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Let's Play OpenXcom: UFO Redux


Nookrium

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The numbers might need some tweaking though. Having multiples on Battleships or Terror Ships makes sense, but 4 on a Large Scout feels like they're over managing their troops.

This was an "Alien Elite" according to my Hyperwave Decoder, so maybe it's some sort or delegation or VIP transport. It does seem strange to have so many leaders in one spot, and on a small UFO.

 

 

Why do you even keep a stockpile of crud. You have heavy plasmas, you don't need anything more. Equip soldiers with essentials.

I think you're right. I've been hanging onto the rifles to save on heavy clips, but I have a ton of them in my base so that shouldn't be a problem, especially since it looks like most of the aliens are toting them now.

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Nice few missions Neptune! Some more notes I guess (nothing earth-shattering):

 

Craft Weapons

 

As soon as you can, equip all of your interceptors with the Plasma Beams (dual). Then get rid of the Avalanche Launchers. The reason is because the Plasma Beams do a little more damage per shot while only sacrificing a few km of range. In addition, you will never have to micro-manage Avalanche Missile purchasing orders or inventory anymore because the Beams auto-recharge for free. There's a pretty stiff upfront charge to get your foot in the door in this technology, but they should start to pay for themselves in 24 shots (or 8 complete depletions) of the Avalanche. Even though the Plasma Beam isn't as accurate, you make up for that with quantity. The Fusion Ball Launcher is a awesome craft weapon, but it's biggest drawbacks are the huge cost of producing them (both in materials and cost) and the low capacity. I used to use one of these in conjunction with a Plasma Beam as a Battleship "Buster" in cases of emergency, but have since stopped doing this. If they would have a 5-6 shot capacity then I would consider it.

 

Craft

 

The reason why you are having trouble shooting down the small UFOs is because UFO acceleration is so much more than your Interceptors. They can out-maneuver your craft easily and shots will miss. Firestorms will fill this void perfectly. They have excellent acceleration, speed and decent damage capacity. You still might have trouble intercepting the Small Scout with a Firestorm, but nothing should be able to outrun a Firestorm on a panic/flee escape route except the Battleship, Terror Ship and Abductor. Abductors land quite often so you can probably ignore that one. And really, you could probably ignore the Small Scouts too as they aren't worth the alien alloy they're printed on. tongue.png What you could probably do is slowly phase out half your fleet of interceptors and replace them with Firestorms. You can phase out the remaining half with Avengers when you get that researched. Keep in mind that you need Elerium to refuel these craft so you should have a decent stockpile of the stuff before switching over completely.

 

Bases

 

If you learned anything from your lost base mission a while back, it should be two points. First, get soldiers at each base and equip them all with Heavy Plasmas, Alien Grenades, Blaster Launchers (if possible, otherwise HWP Launchers) and some Medi-Kits. With this setup a base defense is almost a no-fail scenario - even with rookies. However, I'd strongly suggest moving a better soldier to each base because a full rookie squad doesn't cut it all the time. And secondly, get everyone Power Suits at the very least. This is non-negotiable as armor is like putting another soldier's worth of health on top of what you already have. You are at a point where the aliens are going to start base defense missions with a higher frequency so you'll need to be able to protect what you fought so hard to build. I'm sorry, but defensive systems aren't going to have much of an impact unless you have a Mind Shield to make detection harder and a Grav Shield to give your systems another chance to fire.

 

Priority-wise, I think that getting a Hovertank/Plasma in your squads would be very beneficial. Then Power Suits. And while this is going on you can start to stockpile some Heavy Plasma weapons to equip everyone at your bases and also elerium to fuel your craft and build alien tech. smile.png

 

- Zombie

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And just as I decided the Firestorm wasn't worth it... ;)

 

I already recorded the next episode and I think I explain my thinking there, but I question the range of the Firestorm. It's super fast and will help me shoot down the smalls but the range is awful. At this point in the game is catching every Small and shooting it down worth it? The only concern would be the Retaliation missions, anything else I can grab if they land. As far as the bigger ones, Mediums land, so the Large Terror ships would be where the firestorm comes in useful, but are they worth it for just the one type of UFO? If I remember correctly they still can't take an XL on.

I guess my question is, are they really THAT much better than plasma beam armed interceptors and worth the price in Elerium?

 

 

Here's #58 btw...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuXGAdsc-lY

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I already recorded the next episode and I think I explain my thinking there, but I question the range of the Firestorm. It's super fast and will help me shoot down the smalls but the range is awful.

 

The range of the Firestorm is more than sufficient to carry out it's primary role which is to shoot down UFOs. Especially with how many bases you have (and each with a functioning Hyperwave Decoder) you should be able to get to any UFO you want with careful deployments. I'd question it if you had only 2 or 3 bases, but you almost have total radar coverage of the globe right now, and the Firestorm can certainly reach the end of the radar range of each base.

 

At this point in the game is catching every Small and shooting it down worth it? The only concern would be the Retaliation missions, anything else I can grab if they land.

 

It's not really worth it to shoot down all the small scouts, this is kinda the point I was trying to make in my previous post - you have to be a little selective on what you are going to shoot down with the Elerium powered craft. Is it worthwhile to shoot down a Small Scout with 1 alloy and no Elerium with a Firestorm? Probably not, unless it's an emergency (like retaliation). On the other hand, if you still have half of your conventional Interceptors, you can use those for the small-medium UFOs.

 

As far as the bigger ones, Mediums land, so the Large Terror ships would be where the firestorm comes in useful, but are they worth it for just the one type of UFO?

 

Mediums sometimes land, it just depends. You can certainly use them to shoot down Supply Ships for points (although, they do land at a alien base if it's present). Terror Ships can be shot down too. And those are the most important to get as you don't want a terror site.

 

If I remember correctly they still can't take an XL on.

I guess my question is, are they really THAT much better than plasma beam armed interceptors and worth the price in Elerium?

 

Firestorms CAN take on a Battleship. Why couldn't they? Firestorms can take 500 points of damage before destruction, and a Battleship has a weapon power of 148 (although I believe this is an average so 0-296) so that means it can take about two shots from a Battleship at worst. But I never use them to shoot down Battleships as they tend to be a bit squishy. That's what Avengers are for.

 

Plasma Beams are the great equalizer as it means that any craft you equip them on can take on everything up to a Battleship and survive. The nice thing about having them on a Firestorm is that this craft refuels quickly allowing you to deploy it again.

 

Another thing to remember is that Interceptors have a huge monthly rental charge whereas once you build a Firestorm, that's it for costs. Swapping to Firestorms will save you a bunch of cash which you'll need to build the Avengers, HWPs etc. wink.png

 

- Zombie

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Another thing to remember is that Interceptors have a huge monthly rental charge whereas once you build a Firestorm, that's it for costs. Swapping to Firestorms will save you a bunch of cash which you'll need to build the Avengers, HWPs etc. wink.png

I hadn't thought of this, for the first time in the game I'm starting to worry a bit about cash. It has been disappearing quickly and the only way I know how to keep it up is by continuing to run these small missions for the gear sales (especially since larges & mediums are so rare)

I think I'm sitting around a $5-6 million loss each month, any other ideas on how to help even that out a bit?

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Well, he kinda is having a issue with finances. The Firestorm isn't inferior when you compare it to the Interceptor. It's a heck of a lot cheaper (and faster) to manufacture Firestorms than it is Avengers. In the end though, I'm not advocating creating an entire fleet of the things - it's a stepping stone to reduce reliance on human craft rental fees until you have the resources to manufacture Avengers.

 

I hadn't thought of this, for the first time in the game I'm starting to worry a bit about cash. It has been disappearing quickly and the only way I know how to keep it up is by continuing to run these small missions for the gear sales (especially since larges & mediums are so rare)

I think I'm sitting around a $5-6 million loss each month, any other ideas on how to help even that out a bit?

 

Without seeing a breakdown of expenditures, it's hard to say where all that money is going. My guess is that it's a combination of factors including craft rental, salaries, base facilities, and rehiring squads of rookies (not to mention throwing 600k down the drain when you pitted an Interceptor against a Battleship). :D Take a close look at your graphs to see what is eating up the most cash and then try to reduce or eliminate it. If there isn't a way to do this, then the only thing left to do is manufacture stuff for profit like there's no tomorrow, hold a fire-sale (you should do this anyway as a lot of your bases have junk weapons in there yet), and above all else, visit more sites (be it crash, landing, bases). My guess is that you aren't doing enough in terms of missions to get recoverables. Alien equipment, weapons and corpses command a unreal price in the black market so try to make an effort to do more missions for the loot. This should be easier now that you have Hyperwave Decoders telling you where to go and how to equip your squad. And with Heavy Plasmas the norm, troop deaths should start to drop significantly saving you on rehiring. ;)

 

- Zombie

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One of the perks of Superhuman that helps balance its high difficulty is the heavy plasma economy. Assuming you don't use mods or settings to remove it, you can easily finance your Interceptors with Heavy Plasma sales all the way through the game. What will cut into that are your current high number of scientists. As you have a very high number (150~200?) of them at the moment, I suggest scaling them back a bit once your research starts winding down a bit.

 

The question about the Firestorm depends on how soon you anticipate getting the Avenger. Assuming this mod is going to extend the time before you get it, then it's probably not a bad idea to throw a few Firestorms into the mix. Maybe replace one of your interceptors at your key bases with Firestorms,

 

The plasma beam is still most important element to work on no matter how you decide to make up your fleet.

 

- NKF

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Ah - um, bad luck there Jimmy. One tip that might help in that situation is to place a waypoint just before you pass through the hole in the roof and then inside the ship. Though it won't guarantee that the bomb won't clip the roof, it's still not bad practice to thread the needle this way.

 

- NKF

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What's the progress on next update Hobbes and possibility of fixing the Omega Facility map?

 

Fixing it? If you mean making it more easy to detect, I think I got it covered...

https://www.openxcom.com/content/modimages/ZEHQZLTO080520151107.png

https://www.openxcom.com/content/modimages/SDXMGSRE080520151107.png

 

Lots of changes coming on next version, it will take me a while to finish them though.

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