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Best mods / improvements for Xenonauts 1?


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I have a huge amount of respect for the people who have spent their time modding Xenonauts to create new experiences for the players, particularly the teams behind the largest mods like X-Division and XNT. Unfortunately, though, I can only admire from a distance - I really struggle to derive much enjoyment from playing Xenonauts given I spent so long building the game!

I just thought I'd throw this thread up so people could talk about their favorite changes made in specific mods and why they like them so much, as I think I'd find it interesting to read while I tinker with the design of Xenonauts-2. This doesn't have to be something that you want us to incorporate into X2 but if it is then by all means say so :)

This thread is open to mod makers as much as it is mod players - if there's something that you've modded into Xenonauts that you think is a particularly great addition, feel free to post it up and explain why you think it's so great!

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I'm glad you thought of this thread, it was something I was thinking of starting myself, but I've been spamming the forum a bit too much already.

One of my favourite Xe1 mods is Tactical Armouries as it did a great job of using asymmetric weapon upgrades to give each tier its own strengths, which is something discussed on this forum that would be good in Xe2, e.g. lasers more accurate and high damage but lacking auto (hence best at long range), ballistic retain flexible fire options, mags have better burst fire and armor penetration (and the mod also gave the aliens advancements in armor as the game progressed), plasma had very high damage but low ammo and less fire options.  Kabill also tweaked the way suppression works so armored sollies/aliens can actually be suppressed, and encouraged pistol use by making inventory swaps and grenade use while using two-handed weapons cost more TU, and they only took up 2x1 inventory space rather than the entire belt. All of this, with solly carrying capacity also being reduced, really made you think about what each one is carrying (overall a great middle ground towards some of the potential changes discussed for Xe2 while still using the basic mechanics of Xe1).

X:CE - simple things like mousewheel support and sort by column in base, faster alien turns and improved  

Lore+ was great.  Any amount of extra effort put into the story and feel of the game rather than just the engine and game balance help with a more immersive feel, and give you more ability to create something noticeably unique right from the get go.

Enhanced Crash Sites - you have already mentioned elsewhere you want to make UFOs destructible (which Fire in the Hole! did for Xe1) so we don't need to talk about that, but I liked it how with this mod there could be a big fire already on the map, which actually affected which route my sollies had to take on approach to the craft, which helped make up for lack of map diversity until I started using some of the other maps, and even gave some smoke cover to one or both sides, making it more replayable.  It also made the whole thing more realistic and immersive. I'd love to see using chunks of a UFO that has broken up on impact as cover. Anything that makes assaults on the same UFOs different on each mission is good.

120 degrees view angle , as it was annoying having keep right clicking to look around a corner here and there, and repeat this every few steps, rather than just incorporate a mechanic for sollies' peripheral vision, their constant "heads on swivel" so to speak.  They still had to turn to shoot of course.

Hold the Line - made ranked officers more important for defense against psionics since it reworked the morale system.

Projectile Overhaul - made the game look a lot better, with projectile look and movement that matched the weapon type.  Laser bolts were a bit buggy though.

Edited by RustyNayle
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I never played the large total-overhaul mods like X-Division or XNT Into Darkness and was more a fan of smaller mods:

- Lore+ to enhance the immersion
- Fire in the hole to get into UFOs the way you want it
- Enhanced Crash Sites as it just looks better with a lot of debris and smoke around the UFO
- I loved the True Laser Beam to have a more realistic laser beam
- The small mod Blood, just because
- providing the (for me) essential Select Nect Soldier button
- of course all of Skitso's map macks and improved thingies

- Cool for some time: The 3rd Flying Circus

The Community Edition (CE) was in general a bit better balanced game than Xenonauts.
I still think it is a huge thing that Goldhawk Interactive made it possible for the community to "overhaul" their game without any strong regulations of the content. The team of voluntary coders who put so much effort in that without any benefit - maybe fun and they had the chance to do game develoment, but I can only guess here - is still something I respect a lot and have to thank them.

Edited by thixotrop
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Various mods I used have been already mentioned here.
But here are some more not yet mentioned (even if most of these are simply some config / .xml-file tunings; they still saved the hassle of doing it myself):

- Xenonauts X-pansion Pack
Combines already various good mods alongside includes some improvement (especially for example making the stun-gas it be able to "stun" more than once in a turn).
Links:
https://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14406-xce-0342-xenonauts-x-pansion-pack/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=877861459

- Vazl's Weapon Pack
Combining the previous individual weapons and tweaks into a single package
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1371753918

- BarleyTroops
To get slightly better soldiers from the get go.
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=493408818

- Larger Living Quarters
It's only increase of five units. But it's still a huge increase in a long run.
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530616518

- No Click Sound
I for the most part don’t like to have the click sound doubled.
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=561448390

- Jackal Armour Profit
Well this one was more fair than simply using a money-cheat at least.
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=533101850

- psionyze this
Colour for psionic-attacks (even if I ended completely removing the “hallucination / berzerk”-effect eventually)
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=535546033

- Don't Forget to Bring a Shotgun
Having the shotguns and “carbines” more effective.
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=618850030

- Super Flares!
Better flares!
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=849656819

- Cover indicator overhaul
Cover-indication being more clear
Links:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843148276
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=856888425 (minimalistic-version)

- Increased Max Accuracy
Simply removing the 95%-hit-chance-cap and make the point-blank-shots unmissable.
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=892286206

- Minimalist Minipatch
Various little tweaks to main gameplay
Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=760951580

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  • 4 weeks later...

Two mods I liked in particular were the Full Soviet Weapons and German Weapons Pack. They added non-NATO weapons (obviously) and, despite not using them, made it feel like I had more choice as to what I could use. Maybe in X2 the player can have weapons from other nations?

Edited by SomewhatArchitectTheFirst
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Chris, thx for this topic.. as i gave many years to X-Division, i want to share what i wanted to create for my dream X-Com style game.. X-Division's main point was about the "enemy" rather then the player even there is tons of additions to the player side. So i want to explain my thoughts one by one..

Enemies..:

1. Variety.. many and different enemies.. as the game got "phases", the player needs to see different mechanics/types of enemies with every phase.. not just with more stats of the same things.. when the player go to the next phase, he should react to new ones as "wtf is that"... he should reconsider his tactics, game play.. he needs to find new ideas to win.. for example, at second phase, i gave power shields to ceasans, at third phase i gave them big bossy xenomorphs.. i tried to add totally new enemies at every phase to surprise player base, then at next phases i added new abilities to the old ones when they updated.. aliens which moves underground...

2. Harder.. all the Xcom style games got the same difficult problem.. the game starts very hard, you get even at mid, and later its cakewalk.. because you got better weapons and armors to resist enemies even they got more stats.. it should be balanced. I tried to balance this within the phases. As the X-Division is much longer then base game, you have some time in a phase enough to simulate the game itself. At a phase, you start very weak. You try to catch aliens, try to survive rather then winning.. then you got the tech and starts to match with the aliens.. then later if you got enough high level items, you can fight and win against them. BUT when you pass the second phase and you start to react with "WTF", you feel weak again.. because they are an alien invasion army.. they are better then you, they should be.. and you cannot surpass them just in some days.. 

3. Horror.. this is an important point too. You need to be horrified when you saw them.. it could be the shape, it could be the weapons, or maybe size.. but you need to feel fear.. I feel that at Terror from the Deep.. at that deep sea missions with dart weapons, i feel very weak when i saw that crapman.. i still hate them.. so i added xenomorphs and some more to the game.. they fit so great.. who would not fear when they see a big xenomorph queen?.. I added side robots to androns.. robodog, roboreaper, roboREX.. i added them a repair abilily which you need to kill it again before it's fully repaired.. we hidden them into the boxes as sleep state to wake up late at mission, when you feel just safe as you think you cleaned the map already.. XCE, solver and charon added hiding mechanics to game which is so great to create this atmosphere!.. Possibilities are so much with just some code tricks.. i hope you consider to add them to next game..

4. Bosses.. for a tough and fearsome enemy, you need to have bosses.. big ones.. even an ultra mega skilled caesan with a huge weapon, would not enough to consider an ultimate enemy.. so i think at least 2x2 sized enemies are MUST.. look to all Xcom games.. new xcom, old xcom, project phoenix.. people are to be excited to see them.. to fight against them.. 

5. Gadgets... game should have some nice inventory items for special things.. an energy shield for 360 defence with own HP.. something for hiding.. something for teleporting.. something for more stats, night vision, heat vision..this is not for only players, it will help to create much bigger variety for aliens..

6. Dodge mechanic.. for fast aliens or fast melee soldiers.. everything should not relay on more damage to survive.. like a weak caesan with tons of HP to survive at late game (they should have really power shields) or a reaper which is just flesh but can stand against plasma cannons..

Players..:

1. More type of weapons with more abilities.. the game engine should allow every type of weapon combination.. like shotgun, flame thrower, grenade launcher, one shot launchers, mines (which i never use).. more shot options.. auto-shotguns, miniguns, multiple rocket launchers, energy based unique ones (like you got 30 energy rounds at your magazine, you should able to use a special laser shot witch consumes 10 charge from 30.. same weapon could have a autofire option for 1 shot 1 charge and single shot for 1 for 3 charge.. so you can have a heavy laser which can melt armor, or a sniper with autofire ability.. this is my dream for energy weapons but any of the xcom games done this..)..

2. Different type bullets for same weapons.. a weapon should able to use different kind of bullet types with different damage types.. 

3. Balanced melee fighting system.. cool melee weapons with some unique abilities.. combined with special armors.. there should be a reason to carry a blade or knife when you can just spam shotgun.. could be combined with stealth mechanic..

4. Unique weapons per weapon types.. lasers can have gattling minigun, plasma can have a short range cannon with aoe... Plasma based laser magazines.. acid bullets.. blabla..

5. New weapon versions for every phase.. every phase should have its own grenade, rocket, plane, magazine types.. so player should choose some of them for research in limited time..

6. Randomized research.. this is great for replay value.. new xcom got this right.. old xcom got it right.. you get something and when you research it you get something new.. with possibilities.. like you got a caesan weapon officer alive, at every research you can learn one type of laser weapon.. some surprise, hard to get, low chance researches.. why not?.. please at this mechanic to modding at least!

7. One time manufactures.. able to erase manufactures at modding.. same to research.. a research or manufacture should able to lock ro release another manufacture or research..

8. Vehicles.. at least small mechs with human pilots.. could be used as heavy armor with "unique" weapon branch.. they should able to use at least 2 weapons..

Game..:

1. More Phases.. at least 1 more then x-1..

2. Non-Ufo missions.. random missions which you got different goals without ufo..

----------------------

Those are main reasons for X-Division and some of them could not be happen because the game did not allow me.. I hope those helps.. thx!

 

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/20/2018 at 6:10 PM, drages said:

Hey Chris, thx for this topic.. as i gave many years to X-Division, i want to share what i wanted to create for my dream X-Com style game.. X-Division's main point was about the "enemy" rather then the player even there is tons of additions to the player side. So i want to explain my thoughts one by one..

Enemies..:

1. Variety.. many and different enemies.. as the game got "phases", the player needs to see different mechanics/types of enemies with every phase.. not just with more stats of the same things.. when the player go to the next phase, he should react to new ones as "wtf is that"... he should reconsider his tactics, game play.. he needs to find new ideas to win.. for example, at second phase, i gave power shields to ceasans, at third phase i gave them big bossy xenomorphs.. i tried to add totally new enemies at every phase to surprise player base, then at next phases i added new abilities to the old ones when they updated.. aliens which moves underground...

2. Harder.. all the Xcom style games got the same difficult problem.. the game starts very hard, you get even at mid, and later its cakewalk.. because you got better weapons and armors to resist enemies even they got more stats.. it should be balanced. I tried to balance this within the phases. As the X-Division is much longer then base game, you have some time in a phase enough to simulate the game itself. At a phase, you start very weak. You try to catch aliens, try to survive rather then winning.. then you got the tech and starts to match with the aliens.. then later if you got enough high level items, you can fight and win against them. BUT when you pass the second phase and you start to react with "WTF", you feel weak again.. because they are an alien invasion army.. they are better then you, they should be.. and you cannot surpass them just in some days.. 

3. Horror.. this is an important point too. You need to be horrified when you saw them.. it could be the shape, it could be the weapons, or maybe size.. but you need to feel fear.. I feel that at Terror from the Deep.. at that deep sea missions with dart weapons, i feel very weak when i saw that crapman.. i still hate them.. so i added xenomorphs and some more to the game.. they fit so great.. who would not fear when they see a big xenomorph queen?.. I added side robots to androns.. robodog, roboreaper, roboREX.. i added them a repair abilily which you need to kill it again before it's fully repaired.. we hidden them into the boxes as sleep state to wake up late at mission, when you feel just safe as you think you cleaned the map already.. XCE, solver and charon added hiding mechanics to game which is so great to create this atmosphere!.. Possibilities are so much with just some code tricks.. i hope you consider to add them to next game..

4. Bosses.. for a tough and fearsome enemy, you need to have bosses.. big ones.. even an ultra mega skilled caesan with a huge weapon, would not enough to consider an ultimate enemy.. so i think at least 2x2 sized enemies are MUST.. look to all Xcom games.. new xcom, old xcom, project phoenix.. people are to be excited to see them.. to fight against them.. 

5. Gadgets... game should have some nice inventory items for special things.. an energy shield for 360 defence with own HP.. something for hiding.. something for teleporting.. something for more stats, night vision, heat vision..this is not for only players, it will help to create much bigger variety for aliens..

6. Dodge mechanic.. for fast aliens or fast melee soldiers.. everything should not relay on more damage to survive.. like a weak caesan with tons of HP to survive at late game (they should have really power shields) or a reaper which is just flesh but can stand against plasma cannons..

Players..:

1. More type of weapons with more abilities.. the game engine should allow every type of weapon combination.. like shotgun, flame thrower, grenade launcher, one shot launchers, mines (which i never use).. more shot options.. auto-shotguns, miniguns, multiple rocket launchers, energy based unique ones (like you got 30 energy rounds at your magazine, you should able to use a special laser shot witch consumes 10 charge from 30.. same weapon could have a autofire option for 1 shot 1 charge and single shot for 1 for 3 charge.. so you can have a heavy laser which can melt armor, or a sniper with autofire ability.. this is my dream for energy weapons but any of the xcom games done this..)..

2. Different type bullets for same weapons.. a weapon should able to use different kind of bullet types with different damage types.. 

3. Balanced melee fighting system.. cool melee weapons with some unique abilities.. combined with special armors.. there should be a reason to carry a blade or knife when you can just spam shotgun.. could be combined with stealth mechanic..

4. Unique weapons per weapon types.. lasers can have gattling minigun, plasma can have a short range cannon with aoe... Plasma based laser magazines.. acid bullets.. blabla..

5. New weapon versions for every phase.. every phase should have its own grenade, rocket, plane, magazine types.. so player should choose some of them for research in limited time..

6. Randomized research.. this is great for replay value.. new xcom got this right.. old xcom got it right.. you get something and when you research it you get something new.. with possibilities.. like you got a caesan weapon officer alive, at every research you can learn one type of laser weapon.. some surprise, hard to get, low chance researches.. why not?.. please at this mechanic to modding at least!

7. One time manufactures.. able to erase manufactures at modding.. same to research.. a research or manufacture should able to lock ro release another manufacture or research..

8. Vehicles.. at least small mechs with human pilots.. could be used as heavy armor with "unique" weapon branch.. they should able to use at least 2 weapons..

Game..:

1. More Phases.. at least 1 more then x-1..

2. Non-Ufo missions.. random missions which you got different goals without ufo..

----------------------

Those are main reasons for X-Division and some of them could not be happen because the game did not allow me.. I hope those helps.. thx!

 

yeah you really have done it right :D when new phase starts I really said "What the fuck is that..." :D :D that was the moment when I thought I will already start to beat those alliens and then some bullshit long range reaper with shield approched me and killed all my soldiers... :D your really made a great mod. also I do not know if it was bug or enemy but there were also invisible alien but hopefully I could shoot at him. I saw only circle shadow but nothing else. I am using version 1.00.00 right now becouse I did not saw version 1.00.01 and 1.00.10 worth it, becouse only one change which I saw was better acuracy.

vanila game was good but thats Why I love when creator of the game allow that players can mod his game becouse it will bring new experiance and its another reason why to buy a game becouse its not only one play anymore. 

I also have to ask if you are still working on this mod becouse xenonauts 2 is already on it way.

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All of the CE mods make for a fantastic experience, however..

X-Division has been hands down the best experience I've had with the genre in general. Reasons:

Armor-

Armor feels like it does what it says it does. When early armors can only resist ballistic, and successfully negates a couple shots from a Sebillian ballistic pistol, it feels fantastic. When the Wolf description says it can survive a 50 cal, and successfully does so when you test it on accident, it feels fantastic. When you get a suit of Predator, and they can survive 3 rounds of fire from all over the map, it feels FANTASTIC (incidentally,  those two predator units still died on stream yesterday, but dang it, they did great until I tried to capture a Xeno Queen in the middle of a Terror Mission). Point being, you knew roughly how much of what kind of punishment your armor loadouts could take, and it allowed for more offensive defense, if that makes sense. 

Weapons- 

Everything fires more, at worse accuracy, but for more damage. There are more considerations for damage types,  and each weapon has a role it fits very well. HMGs can fire two Suppression bursts, Miniguns dedicate a whole turn to firing 40-120 times, shotguns shred armor and can hit TUs, SMGs can shoot into TUs as well, but can use a shield, pistols are super cheap and portable, rifles can handle sniping or suppression, while snipers mostly just miss and get insulted, but do a ton if they ever do hit. Fights feel very active and alive, plus bypassing armor is a major part of gameplay, resulting in more varied loadouts.  This leads to random experimentation, and the likely effectiveness of some fantastically weird builds. 

Research-

The slight randomization of the tech tree unlocks every round is used to great effect here. Every different class, weapon, ufo type, component, etc has different pieces of different puzzles, and it creates a constant reward loop of capture and discovery. Random missions don't feel like you're there for another corvette and 65k, you're there because they might have some new tech, or some components for a new jet, or you want more fibres to upgrade your vehicles. It's a fantastic feeling loop, and probably my favorite part of the mod after armor doing it's job. 

AI and Randos-

The AI is improved in some fun ways, and tends to be, while still predictable, more surprising in it's approaches. They tend to find more reasonable hiding spots, and almost feel coordinated at times. On top of this, there's up to 4x and many civilians and other locals running around, which leads to some amazing moments where you get to see the rest of the earth keeping things together. One of my favorite moments was the other day, when a base gets attacked, and the rifle guys are there taking turns suppressing shielded ceseans over and over, ultimately keeping half the map pinned until we got there and promptly electrocuted everything.  You see cops clearing floors during terror missions, and most of the locals pouring into your dropship, trying to leave. It feels so alive.

Air Game-

Every UFO has different types, different loadouts,  and these update for every phase of the invasion. They feel like they came ready, and the kinds of options of planes you can make feels like two sides adapting to each other. Early scouts are fast, so you make maneuverable planes. They start to dodge and get side guns, so you make faster ones. They get air mines, and suddenly dedicated rapid fire dps builds that can get them through their defense gaps feel appropriate, etc. Changing loadouts constantly feels great if the enemies do it too. 

In summary:

It addressed every problem I had with the original. Units dying one step out of a drop ship? Armor does its job. Maps feel dead sometimes? Locals everywhere.  Advanced tanks dying to a single shot? Nope, they can take some serious punishment from the front. Units panicking in optimal positions? Noticeable Leadership bonuses. High HP units? Sensible health, but in armor. Air game consisting of being able to survive entirely on Corvettes until Marauders? Nope, you need to adapt to a lot of different UFO styles, and this whole bit is crazy expansive.  

Plus who can say no to having Robot T-Rexes?

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Good topic Chris,

All reasonably good comments above. X-Division sucked in a good way in that it was extremely hard to beat. It was rich with additional content in all of the right places. I especially liked the feature where the economy (if that is even the right word) was built around capturing alien stuff, disassembling it into its basic components that were needed to build new equipment. My base engineers were never not busy, ever. It served as a great technology throttle as well. You appear to have some what adopted this in principle when we can "convert" alien weapons for human use.

I will not get long winded on everyone. One way or another X-Division II will get built by the community somehow on top of your new engines which will breathe new live into X2 once the original content gets repetitive. X1 X-Division only major short coming  for me was not being able to rotate the view. Of all of the features in X2, that is the #1 improvement for me. Everything else is mostly icing on the cake.

Great Work so far...

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2 minutes ago, Keflin said:

Good topic Chris,

All reasonably good comments above. X-Division sucked in a good way in that it was extremely hard to beat. It was rich with additional content in all of the right places. I especially liked the feature where the economy (if that is even the right word) was built around capturing alien stuff, disassembling it into its basic components that were needed to build new equipment. My base engineers were never not busy, ever. It served as a great technology throttle as well. You appear to have some what adopted this in principle when we can "convert" alien weapons for human use.

I will not get long winded on everyone. One way or another X-Division II will get built by the community somehow on top of your new engines which will breathe new live into X2 once the original content gets repetitive. X1 X-Division only major short coming  for me was not being able to rotate the view. Of all of the features in X2, that is the #1 improvement for me. Everything else is mostly icing on the cake.

Great Work so far...

tenor.gif?itemid=11159759

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Another thing from XDiv, as well as something I've seen in other places, would more interesting progression in weapon types as the game goes on. 

Using XDiv as an example, the Division Cannon starts off as a clunky rifle with an AoE hit. Then it evolves to do more damage, but also has more power and armor mitigation. Then, it starts evolving into a rapid-fire variant, firing times per round. Ammo counts go up and down as the scientists figure out how to make the thing either stronger,  lighter, more accurate, or easier to use over time. It feels a lot more organic than just a flat damage increase, and ammo decrease. 

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I tried X-Division one time and only several hours, and my heart still beats hard when I remember the scene where I was approaching an UFO and few spider-ish unknow melee aliens opened the door and came to eat my soldiers. They were ambushing me. I decided played X-Division later anyway because the early air combat was too tough for me, and I didn't see a single video about how someone can win it. 

I still enjoy X1CE with only few mods already named here, like 120 degree view angle, blood, other with real faces, and other which isn't named here (and I dont remember it's name now) about ambience sounds. I also used lots of new music.

Edited by Juan
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@Juan just FYI, there are air game tutorials out there on youtube somewhere. If that does not satisfy you, you could also look at the first couple episodes of any X-Division Let's Play. That should give you a pretty good grasp on how to do well.

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1 hour ago, Juan said:

I tried X-Division one time and only several hours, and my heart still beats hard when I remember the scene where I was approaching an UFO and few spider-ish unknow melee aliens opened the door and came to eat my soldiers. They were ambushing me. I decided played X-Division later anyway because the early air combat was too tough for me, and I didn't see a single video about how someone can win it. 

I still enjoy X1CE with only few mods already named here, like 120 degree view angle, blood, other with real faces, and other which isn't named here (and I dont remember it's name now) about ambience sounds. I also used lots of new music.

XDiv's airgame takes little practice, but ultimately becomes as strategic as the ground game. They do have an Easy Air Game mode in the mod settings, though.  

In general, like the ground game, it revolves around assuming for what you'll run into, and using the types that work for you. While some are very effective counters (like Heavy Fighters w/AntiMissiles vs Battleships), and can get away with barely a scratch, in many cases you can even plan around stuff that shouldn't work, like my preferred method of dealing with most medium UFOs: just send fighters with longevity loadouts to plink it in the butt forever till it dies. Optimal? No. Convenient? Yes.

But yeah, XDiv has so many different approaches to everything that you generally want to be thinking more about what can be abused in what situation, rather than what is directly "supposed" to counter anything. 

More examples:

Smoke is for safety, but might as well be an off switch for Androns, since they will almost always move to get away from it for better shots.

Using identical weapons on fighters is recommended, but I like using a sonar/laser combo sometimes, because it gives them options for dealing with faster planes by firing in all directions after the initial attack.

Axes are a desperation weapon, but I've been loving their command room clearing utility. 

Missile planes are supposed to actually make it back, but I usually just leave them to dump their 4-20 missiles and hope they consider coming back. 

Anti missiles aren't supposed to be a weapon, but work just fine for auto resolve calculations if you retreat your expended planes from a damaged UFO. 

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6 hours ago, Dagar said:

@Juan just FYI, there are air game tutorials out there on youtube somewhere. If that does not satisfy you, you could also look at the first couple episodes of any X-Division Let's Play. That should give you a pretty good grasp on how to do well.

Thanks, I looked for it last weekend, but unfortunately that video have some problem with all my devices (PC / Android) and the video turn into a green screen. Weird! Anyway I'm doing another X1CE run to warm up, when I finish it I will play the fantastic X-Division!

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5 hours ago, Coffee Potato said:

XDiv's airgame takes little practice, but ultimately becomes as strategic as the ground game. They do have an Easy Air Game mode in the mod settings, though.  

In general, like the ground game, it revolves around assuming for what you'll run into, and using the types that work for you. While some are very effective counters (like Heavy Fighters w/AntiMissiles vs Battleships), and can get away with barely a scratch, in many cases you can even plan around stuff that shouldn't work, like my preferred method of dealing with most medium UFOs: just send fighters with longevity loadouts to plink it in the butt forever till it dies. Optimal? No. Convenient? Yes.

I'm sure it's fantastic. Until now I tried using one of the F17 to bait the small UFO, and another one to look for UFO's back - it's a very fragile balance, any minor mistake and you lose the chance, because UFO seems to turn fast to the closest plane. Once I had some success with this tactic with the plane that was behind, but I hadn't enough firepower to make that UFO crash. I did somewhat 10-15 attempts last weekend and since I did not kill a single UFO I desisted atm while I'm doing a new run in X1CE classic. The ground combat, while tough, was more attainable.

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50 minutes ago, Juan said:

I'm sure it's fantastic. Until now I tried using one of the F17 to bait the small UFO, and another one to look for UFO's back - it's a very fragile balance, any minor mistake and you lose the chance, because UFO seems to turn fast to the closest plane. Once I had some success with this tactic with the plane that was behind, but I hadn't enough firepower to make that UFO crash. I did somewhat 10-15 attempts last weekend and since I did not kill a single UFO I desisted atm while I'm doing a new run in X1CE classic. The ground combat, while tough, was more attainable.

So one thing that rarely came up in base game, but gets used all the time in XD is the speed up/slow down/dodge mechanics. If you speed up, your dodge rolls get like 8x their distance, while slowing down gives you much tighter turning. So the idea with some of those early ones is to know they'll be using the normal "leash" yours do when targeting, and so you can take a diagonal to them, exposing the side, and doing a quick dodge when just about in their firing range to get on their flank. From there, you can turn off afterburner mid-flip and use the slowdown to do a quick turn onto their side, before speeding up to keep up pace and get the kill. It's tricky, but you eventually develop this sort of circular movement map in your head. 

Good luck on Your CE run!

Edited by Coffee Potato
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While not a mod, a thought came to mind today. 

If you've ever looked at Darkest Dungeon, they lean very heavily on their stress mechanic. Generally, 2/3 times, if driven to panic, they start acting weird, like trying to get themselves killed, refusing healing, panicking everyone around them, or just babbling like a loon. 1/3 times, instead of being broken, they become heroic, maybe shrugging off some wounds, or inspiring the people around them, or taking a guaranteed crit free action, etc. Is there any way to apply something similar, where a panicking rookie might so something amazing besides just getting lucky with a Berserk shot?

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@Coffee Potato

In The Last Hundred Yards (WW2 token wargame), instead of Berserk, they have the Heroic status effect, where the squad gets a large defensive boost, then charges straight towards the enemy. In cover-based games that's a little more awkward, but in that game it's just brilliant at creating sudden massive surges in the fighting line.

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6 hours ago, Bobit said:

@Coffee Potato

In The Last Hundred Yards (WW2 token wargame), instead of Berserk, they have the Heroic status effect, where the squad gets a large defensive boost, then charges straight towards the enemy. In cover-based games that's a little more awkward, but in that game it's just brilliant at creating sudden massive surges in the fighting line.

I was thinking more like...

-High accuracy shot on nearest enemy

-Stops Bleeding

-Extra TUs next round

-Maxed out Morale for 2 turns, boost nearby morale 

-Instant Reload (maybe only the the new Laser idea, where their sheer heroicness recharged it's ammo)

 

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