REPLY HERE TO GET YOU NAME ON A SOLDIER! If I heart your comment, that means I've got you in. Either leave a generic comment, or let me know what name you'd like your soldier to have. If I ever get more than 100 of you to manage I'll be setting up a discord bot for you all to go through instead. Keep an eye on the pinned comments on X-Com videos and the community tab for more info on that. Edit: 80 names! May have to start setting up that bot soon...
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ! I hope to see more XCOM in the futur, especially XCOM apocalypse (who got a neat difficulty setting being about the world map).
I've been thinking about apocalypse, but at the moment my interests are focused towards the many mods for OpenXcom. Definitely something I'd like to play for the future, but likely not the next video. Thanks for watching! Hope this was worth the wait.
I remember watching my Dad play these games as a little kid. It always seemed so utterly incomprehensible to me then, so it's interesting seeing it as an adult. Cool video dude. From one small YTer to another, you should mention the difference between the difficulties, so someone completely unfamiliar to Xcom effectively knows just how difficult this is.
A blast from the past... and a terrorizing blast at that... as a X-Com 1 (UFO Unknown) player when it came out, I remember 2 being so much harder to beat... my teams usually died in the first few missions. Thanks for this video!
Thanks for watching! TFTD was a crazy shift in difficulty from the original. I've seen lots of comments here about people having never finished the game due to how hard it was. Glad you enjoyed!
Half the reason I click videos like this is to see peoples reaction to facing Lobstermen for the first time. Sadism born from childhood trauma. I will never tire of hearing that whale-like cry when a Lobsterman dies. Great video. Now, do Xpiratez😎
Man, it'd take me a year doing this full time to beat Xpiratez. That and I'd forget to censor something in the video and be off the platform. Maybe someday. Also lobstermen are something else. Impossible to deal with head on, and still difficult with cheese.
Loved the TFTD vibes as a kid but yeah, its hard as nails! Also, feel weird paying this as a compliment but been loving your UFO video to fall asleep to ;) Full power
Odd as it may be, it wouldn't be the first time I received such a compliment. I'm just happy to hear you've enjoyed the video for one reason or another. Thanks for watching!
I loved XCOM and remember being pressured to buy TFTD but I was put off by the entire principle: I knew what a "palette swap game" was as a kid, and I suspected the entire game's concept was one giant palette swap to try and quickly (and cheaply) ride on XCOM's coattails. "Hey, what's the opposite of land combat?" "Water combat?" "Great! There's our game. Now just make sea-versions of all the XCOM equipment and we've got ourselves another blockbuster!" It was also twice as difficult as regular XCOM, twice as ugly and confusing to fight underwater, and the sticker price was twice what XCOM had shipped at.
Despite this, people still love the underwater atmosphere the game has, so it's maintained a following. I mostly agree with you here, but I can't run an X-COM youtube channel without playing this game. Melee weapons were a nice addition, but most of the game is exactly as you said, a palette swap.
Hey, man. Highly enjoyable vids, these. I myself love everything about classic X-Com games: art style, storytelling, immersive mechanics and their interaction with each other as well as the player, sheer atmosphere of actual alien horror. All that aside from one thing: actually playing the damn things. So watching someone this competent go against these insane odds is a treat. Thanks for the experience.
I remember the "must capture live deep one on first terror mission or fail the campaign" requirement all the way from 1995. Those first runs were harsh, without question.
Ok I've subscribed. This is incredible, I must have played the original so many times, but never terror from the deep. I was too hard. I highly recommend you do this with some mods, the 40k one and xpirates are two ive sunk far too many hours into. Loving this, and look forward to what comes next.
Tyty! I plan on playing through the popular overhaul mods eventually, they are just going to take forever to get through. I'm working on a plan for the channel during the massive downtime I'll have while playing one of these mods. Thanks for watching!
One of my favorite things to do in UFO Defense is to track down a soldier with single digit Psi Strength, hopefully even zero, and just leave him unarmed on the ship with the Blaster Bombers keeping anyone from reaction firing him while he eats all the psi attacks. I assume it works worse in TftD, but in UFO I can skimp on curating my soldiers for one more stat until endgame. The Hydro-Jet is something you slept on a bit, despite its nerfs from the Autocannon. The Phosphorous ammo isn't as good at lighting up the entire map with fire as AC-I, but it's still worth bringing on Artifact and Base missions for light, and you don't need as many smoke grenades since it'll dissipate faster.
It had occurred to me that I could have a low psi bait soldier on some crafts, but I thought it'd be a bit risky. If someone who had average psi got close to the psychic alien, there is potential to get hit by attacks. As for the phosphorous ammo, I can see the value in it, but since aliens have perfect night vision, I prefer to just leave flares everywhere. That's something I can employ during various OpenXcom mods in the future though. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan im pretty sure in TftD the aliens will always go for the lowest psy strength agent on the team no matter the distance, though i could be wrong its been a while since i played it
@@henrymaliphant4152 Just off of gameplay from this run, I believe the aliens will go after the soldier that they have the highest chance of succeeding in an attack against. Since range is factored into this chance, I figured it was possible that someone with mid to low psy could get too close to the aliens and become the new target. If you did a less extreme version of what I did, and had everyone with 40-50 or higher psy strength, then it's likely the strategy would work due to the extreme difference in strength. Just having a guy or two with 1 psy however is not going to perfectly protect a team.
TFTD was my first xcom experience, and I was really a child when I started playing it. It shaped my idea of gaming, and what a good game is. Later I played the first installment, but it felt so bland after the extremely varied tilesets, sounds, and map generation of tftd. I especially didn't like the obvious square shaped tiles of the original, and the triton is so much better than the ship you use in the first game. Recently I also started to entertain the idea of the original and I really would like to play both games back to back. I guess which one you like more depends on which you started playing with. I'm just glad I was at the right age to play this awesome thing it was really important, and I can still feel in my core the experiences I had playing this game, both alone and with my friends. We used to share soldiers and everyone took turns playing their guys.
From what I've been seeing in the comments, it does seem that a lot of people favor the game that they played first. The other pattern I've noticed is people who like game play prefer UFO Defense, whereas those who like atmosphere prefer TFTD. I also imagine most of us here have had the shared experience of playing with our friends when we were younger. I myself certainly have, and it was a ton of fun. Thanks for watching!
Just finished watching this @potatocaravan . You did so good. I love this format of video so much. You are able to show us the breadth of your tactics in each type of mission and the depth of the game mechanics and how you exploited them to win effectively. We also got a lot of hilarious xcom moments of being surprised by new alien types or explosions wrecking a ton of your crew or aliens. Well done. I will be recommending this to my subscribers. I hope they all come over and watch what you have achieved here.
Thanks man! I really appreciate the kind words and the exposure! I'm thrilled that people are enjoying, as I'm really just making the videos that I want to see. Glad I'm not alone. Thank you so much!
Played this with friends together on one PC. Trying a higher difficulty, opening the door and just exploding was a formative experience. I dont think any of us ever finished the game though. I resorted to savescumming which made the experience tedious. Liked the video. If you are looking for something which might fit: Neo Scavenger might work if you're not spoiled on it and should not take a fraction of an X-Com game.
I always used to take Dreadnoughts and Supply Ships from above. Once I had DPLs, MC, and Mag Ion Armor, one trooper scouted the four fans up top on the Dreadnought, and then we'd crack the roof with a DPL Torp. Once we scouted an enemy with a DPL, we'd MC one or both, and they would fire on each other or the Commander to kill all the officers and demoralize all lower tier enemies. We'd then move down from the upper entry point to clear with other troops clearing the surrounding area and create blocking positions to prevent runners. Rinse repeat
I had forgotten that the DPL can destroy sub walls. Should have made use of that during my run. I don't believe I had DPLs or MC at the time of the first dreadnought, but this would have worked well.
@@PotatoCaravan "Create your own entry point," "Treat ships as upside down buildings," and "Stack up (on doors) for entry" are 3 actual-world tactics I picked up organically from TFTD. And, yeah, we have to do it the old fashioned way before DPLs, MagIon, and MC, but once we have them, it's tilt time on Dreadnoughts.
This video format is great. As addictive as X-Com is, it is also a little bit tedious, especially towards the end point, so posting edited playthroughs with highlights is the best way to go about it. As for future videos... well, I happened on this channel because of X-Com, so anything strategic/tactical/turn-based would have my attention. X-Com Apocalypse? Some of the OpenXCom mods, like X-Piratez? Jagged Alliance 2? Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic? Any of the old classics that can't readily be found on other channels would do.
Tyty! I should note that I'm in my early 20s, and of said old classics, I've only ever played X-Com. Most of these games are likely older than me. I've been looking at Jagged Alliance 2 as I've received a number of specific requests for it, but I'm mostly planning on OpenXcom mods for the time being. Thanks for watching!
I prefer Terror from the Deep over Ufo Defense because I got so sick of the urban environments, fighting in warehouses and orchards. The bottom of the ocean was a nice change of pace. Also the enemy subs look more appealing to me than the almost featureless flying saucers.
The change in scenery is pretty cool, and UFO defense definitely starts to feel the same after a while. Both the games have shortfalls, and it just depends which bother you more. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan I mean, that's how I won my first superhuman TFTD. Catching living Deep One during first two terrors is just a gatekeep that answers question if you should restart, after that it is just waiting for that lobstermen shop.
Nobody tell him he could have cheesed the elevators in T'leth and the arrifacts by keeping 4 soldiers in the elevator tiles blocking the pathing into the entrance. Also nobody tell him that in terror from the deep, differently from UFO defense, the elevator tiles don't provide line of sight.
Im currently drunk and have no how i stumbled on this love it! tho old school xcom is mint for your next video do the warhammer 40k mod? theres at least 3 diff camps there and its bloody fun either way great video quality and content!
I'm holding off on overhaul mods for the next video or two, but 40k is on the list for then I decide to play one. There will be another community post vote for it at some point. Thanks for watching!
That it does. When trying to mind control a unit, you compare MC strengths/skill and have a random amount added or subtracted from the final value. If you have super low strength you're going to lose every time. Thanks for watching!
While UFO Defense is one of my favourite games ever, TFTD was tedious at times, and at others it had horrible difficulty spikes. I completed it once and have never gone back. It broke me with (what i think was) a terror site that was massive and finding the last panicked, stationary alien took at least an hour of just stumbling around. After that I just wanted to get to the end and uninstall. UFO defense got so much right the first time around, that TFTD was 'the difficult second album' for me.
God damn man...I am only 5 hours into my video...but i want to recommend you to my people so bad...fuck...this is so good! You will get the viewers you deserve
Tyty! I'm super happy with how this turned out. And by 5 hours in, do you mean playing, or editing? A 5 hour video would be impressive, even if it defeated the purpose a little.
If there is a lot of activity in a certain area there's more you can do besides just waiting. You can patrol said area with your subs (just send them to a random location in the area and they will patrol until out of fuel). This can reveal alien bases in the area... For example, you could've seen rising activity in Asia and patrol and reveal a base in China and destroy that base to prevent China withdrawing from the project...
While I hadn't thought of that, in TFTD especially it does like it'll be random if you find anything or not. I'm not sure patrolling would be worthwhile if it means your sub is out of the action for when something comes up in sonar range by one of your bases.
@@PotatoCaravanIt's not random. The aliens go trough a whole script to build bases/colonies. Scouting missions, actual base building missions and supply missions once built. If you take these UFO's out you can frustrate their base building efforts but you don't have coverage over the entire planet (at least in the beginning) so bases will be built "behind your back". Sometimes the game will throw you a bone and give you the location of a alien base ("x-com agents have located a alien base in location X") but you can't rely on that, you have to actively patrol to find them yourself. There's clues as where to patrol. The activity graphs, supply ships showing up often in certain area's, etc... Whenever a country leaves the x-com project it's often due to there being a alien base in the region. If you find and destroy them in time you can prevent countries from leaving. You can keep a single empty skyranger/triton for patrolling missions. Speed isn't an issue, and their long range makes them well suited...
Tyty! I am hoping to play through some of the popular overhaul mods, but I need a plan for the channel in the down time. I have a couple ideas, so overhauls aren't off the table.
I think the beginer month bug for the previous game wasnt taken into account for the harder difficulty of this game as the developers were aware of the type of issue it had. My source is tv tropes but i think this rumor does get spread around a lot.
My thought behind the overcorrection comment was based on the fact that people found the first game easy. In an effort to give them something more difficult, the difficulty of TFTD was pushed past what is reasonable. Not sure how true that is as I wasn't even born then, but I've seen this sentiment online a few times.
@@emmaselmeci966 No problem lol! I'm not sure if holding the flare illuminates your soldier on DOS, or if that's just OpenXcom. Some of this stuff may not have worked back in the day, so I wouldn't feel bad about it. Thanks again for watching! Wouldn't be doing this without you all.
So after completing xcom for the 2nd time last week (might I add the QOL features make beating xcom original extremely easy compared to vanilla on DOS) I decided to get working on TFTD. Holy crap even on easy mode the dock/resort/shipping containers were hard. But then I did an alien colony for the first time. I did not expect how insane that would be. Lobstermen in their own habitat... RIP me in the 2nd mission LMAO :D
The game is brutal. Really feels like you're venturing somewhere you don't belong on a lot of the missions. Early game was the hardest, but without MC late game is still quite terrifying.
Do you shoot down all alien subs? There are several types of ships/missions that always land. I guess it was the medium ships that almost always land, so just follow them with a Triton. As you know you get much more points from landed crafts.
There is only a minor difference between shooting down subs and letting them land, as you get points for successfully shooting down a sub. You have to hope that the stuff that gets destroyed is worth less points than gained from sinking it, and while more often than not you lose points, its not that bad. Generally the bigger concern is both the destruction of sub components and potentially spawning alien retaliation missions. Personally, I've never really been concerned about either, and in a lot of cases the missions spawned from shooting down subs is worth more than what gets lost. These mission will be your primary source of small subs in late game, and in TFTD that's the best way to avoid the late game DPL spam (other than maybe supply ships).
Thanks for the entertaining video! Is there some reason you went for so long with sonic pistols? I typically skip them in favor for other research until cannons appear. Was the mc lab training up also mc-unrelated stats in the vanilla? I've never noticed. Also, I would never dare to attack alien base without MC training on superhuman. For the terror missions, I remember that in vanilla, you could almost always play them during the day by delaying deployment of the Triton. WP and well thought out!
Np! Glad you enjoyed. Yes, when facing aquatoids and gill men, this pistols do more than enough damage to deal with them comfortably. Additionally for the first month or two pistols are all you see, so I wasn't short on them. They also allow for 3 shots in a turn instead of the 2 shots from sonic cannons, so you'd see me swap back to pistols when an easy race came up. For the lab, no. It only trains MC skill. However using the MC disruptor item in missions does train more stats than just MC skill, and thats what I spent a lot of the later episodes doing. Finally, yes there is a way to do all missions during the day. When a mission spawns, there is a timer for it to despawn, however the mission will never despawn so long as it's targeted by a sub. If you have 2 subs and alternate who is targeting the mission without interruption, you can keep the mission alive as long as you need. Tyty, and thanks for watching!
Tried to go a bit faster with the summary here. I spent twice as long playing and had less than half as much to say. This would have been easily 2 hours had I gone into details on every mission like the UFO video. Let me know what you think. In comparison to mods, these games are short, so I'm leaning towards this style, however if you all have a strong opinion either way I can be swayed. Thanks for watching!
So your name is going to be too long to display. I can still put it in, but it'll get cutoff shortly after mad scientist. If that's not an issue I'll go ahead and put it in, but I thought you may want to know.
IIRC after UFO Defense success devs only had 6 month to make XCOM: TFTD thus the balancing being weird. I really liked TFTD for it's atmosphere and MC being strong doesn't really bother me, at worse you have the option to play Xenonauts style and TFTD allow you a lot of freedom in your strats just like XCOM: UD. XCOM: Apocalypse got it worse since they had to scrap a lot of stuff, the game is still good and it offer the choice of Real time or turn based combat thus I like these 3 old XCOM games because they are different and really tried something new, if they had the money and technology we have now.......
I also remember hearing that the game was made on a pretty tight timeline. I will agree that some of the balancing can waved because of this, but tentaculats in particular just don't sit right with me. As for a modern remake, I'd love to see that too! OpenXcom has been the work of a few people in their spare time, so you can only imagine what a team of paid devs could make.
Hey man. RUclips is recommended me your video. Bit of a fan of OG X-Com and 5 minutes into the video it's clear you have thought your strategy beyond the path the game gives you. I'm still in the video introductions, i'm enjoying your commentary however i'm noticing a lot of background sound or distortions being picked up by your mic. Excuse the reference but it literally sounds like you're in a submarine. Audio is one of the key ways to improve video quality which is why i bring it up. Audacity(Or whatever the open source is now called) has some free and good ways to clean up background sounds without changing hardware. There are AI solutions which might be easier or harder depending on how prepackaged they are. Anyways i'm going to continue on with the video and wish you the best of luck. Also i know someone that's a bit of a X-COM apoc fan boy. If you make a video on the game (sadly i think the Source port is still WIP stage) then i can easily get him to watch. EDIT OBS noise gate is an improvement, but full noise reduction is needed. OBS is just hiding the problem when it can.
Audio has been a work in progress for a while now. I'll try out Audacity next time as I believe I have that installed. I also may be able to turn off the various fans you're hearing while recording. Seeing as I'm in the same room as them when editing, I never heard the severity of the issue and didn't make much of an effort to fix it. Thanks for the notice.
@@PotatoCaravan it's background noise rather than a swoosh or a sound effect. It happens a lot with either bad locations to record or bad gear but sound proof locations and good gear will still pick up bits. Any RUclips guide in the last 15 years with audio sections should cover the exact process as it's a fairly common and simple fix.
Tyty! I have a bunch of different mods bookmarked at the moment, but no real plan. I was thinking about trying one of the difficulty oriented mods, however I have yet to decide on one. Likely going to set up a poll once I narrow it down to a couple. Thanks for watching!
for the shorter vid I'd love a look at Arc the lad 2 Twilight of souls for the ps2 is a cult classic of mine that hits very strong and interesting themes
Nights spent for this game😂 good old time Those search radius of base was not there in original It took me several weeks to realize the downed craft in combat mode is a craft i just downed. I thought it is some kind of alien structure. I alwyas float everyone to height 3 or 4 .. it can help evade that homing missile
The circles for sonar range are from OpenXcom, and are super nice. One of the many quality of life features. Funny that you never noticed that you were breaching subs, and I have no idea how effective flying high is. Never tried.
I love TFTD, tho I never actually beaten it :^) Played the shit out of it as a kid, gotta try actually finishing it some time. I did beat Enemy Unknown, Apocalypse (pretty good game, too) and first remake, but I probably still like TFTD the best - maybe it's nostalgia, but the setting, art and music is just on-point, Enemy Unknown looks pretty cartoonish by comparison, and not really in a good way.
That does seem to be the trend from comments I've been reading. People who want atmosphere love TFTD, but the people who are there for the gameplay like UFO defense. I've always enjoyed UFO defense more, but that's likely because the TFTD mechanics felt like they hadn't been modified enough to represent being under water. TFTD is a slow game if you do go about trying to beat it. Best of luck!
I'm getting into mods with the next videos, however I'm going to hold off on overhaul mods for the next video or two. I am a 40k fan, so I'd be happy to play through it, it'll just have to beat out Xcom Files in a YT poll lol.
It's on my radar. Of the older titles being recommended, X-Com is the only one I've played. Jagged Alliance 2 has been specifically asked for a few times, so there is a good chance I try it out, but I'm sticking with OpenXcom mods for a little while yet.
@@loszhor Not completely retro, as I'm planning on posting some of the random games I decide to play. I'm expecting to have X-Com or other retro games going on all the time for the channel, with the occasional random game I thought was fun. Same video format, just don't be too surprised if the new Factorio expansion gets a video.
25:25 I haven't played this one. What happens after 10 turns of psi attacks? Only 3 soldiers left, rest "retired"...dead? Canonically retired or was that a joke?
If a soldier has high enough Psi strength, then they will be immune to Psi attacks (Psi strength is a hidden stat for most the game). I spent 10 turns in the mission to see who was and wasn't immune. Everyone who was on the list got fired due to weak Psi strength.
The first game is somewhat childish and too easy, stats are not capped, tech tree is not challenging, thats why I personally prefer tftd. Its just one of those games that you either like or hate, I love everything about it. A true cult classic.
The original game is definitely easier, and I can understand wanting something more. The mystery of the aliens in the first game always did more for be than the aquatic elements from the second, and that's certainly influenced my opinion on the games. I'm glad I've finally played both, but I'm not sure I'll ever go back from the mods supported by OpenXcom. They've allowed the game to reach much higher heights, and I'd enjoy either of these settings combined with the new features. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan Definitely enjoyed your campaign in the second alien war and cant wait for the next video playing the mods. I wish there was a way to watch your plays in a longplay format, but an overview is also fun. Good luck with your exams!
@@Radii_DC I do have a vods channel where I upload all the gameplay from these videos lets play style. Should be linked from my main channel page if you're interested. Otherwise thanks for the support!
Impossible since the game is so buggy that I have never been able to get past 50%ish point without total save game corruption that prevents entering/exiting missions 😂
REPLY HERE TO GET YOU NAME ON A SOLDIER!
If I heart your comment, that means I've got you in. Either leave a generic comment, or let me know what name you'd like your soldier to have. If I ever get more than 100 of you to manage I'll be setting up a discord bot for you all to go through instead. Keep an eye on the pinned comments on X-Com videos and the community tab for more info on that.
Edit:
80 names!
May have to start setting up that bot soon...
Can you name a soldier Overlord Kego ? If it's too long then Hunneychu.
Can you name a soldier AIDS Patient Zero
hi
Awesome! If I get in, hope I don't die in the first mission lol
(Just druidmancer is fine!)
Ok, what a roller-coaster, got fired, came back (gonna only comment at the end of the video now lol)
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ! I hope to see more XCOM in the futur, especially XCOM apocalypse (who got a neat difficulty setting being about the world map).
I've been thinking about apocalypse, but at the moment my interests are focused towards the many mods for OpenXcom. Definitely something I'd like to play for the future, but likely not the next video.
Thanks for watching! Hope this was worth the wait.
Wasn't there a guy working on an open version of apocalypse. I wonder how that project is going.
I really enjoy this format for X-COM content. I've got so many ~150 part let's plays in my watch later that I'm never going to get around to.
I had the same thought when I decided to make this type of content. Thanks for watching!
I remember watching my Dad play these games as a little kid. It always seemed so utterly incomprehensible to me then, so it's interesting seeing it as an adult.
Cool video dude. From one small YTer to another, you should mention the difference between the difficulties, so someone completely unfamiliar to Xcom effectively knows just how difficult this is.
A blast from the past... and a terrorizing blast at that... as a X-Com 1 (UFO Unknown) player when it came out, I remember 2 being so much harder to beat... my teams usually died in the first few missions. Thanks for this video!
Thanks for watching! TFTD was a crazy shift in difficulty from the original. I've seen lots of comments here about people having never finished the game due to how hard it was. Glad you enjoyed!
Half the reason I click videos like this is to see peoples reaction to facing Lobstermen for the first time. Sadism born from childhood trauma.
I will never tire of hearing that whale-like cry when a Lobsterman dies.
Great video. Now, do Xpiratez😎
Man, it'd take me a year doing this full time to beat Xpiratez. That and I'd forget to censor something in the video and be off the platform. Maybe someday.
Also lobstermen are something else. Impossible to deal with head on, and still difficult with cheese.
Loved the TFTD vibes as a kid but yeah, its hard as nails!
Also, feel weird paying this as a compliment but been loving your UFO video to fall asleep to ;)
Full power
Odd as it may be, it wouldn't be the first time I received such a compliment. I'm just happy to hear you've enjoyed the video for one reason or another.
Thanks for watching!
I loved XCOM and remember being pressured to buy TFTD but I was put off by the entire principle: I knew what a "palette swap game" was as a kid, and I suspected the entire game's concept was one giant palette swap to try and quickly (and cheaply) ride on XCOM's coattails.
"Hey, what's the opposite of land combat?" "Water combat?" "Great! There's our game. Now just make sea-versions of all the XCOM equipment and we've got ourselves another blockbuster!"
It was also twice as difficult as regular XCOM, twice as ugly and confusing to fight underwater, and the sticker price was twice what XCOM had shipped at.
Despite this, people still love the underwater atmosphere the game has, so it's maintained a following. I mostly agree with you here, but I can't run an X-COM youtube channel without playing this game. Melee weapons were a nice addition, but most of the game is exactly as you said, a palette swap.
Tentaculats are so creepy.
Especially the UFOpaedia entry.
I primed 2 grenade in advance... i will fall and kamikaze if zombified😂
@@theeraphatsunthornwit6266 This is the way.
Love finding X-Com Players - Subbed.
Glad to have you!
Hey, man. Highly enjoyable vids, these. I myself love everything about classic X-Com games: art style, storytelling, immersive mechanics and their interaction with each other as well as the player, sheer atmosphere of actual alien horror. All that aside from one thing: actually playing the damn things. So watching someone this competent go against these insane odds is a treat. Thanks for the experience.
Thanks! I fully understand that feeling, there are many games I'd just prefer to watch others play. Glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching!
I remember the "must capture live deep one on first terror mission or fail the campaign" requirement all the way from 1995. Those first runs were harsh, without question.
Absolutely. Took me like 4-5 attempts to get out of early game when learning TFTD. I was on superhuman, but that's still brutal. Thanks for watching!
At least thanks to this invasion, lobster'll be cheap...
That it will.
Ok I've subscribed. This is incredible, I must have played the original so many times, but never terror from the deep. I was too hard.
I highly recommend you do this with some mods, the 40k one and xpirates are two ive sunk far too many hours into.
Loving this, and look forward to what comes next.
Tyty! I plan on playing through the popular overhaul mods eventually, they are just going to take forever to get through. I'm working on a plan for the channel during the massive downtime I'll have while playing one of these mods. Thanks for watching!
One of my favorite things to do in UFO Defense is to track down a soldier with single digit Psi Strength, hopefully even zero, and just leave him unarmed on the ship with the Blaster Bombers keeping anyone from reaction firing him while he eats all the psi attacks. I assume it works worse in TftD, but in UFO I can skimp on curating my soldiers for one more stat until endgame.
The Hydro-Jet is something you slept on a bit, despite its nerfs from the Autocannon. The Phosphorous ammo isn't as good at lighting up the entire map with fire as AC-I, but it's still worth bringing on Artifact and Base missions for light, and you don't need as many smoke grenades since it'll dissipate faster.
It had occurred to me that I could have a low psi bait soldier on some crafts, but I thought it'd be a bit risky. If someone who had average psi got close to the psychic alien, there is potential to get hit by attacks.
As for the phosphorous ammo, I can see the value in it, but since aliens have perfect night vision, I prefer to just leave flares everywhere. That's something I can employ during various OpenXcom mods in the future though.
Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan im pretty sure in TftD the aliens will always go for the lowest psy strength agent on the team no matter the distance, though i could be wrong its been a while since i played it
@@henrymaliphant4152 Just off of gameplay from this run, I believe the aliens will go after the soldier that they have the highest chance of succeeding in an attack against. Since range is factored into this chance, I figured it was possible that someone with mid to low psy could get too close to the aliens and become the new target. If you did a less extreme version of what I did, and had everyone with 40-50 or higher psy strength, then it's likely the strategy would work due to the extreme difference in strength. Just having a guy or two with 1 psy however is not going to perfectly protect a team.
You are very easy to listen to and your detached kind of humour clicks with me. Please more of this or any other retro game, good stuff
OpenXcom has mod support, so you can expect more content like this eventually. Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed.
TFTD was my first xcom experience, and I was really a child when I started playing it. It shaped my idea of gaming, and what a good game is. Later I played the first installment, but it felt so bland after the extremely varied tilesets, sounds, and map generation of tftd. I especially didn't like the obvious square shaped tiles of the original, and the triton is so much better than the ship you use in the first game. Recently I also started to entertain the idea of the original and I really would like to play both games back to back.
I guess which one you like more depends on which you started playing with. I'm just glad I was at the right age to play this awesome thing it was really important, and I can still feel in my core the experiences I had playing this game, both alone and with my friends. We used to share soldiers and everyone took turns playing their guys.
From what I've been seeing in the comments, it does seem that a lot of people favor the game that they played first. The other pattern I've noticed is people who like game play prefer UFO Defense, whereas those who like atmosphere prefer TFTD.
I also imagine most of us here have had the shared experience of playing with our friends when we were younger. I myself certainly have, and it was a ton of fun. Thanks for watching!
Just finished watching this @potatocaravan . You did so good. I love this format of video so much. You are able to show us the breadth of your tactics in each type of mission and the depth of the game mechanics and how you exploited them to win effectively. We also got a lot of hilarious xcom moments of being surprised by new alien types or explosions wrecking a ton of your crew or aliens. Well done. I will be recommending this to my subscribers. I hope they all come over and watch what you have achieved here.
Thanks man! I really appreciate the kind words and the exposure! I'm thrilled that people are enjoying, as I'm really just making the videos that I want to see. Glad I'm not alone. Thank you so much!
@@PotatoCaravan you are so welcome Potato. Seriously. You are very awesome at what you do. I wish I was doing this in 2009 when i started youtube.
@@Malkasphia That hindsight for ya. Wouldn't dwell on it too much. Out of your control now. Thanks again!
Played this with friends together on one PC. Trying a higher difficulty, opening the door and just exploding was a formative experience. I dont think any of us ever finished the game though. I resorted to savescumming which made the experience tedious.
Liked the video. If you are looking for something which might fit: Neo Scavenger might work if you're not spoiled on it and should not take a fraction of an X-Com game.
I've seen neo scavenger before, but don't have very deep knowledge on the game. I'll note it down, got a list of requests piling up now.
Despite the tediousness and the game itself being a hasty reskin of a first installment, the lovecraftian atmosphere of TFTD hits hard.
Fully agree. Glad I played it, even if I don't think I'll play it again unmodded. Thanks for watching!
I always used to take Dreadnoughts and Supply Ships from above.
Once I had DPLs, MC, and Mag Ion Armor, one trooper scouted the four fans up top on the Dreadnought, and then we'd crack the roof with a DPL Torp. Once we scouted an enemy with a DPL, we'd MC one or both, and they would fire on each other or the Commander to kill all the officers and demoralize all lower tier enemies. We'd then move down from the upper entry point to clear with other troops clearing the surrounding area and create blocking positions to prevent runners.
Rinse repeat
I had forgotten that the DPL can destroy sub walls. Should have made use of that during my run. I don't believe I had DPLs or MC at the time of the first dreadnought, but this would have worked well.
@@PotatoCaravan "Create your own entry point," "Treat ships as upside down buildings," and "Stack up (on doors) for entry" are 3 actual-world tactics I picked up organically from TFTD. And, yeah, we have to do it the old fashioned way before DPLs, MagIon, and MC, but once we have them, it's tilt time on Dreadnoughts.
This video format is great. As addictive as X-Com is, it is also a little bit tedious, especially towards the end point, so posting edited playthroughs with highlights is the best way to go about it. As for future videos... well, I happened on this channel because of X-Com, so anything strategic/tactical/turn-based would have my attention. X-Com Apocalypse? Some of the OpenXCom mods, like X-Piratez? Jagged Alliance 2? Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic? Any of the old classics that can't readily be found on other channels would do.
Tyty! I should note that I'm in my early 20s, and of said old classics, I've only ever played X-Com. Most of these games are likely older than me. I've been looking at Jagged Alliance 2 as I've received a number of specific requests for it, but I'm mostly planning on OpenXcom mods for the time being. Thanks for watching!
You might be interested in xenonauts. It plays exactly like xcom, it's basically a remake. Mod scene is pretty good too.
I prefer Terror from the Deep over Ufo Defense because I got so sick of the urban environments, fighting in warehouses and orchards. The bottom of the ocean was a nice change of pace. Also the enemy subs look more appealing to me than the almost featureless flying saucers.
The change in scenery is pretty cool, and UFO defense definitely starts to feel the same after a while. Both the games have shortfalls, and it just depends which bother you more. Thanks for watching!
tftd is a game i really want to love but playing it is just agonizing, respects for scraping it out
Tyty! I never would have had the interest myself if not for this video. Completely understand where you're coming from.
Basically your only hope is to get a very large lobsterman uso. Because good luck with storming the alien base with small submarine.
It's funny you say that.
@@PotatoCaravan I mean, that's how I won my first superhuman TFTD. Catching living Deep One during first two terrors is just a gatekeep that answers question if you should restart, after that it is just waiting for that lobstermen shop.
Nobody tell him he could have cheesed the elevators in T'leth and the arrifacts by keeping 4 soldiers in the elevator tiles blocking the pathing into the entrance.
Also nobody tell him that in terror from the deep, differently from UFO defense, the elevator tiles don't provide line of sight.
You know, this would have solved a lot of problems I had...
Im currently drunk and have no how i stumbled on this love it! tho old school xcom is mint for your next video do the warhammer 40k mod? theres at least 3 diff camps there and its bloody fun either way great video quality and content!
I'm holding off on overhaul mods for the next video or two, but 40k is on the list for then I decide to play one. There will be another community post vote for it at some point. Thanks for watching!
Just stumbled across your channel and want to wish you great luck!
Thanks!
Having zero MC Skill greatly increases chances of getting MC'd as far as I remember.
Fun video!
That it does. When trying to mind control a unit, you compare MC strengths/skill and have a random amount added or subtracted from the final value. If you have super low strength you're going to lose every time. Thanks for watching!
While UFO Defense is one of my favourite games ever, TFTD was tedious at times, and at others it had horrible difficulty spikes. I completed it once and have never gone back. It broke me with (what i think was) a terror site that was massive and finding the last panicked, stationary alien took at least an hour of just stumbling around. After that I just wanted to get to the end and uninstall.
UFO defense got so much right the first time around, that TFTD was 'the difficult second album' for me.
This is about how I feel, the attempt at making the game difficult just made the game tedious.
Thanks for watching!
Your content is seriously impressive!
Needs more Minecraft though.
One day
@@PotatoCaravan unscripted manhunt lmao
@@baileyadams7420 would be fun
God damn man...I am only 5 hours into my video...but i want to recommend you to my people so bad...fuck...this is so good! You will get the viewers you deserve
Tyty! I'm super happy with how this turned out. And by 5 hours in, do you mean playing, or editing? A 5 hour video would be impressive, even if it defeated the purpose a little.
@@PotatoCaravan by 5 hours, I mean playtime. The total edited time of the video is about 7 minutes right now
@@Malkasphia That made more sense, was just curious. Best of luck!
Thank you! And thanks again for this video. It is a trophy 🏆 @@PotatoCaravan
If there is a lot of activity in a certain area there's more you can do besides just waiting. You can patrol said area with your subs (just send them to a random location in the area and they will patrol until out of fuel). This can reveal alien bases in the area...
For example, you could've seen rising activity in Asia and patrol and reveal a base in China and destroy that base to prevent China withdrawing from the project...
While I hadn't thought of that, in TFTD especially it does like it'll be random if you find anything or not. I'm not sure patrolling would be worthwhile if it means your sub is out of the action for when something comes up in sonar range by one of your bases.
@@PotatoCaravanIt's not random. The aliens go trough a whole script to build bases/colonies. Scouting missions, actual base building missions and supply missions once built. If you take these UFO's out you can frustrate their base building efforts but you don't have coverage over the entire planet (at least in the beginning) so bases will be built "behind your back".
Sometimes the game will throw you a bone and give you the location of a alien base ("x-com agents have located a alien base in location X") but you can't rely on that, you have to actively patrol to find them yourself.
There's clues as where to patrol. The activity graphs, supply ships showing up often in certain area's, etc...
Whenever a country leaves the x-com project it's often due to there being a alien base in the region. If you find and destroy them in time you can prevent countries from leaving.
You can keep a single empty skyranger/triton for patrolling missions. Speed isn't an issue, and their long range makes them well suited...
Great video! I hope you do some of the classic xcom mods. Although some of those are very long
Tyty! I am hoping to play through some of the popular overhaul mods, but I need a plan for the channel in the down time. I have a couple ideas, so overhauls aren't off the table.
I think the beginer month bug for the previous game wasnt taken into account for the harder difficulty of this game as the developers were aware of the type of issue it had.
My source is tv tropes but i think this rumor does get spread around a lot.
My thought behind the overcorrection comment was based on the fact that people found the first game easy. In an effort to give them something more difficult, the difficulty of TFTD was pushed past what is reasonable. Not sure how true that is as I wasn't even born then, but I've seen this sentiment online a few times.
Great video. Looking forward to more
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.
33:11 jesus, giving a scanner to a mind-controlled alien never even crossed my mind, this is a crazy strategy
That and having them hold a flare at night to illuminate themselves were super useful strategies this run. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan ouch, now I'm embarassed, UFO is one of my favorite games and I didn't know that either. Thanks for the video and the tips, Potato!
@@emmaselmeci966 No problem lol! I'm not sure if holding the flare illuminates your soldier on DOS, or if that's just OpenXcom. Some of this stuff may not have worked back in the day, so I wouldn't feel bad about it. Thanks again for watching! Wouldn't be doing this without you all.
Yes, each research has a custom score value that is credit to the month that you finish it.
That is good to know. Thanks for watching!
So after completing xcom for the 2nd time last week (might I add the QOL features make beating xcom original extremely easy compared to vanilla on DOS) I decided to get working on TFTD. Holy crap even on easy mode the dock/resort/shipping containers were hard. But then I did an alien colony for the first time. I did not expect how insane that would be. Lobstermen in their own habitat...
RIP me in the 2nd mission LMAO :D
The game is brutal. Really feels like you're venturing somewhere you don't belong on a lot of the missions. Early game was the hardest, but without MC late game is still quite terrifying.
Subscribed and excited for more~
Should be less than 8 months this time lol.
Ah, TFTD Superhuman difficulty, aka the Recursive Nightmare of Crabs and Explosives.
It's funny how accurate this was to my experience.
Well played!
Tyty!
Do you shoot down all alien subs? There are several types of ships/missions that always land. I guess it was the medium ships that almost always land, so just follow them with a Triton. As you know you get much more points from landed crafts.
There is only a minor difference between shooting down subs and letting them land, as you get points for successfully shooting down a sub. You have to hope that the stuff that gets destroyed is worth less points than gained from sinking it, and while more often than not you lose points, its not that bad. Generally the bigger concern is both the destruction of sub components and potentially spawning alien retaliation missions.
Personally, I've never really been concerned about either, and in a lot of cases the missions spawned from shooting down subs is worth more than what gets lost. These mission will be your primary source of small subs in late game, and in TFTD that's the best way to avoid the late game DPL spam (other than maybe supply ships).
Thanks for the entertaining video!
Is there some reason you went for so long with sonic pistols? I typically skip them in favor for other research until cannons appear.
Was the mc lab training up also mc-unrelated stats in the vanilla? I've never noticed. Also, I would never dare to attack alien base without MC training on superhuman.
For the terror missions, I remember that in vanilla, you could almost always play them during the day by delaying deployment of the Triton.
WP and well thought out!
Np! Glad you enjoyed.
Yes, when facing aquatoids and gill men, this pistols do more than enough damage to deal with them comfortably. Additionally for the first month or two pistols are all you see, so I wasn't short on them. They also allow for 3 shots in a turn instead of the 2 shots from sonic cannons, so you'd see me swap back to pistols when an easy race came up.
For the lab, no. It only trains MC skill. However using the MC disruptor item in missions does train more stats than just MC skill, and thats what I spent a lot of the later episodes doing.
Finally, yes there is a way to do all missions during the day. When a mission spawns, there is a timer for it to despawn, however the mission will never despawn so long as it's targeted by a sub. If you have 2 subs and alternate who is targeting the mission without interruption, you can keep the mission alive as long as you need.
Tyty, and thanks for watching!
Tried to go a bit faster with the summary here. I spent twice as long playing and had less than half as much to say. This would have been easily 2 hours had I gone into details on every mission like the UFO video. Let me know what you think. In comparison to mods, these games are short, so I'm leaning towards this style, however if you all have a strong opinion either way I can be swayed. Thanks for watching!
Mad scientist houhouin kyouma is the name
If you are planning to do the apocalypse run he must be a scientist in physics
So your name is going to be too long to display. I can still put it in, but it'll get cutoff shortly after mad scientist. If that's not an issue I'll go ahead and put it in, but I thought you may want to know.
IIRC after UFO Defense success devs only had 6 month to make XCOM: TFTD thus the balancing being weird.
I really liked TFTD for it's atmosphere and MC being strong doesn't really bother me, at worse you have the option to play Xenonauts style and TFTD allow you a lot of freedom in your strats just like XCOM: UD. XCOM: Apocalypse got it worse since they had to scrap a lot of stuff, the game is still good and it offer the choice of Real time or turn based combat thus I like these 3 old XCOM games because they are different and really tried something new, if they had the money and technology we have now.......
I also remember hearing that the game was made on a pretty tight timeline. I will agree that some of the balancing can waved because of this, but tentaculats in particular just don't sit right with me. As for a modern remake, I'd love to see that too! OpenXcom has been the work of a few people in their spare time, so you can only imagine what a team of paid devs could make.
Hey man. RUclips is recommended me your video. Bit of a fan of OG X-Com and 5 minutes into the video it's clear you have thought your strategy beyond the path the game gives you.
I'm still in the video introductions, i'm enjoying your commentary however i'm noticing a lot of background sound or distortions being picked up by your mic. Excuse the reference but it literally sounds like you're in a submarine. Audio is one of the key ways to improve video quality which is why i bring it up. Audacity(Or whatever the open source is now called) has some free and good ways to clean up background sounds without changing hardware. There are AI solutions which might be easier or harder depending on how prepackaged they are.
Anyways i'm going to continue on with the video and wish you the best of luck. Also i know someone that's a bit of a X-COM apoc fan boy. If you make a video on the game (sadly i think the Source port is still WIP stage) then i can easily get him to watch.
EDIT
OBS noise gate is an improvement, but full noise reduction is needed. OBS is just hiding the problem when it can.
Audio has been a work in progress for a while now. I'll try out Audacity next time as I believe I have that installed. I also may be able to turn off the various fans you're hearing while recording. Seeing as I'm in the same room as them when editing, I never heard the severity of the issue and didn't make much of an effort to fix it. Thanks for the notice.
@@PotatoCaravan it's background noise rather than a swoosh or a sound effect. It happens a lot with either bad locations to record or bad gear but sound proof locations and good gear will still pick up bits.
Any RUclips guide in the last 15 years with audio sections should cover the exact process as it's a fairly common and simple fix.
@@JayXdbX I'll have to look into this then. My mic is definitely sub par, and I don't expect that's changing any time soon. Thanks for the reply.
Congrats on beating the TFTD. What particular mod are you aiming at? Maybe something lighter before going for X-com X-files, I presume?
Tyty! I have a bunch of different mods bookmarked at the moment, but no real plan. I was thinking about trying one of the difficulty oriented mods, however I have yet to decide on one. Likely going to set up a poll once I narrow it down to a couple. Thanks for watching!
for the shorter vid I'd love a look at Arc the lad 2 Twilight of souls for the ps2 is a cult classic of mine that hits very strong and interesting themes
I'll note it down. I've got a number of games being requested right now, we'll see what I end up playing.
Nights spent for this game😂 good old time
Those search radius of base was not there in original
It took me several weeks to realize the downed craft in combat mode is a craft i just downed. I thought it is some kind of alien structure.
I alwyas float everyone to height 3 or 4 .. it can help evade that homing missile
The circles for sonar range are from OpenXcom, and are super nice. One of the many quality of life features. Funny that you never noticed that you were breaching subs, and I have no idea how effective flying high is. Never tried.
Mom I'm on TV!
LOL
I love TFTD, tho I never actually beaten it :^) Played the shit out of it as a kid, gotta try actually finishing it some time. I did beat Enemy Unknown, Apocalypse (pretty good game, too) and first remake, but I probably still like TFTD the best - maybe it's nostalgia, but the setting, art and music is just on-point, Enemy Unknown looks pretty cartoonish by comparison, and not really in a good way.
That does seem to be the trend from comments I've been reading. People who want atmosphere love TFTD, but the people who are there for the gameplay like UFO defense. I've always enjoyed UFO defense more, but that's likely because the TFTD mechanics felt like they hadn't been modified enough to represent being under water. TFTD is a slow game if you do go about trying to beat it. Best of luck!
Should do an X Files playthrough next
As fun as that would be, I kind of want to break the once a year upload schedule lol.
@@PotatoCaravan Just upload each individual month as an episode. THEN upload the overview video after.
@@MJRSoap Well I have a vods channel for people who want to keep up in real time. Not planning on uploading short form videos to this channel.
Would you consider running the 40k mod or is that outta your wheel house?
I'm getting into mods with the next videos, however I'm going to hold off on overhaul mods for the next video or two. I am a 40k fan, so I'd be happy to play through it, it'll just have to beat out Xcom Files in a YT poll lol.
Why did you do night terror missions? Was this a challenge? Usually, half of my squad is wiped out even in daylight 😅
Terror missions despawn after 5 hours, and I wasn't in a position to cheese the timer and wait for day. Just had to go for it.
@@PotatoCaravan oh, I see. Thanks!
Also, will you do Jagged Alliance 2?
It's on my radar. Of the older titles being recommended, X-Com is the only one I've played. Jagged Alliance 2 has been specifically asked for a few times, so there is a good chance I try it out, but I'm sticking with OpenXcom mods for a little while yet.
@@PotatoCaravan Cool! I'm getting the "Retro Game Vibe" from this channel except with games you can name people for the gimmick.
@@loszhor Not completely retro, as I'm planning on posting some of the random games I decide to play. I'm expecting to have X-Com or other retro games going on all the time for the channel, with the occasional random game I thought was fun. Same video format, just don't be too surprised if the new Factorio expansion gets a video.
Never like Terror From the Deep very much. X-Com Apocalypse was fantastic.
Someone who actually tries to play TFTD? My goodness...
Wasn't easy.
25:25 I haven't played this one. What happens after 10 turns of psi attacks? Only 3 soldiers left, rest "retired"...dead? Canonically retired or was that a joke?
If a soldier has high enough Psi strength, then they will be immune to Psi attacks (Psi strength is a hidden stat for most the game). I spent 10 turns in the mission to see who was and wasn't immune. Everyone who was on the list got fired due to weak Psi strength.
@@PotatoCaravan Ah I see. I saw the bodies lying and was confused. Too low psi strength means, they become unconscious?
@@captaintofu4926 No lol, I hit them with a stun rod so they stopped trying to kill us.
Niiice!!!
Tyty!
this was my first X com game.... never beat it :D
Understandably so, not an easy game!
The first game is somewhat childish and too easy, stats are not capped, tech tree is not challenging, thats why I personally prefer tftd. Its just one of those games that you either like or hate, I love everything about it. A true cult classic.
The original game is definitely easier, and I can understand wanting something more. The mystery of the aliens in the first game always did more for be than the aquatic elements from the second, and that's certainly influenced my opinion on the games.
I'm glad I've finally played both, but I'm not sure I'll ever go back from the mods supported by OpenXcom. They've allowed the game to reach much higher heights, and I'd enjoy either of these settings combined with the new features.
Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan Definitely enjoyed your campaign in the second alien war and cant wait for the next video playing the mods. I wish there was a way to watch your plays in a longplay format, but an overview is also fun. Good luck with your exams!
@@Radii_DC I do have a vods channel where I upload all the gameplay from these videos lets play style. Should be linked from my main channel page if you're interested. Otherwise thanks for the support!
Impossible since the game is so buggy that I have never been able to get past 50%ish point without total save game corruption that prevents entering/exiting missions 😂
Have you been playing on OpenXcom, or the original version?
Do NOT play minecraft next video
ok
🫡
Welcome back!
OpenXCom total conversions is an obvious candidate.
I'm looking at expansion style mods at the moment, but I plan on doing total conversions in the future.