Apoc and Time

[Sunflash]

So! I recently got enticed to join Steam by a friend.

 

While I was loading it up and checking it out, I glanced briefly at the big ad screen up front and moved on...

 

...then spammed the back button as my rather slow brain went "WAIT THAT WAS X-COM GO BACK FASTER."

 

 

A week or so later and I'm reminded how badly I suck. Anyhow moving to the point:

 

Being something of a cautious player (unless my trigger has been tripped |D), I tend to try to take things slow and careful. The problem here is that I've re-read the manual, in-game, and online ufopedia a few times, and I've only got one tiny tidbit as to how much time I have:

 

"X-COM is under pressure to solve the Alien problem before new elections to the Senate."

 

I've torn the place apart and I have managed to completely fail to find anything beyond that. >.>

Now I know alot of people on here are Super-Human experts and probably never get close to whatever possible time limit, but I'm hoping SOMEONE might have stumbled across it?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Bomb Bloke]

To be honest, I've never heard of such a time limit...

 

I suspect that's just flavour text, and you can really play as long as you wish (so long as you don't satisfy one of the other "game over" criteria by letting your score get too low or something).

 

There will come a point in the game where you become "master of all you survey", and I've literally wasted weeks on research/manufacture/repairs/training/whatever once I reach it. At this stage, no one can lay a finger on you unless you allow it (though the odd base defense mission might crop up if you abuse the "turbo time" button too much).

 

That is to say, the aliens can effectively lose before you win, meaning you can build up and finish them off in as cautious (or spectacular!) a manner as you wish.

 

Note that in the original UFO/TFTD, there is also no real time limit, and even if every government of the world defects to the aliens, you still won't get shut down. Everything revolves around your score/cash values.

[Sunflash]

Well that would be a big relief. I'm going to have to start over soon anyhow methinks; since while my Tactical score keeps shooting through the roof, my Cityscape UFO fights keep ending up with my having reload about ten different times to be able to get a decent fight result (read: both valkyries alive, at LEAST one hover-car perferred both alive, and at least one down'd UFO[yes I'm weird.])

 

I've been reading the UFOPedia end to end, but I appear to have caught it at a point when most of the Apoc info is down for revision, oh well. Can anyone point me towards some other general starting advice? No biggie if not, just wondering.

 

Thanks again Bomb!

[Bomb Bloke]

There's quite a few tips in this recent thread, though many of them are aimed at veterans who've gone through the game once already. Not sure how far you've progressed in the past.

[NKF]

Since a good deal of the information on the Ufopaedia wiki is written by most of us that frequent these forums, I think the best way for you to get any sort of particular advice (and a myriad of opinions for your consideration) is to just ask. It's also a good way to gauge what needs attention on the wiki.

 

By the way, I have played a game where I destroyed the alien command centre and literally continued playing the Cityscape portion (bar a few base defense missions) for several game-years straight. Imagine new agents getting all their stats maxed without ever attending a mission! There's not much else to do after that.

 

- NKF

[Pete]

It's also possible that that bit of text referred to yet another portion of the game that was unfinished due to time constraints and therefore left out.

[Sunflash]

Well, that thread had some nifty ideas (Never would've thought about the Stormdog trick!), and I spent a good chunk of today reading back threads to learn that I'm proooobably gonna get hammered at the rate I'm going. Not even week three and I'm suspecting I may be having to learn the ins-and-outs of stealing personal shields within the next few game-days.

 

 

...That or I may just skip that part and use rocket launchers, I'm not sure...

>|D

 

ANYWAY, I'll see what I can do about coming up with a list of more detailed questions to pester you good folk with, but I think that may have to wait till tomorrow as if I pull the game out again tonight I won't be awake for work. XD Thanks again!

[NKF]

You could start a new game and taker a more relaxed approach to the battles. Do be extra vigilant and strike the source of the infiltration as soon as you can, but feel free to let some aliens escape (a few fleeing alien will not cause a massive infiltration fallout). Especially keep your looting (both forced and 'friendly') to a minimum. Grab what you need, but don't over do it.

 

If you're having ammo problems, the stun grapple is a massive ammo saving weapon in the early game when used as secondary sidearm. Get the aliens to chase you around corners so that you can catch them in near-point-black range. Perfect for the stun grapples and maximizes full-auto bursts from other weapons.

 

If you're having trouble with the UFOs in general, one way I like to go is take a slower approach with them. Shoot down only the ones you need at the start (especially the purple Type-3 transport) and let most of them go. The key is to master the ground battles and build up your cash to bolster your air fleet. Once you've built up a reasonable force, then switch to the offensive. There's less damage done to the city this way as well so your relations are kept fairly stable.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

You could start a new game and taker a more relaxed approach to the battles. Do be extra vigilant and strike the source of the infiltration as soon as you can, but feel free to let some aliens escape (a few fleeing alien will not cause a massive infiltration fallout). Especially keep your looting (both forced and 'friendly') to a minimum.

 

Something I've noticed using Apoc'd: even if you take out the source of the infiltration right after the UFO gets back to the alien dimension and kill all aliens, there will still be aliens in other buildings. I've played a mission a few days ago and before I moved to deal an infiltration after the UFO left I used Apoc'd and discovered that the aliens had managed somehow to get to a building away from the infilitration with 3 eggs, 3 Anthropods and 3 Skeletoids.

It seems that the game will generate aliens on other buildings in addition to the building being infiltrated. That or there are aliens jumping out of the escorts

[Sunflash]

I saw something simlear last night, Hobbes.

 

Had just started over and shot down a few ufos, but not before they managed to insert some troops. I ran off the rest and immedietly moved the clean-up crew in to mop up. Nothing major, just sweep and slaughter. Ended nicely but with a few wounded, so I decided to super-time to let research/medibay work.

 

Suddenly I get an alert from a building next-door to the orignal drop site. Oh fine, so they got a few snuck out before I knocked out the main force. FINE. Move in, kill, go home, grab some Dew, and wat---ANOTHER Alert, across the street from the orignal building? D:

 

On the plus-side, i got to watch one of my guys survive two anti-brainsucker grenades at ground zero. His nickname is now "The Ironman". |D

[NKF]

I'm inclined to believe that the game deliberately dumps a few small clusters of aliens around the initial site. Still, it's good to hit the point of inifiltration from the start so that the smaller ones around it don't get too strong as time goes by.

 

If you're vigilant and hit the buildings near the drop sites the moment you spot any activity on the top-10 graph,you should be able to control them enough that most of the weaker sites die off on their own.

 

- NKF

[Sunflash]

Got horribly distracted by a few other games yesterday/today, but I did notice something interesting.

 

Most of the UFOpedia/Forum-posts I've read about the corralation between score and alien tech mentions that the upgrade is supposed to happen at the start of the next week.

However it's only Friday of Week 1 and I'm already collecting Disruptors. >.> Just throwing that info out, because apparently they're quite capable of tech-switching whenever they want.

[zaimoni]

Got horribly distracted by a few other games yesterday/today, but I did notice something interesting.

 

Most of the UFOpedia/Forum-posts I've read about the corralation between score and alien tech mentions that the upgrade is supposed to happen at the start of the next week.

However it's only Friday of Week 1 and I'm already collecting Disruptors. >.> Just throwing that info out, because apparently they're quite capable of tech-switching whenever they want.

Tech for tactical battles updates much more frequenty, yes (I'm not sure when, but I think that score is checked when the battle site is placed on the map).

[Sunflash]

So I noticed something...odd today.

 

I had managed to get caught up in trying to do some research, and suddenly was hit with an Alien Alert. After cleaning it up, I realized that I had managed to forget to sweep up the remains of the last infiltration. According to reports, the Aliens had been as busy as I had been. So busy, infact, that Diablo was nearing fifty-percent Alien influence. Not so terrible since it WAS just Diablo, but then again; both my headquarters and S.E.L.F. had a base nearby. Might as well at least TRY to keep it in check, if only for another week.

 

Thus, X-COM Agents swept out in force, descending upon all of Diablo's slums with extreme predujcie. Fourtunatly, Diablo wasn't hostile (yet), so they had only to contend with the Aliens themselves.

It was during one such sweep, partway through the set of slums, when there was one...interesting battle. A section had been identified as probably containting Alien lifeforms, and was investigated. Upon arrival, Agents secured the single building's only entrance with ease and breakneck speed. Camped outside, most were either waiting for the building sweep to begin, or in the process of finishing sweeping the exterior of any hostiles.

 

Exterior sweep was completed with no hostiles detected, so all Agents began making their way to the entrance to prepare for breaching manuvers. As this was happening, a pair of higher-rank scout Agents used their Marsec armor to float to the side of the elevator entrance and peek in the windows. They split up, one taking the top floor, while the other took the middle floor. Suddenly, Neil "The Ironman" reported hostile contact, and fired a shot. "I've got a Popper inbound to the elevator at full speed. Standby door-crew." and he took another shot. SPLORT went the Popper...

 

And after a quick search, Agents declared the building clean.

 

Yes, that's right. The entire fight consited soley of a single Popper. O.o

This strikes me as rather odd. I expect that there were some Multi-worm Eggs, or perhaps some Chrysalises that it was guarding. But NOTHING else?

The /only/ thing I can figure is that ALL the other aliens spawned outside the building, right next to some exit pads, and elected to evac post-haste. Still odd, however....

 

 

(Aw man that turned in a short-story. Oops.)

[Sunflash]

AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

I. Really. REALLY. Hate. Cloaking fields.

 

At least the personal version, haven't met a ship-version yet.

 

I don't think they'd be that bad, but this latest bunch has been in the Slums, and it's kinda hard to pin-point where they are until they start shooting. D:

 

And to think, for a while there I had been considering starting over on a higher diff since the only thing that had been giving me trouble was UFOs...

 

Edit: Oh CRAP. Now they have Entropy launchers too, aaaaaahhhhh. xD

[NKF]

The aliens are really effective with them out in the open - say in the approach (or in many cases: trench) to a crashed UFO or in the wide open plazas in various alien dimension buildings. Smoke makes things worse. They're not much use if you fight the enemies in close quarter combat. Flee around corners and let the aliens chase after you.

 

The ship variety is just a more advanced missile jammer and makes the UFO look transluscent. Beyond that, it doesn't have too much of an affect on lasers and plasma and disruptor beams. It's usually used by the Escorts.

 

- NKF