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I had a nice idea for a special EU campaign: I tried playing with only 1 person left on earth, just like in the movie "I am Legend" with Charlton Heston (or more recently with Will Smith). I removed all financial support from the nations and only used one scientist and one engineer (that guy is a multi talent :D ).

I gave the guy eight bases, one home base with one Hangar, seven radar-only stations spread all over the world. I edited the XcomUtil-edited Interceptor to have more range so Mr. Heston could go everywhere on the planet. Andi edited the terror missions to have no civilians in them by doubling the number of aliens in them-

 

Apart from this everything else remained untouched (apart from the Xcom-Util fixes of course).

My idea was to force the game to be very slowly advancing (weapon-wise).

Everything worked fine and as intended.

 

BUT in the very first tac mission I ran into a problem with the whole idea: How would I handle the save/load feature?

 

If I would make it a freely reloadable game the whole thing would be too easy and boring.

If I would make it a no-reload "Iron Man" campaign it would be over very quickly, one mistake and it would be finished.

 

I still have no idea and can't continue. Does anybody have a solution or proposal for me? ;)

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There is no realistic way a single trooper can win the game. For example, the instant the aliens attack a base he's not at, it'll be lost to you - even if you fill them with tanks. Not to mention that a single bullet/grenade will most likely wipe him out, and you won't even have the luxory of a med-kit should he take non-lethal damage.

 

Therefore, I recommend playing iron man, and simply see how far you can get. Think of it like Crimsonland on Survival mode - you're gonna die sooner or later, see how many points you can rack up in the meantime. :D

 

Another option would be to start off with the eight usual soldiers, but not recruit any more. You could even only send out one at a time. Think of the others as extra "lives" - a death wouldn't be an immediate game over, but you won't have the same safety net the save/load button provides.

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Or do hire more soldiers, but only have 1 at any given time. You're losing Skyrangers too so it's not going to be cheap.

 

I've often recommend my solo floater base (or battleship) assault challenge for fun. Superhuman for preference. I must admit that while it's very possible, trying to beat it in one sitting without saving/reloading is very-very difficult. Out of a couple dozen tries, I probably only succeed once. Part of the fun is to see how far you can get each time - and it's amazingly good practice for your normal games. Sure it's just floaters, but it's surprising how much carnage a conventional pistol on one really good soldier can do though!

 

- NKF

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Thanks to you both, now I can start my campaign. :D

 

You are right BombBloke, it will be necessary to add a pre-built mindshield at the base to prevent base-defense-missions. I hadn't thought of that... :)

 

Or... wait a minute!

 

NKF + BombBloke: I will combine the best of both your ideas and only use one human soldier (Mr. Heston) and a number of clones/robots/androids that are not allowed to attack anyone. They will serve him as mules and meatshields. That way the iron-Man mode will hopefully work. And the base will be defendable by tanks if our hero is at work at a tac mission if one of them robos stays at home! :)

 

Gee, many thanks, guys! To honour you I will give the robots your names ;) And "Catwalk" willbe used as a name, too. His TFTD campaigns were so inspiring...

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You are right BombBloke, it will be necessary to add a pre-built mindshield at the base to prevent base-defense-missions. I hadn't thought of that... :D

 

Mind Shields do not prevent completely UFOs to detect the base, they just make it harder for the aliens to find them.

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Mind Shields do not prevent completely UFOs to detect the base, they just make it harder for the aliens to find them.

 

And here I was thinking that it would provide a 100% cover. :D

One more reason to leave some soldiers at the base... thanks, Hobbes. One robot will get your name for that! ;)

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Tanks cannot defend bases alone. You will forfeit the mission if a Battleship strikes and no soldiers are present.

 

You can, however, use tanks to avoid the SkyRanger issue. Leave one in the ship while Heston goes walk about, and if he dies, you'll be able to abort mission and keep your dropship. A tank is perfect for this as aliens tend not to walk into your dropship, and HWPs are immune to psi.

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And here I was thinking that it would provide a 100% cover. ;)

At the risk of getting my name included as a meatshield rookie, the Mind Shield is very, very good at hiding your locations from the aliens. It's not 100% by any means, but if you are conscientious and shoot down the retaliation scouts before they get too close to your base you'll never have to worry about base defense missions. The chances of detection are probably based on skill level so at higher difficulty levels the aliens are going to locate you faster than on Beginner, etc. :D

 

- Zombie

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Yes, BombBloke, I will leave at least one soldier at the homebase all the time. And thanks for the Skyranger/tank tip!

 

A robot named Zombie is added to my game... ;) I think I will not add a mind-shield to the initial layout of the main base, I want some hardcore base defense action! :D

 

Here the stats for the 5 robos:

 

https://i45.tinypic.com/66y903.jpg

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Hey, the campaign works and feels better than I thought it would! No deaths on the human side so far. :)

 

Tactics are totally different from regular EU gameplay, I deploy rocket tanks to clear the area, pick up alien artifacts with the robots and Mr. Heston stays in the background and makes some easy kills or stuns aliens. Collects easy experience points and stuff.

 

 

The first mission: Mr. Heston, accompanied by three robots, lands in the Alps to investigate a downed UFO. As there were no tanks available yet (not enough space in base and no money) the robots had to do the scouting and "the legend" used their intel to kill an alien. When one of the robots tried to pick up the dead alien and its weapons another alien fired a stunbomb and Mr. Heston fell unconscious. Robot BombBloke picked up the stunned guy and rescued him. Sadly it was damaged during that action by some plasma shots and had to be repaired, it was unusable for 44 days...

 

Mission rating ok. (1 dead alien and 2 artifacts, UFO not recovered)

The second mission. Still no tanks. Despite heavy enemy fire all units returned after Mr. Heston killed some aliens. Robot NKF will be unusable for 90 (!) days, Robot Zombie will need 76 days to be repaired.

 

Two terrormissions popped up. As no civilians are in danger and no diplomatic consequences are to be feared (there is NO support anyway) I skip them. Would be too much for one soldier and two remaining robots...

 

Third mission and some more: Finally tanks are available! 3 rocket tanks are bought and because of that the AC and HC weapons, as well as the rocket launcher, are sold. All that is needed are a rifle, a stunrod and some grenades. The tanks have a huge impact (ha! literally) on the missions, the enemy sectoids drop like flies and in the dozens. :)

The robots Catwalk and Hobbes are working hard to bring back all the artifacts and alien bodies.

"The legend" walks around in the secured areas and overviews everything.

 

Still no fully recovered UFO, as entering one would be too dangerous yet. All the missions are rated OK, though. The Council is satisfied (what council??? :) ) Interestingly the game gives Mr. Heston 2 millions. The next month the fundings are zero as they should be.

 

As I enabled "Captured aliens help research" in XcomUtil and only one scientist is available some living aliens are needed. The first to get captured is an sectoid engineer, he stuns himself when shooting with a Small Launcher at a close-by tank. However the medikit (first thing on the list) still isn't researched, more breathing aliens are needed.... this will be challenging!

 

More terror missions pop up but nobody cares about them ;)

 

This really feels like a different game. The pacifistic mule-robots, the heavy usage of tanks, the lone soldier, no income despite what one earns on the battlefield, the new challenges: I can really recommend this settings! Hm.. I am not sure if this will work once the base is discovered, maybe I should a fall-back base... just in case... :D

 

here a picture of the film that was the inspiration:

 

https://www.filmsprung.ch/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/omegaman2.jpg

 

p.s.: Sadly i forgot to check everything and the human soldier in the campaign is rather weak (20 strength at the start) but this makes it even more challenging. I gave him 100 PSI strength, though, I do not want the last human to be controlled by the aliens....

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I shouldn't have said anything about a base attack, the aliens seem to have spies in this forum and guess what? They attacked my base!

 

However 7 rocket tanks and several proximity grenades from Mr. Heston were enough to subdue them. ;)

 

I save every penny atm though to buy a new base despite the victory. The aliens fired 5 Blaster Bombs and destroyed some tanks, I am not sure if i can keep up with that kind of attrition. Still no losses, all robots are functional. Robot Hobbes is in repair for 45 more days, though.

 

Most of the tac missions more or less look like this: 3 tanks leave the Skyranger, secure and clear the area, then one robot and Mr.Heston pick up corpses and artifacts. If an alien panicks or is out of ammo (it's easy to see e.g when a Small Launcher is empty, the aliens only carry 3 shots usually) they are stunned and carried back to the SkyRanger. Basically i try to use as realistic tactics as possible, being the last human on earth does not allow for mistakes so Mr. Heston is extremely careful. Night attacks or terror missions are a no-go atm. I entered an UFO and grabbed some artifacts and ran out quickly, though. :D

 

Tanks are a great aid at capturing Aliens with Stun Launchers. Either the enemy stuns itself when I position the tank right next to them or they run out of ammo shooting at the tanks. Luckily the tanks do not mind being shot at with stun bombs...

 

I captured 7 live aliens so far, one accidentally stunned itself, two were wounded and fell unconscious (the lack of a death scream is a good sign), two were stunned when they ran out of ammo and two panicked during the base attack-> easy meat.

 

Still they were not nough to complete the medikit research, hmph. (I enabled the research help option in XcomUtil). And to make things worse i now see that the laser weapons would have been the much better research field... sigh.

 

Financially the game works fine, the money from the artifacts is enough to keep on going without the income being too high. Tanks are expensive and they run through the ammo like a hot knife through butter. That and the Avalanche Missiles (combined with the need for a second base) makes it challenging. And the totally pacifistic robots are a nice touch. :)

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Personally I wouldn't bother building a new base unless you somehow run out of storage. The main purpose to spreading your influence around the world is to prevent the aliens from doing the same, but since you don't care about infiltration, there's just no point - the only way to win is to take them down at the source. Anything that doesn't work towards that goal is a waste of time.

 

Instead, spend your spare cash on other things: More defense, for example. Fill your base with tanks. Yeah, they cost a ton, but you're not really going to have much else to spend money on once you've got all your other basic needs filled.

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As I enabled "Captured aliens help research" in XcomUtil and only one scientist is available some living aliens are needed.

 

You will need to capture every live alien you came up across... that option to Xcomutil is made to increase the difficulty of the game. With that option set, researching Laser Weapons will require 500 hours (and no help from aliens in laser technology), or 2 weeks... Laser Rifle is 3000 hours.

 

Even without that option on Research will take you forever to finish... be prepared for a very long long game.

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You will need to capture every live alien you came up across... that option to Xcomutil is made to increase the difficulty of the game. With that option set, researching Laser Weapons will require 500 hours (and no help from aliens in laser technology), or 2 weeks... Laser Rifle is 3000 hours.

 

Even without that option on Research will take you forever to finish... be prepared for a very long long game.

 

That's exactly what i had planned, a VERY long game, testing out the limits of the game-engine in many ways, I hate the rush-through-everything approach of the original game ;)

 

BombBloke, the only reason for the second base was my fear that the aliens would go base-attack-crazy on me and that I would have to fight there like 2 times a day. I gonna wait some more, let's see how things go and then I'll decide about the second base again. :D

I gonna apply the combo-patch here: https://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=677 I hope it does not mess up my ongoing campaign, I'll better make a backup of the whole folder.

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BombBloke, the only reason for the second base was my fear that the aliens would go base-attack-crazy on me and that I would have to fight there like 2 times a day. I gonna wait some more, let's see how things go and then I'll decide about the second base again. :D

So long as you let them in and and have your trooper/tanks fight them, that shouldn't be much of an issue... I think. Frankly I'd consider it an easy way to capture aliens, because when you're fighting in a base, you've got a lot more control then you otherwise would.

 

I gonna apply the combo-patch here: https://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=677 I hope it does not mess up my ongoing campaign, I'll better make a backup of the whole folder.

Should be fine. Note that it makes the Lightning somewhat useful, or even cheaty - it seals off all the "holes" so that the only way in/out is through the actual door (the original model is a lot less strict on such matters).

 

However, we've never been able to make the door work as it should. As it stands, a soldier can walk through it without opening it. If he doesn't like what he sees, he can walk back through, and he'll have a nice "solid" wall between him and the threat.

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You are right, the base defense missions are rather easy. The special base layout, 8 rocket tanks and some proxy grenades are more than enough to deal with the aliens so far.

 

In both cases the base was attacked by Snakemen and Chrysalids, to my surprise the base layout alone keeps the Chrysalids from doing any damage, they simply run out of TUs before they can do anything. Which gives my tanks excellent opportunities to mow them down in the following turn :D

 

Using three rocket tanks is an excellent way to do smaller tac missions, 24 rockets are usually enough to completely eliminate EVERYTHING outside of the UFO, which, combined with picking up artifacts, is enough to give me a mission rating of OK. From time to time I stun unarmed/panicked aliens or pick up wounded and unconscious Mutons, the number of captured living aliens is rather high. Still the first research hasn't been finished yet, but I'm in no hurry. This will be a LONG maybe even (almost) eternal campaign.

 

Bigger UFOs still are impossible for Mr. Heston, the danger of being shot is too high and thus killing some free-roaming aliens is all that is done in those missions. The loss rate of tanks on those missions is high as well. But smaller UFOs are usually no problem, thanks to the 200 damage dealing HE packs.

 

3 times now I was able to recover an UFO completely, this does not sound like a big achievement but with only one soldier it really is. :)

 

Robot Catwalk is out of duty for 90 days, it got caught in the blast of an reaction-fire-explosion. Those tanks are dangerous to both sides...

 

Robot BombBloke seems to be my lucky charm, usually the missions with it are a tiny bit more successful than the others.

 

One radar base was destroyed, not a big problem, it is already rebuilt.

 

I have some minor roleplay problems, though: The pacifistic robots.

I wanted to apply the 3 robot laws from Asimov, but I'm not sure how I should handle 2 things:

 

-Carriage and Usage of flares and smoke grenades.

-Accidental Reaction fire once they pick up researched alien weapons (this is not a problem atm as nothing is researched yet).

 

Any suggestions for that?

 

Here the 3 laws from Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

I exchanged "human" with "living being". :)

 

p.s. The combo-patch works fine, thank you two for your work! It will take SOME time until I have a Lightning, though ;)

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If you want to broaden the rules to apply to all living creatures, then your robot minions should technically attempt to place themselves between Heston and any aliens they know about, to prevent either from shooting the other.

 

It would be easier to follow them as written, but assume that the robots are not technically capable of using weaponry, due to either programming or mechanical issues.

 

You can prevent reaction fire by simply not allowing them to carry loaded weapons in the hand.

 

Don't really have an opinion on flares/smoke grenades. I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to use flares, at least.

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Yes, I will stick to make them "only" unable to hurt anybody. And I simply will make sure that they do not reaction-fire by:

 

a) setting their reaction to 0 (did that at the start of the campaign)

b) try to avoid placing guns in their hands

c) using up all TUs

 

Flare usage is ok. However smoke grenades could possibly stun and thus harm a living being so I will not let the bots use them. Thanks for the input, BombBloke. :D

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The campaign works great. Financially and tactically. Everything works as intended. Robot Hobbes saved Mr.Heston's life by rescuing the (again) stunned and thus unconscious human. Robot BombBloke was lightly damaged but is back to duty already, Robot Catwalk will need 40 more days to see action, though.

 

The 200 damage HE pack now is the main weapon, 2 of them easily let tanks enter most UFOs ;)

The usual loadout of the Skyranger consists of:

 

-4x HE packs

-1x Rifle

-1x Rifle Clip

-1x StunRod

 

Smoke grenades, flares and all other weapons are simply not needed. 3 rocket tanks are quite a force... :D

 

Research is a problem, though. Despite having captured 15-20 live aliens the very first research topic has not been finished yet. I will give it 1 and a half more months, if that isn't enough a slight change in the scientist numbers has to be made. Maybe I could roleplay that the robots help with it? Let's see...

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The campaign goes on, all robots are repaired and do their duty, even Catwalk. During the game I stumbled over some odd but harmless quirks in the game.

 

1. Mr. Heston used a HE pack to gain entry into an UFO. The hole was directly besides a door so that a tank could get inside by driving through. The tank was destroyed during the alien's turn. After that turn the hole was suddenly repaired! :)

 

2. I managed to do a tac mission on a landed and intact very small scout! However, here was no scout UFO in the map and some of my troops spawned in mid-air outside of the Skyranger:

https://i50.tinypic.com/2wdu7va.jpg

When I moved them they "dropped" from the sky... ;)

 

3. An interesting (but again, most likely already and well known) fact: Rocket tanks can not directly attack Silacoids, the fired rockets will pass over them. They CAN be targeted, but indirect explosions are needed to kill them off. Happened during the last base attack...

 

Mutons and Ethereals are dangerous, even for the Xcom-Util improved tanks. Tac missions with large UFOs in them are too difficult because of that.

 

The slow research is a big problem, 40+ live aliens and 6 (Mr.Heston+5 robots) scientists were not enough to finish the very first research and it is November already! I have no idea how to handle/change that... :D

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However, here was no scout UFO in the map

XcomUtil deletes the Small Scout map data. For some reason.

 

An interesting (but again, most likely already and well known) fact: Rocket tanks can not directly attack Silacoids, the fired rockets will pass over them.

Not one I've heard of...

 

Units (and everything else in the battlescape) are actually treated as primitive 3D objects. Mobiles are cylinders, while terrain objects tend to be a lot more detailed.

 

When you shoot at something, the game considers where the targeter is firing from in relation to the target, and attempts to aim along that vector (or one nearby, depending on accuracy and the luck of the dice).

 

That is to say, if a target is higher/lower then you, your bullet should be aimed up/down. Try getting soldiers to shoot Sectoids/Silacoids at point blank range, you'll see what I mean.

 

It is possible tanks have a cut-off limit where they won't aim any lower, in order to prevent them from shooting themselves (as the turret is basically sitting at the center of the actual vehicle), but it's not something I've ever observed. Methinks that if you moved back from the Silacoid, you should certainly be able to hit it directly, as increased distance would alter the required firing angle.

 

Though if that were the problem I'd expect a "No line of fire" error instead of shots going over the top of the target. It could just be that your tanks are outright missing.

 

The slow research is a big problem, 40+ live aliens and 6 (Mr.Heston+5 robots) scientists were not enough to finish the very first research and it is November already! I have no idea how to handle/change that... :D

On a hunch, I figured I'd take a look at the XCU documentation and see if I could work out what's going on.

 

Sure enough, aliens contribute very little to non-alien projects. In fact, the only aliens that DO help with the Med-Kit project (the one I understand you to be working on) are Medics. Scroll down to the "ResearchHelp" section of "xcomutil.cfg" for more details plus the ability to alter this.

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Ooh, many thanks, BombBloke, the info about the research and the CFG is invaluable! I will check it right away. Thanks again :D

 

About the tanks: I fired multiple times over a rather large distance (3 or 4 base facilities wide) and didn't hit one silacoid. IIRC rockets from the shoulder fired RL also do not hit silacoids when fired under the same circumstances. I guess they have a minimum target height/elevation angle. Theoritically a shot from a higher point should have hit, but as the base is completely flat... meh.

 

I realized one thing: If you do not have the pressure to have to do certain missions (in my campaign there is no funding in danger, no person to satisfy and no quota to fulfill) the game feels much more relaxed and free. It is almost a real "sandbox mode".

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You can do it by editing the funding countries so that all of them have withdrawn from the start. This way you get no funding at all but it also eliminates the urgency of needing to attend to infiltration missions. If they infiltrate a country that has already withdrawn funding, nothing will happen beyond the usual loss in activity points.

 

- NKF

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But aren't those activity points the real prize? I mean, failing to turn up for terror missions would still take 1000 points out of your score, and that's what leads to a game over, isn't it? Really I've never cared a fig about infiltration for this very reason - losing a country merely loses you money, it doesn't lose you the game.

 

I've thus far being assuming Civilian was editing his game to remove the score penalties where "relevant".

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