47 replies to this topic

[Qwak]

In my saved game, ( The only one, apart from the one of micah's that I downloaded ) I'm in a battlescape mission against a terror ship that was LOADED with evil ethereals.

Within one or two turns, the evil ethereals mind control one of the soldiers standing in the back of the skyranger, and drop:

A: Alien grenade
Or
B: High Explosive

Also, if I ever get out of this mission, I'm stuck. S Africa and China has signed alien pacts, Ethereals and Mutons are rampant ( Usually three saucers at once on the geoscape! ) Hyperwave decoder says they are on supply missions, but I can't find them! And I have no elerium

Should I just start over?

[j'ordos]

Sounds like a fun game! What difficulty are you playing?

Edit: BTW just because a few countries signed a pact doesn't mean the end of you. About those supply missions, just let a craft patrol the area where you lose them, if you dodn't find anything move your patrol point further down the last known trajectory. Eventually you'll find the location of their (one of their? :wink: ) base(s), and you can 1) assault it, and sell the goodies inside for a lot of cash, or 2) attack those supply ships, gives a steady flow of elerium

Edited by j'ordos, 10 August 2003 - 05:49 PM.

[Qwak]

My interceptors can't catch the supply ships. What I'm doing right now is making a bunch of bases with one hanger and one hyper-wave decoder so I don't lose tracking of them. =(

If I ever catch one, though, they should fall easily to twin plasma cannons

I'm on beginner btw.

[j'ordos]

Well, letting the Skyranger patrol the area isn't bad either, if you take out a base that should give you enough Elerium to build a Firestorm (you didn't sell all those Power sources now did you?? :wink: ), which can quickly dispatch of any supply ships (there will be more than one base anyway )

[Qwak]

Just found a base, was just slaughtered by Ethereals.

[Judge_Deadd]

I know... I'm stuck in my game 'cause these nasty Ethereals keep attacking my base...

[j'ordos]

Just found a base, was just slaughtered by Ethereals. 

Use tanks for ethereal bases and just stay in their acces lift thingy sending tanks up and down the elevator each turn until they come (which they always do )

Edited by j'ordos, 11 August 2003 - 04:55 AM.

[miceless]

That tank thing works if you are really in a pinch.

Works for defending a base too. Just make sure you have about several tanks and enough ammo at the base. Might need more tanks if on higher difficulty levels.

I always wait for the snakemen to make themselves a nice base somewhere, and then i label it as my source of Elerium. Any other bases (except Floater) i will try and take out.

[Breunor]

Owak, you said you're building a decoder at each base? I thought it gave you global coverage, or am I remembering it wrong?

[stewart]

In my saved game, ( The only one, apart from the one of micah's that I downloaded   ) I'm in a battlescape mission against a terror ship that was LOADED with evil ethereals.

Within one or two turns, the evil ethereals mind control one of the soldiers standing in the back of the skyranger, and drop:

A: Alien grenade
      Or
B: High Explosive

Also, if I ever get out of this mission, I'm stuck. S Africa and China has signed alien pacts, Ethereals and Mutons are rampant ( Usually three saucers at once on the geoscape! ) Hyperwave decoder says they are on supply missions, but I can't find them! And I have no elerium 

Should I just start over?

Look at it this way. Alien mind control simply means the loss of reaction fire; a big crutch, to be sure, but not THAT bad, if you play around it.

[j'ordos]

Yeah, it's not the end of the game, In my game(superhuman,no alien tech) about 6 have signed a pact with the aliens already, and I lose almost EVERY terror site that comes (muton/ethereal). First encounter with ethereals was quite a pain: terror site. It took them around 3 turns to wipe out my entire squad :o
But I'm still holding out.

[stewart]

The trick to terrorsite is . . . .

SHOOTING DOWN THE D A M N UFO! You should almost never have to visit a terror site, and remember to consider ignoring the ones that get through.



Xcom UFO comes down to this:
If you haven't lost yet then you're winning; plain and simple.

[j'ordos]

Yeah, I can see me shooting down terror ships already with interceptors and human tech (as I said, playing without alien tech here). Maybe it's possible using multiple interceptors and avalaches if the avalanches have greater range than the terror ship weapons. But I rarely spot one, I don't have enough radar coverage I guess...

edit : terror ship range : 336, HP : 1200, avalache range : 60, Damage : 100, ammo : 3/launcher -> no shooting down of terror ships...

edit2 : huh, why is the range of xcom weapons in km, and the alen ship weapon range in ehrm... Something else?

Edited by j'ordos, 11 August 2003 - 10:38 AM.

[stewart]

Terrorship are not very aggressive, at all. Two interceptors with dual av's will do the trick (they don't even have to fight at the same time). For the first interceptor do the first two rounds as cautious. For the third round go in, after it hits disengage. Next interceptor . . .

Only Battleships are aggressive, and only scouts run away.

[j'ordos]

Yeah, I was mistaken, I thought terror ships were 'very large' and those (battleship) just kill my interceptor before I can do anything . But 2 interceptors with 2 avalanches is not enough. (Well, maybe if all shots hit, but the ship ALWAYS outruns my interceptor when it launches it's last avalache missiles (well, not outruns, it just retreats beyond range and flies there so I have to disengage...)

[dipstick]

That is because your interceptors are on normal mode - set them to aggressive just before the launch their last missiles.....

[JSAllison]

Tried a new technique on a couple of sectoid bases, group my folk around the access lifts on the 2d floor. Everyone drops their weapons, grenades, anything that goes 'boom'. Stand around drinking coffee until someone walks into view, pick up weapon, shoot, drop weapon, wash, rinse, repeat. took out three sectoid bases with a total loss of two folk. Two of my folk held mind probes, as each alien comes into view, see who he is, shoot/stun as desired.

Thinking that I'm now hot stuff, then headed over to the local ethereal base, dropped stuff and waited. 20+ turns later, absolutely nothing has happened. Start thinking that maybe it's a floater or other non-psionic race base. Everyone picks up their weapons. Next turn *every*one gets psi-attacked, six get taken over, by end of turn I'm down to 3 survivors out of an initial squad of 10. In the immortal words of King Arthur: "Run away! Run away men!" rtb'd, reloaded, returned, tried again, and this time it worked although on genius level sectopods are pretty tough critters. :o

After a couple of turns I notice that there's quite a pile of bodies below, the same squaddies get controlled/panicked, and it sure seems quiet, yeah, too quiet. So now we leave the weaklings to keeps the ethereals busy controlling them, with a guard or two with stun rods just in case they get uppity, and go hunting with the rest.

I have found though, that taking on sectoids from anything larger than the large scout or ethereals from anything other than the medium scout is asking for a mess, so I shoot em down but otherwise leave them be. And fortunately, the BB launcher doesnt' do vertical and the aliens don't know why. And guess who's not going to tell them?

[NKF]

I've always hated ethereal missions - particularly when I don't know the psi-strength stats of my soldiers.

I don't mind skipping the occasional ethereal ship that I shoot down, but the bases are a real pain.

So how do you get them out of the picture quickly and efficiently?

Simple, perform a surgical strike. This strategy absolutely requires blaster bombs, and will work on any of the alien species you really just can't be bothered to deal with. It can be done with any number of soldiers - from two to a whole batallion.

First you drop down the lifts and scan the immediate area and try to locate the command centre. Don't move too far from where you start. If you haven't located the command centre in a few turns, you'd better get back to the escape pads, dust off and retry the mission after your ship's refueled.

Tanks, if you don't mind risking the chance of losing them or you don't mind leaving them behind (in case you need a hasty retreat), can go deeper into the base to search for the command centre for you.

Once you locate the command centre, have your blaster bombs destroy the four command tables on the first floor. All 16 quarters need to be destroyed. You'll probably need at minimum 3 to 5 blaster bombs for this if you don't get a clear view of the command room (remember, you don't have to go up the lift - you just have to slam the missile into the spot underneath the tables to destroy them. I'd suggest a spot between two tables to save on blaster bombs. Also try to send the bombs through the windows to save breaching the outer wall).

After the tables have been destroyed, initiate your evacuation procedures. Send everyone to the escape pads and dust off. If you managed to kill any ethereals near the lift, you can score a few more points by bringing their equipment back with you. If you stunned an ethereal (and you still haven't got the psi-labs yet), you might do well to drag the unconcious ethereal to the escape pads. When you evacuate, you get to abduct the ethereal as well.

Once you've escaped, the base will be disabled and wiped off the map (no, I don't know why the loss of a few tables can disable the base. 'tis a mystery! ). You'll get the usual 500 points for disabling it + points for any artefacts/corpses/captured aliens you gathered + points for any aliens you killed.

If you're quick, you can probably disable the entire base in 3 - 4 game turns.

Granted, this tactic does not net you the best score or any of the elerium (unless you actively seek it out and gather the pod - which takes too long) or any other of the loot you would have received for wiping out the base defenders. It does however mean that you've just obliterated the base belonging to a very dangerous alien species, which, I think, is the better prize.

By the way, if you find you're having trouble handling swarming sectopods - a great anti-sectopod weapon would be the small launcher's stun bombs. They can knock out multiple sectopods instantly. If you feel this is crazy, I suggest you go and try it first. It won't work 100% of the time, but when it works, the instantaneous effect will speak volumes.

You might have noticed how similar this method is to how you deal with TFTD's alien colonies and artefact sites. It is. Instead of one small synonium device, in UFO, it's sixteen command table quarters.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 28 December 2003 - 07:46 AM.

[Alexander Seil]

Yeah, I can see me shooting down terror ships already with interceptors and human tech (as I said, playing without alien tech here). Maybe it's possible using multiple interceptors and avalaches if the avalanches have greater range than the terror ship weapons. But I rarely spot one, I don't have enough radar coverage I guess...

edit : terror ship range : 336, HP : 1200, avalache range : 60, Damage : 100, ammo : 3/launcher -> no shooting down of terror ships...

edit2 : huh, why is the range of xcom weapons in km, and the alen ship weapon range in ehrm... Something else?

3 Interceptors x 2 launchers x 3 avalanches = 18 possible hits. Terror ships usually take 5-8 hits, I think. In fact, you can shoot down anything short of a battleship with human tech. The only thing that the Firestorm is superior in to the Interceptor is its speed, making it useful for short range interception (particularly for Alien Retaliation missions, since they usually outmaneuver the Interceptors). Its ridiculously tiny range makes it useless for base scans and long-range ship interception, unless you have bases that can cover the entirety of the globe (by that point, you'd be on Mars anyway ) In the long term, Earth tech isn't that bad. I take lasers over plasma all the time, except for replacing autocannons with HPs and launchers with blasters.

[ticklemeozmo]

Use tanks for ethereal bases and just stay in their acces lift thingy sending tanks up and down the elevator each turn until they come (which they always do )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry to revive an old thread, but is this true? I seem to have a Cydonia of a time with Ethereal bases.

My first move is to pack everyone into a green floor and send my tanks out. The Ethereals ALWAYS find my lowest PsiStr guy and Mind Control him on the first or second turn. I usually place him in the far corner of the liftoff zone. How do they see him????? I've accepted the fact that they always go after the lowest PsiStr soldier, however, how in NKF's name do they find him if he's hidden?

I've had to resort to dropping everything on him and having 4 other guys block the lift so he can neither run nor kill. The aliens seem to just love to waste their TUs MCing him (but not the others if they are high enough).

[fux0r666]

>>>>>>
Sorry to revive an old thread, but is this true?
>>>>>>

No, we only tell lies on this thread. It's the opposite thread. ;P

>>>>>>
I've had to resort to dropping everything on him and having 4 other guys block the lift so he can neither run nor kill. The aliens seem to just love to waste their TUs MCing him (but not the others if they are high enough).
>>>>>>

Having MC bait seems like a good idea to me. It's a shame you couldn't arrive at the battlescape with him in shackles and a blindfold. Hehe. You should have an anti psi-training labouratory for churning out low-paid MC monkeys.

[GDD]

hum don't fair towel against them, have to start over myself, and capture one early on, then mind control all the aleins

[GDD]

ok daft idea, how about you give all your units laser rifles, then they can kill the ethills

but if they get MC they can't really kill each other ? well I think its good:P

[NKF]

Laser rifles can punch through power armour. They do 60 laser damage. X-Com soldiers take double damage from laser, so you'd be facing a weapon that can do up to 120 damage.

The front plate of a flying suit could probably soak up most of the damage without any trouble, but the sides and rear will not hold up against a double damage laser rifle very well. And you cannot guarantee you'll always get hit in the front plates.

Laser pistols can still do some damage, but they're a lot less lethal to you than they are to the ethereals. Even the best of ethereals don't wear as much armour as you do, and armour == damage reduction.

With pistols and rifles, even the power suits render them useless. Against ethereals, it'll depend on what difficulty level you're on.

Autocannon HE shells do a whallop of damage to ethereals, but against you, as long as it's not a direct hit, you're practically immune to the explosive effects in power armour.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 12 August 2004 - 10:45 PM.

[Paladin]

As always, I must agree with NKF (he always beats me to the explanation ) I still use my heavy plasmas when dealing with Sectoids or Ethereals, but only on my more Psi-resistant guys... The weakest always end up being MCed anyway, so I leave them with a laser pistol or stun rod (and NO grenades)
Problem solved ::

[Chris StarShade]

Ugh... I am prepping for the final mission. All research complete. And, what happens? TWO Ethereal Battleships decide they're going to screw over Brazil with infiltration. So, I send my Avenger to the one that actually landed in Brasilia.

Oh man... 5 soldiers and 3 tanks lost. And no, they were not killed by the etherials. Oh man! ;_; At least I beat it, but gah! Pyrrhic victory.

And still, there is the problem of the OTHER battleship...

If they do an infiltration on a city that is not in one of the funding nations, can that affect your funding?

[SupSuper]

And still, there is the problem of the OTHER battleship...

If they do an infiltration on a city that is not in one of the funding nations, can that affect your funding?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i believe ALL cities belong to some funding nation, even if it doesn't look like it. you'll notice it by the end of the month
and it also effects your score, so you better make up for it.

[NKF]

If you mean can they affect a city that is in a country that's already signed over with the aliens, then the answer is no. Which is great, because the aliens have just gone and infiltrated a country that they've already infiltrated. There's a serious lack of communication somehwere amongst the alien ranks (I mean, they even forget where your bases are after one of their base assault teams gets clobbered on the ground).

The area-activity score caused by the UFOs in that country will still worry its neighbours a bit, but it's not too serious. .

- NKF

[Paladin]

If you mean can they affect a city that is in a country that's already signed over with the aliens, then the answer is no. Which is great, because the aliens have just gone and infiltrated a country that they've already infiltrated. There's a serious lack of communication somehwere amongst the alien ranks (I mean, they even forget where your bases are after one of their base assault teams gets clobbered on the ground).

The area-activity score caused by the UFOs in that country will still worry its neighbours a bit, but it's not too serious. .

- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, IMO I rationalize it by thinking that they probably still need to "maintain" their alliance to that particular country, and they could use it to "convince" the neighbors...
"-Mr ambassador, how nice to see you today.
-Always a pleasure, Mr President, may I present you our new best friend...
-Err, what's with the Orange cloak??
-[YoU WiLL NoW SeRvE Us, PuNy HuMaN!!]
-(Drool) Yes... Master..."




(Edit) Whoooo!!!! I made my 100th post today!!
:birthday: :happybanana:

Edited by Paladin, 16 August 2004 - 07:41 AM.

[Chris StarShade]

They haven't "already signed over" I mean, Mexico City doesn't count as "USA" does it? heh heh

It wasn't Mexico City though, it was some place near Brazil but not in Brazil. I'm hoping the worst it does is make 'em cut their funding a tad. I really don't need them being a pain in the arse right now. I need that money to maintain my bases.

[Paladin]

They haven't "already signed over" I mean, Mexico City doesn't count as "USA" does it?  heh heh

It wasn't Mexico City though, it was some place near Brazil but not in Brazil.  I'm hoping the worst it does is make 'em cut their funding a tad.  I really don't need them being a pain in the arse right now.  I need that money to maintain my bases.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No it does'nt, but Mexico is still pretty close from texas, where G.W.Bush is in his ranch half the time...

Seriously, though, I think the infiltration missions merely need to be in the same general area than a country...

[Cpl. Facehugger]

I've just reread this thread, and I'm simply appaled! I mean, not only do you guys bomb the command center, you don't even bother to hunt down the remaining Etherials!

I actually perfer Etherial missions to just about all other missions (especially floater bases. I have an irrational fear of Reapers, after one ate nine of my men in three turns.)

[Sergio]

Couldn't agree more CPl Facehugger.
"KIll them all"
You can use a variety of strategies when attacking an Ethereal Base. One should not leave until the mission ends.
Fear of them is not helpfull. Sure there will be some casualties but it is a war.

[NKF]

Depends on what your objectives in the mission are. Besides, the mission is over when the base is wiped from the Geoscape. Either by disabling its command centre, or killing all its occupants. Each method has its advantage and its disadvantage.

Killing all the enemies for fun and glory is fine and everything, but if proceeding just leads to the loss of most of your good soldiers. Unless it's a perfect sweep, even if you defeated the base in the end, it would be quite a shallow victory.

Me, I just want to get rid of a very difficult alien race as quickly as posible. No sense in trying to crush a boulder with an egg.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 16 August 2004 - 11:39 PM.

[Paladin]

I've just reread this thread, and I'm simply appaled! I mean, not only do you guys bomb the command center, you don't even bother to hunt down the remaining Etherials!

I actually perfer Etherial missions to just about all other missions (especially floater bases. I have an irrational fear of Reapers, after one ate nine of my men in three turns.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean a reaper actually managed to kill one of your guys?? :o
The worse that happenned to me was losing a tank... not much danger here...
I mean, Reapers are SO easy to deal with, and they don't even fit through single doors...

In Ethereal bases, you got the Sectopod, which is Far more dangerous than the Reaper IMO (even if laser helps to even the odds... )

Then again, it's all a question of preference...

[Paladin]

Depends on what your objectives in the mission are. Besides, the mission is over when the base is wiped from the Geoscape. Either by disabling its command centre, or killing all its occupants. Each method has its advantage and its disadvantage. 

Killing all the enemies for fun and glory is fine and everything, but if proceeding just leads to the loss of most of your good soldiers. Unless it's a perfect sweep, even if you defeated the base in the end, it would be quite a shallow victory. 

Me, I just want to get rid of a very difficult alien race as quickly as posible. No sense in trying to crush a boulder with an egg.

- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree, I always TRY to fniish the base, unless I'm fighting a losing battle, (like, Ethereal base before you know your guy's PSI... ), in wich case it's more an issue of minimising the losses, because any amount of profit pales compared to the loss of a good soldier...

[j'ordos]

I've just reread this thread, and I'm simply appaled! I mean, not only do you guys bomb the command center, you don't even bother to hunt down the remaining Etherials!

I actually perfer Etherial missions to just about all other missions (especially floater bases. I have an irrational fear of Reapers, after one ate nine of my men in three turns.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and you don't have an (ir)rational fear of etherials/sectopods after they slaughter your entire squad in 2 turns?

[Paladin]

Yeah, I can't see how one could be so afraid of those cute, dumb, flamable leapfrogs that are supposed to be "Terrorists"...
Especially compared to even ONE Ethereal :o Imagine 20...

[Cpl. Facehugger]

I've just reread this thread, and I'm simply appaled! I mean, not only do you guys bomb the command center, you don't even bother to hunt down the remaining Etherials!

I actually perfer Etherial missions to just about all other missions (especially floater bases. I have an irrational fear of Reapers, after one ate nine of my men in three turns.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and you don't have an (ir)rational fear of etherials/sectopods after they slaughter your entire squad in 2 turns?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nope. I've never lost more than three men to a Sectopod at once. It's like I know that sectopods are dangerous, so I'm careful around them. But I know reapers are not dangerous, so I get cocky.

[Paladin]

The only way I can imagine a Reaper to be dangerous is when I don't have the time to take care of it at the end of the turn, and it's used to point and shoot a blaster bomb at me...
Nothing much to be afraid of in any case.
C'mon, you can get cocky all you want around those, as long as you carry HE-Autocannons

[cheeses-of-nazareth]

.............................................. this tactic does not net you the best score or any of the elerium (unless you actively seek it out and gather the pod - which takes too long)
- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

how do you gather the elerium pod?

I thought you were just awarded 50 units of elerium per intact power unit you recover

ps - the "tables" you describe are alien navigation units

Edited by cheeses-of-nazareth, 25 October 2004 - 03:56 AM.

[Arjuna]

I've killed reapers with bullets. BULLETS!!! From rifles and pistols, not even heavy cannon! And I've only ever lost one soldier to a reaper, back in 1994 (real time, not game time obviously) when I was about eight years old.

And one way to avoid losing soldiers is to constantly save/load. Save at the start of each turn and load when someone gets iced. Failsafe, unless you screw up somehow. Since it's the start of the turn, you can avoid maneuvering your hapless rogues into alien ambushes. Plus, this way you can use them as spotters for your blasters. It's cheap, but it works.

Another, more honorable way is to name your soldiers after either yourself or people you know. You'll be more motivated to defend them if they're your friends. But then you have that problem of "Oh my God, my girlfriend got shot!"

[NKF]

I know, in superhuman it takes about 2 - 3 full pistol clips just to kill one Reaper!

Whenever I do play X-Com, I spend most of it just playing my Solo Floater Base Assault with A Pistol and Handful of Grenades Challenge. It's madness I tell you, but I find it to be more enjoyable than actually playing the game properly. So if you ever have this irrational desire to take on a superhuman floater base or battleship all by yourself and a pistol (and without saving/reloading), be absolutely sure to bring more than 15 pistol clips. Don't carry them all. That would be silly.

(Sorry, you just set me off there. Have calmed down a bit now. )

Um, now why didn't I answer Cheeses-of-Nazareth's questions back in october? Oh, right, there was a different thread.

- NKF

[erasmus_b_dragon]

Depends on what your objectives in the mission are. Besides, the mission is over when the base is wiped from the Geoscape. Either by disabling its command centre, or killing all its occupants. Each method has its advantage and its disadvantage.

Killing all the enemies for fun and glory is fine and everything, but if proceeding just leads to the loss of most of your good soldiers. Unless it's a perfect sweep, even if you defeated the base in the end, it would be quite a shallow victory.

Me, I just want to get rid of a very difficult alien race as quickly as posible. No sense in trying to crush a boulder with an egg.

- NKF

Well, if you capture a live ethereal, that's really the end of the game for the aliens (after you build PSI LABS etc.), so maybe it's worth it to leave the base alone a while so you can grab one from one of their downed ships. That might arguably be worth losing 10 soldiers. You won't really know how good your troops are until you get them PSI-trained anyway.

If you destroy/disable an ethereal base immediately, how long would you have to wait to get a PSI-capable alien?

[Admiral Harkov]

I think a large scout is enough to get that. I think in my last game in superhuman (had been taking a long break in the middle) I found a live psionic capable sectoid during my first month (also a navigator), and if I haven't been able to train psi until May it's because the economical status prevented me from building the psi labs any sooner, though I did get the hyperwave decoder, hence so far I just avoid ethereal missions. Weird, though, that in one it took three turns to see they were ethereals I only got one soldier attacked once (and resisted) within the six turns that took to look out, find two ethereals, kill one, stun the other, return with the live alien to the skyranger and dust off.

But I'm with xcomutils, so the superhuman bug should have been solved and be playing in true superhuman.

As for beginner level, I didn't find them to be such an incredible pain. Sure, they were and I used to get one or two soldiers MC'ed, but they never stopped me, even in base assault missions. I went all the way to Cydonia and killed their hive mother without having hyperwave decoders or even psi training. Well, the Cydonia mission was a massacre, I went with the whole 20 soldier + 1 hovertank and in the end I had only five guys standing, but only two losses were due to MC'ed soldier (which I killed, as my policy in that game was to shoot at controlled soldiers, "if your MC'ed you're no longer in our side and are considered for all accounts as one more alien, sorry bye.").

Edited by Admiral Harkov, 02 January 2011 - 07:16 AM.

[erasmus_b_dragon]

.....though I did get the hyperwave decoder, hence so far I just avoid ethereal missions......

How many points do you lose/gain, and how many do aliens lose/gain, if you shoot down a ship over land and decide not to assault it on the ground?

[NKF]

There's a table of the shoot-down values on the wiki that you can look up for the specific values:

http://www.ufopaedia...ng#Interception

- NKF

[erasmus_b_dragon]

There's a table of the shoot-down values on the wiki that you can look up for the specific values:

http://www.ufopaedia...ng#Interception

- NKF

Thanks.

Sounds like the penalty for not assaulting a downed UFO is:

Each UFO that lands (per 30 mins) 2. (If you shoot it down over water the message says it "crash lands" but it sinks of course.)

It's hard to tell for sure, since AFAIK there is no detailed scoring log.

So the worst case is that an ethereal in a small scout is downed (although I have never seen an ethereal in one), you get 50 for shooting it down, and lose 2x48=96 (where 48 is the number of 30-minute periods it remains on the ground). You lose 1 point for every 30 minutes it is flying, whether or not you assault it on the ground. Not a severe penalty at all; in fact by shooting down larger ships you should come out ahead.

I think this comment needs a correction:

However, it is actually impossible to destroy a Supply Ship, Terror Ship or Battleship, unless you use a game editor.

It should say. "However, it is actually impossible to destroy a Supply Ship, Terror Ship or Battleship, in the air unless you use a game editor." If you down these ships over water, they sink. For purposes of scoring though, it is only considered "destroyed" if you destroy it in the air.

Edited by erasmus_b_dragon, 04 January 2011 - 04:03 PM.