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Monthly Expense Report


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There have been lots of threads where we talk about how things feel, or how we're investing "a lot" in X, but not many threads featuring actual numbers. In the interest of having actual numbers for balance discussion, I started a new game and logged every event/expense/income on a month by month basis. These numbers were from 19.2, hence me not posting them in the current Geoscape thread. I will be doing this again for all my future playthroughs.

Summary: Build 2 bases, each with 3 foxtrots then start investing in ground upgrades. I deliberately made some sub-optimal choices (first base in northern China, second in USA). The only aircraft I built were 6 Foxtrots, with three at each base. I never lost an aircraft, and generally spent money as fast as I got it on the way to getting up 6 Foxes, then started investing in ground combat until I unlocked Marauders (which I didn't quite get to before 19.3 came out).

Explanations: "Air" includes hangars, aircraft, and air weapons. "Ground" includes soldiers, gear, transports. "Infrastructure" is everything else.

September:

Expenses: Air 350K (66%) | Ground 0 (0%) | Infrastructure 175K (33%)

Income: Recovered from missions 326K (39%) | Starting income 500k (61%)

UFO Contacts: 7 Light Scouts

UFO Killed: 6 Light Scouts

Ground Missions: 7 Light Scouts

October

Expenses: Air 500K (42%) | Ground 0 (0%) | Infrastructure 700K (58%)

Income: Recovered 332K (26%) | Monthly 921K (74%)

UFO Contacts: 4 Fighters, 5 Scouts, 7 Fighterx3, 1 Bomber

UFO Killed: 3 Fighters, 3 Scouts, 2 Fighterx3, 1 Bomber

Ground Missions: 3 Scouts, 1 Terror

November

Expenses: Air 750K (66%) | Ground 160k (14%) | Infrastructure 225k (20%)

Income: Recovered 676k (41%) | Monthly 964k (59%)

UFO Contacts: 5 Fighter, 4 Fighterx3, 3 Corvette/escorts, 2 Corvettes, 1 Bomber, 3 Heavy Fighter

UFO Killed: 4 Fighters, 4 Fightersx3, 1 Corvette/escorts, 1 Corvette, 1 Bomber, 3 Heavy Fighter

Missions: 3 Terror, 1 Corvette, 1 Base assault

Comments: I missed a lot of UFOs while my second wing of Foxtrots was finishing production.

December

Expenses: Air 0k (0%) | Ground 840k (62%) | Infrastructure 525k (38%)

Income: Recovered 1054k (54%) | Monthly 899k (46%)

UFO Contacts: 3 Bomber, 8 Heavy Fighter, 4 Landing Ship, 1 Landing Ship/escorts, 2 H Fighterx3, 1 Cruiser

UFO Kills: 2 Bomber, 6 Heavy Fighter, 2 Landing Ship, 1 Landing Ship/escorts, 2 H Fighterx3, 1 Cruiser

Missions: 3 Terror, 1 Landing Ship, 1 Base Assault

Comment: Skipped a terror mission because it was late Dec and I still hadn't unlocked plasma explosives for lack of appropriate ships. In related news, terror missions are now penalized for skipping but not for aborting.

Edited by Dranak
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very interesting reading. thanks for going to all that trouble. How did you find the general escalation of the game?

I notice ground missions are 7-4-5-5 so the chinook is kept at relatively the same level of use.

Contacts though is 7-17-18-19 so the interceptors are very busy indeed.

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In terms of general pacing, I fought way more light scouts than any other assaultable UFO, which makes me think that phase is slightly too long. After the second month, I did more terror missions and base assaults than UFO assaults, which feels like there are too many of them. That could probably be improved by reducing the number of fighters and replacing them with assaultable UFOs.

In terms of economy, it still feels off that the best thing to do is completely ignore gear for troops for a couple months until you have a second base/squadron of Foxtrots up, but that seems pretty clearly to be the optimal way to play currently.

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Yeah, I agree with you on all of that. I get hamstrung on the supplying aircraft for the second base because I invariably build 2 suits of Wolf Armour for the assault troops. That's all it takes to derail it :)

As for UFOs, having a few for novice players seems like a good idea (better when more maps are in) so they get the hang of the battlescape. Perhaps another to enjoy any lessons learned painfully in the first three. Then on to scouts, which seem very few in my games.

I'm used to EU1994 terror mission frequency, so that's 1 or 2 a month. I can see that a funding nation on the brink of leaving may have a few more. They want to end the resistance there quickly. You get a chance at succeeding in those missions to hold on for a little longer.

Likewise I can see them attacking your base once they know where it is. It would be like you finding Cydonia and deciding that you didn't see the point.

Constantly seems a bit much to take in the actual game though.

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but that makes a mockery of my figures! A mockery! :)

reprise:

I notice ground missions are 7-4-5-5 so the chinook is kept at relatively the same level of use.

Contacts though is 7-17-18-19 so the interceptors are very busy indeed.

Contacts: 7 17 18 19

Missions: 7 4 4(+1) 4 (+1) where figures in parentheses are Base Defence missions.

Still comparatively busy in the skies as opposed to the ground, so you can see where people can struggle in air combat.

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Maybe there should be an actual report following this format. (really like it thank you for doing this) I think it would be cool as a feature, but would it be possible to make it a mod?

If all else fail I have a backup plan. *gets pen and paper.

EDIT: Graphs and stuff would be cool to o.O

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Thanks a lot for posting this, it explains why I have trouble getting the second base up, spending to much on soldiers equipment and I would always get a medical bay (what ever it is called) straight away.

edit added and with one base I was always struggling to catch the ticker.

Edited by Queamin
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For my next playthrough I intend to try to fully equip my ground squad before expanding (because frankly it's not fun to completely skip all ground upgrades for months), and see how that compares. I expect to have extreme difficulty getting a second base up and running.

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Yeap, thanks for this info. Looks like there is much more action going on than you can handle. And i believe it's a way more than in original game (need to test that and verify). Looking forward for that "soldiers centric" report. I think it will be more dramatic.

Upd.: played for one month in original X-Com on Experienced difficulty level. First base build in north China as well. Second - on Cuba.

UFO Contacts: 2 small

UFO Killed: 1 large scout

Ground Missions: 1 large scout, 1 terror site

So i guess it's safe to say that Xenonauts send a lot more alien ships than original game.

Edited by Newfr
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I think we need an increase in the funding $ by nations. That would solve a lot of balance issues. Right now, you simply can't buy much of anything quickly and losing expensive stuff is too hard to recover from. I'm not just talking about aircraft either. And it's nearly impossible to fund more than one base even under the best conditions.

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