Sorta stuck advice appreciated.

[Eddie]

Sounds like you need Pimpcraft:
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_(Piratez)#Merchandise

I see this is already taken care of 

[BetaSpectre]

Mutant porn isn't a good source of money is it?
Ah you mean pimping. With the mint its a great way to get some money. If you don't mind a little less inventory space.

[Dioxine]

You could use the accumulated monthly rating and if it's above a certain value, the attacks start. There is a graph for that so that number should be available.

To prevent the farming with base defences: could the troop deployment be changed to have more/only units that give no loot? Terror units that explode on death for example.
Exploding suicide robots come to mind... Anyone here played System Shock 2? Remember the exploding protocol droids?

Like I was a coder, lol. I can only work with what engine I have. And this is too intricate for negligible gains. Play lower diff levels and build up faster.

Also, sadly, suicide droids are impossible ATM. Could use droids with primed explosives maybe. But the factions of this game generally use cheap humans/mutants instead of expensive droids (except the Academy).

[legionof1]

Update time the mutant p issue has resolved itself through finally getting access to self production. So yay glorious interrogations in my future. Still no academy engineer but hey snaged an esper so here come the vodoo.

Bad news is that 2 secret bases got built by the traders in the same month. This might be the death knell. Gona try to pull off some assaults and maybe i can stave off doom a while longer.

Edit 1
PARISE BE TO RNGEUS. academy engineer after nearly 3 years. Let's get this show on the road.

Edit 2
First base assault down even managed to snag the guild-master alive. Now to do the other guild base. Oh and church base has turned up in the mean time.

[sambojin]

Glad it's fixed to be any engineer with next version. The original/TFtD had some roadblocks like that, and it could stall you horribly.

In xpiratez, sometimes you hit the engy a little too hard with your stun weapon, and not see another for months. If it's any engineer for the research requirements, not just academy, problem fixed.

Thanks Dioxine!

[legionof1]

welp yay for more tech tree RNG blockage. Academy is still the fuckers in question. Specify needing to interrogate engineer to move forward in the laser field. Also apparently im missing advanced chemistry because ive never had a toxigun drop nor gotten lucky on other routes(to many things on data discs). Only ever seen ghouls once so...and they dont come on ships. So guess i actually start doing pogroms to try for wider enemy ranges. oh joy. Also still missing Pirate straits and eurasian autonmy so niether russian files or forgery. At this rate i might very well make cydonia with rifles. Got half the codes already. Incidentally tesla coil weapon holy hell i love it. I can stun big things and no ammo to boot.


Update
Yay progrom payed of even it did take 25 turns to finish because one guy hid in a stack of crates inside one of the tiny huts in the dockyard tileset. Apparently you can open the door to the hut visually revel every tile in it but not see a guy behind the crate stack. I frankly though it was bugged. Debug mode to the rescue. Turn out the dude was just not moving from his hiding spot. I think that spot is more then just visually glitchy. Also had a downed freighter with a single corpse in the rooms below the exploded engines yet the decking was intact.

Anyway advanced chem got done and with it school graduation was finally doable. The tech tree has opened up again. Oh and the humanists kindly donated me tank tech after 4.5 years. I was all worried when they hit me with the biggest base attack craft. Turns out the spawns gave almost all the high tier units as leaders and instructors which are pathetic even with plasma guns. Tanks also not much of a challenge at this point.  Mercenaries have put up a base so now the final run is potentiality available. Though i still dont have a fogiest idea how i would manage the star god base that been in Madagascar since year one with vip alive.

[Loengrinn]

I've run into similar problems with the tech requirements.  I've captured and interrogated everything that comes in up to medium sized ships to the point that I can't interrogate any more.  All the "free research topics" are used up. And the only items that give me any more of those random ones are the humanist files.  Except I've exhausted the academy engineers too.  I've yet to come across AND capture the top tier units with the exception of a guildmaster, but the 2nd one captured doesn't give me a research topic for his code, despite the fact that I've researched The Solar Governor and had the game TELL ME to do that.

Idea?  I mentioned this in my own post on the tech topic, but I'd like to reiterate here since it's a possible solution: Some tech should possibly be unlockable thru sheer numbers.

I have taken apart about 150 different laser guns.  Of varying types.  If my Brainers can't figure out how they work and how to make them after breaking them down DOZENS of times, they're all fired.  And maybe tier it?  So it takes X for laser tech, and 2X for gauss (though this may be a simpler technology, though 2X still makes sense since they seem to be higher dmg), and since Plasma is final tier (?) make it take 10X or maybe even not possible thru simple disassembling them?