Shooting UFOs down over water ... specifically Terror ship

[Countdown]

I searched online, but didn't really find any specific answers to my question. Basically, if you get the chance to shoot down a UFO over water should you? I know that means you don't get to do a recovery mission, which early game can be a problem if you don't have any money. But later in the game when you have plenty of money and good soldiers you don't want to risk, would it be advantageous to shoot it down over water and not have to do a recovery mission?

Are there any penalties or bonuses for shooting it down over water? Are there penalties for shooting it down on land, producing a crash site, but not recovering it? Obviously you don't get the points/money a recovery mission produces, but are you penalized for letting the crash site disappear?

I've done plenty of terror missions, but never a terror ship recovery. I imagine this one would be a lot riskier than standard UFO crash sites, so would that be a good one to shoot down over the water? Or is the payoff for this ship worth the risk to your highly trained soldiers? In my current saved game I have the opportunity to shoot it down in the ocean, or I can wait for it to get to land.


Thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me.

[R1dO]

Since OXC goes to great length to stay true to the original the following info suggests you will only gain points equal to a downed ship without performing a recovery mission.

As for the rewards, try a mission and decide for yourself

[Hobbes]

I've done plenty of terror missions, but never a terror ship recovery. I imagine this one would be a lot riskier than standard UFO crash sites, so would that be a good one to shoot down over the water? Or is the payoff for this ship worth the risk to your highly trained soldiers? In my current saved game I have the opportunity to shoot it down in the ocean, or I can wait for it to get to land.

If you really need the resources go for the crashed Terror Ship assault, otherwise you may want to stay out of those, specially when they involve psi aliens or Chryssalids.

[Zyzyfer]

If you can get an intact terror ship I'd say go for it.  More Reapers are good for your scouts to level reaction statistic (use rifle/laser pistol).  Kill those pesky floaters and leave the reapers for your scouts.
Always use smoke grenades to protect scouts (stay in center of cloud), it means aliens wont get a shot at you until they get very close while you can spot and shoot at them. Reapers & aliens in general tend to behave weirdly when your soldiers are under smoke cover (mind you i play with mod that allows smoke/explosions to affect multi levels), if you keep them about +20 squares away Reapers tend to aimlessly wonder letting you react fire without concern.
In my current campaign I am only month of April and all of my dedicated scouts (I have x6) have hit +70 in reaction fire and x2 are about to hit 80+ A good scout crew make play less of a nightmare later on.
So go ahead play those terror ships/terror missions. The early ones are quite easy exp.

[Countdown]

Thanks for the advice all. Sounds like ignoring a crashed UFO (terror or otherwise) is the same as crashing it into the water points wise, so doesn't matter either way. Over land just gives you the option to recover. And high risk = high reward for doing the recovery on those big ships.