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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Viable Tactic?


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I am playing TFTD for the first time, well to be perfectly honest I tried it when I was 10 and got my donkey kicked. But with UFO superhuman experience I decided to give it a go.

 

My question is whether you guys consider the following a viable strategy.

 

I can clean up the crashed and landed USOs with minimal losses, it is the shipping lane attacks that cost me at least half my squad. (could be due to the fact that I have only seen lobster men ship attacks). Would landing at the ship and dusting off immediately, while keeping to clean up every single USO I can find have enough net score at the end of the month to keep playing?

 

And if you think not I could use some advice on tackling the Lobster men terror.

 

Additional info:

currently I am using Sonic Cannons and thermal thasers on beginner difficulty. Armor researched but still under construction.

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Scores points:

Sinking enemy subs points (destroyed subs = x2 the sunked sub points)

Survey ship: 50

Escort: 75

Cruiser: 125

Heavy Cruiser: 250

Hunter: 250

Battleship: 500

Dreadnought: 700

Fleet Supply Cruiser: 400

 

Points for sub lost

Leviathan: -400

Hammerhead: -300

Manta: -250

Barracuda: -250

Triton: -200

 

Assault Mission points

Synomium Device Destroyed: 750

Alien Base Destroyed: 500

Civilian saved: 30

Civilian killed by aliens: -30

Civilian killed by xcom: -50

Xcom soldier MIA: -20

Xcom soldier killed: -20

SWS destroyed: -30

 

Killing an alien gets you at least 10 points (alien points list is too long to list. Capturing live aliens is double the points for killed aliens)

 

One of the ways to lose, is to have a rating of "bad" for TWO CONSECUTIVE months. Which goes as following:

Beginner: -900

Experienced: -800

Veteran: -700

Genius: -600

Superhuman: -500

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Landing and dusting on cruise ships is not only acceptable, it's generally held to be the correct strategy.

 

You'd lose enough troopers and civvies that the gain from victory would be matched by the difficulty of replacing vets.

Edited by chiasaur11
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Landing and aborting from a shipping lane mission is just like any other terror site. I don't rightfully remember if the second part is counted if you abort the first part, but you mainly lose the civilians in the first part. To mitigate it somewhat, you could try attacking and killing any aliens that are just outside the Triton. Be very careful about the one that's standign amongst the oil drums, they tend to get off a reaction shot after you clear the drums. Lobbing a magna pack or sonic pulser (or two, or three) may be the safer option.

 

It's the artefact sites you absolutely must not leave alone - it adds an optional penalty for aborting without destroying the synonium device, making this the one mission type where landing and aborting is not a viable tactic. I forget the exact amount, but it was somewhere between 500 - 1000 points.

 

By the way, some absolutely important tips that you need to know regarding two-parter missions:

 

- Do not leave any of your own equipment on the ground when the first part ends. This is in reference to the equipment pile in the Triton. They are lost when you move to the next level. Everything that's not being carried just disappears.

 

- On that same note, you lose everything that you haven't picked up before the first part ends. So grab as many sonic cannons as you can if you want to sell them. XComutil tries to fix this, but I believe sometimes causes you to lose all your ammo for the next part, being overzealous with returning the loot to the base. This might be fixed in any upcoming releases of XComutil, but just be mindful of that.

 

- Live aliens carried over to the next level are treated as dead, so only do this unless you need to capture a corpse of any alien you find. Such as the ever handy calcinite. I would make sure any of your aquanauts are awake before ending the first part as well.

 

- NKF

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Replying to oneself is generally taboo, but I wanted to break up the Wall of Text™. ;)

 

Try throwing a few Sonic Pistols into your mix. Their snapshots are fast (relatively speaking) and compliment the Sonic Cannon's slowness very well. Lobstermen do take 2 - 3 more shots than the Cannon, but that's where your off-hand equipment comes in. The pistols are also very efficient on the zrbite when you get to the point that you need to manufacture them, with 20 rounds at 90 damage per clip. Last a fair while, and take down most aliens easily.

 

Against Lobstermen, the thermal tazers are very good if you get them in close quarters since they take twice as much damage. You're stuck in close quarters a lot in the ships (and the interior level of colonies) anyway.

 

The main problem with the tazers is that they are very slow. For a much faster alternative, use the Vibroblades. One to two strikes is all it takes to take down most superhuman lobstermen. Or if you want a lot of damage in one well placed strike, go with the Heavy Thermic Lance. Note that a single HTL attack is worth two VB attacks, so weigh up the option of whether mobility or high damage is necessary.

 

To help with approaching a lobsterman that is facing you (for a drill attack), have someone use the MC Reader to check its remaining TUs.

 

For ranged combat against the lobstermen, nothing beats the thermal shok launcher. More accurate than the Sonic cannon and because of the double stun damage that Lobstermen take from it as well as the default high stun damage of each shok bomb, it has absolutely massive knockout potential. Only problem is the limited supply of the shok bombs.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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Thanks for all the helpful advice! I have now advanced a bit in the game and now most of my troops are wearing the Ion Armor and that makes a huge difference in survivability. I am working on the blades atm (vibro blade researced and in use) and they indeed make a huge difference.

 

I am beginning to understand that I made a few research mistakes at the start of the game. Using sonic pulsars has made it clear to me that I should research them way sooner. In UFO you were mostly set when the laser rifle entered the field since it would even take out mutons (when combined with the High-X). In TFTD I find the toughness of the various races varies so much that fast research on better weapons is in order.

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