A thread for little questions

[Ethereal_Medic]

@baylobster
You're right. Hyperwave Decoder is a bit deeper in the techtree and costs quite a number now with the extra ship-engines hooked into the building-costs.
At one point you've to join the mutant alliance. Pogroms are doable with utmost care and a bunch of explosives and other forms of indirect fire to avoid direct firefights and nasty terror-units.

Be aware: You're just a helping hand to the alliance, it's not mandatory to fight every pogrom once the alliance favours are researched.
Factions like Mercenaries and Star Gods are really hard to handle in Year 2 so just check the pogrom and instantly flee the scene.
The score-penalty is smaller in comparision to ignoring the call (-1000).

If you run short on tokens, you can buy them for cash. It's expensives but if RNG screws you over, there's this way to get reputation.

[boylobster]

@baylobster
You're right. Hyperwave Decoder is a bit deeper in the techtree and costs quite a number now with the extra ship-engines hooked into the building-costs.
At one point you've to join the mutant alliance. Pogroms are doable with utmost care and a bunch of explosives and other forms of indirect fire to avoid direct firefights and nasty terror-units.

Be aware: You're just a helping hand to the alliance, it's not mandatory to fight every pogrom once the alliance favours are researched.
Factions like Mercenaries and Star Gods are really hard to handle in Year 2 so just check the pogrom and instantly flee the scene.
The score-penalty is smaller in comparision to ignoring the call (-1000).

If you run short on tokens, you can buy them for cash. It's expensives but if RNG screws you over, there's this way to get reputation.

Hey, thanks for the reply! So... I haven't yet been able to research Alliance Favors, and I don't know how to get to it. Basically, out of Zaxx, the Alliance, and Jack, I've only had interaction with Jack - no missions or ways that I can see to contact the other two. Is this normal? It looks like I need an "Assassination Trophy" to progress with the Alliance, but I've no idea where that comes from, and I don't think any missions of that type have been offered to me. After not too long, I'm going to run outta' research topic, and we can't have *that*, right??? ; p

[Zippicus]

You can get mutant alliance tokens from a few different things.  If you're not getting the humanist safehouse or alliance traitor missions you can still get tokens by freeing mutants from a few missions, like the academy outpost or the ghoul town missions.  Upgrading the bounty level gives more opportunities as well.  The RNG can be a bitch sometimes, especially when you're looking for tokens.  The current game I'm running I had to buy a ton of Zaxx tokens which I really don't like doing but the game was being a jerk.

[cc]

Hey, I hope this is an appropriate place to ask this: Hyperwave Decoder? From what I can tell, no Mutant Alliance missions = no Library = no Hyperwave Decoder = no idea what all the red blips are = no shooting anything down. 

You can still shoot something down relying on visual identification of UFOs. Interrogating prisoners unlocks the Bootypedia entries and all the pictures are in there.
The Sci Books necessary for the Library can also be unlocked by doing a prison raid in the Dr. X arc. You'll need an Academy Esper for that, but if the RNG hates you, you might get one before an Assassination Trophy.

[boylobster]

Heyyy, thanks guys!    Okay, okay, the picture is becoming clearer; I'm narrowing down on what I need to ask, LOL.

You can get mutant alliance tokens from a few different things.  If you're not getting the humanist safehouse or alliance traitor missions you can still get tokens by freeing mutants from a few missions, like the academy outpost or the ghoul town missions.  Upgrading the bounty level gives more opportunities as well.  The RNG can be a bitch sometimes, especially when you're looking for tokens.  The current game I'm running I had to buy a ton of Zaxx tokens which I really don't like doing but the game was being a jerk.

I've been rescuing Alliance members when I can, and I'd considered buying the tokens outright, but I didn't know if tokens alone would lead to "Alliance Favors", or whatever. Maybe upgrading the bounty level will help shake up the variety of the missions offered, 'cause I'm still on D, haha - and it's good to know that my game's not broken, it could just be crappy luck that I'm not interacting more with the Alliance. Thanks for the the info, @Zippicus!

You can still shoot something down relying on visual identification of UFOs. Interrogating prisoners unlocks the Bootypedia entries and all the pictures are in there.
The Sci Books necessary for the Library can also be unlocked by doing a prison raid in the Dr. X arc. You'll need an Academy Esper for that, but if the RNG hates you, you might get one before an Assassination Trophy.

Yah, I just started doing visual assessments, lol - I remembered that there was a contraindication, blue and red lights, but I couldn't remember whether they meant Attack or Do Not Attack, haha.  Sometimes it can feel like a slog going back into the 'Pedia for little bits of critical game info, but I'm not complaining about a lack of content, that's for sure. 

So, whether I run into Espers or not (I haven't), and whether I get lucky with Alliance and Zaxx missions (I haven't), it sounds like all I can do is upgrade my bounty level one way or another and wait, amiright? Thanks again for all the helpful replies, a little assistance goes a long way!

[BBHood217]

No Alliance bounty missions?  Damn, that's some horrible luck.

If you get a Traitors to the Alliance bounty mission, make sure you kill at least one of the traitors (make sure the body's intact, overkilling them gets you nothing) so you get an assassination trophy.  Capturing them lets you execute them for the same amount of tokens, but you don't get a trophy out of that and you need one for research to finally get the Mutant Alliance.

[khade]

Colored lights on a ship currently mean that ship is either mutant alliance or official government.  There might later be different running light designations, (I don't know for sure, not part of the inner circle ) but right now I believe we have two, both of which are worth negative points.  Doesn't mean you can't shoot them down, but you WILL be penalized for it.

[HT]

I've been rescuing Alliance members when I can, and I'd considered buying the tokens outright, but I didn't know if tokens alone would lead to "Alliance Favors", or whatever. [...]

I thoroughly recommend getting the Token Exchange mod: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5998.0.html

It should be part of any playthrough IMO, regardless of how potentially hax it may seem, if only to avoid frustrations.

[ivandogovich]

Also here is a breakdown of the prizes for the Alliance faction.  Short answer:  you will need 900 tokens for Alliance Favors prize.

Spoiler:

175: Silenced Pistol (A1)
450: Assault Shotgun (A2)
3500: Holosuit (A3)

300: Martial Arts (B1)    <  ----  this one first
600: Alliance's  Favor (B2)  < --- Then this one.
3750: Saya (B3)

400: Durathread Supply (C1)
800: Spike Rockets (C2)
2500: M-Lasers (C3)

[boylobster]

Deeeeeamn, you guys are awesome, thank you to everybody who replied since my last post! And such clear and thoughtful responses, too. <3  I definitely have everything I need to progress atm, so with the boon of your collective wisdom, I return to the load screen with renewed confidence and purpose! 

[KZad Bhat]

Can someone explain the meanings of the numbers when referring to camouflage?

[Ethereal_Medic]

If something has 20/6 camo, this means the enemies dayvision (default 40) allows your soldier to hide 20 tiles from the opposition.
Same for nightvision value. It's the number of tiles you can't be spotted in comparision to the normal vision socre of the opponent.

SPOT 5 reduces the value of your camo by 5 each (so 15/1)
INVIS 5 means you can't see the enemy unless it's 5 tiles ahead of you. SPOT can increase the value to see the target.

[KZad Bhat]

Thanks, that makes so much more sense, and is going to be easier to decide my stealth gear. Which frankly most of the time is going to be Thieving Gear, anyway.

[legionof1]

addendum, if you use the info page, both camo and invis are governed by the same variable, Camo at Day/night, negative values reduce enemy spotting, positive values are spotted at that distance.

[Ethereal_Medic]

The thiefgear is something I never used.
With the increased terror from the deep I start to run Undersea missions only with chiller-suits and automatic harpoons.