Scripted Missions

[Azrael Strife]

What would happen if, say, I would wait to take the first Area 51 mission until I got a lot of bases and a lot of XP? Would the stronger Aliens start appearing (Reticulans with rocket spitters) or would they only start showing up after I had completed the scripted missions? So basically my question is what triggers the appearance of Reticulans and the appearance of their superweapons, would I be fighting endless transgenants and lightly equipped Reticulans if I didn't take the scripted missions?

[GigiDuru]

No hope: everything seems to have been (diabolically) planned.

 

Everyhhing you do (scripted missions, number of bases conquered, various items aquirement) pushes the game towards higher difficulty (better armed aliens, base attacks, planters, biomass etc.)

 

And everything you don't has the same effect because elapsed time seems to activate these triggers too.

 

I think there was in this forum a list of all triggers decoded from the game files but I can't find it now.

 

 

In particular:

 

I think that the (first) area 51 mission is required to fight the biomass, so delaying it too much could be a really bad idea.

 

By the other hand, I delayed the russian base mission a lot and this did not spare me of alien rocket launchers and other similar highly appreciated hardware.

[Pete]

Indeed. Games are getting trickier now so you can leave these kinds of missions, but it's really not advisable

[GigiDuru]

Take a look at the research tree here.

Oops, I was wrong about one point: according to the tech tree above, the area 51 mission is not required to build biomass repulsors.

 

So in theory one could beat the game (by conquest of whole earth) without doing the scripted missions. However, conquest win is problematic as far as I can see: I have all the bases from months (in game units), destroyed (all?) biomass nodes but it still takes 999 years (in my units) to get rid of the biomass.

 

So I'll give the Retribution a try. Already got the Grays (not "greys", as they are rather cheese-white)

[Azrael Strife]

Oops, I was wrong about one point: according to the tech tree above, the area 51 mission is not required to build biomass repulsors.

 

So in theory one could beat the game (by conquest of whole earth) without doing the scripted missions. However, conquest win is problematic as far as I can see: I have all the bases from months (in game units), destroyed (all?) biomass nodes but it still takes 999 years (in my units) to get rid of the biomass.

 

So I'll give the Retribution a try. Already got the Grays (not "greys", as they are rather cheese-white)

OMG! now that's a tech tree!

Ok then, if there is no escape I guess I may just as well take the mission

[Blehm 98]

if you postpone area51 for too long, then you'll get the russian mission eventually..

[Azrael Strife]

That would be kinda against the storyline.

[Blehm 98]

well, i think i saw this in the aftermath forums, but there are two parameters to each scripted missions, and the game is in 7(i think) sections. Each section is like

Section 1: starting section

 

Section 2: triggered when you hit X bases or research topic Y (UFO detection, is the primary trigger, so it takes priority over the bases, and this can be started by hitting the research topic)

UFOs start appearing

 

Section 3: Hit X bases, and maybe some technology

 

and that continues. However, for scripted missions, they appear in one particular section, and i guess the russian mission section is triggered by either getting the appropriate tech OR by hitting the appropriate number of bases, somewhere around 15 or 17 or something i think

 

It does not state that it needs area 51 done though

 

but, i would rather take area 51 when its easy, not when the reticulans have bio armor and rocket spitters