are in game events moved along by time or progress, ie team level, # of territories, research? though i know some things won't happen until you research the nessesary tech first. im mainly concerned about enemy strength and new factions showing up. i was blasting away for awhile without a care in the world then the beastmen stepped up their game and started throwing in captains and chiefs to ruin my day.

I'm really not sure anymore. I'm a bit rusty on Afterlight, I'll have play it again...

I think the beastmen increase in strength depending on the amount of territory and resources they have, just like you do. In the two games I've played, I've noticed the same captains and chiefs show up no matter how well or bad I was doing.

I think enemy level depends on the level of your troops. The highest one. So I suggest not to let 1 soldier reach 20th level while the rest are 10 or so. Would be hard to impossible for "rookies" to fight matriarchs and such. 1 uber soldier will not make the day against a crowd of captains and chiefs - team play is a must.

actually, if your ubersoldier's a melee nut, they can mow down whatever they -want- especially once you pick up a lightsaber.

not that it's all that hard to play catchup with the levelling curve. i just had a trio of human bratlings finish highschool and join the army apparrently (wtf?). Rita's daughter and Pauline's twins showed up at level 1 for the three of them, and while i've ignored the twins, slapping a katana and advanced battle armor on Rita and having her clump around executing stunned and unconscious enemies pulled her up to the point where she could run and gun with the rest of the squad in three missions. gimpies take a little bit of creative babying, but not much.

(for overall game stats, i'm owning a bit over 2/3 the world, have the rets corralled in two territories out of worry that i might need somethign from 'em, ally with expedition, and i'm in process of driving a demilitarized zone between the beastmen and the martians, because if anyone's committing genocide on this planet, it's gonna be me!)

It doesn't seem to be point-based like in X-Com, because I'm completely obliterating anything I encounter with shotguns and get hardly a scratch as shotguns fire fast and deal a lot of damage (one single shotgun can easily take down a reticulan on any armor I've so far encountered), so if it's point based on kills and missions, I should have more than enough for more chiefs and alchemists and such to start showing up, but so far the HARDEST mission I've played has no more than two chiefs, and that is a very rare occurrence.

It could be a combination of time and maybe level of troops.

Kret, you have now access to source code, can you confirm?

You've been mislead Azrael, I DON'T have access to the source. Maybe I should consider requesting this... I'll think about it.

I think progress in game is linked to both your level and some scripted events - arrival of supplies from Earth, the gate missions and the martian explorations.

If you're finding it too easy (And i agree that it's easy for a long time before you get towards the end and all the matriarchs etc turn up) then try the total balance mod. Now I've got a handle on it starts you out without overwhealming you , but provides a better challenge mid game with the increase of enemies you have to deal with. I've just lost Harold in a defense mission because I charges him over the lip of a crater into a swarm of 10 beastmen including 3 alchemists, 3 chiefs, 3 captains and a shaman. Unfortunately the alchemist grenades rendered him unconcious before he could run away and the chiefs finshed him

There were 23(!!!) beastmen in that mission and it took a lot of creative missile strikes, reticulan healing and use of mines to get through it. 3 of my soldiers spent a while in hospital too and the area was renamed "Harolds Lament" or something!

Still, it's unlocked the twins so at least I'm not as badly off as I feared. But it's a much better challenge than the vanilla version imo

Ah, sorry, my mistake.