Challenge

[Catwalk]

CURRENT VERSION

1) No reloading, barring crashes.

2) No manufacturing of goods for sale, only produce items that are actually needed.

3) No flying! Mag Ion Armour still allowed, and tanks may still fly.

4) No firing squad tactics on harmless aliens. Reactions of all aliens lowered by 50% to compensate for lack of safe reaction training.

5) May only set a single waypoint with DPL which must be straight above you. Full TU required, must clear TU after shooting.

6) Soldiers may not MC (panic attacks allowed). Aliens may MC as usual.

7) You must drop grenades if you're carrying them when the primer is up.

8) Only odd primers allowed on grenades, i.e. grenades will blow up after the aliens end their turn.

9) A grenade may only be tossed once each turn.

10) Using the alternative base from XcomUtil.

11) Using alternate research from XcomUtil. You must initiate all research projects as soon as they become available, forcing you to research everything at the same time.

12) Automatic night missions used!! Also from XcomUtil.

13) Only aimed shots allowed on aliens you can't see (must use the sniper periscope)

14) REWORDED (You must clear your time units when using Gas Cannon and Hydro Jet Cannon, no reaction shots allowed.) These no longer have Snap modes, easier solution.

15) Heavily modified weapon stats. Main points:

a. Improved damage of starting weapons (28 for Dart Gun, 42 for Jat Harpoon, 60 for AP Gas Cannon)

b. Improved Snap accuracy across the board

c. Reduced Aimed accuracy across the board

d. Aimed TU cost always 50% higher than Snap TU cost, for easier overview of balance

e. Heavier weapons overall, especially Gauss (8-16-24) and Sonic (10-20-30)

f. Much heavier Explosives, weighing 12 and doing 160 damage

g. Clip sizes reduced across the board, especially Gauss (8-6-4) and Sonic (5-4-3)

16) Time limitations on sub missions as follows:

a. A sub will take off after x turns.

b. x is equal to 6 + 2x ship size (very small is 1, small is 2, etc).

c. Crashed subs take 50% longer to take off due to repairs.

d. When a sub has taken off, no more soldiers may enter the sub. If you have no soldiers inside the sub or lose all soldiers inside the sub, you must return to ship and abort mission.

17) Must sack half of all newly hired engineers and scientists.

18) With 1 laboratory/workship, only 50% of your scientists/engineers may be used. With 2 laboratories, 75% may be used. With 3 laboratories or 2 workshops, all may be used.

19) Cost and quality of new recruits changes as follows:

a. Keep track of how many soldiers you've recruited in a text file

b. The first 10 soldiers are at default cost and quality

c. For the next 10 soldiers, you may only keep every second (meaning hiring 20 and sacking 10)

d. For the next 10 soldiers after that, you may only keep every third (meaning hiring 30 and sacking 20)

e. etc

20) When buying basic equipment (except craft weapons), you must buy 11 units and sell 10 of them. This increases prices by a factor of 3.5.

21) A weapon may only be fired once per round, if you are wielding two weapons you may fire twice. HJ Cannon is exempt from this limitation for Auto fire.

22) Chemical flares have been given a weight of 0, making it impossible to throw them (so you can only drop them on the ground). PH gas rounds and torpedoes have been boosted to compensate.

23) +50% health for all aliens (also means extra XP)

 

ORIGINAL POST

Does anyone else use extra rules? This is what I'm using at the moment:

 

1) No reloading, barring crashes

2) No manufacturing of goods for sale, only produce items that are actually needed

3) No shooting while flying

4) No XP planning (reaction training and stuff, although performing a single action to boost secondary skills is allowed)

5) No DPL

6) No MC (panic attacks allowed)

7) Goods may not be brought home from aborted base raids

 

I'm currently well into March with the above rules on Superhuman and doing pretty okay. Got my troops equipped with Sonic Rifles, Plastic Aqua Armour (version 1 and haven't met lobstermen yet), Med Kits, PD Sensors and Pulsers. 18 soldiers of fairly high quality after a bit of training and sorting of recruits. A base attack took me by surprise at the end of January, all I had to defend myself with was 2 gas cannons, 2 thermal tazers and a bunch of grenades on around 14 soldiers against gillmen and calcinites. Took me down to 5 soldiers or so, but most weren't high quality anyway so the loss was negligible. Currently fighting a battleship that landed and spotted an alien base that I'm trying to muster the courage for.

 

UPDATE: Won the battleship battle but at a steep cost, 7 dead aquanauts and one destroyed tank. MC butchered me repeatedly, I need to stop having my men so close together or I would have survived. Also need to remember to toss a grenade up a teleporter before going up, could have saved me another aquanaut. But I got 10 ion beam accelerators and other goodies worth 7m total

 

UPDATE: Lost most of my men trying to charge the base And just lost 5 more men on a ship mission, trying to escape with the rest before tasoths and bio drones waste them. I need Ion Armour badly and haven't met any lobstermen yet, maybe I should look for the patch to v2.0 somewhere as this is getting way tough.

[Catwalk]

I decided to start over after losing all my men on another base raid, this time with new rules:

1) No reloading, barring crashes

2) No manufacturing of goods for sale, only produce items that are actually needed

3) No shooting while flying

4) No XP planning (reaction training and stuff, although performing a single action to boost secondary skills is allowed)

5) May only set a single waypoint with DPL

6) No MC (panic attacks allowed)

7) Goods may not be brought home from aborted base raids

8) Grenades must be thrown on the round they're set to go off

9) Grenade relay not allowed

10) Using the advanced base from XcomUtil as well as alternate research and daylight on all missions

 

Going for Ion Armour and MC Lab asap this time.

[Knan]

You madman you

 

Certainly don't think TFTD needs to be made harder. My lone victorious playthrough took me months of real time.

 

Always daylight ought to give you a bit of a fair chance, though. But I think that lessens the tftd survival-horror feel.

 

Why no shooting while flying? You're usually much more exposed while flying as well, so I don't see a big problem. And tentaculats fly.

[Zombie]

I decided to start over after losing all my men on another base raid, this time with new rules:

 

10) Using the advanced base from XcomUtil as well as alternate research and daylight on all missions

I thought you said you wanted to make the game harder?

 

Starting to see the light so to speak?

 

TFTD is plenty hard the way it is. Genius level is like playing Enemy Unknown on Superhuman. And playing TFTD on Superhuman is like 20-30% harder than Superhuman in EU. Not to mention the ammo problems with Gauss and Sonic and the high damage modifiers...

 

- Zombie

[Catwalk]

I do agree that the game is plenty hard, this was actually more for sake of variety than to make the game harder. Which is why I gave myself some buffs on the second go and installed v2.0 for easier armour, I would like to win too. I just dislike no-brainer strategies that are almost always worth following.

1) No reloading, barring crashes

This is the big one, started on that after playing NetHack a lot. Makes the game so much more fun when you allow yourself to lose, I used to be horribly addicted to reloading and wanting to play "perfectly"

2) No manufacturing of goods for sale, only produce items that are actually needed

There isn't much challenge in this, you just start compounding your capital eventually. It was a lot of fun when I discovered that all on my own (and thought I was a genius for doing so, of course ) and it was fun using it for a while, but then it started being boring.

3) No shooting while flying

This was in order to make sniping more challenging, I felt it was too easy to snipe with 100% accuracy from a corner of the map at top level. I also considered nerfing sniping in other ways, but couldn't come up with anything good. One reason I decided against it was that I'd just start using grenades even more instead, but with the nerf to grenades below they've been weakened a little so maybe it's doable.

4) No XP planning (reaction training and stuff, although performing a single action to boost secondary skills is allowed)

This one bites, because you get so little XP towards reactions through natural means. Considering loosening up on it a little, but don't know how.

5) May only set a single waypoint with DPL

It's still a decent weapon without the waypoint feature. Maybe I'll change this rule to allow a single extra waypoint straight up so you can use it better for artillery purposes.

6) No MC (panic attacks allowed)

This one is obvious, it's majorly imbalanced once you have good soldiers. You can win missions with that alone. Panic attacks are pretty well balanced imo, so nothing wrong with that.

7) Goods may not be brought home from aborted base raids

I don't care for dealing with tentaculats and MC anyway just for sake of XP and loot, so not much need for this rule

8) Grenades must be thrown on the round they're set to go off

9) Grenade relay not allowed

Just started using this, and I really like it. Makes strength and throwing accuracy matter a little more. A side benefit is that I don't blow up my team all the time due to primed grenades that go off when one man dies

10) Using the advanced base from XcomUtil as well as alternate research and daylight on all missions

It's nice with a faster start, and I must admit that tossing flares all over the map just aggravates me. I know how to do it, but I feel it slows down missions too much. And as mentioned, I need a little help Good point about the terror feel, though.

 

Those base missions are killing me. Apart from rushing to Ion Armour and MC screening, any good tips for winning at all no matter the cost? If I spread out fast, my troops get picked off by tentaculats rather easily. If I don't spread out, MC kills me instead. Do they all have tasoths?

 

Btw does anyone know exactly how the research thingy on xcomutil (about aliens speeding up research) works?

[Zombie]

Those base missions are killing me. Apart from rushing to Ion Armour and MC screening, any good tips for winning at all no matter the cost? If I spread out fast, my troops get picked off by tentaculats rather easily. If I don't spread out, MC kills me instead. Do they all have tasoths?

From what I remember, there are always Tasoths in an Alien Colony, so there's no way of getting around MC. My only suggestion would be to wait until your troops have been trained in MC, or to make copious use of DPL's to nuke the aliens into submission early and get them to panic due to loss of their comrades.

 

Btw does anyone know exactly how the research thingy on xcomutil (about aliens speeding up research) works?

This is what the XcomUtil page at the X-COM Wiki says:

 

Do you want to get research help from captured aliens? - This will greatly increase the research times for all technologies, and you will need to capture aliens to speed up your research and get your technology progression back to anywhere near what you are used to. It would be better stated as "Do you want research to depend largely on capturing aliens?". This is a great feature for those who want the game to be much more challenging both strategically and tactically.

Beyond this, I have no idea. XcomUtil isn't one of my most-used editors.

 

- Zombie

[Catwalk]

New game is well underway, 4 succesful USO missions and a terror site in January. Got a live Deep One on the terror site and am busy researching MC Lab. Do I mess up Ion Armour by researching it before I have Plastic Aqua Armour?

From what I remember, there are always Tasoths in an Alien Colony, so there's no way of getting around MC. My only suggestion would be to wait until your troops have been trained in MC, or to make copious use of DPL's to nuke the aliens into submission early and get them to panic due to loss of their comrades. tongue.gif

Any tips on dealing with the Tentaculats? If it was just MC I could play it slow and manage that way, but they really ruin my fun.

[Zombie]

I find that explosives work really well against Tentaculats. (And in fact, the damage modifiers show it is 1.5 times more susceptible to explosives). Magna-Packs were fine for my team, but Sonic Pulsers are the real life-saver. They are more powerful than the Magna's and can be thrown further, plus you can pick them up for free at almost all sites.

 

Not sure how you feel about exploits, but all the thrown explosives in the game can survive their own blasts, meaning you can toss 2 Sonic Pulsers at the base of a Tentaculat and both of them will go off successively without destroying each other. That's a lot of damage being dealt in one turn.

 

I'm not entirely sure on the armor, but I think you can still get Ion armor if you research another live Deep One. My colleague NKF will probably be able to clear this up for you.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Btw does anyone know exactly how the research thingy on xcomutil (about aliens speeding up research) works?

 

It multiplies research time by 5-10 or so, and adds research points to whatever you currently research when you capture a live relevant alien. (If you are researching weapons, better capture plain soldiers. Etc.) Something like that, in any case. So if you capture few aliens, your research crawls.

 

It's a fun challenge on UFO, I play with it from time to time.

 

Wouldn't want to try it on TFTD superhuman, though.

[NKF]

Did you get the Ion Armor before upgrading to the v2 patch? With V2, you can't get Ion Armor without Plastic Aqua Armor. However, I don't think it's too much of a problem as it's Magnetic Navigation and I think Mag Ion Armor that are amongst the more important ingredients for Sub Construction.

 

If you did patch the game part way through a campaign, I highly suggest you scrap the game and start from a new game.

 

With Tentaculats, on all difficulty levels but beginner, try not to use full frontal attacks on Tentaculats with weak weapons like Gauss weaponry. They've got tough front plates. The sides and rear are easier to damage, and as Zombie mentioned, explosives work a treat. Even direct hits from the Gas Cannon with HE rounds should prove to deal better damage than trying to riddle it with Gauss Rifle rounds from the front.

 

The same advice applies to when you use the Vibroblade - don't try to drill holes in it from the front. It soaks up most of the damage. Spend a few extra TUs to reach the sides or attack it from the back. HTLs on the other hand have no problem whatsoever in this department.

 

I decided to start over after losing all my men on another base raid, this time with new rules:

1) No reloading, barring crashes

2) No manufacturing of goods for sale, only produce items that are actually needed

3) No shooting while flying

4) No XP planning (reaction training and stuff, although performing a single action to boost secondary skills is allowed)

5) May only set a single waypoint with DPL

6) No MC (panic attacks allowed)

7) Goods may not be brought home from aborted base raids

8) Grenades must be thrown on the round they're set to go off

9) Grenade relay not allowed

10) Using the advanced base from XcomUtil as well as alternate research and daylight on all missions

 

Going for Ion Armour and MC Lab asap this time.

 

1. Regardless of your save/reload habits the usual advice applies: Save often , and with separate save slots for the Geoscape and Battlescape.

 

2. The possibility is there, but I've not used large scale manufacturing of Gauss Cannons for profit in a very long time (as with Laser Cannons in UFO). So far I've find that loot sales and being frugal (aka being cheap) gets you by just fine.

 

3. Or to make it harder, no Mag Ion Armor, period. It's not that bad considering a lot of the tougher missions don't allow you mid air levitation in the first place (land missions).

 

4. As mentioned, reaction training is hard enough in TFTD as it is. However, I don't think you should neglect door ambushes, as you're still not in full control of the situation. Reaction training with the help of MC on the other hand should be discouraged (even though you can't access alien inventories as you could in UFO).

 

5. If you're used to the torpedo launcher (or UFO's rocket launcher), you'll easily accustom yourself to one-waypoint DPLs with no trouble. The only difference is that you will be using the DPL's default accuracy rather than your aquanaut's accuracy.

 

6. You may want to consign yourself to the MC Reader avoid the MC Disrupter altogether.

 

7. Most colonies (and artefact sites) are destroyed via recovering your troops and aborting after destroying the synonium device - at least that's what the game tells you to do (though you do still have the total map annihilation option). Lots of loot is lost this way.

 

8. No real comment here except that this is going back to the basics and hearkens to back when the series first began. Most of us got by that way until we discovered how the silly things really worked!

 

9. Ditto.

 

10. Think of it as an added challenge to rebuild the default starting base from hell. I'm not sure if any real thought went into its original design when it was put together in UFO, but it lets enemies come at you from every conceivable angle.

 

As for the lighting - I'm not overly fond of dark maps, but I find you've got to have it dark in TFTD. Especially underwater.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

It multiplies research time by 5-10 or so, and adds research points to whatever you currently research when you capture a live relevant alien. (If you are researching weapons, better capture plain soldiers. Etc.) Something like that, in any case. So if you capture few aliens, your research crawls.

Yikes, x5-10 and the alien has to be relevant? Maybe I'll give this one a pass for now

I'm not entirely sure on the armor, but I think you can still get Ion armor if you research another live Deep One. My colleague NKF will probably be able to clear this up for you. smile.gif

I'd need to fetch and research another one?

3. Or to make it harder, no Mag Ion Armor, period. wink.gif It's not that bad considering a lot of the tougher missions don't allow you mid air levitation in the first place (land missions).

I think I'll go with this one.

4. As mentioned, reaction training is hard enough in TFTD as it is. However, I don't think you should neglect door ambushes, as you're still not in full control of the situation. Reaction training with the help of MC on the other hand should be discouraged (even though you can't access alien inventories as you could in UFO).

Yeah, that kind of training should be okay as the risk is still there. However, I fail horribly at this. Is it really true that whichever unit has the higher %TU*Reactions value gets to go first in a confrontation? I hardly ever get reaction shots off, even with full TU on high Reactions soldiers.

10. Think of it as an added challenge to rebuild the default starting base from hell. I'm not sure if any real thought went into its original design when it was put together in UFO, but it lets enemies come at you from every conceivable angle.

I don't think there's any challenge in simply going through a set routine every game to restructure your base, that's just a chore. But now that you mention it, I could simply leave the base as is and accept the poor layout.

 

Taking down the tentaculats is easy enough, pulsers serve me well for that. Main problem is spotting them first. Do you prefer going in with a tank or adding another 4 aquanauts for extra firepower?

[Catwalk]

Convenience won out in the end so I decided to go with the improved base after all And I was blessed with the best team of rookies that I've ever seen.

Reactions-Firing Accuracy

57-55

34-66

34-49

44-65

60-43

39-69

60-69

58-61

6 are above 30 strength and all are above 54 time units! No more fussing about, NOW I shall win! I have never actually finished a game of TFTD

 

What are your training strategies, do you bother keeping guys like the 60-43 and hope he'll pick up some shooting skills eventually?

[NKF]

Well, having played the game for a bit, I don't mind the stats I get handed most of the time as much as I did when I first started playing.

 

The only real stat you want to watch out for is MC Strength, as that is fixed for life. You never know if that cowardly; low reaction and low accuracy aquanaut is actually packing a 100 MC Strength or if that brave super rookie has 0 MC Strength. As for all the other stats: Poor stats can be trained. A few missions' worth of experience has an amazing impact on a rookie that you may have otherwise thought to be useless at the start. Due to the randomness at the start, they may yet surprise you.

 

By the way, it sounds crazy but grenades will train firing accuracy. Hand eye coordination? Who knows. However, the hits you score with grenades increment the hit counter that stores how many times you've shot and hit an alien. Perhaps best of all is that accuracy with grenades isn't as important as it is with firing a weapon, hence it's an ideal means to train up someone who would easily miss a target right beside them. So it's not a bad idea to use a hopeless rookie as a dedicated grenadier.

 

Reaction fire mechanics... ah, that's a complicated subject to describe briefly. The gist of it that the side with the highest Reaction level (or as described in Rebelstar Tactical Command: "Initative") is the side that gets to make a move.

 

There's one rule that seems to break this convention (coined the mutual surprise rule). If both units spot each other at the same time, the waiting side will not react - unless the moving side does something that'll trigger a reaction. For example, you walk right through a door and come face to face with an alien directly in front of you.

 

The aliens just have a heap more reaction than you do, which is why it's much harder for you to react against them with rookies.

 

For your purposes, obviously the more TUs the aliens have to waste to get to you, the better your chances at reacting against them. Ambushing USO entrances for example does work - but you have to spread out far and wide to make sure that the aliens have to really move out of the USO to get caught in your web. 19 - 20 tiles away from the door landing (with a flare on top of the door) works fairly well if there's enough space to do this. This has the advantage that it protects you from those just inside the USO as they cannot shoot what they cannot see.

 

- NKF

[Knan]

Yikes, x5-10 and the alien has to be relevant? Maybe I'll give this one a pass for now

 

*checking* ... 10x, yes. Alien tech only. 5x for some hybrid tech, 1x for earthly tech.

 

"For example, a captured alien engineer reduces the remaining

time required to research UFO construction by 50%. Thus, if you have 1000

scientist/days of work left on the project, one engineer will reduce it

from 1000 to 500, while then next one will reduce it another 50% from 500

to 250."

 

Soldiers can only help you with weapons and alien entertainment research, for example. Heh. And they have no clue how the blaster launcher works. Engineers and navigators are very, very valuable captives.

 

Xcomutil.txt also says that the option's only available on UFO, not TFTD. So you're safe

[Catwalk]

About reactions, let me see if I understand this correctly. Let's say one of my men is waltzing around in front of a concealed alien with reactions 40 and half its time units spent, giving it an Initiative of 20. One of my men with Reactions 60 starts the turn in front of it and starts walking about. When I've spent more than 2/3 of my time units my initiative will drop below 20 and the alien will get a reaction shot on me. Was that right? I guess I always assumed there was some chance element involved rather than a simple calculation, and I had no idea TU was a factor.

Xcomutil.txt also says that the option's only available on UFO, not TFTD. So you're safe wink.gif

The cfg file includes data for both EU and TFTD, it sounds like that's an old notice that hasn't been removed. I'm warming to this idea again, especially since I can customize the values. I'm going to make the Thermal Shock Launcher suck some more to balance things

[Knan]

About reactions, let me see if I understand this correctly. Let's say one of my men is waltzing around in front of a concealed alien with reactions 40 and half its time units spent, giving it an Initiative of 20. One of my men with Reactions 60 starts the turn in front of it and starts walking about. When I've spent more than 2/3 of my time units my initiative will drop below 20 and the alien will get a reaction shot on me. Was that right? I guess I always assumed there was some chance element involved rather than a simple calculation, and I had no idea TU was a factor.

 

Yep, you've got it.

 

Also have a look at:

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=R...n_fire_triggers

 

The cfg file includes data for both EU and TFTD, it sounds like that's an old notice that hasn't been removed. I'm warming to this idea again, especially since I can customize the values. I'm going to make the Thermal Shock Launcher suck some more to balance things

 

Hmm. Seems I'm using xcomutil 9.20, for some reason. That's... old.

[NKF]

That's how reactions are meant to work - but I'm sure TFTD may have thrown a spanner in the works somewhere. Aquanauts function fine, but the tanks seem to bend the rules a little. Sometimes.

 

As was reported recently on one of the subforums (or was it xcomufo.com?) the Coelacanth does not seem to trigger reaction fire for some inexplicable reason. At least, I don't think every possibility was tested to see if this was always true, but after doing a quick check with an Aqua Jet Coelacanth running around in circles before a couple of aliens (and not getting shot) followed immediately by an aquanaut (who did get shot) - I'm just left baffled. UFO's tanks on the other hand got instant air conditioning just when a similar test was run.

 

I don't know how reliable this featurette is, but I think I like it. It gives them a niche to hang on to once all the high tech equipment is rolled out.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

Yet another revision!

 

1) No reloading, barring crashes.

2) No manufacturing of goods for sale, only produce items that are actually needed.

3) No flying! Mag Ion Armour still allowed, and tanks may still fly.

4) No firing squad tactics on harmless aliens. Reactions of all aliens lowered by 25% to compensate for lack of safe reaction training.

5) May only set a single waypoint with DPL which must be straight above you. Full TU required, must clear TU after shooting.

6) No MC (panic attacks allowed).

7) Grenades MUST be thrown or dropped on the round they're set to go off.

8) Primer 0 only allowed for Chemical Flare (now known as Molotov Cocktail ).

9) Grenade relay not allowed, you may only toss a grenade on an alien that you primed yourself.

10) Using the alternative base from XcomUtil as well as alternate research. Automatic daylight NOT used after all!

11) Only aimed shots allowed on aliens you can't see.

12) You must clear your time units when using Gas Cannon and Hydro Jet Cannon, no reaction shots allowed.

13) Heavily modified weapon stats, making aimed shots weaker and starting weapons + gauss a little stronger.

[Zombie]

Maybe make an addendum to the grenade relay: soldiers can still throw unprimed grenades around, but once it's primed it must be thrown by the same person. That's more realistic than not allowing soldiers to throw stuff between each other.

 

- Zombie

[Catwalk]

Maybe make an addendum to the grenade relay: soldiers can still throw unprimed grenades around, but once it's primed it must be thrown by the same person. That's more realistic than not allowing soldiers to throw stuff between each other.

 

- Zombie

Hmm, that's what I've been doing. Now that you mention it, maybe I should ban that one as well I already use grenades a lot, and with all the nerfs I'm imposing for sniping there's a risk of grenades being the overpowering choice in most situations.

[Catwalk]

And the game is underway! Currently clearing my first sub. I love my new gas cannon turned into flamethrower, except the fire is gone after a single round even inside a sub. Is this because I set the power rating too low (45) or is there nothing to do about it? I was hoping to use it to clear subs slowly and safely without damaging the interior.

[Zombie]

How long a fire remains lit depends on what type of ground the fire is on, not the damage (power) of the round. Fires burn great and remain lit a long time if there are combustibles in the tile. No combustibles = short lived blaze. USO floor tiles are basically metal so it's tough to keep a fire going more than 1-2 turns on them. You are also underwater which has a tendency to snuff out a fire pretty quick too.

 

- Zombie

[Catwalk]

Hmm, so is that 1-turn fire any use at all? Is it possible for aliens to catch fire and keep taking damage from it?

[NKF]

Only if you want to abuse the bug where all units on the map that are currently standing in fire get affected by the impact damage of the incendiary rounds.

 

Yes, some aliens do catch fire and take damage over a few turns.

 

Due to the large amount of fuel on some of the land maps, phosphor rounds tend to work better for roasting enemies there. Use it quite frequently on the port and island resort maps.

 

I had a great suggestion come to mind while I was at work - but now I've completely forgotten what it was. Oh well.

 

Hmm... have you tried a pistol campaign? The game really lurches a bit until you get the gauss pistols on account of how weak the dart guns are. Then it's a mad scramble for the sonic pistols - then somehow managing to manage their low ammo supply. Good fun and there's nothing that won't fall to the sonic pistol, so it's not a campaign that asks too much of you.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

I'm changing my mind a little about the purpose of this, focusing more on tactical diversity than increasing the difficulty. I decided to lower all alien reactions by a whooping 50% to balance my lack of reaction training, which does give me quite an edge. Also tentatively considering lifting my ban on night time visions, if I do so I'd ban chemical flares as well as it's so tedious tossing them around.

 

Do aliens take fire by being in ground zero on impact, anywhere in the fire on impact or finishing a turn in fire? If it's the last one, does a 1-round fire end immediately at the end of my turn or at the end of their turn?