Tactical Advice Needed.

[Aralez]

Ok, here's a situation i had in my current game:

 

In an UFO stood a sectoid with a plasma rifle, left side of a door at the wall. The room was accesible ONLY through that door. He didn't move (i waited ten turns or more) so i had to move in that room. I had no armours at that point and all soldiers were equipped with

 

-a laser rifle

-a grenade

-a proximity grenade

 

only.

 

so here the problem: Each time i entered the room the soldier was shot (as i can't open doors without walking through them). If i could open the door i would have lobbed some grenades in it.

 

What shall i do ? Or better should i have done, i sacrificed a soldier and killed the sectoid after his shots.

 

Wasn't there a way of opening doors WITHOUT entering it? Or did they introduce that later.... (TFTD)

[Pete]

This door opening was only introduced in TFTD unfortunately, but it makes this game that little bit harder in my opinion

 

Do you sacrafice the squaddie to get more points, kills and gadgets, or do you dust off and abort the mission to keep your crew safe and sound?

 

What you could do if it's only a landed UFO, is abort the site with everyone back in the Skyranger, shoot the UFO down with an interceptor and then go back and kill that one sectoid once and for all I can't remember off the top of my head what would happen if you aborted after you'd shot down a UFO - I think the crash site just disappears.

 

If you're feeling particularly evil, you could find the worst soldier in your squad - the idiot of all itiots - and send them through the door

[Quantifier]

if you abort landed ufo ground assault, it will immediately take off. if you abort crashed ufo recovery, it will dissapear. iirc aborting assault, shooting it down and land at crash site will start mission from the beginning with full ufo crew (minus those killed in engine explosion).

 

if you saw alien and had mind probe you could check its reactions and use soldier that had higher reaction, or if you have motion scanner you could wait until sectoid moved, because then it couldn't use full reaction score, only % tu left. (reaction*current tu/max tu). eventually, set up a firing squad around door, and wait (more than 10 turns) until it comes out.

[OmegaTwo]

I readed about the TFTD trick of using a grenade to "scare" the aliens out of their hideouts... if it works in Enemy Unknown too, just throw one or two grenades in the floor right over the sectoid's position, then have your team ready to reaction-fire at anything that opens the door. Or, in a more evil way, you could lay some proxies in front of the door and wait for the bighead to come out and get exploded! XD

 

Even if the trick don't works, grenades exploding around drop morale (even without taking damage), so the more nades you throw, the greater the chance of having a panicked (thus easily stunned/killed) sectoid around

[Aralez]

As i said i had NOTHING except 'nades, proxies and laserrifles. So i couldn't mindprobe the sectoid. And waiting did not help the problem either, this guy was simply lazy i guess. So basically only one solution might have worked (Thanks, OmegaTwo): The grenade/panic method.

 

I wish i had known this earlier, though, now i won the victory but have one soldier less....

[cyrus]

I'm not sure about the grenades dropping the morale of the enemy merely by the fact of exploding. But they have area effect and sometimes this effect extends through UFO walls (it's one of the game's bugs). So you may hurt or even kill an enemy behind the wall.

[OmegaTwo]

Well, having infinite amounts of people to recruit as soldiers, I don't think you are going to miss your downed guy... heh, things can't be perfect anyway...

 

Ah, yeah... just remembered of a situation I needed tactical help:

 

That was a Terror Mission, and my team was loaded with:

- 1 Plasma Rifle + 4 Clips (5 guys) or 1 Rocket Launcher + 3 HE Rocket + 1 IN Rocket (2 guys) or 1 Laser Rifle (1 guy, my "sniper")

- Laser Pistol (all of them)

- 2 Alien Grenades, 2 Grenades (all of them), 1 smo

- 1 Medkit (4 soldiers)

- Personal Armor (the first one you manufacture... I can't remember the name, all of them)

- 1 Motion Scanner (two of them)

 

They were all above-average soldiers, with good accuracy and reaction scores, and I didn't wanted to lose any. The thing was: as soon as my transport landed, I got two Heavy Plasma Sectoids facing the back of the Skyranger, one Sectopod to the left, two Reapers hiding in the warehouses in front of the Skyranger's exit, and some Plasma Rifle/Heavy Plasma Floaters and Snakeman around, not counting the civilian personnel. I think there was also a hidden Chrisalid somewhere, since I got two zombies coming in the next rounds.

 

Needless to say, I got really, really PWNED in that mission. The Sectoids looked like their inventary was full of grenades, because they kept exploding and exploding, and mauling my soldiers. The Sectopod shot two of my men in only one turn, and the Floaters and Snakemen just wrecked total havoc of my troops. I survived for fifteen turns, and ended up with only three guys (two of them with less than half their full health), inside of a warehouse, with the two reapers closing for the kill. i aborted the mission and reloaded the game.

 

I just want to know one thing: how the hell could I at least make my soldiers to exit the Skyranger without being anihillated by plasma bolts and alien nades?

[NKF]

Was this UFO by any chance an asterisk shape? *

 

If it was, then that alien in the command room never moves. Throwing a grenade on top of the roof does not work at all in UFO, and waiting for it to move is futile. The one other UFO with an alien that refuses to move is the large scout. But that one seems to behave depending on which tile it starts on, so its behaviour isn't predictable. But let's focus on the abducter for now.

 

There's one sneaky method of disposing of the guard in the bridge with grenades. Go underneath the room, and toss a grenade up at the ceiling. Trust me, this is by far the safest way to deal with it at this point. If you feel this looked a bit too much like cheating, grab a heavy plasma (if you can use them) and then make a hole at the back or the floor underneath it and toss in a grenade. All set.

 

For future missions, bring along a heavy cannon, autocannon or a rocket launcher. Whichever one you fancy, but make sure you've got HE ammo. The next time you encounter this same difficult alien, go underneath it and blast the floor from underneath it. The floor, as it has a lot of durability, will hold, but not the alien. I wouldn't count this as a cheat as it's not your fault the floor's so strong.

 

Or, if you simply cannot live with yourself by trying either of the last two tricks, keep a smoke grenade. If you can walk through the door without being spotted, toss a high explosive into the middle of the room and then get behind the safety of the wall, all will be well.

 

There's one trick in the abducter UFO that I'd really like to try, but haven't been able to locate one to test this theory out myself. See, the thing I noticed was that the alien waiting inside a Large scout would often turn to look at the nearest soldier to it (on the same level). So, if this is the case for the abducter, you could station a soldier one tile closer to the alien on the other side of the bridge and the soldier who is going to barge into the room one step back. Then at the start of the next turn, the soldier entering the room should be theoretically be looking at the back of the alien.

 

This has been tested in a large scout, but I haven't tested it in the abducter. But if my theory is true... well, most of my strategies will certainly have to be revised!

 

---

 

OmegaTwo: First of all: How'd you get a mixed alien mission? In the plain vanilla game, the only mixed crew mission I can remember is the last mission. But no matter, as the strategies you use are universal.

 

Exiting the Skyranger at a hot landing zone generally requires a bit of stealth or brute force.

 

Stealth is simple. Smoke grenades and then running through them to the edge of the map or to anything that can provide considerable cover.

 

When I say brute force I mean by blasting the landing zone to bits with rockets, high explosives and whatever else you've got that can go boom. This usually takes care of anyone standing outside. What I normally do after dealing with anyone looking right into the Skyranger is to wait a few turns and use a motion scanner (the person on the equipment pile, mainly) to watch for any nearby movement blips. If there are any nearby, I drop a high explosive or large rocket as close to this blip as I can so that I can get it with splash damage. This normally deals with this unknown menace right away. I'd not worry too much about doing something like this in a terror site - although if you're strapped for points and want every positive score you can get, well, go easy on it.

 

To actually exit the ship safely, smoke grenades are you best friends. Not THE best friends as you can still get shot by anyone close enough to see you, but they are indeed far better than going out without any cover at all. (If you've been playing TFTD before UFO, trust me, the smoke grenades are leagues apart from the dye grenade)

 

Some players like to drop smoke grenades on the two levels, but that's only necessary if you intend to fly out of the Skyranger and walk out at the same time. Those walking out will immediately drop to the lower level when they get onto the ramp, so if you only walk, just plant the grenade on the ground level. But if you feel it's safer with a smoke cloud at both levels, fire away!

 

Smoke grenades are at their best when they have just been placed. NOT once they've spread - that's when they're thinnest and anyone can see you through it. Explosive weapons do lay down smoke, but it is not as thick as a cloud of smoke produced by a smoke grenade.

 

Oh, and at night, remember to fire off a few flares in the distance.

 

I thought there was a nice topic discussing how to disembark safely from the Skyranger... wonder what happened to that?

 

 

 

- NKF

[Aralez]

Ah, NKF was faster the smoke grenade would have been my tip for OmegaTwo, too. But as he hadn't them in the inventory....

Oh and in my case it was a one-floor UFO with a random layout (XCOMUTIL). And it had only one door for that room

[NKF]

I thought he had 1 smoke grenade...

 

You could try a similar approach - doesn't matter what ship you're going up against. If you know where the alien is standing, get one soldier to stand as close to it as possible (so that it ends up facing away from the door) and have the soldier who is to walk through the door at a stand a bit further away than the other soldier is to the alien, then walk through on the next turn. If the alien's looking the other way, then my theory is sound. If not, oh well, it was worth a try.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

OmegaTwo:

 

Ever heard of a thing called the Blaster Launcher? Next time you visit a Terror Mission, bring along a Blaster Launcher and 4 Blaster Bombs. Equip the first soldier off the transport with a Blaster Launcher (loaded) and 3 BB reloads. (If he doesn't have too good of strength leave the BB's on the ground). I'd give the second guy a Plasma weapon of some sort and a handful of alien grenades.

 

If the landing zone is hot, fire off a Blaster Bomb right in the midst of all the aliens. That should polish off those high reaction aliens carrying those Heavy Plasmas. If no aliens are visible after the explosion, wait a round. The second guy carrying the Plasma Rifle can clean up any aliens that wander into your line-of-sight. The next round, start to bring some of your troops off the Skyranger.

 

No Blaster Launchers you say? Try to bring a Mind Probe on your missions, cause it tells you what the reactions of those aliens are and their TU's. If you shoot and are unable to kill/hit them, one or more aliens might fire back. If the Mind Probe tells you that the mission might be doomed from the start, ABORT. That's right, ABORT!

 

Since you are at a Terror Mission, the worst that your score can be by just aborting is -480. That's a lot better than the -1000 points for a neglected Terror Site. Nothing says you have to finish every mission you go to. If things get tough (or impossible), just abort. It's better than losing a ton of your soldiers in the process.

[Aralez]

NKF, you're right, i somehow didnt see the "1smo" in his list :o

[Bomb Bloke]

I'm guessing my two cents is too late, but still...

 

We had this discussion a little while ago. I don't know if it ever got tested, but I'm fairly certain you can destroy doors inside UFO's with laser rifles, perhaps even grenades. If that's true, once you've done it, you can just lob a grenade inside.

 

You can also try placing a second trooper in such a place so that he would have LOS on the alien when the door is removed. Troop 1 'opens' the door, troop 2 hasn't moved and thus has no risk of catching reaction fire. So he shoots the alien. Bang bang bang. That relies on you being able to place your troops where you need them, though; you might have to make do with a grenade.

[Jman4117]

Start throwing grenades by the wall. Some of the damage will go through and get the alien in a few blasts.

[Bomb Bloke]

Someone mentioned a place you could put explosives that could go through a 'gap' in UFO hulls and make a nice mess of the occupants. Wouldn't work on a random craft I suppose.

[NKF]

You've just got to know which walls occupy the entire tile and which walls only occupy the edges.

 

The corners are excellent examples of 'walls' that you can toss explosives/rockets into. All the west and north walls tend to fall into this catagory as well.

 

When I say West, imagine North as being the general direction that you exit the Skyranger. Or, if you want, from the overhead map, 'West' is everything in a general left-wards direction... uh, never mind. I'm starting to confuse myself.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Assuming I'm on your wave length, aren't all walls either to the west or the north?

[NKF]

Well, if you were standing right in the middle of a medium scout (say where the power unit is) and you're facing north, all the walls to your left occupy the whole tile. All the walls to the right occupy just one edge of the tile. The same is true for all walls to the north - they occupy an entire tile while all walls to the south occupy only an edge of the tile.

 

If only we could post illustrations... oh well.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

I know what a medium scout looks like. :lol:

 

Actually, I know exactly what you're on about now. More or less. I know the properties of the tiles that make up a UFO; I'm not sure how this effects the grenades.

[NKF]

What I'm trying to get at is that the walls that occupy an entire tile aren't 100% solid. Well, they are solid to an extent, but objects can be thrown or fired into them and if you're walking and you've just dropped down from a different elevation (or you moved up a new elevation), you can often just walk right through these walls. (Simply a case of collision detection that neglects to take into account elevation, I'd imagine).

 

The easiest way to test this is to just toss a grenade into these walls and see what happens.

 

- NKF

[cyrus]

I don't know the properties of the tiles, but I know, that some parts of walls are penetratable by grenades. At least the corners are. So, assuming that Aralez knows, where that aliens stands, he could try to toss a grenade in as close as possible to the alien and watch the results. If not exploiting this bug, then the only solution is to walk inside, choosing the most healthy soldier if you don't want to lose any. Then there's a small chance, that he will withstand a single blast.

[Aralez]

I had to try several times until the alien did kill only one of my soldiers entering the room instead of three. And tossing a grenade in the room efore the door wasn't an option either as it was a 3x3 room with a UFO power source in it. The aliens position was secure, damn. Really smart AI, i wouldn't have moved either

 

Where are those blaster launchers when you need them ! :lol:

 

Interesting signature, cyrus! Reminds me of that persian philosoph that critisized the "I think, therefore i am" idea. He asked: "How do i know that it is me who thinks?" Ok, this is VERY simplified, but it's late here

[cyrus]

Alas, this signature isn't my work! It's from some fortune I've found somewhere. I like it since it reflects in some way my own views And now, that the max length of the sig is much greater, I was able to present it at whole.

 

As for this damn alien. What type of UFO was that? A large scout?

[Bomb Bloke]

A randomly generated craft.

 

Regardless of who does the thinking, if you are able to comprehend that thinking has been done, then you exist.

[Aralez]

I have my own theory about existing.

 

There are two possibilities:

 

-Existence is endless

(actually not very likely due to some contradictions of this posibility, but that's another topic)

 

This would mean everything you do/think/feel is, compared to the "big picture", nothing, everything is meaningless.

 

or:

 

-Existence has an end

 

This would mean that there will be a moment when everything you did/felt/saw is irrelevant because EVERYTHING is finshed. That would, in a final conclusion, mean that everyrthing is meaningless, too.

 

So, here's the big secret of existance, life, the universe and everything: It's meaningless!

 

Sounds depressing, but you can see it positive, too: All your bad deeds are meaningless, too :lol: