Matrix Games Forums

I never played the XCOM games (was kinda busy working with the US military on warsims at the time) so I don't have prior experience with this, so pardon the question.

Can I send two(or more)fully loaded transports to the same mission? For example, two raiders loaded with grunts would give me 16 guys/gals inside a mission.

Since they'd both have to miraculously land at the exact same split second, I'd say no.

When I produced an upgraded transport, I recall that when I tried to launch a mission, there was a pop up message saying that the transport was not loaded, even though it was....it was only when I sold off the older transport ship that I was able to launch....
 
so the short answer is no.....

Well that just sucks.

If I were able to even launch against different targets at the same time it would help me make money and earn xp faster.

Alas..

It's okay.. time to go kick some alien butt.

I have been thinking of having two transports in my next game. Sometimes that one transport gets stretched pretty thin. But then again it may not be cost effective to keep manufacturing ammo and weapons for both crews all the time.
What do you think?

Well, you can only take 10 troops to Earth so I wouldn't really see the point of this. I suppose if you are playing with Frankenmod and 'mortal soldiers' then it may be a worthwhile idea. You would make the money you spend on manufacture back in increased UFO raids, IMO.

As far as taking the ten troops (eventually) to earth you are right. I was thinking in terms of handling the massive attacks that come from time to time.
My first game thru I pretty much divided out the experience amongst everybody but in my last two games I've just concentrated on 10-12. If I need to take a rookie well, they're cheaper than scouting with a tank.[;)]
I think you're right tho, it would cost too much in the long run to support two teams.

I have been using 2 transports for some time now (mediums) and it does give you more freedom to go after all the UFO's. I have had many times where both transports are out at the same time recovering UFO's. I have all countries with bases except 1 and all bases have 4 loaded hangers, so shooting down the UFO is the easy part. I have been making sure to shoot down some of them over the water lately so I don't have to recover them Money isn't tight at all as I have the bounty setting on. Using b-man's mod. Slowly upgrading my fighters also although I still have several "original" versions left. Usually I let BC's land although I have shot a few down just for kicks.

So yes, you can have 2 transports in operation at the same time but not at the same mission.

ORIGINAL: Platoon Crusher

I have been using 2 transports for some time now (mediums) and it does give you more freedom to go after all the UFO's. I have had many times where both transports are out at the same time recovering UFO's. I have all countries with bases except 1 and all bases have 4 loaded hangers, so shooting down the UFO is the easy part. I have been making sure to shoot down some of them over the water lately so I don't have to recover them Money isn't tight at all as I have the bounty setting on. Using b-man's mod. Slowly upgrading my fighters also although I still have several "original" versions left. Usually I let BC's land although I have shot a few down just for kicks.

So yes, you can have 2 transports in operation at the same time but not at the same mission.

Nice to know, thanks!

ORIGINAL: Platoon Crusher

I have all countries with bases except 1 and all bases have 4 loaded hangers, so shooting down the UFO is the easy part.

I made it to the end with only three bases. I could probably have done it with two. I notice most people seem to build a whole slew of bases. Anybody else making do with only a few?

I can.  I usually like ahving about 5 though.  makes shooting down battlecruisers easier.

I made alot of bases for the sole reason that I wanted to be able to tackle anything anywhere. Each base has 4 hangers and each hanger is loaded. Each base has at least 1 advanced fighter. You should let the larger ships alone unless you have advanced fighers w/advanced weapons and shields. Anything Cruiser and smaller is easy pickings though. I send a single fighter to down scouts 2or3 to down fighters 4to6 to deal with cruisers. If I feel like going after a Battlecruiser then I send everything I can and as soon as 1 is hit I pull it back for repair immediately. I lose less fighters this way.

ORIGINAL: Iskandar

I can. I usually like ahving about 5 though. makes shooting down battlecruisers easier.

I just try to time it so everybody gets there together. I did lose a fighter here and there but it wasn't anything I couldn't afford to replace.

I usually just have two hangers/fighters per base. I also notice you get more funding from a country if you have a base there. Whether it all equals out with the extra they give compared to the cost/upkeep of having the base there I don't know.
I did have one fighter base known to the aliens. At the end I build eleven particle defense units. I was attacked by a battleship. I defeated the battleship but lost eight of my defense units. Definitely not worth the money.

One of the good things about this game is that there's several different ways to approach it (on the geoscape level at least).

Some people like to build a base in every territory (this gives you a big funding bonus, as dbt1949 mentioned).

Some people (like me) like to leave one territory 'open' for aliens to build bases. Then you can raid/destroy at your leisure.

Some people get by with 3/4 bases. In my first game, I think I only built 4.

And then there's the matter of how many interceptors you need. Personally, I take a 'less is more' approach. I find that 6 interceptors between three provinces on the main continent is enough to tackle any threat. Also, I like to shoot most UFOs down over the main continent (less chance of losing one to the sea). To do this, you will need to keep them fully upgraded tech wise.

On the other hand, there's nothing to stop you from having 4 interceptors in every base, as Platoon Crusher mentioned. The only limitation is money and your own imagination, I guess...

and therein lies the replayablity. Every game you can approach it from a different angle. I'm getting ready to start my fourth game. I'll be trying some things a little bit different once again. And I'm still playing the vanilla version! Some time in the future I'm sure to be trying out some of the mods too.

ORIGINAL: Jetau

One of the good things about this game is that there's several different ways to approach it (on the geoscape level at least).

Some people like to build a base in every territory (this gives you a big funding bonus, as dbt1949 mentioned).

Some people (like me) like to leave one territory 'open' for aliens to build bases. Then you can raid/destroy at your leisure.

Some people get by with 3/4 bases. In my first game, I think I only built 4.

And then there's the matter of how many interceptors you need. Personally, I take a 'less is more' approach. I find that 6 interceptors between three provinces on the main continent is enough to tackle any threat. Also, I like to shoot most UFOs down over the main continent (less chance of losing one to the sea). To do this, you will need to keep them fully upgraded tech wise.

On the other hand, there's nothing to stop you from having 4 interceptors in every base, as Platoon Crusher mentioned. The only limitation is money and your own imagination, I guess...

I am still on my 1st game. I don't play very often or for long time periods. (real life gets in the way of that ) I am using b-mans mod with the alien bounty ticked on. So I usually get between 400,000 and 750,000 credits each mission just for doing what I am going to do anyways, killing aliens. That makes it much easier to afford the extras like lots of fighters, lots of technicians and lots of scientists. Currently I have 1 large transport, 1 medium transport, 30 fighters of various type, 40 technicians, 50 scientists and 22 soldiers. Being able to keep up with all this expense can be chalked up to alien bounty plain and simple. Otherwise I would be playing with much much less and it would be a much harder/slower game to playout. As I do not have the time to devote to it that I would like to, I Tried b-man's mod out and tweaked the settings so that money would be less of a strategic issue and I could concentrate on the tactics instead. After I finish the 1st game I may play it again with alien bounty shut off and see how I fare. I got this game as soon as it came out and I am still playing the 1st time. I know many of you have played it out several times already, but not me, yet.

I also left 1 country open for aliens to setup a base in for raids/cash for me to grab. I find sometimes it is very tedious to go after every single incursion and shoot alot of the scouts and fighters down over the water on purpose since money is not an issue. I have over 20,000,000 credits at the moment and I am building supplies and fighters, etc. all the time. So I can afford to ignore the lesser missions. All of my soldiers except for 2 or 3 are high level ( I don't use the soldier death part of the mod since it would make missions impossible for rookies to do) and no rookies can handle the equipment needed to win any of these missions. They are too weak to even carry measly lasers.... Forget about ion guns or akew guns etc. They cant even wear enough armor to withstand a single hit from these bad boys, so I don't use soldier mortality as it would quickly make the game unpalyable IMO.

I have read this forum and found many like to play with a slow tech advance or less bases approach. I went the other way and found it to be much fun in the process. I am teching as fast as possible and using as many fighters as I can. It has so far worked out very well.

umm, my first playthrough, the *vanilla* version - for some reason i thought i needed all 8 bases to continue to the next "stage" (someone told me something and i was like "ok i guess") and each has 3 hangars except for one which has 4... no money issues (well, there were some but not that big) and i tackled battlecruisers with lightnings packing ion shields, akew guns and thunderbolts without a single casualty... recently i got to upgrading them all to exterminators with particle weaponry and i can tell you this - most of the "game" for me now is just recovering ufos since i got them pissed and i can't afford to shoot them all over the sea since i need those expensive parts for selling... the countries give you alot of cash for having bases there, but sometimes they still come in a few mills short which is counterparted by selling reactors and such...

in my vanilla version, i tweaked just a few things - the buy/sell ratio is 150%, which means everything you produce can sell for 1.5 the price and the labs/workshops are a little bigger (which is a bad thing as much as it is a good thing since they still cost but i like my research/manufacturing done this century so...)

so, i guess that everything more than 5 bases is overkill since you really don't need them... the defences kinda suck, since i got lucky just once so it's best to send your interceptors right away (for me); i have been playing with two transports, but i mostly use one - the other is somewhat of a backup team used for smaller recoveries, and it's not such a good idea really, eventually the XP gap will become to big since you need your entire second team to be coronels (two lines) to be able to do something, like wearing a desert viper/beekeeper armor and a decent enough gun (akews, eeews and particles) while my primary team are commanders (two stars) and they all pack the waspkeeper armor (is it just me or the desert tortoise isn't worth it since it only provides 10 additional mechanical armor and sucks in all other departments comparing to the waspkeeper) and particles...

so, money isn't an issue if you are ready for some extra trouble and to know WHEN to upgrade (lightnings with lasers packing lasers/firebolts, after that i had a fiasko with the plasmas - made a whole bunch of them and by the time they were done i already had a better weapon system; anyhows stick with those lighnings until you get ions, upgrade at that point, then wait for the exterminators - i actually got the stormrider and exterminator research at the same time so... not to mention i got the particle equipment at that time so that was the moment is spent MAJOR cash... upgrading everyone to particle equipment then replacing them slowly with the exterminators... not even sure if it will ever pay off but what the heck )

i had a similar thing going on with the soldiers too, by the time i got (heavy) plasma, i had like 500 rifles sitting in my base, all of which got sold for cash since i got akew, then came the ion (which never got used since i already had akew) and then came the eeew which ended up being partially used (i was about to start upgrading to it but i got the particle tech) so... i don't know, some equipment really could have longer lifespans - i barely even used plasma and i haven't used ion at all (except once to see how it shoots)