Cyberdiscs on superhuman: Ouch!

[Aralez]

After using Xcomutil the difficulty settings do actually work. I learned that the hard way when i encountered some sectoids and Cyberdiscs in my last "Terror Site" mission. It was in Rome iirc.

 

I'm not sure but i think there were at least 3, maybe even 4 Cyberdiscs on that map and i had big problems bringing them down! The problem was their incredible accuracy combined with a big number of action points. Ok, that and the complete lack of armour and advanced weapons on my side. The most advanced weapon i had were laser pistols

 

I eventually brough them down with HE kits, grenades and by firing with everything i got at them, but the losses on my side were too big to juustify that "tactic".

 

So my question: Do you have any special tricks or tactics usable against Cyberdiscs for the early game period?

 

Sidenote: I do use the Xcomutil edited weapons, lasers are a bit weaker, HE kits can make holes in UFO hulls (that is godly, makes them finally useful!)

[Alpha_Monkey]

Heh, yeah they can squeeze off quite a few plasma burst given the chance. Damn well cut your whole squad down if they can.

In a way, they're worse than sectopods (which I hate) since they turn up while you're ill-equipped.

 

I've recently ran through superhuman with xcomutil, and probably the only thing that got me through the early stages (before teching up) would be judicious use of a rocket tank as spotter/fire support. While their rockets aren't ideal for bringing down discs, they are at least very mobile, and are handy for clearing angles of fire for your troops by blasting away enemy cover.

For taking down the discs themselves, a couple of strong troops with large rockets do the trick (maybe a heavy cannon, though I never use them myself). The launcher has pretty good base accuracy, though the hit to mobility means you have to choose your firing points carefully. I can't stress how useful tanks are as spotters though....

 

Regardless, even at points in the late game, there'll be times where you can only take down a disc by direct massed fire, and hope it doesn't get any good return fire in. Have a spotter well forward of the rest of their squad, deploy smoke, don't get caught in the open.

 

If you're new to xcomutil, just wait til you get the new improved heavy laser. It's actually a damn useful weapon, accurate and with enough punch to drop heavy armour in a hit or two.

[Bomb Bloke]

Rocket tanks really are the way to go. Sure they cost a bomb to replace (and don't be surprised if you lose one every mission at that level), but I never had problems paying for them.

 

Even though I mass produced alien alloys for "profit"... Only to later find out that they were actually losing me money. Seriously, you can pay for the tanks.

[NKF]

Large rockets and High Explosives are the bane of Cyberdiscs early on. Large rockets for preference, and high explosives if you've got a strong throwing arm and you want to make use of walls to safely approach them. Really, there's little brute force can't solve!

 

Rocket Tanks are too weak to take down superhuman cyberdiscs reasonably, but I'd still opt for them as your general tank.

 

In a pinch, a cannon tank will work. If only because it carries more ammo and packs fair punch for AP rounds.

 

If you're even more desparate than that, use proximity mines to soften them up before pelting them from far away with pistol and rifle rounds. I kid you not - it works, but it's also incredibly desparate. With the proximity mine, use the primary quarter for placing the mine. This is the topmost quarter or top-left corner when viewed in the overhead map. The mine won't detect the other three sections.

 

Watch out for the superhuman Sectopod. Not impossible, just very hardy and the only superhuman enemy unit that the laser pistol cannot reasonably take down in a timely manner.

 

- NKF

[Aralez]

Many thanks for all the tips, i tried the rocket tank/ rocket launcher combo in a terror mission yesterday (in Australia iirc) and it worked very good! I still lost one of my men, but 1 instead of 7 is quite a difference

 

That guy was actually a hero, he took down a cyberdisc AND a sectoid with one proximity grenade (or was it a HE kit?), but unluckily the wall that covered him went down in the explosion, leaving him vulnerable to the other aliens that survived the blast

 

Sigh, i wish there was a virtual Xcom soldier cemetary, just like back then for those Tamagotchis

 

Oh and i finally got the (improved) Heavy lasers now, those things rock!

[Zombie]

The Cyberdisc is 60% susceptible to AP rounds and 80% susceptible to HE which means you have to use a higher weapon power than normal with those damage types. I've used Incendiary rounds with good success against Cyberdiscs. Just back off and light the thing on fire. Since incendiary damage bypasses armor and goes straight to health, it will put a slow drain on health. Of course, incendiary really isn't that useful on terror missions when those Cyberdiscs are mowing down your soldiers and the civilians like a blades of grass every round. In this instance, I'd go with the trusty Laser Pistol: something you should have on-hand by the first terror mission. It'll take about 5 shots to down a Cyberdisc this way due to its massive health rating.

 

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the lowly Stun Rod. It can pump out a max of 130 points of stun (96 for an Experienced-Superhuman Cyberdisc). That equates to about 4 pokes with the ol' prod. Not bad. As an added bonus, Cyberdiscs which are brought down with stun do not go through their auto-destruct sequence. No explosion means fewer casualties and you get to recover another $20,000 corpse.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Ah, the good old stun rod. Can even take down a beginner level sectopod with a few well placed prods. Didn't melee attacks also not trigger reaction shots?

 

The stun rod might be a good weapon to use on a wounded but not quite dead cyberdisc if the scenario is set up right.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Didn't melee attacks also not trigger reaction shots?

Yes and no. Melee is the oddball when it comes to reaction fire. As long as your soldier doesn't move after the stun attack he will not initiate a response from the alien. But once he moves, all bets are off. Clicky.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

That's what I thought. The action itself won't trigger the opportunity shot, but the moving will. I wonder what would happen if I were to poke an alien in the back (and fail), then try to walk away? Must go try that.

 

edit: Ah, yes, new tip for stun-rod backstabs: If the attack fails - call for help and do NOT run away.

 

Hmm. Come to think of it, is there any reliable way of telling which direction a cyberdisc is facing other than when it firing its gun?

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Although the disc has sprites for all eight directions, half of them are the same. Hence you've got a 50% chance of guessing correctly. The stripe is perpendicular to its facing.

 

While the stun rod might technically work - and even avoids reaction fire when you use it - running up to the target is generally suicidal. The nature of terror missions (where they're most often encountered) is such that you usually spot them from far off, so I'd recommend stepping back out of their line of sight and sniping at them if possible.

 

You can also avoid reaction fire by lobbing explosives over walls, from where you can't be seen. This has an added advantage in that you don't need to run so far to get clear of the blast radius.

[NKF]

Using stun-rods is certainly a strategy that can only really be employed to its fullest if the disc is handed to you on a platter - so to say. Such as taking one step past a corner or through a small opening or door and coming face to face with one.

 

Hmm, Bomb Bloke, if it hasn't already been located yet, here's another possible unknown to add to your to-find list. Are individual aliens capable of focusing their attention on particular units during the turn? The thought just came to me when I tested the failed stun rod backstab. My test muton could see one soldier ahead of it, but it spun around and attacked my fleeing backstabber for preference. Obviously it was alerted by the attack. I wonder if this is remembered between saves or if it's like the proxy mine flag which is only present in memory? Oh well.

 

- NKF

[Tepid tasoth]

Although I usually carry around stun rods on all my soldiers, I seldomly come close enough to aliens to use them. Also, I wouldn't want to be even close to a Cyberdisk. I just usually lob grenades at them, run for cover and try to snipe at them from various positions. Once you got laser rifles, Cyberdisks are usually easy prey.

[Aralez]

What Tepid Tasoth and NKF said: The stun rod attack sounds interesting and i will definetely try it, but how do i get near to the Cyberdisc without being shot at? I can't imagine that to happen very often.

 

 

Interesting info about the stun and the reaction fire, btw! Thanks for that.

One question, though: What about Alien melee atacks in reaction fire? Imagine i would try to use the stunrod on a Chryssalid (or a Reaper to make it more realistic). Does the melee attack behave like the ranged weapons?

 

And what about Zombies? Does stun work on them? Are there special things to think of?

[Bomb Bloke]

Can't stun zombies at all. They're immune.

 

I did check to see if aliens "locked on" to certain units, but couldn't see anything to indicate that was the case. Check the notes re offset 8 on the Wiki's UnitPos page, and the respective talk page.

 

The easiest way to program things would be to have the aliens go for whichever unit is first on the list. That is to say, if given a choice between units [3] and [5], the AI will go for unit [3].

 

Making things more complex, you'd have him go for whichever of the two was closest. Having him go for the last unit to attack him would be easy enough - Just use a byte to keep track of which unit that was, but I can't find any such thing so I don't think it was done that way.

[zaimoni]

The easiest way to program things would be to have the aliens go for whichever unit is first on the list. That is to say, if given a choice between units [3] and [5], the AI will go for unit [3].

 

Making things more complex, you'd have him go for whichever of the two was closest. Having him go for the last unit to attack him would be easy enough - Just use a byte to keep track of which unit that was, but I can't find any such thing so I don't think it was done that way.

I suspect points value and/or rank is also involved. I can't say for sure because I didn't know about the "turns since aliens seen" counter at the time, but I have been able to manipulate whether a grenade was thrown by the value of the targets in the blast [keeping the count constant].

[Zombie]

What Tepid Tasoth and NKF said: The stun rod attack sounds interesting and i will definetely try it, but how do i get near to the Cyberdisc without being shot at? I can't imagine that to happen very often.

You would be amazed at how many times you come face to face with a Cyberdisc on a Terror Mission. Any time you round the corner of a building, there is a chance an alien will be right there. I've stunned a Cyberdisc by poking it through the window of a large warehouse before. You could also shoot a hole in a wall and stun one that way too.

 

Interesting info about the stun and the reaction fire, btw! Thanks for that.

One question, though: What about Alien melee atacks in reaction fire? Imagine i would try to use the stunrod on a Chryssalid (or a Reaper to make it more realistic). Does the melee attack behave like the ranged weapons?

 

And what about Zombies? Does stun work on them? Are there special things to think of?

Terrorists with integrated melee weapons can only use them during the aliens round, so they are sitting ducks during X-COM's turn. Feel free to get right up to them and fire at point blank range if you dare.

 

Zombies cannot be stunned and have some pretty good resistances to most damage types. However, if you shoot it with enough incendiary rounds it will die instead of hatching into a Chryssalid. That's helpful sometimes.

 

- Zombie

[Aralez]

Gee, thanks for the Incendiary tip! Had some insanely difficult missions in alien bases, in 2 of 3 missions i was forced to retreat, luckily i lost only 1 soldier (and 2 tanks). Xcomutil really fixed that difficulty settings, ouch...

 

I plan on playing through Xcom and then "import" my troops into TFTD and continue there.

[Tepid tasoth]

D@mmit, I should try to shock freeze my EU veterans and thaw them some 40 years later... GREAT idea!

*installs Xcomutil immediately*

[Aralez]

Once i finished TFTD i do even plan to use the squad in UFO:ET if possible, i hope they already have savegame-editors once the game is released where i live

 

Oh and that was actually not my idea, i once read a fan-written story about an Xcom squad being used that way and the idea got stuck in my mind for some time

 

Have to check if i still have that fanfic on my HD, i can (maybe) post it if anybody is interested.

[Aralez]

Tepid tasoth, look here for an import tool: https://www.llamalicious.com/xcom/dl.html

 

https://members.aol.com/drippieth/xcom/files/cryo.zip

[Tepid tasoth]

Tepid tasoth, look here for an import tool: https://www.llamalicious.com/xcom/dl.html

 

https://members.aol.com/drippieth/xcom/files/cryo.zip

 

The link is broken.

[Aralez]

Yep, sorry

[Zombie]

I have been looking for the X-COM EU-TFTD soldier cryo tool on and off for the last year or so with no success. The only place I could find it is on llamalicious but the download is corrupted. If anyone has it, please let me know! On the flip side of the coin, it shouldn't be too hard to recreate said tool. There is only a 2 byte difference between EU's and TFTD's soldier.dat files.

 

- Zombie