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Randalor posted:I was going to make a joke about "stupid sexy greys" before I remembered that article about the mod mentioned it was post-apoc sexy pirates against sexy post-apoc pirates. So, yeah, I can easily believe it's 99% TnA. I'm fairly sure the greys are also sexy in that mod.
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Jan 3, 2023 20:31
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kaosdrachen posted:I'm fairly sure the greys are also sexy in that mod. Only some of the greys are sexy in that mod.
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Jan 3, 2023 20:37
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kaosdrachen posted:I'm fairly sure the greys are also sexy in that mod. Can in fact confirm this. Randalor posted:I was going to make a joke about "stupid sexy greys" before I remembered that article about the mod mentioned it was post-apoc sexy pirates against sexy post-apoc pirates. So, yeah, I can easily believe it's 99% TnA. The TnA in the actual game stuff and not the bootypedia screens does reduce as the game goes on and it becomes possible to have good armors but yeah it would be very difficult to do the beginning stuff and show off the mechanics, the part about the mod that's actually pretty fun. Unfortunately, you'd lose some interesting armor possibilities, like the Turanian Hyena rider and such.
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Jan 3, 2023 20:39
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glwgameplayer posted:I could probably make use of it with the jumpsuit or night ops suit (since that uses the "suit" version of martial arts, and both of them do have damage resistance) But I'm a bit leery about giving up my extremely cool 20+ armor for a little extra agility and punching power. (Granted the armor is only that thick on the front) Another thing that makes melee more viable is the melee firing penalty. If there's an enemy unit standing next to you, you are overwhelmingly likely to miss any shots you make*. The AI cannot really handle this, so if you find yourself staring at an enemy with no way to hide or reliably take him out, getting all in his face might in fact be the best choice. *Depends on the weapon in question, the stats of the shooter and X-Com deciding to be X-Com.
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Jan 3, 2023 22:01
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Capilarean posted:Another thing that makes melee more viable is the melee firing penalty. If there's an enemy unit standing next to you, you are overwhelmingly likely to miss any shots you make*. The AI cannot really handle this, so if you find yourself staring at an enemy with no way to hide or reliably take him out, getting all in his face might in fact be the best choice. The other thing about melee is that melee often trains Reactions, which are what are used (primarily) for dodging in melee, which is the same skill/check used to penalize enemy shooting at point blank when fighting hand to hand. And of course, a high Reactions score prevents a character from getting reaction-fired before they dive in to start punching/stabbing/katanaing (it's a verb damnit)
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Jan 3, 2023 22:13
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Capilarean posted:Another thing that makes melee more viable is the melee firing penalty. If there's an enemy unit standing next to you, you are overwhelmingly likely to miss any shots you make*. The AI cannot really handle this, so if you find yourself staring at an enemy with no way to hide or reliably take him out, getting all in his face might in fact be the best choice. It's funny you guys mention this because, in the last recording (Which is to say, File 13. December 1st to January 1st.) I attempted to rely on the melee firing penalty and the CQC struggle during a high-stakes mission. In true  fashion the Random Number God was unpredictableBig Spoilers for the next File. I tried to prevent a sectoid from killing one of my guys by shoving them against a wall and relying on the CQC struggle. One shot was deflected into the ceiling. Great! One shot was deflected into the floor. Great! One shot was not deflected and instantly splattered one of my agents. gently caress!
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Jan 4, 2023 00:22
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glwgameplayer posted:It's funny you guys mention this because, in the last recording (Which is to say, File 13. December 1st to January 1st.) I attempted to rely on the melee firing penalty and the CQC struggle during a high-stakes mission. Man, i've had that experience myself a LOT in both files and piratez, the CQC mechanism never quite gets all the shots out of the way.
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Jan 4, 2023 01:10
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Panzeh posted:Man, i've had that experience myself a LOT in both files and piratez, the CQC mechanism never quite gets all the shots out of the way. Some of that is often stamina; each shot costs stamina to try to dodge. I once had a guy miss because of the CQC dodge, turn around, and blow his buddy's head off behind him, though. That alone made the entire system worth it.
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Jan 4, 2023 02:19
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I don't know if you'll ever make it far enough through the signup list at this rate for me to get in, but sign me up anyway as whatever you're low on by that point.
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Jan 4, 2023 19:35
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Gilgamesh255 posted:"Hey, G255 (god that sounds so weird saying out loud), why're you using that old bolt action sniper rifle, when we've got better stuff in stock?" "Now doesn't that just torque your jaws? I love that. You know like in the movies just as the good guy is about to kill the bad guy, he cocks his gun. Now why didn't he have it cocked? Because that sound is scary. It's cool, isn't it?"
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Jan 4, 2023 21:40
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Samovar posted:"Now doesn't that just torque your jaws? I love that. You know like in the movies just as the good guy is about to kill the bad guy, he cocks his gun. Now why didn't he have it cocked? Because that sound is scary. It's cool, isn't it?" "The act of cocking a gun is issuing a threat and a promise. Making sure everyone that hears that noise knows that the gun you have isn't a prop, it's a weapon. Even if you find someone who can ignore the threat of you having a gun, hearing that sound makes the threat real." Remalle posted:I don't know if you'll ever make it far enough through the signup list at this rate for me to get in, but sign me up anyway as whatever you're low on by that point. We'll probably get to you eventually. The rate of death is going pretty slowly but no amount of skill is going to keep everyone alive glwgameplayer fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jan 5, 2023 |
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Jan 5, 2023 00:38
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Every Decade, someone goes "Norman Spinrad was full of poo poo," and every decade, it turns out that no, Norman Spinrad was right. Jesus Christ< X-Piratez.
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Jan 5, 2023 02:55
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File 13: First Contact *Begin Recording* Sunny’s Log: First of December to First of January Year 2 A lot of very interesting things happened this month. It was probably one of the quietest months we’ve ever had but it also had a very, very big battle we were a part of. But I’m getting ahead of myself… At the very start of the month, we said goodbye to our old helicopters and were equipped with Dragonflies instead. Each one of these babies can hold up to 8 agents, and with the interior to prevent ambush we’ll be safer than in the helicopters. We also got started on the construction of a workshop so we can get started on engineering work, but it won’t be done until next month sadly.  The first mission of the month was against the church of Dagon but it was nothing too interesting. By this point, Rat Hill’s agents were moving like a well-oiled machine, and with 8 agents we had plenty of firepower.  We made use of a smoke grenade to keep our agents safe on our initial approach and since the enemy cultists were scattered around the area it was an easy fight. I’d also like to call out Drake Sherrin specifically for improving so much. Our wannabe sniper is starting to own up to the title We’re also ready to institute a… rat breeding program. Should we wish to do so.  (I’ll discuss this at the end of the session) Moving on, we have another fresh batch of recruits in training at Weasel Bunker. We welcome Arthur Rooster Glass, Brookly Snugglecakes B, Agent Verbal, George Gief, Zore, Tallow, and a dog we’ve named Randalor II in honor of the fallen Randalor. They are all in basic training, but will hopefully make fine field agents someday  (I didn’t realize there was a character limit for agents. It’s a pretty big one but, not infinite sadly) Our next mission was incidentally against some giant rats, and we cleared them all without injury. As a side note, I’d like to discuss how the Dragonfly is large enough that we can use the landing gear and ramp for cover. This will probably be useful going forward  We’ve also started research into an extremely important topic. What are the aliens exactly? What can they do? What physiological differences exist between us and them? We haven’t met one in combat yet I believe, but we used the Deep One corpse that the council salvagers recovered for our initial examination. The “alien combat team” we battles would have been just as fitting a start  The Deep One seemed oddly… normal. But the device in it’s skull seems strange, as does the fact that it hasn’t evolved or changed over time. But this is a good stepping stone for us, and we’re ready to start finding out more about the alien’s biology. Another topic of conversation is the zombies   After examining the zombies we discovered that there was a basis for their transformation, a parasite that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. From that, and the fact that some zombies were found at the same sites where farmers were abducted or controlled we can assume that the aliens are using these farmers as carriers for the parasite Incidentally, we had another mission against the zombies which was normal enough, but something of note is that The Lone Badger was recorded as being the most accurate thrower of the group, and as such he was carrying some throwing stars with him as a backup weapon.  (I know it looks like he’s using the gun. He’s not) They proved surprisingly deadly in his hands. There were no injuries recorded in this mission so I’ll skip the rest. We’ve started developing a way to sneak into research and medical facilities. I know we haven’t actually done much undercover work but, it might be very important someday that we be capable of doing so, especially since some of the cults are working with alien technology already  Also, we can get position markers? They seem like repurposed hunting cameras or something, equipped with a light, a stand, and a camera. We may be able to make use of these. Also, at this point every single scientist was working on the Alien Biology problem, all 25 of them regardless of which base they were stationed in.  (Never used these. I might want to experiment with them) Ah the good old Mongorns… we abandoned this mission after we figured out how thoroughly surrounded we were. Despite a vicious opening volley of fire we couldn’t kill all the mongorns in range, so we piled back in the ship and flew away  (I took a few attempts at this mission but there were too many of them around the starting area) In contrast to this mission there was one where we had to take down one Asmodean Cobra. Just one. After this… the Big One. The mission that finally gave us a way to view our true enemy. It all started with a mysterious message from the same council man as before. He asked the commander to gather one of his squads in a room before he began his briefing. As such I was there. Once again all we could see was his silhouette and hear his deep but smooth voice “We are here to cash in that favor, commander.” He began “We are the ones who granted you that boon, a disciple of Dagon, a few months ago. From there your organization has flourished, and we have had no need to step in and make any demands or requests. But I’m afraid this opportunity is so great that we must insist you take it.” The screen changed from the council member to a different video where an otherwise pristine-looking white disk was flat against the earth, spewing smoke from a large crack in its side  “The location of this site has been sent to you commander. We insist that you take this opportunity and strike while the opportunity is still present. Good luck commander, we will be watching”  After that there was no time to waste. Dragonfly 1 was loaded up and en route within minutes, and our team was shipped out to the first mission against our enemy. Our real enemy. The combat team was Me, Nick Danger, Drakenel, Drake Sherrin, Max Caliber, Burnt Toast, Koorisch, and The Lone Badger   Sunny:... Koorisch: Worried Sunny? Sunny: Yeah of course I’m worried! We’re up against an enemy we’ve never seen and I don’t know what we’re going to do. And I’m the Squad Leader so it’s up to me. The Lone Badger: You're a good leader Sunny. I trust you Nick Danger: I see one already! It’s this squat little grey thing, but it keeps flickering purple. It’s got some kinda rifle…  Sunny: Don’t waste any time shoot it!  Nick Danger: I think the purple thing is some kinda shield. It absorbed my first 2 shots. Max Caliber: Alright! Let’s pile out and surround them Sunny: Wait! I tried to call on my “visions” again. Tried to figure out the safest way to do this mission. If we all went outside and used a conventional defensive position some of us would die  So instead… Sunny: Everyone get to one side of the UFO! Use their own ship as cover, unless you’d rather use our landing gear instead Koorisch: I’ll stay here on overwatch. Good luck guys!  I heard the sound of the alien gun firing followed by a shot from Koorisch. The alien wasn’t dead but it was wounded. The soldiers on the other side were fighting an alien too but we couldn’t help them right now  Max Caliber: Nice reaction time Sunny! And good call on the hiding spot. Sunny: We can’t stay here though. We have to breach the UFO at some point… Max Caliber: Let me check…  Max Caliber: Okay! One alien dead inside, one alien inside looking away from us. It looks confused. Badger? The Lone Badger: Easy!  (In case you’re wondering, yes I tried to use a throwing star)  (In my defense, I didn’t want to use the Mini gun in case I blew up a bunch of alien artifacts. Or didn’t kill the sectoid and Badger was stuck in that position) Max Caliber: It just killed Badger! His loving Corpse is on fire! Burnt Toast and I both moved up, and it took an absurd amount of fire to kill the alien, a rifle bullet and two pistol shots. I felt grimly determined to try and keep everyone else safe Sunny: I’ll be the one to breach the UFO. Max, back me up!  I foolishly charged in, finding nothing at first until I opened the door to the back half of the UFO, and there it was. The last alien standing. I heard Max moving to breach the other door while I came face to face with the enemy. I fired once with my pistol, but it was blocked by the energy shield. The alien tried to fire back but I wrestled with it, managing to shove the barrel of the gun to the side instead of at me.  Max came charging at the Alien’s back and tried to knock it out with a shield bash, but it dodged. I grimly realized that our only hope of survival was to wrestle it at close range.  I got ready to help Max fight it when the automatic door in front of me slammed shut  All I heard was wrestling and plasma shots, but when I wrestled the door open again Max was dead, and the alien was standing over his body. I didn’t bother with my taser this time. I pummeled that drat alien until it stopped moving. We had an alien captive, and a captured alien ship. But the cost was high, 2 of our soldiers and 3 of our allies  The Sectoid (our title for this kind of alien) died a few hours after we got it home. We didn’t have a proper containment unit for them or any knowledge of their medicine and biology so it was impossible to save it. I should have just told Max to shoot the drat thing…  Sorry, I’ll get back to it. After this Weasel Bunker had a mission against EXALT. I wish I had more to say about it but, the team engaged the enemy at maximum range and the only one injured was Jane Kane. Everyone else managed to avoid taking a single injury. Although… for some reason Tallow, Reasonable Achmed, and bios scored more direct hits than G255 and Ivan, despite them being snipers and the battle taking place at long range.  Rat hill had a mission against a single Spike Boar but Nick Danger killed it all on his own with his LMG. And then another mission against a single megascorpion, which Burnt Toast killed with their rifle. We did have a more interesting mission though, a mission against a bunch of Storm users. You might remember Storm as being a drug that Red Dawn sells to people as “bio enhancements.” Well, an American gang got their hands on a bunch and we had to hunt them down. It’s worth noting that we took the Storm mission because Weasel Bunker was headed to take down another EXALT base.  Burnt Toast: That guy is monstrously jacked holy poo poo! Nick Danger: There’s no way that’s natural Arcovic: I see people on the top floor!  Sunny: Try and take at least one back alive! Nick Danger: This is good cover right?  Despite their horrific bulging muscles, the Storm users were only armed with the kinds of weapons that a civilian could get their hands on. Glock bullets were no match for our Armored Vests. I burst around the corner intending to stun the front door’s guard… but I missed  Arcovic: Good thing I was here huh? Sunny: Thank you…  I know this looks absurd but I pressed my armored vest up against the window, and despite multiple shots landing none of them did anything worse than bruise me.  Honestly once Gaspode joined the fray the enemy had no chance. Every room we breached was immediately cleared with my handgun and Gaspode’s teeth. Once you got past how muscle-bound they were, they weren’t actually that dangerous  While this mission was going on there was another one, this time for Weasel Bunker. And it went swimmingly  Ivan continues to adapt to using the grenade launcher  And somehow managed to get this EXALT guy to shoot his own friend in the back  EXALT stormed out of the front door of the base, directly into the waiting bullets of Hound Smith, G255, and bios. Once again the commanding officer is somehow the only one to get injured  And Randalor II gets his first taste of blood  Overall a good mission. And finally, just before the month ended we finished our research into the basics of Alien Biology.  We know a little bit about why aliens have such trouble surviving on earth, and there are hints that their genetics have been modified somehow. With this knowledge we can start researching how to create a containment facility that will keep the aliens alive. Once again we have all 25 of our scientists on this project.  At the end of the month, and our first year as X-COM I can look back and safely say that we’ve made a lot of progress. We know the name and nature of 4 different cults, we’ve had an encounter with the aliens themselves, and even killed a small number of them. Our budget is larger than it’s ever been and we might actually be able to build that better laboratory next month and get our production line in order. I’m thinking of compiling a review of what we know about the aliens and the cults so the newer agents have an easier time remembering them and learning about their goals and combat strategies. Especially since they’ve been awfully quiet these last few months. This is Commissar Sunny Signing off *End Recording* (LPer notes) As you might have noticed, we’ve encountered aliens for the first time! Hooray! You also might have noticed that they’re scary as hell! Sectoids are similar to what you expect, the weakest, most basic aliens around but that still means they come packing plasma guns that can slaughter us, basic psionic abilities, and energy shields. The energy shields are new I admit and I’m not actually sure how powerful they are but, it does mean that sectoids despite their physical frailty can still absorb some bullets. As for the basic psionic abilities, our agents were fine, but for some reason, someone did punch Max in the back of the head twice and there weren’t any enemies in the area so I’m under the impression it was a psionic attack that made one of our agents do it. In hindsight, I might have been able to save Max if I had Sunny step out of the way and allowed Burnt Toast to fire at the sectoid with their rifle but I’m not sure if the damage would have rolled high enough, or if Toast would have made the shot. On the next turn, Sunny had to shoot it twice to kill it and the rifle’s damage is the same as the pistol. I guess we’ll never know… Also on the subject of the Rat Farms. Having an infinite supply of rats to deploy in the same way we deploy dogs sounds good, but in reality, it’s a pretty terrible idea. They’re small, they’re weak, unlike dogs they don’t get any armor to make them more durable, and a dog bite has a base damage of 40 cutting while rats have a pitiful base damage modified by their stats. Which usually suck. Although giant rats do have a unique effect where their bite always targets Under Armor (usually the weakest) Also, I’m considering some things… We have the ability to research “operations” for every cult other than EXALT. Once those have been done, the Cults will take the gloves off and we’ll be able to do the most difficult of their missions, and soon after we may have a way to shut them down for good. I guess the real questions boil down to two things 1. Do I do myself a favor and hack in an EXALT Enforcer so we can get all 4 cults researched to the “Operations” stage? and 2. Which Cult are we going to try and take down first? The first vote leaned towards the Church of Dagon, but we can really decide for ourselves at this point. To help with that decision I’ll write up a little report on the different enemy factions so we can discuss tactics and what their statistics are like, plus a reminder about what we’ve discovered about them so far.
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Jan 5, 2023 23:30
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"Awww he's just a little guy." And then the sectoid starts shooting while its shields deflect everything and people in full armor just explode. "HE'S JUST A LITTLE *GUY*!"
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Jan 5, 2023 23:43
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Good to see the doggo survived his first mission. If he died on his first outing, I was going to suggest just calling explosive drone "Randalors" because nothing with that name survived anyways. And I'll say 1. Give it one more month before hacking in an enforcer and 2. Go for Dagon. No real reason for Dagon first, just... because.
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Jan 5, 2023 23:50
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Take out Red Dawn first. The maximum suffering vote.
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Jan 5, 2023 23:54
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Night10194 posted:"Awww he's just a little guy." And then the sectoid starts shooting while its shields deflect everything and people in full armor just explode. "HE'S JUST A LITTLE *GUY*!" The thing is, statistically speaking the Sectoids are little guys. They have 30 HP, which is barely better than a rookie, and their other stats aren't particularly great either. And then their weakest weapon instantly splatters a shielded soldier across the field in one shot (that's what happened to Max in my first attempt at that mission) Randalor posted:Good to see the doggo survived his first mission. If he died on his first outing, I was going to suggest just calling explosive drone "Randalors" because nothing with that name survived anyways. I'll try and let Randalor II live but I can't promise anything. Night10194 posted:Take out Red Dawn first. I really, really hope not. I've seen what the final Red Dawn mission looks like. I can still hear the screams
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Jan 6, 2023 00:01
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"Who was that masked man? He left these radioactive ashes behind..."
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Jan 6, 2023 00:06
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glwgameplayer posted:
He survived A mission, that's enough to show my name isn't cursed!
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Jan 6, 2023 00:06
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glwgameplayer posted:The thing is, statistically speaking the Sectoids are little guys. They have 30 HP, which is barely better than a rookie, and their other stats aren't particularly great either. And then their weakest weapon instantly splatters a shielded soldier across the field in one shot (that's what happened to Max in my first attempt at that mission) Yeah but those shields are utter bastards when they only have to hit you once and you have to hit them three times at this stage.
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Jan 6, 2023 00:50
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Wait a month; Black Lotus Not all cults are equally tough. This one was just about right.
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Jan 6, 2023 00:59
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Night10194 posted:Yeah but those shields are utter bastards when they only have to hit you once and you have to hit them three times at this stage. Shotguns
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Jan 6, 2023 01:01
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Telsa Cola posted:Shotguns I actually do wish I had brought some shotguns on that mission. Would have been great for the breach
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Jan 6, 2023 02:06
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It's kinda funny but I believe the Zombie Parasite is actually a thing from an anime called Busou Renkin, where it infects a person by launching itself into their brains. Shotguns are absolutely murderous against these early Sectoids, I actually managed to clear out a *very* early UFO with only two people with those sawn-off shotguns you start with, I'm still a bit amazed that I didn't die or savescum that mission. One reason to use Rats would be that they are pretty hard to spot and they have a very good NV rating of 16 squares, that said I never really used them myself because they were just so weak. Those Position Markers are *super* useful because they allow you to have more eyes on the ground and that will help you from getting ambushed.
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Jan 6, 2023 02:56
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Enemy Files: The Cults We’ll be reviewing the cults, specifically their statistics and weapon choices. All of the cults have some unique abilities and quirks which can make them more or less difficult depending on the situation General Trends Generally speaking, the Cults do follow some trends regardless of which enemy you are talking about. Red Dawn and EXALT are more militaristic, and as a result, their soldiers are more likely to be wearing heavy armor and wielding strong military-grade weapons. Black Lotus and the Church of Dagon are more likely to have strange and esoteric abilities, as we’ve already seen with the increased night vision of Dagon morphs, the invisibility of assassins, and the flame glove of the Black Lotus Witch. EXALT soldiers are well-rounded with high bravery, firing accuracy, and good armor. In exchange, they lack any signature tricks and are pretty pitiful with melee weapons (which they sometimes wield as secondary weapons) Red Dawn soldiers have the highest strength and health, as well as decent accuracy which quickly raises to very good at the higher levels. Church of Dagon soldiers tend to have low armor (the highest we’ve seen from them is 9) and poor accuracy, but the highest psi strength and no “weak points.” Their damage resistance can’t be negated by shooting them in the back or the side. Black Lotus’s soldiers have great melee strength and high TUs, allowing them to get in close and slash you, but their armor is sub-par and they can be aggressive to the point of stupidity. Also of note, EXALT and Red Dawn soldiers have increasing Kinetic resistance as the game goes on, so normal guns will increasingly require multiple shots to put them down. Also, as Red Dawn soldiers have actual military training many of them count as spotters while their upper crust are snipers, and can therefore attack even if they can’t see you (with a penalty) The higher-ranking Black Lotus members resist fire attacks, and have higher melee dodge while The Church of Dagon resists concussive and chemical damage. Now, let’s go down each cult’s list of soldiers, starting with The Church of Dagon  This is the lowest-ranking member of the Church of Dagon, just a normal guy basically. Ironically the Supporter of Dagon is the most accurate shot out of the cult’s basic soldiers. Outside of that, they have nothing really going for them.  I’m not even joking when I say that the stupid hood has made the Disciple an even worse shot than the Supporter, and only added a single point of armor between them. Although I think the reason for this might be that the Disciples tend to wield highly accurate weapons like shotguns and rifles, so the low accuracy is to prevent them from being “too” deadly. Outside of that, they’re pretty basic  The Priest of Dagon is a step up from the Disciple in every way that matters, health, accuracy, bravery, and so on. Their armor score is the same though and they will probably fall after a good shot or two. They also tend to wield better weapons but I can’t really think of a unifying principle behind it.  Chosen of Dagon have 9 armor across their body and resistance to concussive and chemical attacks. Outside of that, it’s just another slight stat increase, although they are more likely to wield actual rifles than the other ranks. We haven’t seen the final Church of Dagon soldier type but if you’re okay with a slight spoiler, you can click here The sorcerer of Dagon has 15 armor all across its body and tends to wield a psionic weapon instead of a gun. The weapon’s base damage isn’t particularly high, but with its strong psychic stats and our lack of resistance, it can be deadly. They also have exceptional night vision Now then, let’s get our second Cultlike Cult out of the way, Black Lotus  The Black Lotus Follower is the same as the other basic cult members, 5 armor across the board and mediocre stats, although its melee accuracy is quite high and their heightened aggression makes them dangerous at close range.  The Black Lotus Footman has 10 armor across the board (except for under armor) and higher-than-average firing accuracy. They’re probably the closest to a “default” soldier that Black Lotus has. This is also the beginning of Black Lotus dabbling with stealth  The Black Lotus Warrior has no armor and tends to be equipped with archaic weapons, but actually has above average stats including a respectable 60 in melee and throwing accuracy. If they come at you with a sword or a throwing knife be very, very careful. But with no armor to speak of it can be easy to just, put them down. Also, their camo is awful in the day, I believe at night their camo is quite good. Technically we haven’t interrogated a Black Lotus Assassin yet but they’re basically the same thing as a Black Lotus Warrior but, more. They have 3 more armor across the board, and 75 melee and throwing accuracy. They also have a unique ability that makes them basically invisible unless you meet them at point-blank range. They’re also nearly impossible to hit in melee because their Dodge chance for melee is equal to their reactions, 70.  The Black Lotus Witch is a special case. They have a universal armor of 12 which is apparently a “psionic energy shield” and high aim stats in exchange for lower HP and reactions, They tend to wield psionic weapons instead of normal guns but can spawn with both. As we saw with Sir Richard of Bork, the flame glove is terrifying. Also due to their mastery of fire, their incendiary damage is halved. Once again we haven’t met their ultimate soldier so spoil at your own risk We have had a Black Lotus Avatar Corpse in cold storage this entire time. They have 15 armor, a recharging energy shield, and two built-in weapons, a flaming grapple attack and a laser beam. But outside of that, their stats are surprisingly normal. Next on the docket, Red Dawn  Outside of an impressive health pool the Red Dawn Ganger is just a decently bulky guy with some basic weapons. The bulk can be worrying though so, don't be surprised if you have to shoot them multiple times  Yawn! Added bulk and slightly better stats as we’ve come to expect from the second rank. That said, with a solid stat line and no gimmicks I’d argue that the Red Dawn Lads are still decently dangerous.  Red Dawn Sailors are an odd case where the enemies get weaker, or even stay the same. The Red Dawn Sailor tends to have worse weapons than other Red Dawn members and their stats are not any more impressive than the rest. But they serve an administrative position and are an important capture target.  The Red Dawn Pioneer’s stats aren’t much higher than the other tiers, but they are still more dangerous due to possessing a better Sniper rank (which decides the penalty on shots made with a spotter) and having a high kinetic resistance. I don't have a picture for the last two ranks, but we have battled them before so I'll go ahead and put them here (The Red Ops soldiers are in full military fatigues. The Red Dawn Coordinator is in a black coat with brown clothes and a wide-brimmed hat. Later once the research has been done I'll place their pictures here.) The Red Ops soldiers are when things get really really dangerous, they have higher armor than Pioneers, stats in the 50-60 range wherever it matters, and tend to be carrying very dangerous weapons with a lot of destructive power and probably capable of firing many bullets in one go. We haven’t interrogated our Red Dawn Coordinator but rest assured, he’s dangerous as hell. 30 armor up front, and 15 from the back, the same 70% kinetic resistance as the Red Ops soldiers, and accuracy stats in the 70s. There are no special tricks here, a coordinator is just an exceptionally dangerous soldier. That’s actually the last soldier type Red Dawn has except for one special exception. Armored loving Cars. 60 armor, resistance to most mundane damage types (except kinetic ironically), and a machine gun that fires 8 bullets in one burst, but is relatively inaccurate. If we get a laser gun or plasma gun we might be able to take them down conventionally. Otherwise, I’ll probably have to stock high explosives and RPGs in our Dragonfly for when the time comes. Finally, EXALT  EXALT Infiltrators are just normal guys as you’ve probably come to expect from the lowest level of a cult. Abnormally high bravery though.  EXALT Goons have high armor for being the second tier of a cult, in fact their armor is basically the same as our Kevlar Vests. This makes them strangely durable despite having pretty low HP. Also, they’re pretty good shots for being the second tier of this cult  EXALT Liquidators have really good armor, the same as our Armored Vests. As you’ve seen with Randalor this can make them extremely hard to kill with mundane weapons. However, their stats are otherwise only a little higher than the Goons. I have seen the next EXALT rank but sadly neglected to take a picture. If you’re curious, we saw them allll the way back in File 9 when we went on that EXALT mission and two of our soldiers were immediately knocked out by gunfire (but not killed) The EXALT Enforcer was the one with the Grenade Launcher. Enforcers are back to using Kevlar Vests for armor and their stats aren’t much better than Liquidators, but they tend to have extremely dangerous weapons including grenade launchers. The final EXALT soldier is one we haven’t seen, EXALT Masters actually have no armor, just 5 across the board. Their stats are the highest out of their EXALT soldiers, but their lack of armor makes them easy to snipe and they tend to be armed with handguns, and even have a small chance of spawning with a joke weapon. Also they can use Armored loving Cars too It’s a bit difficult to do the Monsters since there’s such a wide variety of them but, in short Small, Fast, Lightly Armored: These monsters tend to have high time units and can easily skitter along into your agents to bite, scratch, or otherwise kill your agents but don’t usually possess high HP, good armor, or a ranged attack. This class includes Shadowbats, Chupacabra, Asmodean Cobra, Giant Beetle, Giant Spider, Megascorpion, Giant Rat, Dogs (although we don’t fight those) Medium Sized, Bulky, Strong: These are the larger monsters that have higher HP pools, stronger attacks, and tend to possess some natural armor. Note that they are not necessarily slower than the small monsters. Some of these are the Mongorn, Shambler, Werewolf, Werecat, and Zombies Big Boy, Big HP: These are the huge monsters that are dangerous in part because it’s hard to kill them with your starting equipment. This class includes Bullfrogs, Spike Boars, Giant Spider Queens, and Reapers. Ranged attackers: This is a class that exists specifically for monsters that can use ranged attacks. Those are the Lava Spiders, the Giant Bombadier Beetles, the Bullfrog, the Spikeboar, and the Asmodean Cobra Also, for a note on Zombies and Giant Spiders. Unlike most monsters, these two count as an entirely new line of enemies with different stats and abilities. There exist giant spiders which have exceptionally high armor, an exceptionally strong attack, and other special traits, denoted by the color of their shell. Zombies are a more basic line where each one is in rising power and level of danger. Also of note, when a zombie sees an agent it just heads directly for them without stopping. This makes them stupid and easy to cut down, as well as very, very dangerous if you can’t kill them quickly enough. Remember, we're still voting on what Cult to try and eliminate first. But I think the consensus on the EXALT Enforcer is that we'll hack that in if one doesn't show up by February
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Jan 6, 2023 03:37
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Man, I know we want research stuff and poo poo, but you should've just let my Mr. Clean looking headass chuck a grenade in there. Damage done, while frustrating, would still have two of our agents live.
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Jan 6, 2023 03:54
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George Gief was a little confused as to why X-Com would recruit a former football player as a medic instead of a grenadier, until it was explained to him that his arm sucked and that's why he washed out of the CFL, but a guy who's always helping people up after tough tackles and who can run the 40 in under 5 is a valuable asset to any paramilitary organization Let's fight Dagon, because gently caress fishmen
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Jan 6, 2023 05:00
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I am honourbound to vote for wiping Dagon off the face of the Earth. If I pass up a chance to go dynamite fishing for deep ones and krakens, then what kind of heavy am I?! (Also I'm hoping scientific research will let us know just how the Dagon priests get so buff. Good lord.)
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Jan 6, 2023 10:48
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Go for Dagon. We can handle those spooky folks with some good old firepower and a lot of hurting.
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Jan 6, 2023 10:57
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Phy posted:Let's fight Dagon, because gently caress fishmen
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Jan 6, 2023 10:58
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Getting a UFO in files early is a big boon technology-wise.
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Jan 6, 2023 11:34
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kaosdrachen posted:... Let's not because loving fishmen is probably how we got the Cult of Dagon in the first place. Sure, mermaids LOOK hot and sexy, but that's just until they decide your arm looks close enough to a carp for lunch, open their mouth and reveal their needle-like teeth. Really, if you want to gently caress something from the sea, better just sticking to manatees.
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Jan 6, 2023 14:36
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kill fishmen, gently caress the ocean
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Jan 6, 2023 15:40
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All jokes aside Dagon is absolutely the easiest to beat first in my opinion. You get extra style points if you use tommy guns and dynamite during the missions against them, too. It is easiest to make sure the world is no longer aware of the ocean.
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Jan 6, 2023 17:23
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Night10194 posted:All jokes aside Dagon is absolutely the easiest to beat first in my opinion. You get extra style points if you use tommy guns and dynamite during the missions against them, too. It is easiest to make sure the world is no longer aware of the ocean. Yeah, I think either Dagon or Red Dawn are the easiest HQs to beat. Spoilers on both. Red Dawn is an underground base with a surface level. You can camp the entrance and if you're patient, wait and kill them one by one after you deal with the armored cars and stuff up top. The underground base is a tileset from x-piratez that's sort of supposed to be an old x-com base, and it's used on another random mission in files related to the cyberweb plot line. Dagon is a bit more challenging because it's a fully outdoor mission with a big fort in the middle, and some of the enemy units can defeat even tritanium armor because of their supernatural weapons(deep ones).
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Jan 6, 2023 17:56
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Panzeh posted:Yeah, I think either Dagon or Red Dawn are the easiest HQs to beat. The only HQ that I beat in my practice game was Dagon's. It's difficult because it's probably the biggest firefight you've been in up to this point, against more enemies than you're used to and in a space that favors long range weapons. But as we've already discussed the Dagonites are probably the weakest in terms of actual stats, and if you've been on every kind of Dagon mission before you'll have seen their full bag of tricks already. Plus, Smoke Grenades can shut them down hard since most of them aren't snipers. I find Red Dawn brutally difficult if only because of their Opening Gambit and the map that the battle takes on. In my practice game, I spawned with two trees in between me and the Red Dawn Armored cars. And that meant I had to run my soldiers past the trees in order to throw high explosives at the cars So uh, that was a bit of a handicap. Plus they have a pretty nasty defensive position.
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Jan 6, 2023 18:40
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Panzeh posted:Yeah, I think either Dagon or Red Dawn are the easiest HQs to beat. The first time I tried raiding Red Dawn HQ all four armored cars were immediately outside the dropship with full time units.
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Jan 6, 2023 19:04
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Despite actually contributing to the game, I'm still not sure. For anyone who's done it how are you actually supposed to take on those damned armoured cars with the stuff you have at that point?
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Jan 7, 2023 04:08
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NewMars posted:Despite actually contributing to the game, I'm still not sure. For anyone who's done it how are you actually supposed to take on those damned armoured cars with the stuff you have at that point? The most powerful weapons you have at that point would probably be the Heavy Machine Gun, Black Ops Sniper Rifle, and Black Ops LMG. Maybe one of the advanced shotguns using an AP round. Those are all technically powerful enough to deal damage assuming that you roll high on damage. But the real best weapon to use is just high explosives and dynamite. Completely coat the field in smoke if you have to in order to get in range As mentioned above, in my practice playthrough I was prevented from doing this by two little trees blocking my throwing arc. I guess if you did the other cults first you might have some more options. But I'm not 100% sure that the Dagon Staves or the Flame Glove are gonna help you in this instance. And I don't actually know what all you need to do to start getting your hands on the next tier of weapon. glwgameplayer fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jan 7, 2023 |
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Jan 7, 2023 04:42
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NewMars posted:Despite actually contributing to the game, I'm still not sure. For anyone who's done it how are you actually supposed to take on those damned armoured cars with the stuff you have at that point? It honestly depends on how lucky you get with weapon spawns and what other side line missions you have done. For example I didn't try the Red Dawn hq mission until I'd gotten lucky enough to get some RPGS.
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Jan 7, 2023 07:10
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