24 replies to this topic

[Kalenden]

I've looked lately at the infiltration chart and saw that transtellar had the highest.
So I go investigate their 2 buildings.
The apartments they have didn't contain any aliens and the space port only ONE anthropod whom I killed.
But the problem is, their infiltration won't lower. It still as high as before I investigated the buildings.
Does it take some time to lower? I've waited a few hours and no result.
I'm afraid the number will rise more and then I'll have to do without scientists...


BTW: How do I get more money? I need money for more hoverbikes because the aliens raids keep getting bigger and stronger.
I've tried to raid Cult of Sirius for equipment and money but it only added 5000+- and half my men are in medbay now....

Edited by Kalenden, 20 April 2008 - 10:32 AM.

[NKF]

It is possible you're missing some buildings. The numbers of aliens you find in the building generally don't correspond to the levels.

The best way to keep infiltration down is to make sure that you hit the sources as soon as possible, then keep watch of the graphs for the next couple of hours and mop up the remainder.

Do you remember the sites all the UFOs visited and dropped aliens? I usually park hoverbikes in the affected buildings to keep note of them until the infiltration levels have dropped off - others have their own methods. Clear out the main site and then keep track of the charts. When you spot any increase in the graphs, go and visit buildings near these sites. A quick way to do this is to go to the overhead map, open the organization tab and select the company emblem. This will highlight all the buildings that they own. Check the sites closest to drop sites.

Don't worry if Transtellar goes. The only real problem it will cause is make it difficult for you to transfer techs that you've already hired between bases (and the possibility of stranded techs). The solution for this is to hire the techs directly at the base you want them. Without Transtellar, they'll have to walk to the base. While they are walking, one good way to make sure they don't get stranded is to hit 'ultra fast' time compression for a moment so that they arrive instantly.

----

You could take a slower approach to fighting the aliens if you're low on manpower and cash. Leave the UFOs alone and just hit the ground missions directly. In the missions, don't be too aggressive and only take on what you can. If any aliens escape, let them. If you're running low on ammo, consider bringing some stun grapples and a power sword or two. The power swords may have to be stolen from Marsec's arms factory if you're still early into the game.

When hitting the cult for cash, instead of defeating them completely, just go in, grab some choice equipment, like psiclones and easy to carry weapons like the plasma gun (or whatever you want) and head to the exits. Repeat a few times as necessary to keep the casualties down. This reduces the chances that your loot will get destroyed, and keeps you out of to many firefights.

- NKF

[Kalenden]

Thanks, my infiltration has lowered somewhat and most of the corporations are alien free.

Also thanks for the tip about the cash, I thought you had to kill all cult members and receive the you've won screen to get the goodies.

[NKF]

Defeating the mission automatically collects everything that's on the ground. It's better if you can easily wipe out the enemies, but if you find they're giving you a hard time, the smash and grab technique is the safest to employ. The only downside is that you only get away with what you manage to pick up and escape with.

- NKF

[Kalenden]

My game is going great, only 1/4 men are in medbay now instead of 3/4.
I've also gotten disruptor guns, which own. Only downside is I destroy WAY to much stuff with it and had to bribe.

Current problem now are the UFO's.
My "fleet" consists of the Interceptor ( for transport ), 4 hovercars and around 6 hoverbikes all armed with Janitor missle array and missles ofcourse ( btw any way I can get more missles? I've been using them up to rapidly ).
I'm in week 3 and the usual UFO's till now ( probe, scout, and one more that I've forgotten the name of ) were fairly easy.
But now there are 2 new types of UFO's that seem almost invulrenable to my missles.
I usually send 2-3 aircraft to each UFO and normally that allows me to bring down 1-2. Now I've barely managed to get one UFO down to half its health. And although I haven't lost any aircraft they have been battered a lot.

Anything I can do to improve my fleet? I've bought brand new engines for all my ships but it won't help much I think. My funds are kinda low but thanks to your tips I can get some more money.
Oh btw whats the best altitude and aggresivness mode?
Also I've read something about having to capture UFO's at start or else you won't manage to continue. To what ships does this apply?

Edited by Kalenden, 23 April 2008 - 07:04 AM.

[NKF]

Ah, you must've bumped into the Fast Attack Ship. Usually three of them, and they eat your ships for breakfast? They're one of the tougher ships you'll meet early in the game. They take a lot of firepower to take down easily. Concentrate all your fire and shoot them down if you can and recover them, but don't waste your ships trying to destroy them all. They only act as escorts and you only need to recover one for the purpose of tech progression.

The Type-3 UFO is the one you want to capture at all costs. This is the purple transport ship that you'll meet shortly after the scouts and probes. They almost never reappear later on, and the type-3 is critical for obtaining advanced ships. If you miss out early on, you won't be able to do the alien dimension missions.

As for your ammo problem: Buy bolter laser cannons for your hovercars and hoverbikes. They're weak, but the more hoverbikes you have in the air the pinpricks will start to add up. You'll want to throw in some plasma weapons later on. A few hoverbikes with Lineage plasma cannons (the one for $6400) can dish out some very impressive damage. Rendor plasma cannons are good too, but the damage upgrade over the bolter isn't enough to justify spending elerium on them.

Fleet-wise, initially I'd recommend sticking to a fleet of hoverbike and hovercars. Increase the numbers to as many as you can afford. When you get the cash, buy a Hawk Air Warrior (and more where possible). The firepower these ships can bring in is valuable against some of the tougher ships until you can build your own aircraft.

One tip for handling large numbers of ships (which often happens with hoverbike swarms) is to park the ships at nearby buildings so that they can all launch at the same time rather than 1 per launch tube.

As for the altitude and disposition settings - there's no perfect setting. You'll have to experiment to find the ones you like the best. I generally like to vary the elevations of my ships so that they don't get in each others' way when they are swarming. The aggression, I either stick to normal or aggressive. Aggressive appears to make your ships more likely to swarm up close to the UFO, which has lots of disadvantages if it's a bigger ship with a slower turn rate like the Interceptor or Hawk.


- NKF

Edited by NKF, 23 April 2008 - 02:05 PM.

[Kalenden]

Thanks, during last attack I lost 2 of my hovercars but I managed to fight them off.
I've ordered 2 new ones and I will install them with lineage plasma cannons. Hopefully this will go a bit better.

2 more things, during fights I've noticed the aliens when hit get a blue thingie around them. I figure that's a shield but I don't seem to be able to research them, is that normal?
Also it's been a long time ( a week or so ) since any of my units got a promotion. Even though I have killed around 30+ aliens total in that week. All my units are Squaddie, with 4 or so being Squad leader and one is a seargent.

Edited by Kalenden, 24 April 2008 - 01:53 PM.

[NKF]

To research the personal disrupter shields you'll need to capture one. To capture one intact, you need to use stun gas (the stun grapple won't work), psi (mind control or stun) or toxigun rounds. The toxigun rounds are perhaps the easiest method of capturing shields, so you might want to produce a good number of these as you'll be going through the shields quite fast.

As for promotions, in order to progress there needs to be more room for your agents to get promoted, since each rank up requires that there be a certain number of the rank beneath it. I don't know the numbers, unfortunately, but this does mean hiring more agents and getting them promoted as well.

I wouldn't worry about the promotions too much as they have little impact on the game. At least, it's not as pronounced as it was in X-Com UFO and TFTD.

- NKF

[Kalenden]

Thanks, I thought that if I'd keep blasting the aliens with disruptor guns their shields would still be intact, that was a bit stupid .

[Gimli]

Ah yes Toxiguns, how I underestimated them. Be sure to use them and aliens will drop like flies. Psi is your friend too. Nothing like a little surprise waiting for the alien in his backpack. "I say, where is this beeping sound coming from?" *opens backpack* BOOOM!! Even better when his friends are around.

[Aiki-Knight]

To research the personal disrupter shields you'll need to capture one. To capture one intact, you need to use stun gas (the stun grapple won't work), psi (mind control or stun) or toxigun rounds. The toxigun rounds are perhaps the easiest method of capturing shields, so you might want to produce a good number of these as you'll be going through the shields quite fast.

As for promotions, in order to progress there needs to be more room for your agents to get promoted, since each rank up requires that there be a certain number of the rank beneath it. I don't know the numbers, unfortunately, but this does mean hiring more agents and getting them promoted as well.

I wouldn't worry about the promotions too much as they have little impact on the game. At least, it's not as pronounced as it was in X-Com UFO and TFTD.

- NKF

Yes but promotions make the game extremely that much more cool.

[Kalenden]

I've been having great fun with the UFO's and manage to shoot 3/4 of them down.
But my hoverbikes are also dropping like flies and every attack I lose around 3.
Since I've got 110000+ at the moment, I thought about upgrading to a Hawk Warrior.
Is it worth it to buy only 1? Or should I wait till I can buy 2-3?
Also what should I equip it with? What weapons, engines and other stuff? I'm kinda at a loss here. Some of the missiles seem nice but ain't sure what's the best.
Or should I wait till I get alien weaponry for my ships?

[NKF]

If you find your ships are being destroyed too frequently (and it's starting to hurt the bank balance), you might want to hold back a bit and only go after the transports or any new ship you've never seen before. The Fast Attack Ship escorts should be left well enough alone after you've captured one. Don't worry, this will only be temporary. You'll start packing some heavy duty ships and firepower in due course.

As for the Hawk: The best thing to do is experiment with it and find what you are most comfortable with.

The hawk is formidable but not invincible. It's probably a good idea to buy one for now to replace the Valkyrie. Try to upgrade to two or three as the money comes along. Until you can build up a small wing of Hawks, keep the ones you have well supported with hoverbike or hovercar fleets to take away enemy fire.

Weapons: Unless you've got the money and the elerium to mount three lineage plasma cannons on the thing, I recommend fitting Lancer lasers in the long hardpoints and a lineage on the nose. That's generally a fairly decent and lazy no-maintenance setup! Plus you might as well make use of the long hardpoints. Of course, either of the two large ammo capacity missile launchers like the Janitor and the Prophet are good too.

You should start getting UFOs carrying small disrupters soon enough. That's a good weapon to fit on the nose, but I'd hold out for the medium disrupter. Now that offers some serious firepower that's sufficient to take down a capital ship. If none of these are available, a plasma multi system is excellent since it offers almost all-round coverage around the ship. This is a good thing since the hawk is so slow at turning.

Engines: I usually stick to the default since that's good enough - as Hawks come standard with the second-to-last engine, but there's nothing wrong with upgrading to the next engine up if you've got the cash to spare.

Add-ons: Addons will vary depending on what you want to use the ship for. If you've got nothing else, a missile evasion matrix is always a good idea.

- NKF

[Kalenden]

Thanks for the advice, I've bought 2 Hawk Air warriors each equipped with 1 Lineage Plasma Cannon, 1 Lancer Laser and 1 Prophet missile array with a good amount of ammo.
I've equipped them with Missile Evasion Matrix and Heavy weapon control and SD special. To finance this I've sold 1 Hovercar and 4 hoverbikes.
My fleet now consists of 2 Hawk Air Warriors and 6 Hoverbikes.

And it got squashed .

I've positioned my hawks and 2 of the hoverbikes at a building close to 2 dimension gates. The other 4 are positioned in a building close to the third dimension gate.

Then the attack comes. It consits of 2 green ships ( unshielded) which I haven't seen before and 2 ( shielded ) ships which I have captured and destroyed before, ain't sure of the name but I've got UFO type 1 to 6 already captured.
1 of the green comes out of the third Dimension gate and I order my 4 hoverbikes to attack it.
The other 3 ships comes out of the 2 dimension gates and I order my 2 hawks to attack the new ship while I send 1 hoverbike against the know ships to keep 'em busy.

The result is that I can bring down 1 of the grey ships. But my hawks and 3 of my hoverbikes are dead! That's 250 000 down the drain....
When I've replayed it, I didn't even bring down 1 ship....

I'm at a loss here, I've recently renewed my fleet with the strongest ships and weapons money can buy and it gets absolutely squashed .
I figure I need atleast 2 more hawk warriors to lessen my losses, but I currently only got 20 000.



EDIT: After quite some replays I've managed to win. Only one hawk warrior and 2 hoverbikes are dead. But the problem remains, next attack I'll have even less to fend them off ...

Edited by Kalenden, 27 April 2008 - 10:24 AM.

[NKF]

Green ships? Ah, the bombers. They have the multi-missile, which is an anti hoverbike swarm weapon. They'd obviously get creamed easily by it as the missiles can hit multiple targets. This is one UFO that requires a small wing of heavies like the Hawk rather than a swarm of hoverbikes.

Looks like they might have ramped up the difficulty a bit. You might want to concentrate your firepower on just one gate - keep a careful eye on the other two and keep track of where the transports dump their troops.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 27 April 2008 - 01:35 PM.

[Steelion]

I hate hawks.

I bought a few hawks one time. Loaded them out, heaviest weapons I had.

They all got obliterated. Their hull goes bye-bye surprisingly quickly.

[NKF]

Same goes with any ship without a shield thrown head first at a heavily armed UFO wing, unfortunately. The smaller ships fare better because they're smaller targets - and are easier to replace. Hawks aren't invincible, but they are very good when used right. (Plus they're the earliest ships you can get that has the potential to knock down a capital ship)

Pre-shields and medium disrupters: try not to engage too many UFOs at once. As soon as the UFOs enter through the gates, have the bikes rush in ahead with the Hawks behind them, knock down the transport and perhaps a Fast Attack Ship escort if at all possible, then bolt for it into the nearest launch tube before the split-up fleet links up. All the while pausing frequently to keep an eye on the other transporter team that you probably aren't able to cover and keeping a note on the drop site.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 27 April 2008 - 11:37 PM.

[Kalenden]

Thanks, due to having to clear 1/5 of the city of aliens I'm again swimming in cash and I've bought another hawk. I've realised I've put way too much research into my soldiers than into my ships.
Ofcourse having fully shielded, toxi gun B armed top soldiers in a mission is a great help .


Edit: Unfortunatly I've met Sectoids armed with missile launchers who take a shield immediately down...
Any hints/tips for dealing with them? I play TB and cloaked sectoids usually see me first and manage to get a shot off...

Edited by Kalenden, 30 April 2008 - 10:49 AM.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Turnbased, well I suppose the best choice would be to fly up to a good spot and shoot them down with snap shots on sight.

Realtime, Id just try my best to dodge the missles.. but of course with sectoids thats not always possible, as they tend to fly to a block higer elevation before firing, rather than being on the same level.

I suppose reaction time would be important either way for taking them down, just try an ambush.

[NKF]

Skeletoids are easy! Well, they're really no different from anthropods, but it's just that old levitation thing that lets them get the drop on you. Throw in a cloak and it gets worse.

Fight them out in the open - their height advantage doesn't help them there. Or let them come after you into tunnels.

As for the dimension missiles - they're dangerous. Have you met the Megaspawn yet? They've got dimension missiles built into their toes.... well, some of their appendages.

Until you get the personal teleporter, the best solution is to stop them before they can use it. A good hybrid who's clocked lots of psi lab hours from the start of the game would be a really good investment at this stage. A quick mind control session and getting the alien to shoot at its feet with the missile really does wonders at preventing the missile from being fired at you!

The only way to combat a direct hit is to wear extra layers of shields (two - if you aren't already). Your last fall back once your shields are zapped is to be wearing a full suit of X-Com disrupter armor (and I seriously mean a full suit - not mixed with any other suit appendages). The missiles will only be able to damage the armor durability - your agents will barely even notice the damage (a few HPs at most, unless the aliens get really lucky). So they'll be relatively safe from the explosions until the armor gets eaten away.

Which reminds me - don't let this near immunity to dimension missiles and popper attacks get to you. Rush off and get more shields - everything else will harm you.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 09 May 2008 - 12:05 AM.

[Steelion]

For me, ship research take precedent over soldier research. I'd rather be able to shoot down all the UFOs ASAP then have to deal with the ground forces.

[Aiki-Knight]

Ship tech is good, but I press heavily on getting personal shields so as to minimize the damage caused when the aliens deploy entropy. There's nothing worse than being unable to finish missions because excessive entropy has destroyed all your armor.

In the air, I focus on the high-priority targets, and devote all necessary air assets to taking them down. Concentrate your fire on one ship at a time and they'll go down fast. Throw bikes or a hovercar at a bomber so the Hawks can sit back to lace into it at longer range with the lineage plasma cannons. I start with one Hawk armed with three such cannons, and rename it "Gunship 1" so I know what it does. Its job is to dole out the damage while the small ships distract the enemy. Once I get a few such gunships, I can really start to control the skies. 6 gunships really tear apart even the capital ships.

When shields arrive, I get the workshops pumping out the small shields: 4 small shields on a Hawk armed with a medium disruptor and 2 lineage plasma cannons is a match for pretty well any emergency, and such ships in groups of 4 to 6 are capable of repelling most alien incursions. Of course, when the capital ships make suicide runs on your bases to drop troops for a base raid, I throw every gunship I have at them. Those motherships can really absorb punishment enough to deliver a base attack. However, if I have an armada of such gunships, they can take even a mothership down in record time.

In any case, Hawks are just awesome. Making gunships really fleshes out your fleet much faster than just producing dimension-capable ships. I tend to assemble a defence force of 12 Hawk "Super Gunships" (4 small shields, medium disruptor, 2x lineage plasma) to hold the home turf while my "Assault Fleet" goes off to hammer the alien dimension's standing fleet. For this, in my long game, I tend to take about 6 Annihilators armed fully with disruptors, 8 all-disruptor-armed Retaliators, and 1 or 2 Retaliators armed with a stasis-missile launcher. I assemble three groups of ships, one around each dimension gate, then pause the game, and order them all to converge on the alien dimension.

Flights of 3 ships emerge one after another in the alien dimension. I'll assemble a group of 6 and send them off after the closest alien attacker, usually a capital ship. I'll grab another group, and another, and send them off for a crushing defeat of the aliens. Ah, revenge! If somehow the aliens do slip past us in the dimension gates to earth, there are 12 Super Gunships waiting to dole out the punishment.

Just the way I like it. :-)

[NKF]

I'd have to agree that aircraft tech should take priority - bowing out temporarily only for the personal disrupter shield. You've got more than sufficient firepower right from the start, plus the toxiguns, to handle most menaces. Mind you, disrupter shields are a godsend for those like me that use small squads (4-6). If you like to use really large squads (30 - 36), then perhaps they may not be as important.

Man, I have this sudden urge to see 72 M4000's or toxiguns fired on full auto at the same time...

Gaining air superiority means you've won the game. You just have to go through the motions of removing the alien buildings at your own leisurely pace (stretch it out several games years if you really want to), all the while sending in a mop-up crew each week.

You don't even need a home guard fleet if you send in your ships on a Sunday night, a few minutes before Midnight. As long as you wipe out the UFO fleet completely in the alien dimension before switching back to Megaprimus, you'll definitely not have any surprise visits before your ships return on Tuesday.

The significance of sending them on a Sunday is that the weekly city-wide update occurs when the date ticks over from Sunday to Monday. This is also when new UFOs spawn in the alien dimension (assuming the command centre is still standing).

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 11 May 2008 - 11:53 PM.

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

NKF still likes his early explorer rush of the alien dimension I see

Btw, you can use the savegame file I have over at the other forum, already has 36 androids packed up and ready to go, just need to switch their weapons Use the former one (the one named DnD), it's from geoscape.

edit by j'ordos: I assume you mean this savegame? http://www.xcomufo.c...?showtopic=6303 (ust for easier reference )

Edited by j'ordos, 12 May 2008 - 06:51 PM.

[Jamini]

For early-midgame (Just after you get hawks until you get the Retaliator.) I've recently been trying out the single-shot Justice Missle Launchers loaded onto Hoverbikes and Hovercars, to great effect. Hovercars and bikes are significantly cheaper to buy, even with 1k launcher and 400$ missle, and if you time your attacks correctly you can deal a ton of damage to pretty much any ship nearly instantly with negligable risk to your bombers due to the massive range of the missle.

What I've been doing is keeping the missile launchers turned OFF during launch (since if they are on you'll end up blowing up parts of your base and neighborhood. Marsec was NOT easy to please after I blew off the top of one of their factories.) and have your altitude for your bombers set to max. Then just wait until your capital ships (Hawks and Valks armed with Medium Disruptors and Lineage Plasma Cannons) reach a range where they start firing and set every weapon on your bomber squadron free. Five to Twenty "weapon empty" messages later you can order the bombers home while the missiles streak into the UFO's and start taking out large chunks of shielding and health. By the time the aliens realize they are under attack they have less than 25% health left, and have a wing of capships bearing down on them with weapons blazing. > The fact that missiles lock onto ships helps tremendously. The only thing you really should take care of is not sending your ships home too early. Otherwise they may stop and turn directly into a missile from another wing member... which is instant destruction and a large chunk of change gone.

Justice and Retribution missiles can also level a building very effectively... on manual fire you can even avoid the building attack message at max range. > (I.E. If you are attacking Megapol to get on the good side of Transteller, since the former have blown up half the city in their wars with the three gangs...)

Edited by Jamini, 19 April 2009 - 03:13 PM.