| Eagle of Fire |
28-02-2005 07:30 PM |
Here is a rundown of most of the tips and trick I posted on this thread since I began to post here. Please take note that since I might have been talking to someone at the time some part may or not be really revellant. You should have enough to read for a while tough.
And yes, I posted something on Christmas day. I have no life and had nothing better to do at that moment. ;).
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Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Sep 26 2004@ 06:09 PM
OK, here are the most common advices that I can give you. I'll try not to give any spoiler, and if I do without realizing it I give permission to the admins to censor me.
First, you need to build your base. That's the first thing you do in this game, and thus you need to do it from the start even before thinking about battles. The thing is, the first base supplied to you is a big free base, and is kind of nice for the eye. However, it would be more than a pain in the ... to defend would the Aliens decide to attack it, because it has hangars from both the bottom and the top of the base and the access lift if in the middle with other adjacent rooms.
In the best of worlds, all your base layout should generally be the same: your hangars at the very top or the very bottom of the base, then the access lift completely alone somewhere on the third line (the one directly above or under your hangars) then you begin to build your base on the fourth line after the access lift. That way, if the base get attacked, you will be able to defend it with ease with only a handfull of squaddies and a lot of grenades since the Aliens always come in the base from the access lift and the hangars. The third "free" line will act as a "chokepoint" preventing Aliens to invade the base too fast. If one or two aliens managed to get out from the access lift before you get there, kill them. You can be sure all the others will be ahead.
Battle and squaddies: obviously, you need to always try to keep your men alive. Moreover, you need to give your squaddies the best chances to overcome their target. The key points on this in tactical battle is visibility, speed and protection.
Visibility: I personnaly always go out with 12 squaddies and then break them down in three squads of four. The purpose of the squads is to always have at least two squaddies at "key" point when they advance in the black area so you have a good chance of seeing the alien before he do (or most of the time, at the same time he do so he don't have time to fire at will on your men) while the other two squad members advance faster (always keep enough time for a snap shot) and then they switch turn. Once an Alien is spotted, turn your four squaddie attention to it but do not forget to "scout" around for other Aliens, be in front, on the flanks or even in the back if that particular squad did not clear out the area behind them.
In night missions, you will have a very hard time trying to spot the Aliens because it's dark, while the Aliens will have a easy time spotting you because they have a way better vision at night. In that case, you need to use flares. I always bring in my Skyranger at least one flare per squaddie, just in case I run into a night mission. When you send your Skyranger, follow it and look at the map when it lands. If the map is at night (dark), then you'll need to equip the flares to your men. Would you forget, it is very important that you make them all take one flare before exiting the Skyranger (all the weapon you don't assign to your men before a mission are stockpilled at the entrance of the Skyranger).
To use a flare efficiently you only need to throw them far enough so the fartest visible spots are light. That way you will be able to spot aliens around the light just like if it was a day mission.
Use the flares liberally. They will save a lot of your men lives. And don't forget they can be reused; pick them back up and throw them away again.
Speed: never ever overload your men! It seems to be a very common newbie mistake. Your men need all the time units they can spare! I personnaly think that any squaddie under 60 TU is in danger because they lack mobility should they fall into an unexpected trap or need to clear out from an area quickly instead of keeping TU for their snap shot reaction time (like when spotting two aliens near him at end of his movement). If you start a mission and you notice one of your squaddie with less than 100% of his TU, then he's overloaded. Remove as much equipment from his inventory as you can spare, and you'll notice that next turn he'll have more TU to spare (if he did not recover them all). I also advise you to only take riffles (and/or handgun if you feel suicidal or want a challenge) in the first few missions until one of your men have enough strenght to take the bigger weapons without losing any or not too much TU. Most of the Aliens are easy to kill with a riffle anyways.
Endurance: research armors ASAP! I won't spoil the tech route to the first armor, but I'll tell you it's very easy to produce them by the end of the second month, should you know what you are doing. Once you have some armor, research the MediKit tech ASAP. The MediKits will allow the men who did not fall in one hit but are grievely wounded to survive the day and become stronger with time. It's always utterly annoying as a Commander (you) to lose men only because he had a fatal wound of 3 and dyied from blood loss after X turns because you had no medical support on the field... Especially if the man in question is your best soldier!* Before having all your men outfitted with armor, the chance of having a squaddie alive after he get hit will be extremely short, but with armor this will happen most of the time. I always equip all of my soldiers with one MediKit at the start of every battle but can part with one if the soldier is not strong enough to carry one and his equipment without TU loss.
I feel this is the biggest lines of the game. If you follow this to the letter you should have an easy time defeating Aliens... But it probably doesn't follow every style of play. I know some people love grenades, other use only Alien technology... I'll leave all those details and the leading of your squaddies to you.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Sep 26 2004+ 07:12 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Eagle of Fire Posted @ Sep 26 2004 @ 07:12 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Yes, I also use Commandos by the end of the game. At the start I feel like casualties can't be brought down to zero and then if I need to select a frech recruit to fill the ranks they can't keep up with the older men. My style of play being mainly based on teamwork, this often lead to even more deaths...* So I keep the squad full at 12.
Another thing is that Psy Aliens are a pain in the late game. It's always a hard blow when you realise your star soldiers are not Psy resistant and turn around on your men at the wrong moment...* Thus the reason I try to get a broad army at the beginning and keep only the PSI resistant men by the end. At the beginning they are still usefull, when they begin to turn on me (and survive) I sack them.
I also do the same; sell any Alien tech (but not alloys and Elerium, for obvious reasons) and keep one for future reseach of each item. My post may be misleading, but I only use the riffles by the very start of the game..! As soon as stronger weapons get out from research, I use them.*
I did know that a lot of people would have different oppinions and strategy than me, so those few points were very general. If you notice, I never got into a very specific point unless it has an obvious tactical advantage.[/b]
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Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Dec 8 2004@ 03:06 AM
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Once you get going the best advice is to never do a night mission. They can see in the dark and you cant. just hover over a crash site til the sun comes up. you might lose the crash site sometimes, but you wont lose your squad.
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Completely wrong. Apart from the flare wich aready been mentioned by Anubis, night missions can be even easier to win than normal mission because altough the Aliens do see better at night than your own men, they are not intelligent enough (in term of AI) to use or counter the use of flares. This mean that you can get even nearer before spotting and shooting at the Aliens. And when this happen, they are 90% of the time caught with their back turned at you.
If that's not an advantage I don't know what it is.
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<!--QuoteBegin-Eagle of Fire Posted @ Dec 24 2004@ 10:26 PM
I'm not sure what you mean about the "floaters", but if you can't win a mission then just pack up and leave. Try to keep your Squaddies alive and take those expensive equipment from the dead ones while retreating to your Skyranger.
Remember that you will lose anything which is not in the skyranger when you depart. This mean all the Aliens guns, the armors, the equipment of your dead Squaddies laying around etc.
You will also lose score equal to the number of civilians since they'll all die. But then you'll lose way less points that way than if you only ingnored the mission altogether. And you'll still have the + points you gathered in the mission thus far (like killing for killing ennemies). If you have enough it may even out.
I'm wondering how you could lose at the 3rd month tough? Having trouble fighting the Aliens?[/quote]
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Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Dec 25 2004@ 12:03 AM
...
Your don't have "experience" in Xcom. Your men gain attributes point by doing anything. I remember that they are very more likely to gain attributes when they actually kill an Alien tough, but I've had Squaddies gain attributes only by firing a million times and always miss... Also, those who are low on strenght and who carry a lot usually get strenght first of all then the other attributes.
I don't remember seeing Squaddies gaining attribute on things they never did. Like my own soldiers usually get TU, Aiming Accuracy and Throwing Accuracy most of everything else. I always try to train strenght when it's too low, but that's hardly necessary since it usually get up all alone after a little while.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Jan 4 2005+ 08:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Eagle of Fire Posted @ Jan 4 2005 @ 08:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Ufo: Ennemy Unknown Aliens AI is not that good, so if you actually managed to get a grenade thrown at you by them... Well, you so extremely obviously packed up that even the AI managed to see that you could be hit by a grenade..!* :blink:
I don't remember having a single casualty due to grenade in all... Around 25 campains... (My own grenades excluded* :whistle: )
I would say that if you have a problem with grenades, you need to rethink your squad strategy... Especially if you were planning to play TFTD after ending UFO! You'll see what a really good grenade AI can do... I still feel the pain of my first TFTD campain 10 years ago...* :ranting:
Also, I really don't understand what the race of the Alien change. Would it be a mutant, a big tank or whatever... You'll get hit if you stay in the way. Yes, I lost at least two or three Squaddie still in the Skyranger in every game too, but then I never lost as much as you guys seems to be talking about. Being creamed? Never happened to me, at least not inside my own ship! I guess equiping the first squaddies with armor help with that...
I also don't recall losing more than half my own team in any given mission, and last time that happened it was in one of my first campains ever and I was retreating back to base... Having bad equipment and be low on ammo usually don't help much on the winning part...* :whistle:
All in all, I would say that you need to expect a very high death ratio in your first two games, then it will settle up for good and you'll wonder how you managed to get the money to get all those new fresh recruits in the first place... Happened to me, happened to about every Xcom veteran, will happen to you too. ;)[/b]
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Quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Jan 15 2005@ 11:05 AM
Well, I seem to remember a weird bug right now. If you entered a mission while one of your fighter was still chasing an UFO, the game would crash.
Answer to this bug was easy: never chase UFO when you are about to enter a mission. Either disengage and go back to base or just fly near them until you finish the mission.
Another idea would be to send the Skyranger next to the mission without selecting it, down the UFO (or get killed) and then enter the mission.
Anyways, I never experimented such a bug because I never entered a battle with crafts still engaged in battle. I usually tend to wait for all UFO's to be downed before sending my team so I go get the biggest fish. I also tend to change my squaddies equipment depending of the type of mission before sending them to fight, especially when I'm currently building a new kind of set of armor for my troops and I want them to be equiped with the latest stuff, so waiting is a must.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire Posted @ Jan 19 2005@ 12:41 PM
Another nifty trick is the ability to rename your squaddies. I always rename mine based on their rank and I add, in brackets, their accuracy rating.
So it would go like this: Rookie (59), 2nd Class (57), Captain (67), etc.
Pretty usefull when you want to know if the selected squaddie stands a chance at hitting his target, depending on range...
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<!--QuoteBegin-Eagle of Fire Posted @ Feb 2 2005@ 07:58 PM
I always equip 4 stun rods to my squad of 12 squaddies (I always attack with 12 squaddies) just in case get the opportunity to stun an alien once in a while. The 4 squaddies equiped with the stun rods are usually the "crack team" who enter and storm the ship first. This way I always have a nice chance to get a live Alien on every mission, and live Aliens are worth more in points if I remember well.
Once you have stun bombs then I advise you to use them since they are extremely effective on physically weak Aliens and they can be lauched safely from a distance.
Smoke can stun Aliens as well as your squaddies, and here's why: neither does your squaddies or the Aliens have breathing equipment, so if you enter a smoke heavy square the unit will be forced to breath the smoke. Just like smoke can disable someone in a building fire and render him/her uncouncious, a white line will begin to appear and grow higher and higher on the HP bar of the unit each turn. If the white bar manage for a reason or another to go beyong the current HP of the unit then he/she/it will become disabled (or stunned) until the white bar get lower than the HP again.
This is why sometimes you can see your squaddies get stunned by a very weak hit and stand up again one or two turns later if the white bar is near the max HP of the squaddies.
Stunning Aliens works exactly the same with stun rods and stun bombs. When hit, the weapon will bring the white bar up by a certain amount and the unit will be stunned when the white bar go higher than the current HP of said unit. This is also why wounded units are way easier to stun this way.[/quote] |
