Ishantil Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Hi, everybody! Been a while! I've been lurking around the forums for a bit. I see that the game is pretty solid now and a lot of the bugs and craziness that I remember are gone. I'm having a lot of fun with the ground combat. But the strategic game has changed a whole lot since I last played. So...I'm into the month of December, and I'm watching my funding just disappear. I have three bases each with a radar array and some fighters. But I can't cover the entire globe. But the aliens can destroy stuff in the middle of the water the obliterates my funding. As water covers 70% of the water, is it really fair that I can loose $300,000 in funding from a single wave of aliens shooting up boats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? I went from basically slowly hemorrhaging money to needing to abandon the game in the space of a few days. My funding is disappearing so fast it's not even salavagabe. So it looks like funding sources disappear at a staggering pace, but only increase at a glacial pace. Shoot up a few boats and lose $300,000. Shoot down three medium UFOs and I'm up $3000. As the game stands, I'm not sure what to do. I'm guessing that better radar is coverage, but at $250K a pop and $50K each in maintenance, that's a massive amount of cash. I feel like I'm really being railroaded into playing a very specific way. What do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViewThePhenom Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 You can plan for losing specific regions. That way, you don't have to worry about covering every funding bloc. You could ditch those regions surrounded by a lot of water in favor of covering the land-masses. Air coverage is important, but you don't have to dump all of your cash into it immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishantil Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 I've got so much negative funding, my game is now actually over. So there's no point in continuing. I'm at -700,000, and I have less than that in the bank. I must be doing something very wrong, because I can't see a way this would ever be any different. Perhaps I should only make small satellite bases? Hrmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViewThePhenom Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Well, I've never been in a situation where I rack up -700k funding due to events over the oceans, that may just be bad luck for you. What I normally do is expand coverage in regions that have been hit hard in the previous month, then slowly build back relations from there. Also, you may want to consider making bases for coverage initially (slowly building hangars plus radars) to reduce the impact of UFO activity and build on top of that. It's expensive to cover the entire world, so you may want to factor in ditching regions eventually (first month, I decide on whether I'm going to ditch Australia or South America depending on current UFO activity and relations damage, for example). There's also the consideration of which UFOs to attack when you don't have enough air-craft to cover every one in a wave, including letting a UFO land and going into GC to take care of them if possible. Also worth considering are terror missions, which can spawn over regions without decent coverage and give you a huge relations boost if successfully completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybrbeast Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Are you really losing all your funding due to nations reducing it, or is it maintenance? Maintenance of buildings, airplanes, troops, scientists, engineers is a huge drain. So if you have too much of those too quickly you will lose money even if the funding situation is not that terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishantil Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 Good advice. I think I'll expand more early, but build less. Do you guys typical build more than one radar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViewThePhenom Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Good advice. I think I'll expand more early, but build less. Do you guys typical build more than one radar? Yeah, you'll want a max of three per base eventually. You can build them up slowly, although I normally go for three on my first base immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonidasRex Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 This sort of funding problem has killed both my games. If I were to start another, I would find someone's guide on exactly what to build and when. The ground game requires so much time investment that it's awful to start over because you bought or didn't buy the right thing weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViniJones Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Hi, Ish! The game sure pushes you to build bases, radars and interceptors early. I didnt find a way to avoid it so this is what I do on I/I. September Day 1, 3 radars in main+build a 2nd Day 11, 1 radar+2 hangars in 2nd Day 16, send 2 foxes to 2nd October Day 1, add 2 radars in 2nd+build 3rd I only go with 3 bases and dont lose a single country, the trick is popping up as many as 2-3 foxes per base. This allows you to dominate the skies so hard the XENO SCUM might aswell give up then. The funding goes -50k in Sep but +200k or more in Oct and so on, depends on if you LET them start terror missions and wether you can handle them. I completely ditch the ground combat the first 2 months... after the foxtrot I research stun weapons and win missions by "flashbang supress, then beat with rods". Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyro3 Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 What difficulty do you play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViniJones Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 What difficulty do you play? I/I, Insane without loading, until something harder comes along. The UFO events on insane decrease the funding 25% more than veteran. With such small a difference, I dont see why this shouldnt work on easier settings aswell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranak Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 September Day 1, 3 radars in main+build a 2nd Day 11, 1 radar+2 hangars in 2nd Day 16, send 2 foxes to 2nd Am I missing something? Two radars on day 1, plus a second base is $1M. A radar and two hangars is $300k. Two foxes is $400k. That build requires $1.7M in the first 16 days and you only start with $1.5M. Wouldn't you need to cut the 3rd radar from your initial base to actually afford it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelSoldier Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Unless I am wrong, a new base actually costs $500K and not 1 million $ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranak Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Unless I am wrong, a new base actually costs $500K and not 1 million $ It does, but the two radars cost $250k each, for a total of $1M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishantil Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 Playing normal. I have no problem at all with the ground game. I'm rather good at X-COM style games. The problem is that I feel like I'm being railroaded into playing a certain way in the strategic game (which I dislike). The funding situation seems be based on a certain model, rather than the "figure out how you want to solve the problem" approach. Without knowing what to research in what order, you can easily crash your economy. And not knowing when to expand and how fast means starting over. Or at least, that's how it seems to me so far. That said, dominating the skies seems to be key to maintaining your funding. Shooting down a UFO means it can't strafe 47 boats and lose you (literally) $300K in 15 seconds of game time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catmorbid Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Yeah, I don't like the vanilla funding model either, as it's too restricting. That's among the reasons I'm modding the game anyway What I like to do is start with ~4 million then I mod the relation modifiers so they're 50% more than what they originally are. This way, you'll on average get 50% more funding, and that + starting funds actually give you room to play, without making it too much of a cakewalk. These are also very easy to mod in, just edit gameconfig.xml, you'll find the proper entries soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiel Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Is it possible to take back the lost region? I just lose South Africa for some odd reason (mabe base or something). Started a base there just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinHann Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Is it possible to take back the lost region? I just lose South Africa for some odd reason (mabe base or something). Started a base there just in case. Nope, mate. CE allows you to save the continent if your projected funding loss will drive it to 0 at the end of the current month but once the bad thing has happened there is no coming back. You can notice if there is a base present if you track the funding of the region closely. It will drain funding gradually, 1k steps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViniJones Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 (edited) Am I missing something? Two radars on day 1, plus a second base is $1M. A radar and two hangars is $300k. Two foxes is $400k. That build requires $1.7M in the first 16 days and you only start with $1.5M. Wouldn't you need to cut the 3rd radar from your initial base to actually afford it? Im either cutting the 3rd radar or cant count, youre right of course. When I savescummed the geosphere I was able to get the dough from crashsites, but that took a "lot" of not-so-fun effort. When I said I ditch the gc, I meant I dont build jackals or rush to lasers, but i still do all the missions. I just go with the resources that are unlimited and free. I like the airstrikes, but much much later. Edited July 6, 2014 by ViniJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bansheedragon Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 I have seen quite a few posts lately from people having trouble with funding, which is something that has me rather puzzled. I'm currently running a game on Normal, and I got 3 bases. Base 1(Main Base): 3 radars, 2 corsairs, 2 Foxtrots, Valkyrie, 20+ ground troops + 3 vehicles(hunter, tank, hover tank), 4 workshops with 60 engineers. Base 2: 3 radars, 2 corsairs, 2 foxtrots, 2 labs with 30 Scientists, 4x base defense turrets Base 3: 3 radars, 2 corsairs, 2 foxtrots, 4x base defense turrets. I plan to replace all current fighters with Marauders at some point. With this setup I'm getting over $2 million each month from all funding nations after expenses and I'm currently sitting on almost $15 million total, and I'm able to shoot down almost every single UFO that comes into range. I'm in late game (carriers and battleships) and have yet to lose a single funding nation, most of them are actually increasing funding, with one or two reducing a little bit once in a while, but always increasing again later. Most of the time I just run airstrikes on downed UFOs, and only occasionally do I run ground missions. I must be doing something right to be doing this good, but I really have no idea what it might be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViniJones Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 9 radars is good coverage 2/2 interceptors in each base is good, maybe too much even. I dont see how you could not do well with this setup. Though 45 scientists might not be enough at a higher pace.(I assume you didnt demo the 1st lab, that you dont mention) I think its the "game on normal" that makes it seem somethings too right. Amp it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bansheedragon Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 (edited) To answer your assumption about my 1st lab, you assume wrong. Before I moved my research to the second base, I had 2 labs and 2 workshops in my main base. It was when I found that the time it took to produce equipment for my soldiers took too long(40+ days for 10 items) with only 30 engineers. So I demolished the 2 labs in my main base, replaced them with 2 workshops, and build 2 labs in the secondary base. Since you cant transfer scientists/engineers, I fired the scientists in my main base and hired new ones in the second. Edited July 6, 2014 by Bansheedragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViniJones Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Ouch, its for this very reason I put my labs in the first and workshops in the second. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonidasRex Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 I must be doing something right to be doing this good, but I really have no idea what it might be. Yes, and that's precisely the weakness of the game's money system. You don't know why you're rolling in money. I don't know why I'm going broke. And none of it relates to the far more interesting ground game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViniJones Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 He is rolling in money because hes playing on normal, when his geosphere status is sound for insane. If you release some information about your situation, we might be able to figure out, why youre going broke. All of this relates to ground combat so much it hurts. Its true that your mission performance doesnt affect the funding, other than that, I dont see your point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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