GigiDuru

In theory the easiest missions are those where you "assist" a group of local fighters from a friendly faction. Sometimes it is not necessary to do anything to win, but this is just boring. So I try to get to the baddies before the goodies do. Thus, I either win this race and take down the baddies or loose it and arrive too late after the locals do the job. It rarely happened to me to actually fight alongside the allies; but when it happened, it was rather frightful! My katana guy was chasing a mutant who ran into a bunch of Local SomeGuys. When all this mixed group was formed, the locals stated firing incendiary missiles within. Fortunately my guy was fast and I could extract him from the party but some of the locals successfully killed each other. So, my atvice is to stay clear of locals. They may be friendly, allies and whatsoever but they sure are dangerous! And to prove my point, I have another clue. In some missions you have to rescue some local leader who proves to be... just another guy with a bazooka. Now, I don't know other countries but our leaders NEVER carry bazookas (at least, they never do in public places) :mad: .

Hi, I'm back... having started a second game. My first one was progressing well until I got to the Wargots (in fact they came to the Earth but everything is relative here). When I first red a post complaining that the game became unplayable at this stage, I said to myself "that's ridiculous - won't happen to me". Well, it has. I spent (lots of) time trying to reload a few times then I gave up: every time I shoot one specific Wargot, I am rewarded with a CTD. Now I'm playing on a different PC and hope for the best.

So I thought until recently. I had trouble capturing a Reticulan (who deceased during this operation) and I expected to get the "Relationship with ... deteriorated" but there was none. And there's more to it. If the province previously belonged to some friendly faction, they loose it to mutants after you fail the mission. Then you can request a new mission in the same province and it's guaranteed you get the province on success. This strategy can be useful because sometimes it takes a lot of battles to get a province owned by a friendly faction. In other words: "You won, Sir, thank you Sir, will you move your ... elsewhere, Sir"

I'm still not very far away in my first game. Operations against mutants and Reticulans go well, but I came across something new and most unpleasant when attacking the cultists. Whenever a Psionic Cultist shoots, even with a regular firearm (that's all I recovered afterwards), he seems to induce a "panic efect". I had to reaload when my super-fast 3-level commando started to chase his colleagues with his katana. Could be funny but not for me! I hoped this was some kind of temporary insanity that doesn't last for a long time. Wrong again, the crazy katana guy would not give up! So, my questions are: - What induces the panic (psionic cultist themselves or some weapon they use) ? - Which are the panic effects (I find it normal that a panicked soldier freezes but less normal that he carefully aims to shoot his teammates) ? - Except for the presence of a leader (which I had and this delayed the inevitable), are there other ways to reduce or even avoid panic ? - How long does panic last ? Is it possible to visualize the "remaining panic time" ? - Is there a way to help a panicked soldier recover his peace of mind ? (other than having him killed of course). Thanks for any advices. I looked in the manual but I only found a short reference to it. I think this was an "old" X-COM concept but that doesn't help me a lot.

Well, neither did I or at least that's what I thought My guy attacked by the Flatster was LEFT alone as I sent the others well-grouped forward and the $%#*& Flatster somehow managed to outflank them so the poor guy had no escape route to flee either. Flatsters seem too smart for someone so... flat. In fact all enemies seem to be smarter in Aftershock than Aftermath. That's a good thing (for them )

I find that weapon research and manufacture is discouraged in the game (especially in the initial part, that is where I am). While being days before discovering sniper rifles, I hired a human with sniper training and she came with... you guessed, a sniper rifle. And almost every weapon I discovered by now, I already had one or two pieces from hired personnel or scavenging (especially cultists). Now I'm manufacturing a machine gun and it takes long in computer-time, but I think that if I hire a human with heavy equipment training he / she will ba carrying a machine gun. This way it is times fast (and possibly cheaper too) to hire armed personnel, confiscate their weapons and dismiss them (unarmed in this cruel world ). Does this change later in the game ? That is, is there equipment you really need to research without any other way to get it?

Shotgun at point blank is tempting but it's generally not enough to get a Flatster unconscious. And by the time you could fire a second shot, the Flatster has already attacked the shotgunner. Sometimes this can go horribly wrong, the gunner may get stunned / panicked and never recover in time to shoot again. I nearly lost a guy who found himself isolated and had to fight a Flatster alone. So the shotgun is good, but it's better if the gunner runs after firing (with the Flatster closely following of course) giving the others the oportunity of medium-range shots. Unless there is a full squad with shotguns firing at the Flatster.

Now you're right ram0s, sometimes it's difficult to tell a dead mutant from a healthy one (to say nothing of injured / unconscious). Reticulans (as almost humanoids) seem to fell in positions that suggest a bad condition, but some mutants when dead look very much like they still stand. A visual hint about enemy health condition would be welcome indeed.

What I meant was that I always prefer "tactical" (or plainly "gameplay") realism over the "graphical" realism. I don't complain if I can have both, but many games sacrifice one to provide the other. And in many cases it is the gamepley that suffers to have nicer more spectacular 3d graphics. It would be sad if Altar went in the same direction with the UFO After* series, so my initial message was a warning against a (dangerous but possible) "more blood, less tactics" policy.

I confirm, the "Use" button switches between lefta nd right hand contents (tried it with pistol and medipack). But... unlike in Aftermath, switching is not instantaneous, it takes 0.5 secs.

This obvious fact gives me new weapon idea: drugs you would inject to an (unconscious) enemy to make him go crazy !?

You mean the "Son of a " message ? Most teens under 16 would find this shocking, would they ? Only if they never saw a TVset (one that is turned on I mean). Can't answer that. Big Brother is watching :mad:

If this was a poll, I would vote for "no blood, thanks". Especially if this required a new graphic card BTOH, it is a deep mistery why the game was rated "16 years" - especially in these conditions. Fortunately, this is no problem for me (I wish I was 16 again ) but my son was devastated when he saw that.

I can't tell whether it is related to the subject but I think this should be posted for newcomers (as I was). Once I thought the same happened to me but the answer was shamefully simpler: I hadn't noticed that the smallest UFO debris generally hide a burried ship you can enter into (and the entrance is somehow hidden from direct view). Unlike Aftermath, there is no explicit "Next phase" transition to enter the UFO. Besides, in "kill sufficient enemies" missions, these enemies are sometimes on the outside only so you don't have to enter the UFO to win the mission. So statistically there is a probability that one advances through the game without being aware of the UFO insides (as there is no reference to it in the mission objective nor is it mandatory to always get inside).

I agree. In Aftermath I used lots of grenades in the first missions, as they were far more powerful than any weapon I had at the time (and unlimited and free too that is). In Aftershock I only threw one, it "floated" far slower than the opponent moved, result was zero damage. Never tried again.

ERRATA: Yesterday I noticed that the "Use" button seems to switch left and right hand contents. This may be exactly the function I was looking for. I looked in the manual again but there is no reference to the "Use" button doing this. Anyone there who knows for sure ? For me, I'm not completeley sure as I was trying to do something completely different at that time and besides I only had something in one hand (and I don't mean the mouse ). This morning I realized it may be it but I won't be able to check till this evening. By the other hand it could be just a bug because I don't think it is that handy to switch weapons when opening a door!

Yes, I realized the geosphere time flows slower than I thought. This is partially because there is no travel time to and from the mission sites (unlike Aftermath). About new bases, I checked as soon as I had my 3rd, there is exactly one day from the moment you get one to the moment you can build anything in or around it.

OK, I was too hurried to post the question. As it turned out, I had just to wait ~30 seconds more. Afterwards it was all as you guys said.

Thanks for your quick replies. My problem is that I seem to control the provinces but I'm not sure I have the second base. That's possible. I waited a little while for "something to happen" but it may not have been long enough. And Paris seems to be a Capitol province.

Day one today, just got the game and started to play. I may be fortunate because I had no technical problem yet. I thought I red everything in this forum to keep me informed of the game pitfalls, but I ended up a little stuck in some trouble. I hope this comes from my incomplete knowledge of the game rather than plain bugs... I'm very near to the game beginning. I just had a Cyborg assistance mission and after that mission I have new COE territory(blue). When selected it says "Paris", there is an aerial view of a base but none appears on the geosphere! In the "Bases" screen, I can see it but I cannot build anything inside. As there was a lot of talking about tracks, I tried to build one between Stuttgart (the "Tracks" button is enabled) and the new territory, but none appeared. So, what is wrong here ? Am I unable to build the base because I have no tracks or inversely, unable to build the track because there is no base at one end ? A smaller question is about a function that existed in Aftermath: when using single-hand weapons / items, is it possible to switch quickly between the two ? It came handy in Aftermath so I would miss this.

No, there are some who know it is flat ! Well, I had not heard of the hollow earth and nazi antarctic theory before but after a few research, I don't think these to be the most plausible explanations for UFO presence.

I won't bet on it :devil: I originally planned to buy the game after they release the (first?) patch and get some feedback on it in this forum. Now, by reading the posts concerning the patch, the ALTAR financial problems (and possibly the Czech Republic at the World Cup), I think I will be the last to finish this game. This is becaus if you guys keep on posting that it's a good game , I may be tempted to buy it without the patch released...

WWII lasted for 6 years because there was some force balancing that prevented it form ending swiftly. Thus the tiniest extraterestrial support for one side should have the war end rapidly, which it did not. Besides, most of the technology and equipment used are now "public domain" and they don't look at all extraterestrial. In fact, the most important invention of the 40's (thus more likely to require outside help) was the transistor in 1947, which came after the war and could'nt play any part in it. So, IMHO the Reticulans are no WWII vets! To sustain this statement, I can suggest several answers to the tough question: "what did these folks do when everyone else was busy with the war ?" Explanation #1: Earth governments successfully hide to the Reticulans that a war was going on, to avoid the Earth civilization rating to plumett. Explanation #2: Reticulans learned about the war and immediately withdrew all personnel from Earth (and secured the QPort with a ... QLock) then waited to see who wins, to come back later and congratulate the winner of course. Explanation #3: Reticulans learned about the war and wanted to get involved, but couldn't reach an agreement on the side to support and this plunged their civilization into war too. In any case, the outcome of WWII didn't seem the "wrong" one for Reticulans as they were still on Earth 50 years later busy to sacrifice themselves for the sake of developing a good game!

Well, I don't share either the Robin Hood style view of "good pirates providing free games for us players". Game producers MUST have good sales to stay in business and make more games (hopefully good ones). Thus SOME piracy protection should exist. The problem is, what about BAD protection that does more harm to people having purchased the game than to real pirates (who eventually crack it anyway) ?

True. One particular game I bought, that required the original CD, failed to recognize the CD drive after I installed a second hard disk and stupidly kept prompting "Insert game disk". No support from the game producer either. I HAD to use a no-CD crack to play a game I bought! BTW, I didn't get Aftershock yet (I'm still at the Aftermath stage) but what you guys tell about Starforce (crashes, hardware damage !?) seems rather frightening to me.