23 replies to this topic

[Brute]

Hi
i'll give you some examples of my base layouts. if you have hostile organisations, then that is the only safe way to "expand"

[Brute]

That is a "port" base, in which crafts are fueled and their weapons reloaded. The ports are guarded lightly, and androids are prefferred.

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[Brute]

And that is another port base, which also has available space for 3 more advanced labs. This makes the base more important...

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[Brute]

That is the base where researchs take action. The base is guarded by 3 rows of stations, and some soldiers

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[Brute]

A powerful economy is the backbone of every army. Here is a eceonomy base, as heavily guarded as the previous one...

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[Brute]

and that is the base!!! The core of military, and the heart of mega-primus. The training facilities work day and night, there is a medical lab to help the wounded... The purpose of Quantum Lab is not risking the research of alien ship parts, just in case u get hostile to transtellar...

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[j'ordos]

to load troops in a vehicle you first select the soldiers an then drag & drop them on the vehicle you want to use. Be sure to select the vehicle too.

To assault UFO's you need an aircraft with cargo bay AND soldiers loaded (just give the craft the "attack vehicle" command on the downed ufo)

when your men are in the building and for some reason they don't investigate for aliens automatically you have to click on the building, select your soldiers and then click on the "invesigate building" button (alien head icon). Or you can choose to raid them as well (icon with building)

retreating in tactical combat is done by telling your soldiers to step on a blue tile with a red arrow on it near the edge of the map, or by pressing esc near the edge of map

Edited by j'ordos, 07 September 2003 - 01:44 PM.

[BurnThemALL]

Ok, first congratulations to you, finally a new "active" member here! Now maybe you find some clues here?
http://www.xcomufo.com/xcomfaq.html
http://www.xcomufo.com/x3faq.html

I strongly recommend you to read the manual, it can be downloaded here:
http://www.xcomufo.com/x3dl.html
Direct link: http://www.xcomufo.com/x3manual.zip
Mirror: ftp://195.168.30.249/3/x3manual.zip

If your soldiers don't shoot at enemies, make sure you have selected "snap shot" or "auto shot" with all of your soldiers and "standard" mode and not "aggressive" because when you gave them the order to run somewhere and they are in "agressive" mode, they run there even when surrounded by shooting aliens, and your soldiers will start shooting only when they arrived at their destination.

I would recommend you to use a Valkyrie as ship for your troops instead of the APC. All ground vehicles suffer the problem that they explode despite of their strong armor as soon as the alien ship shot down the street, the ground vehicle was rolling on. This is a main disadvantage. Flying rules!

Edited by Brute, 05 September 2003 - 11:49 PM.

[dipstick]

Right - tips!!!!

Try and keep in real time - it is a LOT easier.

Use your men in battle mode in a pincer movement in each squad, and despite what the manual and the computer defaults say PUT AT LEAST 4 MEN per squad - unless you want a massacare!! (sp)

ALWAYS attack brainsuckers first if you see them (you do frequently early on) they are the mouse like aliens - they are like Chysalids (sp) on steroids!

ummmm use machine guns quite a bit - throw away stun weapons, but NOT grenades - their range is useless.

Wait till you see Poppers...... the stun grenades come in handy then......

Research and Manufacture a LOT

Restart the game until you start with a base that has either a 2x2 space free or a couple of free spots by the access lift; preferably both. That allows for future expansion - adv labs and adv security - that helps a LOT on base defense.

Raids are like robbing the places - you will damage relations though.

Learn maps of places you have been - they are virtually the same for the same place every time - it will stand you in good stead for later missions. Esp. UFOs.

The only difference between UFO attacks and buildings is you can only take ONE vehicle to the UFO, but buildings you can take loads! Also you can only have ONE go at each UFO!!! So use save (in options menu)!!

UFOs ALWAYS appear in groups, so prioritise them. This becomes essential in later levels. There are about 10 types of UFO - it is preferable to research all of them, but some are necessary to succeed!

Edited by Brute, 06 September 2003 - 12:00 AM.

[j'ordos]

The pod thingies are eggs and stuff, you can kill 'em or leave some alive, you don't even have to stun them (they will count as "dead or stunned" anyway if all the others are gone).

never, NEVER send your men out without armor, they'll live so much longer with it.

Keep some men behind your main force to take out those pesky brainsuckers that jump on them, or just throw plenty of (stun)grenades, they drop easily by them.

You can only buy stuff as long as the producer/seller has it in stock. You'll notice it's out of stock if the bar gets grayed out, and it gets replenished every week.

Look at your scientists/engineers. They have a number next to them, which portrays their skill (90+ is very good). In the recruitment pool you can see the stats of would-be Xcom scientists. See if one or more of those has a higher number than your present scientists. If so, sack your losers and hire those geniuses (don't go hiring someone with 70 if you have 60 though, there probably will be a better one for hire shortly, recruits for hire change daily)

Oh this has probably been mentioned before, but sell your road vehicles. They are next to worthless... (better buy some Hoverbikes instead )
And check the equipment for sale, your vehicles don't start with the best available engines, so you may wish to change those (in the vehicle equipment screen, notice there are three buttons: one for weapons, one for equipment like cargo bays, and one for engines)

Autocannons ARE good weapons. In fact, now I have plenty of alien weapons but I still have some guys equipped with them, and with MiniLaunchers (will show up for sale later, don't worry if you can't find them now), and some Power Swords (idem dito), and, for raids: Heavy Launchers

Edited by j'ordos, 07 September 2003 - 01:45 PM.

[dipstick]

Right, get hoverCARS for defense - equip with prophet missiles (maybe come later) or even better, long range missiles and watch the UFOs burn. UFOs type 1 and 2 are ALWAYS unmanned. NEVER use autofire - it is just not worth it. Get as many soldiers as you can, and equip them, and send in a minimum of 12 soldiers per mission - use valkyrie (SP). Men take so long to heal because they don't heal until they have had a decent nights sleep (figures) also, check availablity of medical facilities and training - if it is over 100% it will slow all of them down. If you do not have 12 men available - do not go to site, you should be ok not to. You don't get crippling penalties or even massive infiltration!!!
I would also recommend ditching psi. I have never used it - and I have got pretty far. Needless to say - near the end of the game it gets pretty hard (imagine etherals on steroids!) But you can cripple the aliens, then research psi!!!
Read the brainsucker ufopedia entry!!!! Read ALL researched topics!

Equip 5 hovercars with long range missiles and firing on SLOW moving ufos - then use a hawk to obliterate the fast moving ones - esp Fast Fighters. I am using this at experienced level - the only way to have enough ammo. I stockpile missiles and launchers- esp Prophet and long range. If I use beams in early game while stockpiling I ensure enough ammo supplies - it dries up VERY quickly! Beams are inaccurate - and if you hit buildings you can be in trouble! So do it in early game and transfer to disruptor tech when you can - NOT small though!

NEVER NEVER NEVER send ONE man to a site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you have a death warrant!
Also, expand medical and training facilities, at any one time I may have up to 20 men injured! Be careful!

Edited by Brute, 06 September 2003 - 12:04 AM.

[Brute]

-FOR REAL TIME ONLY-
OK. i see your frustrated faces. I'm starting to tell you.
First you must know the mechanics of the attacks in the game
Beam weapons:
Beam weapon's damages drop by range. So, if you have a disruptor armor, and your enemy is not close up you won't have a problem with beam weapons. Just don't let them get close up

AP ammo:
AP=armor piercing but i've never seen a machinegun bullet pierces through a disruptor armor

Explosives and grenades:
Normal grenades won't be a problem
Vortex mines hardly damage you if you have disruptor armor

Dimension Missiles
All misiles has 2 type of damage. First is the impact, the ap damage
second is the explosion. Dimension missile AP won't damage you but the explosion can damage you a little if you are not lucky

Entropy Missiles -legendary-
Entropy missiles doesn't kill you. it has very low damage, and the damage is fully absorbed by the disruptor shields. But they have a nasty habit of destroying everything in your inventory. You see, they don't kill you, but the clips&grenades you are carrying will.

The problem is here. Using only disruptor armor is good, as it is hardly penetrated, but entropy enzyme eazily chews it, and make your clips explode and hurt you.
And the shields easily drain by beams and rockets. You are left undefended agains the entropy enzymes and....

Then we will use a cute little trick here. if microprose thought to put a switch to deactivate, activate the shields, it wouldn't be a problem.So we will try to do this manually
i'll use 2 phrases. Dropping an item is pressing the drop button on the game interface, while putting down an item is simply dragging and dropping it down in the inventory interface

*Firstly, take your position against the incoming aliens.
*Drop/Put down all your shields and fight
*When you see a entropy missile coming -tip:slower, has a special sound-
put on your shields -take them from the ground-
*When you see a explosive grenade or missile is coming put your weapons away, take your shields at your hand and drop them 1ms before the explosion. remember, DROP!!! They must be in the air while the grenade explodes!!! So they won't be destroyed-ground- or drained -on you- by the explosion
*You'll need to have full disruptor armor and a disruptor shield to completely execute this tactic -shields up, shields down -

[Smashie]

when all is in flames or smoke, throw a stun granade.

all smoke and fire i replaced by stun gas, wait 2-3 seconds to fade away and there you go

[Robo Dojo 58]

When you get alien gas, consider using that instead. It works great on aliens, and it won't hurt your guys or knock them out. Too bad you only have it for the last 5% of the game...

[Robo Dojo 58]

Here's an example of a much heavier Port base. It has two vehicle repair bays, which are easily defended from the narrow tunnel on the left of the map. Training facilities are available, so you can have soldiers getting stronger while they wait for attackers. Later on, you may want to put the soldiers in your main squad, and put in androids, instead. The medical bay isn't really needed, and is just for kicks.

This base is better suited to heavy repair jobs. 1 Repair bay may not always be enough to repair your fleet between fights. If you don't want to use vehicle shields, you'll need an extra repair bay handy.

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[dipstick]

The point in that base would be?? Waaaaay too many defenses. Only two/three max is PLENTY for a real-time assault. Just add 1 squad of androids, with ANY weapons, and 2/3 adv security takes them out any time.

[Smashie]

putting 2 defences where no alien wil get is useless (upperright). Just put 2 stores, medicals bays there. None of your troops will start there, always around living quarters etc.

[NKF]

Or if you must, push the repair bay up and move the defense guns down. Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the second repair bay unless you want to use it to disperse the attackers so that fewer raiders approach the central gun posts at any given time. For repair purposes, one should be sufficient as it's not likely that you'll have UFOs raiding the city every few hours, so you do have some time for a breather. But I admit, dispersing the enemy ranks with extra entry points is a valid tactic that I hadn't really thought of.

If I started with the S layout base, I'd start making long term plans to decentralise my repair bay and move it to a more suitable location. The V, +, C, 8 or even the O shaped base layouts actually make fairly good locations for a dedicated repair base. The S base is okay (and I start in one all the time on Superhuman) , but I feel it's not as flexible as the other bases.

Less is more, as they say.

- NKF

[Robo Dojo 58]

There have been times when one repair bay wasn't enough for me. But I admit, two defense guns on the left can be replaced with storage. The medical bay and the training cells aren't really needed, either, and can be replaced with storage. 6 storage bays and two repair bays should cover everything you need for a vehicle base, IMO. Plus, it's completely impenetrable.

The vehicles can come back to that base for all their needs, so I don't need to spread out vehicle supplies. It's easy enough to deploy them from there. That's good enough for me.

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

Fighting different alien races, in order of alien life cycle:

Multiworm Egg (the pink stationary eggs that have green projectile attacks):
Ignore them. You need them alive and it's not worth the trouble. If you need to kill them, stay at long range, their attack has a pretty short range. They tend to be stuck in clusters, so area of effect weapons work well.

Multiworm (the green two square long ugly worm):
Pretty slow short ranged enemy, uses green projectile attacks. It's pointless using stun grapples against them (they have really high resistance to it) so if you need one alive, catch it in a stun gas after you hurt it some (a single stun grenade will not knock them out). They have good resistance to AP ammo, but seem to fall easily to HE and disruptor beams. Miniguns with HE ammo works really well. Explodes into 4 hyperworms.

Hyperworm (the pink one square tiny worm):
Pretty fast melee enemy, a bit more dangerous than the multiworm, mostly because they don't allow you to stay at long range. Really hard to hit (small and fast), so using area of effect weapons is a good idea. If they get up close, they will start hurting you with their second hit (megapol armor), and they attack pretty fast. Minigun HE ammo is really good against them, since they are vulnerable to it (and most of the time they crawl out of a dead multiworm, so you can kill 3-4 of them with the explosion). If you are desperate and they are getting close, time a grenade to .75 sec and drop it close (even if you do not time it right, they will not go into the stun gas willingly). I suggest you practice on these guys so you are ready for poppers.

Cryhsalids (sp?) (the stationary yellow egg that does nothing at all):
Walk past them. Really not worth any trouble. Never seen them develop into something during a mission anyway.

Spitters (the funnel headed pink humanoids):
Slow accurate aliens that shoot green projectiles at good range. Their range is better than the multiworm, but the damage isn't so high. They make up for the low damage by better accuracy. A single hit from a funnelhead will not hurt you, but the second/third/fourth hit definitely will. They are a bit hard to get with stun gas, since they like running away and it's the first thing they do when they see a grenade. They die easily to HE ammo and suck at close range. They are one of the easiest to panic, if you kill a few other aliens, you will find these guys stuck in a toilet puking their enzymes out.

Antropods (the blue "oh I'm so cool" aliens):
They prefer using brainsucker launchers at the beginning, than disruptor guns and cannons, then entropy launchers. Never seen one with dimension missle launcher. They will deploy intelligent strategies if possible (take cover behind corners and such). They love throwing boomeroids and vortex mines and will make you cry in real time by double throwing them among your men. Either fight them at long range or up close so you don't get bombarded with grenades and stuff. You can try using Psi, since they are one of the few Psi vulnerable aliens. They are pretty easy to stun, so bombarding them with stun grenades before they fix you up with vortex mines is a good idea. They will use smoke grenades to clear the stun gas though. Because they are equipment carrying aliens, if you use HE against them, when they drop, their ammo will explode and hurt things around. While this is a good thing, you must also notice that you are losing valuable equipment. They CAN CRAWL and have been known to do so from time to time.

Brainsuckers (the yellow cute little thingies):
They jump above your men and grasp the head to turn them into alien controlled zombies. They have to be launched from a brainsucker launcher, or a brainsucker pod (ammo for the launcher) has to be on the ground and a soldier must be close to it. If you pick a brainsucker pod and put it in your backpack, it won't pop open (this is possible to do in turn based mode, I think you can do this in real time, but it's more of a gamble). Androids can't be brainsucked. Brainsuckers are hard to it, like hyperworms, but if you team your men up (double up), the second soldier can shoot the brainsucker off pretty easily (when the thing is busy getting the first soldier's head). If the second soldier has an area of effect weapon, you have to manually fire it, because your soldiers will not fire area of effect weapons if they have a chance of damaging their allies. Brainsuckers can't successfully attack if there isn't space one level above the target, so if you have a roof over your head, the brainsucker ends up stunning itself. Brainsuckers also can't attack crawling soldiers. Brainsuckers have a lot of trouble attacking soldiers that are in elevator shafts (they fly all around the soldier and don't seem to be able to get a good grasp).

Poppers (the two legged blue dogs):
Pretty fast explosive aliens. Their basic strategy is to run up to your soldiers, begging that you miss (and they don't have to beg that much, since they are fast and all), and explode upon impact. Since AP, HE and IN ammo set the explosion off, they don't care much if you kill them or not once they are close enough. Disruptor beam weapons, alien toxin/gas, stun and maybe some other things do not set the explosion off. If you are fighting with ammo that will set the explosion off, either get them with snap shot in mid range or auto in short range. Notice that towards the edge of the explosion, the damage decreases, so your megapol armor may be able to absorb it. A direct head on hit from a popper mostly causes a critical wound. Poppers WILL EXPLODE IF YOU ARE ONE LEVEL ABOVE THEM, because their explosion is somewhat effective on the second level. However, since the damage is smaller, going one level up may be a good way to fight them. Poppers in elevator shafts explode one level below you, but I don't think they explode if they are one level above you.

Skeletoids (the yellow flying lamers):
They use brainsucker launchers (rarely), disruptor guns/cannons, entropy launchers and dimension missle launchers. They use their flying ability to cover distances in combat, but they rarely fight when flying (they will if they have no other option). They are a lot more aggressive than Antropods and choose open fighting over tactical. They are resistant to most forms of damage, so they die slower than Antropods. They are not grenade fans like the Antropods and the only thing that makes them dangerous is their improved weapons and improved damage capacity. The entropy launcher has a slow cooldown, so if they are carrying one, they may take cover when they reload the weapon. Expect them to pour out of the wierdest places (and in numbers if possible). Pretty hard to catch with stun grenades, since they can fly around and all.

Megaspawns (the four square teddy bears):
Usually found in Motherships and Battleships. They carry two weapons: one similar to the devastator cannon, the other similar to dimension missle launcher. They always prefer their dimension missles over their devastator cannons. If you bring the fight up close to them, they won't fire their dimension missles and will only use devastator cannons (in fear of hurting themselves, although they can stand more blasts than your men ). Pretty hard to stun, because of their big health and their high threat. Trying putting a solid amount of pain into their heads and then revert to stun weapons (grapplers if possible). The weakness of a magespawn is the poor AI and its turtle like speed and reactions. If you can kill it before it can put its arms in the air, you've won.

Psimorphs (the four square flying green jellyfish):
Usually found in Motherships. They have no attacks of their own, but can psi-control your soldiers if they are within their sight. They can stand quite a lot of pain, but they can't carry disruptor shields (phew...). If a soldier is under control, the soldiers close to him/her will start firing at him/her, so turn their attacks off if you don't want friendly fire. A psimorph has to keep visual contact with the soldier under control, so they can't control a soldier and hide behind a corner (but they CAN step back out of your sight). Either focus fire on the psi morph to kill it quickly or block their sight. Psi morphs can't control units with 100 psi defense (well, not most of the time anyway), but they are known to stun them (so they can still deal with lone androids). If they meet soldiers with 100 psi defense or higher, psimorphs usually stand/fly and do nothing (ideal to stun). A single stun grenade can't knock them out, so you need to hurt them first.

Micronoid -i can't spell the rest- (the green pukes):
Usually found in Battleships. They have no attack of their own, but use psi like Psimorphs. They are a bit smaller, so they are harder to hit, but they can't fly and they are REALLY SLOW (I guess it's because every single cell wants to go another way, but how do they initiate psi attacks then I wonder...). In exchange for such weaknesses, their psi powers are much better. Micronoids are known to control androids (albiet VERY RARELY). They are immune to stun gas, so you need stun grapplers if you want an alive one. They are not especially strong like the psi morph, so a few hits will score a kill easily. Heavy android assault screws these guys up real well.



Did I miss anything?

[NKF]

There's the queenspawn. Though it would be quite a spoiler to explain how to stun it if you haven't encountered the queen before.

Here it goes anyway, so avert your eyes if you want to keep it a surprise:

Imagine an immobile alien with a brutal spit attack that trumps even the multiworm's spit attack. It's highly corrosive and can kill you in an instant. In short, stay away from the spit. It's fast firing and has an insane firing range.

The queen does however have a few major weaknesses:

- It cannot move. (dun, Dun Dunn!)
- It can only attack in one direction. Flank it and it'll be at your mercy.
- The hall leading to the lair has plenty of cover (laser curtains & spawn pad mounds).

If you do flank it, the queen will have one final bit of protection. A number of eggs that'll attack you. One vortex mine on the queen will hurt it and wipe out the eggs in one go. The mine won't kill the queen, so you needn't worry.

To kill:

Just shoot it. It has tons of health, but with enough lead and energy, it'll expire.

To capture:

Flank it. How you do this is up to you, though I'd suggest having a few soldiers creep up to the laser curtains, then have another soldier distract the queen by running across the hall. While the queen is occupied with the distraction, have soldiers rush in on both sides ( toss in a vortex mine to clear off the eggs first!). If you have teleporters, this is childs play.

Since it cannot protect itself when you're on either side of it, you can safely knock it out.

Now, with your soldiers in place, have them hold fire. You want to move your attention elsewhere and clear the rest of the map of aliens and spawn pads. Once cleared, proceed to stun the queen. This way, even if you do accidentally give the queen critical wounds, the mission will be over before the wounds make any difference.

To stun you can use stun gas or grapples. I'd recommend a combination of both. In either case, you will need to bring its health down to 80 and under. Use mind probes to make sure you don't overdo it.

Okay, so the queen's a let down in that respect. But I haven't told you about what's protecting it.

- NKF

[ShadowHawk00]

A few tips ( i beat the game at superhuman easy ) so they are not bad.
Road vehicles suck but they also are cheap. Your APC could come in handy when you dont have any other vehicle available for a mission.
Hovercar is not really usefull just get a lot of hoverbikes and get laser and later plasma guns on them.
Dont have your hoverbikes stay at home just let them land on various positions that way u have then in the air quicker and most likely quicker in the action.
Always go for the toxic guns. They go straight through the personal shields of the aliens ( so does the machinegun but it is not near as powerfull )

Once u have disruptor tech but early on and u want to raid. Just arm 3-4 of your troops ( not robots ) with 4 of them 2 in backpack and 2 in arms ( works for the cannons also ) and put them on autofire. So they miss about 90% of the shots but they still damage the building and they fire at a rate u dont believe also accuracy will get up to 100% really fast ( that is why no robots ) U could do this near a ufo also just get on both sides of the ramp ( for a 1 door ufo ) and make sure u fire down put the guns on autofire and watch them die in seconds.

Stun scraple is really good versus poppers it stuns them in 1 or 2 shots and is verry accurate ( poppers are required for the better toxic.

In the end the toxic gun is a life saver it kills quick and efficent so make sure u have enough ammo.

In the alien dimension destroy the reenforcements spawns ASAP with a vortex mine they are gone ( if u aim correctly u can destroy 4 with only 1 )

U can carry 2 shiels and when u are near the end of them just discard the damaged shield u will then have 100% again.

Well thats all i can remember now.

[Exo2000]

If you have time to spare and no more aliens are coming out of that crashed UFO because they're cowering inside, sit around for a while. This will allow your Disruptor Shields to regenerate, revitalizing you for the interior of the UFO. Also use this time to heal up, reload and evacuate any personnel that could hinder the mission later (say, someone with bad equipment, etc. etc.)

ALSO, when possible, load out an agent with TWO Disruptor Shields at least. This will literally DOUBLE your lifespan in heated disruptor gun/devastator cannon firefights.

Also, when agents are very valuable, set mode to "Normal", speed to "Walk" and move them behind a pillar. If there is an enemy, they will pop out from behind the pillar and take potshots before hiding behind it again. This is very useful in firefights in Apartments, as there are lots of corridors and pillars to hide in/behind.

[ROplayer]

this game is pretty much over once you have a retaliator. i whiped out all of the enemy ships in the dimention with one. after that its just tediously easy raids on the alien buildings. or for very skilled players its over once you get the toxigun. there should be more balance in the next game.