For reaction fire, remember that having enough TUs to fire is the minimum. Having more than you need increases the chances of your soldier taking reaction fire.
Cleaner interrogation would also be a nice quick buck. I don't know if they added their interrogation info in this version, though you still get that damage boost. Adding a training center also gives you passive increases to your soldiers stats.
Had a few people recommend Cleaner Interrogation and I might grab that next, or at least time it to complete before the next month finishes. It would be good to have before we do the second Cleaner location mission as well.
8:50 For enemy reaction fire, if it's the same as the first game if you have high TU it's unlikely for him to shoot you, but if you have low TU (as moving to take cover after shooting) it's way more likely for you to be shot.
Reflex stat plays into this as well, I need to start taking that into account. High reflex soldiers are more likely to fire and apparently also not be fired at when moving.
I really like the episodic nature of this let’s play. The way you progress and give a hint on what to look forward to in the next episode as well as the brief summary at the begin of every episode make this very enjoyable.
try shooting at the UFO door to break it so you can see what's inside without risking people getting close it. Kane can just start shooting once the door is open like a fish in a barrel, especially against things like the siberian since they are a short range combatant.
On xenonauts letting them peek and die off from good position's reaction fire was pretty nice to do first, then you can break the door or take raid when they stop peaking
hey Phrosphor I've been really enjoying your Campaign so far been waiting all week and totally worth it, your combat Tactics are pretty good but still some room for improvement, I can't wait for the next episode and I appreciate all your hard work thanks Man👍
reaction fire is based on how many TU's the enemy has in comparison to the TU's your soldiers have + the reflex of that soldier, e.g a soldier with very high reflex but making a move that while low on TU's is similar chance trigger overwatch as a soldier with low reflex just starting their turn with full TU's
I’m not certain, but doesn’t the enemy’s reflex enter into the equation as well? That would certainly explain why certain types of aliens seem to be less prone overall to reaction at your soldiers (incl. at the MARS).
Another great episode! So far so good. I can't wait to see a second combat team get assembled. If there is room, I want a shield guy or very high health guy named Stone.
Whenever you can, play safe, make them be the ones stepping into a wasp's nest of bullets, also put as much smoke in front of the aliens so they take stun on walking and stopping in it great when you made that play lol. Love the way of your commentary keep that great work going
You did great on that last mission! I don't think I would take on that landed medium destroyer. It will have lots of fast aliens and is in open farmland, and so I foresee a battle just to exit the transport.
More more more! 😃 cant get enough, definly the best X2 playthrough out there, love your style. hope you are not too stresed out playing 😅. When is the next episode ?
I wonder if the "Plot" researches that give money also "secretly" advance the plot in the sense that e.g. more difficult UFOs spawn. Or wether the difficulty just progresses independently of research with time passed.
I think it is a bit of both, there is for sure a timer that will ramp the Aliens up as the game progresses, but some research may act as a speedbump and clearing it will make them progress faster.
since you wondered about reaction fire: its entirely deterministic. Each unit has a initiative score thats calculated by multiplying their reaction stat with the percentage of remaining TUs and their weapons reaction fire modifier (shotguns and pistols are better, machine guns and sniper rifles are worse, or at least that was the case in Xenonauts 1). The reason you didn't get shot when running up to the cover but did when turning to step back into cover is because you had less TU left over. This is also why the first turn of combat and breaching an UFO are some of the most dangerous situations, because in both the aliens haven't done anything the last turn and have their full TU available.
I think that the reflex stat of the alien might also be part of the reaction fire equation (both in whether they get to fire themselves and whether you get to fire at them). As for TUs on breaching, aliens inside a UFO do spend some time moving around inside as they seem to be “patrolling” the inside and/or moving back and forth between the inside and the immediate vicinity (popping in and out of the entrance). However, these aliens rarely spend all of their TUs and seem programmed to keep enough in reserve to be able to reaction fire, but then again, the same can be said if most aliens, unless they have spent their own turn shooting (either at you or the civvies). A clear exception to the “patrolling” pattern seem to be the 2(?) aliens in the UFO “cockpit”, which in my playthrough practically always remain in that final room in the UFO. This difference is not obvious in the smaller UFOs as they have very few rooms overall, but is very clear in the larger ones with multiple rooms and levels connected by teleporters.
@@DebatingWombat sorry, the stat is called reflex, not reaction, but yes the game calculates the initiative of each unit after each action (including turning and taking a step), and if your initiative is higher than the enemies and you have enough TUs for a shot you get to fire. It works the same for both you and the aliens. And at least in Xenonauts 1 there would be aliens just standing in static positions inside the UFO waiting for you, and I suspect in this game this is also the case for at least some of them.
I don't believe the weapon modifier exists in X2. I can find lots of documentation of that mechanic in X1, but I can't find anything anywhere that confirms that weapon modifiers still exist in X2. I note that there is no information about this on the weapon's tooltip, and it'd be pretty damn relevant if still true in X2. I've also had good results with snipers' reaction fire, so it doesn't feel like it's true anymore. If I'm wrong, I hope someone will follow-up with something definitive, but for now I'm playing with the assumption that weapon modifiers don't exist anymore. Incidentally and unrelated to your post, I also can't find anything about sebillians having thermal vision in X2. I've seen people say smoke is ineffective on them, but I can only confirm that in X1. You'd think the autopsy report would have mentioned it if it were still true in X2, for example, but it doesn't.
I was distracted. I was trying to use my one year of Russian to figure out some graffiti and labels on the train car. (I think you had the sprite facing the wrong way)
The problem is priority and cash flow. While I don’t know about the behaviour of the alien AI on the geoscape on this difficulty, even on lower settings, you can expect more alien attacks on your main base after the first one and thus need to be able to cope with this. On lower difficulties, I’ve not had any problems with attacks on my secondary bases, but that might simply be due to the difficulty level. If so, it might be more important to invest in base defences. However, you still need some boots on the ground as base defences tend to weaken, but not completely destroy, inbound UFOs and if you have no soldiers at the base, the aliens win by default. This brings me to another issue, namely that of weapons. The biggest problem is having to rely on basic ballistic weapons outside of the very early game. Hence getting better weapons for soldiers ant any base likely to face alien attacks (or going on missions themselves) is crucial. I’d argue that a rookie with an upgraded weapon is more likely to be useful than a veteran with a basic ballistic gun. Training centres are nice, especially as you can use the slightly experienced soldiers from your secondary bases to replace casualties at your main base, but ultimately I see them more as “nice to have”, rather than “need to have”.
Be careful about launching your troop transport at a landed ship when you are uncertain of the ETA. It's possible for the ship to take off and destroy the transport
Yeah, it’s unlikely and requires particular bad timing, but I’m pretty sure it happened to me once or twice in X1. The good thing is that UFO takeoff seems to be entirely preset, meaning that the risk of a dropship being shot down is only if it happens to arrive almost exactly at the end of the preset duration of the UFOs “ground time”. Otherwise, the dropship will either catch the UFO on the ground, or the UFO will simply fly away before the dropship arrives. Hence, I think it’s almost always worth the risk to target a landed UFO, because not attacking also brings risks (increasing panic) and while losing a dropship would basically be game over, there are a lot of similar “game over scenarios” on this difficulty setting. If you do want to hedge against the risk of the UFO taking off just as your dropship arrives and thus shooting it down, you could either have fighters escort the dropship or have them patrolling the landed UFO. However, I’m not sure it’s worth it, rather than “rolling the dice” on dropship arrival/UFO takeoff.
Wow, lose all research when you switch research, lose equipment when your own base gets attacked and you successfully defend it. Devs for this game sure made some interesting decisions. Great run on that Destroyer to, patience = success.
I will throw them some slack, it is potentially an overlook since we are in early access. As for the destroyed equipment I actually have a difficulty setting enabled that destroys armour when a soldier dies so that is my bad. It is one of the defaults for Commander difficulty!
The chief scientist guy is implied to be a bit of a prick, so maybe that's why research progress is lost. "What? The Commander told us to stop research on this and start on that? Well then let's burn our findings on this subject!" -Gaius Baltar
The hit on UAKNIGHT illustrates why I earlier warned about being careful “parking” units on corners when they don’t have enough TUs for reaction fire. Aliens coming around the corner will almost always spot them immediately and usually have enough TUs and be at a sufficient angle to shoot at them. I only place units on corners if I want them to reaction fire and even then, it might be better to place them one or two tiles further into cover. While this gives a narrow field of fire, it also means that any alien coming around the corner will usually have to turn to spot them (unless they have expanded fields of view, which some types do have). This means that the alien has to move, then stop, giving you a chance to reaction fire, then they have to turn to even spot you (though this doesn’t trigger reaction fire) and only then does the alien get a chance to fire on you, after which you get another chance at reaction fire (if you survive and have the TUs, of course).
PS. I totally agree with the “peekaboo” style, though, where, if possible, you try to move just out of full cover, take a shot and then move back into full cover.
I was trying to be a bit more mindful of this, as you note in the second comment but as the mission goes on it gets harder and harder to maintain objectivity and I start to make small mistakes that lead to hits that could have been avoided like this,
@@Phrosphor I totally get the problem of keeping focus. If anything, your playthrough has made me more conscious of the number of times out units at risks during X2 missions through forgetfulness or erroneous clicks (without even facing the pressure of recording, commenting or this level of difficulty). I hope I didn’t come off as just another Monday morning quarterback. One thing I’d mention is a weird mechanic/bug I’ve encountered with flash bangs (and their later upgraded version) when used inside multilevel UFO: Apparently their effects can “clip through” to the floor below(!) This is a problem when you encounter those UFOs that have a “cockpit” with two aliens at the top floor, because when you send the first soldier in to flash bang them, there is a significant risk of simultaneously suppressing the soldiers on the floor below waiting to enter and mop up the aliens. Since the aliens in the “cockpit” seem reluctant to leave it, you generally have to dig them out and they always have enough TUs for reaction fire when you first enter, because they spend very few of them moving about. Fortunately, along with turning, crouching, opening doors, climbing ladders (and not moving from the ladder’s “end tile”), using the teleporters to change floors don’t trigger reaction fire as long as you don’t move from that tile (similar to ladders). So, you can enter the cockpit, turn to get a full view, then throw the flash bang to suppress the aliens and finally send in as many soldiers as you need to mop them up. Generally, none of the two aliens will be Gun Drones or similar types immune to suppression and thus the “cockpit aliens” can potentially be easier targets for capture, though they also tend to be well armoured and have a lot of hit points.
I don't recommand to go to the destroyer. It's far and outside the effective range of your fighters... Your transport could be intercepted if you are unlucky (at least if it's like in the first game).
A couple of guys with batons and sheilds might have been useful to clear the UFO, a trick from the first xenonauts was to load extra equipment like that onto the squad and then dump the extra kit onto the floor of the chopper do as the sheilds were used you grab new ones 😊
you could have two shield guys either side of the door crouched with two rifle men Crouch behind the shieldmen with the door closed ready for when it's opened by the aliens or by you when you are ready engage.
Kind of. I find that one problem with the shield/baton combo is that you tend to need at least two and usually three baton strikes to knock out an alien at full health. This requires a lot of TUs and as the UFOs often have the kind of low barriers that other soldiers vault across, but Shields have to go around, I’ve often found the Shield(s) running out of TUs before being able to baton an alien into unconsciousness. However, this approach can be very useful as a “coup de grace” on wounded aliens. Where shields are useful is in absorbing unavoidable reaction shots which are especially likely within the confines of UFOs where aliens almost always keep enough TUs in reserve on their own turn to be able to reaction fire at you. The downside is that the hit points of the shield item itself only allows it to take one or two hits before it’s destroyed, so you’ll probably still want to suppress the alien with flash bangs before closing with it. This also makes Gun Drones inside UFOs particularly nasty. Gun Drones can’t be suppressed by any means and their reaction fire salvo rivals your machine gun for suppressive effect, meaning that reaction fire from a Gun Drone is likely to suppress not only its target, but any soldier near thar target as well(!)
I popped in and watched this episode at random and now I see that I have been playing way too sloppy and having to restart mission all the time because of it. xD
8:56 How many TUs you have determine how likely you are to receive reaction fire. There since you used all your TUs to fire, you were more likely to get shot at than when you first movbed through the door with full TUs
So the original XCOM had a mechanic where missions would not go away while a dropship was en route to prevent the issue you thought you'd have here - I wonder if Xenonauts has the same mechanic. Just don't try any sort of retasking or stalling to avoid night missions on that though. That'll go poorly. EDIT: IF reaction fire in Xenonauts works the same way as it does in XCOM, and this is a big if, then it's a function of a random dice roll, both people's Reactions stat, and the percent time units remaining of both units. That means that reaction fire is random, and is less likely to happen early in the turn, is less likely to happen to people with good reactions, and is more likely to happen if the shooter has way more TUs left than they would actually theoretically need. MORE EDITS: As far as promotion goes, the original XCOM did have ranks higher than Captain, but your soldiers would be promoted to fill slots, and the slots were determined by how many soldiers you had. This means that you might not yet have access to higher ranks than Captain, but will as you hire more soldiers. Or maybe Xenonauts works differently, IDK.
I wouldn’t exactly say that reaction fire is random, as the formula is entirely deterministic. What makes it less than totally predictable is that you can’t know or determine how many (if any) TUs an alien has kept in reserve on its turn. The only exceptions are: 1) On your first turn when all aliens are always at max TUs (apart from base defence missions where they get to take that first turn), and 2) Those 1-2 aliens that always seem to be “camping” in the “cockpit” of UFOs and spend very few of their TUs moving around. A general rule of the alien AI seems to be to always keep enough TUs in reserve for a reaction shot, unless it gets an opportunity to fire during its own turn (either at you or at the civilians). I think another exception might be that some aliens occasionally spend all of their TUs moving away from your units, but I’m not certain of this. I’m pretty sure I’ve also seen some aliens simply move just outside your field of view and then wait, being ready to reaction fire when you subsequently advance on them.
You've built research facilities but not hired any researchers to put in the, I think you're falling behind pretty badly - first thing when the money comes in should probably be to fill the research slots. And a training facility to get some "free" soldier improvements while they're waiting for missions in the base - don't necessarily need slots for all of them, "most" is good enough.. You may even want to consider if a third science building is necessary (19 total scientist) and works with your funding. AFAIK the laser weapons. The second and third base should probably just have hangars, air-defense and possibly scientists (if running out of space in the main base), having multiple ground teams is horrendously expensive and very likely not necessary - it looks like the game is mainly won in the air just like the original Xenonauts.
I would say that labs should generally only be built at your starting base and that a total of 2-3 adjacent ones are plentiful, if fully staffed; especially once you get the lab upgrade later on. While more labs and scientists would get you new stuff more quickly, the expense is too much of an offset when you also have to spend money actually building the stuff your scientists research, as well as on expanding your bases (both in numbers and size), not to mention on any replacement for casualties.
No, it almost certainly doesn’t. I’m pretty sure takes off after a set amount of time and on lower difficulties, I think you might get to see how long before it does so (just like you get to see exactly how much health and armour an alien has at any given time). The worst case scenario would be for the UFO to take off just as your dropship reaches it, because that would almost certainly result in an aerial battle and your unarmed chopper automatically being shot down(!) It’s a pretty unlikely scenario that requires particularly bad timing, but I’m fairly sure it’s possible (and I think it happened to me once or twice in X1). If you want to ensure against the very unlikely prospect of your dropship getting destroyed on its final approach, you can either give it a fighter escort or have fighters patrolling the landed UFO. However, I don’t think this kind of hedging is really that necessary.
Your posting up soldiers on corners which is horrible. Sure you can see enemies coming but the enemy whose turn it is can see them and shoot at them. Put your guys one square back so they are in the aliens blind spot when they try to go around corners. Then your guys will get shots off FIRST for the aliens moving in their field of vision. Your doing that everywhere.. Your UFO breach was also horrible. You were to close to the door. As soon as an alien opened the door they would have spotted all your dudes, sure you might kill him with return fire but they will still get to shoot first. Posting your guys further back so the alien has to come out and turn before seeing them would let you get the first shots. That big glowy polumn in the back is the generator... if you guys had destroyed that it would have blown up everything in the ufo including half your team lmao. I dont understand why your not retrieving consoles and power cores and ship guts... I think the devs forgot the stuff or something? There is some pre-req before you can start retrieving that stuff as loot? That shit was worth ALOT of money back in X-com. Its also needed to build more advanced fighters/transports. But you are getting screwed out of loot.
For reaction fire, remember that having enough TUs to fire is the minimum. Having more than you need increases the chances of your soldier taking reaction fire.
OH YES, BABY!!! Been waiting for the new episode like it's Christmas
Me too! He still has some 130 days left to play, can't wait for this!
@@annekekramer3835 You can buy Xenonauts 1; it nearly the same game.
This is stupidly underrated. You have a good style, and this campaign actually has me invested in the soldiers. Nice work!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to make this comment!
Cleaner interrogation would also be a nice quick buck. I don't know if they added their interrogation info in this version, though you still get that damage boost. Adding a training center also gives you passive increases to your soldiers stats.
Had a few people recommend Cleaner Interrogation and I might grab that next, or at least time it to complete before the next month finishes. It would be good to have before we do the second Cleaner location mission as well.
8:50 For enemy reaction fire, if it's the same as the first game if you have high TU it's unlikely for him to shoot you, but if you have low TU (as moving to take cover after shooting) it's way more likely for you to be shot.
Reflex stat plays into this as well, I need to start taking that into account. High reflex soldiers are more likely to fire and apparently also not be fired at when moving.
I really like the episodic nature of this let’s play. The way you progress and give a hint on what to look forward to in the next episode as well as the brief summary at the begin of every episode make this very enjoyable.
Thank you for the feedback, it's good to know the format is working!
try shooting at the UFO door to break it so you can see what's inside without risking people getting close it. Kane can just start shooting once the door is open like a fish in a barrel, especially against things like the siberian since they are a short range combatant.
He could also use a timed C4-charge.
@@Nitram4392 He is also carry like 40 nades in every flavour. A demolition charge or 2 and doors are permanantly open.
On xenonauts letting them peek and die off from good position's reaction fire was pretty nice to do first, then you can break the door or take raid when they stop peaking
hey Phrosphor I've been really enjoying your Campaign so far been waiting all week and totally worth it, your combat Tactics are pretty good but still some room for improvement, I can't wait for the next episode and I appreciate all your hard work thanks Man👍
I am sorry there is such a gap between videos at the moment!
reaction fire is based on how many TU's the enemy has in comparison to the TU's your soldiers have + the reflex of that soldier, e.g a soldier with very high reflex but making a move that while low on TU's is similar chance trigger overwatch as a soldier with low reflex just starting their turn with full TU's
I’m not certain, but doesn’t the enemy’s reflex enter into the equation as well? That would certainly explain why certain types of aliens seem to be less prone overall to reaction at your soldiers (incl. at the MARS).
Another great episode! So far so good. I can't wait to see a second combat team get assembled.
If there is room, I want a shield guy or very high health guy named Stone.
On the list!
Well played! The destroyer really reminds me of a Bentusi ship, especially the HW2 version
Whenever you can, play safe, make them be the ones stepping into a wasp's nest of bullets, also put as much smoke in front of the aliens so they take stun on walking and stopping in it great when you made that play lol.
Love the way of your commentary keep that great work going
Trying to keep combat moving and interesting makes tactics like this hard but I will keep trying to fit it in where I can!
I appreciate your competency on this play through. Looking forward to more
Imagine if the UFO was on the tracks and you could crash the train into it. :)
I would love interactive battlefield effects like this!
Woot, new episode! Thanks dude!
Sorry they are taking so long
You did great on that last mission! I don't think I would take on that landed medium destroyer. It will have lots of fast aliens and is in open farmland, and so I foresee a battle just to exit the transport.
More more more! 😃 cant get enough, definly the best X2 playthrough out there, love your style. hope you are not too stresed out playing 😅. When is the next episode ?
Thank you! It's coming I swear!
Nice to see uploads are back, the mission went pretty good.
I wonder if the "Plot" researches that give money also "secretly" advance the plot in the sense that e.g. more difficult UFOs spawn. Or wether the difficulty just progresses independently of research with time passed.
I think it is a bit of both, there is for sure a timer that will ramp the Aliens up as the game progresses, but some research may act as a speedbump and clearing it will make them progress faster.
since you wondered about reaction fire: its entirely deterministic. Each unit has a initiative score thats calculated by multiplying their reaction stat with the percentage of remaining TUs and their weapons reaction fire modifier (shotguns and pistols are better, machine guns and sniper rifles are worse, or at least that was the case in Xenonauts 1). The reason you didn't get shot when running up to the cover but did when turning to step back into cover is because you had less TU left over.
This is also why the first turn of combat and breaching an UFO are some of the most dangerous situations, because in both the aliens haven't done anything the last turn and have their full TU available.
I think that the reflex stat of the alien might also be part of the reaction fire equation (both in whether they get to fire themselves and whether you get to fire at them).
As for TUs on breaching, aliens inside a UFO do spend some time moving around inside as they seem to be “patrolling” the inside and/or moving back and forth between the inside and the immediate vicinity (popping in and out of the entrance).
However, these aliens rarely spend all of their TUs and seem programmed to keep enough in reserve to be able to reaction fire, but then again, the same can be said if most aliens, unless they have spent their own turn shooting (either at you or the civvies).
A clear exception to the “patrolling” pattern seem to be the 2(?) aliens in the UFO “cockpit”, which in my playthrough practically always remain in that final room in the UFO. This difference is not obvious in the smaller UFOs as they have very few rooms overall, but is very clear in the larger ones with multiple rooms and levels connected by teleporters.
@@DebatingWombat sorry, the stat is called reflex, not reaction, but yes the game calculates the initiative of each unit after each action (including turning and taking a step), and if your initiative is higher than the enemies and you have enough TUs for a shot you get to fire. It works the same for both you and the aliens.
And at least in Xenonauts 1 there would be aliens just standing in static positions inside the UFO waiting for you, and I suspect in this game this is also the case for at least some of them.
I don't believe the weapon modifier exists in X2. I can find lots of documentation of that mechanic in X1, but I can't find anything anywhere that confirms that weapon modifiers still exist in X2. I note that there is no information about this on the weapon's tooltip, and it'd be pretty damn relevant if still true in X2. I've also had good results with snipers' reaction fire, so it doesn't feel like it's true anymore. If I'm wrong, I hope someone will follow-up with something definitive, but for now I'm playing with the assumption that weapon modifiers don't exist anymore.
Incidentally and unrelated to your post, I also can't find anything about sebillians having thermal vision in X2. I've seen people say smoke is ineffective on them, but I can only confirm that in X1. You'd think the autopsy report would have mentioned it if it were still true in X2, for example, but it doesn't.
I was distracted. I was trying to use my one year of Russian to figure out some graffiti and labels on the train car. (I think you had the sprite facing the wrong way)
Don't forget to hire new soldiers for the new base too! And add a training centre for the passive XP gain.
I am also really looking forward to the new base and the building of the base infrastructure.
@@2514ben88same
The problem is priority and cash flow.
While I don’t know about the behaviour of the alien AI on the geoscape on this difficulty, even on lower settings, you can expect more alien attacks on your main base after the first one and thus need to be able to cope with this.
On lower difficulties, I’ve not had any problems with attacks on my secondary bases, but that might simply be due to the difficulty level. If so, it might be more important to invest in base defences. However, you still need some boots on the ground as base defences tend to weaken, but not completely destroy, inbound UFOs and if you have no soldiers at the base, the aliens win by default.
This brings me to another issue, namely that of weapons. The biggest problem is having to rely on basic ballistic weapons outside of the very early game. Hence getting better weapons for soldiers ant any base likely to face alien attacks (or going on missions themselves) is crucial. I’d argue that a rookie with an upgraded weapon is more likely to be useful than a veteran with a basic ballistic gun.
Training centres are nice, especially as you can use the slightly experienced soldiers from your secondary bases to replace casualties at your main base, but ultimately I see them more as “nice to have”, rather than “need to have”.
Smoke op lol, and they are even more valuable captured
Yeah smoke is the weapon that will win humanity this war.
I really think a second sniper would be extremely helpful.
Snipers are OP I always have 2 to even the odds.
At about 38 minutes, could have used flash bang and smoke grenades to capture the Mantid, and avoided any injuries from it, and still stunned it.
Be careful about launching your troop transport at a landed ship when you are uncertain of the ETA. It's possible for the ship to take off and destroy the transport
Yeah, it’s unlikely and requires particular bad timing, but I’m pretty sure it happened to me once or twice in X1.
The good thing is that UFO takeoff seems to be entirely preset, meaning that the risk of a dropship being shot down is only if it happens to arrive almost exactly at the end of the preset duration of the UFOs “ground time”. Otherwise, the dropship will either catch the UFO on the ground, or the UFO will simply fly away before the dropship arrives.
Hence, I think it’s almost always worth the risk to target a landed UFO, because not attacking also brings risks (increasing panic) and while losing a dropship would basically be game over, there are a lot of similar “game over scenarios” on this difficulty setting.
If you do want to hedge against the risk of the UFO taking off just as your dropship arrives and thus shooting it down, you could either have fighters escort the dropship or have them patrolling the landed UFO. However, I’m not sure it’s worth it, rather than “rolling the dice” on dropship arrival/UFO takeoff.
Wow, lose all research when you switch research, lose equipment when your own base gets attacked and you successfully defend it. Devs for this game sure made some interesting decisions. Great run on that Destroyer to, patience = success.
I will throw them some slack, it is potentially an overlook since we are in early access. As for the destroyed equipment I actually have a difficulty setting enabled that destroys armour when a soldier dies so that is my bad. It is one of the defaults for Commander difficulty!
@@Phrosphor Good to know on the equipment, thanks for that, been considering and that had me really frowning a bit.
The chief scientist guy is implied to be a bit of a prick, so maybe that's why research progress is lost.
"What? The Commander told us to stop research on this and start on that? Well then let's burn our findings on this subject!" -Gaius Baltar
LET"S GOOOOooooo!
phrosphor AND ntl updates??? WOOT!
What an awesome episode! Can't wait for the next one!
Thanks! I certainly found it very tense to play.
Just making sure you remember but one the settings at the beginning was that armor was destroyed on death. Just trying to be helpful if you forgot.
AHA! That explains it. Thank you!
Flanking reaction fire can make enemies to lose some tus when turning i think.
You can also get them to 'dance' by alternating shots from different sides during normal turn combat, wasting TU as well.
The hit on UAKNIGHT illustrates why I earlier warned about being careful “parking” units on corners when they don’t have enough TUs for reaction fire. Aliens coming around the corner will almost always spot them immediately and usually have enough TUs and be at a sufficient angle to shoot at them.
I only place units on corners if I want them to reaction fire and even then, it might be better to place them one or two tiles further into cover. While this gives a narrow field of fire, it also means that any alien coming around the corner will usually have to turn to spot them (unless they have expanded fields of view, which some types do have).
This means that the alien has to move, then stop, giving you a chance to reaction fire, then they have to turn to even spot you (though this doesn’t trigger reaction fire) and only then does the alien get a chance to fire on you, after which you get another chance at reaction fire (if you survive and have the TUs, of course).
PS. I totally agree with the “peekaboo” style, though, where, if possible, you try to move just out of full cover, take a shot and then move back into full cover.
I was trying to be a bit more mindful of this, as you note in the second comment but as the mission goes on it gets harder and harder to maintain objectivity and I start to make small mistakes that lead to hits that could have been avoided like this,
@@Phrosphor I totally get the problem of keeping focus. If anything, your playthrough has made me more conscious of the number of times out units at risks during X2 missions through forgetfulness or erroneous clicks (without even facing the pressure of recording, commenting or this level of difficulty).
I hope I didn’t come off as just another Monday morning quarterback.
One thing I’d mention is a weird mechanic/bug I’ve encountered with flash bangs (and their later upgraded version) when used inside multilevel UFO: Apparently their effects can “clip through” to the floor below(!)
This is a problem when you encounter those UFOs that have a “cockpit” with two aliens at the top floor, because when you send the first soldier in to flash bang them, there is a significant risk of simultaneously suppressing the soldiers on the floor below waiting to enter and mop up the aliens.
Since the aliens in the “cockpit” seem reluctant to leave it, you generally have to dig them out and they always have enough TUs for reaction fire when you first enter, because they spend very few of them moving about.
Fortunately, along with turning, crouching, opening doors, climbing ladders (and not moving from the ladder’s “end tile”), using the teleporters to change floors don’t trigger reaction fire as long as you don’t move from that tile (similar to ladders).
So, you can enter the cockpit, turn to get a full view, then throw the flash bang to suppress the aliens and finally send in as many soldiers as you need to mop them up. Generally, none of the two aliens will be Gun Drones or similar types immune to suppression and thus the “cockpit aliens” can potentially be easier targets for capture, though they also tend to be well armoured and have a lot of hit points.
I don't recommand to go to the destroyer. It's far and outside the effective range of your fighters... Your transport could be intercepted if you are unlucky (at least if it's like in the first game).
This is a valid concern, however - the squad are already on-site!
A couple of guys with batons and sheilds might have been useful to clear the UFO, a trick from the first xenonauts was to load extra equipment like that onto the squad and then dump the extra kit onto the floor of the chopper do as the sheilds were used you grab new ones 😊
you could have two shield guys either side of the door crouched with two rifle men Crouch behind the shieldmen with the door closed ready for when it's opened by the aliens or by you when you are ready engage.
Kind of. I find that one problem with the shield/baton combo is that you tend to need at least two and usually three baton strikes to knock out an alien at full health.
This requires a lot of TUs and as the UFOs often have the kind of low barriers that other soldiers vault across, but Shields have to go around, I’ve often found the Shield(s) running out of TUs before being able to baton an alien into unconsciousness. However, this approach can be very useful as a “coup de grace” on wounded aliens.
Where shields are useful is in absorbing unavoidable reaction shots which are especially likely within the confines of UFOs where aliens almost always keep enough TUs in reserve on their own turn to be able to reaction fire at you.
The downside is that the hit points of the shield item itself only allows it to take one or two hits before it’s destroyed, so you’ll probably still want to suppress the alien with flash bangs before closing with it.
This also makes Gun Drones inside UFOs particularly nasty. Gun Drones can’t be suppressed by any means and their reaction fire salvo rivals your machine gun for suppressive effect, meaning that reaction fire from a Gun Drone is likely to suppress not only its target, but any soldier near thar target as well(!)
I popped in and watched this episode at random and now I see that I have been playing way too sloppy and having to restart mission all the time because of it. xD
It looks like the mantids are the replacement for the harridans
Aha, thank you for letting me know!
Good work, looking forward to the next one! :)
Thanks a lot!
You couldve interrogated the Cleaner, gives you more cash.
He did the other research so he can get an extra 240,000 dollars per region per month before the next month starts.
Keep them coming ;-) If there is a free name, how about "Brat Hering"?
Welcome on board private Hering! (And thank you so much for your support!)
nice work!
can we sell 'CLEANER DATA' ?
i love your videos man, please continue this series !!
I'm scared that selling the data will roll back my progress. I might try selling one and seeing what happens!
@@Phrosphor ill just save and sell them, if something happens ill reload, good luck !!
You do know you can close the alien doors again so the aliens dont just shoot at you and waste time units moving and opening the door right
I do but it is hard to remember when you are in these tight firefights. I have put it on my little reminder notepad so I don't forget.
4:00 That's not Siberia, Siberia is everything east of Urals, while that actually seems to have landed at the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. 🤓
I thought about writing this, but said to myself: " I don't wanna be that guy" lol.
finally! Thank you :)
8:56 How many TUs you have determine how likely you are to receive reaction fire. There since you used all your TUs to fire, you were more likely to get shot at than when you first movbed through the door with full TUs
Well played!
Shotgunners ftw
Saving humanity one pump action at a time. I bet they all quote Aliens.
You lost some equipment on the previous base defense mission... that should be near impossible, anything dropped would be in your base.
I agree but I am down to only 4 suits of Warden armour. I wonder if a Gun Drone exploding next to a downed soldier destroyed the equipment.
You are promise to make montage for killed unit, but nothing for died in prev. Episode?
You are totally right and I haven't delivered on this. I should spend some time putting a reel of them together.
Another spicy one :)
Thank you
So the original XCOM had a mechanic where missions would not go away while a dropship was en route to prevent the issue you thought you'd have here - I wonder if Xenonauts has the same mechanic. Just don't try any sort of retasking or stalling to avoid night missions on that though. That'll go poorly.
EDIT: IF reaction fire in Xenonauts works the same way as it does in XCOM, and this is a big if, then it's a function of a random dice roll, both people's Reactions stat, and the percent time units remaining of both units. That means that reaction fire is random, and is less likely to happen early in the turn, is less likely to happen to people with good reactions, and is more likely to happen if the shooter has way more TUs left than they would actually theoretically need.
MORE EDITS: As far as promotion goes, the original XCOM did have ranks higher than Captain, but your soldiers would be promoted to fill slots, and the slots were determined by how many soldiers you had. This means that you might not yet have access to higher ranks than Captain, but will as you hire more soldiers. Or maybe Xenonauts works differently, IDK.
I wouldn’t exactly say that reaction fire is random, as the formula is entirely deterministic. What makes it less than totally predictable is that you can’t know or determine how many (if any) TUs an alien has kept in reserve on its turn.
The only exceptions are:
1) On your first turn when all aliens are always at max TUs (apart from base defence missions where they get to take that first turn), and
2) Those 1-2 aliens that always seem to be “camping” in the “cockpit” of UFOs and spend very few of their TUs moving around.
A general rule of the alien AI seems to be to always keep enough TUs in reserve for a reaction shot, unless it gets an opportunity to fire during its own turn (either at you or at the civilians).
I think another exception might be that some aliens occasionally spend all of their TUs moving away from your units, but I’m not certain of this. I’m pretty sure I’ve also seen some aliens simply move just outside your field of view and then wait, being ready to reaction fire when you subsequently advance on them.
You've built research facilities but not hired any researchers to put in the, I think you're falling behind pretty badly - first thing when the money comes in should probably be to fill the research slots. And a training facility to get some "free" soldier improvements while they're waiting for missions in the base - don't necessarily need slots for all of them, "most" is good enough.. You may even want to consider if a third science building is necessary (19 total scientist) and works with your funding. AFAIK the laser weapons. The second and third base should probably just have hangars, air-defense and possibly scientists (if running out of space in the main base), having multiple ground teams is horrendously expensive and very likely not necessary - it looks like the game is mainly won in the air just like the original Xenonauts.
I would say that labs should generally only be built at your starting base and that a total of 2-3 adjacent ones are plentiful, if fully staffed; especially once you get the lab upgrade later on.
While more labs and scientists would get you new stuff more quickly, the expense is too much of an offset when you also have to spend money actually building the stuff your scientists research, as well as on expanding your bases (both in numbers and size), not to mention on any replacement for casualties.
i think maybe once you are enroute with the helicopter the thing stays on the ground
No, it almost certainly doesn’t. I’m pretty sure takes off after a set amount of time and on lower difficulties, I think you might get to see how long before it does so (just like you get to see exactly how much health and armour an alien has at any given time).
The worst case scenario would be for the UFO to take off just as your dropship reaches it, because that would almost certainly result in an aerial battle and your unarmed chopper automatically being shot down(!) It’s a pretty unlikely scenario that requires particularly bad timing, but I’m fairly sure it’s possible (and I think it happened to me once or twice in X1).
If you want to ensure against the very unlikely prospect of your dropship getting destroyed on its final approach, you can either give it a fighter escort or have fighters patrolling the landed UFO. However, I don’t think this kind of hedging is really that necessary.
Hey Thanks for the vids if is possible squall0028 want to join the roster assault or any. Good gaming Godspeed.
very excited to join the ranks, hope i can kill plenty of aliens :D
Welcome on board!
Just incase you are needing names, i am spelled Shildi.
On the list!
How is Baldur's Gate 3 btw?
It's really good if you enjoy very wordy and secret filled RPG's. I am having a blast with it.
I stopped playing Xenonauts 2 so that I could watch you play Xenonauts 2. How ironic...
👌
Hey, what happened to your pets?
My pets? Nothing they are all fine! Why do you ask?
@@Phrosphor They didn't appear in your Xenonauts 2 episodes so i wanted to ask. But im glad to hear they're fine.
Your posting up soldiers on corners which is horrible. Sure you can see enemies coming but the enemy whose turn it is can see them and shoot at them. Put your guys one square back so they are in the aliens blind spot when they try to go around corners. Then your guys will get shots off FIRST for the aliens moving in their field of vision. Your doing that everywhere..
Your UFO breach was also horrible. You were to close to the door. As soon as an alien opened the door they would have spotted all your dudes, sure you might kill him with return fire but they will still get to shoot first. Posting your guys further back so the alien has to come out and turn before seeing them would let you get the first shots.
That big glowy polumn in the back is the generator... if you guys had destroyed that it would have blown up everything in the ufo including half your team lmao.
I dont understand why your not retrieving consoles and power cores and ship guts... I think the devs forgot the stuff or something? There is some pre-req before you can start retrieving that stuff as loot? That shit was worth ALOT of money back in X-com. Its also needed to build more advanced fighters/transports. But you are getting screwed out of loot.