Lobstermen

[Extralucas]

I started to play this damn game again (strange thing, but always I finish UFO I wanna try TFTD), and Im overhwelmed by speed of their appearance. At beggining of the March (4th Month!!) I've shot down very small with one lobster aboard, and this lobster wasted 4 of 5 of my men. I can't imagine attacking Very Large loaded with that crap!

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Personally I find lobsters easy. Especially if you have vibroblades. If you don't, thermal shok launchers work almost as well.

 

I like fighting lobsters more than say, aquatoids becuase they are more of a challenge. I wish lobsters appeared before aquatoids and gillmen. It is unfourtnate that they don't.

[Extralucas]

To have vibroblade u must research calcnite body (how stupid! Argh..) And they seem to be associated with aquatoids (somehow I couldn't find any during those 4 months). I'll have to spawn one in my alien containment with some editor or start playing again (this is actually my old save and appears to be quite messed)

[j'ordos]

Well seeing as extralucas probably voted 'too much' and fachugger probably 'not enough' I went for the 'it's OK' .

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Somehow I think im going to be in the minority of wanting more lobsters.

[Extralucas]

Heh. I love idea of those monsters, tho. As supreme commanders of invasion, tough, agile, with hth ability they're great, but Im not masochist, yet, (may change when I will find more flavour in this game).

[Mustang]

25 pulsers and the bugger is still standing, need I say more?

[Extralucas]

 

I killed one with 5 Sonic Pulsers on Experienced game.

[SupSuper]

I can't imagine attacking Very Large loaded with that crap!

i have, and i can tell you it ain't pretty. i basically waste the whole USO with sonic pulsers and the damn lobsters are still standing (and killing if i didn't keep mass loading to avoid deaths).

 

my word is "too many" for sure tasoths are pretty good if i want a challenge but lobstermans are simply SOBs. u basically waste your whole ammo at one and he doesn't die (but you do later)

[j'ordos]

They can even withstand a Disruptor Pulse Bomb. Nice sight, an area of seabottom totally turned to wasteland but the piece of crabsalad-to-be is still standing :crying:

[SupSuper]

They can even withstand a Disruptor Pulse Bomb. Nice sight, an area of seabottom totally turned to wasteland but the piece of crabsalad-to-be is still standing :crying:

indeed, and those bombs can desintegrate anything in sight (except lobsterman :crying: ). once one of my soldiers with one of those babies was MCed and he cleared out my whole Triton with one shot (its floor was the only thing left)

[Mark0]

ahh lobies are mee friends.

 

i hate tasoths and aquatoids

 

1 antidot for all those aliens, get a tank that will only explore the area. and get BLASEER LAUNCHER and fry the land/USO/BASE

 

 

no seriously lobsters are a great challengei allways used sonic cannons and rarly bladesbut damn with sonic cannons, they take like 3 shots

they are hard but a nice challenge..

bring more of them

[Extralucas]

Im really surprised with poll results as far. I thought most of ppl will say 'No!' to the lobsters, and they didn't. There are even less those who said Ok than followers of Lobster.

 

Edit: Okay, it have changed now.

Edited September 30, 2003 by Extralucas

[Jenny]

Not enough lobstermen? Wow are you serious? I hate these guys, they're a living nightmare to my soldiers.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Yup, not enough lobsters. They aren't that tough. Just use stun weapons, hth weapons, or ap (such as gas cannon) on them and they die quickly. Also, if you use xcomutil's improved weapons option, then the heavy gauss is also extremely good when you need a lobster dinner.

[Jenny]

Lobsterman fetish!!

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

TOO MANY OF THEM?!?!? R U CRAZY? THERE AREN'T ENOUGH OF THEM!!!

 

Seriously, they look the cutest of all aliens, they are dumb, and they are these single spaced tanks with HUGE dmg withstanding power.

 

If they piss you off that much, and if you can't use melee weapons, just use Thermal Shock Launchers. They are vulnerable to that.

 

And yes, I know they will withstand extreme damage, because they have HUGE resistance to it. That's the idea of breeding an alien from a lobster that has an exterior skeleton (doh!)

[Paladin]

Nah, they are''nt that bad, they are a heck of a challenge, but at least they don't BlowUp/MC/Zombify you, like some others I particularly hate...

Just use Blades or stun weapons and you'll be fine.

 

Tentaculats, THOSE are a real nightmare... and you can't even MC them most of the time... Pure evil I'm telling ya...

[muxec]

Their amount is OK. Sometimes they are too many, and sometimes they are rare and the only way to get a navigator is by raidng a colony. Use tazers against them at early stages of the game.

[dan2]

Their amount is OK. Sometimes they are too many, and sometimes they are rare and the only way to get a navigator is by raidng a colony. Use tazers against them at early stages of the game.

Lobsterman Navigators? Even on some ships you can find them. I think on Large and Very Large USOs. And, of course, on terror ship missions. Have an MCReader ready

[muxec]

Indeed. The problem that large ships I destroy very rarely (Barracudas are very slow) and those destroyed are of wrong race. I did not capture living deep one at time and I have not seen them for too long. Without nor Ion armor nor Launcher nor M.C. controllers frontal assault on colony will fail. Luckily I already have M.C. disrupter and lab so next month I'll try M.C based attack on alien colony. You know, a lot of M.C. kill aliens with aliens. Maybe several raids to level up M.C. skills without trying to really destroy the base. Like M.C. Tasoth and make him throw his launcher to you than kill him and leave.

[dan2]

Indeed. The problem that large ships I destroy very rarely (Barracudas are very slow) and those destroyed are of wrong race. I did not capture living deep one at time and I have not seen them for too long. Without nor Ion armor nor Launcher nor M.C. controllers frontal assault on colony will fail. Luckily I already have M.C. disrupter and lab so next month I'll try M.C based attack on alien colony. You know, a lot of M.C. kill aliens with aliens. Maybe several raids to level up M.C. skills without trying to really destroy the base. Like M.C. Tasoth and make him throw his launcher to you than kill him and leave.

M.C. controller? You mean M.C.Reader? Without it how did you get M.C.Disruptor anyway? And you got M.C. Lab you got it after researching which creature?

I hope you know you can down any ship with a pair of Sonic Oscillators, even a very large USO, if you know how to do it.

Well, I hope you have fun with the game

[PrejudiceSucks]

Urmm do you have any idea about how poor the AI in this game is? Just put your soldiers 6-8 squares away, arm them with Tasers and then Lobstermen walk towards them instead of firing their weapons. Their HTH isn't all that good, so basically you hit them once with a Taser and *thud*.

 

At this point I'd be running like heck back to my ship, as they usually come in packs of say ten.

 

And that's not pretty. Oh no.

 

P.S. Tasloths are a piece of piss even if you only have Gauss Rifles.

[Nirxnmirxn]

Lobsters are a typical stereotype.. .strong, big, very hard to kill - but dumb, so far the ones I encountered by now.

 

I registered the way I killed/stunned them the last three encounters - maybe its helpfull for someone:

 

difficulty level - 3 (I think its veteran in english, but I'm not sure)

time of encounter - third month

uso - small

 

Gas-Canon HE: 7-8 aimed shots (100% hits)

Gas-Canon AP: around 10 aimed shots (100% hits)

Magna-Grenade: 8-9 (if grenade lies direct unter their...'feet' ?

Gauss-Rifle: at least 8 automatic shots (100% hits) haven't tryed any further...

Thermo-Tazer: 2 hits if lobster wasn't attacke before

 

An interesting fact was, that I needed the same hits with Gas-Canon HE to bring them down whether I used grenades or not. Maybe the damaged of the grenades was counted on the bottom armor and the damage of the Gas-Canon HE on the front/back/side armor - depending on where I hit them.

 

Strategy: using an SWS as scout I pack together my aquanauts. Once I found a lobster I retreat with my SWS so he/it/she couldn't see me any more an bring my Aquanauts into position. Here the bad AI is on my side, for the Lobster nearly never moves around.

I always keep my Aquanauts out of the visible range of the Lobster, but place them so that they can open fire - if possible all from one direction.

Everyone in position, I move my SWS to spot the Lobster and then start firing with the aquanatus. When every aquanauts has fired I retreat the SWS so the Lobster can't see it anymore and end my turn.

Next turn I again move my SWS to spot the Lobster (who in 99% will remain where it was before) and start firing again.

If I run out of ammo ...I choose two brave and mindless aquanauts who will have the great honour of standing eye to eye with the enemy... and tazer him

 

I simply can't wait until I get magnetic armor, for moving my aquanauts around into position takes a lot of time. Moving all aquanauts up to level 4 an let fire rain down from the...ehm... sky will be way easier... and more fun

[[NKF]]

Explosive effects always hit the under armour at the point of the explosion and 1 tile around it. Basically a 3x3 tile area with the centre of the explosion in the middle. All other damage dealt depends on the facing of the unit towards the explosion.

 

Just for your information, a superhuman level lobsterman has 24 all-round armour and 12 for under-armour. Compare that against every other alien in the game, and your own armour. Amazing how much damage the lobstermen's resistence modifiers can shave off.

 

- NKF