I still do not get why so many turns. I only got to even 99, only once (it went for another hundred), but that was looking for the last alien in a base defence of a large base. I eventually found the alien on the second level of a living quarters section.

Of course, the reason it never takes me nearly 400 turns to clear a night terror mission is that killing the last alien scores enough points and equipment to compensate for any number of losses that still allow for completion of mission. I just recruit another eight aquanauts and hope the next terror mission is after they show up.

To keep with the spirit of the game, I will respond to the disaster by running the survivors back to the transport and clicking the abort button. Sometimes, if I have saved at the start, I might reload and then abort. My problem with reloading is a personal one: you cannot reload during a tactical mission, so you have to abort the mission, select options, and then select "load saved game". I feel that this takes too long, so I seldom bother.

I find that with aquatoids, you may as well take the shot, as trying to return to cover is almost as likely to draw his fire as missing him. I cannot imagine taking 10-12 turns to get into a firing position. Usually, I employ grenades to attack aliens that are hard to shoot. Skulking around to get a better shot might take three or four turns


The funny thing is I have this situation backwards. I do not understand why people reload after every single casualty.

Again on why so many turns.... Inexperienced soldiers;( 8 with 3 missions 6 with 0 missions) armed with heavy cannon an extra clip and two Magna Blast Gernades may have thier movements impeded to the point that he/she has as low as 36-40 tv's...this means of course you must drop some items in order to progress far enough to even say youve moved 6 tiles. Heavy Cannons are about the best combat weapons in the early missions as they are fairly accurate and MOST the time will kill a aquatiod in one shot or a gillman in 1 or 2.

If you are at all Familiar with the Heavy Cannon then you know that it has a capacity of 8 rounds and options for Aimed or Snap shot...taking these factors into consideration its apparent that Aimed is the better option as wasting shots is NOT an option. Still you will Inevitably have some soldiers empty thier clips leaving them useless and they must either get a clip from someone else or return to the ship or the point they dropped it for another.

As for just gernading them ...once gain these are not ALIEN Gernades they are MAGNA blast gernades which must land exactly on the feet of a gillman often 2 gernades to kill him... for Aquatiods if it lands as far as 2-3 tiles away odds are it will survive.

I reasearch as quickly as possible in this order -Gauss tech >Gauss Pistol >Gauss Rifle >Gauss Rifle clip >ALien Gernade.
If by chance I got Unknown (more often than not) on everything it can take almost the full month to research them. so its the ultra-poor startup weapons if the Terror comes Early.

An alien who has not died but gone unconscious is good fodder for a weak soldier who desperatly needs to boost his stats by getting a kill or two so often i will run this shmoe over to the body and stand on it till it revives so i can shoot it with the said rookie and get those desperately needede experience points(more points for a kill than a knockout and of course the added bonus of the 20 grand for the body is needed in that first few weeks badly).

Sure i can finish in 15 turns too just like Gregor ..without resetting too ...ARMED WITH THE WEAPONRY HE HAD AND WITH SOLDIERS WHO's SKILLS ARE MAXED

gass cannon with HE ammo is the best weapon in the beginning.

and Gauss technology is not worth researching

I disagree - your poor, inexperienced seamen will blow one another up. You must have good firing accuracy to use it safely. Also, no firing accuracy will save you in a confined area - like in terror missions or inside alien subs.

Forgive my interpretation of the name ...Heavy cannon is Gas cannon ( played Enemy Unknown so much i still mix the names between the two games or make a hybrid name ei calling an Aquatiod Aquatiod is difficult...look like damn Sectiods to me or for Deep one...he's a Spitter)
As for the Ammo I must disagree with HE (65 power)over AP (60 power)simply cause of the lossess in close combat ( at the doors of the craft for example or when shooting off your own ship and you either...ughh plug another guy in the back or hit the wall...with AP its a lost man or missed shot with HE it could spell disaster.

As for Gauss being useless well yes it is ...However..initially its fast to research and the Rifles are quite effective against both Aquatiods and Gillmen and even Deep Ones... Calcinites often take 2-3 shots..factoring in the 0 resource (elerium/??TFTD) to produce it and it being the highest return in the old manufature/sell dept you MUST research it (94 tekkies can manufature 8 gauss cannons a day netting 29,000 profit each for app 232,000 a day or almost 7 million a month.
If i remember correctly the second highest is Motion scanners netting about 3.5 mill a month and gauss rifles come in third around 3 mill...so two of your top 3 cash items are on the gauss tech tree...hardly wasted research time.

I do Agree that after you start hitting Lobstermen and Tsoths that its run its course for effectivness but generally youve got time to research the plasma/sonic stuff before then.

I like Gauss rifle, i like the auto shot that none of the sonic weapons offers.

Forgive my interpretation of the name ...Heavy cannon is Gas cannon ( played Enemy Unknown so much i still mix the names between the two games or make a hybrid name ei calling an Aquatiod Aquatiod is difficult...look like damn Sectiods to me or for Deep one...he's a Spitter)
As for the Ammo I must disagree with HE (65 power)over AP (60 power)simply cause of the lossess in close combat ( at the doors of the craft for example or when shooting off your own ship and you either...ughh plug another guy in the back or hit the wall...with AP its a lost man or missed shot with HE it could spell disaster.

As for Gauss being useless well yes it is ...However..initially its fast to research and the Rifles are quite effective against both Aquatiods and Gillmen and even Deep Ones... Calcinites often take 2-3 shots..factoring in the 0 resource (elerium/??TFTD) to produce it and it being the highest return in the old manufature/sell dept you MUST research it (94 tekkies can manufature 8 gauss cannons a day netting 29,000 profit each for app 232,000 a day or almost 7 million a month.
If i remember correctly the second highest is Motion scanners netting about 3.5 mill a month and gauss rifles come in third around 3 mill...so two of your top 3 cash items are on the gauss tech tree...hardly wasted research time.

I do Agree that after you start hitting Lobstermen and Tsoths that its run its course for effectivness but generally youve got time to research the plasma/sonic stuff before then. [/b][/quote]
well, of course HE will not work in closed spaces, but in open ones it's good because accuracy is less relevant (you don't have to hit the alien, just hit the wall next to him)

as for profitabilaty of gauss, i really can't remember, but there is guide out there that has a table of profits for specific equipment you can make. Yes they don't need zrbite, like sonic, nut you can steal a lot of equipment from aliens.

I still do not get it, but then, I admit that I am a hopeless money cheater and my style of play has different problems/solutions.

Instead of fourteen troopers, my tritons have ten troopers and ceolacanth/gas cannon. Unlike my troopers, the SWS will actually endure two or three sonic hits (depending on the source). It gets expensive to replace them, but I balance cheating on how much money I am given by only playing at the superhuman level. Tritons are lost with all hands, tritons return with only a few wounded, and bases are lost. On tactical missions, often the only indication of a nearby alien is a screaming datum, or blasted corpse(s). Terror missions, even the first one still take less than fifty turns. The nice thing about terror missions is that some of the screaming datums are not your troopers. My only real fear is getting a terror mission before the first run of purchases show up, or either a terror mission or base attack within 72 hours of a high-casualty operation.

There is one alien sub that, at the superhuman level, has four or five aliens walking around outside it with PWT launchers. Now that is a tough nut to crack.

Once I get a useful armor, I can replace the SWS with more troopers, but this is only until I get the dispacer SWS.

I am not saying that you are a bad player, just that I cannot imagine spending 400 turns on a terror mission. I spent less time on T'Leth. The final mission of TFTD has three stages, but you can only save during the first two of these three stages (I ended up switching off my monitor and leaving it for thirty hours, but you can do that with an old 486 running DOS).

You can always swap the different clips in and out of those things though. Takes about 25 TUs and since the guys carrying gas cannons are usually a fair distance from the enemy, 1/2 a turn is meaningless most of the time.

Wow only an Unlimited supply of tanks and funds, yeah i can see why you don't understand.