Stunning triscene?

[Tsathoggua]

Got a mission on the go, a ship rescue and it is heavily, heavily infested with triscene. Got a nasty ass situation too, there is a triscene that is too stupid to realize that the troops are attacking after opening a door, shocking it, then ducking back in, since there is only one tile between door and target.

 

Got two guys, one hit it with a bolt from a sonic rifle, and worse, theres another one of the bastards that is beyond visual range, can shoot at it and duck back into cover without return fire. But the sons of bitches just will NOT go down. The two men are trapped, there is nothing to do but keep hitting it in the rear where the armor is weakest, its got its back turned and thank hades, the AI is keeping it there.

 

WILL it go down, eventually? are sonic rifles and tazers actually capable of doing damage on veteran? there IS nothing else left, no explosives, no gas cannon rounds, jack but plenty sonic rifle ammo if another trooper can get to the guys that are trapped.

 

The other triscene has taken hit after hit after hit after hit, both to rear, and now face on. Nothing I can do about it other than keep going. Is there even any point to trying? or is it time to scrub the mission? because no better weapons, hell no other weapons whatsoever are available. Trying to wear it down but no way to test if its injured at all or not. Did put one burst from a sonic rifle right up the backside of the one trapping the two men.

 

But christ, these things are relentless and won't seem to go down no matter how hard they are hit. Every single grenade has been expended, every gas cannon shell, and the sonic rifles plus tazers are the ONLY weapons that we have. Can it be done?

[Zombie]

If my math is correct, yes it can be done. Just keep plugging away. Though I would try to get those sonic rounds to your men if possible The thing with the Triscene is it's health. Because it's so high, you'll need a lot of pokes for it to do down (plus the armor soaks up some of the stun damage).

 

- Zombie

[Tsathoggua]

I've been hitting it with bolt after bolt after bolt from the sonic rifles, and then having the two men sneak up, shock the bugger, sneak back whilst the other guy sneaks up, pops a shot in its ass and then prods it with the tazer.

 

The thing is easily tougher than a coelacanth, bigger, uglier but its got about the intellect of a SWS solid slug. Just sits there whilst the men dart in and out, shooting and shocking. Time to hit the medkit and then start plugging away again. But I swear, fuck me diagonally with a rusty mink. Damn thing has been standing there for maybe an hour, and I've been shooting and shooting and shooting some fucking more, plus hitting it over and over with the tazer. And it just will not go down. I've had to send scouts out tasoth-hunting, and god damn these ugly brutes are tough enough to chew up iron bars and shit out ten pence pieces. But they really REALLY are not the brightest bulbs in the box.

[Tsathoggua]

Tried, had to scrub it and restart with a different loadout. This time, fewer sonic rifles, as those can be captured, plenty grenades, and almost every man carrying two big buggering great demo charges. See how those triscene like one of those up the rear end:P Just didn't think that triscene was going to go down, not after emptying some 7-8-9 full clips from a pair of riflemen using sonic rifles, plus two troopers whaling on it like there was no tomorrow. In the end, and this includes every last round bar maybe 2-3 shots, had been fired at those two triscenes mainly. Now its time for a rematch, the first time round it got to some 170-180 turns elapsed on the second half, most of the area quickly cleared of tasoth and the odd aquatoid psyker taken down, some of them alive. But those bloody triscene, the only way that the first one went down was incendiaries and grenades tossed underneath. In the end there was quite simply, nothing left to fire at it anymore, and whats more, THAT was the one that the AI had kinda put in a pretty stupid place, and left it to stay there. There was another one right the far end of the same corridor, although too far to interfere in that fight. Seems like incendiary rounds are good against triscene though, since you only need hit them once in a while, and both the inferno will do damage and even missing should hurt pretty bad seeing as how the IC round AI is a bit squirrely.

 

Got 5-6 troopers packing gas cannon, 6 stunners between the team, a reasonable number of regular grenades and every gas cannon wielder is loaded up with multiple magazines of both HE and incendiary rounds. Brought a tank that can shoot back this time, that can at least pop a few aquatoids, and harass tasoth. No buggering about this time around, this time, the men are armed to the nackers and gunning for bull elephant. No armor available unfortunately since research into aqua plastics is still ongoing. So will needs be a bit cautious. But when those big ugly jurassic jerkoffs show their faces, they are getting burnt off and blown straight to tartarus, in several separate installments.

[magic9mushroom]

Thermal Tazers have no effect on Veteran Triscenes unless they've suffered armour damage.

 

The chance of damaging a Veteran Triscene with a Sonic-Blasta Rifle shot to the sides or rear is 19/96 or about 20%. The damage dealt (if any) ranges from 1 to 17, with an average of 9.26.

 

The chance of damaging a Veteran Triscene with a Sonic-Blasta Rifle shot to the front is 8/96 or about 8%. The damage dealt (if any) ranges from 1 to 7, with an average of 4.25

 

Triscenes have 158 health; without considering armour damage this would imply an average of 86 hits to the sides/rear or 446 hits to the front of a Triscene to defeat it. With armour damage it's probably more like 65 hits to the sides/rear or 250 hits to the front. And remember that that's hits, not shots.

 

So, yes, it's mathematically possible, but you'll need an awful lot of ammo and it'll take a long time.

[silencer_pl]

Better throw 2 sonic grenades, under armour is the the lowest for Triscene.

[Tsathoggua]

I am aware of the weakness of triscene to explosives. Problem was, that as I said, sonic rifle and two tazers were the entire sum total of remaining ammo, bar a couple of dye grenades. And the situation was a triscene facing away from two soldiers holed up in a room on board ship, darting out, and shooting at point blank range right up the backside. And after ammo was depleted (both men put something like 5-6 full clips into it, rear side, point blank range then spent a LONG time trying to run out, shock it and duck back in. Triscene are some stupid bastards. Their skulls seem to be as thick as their armor.

 

Ditched it at about turn 180 give or take. After there was maybe 3 clips with 2, 3 rounds a piece left for the rifles. Scrubbed the mission because there just weren't enough rounds left on the ship to take it down. And there was another one right down the corridor watching. The thing was just one square up and past the door, so the soldiers were able to hit it with the tazers repeatedly without fear of interference or it turning round and tearing the two soldiers to bits.

 

Going at it again, and the first floor was squirrely as hell, underwater map, but treated as land for weapons purposes, due to xcomutil, mixed tasoth/aquatoid, and hairy as all hell, because aside, so far from calcinites the enemy seem to have brought every damn terrorist they could lay their hands on. Not seen a calcinite about, but first floor alone there was a biodrone, a xarquid and a triscene. Damn xarquid was preventing anyone getting close, hanging around behind good but not perfect cover, firing at anything coming near. Tasoth sniper again in cover, lower down, shooting off at the men but out of grenade range. Thankfully the triscene never posed a threat, because it was behind cover sufficient to prevent it firing but low enough to toss a pair of blasting charges at it, thing never stood a chance. This time around, no mucking about, sonic rifles are still the best weapons available, but theres another 6 gas cannon being brought along, HE and flamer rounds. Grenades all round, 6 tazers and every soldier with at least one blasting charge. Most of the soldiers are packing two. In the end, got the xarquid by setting it on fire after one of the heavies swapped weapons with a sniper and hitting it a few times with IC rounds from right the other side of the map, using the tank as spotter. A fair few psi troubles, but cottoned to the aquatoid sniper doing it, and took it out with the tank.

 

And the solo biodrone there on first floor again tank to spot and a pair of snipers to exterminate it.

 

Haven't GOT sonic grenades yet, still researching.

[Tsathoggua]

That was one nasty mission. No casualties, at least, no X-com casualties that would not, after an extended period in sickbay feeling mighty sorry for themselves, be able to go and take it out on the aliens, with interest. Damned 4-tile terror units are proving impossible to recover, from either floor of the mission though which is a bitch, since I never SEE triscene or xarquid anywhere else!

 

Had to take an extended break myself, actually, which is why I've not been posting. after sustaining a severe burn to one of my eyeballs, courtesy of superheated steam laden with a mixture of corrosive highly alkaline wastes after a tragic accident. Was until just recently, unable to look at the monitor due to all the UV coming off it, and the fact that I am still VERY photosensitive (I was to begin with, being autistic kicks arse, but there are one or two minor downsides. But not anything like THAT photosensitive. Now, with an eyepatch, with folded up (un-used!) loo roll behind it to block out the light, and wearing a pair of welding goggles over that, with all the lights switched off and occasional use of local anaesthetic eye drops, alongside a hefty increase in the opioid painkillers I usually take for my squirrely-ass joints (NOT to be confused with squirrely ass-joints, the position of that all-important hyphen makes all the difference:P), I can look at the computer screen again.

 

Although still, not without some...side effects. Last time I got on, I was at the computer all day, but actually using it for all of ten minutes, after the amount of oxy and morphine my doc now has me on for the time being sent me straight to sleep. Went to fire up TFTD and then woke up at about 10PM wondering where the hell the day just went.

 

Anyway, combat-capable and effective enough, it seems . Just had lobstermen show up for the first time, packing sonic rifle and gas cannon, plus a torpedo launcher that only got fired the once, using a rocket tank as spotter and having my sniper teams take the oversized prawns out from beyond visual, aside from one close moment when one was spotted right up close, hiding out in a building just to the NE of the landing site. Blew out most of its cover with a pulse grenade, then kept hammering it with incendiary rounds, before lastly putting a couple of bursts from a pair of riflemen equipped with sonic rifles into the thing, finishing it before it ever got a shot off. Indeed, not one of the lobstermen EVER managed to get a single round off other than at the tank. Got a team positioned at long range and blew the side wall of the USO in with demo charges before roasting them in the shell with GC-IC rounds plus a few sonic shots. Even managed to take three of the buggers alive, nicely cutting down the research time needed to finish up on the heavy sonic ammo, finished the cannon research already, not bad timing too seeing as lobbies just started to show themselves, going to be needing those methinks.

 

Damned eye still hurts like a total complete and utter shit, even with the local anaesthetic eyedrops and enough opiates to floor some sort of african megafauna, but am told that I should regain my sight in that eye. Its a nuisance though, even if it didn't hurt, because my distance vision in the other eye is lousy, after a childhood accident (at least three of them actually, but end result is much the same:P)

[Jake Gaston]

Shouldn't a Thermal Shock Bomb work? I'm in a similar situation, trying to get a live Triscene, and it was easy to shot them down with the Thermal Shock Launcher (may take more than one shot), except the first time I did it, later an Aquatoid bombed everything and they died (in a Terror Port), and the other time was on the first portion of a Cargo Ship, and I think you can't keep aliens from a first portion terror site, either that or maybe I didn't have enough Alien Containment space (hopefully I fixed this the right way).

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

The TriScene is essentially an alien/dinosaur hybrid. Instead, when located it just looks like a fat person stuck in a stall with a bad attitude.

[magic9mushroom]

Shouldn't a Thermal Shock Bomb work? I'm in a similar situation, trying to get a live Triscene, and it was easy to shot them down with the Thermal Shock Launcher (may take more than one shot), except the first time I did it, later an Aquatoid bombed everything and they died (in a Terror Port), and the other time was on the first portion of a Cargo Ship, and I think you can't keep aliens from a first portion terror site, either that or maybe I didn't have enough Alien Containment space (hopefully I fixed this the right way).

Thermal Shok Bombs and Sonic Pulsers both have a 100% rate of OHKOing a Triscene on a direct hit. Obviously, in the former case it is stunned (though due to being a large alien, it can't recover from stun, so it's still out of the battle for keeps), while in the latter it is dead.

[Tsathoggua]

Well at the time, that mission that went pear shaped, as I said, all that was left was a couple of gas cannon shells, two tazers and a fair few sonic rifle clips, not all of them full. Couldn't scavenge anything else from the battlefield and use it, as the research hadn't been done.

 

After armor, thermal shock launchers and DPL are going to be high priority.

 

There's nothing quite like a DPL round up the backside for evening up the odds when dealing with otherwise extremely well fortified alien firing positions keeping troops pinned down with a side serving of all the psyker trouble that you can eat and then some.

[magic9mushroom]

Well at the time, that mission that went pear shaped, as I said, all that was left was a couple of gas cannon shells, two tazers and a fair few sonic rifle clips, not all of them full. Couldn't scavenge anything else from the battlefield and use it, as the research hadn't been done.

 

After armor, thermal shock launchers and DPL are going to be high priority.

 

There's nothing quite like a DPL round up the backside for evening up the odds when dealing with otherwise extremely well fortified alien firing positions keeping troops pinned down with a side serving of all the psyker trouble that you can eat and then some.

DPLs don't work on land. They are, therefore, almost-completely useless against Triscenes as the latter are only found on land.

[Tsathoggua]

I know. I wasn't referring specifically to triscene.

 

Just those nasty moments sub-surface where the enemy have high-threat level terrorists fortifying very thoroughly dug-in sniper and gunner positions. Like the recent-ish nasty incident with a load of ship wreckage, and small gaps in it, with at least one xarquid down there in the inky depths, keeping the men from getting within range, whilst supporting quite a large pack of tasoth, a few of their horrid bio-drone pets. There was no way for anyone to get close, tank could but it was out of rockets. So it got parked behind cover and used to spot, whilst all priority was given to first drawing the xarquid's fire, then ducking back into cover and having a man crouched down on the wing of a triton troop transport using of all things, a gas cannon and incendiary rounds as a sniper-rifle. Not the most ideal of tools for the job, its true, not from right over the opposite side of the map, bar 10 tiles give or take a handful. Thankfully there were a few of very talented extreme long range trick-shot sniper types on board, the kind that can even do some pretty astounding shots using a hydrojet if there is nothing else available by way of support weapons, and who were/are heavyweights in the strength stat department, capable of using more or less anything bar a tazer or a drill to pull off long range shots.

 

 

So one of them set the xarquid on fire with a WP shell from that borrowed gas cannon, then the rest of the men took turns in picking it up, squeezing further IC shots off at the bugger, most of them missing, but not that it matters a great deal given the peculiarities in the damage mechanics for flames. As long as they went off, and most did, result-one xarquid cooked in the shell. Had there been a DPL available it would have made things so much simpler, just launch the thing and have it drop down right beside the little sod, smack in the middle of the cover too, to expose all those tasoth troops and root out an aquatoid psyker that was causing so much havoc at the time, from out of sight, that some of the troops had to be ordered to drop their weapons and hand them over to other soldiers to be used as bait/a bullet magnet for psi attacks that could do no harm, carrying just a medkit, tazer and dye grenades.

 

Just thinking about psi-ed troops taken over-the aliens can't use human grenades can they, from the taken men? I don't think I've ever seen a dye grenade, prox mine, bog standard frag grenade or demolitions charges can they?