So soon?

[milkman2k52]

Hi I just joined these forums. Seems like there are alot of knowledgeable folks around here. Anyways, my question.

 

I am playing a game on experienced and it is the middle of april ( I have heavy plasma, no small launcher, and just got power suit [none produced]). Now all of a sudden two battleships and two other large ufos and a small one just start swarming around the base in china. Is this normal for this early on experienced difficulty?

 

I really can't handle battleships i.e. I can't shoot them down OR recover them. Should I just let them do their funky business? I have a feeling a base is going to be started. How hard are those to assault and be successful? Thanks for the help guys

[NKF]

Yes, they can appear early. You can even get them to send a battleship in to attack your base within the first few days if you can alert them to your presence. Though you won't get the blasters bombs in the base attack that early.

 

As for your problem, it sounds like a mass infiltration fleet. Not a very nice bunch to meet so early. They almost ensure the instant loss of the country they're landing at by the end of the month.

 

The battleships are just like any other ships, except you have to deal with the added difficulty of terror units, blaster launchers (usually about 3 or so) and the potential appearance of a commander unit.

 

You don't have to have any fancy equipment to attack one, just weapons that are strong enough to hurt any of the terror units that you'll be facing (your heavy plasmas should do the trick), and enough luck to spot and deal with the aliens carrying blaster launchers before they spot you.

 

- NKF

[milkman2k52]

So you suppose I should just attack the battleships when they land? I supppose with PLENTY of luck I could do it....

 

EDIT the ships are sectoid by the way.

[Mike]

You can do it. Mind Control from the bridge and cyber-disc reaction fire can get nasty. But the rewards of capturing an intact battleship would justify a hard won fight with even high casualties to me.

[NKF]

Well, you never know till you give it a go. You might want to perform a few practice missions first to get the hang of it. As the crew are made up of sectoids, the psi-attacks might be a bit overwhelming if your soldiers are low in psi-strength.

 

If you manage to win and can get a few blaster launcher samples (or steal a few samples by grabbing one and evacuating if necessary), research it and crank a few out and keep a small supply on your troop transport. This will definitely even the odds a bit on your next battleship assault.

 

There is a small chance, as it is still quite early, that the aliens might not have any blaster launchers just yet. Also, I notice that the psi-capable aliens don't seem to immediately use their psionics on you when it's still early in the game. Though I could be wrong about that last bit. It just seems that way.

 

- NKF

[milkman2k52]

I did give it a few goes and they sure did use psi abilities. Do they have to be in line of sight to use it? I dont know as I have never progressed to that point.

 

Anyhoo, I decided not to go for the battleship and instead just let the wankers run amuck. I just dont feel prepared tech-wise and skill-wise. Still have yet to see how badly it will affect my score.

[NKF]

If it's an infiltration team, the aliens will get a certain boost to their activity score in that area (I think it was 150, someone mentioned it a while ago). Then the country will stop funding you at the end of the month. An alien base usually appears in that country after this (I'm not sure how regularly this actually happens). If it wasn't an infiltration team, then it'll have been a base construction team, which is a little better.

 

Either way, if it's close to your home-base, then you can think of it as a blessing in disguise, as the constant stream of supply ships will more than make up for the loss in funding.

 

As for psionics: I believe the aliens can see anything a mind controlled soldier can see. They can also remember where the soldiers are for a few turns after they've been mind controlled, which makes things worse if the soldier has a low psi-strength level. I'm told that the difficulty level influences the length of time an alien will remember where a soldier is.

 

- NKF

[The Demi-Godly One]

Really? I thought they automaticly always know where the soldiers is and I thought it did not depend on the difficulty level... Are you sure they don't always remember by default?

[Rattler]

In one game of mine I found an alienbase on the 22nd of the first month, it was Alien Base 21. 21 alien bases at the beginning of the game?

 

As for the psi I think they automatically know where most of your men are. I've had guys mind controlled before they had left the skyranger and before I had even seen the sectoid.

[Cazbol]

There's no question about it, the aliens can know where you are without ever having seen you. The can mind control the guy in the back of the Skyranger on the first turn. In TFTD they can even mind control guys in the Triton even though its doors are closed.

 

I somewhat suspect that there's a range within which they know where you are but that this range is unaffacted be obstacles and cover. The range could be unlimited though.

[NKF]

For TFTD, because of the way the various walls are implemented, the Triton doesn't conceal your units completely. You know how it is in UFO where you can sometimes 'see' an alien on the upper levels of a UFO at wierd angles, even though you haven't got a clear path towards it? Well, that's how it is with the Triton, only in reverse.

 

- NKF