I just started playing Xcom again. I have played it a long-ish time ago, but it started crashing at a certain (ingame) time/date.
Apparently I annoyed the UFOs pretty much. My base was attacked after only two terror sites <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wow.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":0" border="0" alt="wow.gif" /> . Luckily I had a fresh set of newbs at the base, so I had plenty of people to throw at them <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> .
<!--QuoteBegin-Nil_IQ+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->My first UFO mission went ok [...] horrible and painful.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Armor-Piercing vs cyberdisks!
I just had my first completely failed mission. I landed at the terror site, and started spreading my dudes (first guy was gunned down). Everything went well until those zombifying aliens started showing up. Before I could notice, my last three guys were scattered, holding their grounds against swarming zombie-aliens. The last guy had 3 baddies coming at him. He was able to kill the first, and shoot at the second one, but the next turn was his end.
That didn't really affect my Annoy-O-Meter, unlike when you lose 6 guys to one grey dude who has only a plasmagun <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
[edit] Gosh! Why can't these dudes wear tin-foil hats? -_- . Maybe it's the outrageous hair they have...
Never underestimate the power of having two or three people throw grenades at a single target.
Also remember that you can have one guy prime a grenade, throw it to a teammate, then have that teammate pick it up and throw it, just in case the first guy ran out of TU's. It's also good for getting grenades up to the front, and especially good for Hi-Ex packs, since they're hard to throw far.
<!--quoteo(post=1613970:date=Mar 13 2007, 05:07 AM:name=Faskalia)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Faskalia @ Mar 13 2007, 05:07 AM) [snapback]1613970[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> If you want it to be hard, play a challenge:
Good start would be the Vampire challenge: Your Soldiers are Vampires and fear light. Thats why ALL battles have to be fought during the night. Artificial lightsources are still allowed (vamps fear UV <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />) (because cydonia is dark you can complete this)
The pacifist challenge: You are not allowed to kill aliens. (can be completed, but is really really hard, until you get the stun launchers)
The Xenophob challenge: You fear everything alien: All alien artifacts have to be sold. No research an alien artifacts allowed. (cant be completed but will teach you to use terran weapons)
Single Base Hawaii challenge: You are allowed only 1 base, which has to be located on Hawaii. Dont let this fool you. IT IS FREAKING HARD! <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Damn, you're making me want to go dig up a copy and play again. Its been forever since I've played X-Com.
Back when I played the first time, I didn't have too much trouble winning individual missions after a little save-scumming, but I still thought the overall game was difficult because I kept losing funding from major nations! I was always in danger of having my whole project shut down!
When I re-loaded the game on a new computer, I had that problem where the game-time runs blindingly fast, which made managing Intercepts really tricky. A timescale of 5-minutes was plenty to watch the days fly by--anything past that and I'd hit the end of the month by accident before I noticed.
How does one reobtain funding when a country backs out? USA dropped its funding(that one hurt) and a couple months later I finally found the base in it and took it out, so that can't be it.
<!--quoteo(post=1614187:date=Mar 14 2007, 08:47 AM:name=Gwahir)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Gwahir @ Mar 14 2007, 08:47 AM) [snapback]1614187[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> How does one reobtain funding when a country backs out? USA dropped its funding(that one hurt) and a couple months later I finally found the base in it and took it out, so that can't be it. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Once a country defects, its fundings are lost forever (unless you hex it back in).
If you need money, attend to more missions and sell artifacts. You can also let your engis manufacture laser cannons and sell those.
How come I suck so bad? I remember owning at this when I was a kid <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
I cant get past the first few missions without huge losses.
<!--quoteo(post=1614196:date=Mar 14 2007, 04:32 AM:name=RustySpoon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RustySpoon @ Mar 14 2007, 04:32 AM) [snapback]1614196[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> How come I suck so bad? I remember owning at this when I was a kid <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
I cant get past the first few missions without huge losses. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Depends on what you mean by "huge losses".
In a normal, daylight UFO mission, assuming there are roughly as many aliens as members of my team, i'd expect to lose about half of them. If I brought a tank maybe less, because the tank could soak up some of those "OMG WHERE DID THAT COME FROM???" shots.
I'm liking some of the other options in Xcomutils also. I'm using the alternate starting base (not the improved starting base which comes with alien containment and a large radar) which is basically all the same facilities you start with anyway, but arranged in a manner which makes the place a lot easier to defend later. Also using the improved weapons in order to make the heavy laser actually worth using, and the randomised UFO interiors.
If I can dig my copy of TFTD, I can use textures from that in terror missions too <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1614200:date=Mar 14 2007, 04:50 AM:name=Nil_IQ)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ @ Mar 14 2007, 04:50 AM) [snapback]1614200[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Depends on what you mean by "huge losses".
In a normal, daylight UFO mission, assuming there are roughly as many aliens as members of my team, i'd expect to lose about half of them. If I brought a tank maybe less, because the tank could soak up some of those "OMG WHERE DID THAT COME FROM???" shots.
I'm liking some of the other options in Xcomutils also. I'm using the alternate starting base (not the improved starting base which comes with alien containment and a large radar) which is basically all the same facilities you start with anyway, but arranged in a manner which makes the place a lot easier to defend later. Also using the improved weapons in order to make the heavy laser actually worth using, and the randomised UFO interiors.
If I can dig my copy of TFTD, I can use textures from that in terror missions too <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better.
<!--quoteo(post=1614205:date=Mar 14 2007, 05:36 AM:name=RustySpoon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RustySpoon @ Mar 14 2007, 05:36 AM) [snapback]1614205[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I used the same crew for a few first missions, then I started sending in the rookies. And once they get some promotions, I put them in reserve. The losses are of course higher than they would be with the veterans, but now I have a nice set of veterans waiting for some very important missions.
The furthest I've every played (back then), I only found one UFO base, and tried to pathetically attack it. But then soon it started crashing at one point. So I dont really know what the game has in store for me <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wow.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":0" border="0" alt="wow.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1614205:date=Mar 14 2007, 11:36 AM:name=RustySpoon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RustySpoon @ Mar 14 2007, 11:36 AM) [snapback]1614205[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nha, what you normally do is have your starting core team of 12 peeps going on the first 10-20 missions.
Because you should start building additional bases quite early in order to cover the globe and every one of those bases should be guarded by 10 rookies those 12 core soldiers will soon we commander/colonels/captains. You then send 1 high ranking officer to be the head of defense for your intercept/secondary bases. So you have 10 rookies and 1 captain/or higher in every intercept base.
Once psilabs are available you start scanning rookies and everyone with a psi-strength<90 will be send to the main base and then will be sent with other rookies and 1 officer to do the missions. The officer stays back in the skyranger providing moral support, while the expandable rookies (poor low psi suckers) do the fighting/dieing. Do this for about 6-8 months straight and you have only high psi troopers + their commanding officers.
Now that you only have uber psi troops you could start replacing the low psi officers.
Just pack them all in one skyranger and sent them on a suicide missions, only armed with smoke nades <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
----------------- I do not know your play style, but one of the standard erros, many people do is keeping to one base.
This is wrong. You want lots of bases, because shooting down lots of ufos gives you good score, without risking the lifes of your men. And if you have plasma beams you can also shoot down the large terror ufos and avoid the pesky terror missions.
Good building order:
Central Europe central North America China Southern Africa ural central South America
north-pole south-pole
Your main base needs 4 hangers and should house 100 scientist, as well as 120 engis with 150 workshop space.
All other interception/radar bases need: lift 1 hanger (expand to 2 once mass avengers become available) 1 storage 1 quartes (10 soldiers and later 40 engis) 1 rader replace with hyperwave later) ---------------------------------------------- After that you should add: 1 mind shield 1 workshop (laser cannons net the greatest profit)
Every interception base starts with 10 rookies, with 10 laser rifles and 1 interceptor with 2 plasma beams.
Later we make sure that every base gets a commanding officers and has at least 2 psi troopers, as well as 2 psi amps.
We also build a 2nd hanger for a avenger so we can shoot down the terror/infiltration ships more quickly.
Interceptors with plasma beams can shoot down every ufo, except battleships (extremely large). Thats why we send interceptors after everyhting that isnt a battle ship. Once your bases have avengers you want them mainly to take down the large ufos quickly, simply because terro ships are shown as large ufos. Once hyperwave decoders are available its a cakewalk, cause you have world-wide rader coverage (except for the central pacific)
<!--quoteo(post=1614226:date=Mar 14 2007, 02:18 PM:name=RustySpoon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RustySpoon @ Mar 14 2007, 02:18 PM) [snapback]1614226[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> That's some great advice, but what I don't understand, is, why bother leaving well trained officers in base defence? <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Moral. You see, that most stable team (moral wise) is 1 commander + lots of rookies.
On a normal base-defense missions there are usually a few losses, unless you have PSI, because the alien bring several blaster launchers. To avoid your rookies panicking all you need to do is have a high ranking officers (captain or higher) stand in the back of the base doing nothing.
Because your high ranking officers are usually from the beginning of the game, where psi screening was net yet available, the often have poor psi strength. This makes them poor at later ethereal missions, meaning you can safely dump them from active duty to boosting the moral of your base defense squads.
Moral loss and moral "protection" are determined by how far the ranks differ from each other.
Example: 2 rookies, 1 commander, 1 captain.
captain dies->rookies would loose alot moral, but are protected through the commander resulting moderate moral loss. The commander will looses moral at a low level l, cause captain is only 2 ranks away from commander, but the commander is higher ranking.
commander dies-> rookies would be instantly down to 0 moral, but because there is still the captain they drop to about 30. captain drops to approx. 60 (higher ranking soldiers died, but no protection through a soldier even higher than the dead one)
rookie dies-> other rookie would go drop to about 80, but is nearly completely protected thanks to the commander (drops to about 95). the captain will not care at all, cause the rookie is way lower than him AND he his additionally protected by the commander. the commander might even loose more moral than the captain, cause although the comm->rookie diffrence is higher than the captain->rookie difference, there is no protection through an higher ranking officer for the commander. ------------------- So the real trick is, that you need a few high ranking officers that just stand back and support moral while your rookies can train train train train. Rank and skill is not linked in this games, because promotion is determined, by the total number of soldiers you have. If i am not mistaken, you get 1 colonel, for every 24 soldiers you have. But once that position is taken, you wont get another one, unless the old one dies or you get another 24 soldiers. So in late game, it is possible, to have killer squaddies (everyone can become a squaddie) backed up by one lousy colonel who get promoted in the very beginning.
<!--quoteo(post=1614205:date=Mar 14 2007, 05:36 AM:name=RustySpoon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RustySpoon @ Mar 14 2007, 05:36 AM) [snapback]1614205[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You'll only lose that many for the first few missions. Once you get some experience, better weapons and most importantly ARMOUR you'll be losing 1 or 2 tops. Hopefully.
Well, I do things differently then you guys it seems. I never bothered with a reserve team or anything, I always used the same team for everything. They soon become pretty kick ######. Occasionally one might die, but only one or two every few missions, and they get replaced, and the rookies quickly catch up, because I'm sending them to everything. I also have my top rank soldiers quite close to the front, simply because I find they end up with far better stats then everyone else.
Faskalia, your numbers seem weird to me. 100 scientists yes, but I find even 40 engineers get things built within a short enough space of time, that the extra cost and living quarters needed for more is a waste. My outposts consist on 1 hanger, 1 general quarters, and 1 large radar. I don't bother posting men there, simply because these bases are tiny and disposable. It's not great loss to me if they get taken. Once I build my first outpost, I send one of the starting interceptors there, and destroy 1 of the hangers. Why your main base will ever need 4 hangers, I don't know. And mass avengers? Why? I'm still using interceptors all the way to end game. They work, and are cheap and disposable. Only advantage Avengers really give, is ability to chase UFO easier due to better top speed, but I just send out Interceptors from bases the UFO is going towards.
<!--quoteo(post=1614205:date=Mar 14 2007, 11:36 AM:name=RustySpoon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RustySpoon @ Mar 14 2007, 11:36 AM) [snapback]1614205[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> In UFO:AfterX series you have max 7 dudes, so each dude becomes a lot more important. You see, the more guys you have in the field in games like these, the less important each guy is. But if you have like 3 guys, its extremely important that they survive. Even worse if you just have 1, because if he dies its game over.
This thread made me start up Terror from the Deep.
So, much, fun. I caught a break and detected a landed alien sub; I've eliminated most of the occupants and look forward to retrieving some awesome stuff once I hunt down the last few aliens.
<!--quoteo(post=1614241:date=Mar 14 2007, 03:36 PM:name=Aldaris)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Aldaris @ Mar 14 2007, 03:36 PM) [snapback]1614241[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Well, I do things differently then you guys it seems. I never bothered with a reserve team or anything, I always used the same team for everything. They soon become pretty kick ######. Occasionally one might die, but only one or two every few missions, and they get replaced, and the rookies quickly catch up, because I'm sending them to everything. I also have my top rank soldiers quite close to the front, simply because I find they end up with far better stats then everyone else.
Faskalia, your numbers seem weird to me. 100 scientists yes, but I find even 40 engineers get things built within a short enough space of time, that the extra cost and living quarters needed for more is a waste. My outposts consist on 1 hanger, 1 general quarters, and 1 large radar. I don't bother posting men there, simply because these bases are tiny and disposable. It's not great loss to me if they get taken. Once I build my first outpost, I send one of the starting interceptors there, and destroy 1 of the hangers. Why your main base will ever need 4 hangers, I don't know. And mass avengers? Why? I'm still using interceptors all the way to end game. They work, and are cheap and disposable. Only advantage Avengers really give, is ability to chase UFO easier due to better top speed, but I just send out Interceptors from bases the UFO is going towards. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Because of my base design, my interception bases take about 70 days to construct. This is why I dont want to loose them. And i need lots of engis, cause I want avengers ASAP. 120 engis take about 12 days to complete an avenger. Interceptors might seem fine, but if you want to avoid countrys defecting on you, you need to catch nearly every terror and infiltration ufo. Thats why I need 8 avengers. My main base has 4 hangers for 1 skyranger (scouting for alien bases and sending troops to missions, that my ligthning cannot reach) 1 lightning (he will carry my most elite psi troops into battle and also intercept terror ships over europe) 1 interceptor. And finally 1 hanger, where I build my lightning and 8 avengers to supply my interception bases with superior firepower and speed <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
And btw: interceptors are NOT cheap. They costs you 600K each month for every interceptor, as well as 30 elerium for every interceptor you loose, cause plasma rays are expensive. And on superhuman, ufos tend to escape from battle more often, meaning you need faster ships to down them.
Edit: And if you are running into money problems you are doing something wrong. If you are expanding early, you can usually hold all countrys and on superhuman there are more aliens=more loot=more money. And there are also more alien bases=more places to assault grounded supply ships=even more loot=even more money.
In my current game I am at may 2000, everything is researched (including all ufo plans and every living alien), My fundings net my 30million each month. I have 70+12+14=96 soldiers with more than 90 psi strength. 8 avengers, no defect country, proper bases and all thanks to lots of engis and lots of scientist.
If you really want to dominate in ueo, you simply need to optimize research and production, as well as expand your area of operation as fast as possible. There is simply no way around 100 scientists and 120 +40x7=400 engis...
Different strokes for different folks I guess. Your way just seems so overblown and extravagant to me <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Hmm... I thought Heavy Lasers had the most profit, not the cannons. I recall building a few cannons to sell and found I only got about 1k profit each, while Heavy Lasers gave about a 10k profit each, at least.
I have a few tips, IN BULLET FORMAT!
- Never sell Elerium. You can't manufacture it, and lots of stuff uses it. - If you really need cash, you can sell a heavy plasma or two, as those are worth a little over 100,000, and later in the game, almost every alien totes one. Otherwise, just manufacture something with a good profit margin. - I'd avoid manufacturing Alien Alloys. They're rather expensive, and you can usually get a lot from raids and killing supply ships. - <b>Don't manufacture things requiring alien alloys or elerium to sell</b>. Manufacture something without material components. - Don't make flying suits for everybody until you have plenty of Elerium. - If you have limited suits of armor, prioritize them by rank: higher ranked guys get the best armor, etc. So give Flying Armor to officers first. - If you're really paranoid about Chryssalids, have your team carry primed grenades. It can be dangerous to your own team, though, but your armor can usually block the brunt of AP explosions. - Reapers are scary-looking, but they're a joke. They're also stupid as hell. Fry them with laser weapons or incendiary fire from a safe location. - It's suicide to attack Battleships with your first interceptors. <i>Don't do it</i>. They can kill your normal interceptor in a single hit, no joke. - <b>Always</b> shoot down the very small craft at your first opportunity, even if it must be done over water. It could be an infiltrator. - I know it's tempting to obliterate some craft completely (ala vaporize them with an avalanche), but it's usually best to shoot them down so you can check them out. - If you are pressed for time to get to a Terror site, but you can't get it (for example, your Skyranger is refueling), then send an interceptor to the site. The terror site won't leave until you order the interceptor to return to base or the interceptor reaches the site. So right before the interceptor gets there, send your other interceptor to keep it alive. You can also use this trick to go to the site during the day, if you're waiting for the sun to rise. - If you're sad you can't fit a HWP into a UFO, just widen the hole with some high explosives or blaster bombs. Plus it's fun. If you're also sad that HWP's are little more than guys who take the first hits, then there's mod you can download (I forget where, at the moment) that makes them a bit better by giving them 100 TU's and a bit more armor. - Kill civilians if Chryssalids are close to them and you don't want to take the chance. Sure it's a few less points, but it's also potentially less casualties on your part. - If you have laser weapons, avoid using aimed shots. Just use rapid fire. Three shots with a 30% chance each is far superior to one shot with a 60-70% chance, in my opinion. You can also do this with other weapons if you don't mind the consumption of ammo. - Time the alien movement phase; why, you ask? So you can know when to unload your weapons to save the ammo. If you unload a gun, no matter how much ammo in the clip you spent, it will be considered a full clip and you'll get to keep it. So in the last few rounds, have a couple people unload their guns. Just be careful not to have a guy unload his gun only to have him get shot up by a hiding Sectoid. The shorter the alien phase, the less aliens there are.
<!--quoteo(post=1614324:date=Mar 14 2007, 08:25 PM:name=Surge)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Surge @ Mar 14 2007, 08:25 PM) [snapback]1614324[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Hmm... I thought Heavy Lasers had the most profit, not the cannons. I recall building a few cannons to sell and found I only got about 1k profit each, while Heavy Lasers gave about a 10k profit each, at least. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Nope the cannons (craft weapon) are the most profitable item. You can also let up to 400 engis work on laser cannons, witheout wasting engi power. (There is a limit for every item, because you cannot produce more than 1 item of the same time per hour. So if something takes 231 engi hours to complete haveing 231 engis work on it, is as fast as having 342134 engis working on it.)
UNLESS you manufacture fusion ball launchers, with the 0 manufacturing costs bug.
If you run the numbers Laser cannons have a MUCH higher profit ratio per hour than heavy lasers. You can produce then quickly and cheaply vs just about everything else. To do the math yourself...take the sell price minus the cost to produce and divide it by the number of hours to produce the item. This gives you the profit per hour to make the item. Cannons are MUCH higher than the heavy lasers and as an added bonus its a much more stready income. heh
i may have to look into digging out the original xcom after reading this thread...
Oh and avoid the remakes (UFO:aftershock and aftermath). they work ok I guess but had MAJOR bugs and balance issues including whole missing sections of the research tree. It was so bad the game designers decided to stop working on another patch and simple start over on another game. Now they are not even supporting the first 2 games at all and are instead working on UFO:twilight instead.
I recently finished my toughest battle. This is the first time I used an avenger for both attack and insertion and the result was a fire fight that had me unsettled for a while afterwards.
It was a large UFO (possibly very large) that was populated with ethereals. 10 good men and a plasma tank hit the earth, only 3 fine soldiers left it.
About 6 ethereal tanks and many, many ethereals fell. The last tank was somehow in the control room, even though the grav lift was too small for it.
Even though the UFO was shot down beforehand, only one ethereal died in the crash.
Louis Buchard, my heavy weapons specialist, had the worst death, the medic had already died and Louis had been shot by a comrade turned evil by ethereal mind tricks. He died of a fatal wound much later.
Evilyn came back, but barely. She was wounded to within a hair's breadth of death and was constantly under psionic assault. Her screams of pain and defiance could be heard throughout the battlefield
The best that could be procured was a couple of ethereal leaders, they'll be meeting with the interrogators soon, and I don't expect them to come out alive.
Argh, my X-Com tends to crash in the beginning of missions, when I give the first order (to move one square ahead, onto the ramp of the Skyranger). Anyone else have a similar problem? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
Good news is that I successfully neutralized a landed large UFO craft :> . I went in with 8 newbies (2 personal armors). I don't know what I was thinking <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" /> . But I walked away with 3 newbs + 1 wounded, and a nice set of alien stuff looted from the ship.
Another question is about armor. I've had some varying experiences with the personal armors. Most of the time my dudes wearing the armor still die from one shot from a UFO plasmagun, but there have been a few situations where they get hit, and it doesnt seem to affect them in any way. I look into the character stats, and health/armor are still at 100%. One time one of my veterans got hit by 2 plasmabolts, but she didn't die or take any kind of damage.
So the question is: does a characters experience affect the "resistance"/armor effectiveness, or the propability of being hit in the first place? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1614719:date=Mar 15 2007, 04:53 PM:name=Retales)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Retales @ Mar 15 2007, 04:53 PM) [snapback]1614719[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> So the question is: does a characters experience affect the "resistance"/armor effectiveness, or the propability of being hit in the first place? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" /> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Experience wont change your chances of getting hurt, although it will improve your health bar.
I'm not completely sure of this part, but I believe the primary purpose of armor is not to "soften" blows but to deflect them completely. As some function of how much armor you have and how much firepower the incoming weapon has, you have some chance of simply deflecting the shot, so it does no damage at all. If it does hit, it does a variable amount of damage that seems mostly unaffected by your armor level. More experienced soldiers have high enough health to survive a single shot more often than not.
<!--quoteo(post=1614725:date=Mar 15 2007, 05:27 PM:name=Cxwf)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cxwf @ Mar 15 2007, 05:27 PM) [snapback]1614725[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Experience wont change your chances of getting hurt, although it will improve your health bar.
I'm not completely sure of this part, but I believe the primary purpose of armor is not to "soften" blows but to deflect them completely. As some function of how much armor you have and how much firepower the incoming weapon has, you have some chance of simply deflecting the shot, so it does no damage at all. If it does hit, it does a variable amount of damage that seems mostly unaffected by your armor level. More experienced soldiers have high enough health to survive a single shot more often than not. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Right, makes sense.
Oh snap. Now that I started paying attention to it, it seems that X-Com crashes more and more often. Since my previous post, it has crashed 4 times, always at the first move of the mission
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You're not alone on that one. My game would sometimes crash as my guys stepped off the Skyranger. It seemed pretty random. Just save your game on the first move, and if it crashes when they move, try moving them to a slightly different location (like the space beside it). I'm not sure what causes it, though. Sorry I can't help. Just try avoiding making the soldiers jump off the edge of the ramp: move them more towards the front of it.
As for armor, if you click a soldier's stats during battle, at the bottom, you'll see armor values. I believe some guns are better at piercing armor, but I believe you're right about the deflection part. Sometimes it's deflected, sometimes it's not deflected but the armor is damaged in lieu of the soldier's health, and sometimes it's not deflected and some damage gets through and hurts the soldier AND the armor. It depends on the weapon and how accurate the firer's shot is (headshots obviously do more damage). Heavy plasmas tear up armor pretty fast. Once the armor is reduced to 0, it will still deflect, but it can't absorb damage anymore. Really, if a soldier is reduced to 0 armor anyway, he probably should be dead anyways. But it can happen, especially once your soldiers get 60+ health. So armor is pretty much all-around protection. It has no negatives at all. There are even different armor values for different directions. You'll note that the bottom armor sucks the most. This explains why aliens crouching right in front of you and shooting you totally blow you away.
BTW: to get to the stats, select a soldier, then click the meters at the bottom.
EDIT: It's also worth noting that even soldiers without armor do, in fact, have armor: however, it's like, 8 from the front (Personal Armour has something like 40), so it really doesn't matter at all. It's just there to explain why you don't buy kevlar vests: you're already wearing them!
My brother recently bought Ufo: Afterlight and I've been playing it frantically ever since. While, it's far from a perfect and accurate remake of Xcom, then it's still a nice rethinking of the concept. There's also the two previous games in the series that you could check out, anyway, there's a demo of Ufo: Afterlight available at the <a href="http://www.ufo-afterlight.com/pages/download.html" target="_blank">official site</a>.
<!--quoteo(post=1614745:date=Mar 15 2007, 06:12 PM:name=Surge)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Surge @ Mar 15 2007, 06:12 PM) [snapback]1614745[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> There are even different armor values for different directions. You'll note that the bottom armor sucks the most. This explains why aliens crouching right in front of you and shooting you totally blow you away. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Erm, I didn't think aliens COULD crouch. I've certainly never seen them crouching, and I can't tell them to if I psi-control them. For all their alien technology they fail to realise the awesome power that lies with bending your knees.
On another note, damage seems to be hugely random, so while armour <i>will</i> increase your survivability, its still possible you're going to die to one shot. I've had rookies without armour take a hit for no damage. Stranger yet I had one take a hit with no armour for <i>five</i> damage, so the amount of damage a hit does must be pretty random (and probably varies depending on where you're hit).
I guess this is realistic-ish though; the five-damage scenario probably represents a flesh wound where the shot just grazed them, wheras the no-damage rookie obviously had a bible covering his heart or something. Because everyone knows bibles deflect plasma.
Like I said, it partly depends on the accuracy. A headshot will do a lot of damage. But yeah, armor is pretty random. It randomly can do nothing, do everything, do half as well, etc. Still, the better the armor, the better the chances of survival. Point blank shots tend to pierce armor, though, so an alien doing burst fire point blank with a heavy plasma usually means death.
Wow, UFO Afterlight is already out? It makes me question the quality of it...
Comments
Apparently I annoyed the UFOs pretty much. My base was attacked after only two terror sites <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wow.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":0" border="0" alt="wow.gif" /> . Luckily I had a fresh set of newbs at the base, so I had plenty of people to throw at them <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> .
<!--QuoteBegin-Nil_IQ+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->My first UFO mission went ok
[...]
horrible and painful.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Armor-Piercing vs cyberdisks!
I just had my first completely failed mission. I landed at the terror site, and started spreading my dudes (first guy was gunned down). Everything went well until those zombifying aliens started showing up. Before I could notice, my last three guys were scattered, holding their grounds against swarming zombie-aliens. The last guy had 3 baddies coming at him. He was able to kill the first, and shoot at the second one, but the next turn was his end.
That didn't really affect my Annoy-O-Meter, unlike when you lose 6 guys to one grey dude who has only a plasmagun <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
[edit] Gosh! Why can't these dudes wear tin-foil hats? -_- . Maybe it's the outrageous hair they have...
Also remember that you can have one guy prime a grenade, throw it to a teammate, then have that teammate pick it up and throw it, just in case the first guy ran out of TU's. It's also good for getting grenades up to the front, and especially good for Hi-Ex packs, since they're hard to throw far.
If you want it to be hard, play a challenge:
Good start would be the Vampire challenge:
Your Soldiers are Vampires and fear light. Thats why ALL battles have to be fought during the night. Artificial lightsources are still allowed (vamps fear UV <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />) (because cydonia is dark you can complete this)
The pacifist challenge:
You are not allowed to kill aliens. (can be completed, but is really really hard, until you get the stun launchers)
The Xenophob challenge: You fear everything alien: All alien artifacts have to be sold. No research an alien artifacts allowed. (cant be completed but will teach you to use terran weapons)
Single Base Hawaii challenge: You are allowed only 1 base, which has to be located on Hawaii. Dont let this fool you. IT IS FREAKING HARD!
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Damn, you're making me want to go dig up a copy and play again. Its been forever since I've played X-Com.
Back when I played the first time, I didn't have too much trouble winning individual missions after a little save-scumming, but I still thought the overall game was difficult because I kept losing funding from major nations! I was always in danger of having my whole project shut down!
When I re-loaded the game on a new computer, I had that problem where the game-time runs blindingly fast, which made managing Intercepts really tricky. A timescale of 5-minutes was plenty to watch the days fly by--anything past that and I'd hit the end of the month by accident before I noticed.
How does one reobtain funding when a country backs out? USA dropped its funding(that one hurt) and a couple months later I finally found the base in it and took it out, so that can't be it.
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Once a country defects, its fundings are lost forever (unless you hex it back in).
If you need money, attend to more missions and sell artifacts.
You can also let your engis manufacture laser cannons and sell those.
I cant get past the first few missions without huge losses.
How come I suck so bad? I remember owning at this when I was a kid <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
I cant get past the first few missions without huge losses.
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Depends on what you mean by "huge losses".
In a normal, daylight UFO mission, assuming there are roughly as many aliens as members of my team, i'd expect to lose about half of them. If I brought a tank maybe less, because the tank could soak up some of those "OMG WHERE DID THAT COME FROM???" shots.
I'm liking some of the other options in Xcomutils also. I'm using the alternate starting base (not the improved starting base which comes with alien containment and a large radar) which is basically all the same facilities you start with anyway, but arranged in a manner which makes the place a lot easier to defend later. Also using the improved weapons in order to make the heavy laser actually worth using, and the randomised UFO interiors.
If I can dig my copy of TFTD, I can use textures from that in terror missions too <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Depends on what you mean by "huge losses".
In a normal, daylight UFO mission, assuming there are roughly as many aliens as members of my team, i'd expect to lose about half of them. If I brought a tank maybe less, because the tank could soak up some of those "OMG WHERE DID THAT COME FROM???" shots.
I'm liking some of the other options in Xcomutils also. I'm using the alternate starting base (not the improved starting base which comes with alien containment and a large radar) which is basically all the same facilities you start with anyway, but arranged in a manner which makes the place a lot easier to defend later. Also using the improved weapons in order to make the heavy laser actually worth using, and the randomised UFO interiors.
If I can dig my copy of TFTD, I can use textures from that in terror missions too <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
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You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better.
You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better.
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I used the same crew for a few first missions, then I started sending in the rookies. And once they get some promotions, I put them in reserve. The losses are of course higher than they would be with the veterans, but now I have a nice set of veterans waiting for some very important missions.
The furthest I've every played (back then), I only found one UFO base, and tried to pathetically attack it. But then soon it started crashing at one point. So I dont really know what the game has in store for me <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wow.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":0" border="0" alt="wow.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such? I remember the newer games in 3d, you had basically the same few people throughout the game, sort of like an rpg. You could buy more but the first ones were always better.
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Nha, what you normally do is have your starting core team of 12 peeps going on the first 10-20 missions.
Because you should start building additional bases quite early in order to cover the globe and every one of those bases should be guarded by 10 rookies those 12 core soldiers will soon we commander/colonels/captains. You then send 1 high ranking officer to be the head of defense for your intercept/secondary bases. So you have 10 rookies and 1 captain/or higher in every intercept base.
Once psilabs are available you start scanning rookies and everyone with a psi-strength<90 will be send to the main base and then will be sent with other rookies and 1 officer to do the missions. The officer stays back in the skyranger providing moral support, while the expandable rookies (poor low psi suckers) do the fighting/dieing. Do this for about 6-8 months straight and you have only high psi troopers + their commanding officers.
Now that you only have uber psi troops you could start replacing the low psi officers.
Just pack them all in one skyranger and sent them on a suicide missions, only armed with smoke nades <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
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I do not know your play style, but one of the standard erros, many people do is keeping to one base.
This is wrong. You want lots of bases, because shooting down lots of ufos gives you good score, without risking the lifes of your men. And if you have plasma beams you can also shoot down the large terror ufos and avoid the pesky terror missions.
Good building order:
Central Europe
central North America
China
Southern Africa
ural
central South America
north-pole
south-pole
Your main base needs 4 hangers and should house 100 scientist, as well as 120 engis with 150 workshop space.
All other interception/radar bases need:
lift
1 hanger (expand to 2 once mass avengers become available)
1 storage
1 quartes (10 soldiers and later 40 engis)
1 rader replace with hyperwave later)
----------------------------------------------
After that you should add:
1 mind shield
1 workshop (laser cannons net the greatest profit)
Every interception base starts with 10 rookies, with 10 laser rifles and 1 interceptor with 2 plasma beams.
Later we make sure that every base gets a commanding officers and has at least 2 psi troopers, as well as 2 psi amps.
We also build a 2nd hanger for a avenger so we can shoot down the terror/infiltration ships more quickly.
Interceptors with plasma beams can shoot down every ufo, except battleships (extremely large). Thats why we send interceptors after everyhting that isnt a battle ship. Once your bases have avengers you want them mainly to take down the large ufos quickly, simply because terro ships are shown as large ufos. Once hyperwave decoders are available its a cakewalk, cause you have world-wide rader coverage (except for the central pacific)
That's some great advice, but what I don't understand, is, why bother leaving well trained officers in base defence?
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Moral.
You see, that most stable team (moral wise) is 1 commander + lots of rookies.
On a normal base-defense missions there are usually a few losses, unless you have PSI, because the alien bring several blaster launchers. To avoid your rookies panicking all you need to do is have a high ranking officers (captain or higher) stand in the back of the base doing nothing.
Because your high ranking officers are usually from the beginning of the game, where psi screening was net yet available, the often have poor psi strength. This makes them poor at later ethereal missions, meaning you can safely dump them from active duty to boosting the moral of your base defense squads.
Moral loss and moral "protection" are determined by how far the ranks differ from each other.
Example: 2 rookies, 1 commander, 1 captain.
captain dies->rookies would loose alot moral, but are protected through the commander resulting moderate moral loss. The commander will looses moral at a low level l, cause captain is only 2 ranks away from commander, but the commander is higher ranking.
commander dies-> rookies would be instantly down to 0 moral, but because there is still the captain they drop to about 30. captain drops to approx. 60 (higher ranking soldiers died, but no protection through a soldier even higher than the dead one)
rookie dies-> other rookie would go drop to about 80, but is nearly completely protected thanks to the commander (drops to about 95). the captain will not care at all, cause the rookie is way lower than him AND he his additionally protected by the commander. the commander might even loose more moral than the captain, cause although the comm->rookie diffrence is higher than the captain->rookie difference, there is no protection through an higher ranking officer for the commander.
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So the real trick is, that you need a few high ranking officers that just stand back and support moral while your rookies can train train train train. Rank and skill is not linked in this games, because promotion is determined, by the total number of soldiers you have. If i am not mistaken, you get 1 colonel, for every 24 soldiers you have. But once that position is taken, you wont get another one, unless the old one dies or you get another 24 soldiers. So in late game, it is possible, to have killer squaddies (everyone can become a squaddie) backed up by one lousy colonel who get promoted in the very beginning.
You mean I'm gonna have to be buying 3-4 new troops for each mission? Doesn't that leave little room for promotions and such?
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You'll only lose that many for the first few missions. Once you get some experience, better weapons and most importantly ARMOUR you'll be losing 1 or 2 tops. Hopefully.
Faskalia, your numbers seem weird to me. 100 scientists yes, but I find even 40 engineers get things built within a short enough space of time, that the extra cost and living quarters needed for more is a waste. My outposts consist on 1 hanger, 1 general quarters, and 1 large radar. I don't bother posting men there, simply because these bases are tiny and disposable. It's not great loss to me if they get taken. Once I build my first outpost, I send one of the starting interceptors there, and destroy 1 of the hangers. Why your main base will ever need 4 hangers, I don't know. And mass avengers? Why? I'm still using interceptors all the way to end game. They work, and are cheap and disposable. Only advantage Avengers really give, is ability to chase UFO easier due to better top speed, but I just send out Interceptors from bases the UFO is going towards.
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In UFO:AfterX series you have max 7 dudes, so each dude becomes a lot more important. You see, the more guys you have in the field in games like these, the less important each guy is. But if you have like 3 guys, its extremely important that they survive. Even worse if you just have 1, because if he dies its game over.
So, much, fun. I caught a break and detected a landed alien sub; I've eliminated most of the occupants and look forward to retrieving some awesome stuff once I hunt down the last few aliens.
Well, I do things differently then you guys it seems. I never bothered with a reserve team or anything, I always used the same team for everything. They soon become pretty kick ######. Occasionally one might die, but only one or two every few missions, and they get replaced, and the rookies quickly catch up, because I'm sending them to everything. I also have my top rank soldiers quite close to the front, simply because I find they end up with far better stats then everyone else.
Faskalia, your numbers seem weird to me. 100 scientists yes, but I find even 40 engineers get things built within a short enough space of time, that the extra cost and living quarters needed for more is a waste. My outposts consist on 1 hanger, 1 general quarters, and 1 large radar. I don't bother posting men there, simply because these bases are tiny and disposable. It's not great loss to me if they get taken. Once I build my first outpost, I send one of the starting interceptors there, and destroy 1 of the hangers. Why your main base will ever need 4 hangers, I don't know. And mass avengers? Why? I'm still using interceptors all the way to end game. They work, and are cheap and disposable. Only advantage Avengers really give, is ability to chase UFO easier due to better top speed, but I just send out Interceptors from bases the UFO is going towards.
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Because of my base design, my interception bases take about 70 days to construct. This is why I dont want to loose them. And i need lots of engis, cause I want avengers ASAP. 120 engis take about 12 days to complete an avenger. Interceptors might seem fine, but if you want to avoid countrys defecting on you, you need to catch nearly every terror and infiltration ufo. Thats why I need 8 avengers. My main base has 4 hangers for 1 skyranger (scouting for alien bases and sending troops to missions, that my ligthning cannot reach) 1 lightning (he will carry my most elite psi troops into battle and also intercept terror ships over europe) 1 interceptor. And finally 1 hanger, where I build my lightning and 8 avengers to supply my interception bases with superior firepower and speed <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
And btw: interceptors are NOT cheap. They costs you 600K each month for every interceptor, as well as 30 elerium for every interceptor you loose, cause plasma rays are expensive. And on superhuman, ufos tend to escape from battle more often, meaning you need faster ships to down them.
Edit: And if you are running into money problems you are doing something wrong. If you are expanding early, you can usually hold all countrys and on superhuman there are more aliens=more loot=more money. And there are also more alien bases=more places to assault grounded supply ships=even more loot=even more money.
In my current game I am at may 2000, everything is researched (including all ufo plans and every living alien), My fundings net my 30million each month. I have 70+12+14=96 soldiers with more than 90 psi strength. 8 avengers, no defect country, proper bases and all thanks to lots of engis and lots of scientist.
If you really want to dominate in ueo, you simply need to optimize research and production, as well as expand your area of operation as fast as possible. There is simply no way around 100 scientists and 120 +40x7=400 engis...
I have a few tips, IN BULLET FORMAT!
- Never sell Elerium. You can't manufacture it, and lots of stuff uses it.
- If you really need cash, you can sell a heavy plasma or two, as those are worth a little over 100,000, and later in the game, almost every alien totes one. Otherwise, just manufacture something with a good profit margin.
- I'd avoid manufacturing Alien Alloys. They're rather expensive, and you can usually get a lot from raids and killing supply ships.
- <b>Don't manufacture things requiring alien alloys or elerium to sell</b>. Manufacture something without material components.
- Don't make flying suits for everybody until you have plenty of Elerium.
- If you have limited suits of armor, prioritize them by rank: higher ranked guys get the best armor, etc. So give Flying Armor to officers first.
- If you're really paranoid about Chryssalids, have your team carry primed grenades. It can be dangerous to your own team, though, but your armor can usually block the brunt of AP explosions.
- Reapers are scary-looking, but they're a joke. They're also stupid as hell. Fry them with laser weapons or incendiary fire from a safe location.
- It's suicide to attack Battleships with your first interceptors. <i>Don't do it</i>. They can kill your normal interceptor in a single hit, no joke.
- <b>Always</b> shoot down the very small craft at your first opportunity, even if it must be done over water. It could be an infiltrator.
- I know it's tempting to obliterate some craft completely (ala vaporize them with an avalanche), but it's usually best to shoot them down so you can check them out.
- If you are pressed for time to get to a Terror site, but you can't get it (for example, your Skyranger is refueling), then send an interceptor to the site. The terror site won't leave until you order the interceptor to return to base or the interceptor reaches the site. So right before the interceptor gets there, send your other interceptor to keep it alive. You can also use this trick to go to the site during the day, if you're waiting for the sun to rise.
- If you're sad you can't fit a HWP into a UFO, just widen the hole with some high explosives or blaster bombs. Plus it's fun. If you're also sad that HWP's are little more than guys who take the first hits, then there's mod you can download (I forget where, at the moment) that makes them a bit better by giving them 100 TU's and a bit more armor.
- Kill civilians if Chryssalids are close to them and you don't want to take the chance. Sure it's a few less points, but it's also potentially less casualties on your part.
- If you have laser weapons, avoid using aimed shots. Just use rapid fire. Three shots with a 30% chance each is far superior to one shot with a 60-70% chance, in my opinion. You can also do this with other weapons if you don't mind the consumption of ammo.
- Time the alien movement phase; why, you ask? So you can know when to unload your weapons to save the ammo. If you unload a gun, no matter how much ammo in the clip you spent, it will be considered a full clip and you'll get to keep it. So in the last few rounds, have a couple people unload their guns. Just be careful not to have a guy unload his gun only to have him get shot up by a hiding Sectoid. The shorter the alien phase, the less aliens there are.
Hmm... I thought Heavy Lasers had the most profit, not the cannons. I recall building a few cannons to sell and found I only got about 1k profit each, while Heavy Lasers gave about a 10k profit each, at least.
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Nope the cannons (craft weapon) are the most profitable item.
You can also let up to 400 engis work on laser cannons, witheout wasting engi power. (There is a limit for every item, because you cannot produce more than 1 item of the same time per hour. So if something takes 231 engi hours to complete haveing 231 engis work on it, is as fast as having 342134 engis working on it.)
UNLESS you manufacture fusion ball launchers, with the 0 manufacturing costs bug.
i may have to look into digging out the original xcom after reading this thread...
Oh and avoid the remakes (UFO:aftershock and aftermath). they work ok I guess but had MAJOR bugs and balance issues including whole missing sections of the research tree. It was so bad the game designers decided to stop working on another patch and simple start over on another game. Now they are not even supporting the first 2 games at all and are instead working on UFO:twilight instead.
It was a large UFO (possibly very large) that was populated with ethereals. 10 good men and a plasma tank hit the earth, only 3 fine soldiers left it.
About 6 ethereal tanks and many, many ethereals fell. The last tank was somehow in the control room, even though the grav lift was too small for it.
Even though the UFO was shot down beforehand, only one ethereal died in the crash.
Louis Buchard, my heavy weapons specialist, had the worst death, the medic had already died and Louis had been shot by a comrade turned evil by ethereal mind tricks. He died of a fatal wound much later.
Evilyn came back, but barely. She was wounded to within a hair's breadth of death and was constantly under psionic assault. Her screams of pain and defiance could be heard throughout the battlefield
The best that could be procured was a couple of ethereal leaders, they'll be meeting with the interrogators soon, and I don't expect them to come out alive.
Good news is that I successfully neutralized a landed large UFO craft :> . I went in with 8 newbies (2 personal armors). I don't know what I was thinking <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" /> . But I walked away with 3 newbs + 1 wounded, and a nice set of alien stuff looted from the ship.
Another question is about armor. I've had some varying experiences with the personal armors. Most of the time my dudes wearing the armor still die from one shot from a UFO plasmagun, but there have been a few situations where they get hit, and it doesnt seem to affect them in any way. I look into the character stats, and health/armor are still at 100%. One time one of my veterans got hit by 2 plasmabolts, but she didn't die or take any kind of damage.
So the question is: does a characters experience affect the "resistance"/armor effectiveness, or the propability of being hit in the first place? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
So the question is: does a characters experience affect the "resistance"/armor effectiveness, or the propability of being hit in the first place? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
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Experience wont change your chances of getting hurt, although it will improve your health bar.
I'm not completely sure of this part, but I believe the primary purpose of armor is not to "soften" blows but to deflect them completely. As some function of how much armor you have and how much firepower the incoming weapon has, you have some chance of simply deflecting the shot, so it does no damage at all. If it does hit, it does a variable amount of damage that seems mostly unaffected by your armor level. More experienced soldiers have high enough health to survive a single shot more often than not.
Experience wont change your chances of getting hurt, although it will improve your health bar.
I'm not completely sure of this part, but I believe the primary purpose of armor is not to "soften" blows but to deflect them completely. As some function of how much armor you have and how much firepower the incoming weapon has, you have some chance of simply deflecting the shot, so it does no damage at all. If it does hit, it does a variable amount of damage that seems mostly unaffected by your armor level. More experienced soldiers have high enough health to survive a single shot more often than not.
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Right, makes sense.
Oh snap. Now that I started paying attention to it, it seems that X-Com crashes more and more often. Since my previous post, it has crashed 4 times, always at the first move of the mission
You're not alone on that one. My game would sometimes crash as my guys stepped off the Skyranger. It seemed pretty random. Just save your game on the first move, and if it crashes when they move, try moving them to a slightly different location (like the space beside it). I'm not sure what causes it, though. Sorry I can't help. Just try avoiding making the soldiers jump off the edge of the ramp: move them more towards the front of it.
As for armor, if you click a soldier's stats during battle, at the bottom, you'll see armor values. I believe some guns are better at piercing armor, but I believe you're right about the deflection part. Sometimes it's deflected, sometimes it's not deflected but the armor is damaged in lieu of the soldier's health, and sometimes it's not deflected and some damage gets through and hurts the soldier AND the armor. It depends on the weapon and how accurate the firer's shot is (headshots obviously do more damage). Heavy plasmas tear up armor pretty fast. Once the armor is reduced to 0, it will still deflect, but it can't absorb damage anymore. Really, if a soldier is reduced to 0 armor anyway, he probably should be dead anyways. But it can happen, especially once your soldiers get 60+ health. So armor is pretty much all-around protection. It has no negatives at all. There are even different armor values for different directions. You'll note that the bottom armor sucks the most. This explains why aliens crouching right in front of you and shooting you totally blow you away.
BTW: to get to the stats, select a soldier, then click the meters at the bottom.
EDIT: It's also worth noting that even soldiers without armor do, in fact, have armor: however, it's like, 8 from the front (Personal Armour has something like 40), so it really doesn't matter at all. It's just there to explain why you don't buy kevlar vests: you're already wearing them!
There are even different armor values for different directions. You'll note that the bottom armor sucks the most. This explains why aliens crouching right in front of you and shooting you totally blow you away.
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Erm, I didn't think aliens COULD crouch. I've certainly never seen them crouching, and I can't tell them to if I psi-control them. For all their alien technology they fail to realise the awesome power that lies with bending your knees.
On another note, damage seems to be hugely random, so while armour <i>will</i> increase your survivability, its still possible you're going to die to one shot. I've had rookies without armour take a hit for no damage. Stranger yet I had one take a hit with no armour for <i>five</i> damage, so the amount of damage a hit does must be pretty random (and probably varies depending on where you're hit).
I guess this is realistic-ish though; the five-damage scenario probably represents a flesh wound where the shot just grazed them, wheras the no-damage rookie obviously had a bible covering his heart or something. Because everyone knows bibles deflect plasma.
Wow, UFO Afterlight is already out? It makes me question the quality of it...