My cash levels have dropped off

[Charly1]

I am in October 1997.

I was getting cash wads and briefcases in every raid on the cults, but all I am getting now is old weapons.

I may have overspent slightly on my bases in order to get up my 3 bases in Europe Asia and US, and ramp up my reseach capabilities, but I am barely breaking even each month.

Is this by design? Or am I unlucky?

I have got the Osiron ship mission a couple of times, and this sometimes yields some cool sounding weapons that I cant use which tends to bring in some decent cash for upgrades.

I know I still have a lot of time before the Invasion, but I also know the cults will soon get fightre planes and stuff, and I am concerned I may have over extended too early.

I guess I have 10 engineers on the payroll who are not doing much i could get rid of. Everything they build can only be sold at a loss.

[Juku121]

Is this by design? Or am I unlucky?

The MVP of the FAQs for this mod. The design is that sometimes you're unlucky, and sometimes you're not.

I know I still have a lot of time before the Invasion, but I also know the cults will soon get fightre planes and stuff, and I am concerned I may have over extended too early.

You have until August to beef up for the cultist fighter jets, so that's nothing to worry about yet. You do get to fight some helicopters from March or so, but these are much less of an issue.

Having 3 bases and breaking even is good. More mission coverage means more loot and higher score. And the moneybags are likely to return soon enough. Well, unless you've offended the RNG gods somehow.

I guess I have 10 engineers on the payroll who are not doing much i could get rid of. Everything they build can only be sold at a loss.

No manufacturing for profit in this mod.

If you don't need them to build useful things, firing 9 of the 10 is reasonable (you might still want to unpack some stuff). Do remember that you'll be paying two months' salaries to re-hire them.

[Charly1]

Ok... I have had a few mission where I have lucked out.

I have another question... Dont want to start a new thread

I have just had the Red Dawn base spawn. I only have humvees though, and I am not sure I can take down a base with 5 men.

Will the base despawn, and if so how long will it take to respawn?

[Juku121]

It will indeed despawn. Cult HQs respawn every month.

5 men against what's probably the most dangerous cult, starting in open terrain (since the Humvee provides little of it), with armoured cars shooting at you and the cultists spawning in fortified positions... Good luck with that. :'(

[Charly1]

Lol...I thought I would give it a go...

And I managed it fine. My Black Ops Sniper rifles owned it pretty much.

I knew I would be fighting 3 tanks, and managed to bring 3 AT RPGs.

The terrain was open I just took everyone out at long range. Maybe my starting position was quite lucky as pretty much everyone was coming in from one direction.

Once I killed 30 the final 15 surrendered. Dont even know where they were hiding

I remember last time I played this there was a huge underground section. I barely made it 20 yards from the Humvee, tbh. I only took a few minor wounds too.

I much prefer deploying from a Humvee. Its far better than the more advanced transports as it allows an Alpha stirike on the first turn (IMHO). I dont think the Dragonfly is worth it for 3 extra people, as it is a hassle getting them onto the field, without knowing whats around you.

I also much prefer an open field, as you can target the bad guys easier. Terrain allows them to sneak up. Most cults only have shorter range weapons... Well that is my theory anyway.

I remember the jungle one with the pyramid structure was a tricky one... And the invisible ninjas too... or was that in an undrground base too? Maybe that was an easier one. Too long ago...

[Juku121]

Must have gotten a really nice starting position. I usually get shot at from at least two directions. If the RNG is against me, spawn next to one of the towers.

In any case, I'm impressed.


Nevertheless, some thoughts.

Smoke helps, especially since I'm using 25% no LoS accuracy. But it also works against your own snipers.

Also, 45 enemies? What difficulty are you playing on? Normal should have 66 minimum, and likely more.

Starting out in the open is a huge gamble IMO. If the enemies have LoS on you, anything you do except immediately smoking (and thus blinding) yourself will provoke reaction fire since nobody's spent any TUs yet. And if you start on two or even three sides of the car, someone is almost guaranteed to be in their sights. Worse, if they're snipers they'll shoot you in the smoke as well. And if you cluster on one side of the car, you're a grenade magnet. Well, okay, that happens with the other craft, too.

This is somewhat mitigated by difficulty, since lower difficulties make it less likely that the enemies are staring at your craft straight from the beginning.

If there's some hills or similar that prevent you from being fired at from several directions, it's a lot better. As is spawning in a corner or just away from enemies.

The Dragonfly is kinda bad for the first turns, that's true. It has those lights all around that make night missions a pain and the layout is the same old 'flying coffin' as the Skyranger. OTOH, it's much faster than any car and can go to some covert missions as well. I would still take the three extra guys, smoking the ramp and less reaction fire while finding my bearings. YMMV.

You also have the little helicopter for 6 guys, and apart from being range-limited, it's a better Humvee.

And the Osprey is a new quality altogether.

One more thing about going out with just 5 men is that an injury or death can be quite a blow, especially to one of the snipers who rely on their accuracy a lot.

Cultists defending bases, manor or HQs have plenty of long-range weapons. Hunting Rifles, assault rifles, SVDs, PKMs, M60s, etc. I especially hate the explosives guys, Chosen with Milkors, Enforcers with regular grenade launchers, or just some asshole with a dynamite or hand grenade. :'(

The Dagon jungle is nice in that it's prime indirect fire country. Drop a lot of HE on their pointy green heads while they struggle to shoot you throught the jungle. EXALT and BL HQs are interior maps, so there's lots of sneaking up being done. Especially by the dudes in the extra-black pajamas.