I'm Very New

[Pouch_Knife]

Firstly, hi to everybody I'm very new to this Apoc thing (although have played all the other Xcom stuff). Because I'm so new this question will probably be quite basic but I don't mind making a fool of myself so here goes. I've been playing for about 3 game weeks and keep seeing the funding screens come up but when they've gone my money doesn't go up. Am I being dense and impatient or do I have to do something to get money? Is there anything I can get and sell (like Heavy Plasmas in Xcom 1) to make money quick? I'd appreciate any advise and thanks in advance.

[SupSuper]

iirc, money only comes in every month (like in xcom1), although you get a status report every week

[Robo Dojo 58]

You get money every week from the government. On the funding screen at the end of each week, you should see how much you're getting funded. The amount starts at about $80K, and goes up as you do well. The funding should be enough to buy ammo, a couple hovercars, and a few base facilities for the week.

 

 

If the government ever becomes hostile towards X-COM, or gets taken over by the aliens, they'll stop funding. It was hard enough for X-COM to get funded in the first place... you'll never be able to get funding from them again. Treat the government and their buildings well, and you'll continue to get funded.

 

Not to worry, though. If you are sucessful in capturing tons of alien tech, it will be worth millions. Keep around a bunch of Quantum Physicists (10-20, 25 for superhuman) so you can quickly research the alien tech, and you'll be able to sell it sooner. Alien tech prices can only go down though, so only sell when you need to.

[[dipstick]]

Robo is right, you should get plenty of money from the good ol' government for the first week or two (esp on beginner) but planning what funds you will need for what is also a good idea. For example, do you REALLY need that new facility as it will add to your maintenance bill - take a look at the sit rep once in a while, there is a finances tab which will allow you to see where the money is going. IIRC all the stuff on there HAS to be paid for, and is paid automatically. That could be where you are losing the money - all your income is immediately lost to other people.

 

Also, look around these here forums for advice, there are quite a few people - they are rather experienced and helpful too.

[Puasonen]

Ah, I know your problem because I've had the same. You just THINK you have played 3 weeks but you actually have played 3 DAYS only. After every day it gives you this funding prediction for the week. It shows how many points you have done in that day and hows your funding going to be in the end of week but the actual funding thing happens in the end of week and you will notice the difference (and get the money)

[[NKF]]

Money making strategies, eh?

 

Well, later in the game, when you get to build hybrid aircraft, you can build any one of them and you will always get back twice what you spent on building them. Unlike the alien weapons, their prices do not rise or fall. The Bio Trans can actualy net you more than twice what you spent because it comes standard issue with four cargo modules and bio modules, which you can strip off and sell at their individual prices. Basically, even if you built a ship that you did not want to build, you can get back twice what you spent.

 

Speaking of rising and falling prices, try to hoard the equipment that you wish to sell and then sell them in bulk to take advantage of the price, as it won't fall until after the sale. For example, alien devastator cannons can net a decent price each. And as you get tons of them each mission, why not hang on for a bit, gather a hefty amount of them, say 70 to 100 of them, and then sell them all off in one bulk sale. You won't regret it.

 

In the early game, the best money making method is to buy and sell Stormdogs. The moment you start the game, or at any time during the game, buy all the stormdogs on sale. Wait till they arrive, strip them apart and then sell each bits individually at their respective prices. Hang on to the Anti-Airguard ammo though, as the ammo will net you almost as much money as the Stormdog's chassis! Hoard the ammo for two o more weeks before selling each bullet off at $8 each. $8 is not much, but you'll have huge pile of bullets!

 

If you raid buildings owned by gangs or the cult of sirius, you'll find psiclones. Each psiclone is worth quite a lot of money. If you raid other organisations, you'll find elerium pods. These cannot be sold, but they will turn into elerium ammo when they get back to base. For money, raid gangs and the cult. For elerium, raid political organisations (don't attack Solmine).

 

- NKF

[Robo Dojo 58]

Maintenance bills for facilities will never be a problem. It's often less than a 20th of the original cost of the facility. Your average agent will cost 2-4 times as much to keep.

 

Actually, you can make money off of other vehicles too. The trick is, that the ammo and fuel are not calculated in the price of the vehicle, and vehicles always come with fully loaded weapons. By removing the weapons and engine, you'll be able to get the ammo and fuel, and sell them separately for a profit. 24 Janitor missiles from a phoenix hovercar is worth around $2400, which is nothing to sneeze at. Also, be sure to strip your vehicles before you ever sell them, so you don't give ammo away for free.

 

You don't have to remove the cargo pods and bio modules before you sell the biotrans. Apparantly, a bug gives new vehicles a set value, without calculating the value of it's armament. Removing the cargo and bio modules will only subtract from the value of the biotrans, and since it doesn't have free ammo, it won't get you any extra money.

 

Also, the items that you find in a mission never move. Occasionaly they will change, or swap with another item in the field. Once you find a mission area that is loaded with psiclone/elerium, try to find where it's most common, and raid it over and over again. The giant slum building, with the elevator in the middle and stairs on the side, has 8 psiclones up for grabs.

[RustedSoul]

A combination I always wanted to try was to just muscle in on the psiclone trade by raiding gangs ect.. then ally with the following corps using the auto laundered credits.

 

Extropians

Technocrats

 

according to this they give you extra dosh in government funding http://www.dwcs.net/xcom3/index.html

[[NKF]]

Only the government determines funding, and this is based on your overall performance for the duration. The political parties haven't much influence on this at all. You can be mortal enemies with both parties and still run the government into debt, forcing them to cut back on your funding.

 

What most companies mainly do for you is just provide some sort of service or product. Transteller provides taxies to ferry new recruits. Lots of companies provide equipment and vehicles, and SELF and the Mutant Alliance make androids and mutants available. Quite a number of them, like Lifetree, Nutrivend, Evonet, Sensovision, the Gravball League and the political groups for example don't do anything.

 

But then again, for those organisations without any obvious benefits, even if they did have any effect, the effects are incredibly insignifiant. I've play the game long enough and have been mortal enemies with almost every one of the companies with vague benefits in my many campaigns, and never noticed much of a difference at all.

 

- NKF

Edited July 20, 2004 by NKF

[Tiberius_51]

Money can be an issue in this game for quite a while, especially until you can start shooting down every UFO that shows up. For the longest time I was barely scraping by what with purchasing and upgrading vehicles, building new facilities, and paying off Transtellar and Marsec to keep them from being hostile. However, once I got my Retaliators, things changed really really fast. I was suddenly shooting down everything, raiding as many as 5 ships per UFO wave. I kid you not, I made 700 grand in one week after shooting down a Battleship, two Assault Ships, and a couple of Escorts.

 

My advice would be to be wise with your money, be very careful about what you select and who you need to keep happy, and if necessary conduct a few raids each week on the Cult of Sirius or Osiron.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

On a side note, you don't need to pay off everybody to keep them happy. Determine who you really want as allies and who you can afford to have as enemies. Destroying buildings and vehicles of an organization that is hostile with someone you want to keep happy and you'll net big points with them. For example, for the longest time Psyke was hostile (since the second week I think). Anyways, they were continuously fighting Osiron, so once I leveled Osiron's structures, Psyke allied itself with me.

[Robo Dojo 58]

So far, I've been bribing organisations, and looking at the benefits. It appears that allying with some companies will give you more human recruits. The gangs are really good for that. I'm sure you can get more/better QPs, Bios, and Engies as well, if you ally with the right people.

 

I haven't seen any funding bonuses from allying with the Extropians/technocrats.

[Tholomas]

Okay before I ask questions I just like to type a few things. The questions I've typed have probably come up but I've spent a lot of time reading the other posts so I'm not in the mood. Forgive me if I ask a question that has been asked before. Also I am posting in this post so I won't clutter the forum.

 

I'm playing XCOM3 on Superhuman difficulty with a no save (no save as in if I lose my entire assault team I continue and only save to take rests). I only managed to get up to the second week when I receive my funding. From there I kept having to restart because the aliens became too strong, corporations start getting infiltrated and my troops kept getting wiped out due to raids on my base, raids on their base and normal alien alerts.

 

I need a good build order for my base. Or advice on whether or not I should get another base on the second week. I read in the other posts about alliances, particularly SELF "apparently" giving more androids to recruit.

 

I also read about the technology and research. How should I approach it? The thing is when the aliens get stronger I have no way of fighting against them because of their weaponry. Should I use the Rocket Launchers?

 

Anything at all will be appreciated.

[[NKF]]

I'll see if I can offer any advice with regards to your questions:

 

- If the aliens are becoming too strong and bringing out stronger and stronger weapons before you've had a chance to research any of the equipment they brought out before, then you are probably earning too many points. Alien tech is directly influenced by your score.

 

If that's not the case, then don't worry too much - you can still cope. The aliens first tech weapon is the disrupter gun. You have the plasma guns, autocannons and even the M4000 machine gun. All these weapons are still strong enough to handle anything they can throw at you. If you're really good with the power sword and stun grapples, they're even better.

 

The aliens will then move on to the devestator cannon. These weapons are really powerful, and the only weapon you've got that even matches it is the power sword (faster and a few points more powerful). However, as that is far too short ranged, you will still need to rely on your plasma guns, autocannons and M4000, which are still good at this point. But if you use your wits and outsmart the aliens, anything is possible.

 

The disrupter shields make the tool weilding aliens twice as tough to kill, but this will still not stop your plasma guns, autocannons and M4000s from becoming completely obsolete. These weapons are still useful against the multiworms, spitters, hyperworms, etc.

 

Then there's the entropy launcher, then the dimension missile launcher. You really do need to at least have the shields by the time they advance this far or it gets very tricky indeed!

 

 

- Alien Infiltration:

 

Every time the UFOs come into the city, you can try to attack the ships in the air or let them drop their troops into buildings and then handle them on the ground. Either way will do, however attacking them in the air can make you a lot of enemies if your bullets and missiles go wild and hit other buildings (especially in the later stages of the game when you've got the heavy disrupter beams).

 

At this early stage in the game, I'd recommend attacking only new UFOs that you haven't captured yet (mainly the purple type-3), or are really easy, and then ignoring the rest and only deal with the troops on the ground. You simply don't have firepower to handle the fast attack ships this early in the game. This will also allow you to not make enemies too quickly as you won't be damaging the city.

 

Anyway, pause the game a lot and watch where each an every transport UFO go (you can ignore the fast attack ships - unless you sent out some ships to deal with one of the transports). This involves opening up the UFO tab and then centering on the transporters from time to time. Now, whenever the UFO drops troops into a building, try to remember the location. I do this by sending a hoverbike or a ground vehicle to the building right away. Whatever you do, just remember the location. Continue watching the remaining transports until you've noted all the drop sites. As soon as they leave, send your team (or teams) out to these locations an investigate. The faster you cut off the infiltration from its source, the damage is lessened.

 

After you've cleared the three (or less) initial drop-sites, remember the location of the building(s) and let time pass for a few hours (I just leave my hoverbikes parked there for a bit). Then open up your top-10 organisation infiltration graph chart and get the infiltration update. Say Marsec has a lot of infiltration. Go back to the cityscape and open up the overhead map. Go to the organisation's tabs and select Marsec's icon. This'll highlight all of Marsec's buildings. Scan the city and look for any of Marsec's buildings that are near the earlier drop sites. If you find one, send out a team and investigate the area immediately. It might be one or two building blocks away from the original infestation site. (also note, aliens can sometimes run back to a previously cleared area, by the way)

 

If the infiltration is really low, you can leave it alone and it'll die off in a few hours. But if the infiltration level just keeps going up and and up, send out a team immediately! Waiting for the alert sirens will not do any good for your score (or relations), so it pays to be pro-active in weeding out the alien infestation (just be careful when selecting a site to investigate).

 

After the mission, just keep repeating the process and watch your graphs until the infiltration levels start to drop naturally. Then you're safe until the next incursion.

 

Get into this habit and you'll be able to keep your infiltration levels at bay.

 

 

- Dealing with Base attacks:

 

First of all, don't make any enemies. Or at least, not too many of them. They won't attack you 24/7, but they are still a threat.

 

The first order of defence is to redesign your base. Move facilities where and when ever necessary. Also remember that you simply cannot cram everything into the one base (unless you're using those really weak bases with plenty of building space - which are terrible for base defence I must add). So plan for the future and consider decentralising some facilities (like the workshops) when you start on your new base.

 

Next build plasma defence modules. Amazing as it may sound, these guns are really tough! The grav-lift and the repair bay are the only places enemies will come through, so these are the best locations to surround with gun modules. No matter what, they'll soften up the opposition. (Note, from what I've seen only 3 modules (12 guns) will operate if the base is overcrowed with scientists and soldiers - however they will still make plenty of targets to distract the opposition while you get your soldiers into position. So go ahead and surround your grav-lift and repair bays)

 

Tip: You only need one repair bay for the entire game as long as you remember to send damaged ships to the base with a repair bay. This makes it so much easier to defend your other bases as you'll only need to surroudn the grav-lift with defence modules.

 

Tip: consider using empty corridors to separate your grav-lift and repair bay from the rest of your facilities rather than fill every gap possible. Your soldiers and scientists won't get spawned in these locations. Also you might find it easier to fight in the empty corridors.

 

- Bases: The second week is WAY too early for a new base. If you just want to use it as a place to station your ships, then there isn't even a need to do this. You can park your ships anywhere in the city for free. You only need to have your ships come home to repair and rearm from time to time. I'd recommend building up some money first and then when you need to expand (i.e. to get that large workshop), then go for a new base. Just don't rush things.

 

- Allying with SELF:

 

Does NOT increase android recruits. Your daily recruit selection is randomly selected by the game. Allying with SELF or the Mutant Alliance does however make it possible for you to hire Androids and mutants respectively.

 

 

- Tech

 

The aliens may have better weapons, but you can still beat them with the weapons you've got. The plasma gun is a great all-rounder that is almost as good as the disrupter gun. The autocannon with AP shells packs as much punch as a disrupter gun (plus the HE and incendiary ammo are useful in many instances). The M4000 is still an awesome weapon. The Stun grapple can still knock enemies out very quickly (until they get shields) if you can get close enough. The power sword is still a very powerful weapon, but you need to really us your smarts to make use of it. The mini launcher is great for soldiers who can't even shoot. And then you've got the stun gas. One of the most useful non-lethal weapons in your entire arsenal. Also, if you've been concentrating on training up some mutants in the psi-labs, you also have the mind bender at your disposal. That can mess up the alien ranks easily.

 

Again, it might take a bit more effort, but with a bit of strategy and clever application of the various tools that are at your disposal, you can still fight back.

 

By the way, regarding heavy launchers: Don't use the them when dealing with city missions. The collateral damage will not be liked by the company, and even if you do a very good mission with an excellent rating, the companies will still come down heavy on you for the damage. The only places I'd recommend using the launcher would be when attacking an enemy organisation, recovering a UFO or when you go to the alien dimension. But even then, try to only use manual firing (Use the no-fire firing mode)and pick your shots. It's too dangerous and too wasteful to let your soldiers do whatever they want when armed with a rocket launcher.

 

- NKF

[Robo Dojo 58]

Heheh, every post from NKF is a complete strategy guide. You can't get much handier than that.

 

I strongly recommend you build a second bio lab and quantum lab at your first base. Try to get this done before the end of the second week. It'll double your research rate, which is just enough to let you keep up with the alien tech.

 

Only 3 things can go through alien personal shields without destroying them. Try to figure them out, and use them to get the shields intact.

 

Stun grenades are the bomb. When you research a bio module (and put it in!) load up your troops with stun bombs and stun grapples. Try to capture as many live aliens as you can, especially the dangerous ones. The research will pay itself off tenfold.

[Tholomas]

I'm having trouble with friendly fire. I am massing Disruptor Cannons. The downside is I've lost just about all my veterans or those 3 line ranked soldiers except one. He seems to be practically death incarnate, he has survived from the beginning and his accuracy is 100%. Would going back to bullets be a good option? So far the aliens have shields.

 

Oh crap I was just playing just now and my entire squad got killed and my veteran from the beginning died in an unglorified manner. I managed to get really far but since I'm new there were still things that I didn't prepare for. I guess it was good while it lasted but it sort of went slowly downhill. I can still purchase more agents but they are all droids and my score is aready in the -1000 due to UFO incursions. So far I'm up against the grey ones but I'm not sure which ship I should use to approach it.

Edited November 2, 2004 by Tholomas

[[dipstick]]

A good strategy is to leave the UFOs alone, or only take on some of them. This way, you will not lose ships. You will undoubtably get more infiltration, but I found that easier to deal with - that said I am a reloader

 

You should get higher scores and better men that way, just be careful you don't run out of men!! Also, go into a site with more men - use multiple vehicles if necessary. That way, you have a better chance.

[Tholomas]

Oh sorry I wasn't thinking straight when I was posting. I posted this at around 4:00AM. I am losing men BECAUSE of the Disruptor Cannons by soldiers are firing. As in my veterans keep getting shot with friendly fire. I got so immensely pissed at this since I am new to the game I thought friendly fire didn't occur because I kept seeing squad-mates shooting Brainsuckers off people's heads and bullets doing unnoticeble damage. I'ts only until I got the big alien guns till I noticed it because one blast from that can usually chip down half your life.

 

As for the UFO incursions I was kind of in a situation when I had to engage them because they spent most of their time tearing up the city and I started losing funding because of it. I spend the entire time not engaging them but it turned out to be a do or die matter.

[[NKF]]

Tholomas: Though this might sound a little stupid, bear with me for a bit.

 

If the aliens send UFOs into the city and they go nuts and start attacking some buildings: This is a Good Thing™. Same goes for when they drop an Overspawn and it goes amok on the city.

 

The only time this is a Bad Thing™ is when they're directly attacking one of your buildings. If it belongs to someone else, leave them alone.

 

Why? Here's why. It's a major public relations booster for you. As the game has a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality when it comes to alliances, the companies that were directly affected by the attack (stray rockets, etc) will hate the aliens even more. So they'll start to support you in your later efforts against the aliens. (Yes, even the cult can get on your good side if they were accidentally attacked by their 'friends')

 

Granted, you still lose points for damage to the city. But that's very easy to ignore as long as your overall weekly score is still positive. If not, well, there are ways to work around it.

 

---

 

Speaking of Devestators -v- unshielded soldiers: Yes, they are killers these things. My advice would be to wear full suits of Megapol armour (or Disrupter armour when you get it) until you can obtain and research the disrupter shields. You'll still get badly hurt, but a full suit of megapol armour is way better than a partial suit or a full suit of Marsec armour.

 

Use more cover. Smoke, corners, cloaking devices (when you get them), etc. Go prone a lot. This makes you a smaller target.

 

Find faster ways of dealing with enemy mobs. Stun gas being your best bet, or use incendiary rounds to force alien mobs to scatter. The AI for almost all units forces a unit to run away from fire. This might be useful in stopping a group of anthropods from using their devestators on you for a few seconds.

 

Also, consider hiring more androids. They may not be able to train and tend to stagnate as the humans and mutants gain experience, but does not mean they become useless. Oh no. They can charge ahead and take the full force of the attack while your humans and hybrids snipe or use psionics from behind. It might sound cruel, but this is what makes the androids stand out from the others. They're expendable - well, not exactly, but in a way. Oh and the fact that brainsuckers and psionic enemies don't actively attack them.

 

- NKF

Edited November 3, 2004 by NKF

[ShadowHawk00]

Well it has been some time since i played this game but i have some great tips.

First the machinegun and the toxicgun completely ignore personal shields.

The toxicgun is a lot better then the alien guns since it ignores the shields and shoots a lot faster so just use aimed only.

Using 2x a personal shield will give u 3x the protection. When the shield is low drop 1 and u have a full shield again ( ok sounds like a nice bug )

If u want to train just have 4 disruptor weapons on your troops 1 in each hand and put them on auto accuracy will rise fast and if u are raiding the damage to the base is huge.

[Exo2000]

Also, if you're attacking a large crashed UFO, set your soldiers to Full Auto and camp them outside the doors. At least one group per door for Purple Ships, and at least THREE full groups for anything bigger (namely, Mothership & Battleship) or else you'll get toastyfried by the contents. Fortunatly they never usually have Entropies. But be REALLY REALLY careful with Battleships. And I mean REALLY careful. Be prepared to shoot anything that moves out of that door. Heck, Shoot the door open so you can see better. 'tis what I do.

 

Well it has been some time since i played this game but i have some great tips.
First the machinegun and the toxicgun completely ignore personal shields.
The toxicgun is a lot better then the alien guns since it ignores the shields and shoots a lot faster so just use aimed only.
Using 2x a personal shield will give u 3x the protection. When the shield is low drop 1 and u have a full shield again ( ok sounds like a nice bug )
If u want to train just have 4 disruptor weapons on your troops 1 in each hand and put them on auto accuracy will rise fast and if u are raiding the damage to the base is huge.

 

It's not a "nice bug". You're dropping the weaker one and you now only have ONE times the protection, instead of a little buffer. Two shields stack on the bar "forcefully", so that bar is actually the combined power of BOTH generators.

Edited November 5, 2004 by Exo2000