Reaction skill

[ReCo]

after many years of playing ive invented my own method to train reaction skill; i armed all my men with dart guns and went hunting aliens with 2 displacers in front of my squad; as for now, they react usually after the enemy fires first;

once they have about 100 reaction points, will they always fire when the alien tries to move? i play on superhuman difficulty

and what do you think about the following method to train bravery?

clear the level, leave one alien alive, return to leviathan, arm about 10 or more recruits with grenades and detonate them, usually morale of my veterans drop to 0; after some turns when morale is back to 50+ hunt the remaining alien

[NKF]

I've always found it incredibly difficult to train reactions in TFTD, but you do have something good going there. The aliens tend to go right after the closest unit to them, and SWS are semi-disposable reaction fire magnets thanks to their low base reaction score. Once the aliens have opened fire, their initiative drops considerably.

 

If you want to learn more about reactions (and I HIGHLY recommend that you do), check out the X-Com wiki's fairly extensive aritcle on Reactions. It's based on UFO, but because UFO and TFTD use the same game engine, everything in here applies to TFTD as well - just substitute the name and weapons with TFTD equivalents and you're all set. Be sure to check out the related articles in the See Also section at the bottom.

 

By the way, I'd probably recommend using the gauss pistol for your reaction training. It's snap shots are very fast (very important to effective reaction shots) and has a much large ammo clip than the dart gun.

 

One possible effective solution would be to use Mag Ion Armour, gauss pistols and unarmed Lobstermen. Although, I don't remember if you can trigger reactions against unarmed units with a built-in melee attack.

 

----

 

Bravery training - I don't usually recommend that you actively pursue training bravery. Its only effect is to reduce the impact of morale loss, and does not make you more psi resistant. But the way to improve it is to drop your morale under 50, and then resist panicking. The longer you can resist panicking, the better the chance of earning a +10 bonus to bravery and the usual bonus to your secondary stats.

 

By the way, how are you dropping your morale with the explosives? Are you detonating them next to the soldier you're trying to train? Wouldn't this be dangerous for your troops?

 

- NKF

[BladeFireLight]

By the way, how are you dropping your morale with the explosives? Are you detonating them next to the soldier you're trying to train? Wouldn't this be dangerous for your troops?

 

Seemed obvious to me.. he has a few cannon fodder frag themselves for the good of the rest of the men.

 

-Blade FireLight

[ReCo]

That was exacly what i meant. Its better to blow up the weak rookies than to sack them. 10 rookies die and the morale of the rest of the team takes a big hit. Results? Usually a man or two get 10 point bravery boost after the misson is completed.

 

Moreover, the idea how to skill reaction was brilliant, you dont even need Displacers to make it work. Just arm your man with dart guns (no other weapon is suggested by me). Find an alien holding a sonic rifle or cannon. Fly towards the victim. The distance between your 14 men team and the enemy Lobster, Gill or Tasoth should be about 10 squares or a little more. Make each soldier look at the victim and push the "end turn" button. Beast tries to shoot you. Usually its unable to break magnetic ion armor so the damage done by alien equalls 0. Then the soldiers start to react, each of them fires usually about 3 times so the enemy get 3x14=42 hits. Some of them will miss. The best part? Dart Gun can't kill the alien so after 4 turns every soldiers will react about 12 times. And the lone alien will still be alive. That gives a nice roll to boost reaction skill for your every man. In case the alien has some luck and damages you badly, just load the game. Ill say it once more: dart gun is brilliant here as it is unable to kill most aliens. Using a Displacer as a bait is also suggested. you dont need to worry about your man.

 

Remember that manufacturing a Displacer takes away only some Zrbite, training new soldier up to veteran level (120 FA) takes usually more then a month. And you MUST know the recruit MC power before the training should begin so it could take even much longer. Waiting for the wounded soldiers to recover takes some weeks.

So the conclusion is: do not get your veterans killed or wounded. On the other hand: having a displacer destroyed is not a tragedy. Use them as baits freely

 

thanks for the links, they were usefull

 

ReCo

[Hobbes]

That was exacly what i meant. Its better to blow up the weak rookies than to sack them. 10 rookies die and the morale of the rest of the team takes a big hit. Results? Usually a man or two get 10 point bravery boost after the misson is completed.

 

That's evil! I luv it though LOL

[Bomb Bloke]

"Now then men, this is what happens if you don't shape up..."

[ReCo]

A little update:

 

After some intensive researches ive discovered an improved way to train bravery.

 

Step1

Put your team (about 14 soldiers) and 10 weak rookies into a Leviathan. Shoot down some smaller USO and elimanate all but 1 alien.

 

Step2

All your soldiers should return to Leviathan while the rookies should go outside. You should unarm all the soldiers (so they dont kill each other while they berserk)

 

Step3

Separate 5 or 6 rookies from the rest and detonate them using DPL or just a sonic grenade. Watch the morale of your soldiers, if it is still above 50 - just kill 1 or 2 more rookies.

Keep pressing "End Turn" button as long as your men has morale under 50. It takes sometimes about 10 or more turns (more=better).

Once all soldiers have 50 or more , throw a grenade and detonate 1 or 2 rookies. start hitting "end turn" button. Repeat the process as long as you have rookies left.

Of course there are some factors that change the number of rookies that you should detonate. For example, if you have many high-rank officers the morale loss would be smaller so you may need to sacrifce 1 more rookie at first. If all your soldiers are cowards (20 or 10 bravery) then killing 4 rookies could be enough. You have to find a balance and once you do it - the fun begins.

 

step4

kill the last alien, save game

 

step5

end the misson, check how many soldiers got the bravery boost, if you are not satisfied you may load the game (see: step4) and end the mission again

 

Results:

14 soldiers (many officers)

10 rookies

detonated 6 rookies

killed 2 more

killed 2 more

12 out of 14 men got a bravery boost

 

i know it is evil

[Gimli]

I can see the Monthly Report: "...and we blew up some Rookies. For fun"