Tough-Alien Mod ready!

[TYR]

mmhmm, i think i put the m249 and the new m82 on tech level one i should be fine then

[Aralez]

Accounting Troll, i'm playing the Tuff-Mod on hard atm and the missions are still winable. Albeit you have to use tactics which are somewhat different from the usual ones. And you might loose units. And sometimes you will have to abort missions as well. A direct attack even against lightly armed enemies is very dangerous now and you might loose one or two soldiers that way. I had a situation where two soldiers with conventional armour and helmets were attacked by a Cudgel with a Desert Eagle. I opened the fight the "old" direct way and opened fire with Uzi's.

 

One was down unconscious after two quick hits, the other could run into cover badly wounded. The Cudgel finished the first soldier off. The hidden unit changed to the stunner weapon and hit the transgenant when it came around the corner. Then it used the knife on the enemy

 

In a "normal" game the Cudgel would have been dead before it fired the second shot, now you really have to struggle just to stay alive. And i don't know if it's just me, but somehow i accept the fact that my soldiers die and don't reload the savegame. I saw that they did their best and somehow don't feel the need to try over and over again.

 

Hm, it would feel unrealistic, that's what keeps me from re-loading!

 

The low strength of the soldier also delivers nice side-effects: No longer you pick up every item you find under a dead enemy, because speed is greatly reduced then! And you choose your loadout much more carefully. And as i said before : You don't have more than one or two medics in your team, simply because the medpacks are really heavy and the firepower is needed. And singlehanded weapons are more important now, too: E.g. You can easily equip the stunner AND an Uzi and switch between them with one click, you'll need the time saved that way, trust me

 

All in all i would say that the game plays a bit more realistic and is finally challenging again.

 

And the BFG-4500 for example is still powerful, but as you need more ammo, it is a real consideration if you take the BFG-4500 with ~3 sure kills and heavy weight or if you choose a lighter weapon like the shotgun with loads of ammo and more but somewhat slower kills.

[Lurker]

So, let me ask, is this Skill Mod that you keep talking about the same thing as the Training Requirements Mod or TRmod.zip from Kret on August 1, 2004?

[Kret]

Yes, Lurker, it is. Or at least it has to be since I haven't made public any other little mods of my own.

[Aralez]

As i can see Kret already answered this one. And, has anyone of you any experiences yet with the Tuff-mod?

[Kret]

No, not really, since I'm tampering with weapons, if I change the resiliance of the aliens it would yield invalid results as for the balancing.

[Aralez]

Boy this mod is tough, who made that thing ? I want to have a talk to that guy

 

The Plectons and Slimethrowers can overwhelm you, if you don't watch out and dare to abort missions, you will loose troops, trust me about that. Offensive tactics are the sure way to death, instead run, shoot out of the cover and use every nasty trick you can think of, every dead alien is a piece of art now B)

 

You suddenly feel proud when you killed three Cudgels without serious losses. Yesterday i had my first UFO mission and encountered Reticulans. 4 of them took me under crossfire. I lost two men and could abort just in time to avoid a total loss!

 

An d today i'll have my first base defense mission!!!

[Raion]

mmmmmmmmm.....................

Sounds a little too tough for me,yet!

 

But then again, I may try it later!

[Accounting Troll]

Aralez, are you the person who compiles the Times crosswords?

 

No longer will I laugh at dangleflies. One unarmed danglefly charged three soldiers armed with uzis firing on auto. The danglefly lasted long enough to beat one of my soldiers unconscious.

 

I've noticed that soldiers who survive tend to level up very quickly as the transgenants now take a lot more effort to kill. Also, medikits are far more effective at healing because my soldiers have reduced hit-points - a partial compensation for the increased weight.

 

The air combat is much more realistic and is a lot more like X-COM. Even managing to intercept a UFO is a job and a half now...

[Aralez]

Nice to see you having fun I wonder what the end-game looks like, when you have the Berzerk-Armour, the BFG9000 and other goodies. Atm i only have some rifles manly G3's and M4's and one Lurkergun. Btw the base defence mission was won by the CoE-troops if i saw that right And i encountered (after long time) an Transgenant with a sniper gun, had to abort the mission as i was standing on an open field and he started to kill my troops one by one...

 

The Shocker (StunGun) is sent from heaven, it keeps those aliens frozen for a long time, that way their higher numbers of hitpoints don't help them. You have to come into range first, though If you manage to do so, the knife and the Chainsaw (when available) are a BIG help.

 

And roger to the "stronger" medpack and the better levelling I had a trooper which was raised THREE levels after one battle. But she was killed in one of the next missions....

 

Slaughter, maybe you should post about this mod in the news?

 

Raion , take your time I consider myself a good UFOAM player and still i'm having a hard fight with this mod

[Raion]

mmmmmmmmm..............................

I wonder if the Co-E troops still fight the same way?

Now, perhaps you could make them dissappear and the missions stay on the map a little longer, but then I suppose there would be trade-offs on that also, as squaddies moving up in levels faster or something like that.

 

??

 

 

[Aralez]

Ah well, i think the Tuff-Mod is really hard enough, especially on the highest setting. And even when your troops are levelling up they are weaker than usual, and i made them fall unconscious earlier, too. ANd new equipment will only come in small numbers, too.

 

Slaughter, can you post about this mod in the News section?

[Slaughter]

Yeah, I'll post about it as soon as we get Marc's report in.

[Raion]

Oh, by the way, how do you go about doing this mod?

The file is small. Does the player just put it in the game where the gamedata.vfs file is or what does the player do?

 

A little instruction may help here, with me!

Just a little!

 

 

 

I am an alien, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

All sing along now!

[Aralez]

Yep, simply put the Tough_mod.vfs file in the zip into your UFOAM directory (where the gamedata.vfs is) that's all

 

But beware, it really IS tough

[Aralez]

Oh boy, i "had" to play a mission today with the original hard settings, it was like a picknick in your garden compared to the Tuff-Mod-Hard settings! I felt almost invincible!

 

Quick! Back to the Tuff-Mod!

[Accounting Troll]

You mean ants got everywhere and especially in your sandwiches, wasps and flies kept trying to drown in your beer, a neighbour's dog kept barking at you, the RAF were on low flying manoevers, thus upsetting every other dog in the area, the ice cream van kept playing a tinny rendition of yankee doodle dandy at you and it was raining?

 

I hate picknicing in my garden. Tuff-mod is much more fun.

[Aralez]

Roflol , excellent description, awesome details! And thx for the nice comment, too .

 

You are a https://smilies.cw08.calibra-web.de/html/images/smilies/engel/littleangel.gif

[Lurker]

Rebalance 6.8 and the Tough Alien Mod. European Start and Hard Difficulty Setting. Working on Twelfth base capture. Area 51 in the past.

 

I loaded up the Tough Alien Mod for a change.

 

Wow, I guess it's tough. Endless waves of aliens, each that have to be shot 'twenty' times to kill them.

 

And, if it's chompers, poppers, and chrysalis stun things, none of them drop any ammunition or weapons, so before long you start running out of weaponry to shoot with. And, I went in fully loaded with two types of weaponry.

 

You put your BFG4500 carrier at a choke point and only use that soldier when the aliens decide to rush you all at once. You use your BFG4500 person as kind of an impenetrable barrier while your sniper dudes nibble slowly at the aliens from farther away.

 

I think Aralez found the answer to all the complaints about the LukerGun and the BFG4500 being too powerful at the start of the game. Your LurkerGuns are nearly empty in the opening minutes of the Tough Alien Mod, and that's using aimed mode.

 

Definitely different.

 

I think Aralez will be glad to know that someone else is giving it a try. So, sound off one and all when you get a chance. And, thank you Aralez.

[BlackAlmaz]

so should we use it for combo mod 2?

[Aralez]

I would leave it as a seperate mod, but maybe you can include it into the new mod's zip-file for the users that want a real challenge.

 

And thx to Lurker for his feedback! :angel:

[Lurker]

so should we use it for combo mod 2?

 

No. I'm with Aralez. You need to try to create some kind of working balance for the combo mod that can carry all the way through from beginning to end.

 

I personally would not want to have to start the RB 6.8 with the Tough Alien Mod, because without BFG4500 and LurkerGuns and such, I think the Tough Alien Mod would be impossible to do at first, with UZI and Shotgun. The RB 6.8 is tough enough with only the UZI and Shotgun.

 

And, I imagine that the Tough Alien Mod will be nearly impossible to play when the game goes hard midway through, when the Alien Rocket Launchers and Microslugs start showing up in the hands of the Reticulans.

 

So, I too believe that The Tough Alien Mod should be a separate mod that people can add when they start to get bored and that they hopefully can remove when the game gets too overwhelming midway through.

 

The Combo Mod needs to establish its own balance that works from beginning to end, and then let something like the Tough Alien Mod come and go according to people's needs and desires.

 

So, zip in the Tough Alien Mod separately, and let people choose whether they want to use it or not. The endless waves of aliens can also start to wear on you as well. I seemed to play forever, and I still haven't gotten all that far away from the landing zone, and there's a Next Area waiting as well. The aliens seem to keep coming.

 

--

 

@Aralez: What is this Abort thing that you keep talking about in relation to the Co-op game and the Tough Alien Mod? I have never tried aborting a mission before it asks me if I want to End or Continue. What does it do, or what's the advantage of Aborting with the mission? What's the goal or what are you trying to accomplish? I thought that you lost your men if you aborted, or was that X-Com? In Aftermath, I always just played until I won or until everyone was dead.

[BlackAlmaz]

you can abourt, even when a soldier is down and unconsias, to save them..you come back with evrything, that your squed carries, except for the ammo, they used up...you can do this anywhere and at any time

[Aralez]

Exactly what BA says! But beware some not fulfilled missions don't allow you to take stunned or unconscious/controlled units with you!

 

Lurker, the way you played (no surrender) has something Bushido-like Hats off!

[BlackAlmaz]

hey i never aborted except for my first 7 mission where i was in a open space and surrounded by spiters, and had nothing but uziez