The X-COM Topic

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-05 04:43:22 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-05 04:43:08 am

2013-06-05 04:41:26 am

Word of caution: Terror Sites will get absolutely demolished if you apply the explosion AOE effect on it's highest setting. A city full of trigger happy rookies with grenades and rockets + Cyberdiscs that explode upon death = apocalypse? Explosions work both ways too, just as a reminder. Took down the final disc that had tried to escape my team by going up and over a convenience store, only to have the blast take out one guy who was inside the building on the ground floor because I wasn't thinking things through. Those things give off massive collateral damage to begin with, but now apply that same blast radius to another floor or two while you're at it.

Blaster Bombs should be fun with this setting if I get that far. Twisted Evil

tomatobob

2013-06-05 06:37:20 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Please try to record when the Idiot Blaster Bomb Alien on a Battleship clears the whole thing out for you with his inevitable misfire. That'll take some of the sting out of missing out on that Leader.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-05 12:00:24 pm

2013-06-05 12:00:04 pm

That probably has less of a chance of occurring in OpenXCOM, unfortunately. They've supposedly fixed most/all of the original's bugs since they could code things from scratch so I have this bad feeling that they are going to be quite efficient with Blaster Bombs if that's true. I'll still make sure to try and record if I end up fighting one anytime soon. (Or if I get a base assault or base defense instead.)

But it will be glorious if I can get the aliens to still pull that trick with the new AI and settings.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-05 01:33:35 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-05 01:31:07 pm

2013-06-05 01:30:30 pm

Oh man, you would have laughed so hard at my latest terror mission. And then cried if what I saw is true.

Late on April 17. Cairo, Egypt. Still no Personal Armor or Medi-Kits because research is running at molasses speed. As always, the replacement tank shows up when the Skyranger is in the air, so it's just my team of mostly rookies with laser rifles and heavy cannons with high explosive rounds. (Make note of this) We land, and immediately my front guys see two aliens.

Snakeman and Chryssalid. Joy.

I take shots at the Chryssalid from inside the Skyranger, but we don't kill it despite hitting it a few times. (I must have terrible luck with lasers versus Chryssalids. Remember that Superhuman video?) Throw a smoke grenade at the base of the ramp and have the rest of the squad kneel down to try and give them extra cover in case the Snakeman tries shooting in as has happened to be before. End the turn.

Chryssalid rushes up the ramp, which triggers reaction fire from a few of my guys. The ones with the heavy cannons and explosive rounds. Que 1/2 of my squad dead in an instant and the other half panicking while the Chryssalid watches in amusement at the top of the ramp, apparently unharmed. It then proceeds to charge in even further to zombie one of my remaining guys as the rest of the team is still losing their minds save for one guy, who fires off a few shots with his laser pistol since his other weapon is yet another heavy cannon. Chryssalid and Zombie are still standing, so I do the smart thing and boot them out of the Skyranger as we take off and leave Cairo to fend for itself.

Want to know what's even worse than that catastrophe in the Skyranger? Either OpenXCOM makes it a lot clearer when Chryssalids attack civilians, or they are actively more aggressive at hunting them down than I remember! I swear I saw/heard at least half a dozen Chryssalid attacks during that first alien turn, and several more on the second turn before I bugged out at the end of my third. UFO Chryssalid abilities combined with the more intelligent hunting patterns of the EU Chryssalids? Anxious

Oh yeah, among the various bug fixes is the fact that newly hatched Chryssalids will have their proper stats for the respective difficulty level now instead of being nerfed. I didn't even think about that until now...

Oh man, you would have laughed so hard at my latest terror mission. And then cried if what I saw is true.

Late on April 17. Cairo, Egypt. Still no Personal Armor or Medi-Kits because research is running at molasses speed. As always, the replacement tank shows up when the Skyranger is in the air, so it's just my team of mostly rookies with laser rifles and heavy cannons with high explosive rounds. (Make note of this) We land, and immediately my front guys see two aliens.

Snakeman and Chryssalid. Joy.

I take shots at the Chryssalid from inside the Skyranger, but we don't kill it despite hitting it a few times. (I must have terrible luck with lasers versus Chryssalids. Remember that Superhuman video?) Throw a smoke grenade at the base of the ramp and have the rest of the squad kneel down to try and give them extra cover in case the Snakeman tries shooting in as has happened to be before. End the turn.

Chryssalid rushes up the ramp, which triggers reaction fire from a few of my guys. [i]The ones with the heavy cannons and explosive rounds[/i]. Que 1/2 of my squad dead in an instant and the other half panicking while the Chryssalid watches in amusement at the top of the ramp, apparently unharmed. It then proceeds to charge in even further to zombie one of my remaining guys as the rest of the team is still losing their minds save for one guy, who fires off a few shots with his laser pistol since his other weapon is yet another heavy cannon. Chryssalid and Zombie are still standing, so I do the smart thing and boot them out of the Skyranger as we take off and leave Cairo to fend for itself.

Want to know what's even worse than that catastrophe in the Skyranger? Either OpenXCOM makes it a lot clearer when Chryssalids attack civilians, or [i]they are actively more aggressive at hunting them down than I remember[/i]! I swear I saw/heard at least half a dozen Chryssalid attacks during that first alien turn, and several more on the second turn before I bugged out at the end of my third. UFO Chryssalid abilities combined with the more intelligent hunting patterns of the EU Chryssalids? :uh_orig:

Oh yeah, among the various bug fixes is the fact that newly hatched Chryssalids will have their proper stats for the respective difficulty level now instead of being nerfed. I didn't even think about that until now...

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-05 06:23:43 pm

2013-06-05 06:23:33 pm

I would've broken down completely if that last terror mission had been done in EU. 16 or so kills on an Ethereal terror mission where 6 of them were Sectopods. How the heck did I survive that mission out of all of the ones I've played so far? Ethereals and Sectopods with only laser rifles and personal armor? I got lucky since they didn't completely spam Psi at me but they still fired off several mind controls before it was done.

tomatobob

2013-06-05 11:02:59 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

But it will be glorious if I can get the aliens to still pull that trick with the new AI and settings.

I don't think it's a bug, I mean given how buggy the game was it might have been, but I think Blaster Bombs are supposed to have a bit of drift while traveling so any shots down narrow corridors can be hazardous as it could clip the wall on the way down. Which is what I assumed was happening when those aliens friendly fired themselves.

tomatobob

2013-06-05 11:10:48 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Oh man, you would have laughed so hard at my latest terror mission. And then cried if what I saw is true.

Well I am crying, but not for the reason you think:

Quote:

Chryssalid rushes up the ramp, which triggers reaction fire from a few of my guys. The ones with the heavy cannons and explosive rounds.

Perfect. You did it, you found the most X-COM.

But yeah if they've done the AI from scratch they probably made Chryssies more aggressive just sort of by default. Seems like aliens are more active in general which is pretty much the worst news if those little guys are involved.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

How the heck did I survive that mission out of all of the ones I've played so far? Ethereals and Sectopods with only laser rifles and personal armor?

Sectopods are weak to lasers! teach

And lets face it they'd one shot you no matter what armor you had. :v

Prime Hunter

2013-06-06 12:06:08 am

Quote from tomatobob:

I don't think it's a bug, I mean given how buggy the game was it might have been, but I think Blaster Bombs are supposed to have a bit of drift while traveling so any shots down narrow corridors can be hazardous as it could clip the wall on the way down. Which is what I assumed was happening when those aliens friendly fired themselves.

Ah, OK. I knew about the drift but I was referring to the waypoint bug that made it so the aliens couldn't shoot down through elevators that well since putting two waypoints vertically on top of each other would send the bomb veering off to the south and usually into walls. I figured that's what usually got them in alien base missions anyway since they love to have blasters camped up there with the Commanders.

Quote from tomatobob:

But yeah if they've done the AI from scratch they probably made Chryssies more aggressive just sort of by default. Seems like aliens are more active in general which is pretty much the worst news if those little guys are involved.

Too bad my only other terror mission with Chryssalids so far was one that had no civilians on the map whatsoever, or else I would've looked to see if it had happened a second time. Speaking of which, they have both male and female civilians running around together now too! Threw me off when I heard a man scream and then a woman during the alien turn. (They have an option to display a message whenever one of your squad dies so I knew they weren't my guys.)

And it's funny you mentioned the AI being more active. I'm guessing it's a direct result of that "SneakyAI" option I turned on which makes the aliens avoid spaces X-COM can see and look for cover, but I feel like they are more inclined to camp me or flank me now. I'd have to play the game without that setting on to see what kind of difference it makes.

Either way, when you get around to playing it for yourself beware Reaction Fire at all costs! From my experiences so far most aliens essentially have Autoshot Overwatch on every turn, sometimes twice or more if they don't move that far! Luckily this seems to only happen if you walk into their line of sight, because I don't think I've seen an alien turn around and fire back at me after I failed to kill them like they used to. Other aliens that are looking in your direction when you miss their ally can still reaction fire though, so that's something to keep in mind.

Oh, and you wouldn't know those Sectopods were weak to lasers if you had seen my battle. Took forever to take them down even when I wasn't hitting their front armor.

I'm thinking I'll need to drop the difficulty down to Beginner or Experienced the next time I play because I already lost my Veteran game due to Ethereals invading my main base after I barely survived a UFO mission. 3 guys defending a base never ends well. Couldn't build up my 2nd base fast enough to recover from that afterward.

[quote="tomatobob"]I don't think it's a bug, I mean given how buggy the game was it might have been, but I think Blaster Bombs are supposed to have a bit of drift while traveling so any shots down narrow corridors can be hazardous as it could clip the wall on the way down. Which is what I assumed was happening when those aliens friendly fired themselves. [/quote]
Ah, OK. I knew about the drift but I was referring to the waypoint bug that made it so the aliens couldn't shoot down through elevators that well since putting two waypoints vertically on top of each other would send the bomb veering off to the south and usually into walls. I figured that's what usually got them in alien base missions anyway since they love to have blasters camped up there with the Commanders.

[quote="tomatobob"]But yeah if they've done the AI from scratch they probably made Chryssies more aggressive just sort of by default. Seems like aliens are more active in general which is pretty much the worst news if those little guys are involved.[/quote]
Too bad my only other terror mission with Chryssalids so far was one that had no civilians on the map whatsoever, or else I would've looked to see if it had happened a second time. Speaking of which, they have both male and female civilians running around together now too! Threw me off when I heard a man scream and then a woman during the alien turn. (They have an option to display a message whenever one of your squad dies so I knew they weren't my guys.)

And it's funny you mentioned the AI being more active. I'm guessing it's a direct result of that "SneakyAI" option I turned on which makes the aliens avoid spaces X-COM can see and look for cover, but I feel like they are more inclined to camp me or flank me now. I'd have to play the game without that setting on to see what kind of difference it makes.

Either way, when you get around to playing it for yourself beware Reaction Fire at all costs! From my experiences so far most aliens essentially have Autoshot Overwatch on every turn, sometimes twice or more if they don't move that far! Luckily this seems to only happen if you walk into their line of sight, because I don't think I've seen an alien turn around and fire back at me after I failed to kill them like they used to. Other aliens that are looking in your direction when you miss their ally can still reaction fire though, so that's something to keep in mind.

Oh, and you wouldn't know those Sectopods were weak to lasers if you had seen my battle. Took forever to take them down even when I wasn't hitting their front armor.

I'm thinking I'll need to drop the difficulty down to Beginner or Experienced the next time I play because I already lost my Veteran game due to Ethereals invading my main base after I barely survived a UFO mission. 3 guys defending a base never ends well. Couldn't build up my 2nd base fast enough to recover from that afterward.

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2013-06-06 12:28:11 am

2013-06-06 12:24:17 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Ah, OK. I knew about the drift but I was referring to the waypoint bug that made it so the aliens couldn't shoot down through elevators that well since putting two waypoints vertically on top of each other would send the bomb veering off to the south and usually into walls.

Oh I didn't know about/remember that. Huh. Maybe that is what did it, I'll miss those idiots. Sad

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Oh, and you wouldn't know those Sectopods were weak to lasers if you had seen my battle. Took forever to take them down even when I wasn't hitting their front armor.

Haha yeah, my understanding is that only the Heavy Laser appears to be appreciably stronger than normal against Sectopods. Their armor is still so stupid high that the increased damage from lasers doesn't actually mean much lol. wub

Prime Hunter

2013-06-06 12:44:43 am

I swear it was in more than just the Collector's Edition of UFO since I seem to remember seeing it happen when I was younger and we had the DOS version, but UFOPaedia suggests otherwise:

Quote:

Collectors Edition Blaster Bomb Bug

Also known as Vertical Waypoint Blaster Bomb Bug.

In the Collectors Edition of UFO, the Blaster Launcher has a bug that prevents it from going up or down on the same tile. Or in other words, you cannot change the elevation of the missile vertically on the same tile.

Instead of flying down (or up) to the next waypoint, it will instead fly directly to the south at the pivot waypoint. Relative to the screen, this would be the lower left side of the screen.

This does not happen if you plot the waypoints at an angle. Or, if the blaster bomb flies right off the map, it will reappear at the proper waypoint as long as there are additional waypoints placed after the vertical move. The bug makes it impossible to fire Blaster Bombs up or down elevator shafts. Aliens are also affected by this bug.

This bug also applies to the Disruptor Pulse Launcher in TFTD.

I swear it was in more than just the Collector's Edition of UFO since I seem to remember seeing it happen when I was younger and we had the DOS version, but UFOPaedia suggests otherwise:

[quote] [b]Collectors Edition Blaster Bomb Bug[/b]

Also known as Vertical Waypoint Blaster Bomb Bug.

In the Collectors Edition of UFO, the Blaster Launcher has a bug that prevents it from going up or down on the same tile. Or in other words, you cannot change the elevation of the missile vertically on the same tile.

Instead of flying down (or up) to the next waypoint, it will instead fly directly to the south at the pivot waypoint. Relative to the screen, this would be the lower left side of the screen.

This does not happen if you plot the waypoints at an angle. Or, if the blaster bomb flies right off the map, it will reappear at the proper waypoint as long as there are additional waypoints placed after the vertical move. The bug makes it impossible to fire Blaster Bombs up or down elevator shafts. Aliens are also affected by this bug.

This bug also applies to the Disruptor Pulse Launcher in TFTD. [/quote]

tomatobob

2013-06-08 03:50:35 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

God, fuck could Aliens in UFO always shoot you while out of your vision radius? My Tank has been taking auto shots from directly in front of it with absolutely nothing visible even after moving forward a bit on the following turn. I sort of feel like that always happened and might be a product of the kind of insane algorithm that determines line of sight/fire. But man did I not miss that.

I did miss turning every possible obstacle between my bullets and a squishy little Sectoid in to dust by just dumping on it with a laser pistol. Like illegally clear cutting a forest.

Also I really have no idea how reaction fire works anymore I have had an alien come through a door, cross the face of one or two of my dudes and tuck himself in corner without one shot being fired in his direction multiple times in the three or four mission I played juts now. On two occasions they literally walked right by one of my guys how was on a tile adjacent to the door and facing it. It was very confusing since I've also had my tank take up to four consecutive auto shots in reaction to its movement from aliens that were much further away with less clear lines of fire. I think that's why I never tried to set up reaction shots before either lol. My brain just doesn't comprehend.

God, fuck could Aliens in UFO always shoot you while out of your vision radius? My Tank has been taking auto shots from directly in front of it with absolutely nothing visible even after moving forward a bit on the following turn. I sort of feel like that always happened and might be a product of the kind of insane algorithm that determines line of sight/fire. But man did I not miss that.

I [i]did[/i] miss turning every possible obstacle between my bullets and a squishy little Sectoid in to dust by just dumping on it with a laser pistol. Like illegally clear cutting a forest.

Also I really have no idea how reaction fire works anymore I have had an alien come through a door, cross the face of one or two of my dudes and tuck himself in corner without one shot being fired in his direction multiple times in the three or four mission I played juts now. On two occasions they literally walked right by one of my guys how was on a tile adjacent to the door and facing it. It was very confusing since I've also had my tank take up to four consecutive auto shots in reaction to its movement from aliens that were much further away with less clear lines of fire. I think that's why I never tried to set up reaction shots before either lol. My brain just doesn't comprehend.

Prime Hunter

2013-06-08 04:17:37 am

Aliens love auto shot reaction fire, don't they? Better get used to it because even after I turned off that AI setting they've still got plenty of juice left to get reaction fire almost every turn. I almost feel like it's something they changed with OpenXCOM's AI because while I remember the aliens getting reaction fire a lot more than I ever did it was never this insane.

I'm no expert on reaction fire, but from my understanding it has to do with both the number of time units a soldier has left at the end of your turn alongside his reaction skill. A guy with high reactions and full time units on the alien's turn is much more likely to take a shot at a passing alien than somebody with only one of the two. Something to that degree. Because I tend to move my guys around a lot or make them fire like crazy on my turn (maybe leaving them with enough time units for a snap shot) usually I don't have anybody taking shots on the alien's turn, but it does happen every once in a while. Certainly not to the extent that the aliens do, that's for sure.

Aliens love auto shot reaction fire, don't they? Better get used to it because even after I turned off that AI setting they've still got plenty of juice left to get reaction fire almost every turn. I almost feel like it's something they changed with OpenXCOM's AI because while I remember the aliens getting reaction fire a lot more than I ever did it was never this insane.

I'm no expert on reaction fire, but from my understanding it has to do with both the number of time units a soldier has left at the end of your turn alongside his reaction skill. A guy with high reactions and full time units on the alien's turn is much more likely to take a shot at a passing alien than somebody with only one of the two. Something to that degree. Because I tend to move my guys around a lot or make them fire like crazy on my turn (maybe leaving them with enough time units for a snap shot) usually I don't have anybody taking shots on the alien's turn, but it does happen every once in a while. Certainly not to the extent that the aliens do, that's for sure.

tomatobob

2013-06-08 04:58:39 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Aliens love auto shot reaction fire, don't they?

They did in the original version too, so it doesn't really bother me. One of mine did it too once on the one time they actually pulled it off. I don't remember being able to do that in the original. It scared the hell out of me because it very nearly friendly fire'd my Sergeant. Maybe Open XCOM makes it a default thing.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-08 01:34:29 pm

2013-06-08 01:29:48 pm

You could definitely get reaction fire in the original game, it just didn't seem to happen as often for me as it did for the aliens.

But since I'm just as puzzled as you I went and found this to settle our questions once and for all.

Quote:

Current Reaction Score = (Reactions Stat) × (Current Time Units / Max TUs)

Can be used both offensively to trigger reaction fire and defensively to avoid it depending on which side's reaction score is higher at the moment reaction fire would be triggered.

Looking at the alien stat table most aliens start with 45-65 reactions and improve by 6% for every difficulty above Beginner. (Chryssalids have 70 and all Ethereals regardless of rank have 75) So since I'm on Experienced right now that means each Sectoid has roughly a 70 reaction skill. When you compare that to X-COM soldiers who have anywhere from 30-60 as rookies, no wonder the aliens get reaction fire more often than I do. Especially when you take into account how much movement and weapons fire you do on your turn compared to the aliens who sometimes like to camp spots and not move that far on theirs. All of this also depends on what weapons are being used, since you need enough TUs to fire in the first place even if your reaction score is higher than the alien's at the moment it matters.

You know, this explains a lot of what I've experienced over the years, especially when you take into account that X-COM can't use auto shots in their reaction fire where as the aliens can. Talk about stacking the deck against you, something X-COM is very proficient at.

You could definitely get reaction fire in the original game, it just didn't seem to happen as often for me as it did for the aliens.

But since I'm just as puzzled as you I went and found [url=http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Reaction_fire_formula]this[/url] to settle our questions once and for all.

[quote]Current Reaction Score = (Reactions Stat) × (Current Time Units / Max TUs)[/quote]
Can be used both offensively to trigger reaction fire and defensively to avoid it depending on which side's reaction score is higher at the moment reaction fire would be triggered.

Looking at the alien stat table most aliens start with 45-65 reactions and improve by 6% for every difficulty above Beginner. (Chryssalids have 70 and all Ethereals regardless of rank have 75) So since I'm on Experienced right now that means each Sectoid has roughly a 70 reaction skill. When you compare that to X-COM soldiers who have anywhere from 30-60 as rookies, no wonder the aliens get reaction fire more often than I do. Especially when you take into account how much movement and weapons fire you do on your turn compared to the aliens who sometimes like to camp spots and not move that far on theirs. All of this also depends on what weapons are being used, since you need enough TUs to fire in the first place even if your reaction score is higher than the alien's at the moment it matters.

You know, this explains [i]a lot [/i]of what I've experienced over the years, especially when you take into account that X-COM can't use auto shots in their reaction fire where as the aliens can. Talk about stacking the deck against you, something X-COM is very proficient at.

tomatobob

2013-06-08 05:03:31 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

You could definitely get reaction fire in the original game, it just didn't seem to happen as often for me as it did for the aliens.

Oh I know, I meant an auto shot reaction. The only soldier I had that managed reaction shots so far in Open did it once. Of course she managed to get killed the next mission when she opted not to shoot at the Sammy that walked right in front of her and shot her in the face.

But looking at that formula for reaction fire and some of the things the aliens do while playing Open really reenforces my opinion that doing away with TUs for EU was actually a very good move. Nice as it is to be able to shuffle around a fe times to line up your shot it's much nicer in my mind to know exactly what you can do and have a very good sense of what your opponent can do in a given turn. I was never any good at gauging TUs on my guys and I know their numbers with the aliens it's just a mess for me.

Prime Hunter

2013-06-08 05:35:47 pm

Quote from tomatobob:

Quote from Prime Hunter:

You could definitely get reaction fire in the original game, it just didn't seem to happen as often for me as it did for the aliens.

Oh I know, I meant an auto shot reaction. The only soldier I had that managed reaction shots so far in Open did it once. Of course she managed to get killed the next mission when she opted not to shoot at the Sammy that walked right in front of her and shot her in the face.

Just went and reread what you mentioned before. Yeah, it might be one of the changes they made in Open to try and balance things a little more since it doesn't make any sense whatsoever that one side should be able to do it when the other can't. I don't think I've seen any of my guys do that yet but then again I haven't seen too many reaction shots in my favor so far.

I do miss Overwatch, that's for sure. With the way reaction fire works here you can plan all you want but there's no guarantee that they'll even take the shot to begin with, which can be critical if they don't. Where as the aliens seem to have it almost every turn because of their naturally higher reaction stats and even more than in EU each extra shot against you is a potential kill shot. Combined with their seemingly higher range and vision it stacks the game in the alien's favor if you are on equal footing.

Playing UFO again after experiencing EU for so long really drives home the differences between them and how each game has its respective strengths. I think I'd have to lean towards EU as well on the TU vs 2 action choice now that I've had some time with TUs again. As much as I love the freedom to correct my mistakes and do more than a handful of things during a turn it isn't always clear what you and the aliens can do from one turn to the next, and as you pointed out that too can be a recipe for disaster if you misjudge what the aliens are capable of.

[quote="tomatobob"][quote="Prime Hunter"]You could definitely get reaction fire in the original game, it just didn't seem to happen as often for me as it did for the aliens.[/quote]
Oh I know, I meant an auto shot reaction. The only soldier I had that managed reaction shots so far in Open did it once. Of course she managed to get killed the next mission when she opted not to shoot at the Sammy that walked right in front of her and shot her in the face.[/quote]
Just went and reread what you mentioned before. Yeah, it might be one of the changes they made in Open to try and balance things a little more since it doesn't make any sense whatsoever that one side should be able to do it when the other can't. I don't think I've seen any of my guys do that yet but then again I haven't seen too many reaction shots in my favor so far.

I do miss Overwatch, that's for sure. With the way reaction fire works here you can plan all you want but there's no guarantee that they'll even take the shot to begin with, which can be critical if they don't. Where as the aliens seem to have it almost every turn because of their naturally higher reaction stats and even more than in EU each extra shot against you is a potential kill shot. Combined with their seemingly higher range and vision it stacks the game in the alien's favor if you are on equal footing.

Playing UFO again after experiencing EU for so long really drives home the differences between them and how each game has its respective strengths. I think I'd have to lean towards EU as well on the TU vs 2 action choice now that I've had some time with TUs again. As much as I love the freedom to correct my mistakes and do more than a handful of things during a turn it isn't always clear what you and the aliens can do from one turn to the next, and as you pointed out that too can be a recipe for disaster if you misjudge what the aliens are capable of.

Prime Hunter

2013-06-09 09:07:18 pm

O...kay. Remind me never to ignore Celatids again. Not only did one of soldiers get killed by one acid attack from across a street, but the thing took a beating before it finally went down. And could they get reaction fire before? Because they certainly can now. Either that first Celatid was a beast, or they might put up a challenge now if you're not careful. I had to abort the mission before I could find another one to double check.

It feels like Celatids, Silacoids, Reavers, and Chryssalids have all gotten a major upgrade thanks to all of these bug fixes and improved AI for the melee units. While Chryssalids have always been dangerous, the other 3 are actually proficient at hunting down civilians now because I've heard a lot of their attacks connecting in the dark during the alien's turn. Only problem is other than this rogue Celatid I don't think I've seen a Silacoid or Reaver do that much to my soldiers just yet.

tomatobob

2013-06-09 09:27:52 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I think Celatids were always pretty dangerous in theory, but they way their shots work made them effectively useless unless in open space. There's an arc to their shots as I recall so they tend to just shoot the ceiling or upper walls of buildings. Not sure if they changed anything or if you juts got incredibly unlucky.

I feel like things have been taking more damage to die than usual too but that might also be X-COM's kinda random damage rolls juts biting me in the ass.

Prime Hunter

2013-06-09 09:35:41 pm

What difficulty are you playing on? I started on Veteran and after losing fell back to Experienced, but even then most of the later enemies (except for Ethereals, interestingly enough) are taking more shots to kill than I expect they would.

tomatobob

2013-06-09 09:43:08 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Experienced, I think. I messed around a bit with Beginner first just to do and still felt like things were taking hits pretty well. I know Floaters can take a few hits from a rifle but I've never seen all of the Floaters take a few hits from a rifle. I actually almost ran entirely out of ammo on my first Terror Mission with Open. And I wasn't missing that much. Reapers took like half a clip.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-13 01:49:04 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-13 01:48:19 pm

2013-06-13 01:47:59 pm

Guess what I did yesterday?

Assaulted two aliens bases. Muton and Snakeman. Somehow got lucky and found the Commander during the Snakeman mission and captured it. There's only one problem, though. I still haven't captured a Leader, meaning I haven't researched The Martian Solution yet, which is required to get Cydonia or Bust and get to Mars. Meaning I have to go find another Commander somewhere to do that.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you haven't played the game in months and forget the order of the research tree.

Prime Hunter

2013-06-13 03:02:39 pm

Wha... how... when did...

I just had FOUR terror missions in the span of about 2-3 weeks in October! I couldn't keep up all of the terror ships buzzing around! Had to skip one because my team was in shambles after the first, I completely wiped on the third, and then had two people barely survive the last one. And if that wasn't enough, I captured a Sectoid Leader on the first one thanks to its own doing, RIGHT AFTER I had finished researching that Commander!

The game's playing mind games with me and winning right now. On Experienced...

tomatobob

2013-06-13 05:14:19 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

That might be the worst bug I've ever heard of.

Oh god what if it's not a bug. Sad

Prime Hunter

2013-06-13 05:22:02 pm

I don't think it is. A few times I was chasing some large ships around and then couldn't keep up with them or shoot them down and soon after a terror mission would come up. I'm doing extremely well on the strategic side right now if the monthly reports are anything to go by, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I'm talking close to 12-14 million from the council each month levels of good if I remember right. Pretty ridiculous numbers and I haven't lost a single nation yet.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-06-13 05:28:56 pm

2013-06-13 05:26:58 pm

I had just taken out two alien bases at the beginning of the month as well. Might have factored into things a bit.

Just double checked: 11.8 million from the council on Nov 1st. Most money I've ever seen them give me in a game before.