Sonic cannon fire, USO interior roof/floor tiles?

[Tsathoggua]

Quick question-due to Xcomutil, it appears there is no grav shaft access to the upper floor of a dirty great battlecruiser that my barracuda fleet recently shot down after dogpiling it like a swarm of piranha, some taking heavy damage and limping back to base barely in one piece, but in the end, after backup arrived for the initial attack fleet, armed for the most part with twin-linked sonic oscillators and in one case with a sonic oscillator and a couple of DUP-head torpedoes, in time for the damaged craft to disengage keeping tabs with one at standoff range, to keep the enemy USO in sonar/radar range long enough for 4-5 or so subs armed with paired PWT cannon and the odd one mounting both pulse-wave torpedoes and sonics for longer engagement, plus maybe a sonic weapon/gauss cannon combination.

 

And unfortunately for whatever reason, the damned ammunition wasn't sent with the troops, leaving them to have to rely on psykers, pulse grenades, close combat weaponry and whatever they've been able to scrounge from the corpses of the enemy after some sneaking and backstabbing, supported by the odd barrage of heavy sonics fire from the hovertank.

 

Unfortunately, none of the recovered weaponry includes any DPL ammo or launchers. Just have the two unloaded launchers brought along for such moments. No demo charges available. Whilst I know that a couple of bursts of sonic cannon fire will cut through USO interior walls, is it capable of blasting up through the ceiling? (the agents do have in most cases, mag ion armor, so if its possible to blow a hole through the floor from below, they can pop up and grenade the ingress point, pop down again, wait for any screaming and splattering then carry on with the bug-murdering at leisure.

 

Have shot through floors from above, but not below before. Is the heavy sonic cannon sufficient to do so (the aquanaut-portable one that is, can't get the hovertank in without the unavailable heavy blasting charges or DPL shells.)

[magic9mushroom]

- They're not called psykers.

 

- They're not called USOs. They're called Alien Subs. And I can't tell whether you mean the Heavy Cruiser, Hunter, Fleet Supply Cruiser, Battleship or Dreadnought.

 

- Yes, anything that can penetrate the walls can penetrate interior floors, though not the hull.

 

- Lifts getting blown up by IBA explosion happens even without XcomUtil.

 

- I never heard of it creating sealed compartments, though, I'd expect at least a hole in the floor somewhere.

[Tsathoggua]

Easier to type than 'molecular control/psionics specialists'

 

'USO' seems fairly commonly used a term here though,

 

And managed to..fix the problem...spotting an aquatoid, navigator, I think via one of those odd-angle through the corner lines of sight, taking it over and finding it had what turned out to be the only DPL on the map (with ammunition) immediately had it fire it into the wall a couple of tiles ahead. Needless to say, not turning out very happily for the aquatoid in question, or the two of its crewmates on the other side of the adjacent wall.

 

Lift wasn't blown up, at least I don't think so, that would still leave a flat patch as a marker, square in shape, on the tactical map wouldn't it?

 

Bit of a squirrelly mission in general that one, turning up with no ammunition and all. (it was all there the next mission flown by that sub without any interaction on my part bar ordering the launch to proceed and waiting for arrival)

 

And not totally sure what class of ship now. Big bugger, but no terrorists, which rules out dreadnoughts, I'd make my guess at fleet supply cruiser from the number of aliens and the relative lack of very heavy weapons. As to rank, couldn't say for sure what was present, or their psi capability since not one of them got a shot off or had time to react before being mown down after the squad scavenged a few of their guns and MC'ed, stabbed in the back with vibroblades/HTLs or blown up/hit by tank fire before.

 

What is 'IBA'?

[Zombie]

Ion Beam Accelerator I'd imagine.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

The term "USO" isn't used in the game. It's a fan coined term that's been around just about as long as the game has been released. I don't know for sure, but it might have started on USENET forums before the advent of the more robust web based forums. So no worries, we know what you mean.

 

Probably thanks to the higher powered weapons the TFTD aliens like to use, the alien sub hulls are way more brittle than the original UFOs and their near impervious outer hulls. So blast away to your hearts' content.

 

As for the type of sub, if it's fairly large and the front door area feels like a castle with battlements and there's an open area on top, that's the fleet supply cruiser. The Hunter and Heavy Cruiser are more medium-ish in size.

 

- NKF

 

edit: No actually, now that I think about it, BBS forums would've been earlier. alt.games.xcom came much later.

[Tsathoggua]

Usenet was before my time. Well I was just about using the net then occasionally via a modem line at my old man's workshop (30 now), spending more time back then with my chemistry and mycology hobbies and learning from..books, old fashioned things, never the likes of wikipedia like we spoiled bastards have today.

 

Still, been at this since the game came out, always been one of my favourites. Beaten UFO a good few times, but never beaten TFTD. Certainly not on this difficulty level either. Putting up a pretty good fight though, and its probably a good sign that the bugs are getting mightily pissed off. Scouting around for bases again after one of their last battlecruiser/dreadnought onslaughts actually got a craft past the barrage of pulse wave torpedoes that were sent up their backsides (btw-does being pounded by base defenses reduce the number of enemy that get through?)

 

Green troops., a garrison that had just been installed, after losing my first of any bases (and only, so far). One guy did get shredded into the next best (worst) thing to cat food by a calcinite, and no psyops troops to deal with the bastards. But did have one edge, in the form of a pair of sonic tanks and a tracked gauss cannon which got shipped over there with just the one round, for each, in order to take advantage of the free ammo, when the gauss tanks were retired from front line duty and posted off to the home guard. Still, they did their bit when they could cut loose freely, and played their part in mowing down a marauding calcinite headed for a couple of snipers in training, I.e everybody, given the circumstances and no armor, with lighter sonic weapons, a couple of the heavy cannons and raining down HE gas cannon fire for accuracy training given the splash damage, gibbing what bugs they could. Aquatoids, for the most part of course, and the HE shells are decent enough for training purposes especially when launched in barrages against several little green horrors close together. Mmm...wonder what was served for rations that day after the invasion was sent back to the bottom of the ocean........

[NKF]

(btw-does being pounded by base defenses reduce the number of enemy that get through?)

 

Sadly no. It's all or nothing.

 

- NKF

[Tsathoggua]

Well in any case, all my bases are now fairly well protected. MC generators installed, and absolutely swarming with PWT turrets. Bombardment shields are being built and the bases themselves all with a garrison, albeit of green troops being rotated in and out of the main combat squad to train them should anything survive. Most of the bases are pretty minimal, stores enough for craft and garrison ammunition, some tanks, troops, and engineering to supply ammo for the likes of PWT launchers, and theres always the now perpetually patrolling manta for rapid response and tailing the enemy craft if needed for as long as needed to keep the USO in radar/sonar range until coming in range of the bases loaded with PWT and sonic cannon-equipped or twin PWT loaded interceptors, whilst waiting to replace the barracuda with mantas. So anything that does come looking is in for a very nasty surprise; since after building sufficient stores, detection and stealth systems, engineering and living quarters for the engineers and troops the rest of the bases are more or less just being filled with PWT turrets plus a bombardment shield. The chances once the latter are finished of anything getting through is minimal given the quantity of offensive hardware going to come their way.