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Noob questions from a new player :)


Spacemonger

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I bought this game years ago but never got to actually play it, save for a very short time. Now I saw the community Edition and I felt like playing, and I stumbles into some issues, or things Im not sure how to understand. I have a few questions I hope someone here can help me :)

Started game on normal and I downed my first ufo. Here I lost one guy and another one seriously hurt that needs 18 days to heal. The first guy got hit and killed in one shot from what seemed like an impossible shot. The alien was inside a building in about 10-12 tiles from my guy well inside a building( about 5-6 tiles from an open door, in a slanting position relative to the door and my guy, my guy was about 5-6 tiles outside from the door. I was very suprised that the alien could make such a shot and kill my guy in one shot, but I would like to know if this is normal, is the aliens just this good? Or was I simply just unlucky here, none of the soldiers position outside made any reaction fire and the alien move into cover after firing. On the plus side I moved my shotgun guy in next round and shot the alien in one shot with a 35% hit chance 3 tiles away from the alien (normal shot). This seemed to me like a very low chance for a normal shotgun blast that close; I felt very lucky I actually hit with only a 35% chance. With a bit of unluck one could easily have several guys line up just in front of the alien and fire their shogun several times, and not hit it at all? The next guy got hit when an alien open a window and took one shot from 6 tiles distance. Again none of the soldiers line up did any reaction fire (they all had normal or aimed TU's reserved). Several of my guys had above 60in the reaction stat, so im wondering if/when reaction fire is actually something I can rely on? Shields seems now like the only viable choice for defense, seeing as reaction fire doesn't "fire" so to speak.

Next time I think I'll arm half of the squad with shields and have them form a line advancing anti-riot squad style, and perhaps even engulf the space just in front of this line of soldiers in smoke on each turn end. Let's see if that will work better? Can you give me any suggestion from what I have written here, on better tactic, loadout for troops?

Another question: To attack the ufo itself I used my guy with a shield to open the door, then I used my other guys equipped with Flashbangs to throw flashbangs inside to surpress the alien. The first flashbang hit right in the tile the alien was standing in and exploded upon which the alien did reaction fire and hit my guy, but for some reason my guy only took 1 hp damage. But I thought flashbangs were supposed to supress the enemy such that they could not reaction fire? The opposite seemed to happen, because it did reaction fire. So I threw another flashbang upon which the alien seemed to die(??) also the second flashbang seemed to have the effect of blowing up the ufo engine(??),  because in the mission success screen there were only corpses recovered no live aliens. So why did the flashbang not surpress the alien? Why did the alien die from a flashbang, and how/why can a flashbang make a ufo engine explode? Im certain that it was the flashbangs, the small grenades with a green stripe horizontally across its center.Are things working as they should here?

EDIT: okay so about the flashbangs I read a little wiki about them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stun_grenade) and indeed it seems accurate that they can do some damage in that the heat generated can ignite fuel (so that could explain the engine blowing up, the engine was position in the tile next to the flashbangs explosions). Also apparantly the consussive blast can still injure, and these grey aliens are physically weak (right?) so this also could make sense, perhaps two flashbangs just at its feet tore the poor things body asunder. But the reactive fire not being prevented still seems a mystery to me?

 

 

Edited by Spacemonger
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On 14/02/2018 at 0:13 AM, Spacemonger said:

The first guy got hit and killed in one shot from what seemed like an impossible shot. [...] I would like to know if this is normal, is the aliens just this good? Or was I simply just unlucky here?

Hello ! Welcome to the (slightly insane) Xenonauts version: XCE ! Yes, they are that good. Especially the Caesans. If i'm not mistaken they are a pretty good shot (also, the Harridans, but I digress). Additionally, yes, sometimes, you just get unlucky. This game is quite punishing for a newcomer. You, usually, have to learn the rules the hard way by watching your precious squadies getting blown to bits. In the meantime, ain't we got fun ?

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3 hours ago, Mopolopy said:

Hello ! Welcome to the (slightly insane) Xenonauts version: XCE ! Yes, they are that good. Especially the Caesans. If i'm not mistaken they are a pretty good shot (also, the Harridans, but I digress). Additionally, yes, sometimes, you just get unlucky. This game is quite punishing for a newcomer. You, usually, have to learn the rules the hard way by watching your precious squadies getting blown to bits. In the meantime, ain't we got fun ?

Im beginning to get a hang of a strategy now using shield guys and tons of smoke and grenades. Still the "scout" size ufo's have 4-5 aliens inside, and usually 3 of them just sits there camping until I open the door and they'll take like 2 reactive shots each, even with shields that often ends in a dead soldier. Going to try with C4 and blow it off instead and throw smoke inside and grenades, though I guess I'll be destroying valuable tech and items. But that's an interesting trade off to consider: dead soldiers or valuable tech?For now  I sort of expect one casualty on each mission, and if I don't and just get a serious injury I'll take that as a bonus. But I have read now that getting the scout car will be great way to scout the aliens without getting my men shot at, so looking forward to that also.

What about the flashbangs though? They don't seem to do anything to prevent reactive fire. I threw one at an alien, it blew up, but then in response the alien reactive fired. Is this supposed to happen?

Edited by Spacemonger
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Flashbangs are used to suppress, indeed. When a target is suppressed, it crouches and a blue icon appears over its head. When a target is suppressed it loses all its TUs and recovers 50% of its TUs the next turn. However, sometimes, more than one flashbang is necessary. Also, maybe you had an unlucky throw and the grenade landed too far ?

Another way to suppress a target is to fire a machine gun at them or near them (this includes your own soldiers!). If no MG is available at hand, you can still provide suppression by fire by using (several) assault rifles and sniper rifles.

Note that exploding cars, barrels, engines, drones and rockets can also suppress nearby creatures.

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Should be noted that firing angles specifically can be a bit strange in the game - there is a logic to them, but it's hard to explain. You basically need some experience.

Getting body armour is a big step in the game because, until that point, your soldiers are likely to die in one hit. Jackal armour isn't great but surviving a shot is no longer a miracle then.

13 hours ago, Spacemonger said:

Still the "scout" size ufo's have 4-5 aliens inside, and usually 3 of them just sits there camping until I open the door and they'll take like 2 reactive shots each, even with shields that often ends in a dead soldier.

Smoke works quite well, as you'd expect (not against Sebillians though), but my preferred method is to use the rocket launcher. Scouts in particular have a pretty nasty layout, with the main semi-circular room such that aliens inside have a clear shot. Blow the door up with a rocket from long range and there won't be any reaction fire, you may even kill / wound an alien. Then follow up with other fire inside the UFO. The engines on each side of the room are very explosive, and aliens like hiding next to them.

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52 minutes ago, Mopolopy said:

However, sometimes, more than one flashbang is necessary. Also, maybe you had an unlucky throw and the grenade landed too far ?

 

It landed right on the tile the alien was standing on. So did the second flashbang, and that made the engine it was standing next to blow up killing the alien. Perhaps a better course of action is to throw smoke first and then flashbang, in case of reactive fire the smoke should make it miss. Or I could just use rockets to blow up everything like Solver suggested :)

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2 minutes ago, Solver said:

Flashbangs are a matter of luck whether they do it in one hit or not. I prefer first using the LMG to suppress (again, from medium or long range), and then adding a flashbang. The combined effect is often good enough to suppress several aliens!

Which would beg the questions why not simply using 2 hmg shots is always the better variant since the AOE of the hmg projectile travel path is limiteless superior to the small area of the flashbang.

The answer to that would be that everybody can carry grenades, while not everybody carries hmg. All in all the flashbangs are a bit lackluster though, as there is a fine line between useless and OP, and the flashbang walks the line desperately.

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