Long-range Beam-down?

[Tsereve]

Because Probes and Scouts are unmanned, they can't drop aliens, right? Then how come I haven't seen a Transporter all game, but keep getting alerts all over town? Every other day, 3 Scouts and 2 Probes visit the city. Could that have something to do with it?

[[NKF]]

The probes and scouts are unmanned, true enough, but they can still carry a small payload of multiworm eggs and a few egg guardians. The ship itself has no defenders or pilots.

 

As long as you see the scout make a unit drop anywhere in the city, go right to the building an investigate. Leave it alone and you'll start getting alerts.

 

- NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

how do you see it drop units?

[[NKF]]

Easy, just pause a lot and centre on each of the 'scout' UFO (or any other UFO that carries troops). This way you can keep track of every troop transport that enters the city.

 

When one uses a white beam on a building, it's inserting troops into the building. (If it's blue, it's micronoid rain - no troops in those, and there's a possible chance of immediate defection)

 

When troops are dropped, you should send in a squad and investigate as soon as you can (within the next few game minutes). I generally send in a vehicle without troops to mark the buildings so that I can remember where they were. I then wait for the UFOs to evacuate from the city, or until any air skirmishes have died down before sending out the troop transport.

 

Failing to investigate immediately can cause a lot of chaos with lots of aliens spreading to nearby buildings. This can be a real headache to deal with.

 

- NKF

[[dipstick]]

On the easier levels I tend to leave them occassionally if the targetted organisation has not been infiltrated too badly - I especially do this if my men need some R&R in the medical bay

[NickAragua]

Yeah, ditto on what NKF said. On harder difficulty levels, it seems like the aliens spread to nearby building really quickly (within cityscape minutes), so, to be on the safe side, I investigate the surrounding buildings as well.

[[Blehm 98]]

wait, what level ufo's have micronoid rain? Amd, don't people get mad if you investigate their buildings and find nothing?

[[dipstick]]

nah, they don't get too angry, and use save and reload if you are worried...

[[Blehm 98]]

Well, which ships have it though?(still can't bring down that one fast attack ship. had no trouble with the transport, but i have lost 2 hawk air warriors to the stupid attack ships )

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Bombers, Battleships, Escorts, and Motherships all have micronoid rain, as far as I can tell. But by the time motherships start showing up, I usually have two to three fully equipped annhilators waiting for them. Most of the time they don't get a chance to urinate upon mega primus. (I'm convinced that the Micronoid rain must be alien urine, that contains micronoids obviously.)

[Tuoppi]

Micronoid rain? Mysterious. I've assumed that the blue rain is just a different coloured transport beam, i have never had a company infiltrated instantly, just that after a drop there are so many aliens that infiltration happens within hours. I have seen few times that beaming thing and "rain" and no troops in target building though. Some UFO types i have never seen to the "normal beam" (Bomber -> Mothership) but they do drop troops.

[[NKF]]

The white beam will definitely drop troops into the building. The blue sparkly beam will either instantly make the company 100% infiltrated, or it does nothing - which is fine by me. However it never drops troops into the building.

 

- NKF

Edited August 19, 2004 by NKF