Privateer

This happens quite often, but I find it funny every time. On a terror mission, some HTH only alien like a Crys. or a Reaper spots a civvie. "Oh, look! What a tasty defenseless little civvie. I think I'm gonna rip it apart, mwahahaha" :alien2: Runs straight towards the civvie without looking anywhere else. POW! Is ripped apart by a large missile from an XCOM trooper hiding in a nearby alley. "Aw, darn, shouldn't have been so bloodthirstry." *dies* "Live bait fishing", anyone?

Yes, I've seen the theater. A bit after posting that first message I got a cruise ship terror mission. But I'm not sure why you should mention it. It looked like a regular room to me.

This is really frustrating. I got a shipping line terror mission for the first time - the one on a container ship (not sure if there are others). My enemy is Aquanoids, so the battle was more of a massacre than a fight :devil: Well, at least after I got rid of their MC capable troops. Now I'm pretty much done the cargo hold, but, apparently, there are still a few enemies around and I can't find them. The level is so big, with so many rooms and containers that it gets really annoying after you spend thirty minutes to an hour sniffing around for that last enemy. Anyone wants to share their hunting tricks?

20 lobsters... using HE weapons... :o :o :o This isn't exactly a fight I'd fight. Well, not at night and not without reloading, anyway. A short while ago I had a large USO landed during the night, so I responded with 1 tank and 10 aquanauts (plastics armor, Sonic cannons, gauss rifles). The enemy was aquanoids mixed with some weird large terror units (not their usual calcinites). I killed one 'noid, took his corpse and items, killed one terrorist unit and got the heck out, as I was taking fire from far beyond my units' sighting range as well as suffering MC attacks on troopers inside the sub. I figured I wasn't going to win if I hung around longer, not without great casualties anyway. No great glory, or loot, but no casualties either, resulting in a small positive score and the foiling of the alien mission. As for lobsters waking up, experienced that first-hand. Although, he didn't kill any of my men and was quickly subdued. Must have been too groggy to aim properly

Don't the grenades and explosive packs also target under armor if you toss them on the same tile? Since everyone already carries grenades (and as I research more, I expect to mix in some sonic pulsers), is it really worth it to dedicate a man to the gas cannon? The ceiling trick sounds neat, but I'm sceptical in that unless I give a gas cannon to everyone, the trooper in a position to use this trick would most likely be the one without the GC Especially since I wouldn't want to send heavies into the building, less they will blow themselve and their comrades up with their HE shots. Well, perhaps I will change my opinion on the subject when the Tricenes come and start ripping my aquanauts apart, laughing at the sonic cannon fire in the process. :o Then I'll probably be grasping any straw there is. With heavy sonic cannons, my thinking was that those troops aren't going to be taking part in the regular action against the light enemies, like gillmen, but rather will only come out to play if a very hard target, like lobstermen, is encountered. Of course, if the enemies are all lobstermen, that might not be enough, but I didn't anticipate that happening. From what I saw, lobbies only appeared in mixed crews with gillmen and aquanoids, and sometimes tasoths. If the game progresses to the point when light enemies are phased out altogether, I was planning to switch my Auto section to sonic rifles. Of course, it wouldn't be Auto then, but at least their weapon will be adequate to deal with most threats. You are probably right, though, about an extra clip. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks a lot. Now that you say one clip for the heavies isn't going to be enough, I'm beginning to dread the time when lobbies should appear. I mean, if 50 shots isn't going to be enough to do away with them, I can only imagine... I was thinking about giving every non-auto trooper a gauss pistol, but it's 20 extra items, so I wasn't sure if I could fit it in. I was thinking sonic pistols, too, but I'm not sure how much ammo for them I will find. It would really be a waste of Zrbite to make pistol ammo. Or, perhaps, it's just my over-conservative attitude from XCOM1 when it comes to scarce alien minerals. As for gas cannons, I just phased them out as heavy weapons as sonic cannons became available... The HE shells aren't quite powerful enough to my liking, lacking the punch to take out simple walls, which sonics easily fly through. Hitting the target is also not a problem with automatic rifles, so the only thing I see going for them is the incendiary shots. I never used those much, but they appear pretty weak, unable to kill the enemy unless they hit it. Perhaps I should have a second look at them. I don't know about the HTH weapons. I thought about them, but I only have the puny tazers(or whatever those things you can purchase from day 1 are called). I've had a pretty bad experience of them simply not packing enough punch to stun the meaner aliens in that last game, so I'm a bit reluctant to use them now. When I research things like vibro blade or t. lance, I'll definately put them to good use, though. Can anyone comment on the balance of the weapons in the team? As in, do I have too few heavy punching weaponry and will likely get overwhelmed when lobbies come around, or something along those lines.

I haven't had a lot of experience with higher level aliens yet. In my first game they showed up long before I got prepared for it, so I pretty much lost - suffered heavy losses, failed missions and eventually abandoned that game. This time around, I'm getting ready for the lobbies and tasoth(sp?) right off the bat. Tell me how good the following team setup is. 1 Gas Cannon SWS 5 Auto (Gauss Rifle, 2 clips, 2 reg. grenades, 1 flare) 5 Heavy (Sonic Cannon, 1 clip, 2 reg. grenades, 1 flare) 0 Stun (Shock Launcher, 5 ammo, 2 reg. grenades, 1 flare) 0 MC (?, Gauss Rifle, 2 clips) As soon as I research the Shock Launcher, I will make it 4 Auto, 4 Heavy and 2 Shock. As MC comes along, I will see what it's like and possibly enter those specialists into the team. If XCOM1 is any indication, however, it will take quite a while before I will be able to have good MC attack troops. On an unrelated note, what's the deal with Ion Armor? I caught a live Deep One, hang on to it until I found and researched the Ion Beam Accellerators, only then did I research the live Deep One, but still, I didn't get the option to research Ion Armor. Am I missing something?

Hello. Get ready to see your aquanauts' asses handed to them. At least that's what happened to me when I first played this after the original.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you are not going to be fighting lobstermen all the time. At some point you will respond to gillmen or other non-tank mission, or perhaps there could be more than one type of aliens on the same mission. In this case it will pay to have a sonic pistol and a grenade in the other hand to toss at the odd gillman, rather than trying to fry the poor thing with a sonic cannon.

Hmm, who says med-kits have to be physical, like 20th century kits? In fact, I think they are different because it takes quite a bit of research to get them. I have seen people remove pains by just hovering their hands a couple of inches over the aching site. They call it biofields or something like that and can't quite explain how it works, but it does. It is also used to find underground water, graves, etc, but that's besides the point. Perhaps the X-Com med-kits are based on application of this biofield as well. Then it's not surprising they should work through walls. Of course, realisticly, I doubt this is what the developers had in mind, but this would provide a pretty good explaination if the trick was to be included into the manual.

Interesting topic. It is strange that I haven't noticed it before. I agree that bubbles are probably exhaust CO2. Maybe with a little methane, as was suggested before Here are a few other questions: How come most rookies can hit something with a grenade much better than with a rifle? How come during my latest anti-terror operation in Florida not ONE civilian had a gun? Come on, it's a southern state; everybody should have a gun Where are the police and local military during alien terror missions? (On a side note, where are the police ever when you need them? ) Does GreenPeace hold protest rallies against inhumane treatment of lobsters and other sea fauna during X-Com's operations? Does the aliens' equivalent of GreenPeace hold protest rallies against inaliene treatment of humans? Does anyone really care what GreenPeace and their equivalent are talking about? Maybe it's not really all about technology, but hopefully it'll give some of you a chuckle.

Here's a strategy question for you all. Does sitting out all non-necessary action help or is it a sure way to lose? By "sitting out" I mean having one base, and concentrating on research rather than building new bases. Ignoring alien bases that spawn up, etc. Of course, terror attacks should still be dealt with.

Well, I think this would qualify as desperate. In TFTD, before I knew lobstermen suffered from tazers and shockers (thanks to these boards), I was absolutely freaked out when I met one. I had my soldiers assult it at near point-blank range with their regular weapons - Gauss rifles. It got knocked down eventually, but it took the concentrated auto fire from six or so shooters. :o On a later occasion I tried to assult a Tricenes using Gauss rifles. That didn't go so well, actually. :hmmm:

I can testify that research of sonic weapons does not trigger lobstermen. In fact the only reason for my going for sonic weapons first is the appearance of lobstermen in my last game when I had nothing to fight them with. The main reason I don't like Gauss is that it simply doesn't pack the punch. Of course it's nice to have an automatic Gauss instead of the bulky Sonic Cannon when up against Gillmen, but I can live with that. On the other hand, I already had a nasty experience ending up against Lobstermen or Tricers(sp?) with Gausses and watch three of my troops drop dead one after another upon pumping the enemy full of lead(or whatever Gauss projectiles are made of:)).

As for the port attack at night, it depends on the difficulty setting and your skill. I'm not very experienced, but even I can deal with a port attack by Gillmen or Aquanoids using only the usual Earth-built weapons without reloading (much:)). I find flares very effective at night. I use them to create a couple of lit areas around the LZ, so that anyone who approaches is usually spotted by my troops, who are holding the perimeter around the Triton, before he sees them and attacks. This gives me the opportunity to attack them first, which is usually enough to kill them. I also try not to engage with direct fire if possible. When one of the perimeter guards notices an enemy, I have someone else step out of the Triton and toss a grenade or two at the target. I think it doesn't give away my guards' positions as much. Many of the aliens, who started off in buildings and/or fenced-in areas never seem to want to come out, which is wonderful because I don't have to deal with them initially and later I can spot them with my tank or scouts and safely take them out by massive concentration of fire.

I think I figured out what I was doing wrong: research. But that's only half of success because I still don't know how to do it right It looks like Gauss is a waste of time initially. So, I stick with harpoons, grenades and gas cannons while I research confiscated sonic weapons and pulser. I'm not sure how valuable armor is too, seeing how it's mostly a one-shot-one-kill deal no matter if my men are armored or not. So, I think I'll go with Particle Disturbance (for profit while no artefacts are captured), Sonic guns/Pulser to have a fighting chance against those badder enemies. But I'm still not sure what to do after that. So, I'm wondering what do you guys research and in what order.

I'm not the one to talk on this, but I'll tell you what I figured out during what little gaming I've done with TFTD. Subs are not quite the same. First of all, a lot of alien subs now move slower than even your barracudas, which allows you to catch up to them, while in UFODef the interceptors couldn't catch up with anything unless it slowed down. It seems to me barracudas have shorter range than interceptors. I don't remember my interceptors ever running out of fuel before reaching the objective, except when the objective laned or ran away, while barracudas constantly do. Also, even medium alien subs now fire back at you, while it was almost impossible to lose an Avalanche interceptor to anything, but a battleship in UFODef.

Well, just as I thought things were getting managable... this happens. It's another cruise ship terror site (man, I'm starting to dread those!). This time it's the yellow mind-controlling aliens (start with a T) and also sectoid-like aliens with big heads. Biodrones. And THIS. "This" is an indestructable, accurate, four-tile Reaper-like menace with lightning reaction. It doesn't even twitch from either Gauss fire or tazers. The only thing I have left to try is grenades, but I can't use them because civvies are not smart enough to find their way out of the area. So, 1. What is it? 2. How do I kill it? 3. Is it normal for it to appear within five months of the start of the game? 4. Are you supposed to struggle through the game like I do or am I just not doing something right strategically?

I guess I'm begining to tire everyone with my newb questions, but I'll push my luck a little longer. Here's my problem now. I've captured a couple of enemy weapons: a thermal lance and a vibro blade, but I can't research them. Is there a prerequisit I'm missing? Also, what do I have to research to be able to build better combat subs? The Barracudas are not quite up to the job when it comes to medium and larger largets.

So, the best way to deal with a lobsterman is to come up to it and poke it with a tazer? I'm sure my soldiers will just love hearing this OK, maybe I'm taking the game too seriously. Thanks for the advice. Now, how do you know when to equip your men with Thermo-shock launchers? You don't find out who you will be fighting until the battle begins if you don't have a, what's it called, mindwave decoder. I suppose you could haul around the tazers, but giving each man a thermo-shock launcher in his backpack... Does it work?

One little question. How do you fight this menace they call Lobstermen?! I've had a cruise ship terror attack happen and when I landed I found those guys. The first baddie took about ten Gauss rifle bursts to die! And even then, as I discovered later in the battle, he didn't die - just got knocked out! Nothing gets these guys. Nothing! I encountered one in the kitchen and here's the menu I fed it: 3 Gauss rifle bursts into the back from near point-blank range, 1 regular grenade, 1 Sonic Pulser, and about 5 or 6 kitchen stoves and propane tanks, which detonated from the blast. Following this treat, the goddamn beast came out of the kitchen and killed my soldiers. To make a long story short, I took massive casualties and retreated. Though I deserve the credit for making the retreat orderly and even capturing most of the enemy bodies and weapons. And while this does make me feel a little better, it doesn't change the SNAFU of a situation I'm in. So, with my soldiers being heros and hauling home those lobstermen bodies, I hoped that an autopsy would reveal a way to fight them. No such luck. The report just says what I already know - the darn things are tough beyond imagination. There is a reasonably easy way to kill them, right? I'm not supposed to try and pound a ship full of these guys to a pulp using just my Gausses, right?

Thanks everyone. Now a starting base near the US doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore. It has two costs to cover with just two big funders. East Asia looks more and more attractive though. With only one cost, which I can cover with one base and two big funders on it... A Mediterranean base would probably be able to cover most of Europe and Scandinavia. I think I'll start with those two and later add two more on US's and Mexico's coasts. Then one more off India and it's pretty much all set. So, five bases in all.

Thanks, NKF. I still don't quite understand. I can't just concentrate on covering the oceans alone because the objects I need to protect are on land (I presume). So if I stick my base in the middle of Atlantic, wouldn't the aliens just sneak into the middle of the US where I have no coverage and infiltrate it? PS Syndicate ruled. That place was called Mid-Atlantic Relay Platform, if I'm not mistaken?

Thanks for everyone's help. I seem to be getting a hand in combat now. The key for me was getting to use grenades. Maybe it's just me imagining things, but the rifles fire in TFTD doesn't seem to be remotely as accurate as in the original. However, grenades still explode and still pack enough punch to kill the bad guys. So, I use them for all my alien busting needs with decent results. It's actually surreal that my soldiers can't seem to hit a target using their rifles, yet can easily toss a grenade and have it land right at the baddie's feet. But after seeing how well those grenades fly through water, it doesn't surprise me that much. Must be magical grenades. Anyway, now I'm confused about where to put my bases so that they'd effectively cover what's important. In the original it was easy, as I only had to watch the land mass, so a base in the middle of Europe, the US and East Asia were able to cover most of what I'd care about with maybe listening posts in South America, Africa and Australia. But now I'm confused. First of all, am I to watch just the territory of my funders or the oceans as well? How come I don't see the funders' borders, like I used to in the original? Finally, where do you suggest to place first base? Other bases?

Having played some XCOM1 and read the FAQ for TFTD, I started my first game. Placed a base off the US's Eastern seaboard, as the FAQ suggested, to cover the generous Yanks. As I did in 1, I set off to build a larger scanner, more living quarters and storage. Refitted one Barracuda with best torpedos and dismissed the other one to save on costs. First USO shows up, Barracuda intercepts, downs it. The team goes in, finds only one alien, takes one casualty. Second USO spotted, downed with the Barracuda heavily damaged. Aquanauts go in, kill four baddies, take six casualties! Result: a barely positive score, tons of money lost. At this point I have no idea how I'll live through the next month without an interceptor craft and with a bunch of rookie soldiers. If a terror site happens, I'll probably lose it, if those first two battles are anything to judge by. And most amazingly, all of the above has taken place on Beginner difficulty! So, if anyone has any hints whatsoever, that could really help me.