X-Com Apocalypse LP

[NKF]

Sometimes when a bit of time has passed between the time the aliens were dropped and when you go to investigate, you'll have Hyperworms appear on the mission. It's to simulate the Multiworm life cycle.

 

Don't mind fleeing aliens. It's a pain as you lose the points you would have obtained but is otherwise not that big a deal. Luckily the fleeing aliens don't increase the infiltration of nearby buildings. If there is infiltration in the nearby building, then it was already infiltrated to begin with.

 

When watching graphs you can afford to let some infiltration go if the line is rising very slowly. It's the sharp rising ones (like Sanctuary Clinic in the first vid) that you want to deal with quickyl. Do keep watching every few hours and respond as necessary to any sharp changes in infiltration.

 

The transport UFOs always drop off their troops before heading home, so if you see any running home fast then assume that they've made their drop.

 

Civilians technically don't matter to the building owners. Even if the civilians die, it doesn't bother them. On the other hand, do minor damage to the building and they get really annoyed. You'll probably have noticed how the aliens don't bother with the civilians. Quite the dystopian future.

 

Try not to rush into small places to get at the enemies. Be patient, hang back and let them come to you so that you can fight them on your own terms. In the apartment for example, you may have fared better if you waited in the lift area.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

NKF, do you maybe know why sometimes when UFO delivers the payload and is shot down after it, the payload is not in that building or any other nearby?

[NKF]

If we ignore the micronoid rain drops, I can only hazard the guess that the UFO was shot down before it could complete the alien drop animation. That might include the brief moment while it is still hovering over the building before it starts moving back to the gates. If it was already flying back when it was shot down, then it is probably a glitch.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

I'm not quite sure, but it definitely was shot down after the white beam finished animation and yes the UFO didn't had a chance to begin to move.

[Nookrium]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZQHjJJCAL8

Sorry about the reloading, it's annoying to have the graphs telling me one thing, but the aliens haven't arrived yet. Almost like a punishment for paying too close attention.

[Nookrium]

Don't mind fleeing aliens. It's a pain as you lose the points you would have obtained but is otherwise not that big a deal. Luckily the fleeing aliens don't increase the infiltration of nearby buildings. If there is infiltration in the nearby building, then it was already infiltrated to begin with.

I thought when they ran off the map it increased the chance of them spreading to a nearby building. That's good to know, I've been trying to hurry and cover the exits before they got out

 

 

Finishing out the week, we have Skeletoids...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdV6-uPJW9Q

 

And back to our favorite school of course!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsLT_u-TwG0

[NKF]

Ooh - the Assault UFO. Great catch. I quite like this UFO since it's not too hard to defeat on the ground and has great rewards by way of the Medium Disrupter beam and the Small Disrupter Shield. I'm sure you'll be wanting to use both of these in good quantities later on, so make it a point to try and catch as many of these types of UFOs as you can.

 

Your attack on the UFO was fine, though I'd recommend setting your agents further back down the trench on account of the exiting Poppers. Those standing too close to the doors do make juicy targets for them.

 

Zombie was flying when you had him use the medikit. He didn't stand a chance.

 

Stun Grapples are short range weapons. I can't remember the exact number of tiles, but firing it while flying high in the air wasn't going to work.

 

You can check if an alien is still alive by using the overhead map. You can't see bodies in the inventory, so that's the only way to be sure. Make sure someone is actually looking at the body you want to check otherwise you won't see it on the map.

 

The apartment's a good place to use the strafing ability thanks to all the buttresses and pillars. If you ever want to try it out, have an agent stand next to a corner and set them to normal.

 

Those service tunnels that you were fighting in are a bit frightening for fire fights where thrown explosives are involved. If you can, try to make use of the corners to get a jump on the enemies. That is, back up around a corner and have several agents go full auto on the enemy as it rounds the corner.

 

Since you already have a live one, you may as well let your agents deal with the Chrysalis if they want to attack them. It's free experience. Also as you found, they might block in some enemies.

 

My big concern over the last two videos is that you haven't done much of a resupply on agent equipment. Your AP and stun grenades are running out. They are restocked each week so you may as well buy them all up. There are other items for sale that you might want to have a look at like the Mini Launcher. A few more medikits could help too.

 

Looking ahead, I suggest saving or raising some money for a Hawk Air Warrior soon. That's the only ship you have access at the moment that can use the Medium Disrupter you recently recovered. You want some of those guns on your side to tackle the more advanced UFOs.

 

- NKF

[Nookrium]

My big concern over the last two videos is that you haven't done much of a resupply on agent equipment. Your AP and stun grenades are running out. They are restocked each week so you may as well buy them all up. There are other items for sale that you might want to have a look at like the Mini Launcher. A few more medikits could help too.

You're right, I was getting pretty low on stuns. I may need to give the mini launcher a try, I'm going to see how dual disrupters goes first.

 

 

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

[silencer_pl]

Just remember launchers are not 100% accurate. At least in some cases. Too big angle when too close and it will zoom pass. Specially on auto shot.

[Nookrium]

Just remember launchers are not 100% accurate. At least in some cases. Too big angle when too close and it will zoom pass. Specially on auto shot.

 

That's why I've been avoiding it... Me and careful shots don't seem to work well together.

[NKF]

Ah, there's something you can do about that: Always set any agent armed with a rocket launcher to no-fire at all times. Manually issue the attack order as you need it.

 

In Apocalypse, all missile weapons auto-home on their targets. There's no Blaster launcher way-point system like the originals, but the homing ability can be very nasty indeed as you'll probably find out once the aliens start using their Entropy Launcher and the Dimension Missile Launcher. The missiles rely a lot on their ability to turn for their course correction, so make sure the path is clear, and don't shoot the rocket at something nearby that's moving fast.

 

Speaking of the entropy launcher: if an entropy missile hits an unshielded agent, it will eat away at the durability of the agent's equipment. Armor gets ripped apart, and ammunition and weapons explode once their durability reaches 0. The trick to them is to drop everything and wait a few game seconds until the effects wear off. You can tell when your agent stops smoking. Unfortunately, walking around without armor makes agent extremely vulnerable to death.

 

The Small Disrupter Beam is a 2x2 shaped weapon, and none of your ships have weapon mounts big enough to fit one. You may want to change research topics. Go for the lab or another UFO component.

 

Paul Blake's stranded. Either due to bad game design or they were never put in before the game was released, techs don't get movement buttons! If they are on foot and stop at any building, they're stranded there. You can't even load them on ships to bring them home. To get around this issue when your relations with Transtellar are bad and people tubes are broken, quickly go into ultra-fast time for a second. This way any techs or agents on foot will immediately arrive at the base safely regardless of the state of the tubes.

 

Those two surprise popper attacks are probably a good excuse to have someone try out the motion scanner. Hint, hint.

 

Your agents aren't super soldiers yet, so they will not be reliably hitting things apart from the scenery at long range while auto-firing a Disrupter Gun. It's not an incredibly accurate gun to begin with. Also your guns were running out of juice faster than they could recharge. Switch to aimed shots instead. When the enemies get up close, say when a worm, brainsucker or popper rushes you, that's when you take advantage of auto shots.

 

I'm also of the school of mainly concentrating on 4-6 agents for real-time missions as they are easier to manage. That doesn't necessarily mean only bringing a small number in, it just means focusing your attention on a small team of agents and get them to do most of the leg work while the rest hang back and protect certain areas. When you try to move too many agents at once, you can easily lose track of what's happening around you when things start to heat up.

 

- NKF

[Nookrium]

Remember all that talk about making the game a bit more difficult? Ignore all that...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20hmjsXXahA

 

 

 

Paul Blake's stranded. Either due to bad game design or they were never put in before the game was released, techs don't get movement buttons! If they are on foot and stop at any building, they're stranded there. You can't even load them on ships to bring them home. To get around this issue when your relations with Transtellar are bad and people tubes are broken, quickly go into ultra-fast time for a second. This way any techs or agents on foot will immediately arrive at the base safely regardless of the state of the tubes.

Oh, I didn't know that would work, I was about to sell him.

 

Those two surprise popper attacks are probably a good excuse to have someone try out the motion scanner. Hint, hint.

That probably would have done me some good on this last mission, still not sure how I could have won it though, too much open space and too many farmers with expert vision.

[NKF]

This is something I was half expecting to happen in one of the earlier missions. Hostile organizations have a habit of posting guards in their building as if you were raiding it. There's no real way of avoiding causing more damage to your relations if you fight them, but then again you can't deal with the aliens to stop the infiltration without fighting the guards. Quite a Catch-22 situation. You have to fight both forces, but you can indeed just kill the aliens and run away without dealing with the guards. You forfeit any loot you would have picked up though.

 

You'll find the same happening with the Cult if they get infiltrated (yes, they're not 100% controlled by the aliens yet!). Only in their case, I'd recommend Raiding instead so that equipment is generated in the various loot spawn spots. If you don't plan to be friendly with Nutrivend for the rest of the game, you can do it with them as well.

 

You experienced the bug where a Brainsucker will stun itself if it jumps onto a prone agent. When this happens, remember to take the time to get off the brainsucker and shoot at it so that it doesn't wake up later and jump on one of your troops from behind.

 

Smoke does work, but it wasn't working in this instance because the enemy was already firing on your agent. They basically already knew where to shoot and were firing blindly - and hitting. Since they were hitting, they kept remembering where you were. You can also do this if you fire off blindly into the distance (or smoke) and just happen to hit something that you could not see. If hit, the unit becomes visible for a few moments. You can then get everyone to target it and keep shooting at it during this time.

 

The line of red dots by each gun show the ammo levels of your guns. If you leave your disrupter gun in your backpack (or anywhere else, for that matter), it'll keep recharging. Since a number of your soldiers were storing them away, they were recharging so will have had some juice restored by the time they had them out again. .

 

Prone's great for long range fighting, but don't try to fight enemies up close while prone. Your agent has to kneel, get up, turn, and then get back down again. All the while, they won't be able to fight back. If an enemy gets close, quickly stand up or toggle kneel so that you can respond to them without having to do that little dance of theirs just to face the target.

 

AP grenades are only really useful for personal protection against weak enemies like brainsuckers and hyperworms, or as a detonator to set off other explosives. For fighting, you'll be wanting the Boomeroids that the aliens like to use in great abundance, or the ridiculously powerful Vortex Mines. And by the way, when you right click to arm a grenade, you immediately get put into throw mode so you can click on the destination right away. If you can't throw for whatever reason, you can still hold onto the grenade, move into a better position, then throw.

 

What could have gone better in this mission would have been to have everyone pull back behind the trees earlier rather than stay out in the open and duke it out with enemies on two sides. You can't always sit out in the open and hope for the best.

 

Also in the case of the aliens that you could not see on account of the smoke: neutralize the smoke with stun grenades. Okay you didn't have any left at that point, but it's still a good example of where stunners are useful.

 

Oh, I didn't know that would work, I was about to sell him.

 

This only works if the tech is still on the move. Once they've stopped walking, they'll stay in the building they stopped at, move in and keep drawing a paycheck without showing up for work. May as well fire him and hire someone new. The trick is to immediately go into ultra fast for a moment after you come back to the cityscape after hiring the tech.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

Smoke does work, but it wasn't working in this instance because the enemy was already firing on your agent. They basically already knew where to shoot and were firing blindly - and hitting. Since they were hitting, they kept remembering where you were. You can also do this if you fire off blindly into the distance (or smoke) and just happen to hit something that you could not see. If hit, the unit becomes visible for a few moments. You can then get everyone to target it and keep shooting at it during this time.

 

In short words: suppressing fire.

 

 

The mission was salvageable, if you didn't try the 3 way shoot out competition. Aliens now have devastator cannons which are deadly. You don't want to have a shoot out vs Devastators. You could deal with Nutrivend by just storming them. Megapol armour gives good protection against everything human except plasma and heavy launchers. Auto Cannon also can pierce, but is not quite damaging.

[Nookrium]

I think it's time I show Silencer how to run a 4 man squad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58a3v-t-moY

[silencer_pl]

Ain't that fantastic since one died

[NKF]

The proximity mine delay is the delay from the time it is triggered. Usually you want this to happen the moment it detects movement, or if it is in front of a door, long enough for the door to open. About a second generally works.

 

If you just want to use the proximity mine as a much stronger grenade, right click and just throw.

 

Donbionicle was way too close to the door. This is why I said in the earlier post that you need to be further back down the trench.

 

Boomeroids hop towards their nearest moving target. That's their special feature.

 

Remember to re-equip your weapons after you throw your grenades. You're cutting your firepower down by not rearming your disrupters.

 

Marsec Armor has +10% more damage reduction vs explosives compared to Megapol (30% vs 20% I think). Which means you might survive better against Poppers in a full suit. But then again you would go down faster to disrupters, so the trade off may not be that great. Once you get shields, then it may not be a bad idea to kit out your mutant agents in a full suit just to increase their speed and allow them to keep up with the rest of the team.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

You'll find the same happening with the Cult if they get infiltrated (yes, they're not 100% controlled by the aliens yet!). Only in their case, I'd recommend Raiding instead so that equipment is generated in the various loot spawn spots. If you don't plan to be friendly with Nutrivend for the rest of the game, you can do it with them as well.

 

I don't know if you meant when they are infiltrated. But when aliens drop the squad, raiding doesn't involve aliens if organization is not under alien influence. I've had a check were aliens dropped at Cult of Sirius and if I made raid I've only had cultists.

[NKF]

Hmm, perhaps I am just remembering the guards showing up on a normal investigation then. Since it's the weekend, I think I'll have a hunt for my old CD and see if I can get it running on my current set up. It would be good to be able to do some practical tests on it.

 

edit:

 

While giving the game a quick spin, I think I found a way to get the techs to move. It's not easy, but you have to select a vehicle, then use the shift+left click shortcut to move it to a building. You might open the building's vehicle screen, but just exit and try again until the dialogue box that asks you to select a destination building shows up. Back out of it then go to the tech tabs and select the people you want to move then shift+click until you get the movement dialogue box, select your base, and they should start walking there as long as there is a working people tube route. The vehicle you were using might end up moving as well, so keep an eye on it.

 

The only reason I started with a vehicle was because I wasn't able to get the move dialogue box to appear when selecting my science staff directly. However it seems to show up after attempting the same thing with a vehicle. I'm guessing that there are particular game states that still let you access the move routines through the keyboard shortcuts.

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

NKF, do you also know of a bug with reloading Lineage Plasma guns or in general with Elerium? I had 70 Elerium in stores, demounted 6 lineage plasma cannons got 830 in stores. Then came reload so I had 730. On next day I've purchased another hawk and purchased 250 Elerium. When I've unloaded the default loadout and replaced with disruptor and two lineage slots. And suddenly my stores say I have only 70 Elerium!! Same for fuel. Replaced stock engine with SD Special and from 300 Fuel got nothing in stores.

 

 

Edit. I found out what's happening. For some unknown reason, selling all of my small disruption shields makes all elerium from my store and all fusion fuel just vanish.

[Nookrium]

Ain't that fantastic since one died

Minor details

 

The proximity mine delay is the delay from the time it is triggered. Usually you want this to happen the moment it detects movement, or if it is in front of a door, long enough for the door to open. About a second generally works.

 

If you just want to use the proximity mine as a much stronger grenade, right click and just throw.

Oh, that's an interesting though, especially since the frags are becoming so useless

 

Boomeroids hop towards their nearest moving target. That's their special feature.

It's funny, especially with a a name like boomeroids, but I don't remember them moving around like that at all. Of course I never really played real-time.

 

Remember to re-equip your weapons after you throw your grenades. You're cutting your firepower down by not rearming your disrupters.

Yeah... oops

 

 

 

 

Time for a flying squad

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARDJtsWXeu8

[NKF]

The Marsec arms depot was the building that was infiltrated. Since you already visited it, the aliens indeed cleared out. It even happens if you raid, realize the mistake, exit and try to investigate proper - the aliens will suddenly not be there. I am not sure why the game does that, but infiltration levels in nearby buildings still climb as if it were still infiltrated. The Megapol arms depot next door and the nearby government warehouse (potential X-Com base site!) were the most likely buildings suffering the infiltration.

 

Xcomcmdr was one tile above the ramp and was sill flying when you used the medikit, The slope of the ramp made the ground look higher than it really was. Take note of the flying stance.

 

NKF, do you also know of a bug with reloading Lineage Plasma guns or in general with Elerium? I had 70 Elerium in stores, demounted 6 lineage plasma cannons got 830 in stores. Then came reload so I had 730. On next day I've purchased another hawk and purchased 250 Elerium. When I've unloaded the default loadout and replaced with disruptor and two lineage slots. And suddenly my stores say I have only 70 Elerium!! Same for fuel. Replaced stock engine with SD Special and from 300 Fuel got nothing in stores.

 

 

Edit. I found out what's happening. For some unknown reason, selling all of my small disruption shields makes all elerium from my store and all fusion fuel just vanish.

 

 

Some of the alien tech store items do have some bugs associated with them. Do you remember the exact conditions that the bug occurred and can you replicate it?

 

- NKF

[silencer_pl]

I think when it is the first time you sell small disruption shield. If you sell all, the fuel and elerium are gone. You can try on this save. I'm running steam version of Apoc:

 

https://www.mediafire.com/download/zaalebusiebaxp5/SAVEGAME.08

 

 

[Nookrium]

Lots of new soldiers... hopefully the loss of several skilled folks doesn't come back to bite me later.

 

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

[NKF]

Mind those grenades - you're blowing up perfectly good collectibles, including any psiclones that may be on the ground.

 

One other possible reason you didn't get any Psiclones during the attack is that the guards may have run off with them. They will randomly pick up any loose items left on the ground, and then later run off the map the longer the battle went. For raids, it's not a bad idea to secure the exits. For serious raiding, get to know the item spawn locations and rush to them as quickly as possible. In Cultist temples, you'll often find items on altars or on the floor in corners by the doors such as where your team was fighting in this battle. Use the overhead map to help spot items as you're moving through the rooms.

 

You moved the screen away each time a rocket was fired. There's a tell tale woosh noise every time a launcher is fired that you want to look out for.

 

On treaties, you'll find that they don't last and will get broken very quickly. Think of treaties as a temporary cease fire rather than a softening in hostilities between the two sides.

 

That school again. Considering the length of time that has passed, the gates should have moved around a bit. Then again, when I booted up my game, one of the first three alien drops sites was the very same school.

 

I think when it is the first time you sell small disruption shield. If you sell all, the fuel and elerium are gone. You can try on this save. I'm running steam version of Apoc:

 

https://www.mediafire...xp5/SAVEGAME.08

 

Interesting, it only seems to happen if you sell the whole lot in one go for the very first time. If you sell one or only some, then later sales don't cause this issue.

 

I unloaded the lineage cannons and got 1830 elerium. I sold off the small shields, and got 0 elerium and fuel. However, I then noticed that the GLM Air Defense was showing 1830 in stores. I don't see why you would need that many tank turrets.

 

So the number got shifted across to another item. I can't see where the fuel went. It may have gone off the item table completely.

 

I cannot say for certain what's happening here, but I think the game trying to adjust the market rate since it's the first time it has been sold, but isn't able to cope with the fact there are 0 left in stores?

 

In any case it only seems to happen if you clear out all of the small shields at once. Sell one or all but one small shield and that should solve the problem.

 

- NKF