Crash course in XCom: Enemy Unknown?

[Grif]

Having actually played it, yes, this is completely true. (I'm currently on Week 3, Normal difficulty, and probably heading for a defeat. Disrupter Rifles are becoming the weapon of choice for my enemies, but I haven't finished researching them, and my advanced laboratories both still have a few more days to go, so I think I'm losing the science race. I'm certainly losing a lot of men- those rifles pack a punch! I'm constantly strapped for cash, so I've abandoned all hope of stopping UFOs and now just show up right afterwards to clean up the mess.)

As tengu noted, swarms of smaller vehicles do work in this game, unlike others where bigger is better. Get Phoenix Hovercars, or Hoverbikes and load them with autocannons. You'll have a pretty lightshow.

I noticed that the "Taken over by aliens" mark is actually at 50%. Why is this? Is there any reason I should care whether an organization is at 60 percent vs 90%, if they're both "Taken over?" Can I reclaim an organization for humanity?

Also, if an organization is worthless and weak, should I bother protecting it from aliens? I mean, yeah, Megapol and Marsec sell me weapons, so staying on their side is good, but what about, say, the Technocrats, who provide nothing? Is there a disadvantage to them being evil? Do the aliens get more powerful with more support?

An organisation is fully taken over once it reaches 100%. Once an organisation is taken over, there's no turning back. It will become hostile to you (obvious), stops any trade, and all raids/alien infiltration missions in their buildings will now feature their personnel fighting alongside aliens. (In effect, instead of civilians spawning, you have armed guards to deal with.) In addition, they will no longer report alien infestations to you. The thing about this is that aliens can and will spread from one building to another, so it just generally is a bad thing. Finally, they might even attempt to raid your base. Aliens, however, don't benefit from it directly.

Another thing to note, if Transtellar ever sides with the aliens (and they often do, the moronic traitors), all taxi and cargo shuttling services are no longer available to you. This means you can no longer shuffle personnel and items between bases as easily as before.

[shadow_archmagi]

As tengu noted, swarms of smaller vehicles do work in this game, unlike others where bigger is better. Get Phoenix Hovercars, or Hoverbikes and load them with autocannons. You'll have a pretty lightshow.



An organisation is fully taken over once it reaches 100%. Once an organisation is taken over, there's no turning back. It will become hostile to you (obvious), stops any trade, and all raids/alien infiltration missions in their buildings will now feature their personnel fighting alongside aliens. (In effect, instead of civilians spawning, you have armed guards to deal with.) In addition, they will no longer report alien infestations to you. The thing about this is that aliens can and will spread from one building to another, so it just generally is a bad thing. Finally, they might even attempt to raid your base. Aliens, however, don't benefit from it directly.

Another thing to note, if Transtellar ever sides with the aliens (and they often do, the moronic traitors), all taxi and cargo shuttling services are no longer available to you. This means you can no longer shuffle personnel and items between bases as easily as before.

Regrettably, I lost my airplanes early game, so now I've got four hoverbikes and two hovercars, but they don't pack enough punch to take anything down, and I haven't got the cash to buy more. (I wasted a lot of money early game buying and selling weapons, excessively hiring and firing scientists (68 vs 72? OBVIOUSLY worth the hundreds of dollars it costs to hire a new man!) and also building lots of small laboratories because I didn't realize that I was about to invent the Extra Large Laboratory and make that a moot point. I'm also beginning to run low on men.

Also, I've now armed my own men with disrupter rifles, and it is a beautiful thing. I'm taking only ~1 casualty per mission now that I've got a bunch of my elite soldiers dual wielding disrupter rifles. I've also done a more thorough examination of the different firing rates, and realized that Snap Shot is obscenely good. Aimed shot appears to halve your firing rate for +10% accuracy or so. I deeply regret using it so often in my naive early weeks.

With regard to the combat modes, I'm curious as to whether cautious makes units dodge. I swear I've seen a soldier throw himself to the ground to escape a disrupter bolt, but that could also have just been the AI deciding to roll on the floor rather than return fire, and it was only coincidence that that helped.

EDIT: Additional Question: I have yet to see anyone become unhappy with me except Nutrivend (They were heavily corrupt, but I investigated the infested building LAST, so they got pissy about being searched a bunch, then got even angrier when I didn't have any money to pay them off with. Now I'm at war with a grocery store.) Would I be right in thinking that only air battle collateral damage generates unhappiness, and during missions, one can fire rockets at will without generating any disrespect?

[Grif]

EDIT: Additional Question: I have yet to see anyone become unhappy with me except Nutrivend (They were heavily corrupt, but I investigated the infested building LAST, so they got pissy about being searched a bunch, then got even angrier when I didn't have any money to pay them off with. Now I'm at war with a grocery store.) Would I be right in thinking that only air battle collateral damage generates unhappiness, and during missions, one can fire rockets at will without generating any disrespect?

I never seen civilian collateral piss anyone off. But building damage is taken into account by the game, so try not to destroy too much.

(Best way to test this? An Alien infiltration mission inside a Weapons Factory. A wrong rocket in the wrong place sets the entire place off. You get Marsec pissed off real quick.)

EDIT: Never did find out what Combat Modes did. Best I can guess is how aggressively they stand their ground and pursue aliens. But even that is an educated guess. I ended up just using Cautious all the time.

EDIT EDIT: On building damage, I'd just say you have to do a lot of damage before you get the owner pissed, so yeah, it doesn't mean you can't blow the occasional hole in the walls. Just don't bring the whole building down.

[Surrealistik]

...Now I'm at war with a grocery store.)

Which is also by far the richest and arguably the most powerful entity in all of MegaPrimus. Nutrivend is annoying as an enemy precisely because it's about impossible to bankrupt and neutralize as a threat.

Also something to note about Alien Infiltration is that when it reaches 50+%, a company could spontaneously reach total subversion at any given time, the probability going up in proportion to how much above the 50% threshold infestation is; it is the red line you do not want to cross.

[shadow_archmagi]

Also something to note about Alien Infiltration is that when it reaches 50+%, a company could spontaneously reach total subversion at any given time, the probability going up in proportion to how much above the 50% threshold infestation is; it is the red line you do not want to cross.

Ah. So 100% is the trigger for bad things, but 50% is the trigger for going to 100 very, very quickly?

(Best way to test this? An Alien infiltration mission inside a Weapons Factory. A wrong rocket in the wrong place sets the entire place off. You get Marsec pissed off real quick.)

Sure enough, I just had this happen. I didn't realize those colorful pillars next to me were, in fact, rockets until *after* the enemy's grenade went off. WHOOPS.

Also, my goodness! I think I made a grave mistake in not raiding the Temples more often. I just finished a raid and sold all the extra crap from them and got a nice pile of money. Used it to buy six more hovercars and two more hovercycles- What weapons should I put on them? How does air combat even WORK?

Also, on my last mission before researching disrupter rifles, I was investigating the slums. I'd already killed a bunch of aliens, so I figured that there was probably only like, one more stuck in a corner somewhere, so I sent a rookie out by himself so he could test his wits against a lone headcrab or whatever was out there.


Then he turns a corner and this happens.

[Artanis]

A tip for air combat: tell all your vehicles to fly as low as possible. That way, your missed shots keep going up into the sky where they won't make people mad at you, and the aliens' missed shots hit surrounding buildings to make people mad at them

[NEO|Phyte]

A tip for air combat: tell all your vehicles to fly as low as possible. That way, your missed shots keep going up into the sky where they won't make people mad at you, and the aliens' missed shots hit surrounding buildings to make people mad at them

If you wanna get complicated about it, set your ships for max altitude as they approach, so they don't have to waste time evading buildings, then hit the deck once you reach the UFOs.

[chiasaur11]

You want to do air combat, I recommend buying the heavy plasma guns for as many bikes as you can jam them on and lasers for the rest.

Heavy plasma does the best damage overall for tech you can fit on a bike, and it saves on logistical effort to avoid the various types of missile launcher. If you run low on E, you can steal some from solmine. I recommend stun raids, but it's your call if you want to escalate to full on war.

[Grif]

You want to do air combat, I recommend buying the heavy plasma guns for as many bikes as you can jam them on and lasers for the rest.

Heavy plasma does the best damage overall for tech you can fit on a bike, and it saves on logistical effort to avoid the various types of missile launcher. If you run low on E, you can steal some from solmine. I recommend stun raids, but it's your call if you want to escalate to full on war.

I was always partial to lasers myself. They don't need E and are decent enough against early scouts. Of course if you're going up against shielded fast attack ships and battleships, you better have a hella of an air fleet if you still don't have heavier ships like the Valkyrie and Hawk Air Warrior.

[chiasaur11]

I was always partial to lasers myself. They don't need E and are decent enough against early scouts. Of course if you're going up against shielded fast attack ships and battleships, you better have a hella of an air fleet if you still don't have heavier ships like the Valkyrie and Hawk Air Warrior.

I find massed hoverbikes with the Lineage plasma cannon are good enough to take on anything until you get disruptors going.

That's the wonderful thing about the Lineage. It's got the punch of a heavy missile launcher, ammo capacity to compete with the autocannon, better aim than the lasers, and best of all?

It fits on anything. If it can carry guns, and it can fly, it can carry a lineage plasma cannon. Gives a cheap hoverbike the teeth of a valkyrie, and with their agility they can get a LOT of shots in before they die. Send a swarm, not much can survive.

[Grif]

I find massed hoverbikes with the Lineage plasma cannon are good enough to take on anything until you get disruptors going.

That's the wonderful thing about the Lineage. It's got the punch of a heavy missile launcher, ammo capacity to compete with the autocannon, better aim than the lasers, and best of all?

It fits on anything. If it can carry guns, and it can fly, it can carry a lineage plasma cannon. Gives a cheap hoverbike the teeth of a valkyrie, and with their agility they can get a LOT of shots in before they die. Send a swarm, not much can survive.

Sounds like it uses up a lot of E though. But yeah, the Lineage is deadly enough when used en masse. Probably need to go on a raiding spree to keep such a fleet supplied though.

[shadow_archmagi]

Everyone keeps saying how evasive hoverbikes are, but mine seem to die about one a second, even on evasive mode. What gives?

Also, do psykers train exclusively in the psi-gym? Mine don't seem to be improving through combat.

[Surrealistik]

Ah. So 100% is the trigger for bad things, but 50% is the trigger for going to 100 very, very quickly?

Yep, quickly if not instantaneously.

[Tengu_temp]

Everyone keeps saying how evasive hoverbikes are, but mine seem to die about one a second, even on evasive mode. What gives?

Are you using cannons or missiles? Cannons are generally better for evasion because they shoot faster.

What difficulty level are you playing?

[shadow_archmagi]

Are you using cannons or missiles? Cannons are generally better for evasion because they shoot faster.

What difficulty level are you playing?

Normal. I've started a new game, and now I'm doing much better. I think my primary issue was that I didn't get my speederbike armada STARTED until week 3, by which time the UFOs were too big and too numerous to be threatened by a baby swarm.

Now I've invested much more heavily in my biker fleet, and I'm downing loads more UFOs. I have some days where I kill one UFO, immediately investigate the other's target, and then everything is calm until the next UFO appears.

[Rawhide]

Uh, guys, you've gone off topic. This is about the new game, if you wish to discuss the old games, please make a new thread and take the discussion there.