early game interception - ufos are too fast?

[LeftyRighty]

I've just spent most of the first month chasing ufos around with F17s... never actually catching any, just running out of fuel and returning to base, or having them escape to space. It's all very benny hill.

By the time I've researched and built some migs, I'm now getting wings of fighters, which the Migs aren't too brilliant against since the fighters dodge missiles and the migs don't have cannons...


To my mind the early game is quite formative and never actually catching a ufo to bring it down to get a tac mission to get the matertials, xp and research opportunities seems a little ... off.


Thoughts?

[Buzzles]

Yes and no.

First up is the obvious caveat that Goldhawk have done pretty much no balancing yet, so you have to bear that in mind.

Second is that the MIG's are very handy when you go and give them 4 sidewinders rather than the default of 2 sidewiders+2 torps. Mostly because you can use one missile to make the alien fighters dodge, then fire the other missiles in a single salvo which they can't dodge as their waiting through the cooldown timer for the roll.
You shouldn't be having any real trouble catching light scouts though, even with F17's.

[LeftyRighty]

hmm... maybe it's the "scouts" then... I've just had to reload from my first save and actually caught and killed a light scout really quickly...

(I get the beta thing, but we can discuss balance now and give them a head start )

[Max_Caine]

From what I can tell, F17's can catch up with light scouts, fightercraft and corvettes, but not scouts. MiGs are needed to successfully catch scouts. And you'll need a MiG to engage corvettes.

[blad3mastr]

I've also noticed that fighters don't dodge as quickly in the latest build, most times a single salvo of sidewinders are all thats needed for me

[Dion-Zeromus]

Last build, I also noticed that enemy craft seemed to uncannily be able ot outrun anything I sent after them, and when I could catch 'em, I lost entire wings of aircraft to them (2 F-17s and 1 Mig-32) and it was really hurting my account because A) I was having to replace aircraft after every sortie and B) I couldn't bring down a scout at all to get access to one of their engines to continue on the tech tree. I was for all intents and purposes SOL and I had only done a single month of operations (And this was on the Easy difficulty).

XCom was vicious to players yes, but it was a steady ramping up of the viciousness that made sense - The longer XCOM was in operation, the hardier the enemy was gonna get because they were getting tired of XCOM showing up. Xenonauts just crushes you with the first two alien craft types early game when your still trying to get your feet under you.

[Buzzles]

Yes, I've had a good play through tonight and I'm actually changing my opinion from my previous post as I think Chris and co have changed something.

Before with F17's you'd generally have a ~5/10 chance of getting into combat with a Scout UFO you were chasing, but now, jeez, it's now less than a 1/10 chance. Not a major problem but there's now hardly any time before you start seeing them as of V13.1, so you're no way ready and might have just a single Mig to scrable.

[Max_Caine]

Up to Normal difficulty, a single MiG is all you need. 4 sidewinders will bring one down. Veteran and above, you need 5. However, if you want to play about with the files that bring up scouts, the appropriate one is AM_Research.xml.

[thothkins]

Yes, I've had a good play through tonight and I'm actually changing my opinion from my previous post as I think Chris and co have changed something.

Before with F17's you'd generally have a ~5/10 chance of getting into combat with a Scout UFO you were chasing, but now, jeez, it's now less than a 1/10 chance. Not a major problem but there's now hardly any time before you start seeing them as of V13.1, so you're no way ready and might have just a single Mig to scrable.

I'd agree with this is how it feels. I'm doing a lot of chasing about in the last build. I don't think I got near a scout before the corvette turned up and crashed the game.

[TheUbiquitous]

Use the afterburner. Works every time, at least at the beginning of the game.

As for the fighter's dodge, shoot only one missile at a time. Because he can't dodge again and again, this works every time, at least at the beginning of the game.