A few questions

[CheftonUTD]

I've been reading through the forums and manual and have a few unanswered questions I'd like to know more about.

Global Relations -

I've noticed that I can have bad/poor relations and still get more funding from regions, and some regions with good relations reduce my funding, how do these tie together and are there effective ways to keep areas happy aside from shooting down UFOs and doing missions?

Does shooting down UFOs over water get credit from the nearest nation?

Base Building -

I've heard the more bases I build the tougher the enemy gets. Should I just build one base at a time to be highly effective, or multiple smaller bases in an attempt to cover more regions?

Air-Cover -

Planes seem to be using up most of my budget. How do people go about getting a decent airforce at a good value?

I usually seem to buy 3 Condors and 3 Foxtrots per base and still end up having difficulty up against enemies such as a Corvette with Fighter escorts.

Vehicles -

So far I have only unlocked the Hunter. I don't use it much as I want my troops to be getting experience, should I still keep a few on standby incase, or at least have the garage for future vehicles?

I think that's all for now, all help or links to relevant info would be appreciated

[Dranak]

Good/bad/poor relations just reflect the overall standings, which is related to but separate from your funding change. It's possible to have a bad month (which results in negative funding change) in an area where you already have good standings but not enough of a drop to have your relations hit the threshold for being considered bad/poor/etc. The inverse applies with having a funding increase in a region with poor relations. As far as I'm aware, the only way to increase relations is to shoot down UFOs (which provides a small boost) and running missions (which provides a larger boost). I believe it is intended for shooting down UFOs over water to provide a boost for the nearest funding block, however I'm not sure if that's implemented at this time.

Currently the enemy advances at the same rate regardless of your actions, so it's generally useful to establish a second base to get more radar/interceptor coverage. As for plane choice, I'm having great success so far (Dec on this playthrough) with pure Condors, but they're fragile and if you don't know what you're doing they'll get shot down easily. Foxtrots are also viable for a safer way to deliver damage to non-rolling UFOs.

I'm currently liking Hunters in the early game, because of their vision range mostly. Their headlights are also very useful for night combat.

[crusherven]

Air cover: if you're struggling with that many planes, you might take a look at your tactics for these encounters. To take down a Corvette with escorts, I send two waves--first has condors that take out the fighters, then bug out. The second wave has foxtrots with torpedos to take out the corvette (if necessary, take two trips). If you're frequently taking a lot of aircraft damage, you're probably doing something wrong.

I like using hunters as scouts. It's much safer sending them ahead than your troops, especially once you are up against enemies with rifles. Dead troops gain 0 exp.