Barracuda Lunch

[Alienated]

Solo AAR

 

I have already written a lot about this campaign on the forums and I just thought why not post the whole story? So here it is.

 

The rules:

1. I must intercept every alien sub.

2. I must not use alien technology.

3. I must not exploit the loot (from battles) and must not produce items for profit.

4. I must employ one aquanaut who must not die.

5. I may reload game anytime I see fit.

6. I may choose what the aliens do on the geoscape.

 

Notes on the rules:

1. My first X-COM games were almost iron man walkthroughs because I did not care if an UFO outran my interceptor and was lost. In this aspect the geoscape game has challenge close to zero. Now that I know how many UFOs do a mission and how they do it, I can tell whether I have failed to eliminate any of them. This is a basic conduct now everytime I play an X-COM campaign. It is not hard at all to down occasionally a UFO/USO and get a positive monthly score but to catch them all takes a lot of planning and care even if you reload game.

2. Clearing the sky of battleships and fleet supply cruisers isn't hard by a sonic oscillator (and I mean a sonic oscillator) even if you equip it on a mere BARRACUDA. It doesn't even need Zrbite to rearm. Not to mention a Leviathan that practically renders the alien sub speed thing ineffective.

3. The funding system is almost unneccessary when you sell alien stuff at fat prices. Money was my last concern in my previous campaigns so I have made it more interesting. As I can't simply throw away items and I neither want to build extra general stores just to keep them, I have to abort every mission not to get any alien stuff. Therefore terror sites are excluded. I don't visit crash sites because (1) what's the use if I don't get anything from that?; (2) when can I say a crash site is completed, what can be the mission objective?; (3) the campaign could have been incredibly long (and boring) if I had visited every crash site. The 100th Escort or Cruiser mission could have probably told me to quit and play an entirely different game. However, the two-stage missions (colony and artefact site) are basically created for an abort. There is a certain mission objective that can be done even with one aquanaut. Therefore the geoscape only game is given. Anytime the random generator gives me a ship terror, I just reload to get an artefact site instead.

4. I long planned a solo X-COM game. There is two good things about the solo one in this campaign: (1) I pay less for personnel; (2) sneak tactics can be interesting. I compensated the alien odds by creating a super hero. Solo (his name) had all maximum attributes a recruit can have from the very start (i.e. Time Units 60, Stamina 70, Health 40, Bravery 60, Reactions 60, Firing Accuracy 70, Throwing Accuracy 80, Strength 40, Melee Skill 40, M.C. Strength 100). I already considered some sort of attribute edit because random aquanauts may make huge differences so the super hero was just a choice. I guess creating such a super Seaman isn't a great cheat because aliens in average are far stronger fighters than Solo.

5. This rule may seem to iron man gamers quite soft. I just want a perfect game. I do everything possible. They are often not the probable but what belongs to my part if I take chances? For I am just lucky if I shoot down a battleship without a loss of craft and I am unlucky if I can't shoot it down with at least two barracudas with a pair of DUP on each. I just exclude the luck part when I reload game and leave the strategy part in: you can't shoot down a battleship with one barracuda or can't shoot it down with Gas Cannons. Therefore the proper strategy is you have to ready two barracudas with DUP when and where the sub comes. This isn't always granted. For example you just can't intercept one in the South China Sea from a base in the North Atlantic.

6. This rule comes from the reload rule because you can't be a chooser without reloads. For example I can/may do that the alien sub took its random path a little bit closer to my pack of barracudas. But if the mission area of the sub is entirely out of the reach of the barracudas on the interception base, I can't do anything about it because the sub just won't leave the area randomly. The strategic requirement is to create a network of bases soon which isn't easy with the rule #3.

 

I planned to cut my expenses by researching and producing Gauss Cannon and its ammo against the many small subs. It turned out that the craft weapon fires too slowly and too inaccurately and shooting down an escort perfectly (i.e. no escape, no stupid misses, no stupid craft damage) takes more reloads than a dreadnought combat! The perfect shot should be one crack from a double weapon: 2x90 damage, but I started to rejoice when two cracks downed a small sub. I regret the whole thing. I spent a lot of money on the research to get an almost useless stuff. The weapon is still pretty good against medium sized subs but they are also pretty rare and it isn't worth the store space on the long run. So it happened I stuck to DUP weapons as soon as I used up the default Ajax-Gas Cannon stock. I managed to use Gauss Cannon successfully against fleet supply cruisers but the possibility thing and the probability thing were somewhat distant from each other if you know what I mean... The Gauss Cannon even managed to down survey ships (i.e. not destroying them) often enough (and this is not a praise). The DUP torpedo too may do that but very rarely. I don't need to mention (but I do) downing a survey ship by DUP isn't a perfect interception in this campaign.

 

The early months weren't much different from any player's any game because aliens were active near my first base (and if you help that a little;) and the alien subs weren't above the one pair of barracudas "fleet" food ration. The parallel alien colony expansions in April made the X-COM forces quite busy, for sure.

 

As soon as my X-COM base expansion was near finished, the aliens' activity wasn't challenging any longer. The things got really exciting in November when they started floating base attack missions and infiltrations (kind of let them do that), and that was the point when I was considering to redouble my barracuda fleet because it meant they had four parallel missions per month extending through months therefore eight parallel missions going on. No single day without alien sub. And dreadnoughts were just a coming too often... However, I gave it a try and solved the swarm in February by having only 11 barracudas. It just couldn't have got much worse (as far as I know) so I decided to declare this campaign successful and worthy for a report. Maybe I will resume the game but I have already eight completely built-in bases (eight hangars in each) and about eighty million bucks in the bank even after USA (and Africa Corp.) quit funding me. I have some nations with about three million and the poorest ones are reaching the one million of funding. I mean I may not get broke soon as it seems.

 

I have discovered the program forgets the number of artefact sites completed. If I do Artefact Site-1 and switch off the machine or reload from the main menu, then the next artefact site is Artefact Site-1 again. In the other hand, it remembers how many it generated otherwise even if I never touch them. For example I get an Artefact Site-1 in August 1 1:00 and I reload game to July 31 23:59, then it generates an Artefact Site-2 in August 1 1:00 (if it is not a ship terror or surface attack mission) the second time. This is how I managed to attack Artefact Site-6 by several reloads. It says "Alien activity continues" and "Base still intact" instead of "Aliens defeated" though my sneaky missions are clear anyway. It seems the registration of these artefact missions are bugged somehow. I guess it sets the counter properly if you kill all aliens on stage two. The geoscape variable is a secondary value. It is set by the "strong" value. As my strong value is always zero because of the abort, the secondary value is initialised accordingly but it gets falsely updated by reloads in geoscape. The UFOpaedia says there are twelve such sites to eliminate and I wonder which variable is checked for this, the strong one (anywhere it may be) or the geoscape one (or none of them...). There is usually a monster or two stuck in the wall on second stage of artefact sites. Then the mission can't be completed normally (i.e. without digging up the whole map). I wonder whether there is somebody who completed twelve artefact sites to the last aliens and had his artefact site counter working properly. And what happened.

 

Some words about the battle scape missions. I didn't have to create a super hero because the missions were easier than I expected. Some of them were pretty quick. For example alien colony 5 and 6 took 4+5 turns and without a reload! A simple walk in the park indeed. Actually colony missions are much easier now when alien guards outside use DPL instead of sonic and I just can pass by the guards. It seems the program doesn't give a bleep if I dance before the aliens as long as reaction shots aren't involved and I don't stay in their sights in alien turn. Now that's the thing you can't do in Enemy Unknown. The command center is some kind of fortress within the base with the 50% of guards crammed in the location. However, the sneaky idea came from Enemy Unknown, the Cydonia site. The Avenger happened to land nearby the pyramid with the entry area and the guys closest to the ramp could just walk down the ramp and got inside the pyramid without a hiss of plasma shot. Just in the doomly Martian darkness. Now the artefact sites are very similar. If the certain pyramid is close to the Triton, Solo is almost granted to survive otherwise he is almost granted to die no matter how many times I reload. The only difference is TftD always puts an alien in the pyramid and sometimes the ticket inside the base is an auto-shot from the gauss rifle. The inside job is a lot easier but still not as easy as an alien colony inside job. The inside job of a colony is almost granted to succeed. The last time I killed a Tentaculat just because (it were there... not exactly) I wanted to build some muscles on Solo (i.e. some more strength than 40) for the future when I will add a magna pack explosive to his equipment to spare the dangerously dwindling gauss ammo (I use the gauss rifle to destroy the synomium device mostly, what a bloody pacifism!).

 

I guess the abbreviations in the log attached are self-explanatory for veteran players though I explain them anyway. There are a few types of events. I log the alien sub's first detection with date, time, location, registration number, type, mission, destination, depth, and the detector (base or craft). The locations are North Atlantic NAt, South Atlantic SAt, North Pacific NPc, South Pacific SPc, Indian Ocean InO, North Sea NS, Sea of Japan SoJ, South China Sea SCS, Arctic Arc, Antarctic Ant, Mediterranean Med, Caribbean Car, and some rare locations: Alaska Ala, Japan Jap, North America NAm, South America SAm, Africa Afr, Europe Eur, Eurasia Eua, Central Asia CAs. The subs are survey ship S, escort E, cruiser C, heavy cruiser H, hunter R, battleship B, fleet supply cruiser F, dreadnought D. The missions are probe P, surface attacks aka terror S, resource raid R, interdiction D, infiltration I, colony expansion E, floating base attack F, colony supply C (not in this campaign because that can't be intercepted). Depths are very deep V, deep D, normal N, shallow S, airborn A, touched down T. The detectors are (e.g) SIREN 1 S1, (e.g.) BARRACUDA-1 B1, TRITON-1 T1. As I can't tell which of the many within range detected the sub, I just pick the lowest serial or closest item, and craft has priority because I noticed they more accurately spot subs than sonars of bases. I log the combat with the sub that may mean alien sub hit H, alien sub downed X (from the crash site indicator), alien sub destroyed D with the interceptors that can't be other than BARRACUDAs (e.g. B1). The craft weapons are craft gas cannon C, gauss cannon G, ajax torpedo A, D.U.P. head torpedo D. The number of shots usually means the number of hits. However, I can't tell how many D.U.P. head torpedoes of B1 3D3D actually hit the target. At least 3. It may happen (not the perfect one of course) only 3D3D downs a small sub. This means 3 torpedoes very probably hit only fish-piss while 3 torpedoes managed to knock at the hull of the sub. Fortunately large subs are easier to hit, so a 3D3D usually means six hits on the sub. I log the transfers, the builds, the shoppings with date and time again but without the location because the base is more important. And the quantity is also noted. (You probably will notice I shopped ajax torpedoes accidentally deep in the war. I let it happen because I didn't want to redo several interceptions (I actually hate to reload)). Some of these events are contracted in one, and the bases and quantity are listed. Research and production are similar. I log of course the manned X-COM activity too, namely the colony assaults e.g. AC-1 and artefact missions e.g. AS-1. The missions are listed by serial and the killed aliens (k) and destroyed objects (colony control c and synomium device s) are listed too with the total score t. It happened a tasoth DPL guy stood on the exit area when I aborted the outside stage and four artefacts (a) were recovered somehow but fortunately the items didn't become loot. The monthly scores are indicated in the end of month.

solo_aar.txt

[Bomb Bloke]

1. I must intercept every alien sub.

2. I must not use alien technology.

 

...

 

2. Clearing the sky of battleships and fleet supply cruisers isn't hard by a sonic oscillator (and I mean a sonic oscillator) even if you equip it on a mere BARRACUDA. It doesn't even need Zrbite to rearm. Not to mention a Leviathan that practically renders the alien sub speed thing ineffective.

If I'm reading the log right, you did indeed stick to rule two and use 'cuddas/DUPs the whole campaign?

 

It seems the registration of these artefact missions are bugged somehow. I guess it sets the counter properly if you kill all aliens on stage two.

Wouldn't surprise me, there are a few other variables the games have been known to "forget" about. Like whether or not it's possible to lose on a given month.

 

There is usually a monster or two stuck in the wall on second stage of artefact sites. Then the mission can't be completed normally (i.e. without digging up the whole map).

Have been wanting to collect saves of such maps, if you have any. I've got one so far but would be interested to see if there's a specific pattern as to where the alien ends up hidden.

 

I wonder whether there is somebody who completed twelve artefact sites to the last aliens and had his artefact site counter working properly. And what happened.

The counter just keeps going up. They never run out of artefact sites, no matter what the in-game UFOpedia has to say about it.

 

It seems the program doesn't give a bleep if I dance before the aliens as long as reaction shots aren't involved and I don't stay in their sights in alien turn.

Yes, this is pretty much correct. However, the aliens will start to pay attention to your location if you shoot one but fail to kill it outright (this includes autoshots).

[Alienated]

If I'm reading the log right, you did indeed stick to rule two and use 'cuddas/DUPs the whole campaign?

Of course and I explained the reason why it is a cool rule, you even quoted it.

 

Have been wanting to collect saves of such maps, if you have any. I've got one so far but would be interested to see if there's a specific pattern as to where the alien ends up hidden.

I remember a tool to transfer data from PSX to PC still there is no way I can do that. I have learned about your map collection in another topic and I have also seen your request was just ignored. Maybe the guy also plays the PSX version or the aliens have abducted him to stay...

 

However, I still can do something. I am planning to redo this campaign with some changes in rules. Now I know the funding is sufficient to keep X-COM alive and successful, I can exlude this part. I will do the colony, terror, and artefact missions (i.e. the two stage missions), and of course the base defenses. I sell the loot and research everything (that will be a campaign objective). I won't do crash recoveries and USO assaults. I will keep about 30 aquanauts (I may probably do one or two battles per month after all). All of that means I can do several artefact missions in a relatively short time and I may get several walled in aliens too. I will keep track of their locations and report you. But who knows? I may happen to play TftD never again.

[Space Voyager]

Ok, I have to ask... How many reloads did this take?

[Alienated]

This can't be measured by the number of reloads. Gaming hours could be a better measure but I didn't watch that either. I mass-kill time. Still, playing a game-year only on the geoscape takes less real time. And destroying an alien colony with Solo takes some minutes with or without reloads. How long can commanding about twelve turns for one operative take?

 

Since I don't use the Craft Gauss Cannon, I don't have to reload half as many times. I guess you can do a perfect interception by no more than ten reloads average. If you want to do it without reloads and perfection, you need twice as many D.U.P. Head Torpedoes. And I guess a Battleship can be downed by four Barracudas and a Dreadnought by eight. You get -200 victory points for losing an interceptor so downing these subs does not pay well still it's better than an ignored or terrible terror site or a destroyed base. Aliens don't get victory points for destroying an undefended X-COM base but they score very much if you lose the defensive fight on a base with several Barracudas/Tritons. Aliens tend to hit your base by surprise if you have just sonars and you can't evacuate the base to be undefended. Base defense missions aren't so tough as in EU but lobster men can easily beat you if you have nothing better than gauss weapons (or even worse). Therefore having Barracudas attack big game alien subs can be a proper choice. And it is great fun if you don't risk anything besides some minutes of loading when you reload.