ein

Thanks for the answer. Yes that was what I was looking for. For the curious and for the poor confused people who will come after me. Area51 should give you the "Dreamland files". This is separate from the "Dreamland archives" which you get in russia. Somehow in my game I managed to complete A51 without collecting the computer.

Hi all, I'll open by saying that my version of the game (1.4) came in a dvd case with no manual so don't laugh too hard. I posted in the support section and got an answer to my immediate question (paraphrased): Why is the whole plannet covered in biomass and I have no research topics? Well it turns out I was looking at the development screen not the reasearch screen (which I was not aware existed) so I never did any reasearch. So I restarted, discovered the research screen and am stuck again. This time I have all the base locations (there are a few biomass patches but they are under control). I have done the first A51 mission (computer) the first russian one (briefcase) and the japanese one (floating cube). Not having in bases, the aliens haven't used any ships for quite a while now. All my remaining reasearch (alien containment, etc) depends on summary of the dreamland files. (If I recall correctly previous discussions about the dreamland summary boil down to .. another mission will show up eventually). [The only missions the computer is offering me now are - capture and elimination and grinding them in the hope that something else is comming gets boring.]. Now of course I would like to know the solution to my immediate problem (How to get the dreamland files). However this is symptomatic of a larger problem. While I realise a litteral walkthrough is not really possible, Is there a document which describes "normal expectations". ie something I can use to measure progress, to see if something really has gone wrong (like doing zero research) or its just a waiting issue. Thanks

And that blocked everything? (or is that how you get the biomass sample?)

Hi all, I picked up the game in the bargin bin (having liked but been very frustrated with the pace of TFTD). I have lost the first game I started and am a little frustrated. I must have been missing something because I did not seem to have any chance to win. Start game in US on easy. Had bases as far down as mexico and all of northern Europe (some of russia). I did retrieval missions for both Area51 and one in russia. Then the biomass came. I collected plasma, laser and psi weapons, both energy cells and power cells (ie red ones and green ones). I have killed/incapacitated every type of creature where such a thing is possible (since some are only alive or dead). I have succeeded in every mission type that was presented to me. I have performed many missions on biomass (I ended up with a lone base in the Azores) so I had plenty to chose from. In the end my total R&D screen contained the following: Ready For Development - Empty Ready for manufacture - Collapsible Railgun Not ready for development - Energy Cells - Alien Energy Cell [White] - Project Dreamland files [White] - Energy cell principles [Red] Power cells - Alien power cell [White] - Energy cells [Red] Developed Technologies - Laser weapon operation Plasma weapon operation UFO detection That is all, inspite of having numerous psi weapons etc I was never given the opportunity to reasearch anything else. No mission over biomass ever yielded a sample nor could I ever make use of all these corpses I must have been collecting. I am running 1.4. So the question is... what could I have done wrong? Thanks Ein