>>2604046
UFOpaedia also contains massive spoilers, so I'd recommend the manual beforehand.

Aquatoids are nominally the equivalent of Sectoids, but they're a rare sight unlike Sectoids who dominate the early months in UFO Defense.

>>2604057
>capturing Aquatoid leaders doesn't help you get mind control
>you need a live Deep One to research body armor
>they can't reaction fire you, so easily stunned
>you can't research the weapon that Deep Ones carry
>the TFTD equivalent of heavy plasma is comparatively useless and you're better with just rifles and pistols

Yeah it's pretty fucked up.

>>2604071
Depends. You can have playthroughs when sectoids are a rarity and floaters will be the most frequent species on early months.

>>2604074
You are fucked up. Even with single shot only, the plasma cannon is still the best weapon in the game. This because the accuracy of auto fire as been massively curbed for most weapons, and due to the massive amounts of damage some enemies take (lobstermen take 3 sonic cannon shots. Likely +5 Sonic Blasta Rifle shots. Tasoth can survive more than 2 shots frequently too).

>>2604083
Dat's true. TFTD is all about snap shots unlike UFO Defense where auto fire rules.

>>2604078
I've watched a couple playthroughs online and they all had Floaters doing the early (January-March) terror missions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYfju30QmX4

>all those rooms

Jesus Christ, how is anyone supposed to beat this malarkey?

>>2605304
TFTD must have been the PC gaming equivalent of SMB2j - sadistic, fucked-up reskin of the original game for players who wanted a little bit more of a challenge. And ended up getting more than they bargained for.

I've gotta confess; the farthest I've ever gotten in TFTD was up to the month of May. The entire game suffers from incredibly poor design and an obvious lack of playtesting.

>smoke and laser weapons being worthless
>illogical tech tree
>only being able to exit one side of your sub
>half the weapons being nonfunctional in surface missions
>ugly, ugly, ugly graphics
>map layouts that drive you to insanity

>>2605393
Gonna have to agree. UFO Defense has some flaws, but the game is quite simple once you figure out exactly what everything is and what it does. TFTD is so ugly and confusing that this is no longer the case. I still shudder at the recollection of spending literal hours searching the 450 rooms in a cruise ship for that last Lobsterman.

I still found it fun at times, but it's aged much more poorly than UFO Defense despite being based on the same engine.

>>2605393
Specifically, I always ended up ragequitting when I got an alien base (colony, w/e) because try as I might, I just could not beat those things.

Anyone know how to take an alien colony without MC? I mean not 1 out of every 10 attempts.

>>2605412
On Superhuman? Sure but don't try it without...

>advanced equipment like (Magnetic) Ion Armour, DPL Launcher, Sonic Cannon, Thermic Lance
>experienced soldiers with enough MC strength (for defense)

On Beginner? Any time.

The entrance part of colonies is easy because it's not randomly generated (you get the same map every time) and the aliens will always spawn in the same locations. Just fire some DPL bombs through the window of the building in the back. Then blast away the walls to the central room (upstairs) and drop some DPL bombs inside. You'll hear lots of screams from both, I can assure you. And most importantly, the MC-capable aliens are generally in these rooms. Then simply clean up the Hallucinoids, Tentaculats and Tasoths outside, and what is left in the corridors of the building.

The second part is FAR more difficult. Just remember that you don't have to kill all aliens on this level. If you think you can't handle it, try to locate the symonium device, drop a pulser from above and get the hell out of there. You won't get all the artifacts and corpses (money!), but at least the colony is gone. If you do decide to wipe all aliens, you should keep your aquanauts together in a compact formation and cover all directions, I can't remember seeing the aliens using pulsers or DPL launchers on this level.

>>2605415
Also if only one alien colony is active, you can pull the same stunt from UFO Defense, which is leaving the colony go and eating the supply ships that come to service it. They're easily beaten (no terrorists, mixed race crews, or blaster bombs) and bring tons of money. You get points subtracted from your monthly score each month the colony is active, but gain tons of loot and experience for your squad.

Artifact sites are a different story since on Superhuman, they're pretty brutal.

TFTD did add the slightly nice feature of being able to open doors without entering a room. I believe the PS1 version of UFO Defense also has this.

>>2605304
Yeesh, he takes like 10 videos to get through one base while none of his UFO Defense playthroughs take longer than three.

>>2605393
The sideways exit that you can freely open and close when shit's too hot for going out is the best thing about the Triton and the Leviathan, together with the easily reachable roof.

>>2606589
Yes it is sort of nice in that it prevents stuff like >>2564768 from happening.

>>2605440
Beating an alien base on UFO Defense:

>march all of your squad to the command center (typically only a short hike from the entrance lifts), killing any aliens you encounter along the way
>clean out all the guards around the command center
>take out the alien officers
>go and find the last aliens hiding in a corner somewhere (rarely a difficult thing to do)

Beating a base on TFTD:

>beat outer entrance (lucky this isn't hard since it's not randomly generated)
>spend literal fucking hours wandering around three floors with about 120 rooms each
>kill/stun the last alien only to discover that that one you stunned 30 turns ago got up and is hiding in some closet
>spend another 30 turns going back and finding him