How do you use the medpack?
Just like any weapon, equip it and use it on someone.
I love the idea behind the riot shield. Is it any good? I’m assuming you’re sacrificing offensive capabilities completely, in exchange for better defense?
The shield is great, and the pistol isn’t actually that bad of a weapon, as it has the 1.5x reaction modifier that shotguns have. Plus, you can always pick up plasma pistols off of the dead aliens… (Though I’ve not bothered doing that yet – which makes me wonder if I even can, given that I can’t equip my troops with them?)
ffs. I always forget to re-arrange the troop deployment before landing. Why is it in a completely separate bloody screen? Why can’t I do it when landing? :/
edit: Also, these guys are the cream of the crop, hired from the SAS and so on, right? Why can’t any of them hold a LMG properly (72 STR) without me having to make them run around missions holding one to beef them up?
Just bought this based on the recommendations and have played the first mission or two. A little buggy on Mac so far (official v 1.03 wine wrapper from last week).
Question: is there a half-decent manual that explains the systems and changes from the original in any depth? The manual pdf is an empty placeholder and the quick start guide is far too cursory.
Having fun but would like to understand how the cover system works in this version, etc, etc.
Thanks,
Diego
Don’t know of one.
The two biggest changes are both economic (there are smaller change tied to them). The first is that you can’t make and sell things. I mean, yes, you can make things and then sell them. But you cannot turn a profit doing so. Or so far; everything I’ve looked at selling sells for less than it costs to make in terms of money (never mind the alien materials.
The second is that the key to economic happiness is actually just shooting stuff down. Terror missions and whatnot are still a big deal. Actually doing crash sight missions will net you a lot of money. You don’t actually recover the alien artifacts; they are sold for profit and this is where the money from missions. You can airstrike them for less money and forgoing the recovery of alien alloys and alenium (the elerium of the game). Encountering something “new”, in terms of “parts” or equipment, just unlocks a research option generally. The thing is, every time you fail to shoot down an alien it’s pissing off the region the alien flew over. A lot. Your funding will take massive hits, even on normal. Shooting down aliens makes people happier, but only a little bit. So economically the game is very different. You also won’t horde massive amounts of alien alloys/alerium. A corvette (the first medium UFO you’ll encounter, iirc) will yield something like 8-10 alloys. That’s enough to make 2 laser rifles and have change. Or a single plasma rifle (once you research it) and a laser rifle.
A lesser but noteworthy change is that you don’t fiddle with ammo. Clips exist, and you need to equip them as guys can and will empty clips mid-mission. But you don’t need to buy ammo; it’s infinite and as soon as you make a thing available it’s ammo is available. Also, there’s no need to replace an interceptor that is downed. There is a “recovery” period that just means it’s out of action for longer (considerably longer) than if it had gone on a mission and done it’s usual thing (used missiles, lots of fuel, etc).
Right now the economy in the game seems a little hinky to me. I’m on game 3 and things are going better. But there’s basically only 2 reasonable starting points in the entire game (europe/afria/middle east ish, and maybe middle-asia ish; Central America is ok).
Yeah, I’m also waiting on the manual.
The cover system is pretty simple from what I understand. Every obstacle that cross your line of fire has a chance to block the shot, a small % if the object is smallish, or bigger if it’s a big object. The exception is the obstacle that is adjacent to each soldier, as we can suppose the solider will lean out of cover to fire around the obstacle.
A = Alien
O = Obstacle
S = Soldier
A___O____S : both have a chance for the shot to miss thanks to the obstacle
AO______S : the alien is in cover and you will have problems to hit him, but he can fire without problems
A______OS : the other way around, of course
There aren’t orthogonal checks or anything like that, the calculation is done the same way line of sight and line of fire is done.
From the SA forums I bring more info
Grenades are a great equaliser for your lower-skilled soldiers. If an enemy is behind cover, just give him a couple of grenades to keep him company and run back around the corner.
(Stowing your weapon and holding a grenade in your hand will make it cost less TUs to throw).
Frag grenades: Use these when storming the first couple of UFOs, then never use them again. Have a small blast radius and don’t explode until the end of the turn.
Flashbangs: Make extensive use of in the early game to stop reaction fire, but note that they have no lasting effect. Explode immediately, moderate radius.
Stun grenades: Develop these ASAP and use them a lot. Explode immediately, large blast radius, leave a lingering cloud that continues to knock things out. Disadvantages are that they don’t work on (spoiler) and the cloud affects you too, so you have to wait for it to go away.
Electric Grenades: Very useful. Smaller blast than stun grenades, but work on (spoilers) and don’t interrupt your advance. Explode immediately, moderate blast.
Smoke grenades: Not used these much. I should. Research says they don’t work on the lizards
(credits to Alkydere)
All guns use a percentage of TUs (TU%) to determine the cost for firing the weapon. So a soldier with 70 or 80 TUs will have attacks that cost more absolute TUs than a soldier with 50 or 60 TUs, but will cost the same relative amount of their action bar. Of course, since movement TUs remain constant (1 to turn, 3 to move unless overburdened) having more TUs is still a very, very good thing.
-All damage and suppression values given are for the starting weapons. Upgraded weapons give higher damage and suppression, for example lasers get about +50% damage and +10% suppression.
- Pressing “M” on your keyboard will allow your soldiers to melee enemies and beat them to death/unconsciousness with their rifle butts. It does piss-all for HP and consciousness damage, but it also allows you to dogpile a Caesan on your very first mission and beat him unconscious if you really want to.
Short range:
-Pistols: Shit accuracy past medium range, low magazine size, what are these good for? Well the pistol is the only proper weapon that leaves a hand free so the soldier can equip items in their other hand. Items like riot shields, stun rods, medpacks, C4 or grenades. Having a grenade in hand drastically lowers the TU cost of throwing it. Or if you have your soldier’s backpack stuffed to the brim with a variety of grenades you can leave the off-hand empty and right click your grenade quick-select bar to select the grenade you want. Your soldiers still get a TU bonus (or more accurately avoid a TU penalty) when throwing grenades if they have a free hand. Additionally, pistols have the lowest TU% cost of all ranged weapons to use, so you can run and gun. That short accuracy isn’t such a big deal when you have all the TUs in the world to close distance. If you feel your pistol has too little ammo and don’t feel like keeping a hand free, the game does allow you go guns akimbo and dual-wield pistols.
Stats:
Snap: 28 TU% 45 accuracy
Normal: 40 TU% 80 accuracy
Damage: 30
Suppression: 20
1.5x reaction modifier (increases chance of performing a reaction shot, decreases chance of triggering enemy reaction fire)
-Shotgun/carbines: Stick these on soldiers with low aim or high reflexes. The weapon’s accuracy is primarily determined by the range to the target, and getting up to hugging distance guarantees a 95% accuracy aimed shot with all but the worst rookies. With a relatively low TU% cost to use these guns are absolute murder-beasts inside buildings or alien buildings and I highly recommend having 2-3 shotgun or carbine wielding Assaults on any team. The vast majority of the missions involve clearing UFOs anyways so it’s not as if your Assaults will lack for things to do. Don’t worry too much about wide open spaces either, shotguns and carbines fire three pellets for every shot so they’re still halfway decent at damaging or suppressing enemies out in the open as you have three chances to hit or suppress.
Stats:
Snap: 28 TU% 38 Accuracy
Normal: 40 TU% 70 Accuracy
Damage: 25/pellet. 3 pellets/shot
Suppression: 50
1.5x reaction modifier
-Stun Baton: Technically a piece of equipment, but I count the baton as a weapon. Basically an electrified bludgeon it has to be used in melee range. However most organic enemies go down in 1 or 2 hits, at most 3 and the TU% cost to “fire” it is so low it is not hard to get 3 or 4 swings on a target with good planning. I consider this the second best weapon behind shotguns for clearing downed UFOs. The shotgun/carbine class still works on non-organic units while the stun rod doesn’t. Third best for clearing UFOs is a small pile of explosives: clears the area easily but destroys all the loot you want to sell.
-Riot Shield: Again technically a piece of equipment and not even a weapon, but it’s more or less unique to Xenonauts in this genre so it bears mentioning. A riot shield is a giant pile of ablative HP that absorbs all hits coming from a 90o cone in front of the soldier until it breaks. It works incredibly well with pistols or stun batons. I generally equip my Shield troopers with my best-tech pistol in main hand and a beatstick for UFO clearing work.
Medium Range:
-Assault Rifle: Generic-gun. Good to mediocre at all ranges with average TU% costs for snap and normal fire. Aimed shots are costly but still allow plenty of room for position before shooting. The burst fire mode costs about as much as the LMG’s attack but you’re not weighed down by an incredibly heavy weapon, and you still have the less costly attacks if you lack the TUs or ammo to burn. If you have the TUs the three-shot burst fire mode lets the Assault Rifle act as a powerful but TU expensive shotgun at close ranges or a poor man’s LMG for suppression at medium ranges. Honestly there’s not much to say about this, you know all about it from the label.
Stats:
Snap: 28 TU% 45 Accuracy
Normal: 40 TU% 80 Accuracy
Aimed: 55 TU% 130 Accuracy
Burst: 60 TU% 45 Accuracy, x3 shots (also does triple suppression, 20 for each round fired)
Damage: 30
Suppression 20, 60 Burst
Heavy:
-LMG: Heavy gun for heavy suppression. Base gun fires a 10-shot burst (out of a 30-round magazine) that will utterly wreck things down range. At close range it is an absolute murder machine of comical proportions, at medium range it will suppress everyone, at long range you’ll probably still hit your target at least once due to the quantity of lead you put down range. Do not fire with your soldiers anywhere near the line of fire unless you enjoy suppressing or hitting your own troops. The biggest downside of the weapon class is the high TU% cost to fire: 80 TU%. Which means an LMG never gets more than a single attack a turn and a suppressed LMG soldier cannot fire, period. LMGs are also heavy, as is their ammunition before you get standardized energy cells. LMG soldiers can easily become over-burdened which reduces their available TUs and makes each tile movement more expensive. The weight also means that all LMG-class weapons suffer an accuracy penalty if the user has less than 70 strength and an additional accuracy penalty if the soldier moved first. So in short: incredibly devastating but soldiers using them tend to have short movement range and pretty much can’t move a reasonable distance and fire in the same turn. I’m not a huge fan of LMGs despite their ludicrous output.
Stats:
Burst: 80 TU% 35 Accuracy x10 shots
Damage: 30
Suppression: 120 Burst
Rockets: The rocket launcher suffers from all the same penalties as the LMG with the addition that the soldier must reload every single shot. Oh and ammo is ludicrously heavy (12.5 KG). Yet I feel the rocket launcher is a far better weapon for three reasons: range, cost and adaptability. If you haven’t moved and have a really strong soldier, rockets are accurate at rather long ranges. Secondly, the launcher itself never upgrades and all ammo is provided for free once you have the tech so you never have to spend cash, workshop time or resources arming your rocket troopers. Finally the launcher can be loaded with a variety of ammo, including stun rockets if you feel like using non-lethal artillery. In my opinion the adaptability makes all the difference and this is a far superior heavy weapon over the LMG.
Stats:
Snap: 50 TU% 75 Accuracy
Normal: 75 TU% 100 Accuracy
Damage: Depends on ammunition
Suppression: 60
Long Range:
-Sniper/Precision Rifle: Like with the Assault Rifle, the name says it all here. A sniper rifle works much the same way as the assault rifle class. It loses the bust fire mode and is more expensive to fire in terms of TU% but has far better accuracy and hits way harder. The harder hitting ammunition lets it penetrate some thin walls and gives a damage bonus against armored enemies With aimed fire a soldier with good accuracy can reach the 95% accuracy cap even at their maximum sight range using a sniper rifle. The biggest downside though is the increased TU% per shot. At long range you’ll generally get one really good shot off, and at closer range you’re far better served by using a shotgun, assault rifle, or even pistol.
Stats:
Snap: 38 TU% 60 Accuracy
Normal: 49 TU% 105 Accuracy
Aimed: 65 TU% 165 Accuracy]
Damage: 25
Suppression: 35
0.5 Reaction Modifier
Grind your soldiers! The xp system is like Elder Scrolls
TU: Using 250 TUs during battle will raise TU, with a maximum growth of 2 TU per battle.
Strength: Moving 20 tiles while carrying at least 80% of their maximum weight will raise Strength, with a maximum growth of 1 Strength per battle.
Accuracy: Attempting to fire on an enemy within 150% of their weapon’s range will raise Accuracy, with a maximum growth of 1 Accuracy per battle.
Reflexes: Performing a reaction fire test (even if they fail) will raise Reflexes, with a maximum growth of 1 Reflexes per battle.
Bravery: Panicking in battle will raise bravery, with a maximum growth of 1 Bravery per battle.
Resilience: Earning five points in other attributes raises resilience by 1.
The wiki is a bit empty in places but it has some details in systems like morale, weapons, aircraft combat, etc
What loadouts are you guys using?
I’ve been doing 2x(shield, sniper, LMG, shotgun assault). I pack them full of smoke grenades, ammo, medpacks, C4. I’ve found normal grenades to be terrible. They can’t kill much and don’t remove obstacles to well. C4, however, is a great way to clear the last alien hidden in the sealed cockpit of a scout ship! :)
I’ve just finished building the first tank, and I’m thinking of using it as the machine gun and dropping the two LMG people… or should I use it as a rocket tank? Is it worth it? LMGs seem to do most of my killing, especially on the lizard men things. They also like to kill my own men. Shotguns miss practically everything not a few squares away…
Thank you TurinTur. That’s great info!
It depends. At min 1 shield, 2 assault, 3ish rifle.
Not finding snipers super useful, so I’m probably going to stop using them. Good damage, sure, but the high TU cost combined with all of the obstacles makes them frustrating to use. Less so than LMGs.
LMG guys (also gals) are great for suppressing, but they struggle with doing anything else and they’re useless in tight confines. I’m probably going to stop using one; flashbangs are just as good for supression in most circumstances (the LMG has much higher range, though, and even at the “I can’t even hit them” range you can still score supressions. Which feels cheesy, actually. You can score supressions when someone is 100% blocked too).
You can make a case for two shields, especially once you upgrade to something better than a pistol. They remain combat effective and are good at soaking reaction fire or desperately defending someone exposed. My shield guys roll with 2 flashbangs and a stun grenade (when appropriate) now. Also a stun rod if they have the strength. Pistol, 3 clips, shield, best armor.
Rifle users are super versatile and very powerful. They remain a staple. I like give them med kits and a couple of grenades (flashbangs, later flashbang + a stun maybe) and 2 clips. I’m too paranoid to go into combat with less than 3 clips, though I rarely need to reload more than once.I actually saw a robots terror mission in an earlier game and they soaked a ton of damage, so I could see ammo being more valuable there. I’ve never done a base raid. Riflepersons are the last people to get armor in my group. Laser rifles are a nice upgrade. You can one shot sectoids* and 2 shot many mutons* with them. But I have to say I think armor is a more important research priority. I have very limited experience with plasma weaponry. I do know the ammo clips take up more slots.
I love Assaults. You can skimp on accuracy since they’re going to do most of their work via grenades/shotguns. The shotguns are the first things that can reliably one shot (they take a lot fewer TU to shoot than a rifle on automatic; the sniper rifle can too actually. A LMG will in some circumstances, and obviously a rocket launcher will too). The low TU cost for firing means you can get into point blank range (5 squares; at 5 squares you get a 20% accurancy bonus, all the way to 100% when adjacent) and often attack twice. They get a couple of grenades (again, flashbangs/stun as necessary, but I prefer to have other people lob grenades so the assault can make use of their TU), and often get stun rods. Sometimes they get med kits, but I’m being careful with load now. Shield and Assault get the best armor (or the only armor, where applicable). I try very hard not to expose them, but it does happen. I really like assaults, but I wonder if they’ll fall off. I know there are heavy energy weapons, so maybe they’ll switch over. I’m worried the accruacy of these characters is going to lag behind the distance weapons users.
I’ve never even looked at what scout or medic are for. Obviously each role is just an equipment loadout, so it doesn’t matter.
It’s not clear to me what carbine weapons are for. Just lighter-weight rifles?
I’m so in love with my sniper I want to marry him. His actions demand a bit more foresight than the other classes. But keeping him behind the front lines, even in semi-open environments, makes him absolutely devastating with a laser rifle once my spotters start to reveal hostiles. Assaults are also invited to the wedding.
The scout car is super-useful. On its first mission out it shot every alien on the map. I even drove it into the UFO at the end for fun so it could shoot the alien in there.
Taking UFOs used to involve lots of explosions and gunfire, even with the scout car, and was a risky proposition as people took pot shots at each other from medium range. Now, with riot shields and stun batons, it’s very quick and easy! The two shielded guys run in and whack everyone, and are usually safe from return fire. If there’s too many people to whack in a single turn then I have the assaults spam stuns and, if required, use the car or sniper to hose people down.
It’s a bit of a shame that capturing live aliens doesn’t give you anything past the first one. They’re simply marked as “destroyed” on the debriefing screen :( Why can’t I sell them to a zoo, or get more research from them? Same goes for the important bits of a UFO :/
It seems realistic to me! It’s supposed to imitate the LMG firing a long burst at the cover, so the enemy won’t dare to get out for a moment to do the reaction fire.
Carbines are upgraded shotguns.
That is not a usage of the term “carbine” I am familiar with. But there you go. I’ll have to upgrade a couple when I can.
It seems that they didn’t want to call a spade a spade and have “Laser Shotgun”, “Plasma Shotgun” etc.
Ran intro my first nasty bug. An alien ran just outside of his ship. At the start of my turn the door was closed and he was next to it. He was totally invulnerable. I couldn’t aim at him so he killed the closest soldier.
Does the game have a quick save? I haven’t found one. It is nice to auto save at the start of a mission.
I think that was fixed in today’s patch.