What do I have to do to win?

[singbird]

Yeah... I'm playing the 2.5 from December 27 and I have no idea what I should be doing. It's now August 2085. I have researched all there is. I have Stingray, Raptor, have destroyed three alien bases and researched the psi-thing, have the alien infection thingy (XIV map?)... Every few weeks I've been shooting down loads and loads of UFOs (up to Gunboats), but the latest alien development was from the start of the year when they transitioned to particle weapons. The only thing I haven't gotten my hands on is a new type of UFO: a sort of big-looking cargo ship or something. I saw one of these, but unfortunately it went down into the sea, and that was already like 4 months ago or something.

What do I have to do?

[Mungojerrie]

I'm not entirely sure, since I haven't completed the game yet, but maybe you need to research that "cargo ship" ufo - the Bomber. Researching it opened up another research proposal - "Orbital UFO Activity" which I didn't research yet, but the description is dripping with plot.

[ShipIt]

As Mungojerrie said, the Bomber UFO is needed to proceed in the tech tree. For some reason those do not spawn as frequently as they should. This is still under investigation (see  bugreport). Any further information might be helpfull here. So uploading your save would be appreciated.

[singbird]

Oh OK. Well that's good to know, I guess. I guess I'll just roll one or two more months and see if any pop up or start a new game. Thanks!

My save is attached.

[singbird]

I waited 'till the beginning of the next year, but no sign of Bombers, if that's any help. So it's a new game for me.

[Noordung]

try 2.6 i think saves will work and there are plenty of bombers in 2.6

[Duke]

Afaik nothing regarding bombers was changed in 2.6. If you want to restart, it's a good idea to use 2.6 though.

If you do NOT like to restart, there is a way to 'tweak' a mission to use a bomber. Search our IRC log to find out how.

[ShipIt]

If you do NOT like to restart, there is a way to 'tweak' a mission to use a bomber. Search our IRC log to find out how.

This will not work for the windows installer, because you can´t use the debug commands.

I tried loading the save in 2.6-dev and got a Bomber few days later in game. So maybe you should give that a try.

[singbird]

Thanks guys, but I decided to start a new game on very hard (on 2.6), since the normal difficulty was a bit easy anyway.

[Mungojerrie]

Thanks guys, but I decided to start a new game on very hard (on 2.6), since the normal difficulty was a bit easy anyway.

Easy?
Wow.
With no savescumming I'd be totally raped on normal. Especially in dogfights.

[MonkeyHead]

Ah, its not so bad once you get some Dragons into the air, and laser rifles on the ground. Once those two milestones are met, the playing field is far more level than trying to take down anything heavier than an alien fighter with stilettos and losing lots of troops to plasma fire.

[singbird]

The secret is using smoke, flashbangs and long range fire. Smoke is really just too good. Enemies should have the ability to blindly fire into smoke or something, maybe. Flashbang removes reaction fire and TUs for the next turn, so a flashed alien is practically dead. The aliens completely murder me in close combat, because their reaction fire is so deadly, so I try my best not to be there. Also, losing soldiers or half your squad every now and then is not the end, so maybe you just think you'd be totally raped. : )

[Mungojerrie]

Well, ground missions are not that bad. I barely lose anybody in my best squad since they are tough and wear power armor. My worst loss was a downed Firebird - poor thing didn't have a chance against a gunboat.

But air superiority is a faraway land. Even corruptors sometimes manage to down one of two Dragons I send after them, and Bombers & Gunboats are just invincible to me(save for the luring-to-base-defence-turret trick).

Will Starchasers be a new milestone? Is there a way to escort a transport aircraft with fighters? Flying across the globe unarmed with no support is a risky business...

[MonkeyHead]

Antimatter missiles from alien launchers really turn the tables. You can get those relatively early from the first corrupter you capture too.

[Mungojerrie]

Antimatter missiles from alien launchers really turn the tables. You can get those relatively early from the first corrupter you capture too.

Thought so. Isn't manufacturing and looting missiles too much of a hassle though? I didn't sell or use them at all, but there's at most 80 missiles total in stores at all bases.