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[Aoi]

Possibility i imagine is that those numbers i see in the ruleset are only for chances of a ninja base spawning out of thin air, but do not account for the random UFOs that sometime try to establish new bases but can be intercepted/destroyed before they do ?
edit : didn't noticed the enemy base you destroyed, wow 186 enemies !
Good work !

That's probably the case-- I've also learned that Ninja bases can spawn new bases, via UFO, even after HQ is destroyed... so if you want to actually get rid of the alert spam on the map, you have to clear those out too.

...Yeah, no, I'm done with ninjas. {ctrl-d, ctrl-k}

It's not nearly as impressive as it seems, to be honest: Once you get rid of the turrets, there's basically nothing they can do that poses an actual threat to a hovertank. (Normal tanks can still get eventually worn down, but it takes a while.) Then it just becomes a matter of prowling around for fifty turns on the first two maps... and on the third one, before concluding that there's literally like 8 ninja medics hiding around in the ducts, and you have to chase them around for another fifty turns, because they're using red shields, you're equipped with lasers and shock'a'fists (both 25% damage), and the layout basically makes it impossible to gang up.

In other news: How on earth did I manage to clear an entire Mercenary base and reaction-fire to death on sight every single engineer? 

[Robsoie]

Never got to the point i could build even a basic tank in xpiratez, are they worth focusing on researches unlocking them ?

On a 40k Rosigma subject, there's 2 minimods that nicely deal with the multi-transform units that was introduced by Rosigma by ... getting rid of them :
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,10706.0.html
- 1st minimod will prevent the disguised units to spawn another full health unit on death (that would also spawn another unit on death and etc..)
- 2nd minimod will directly spawn in battle the final form of those multi transform troops.

Solved my only real annoyance with Rosigma.
I found out that the 1st minimod makes it a bit easier as the "disguised" -that's the mod explanation for the multitransform- troop is usually not very strong.
while the 2nd minimod oddly makes things harder, as the final form is the strongest unit with the strongest weapons usually, and if as from the start of the battle there are usually more range between them and you, making some harder firefight before you get your hands on them, while when they were spawning on previous unit death they were usually close already so you could continue to hammer them.

[Mathel]

Full tanks (not armored cars) are certainly worth it.

While Gals can't use them, they are great at tanking hits, and their main weapon is good against other tanks.

[Dostoevsky]

The mod's dev has frequently mentioned being on the fence about the very existence of tanks, as they're so... tanky... that they can trivialize a lot of opposition.

I think the change a few versions back that made them cost a lot of TUs to turn helped a bit to tune them down, but they're still incredibly powerful.

[Aoi]

Never got to the point i could build even a basic tank in xpiratez, are they worth focusing on researches unlocking them ?

Extremely worth it.

Even armored cars are fantastic if you get them when appropriate-- you're probably running tac vests (armor, optimistically) when they're first available, and they have both better armor and damage modifiers, get to use the heavy weapons with better accuracy, and can also function as mobile cover if you're fighting in a more open map-- they're pretty much impervious to small arms fire. Once enemies start pulling out mid-tier energy weapons, or even rocket launchers, these will crumble.

I'm honestly not sure what niche the MechaSuit fits into, but I didn't get much use out of mine by the time I got it. Numerically, it looks like it slots in between ACs and tanks, but I got it after tanks, which seemed to make it an objectively worse option.

Tanks can withstand pretty much anything other than concentrated from high-tier faction units or Star God heavies, and, if you go with the energy weapon variants, does enough damage to punch through almost any non-heavy in one turn by itself. It also has unlimited ammo on its 'small' gun, which you can often get 3x3 (or more) shots of 50dam laser at 60%+ accuracy-- decent shot at dropping a Mercenary Commando in a single volley.

Hovertanks have less armor and a smaller main Lascannon, but get to fly and have shields (and once you have the research, get access to gauss/plasma cannons which are better than H.Las), which make up for the shortcomings.

XEC Suits are basically the next evolution of ground tanks; I don't think there's any reason not to switch them out ASAP.

They're also a good way to train lokk'narrs and gnomes, since there's an entire quest branch (the Witch's Coven) that requires smaller/weaker units.

I think the change a few versions back that made them cost a lot of TUs to turn helped a bit to tune them down, but they're still incredibly powerful.

I found them more useful to park somewhere with good visibility and just act as a sniping target/snipe back, or park somewhere like right in front of a ship's main door and camp it, so the TU cost of turning was trivial. More limiting than their TU, is how their offense is bottlenecked by how much energy they take-- 275 out of 700 energy, but a single volley only takes 10%TU.

[Dostoevsky]

I'm honestly not sure what niche the MechaSuit fits into, but I didn't get much use out of mine by the time I got it. Numerically, it looks like it slots in between ACs and tanks, but I got it after tanks, which seemed to make it an objectively worse option.

My last game I got them significantly before tanks and kinda-sorta early somehow, but even after tanks they have a decent place. They're slow and a bit awkward, but they pack some real dakka. The vulcan variant in particular, just. The sheer number of armor-nibbling and flesh-vaporizing bullets it can spew out per turn.

Edit: Also yeah, armored cars are a bit too flimsy to be tanks but they are great mobile firepower packages. The lascannon variant keeps them relevant even later-game.

[Robsoie]

I got a medium UFO landing at a short distance from my base, i sent the Rhinos (so i could carry my newly mortis armor equipped Dreadnought to the mission) and quickly noticed that was a Necron ship.

Necron medium ships comes with 4 turrets that shoot whatever it is (it was night so with NVG i had no idea if it was blue or green shots, blue would have been plasma) .
Decided to challenge test my Dreadnought twin-linked Lascannon (thanks to the mortis armor) on the turrets as my 2 Rhinos own bolters turrets were doing nothing to them, and i was pleased to see my Dreadnought taking out 3 of them by himself (the 4th was on the other , not visible, side of the pyramid-like ship.
But even more satisfying, many Necrons fells to his weapon (sometime he had to kill them 2 times as Necrons like to rise again from being killed)

I was confident everything was going nicely, until i spotted the alert report. And said report mentionned that the Necron ship was raising more Necrons, basically it was a reinformance wave, but a big one as i had already killed 14 Nekrons and nearly as much were coming (some Nekron tank-like things too) , helped with my scout armored crew (my Rhino is for my team B, i usually send them to easier missions, as my MK7 space marines and terminators are on my Landspeeders) we killed 4 more necrons but lost a brave scout that got hacked to death by one of those pests that we already killed (killed twice as he had rose again previously) but that apparently was resurrected again by its pyramid ship.

Decided it was a good time to retreat because the battlefield was starting to be a bit too crowded for confort, i fetched 2 necrons corpses so at least it would make for some researches , a "Necron Deathmark" and a "Necron Lychguard" whatever they are... but man it seems the Necrons are as insanely hard as their lore hint them to be in Rosigma.
At least the retreat delivered a nice positive score, 18 necrons were killed and only one of my scout went down in this one.

then , a very large UFO landed at some distance, i sent my elite team A on their landspeeder.
It appeared to be a Night Lords flying fortress, full of their CSM in assault armor (i think the chaos versions are called raptors).
I was lucky as my landspeeder was close to the flying fortress entrance, meaning i could get into it very fast, as it was night it was a precious advantage for my troops survivability considering the night lords seems to have better night visions than my own troops.

And inside, big battle that proved that terminators with powerfists and assault and tactical SM equipped with plasma pistols and plasma guns are to be feared, when i remember in early game how super hard it was with bolters to kill a CSM, plasma really put back my team in the game (as at least 50% of the enemies use plasma, explaining why i had to work to take down a CSM while they could just one or two shot any of my guys and gals)

As a result i was surprised i managed to beat those night lords without a single loss.
But again that proved how very important it is to take an apothecary with you, the guy saved 3 dying SM during that battle ! and took them back on their feet so they could still help the assault.

Spoiler: a nice victory (click to show/hide)

Good amount of adamantium in that very large ufo, and selling all the loot from this battle that i didn't needed allowing me to get +1 million of credits

[E. Albright]

Something kinda weird happened in my slowly-ongoing XPiratexz game: the (upgraded) Ninja HQ vanished. It went from a huge radar circle overlaying most of India to... nothing. The airfields near it are still there - indeed, there's now three with stacked circles instead of just two. But the HQ is gone. I sent out a ship to sit and look for it there twice and found nothing. Did it glitch, or is something awful about to happen to me?

[Aoi]

Something kinda weird happened in my slowly-ongoing XPiratexz game: the (upgraded) Ninja HQ vanished. It went from a huge radar circle overlaying most of India to... nothing. The airfields near it are still there - indeed, there's now three with stacked circles instead of just two. But the HQ is gone. I sent out a ship to sit and look for it there twice and found nothing. Did it glitch, or is something awful about to happen to me?

Mine stayed there for maybe four years, getting bigger twice, until I assaulted and destroyed it.

I'd say something weird happened, but in your favor.

-----

Does anybody know what the easiest way to get the Star Gods' code is? Unlike the other factions, you can't just buy their commander, their invasion parties don't seem to have one, they don't establish bases for you to invade, leaving... shooting down their crazy fast and tanky capital ships, which haven't spawned in two three four months?

NINE months, before a cruiser finally spawned that had one. No Silver Towers in that time either.

And I can't help but imagine this dialogue...

"We've been waiting on you, Favorite Brainer, to finalize the specifications for our new heavy arms, the XEC Suit, before we begin our assault on Cydonia. What's the holdup!?""
"There's been an unexpected delay, Red Queen!"
"We're established that! What is the delay?"
"I... I've never seen a cockroach."
"The completion of the most advanced purveyor of mortality in the entire system is stymied because we're too clean?"

Spoiler: "Here's our research logs, m'lady!" (click to show/hide)

-----

Spoiler: The assault on Cydonia, and debriefing (click to show/hide)

I went in with four XECs (2 4xLascannon, 1 shield, 1 rocket) and two hovertanks (Lascannon), one Termicator, and the rest filled with Annihilator (15, I think). Everybody equipped with Battle Lasers and Riot Shields.

The surface was surprisingly easy-- sent out a hovertank to get eyes on the enemy, then a Paladin to soak up damage (and jiggle back and forth to absorb reaction fire), then Termicator to take advantage of better vision, then the heavies to clear the landing area. Then it was a pretty vanilla hop from bunker to bunker, with the XECs going out in groups of two, leapfrogging each other to give their shields a break. HTs were used as spotters.

Base assault was normal-- easier than a Mercenary Base since you can bring vehicles in... though they also get to take their heavies (Sectopods). I switched from my own Battle Lasers to looted Plasma Rifles (70las vs 80plas) since there was plenty of ammo, and it was marginally stronger. Never used my Imperator missiles...

Across both phases, I only took two damaging hits-- one was during turn 2 of the surface (Mercenaries managed to destroy 800 points of blue shields in two turns!?), and once in the base when I made a bad call about if an area was mostly safe... and overreached a foot soldier straight into a Sectopod. Sent a hovertank rushing across the map to cover her, which lost all its shields and half its life, but not a big deal since I took out the Solar Governor the next turn.

Final score:



Yeah... about that one lost hand... I wasn't paying attention and sent a CLAW against a Marsec Gunboat. Then accidentally quicksaved instead of quickloading, with my last save being about three hours back. Oops.

If I paid more attention to the tech tree, and my RNG wasn't godawful suck, I probably could've shaved upwards of two years off. More, if I didn't invest a bunch of resources into things I didn't do-- I basically skipped all of advanced VooDoo (never even got my Codex's specialty armor or weapons) and did only half the Witch's Coven.

Once you start getting access to tanks (and better), the ships to carry multiples into battle, and you don't care about prisoners... difficulty level drops way off to the point it's not really interesting anymore; it turns most battles into a one-sided slaughter, and the ones that aren't, tend to mean that you're getting shredded by enemies that outclass you-- Marsec is nasty... At near-endgame, it took around 8 gals using their entire turns to kill a single soldier. So I just grabbed his stuff and ran, like I'd do way back at the start.

Ninjas were mostly just annoying than problematic-- new ship alert spam, having to route around them, a bunch of extra missions that weren't particularly rewarding but took forever, etc. I'd be happier without it, or maybe adding an ending to their storyline as a lesser victory. I do like how, even incomplete, it's obvious that there're intended to be multiple endings, and that Cydonia is probably the 'normal' one.

[Rince Wind]

Marsec fall to ghost daggers and vibro axes. If you have some humanist warp cannons you have a devastating ranged weapon against them as well.

[Rolan7]

That research block is pretty funny!  I was going to point out that you can get chitin plates from cavern hunting (along with the Giant Bone which can be another weird research block) but you're right, you can't develop a chitin sword without having studied giant cockroaches!  And maybe completed a "Primal Hunt" for them?  weird.

[Robsoie]

Congratulations for the victory on xpiratez !

[E. Albright]

I don't think I've ever had a game where I didn't have some show up on a Castaway Gal mission, but I always spend A LOT of time with a minimal selection of mission types available, so I suppose I see more of those than most.

[GiglameshDespair]

That's a lot of runts hired.

[Aoi]

Marsec fall to ghost daggers and vibro axes. If you have some humanist warp cannons you have a devastating ranged weapon against them as well.

I just checked their entry... holy, their armor outclasses the best of yours. Also didn't help I was fielding exclusively lasers at the time. I think the only tech they have worth mentioning is top tier gauss and plasma, which, unless you want to produce them yourself (like for vehicles), can be skipped.

That research block is pretty funny!  I was going to point out that you can get chitin plates from cavern hunting (along with the Giant Bone which can be another weird research block) but you're right, you can't develop a chitin sword without having studied giant cockroaches!  And maybe completed a "Primal Hunt" for them?  weird.

I don't think I've ever had a game where I didn't have some show up on a Castaway Gal mission, but I always spend A LOT of time with a minimal selection of mission types available, so I suppose I see more of those than most.

Adding to the fun: I actually had cockroach research done... just not cockroach carcass. (Turns out nomads can give them... I somehow missed I had one more tech available from them, and had just been enslaving for them endlessly.)

Primal Hunts are a new set of missions where you have to do a series of animal hunts with cavewomen gear... I just piled random junk in to see what'd stick and did it all with Berserker/Fists/Bone Clubs

Also, throughout my entire game, I never encountered a Canny Gal. I did start skipping a lot of those missions later on, but that means I still did maybe 20-30 missions that could've had them... just kept getting werewolves or necropirates instead.

That's a lot of runts hired.

I ended up with one 'master' base that handled all the specialty research and landing parties (you need a varied team-- a lot of peasant/lokk'narr-only missions now), 3 factory bases (one high tech, two mostly running the mint), and the rest being for whatever/hangars/upkeep reduction. Just at the three factory bases, they were using about 1000 runts.