Messages

31

Tactics / Re: retaliatory fire

« on: January 29, 2013, 02:51:56 pm »

RF is actually quite simple. When a soldier has active RF during alien turn and an alien spends TU in his field of fire equal to TU cost of the selected RF mode, soldier will fire. Same goes for aliens during your turn. The only exception I have seen so far are hovernets, whose fire apparently won't trigger RF, but their movement will.

This has few implications. AFAIK no weapon except pistols have fire mode with TU cost less than 8, making grenades very useful. Preparing flashbang, going in and throwing flashbang in generally safe, and flashbang exploding close to alien has high chance of removing his TU for RF. I don't know exact formula, but for some odd reason it seems they work best when they explode at cell next to alien, sometimes they seem to fail when they explode right on his cell, or too far. Grenades are also good option when you need to kill alien quick, but watch for splash damage.

Also, moving out to the side of soldier/alien before firing works too if you can do it quick enough. Aliens will try to do this frequently on close range, like when fighting inside buildings or UFOs. This can be avoided by proper positioning and multiple soldiers covering each other. Generally, watch the TU you're spending in enemy field of fire. Under 8 it's okay, if you think you'd go over 8 try to use flashbang or cover your movement with smoke grenade instead.

32

Tactics / Re: Struggling not to fail

« on: January 27, 2013, 02:00:41 am »

It takes just one country to screw you up, and russia and new africa are really unhappy with you.

Overall, you made some bad decisions about base layout. Too many aircraft, and you can't run effective research, manufacturing and interceptors/dropships in one base. I recommend running science in first base and workshops in secondary ones, that one starting workshop will do until you're able to build a new base. I never had the need to use more than one dropship and two interceptors per base, three bases in total.

Expanding your radar coverage early on with radar sites is a good solution, and build the second base as soon as possible. You will need to do some planning, so you better play one game just to the point where you get advanced radar so you know how much can it cover, then plan with it. Or if you want some layouts...I found that placing main base at east Crete, second in southeast Borneo, third somewhere in Texas, radar bases in south Africa, northeast Asia and south America works well. Also, get an UFO yard at once, put it near your future workshop base so you can disassemble UFOs quickly. I recommend capturing just one piece of any UFO, no matter what condition, and then capture just those that landed on their own, sell the rest. Only undamaged UFO will get you antimatter that you will need. Build SAM sites to add some extra protection to your bases, do not build them just somewhere in wilderness. They won't be able to shoot down any UFO on their own.

Filter out your soldier recruits. I see you are playing 2.4., so strength isn't important yet. I recommend keeping just those with speed and accuracy over 20 and mind near or over 30. You can right-click on a soldier's checkbox in recruitment screen to permanently get rid of him, some recruits are just that bad and you don't want them messing the screen.

33

Feature Requests / Re: More intel-gathering items for the battlescape

« on: January 25, 2013, 12:38:29 pm »

Bolter and coilgun can shoot through two walls, sniper rifle just through one.

34

Feature Requests / Re: More intel-gathering items for the battlescape

« on: January 24, 2013, 12:05:26 am »

IR goggles are actually most used piece of equipment in my inventory. Especially on some maps, like any bigger UFO, solar power plant, pipe construction, and such I have a team going inside and few people moving in parallel with them on the outside, scanning ahead using IR goggles.

35

Feature Requests / Re: Alien bullets/Armor piercing rounds

« on: January 23, 2013, 03:16:35 pm »

Speaking about pilots, I noticed that they gain experience only in targeting and evading, not piloting skill.

36

Feature Requests / Re: Alien bullets/Armor piercing rounds

« on: January 23, 2013, 01:01:07 pm »

ECM reduces chances of being hit. I use one computer and one ECM too, but later on you gain access to alien ECM that provides bigger bonus.

37

Feature Requests / Re: More intel-gathering items for the battlescape

« on: January 23, 2013, 01:00:17 pm »

Nope. In the moment you click them, they scan within a vision field of the user, that's what, 90 degrees? And their range is limited. Best use, scanning what's in the next room and finding targets for through-wall sniper shots.

38

Feature Requests / Re: More intel-gathering items for the battlescape

« on: January 23, 2013, 11:25:53 am »

IR goggles are for spotting targets on short range through walls.

39

Tactics / Re: 2.5 DEV How to enter a Fuel Depot??

« on: January 22, 2013, 07:03:50 pm »

Since you can't actually use it during the fuel depot mission for anything else than scripted action, I'd assume that it's not usable in any way on other maps.

40

Discussion / Re: weapons balance in 2.5

« on: January 21, 2013, 06:16:35 pm »

I haven't used bolter at all until improved ammo. It's a b*tch to make, but it's best sniper around. I don't have PB weapons researched yet and my campaign is pretty much on hold for now. I actually used light+heavy sniper team only after getting coilgun.

41

Discussion / Re: weapons balance in 2.5

« on: January 21, 2013, 04:01:20 pm »

I agree about the two man team. I don't have the improved rocket available yet in my campaign, so I can't say, but I think it is 1HKO weapon even at late game. But I think there should be another type of rocket available from the start, HEAT (shaped charge). Low yield blast, but direct hit would be 1HKO on virtually everything.

As for coilgun/electromagnetic rifle: They are more accurate than sniper over longer ranges. Coilgun is only slightly stronger than sniper rifle with plasma ammo, but improved ammo for bolter really takes the cake. In my game I use one "light" sniper with SR, and one heavy sniper with coilgun/bolter. They are really fun with throughwall attribute.

42

Discussion / Re: weapons balance in 2.5

« on: January 21, 2013, 01:01:01 pm »

I can't say yet. I'm still playing through. But encased plasma also fills a late-game role for rookies who can't effectively wield the needlers.

A shotgun ammo may be considered.

Well, encased plasma is actually superior to needlers. Assault rifle is lighter, more accurate, in the full auto even faster, and as hard hitting as normal needler. Heavy needler is a support weapon akin to machine gun, and in this role it is outmatched by machine gun with encased plasma, as it's again more accurate and as hard hitting as heavy needler. Probably only advantage needler has is in greater amount of projectiles being more favorable for "tagging" aliens and letting them bleed out.

I agree that shotgun might be cool, late game lacks quick, hard hitting short ranged attack useful for CQB. I have to use grenades and plasma blades for that, each with its own huge problems (melee range/splash damage) and can't be used for RF to keep those damn speedy shevaars off my troops' backs.

43

Tactics / Re: Where/why/how many bases do you build?

« on: January 20, 2013, 08:12:58 pm »

2 saracens, isn't that kinda too much? They're good only against fighters, supply ships and scouts, on anything bigger you need either mob them or AM powered fighter. Hell, even if you have stiletto+saracen, you need a good SAM fire to get Harvester down.

44

User modifications / Re: Convert saves from Simple to Full Campaign

« on: January 19, 2013, 05:13:45 pm »

AFAIK simple is just a series of pre-set ground missions. You have no need for interceptors, there aren't any random missions.

45

Discussion / Re: New encumbrance/TU system

« on: January 18, 2013, 09:13:35 am »

Wow, so you've just got one interception base until September? Did you have any trouble keeping nations happy? What about the Americas? I felt nation happiness was ridiculously easy (a by-product of the reduction in UFO frequency). Just goes to show how different play styles can be. My first money went into a second interception base and then I got radar coverage up everywhere I could before September.

Well, worst I had was few neutral for a while, but it rose up again quickly after I built second base. I guess it's due to placement, my first base covered significant parts of three nations and very little ocean so it wasn't that bad.

I consider getting a dedicated workshop ASAP to be a necessity, to disassemble some fighters quickly and equip your interceptors with particle beam weaponry, so you can take those fighter UFOs safely with just one interceptor and you have a chance of taking out harvester coming to visit your base.

I might try another approach sometime, with hybrid workshop/interception bases.