Too Many Bugs, Too Many Annoying Little Things In Tftd

[aquila]

I mean the title says it all. I have looked up all the bugs and research weirdlings for collectors edition TFTD, and it's really starting to annoy me. Not only are the graphics much worse, but it also makes you feel insecure the first time you play TFTD because you don't know if you are making uncorrectable mistakes. Just wasted about two hours in the morning when I made one of these mistakes, and this is my second game. Oh, and the graphics are much worse, and the AI just camps around that stupid door with full reaction fire, so no chance. And smoke grenades suck &*$%. Very very annoying. Oh, and the graphics are really bad. And there are mistakes in the tech tree. Boohoo

 

:-(

 

P.S. I am currently researching things in the right order, haven't researched zrbite yet but have some in my stores, and also have found one unit of alien sub construction. Now I am in the middle of researching the transmission resolver. If I find that doesn't work, and I can't research the subs, I will just stop playing TFTD and nuke it from my system entirely.

[[NKF]]

Don't give up just yet. Give it a chance, and just ask us as many questions as you need. Once you get the hang of it, it's not as bad as you might think it is.

 

- NKF

[Jerac]

Wait until you see Lobster Men... currently most jawdropping for me was one which survived TWO Distrupter bombs (or Blaster Bombs in Xcom1), 2 sonic cannon hits and about 3 alien grenades. And I didn't kill him finally as he killed all four of my remaining soldiers... Come on, this is rudicilous...

[dan2]

Wait until you see Lobster Men... currently most jawdropping for me was one which survived TWO Distrupter bombs (or Blaster Bombs in Xcom1), 2 sonic cannon hits and about 3 alien grenades. And I didn't kill him finally as he killed all four of my remaining soldiers... Come on, this is rudicilous...

Did you try a Vibroblade or Thermal Lance?

[[NKF]]

Or the thermal shok launcher. Or if you're truly desparate, try the thermal tazer. They're also the only primary alien race that aren't that hot with MC Powers.

 

Even the strongest tanks have their achilles heel. Lobstermen don't have as much health or as much armour as a sectopod, but they can make it run for its money and the lobsterman have the advantage of numbers on top of their fantastic damage modifiers. They can resist up to 80% of AP, and most other damage types at half or just slightly over half. Only stun and drill behave normally, which is why they're so effective.

 

But that's just part of the fun of TFTD.

 

Here's a rough idea of what the three main sonic weapons can do against them. The sonic pistol needs 5 - 6 hits. The blasta rifle, because it's mildly stronger than the pistol fares no better. The sonic cannon requires 2 - 3 hits. Don't expect a one-hit-kill with sonic weapons. Don't even try any of this with the gauss weapons - with the exception of the heavy gauss cannon, which is the human equivalent of the sonic pistol.

 

- NKF

Edited April 8, 2007 by NKF

[Jerac]

I didn't have any blades... I've screwed the research, I think. Didn't know about lobsters' thermal shock weakness, I'll give them a try. Thanks for the idea

At worst, I'll use the bombs to stun my soldiers so they won't be obliterated trying to kill one **** little lobster...

 

Anyway I don't think it is fun. They could do the Lobstermen to have 500 HP, 200 all-sides armor and 49685960465% accuracy, plus natural, auto-shooting sonic cannon which they could use 10 times per turn. Probably it would be still possible to kill it due to lack of AI (or pure luck), and probably - for some people - still fun. I don't get it.

 

Sectopods, while powerful, were much weaker for me, just because they were RARE. Plus they don't carry Blaster launchers, grenades, are 4-tile, easy targets, and finally - they are simply nice :>

[[NKF]]

You might've missed gathering a calcinite corpse, which is needed for the drills.

 

As for the thermal shok bombs, don't worry, you'll be very pleased with their performance against lobstermen. Just carry some light grenades or a gas cannon with HE shells to fire the killing blow against the stunned lobstermen afterwards. (move the body or recover the sonic weapon first! Pulsers are practically indestructable so they're fine). The only downside is that you might run out of shok bombs. They're that good.

 

Lobstermen do seem annoying at first, but you get the hang of them after a while. Their primarily ammo wasters that appear in large quantities.

 

- NKF

Edited April 10, 2007 by NKF

[Pherdnut]

The game definitely has issues. The one or two miracle shots at calcinites before likely never seeing them for at least another six months is really obnoxious. Indestructable grenades makes things interesting since you can drop more than one on an alien (another effective lobster killer) but it hurt proximity grenades since there is no way to clear them from an entrance you might need to go through without sacrificing an agent.

 

The research bugs are crazy. The lack of truly new tech was a bummer. And sometimes the AI is a little too obnoxious. And yes, the damn ocean liners are way too freaking big. Watching "not enough energy" for the 80th turn is not particularly fun.

 

But still, if you're in the mood for something different and a lot more challenging it's a pretty cool game. The weapons are balanced differently enough to be worth reexamining and I liked that snap and aimed shots became a lot more prevalent. I also liked that the tech tree doesn't allow you to get all the uber techs by the third month. I also like that you can actually shoot down very small UFOs right off the bat. And of course, being able to open doors without walking through them adds whole new dimensions to the game (and is the secret to being able to take down those camping aliens).

 

I disagree with the graphics being weaker. Those underwater sonic shots were pretty dazzling for their time and the overall aesthetics of the UFOs and X-Com landing craft are much improved.

[Pherdnut]

Man, I started playing again. You leave this game alone for a few months and you totally forget that mix of cautious and decisive movement you have to balance against each other to avoid losing half your team on the first nighttime terror mission. Edited June 14, 2007 by Pherdnut

[Porkus]

Heyo, just came across this forum while looking for tech support and thought I'd register and throw in my 2cents, even if the topics over a month old.

 

I recently got the game over steam and I must say dispite the strong nostalgia the constant bugs/crashes are really making it difficult to enjoy the game as much as I'd like. Specifically the reaction fire bug, sometimes the aliens play so defensively that I have to save every turn and restart the game 10 times or more before I can finally get close and kill aliens without them shooting infinate reaction shots. The main thing that has kept me playing so far is that I've been very lucky with the research trees. I avoided any bugs and also got deep ones and calcinites within the first 2 months so I had early access to armour and H2H weapons.

[Virulent]

While EU is one of my all-time favorite games, I'd have to say TFTD is one of the worst sequels ever made.

 

Instead of a proper sequel (see: Apocalypse) we got the same damn engine only with cheap AI with jacked-up reactions, lobstermen, aliens that can seemingly auto-fire sonic weapons when players can't, two-part cruise ship terror missions and a nonsensical research tree. Honestly, Enforcer is more fun than TFTD.

Edited August 23, 2007 by Virulent

[reckoner]

While EU is one of my all-time favorite games, I'd have to say TFTD is one of the worst sequels ever made.

 

Instead of a proper sequel (see: Apocalypse) we got the same damn engine only with cheap AI with jacked-up reactions, lobstermen, aliens that can seemingly auto-fire sonic weapons when players can't, two-part cruise ship terror missions and a nonsensical research tree. Honestly, Enforcer is more fun than TFTD.

 

I guess it's just a matter of personal taste. TFTD fills place in my heart that leaves no room for UFO. Despite the tech tree bugs, and the ship missions, I prefer the whole thing to UFO.