X-Com help

[Tuberski]

I got X-Com recently from the place that has the same initials as the most recent Neverwinter Nights expansion .

This game is tough. what am I missing?

It's hard to read the manual and play the game at the same time.

ACK!

[sabrewolf]

do you mean the ancient X-COM games or the newer inofficial successor UFO:Aftermath?

[ZargonX]

Tuberski: the game is tough. Make sure to have a well-armed squad, and practice smart tactical techniques. Try not to leave guys out in the open, and try and reserve time for reaction shots. Also make sure to hire plenty of scientists and keep your facilities built in a timely fashion.

[reds4ever]

...if you have the movement points, kneel before you shoot, try to keep the same soldiers alive so as to get promotion.

To get better funding base 1 should be in the USA, base2 Europe and base 3 SA (Brazil is memory serves me)

Top game innit? ;O)

[reds4ever]

Oh, and don't ignore psonics or you'll get found out at the end!

[Dis]

if you play on easy level, the game is fairly easy

[Dis]

most of my games were middle range difficulty. I have never beaten the hard difficulties that I remember. So this info may not apply there.

Research Heavy Plasma ASAP. by far the best general purpose weapon. And can be found fairly early. Though it requires elrium to build the magazines. But by the time you reserach it, you should be finding enough.

I had a naming system for my soldiers so I knew who was good, and who was average, and who was kind of crappy. I ditched anyone with a low bravery. And later on you will want to pay attention to their psi levels.

Don't forget to research alien craft. They are pretty handy. They can carry more troops and such. Eventually you will need to research the Avenger to beat the game.

Build a base in N. America, and one in Europe or Russia area. Later you may add some bases that are essentually radar stations. Brazil is a good funder I believe.

Basically just do all the missions and don't fail . And your funding will stay at a decent level. At the start you have a lot of money. You will at least need to double your lab space and double your researchers. And eventually do more than that. And once you research something you will want to double your workers (whatever they were called) and their building space.

As for the missions, well using cover is a must. In the beginning rocket launchers can help out a lot (and look cool). They are heavy though, so give them to the strong guys. As I said above, my system was designed to protect guys with good bravery and marksmanship. I was more cautious with these, but you still have to bring them to the front so they can get some kills and advance in rank. The other guys I was more reckless with and used them more as scouts.

[Dis]

such a great game. I want to play now. But my computer can't handle it.

This is in my top 5 games of all time list.

[Skanky Burns]

If one of your soldiers gets mind-captured by the aliens, have him fired immediately after that mission. You don't want to waste time training him up to be a super-soldier only to have the aliens use him against you.

Plasma weapons pwn.
Armour is well worth researching and building.
I forget what weapon is the best for craft, but it is also great for building to fund the rest of your enterprises - it sells for way more than building it costs.

A nifty trick is to build two bases with the same amount of labs and engineering bays (along with living quarters) and close to the end of the month, transfer over all your scientists and engineers. The game only pays people actually in bases, so all those people in transit will be working a month for free. Keep transferrring at the end of the month and you never need to pay them. Of course, this is cheating.

[Dis]

more of an exploit rather than a cheat.

and yes. flying armour rules all . I give the best armour to my best guys and go down from there.

as for aircraft weapons. I can't remember what I used. I remember there was a missile that has a very large range. expensive and requires euryliam though. And I think I used some sort of plasma weapon for the other weapon for my interceptors.

getting those extra large ufo's is tough. I heard you can use multiple interceptors, but I could never figure out how to do that. iirc I think I used to try to get to them when they were on the ground intact (this requires your troop transport to fly around in preparation for their landing so you get there in time). As I knew I couldn't shoot them down. It's a tough mission though because the number of aliens. But the payoff is the amount of equipment you'll salvage (and not losing funding )

[Skanky Burns]

Yeah, get your standard troop transport to intercept a flying super-ufo and once it lands your troops will attack. They don't intercept resupply or base-build missions though iirc. Then again, its been several years.

To get multiple craft to attack the one enemy, just minimise the attack screen when it pops up. Once up to 4 craft are attacking, open all the screens and then set their aggressiveness factor. Charge!!!

I wouldn't suggest taking on the largest ufo size with anything less than 4 avengers with the long-range beam weapon (who's name still escapes me). Expect some damage, even then.

[Dis]

I also loved that weapon that shoots a missle that allows you to use up to 3 waypoints. the coolest weapon in any game

[Skanky Burns]

It was fun landing on an undamaged super-ufo and sending a waypoint bomb into the roof of the thing, then another directly into the command center of the ship to take out the high-ranking psi aliens. Then my elite soldiers in flying armour would storm the new entrypoint on the roof while more soldiers would head to the ground entry and my tanks would roll around the map mopping up. Fun times indeed.

[Urban Ranger]

Heavy plasma isn't as good as plasma rifle for combat purposes, but good for the $$$.

Plasma balls for your crafts aren't as good as plasma gun or whatever its name is. Plasma balls got the range and power, but you only got two shots. You could mount them on the auxillary attackers, ones that will help in bringing down alien battleships, but not on your main ones.

Always respond to terror missions if possible. You don't want countries leaving you, esp. the US.

After a while, you make more money selling items than from contributions

Flying suits and blaster bombs are awesome, just for doing what Skanky said. Blow a hole at the top of an alien battleship, blow away the alien commander (if you have already captured one), then enter from the top and swoop down on the suckers

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Dissident
such a great game. I want to play now. But my computer can't handle it.

This is in my top 5 games of all time list.

there is an X-Com fix for windows avaiable.

ACK!