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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

What's the Second thing you Research


Guest stewart

  

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Yeah, I always research laser tech up to laser rifle, then I research alien grenades if possible. Then medikits and then alien alloys and personal armor. Then Heavy plasma+clip and then plasmacannon for interceptors.
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I don't particularly have any set starting research order, though I would say that my general research priority for all the X-Com games is to focus on armour first, weapons, and finally misc but not important tools. Though I try to slot the medikit in between projects early on, as it's useful with or without armour. I leave the motion scanner for much later, since I only ever build one or two for the main troop transport, so I'm not in too much of a hurry to get it. It's useful, but I treat it as an optional luxury item.

So, of the three starting technologies, my order of priorty would probably be:

1. Laser tech -> l. pistol -> l. rifle
2. Medikit
3. Heavy laser -> craft laser
4. Motion scanner

When I get a sample of alien alloys, I'd slot it in before or after the medikit then research it up to personal armour. Though I say that I focus on armour first, it's easier to get the first two laser weapons before moving on to armour.

- NKF
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  • 1 month later...
Really? I'll trade games with you. :D

Fatal wounds are easily patched with the Medkit. It'll restore the wound, and 3HP. So, it's technically possible to heal someone back to full health with it. I've done it once, too. It'll only heal if there are fatal wounds, though.
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[quote name='blehm' date='Feb 20 2004, 02:04 PM']they are killing my flying suit guys with 1 hit now :([/quote]
Of course. Heavy plasma, alien grenade and blaster launcher kills an soldier with flying suit with one shot.
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
First I research laser weapons and then laser pistols. Both are easily researched since they require few scientist man hours. And laser pistol is a good improvement over the stock rifles. And this gives your engineers something to do.

Next I research a navigator and hyperwave decoders. I figure this will pay itself back in cash from selling alien artifacts from additional ufo's that would not have been detected.

Then it is heavy plasma and clip followed by plasma cannons.

After that I go down the avenger tech path and stop only to research personal armor and power suit since they follow a similar tech path as the Avenger.
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Anyway, I find it strange to ask what's the SECOND thing we reasearch... it always depends.
I for one, usually reasearch either laser weapons or medkits, up until my first downed UFO, in wich case it's Alien alloys time, to get the first Personal Armors ASAP...
:D
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[quote name='Paladin' date='Aug 14 2004, 09:24 PM']Anyway, I find it strange to ask what's the SECOND thing we reasearch... it always depends.
I for one, usually reasearch either laser weapons or medkits, up until my first downed UFO, in wich case it's Alien alloys time, to get the first Personal Armors ASAP...
:D
[right][post="90495"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]
it's explained in the subtitle, first there only are three choices :)
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Laser Weapons. My first few missions don't net enough plasma weapons to fully equip my squad, so I go with the Lasers. They require no special materials to construct, so I never have to worry about running out of Elerium.

The first thing I research is the medi-kit. There is NOTHING more irritating than losing a man because of those annoying fatal wounds.


After I get my laser rifles, I stop to check on how many plasma guns I have accumulated, and research the one I've gotten the most ammo for.

As far as armor is concerned, personal armor sucks. I ensure that the first armor my troops get is the Power Suit.
It might cost elerium, but it ROCKS compared to the personal armor. In my experience, personal armor is more decorative than effective. Most of the time, they die after one shot anyway. Edited by Chris StarShade
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Yeah, but at least they got a better chance to survive than with nothing at all... even 25% is better than 5%...
It takes so long to get the Power armor that by that time I've enough personal armors for all my guys, and then rookies inherit the PArmors... still better than T-Shirts...
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Guys,I saw on the USG,that the medikit is USELESS early games.Why? it makes sense to me bcoz your soldier will never survive against [b]plasma rifle[/b] attack.Reason is early games your soldier is equipped with NO armour.If the plasma hits your soldier,99.9% that soldier dies instantly,Bingo! Bam! Woila!

Medikits truly shines when you research [b]alien alloy[/b] and get your troops [b]personal armour[/b],followed by power suit and flying suit. ^_^

To me the best way is to research:

1.) Motion Scanner
2.) Laser tech
3.) Medikit
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Yeah, my order is more like
1) Medkit
2) PArmor
3) LaserWeapons/pistols/rifles
4) MotionScanner
5) Heavy plasma
and so on... :D

Because if Idon't HAVE a med kit when one is needed, I'll regret it...

Then again, you DO have more chances to survive at easier difficulty levels, in beginner your guys often survive a plasma pistol shot, and PArmor will help a lot with those.
In superhuiman though, you'll see about 1 plasma pistol for every 10 Heavy plasmas, and they'll all diseapper after six months :D
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  • 2 months later...
And just to add to the point out that medikits DO count in the early games:

Weapon damage is [i]random[/i]. Okay, it's random and it's also [i]doubled[/i] when it hits X-Com units, but it's still random.

Every life saved means a smaller negative score.

- NKF
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  • 2 months later...
Laser Pistols - low TU cost, decent resale value, no ammo limit, and most importantly, it is compareable to the Rifles you start with in terms of power. Accuracy kinda sucks, but it's a pistol - I usually replace all of the Rifles with these, and hand one out to my Heavy Cannoneers and Auto Cannoneers.

Another advantage is that they free up a lot of room in a soldier's inventory - I usually have a team of two soldiers collecting alien corpses and artifacts and dumping them into the ship; in case I have to bug out at least I got something for my efforts.
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This is an easy one. Since I always research Laser Weapons first, the only logical second project is the Laser Pistol. It doesn't take too long to research and it offers quite a few benefits over what you are using up till then.
1) The Laser Pistol has unlimited ammunition.
2) LP damage = 46, normal rifle damage = 30
3) Fewer TU to shoot than the rifle.

I'd have to say that the Laser Pistol is the recipe for rookies. It has just about everything a rookie could need to become better. :D
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  • 1 month later...
Motion Scanner or Medkit first, Laser Weapon second.

I know, sometimes I'd choose a few Plasma Cannons for my Interceptors over the money gleaned by selling Laser Cannons to the IRA, but with the money I can set up more bases quicker.

There was a freak game on Beginner when I got a Retaliation right after my first UFO. o_O;;; I tried rushing the Psi techt-tree, but it was rather unwieldy. I managed to train my soldiers [i]really[/i] good, though.
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  • 10 months later...
Lazer pistols...but basically only as a stepping stone to Lazer Rifles.....if I'm a little lucky i can have at least half my squad equipped with lazer rifles before i encounter that first dreaded terror scenario ..Sectiods n Cyberdiscs ughhh

Heh I still remember the first time I saw a cyberdisc i laffed @ the thing that looked like a flying Aspirin...till it kicked my donkey...then i got really scared of em
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  • 4 months later...
I think you can have priorities going in, but be flexible based on how your game is going. My current game (I'm still new, this is my third game, and the second "ironman", with no reloads, on genius level) I started with laser weapons, laser pistol, then laser rifle. Started on alloys and then medi-kit, but lucked out capturing a Sectoid leader in mid-march. I finished what I was working on, but then all efforts are toward psi. Psi means less armor needed, and it will be way easier to find and capture a navigator for the HWD also.
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For me it goes like this:

 

#1 - Laser Weapons

#2 - Medikits

#3 - Motion Scanners

 

Reason: The reason I do lasers first is so I can get more powerful weapons earlt hopefully before my first terror mission. I don't know if you noticed but for me Heavy cannons and auto cannons are pathetic against reapers and cyberdiscs for me lasers work best after I get lasers I sometimes don't deploy plasma weapons on the field because I can kill most anything with 2-3 laser rifle hits I had a few games I research plasma for plasma cannon but went to Cydonia with laser weapons and I won. Medikits afterwards because unless you have personal armor it's unlikely theres gonna be enough of bob to heal so until you start outfitting with armor medikits are useless. And Motion scanners last because to me they aren't that useful I seem to pick up my agents more then I do the enemy but their somewhat useful in finding that last alien.....sometimes.

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  • 2 years later...
My usual tatic is to research laser up to cannons then switch to plasma rifle and clip to unlock plasma cannons. Having my Interceptors equiped with PC by the second month allows a more aggressive approch towards large ships. The laser Rifle is my bread and butter weapon till there's enough Plasma rifles and heavy Plasma weapons to equip my strike team without running into reequip issues. Edited by pixiking
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