Killed soldiers

[Greyson]

Hi guys, great game. Well done for resurrecting a legend. Mainstream developers only seem to want to make FPS's out of it.



Sorry if this has been asked before, I searched and couldn't find anything

I'm having a problem with my soldiers: basically they keep dying. I'm trying to get them experienced so they get better, but I seem to lose at least one soldier every mission, which is a real setback if he happens to be experienced. Is there any way to revive a 'killed' soldier? I remember in UFO:EU soldiers were critically injured on missions before they were officially dead, and they could be medi-pack healed or carried in the backpack of another trooper (looking like roadkill if I remember right) and medivac'd out of there so you didn't lose him forever.

Is there a similar feature in UFO:AI? I haven't found it if there is. Any advice would be appreciated!

[Hertzila]

Nope, nothing like a resurrection is featured (yet at least).
What difficulty level? While abusing the AI is possible even on harder difficulties, I'd recommend playing on the easy if you're new to UFO:AI.

Tips:
Use cover a lot. Always try to end your turn out of sight. (Very important for survival)
At the very least when the alien armour becomes common, forget and get rid of the starter secondaries.
First, get lasers ASAP. After that you can research things like autopsies for some time but when the alien armour comes up, research it and then the human nanocomposite armour ASAP.
Inaccuracy in longer ranges is sometimes compensated by huge amount of bullets (machinegun). Rocket launcher is decent for long range but actual explosive support should be done by the grenade launcher. Flamethrower is the best at its range.
And, most importantly, until this is fixed, DO NOT RELY ON REACTION FIRE! It's very unreliable right now, so don't build your strategy around it (this topic, second page for more info).

[Greyson]

Hi there Hertzila, thanks for the quick reply and tips.

Yep, I'm playing on easy for my first run-through, I've got nanocomposite on all my guys, and I've equipped them all with plasma rifles, making sure the minimum requirements of mind and assault weapons are at least competent, and over 100 health each... I probably need to diversify my weaponry, as I'm not getting good results with just the plasma rifles. Also my competent guys seem to have horrendous trouble with accuracy, but I guess that's to be expected if I didnt pick them for that stat.

In my last mission I lost a guy, the mission before it was two guys. I must be doing something wrong as I cant sustain those losses and have anything but a reject squad going out to save the world.

[Lew Yard]

All the plasma weapons are pretty inaccurate and poorly suited towards long-ranged combat.

[Hertzila]

I was going to say that you shouldn't use plasmas as they're pretty poorly balanced right now but since I haven't used them in over a year I wasn't sure if they were rebalanced during this time. Seems like not.
As Lew Yard said, they're bad and you should at least get a flamer, machine gun and sniper on your team. And when possible, give them lasers, that'll make things much easier.

[Murphy]

Indeed as other have said don't bother with plasma weapons. At the moment my team consists of:
3 heavy laser guys
1 flamer
2 grenadiers (with plasma grenades.)
1 laser rifle guy (he had a high assault skill rather then heavy so that's why he's got a laser rifle, otherwise he woulda had a heavy laser)
1 sniper rifle guy (thinking about changing him as the heavy lasers far outperform his sniper rifle.)

Heavy lasers and grenade launchers are the bread and butter of any squad in my opinion. I also highly recommend at least one flamer as they can pretty much kill anything with one blast of flame ('inferno' for ortnoks and armoured aliens) while using very little TU's. I think my flamer guy has the highest amount of kills out of my squad with the grenade launcher guys a close second. Always use the heavy laser guys to draw fire from a long distance as the alien plasma weapons are awfully inaccurate and hardly hit, while your grenadiers and flamer guys get in close using cover.

 Remember that aliens will usually shoot at the first enemy they see. So If your Heavy laser guys are in plain sight your flamer guy can be just a few squares around a corner from an alien and be safe from attack, as the aliens will shoot at the Heavy laser guys in the distance. Even if you pop the flamer guy out, attack, and pop back into cover. This tactic is especially useful when storming Harvesters on terror missions. Have your HL guys stand in full view of the entrance to the ship at a very long distance, while your grenadiers and flamer guys hide either side of the doors. The aliens will shoot and most likely miss your HL guys, whiles you pop grenades threw the doors and flame the aliens before popping back out of sight.

[Sarin]

I found plasma rifle very useful as close/midrange assault weapon. So I have one in my squad, otherwise I use just plasma pistols as sidearms for laser armed guys. And of course...every guy gotta have at least one plasma blade.

[Greyson]

Thanks very much for the help guys!

I've changed some things around and I'm doing a lot better on missions: I'd never even tried the grenade launcher or flamer on the faulty logic that any gear you start with has to be the worst of the worst, and anything captured or researched an automatic upgrade. I was very surprised to see how easily grenade launchers dealt with opponents in the open, and laser rifles actually hit the damn targets, which was a new experience for me.

I'm still taking more casualties than I'd like, but its a dramatic improvement with the new loadouts. I'll get stuck into them and hopefully improve my tactics to lower casualties further. I'll also try the heavy lasers, I have not used them yet and they sound good too.

Is there a better level of armour than nanocomposite for human troops? One of the reports I read mentioned possible powered armour, but I haven't picked up anything to lead me in that direction yet.

[Sarin]

I believe that power armor is not implemented yet.

Anyway...AI is plain stupid and uses always acts the same way. Observe how it acts at different maps and very soon you'll be able to do most maps without taking any casualities. And also...grab medikits, and once your soldier takes a hit pull him down and heal him.

Three starting weapons don't have replacement and you might use them till the end: flamer, grenade launcher and machine gun.