Terror site triggers?

[Tsathoggua]

So I know HOW terror sites start, either a terror ship turns up and drops off its payload, or one is triggered automatically and cannot be

prevented;

 

But is the number of terror sites per month a measure of x-com success?,like advancement/increasing tougher races fought (E.g triggering the appearance of tasoth and lobstermen) tied in with for instance, research progress, number of USOs shot down/cleared up in tactical missions, number of other attacks responded to or initiated?

 

I'm wondering because I seem to be getting an inordinate amount of terror missions, just had at least four last month, maybe five, gill men all of them, bringing their deep one slaves along with them. Didn't go too well for them, just finished research into sonic pistols and their ammunition, already had sonic pulsers for the last few missions, full squad of men, with a few rookies in training turning up, along with

a tank/gas cannon for scouting, although its only fired two or three shots if that per mission, most of them last mission when a deep one turned up at close range out of a shed door, promptly got its head shot off though. plus fired and missed at a gill man sniper on the rooftops,

missed, one of the squad nearby shot it dead with a HE round from their gas cannon (got six squaddies packing gas cannon, all with HE or IC rounds, which make an awful mess of the gill men we've faced as well as the deep ones) for sub-surface missions the squad carry

an additional two hydojet cannon, HE and IC loadout, with a clip of AP rounds each for close encounters.

.

 

JUST got sonic pistols and ammo, the research aided greatly by captured enemy. Finished building a third base, the second one is a work in progress. Just finished adding full radar/sonar coverage and built a sub pen to house an interceptor transferred from alpha base

 

Straight away, a lobsterman attack on a remote island, along with those awful drones those bastards use.

[Tsathoggua]

And damn...ANOTHER terror mission. This time a packed cruise ship. Recon (a quick save and reload before even opening the triton door...don't consider it cheating as it doesn't actually help complete the mission, merely lets me correlate the number of screams in the dark with civilians present and know how many need saving and how many need to go home to their families in a jar)

 

Do lobstermen and tasoth usually appear one right before the other, or both at once? because the game crashed during that lobsterman terror site. A blessing in

none-too-thin a disguise really, considering how useless harpoon rifles, and even gas cannon (especially considering almost all the gas cannon gunners use almost

but not quite exclusively incendiary rounds, for driving back the enemy, or flushing them out of holes/into the barrel of a gun. No way that terror mission could have been completed with 6 gas cannon/IC and one HE clip each for 3-4 men, harpoon guns with only one spare mag to go around, stunners, a tank/cannon and a pair of sonic pistols+whatever grenades could be found. I don't think there would actually have been enough bullets to kill everything!

 

Didn't build the third base on recovering the crash, got another terror mission and this time it wasn't (thankfully) lobstermen, but tasoth. Still with those damn drones, but this time the harpoon guns were retired, in favor of the newly available sonic pistols, plus a whole bunch of sonic pulsers. This time at least, there are going to be enough rounds to clean house (or cruise liner in this case)

 

Is this likely to be chance, the tasoth, or by design, based on the efficient way the previous combatants have been wiped out?

[magic9mushroom]

Four terror sites in a month is odd. I'm guessing that one month's Alien Surface Attacks mission ran into the next month and said next month's didn't.

 

Appearance of more races is not tied to anything X-Com does but only to the game month (with the obvious exception of Alien Colonies; since Alien Colonies always contain Tasoths, attacking one before Tasoths appear normally will result in encountering Tasoths early - but only in that mission, it doesn't "unlock" them or anything).

[Tsathoggua]

Haven't attacked a colony yet, the troops aren't ready for it. Have locatated one of their bases however, built right next to one of my own, the cheeky bastards!.

 

As soon as suitable weapons and armor are ready, going to let them have it! They have it coming, for the way they have been so uppity just lately, terror site after terror

site after sodding terror site, although they all went alright from a tactical point of view, no fatalities, well, not any X-com troops, only a few wounded, surprisingly

enough not too bad, usually own-goals with GC/IC rounds. Definitely...warming...to those, pun intended. Very useful tactically, and especially good for training rookies to use the GC, because if they hit one of their teammates like an idiot, then usually the other trooper survives without a critical wound, and almost always alive.

 

Although on undersea missions I tend to load the gas cannons with HE shells and most of the hydrojets with IC to make use of their autofire in painting targets, especially at night, for the troops to use as a marker light in order to engage with for example, the torpedo launcher, or sonic pistols.

[sp1ke]

As soon as suitable weapons and armor are ready

What, you ran out of Gas Cannon rounds, tazers and coveralls? Oh well I'm sure your resupplies will be arriving soon. :-D

[Tsathoggua]

Who the hell wants to charge a bunch of lobstermen with a tazer wearing nothing but a diving suit? much less if one could run out of coveralls and have to send the team down to the nastiest places in the oceans, tucking a spare grenade between their naked arsecheeks. That would just be cruel, never mind firing underperforming soldiers, the entire lot would fire themselves.

 

Was waiting for something with a bit more kick, and mainly, to avoid running out of ammunition whilst in the thick of things, so as to be able to scavenge at least SOMETHING that works at more than point blank range off of the inevitable pile of corpses. One can only carry so many torpedoes, and they are heavy and limit movement. At the time I don't think I even had gauss pistols. Not that engaging lobstermen at pistol range using gauss weapons is a good idea mind you.

Had sonics being researched, either rifles or pistols I forget

[magic9mushroom]

Who the hell wants to charge a bunch of lobstermen with a tazer wearing nothing but a diving suit?

 

Me. It's seriously an effective strategy, although armour does help a lot.

 

Was waiting for something with a bit more kick, and mainly, to avoid running out of ammunition whilst in the thick of things, so as to be able to scavenge at least SOMETHING that works at more than point blank range off of the inevitable pile of corpses. One can only carry so many torpedoes, and they are heavy and limit movement. At the time I don't think I even had gauss pistols. Not that engaging lobstermen at pistol range using gauss weapons is a good idea mind you.

Had sonics being researched, either rifles or pistols I forget

 

Let me be blunt. There is nothing that can KO Lobster Men in one hit at range besides the Thermal Shok Launcher, and that has a clip size of 1 and rapidly clogs your Alien Containment. Sonic Cannons take ~3 shots, and pistols ~6. Dealing with them solely at range is not an option; you have to learn to charge them.

[Tsathoggua]

Theres always the good ol' disruptor pulse launcher:D Well, under water at least.

*

And theres always the option of using the shock launcher and then gas cannon/HJC or grenades to either kill them off or wipe the place clean of remains.

 

And its one thing trying to take on one of them, but when theres a group of 6-7 of the bastards, armed to the teeth, and the place is crawling with tentaculats, in a base assault, then running in headlong, over open ground mind you, with no cover, is a recipe for getting your ass handed back in a jar. Bear in mind that at this point, at best the men had some aqua armor, if they were lucky, a bunch of gas cannon, HJC,

 

If its one on one, maybe, if its 2-3 troops against a swarm of the buggers, packing sonic cannon, shock launchers etc and grenade-happy as hell then forget it, not on open ground. And you really need to be able to deal, reliably and certainly, with any tentaculat that rears its ugly...err....???head???

 

Sonic cannon CAN, but don't often result in a KO, given the toughness of lobstermen, But not reliably. I do MEAN a knockout though rather than a kill shot. And they are likely to be dazed more than stunned, and need dealing with properly. Although I've all too often seen lobstermen and tasoth stay standing after taking a direct hit .from a DPL round. Tasoth seem to have a rather unpleasant tendency to shrug off DPL rounds right when you most need the target dead or incapacitated.

 

Shock launcher/gas cannon is a great combination though. Put 'em down with the launcher, blow the buggers to hell with the GC-HE rounds or grenades.

 

 

Same with a good large explosion close up. Best be a big one though, or the damn things are just going to take it out on your hide for the cheek.

 

 

Even in cover, trying to get up close enough, if there isn't something one can walk round, if its just L/T shaped corridors then getting in close enough is a nightmare.

Then again its not pretty engaging them in any case, barring being armed to the teeth.

 

My usual tactic, when there are those long, wide chambers in the lower base floors is to pick them off at range using whatever comes to hand, PREFERABLY aimed shots from the shock launcher, or DPL rounds, but if not, whatever the hell is available, preferably, flanking them from the other entrance(s) and sticking a grenade or two where the.........*grins*

 

I've only found making a charge in those damn chambers with the recessed floors a recipe for getting torn to pieces by sonic fire before ever getting close, and then theres always more of the buggers than at first sight, usually hiding away in those lower passageways, and invariably a tentaculat or two, if your lucky. If nothing else, sonic pistols at least, better yet the rifle, for its greater accuracy (pistol is nifty for those nasty close encounters of the rip-your-face-off kind where you can unleash a flurry of shots right into whatever it is that passes for a face, where tentaculats are concerned, but unless your man is a real gifted sniper type, its another matter trying RELIABLY to put one down using the pistol at long range, mainly due to its accuracy being kinda crap, like other pistols, although of course the gauss is about the only one worth even bothering with otherwise, not even worth keeping hold of the dart guns, other than maybe a single one or two perhaps for those critical captures.

 

And the lobstermen at least often fail to go down from a single tazer strike, and it costs a lot more TU in TFTD to use the things than the stun rods in UFO defense (although as far at least, as terror sites are concerned, I've noticed they don't seem to be automatically scheduled, in the way they are in TFTD. In my UFO game, I've only fought a handful of terror sites. Although had my ass handed me the first few of them, before some armor and something with at least SOME chance of a one-hit or decently reliable 3-round burst takedown, assuming all shots, or at least two in three hit the target, with most species at least.)

 

Hehe, I have to say I like the sound effects given the chryssalid in openXcom. Really adds to the atmosphere when hunting the bastard things down, tracking them down by the shrieks and the sounds of dying civilians.

[magic9mushroom]

Theres always the good ol' disruptor pulse launcher:D Well, under water at least.

 

Still takes two hits. Lobster Men have a 70% (!) resistance to HE; the DPL only barely out-damages the Sonic Cannon against them.

 

Also I forgot you're playing on Beginner. Lobster Men on higher difficulties have a significant amount of armour, which applies AFTER the damage resistances and therefore is greatly magnified in effect. 24 armour isn't a lot, but when you only get 30% or 50% of your damage to roll against it it starts looking very formidable indeed.

[Tsathoggua]

Not on this game, experienced, the second or third setting, forgot which.

 

Oddly perhaps, its the tasoth that seem g most resistant to DPL shelling. At least, in terms of their tendency to shrug off a single direct hit blast, or having the round jink

upwards and then slam-dunk itself into the floor right by their feet. But its the diirect hits that are most surprising. Lobstermen are another kettle of evil fish altogether

tasoth often taking a sonic cannon bolt and keeping on firing,, but a DPL is a hell of a larger and more powerful round. the tasoth seem to keep on going way too often.

 

They don't of course need that concentrated mass bombardment from at least a fireteam and preferably a gas cannon or gauss tank, everyone taking position in cover and blasting the living hell out of each bug, one by one if it can be helped. They do go down with one of the sniper/heavy artilery+assistant to load the DPL in preparation for firing and tossing out pre-primed pulse grenades, generally acting as support soldier to the DPL gunner and pair of snipers in a fireteam. The grenades being for anything that tries to bum-rush the high ground taken by the shooters and somehow manages to get past the snipers without being dropped by the heavy sonics they wield. Grenades and gauss rifle for medium range, sonic pistol, vibroblade for close up dirty work if the snipers or DPL gunner cannot afford to take their eyes from the scope and finger from the trigger whilst drawing a bead on a more dangerous, higher priority enemy such as tentaculats or enemies packing DPLs or stun launchers.

[magic9mushroom]

DPL is HE, and Tasoths have a 10% resistance to HE while having a 20% weakness to Sonic. 210 seems a lot bigger than 130, but 189 isn't quite as impressive compared to 156.

 

And yeah, Tasoths aren't always killed by DPL direct hit (roll is 94-283, Tasoth Squad Leader on Experienced has 135 health + 7 armour; 26% chance of survival). Lobster Men are NEVER killed by DPL direct hit except by a max roll on Beginner vs. a mere Soldier (roll is 31-94, Lobster Men have 90+ health and 4+ armour). Lobster Men are definitely much more resilient to DPLs; they have a non-negligible chance to survive TWO direct hits, which Tasoths cannot possibly do.

[Tsathoggua]

Thanks for trying to clear that up.

 

Although could you break it down a bit more, please? if its not too much to ask. I'm REALLY badly dyscalculic, to the extent, after an injury sustained several years back now, was to begin with but now its left me nearly totally 'blind' to numerical operations.

 

Its a real pain in the arse, to say the least; I have to have software do all my calculations for me when I'm working in my lab for instance, if I didn't then I'd just not be

capable of doing anything at all.

 

To make a reasonably accurate analogy, its like us looking at say, chinese/japanese script and being expected to be able to read it. Doesn't matter how well we can

physically SEE the writing, it won't help efforts to have it make sense. Might as well be without the sense of sight itself for all it is of use in deciphering the oriental script. Thats what I mean by 'blind' to it, because I can't do anything at all with numerical operators, not anymore. Before the damage was done, then I could to a degree now its completely removed the ability to do so.

 

So I apologize for the effort you went to, but it means nothing at all to me.

[magic9mushroom]

Thanks for trying to clear that up.

 

Although could you break it down a bit more, please? if its not too much to ask. I'm REALLY badly dyscalculic, to the extent, after an injury sustained several years back now, was to begin with but now its left me nearly totally 'blind' to numerical operations.

 

Its a real pain in the arse, to say the least; I have to have software do all my calculations for me when I'm working in my lab for instance, if I didn't then I'd just not be

capable of doing anything at all.

 

To make a reasonably accurate analogy, its like us looking at say, chinese/japanese script and being expected to be able to read it. Doesn't matter how well we can

physically SEE the writing, it won't help efforts to have it make sense. Might as well be without the sense of sight itself for all it is of use in deciphering the oriental script. Thats what I mean by 'blind' to it, because I can't do anything at all with numerical operators, not anymore. Before the damage was done, then I could to a degree now its completely removed the ability to do so.

 

So I apologize for the effort you went to, but it means nothing at all to me.

Tasoths usually die to one DPL. They always die to two DPLs.

 

Lobster Men never die to one DPL. The lower ranks usually die to two DPLs, but the highest ranks have a roughly even chance of dying or surviving.

[Tsathoggua]

Yeah I know tasoth do. I mean, die to a second round if they fail to become one with the seabed.

 

Tartarus take it if I'm going to waste a second DPL shell on a weakened tasoth though;because regardless of its bengsoldier or squad leader it has, after all just been slapped silly by the functional equivalent of a tactical nuke.If an alien can get up and walk at all, it'll be doing so with an almighty headache.

 

Those guided missiles will blow away a tank amd the shockwave will keep on going to liquidize most of a triton full of troops wearing aqua-plastic armor.

You don't exactly get up from a HE round like THAT and immediately start tap-dancing your way to wherever it is your running off to to hide.

 

And yes, the remark about going through the hull of a triton, wrecking a tank and still carrying enough energy to lay waste to several aquanauts; that was from experience.. That assault was messy as hell, only 2-3 troops lived to speak of it.

[NKF]

One of the properties that give Tasoth an edge even though they are no where near as resistant to damage as the Lobstermen is that they have very high amounts of hit points, so can take a beating.

 

The thing with the damage going through the Triton is more a failing of how full-tile walls operate. When I say full tile, I mean a wall that occupies the middle of a tile so that your aquanaut cannot stand in the same tile. Normal walls fit along the north or west edge of a tile and will normally allow you to stand in the same tile. The problem with the walls that occupy the middle of the tile is that explosives can placed into them. Either fired or tossed into. This means that when the explosion happens, the damage will propagate from both sides of the tile.

 

It's a bug, and the aliens are unintentionally exploiting it when they attack the Triton.

 

- NKF

[Tsathoggua]

Presumably that also has to do with the form of the explosions, in that they propagate in a roughly circular (edges not withstanding) direction from ground zero.A

 

And am I right in thinking that same bug is also responsible for one rather unfortunate captive aquatoid medic?

 

Being treated very roughly indeed after capture, once in the triton, it woke up after being zapped with a tazer and made a break for it, ran like hell out of the door, and

to save time, the soldier on guard duty just grabbed hold of it and repeatedly alternated between dragging, and throwing it across the seabed, and finally tossed it into

the triton. Unfortunately for said aquatoid, it went rather further INTO the triton than intended. Thrown so hard as to become embedded in the walls.

 

Bet that hurt! damn capture never registered either, came up as a kill not a capture, and I am 100% certain it was alive beforehand.