X-Com help

[Skanky Burns]

Heavy plasma is great once your soldiers are one-shot one kill machines who can hit an enemy from the other side of the map... but before then the standard plasma rifle is much better. Three shots for the price of one.

[Urban Ranger]

Don't forget to reserve actions for opportunity fire. Esp for night terror missions.

/me still feels chills running down his spine.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Heavy plasma is great once your soldiers are one-shot one kill machines who can hit an enemy from the other side of the map

I've never had a soldier live longer than maybe 3 or 4 missions in UFO and TFTD.


In Apoc, I had one soldier who lasted through the entire game... was pretty cool. I like apoc for that reason, the soldiers are a bti more 'personal'.

[sabrewolf]

as soon as you had flying armour, you imho were untouchable.
cryssalys (sp?), the zombie-like creatures were the hardest because of their speed and 1-touch-convert, but after flying suits they could hardly capture you.


i really enjoyed the economic system. pity it doesn't exist in the newest game: UFO:AM

[Skanky Burns]

I confess to saving and loading often during missions. At least, I did back when I first started playing the game. I also duplicated items for fun and profit.

[DaveV]

Not yet mentioned: blaster bomb + mind control. Some of the aliens are relatively easy to mind control, and I think all of them have better sight range than humans. Mind controlling an alien can allow you to see other aliens, who can be mind controlled in turn. I remember winning the final encounter really easily by mind-controlling a couple of the mech aliens and launching a blaster bomb through the maze.

And nothing is more important than high psi strength. At high levels, you really should fire your soldiers who are weak in psi. One mind-controlled soldier can cost you several others; two mind-controlled guys on your team will probably cost you a mission.

[Skanky Burns]

I fire any soldier who manages to get mind-controlled. In the mission they get controlled I also have them "guard the skyranger".

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Dissident

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 still recall having people called "John Smith G/S 60 60 10 15" or the like. G(renadier)/S(niper) meant he was a good sharpshooter and thrower, the first number would be his stamina, the second his action points, the rest his psionics numbers once I found them out. Made things a lot easier. People who weren't particularly good at anything or had a lot of stamina and AP would be R(econ), very strong characters were H(eavy equipment), people with lots of Psi were P, the list goes on.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I've never had a soldier live longer than maybe 3 or 4 missions in UFO and TFTD.

Really? I usually only lose people when starting a new game.

[Kassiopeia]

To reminisce more on naming, a friend of mine and I played "hotseat" by naming the two highest-ranking guys after ourselves and splitting up the team between them. The other would direct "his" team, say lead an assault, the other provide backup, that sort of thing. Co-operative mode is really underrated in games these days, always has been.

And when one of "us" would die, oh, it was tragic, partly because it was one of us, partly because the high-ranking ones are always the best men.

[Urban Ranger]

That sounds like fun.

[Father Beast]

Don't feel bad if you don't win right off, even on easy. This game requires some serious tactical thinking.

I never played on anything BUT easy and haven't finished a game yet. I usually get a few of my guys promoted, and then cockily go in on a night terror mission and get them all killed. Or have one private run back to the transport and make it out alive.

At that point I usually start over in depression.

One guy suggested sending in a second transport full of recruits for the purpose of dying while revealing your enemies, but I never got the hang of it.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Heavy plasma is great once your soldiers are one-shot one kill machines who can hit an enemy from the other side of the map... but before then the standard plasma rifle is much better. Three shots for the price of one.

most of my good guys have good accuracy (or whatever the trait was called). Even new guys (I ditch guys who can't shoot straight). I've always used heavy plasma. In a few cases maybe 2 guys would have plasma rifles, but everyone else would have heavy plasma.

[Dis]

2 transports seems wasteful.

caution is the key. The only bad thing about being overly cautious is during terror missions (you'll lose more civilians this way). But if you are doing a terror mission with those aliens that touch and convert you- I usually go slow and screw the civilians. Those missions are too dangerous to go blazing in.

And this is a game I never reload in. The missions take too long to do again. The only time i might reload is if I manage to lose a base in an attack on my base.

It has already been mentioned, but I'll say it again. Save movement points for opportunity fire (I usually save enough for a snap shot). Utilize corners heavily. Kneel down before shooting (I often kneel down at the end of my turn as well for that snap shot opportunity fire). And sometimes I crawl.

When entering ships don't just send a guy in solo. Always have backup. What I'd do is end my turn with at least 1 guy on each side of the doorway , and maybe 1 guy in front of the door. Usually the newbie who isn't a high rank goes in first. I assess the situation. And usually I'll have him take a shot and then get out of the way. Then comes my experienced guys to mop up. Don't bring 1 guy because you can't kill all the aliens with just 1 guy. sometimes even 3 is not enough.

So in many cases on the small ships that have the command center in the back (the entrance is to the front). I'll have guys on the left and right doors leading to the command center. Because sometimes there might be 3 aliens in there, and you need to bring in 4 or 5 guys to get them all. I coordinate all of this on the same turn. Also bringing in 5 or 6 guys when you get the alien stun gun device is recommended. If you fail to stun and capture the alien, then just kill them before your turn is up. You'll have other opportunities. Because eventually you need to caputure an alien commander.

[Dis]

stairs. another dangerous area. once you get flying suits often you can enter the tops of barns. but in the early game, stairs are difficult because of the movement points needed to get up the stairs (esp if moving while crouched- which I often do). You'll want to send your less experienced guys up first with your good shooter behind him to get any aliens up there. But I still lose a lot of guys when trying to get those pesky aliens on the second floor or rooves of buildings.