Does intercepting/damaging a Terror Ship reduce the aliens at the Terror Site?

[Nerva]

Assuming I intercept and do some damage to a Terror Ship before it succeeds in landing at a Terror Site, does the damage do anything to reduce the number of living aliens on the Terror Mission and thus reduce the chances of them killing civilians and my soldiers?

What about considerations for maximizing score?   Is it best to shoot it down, or damage it, or let it land unscathed and kill them on the ground?

[ohartenstein23]

No, damaging a UFO does not change whether or not the alien mission continues or how many aliens show up at the terror site.  In terms of score, shooting it down gives you a few points, but not as many if you do well in the battlescape against a landed one. However, unless you've been paying attention to the UFO waves, you don't know if the terror ship is just going to scout the area, landing once or twice, or is going to generate the terror site.  Since the terror site has the biggest chance for giving you a negative score, it's best to prevent that from happening by shooting down the terror ships and assaulting them.

So Landed > Crashed > Terror Site, but shooting down ensures you don't have to do the terror site.

[Hobbes]

What about considerations for maximizing score?   Is it best to shoot it down, or damage it, or let it land unscathed and kill them on the ground?

Shoot it down and ignore the crash site. You already have the score from the shoot-down and you don't lose any points from not assaulting downed UFOs. Unless you're in the mood to deal with a lot of alien terror units.

[Nerva]

Perhaps I should have said "maximizing score and other considerations such as money" since assaulting/recovering UFO's is the best source of cash in the early game (and late game as well, if you choose not to build extra Workshops to make for-profit items).

Assaulting a landed UFO brings in the most cash, but if it is a terror ship, there is little money to be made on terror missions, so I would think the best thing is to shoot down terror ships.

[Hobbes]

Perhaps I should have said "maximizing score and other considerations such as money" since assaulting/recovering UFO's is the best source of cash in the early game (and late game as well, if you choose not to build extra Workshops to make for-profit items).

Assaulting a landed UFO brings in the most cash, but if it is a terror ship, there is little money to be made on terror missions, so I would think the best thing is to shoot down terror ships.

Totally possible as you describe with Terror Ships, myself I usually prefer going after Supply Ships landed at a base if I require cash or Elerium, since those have no terror units present and the UFO layout is less difficult to assault.

[Testbox360]

Shoot it down and ignore the crash site. You already have the score from the shoot-down and you don't lose any points from not assaulting downed UFOs. Unless you're in the mood to deal with a lot of alien terror units.

I always thought you were penalized for shooting it down but letting them wander about. If I was in charge of Egypt and XCOm shot them down but then left them there, I'd be upset.

I've lost alot of good men thinking that I had to attack a crashed ship.

[Hobbes]

I always thought you were penalized for shooting it down but letting them wander about. If I was in charge of Egypt and XCOm shot them down but then left them there, I'd be upset.

I've lost alot of good men thinking that I had to attack a crashed ship.

The logic is that if you prevent the aliens from completing their mission, either from assaulting a landed UFO or by shooting it down, you won't get penalized. But you still get rewarded score-wise by assaulting a crashed UFO, so there's an incentive for those missions, although if you're doing well in score you can simply skip them.

You can see it also from this viewpoint: Egypt would prefer if XCOM did a complete job, instead of having to deal later on its own with the alien survivors, but just shooting down the UFO and stopping the aliens' plans makes them satisfied enough.