Bust Down The Back Door

[MikeTheRed]

Hi all! Great forum, kudos to the providers...

 

Danial recently showed me a DaiShiva's excellent MapView, which shows XCOM tile info.

 

Being naturally inclined to abuse and pervert, I looked for interesting loopholes I might see.

 

Here's one:

 

On the top floor of the battleship, there's always(?) a Navigator lurking in the control room to the southwest (left down) of the main elevator.

 

If you didn't know, all the walls on the third floor of the battleship have tile armor of 100. This means you can't blast through them even with a Heavy Plasma.

 

BUT. The wall-high green-on-black "displays" on the walls of the control room have armor of 70. This means you can blast through them. And save some steps. It also means you can blaster the center wall between two displays and open up three spaces, when usually you can only crack open one tile of Armor=100 (such as outer UFO hulls and these inner security walls) with Blasters.

 

Ok, it's a small backdoor trick. Only of interest to XCOM vets - and probly even then, only a curiosity.

 

I have seen another, more interesting backdoor tile trick. It is not by any means ground shaking, but cute, just the same.

 

Can I start a thread then... what backdoor tile tricks have you seen?

 

Any and all observations welcome, regarding going a specific way through specific tiles to get somewhere easier than you might have thought. Not, "blast open the whole side of the place so you can kill everything", laugh. And you don't need to have MapView! (Caution: If you do want to install MapView, you have to install .NET, and that's a big download. But it has never messed with my PC AFAIK.)

 

I wonder if anyone's seen this other backdoor I've found. Or have you found others I missed?

 

And keep your back to the corner... there's an alien menace abroad

 

MTR

[[Blehm 98]]

On alien bases, there tend to be larger aliens in front of the control center, and most of the walls are way too tough to consider going through. But if you go through the top wall(right of the doors) you can blow through the shiny panels with a heavy laser and have easier access to the command center without facing the bigger enemies

[Snakeman]

I've shot out floors sometimes in Supply Ships to make psi wrangling easier (depends on placement of their ship to mine on the battlescape where I do this to their ship interior). This is usually for me the only reason I'd do it, most of the time I keep the walls around even though its cover for them, its cover for me too

 

And aliens don't shoot their own walls out unless by accident.

[testarossa]

Walls may be strong but UFO roof tiles always seem to have a weakness especially when a alien grenade is involved. On ships where I don't want to have to navigate the bottom levels, where you can be ambushed easily, I blow a hole in the roof and start from top to bottom. On battleships I bust a hole on the top floor in those useless rooms that can be found on the corners, (rarely any aliens in here.) If theres a PSI risk to your troops this is also helpful as you can cut off the higher aliens first. I believe that UFO roof tiles can even be destroyed by heavy plasma.

[gufu]

Walls may be strong but UFO roof tiles always seem to have a weakness especially when a alien grenade is involved. On ships where I don't want to have to navigate the bottom levels, where you can be ambushed easily, I blow a hole in the roof and start from top to bottom. On battleships I bust a hole on the top floor in those useless rooms that can be found on the corners, (rarely any aliens in here.) If theres a PSI risk to your troops this is also helpful as you can cut off the higher aliens first. I believe that UFO roof tiles can even be destroyed by heavy plasma.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

sectoid one:we safe if we wont get out-muton is standing next to door!

 

sectoid two:what's that noise?

 

Both:WOOT?

 

(roof go BOOM and x-com agents get in and kill evereone!)

 

ROFL ROFL ROFL

[MikeTheRed]

Blehm, that was exactly one of the weaknesses I saw looking at walls in MapView... the "bottom" of the outer ring of base command center has strong walls, but the "top" with the swirling orange pattern can be shot through with a Heavy Plasma.

 

For what it's worth, the back/top wall of the second floor of Terror Ship has the swirly orange, too - BUT it also has regular outer UFO wall hidden behind that. So it's actually harder to get into than usual hull (takes two blaster bombs).

 

Snake, that sounds like fun. Which reminds me how crash damage (when UFO engines explode) sometimes opens up holes in the ceiling inside ships, which can give aliens some cheap shots if you're not careful!

 

testarossa, you can blow a hole in UFO roofs with an alien grenade? I'll give it a shot... I thought only the Blaster Bomb is strong enough. Not Heavy Plasma either as far as I know. Time to go try it out!

[Zombie]

Snake, that sounds like fun. Which reminds me how crash damage (when UFO engines explode) sometimes opens up holes in the ceiling inside ships, which can give aliens some cheap shots if you're not careful!

It works to your advantage too. If the Power Source explosions in a Supply Ship are strong enough, it may knock holes or damage the outside part of Level 1. The outside part I'm talking about is the floor on Level 1 which hangs over the South side of the ship by one tile. If there is a hole, your troopers with Flying Suits can hover in there directly and start shooting. If some floor tiles are damaged, use your Heavy Plasma to shoot your way in through that damaged tile and then have your men in Flying Suits come up through the hole. Usually the aliens are so surprised by this that you can easily wipe out that level in a round or two.

 

Same goes for the Battleship. If the Power Source explosion(s) are strong enough some floor tiles will be damaged. Sure, you might be able to get in through the lift in one of the "legs", but the aliens anticipate that. Entering from a different location usually puts your soldiers in a safe room of the Battleship instead of a corridor. And we all know that the corridors on L1 of the Battleship are like shooting galleries.

 

testarossa, you can blow a hole in UFO roofs with an alien grenade? I'll give it a shot... I thought only the Blaster Bomb is strong enough. Not Heavy Plasma either as far as I know. Time to go try it out!

Only the Blaster will punch through a UFO. Alien Grenades, High Explosives, HWP Fusion Bombs, HWP Plasma or the Heavy Plasma just don't have enough power (except for in mountain terrain). :wink1:

 

- Zombie

[[Blehm 98]]

A heavy laser will do the job mike, so even early on you can shoot through those walls

[Hobbes]

A heavy laser will do the job mike, so even early on you can shoot through those walls

 

Only if the Heavy Laser is the upgraded XComUtil version.

[Blood Angel]

Does the old barn haystack trick apply? On the Farm tileset, just stand on a haystack in the barn. Lets you see the top storey without being shot at.

[MikeTheRed]

Huh! Works for me! I never heard of that.

 

Hey... can you carry a bale of hay into a UFO?

[Blood Angel]

That would make a sweet headline. "Aliens defeated by hay!"

[Zombie]

Hi all! Great forum, kudos to the providers...

 

Danial recently showed me a DaiShiva's excellent MapView, which shows XCOM tile info.

 

Being naturally inclined to abuse and pervert, I looked for interesting loopholes I might see.

 

Here's one:

 

On the top floor of the battleship, there's always(?) a Navigator lurking in the control room to the southwest (left down) of the main elevator.

 

If you didn't know, all the walls on the third floor of the battleship have tile armor of 100. This means you can't blast through them even with a Heavy Plasma.

 

BUT. The wall-high green-on-black "displays" on the walls of the control room have armor of 70. This means you can blast through them. And save some steps. It also means you can blaster the center wall between two displays and open up three spaces, when usually you can only crack open one tile of Armor=100 (such as outer UFO hulls and these inner security walls) with Blasters.

 

Ok, it's a small backdoor trick. Only of interest to XCOM vets - and probly even then, only a curiosity.

The navigational displays also work to your advantage in Abductors and Harvesters. I've always had trouble with the Harvester since everytime you open the door to the bridge, an alien is ready to snipe you down. I now send my men up both lifts and shoot out the one panel closer to the center of the ship. Then go back down the lift. In subsequent rounds just keep going up and down to spot aliens. Sometimes this doesn't work and your men can't get a fix on any activity. In that case, I bring a few men into each room and place them along the outer walls looking through the hole. Still nothing? A Hi-Explosive tossed to the center of the bridge usually does the trick.

 

- Zombie

[[stewart]]

Brain room: step in the front door on the lower level, shoot up, the brain is right above you. Of course you have to remove the ceiling first . . . . .

[Zombie]

Not necessarily. Just shove a High-Explosive through the ceiling and the resulting explosion will destroy the whole brain. Of course, you could always use a Blaster Bomb directly under the brain and it'll do the same thing.

 

- Zombie

[Mad Cas]

testarossa, you can blow a hole in UFO roofs with an alien grenade? I'll give it a shot... I thought only the Blaster Bomb is strong enough. Not Heavy Plasma either as far as I know. Time to go try it out!

 

Thats my usual method. Count the tiles on the roof of the UFO as I know the layouts well, thenhave a 'feel' about in the darkness with the cursor box for the BBL to find the right place and use the BBL to punch a hole in a corner of the main nav room. Sometimes for some reason the Blaster Bomb gets in and wrecks the joint as well as making a hole in the roof, especially in a multi level ufo where you select waypoints down throuh the levels for the BBL to follow, don't know why it does that, guess for the same reason you can sometimes shoot through gaps between corner walls at the sides of UFO's. It probably messes up the profits a bit, destroying all the main navicomps, but if i'm at the point where I have BBL's I'm usually good for cash anyhow.

 

Next step is to drop in in the corner of said room (corner is good, less chance of getting reaction shotted as you scan around the darkness) and surprise the head honchos inside (I don't know if killing thier leaders demoralises them more than killing, for instance a soldier but I hope so) I'd also like to think is surprises the crap outta them (probably not as AI's dont have emotion or surprise, but hey ho )

 

As a side note I use HTP's to clear farm and terror site buildings, I just shoot my own doors, Not that I expect any of this to be a revelation to you guys