BreakMage Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Ok, so I'm getting Psionics and I have at least 15+ people with 75+ Firing Accuracy and 72 TUs. My highest person with Psi is 92, and my lowest a pathethic 19 I think. So I have a few questions... I've researched The Martian Solution, and I have an Avenger. How do I go to Cydonia? I had a Sectoid Leader tell me about the Martian Solution (he was also the one who got me Psionics). Psionics: What is the best way to improce Psi Skill? I've tried battlefield Panic and MC'ing, and no skill is going up. can it ONLY go up in the Psi Labs? If so, I have to wait another month just for puttnig people back in... A lot can happen in a month. I've started using a Hovertank/Plasma and wow, this thing is really useful as a scout. I really don't care if it dies at all, and it's sole purpose is to draw fire when exiting the Avenger. I have about 30 million, so I'm starting my 4th base. I've researched everything, so I fired all but 50 scientists, for the spare live aliens I have to research. I have a full time Engineer crew (Well, only 100) in one base, constantly making Avengers and Flying Suits. Yeah, I've raided numerous supply ships; I have the Elerium to spare on the Flying suits. I have a base in North America, Europe, and South Africa, and my new one is in South East Asia (Right between two alien bases that I don't feel I'm ready to take out yet; Muton and Ethereal). I could probably take on the Muton base, but the Ethereal, well, I want to jack up my Psi Skill so I can panic them. I've been thinking a really cheap way to kill the Ethereal base, too. Get about 3 or 4 hover or laser tanks to scout, and just have EVERYONE ELSE use a Blaster Launcher, and if the tanks find an Alien, well, they didn't anymore. It just feels unfulfilling, though. Do I have to Stun / Capture live the Ethereal Commander? Do they wear different colors (Like Mutons use Red I think.) or are they still in the Orange cloaks, making it a lot more difficult to find/capture them? The more Psi labs I build, the more people can be trained in one base, correct? I think that's all for now; I'll update it as I play more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 1. Any commander will do (there are no muton leaders/commanders)2. The best way to improve psionics is in battle the attack has to be sucessful and you may need to get a kill (not sure).3. Use laser tank to draw fire (no elerium or alloys lost).4. All aliens look alike regardless of rank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 You know, you don't have to take on the entire alien base to destroy it. Just destroy the four command tables in the command room (all 16 table quarters) and the base is effectively disabled, and will therefore vanish off the map when the combat ends. One suggestion would be to take in some HWPs and some blaster bombs. You'll need a number of bombs to pull this off effectively. 5 bombs are nice, but more would be just grand. You don't need the HWPs, but the advanced HWPs are a lot more agile than your best troopers can ever get, and they have much more armour than the flying suit, and besides, they're expendable. First deploy the HWPs and search for the command centre. Once you find it, retreat the HWPs or let them get a better visual of the command centre. Have your soldiers, from the safety of the entry modules, fire the blaster bombs to the command centre and fly up in the general location of the tables. You may need to knock some of the outer walls out to get at the lift room -- try locating the windows to save an extra bomb. One bomb can usually take out two tables at a time if put right between them. Then repeat for the other end. (Actually, just striking the ceiling underneath the two tables is all you need to do, so you need not breach the inner walls around the lift room) Then have everyone head back to the entry pads (pick up any equipment off the aliens if you can for a few extra points), then dust off. You'll get +500 points for destroying the command centre, plus a few combat bonuses (capturing enemy equipment, and killing any aliens)or penalties (for loss of soldiers or HWPs). You won't get the equipment left behind, but wiping off a tough aliens' base off the map with minimal effort is worth it. Oh, if you're using the collectors edition, remember that vertical movement of the blaster bombs on the same tile are not possible. Has to be done at an angle. -- By the way, you'll need to research a commander after researching 'the martian solution' for 'cydonia or bust'. Any commander should do, I think. And no, the commanders just look like everyone else. So bring along your mind probes and psi-amps for identification purposes. As for improving psi skill -- successful psi attacks do improve psi-skill. Just keep making successful attacks and your skill will slowly shoot up. It might not happen immediately or very quickly, but it will improve. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 You can also take their elerium if you destroy the reactor with a plasma weapon. No HE, that will only destroy the elerium. Maybe good to send in some psi-strong troops with heavy plasmas after the tanks to get the elerium. There are two reactors in about half of the bases I have encountered which could mean 100 elerium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 I think that's that 20x20 area with one small corridor that leads up to four storage rooms. The room to the south has the two power units, but only one has an elerium pod installed in it. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Yeah, that's the room. Just don't use a blaster to crack it open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BubbleLabby Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 I always assumed that if you destroyed the power unit (that power the ship), you wouldn't get any elerium. If you don't destroy the power unit, you get both the power unit and the elerium. Glad to know this because I can start to blow up the power unit with my plasma weapons so I can get to the aliens hiding behind it. At the alien base, there are sphere-like objects sitting at the four corners of an intersection. Does anyone know what are they? They blow up like human gas pumps. May be they function just like the alien garden for serving no purpose. BL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Oh, those red glowy things? Those are the alien entertainment pods. You can find a lot of them on battleships too. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 27, 2003 Share Posted May 27, 2003 Don't blow the reactor unless you are going to grab the elerium and run. It's worth 250K and you need them to make craft. Send a rookie(40K) to take care of the last alien in the room if there is one. If he lives, and there is a pretty good chance he will, you had yourself a 250K reactor and a new squadie. Edit: Could stun a man, throw him in the reactor and wait for him to wake up. But that would be a little time consuming, especially in a precision stike on a base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreakMage Posted May 27, 2003 Author Share Posted May 27, 2003 Ok, so I "coerced" a Snakeman Commander to come "home" with me so I could have a nice "chat" with him and learn about his "home planet." That was funny... I MC'ed both a Snakeman with a Small Launcher and a Snakeman Commander (Both by accident, to make it more ironic). That was fun. Also took out a Muton base with 2 Hovertanks and 4 Psi Soldiers. Needless to say, they got a good boost in their stats. It's always fun making aliens suicide. MC, Inventory bug for grenade, prime it to 0, inventory bug to drop it. Always fun to see aliens blow up without wasting one of my grenades. I'm researched Cydonia or Bust now... Probably going to do the Blaster Launcher / Hovertank thing against the Ethereal base or something... I just hate there being Alien bases on the map at all. So, time to just go blaster launcher happy. :devil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 27, 2003 Share Posted May 27, 2003 Could just leave one on the map and raid it every few hours. If you have 3 bases to strike from, that could be a lot of assault ships. If you had six ships at each base you could have one coming to do a smash and grab every 15 minutes or so. Mind control commander, kill every one else, steal anything that isn't bolted down, then leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Demi-Godly One Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 Since were on the topic of "nearing the end"... How long did it take you guys to beat the game for the first time?(Real time) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bevan Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 First time for me was about a month. With surgical stikes on bases and assaulting every UFO i came too i found myself with a lot of money and some new toys to help me with, although i failed Cydonia the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 A year. Had problems with xcom on my computer when I first got it. And kept starting over when ever I would leave it for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Demi-Godly One Posted May 28, 2003 Share Posted May 28, 2003 About 15-20 days for me, I can't remember exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JellyfishGreen Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 Seventeen months. For the first three years after buying this game in 1998, I didn't have a computer that would run it. And then I would play only one or two evenings per week, often spending the entire evening playing one recovery mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ignore my tentacles Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 A couple of months- I like to painstakingly play every mission with uncessessary contemplation, usually about 1 long, or a couple or so of short (i.e. small/medium UFO recovery) missions a night. I had a demo of the game first and played that for weeks and weeks (over and over again I mean )- I thought it was cooler than any of my full games at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 If you're not really anxious to see the end of the UFO try playing Cydonia equipped only with Earth pistols and grenades. If you're sane and prefer to take a more smooth approach ignore this post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Demi-Godly One Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 Now how long did it take game time for everyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 About a year and a half the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 If you're not really anxious to see the end of the UFO try playing Cydonia equipped only with Earth pistols and grenades. If you're sane and prefer to take a more smooth approach ignore this post If you're playing on superhuman, better bring some high explosives. You can't really take out the cyberdiscs easily with anything less. If you're on beginner, well, a full pistol clip and a bit is enough to blow one up (yes, they're that good on beginner...amazing). You'll still need the high explosives for the sectopods (among other things) on the next level. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 May want to bring laser pistol along and have it in one hand and standard pistol in other hand. The laser is better on the cyberdiscs and sectopods. If it makes it to easy, don't bring grenades and psi-amps. Edit: Or just one guy with a blaster with 6 bombs and he can't scavenge.Or a full squad armed with stunrods.Or go in unarmed and hope some alien panics so you can get his gun.Or only use proximity grenades. (Now how do suppose you'd get the alien brain?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Demi-Godly One Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 -Proximity grenades? I'd think you'd have to do a kamikaze to kill the brain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Short of the aliens accidentally hitting each with their own weapons, none of the aliens are going to panic or drop their weapons without some intervention on your part. So, at least give yourself a fighting chance and arm yourself with at least one weapon if you do decide to send in most of your soldiers unarmed. One plain grenade may be pushing it a bit too much though... unless you find a sectoid, floater or snakeman very early on. Having, uh, repeatedly performed some silly stunts like this on a floater base many times before (solo, rah! (see relevant section on my webpage)), I can say that they're not impossible. It just -- well, it just takes a lot of tries and patience. Lots of patience. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Bring one smoke grenade to gas a sectiod in one of the pyramids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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