Why I hate TFTD

[Fishfins]

Until last week, the last time I played TFTD was a few years ago. I recently had the mis/fortune of finding a Collector's Edition copy to work on my computer.

 

1 - Lobstermen. In my latest game, I had to clear a shipping lane attack... full of lobstermen. It was tedious, expensive but a relief when I won. A game week later, I get another one. Not aquatoids, not gillmen, but freakin' lobstermen.

 

2 - Unforgiving to new players. I'm almost done on an EU game, Superhuman mode and none of that 'load-the-game-if-a-soldier-dies' cheating. In TFTD, even on the easiest mode I find it ridiculously tough. Someone like me might give the game a chance, but an unsuspecting newbie playing the game will throw the box out of the window in frustration after meeting their first two-stage mission.

 

3 - Two-stage missions. In theory, two-stage missions equal more than double the casualties. After getting through the tough surface battle, a tedious, long closet-inspection commences, where my aquanauts will be cut to pieces like the Massachusetts Infantry. And that's basically what I do in the second stages - inspect closets for aliens.

 

4 - Recycled. Almost everything in TFTD has an EU equivalent it was based on. Take Tentaculats for instance - cryssalids with flying abilities. Gauss - Laser. Torpedo Defense - Missile Defense. Sonar - Radar. To make it appear different, they put the research tree in a washing machine, then set it to the highest mode using industrial bleach.

[Bomb Bloke]

The engine is updated... A little...

 

Mythos made UFO, and it was published by Microprose. UFO sold, so Microprose wanted a sequal. Mythos said they'd do it, but Microprose wasn't prepared to wait for them to make a new game. Thus Mythos didn't have much to do with TFTD.

 

Mind you, this was back in the day when 'sequal' meant what today you'd call 'expansion', and 'expansion' meant 'the same game but really really hard'. The add-ons for Magic Carpet or Syndicate, for example, are quite sadistic.

 

Anyway. The Xarquid. Big squidy thing which hides in closets during gillman shipping missions. It can't get out, being too big - it just sits there, until you open the door. Then it will kill half your squad with reaction fire due to all the spare TU it has. The perfect way to end a shipping mission.

 

When you learn where it spawns, don't bother opening the relevant door (Yep, all those doors, and I remember this one). Just blow the door down with autofire, and hope the extra shots kill it before it can react. Or something.

[Gimli]

I've actually never seen the Xarquid until the very last mission.

Most annoying enemy: (you guessed it) Lobsterman. When I first played the game (some 6-7 years ago), there was a mission with a few lobstermen, and they massacred my aquanauts. It took all of the shots from my aquanauts at that turn plus an aquanaut going berserk and shooting him some 15 times to make him go down.

 

I find TFTD much more difficult than EU. I've just managed to finish EU on Superhuman without saving (for the most part, since it crashes a lot). I wouldn't even want to try playing TFTD on Superhuman, at least until I'm retired and have lots of free time.

When I think of the horrors of Lobstermen, Tentaculats and others have put me through...

And the last mission is a story of its own. When I realised I couldn't save on the last stage, I wanted to bang my head against the wall.

 

As for the 2 stage missions. Generally, I wouldn't mind them in an X-COM game, but in TFTD, they were horrible. Which is why I usually skipped shipping lanes.

The research tree caused me a lot of headaches. I played TFTD a few times before I finally realised what I needed to research. What was that... Lobsterman navigator for Ion Armour? I could be mistaken though, as it's been awhile since I played it.

But aside from those, it gave me a lot of fun hours. And I'll never forget the time when an aquanaut shot a Gillman from one end of the map, diagonally to the other end.

 

Good times, good times. Oh, and I'm new here. (Even though I've registered a few months ago, I didn't get to post earlier).

[Pete]

Hehe, a late welcome anyway Gimli - hope you post some more

 

The "broken" research tree in teh first version of TFTD I actually liked. Me and my brother played it, got so far and had to restart it because we could no longer geta terrorist, or a calcinite or something.

 

Him, being the hard-core nut that he is, played it through on Superhuman from start to finish with a broken tech tree. No doubt he saved and reloaded a lot - one lobsterman in one turn can wipe out half your squad on Superhuman with a few well-placed shots - but he got there in the end after months of playing (coming up on years in game time).

 

Meticulously acceoting every terror mission and crash site no matter how small, he plodded his way to victory.

 

Mental

 

Good fun though - we had TFTD well before we got UFO and we loved it and I never tired of playing it (on beginner and avoiding all shipping route missions ).

[Accounting Troll]

There are some serious bugs in the research tree. I think researching one of the aliens will make it impossible for you to research the craft you need for the final mission.

 

About the only way I found to deal with lobstermen before I developed some decent melee weapons was to run up to them, stun them, and then drop a grenade on them before they regained consciousness.

 

I think it's probably best to regard TFTD as being like a mod for Enemy Unknown rather than a truly seperate game. Otherwise the similarities are guranteed to get on your nerves, eg molecular control instead of mind control.

[Pete]

Hey, it's completely different and you can't tell me otherwise You're spoiling my childhood memories here

[Bomb Bloke]

I have three ways of dealing with lobby men - the Heavy Thermic Lance chews through them, molecular control neutralises them, and if they happen to have a stun bomb launcher, they'll quite happily use it at point blank range and knock themselves out.

 

But, a lobby man armed with a 'dangerous' weapon, when you don't HAVE lances or psi, is a bit of a stumbling block.

 

The first time I met one was during my first base assault. I cleaned out the top layer, and went down to the lower regions. And then there was this lobster thing. So one of my troops ducked out and unloaded his guass rifle ammo into it.

 

To my surprise, it lived. That wasn't supposed to happen.

 

Then my next solder ducked out and unloaded his ammo reserves.

 

The lobster was still on it's feet.

 

After using pretty much ALL my ammo, it went down. I grabbed the corpse and evacuated. There was no way I was equipped to take out a WHOLE BASE of the things using my guass rifles!

 

Thus my squad usually carrys at least one lance and a lot of psi power. The last level is very easy if you have decent psi power.

[Zager]

I like TFTD because you get to kill Cthulla. Take that, Lovecraft!

[Pete]

I thought you just got to kill a pretty panzy-ass 8 foot long squid?

[Gimli]

I just got a headache.

 

I started playing a Shipping Route a few days ago. The first part was fine despite the multiple races (including Triscenes, Tasoths, Aquatoids, Calcinites and Bio-Drones)....

 

And then came the second part. Somehow I managed to get through most of the stage, but I found a Bio-Drone enclosed in a small space. I threw a pulser, and then the next turn used a guy with a Shock launcher to stun him. But for a reason beyond my logic, the biodrone blew up, injuring my guy, luckily only one fatal wound. Since I negelected to develop Medi-kits (because there were more important things to develop), I couldn't heal him, and thinking that I have only one or two more aliens to go, I continued to play. Finally, when the 0-2 levels were searched, I went on to the third one.

 

And what did I see there? A Triscene. Which I expected to see anyway. Luckily it was stuck, so I could shoot it, but it couldn't shoot me. After initial failures, I tried throwing 3(!!!) pulsers. All I did was set him free, so he killed my guys (and girls).

 

Then I tried just shooting at him with the Sonic rifle. Spent one whole clip of three soldiers, and somewhere about half of the second. Over 50% of those were hits. You do the math. In the meantime, that guy is still bleeding. So I took him up to the 3rd floor and gave my best soldier his Stun launcher. The guy shoots and the Triscene goes to the land of dreams. End turn... Yep there's another one. Expected that, too.

 

Searching around a little (yes, that guy is still bleeding), I find the second one, and stun him with the Stun launcher. End turn... Nothing again. I move a few squares in the Triscene's direction, and I find another Triscene a few squares away. This was all in a very small claustrophobic space. I stun him, too. End turn... You guessed it, nothing. I send a guy into the nearby room, and someone shoots him. I reloaded, and shot into the wall, but couldn't see anyone inside. I send the guy in, he gets shot. I send the soldier with the stun launcher, and go to one of those small 4 square rooms. And guess who was inside.

 

I reloaded a few times until I figured out how to prevent my guys from being shot, shoot the door blocking the Triscene, and finally stun it. End turn...

...

 

...

 

ARRRRRGGGHH!!

 

No the mission was still not over. After discovering the fifth (!!!) Triscene in another room close by, I realised I was out of ammo for the Stun launcher, and that bleeding guy had only one turn left. Sooooo, I had to reload a little back and kill the last few Triscenes (again!), and in the meantime, send a guy to a fallen Aquatoid to pick up another Stun launcher and bring it to the third floor. but after a while he was pretty tired, so I had to send a guy to meet him. Finally I managed to bring the last Triscene down without that guy dying. What a relief.

 

 

 

BUT WAIT!! That's not all. If you order now, a few days after the mission you'll get your base attacked for the third time in the first five months. Hooray!!

 

Thank you for listening to this rant. I feel a lot better now. :mad:

[Pete]

Hehe, once they know your base is there they'll be knowcking on the door constantly.

 

What I don't understand is where the UFO/USO goes that dropped the intruders off? In theory, you've got three Dreadnoughts piled up on the roof of your base

[druid]

I fondly remember wasting months of my young life on TFTD and the only thing that

really annoyed me were the shipping missions,they took forever.

 

As I nvr played on maximum difficulty,which is why I have happy memories.

[Blehm 98]

i play on veteran and i've never had serious problems, its tough, but UFO defense isn't much easier

[Gimli]

Did I mention that I won't be doing the last mission? Come on, it took me a few hours to clear the second and third floor. Must be because I couldn't save in the last one.

[NKF]

Comparatively speaking, the last floor of T'Leth is a walk in the park on any difficulty level compared to, say, playing the interior level of a shipping lane mission, colony or artefact site without using saves on the easiest setting.

 

The last mission, except for the first level, where practically all the aquatoids have DPL launchers (and maybe shok launchers - technically quite lethal for a do or die mission), is a bit of a dissapointment really. It's linear, and about the only real danger are the tentaculats, and possibly the xarquids. If you have MC disrupters, there's always free scouts that can move on ahead of you to test the waters. Or rather, you're already in water, so it'll be out ahead to get shot, mangled, killed, or all of those listed together instead of one of your own.

 

- NKF

[ricardo440]

After many failed attempts at TFTD which included my bro and I hacking the soldier file and giving everyone 200 of everything or giving ourselves 2billion money I just could never do t.

 

I found out about the research tree bug, and screamed. So I had another go. This time for real on Superhuman.

I did all the shipping lane missions the easy way. I didn't. I let the poor sods die.

 

Then I got the perfect set up: an aquatoid base in shallow water near one of my bases.

My troops stowed the Sonic Weapons, got out the Gauss rifles, and waited. Ping a supply ship. Or TRAINING MISSION as I like to call them.

 

I must have killed 30 of those supply ships before the end of the game. They are perfect for training your troops though. Low risk, high reward mission that your guys can keep heading into to score lots of points (to make up for the ignored terror missions) and get loads of experience.

 

Once I had MC Every time I spotted an alien my guys in the truck would use all their time to try and control the thing. Didn't matter if they failed cos I would just fight like normal anyway. But every 3 days they got a little bit better.

Then when you can comfotably MC things you just walk them up to your MC guys and use a thermic lance. That way they build up STR and TU as well as PSI until they ahve 75 TU (enough to use MC 3 times).

 

The last mission was a joke. Mind controled everything. At the end an aquatoid or tasoth killed the bi brain thing with his Torpedo launcher.

[Rattler]

I love the fact this game is so hard............well cept for the Bio Drones. 100+% accuacy on a snapshot/reaction shot when playing on Superhuman sucks. So does wasting 5 Guass Rifle clips on a lobsterman only to have him get up 3 turns later to chop up one of your men(playing with out sound sucks in those cases)

 

My first lobsterman Terror Site was on a island, I learned my lesson quick that day. Took out one Bio Drone that was up above a hill in some trees, and a lobsterman that was on the roof of the hotel looking down on my LZ, and the Lobsterman near by. I MCed him, found out he was a navigator thermal shocked him like 3 times. I sent three men out(all freash rookies) out to grab him(2 of the three wound up being bait) and as much equipment as I could and chucked him into the Triton. Pretty sure I dusted off leaving that one brave rookie on the island all alone.

 

Oh and as to the last mission, if your smart and careful(IE don't go gun happy and kill everything before moving on) you can make it through the first and second levels of T'Leth with just one man(armed with two sonic cannons, 4 clips each and a belt full of gernades) But don't expect him to get anywhere in the third, I always got screwed by having two too many lobstermen in close procimty to each other

[NKF]

One cannon's enough, but two cannons do allow you to pull out a fresh cannon when you absolutely need it - though reloading is twice as long once both are empty.

 

You may want to use a vibroblade or a heavy thermic lance as your secondary weapon instead of a second sonic cannon. A drill would be the perfect weapon to use when in close quarters with a pack of lobstermen.

 

The last leg of the mission can be done solo with a bit of persistence and buckets of patience (and lots of luck against the tentaculats) - or at the very least a lot of attempts. You can actually reach the final chamber with just a heavy thermic lance, but this is one part in the game when it'll fail you completely. It cannot destroy the mission objectives. You need a sonic cannon or some pulsers to perform the coup-de-grace.

 

- NKF

[Loupgris]

I never finished this game, always impossible to finish the research tree because I did a bad study at a time.

[Solarius Scorch]

Why do I hate TFTD?

 

1) Alien stats. I understand that aliens are meant to be tougher than in the first game, but Tasoths were really an exaggeration: everything in the top league, and they do MC, too! THanks, I prefer Lobbstermen, who are tougher but have weaknesses. Tasoths are munchkin. (Yeah, the same applies to the 100%-accurate Bio-Drones, mentioned by Rattler.)

 

2) Rip-off. There's virtually nothing new in the game, except from vibroblades. They could do much better, don't you think?

 

3) Ship designs. While ships in EU were alien, strange, and sometimes unergonomical, they gave the feeling that their design is a consequence of something in the game, it seemed to have a purpose. Ships in TFTD are clearly designed just to make attackers' lives miserable; what's more, they use loops in game mechanics to achieve that effect, so they're not even honest fortresses. Boo!

 

4) Graphics. Yeah, technically it's more advanced, but when I saw the first alien in the game (a gillman), I thought I was gonna puke. The same applies to the geoscape.

 

5) You call THIS a gauss weapon?!

 

Still, I finished the game... And maybe will do that again. I will certainly play it!

[Gimli]

5) You call THIS a gauss weapon?!

 

This isn't Fallout, you know. Mmmm, what I wouldn't give for a Sonic gun in Fallout.

 

...

 

Now that I think of it, what I wouldn't give for a Bozar in X-COM.

[Solarius Scorch]

5) You call THIS a gauss weapon?!

 

This isn't Fallout, you know. Mmmm, what I wouldn't give for a Sonic gun in Fallout.

 

 

Well, I'm not thinking of Fallout alone Gauss weapon is a universal SF weaponry prop, just like laser wapons or power armors, and it works by accelerating a small metal missile inside an induction coil, much like in a traditional door bell. Giving that name to a weapon which is said to be evolved from plasma technology (sic!) is lame and shows that designers had absolutely no clue what they were talking about, or they just didn't care.

Anyway, this lameness was quite abundant in TFTD, including concepts like "molecular control" or "ion armor" (anyone knows what the heck does it have to do with ions?).

 

...

 

Now that I think of it, what I wouldn't give for a Bozar in X-COM.

 

Yeah, good question! And what about a BFG?

[Accounting Troll]

I must confess that more often than not, I end up aborting a shipping raid mission as soon as my Triton touches down. As most area effect weapons don't work out of water and it's a close range fight against physically stronger and enemies, and you are outnumbered, taking on the mission means accepting the probable loss of a lot of experienced aquanauts. I prefer to conserve them for battles I stand a good chance of winning.

 

Besides, a ship that sails on its own, with no armaments or military escort, in a region known to be heavily infested by the aliens is asking for trouble. Maybe the ship owner has taken out a remarkably large insurance policy against alien attack?

[Bomb Bloke]

I can just see the boat owners' mail.

 

The council of funding insurance companies is unpleased with your progress...

[Shades of Green]

I'd say that the biggest issue I've had with TFTD is Lobstermen and Lobstermen alone: sure, a successful stun-launcher hit takes them out, but all other weapons hardly hurt these bastards (it takes TWO heavy sonic direct hits to die, or atleast 9 gauss-rifle blasts) and they could also pincer you to death. Remove the Lobstermen, and the game will be far more playable.

 

Tentaculants are also VERY annoying by they, atleast, die easily when hit by anything.