Night-flying

[Tsereve]

In my games, the ufos always appear at night! i cant see a thing, so i get decimated :crying: . even wen i do shoot something down, i get it confused with another, undamaged craft (they huddle together when i look at the overhead map view, and become indistinguishable), and then, what happens next is a no-brainer . then all hte agents in my retrieval vehicle get killed, and an alert comes within a few hours.

[[NKF]]

Pause! Then collect your thoughts.

 

Next survey the locations the UFOs come through. Study the UFOs, identify whether or not they are transporters or escorts, then scramble the nearest parked ships. Every so often, pause and, using the hostile vehicle tab, double click on the transport UFOs to watch where they are going. Ignore the escorts (the fast attack ships, or sometimes unmanned probes), unless you're planning to capture one to advance your interdimensional aircraft technology. But do keep mind of them. If all three escorts are surrounding one transport, you'd better have your ships pull back (unless they're probes) and just deal with the ground mission.

 

If a fight starts, remember to pause as well, not only to direct the battle, but to observe the location of the other transport UFOs that may be about. If any of them get to a dropsite and release their payload of soldiers, try to remember the building somehow. If you've got a photographic memory, fine, but if you cannot remember, send an insignificant vehicle to the site. A blazer turbo bike or any ground vehicle, or maybe one of your hoverbikes (if it needs a breather).

 

If you manage to shoot down any of the transport UFOs, get your fighters to pull back and avoid further combat when the escorts arrive (early in the game, it's wise to retreat, but later you can try to take them on).

 

Remember to pause and watch any other transporters that may be flying about. Deal with them or avoid them as necessary.

 

Once the escorts have fled to the alien dimension, immediately send your troop transport to the shot down UFOs. Deal with them (or destroy them if you aren't up for a fight) then restock and swap soldiers as necessary and then, head right over to the drop sites and investigate. Taking out the source of the infiltration before it spreads reduces the overall infiltration levels quite considerably.

 

Oh, and don't send your troop transport out on an attack run. Just don't. Safer that way.

 

- NKF

Edited June 23, 2004 by NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

Maybe you shouldn't bite off to much either. Choose the ships, and maybe wait a while to attack the damaged one. Also, maybe you should check the ufo you are attacking, and if it is almost dead, then you know it is shot down

[Tsereve]

I can incapacitate them easy, but how do u control destroying them vs. shooting them down? the manual says to try to shoot them down, but that implies u have a choice in the matter. also, how the **** am i supposed to destroy an alien assault craft with h.cars, h.bikes, & 1 or 2 valkeries? they always appear near the beginning of the second week for me, and i usually dont have enough $$ 4 an Air Warrior.

[Arjuna]

Usually you can't control it as far as I know, but if they overwhelm the target with firepower, they'll blow it up instead of crashing.

 

As for the assault craft, in the second week they don't use shields (I think, it's been a while) so I brought them down with 2 hoverbikes, 2 Phoenix hovercars, 2 valkyries. Later I managed to get a pair of Hawks (from selling crap out of raids) and which phased out the cars. The bikes by this time were toast. Anyway, my valkyries use lancers, and my hawks have 2 lancers and a medium disruptor beam each. O'course, I'm now phasing out the older human models in favor of retaliators...

[j'ordos]

I can incapacitate them easy, but how do u control destroying them vs. shooting them down? the manual  says to try to shoot them down, but that implies u have a choice in the matter.

http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5678

 

If all else fails you might also want to consider using groundvehicles, at least, when made a bit more useful : http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5732

Shameless plug à la Stewart

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

You can always turn off vehicle weapons if you think you are dealing too much damage too fast and destroying valuable research UFOs. Just select the vehicle, and the bottom left corner of the tab will display the vehicle's weapons. You can click on them to turn them off.

 

Hovercars are very powerful, but only if equipped with the right weapons (and if possible, shields). Throw away those bolters and lancers, and even those janitor missiles. Buy yourself lineage plasma cannons and enough elerium to rearm them.

 

I have a single valkyre and the rest of my fleet is hovercars. The valkyre is there for transportation alone, but I have equipped it with two justice missiles (or retrobution, dunno which one) and the valkyre joins the battle if there are big ships around. I do not allow it to fire unless it is really close to the UFOs, since even if you fly high, missiles bang into buildings if they have to travel large distances.