Squadrons

[Johnfromnz]

In the original game it was annoying that only one Interceptor could attack an Alien ship at a time. If you had three Interceptors ready at one Base you could not send all of them out to attack as a team! Instead you had either a puny Jet or an Elerium guzzling armed to the teeth Experimental ship to send out - one at a time.

 

Allowing squadrons would make it possible for Jet interceptors to take down larger craft without burning precious elerium in fancy new ship types.

 

Also as damaging rather than destroying UFOs leads to crash sites with better booty, you could team up two Interceptors: one with Big guns to badly damage the UFO, then back it off and let a laser armed interceptor come in and finish it, without blowing it to bits, thus leaving more for your troops to pick up at the crash site.

 

Also in the later X-Com games, the interceptors had engine bay upgrades as well as gun mount upgrades which meant the chassis could be upgraded to allow a basic craft to go much faster. This would help to keep the Jet interceptors up to scratch and able to keep up with the UFOs. I hate it when you catch a UFO only to watch it take off and leave you in the dust when you start shooting it!

 

I think the Interceptor part of the original game was a weak point, even making a turn based tactical battle scene for the interceptors would have been nice, or a look down C&C type arena with "point and attack" orders for your SQUADRON. Just a thought, PS I actually enjoyed X-Com Interceptor!

[[Blehm 98]]

in xcom you can have up to 4 interceptors attacking the same craft at once

[Johnfromnz]

in xcom you can have up to 4 interceptors attacking the same craft at once

 

Oh whoops can you? Its been a long while since I've played - my bad.

[[Blehm 98]]

it is a relatively unknown feature... send 2 interceptors at a craft, when one engages, minimize, then when the other engages maximize the first window, and you can attack with two craft. Works for more than two as well

 

however, don't save when its minimized. It bugs up the game

 

another thing to remember is that battleships will fire at one ship, then fire at the next, and attack each interceptor successively

 

 

oh whoops , this isn't in xcom forums.

 

 

i do think that basic craft should be able to be upgraded though

[Snakeman]

What the intercept portion needs is a function tied to a key that has it so your ships can be timed to arrive at the target simultaneously, no matter what base they're coming from.

 

1. It cuts out the need for minimizing separate windows until they do.

 

2. It can streamline when you attack.

 

This second point needs a little more elaboration. If you could choose each ship's attack stance beforehand (cautious, standard, aggressive) that becomes their default unless its changed, then all you need is an additional attack button that all your ships in the squad act on.

 

i.e. UFO is sighted, I select "squad 2" - I select "attack" and all relevant ships respond simultaneously. Since proximity and weapon ranges determine when they fire like before, the only difference is I'm not telling them anything different when the reach their target although I suspect the next important key is disengage. One singling out a ship or as a joint squad command.

[Johnfromnz]

Wow I never knew all this cool stuff! Thanks. I will have to fire up the old Pentium II with Windows 98 and play a few games of X-Com.

 

Another feature that would be nice is the ability to control only one weapon at a time on an interceptor.

 

Due to the extra long "Rearm" & "Refuel" times on interceptors I used to keep one old Jet interceptor at each base to intercept small to medium craft without blowing them up mid air and leaving no troop mission.

 

It would be nice to have one plasma beam and one laser cannon on that interceptor. In combat you could fire once with the long range plasma and do 80% damage to the UFO then disable the plasma beam and close in to finish off the UFO with the laser - or could this be done and I just didn't know it - again?

[Snakeman]

Naw, you can't tell an interceptor not to use all its weapons. About the best you can do is arm it the way you want it to approximate how you'd want it to perform - because it will use everything you give it if its a standard attack on up to aggressive. Cautious will only use the longest range weapon you have, so in that sense you probably could control what weapon gets used.

 

If you want to rely on cannon rounds or lasers in this case, you'd want those to be the longest range weapon you have for instance if the idea is to minmize damge so there's better odds of finding more stuff.

 

Personally I just go after supply ships if I'm hurting for material, I let them land normally then do the mission. If your feeling lucky, wait for a Battleship when its on an Infiltration mission or abduction, let it land then go after it. Since I don't bother with flares though, I try to do them if they land during daylight.

[GARAK]

That's the way I play as well. I think interceptors should be upgradable though.

[Blood Angel]

I think "cautious" attack will use only weapon slot 1.

[the_unfrgiven]

Cautious attack uses only the longest range attack.....if you have only cannons, your interceptor will try to pull right up to a battleship, which as we all know, isn't usually the best idea. But if you have 2 of the same weapons, it will pull up to their max range and open up.