Serega

I see. Has anybody tried playing the apocalypse by passing on the saved game files? Or would it be too tedious?

About UFO: it landed and i waited for about half an hour - still couldn't get to it. I tried everything - both views, all the commands. It was strange because the transport vehicle did not want to land to raid the building either. When I clicked "attack building" it aimed at the UFO instead, but did not shoot at it. I know I can just let go, it just bugs me. About brainsuckers: all of them actually tried to jump on soldier's head, one by one. Each went almost up on his head, wiggled his little ... leg-like protrusions and went down. Soldier was not sitting or crawling.

That's the thing - neither command work. Go to building, go to a destination, attack ufo - none of those work. The escort ufo's don't want to leave either as if the mothership is still flying. Very, very strange

I know, I am going to sound clueless, but what are doing? Are you playing Apoc by sending each other files and taking turns or what?

Has anybody encountered anything like this: I shot down a UFO and it lands on the ruins of the building that it has destroyed. When I want to investigate it (it is mothership), my plane just hangs above it and doesn't do anything. ? In a related story. When I was recovering previous mothership, a strange thing hapened to me. One of my soldier teleported himself in the midst of alient and killed every single one of them. However, not all alient were bunched together so he discovered himself with no units to go surrounded by brainsucker pods. I gave turn to aliens and all brainsuckers poped open. They each tried to jump on my guy's head and none of them succeeded. When it was my turn again, the guy was surrounded by brainsuckers from every direction. Explanation anybody?

I've piled up quite a few psiclones from raiding ganges and such. I've been afraid of selling them because I vaguely recollect that in one of my last games selling a bunch of psiclones got the government mad at me. Am I right that government would not like that? Also, can my soldiers use psiclones for their advantage in any way?

Alright. We all know that when we see the white channel between UFO and a building that means the aliens are being dispatched to that building. What is the point of blue snow-like channel. It seems that no alies appear in that building afterwards. Can somebody tell me what is the purpose there?

I want to import one of my soldiers from UFO defense to Terror. I completely forgot how XCOM util does it. I got Util and both XCOM's installed. Which util file do I open to import the soldier and how exactly do I do that? If someone knows would you please give a hand.

I am playing on superhuman right now and thought this story is worth sharing. Maybe it'll spark some other memories in somebody else. So, I have a medium abductor shut down over South America. 10 months into the game, I am pretty confident about myself. Jerk that I am, I send 9 rookies and 1 half soldier and half god with 121 accuracy (can it get higher than that?). Anywho. I don't have an MC-trained soldiers yet. So, 9 busters are armed with heavy plasma and one has a blaster launcher. As I start spreading over the area, the heavy fighting erupts between my virgin-soldiers and evil, mc-minded sectoids. 10 turns later, 8 of my guys are gunned down in the amazing stand-off in the operating room. (it was one of those two-level abductors). I have no more shell for blaster launcher. The only two soldiers who survived the bloodshed was my half-god and this newbie who used to carry blaster launcher. Next turn aliens try to mind control my half god. For the next 15 turns or so, the half-god is constantly switching sides - there he is on my side, and there the aliens control him. Meanwhile, the newbie makes it to the ship. He goes on to the second level pass my MCed half-god. He almost makes it to the control room. He stops, throws the grenade knowing damn well that some little grey piece of alien is waiting for him behind the conner. The explosion sounds and he hears the sound of a dieing evil. And then... oh, no... the other grey creature comes out of the control room and shoot my last sound-minded fellow. But the aliens can't have a cake and eat it too, right? My half-god get his hands untied and runs toward the control room. Will the last alien have enough MC power to single-handedly MC my last soldier? 3 turns of painful panicking flow by slowly. Then the my last survivor get a hold of himself and find enough strength to get to the control room. Ta-da! The last alien comes out and shoot at him 3 times. Flying suit is starting to payoff. The alien dies. My barely alive soldier now has to drag himself outside finishing off all the sectoids that were stunned and gained conscious. 5 bodies later, its over. I've never had such a long mission with just one soldier for the most part. Surprisingly, his bravery didn't go up after this incident. Go figure. But then again, I never can remember what it is it takes to raise it.

Hey, guys. I figured if I sell this CD I better sell it to someone who really likes the game. I am selling this X-COM UFO DEFENSE in the original box with all the original documents enclosed (including the manual). The CD itself is in the mint condition. If you are interested here is the link to the ebay page: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...8161065481&rd=1 or here is the item number in case the link doesn't work 8161065481

So, as I've been playing X-Com for awhile, I have never paying attention to laser weapons. Reading stuff hear for the past couple of months I realize people actually use laser weapons quite a lot. Now, I know that laser weapons are comparatively effective against sectopods. What can we say in general about their effectiveness? Are laser weapons effective against all terrorists? Also, against whomever they are effective, how far in the power should I go? Should I give my soldiers pistols, rifles, or heave lasers?

On the point of avoid the ethereals all together: I guess you can, but then what's the fun, it is like playing the game on easy or something. Might as well show them who is in charge. Not sparing any soldiers with low morale is also not the strongest response. Particularly on the large, very large, and terror sites missions it can become the question of win or loss, not just a win at some cost. At that point each MC'ed soldier with low bravery is just as important as the soldier with high bravery - the cowards are saving the bullies from being MC'ed (which would eventually happen if ethereals kill the cowards). Taking into consideration that on the large missions ethereals come with sectopods and that sectopods are tough as heck to kill if they are facing you, it seems that small launchers are the best alternative. An additional advantage to that is the following: If ethereals decide to leave the MC'ed soldier some TU's for reaction fire after the soldier has shot somebody during the aliens' turn, then the MC'ed soldier will not be able to use his reaction fire because his small launcher needs to be re-loaded. A question: theoretically can you keep a soldier on your side if right after the panic attack on him, you use the medical kits to boost his moral? To whit, I don't remember if there is even an option like that for medikit. Just a thought.

Quick note on what I've read so far. I thought that MC'ed soldiers can shoot and move, so just letting them retain their weapon didn't sound like a good idea to me either. On the other side, arming most of your soldiers with tons of stunning launchers sounds like a good idea since it is harmless to my soldiers and is efficient against both ethereals and sectopods

So, I am playing on Superhumans and I have finally got to the point where Ethereal Battleships are lurking around like crazy, but my MC guys will not be ready to counteract their MC attacks for two more months. I would like to discuss the potential strategies that people think feasible when dealing with ethereals. Let me outline 3 ways I can think of: 1) You do not arm any of the soldiers with any granates. You give them each a heavy plasma and perhaps give couple of guys a launcher. At the end of each turn you make sure you use the remaining TU to put the heavy plasma on the ground. This way if anybody get MCed nothing can happen. Soldiers under alien control cannot pickup their weapons. I've tested this tactic last time and concluded that it increases the length of the mission substantially, but also minimizes the losses. 2) This strategy was not tested by me yet. You could arm your soldiers with plasma pistols and give a couple of them a launcher to deal with sectopods. Assuming that you are prosperous enough to afford power or flying suits, even if the soldiers get MCed they are not as likely to do much damage (at least immediately). This strategy is superior to the previous in that it speeds up the game. On the other hand, it is also potentially more dangerous. 3) Final strategy, which of course can be mixed with the two I have already given above. Fill the avenger or skyranger at least partially with unarmed soldiers. Given the fact that Ethereals like to MC the same soldiers for the most part, if the first soldiers will be the unarmed ones, the ethereal threat might be minimized. These are just my own contemplations. I would be very much interested in hearing what others think on this topic.

Here is what I've noticed playing on Superhuman. My giftless soldier who can't shoot worth anything, become masters of their job when they are under alien control. So! - Does that mean that the creature (alien/human) who has somebody under his/her/its control replaces the host's stats with his own. For instance, if my soldier (who is otherwise a lame rookie) MC's an alient commander - will the commander's accuracy be that of his own or that of my rookie?