Just as a side-note, once you start to really get a feel for the game, it’s surprising just how much Dashing you can do risk-free, and that does speed up the pace a bit, especially with Meld in the picture.
Also, yeah, as Gus said, running around in the open in a tight column (always with awareness of potential cover and LOS of course) can be done a surprising amount too - which is a bit like military doctrine anyway, AFAIK.
I’m playing on Easy because I want to have fun and win, and I’m a wimp when it comes to these types of games. But any general tips for someone who’s still fairly early on?
–I have 4 satellites up, with fighter coverage. I think 4 more in construction, though I don’t yet have enough engineers for the uplinks required, but I figured with the spare cash I’d get them rdy since it’s a 20d build cycle. I haven’t lost a nation yet, but a handful are at 3 bars and if I get another alien abduction and can’t cover all I’ll lose at least one. I figured the game is designed to lose nations, impossible to keep them all in the alliance, but any ones particularly bad to lose or is it just on the amount of $$$ they contribute and no other factors?
–got one soldier, my squad leader, with some genetic Meld mods, and 1 mec, a former assault soldier. Is there enough meld for more or should I concentrate the points into just a few soldiers?
–does constant save/load-ing make me a morally bad person?
Keep in mind that every time you put up a satellite, it reduces panic in the target country. If you’re not shooting for a continent bonus or trying to cover the US for its income, you can use satellites to manage your panic. A country can go to 5 and you won’t lose it until the end of the month, so you want to launch all your satellites a day or two before the end of the month.
As for individual countries, it’s about money and continent bonuses. The South America bonus is a big deal because it cuts a huge amount of time off research. Interrogations yield research bonuses, but you often lose as much time interrogating the aliens as you gain from the bonus unless you have that instant interrogation bonus. The other bonuses are all money-related, which of course also has value early in the game when money is tight.
If you’re careful, you can always keep all 16 countries playing on Normal or Easy. Panic is much rougher on Classic and Impossible, so whether you keep all 16 depends on luck and whether it’s worth abandoning a country in order to cover something more important. Once you have 9 countries covered, though, you should be absolutely safe against losing the strategic game.
The big Meld suck is the top-level MEC suit. There’s plenty if you spread it around on genetic mods and lower level MECs. My experience is that you can always afford one MEC-3, but if you want two, you can’t spend Meld on anything else. Unless of course you grind in the end game, you can always do that.
It’s worth noting that MEC soldiers themselves are cheap. It’s the suits that are pricey. So you can get an early MEC, and then later on convert a high Aim Colonel and give him the suit. The fact you’re not using the first MEC guy anymore only costs you 10 Meld.
Alan_Au
5227
I’d have to check, but I think funding increases take effect when the satellite enters orbit and not just when you launch, so maybe launch 3-4 days before the end of the month.
The “instantly perform autopsies/interrogations” continent bonus for South America is useful in the early game, but it becomes far less useful in the mid/late game. I’m still on the fence about whether or not it’s good to lock the continent early–it may actually be better to distribute the panic evenly instead of concentrating it on fewer continents, but that’s an advanced discussion for harder difficulty levels.
I agree on all of the MEC advice. I’ll add that in the early game it’s better to convert Heavy troopers into MECs since they share the same accuracy improvement rate. For other classes, especially snipers, you’ll want to convert to MEC later, ideally at Colonel rank.
Granath
5228
On higher levels, you can’t distribute the panic evenly. You’ll lose too many countries. Concentrating panic on one region is definitely the way to go.
On the MEC suits, does it help to convert a Colonel to a MEC rather than a lowly soldier? In the couple of games I’ve played, I’ve MEC’d a squaddie because I didn’t want to lose the bonuses from a high ranking guy.
garin
5229
No, Gus is right. All satellite bonuses (other than UFO detection) happen immediately. If you’re trying to manage panic it’s better to wait as late as you can. It’s not uncommon to have a mission in the last few days of a month that changes the situation.
Thanks for the replies, guys.
Doesn’t the MEC lose all the level up powers of the soldier except for one that relates to their class? So you’d think converting a higher rank would be wasteful.
Alan_Au
5231
When you convert a soldier to a MEC, you lose all of the old class abilities, but you are immediately able to select MEC abilities up to the soldier’s current rank.
And it keeps the stats, so if you turn a high ranking sniper into a MEC you will get a low rank MEC with insane aiming.
It only needs to be launched, not actually in service. I routinely launch on day 29 or 30, and I always get the full income. If you complete a continent, you get the bonus when you launch - so in the case of South America, you can get the research bonus immediately if you have corpses to autopsy.
Alan_Au
5234
So it sounds like satellites give you the benefit upon launch, which is great news. Also note that you can build satellites even before you have the capacity to launch them, which means you can start building satellites before your satellite uplink/nexus facility is completed.
Actually, it turns your high-ranking sniper into a high rank MEC.
Oh right, my mistake.
But with the sniper stats!
Otherwise it progresses as a heavy.
Stuff I never seem to use:
- Needle grenade. Still only does 3 damage, so it only kills Sectoids, and doesn’t destroy cover, which is a serious drawback. To top it off it uses Chryssalid corpses which are in demand for Chitin plating.
- Gas grenade. I guess the point is the serious penalty to aim for being poisoned, which might help with capturing stuff, but the damage done is trivial.
- Respirator implant. Takes up an inventory slot for protection against a nuisance monster.
- Mimic beacon. I guess you could use this to set up ambushes? But with the time pressure for Meld, I’m inclined to advance instead.
- SHIVs. They’re a bit nicer now that you can make them regenerate, but I don’t like using up a slot that could give a soldier experience. I have a nagging feeling I should field at least one before I get heavier armor.
- EMP cannons. Come way, way too late. By the time I have this researched, I don’t really care all that much about how much stuff I’m recovering from wrecks.
Alan_Au
5237
The respirator also gives you additional armor and is a straight upgrade over the nanofiber vest–I’ll sometimes use a few in the mid-game.
I want to use SHIVs but the deployment cost is too high (including the prerequisite costs) to make me view it as a viable option.
I haven’t yet found a justification for using the grenade alternatives.
I didn’t know the respirator added HP. I do use the nano vests now and then, usually on Assaults or covert agents. If it’s strictly superior I’ll have build a few.
I do use flashbang grenades now and then. Even if you aren’t going for a capture, they’re a way to mostly disable tougher targets that you can’t kill this turn. I generally don’t start bringing them until I’m dealing with tougher enemies like Mutons where the regular grenades don’t do much more than remove cover.
Trelane
5239
Mimic beacons are cool when they work, but seem pretty unreliable. I once had a Heavy blow up the side of a building, exposing THREE groups of aliens inside. He ended his turn, a sitting duck out in the open. On the aliens turn, every one of them completely ignored him and surrounded the nearby Mimic beacon!
Often the aliens will just seem to ignore the beacon, but I find it somewhat useful to lure nastier enemies like Sectopods into a killing zone.
Forgot to ask last night, but I discovered the alien base. Is there a good time to hit it or a time to avoid taking that mission? I’m still early in the game, so not seeing too many different critters. The hulks are the toughest so far.
Alan_Au
5241
The difficulty scales, so there’s no best/worst time to do the base attack.
The mission is long, so it’s a good idea to wait until you have some sort of armor.
A successful assault will lower global panic levels immediately. This is useful, especially on harder difficulties.
After the base mission you start encountering Sectoid Commanders, and Outsiders no longer appear.
2-3 weeks after the base assault, you will encounter the XCOM base defense mission.
I have the chitin armor now. Sounds like doing it toward the end of the month might not be a bad idea, though I’m not sure I want to start seeing sectoid commanders since I’ve yet to encounter an Outsider.
You really want at least Carapace armor, lasers, and squad size 6 to do the base mission. You’ll face enemies with 7-8 health, and my experience is that if you go in with conventional weapons you’ll wipe.
