Hard Core X-COM

[Pete]

No, this isn't about nekkid Sectoids (though they are )

 

This is about my FIRST game of UFO on Superhuman with NO reloads (except for when it crashes or I need a break).

 

Well... the first time through a few days back I thought I was the bees knees. Kept with the human weaponery and tried to bypass lasers until I got me plasma weaponery.

 

Problem Number 1

 

Invariably, the first UFO I touched down by contained Sectoids. This was fine, except that at least one was carrying a heavy plasma. The rest sported a range of rifles and (believe it or not) in my case a Small Launcher.

 

I was being cautious right up until I ahd to enter the craft. It's the small square one with nowhere for the bad guys to hide. It's also a menace as you stand no chance as soon as you step in. Anticipating a few little grey foe, I had four of my team breaching the craft. The first guys walked through the door.

 

This is what he was greeted with:

 

 

I haven't altered this shot in any way, unfortunately. My first guy missed with his first shot and was toast. The other three valiantly tried to avenge his death, only to become as lifeless as their buddy after killing only two of the other Sectoids.

 

After losing eight of my twelve-man team killing 11 Sectoids in total (they must be really friendly to all fit on that ship - there's only five bloody seats!), I returned to base feeling confident that I'd learned my lesson. I researched some more gubbins (no medikits or motion detectors for me!) to try and sway the already-horrific war (yes, I realise one UFO doesn't constitute horrific, but I was caught unawares!).

 

To cut a long story short, my failure in that first attempt at Superhuman with no reloading was centred around NOT researching personal armour as soon as possible, then delaying my research fo Power Armour in favour of having an Avenger early on in the game. I was just so cocky that I actually thoguht I might WIN my first terror mission with no armour, a bunch of rifles and an eight man squad. No chance! I quickly gave up on playing it properly and reloaded lots (though abandoned the Terror Site as it was just too difficult and time-consuming).

 

Stay tuned for attempt number two, which I'm playing right now!

[Gimli]

Yes, on my very first mission like that, well, let's just say I have no idea what race was in the scout.

 

I took only four men, to prevent too many soldiers from dying. Turned out it wasn't such a bad idea, it's just that I chose the wrong man to move first. Instead of sending one to the back of the Skyranger, I chose the guy closest to the ramp, and pressed on the square in front of him. And something flew directly at him. And I got a nice message telling me all four of my soldiers are unconscious. Don't forget that I had to buy another Skyranger, too.

 

Yes, you're gonna have a LOT of soldiers dead (over 100 for me). Oh, and no, armor isn't going to help at all. If you're lucky your guy will survive one shot, but the next one will kill him.

 

I only went to one terror site. Lost only six out of ten men with Floaters and Reapers. And then I didn't go to another one until I got a few soldiers with Psi-amps.

 

And the Psi-amps were just pure luck. I was on a UFO mission, when an Ethereal Leader tried to use the Small launcher against my guys, missed and managed to stun himself. Some leader, eh?

 

Keep the commanding officers in the back, and send rookies to their death.

 

Hmm, I think I'm going to play like that again, now. It's easier than TFTD with reloads.

[ricardo440]

Never tried this but I have an idea.

 

Would it not be best to take in max men into every mission just so loses aren't so bad. Darwin and Atrition will be your friends.

 

Leave one guy in the back of the Ranger, and accept the fact that some times you are going to fail missions. Just try to minimize loses.

 

But yeah, 6 sectoids in one UFO is pretty sucky.

[Faskalia]

Well doing a superhuman without reloads makes you nuts. Maybe try only geoscape saves first. This way you can at least retry a mission.

 

But for breaking UFOs on superhuman: I always send a rookie with a primed grenade. The grenade wont blow up the engine, but it will get rid of the sectoids inside (you can even throw the nade, before your rookie suddenly turns into a pile of dust).

A save bet on superhuman is the blaster launcher: Research as soon as possible and then rely on advanced blaster launcher tactics. Abusing the proxy-nade glitch to get remote detonated blaster bombs is also worth a try, if you dont have the launcher researched yet, but need something to breach an ufo.

 

*sigh* I really need to beat TFTD without saves sometime, just to feel complete. :mad:

[Pete]

My second attempt involved more care, quicker research and more manufacturing (I usually just collect items from the battlefield, but after my fiurst attempt I realised I might nt be able to complete every mission I landed at).

 

Again, I lost five men of an eight man squad at my first UFO, but made sure that their deaths were not in vain!

 

Researching alien alloys first, then personal armour, my team weren't so vulnerable. Also, after checking the stats on th pistol compared to the rifle, I wondered why the hell I'd been using the rifle so much. The rifle sucks. The pistol rules. End of

 

Researching laser weapons and quickly getting that pistol and then the rifle, no Sectoid could stand i my way for very long. I then researched UFO Power Source after Elerium 115 (Fairly sure it's power source) and was quickly on my way to getting Power Armour.

 

I was getting good at laying in wait for aliens, creating crossfires and giving the enemy a difficult profile to hit (kneeling lots). All this sounds very basic stuff, but when you're not reloading the game no matter what, it's a whole different story!

 

Finally, I got some Power Armour, and decided to up my squad from eight to 14, making sure I was equipping my bigger squad with all the latest gadgets.

 

That's when it happened - Battleship attacked my base.

 

Fortunately I was home at the time, and thus began "The Battle of Alpine Alpha".

 

Let's face it, I was in deep crap from the very start. I had laser rifles and one heavy plasma to my name. 12 men wore power armour, one personal armour and one unfortunate chap was in his jumpsuit having just jumped out of bed.

 

Fearing the worst, Ethereals (surely not this early in the game?), Mutons (definitely not this soon) or Snakemen (let's not even go there) I also hoped for the best (Floaters would have been nice and simple).

 

What I ended up with was the twisted, Sectoid-infested middle ground - a war on three fronts with deadly accurate Sectoids, even deadlier Cyberdiscs and all the while my squad's minds being probed by the Sectoid infestation of Alpine Alpha.

 

From past experience, I selected the squad member nearest the access lift. He bravely walked stright in on turn one, blasted a Sectoid, almost got out of the door and died quite quickly from plasma fire.

 

I made good use of hiding places, maneuvering my men into position by running from door to door, hiding in rooms between turns. Unfortunately this wasn;t enough - the Sectoid's mind games kicked in and my squad started to turn on each other. I lost one good man in a power suit under a barrage of laser fire before quashing the uprising with a round from my heavy plasma at long range.

 

I decimated the Cyberdisc ranks from range, as they are especially susceptible to laser fire (thankfully I wasn't still using rifles this time!), but the Sectoids toyed with my squad still, causing me to have to excecite three more men.

 

They were dropping like flies, and unfortunately the enemy was still vast in number. Eventually that number seemed to begin to even out. The strongest minded individuals were surviving and the Sectoid reign of terror on my troop's little grey cells were having no effect.

 

With only four men left (three in power armoudr and one in personal armour) I was really worried. I knew there were at least three Sectoids on the loose, and I only had a vague idea as to where two of them were situated.

 

I sent a two man team to clear out a Sectoid in the access lift, only to find to my horror a Cyberdisc in there with him. Taking my chances, my brave soldier retreated (taking fire from the Sectoid, but surviving with 12 points of health left and three fatal wounds) and taking a pot-shot at the Sectoid. He missed.

 

My second guy, fortunately in the same corridor decided to tackle the Cyberdisc and solve the problem by levelling the lift's interior. He unloaded two rounds of auto-fire before retreating through a doorway. Only four foudn their mark and the Cyberdisc remained intact.

 

Fearing the worst (again) I checked the location of my remaining two men. The chap in the personal armour was nowhere near and being shadowed by a Sectoid, whilst the final guy was still a long way off. The final guy DID have a straight shot into the access lift from across the map however. He fired, I prayed and the Cyberdisc spluttered and... LOST CONSCIOUSNESS!

 

Praying once more, I clicked the next turn button.

 

Again, luckily, the Sectoid had decided to flee. Whislt my injuredman quickly ran him down, the other chap near to him explored the corridor near my base's top-most hangar. Another turn ended. A hideous sound made by a huge oject tearing through the air was heard and the corridor jsut around the corner of this soldier erupted in a HUGE explosion, killing the Sectoid who had (fortunately) mis-aimed his Blaster Launcher waypoints.

 

I had no idea they could use that weapon so early on in the game! I was even more terrified of the outcome now as I knew there was one more alien left and he might be sporting the same deadly weapon in some dark corner of the map whilst one of my soldiers leaked his life-force all over the base.

 

Time for my peraonl armour chap to be a hero for the fifth time this game and step outside the room he was... err... inspecting (nothiding honest!), around a corner and come face to face with a Sectoid with a bad attitude who biizarrely wasn't panicking at this point in the game.

 

I knew that if my shitty laser rifle missed I was toast. Again, fortunately, I had taken him by complete surprise and whislt the first two shots grazed his shoulders, the third redecorated the wall behind him in thick, green blood and a nice brain-matter texture. My soldier likes green now, it's his favourite colour.

 

That was the day I almost lost the war. After that closest of calls, I'm stocking up on more soldiers, building better craft to defend my base and researching base defences with renewed vigour. Hopefully it'll be enough and in time, as my resources and funs are low, there's no alien bases I know of to raid, and most of my men are back in jumpsuits!

[NKF]

Pete, suggestion: If and when you are faced with that first sticky situation again, don't go in. Let them come to you. Aliens will pretty much always leave the ship if you let them (with one exception, depending on the ship). How you deal with them after they leave the ship is up to you, but it's a lot safer than barging in on them like that.

 

- NKF

P. S: I'm getting confused recollections that you don't need to research elerium to build power armour. But I may just be confusing myself with TFTD, because I know in that one you don't need to research Zrbite to build ion armour, but you do need it to get the transmission resolver in order to build the subs.

 

P. P. S: Faskilia, no, don't ever go in with a primed grenade, especially in the medium scout where the power unit is just through the door. The power unit may survive, but the elerium that it holds will not.

[Bomb Bloke]

How could that soldier first into that medium scout miss??? I'd've expected to have taken at least one sectoid out with an autoshot at that sort of range, three sectoids with a little luck (given that it is superhuman mode).

 

I wouldn't prime a grenade and walk in, too much risk to your own troopers. I mean, what if the unfortunate bomber falls unconcious?

 

If you're gonna use grenades, use 'em properly. Whether you want to risk the UFO booty over your squad members is up to you.

[Pete]

NKF - I'm a lot more cautious lately. The Snakemen are turning out to be a more deadly foe than I had expected, far more accuratet han I remember and taking more than one or two shots from a laser rifle. If it hadn't have been Sectoids in that base, I may very well have lost everything.

 

Power Armour requires elerium in the manufacturing process, so I'm fairly sure it is a requirement, even if only so you can manufacture it.

 

Back to that scout again - those little buggers just didn't want to come out. I waited patiently for about 4 turns (that's patient for me ) before opening up the tin can.

 

BB - If I was a squaddie faced with those odds, I'd be crapping myself slightly. Though I don't think UFO has a "eeek! I'm terrified" value, I didn't mind losing him as it was more realistic.

 

Two questions for future reference - can an HE grenade breach the external wall of a UFO? Also, what the hjel to I need for the hyperwave decoder? I seem to recall a navigator, but can't be too sure.

 

I'm off to hunt for leaders. I need to know the strength of my people's minds...

[Faskalia]

Power Armour requires elerium in the manufacturing process, so I'm fairly sure it is a requirement, even if only so you can manufacture it.

 

Two questions for future reference - can an HE grenade breach the external wall of a UFO? Also, what the hjel to I need for the hyperwave decoder? I seem to recall a navigator, but can't be too sure.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Power armor requires alien alloys and elirium-115 to be researched. Mabye it also requires personal armor to be researched. THough i am not shure on the last one I should have a closer look

 

Hyperwave decoder needs a psi-alien, if i recall correctly.

 

Edit: Forgot the last one: Everything, that has a strength >= 200 cann breach a ufo hull.

[Bomb Bloke]

The only weapon that can punch a hole in the hull of a UFO is the Blaster Bomb. Not sure if the HWP version has enough power, though. I gather there is also a glitch that lets you 'sneak' explosions in, but I've never put much research into it myself.

 

A psi-powered alien (any Etheral, or a Sectoid Leader/Commander) will give access to the psi-lab. By my memory, any navigator ranked alien will give access to the hyperwave decoder.

 

I didn't expect that squaddie to live (except maybe on beginner mode, with help from above) - I did expect her to take down at least one of the greys with her, though!

 

By the way, I really can't stress how much kneeling helps. Two units lined up like that, while standing, is asking for a double kill if the aliens react with an autoshot. The guys to the side might have been better off facing into the craft, as well - that way if an alien tried to come out the door, they'd see it and hopefully react before it managed to step through.

[Hobbes]

Pete, one suggestion to make the game even more harder (if you're using XComUtil): turn on the option concerning research help from captured aliens.

What it does is to greatly increase the research time for all items and the only way to reduce the time is to capture aliens (some ranks drop more the research in some projects than others, for instance a Navigator cuts Hyperwave Decoder by 50 or 75%).

This also turns UFO assaults into big bloodbaths because your soldiers will have to get close to use stun rods. I've had several situations close to the picture you've posted where I lost entire squads trying to stun all the aliens inside. But if you manage to stun all the aliens inside (it becomes very awarding when you get the Sectoid with the Stun Launcher to stun all the aliens for you) then your current research projects will suffer quite an improvement.

I am playing my current game of UFO like that. So far it's November, I have Power Suits, Plasma Rifles, Hyperwave Decoder and Firestorm. Heavy Plasma and Avenger are still going to take a while...

[Blehm 98]

Yes, i only play on veteran, and i always have xcomutil turn on the alien help research

 

also, xcomutil makes HE 200 damage, so you can use it too

[Gimli]

The Navigators definitely give you the decoder.

 

There's another thing that troubles me, though. Do the aliens use the rest of the blaster bombs after they0ve used the first one? The reason why I ask is, I seem to see a lot of aliens walking around with nothing in their hands at all.

 

I forgot to talk about my first base defense played like that. I was lucky to some degree. Since the game crashes ocasionally, I save a lot to be able to get back to the point just before the crash. Anyway, the ethereals attacked my base (this was somewhere in 1999), and started wiping me out. And then it crashed. So I reloaded a save before the attack and bought more men, now totalling 18. One of them had a flying suit, a few of them had personal armours, the rest were armorless (is that a new word I just invented? ). I had plasma pistols, and I had almost no elerium, so getting power/flying armors was pretty difficult and expensive because my men didn't last very long with them either.

 

Luckily, I changed tactics. I hid all my men in rooms, and only sent rookies with no armor out to get shot. I only lost 9 men, but I lost the only guy with the flying suit.

 

Get Psi amps. The odds will shift in your way tremendously. Five men with 3 attempts per turn, and one or two plasma tanks and no aliens (except maybe the ethereals) will stand a chance. If you're patient you can even do the "Chain tactic" ™. You spot a few aliens and mind control them all, bring one alien in front of your transport, and position the second one as far as possible but in the line of sight of the first one and so on. It's funny, but can get quite boring after awhile.

 

And when you go to Cydonia, take at least three plasma tanks. And Psi infantry of course. You won't stand much chance otherwise (I didn't ). And when you get to the second part, psi the celatids, they're very precise and useful. I think they can bring down a Sectopod in 1-2 shots (at least in my case). Just use the aliens against their friends. Blaster launchers of course. Once you clear the first floor, the second one should actually be easier.

 

Also I recommend building some plasma/fusion defences and the grav shield. Keeps you safe from bas attacks, although after four months it gets boring seeing aliens attack you every few days.

 

Avoid terror sites until you get psi amps.

[Hobbes]

The Navigators definitely give you the decoder.

 

There's another thing that troubles me, though. Do the aliens use the rest of the blaster bombs after they0ve used the first one? The reason why I ask is, I seem to see a lot of aliens walking around with nothing in their hands at all.

 

That is a "bug" that happens because of the objects limit in a game. You can only have a set number of objects/units(including alive and dead bodies) in tactical. In base defense games, where you usually can have a lot of units, X-COM and alien, together with 80 objects (plus the aliens' weapons) the game generates the aliens but since there isn't more space for the plasma weapon and clip they end up without any weapons at all.

 

And Psi infantry of course. You won't stand much chance otherwise (I didn't ).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

To me psi-amps are for psissies. Nothing like doing it the old fashioned way

[NKF]

Another possible explanation for aliens wandering without weapons: The alien was knocked out, and has woken up again.

 

In TFTD, there are some classes of alien that start without weapons - at all. Technicians, mainly. Not counting the terror units, I don't recall ever seeing aliens in a plain vanilla copy of UFO starting without weapons on purpose, unless it's in the same case as Hobbes said, and there are no more slots in the object table. If you've tweaked your game to generate more aliens than the game normally creates, then you're bound to hit this problem as there is insufficient object table space. (XComutil allowed you to adjust the difficulty level beyond what the game's normal level, this tended to produce a lot more aliens)

 

One other possibility is that the alien just threw a grenade. They tend to briefly strap their weapon onto their right leg whenever they do this, so it does look like they aren't carrying their weapon.

 

---

 

Pete: When I mentioned not needing elerium, I meant not needing it researched. The game will extract the apropriate amount anyway for building, so yes, it is needed in that sense, but I was wondering if the actual research was required. I know this is how it works with TFTD's Zrbite, I just couldn't remember if it was the case with UFO, is all. If I get a chance, a quick test should be enough to remind me.

 

- NKF

[Danial]

The reason why I ask is, I seem to see a lot of aliens walking around with nothing in their hands at all.

I know that after an Alien uses a grenade, they will look like they have nothing in their hand until they next fire their gun.

[Blehm 98]

Yeah, that is very annoying, to discover what you thought was a previously stunned alien just instead threw a grenade and decides to pull out his heavy plasma

 

NKF, to weapons ever generate for aliens without clips?

[Hobbes]

Yeah, that is very annoying, to discover what you thought was a previously stunned alien just instead threw a grenade and decides to pull out his heavy plasma

 

NKF, to weapons ever generate for aliens without clips?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Or when the alien is bare-handed because he panicked and you forget that they still carry grenades...

[NKF]

Weapons without clips? Not under normal circumstances. I suppose it could happen if the aliens were in the same predicament as you, or if they used up all the shots.

 

XComutil 'enhanced' difficulty levels could make such a situation possible, with aliens at the end of the unit table getting less than their complete set of equipment due to a full object table.

 

But I'm only guessing that.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

My observations seem to indicate that each weapon is created in the object list before the ammo that goes with it.

 

This makes sense if you think about it. It'd be impossible to create the ammo that goes in a gun before knowing which gun the ammo is supposed to go into.

[ricardo440]

Pete:

If you get an alien base nearby that is run by sectoids don't attack it. Wait and every 3 days they will send their supply ship in. An easy mission with huge rewards.

You can use blaster bombs to punch a hole in the roof, and then send a couple in to kill all the command staff before you are even fighting the soldiers.

 

you can then clean up the rest of the mess.

 

If you have PSI then the normal troops are great to practice on. After a few months of doing that you will have a squad of ninjas and more goodies than you ever need.

[JellyfishGreen]

Pete: regarding the use of HE on UFOs. Or, as I like to call them, satchel charges.

 

1. The HE won't breach the hull, except in two cases - you are in the mountains, and the mountainous-terrain-bug applies, or you used XCOMUTIL or similar to crank the damage up to 200 or more.

 

2. However, explosions on tiles with diagonal walls should still affect both inside and outside the ship. I like using rocket tanks for this. I think more research is needed here in non-combat situations, as having charges go off just before breaching team entry sounds like a good plan! On a medium scout, though, it might be hard to set charges on the front corners and still have all your soldiers out of the way.

 

Destroying the elerium a problem, of course; but on a large cross-scout, bomb away.

 

PS. Wait more than four turns before entry next time the second-best way to improve reaction skills.

[Fishfins]

I've hardly used power armor in my game - elerium is just too expensive too expensive considering I've seen some of my guys die in one hit while wearing them. Personal armor only became compulsory for every soldier several months in the game. My usual method to counteract unusually high death rates is to have each soldier complete 10 missions, then give them an easy posting - training the PSI troops in regular combat, guarding Interceptor Bases and eventually a Cydonia trip if they're Psionic enough.

 

I've got a couple of those crowded Medium Scout scenarios. Assaulting them with grenades is effective, but there will always be X-Com deaths. Grenades should be compulsory, m'yes.

 

Terror Missions are horrible! I researched Laser Pistols as early as possible (since I could never get Laser Rifles in time), barely won the first Terror Mission then made dang sure to shoot down every Terror Ship.

 

Base defense is fun if you can arrange the map in a linear fashion, although it does have a bug that prevents rooms branching off from having a door. Mutons and Floaters get slaughtered, though I'll happily do anything to stop Sectoids or Ethereals from landing.

[NKF]

That last bit. Base disjoint bug. Get some paper and a pencil and take a note of this diagram I've made for future reference:

 

https://www.geocities.com/nkfarma/reference/bdb.html

 

If you use Xcomutil, it smashes the walls out completely and makes the base less appealing to look at with lots of gaping holes along the edges. Crude but effective.

 

---

 

Medium scout: All aliens will eventually leave the medium scout given enough time, as there aren't any that are rooted to one spot like in the abductor and occasionally the large scout. Sometimes you have to entice them to leave by positioning a soldier in line with the door - it seems to get them excited.

 

You can easily wait up to 80 turns or more just waiting for them to leave, but they will and your patience will save lives. If the medium scout is up against the southern edge of the map, just wait around the corners. This forces them to move further and put them at a considerable reaction level disadvantage, which is always good.

 

Before you go on the long wait, clear the map of all nasties. This way ending the turn continuously for many turns without doing anything will feel like a very short time.

 

- NKF

[JellyfishGreen]

Which reminds me of something I was meaning to try regarding base layout. I want to put hangars on the bottom or right in my next game, my tendency is always to put them in the upper left. I also want a single-entry point to the hangars, and preferably to come in through the sliding door (a bonus for attaching to the right side of the hangar). So I have to figure and sketch that out before I go and build.