In a bind, looking for suggestions

[Boozie]

I have two terror attacks that strike within 5 hour of each other and only one ship (triton) that can carry people. I'd really like to somehow get both as a no show is brutal afaik and these are both on the opposite side of the globe from my ship. Some extra background:

 

- Running on the patched steam version which doesn't appear to let me use the transfer/fuel bug

- Tried reducing the delivery time of the Triton in Jenna's Editor such that I can order a new one in time it didn't take

- Tried adding fuel with Jenna's editor to the triton so I can do one then the other (not sure if I am forced to go back to base even if I have fuel) - didn't take

-I have two barracudas which aren't enough to keep the site up until I can refuel my Triton.

 

I don't really know of any other editors that I can run with 64-bit windows, but basically I was thinking the easiest solution is to somehow produce a triton or hammerhead within 12 hours since I have extra crew and equipment but I don't know how to do that.

 

Seems like I just got really unlucky, but I refuse to give up on finding a way around this. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[NKF]

I can't really offer a solution to your problem except say that sometimes it's easier to accept that bad luck can happen and just play on and see what the consequences are.

 

If the countries are just unhappy, then a hit to funding can be recovered from in due course. Even if one decides to withdraw, things will still work out fine. To borrow a phrase, as long as you're not shut down and you've still got the resources to continue, then you're still winning. You might want to make a separate save so you can come back and revisit this dilemma if the outcome results in you getting shut down.

 

To help minimize the 1000pts hit, go to the terror site in the area that you've done the least missions in that month.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Have you tried sending the Triton to the first terror site before it appears? Have it patrol the zone if need be, then jump on the spot the moment it turns up. This way your ship should be well on the way home before the second site appears, extending the amount of time available to refuel somewhat.

[Space Voyager]

COUGHcheatCOUGH!

 

Welcome to the boards, Boozie! I must say that is an interesting nick.

[Boozie]

COUGHcheatCOUGH!

 

Welcome to the boards, Boozie! I must say that is an interesting nick.

 

Haha thanks.

 

I know it's cheating, but I really hate going into the negative and I don't view it much different than loading an earlier save to plan ahead. The reason why I don't want to load an earlier save is because I just went through about 40 aquanauts to line up for MC training and dismissed all the baddies and added naming conventions. Doesn't take THAT long, but I really don't want to do it again.

 

The patrolling isn't a bad idea, but I fear my Barracudas won't be able to keep the other one up long enough as I'm going from south korea to mid freaking Atlantic, back to south korea, and then to London area for the 2nd one.

 

I am assuming it is worse to ignore a cruise ship than an island attack? Really a shame if so because I like the island attacks and HATE cruise/cargo 2 stagers.

 

Very cool site as well, excited to dig around here as there are a lot of games I play.

 

Still open to more brainstorming if anyone else has input.

[Bomb Bloke]

The patrolling isn't a bad idea, but I fear my Barracudas won't be able to keep the other one up long enough as I'm going from south korea to mid freaking Atlantic, back to south korea, and then to London area for the 2nd one.

By the time you the second site appears, the Triton will be on its way back from the first site. The Cudas only have to keep the site up long enough for it to arrive at base and refuel. Once the Triton sets out to the second site, it won't disappear, so the distance involved in that last trip is irrelevant.

 

Also keep in mind that targeting a site with the Cudas as soon as it appears is pointless. Save scum like crazy until you know exactly when it's supposed to leave the map, then send out the first craft. Continue scumming until you know when that ship intends to return to base, then send out the second.

 

If there's still not enough time, then does Jenna's editor let you edit the fuel levels for the Cudas? If for some reason not, you can manually mess with the values in CRAFT.DAT, located in your save folder. Second and third records are the two starting interception ships, assuming you didn't destroy/sell them, so the fuel for the first of those is at 0xBE, fuel for the second is at 0x12C.

 

You could also just modify the timer on the terror site itself via LOC.DAT, but you'll need to work out which record belongs to the mission.

 

I am assuming it is worse to ignore a cruise ship than an island attack? Really a shame if so because I like the island attacks and HATE cruise/cargo 2 stagers.

Always figured it to be the same.

[Hobbes]

Haha thanks.

 

I know it's cheating

 

OMG! CHEATER!

 

 

Do you use XComUtil? It allows for the Barracudas to carry a limited crew (6 aquanauts) so that might do the trick.

[Boozie]

By the time you the second site appears, the Triton will be on its way back from the first site. The Cudas only have to keep the site up long enough for it to arrive at base and refuel. Once the Triton sets out to the second site, it won't disappear, so the distance involved in that last trip is irrelevant.

 

Also keep in mind that targeting a site with the Cudas as soon as it appears is pointless. Save scum like crazy until you know exactly when it's supposed to leave the map, then send out the first craft. Continue scumming until you know when that ship intends to return to base, then send out the second.

 

If there's still not enough time, then does Jenna's editor let you edit the fuel levels for the Cudas? If for some reason not, you can manually mess with the values in CRAFT.DAT, located in your save folder. Second and third records are the two starting interception ships, assuming you didn't destroy/sell them, so the fuel for the first of those is at 0xBE, fuel for the second is at 0x12C.

 

You could also just modify the timer on the terror site itself via LOC.DAT, but you'll need to work out which record belongs to the mission.

 

 

Always figured it to be the same.

 

I can give the first idea a shot. Jenna's editor explicitly states it's only for editing the alien craft even though it has the triton/bara etc. listed. I changed the value, but it still didn't take. Unfortunately Jenna's editor wouldn't let me change the triton delivery time either which is something it claims I can do.

 

I don't have the XComUtil. I was trying to just play through the game "unmodified" (I know i'm trying to modify it now). Is there any chance I can only modify the baracuda's with it?

 

What program do I open the .dat file with to edit the value?

[Veki]

If I'm not wrong, I think terror sites don't disappear immediately when no craft is targeting them, but they stay on map until full hour (i.e. if you have no craft targeting terror site at 13:17 they will disappear at 14:00, not immediately).

 

Can anyone confirm above is true?

 

If it's true, you can have you bara target the terror site for a few minutes until full hour has passed then send them in the opposite direction. This way they will remain very near your base and you will extend time they are in air and are holding terror site on map.

[Sgt. Strike]

If you have multiple terror sites, you can keep them on the screen for a while longer. It will take some doing. Or at least I think it will. I know it works in UFO Defense, so I think it can work here. What you do is use the Barracuda to target it. As long as it's a target of some sort, I think, it will not disappear. This is where multiple bases and Barracudas come into play. If it's the first month, then maybe what you need to do is edit your game.

[NKF]

You can alter binary files with a hex editor, such as this one:

 

https://mklasson.com/hexit.php

 

Or my preferred method is binary file manipulation with MS-Edit. It's a bit crude, but once you get the hang of it it's quick to use and is good at lining data into tables if you know the right column widths. You can get a crash course here:

 

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=MS-Edit

 

Regarding the two parters, one thing I discovered (and shattered some of my misconceptions about leaving stuff on the floor of the Triton) recently is that the v2.0 patch for TFTD does allow recovery of equipment from the first part of a battle if you clear the map. So one very quick way to deal with 2-part ship missions is to just deal with the first map, and assuming you did well, abort the second. You'll cancel out a good amount of points this way, but it does save the hassle of a long drawn out mission without a chance to rest up and rearm in between, and you recover equipment and earn experience as if you did an ordinary mission so there's no great loss.

 

Winning both parts does give heaps of points and loot though, so it's worth weighing up your options and deciding whether you feel up to it and continue or just end the mission short.

 

- NKF

[Sgt. Strike]

Can you still send interceptors to terror sites and have them come back to keep them on screen, NKF? I put a ton of conjecture in my post, but it seems solid.

[NKF]

The trick from UFO is still possible, but the number of Barracudas you'd need to target the site would have to be considerably large enough to allow the Triton to go through the refuel/rearm process, or even earlier Barracudas to refuel/rearm and get launched again.

 

Of course, combined with the trick Bomb Bloke mentioned about saving/reloading and finding out exactly when the terror site expires before launching the Barracudas to tag the site and keep it live would certainly help.

 

- NKF

[Alienated]

Ignore one of the terror sites. I guess the shipping route gives you more negative scores if ignored, so send troops there even if you hate two-stage missions. Your scores can be better than on a mere island/port attack. I guess you are at least at 1st of February. This means you just made an error in geoscape operations. Experienced players, especially ironman players, immediately build a hangar on the 1st day. That completes by 26th of January. They order a Triton that arrives before 1st of February. And you say you have an MC Lab (so you are even later than February) and STILL ONE transport craft... You obviously have not learnt to play this game. Now you have two terror alerts on the map and one transport. It seems you ARE learning now.

[Hobbes]

I don't have the XComUtil. I was trying to just play through the game "unmodified" (I know i'm trying to modify it now). Is there any chance I can only modify the baracuda's with it?

 

You have several options with XComUtil and you're asked for each one during the setup if you want to use them or not.

[Boozie]

Ignore one of the terror sites. I guess the shipping route gives you more negative scores if ignored, so send troops there even if you hate two-stage missions. Your scores can be better than on a mere island/port attack. I guess you are at least at 1st of February. This means you just made an error in geoscape operations. Experienced players, especially ironman players, immediately build a hangar on the 1st day. That completes by 26th of January. They order a Triton that arrives before 1st of February. And you say you have an MC Lab (so you are even later than February) and STILL ONE transport craft... You obviously have not learnt to play this game. Now you have two terror alerts on the map and one transport. It seems you ARE learning now.

 

Heh, I never claimed to be an expert. This was the first of April and I did not have a 2nd Triton I was trying to hold out for a Hammerhead to save myself some cash. I had never run into something this obscure before that I can't get to both sites with one crew. I ended up biting the bullet on the 2nd site and have moved on. Funnily enough, my hammerhead finished a few days later but I don't have enough Zrybite to fuel it so I ended up buying a 2nd Triton.

 

I am a little worried I outkicked my coverage in terms of my tech/difficulty of enemies and the amount of Zrybite I have (~0 after some mag ion armor). I heard that the enemies scale with tech (is this true or is it just time based?), but now all I

[NKF]

No, enemies don't scale with tech, but time. See the following for the specifics:

 

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=A...tios_%28TFTD%29

 

Your transmission resolver should be fine, as long as other bases with small sonars, large sonars, small+large sonars, Barracudas or Tritons don't find the enemy subs first. If you have any bases with old sonar facilities, replace them with the transmission resolves and immediately dismantle the old ones.

 

Vs. Lobstermen, Sonic weapons are the best way to tackle them efficiently when shok bombs are low or when HTH is not viable. Expect to spend at least 4 ~ 5 rounds with Sonic Pistols and Blasta Rifles, and between 2 - 3 with the cannons per lobstermen, so there's no quick fix for them. One tip is to not try not to take the battles too quickly, and progress slowly. The lobstermen are one of the aliens that spend energy when turning, so most of them will end up wearing themselves out so you can start picking them off as they hobble around the battlefield.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Remember that if a unit is too far away for an alien to see him, he won't trigger reaction fire from that alien. The AI tries to force you into traps by sitting one tile outside of your visual range, greeting you with a hail of reaction fire when you attempt to move forward. Counter this by moving back after locating the enemy then blasting them from range.

 

A valid tactic against Lobstermen is to simply leave the battlefield. Weigh up the cost of beating them versus the rewards, and you'll usually find your time is better spent finding a different USO to salvage. Even if you can win without too much risk odds are you could get a better haul faster when dealing with a different race - come back when you've got the tech required to mop them up. Floating tanks are a great bonus against just about everything, as in TFTD they can usually be relied upon to soak up a shot or two (... or three... or four...) - using them as scouts will dramatically reduce your trooper mortality rate and allow you to snipe away with impunity.

[Alienated]

I was trying to hold out for a Hammerhead to save myself some cash.

Yes, the reason why certain players have one Triton/Skyranger per campaign is this. But there are lots of reasons not to do that. You mentioned the Zrbite/Elerium problem. And there is the fact the transport craft can do the longest term flights. They can patrol for about a day. In the beginning, meaning the first few months, when you have one base, the patrolling transports are the only way to deal with faraway alien activity. Yes, you indeed save 600K per month by not buying an extra transport but you may lose several million bucks because you miss a lot of USO flights without the extra craft patrolling.

 

Well, I reload game if things don't go well, so I can afford the risk to build my new hangar(s) around 6th or 7th of January and they are completed in 1st of February at 0:00 a.m. Then I order the 2nd Triton. But even then I have two Tritons by February. And when the aliens start to build bases (that can easily be in April), I usually have four or more Tritons in order I could assault four or more landed USOs at the same time (within few hours). This is how the game works. You probably have no idea how many USOs you don't even detect. I know there are uneventful days, especially in January, but no one can tell if two or more USOs happen to show up in the same hour. If you shoot one down and catch the other on land (seabed), then you risk a floating base attack. The floating base attack is another reason to keep two Tritons, one at the base always in case a Dreadnought drops in.

[Boozie]

I see the merit in a 2nd triton early, I am just not a veteran to know the ins and outs. The lobstermen weren't too bad with me using a few sacrificial (bad stat) guys to take the lead, but gosh they take a ton of bullets to kill.

 

So two remaining questions, should I be using Sonic Canons or blasta rifles and do I want to be killing all enemies in an alien base or just destroying and leaving?

[Sgt. Strike]

I have an idea on things here. First research the medi-kits, then gauss weapons. Second arm one of your Barracudas with the D.U.P. Head launcher, versus the Ajax, for bigger prey. Sell off a small portion of the Ajax ammo, buy some more craft gas ammo. Also, 2 more aquanauts. A few more researchers, as well. Jet Harpoons and clips do well all around, with the thermal tazer works well. Fill in heavier weapons, etc. as time goes along. As you research the Aqua Plastics, sell off as much as you can. Any extra sonic weapons you have, sell as well. Not ammo, but just the weapons. Sell off some other stuff, too, to make some money.

[Jman4117]

I see the merit in a 2nd triton early, I am just not a veteran to know the ins and outs. The lobstermen weren't too bad with me using a few sacrificial (bad stat) guys to take the lead, but gosh they take a ton of bullets to kill.

 

So two remaining questions, should I be using Sonic Canons or blasta rifles and do I want to be killing all enemies in an alien base or just destroying and leaving?

 

I'd use Blastas on the front line and Cannons from sniping positions. The cannon takes 50% TUs to fire, so if you move at all, or even turn, you can't get in a second shot. The rifle will let you move in and out of cover and still get two shots.

 

As for the base, I'd try to kill everything if I could. There's really not that many enemies in them for the size of the map. Though, if you got in a situation where you couldn't find that last alien and you're dragging out two commanders, I'd blow the device and head for the exit.

[NKF]

I'd say invest cash in a secondary assault base on the other side of the globe when you can afford it, then station your second Triton there. That'll give you reasonably good coverage of the globe, and provide backup transport in case there's too many urgent missions apper at the same time. Fund it by selling excess sonic weapons and maybe Sonic Pulsers if find you're recovering more of them than you are using.

 

As for sonics, yes, a mix of blasa rifles and sonic cannons is generally a good way to go. You can also throw a few sonic pistols in as well for shok-launcher or DPL launcher users or if your blasta rifle ammo is running low. Definitely throw in a Sonic Displacer - that thing can do entire Lobsterman missions on its own if you are careful.

 

Destroying colonies - It's a judgment call all the way, depending on how bad things are going and how desperate you are at destroying the base. To make it worthwhile in terms of points and loot, it would be in your best interest to try and clear the first part.

 

The second should be spent concentrating on destroying the synonium device first. Once that is done, then decide whether to clear out the base (if things been going well and lots of aliens have been defeated) or just leg it to the exit while bringing any equipment or unconscious lobsterman commanders with you as you run across them.

 

- NKF

[Furinax]

Hmm, I know this is kinda late but I figured I should give my two cents since I just picked this game up again.

 

To the op question: I would just land at the first one, abort, then land at the second one and complete. If it is a cruise mission then just skip it- not worth the effort. Then again, your ship might not be able to redirect after aborting a mission (I've only done it once in my current campaign- veteran) so be aware of that.

 

Hammerheads and Leviathans are great but remember they require Zrbite for fuel. In my past games Zrbite was a huge limiting factor and I got sick of raiding ships for it. You're better off keeping a Barracuda around for small ships and Tritons for basic transports/detectors. In fact, the first thing I did when I started my game was sell a Barracuda and buy another Triton. With the fuel cost of Zrbite I might consider not even using new subs for combat and sticking with barracudas.

 

For fighting lobstermen, I've only abandoned one mission and that is because I forgot to bring a thermal tazer. Don't get me wrong, it is still completable if you have gauss/sonic but it is VERY painful. Since I don't save/load my games (other than in the beginning for backup), a lobsterman terror or landed craft would likely wipe out half my crew. Even with tazers they take like 2 shots and it's expensive with TU's so unless you have lots of rookies to spare go for Vibroblade or get MC before fighting lobstermen. The current technique I use which works great (before MC) is to thermal shock them and then throw one grenade. Live unconscious aliens die immediately if any explosions go off near them. I don't even use Sonic cannons because of the TU penalty and also because they are great to sell. However if you don't loot the bodies before you kill them you lose a lot of valuable loot! Maybe you could pile the bodies and create a lobster bonfire.

 

Wow I'm typing too much!

 

Okay lastly I'd like to say that base assaults are really not worth to complete via killing all the aliens. It is a PAIN PAIN PAIN to kill all enemies in the 2nd mission, and unless you are a save/load whore you are bound to get stung by a tentaculat and possibly lose your best guys. I did one recently to see if I could get massive Zrbite but it took 3 hrs to complete the mission and I lost my best soldier in the process to the last tentaculat. The result? 5000 pts, Tons of cash in loot, and 70 dead aliens. I did it without using tazers or medikits. Would I do it again? No way! I've beaten this game 3 times and only finished 2 base missions and by the end I'm just exhausted. There was no Zrbite in the end so totally not worth the risk unless you are far behind in pts/cash.

 

One more thing... medikits aren't really worth it IMO. Early on I just manufacture particle displacement sensors to make money. I used to arm each person on my team with a medikit but now I just bring 2.

[NKF]

You could get away with less in UFO, but Medikits are worth their weight in gold in TFTD, not just for healing critical wounds but to revive stunned soldiers since those thermal shock bombs pack a punch.

 

Perhaps one of its more useful functions is to revive stunned aliens so that you can shoot them again! Good way to make sure a tentaculat or lobsterman is dead.

 

Also, a pair of aquanauts with a shock launcher and a Gas Cannon armed with GC-HE shells can easily massacre lobstermen. Some equipment is quite resistant to light explosions, so you won't necessarily blow everything up. Pulsers definitely stay behind, and I often see sonic cannons survive as well. Perhaps drop the explosive round a little further away from the body for the best effect.

 

- NKF