Help ! (several questions)

[kzwix]

Hello,

I'm a noob at this mod, despite having finished both XCom and TFTD.
I'm overwhelmed by the sheer number of techs and the lack of "obvious" direction in which to go to get something specific. Also, I cannot find good resources (such as wiki) to help in my predicament.

I've recently lost a game 4 or 5 months in, after two negative score. Because, mostly, I'm unable to shoot down traffic (even when its PEDESTRIAN traffic - I know it's merely a different sprite and different stats for a "UFO", but still, it's kinda annoying to be unable to assault a ground-moving hiking party without having to "shoot it down" first.)


So, I'd like to know:

1) How soon we're supposed to have interceptors up and running (my second try is on the second difficulty). The resources I've found mention things like air-bikes and the like, but even they seem to be quite far in the tech tree (from what the 'query' tool shows)

2) What the effects of the "Captain" choice are. I've seen that they all have one (or two) exclusive techs, except for "none of the above Captain", which has nothing. Is there any interest in choosing that one (except, maybe, as a handicap) ? What are Pride/Might/Vision/Faith linked to ?  Same question for Ax-Crazy/Lewd/Pig-Headed/Bookworm/Daydreamer/Troubleseeker.

3) How is score related to science ?  Are all techs worth the same ? Or are expensive (or rare) tech worth more ? I barely broke through with positive score on the second month (having 4 brainers then), and I fear a quick "game over" if it continues like this.

4) I've a lot of difficulty recruiting brainers (they're really expensive, and I lack booty to recruit more). In the second difficulty, during the 3rd month, I have 6. Is it supposed to be enough ? I tend to capture people faster than I can interrogate them (which means I had to ransom prisoners on my last two missions).

5) There are also captured enemies I cannot research (zombies, for instance). Do I have to unlock that first with other buildings/tech ?

6) How do Hunting expeditions work (the "ship") ?  Are they any different from, say, the "military" expedition ?  I used one for hard missions, on my last game, but they lock your gals for so long that you miss up on a lot of other opportunities (and expanding the base facilities isn't easy - I recently unlocked the right to create Crew Quarters, but in didn't in the last game, for instance, and the burrows aren't up to snuff)

7) In the last game, I was a "Jackass Captain", which had unlocked some exploration stuff. I could theoretically get crates of stuff, which my runts could disassemble... I never, ever, understood how I was supposed to send my expeditions to try and find such stuff. Did I need the specific 'craft' (an exploration team, or some thing) ? Or would any craft have worked ?  What should I have done ?

8 ) Sometimes, a stunned character has a "ZZZzzz" over it. Sometimes, it seems like a "Ghost" icon. What is the difference ? Is the "Ghost" icon indicating that he won't come up by itself ?

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of questions I should ask, but let's say these will be enough for now

[Iazo]

1) Depends on many things. In general, to start shooting down stuff you need a weapon, and a platform for said weapon. At breakneck speed, and choosing the right choices, it can be done at end of february if you go red codex-Lil Ilya/Car Thieves. Another path would be green codex-bioplasma/Shadowmasters into a Scarab or smth. Grey has more problem having to use a conversion launcher into an airspeeder then shoot down a megapol car, ground assault it and hope you get a 25mm cannon, while Gold is shit out of luck needing to get Shadowmasters before putting their flame cannon to use on Megapol to get a more sustainable weapon like a 25mm.

All paths have the oportunity to Assemble the little bird, which is quite frankly not all that as platforms go, but you can sell it and use the reclaimed 14mm on Trucks or Harvester, depending on path, or build a buckaroo.

There is also Highway house mission and bounty rewards...or even Contact Rogue Fields and Pachyderm if you're on a fairly restricted path, and have more money than sense. In general, I'd rate that by june-july, you should have SOME form of air capability.

2) Captain who choices influence many things, but they generally provide both a bonus and malus, with none-of-the-above providing neither. The aspects provide triggers to events, both good and bad. They also tie in to codex if you mismatch the personality with codex choice, you get the oportunity to die horriblydo some difficult missions quite early for loot and interesting rewards. The mismatches are. Dumbass gray, lazyass red, soreass gold, jackass green.

In general, dumbass and lazyass are quite benign, whereas soreass and jackass are more polarizing personalities with strong bonuses and horrible drawbacks.

[greattuna]

Hello.

It's a big mod, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. It's okay to lose 5 months in too, since that's when the ninjas normally start their activity.

1. Generally it's a good idea to get interceptors as soon as you can, but it's not a pressing issue on second difficulty. You could probably live the entire first year without a single craft weapon and be fine as long as you keep researching and doing missions.

You can get an "interceptor" as early as in february, by crafting a Little Bird - but this little helicopter isn't very useful outside of shooting pedestrian traffic. Try to contact Car Thieves for the craft, and Krazy Hannah for craft weapons; this will be enough for civilian ships and other weak targets.

2. Captain choices give you some neat things like buildings and special manufacturing projects, but also affect the events you get when you play, both for better and for worse. None-of-the-above Captain is vanilla option, which doesn't give nor take away anything from you.

Ideas and Aspects matter mostly for events.

Spoiler:

If you collect all four Ideas, you will make your life more difficult.

3. Some techs don't give a lot of score, but most of the lore entries and numbered tips will give you 250 score each. Some techs will give you more (crowning, for example, is worth 1000 score). Science will also give you access to more and different missions, which is really your main source of score early on, so get as many brainers as you can.

4. Ransoming people is perfectly fine, you get money to spend on more brainers. You don't have to interrogate all of them right away. 6 brainers is... let's say it's workable, but you can have more.

5. Zombies need a medical facility present on the base.

6. Hunt parties can't be detected and shot down by enemy shipping. They're also much smaller - only 8 people compared to expedition with 25! That said, you should use your airbus since it's a lot faster to go around on it, and it has some cover.

7. Exploration stuff is event-based, so you don't get a lot of control over it. You just have a chance to get something nice every month. Having more bases in different regions adds additional chances.

8. Ghost means the character has enough stun damage to start taking HP damage every turn. This is Very Bad and will eventually kill that character if not treated.

Feel free to ask more questions if you need help.

[Delian]

There already exists a thread for small questions like these, and you could search for them since most are already answered.

1) In 2-3 months. Your first one should be LITTLE BIRD, which you get by researching Assembling the Bird.
2) The choice of personality unlocks a certain specific main tech/perk for that personality. In combination with the choice of codex, it affects what kind of extra events appear each month. None of the above means no change to the events or techs. Several bad events exist, so this choice evades the risk of any bad (and good) events.
3) Each score point is extra $333 at the end of month. Some research is worth more points, some less. Expensive tech is generally not worth it for the points alone.
4) Several missions award Castaway Gal's. Each Castaway Gal is a free brainer; you should rush the tech that allows you to produce brainers from Castaway Gals. You can get a lot more than 3 in two months. For instance, in the first month you will encounter Roving Bands (necropirates). That mission already allows you to save up to 3 castaway gals if you don't let any of them die.
5) Yes, to research Zombies you need Sick Bay built. You should not focus on researching them tho, they're too expensive for the early game.
6) EXPEDITION craft is slow. Don't use it to travel to places far away. The other expedition is technically an item you order that arrives in a month. You open the item and get rewards. You should buy "as many as you can handle".
7) You research Treasure Hunting and then these scavenging operations are monthly events. 21% chance per each region that has your bases in (1/3 chance the event is bad tho). Personally I think Treasure Hunting is crap because the chance is too low. However, Jackass captain is a good choice for the late game.
Ghost means overstunned (stun > 3x health). Overstunned units lose hp each turn, so eventually they die. You can use a canteen to reduce their stun.

[kzwix]

Ok, thanks for letting me know that expeditions, in addition to being extremely slow, can also be shot down by enemies. Good to know.

Well, now that I'm beginning to have some space for people at my base, I'll try and recruit more. Also, I have more questions:

9) Is there any difference between researching the "None of the above Captain", and not researching any of them ?  Apart from the time spent to research the tech, and the possible infamy coming with it ? [Edit: Found out myself. The crew deemed me lazy for not choosing... and it cost me 50 infamy.]

10) From what greattuna said, I guess that 6 brainers on the 3rd month isn't much. However, I fail to see how I could get much more money. I mean, I already sold a lot of things (except some materials which seem valuable), and I already heavily used save/load for some missions... So, did I miss something ?  I've read about the Chateau de la Mort, but this is another tech which looks a bit far away...

11) Is it normal to get a Chrysallis (and all these zombies) in a month-2 academy mission ?  I had to cheese that one (by putting people on the 4 squares of the elevator), and reload a good number of times, before I managed to down it... Melee was obviously a no-go, as the little bastard retaliates. Muskets and shotguns weren't really ideal

12) Nightvision and night missions. A lot of guides tend to instruct you to go into night vision mode, and turn off your personal lights. However, the orange monochrome look of the land (and the fact that it becomes colored, albeit very dark, if I press Scroll Lock) makes me think that we already start night missions in Night Vision mode. Also, I think our personal lights are off by default, but I could be mistaken ?

[greattuna]

9. If you don't choose, the choice will be made for you. You won't automatically be deemed a lazy captain, but it does have a higher chance of being chosen.

10. Early-game you mostly get money from mission loot, score bonus in the end of the month, and producing Chateau. Chateau is a ways off, but it's important if you care about your finances and have a few dozen runts.

As for missions, as I've said, you should aim for technologies that unlock more and better missions (their techs are marked with !exclamation mark!; !!Bounty Hunting!! is extremely important and thus marked with two exclamation marks). But in first two months you're largely depending on your luck to get something nice like a temple raid or a landed craft. If that doesn't happen... well, you do what you can.

A temple raid can pay for 2-3 brainers, and an academy outpost will let you afford at least +1 brainer (that surgery unit is pretty valuable), for example. Castaways can be turned into brainers too, and it's a very cost-effective solution, but I'd advise against doing that if you didn't pick a gal route.

Score is simple: do your research and do your missions, save civilians if there are any and don't lose too many of your own soldiers.

11. It's normal. A lot of the missions have a low chance of featuring zombies instead of whatever you'd face there regularly. And yes, your early arsenal is far from ideal against chryssalids; the only weapons that can reliably damage it are assault cannon, gothic raygun and melee.

12. Yes, if you deploy at night, the Night Vision mode will automatically turn on. The personal lights are also on, but your armors don't really have them.

[kzwix]

Aaah, so THAT was the reason why the key to turn the personal lights on/off didn't seem to work !
Good to know, thanks !

[ReD2222]

2) Captain who choices influence many things, but they generally provide both a bonus and malus, with none-of-the-above providing neither. The aspects provide triggers to events, both good and bad. They also tie in to codex if you mismatch the personality with codex choice, you get the oportunity to die horriblydo some difficult missions quite early for loot and interesting rewards. The mismatches are. Dumbass gray, lazyass red, soreass gold, jackass green.

Thank you for the trivia on worst captain-Codex combinations! Now I must try all of them out ^^ Wish me luck, and a victory or a swift death to my gal hands for my stupidity and dangerous choices. Just for them forcing me to choose an archetype of a captain to the end of 1st month xDDD

[Gremlion]

My 2 cents:
1. Game expects you to assemble proper Interceptor (hunter-killer) by the end of the first year, it starts to generate space missions around that time. Before that the game is balanced around you not having any interception - you are supposed to visit purple missions and occasional landings instead. Still, you will get an ability to shoot down civilians reliably around summer.
2. I think that you are underutilizing runts. Yes, chateau is a core moneymaking tech. But. Runts making hellerium distilling for sale already generate profit. Try to max runts first to generate your financial foundation. X-grog is an early tech, and even more profit than distilling. Chateau is better than grog, but it requires apples which are random. In a couple months you will be able to grow sectoweed and produce canteen of wisdom for sale. I try to get a second base asap and fill it with extractors to run a hundred runts making money non-stop. Example: https://imgur.com/W3XqVRY It costs ~4M to setup, so it takes less than two months to break even, and then it's pure profit till the end of the game. 
3. Full prison early is bad. Like, I think it's pretty common for you to capture a Priest from church of sirius and research him(-60k). Then he tells you about a shotgun. Is it smart? You could research said shotgun directly(-$10k) and sell the priest (+$60k) instead. There are techs that might make you to want to repeatedly interrogate prisoners for them (for me it is shadowtech which leads to codex crafts), but in general you will do better if you interrogate once (known enemy always gives infamy)
4. Expand. Your first "lab" is the mess hall - once per hideout. Second lab - surgery room, also once, but requires 10 meds (rob that academy medic like there's no tomorrow). 8 bases = 16 additional brainers, doubling your old earth lab capacity.

[Iazo]

I am gonna be the spoilsport noting you that runt profitability varies wildly with difficulty.

On JS, for example, x-Grog is barely profitable, everything else below loses money.

In light of this, I advise farms, weed farms, bees, hotels, and other suchlike. A farm base costs around 2 mil to establish, while providing 800k in profit, with far less oversight, and not subject to difficulty economy maluses.

[Gremlion]

I know. OP specifically stated that he's playing on the second difficulty, where my screenshots come from. I don't see a reason to not advise runts because they might not work as well on the last difficulty. There are two JS difficulties, btw.

[Vakrug]

A farm base costs around 2 mil to establish, while providing 800k in profit, with far less oversight, and not subject to difficulty economy maluses.

800k per month maybe is good in the first year, but it is nothing after that. I would not recommend doing farming (standart farms) on any difficulty.

[Iazo]

I very VEHEMENTLY disagree.

The investment is minor, way less than runts, it's tech and infrastructure independent (making grog requires extractor and still which is way past mid-year tech, closing to end of year 1), and that is only GROG, and if you want yo make canteens of wis or med supplies you need the farming infrastructure anyway.

And plus, losing 8 farms+a base to an ill timed crackdown hurts way less than losing all the manufacturing infrastructure+runts+rolling manufacturing stock.

Given this, at the very least, the idea is to expand to 8 bases using farms, then upgrading them to manufacture as research increases.