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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Worst Experiences In The Series


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My worst so far has got to be a recent mission I had in Apocalypse. I went in with Metal Wolf, and a few people that I forget the name of at this moment. A few turns in, I walk almost right into about 7 aliens, including spitters, hyperworms, a multiworm, and 2 brainsuckers. My favorite agent, Yuzo Takinawa(I think that's his name, at least. He's one of the default guys.) fended off one brainsucker, but was taken over by the second. Darn. So, I continue, hoping that I can get over the loss and keep going. I start setting the place on fire with INC grenades. I manage to break a good chunk of the building. I go to town with my rocket launchers, and blow apart hapless blue dudes standing on walkways. I kill three idiot civilians that kept running in circles with a single shot from an autocannon, and the next turn, all heck breaks loose. Hyperworms, flames, a brainsucked Yuzo, and a few low-health agents carrying multiple explosive devices turn what should have been a normal day at X-COM into an "Everyone but Metal Wolf and Brett is dead!" day. Luckily, Metal Wolf and Brett got away. Needless to say, I reloaded my most recent save, trying to forget my horrible luck. Almost reminds me of the time when I got about 4 guys brainsucked in one turn, due to a squad of blue dudes with booger-shooters sending those stupid eggs at me.
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Worst experiance, I had just sent all my craft into the alien dimension to kill the fleet.

 

Meanwhile, the aliens had apparently ordered an attack not long before that, and right after I had sent out the last of my ships, bombers start storming my base and since Im partial to Slums, utterly Raped my home dogs, and then they invaded with a battle ship and instantly took over since all my agents were dead in the base.

 

Instant game loss. Woot. o:

 

 

 

I figured out a dirty little trick for when these things happen though, Just buy another base as soon as they kill all your troops, because its not going to be of much use most likely.

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Worst experience? Hmm. Not your typical worst experience, but I think it was a night port terror mission. Nothing much was happening and I was scouting for aliens. Then suddenly, as my aquanaut steps around a corner he steps right in front of an aquatoid and the music plays a stabbing trumpet blast.

 

The timing of trumpet blast and the sudden appearance of the aquatoid left me with a racing heart and I was gasping. I'd experienced shock.

 

Not as much fun as the "screaming" anthropod in Apocalypse, but hey, it was not a pleasant experience.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
Yes I must second the vote for TFTD: that game is the hardest. The tentaculats (the flying brains) are just brutal the way they hide. It's just terrifying. I can waltz through XCOM3 with no losses, but XCOM1 is much harder, and XCOM2 is a game in which one must just accept that many agents will die. XCOM raids on alien bases were just a horror show. And XCOM was the victim...
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I just had a terrible first terror site in TFTD. Well, at least I only lost seven out of 14 guys. I really need to learn how to fully utilize the weapons.

 

By the way, are there any numbers on how long a fire from incendiary weapons will last? I know it depends on several things but I'd be interested in seeing how useful I could make it.

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How long a fire remains lit depends on the flammability rating of the tile in question. In order to make fire more effective, you would have to edit the MCD records of all the tiles in the game - not a small task. If we ever would find out where in the executable the damage ranges for fire are stored ("impact" and "on-fire" damage), that would be another way. The third way is to edit the incendiary ammo (in obdata.dat) to a higher damage number. This increases the area a fire will blanket but does not increase the damage dealt to aliens standing in the blaze (see previous sentence). So really, there is a limit as to how useful fire can be in the game right now. :wink1:

 

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie
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Also in TFTD fire appears to behave differently depending on whether the map depth is set to either of the underwater depths or land. Basically fire (and smoke) effects on a tile last a lot longer on land than underwater (or put it this way, it appears to be half as effective underwater).

 

That's observational experience though. More thorough testing might reveal otherwise.

 

I generally find that the fire (while on land) does last long enough to do the job. I often bring a GC-Pho to the port and isle-resort terror missions as it (the tile effects - not the impact damage) is amazingly effective at clearing out the top levels of the station and the main hotel resort and even in the bunkers and tunnels.

 

- NKF

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You know, I think you are right on that NKF. Fire never seems to do squat underwater. A cursory glance through MapEdit doesn't show much difference in flammability rating of ground tiles underwater or on land. The mechanics must be encoded in the executable somewhere. :)

 

- Zombie

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  • 1 month later...

TFTD. Played it for a while, got a lot of bases set up, and wondered how the heck I was supposed to get much in the way of advanced technologies. When someone suggested capturing live aliens my thoughts was...

 

 

 

 

 

 

"That's stupid."

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  • 2 weeks later...
In XCOM 1 I went to capture a working Sectoid Supply Ship with 9 greenbacks and a Sargeant. Everything was going fine until the mind control. Within three turns all my guys are dead except three. Two are under mind control and one is panicking constantly. One of the turncoats is killed by my Sargeants(the panicker) and the other by an alien the turn he resists. My sergeant slowly, with constant berzerking, runs back to the Avenger so we can peel out of there. I fire his PTSD arse.
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  • 1 month later...

TFTD Terror mission

Beginning of first turn.

I got my guy to open the Triton door. Then took a step forward. A nearby aquatoid fired the thermal shok bomb into my Triton. All my guys fell asleep. Of course, at this point, I opt to reload instead of pressing the next turn button.

End of first turn.

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  • 2 weeks later...

TFTF

Well...I play with the alien pack and I gave one of my guys a Calcinite skin (just so you know why he is a Calcinite)

So I find this alien colony and decide to attack it. As soon as I open the doors, a Tentaculat is just outside.

Next turn, 3 guys gets MC'ed and kills the rest of my squad except for the Calcinite and another guy, the door remains open, the Tentaculat closes in and zombifies my Calcinite and the other guy = Mission failed.

 

Needless to say i reloaded.

Edited by Gurluas2000
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  • 1 month later...

In Xcom 3...

 

I am SICK of getting spit on by those damn Hyperworms!!!!!! Especially when you get many of them spawning from killing a Multiworm! And it takes luck to knock one out without killing it, since their Health capacity is in the 300's! I am, of course, talking about facing them in turn-based mode.

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First pumping the multiworm with several rounds from the stun grapple and then repeatedly firing bullets into it to push its health under the 160 stun damage (and then immediately getting someone to stand on top of it for the rest of the mission - so you don't have to re-stun it again), should work. It's real-time strategy, but one that can be adapted to TB. Just bear in mind that the worm might be wounded, so if you take too long to clear the map, it'll die and you'll have to deal with its spawn.

 

It's been yonks since I've played in TB, but is the deployment of the hyperworms instantaneous or does it happen the turn after?

 

The easiest way to deal with them is to just blow them all up in one fell swoop. Use an AP grenade as they're strong enough to fry the worms but not too strong to cause excessive damage to the building owner's beloved scenery. Once done, just finish any that remain with your firearms. You never need to ever capture one as you'll get 4 from a captured multiworm.

 

I know in real-time that if you set the worm on fire before delivering the killing blow with AP or energy rounds, the worms sometimes die instantly on hatching. I don't think it'll work as well in TB as I believe the fire damage only works between the turns.

 

---

 

Poppers in real-time often have a number of good 'worse experience' stories associated with them. One that's happened to me is having my squad get jumped by a popper that caught us on my blind side. Once the flames had cleared, no sooner did I have time to recover another explosion. Then another. I don't even remember if there was a fourth as they were all dead by then. Lesson learned: A Motion scanner is your best mate.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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My worst experience with XCom was that for a while, I played the game so much, and gave too much time to it, that it affected seriously my life and people surround me... that being said, BE WARNED, very intelectually addictive game!!!
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  • 1 month later...
It's been yonks since I've played in TB, but is the deployment of the hyperworms instantaneous or does it happen the turn after?

 

The hyperworms will spawn the second you kill the multiworm.

 

And often start moving around either to attack or to hide from/avoid shots the second you try to shoot at them or throw grenades on them.

Real-time is for sissies! :Maniac:

 

:NyaNyaNya:

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Worst experience..

 

Night mission, attacking a harvester. We landed beside a long hill/ridge in the centre of the desert map, the UFO was on the other side.. assumably. No matter what I did, I could not survive to find out. I restarted many times.. and I'm something of an X-Com vet. It was a nightmare scenario.. I could not disembark from that craft without losing my tank and squad. I did not even get to see more than a glimpse of a sectoid. Yes, it was sectoids.

 

I tried bombarding the hill with grenades.. no go. I tried blowing it up.. no go. I tried lighting it with incidentary.. no go. I tried a banzai charge.. no go. All of this was tried straight from disembark from the Skyranger. There was no surviving ending the turn disembarked. If I had to guess, there were 5 sectoids at the top / other side of the hill, and one sectoid hiding somewhere in front of the skyranger, plus a psionic leader some place.

 

Its the only standard mission i've ever felt was truly impossible. I mean, i've lost before.. but when I've lost before, I always felt I could have done something differently! :)

Edited by Draxo
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  • 5 weeks later...

X-Com 1, first terror mission. Sectoids.

 

2 words......F#$@$#G Cyberdisks. Id rather face 10 of the snakemen terror creatures who's name is impossible to spell correctly then 1 damn cyberdisk with super reaction times and the ability to one shot anything.

 

My HWP rocket launcher was destroyed the second it poked its head out of the skyranger as well as my first 2 soldiers. Also next turn the sectoid leader MCs my Heavy weapons soldier and tells him to send a rocket into one of my other soldiers who was one tile away. Needless to say, everyone dead by turn three, I reloaded and skipped the terror mission.

 

 

 

 

Then again I do have this vague memory of Lobsters who stand upright and have unbreakable shells........hmmm must have been dreaming.

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Cyberdisks + High Explosives = 0 Cyberdisks

 

Hasn't failed for me yet.

 

Mathematically speaking, I guess the units for "High" is Cyberdisks per Explosives :)

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Its not that I cant kill them given the right circumstances, its that alot of the time as I move my guys they always reaction one shot one of my soldiers or tanks before I even see them.

 

And your right HEs are good anti Cyberdisks. Infact I usually have two in my squad dedicated to carrying thrown explosive devices such as grenades, prox. grenades, HEs, etc.

Edited by Cpt. JAG
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I'd much rather face a cyberdisc than a chryssalid any day - but the reactions on a cyberdisc are pretty danged good. The wiki has them listed as being able to have 64 - 79 reactions (beginner to superhuman respectively). Even at half that when they've spent some of their TUs, that's well above average.

 

High explosives and large rockets = staple anti-cyberdisc weaponry. Don't bother using the rocket tank to fight it as it takes 3 or more tank rockets to down a single cyberdisc - save the ammo for the sectoids. Plus the tracked HWP chassis only has 20 reactions. It's an opportunity attack magnet. Even your troops get a roll between 30 - 60.

 

 

A few things for your forward scouts to remember:

 

- Move slowly and don't use all your TUs. Moving too much saps your scouts initiative level (aka Reactions * Current TUs / TU Max). Hope like anything that that you can catch the cyberdisc unawares, or you manage to spot each other at the same time. This way neither side will react even if your initiative is lower than the cyberdisc.

 

- Flares. If it's dark - toss some out or fire some incendiary rounds into the darkness. They can see 20 tiles in the dark while you see 16, so they'll spot you before you spot them.

 

- If you spot the cyberdisc - don't move unless you can get out of its visibility range (20 tiles) or leap behind cover. Try not to engage it with the scout as much as possible.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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  • 2 weeks later...
TFTD. Worst experience: Seeing my main matey (I have one dude who's been in every mission since I started) single handedly fight off tens of aliens just to have him killed by a pathetic drbble of an alien in the next mission before I can even think about it. It's unbelievably frustrating, cos now I've gotten to the point where if this one dude dies I restart regardless of how well I'm doing.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Finally cornered the commander I'd been searching for and couldn't stun him because I'd hit some sprite limit and it couldn't create his body; took a long time but I got him by blowing up some old bodies
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Yeah, the item limit is a real beast to get around, especially on Superhuman. Whenever I send out the stunning force to abduct some aliens, I make sure to keep my inventory low (lasers usually and a few Stun Rods or a Small Launcher). That way when the time comes to stun I'm not "shooting blanks" so to speak. LOL

 

- Zombie

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Nice trick for avoiding item count worries (works for all but the lightning)

 

. . . add tanks.

 

Less soldiers, less stuff. A Nice thing about tanks is they can't be mind controlled.

 

A typical skyranger load for me early on in the game (that is when I'm not playing F.G.I.T.W.A.C.H.E.):

1 Cannon Tank

1 Rocket Tank

 

They are my scout squad. Rocket Tank makes kills where nessessary/appropriate.

Cannon tank makes holes in the terrain to allow access.

 

BTW the tanks are made out of rubber; you CAN drive a tank through a 1x2 hole above stairs. I have driven tanks to the roof of the farm house. The cannon tank does not need to make holes in the floor/ceiling but they do in the wall.

 

4 Soldiers with AC 2HE 1AP 1I

 

They are my artillery. I try to get them up high away from the action with no obstructions between them and action. they squat with HE loaded. By being up high if they miss the bug they will hit ground beside them and splash damage does its magic. The single AP round is if they need to say enter the UFO. The incendary is to light up the night or say soften the jungle/forest first.

 

2 Soldiers with rifle 2 clips 2 grenades 1 smoke 2 prox 1 high explosives 1 scanner 1 medikit 1 stunrod

 

They are my specialists.

 

IIRC tanks cost an item each so:

 

1x2+4x(1+2+1+1)+2x(1+2+2+1+2+1+1+1+1)=46 items

 

 

Oh and F.G.I.T.W.A.C.H.E. ?

Fourteen guys in t-shirts with autocannon High Explosive

 

That one is:

autocannon 2 HE 1 AP

 

forget the fancy stuff; FTW!!!!!!!

 

14x(1+2+1)=56 items

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Playing Enemy Unknown, I once had a very tough tactical mission (while still not having power suits). I was able to pull it all through until one of my guys went unconscious (I don't remember whether he got hit or he inhaled too much smoke). Everything would have been fine except that he had high explosives primed. Needless to say, the next turn I had a few guys dead minus an alien navigator.

 

I learned my lesson - no more priming grenades/explosives in advance, ever! (only smoke grenades).

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  • 4 weeks later...

My first attempt at ironman.

 

One small scout, then?

 

Nonstop base attacks. January and February, nothing but.

 

Then? A terror ship! A mission other than a base attack!

 

Which was followed by a base attack. At the same time. Wiping out my only half decent base.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Worst experience? Terror from the Deep in general - that game is possibly the worst strategy game I ever played (since now). Ridiculously difficult even on "Beginner" skill, the research tree is a mess, the aliens always know where you are, and in 90%, they WILL kill you, no matter how far you are. Weapons available at the market are nothing more than toys. Even Gauss weaponry fails against stronger enemies (Tasoth, Bio-Drone, not to mention Lobster Men).

 

The main reason why I'm bashing Terror from the Deep is the frequent game cheating ,and the illogical research structure. If I could research Vibro Blade and Thermic Lances right away, I could save the lives of at least 50-60 aquanauts (cruise ship and alien colony missions killed most of my squad, except when I took my time and re-loaded the game a thousand times).

 

X-Com UFO Defense is pretty easy in my opinion. Once you get laser rifle and Heavy laser, your soldiers are pretty much unstoppable, with no ammunition to worry about. Adding laser tanks to your army will also dramatically boost your chances to succeed. The "strongest" enemies - Cyberdisc and Sectopod - are extremely vulnerable against laser weapons.

 

I also had problems with the Ethereals - their mind-control really stirred up the shuckeroonies. However I found out a trick. Give Force armoursuit to your soldiers, and then equip'em with laser guns! Laser weapons will not break through the force armour if your soldiers gets turned against each other, but the Ethereals will really feel the squeeze. Plasma pistols and Small launcher also does the trick - just don't use Heavy plasma at those missions.

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I think once you get into the swing of things and personal aesthetic tastes aside, TFTD is fairly decent. Beyond the research tree, a lot of the more common problems you'll experience are also present in UFO, they're just more obvious in TFTD.

 

The real turning point is getting Ion Armor and probably adding Sonic Pulsers into the mix.

 

Superhuman on TFTD though is a slaughter fest at the start, but in a way part of the fun is overcoming these ridiculous odds.

 

- NKF

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  • 1 month later...
I just completed Terror from the Deep on Superhuman level too. All I can say is that this is the SECOND worst game I EVER played (the first is obviously Power of Destruction). I took my time and added up ALL the bugs and errors I found so far. It's more than 40 alltogether...
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