Strategy versus Specific Aliens

[Zeno]

Exploiting Alien Weaknesses:

 

Sectoids: Least armor and health. The commander's armor and health equals the lowest ranked soldier's stats. The key against sectoids is speed. Their reactions and time units are above average, so move your scouts quickly (reaction fire is usually wasted; hiding places are better than trying to react). Scouts should use pistols for the speed, everyone else further back should use rifles for the accuracy. High explosives are overkill, and will destroy the corpse (and too often, the artifacts). An exception is the leaders and commanders.

 

Sectoid leaders and commanders: If your troops are psi-attacked, you are lucky!! The Sectoid leaders and commanders are far easier opponents than even the simplest Ethereal soldier. Drop all weapons and non-smoke grenades. Each turn, pick up one weapon, move, stop, drop weapon, and crouch. Use smoke grenades to cover movement. Stay out of line of sight of other soldiers. Keep a stun rod in your backpack (a requirement until you've obtained Stun Launchers). You want to find a non-moving group of Sectoids, usually in one large room of a downed UFO. One of these is the leader/commander. Run in, stun as many as you can. Consider running in, stunning, and running out (if you have the time units). Use smoke! This is a dangerous process, but absolutely necessary for developping Psi Labs. Far easier than doing it to an Ethereal. Sacrifice troops until all are stunned; use remaining soldier to shoot any standing sectoids (and hope you got the commander). Throwing in a smoke grenade, waiting 2-3 turns, and shooting any that come out with pistols is a safer, less sure method for achieving a stun.

 

Floaters: Only slightly more armor and health than Sectoids. Rifles and pistols are usually sufficient; at higher difficulty levels autocannons or heavy cannons work well enough. They have average reactions and time units. The only real danger is their flying ability. Incendiary and high explosive rounds do not work well on a flyer unless they get a direct hit (therefore, aim or use armor piercing rounds). Grenades are ineffective against aerial opponents. As usual, use high explosives to uncover hiding places (top floors of barns, particularly). High time unit/reaction soldiers can safely prepare snap shots and await approaching floaters. However, they have a tendency to hit and hide that makes more aggressive tactics a bit safer.

 

Floater leaders and commanders: These aliens have significantly more armor, and somewhat more health. However, as they rarely cruise around flying, they are (usually) easily taken out with high explosives. Use their stagnant positioning against them. Prime grenades to "0" if attempting to close in, or (preferably) shoot from a distance. Their reaction shots murder any rookie soldiers.

 

Snakemen: These aliens have the slowest time units and reactions. Most rookies can react much faster on lower difficulty levels. Snakemen are hunters. Wait for them to come to you. If they won't exit the UFO, enter and sit just inside. Once you go in, the snakemen will approach. Though they are somewhat resistant to incendiary damage, their slow approach means they'll often stop in the middle of a big fire...meaning, you're more likely to catch them on fire than most fast, non-resistant aliens. Laying down a field of napalm is not a bad idea in open areas (or in larger UFOs). However, for the actual kill stroke, their armor really requires at least lasers or multiple, powerful AP rounds. Reaction fire combined with high explosives is never recommended, though it works for single soldiers far from other teammates.

 

Snakeman leaders and commanders: Reactions are faster, and they're less likely to run into an ambush. Their armor is somewhat stronger. However, they're still slow--and, as with all leaders, they are generally static. Move in, throw a proximity grenade, move out. The next soldier(s) move in, shoot one round, and retreat. Repeat on following rounds. If the alien comes out, they will have been shot, grenaded, possibly incendiaried, and likely your soldiers will still get off the first reaction shots. On higher difficulty levels...use a little more caution and common sense. They become as powerfully armored as beginner-level Ethereals, sans Psi or flying (fortunately).

 

Mutons: These guys are no fun unless you have Psi. If you have even 5-10% Psi skill, they're no problem. Assuming you don't have Psi...Mutons have stronger health and armor than Snakemen, and reactions and time units near equal to Sectoids. Their health is the killer--they can survive punishment and keep fighting with 10, 20, 30 fatal wounds... They do have only average firing accuracy, though this is little comfort when their weapons are accurate...enough. Recommendation? Armor piercing rounds do absolutely nothing. Incendiary rounds...these guys bathe in napalm to relax after battle. Use high explosives and nothing but. The loss of a few corpses is nothing--when you have Psi Skill, Mutons collapse faster than trees without trunks. Or, um, barns without first floors. If you prefer accuracy and have the equipment (but no Psi), use the heaviest lasers or plasma weapons available. I've seen Superhuman level Mutons walk on stumps after high explosives blow off their feet, proceeding to the demolitions expert and shooting her in the face. If you want to try a laser pistol, be my guest.

 

Ethereals: Cream of the crop. Best accuracy, best armor, best time units and reactions. They can fly. Their Psi skill, interestingly, is less than the Sectoid commander...but the difference is superficial if your troops have not been screened through a Psi lab. The sheer number of psi attacks your soldiers take is overwhelming. To top it off, if you haven't captured a Sectoid leader or commander, Ethereals are resistant to stun damage...good luck trying to take one alive! If you're able to wound an Ethereal, they will fall relatively quickly (much faster than their Muton counterparts). It's getting them wounded that's the problem. One interesting facet of Ethereal personality is that they're arrogant. They rarely bother to fly, so grenades can be effective. Again, assuming you're without a Psi Lab...it's time for stop and drop tactics. Each soldier carries a primed grenade on the shoulder (or two, or three, depending on how luck you feel during the priming process). Pick up a weapon, move, drop the weapon, kneel. You may consider skipping weapons altogether, saving the time units for an extra couple movement squares. See Ethereal, throw grenade. Cover all movement with smoke (both to hide you, and to hide line of sight to your comrades during those special mind control moments). I have another post on psi-specific strategies here.

 

 

The terror units are much simpler. Each has a specific weakness or three to exploit.

 

Reaper: They're hand to hand. They can't go through single-width doors. They take lots of extra damage from incendiary weapons. They have very little armor against high explosives. They're about as fast as the fastest rookie, and therefore slower than most veterans. Final analysis? Use something stronger than a paint gun, and hide in places with a single-width doorway until they die. If you're out in the open and surrounded by a pack, use high explosives (first) and incendiary (second--so you don't put out the flames). Note that if you're in a base, down to your last soldier, and hiding behind a door, it's entirely possible for a Reaper to block the door. If you don't have the weapons to wound it, then you're effectively trapped. It's annoying to lose a base through aborting, simply because you can't walk out and die like a soldier. However, the one time this happened to me, the report said 5 of my 6 soldiers were KIA...and I lost 1 civilian. I think the last soldier tried to dress as a janitor and escape. She failed. But at least she wasn't counted as MIA.

 

Chryssalid: They're hand to hand. They take extra damage from incendiary weapons. Sound familiar? Well, they're also small enough to follow you through doors, damned fast, and heavily armored all around. The best advice is to lay down incendiary "fire walls", and when they come through (which they will), use the heaviest firepower available. The problem is that they can often run to, hit, and zombify a soldier before anyone reacts. Solution? Primed grenade, any variety, preferably high explosive. You can't solve the come-out-of-nowhere-smack-I'm-undead routine. But that primed explosive will cure the zombie and the usually-still-nearby Chryssalid problem. A proximity grenade is a surer means for wounding the Chryssalid (as it moves away), but it doesn't have the power to kill. Regardless, you're still left with one Chryssalid freshly hatched from the Zombie. If troops nearby see the action, drop in the high explosives, lay down the incendiary fire walls, and use lasers or plasmas if you have them. This is the only turn you'll know where the Chryssalid is located, so strike fast and hard.

 

Silacoids: Very slow hand to hand units that take extra damage from high explosives. While surprisingly resistant to Psi attacks, these aliens are not a threat to a careful soldier. Shooting them is a useful training device for rookies, as even a lame rookie can shoot, turn, and walk away before the Silacoid catches up. Shooting is, however, not an effective kill policy. To finish it off, use any high explosive weapon. Carefully aim and shoot--you have plenty of time. It's rather sad, actually. You'll feel like you're shooting an alien's pet pot bellied pig. And while we're on the subject, for you sick bastards, no, Silacoids are not edible.

 

Celatids: Decent speed, decent armor. No particular resistances or vulnerabilities. Their ranged attack damages unarmored troops rather hideously. Assuming you don't have armor, Celatids are still not a severe threat. They are highly accurate, so avoid open terrain (hide and/or use smoke). They have slow reactions, so look to use reaction fire against them. Their armor is only slightly better than a Snakeman's, so low-end laser weapons work quite sufficiently (and fast). If you have the excess firepower, grenades and high explosives (and incendiary--they won't float over it) work very well. They don't carry valuable alien artifacts to sell, so overkill is not a financial waste.

 

Sectopods: One of the aliens most discussed in these forums. I default to the previously stated strategies--use laser weapons to cut through their ridiculously heavy armor, and use stun bombs to knock out their bio-electric control mechanisms. When short circuited, they won't get back up. If you haven't developed even the lowly laser pistol...you're stuck with armor piercing. High explosives won't even dent their foot actuators. The heaviest incendiary rocket won't cause them to overheat and shut down, and their heat sinks are more than adequate for their repetitious firing. Use the heavy cannon armor piercing rounds, and take cover after every shot. Once it's taken a few hits (or when it's close and your soldier is suicidal), use autocannon armor piercing rounds on full auto. But we're talking multiple cartridges. If you don't have laser pistols or stun bombs, Sectopods usually mean a tactical withdrawal is in order. If you're defending a base and retreat is not an option, popping out, shooting, and retreating behind doors can be effective. Sectopods cannot enter single-width doorways. Though they can open the door and shoot you, unlike the Reaper.

 

Cyberdiscs: Though they resist explosives, HE is really the way to go for the low-technology approach. A high explosive demolition charge underneath a Cyberdisc usually destroys it, as will a Large Rocket--even on Superhuman difficulty. This will, conveniently, also take out nearby aliens. And if you destroy the Cyberdisc, as you usually will, it will usually explode and take out even more of the surrounding buildings, other Cyberdiscs, Civilians... If you're looking for a cleaner kill, lasers are the way to go. Fast and effective. Plasma works just as well, and might edge out the lasers for the chance of a one-shot kill (preventing a barrage of reaction fire). Regardless of the tactic, it's still likely to explode after you've breached it's damage threshold. But if the Cyberdisc explodes, rather than your demolitions and rockets, any Civilian casualties will be attributed to the alien (*Unconfirmed claim). If not, well at least your conscience is clear--regardless what the Commander blames you for in the debriefing and after action report. The best tactic, of course, is already in these forums. Like the Sectopod, stun bombs fry the circuitry--and for the Cyberdisc, this prematurely initiates the onboard self-destruct sequence.

 

 

A few words on Psi tactics:

 

Psi Strength -- An average Psi soldier (skill 25-40) should have no trouble with most aliens, if using multiple attacks. Ethereal Leaders and Commanders are only slightly more difficult, as are Celatids. Silacoids, however, are much more resistant. Sectopods and Cyberdiscs are immune.

 

Due to the overwhelming effectiveness of Psi, it's development virtually ensures victory. Tactics are no longer really necessary at this stage.

 

 

And a few words on HWP tactics:

 

Soldiers are cheaper. Tanks are great in the early game, when your soldiers are inexperienced and you don't know your Psi strength and you have no armor. But replacing a tank costs more than replacing a full 14-soldier squad. It costs about the same as a Skyranger when you add in ammo costs.

 

If you somehow have the funds, a tank is better than 4 rookies with questionable Psi strength and no armor. But if you don't have the funds, a tank is NOT better than 14 unarmored rookies with questionable Psi strength, in my opinion. I recommend HWPs if you can afford them--which for me, occurs in the mid-game, when I have veteran troops in power armor with known Psi resistance. Thus, when it is financially feasible, a tank is no longer better than 4 soldiers.

 

There is one exception. When you've lost a mission and have to fill the ranks with rookies, an HWP fills the void nicely. You can, for example, replace 7 lost troops (after attacking a heavily defended battleship, for example) with 3 rookies and a tank, rather than trying to throw a full 7 new rookies in the squad.

 

 

 

Finally, a few words on mid- to late-game tactics:

 

Psi Skill, Power Armour, Plasma Cannon, Heavy Plasma, Blaster Launchers, Stun Bombs...tactics become incidental. Take your revenge on the earth-bound aliens until you get bored. Then go to Cydonia. I find that the most dangerous enemy, at this point, is overconfidence. I forget all the lessons I learned. Then I win or get bored, start a new game, and lose badly.

 

 

Anyway, please let me know if you have comments or additional anti-alien suggestions. I realized, rather than requesting "someone" start a specific strategy against each alien type, I should just do it. I feel my tactics may be a little redundant, and certainly not brain surgery--but it might be helpful to someone attempting their first higher difficulty or "Superhuman" game. I find that, on "Beginner", exploiting weaknesses is nearly unnecessary--but the first time you start shoving demolitions into "Superhuman" Sectopod nether regions, and their death scream sounds more like giggles, it's a good time to review..."why?"

 

 

Ciao--

Zeno

[Fox]

:o I'll have to set aside some time to read this later...

[The Demi-Godly One]

Hmm, I don't remember mutons having good reactions. I'm almost sure they are pretty bad when it comes to that.

[NKF]

Just a few notes:

 

Floaters: You can get them in the air with explosives if there's a convenient surface nearby that's on the same level as the floater. For example, say the floater is floating at about the same height as the nearby barn roof. A carefully placed high explosive charge can clip the floater when it detonates. Of course, out in the open, this is no longer a viable tactic.

 

Mutons: Laser pistols, yes, they work, but not as quickly as say the laser rifle or a heavy plasma. Now, a standard pistol.. well, you get the shooting experience if you manage to hit it, otherwise, it's like throwing pebbles at a sectopod.

 

Chryssalids: The chryssalids have an innate immunity to high explosives, and only take half the damage. In a superhuman campaign, I was shooting at Chryssalids with a heavy cannon, and they wouldn't go down even until I'd expended almost the entire HE clip. But when I switched back to armour piercing shells, they started dropping at least twice as fast.

 

 

Cyberdiscs: Single shots can sometimes disable a cyberdisc without detonating it. I've been able to safely disable cyberdiscs many times now with single shots from laser and plasma weapons, so there must be something to it. But this does not necessarily guarantee that it won't explode. If you want to make sure it explodes, an autoshot will do it every time, even if only one shot connected.

 

Sectopods: If you're playing on Superhuman, the armour is too high for a laser pistol to punch through easily, even with the double damage bonus lasers get against sectopods. I spent many turns unleashing the laser pistol on autofire against a sectopod, and when I finally probed it, I'd only dealt about 10 damage. On the other hand, if you manage to shoot it in its underside it should fall easily -- though I've only been able to manage in a terror ship.

 

Also note, that sectopods, and pretty much every other terror unit, aren't resistant to psionic control. Unless you were using the 20-40 psi. skill soldiers as a point of reference, no alien is immune to psi attacks, not even the zombies (Yes, yes, I realise how wrong this sounds ).

 

---

 

One thing I'd like to add for tactics against the aliens in general: Probe them. The mind probe, while very expensive to implement, is a highly valuable intelligence gathering tool. It's also a useful device for your soldiers that remain in the Skyranger to use to while away their time units, which would normally go unspent.

 

It's a good tool for studying your enemy and see what general weaknesses and strengths the alien has, in addition to its rank. But more importantly, you can see the remaining TUs the probed alien has left. This can give you a good idea about whether or not the alien can retaliate with reaction fire if it is approached or fired at while you're within its field of vision.

 

While the probe gets pushed aside by the psi-amp later, it does have the advantage of being able to work 100% of the time with or without psi-skill.

 

Know yourself and know your enemy...

 

- NKF

[BladeFireLight]

The Leader never moving bug does make taking them out to easy...

 

SO.. I'm working on a "fixing" all the original maps to make the leaders move as mutch as the soldiers... this ought to make the game a little harder

 

-Blad FireLight

[NKF]

Here's a thought:

 

The leader not moving bug may actually be an excuse for the leader class aliens to have full TUs so that they can make full use of their psionics, given they have the ability. If they moved about, the psionic attacks might not be as frequent.

 

Though, this doesn't help the aliens that aren't endowed with psionic abilites much, if at all.

 

- NKF

[Jman4117]

Could put the leader by the door so that it can get reaction shots on anyone coming in. If you made it were he couldn't move the leader could use psi or have full TU's for reactions.

 

Edit: Well actually you could do it with practically every alien in the ship. Have an alien lurking around every corner to ambush you. Half of them in defensive positions may be a good thing.

[Rexxx]

Could put the leader by the door so that it can get reaction shots on anyone coming in. If you made it were he couldn't move the leader could use psi or have full TU's for reactions.

 

Edit: Well actually you could do it with practically every alien in the ship. Have an alien lurking around every corner to ambush you. Half of them in defensive positions may be a good thing.

I tried this in maps I'm working on.

I encountered two problems: When I let aliens spawn on unconnected nodes in very promising positions (in a corner, at the end of a hallway) quite often their facing is just wrong making them an easy kill. They are examining the walls when they get killed. I still haven't figured out how facing can be "controlled". From my tests I would say the game doesn't care about facing, it's just randomly determined when placing the aliens.

 

Assuming that facing doesn't not change after an alien get to a node I tried a different approach. (Still don't know if this assumption is correct.) Placing a node in a corner and another one in direction of the next door. Theoretically the alien should move to the latter looking to the door, making up a nice ambush. Well, it worked better than the other attempt but is far from being perfect and let to another question. Does anyone know how many TUs the aliens use for their movement? So far I found no pattern. Sometimes they use up all of their TUs to get to nodes, sometimes they don't.

 

For testing purposes I set all nodes in the original maps to soldiers. That makes it very hard to locate a leader or a navigator, almost impossible without mind probes. From time to time the first alien I meet is the leader but normally it takes much more time to find him. It may not be very realistic having the leader wandering through the ship when it is attacked but I like it more this way.

What I also tried is letting the aliens use grav lifts only upwards. From first tests I would say waiting in a grav lift and shooting the stupid guys above won't work anymore (or at least only in rare cases).

 

BTW, is someone interested in testing the new ships (3 large scouts, 2 harvesters)? If so, please send a mail or a pm. I'm very interested in other opinions and tired of testing the same maps again and again...

[Rosstoid]

I found the best way to deal with mutons is with psi. If you use psi attacks to get them to drop grenades and their gun, they become harmless. Mind controlling a celetid is a good idea. Once I did that and god the celetid to poison mutons. It killed 3 mutons with one poisoning each.

[Zeno]

Demi-Godly, mutons don't have "good" reactions. They are almost, but not quite, as good as sectoids. Which means they are a lot faster than snakemen and non-leader floaters. The reason mutons seem to have slower reactions is because you (usually) hit them when your troops have more experience. For the same reason, sectoids seem fast because you hit them with rookie troops. All a matter of perspective. Implied but not stated, mutons are also much slower than ethereals (which show up about the same time, in my experience). As you've said, you use an elite team of 8 soldiers--by the time you see mutons, your soldiers are much, much faster than the fastest sectoid, I imagine. I was targetting this post for a minimum technology, minimum soldier stats tactic.

 

Blaster bombs require few tactics.

 

NKF, Chrysallids are resistant to high explosives. However, I've found that a high explosive demolition charge from a recently-converted zombie always wipes out the zombie. As I stated, it usually (not always) wipes out the nearby (original) chryssalid, leaving only one (newborn) chryssalid remaining. Inelegant, but effective, from my experience. I did not mention AP rounds--thank you for that. Autocannon and heavy cannon AP work (much) better than HE ammo from these weapons. I still find high explosives and rockets to be effective, on Superhuman difficulty, despite the chryssalid's resistance. I think this is a case of weapon power--although they may be resistant to high explosives, demolitions at close range pack enough power to overcome it. High explosive rounds, with less than half the power of demolitions, cannot overcome the chryssalid's resistance.

 

Also, NKF I was not aware that sectopods and cyberdiscs could be successfully overcome by psi attacks. Interesting! I suppose I should develop higher psi skill. I stand corrected--sectopods and cyberdiscs are not immune, but they are much more resistant to psi attacks than ethereals. Celatids have approximately the same resistance as ethereals, and silacoids are, approximately, halfway between ethereals and sectopods/cyberdiscs in resistance.

 

BladeFireLight/NKF/Jman, I have seen leaders and commanders moving about. They are usually stagnant, but not always. Perhaps they only move after being spotted? Although, yes, most often they remain in one spot. They seem to consistently perform the 360-degree spin, though (if they get the chance). This is probably something you must correct in the route map files, which I have no experience with. Any chance of the experienced modders and hexers starting a topic, keeping accumulated knowledge in one spot?

 

Rexxx, your map-modding experience would be very useful for strategies against specific UFOs. As for coming up with better alien positioning AI, that would be great. Is it possible (or rather, is it wise?) to let the aliens have automatic line-of-sight to every XCOM soldier on their first turn? Once they've "seen" a soldier, the aliens tend to be much smarter. You could also, potentially, allow aliens to automatically "see" any soldier inside a UFO, on every turn (as the aliens inside tend to be the stagnant ones). This would, theoretically, make them face the correct direction more often. Even better, imagine slowly creeping down the hall of a UFO. You approach the door at the end, but pause momentarily... Suddenly, a burst of heavy plasma fire rakes through--no, not the door! In your last terrified moments, you see the grinning sectoid peering through the crevice, where the UFO's wall once was...

 

 

 

Anyway, thanks for the additions and corrections! More?

 

--Zeno

[Fox]

Any chance of the experienced modders and hexers starting a topic, keeping accumulated knowledge in one spot?

Check this forum out:

X-COM Modders

[Zeno]

Hmmm. That was easy. Step 1: Open eyes. Step 2: Read other forum titles.

 

--Thanks for the link!

[Hobbes]

Demi-Godly, mutons don't have "good" reactions.  They are almost, but not quite, as good as sectoids.  Which means they are a lot faster than snakemen and non-leader floaters.  The reason mutons seem to have slower reactions is because you (usually) hit them when your troops have more experience.  For the same reason, sectoids seem fast because you hit them with rookie troops.

Nothing like some alien stats to check on those...

 

Sectoids are the second best race considering reactions (74 points), slightly above Mutons (70). They have one of the lowest Firing Accuracy of the races (61) and move almost as much as Mutons (63 vs. 65 TUs).

While it is true that experience tends to level the fight between soldiers and Sectoids the use of Heavy Plasmas plus the high reactions can still make them very deadly, specially in a close fight where it is more likely that they won't miss. At the beginning of the game practically the only weakness of Sectoids are their low health and no armor. And inside UFOs they are always very deadly....I've been using the XComUtil's help from captured aliens feature and you need to capture a lot of aliens if you want your research to progress. I've had missions where a couple of Sectoids dropped five of my soldiers on the same turn as they raced towards them armed with stun rods.

[Stewart]

Info about the various species can be found here, but you have to have an account with XcomUFO to access it, I think.

[Rexxx]

Zeno:

Well, my map modding experience is pretty limited, they are still so many problems unsolved. I merely use Daishiva's wonderful program and get a lot of wisdom from BladeFireLight's explanations. But you're right, checking the route maps gives you any information about UFOs (there is one specific tile on the battle ship map, if you can control it you will win without any more losses, no matter how many aliens are still in the ship).

However, in the end all this knowledge kills the fun, there are no more (bad) surprises. UFO was on the hard disc of every pc I ever had since its first release here in Germany waaaay back in the last century. Over the years I played every ship map I could get my hands on, XCOMUTIL's randomized ships included. Now, with Daishiva's program comes new life to this oldie (at least for me), easily customized maps (far from being perfect but NEW and UNKNOWN), great.

 

You're right about aliens getting smarter after they spotted a x-com soldier. Check the TFTD forum and search for "stupidity bug". You will find a very interesting post from BladeFireLight (WARNING: it comes with a huge spoiler for UFO, about the AI and its capabilities or the lack of them). IMHO this fact reduces drastically the possibility of reproducing the picture you described. Quite often your soldiers will meet aliens face to face, but no alien reaction fire although they got full TU's and not so bad reaction values. I wish someone would figure out how this bug could be killed....

 

Regarding the original topic: My favorite aliens are the mutons. Kill some of them and the rest will panic. Making them easy prey for your soldiers. In late game when you get better tanks even mutons battle ships are a piece of cake without risking any of your soldiers. One last point (only my personal opinion): use psi abilities only against Ethereals, psi makes your squads almost unvincible. No more losses, no more fun....

 

R.

[Hobbes]

(there is one specific tile on the battle ship map, if you can control it you will win without any more losses, no matter how many aliens are still in the ship).

I think I know where it might be, my knowledge coming from experience... that tile wouldn't have an orange tone, would it?

[NKF]

Orange? Wait, you mean it's in the disco room?

 

Goodness, and I thought it was just a funny looking insight into what the aliens do to while away their time on those long flights! (That and the copious amounts of 'entertainment' pods on that same deck)

 

- NKF

[Zeno]

Hobbes and Stewart, yes I have the alien stats. I tried to avoid specifics, since they change by a percentage based on the game's difficulty. In addition, different UFO versions have slightly different base alien stats. But, as far as I know, the stats maintain the same "relative" status--i.e., Mutons and Sectoids are nearly equal in reactions regardless of difficulty or version, etc.

 

Everyone, I modify all of my games through XCOMUTIL and my own mods (plus a download or two, if they're really interesting). Other posts in this forum seemed to have an anti-modding mentality, considering it cheating, thus I have not gone into my own modifications here. In brief, I significantly increase the difficulty, and I make almost every item have some "saving" characteristic--I despise useless stuff (else why have it in the game?). I never reload. Research takes months, not days, even with maximum scientists. I rarely win a game anymore--my goal is simply to survive. My modification for all aliens to have Psi skill, on Superhuman, prompted me to actually join this forum and post my tactics and findings--which I thought would apply as generic, non-mod anti-ethereal tactics.

 

Rexxx, I couldn't find the stupidity bug post as the forum's search function was disabled. I'll try again later. If the aliens *do* get smarter after spotting a soldier, then using XCOMUTIL's VIS command in reverse should let the aliens spot all XCOM soldiers. Personally, I don't mind a stupid alien. There's plenty of times aliens sneak up on me, and my soldier gets shot in the back because she's facing the wrong way. I've miscounted time units, and ended turns facing the corner of a wall. Seems to me, aliens should have similar bad luck on occasion. If I catch the alien leader taking a piss in the corner of his UFO, I shoot the bastard and feel no guilt. But, of course, that's because I don't win missions without taking a loss or 13. And when the alien leader sometimes survives an autoshot autocannon HE burst, turns, and reaction-shoots my soldier...nope, no guilt here when my assassination attempts actually work.

 

I've never experienced that battleship instant-win event (never even heard of it before now). I have *got* to start ordering my soldiers to take mid-mission R&R in Alien discotheques!

[NKF]

I think this is the thread you're looking for. Check Bladefirelight's message at the bottom of the page:

 

https://www.x-com.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=909

 

And re: modding -- nothing against it personally. I do it myself every so often just for a brief bit of fun, or to break the monotony. But if I can't master what the game offers me, well, I suppose it wouldn't feel right. Well, actually, a recent experience with a superhuman floater base, a single pistol and handful of grenades has really left an impression on me.

 

- NKF

[Rexxx]

Zeno:

Well, it's NOT an instant-win event. First you have to reach that tile without being killed by aliens placed in the terrain maps. With more or less experienced soldiers I need up to 5 turns, depending on the risks I take.

 

Regarding stupid aliens. When I play I don't mind either. Their stupidity is the best protection my soldiers can get from my stupidity especially when I get impatient. However, I find it very annoying setting up a map with nice ambushes and the aliens don't use these opportunities and all the effort is wasted.

R.

[Zeno]

Thanks, NKF. And yes, I forgot to mention that I'd beaten the game in the past. But only 2 times. First on Beginner when I thought I was playing Superhuman (due to the bug), and then on the *real* Superhuman when I got the CE version.

 

I quit playing because it was too...well, I don't want to say easy, but it was. Sure, I lost soldiers in the first 2 months. I even got negative scores in the first two months, on a few occasions. But a tech slam to Power Armour always ensured victory. Few casualties, and starting weapons are powerful enough to kill most anything. From then on, your troops get better, you get more powerful weapons, more powerful aircraft, psi...it's a landslide victory.

 

In the DOS version, I played with hex codes only a little. The easy stuff. Reduced the power of all the weapons, set money to 0, that sort of thing. No executable changes. Still, it got boring. I found that equipping soldiers before each battle was so irritating, and took as long as the battle, that it was the final reason to quit UFO. I never got into TFTD because it was the same game with a sub-standard concept (pun entirely intended).

 

When I got CE a few years later, I found Superhuman to be equivalent to Beginner in difficulty. It took some practice to get into the game again, but after a few battles it was same-old. More UFOs in the sky increased my score dramatically, though I would lose terror sites in the first month. Research for power armour takes the same amount of time. I preferred Superhuman because the aliens would build bases (rather than me "allowing" a base on Beginner). Other than that, it's no real difference.

 

My hexing became more creative, but still failed to keep me hooked. I played with the alien stats more than the weapons, but it became an exercise in futility. I could make the aliens ultra-powerful, ensuring my loss even with power armour. I could weaken my starting position, delaying my inevitable victory. Eventually, it was too repetitious. I could never balance the game to make it both fun and challenging.

 

So I quit playing. Now I've found XCOMUTIL. And everything is different. Sure, there are problems with the tool. And it took me hours (days?) to reconfigure the CFG file to fit my playing style. And I still had to do tonnes of hex editing for my personal changes. But basically, I have a brand new game that is fun, highly customizeable, and extremely challenging. I keep playing 6-12 month games and quitting, just because I get some new idea I must try!

 

Wow, talk about bad form. I start a new UFO topic, then *I* go off topic in it and ramble.

 

In short, this was a good game and a unique game. Now, it's even better.

 

To get back on topic: My posts here are ALL (and will remain) about the original game mechanics. The alien, ship, and weapon stats I used are from the CE version (the only version I have that works).

 

My modding/hexing aside, I'm still looking for useful anti-alien techniques. Particularly using minimal technology, but any technology or advice is fine. Creative suggestions and maneuver tactics are preferred over heavy firepower advice.

 

If you can take down a Sectopod with a wounded rookie, a pistol, and 2 grenades, I want to hear about it! If you know how to trick it into moving out of your way, allowing you to bypass it altogether, I want to hear about it! If you've thought of a way to make a mind controlled soldier work to your advantage, I want....

 

You get the idea.

 

NKF and Stewart--The Stupidity Bug information (and related information in that thread) was very helpful! Actually, stupidity wasn't that important as I'd observed it in-game. But the "height" and "difficulty" information was potentially useful, if it turns out to be accurate. I assume when a soldier kneels, her "height" attribute changes? What is the actual "to hit" formula, incorporating weapon accuracy, firing accuracy, target height, and range to target?

 

Rexxx--just saw your post. Yes, I can see how creating nice "ambush" spots for the aliens to use, and they don't use them, could be irritating. When you create a map, you're thinking from the aliens' perspective. "If I was Alien Commander, where would I position my troops against XCOM?"

 

After reading about alien intelligence, my answer is, "Half will go in spread-out groups of 2-5 on a patrol route that leads directly to the XCOM transport, one quarter will remain concealed in vegetation or area buildings with patrol routes from stairs to windows, and one quarter will remain in designated UFO locations with patrol routes that end up facing a single-point-of-entry."

 

But I make it sound easy, because I've never done it. Good luck! When you make it work, I'll play your maps!!

[NKF]

Ah, the firing accuracy formula, oh the many hours I wasted trying to figure how it was calculated. Anyway the raw accuracy percentage is calculated as follows:

Firing accuracy * health% * gun's firing accuracy% (based on firing mode) * kneeling modifier% * handedness modifier%

 

They're all in percentages (though you can leave the soldier's firing accuracy as it is rather than use it as a percentage).

 

The first bit, Firing accuacy * health% determines your current firing accuracy. For example, with 80 accuracy and 100% health, accuracy is 80. But at 50% health, current accuracy is 40, etc. This is also how you determine current throwing accuracy, but that's a different matter entirely.

 

The kneeling modifier's 1.15 when kneeling, 1.0 when standing. Whether or not you're flying is irrelevant.

 

The handedness modifier is 0.76 when you try to fire a two-handed weapon while carrying something else in the other hand. Else, it's 1.0 for one-handed weapons and when properly using two-handed weapons.

 

Multiply the lot and the answer will be your raw accuracy score, which I'm sure determines the amount of drift a bullet has when its travelling from your gun to its target.

 

For example, a soldier with 84 accuracy, with 60/64 health, firing a snapshot from a pistol (60%) while kneeling:

 

84 * 60/64 * 0.6 * 1.15 = 54.3

 

So that's roughly a 54% accurate shot.

 

The formula's true, but the rest of what I have to say in this post is just a wild guess.

 

When fired, the bullet will have three velocities. x, y (for lateral movement) and z (for height), which are first determined with a few trignometry functions and then update the position of the bullet every game frame. Your firing accuracy determines how much drift the bullet will have.

 

i.e.

 

100% > = no drift in bullet trajectory.

 

So the further away the target, the worse the bullet will drift. The height of a unit just makes it a larger or smaller target to hit.

 

But why does a bullet sometimes miss even at 100% accuracy? Well, I guess it's because of the 'optimisations' that the computer does to speed up its number crunching. Such as the rounding down of integer values, which can introduce some unwanted drift in the bullet velocities.

 

Note that this happens a lot with the Blaster bombs, hence why they sometimes clip a wall when they shouldn't. I watched one moving in slow-motion at one time, and it often went off at a slightly wild trajectory and miss the next waypoint by one tile, but it would then miraculously appear at its proper position (at the waypoint) and then fly off to the next. I guess the blaster bombs can only travel along a limited number of tiles before it disappears in a puff of logic and reappears at its next waypoint.

 

- NKF

 

P.S: I realise this too is a bit off-topic, but hey, you did ask.

P. P. S: I think this is the third time I've mentioned the accuracy formula in this forum. I really must find myself a new hobby!

[Hobbes]

Orange? Wait, you mean it's in the disco room?

 

Goodness, and I thought it was just a funny looking insight into what the aliens do to while away their time on those long flights! (That and the copious amounts of 'entertainment' pods on that same deck)

For some strange reason my soldiers start hearing the tone of YMCA and other Village People songs everytime they get to the lift.......

[Zeno]

NKF, yes I did ask, and thank you for that. The many hours you wasted trying to figure how it was calculated were time well-spent!

 

This is to satisfy my own curiousity. And yes, it is off topic. I've opened another topic here.