Jump to content

Game is too hard? Need a few tips


Johnny_B

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone, just wanted to say I've recently discovered this game and been having a lot of fun with it. I played the original XCOM and TFTD many years ago, and this about as faithful a remake as I can expect, while also improving on many aspects.

One thing I seem to be struggling with is the difficulty. I'm playing on Normal, and for the first couple of months everything is going well. I have two bases, in Europe and North America, and building a third one to cover Africa (there seems to be a lot of UFO activity there). My troops are outfitted with Wolf armor and laser weapons, and they generally do well in missions.

The problem comes around December, when my huge maintenance costs can barely be covered by what I get from countries anymore. In fact, I don't even know if I'll have enough money by the end of the next month. It also seems that airstriking crashed UFOs and selling stuff from missions nets very little money. Also, I am now detecting 3 or 4 UFOs almost every day, and can't afford to ignore them because that'll lose me support even further. I can't remember the original being this hard... am I doing something wrong?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It might be that you've got too many buildings / interceptors and it's choking you financially. What have you built at each base?

Well, I've got my main base with its 2x labs and workshops, a couple of Condors, a Foxtrot and a Charlie. I've got a secondary base in NA with my other Charlie strike force and 2 Condors. And I was building a third interception base in Indochina. At this point, my upkeep expenses were nearly as much as I was receiving in international support, almost $2 million per month. I wanted another base to cover Africa and maybe South America but I couldn't afford them. Airstriking a UFO crash site gives me something like $25k, and selling stuff from a successful mission doesn't give much more than that. I understand that the option to manufacture things for sale was removed for balance reasons, but I think the economy aspect is a little too hardcore now...

Another problem, as I've said, is that I am starting to see 3, 4, even 5 UFOs pop up at once in a single day. I simply can't go after them all with my current forces, which in turn causes me to lose more support. Maybe I should have gotten more interceptors and tried to spend less on other things? I guess I still have a lot to learn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm speaking from the perspective of a Veteran player, so YMMV but when you said "second strike team" that's where a sizable chunk of your costs are going to be. I have found it is prohibitively expensive to run a second team before you get a Shrike dropship. The cost in hiring, wages, equipment, room and board really runs too high. I would suggest sending your second strike team back to the main base to act as replacements and stand-ins, sell your barracks, sell the charlie. yoiu'll claw back some of the investment and reduce your operating costs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In addition to what Max has said, your aircraft aren't well suited to the mid-game. You want to concentrate on building Foxtrots rather than buying Condors as Foxtrots are much better at intercepting UFOs in terms of both speed and firepower. Personally, I find two Foxtrots and a Condor per base sufficient. Then, when I can, I replace the Condors with Corsairs due to their increased speed and range.

In contrast, if you're relying heavily on Condors in December you'll be struggling to catch UFOs and shooting them down will also be more difficult.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I might not be as experienced as everyone else here, but you said something about having two labs and two workshops, that might be a bit of your issue, Those two are very expensive, especially that early, or at least I found them that way, I'd downsize at least one workshop and transfer the engineers, or fire them, 15 engineers will build what you need in at least a few days, unless you're outfitting entire teams in less than a month, in which case, Try to economize, your assault troopers? don't need plasma or laser weapons, the shotgun is still surprisingly decent for assault...if you're one tile away. otherwise it's still good for suppression.

Your snipers, at December...either give them a laser rifle, or precision laser, but instead of wolf, give them jackal, or no armor, they're snipers, They don't need heavy armor, you don't want them being in fire anyway.

Also another thing you can cut from the budget, at your stage base defense turrets are sort of...useless, or at least I found them to be, I'm in April and they still haven't been used once, and they're at laser right now...about to be plasma. Cut those.

As for what Max said about having a second team, A second team is needed if you're going to have two bases, however outfitting them the same as your Alpha team is not as needed, try to find ways of economizing them, maybe instead of full wolf armor, jackal armor and a bunch of plasma grenades, or whichever ones you have, 1-2 of any grenade can kill anything I found at that stage, and the less armor you wear, the more grenades you can carry.

Mind you I'm not as experienced as the others here, this is just my opinion...also if you can help it, don't send Condors out with Foxtrots to fight something fast, send the foxtrot more than once, the condor will slow him down, and make it nigh impossible to catch the UFO, Condors I find are pretty good at deflecting enemy fighters, if you take direct control, there are youtube videos on how to best use them if you must, a single condor with tier 2 weapons can take out 3 heavy fighters if you know what you're doing.

Hope this helps at least a little bit, C:

P.S. Try to cut down on airstrikes if you can, it might not sound like you make a lot more, but the extra 30k, or 40k, or sometimes 50k helps a lot when you're gunning down 3-4 UFO's every attack cycle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, running the second strike team can be expensive - remember that even the basic Chinook has global range.

You should be able to get by using mostly airstrikes though; I put them in the game so the player shouldn't have to feel they have to "grind" crash sites for money. That'll just make the game drag.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use enough airstrikes to make it look like the map is a crater at the point I'm at, I'm in April though, so eh.

Also another good point Chris makes, You really don't need all that much upgrading past the Shrike, I have one Shrike for my main team, but then again, they probably eat steaks for every meal and use wine as mouthwash with the way I pamper them.

Also Chris? thank you for making the main transport the Chinook, it's my favorite helicopter, C:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll probably start a new game anyway, since it'll be easier than trying to recover in this one. Gonna keep one strike team for the time being and no more extra labs and workshops. I'll also concentrate more on Foxtrots (for some reason I'd gotten it into my head that they are meant for fighting heavier UFOs because they come with Avalanche missiles as default, but of course you can change their weapons). I'll also probably set the difficulty to Easy this time, at least until I learn the game. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll probably start a new game anyway, since it'll be easier than trying to recover in this one. Gonna keep one strike team for the time being and no more extra labs and workshops. I'll also concentrate more on Foxtrots (for some reason I'd gotten it into my head that they are meant for fighting heavier UFOs because they come with Avalanche missiles as default, but of course you can change their weapons). I'll also probably set the difficulty to Easy this time, at least until I learn the game. ;)

Fair enough, just remember, You don't need all your fancy toys spread out, Labs and workshops can be put in your main bases, and just build them, and send them out when you build what you need, until later anyway.

And not every base needs a strike team at first, they can be simply airbases, I'm in April and I have 4 bases..and 4 strike teams, but until a month ago, I hadn't had a 4th team.

Remember, the more UFO's you shoot down, the more money you will get every month...but more importantly, the less you let go? the less you will lose each month, The first three or so months bled me dry, and I even lost an entire region, so don't forget that "UFO spotted" is not entirely something to ignore unless you can't help it.

Anyways man, Good luck, hope you defeat the Xenos!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It might be that you've got too many buildings / interceptors and it's choking you financially. What have you built at each base?

One thing I fell victim to was not realizing that each aircraft was costing $100k / month - it's not really obvious when you're managing your bases.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have reached the middle of November in my new game and am struggling again. It's the same problem as before - UFOs are starting to appear in waves of 3 or 4 at a time, and it takes all the aircraft I've got stationed nearby just to take one of them down. Then they've got to fly back and repair/refuel, and by then the other UFOs are gone. If I try sending just one airplane per UFO, it'll usually get destroyed or tell me it has a 1% chance of winning.

I'm doing better at the ground combat part, but it's not making much difference when I am steadily losing funding and being overwhelmed by sheer numbers of UFOs. I need to watch a gameplay video or something. How many interception bases do you people normally keep? And how many planes in each? I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have reached the middle of November in my new game and am struggling again. It's the same problem as before - UFOs are starting to appear in waves of 3 or 4 at a time, and it takes all the aircraft I've got stationed nearby just to take one of them down. Then they've got to fly back and repair/refuel, and by then the other UFOs are gone. If I try sending just one airplane per UFO, it'll usually get destroyed or tell me it has a 1% chance of winning.

I'm doing better at the ground combat part, but it's not making much difference when I am steadily losing funding and being overwhelmed by sheer numbers of UFOs. I need to watch a gameplay video or something. How many interception bases do you people normally keep? And how many planes in each? I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

For starters, Auto battling Air battles with a low chance of success is not likely to win...however, if you know what you're doing, you can take a 0 percent chance of winning, and do it yourself manually, If you're crafty, it takes a lot of mid maneuver changes, but it's worth it.

Also think of investing in explosives upgrades, They don't just upgrade your grenades, they also do that to your missiles, and if you have even laser auto cannons? Even a Condor can be a deadly threat.

Also, unless it's a massive craft, I wouldn't send more than 2 against them, It's a waste of ammo unless you're at lower tier weapons, as for me? I'm an exception, but due to my micromanagement, I have 4 bases...

DO NOT, Do that though unless you're prepared to micromanage your ground combat a LOT, as for how many planes? In November i had at least 3 planes in both the US, and Soviet Union, 2 in Europe, and 2 in Indochina.

2 of which were foxtrots, the rest condors.

Also I struggled a lot until after December when I started making more than I needed, and cutting the lost regions, Bolster specific area's and leave the weak nations. or at least that's what I did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As others have said, are you focusing on a single strike team and Foxtrots this time?

There are a number of good Let's Play videos on YouTube that might help you, including some posted by members of this forum. If you check the sticky threads under General Discussion, there is a beginners combat guide, a walkthrough, and a tech tree that also might help.

And for air combat: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11776-Air-Combat-Tutorial?highlight=dranak+air+combat

Edited by dpelectric
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess I'll give it another try. By the way, keeping my lab and workshop size reduced was not a good idea either, as my troops are now becoming hopelessly outclassed and outgunned. Anyone else think laser weapons are a bit excessive in terms of cost and production time? Like 6 days to make one laser sniper rifle with 15 engineers...

I think I'll start over again, as I am now being attacked by those android aliens, whatever they are called, and they are almost impervious to my weapons. Need better weapons sooner.

Edited by Johnny_B
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stabilizing financially is mostly about taking control of the skies. To do this you need radar coverage and planes. 1-2 Foxtrots per base is enough for the first few months, but you really need to be careful with your base placement. For example in the OP you mentioned bases in Africa and Europe, but a single base in Egypt/Saudi Arabia can cover both of those regions and much of asia which makes it a superior base placement.

You really want a second lab in the second month, but if you're starved for cash it's not a big deal to sit on one workshop. If you're limited by funds there's no gain in paying extra techs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Everyone on here seems to be concentrating on high expense, but if your bases aren't in a good location to successfully detect / destroy as many UFOs as possible over your funding nations, that might also explain why they're reducing their funding and you are not ending up with a profit each month

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 1/11/2017 at 7:31 PM, RustyNayle said:

Everyone on here seems to be concentrating on high expense, but if your bases aren't in a good location to successfully detect / destroy as many UFOs as possible over your funding nations, that might also explain why they're reducing their funding and you are not ending up with a profit each month

You just gotta play it to get better.

Edited by BlueForest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...