Micronoid Aggregate

[NKF]

I believe Bomb Bloke is referring to the big suicidal spud with legs. There have been reports from reputable forum members who have captured an Overspawn alive after defeating it.

 

I haven't ever had this happen to me myself, nor do I know the right conditions for it, but am open to the possibility.

 

Otherwise it'll normally just be retrieved dead. In fact, you don't get any special research from it. I guess it's something for completists who want to do every conceivable thing in this game to strive for.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

I also have never captured one but believe those who have claimed to do so. Especially since the files for the UFOpedia entry exist.

 

There are plenty of known ways to catch a Megaspawn.

[Azrael Strife]

Amazing, I never knew that

[Timstone]

Alrighty then! I've just downed a bomber and an escort. Fantastic!

I really hate those escorts, they are very difficult to hit and have that stunning missile. Grr...

There were two bombers and two escorts. I focussed on one of each and largely ignored the other two. I decided to investigate the escort first. And to my amazement I found a Megaspawn inside (I haven't attacked an escort for quite some time). I immediately wounded it and then stunned it with Stun Grenades. Praise the game for those wonderful things!

It was however quite tricky to protect the stunned Megaspawn, but I succeeded. Yeah!

Then it was time to attack the bomber and catch the hated Micronoid Aggregate. I dispatched a large portion of the crew pretty quickly. Then I found three MA's (as is usual in a bomber at superhuman difficulty). One of them was killed accidently by a scared Skeletoid. The stupid sod fired a Dimension Missile at the MA.

I was attack with Psi quite a few times before I could direct my lone android with a Stungrapple to the scene. I wounded both MA's and then quickly stunned them with the Stungrapple. I was so happy at the moment. My first couple of live MA's!

When I got back at my base I had captured two missing live aliens. Pretty cool. Then I wanted to transport them to my research base, but ran into a problem. Megapol would attack the Transstellar vehicle and thus destroy my precious life aliens in the process. In the end I managed to evade the police hovercars and get the transport safely to my research base. Phew...

When I researched the life MA, I got another "surprise", I didn't get any new tech. Not very cool.

Now I only need the Psimorph and the Queen.

 

All this leaves me with another question:

- How do I transport my stuff (Alien Artefacs and Aliens) with my own vehicles?

 

Very cool there are reports of the capture of life Overspawns. I hope when another Overspawn is dropped I can capture both the Mothership and the Overspawn.

Oh yeah, Diablo suddenly turned against me. I can't negotiate with them anymore. This happened without any alien infiltration. I read about this happening on this forum. It's really annoying. Ah well, too bad. A minor glitch in a great game.

[NKF]

There are two ways to safely transfer goods.

 

The first occurs when you're going home from the mission. Send your transport to the base with the containment, then offload the alien there before returning home.

 

The second is to send it normally, but enter ultra-fast mode briefly after sending the items. This should send the ships to their destination instantly and avoid any damage from Megapol. This doesn't work if there are any air threats that suddenly appear in the area while the ships are in transit.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Oh yeah, Diablo suddenly turned against me. I can't negotiate with them anymore. This happened without any alien infiltration. I read about this happening on this forum. It's really annoying. Ah well, too bad. A minor glitch in a great game.

Glitch? Organisations often get pissed off at you for political reasons. For example, attacking the Cult pisses off their allies as well.

[NKF]

The only glitch in that bit is where the company refers to the aliens as their "friends". Really, what's happened is that the company has just hit an extreme point where it's fed up with X-Com to such a great extent that it will no longer accept cash settlements unless they issue a request to default to neutral for a price.

 

They'll often start rooting for the aliens once they enter this state for the first time - but that doesn't mean the aliens feel the same way about them. Unlike when they are 100% infiltrated (as far as I can remember - I might be wrong on the 100% infiltration companies), you can still get them back in your good books by getting the aliens to damage their buildings in some way. Overspawns are great for this - they indiscriminately stomp through buildings owned by allies as well as enemies. They're best left to their own devices unless they wander too close to your facilities.

 

I guess it's just a way to limit the bribery system so that players don't end up abusing or relying on it endlessly.

 

- NKF

[Gimli]

100% infiltrated organizations can be befriended, although it probably won't stay that way for long. In my current game I had Lifetree befriended for a short while, but who cares anyway. In my last game it happened with Marsec, and boy did I make use of that. Immediately got hold of Marsec Body Suits. What causes it? I am not sure, but it seems that if you let the aliens go out on a rampage through Megaprimus, infiltrated organizations like that. Just remember that you're angering other organizations at the same time.

 

Unrelated, but does the Disruptor armor protect against Brainsuckers and Entropy launchers? I think I read that somewhere, but I'm not sure.

[NKF]

Befriending a stubborn organisation requires that the aliens harm them enough that their relations with the aliens are worse than their relations with you, so they start rooting for you again. Letting the UFOs damage the buildings is the easiest way to go about it.

 

As for the Disrupter armour - I don't think they help in protecting you against brainsuckers any better than the other helmets. Mind you, I am open to the possibility but the results I've seen have always been been very random.

 

With entropy - of all the armour the disrupter armour parts have the toughest durability. When worn as a full suit, the durability of the suit (and just the suit) is strong enough to survive the effects of one entropy missile. After that it'll get eaten up very easily on further entropy attacks, but worse still the armour segments may even get destroyed by normal enemy fire. You're usually better off removing your armour and putting it on after the enzyme has worn off in a few game seconds.

 

Note, this relates just to wearing a full suit of disrupter armour. Any equipment you have on you will get eaten away and explode.

 

- NKF

[Gimli]

Sooooo... aside from being light weight and somewhat better protection, what's the actual use of the armor? I can't even fly in it. Yes, I know I can use Marsec's body part, but really, you would think someone in X-COM would have thought of installing a flying device into the thing. It's not like it is an unknown technology. So I'm better of combining Marsec's body armor and the rest disruptor armor, and putting 2 personal disruptor shields on?

[NKF]

Well, that's what most players do.

 

However a full suit of disrupter armour is very resistant to high explosive attacks. I've seen one get hit by six dimension missiles in succession with only 1-2 HP health loss. (well - I pulled the trigger each time ).

 

I generally like to use the full suits with one or two token flyers thrown in to allow the best of both worlds.

 

- NKF

[Gimli]

Here's something else that's been bothering me. My soldiers don't heal very often during battles. They just keep losing health until they die. So I end up sending them out of the battlefield, which is bad. I set them to "No Shot" but it doesn't work. This is just in RT, TB doesn't have this problem.

[NKF]

Make sure that you are standing still, and make sure that your agent is standing squarely on the ground (read: If you are flying - land!), start the healing process then wait till the green bits disappear and repeat the process until all wounds are healed. If you've got more than one wound, you do have the option of running two medikits at once.

 

It seems that you can switch the medikit on while you're moving to stifle the blood loss a bit (I cannot confirm this), but you must stop moving so that it works.

 

Escaping from the battle does halt the blood loss, you just lose the service of the agent for the rest of the battle.

 

- NKF

[Gimli]

A-ha! So I must be on the ground. Funny, I don't remember that being a problem in TB, but OK at least I know what's wrong.