What's the best tech tree path?

[Ildamos]

^Subject.

Because I heard certain research areas are useless in the early game. Which ones are they and why?

Thanks for any helpful replies.

(I tend to for fluff and do what any military organization would do ---- know who the enemy is (Alien Origins) and research stuff that would give you air superiority (Continuous Wave Lasersomething)---but I dunno if this is the right path.)

[ViolentAJ]

I tend to research better weapons for my soldiers ASAP. Once I have comfortable weapons, I begin researching other things, like alien autopsies, live aliens, improved air superiority, etc.

[DarkRain]

Yes, Continuous Wave Laser Operation is a good start, but most will focus in infantry weapons first (lots of player seem to love heavy laser) rather than aircraft weapons, one non-robotic alien autopsy and the Alien Breathing Apparatus in order to be able to capture live aliens (and stun civilians too, wich may come in handy), and the Alien Body Armour to get Nanocomposite Armour as soon as you get your hands in one, would be my priorities, I'd leave autopsies for the end and IIRC most of the later intelligence research will require that you capture lots of aliens so intelligence can wait a bit IMO (tough Alien Origins allows you to research the UFO components I dont remember if they are used for something in 2.3)

[Ildamos]

Thanks!

[Quester]

I find that the bolter can wait till you get at least plasma pistols.  That way you can upgrade one of your snipers to carry it and use it with some degree of accuracy.  Yes, yes, I hear alot of booing and hissing, but, I find the bolter useful for close aimed shots, and it has saved my sniper when a bug ambushed him.  3 round burst, point blank and I got me a dead bug.

[parjlarsson]

As soon as you've researched Plasma Pistols and Rifles the pressure on getting weapons eases dramatically as you can now just do some missions and pick up replacement gear and ammo - which to me kind of outweighs any advantages of Laser Weapons.

[TallTroll]

I find laser rifles effective, because I insist on using the assault rifles (which are actually a half decent weapon, used correctly), so my squads tend to get one or two to fill in between the sniper and assault roles. The laser rifle doesn't have the punch of the sniper, but it can fire more shots, and is way more mobile, and is way more accurate than the AR, and they don't eat DF cartridges the way a heavy laser does

[jerikojerk]

i dislike laser rifle because of they cost. i prefer plasma weapon. they are free, and more effective than weapon.

i do alien thing last, first goal is aircraft laser, then it isnano armor (i think it's easier to have some of them before the alien start using blasters. When i start studying alien something realy interesting is to get the advanced radar because it's a building whitout open doors (when you're under attack it's more easy to tell from where the alien will come.)

[ptbptb]

I've just got the Plasma Blaster. I'm not sure yet whether it's actually a better deal than the Machine Gun or not. The accuracy is just so poor you almost need to be in flamethrower range before you get much use from it.  I might do some trial runs to see which gets the best result between the two.

[Nutter]

I generally only use plasma rifles as far as that line goes.
And even then, only as ligh support weapons. Blaster is useless and the heavy is just overdone.
First thing I go for is usually bolters since they're the best thing for the Harvester engineering abuse.