Hard times

[Tsathoggua]

Yes but when that fire is enough to obliterate any individual barracuda all the damn thing is going to do is have to wait for the more or less inevitable. I try to engage the

battleship/dreadnoughts once they touch down if possible, otherwise wait until mantas are available for the dreadnought, and tag-team the battleships with the best available hardware before that.Trying to bring down dreadnoughts gets too expensive, too quickly until a proper interceptor is available.

[Tsathoggua]

Talking of 'hard times', the funniest thing just went down in an alien base in my ufo/openXcom game.

 

Damn crafty SOB had snuck up behind a group of 4 troopers trying to get close enough to tazer a muton, a high ranking one no doubt given it was carrying a blaster launcher. Popped a round right in the middle of them, killing his own soldier as well, I had my best soldier down nearby providing heavy artillery support. Oddly, the tank/cannon in the midst of ground zero survived. Couldn't fire the blaster at the sneaky little swine, and low on ammo for his plasma rifle backup weapon, there was another one wielding a heavy plasma cannon. Tank mopped up the TU of the latter from a few steps away, firing repeatedly at point blank range, weakened and downright enraged said muton. While blaster guy (X-com trooper) legs it up to the pair of them and beats them both unconscious with his blaster, smacked the shit out of the pair of them, dropping all his kit the turn before to maximize his TU. Drops a grenade on top of the KO'ed muton with the plasma gun, and walks off, grabbing his kit on the next turn and using the blaster at close range, exploiting the base walls to contain and direct the blast, dropping two more mutons, possibly three, a there was certainly another one round the same area, don't know if its dead or KO yet. as well as an unseen celatid close by.

 

Paybacks a bitch! that evened the score, and turned the immediate vicinity from a base, into a graveyard:D

 

That'll teach the big green sods to try and stab X-com soldiers in the back! I hope the muton is still alive (for now...for now......), just sending support in with a rocket launcher and a second plasma rifle. Bet it has a real headache too, battered witless with a loaded blaster launcher....that must have HURT, even for something as

tough as a ranking muton. Unfortunate about the dead troops that took that blaster round however, one of them was a damn fine soldier.

 

Guy with the blaster seems to have become a damn fine shot with it, after getting it recently as an unofficial promotion, for racking up 22 kills in 7 away missions.. Its not the first time either he's done something like that. Cracked a sectoid's skull with another/the same big hefty launcher. Sneaked up and started whaling away on the wee grey sod after it refused to go down when zapped with a shock prod. Seems to be picking up somewhat of a habit of smashing faces in with heavy artillery. Seen the same soldier, albeit to less terminal effect, pistol-whip another sectoid with his laser pistol sidearm when he was too low on TU to use any ranged weaponry, other than to smack the bejeezis out of that sectoid. Did the trick though, dropped the bugger for a turn, ensuring it couldn't open fire, probably saved another nearby trooper the sectoid had been shooting at in the process, giving it a brand spanking new hole in the head, opening up with the laser pistol at point blank range the moment enough TU became available for an autoshot.

[sp1ke]

maybe start another thread in the relevant forum area for your OpenXCom UFO EU AAR?

[Tsathoggua]

Yeah I wasn't going into UFO really here, just an off the cuff bit of amusingness.

 

Kinda hilarious seeing the scrawny lil' sec-turd try and take the soldier's head off with it's plasma weaponry, only to realize, WAY too late, that it had tried to bite off something it was in no way on this earth or any other planet, or dimension, prepared to chew on. Soldier in question was the captain of the prime assault squad, and had survived longer than all but any other trooper, partly by support but for a damn good large measure, by being both sneaky and uncompromisingly vicious, quite content to take out a floater or sectoid (as long as the floater in question is not floating mind you) using a high explosive demo charge with a yield comparable to a blaster launcher, and duck round the corner, tossing 3-4 pre-primed grenades next turn before shouldering his blaster launcher and charging, plasma rifle in hand until unable to squeeze off another shot, and sneak back round the corner again to repeat the process should anything, by some unutterably shocking chance, courtesy of ye olde faithful randomme number generator

 

And failing that, use blaster at close range, and belt any surviver firmly round the noggin using the thing for a cricket bat

 

DEFINITELY not what that sectoid must have expected when it decided to pull that trigger. Should have made sure it killed my captain and blew the man's body to Tartarus with a follow-up grenade, if it didn't want to end up in a jam jar, spread on ''sergey 'hexxx' teth ''s post-mission sandwiches

 

Heck the last muton commander to try the same with a blaster launcher should have made 100 percent sure he got in a headshot, and not miss, because the cap'n is it seems, a certifiable nutcase..

 

 

I apologize of course for the wrong area, if such is needed. Please dinnae' have Lt.Tsath' court-martialed.

 

*Lt.Tsathoggua passes Sp1ke his pipe by way of apology/and/or/bribery

 

(although I confess, I am just a little surprised that he didn't actually pick up the sectoid and/or muton and use him/it to attempt to batter a hole through the nearest alien alloy base wall in lieu of wasting ammunition and explosive ordinance that could be perfectly useful for blowing more bugs to gooey alien organ slop)

 

BTW what does the abbreviation 'AAR' stand for?

[NKF]

AAR = After Action Report. Where you would normally associate a Let's Play with a video or livestream, the After Action Report is the written word counterpart. Although I suppose it's not a complete start-to-end report, but more the highlights reel. Screencaps are optional but nice if you have the time.

 

- NKF

[Tsathoggua]

Actually, I was wondering how one. does those. Videocap and screencapping Because that can be entertaining. Not sure how to do it myself but have seen some good playthroughs. Well I know how to do the playing lol just not the screengrabbing/videos.

ug

That sectoid thing had just had me laughing. Its the way the pictures are so damn scrawny looking and the huge heads, like some overstuffed, but anorexic, overgrown baby politician (and you'd want to smack 'em one just as much.), Was just the way the thing had tried to take on a lot more than it bargained for, like a toddler picking a fight with whassisface..that black boxer with the infamous hair trigger and penchant for biting off people's ea rs, can't recall his name atm, I'm way too wasted atm. That, the size differential plus picking on THE worst possible target. Worse than had it gone for the tank at close range, and the big oversized blaster launcher being used as an impromptu baseball bat:P Even some of the experienced guys with rocket launchers couldn't even MOVE far with the thing and hope to hit something with it, let alone fire it with full TU.

 

For once, regretted just for a moment the ironman playthrough, because that would have been worth a save, just to find out if alien HP decrease if stunned and USED to slap something silly. I.e sectoid held by legs and used to beat something to death. If nothing else then the ignominy alone, amongst a bunch of instantly aware psi-specialist aliens would have done the job!

 

Anyone else think, despite being described as atrophied in the ufopaedia in TFTD, aquatoids actually look a LOT meaner, nastier and more threatening than their sectoid counterparts. And they sound like it too when dying. The sectoids just kind of moan as if to say 'please stop! it HURTS sectoid has an owiie:D'

[Zombie]

Actually, I was wondering how one. does those. Videocap and screencapping Because that can be entertaining. Not sure how to do it myself but have seen some good playthroughs. Well I know how to do the playing lol just not the screengrabbing/videos.

 

If you are running the CE game without a front end, I think F12 takes a tga screnshot. Most people are running it under DosBox or Steam these days though. Steam's default screenshot key is also F12. In DosBox, you can do CTRL+F5 to take a screenie, or CRTL+ALT+F5 to start stop video recording in AVI format. Haven't tried this in X-COM though.

 

- Zombie

[Tsathoggua]

Unfortunately I haven't a damn clue which edition it is. But running it under dosbox anyhow. Downloaded it off the internet as I no longer have my original CD or any of the burned copies (I've gone through a lot of CDs for the early X-com games up to apocalypse.

 

And in any case, the USB drivers aren't playing well with win7 and I don't have an inbuilt CD/DVD drive but use a portable one. Or used, before getting stuck with this sack of shit excuse for an OS.

 

Gah..gimme back dual booted DOS and XP.

[Tsathoggua]

Just had one long, drawn out and nasty mission, after tailing some monster of a USO. Didn't get a look at what kind, just huge.

 

Sent a triton to follow it, early on in the game, team outfitted with mainly heavy gauss, a few gauss rifles for the weaker agents and quite a number of gas cannons loaded with phosphorus and HE shells. The USO set down, just as well too because there is NO chance it could have been sunk; and whilst there were thankfully no terror units to deal with, it was an aquatoid ship, and they RELENTLESSLY hammered the team with MC; to the point that I was very close to having to shoot one of the men. Should have killed him really. The things that saved him were reluctance for a while on my part because otherwise, against non-psi users he is effective and experienced and the fact the enemy MC-panicked him making him drop his weapon before the point of my having a trooper putting a bullet in his head.

 

Did bag a stunned tech and a navigator though. But it was long and ugly, mostly a run up over coverless terrain to the side of the UFO, breaching charges set. then carpeting the inside in phosphorus rounds before running in with the heavy gauss and grenades, tossing sonic pulsers in any cracks bugs could be hiding, followed by sending a two man team to the bridge, to sneak up and get the drop on the navigator. Two bugs on the bridge, facing away, although not enough T/U to stun both of them so shot one and kidnapped the other. Good loot but a lot of injuriese and troule doing it, although the advantage of gauss weapons, is even the heavy gauss has difficulty penetrating armor, this probably was the deciding factor that threw the mission my way. That and ordering any agent susceptible to psi or panicking to shoulder their weaponjs safely away in their packs or drop them if carrying gas cannons or HJC.

[magic9mushroom]

Sounds like a Fleet Supply Cruiser. And yes, Gauss is the best loadout against Aquatoids.

 

Unfortunately, that Navigator you bagged is useless, and the Technician is only good for the UFOpedia entry on a craft type. Aquatoids don't unlock anything, which is kinda weird since they're the masterminds of TFTD (Tasoths are clone soldiers, Lobster Men are robot soldiers, Gillmen are Vichy Earthlings). Maybe their intelligence allows them to resist interrogation or something.

[Tsathoggua]

Makes one wonder if aquatoids really are the brains of the operation. lobstermen commanders are the ones you actually NEED to nab. Aquatoids strike me as more the psionic soldiers, although not quite akin to the ethereals of UFO. And Tasoth AND aquatoid are cloned races.

 

And using xcomutil, I'm using the research delay/assist thingy, thats meant to make research take longer but captures more important by making interrogations grant advancement in research, although for some reason I am not getting post-mission messages about that. Does it mean that I'm not getting the benefits of the captures or do you only get the benefits after finishing the interrogations?

[magic9mushroom]

Makes one wonder if aquatoids really are the brains of the operation. lobstermen commanders are the ones you actually NEED to nab. Aquatoids strike me as more the psionic soldiers, although not quite akin to the ethereals of UFO. And Tasoth AND aquatoid are cloned races.

 

Aquatoid

The Aquatoid race is an ancient society, having existed millennia before man's first faltering steps upon the world. Their compact form and bulbous features are a throwback to their space faring brethren, the Sectoids.

 

Their power is based on the powerful Molecular Control technology. The Aquatoid race seeks to propagate its sterile race by genetic modification, the ideal subjects being Human beings. Experiments have spawned numerous hybrid races.

Aquatoid Autopsy

The detailed analysis on this creature allow us to make some basic assumptions. It is a Sectoid, our former foes, but changed by surgical methods and implants to be aquatic creature.

 

Vestigial lungs allow the breathing of air and limited surface mobility. There are cybernetic implants throughout the body, enhancing the strength of its atrophied limbs and the function of its organs.

 

As all members of this race are identical, we may hypothesise that these creatures are clones.

 

Note the reference to things the race "seeks", and to their relation to the Sectoids (implying they were on T'leth when it crashed).

 

Lobster Man

This is a staggering creature, taller than a man and boasting six limbs, it resembles nothing more than an aquatic Demon. The similarities between this creature and the Earth lobster have earned it the nickname of Lobsterman with the X-Com troops.

 

This is a behemoth of the deep. A carefully designed fighting creature of incredible strength and practically invulnerable to missile fire. Its pincers alone can crush steel.

Lobster Man Autopsy

Once past its virtually indestructible shell the creature is an amazing construction. Powerful muscles ripple around a titanium skeleton, a sophisticated targeting system with multi-band scanning ability is hooked directly into the creature's brain. Its multiple eyes are protected by harder than steel plastics and it is clear that when well deployed by their masters these creatures are all but unstoppable.

 

Buried deep in its body are devices of unknown construction and function.

 

Note "by their masters", and the references to artificial design.

 

Tasoth

These agile and fast enemies are a mainstay of the alien army. Hundreds are birthed in massive breeding vats deep in the heart of the Alien colonies.

 

Vastly more powerful than a man, the Tasoth is a true alien and its behaviour and carnivorous nature unmatched on the planet. The Tasoth often forms the spearhead of an alien attack and never seems to shrink from the fight even in the face of overwhelming odds.

Tasoth Autopsy

Dissection revealed a cybernetic organism possessed of strange power. Inside the body cavity is a small power unit, but no identifiable organs.

 

The power is transmitted throughout the body by a Bio-electric transmission system. The whole body lacks bones or any other supporting structure. Once dead the power stops and the creature becomes a lifeless rag doll of oozing alien flesh and fluids. The only other internal construction is a pair of ceramic cells, which if energised briefly revive the creature.

 

Again, doesn't really scream "mastermind" when it's mentioned that they're a mainstay of the army.

 

Deep One

The Deep One is a biological nightmare, a cross breed, produced by the mind warping experiments of the Aquatoids. We have encountered several variations of this creature. After extensive research we conclude that these are manufactured by the invaders. Swelling their ranks when fresh human stock has been captured. Each of these sub-humans is armed with an electrical energy discharge powerful enough to kill an aquanaut.

 

Direct reference to Aquatoids as scientists.

 

And using xcomutil, I'm using the research delay/assist thingy, thats meant to make research take longer but captures more important by making interrogations grant advancement in research, although for some reason I am not getting post-mission messages about that. Does it mean that I'm not getting the benefits of the captures or do you only get the benefits after finishing the interrogations?

 

I don't use XcomUtil myself, but IIRC the whole point is to make you do more interrogations. So you have to do the interrogations, I'm guessing.

[Tsathoggua]

I'll reply to the rest of the points in good time, when I wake up a bit enough to come up with a good thought out response.

 

(currently not up to that at my usual standards, for I've quite badly hurt my foot, and have been laid up stuck on the sofa for quite some time now, big damn hole in my foot, doctor has been coming to the house since I can't get to the surgery, and has me on enough morphine to make it that I keep falling asleep. I'm just glad that TFTD and UFO are both turn based, and the realtime part makes sure to pause itself wheneve ranything happens.)

 

In UFO, though, xcomutil is not so essential. But in TFTD, the dye grenade NEEDS altering, if it isn't then there just isn't the ability to provide vital cover and accomplish things like safe egress from the transport, and ability to move from cover, over a completely coverless, wide open space when there are shooters out of LOS, especially elevated ones. Or those nasty situations where you have a lift, and some crafty little goddamn bastard that likes to hide out both too far to flush out with an incendiary rocket, a burst of hydrojet fire or gas cannon shelling aimed upwards to flush them out, and for that matter out of range of the shockwave from a pulse grenade tossed up through the grav lift pad, and who are Styx-bent on using that sonic cannon they are toting to evaporate the head and torso of the first poor sod of an aquanaut to take that lift.

[magic9mushroom]

I'll reply to the rest of the points in good time, when I wake up a bit enough to come up with a good thought out response.

 

(currently not up to that at my usual standards, for I've quite badly hurt my foot, and have been laid up stuck on the sofa for quite some time now, big damn hole in my foot, doctor has been coming to the house since I can't get to the surgery, and has me on enough morphine to make it that I keep falling asleep. I'm just glad that TFTD and UFO are both turn based, and the realtime part makes sure to pause itself wheneve ranything happens.)

 

In UFO, though, xcomutil is not so essential. But in TFTD, the dye grenade NEEDS altering, if it isn't then there just isn't the ability to provide vital cover and accomplish things like safe egress from the transport, and ability to move from cover, over a completely coverless, wide open space when there are shooters out of LOS, especially elevated ones. Or those nasty situations where you have a lift, and some crafty little goddamn bastard that likes to hide out both too far to flush out with an incendiary rocket, a burst of hydrojet fire or gas cannon shelling aimed upwards to flush them out, and for that matter out of range of the shockwave from a pulse grenade tossed up through the grav lift pad, and who are Styx-bent on using that sonic cannon they are toting to evaporate the head and torso of the first poor sod of an aquanaut to take that lift.

 

Did you know that you can open doors without walking through them in TFTD? Right-click in the direction of the door. Makes exiting the Triton fairly safe, particularly since the Triton has no ramp and thus you can't get shot from behind. Do be careful not to move your soldiers out in "Grenade Bait" formation, though; aliens are very grenade-happy in TFTD and will gladly blow up your entire squad turn 1.

 

Cover is mostly unnecessary with sniper-spotter and mutual surprise. And armour is far, far better in TFTD, so once you've got your hands on (Magnetic) Ion Armour taking one shot from a Sonic Cannon is fairly survivable.

[Tsathoggua]

Yes I know you can open doors that way.

 

In UFO I tend to go for vaporising the doors with explosives or plasma fire, or for UFOs/inner alien base walls, using a pair of agents armed with blaster launchers to give the hard knock, then driving a tank through the 'front door'. The one that the aliens didn't build into the UFO when they started, that is, covered by snipers from beyond visual, tank spots, sniper team drops. Next turn, blaster guy per UFO floor reloads and guides a round in up the grav lift, smacks it into the corner of the + junction corridor using the targeting cursor box to feel the lay of the craft out.

 

FAR from subtle, but you can bet your ass the little buggers never expected THAT coming.

 

And in TFTD, I tend to drop a couple of dye grenades INSIDE the triton, right by the door, BEFORE opening it, letting them detonate, whilst having the team prime their HEs and dye grenades, then get ready to storm out of the door, fan out and hit the surrounding area with grenades. Tossing sonic pulsers where aliens MIGHT be, in the local area, sterilize the LZ then start the obligatory bug hunting.

 

 

Its not what you could call subtle, either, but pretty effective. I just hate it when all thats available are gauss weapons and you've got a whole bunch of lobstermen sneaking around. In that case its draw fire with the tank, get them to come out going for it then jump them from round the corner with tazers and whatever else comes to hand.

[NKF]

Since you're using XComutil with TFTD, a word of caution: XComutil has a bug when handling multi-part missions like the colonies and the ship missions. XComutil attempts a fix when transitioning between the two mission phases which may leave you starting the next part of the mission missing some or all of your ammo and weapons.

 

Therefore, be sure to make a separate save just before moving onto the second part and check your inventory very carefully.

 

If you're losing equipment, exit the game, restart the game the old way (terror.com, or whatever file you're using) to temporarily disable XComutil. Reload the game. Continue to the next part of the mission. Save. Exit. Restart the game with XComutil on again (runxcom.bat) and resume your game.

 

Just letting you know in advance so you don't scream bloody murder when encountering this.

 

The fix was meant to fix the bug in the unpatched version of TFTD where all equipment from the first part is wiped clean except what you're carrying in your hands. So no loot from the first stage and you lose all the equipment in the Triton. The v2.0/v2.1 update patches got rid of this bug, but XComutil will still try to run the fix.

 

Some clever batch file editing might be able to 'fix' this fix, but I honestly wouldn't know where to begin working on the runxcom.bat file.

 

- NKF

[Tsathoggua]

This is NOT going to be a capture situation, there is no sodding way, since stun launchers are as yet unavailable. Thermal shock prods only. But this is turning out to be one ugly sucker of a mission. Island mission, got a tank along but all it can do is scout, since I had a torpedo tank onboard the transport rather than anything else. Tasoth and 'toid mixed crew island terror and they have brought along the WORKS. So far, popped a calcinite from long range, sniper with a sonic rifle. Two, maybe three men died to bring down a biodrone, little bastards that they are, and now, tank just ran into some HEAVY opposition. Medium range, no cover, face to face with a triscene. Lining up the snipers of course, mixture of gas cannon and sonic rifle are the armaments we are using, plus mostly expended dye grenades, a few demo charges, had to use one to take the biodrone down, guy died doing it, biodrone came over to slaughter another guy with a primed demo charge , the first one, from the guy who died trying to get close enough to toss it into a room at close quarters, died, but the drone came over, shot another guy with a second primed charge, and then the first charge from dead guy no.1 knocked it unconscious and for good measure, thankfully the damnable little monster was then killed, well less killed more evaporated, by the close by detonation of charge no.2..

 

This game is on veteran. Several tasoth and a couple of aquatoids have fallen, but seems like they have brought..less so of their pets and more the entire goddamn zoo. Got a pair of flares nearby (its a night mission, and a nasty one at that), close ish to the triscene since there was a calcinite spotted by the scouting tank, went over to keep an eye on it and mark the target for a sniper team to drop it (the calcinite, triscene is still alive), down on one knee, to pop it with a headshot to be rewarded with a satisfying shrieking, sucking toilet flush of a scream as it died. The main hope is the gutsy bugger carrying the results of a 'pass the parcel-that-goes-boom!' grenade toss, armed otherwise with just a sonic blasta rifle, going to try and get some backup, as its just the tank to draw fire from the triscene and this one guy currently, who must have been born with three nuts. Two between his legs in the usual mounting, but which drag the ground as he walks, and one more, his survival instinct, which is evidently about the size of a peanut. And not even one in the shell. Just a dry-roasted, heavily, heavily HEAVILY salted peanut.

 

The base commander needed to go down to sickbay and...borrow....a medkit, no healing facility needed, but needed a couple of shots of painkiller, and after battle, methinks reviving with a shot of the stuff they use for waking aquanauts up...here's guessing its ice. And whilst underwater is no good, it'll have to be taken out and loaded into a pipe, because this is hairy just to watch

 

Question-if an aqua-jet tank is parked in front of an enemy that is sighted by the tank, and has full or most of its TU left, is it capable of reaction fire on land?

 

And whats needed for the gauss tank research wise? weapons and ammo up to craft gauss?

[Tsathoggua]

Gnnarrgghkkhhk arrgh!

 

Y'know something peoples? never, ever bury something most precious, and despite knowing the limits of the modest small area where its capable of being, forget exactly where you buried it.

 

Its frigid cold, the ground is stiff, and there is a patch wherein the requisite revival portion of half of the bits, the revival portion of the 'borrowed' kit from medlab can possibly be within, and Tsathoggua's finger has a painful acid-burn blister on the end of it, yet grip the entrenching spade he must and get on with it. Although it must be said, he is rather awake now after that burst of activity. Roasting hot even in the cold, from that and his hands are glowing with the warmth of frenzied effort directed at finding it.

 

Ahh, that woke him up, counteracted the sedation a little, morale is up and awakening temporarily, has been gained 'on loan'. So on with the mission, troopers! time to take that big ugly dino thing with what looks like a PWT or a deep one's electrical weapon mounted either side. But, whilst commanding the mission, despite no stimulant pack available, and being in the field, the ability to head to the science labs and request one of the techies to make him something isn't a possibility, so, on borrowed awakening time, courtesy of the effort expended, he reckons he's at LEAST entitled to a not exactly booby prize, a half-time refreshment of a nice juicy rollup whilst the aquatoid/tasoth and their pets get their half time civilian-meat pies and pints, whilst Commander Tsathoggua has a half time liter of fresh white grapefruit juice with his morale-enhancement medkit-juice and whilst the battlefield medkits of course only have emergency wound stabilization, painkillers for morale, and stimulants (the last of which cannot currently be FOUND dammit!), lets just say Tsathoggua's is a little more extensive, having good relations one of the docs in medlab. So he's got his antiseizure meds to take and a muscle relaxer (along with a lot more items, sufficient to make his own personal commander-only-issue medkit now so full that he needs another container to hold the items), as god damn, that much trench-digging, that can make a commander in the field have his shoulders and chest and arms and back and everything else other than eyes, nose, ears, head, posterior and dangly bits more or less, ache like something on fire, so the good Dr. back at medlab slipped hip a couple of big boxes of zanaflex (tizanidine) and a cap full of oxy after that so he's not too stiff to roll that rollup and still shoulder his trusty gas cannon and sonic rifle

 

Because right now....Cmmdr.Tsathoggua must have somehow not noticed being run over by the squad aqua-jet tank, since he's busily aching like a tentaculat with a migraine, or perhaps an aquatoid psyker with a cluster headache.

 

On to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, once more into the breech, and cut loose some hell lads. For whatever peculiar reason, some proverb or other about 'the wicked' and resting, comes to mind:P

[Bomb Bloke]

Question-if an aqua-jet tank is parked in front of an enemy that is sighted by the tank, and has full or most of its TU left, is it capable of reaction fire on land?

 

Technically yes, but its reactions are terrible. It's much more likely that the tank will be scrapped.

 

And whats needed for the gauss tank research wise? weapons and ammo up to craft gauss?

 

That plus the Manta.

[Tsathoggua]

Damn, pain about the manta. The coelacanth tanks whilst not matching the hovertanks for sheer ass kicking capability, toughness and of course the whopping great ammo capacity and extreme power of the sonic cannon on the cannon tank, those tanks are the bogs dollocks, anywhere they want to go, chances are they don't need an accompanying fireteam to scout out a bit ahead and disintegrate their way through obstacles if in corridors or if out in the open then hell even bothering firing, up over, done, and on to liquefy anything hostile on the other side.

 

The gauss tank isn't half bad aside from the ammo requirements, decent ammo capacity (question, if gauss weapons are set to behave like laser weapons do in UFO, do the tank and the craft gauss still require shells to be manufactured? or do either or both pack the effectively infinite magazine of moderate power? coelacanth/aqua jet is alright for their round capacity (damage is approx that of a small shoulder-launched torpedo isn't it, going from memory? damn do I wish those tanks could fire large torpedoes or better yet, choose between WP and large torpedoes...FFS it is a TANK, if anything they should be able to carry more and larger still torpedoes, something heavier than anything the MANPAD type launcher is capable of loosing off. Not many more, but a handful. Being able to use a mixed loadout of both phosphorus and big, hefty rockets would have been good.

 

And we are talking about reactions being crap for the rocket tank, I did mean, having FULL, maximal TU and within short range, not quite so short but still very, very short range, maybe 10 tiles, 15 or so, place illuminated with flares and the triscene, as it happens has been KO'ed, after being lit up like a christmas tree a month early, courtesy of being pounded with multiple gas cannon shells, hit with a couple of sonic rifle shockwaves, a magna blast grenade got wung over a hill to land right under it's forward half and leave it needing some expensive dental work by ways of some titanium gnashers and then after that, couple of GC-HE bolts, another sonic rifle pulse, a second grenade under it's noggin box then finally hit by another incendiary gas cannon shell, followed by a second, both actually hitting the creature. KO'ed rather than dead. Luckily for me, its right next to the lefthand side of a house on the upper right. Going to do what I managed to do when taking on that xarquid when on safari, and the damn recovery team being too stupid to take my week-long fought for trophy back home to be taxidermied. This is a one parter, so hopefully it'll come back home alive. Going to rush a heavy fireteam through to the SSE side of the house, and whilst clearing the area, have two very lightly equipped stunner teams (tazers, med kits, incendiaries, a GC-HE between them, plus dye grenades, one sonic rifle, couple of grenades if needs be and keep that tank there to draw fire. Cut two or three egress holes up to the rear side of big butt ugly, separated by one tile lengths of wall, so the triscene cannot actually charge in there and slaughter the team, then if it wakes up, go tazer it senseless and KEEP it down there. Fireteam is close enough to actually get to the building and do the job too. Will send the rest of the team there as well to clear the upper floors of any enemy units.

 

Would be nice if Mr.Murphy decided, since he went and screwed up my HARD fought for living xarquid, that he will keep his hands off my hoped for living triscene and I won't need to kill it. I could do so with a single shell from the GC. I am uncertain but MAY have lost an agent standing in flames whilst pelting it with the incendiaries, I heard a scream but as yet am uncertain if anybody of mine died or if it was a civilian,

[Tsathoggua]

Gahhahhhhh bollocks!

 

Turned out the 'island' mission was nothing of the sort.Shipping lane mission and xcomutil made the textures all fucked up. Every kill bar the stunned triscene recovered. Is there a patch I can use that will enable recovery of dead or stunned 4-tile critters? because that'd be twice now that valuable captures have proved impossible.

[Zombie]

The gauss tank isn't half bad aside from the ammo requirements, decent ammo capacity (question, if gauss weapons are set to behave like laser weapons do in UFO, do the tank and the craft gauss still require shells to be manufactured? or do either or both pack the effectively infinite magazine of moderate power?

 

If you edit the handheld laser weapons in UFO, it doesn't affect a tank's ammo capacity or damage. Same deal in TFTD. Handheld weapons and equipment stats are found in OBDATA.DAT while tank stats are found in the executable. As far as I'm aware, we haven't found where in the executable tank ammo capacity is. Even if you could, the max number of "shells" a tank can carry is 255. This is not unlimited like a handheld laser weapon so maybe that info is in the exe also.

 

- Zombie

[Tsathoggua]

Thanks. I just wasn't certain whether the editor just buggered around with the handheld, tank or handheld/tank or handheld/tank/craft gauss weaponry.

 

I've not noticed my equipment, weaponry and/or ammo going AWOL, only those damned captures going missing, the 4-tile rare terrorist types, notably the xarquid I worked on for a week straight almost, and a triscene that I accidentally stunned by hitting it with repeated HE and IC fire from a couple of the squad heavy weapons specialists. Would, once they are downed, during the games running using xcomutil on the first portion of a two-parter, and not coming back home, a triscene or xarquid should be able to be brought home if stunned or killed on the second half, correct? because I've just got to the second stage of a ship mission, and encountered a second triscene. This, once dead or s t nned should be able to bo brought backj either alive or f e a d l

 

And on a first half of a two parter, killing or stunninga triscene/xarqid then saving and and reloading using the notmal game launch

[Tsathoggua]

Well well...after having a nasty scrap aboard a cruise liner, and running totally out of ammo, and trying for a total of maybe 180ish turns give or take, to take a triscene down with shock prods, had to scrub it and go for a rematch, packing a hefty loadout, sonic rifles for the snipers, everybody packing several demo charges, gas cannon with both HE and incendiary shells, grenades, the works. Looks like they are going to be needed, because round 2 is even hotter. Primarily tasoth, although an aquatoid managed to blow itself to kingdom come with a mis-thrown pulse grenade. Or something did at any rate, because there was a pained aquatoid squeal forthcoming. Turns out there is a tasoth in cover, sniping through a hole in some metal shipwreck (xcomutil has made for a weird ass map, initial phase is on the seabed, treated as land for weapon purposes, no helmets etc.)

 

Taking the triscene down should be doable since there is a soldier hiding close to it with a primed demo charge ready to make a large, squishy mess of it, the xarquid is doing what xarquids do best-sneak around in cover and snipe. Going to be tough to get rid of it, especially since there are two tasoth protecting a tower I'd very much like to get a few snipers into. There were three, but one fell to an incendiary shell followed up by a couple of sonic blasts.

 

The xarquid at least, has made the mistake of hovering in line with a large diagonal piece of wreck, or plank or something. Doesn't matter what, just so long as its there to throw explosives onto:P

[Tsathoggua]

Hard times alright...just not for me.

 

Xcomutil turned a base (first floor) map into an island. So there are tentaculat and all sorts swarming the place (difficulty-genius)

 

Had one turn to try harassing a tank, only for a tasoth psyker (presumably, have seen an aquatoid around the area, could have been one of the tasoth squad leaders though) trigger an agent going berserkir. The excessive TU bug happened, and as luck would have it, that tentaculat happened to be right in the firing line of a temporarily psychotic agent going spray-and-pray with a sonic cannon

 

Scratch one evil flying brain.

 

Odd thing is, when this kind of map-switch thing has happened before, such as units ending up underwater on fr.ex ship rescue missions, for the first level, they end up without helmets and unable to fire sub-surface only weapons, like the hydrojet. Whilst if the other way round happens, they end up wearing the dive helmets on 'land' and being able to.

 

Now for the odd part. No dive helmets, alien base raid, game engine SHOULD be treating it...I am guessing at least, as though this were a land based mission, but despite this, I've already seen an enemy DPL round fired. And can use the hydrojet.

 

Should be either-or, should it not, rather than partially treated as land or partially sub-surface? because as far as I've been able to tell, all thats happening is that the textures are being swapped over, usually.

 

Odd bit is the agents are still susceptible to smoke inhalation and dye grenade output.