Scientific Research - Which Order?

[kerbel]

When on a higher difficulty level and you recover so much technology before you can even begin to research it, which order do you research in?

 

There must be the essentials to start you off like armour & plasma rifle surely but do you bother with medi kits or motion detectors and where do you go from there?

[Slythe1]

Usually I'll go for laser technology first until I get laser rifles, then alien alloys and personal armor after that so my soldiers have some protection (very important). I then research medkits so I can save any wounded soldiers, then power armor after that for. After that it varies, but usually I'll go something like heavy plasma, plasma cannons (big help for shooting down UFOs), alien grenades, mind probe, flying suit, stun launcher, etc.

[NKF]

Just research at your own pace. The technology is there - pick the technology that you want or need right now. You needn't worry about being overloaded with projects. If you're worried about storage space, just start the projects before clearing out your stores and you'll still be able to research it later on.

 

Do make sure you're selective with what aliens you're capturing as you only need three to four specific aliens to win the game, and the rest are just there for literary purposes. It's not a good idea to have hundreds of soldier class aliens in any case. Medics, for example can be left till the very end when you want to fill in gaps.

 

I generally start off with the basic essentials. Medikits, lasers and personal armour, not necessarily in that order. Then I focus on armour and plasma cannons. That's pretty much set me for the rest of the game. I then concentrate on new ships and the endgame research. When that's done, I just fill in the gap with anything left over.

 

Somewhere in between any of the above I'll toss in alien weapons and tools. Like blasters, alien grenades, small launchers and mind probes. They're great, but not priority.

 

I do this on any difficulty level. It really pays to get used to using some of the clumsier but more powerful earth weapons. That way you can research at a snails pace with only 50 scientists and still turn superhuman terror units inside out with ease right from the start.

 

- NKF

[kerbel]

Yeah but what do you need to get power suits again?

[Jman4117]

Laser weapons --> Alien Alloys --> Personal Armor --> Heavy Plasma --> Plasma Cannon --> Medikit --> Laser Cannon/Tank --> Blaster Bomb --> Craft Tech --> Power Armor --> Craft --> Cydonia

 

Power Armor: Personal Armor, and Power Source. For the Flying Suit I believe you need UFO Construction too, which has navigation as a prereq.

[XCom42]

I move medi-kits a little further up the line in the tree...But that's just me. I try to make sure everyone comes home.

[Jman4117]

I usually put it atleast til after personal armor, because generally one hit means instant death in the khaki armor. Even against the most pathetic of weapons.

[XCom42]

Calling the Khaki suits "armor" is pretty funny!!!!!! :mad:

[Jman4117]

They have 8 or so.....

[NKF]

Hey, your khaki jumpsuits provides more armour than bare sectoid skin.

 

- NKF

[Alien-Bait]

Yes the khakis will protect from say, rifles (when a rifleman gets mced) but just about anything larger, and you might as well be running around naked screaming bula bula bula

[NKF]

Ha ha! You could say that, Power armour, even with the hover unit, still feels like tissue paper against heavy plasmas, so it's the same thing either way.

 

But, better armour does protect you against most of your own weapons, which is a bit of a relief if you're a bit too fond of high explosives.

 

- NKF

[Jman4117]

Yes, you can actually use your autocannon at point blank range with HE shells.

[Alien-Bait]

Ive got to try that sometime...

[Bomb Bloke]

The khakis are laced with kevlar, according to the UFOpedia (or was it the manual?).

[Jman4117]

Would explain their 8 ish armor value.