ignore my tentacles

Apologies for the trans-title (TFTD) reference but I recently imperceptably dented a Lobsterman to death with a gauss pistol when he was trapped in one of those freak one-tile holes in the ground you sometimes get from explosions. I think he had had a stun launcher for a weapon but ran out of ammo and couldn't get out of the hole to give one of my brave troops a nasty nip. My meekest rookies armed with gauss pistols (they were medics) took it in turns to fatally irritate it. I find myself wondering if there could be some similar UFO analogy. A sectopod wouldn't work 'cos of the inbuilt plasma gun but perhaps a reaper, but then they are a) too big and would need a four tile hole without sloped edges, i.e. unlikely and b) they are not tough. How do you make a Reaper go 'Woof!'? Expose it to a naked flame. No one needs to fear Reaper really. Ideas? Oh, I can't resist it any longer- apologies to any non Red Dwarf fans, but Kai, you should be aware that there is already a group dedicated to alien interests. They were going to call themselves the 'Campaign for the Liberation and Integegration of Terrifying Organisms and their Re-habilitation Into Society' but didn't for some reason. edited for unruly emoticons and well, poor grammar darn it!

I played a demo of a terror mission not long after the game was first released. It was the same feeling as when I played Dune II or Doom for the frist time- I hadn't seen anthing like it- My older Brother (by six years), Older sister (5yrs) and myself were hooked- we played the demo over and over until we clubbed together and bought the full game- I haven't looked back since...which would explain my driving. I still smile now when some games review for a more up-to-date title obsesses about 'fully deformable terrain' as some programming advance! There's something really satisfying about blaster bombing an Ethereal while it's lurking aroung a shop, leaving nothing but smokin' tomatoes. i-m-t

Terror Missions by far. I like to destroy buildings and break stuff. There's a certain satisfaction to be had from rescuing all the dumb civvies, but levelling their town at the same time. I like fighting at night for that added tension (and to provide a tangible use for incendary ammo apart from cooking Reaper flambe)

*Pans to X-COM general* "A long time ago, sectoid and ethereal missions were a misery to me, but that was before I used...Psi Sponge" Trust NKF-I almost feel sorry for the fellah/gal stood drooling by the Ranger exit ramp or aimlessly wandering about scaring civvies, whilst his/her buddies cheerfully give those damn aliens a good shoeing. If only I had the know how to mod stuff, I'd have my better soldiers beating sectoids to death with a garden spade. Revenge is a dish best served piping hot with croutons and a fancy cheese, accompanied with a generous dollop of screaming and shouting I feel. :devil: PS. Oooh, 50 actual x-com related posts in almost a year and half! I must start to actually contribute something to this site. must...stay..away...from..off...topic.......can't...

Just wanted to say 'Hurrah' and 'well done'! Things look awesome and I respect and appreciate all the efforts of anyone involved. I can't wait to see more...

Not that I'm adding anything new but I start out with one Interceptor equipped with an avalanche and a stingray. Interceptor no.2 has a stingray and a cannon. No 1 goes after medium UFO's whilst I save no.2 for the small fry or to perform the coup-de-grace after No.1 has ran out of ammo. I sometimes swap no.2's stingray for another cannon depending on ammo reserves. If I detect a large UFO, I generally let out a small whimper and hope that either the swine lands somewhere within Radar range or starts a terror mission (In which case... "All I need to know, man, is...where..they..are")As the game progresses more Interceptors are added with variations on the same sort of theme, except I never pair an avalanche with a cannon. Dual weapons (deuces!) are good, but force your interceptors to be too role specific- you'll need a few to afford that luxury- and that's money better spent on scientists. i-m-t

Since I have recently started a new game of TFTD and am in the middle of a terror mission against Lobstermen, where I am only armed with Gauss guns (not even heavy)- I'm definately voting for the b*stards. You'd think that flame damage would hurt them some but NOOO, you've got to hunt them down with stun-sticks.

I always maintain a minimum defense garrison of 10 soilders, lead by a Captain or above and never containing rookies (more for my own armour assignation rules than anything else). There are also usually a couple of tanks of varying capability kept on standby to assist. This applies to EVERY base. Extra personnel are allocated as follows. Assault bases have enough soldiers to fill any assigned transports twice over, in order to cover sickness, injury, death and any unforseen circumstances. My 'Boot Camp' is rammed with rookies (being psi-trained and eager for the small/medium ufo recovery 'milk-run' missions I use to let them 'chew bone') liberally sprinkled with a few non-coms and at least two CO's.

It's hard to say really, as mentioned previously, the preference totally depends on the tactical situation- alien type, weapon, distance, tu's remaining, accuracy of soldier, etc. To make a strategic-level statement regarding 'shot-type' is very difficult. There are possibly more tactical situations favouring the use auto-fire generally (Reaction fire aside), but it a close run thing. So I voted for what aesthetically pleased me the most. I LIKE the idea of my soldiers (when experienced & accurate enough) swiftly moving quickly from position to position, firing in fast, reasonably accurate single shots for minimal-collateral-damage take-downs , (I suppose a "double-tap" or "triple-tap" would be more realistic, but it's my day dream alright?) so I voted for Snap-shot. Draemock Draconis- Apart from the beginning of my post, I haven't much to say except that provided you are successful in eliminating all the aliens and don't lose too many of your own men, you can afford to lose a few civvies (only my opinion mind! ). So don't worry too much about them. The success of the mission can also be measured by the potential research and recoverable booty left around. I'm not positive, but even if loads of civvies die and you still succesfully destroy the alien threat, the parent country doesn't penalise you by lowering their funding during the next month- a more important concern than individual mission scores! Like I said however, I'm not positive so:*invokes arcane and deeply mysterious summoning ritual (patent pending)* "Oh Great Sensei of these hallowed Forums, please bless us, we the miserable, pitiful pursuers of Sacred Truth, with your coveted and Forbidden knowledge" *sits back and awaits the arrival of NKF, The Demi-Godly One, Zeno...etc. In fact anyone with a lower membership no. than me definately, and everyone else probably. So the next one to post then * Cheers

A couple of months- I like to painstakingly play every mission with uncessessary contemplation, usually about 1 long, or a couple or so of short (i.e. small/medium UFO recovery) missions a night. I had a demo of the game first and played that for weeks and weeks (over and over again I mean )- I thought it was cooler than any of my full games at the time.

Laser rifles- for all the reason already mentioned above (accurate, consistent against all foes, no clip, etc)- but also 'cos it's good 'ol homegrown technology- you can keep your filthy alien weapons (umm, except for craft weapons, oh, and when you want to cause REAL damage!)

laser rifles, hvy plasma guns and grenades sees me through thick 'n' thin generally. A few 'specials' distributed amonst the more talented members of my squad ensure a nice spread of firepower. Generally I keep the initial loadout for the 'dropship' to include a lot of earth manufactured -or exclusive- goods- stuff I'm not gonna be able to prise out of the cold, stiff clutches of a dead alien. I'm a little disappointed at the mo', I was just about to invade Cydonia with a full avenger squad of highly experienced psionic troops, armed only with plasma pistol, a 'nade (le pomme du terre explosiv) and a psi-amp. I wanted to see if I could create a zombie sectoid/ethereal army to fight with. It's the same old story: Computer suffers technical probs, user upgrades computer, computer decides it's not filthying its delicate new chipset by running such archaic code, user cries. tsk. see ya in the support forums!

*Offers condolences* It's not always that bad, I lost Dynasty Warriors 2 a while ago, which prompted me to trade a few naff games for DW3. A better game alround. Besides there are apparently many cheap 'n' cheerful ways to get your hands on a new (uh, sort of...) copy (legally!)- I don't know any myself, but there are probably a few threads in the forums with some solutions. oh, welcome by the way.

Hey! If I knew you would get a special welcome from Queen Tammy herself, I would have introduced myself properly when I joined. Lesson: You get punished for bad manners. I humbly apologise to the Queen for not showing the proper respect. Tsk, I'm supposed be a Brit aswell.

Ha! My main wussie trooper tends to be Stefan Farber for some reason (a few of you might remember some comments on my signature about him a while ago). What's that all about? I name my top ranker after me and he NEVER dies (with a little help from some omnipotent being who is able to travel back in time and cause events to replay in a way more conducive to survival.)

- you'll see a lot of that when The Demi-Godly One posts! Just kidding TDG-1 (ooh, you sound like a robot when I put it like that). Anyway, welcome to madhouse Tu Doggz. The more in-mates the merrier.

Save often! Just don't reload as much. My generally unstable computer likes to crash at any opportunity, under any provocation- so I have to save often as a matter of prudence. Even when off, I'm convinced the ruddy thing practices in it's sleep. Hmmm...paranoid you say, eh? Tactically, I don't mind losing a few soldiers (or even most of them), provided I successfully complete a mission. If I fail- I reload.

I'm a strong advocate of the trial by combat approach myself. In the absence of pain sticks, the troops have got to prove their worth through actual battle-craft. I use 'em as Snipers, Medics, Grenadiers and assault troops. All have Personal Armour to begin with, otherwise that would be just plain mean. Promotion to squaddie nets you a Power suit. Sergeant and above wins you the 'Magic Floating Armoured Tank-top'. Depending on the total no. of troops I'm commiting to an operation, I send 4-6 Rookies, all wearing a white bandanna and sipping from small porcelain cups of sake. As they leave the landing craft they turn to the C.O. and say "We, who are about to die in a cynical and callous attempt to draw that final sectoid from his lair, salute you." If 75% of the rookies die horribly, but the rest level up- it's worth it in my book.

Some of you 'older' (I say older in terms of membership, not necessarily age) guys must be getting a bit fed up of me by now. "Look here," I hear you cry, "Just shoot the UFO's down, kill the occupants and research stuff for crissakes". Yet again I have another question: If I mind control an alien, but it is killed quickly by his former friends, who suffers the morale modifier, me or the aliens? I.e. does the units count as XCOM because I control it, or do the aliens suffer from having to kill one of their own? Is there a morale penalty for just losing a unit to mind control? I can't tell from my missions because if I lose someone, they usually go on to kill half my squad, polluting any evidence of them losing morale from the mind control alone. They tend to get a little down when 'Stefan Farber' guns down his former Captain and a couple of squaddies for some reason. Tsk. Cheers i-m-t

I use 'em a fair bit, especially on recovery missions. As mentioned earlier, they are useful for covering entrance/exits of UFO's while you set your men up for an ambush. Any alien exiting will suffer damage, importantly this effects their aim (or should do) to help prevent casualties on your side in the event of the alien getting of a few shots before your men can reaction fire. Occasionally, if I stun an alien (accidently), but not one I particularly need for research purposes, I'll leave an armed proxy grenade on their body. If the sucker awakes whilst my men are busy elsewhere, I get a warning that the alien is loose. Usually the grenade will finish it off though. This saves me from having to hunt it down later in order to successfully complete the mission.

Good point- that was going to be my next question. It's quite hard to tell during the alien's go. If a trooper fires three times on reactions, is it three seperate snapshots or one blast of autofire? I'm fairly sure (that is so far to say that I am not really sure at all) that in XCOMAPOC it was based on what 'reserve TU's' settings you chose for each soldier. The game would remember your preferred settings (e.g. Agressive, reserve snapshot, etc) for each individual soldier and seemed to apply them in reaction fire scenarios. UFO doesn't give the impression of following a similar game mechanic (not suprising as the older original XCOM incarnation)- the 'reserve' buttons always default to none selected at the beginning of a turn and apply your selection to the next selected soldier and so on. With that in mind I suppose that the computer makes a decision based on soley the number of TU's available. I'm sure that sensei NKF will be able to clear this up for us.

Just curious: If at the end of a combat turn I leave enough TU's for, say, a snap-shot from all my soldiers, then the chance of them firing is (presumably) based soley on the individual soldiers 'reactions' stat. More often than not a spotted alien (during the alien turn) will usually get a chance to mooch about a bit, perhaps fire a shot or two, before coming under a hail of weapon fire- unless facing my 'crack' experienced troops. Fair enough. However, I noticed that if I 'camp' outside a UFO door for a couple of turns, without expending any TU's during my turns, as soon as an alien pops his head out, all my troops- regardless of reaction rating (i.e. even rookies)- will all open fire straight away. I mean the alien doesn't even get to drop his note to the milkman or even scream before a dozen or so rounds perform their own brand of acupuncture. Seriously, the enemy just opens the door and WHAM!- doesn't even move or fire. Is this an in-game mechanic at work, taking into the consideration the staking out of the entrance or merely my imagination? Edited for guff and misspellings

Unless you are willing to cheat or save the game EVERY combat turn, it's not likely that you will get through the game without losing some soldiers. Even for the most cautious commanders, there will be times where just plain bad luck will cause a soldier to fall prey to alien reaction fire. You do get a little attached your squads at times, especially when a familliar name yet again saves the day by nailing some grenade-wielding muton on reaction fire. But you simply have to exercise a little callousness sometimes. For example, it's a lot worse to lose your first Captain than a rookie I'm sure you will agree- so why not sacrifice that newbie for the sake the rest. Got to get into that house or UFO, and you know there are several aliens ready to fry the first man (or woman) through the door? Send for the rookie. One of two things will happen: 1) The rookie opens the door, becomes an alien bullet-sponge and loses his/her breathing privileges. But the door stays open, allowing his/her more experienced and accurate buddies to open fire or sling a few grenades in. 2) The rookie whips out a gun, shoots wildly yet somehow guns down the aliens and clears the way. The bonus here is that he/she will gain essential experience and level up to 'squaddie' afterwards. Bearing in mind that rookies will generally lag behind the rest of your team, keep 'em lightly armed, I'd say the laser pistol is probably the best starting weapon for them and a few choice grenades. I don't give them armour until they have become a squaddie, but that's because I'm mean, rather than any sound tactical reasoning. There's tons of sound advice to be found on this site, especially from the 'older members' (i.e. not me) so it won't be long before your losses are down to more acceptable levels. Good luck Ignore-my-tentacles

Nice one NKF- that did the trick! Little bugger runs along nicely now. Now that you mention it your advice sounds familliar- perhaps you noted it somewhere else on this excellent support forum? That would mean I didn't take it first time round- shame on me! Anyway cheers- I can live without the sound if need be (The missus keeps looking at me strangely when I make my own "Zap! Peeeeeow! Dakka-dakka" noises. Can't blame her.

I found tanks useful in the early stages of the game, not just to supplement base defences during alien sneak attacks whilst the bulk of your guys are out playing with their friends, but mainly as sacrificial lamb when leaving your chosen landing craft during a mission. Surely you've all been there- when your first man out is gunned down by some gloating alien on reaction fire, not so bad when you've got some decent armour maybe but nasty in the earlier stages. Experienced soldiers are worth their weight in, uh, Elerium, so losing a tank is no great loss except financially, but since you should be raking in the moolah from booty it's no big deal. If you can't afford tanks, then buy a couple of Rookie's! Brutal.