X-Com Apocalypse LP

[Nookrium]

Here we go again...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lMddpSDL6Y

 

 

 

Name Waiting List: If you've requested to join and your name isn't here, bug me again.

 

 

 

- Kaazak

- Dark Angel

- Silencer

- Zombie

- Space Voyager

- Meridian

- Horst

- Ivan Dogovich

- Scout

- Guilherme

- Bill Nye

- Hesha

- BrutalBarbarian

- Simletir Croven

- Harkwell

- Slothen

- Spliffypuss

- TheTOnedude

- Peddroelm

- Spaztastic Diobolical

- DonBionicle

- Carlos Firpi

- Marc Buteau

- Cyrus Dekker

- Starving Poet

- Tark

- Xcomcmdr

- Kosmas

- JBlade35

- Boxer

- Dubalubawubwub

- Bookkeep

- Hatty Hattington

- Temporius

- Dave Stalin

- MoRmEnGiL

- KingGale

- Charles Miller

- Mr. Gewlurd Splitcha

- The-Somnambulist

- NoX

- Pmprog

- JG

- Jachin

- Dark Angel II

- Brutes

- Silencer The Wise

- Swampus

- Mr. Explosion

- Zombie II

 

 

Vehicles:

- Mr. Badger

 

- Prince Watercress

- Tengu

- Riobe

- Bear's Soul

- Nemangame

 

 

[silencer_pl]

Whatever they say, Devastator Cannon is not OP weapon.

[Zombie]

Whether you all like or or not you're getting signed up, figured I should let you know though

 

Auto-signups are a sweet feature! By the way, please don't make me a vehicle! Only wussies sign up for vehicle duty!

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

I usually put my hand up for android recruits, but a vehicle sounds appealing. The Mr. Badger. Or The Mr. Duck from Silencer's AAR. Your call. If it is a vehicle, dibs on it being the main troop transport.

 

One thing before you start the LP proper is to study Zombie's input device reference guide:

 

https://www.strategyc...lypse/controls/

 

Learn it off by heart. Know instantly how to make road cars swap lanes or do U-turns at a moments notice. Um, okay maybe don't worry too much about the road vehicles. But it's good to learn things like the right-click shortcut for detonation on impact for grenades in real time, forcing jumps off ledges and multiple selection of troops and vehicles and equipping multiple agents simultaneously. These aren't terribly obvious from the in-game interface.

 

I haven't played this game in a bit, but this is more familiar ground for me, so expect a bit of armchair commander-age.

 

edit:

 

Ah - okay, just scanned it and there's no mention of selecting multiple units. Ctrl+click on vehicle icons or agent portraits to form selection groups. The yellow selection in any group is counted as the main unit you'll be dealing with. For vehicles, that will be the vehicle you'll be controlling when entering manual control.

 

For equipping multiple agents (Cityscape inventory screen only) at the same time, ctrl+click the portraits of the agents you want to equip, then pick up and move the objects you want to load onto the visible agent's inventory. This will load the same item in the same slot for each agent. Works the same for unloading items if you pick something from the agent's inventory, though this will unload anything that was in the same slot. It's a fantastic way to rearm your team very quickly. So get into the habit of having a uniform set up for all your common items and consumables like medikits and grenades.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

You forgot to mention about manual control of a craft.

[Nookrium]

One thing before you start the LP proper is to study Zombie's input device reference guide:

https://www.strategyc...lypse/controls/

 

Ah, this is great. I got spoiled with the handy OpenXcom keyboard shortcuts, I'm especially going to miss the mouse wheel up/down level

[Nookrium]

Episode 1! A bit of background and setting up.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Wk57shwH4&list=PL3Hfqo2_KOlfXf7B1_xVrOq7RRK2d6pyj

[Zombie]

It looks like you know more about the game than I do (scary stuff, I hardly ever play Apoc anymore, mostly testing if necessary). One of these days though. Your playthrough will certainly be helpful (and I'd imagine NKF's posts in this topic will be too).

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Alright, I'm in! Do you plan to play the battles TB or RT?

[Nookrium]

and I'd imagine NKF's posts in this topic will be too

It's been way too long since I last played this, I think I'm going to be relying on NKF more than he knows. I've already combed his guide

 

 

Alright, I'm in! Do you plan to play the battles TB or RT?

I'm going to start with turn based, once I get a bit more comfortable with it I plan on doing a bit of real time.

[NKF]

Heh, my guide is rather unfinished and a bit all over the place to be honest. A bit of first hand experience and plenty of ad-hoc advice from the audience as the situations turn up should do nicely.

 

The one bit I do recommend concentrating on is how to monitor infestation. You'll be doing it for most of the game, so best to get the hang of it early.

 

To quickly sum it up:

 

* Watch transport UFOs like a hawk and remember where any drops are made. Maybe park a road bike or hoverbike in the building you want to monitor.

* After your team has dealt with the main infestations, let time pass in short bursts and monitor and update your top-10 infiltration graph regularly.

* When there is any sharp rise in activity, go to the overhead map and click on the organization you want to check out to show which buildings they own.

* Look for any buildings that are close to the original drop areas you have marked for monitoring.

* Send teams to these buildings to investigate and clear out any aliens they find.

* Repeat the process a few more times until you are satisfied the infiltration levels are naturally dipping off - then relax.

 

Also one other bit of important advice: Capture a Type-3 Transport UFO. They should start appearing in the next few days, so do whatever you can to shoot down and recover one of these. They are a bit like this game's Deep-One where a big chunk of vital game research can potentially be held back if you miss out on getting one early.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

Type 3 UFOs should come from next week. Every update is done on weekly basis. Once the bigger UFOs start to appear - specially dreaded Type-4 Assault UFO either don't send you troop ship to battle or master the manual override. I've never bothered to use it. Assault UFOs will pulverize your ships very quickly. Unless you will be swarming like 50 hoverbikes which I find cheap tactic.

 

Due to a flaw in design you will unlikely reach a commander rank for a soldier (135 soldiers to get 1 commander + 2 colonel + 3 captain + 9 sergeants + 27 squad leaders + 93 Squaddies/Rookies (including scientists / engineers) And you can have maximum of I think either 100 or 99 soldiers). Through either hex edit or I think there is a save edit you could eventually set one soldier to commander and the rest will be ranking up to colonels. But I don't remember if you will get another commander promotion if the first one dies.

 

I think this: https://www.strategyc...o.uk/files/xed/ will be useful to do that.

 

Another super useful tips. Although I don't know if it was fixed. But being prone helps against brainsuckers. There is something to it, that they can't jump on agents head while being prone (at least most of the time).

[pmprog]

Cool, will add this to my "Watch Later" queue

[Nookrium]

Heh, my guide is rather unfinished and a bit all over the place to be honest. A bit of first hand experience and plenty of ad-hoc advice from the audience as the situations turn up should do nicely.

I'll take all I can get

 

 

 

Another super useful tips. Although I don't know if it was fixed. But being prone helps against brainsuckers. There is something to it, that they can't jump on agents head while being prone (at least most of the time).

I know of that one, I think it's in the same "trick" boat as extending terror missions with interceptors from the previous Xcoms... I'm going to avoid using it on purpose.

 

Cool, will add this to my "Watch Later" queue

 

Let me know if you'd like a soldier or hoverbike named for you.

[Sunflash]

DID SOMEONE SAY APOC?!!!!

 

*sits down with a larrrge bucket of popcorn*

[Zombie]

Did someone say popcorn? (In case I'm being too subtle, I added it as an emote).

 

- Zombie

[Nookrium]

Did someone say popcorn? (In case I'm being too subtle, I added it as an emote).

 

- Zombie

 

I'm not sure that bucket is larrrrge enough

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

I wouldn't mind having a soldier being named after me. I do have one stipulation though, the soldier can only be used during Cult of Sirius raids or base defense.

[pmprog]

Let me know if you'd like a soldier or hoverbike named for you.

Sure, maybe a hybrid, but whomever/whatever

[Nookrium]

I've been slacking at posting these in here, so here's a triple!

 

First combat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd59cnbiP5Q

 

UFO's arrive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCySdNSj_z0

 

Brainsuckers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTzLr_4x6bk

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't mind having a soldier being named after me. I do have one stipulation though, the soldier can only be used during Cult of Sirius raids or base defense.

lol, Once I get to where I can afford to have spare soldiers around I'll get NoX the Janitor in there

 

 

Sure, maybe a hybrid, but whomever/whatever

You're on the list, it may take a bit to get you in there... probably not though...

[Zombie]

I just wonder if it's better to use two larger groups of soldiers instead of three? From what I've seen so far from your playthrough, two groups get placed together while the third is off somewhere else. Two might be better than three, though I also wonder if four smaller "hunter squads" would be even better than that. If the game is randomly inserting the groups on the map, then it may be beneficial to go with many small squads instead.

 

My thinking was that if a smaller group gets placed far off on the map loaded with aliens that you would be able to hold them off till reinforcements arrive, or tactically withdraw a little to allow another group to huff it over there. If there are only small pockets of aliens, then more groups are probably beneficial as you can search the map faster and redistribute groups as aliens are found (plus you might be able to get the aliens in a crossfire). I was also thinking of keeping three groups, but make one larger and the other two smaller. Assuming the smaller groups have the same number of soldiers as the 4-group squad, then it shouldn't be too difficult if you can drag the aliens back to the big group or get the big group over to the aliens.

 

Those are just some thoughts on squad size. NKF maybe can give a little insight on this.

 

- Zombie

[Nookrium]

I just wonder if it's better to use two larger groups of soldiers instead of three?

 

I'm still trying to figure out what works best. The downside to using 3 man groups is that is one less soldier with reaction fire to take down a brain sucker (or popper), however, it could help spot the aliens quicker which is ideal because each race spawns together (I believe).

 

I'm thinking of trying 2 groups of 6 for the first downed UFO I come across, 1 group for each side of the UFO. As long as it's not too big of a herd, 1 popper could really cause a problem.

 

I'll eagerly await NKF's response too

[silencer_pl]

When I play normal game in Apocalypse I only use 2 groups of 6 people. In standard missions they are independent group while in UFOs if possible attack from both sides. Generally that's only possible for Transport UFO, and the rest of UFOs have same entrance.

[NKF]

I actually don't have a great deal to say about the squad composition, as it is definitely something you have to get the feel for yourself and work with what is most comfortable. It can vary depending on squad size, mission type, game mode, etc. In turn based, the current system seems to be working well so far. In real time, having fewer teams but with more squad members may be easier to manage.

 

If you're finding the view is too cluttered to spot small aliens like the Brainsuckers or the Hyperworms, use the overhead map.

 

The Autocannon: I recommend sticking to AP bullets for your everyday needs and only switch to HE or incendiary ammo when you want those effects. Mainly to reduce friendly fire, blowing up recoverable items and keep property damage to a minimum. The AP rounds also make the Autocannon one of the most powerful non-explosive weapons you can buy until the Power Sword comes along.

 

For hyperworms, AP grenades may be the quicker way to deal with them as they seem to be quite adept at reacting to your autocannon-HE shots. Grenade handling doesn't take up as many TUs as it did in the earlier games.

 

Stun grapples are incredibly useful even if you aren't capturing enemies. They deal a lot of stun damage per attack and can knock most enemies very quickly. You can shoot at unconscious aliens with live rounds if you don't want to recover them. One condition to keep in mind when using the Stun Grapple is that it only deals stun damage up to but not beyond 180 health. Most small aliens, human enemies and humanoid aliens don't have anywhere near that much health. Multiworms and large aliens on the other hand have to be damaged before they fall unconscious - though having stun damage does mean that these aliens will be knocked out of the battle a bit earlier. There is also one very useful but rare alien that can only be properly stunned with it.

 

Rearming at the base only refills any spent ammo in the agent's guns. This honestly doesn't achieve a lot. Make it a habit to reload any ammo clips used up during the battles. Uniform gear layouts for the different roles helps heaps here.

 

And one thing before I forget: Training. Don't forget to assign your new hires to the Training Area so that they can earn stat boosts as long as their health is at 100% every midnight. Hybrids like Zombie may also want to spend some time in the Training Area before going into the Psi-Gym, as that's the only place you can increase the Strength stat in this game. The hybrid do want to be strong enough to lug their gear around without too much difficulty.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

Only remember that training facility have capacity of 10 people.