Calcinites!

[jrink]

Argh! I'm needing H2H weapons because lobstermen are starting to appear. No luck finding calcinites. I understand I can find them on port missions and base attacks. However, every port mission I go on only has gillmen and deep ones. And my bases have never been attacked. Anything I can do to speed up the process?

 

Thanks

[Crazy Photon]

I don't think so... you must really wait for aquatoid terror missions... or downing aquatoid terror ships, but since you're already fighting lobstermen it may be a long time before aquatoids appear again :-S

[NKF]

Nah, terror ships don't carry Calcinites or Deep Ones (or Biodrones! Yay!) when playing in an underwater map. These aliens only appear once a land mission is initiated.

 

Calcinites are replaced with hallucinoids,and Deep-Ones are replaced with Xarquids. Not sure what triscene are replaced with...

 

For the problem in question, just promote an aquatoid attack on your base by shooting down each and every aquatoid ship when they're almost on top of your base, or leave the terror scouts with aquatoid crews alone.

 

Oh, if you have one, dismantel your MC Generator.

 

- NKF

[jrink]

It's the month of July in my TFTD game. I haven't seen a calcinite yet, and from what I'm reading it's going ot be next to impossible to find them.

 

NKF, you mentioned shooting down Aquatoid ships when over my base. I don't even see aquatoids anymore, just lobstermen basically.

 

So... Am I screwed? Do I need to start over again? If I start over, whats the most sure way to find calcinites early on? I've played TFTD about 6 times and I think I only found calcinites in 2 of those games. Both were from a floating base attack. I think I'm screwed.

[Tammy]

Well, you can always just stun the lobstermen unless you just really want H2H weapons.

 

(Like Norwegian Blues, they stun easily.)

 

(apologies to non-Python fans)

[NKF]

Hmm, well, I still had the occasional aquatoid and gill-man crew appearing one year into the game. By then I kept going up against mixed crews. I think you might get a calcinite or two in mixed crew land missions, but I usually just find Triscenes instead.

 

The best time to capture them is early on in the campaign in the first few terror missions. Aquatoids and gillman have a better chance of appearing early on seeing as they're the only two of the four primary races to appear in the first few weeks. They might also be patrolling areas beyond your sonar range.

 

Don't worry about actually capturing the calcinites. You only need their corpse. Capturing them does gives you the MC.Lab if you haven't gotten it from a Deep-One yet.

 

- NKF

[DragonHawk]

Do you actually need to research the Calcinite corpse itself? Can you not just get the Calcinite autopsy "technology" via a medic class alien? I always research them last so I can reap some benefit, instead of coming up with an alien type that I could get easily...

[jrink]

I was under the impression that researching a medic does not give you the actual bonus of the research from that alien race. In otherwords, researching a gill men medic and he tells you about calcinite does not give you the ability to research a vibro blade.

 

I am NOT 100% sure on this, but 90% sure.

[NKF]

To get the benefits from an alien, your scientists need to work on the real thing. The medics just give you ... well, their reports on particular aliens - i.e. what they know. They are medics after all, so should know the anatomy of their subjects fairly well. It's accurate, but still hearsay until you can get to work on the real thing.

 

I just ran a short test just to be sure. Started a new game and popped a few free alien medics into containment just for fun. First thing the medic gave me was a deep-one autopsy (lucky!). No aqua plastics even with the small sample of plastics in stores.

 

Pity really. Getting tech from the medics would have been very useful.

 

- NKF

[Crazy Photon]

I do remember having done mission with calcinites underwater, and I'm 99% certain that it was in an aquatoid terror ship....

[NKF]

All I ever got from shot-down aquatoid terror ships were hallucinoids. Maybe, just maybe the game glitched at that particular moment and forgot that it's playing in an underwater elevation when it was initialising the alien units? Could be. Oh well, something to look forward to the next time I play a proper TFTD campaign.

 

I know I have seen Deep-Ones underwater, but only in the second T'Leth level. Normally, when underwater, they just get replaced with those giant nautilus that move in the wrong direction, the xarquids.

 

- NKF

[jrink]

Well I finally got Calcinites. Aquatoid's attacked my base in July and with it came Calcinites. Now I can finally do H2H. woot!

[NKF]

Great! And if you want to upgrade to the thermic lances, don't forget to interrogate a live gill-man.

 

Just for those who don't know, the following shows the damage dealt and the TU% cost per attack:

 

Vibroblade: 80, 10%

Thermic Lance: 110, 15%

Heavy Thermic Lance: 150, 20%

 

The Ufopaedia doesn't tell you the attack cost for each weapon. But with a bit of math wizardry, I was able to deduce the cost per attack. Well, there you go. Enjoy.

 

- NKF

[Sgt. Strike]

I am wondering, should I just keep the medics until later, then, to fill in the gaps that I am missing? Especially like some of the different aliens that you shouldn't get until almost late in the game?