just a question how many people have actually encountered a triscene? i never have and ive played through the game 4 times.... they look nasty and i got the info from a medic on how 'scary' they are but where do you encounter them? its just one of my peeves that i want to have an answer too

You usually see them on terror missions.

Triscenes have to be one of my favourite aliens from TFTD. They are pretty awesome but not so much so that they are unstoppable. You get them on island and port attacks mostly if I remember correctly... They're led by the Lobstermen and are very thick skinned. You'll want to crack open the HE cannons from cold storage to deal with these guys...

You can only find them on land missions.

They normally accompany the Tasoth, or you can find them later with the 'mixed' crew (along with the rare land-dwelling Xarquid).

I'm not sure, but I think if you check their stats with an M. C. reader, you might find that their underbellies are their weakest spot. I recall killing the first one I met with a single gas cannon HE shell. For a while, I was left wondering what the heck it was I'd shot. Never saw one again until much later.

- NKF

Maybe because of 4X damage against the under amour. :o

My first time I lost about 4 guys to one of them. Fired sonic cannon at its back, it turns around and gets me. Did it again with guy on other side and it got him too. I think the fifth shot killed him. :devil:

Ive seen one onece. It was one of those cruise boats. It was so long ago though, i cant remember what was leading it. I just remember it was sort of a reaper, but more orange than brownish orange, and it had two sonic weapons strapped on by some dark aqua green beams. When i saw it in the ufopiedia, i was suprised at how much it looked like a tasoth.

I've seen them quite a lot, even on ship missions... but yes, I've seen them only on land missions... they have quite heavy armor on superhuman...

Heavy armour indeed, don't forget to check out their superhuman level snapshot accuracy! They can go head to head with the Biodrones with their 100+% accurate snaps. Opportunity shots from either of these land terror units spell instant death for any unarmoured soldiers.

- NKF

Is there somewhere that has pictures of the various aliens? Some of the aliens people describe I've never even seen in all my games.

They are semi hard to kill only cause of their acruacy and reactions and armour. But they never move...........ever. I've sat and watched for 100+turns all they do is turn around. And they are always in the same spots on each terror site map so when you approach the corner that you assume they would be chuck gernades, about 4-6. Easy as pie.

XCommand has some screenshots in its TFTD ufopaedia section on aliens.

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~xcom/x2u6.shtml

It's amazing how the Triscene and the Deep ones (in the ufopaedia), are armed with PWT cannons -- which are meant to be fitted onto your submarines.

- NKF

P. S: I read the ufopaedia entry for the triscene and it mentions that it's deployed effectively by the lobsterman commanders. Although I only recall meeting them with "Tasoth" and "mixed" terror crews (which technically include lobstermen). I suggest not taking most of the ufopaedia entries too literally. The lobstermen commander are obviously conducting the majority of the invasion (well, they run all the colonies anyway), so I guess the ufopaedia is correct in that respect.

P. P. S: It's also rather interesting to note that the Xarquid (Nautilus in real life) move backwards. Or rather Xarquids move forwards. Nautilus move backwards. I guess that's one of the advantages of all the "enhancements" they got.

Is it just me or does anyone else think also that Hallucinoids are one of the most ridiculous aliens on UFO/TFTD? I never ever had even received an injury to my soldiers from one. They're great for target practice on the outside of alien colonies and wonderful for a quick sushi bite when dealing with an artifact site but even the Silacoids at least manage to start fires before they die.

They're essentially floating Reapers. But like the reapers, while pathetic in general, they can be very vicious if you let them get too close.

One thing interesting about the hallucinoid is that it has quite a lot of armour. More than twice than that of lobstermen (their extenal armour) and the tasoth. I think it ranged somewhere around 40+ points on superhuman for its front, sides and rear. Most of the weaker weapons, like the harpoons, AP gas shells and even the vibroblade, aren't particularly effective against it.

- NKF

Do they actually hurt men? I had one man hit once and when I looked at him his health bar was 3/4blue(IE he just about got knocked out)

And do Tricense have a physical attack or is it just straight weapons? I dought anyone wanted to get that close to one to find out but.......ya never know. I've done alot of dumb stuff on maps, and some rather smart but dangerous stuff.(such as lighting that big hotel building, on the island terror sites, on fire while I still had men in it but I did it cause their was a sniper up on the roof that I couldn't get to)

Hallucinoids don't actually hurt (wo)men, they only have a "freeze ray". And as far as I can remember triscenes do have a hand to hand attack, although they rarely use it, they use their sonic attacks a lot more.

Oh, hallucinoids kill alright. Just ran a test. Had a soldier MC a hallucinoid and brought it up close. I ended the turn twice and watched it kill the aquanaut that MC'd it. Was pretty sure the aquanaut was dead, since the body on the ground was labelled as a 'corpse'. The hallucinoid then proceeded to backstab (well, back-electrocute or back-freeze) a nearby Ion Armour aquanaut and left her with massive health loss, critical wounds and a bit of stun damage.

Another case where you cannot take the TFTD ufopaedia entries too literally.

- NKF

Actually, hallucinoids are easy to kill. I may bring, on those "special" terror missions some particle disturbances grenades, and plant them close to tricenes, since they have weak under armor.

hmm nother question in the case of hallucinoids and xarquids.. is it possible to capture them alive and bring them back to base or even get there corpse picked up? i havent encountered any of that. is it because of their 2x2 square size?

It is possible to capture them but you won't be able to pick up their corpses because of their 2x2 square size.

ah so you have to win the mission and it cant be a alien base attack because you dont get the equipment of the first floor.... unless you kill all the aliens... cant remember