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Why does everybody hate me!


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I sacrificed my best soldiers for you people, and what thanks do I get? Funding cut after funding cut! Why? Because a bunch of hick farmers are complaining about a few sore rectums? Good grief! I'm trying to fight a war here! And now I have to explain to my soldiers' orphaned children that, "sorry, I wanted to buy your parent some armour so I wouldn't have to return their corpse to you in a dozen plastic sandwich bags, but I'm a bit strapped for cash here because some butt sore civilians are upset they got abducted for the weekend and don't think I'm worth funding any more."

That's democracy for you!

But seriously, I really don't think I know what I'm doing when it comes to the strategic game. My first "successful" playthrough I didn't build a second base and pumped all my cash into buying snazzy weapons and such, but lost too much funding. Probably got to the start of December and then gave up the goose. Second "successful" playthrough, built a second base in the US (probably should've gone for Russia/China), never bought a single upgraded weapon or armour, got to January 1 before funding dried up. Partly, I ended spending a crazy fortune having to replace all my fighters that keep getting blown to pieces (although admittedly I only just discovered how much control you have in that mini-game, e.g. I didn't realise you could actually move your fighters around manually, etc).

Full disclosure: I never played the original X Com, so I have no carry-over information from that game. So before I start my third game, I was hoping to get some tips on how to play the strategic game. I've looked around a bit but I couldn't really find any info on that aspect of the game.

Some things I'm interested in: Do I need soldiers in my second base? I kitted it out with a full compliment of soldiers and chinook, and then I'm pretty sure I barely ever used them. And so it occurred to me that maybe you just send soldiers out from the original base and the secondary bases are just for air defence. But then what about your base getting invaded (which I haven't experienced yet)? Won't I need soldiers in each base to defend against that?

I recently realised that you can set your fighters to patrol the skies? What's up with that? (I haven't done it yet because I've never had enough fighters on hand to be confident to do anything with them except wait for the next round of death from the skies). Speaking of which, should I be racing to get a bunch of Migs up? I usually only have one because in some ways they seem kinda useless, and Condors are super effective for a while, but then when the big boy alien ships turn up I just get owned in the skies, and I'm outta money by then...

It's not clear to me when I can safely flog off my stuff to earn money or when I can keep it. In my first game I kept it to use for research and building fancy things, and I ran out of money. Second game, I flogged it off because my second base was so expensive I couldn't afford nice things, any way. And I still ran out of money!

And speaking of money, I need more of that! How do I get that?

How do I get them to love me!?

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The balance is off, so the game's kinda whack, yo. ;)

Suggestion: get MiGs earlier, they're useful for taking out larger ships.

MiGs. Check.

But surely my lack of funds isn't just that the game hasn't been balanced. I mean, other people are getting past January, right? I know they have been ,because I know there's a whole bunch of aliens I haven't seen yet.

Something I forgot to mention, I've never managed to stun and capture an alien. So I'm wondering if that would have opened up a bunch of stuff for me. But then if its just more research, I'd still be too strapped to pay for anything any way...

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truth is that game is a bit unclear for newcomers. I am UFO veteran but it took me few game weeks to realize I have to use stun grenades which I invented month ago for capturing aliena. Game just didn't noticed me there is new weapon available.

but I am sure these issues will be sorted out in beta

anyway one hint from me: until you are experienced in air combat, don't be afraid to load game. Planes are just too expensive so replacing them all the time costs you a game.

second hint : patroling may reveal close UFO or even base. So if fundings drops for one nation, try to patrol that space a bit, maybe there is alien base

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anyway one hint from me: until you are experienced in air combat, don't be afraid to load game. Planes are just too expensive so replacing them all the time costs you a game.

second hint : patroling may reveal close UFO or even base. So if fundings drops for one nation, try to patrol that space a bit, maybe there is alien base

hmm, well i've been playing in iron man, so maybe i should tone that down...

And I didn't even know about alien bases! Nice one kreny, thanks!

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I offer you a solution!

QLCoeSN.png

A "Friend maker!"

Just use this on someone, and they will never insult you, give you a nasty look, stare awkwardly at your sexual characteristics through your bathroom windows, hit you, cut you off on the freeway, impregnate your wife, tell their family bad things about you, put too little cream in your coffee, say bad things about tungsten, ask for a raise, or cut your funding ever again!

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Here are a few spoilers to at least get you started on the right foot.

Build your first base in Egypt (covers more territory), and forget about a second base until later. Immediately buy a hospital and a hangar and maybe a living quarters (I buy 5 extra scientists and a couple of extra soldiers with the latter). Research the plane first of all, and build it as soon as you can. Grenades are your best friends - especially the stun grenades when you get them. In the meantime, use smoke to cover your advance when an alien is spotted and grenades to kill them when they are in cover. If you are too successful the aliens will get better sooner, so it is ok to lose one soldier occasionally and to have one or two wounded occasionally (so you need a couple of replacement soldiers). If you lose too many in a mission, restart the mission because you cannot afford to lose the experience. Put your most accurate soldiers as snipers (two, and keep them behind the lines) and the two strongest with heavy weapons, and put the rest as Riflemen (no assaults).Throw away all the pistols and replace them with grenades, and put a first aid kit on every soldier.

Read the threads on how to do air combat, because heading straight into the teeth of air battle while playing the "Ride of the Valkaries" will get your planes shot down, except at the very beginning.

Each new patch cancels all the saved games, so I have to keep restarting the game. I research armor early on, but it is heavy and some say it is not worth it. Plasma pistol is necessary to get you eventually to laser rifles. Good luck.

Henri

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I offer you a solution!

QLCoeSN.png

A "Friend maker!"

Just use this on someone, and they will never insult you, give you a nasty look, stare awkwardly at your sexual characteristics through your bathroom windows, hit you, cut you off on the freeway, impregnate your wife, tell their family bad things about you, put too little cream in your coffee, say bad things about tungsten, ask for a raise, or cut your funding ever again!

lol

I can already feel my popularity and urge to kill rising, rising...

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Here are a few spoilers to at least get you started on the right foot.

Build your first base in Egypt (covers more territory), and forget about a second base until later. Immediately buy a hospital and a hangar and maybe a living quarters (I buy 5 extra scientists and a couple of extra soldiers with the latter). Research the plane first of all, and build it as soon as you can. Grenades are your best friends - especially the stun grenades when you get them. In the meantime, use smoke to cover your advance when an alien is spotted and grenades to kill them when they are in cover. If you are too successful the aliens will get better sooner, so it is ok to lose one soldier occasionally and to have one or two wounded occasionally (so you need a couple of replacement soldiers). If you lose too many in a mission, restart the mission because you cannot afford to lose the experience. Put your most accurate soldiers as snipers (two, and keep them behind the lines) and the two strongest with heavy weapons, and put the rest as Riflemen (no assaults).Throw away all the pistols and replace them with grenades, and put a first aid kit on every soldier.

Read the threads on how to do air combat, because heading straight into the teeth of air battle while playing the "Ride of the Valkaries" will get your planes shot down, except at the very beginning.

Each new patch cancels all the saved games, so I have to keep restarting the game. I research armor early on, but it is heavy and some say it is not worth it. Plasma pistol is necessary to get you eventually to laser rifles. Good luck.

Henri

It sounds like you and I are basically playing the same way: I think we've both read the same posts on this forum. Except I've never bothered with armour because one way or another I always have other costs that seem more important and to be honest that stuff is not very fashionable.

I always play on iron man so I can't reload, but to be honest I usually don't lose any soldiers in the tactical missions. My only real problem is running out of funding come December/January. Are you sure you can get away without a second base? How many months in are you usually getting?

Thanks for pitching in!

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Pretty standard playthroughs Danny, so it's nothing that you're doing wrong.

I find that getting three intercept bases up and running helps with the funding.

Since the Chinook has global range and can run multiple missions once in the air, only 1 base has soldiers.

Don't lose fighters. The air combat is too difficult for a normal difficulty level. save scumming is one method until you really know each tactic for the build. Although it seems they get blown to pieces, your aircraft will miraculously return in the near future. There will also be auto resolve.

You don't have to be familiar with X-Com. Considering the current balancing issues, not knowing is possibly better :)

Patrolling the skies allows to to hover around UFO events, or near UFOs last point of contact, or patrol for alien bases.

I always have at least 1 mig at each intercept base. Very useful throughout. Don;'t forget to adjust the speed of it in air combat, as it will outrun the condors and be targeted even more than usual. You should be getting alenium torpedoes for your Migs when larger craft start appearing.

With the exception of transferring aircraft weapons stores is now nearly redundant. The amount of pennies made after selling off some alenium or alloys won;t make a huge difference, and you'll need it (possibly) later on.

Excuse me sir, but the plural of "rectum" is "recta".

I'd ask how you knew this, but worry you don't like probing questions :)

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I'd ask how you knew this, but worry you don't like probing questions :)

Good grief, thothkins! You are the master of puns. (Sorry, I don't have a pun for that).

Ok well thank you kindly for the advice. I was hoping to get a third base up but never had the funding for it, but I think having soldiers at only one base, and scrambling for MiGs quicker (so that I don't have to keep replacing Condor's...) might just make all the difference.

I just found out about the speed adjustment for aircraft from watching one of steelwarrior's let's plays. What a difference that makes! Man, I need to start paying attention to all the details in this game. I also just found what those big red letters mean when I'm equipping my soldiers...

At least I have a game plan for my next play through now. And just in time: I tried going back to Enemy Unknown for a bit of compare and contrast and had to rage quit in disgust (which is totally unlike me...). Now I get why original X Com players were so disappointed with that game.

Thanks again!

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