So I started playing X-Com...

T

Toaster

Veteran XV
...on advice from Kurayami.

And I suck. Badly.

I can get started decently, but then I always either go a full month without seeing a UFO and everyone starts hating me, or I run into a terror site that totally owns me every time I try it. I read Ben Reed's miniguide, but it's only partly done.

When do I start a second base, and what do I put there? What order should I research things? Should I try for laser weapons before I get plasma, because plasma seems to take forever to research. When should I get better aircraft?

This game is fun, but I suck.
 
Welcome to about 8 years ago..

Heh.

You need a second base, and I'd put it in roughly the opposite side of the world.

Also, go for radar (or whatever it's called, been a long time since I played)

Whichever station you build that helps detect UFOs.. build a better one (or another one).
 
Obibun said:
Welcome to about 8 years ago..
Click to expand...

About 12 actually.

Rule #1 for UFO (fuck TFTD et al): Save early and often.

Otherwise, per your questions, avoid laser entirely and research your way to plasma. Rocket Launcher and other heavy weapons are good for a while until you get the plas rifles rolling.
 
wtfs, when learning save every 5 minutes (rofl, wrote this before seeing rilke's reply)

my 2nd base was always in europe, lots of money there

japan china too i think

first build storage and living quarters if you wanna jack your scientists/engineers out of money

i normally go with skyranger befre interceptors. responding to terror sites was more important to me than shotting shit down. my ints couldn't shoot down the bigger ships anyways.

**the only thing i'd add is research laser after your immediate needs are met. i believe the craft laser is the biggest moneymaker as far as eng/hrs vs profit go.
 
Send out fighters to patrol. I'm pretty sure they can detect stuff too. For money, research cheaply manafacturable stuff, build heaps then sell them. After I started up loads of factories producing the first armor I didn't have to worry about money ever again.
 
Alrighty. I've tried my first base in the middle of the USA and the middle of Europe. Europe is nice for the coverage of north Africa, but I might go back to USA next time I restart.

How vital is researching the armor track? It seems to me that personal armor doesn't do much.

Annoying said:
my x-com doesn't work anymore for some reason

I cant really fix it :\
Click to expand...

Are you running XP? There's a patch that fixes garbled graphics, and I had to cut down to 95 compatiblity mode to stop it crashing every time I finished a mission. Now it just crashes occasionally.
 
The first one isn't really much use, but it can make you a lot of money. Power armor with jetpacks turns your guys into killing machines.
 
I usually research the laser rifle as fast as possible, then I switch to other stuff [plasma].. I use weapons pretty unilaterally ; everyone has the same weapon, and some people have medikits.

as for the aircrafts, I usually keep the starting interceptors and skyranger until I can manufacture the biggest one, and have enough fuel to stop worrying about it..

For the not detecting ufos for one month problem, make sure you build the larger radar array as soon as you can.
 
Ok, heres how you get started. First, Place your base where it gets you the most money. Prolly the USA, maybe in Europe (havent played in years, dont remember if the various nations of europe total up more money than the US or not).

Next, build some (a) radar station bases with an eye towards expansion into housing local interceptors. Essentially, an elevator and a radar unit. Later, when you've got the cash, build more, and start fitting em with hangars, interceptors, and Avalanch missiles/launchers. Dont bother making them all fully independant bases like your starter - not viable. Pro-tip; in the early game, before they are researched (and thus equipable by your troops) sell off your excess alien corpses and weapons (NOT THE AMMO!). You only need one of each to research, and they pile up fast. You can fund the periphery intercept bases with this.

Research wise, Get The Fucking Laser Rifle. It has 110% accuracy, no ammo requirements, and it doesnt take alien alloys or Elerium to make and supply. This is important, because the game is a cunt about ammo. Fired one shot from that clip in the plasma rifle? That clip is counted as totally expended when the mission ends. So ammo expenditure is really fucking high, and lasers dont have to deal with it. I suggest you equip the majority of your people with laser rifles, and have a few guys using the heavy plasmas to back them up (later on, plan on having one guy with a Master Launcher standing by to back them up).

Note, no matter how awesome you are, funding levels will drop. Count on it. So, when you think possible, you need to start making and selling alien technology to fund yourself because there is no way you can blanket the earth in intercept before bitch nations start signing on with aliens. You will need at least an entirely seperate and dedicated base cranking out salable items. Note, some items are more profitable to make then others, and some are net-losers. I have the Prima guide somewhere, I think it has a chart on what makes good cash.

Note, DO NOT ignore ships in favor of terror missions. Shoot them down, and go after them all with the troops - you need this pissy missions to blood your troops and get them worked up. Raw recruits on a terror mission is a disaster, doubly so if there are Chrysallids.
 
Last edited:
i seemed to have hit edit instead of reply :\

5.4 WHAT DO I MANUFACTURE TO MAKE MORE MONEY?

X-COM Profitability study -- by Jeff Shaffer [edited]

Recently, we at the XCOM Business Institute (our motto: "If it's
worth doing, it's worth analyzing to death") spent all last night
to bring you the following table. The basic assumption is that
you are willing to support engineers long-term in order to make a
profit. I calculated results for a hypothetical 2 workshop
operation. You would get slightly better results with larger
facilities, due to the economy of scale.

[some numbers are rounded to the nearest 1000 for space]

Work Eng Raw Sale Unit|Monthly|Net
Item Space Hrs Material Cost Price P R O F I T
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Motion Scanner 4 220 - 34K 45K 11K 3765K 1275K
Medikit 4 420 - 28K 46K 18K 3146K 656K
Psi Amp 4 500 1E 160K 194K 29K 4242K 1752K
Personal Armor 12 800 4A 22K 54K 6K 491K -
Power Suit 16 1000 5E+5A 42K 85K - - -
Flying Suit 16 1400 16E+5A 58K 115K - - -
Alien Alloys 10 100 - 3K 6K 3K 2343K 3K
Elerium 115 - - - - 5K - - -
Laser Pistol 2 300 - 8K 20K 12K 2916K 376K
Laser Rifle 3 400 - 2K0 36K 16K 3049K 534K
Heavy Laser 4 700 - 32K 61K 29K 2958K 468K
Plasma Pistol 3 600 1A 56K 84K 21K 2586K 71K
Plasma Pistol Clip 4 60 1E 2K 4K - - -
Plasma Rifle 4 820 1A 88K 126K 32K 2787K 297K
Plasma Rifle Clip 4 80 2E 3K 6K - - -
Heavy Plasma 4 1000 1A 122K 171K 43K 3078K 588K
Heavy Plasma Clip 4 80 3E 6K 9K - - -
Blaster Launcher 5 1200 1A 9K0 144K 47K 2797K 332K
Blaster Bomb 3 220 3E 8K 17K - - -
Small Launcher 3 900 1A 78K 120K 35K 2846K 331K
Stun Bomb 2 200 1E 7K 15K 3K 1166K -
Alien Grenade 2 200 2E 6K 14K - - -
Mind Probe 4 1200 1E 262K 304K 37K 2202K -
UFO Power Source 22 1400 16E+5A 130K 250K 7K 310K -
UFO Navigation 18 1600 3A 150K 80K - - -
Fusion Ball L'cher 6 400 1A 242K 281K 39K 6836K 4396K
Fusion Ball 6 600 4E 28K 53K 5K 617K -
Laser Cannon 6 300 - 182K 211K 29K 6760K 4320K
Plasma Beam 8 500 15E 226K 267K - - -
Tank/Laser Cannon 25 1200 - 500K 594K 94K 4371K 2406K
Hovertank/Plasma 30 1200 30E+5A 850K 980K - - -
Hovertank/Launcher30 1400 25E+8A 900K 1043K - - -
HWP Fusion Bomb 25 400 5E+8A 15K 31K - - -


First six columns are just basic information from my version of
XCOM. (Editor-- I have seen posts stating that UFO:EU has higher
sale prices for some items, notably armor! However, this has NOT
been confirmed!)

The 'Unit Profit' column is sale price minus cost, minus the cost
of any E-115/Alloy used in manufacture. A '-' means a net loss,
no further analysis.

'Monthly Profit' column is based on "XCOM Month" of 24*31 = 744
hours. The calculation is number of engineers that fit in two
workshops times 744 times unit profit, divided by the hours
required to make one item. For example, the monthly profit for
Motion Scanners is 96*744*11600/220 = 1275993 (1275K).

The 'Net Profit' column is the bottom line. Monthly expenses are
the salaries of as many engineers as fit in the workshops times
$50K, plus the maintenance on 2 workshops and 2 living quarters.

As you can see, Fusion Ball Launchers are the winner, narrowly
edging out Laser Cannons. A profit can be made early in the game
on motion scanners, however. However, fusion ball launchers
require alien alloy, while laser cannons do NOT.

One final note: It costs roughly $7M to hire engineers and build
the facilities, so you'll need to 'borrow' some money (preferably
from alien supply ships :) to get started.

[Editor's note: don't forget the "transfer salary trick" below]
Click to expand...

http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/x_com_ufo_defense.txt

Pretty much everything you will ever want to know about the game. I wouldn't have read it before I learned most of the stuff myself, takes a bit of the fun out of it.


YOU WILL RUN OUT OF ELERIUM

When the opportunities begine to arrise I like mounting craft lasers on firestorms to take down ufos instead of destroying them (yes i know this uses a bit more elerium) but elerium is almost always what i am lowest on. everything fucking takes it. craft fuel, weapons, especially advanced HWP manufacturing. Always hold onto elerium and blaster bombs never sell any of those no matter how many you have.

I normally hit up my newblood replacements with laser rifles since i know they will at least hit a target. if they survive then they get some expensive armor and weapons upgrades :]
 
Last edited:
Fuck lasers. Bypass lasers and go straight for plas. Your Rifles and heavy weapons will get you by until plasma. :p

Also pope is correct, flying suit is necessary eventually. And Blaster Bombs too of course. But that's later.
 
Toaster said:
Alrighty. I've tried my first base in the middle of the USA and the middle of Europe. Europe is nice for the coverage of north Africa, but I might go back to USA next time I restart.

How vital is researching the armor track? It seems to me that personal armor doesn't do much.



Are you running XP? There's a patch that fixes garbled graphics, and I had to cut down to 95 compatiblity mode to stop it crashing every time I finished a mission. Now it just crashes occasionally.
Click to expand...

yeah I run xp

where can I find the fix?
 
Also, plan to turn out the basic personnel armor in quantity. If a troop dies while wearing it, that suit is expended. Power armor and Flight Armor are too damned expensive to make enough for everyone, so save them for blooded, strong-stat troops.

When outfitting interceptors, there are only two weapons worth using under most circumstances - the Avalance missile launcher, and the Plasma Cannon. The Avalanch has the range to keep the ship from getting its ass shot to shit, so this is the only thing you should have on the Interceptors. Later, the plasma cannon has almost as much range and needs no ammo - mount em on Lightnings, which can take the occaisional hit without being destroyed. There is another, much more powerful weapon, but it needs ammo. Build only a few, and keep them in reserve - you wont need them often, they are expensive as hell to make (the ammo is just ridiculous), and they only have three shots in the air. So just slap two on an Avenger and keep him back for when you have a really big bastard to shoot down.

Tanks - dont bother. 4 personnel is a lot to give up for a slow target. If all you have is the Skyranger, dont even think about it.
 
plasma and fusion ball launchers both take elerium

i mounted craft lasers when i could

i always run out of elerium

i fucked up my previous post
 
Seems like rush to plasma vs rush to laser is a personal choice, pretty much.


Ok, plan for next game:
First base in middle of the USA- immediatly start researching to laser rifle, then to personal armor. Get to 50 scientists as soon as economically feasible.

Second base goes in Europe. Start with lift, stores, and radar. Leave room for more radar and a hanger.

Outfit troops with laser pistols -> laser rifles and personal armor as they become available. One guy with a heavy weapon for heavy fire support. Cull the crappiest troops and babysit the ones with high potential.

Sound good? Even so, I have to not screw up, heh.


Questions-
How many radar stations do I need in a base? Large or small?
For the HW guy, should I give him an autocannon or a rocket launcher?
When should I do my first base assault? One game I got the location of one fairly early, but I got obliterated when I went in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top