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Anti Alien Infiltration.


Jasonred

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Hokay, I was trying to get up games where NO countries were infiltrated, or ever will be.

 

From several (failed) attempts, I've garnered some data.

 

The "actual" infiltration attempt is when the aliens send 6 craft of various types on an "infiltration" mission. If this succeeds, results show up at the end of the month.

 

Killing the "spotter" scout prior to this didn't see to stop the massive group.

 

It's no good stopping everything other than the 2 battleships, it's still a successful infiltration.

 

GROUND ASSAULTS didn't seem to stop the infiltration being successful, even when I got ALL of the ships.

 

 

So far, that means the only way to stop an infiltration is shoot down EVERYTHING before they can land. Good luck, hope you get air capability of taking down 2 battleships before the aliens attempt the first infiltration...

 

 

Or does anyone have any other info? Anyone been successful in keeping every single funding nation?

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There's actually only two types of infilration fleets. The occasional isolated infilrator UFO - which isn't much to worry about asl ong as you get it. Then the mass infilration fleet which consists of 5 UFOS that all appear at once. They don't necessarily have to appear in any sequence. They just do.

 

Just for the record:

 

I have on occasion shot down and left the small fry, and then landed and assaulted the battleships (before they take off), with no withdrawals at the end of the month.

 

I have also lost some countries that have had no visits at all from infilrators (it's easy to tell when you've got a base with a hyperwave decoder smack in the middle of said country). Similarly, I have also lost countries for no reason at all even after I was able to shoot down every infiltrator UFO before they could.

 

I guess it's just the game's way of saying - Hurry up and stop dawdling! - in a weak attempt at getting you to launch the end-game mission as quickly as you can.

 

- NKF

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I think that everyone can agree on this point: we have all been able to successfully block an infiltration mission. But why exactly is it preventable one time, and impossible to inhibit at other times?

 

I have tried everything (and I mean everything), to prevent a country from signing a pact with the aliens. I shot down the initial scout, the entire infiltration fleet (including Battleships), and visited all the crash sites with dismal results. Once, I was even able to let all the ships land and take them out one-by-one by assaulting the UFO's. The results were anything but positive. At other times, I was able to thwart the aliens by just shooting down the reconnaissance scout, or visiting one Battleship.

 

Recently, I have started to think about the reasons behind the success or failure. Even when you are extremely diligent in dealing with infiltration vessels, sometimes you still fail. This would hint at some sort of randomness involved. Another possibility would be how far along in the game you are. From my experience, it seems like the earlier missions are easier to stop than the later ones. Something else to consider would be the difficulty level you are playing at. The higher the difficulty, the greater the chance of failure. My best guess would be that the game uses a combination of the above factors to calculate how successful your attempts actually are.

 

So to answer your question Jasonred, "[is there] nothing you can do to stop infiltrations, period"? My advice would be to play the game as you normally would. Since there seems to be nothing you can do to guarantee absolute success, be conscientious in your efforts, and try to at least shoot down those infiltration vessels. Visit them if you have time. The points amassed from these actions might increase the odds of success. ;)

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Thanks guys. I was just trying to run a "flawless" game a few times. Ie, lost no troops, lost no missions, all countries, etc etc.

 

First thing I gave up was "all citizens saved in terrorist missions"

 

Second was "one country reduced funding"

 

Now I'm gonna have to accept "country STOPS funding", I guess.

 

BTW, anyone ever play and leave psi for later research, then finally realize your commander has single digit psi strength? LOL! In this case, I decided to either sack him or give him an honorable discharge ie death in combat... his last great act was to stand surrounded by close to an entire battleship crew and launch a blaster launcher to blow them all sky high.

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I would think that odds of being successful are lower if you ignored the infiltration fleet altogether. It would stand to reason that shooting down the reconnaissance scout might change the odds. Heck, If you clean up all the infiltration ships and gather a healthy score because of it, I could see how that would be favorable to the odds. Though, that is only a guess. Sounds like a bit of testing is necessary to prove this theory! :cool:
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  • 4 weeks later...

Whether or not an alien infiltration is succesfull has to be random, because i once had two identical infiltration missions at the same time:

 

One battleship landed on the Nigerian capital, the other on the Egyptian capital. I sent skyrangers to both of them and they arrived almost at the same time. Both missions were succesfull, and i didn't lose any soldiers.

At the end of the month I lost Nigeria, but not Egypt. ;)

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also, just to add to this, it seems some countires may be naturally more inlcined to sign pacts than others. Nigeria ALWAYS seems to defect, even when I stack bases in it. USA does if I don't put a base there in the first month ( tested this- no base in first month= automatic infiltration, invariably. and this is on BEGINNER"

 

some countries, on the other hand, attract infiltrators, but don't sign pacts-or so it seems, anyway.

 

UK never seems to defect. France cuts funding but doesn't seem to defect. Japan seems not to defect, and neither does australia.

 

south america doesn't seem to have any defectors, but attracts bases like beer attracts slugs.

 

russia/siberia likewise.

 

could some countries set to be easier to infiltrate?

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I'm gonna have to agree with FullAuto on this one. Countries probably do not have a "susceptibility" rating to being infiltrated.

 

You use the word "seems" quite a bit in your post. How many results are you drawing upon? Me thinks not enough (from my experience with X-COM, you need at least 200 trials to determine any kind of correlation accurately). Things may look like the game is more biased to some countries than other ones, simply because you haven't seen all the possible scenarios yet. X-COM is a random game. This means that most results are determined through chance, not deliberate bias. ;)

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Hold on: I use 'seems' a lot. 'Seems' indicate possible trends - which then encourages experiments to prove/disprove these trends. That's how we got to where we are today! ;) But then again, it musn't be used as a shield either.

 

I think the closest you could get to any form of susceptability rating would be the area covered by a country and how close other countries are to it. But aliens tend to target specific countries rather than areas - and whether or not they do decide to target any country is as simple as a die roll - I mean, I have seen them infiltrate a small country (like France) and then attempt a second infiltration several months after France defected to the aliens - whereas all around France were other countries ripe for the picking, but they had to choose France.

 

I'm only using France as an example - I just can't remember which country they did this to, but it was within that region. Seen it happen to America when I lost America, Canada and South America (talk about losing almost 1/3 of the globe!) .

 

I'm told Russia is impossible to infiltrate. I haven't really seen this myself.

 

I have no real answers, so I blame the random number generator. :)

 

- NKF

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Let's not quibble over semantics, gentlemen.

I can testify that Russia (and every other damn country) can be infiltrated, I'm sure others can testify to this. As for the same countries getting infiltrated, I know this happens in a similar way every time because I play in a similar way (usually). My base placement is roughly the same, interceptions and combat are carried out to a similar doctrine etc. So the aliens make similar responses.

There are variations, of course, but there are identifiable trends.

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Hold on: I use 'seems' a lot. 'Seems' indicate possible trends - which then encourages experiments to prove/disprove these trends. That's how we got to where we are today! ;) But then again, it musn't be used as a shield either.

 

I think the closest you could get to any form of susceptability rating would be the area covered by a country and how close other countries are to it. But aliens tend to target specific countries rather than areas - and whether or not they do decide to target any country is as simple as a die roll - I mean, I have seen them infiltrate a small country (like France) and then attempt a second infiltration several months after France defected to the aliens - whereas all around France were other countries ripe for the picking, but they had to choose France.

 

I'm only using France as an example - I just can't remember which country they did this to, but it was within that region. Seen it happen to America when I lost America, Canada and South America (talk about losing almost 1/3 of the globe!) .

 

I'm told Russia is impossible to infiltrate. I haven't really seen this myself.

 

I have no real answers, so I blame the random number generator. :)

 

- NKF

 

Maybe the stats are based on world wars. Ie France is predisposed to surrendering to hostile invaders easily...

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you're probably right, I probably haven't played enough. I've only run a dozen different starts.

 

except one thing- The us infiltration. I don't know if its a bug, or deliberate, but every time I start, if I don't build a base there inside the first month ( start base is usually europe) then it gets infiltrated. without exception.

 

I've tried it about a dozen times on it's own, just starting, laying as normal and waiting till the end of the month. if I dont put a base ther in the first month, it Always signs a secret pact.

 

this is CE version, unmodded, if that makes a difference

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In my games, I build my first base in Europe followed by a listening post with an attendant fighter on the USA/Canada border. The USA usually signs a pact around the eighth month, so I think there is more to it than an Ethereal opening up an atlas at a random page.

 

The USA is always the biggest funder of X-Com in the early months. Therefore it makes sense for the aliens to go after the USA as soon as they can because it blows a hole in my finances. They usually go after the next biggest contributer 2-3 months after that.

 

I think the following factors all affect the alien infiltration dice roll:

 

1. Money - bigger contributors are bigger targets

2. Local ratio between alien and X-com sightings in recent months

3. Average X-Com response time to local UFO landings and terror attacks

 

Remember that if you don't quickly destroy an alien base, all the nearby countries will sign pacts, so sightings must be a factor. Also if X-com aren't putting up much of a fight in a country, the aliens will figure that the local population and politicians will be less defiant.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think countries turning over to the aliens based on a point system.

You see the points that you get monthly, but you also have points that go towards a country. If those points go over a certain amount, then the country doesn't like you. Eventually, the points reach a certain threshold, and the country turns against you. Infiltration missions appear to give a huge amount to this score, but if you do enough of your own missions you *might* be able to counteract this. I don't know, i don't do testing, i just make thought about hypothoses based on what i have heard from talk about xcom

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Remember that if you don't quickly destroy an alien base, all the nearby countries will sign pacts, so sightings must be a factor.  Also if X-com aren't putting up much of a fight in a country, the aliens will figure that the local population and politicians will be less defiant.

 

 

Maybe it's the version that matters too. Cause I seem to recall LETTING the aliens set up a base just so I can get all the incoming supply ships for Elerium seems like a bright idea. Doesn't exactly lead to loss of countries, in my experience.

 

Have never seen a country switch sides without an Infiltration mission being attempted on it that month, OR (and this is important), a mission being launched at the end of the previous month and the infiltration ships actually finishing up their mission THIS month. (curse those last day of the month alien missions!)

 

Also, have gone through months where I blew all the infiltration ships out of the sky, never lost a country in those months. Of course, I ALSO had a nice fat positive score at the time. I've been playing with reload on, just to see how long I can keep all my funding countries.

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I've never tried the strategy of leaving an alien base alone so I can hit their supply routes because I don't want the aliens using their bases on Earth to launch new alien infiltration missions.

 

Does taking out the supply ships affect other alien activity? An alien base that is starved of resources should not be able to make much contribution to their cause.

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No, the alien base won't increase activity. Like all the other alien task forces, the base only generates localised alien activity points in the area, and so do the supply ships when they land. It just means that there'll be a continuous flow of activity points generated in whatever country they've built a base in.

 

All other ships on their own specific missions work independantly and appear whenever they want, unless they're a ship building crew or a retaliation team, in which case a few ships will work cooperatively.

 

But as mentioned, assaulting the supply ships tends to outperfom the alien activity.

 

The best part is that the base(s) will ensure that you will never have to worry about facing another month where there's little to no alien activity.

 

- NKF

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