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X-Com Apocalypse LP


Nookrium

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Crash course is the best - in a game. The first thing I always did was set the behaviour to agressive. That way the soldiers do exactly what they are told. Otherwise they will try to go to cover and stuff, which hugely limits their performance. You know, the difference between a swat team and regular warzone.

The only time I let other behaviours kick in was when everybody got into combat and it was near impossible to guide them all. Then I'd set most to the middle behaviour mode and guide one group by hand on agressive.

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I'm still in the middle of watching the battle - but where to start? I'll come back with something more comprehensive later but I do want to address one thing quickly:

 

Your grenade settings. Notice that you were setting them to explode 0.25 seconds. That means they were set to blow up at the very moment they left your agent's hands. This surprisingly does have its uses with the AP grenade and the various gas grenades. However, for your purposes as you are still learning the ropes for RT combat, I highly recommend sticking to the blast-on-impact setting for the time being. Right click the grenade instead of left clicking to active this, then just pick the target.

 

This setting can even be used on proximity mines to use them like ordinary grenades.

 

edit:

 

Some quick notes on the progress in the Cityscape so far:

 

See the top-left icon on the cityscape's control bar? Toggle it to focus the camera on which ever vehicle is currently selected in the tabs. Try it out. It's excellent for tracking a UFO or if you'd like to follow a particular ship to its destination.

 

Don't be afraid to split up your forces this early in the game. The UFOs you are encountering aren't too dangerous and each can be easily shot down by a couple of hoverbikes, so you can have all of the little UFOs targeted as the appear. It's the bigger ships that you'll be seeing at the start of the next week that will need focused attacks.

 

Try to experiment with mixed flight levels for your hoverbikes rather than have them all flying at the same level. This way they won't get in each others' way as often.

 

Park your hoverbikes (after they are repaired, of course!) in adjacent buildings to make use of the launch tubes. One bike per launch tube. This way your entire fleet can deploy at an instant when UFOs appear rather than one bike per launch tube. When they return home and you are waiting for the transport to land first, select the hoverbikes and tell them to wait to let the transport land first.

 

Since you started to build some bio transport modules to sell, be aware that there are some basic market mechanics put in to eventually foil the practice of manufacturing for profit. As you sell stuff, the selling price will gradually drop. I think it can go as low as 50% of the base sale price. I don't recall if it can go up again.

 

It's often better to hoard something and sell it all off in bulk while the price is still high rather than selling it in dribs and drabs. Particularly for alien gear. On the other hand, the Psiclone, which you can 'borrow' when raiding gang controlled buildings has a stable selling price. The same goes for the advanced ships you can build later on.

 

2nd edit:

 

Okay, perhaps not too much to add on the battle itself, as it's a learning experience.wink.png Just keep practicing in real-time, and before long you won't feel so overwhelmed.

 

Now for a small bit on weapon handling:

 

In real-time, a good part of the weapon handling is dealt with automatically by your agents. As long as you have either aimed, snap or auto firing modes selected, the agent will always react against any enemy targets they can see. If the agent is dual wielding weapons, both weapons weapons will be used. Weapon range permitting.

 

If you don't want this to happen and only want the agent to shoot when ordered, switch the firing mode off. Especially important when handling a rocket launcher. wink.png

 

What happened in the last video when you were trying to capture the Multiworm is that you ordered a shot from the Stun Grapple. Once that was done, the soldier kept firing with both his weapons because his firing mode was still set to snapshots.

 

In this case, he needed to damage the Multiworm anyway as they have so much health that a single shot from a stun grapple was not going to do it.

 

- NKF

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Commander NeptuneNook!

 

Let me say some comments on your progress.

Firstly, sack humans and hire androids. Else the mind suckers, aliens which wield egg launcher and eggs will eventually consume them all.

With androids, you need not worry about:

1) training, its impossible for them

2) Psy-attack, they have 100 psy-immunity

3) Mind suckers, these things ignore them

If you want psyonics in your squad, keep them on back line, buy them Marsec hovering armor and place them on max height. It saves them from mind suckers and melee attackers. Also it will lower the damage from suicide self-explosive alien. If your market does not offer cool equip, make a visit to some punks like Diablo etc. Anyway, they become your enemy quickly and they will have cool equip earlier than you will see it on market ;)

Aliens tend to pack in one massive bunch, so you do not need to disperse your troops. 1 or 2, max 3 groups will be sufficient.

Do not hesitate use the various explosives. So you will minimize the risk to your soldiers. Anyway, your initial weapon is inaccurate and your rookies are poor with accuracy.

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I needed a Turn-Based confidence boost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coV0TU8JeMU

 

The price will go up slowly, but you can't sell particular item for quite a while. In fact the price can go above the starting price I believe.

It will go above the original? I know it drops slowly each time you sell, I was planning on hanging onto the Bio-Transports for a while and continue making them until something else comes up.

 

What happened in the last video when you were trying to capture the Multiworm is that you ordered a shot from the Stun Grapple. Once that was done, the soldier kept firing with both his weapons because his firing mode was still set to snapshots.

If I set it to No firing mode, then want him to stun, if I manually tell him to fire with the stun grapple will he continue to shoot until it's done/stunned?

 

Also, is there a "cancel orders' button? Like if I tell someone to move somewhere on accident, instead of reclicking somewhere else.

 

 

Commander NeptuneNook!

 

Let me say some comments on your progress.

Firstly, sack humans and hire androids.

 

Hey Kir'jaeden.

From what I remember, androids are great early on, but lose their value late in the game. Having these humans around and training will be much more valuable as time goes on.

Shouldn't I be careful with my explosives (depending on the building I'm in), I don't want to anger these organizations any more that they already will become.

 

 

One more thing, Transtellar is already a bit unhappy, they want a lot of money to bring them back to neutral... should I do it? How difficult will it make it on me if they end up going hostile?

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Nook, it's just like in real market, the harder the item is to obtain, the more expensive it becomes. Every price change is affected each week. Also if I remember right, it's better to sell in bulky on Sunday, then every day. I don't remember if this was mentioned in ufopaedia. Should be.

 

If I set it to No firing mode, then want him to stun, if I manually tell him to fire with the stun grapple will he continue to shoot until it's done/stunned?

 

No. One shot per click.

 

Also, is there a "cancel orders' button? Like if I tell someone to move somewhere on accident, instead of reclicking somewhere else.

 

RMB.

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Illegal fliers. Gangs will sometimes send ships to attack some organization they don't like - or each other. When this happens, one or two low level vehicles will appear and start firing at a building, then get wiped out as a swarm of more advanced ships come out and destroy them.

 

This is an event that you have to wait out, but certainly not something you have to attend to yourself unless they gang is attacking one of your buildings.

 

Since the hoverbike you had in this video had a purple icon on the map, the gang wasn't hostile towards you. They will be now though. wink.png It's not a bad thing, it'll help you make friends with the groups that do not like them.

 

I needed a Turn-Based confidence boost

 

It's certainly easier to work with something a bit more familiar. However I hope you don't give up on real time. I recommend running some practice sessions in your own time to get the hang of it. One good way you can do this is to start a brand new game, hire an android and send it alone to the very first mission. Androids don't attract brainsucker attacks so they're essentially immune to everything on the first mission. Load up whatever weapons you want to test out, though I do recommend starting with double stun grapples and a variety of stun or smoke grenades for practice. Basically go in and see what does what. You're only working with one agent, but you can easily apply what you learn to a squad.

 

Be patient, pause a lot and take your time assessing everything.

 

Speaking of the Androids, they don't earn any experience. But they do have moderately good stats so can be decent fighters during any stage of the game. Think of them as humanoid HWP's.

 

The key feature of the androids is the fact that Brainsuckers and psionic enemies are unable to attack them. You'll probably want a few on the team for fighting the Psimorphs later on.

 

If I set it to No firing mode, then want him to stun, if I manually tell him to fire with the stun grapple will he continue to shoot until it's done/stunned?

 

Like Silencer said, this only shoots the weapon once. That said, you can still achieve the effect you want with a bit of inventory juggling. For example, carry your stun grapples in your backpack, then when you are up close to the target and ready to stun, go to the inventory and switch your weapons out for the grapples. Once armed, the agent will continuously fire at anything that gets within the 5 tile (I think) grapple range.

 

In both real-time and turn based, think of the active firing modes as a reaction fire toggle as well as a way to rebalance accuracy/firing speed.

 

One more thing, Transtellar is already a bit unhappy, they want a lot of money to bring them back to neutral... should I do it? How difficult will it make it on me if they end up going hostile?

 

Ah - politics.

 

I highly recommend you only ever bribe companies to get them out of hostile status, otherwise it can get very expensive indeed. They'll still provide their services to you even if they are unfriendly.

 

At any other relation level, they may still be very unhappy with you even if the relations tab shows they are on good terms with you. Their public face is very different from their private face, and any lasting goodwill between you and them will take a while to build up.

 

If they are still angry with you, they may issue a demand for compensation that will instantly set them to neutral if you pay it, or they go hostile if you decline. You can imagine it getting quite expensive to bribe them up until they are allies, only to get a demand, pay even more and they are left neutral or unfriendly.

 

In short, bribe only to get out of hostile relations, and pay up when they are asking for compensation. Try to improve relations naturally by dealing damage to their enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. Just be careful as this can get very messy indeed! wink.png

 

For Transtellar, when they go hostile they stop providing taxies for any soldiers or scientists that you hire. Instead they have to walk all the way to your base from their house. They can even get permanently stranded if any of the people tubes are destroyed - but you can avoid this by briefly going into super-fast time to get them to arrive at the base instantly after you've hired them.

 

Transtellar will also not provide you with any transports or taxies to move goods and people between bases. Thankfully, you can get around this by manually flying vehicles and agents to and from the different bases to pick up and move gear about as you need.

 

Transtellar will still contract out transports to other suppliers, so any goods you buy from them will still be shipped to your base by air.

 

For stuff that you have recovered from a battle, you can directly unload the contents of the transport at any of the bases by landing at them before sending the transport home. The game will prompt you whether to unload the cargo or aliens there. This is handy if the ship is carrying newly recovered tech or aliens and your research facilities and containment units are not situated at the home base.

 

Scientists and engineers will be be stuck permanently at the base they were hired at. Agents can be housed in one base, but can live and operate at any of the bases in the city by physically moving them there.

 

- NKF

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The realtime combat is quite nice (even though I'm terrible at it), and I think I read somewhere the game was initially meant to be only that, but they added in TB at the last minute to please the old fans. It certainly makes the game more exciting.

 

Everything that I read on this indicated that both RT & TB were planned from the start. Excerpt from the old Mythos website by Julian himself:

 

We decided right at the start of the project to include an option for real time tactical combat or turn based. This decision alone caused many of the headaches for the programmers, but the final implementation of the real time combat stands up as a truly innovative system.

 

My guess is that the RT aspect was worked on first, then about 3/4 through implementation they started to try and shoehorn the TB aspect in. It's functional, but just barely. Don't forget that they also had a scenario generator and multiplayer options they tried to implement, but were stripped out. All of those things going on at once and it's understandable why TB suffered. wink.png

 

- Zombie

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This mission certainly went better. I think dealing with a smaller group helped keep you focused on the action.

 

That brainsucker you got at the bottom of the ramp wasn't dead, just stunned. They generally look a bit flatter when dead. wink.png

Of course, it did die from the explosion that took out hyperworms, but it would have been quite dangerous to have left it behind as it would have woken up and jumped on your agents from behind.

 

On a similar note, the other brainsucker that suddenly appeared towards the end had hatched behind your team as they turned away to go after the Spitter. The pod was either fired by the anthropod just as it fell unconscious, or it was part of its gear that fell to the ground. Try to listen for the noises, as the pods do make a certain noise when they hatch.

 

As for your ships: You may as well get some hovercars to help out your bikes. They have a much smaller profile than the Valkyrie, so won't get hit as easily and they will pack more overall firepower. They're still on the cheap side as far as the aircraft are concerned.

 

A pair of hovercars are also a decent backup transport for city missions as each one can carry 4 agents and have a slot for a standard 2x2 module block. Two hovercars, one with a cargo module and the other a bio-transport module, can function the same as a Valkyrie for missions in city buildings. Crashed UFOs should still be dealt with by the Valkyrie (or better) as you can only send one in at a time.

 

Now for a few random things:

 

- If you have a chance, give the motion scanner a try. It's in its element in real-time. Stick it in your hand and turn it on like a medikit. Civilians do add a bit of noise to the readings, but you can still use it to pick out unusually fast moving aliens like the Brainsuckers and Poppers.

 

- See the two buttons above the firing modes. These control group formation. The default setting has the team stand and move in an X formation. It provides the most control of the two and you'll probably use it for the entire game.

 

The other is single file formation. It's a great mode for moving teams through narrow paths or setting up a line of agents across from UFO doors. It's quite interesting, but has a flaw that makes it less suitable for prolonged use.

 

In single file your squad will form up into a line and head towards wherever you tell them to go. It's quite a seamless procedure and fun to watch as your soldiers will form a line no matter how muddled up they are.

 

The issue with this mode is that it's slightly bugged as far as the walking speeds are concerned. It doesn't matter whether you're walking or running, the agents will move at what ever speed suits them and will sprint or walk in odd bursts. If you really need to be running at top speed, have the agent switch back to X formation.

 

- On the subject of food: Evonet, the waste management company, run the Recyclotoriums that process, er, stuff into edible food. If you ever visit one, you'll see the dead bodies in the works. Coincidentally, perhaps due to an oversight by the map designer, the Superhuman map has one Recylotorium in the city that's owned by X-Com. If you remember the base you had in your recruitment video, it's just across the road from it. It doesn't do anything and doesn't cost anything, but it is all yours. Feel free to make up your own conclusions about it. grin.gif

 

- NKF

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Week 1 is done, time to shop...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_NuPqaWnsU

 

A pair of hovercars are also a decent backup transport for city missions as each one can carry 4 agents and have a slot for a standard 2x2 module block. Two hovercars, one with a cargo module and the other a bio-transport module, can function the same as a Valkyrie for missions in city buildings. Crashed UFOs should still be dealt with by the Valkyrie (or better) as you can only send one in at a time.

 

That's a good idea, I've been thinking about whether it's a good idea to add a second transport to grab the missions quicker. I know it's good to grab them quick before they start spreading to other buildings, but I don't know how long it takes and if it would really make much difference.

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Hovercars on their own will definitely not be able to handle the bigger ships. But that's what the hoverbikes are for. Leave the default engines on the hovercars so that your hoverbikes arrive first. That way the UFOs will be busy with the hoverbikes. If you really don't want the hovercars close up on the action, arm them with missiles.

 

Solmine - you do want to be able to buy elerium for the vehicle plasma weapons, so it is a good idea to keep them non-hostile. But don't waste any money unless they go hostile.

 

Plasma guns - get them. They're the Mario of the market weapons and sit between the sniper rifle and auto-cannon. They also carry lots of ammo per clip. They're a good match for the first alien beam weapon you will be coming across. You should be able to dual wield them with no trouble.

 

Kneeling's useful, but if you need to move around a lot, I suggest turning off kneel. Ivan was being shot in the back by one of his friends who was kneeling behind him when you were going after the first multiworm. The one at the back should have been standing while Ivan should have knelt. wink.png

 

Don't forget about the blast-on-impact shortcut for the grenades (right click). That way you don't have to worry about the timer when you just want to quickly toss a grenade out and have it blow up right away.

 

- NKF

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I noted a point where you seemed to want to put a waypoint in the movement of your secondary team to path them towards the combat. You didn't say anything, but it felt like it. There is a way you can add waypoints to your agent movements, but my brain's failing me as to which key it was. It is one of the ctrl, alt or shift keys.

 

On an unrelated note, notice how the agents armed with the M4000 have shot up in accuracy? They're racing ahead because they're getting plenty of hits in. Like the previous games, it's not the number of kills, but the amount of effort that goes in. Anyone lagging behind in their accuracy might want to take up the M4000 for a while.

 

Instead of pack of Hoverbikes which consume Elerium one could produce a pack of Probes armed with small disruptor and don't bother with Elerium and Solmine bribing wink.png

 

Heh, hoverbikes run off normal fuel. The elerium is mainly for the Lineage Plasma Cannon, the most powerful aircraft weapon you can purchase. They're quite decent for fighting medium UFOs until you can capture some Medium Disrupters.

 

The Probes would make decent swarmers. Though by the time you have the capacity to start building enough of them, UFOs armed with anti-swarm weapons will be showing up. Ideally, the X-Com fleet will be wanting to shift towards using heavily armed gunships by then.

 

- NKF

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