What's the penalty for letting a terror site go?

[Aziraphale]

I'm going through that sectoid terror mission, and by god, I HATE f**kING PSI ENHANCED SECTOIDS! This is the kind of thing that makes me want to start over. Just a single mission that I can't win unless I lose at least half of my guys. There isn't enough time to get another tank, and even if I could, I have no storage space.

 

So, I'm left with... trying some of my other soldiers... When a few of mine obviously have no Psi Strength.... Pity too, because ALL of their other stats are great

 

Back to the drawing board... Or please, what's the -score overall for letting it go?

[Slythe]

See my reply to your other post about how to help protect your soldiers from reaction fire upon exiting the Skyranger.

 

I find psi attacks in the early game to be the most dangerous situation my soldiers can face. When going through a sectoid mission with a sectoid leader, the chances of losing a soldier or two seem high.

 

As for the terror missions, if you ignore them you take a huge hit in your 'score' for that month, but can make it up by downing most other ufos you detect and by winning every other mission in that and the following month. Your very first terror mission can be the most difficult, especially if it's sectoids and cyberdiscs. Some people suggest just going to the site, starting it, then immediately aborting the mission rather than risking losing multiple soldiers. You will still take a big hit in score but should be able to make up for it later on.

[NKF]

I don't know the exact figures, but I think it was -30 for every civilian lost to the aliens, and a lot more for every civilian lost to X-Com's carelessness. Wrote the numbers down somewhere... can't find it.

 

Straight off evacuations should lose you around 300 or so points assuming the site has 10 civilians. Try to shoot any sectoids you can see around the landing site before taking off.

 

Here's a tip though: Lasers. Get lasers. Even a laser pistol will do, but try to get the laser rifles. The Cyberdiscs are what make the terror sites so difficult -- and as I said somewhere else, the sectoids are actually a walk in the park in comparison (except the leaders, those are terrible buggers).

 

Most of the weapons you can buy off the market are just as effective as throwing eggs at a battle tank. Heavy cannons with AP shells do much better than rifles or pistols, but only marginally better. The HWP rocket launcher is rather useless, as its rockets don't deal enough damage to destroy a cyberdisc in one shot, but high explosives and large rockets for the handheld rocket launcher usually can. But you'll need soldiers with 40 strength to drag either of these weapons about the battlefield. The lasers on the other hand do much better (well, consider even the laser pistol deals almost as much damage as a heavy cannon, it's not surprising).

 

If you can, research the small launcher ASAP. Funny though it may sound, the stun bombs are incredibly effective against cyberdiscs. One shot, if they don't manage to shrug off the damage, is enough to make them self-detonate.

 

Here are a few more tips for disembarking in a hot LZ:

 

- Motion sensors, use them after a turn to see who's skulking behind or next to the ramp. No sense in rushing out and getting a bullet in the back.

 

- High explosives and rockets, bring lots. To be used with the motion sensor if you spot anyone who might be caught in the blast radius. You can even place a proximity mine if you want, but be careful to put it off to one side so that your soldiers can still disembark. The resulting smoke clouds can be used like the smoke grenade's, but they won't last as long.

 

- Smoke grenades. If you have a tank in the way, you can still toss the smoke grenade over it, but you have to experiment a bit until you can find a spot your soldier can throw it to. This might be influenced by how strong your soldier is, but I don't know for sure. Just experiment until you find it. Also don't disembark until the smoke cloud's expanded a bit after a turn or two. Waiting is especially important in TFTD since its dye-grenades are pathetic in comparison to UFO's.

 

- Electro flares. For blasted night missions. Always toss a flare just a little further beyond where you wish to disembark. Always, except when your Skyranger is right at the edge of the map (obviously!).

 

- If you can help it, take your time. Don't rush everyone out unless you really have to.

 

Oh, and re: Skyranger destructability: It's indestructable, except on the mountain maps, where you can blow away the ramp and landing gear with explosives around the 85 and up damage range. You can even use them to literally destroy the corner walls of a UFO as well without using a blaster bomb. Only on the mountain maps though. Haven't seen this anywhere else.

 

- NKF

[Aziraphale]

OK, so I got past that terror mission, just by bringing 14 guys along and going nice and easy, and the Sectoid Leader was on the other side of the map, so I didn't get annoyed by Psionics much, except a few panic attacks early when there were a few sectoid spotters around the 'ranger. Got them and went through with the mission.

 

Now, a much more annoying thing has come along. My base got invaded in middle of March (Right after my birthday [9th for those of you who don't want to go into my profile] too!). Now, I took people's advice and pre-stocked lots of soldiers beforehand, and I got lucky that it was Snakemen, so they didn't have Psionics. There was also *1* Chrysallid (spelling) but he went down due to me having researched Heavy Plasma and Clips real quick. Like, I had Heavy Plasma by late February. So, in the pending invasion, I lost like 5 rookies (easy to shrug off when you have 20+ guys, I didn't feel half-bad about it at ALL! ) and defended my base.

 

On a side note; I noticed while giving people weapons during the first invasion, that I was able to see "Plasma Rifle" and stuff, though I hadn't researched them yet. All I have researched so far is Personal Armor, Heavy Plasma and Clip, Laser Pistol, Small Launcher (Not Stun bombs yet) Sectoid Biopsy, and I think that's it. I have 40 Scientists but they don't work hard enough. Anyway, back to the point of the side note: How come you can assign people weapons that you don't have researched, even though you can't use them in battle? I lost use-ability of like 8 men because they had Plasma Rifles...

 

One more quick question: If you have the weapon researched, but not the ammo, can you still use the gun in battle? Say you have Plasma Pistols researched, but not Clips. You pick up a Pistol with 25 shots left over from an alien who just got fried. Can you still use the pistol itself?

 

Insert a week later. I launched an interceptor at a Very Small UFO, but always got outrun. So, about a week after I finished defending my base from Snakemen, they attack again. I started building Missile Defense systems, hoping that it could injure the ship and kill a few aliens before it landed. Anyway, I was about to get into my second turn, and then AIM pops up with a "You're buddy is available", Alt-Tabs me out of X-Com, and closes it. :hmmm:

 

I think I'm done ranting again. Maybe.

[NKF]

A word of advice re: research: Unless you're using XComutil's new research rules, keep all autopsy reports and interrogations (particularly medics) for last. The autopsies can wait. They only provide a bit of thematic background information, and don't really provide any immediate practical benefits. The only exceptions being a navigator, a sectoid leader/commander or an ethereal, and a sectoid/ethereal commander.

 

As for firing researched weapons and unresearched clips: Yes, you can. Reloading becomes a bit of a problem . Mind controlled units can jolly well use plasma weapons even though you don't know how to use them.

 

Unresearched items appearing in a base attack: I think the plasma weapons are a bit higher on the equipment priority list, so that's why they appear first. Can't imagine why they don't leave them out when they're not researched.

 

To get around it, do a bit of spring cleaning and empty your stores. Don't forget to start the research project first before you do that. UFO's not as strict about not having items in storage when researching said item or its prerequisite items as TFTD is.

 

- NKF

[Stewart]

Shoot down lots of UFOs (particularly ones going 4800knots) and you'll make up the difference. If the terror mission is not in a funding country you'll lose less. Me I shoot down everything I can. If the aliens make it through well more power to them. Don't stress, the penalty for terror missions is overrated. BTW I just learned that if you just land and then take off again (having done nothing) it apparantly halves the penalty or so.

[Danial]

If you straight out ignore a Terror Site (never even touch down) you don't lose any points, but the Aliens get 1000. However, if you land and then dust off straight away, you'll only lose 30 x the number of civilians on the map, as NKF pointed out.

[Stun Grenade]

(Danial, Stewie is wrapping up the old threads alot hehe.. )

[NKF]

No, no, I indicated it, Zombie proved it.

 

- NKF