Ridiculous Lobstermen

[Tyro]

Pff, lobstermen are soooo cheesy. I sniped them with a gas cannon "modified" to do 255 damage. Takes about 3-4 AP shots, on average, to down one. This is on Veteran level too.

 

I mean come on, 255 damage AP shells punch through USO hulls. It should cause a lobsterman to fly across the screen upon being hit, with bits trailing all across the map.

 

One sign a game is grossly unbalanced is when weapons hacked to do maximum damage doesn't kill with one shot . Any ideas how I can hack them to do 65535 damage?

 

Sorry, but I don't have the time like I used to, to be able to spend the time to be super-careful with my missions.

[NKF]

You know, from observation a few years ago, I feel lobstermen take 25% damage from AP rounds. We know from the UFO tests that all damage is double the listed Ufopaedia value, making the ufopaedia the average damage the gun is expected to deal. However, with the Lobstermen, I found myself doing a maximum of about 30 damage with the gas cannon and its 60AP shells - that's before applying the direct damage reduction that armour provides!

 

Let's see. 255 * 2 * 0.25 = 127 max damage. So with 0 to 127 Max damage, you're doing, on average, 63.5 or let's say 64 points of damage. A lobsterman soldier on superhuman has 24 all-round armour, so that 64 average damage is reduced to 40 damage. A superhuman lobsterman soldier, if I'm not mistaken, also has about 80 health (I'm guessing here). In a perfect world, two or three shots should have dealt with it easily, or a single shot had you rolled a perfect score. However, as damage is random, it's not too surprising that you may have spent up to 4 or more shots.

 

You might want to try and see what happens if you try it with HE rounds, or change the damage type to Gauss or Sonic.

 

I'll trust those with the official strategy guide to provide the actual resistance modifiers for the lobsterman.

 

- NKF

[Silverblade-T-E]

Aye lobestermen are grossly over the top but as the poste rpoints out they ARE resistant to AP stuff

 

Nealry all creatures take more damage from explosions at their FEET, ie grenades or misisles detonating beside them, low lower body armour

 

Incnediary wepaons are great ways to cook monsters inside hulls without damaging gear

 

Stun bombs work for full on lobsters..then blow them up as they lie there!

 

Thermic lances rock

 

[Tepid tasoth]

I play TFTD on the Beginner level ( I know, shame on me ) and those mutant usually go down after 2-3 hits from a Blasta. I think it'll be more shots on Superhuman, though... As usually 2, sometimes 3 hits from a Blasta are needed to drop a Tasoth and Tasoths happen to have similar health as lobstermen (125 vs. 115 or something, IIRC) I think that lobstermen are overrated.

 

I'm not that fond of melee combat at all, because you'll have to get right next to the alien which isn't an option in the field. However, I carry around stun rods just in case one of my aquanauts goes round a corner and stands next to an alien.

[Solarius Scorch]

I'm not that fond of melee combat at all, because you'll have to get right next to the alien which isn't an option in the field. However, I carry around stun rods just in case one of my aquanauts goes round a corner and stands next to an alien.

 

Well, I think carrying thermal drills is still worth considering... It oftem happens that you're standing only a few metres away from a lobsterman and you know you have only one shot... which certainly won't bother him (her?) in his (her?) carapace armor. In such cases it is generally advised to charge head on with thermal lance and use the few last points to try and make a big bloody hole in that carapace - and usually it works! Of cours, if it doesn't, you're as dead as Kurt Cobain.

[Zombie]

In the OSG for TFTD, it lists that Lobstermen are 200% susceptible to melee attacks (or blade). This number is correct as the executable has the same value. I know there are a few people out there who doubted whether this number was correct as it basically means that the max damage a blade deals (0-2x listed) is multiplied by 2 for an effective range of 0-4x listed. Breaking it down, that means the Vibro Blade has a range of 0-320 pts, the Thermic Lance is 0-440 pts and the Heavy Thermic Lance is 0-600 pts (all against the Lobsterman). Quite impressive numbers which probably leads to the disbelief.

 

Right now, I'm trying to set up a saved game to test this modifier out directly. But here's the thing: I basically tested this out in UFO. Check out this post for the particulars. True, for that test I was bumping up the damage modifier for terrain and items (not units), but it proves that even the weapon with the smallest damage range can be edited to dish out huge numbers by changing the associated damage modifier. So this proves that the damages are adjusted by the damage modifier no matter how big the difference is.

 

- Zombie

[Gimli]

Well I'm not that surprised, since the melee weapons were intended for that purpose by the designers, but it's still huge numbers.

[Faskalia]

Why does everyone hate lobsterman?

 

Biodrones are worse with their stupid >100% reaction fire and their explosive death

 

The easiest way to handle lobbies is to get the transmission resolver asap and avoid them.

If you however should feel like fighting get thermal tazers for every aquanout and throw explosives at their feet until you get the drills or thermic lances.

[Thunder_Gr]

Lobsters are one of my favorite enemies. I know they do not use PSI, and I can send my rookies in to do some battle. They are also fairly inaccurate. The easiest way to bring them down is with stun weapons of course. I generarly, however, manage to get them down with projectiles. I just try to use autoshot, from mid-distance, concentrated fire(3 or more soldiers). Even if I have to try for 2 turns, they are usually wounded enough from the first turn, that they will not be able to respond accurately, next turn. The only drawback is the ammunition consumption .

 

When I manage to get my melee-carying soldiers near, it is piece of cake, though. Especially with the more advanced melee weapons.

However, it is the only race I know my troops will be safe drom PSI attacks, and this is the most important IMO.

[Pete]

They're not so easy when I'm playing against them on Superhuman!

[Thunder_Gr]

Well, considering what are the alternatives...

Besides, no opponent should be easy on Superhuman

[Thunder_Gr]

OK, I admit I was wrong! The lobstermen are not that easy. My favorite opponents are the Gill Men and Deep One.