ElectroFlares

[Mark0]

hey guys, i was woundering if u use lots of electro flares to light up the maps when u r attacking at night

and does it help alot, are they really usefull?

 

me, i never ever baught or added 1 in the skyranger or avanger..

how about you?

[gangsta]

Oh I use electroflairs on every night mission. What you want to do is have one of the front two guys by the ramp of the skyranger to have them. I usually equip that guy with 1 smoke grenade and 6 electro flares. First that guy is used to throw the 1 smoke grenade out of the skyranger and I usually end my turn there. Stewart reminded me about having a second guy throw a smoke grenade inside the skyranger and I recomend that too. Well anyway you don't always get to use your electroflares depending on if that guy gets killed or not. But they come in real handy at night missions. I use them basically two ways. 1) to make a path twards the ufo. This will make it easier getting most of your guys to the ufo. 2) when someone is snipering your squad throw it as far as you can in the general direction of where ya getting shot from. This results in you usually seeing that alien and then you have it pretty easy taking it out. BTW 6 electro flares take up all the spaces on your belt. that is where that number came from.

[Guest jwh]

I find flares to be indispensable in night time missions,especially when you are on a terror mission. interestingly enough they are quite useful on alien base attacks. on my alien attacks I usually pair my soldiers. One will trow the flare into areas whrere i suspect aliens to be but are too dark to see prperly. If there are aliens then my soldiers partner will blast him.

[Guest Guest]

Good advice about the alien base. Don't remeber if I ever tried that before. Hey stewart this just made me think of something about the remake. A soldier should just be able to drop something in his hand to take something from his belt without getting suffering a penelty from dropping. In XCom the penelty to drop and then to put something else in your hand is just too great IMO. If someone had a grenade in their hand and all the sudden come under fire dropping the grenade and grabbing an electroflare takes just about as much time as an empty hand grabbinb an electroflare from the belt. It is somewhat ridiculous how if ya do that in xcom sometimes you are unable to throw.

[Guest Guest]

Flares seem to make a big difference in your soldiers spotting an enemy. Like at night an alien can be 10 or so squares away and your soldier is facing him but he won't spot him. As soon as you throw a flare the alien shows up like the light of day. That same flare would even make the alien visable at maximum visibility range. Perhaps flares even help to increase visibility range even in day missions. Not sure.

 

Another thing to find out is if they help a soldier react better. In xcom it seems that level of light makes a difference to visibility distance. Perhaps light level acts as a modifier to reaction too. Wouldn't know for sure, but it's worth considering.

 

Anyway, I know I always dread landing at night without flares. Lack of flares on night missions seem to make them much harder. Especially if you run into an alien that likes to snipe from far. One of those buggers can be a real problem for your squad if you don't have flares since it will take you a few turns to inch your way up to him. Whereas a flare landing near him usually exposes his position immediately. Those few turns can mean a few dead soldiers. In those situations that alien will hit pretty consistently because it seems he'll be taking time to do aimed shots.

 

I usually stock at least 6 or so flares in my troop transport just in case I land at night. Like a terrorist mission you can't waste much time and have to be very prompt in responding. This sometimes gives you know choice but to take on a terror mission at night or you end up missing mission altogether. Missing a terror mission can be pretty detrimental to your rating though. You'd be even better off if all the civilians died than skipping it.

[Raid!]

I use electro flares as part of my standard operating procedure, but I only have four to give out (two for each of my 5 man teams). The lead scouts each take one and the commanding officers (in the back) takes one. Usually these guys have a lot of tu’s and can afford to throw a flare and advance, maybe reserving some for a snap shot. I usually use a “leap frog” advance during combat , two flares means I can throw one just beyond visual range and then the next flare further out to get large coverage. Of course I try to use the darkness to my advantage too, aliens are subject to the same “visual” ranges so if you go wide enough they can’t see you either.

 

BTW is there anyway to determine that you are going into a night mission? (Like the colour of the "skyranger" blurb before you equip.) There have been several times where I've tried to get there before the sun sets, but in a few close calls I found myself in darkness, when I thought I beat the sunset.

[gangsta]

There probably should be something giving ETA in the remake. Also I think you should be able to preequip your squad at the xcom base. Make several standard settings for that too. Sucks having to equip when you land your skyranger. heh someone really should be writing all this stuff down

[Mark0]

nice too see peopel usign it alot,i really never never used it

i guess now i will, thnx for the starts

[gangsta]

nice too see peopel usign it alot,i really never never used it

i guess now i will, thnx for the starts  

peer preasure

[Guest Guest]

BTW is there anyway to determine that you are going into a night mission? (Like the colour of the "skyranger" blurb before you equip.)  There have been several times where I've tried to get there before the sun sets, but in a few close calls I found myself in darkness, when I thought I beat the sunset.

Yeah there's a way to tell if it's night or day. Look at the geoscape globe real carefully. You'll notice that it changes from dark to light for the transition from day to night. Right at the second before you actually touch down see how far from the edge of night (darkness that envelopes the globe you are). There seems to be different levels of darkness as well. Like if you're smack dab in the middle of the darkness you can bet it's going to be a night mission at it's darkest (these are the times I always dread not having a huge supply of flares - like if I spaced and forgot or mistimed it on a terror mission).

 

If you're in doubt right before you land, just answer no when it asks whether to begin mission. Then you can doublecheck the globe. I don't remember if your craft will default to patrolling the site or returning to base (I think it will patrol). Just mentioning that so you keep an eye on it from taking off back home, just in case.

 

For a good example of what I'm talking about just boot a xcom 1 or 2. Then speed up time to 30 min or 1 hour and watch the day to night to day transition of the geoscape. Just remember the close you are in the middle of the darkness the darker the mission will be. Like near the edges (which equates to early night or early morning) it tends to not be as dark. Also just the reverse for day it seem. The more in the middle of the lightness, the better visibility seems to be. Most ideal is when you land in the afternoon relative to the region you're touching down at of course.

 

Everything I've read seems to agree that aliens have same visibility limitations as xcom troops, but I could swear that sometimes they've got night vision with the way they act. One explanation, from the USG is that they seem to have better vision because they'll step into visible range then step back out, then nail a soldier by remember where they were. That makes sense in some ways, but I swear I see the computer blatantly do things sometimes that totally counter that theory.

 

Overall though, it often feels that the aliens have the advantage at night. May be my playstyle influencing my perceptions of this though. Of course you've got to expect the computer to cheat in any strategy game since AI can be only so good. Often it's about programming the AI to cheat just the right amount to make up for it's lack of sentience. You got to figure the computer always knows where your soldiers are, it's just a matter of if whether it's going to act on that knowledge. That's probably figured out by some big AI related algorithm.

 

So when I hear that familiar moan of frustration by friends with any computer game, "The computer cheats!!". I usually reply, "Of course it does."

[Guest Guest]

I just wanted to add to the general discussion:

 

If anyone prefers not to use flares all the power to them. If a player can get through a night mission without feeling they're at a disadvantage without them, then they must be doing something right or have a good strategy.

 

I know I've landed by accident and spaced of bringing flares quite a few times. For me, it felt like the mission was a little more difficult, but if I was extra careful, I can sometimes fair pretty well without them.

 

Also like someone else on this board mentioned, incendiary ammo can work wonders at night also. On many missions, a soldier with an AC and incendiary ammo can really light up the place the well. In some ways, much better than flares can.

[SamTMJ]

Oh, I don't happen to use electroflares at all... here's why :

electroflares take up space on the transport and count against the

80 items limit in UFO.

So ? How do I fight a night mission ? here's how:

 

The AUTOCANNON. with Incendiary (IC) ammo of course. here's why:

- an AC-IC clip contains 14 rounds of IC shots yet counts as ONE item.

- Incendiary fires burn any aliens that walk through.

- IC ammo are handy against certain aliens that are IC-vulnerable (reaper)

- A soldier can shoot SIX shots (2 bursts) of IC-rounds in one turn. Now

that will REALLY light up an area.

- IC-round can be shot through windows, even if the soldier is quite some

distance away.

- Gives me an exciting chance to commit utter destruction on a level

incomprehensible to the civilized mind in urban areas (terror missions)

 

Besides, with the ability to take AC-HE ammo too, the versatility of the AUTOCANNON allows it to be used as artillery too, bombarding an area (hey, SIX shots one round, remember ? ) to take out lesser aliens and blow light cover away (trees, bushes, hedges).

 

So, your opinion please ? ::

[Guest stewart]

Good advice about the alien base.  Don't remeber if I ever tried that before.  Hey stewart this just made me think of something about the remake.  A soldier should just be able to drop something in his hand to take something from his belt without getting suffering a penelty from dropping.

I believe it's 2 TUs to drop from hand. It would be a simple matter to set that to 0. If people feel that is better.

[Guest stewart]

I find flares to be indispensable in night time missions,especially when you are on a terror mission. interestingly enough they are quite useful on alien base attacks.  on my alien attacks I usually pair my soldiers.  One will trow the flare into areas whrere i suspect aliens to be but are too dark to see prperly.  If there are aliens then my soldiers partner will blast him.

Oh yeah, for the Alien Habitats; I never thought of that!

[Guest stewart]

Yeah there's a way to tell if it's night or day.  Look at the geoscape globe real carefully.

Yep, you are probably advancing the time to quickly so you don't have to wait for the skyranger to travel. Remember, Skyrangers can stay in the sky for days, even on the other side of the world. Set a way-point just by the location. Then check again before going on to the target.

[Guest stewart]

Now as for electro-flares. Yep I use them too. But they are my secondary lighting source.

 

The first thing I do is light up the place with incendiary ammo. It also has the advantage of clearing away cover and burning up the bugs.

 

My team ususally has 4 electro-flares. I carry them to all missions (even day ones); weight training you see. Anyway, Electro-flares are thrown objects so they take parablolic paths to their targets. I use them where direct fire of incendiary ammo can't occur. I also use it if I'm immediately going to step there. Also, you can pick-up an electro-flare and throw it somewhere else; that's handy sometimes too.

[Scipio]

I've only played TFTD, but I can assure you in that one that the aliens have FAR superior night vision. It made sense to me, since they are essentially bio-engineered.

As far as flares go, I use them all the time too. I generally give one to each squad member. I toss several flares in a box pattern. Then I advance to the closer of the two points on the box and toss those flares farther out, forming another box.

[Guest stewart]

I wonder if you mind control an alien, do you get it's range-of-vision or does it have human range-of-vision?

[Guest [email protected]]

Oh, I don't happen to use electroflares at all... here's why :

electroflares take up space on the transport and count against the

80 items limit in UFO.

So ? How do I fight a night mission ? here's how:

 

The AUTOCANNON. with Incendiary (IC) ammo of course. here's why:

- an AC-IC clip contains 14 rounds of IC shots yet counts as ONE item.

- Incendiary fires burn any aliens that walk through.

- IC ammo are handy against certain aliens that are IC-vulnerable (reaper)

- A soldier can shoot SIX shots (2 bursts) of IC-rounds in one turn. Now

  that will REALLY light up an area.

- IC-round can be shot through windows, even if the soldier is quite some

  distance away.

- Gives me an exciting chance to commit utter destruction on a level

incomprehensible to the civilized mind in urban areas (terror missions)

 

Besides, with the ability to take AC-HE ammo too, the versatility of the AUTOCANNON allows it to be used as artillery too, bombarding an area (hey, SIX shots one round, remember ? ) to take out lesser aliens and blow light cover away (trees, bushes, hedges).

 

So, your opinion please ? ::

I'm siding with SamTMJ. I don't use them. I did use them when I first played the game, when I was scared of the dark and what might be lurking beyond my field of vision. Now that I've played it a lot, I don't really care. I send my men out relatively blindly with flying armor to protect them or with incendiary ammo in the auto cannon at the beginning of the game.

[PeterDragon]

But, even with flying armor, in the jungle w/o incinerary, you can almost get on top of them before you see them. That means they can pleanty of reaction shots, and usually you end up getting to a place where they can see you and you can't see them and or you don't have enough TU's to do anyhting about it by the time your close enough.

[Guest stewart]

Crimony by the time I've got flying armor I'm not using "earth" stuff anymore. At that point do like that one guy said, "Soften up the map by pasting it with Blaster Bombs then step out.".

[SamTMJ]

I'd like to quote this once again:

"Soften up the map by pasting it with Blaster Bombs then step out.".

 

DAMN, man, where'd you get all these wonderful, delightful and heart-warming Tips-of-Utter-Devastation from ?

I'm kinda like a fan for all those Weapons_of_Mass_Destruction and their effects thingies... ::

 

Anyway, we should have some vision-enhancers (night-vision, thermal vision) addedto the remake of this game...

[Guest stewart]

Alas the word are not my own. I forget who's though, sorry.

 

As for your ideas, I too have expressed liking to see those very things.

 

There's a thread in "The Remake" which talks about all this stuff. I forget the name but it's super long.

[Drite]

I usually use 2 flares and incendiary AC fires. A nice thing about the flares is that you can pick them up and rethrow them. If you pick them up before ending the mission, you keep them sometimes (I've had it work both ways, here).

[Radoteur]

I've always kept them.

It seems like in my version the troops pick up all the junk I'm dropped all over the place, AND they don't throw out slightly used ammo.