hunter and scimitar vehicles guestions

[Lord Farquaad]

How many vehicles do you have per base?
Would you keep around your hunter vehicle after you made a scimitar one considering the hunter 'only' costs around 4.000 per month (vs 10.000 of a scimitar)?

[frobisher]

You can have 3 vehicles at the main base. The only reason to build 3 is to replace one quickly that has been destroyed. Hunter is faster than other tanks and good for scouting but has little armour. Other tanks have more armour and firepower but are slower. Actually tanks are not necessary but they are fun to use. It all depends on your preference.

[Greb]

I always modify my games to expand the vision cones of my vehicles somewhat, giving full 360 degree vision to the Hyperion hover tank since it feels like that is something that shouldn't be a problem at that point, etc. That being said, in most games I tend to use vehicles as soon as I can and stick with using them, too. Since you get 3 spaces for vehicles in a base with 1 garage, and there's 3 vehicles in total you can research, I also like to keep my old vehicles sticking around just for nostalgia or out of respect or something. Kinda sucks doing this early game when you only have the Chinhook, but it's a lot more viable with the Shrike.

I give them their own custom name, they're a part of the squad now! A family, as it were. Can't let them die, can't decommission them once they're past their prime, no way! Cute little tires and stubby barrels, they never panic, never whine about equipment weight, and they've always got your back no matter what!

They're just really good units for scouting and spotting with, so I keep them around, yeah. I can see the value of having two Hunters / Scimitars / Hyperions in your base so you can field another if the previous one gets destroyed instantly, but eh, that's not how I play really.

Back in my day, we honoured the fallen - and then best way to honour them was to never let them die in the first place! Four rookies die during a mission? Meh. My little Hunter scout tank with a full name and title and over 15 sorties to his name dies though? I'll disband the Xenonauts project.

If the scout tank gets domed, you're not coming home. Simple as..

[Lord Farquaad]

Thanks both & that was a good read lol. Yeah I like having a vehicle too, they are good at drawing surprise attacks and there is something satisfying with steamrolling your laser tank over fences and than melting any aliens in the way to pinkish goo.

Originally posted by Greb:

If the scout tank gets domed, you're not coming home. Simple as..

, don't worry my save/load tendencies ensure that it will always returns home safely. xD

[Greb]

Yeah I wish the Hyperion tank didn't hover or you could switch it between flight and tracked mode, because it loses its ability to crush stuff and that's just not fun!

There's something very satisfying about running down a whole chainlink fence or a metal barrier, not quite as satisfying as walking through walls and doors in Predator armour but still, I certainly miss it when I upgrade from Scimitar to Hyperion. I wonder if removing the "Hover" line from the .ini will make it act like a Scimitar, actually. I bet it would.

Can't think of many reasons why hovering is worth keeping. I guess for crossing water? You barely ever have to or need to do that, though. Hmm.

[Lord Farquaad]

Can it not change height / fIy? (I don't have hyperion tank yet)
I remember in the old x-com/ufo defense there was a hover tank that could fly, maybe the xenonauts devs thought it would be too good?

[Greb]

I don't think it can. It's been a while since I played Xenonauts and got that far, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't operate like the end game tanks in the original XCOM games, no. The research text mentions it's capable of hovering but I don't believe it mentions flight.

Flight is different in Xenonauts anyway, you can't fire your equipment or use any items while flying unlike (if I recall correctly) the original XCOM games, and I guess they figured that would be pointless for a tank, it'd just be a huge flying target. Shame because parking a tank on a roof and raining down rockets on aliens is my dream. Alas.

It's funny because since it's a hover tank, and it doesn't crush stuff, that means in some cases it just floats through them - such as chainlink fences. It's a bit weird but, I guess it's only a minor niggle at worse.

[Lord Farquaad]

Originally posted by Greb:

Flight is different in Xenonauts anyway, you can't fire your equipment or use any items while flying unlike (if I recall correctly) the original XCOM games, and I guess they figured that would be pointless for a tank, it'd just be a huge flying target. Shame because parking a tank on a roof and raining down rockets on aliens is my dream. Alas.

, strange, even the Firaxis x-coms allow you to fire while flying iirc. Xenonauts even has aliens attacking from the air.

[Greb]

Which aliens, the Harridans? I've never actually witnessed those firing while flying, normally they perch out of your line of sight, shoot their sniper rifle and then immediately try to relocate, which usually means you find them in the air most of the time. I couldn't say for sure though, honestly.

There's also the drones the aliens use, but they're just hovering, not flying as well.

Firaxcom yeah, they allowed flight in Enemy Unknown, but I don't think they allowed it in 2, but I can't remember. I loved messing with the AI on EU using Hover Shivs, since you could just fly right over their cover and flank them, while having a constant low cover bonus, it was pretty broken - and messed up their AI something awful, too. Good stuff! And the classic Archangel snipers, of course!

Xenonauts doesn't quite manage to nail the OG Xcom feel, but it comes pretty close. I'm hoping Xenonauts 2 goes the extra mile and gets those little features in though, attacking while flying, throwing corpses / weapons / grenades on a timer, units able to become KO'd and wake up or be resurrected mid mission, and even psionics etc. Will have to wait and see, if it hasn't already been confirmed yes / no anyway (haven't been following the development diaries since the delay)

[Lord Farquaad]

Now that you mention it maybe Harridans do need to stand on some land or hill (I actually only fought one outside of ufo's which landed on a small hill, the others outside got instakilled by my scimitar tank (kind of strange actually considering the chance to hit is quite low but the laser seems to still explode very close the flying Harridan, looks like there is some magic ceiling or maybe I was lucky).

Did you ever play multiplayer in Firaxcom 1? Flying/hovering units are so overpowered with their flanking capabilities, especially the alien ones that can also e.g. hurl grenades from huge distances (AI does not take full use of that). Its quite fun but sadly only 1 vs 1 (would have been amazing if there would be coop etc).

I look forward to Xenonauts 2 too (it will undoubtely get some new stuff). When Xenonauts 1 was released I did not see the appeal of it but when playing it now the game definitely grew on me. It as you mention lacks still some features/extra's but at its core its solid. :)

[Greb]

I played a little bit, yeah. One thing that used to annoy me with XCOM:EU and by extension EW was the fact flying units didn't use cover or corner peek, so if you had Floaters in your squad composition or other flying units, you could spy at a corner (scouting for your Squadsight Sniper, perhaps) and then engage flight mode and vanish from enemy sight once you were done, so they couldn't shoot back. There was a lot of cheese in that game, like using a ghost grenade on a squad of Floaters and then blasting them right on top of the enemy spawn when you go first, then getting a whole bunch of cheap and easy flank shots on 'em during your following turn. Most of the time players don't prioritise getting into cover or securing their flanks on the first turn, so it was a very mean and underhanded move lol.

I remember using it once and gaining salty rage inbox messages because some guy was running a typical Mechtoid + Sectoids army and I killed all his Sectoids, lol. No infinite shielding for you!

That's the "Bombard" ability, or something like that right? Some aliens simply having long range grenades and such? I didn't know the flying units had that, but I definitely remember the Elite Muton having it. Always annoying because it was practically 100% guaranteed if they could hit two units with it, they'd use it lol.

Man, Harridans are annoying me at the moment in my current game. I've been trying to capture one for the last couple of Andron missions, but they keep suicide bombing my shock jockies when they get too close. Gotta get that research on the electroshock grenade but I've got other priorities lol.

Yeah, likewise. I didn't scoop up Xenonauts immediately because it didn't seem like it held some of the "core" values of the old XCOM games to heart, it didn't seem like a spiritual successor more like an imitator, but my opinion has changed dramatically since then. Pretty great game, I especially love the research lore and the attention to detail on the little things - base defence turrets, as an example. Seeing their internal components as you change Z-levels, during an uncommon (ish) base attack and with turrets you might not even consider building, not to mention them having 1-2-3-4 different styles? I've never seen the basic conventional rocket turret, but I'm sure it's very detailed anyway. They really showed their work.

[Lord Farquaad]

Originally posted by Greb:

I played a little bit, yeah. One thing that used to annoy me with XCOM:EU and by extension EW was the fact flying units didn't use cover or corner peek, so if you had Floaters in your squad composition or other flying units, you could spy at a corner (scouting for your Squadsight Sniper, perhaps) and then engage flight mode and vanish from enemy sight once you were done, so they couldn't shoot back. There was a lot of cheese in that game, like using a ghost grenade on a squad of Floaters and then blasting them right on top of the enemy spawn when you go first, then getting a whole bunch of cheap and easy flank shots on 'em during your following turn. Most of the time players don't prioritise getting into cover or securing their flanks on the first turn, so it was a very mean and underhanded move lol.

I remember using it once and gaining salty rage inbox messages because some guy was running a typical Mechtoid + Sectoids army and I killed all his Sectoids, lol. No infinite shielding for you!

That's the "Bombard" ability, or something like that right? Some aliens simply having long range grenades and such? I didn't know the flying units had that, but I definitely remember the Elite Muton having it. Always annoying because it was practically 100% guaranteed if they could hit two units with it, they'd use it lol.

, man that move with ghost grenade is hilarious, did not thought about that one before.
Concerning the bombard ability, iirc the heavy floaters and cyberdics have it. Both are also quite strong and fast with the main disadvantage of high costs, so I usually added a bunch of drones with them since they are cheap but still good for distraction and scouting. Also since your whole squad is flying all enemy melee units are rendered useless and psionic attacks are useless to drones and cyberdiscs which is normally a big weakness of heavy floaters I believe.

[Greb]

It's been a while but that one map that was like a burning building in the middle, sort of looked like an office of some kind, where players begin on both sides, I swear I remember using a dual cyberdisc and drones (or was it one cyberdisc and multiple drones as scouts? Can't remember) flying up on to the roof where I was safe from most harm, popping out to take shots at my enemy. Cyberdiscs were fun!

I remember bombard now, can't believe I forgot how annoying cyberdiscs were with that spinning grenade throw they could do lol. Deathblossom was one thing but those grenades were annoying! An otherwise perfect mission seeing a bunch of your soldiers spending time in medbay thanks to one errant grenade