Paladin's Pad > Gameguides > Classical Gaming Theatre > X-Com: UFO Defense

X-Com: UFO Defense

Nasty aliens are on the loose and the world finally gets it together to form an international squad of alien fighters. Far fetched, I know, like world leaders could ever agree on anything. But this is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill alien invasion. It's the big one. The aliens are all in cahoots, intent on tricking the world leaders into signing pacts and then enslaving all of mankind. Why go to the trouble of signing pacts? Beats me. As commander of X-Com, the last line of defense against the invasion, your job is clear: you must hold off the incursion forces of UFOs and send your troops in to collect alien technologies from grounded craft in order to develop exotic technologies and find the horrible truth about the aliens. It's just that simple. So grab that Plasma Rifle, kick in that door, and let's vaporize some alien scum, squaddie.

Do ya' need a chart?

X-Com: UFO Defense
Genre:	Strategy/RPG	Challenge/Replay	Medium/Long
A beautiful mix of strategy and adventure.		Thanks to an in-mission save feature, you can take your time and do the missions right. Otherwise, it plays a little bit like an "Alien"s movie. Climbing the tech trees is cool.
Play Control	Good	Graphics/Sound	Average
The interface can be a little bit hard to pick up on. You can do the wrong thing pretty easily, like sending a soldier to an alien infested area when you were trying to select someone else.		Screams and exploding stuff make up the sound, with some fair atmospheric music that didn't make me want to smash anything. Graphics are dated and sufficiently military to feel all right anyway.
System: PC

The Tips and Tricks

You get one base at the start. I try to build another base immediately. you need them to catch UFOs so you can collect goodies(for money and research), and monitor the aliens' activities. The bases should be built adjoining your highest funding countries, since you'll really want to protect those from an alien infiltration.

If you recently watched ET, you might be inclined to try and befriend those aliens, especially the harmless looking sectoids. Don't bother, they'll just shoot you for your troubles.

Bases start with an access lift(with the exception of the first). I tend to construct special purpose bases, but you'll probably need, at minimum, a hanger(or 2 to 3), a general storage(add more as needed), a living quarters(also will need to add more), at least one radar station(more and bigger is better), and a defensive battery. For important research and technologies, you need working space for engineers, and lab space for scientists, as well as alien containment for any critters you bring back alive for interrogation.

Restock after fights. Otherwise, you get into the interesting situation of having few or no weapons and run around like a bunch of idiots while the enemies take pot shots. On the other hand, if you research alien weaponry, you can go in with a sniper and knock a few aliens out, giving their weapons to your soldiers. Normally, you have to research the clips to load their weapons(and to use them), but in this case, the aliens do it for you.

Rental(yes, Rental) of fighter and transport craft is a big financial drain. If you finish the UFO parts research tree, you can eventually start work on some craft of your own. So long as you have enough elerium-115 at a base to fuel them, these craft will prove much tougher and much more cost effective to use.

It might seem like a waste of time to research the medical kits, since a person who gets shot tends to die immediately, but there are times when a glancing shot leaves a soldier with fatal wounds. The med kit prevents bleeding to death in those cases. It also helps unconscious ones wake up, but the pain killer is relatively useless.

When you first hear the long wail of psychic attacks, pay attention to which soldiers panic. Those soldiers will be pretty useless in missions since they have low mental strength and will be under alien control so much. Later you can build a psi lab and find out their strength for real, but a good step early on is to save those soldiers back at the base. Unless you want to invest very heavily in base defense batteries, you'll probably benefit from having a combat presence in your bases that doesn't get dragged away to every mission. When aliens find your base, you'll have your weak-willed troops available and won't lose the base by default.

Build a base with some basic principles in mind for maximum defense. Aliens must enter by hangers and the access lift. Soldiers tend to "enter" at living quarters, labs, and general storage. If aliens have to pass through any "soldier friendly" areas like those to get into the base proper, then your defense is already going to be entrenched and ready to snipe away. You'll probably be able to pick off half of them on entry and the rest will have to run your gauntlet to do any damage. So build those areas adjoining your entry points and build your special base sections not connected to the hangers and lift.

And don't forget the value of heavy weapons platforms for base defense. They're big, powerful, and they don't panic. Their size isn't a liability when you have the greater storage space of a base as opposed to a transport craft.

Economics: The sooner you can start supporting your bases on what you can capture and manufacture, the better. The funds that you receive each month are nothing next to what you can make through sale of goods. In fact, you can build and progress infinitely faster when you make your own funds. Good items to manufacture for money include laser technologies(the higher the technology, the more money it brings but weigh them against manufacture time), but anything will do so long as you don't need to build component parts(too much micro-management for my taste) and you aren't putting elerium-115 into them(it can't be manufactured and you'll want it for making alien weaponry and fueling craft).

You really can't go wrong with Laser Technology. It's more effective than your conventional weaponry and it doesn't use ammunition like even the most powerful alien weapons. A craft that carries a backup laser pistol or rifle for every soldier is never at risk of being short on fire power.

Carry backup weapons and all the extraneous equipment you have. An overloaded soldier will get fewer time units and be less effective at first, but it's a sure fire way to build up strength. Later, when you need all that junk, your muscle-bound crew will have no trouble with a full backpack and all belts stuffed.

The motion detector is helpful in finding the location of the aliens, but later it seems that nothing is quite so useful as the simple electro-flare. It exposes alien movements in the dark and builds the throwing ability of the soldiers who toss them around. One per soldier essentially doubles your range of vision and the flares are much better scouts than any of your troops... much better to see the bad guys by flare-light than to wander up into his line of sight.

Paladin's Pad > Gameguides > Classical Gaming Theatre > X-Com: UFO Defense

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