Let's Play X-Com: Terror from the Deep

[Space Voyager]

Yeah, but that is alternate reality. The real reality... well, at least I'm still alive.

[silencer_pl]

The funny bit is that I knew about the terror mission, but in my game before I've reached the colony assault stage was in New Zeland port. Saved only 1 civilian. God damn lobstermans.

 

That situation over 22:40 - was pretty hilarious. If only the lobsters could blink it would be funny.

[Nookrium]

Aliens are attacking Hawaii! Xcom arrives, utterly destroys the town... job well done.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTWP9n_kw4c

[Space Voyager]

I can't believe it! I SURVIVED!!!

[Nookrium]

I can't believe it! I SURVIVED!!!

 

Not only that, you have quite a nice accuracy. Hopefully #9 will hang around a while.

[Space Voyager]

Keep me in the back, sniping from afar. AFAR. https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/evil4.gif

[silencer_pl]

That is until you will be the highest rank.

[Nookrium]

That is until you will be the highest rank.

 

That's right, avoid the promotion at all costs!

[Nookrium]

Since I don't have Magnetic Navigation as a research option (even though it's in my inventory) that means I need a Lobsterman Navigator correct? I'm looking to get on the Magnetic Ion Armour but I'm guessing my version need the Lobster first even though it's a patched DOS version.

Are the navigators quite common like in UFO? So I should be able to nab one of even a small sub?

[NKF]

Oh that's right. Even though you switched to the patched game really early, the research.dat file in your current save would've been written by v1.0. So the old prerequisites for Magnetic Navigation are being carried forward. A few options:

 

1. Find a Lobsterman navigator - towards this end you might want to start down the M.C. Lab path to get the M.C. Reader. Very handy tool by the way. (edit: also it doesn't need the lab to use)

 

2. Post a copy of your save here and one of us might be able to make the necessary adjustments to the research.dat file.

 

Ironically, this is one spot where XComutil does come in handy with save games from the old version of TFTD. It does a check every time the game switches to the Geoscape to correct this issue if it's present.

 

But just for the pure fun factor, my vote is to go for the lobsterman navigator.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Let's go save Hawaii!

 

You start out the mission with a lobsterman with it's back to you, and you run back into the Triton like a baby. The lobsterman was so close I'd consider that a perfect opportunity to soften it up with a grenade or two, no? Take advantage of things like this!

 

I can't stress how important it is to:

1. Secure the LZ
   
2. Secure a corner or edge of the map
   

Once you get those two objectives completed, the missions become so much easier as you aren't getting surprised by aliens who are trying to surround or flank. In your case the LZ was pretty hot, but that's no excuse to ignore securing the corner of the map.You had your commander sitting there idle for turns not doing anything. If you were afraid to get him killed (which happened anyway ), get a couple more men to support him. Take over Heartbreak Hill ™ and use that as a crows nest or sniper position.

 

Why didn't you bring a few more men out and set up a firing line along the edge of the map earlier? Have one or two scouts look around for aliens to kill, then have your firing line take care of the threat. The thing with scouts is to get them in cover after the turn (good cover, like walls, trees don't cut it). Don't forget that aliens will not fire upon a soldier who is shooting out of visual range nor will they fire upon a scout in visual range when a soldier shoots from far away and connects.

 

Shooting out walls to get shots on a lobsterman is bad unless you have 4-5 guys with nothing but open terrain between them and the alien. I resist the urge to do that as scouts need cover to operate properly. You can't ever restore destroyed terrain.

 

Aliens are attacking Hawaii! Xcom arrives, utterly destroys the town... job well done.

 

Part two starts with your commander taking a shot at the lobsterman and then dies to reaction fire when his shot doesn't kill. First of all, the two sonic pulsers didn't land directly under the alien's feet, they were one tile away which reduced the yield by 10. Squandered at least 20 pts of damage just by doing that. Secondly, if an alien is static (unmoving) each round it probably means it has full TU. Shooting at it with a soldier who is in sight will mean automatic death. Third, the alien had it's back to you each round. Why not just dump more grenades on it? I realize your commander was out of sonic pulsers, but he still had a normal grenade. If that failed to take it down, you had at least 2-3 guys in position to relay a primed sonic pulser or move up and toss it themselves. Never "go it alone", always use the buddy system when dealing with lobstermen.

 

Why can't I throw here? Why can't I shoot there? Those seemed liked common themes on this mission. Why can't I throw over a gigantic hill with a ship in between? Geez, I wonder why. Why can't I shoot an alien with a staircase and a little hill in my way? Hmmm. Why can't I throw a grenade with a Easter Island statue between me and the alien? How about stepping away from those obstacles and then performing the action? Or getting closer.

 

You did handle that last Bio-Drone like a boss though. Big thumbs up for that!

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Oh that's right. Even though you switched to the patched game really early, the research.dat file in your current save would've been written by v1.0. So the old prerequisites for Magnetic Navigation are being carried forward. A few options:

 

1. Find a Lobsterman navigator - towards this end you might want to start down the M.C. Lab path to get the M.C. Reader. Very handy tool by the way. (edit: also it doesn't need the lab to use)

 

2. Post a copy of your save here and one of us might be able to make the necessary adjustments to the research.dat file.

 

Ironically, this is one spot where XComutil does come in handy with save games from the old version of TFTD. It does a check every time the game switches to the Geoscape to correct this issue if it's present.

 

But just for the pure fun factor, my vote is to go for the lobsterman navigator.

 

- NKF

 

When I got a save to make the colony assault I didn't have to use XcomUtil to fix the research. If the research.dat is taken from Save, wouldn't I have the same tree as Nook ?

[NKF]

When I got a save to make the colony assault I didn't have to use XcomUtil to fix the research. If the research.dat is taken from Save, wouldn't I have the same tree as Nook ?

 

Actually, you should. I just went to test the save myself, and the magnetic navigation was there. Nook, do you have any magnetic navigation in storage? Just wanting to check if you didn't accidentally sell them all off during the off-screen inventory clearance.

 

- NKF

[Nookrium]

I just double checked it, I have 3 Mag Navigation in storage. I actually have 2 different versions of the game, I have this original DOS version that I've been playing and I also have a version that I got from Steam. If I load up my save with the Steam version, it gives me the opportunity to research it.

I wonder if I should use the Steam one from now on just in case. The Steam version didn't seem to play quite as smoothly as the oldie which is why I didn't use it, but I perhaps I should anyway.

[NKF]

The Steam copy is all patched up to v2.0, which helps a good deal. However it comes with an older copy of Dosbox, which is why it doesn't play as smoothly. You could just lift out the entire TFTD folder from where ever the Steam version is installed and run it with your current version of Dosbox.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

Or replace the dosbox.exe with the newest one. The dlls file probably too ?

[Nookrium]

I think I figured it out, it seems to be running pretty well.

[Nookrium]

Sorry Zombie, didn't mean to ignore ya...

You start out the mission with a lobsterman with it's back to you, and you run back into the Triton like a baby.

I thought maybe he needed an extra turn to slaughter a few civilians before turning onto the Xcom, something they seem to enjoy doing

 

Why didn't you bring a few more men out and set up a firing line along the edge of the map earlier?

I was focused on getting into those houses and using them as my perch, I think in the end it worked out just as I'd hoped for.

 

Part two starts with your commander taking a shot at the lobsterman and then dies to reaction fire when his shot doesn't kill. First of all, the two sonic pulsers didn't land directly under the alien's feet, they were one tile away which reduced the yield by 10. Squandered at least 20 pts of damage just by doing that. Secondly, if an alien is static (unmoving) each round it probably means it has full TU. Shooting at it with a soldier who is in sight will mean automatic death. Third, the alien had it's back to you each round. Why not just dump more grenades on it? I realize your commander was out of sonic pulsers, but he still had a normal grenade. If that failed to take it down, you had at least 2-3 guys in position to relay a primed sonic pulser or move up and toss it themselves. Never "go it alone", always use the buddy system when dealing with lobstermen.

I thought for sure the 2 grenades plus a Sonic Cannon shot would easily take him down. After rewatching it I think the second grenade may have landed on a higher terrain (bad throw) which would also explain why he didn't die as planned.

 

Why can't I throw here? Why can't I shoot there? Those seemed liked common themes on this mission. Why can't I throw over a gigantic hill with a ship in between? Geez, I wonder why. Why can't I shoot an alien with a staircase and a little hill in my way? Hmmm. Why can't I throw a grenade with a Easter Island statue between me and the alien? How about stepping away from those obstacles and then performing the action? Or getting closer.

Yeah, yeah... that was me begging the game to just give me the shot even though it wasn't there For the Silencer shot through the building, that was just me failing to see straight lines. I thought he was lined up but he was actually a couple squares off.

 

You did handle that last Bio-Drone like a boss though. Big thumbs up for that!

I want you to hold onto this thought for the next episode...

[Nookrium]

Remember the video about what to do with a Lobsterman Ship Terror Site? Yeah, I didn't listen...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPeCIupsKeo&index=21&list=PL3Hfqo2_KOlfab7oDz4abWcCLAgMAA8Y0

[silencer_pl]

Fun fact, when I was using the save I had artifact site after the terror mission. So you should be more happy with the line cruiser

 

You really should hire more technicians and build another workshop. With only 10 of them you are increasing death count deliberately. Ion armour should be utmost important to get ASAP. You have the money hidden in stuff.

 

At 14:30, you run away from the thrown grenade instead of picking it up. Don't panic in this situation. Grenades only explode on ground not in hands. And with panic you let your "tank" die.

 

 

And zombie decided to tell the commander what he thinks of his orders too

 

Can we pretend this mission never happened?

[Nookrium]

 

At 14:30, you run away from the thrown grenade instead of picking it up. Don't panic in this situation. Grenades only explode on ground not in hands.

 

I think it was stuck in the wall wasn't it? in the square next to the doorway.

 

Can we pretend this mission never happened?

 

Sounds good to me

[silencer_pl]

The way I saw it, it was a tile to the right of the soldier standing in the doorway:

 

https://i58.tinypic.com/nb40mf.jpg

 

If you aren't sure - open map and see where the + signs are blinking. But first you must learn not to panic.

[NKF]

Ooh, bad luck there.

 

Splitting into two teams to tackle the upper and lower deck may have been the safer solution than to pile everyone into the same space. The upper levels don't have much cover, but they present excellent opportunities for long range sniping and are (slightly) safer environment to be throwing grenades. For the lower decks, take your time clearing them out and keep your leading aquanauts out of the corridors at the end of the turn as much as possible by making use of those accursed bedrooms. Also a rear commander stationed in the Triton (using the MC Reader, when available) is definitely not a bad idea if you need to force an evacuation.

 

This is the sort of mission where melee weapons shine as they don't cause Bio-Drones to explode. You don't have the drills yet, but thermal tazers are good for safely dealing with Bio-Drones that decide to use their mad (but ineffectual) melee skills on you like the one that went right up to Simletir. They are also good for clubbing Lobstermen that decide to rush up to you as well.

 

I think it's worth mentioning the unique game mechanic where the aliens get a free-look at your team. This happens at turn 20 or if there are only 1 or 2 aliens left. It's the games way of forcing progress if you are playing too defensively. When this triggers, the aliens get a glimpse of the locations of all you troops as if they had spotted your aquanauts on their turn. This causes them to either swarm towards you or for psionic units to go ape and start mind controlling like mad. The aliens will still naturally forget your locations if you stay hidden long enough.

 

In this mission the lobstermen were already converging on your location towards the end so the turn-20 wouldn't have had much of an effect on the outcome. However if you were to have taken the mission slowly and stayed out of sight of the aliens during their turn, then the turn-20 free might have encouraged any hiding aliens like that first Bio Drone to move out into the corridors to hunt down the nearest aquanaut. That first Bio-Drone, even though it got a few reaction fire kills, never saw any of your aquanauts during its turn so was not motivated to move.

 

By the way, in TFTD don't trust any of the windows or doors with portholes. While they may let you see the terrain beyond, they may not necessarily show any enemies behind them. You might have noticed this occur to you several times on the island missions when trying to break into the hotel from the windows on the second level. When checking the little rooms and bathrooms on a ship, be sure to open the doors to make absolutely sure. This same effect occurs with the Skyranger in Enemy Unknown where you can have troops turn around to get a glimpse of the terrain, but they will not see any enemies.

 

Let's hope the new month brings a few good missions.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

I still don't understand why you constantly run away from a mis-thrown sonic pulser, Neptune. Two men were in a perfect position to pick it up and maybe throw it again. There goes two men (including the commander) down the drain. And remember that when your commander is killed your other surviving troops take a big hit on morale.

 

Edit: didn't read the posts above, so kinda disregard? Like silencer said, check the map for white + which shows items. That'll tell you if it's stuck in a wall or recoverable.

 

Well, after that pulser mishap I would have probably aborted. Turned out to be a real blood bath.

 

And I apologize for Zombie panicking/going berserk. At least he didn't start a mutiny on the poop deck!

 

- Zombie

[Nookrium]

The way I saw it, it was a tile to the right of the soldier standing in the doorway:

You might be right, I thought for sure it stuck in the wall at the time (like the other one) but I just got done watching it in slow-mo, and it's hard to tell but it was going to the wall and it may have bounced down to the floor.

 

The Ion Armor guy was a terrible mistake though of course

 

And I apologize for Zombie panicking/going berserk. At least he didn't start a mutiny on the poop deck!

 

I don't think Zombie VI will be giving me anymore problems, lol