Trying So Hard To Get Into This Game

[ianpwilliams]

I have this on the PC and I'm trying so hard to get into it but I keep stopping...I can see how it could be as excellent as everyone says though. Anyway, out of interest, how much of this game is random? Like when/where the aliens land, what aliens they are, what guns/equipment they have, is that and anything else random? I'm desperately wanting to get the PS version of this to play on my PS2 but it's sooooo rare Still, great game

[[NKF]]

I find i usually that it simply takes explaining a few of the more basic mechanics and a few wins to get brand new players hooked. Heh, but that's beside the point.

 

This game is more pseudo-random than truly random. Maps are made up of pre-set blocks that are thrown together to produce most normal battles. Each map section has a set of spawn nodes where the aliens may or may not get generated. Alien numbers are slightly random and can vary, but the sheer numbers are heavily influenced by difficulty level. A LOT of calculations in this game have a random roll from 0 - 200% or 50% - 150%, such as damage rolls, recovery time, bonuses to stats, etc. There are many more.

 

This game's not truly random, but it's random enough to keep things interesting.

 

Weapon load's aren't exactly random. Each alien has equipment sets that will change over time as you get better in the game.

 

- NKF

Edited March 2, 2007 by NKF

[Pi Masta]

IThis game is more pseudo-random than truly random.

....

This game's no truly random, but it's random enough to keep things interesting.

 

Weapon load's aren't exactly random. Each alien has equipment sets that will change over time as you get better in the game.

- NKF

 

Heh, well technically any computer game is pseudo-random (unless the game is completely deterministic aka boring), you could spend countless hours/posts of debating what is and isn't random, what might influence this or that (just do a search on pseudo-random on the WoW forums, people with wild theories of how to get 'better loot'). But enough techno-mathematical-computer-science babble.

 

As far as the aliens, they aren't very random. I'd say 99% of the first month's UFOs/Terror sites will be sectoids, with a slight chance of seeing some floaters. The next month is usually when I start seeing snakemen, and less sectoids. Some time later ethereals and mutons start popping up. And as NKF said they start bringing bigger guns after a few months (too early for my taste though)

 

Where the aliens land seems pretty random to me, at least in the beginning. Once they pull off a few successful missions in an area they tend to keep coming back to those areas. That said every UFO has a specific mission and a specific region where they play it out (with the Hyper-wave Decoder you can see these). Where they land is generally unspecific, with a couple exceptions: 1 being that retaliation UFOs never land, and 2 infiltration missions tend to land at cities. All terror missions take place at a city, but usually there is a 'scout' with a terror mission that stakes it out but doesn't always land at a city. So obviously a landed UFO at a city == very bad.

 

There are numerous other patterns the aliens follow, other random things from the top of my head are initial country fundings, placement of Skyranger and UFO, research times, country funding adjustments (amount not if they are happy or unhappy), soldier names, and soldier initial stats.

 

Now I might have read into your question a bit more, but if you're asking if what type of craft, aliens and weapons a crash site or landed ufo will have, it's not really. They are set when the UFO is in the air (all of which can be seen with the Hyper-wave Decoder). The weapons they have however are dependent on the craft and seems atleast somewhat with the time into the game. For example you will never see Blaster Launchers on a scout. IIRC they are only on Battleships and bases (and cydonia of course).

 

Hope this helps, also check out www.ufopaedia.org . A lot of us are putting just about anything you could possibly want to know about XCom there.

Edited March 2, 2007 by Pi Masta

[ianpwilliams]

Thanks for that, interesting site. Didn't know it was Julian Gollop - the guy who created one of my favourite games of all time with Chaos for the Spectrum - and I was a big fan of Rebelstar too. I think I'm going to get properly into this game if it kills me

 

IThis game is more pseudo-random than truly random.

....

This game's no truly random, but it's random enough to keep things interesting.

 

Weapon load's aren't exactly random. Each alien has equipment sets that will change over time as you get better in the game.

- NKF

 

Heh, well technically any computer game is pseudo-random (unless the game is completely deterministic aka boring), you could spend countless hours/posts of debating what is and isn't random, what might influence this or that (just do a search on pseudo-random on the WoW forums, people with wild theories of how to get 'better loot'). But enough techno-mathematical-computer-science babble.

 

As far as the aliens, they aren't very random. I'd say 99% of the first month's UFOs/Terror sites will be sectoids, with a slight chance of seeing some floaters. The next month is usually when I start seeing snakemen, and less sectoids. Some time later ethereals and mutons start popping up. And as NKF said they start bringing bigger guns after a few months (too early for my taste though)

 

Where the aliens land seems pretty random to me, at least in the beginning. Once they pull off a few successful missions in an area they tend to keep coming back to those areas. That said every UFO has a specific mission and a specific region where they play it out (with the Hyper-wave Decoder you can see these). Where they land is generally unspecific, with a couple exceptions: 1 being that retaliation UFOs never land, and 2 infiltration missions tend to land at cities. All terror missions take place at a city, but usually there is a 'scout' with a terror mission that stakes it out but doesn't always land at a city. So obviously a landed UFO at a city == very bad.

 

There are numerous other patterns the aliens follow, other random things from the top of my head are initial country fundings, placement of Skyranger and UFO, research times, country funding adjustments (amount not if they are happy or unhappy), soldier names, and soldier initial stats.

 

Now I might have read into your question a bit more, but if you're asking if what type of craft, aliens and weapons a crash site or landed ufo will have, it's not really. They are set when the UFO is in the air (all of which can be seen with the Hyper-wave Decoder). The weapons they have however are dependent on the craft and seems atleast somewhat with the time into the game. For example you will never see Blaster Launchers on a scout. IIRC they are only on Battleships and bases (and cydonia of course).

 

Hope this helps, also check out www.ufopaedia.org . A lot of us are putting just about anything you could possibly want to know about XCom there.

[ianpwilliams]

Wow this game is hard, playing on Beginner and my troops are getting creamed every time. Any tips for out on the battlefield?

 

Also, has anyone played this on PC and PS1? I'd like to play it on my PS2. People seem to talk about the Playstation mouse being a good idea, but I wouldn't want to use it myself. But apart from that I've heard it's exactly the same?

[Robo Dojo 58]

Some tips for the battlefield:

1. Move slowly. Don't spend all your Time Units every turn. Any leftover TUs can be used to shoot off reaction shots. These shots happen during the alien's turn, when they happen to stumble into your line of fire.

 

2. Armament. Laser rifles are a staple gun, get them as soon as possible. Use lots of high explosives! They are cheap and accurate. Or rather, explosions rarely miss. Get a rocket tank to go with your squad, and try to keep one at home. Heavy cannons and rocket launchers are my favorite, though some swear by the autocannon. I find it too imprecise for my tastes, as anything an autocannon MIGHT do, a rocket WILL do. Use aimed shot with your rockets, dispensing them liberally and without remorse.

 

3. Look for hiding spots. Buildings, hedge mazes, around corners. Hit those spots with Hi Ex. Do not look back. You have a lot of HiEx in your squad, right? There will be plenty to spare. Rockets make the most effective and expendible scouts.

 

4. Research priorities. Get the laser rifle ASAP. It's a great gun, effective against almost everything, and can last the whole game. Medkits are great for sparing casualties, as most of them will be from your own rockets. Research "Alien Alloys" to get quick access to "Personal Armor", then outfit your squad. It will dramatically cut your casualties from HiEx, such that you can fire them very close without injury. The next step, "Power Armor", makes HiEx safe for all but the core of the biggest rockets.

Edited March 4, 2007 by Robo Dojo 58

[gufu]

1. Get lasers ASAP each soldier MUST have a laser rifle in hands and laser pistol in Back pack, so when he panics and he is close to sectoids - he can have some fun. Lasers are also fastest guns in the game.

 

2. F*** Plasmas - they suck at the begining when you got no powerfull troops. They are heavy, and they need ammo too.

 

3. Don't mind rookies - they are expandable. Survivers of first missions have more chanses to survive next one by themselfs. Soldiers are cheap - and it's not uncommon to use them for sucide missions.

 

4. Save TU using those buttons at lower part of screen - keep em on Auto - fire.

 

5. Do lots of auto-firing. 3 shots WILL hit anything 5 squares away - but there are the same chanses of getting something 10-15 squares away.

 

6. Keep commanders in the ship - they are too valuble to loose - as rookies would begin to panic.

 

7. Fire psi weaklings - or only arm them with basic rifles - they must NOT be dangerous to you're men!

 

8. Armor - get it as soon as you can - by the time you got you're basic armor - aliens have abductors coming in!

 

9. Research the important figueres of alien society - the rest should only be researched to get boddies to sell.

 

10. Be ready for going rembo missions - aliens have problems finding last guy in all-but-one-guy-dead-squads, so you have chanse of victory.

 

11. Milk alien bases - get inside, take women, elerium, bodies, commanders and get to the exit point - and use exit mission button - try to get as much stuff as possible - then sell and reasearch.

 

12. Blaster launchers + Cydonia. this is you're LAST mission. Do or die - blast ALL on cidonia and you'll win!

[[NKF]]

I must disageree slightly. Plasma weapons in fact make weak soldiers stronger. Because the stats for all plasma weapons are better than your starting weapons, you're in fact improving the soldier's odds of fighting better. But saying that, it's always a great idea to get very good at playing the game with your starting weapons and lasers. There's more to winning battles than raw accuracy and firepower. Generally it involves lots of high explosives and large rockets.

 

I also advise against getting into the habit of using suicidal rookies. You must strike a good balance. Do let rookies take risks (before subjecting your better soldiers to it), but don't turn them into lemmings and have them charge blindly into obvious peril. This just promotes bad gameplay. Once you've got enough money (sell heavy plasmas once you've got too many), suicidal tanks are a viable option.

 

---

 

I'll pipe up with the same advice: The best strategy you can learn is to take your time.

 

Don't waste all of your TUs recklessly. The more TUs you spend, the less powerful your reaction skill is at stopping reaction fire from aliens. That is, you become more vulnerable. TU and Reactions combine to become your intiative level. Basically, the one with the highest initiative gets to move. Any time you drop your initiative below that of a watching alien, it gets to make a reaction shot.

 

This is especially important for your forward scouts, as they will be the ones that'll suffer from reaction attacks the most. So don't have them waste all their TUs when you're looking for aliens. On the other hand, those behind enemy lines can safely spend all of their TUs as long as they stay well within the safe zone you've created.

 

This leads to one very useful strategy you can employ in this game: The spotter and sniper strategy. The common used slogan here is "The one who sees the alien should not be the one to shoot the alien".

 

The scout (which is any soldier who spots an alien) should never ever open fire on the aliens unless you really have to or if you're sure of a hit. Their purpose is to move ahead and spot enemy units. Once spotted, take a step back or stand still. Next, get the snipers (everyone a long way behind the scout) to open fire and kill the alien. If the alien is not killed and all your snipers have used up their TUs, have the scout pull out to safety.

 

See, aliens can only shoot at your troops if they are within visual range. If they get alerted to your presence through a failed shot or some other action that causes them to turn in your direction, if you are within visual range and their initiative level is higher, they will shoot.

 

To beat this, the shooter must be well beyond the alien's visual range, thus stopping them from reacting even if their initiative is greater than yours.

 

Try this when clearing out the exterior sections of the maps. It works with interior maps as well, but it's hard to perform in small corridors.

 

A unit's visible distance is roughly 20 tiles.

 

----

 

Day and Dawn/Dusk missions are easier than night missions. Night missions have a 4 tile penalty to your visible distance which does not affect the aliens. Generally you can wait a few hours to change the lighting level of the mission area, but this is not always easy to pull off. You can keep a site alive well past its expiry time for as long as a ship is targeting the site - but this is not reliable. It's probably easier to just get used to night missions and get on with it. But that's up to you to decide!

 

If you have to go on a night mission, learn to use the game's two lighting methods to your advantage. Flares and incendiary rounds.

 

Flares are portable, reusable, persistent and can be collected after missions. However they get destroyed by exposives very easily - so watch where you throw grenades and fire rockets when using these.

 

Incendiary rounds from any weapon are brief, but they have great range and you can carry many more of these than flares. As a bonus, incendary burns enemies and it can last a considerable amount of time depending on how much fuel there is to burn. Note however that even in a wheat field, the fire will have a limited lifespan, but it's generally long enough for you to clear the area.

 

Use a combination of the two lighting methods.

 

----

 

If you like using grenades, try the grenade relay (aka the hot-potato). This involves setting up a chain of soldiers of any length equal or greater than 2 soldiers. The rear-most soldier prepares the grenade and tosses it to the next soldier in the chain. This repeats until you land the grenede on the target location.

 

What's the point? Well, it ties in with the relation between TUs and reactions. The person who is to throw the grenade near the target will only need to spend 25% + 8 TUs to throw the grenade. Normally, it costs 25% + 50% of your TUs to prime and throw a grenade. That's a whopping -75% of your reactions shaved off in one hit, with only 25% of your TUs left to escape. The grenade relay saves TUs for the scout.

 

Sure the other soldiers behind will have wasted TUs, but they are in a much safer position and aren't subject to the immediate threat of enemy reaction fire.

 

---

 

Don't bunch up. The aliens are practically hardwired to toss grenades at a tight group of units. In fact, try to scatter your soldiers as much as the terrain will allow. This gives you lots of firing options and reduces the impact of enemy area effect weapons.

 

- NKF

Edited March 5, 2007 by NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Wow, thanks for the tips guys! I was reading about that opportunity fire in the manual...great one that, and I should have remembered that from the Rebelstar days (except that it's automatic in X-Com). Ok you little green b***ards here I come!

[Cornuthaum]

Remember: When In Doubt, Blow It Up.

 

With other words, those of your men that utilize Laser Pistols (have I ever mentioned how much these things rock?), have a (primed) grenade in their other hand.

 

Don't prime the grenades on the spotters, or they will run into reaction fire and drop a live 'nade, which will a.) incinerate their gear and most likely b.) kill at least another of your soldiers.

 

Of course, if your poor scout is doomed, remember that the Rushing Charge with a grenade is always a good way to get the grenade where it should be, and hey, Scouts cost 40k, a single heavy plasma covers the whole scout, his gear, and re-painting the transport after scraping scouty bits off.

[Fuegan]

The most difficult part about the battlescape is getting out of the transport safely - since aliens start the first turn with full time units their reactions are pretty good, which makes exiting hazardous, especially at Terror Sites.

 

Therefore, smoke grenades can help quite considerably.

 

Be careful to keep checking all directions once you exit; you might have seen the landscape in front of you but sometimes you don't see an alien straight away, especially with the Skyranger ramp (something to do with the sometimes oddly worked line of sight).

 

Once you're out of the transport, the sniper/spotter technique works really well, so it's important to position your snipers carefully. It's no good having a spotter for someone who can't shoot the spotted. I have this problem where I set my snipers up then don't move them, by which point the spotter has gone just out of sight behind a building. Keep the snipers in good positions for bits you still need to clear, not just what you have cleared.

 

Explosives. As mentioned, they're damn helpful not just for landing the killing blow but for opening gaps. Imagine an alien hiding in a building picking you off as you enter. Blow off the side wall and shoot inside with snipers. An alien hiding upstairs in a barn? Lob some explosive on the roof and the following turn you'll be able to lob explosive inside without too much hassle. Large scouts you've shot down can quite often have part of their roof missing. This allows you to lob explosive to the bridge where aliens are often hiding.

 

Patience. Just because you spotted an alien in the alien's turn doesn't mean you should absolutely kill it off in your next turn. Sometimes it helps to set a trap to hit it with several soldiers instead of just one. Watch where it was though and make sure the nearest soldier isn't going to get hit while you set the trap.

 

Research. You simply have to move on from the bog standard tosh you start with (well, some of the heavy weapons have decent uses but they're heavy and require a bit more thought). Don't be afraid to hire quite a few scientists straight away to move things on. Don't forget to keep them busy! Keep the engineers busy too, even if you don't 'need' the equipment they build, build something you can sell. Like a lot of things, throw enough money at a problem and it will go away.

[SaintD]

My best advice? Listen to NKF.

 

After that? Well here is a pictoral explanation of some of the concepts that I wrote:

http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Battlescape_Combat

[Vagabond]

Heh, some advice I like to give you...

 

1. Sniper and scouting tactics is of course an absolute must. Move your men as a group, and pin the aliens down with long distance fire that they cannot react to! Of course, not so close together that a single alien grenade means a disastor.

 

2. Don't bother equiping your craft with anything else but plasma cannons. Until you get them, stick with avalanche missiles.

 

3. If you got any strange experiences in the game, want a question answered, or simply want to gloat or moan about your XCOM skills, just post around here! Hearing and recounting war stories is one of the things that kept this game alive for so long!

[[NKF]]

Am I the only one here who uses the craft cannons? Brilliant things. You need up to four full cannons to knock out a battleship. Oh, and a pair of ships that can last long enough.

 

It's not about the range and damage, it's the rate of fire that it has going for it. Still, most UFOs can vapourise your ships with a couple of well placed hits, so it's not the most ideal of weapons to arm on Interceptors for anything larger than a Large Scout.

 

Unless you're just out to see how far you can push yourself, most players prefer to stick with the stingrays and avalanches. The stingrays for the number of rockets it can hold (a Good Thing™ ), and the avalanche for fairly obvious reasons that I need not reiterate. Avalanches are great, but keep in mind that you've only get a few shots - hence why it's often good idea to pair it with a cannon, laser cannon, stingray or plasma beam.

 

- NKF

[Mark0]

ROFL i use cannons for very small. Just to hunt down that single guy and sit in his ufo

 

And i could use this hunt to train my soldiers in the BattleScape.(could do the same with any UFO)

 

for example put the alien in a corner where i can be sure he wont harm me and practice throwing grenades, raise the stamina by running arround the map, strength by lifting lots of stuff etc.

[[NKF]]

You might like to read the X-Com Wiki's article on Experience. It is an excellent piece of profound reading. A bit technical perhaps but otherwise well worth a read through. It explains about your troop's stat bonuses and how you can earn them.

 

- NKF

Edited March 10, 2007 by NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Out of interest how much money should you leave yourself with generally? I know you need to keep researching and buying scientists and engineers, and build quarters for them etc, but would it be a bad idea to literally leave myself with $10 or something?

[trenak]

Out of interest how much money should you leave yourself with generally? I know you need to keep researching and buying scientists and engineers, and build quarters for them etc, but would it be a bad idea to literally leave myself with $10 or something?

 

That depends on the time of the month.

If that is the position you are in after the 1st of the month, you will have to make sure

you have cash to manufacture any new equipment (a lasor pistol cost $8000 to start) or to build new facilities. If you are at the start of the game, then it is ok just make sure you sell off everything you do not need right away.

 

If you are near the end of a month, you will go in the red for a month (2 such months will force a loss).

You want to have enough cash to pay for the next month's salary for all your personnel (soldiers, scientists, engineers) and the lease fees for aircraft and facilities. The starter base cost like 3-4 million a month. You can check to monthly costs in the base screen (base information) under montly costs.

 

Other than killing aliens, keeping the operation in the black is the greatest challenge for players

[ianpwilliams]

Hehe, this game is definately going to grab hold of me and refuse to let go

[ianpwilliams]

Hi, a couple of questions if anyone's still around...

 

I got a Sectoid corpse back to base from the first mission, which I'm assuming I'll be able to dissect and stuff (haven't checked it out yet), but I was wondering, would it be worth picking up more Sectoid corpses during missions, or is one corpse of each alien type enough? Also, I've been picking up stuff from alien corpses during missions, but there's no point is there, because everything gets picked up at the end doesn't it? So don't I just need to concentrate on killing the aliens and forget about picking stuff up?

[Zombie]

One corpse of each type is enough for research purposes - sell the excess. Corpses aren't priority research though, as the results have no bearing on the game whatsoever. You can safely put off doing this till the end when your scientists are sitting around idle.

 

As for picking stuff up, it's not necessary. You automatically recover everything if you kill all the aliens and finish the mission. The only time where picking items up is necessary is when you are planning to abort.

 

- Zombie

[[NKF]]

Like Zombie said, you don't need to gather up the equipment unless you plan to abort the mission. If you've got the equipment researched, you can also use it to supplement your firepower later on. I usually like to scavenge the grenades off the aliens when I'm using them a lot.

 

Note that aborting a mission doesn't always mean the mission was a failure - assuming you get away with something that you were after. Sometimes it's a forced retreat (like I did at one time where I ran completely out of ammo), or sometimes you just went in to abduct an alien, steal some tech, or perhaps just get some experience. The latter works best with alien bases as you can repeat the attempt over and over again.

 

- NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Ok, so only pick stuff up when I'm going to abort, or want to use the ammo and stuff during the mission. And one corpse is enough, good to know. Just had my first city being terrorised by aliens, and it went horribly wrong They had two of those saucer things and lots of sectoids, and destroyed my tank. Then my rocket launcher troop panicked and wouldn't do anything so I ran away with my last surviving troop. Scored -445! Oh yeah and I killed two of my troops by priming a grenade and forgetting about it ROFL I love this game! Edited April 13, 2007 by ianpwilliams

[[NKF]]

Actually, with X-Com grenades, you can hold on to them even after the timer has hit 0 as long as it's being held or is still in your inventory. It'll only explode once it leaves your inventory. I.e. when you throw it, drop it or if your unit falls unconcious or is killed (either case drops ALL your equipment onto the ground).

 

Tip: It's not terribly obvious in the game, but the grenade timer counts the alien turns as well, so each time you hit end-turn, the grenade counter drops by two points. While the timer does have its uses (i.e. blowing up at end of aliens turn before the auto-doors are closed), but lots of players aren't phased by this as they'll just set the grenade to 0 and rely on the dead man's trigger until they release it.

 

- NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Ah ok, must have just been shot after the timer ran out then. I'm glad you can just set it to 0 though, would have been a pain trying to time it the way those aliens run and hide. Has anyone here played X-Com terror from the deep, X-Com apocalypse or UFO AI one of the remakes?

[ianpwilliams]

What's the advantage of aborting from a mission over everyone dying? It's not game over if everyone dies is it?

 

Also, in ufopaedia it mentions letting UFO's land rather than shooting them down to get better goodies, but does that happen much, or would they usually just escape?

Edited April 14, 2007 by ianpwilliams

[[NKF]]

Well, no, letting everyone die doesn't mean the game's over. But it's often best to cut your losses and make it back to base with as much as you can salvage. If only to save the Skyranger (or more importantly, an Avenger). The more soldiers that do not get killed, the less activity points you'll lose.

 

One use of aborting a mission is to minimise the amount of points you'll lose from a terror site. The difference between ignoring the site and visiting and then aborting the site is considerable. It's something like -1000 if the site is ignored. You only lose the points for each civilians killed if visited and aborted. Civilian numbers are random, but you'll never get enough to push the negative activity points beyond the penalty for ignoring the site.

 

This is best used only in situations where you know you cannot handle the aliens at the terror site due to your current level of tech or psi ability. A better scenario would be to kill a few aliens outside the Skyranger before dusting off to reduce the negative score even more.

 

---

 

While there are one or two UFO mission types where the UFOs do not land, most UFO missions do have a point where the UFO will land for a couple of hours. However having a base or a Skyranger that can get to the UFO in time is often heavily dependant on luck. If you find an alien base, you can go after the supply ships that stop there regularly.

 

- NKF

Edited April 14, 2007 by NKF

[Sorrow]

What's the advantage of aborting from a mission over everyone dying? It's not game over if everyone dies is it?

Not losing agents and equipment?

[ianpwilliams]

Damn those terror missions are hard. Anyone got any tips? I think I'll call this first game my experimental game

[[NKF]]

There's lots you can do to do well at a terror site. My advice is but a smidgen on the millions of things you can do:

 

The best thing you can do is to practice. Save your game before you launch your ship, play the terror site, then do it over and over again.

 

The hardest part of a terror mission is usually the deployment. Waiting a turn or two, deploying a smoke grenade at the base of the ramp and perhaps using a motion scanner (after the first turn) tend to provide a good running start. If you spot any movement near the ramp before you deploy, consider throwing high explosives or firing a rocket launcher. Just be warned that it could just be a civilian. So if you've got a small launcher and some stun bombs, you may want to use that instead.

 

Aliens in a terror mission have to contend with both X-Com units and civilians, so they have more targets. That said, don't spend too much time worrying about rushing to the aid of the civilians. Concentrate on keeping your troops alive and go after the aliens.

 

One good way to get started is to secure and work your way along the edge of the map. This way you'll have one less side to worry about. Keep a careful eye on each and every building you come across. Learn to recognise the ones where aliens often go to - but don't rely on this knowledge to always be true. Use alternate doors (i.e. blast a wall open). Clear building after building. If you see aliens rushing into a building, do not rush after them straight away. Use grenades - there are fences and a particular sealed off garden where they come in handy.

 

Don't be afraid to use high explosives or large rockets in a terror site. Just make sure you can see what you're attacking.

 

When fighting Snakemen and chryssalids, if you see any zombies, leave them alone. Concentrate your attacks on any chryssalids that you can see first. You can easily outrun a zombie if they get too close. You really don't want to deal with too many chryssalids at any given time.

 

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

The hardest part of a terror mission is usually the deployment. Waiting a turn or two, deploying a smoke grenade at the base of the ramp and perhaps using a motion scanner (after the first turn) tend to provide a good running start. If you spot any movement near the ramp before you deploy, consider throwing high explosives or firing a rocket launcher. Just be warned that it could just be a civilian. So if you've got a small launcher and some stun bombs, you may want to use that instead.

Civilians never spawn outside of buildings, and they have few Time Units to go very far either. So if you see movement within the first 2 or 3 rounds, you should be safe to assume it's the aliens moving around. Copious use of explosives or saturation bombing of the terrain is thus fine until the civilians start to come out of their hiding places.

 

- Zombie

[ianpwilliams]

Good advice, thanks! By the way, what are those little alien flying saucer enemies that you come across? I don't want to look on ufopedia because I'd have to look through the list and spoil the suprise for the other ones And what's the best way to deal with them? They seem very tough, so maybe the rocket launcher or heavy cannon or grenades? I've just researched the laser rifles so there's that option too.

[[NKF]]

Those are the Cyberdiscs. They rank among the toughest enemies you'll be fighting at the start of the game. They've got a very powerful built-in plasma weapon, there's no way to reliably tell which direction they're facing, and worst of all they explode when killed.

 

The explosion occurs on the same level that the cyberdisc is killed, so if it's right above you, you can safely dispatch it without worrying about the auto-destruct. If they're on the ground, stay well clear of them before destroying them.

 

Laser weapons, plasma weapons, large rockets and high explosives packs work very well against them. HWP rockets vary in effectiveness depending on the difficulty level. They may work fine on the easier settings, but on superhuman they take at least 3 - 4 HWP rockets per cyberdisc.

 

Laser rifles and large rockets are probably your best bet. If you want to use high explosive packs, remember that they are twice as heavy as every other grenade, so hand them to strong soldiers. Soldiers with strength levels of 40 or greater are ideal for tossing the high explosive a reasonable distance.

 

- NKF

Edited April 15, 2007 by NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Woohoo I did a terror mission and actually killed all the aliens! :D:D I still only scored -73 because I only rescued 1 civilian and lost 6 troops but I don't care I finished the mission! Anyway the main reason I posted was to ask about medi-kits. I couldn't seem to heal a troop who was low on health. If a troop is low on health then does that mean they must have a body part you can scroll to to heal it? Or does it have to be a fatal wound? Also, will there be a bit of time now before the next terror mission? I could do with doing a few small UFO's now Edited April 15, 2007 by ianpwilliams

[Zombie]

Only fatal wounds can be healed with a Medi-Kit. You can't do anything about a general loss of Health without a fatal wound as the Medi-Kit will be ineffective. Yeah, it sucks, but just be glad your soldier doesn't have a fatal which requires immediate medical attention.

 

Terror Sites happen on a scale of one per month. Sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less. It probably depends on the skill level you are playing at so keep an eye out for Terror Ships on the prowl. Shooting the ship down is a whole lot better than visiting the site.

 

- Zombie

[ianpwilliams]

Straight after that hard slog of a terror site I had a UFO crash land and had ten troops going after what turned out to be 1 sectoid...slight overkill Had another terror site with new aliens too and actually got a positive score! I'll be getting cocky at this rate...out of interest how many men do you normally take on the skyranger? 10 seems good to me (maybe a couple too many) as long as you keep some on the ship unless you need them. Shame about the mdei-kits, can't count the number of games I've played where character loses health, medkit used, character restores health

[[NKF]]

There's no set number of troops that you have to use - just use as many as you need or are comfortable with. 10 is a fairly standard number, but you can also try small squads of 2 or 4 really good veterans or a mob of as many rookies as you can carry (minding of course the 80-item limit for their weapons). Just use what works best for you.

 

By the way, if you haven't, just wait till you've get the night-time snakeman terror site. That is perhaps one of the most terrifying but atmospherically memorable mission that new players can have with this game. Until you can get the hang of them or can fly, of course!

 

- NKF

[SaintD]

There's no set number of troops that you have to use - just use as many as you need or are comfortable with. 10 is a fairly standard number, but you can also try small squads of 2 or 4 really good veterans or a mob of as many rookies as you can carry (minding of course the 80-item limit for their weapons). Just use what works best for you.

 

By the way, if you haven't, just wait till you've get the night-time snakeman terror site. That is perhaps one of the most terrifying but atmospherically memorable mission that new players can have with this game. Until you can get the hang of them or can fly, of course!

 

- NKF

 

 

Sarg: Ok rookie, toss a flare out there and lets see what's out there.

 

Rookie: Flare away. I see a snakeman. His back is turned. Permission to blast him?

 

Sarg: Permission denied. Looks like our work is done here boys and girls. Lets get this skyranger back in the stable! Dust off!

 

[skyranger rises into the air]

 

Rookie: But sir, the civilians!

 

Sarg: We did all we could son, we did all we could.

[ianpwilliams]

Do you get a lot of night time missions in this game? They sound very atmospheric and cool.

[[NKF]]

Well, It's all about timing. The distance from your ship to the site, the speed of your ship, the time the site started, how long the site will stay on the map before vanishing (or taking off in the case of landed UFOs), etc.

 

With ordinary crash sites, you usually have plenty of time before the site vanishes, so you can often choose to wait a while and then go into the mission at the light level of your choosing. With terror sites, because they don't stay on the map for very long, you rarely get this choice. More often than not, you'll arrive after sundown. You won't always get there at night, but the game might do it often enough that you'll feel as if it's doing this on purpose to force you into a night mission.

 

In full darkness, you'll lose 4 tiles of visibility. The aliens on the other hand aren't affected and operate as if they are in full daylight. Makes it rather one-sided until you start deploying the flares and incendiary shells or make use of the map's natural lighting.

 

- NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Ok now I got problems with my Interceptors. I've got two at one base and another one at another, but the UFO's either keep outrunning them or destroying them. They are armed with Avalanche and Stingray missiles so I'm not sure what else I can do. And obviously I don't want to have to be buying new Interceptors because they are a bit expensive Any ideas on how to make them faster and tougher or is it just luck?

[Zombie]

You can't keep UFO's from outrunning your interceptors. Plain and simple, they are too slow. This is especially true with the small UFO class. (Hey, they aren't stupid. Those UFOs just don't have the firepower or damage potential to go head-to-head with an Interceptor. They would much rather turn their tail and make a run for it). Once you get to the Medium-Large UFOs, they stay and fight (that is, if you can catch up with them).

 

If you are after knocking down the small fry, opt for dual Avalanches. A double whammy of those mini-nukes will obliterate the Small Scout, but will take out the Medium and Large Scouts rather easily. They will also be able to drop everything up to the Battleship. Problem is the small 3 shot capacity which means many interceptors are necessary. Wanna save some ammo? Just let those bigger craft land (most will).

 

Once you have the Plasma Cannons researched, those should suffice for the rest of the game. The fast reload time, 100 shot capacity and impressive range is more than what most UFOs bargain for.

 

- Zombie

[ianpwilliams]

Yeah I've been looking on UFOPaedia to and it seems I'm close to researching better interceptor craft, which will definately help...been having some classic missions, and just had the pleasure of an introduction to Chryssalids...nasty!

[ianpwilliams]

Hmm, just got the Lightning craft researched, any thoughts on it? Seems not very good from what ufopaedia says. I'm researching another one (The Firestorm? can't remember) which looks better. Should I manufacture some Lightnings? At the moment I'm just buying more Interceptors for my four bases so they can gang up on the bigger UFO's.

[[NKF]]

For now, you might want to skip the Lightning and the Firestorm and go straight for the Avenger.

 

The Firestorm is faster than your average Interceptor, but because it uses elerium for fuel, it can't stay in the air for as long. It cannot carry troops. If you've got a good network of bases scattered around the globe, Interceptors and plasma beams are more than enough to tackle all but Battleships.

 

As for the Lightning, lots of players hate this ship with a passion because it can't intercept as well as an interceptor or carry troops as well as a troop carrier. The Lightning is the second toughest ship in the game, but it can only carry one weapon (not a problem with plasma beams). It carries troops, but not HWPs. The Lightning has the shortest flight time in the game - which is why lots of players avoid it. It does however provide a completely different experience for ground battles, as you can deploy from it in 5 different directions (4 of them are through the corners). It's a really good specialist ship for defending the radar coverage area around the base. However, for now leave it be. You might want to experiment with one later on.

 

The Avenger is the best of the three and although it uses more elerium (larger tank), it makes more efficient use of it by being the fastest ship you can get, allowing it to go anywhere on the globe in a snap. It just does more of everything.

 

- NKF

[ianpwilliams]

Yeah I think I'll bide my time on this one. Using multiple Interceptors to gang up on the UFO's seems to work pretty well anyway. Just got my nephew into this game (and possibly my brothers), and not suprisingly they love it Just had my first alien base too! It was great, not suprisingly my troops were slowly getting picked off at first. Then I had three left. I had one in one of the exit areas just in case, but then an alien launched a rocket which bounced(!) off several walls, up through the transporter into the exit area and blew my man up - what the heck was that! Then I had to get one of my last two men to shoot his way into the same exit area, where he was now cowering by my dead troop in the now not-so-safe exit area. That left my one last man walking around the base on his own, and I knew there was only one alien left because the alien's turn was so short. So it was a case of who got the first shot in. Turned out the alien got the first shot in, but thankfully he survived it (thank god for power suits), so then he blew it away and I won the mission! It was just like a film! This game is too good.

[[NKF]]

Sounds like you've just encountered the blaster bomb. Next to psionic attacks and the chryssalids, that's a nasty piece of work. The aliens can pull some very unsporting moves with it. But just you wait till you can use it.

 

It's the heaviest hitting weapon in the entire game (and can breach the outer UFO hull), and it lets you plot up to 10 waypoints for the projectile to follow. It's not terribly accurate, but if you give it enough room, it'll be one of the most strategically useful weapons you'll get your hands on.

 

- NKF

[SaintD]

[The Lightning] does however provide a completely different experience for ground battles, as you can deploy from it in 5 different directions (4 of them are through the corners).

 

I love the lightning. It's my favorite ship. I like to think of it as a rapid assault vehicle. You can get soldiers deployed on the battlefield in record time with this thing. I used it extensively in supply ship raids. It's fast enough you can pick your time to get to the supply ship and it carries enough soldiers to recover the goodies double time. Tanks can't get into the supply ships anyway.

 

Once you get plasma beams, it can also pick off and recover alien ships in it's zone in one operation.

 

You can reserve your skyranger/avenger for long rang missions this way.

[ianpwilliams]

What's the best way to handle very large UFO's? I've got a bit bored of pointlessly sacrificing interceptors to them, and although the avenger seems to be ok with them, it still fires it's 6 avalanch missiles with no effect, then has to retreat. It seems there must be another aircraft weapon I haven't yet researched maybe...also at the moment I'm only using the avenger as an interceptor, because if it got destroyed then I would lose all the troops and equipment on board, seems a bit of a waste though.

 

I'm thinking I must/might be getting torwards the tail-end of the game by now (without giving any spoilers away it does have an end doesn't it?), and things are looking pretty good at the moment. So if and when I manage to complete it (this is only beginner after all), would you recommend starting again going up one difficulty level at a time? I mean is it a noticeable difference difficulty-wise? Having said all that none of my bases have been attacked yet, so maybe I'm not that near the end...

 

I'm also seriously considering switching to the PC version because the PS1 version has some nasty bugs, and a nasty habit of occasionally freezing completely when I turn a troop left or right. Not a problem if I've just started a mission but if I've worked really hard on a terror mission/big UFO whatever and I just *know* there's only one alien left out there, then it just ain't funny

[[NKF]]

Two Avengers and four basic cannons will take down a battleship. But that's utterly ridiculous as you'll suffer a heck of downtime for repairs - so don't try it.

 

No, what you need are twin plasma beams. Of course, the more Avengers, the better. You could go so far as to let a Lightning join in. Other interceptors tend to get blown to smithereens very easily, so they should back off.

 

If you've got the elerium, fusion ball launchers are a good means of softening up the battleship, but won't take them down on their own. Your best bet is still the plasma beam.

 

---

 

As for difficulty levels, finish off your game and then jump right into a superhuman game to try how hard the game is on the other end of the scale. Don't worry if you can't handle it. This is just a teaser .

 

The greater the difficulty level, the more aliens you'll face in battle and they get boosts to some of their combat stats and armour. The larger number of aliens makes it hard, but it also makes it much easier for you to get more money through loot and cadaver sales. So there is a silver lining there, albeit a small one.

 

I suggest going for the mid-level difficult on your next play through.

 

- NKF