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[Eagle of Fire]

I got a quwtion though.... if an orginizeation is taken over by the aliens then can you get it back? so that they are not with the aliens anymore?

No. This mean that you are really in trouble if an important organisation get taken away by the Aliens (such as Transtellar, Marsec, the police force, the governement or the other company which sells you arms).

On the other hand it is often an opportunity to get points and items to sell when you attack those fallen organisations (Like the cult for example, which is usually the first to fall). The trick is not to lose too much soldiers when raiding them. If it is done well and without casualties (personal shields helps a lot) then it is very profitable.

If you become at war with Transtellar you won't be able to use taxis and thus won't be able to recruit personnels. In fact you will be able to recruit them but they won't be able to get to your base so you will never be able to use them. I think you can still recruit Squaddies and to fetch them yourself but the research and engineering personnel will sit in their recrutment spot until they go away by themselves.

Thus having good terms with Transtellar is a must at all time, and if it is taken by the Aliens you're pretty much dead unless you are really at the endgame.

[jpnuar1]

Is there a manual out there I could view?

The game seems pretty interesting, but it's as confusing as heck! :Titan:
Of course, for lack of a manual, all my questions will be dumped onto any of you who may read this.

Current issue: How do I equip agents into a vehicle, and once I have done that, how do I "land" at a UFO crash site? I figured I might get an idea by sending an empty car, but it just drives back and forth on the street next to the UFO. Would something have happned if there were agents in the car?

Sorry if I sound like a n00b. And thank you to anyone who has the patience to help me out.

[Eagle of Fire]

This is a normal issue and it actually got me several tries to figure it out.

Thing is that there is a strange "lag" when you try to take personnel "on" vehicles. You need to go to the vehicle screen, select your squaddie then drag and leave them on the desired vehicle. You can move several squaddies at the same time by selecting them all then dragging one to the desired vehicle.

Then, you need to select the vehicle in particular in CityScape mode and either send the craft to the desired building or to the crashed UFO.

The smaller and lesser UFO's are unmanned and won't require a fight. You'll just recover them. I usually only capture one of each of the smaller UFO's and then don't bother and make them explode in the air when I encounter them.

From past experiences, I am pretty sure that it does make a difference when you actually destroy Alien Ufo's. It doesn't take them much time to build new ones (perhaps a month max for the bigger ones?) but it does seem to buy youself some time and change the way the AI act. If you are very successful at the beginning, you will encounter a lot of bigger and bigger Ufo's until your current technology can't fight them without stupidly high losses. But then again, when you grab their own technology it really give you a boost!

The best strategy I have found so far to fight those Alien crafts is to take something like 5 Hover Bikes and set them to fight at the highest elevation possible and as close as possible to the target. You can change the stance of each craft when you select them on the CityScape. The Hover Bikes are stupidly hard to hit for the Aliens because they are so small and so maneuverable, and most of the time the Hover Bike will simply dodge the beams which would have teared your biggest ships appart without a problem. This allow your bigger ships (like the Phoenix Hover Car for example, which is cheap but virtually armorless) to stay further the front line and throw missiles from a further distance. Most of the time they won't even come under fire unless you are really fighting lots of UFO's at once. Also make sure that your Troop Transport is far from the action and safe. It's easy to lose it to bad luck if several Alien Crafts decide to fire at it at the same time.

Usually, I always make crafts which are 50% to retreat and repair. Crafts cost a lot in this game and losing them only to down a Ufo is not worth it. You can still use a craft being repaired on an emergency mission later on, and if Air Superiority fail then send your squaddie and eliminate the Alien threat from the ground.

The strategy mentionned above (with Hover Bikes) works quite well against Metropolis crafts as well, but is less effective due to them almost always having aiming missiles equiped and due to the fact that they are more maneuverable than most UFO's. They also really pack less of a punch, so unless you are unlucky retreating at 50% health will usually save your crafts anyways.

Don't overlook the Hover Bikes power. Their seemingly powerless guns really add up when they team up. Have 10 of them and you'll see them tear into a bigger UFO shield in no time. Plus they are really hard to hit and are cheap to replace.

Random tip #2: Always upgrade the biggest engine available to each of your craft. If you buy a bunch of crafts at the same time (or at the beginning of the game), you can actually take the engine of one craft and put it in another knowing it's the most powerfull one they can bear (because of the size of the engine square). For example, if I remember well the Phoenix Hovercar engine is the biggest engine a Hover Bike can be equipped with, so don't sell those and use them on the Hover Bikes you'll purchase. I think the same thing happen to your troop transport VS your Phoenix Hovercar but I don't remember well. Anyways, reason for this is that you want power and speed, and since you will be placing aiming equipment on those crafts and that it add weight and lower your engine power and acceleration (slightly), you have no choice if you don't want to suck the UFO's exhaust vapor trail. It also greatly help in combat. Maneuvrability is really your friend until you build your own crafts later in the game since your craft armor is very weak against the Aliens weapons.

Random tip #3: always make your crafts to fly and fight at the highest altitude unless you have a really good reason to do otherwise. Until you actually fight with beam weapons yourself, the aliens have the bigger guns... And a stray fire from those babies if it hit the base of a random building will usually result in having the building flattened completely. This will irritate the leaders of that faction to no end, taking their strance VS Xcom down each time. Plus the Government (which fund you) always get angry when anything on the city is destroyed and this goes against your weekly score. If you fly high the UFO usually fire at your upward, and you can save friendly fire this way.

Of course, some members of the "Cult of Cyric" sometime accuse Xcom to fly around their buildings in purpose when fighting bigger Alien Crafts... Which always been soundly refuted by the Xcom Leaders. That's what war is about, you will have friendly fire sooner or later... ... ... Ahem... :whistle:


Happy hunting!

[Edited for grammar and syntax errors... One of my earliest post... ]

[raven_milicon]

Why cant I save in apocalypse?

[_r.u.s.s.]

because your computer is racist

seriously, we're not fortune tellers to know your pc specs, os, how did you try to run the game, etc..

[The Fifth Horseman]

I got the manual from way back in the topic by the way, but can't seem to find a certain thing I want. In the UFOpedia they mention about GRAV ball players getting out of the league when having more than 50% non-human parts... can I give my soldiers some as to perfect them, as well as the androids seeing you can't train them (logically, but annoying)?

First, sorry for late response.

Unfortunately, that text is just a blurb. It's not actually possible to cyborgize your soldiers or modify your androids.
Regarding the latter, remember they are completely immune to psionics: if you're confronting aliens with mind control abilities or large amounts of Brainsuckers, make them your forward scouts.

As well, as to what medals are there and when you get them. I got this deadskull medal now on a few soldiers, with more than 10 kills, however an android of mine with 12 kills has got none... I would like to see the requirements for getting one.

I believe the medals are based not just on kills but also the mission count and service time. Possibly also the improvement percentage for the specific soldier.

Why cant I save in apocalypse?

You can save in this game, this is 100% verified.
You're probably doing something wrong.

[ObiMark]

I recently managed to get apocalypse working, thanx to new version of dosbox. I really loved it back in the days and even now it still has a lot going for it. Anyway one of the things always enjoyed was destroying whatever I was raiding, be it Marsec, Transtellar, any of the gangs (most commonly osiron) even Extropians.
In my latest raid vs Osiron I really out did myself. I raided the slums and got the map with large square building that sits on top of 7 pillars with eight pillar in the middle housing the lift and staircase on one side.
I had the idea of bringing down the entire 6 story house. Using disruptors and vortex mines I blew 3 rightmost pillars along with staircase. Entire eastern section started to fall apart. From the bottom to top it was literally raining buliding. It was fascinating. Among the wreckage it rained 7 or 8 osiron soldiers as well. they didn't make it.

[marko river]

I remember that several organizations fall into aliens hands. Well, I made war with them for a while but found out that it's useless. So as I become better, I kicked some alien butts and slowly ALL organizations were allied with me, even the ones that were taken by aliens. Except that Cult offcourse.

[Eagle of Fire]

Any organisations could be taken over by the Aliens. Don't forget to check your charts and if an organisation goes above 50% and you know you probably won't have a warning mission message, go to their buildings and search for aliens. If you destroy all the Aliens the organisation will fall bellow 50% again and then will continue dropping unless the Aliens invade it again.

Apocalype manual, if anyone still wants it:
http://www.xcomufo.com/x3manual.pdf