Funding Nation mood whiplash

[Quizer]

Check out this screenshot; I've marked all mood changes for United America in the past few days of play.

The lowest one is a change from Pleased to Happy, after doing a mission. No problems here, as long as I understand it right that this is a step up.

The next one is a change from Happy back to Pleased at 00:01 the next day. Again, not a problem, since I assume this is natural decay and that mission earlier can't have gotten it all that far above the boundary between the two states.

The next one is an announcement two days later that happiness has changed back to Pleased. Now I'm a bit confused, since I thought it already was at that level - why does the game feel the need to tell me what I already know?

Then, 14 minutes (!) later, happiness drops from Pleased to Content. Okay, what the heck? Why did it drop more than a whole happiness level in just over two days of in-game time? It's not like I skipped a terror mission or anything - there weren't any missions that I was aware of since the first mood change in this log. I only have a tiny radar tower in North America, so I guess I could have missed a few UFOs flying around, but that's all.

After doing the next mission, it went back up, so at least it seems it didn't continue to drop at that rate. But I'd still like to know, what gives? Is there a random element to mood decay and I just got unlucky? If someone understands what happened here, please explain it to me.

[Anarch Cassius]

My experience has been that missing even one UFO can result in huge drops. I've got three towers on North America and still miss stuff. You can miss UFO going through the detection zone. Actual missions aren't hard to spot but they have to be in range.

Completing a mission with minimal loss of civilians is typically a large boost for that country and a small one for others.

Selling a UFO to a country also gives a boost.

A crashed UFO doesn't pose a great threat to happiness but they will eventually get away.

An alien mission will periodically hit happiness, quite strongly, until they leave or you eliminate them.

[Magniff]

Hi Quizer,

assuming you’re playing 2.4 or 2.5, I didn’t recognize such an erratic behavior in my own sessions, yet.

Additionally and according to the fact your only radar coverage of North-America is a radar-tower, it‘s quite plausible you’ve missed a terror- or harvesting-mission (each landed ufo triggers such a mission and AFAIK they are only randomly reported to the player).

Regards
Magniff

Edith:
@Anarch Cassius: You‘ve already stated much of the content of my post, sorry!

[Quizer]

I see... well, if terror missions can happen even off camera, that explains things (I assumed all terror missions are brought to the players attention). I have harvester UFOs buzzing around left and right, and no reliable way to take them down without losing ships yet. Guess I should get that first Dragon Interceptor built, eh?

[kurja]

in current version two interceptors can take down a harvester and with a a bit of luck you won't lose either, I haven't tried if it's possible to safely shoot down harvesters if you use three or four interceptors, has someone tried?

[Quizer]

Yeah, one of my bases has two stiletto interceptors, the other only one. I have taken down a harvester UFO without losing one of them, but it took several tries. Unfortunately, it all but cripples one of them for a good long while, and the UFOs also like to fly into my direction range at an angle and immediately exit again. They don't always conveniently approach my base. >_>

Anyway, what armaments do you use on your interceptors? Once you unlock aerial laser cannons, should you replace sparrowhawk missiles with them? I've also salvaged a few copies of the particle weapon from UFOs - I assume they are superior to everything else I could possibly field for now?

The troublesome bit is, weapons with ammunition have their stats written on the ammunition, weapons without have them on the weapon, and the beam weapons don't have their range written on their stat pages. Also, the ammo and reload part isn't entirely clear. Is reloading time during flight, or back at base (you only get what ammo you launched with in one flight)?

[Anarch Cassius]

Actually if you are willing to pay for them and have a fast enough plane nothing beats Sparrowhawks for a large part of the game. If you out range and out pace an enemy even slightly you can simply fire Sparrowhawks, break off to reload and repeat. This isn't exactly an exploit as they are expensive and later enemy craft make it much harder to pull off but don't underestimate Sparrowhawks. I won't complain if aliens start fleeing or seeking back up in future updates though.

I haven't used lasers much but I think they are a SHIVA replacement. Particle beams definitely are, and a very good one. With these Saracens actually become fearsome.

Stillettos with Sparrowhawks to start, at some point supplement with Saracens using particle beams. Once you get Dragon and above, whatever alien gear you can afford and fits the ship... but keep your original planes too.

Not loosing crafting taking down a Harvester in the early game should not be expected. They will chase down anything that tries to Sparrowhawk them and blow it out of the sky. If I strike with 3 or more ships I won't loose more than one and sometimes none, but never count on it.

My strategy with big craft before I can down them is to follow them until they land and send a ground team. If they chase me I head for a missile bank and send in back up for the coming big battle. Until I'd dismantled a few fighting them in the sky was a last resort.

[Anarch Cassius]

Also, there's no harm in periodically sending planes on patrol. Make sure you have some at base to respond but otherwise it's a great way to find those missions you missed and get a head start on incoming alien ships.

[Quizer]

I tried sending out ships to look for landed UFOs or UFOs that flew out of my detection radius, but I never got anything when I did. I guess I could be more persistent about it.

Stillettos with Sparrowhawks to start, at some point supplement with Saracens using particle beams. Once you get Dragon and above, whatever alien gear you can afford and fits the ship... but keep your original planes too.

How many planes do you keep at each base? Those hangars take up space that can be used for other things, so I don't think I can justify more than two interceptors and a dropship per base. I'm not that far from building my first dragon - it's researched, I just need to finish salvaging another UFO before I can start producing them. Once I do, I figure I'll be able to start taking down harvesters for real and slowly replace all my Stilettos with Dragons. How much antimatter do they eat? Is it troublesome to keep them supplied? (I plan to keep dismantling UFOs anyway to supplement my income.)

My first base is set up something like this:

2x Interceptor Hangar
1x Dropship Hangar (2 sq)
1x Entrance
1x Command Center
1x Power Plant
1x Advanced Radar
1x Storage
1x Alien Containment (2 sq)
1x Antimatter Storage
1x Hospital
4x Living Quarters
4x Laboratory
2x Workshop  (2 sq)

The second base is almost done, having all of the main infrastructure built (except antimatter storage), with 2 out of 4 workshops built right now. I decided I need a real production center since 300 hours to dismantle a harvester is still unreasonably long, and 40 researchers keep me on top of research topics as they become available pretty well. I haven't had nothing left to research yet, but I expect it to happen any week now.

[Magniff]

I‘m separating my bases into two types: type-1 are military-bases and type-2 are production-bases (workshops use up much more space as laboratory‘s do). My HQ (military-base) is also doing all the research (4 laboratory‘s).
I‘m currently planing to further specialize my production-bases into disassembly- and construction-bases.

Speaking about the early-game and the early mid-game, my standard loadout are two stilleto interceptors in each base.
Military focused bases in addition are holding a firebird dropship, up to three base-defense facility’s and no workshops.
Production focused bases are holding up to five workshops and no base-defense facility‘s or laboratory‘s.

In the beginning my interceptors are equipped with two sparrowhawks and one shiva-cannon.
According to my budget, shivas get replaced by aerial-lasers as soon as possible.
I also replace most of my sparrowhawks by particle-beam weapons, as particle weapons got lower maintenance cost (ammunition).
AFAIK dragon interceptors use antimatter as fuel, I therefore didn‘t build any of these until now (early mid-game).

I try to actively scout the area outside of my radar-range. But as scouting waypoints are not implemented, I conveniently just place my stilletos in order to monitor single locations that exhibit a high population-density (according to the displayed size and number of city during the night).

Regards,
Magniff

[Triaxx2]

I've honestly had better luck with rocket pods early on. Better damage, and if you're using two Targeting Computers, the inaccuracy is completely negated.

I use Sparrow Hawks in my Saracens early on.

[Wolls]

Yeah, the TR-20 does have better damage (all ammo fired and hopefully hit), but it doesn't quite have the range of the Sparrow Hawks..  i.e. the Alien Fighter has a PBW of range 2, so you can fire and stay out of range with the Hawks.

Later on, when you're up against the AM missile, I find on slow (5 sec??) I can wait till I see the alien craft fire, then cut left or right and the missile will miss, then turn and fire.  (Using PBW's,  dodging and firing from just inside of weapon range).

I also use Saracens.  I don't build a lot of bases, so I need the range.   

[Quizer]

I've been trying stilettos with 3 aerial laser cannons equipped. ALCs do far more DPS than anything else in the early and mid game (even taking into account damage reduction on fighters and harvesters). I'm not even sure I should replace them with particle beam cannons in the heavy slots. Particle beam cannons are basically sparrowhawks without ammo costs and with better accuracy. You still have to micromanage the fight if you want to take down harvesters, but I don't see that changing for a good long while, if ever.