Waypoints for Mini Launcher

[Inanna]

Hallo everyone,

 

last week i tried to re-play my good old Xcom-Apocalypse. Meanwhile i was able to buy mini-launchers for my troopers, but the manual doesn't explain how to set waypoints before shooting with this weapon. Could anyone please tell me which key combination (or whatever) i have do use for setting waypoints.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Inanna

[NKF]

Rockets don't have waypoints in Apocalypse. They automatically readjust themselves while they're in flight, so no matter where the target is, they'll try to always turn towards the target.

 

Try teleporting away just before a rocket hits a soldier. Given there's enough space, you'll see the rocket twist around and come right at you.

 

The only safe place from a rocket is right behind a wall.

 

- NKF

[Asmodai]

A BIG wall...

[The Veteran]

Whatever happened to the Blaster launcher...

[Psy Guy]

They lost the plans for them. (along with the laser rifle).

 

-PSY GUY-

[Jh316]

They could've added a neat improvement, though...I can imagine it now... Piloting the missle through an alien building, similar to manual control for the crafts, then jamming it into a random orifice of the Queen.

[Inanna]

Yes, that's the reason why I ask for the waypoints... The last XCOM-games I have re-played were "Ufo-Enemy Unknown" and "Terror from the Deep" and my favorite weapons were these Missile Launcher. I have loved to send a missile through the window of an underwater ship hitting the big group of aliens just leaving the elevator

It seems that I have removed the lack of directed weapons whitin Apocalypse

from my memory Sorry for my stupid question...

 

Inanna

[The Veteran]

Don't worry about it. I never even used the mini launcher in Apocalypse. When the first two games are so similar it's easy to presume the third game will be as well!

[The Demi-Godly One]

Yeah, I never use rockets in apocalypse, and don't worry about your question everyone

is a noobie once. But to your origional question there are no waypoints it just goes in a line,

but you can just move to make the line go the way you want.

[NKF]

Never used rockets? What, not even the entropy and dimension missiles? Surely not! Their rocket guidance systems are identical to the small and heavy launcher's.

 

- NKF

[Tammy]

They could've added a neat improvement, though...I can imagine it now... Piloting the missle through an alien building, similar to manual control for the crafts, then jamming it into a random orifice of the Queen.

You know, for just a second, I thought you meant this Queen....

 

Anyway, yes, waypoints would've been a cool thing to have. You do have to wonder sometimes what happened to the advances from the previous game. I mean realistically, we wouldn't be starting over with terran weapons every time, would we?

[Asmodai]

I always have one man per team with Dimmension missles. It's good to blow up stairwells and prevent my team from gettign flanked.

[Jh316]

Heh, of course not. I'd be maimed around here.

[Tammy]

You might have a point there, hon. Anyway, I'm sure you're too nice a guy to go shooting me with a mini-launcher.

 

Speaking of mini-launchers, I can't say I ever fool with the things myself. I don't know why. I like things that go boom.

[Jh316]

Heh, I guess.

 

I do sometimes toss someone a mini-launcher until I get vortex mines, just so I have things to screw up Sirus with on raids. I always forget to buy HE rounds for the autocannon.

[NKF]

Consider: The fact that the soldier firing a rocket doesn't have to be accurate to hit a target is very encouraging. This makes them ideal for new recruits with horrible accuracy, or even androids.

 

Rockets are also the next best thing you can buy apart from the autocannon, plasma pistol and plasma power sword.

 

In addition, you can get anti-alien gas rockets that can be fitted into the mini and heavy launchers. For those who don't know: You can think of these as a guided and airborne version of the toxigun's toxin. Pity the gas clouds are pink...

 

- NKF

[Inanna]

Never used rockets? What, not even the entropy and dimension missiles? Surely not! Their rocket guidance systems are identical to the small and heavy launcher's.

 

- NKF

At the moment I am just at the beginning of the game and therefore I do not have the weapons with a guidance system, but I remember them from the last time I played this game. Am I right with the suggestion that the setting of waypoints for this weapons worked with the right mouse button. I ask only in case I wil not be able to remember this when I got that type of weapon in the future. It would not be very funny to start a similar topic with the missile launcher...

And yes, I love to use rocket all over the time. They are my favorite weapons for situation where a single trooper makes the acquaintance with a large group of aliens without having a nice present to calm them down And very often in tactical combat I have had the situation that the trooper who sees the aliens first does not have any points left for shooting or fleeing. Then it is a good idea to send a missile over a greater distance with the possibility to avoid obstacles. On the other hand it decreases the amount of loot dramatically

But back to the mini launcher. I use it for raiding the sirius cult to increase the damage (see my other topic). Not many time units are neccessary for shooting with this weapon and the accuracy is not important in that case. Besides it ist possible to fire several times in comparison to throwing a single fire bomb. And don't forget the fact that this weapon does not weight as much as the other bigger weapons. Because I am at the beginning of the game my recruits are not able to carry lots of heavy things.

Furthermore I did not know about the possibility of creating anti alian gas rocket. Very interesting... You are not kidding, aren't you?

 

so long

 

Inanna

[NKF]

As far as I can remember, right clicking on an enemy just shifts your selected soldiers' focus onto the selected unit. So if the selected unit's in the soldier's field of vision, the soldier will concentrate fire on that unit.

 

As for the rockets, well, they all work in the same manner. Mini, heavy, entropy or dimension rockets. They just have different KABOOM effects.

 

All you need to do is let your soldier shoot automatically, or manually force-fire at the target yourself and the rest is up to the missile.

 

Given there's no obstruction like a wall or other units, and the missile still has enough mileage left (for example, the mini-rocket hasn't used up all of its 40 meter limit), it will home in and strike its target.

 

 

 

- NKF

[The Demi-Godly One]

I don't know about missiles because I always just use 3 people and train them to god-like power. So since their

accuracy is so high they never miss and I just care about how many shots they can make a minute,

and find out the damage.I never use anything with under 30 power because it might not hurt them at all.

So far for me I use the autocannon because it fires so much faster than the devestator cannon I use it

instead.Think about it an alien takes a shot from a devestator cannon he is down to 1/6th H.P. so another

shot kills him, this takes about a second for two shots, now the autocannon: It brings an alien down to

half H.P. I take another shot, it kills him. for about two shots it takes 3/4 of a second, so the autocannon

takes less time for one kill, after all it dosn't matter how much you overkill somebody. But thats just me.

[Jh316]

Blasphemy~! Overkill is extremely important. ^_^

[Asmodai]

I never used missles cause I don't liek to damage structures so I can get a high score. Missles alos decrease loot, which I don't like at all.

[NKF]

Personally, I use the rockets to blow up the lootless aliens. i.e. Megaspawn, Psimorphs, Multiworms and spitters in downed UFO's or in the alien dimension (or in Sirius buildings). I blow up too much loot by accident without any help from the rocket launchers anyway.

 

They're not particularly useful in friendly urban settings, just like the autocannon with HE or Incendiary shells. They cause too much collateral damage.

 

And since I usually just use one or a pair (same goes for dimension missiles), they're normally switched off and fired manually. No sense in wasting perfectly good missiles on something trivial.

 

- NKF

 

P.S.: Asmodai, just wait till you get anti-alien gas missiles. They'll make aliens drop like flies, but leave buildings standing (including equipment).

 

Edit: And now, something different, skip to the next post if you hate numbers:

 

Comparing the Autocannon and the Devestator

 

The autocannon can do 1.06rps while a devestator only 0.9 rps. If my calculations are right, the autocannon is 17% faster.

 

Let's use 10 seconds as a benchmark.

 

In 10 seconds, the autocannon can deal 10.6 bullets. Rounded down to 10 bullets. At 40 damage each it deals a grand total of 400 pts of damage.

 

The devestator can only squeeze off 9 shots in 10 seconds. But at 70 damage each, it deals 630 damage.

 

But that's not all. The target creature's armour has to be taken into account for every bullet, so for the autocannon, you need to subtract armour several more times than the devastator.

 

Let's say this hypothetical alien of ours can absorb 30 points of damage regardless of the damage type dealt by the bullets. Sounds like one tough alien. Bear with me anyway.

 

Anyway, in this example, the Autocannon will have to subtract the armour 10 times, but the devestator only has to do it 9 times. So we have:

 

Autocannon = 400 - (10 x 30)= 400 - 300 = 100.

 

Devestator = 630 - (9 x 30) = 630 - 270 = 360

 

The only weapon I can think of that does even better than these two is the plasma power sword (75, with 1.02 rps). So that's roughly 10.2 or 10 hits in 10 seconds, and at 75 per slash, 750. So we subtract the example alien's armour at 30 per swipe (300 pts), this leaves us with 450.

 

Not bad, but it's a real pity that its short range makes it less useful until you get the teleporters. Still, you really have to see what two of these on full auto can do to an enemy with an undamaged shield to really appreciate them.

 

Note, I'm not putting these stats up to discourage the use of the autocannon. I quite like the autocannon.

 

Just to bring this back on topic I'll subject the mini and heavy launchers with HE rockets with the same test.

 

Mini launcher (0.55rps, 40 pts): 200 raw damage. After armour absorption: 50 damage. (Do remember our example alien is very tough, so the 5 mini launcher rockets aren't going to do much damage against it)

 

Heavy launcher(0.45rps, 90pts): 400 raw damage. 280 damage.

 

Ahh, what the heck, I'll toss in my two other favourite guns: the plasma gun and M4000.

 

Plasma gun(1.2rps, 35pts):420 raw, 120.

 

M4000: (3.0 rps, 21pts): 630 raw, 0. (21 vs 30 armour, see? . Okay, so it's -270 )

 

Well, that puts some of the guns into perspective eh? Of course, it doesn't take other factors into account, such as handedness, damage type, gun accuracy and other interesting gun features. So don't listen to me. I'm a most silly person.

 

...I've got to find myself a new hobby...

[Asmodai]

I never got alien grass grens/rockets. I got the queen alive too, but Toxi-guns made them drop just as fast, so it don't matter. I've beaten the game 3 times, lol.

[NKF]

And let's just see why the toxigun is too powerful eh? Toxin-C in particular does 85 damage, and all toxigun bullets do 4.5 rounds per second. That's 3825 raw damage in under 10 seconds. Even after subtracting my ridiculous alien's armour you'll have 2475 damage. Not only that, it bypasses disrupter shields.

 

And considering the queenspawn is one of the healthiest creatures in the game, with a whopping 640hp.... Ouch.

 

Yes, it's way too powerful.

 

- NKF

[Jh316]

Heh, yeah, but I can't seem to hit a damn thing with them most of the time...Too bad the figures don't include accuracy.