Eh... I Need Ya Guys Help.

[X-Op. Nicolai]

I had another account but had to change it since its been like forever since I posted in here and forgot the PW due to military life gettin in the way but when I ever I get a chance I swing by once in awhile(aka Commander Nicolai). Im stuck... Im on my like UFO 258 right now and had put the difficulty on SUPER HUMAN... My men are now elite... And Im on year 2000 in Feb. I got about 5 bases all over the planet and 2 major air bases, one at North Pole and one at South Pole both with 6 Large Radars. The only down fall is... my technology is elite (I have it all now) but I can not get a Alien base going and I just lost USA for funding... I need to capture a Alien Commander doesnt matter what, this is the first time this has happened to me... shuckeroonies even Etherals will do (all my guys are like at 90 and above for PSI Strength and Skill). Whats the quickest way to find a Alien Base? Might be due to me capturing/destroying all UFOs that show up. I read that if you put a Skyranger out in the open it will detect a base... that sometimes works but its not working for me right now. What techniques have you guys been using or what do I need to do? Whats your guys load out too? I usually load up 10 guys on a Skyranger all equiped with a Heavy Plasma, extra HP Mag, Prox. grenade, High Explosive, Smoke nade, Elector flare and a Blaster Launcher with 4 B. bombs to the Heavy Weapons guy. Sometimes I will replace the Blaster Launcher with a Stun Launcher depending on what kind of mission Im doing. "Capture the VIP" or "Death to ALL"

[[Blehm 98]]

1) only one large radar will do, stats do not stack

2) HWD had 100% detection and longer range than either radar so if you have that drop all radars

3) Look at alien activity charts. If there's a place with a lot of activity, start patrolling in that area, and look for a Large UFO that lands. Kill it, then patrol where it landed and you'll find a base

down all the battleships you see as well, they tend to have commanders (or at least a leader and navigator for the HWD and other stuff)

[[NKF]]

For your alien base, wait until you get a UFO on an 'alien base' mission. Leave it alone. Eventually, a whole fleet of ships on 'alien base' missions will appear. Finally, a battleship on an 'alien base' mission will appear and land and an alien base will be built there.

 

Or, go for a battleship and capture the battleship's commander. There's no difference between a base commander or a battleship commander for the purpose of getting the end-game mission. You can also get commanders from base defence missions. Don't forget to first research 'alien origins' and an alien leader or another commander beforehand.

 

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By the way, just to elaborate on what Blehm mentioned about the radars, it works like this:

 

Small and Large radars can work together. But only 1 of each type. Additional radars will have no function whatsoever, except for base layout purposes and you still have to pay rent on them. Once you get the hyperwave decoder, it completely replaces the small and large radars. Even though you can stack all three radars together, the hyperwave scanning goes beyond short and long range detection.

 

- NKF

Edited July 21, 2006 by NKF

[Empyrean]

Small and Large radars can work together. But only 1 of each type. Additional radars will have no function whatsoever, except for base layout purposes and you still have to pay rent on them. Once you get the hyperwave decoder, it completely replaces the small and large radars. Even though you can stack all three radars together, the hyperwave scanning goes beyond short and long range detection.

You said that all three stack, but that HWB completely replaces small and large radars. That doesn't make sense to me. Either HWB doesn't have its range extended by the other radars (in which case all three don't stack) or it does have its range extended, which means that it doesn't completely replace the others because you'd still want one of each. Am I right? What am I missing here?

[[NKF]]

Basically, there's no point in having the other radars, but they still stack. Look at the following:

 

Base with small radar:

Short range: 10

Long Range: 0

Hyperwave: 0

 

Base with Large Radar

Short range: 20

Long Range: 20

Hyperwave: 0

 

Base with Small Radar and Large Radar

Short range: 30

Long Range: 20

Hyperwave: 0

 

Base with Hyperwave Decoder

Short range: 0

Long Range: 0

Hyperwave: 100

 

Base with All 3 radars

Short range: 30

Long Range: 20

Hyperwave: 100

 

Because the hyperwave decoder abilities outclass the other two radar detection modes, there's no real point in building the other two radars. These values were taken directly from the game files.

 

- NKF

Edited July 21, 2006 by NKF

[X-Op. Nicolai]

Small and Large radars can work together. But only 1 of each type. Additional radars will have no function whatsoever, except for base layout purposes and you still have to pay rent on them. Once you get the hyperwave decoder, it completely replaces the small and large radars. Even though you can stack all three radars together, the hyperwave scanning goes beyond short and long range detection.

You said that all three stack, but that HWB completely replaces small and large radars. That doesn't make sense to me. Either HWB doesn't have its range extended by the other radars (in which case all three don't stack) or it does have its range extended, which means that it doesn't completely replace the others because you'd still want one of each. Am I right? What am I missing here?

 

Huh? Bleh... Minimum of Lare Radars at my bases is atleast 3 with a add on of the Hyper Wave Decoder... whats the HWB? I dont even bother with the Small Radars unless theres a secret to them that I dont know of. I thought you could combine the radars with the Hyber Wave Decoder? Could of swore thats what it said in the game. Unless your saying that the radars will add up but the distance of 1 Hyper Wave Decoder wont add in Detection off the Large Radars distant tracking. If thats so... then that blows and I never noticed it. But I think it does. I could be wrong.

 

Oh never mind... never paid attention to that. Should of known.

[[NKF]]

The detection and tracking ranges of the radars are fixed, and do not expand with more radars of the same type. The ranges basically step up from each radar type. so the hyperwave decoder has the best range of the three.

 

The small + large radar combo works early on because the small radar enhances the large radar's short range detection. The hyperwave decoder outclasses both radars combined with its 100% detection.

 

edit: Also, refer to the values I posted earlier. If you enter multiple radars of the same type to any of the setups, you'll still get the same values I listed above. Two or three large radars, for example, will only give the base the initial +20 long and +20 short range detections. In this example, it doesn't matter how many large radars are listed in the base information screen, you will only be able to detect UFOs with the 20S and 20L detection strengths.

 

To verify that these were indeed the base's radar abilities, and not just an illusion, I edited a base with 8 large radars to have 0 SLH values, to see what would happen, and sure enough, this base was not able to pick up any UFOs. With hyperwave set to 50, it started to pick up (and decode) UFO information.

 

- NKF

Edited July 21, 2006 by NKF

[SprCobra]

Doesnt the alien commander have to the ones that are only found in the bases?

[[NKF]]

No, base and battleship commander aliens are one and the same.

 

The end-game research looks like:

 

Any alien = Alien Origins

 

Alien Origins + any Alien Leader/Commander = The Martian Solution

 

The Martian Solution + any Alien Commander = Cydonia or Bust!

 

Then all you need is the Avenger to get to the last mission. Some players (myself included, I'm ashamed to say) may miss the crucial first step or second step in the above list, giving the impression that the commander you recently abducted from a battleship may have been a dud.

 

- NKF

 

edit: Oh, yes, here's a trick with the radars that some of you might like to try on a rainy day. There's the phantom radar trick. This is an unintended game 'feature' where you get to keep the radar's abilities, but not the radar module. Build a radar, and once it is constructed, remove it. You'll no longer own the module, but you'll still have the radar (you can also read this as a rent dodging 'cheat'). At least, you get to keep it until you build the next radar at this base, then the ghost radar is wiped.

 

Try it with a brand new game. Demolish the default radar and watch in awe as you continue to pick up UFOs. This shows that the modules are only cosmetic in function.

Edited July 21, 2006 by NKF

[Empyrean]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

As a point of clarification, I typed "HWB" thinking "hyperwave broadcaster." Too much Star Control 2 in my life has caught up with me.