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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Base placement


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I'm a XCom1 veteran, but never played too much TFTD. Now that I'm giving it a shot on Superhuman (enjoying myself a lot in the process) I found that I have really no idea about what a good base placement could be.

 

I had a campaign where I got 4 landed subs in January and then nothing till the end of JUNE, when I eventually lost due to score. I was able to complete very successfully the first 3 terror missions, get Ion Armor, unlock Psi, blades, ecc., but then I found myself struggling with money, being unable to build the stuff I researched, being unable to build Radar/Interception bases, Psi Labs, Sonic Cannons, blades... I only got Terror missions, but by that time there were Tasoth, or Lobstermen, and Bio-Drones, and I simply wasn't equipped well enough. I had to quit these battles and eventually lost the campaign, without even having the chance to fight.

My first and only base was in the Mediterranean, and ALL alien activity (Terror aside) was in Antarctica (especially there, not very lucky I guess), and South Chinese Sea.

 

What is your base building strategy and how often do you build a radar base? Do you sacrifice research/production to get that extra chance to catch a USO?

 

Ps: BTW, I'm kinda new to (posting on) this forums; I already introduced myself in the Patio, but I take this occasion to say hi again to everybody and submit myself to whichever initiation rite you consider appropriate :D

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The game is doable even on superhuman, so I hope you'll give it a few more tries.

I place my first base somewhere in South China Sea (so much water around that spot, yet so many countries around too) or Caribean Sea to cover both N and South America and large portions on Atlantic and even Pacific.

I'm not sure if you save your game and how often. If you do, best is to save in the begining and let the subs fly for a while. Check the graphs for where Alien Activity happens and plan intercepts accordingly after reloading. I get in the first day of January a Very Small Sub and a Small Sub, which give a decent chunk of money to allow you plan even a second base. Especially if the Ion Beam Accelerators and the Zrbite survives the action. The very small sub won't touch down, so help it with an Ajax Torpedo. The small one will touch down and with some luck, you get all the good stuff out of it too. If the small sub spawns too far, you can always restart until is shows in the area.

Now about other months.....a few hours before the new month the aliens decide the plan of action for the whole next month. Save a day before the month begins, let the month begin, save in another slot and then the let the time fly. If the alien activity satisfies your needs, second save is a good choice, if not, reload before the begining of the months and try again.

If you don't save.....uhm......keep an eye on Alien Activity Graphs. But it's better to learn first about alien behaviour in TFTD.

I hope this helps :)

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Thanks dan2, you've certainly been very helpful and I'm definitely going to give the game some more tries. Nonetheless, I don't like very much reloading so heavily in the geoscape, I like letting the game surprise me; knowing in advance exactly what the aliens will do spoils my fun. I'll try and focus on building more bases faster. After all, there is much more ground (water, actually) to cover than in UFO.

When you say "it's better to learn first about alien behaviour in TFTD" are you implying that it is very different from UFO? If yes, how so?

Thanks again.

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The bit of randomness the game throws at you can indeed make or break your campaign sometimes. Just keep at it, it gets better.

 

Anywhere that covers a fairly good cluster of paying nations is a a fairly good starting area, though the Atlantic and Pacific are probably the better spots due to the larger seabed areas that you can cover, with a fair distribution of countries close to the coasts. The Mediterranean unfortunately has too much surrounding land mass to make it good for an intercept or recovery outpost.

 

As for expansion, I would recommend expanding exactly as you would in UFO: when you can afford it.

 

By the way, alien colonies are great sources of action and cash if you find that there aren't enough submarines around. The fleet supply cruisers (5% chance one will appear each day) are literal goldmines of equipment and experience. Just be mindful of the DPL torpedoes the crew have - the supply ships in UFO were easier as they didn't have any guided projectiles.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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The Mediterranean unfortunately has too much surrounding land mass to make it good for an intercept or recovery outpost.

 

That's a good piece of advice. I'm still thinking UFO and I made the mistake of trying to cover countries by covering more land, while I have to do the opposite.

Anyway, now I began a new SH campaign with a base in North Atlantic, covering roughly Europe, Scandinavia and Iceland. It is February and so far, so good. The USOs keep coming at a rather steady pace, I lose lots of men but they get the job done, so far. I just began a couple of expansions, the sonars will be ready in March. I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. :)

Thanks for the advice!

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I'm glad you started another campaign, I hope it's a very succesful one :)

Even if you don't reload much, check those alien activity graphs often, your radar is short-sighted and the chance of detection is kinda low.

If you have a Triton patrol once in a while, it acts as a second radar.

Aliens behave strange in TFTD, I'm not sure how to explain it, only from experience you'll learn their quirks.

The terror mission at the end of January is quite important, make sure you get Deep One Terrorists (2 if possible), a dead Deep One and an MC-Reader. Having these will alow you many project advances, like Ion Armor, pretty good armor early on

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I'm glad you started another campaign, I hope it's a very succesful one :)

 

Thanks, the campaign is going pretty well indeed. Checking the graphs I saw that China and Japan are seeing most of the action; I managed to put a base there and money is flowing. ^_^

If only Calcinites were a bit easier to find...

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Calcinites are found in Aquatoid Terror Missions. If you didn't get one early in January, you might get lucky in the begining of April or May, when Ship Terror Missions start to occur. On superhuman seeing aquatoid terror missions is somewhat rare though
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