Heh, it's like in one of my games where I had a base right in the middle of the US with a working HWD. Amazingly enough, no UFOs for an entire month in the region, and then suddenly, bam, they sign over even when it looked as though I was having overall positive scores for all the regions.

 

They snuck in somehow. I just wish I knew how.

 

(If I haven't mentioned it before: Aliens will freely infiltrate a country that's withdrawn funding. This is good, since there cannot withdraw as they're already withdrawn - the main effects will just be the dissatisfaction from the neighbours, but they're easy to placate)

 

- NKF

Umm? So they can turn WITHOUT infiltration?

 

BTW I can personal verify not-in-country infiltration; I lost India once and the only infiltration was in Tehran.

I'm sooooooo going to do badly now... I just lost America and Egypt..... it is so unfair....

As of today, I am 8 months past where China signed a pact. Nothing doing. I'll reload a bunch more times to see what happens, but China seems to like those aliens!

 

I finally got the aliens attention at my heavliy fortified North American base. Six Fusion Ball defenses plus a Grav Shield really keeps 'em out. I recorded all the total scores in the graph screen (via the Geoscape window) before the Battleship attacked. After it was shot down by my defenses, I checked the totals again to see how much I gained. Guess what? X-COM gets NO points if the defensive systems destroy a Battleship. Also, the aliens do not get any points for sending those Battleships to their doom.

 

We all know that in order for you to stop those Retaliation Battleships permanently, you must let the "group" of aliens through your defenses, and take them on in a base defense mission. I figured, "What would happen if you shoot the Battleship down before they reached your base, then cleaned up the crash site? Will they come back then"? Yep, they do come back!

 

Now I saved my game, then dismantled the base defenses and let the aliens in. My soldiers easily polished off the Snakemen and Chryssalids there. After returning to the Geoscape, I checked to see if more retaliation ships would follow. Nope. Therefore, only one alien "group" was attacking my base. I reloaded the game and counted how many Retaliation ships I shot down with my Fusion Ball defenses in a month. It came to 10 ships in a month per retaliation group. Granted, the average might be 5, 6 or even 10 for all I know. One trial is hardly a conclusive number to pin down an exact average. You may see more or less than this depending on how many "groups" are attacking, or what skill level you are playing on.

 

Another new thing I found out had to do with a country changing sides. If you see alien Battleships and Supply Ships on an Infiltration mission, watch where they go. (In my case, their final destination was Egypt). After a successful infiltration mission by the aliens, check the funding for that country. It still shows it is contributing. However, at the start of the next month, the funding will drop to 0. So funding changes are not retroactive, they are updated only at the end/start of a month!

the funding for that country. It still shows it is contributing. However, at the start of the next month, the funding will drop to 0. So funding changes are not retroactive, they are updated only at the end/start of a month!

 

very interesting indeed