10. To "capture" an alien you have to do something that I haven't figured out yet - but it has nothing to do with Flashbang grenades. I'm sure of that. I tossed about 6 or 7 of them on one alien. Turns out they just keep the dude from doing anything for a round. Or two?
11. An AA-51 handheld missile launcher is not handheld - it slots into your base missile defence.
12. ECM means your aircraft is more likely to survive an attack.
13. UGV stands for Unmanned Ground Vehicle and I managed to build one but not use it.
14. Difficulty level doesn't seem to have an effect on AI - it's more about the meta game in the geoscape, and how much money you lose etc.
15. If you decided to shoot something and then changed your mind or just wanted to check the range/hit percentage, Esc won't work - just right click instead.
16. Your Stiletto fighter aircraft die alot on Insane difficulty. Apparently there's some alien craft you're not supposed to attack with them. No clue which or how to tell.
17. First Aid kit goes in Holster. Always.
18. Smoke grenades and Frag grenades in belt.
19. Ammo in backpack - you'll hardly ever have to reload, except the two Shotgunners you bring on every mission, for covering both sides of the big alien ship as you tip-toe inside.
20. 2 Shotguns, a sniper rifle, a machine gun and the rest assault rifles. Boring but safe and effective. Everyone but shotgunners just need one reload, but take two to be safe. There's a way to get the MG a machine pistol in his backpack with two ammo drums.
21. Every new map hit F to tilt, up arrow to see 2nd level and then zoom around a bit. It's more fun to play when the action is close up. Inside buildings/alien space ships hit R to tilt down.
22. Smoke saves lives.
23. Run the wounded person over to the person who will heal them. Saves time. Or leave the wounded in react if you can.
24. If you click on the firing solution menu and then switch guys, it won't adjust. You have to click off the menu and back one to see what the new one has selected for react fire. Always go 3-round burst or 5-round burst (or snap fire for sniper).
25. Most of the heavy weapons are cool but not terribly useful except in very special circumstances, since they can't all react fire.
26. It's actually spelled "bungalow".
27.
First playthrough on insane difficulty? No wonder you have problems...
Stilettos are more capable than saracens, but they are slower and have lower range, just ignore harvesters (triangular UFO, speed 1110 km/h), send solo crafts on scouts (770 km/h), and doubleteam fighters (880 km/h, look almost like scouts)
28. I managed to bring up a radar screen once by pressing "End" on my iMac keyboard. No clue how since I haven't been able to do it again.
29. Night missions are a pain and usually you're better off waiting for the morning.
30. Aircraft armour is not repairable, so don't play chicken with a fighter (880mph UFO guys) trying to pull it into range of your base missile defence.
31. Geoscape air combat looks pretty cool if you zoom in all the way and go slow. It's possible to lure the UFO's in over land.
32. The Production queue results are unf. not checked under the Production tab, but under Base Summary.
33. You can't walk backward. This leads to stupid tactics when you're trying to edge out backward to see a bad guy on the roof of a building you're next to.
34. Taking a screenshot on a Mac will be a pain if your Function keys do other stuff.
35. A guy crouching in front and a guy standing behind him with a shotgun means the guy in front gets hurt. By the shotgun. So no firing over your buddies.
36. You will eventually use some Sniper and Shotgun ammo.
37. Fun fact: if you have a choice between an aimed shot at 43% and a 3-round burst at 17% the effective chance for one hit on target is ~.75% different. Source:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/01/13/drop-chance-probability/#continued38. Combat missions are stupidly easy if you play safe and let the aliens walk into fields of fire. The "hard" part of the game is in the geoscape trying to keep nations happy and getting the research done fast. Meh. Not enough aliens per mission and no real reason not to auto-play it, except I'm here to play tactical warfare against aliens, not to play business manager.
39. "Standard" loadout of Stilettos apparently are: Shiva, 2xSparrowhawk, TC, ECM and no armour.
40.
http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Weapon_skills_table - seems some Heavy weapons sometimes use the "Assault" skill etc. Counter-intuitive and needlessly complicated to have a weapon use more than one skill-set.
41. There's no soldier health indication on the "Equip" page. Watch out - you might inadvertently send out a badly injured guy unless you check the Hospital or selection or employee pages.
42. There's a rescue zone by each dropship. It's not terribly useful or obvious why it's there. I still have no clue how I got the "Radar" screen to show up, or if it was related.
43. Plasma pistols really aren't that great. SMG's are, though. Standard loadout is: 1 sniper rifle, 1 MG, 2 SMG, 4 Assault Rifles. Shotguns are nice but the SMG is better.
44. Sometimes the TU's won't count down after you do stuff. Display bug.
45. The Stiletto ammo reload system is unclear and clunky. It's hard to know if you have enough missiles in stock or not sometimes, or if/when you have to manually reload. Speaking of which that entire "Equipment" page for aircraft has too many menus. It should just be one page with all the slots and ammo readout on one single page.
46. If you leave gear on the ground it comes with you at the end of a mission. Don't know about soldiers you lost, but I think you get the gear back.
47. UGV counts as an employee but I've never been able to use it. To be implemented, it seems.
48. When you sell a captured UFO you get a thing with a list of different nations' attitude towards you. I don't *think* it has any bearing on price or effect of selling to this or that state.
49. After you produce something you have to pay for it. I think. So it's really only useful for keeping a steady supply of missiles or building stuff you can't buy.
50. Forum rumour has it that you have to fly around a bunch to find the enemy base. I used a Firebird for that. He got shot down. I was sad.
51. I found a special mission called "The Gate" - it was cool and had no effect on anything afaik.
52. IR goggles work 360deg around you, with a limited range. I think.
53. When nations lose faith in you there's only one real way to fix it - build a base there. SAM- and Radar-sites won't cut it.
54. Early on, assault rifles, SMGs, MGs and sniper rifles rule. Then aliens start wearing armour and it's a mess for a while until you get Plasma Rifles.
55. People getting shot and continuing on like it's no big deal is a bit ...unrealistic. But oh well. If you really want to know how it works google "Russian Testing of body armor for durability".
56. The clunkiest part of the standard UI is probably figuring out who got injured and choosing firing modes/react fire mode.
57. My ideal UI would have no menus and no extraneous clutter.
58. If you have missile batteries in your bases you can get the UFOs to yo-yo in and out of range by popping up a Stiletto and then sending it back in, just stop it as soon as it comes out of the base. Kinda unfair on the enemy AI.
59. Ammo isn't a big deal early on, but damn that alien armour.
60. Whomever put "E" for "End Round" with the key being that close to the WASD camera movement keys... damn man. Evil.
61. I triggered the IR goggles (still haven't figured out if they see through terrain - think not) and a row of plate glass windows all busted. Lol.
62. Still no clue how ammo replenishment for aircrafts work.
63. Selling UFOs to the nation with the least happiness works wonders for your reputation.
64. There's no immediately intuitive way to tell in-game what weapons and ammo work well against what types of armour. Damn I wish I had the research texts in-game.
