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I wonder if scopes might come up more on your backline folks like snipers. Usually, I don't see those guys getting acided or shot and it seems like their item slot goes a bit unused. Especially if you're running snapshot, that +8% might be helpful, but then again Long War is its own weird beast and has strategies that only make sense in its own logic. Sometimes, I wish the mod was more calibrated to have less stuff happening per month and more just had stuff stretched out but they might have tried that and it just ended up with a bunch of boring globe spinning.
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Aug 1, 2019 15:54
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FairGame and I had a chat about this, where I said it seemed like Long War has it out for the player and he disagreed; the recent crush of missions was an unlucky but atypical confluence of mod stuff meeting up with DLC content, all trying to get done at the same time. He obviously knows better than me but presumably he'll have some videos where the globe will actually spin for more than 20s in a 30minute video.
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Aug 1, 2019 20:06
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This is way back in mission 49 since I've been away from the internet for a few days, but it figures that the second I enter a detox facility my avatar straight up carries a mission and earns the nickname "cobra". I choose to consider this a good sign for my sobriety.
ManlyGrunting fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 00:00
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ManlyGrunting posted:This is way back in mission 49 since I've been away from the internet for a few days, but it figures that the second I enter a detox facility my avatar straight up carries a mission and earns the nickname "cobra". I choose to consider this a good sign for my sobriety. Spoilers ahead, but you get ALL kinds of fun powers and don't die. I hope that's some kind of good sign too. Good luck.
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Aug 2, 2019 00:22
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ManlyGrunting posted:This is way back in mission 49 since I've been away from the internet for a few days, but it figures that the second I enter a detox facility my avatar straight up carries a mission and earns the nickname "cobra". I choose to consider this a good sign for my sobriety. Could be worse. My game incarnation appears to be a certified useless waste of space nicknamed "Septic." Some nicknames in X-COM are indeed based on specific criteria, and Septic is specifically for Assaults (in the normal game) who have been injured a lot and spent a while in the med bay.
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Aug 2, 2019 00:43
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One thing I'd like to commend you on is that you didn't fall into the trap that way too many people (including some big names) fall into, which is using carbines as your go-to rifle, especially early on. For ballistics that +6 aim might seem nice, but you are losing a quarter of your damage over using the assault rifle. Doing the mathematics, an assault carbine will outperform a assault rifle when your chance to hit with a rifle is below 18%; for context a rookie will have an aim of 65 on average/strict screening, and full cover gives 45 defence; 65-45=20>18, as such a rookie shooting something in full cover, would be better off with the rifle. Actually it is even worse than that, cover provides DR, for full cover it is 1 DR (half cover provides 0.66 or a 66% of 1 DR, 33% of 0) so you would need a rookie (or other class) with less than 57 aim (8 less than average with lowest possible being 50) firing only on targets in full cover for the assault carbine to make sense.
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Aug 2, 2019 01:02
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xelada posted:One thing I'd like to commend you on is that you didn't fall into the trap that way too many people (including some big names) fall into, which is using carbines as your go-to rifle, especially early on. This is my poo poo, I don't play this mod and I don't care to, but I wanna know what other people who are experienced in LW think about the decisions in this lp. Chalk me also up with Grapplejack as being worried about posting too much, but I could see earlier in the thread that you didn't wanna post twice in a row. Just do it man, we're watching.
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Aug 2, 2019 01:10
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Cythereal posted:Could be worse. My game incarnation appears to be a certified useless waste of space nicknamed "Septic." Some nicknames in X-COM are indeed based on specific criteria, and Septic is specifically for Assaults (in the normal game) who have been injured a lot and spent a while in the med bay.  I had no idea anything other than class and maybe sex was considered. Know any more conditional ones?Edit: that’s not the wow I was looking for but whatever
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Aug 2, 2019 01:23
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Akratic Method posted:
Yours is because you hurt the people who love you 
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Aug 2, 2019 01:31
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Actual lol if that is true, in no small part at the idea of some programmer scratching his chin, nodding, and then adding a “has hosed over other XCOM” flag to the character data.
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Aug 2, 2019 01:38
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Akratic Method posted:
IIRC... Assault All In, Blitz, Geronimo, Hardcore, Loco, Mad Dog, Mad Man, Psycho, Wardog, and Wildchild are for super-aggressive play - IIRC, specifically using Run and Gun a lot. Dice, Double Down, and Trips are for missing a lot. D.O.A., Septic, and Tombstone are for getting injured a lot. Heavy Boom Boom, Collateral, Crater, Nuke, and Tectonic are for using rockets a lot. Casino, Lights Out, and Strobe are for missing a lot. Crash, Prototype, and Smokey are for getting injured a lot. Sniper Alpha, Demon, Lockdown, Ranger, and Black Widow are for getting a lot of one-hit kills. Cyclops, Long Shot, Omega, Snake Eyes, and Zero are for missing a lot. Emo, Hex, Low Rider, and Zulu are for getting injured a lot. Support Angel, Doc, Missionary, and Prophet are for healing a lot. Bonus, Ouija, Pox, and Smokes are for missing a lot. Cargo, Fast Lane, Skinner, Hitch, and Cookie are for getting injured a lot. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 01:48
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I wonder if Long War added new nicknames. I'd also love to know what "Chilong" (Zhang) means.xelada posted:One thing I'd like to commend you on is that you didn't fall into the trap that way too many people (including some big names) fall into, which is using carbines as your go-to rifle, especially early on. The assault carbine is a terrible weapon. I've not really gone over the weapon types, so: Rifle-Class: SMG: -1 damage relative to the assault rifle, only 2 bursts in the chamber, +3 mobility Carbine: -1 damage relative to the assault rifle, 3 bursts in the chamber, +1 mobility, +6 aim Assault Rifle: Standard. 3 bursts. Battle Rifle: +1 damage relative to the assault rifle. 3 bursts. -1 mobility. Shooting with your 2nd action takes a 20 aim penalty (this is not applied if your 2nd action is overwatch, for some reason). If I were playing with the "red fog" second wave option, where damage gives aim and mobility penalties, I'd use carbines every now and then because just hitting an alien is a big drat deal. It's a permanent flashbang. But without that option turned on, a 1HP alien is just as dangerous as a full HP alien. There's nothing I've seen in enemy AI that tries to preserve their life if they're at low health. They'll run away if their pod dies in the same turn, or if they're flanked and can't get out of it by simply killing the flanking unit. But if they're at low health? They'll still bum rush you with no regard to their own health. So I'd much rather have dead aliens than badly wounded aliens who'll still behave like full health ones. The assault rifle does 3-5 damage. Thin men and floaters early on tend to have 5 health. It's impossible to kill them with a carbine unless you crit. You've got a 1/3 chance to kill them with a lucky AR burst. 2/3 if you are using a battle rifle or using the ranger perk, and so on. That +/- 1 damage makes a huge difference. The mobility is nice on the carbines, but the damage is so poor I might as well go whole hog and just equip an SMG in that case. Also... 
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Aug 2, 2019 02:04
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FairGame posted:I wonder if Long War added new nicknames. I'd also love to know what "Chilong" (Zhang) means. "Hornless dragon". May not have a horn but a shotgun's fine too. Also if Cythereal posted the full list it did, because Cujo (Akratic Method) and Sherwood (me) aren't on there, at the very least. Watching update tomorrow. Hope no one died eating only apples fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 02:08
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eating only apples posted:"Hornless dragon". May not have a horn but a shotgun's fine too. Also if Cythereal posted the full list it did, because Cujo (Akratic Method) and Sherwood (me) aren't on there, at the very least. I think he was just answering my question of nicknames which are specifically keyed to mission performance, but that said I am pretty sure that Long War did add more nicknames. They probably had to, otherwise you’d get repeats using a pool sized for a regular campaign that takes way fewer soldiers.
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Aug 2, 2019 02:33
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eating only apples posted:"Hornless dragon". May not have a horn but a shotgun's fine too. Also if Cythereal posted the full list it did, because Cujo (Akratic Method) and Sherwood (me) aren't on there, at the very least. That wasn't the full list, just the ones that have specific weights from player actions. Long War definitely added more, as Cujo and Sherwood aren't in it. This is the full list with Enemy Within: Assault Unisex: All Day, Android, Blitz, Bonzai, Boomer, Caper, Chops, Cobra, Coney, D.O.A., DJ, Desperado, Devil Dog, Dice, Double Down, Geronimo, Gonzo, Gunner, Hardcore, Hazard, Loco, Mad Dog, Mustang, Pitbull, Psycho, Rhino, Septic, Sheriff, Shotsy, Smash, Socks, Spitfire, Tombstone, Trips, Twitch, Vandal, Wardog, Werewolf, Wildchild, Wolverine, Zilch Male: Bull, Cash, Cowboy, Duke, Mad Man, Nitro, Rascal, Spike, Viking Female: All In, Freestyle, Wednesday Heavy Unisex: Arcade. Boom Boom, Brick, Casino, Collateral, Crash, Crater, Diesel, Disco, Doomsday, Dozer, Flash, Hulk, Lights Out, Nova, Nuke, Prototype, Richter, Road Block, Sledge, Smokey, Strobe, Tectonic, Thunder Male: Buster, Kingpin. Kong, Mack, Moose, Nero, Odin, Papa Bear, Tank, Yeti Female: Big Momma, Mama Bear Sniper Unisex: Alpha, Checkmate, Claymore, Cyclops, Deadbolt, Demon, Drifter, Echo, Emo, Enigma, Garrote, Ghost, Hex, Ice, Lockdown, Long Shot, Longbow, Low Rider, Nightmare, Nix, Omega, Shadow, Snake Eyes, Solo, Specter, Spider, Stalker, Vampire, Xeno, Zero, Zulu Male: Godfather, Loki, Pharaoh, Ranger, Slim, Walker, Warlock, Zed, Zeus Female: Athena, Baroness, Black Widow, Lady Grey, Raven, Witchy Support Unisex: Angel, Axle, Bonus, Cargo, Combo, Congo, Doc, Fast Lane, Missionary, Ouija, Pox, Prophet, Rogue, Saturn, Scarecrow, Scotch, Sentinel, Shield, Skinner, Smokes, Stacks, Strings, Vita, Voodoo, Whiskey Male: Ace, Atlas, Bishop, Deacon, Freud, Hitch, Magic Man, Mr. Clean, Padre, Pops, Romeo, Santa Female: Cookie, Gypsy, Kitty, Pixie, Vixen MEC Male: Big Daddy, Bolts, Caliban, Chip, Clank, Data, Deep Teal, Forklift, Golem, Marvin, Murphy, Olivaw, Robby, Ryle, Stick, Talos, Tik-Tok, Tin Can, Vulcan Female: Beeps, Big Mommy, Freya, Friday, Gadget, Gizmo, Hadaly, Iris, Maya, Molly, Number Six, Orianna, Rosie, Vanessa, Vesta
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Aug 2, 2019 02:38
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That breathing tube item looks very helpful.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:02
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Scalding Coffee posted:That breathing tube item looks very helpful. It’s very good, and also has the acid mitigating effects of carrying a medkit. It also prevents strangulation, which is a mixed bag (seekers seeking to strangle you are usually safer than those who switch to shooting). I should have made more of these in all my playthroughs.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:10
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They're probably somewhere in the game files, but Idk where to even start to look for it. I do know the base game basically sorts them out by class and then has picks from a Male or Female nickname pool with a bunch of overlap between the two genders. https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Nicknames_(EU2012) But with Long War, I don't know where to look to find the code that modifies their assignments. I'm not too well versed in reading the code used and through my cursory dig, I only found one mention of a variable that refers to a nickname, but that's it. Without being able to Ctrl+F the files en masse, it's like a needle in a hay stack.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:11
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Time to find out if I'm a better babysitter than megane.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:16
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Xelkelvos posted:They're probably somewhere in the game files, but Idk where to even start to look for it. I do know the base game basically sorts them out by class and then has picks from a Male or Female nickname pool with a bunch of overlap between the two genders. https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Nicknames_(EU2012) The long war code is an insane brilliant mess. They use more variables than are even meant to exist in a campaign, and started shoving multiple things into a single field, or appropriating multiplayer settings variables, stuff like that. It’s impressive in the sense of working in a tightly constrained system but uh I wouldn’t want to go hunting for logic in it. Edit: my friend from Hong Kong guesses that Chilong is probably a common but slightly nonstandard way of romanizing 青龍, which would make him “Blue Dragon.” But there’s no way to be sure since there’s lots of characters that would look the same transliterated into Roman letters, so Apples might well be correct also. Also of note, she says the VA does a spot on Old Hong Kong Triad Guy voice for him. Akratic Method fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 03:23
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What does backing out of the geoscape after a failed intercept do? Save a bit of time through wonkyness?>
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Aug 2, 2019 04:04
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FairGame posted:The assault carbine is a terrible weapon. When you get to tier 3 the carbine is arguably less terrible, as the breakpoint becomes 30% (arguably 32%), which is still terrible but there might be times that you want to make make shots on people you want to train (I'd argue it still isn't worth it). If we continue to the final tier we get to the lofty heights of... 42%... and that is assuming the target has no DR, which isn't all that common, many enemies have natural DR (mostly mechanical enemies) and/or can take cover; and every point of DR the enemy has, the breakpoint goes down by 6. On the other hand there are a few ways to increase damage, so if the carbiner had everything going for them: an enemy afflicted with both acid and shredded, they have ranger and vital point targeting, and the all the damage items they can bring, they should, only just, reach the point where the breakpoint is about 94%, at that point some of the bonus aim gets wasted (back of the envelope calculations put the max at maybe 96% if you can also guarantee (or close enough) a crit). Which is a lot of work, requires a lot of equipment space (likely including consumables), and a third of the breakpoint comes from shredding. A more reasonable number, assuming you are focusing on per hit damage, might be 50-60%, but YMMV. TL;DR: Carbines are not generally worth using, save your resources, time, and ammo and just go with the regular rifles (or shotguns, or class specific weapons)
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Aug 2, 2019 04:31
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The only times I ever used carbines we're sticking them on lower level troops that were about to level so I could make good and goddamned sure they hit what they're shooting at to get the kill.Xenoborg posted:What does backing out of the geoscape after a failed intercept do? Save a bit of time through wonkyness?> Normally you have to wait for the plane to fly back before you can throw another one out. If you back out and back in you can send a new one immediately.
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Aug 2, 2019 04:34
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Aug 2, 2019 07:06
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What? I don't remember seeing my character miss that much 
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Aug 2, 2019 12:39
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Aug 2, 2019 20:30
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Two of those seekers were called stalkers, what does that mean? More abilities than regular seekers? Obviously more health.
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Aug 2, 2019 21:14
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Jesus Christ, how horrifying Also, that confluence of events at the end of the video has me worried that a large portion of our force is going to end up with fatigue injuries soon.
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Aug 2, 2019 21:40
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eating only apples posted:Two of those seekers were called stalkers, what does that mean? More abilities than regular seekers? Obviously more health. From a glance at a wiki I believe Pod Leaders get special names and special abilities to make them meaner. With Seeker leaders that special ability appears to be having two and a half times as much HP as their regular counterparts.
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Aug 2, 2019 23:14
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eating only apples posted:Two of those seekers were called stalkers, what does that mean? More abilities than regular seekers? Obviously more health. Every alien type has like 9 levels or something like that (the top ones are extremely rare, fortunately), with increasing bonus HP and perks as you go up the ranks. Usually the first couple levels have the regular name and then they start changing. The top names are often amusingly overwrought. Pods often get a leader that's a rank or two above the others, although until you hit a point where the one rank has a different name from another it's hard to tell. (Plus I think they always show the normal name until you do an autopsy for the type?) But if you've noticed e.g. a pod of three thin men and one has more HP for some reason, that's the same thing. FairGame, if you haven't already recorded past it, can you try to show the perk screens for the special top level aliens where they show up? (I know there's a top-level Thin Man on the Furies Rescue mission, and I think the bomb defusing later in the game at the butcher shop map has a top-tier Muton, although I'm not 100% sure that's guaranteed to happen. If you see them in the alien base, high-tier Cyberdiscs and Seekers have a ton of perks too.) Just to show everyone how ridiculously overloaded with bonuses these jerks can get.
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Aug 2, 2019 23:44
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It turns out I am a decent babysitter after all. I'm so proud of my team for not dying!
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Aug 3, 2019 00:20
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I'm really glad about the command ability right now.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:22
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Finally all caught up. I was surprised to see my medic actually use a medkit for once! If that big post about codenames is true, my guy must have done a lot of healing for the first few missions cut during the timeskip. Incidentally, since no medics showed up during the first attempt we never got an in-depth explanation for the class. It seems pretty obvious from the name, but they seem to share a lot of abilities and roles with the gunner as well. What exactly is their job in Long War?
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Aug 3, 2019 00:35
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Aug 3, 2019 01:09
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Akratic Method posted:
The thing in your first spoiler? When that finally shows up, the thread title will be the mission name and it'll be a special time had by all. Tuxedo Ted posted:Finally all caught up. I was surprised to see my medic actually use a medkit for once! If that big post about codenames is true, my guy must have done a lot of healing for the first few missions cut during the timeskip. Sure, let's talk about a class. We'll start with Medics. Medics are a branch of the support supraclass (combat engineers being the alternative). There are...two builds that I think are worthwhile. 1.) Healing, Psionics, and Support Grenades: Medics get a free medkit use per mission by default; you don't have to equip one. (This doesn't give them the acid mitigating bonuses of carrying a medkit; you have to carry one for that.) Further, all medkits that they're carrying get 2 charges instead of 1. So a medic carrying a medkit will get 3 charges per mission. But, uh...you really shouldn't be getting shot that often so that'll frequently give the medic a turn where s/he doesn't have much to do. So... Medics get suppression at LCPL, where it's up against Steadfast (never panic, gain +5 will passively) and Field Surgeon (a really weird skill that treats your units as swapping 1 health HP for 1 armor HP, so if a unit that has 5 armor HP takes 6 damage, it doesn't get wounded. Doesn't have any more HP, but you can prevent some wounds--and mitigate the impact of others--with this.) I don't like Field Surgeon; it's pretty rare that it comes into play (how many missions have you seen lately where people are taking health HP wounds?). So that leaves Steadfast. Not panicking is nice, but the +5 willpower is the real draw here. That's a nice bonus to psionics later in the game. But we don't have psionics right now, so our medics will be taking Suppression. And turning into officers. Officers can't use psionics anyway, so Steadfast doesn't make much sense. Plus, this way a medic always has something to do--suppression is useful! Beyond that, medics get smoke grenades, smoke and mirrors (same as engineers), and can choose 1 of 2 types of smoke. Taking smoke + smoke/mirrors is a no-brainer. The choice of smoke is a little difficult, though. You can choose between Combat Drugs (wider radius for your smoke, also gives +20 willpower) and Dense Smoke (+40 defense instead of +20). I tend to prefer Combat Drugs because I like the willpower boost and also the ability to spread my team out. Plus, a unit with the Smoke Grenade perk can use Combat Drugs with their first action, and then do some psionic bullshit with their second action. I could see a case for doing Dense Smoke with an officer medic that goes down the support route, though. Not much else to talk about when it comes to this build. Medics also get the Revive perk (allows you to get a unit back up and fighting instead of just stabilizing), but see my previous point about not liking perks that only come into play when something has gone wrong. 2.) Battle Medic: this version basically acts like a Gunner, only with a worse weapon and the ability to carry more medkits. You take Suppression, Rapid Reaction, and Ready for Anything and just dig in for firefights or overwatch the hell out of oncoming units. Unlike Gunners, you don't get Covering Fire so you've gotta be strategic with your overwatch. Further, Rapid Reaction gives you 3 shots, but only makes shots 2 and 3 if the preceding shot connects. Meaning you need to focus on enemies with Lightning Reflexes, because they'll dodge your shot and then ruin the rest of your Rapid Reaction. I prefer taking Battle Medics with pretty much every build other than dedicated psionics. As we get into MECs, we'll get the ability to really spread around our healing, and playing aggressive is (to me) the best way to not get shot. Why drop support grenades when you can murder/suppress everything? For me, early medics all go Battle Medic, and then anybody I get after we get psionics going will go Support Psionic. If I end up with too many of the former, I'll chop them into MEC troopers.
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Aug 3, 2019 01:32
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Tbh the dense smoke v combat drugs is one of the hardest choices in the game. That will bonus is nuts and the extended smoke range is great, but +40 defense is equally insane; it's the equivalent of an AoE high cover that you can launch twice a map.
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Aug 3, 2019 02:14
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Medics having a Revive perk is a good thing no matter what.
Scalding Coffee fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Aug 3, 2019 |
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Aug 3, 2019 02:19
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Fatigue spiral, ho!
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Aug 3, 2019 02:38
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Kibayasu posted:Fatigue spiral, ho! Yeah, he jinxed it when we said "well we're out of the fatigue spiral. If it's a problem, it'll be another fatigue spiral." And, well, here we are.
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Aug 3, 2019 05:10
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Kibayasu posted:Fatigue spiral, ho! You ain't seen nothin' yet.  Sorry for the length. Played this one badly and got hemmed in. It's a very tough mission that I made worse by giving myself a whopping 1 firing port to deal with. The smarter play would've been to blitz the rooftop.
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Aug 3, 2019 05:16
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