Bromley

Sorry. Try as I might, I couldn't manage to get Apoc running. I'm playing BG2 atm, but after that I'll try the Steam version to see if that works.

[annoying child]When are we there?[/annoying child] I've just given up on UFO ET. The Geoscape/strategy side was fine, but the tactical became very samey.

Looking forward to it. Time to brush off Apoc and get it running in anticipation .

Been a while since I played, so I can't verify this: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=R...28Apocalypse%29

When you complete a node mission (by killing X aliens), the node is automatically destroyed. In-game, it's just part of the indestructible scenery.

hehe. Okay, so Bazzo was wrong. My uncertainty occurred because I always had 2 Heavy Armour (or EHA) in my squad during the I'll-try-this-collapsable-weapon-just-one-more-time phase. When I got the user-friendly heavy weapons, I just never gave the minigun/2xMG to anybody else. I had noticed that you could put them in your backpack, so I thought that they might be different. @Rob88. (1) Do you find Psi Helmets do anything? I gave up on them fairly quickly, but that was more in disgust over their apparent lack of MC prevention. (2) If you have them, everyone should have a Psi Projector (if they're any good at Psi, of course ). They make the game (at least the 1.1a game) ridiculously easy.

That's the point - I was uncertain. Bazzo confirmed that you cannot.

Not always true. As Facehugger said, there were times with 1.1a (3 times, IIRC) that I managed to change the base to anti-biomass in time. Not that that matters now as presumably everyone here is using 1.2. One thing though. Have they really changed it so that you get to keep the base in 1.2? I thought that they were going to remove base missions in the biomass, or at least ensure than you didn't keep it.

Very easy in my game, not that you want to hear that (Normal, 1.1a). Everyone had sniper rifles and Sun/Sky armour, IIRC. They'd all hit the same alien until he was dead and then move onto the next one. My characters did have high intelligence (in the vain hope that it would help against mind control), so their Aliens stat was always high.

Fear not! Okay, fear some but I'll see if I can help . So, you seem to be being killed by rocket launchers. The first thing then is to wear light armour (i.e. Sun) and immediately break and spread out. That'll fix the rocket megadeaths, hopefully. If they can use Psi to control you and you can't Psi them back, you're screwed (IMO). If you can use Psi Projectors (handguns), equip each agent with one in their hand. After you break, the ones not being shot at can control the aliens whilst the rest keep running. However, I suspect that no one is using Psi to control. In that case you have two options for loadout: 1) The minigun/heavy MG *if* you can carry it without heavy armour (not sure about that). Note that these are not the collapsable heavy weapons, which suck. Don't take it if it slows you down though, as you need to be speedy to get away from the rockets. Also, don't take that alien MG, which is probably the microslug gun. It's too short range and too rapid firing for general outdoors use. 2) The MP7/Sniper combination. Some people will want to mix shotguns, sniper rifles and assault weapons, but why make it difficult? Assuming that the MP7 isn't fixed, you have a high rate of fire over a good distance. No MP7s - use P90s and MP5s. These guns go in the backpack for the moment though. The weapon in the hands is the sniper rifle, AI/Barrett if possible. With these loadouts, you should have no problems splitting up and plugging away at the enemy. If the enemy starts right on top of you, the close weapon should be the one in your hands at the start. Anyone who can carry a medkit without affecting speed should, but don't forget to put a couple of extra grenades in your backpack when testing this to allow for the extra unreported armour weight (this may have been fixed in 1.2, so ignore this if it has). Then fill up with spare mags for the MP7, a clip for the rifle and as many grenades as possible. Don't forget to remove those two extra grenades before you leave, otherwise you'll weigh too much. Anyway, hope this helps. If not, post where it went wrong and someone will help.

Yep, they might. I had my node from a planter for a good while before I got my sample. Actually, as I took the node from a UFO that was on the Biomass, I thought I should get both at the same time, so I'm certain about this one .

There is one unique feature of the destroy nodes missions. When you start beating the Biomass with Anti-Biomass bases, you'll note that there are some areas that seem thicker and which, even if you let the game run on for ever, won't disappear even if close to an Anti base. These areas are being supported by a node. As I said somewhere else, just think of them as Anti-Anti-Biomass bases . If you get the node mission, kill the required number of enemies and you will automatically destroy the node (so don't bother wasting ammo trying to do it yourself - you can't). The Biomass will still be there, but it can now be eroded by your Anti-Biomass bases.

Known bug.

I got my node before my sample. That transgenant mission that you mention probably gave you a sample and not a node.

It's bugged. There are a few other weapons where the Burst and Aimed stats are switched, but this is the big one. That said, the PDW will still be useful after it's patched. Just now it'll be worth using the G11 and some other stuff.

A lot more depth. For example, AI controlled human organisations that fight missions rather like your CoE troops do. These merge, or even fight for resources, and treat you just like any other player. Basically, what I want is Apoc with all the AI entity features that they planned turned on . I'd also like more management of the other CoE teams. I like the idea of being able to delegate to them and auto-resolve their battles, but I'd like to see their stats improve (not controlled by you). You could also allocate weapons/ammo to them (not individually, but as a whole), which would increase their effectiveness. That way I can ditch all those old armours and still get some use from them . Being able to see that it won't be a complete disaster if your entire A-Team gets wiped out will also reduce the temptation to reload all the time.

At the risk of being negative, I think you're screwed . If your at that stage of the game and your down to 2-3 bases, you probably can't recover (never tried it myself, so I may be wrong). Restart at Normal or Easy - chances are you've been playing at Hard, which appears to be the default when you first load the game. I don't know if the Biomass starts in the same place every time, but I've found that the US start gives me loads of bases and puts me miles away from Caspian Sea Biomass concentration (main Biomass area in my game). You need to research Biomass researches. For that you need 2 things: (1) A sample. Harder to get than you'd think. Basically, you need to do a mission that's on the Biomass (apparently base missions don't count). So try to shoot ufos down (or lose a plane ) or just wait for a mission to appear. (2) Nodes. You need to shoot down a planter (before it plants its node?). I shot my planter down on the Biomass, but although I got my node, I didn't get a sample of Biomass. This means that either (a) there's a % chance of collecting a sample and it isn't 100%, (B) you can't get a node and a sample on the same mission or © there are small holes in the Biomass (seems unlikely, but it might explain why we sometimes keep bases taken in the Biomass).

About the Biomass not disappearing from the (in my game) Caspian Sea area (3 times the width of the sea, south to Kuwait and north to above Stalingrad). It's being kept in place by nodes. I let the game run on last night and the Biomass stayed there forever. Then I reloaded today and got a node mission on the eastern portion of that invincible Biomass. After I won that mission, I noticed that the Biomass seemed to be dissolving. After letting it run on, about half of that unshiftable Biomass went. I was left with two circles, one around Stalingrad and one near Kuwait. So those node missions do actually do something. You also don't have to blow up the node in the tactical game (presumably you set charges when the area is clear). Once the node is destroyed, the Biomass can be destroyed by nearby Anti-Biomass bases.

Again, sadly, tactics are not needed. Everyone + Psi projectors = another alien mission won easily. Five of my troops were in Bio with the Psi in hand, MP7 & a sniper rifle in their kit. Two were En.Heavy Armour with Gats (but they probably weren't necessary).

Ah, damn. There goes my theory. You're sure that all the ones that you lost weren't just normal "Here's a nice sight for a base" missions with transgenants? Also, I've noticed with the Biomass that there's some that is either not shifting or is going away *very* slowly. It happens to be excatly where I remember first seeing Biomass, so either it's coded not to disappear or it's much, much thicker there. I might test that later tonight.

Still, very useful if you were playing an Iron Man game . Now that I know about Psi, I think that I might be able to do that next time through. Although by then they'll have fixed Psi, so maybe not.

How did you get experience that way?

Someone pointed out that a dead alien is worth more to your people than an unconcious one (as long as you don't need a live one for research, assuming that they make a difference). I've also seen silly aliens Psi my unconcious people until their weapon ran out. Combining the two, I've found a nice way of increasing experience. Equip everyone with the hand-held Psi projectors and, when all the aliens are down, psi them all until you're out of charge. Then kill them :devil: . I've only done a basic test. I didn't notice how many charges were in the Psi weapon, but if it was 13 then you get 5 points a hit on an alien with any weapon: 2,750 points - All the aliens are down 2,765 points - 3 shots of laser into a watcher to kill it. 5 points a shot? 2,830 points - Emptied a Psi projector into a watcher. 13 shots? @ 5 points a shot. If all 7 were carrying, that's another 455 points from Psi (more if you carry more projectors), plus another 50-100 points finishing them off with bullets. So I can increase my points by ~20%.

We all know the way to do it now - research the repulsors and use Anti-Biomass bases to push it back. But there's something else that you can do to quickly destroy the Biomass. You'll find that you get alien base missions ("We've found an alien base" rather than "This would make a good site for a base") in the Biomass. You get the other base missions as well, but the alien ones are the interesting ones. If you undertake a base mission in the Biomass, you lose the base as soon as you get it. If the CoE undertakes an alien base mission in the Biomass, you get to keep it. Switch it to Anti-Biomass and watch your problems go away. I've not 100% confirmed that you won't get to keep an alien base if you perform the mission, nor have I 100% confirmed that the CoE Transgenant base mission will lead to the base being destroyed. I am 100% sure that a successful CoE mission against an alien base means that you get to keep it, Biomass or no Biomass .

Thanks Paganarh. @domino. They also help as one of the Not-Required elements for a research. Still, other Not-Required factors haven't seemed to change the research time for me, so that's probably not much use .