Slythe

Thanks Sgt. Strike but I already know and do those things. I used to play both x-coms all the time when they were first released but I had just forgotten some of it. All I was saying in my post was that I've basically been unlucky so far in this game, it's June and I haven't had the opportunity to assault even one landed craft, which means less cash from ion beam accelerators, mag. navs, etc.

Well I just got an answer to my question about base layout. It's June and I got attacked for the first time at one of my bases, and unfortunately I had only sparse defenses, but it turned out to be enough. I layed out the modules in a line away from the access lift and subpens as I always do but wouldn't you know it, 3 of the aliens started in random rooms next to some of my soldiers. I had 10 unarmored soldiers each with a sonic cannon and 1 sonic pulser. No tanks or disruptors or HTH weapons. We were attacked by lobstermen but fortunately at least half of them were armed with stun launchers and not sonic weapons. I managed to win with no casualties. My strategy this game is to put more cash into scientists and soldiers as opposed to trying to get 6 bases up and running with interceptors (barracudas) as fast as possible like I usually do. I'm finding cash harder to come by so far than in UFO. I haven't yet gotten any landed ships of any kind, no mediums or larger.

I'm in the middle of a game right now and haven't yet had any of my bases attacked. I'm curious if these bases are underwater or not. I would assume they wouldn't be, but it matters because if they're not then I can't use the aqua jet tank to defend my bases.

Changing the topic a bit here, but I'm curious if anyone employs a generally different research strategy in TFTD than they do in UFO. The tech trees in both games are very similar obviously, but with some notable differences. In UFO I go to laser rifles first, then get to power armor, medkits, heavy plasma, plasma cannons, psi, etc in that order usually. With TFTD I see you need to research *every* sonic weapon before getting the oscillators, plus there's a HTH weapon branch in the tech tree that'd be very helpful. So what order does everyone research everything in ?

Thanks for the replies. Ouch, you have to research all the sonic weapons to get sonic oscillators ? That's gonna hurt. It seems like it might be worth investing in more scientists in TFTD than I did in UFO.

I just completed a game of UFO and I researched heavy plasmas fairly early on but ethereals still didn't appear until the beginning of September.

Another question I have - are dye grenades as useful as smoke grenades were in XCOM 1, like for covering the LZ ? Some things I've noticed - I couldn't destroy an armed proximity grenade after having thrown it outside the doors of a sub in hopes aliens would come out. They didn't. I waited 200 turns and nothing. I fired gas cannon shells, torpedos, threw other grenades, nothing would destroy that armed proximity grenade. Very annoying. I basically had to sacrifice an aquanaut and trigger it. Also, when I fired a gas cannon HE at that prox nade I missed once and hit the doors of the alien sub. To my surprise the doors were destroyed. You could never do that in the first XCOM. In my game I just reached Jan 31 and got a port attack, at night. I'm wondering if I should just ignore it (land then take off right away) and take the score penalty because I have a feeling I'll get slaughtered.

Well I've been playing XCOM 1 a lot lately and just completed a game and now I'm a bit burnt out on it, so I'm moving on to TFTD. It's been so long since I've played this game I don't remember much about it. I recall that both games are almost identical in their structure, but I'd like to know if there are any subtle differences I should prepare for, particularly regarding strategy. I've already read about things like the obvious increased difficulty compared to XCOM 1, the various research tree 'glitches', the fact that hydro-jet cannons don't work on land, etc. I guess I should just throw out several random questions... - Are all the alien subs comparable to the ufos in XCOM 1, such that I can assume that my barracudas with DUPs can handle all the smaller subs, and those with the equivalent of plasma cannons can handle anything except the very large one ? - In XCOM 1 I'd go for plasma cannons exclusively for all my interception craft since they were by far the superior weapons. I'd skip laser cannons and never wasted resources on fusion launchers. Is it the same in TFTD, so that after I research any sonic rifle or heavy sonics (I forget the exact names) I can then research sonic cannons (?) for my interception craft ? - Should I bother laying out my bases in a defensive manner like in XCOM 1 ? I thought I read in another thread that in TFTD the aliens can start anywhere...which really sucks.

I finally just finished a game for the first time in years. When I originally got the game I of course played it a ton and finished several games. Within the past few months I rediscovered XCOM and have been playing it but I would never actually finish a game. I do this with some other games as well, play to a point where I know I can win, then it gets boring and I quit. Anyway, it was September when I launched to Cydonia and I'm not sure what number of UFOs I was up to but I think it was like 130ish. I had forgotten just how trivial the game, and Cydonia becomes once you reach that point. I had a packed Avenger with psi-strong troops and blaster launchers and ripped through everything no problem. The early and midgame really is the most fun, before psi, and when you're struggling to get your soldiers in good armor and with better weapons. Time to move on to TFTD!

I'm sure most people who've played this game long enough have had this experience. So I landed at a downed large scout site with floaters, bringing along a couple fresh rookies with other experienced soldiers like I like to do, to give them some practice. As I exit the skyranger my veteran spots a floater at the edge of the range of my view. I back him up a bit and move a rookie into firing position then let loose with autofire. First shot misses and goes off into the darkness and I hear the sound of a floater die, next shot hits the target and kills it, third shot goes off into the darkness and I hear yet another floater die. God I love when that happens. By the way, do some aliens start out wounded and with fatal wounds when a crash site mission begins ? There've been many times when during the alien's turn I suddenly hear one die somewhere but no shots were fired by either side.

True, but those weaklings if they're taken over might cull a couple of your better soldiers too.

I've never seen a nation bring back their funding after they previously withdrew it.

Hmm very odd NKF. I noticed both your scores were multiples of 16, so you had 11 one month and 6 another. I was going to suggest that perhaps you get points for just detecting UFOs, but you said the month you got 176 there were no detections. Are you sure of that ? Otherwise I don't know what would give the points unless there's just some random number that's awarded at the end of each month.

Well in any game it's important to get psi ability as quickly as possible in my opinion. Were you able to detect that the terror ship/site contained ethereals before you landed there ? One way to combat them that NKF has suggested is to arm all your men with standard old style rifles and pistols, with everyone in power armor or flying suits, that way if a soldier is taken control of and shoots your own soldiers it won't do any harm. Although, with sectopods present that's a problem. In general, when a soldier is easily taken control of after the first or second try, you'll know they're weak psionically and can be either sacked or only used on non-psi alien missions, so that eventually you'll have a psi-strong squad to tackle the greys and eths. Personally I try to avoid any ethereal missions if at all possible.

16 muton bases ?! Good god.