Would you like salad with your massacre sir?

[cyrus]

Oh, that way it's much better. Thanks. I'll try these games as soon, as I can get some free time for X-COM

[NKF]

The only thing that bothers me is the helipad. I mean, in comparison with the Skyranger, this must be a very small helicopter. Perhaps having the helipad on the roof might help? It would give you more real estate to work with.

 

edit: Just testing the ethereal sectopod campaign. I must comment:

 

1. Good job. This map is a wonderful place to demonstrate how useful the smoke grenades really can be.

2. I'd forgotten how powerful superhuman sectopods are. They're murder! Plasma rifles are completely ignored! Thank goodness you can find heavy plasmas off the ethereals. The heavy lasers are decent enough, but they are completely unreliable for attacking a sectopod's front armour.

3. Speaking of the factory, it's a godsend. You simply cannot afford to attempt direct confrontation with the sectopod turrets stationed around the Skyranger, even with heavy lasers - it's almost impossible to harm them from the front plates.

4. I rather like the idea of having to use your smarts to evade the sectopod turrets rather than to just jump out of the Skyranger with guns firing (which is suicide).

 

I can deploy all my troops with minimal to no losses by using smoke grenades to screen my retreat into the factory and then garrisoning it. The two heavy plasma weilding ethereals in the factory were a real help against the sectopods. The heavy plasmas, not the ethereals.

 

Holding the fort and surviving the psionics at the same time will be the real test of patience. I'll need many more tries to get this part right in one sitting.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

If you check my page you'll see a new version of the Heliport. I can slightly increase the size of the landing pad, even if no Skyranger could ever land there.

If you use XComUtil's improved heavy lasers, you'll find that you can drop a Sectopod with a single shot, if you're lucky. Grenades also seem to damage them, but plasma rifle fire only gets the shooter killed most of the time. However, I've fixed the positions to prevent having Sectopods stuck, since they're more dangerous on the loose.

When you're done playing the Ethereals, try the night mission against Chryssalids. The least I can say is: spoooky!

[NKF]

I actually found the stationary sectopods a lot more dangerous than the mobile sectopods. Though they were technically sitting ducks, their reaction fire is merciless... they kept me pinned down in the factory for quite some time. Particularly that one in the corner of the helipad. It's evil. Evil I tell you!

 

Even with the unenhanced heavy laser, if you hit them in a weak spot and get a good damage roll, they'll go down in a single blow. It rather difficult if they're looking right at you, as their 142 front armour really cripples your attack, even if it's doubled.

 

I think the snakeman-chryssalid one will be a cakewalk in comparison. At least they can be killed (unless you're subjecting us to pistols, rifles and autocannons with AP shells).

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

I actually found the stationary sectopods a lot more dangerous than the mobile sectopods. Though they were technically sitting ducks, their reaction fire is merciless...  they kept me pinned down in the factory for quite some time.

(...)

I think the snakeman-chryssalid one will be a cakewalk in comparison. At least they can be killed (unless you're subjecting us to pistols, rifles and autocannons with AP shells).

 

- NKF

I'll keep that in mind considering the sectopods. I don't think the one on the helipad isn't stuck (unless it's another bug I haven't noticed yet!) but his position is simply murderous. I've been trying to test new buildings but the Ethereals aren't exactly cooperating. Everytime I step off the ramp there's at least 5 around, along with Sectopods, usually on my way to the building I want to check!

 

I thought about giving conventional weaponry for the Chryssalid mission, but it would be murder (I settled for laser rifles and rockets). I hope that the mission isn't a cakewalk but if it is, just tell me :devil:

 

PS - Just uploaded a new version of the Chrysallid mission....have fun!

Edited May 11, 2004 by Hobbes

[Alex_D]

Hi to everybody,

(I've been lurking for a while, but officially joined few days ago)

 

The best way to slaughter an alien base, for me is to camp my soldiers around the 4x4 entrance of the second level. I use a HWP as trap-door blocker to prevent the aliens from going upside. When my turn arrives, I do a brief scout, either with the HWP or with a motion detector, to determine how many aliens are in range. Then, I move the HWP away of the 4x4 titie and my soldiers start to firing the aliens that are in visual range. Often they don't even need to move a bit and there are plenty of targets to shoot at :devil:

 

Because the Alien's Blaster can't go upwards, they sometimes even kill themselves trying to reach a target. However, they hit me sometimes, and I do loose a full squad in a single blow ... time for abort the mission

 

Right now, I do keep a muton base, which I raid in that way just for target practise purposes B) . It's a good way to raise soldier's experience and to gain some score for killing aliens, although no objects are recovered.

 

Alex

[Hobbes]

*crawls into the forum*

 

The aliens.....the aliens......my last save game....

 

*collapses*

[JellyfishGreen]

Hobbes! Quick, someone get this twisted armor off him! You, get me the medikit!

Hobbes, what happened? Was this another one of your "challenges"?

Darn it, what did you THINK "impossible odds" meant?

[NKF]

They say soaking your feet in warm water with a bit of dettol helps...

 

Alex_D:

 

Rather than raiding the muton bases, raid the muton supply ships instead, since you'll be able to get heaps of resources and get another supply ship later on. Though, they only come at certain times, so you might as well keep up the raids for your pro-active training sessions. But if you really want the supplies from a base, well, there's always the good old method of just carrying everything back with you (to the exit pads).

 

Speaking of the blasters not going up, they do. Although in the collectors edition a minor bug stops blaster bombs from changing elevations on the same tile location and instead sends it south. It can go up at angles, and the aliens have been known to fire up at angles for the larger lifts, like the large lifts at your insertion points, the command centre and the central lift for the battleship.

 

Still, thanks to this 'feature', a single soldier can hold off the entire fort by just garrisoning himself in a lift that leads to an empty room.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

*points feebly at his webpage*

 

I've added *coughs blood* Mutons and Chryssalids and Ethereals on my last modded game....

 

*goes flatline*

[JellyfishGreen]

Chrysalids?!

Time for a battlefield caesarean!

(stabs Hobbes in the belly with one vibro-scalpel while slashing with another)

(pulls out a twitching Chrys embryo on the blade)

Yep. Better safe than sorry, in X-COM.

Are those paddles charged?

Hold this alien, Nurse Schottky.

CLEAR!

<bzorch>

[maxoman]

hum...When I go to a base I bring loads of blasterbombs and a hovertank with me. The hover tank scouts and two or three blaster people nuke everything from the elevators. Early in the game, when blaster bombs are not avilable, I just let my squad, normally 6-8 men, move in a group and have a group of two secure every passageway leading to the groups position. (But getting through this bunker in which the control-room is, is quite anoying without blaster bombs.)

[Bomb Bloke]

Ya know, I just had a thought.

 

Everyone goes on about how great blaster launchers are, but always note that the reason they don't use them is psi attacks...

 

Does anyone use the launcher tanks?

 

I normally don't... I think I've built two in all my years of playing the game, one of which was built last night (in preparation for The Final Attack)...

[Jman4117]

I just use rocket and the occasional laser tank. Maybe hover tanks on mars but that's about it.

[Alex_D]

Everyone goes on about how great blaster launchers are, but always note that the reason they don't use them is psi attacks...

Indeed, but I give them only to the strongest PSI soldiers. If I'm in doubt, I keep it unloaded, and with a next guy with a tazer to "calm" the "perturbed" soldier. With the Xcomutil thing on, I think these soldiers are not MIA after battle.

Does anyone use the launcher tanks?

Sometimes I do. I think they are less powerful than hand-carried blasters. Plus their ammo cost too much elerium to make, while the ammo of normal blasters can be "liberated" through the battle However, laucher tanks come handy as "base defenders".

 

What I do use early on during the game are rocket tanks. They pack quite a lot of power early on during the game, enough to turn the tide of the battle to the X-COM side

 

Alex

[NKF]

Actually, the only real bonus the rocket tanks offer (besides being highly expendable and having tougher armour than an unarmoured rookie) is that they can carry more rockets than your average soldier. Not a bad trait in and of itself. But the rockets just aren't good enough for the tougher enemies, like superhuman cyberdiscs, which tend to appear very early on, unless you're lucky enough to get started on an infestation of floaters.

 

Otherwise, yeah, they're excellent for crowd control. (hence why I always buy them at the start of a new campaign)

 

As for the hovertank blasters... these days I just build them for base defense. Free tank blaster ammo is nothing to be sneezed at.

 

- NKF

[Slythe1]

Yeah I use the rocket tanks primarily for base defense and as scouts during tougher missions, and to blow apart all obstructions on tactical maps, like barns and such. Later on in the game I'll usually build blaster tanks for base defense, and if I have enough elerium I'll use them on tougher missions.

[maxoman]

I normally build plasma tanks, because they can be used in close combat and neyr of my men also.

Just like alex does just my eggheads get blaster launchers.

[kai]

If I know there are going to be ethereals, I don't even bother sending soldiers in, I just send hovertank launchers and nuke their shrouded arses right back to Mars!

[Zombie]

Hey, good advise kai! Because all tanks have a Psionic Strength of 100 and Skill of 0, their Psionic Defense against Panic Attacks is [100+(0/5)]*10 = 1000, and against Mind Control attacks is [100+(0/5)]*30 = 3000. Thus, the only alien capable of mind controlling a tank is the Ethereal Commander with a Psionic Combat Strength (or PCS) of 3250. {PCS is found by multiplying PsiStr by PsiSkl, or in this case (65)*(50)}

 

Now, I have never had an alien target a tank for mind control. Nor has an alien successfully panicked one of my tanks even though all of the psi-capable aliens could easily panic a tank if they really wanted to. Granted, every mission I had a tank on also had soldiers, and aliens will much rather psi attack a soldier than a tank for some reason.

 

So what happens when you bring nothing but tanks on a mission? Will the psi-capable aliens try to panic it, or worse, mind control it?

 

Also, do the fusion bombs on a Hovertank/Launcher have enough oomph (or power) to knock a hole in an alien ship? The reason I am asking is because if you go on mission to a landing site and bring only Hovertank/Launchers, you might not be able to finish the mission if the craft only had a single-width door (like a supply ship). If the HWP fusion bomb can punch through hulls and bulkheads/ceilings, then you could get them into the ship and kill the aliens from within.

[Ki-tat Chung]

i wonder if the AI controling tanks would be the same as us controling a cyberdisk or sectopod? some of us(me included) have experienced some....difficulties with us psi-ing the 4 squared units....i had my newly psi-ed sectopod shoot itself...