Let's Play OpenXcom: UFO Redux

[Nookrium]

Sectopods, Ethereals, & Armored Mutons?!? Time to fight dirty...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w59qF731rx0

 

 

uhh... sorry SV

 

 

OK, you already got Alien Operations, so my question is if you got the pop up window when research was completed, if the answer is yes, then everything is working fine and it's time to grab some Commanders.

I have alien operations? I don't remember ever seeing it... When I researched the Ethereal leader I didn't get anything new, just the "research completed" pop-up. I'm assuming once I get the medic done some things will pop, if not I'm not sure what else to do because I think that will be the last rank to get (other than commander)

[Hobbes]

I have alien operations? I don't remember ever seeing it... When I researched the Ethereal leader I didn't get anything new, just the "research completed" pop-up. I'm assuming once I get the medic done some things will pop, if not I'm not sure what else to do because I think that will be the last rank to get (other than commander)

 

Sometimes the UFOPedia entry doesn't appear after the research pop up for some weird reason, on this case you already researched a leader on turn 20 and then researched Alien Operations some 30 episodes ago:

[Nookrium]

Sometimes the UFOPedia entry doesn't appear after the research pop up for some weird reason, on this case you already researched a leader on turn 20 and then researched Alien Operations some 30 episodes ago:

Lol, I guess that's what happens when I do a series that last 5 months...

[silencer_pl]

Or do 5 let's plays in a week .

 

Anyway, this was the perfect mission for Mr. Badger to bite the dust, but noooo. You preferred to kill SV.

[Hobbes]

Lol, I guess that's what happens when I do a series that last 5 months...

 

Your series has been a great help for testing, thanks for the effort so far

[NKF]

One time where I'm almost inclined to agree with Silencer's wish to see Mr. Badger go down in a blaze of glory - and reset. He's an okay soldier - but the minute the Ethereals turn up, he's all wibble.

 

MVP definitely for Proberoo.

 

- NKF

[Nookrium]

One time where I'm almost inclined to agree with Silencer's wish to see Mr. Badger go down in a blaze of glory - and reset. He's an okay soldier - but the minute the Ethereals turn up, he's all wibble.

 

MVP definitely for Proberoo.

 

- NKF

 

He's a decent soldier, certainly no Bill Nye

Just the thought of an Ethereal and he wets himself

[Zombie]

If you are going to use Blasters, go for the top-down approach: fire one to open a hole in the roof above the bridge, then another one through the hole into the bridge. Depending on race you may need to apply more the next round. Hopefully this will prevent the destruction of Elerium which is almost guaranteed if you go from the bottom up. And it targets the high ranking aliens first which is a priority... unless you are trying to stun in which case you'll need to go in there the old fashioned way. With that said though, I think you did a good job applying the blasters where and when you did. With a terror ship, it's probably more important to take care of the big terror units like Sectopods and other tough units rather than wasting shots on the bridge which will have 0 impact on robot morale.

 

For the love of all things good, patch up people who are wounded when it's safe to do so. Medi-Kits are reusable so you may as well triage the wounded on the battlefield with them so that when the soldiers get back to base they aren't in the infirmary for so long.

 

I wrote out a long reply about the benefits of the Hovertank/Launcher for base defense missions, but now it's almost 4 episodes later so I'll abridge it a bit:

 

Sure, in theory you could just nuke your base to orbit with 10 blaster bombs the first round and be done with it. In practice however, it's more difficult. Where your soldiers with the Launchers spawn is one consideration. If one starts upstairs in a room which requires many doors to be opened to have a clear path, then they probably aren't going to get off a shot the first turn. It'll probably take them 2-3 turns just to get into position. There's one out of commission. And what happens if another soldier finds himself at the far end of a base with unspotted aliens blocking a decent path for the bomb to follow? Guess what? The bomb will detonate against the alien blocking the way and never reach the hangar. Another one down the drain. So far, neither of these scenarios is unreasonable to expect. Say you get lucky and your 3rd soldier with a launcher spawns in the middle of a corridoor, with other soldiers able to get LOS of the Access Lift but not the hangars. He could get one shot into a hangar and possibly kill a few aliens. Great, right? Well, guess what, it isn't going to be enough to cause widespread panic amongst the surviving forces. Besides, it's not like you can target the higher ranking aliens first in a base defense (unless you have mind probes and LOS). In a UFO it's easy because the highest ranking aliens will almost always be on the bridge or in the ship somewhere so a blaster bomb there will have the desired consequences.

 

Which brings us back to the Hovertank/Launcher. It always spawns on the lowest floor in the base. The worst case scenario is that it'll take one door to be opened first in order to get the shot off. Best case is that it'll spawn in a corridoor and be ready to fire that round. It's almost a guaranteed shot first round (and a 100% chance second round), while with soldiers it's a roll of the dice. Add to this the inherent problems soldiers have with respect to MC and the Hovertank/Launcher becomes a no-brainer. Let's not forget you are low on Blaster Launchers and ammo (and now Elerium too) so it's going to be tough getting enough of them into the hands of soldiers at this stage of the game (ie, I think you are overestimating the number of launchers you'll have for a base defense). Although, now that you built the Hovertank/Plasmas you can't produce Hovetank/Launchers either because you will not have the raw materials. Yup, you are in a real pickle. If only you hadn't transferred nearly your entire stockpile of Elerium off to a basically unprotected manufacturing base and then promptly lost it. Pro-tip: keep almost all elerium at your main assault base and only transfer it when you are ready to build something (called just-in-time inventory). With this approach you will only lose as much as you transferred should the manufacturing base be lost, and you'll stand a greater chance of surviving a base defense at your main base (not to mention holding on to that precious elerium stockpile). Later on when you can station decent soldiers and tanks at your manufacturing base you can keep more raw materials there.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

- Zombie

[Nookrium]

Remember when the AI was terrible at using Blaster Launchers correctly? That's been fixed...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e67tXWO4aQU

 

 

emm, sorry again SV...

 

 

I wrote out a long reply about the benefits of the Hovertank/Launcher for base defense missions

I see your point, especially now that I've lost all respect for the plasma tanks (mostly because I like to get them killed). I don't think I have the Elerium to spare to replace those so I'll have to go with my plan, luckily it's not a huge loss when they take out the side bases, it's very important I keep Pacific up and running though. It might be worth it to throw one into a couple of the main bases, just in case I get an attack while I'm away.

[Space Voyager]

OUCH... But I'll have a lot of company in hell I see.

 

But the second Floater more or less committed suicide. I'm not sure that is a good AI use of blaster. Unless sacrificing for a greater good is a part of the coding...

[NKF]

While it certainly invokes a good amount of shock value, I'd actually consider the aliens using blaster bombs at point blank more a backwards step in AI rather than an improvement. I'd like to call it a bug, but it might have been a design choice on the OpenXCom dev team's part. In the original, they were (usually) careful enough not to set the bombs off too close to themselves.

 

Also, on Fusion Hovertanks for base defence, one Youtube video I often like to reference and recommend is this one by Shadowhawk2012 which shows a base defence mission using a pair of fusion hovertanks. You'll probably see why I'm quite fond of this one within the first couple of minutes:

 

 

They're expensive, but certainly valuable machines to have on hand.

 

- NKF

[Nookrium]

While it certainly invokes a good amount of shock value, I'd actually consider the aliens using blaster bombs at point blank more a backwards step in AI rather than an improvement.

It doesn't really make a lot of sense, but it certainly makes these XL's much more dangerous. Small corridors filled with suicidal blaster launcher carrying aliens... unless I'm really desperate I may be avoiding them from now on. (although I do still need a commander)

[silencer_pl]

unless I'm really desperate I may be avoiding them from now on.

 

You pansy.

[Nookrium]

You pansy.

Looks like Silencer's clone has generously volunteered to take the first spot off the Avenger!

[silencer_pl]

Good thing this clone is in a sick bay for a long time

[Space Voyager]

There is always renaming... Why wouldn't the one in the medbay be named... SV?! And let a certain suicidal X-COM member have the honour to be named... Silencer?

[silencer_pl]

That would be cheating.

[Space Voyager]

YEAH! https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/hump.gif

 

Well, role-playing-wise it would be cheating.

 

Seriously though, I wouldn't really suggest it nor would Nook take any such suggestions, I'm sure. IF I'M WRONG THOUGH... https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/evil4.gif

[Nookrium]

The medbay is the safest place on the planet...

 

 

Here's the next part

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ql_lKri2zw

[silencer_pl]

The medbay is the safest place on the planet...

 

Care to say that to those soldiers in [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] ?

[NKF]

Good haul on the Small Launchers and Mind Probes. Definitely some progress there.

 

Come to think of it, you never got to put them to any great use in your original run, but try to get a bit of use out of the mind probe. It's not just useful for completing your rank collection, but being able to check the aliens' remaining TUs is great way to gauge whether or not they'll be able to react.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Agree with NKF, the Mind Probe is a critical piece of equipment for not only rank determinations but also stats. The more you know about an alien the safer it'll be.

 

With that said, you poured a lot of resources (and sacrificed a lot of men) to try to stun a commander. Sure, there was one on board the Battleship, but which one is it? If you go in willy-nilly and try to stun everything to be safe, you can't just do the inside of the ship - commanders might not be there. See, there are only 2 spawn points within a Battleship that can have a commander, and the commander has to share them with leaders too. On the lower difficulties where there is only one leader and commander, you are pretty safe on focusing on the inside. However, at superhuman there are three leaders present. Leaders will be placed before the commanders so those two spawn points will be almost guaranteed to be filled by just leaders. Where does the other leader and commander go if there isn't a dedicated spot open for them? They go anywhere, could be inside the ship or it could be outside, you just don't know. (It's the same deal in an alien base - there aren't enough dedicated spawn points for both leaders and commanders to spawn in the command center on superhuman so it's quite common to see them wandering the hallways and ducking into those small rooms).

 

Most of the time later in the game the commanders will be carrying a Blaster Launcher, but so do Engineers and Leaders. So you can safely kill anything carrying a heavy plasma. And if you can breach the ship early enough before stuff has had a chance to move around much, you can safely kill anything stationed inside the "legs" of the battleship as those are the engineers who guard the engine rooms. That leaves the leaders and commanders. Most likely there will be a leader in each of the command rooms in the upper floor (denoted by the pink floor tiles). Kill those and you are left with a leader and commander carrying a blaster launcher, so it shouldn't be too hard to stun them both to be safe. Easier said than done when aliens are mobile, but it at least gives you some options. You'll have more options now that you have the Small Launcher, stun grenades and Mind Probe. But I would have never tried for the commander without the mind probe, it's all hit or miss.

 

One last thought: if you detect a ship heading to say, Europe, and it was spotted by your HWD in Antarctica, don't start sending ships out to intercept it at that moment. Wait till it reaches Europe before sending out ships. I actually go a step further, I wait till the UFO's velocity drops below it's cruising speed to send out the interceptors. (You have to remember that some mission types will slow down to scout or land so it's better to catch them while they are in this "mode").

 

- Zombie

[Nookrium]

being able to check the aliens' remaining TUs is great way to gauge whether or not they'll be able to react.

I know you and Zombie have been telling me this for a long time, and I think I'm finally starting to realize its value. Reaction fire is the only thing really tearing me up still, I'm finally using the long shot/sniper tactic, but I still get a lot of reactions, especially inside ships.

 

 

there are only 2 spawn points within a Battleship that can have a commander, and the commander has to share them with leaders too.

 

I didn't realized their spawning would be so random, I'm used to seeing them in the main command rooms.

 

After seeing a very large land I figured it was my chance to grab a commander, even though I still didn't have stun launchers or mind probes. I haven't seen an alien base all game and I'm too scared to try shooting one down, who knows when I'll have another opportunity.

 

One last thought: if you detect a ship heading to say, Europe, and it was spotted by your HWD in Antarctica, don't start sending ships out to intercept it at that moment

Yeah, I need to start doing this more, especially with the lack of range on some of my newer craft.

[Nookrium]

South America just got very exciting...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aq4zyPZZfY

 

 

I noticed that alien base is #2, I'm assuming that means there's another one out there somewhere, right?

[Zombie]

I noticed that alien base is #2, I'm assuming that means there's another one out there somewhere, right?

 

Correct, I'd check Australia, Hawaii and the Arctic for starters, with Hawaii being tops on my list. You could check your alien activity graphs to see where there was a lot of activity and go from there too.

 

There are no commanders on a Supply Ship, only Battleships, Alien Bases and X-COM base defense missions have them. So I have no idea why you were getting your panties in a wad over it. And yet, earlier in the video you correctly mentioned that there wouldn't be commanders there. Go figure. I think that perhaps you thought you were assaulting the battleship instead of the supply ship which led to the confusing remarks? Anyhow, just to make it clear, the number of leader/commander spawn points do not change, it's just that on the higher difficulty levels more leaders spawn which fill up those spots and displaces the commander to elsewhere on the map. Hope that makes sense.

 

I like how you said you were "tempted to let them build it" (referring to the UFOs on their base building escapade). Like you have any control in the matter - you certainly couldn't have stopped it. In my experience, the Base is built or constructed just before (or during) the base building UFOs are detected. There's no way you can stop this, as I once had 3-4 Avengers modded with unlimited fuel patrolling the exact spot where the base was supposed to be built and couldn't stop it. The darn things just materialize out of thin air (that's just cheating AI for you).

 

As for the mission, to be honest it went "ok" all things considered. Personally I wouldn't have even bothered with the supply ships as they had elite aliens in them so the chances for a favorable outcome was sketchy but you pulled it off.

 

- Zombie