The first time I played, I always kept a mixed fleet. I never used lightning, for some reason.

rlbell, what was the editor you used? Can you give me a link?

Avalanche vs Plasma-Beam

I think it is fair to say that plasma beam is far superior, mainly due to higher damage and unlimited ammo, the advantages of avalanches are that it has a longer range and is easier to aquire. For attacking UFO to UFO, an interceptor can ground those armadas that you sometimes get with a pair of plasma cannons, with avalanches they run out, the main problem is not in reloading, but being forced to refuel fully before you can launch another interception mission with the same craft.

Interceptor vs Firestorm

The main advantages of a firestorm are the faster speed and the much higher damage capacity. Interceptor advantage is that it has longer range and does not use elerium. A firestorm is very useful for catching UFO's as it is much faster then an interceptor, UFO's rarely outrun a firestorm, also as firestorms are faster they are useful for taking down multiple UFO's. Interceptors do have a longer range, but the slower speed means that it can be chasing after a UFO fruitlessly as it outruns you.

In money terms, if you are rich you can afford interceptors, interceptors have a rental fee of 600k per month(unlimited fuel included in price), so you better have a pretty big budget, firestorms on the other hand are free monthly but require elerium for fuel. If you are running out of money, on one hand you can use the interceptor and save on elerium, on the other hand you can use the firestorm and save on a 600k bill. Elerium is not hard to come by if you leave an alien base for raiding, scour through an alien base and you can find a power source, blow it up and you should be able to pick up elerium (looks like yellow crystal), it has to be an active power source, this gives you 50 elerium per pod you pick up which you can then run away with. Alternativly you can shoot down the many supply ships and get the elerium from the engines.

It turns out that for substantive reasons, laiocfar and I are both wrong. I am wrong because one point of elerium is really worth five points of fuel. So when I thought that you should budget ten elerium for each flight, it is really only two. Laiocfar has got it wrong about the range. An interceptor based in New York can try to attack a UFO buzzing around Moscow. I have even done this when I have bases in Europe and North America, and I need to down a large ship. The nearer interceptor softens up the UFO for the one that must cross the ocean. As I had a base on the line between Montreal and Vancouver, I had a firestorm fly from the base to Montreal, then to Vancouver, and back to base. The whole trip required half of the fuel load, or two points of elerium. Firestorms do not have to cross a continent three times to catch up to a UFO, which is just as well, as it has nowhere near the fuel load.

In terms of the money paid to support the engineers, and materials that could be sold, each firestorm costs about $1,700,000, so it takes three months to pay for itself. If selling stuff that your engineers produce covers a significant amount of your maintenance, it costs even more.

I use the ClarkWeyrh (sp?) Enterprise' s editor. If you stick 'xcom editor' into google, it shows up on the first page. It only edits the saved game files, but it will edit both Enemy Unknown and TFTD saved game files. You can edit the contents of your base stores, what kind of aliens are in containment, what facilities are at each base, how much money you have and how much money each country gave last month (which will be the base for next month). I believe that it also edits soldiers' statistics, including gender and appearance. I only use it to give myself a lump sum to ensure that I do not have to save humanity on a shoestring budget, but it is very powerful.

Interseptor doesn't use elreium!

Even against battleships i'd rather take the plasma beam on my interceptors. Why? Because it has accuracy 140% and avalanche has only 100% - avalanche will fire sooner, but will miss much more and needs more time to reload.

Personally, I prefer an air force mainly of interceptors, with 2 firestorms, 1 lightning, 1 skyranger and 3 avengers (spread out over 8 bases). The Interceptors can handle anything except battleships and don't use elerium. The Firestorms are primarily active when I'm researching Avengers, while the Lightning is a secondary "mission craft" and battleship-interceptor. The Avenger is by far the best ship (fastest, lots of fuel, very tough, transports up to 26 soldiers) and that's why I build 3 of them.

If u got the Avengers why u sacrifice people in battles over the Earth and don´t go to Cydonia.....

I wsih there would be more than one cydonia mission!

hrm...

I build 6 bases and on average I have 1 human craft and 1 alien craft per base.

4 Interceptors
2 Skyrangers
3 Firestorms
2 Lightnings
1-2 Avengers

I use my Interceptors for +80% of my fighting. The only time I send alien craft is when speed is needed. Like getting to a landed supply ship or shooting down a terror ship. I might also ram a Firestorm or two into an infiltration battleship. The Skyrangers are used to land at things that don't move, like downed ships and bases, while the Lightning is my rapid deployment elite ship. And of course the Cydonia mission needs an Avenger

Very wise, i do as u.
Anyway, i don´t use the lighting and for me the avenger its at the end of the research tree. So avenger -> Cydonia -> Lose or win.

Hey all. Great thread, great game.

I didn't read through the whole thread so I'm not sure if this tip has been mentioned allready:

Save just before the end of the month, get your budget changes then load back and do this untill you get your maximum funding. It really is quite amazing how random funding can be.