X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[CthuluIsSpy]

Great, now I'm thinking of an Amazonian, barely clothed pirate lass hauling a trussed up and very confused Pole aboard her ship and forcing him to do calculus.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Great, now I'm thinking of an Amazonian, barely clothed pirate lass hauling a trussed up and very confused Pole aboard her ship and forcing him to do calculus.

That's Piratez in a nutshell.

 

[lightbane]

There are tons of techs and researchs that require slavs

You forgot a letter.

No, that was intentional.

Great, now I'm thinking of an Amazonian, barely clothed pirate lass hauling a trussed up and very confused Pole aboard her ship and forcing him to do calculus.

Considering the state of the world in Piratez, you do that and worse.

 

[Average Manatee]

I knew the state of the Piratez world was a kind of post-apoc, but are we sure that poles are still around? That'd be truly horrifying.

 

[Demo.Graph]

We can safely assume that Poles are extinct or, at best, were turned into tribal mutants. On the one side of the border of Eastern Europe there's a tribalistic Germanic Blackmarch; a single city in the region (Free City) is its capitol. On the other side of the border there's Eurasian Autonomy with ashen-walled Kremlin for a capitol. These guys liberally nuke everyone and only nominally answer to alien overlords.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Are regional starting bonuses listed anywhere?
Wiki articles on UFOPaedia are old.

 

[lightbane]

You mean XPiratez's ones? These are hidden IIRC, but you can check the game's internal wiki for help (load a battlescape map from the "random battle generator" option). XCF doesn't use these IIRC.

 

[Gumsmith]

Are regional starting bonuses listed anywhere?
Wiki articles on UFOPaedia are old.

There's a website program that lists just about everything in the game:
https://xpedia.netlify.app/
The location and country bonuses would be in the events category.

 

[lightbane]

months (Three I think?) Guild ships will start coming with Marsec Operatives. Those wear pretty damn tough armor and due to that are a fucking pain. Your early game ranged weapons are definitively not up to par against these dudes.

Are you playing on Superhuman? Either way, sounds like a classic case of "you are NOT supposed to win yet, rather retreat".

it normal to have issues with having lots of wounded gals? I swear, I got like four gals wounded because I used a Fire Extinguiser inside a Big Bird. THEY'RE NOT EVEN REALLY DAMAGED, FUCK!

IIRC in order to make smoke screen spam even more useless, Gals are vulnerable to chocking damage including smoke from any source.

Help the Lokk'Nars" seems to be a helluva difficult mission. I mean, I went there and there were like five Reaper cavalry. Hahhahaha, no.

Don't remember that many in non Supes modes. Hide in houses and attack them from behind.
Also, which tech path did you choose with the "men vs women vs peasants" option? Women is the easy mode as it lets you use more Gals.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

- In some months (Three I think?) Guild ships will start coming with Marsec Operatives. Those wear pretty damn tough armor and due to that are a fucking pain. Your early game ranged weapons are definitively not up to par against these dudes. Musket MIGHT have the damage for it, but its the fucking musket. Seems like the best bet here is Dog + Melee Weapon. The dog is not there to damage the operative (can't), but to bark and bring his TUs down to zero. Then some pretty strong melee weapon - Like Axe, Mace, Barbarian Sword/Axe, etc. For capture, Ball Bat can do it, but it will take a bit of hitting from behind.

Marsec without enclosed helmets (you know when you see those) are vulnerable to poison/hallucinogenic grenades. At least they were on earlier versions.
But you're going to see lots of missions early which are "lol, nope".

- "Help the Lokk'Nars" seems to be a helluva difficult mission. I mean, I went there and there were like five Reaper cavalry. Hahhahaha, no.

Kill them with fire.

 

[lightbane]

Think I am playing on the penultimate one.

Still too high IMO, but I haven't checked that one in years. I loled that in XCFiles now cults can deploy "UFOs" (aka regular planes) to counters yours. It looks a bit silly to have a hooded cultist pilot a MIG to shoot your Interceptors. Why I'm saying this? In Piratez aggressive UFOs targeting your ships whenever spotted became quite frequent too. Funny that, considering that your ships were supposed to have cloak modules since day 1.

My gear was pretty much mostly ranged because my best melee bruisers were wounded. I came expecting some Ratmen, not Ratmen riding Reapers with big guns.

Expect the unexpected. If enemies look too tough, they probably are. Also, zombies can show up anywhere, anytime. Always. There was a mod that reduced that chance in some cases.

 

[Average Manatee]

A big problem I have in long mods with a lot of progression like Piratez is that whenever you're shooting something and its not dying you never know:

- Did you just roll really low?
- Are you dealing damage, but it just has lots of health?
- Does it have huge armor and you're never gonna kill it?
- Does it have low/mid armor but high resistance to the specific weapon you're using (keep in mind that Piratez has like 10 different damage types).

 

[Rosey]

Any recommended mods ?

XCOM Files is my personal favorite. Keeps the feel of Vanilla with constant new threats to figure out and adds a lot of gameplay prior to where you'd normally start.

XPirates changes gameplay a lot but in a pretty good way with lots of booba

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

- Are you dealing damage, but it just has lots of health?

On newest version of Piratez, enemies seem to flash red when they take damage.

 

[Luka-boy]

- Are you dealing damage, but it just has lots of health?

On newest version of Piratez, enemies seem to flash red when they take damage.

Besides the colors, he can also press Ctrl + H after firing to see the log of the last attack.

Miss = Well, take a guess.
0 = Hit but no damage.
Hit = Did damage.
HIT! = Critical hit.

 

[oasis789]

- Fungus Infestations are a fucking pain, plus the expense to get rid of them seems to be not worthy it early on.

keep them, you can sell/brew the mushrooms later to offset the penalty

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Marsec without enclosed helmets (you know when you see those) are vulnerable to poison/hallucinogenic grenades. At least they were on earlier versions.
But you're going to see lots of missions early which are "lol, nope".

Oh, that's pretty informative!

Oh yeah I had a total "nope" moment when I once stepped out of the craft and saw absolute fuckloads of huge mercenary guys packing big 90s laser guns and what looked like Personnal Armor.
How about FUCK NO? Then went away before I lost people.

Still too high IMO, but I haven't checked that one in years. I loled that in XCFiles now cults can deploy "UFOs" (aka regular planes) to counters yours. It looks a bit silly to have a hooded cultist pilot a MIG to shoot your Interceptors. Why I'm saying this? In Piratez aggressive UFOs targeting your ships whenever spotted became quite frequent too. Funny that, considering that your ships were supposed to have cloak modules since day 1.

Davy Jones actually.

When I last played X-COM Files, I think the Cults didn't deploy UFOs yet.

lol its a bit funny to think cultista re flying MiGs.

Geez, yesterday I noticed like five radar ships popping up in North America. Is that common? I was lucky my craft was on the other side of the planet at the time.

Expect the unexpected. If enemies look too tough, they probably are. Also, zombies can show up anywhere, anytime. Always. There was a mod that reduced that chance in some cases.

Fucketh me, right? I recently went on an academy outpost raid. Was far so I had to go with a V8 instead of Big Bird.
Well, Chrysalid happens on Turn 3 right next to some of my best gals.
Now, I've been around the X-COM block, so I clearly knew what to do in order to get rid of this threat at once, and I did it with utmost decisiveness.

TBS's Big Anti-Chrysalid Trick

I fucked off immediately, of course

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Some more thoughts from my latest PirateZ playing:
- I think I played too conservatively early on, I kept all the Slave AIs and much of the components and stuff I got from ships, instead of selling that shit. Pretty sure I was supposed to have sold that shit. So I started selling some and keeping others for bank if need be. In a month after some good hauls, I went from 3 brainers to 8. Yeah now we're talking good research.
- I've been having good results recently with 6 gals and peasants/4 doggos crew. A dog can kill low-level guild dudes in two bites and Guild Security in around three. They can do similar to pretty much anyone from Church with less armor than Matrons. Its also a good trick to first bark a bit to stop reaction shots, then get behind and bite until they die. When in doubt, leave dog close even it can't attack, CQC can save it from next turn attacks - especially if they have a big gun. If they have too much armor for the dog to kill (like Marsec Officers, Dogs can't do shit to them), just bark away all their TU until your gals can arrive and open the tin can.
- I once won a mission because I had a dog drop a grenade in the foot of a Guild Security dude that just wouldn't die.

- Knowing when and how to use sprint is key. Seems to me that the way to go is to use your sprint wherever stamina => TUs. This is especially important if its a unit with more TUs than stamina - like dogs. Walk then sprint. Once you can, have your girl use something to recover energy, like moonshine or atom beer. Doing nothing this turn? Drink moonshine.

- If you can spare the personnel, its a good idea to have a "Support Gal" that carries equipment and does things to help the other soldiers can't because they're busy fighting. Uses extinguisher, heals, carries Grog, uses manacles on stunned foes, carries things and people, etc. Might want to give them a small pistol or the like to defend themselves.

- Wow I got some pretty neat stuff from an Old Earth box. Anti-Tank Rifles and some ammo and even a baby nuke. The fuck I even do with it lol.

 

[Gumsmith]

- Wow I got some pretty neat stuff from an Old Earth box. Anti-Tank Rifles and some ammo and even a baby nuke. The fuck I even do with it lol.

It's hidden from you at first but you can fire nukes using a ballista

 

[lightbane]

Oh yeah I had a total "nope" moment when I once stepped out of the craft and saw absolute fuckloads of huge mercenary guys packing big 90s laser guns and what looked like Personnal Armor.

Sounds like the Mercs. One of the strongest factions.

Geez, yesterday I noticed like five radar ships popping up in North America. Is that common? I was lucky my craft was on the other side of the planet at the time.

No idea. Sounds like there's a mini-base nearby. Yeah, now you can have enemy bases appear more easily and they can change over-time IIRC.

I've been having good results recently with 6 gals and peasants/4 doggos crew.

Auxiliary units are always useful in XCOM, and more-so here. You can at one point make the doggos become proper units so that they can level up if I'm not mistaken.

 

[KateMicucci]

A big problem I have in long mods with a lot of progression like Piratez is that whenever you're shooting something and its not dying you never know:

- Did you just roll really low?
- Are you dealing damage, but it just has lots of health?
- Does it have huge armor and you're never gonna kill it?
- Does it have low/mid armor but high resistance to the specific weapon you're using (keep in mind that Piratez has like 10 different damage types).

i think you can press ctrl-h after shooting something and it tells you if it hit or missed, or if it did 0 damage, and if it was a good hit or a graze

 

[KateMicucci]

Climate rules are inane. If you don't have the right gear, your gals will drop on the spot yep. On the plus side, it affects enemies too, so you can wait a little and see enemies passing out. I may be misremembering but the effects of weather are lessened inside buildings. I would rather disable it altogether.

unless something has changed since i last played over a year ago, enemies aren't affected by weather, and buildings don't affect weather

 

[oasis789]

even a baby nuke. The fuck I even do with it lol.

very handy when you need massive firepower on turn 1 e.g. sieging ninja airfield

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

- Wow I got some pretty neat stuff from an Old Earth box. Anti-Tank Rifles and some ammo and even a baby nuke. The fuck I even do with it lol.

It's hidden from you at first but you can fire nukes using a ballista

Didn't get one so far, that doesn't sound safe.

Oh yeah I had a total "nope" moment when I once stepped out of the craft and saw absolute fuckloads of huge mercenary guys packing big 90s laser guns and what looked like Personnal Armor.

Sounds like the Mercs. One of the strongest factions.

Geez, yesterday I noticed like five radar ships popping up in North America. Is that common? I was lucky my craft was on the other side of the planet at the time.

No idea. Sounds like there's a mini-base nearby. Yeah, now you can have enemy bases appear more easily and they can change over-time IIRC.

I've been having good results recently with 6 gals and peasants/4 doggos crew.

Auxiliary units are always useful in XCOM, and more-so here. You can at one point make the doggos become proper units so that they can level up if I'm not mistaken.

Geez those mercs are OP, better stay away for now.

Mini-base, huh? I should hunt for that, the number of craft I am seeing around is getting worrying.

Change overtime how? Location?

Oh so its possible to make doggos into recruits? That's awesome, I would love to level up my doggos.

How do you use peasants? I'm starting to think shotguns, pistols and SMGs are the way to go for them:
- Too weak to throw
- Too inaccurate to snipe well
- Too weak and unskilled to go melee
- Too low-HP and low-armor to survive a shotgun shot to the front

Short-ranged bang-bang (with some melee just in case), CQC interference, stunstick scout duty and support-girl roles seems to be the way to go for low-level peasants.

even a baby nuke. The fuck I even do with it lol.

very handy when you need massive firepower on turn 1 e.g. sieging ninja airfield

How much firepower are we talking about, here?
I recently went on a bounty mission to fuck up someone's barn* and I decided to use some Crates of Violence I kept around just in case. I was blown away by how much power they had - literally because I sent dogs as the delivery vehicles. Got like 150 tokens from Goblin Zax, got me a mini-shotgun prize.

*I have to admit that's a pretty innovative mission - never thought I would go on a mission to fuck up a building.

 

[lightbane]

Change overtime how? Location?

As in, these mini-bases get stronger, bigger, with more and more powerful enemies.
At least that was so in XCF. It should be the same here.
Sometimes you can use this to your advantage to grind interesting items, but I would do that only if you know what you're doing.

How do you use peasants? I'm starting to think shotguns, pistols and SMGs are the way to go for them:
- Too weak to throw
- Too inaccurate to snipe well
- Too weak and unskilled to go melee
- Too low-HP and low-armor to survive a shotgun shot to the front

They're disposable meat-shields used as cannon fodder, really. Or that's what I read and what I remember from their low stats.

How much firepower are we talking about, here?
I recently went on a bounty mission to fuck up someone's barn*

For when there's a fuckton of enemies that want you dead and you want that gone NOW. Nukes probably destroy like 40 tiles which is half of the map I bet.
IIRC they have a timer so you can use a flying unit to throw them. Check an explosive's ID stats to check for their radius, lest you're caught in the explosion.
That mission is awesome, but careful with harming the goblin guy. You auto-fail that mission if you hurt him (you cannot even stun him, so you have to walk around him).
I asked and the mission was a clever inversion of the usual UFO mission, where for every UFO tile not destroyed you get Alien Alloys. Here is the opposite.