Hi everyone, I've been playing this mod for quite a while now and noticed that most tips that can be found online are "you need to get to Promotion II asap". Ok, I have it for quite a while... Now what?
First, you want to get 1) the explosives license and 2) all cult operations and OSPREY. Then uou want to get Promo III ASAP, which means killing off at least one cult and fulfilling one of the optional prereqs.
- I'm at the beginning of November 1997 and have two bases, but budget is getting tight - despite very good score each month, funding is giving me only 600k net income per month or so, everything's so expensive to maintain... Yes I do "sell" money cases and everything I don't need, that's why I can afford to still build/buy/hire stuff.
Money can be tight so you need to prioritize your finances. In early game, it's also very dependent on RNG (how many money briefcases, money bags, etc. you get).
- I'm researching standard lab - though I don't know why, currently using 25 scientists and while I could surely use another 25, that's over 4 million of upfront purchase cost, not to mention the hell of maintenance of such infrastructure.
You'll want to start gradually saving for building and hiring costs for the science lab even before you get the research.
- I have "cult operations" researched for everything but red dawn, but I have the right capture so it's a matter of (rather short) time, also got durathread factory location done so expect some sort of mission to pop up, hopefully it spawns coordinator so I could get to hq and terminate at least one cult. But what worries me is that I had "operations" for quite a while now and yet didn't get any new mission, it was always hideouts of the cults for which I haven't got "operations" yet. The only exception was Black Lotus manor that randomly popped up... I destroyed it but now I'm scared, because upon approach I detected vehicles coming out of it, I panicked and started building small radars in my two bases but it's not like I have anything that can shoot an interceptor or whatever they use down... Also makes me wonder how many more manors do I have around the globe which I don't know shit about yet.
It's really important to get all cult operations ASAP. You may even want to delay researching the rest of the cult operations until you have the officers for all of them (this is because researching operations stops cult safe houses, which could be a good source of income, and without osprey tackling even outposts can sometimes be challenging).
Cult operations gives you access to OSPREY. With OSPREY, it becomes possible to tackle cult forward bases and HQs, and other missions with confidence. At he point you get OSPREY, you should have two bases placed in a manner which give you almost full coverage to the countries the cults cover (the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, parts of Aussie).
It is risky to try to tackle Durathread Manufacturing plant without OSPREY. You probably don't want to bother. Though Durathread Manufacturing is an easier way to obtain Red Dawn Coordinator compared to Red Dawn Forward Base. (But Red Dawn HQ can be difficult.)
You don't need to worry about manors before promo III and before mid-1998 at the earliest. Your crafts will usually be faster than cult radar craft (until the manors get upgraded to tier3) so there is no problem with them.
You don't want to build any radars before that either; they are also a waste of money, because ultimately you want large radars, and the money is better spent on other subjects at this stage. All the important things will pop up anyway without radars.
- Been getting some negative events regarding zombies, should I research them? I have both a corpse and live specimen of standard, fat and that one that turns victims into zombies upon killing so I feel like I'm capable of doing something about it (oh and also damaged and intact zombie parasite, whatever that thing is), it's just that I have too little research time for everything between fighting cults and getting guns. Or maybe I should ditch cults for the time being and do something else entirely? For example I have lots of both dead and alive strange creatures lying around, or alenium awakening, or keeping on interrogating all sorts of prisoners etc etc.
You will need to focus on the cults and promo III prerequisites.
You will need to research zombies as well, but the zombies are not your #1 priority before Promo III. You will want to watch out for Zombie Infestation missions (especially the ones where the description says "major"). You will need to grab a live zombie infector (red one) to gain an important implant. But it can wait until you have OSPREY.
- Any downsides of just blasting all the cults away ASAP? Or should I keep some specific cults around for items/research I will need but won't be able to get once they're gone? Particularly worried about Dagon, since it's related to underwater stuff. Also researching alien biology so next time a deep one pops up in a ritual murder mission I'll have the means to contain it... Except so far I only had one such mission.
You can blast all of them away as soon as you are able. But especially for Dagon it is useful to make sure you unlock the underwater arc. As long as you have alien containment before the Dagon HQ mission, you're OK, because there will be deep ones to capture there (and by the time you get it, you have the research needed to interrogate them).
There are a few benefits you may miss if you're unlucky and terminate all cults ASAP, but nothing worth mentioning here.
- The direct trigger for writing this post was a -250 score event about 6 interceptors lost in Antarctica due to UFO. But... How could I detect and then shoot down an UFO, even if it had the courtesy to appear around one of my bases? Can UFOs even spawn in November? Is there anything I can do about such events?
Don't even try to shoot down UFOs until well into 1999. Trying to get crafts to do it is waste of money and hangar resources. The major downside is the aliens might retaliate against your bases and you might get a retaliation that is too difficult to handle. Just don't do it.
Sometimes there are early alien research missions already in 1997. But very rarely you can get into those in time.
There are some missions like "Military shot down a UFO" which are sufficient to get alien stuff.
You can shoot down cult craft though (like the ones spawning from the manors). You know them from their very slow speed. AH LITTLE BIRD is the best early game craft for this.
- "Air" game (put in qotes since there are land vehicles in play, too), radar coverage and all that jazz. I have 6 hangars (3 in each base), one chopper and one humvee per base plus one base also has a sport car for fast reactions (though I feel like I should get rid of it, missions get too tough for only two people and it's been a while I've used it). And as mentioned eariler, two small radars being built. Should I start worrying about it? How could I expand? I have that chopper with "arrow" in its name researched that seems to be an interceptor because it carries only 2 people but lots of weapon mounts, also guess I could get a machinegun licence to arm my humvees... But wonder what good would a simple military car with a machinegun on top do against whatever these cults spawn from their manors which I can't even see. And again, budget is very tight and "air" game is definitely on the pricey side. And what about proper interceptors for when the aliens come with invasion force?
As said above, forget about air game except against cult manor, where AH LITTLE BIRD provides easy training opportunities by shooting down their craft a couple of times a month per manor.
- Water game - as I'm researching Dagon stuff and prepare for being able to build alien containment to get a live deep one, should I worry about it now? Like will I get some underwater missions I won't be able to do because I'll lack a submarine, diving suits and underwater guns? Or is it a problem for later?
You get submarine automatically and basic gear automatically. Just start preparing to research and build alien containment as soon as you are able, to be able to capture a deep one. You will need either a dagon sorcerer and multiple well-planned interrogations of dagon chosen's to be able to interrogate a deep one in any case.
- The one thing I'm confident about is squad equipment, I use mostly NATO rifles plus I'm researching black ops contact and their intelligent pistol so (I also have their magnum and normal pistol), I have a license for explosives, .308 sniper rifle, SKS (turned out to be a surprisingly good choice despite having access to so many solid modern firearms), that protective gear you get from Xenonauts history research etc etc. Or should I also be worried I'm falling behind? I dream about lasers or maybe at least advanced, experimental firearms this game has but have no clue how to reasonably get to them, let alone any more complex armor.
Your equipment sounds fine. The chances of survival improve already once you have armored vests and x-com bio enhancement.
Lasers are long way off.
You will want the explosives license though, in order to get grenades and indirect fire weapons. Especially against red dawn you don't want to shoot the cultists directly, because they respond with spotter/sniper mechanic with fire and grenades.
- Roughly when would I need a third base? And how the hell am I supposed to fund it with my money issues? And same question about eventually building a workshop and hiring engineers.
You want to have your first two bases placed so that you can cover essentially all cultist locations with first HELICOPTER and later with OSPREY. Building the third base can wait; getting science lab is more important. Science lab is IMHO also more important than workshop and engineers.
- What's the easiest and fastest route for Promotion III?
It depends on RNG. First you need to finish at least one cult. Then you have alternatives. Quite often for me it has been the underwater arc, essentially getting to the point of interrogating a deep one.
IMHO Black Lotus is the easiest cult to deal with. The "Root of all Evil" mission gives an easy way to capture the avatar. And HQ mission can be dealt with basically with dogs and camping tactics with rudimentary equipment.
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Factory is shut down. I approached at night (It spawned literally on North Pole so it's not like I could choose... 
) Spammed smokes to come close to the building through open terrain, got lucky to wound a sniper in the window, killed guys rushing out of the buildings straight into my overwatch, lost a soldier due to sniper fire and another one was wounded. And that wound was crucial for winning the mission, because as I turned my other soldier to use medkit I spotted a coordinator with a minigun just chilling two tiles behind in a smoke... Even if I tried, I could not savescum an easier capture opportunity. And finally chased some tough leftovers in terrain with no cover and I swear they had infrared vision or something, it was a mess since my smoke seemed to work better for them than for me, many wounds but miraculously no deaths. Tl:dr; wasn't even that hard of a mission, guess it's for the better I saw your advice after it was already over lol.