How to Deal with CyberDiscs?

[M. Hoz]

I once got a CD in one snapshot in Cydonia.

Heavy Plasma,ALWAYS WORKS.

[Jman4117]

In my experience the Cyberdisks blow up about 90% of the time. Shoot it first, it blows and takes about 3 sectiods with it.

[NKF]

With that I'm in complete agreement with. The heavy plasma kills everything. But I must point out that you often get terror sites before you can even complete research on the laser rifle, much less the heavy plasma, even if you started on it first.

 

For much later:

 

From what I've observed, autoshots always detonate cyberdiscs - even if only one shot hits (given it's the killing blow). So if you want to ensure a better chance of detonation, use autofire.

 

Single shots from strong weapons like the heavy plasma and the powerful heavy laser (tank version) often get a chance of not detonating cyberdiscs. It's rather a small chance, and rarely seems to happen in the collectors edition, but it does occur a lot in the dos version.

 

Strong Bob: Not using grenades? You're depriving yourself of some of the most useful indirect fire weapons in the game! I recommend that you - and anyone else who wants to try - to start a separate campaign from the one you're playing now, and force yourself to use just grenades. Bring one laser pistol or laser rifle to attack flyers you can't get with the grenades (feel free to use a heavy plasma for sectopods, I know how tough these buggers are) and a stun-rod for capturing aliens. Otherwise, only direct-fire weapons are off-limits here, so armour, probes, etc are still okay. Impose any other challenges such as no psi-amps and playing ironman mode if you want a tougher challenge.

 

See how far you can get. Don't worry too much about not collecting much loot. Grenades, surprisingly enough, don't hurt your budget very much. Even if you use grenades all the time, this 'challenge' can prove to be lots of fun, and very humbling when you run out of grenades too quickly.

 

- NKF

 

P. S: For those curious, if you're out in the open, and if you have max energy (70), you can actually throw 'high explosives' about 23 tiles! (the ordinary and alien grenades can be thrown up to 33 tiles). This is assuming there are no obstructions immediately above you and you're on the ground.

[Strong Bob]

Strong Bob: Not using grenades? You're depriving yourself of some of the most useful indirect fire weapons in the game! I recommend that you - and anyone else who wants to try - to start a separate campaign from the one you're playing now, and force yourself to use just grenades. Bring one laser pistol or laser rifle to attack flyers you can't get with the grenades (feel free to use a heavy plasma for sectopods, I know how tough these buggers are) and a stun-rod for capturing aliens. Otherwise, only direct-fire weapons are off-limits here, so armour, probes, etc are still okay. Impose any other challenges such as no psi-amps and playing ironman mode if you want a tougher challenge.

To be honest, I've always done a lot better without grenades. Every time I've tried to use one in UFO Defense I always ended up losing an irrepairable amount of TUs to just put it in hand and prime it. (Which takes an entire turn to do most of the time.) And once I do that, it's likely that the Aliens have already moved out of the target area I planned to throw the thing in the first place. And then the grenade becomes useless... Actually it becomes my worst enemy because I can't let my soldier drop it or put it away without it blowing up on him!

 

So really, to me grenades screw me over more than help. But I'm curious as to how you've discovered grenades to be at all useful, so far the only grenade tactic I can think of is by having a soldier walk around with a primed grenade to begin with, before even encountering an enemy. And that's a bit too restricting to me, I mean, what if I never spot a good grenade opportunity throughout the whole mission? Then I run the risk of encountering the bug where the grenade will go off on my Skyranger in the next mission!

[BladeFireLight]

Then I run the risk of encountering the bug where the grenade will go off on my Skyranger in the next mission!

 

They only blow if they are on the ground... why would you leave equipment behind? I have enought problems with the 80 item limit. I dont see how you could have bring alowg stuff you dont need.

 

-Blade FireLight

[NKF]

Strong Bob: As Bladefirelight said, grenades only explode if they are on the ground. Yes, live grenades are a liability, and if you get stunned it will go off.

 

Yes, you are correct, grenades take 50% of your TUs to prime and 25% to throw. Not good unless you are already in position, or have a few pre-primed grenades.

 

But here are a few points you might want to consider. Firstly, grenades are area effect weapons - thus accuracy is no big deal and you can often hit multiple enemies (both a pro and a con). Secondly they go over walls, which means you can get aliens you cannot even see. Third, the person who sees the alien needn't prime the grenade. You can always use the grenade relay. Have someone in the rear prime the grenade, and then toss the grenade to the nearest person, and have that person toss the grenade over to the next and repeat this until it reaches the alien. Note that ther person getting the experience is the last person to throw the grenade.

 

Finally, one good excuse to use grenades is to train soldiers with excellent physical stats, but horrible firing accuracy. The game raises firing accuracy by the number of times you successfully 'hit' an enemy with a bullet. This same score is increased for every alien caught in the grenade's blast area.

 

You really learn to appreciate them by actually using them. It's a bit like how I've grown very fond of the pistol class weapons. They, like the grenades, have their niche in the grander scheme of things.

 

Master everything, and you'll have a whole lot more options available to you. Me, personally, I like leaving the combat zone a barren wasteland.

 

- NKF

 

P. S: You must keep in mind, I'm the resident forum weirdo who often makes attempts at taking on entire floater bases with one veteran soldier and a standard pistol just for fun. Normal people don't do that er -- normally.

[Strong Bob]

Then I run the risk of encountering the bug where the grenade will go off on my Skyranger in the next mission!

 

They only blow if they are on the ground... why would you leave equipment behind? I have enought problems with the 80 item limit. I dont see how you could have bring alowg stuff you dont need.

 

-Blade FireLight

The game doesn't allow you to unload stuff off your Avenger once it's loaded on. It's probably a bug on my end, but it says that the cargo holds in my base is always full. Besides, what constitutes as equipment that you don't need? Even I find use of leftover junk in my Avenger/Skyranger, except maybe grenades and those useless electro flares and stun prods, whether it's rearming panicked soldiers or changing one guy's current weapon. I don't see why someone wouldn't leave a stash in their transport. It's quite an advantage really.

 

But here are a few points you might want to consider. Firstly, grenades are area effect weapons - thus accuracy is no big deal and you can often hit multiple enemies (both a pro and a con). Secondly they go over walls, which means you can get aliens you cannot even see. Third, the person who sees the alien needn't prime the grenade. You can always use the grenade relay. Have someone in the rear prime the grenade, and then toss the grenade to the nearest person, and have that person toss the grenade over to the next and repeat this until it reaches the alien. Note that ther person getting the experience is the last person to throw the grenade.

 

Then this causes another problem. Not only would it take sheer chance that your soldiers are in the right position to pull that off... Instead of using the TUs of one person to throw the grenade you end up wasting up a fourth the squad's TUs, and the extra TUs it would take to drop a weapon, pick up the 'nade, throw it, and arm the weapon again would be a painful waste. I can see how they'd be useful for splash damage and the arc also makes a decent advantage, but the TU cost is absurd. I always found the grenades much more useful in Apocalypse set to real-time, because I could always throw the grenade right when I need it.

[NKF]

Well, you do indeed spend a bit more time units with the grenade relay, but again, the advantage is that the fellow who sees the alien needn't prime the grenade him or herself, and only needs to spend 8 points + 25% of his or her TUs to throw the armed grenade, and still retreat to safety or perhaps take a pot shot at someone else. Compare that with 75% for going through the entire drill of arming and throwing a grenade - which is often impossible if you've spent most of it already, or if you need to make a hasty retreat only to move a few squares and run out of TUs and still end up in the alien's field of vision (bad).

 

With the grenade relay, the person who primed the grenade, who had to spend 75% of his or her time units can stay well behind the front line and safe from enemy fire. And those in the chain only need to spend 25% + 8 points, which is a minimal cost to pay at best, and they can still get off a shot or two and move about (or get used in another grenade relay chain). Note that you needn't have too many soldiers in the chain, as you can throw quite far. Soldiers who have 40 to 70 strength are of particular note since they can lob high explosive packs quite a distance. Those things pack a massive punch, despite being twice as heavy as an alien grenade.

 

Alternately, pre-prepare your grenades and cram the grenades into the soldier's shoulder slots. This way, it's almost Apocalypse-like in that you spend no time arming the grenade and only end up spending 3 points (slot to hand) + 25% time units to throw (or less if you drop the grenade - but dropping doesn't count towards experience for some reason). But the risks are heavy too, as this means instant death should you get stunned - and it also means spending a turn or two in safety at the beginning of the game.

 

Everything has its advantages and its risks. It's just that the advantages of the grenade relay outweigh the disadvantages, even though it costs a bit more. For example, rather than a few brand new soldiers (mostly behind the front-lines) spending all their TUs firing shots at one alien with rifles, with the chance that most of the shots will miss, why not get a guaranteed hit with a high-explosive charge for a 110 damage and also get anyone nearby for the low cost of 75% TUs to prime and 25% + 8 TUs for every person in the chain and still have some soldiers who can move away or fire off a shot or two just in case?

 

That's just one of the many options available to you. Granted, you don't need to ever use grenades to win the game, but the same can be said for direct fire weapons too.

 

The reason Apocalypse's grenade priming is much more advantageous is because priming a grenade in Apocalypse costs 0 time units in turn based, or 0 seconds in real-time (and the blast-on-impact setting in either mode is a real helper too). Of course you wouldn't use the grenade relay here for armed grenades. But it is still a useful tactic in general for moving a grenade (or any other objects for that matter) to the front lines without having to run about so much (very useful in turn-based, or for getting a medikit to a wounded soldier fast in real-time).

 

--

 

As for your problem with unloading equipment. Spend some time and clear out your stores a bit and transfer some to another base if possible. You must have a giant pile of unused junk. While the storage capacity of your stores (Even if you don't have stores, for that matter) is nigh infinite, the game still needs you to keep your items in the base under the storage limit (set by how many stores you've built - check what you currently have in the base information screen). You can build new items and haul equipment back from the base without worrying about the storage limit. But transferring, buying or unloading equipment from a ship absolutely requires that you have enough free space in order to perform either of these actions. For me, it's usually an excess amount of alien alloys or heavy plasmas + clips. If it turns out to be your elerium, try to distribute it among your bases (for me, this is the cue to to build a giant storage facility at one of the polar caps).

 

- NKF

 

P. S: Before I forget: Who says you have to drop your weapon to pick up and throw a grenade? Grenades are one-handed and and can be thrown without penalty even if you're holding a two handed rocket launcher in the other hand, so you needn't spend 10 TUs to drop and pick up the gun. This is only a problem if you're using dual pistols. It's a bit odd, but all soldiers in UFO, TFTD and Apocalypse are ambidextrous and can shoot guns or throw grenades in one hand just as well as the other.

[Strong Bob]

Well, I like to make full use of my squad when in battle. If I performed that grenade method I'd only broaden the TU loss among everyone, which would hamper a good portion of my squad a little instead of simply hampering one guy leaving the rest of the men fully active and ready. Heh, I guess the strategy I use just isn't compatible with grenades, I've beaten the game on the first three difficulties just fine without them.

 

The shoulder slots sounds good for preparing in mission, but still if I don't use it in that mission then it'll only blow up later. It's not worth the risk.

 

I'll check out the storage issue though, thanks for the advice there.

[Jman4117]

Strong Bob: Use Blaster Bombs then :devil:

Have about 8 guys in the Avenger nuking anything that moves.

[NKF]

The grenade relay doesn't need too many people to perform. It's just a matter of getting a live grenade from one location to another location without actually walking the distance. Two to three soldiers is often sufficent for a decent chain covering half or more of the playing field, and that's out of all soldiers you normally bring in. And their TUs aren't necessarily wasted. If it means another dead alien, then the TUs have been wisely invested.

 

Note that the relay doesn't necessarily have to begin too far away from the person spotting the alien. In fact, the person starting the chain could just be a few tiles away from the scout. If the soldier cannot throw far enough to get the alien, and cannot walk to get in range, then it's just a matter of passing it to someone that can.

 

Also, unspent live grenades do not get wasted when the mission ends. In fact, they get put back in storage - deactivated too. It's armed proximity mines that cause the most trouble - sometimes even during the battle, and not just in the next one.

 

It's just a matter of giving them a chance. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your weapons and you'll learn to appreciate them better (and consequently, learn how to use them better).

 

The only weapon in the entire X-Com series that I'd willingly throw away would be the dart-gun, but that's doesn't technically count here.

 

- NKF

[JellyfishGreen]

Once you have alien grenades researched, these will pop Cyberdisks nicely. It's May in my current game and I was hit shorthanded by a Sectoid terror site, six soldiers and a HWP against, count 'em, six lurking cyberdisks on level 4 difficulty. Thanks to having at least one hot potato each, laser rifles, satchel charges, and a couple of heavy rockets, it took a few attempts, but we made it through with two dead and one wounded. (Tell those plasma researchers to HURRY UP!)

 

The grenade relay was useful but carefully check those time units - very embarassing being able to run over to the mis-tossed live grenade but then not being able to pick it up in time.

[adamgiles]

(Sniff!) (Sniff!) Do I smell cheap people here?!? GO BUY THE GAME!! I've never understood how owning a computer makes paople so cheap. You bought a COMPUTER! and you can't afford a $20 GAME?!? That's the wonderful thing about PC games they'll always be $20 or less while console games are $60!!

[BreakMage]

1) He already bought it. I had an old 1.2 version and lost the manual.

2) Actually... Collector's edition is $9.99 in the bargain bin.

3) Wrong thread?

[Strong Bob]

It's the right thread. It must have taken a while for his message to get posted or something.

[Guest Sasquatch]

PC Games are always $20 or less? Damn! Tell me where you are buying new releases that cheap!

[Strong Bob]

Greatly depends on the game you're buying. Big MMORPGs often range to about $50 but are sometimes as cheap as $30. (Mainly because sufficient revenue is generated by the monthly payments.) Good single player games can be between 40-50 bucks, but the price often lowers $5 to $10 after a month. Your average, half decent, PC games are 20 to 40 bucks. The smaller, or older, games are 20 and below.

[M. Hoz]

Heh about 1/4 a year after it's out,Microsoft's CFS3 costs 230 NIS!

(That's about 50$ for you)

 

But let's put that on another thread OK?

[Ki-tat Chung]

i never had much problems with CD's personally. just killed 'em. shoot first and ask questions later. or upset the sci's anyway...

[JellyfishGreen]

Ki-tat, to make your last post relevant, what did you shoot them with? And how did you handle them before Heavy Plasma?

[Stewart]

Hello

 

New here.  Just started playing XCOM again after a lapse of many years (thank god for abandonware!)  Anyhoo, what is the best practice for offing CyberDiscs?  I know they're resistant to AP & HE, but its only Jan. 20th and my other weapon choices are "limited".

 

Thanks for any tactics!

Toss a high explosives under 'em; gets 'em ev'ry time.

[Jman4117]

Laser rifle autoshot, HE pack, large rockets, two tank rockets......hmmm