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Research Order!


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This is my personal preference:

 

Gauss Technology up to Gauss Pistol usage

Sonic family (starting with pistol and going up) until Sonic Oscillator usage

Deep One corpse until Plastic Aqua Armor usage

Medikit

Mag. Navigation, Ion Beam Acc., Zrbite, Transmission Resolver

Live Deep One (if possible, if not, any live terrorist), MC tree to build labs.

Start research on Ion Armor (if I got live deep one researched).

 

The initial rush to gauss pistols is to make sure they are ready before first terror site (I hate going there with jet harpoons, it's suicidal). After that I go straight to sonic weapons because any mission with lobsterman or tasoth in them requires sonic weapons, and oscillators actually give the barracuda end game fire power (effective against all USOs but the biggest one which can outrange the oscillator).

 

I think depending on whether you like sacrificing your soldiers or not, you can go for Transmission Resolver or MC tree first, as opposed to plastic armor. I really don't think medikits are any useful before any armor.

 

You should also squeeze in Gauss tech up to Gauss Cannon somewhere along the lines there, to get started on technician stock up and increased cash.

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Guass tech up to Heavy Gauss

Usually sonic rifle

If i have a deep one corpse, i'll research that and get aqua plastics

Either sonic cannon or Sonic pulsar, sometimes i do one first, sometimes i do the other first

Medic pack

 

thats the first order i usually go in, i need the sonic pulsars and sonic rifle for the heavy damage, the gauss weapons for killing everything (the heavy gauss for sniping too of course)

 

i use xcomutil too, as to why i research all the gauss weapons first

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Eh, you just get unlimited ammo. Even then, I still prefer the sonic pistol over it.

 

My research is heavily armour oriented, so my research, in rough order goes:

 

Gauss tech (up to rifles at least, but preferably until I can start producing craft gauss cannons)

Armour (what ever I can get)

Sonic Weapons (Pulsers asap, then anything I can get my hands on up to the sonic oscillator)

Anything else, generally focusing on the drills, Transmission Resolver (if I haven't already obtained it), ships (Hammerhead!) and completing what's left of MC tech and basically clearing up any left overs.

 

It's not too specific as it varies from game to game. Armour is paramount, as once you get Ion armour, the game levels off in difficulty. Support tools like medikits do get obtained early, but mainly during lulls between major research projects.

 

- NKF

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With Xcomutil the Gauss cannon becomes slightly more powerful than the sonic rifle, gets a little bit more accurate, it keeps autoshot, and has infinite ammo - i may be wrong about autoshot

 

but i've found that its an excellent sniper weapon, and the autoshot means that you can also use it in close quarters, because although it can do long range sniper shots, the autoshot means it doubles as a powerful close range weapon

 

The only aliens that the gauss weapon is effective against are Lobstermen and Biodrones(in close combat)

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With Xcomutil the Gauss cannon becomes slightly more powerful than the sonic rifle, gets a little bit more accurate, it keeps autoshot, and has infinite ammo - i may be wrong about autoshot

 

but i've found that its an excellent sniper weapon, and the autoshot means that you can also use it in close quarters, because although it can do long range sniper shots, the autoshot means it doubles as a powerful close range weapon

 

The only aliens that the gauss weapon is effective against are Lobstermen and Biodrones(in close combat)

Yes it has auto-shot and yes it will take out a lobsterman on Superhuman..BUT its very impracticle as it takes 6 hits to knock it unconscious..biodrones drop in 2-3 hits with the improved heavy gauss. In close quarters I've had tremendous success with the Heavy Thermal Lance vs Biodrones..often dropping without blowing up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've started giving all my guys gas cannons so I don't even bother with Gauss.

Even the total wimpy guys can carry a gas cannon with one load of explosive ammo if you strip everything else out. The cannons aren't as accurate as I like but they typically kill Gillmen with one direct hit and the blast radius seems nicer than the HCs from UFO.

 

I suppose my research priorities go something like this before I start following whim or needs as they arise.

 

Med-Kits

Sonic Pulsers (if in decent quantity -- If I could only use only one weapon in the game, it would be these)

Sonic Pistols and clips and rest of Sonics up to Oscillators so I can start taking down the bigger ships

Aqua Plastic Armor tree

MC Labs

Live Deep One

Everything I need to get to UFO Transmissions

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The GC's are brilliant starting weapons. They're also the only weapon that can fire phosphor rounds on land without resorting to reaction fire.

 

Since you also like the sonic pistol, I would like to get you to try the gauss pistol as a complete alternative to all the other starting weapons to be used along side the GC's. They're vastly superior to the common harpoon gun, have quick to construct and fairly high capacity ammo clips. They also have no accuracy to speak of. But they're very fast. Totally useless against lobstermen, but can easily deal with your average Aquatoid and Gillmen crews and their land terror units. Combine them with sonic pulsers or even the sonic pistols for great effect. It's a good cheap mass produced consumer weapon for when you don't want to waste zrbite on constructing sonic weapon ammo.

 

Look, if I didn't at least try to get you to try the gauss pistol, I wouldn't be - well, me. ;)

 

- NKF

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Guest Tyr Arcana

Having read the OSG, on my current game I've decided to totally forget about gauss, since the only thing its useful for is profit building, and when you factor in the ammount of scientist-hours required to get there it becomes far less attractive for that.

 

I started out using all harpoons, 3 gas cannon and a hydro-jet, mostly with hi-ex or phosphor ammo, which did me quite well for the first month or so until I got sonic pistols researched and made up for my guys. I still kept a couple of gas cannons, but everyone's on sonic pistols and doing brilliantly so far, even having taken down the only lobster I've met with just 3 shots (I got lucky).

 

So, research order so far:

Sonic pistol + ammo

Trans. Resolver

Armour

Par. Dis. Sensor (best profit build after the gauss weapons and easy to research)

MC Lab

Sonic up to Oscilator

 

Then I'll try and finish the MC chain (got my tasoth and reader in store waiting) and then move on to the new subs (although I've been having huge zrbite shortages, so probably wont actually use any for a while, sonic on a baracuda does nicely enough). Oh, and I'll work on the DPL as soon as lobsters show up regularly, but so far (touch wood) I've been keeping them at bay by constantly watching graphs and keeping alien activity below 600 each month. Squashing two colonies without armour or dpl's was somewhat painful, but I managed, somehow.

 

Actually, the first one was kinda amusing. On the surface I lost 10 men, largely through m.c. backstabbing, but 4 managed to make a mad dash into the lift room through a hole someone opened in the wall and got downstairs, where two of them spawned in an exit area, and the other two woke up one room away from the synonium device. I didn't actually see a single alien the whole game, just shot the device from the little 1 square hole above it and ran like heck towards the exit :).

 

Oh, and, while it may be purely my imagination, I've kinda come to the unprovable conclusion that lobstermen are more likely to show up if I research sonic pulsers, so now days I dont research them at all. They've such a massive damage radius that I find them impractical anyway, and since it takes about 4 to stun a lobster I really dont see the point in them.

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It's the accuracy issue that turns me off to the gauss pistols. It never bothered me that the most effective weapons in TFTD are low ammo and have no autofire as that promotes better teamwork and ultimately more effective strategies. I usually find that after a few games of TFTD, I can go back to UE and it's a joke. And I only use the sonic pistols for a brief time so I can sell all the rifle and cannon ammo for an early cash boost. I'm seriously starting to consider an all drill/sonic pulser game. It's just a bummer that you have to cross your fingers for an aquatoid terror mission to get the drills.

 

Can't remember what it was I used to hope for years ago when I first played the game. I had some ideal first month scenario where I ended up getting the Calcinites and Deep Ones, which ultimately opens up every single tech tree but the Leviathan.

 

Followup Edit: Well, I played through some missions with Sonic Pistols first, and I gotta say, not bad. Not happy with the accuracy compared to the other two sonics, but you can fire off snap shots so quickly you can easily move in and out of cover to fire away at your enemies. Definitely a worthy upgrade from gas cannons. I'd like them a little bit better if Gilmen were almost guaranteed to die from point blank shots but it's still a pretty good bet that one shot in the back will take them down. In my current game, i had the pistols by the end of January. They didn't make into the first terror mission but there was a followup terror attack a few days later and my job was a heck of a lot easier.

Edited by Pherdnut
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Typically I research the medical kit first because I like keeping my scientists with something to do. I then research the motion scanner because I find it rather useful.

 

Next I research the sonic cannon or pistol, depending on what I'm doing as quickly as I can. This is mostly for the sonic oscillator, which I prioritise for my craft as until you get it things are very difficult.

 

Deep one corpse and then aqua plastics for armour (to make the medical kit worth-while).

 

Then the M.C. tree (or sonic pathway if I lack the pre-requisites) but not to use M.C. but just to see who's a wimp and who is not. Then I execute the wimps by alien fire squad (might as well serve a function) and hire people with decent M.C. defence. M.C. drives me batty and is just way to overpowered for aliens -OR- X-Com operatives. I've always felt for one that M.C. should require a line of sight or some other disadvantage. As it is M.C. is a game ender and you can win the game with no other technology equipped to your troops! I wish there was some way of making M.C. less stupidly insane in both UE and TFTD so that it makes the game more interesting.

 

After that I get the better subs and such forth.

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I find MC ultimately boring, both Enemy Unknown and Terror From the Deep. If you want to avoid damage to your own troops from the alien's MC however, give them weaker weapons so that it will only wound/tickle them. :) Edited by Kratos
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I find MC ultimately boring, both Enemy Unknown and Terror From the Deep. If you want to avoid damage to your own troops from the alien's MC however, give them weaker weapons so that it will only wound/tickle them. :)

I usually just drop the soldiers weapon altogether actually. I usually never need all of the force that I take on a mission anyway and so a couple of unarmed n00bs doesn't hurt.

 

Incidentally, I don't think I'll ever bother researching gauss weapons now that I've discovered how good the gas cannon is initially. It's not half-bad at all!

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Incidentally, I don't think I'll ever bother researching gauss weapons now that I've discovered how good the gas cannon is initially. It's not half-bad at all!

 

My thoughts exactly. The only thing gauss is really good for is profit building, and the par-dis sensor comes a fairly close second, but without the research overhead. Leave gauss until you've nothing more useful for your science boys to be working on I say, especially since if you research good weapons (read: sonic) first, you can be looting more from the aliens to make up for the shortfall of not making gauss cannon for the open market.

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MC seems a lot more fair in TFTD since to get it you have to confront a whole crapload of Tasoths without it to at the very least stun one, carry it back to your ship, and get the heck out of dodge before they've panicked or MC'd your entire crew into wandering all over the map. I personally get a kick out of that first grab a Tasoth and bolt mission.
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MC seems a lot more fair in TFTD since to get it you have to confront a whole crapload of Tasoths without it to at the very least stun one, carry it back to your ship, and get the heck out of dodge before they've panicked or MC'd your entire crew into wandering all over the map. I personally get a kick out of that first grab a Tasoth and bolt mission.

 

Or you could steal one from an Alien Colony. ^_^

 

Which is even more fun if you have to do it with a Thermal Tazer because you don't yet have the Thermal Shok Launcher. ^_^

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The aliens seem to give you a small grace period before they start using MC on you. And with the tasoth in colonies, you don't need to spend too much time on the ground to nab one - even with thermal tazers. It might take a few visits to the colony though. ;)

 

All you need to is step outside, and grab the first one you see, throw or drag the tasoth back to the ship and dust off. If you don't find one within the first few turns, dust off and try again.

 

I really enjoy doing these 'abductions' early in the game - mainly to get a sample of the pulse wave torpedoes. It might read as a failure in the end of mission tally, but in fact it will be a complete and utter success.

 

Note that in TFTD you can screen your aquanauts a lot earlier than you can get the MC disrupter. In UFO you could get the psi amp right after you got the psi-lab. So while it takes longer for you to get the MC Disrupter, you should be able to have a selection of screened aquanauts that are numb to the effects of Molecular Control before you face the Tasoth.

 

- NKF

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I stunned once a Tasoth in a colony, dragged the creature inside the Triton, dust off and even if it was alive when I pressed dust off, it was considered dead after the mission ended. Anyone else with this bug?
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That has happened to me on random occasions, with aliens like Deep-Ones abducted from terror sites. I'm sure some of us have had bad experiences with lobsterman commanders coming back to the base as corpses as well.

 

The other time I know this always happens is when you carry a stunned alien through to the next level of a two-parter mission.

 

Perhaps the game is misfiring and thinks that you're moving onto the second half rather than aborting?

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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I think thats what it does, i haven't aborted a colony or artifact mission yet, but i know that if you go onto the next level things then it lists how many guys are in the triton, so it might just put 0 soldiers to the next mission and then automatically fail it because you have none... other than that, i dunno
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Slightly off topic, but has anyone tried going to the 2nd part of a two parter mission with a soldier stunned in the first part? I had a ship terror mission once, with mixed crew, and had to stun one of my soldiers (he kept getting paniced and MCed), to make sure he would make it to part 2, I had one of my soldiers carry his body.

When I got to the 2nd part, the soldier carrying him had his body in his hand, but if I clicked on it, the game crashed. The unconcious soldier was up, invisible (yes), with more health than his current maximum, and turned visible if I moved him around.

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Jonaleth: The same thing happens if you carry a stunned alien and it wakes up. When the alien wakes up, the game doesn't alter the soldier carrying the alien to reflect this change. Physically, you no longer have it. But you still have its commands. Clicking on it causes a memory leak and promptly causes a general protection fault and dumps you out of the program.

 

To fix this, just open up the inventory screen, place an item in the affected hand and remove it.

 

- NKF

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  • 2 years later...
I stunned once a Tasoth in a colony, dragged the creature inside the Triton, dust off and even if it was alive when I pressed dust off, it was considered dead after the mission ended. Anyone else with this bug?

 

Question, do you know that spot in the Triton where equipment sits on the floor if you don't equip it to anyone? It's right under the feet of the first aquanaut.

 

I've found that when you put stuff on the floor there, including live aliens, you're able to abscond with it successfully every time.

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I stunned once a Tasoth in a colony, dragged the creature inside the Triton, dust off and even if it was alive when I pressed dust off, it was considered dead after the mission ended. Anyone else with this bug?

 

Question, do you know that spot in the Triton where equipment sits on the floor if you don't equip it to anyone? It's right under the feet of the first aquanaut.

 

I've found that when you put stuff on the floor there, including live aliens, you're able to abscond with it successfully every time.

I hope you know you're replying to a post that's over 2 years old. :)

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There's no big problem with reviving old threads as it could revitalize the discussion. The ones that are a problem occur when an old discussion is resurrected just to insert an unnecessary or inane comment. ;)

 

The entire floor area inside your ship is a recovery zone for equipment, unconscious aliens and for troops, so anything inside the Triton will be recovered when you abort the mission. The equipment pile is the default location any on-board equipment will go if left unequipped, otherwise it works the same as the rest of the area inside the ship.

 

Not recovering something when you get back to the Geoscape portion however may have other causes. In the case of capturing aliens it could be due to afull or damaged containment file or the research is marked as being completed (in the case of Deep Ones).

 

- NKF

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  • 1 month later...

-Medi-Kit (I am NOT sending my boys into the field if they can't heal themselves! That's BS!)

-Particle Disturbance Sensor (I also need to be able to gauge alien troop strength in the area, and where they're coming from.)

-Zrbite (Many manufactured items require Zrbite.)

-Sonic Pistol and Clip (Need more firepower!)

-Sonic Blasta Rifle and Clip (Need MOAR firepowah!!!!)

-Sonic Pulser (Need better grenades, Magna Blast Grenades suck.)

-Deep One corpse and live (To allow me to research Aqua Plastics and thus research armor.)

-Aqua Plastics

-Armor

-Gauss Weaponry (From Pistol to Heavy.)

 

...and I forget the rest. XD But currently, I researched SOMETHING, then I was suddenly able to research the MC Lab. And the Transmission Resolver. So I did those. Time to strengthen the minds of my guys!

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  • 3 weeks later...

That would've been the live Deep One terrorist. Deep Ones and live Calcinites open up the MC Lab. Haven't tested this with the Biodrone Terrorist since I always get the first two ages before these show up. Still, this means you can usually reveal your MC Strength stats a heck of a lot faster than you can in UFO (not counting the rare events where you successfully nab a sectoid leader a few missions in!).

 

The Transmission resolver requires magnetic navigation and Zrbite. The first half is obtained from the Mag. Ion Armor research, and you need Zrbite to move onto the new subs, so another bird killed with the same stone. Good thing too considering the stat (and insane damage modifiers with the lobstermen) handicap you're given in this game.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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  • 1 year later...

My priorties:

 

-Medi-Kit to start with, I don't bother with gauss

-Sonic Pulsar

-Sonic Pistol

-Vibroblade

-Ion Armor

-Transmission Resolver

-MC Lab

-Sonic Oscillator

-Disruptor Pulse Launcher

-Ultimate Craft

 

My favorite loadout is a sonic pistol in one hand and vibroblade in the other with as many sonic pulsars strapped to my shoulders as possible. Of course I can't always research things in that order.

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