/vr/ - Retro Games

>>5935487
Here's a horoscope for everyone playing X-COM:
Aquarius: You're gonna die.
Capricorn: You're gonna die.
Gemini: You're gonna die TWICE.
Leo: You're gonna die.
Scorpio: You're gonna die fuckin'.

Smoke grenade on the first turn.
Spend one turn setting up grenades.
Abuse the shit out of proximity mines - place them everywhere you don't plan to send you soldiers to.
Always duck at the end of the turn. Even better if you save some TUs for reaction.
Avoid windows. I've lost many soldiers to enemy reaction fire from windows.
Get yourself some RPG snipers armed with heavy rockets on the roofs.
Cover battleground gradually. Always have soldiers backing up each other, move them in squads of 2-3.
Get some spare cannon fodder you can send to scout.
Research laser weapons/armor as soon as posssible.
Smoke the shit out of the map except when you're up against Ethereals/Snakemen because psionics/cryssalids.
I always simply lay the grenades on the ground or have my snipers toss them on the battlefield.
Stun the aliens - every soldier should carry a stun rod. If you play OpenXCom with "Enemies can pick up weapons" turned on throw the weapons away.

>>5935509
What if i'm a virgo

>>5935516
You're gonna die.

>>5935516
You're gonna die a virgin

>>5935510
This and also:
Most versatile weapon in game - laser rifle
Auto-cannon + fire founds = great way to light up night missions
Aliens barricaded inside a building? Blow it up with hight explosives.
Chryssalid infestation running amok a terror mission? Get your remaining soldiers inside a house and shoot the stairs so they can't climb up.
Capture an alien navigator as quickly as possible so you can research the HyperWave Decoder
Alien base - use prox grenades as breadcrumbs to avoid getting flanked by aliens

I never beat the game on superhuman starting in antarctica but here's my strat

Build base in either USA or in Germany.
You need two interceptors at all times, long range rockets only.
Buy extra lab and living quarters.
Research laser
Max out scientists and soldiers.
Sell all the crap except HE ammo autocannons and smoke grenades, stun rods.
Try to shoot down ufos over land to get missions, except if night then shoot down over sea.
On mission start spam smoke everywhere outside your ttansporter, thrn move in a half circle outwards

>>5935554
If you are really desperate you can hire and sack soldiers until you get a decent start with runners and snipers.

>>5935549
>shoot the stairs so they can't climb up.
interesting, but doesn't this prevent me from escape?

>>5935573
shoot the wall with the other soldier to make an escape route for the trapped one or blow a hole with a greande

How does one fight Ethernals? Or whatever they are called?

My first proper game progressed well until I met them.

>>5935579
You get psionics before you meet Ethereals, otherwise you are very likely fucked.
Also get blaster launcher/heavy laser. Plasma won't get you anywhere against sectopods.

>>5935579
with tanks
if i remember correctly you cant mind control them?

>>5935590
That's right, but the Skyranger can fit only 3 tanks and they cost lots of money IIRC. Also you won't get exp for you soldiers, the only suitable tank is laser tank and etc.

>>5935546

What is TFTD's relation to UFO, is it an extra add-on campaign? Also, what other mods/games in the series are worth a look?

>>5935626
TFTD is a harder reskin of the original done in a few months. It's a sequel.
Mods to look for: Final ModPack, Area 51, X-Com Files, X-Piratez

>>5935487
Only use half your time units per turn. Kneel at end of turn or while shooting. Kneeling increases accuracy of shots and makes your soldier half the hit box size it was before. The extra time units are needed to take reaction shots during the alien turn.

Use only rifles when you start out for accuracy and immediately research laser pistols and use them instead. Then laser rifles. Plasma rifles best but thats a bit later.

Only go to Sectoid terror missions with an intent to live capture a leader to research PSI. Abort otherwise.

>>5935694
are the starting pistols and heavy guns no good?

>>5935732
Pistol is only useful if an alien is right next to you. Maybe you could use it when entering a UFO, but thats the only situation. Heavy guns use too many time units early on.

>>5935487
Try to get laser weapons before the first terror mission, sell alien corpses, use smoke grenades and flares.

>>5935597

You can beat Ethereals without tanks or psi through sheer tactics alone, although casualties are to be expected. The go-to procedure is:

*Strategy first - do not go for larger Ethereal ships unless you really know what you're doing. If you focus on shooting down scouts, you can easily overwhelm and capture one live Ethereal which you can then use to research your psi program.
* Know your map layout - X-Com uses random generated maps, but these use common modules and spawning points. In time you will learn which types of building or area aliens usually spawn into... and how to blow them up preemptively.
* If you already have a psi-lab, but haven't had the time to properly train your soldiers - select only soldiers with high Psi Strength, meaning they can resist mind control easily
* If you do not have a psi-lab to perform checks, focus on soldiers with high bravery
* Identify psi-weak soldiers - if you do not have a lab you can identify psi-weak soldiers by simply letting them be mind controlled. Aliens will always pick the most vulnerable targets, so by trial and error (i.e. some casualties) you will learn who makes the cut and who doesn't
* Keep a psi-bait on your team - once you identified a particularly vulnerable soldier(s) it is actually a good idea to keep it on your team as psi-bait. Aliens will go for him first instead of more valuable soldiers
* Paranoid mode: remove ammo from guns. If you're afraid of getting mind raped on earlier turns, you can remove the ammo from your guns and let the Ethereals set on your psi bait.

*SECTOPODS*

* If you run into a terror mission/large ship with Sectopods on the loose: be sure to carry heavy lasers! They're the most effective weapon against Sectopods, not counting the Blaster Launcher, which is slow to research and expensive to manufacture.
* In case you have psi: do not attempt to mind control Sectopods. While it is possible, their resistance is too high, and only top psi users can MC them successfully.

No! You figure it out. That's the point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCsH1g5ZESk

>>5935549
>Capture an alien navigator as quickly as possible so you can research the HyperWave Decoder
Ahhh, damn it felt great when I first time managed to get one in the very early game. Such a thrill when it all worked out so perfectly. Ended up being my first winning game, too.

>>5935487
>Can anyone give advice/strategies for battles?
Most important is scout+sniper tactics. Never shoot an alien you can see. If you can't see it, it can't see you, which means it can't shoot back. Night missions are the exception, but if you're fighting night missions you're doing it wrong.
>When I start a terror mission early, is it better to abort right away
Yes.

Also: capture an alien navigator ASAP. Hyper-wave decoder breaks the whole Geoscape game. Psi and blaster launchers are similarly broken on the tactical side. Ironman superhuman is the easiest difficulty allowable if you're using them.

>>5936753
>Night missions are the exception
The aliens don't have reduced vision range in night mission so you might not see them but they can see you in you're within their vision range.
The aliens won't shoot you back in night mission if your snipers shoot them from outside of their vision range (use scout or flare).

>>5935510
And when you've done all that and beat the game, check out the Area 51 mod for an expansion mod that feels like it fits with vanilla X-Com. A very good fresh breath of air into the game for veterans, IMO.

Is The X-COM Files worth checking out?

Are Aimed Shots a scam? Take all my TUs and miss anyway. Should I use snap shots and nothing else?

>>5937178
X-Com Files is great, but unless you're familiar with the tech tree, prepare yourself for some grinding.
>>5937379
Aimed shots are useful for some of the bigger weapons like heavy cannon/rocket launcher and etc. Dont't waste your TUs on aimed shots with shit like rifles.

>>5935487
Use tons of smoke.

>>5937449
how do I deal with the constant Energy drain when the whole battlefield is smoked? Is there an armor of sorts to deal with that?

>>5937495
Smoke deals stun damage.
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Armour

bump

>>5938268
Bump? On /vr/? huh.

Changing the subject, at this point I could hardly be happier with OpenXcom. The game is already feature complete with optional enhancements on top and crazy mod support.

I would still like to see a replay feature for the future though. The ability to share mission replays would make X-Com threads even more hilarious than they are.

>>5938278
>final modpack
>ufo: cydonia's fall soundtrack
perfection.

>>5937447
I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

>>5938343
are you me?

>>5935872
>* Paranoid mode: remove ammo from guns. If you're afraid of getting mind raped on earlier turns, you can remove the ammo from your guns and let the Ethereals set on your psi bait.
Is this faster than dropping/picking up the guns? I would imagine.

psionics a gay

>>5938376
TU cost:
1. Unload weapon = 8
2. Reload weapon = 15
3. Drop weapon onto ground = 2
4. Pick weapon from ground = 8
Paranoid mode cost more TU, but you don't have to worry forgetting to pick the weapon.
You still have the weapon & ammo even if you get panic and run away from psi attack.
Sauce:
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Time_Units#Time_Unit_Expenditure
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Inventory_TU_Table

>tfw no xcom playing gf

bump

>>5935487

Terror missions at night, avoid them.

abuse the game mechanic, if you send an aircraft to intercept a terror site, it wont disappear, so you can always make a terror mission into a daytime sortie.

>>5940276
this

>>5935487
Send your redshirts out to scope for baddies, keep your veterans safe until the fighting starts. Simple.

>>5935546
Top kek.

I hope this message gets to you so you know it's appreciated.

>>5940721
>keep recruiting rookies
Come on, boys!
If you survive your first mission, you'll get promoted!

>>5940963

>how to deal with early terror missions
>Bring rocket tanks and blast fucking everything, even the civilians if they get in your way
>Still too much shit out there? Pop your tanks out, kill every visible alien, bring them back onto the ship and abort. You'll probably take a very small penalty since you got a number of kills before aborting.

>>5941397
don't you just smoke the ramp to avoid this?

>>5941501
Rookie got stray shot.

>>5935487
Just think realistically (as opposed to the NuComs). Are you losing guys due to explosions? Then spread out, don't bunch up. Are the aliens sniping at you from the darkness? Either avoid night-missions or bring lots of flares. Are they doing the same in daylight? Take as much cover as you can, move from cover to cover (never leave a guy with low AP out in the open), possibly use smoke grenades (some people swear by them, I don't like them much myself).

>>5935579
>How does one fight Ethernals?

You eat shit until you manage to capture a commander, then after a few months the aliens will be eating your shit, and it's an all you can eat buffet.

>>5935626
TFTD is basically just a reskinned clone with a few additions (some good, most bad). Since the base game is good, the clone is good and worth a playthrough if you've finished the first.

How is UFO superhuman compared to TftD beginner?

bamp

>>5935631
Did they ever finish the X-Com Files? Last I checked (which was some time ago) they had some neat stuff but you couldn't connect it to the "basic" campaign like was promised.

bump

bump

bump

>>5944105
>>5944591
>>5945352
For fuck's sake, if nobody's got anything to say, let the thread die. Bumping for the sake of bumping is asinine.

Other mods worth playing besides Final modpack and xcom files?

>>5945639
thanks for the bump :>

>>5945657
x-piratez is the most fun mod currently available

>>5947234
isn't x-piratez for tftd?

>>5935487
Do not expose yourself on turn 1. The aliens are all on overwatch with max TUs.
Never round a corner by stepping straight out parallel to the wall. Stay 1 tile away from the wall and step out on a diagonal so you can actually see what's around the corner without having to turn. If a soldier and an alien spot each other at the same time they are mutually surprised and the alien can't take their reaction shot until after that soldier does something else that spends TU.
Hi-Ex should be applied liberally.

Any non-flying xenos above ground level can be instakilled no matter how tough they are by blowing the floor out from under them.

>>5937379
Auto has the highest rate of hits per TU spent on average. The only reason to use anything else is when ammo is too scarce or you literally can't use auto.

>>5947445
That feels so goddamn satisfying

>>5947562
watch someone assaulted alien base in superhuman TFTD.
armed with nothing but flares, thermal shock and LOTS of magna-pack explosives.
all troops are rookies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDf-cL5pT0U
part 1

>>5947626
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxhjrg9IgIc
part 2

>>5947626
>thermal shock
i meant thermal tazer

>>5947626
>>5947627
Speaking of TFTD here's a tutorial for the proper way to handle lobsterman terror missions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WziO005uM3g

>>5947445
>>5947562
You now are now realizing that the explosion mushroom clouds are actually skulls.

>>5947662
bait video
33k view lol

>>5947347
Nope. Just copy the files (from your UFO Defense installation) noted in the readme into the indicated folder.

>>5935554
>I never beat the game on superhuman starting in antarctica
Neither did Kikoskia, but...

>>5935579
>How does one fight Ethernals? Or whatever they are called?

Avoid taking them on with anything more than a Medium Scout. Make sure your soldiers have been screened so you know who has good psionic strength. The only real strategy to beating Ethereals is to just devastate the entire place with massive Blaster Bomb attacks to kill as many as you can as quickly as you can to reduce the number able to mind control you and also get the survivors panicking.

>>5935872
>If you run into a terror mission/large ship with Sectopods on the loose: be sure to carry heavy lasers! They're the most effective weapon against Sectopods
Heavy lasers aren't very effective on Superhuman. Sectopods have weak rear armor so shoot them in the butt if they're facing away from you. Otherwise only a direct Blaster Bomb will do it.

>>5935872
>Aliens will always pick the most vulnerable targets, so by trial and error (i.e. some casualties) you will learn who makes the cut and who doesn't

Aliens can only mind control what they can see, but if one alien can see your soldiers, then all of them can until turn 20 when aliens get full visibility of your entire squad. Psionic attacks weaken by 5 points with each square so the further you are from the target, the lower chance the attack will work. That's why you'lll find aliens target different soldiers over the course of a mission. Also aliens know what soldiers have the lowest psionic strength and will always go after them.

>>5935997
Bag one from one of the Sectoid large scouts early in the game. Navigators normally won't leave the bridge unless you killed everyone else and they always have a Mind Probe so you can tell if you got one.

Aliens get gradually better equipment loadouts as the game goes on. In January most of them will be carrying Plasma Pistols but with each month they carry heavier guns. By June, the Plasma Pistols are gone and by September they have only Heavy Plasma.

>>5947459
>>5947445
The AI does not know how to move flying aliens down stairs, only up so you'll often end up having Floaters or Ethereals trapped in the upper floor of buildings.

>>5951014
Was going to say, what if Kikoskia is a /vr/tard like the rest of us?

If you spot an alien, don't have the soldier who spotted him fire or he'll get reaction-shotted. Have someone else fire since aliens can only shoot what they can see.

>>5935872
>Paranoid mode: remove ammo from guns. If you're afraid of getting mind raped on earlier turns, you can remove the ammo from your guns and let the Ethereals set on your psi bait
Drop the ammo on the ground since the AI doesn't know how to pick up stuff from the ground.

First month of the game there is always a Sectoid Research mission in your base's home region and a Floater or Sectoid terror mission in a random region. From February to June, there will be one randomly chosen mission and one terror mission a month. From July onward there are two missions+terror a month. First three months are Sectoids+Floaters only, in April Mutons and Snakemen show up and Ethereals in July.

>>5935487
Shoot incendiary rounds into the Medium Scout. You'll cook the aliens without disturbing the Elerium.

>>5947445
>it ain’t me starts playing

>>5951014
kikoskia played on beginner

>>5935579
Avoid them as much as possible. Just land and dust off from Ethereal terror missions.

Give soldiers a tag to designate their strengths: /H for Heavy (strength 30 or greater), /S for Sniper (firing accuracy of 60 or greater) and /P for Psionic user.

Landing a shot on an alien successfully adds one point to that soldier's firing accuracy. Similarly, performing a psionic attack successfully adds one point to the soldier's psionic skill and making a reaction shot successfully adds one to the soldier's reactions. The most number of experience points you can gain per mission is 11, so even if you land 20 shots on aliens, you will get no more than 11 points for it.

Bravery is difficult to raise since a soldier gains points by not panicking when his morale falls below 50%.

Throwing accuracy increases each time you throw something and it reaches the target square.

If you increase any combat stat during a mission, the game also adds one point to your TUs, strength, stamina, energy and health, except for throwing accuracy which doesn't affect anything but that stat (that way you can't cheat by throwing an object to boost your stats).

Psionic strength is a fixed stat and can never be increased.

>>5951673
Do note that if you're playing a hardcore mod like X-Piratez, 30 STR is a low number. Many early-ish armors weigh a lot, so you need around 50 to wear them and still be able to carry a weapon. OTOH, STR increases faster in X-Piratez, due to its strong emphasis on melee.

>>5951705
This leveling system always annoyed the crap out of me. Basically "ket's have Rookies that are shit at everything stay shit at everything unless you want to 'train' them by cheesing the game".

Officers being killed decreases morale for the rest of your squad, the higher rank, the greater the morale loss. The game doesn't care about stats, only rank so a squaddie with 70 firing accuracy and 50 strength getting planted won't affect morale much while the loss of your colonel with 45 firing accuracy and 25 strength will cause a huge morale loss.

tl;dr officers are mainly morale boosters and rank doesn't mean anything for actual usefulness in combat

Explosions travel through diagonal walls. In the case of the Large Scout in particular, putting a grenade on the circled areas is handy for taking out the aliens on the bridge.

>>5936753
>but if you're fighting night missions you're doing it wrong
Not always avoidable if you need to bag a landed UFO.

In general it's better to go after landed UFOs to get Elerium and you won't risk alien retaliation. The main reason to shoot them down is that you can decide the terrain they land on and the time of day you do the mission. Shooting UFOs down does delay the next UFO in the mission sequence though.

>>5952561
30 STR is low for a gal in piratez but not for a peasant there's lots of decent guns with low weight, melee weapons are really a thing of the early game where you don't have anything or anyone that shoots straight later on melee is still useful but highly situational in my experience

The best place to put your home base is in North Africa as you will be able to cover Europe and more missions will take place in the desert which is easy to fight in.

Any time you shoot down a UFO, you can trigger alien retaliation. The probability of this varies from 2% on Beginner to 50% on Superhuman. Aliens will send a succession of scouts to find your base and finally two Battleships, giving up if they still don't succeed. There's a 50/50 chance the retaliation mission will take place in either the region the UFO was shot down or the region the X-COM craft that shot it down is based in.

If a UFO flies over your base, there's a 50/50 chance it gets revealed to the aliens and the game
then throws up the flag in XBASES.DAT. Then if a retaliation mission is active, a Battleship will immediately attack your base. Note that the flag gets thrown up if any UFO passes over your base regardless of the mission it's on. This is why sometimes when you shoot down a UFO, the result is an instant base attack, because something had previously flown over your base and revealed it to the aliens so when the Retaliation mission started, the game immediately sends a Battleship to attack and there's no scouting beforehand.

Any time you shoot down a UFO, you can trigger alien retaliation. The probability of this varies from 2% on Beginner to 50% on Superhuman. Aliens will send a succession of scouts to find your base and finally two Battleships, giving up if they still don't succeed. There's a 50/50 chance the retaliation mission will take place in either the region the UFO was shot down or the region the X-COM craft that shot it down is based in.

If a UFO flies over your base, there's a 50/50 chance it gets revealed to the aliens and the game then throws up the flag in XBASES.DAT. Then if a retaliation mission is active, a Battleship will immediately attack your base. Note that the flag gets thrown up if any UFO passes over your base regardless of the mission it's on. This is why sometimes when you shoot down a UFO, the result is an instant base attack, because something had previously flown over your base and revealed it to the aliens so when the Retaliation mission started, the game immediately sends a Battleship to attack and there's no scouting beforehand.

Once you've beaten off an alien attack on your base, the aliens will immediately start over with a new Retaliation mission and send another wave of scouts to find the base. They'll only give up if they fail to locate it. If you shoot down an incoming Battleship with base defenses, they'll keep sending infinite Battleships unless a base defense is initiated or you shoot down the Battleship with an X-COM craft.

>>5951673
aight

Once you have Flying Suits, Chryssalids aren't a problem anymore.

>ethereal possesses a disarmed soldier
>heh, tough luck kiddo
>soldier picks up a blaster launcher and fires it inside the skyranger, killing my officers

>>5955909
The AI doesn't know how to pick stuff up from the ground so you're safe.

>>5955942
Wasn't that fixed in OpenXcom?

>>5953627
Using peasants for any purpose other than voodoo training or (at mot) protecting the odd farming outpost is wasteful.
And yes, peasants, lokks, bugeyes, gnomes have really poor STR, but they're not really frontline troops (unless you're desperate and/or unlucky).

>>5955942
>>5955943

It was in OpenXCom.

Train a squad of rookies on a small UFO while leaving the major missions to the A team.

>>5957261
Lesson learned--don't bunch up your squad. Though in TFTD the AI is improved somewhat and they'll throw grenades even at lone soldiers.

blump

>>5957261
>>5957841
You guys use any mods? I use a shit-ton with Open X-COM. I rather like the AWACS mod.

Smoke grenades and plenty of them.

>>5935487
Get rid of the Rifles immediately.
Order 2 Tanks and 120 rounds for them, always keep at least 60 spare per tank.
Never buy rocket tanks.

Primary Strategy:
Send your drone tanks around looking for aliens or to provoke shots. When enemy found, stop the tank and pop them with either the Heavy Cannon, a Grenade, or Rocket Launcher. In OXCE you can turn on Instant Grenades which is really useful, a turn0 grenade is an impact fuse grenade and can speed up encounters significantly.

You can shoot enemies with the tank but its better to use its gun to clear paths. No stat credit for kills but if the tank has the only shot and its close you better take it.

Primary Weapons:
Grenades, two per soldier, and two of your soldiers have 6. Spend your first turn in the transport priming grenades. Give all these soldiers Pistols or Laser Pistols.

Heavy Cannon with HE rounds for a soldier with at least 35 Strength, at least 55 Accuracy. They also get a pistol or laser pistol.

Sniper Weapons for soldiers with at least 65 Firing Accuracy... Rocket Launcher or Laser Rifle. Leave these folks near the transport or have them go to a semi-safe area with alot of fire angles.

Stunning - do it if you can but dont lose soldiers just for the chance. Mostly a terror site opportunity. Laser pistol in the other hand. And 2 Primed grenades sitting in inventory (so you can drop one down your pant leg onto the ground and run if necessary).

Manufacture laser rifles for spare cash and sell all alien weapons you get except for 1 of each kind (stockpile alien grenades)
New bases get Big Radar, 2 Tanks and a barracks with 10 soldiers for guards and long term psi-trainees. Use them for Storage at first to stockpile elerium and alloys.

This strategy should carry you up to maybe ethereals/mutons with probably only 1/3 of your soldiers dead. Personally i never use smoke grenades or proximity grenades, i get along fine. I find smoke screws with my own spotting of aliens too much.

>>5961171
>I find smoke screws with my own spotting of aliens too much.
Standing in smoke at the very least blocks the enemy's view to you 1-3 tiles more than yours to them, so it's always a net positive for sight.
Also your strat has an unacceptable lack of high explosives.

>>5947626
I have serious doubts this is being played on Superhuman as the video author claims. All aliens encountered seem not to engage into reaction fire when they should have units for that.

Also, because the player seems to know where the elevator is, this colony layout was well studied beforehand.

>>5947627

Watching the second part I can say with almost certainty that this is being played on beginner. If this was superhuman the amount of aliens would be much much higher.

>>5951095
Haha, no. Kikoskia is too good of a soul to go browse 4chan. His demeanor and language on camera are so squeaky clean you could eat a meal on top of it. I also absolutely love the fact he never ever shows his face or shares details about his personal life. He really wants to make it all about the games in the end.