Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Iduno]

You have some great training methods, but i would never dare to go in so many battles with only pistols as i'm always worried about them not being damaging enough against most enemies.
In the same time that may explain why i get much less captured people than you

The pistols don't actually get used. I think I only used the pistols 2-3 times last night against living targets (not barn walls), and those were all against enemies who were already on the ground. I didn't really mention it, but most of the gals dropped their pistols when they wanted to grab a beer, and never bothered to pick them back up. I keep them around so we get an occasional reaction shot to train firing (which is also why I mostly take the self-charging laser: it's fast and unlikely to kill accidentally).

A huge percentage of the enemies in the game can be defeated by "stun baton from behind." I use that weapon in particular for training because it increases reaction and melee, which are the skills it uses and also the skills that are used to keep the enemy from shooting you when you're in melee with them. Also, it ignores 25% of armor. An average hit will do damage to 53 armor, assuming you have 100 reaction and the enemy has no resist to electricity (guild engineers are the first enemy I have difficulty knocking out with stun batons, but it's still do-able). Orison Security (Owls) have 50 armor in the front, and 30 in the back. They're comparable to a Dragoon Rifle, and only take 7 TU (plus a few to run into melee).

I think we also have slaver canes which do 85 damage at max stat (and you can go over that with outfits or lucky stat gains). That's enough to damage enemies in power armor reliably, assuming the wiki is still accurate. They don't train stats as well (more TU and damage=fewer hits needed), but I usually only give them to gals who have maxed reactions and melee anyway. I'll usually shoot the Bodyguards with a plasma first, because they have a lot of HP, but the cane is a good way to knock them out afterwards.

It's actually way less reckless than it appears. Although my character should be playing up the crazy. Also, the enemies I actually care about are the ones with melee weapons, because they do the same thing I do. Remember, this is a mod of x-com. Doing enough damage is easier than surviving enough damage. Everyone is a glass cannon.

"Not enough damage" isn't really a concern until you hit power armor and tanks, and you generally know to prepare for those.

[Iduno]

Home from the bar, let's see what we got.

First mission, the Academy Hopper we shot down.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Our first friend. I don't know if we've seen one of these yet.

And the Hopper has sustained "some" damage. We investigate, and notice nobody is inside.

Khan walks up past the wreckage, and find where the rest are hiding. Deadly MCreeper gets shot at by the one in the shed.



The enemies shoot at us a few times, and we block half of them. One guild rep tries to escape us and catches a bullet.



Next round went fast.

Another Disruptive Transmissions, but we only have 2 Lokk'Naar suits. We pop in and leave, so we at least avoid the penalty. The prepper box from the bandit caves is opened, then research.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spotty Hawk only had 10 bravery as well?


If we had more uninjured gals, I'd probably go for this one as well.

We had a lot of stuff that wasn't useful for anything, so we sold it.

Scientific Experiments

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We found the base on first look.

We spread out, and find one Researcher outside.



Next turn, Khan zaps the Researcher. EuchreJill and 3 others storm the base.




Khan takes a bullet (and a wound!), and someone misses the gal kneeling below the elevator in the base. [I've only ever seen one other researcher up there, and they took the elevator down immediately.] The nurse responsible goes down to a stun baton. EuchreJill takes down the Researcher, and zaps the medic once. Salad E.Albright comes through the door, around the table, and knocks her out.  We end the round before Khan's wound does any more damage.

We shot down a megapol ship over what turned out to be water (looked like land, honest), but we have an Academy Hopper and terrible terrain to start with next time.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I do think we have 2 gals in hover armor. I don't think we have a usable path across the water.

Edit: Do we want to try a Ratling Cache mission? We've got 3-4 Lokks we could send, but that sounds like a bad idea.
Also, do we want to build the ventura? It's mediocre, but cheap to build, and we don't have much to build at...any of our bases right now. We're short on funds for engines, and have zero apples anywhere.

[Rince Wind]

Build it, it should make for a good tank while interceptors deal damage (I still use the red ship for that job in the endgame) and it can be nice to be able to throw more bodies at something in certain missions. Especially missions where the ship is not on the map anyway.

[Iduno]

Build it, it should make for a good tank while interceptors deal damage (I still use the red ship for that job in the endgame) and it can be nice to be able to throw more bodies at something in certain missions. Especially missions where the ship is not on the map anyway.

For that, we need a cloaking device, and we might not want to spend that 300k that way just yet. Because we have the money (and possibly chips - I've been saving money purses, etc. to make shipping them all a bit cheaper) to build a Casino. Our monthly maintenance would drop from $4.4 million per month to -$2.2 million per month. We'd be turning a profit even if we don't do anything. We can get by for now with the ships we have, and that would let us really expand. I'll upload the full description when I can (I'm about to get busy today, but wanted to upload the save).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Save File for starting October 2602.

Edit: Oh, and you'll get the first Dr. X mission this month, probably. Put everyone in rags (best armor allowed by the mission), and go punch out nurses (they surrender, so who cares if they eventually wake up again). It's a great, fun, stupid mission and I love it (hopefully you do as well). I think the Deliveroo can get us there? Otherwise we'll have to buy a car or something. The loot is pretty good though.

[Rince Wind]

Only Airbus and that 5 seater are allowed.

If nothing was changed since I last looked we need about 7500 red chips for the casino.

[Iduno]

Only Airbus and that 5 seater are allowed.

If nothing was changed since I last looked we need about 7500 red chips for the casino.

I know we have 850-ish blue at Queen Teuta (more at the other bases), plus a Siren to rob, and money purses and the like. I quit spinning the wheel so we'd accumulate them, but I'm more worried about those than red chips. We should have a stupid number of red chips by now, unless someone has been selling them. It's a huge purchase, but it means that our money problems are finally going to be significantly lessened (an extra $6.6 million per month is a lot). I'm in January 2603 in my own game, and am trying not to spend any money so I can buy one.

Mary Read Docks needs another 4x4 building (casino, probably), a surgery, a still, and a mess. Queen Teuta is pretty good, and can be a temporary "build stuff" base in between processing hostages (so much research available), and has 35-ish apples. Ching Shih could probably stand to have one of the plantations turned into a luxury spa so we can upgrade all of our squires and courtesans. That's slow and kind of expensive, but it does pay off. I'd recommend starting with Casino, plantations-> weed plantations, then see where you are (I assume, "broke for this month, rich in the future"). There should be 24 sectoweed at the 2 bases with plantations, so they can both be planted.

[Rince Wind]

So Rolan7 ist next I think.

[Rolan7]

Oh shoot, that was fast.  Um, I'd like to skip for now - which I guess means Robsoie.  Or I could probably get to it Tuesday or Wednesday.

[Rince Wind]

You have a week, all in all, so it should be fine.

[Robsoie]

I'm out of this unfortunately. Keep skipping my turn

Impressive score again !

By the way i am a bit puzzled on how is the end month scoring work, i thought at first it was with those end mission scores, with bonus from some researches and malus from some stuff (like enemy landing, ufo flying unopposed, etc...) but even on my own turn, things didn't really added up for my score (that ended much higher than i thought). On my own save things seemed to make more sense on my end month scores but i was never that far in months than this succession game is so i may be missing some positive score generating stuff.

What are the other score sources (i mean other than end mission scores and researches) that can contribute positively ?

[Rince Wind]

Interrogating prisoners gives score for the tech AND for the interrogation itself, even if you already know about this prisoner (because in the lore you set them free so they can tell about how great/dangerous/cruel/beautiful/whatever you are). So if you want to make the most score you need to get as much information from prisoners as possible. Though that might not be the best idea, some prisoners are worth more as slaves if they could only tell you about a randon #background article, or robbing them for important parts like power armors parts or hypno panels might be more important. Or you need that research now and can't wait for a prisoner to tell you the right thing by accident.

Other than that it is the missions, regular research (and the extra score it can provide) and downing enemy craft I think.

[Robsoie]

Ah thanks, the downing ufo i completely forgot that i shot down a lot of them on my turn (especially as i had that odd event in which there are dozen of flying ratmen all around the base, that i shot all down) , that's something i rarely do on my save simply because i usually don't have the means for that.

That could explain why my own score was much superior to my expectations.

[Iduno]

So if you want to make the most score you need to get as much information from prisoners as possible. Though that might not be the best idea, some prisoners are worth more as slaves if they could only tell you about a randon #background article, or robbing them for important parts like power armors parts or hypno panels might be more important.

Yeah, that's why I interrogate everyone early. I'd rather have a ratling brigand teach us something that someone important or difficult to find.


I played almost all day yesterday and some after I posted Friday, and don't have anything written down, but I do have pictures.

That academy hopper:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Salad (best descriptor for someone who is a person and not a pile of leaves) E. Albright gets us going right, by knocking out an Academy student and locking down another. Then we find the person we've been looking for; an esper.


Wiry Trix was able to lock this researcher down, but I threw a molotov to make sure they got knocked out? I don't remember.


Deadly MCreeper also shot an Owl. [I'm like 95% sure that an in-game term for the Osiron Security] and I lock him down.


Overall, we could have done better, but most of the rest have pretty bad weapons. At some point, I guess we should start disassembling pocket laspistols. Self-chargers do more damage (but not enough to accidentally kill anyone we care about except reticulan elders), are faster, and maybe more accurate? Also, the only reason we can get to that ship without hover suits (2 currently equipped) is someone threw a black powder bomb to blow up some small trees over south of the 2 large ponds.



Our last action is finding an explorer and another researcher.


E.Albright takes down another researcher. Obnoxious Fins took down a researcher, and locked down the explorer. At least they're less tough than they look.



And then we zapped the rest. EuchreJill was our healer this time through. We needed a healer, because we got 2 plasma weapons (which we will unlock in ~3 months or so). We got the esper alive, and some organ carriers, which we can trade to the mutant alliance for more bounty tokens.

We have "some" extra space in our living quarters, so we build a power station. Extra money each month won't hurt. This is also our most workshop-oriented base, so it's a good place for it. Also, there was a...slight downside to collecting those plasma weapons. On the upside, we've got a few more volunteers. And some research.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is the prison at Ching Shih. This might be a better place for the Luxury Spa. And another dozen or so brainers so we can work through this backlog of research.



And that general got us this:


Weird, but whatever:


From an iron coupon, and a 4 titanium coupons I think:

We shot down a small Church ship.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And that ship type holds one person, so this will be a quick one.

Quick research:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Humanist Arsenal? Sure, they've got: a) it coming and b) not much for weapons.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We started close, so second round out of the ship we were in combat. Stand-outs this mission include Hector 13, who got a triple-KO. Also, a lot of doubles going around, and I think Egan blocking a door over there. E.Albright does the same. Looks like MCreeper was our healer today.




Now, I mentioned the door earlier for a reason. (I think) Egan was covering the door when the last opponent opened it. This is why I like to guard doors.


And we got a lot of garbage, but at least it sells well.

We've been doing well, so the Lokks need our help. We'll do anything for our apples. Allies. I said allies.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First enemy is a melee lady, so we should probably knock her out as a priority. I don't even know who shot the second one.




We're making progress. Who knows how many we have left.


None. None more left.

More research, as we've been doing a lot of that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eh...


Why isn't she wearing her space suit anymore?

Another Academy ship crashed "for some reason."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First, we check to see if we see the ship outline so we don't wander around for nothing. At least we know it's not along the west or north edges.


First gal out of the ship finds them anyway.


They shoot at us a lot. That HIT! was them shooting one of their coworkers, which we were later told "had nothing to do with her getting promoted over me." Armor is nice. [I remember in TFTD, that many shots hitting us means the whole team would be dead. To be fair, any difficulty you chose was automatically superhuman. Armor and hit points barely did anything.]


A few gals line up outside the ship to deal with survivors. The rest spread out and scout the surroundings. They're pretty good at scouting. They're also pretty decent at assault.




Hector picks off a stray Owl. The ship was apparently the new Academy Clown Car. They kept coming from every direction, and it took 2 rounds to clear.



And then there was this jerk, armed with a light cannon.


We eventually took down that last Owl. And got some decent training.






Sadly, we lost Hector13. Hector had been performing admirably, so getting one-shot by someone who was in melee is extra disappointing.

Research!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This was the last thing that Human Commando knew that we didn't.

I think this was from a marsec operative.


Data disc?


These are mostly dumb things weak people say to sound smart. I can get down with the Liberator, though.

More government agents captured by ballers. [As long as we're on an Escape From NY mission, this seems like a good time to bring up Dick Warlock, the main character's stunt double. I'm not going to say stunt doubles deserve equal billing, but also his name is Dick Warlock.]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, this will be tough.

Oh, fine. Put the other ones way at the northwest.


Luckily, they charge into melee, and get stun batoned.

Research, and we won an aircar race with the scorpion.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah, if you could spot us a half dozen ship engines, we'd do that:

Now we're talking. This one's for you, Robsoie.

We skipped the Ratling Cache, because sending non-ubers on a mission is a sucker's bet. But we did go to a Sunday Town, because we've got a few people in Hover Suits (and we're making more). Also chainmail is temporarily upgraded to having a shield, to improve survivability against zombies.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is why we changed to chainmail+shield. More armor, and better resist against cutting.

Wooden Riot sees a mall, and has seen enough documentaries about zombies to know there's always some in the mall.


2 of them come out (unless someone else opened that door...), and try to attack this poor cat. We'll sell him to a good home for $5k. Then this zombie got next to us, but couldn't attack. Luckily, I was wearing my brown pants. Then we find the second mall zombie.




You can imagine where it goes from here. (He fixes her cable?)



And then we go back and juice the zombies.

Moar Research.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We can finally process demon corpses.

Another ratling roundup? Don't mind if I do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The hover suit spared us finding out about this dog the hard way. No, the other one.

Hax.




They got a chance to shoot at us?


We found the leader. And this dork.



So Egan heals someone, then gets shot while flying away. At least we know who to blame for the shot, and beat them unconscious as payback.


It was going to take us another round, but this ratling helpfully opened a door.




17 more apples!

A guild hopper got shot down this time.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And we landed right next to it.


We just learned about you!


We get shot at with shotguns. Results are predictable.


More soft targets, and one security guard. Although that guild doctor could hurt someone with that magnum.





Guess he won't now. Khan did half of this work.


I'm not sure I've seen a clerk before.



This hover armor makes the ponds much less annoying. I manage to find 2 more, but it's a bit late.



MCreeper finds one more. Rince can't quite get this one.



MCreeper comes down to help.


Wiry Trix finally finds (I hope) the last one.




Sold a lot of trash. Got a lot of good hostages.

Research.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I took a picture of this base. It was very important at the time.

Megapol got shot down again. We go to investigate, to see if we can determine the culprits. We'll send the blowfish full of newbies for training.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good formation. Wish they were close enough for a grenade.




Then this? I wish I still had that text file with my notes.


We'll need 2 more new recruits. I hope neither of these were promising, but I don't remember anything about them.

The main crew goes to search the wreckage of a church ship. This would have been a safer training mission, but when it takes 24 hours to get there, the blowfish crew gets what they get.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think we found them.


Didn't there used to be a roof on that ship? Someone survived that crash?



Ooh, a warmaiden and two Altar Boys.




Rince finds another altar boy.



And we searched for a while to find this warmaiden hiding in a cave. Khan still has a shield, so this should be safe.

And yet another Academy Ship.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Rince takes down a researcher, then keeps scouting.


Andromeda finds this Owl.


Then we breach the rest of the ship.




Robsoie lucks into finding 2 more Owls. I find an engineer.




Ship storming: achieved. Then we track down the last Owl.

Research! Then we shoot down a ship.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pays itself off in a month and a half.

Plasma we can use right now (if we have any). Easier than unlocking ones the Star Gods designed.


They shot back?

We go after those reticulans.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I should probably have replaced the shield by now, right?


Andromeda clears this level of the ship. Sadly, she had to shoot a reticulan to get up the ladder. Then zaps the next reticulan to come down the ladder.


That's not a convenient location, but we get there anyway. Good Rolan.



I love that you can see where I decided I was just better off without the gun over by that fence.


And a siren gives us an assist. Rince Stormed takes advantage.

Another mission?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's going to be some injuries/deaths.

Do we have an uninjured crew? Looks like no.

That mission might be good, though. [I say, like an idiot. We needed the Ghoul Scientists, though.]

First, reaserch.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We were finally able to turn in higher-level coupons. And we had...several.



Do you remember why I took this picture? Because I don't. Also, that's part of why the numbers aren't always consecutive. That, and me mashing the button multiple times, or not remembering if I already took a picture.

Finally, the ghouls.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Let me show you somethin'!"




Oh. We're not wildly prepared for that. Luckily they have bad armor, so we're doing 1-2 damage when we hit. That's not going to take forever. Also, we're in a maze.



We spread out and start scouting.



I'll just put this over here with the rest of the fire.


Dammit. They're worth almost nothing, and they can actually hurt us. Especially because we're wearing looter/smoke outfits. Those're fine against chem, which is all the ghouls carry.


After taking those ones down, it takes some effort to find the rest. We managed it, though.





I didn't open that door, so there must be another friend there. Nice work, MCreeper.



It seems to be going well. Even if we have to double-team half of the ghouls.




That was sudden. I think this was the gal in a space suit because that's all we had. I assumed it would provide some armor as well, but she got one-shot.


E.Albright found and killed the blood hound next round. You can see the red space suit just below the building.


MCreeper shoots this ghoul. They've got enough health, and this will keep them from standing back up next round.


We found one more, with a blunderbuss. I don't remember that having a chem option, so we need to be careful.


A few more alleys down south, and one building up north. Almost cleared.



Did you know flamethrowers aren't easy to completely block? Anyway, Robsoie failed a morale check, then shot this guy until he fell over.


I did not fail a morale check, but I do carry vodka to deal with miscreants like these who keep standing back up. I know they surrender, but I don't want to deal with them.


That scientist we saw above us came down? Cynical Mermaid was just going up to check there.


The turn after Robsoie failed a morale check and shot a ghoul until it passed out, Robsoie fails a morale check and locks down an enemy in melee. Also, finds them.


The next round, Robsoie just punches out a ghoul, which is way faster than zapping them all.


I think MCreeper found the last one. Just like Cynical Mermaid did last round, then Robsoie.


That Ghoul who started themself and Robsoie on fire, then got shot? They got back up.


Deadly MCreeper also makes sure one doesn't get back up soon. I was able to take this picture, because this also wasn't the last one.


Finally! E.Albright tags this one with a laser, because it's way too far to walk (alley in the way).





While running over to that last ghoul, we uh, found another the last ghoul. Rince Stormed locks it up in melee, then...

Shot through the roof, fell, and walked away. Impressive move.



Ok, this is the last one we see. That other number is for one who stood back up.


We got life support systems! We need those for ships and certain armors, I think.

Not that much training, all things considered.

Good loot, though.


And we only need 2 of the ghoul scientists. Those and the other ghouls can't be robbed or enslaved, so we just ransom them back.


It's been going poorly for swabbies this month.

And, like after every mission, I check training again.

Research?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Agreed.

Then we go around to the bases, and get rid of stuff we don't need. A lot of stuff. I'm curious if it's okay to sell the codex now that it's all researched? I didn't, but if anyone knows, let me know. Also, end of the month (and morning after research).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Happy Birthday E.Albright and me!

I guess we also need a new Hector13. Anyone else who needs a turn or gal?

[Robsoie]

That Destroyer seems to be a guy with interesting ideas

Good job on the meat grinder mission ! Those things are just horrible places.

[Iduno]

Good job on the meat grinder mission ! Those things are just horrible places.

It's also a reminder that we're surviving because we have armor. Good news is, we don't need any more ghouls, except to ransom back. If we get flying armor with good chem and choking defense, I'd love to go back again.

I think blowing up those pipes made that area never have smog again, so that might also be a solution, just not a reasonable one (you'd lose hostages, loot, and the smoothie captives, as well as taking a lot of time or ammo/explosives). Honestly, shooting the pipes is only good to light the place up. My plan was "it won't explode accidentally if it already exploded, so it's safe to go there." I forgot about the fires. It's much easier just to not end your turn next to anything that can explode (stupid barrels).