How do you crash land enemy ships?

[Alex2213]

I'm new to this sort of genre, every time I see a enemy UFO I click the option to follow it till its over land and then attack it. Then when I get into battle with it, I always destroy it.

What am I doing wrong?

[thothkins]

Sounds as though you are getting a lot of fighters. Try the same tactic for Light Scouts and Scouts and you should get to a crash site.

[Gorlom]

You are most likely dealing too much damage. If the enemy UFO takes 100-119% of its total hitpoints in damage it will crash. If it takes 120+% (20% overkill) the UFO will be obliderated/destroyed.

If you are sending 3 F-16s you might want to try sending less or controlling their missiles more closely.

PS. UFOs called "fighter" will never EVER leave a crashsite. It's an escort UFO rather then something that carries aliens.

[ls35a]

If I send 1 fighter it's destroyed. If I send 2, the ufo is destroyed.

This went on for a few months and I kind of gave up.

PS: Just did the kickstarter thing. Amazing the success, over $60k now.

[Gorlom]

Have you tried disableing the automatic fireing of missiles? If you fire them manually you can control how much damage you are dealing.

Are you useing the roll command to dodge the incomming alien missiles?

(have you made sure its not a "fighter" UFO you are encountering?)

[oracle1990]

I have the same problem. After the first 3-4 crashed alien ship's, I get approx 1 crachsite per 25 air combat. 1 fighter, 2 fighters or 3 fighters - it is the same. 0 fighters give the same result, but I guess the fundings will drop then...

Suggest you read this tread too: Pilots taking up space.

[GoodGuyEddy]

@ls35a @Alex2213 Are you using migs/avalanche torpedoes? The avalanche will obliderate EVERYTHING smaller than a corvette in one shot if it hits, so don't use those on scouts. If you zoom in you can see stats next to planes/enemy ufos , it also includes its damage threshold so try sending only 2 missiles at a time to determine how much damage they do and try not to go above 120% of their threshold. For example if an enemy craft(let's say scout) takes 35% from a sidewinder , then 4 sidewinders will destroy it while 3 sidewinders will crash it assuming you are over land. Aircraft guns(auto cannons) will not overkill the target so they're always a safe bet if you want to finish the last (10% or so) health of a ufo.

Like gorlom said fighters never spawn crash sites, so if you see a ufo named "fighter" don't expect a crash site from it.

But if you do like i advised, but still don't get the crash(over land+not a fighter+not over killed beyond 120%) then report it to the bug forum.

Edited May 12, 2012 by GoodGuyEddy

[Stromko]

Against the fighters it is advisable to use evasive rolls skillfully. Also, click on one of your missiles so the icon turns red, and then a second or two after the other one launches automatically, click your remaining missile again to fire it. The fighter UFO will roll away from the first one, and get nailed by the second.

If you only sent one fighter, you'll still have to dogfight a bit. Just get on its tail and try to shoot it as much as you can without it doing the same to you. I find that manual control and properly executed rolls can really up your chances here, but it's tricky. Try to intercept the fighters when you still have a decent amount of fuel, as one way or another a low-fuel fighter is a dead fighter in a dogfight.

Remember you can completely pause air combat with the space bar so you can plot out your moves. I find it's way too tricky to manually navigate in real-time. The tooltip for the roll maneuver actually tells you that it's wise to pause so you can pick your timing perfectly.

Even though the Very Small (Fighter) UFOs never give you crash sites, they can be helpful to intercept as knocking them down will make the allied nation happier. If left alone, they can cause a lot of casualties and reduce your funding. So a lot of money is on the line, but if you can't kill them without losing a fighter then it won't be worth it.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Stromko

[Photec]

I either send two fighters and use one as a decoy, while the other uses a single missile and then just cannons, or I send 1 fighter, activate evasive maneouvers after entering enemy killzone and fire 1 or 2 missiles, depending on if the first one hits.

When I meet new ships I always try to find out how much dmg they can take. I start with overkill and then use less and less weapons on each subsequent encounter till I get a crash.