Guide To Tactical Missions

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

Throughout my experience in the game, I have concluded that aliens appear in certain places in certain missions (there is little randomness involved). I think it is possible to deal with the "last alien" situation with ease if you know where the aliens "generally" are. So I'll post my general experience with tactical missions here to aid those that need it.

 

I will classify aliens in two categories: soldiers and terrorists. By soldiers I mean the alien race that is conducting the attack or defending the sub. The terrorists are the ones accompanying the soldiers. Below is a list of soldiers and their terrorists:

 

Aquatoids: Calcinite (terror), Jellyfish (sub)

Gillmen: Deepone (terror), Xarquid (sub)

Lobstermen: Biodrones (terror)

Tasoth: Triscene (terror), Tentaculat (sub)

 

GENERAL RULES ABOUT TERROR SITES ON LAND:

-Lots of open ground, especially on islands. Does not mean a high vantage point gives you sniping advantages, there are lots of buildings (even on islands) and they block your way. Aliens have a tendency to hide in buildings and the ones that don't are dispatched rather quickly. I do not advise bringing heavy close quarter weapons, but a few would be nice. There are ALWAYS those aliens that hide in cramped situations, standing still and lying in wait.

-Soldiers and terrorists patrol LOTS. Except for corridor sluts and sniper ones, all soldiers cover a lot of ground, because of the non cramped environment. I suggest scouting with a few soldiers and keeping the rest ready to fire.

-Lots of chances to use thermal shock launchers. You can even get three aliens at once if you get them with their pants down. Another good thing about thermal shock launchers is that you can knock down civilians, preventing the aliens from killing them and getting them out of your way (civilians block the way, sometimes)

 

GENERAL RULES ABOUT TERROR SITES ON SHIPS:

-Lots of corridors and rooms compared to terror sites on land. Weapons like thermal shock launchers are not that effective and melee weapons usually kick donkey.

-All soldiers act the same but terrorists patrol differently. Biodrones patrol wider areas (if they do patrol at all) while deepones play hide and seek. Aliens also hang out together in ship missions, it's not surprising to see three aliens lined up inside a corridor.

-Triscence messes some things up because it's a four squared terrorist. They usually get stuck somewhere. Though I can't verify this, I don't think they move at all until they see you.

-General rule of thumb is to step inside every little room/shower/cabinet you want to search because revealing is not the same as seeing in most situations.

 

TERROR SITE: Cargo Ship

Part One

-There are two different ship attacks, one is passanger ship, the other is cargo ship. It is totally random which one you get, and if you have difficulty with a particaular one, load before you entered the terror site and you may get the other one (i think the game tosses a coin in this case). The cargo ship is the one where you have more room around your Triton and can move out quicker.

-Right next to your Triton (south east of it), among the barrels/crates, there is an alien soldier/terrorist. It hides there to shoot your back when you try to climb the stairs.

-On fourth level, you can see the top of the captain's tower (the thing that has a 4 square elevator up to it). There is a soldier waiting there (it stays there to fire on your soldiers that try to get out of your triton). IMPORTANT NOTE: I have found out something SERIOUSLY annoying, involving the elevator that goes up to the level I described and Bio-Drones. Bio-Drones destroy the path they hover on, including elevators. The elevator will NOT WORK if a Bio-Drone spawns on this level and moves around that area. The Bio-Drone will also explode upon death, again ruining the elevator (so you cannot get to that level if others survive the explosion). Since it's the top-most level and Bio-Drones can't fly up to get out of it, the situation is EXTREMELY annoying. Either bombard the place with grenades or... I dunno... Really...

-When you climb the single stairs south of your triton to the deck-like area, you will see a lot of barrels/crates. Among them, a soldier (or two) is waiting.

-On the same level, around the captain's tower, there are a couple of terrorists wandering around.

-Going south west from the barrels described above, there are three storage shed-like buildings (green, red and grey). Either in one of them or wandering about them is a terrorist.

-The area described above is at the south western end of the map, but it's the south side. On the north side of it, directly south west of captain's tower, there is a terrorist (if you have tasoth, there is almost always a triscence here, probably stuck).

-The lowest level is probably the hardest to describe, but here it goes. Directly south west of the tip of your Triton there is a door (with another door behind it). Enter this room and there is another door south east of it (opening into a room with no door, some barrels and crates). Inside this room there is usually a soldier (it may have wandered off).

-The door directly west of your Triton opens up into a room with nothing but barrels. If you fire at the barrels, you can get to the room with a "one square" elevator (this will also lead to the area below the captain's tower).

-All levels of the captain's tower are constantly patrolled by soldiers/terrorists.

-The one square corridors at the lowest level (in the middle of the ship) always have at least one soldier in them. It is also possible to get terrorists/soldiers lined up here. My best advice is not to use doors leading to these corridors but open up holes in walls.

-South west of the corridors, you have rooms. In the northwestern room, there is always a soldier (sometimes it has its back to you so you can kill it easily).

-South west of the rooms, you have a second single spaced corridor. At the south eastern end of this corridor, there are two doors. One opens up into a room, the other, to the cargo area. A soldier (or two) is constantly patrolling in/out of the room and the cargo area.

 

Part Two:

-This part is hard at the beginning, parkwalk once you get out of the initial cramped situation. Melee weapons are really useful here.

-Directly north and east of where you begin, 3rd and 4th levels, there are balconies. On these balconies you will have terrorists (if they are ranged ones, they will pretty much nail you down and keep you from moving out). The game sometimes spawns soldiers here, albeit rarily.

-A little north east of where you begin, on second level, standing on a ledge of sorts (with only a single spaced stairway going up to it) stands a soldier (equipped with a sonic cannon most probably). This one prevents you from moving out.

-Directly above your start location (2nd, 3rd and 4th levels) you have lots of coloured storage sheds. In them you usually have one or two terrorists (that wait for you to move out and take you by surprise).

-Northeast of where you begin, there is a long wall (that almost covers the whole ship with a gap on the northwest side of it). Before you get to this wall, there is a grey shed (with a single spaced stair leading to the top of the shed). There is almost always a terrorist here which moves down at first opportunity and hides within the storage shed thingies a little north of where you start. If you can keep it from doing that, you have the upper hand.

-After that wall, there is a section with a four spaced elevator in the middle of it. Aliens from upper levels use this elevator to peek down, see if they can get free kills, then go back up. You may encounter one/two soldiers here depending on what the aliens are up to.

-The green carpet covered level above the elevator part of the ship has many storage sheds, but they are rarely used by aliens. Early in the mission, there are mostly certainly two soldiers around here, one carrying a sonic cannon, the other carrying a thermal shock launcher. The sonic cannon one periodically goes back and forth between this green carpet area and the third section of the ship (the third section is the north eastern end of the ship, separated by the second long wall). You may also encounter a terrorist here, but this is not consistent (I have met with Triscences here and sometimes Biodrones but not all the time).

-The third part of the ship (the northeastern part) has the engine room and the crew bedrooms (I think) on higher levels. On level one, before you enter the engine room, you have to walk through a barrel filled hall. Soldiers from the engine room periodically check this hall. The problem is when they fire at you and miss, you will have explosions all around you. My advice is to fire at some barrels before you enter this hall.

-Use the northwestern door to peek into the engine room. You will most probably spot soldiers/terrorists right away. A terrorist is most probably standing atop the stairs closest to you. At the far end of the engine room, near the northwestern engine is a soldier. Between this engine and the one next to it, there is another soldier. If you have been MCed up until your way here, you will find the MC alien in this room.

-On the third level atop the engine room, you have strange little rooms. If you climbed the northwestern stairs up to here, there is a little room directly southeast of the stairs. Inside is a soldier with its back to you.

-On the forth level atop the engine room, you have crew bedrooms (sort of). They are connected by a two spaced corridor. There is a terrorist standing in the corridor (rarely patrols, always waits there for opportunity shots). The terrorist is facing southeast, so it's better to climb the northwestern stairs.

 

 

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TERROR SITE: Islands

-Terror sites on land have random generated maps to drive you crazy, but fortunately, the buildings or certain areas are always there, they are just placed randomly and the gaps are filled through.

-The island terror sites have single spaced corridor structures below land on level one. There are two of these, one of them has only one enterance and the corridor leads to a dead end. Waiting at the enterance of this one is a terrorist, deep into the corridor at the dead end, there is a soldier. You may find the soldier standing near the terrorist at the enterace. Lucky kill if it is there, if not, kll the terrorist at the enterance and leave the soldier inside because it can reaction fire kill you easily. Kill other aliens and get this soldier to panic, then revisit it.

-The second underground corridor has two enterances, one of them opens up into a building. The ground enterance is guarded by a terrorist while the building is guarded/patrolled by a soldier. Often this building is close to your triton and the soldier climbs on top of the building to snipe at your soldiers.

-There are statues that usually spawn towards the southwestern edge of the map (the ones that resemble big human heads). Hiding behind/among the statues are terrorists/soldiers. I am sorry I can't be clear about this, because the aliens that are here like patrolling around. I once saw two terrorists three soldiers next to the statues area. I thought all of them had come out of the statues, then I realised one soldier had stayed behind to hide among them. The best way tp approach the statues is to use an alternate way towards them rather than "straight from Triton" to the statues. The aliens are facing towards the Triton to reaction fire kill you.

-There is a big building (the biggest on the island) that was 4 levels. There are two enterances to it on level 1, southeast and northwest. The southeast enterance opens up into a bar like area with some tables inside. Usually standing behind the bar, ready to serve your drink, is a soldier. I suggest using the northwest enterance because the soldier is facing the southeast door. After taking that one out, you will climb to level 2 of the same building. You may find a soldier here, waiting near the stairway, but it may have gone upstairs to join the terrorist that is near level 3 stairway. The soldier rarely ever goes into the rooms, so don't bother checking there. After taking out the terrorist on level 3, you can climb to the roof to meet the sniper soldier there (this one gives you heck until you can get into the building).

-The other buildings are not tricky most of the time, all you have to do is execute standard building enterance procedure and you should be fine.

 

 

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TERROR SITE: Port City

-Again, this map is not a fixed one and is random placing of certain buildings. Still, the sea will always be the south eastern edge of the map. A fence runs parallel to the sea, aking sort of a big corridor over the entire south eastern part of the map. In this corridor, there is usually 1-2 gray walled sheds that are six squares big. A terrorist hides in one of these sheds, and if there is a door on the fence nearby, it will patrol out and run back. There is also a soldier in this corridor, yet while the terrorist is guaranteed, I do not think the soldier is common (it may be moving out and joining the battle because of a long patrol range).

-If there are any towers (the four levelled structures with stairs going up in a helix around them) near your landing point, watch out when you are leaving your transport. There is usually a soldier armed with rifle/cannon here. Take it out with some ranged weapon, because usually there is a civilian occupying the stairs (unless killed by the alien), denying the access to climb to the top. If panicked, this alien tends to run into the room on the third level of that tower.

 

-A building worthy of notice is a big white walled one that has four levels. The first level has three rooms: the north eastern one is a small garage (with a grey garage door on the south eastern edge), the middle has some crates and stairs going up, and the south western part looks like a small office with lockers inside. This building usually spawns on the north eastern side of your triton.

This building also has something like a backyard on the north western side of it. It is surrounded by a fence, there are a couple of those yellow machines in the backyard, along with some barrels. A terrorist patrols between this backyard and the office like room (the one with the lockers). If this building is close to your triton (usually is), you may get a deep one surprise pretty soon.

There are also usually two soldiers on the second and third levels of this while building (sometimes three). They patrol between levels, and have been known to hide between objects (between the crates and stuff). A LIVE CIVILIAN DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THERE IS NO ALIEN ON THAT LEVEL. I have had SEVERAL instances where the alien would hide between the crates on the second level and NOT kill the civilian near it. Doesn't have anything to do with pity or panicking, they just sometimes ignore civilians. The garage RARELY has any aliens in it (I have NEVER seen an alien go there).

 

-A small interesting building is a 7 by 7 (as far as I can recall) grey walled shed filled with crates (so much that the crates actually make a single spaced corridor). Inside this shed you will usually meet a terrorist, deep ones and bio drones LOVE hiding here. I suggest close combat weapons, because of the bio drone possibility.

 

-An interesting building is a brick walled rectangular one that stretches on the north east - south west direction. It's easy to notice, I think it has two garage doors (two spaced doors) on both north west and south east walls. There is a soldier that patrols between these two doors, and he may get out and join the fight if he spots you during the fight outside. When you get inside, you will see two stairs going up, one on the north side of the building, the outher on the south, both will get you to the floor/ledge north east side of the second floor. South east of this ledge, there is a door that leads to a room. Usually in this room, there is a soldier taking advantage of the window and assisting the fight outside the building. Rarely will this one come down to help in the actual fighting though.

 

-Another building with a backyard is a northwest - southeast stretching one with white walls. This building is not that big (11x5 or something) and it is divided into two rooms. The northwestern room looks like the office described before, and may house a terrorist. The southeastern room is filled with crates and usually has a civilian inside (this civilian gets killed most of the time).

Northeast of this building is a backyard surrounded by a fence. There are barrels and yellow machines inside the backyard, with a soldier standing guard (guarding barrels?) Since this soldier can see you approaching, he will fire and leave the guard post if you get close.

 

I will update the port attack when I can play the game some more and remember other stuff, haven't been playing for months now...

Edited November 9, 2004 by Jonaleth Irenicus

[[Blehm 98]]

wow, that is good. Don't forget the hills with the spiral chamber thing in them. There is always some sort of alien at the end of at least one fo them, just waiting to reaction fire you-also, be careful since biodrones often hide their. Also, i noticed gillmen prefer islands, and aquatoids prefer the cities. Lobsters and Tasoths like cruise ships

[[NKF]]

I think biodrones are more of a general land terror unit than being specifically lobsterman-only terror units. I've actually seen them accompanying the other races on their field trips to the surface. I seem to recall an aquatoid raid on my base involving a biodrone.

 

Tentaculats may also be general underwater-only units, though I cannot confirm whether or not they'll appear for most of the races.

 

Hallucinoids I cannot place. Though they seem to appear more often in colonies and artefact sites rather than on ships bearing terror-units.

 

As for Xarquids, they generally replace deep-ones for underwater missions, but in a mixed crew, you can actually sometimes meet one on land in a ship mission.

 

- NKF

Edited June 6, 2004 by NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

Someone should pin this topic. It is reall important to a new person

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

Hmm. NKF is right about bio-drones being general terrorist units (because they are the best terrorist units) but Lobsterman ALWAYS come with bio-drones, that's why I classified them together.

 

I usually don't see tentaculats in sub missions (a reason I hardly strike colonies is because I don't like meeting tentaculats) but I've seen them accompanying Tasoth ships most of the time. I've never seen tentaculats in subs with other races.

 

The stupid jellyfish are actually colony/artefact guardians (like the tasoth) but are almost always there when you down/attack a very large sub with aquatoids. I've never seen aquatoids with other terrorists in sub (well, I've seen them wwith Xaruids, but they are like joker cards in very large sub missions, they are almost always there).

 

I don't remember ever seeing a Xarquid above water? How would that survive out of the ocean?

[[NKF]]

Gas.

 

It's an anomaly for mixed crew terror missions on ships. Real nasty buggers though if you haven't got anything powerful.

 

- NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

can Triscene go underwater and the other 4 square aliens go above water?

[[NKF]]

Well,they can go on land or sea, and if they can fly, they'll fly anywhere (your soldiers cannot fly because the game automatically disables their flying ability whenever they're on land).

 

But the game doesn't usually generate large terror units in settings that they normally don't appear in, unless it fudges or is instructed to generate the alien on certain maps, like generating xarquids on land with mixed crews, and the Deep Ones appearing underwater on the second level of T'Leth.

 

- NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

Okay, but do triscenes ever go underwater though? Or does this mixed crew thing work for them too? Edited June 20, 2004 by blehm

[Puasonen]

Okay, but do triscenes ever go underwater though?  Or does this mixed crew thing work for them too?

Í have never seen them underwater.. I don't believe they ever appear there.

[TheHatedOne]

Someone should pin this topic.  It is reall important to a new person

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Anomaly: Walking in the burn path left by a biodrone on certain deckplates in the ship mission only takes 2 time units. Anyone else ever notice that?

[[Blehm 98]]

wait, can tentaculats appear above water for mixed crews?

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

I have had Tentaculats on mixed ship missions.

[[Blehm 98]]

above water!?!? crap, that really sucks!

[Paladin]

Are you sure you had tentaculats ABOVE water?!?

:o

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

We are counting the terror ship missions above water, right (you can't use Disruptor Pulse Launchers, so the game surely registers them so)

 

If so yes, I have had tentaculats in terror missions (yes, they are SERIOUSLY terror missions, as in, "Hello I'm the friendly tentaculat that hides in the closet and never moves and you are the poor x-com agent trying to find the last alien and spending all your TU's to get to the stupid corners of the map, say hello to my brain sucking tentacles")

 

I have updated the info a little bit btw (the stuff in red) as I plan on coming back to the game (after months ) Bah! This is just an addiction.

 

I will try to update this with more info as I remember whatever I can. I am thinking of looking into sub types and specific alien patrolling in certain missions.

 

Yet I have to do colony and artefact (shudder)

 

I'll need to do a number of full sweeps to get everything...

Edited November 9, 2004 by Jonaleth Irenicus