Messages

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Discussion / Re: Again on reaction fire

« on: April 28, 2013, 10:04:44 pm »

It's based on the TU cost for whatever you're doing. Since moving is only 2 to 3 points (more for awkward terrain) and firing is 4TU and up then moving often won't trigger an RF response. From what I understand it's based on view. If an alien has you in view and has a weapon set for snap RF that takes 8TU to fire, you need to spend 8+1, 9 TU in view at one go. Dodging out of sight and back into sight resets this. But fire, often goes over this limit and the alien gets RF fire. If the weapon mode their set to requires more TU to fire you can spend more time in view before needing to dodge out of view again.

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 15, 2013, 10:51:26 am »

I too do not think 2.5 sucks, exactly. I just get so frustrated with it I give up for a little while every now and then. Plus I don't think the aliens have TONS better RF than the human player. RF seems to suck all round, just a little more for the humans, though that may just be the accuracy of the aliens and the fact they are almost always seem to be set in a good position.

Yes, alien accuracy seems high. I've seen a hovernet from literally across the map sniper my guys 50% of the time which seems excessive when my laser rifles seem to have an accuracy of 8% at that range! And yes I was kneeling! OK, I know it might have been coincidence but it seems to happen way too often. True with smoke grenades a lot of these troubles do go away, but it seems a kludge fix to me, and not being able to set any defensive position is just wrong in my opinion. As far as I can tell if I set up a careful crossfire, use snap shot only on RF, have good armour (currently the first nano armour) I can get 1 out of 6 of the aliens that pop up. The others all seem to shoot me once or twice before I can get a shot in, they invariably hit where I miss occasionally even at short range (due to being forced into snap shot when they aren't) and even with my armour sometimes they one shot me. IRRITATING!

Still, at least I have found a way around that, even if it forces me on a constant staged offensive.

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 13, 2013, 03:28:07 am »

OK, still not going well on reaction fire, even with laser pistols, but using smoke grenades, hiding most of my people (with laser rifles or stun tasers) and then having a couple of laser pistol guys run out of cover and spot for those in cover works great. Still getting awkward bits at entrances to buildings, but other than that it seems to be a good tactic... with the aliens I've met so far at least. Nothing beyond Taaman, Sheevar, Bloodspiders and the hovernet

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 09, 2013, 09:18:17 pm »

Well, I tried multiple soldiers on low TU weapons, even going so far as to try pistols (haven't made enough laser pistols to use yet) but it was pretty hopeless. A couple of times the enemy does come up and get shot at, but mostly they come out of cover and pot shot someone (often kill shot as I still haven't got the money for advanced armor yet!), often two shots before anyone can return fire. With pistols, when they worked, I got six direct hits on a Sheevar and didn't really affect him. Hopefully laser pistols will be better for that, though the stated damage of 25 on the snapshot is not promising! I've had laser pulse strikes from the laser rifle hit multiple times before taking one down, so a shot with that much less damage is likely to barely scratch him!

On the AI front I sort of assumed it would be a combination of random, group exploration, combined with mission parameters (hunt civilians/soldiers if seen) and that they'd have an expanding locus of attention based on last known position. A 'watch and wait' mode once enemy position is known, but is not in sight right now, is reasonable (which I've seen) but as I said they seem to move on the attack whenever you get close, way before they should know you are in range! Right now I don't see a way for any ambush set up by the player to work at all reliably... if ever! The only way to win seems to be to advance rapidly from cover to cover, or to advance retreat, attempting to catch the enemy when they leave cover... problematic at best, and heavily dependent on the map.

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 09, 2013, 10:28:02 am »

The RF match-up is a straight TU-to-TU comparison. If a RF firemode costs X TU, the unit will RF against a target after they spend X+1 TU in visible range of the unit. This is why low TU firemodes are better for RF -- the target gets to spend less TUs before receiving reaction fire.

Hmm, which is problematic. Often the enemy isn't in line of fire very long, favoring running round corners right up to you and firing repeatedly. To be able to actually damage him it needs to be both high damage AND short TU operation, which is rare. Wave damage on lasers (pistol especially) would likely fire then, but not be enough damage to actually stop anyone. Though with multiple guys all there to hit... maybe. I'll try using a combination of shotguns and laser pistols next time.

On a related subject, since long ago on a different game I gave up trying to use smoke grenades effectively and somehow never tried it in this one... I was in error! I just tried using them and definitely like them. Helps a lot in using mobile cover. Still aliens seem to plow into the smoke and open up at point blank range, but usually they don't seem to have much TU left to do much, for whatever reason. Odd since even without smoke they tend to walk straight up to you before firing *shrugs*

Out of interest H-Hour, do you happen to know if the computer DOES allow the aliens to know your precise position continually or is there some 'sense' of where humans are if not in view? Does it just remember last position and what seems to be their attacks are just coincidence? It seems a little much. I've had aliens wait and wait, but just as I move in range (despite being out of sight) they wizz round the corner and blast me.

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:27:03 pm »

Thanks for the help on this H-Hour.

1&2) Yes, I am holding enough time so I can enable the 'engage RF' button. I generally don't use the button above; the 'Reserve TU' or whatever it says. As far as I can see you don't HAVE to use the 'Reserve TU' button to make RF work. With the engage RF button on it stops you from using what it needs for that particular mode (selected on the fire popup menu). I generally just keep the engage RF down when I'm holding position and disengage it when I'm trying to move to a new spot (with attempts at covering my people while their moving, but little luck with that yet).

3) Until recently I wasn't aware that rapid fire was better and RF worked better with shorter TU using weapon modes. So I now do know why laser's pulse mode works so well. Fairly short TUs and has 6 shots. I'm not sure what calculation it uses to compare what TU's your weapon mode uses and what TUs the enemy has left at any given moment, but I'm aware it multiplies it's checks based on how many shots the weapon mode uses.

One other thing. I've heard that certain skills of the soldier improves Reaction Fire. Is it an average of all of the improvements or is it a certain specific skill such as speed or mind? I'd more think it'd be specific to the weapon type, and maybe be an average of speed and weapon type (such as heavy, assault etc).

Another quick query. The game used to use the weapon skill 'Heavy weapon' on certain weaponry, but now these have specific other skills like 'explosive' or 'close'. What use is improving heavy weapons skill? Does it improve handling heavy weight weapons? I thought strength handled that? Also there seems to be a sharp division between normal encumberance and over encumbered. Going from max move 31 suddenly down to 19 when you pick up a grenade seems a tad extreme! Shouldn't it go down gradually?

(EDIT: Thanks for the info on autosaves Shipit! I hadn't checked the key commands in so long I'd forgotten (or never knew!) that there were short cut keys for quick save/load. I thought it was only on the save/load menu!)

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:56:47 am »

One other thing while I'm thinking of it. I'm not sure if this is an illusion or not but it seems as if the enemy knows precisely where my soldiers are all the time, whether they can see me or not. I had suspicions on that for a while, but it came to a head on a base defense mission. I had troops below ground and above ground on opposite sides of the map. My above ground troops rounded a corner and spotted a Sheevar on the other side, very close to my other group underground, facing those underground troops position, waiting. Since it hadn't spotted my above ground troops I went back around the corner into hiding and waited. Another spot view next turn showed him barely two squares from where he was, still facing my underground troops. Next turn (still spotting with above ground troops) I moved my underground troops forward, still out of sight but getting closer to the exit. The Sheevar immediately went round the corner towards my under ground troops and blasted them now they were in range.

Was it psychic detection? Was it hearing the underground troops? If the later how come my guys can't hear the enemy out of sight? Something is again a little imbalanced here. Whatever mechanism is being used seems too accurate, letting the enemy chose it's approach to avoid ambushes almost exclusively and place their own very effectively. That in addition to stronger troops (on average), more accurate weapons fire (hover nets seem to shoot my guys from across the map 1/3 of the time on average for example), and more TUS seems a little overpowering!

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 08, 2013, 10:44:23 am »

OK, in the game I'm on currently part of it was lack of reasonable weaponry. For some reason alien light armour just didn't appear for ages, thus no laser research beyond ship and base weapons. With laser rifles and their pulsed autofire on RF things are slightly better (Still haven't managed to get the cash together to make any nano-armor for the troops though!) but still aliens are walking right through any defensive line and wasting people left and right from point blank range, even when I have a choke point the enemy has to come through to make sure they are ALWAYS in sight of my guys continuously! The solar array for instance with it's main entrance.

With laser rifles I have had one or two instances out of several dozens where my guys manage to actually shoot the enemy on RF before he walks up to one square away and blast my guys. It just seems odd that the enemy tactic seems to be basically individual suicide mode, especially when they aren't present in overwhelming numbers (say, crashed fighter). Even odder that it works for them! I've still had half my squad wasted like this. Having to 'replay' missions continually to avoid this kind of thing defeats the object of not having a save game in the combat missions (which honestly I agree with, if the combat was a little better balanced).

One other thing that has bugged me through all versions of this game. No auto save on geoscape prior to a mission. Admittedly, in a finished game it's probably not a big thing, but right now with crashes (admitedly not as prevalent as it used to be) it's really annoying! I've only had one crash to desktop since using 2.5, but I've had quite a few missions where I almost gave up, constantly trying to 'replay' missions and wanted to go back and just ignore that crash completely, but I didn't think to save prior to the mission. Also still getting the odd 'crash' where the mission just ends with no mission report, just goes back to geoscape, firebird is mysteriously back at base and all troops have vanished from the game. I've had this a lot in all versions of the game and it's still happening (though not as much again on 2.5). So far it's happened on the military bunker and one other map (I forget which one at present). An auto save would really help with that!

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Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 06, 2013, 11:46:33 pm »

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had issues with RF. I admit I'm not sure whether it's better or worse since 2.4, since I didn't play that version through very far and the aliens didn't get beyond plasma pistols. At that level whether 2.4 or 2.5dev it seems still challenging at times, but not impossible. later game, as soon as the aliens start using plasma rifles, it becomes a nightmare. I've sent guys out to check to make sure the zone is clear around a cover spot, gone to cover, then had an alien move, what must have been twenty squares, walk right by about six guys, all on overwatch with a variety of weapons, walk by them, still in view (I spread the angles of my guys) turn and kill 1 to 2 of them with auto fire before anyone fights back.

It just seems rather extreme, plus whether using bullets or captured plasma weapons, the reptilian aliens (forget their name off hand; Sheeva?) seem a little over powered. They have tons of TUs, have enough armour/hps to withstand bullets or plasma damage from numerous hits (a little less from plasma, but not much), carry heavy weapons and are bright enough to flank and ambush. In reality I'm sure this is what anyone planning such invasions would go for, but in a game don't you want to balance things? Have some aliens with high move rates but limit either weapons load out or have them light on armour/hps? It just seems a heck of a leap from Tamans to these guys. That with the RF issues make some maps pure hell. Sometimes I can't get out of the Firebird and position for one or two turns before getting half my team wiped out.