StellarRat

Thank you for not dismissing the entire writing. Please note that if you look at the text I specify that HIGH reaction soldiers should be given high reaction fire weapon (perhaps indirectly I will admit), like shotguns and pistols. Reaction fire does work even in the early game IF the soldiers have the good reflex score AND a reaction multiplier weapons like a shotgun or pistol. In the early game an alien that is dumb enough to jump out of his ship WILL be shot by someone with a shotgun or pistol and a good reflex score standing outside the door.

Well, I do note that it's OK to bunch up if you have good cover like behind building. Also, the V formation was supposed to show you a way to move across open areas. That really wasn't as open as I wanted, but I had to have a map to play on to do the screenshots, so I made do with the one that came up. You are right that I wrote this for beginners doing the first couple recoveries on a light scout. I assumed a beginner would probably play on veteran level or less. It was never intended to cover anything beyond that. Once the maps get harder I usually rely on vehicles to do my scouting so the need to move across unexplored open ground with troops is greatly reduced and I can adopt a much more cover to cover approach for movement. My approach and choice of weapons is completely different for terror missions than it is for a recovery map just as an example.I would like to see how other people play sometime though. The way I've learned how seems to work for me, but I'm sure there are other ways that would surprise me if I saw them in action.

Well, I only lost one soldier on the mission that the graphics came from and that was because I was trying to create a manual and not paying strict attention to everything I normally would. So, I don't know what to say about your comments. I rarely lose more than one soldier per mission and a lot of the time I don't lose any.

Have three bases (including your starting base), one in Egypt, one in Cuba, one in Japan and make sure you have at least two Condors and two MIGs at each base. Each base should have three radars. This will take at least a couple months. The first additional base can usually be started in month one or the beginning of month two, the second will take longer. Shoot down everything you can with your large air force. You don't need to go to every crash site. Getting your air force up to size ASAP and running a smart air campaign to maintain air superiority is key to maintain good relations with the funding regions. You should be shooting down over 2/3's of UFOs that come down. I've come close to 100% by month four (it gets a lot harder after that, but 2/3 is still possible.) They don't care too much about how you're doing in ground combat. Air strike at least 1/2 the crash sites specially the small UFOs you've already researched. This adds to nation relations. In fact, you can get by with only recovering the first model of each type of alien ship AND taking any landed ship, corsair size on larger in ground combat to capture materials. Of course, you must respond to any terror sites if it's at all possible. Also, once you've lost a funding nation you can't get them back, ever.

US bases are usually named after famous people or nearby landmarks, so it should be pretty easy to generate US type names just by looking at a map or list of famous people.

I prefer to hear my shows in the original Klingon!

Any loss of health points. You used to be able to spend action points healing a solider with no wounds, so if he was stunned you could revive him. Now, I think, it's no longer possible to spend points with the med kit on a soldier that isn't physically wounded. So, no, I'm no just talking about bleeding. (But, a bleeding soldier by default has to have taken physical damage.)

I think you are right. I believe if the soldier isn't wounded it's no longer possible to spend action points using the med kit on them. It is a bug.

One thing to keep in mind about all this is that the first set of soldiers you get is above average, so you need to keep them alive if possible. The ones you hire later won't be as good on the average.

Thanks. Please post when you have an opinion. I'm interested in buying it, but the comments I've seen so far haven't been too favorable.

Anyone? "Bueller, Bueller"...

Sorry, I guess the save got overwritten. You can see into the landing ship second floor from one or two tiles on the outside left (N) side about 5 - 10 tiles away. I think I was on a military base map.

I played a lot of SimAnt on the Commodore Amiga! That brings back some old memories! Speaking of the Amiga, I vaguely recall that the sound track for UFO Defense was much better on the Amiga. It was much more "creepy" and had real stereo sound.

I might be able to come up with one. Along with a save game for the trapped drone issue. I'll try to remember it tonight.

It should make the missions easier (at least it does for me.) The vehicle can spot aliens two tiles further away than your soldiers, so they should allow you to see the aliens before they see you and that is a big advantage since keeps your own troops from getting ambushed. It also allows you to take full advantage of your snipers.

Your Hunter shouldn't be getting killed too often. I use mine like a scout soldier, it moves and looks around, but I make sure that it is back under cover if there is more than one alien that can shoot at it AND I make sure my soldiers are around to engage and kill anything it spots. You can't move it out into the open and leave it there between turns. The aliens LOVE to fire at vehicles because they know how dangerous they are. I avoid all night missions period (vehicle or not.) Only a terror mission is worth the risk and even then you can usually time it to arrive in the daytime.

I've seen this too and have also hurt aliens on the back side of a closed UFO door. I was shooting at it to blast it open and could hear the aliens making the "wounded" noise. Also, there are still issues with the landing ship allowing you to see the inside of the upper deck including the aliens from the outside if you're in certain spots.

Apparently, someone else had the time to fix it.

I thought soldier equipment could be destroyed by explosions??

I can add to this one. The problem appears to a big explosion when a drone in trapped in a room. In my case it was a medium trapped in the back room of a grocery store. The same drone being shot down by direct fire weapons does not crash the game. I've crashed the game to desktop every time tying to use C4 on outside wall of room that has the drone in it. I'll upload a save game tonight that should show the problem.

I was referring to the problems with windowing. Sorry I was very unspecific.

IIRC much of the problem is due to the game engine that was chosen and can't be fixed. There are other threads about this somewhere.

It needs to be in one of the weapon slots (the soldiers left hand is where I put it.) You can't put in the backpack. To use it effectively the soldier must be crouched and facing the enemy weapon. If you're lucky it will stop 1-2 shots from most alien weapons. The soldier has to carry it the whole time or put it on the ground if he needs both hands free. I don't use shield bearers myself. I think with good planning, proper use of suppression (by MG fire or flash bangs) and shotguns you can take any small ship without them. However, I'm sure there are some that would disagree with my tactics.

You can greatly speed up your map search by using a vehicle. The Hunter is available early in the game and it's a great scout. I'll usually use C4 to blast a path right through the middle of map for my Hunter if there are obstacles that prevent it from moving easily (like the industrial maps.) Also, unless you're doing a terror mission, you can just go straight for the UFO and not trying to kill every alien on the map. If you don't get them all the reduction in score isn't very big. Just make sure that you position troops to cover the sides and rear of your squad as you advance in case a straggler tries to sneak up on you. I usually have the guy at the back turned to the rear at the end of every turn to make sure this doesn't happen.

You can win with two bases. I always set up three bases, so if I lose one it's not the end of the world. As far as recovering from strategic mistakes, well it's possible depending on how big the mistake is. Obviously if you lose your main base you're toast. I'm not sure I understand the OP comments about placing a base in the wrong spot when activity is else where. I've never failed by placing my bases to cover the most land possible. The UFO's seem to spread themselves out well enough that every region will get plenty of action therefore any well located base is not a waste of money. As far as sending a dropship out without an escort, well, that's easy to address, just don't send them anywhere while UFO's are on your radar or into places where you don't have radar coverage. I hardly ever use an escort I just wait until the UFO attack wave is over before I begin any recovery missions. You can just airstrike any sites created in the middle of a wave. Being patient and selective is one of the keys to success in Xenonauts.