9 replies to this topic

[Aknazer]

I was wondering who has tried this before. Personally I just got done with taking out the first building and killing all of the aliens inside of it. I'm attempting to do it on a semi-ironman style (if I reload I reload to before I started the mission) and I hope to get my tactics down so that I don't require any reloads at all. I must say that doing this requires COMPLETELY different tactics than normal missions. I'll try to get up my saved game here in a bit, but so far here are some tactics that I have learned:

1) Mind Shield trick is your friend, though even at 200 defense (cap) you can still be panicked.

2) Don't teleport when something has done a psionic attack on you. I did this and it caused me to be permanently panicked and unable to kill the psionic mob, and in building 2 it caused the Psimorphs to stun me. So far the Micronids favor panick while the Psimorphs favor stun (and yes they can stun you even with 200 psi defense).

3) Vortex Mines are great for shutting down the alien reinforcement pods. While you will need one mine per pod generally, shutting off reinforcements can make things a LOT easier on longer missions.

4) Entropy Pods/Dimension Missles have a very high turn rate. If you try to teleport before they connect and you don't do so behind a thick wall then the chances are high it will manage to turn around and hit you (I figured the turn rate would be slow and it would hit the wall while turning, silly me).

5) Carry a second Toxigun on you. Personally I did the first mission with only one, but there were times where having a second one would have made it a LOT easier to mow down the 5+ aliens that appeared (will also help deal with megaspawn when you fight them).

6) You don't need to max out your invin with Toxigun clips. For the first mission I only used 5 clips (the one in the gun and then 4 from my belt), and while later missions will have more aliens, you can sacrifice some clips for things like grenades to make the mission easier.

7) Bring at least 2 teleporters. This will allow you to make a quick retreat if needed, or allow you to teleport in, waste several aliens (like by dropping a mine or pulling out the second gun and laying down some heavy fire), and then teleporting out if you get overwhelmed.

8) Remember that the aliens have gear too. This means you can kill one, and then use their mine/cannon to destroy objectives or reinforcement pods. Also great for replacing a worn shield or spent teleporter rather than waiting for yours to recharge (or if it gets destroyed for the shield).

9) Micromanage your targets. Psionic targets should be first due to the danger of being panicked, followed by things with entropy pods and dimension launchers, and then pretty much anything else. Brainsuckers/Poppers should be ignored until they are fairly close to you (thanks to how fast the toxigun fires you can stop a brainsucker that is only one tile away from you, or one that is jumping in the air towards you. Poppers need to be stopped a bit farther out due to the fact that the explode at 1-2 tiles out).

10) The Marsec chest is great. It greatly increases mobility (something needed with a 1man army) and allows you to save your teleporter charges for when you really need them

I'll post some more tactics as I learn them and I'll try to upload a saved game of each building so that people can try out the one-man assaults.

Edited by Aknazer, 03 February 2009 - 04:55 AM.

[Aknazer]

Alright I just looked at the saved game files and am a bit confused. Where I was expecting a folder for each game like in UFO and TFTD there was instead many different files stating things like "Savegame.0X" "Startgame.0X" and "Tactgame.0X" and I have no clue what I would need to actually compress in order to load up the proper files, especially since some numbers (which I'm assuming are referring to the saved game) are used in multiple filetypes.

Also I just completed the second building. It's even easier than the first one so long as you make good use of the teleporter and you drop the 2 Psimorphs before they get a chance to stun you.

[NKF]

Solo missions are fun in the late game once you get all the juicier equipment.

A few recommendations:

Try an android. Go for one with high stamina and strength - don't mind the other stats too much. With teleporters, accuracy isn't an issue, and the teleporters can give them a quick escape as necessary. This will make you immune to brainsuckers and psimorphs.

If your aim was to increase your ammo capacity, don't bring a second toxigun in. Rather, use two clips in its place. A toxigun uses up two slots but only stores a single clip. You frankly don't need the firepower two toxiguns can offer if you've got teleporters and if you use the toxigun on full-auto up close. Teleport behind the enemy, unload your firepower and teleport out. When fighting Megaspawn and other enemies that don't carry shields, try to save your toxigun ammo and go dual-Devestators. Dual power swords are simply amazing - even against shielded enemies.

Teleporters: I recommend carrying 4 - 5 of them at a time. Sacrifice a shield, the off-hand weapon and maybe the medikit if you have to. Gather up more teleporters in the battle and create a small stockpile of them. Every so often wait a brief moment in a quiet area to let your teleporters refresh a few bars.

Create a home base - either by finding a safe spot or digging and making a small cavern. By gathering up spare shields, vortex mines and teleporters, you'll have a large supply of fresh equipment to replenish your own as you use them. Don't linger in this area too long in case there's an anthropod with a boomeroid nearby.

When destroying the spawn pads - vortex mines can destroy pads one tile away. So if you see any pads that are right next to each other or separated by a one tile gap, a single v-mine between them can take them both out in one hit.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 03 February 2009 - 06:24 AM.

[Aknazer]

Oddly enough I haven't seen any androids in my game since about mid march, and I'm now in mid may (and I've never been hated with SELF). This means that all of my androids have died because at the end of march I hit a rough period (devestators just hit the field and I was in marsec armor with no disruptor shield, this led to a point where I was down to 5 soldiers, noone to recruit, everyone sub 50% hp, and 4/5 sub 25% hp).

As for the second Toxigun, it wasn't for the extra ammo, but the extra shots. So far in both of my missions I have only gone through about 4 clips per battle and I have had to take on 5+ anthropods/skeletoids at a time. Granted I can teleport away if needed, but there's no need if I can kill everyone (and if I'm under a psionic attack I can't teleport away until the psi mob is dead). Once I capture the queen and get gas grenades I'll probably toss some more clips for grenades or Mini Gas Launcher since I seem to run into groups of aliens pretty regularly.

[NKF]

Androids, like power swords, tend to have a very small chance of appearing so may not show up for hire all that often (or at all in some cases). Unlike power sword supplies, which get refreshed at the end of the week, new android recruits have a chance to appear every day when the new recruit pool gets updated at midnight (And it's random - so you can save/reload just before midnight, and repeatedly end the day until an android shows up).

As for the toxigun, if you're using them for long range attacks with aimed/snap shots, then the second toxigun is sensible. But if you have the teleporters, you'll want to try and make the best of them by using point-blank attacks.

The reason I advised against the second toxigun (for auto fire) is because a second toxigun will barely get fire due to the already high rate of fire of the main toxigun. Most dual firearms fire roughly at the same speed once they are both firing (there's a one-cycle delay for the offhand weapon before it gets used), but the toxigun breaks this convention for some odd reason. Probably something due to having too high a fire rate. Oh well. Anyway a quick burst of C rounds and even a Megaspawn will fall.

AG grenades are the bomb! Literally. You get them way too late, but you can deal ridiculous damage with them, especially when combined with teleporters and the Marsec plate. Definitely a welcome weapon to bring into the final battle if you're going to solo it.

Nothing against the Marsec Suit (it's a great torso plate), but have you considered the benefit of a full suit of disrupter armour? In addition to being light, it's nearly immune to almost every explosive in the game except a point-blank attack by the v-mine. If your shields fizz out and you don't have any teleporter energy left to get you to safety, a full disrupter suit will let soak up multiple dimension missiles (I once had six in a row!) or poppers before your armour durability runs out and the parts get destroyed.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 03 February 2009 - 11:11 PM.

[Aknazer]

I generally do snipe with the toxiguns because so far I have been going with 2 teleporters and 1 v-mine (though I'll probably drop the medikit for a third teleporter for the next mission). I just completed the third building and with both toxiguns going on full auto I was able to obliterate 7+ enemies from a decent range, and was even killing things that I wasn't aiming for and couldn't see (due to other aliens blocking the view is my guess). Personally I prefer to stay back a bit and save my teleporters for dealing with things like the entropy pods and dimension missles so 2 teleporters has worked just fine for the most part.

As for the chest piece I have thought about it and for some of the later missions I might use it (like when I go for the queen), but so far mobility has been key, and being able to fly up to to the objectives rather than running all around has been very helpful. Also I almost never have my shields destroyed since once they hit 50% or less I either look for a new shield or let my current one recharge (assuming I'm not in combat). Given my previous experiences with entropy pods in other games I'm extremely paranoid about my shield breaking because normally not even disruptor armor can survive the duration of the pod (or when it has it has 10 or less durability left).

I do look forward to fighting a megaspawn with my C rounds. The last time I fought one was with B rounds and for some reason even with 4-14 squadmembers firing on one it took forever to kill it, so hopefully the C rounds will do better (them having 301hp and a good bit of armor probably had something to do with it).

Since I'm not sure exactly which saved game files I need to compress I'll just wait till I have all 10 buildings saved (one in each slot) and then compress the whole folder and upload that.

[Aiki-Knight]

It's true that Anti-alien gas comes WAY too late. It's kind of a shame. I don't hack my games, but I think I'd consider hacking it in just to try it out earlier on. Might this crash the game?

I do love the talk of one-agent missions. Reminds me of my super-commando exploits. Which NKF taught me to do.

[Aknazer]

It's true that Anti-alien gas comes WAY too late. It's kind of a shame. I don't hack my games, but I think I'd consider hacking it in just to try it out earlier on. Might this crash the game?

I do love the talk of one-agent missions. Reminds me of my super-commando exploits. Which NKF taught me to do.

The gas is nice, but imo not that needed. 1-2 pistols with C ammo is more than enough to handle most enemies, especially if you have teleporters. Just have to be sure not to port during a psi attack =/

Eventually I want to try a 1man cydonia run w/o using psionics on superhuman. I just need to research a few more things (used the option for alien research assist, so its taking awhile) but that's for a different thread.

[Aiki-Knight]

It's true that Anti-alien gas comes WAY too late. It's kind of a shame. I don't hack my games, but I think I'd consider hacking it in just to try it out earlier on. Might this crash the game?

I do love the talk of one-agent missions. Reminds me of my super-commando exploits. Which NKF taught me to do.

The gas is nice, but imo not that needed. 1-2 pistols with C ammo is more than enough to handle most enemies, especially if you have teleporters. Just have to be sure not to port during a psi attack =/

Eventually I want to try a 1man cydonia run w/o using psionics on superhuman. I just need to research a few more things (used the option for alien research assist, so its taking awhile) but that's for a different thread.

What happens if you teleport while under PSI attack?

[Aknazer]

It's true that Anti-alien gas comes WAY too late. It's kind of a shame. I don't hack my games, but I think I'd consider hacking it in just to try it out earlier on. Might this crash the game?

I do love the talk of one-agent missions. Reminds me of my super-commando exploits. Which NKF taught me to do.

The gas is nice, but imo not that needed. 1-2 pistols with C ammo is more than enough to handle most enemies, especially if you have teleporters. Just have to be sure not to port during a psi attack =/

Eventually I want to try a 1man cydonia run w/o using psionics on superhuman. I just need to research a few more things (used the option for alien research assist, so its taking awhile) but that's for a different thread.

What happens if you teleport while under PSI attack?

Holy crap it's been awhile...

Anyways, if you tele while under a PSI attack the attack continues until the enemy dies or the attack succeeds. Which means that if you tele while they are trying to stun you eventually your character will be stunned and in a 1man mission that means game over.