Dalerian

It's a few days ago now, so I don't remember the details. I've not had much joy with Right-Clicks ... the soldier often seems to ignore those little arrows, but I'm calling this one a Problem Between Chair and Keyboard. I don't recall which was the Primary weapon - if it makes a difference, I'll keep the longer range one in the soldier's right hand in future. Hmm. More testing is obviously required...

I thought I'd try out the Power Sword. A unit had one, with a plasma pistol in the other hand (for paranoia). A hyperworm started chomping on a nearby colleague (out of sword range). Sword-guy just stood and watched it. And watched it. And watched it. (Luckily, the worm wasn't in an accurate mood.) I dropped the sword - and Sword-guy then immediately fried the worm with the plasma pistol. It looked as though the sword's range limit was being applied to -both- weapons, not just to the sword. (I wondered if it made a difference which hand the sword was in, or which was equipped first, etc.) Has anyone noticed anything like this? Dal.

Vunderbar! A slight change to the url, and we're all happy campers again. Now ... how do I inspire heroines & gurus to completely fill it with all sorts of fascinating and essential tid-bits? (I'm happy to write things, but I know how little I know, relative to most everyone else here...)

What's happened to the wiki of late? It was a useful start on an x-com1 resource (albeit a tad light on x-com3) ... but it's had an error every time I've visited it lately... (I'm referring to the one at: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Main_Page ) Dal.

At the moment, I'm in love with the mini-launchers. Unfortunately, they're not actually for sale at the moment, so I'm having to 'borrow' (nice word) all the ammo I'm using. At ~20-30 shots per alien encounter, that's resulting in quite a number of 'tours' of Marsec's ammo plant. (As a result, I'm being very choosy in what I take out - no machine guns, rocket launchers, auto cannon, etc.) I found (and took) a power sword. Maybe I'll find a use for it - it seems rather pointless at the moment, though.

Wow ... something you didn't know? *grin* Thanks for the info. Thinking about it, it matches experience. So ... I need to make all "tours" happen via hovercar, not hoverbike, I guess... (Mind you, given the impact on my score, such tours are thinly scattered this time round - I'm only really hunting mini-launcher ammo.)

<Brief> I raid a place. Find Elerium. Carry it home. Where is it? (My elerium ammo for craft doesn't increase.) <Verbose> A pal at Marsec invited a couple of my crew for a tour of their weapons factory. Several of the guards fell asleep, so we took their mini rocket launchers (you never know what would happen if they'd discharged while dreaming.) There was Elerium lying around. Well, we couldn't leave that where any casual thief could steal it, could we? It's far too valuable. So ... we took it. Once we got back to base, it had vanished. Any thoughts on where it went? The first time, I thought it was converted to ammo for the elerium-powered ship weapons, but this last time I checked before and after, and the stock was at 500 units. This isn't a one-off occurance. I'm wondering if I should bother picking Elerium up any more... Dal.

I've only ever seen the red circle after I've ignored an alarm. Am I missing something that would trigger this?

Two of those ufos just wandered over my city, with their 3 escorts. My incredibly brave/stupid pilots engaged them. Technically, we outnumbered them 6:5. (4 hoverbikes + 2 hovercars - I don't think the Aliens were very scared.) After one exchange of salvos, I turned tail and sprinted. No deaths, but both hovercars need serious repairs. On the positive side, one of -their- craft will need a scratch re-painting. (To quote one of my pilots, "If you think we look beaten up, you should see the other ... uh ... ah, well, never mind.") So - even if the Skeletoids get in one of those craft for a special journey - they'll have a nice safe ride. Until I can approach air equality, I'll be relying on beamed-down aliens. (I'm currently working on the theory that making&selling disruptors/devastators will eventually pay for a pair of Hawks. I hope -they- can regain some airborne pride.)

Well, if they can arrive for me on Monday week 3 as a "beginner", I think someone experienced enough to play SuperHuman can handle them on week 2.

Well, I'm definitely "off" Monday, then. These new (relatively) super-critters are not only flying, faster, smarter & better shots, they also have this ability whereby they don't take damage from my initial shots - a blue energy protects them for a while. I assume that this is the "shield" I've heard about on here. Unfortunately, when it runs out, it seems to vanish. (I didn't get any on the bodies.) Maybe I need to go raiding against armed with stun grenades... Yikes... Roll on Engineering, with their production of a 'toxigun' - maybe that will help. Hmm. Ok ... enough speculating, back to making Alien paste.

On Sunday, my alien raids were a few Anthropods* and a few misc lesser aliens. The next day I find them arriving in bigger ships, with more escorts. The raids are suddenly "manned" ("aliened"?) by some yellow flying critters. Critters which have tactical nous, better accuracy and a supply of boomeroids. (Half the squad which discovered this new breed is enjoying enforced R&R in the medibay, as a result.) Does some kind of difficulty upgrade occur on Sunday nights? Dal. *Something _that_ stupid could only be named so by someone who doesn't respect humanity.

Time for the question that just might get me lynched... How do I lower my score? Now, before you reach for the pitchforks... Yes, I'm playing beginner level at first (I -am- a beginner!). If I shoot down alien ships, I get points. If I let them download aliens, I then get sites that I have to attack. If I attack them, I can take casualties, but there aren't many soldiers to hire yet. (Likewise if the aliens get to destroy my craft.) By attacking the download sites early I get less aliens, and thus less points. That's a start. I don't appear to have an "aliens terrorise..." misson to reduce my score, nor can I let them keep a few bases alive. I've tried attacking the city itself - turning my weapons on the CoS temple. That seems to help a little. Killing a civilian didn't -appear- to help, though I only tried once and may have missed it. I've not tried ignoring alerts - does that reduce it? Any other ideas?

That makes sense - I didn't even think of a popper. I saw the 2 Anthropods, and assumed they'd been alone. Hmm. Those poppers -are- nasty critters, then. I've always taken them out with distance fire before now, and not really seen them as much of a threat. My respect for them has just grown remarkably...

I just found one place where this has backfired on me. *wry grin* In a warehouse, where "ground" is level 4. I heard an alien in the lift shaft, and set an ambush outside the door. Fish-wielding Alien walked out, was diced. (So far, so good.) Before I could blink, the alien -behind- him did -something-. (I never saw what.) When the screams and smoke cleared, half of the ambush party were on the ground, four floors below, with critical wounds. The alien involved was diced for its efforts - but I have 3 extra people in my medi-bays. I'd love to know what the alien did - they each only had fish on them - so I don't know how it took out half the floor like that...

Wimpy... Hmm. Yes, they die quickly when shot. But they have homing area-effect weapons that tend to kill my mega-pol armoured troups in one hit. Maybe they'll appear wimpy to me when I can ignore their weaponry - at the moment, I'm lucky to come out of a raid without a death.

I had a nasty feeling it was something like that. So ... how does everyone handle it? I'm thinking about getting a few negative scores somewhere - gun down a mob of civilians or suchlike - to keep my score only a little above the project-cancelled level. That way I might get my soldiers to catch up on stats,and my research up to date. Does anyone have better ideas?

Are game actions - such as alien invasion fleets - determined by one's score? I noticed in earlier postings about being a spare parts dealer, that one of the reasons it was good was that earning money this way didn't raise the score. Why is that considered good?

What skill level do you consider worth-while for a scientist? I'm currently going on the theory that 85+ is worth having. The rest are useful only until I can replace them with the 85+ people. Would you replace "85" with another number?

Thanks. That one has caught me out a few times- such as tonight, in a CoS raid... Scene: Those big rooms with double doors near the top. I had one crew facing a door in the top left corner - they were facing the left edge. Another crew were doing the same on the right hand side. Cultists swarmed down one side, and I'm merrily dicing them and chuckling about how well it's all going. Then ... I have this sinking feeling that I've not checked the facing of the -other- squad for a while. I hit pause, turn them back to the right alignment ... just as the Cultist who'd arrived behind them went postal (from 3 squares away) with a Heavy Launcher... I'd quite liked those soldiers, too.

The pancake turned out to be a "Type 3 UFO", according to my categoricists. I mean scientists. Yes, the fish-thing does fire pink. I'm torn between relief at limitless ammo and a shade of disappointment that the weapons looks so wimpy. A Heavy Plasma had attitude. This thing looks like a crochette tool. Still ... if it hits hard and allows me to spray damage through large amounts of aliens - I don't care if it's got "I love Brainsuckers" or "Poppers are People, too" plastered over the barrel...

Wow. Thanks for a long post packed with yet more great advice. I wish I'd found these forums before I gave up on Apoc last time around. This was going to be my next question. As X-Com1 had a "hit" XP and a "kill" XP, I thought I'd lose XP by missing out on the "kill" points.

I don't particularly care about killing them - as long as they stop shooting me, I don't mind. Especially if they stop shooting with those damned heavy launchers! I was only surprised at a tactic to deliberately stun - though if it doesn't use ammo, that's a vote in its favour. I've just found some pink/purple beam weapons. I'm hoping that (as beam weapons) they solve the ammo problem. They were found on the bodies of aliens who emerged from a flying purple-pancake that I shot down. (At great cost, I might add. *Growl*) Given the cost in hoverbikes & hovercraft, I really hope the pancake, weapons or -something- involved turns out to be worthwhile... Ah well, I can always send the invoice to the CoS, I guess.

Thanks for the advice. I've now raided the cult 3 times today, and marginally come out ahead on ammo. I have found a plasma pistol - but without any ammo. I'm heading back to seek some. (I'd love to know how they get their recruits to the temple so fast! I've hit the site game-minutes apart, and found a full complement of guards each time.) Where I have come out well ahead is on experience. Each raid has pushed up stats, and the minor wounds I'm taking from grenades are raising health. Selling that unit of psyclone from each raid has raised much needed moolah, too. A few questions arise from your posting... Why do suggest stunning cultists ather than kill them? In Xcom1, 2 handed weapons had an accuracy penalty if one had was carrying something else. Does that still apply here? (I'm currently single-wielding those nice machine guns that do soo much for my accuracy.) It seems that I start a second battle with the same ammo I had left in a clip at the end of the previous one - is that an accurate perception? Dal.

My soldiers are ruining my defenses! I set them up to cover, for example, a corrider T-intersection. They swarm out, and have one squad face left, one face right. Aliens may arrive from either side... I get them settled - laying down, in psycho mode (aggressive attack setting). Well and good. Then, if either side sees an alien, everybody turns to watch it. I have to keep telling some of them to trust their colleagues and watch the other way. Is it possible to get them to -stay- facing a given direction once an alien's been seen elsewhere?