Messages

1

Discussion / Re: Feedback 2.3

« on: August 12, 2010, 05:00:49 pm »

This bug got fixed since that.

You can start your aircraft from base with the little blue icon on aircraft screen, and then set a destination to it on the geoscape. The interface could be better though, agreed.

-geever

And just to clarify, you can also redirect aircraft that have already been given orders (or are automatically returning to base).  I didn't realize it at first and have found it really handy when a fighter pops up near a base when my Firebird is inbound from a mission.   You can turn around and run while your interceptors chase them down.

And as geever says, it's not particularly obvious.  Just ignore the pop-up screen and click on the geoscape.  You'll should see the pink course line change to where you clicked.

2

Tactics / Re: Storming harvester

« on: August 09, 2010, 06:25:20 pm »

No thanks, I prefer playing fair....

I'm working on this mod....




 

3

Tactics / Re: Snipers vs Medium-armored aliens

« on: August 06, 2010, 09:10:47 pm »

Ammo capacity might look frightening at first, but isn't really so bad...my two snipers carry total of 6 rounds each, and have never ever used all of them. I never use them as RF weapons, lasers are much better for that.

I'm not worried about ammo.  I think I've reloaded a sniper rifle a grand total of one time in the ten months of game time I've been playing.  Laser rifles and Plasma Pistols go through ammo like crazy, but most of the other weapons I only carry one reload and save the rest of the space for a medkits, plus a couple of grenades and plasma blades.

I'm hitting my twelfth month now so I'm hoping to see needlers soon...

4

Tactics / Re: Storming harvester

« on: August 05, 2010, 08:29:38 pm »

Incidentally, there looks to be some sadness in the aliens' grenade-throwing logic.  It's happened a few times so far during a Harvester assault that I hear the distinct clinking sound of a grenade clinking around... but never being visible, let alone injurious, to any of my troops.  If this is fixed, bunching up will be far more dangerous, since plasma grenades are rather highly damaging.

Agreed.  I remember many times during the original XCOM that I had to be really careful bunching up my troops or I was almost certain to lose 3-4 from alien-thrown grenades.  I've gotten pretty cavalier about it playing UFO:AI, so I'll have to adjust my tactics if they ever wise up.

5

Discussion / Re: Recompiled 2.3 lag

« on: August 05, 2010, 08:24:22 pm »

Like Duke suggested, I think your best plan is to remove your changes one-by-one until you get a build that doesn't lag.  I know it's tedious, but I think that is your best course of action.

6

Discussion / Re: Feedback 2.3

« on: August 03, 2010, 08:26:09 pm »

- The radar tells you the kind of UFO if you researched it (at least on the version I play). Otherwise, you will learn to recognize them by their looks.

IIRC, in the early going, it's:

770 - Scout
880 - Fighter
1100 - Harvester

7

Discussion / Re: How many bases can you purchase?

« on: July 31, 2010, 07:34:05 pm »

When do you get advanced radars?

You can build them after you research Alien Detection.

8

Discussion / Re: Disassembly time

« on: July 28, 2010, 04:16:46 pm »

No, sharing the job is not possible like that neither the storages.
However I'm thinking about a feature you could stop and continue disassembling of UFOs - like start disassemlying with 10 workers at base A, when base B built up and hired 40 workers, stop disassemly at base A, continue at base B..

-geever

That's an interesting idea.

What I've done for now is simply tear down all the labs at one base and rebuild workshops in their place.  I don't have anything left to research right now anyway.  Since there are no penalties for hiring/firing, I can just replace those 40 scientists with 20 workers.  And re-hire if I need them later.

Which brings up an interesting idea: is any consideration being done to having scientist skill levels?  It seems like a scientist who's been working on Alien research for 6 months would definitely have an edge over some new guy that's never worked in the program. 

9

Discussion / Re: Disassembly time

« on: July 28, 2010, 06:31:53 am »

Not a bad idea, although of course there's the huge 20-day initial lag while you get your antimatter storage set up.

For what it's worth, it's strictly linear (i.e. man-hours required / # of workers you can use, and all workers will be used unless you for some reason hired more than your workshops can use), and at least in 2.3-stable there is no penalty for distance to the UFO yard.

Actually, I've got the antimatter storage set up in two bases now (I forgot when I tore down the first one and lost it all )  But you can't share across bases, right?  IOW, if I have 30 guys in base A and 30 guys in base B, I can't put 60 guys on tearing down a single UFO, can I?

10

Discussion / Re: Disassembly time

« on: July 27, 2010, 05:04:30 pm »

Maybe you should check your calculator:

553  - 446 = 107

Doh!  I guess I was just so certain that it was taking too long that I read what I expected to see.  It's just frustrating because I've got two Dragons sitting there with no fuel.  I feel like I've been working on that harvester forever!  Maybe it's time to build another base and load it up with engineers...

11

Discussion / Disassembly time

« on: July 27, 2010, 07:55:22 am »

I'm don't think I understand how UFO disassembly works.  Right now, I've got 5 harvesters in a yard and I've selected one to disassemble.  On 12/6, it's showing that there are 553 hours remaining.  I play for a while and then check again on Dec 10th, but it's only showing 7 hours less (446).   I'm confused... 

12

Tactics / Re: Snipers vs Medium-armored aliens

« on: July 20, 2010, 03:33:40 pm »

Coilgun's "Aimed Shot" mode does use the sniper skill.  Looking at the data files in the SVN trunk, it has significantly higher per-hit damage and marginally better range, and the same TU usages as the sniper rifle.  The Needlers that you need to recover before researching this also appear to have sniper modes with much longer range, but larger spread values and less damage per shot vs. the coilgun.

That's kind of what I thought.  It sounds like until the coilgun is available, there's not really a decent alternative.

I think for now I'm firing my snipers (they can go sign up for Top Shot) until I'm able to get coilguns...

13

Discussion / Re: Question about the future

« on: July 20, 2010, 03:24:38 pm »

So you mean the opposite human campaign (i mean alien campaign) with alien bases and human invasion?

I don't think so.  The way I read it, it was exactly the same scenario: alien creatures invading the earth.  The difference is that YOU are the aliens and the computer plays the human defenders.

14

Tactics / Snipers vs Medium-armored aliens

« on: July 19, 2010, 05:41:46 pm »

In the early months, I had good luck with a combination of Riot Shotguns/Flamers for close work, Laser Rifles & GL for Mid-range, and Sniper Rifles/RL for long range.

With the aliens moving up to medium armor, I've dumped the Shotguns in favor of a Plasma Blade/Plasma Pistol combo.  The Laser Rifles, while requiring a lot of hits to take down an alien, are fast and accurate enough that I feel they're still worth keeping for mid-range work.  And the GL when fitted with PB Grenades is simply devastating.  However, I'm stumped on what to do for long-range fire.  The RL is still generally effective, but the Sniper Rifle just is doing enough damage for the TUs required.  I tried the Bolter, but it's even worse at long range.  As a result, I've currently removed my sniper-skilled soldiers from all my teams, but I don't want to fire them completely if there is a better sniper rifle down the road since so many of them have gotten good. 

So, is there a more effective sniper-type weapon that can be eventually researched (maybe the coilgun)?   

And also, if I *do* fire them, will they still be available later for re-hire once I find a better weapon or is there a chance that they won't be available anymore?

15

Discussion / Re: Renamed nation makes errors

« on: July 19, 2010, 05:09:52 pm »

What do you mean?

Sorry, a joke that was probably lost in the translation:  http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia