Whats the difference between ''normal'' and hard''

[Nightkin]

Hello!

 

Right now i am playing UFO with difficulty level ''normal''. But it seems very easy. Not really a challenge.

I wanted to know whats the difference between ''normal'' and ''hard'' difficult.

Are the aliens smarter? Are there more of them in the missions?

 

Thanks for your help

[Slaughter]

Have you gone through the game on normal? It can be quite challenging after the second story mission...

 

As for the difference, I am not sure exactly what all the factors are.

 

Welcome to the boards!

[Accounting Troll]

Welcome to the forum Nightkin.

 

On a higher level of difficulty, the enemies are stronger, so they are harder to kill. Their weapons do more damage to your soldiers, so tactics become more important. Also, the alien plan will proceed more quickly and the alien Biomass will grow at a much faster rate.

 

There are several difficulty increases in the course of a game regardless of what difficulty level you select. The aliens will get improved weapons and armour as the game develops. In particular, there is the infamous Russian Base Mission difficulty hike, when the aliens get a lot of improved weapons and armour all in one go.

 

There is a way to increase the difficulty level without starting a new game. Go into the profiles directory, then the directory for your current game. Open the UFOOptions text file and scroll down to the bottom. Change the difficulty line to read:

 

Key "difficulty" INT 0

 

Make sure you don't mess up the spacing in this file!

[Nightkin]

Thanks for welcoming me

 

I think i will start a new game with hardest difficulty. The more challenging the better

If it is to hard, i wil change the difficulty back to normal.

 

Another question:

How important is the ''handgun'' skill?(dont know if its called so in english, i play the german version). Are mp's and pistols important in the later game?

[Accounting Troll]

Most handguns are pretty useless compared with the assault rifles. However, the HK MP7, FN P90 and the Five-seveN Tactical are very useful in close combat against the Reticulans because they combine a high rate of fire with armour piercing rounds.

[Kret]

Hey, no dissing my precious handguns.

Seriously tho, handguns have an advantage over assault rifles in really tight quarters, like spotting transgenants right behind a door you just openend

[Nightkin]

Hmm, at least the MP 5 is not that bad. I use 4x G3 and 2x MP5. The damage type of the G3 rifle is not so good for targets without armour. So its not bad to have one or two MP5 in team.

 

A question:

I can research authopsie just with the corpse of the alien. Is it usefull in any way to have a living one for research? are there more informations in the final report?

 

thanks

[Accounting Troll]

It doesn't make any difference, which is fortunate bewcause several species of transgenant simply cannot be captured alive. Having both living and dead specemins just speeds up research slightly.

 

Don't worry about getting any living transgenants unless you are on a mission where the objective is to get at least one living transgenant. However, once you've researched alien containment, you will need a few living Reticulans.

[Nightkin]

Hello!

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

Now i seem to have a problem.

Although i've killed a lot of Reticulans and Gobbers, i cannot reaserch them. They dont show up in the list.

But i will need them later for transgenant theory. Is this a bug or what?

 

thanks again for your help

[Kret]

For reticulans you have Alien Autopsy, rather than Reticulan Autopsy.

 

For the Gobber... look around in the list, have you already reasearched it? RnD Items are a bit disorganized so you can get lost looking for somethig in particular. Look in the glossary as there you at least have different categories that split up the RnD items.

 

Don't recall it's influence in the Theory, I know that most of the early transgenants are needed, but the rest are optional.

[Nightkin]

Thanks for the info

Strange, now i can research the Gobber...

 

Right now the game has become very hard. Those Reticulans are very strong. The main problem is, that i cannot kill them so fast, that they are not able to use the plasma gun, which makes area damage.

Another thing is, that cannot really find out what is effective against them. At short range a shot from the shotgun makes a lot of damage, but how to fight them over distance?

[Slaughter]

I like grenade launchers and sniper rifles

[Accounting Troll]

It sounds like the Reticulans have started using the armour with the yellow energy bubble. It is more effective than the earlier armour against projectile weapons, but it is still fairly weak against hard (ie armour piercing) rounds.

 

If there isn't much cover, the RPG7 rocket launcher (the only rocket launcher with armour piercing missiles) and sniper rifles are a good combination, as Reticulan plasma launchers have a limited range.

 

If there is plenty of cover, I like to combine rocket launchers and sniper rifles with the HK G36 and Colt M4, as both these assault rifles have hard rounds and they still outrange Reticulan plasma launchers.

 

Be careful about bunching your soldiers up, think about where you can set ambushes, and bear in mind that your weapons have greater range than plasma launchers and that Reticulans cannot run.

 

Slaughter: you see what compiling those weapons tables has done to me?

[Nightkin]

Hello!

 

Now i am using a combination of 2x G36, 2x G3, 3x Laser Rifle.

Too bad, that there is no long range weapon for ''soft'' targets.

Bur this combination works very good. Even if i split of in 2-3 Teams.

 

I also realised, that is as good as imposible to play without shootguns in base attacks. At short range 1-2 shots are strong enough to kill any reticulan.

 

A question:

I received a message wich says that i have to find other bases like Area 51. Is there anything i can for finding them, or this is a scripted thing?

 

thanks for your help.

[Thorondor]

"Is there anything i can for finding them, or this is a scripted thing ?"

 

When a certain set of conditions is met, the game will trigger another such mission and make it visible on the map (much in the same way as was with Area 51).

 

::

 

Hint: From Russia with love...

[Nightkin]

Ok, i found the base. It was just a few minutes away of Stalingrad.

 

The beginning of the base looks hard, they are coming from everywhere.

[Slaughter]

Indeed . I used snipers and grenade launchers mostly I seem to remember.

[Nightkin]

After a hard beginning the rest was easy going.

I kneed down at the starting position and after 1 second they where one after another. My weapons where 2xSteyr AUG. 2xH&K G11, 2xLaser Rifle and 1 advanced laser rifle.

Some men where hit by the aliens, but at all they managed very fast to kill them.

After this i took position behind the wall at both sides of the entrance. One scout looked around the corner and when i saw a alian the other men threw grenaed over the wall why the scout was retreating. After the some some grenades the aliens decided to come out, so i had easy work killing those injured reticulans.

Inside the base it was much easier than outside. Neostead and CAWS shotguns and smoke grenades did the job in time.

 

I was a little bit dissapionted, that the base looked like Area 51.

[Nightkin]

lol, now this biostuff creeps all over the planet and there is nothing i can do to stop it. i am loosing one base after another, because i cannot take a sample of it, or can resaerch anything wich has something to do with it.

 

what a crap

[Accounting Troll]

If you sucessfully complete any mission on the Biomass, you automatically get a biomass sample for your scientists to study. Given time, this mission will appear.

 

You also need to get a sample of the biomass node material. If you shoot down a planter before it can plant the biomass material and then send in your squad to capture the downed vessel, there is a 50% chance of securing the biomass material. I once obtained this material from a large laboratory ship on the hardest difficulty setting.

 

The biomass can grow across narrow seas such as the English Channel, but it cannot reach the Canary Islands and the Azores unless the Reticulans launch seperate missions...

[a2019]

hi

about this line Key "difficulty" INT 0

 

what means 0 ? it is easy or hard?

how many difficalties?

what is the hardest? 0 or 1 or 5 or 10 ?

how to change difficulty ingame?

 

o god

need to players -> new game

 

Key "difficulty" INT 0 - hard

Key "difficulty" INT 1 - normal

Key "difficulty" INT 2 - easy