Returning to UFO after lots of years

[Ehlers]

Boght the big packet off STEAM and got all the X-Com series etc. When I was a kid I played it a little, but mostly it was me watching my brother getting slaughtered by the aliens (I secretly cheered for the aliens to finish off his troops )

 

First try went horible wrong in USA. So after that I went online to read faqs, guides and youtube videos etc. to get a hang of how to handle things. But have a few questions.

 

1. Laser rifle vs Plasma Rifle

I understand the point of building Laser Rifle over Plasma Rifle, but is it not better to research Plasma Rifle first and then Laser Rifle right after since you dont have to build plasma rifles as you get them from the aliens? I have read many places that you should just land and kill everything near the aircraft in a terror mission and then fly off leaving the aliens to do as the please with the city. By the time the terror misson came I had already plasma rifle and also plasma rifle (If i remember correct). The plasma rifles do more damange, so easy to advance fast and kill everything before your troops turn agaisnt each others due to psi attacks.

 

2. Enemy base

I have read that if an enemy base is already build in a country that country will defect to the alien side later on in the game. Is this correct? Should I not build a base in China, but instead build my 3th base in say Africa or some place else? (EU --> USA --> China was my though of basing)

 

3. Enemy outer hull

Is it possible to blow a whole to an alien outer hull when on the ground?

Going through the front door is like entering the alien ship and say" Hallo honey I am home"

Else the other tactic (I find it borring) is by camping and waiting for them to come out to play.

 

4. Japan

In my game (may) Japan is the only one country that gives me 1mio, but I have not done any missions there at all. My interceptor has just briefe flown over the country, but did not find any UFO. USA seemed not happy with me, so they are down to 700k. But how come Japan gives me so much when I have done nothing from them?

 

5. Where do I go from here (May 1999)?

1base EU: 20soldiers (fitted with laser rifles, high explosives, proxy granedes, medic, stun, 4flying suit, 5 protective suit (cant remember name...) rest normal clothes), 90researchers, 30enginers, 2craft (transport and interceptor armed with plasma cannon), one coming psi lab and the usual stuff

2base USA: 10 soldiers (laser rifles etc etc.), 1tank, 2crafts (transport and interceptor normal weapon)

 

I think I was too quickly to build the 2nd base in USA because it took my money and could not arm it with crafts and soldiers to take any action. So i am short in cash now but seems like every country is happy and give me more money. But I doubt that will last forever.

I took out the Alien base in China with heavy loses, but won it only due to the aliens clustering around a high explosvie structure in the command room. So private do your duty soldier shoot it and went down too while the rest of the squat either was dead, panicking or playing under alien control.

 

Base on the answers and the situation I have asked/described, how am I to advance forward from here (beginners level)?

 

ps: first post on this forum

[FullAuto]

Welcome!

 

When I was a kid I played it a little, but mostly it was me watching my brother getting slaughtered by the aliens (I secretly cheered for the aliens to finish off his troops)

 

Oh, you'll fit in just fine round here.

 

1. Laser rifle vs Plasma Rifle

I understand the point of building Laser Rifle over Plasma Rifle, but is it not better to research Plasma Rifle first and then Laser Rifle right after since you dont have to build plasma rifles as you get them from the aliens? I have read many places that you should just land and kill everything near the aircraft in a terror mission and then fly off leaving the aliens to do as the please with the city. By the time the terror misson came I had already plasma rifle and also plasma rifle (If i remember correct). The plasma rifles do more damange, so easy to advance fast and kill everything before your troops turn agaisnt each others due to psi attacks.

 

I think the laser rifle is probably the more economical to use (easier research, no need to produce ammo as you eventually need to for the plasma weapons, I find) but the plasma rifle is the better weapon. Personal choice, I think.

 

2. Enemy base

I have read that if an enemy base is already build in a country that country will defect to the alien side later on in the game. Is this correct? Should I not build a base in China, but instead build my 3th base in say Africa or some place else? (EU --> USA --> China was my though of basing)

 

It doesn't automatically mean that country will go over to the aliens, but it is a strong indicator that the aliens are gaining influence in that area. Think seriously about hitting their base. If it's just not practical, 'stake out' their base and ambush ships that land there, you can net yourself loads of elerium (and everything else) by taking on supply ships etc.

 

3. Enemy outer hull

Is it possible to blow a whole to an alien outer hull when on the ground?

Going through the front door is like entering the alien ship and say" Hallo honey I am home"

Else the other tactic (I find it borring) is by camping and waiting for them to come out to play.

 

Heavy Plasma and the Blaster Launcher will do it for certain. Think one or two other weapons will do the job too, but I can't remember ATM.

 

4. Japan

In my game (may) Japan is the only one country that gives me 1mio, but I have not done any missions there at all. My interceptor has just briefe flown over the country, but did not find any UFO. USA seemed not happy with me, so they are down to 700k. But how come Japan gives me so much when I have done nothing from them?

 

Japan is one of the big spenders. You might not have done anything specifically for them, but if you've done okay in a general sense in that month, killed plenty of USOs/aliens etc then most nations will give you an increase.

 

5. Where do I go from here (May 1999)?

1base EU: 20soldiers (fitted with laser rifles, high explosives, proxy granedes, medic, stun, 4flying suit, 5 protective suit (cant remember name...) rest normal clothes), 90researchers, 30enginers, 2craft (transport and interceptor armed with plasma cannon), one coming psi lab and the usual stuff

2base USA: 10 soldiers (laser rifles etc etc.), 1tank, 2crafts (transport and interceptor normal weapon)

 

Way I usually do it is have 1-2 main bases with troops, and the others just your best radar and an intercept craft. Go for global coverage, shoot down the smaller UFOs and get the bigger ones with better craft or hit them on the ground when they land. This is just my way, though, no doubt you'll develop your own.

 

Check out our UFOpaedia for as much info as you need.

[Timbukto]

I'm playing on superhuman now on psx because I already beat the game long ago on DOS (and most likely due to the difficulty bugs, I was probably always playing on beginning without really noticing it). Right now I'm allowing save/reloads just to get a feel, and perhaps because I'm able to reload from grave mistakes, superhuman difficulty has probably allowed me to be better off just due to the insane increase in cash flow since the majority of your income is actually from alien loot.

 

1. I have always gone laser route for economy and just because I love the laser weapons...playing the game on superhuman ironman mode I would adjust my tactics with the following considerations. Jumping to plasma rifle first allows you access to a highly accurate weapon and opens up the plasma cannon craft weapon quicker. Plasma cannon + interceptor is good til the end-game and nets you more points and missions and loot...but this means nothing if you don't have the bases and radar detection necessary. However even radar detection is far far inferior to the hyperwave decoder. I would have to believe my overall success is due in large part to capturing a navigator early. Because you start out with a low presence and coverage, I found myself saving a lot of cash early on by ditching the first interceptor (and buying it up again when I was ready to establish interception on base #2). If I played again and adhere to strict ironman rules (no reloads) I would consider jumping to the plasma rifle if only to access the craft weapon...and then completing and using laser rifles to just sell most alien weapons and ammo for $. In addition, in the early-game because many enemies even on superhuman have low enough armor to die by AP weapons (barring the cyberdiscs on terror missions), I'd consider both conventional pistol and rifle because they have HIGH accuracy vs lasers (which become sufficiently accurate when your soldiers rack up some kills). Overall this is personal choice especially on lower difficulties and with reloads. If it were superhuman + ironman I would consider a jump to plasma rifle to get the craft weapon, capture navigator ASAP...only save a few plasma rifles for snipers (conversely never make any one or two soldiers your heroes and spread out your attacks and kills as evenly as possible) and sell the rest for cash to get a jump start on base builds (coverage) and essential research. The faster you can get the craft weapon + hyperwave decoder, probably the faster you start to really rack up on all alien encounters vs ignoring or not knowing about them.

 

2. You can do great and aliens may still infiltrate countries (heck they probably do it out of spite and revenge). There isn't much you can do about it. Europe as a starter is always good because it is a multitude of countries. They've already taken brazil and australia for me...this is almost non-consequential. Instead of worrying too much about making sure countries don't turn sides...approach it in a slightly different way. You want to maintain global coverage, for the sole purpose of being able to detect and down UFO's and to do recovery missions for which you gain $ and experience. With this approach you maximize your score anyways and will gain funding from the countries that still ally with you. So don't care about having to secure the funding of so and so country...care only about maximum coverage, interception, and recovery. Don't cover areas where UFO's will mostly sink into the ocean when intercepted.

 

3. Camping is popular in that it is the passive-aggressive way of raising reaction skill. On this play through I now realize reaction skill ranks up their with psi-strength in terms of importance (i.e. psi strength and reaction skill are the top skills that influence survivability and success IMO). However I always stormed UFO's when I played in the old days, and I still love it now. The secrets to storming a UFO however again relates exactly to the reaction skill and making sure you retain a high pool of TU's every turn you take and involves smart tactics in taking corners, and knowing when to advance and when to thin their herds. Say you open the UFO door and you are saying hello to 2 or 3 aliens. MindProbes will tell you if you can safely take a shot at a given alien...and perhaps which alien should be the first to go down. I.e. with a mindprobe you may find that only 1 out of 3 aliens has a high set of TU's...if you wanted to aggressively storm, it should be the alien with TU's that you want to take down in hopes that you can kill it on site and not suffer reaction fire. If all 3 aliens are facing you with high TU's...you should probably back off and see how it looks the next turn. As long as opening the door results in mutual surprise you are safe and can back off without too much worry. Now that I think about it, playing the PSX version probably makes a huge difference here in that I can open doors without actually walking through, making it so I can easily dis-engage vs having to walk 1 tile with your back to the enemy...

[NKF]

Welcome,

 

1. Laser vs plasma is entirely preferential. Your main concern is to get a weapon strong enough to defeat the Cyberdisk (especially on difficulties other than beginner, more-so on superhuman). Thankfully, both weapons are more than adequate for the task (not to mention you already have access to the rocket launcher and high explosives). Both weapons can easily last you through the entire game, and both have their distinct advantages. You can't go wrong with picking either weapon to start with, however I would be mindful of the plasma rifle's possible ammo problems early on.

 

2. It's generally the case that an alien base is constructed in a country that has just defected. It's not uncommon to see alien bases built at round in various countries that aren't even thinking of withdrawing. The bases only incur a small activity point daily penalty to the area (5pts a day, I think), plus any points that may have been generated by the supply ship that docks there. A single mission in the area tends to nullify any damage the negative points done by the base.

 

3. Blaster bombs only for the outer hull. Inner 'tough' walls can be cut through with heavy plasmas. On mountain terrain, the lower outer hulls are weakened and a fair number of explosive weapons can blast them open easily. Including your Skyranger landing gear. It's weird 'stump' bug with the mountain map. Nothing serious.

 

4. It's a matter of keeping your area activity scores up for all the regions. If the area activity score is low in any area, the affected countries won't be happy with your performance even if you feel as though you were on a roll that month. My advice, strange though it may seem, is to ignore the politics and keep playing the best you can. Funding from the countries becomes less significant as you progress through the game. You'll start earning more money by selling captured alien equipment. Farming supply ships from alien bases is an easy way to ensure a reliable source of all the resources you'll need to complete the game. Highly recommend snakemen o(supply ships don't have chryssalids, and snakemen have low TUs) or floater bases for easy raids. Mutons if you've got psi as they fall easily to psi attacks, and their extra tough hides let you train against them better.

 

5. From here, I recommend you use up all your base slots to increase coverage for both radar and interceptors. Expand with cheap listening posts to mark your new bases, then expand them into small one hangar intercept outposts, and maybe hire a base garrison to defend them. Expand them to larger outposts as cash comes along. All the while doing this, have your main assault base continue attacking UFOs, attending to terror sites, completing your research, etc.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Welcome to the forums Ehlers.

 

Well, here are my worthless 2 cents.

 

1. Laser rifle vs Plasma Rifle

I understand the point of building Laser Rifle over Plasma Rifle, but is it not better to research Plasma Rifle first and then Laser Rifle right after since you dont have to build plasma rifles as you get them from the aliens? I have read many places that you should just land and kill everything near the aircraft in a terror mission and then fly off leaving the aliens to do as the please with the city. By the time the terror misson came I had already plasma rifle and also plasma rifle (If i remember correct). The plasma rifles do more damange, so easy to advance fast and kill everything before your troops turn agaisnt each others due to psi attacks.

The biggest draw for using laser weapons in the early stages is research time, plain and simple. To get the laser rifle you need to sink 450 man-hours in (50 for Laser Weapons, 100 for the Laser Pistol and 300 for the Laser Rifle). To use the Plasma Rifle you first need to recover one and then you need to sink 1100 man-hours into it (700 for the weapon and 400 for the clip). That's almost 2.5 times longer. Of course, you have to manufacture the Laser Rifles before you can use them and that takes some time. But I found that I can normally equip my entire squad with Laser Pistols quite early and depending on randomness, usually half my troops can have Laser Rifles by the end of the first month (just in time for that usual terror mission at months end).

 

You also have to take the interim into account as well. You can begin researching Laser Weapons right at the start of the game. Trying to acquire a Plasma Rifle and clip would mean you would need to visit a Battleship directly at the start of the game. That just isn't possible as the smaller UFOs are predominant early on and those ships only have Plasma Pistol loadouts. Meanwhile, you could have your entire squad outfitted with Laser Pistols. That at least gives you some more power than the normal rifle and as a bonus you don't have to worry about micromanaging your inventory of rifle clips so you don't run out.

 

2. Enemy base

I have read that if an enemy base is already build in a country that country will defect to the alien side later on in the game. Is this correct? Should I not build a base in China, but instead build my 3th base in say Africa or some place else? (EU --> USA --> China was my though of basing)

Just because an alien base is present, it doesn't necessarily mean that country will defect. The aliens carry out two different types of missions with bases: 1) a base building mission where they establish an outpost and nothing more, and 2) an alien infiltration mission where the aliens infiltrate a nations government and persuades them to let the aliens run their missions unhindered - which usually results in an alien base being built plus the end to funding from that country.

 

3. Enemy outer hull

Is it possible to blow a whole to an alien outer hull when on the ground?

Going through the front door is like entering the alien ship and say" Hallo honey I am home"

Else the other tactic (I find it borring) is by camping and waiting for them to come out to play.

Like NKF mentioned, only Blaster Bombs can pierce the tough outer skin of a UFO. It's actually quite effective to blow a hole in the opposite side of the ship from the main door(s) because the aliens do not anticipate you entering from anywhere but the door(s). Aliens can't exit through the hole either as they don't have a premapped path to follow. So you can peek in every round and just blast anything which is in sight, then duck back behind the hull again.

 

Or if you prefer a more direct approach, nuke a hole in the roof near the bridge, then send in another bomb through the hole to finish the aliens off.

 

4. Japan

In my game (may) Japan is the only one country that gives me 1mio, but I have not done any missions there at all. My interceptor has just briefe flown over the country, but did not find any UFO. USA seemed not happy with me, so they are down to 700k. But how come Japan gives me so much when I have done nothing from them?

Good score. That's what keeps countries happy. But score is broken down into two sections: 1) score within a country and 2) overall score. So Japan may not have had much alien activity to reduce score and your overall score may be just high enough to offset anything bad which may have happened there. Also, score has more to do with alien activity and how you deal with it rather than a lack of alien activity. So if you stop aliens from doing something in a country, the country will be happy. If you don't directly do anything in the country but your overall score is still high, it will still be happy, though probably not as much.

 

5. Where do I go from here (May 1999)?

1base EU: 20soldiers (fitted with laser rifles, high explosives, proxy granedes, medic, stun, 4flying suit, 5 protective suit (cant remember name...) rest normal clothes), 90researchers, 30enginers, 2craft (transport and interceptor armed with plasma cannon), one coming psi lab and the usual stuff

2base USA: 10 soldiers (laser rifles etc etc.), 1tank, 2crafts (transport and interceptor normal weapon)

 

I think I was too quickly to build the 2nd base in USA because it took my money and could not arm it with crafts and soldiers to take any action. So i am short in cash now but seems like every country is happy and give me more money. But I doubt that will last forever.

I took out the Alien base in China with heavy loses, but won it only due to the aliens clustering around a high explosvie structure in the command room. So private do your duty soldier shoot it and went down too while the rest of the squat either was dead, panicking or playing under alien control.

 

Base on the answers and the situation I have asked/described, how am I to advance forward from here (beginners level)?

I'd have to agree that you'll need to eventually expand. But since your money is in short supply I'd advise against it. Only build a base when you can afford the initial cost + the maintenance on all the structures for at least 2 months. Otherwise you'll just end up going further into a hole. Just keep the remaining countries happy by dealing with the aliens and try to visit a lot of crash/landing sites of UFO's. You can make a bundle of cash by selling what you recover.

 

- Zombie

[Ehlers]

Thanks for all the answers

Seems like I am not totally off and during oki for my 2nd try

Already knew about the UFOpaedia, but thanks for telling me

 

6. When saving your game, is it then possible to cancel your click? The reason why my first try with USA went wrong was that I saved on the wrong file due to that I was playing around with things and checking how things worked.

[NKF]

With the pc versions of the game once you click on save and get the text entry cursor you cannot cancel it.

 

However, the new save files haven't been written yet until you hit 'enter', so you should be able to alt+tab out of the game and go to your game directory and manually copy your save files and paste them into another slot.

 

 

- NKF

[Ehlers]

Just got invaded by Sectoids 1battleship, 1terror, 1supply and 1large scout.

Gunned the terror and supply ship down. US transport take out Large scout, while now I have just entered the landed battleship...

But how on earth I am going to take this monster on?

8 flying suit, 4 personal armour and 2 with none. All are carring laser rifle, proximity granade and high explosive.

Should I fly out and kill every alien before they spot me so they cant mind control me?

Have my 6none flyers camp in the transport for then to advance to the lift and move the whole squat up to engage the high commanders before they can mind control my whole squat? or?

 

Have yet begin the psi treaning I have a psi lab, but how do I assign soldiers to it?

[Pete]

You can get mind-controlled after your very first turn sometimes as they seem to know you're coming with battleships.

 

Not sure if this is because of the high-ranking aliens on board these ships or not, but I would onsider firing a few shots out of the skyranger door if you can see any aliens and dusting off (depending on the difficulty setting of the game - I would be very tempted to run on Superhuman ).

[Bomb Bloke]

They can always use mind control regardless of whether they know where you are - it's just that not all Sectoids are capable of psionics, and Battleships will always have some such units that can use 'em.

 

But since only a few Sectoids will be able to use their powers, they won't be able to terrorise your entire team. Furthermore they'll always go after your team members in the same order each turn. Once you figure out who the "problem" units on your side are, disarm 'em and trap 'em in the SkyRanger or some place where they can't get out. The rest of your team can continue the mission normally.

 

The psi-lab screen automatically opens at the end of the month. You can't open it manually.

 

Note that just shooting a UFO down will net you some points. Actually going in with the ground team is an optional extra.

[Cius]

@Ehlers

 

When I play the game the highest priority research is a navigator to get hyperwave decoders. That way you can tell which ships are worth attacking and better prepare. An ethereal battleship I would leave alone. A sectoid battleship can be effectively taken out early on in the game to get PSI and lots of cash. In my current game I was lucky and managed to land on a sectoid battleship very early in the game that was setting up a base. With sectoid ships just remember that they only have 2-3 aliens that can use PSI so its crucial to storm the top level of the ship ASAP and take them out. This is how I did it (I had no armour at that time)

 

I took along laser rifles and stun rods on 12 of my soldiers as well as some medi-kits I had started to make. Two soldiers got rocket launchers with 4 rockets each and a laser pistol on the belt (make sure its a strong soldier). Stun rods in backpack with laser rifles in hand. Sectoids are weak with low armour so laser rifles are plenty strong enough. Only on Muton missions would I swap out laser weapons for plasma.

 

First round I end turn with no PSI attack. I then deploy all men around the skyranger in one turn taking out all visible aliens. Made sure to drop weapons at the end of the turn (requires 2 time units). Still no attack so no aliens can see me in their turn so I pick up weapons and run 8 guys towards the access lift dropping weapons at the end of the run again. During their turn they attack 3 guys with PSI. I note the guys and make sure to not let them carry anything but a stun rod which the aliens don't know how to use. Becuase I dropped weapons the PSI controlling of my guys does no damage! By the 4th turn I had 6 guys at the top level of the battleship. I exit the top Left door first and an alien holding a blaster launcher is standing there. I stun him. Its a commander. Awesome! Needed for research later on for Cydonia or bust! I then run some guys towards the bridge area and stun one more alien who is the leader. From now on I don't worry about dropping weapons as only those two could PSI attack. That means I can kill rather than capture any remaining aliens. In the meantime I have been sweaping the map with 4-5 soldeirs inlcuding all rocket troops and have had one camping in the bottom of the grav lift incase guys from the middle level try sneak up and take out my bridge team in the back. I also have two soldiers pick up the commander and leader that I have stunned and move them into the back of that little dead end corridor on the top level, and then move back a pace or two and keep watch with only stun rods equiped. Now if they wake up they can't escape and accidentally get killed. I can also restun them fast if they do wake up. Fortunately that was not needed. I clear the rest of the battleship sustaining some losses but its worth it to get early PSI and a commander to boot. Looting a landed battleship is also great for money as it nets you a couple million worth of weapons and ship components.

 

I then got PSI labs up ASAP and always made sure to have extra soldiers in all my bases so that I can fire PSI dud soldiers with under 70 PSI strength and retrain new soldeirs every month. Its expensive to do this as you hire and fire a lot of soldiers very quickly but important as only about 25% of units you train will make the cut and it takes a month to check if they are worth keeping.

 

Good luck!

 

Oh, the other early PSI opportunity is sectoid terror ships. They have a single leader so if you get an early sectoid terror mission or shoot down a terror ship try stun that leader at all costs as getting PSI a few months early makes all the difference. Even if you loose just about your entire squad but get the leader its worth it in my opinion. Researching mind probes can be usefull early on if you are going to try trap a leader on a landed terror mission as he could be anywhere on the map.

[Timbukto]

Playing on superhuman the distinction between battling sectoids vs ethereals really shine. I haven't even done ethereal battleships yet, but already from mind probing, etc I realize that their stats pretty on average are better than your top guys unless you really have put in significant mission and training time maxing out every single state on almost every single soldier...on a typical play through you just won't have the upper hand in accuracy and reactions, making your tactical decisions (i.e. taking cover, scout and snipe) crucial.

 

Also although I just recently started PSI-training none of my guys are PSI-enabled yet, and at first while battling sectoids I felt like there were only about 1/4th of my guys that were really susceptible and could be considered psi-wimps. After an ethereal encounter...I just realized a lot more soldiers edged towards the psi-wimp category...making it so perhaps only 1/4th of my guys were actually battle capable.

 

Although after realizing I had quite a few psi-vulnerable vets with great accuracy and reaction time, they aren't what I would consider as expendable so there were definitely ways for which they can exact revenge on their mentally superior opponents (i.e. serving as artillery/blaster bomb or explosives priming and tossing crew). As long as I kept explosives or weapons *out* of their hands and on the ground by the end of the turn I was safe, while still enabling them to reload/throw/fire heavy artillery. They are safe with laser pistols as well (a full round of auto'd laser rifles can still put a guy out on medical leave for a good while).

[Zombie]

You don't want to be mucking around with Ethereals early in the game unless you have absolutely no other choice. The Ethereal Soldier is kinda like a Sectoid Commander in terms of psi but only with higher armor and stats. Nasty. And you're guaranteed to have at least one leader on all the UFOs except for the Small Scout. Need I say anything about the Sectopods?

 

You can't really judge psi when you haven't even trained your soldiers yet because basically everyone will be susceptible to psi attacks early on. Put them through one month and then you can gauge who will be sponges and who will wage psi attacks of their own.

 

If you can get Flying Suits, a Plasma Pistol can't breach it's front plates so that's a good weapon for psi sponges ™ too.

 

- Zombie

[Ehlers]

More advises Somehow I managed to take them all on and not get to many killed.

The drop of weapon is a good thing, just then I wont have return fire But might be a better idea then having my soldiers killing themselves.

 

7: Commander, should I sack him?

Gives morale to the team, but my commander seems to be targeted earily on resultat one time the whole team panicked or berserked...

TU: 65, STA: 66, Health: 34, BRA: 50, Rea: 59, FA: 52, TA: 65, STR: 43, PStr: 20, PSki: 24

I should fire him right?

 

8: PSI Training

Got 3PSI guys that are able to kick ass with their PSI abilties, but even though I keep on using mind control (succesfull) I dont see their PSI Skill increase. Have I missed something here or maybe I have not paid to much attation to the skill. Every mission I use around 20mind control attacks plus a lot of panic attacks too. I am doing it right?

 

9: Blaster Bomb:

Have now used it a couple of times, but I am having some issues with it. When trying to blow a hole on the top cealing, I only manage to make a 1title whole everytime. Is that normal? And how on earth do you get the rocket down the hole? Damn hard to go down a level through a tiny hole. Any hints of getting it right everytime? (Just one time I blow up half of my team that way )

 

10: Chryssalid:

I am playing on beginner, but I dont understand the problems people have with these. And specially on terror missoins. I have found no problems around these guys. First smoke granade out of transport (thanks for advise on this) then deploy my troops around the transport. Set up snipers, usually 10. Then have 4 in flying suit scout around in air. Any alien they they see, the rest take care of. Any obstical blocking the view, gets a HE to get LOS. If there is no HE to take the obstical out, then blast it away with laser rifles. Will this strategy also work on more difficult levels?

 

11: Base attacks:

I am now in my 7month and have not been attacked at all. I have watched several youtubes vids and read around on the forums, and people gets attacked even on beginner. Have I just been lucky or?

[NKF]

7. Going by the psi strength stat, I say sack him - just don't forget to take the armor off first! I wouldn't worry too much about the ranks, but in the case of the commander, the highest ranking unit in the game, any loss in control that results in the commander dying isn't good for your troops in general.

 

8. The number of trials only increases the possible amount of experience you might earn, otherwise it's still a random roll and you may have been getting a few low rolls. Either way, just keep at it and consistently attack with psi. You won't shoot up to 100 skill over a small number of missions.

 

9. Outer hulls of UFOs are tough. Only 1 by 1 sized holes can be made with Blaster Bombs. If you're using the dos edition of the game, just place a waypoint directly above it and zip right down and you'll be fine (pending any drift). With the collectors edition, you have to angle it. Offset the starting point by one tile and try to angle it through the hole. Starting as high as possible may also help. Might take a bit of practice, but it does work.

 

10. It's fighting chryssalids without any flight capabilities that really make it difficult. On superhuman, they get normal armour and their TUs are ridiculously high. If they manage to surprise you out of corners or get you from behind, it's all over. They're easy enough if you manage to fend them off and actually have enough fire power (i.e. anything but pistols and rifles) to take them down, then you should be fine.

 

11. Yup, you've been lucky. It'll vary from campaign to campaign.

 

- NKF

[Knan]

By the time you get flying suits, nothing is very scary. (apart from madmen with blaster launchers)

 

Instead, imagine coming up against snakemen and chryssalids on your very first terror site. At night. That's very possible. No armour, perhaps some new! shiny! laser pistols. Chryssalids zombifying some civilians before you even catch a glimpse of them.

 

You'll get slaughtered.

[Zombie]

7: Commander, should I sack him?

Gives morale to the team, but my commander seems to be targeted earily on resultat one time the whole team panicked or berserked...

TU: 65, STA: 66, Health: 34, BRA: 50, Rea: 59, FA: 52, TA: 65, STR: 43, PStr: 20, PSki: 24

I should fire him right?

His stats are quite low, so you could sack him if you want. I personally wouldn't. I'd train him up and keep him on hand for non-psi missions or base defense garrison. You don't really need the commander on a mission though, just use a Colonel. The morale benefit may be a little less, but that's better than killing off your leader.

 

8: PSI Training

Got 3PSI guys that are able to kick ass with their PSI abilties, but even though I keep on using mind control (succesfull) I dont see their PSI Skill increase. Have I missed something here or maybe I have not paid to much attation to the skill. Every mission I use around 20mind control attacks plus a lot of panic attacks too. I am doing it right?

As long as your soldier performs 11 Psi attacks every mission, he/she should get a guaranteed increase of between 2-6 points of Psi Skill.

 

9: Blaster Bomb:

Have now used it a couple of times, but I am having some issues with it. When trying to blow a hole on the top cealing, I only manage to make a 1title whole everytime. Is that normal? And how on earth do you get the rocket down the hole? Damn hard to go down a level through a tiny hole. Any hints of getting it right everytime? (Just one time I blow up half of my team that way )

A 1 tile hole in a UFO roof is perfectly normal. (It's made out of Alien Alloys and needs to withstand the rigors of space travel so you would expect it to be tough). Getting the bomb down the hole can be tricky, but if you follow NKF's advise you should be fine. Note that you could also toss a grenade down the hole too.

 

10: Chryssalid:

I am playing on beginner, but I dont understand the problems people have with these. And specially on terror missoins. I have found no problems around these guys. First smoke granade out of transport (thanks for advise on this) then deploy my troops around the transport. Set up snipers, usually 10. Then have 4 in flying suit scout around in air. Any alien they they see, the rest take care of. Any obstical blocking the view, gets a HE to get LOS. If there is no HE to take the obstical out, then blast it away with laser rifles. Will this strategy also work on more difficult levels?

I've played some very easy missions with Chryssalids before. On beginner skill level you'll only see between 2-4 of them and that's certainly manageable. But get to the higher skill levels and there could be up to 10. When you have that many Chryssalids on a map with civilians in close proximity, you'll get a bumper crop of Zombies. Not only that, but the more Chryssalids there are, the closer they will ultimately be to your ship. And like Knan mentioned, nighttime terror missions make things that much worse.

 

11: Base attacks:

I am now in my 7month and have not been attacked at all. I have watched several youtubes vids and read around on the forums, and people gets attacked even on beginner. Have I just been lucky or?

Not really lucky per se. The aliens are just less interested in you on Beginner skill level. Play on Superhuman and the aliens will be knocking at your door pretty early indeed.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

Regarding rank, I can't remember there being any real bonuses associated with it outside morale. The only real requirement to get a unit to the Commander status is:

 

1) You must have enough units distributed amongst all your bases (I think it's 50).

2) At least one of those units must have combat experience, no matter how slight.

 

That is to say, if you sack your current Commander you'll end up with a new one as soon as the next mission is completed, so long as you still have enough troopers hired.

 

Personally I'd use him for the strategy I mentioned above. Trap 'em in the SkyRanger where he won't get killed, so as to redirect psi attacks away from your "active" troopers.

 

Regarding Chryssalids, note that if they hit a trooper, that trooper will become a zombie regardless of whether or not he actually took lethal damage. If the Chryssalid failed to deal lethal damage to the trooper, then the resulting zombie will still be armed, as will the new hatching Chryssalid. Mwuhahah.