Obi-Mark

Well, once in Base defense mission I watched with horrifed fascination as Ret in Sky Armour takes TWO, sorry, make that THREE full bursts of CAWS at pointblank range and then calmly vapourizes my two soldiers. He was walking down the corridor that opened up in a room. My two guys were standing 1 meter from the corridor, so that Alien has to come out and I can see him before he sees me. Those two emptied two full bursts, sure,he was injured, but that was all. Puff, lefty goes down, I shot another burst, point blank, but to no avail, and poof there goes the other. Since then I don't use CAWS for base defense. I try to position turrets at the crossroads just behind the corner so that enemy has to walk in my sights before he can fire at me. Of course once the main entrance point opened up on a wide corridor and I had missile turret in that corridor. Deploy it and wash the entire corridor in flames. The fire rate of missile turret is impressive. 20 rockets in maybe 4 seconds.

Great Mod, thank you for it!!!!! Now, if you permit a bit of critizing... and some constructive thought... well, I noticed that OICW and A2GUN both behave as throwing weapons in combat, meaning you have to click on enemy that much time as you want it to shoot, and A2GUN is way to weak (maybe I used it against wrong kind of enemy, if so, sorry) also I am getting some item without picture and name in the subscreen OTHER in squad screen... bug of some sort? (game is patched to 1.4) also Lurker Gun, Needler, Gamma Flak, Gamma particle thrower, sniper, lasergatling and both BFG-s have no ammo? a bit useless if used in a protracted fight with aliens... even a Gamma Particle thrower needs 3 hits to down alien in green armour... also power armour and berzeker armour, while they do have picture of heavy armour (btw. thanks for all the effort put into it) they do not behave as heavy armour (meaning you can't put and real goodies on to them) on the other hand very good balancing of all the other aspects of the game... as for constructive thought... here's an idea for sniper rifles, make them REALLY powerful (one shot, one kill) and really long ranged, but with extremly long aiming time, and make their range begin from, let's say 20 meters. so in effect having true long range weapon that cannot be used against targets that are TOO near. just like in real life, I mean, you could use sniper on someone standing 5 meters from you, but... why? or if that's not possible make them really inaccurate at ranges 20 meters (number is debatable) or less? also it would be WAY cool if you could have your soldiers lie down on the ground... but i believe that's not possible, right? also, it would be GREAT to have all those items in glossary, would it not? if it's possible to add it in, I could write down some text for those new weapons and other goodies... sorry if message is too long... had lot of time to think about it

Possibly, probably, but the game is great! I don't see how anyone could NOT be attracted to such game... on the other hand... I guess reallity must crash in sometimes...

Pity that publisher always have to enforce something on the creative side. I mean, the game would sell better if it was finished, right? Personally I would like to see Apoc remade for XP. Even UFO & TFTD would be great if they were remade with just a little better graphic (ok, lot better graphic) and with little tweaks that would improve but not overly change the concept. Yeah, I know, in those days it was the best that could be done. But still, imagine UFO 1-3 with new graphic enine... it would be a sellout! Pity that people who hold money don't realize that. I would be the first in long line to buy such madeover games...

I'd go for TFTD, after all, lobbies are bloody difficult to kill even with gauss cannons, so you better have sonics researched and I don't mean pistols. Tentaculant... I HATE the freaking thing!!!! it can move very far, doesn't require much TU for attack and is durable enough against everything except sonic cannon or heavy thermal lance. Not to mention so HUGE maps you could wander around them for decades. Tasoth were a nuisance too, I mean I had to put a squad together that had MC strenght above 90 just to be able to deal with them. After that it's much easier. Apoc way way too easy in real time, just put them in a defensive position, send one guy out to lure enemy in and watch the bullets fly. Every now and then you'd get somebody with launcher, but hey, that's why you have that one guy up front, right? UFO was... great but easy... sometimes funny (especially when seeing your troops in alien alloy armour, they look so... funny). Muttons weren't that difficult to kill as lobbies.

I had a same problem, but that's only until you have your roster full (I believe it's 15 humans and 2 aliens) after that they no longer arrrive. I wouldn't exactly call it a bug, just an infinite supply of soldiers... and it came with 1.3 patch.

warning!!! there may be spoliers ahead!!! while at the annoying things... one copter is annoying, but that's okay, we can live with that. why do launchers have so short range? aren't they supposed to be used at distances above 1 km? I realize thah probable anwser is game balance, but everything else, even transgenants, outrange rpg and the other lancher is in no way better... why can't plasma cannon be permanently deployed as well? that way those two aliens that you rescue would have at least some purpose... why are ALL bases urban? makes no sense why are snipers so weak? they are only marginally stronger than assault rifles... why there are no grenades for aliens? why are there no proximity mines? why antibiomass bases can't destroy ENTIRE biomass? I always seem to end up with a little bit around south pole, little north of brazil (in the sea), some parts of new zeeland are under it and there is a spot just north of kamchatka (sorry if I misspelled) that keeps growing if you don't have 3 biomass bases around it and yet it's not visible in geoscape (except when it starts to grow) why can't earh ammo be produced in engineering bases? after all, you are producing much more sophisticated weaponry and yet you can't produce additonal gatling or machinegun...

Hm... wasn't there somewhere mention that malcom is just a lucky survivor? I suppose that most of the armies of the world were wiped out and so we wouldn't have trained soldiers... that doesn't in any way lessen the fact that voices should be better... and have at least some semblance of profesionalism, after all, in combat you don't want to clog the airwaves...

More truth than I'd like to admit... voices COULD be better... is there a way to edit those? personlly I really like marine voices from Starcraft... they sound just the way they should

Well... One of my favourite methods, especially when someone is wielding either plasma gun or missile launcher is to run directly towards the alien and then gun him down with CAWS or neostead. And the glossary is right, CAWS deals horrific amount of damage to enemy. Apart from that, in base missions I like to use flamethrower... not the best of weapons, but certainly one of the most painful, LET THEM BURN!!!!

I love this game, it's positive thigns far outweigh the negative things... there are couple of thing that could be better 1. rescue the pilot missions - there's a huge building right on top of the area where the downed pilot is supposed to be. no pilot, no entry into the area, aborted mission... it SUCKS! also once I got the pilot, but the rest of the square was also under the building, I had to knock the pilot out to get him out... can that be modified so that there's always at least pilot + 1 square free in those missions? maybe that mission could also be improved if you had time limit to get to pilot, personally I hate time limits, but sometimes they get your adrenaline pumping... 2. base and ufo missions... their corridors do not connect the entire interior... you can see the corridor you can see the other end, but cannot move beyond starting point!!!! and there are 10 rets to eliminate!!! you have to wait for hours for them to come at you, and you are toasted if they carry plasma guns or launchers... 3. once sporeblower was 3 squares away from my position, not to mention when deathbellows was some 5 squares... farewell my soldiers, your high level meant nothing on what was supposed to be milk run... can that also be modifeid so that 10 squares (or similar figure) around you there are no aliens? tnx in advance

just to actually return to the topic of oxygen and all that stuff... as I recall a lot of oxygen is being produced by algae, right? and biomass doesn't spread that well in the sea... as far as I manged to see...

Expansion pack.... promised dreamland... Bases that can be customized... with security chekpoints (automated machineguns), cameras, security fields, anti infantry mines (ones that you can see, but enemy cannot). Outer perimetar defenses (see above), anti air defenses, airstrikes, ability to climb buildings, ability to lay your soldiers down, allow them to crawl so as to be near invisible, give them Hide in shadows and move silently abilities and some blade so as to be able to knife aliens as he walked by you (attack from behind), selective fields of vision (you look in one direction you see in that direction alone, unless heavy armour, that one has sensors in it). IR goggles for night missions (those flares are useless), some exotic weaponry (someone mentioned gauss technology). It would be cool if you could actually see your chopper as it landed (this way we can only curse chinook pilot, that way we could actually shoot him). It would also have some machine guns to clear out LZ and defend it, it would stay there throughout mission and if it was destroyed you would need to find other means of transport. Or you could arrive in APC and have it's armament to support you. Being able to intercept with more than one squadron of fighers at the same time (just add option to wait for reinforcements). Aliens ships having anti infantry weapons as well... maybe not immediately but once you take down about 10 of them aliens start to equip them with such weapons...

Multiplayer would require massive story change. It would be possible if you weren't limited to a single team. Or if there would be two or more factions on earth, perhaps fighting together for the same goal. Or against each other, for not all humans are patriotic (sad, but true). Playing as rets would also be nice. But then it raises the question of how to manage it all. However I wouldn't mind having human opponent. Aliens fall for ambushes way too easily.

I do actually control all the bases in the world (60 of them). What do I need to win the conquest? About 12 of them are anti biomass (since bases are so widespread on the southern continets you can't really eradicate all of the biomass), one is reasearch (although I can't research anthying it's still there), 20 are engineering bases rest some 27 are military. And I still have moon mission and new missions are popping up all the time. What do I need?

By the way has anyone seen trasher and the last transgenant that comes as one of the prerequisites (misspelled, I know) for transgenanat theory? I've beem playing game for a very long time, but haven't encountered those last two transgenants. I know one is waiting for me in the moon mission, but the other?

It is with great saddnes and regret that I must infrom you that aforementioned tactic of frontal assault does not work... which is kind of logical since insects don't have rational mind. oh well...

Aliens it was 16 once (thanky God only once), but in two level missions managed to kick some whooping 23 aliens. As for transgenants it was 23, but it was biomass node mission. And most of them were scuttlebugs. I fear more when it says eliminate 10 transgenants because it usually means those guys will be packing some serious weaponry, sometimes even mix of human sniper rifles and alien rocket launchers. Ouch

My usual tactic for taking out DB is running as fast as possible with one guy while other 2/3 guys shoot from afar. but even so chances of dying are quite high. If you are lucky you can approach them from behind the cover of some sort and lobe few (okay, not so few) grenades at them. Also I think that most snipers have longer range than DB. sometimes i managed to get out of range and simply blast them off without any problem. Haven't tried the following tactic, just run as fast as you can TOWARDS the DB. Get so close that the insects would damage dB. As far as I managed to see, both transgenants and aliens that carry splash weapons (rocket launchers and plasma guns) won't fire at you if you are standing next to them. Perhaps DB won't either. It's fun to watch aliens moving away from you while you empty your magazine into him.

2 heavy guys with collapsible machine guns (worth waiting time to deploy) 1 heavy guy with collapsible rocket launcher (essential for firing spreads) 4 guys with snipers standard equipment includes medikits, two frag grenades, one flame one acid this combination can take out anything

That would be great, being able to upgrade CoE troops. I have loads of guns and armor I no longer use (colt M4, AK-47, G3, G36 PSG1, combat armors, heavy armors....). They collect dust... why aren't we able to give CoE heavier punch?

As far as I figured the biomass out, you have to have one mission in biomass to be able to reasearch it (mine was rescuing a shot down pilot). Then you have to shoot down planter (that was immediately after the shot down pilot), and to combat biomass you have to research psi weapons principles. You start beating biomass then. But some parts of biomass won't dissapear, you have to get a mission "a biomass node has been spotted in this area" to kill it. All the biomass around it dies then, very quickly.

The only thing better than one collapsible machine gun (which i prefer over collapsible railgun due to lower ammo usage) is three guys with collapsible machine guns. Just put them at 90 degrees to the tunnel that aliens have to pass through and you'll never worry about base defense anymore. Those thingies take out 2500-2900 hp per hit. (my max was about 3600)

Some things that have crossed my mind during base missions. Why not have two part base defense too? I mean you are outside (pity you can't climb watchtowers that are always in urban base missions) you have anti-infantry weapon emplacements (like machiengun nest), barbed wire, movement sensors (I really miss those from X-COM), securtiy cameras. Aliens start charging, you wipe the first wave, they retreat, call in their air strike (that would come in handy as well). You have a choice, stay up get blown or retreat below and set up an ambush. Then in base you have security cameras, movement sensors, booby traps (that would be great to have, booby trap kit, wired explosives...) and security chekpoints. Also what I miss in game is that soldiers cannot lie down (like most snipers like to do), or roll on the ground when they see missile coming in at them. Naturally chance of hitting would be greater, but visibilty poorer, that goes for kneeling too). It would be great if you could also make your soldiers to hide behind walls and then try to knife alien as he was passing him by (yeah, heavy thermic lance would be great to have too). It would also be great to have an X-com like HWP (heavy weapons platform). Something big, heavily armoured and with a REALLY big gun. Immune to small arms fire something you need a rocket launcher to dent.

I did manage the retribution mission through overwhelming use of firepower. I used 3 guys in enhanced heavy armour armed with double barreled machine guns and 4 guys with accuracy international sniper rifle. They took out nearly everybody in that came to them in less than two seconds. Then moved one heavy guy up while sniper picked the key and retreated. Just make sure you take out mind controling aliens first....