Differences between Xenonauts and UFO:EU

[silencer_pl]

Well that's true that you should build second base ASAP to get that radar coverage but with good planning and 3 radar domes in base 2 bases should last you for few months. In my playthrough I was very unlucky and Brazil quit on 1st or 2nd month where I was never able to protect them despite building second base right in month 2 and it took a month for it to be fully operational. This I find pretty stupid in Xenos because you can get funding screwed right from the start, where in X-COM it's nigh impossible to lose a funding country that fast (maybe if you ignore 2 terror missions in a row)

[Zombie]

This I find pretty stupid in Xenos because you can get funding screwed right from the start, where in X-COM it's nigh impossible to lose a funding country that fast (maybe if you ignore 2 terror missions in a row)

 

It probably is impossible for a country to withhold funding completely on Beginner just by ignoring terror sites if you are at least trying to make an effort to win the game. Those Terror Sites would have to both be scheduled for the same country in consecutive months though. Possible, but very unlikely. On Superhuman, anything goes so there may be a way for that to happen.

 

I know what you mean about Xeno screwing you in funding quickly. In my previous playthrough I had the same thing happen where a country/area left after I built a base there but before it was completed. What happens then? You're stuck with a base in an area that isn't of benefit, except for maybe point/loot/troop training.

 

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Well, yesterday I was able to clean up the globe in my current game. I had an active terror site in Vladivostok plus 2 cruiser and 2 carrier crash sites in Europe. Because my crew in the USA needed some training, I had them clean up Europe (daylight there, so woohoo) while my European squad tackled the nighttime terror mission. That terror mission was probably the quickest and cleanest I ever did. The stars aligned and I was able to save everyone somehow. But the aliens were literally crawling out of the woodwork to get to me. My squad was pinned down in the landing zone for a good 12 rounds or so. Once I deployed enough flares (thanks again) it was all downhill. The last carrier mission was tough though. It seemed like every round a Caesan redshirt would MC one of my men, so then I was fighting two factions: the aliens and myself. What I ended up doing was dropping everyones weapon at the end of my turn. I fixed them! Now when they took control all they found in inventory was a medipack, stun baton and non-lethal grenades.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

After a bit more playing I put Plasma Explosives on a fast-track and got that researched quickly. So now my interceptors are somewhat more capable with Plasma Torpedoes and Plasma Blasters. I was just really worried about Battleships showing up and not being able to deal with them in the air.

 

Right now I'm researching Heavy MAG Weapons so that will help with the seemingly never ending ground battles. For my soldiers, most are still using Plasma Rifles, Precision Plasmas and Plasma Casters, while the shield and assault folks get MAG Pistols and MAG Carbines. I did produce two Precision MAGs for now... one for each base but my main focus is to pump out MAG Rifles. When most of your soldiers have 100 in TU, Strength and Accuracy, it's really hard to get them to improve anymore in the other stats so with the 1.5X reaction modifier of the rifle that should at least increase that stat a bit. Is there an easy way to train health with maxed TU, Str and Acc? Because I have a few soldiers who are a little lacking there. I have a couple heavy weapons guys which have high 80's in reflexes and let me just say, they are diabolical killing machines during the aliens turn. With maxed accuracy, the drift isn't much so more shots connect, and with max strength they can wear Predator armor. Can you say Panzerkleins?

 

As for my bases, the South America one just came on line and I transferred a Foxtrot and Corsair there. And I'm actually glad I did build a base there because it sometimes helps with interceptions in the Americas. I built 3 radars there which was overkill in terms of coverage but at least nothing is going to sneak up on me from the southern hemisphere. All my bases have 6 hangars now so there shouldn't be any issues with transferring craft in the future. Once I'm done manufacturing the MAG Rifles then its onward with strict Marauder manufacturing. Might build some workshops and living quarters at either SE Asia or South America for another manufacturing facility. The only issue is that I'll need to keep a close eye on alien alloys and Alenium as there aren't any soldiers at these bases picking up that stuff from ground missions. My funds are ~9.7million so I'll have no worries in the finance department footing the bill for the Marauders.

 

So all in all, it's improving. I'm a little weak in the interception area yet, and some soldiers are still using plasmas but that shouldn't be too much of an issue with MAGs in the pipeline.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Does really rifle has 1.5 reaction? I remember that Pistol = x2 reaction multiplier, shotgun/carbine = x1.5, Rifle = 1, LMG/Sniper = x0.5

[Zombie]

Oh, my bad. Pistols and Carbines have 1.5x modifier, rifle has 1x and Precision/Heavy has 0.5x.

 

The only trouble with using the pistol or carbine for reaction fire training is the range. I do use soldiers carrying them as door openers/protectors in UFOs though. It can be dangerous opening a door in a UFO and because they are closer to the action, I sometimes call upon them to finish off the last alien. Also, they are used for holding a natural chokepoint (like a door) from aliens.

 

The rifles are the best (in my opinion) because they have a decent range while still having multishot capability (albeit dismal accuracy). So there isn't a need for endangering them by getting them close, they can still reaction fire from distance and remain somewhat safe.

 

It's amazing how brutal a Sniper or Heavy Weapons soldier is when their reactions are high. Even though there is a penalty for reactions, the power of the weapon transcends.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

I haven't been playing Xenonauts much due to being on vacation, but I did run a few missions before I left. In a particular Carrier map, my team was advancing slowly as I was worried about a Harridan sniper being in it's hidey-hole. I only had one sniper on the right side of the map perched on the 4th floor (technically 3rd floor roof) of a building but I had plenty of spotters in position to get eyes on any aliens. When one of my spotters got eyes on a Harridan sniper in it's usual spot, my sniper shot it (used 2 rings of accuracy as he was 95%) and killed it, then my spotter advanced another step. He spotted another Harridan in roughly the same spot so my sniper used the rest of his TU to take another 2-ring shot which killed it:

 

 

I thought it was interesting that there were 2 Harridans camped out there. Meanwhile another spotter decided to advance a few more steps along a building and what did he see? Yup, another Harridan in the same level! The only soldier who had a shot was my heavy so he did the honors:

 

 

Needless to say, I try to avoid that side of a Carrier map as much as possible when Harridans are spotted. If I do want to go there due to strategy (pincer movements), then I flood that side of the ship with as many soldiers as possible (mostly Snipers and heavys - safety in numbers) until the threat is gone. Is this the best strategy? Or is avoidance the better option? Kinda curious what everyone does.

 

Today I was running the last of a string of Carriers my interceptors shot down previously. I didn't expect much as I haven't played for a week and was out of practice, but this was one of the fastest Carrier missions I ever cleaned up. What made the difference was basically reaction fire and positioning. Because most of my team was high Strength + Accuracy + TU, I gave two soldiers newly minted MAG Rifles to hopefully get them some reaction shots. The rest of the makeup was my usual mix of 2 heavys, a shield + assault squad, and 4 snipers (2 of which were greenhorns who only had 7 missions). What was incredible was the teamwork my men exhibited, covering each other with reaction fire in alien-rich zones of the map.

 

There were a couple choices I made which were questionable. One was using a heavy in Predator armor to close a door with an Andron standing on the other side. My heavy took reaction fire from the Andron which caused some minor wounds, but in the end it was the right choice as the Andron came through the door during it's round which allowed my shield and assault to finish it off with Rx fire. My greenhorn snipers who were covering the door took down another Andron with Rx fire as it tried to barge through the room. Then I was under the wrong impression that heavys wearing Predator armor could use med kits, so I had to run him over to the squad on the other side of the map to patch him up.

 

I think my team killed all the Androns on the map with reaction fire except for 3 who were in the bridge. I don't like to muck around with Harridans as they are quite lethal so they were also killed conventionally. Other than that there was reaction fire training for almost everyone except for the injured heavy and a sniper.

 

 

What was interesting was that reactions (erm, "reflexes") didn't increase by any more than one point. I suspect this is due to the fact that my soldiers are very experienced now. But reflexes is basically the only way to train hit points once a soldier maxes out in TU + Str + Acc (the triumvirate). So now that I know this, I can get those soldiers into positions with appropriate weaponry to take advantage of reflex. MAG Rifles will obviously be used quite often now (especially in Carrier missions because the ship is so large the riflemen can cover those mid-distances more effectively than the shield+assault combo).

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Yesterday I decided to clean up the rest of the globe of shot down UFOs as there were about 5. It was a pretty big project but now that my two squads are trained up it wasn't too bad. The final UFO I visited was a Sebillian Battleship (first one so far). Well, you can imagine how it went, what with all the "dread" spam attacks nearly every round and once inside the UFO the occasional mind control. I couldn't figure out how Sebillians could do dread and MC attacks until I got to the top floor and saw the Praetor. Totally forgot they are in Battleships too! Anyhow, it was frustrating to say the least.

 

Between the dread and MC attacks, my men were having a tough time trying to whittle down the Sebillian defenses. My heavy never had enough TU to fire her weapon and my snipers had a bit of trouble hitting as I could only allocate 2 rings of accuracy with dread. Tack on to that the MC attack every other round and I really only had 5 people in position to shoot each round (I camped downstairs and brought my soldiers up to shoot). The MC was the biggest issue. What I ended up doing was my usual MC strategy: everyone drops their weapons to the ground at the end of the turn. It's a hassle because you have to remember where your weapon is and pick it up before going upstairs each round. I did find out that a soldier under MC will not prime and throw grenades so that saved a bunch of time.

 

I really wanted to stun the Preator, but I didn't have enough heavy weapon folk to mow down the clutter and walls in the bridge. Running up to the Praetor and poking it with the baton was out of the question as there were two Sebillians who refused to move from their spots. Plus you would only be able to poke it once with each soldier before running out of TU. On top of that I forgot there are a couple doors on either side of the bridge which would have made it easier to get closer. Thankfully my men had a whole raft of electroshock grenades on them due to them being so strong. I must've dumped about 6 or so on the Preator... the biggest issue was the distance and a chair in the way (couldn't destroy it even with a MAG caster) which meant the Preator was at the edge of the blast radius lowering damage. Once the Preator was out of the way it was clear sailing. No more dread or MC attacks to worry about anymore!

 

Happy, happy, joy, joy! Finished off the last two Sebillians and the mission was over. Let's take a look at the EOM report though:

 

 

Whaaa? Praetor Leader Executed? WTF! Why? I did realize that I haven't got around to researching an alien leader yet, so maybe that's the reason I can't capture the Praetor alive? Horribly annoying!

 

On the plus side, most of my soldiers gained one point of Reflex skill.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Try to bring now rocket launchers. No more stupid chairs in the way

[Zombie]

True, true. Though now I will soon have fusion grenades and those might be enough. Then again, it looks like fusion rockets deal 4x vs terrain so I guess it is more powerful. Speaking of rockets, why no Electroshock Rockets? Over powered? Those would really come in handy.

 

I converted my Indochina base into both a radar and manufacturing base recently. It literally just came online. I had a slight problem as you cannot hire Engineers if you have open Living Quarters but no Workshop. Which I think is really stupid. Anyhow, this is a 4-Workshop, 2-Living Quarter setup (60 engineers) which can crank out Marauders in 3 days 8 hours if you have the materials. 2 Living Quarters has a 70 person capacity so that means I have 10 spots open for soldiers if I decide to expand later (probably not as I'm comfortable with the crews I have now).

 

As soon as Fusion Explosives have finished researching, I'm going directly to an alien leader just in case I get more battleships. Then it'll be on to the Anti Gravity Generator as it should open up Sentinel Armor.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Whaaa? Praetor Leader Executed? WTF! Why? I did realize that I haven't got around to researching an alien leader yet, so maybe that's the reason I can't capture the Praetor alive? Horribly annoying!

 

Today I was finishing up yet another Battleship with Sebillians and a Praetor. Everything went similar to the past Battleship, except this time my men killed everyone including the Praetor. The corpse went into auto-research. Being curious, I sped up time just to see what would happen. Not too long after that, my research into an alien leader finished. That said I could research a live Praetor. So I went into the research screen and the Praetor which was previously executed was alive and well in the list. Odd. Just an FYI in case anyone runs into this in the future.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Yet another battleship! I sent my less experienced North American squad in to take care of it. Upon entering the mission for the first time the game informed me one of my soldiers has dread.

 

Never had that happen to me yet, normally dread comes during the aliens turn. At least that's what I thought. Hmmm.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Nope. Dread is on your turn - say thank you to the Preator

[Zombie]

Thank you Preator? (intended sarcasm).

 

So I didn't remember experiencing this on my last run through of the game, but apparently there are elite aliens. Couldn't figure out why a Harridan was black in color, so I dumped a bunch of electroshock grenades on it just in case it was important. When I ran over to examine what we captured, it was an elite Harridan. Interesting. It was also carrying an advanced alien grenade. Can this be researched? (Probably not I'm guessing, but I thought I should ask).

 

So I thought the Carrier was the only ship with Harridan sniper perches built-in. Nope, the Battleship shares this too:

 

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Elites are just plain "sigh".... Sebillians have +100HP regeneration so you just need to kill them, Caesans have battle rifles that will autoshot you from entire screen range. Good thing MAG weapons easily cut through them all.

[Zombie]

This dread thing was really starting to irk me to no end so my thought was to neuter it a bit (and psi a little too). I looked at the topic in the Goldhawk forum where you talked about that silencer. Went in to psionicpowers_gc.xml and changed the MC range down to 3 and dread range down to 0, saved the file, reloaded my away mission and nothing worked. Psi still happened, and dread was still automatic. Would I need to start a new game for the changes to apply? Or would it start next mission? Suppose the other option is to edit the aliens directly, I was just going for a more "organic" approach where the abilities were neutered, not the aliens themselves. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Another dumb question: I was reading through the Goldhawk forums looking for info on dread and it seems like the devs talked a lot about balancing psi and dread a lot. But in my game it's like nothing was ever touched. What happened? Am I running an outdated version or something? (Currently the basic Steam install).

 

I was just fooling around on a (surprise!) Carrier mission for a change. There was a Harridan milling about near one of the lifts to the top floor where the bridge is. Normally I don't muck around with Harridans much as they are really deadly, and usually just kill them outright. One of my heavy weapons folk with a plasma caster shot a volley at the Harridan, missed every shot except for the last which connected (but did not kill) and it was suppressed. I brought up a shield guy and had him kneel and keep watch over the thing, but he ended up killing the Harridan with Rx fire. Training reactions is what I'm currently after so this was a perfect outcome. So now I'm going gung-ho with flash bangs and anything which suppresses first, then setting up my "trainees" so they can do reaction fire if the alien moves. Brilliant strategy, even if people knew about this for years. Dunno if people used it for training though.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

I'm pretty sure any changes in config for tactical mission will work only if you start new mission. Doesn't the same apply to X-COM dat files? I know all tactical mods in XCOM will work only if you load a strategic save.

 

Training reaction fire. I think it's pointless in the final mission you want to bring as much destructive power as possible and all your rifle dudes should mostly work as a spotters and cleanup crew. And by destructive power I mean rocket launchers, Singularity cannons and MAG LMGs. You need to waltz over the aliens there, otherwise you will be in a world of hurt.

 

I'm not aware of that PSI balancing talk, or maybe I've long forgotten about it.

[Zombie]

I'm pretty sure any changes in config for tactical mission will work only if you start new mission. Doesn't the same apply to X-COM dat files? I know all tactical mods in XCOM will work only if you load a strategic save.

 

No, not all. Soldier.dat and Base.dat files update immediately after edit (if you are in the geoscape that is, in the battlescape any changes you make will apply once you reenter the geo portion). And there are other dat files which are initially populated by the executable, so if you edit the .exe the dat file is changed. I just thought that xml files were different in the way they were handled. I guess not in this case. Dread is still infuriating and psi op.

 

Training reaction fire. I think it's pointless in the final mission you want to bring as much destructive power as possible and all your rifle dudes should mostly work as a spotters and cleanup crew. And by destructive power I mean rocket launchers, Singularity cannons and MAG LMGs. You need to waltz over the aliens there, otherwise you will be in a world of hurt.

 

Well, yes. Everyone will be bringing along the best weapons such as the singularity cannon and MAG machine gun. Goes without saying. And while training reaction fire itself is pointless for the final mission, I'm not training reactions for just that stat. See, when your soldiers max out TU, STR and accuracy it's impossible to get the other stats to improve any. Training reactions allows you to train HP a little bit. And that's why I'm training reactions: for the health benefits. Since armor is only so good, I think hit points will offer more surviveability. Do you go into the final mission with low-hp soldiers? Or how do you train them? Getting them hurt? Curious on this.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Recruit soldiers with highest HP, after all accuracy can be trained

[Zombie]

True. Is this what you do? Filter by HP first, then take everything else into consideration?

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Yep, afterall, ACC, AP, Energy can be trained and HP increases with them so a healthy soldier can reach full HP just by training those stats, no need to train reflex later just to have 100HP soldier when you will be using heavy weapons either way.

[Zombie]

Ah, nice piece of strategy there. So do you have any hiring criteria for HP level? How low is too low? I'd imagine anything over 55 would be a good place to start but that's just a guess. I just had a 65 hp soldier pop up in my list with fairly decent stats too so I hired her and fired a couple other unused rookies with low hp. (Not saying I'll ever train her up as most of my team is pretty well versed by this point, but if someone gets injured she may get pressed into service). I'm wondering if there is a hp number where it'll max out with just normal soldier training (ie no crazy reactions training). And it also seems there is a max "range" a soldier will have for a stat (for example, I have soldiers with 98, 99 &100 and they will not improve anymore.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

I think it also depends how the soldier gets other skills. Just sum all the skills you raise by combat divide with the number after which you get HP increase and there you have it.

[Zombie]

I picked up on playing Xenonauts the other day. After I finished a mission I was admiring my soldiers stats when I noticed how much more their Strength and Accuracy increased relative to other stats. So I thought that I was going about training soldiers the wrong way. I thought that Instead of maximizing these two stats, maybe I should be trying to minimize them in order to get other stats (like HP) to a decent level first. Well, there really is nothing you can do to accuracy apart from not shooting (maybe throwing or stunning?) to keep that from improving. But strength, you can do something about that. Instead of burdening them to the brink of Encumbrance, what about giving soldiers a very light load (like basically nothing at all except their weapon and a couple rounds of extra ammo - no armor either)? That might keep strength gains under control to allow HP to catch up. The only problem I see is that if a newer soldier makes a kill, he/she is normally awarded a smorgasbord of stat increases anyway, so this training would only be useful for seasoned soldiers. Hmmm, it's an idea.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Going for 100 everywhere?

[Zombie]

Not really. It would be great to train up a "super soldier" with 100's for every stat, but that just isn't feasible. Bravery is very difficult to train. Everything else is doable. Reaction training takes a while, though it really isn't too bad once you start running missions with that in mind. One of my heavy's is in the neighborhood of 100 for reactions (he might have 98 or 99). I have a few other soldiers with 99 or 100 in everything save reactions and bravery, but reactions are in the high 70's to low 80's so those are the soldiers who will be in the running for the best. With only one point gained per mission it'll take a while though.

 

- Zombie