Posts: 37
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2010
haphazard1 Wrote:I hope this answered your question. If it is unclear or missed the point, please post and I will try to do better.
That's perfectly clear and a very good explanation. Being able to do more and carry more with veteran troops does a great job illustrating the value of experience. You all added a bit more to give me a better picture of the balance between experience and gear. Thanks! I'm really going to have to try XCOM sooner rather than later.
Posts: 5,752
Threads: 52
Joined: Mar 2007
The ShiningOne Wrote:That's perfectly clear and a very good explanation. Being able to do more and carry more with veteran troops does a great job illustrating the value of experience.
That is a good way to put it: able to do more and carry more. With better accuracy and reactions on top. 
It can be painful to have a wipeout or near wipeout mission in the late game, and have to go back to mostly recruits. I had this happen once when I screwed up an alien base mission and lost 18 experienced soldiers in one mission.  Suddenly I was working with rookies with 15-20 fewer TUs per turn and lower strength. A lot of my tactics had to be seriously readjusted, and I lost a bunch of rookies for a couple missions until I made changes. 
The ShiningOne Wrote:I'm really going to have to try XCOM sooner rather than later.
We're bringing another one over to the dark side! 
Posts: 4,471
Threads: 65
Joined: Feb 2006
I know most people like to put a base in North America either first or second, but I prefer to start in Europe and build a second base in Asia, somewhere around the Himalayas. It covers China/India/Japan/eastern Russia, all important countries, and turns the UFO tracking area into one extended zone where the two bases can cooperate effectively on interceptions.
Posts: 5,752
Threads: 52
Joined: Mar 2007
Uberfish,
I would be fine with reversing the order of the second and third bases, with #2 covering Asia and #3 for North America. You make a good point about being able to share interceptions -- the new bases will not be up to supporting an assault team and Skyranger for quite some time to come, so shooting down UFOs over North America is not as helpful.
I do not think we should delay the North American base too long, though, or we risk losing funding from the USA.
One question is timing of Hyperwave Decoders; with these coming soon we should probably not waste time/money building radar at new bases. But the Decoder is damn expensive, and is going to suck up a lot of cash. Hopefully we can get a couple nice loot-heavy missions to boost our warchest.
Another thought: If we put base #2 to cover Asia, we should be able to find the probable base in China. Catching Supply ships on the ground will be very hard/impossible launching from Eurocom, although we might be able to shoot them down now that we have Plasma Beams on our interceptors. Eventually we will probably want soliders and a Skyranger at the Asian base so we can "farm" some Supply ships for Elerium and loot.
Posts: 4,443
Threads: 45
Joined: Nov 2009
haphazard1 Wrote:TheShiningOne,
Experience and gear are both important. Which is more crucial depends on the stage of the game.
Early on the tech gap with the aliens is so large that better gear is more important, as every soldier can be killed at any time by almost anything. Casualties are unavoidable, and often heavy enough that few troops live to become experienced.
Once the worst of the tech gap is closed (meaning decent weapons and power armor is available), then longer survival is at least possible and experience can begin playing a larger role. There will still be losses, but hopefully at least a handful of experienced troops can be developed.
An experienced soldier can be significantly more effective than a recruit. Experienced soldiers have more TUs (time units) allowing for more movement and additional actions during each turn. Note that this does not include firing more shots -- combat actions are defined as percentages of the soldier's total TUs, so recruits are not at a ridiculous disadvantage. But movement, changing facing for viewing/scouting, reloading weapons or transferring items -- all take fixed amounts of TUs, and experienced soldiers can do more each round.
Veterans also develop higher strength, allowing them to carry more gear without encumbrance penalties. Some new recruits have barely enough strength to carry a heavy plasma and a flare, while most vets can handle that plus an extra clip, a medikit, and a few grenades.
Veterans also improve their various skills as they are successfully used in combat. We are playing ironman and avoiding the cheapest experience training methods, most of which rely on Psi anyway to provide targets. But even without those methods an experienced soldier will develop better firing and throwing accuracy, better reactions, and possibly better morale. Exactly what will improve and by how much depends on what that specific soldier has done in battle, with some random factors mixed in.
One big factor with soldier development will be Psi strength -- some soldiers just do not have much and will have to be eliminated even if they are otherwise excellent. This will be covered more once we start encountering aliens with Psi ability, and our soldiers start killing one another.
I hope this answered your question. If it is unclear or missed the point, please post and I will try to do better.
Send crap psi soldiers that are otherwise good into battle with no weapons and wall him into the sky ranger with 2 troopers and the aliens should go for them first with psi attacks. The more psi attacks that happen to the, the more resistance builds.
uberfish Wrote:I know most people like to put a base in North America either first or second, but I prefer to start in Europe and build a second base in Asia, somewhere around the Himalayas. It covers China/India/Japan/eastern Russia, all important countries, and turns the UFO tracking area into one extended zone where the two bases can cooperate effectively on interceptions.
Real men only have one base located on the south pole. :D
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
Posts: 2,585
Threads: 43
Joined: Apr 2008
Sorry I haven't been as engaged with today's discussion. We just brought my newborn daughter home from the hospital.  :2dance: She's doing great but our dog isn't so sure what the deal is. Is she a new toy? Cuz he's not allowed to lick her so she can't be food.
Back to the game, I liked the idea of establishing bases 2 and 3 very quickly together in which case it doesn't matter as much which is first. Now that we have plasma beam and can use alien weapons, we won't need to spend as much on restocking. If we sell a lot, we should be able to afford both!
In terms of research, I would like power suits before new crafts but it's on the way so that shouldn't be a problem. I'd rather protect our current troops allowing us to save money on replacements and develop more skills instead of get faster/bigger ships.
Who has the game now?
Posts: 4,443
Threads: 45
Joined: Nov 2009
skip me until the weekend.
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
Posts: 5,752
Threads: 52
Joined: Mar 2007
Congratulations, dazedroyalty! 
Posts: 2,585
Threads: 43
Joined: Apr 2008
antisocialmunky Wrote:skip me until the weekend.
So I'm up?
Quote:Congratulations, dazedroyalty!
Thanks!
Posts: 404
Threads: 8
Joined: May 2006
dazedroyalty Wrote:So I'm up?
Thanks!
Current play order based on last turn is :
Ug (completed mission 7)
Uberfish (completed missions 8 and 9)
Haphazard - UP
ASM - On deck but not available until weekend (skip to Dazed)
Dazedroyalty
|
