1st Semi serious attempt at TFTD

[Evil Beejeebers]

Ok people

 

I have always had a slight hatred towards this game I can never get used to the only slightly more advanced concepts in this game like melee and underwater only weapons.

 

here is my plan for battles

 

10 aquanauts dived like such 4 scouts 2 with stunrods and 2 with grenades and such both with pistols.

2 Snipers, 3 heavy weapons 2 with gas cannons and one supporting with ammo and a good weapon to keep them safe. and a pack mule who throws weapons from the craft to the people in the field plus a gas cannon tank.

 

is that a good squad compassion? what change would you make?

 

also guass vs sonic whats better?

 

also any misc tips would be greatly appricated

 

also how do you kill those ugly flying things?

[Catwalk]

Welcome to the forum!

10 aquanauts divided as such:

4 scouts 2 with stunrods and 2 with grenades and such both with pistols.

2 Snipers, 3 heavy weapons 2 with gas cannons and one supporting with ammo and a good weapon to keep them safe. and a pack mule who throws weapons from the craft to the people in the field plus a gas cannon tank.

I think I'd go with more snipers, since you're fielding a tank. Your tank can do most of your scouting for you, especially early on while your aquanauts are highly vulnerable. I advise against only having stun rods on some of your soldiers, it's easy to keep stun rods in your back pack and whip them out when they're required. Gas Cannons are highly useful, I'd go with those on all who are strong enough to carry them and Jet Harpoons on the rest. Dart Pistols are largely useless due to their tiny damage. Unless you want to field a bunch of torpedo launchers, I don't think a pack mule is needed. Ammo capacity is generally very generous in this game, you'll get by fine with just one extra clip on each soldier and a grenade or two. Look here for the weight of items, giving you an idea of how heavily you can load your soldiers. Torpedo Launchers aren't very popular, but I like them. 110% accuracy for 80% TU doing 80 damage vs Gas Cannon with 90% accuracy for 75% TU doing 65 damage makes it a solid choice imo. Thermal Tazers (the name of Stun Rods in TFTD) aren't very useful except to get a living Deep One early on. Bring them for terror missions until you have a Deep One. They're also good against Lobstermen before you get Sonic weapons, Lobstermen are highly susceptible to melee weapons.

 

In summary, I'd go with something like this for an early squad of 10:

3-4 with Jet Harpoons

1-2 with Torpedo Launchers and 4 small torpedoes each

4-6 with Gas Cannons (note that you need decent strength for these)

Give the Jet Harpoons to your weakest troops as they're most likely to die.

also guass vs sonic whats better?

Gauss Rifle is an excellent early weapon, highly useful against Aquatoids, Gillmen and Deep Ones. Also pretty decent against Calcinites. Against Tasoths, Lobstermen, Tentaculats, Triscenes (very rare) and Xarquids (also very rare) you really need Sonic weapons. Familiarize yourself with the damage resistance of each alien, information can be found here.

any misc tips would be greatly appreciated

Various tactical stuff I've picked up here and there, much of it on this forum:

1) Learn how reaction fire works. Most aliens have very high reactions compared to you, especially at higher difficulty levels. Your best bet is to avoid reaction fire altogether via the mutual surprise rule: When two units spot each other simultaneously, the active unit maintains initiative. This means that if you walk towards an alien in broad daylight without any cover, you will always get to fire at it before it gets to return fire. Use this to aggressively scout out aliens and do damage overload on them with all your rear troops. This way your scouts take minimal risks and your good soldiers get the kills.

2) Don't spend all your TU each turn on scouting, use the last 16 or so TU to move back after advancing. This makes it much less likely that an alien will spot you.

3) In the same vein, always try to take cover with your scouts before ending your turn. Partial cover also helps and is much better than nothing. Dye Grenades are good in theory, but require hacking to be useful as their default power is set to 10 for some strange reason.

4) Always move with your scouts first. You don't want to be in the position of detecting an alien and not having enough firepower from your rear troops to take it out. If your rear troops are all done for the round, scout cautiously or just take cover.

5) If you ever have to fight with reduced visibility, bring 10 or so chemical flares. It's extremely easy to deploy these, they cost nothing and they're a life saver. It's a bit tedious tossing them about, but it's well worth it. You might go with fewer flares later on because of the 80 item limit.

6) Learn to use doors to your advantage. Doors are one of the best ways to get an edge over the aliens, as you can navigate them much more intelligently than they can. Before opening a door, position troops on both sides of the door so you can view the whole room right away without giving the initiative to the enemy.

7) Do NOT cluster your soldiers unless you're ABSOLUTELY sure no aliens are nearby!! The aliens are very good at taking advantage of this to blast your troops with grenades.

8) Molecular Control and Disruptor Pulse Launchers break the game. Once you have these, you've pretty much won. I recommend only using MC for Panic attacks in order to give yourself more of a challenge and to refrain from using DPL or using it sparingly. I've modified DPL to function like a more powerful Rocket Launcher instead, no waypoints. Less frustrating to fight against and less overpowered to use against the aliens.

9) Tentaculats are indeed a royal pain. You will mainly encounter them in alien colonies, so you will be able to prepare yourself properly. On the first level of alien colonies, good lighting is key. If you spot the Tentaculats first, you can take them out before they get to you. Tanks are also invaluable against Tentaculats, as they're almost completely invulnerable to them (I believe there's a small risk of one-shot kill). Inside colonies and artifact sites, they're a much bigger problem. Aggressive scouting is still crucial, but you can no longer rely on rear troops to provide you with sufficient firepower. Melee weapons are highly useful here, especially since you'll also be fighting lobstermen. Both go down very easily to melee weapons, and they're the easiest way to do a lot of damage with a single soldier. It's also advised to always walk around with a primed grenade or two so you'll at least take the Tentaculat down with you.

10) Don't reload The only way to improve is to accept the consequences of your actions and try hard to avoid repeating your mistakes. You're much more motivated to do so if there is a real risk of losing your favourite soldiers. Don't be hard on yourself if you can't beat Super Human without reloading (especially if you also limit your MC and DPL usage), just go with a lower difficulty level. The game is also that much more thrilling when you don't reload. Most players experience a much more intense game once they learn to let go of the reloading crutch.

 

Good luck!

[NKF]

There's no set way how you approach the battles with your squad setup. Finding the one that works best for you is a big part of the fun. However, while I am a big proponent of the pistols in UFO and TFTD, I highly advise against the use of the dart guns for anything but deliberate accuracy training exercises. Gauss pistols -yes, most verily. Sonic Pistols even more so (they're like pocket versions of Heavy Gausses - but better! ).

 

You can have a bit of fun with the squad setup. At the start, you can easily get by with having half of your aquanauts armed with Gas Cannons and AP/HE shells. I like going with an all HE setup and a token AP and Incendiary clip - but that's for preference.

 

For the lighter units, Jet Harpoons complimented with a couple of magna-blast grenades are a good start. Upgrade them with Gauss Pistols or Gauss Rifles later on. You might even want to use Magna-Pack explosives if you've got a few buff aquanauts with 40 or greater strength.

 

Heavy equipment - well, up to you. Torpedo launcher with small torpedoes (there's only 5 - 15 point difference between the damage of the large torpedos) is good for a sniper.

 

Misc. gear I'd recommend bringing about 4 to 8 flares and 4 thermal tazers. Throw in any extra gear you get along the way like a few medikits, one particle disturbance sensor, etc.

 

But again, equipment setup will be something for you to decide.

 

---

 

Gauss Vs. Sonic?

 

Sonic, definitely in the long run, but Gauss in the short run.

 

Unlike UFO, Gauss is not able to compete with Sonic weaponry on an even footing. However, it is easy to get quickly, cheap and above all even the Gauss Pistol puts the Jet Harpoons to shame. Gauss Rifle is also a fan favourite too. As for the heavy Gauss... I recommend reading the analysis article on the wiki that I wrote comparing it with the Sonic Pistol. (Has a comparison of the sonic vs. gauss multipliers against various enemies too!)

 

Once you get Sonic weapons, and once tougher enemies show up, Gauss may not see as much service.

 

 

---

 

General tips:

 

- Read the past forum messages, ask questions on an topic that interests you and experiment.

 

- Employ the sniper/scout strategy. Basically, just have one person (or a Coelacanth - they seem to have an intermittent reaction immunity) out scouting. When they spot enemies, don't attack with them. Have those towards the rear kneel and snipe at the the target. Never attack with the scout if you can help it. Since the aliens cannot see attackers, they cannot react against them.

 

 

- If all else fails: use more explosives. Anything can be solved with more explosives. To that end - research the Sonic Pulser ASAP. Best equalizer in the game (next to the Ion Armor) that puts you on an even footing with the aliens until your technology can catch up. The aliens carry these almost religiously - and those carrying drills carry up to 4!

 

- In TFTD grenades can withstand their own explosions. If the enemy you're facing is tough, try having several aquanauts arm and pile several grenades onto the same alien. Amazingly effective with Sonic Pulsers.

 

 

- Capture a Deep-One (and a coprse) at all costs during the early part of the game to make your life a lot easier. Even if it means knocking one out, dragging it back to the Triton and dusting off with it and abandoning a terror site. They bottleneck most of your more important research, and they don't stick around for very long. Research the corpse first to get aqua plastics. Research that, the plastic aqua armor and then Ion Beam Accelerators. Only then research the live deep-one. This helps avoid a major research tree bug. And it nets you the MC Lab so you can start screening MC Strength early into the game.

 

- Don't judge your soldiers by bravery. That is, to put it in the vernacular, a n00b mistake. I'll explain: Bravery only influences the rate of morale loss during events that cause morale loss. It doesn't block a MC attempt. Only MC Strength determines how well your aquanaut will survive an MC attack. Use the MC Lab to determine this or your own personal experience during a battle with MC attacks.

 

- Hunt for a Calcinite corpse from terror sites or X-COM floating base attacks to get started on the drills. Do this early as Aquatoids get scarce later on.

 

- Tentaculat combat - They're hard, but not impossible to defeat. Watch your back, know your surroundings and have a lot of spare TUs on hand for reaction fire. Its the ones that get you by surprise that harm you the most. If you're in the dark and out in the open, always toss flares out ahead so you know what's coming towards you.

 

Indoors, especially in the artefact site's black syononium device chamber, you can sometimes use mines to good effect to act as early-warning detectors for anything following behind you. Tentaculat front armour is pretty high, so don't try to harm them with gauss weapons (or virboblades) from the front. Try to hit them on the sides or rear. With sonic weapons or Heavy Thermic Lances, they're fair game from any direction. Gas Cannon HE rounds aren't too shabby either. A pile of armed sonic pulsers though can be quite effective.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

NKF, when would you go with Gauss Pistol over Gausss Rifle? Other than while waiting for rifles to be manufactured, of course.

 

Pistol -- Rifle

Damage 45 -- 60

Auto 30/30 -- 50/40

Snap 40/25 -- 65/30

Aimed 70/50 -- 100/60

 

The advantages would be mostly cancelled out if you're permanently wielding something in your off hand, but I'd say that's a rare situation. Maybe a drill or a sensor, but even in those cases you can have them stashed in your belt and fetch them as required. And against anything but Aquatoids, the extra damage from the Gauss Rifle really comes in handy.

[NKF]

It's not too much about the damage and accuracy - it's the speed. The extra ammo and overall better performance over the Jet Harpoon are also worthy of consideration. My usual off-hand item is a primed grenade - which fills in for the 'extra firepower' aspect when needed.

 

Certainly no where as useful or as much fun as UFO's laser pistol, but it's not too bad as the game's submachinegun.

 

I generally end up with an even mix pistols and rifles. Say in a squad of ten for example, four might get pistols, four rifles and the two others with Gas Cannons. The pistols are ideal for scouts and grenadiers while the rifles are good general purpose weapons.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

3 TU to take a grenade from your shoulder is minor. I can see using them against aquatoids, and I can see going with a mix of Sonic Pistols, Rifles and Cannons. But If I'm facing an alien in close combat then I'd rather have 3 accurate shots doing 60 damage each before he gets to react.

 

Btw I'm using your nuclear lantern concept in my next campaign They're proving to be a very interesting and useful choice in many situations.

[Evil Beejeebers]

Cheers it's seem's like you all know what you're talking about, and have different opinions of what works.

[Knan]

I'm with NKF. Bring all the explosives and all the aquanauts you can eat, and then some. Additionally, gas cannons are good. Bring some, even when you have gauss guns and sonics.

[Jman4117]

For open terrain an HE Gas Cannon or a Shok Launcher, with grenades (primed if you aren't packed in tightly) on the shoulders. In close quarters, have Sonic Pistols or lances with a grenade in the offhand. They give good damage while giving you TUs to seek cover.

[Evil Beejeebers]

oh and where are the best places for bases?

[NKF]

As with most things, that's entirely up to you. Best thing to do is make sure that the bases don't over-lap their sonar ranges too much as you want as wide a sonar net as possible.

 

You could try this:

 

First base: Where-ever you are most comfortable with. I'd advise against placing it inside the Mediterranean sea as there is way too little sea-bed area for you to cover. A few places you might like (ignoring funding) are the Atlantic ocean, Indian ocean, anywhere from eastern Russia/Japan down to Australasia or smack in the middle of the Pacific. They are fair places to start. I quite like the Atlantic for cross-game reasons. Or go for the area with the largest cluster of paying cartels. That means any good you do will be noticed by more of them, thus the bonuses will be greater.

 

Second base: On the exact opposite point of the globe as your starting base

 

Third and Fourth: On either side. If you imagine a line between the first and second bases, these two bases will intersect it at a tangent.

 

Basically quartering the globe. I stick religiously to cutting the globe in half with at least two assault bases. The remainder should just be littered anywhere you have blind spots, need sub interceptors or have a need for a speciality base.

 

- NKF