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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Never played Apocalypse...


Chris StarShade

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The main difference I think is the cityscape. UFOs come in big rushes rather than one at a time (most of the time) in the original x-com. they are a lot harder to shoot down, due to your number of interceptors compared to the number of UFOs. I also swear most UFOs focus fire when they get together. I don't do this but most people recommend buying a swarm of hoverbikes, or a mix of hoverbikes and hovercars and equip them with ether bolter lasers or janitor missiles. Sell all your road vehicles their sort of useless, as the UFOs don't move straight along roads. Another thing is damage to the city is not appreciated, so if you want to keep key corporations (that might I add you are buying weapons, ammo and vehicles from) happy, don't blow up their buildings, instead fly your craft lower than the ufo's so that if anyone does damage to the city its them. It'll still detract from your overall score slightly but corporations will actually like you more, as you are opposed to the force that put a hole in their wall.

 

remember to keep an eye on where the UFOs go. when you see them making a drop note it. And when the air battle is over send your men in to investigate the building. Which brings us on to tactical.

 

The tactical is also different. You need to make your own choice between turn-based and real-time. Some people say turn-based suffered because of real-time. some people say the opposite. The main difference is that some enemies are more or less deadly in turn-based depending on weather you spot them in your turn or not. The main difference in real-time is that your men are slightly more autonomous, depending on their stance setting. Oh and you can duel wield for full benefit (It's pointless in turn-based as even with a weapon in both hands, it still takes the same number of TUs to fire one, and you get the accuracy penalties). On the hole tactical is less deadly than previous games, although their are some weapons that can kill you outright, but most of them are later on.

 

even after you've cleared up the drop, keep an eye on the alien infiltration graphs for a day or so after the UFO drop. If an organisations starts to rise, check the buildings owned by that organisation near the previous drop sites. In fact in light of this I've started writing down drop sights.

 

Oh and psionics. Its less useful than in UFO and TFTD. Humans cant do it to save their lives and hybrids, which you will learn to recognise by the eyes, who can do it are worse soldiers on the whole. The main thing is it requires line of sight, and functions slightly differently in real-time (drains energy constantly for all attacks, takes a while for panic and stun to take effect. Can only maintain attacks for as log as one has strength. If either participant breaks line of sight the attack ends.) and turn based (Needs line of sight to start with a one time energy drain for each attack that takes effect immediately. Control is maintained until it is your turn again, even if Line of Sight is broken in this time.).

 

That's about it for my knowledge. I'm not the best and I don't play on superhuman. Maybe Jordos or someone else with a bit more knowledge will appear and shed some more in depth light.

Edited by fudgedragon
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In short, you'll love it. Just don't try to take what you've learned from UFO/TFTD and expect it to apply here. They are very different games.

 

There are plenty of threads that ask how to start the game on both this forum and Strategycore, so take some time and dig through them. More importantly: ask questions.

 

Three things I do want to impart:

 

- Organizations don't mind what happens to civilians, but they get really (really) upset when you do damage to their buildings. Both in the cityscape and battlescape. In the cityscape, consider using some low-power weapons like the miniguns or bolter lasers. They work a treat on most early UFOs. In the battlescape, keep HE usage for the Autocannon and Rocket Launcher (mainly the heavy version) to a minimum. Also pack some smoke/stun grenades to put out fires fast. Feel free to go wild in your own buildings, enemy buildings, UFO crash sites or the alien dimension.

 

- You don't have to shoot down every UFO, but do capture the first Type 3 Transport that you come across (it's research critical and it doesn't appear often). There's no rule that say you have to shoot down everything that comes through, and it's fine to bide your time and strengthen your fleet. Air skirmishes are a quick way to drive your finances into a hole, so it's best to attack only when your fleet is at a clear advantage over the UFOs. Trust me, until you get some good numbers of aircraft or advanced firepower, those Fast Attack ships are real toughies.

 

- Do respond to EVERY drop that the transport UFOs make. To this end, pause a lot during any UFO incursion and watch the dropships. If you see any beam units down into a building, send a clean-up team there right away (or a dummy/marker ship if you don't have enough teams). After clearing each site, remember these locations for a bit longer. Use and update the top-10 organization infiltration chart regularly to watch your infiltration levels for the next few hours. If there's any sharp spike in activity, go to the overhead map of the city and select that company's icon in the organization's tab. This'll show you their buildings. Send teams to investigate the buildings closest to the drop-sites. One or two blocks away at least. Repeat this process until the lines on the top-10 chart start dropping.

 

This whole rigmarole is to ensure no infiltration ever happens and prevents the siren from occuring (which I reckon is the game's indicator to you that you've stuffed up by that point ;) ). Uncontrolled infiltration, particularly for players unfamiliar with the game, can be quite overwhelming and disadvantageous should you lose any of the manufacturers.

 

- NKF

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