Jump to content
XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Tips & Tricks


Cornuthaum

Recommended Posts

This are some general tips and my rant-tip about research, the most crucially important thing in XCApoc

 

 

1.) Starting a new game:

Restart several times until you get the base you want - the available options are always the bases you can buy as new bases.

 

Try to get a warehouse, as slums are extremely prone to catastrophical breakdown when a hostile organization shoots you.

 

2.) Build a second Quantum Physics lab and a second workshop IMMEDIATELY - Q-Phys is by far the most important research part of the game, and you cannot ever have too many engineers.(And getting the advanced workshop takes at least until week three)

 

3.) Research & Getting there:

 

Ignore the Brainsucker Launcher and only research it if you ever get a downtime with no new aliens to dissect.

 

Capture a live multiworm as soon as anyhow realistically possible (with other words, the moment you get the alien transport module manufactured)

 

Get a dead multiworm and a dead hyperworm too, as well as alien eggs.

 

Research the hyperworms immediately, as they give you The Alien Genetic Structure - which in turn yields Bio-Warfare.

 

After the first alien research, get the Advanced Bio-Lab

 

Meanwhile, back in Quantum physics: research what you can, when you can. In the first three or four days, there won't be much to research, in fact, nothing except the Dimension Gates.

 

Shoot down & capture UFOs as much as you can, for the sooner you get an UFO with the three modules (propulsion, control & energy) the sooner you get the advanced workshop

 

if you have the choice between the disruptor gun and one of the three modules, GO FOR THE MODULE!

 

Why, you ask? One of the three modules yields the Advanced Q-Phys lab, the most important place of research in the game (3/4 of all alien equipment comes from here, from manheld devices to craft weaponry)

 

By now your second Q-Phys lab should be finished, and if you've been consistently scanning the new recruits for scientists (enter your base, click on the topmost button on the right side, the soldier with the $ sign on it, select the third button on the right side, quantum physicists) every day, you should have at least five new recruits with skill above 85.

 

sack everyone below that immediately and get a replacement - if you're building a laboratory and see someone with 95 or higher skill, recruit them immediately - a bit of cash wasted for the next three days is better than a lack of skilled scientists. In my current game I have ten Q-Physicists, six of which have skill 100 and 4 have skill 99 in one big lab, and the second, small lab has five with skills from 95-98.

 

Use the first lab with the "better" scientists to tackle bigger projects (alien weapons and whatnot) and the second lab for the smaller projects, like the remaining two pieces of alien craft equipment.

 

If you're going really good and got lucky, you'll even get a small or medium disruptor beam from the crafts , usually a small one from the purple disc, the Transporter, which is type 3 and one of the most important crafts in the game to shoot d own and capture in combat and another small one or a medium one from the green flattened cone-thingies, which are Fast Attack crafts, amongst the most dangerous within the first three weeks of playing, and if they're shielded (if their health bar is blue and has to be depleted before actually tackling the ships themselves, they're shielded and a must to go onto a SARS mission (slaughter aliens, recover ship) because you will get a small disruptor shield off of them.

 

Okay.

 

So, now we have two labs of Q-Scientists pumping out the research, one of them going for equipment, and the other for alien parts.

 

Do -not- go and study the alien craft types immediately - while the fluff is interesting, their research synergies will not come into play until much, much later.

 

Finish the three Alien Ship Parts (propulsion, energy, control) and get to the Dimension Probe.

 

Researching the Dimension Probe is a crucial point in your development, as it allows you to get the Advanced Workshop.

 

As with the other two advanced buildings, the advanced WS has the incredible advantage of -doubling- the manpower available for a project.

 

And to make it easier for you to read, a little summary.

 

(italics denote having to "liberate" it from alien craft first)

 

Alien Propulsion -> Advanced Q-Phys Lab

Alien Energy Source -> Advanced Q-Phys Lab

Alien Control -> Advanced Q-Phys Lab

(each of the three alone gives the Q-Phys lab)

 

Alien Propulsion, Alien Control, Alien Energy Source -> Dimension Probe

Dimension Probe -> Advanced Workshop

Dimension Probe + Alien Craft Type 3 -> Biotrans

Biotrans + Alien Craft type 5 -> Explorer

Explorer + Alien Craft type 7 -> Retaliator

Retaliator + Alien Craft type 9 -> Annihilator (the most awesome thing since the creation of the laser rifle in X-Com: EU)

 

 

Small Disruptor Beam -> Medium Disruptor Beam -> Heavy Disruptor Beam -> Largy Disruption Shield

Medium Disruptor Beam -> Small Disruption Shield -> X-Com Disruptor Armor

 

All other kinds of craft weaponry, like Disruptor Inversion Bomb, Disruptor Multi-Bomb, Disruptor Stasis-Field and Cloaking Field have to be stole... errr... liberated first and then researched.

 

So, that was the craft stuff. Now, lets take a look at the other really invalueable stuff:

 

All agent gear requires you getting it off the aliens first, with the exception of the X-Com disruptor armor, which comes from craft gear research anyway.

 

So far, I've seen no synergies between field gear, all you have to do is capture one intact (which is extremely difficult with disruptor body shields without the all-powerful toxigun) and then shove it to the scientists.

 

 

 

Yay us! But what about Biochemistry?

 

While the Techeads go all crazy about cool alien stuff, the biochemists grin evilly as they get the hacksaw and advance onto your newest captures.

 

The two worms, Multi- and Hyperworm, are amongst the most important research topics the biochemists can -ever- come around to.

 

You capture a live multiworm and research it, you get a dead multiworm and live hyperworms in the alien containment, which you can in turn research.

 

But the first thing you must research are both forms of the hyperworm, which easier done than said - most of the early missions have two multiworms, so stun one for capture after shooting it up with the machine guns and slaughter the other and toast the small worms.

 

Any kind of alien research, be it living or dead-> Advanced Bio-Lab

Dead Alien Egg, Dead Multiworm, Dead Hyperworm ->

The Alien Genetic Structure --->

Biological Warfare

 

Advanced Biolab, 8d construction time -> Biological Warfare

 

Biological Warfare is the most important research you can do short of disruptor shields for agents and craft.

After this you can build the Toxigun (small blue pistol) and Toxin A in the Workshop.

If you got two workshops, have one build the toxiguns and the other AT LEAST 100 toxigun clips. Ammo consumption is insane, with a rate of fire that borders on machine gun speeds from those pistols.

 

Alien Egg + Multiworm + Hyperworm + Chrysalis + their Autopsies ->

The Alien Life Cycle

 

The Alien Life Cycle ->

Toxin B

 

Toxin B is your best friend throughout most of the game.

It is easily manufactured, and kills all but the most powerful lifeforms within moments, as anthropods and spitters usually die from one good hit, skeletoids most of the time need two hits and only Megaspawn and Psimorphs survive more than three hits of Toxin-B. Which is good, since six agents dualwielding Toxiguns requires two workshops building clips almost non-stop.

 

Okay, if you get around Toxin B, all you ahve to do is to capture all other aliens in the game alive and research them and their dead, broken carcasses afterwards.

 

All Aliens Except For The Evil Queenspawn And Their Cut-Up Carcasses -> The Real Alien Threat -> Toxin C

 

Once you have toxin C, fire up the forges, pump out several hundred clips and then have twelve agents with dual toxiguns on full auto march through everything aliens in the game. One hit kills everything except Megaspawns and psimorphs.

 

Queenspawn + Queenspawn Autopsy -> Anti-Alien gas. I still prefer toxin C dualwielding to gas cannons *sigh*

 

 

4.) General advice:

Never ever let your specialists go idle unless their place of work is being built and they have nothing else to do.

 

Research to the advanced workplaces as fast as anyhow reasonably possible. You need the added manpower

 

5.) Shooting down crafts:

Sell your Valkyrie, all ground vehicles and buy lots of hoverbikes&cars.

Give Janitor rockets to the bikes, set their altitude setting to the max (select the bikes by ctrl-clicking on all of them and then set the right slider on the bottom to the highest)

Give Bolter lasers to the Hovercars, set their altitude to the lowest (like before, but the lowest setting)

 

By doing this you minimize cityscape damage, which is unavoidable.

 

Don't shoot down craft if you must not or they are in the middle of the city - destroying the people tubes makes transtellar angry, which is a RBT (Really Bad Thing) to happen.

 

 

Mh... I think thats it .... :c

Edited by Cornuthaum
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And this took you...how long? :P

 

A few things you may want to add:

 

-When searching for a base, try to get as many vehicle ports as possible. The more you have, the quicker you will be able to scramble your craft, and the harder it will be for another organization (or the aliens) to render you helpless.

 

So far, I've seen no synergies between field gear, all you have to do is capture one intact (which is extremely difficult with disruptor body shields without the all-powerful toxigun) and then shove it to the scientists.

 

It's not that difficult, just spam stun grenades.

 

-I guess it's somewhat of a matter of taste, but I feel you discounted AA Gas a bit excessively. A Mini-Launcher only takes up one hand (an agent can even hold a Toxigun in the other hand) but gives you the same power of a Toxigun in an AOE effect--AND it's a homing missile!

 

-Why sell your Valkyrie? It's a given that you're never going to want to use it in a dogfight, but it does server two purposes: (1) It's the best transport until you get Biotrans, able to carry a cargo module AND a bio-transport module, and then a shield or a passenger module if needed. (2) It's one of the only starting craft you get which can equip the Retribution (Justice? I forgot which is bigger) Missile Launcher, which is uber for taking out buildings.

 

-How about a bit of tactical combat advice?

 

Anti-Brainsucker

If it pops up behind you, or you can't shoot it down fast enough, just try to have an agent on your second row with a machine gun auto-fire it out of the air as it jumps onto your agent's head. Alternatively, if you're crawling, a brainsucker attacking you will only stun itself. Go figure. Finally, if an alien launches a pod at you, in the time after it lands and before it emerges, you can go into a nearby agent's inventory screen and actually pick it up. While in your backpack, the brainsucker will not emerge from its pod.

 

Anti-Popper

Make them your first priority if one runs up to your agents. If they appear out of nowhere (as they do all too often), there are two things you can do. One is disabling or redirecting the fire of all your non-energy-based-weapons-carriers, and putting all agents with energy weapons (sniper rifle, plasma pistol, disruptor, devastator) on auto-fire, concentrating fire on it. The other thing you can do is pray :)

 

UFO Assault Tactics

You can use Devastators and (I think) Power Swords :wub: to cut through the UFO's hull and flank the aliens ^_^

 

*steps aside for NKF to start picking holes in both posts*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You ignored one extremely powerful asset... psi

 

I've found psi is about the most useful technology for getting shields before you have toxin darts. What you do is you mind control aliens, and throw all of the shields or cloaking devices to your agents, then you have the alien drop all of its explosives and detonate a vortex mine. You break mind control the moment you drop the explosive though to save psi energy

 

it works very well when you feel like having fun, or when you don't have very many toxiguns

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A.) I usually have the toxigun a few days before the shields come unless I raid the cult for 5k points each in the first two weeks :)

But yes, psi is incredibly useful, especially when you have to get a live popper or skeletoid (no matter how psionically unresponsive a popper is, a well-trained hybrid can stun it and another just hop onto it to stop it from getting up)

 

B.) I violently dislike the valkyrie and get a hawk in week two - the hawks last until one gets the retaliator, especially when surrounded by a swarm of angry bees ... .err.... hoverbikes. The valkyrie is too slow, too soft and thus useless. The Hawk on the other side is tougher, meaner and can hold just as much of a payload.

 

C.) If I want to take out buildings I use tactical combat and hi-ex/vortex grenades after tunneling away the support structure with power swords.

 

I guess it all comes down on what style of play one likes :)

 

Never really used the Valkyrie much, if only because I prefer a huge swarm of hovercars with lasers/plasmas and hoverbikes with janitors circling one hawk, and never got into a situation bad enouh where I wanted to level t heir buildings (although I will try this right now, it sounds too interesting as to ignore it :) )

 

D.) I only play in Real Time and never, ever have my soldiers go alone (since for TB the levels are just too big .... a battle/mothership is bigger than an alien colony in TFTD with 1/3 the aliens and ten times the places to hide)

 

I found out that UFO walls have two colors - outer hull and inner hull.

 

Outer hull is plain indestructible, and I tried everything from two backpacks worth of dimension missiles to roughly 500 shots from devastator cannons from point blank including every vortex mine I had on my agents and pillaged from the aliens.

 

Inner hulls are easily breakable, and now there's the funny part.

 

Most UFOs grow in size as the levels get higher, especially the Assault ship (type 6)

 

And now, that is the funny thing - if you blast away the inner tiles away where on the floor below there is no "ship" (since it g rows), you can happily enter the ship and tunnel a bit more for a great ambush - and that even without marsec bodyplating, since its only 1/2 story-jump (because there is always this odd spiky dirt on the ground t hat the agents use as jumping ground)

 

It is so much fun to incendiary-missile six anthropods lying in ambush in the back by counter-ambushing them :) Power Swords are just plain loveable for digging, be it wall or alien body :)

 

Or maybe I was just unlucky with the random damage numbers and was always 1 point short of hull penetration.

 

As for poppers : I say just concentrate all fire on it, since explosions lose power with range your agents will not get as badly hurt as they would be if that miserable thing ran right into them - and if you're really lucky you get a chain-reaction of poppers (had one in my ship assault a few minutes ago, unfortunately that also ignited the vortex grenades, boomeroids and dimension missiles on the heap of dead aliens on the exit.

 

The explosions were great, the beancounter in me weeped at the hundred thousand dollars that went up in smoke.

 

Hm.... :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll just add some of my thoughts to that:

 

General

I recommend placing the second small quantum and bio labs to be built where you intend to move them to later on. In the meantime, use all facilities available to you, and try to shift some of your existing modules around so that you can at least squeeze one large quantum and bio lab in your primary base. With the main research labs in your primary base, you never end up with the problem of transferring research projects to other bases once Transtellar go ape. But that's just a recommendation, you may choose to decentralise them.

 

One large lab of each type should be more than enough if you prioritise your research a little, but I guess there's nothing wrong with speedier research. It really depends on how comfortable you feel about waiting for some technologies.

 

If space is a problem, remember that you only need one repair bay in the entire city to repair your vehicles, so consider moving that off to a secondary base to make more room for large facilities.

 

When buying staff, try to fill up all the gaps. Ignore their skill levels. This way you can get your research up and running. Slow research is better than not having it move at all. Then you have the luxury of replacing the the worst with the best every time the new applicants are refreshed.

 

Here's a really good tip for those who haven't realised it yet: the vehicle storage modules that you can build have infinite capacaity despite what the mouse-over display tells you. So you only need one of each type on the landing craft for the entire game. The extra seat module on the other hand is limited.

 

Worm life cycle

 

Just a minor correction there - it's the multiworm, not the hyperworm, that makes the advanced bio lab available.

 

 

 

Aircraft research

 

You should get all three craft components on the very first UFO that allows you to raid it. That being a type-3 at the earliest.

 

Technically, you only need two of the three components for dimension probe research. Energy source and propulsion. But I guess it's no harm in researching the other component for completeness sake. I'm just saying this to cut your research time down slightly. But now that you mention it, is navigation really required for the quantum physics lab?

 

The stumpy carrot shaped UFO that carries the medium disrupter is an assault ship, if my nomenclature is accurate, which I think is a type 6. Very important ship to capture, either way. Easy to shoot down too, and even easier to assault on the ground. Easily one of my favourites because it gives you the first aircraft weapon in the game capable of punching through capital ship hulls.

 

 

Disrupter Armour

 

Disrupter armour only needs the medium disrupters and small shields.

 

The large disrupters and large shields aren't required. So unless you've got an Annihilator on standby, or you want to cram a large shield into an Exlorer (bad idea - two smaller shields are better), back off on the large shields and heavy disrupter until you've got some free time. I can't for the life of me remember if the small disrupter was necessary.

 

 

Anti-alien gas

 

The AG grenades are superb compliments to any weapon setup, and should replace all of your stun grenades for alien engagements.

 

The mini-launcher and heavy launcher variants of the bug spray are mainly useful for wiping out huge groups of aliens in one blast, and make for a great poisonous mist to keep aliens in while you pump them full of toxigun rounds, or if you just put them in the embarassing pink cloud and hide. Great way to deal with the megaspawn without having to expose yourself to their disrupter pinkies and dimension missile toes.

 

The heavy rocket AAG variants are invaluable in the last mission with the horde of skeletoids hovering over the pit.

 

Shooting down aircraft

 

Every player will have a different way of shooting down enemy aircraft in the early game. I think this is just best left to general preference. Hard hitters or the swarm? Swarm? Hard hitters? Both? Ah well.

 

The valkyrie's not a good fighter, but it might be best held on to it for the mere convenience of being able to store a bio module, a storage module and carry a sizeable number of troops in a single package (+ room for 4 more if that takes your fancy). You can't send more than one ship to a UFO crash site anyway.

 

What I can say is what I always tell everyone. Bide you time and only shoot down UFOs that you need. It's a grand idea to shoot them all down and be the hero of the day, but sometimes it's better to take it slow and just mop up the aliens on the ground. Get only what you need from the UFOs, but don't miss any chance to knock out as many UFOs as you can if you've got the upper hand and the UFOs are dropping like flies. This keeps you from suffering too many setbacks. Research at your pickings and construct away quietly in the corner. Once you've amassed a considerable airforce to be reckoned with, turn the tables and blow them back their dimension and right through to the other side, either in Mega Primus (if you want more missions) or wipe out the fleet in the alien dimension if you want to continue the rest of the game at your chosen pace.

 

- NKF

 

P. S: Didn't notice the replies while preparing this.

 

TSereve: The ports in the base shouldn't matter unless you've got an emergency and you've had everyone back home for a top up. You've always got the option of parking your ships in nearby buildings. One or two per launch tube. The starport's a wonderful place to do this, but unfortunately it's not very strategically placed. But you've got to do it once just for the look of the thing. ;)

 

Also another anti-brainsucker strategy during mid-suck. One last ditch attempt is to drop an AP grenade on blast-on-impact or use .25 seconds if you're in the air. You'll have to access the inventory indirectly through another soldier and switching to the victim in the inventory screen.

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

okay, so I just started a new game to check up on the bioresearch...

 

 

First off, any alien research nets advanced Biochemistry lab

 

then its the first three stages of alien life (egg-multiworm-hyperworm) cut&diced on the table that give you the genetic structure

 

as to ships:

 

why is type 4 much, much harder to shoot down than type 6?! fast attack ships are the bane of my existence, assault ships are a big carrot full of loot to be had (until you get to the stage of dimension launchers and combine it with the 2 second delay between an alien being spotted and you actually getting the warning/to see it)

 

And there are some bases where no matter what you do there is no way for a 2nd lab.

 

In my case on my current game (hard), I started in the bottom left warehouse, which is a big cross. All the usual facilities were there, but only three free slots - and those were gone after I did the rearranging for security stations.

 

Not sure about the disruptor weapons ... but I think small dis beam is a pre-req to the medium one.

 

And by the time one has gotten the x-com armor researched one has (should have, at least) the personal disruptor shield already researched. If not, then something went wrong.

 

I think the most important research topics are Medium D-Beam, Small D-Shield and Personal D-Shield for the Quantum physicists.

 

I -always- research heavy D-Beam after, and only after, I got the annihilator down. Would be odd if I did it the other way 'round, now.

 

Another thing for "Placing Vehicles in other buildings"

 

Send them to Map Points right next to the launch tube you want and then order them to enter the building, or they'll all cram into the same launchtube and leave even faster. They always choose the closest launch tube available to them, even if 30 cars enter one, and the other 11 of the Megaflyer factory stay empty :(

 

edit: I hate the fixed cityscape maps :( detracts so much from replayability (what would I give for being placed right next to two sirius temples :( )

Edited by Cornuthaum
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, yes, sorry. I forgot about that. The personal shield is also required for the disrupter armour.

 

The Fast Attack ship is a real bugger to fight. And they almost always come in 3's! On superhuman they're an absolute pain. But the moment I get enough Hawks, lineage cannons and hoverbike chaff to throw at them... oh yes vengeance is mine! Mwahaha! *ahem*. They're meant to be that way to escort the weaker dropships.

 

 

For building placement, each building will have a set number of launch tubes. It doesn't matter where your ships enter, the maximum number of ships that can leave is fixed by the maximum number of launch tubes available. Say if you have three launch tubes and you put 9 ships in the building. It doesn't matter where they enter, only three ships will be able to leave at any time.

 

 

Check your overhead map and look at the number of tubes associated with each building. That'll tell you how many ships can launch at any given time. If you can get the buildings highlighted with a white square, you'll see which launch tubes are associated (see how to do this in the next bit).

 

Speaking of the overhead map, that reminds me of my alien cleanup strategy.

 

 

Infiltration Cleanup

 

When you have three alien drop sites in the city, your best bet is to go after each site within the first couple of hours of the drop. This will massively reduce the amount of the infection to nearby areas. I generally send a hoverbike to mark these buildings, as I only have 1 troop transport. However, in my last few attempts, I've begun using multiple teams, with one in the Valkyrie/Hawk and two ground teams riding in Wolfhound APCs. Great excuse to keep them available, and it keeps the drop-sites targeted at all times.

 

Note, if the UFO drops blue sparkly thingies - do NOT investigate the site. There are no aliens in that drop. That's what's called micronoid rain, and has a chance of instant takeover of the company. Doesn't always work, thankfully.

 

After you've cleaned these sites out, leave some vehicle there to mark the drop sites location. Or if you have photographic memory, use that instead.

 

Now, you'll want to monitor infiltration levels for the next few game hours. Let a bit of time pass, then pause. Open up the top-10 inflitration chart and update it. If you see any spike in the infiltration charts, go back to the cityscape and open up the overhead map. Open up the relations tab and click on the icon of the company that's being infiltrated. This will highlight all the buildings owned by that company on the map. Go back to the vehicles marking the last few drop sites and look for highlighted buildings near the site.

 

Send a team to the most likely base and investigate and clean out the invaders. If there are many buildings, be careful as you might just get a dud inspection and get a minor relation hit.

 

Clear the map and repeat this process until the infiltration levels have dropped off completely, or they are at an acceptable level where they will die off naturally.

 

This method not only has the benefit of really cutting down the infiltration levels heavily, you also avoid the alert siren, which comes too late and seems to provide just as bad a relation hit as a failed inspection. If you were to just wait, the levels of infiltration could go up to an unacceptably high level.

 

- NKF

 

P.S Your tip still holds very true for the dimension gates though! Only 1 ship can enter the alien dimension per dimension gate at a time. If you send all ships to the same gate, they'll enter the AD sequentially. But if you split up and send each various groups of ships through separate gate, you'll be able to let three ships enter at the same time. All ships at each gate will still enter sequentially, but three at a time.

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that with the highlighting is highly neccessary anyway, since several packed-together buildings make it look really odd.

 

Spreading out the vehicles to individual launch tubes helps A LOT against catastrophic building collapse, especially if the aliens start throwing bombs. while 12 vehicles may be able to exit the Megaflyer One of marsec at once, if they all exit from one tube and that tube gets destroyed for whatever reason (stray shot from your own annihilator for instance), everything in it goes poof.

 

As for Infiltration:

 

Watch where the aliens drop their infiltration teams. Go to the building, clean up, go to all surrounding buildings, clean them up too (or at least try, sometimes they don't spread that fast)

 

 

So far I never lost an Organization to the aliens with the sole exception of the Cult of Sirius (who still happily provides me with the necessary cash to fund my ambition)

 

 

By the way, is it just my imagination or are the first three weeks of the game the ridiculously hardest part of it all? Absolutely no money, rock-bottom bad agents and several visits from the cult?

 

And then suddenly you research personal cloaking fields and sell 50 of them and never ever get into money trouble again.

 

I waited a bit, sold 205 Devastator Cannons and 112 Cloaking Fields (two weeks worth of intensive battles) and now I'm taking a shower in mega-primus dollars every morning (1.8mil cash just from that sale >-<)

 

My biggest gripe with the game is the ridiculously fast falling price of alien weaponry.

 

If I sell 30 Disruptor Guns, price goes down by at least 600$ within a week, yet -every- goddamn member of psyke runs around with one ..... >.<

 

Gah :( ranting again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can do so well with the infiltration mop up that even the cult will remain uninfiltrated but still "Friends" with the aliens. It's a disaster when you're new to the game though, and get sirens popping up here and there after you think you've dealt with the infiltration team. It doesn't end there folks!

 

As for your vehicle launches, your vehicles are smart enough to reassign themselves to all available tubes, so you'll rarely get a sequential launch from the same tube except when you've got more vehicles in the building than it can launch at the same time. Even if you do lose a launch tube, the ships should divy up between the remaining tubes.

 

I really hate sequential launches, they're dangerous.

 

---

 

Your weapon sale prices can drop as much as 50% of their base price if you sell them in small amounts too often. I don't like that either, but you did right to hoard it and sell it off while it was still at full price. But then again, you are selling stuff that you did not necessarily have to build, so it's hardly a problem. ;)

 

Enemy organisations have their own technology rollout level, much like the aliens. They're just a little further behind and never get as far the dimension rockets or the teleporters. So no matter what you flood (or don't flood, as the case may be) the market with, they'll get armed with alien tech once you've passed the score requirements. So it doesn't matter what you buy or sell, it's inevitable.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, coprolite :(

 

Another thing I'd like to see in Apoc - sell weapons to factions specifically.

 

Sell a hundred Devastator cannons to megapol and watch their guys tote them around, or dimension launchers (although I'd never, ever, not in a thousand million years willingly hand out that kind of blasting power) or give Osiron the Entropy Guns and watch as they decimate the government/megapol/psyke raids :o)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

..Speaking of the space port base.. Ive recently played the Megapol save game, Think it would be hard to change that space port into being able to be bought? ^_^

Nah, rather easy to do so, but unfortunately the building owner also HAS to be the government, so making too many buildings purchaseable would would make for a pretty weird game :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well apoc'd has pretty much everything I know about modding apoc (should upload the latest beta which also has building editing), with it anyone can be a l33t apoc modder ;)

 

The megapol savegame doesn't make any radical changes to the tactical part of apoc, just switches megapol and xcom strings and tweaks the tracker gun slightly so it works (still quite useless though :) ). Can't imagine how that would upset overkill... Heh, should check if I can make the installer backup files automatically, I believe the original UFO2P and TACP.EXE files still float around somewhere on this forum.

 

ufo2p.exe:http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?s=...st&p=100129

Edited by j'ordos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you sure it doesnt edit much J'ordos?

I tried a new save game apart from the megapol one and its got the changed research lists :P!

Andd.. Diplo is still weird.. cant purchase any marsec.. and you know :X

 

Btw, Where is Apoc'd? x.x..

Im a nooby to these darn forums! >:O

..If I knew these existed back in the day I would have been member 20 somthing rather than 12286 D:

Ahaha.. this is insane

Edited by NRN_R_Sumo1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you sure it doesnt edit much J'ordos?

I tried a new save game apart from the megapol one and its got the changed research lists :P!

Andd.. Diplo is still weird.. cant purchase any marsec.. and you know :X

 

Btw, Where is Apoc'd? x.x..

Im a nooby to these darn forums! >:O

..If I knew these existed back in the day I would have been member 20 somthing rather than 12286 D:

Ahaha.. this is insane

 

I meant changes to the tactical part of xcom apoc, but perhaps overkill edits the cityscape part too... Though even then it shouldn't cause overkill to stop functioning. Diplomacy should be normal, the relations were only altered in the savegame. (though the names will obviously still be switched)

 

apoc'd: http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242025400

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I meant changes to the tactical part of xcom apoc, but perhaps overkill edits the cityscape part too

 

One of Overkill's features is to mod vehicle stats, which would apply to the Cityscape.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

The moment u r capable of sending crafts into alien dimension and destroy their UFOs there, the difficulty drops to extremely easy. U will be in charge of how many missions per week u fight (i like zero :D). All researches available get done eventually. Troops get trained to max eventually.

In my superhuman game, b4 the aliens sent bombers to my city, (~week4) i managed to get 2 biotrans into their dimension each with 1 light beam, 6 small shields, and 1 heavy-increase-accuracy-device. I could take down probes, scouts, transporter, assaultship, destroyer, escort. Bombers are left alone as i cannot down them. Mothership and Battleship are nonexistent yet.

 

Therefore aim to get at 15-20 Q-scientists in the beginning to research for dimensional probe asap.

Get 20 engineers together when 2 adv workshop is completed.

 

EDIT: Also consider researching disruptor guns. Being lightweight and having rechargeable ammo makes this weapon very rookie-soldier friendly early in the game. With full megapol armor and 2x autocannon/machinegun +ammo, none of my rookies were able to run. Change 2x autocannon +ammo to 2x disruptor guns, they all started to have strength to run.

 

EDIT2: When u start a new game, other than checking your base location/layout, u might also want to check how many hoverbikes is on sale (i bought 10 - makes life easy later on). Also i check the module placement within the base to make sure I dont need to raze too many buildings to make way for 1 adv biolab and 1adv Q-lab, and those 2 2x2 slots are not beside the lift.

Edited by simho
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll second you on that. I've always said that once you are able to conquer the air-space in the alien dimension, you've won the game. You just have to go through the usual motions of getting the end-game movie requirements and that's it.

 

Once the Battleships and Motherships appear, the earliest you can blow them to bits is once you can churn out a small fleet of Explorers armed with two shields, any accuracy mods that can fit (for the laughs), 2x lancers and a medium disrupter. 4, 5 or more are recommended for best results. The small disrupter isn't really strong enough to cut through their hulls at a reasonable speed.

 

Of course you'll want to later upgrade to Annihilators to make the task easier. But the initial wiping out of the entire fleet is the main task you want to get through as quickly as possible. If you can do it as early as the Bio Trans - go for it.

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why bother with lancers? I'm not sure they do much, if ANY damage to a mothership at all. Lineage plasma, on the other hand, is able to pierce the supersized UFO armor with damage to spare.

 

Without alien tech, your only hope at piercing UFO armor are tons of expensive missiles, limited ammo plasma cannons, and the lowly Griffon tank. That rumble cannon packs a punch if you can get the tank to position in time, and the tank plasma will do considerable damage as well. You will need to place your tanks around the city as they can't chase UFOs, but they're dirt cheap at 10K a pop. A fully equipped explorer is worth closer to 80K(weapons and shields), and you'd need several times the value of those to get the same punch as a tank armada.

 

That's about the only use I found for road vehicles, as anything fast moving is simply pointless to fight with one. Though I just might give those ground AA missile arrays a shot sometime...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The wolfhounds with their missile arrays are not to be trifled with O:

Also useful for holding onto agents so they dont Die during alien base strikes.(Scientists go down with the ship:D)

 

The Missile Array is a very useful weapon I have found, but sadly, the vehicle which is best suited to mounting it is not fast enough to catch up to ufo's on those poopy roads ]:<

 

Along with the Tank's AA missles it is VERY useful for base defense!

 

Good bye hovercars [:<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Rumble cannon is the undisputed champion of the vehicle weapons (on manual control, of course)- but there's one problem. You need to dimension hop. Tanks can't do that without modification.

 

See, what I'm intending is not use them for city use. Instead, it's for a single assault on the alien dimension to wipe out the entire fleet. Once you're in the alien dimension, on their turf, the aliens are at your mercy since they won't run away like they do in the city. Just got to remember to flee to the safe zones and rest up first before staging small hit-and-run attacks to slowly whittle down the fleet until there's nothing left.

 

The Lancers are the lazy man's filler for the long hardpoints. Lineage cannons are obviously better, but I'd much rather rely on the medium disrupter for the capital ship hull punching power. Lineage cannons work but do very little damage and ammo is limited. In a prolonged battle of wiping out the entire fleet in one fell swoop, they won't last long.

 

Price is not an issue - you later sell them to fund the production of the Annihilators. :)

 

Explorers are just the earliest vehicle that can mount fairly good anti capital ship weapons (medium disrupter) and travel between dimensions. With a couple of workshops, you can churn a few of these out, arm them and then have total control over the aliens quite quickly. The battle will be harder, but once the main fleet is wiped out, mopping up the weekly respawning UFOs while you upgrade your ships just gets easier and easier.

 

The game's pretty much over by then. You can then choose how fast or how slow you want to get to the laser grid generators. City politics just doesn't really matter anymore - except when you get attacked. Ship-to-ship combat gets pushed aside once you're done with the alien command centre as UFO production stops. Then it's just a short stretch to the end-game mission. Then the fun begins all over again when you restart the game! ;)

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Small disrupters work well on the other UFOs, that's for sure - and they're weaker than lineage cannons. They're basically half the range and half the firepower of the medium disrupter.

 

But how many do you need in order to be able to shoot down a capital ship quickly enough so that you don't take on too much damage in return? That's a fair number of Biotrans and small shields that you'll need to build.

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Shields recharge Nkf :P

if the shields are damaged you can always just sit in a building, or out in the open I suppose.

 

to take down a fully armed capital ship Without using an accuracy enhancer, you need 5 ships.

With an accuracy enhancer you need 4.

 

if you need any more your doing it wrong :P

 

 

Most people produce these mean machines for money anyhow.

The only actual cost is the shields :P

 

I dont bother making the scout craft or retaliator at all.

Its really just a jump from Biotrans to 2 or 3 Annihalators xD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know very well that the shields recharge - you don't think the Explorers are going to last very long in continuous combat with just 2 small shields per ship! :D It a whole hit and run strategy with a lot of recharging sessions in between. Some luring, some fleeing, some stopping still in mid air, etc, etc, etc. It's a whole lot of fun, but really hard to pull on the first try.

 

Mind you, I'm trying to visualise a swarm of Biotrans - and I dare say it's a very impressive image! My only concern is the amount of time (or initial resources you need to set up the factories and hire staff) in order to construct such a fleet. Five or six Explorers and additional medium disrupters and shields that you don't already have is a bit faster to build than twelve Biotran , 12 (minus what you've captured) small disrupters and 72 - 96 small shields - you might as well just go straight for the Annihilator by then.

 

But I like the idea though. Reminds me of the good old X-Com UFO laser pistol mob door exit ambush strategy I like to use so much. Some day I'll hack a mid-way game and give me a horde of 255 skilled engineers and all the resources I need to set up the death-by-a-thousand-prick Bio Trans fleet in a flash.

 

As for accuracy mods? I have my opinions on them - and find I'd much rather have that extra 200pts of shield energy most of the time. It works either way really as long as the UFOs get shot down in the end.

 

---

 

It's actually a good idea to do the assault before you've destroyed the first couple of alien buildings. This gives you a quick safe haven to flee to the moment you enter through gates (for those who haven't noticed this yet: split your ships up into each gate so that three ships can enter at a time - otherwise they'll enter one at a time and that takes quite a long time). The rightmost edge of the map is a good safe haven as long as you don't let any UFOs chase after you.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You kidding? I haven't finished the same game in years! The time stamp shows its 2002 - I just never save after playing a bit every time. :D

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Same here. I've never been one to end the campaigns in UFO, TFTD or Apocalypse . It's more fun to start up and get to your happy point (tech-wise and resource-wise) and just have a bit of fun from there on. You've won the game once - it'll be the same anyway on the next run. It's how you get there that counts.

 

Gaining air superiority gives you absolute control over how things will proceed - which is a perfect environment for just goofing off in. How fast you choose to finish the game is up to you. Hence why I say you've technically won the game and just need to go through the motions to watch the end-game movie.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i find stun raids too cheesy for me, but i've always make waves of UFOs come through the same dim gate at the edge of map beside transtellar(sp?) flat spaceport in superhuman map(far west of map), while having my crafts lined up rdy to open fire, using save/load.

That way, I keep my damage to city at <0.5% of my total score. Its a standard I set for myself :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alien Dimension Assault

 

I like the long, long game. I like to bide my time and build up a massive assault fleet of retaliators and annihilators, 15 or even 20 of them! Then, with murder on my mind, I send the assault fleet into the alien dimension for a crushing, blistering assault that sweeps the alien standing fleet aside, striking terror into their hearts for what they've done to Earth. It's a very dramatic moment in the game, and I don't like limping into the battle for a tenuous attempt. I like to prepare, and then SMASH. I've even been known to play Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries on the stereo when I make the assault. When the assault fleet emerges from the dimension gate, the trios of ships quickly accumulate, and I'll split them into two groups to prey on capital ships, then bombers, then whoever's left. And then, just for the satisfaction, I'll have the massive assault fleet attack alien buildings. They can't damage them, but I enjoy the scene of as many as 20 heavy XCOM ships pounding the alien city with dozens and dozens of weapons. I enjoy the turning of the tide.

 

By this time, I have dozens of super-commandos ready, and the irrepressible ground invasion begins. REVENGE!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heh, it's funny, but as much as I'm promoting the Blow-Them-All-To-Bits-As-Quickly-As-Possible-With-Minimal-Equipment approach in this thread so far, your method is actually how I like to approach the game as well.

 

Basically, take it slow and easy - and don't go all out of your way to shoot down every UFO that comes in the city to reduce the amount of damage done to the city to keep relations stable. Just grab a sample of each UFO as necessary, or if you get a clear shot of shooting down a UFO without any interruptions from Fast Attack Ship fleets. Most of the time it's easier to just deal with the aliens after they've been dropped and keep infiltration clear.

 

The moment Annihilator #3 or #4 comes on-line (and even that is on the over-optimistic side) and it's stuffed with shields, a pair of medium disrupters and heavy disrupter (The others receive the same treatment, of course), then it's all over.

 

But it's still good to know that you can beat the aliens with a quickly assembled fleet of lightweights (only 400 shield hitpoints). It's a challenge like trying to beat the tar out of the aliens with a couple of power swords and grapples when you're so used to doing that from a great distance.

 

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No argument there mate. Absolute barest minimum tech you need to win the game.

 

Although it's a fun process in itself. Fleeing to the buildings to escape the UFOs - or heading to the map edges and not having any UFOs follow you. It gets harder and harder as you progress through the buildings, as the building entrance gets further and further away until it cirlces back towards the Gates. Even then there's going to be a lot of waiting for the right moment to zip in to the building while the UFOs are dispersed.

 

Great game isn't this? So many ways to reach the end.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I meant the approach, of course. The journey. Multiple endings never even crossed my mind.

 

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Hi. I'm a newcomer to the forum, but Have my 20cents discovery to share with you.

 

Found this by sheer luck and laughed out loud due to this feature in the game. I had 2 of my hoverbikes to chase an alien craft that hit and run while the mass force went on to get the mothership. While the mothership was trying to escape, found that it couldn't because one of my hoverbikes was extremely close to the Dimension gates. I called this feature instead of bug because it's probably an in game protection to prevent 2 ships from being in the same space, i.e. entering the dimension gate. (If you check the game, when 1 alien ship is escaping and there's other near the gate, the 2nd ship waits).

 

So, gaming tip (I tested it after and worked): Put a hoverbike(tested with this one) in each dimension gate. As close as possible(use the map to do this... it's easier). The alien ships won't shoot it and won't be able to get away. Ta daaaa... easy way to get those fast ships that hit and run!

 

Only one question: How do we get the ship cloaks, shields and weapons. I'm playing in novice mode, Have already the Mothership research, sometimes bombers come cloaked and/or shielded,but when doing the UFO mission, can't capture that ship equipment/weapons! Right now i'm at the end of the 7th week, always with good evaluations and nothing. (oh, and I still don't have a teleporter... No Alien had any).

 

Thanks. :)

Edited by Golden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds reasonable - you might have to make sure your elevation's right too. Next time I can get the game running again, I might just give that a try.

 

Tech is released by your score level, so you might just have to keep raising your score. Some ships like the escorts might already appear as though they've got the ship cloak, but that's more a trait of the ship - the recoverable object won't be available yet.

 

Also, at beginner level you might find tech release to be a bit slower than on the harder levels since there are less enemies in combat. So just keep at it - you'll get all the tech released in time.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I count.. Two endings.

One you destroy the dimension gates

Two, your only base gets taken over

 

Three. Goverment refuse to pay (negative balance).

 

Bit easy... A slow quantum physic research unlock technologies but aliens do not use much those technologies.

Edited by SSV
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Poppers

 

If you're not needing it alive or dead, then just drop a grenade on the body to explode it away. If it was just stunned, it might wake up and give you trouble again. If you need it alive, leave a guard with stun grapple and stun grenades to keep it down.

 

 

Grenades

 

Always carry lots of grenades or other bombs in all your agents. When things look like they're going bad for you, start throwing the explosives!

Edited by mooses_an
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best way to keep a Popper down for good is to have an agent (set to aggressive) stand on top of its stunned body. This also works for any stunned aliens.

 

The caveat to this is a bleeding popper will eventually explode. It's very hard to tell if a popper is wounded unless you clearly knocked it out with gas or grapples. Also making sure the agent does not have cause to move away.

 

If you've got energy weapons like the lasers, plasma or disrupters, they can be used to destroy a stunned popper at point blank range harmlessly.

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I still love the Boomeroids to the door trick. Aliens or Cults squirm when they see it and it I love watching the thing hope towards them. XD

 

To me, I find the application purposes of the Boomeroid far greater than the Prox. Mine for that reason. Don't get me wrong, both are great for what they are useful for, but I just find that in building combat situations the Boomeroid is better. Lobbing 3-5 of them at a main choke point is an awesome way to blow away Cults or Aliens trying to get into position and fire at you. Poppers move to fast for it to really backfire on me and it I do see the thing hoping my way I generally will pull my one or three agents out of the way. I normally don't have to face this cause my guys spray the mess out of the Popper, which directly destroys the Boomeroid. A loss on my part, but at least my agents aren't dead. This is actually quiet useful and they serve as good indicators of where enemies are or simply moving civilians.

 

Since I'm that kind of player that could care less about the civilians, I use whatever means necessary to kill the aliens. Screw getting the funding. Mass produce beam weaponry and sell it to get your cash.

 

I also like using the Boomeroid against crash alien ships. It's so priceless to see a mad rush of aliens run out of the door and get annihilated by 5 of their own nades with incoming weapon fire from my agents. It's one of the best choke point weapons I've ever had the pleasure of using. Can't wait to start using it again since I got Xcom 3 working again. I miss the endless moments of panicing aliens running around wondering what to do. XD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...