Sudden -1207 score; how to recover?

[igpron]

o/ howdy - First playthrough, read very little in the way of spoilers.

Need help: Score went from some negative number to a really big negative number in one month and I got grumbles of leadership replacement.

I'm making money and every mission I participate in leads to me winning with ~200+ points. But, I'm not participating in all missions.

I'm not downing all aircraft (still no guns). But, I'm, most of the time, going after grounded craft.

I often, but not always, participate in missions found via rumors in range. Many missions are out of range of the initial skybus.

I do not have more than one radar nor any of related tech.

There was a strange thing happening recently where lots of red dots were traveling in the air near my base for extended periods of time.

I'm 90% sure there's an other-people (raiders, maybe?) base near mine in Tibet.

What can I possibly do in the next 30 days to improve my score by 700+ points? Why was -500 mentioned in "walk they plank?" I had very little explanation/pop-ups on why my score is dropping, which is why I've generally ignored the monthly score report.

I'm open to save editing (b/c, really, I'd pay off my crew here) or toggling a "get fired at -500 points" feature, but figuring it out in-game seems like a fun thing to strive for.

Thanks.

[legionof1]

-500 is the "bad performance" threshold. Score below that 2 months in a row is game over.

Unless a faction base is active it should be pretty hard to get multiple successive scores below that threshold in the early game. The occasional bad month is pretty normal though. You simply can't reach/spot/shoot down all the stuff that happens. 

[Dioxine]

Do a lot of research, especially interrogs to raise your score fast. Focus on score-heavy items like pinups if available.
Try bounty hunts.
Look up Charts to find out where's enemy activity (but w/o guns, hard to do anything).

[igpron]

Odd implications I'd like to verify:

Is score cumulative, or reset to 0 each month?

Am I losing points by not taking down all aircraft or participating in all missions?

[Meridian]

Is score cumulative, or reset to 0 each month?

It resets each month.

Am I losing points by not taking down all aircraft or participating in all missions?

Yes, flying UFOs generate -1 point every 30 minutes, landed UFOs generate -2 points every 30 minutes... unless configured otherwise by the modder.

[Ethereal_Medic]

-500 is the "bad performance" threshold. Score below that 2 months in a row is game over.

Unless a faction base is active it should be pretty hard to get multiple successive scores below that threshold in the early game. The occasional bad month is pretty normal though. You simply can't reach/spot/shoot down all the stuff that happens.

Or having no influence on that anyway because it's Januar 2601, you have one base with small radar, a 6man airbus and no options to fight these crafts. Considering the casual user refers to JS Ironman as his bread and butter to play this game, everyone else suffers under this random non-interactive problem.

Idiots like me that take their time to prepare or take the 'less suicide' approach to the early game (since your starting hands are like the best cannon fodder you have for the next 3 month) and I will not fight ratman rodeo or lokk'nar village because the possible outcome on JS Ironman can lead to a complete squad-wipe, allowing you to reset anyway or derp around with the most useless new recruits.

[Dioxine]

JS Ironman is supposed to be tryhard, not casual.

[igpron]

Next question: if i skip a pogrom, do I take a point hit? Is it a partial or the full loss of all civilians (12, at ~ -400) ?

Dealing with a Ratman pogrom (12+ ratman) with two bloodhounds and a tank. Too many targets to be able to save most of the civilians. Can't spread out fast enough without their heavies taking down my people.

[Starving Poet]

One of the most damaging missions early game is the Excavation missions.  If you have two of those spawn outside your ship range back-to-back, its almost a guaranteed game over.

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[Solarius Scorch]

One of the most damaging missions early game is the Excavation missions.  If you have two of those spawn outside your ship range back-to-back, its almost a guaranteed game over.

Yeah, I wish this could be altered via ruleset... High difficulty is fine, but losing a game because someone was drilling somewhere is just silly.

[legionof1]

Next question: if i skip a pogrom, do I take a point hit? Is it a partial or the full loss of all civilians (12, at ~ -400) ?

Dealing with a Ratman pogrom (12+ ratman) with two bloodhounds and a tank. Too many targets to be able to save most of the civilians. Can't spread out fast enough without their heavies taking down my people.

Prior to researching mutant alliance skipping a pogrom does not incur a penalty. After that tech i believe it's -1000.   

[igpron]

Prior to researching mutant alliance skipping a pogrom does not incur a penalty. After that tech i believe it's -1000.   

Thanks! Appreciate it.

[khade]

Ratman pogroms are among the worst to deal with early on, in my experience.  There's tons of targets and a few of them JUST WON'T STAY DOWN!!!!!

Ahem, sorry about that

[legionof1]

Ratmen are indeed difficult very early on due to sheer numbers. But taking them out is not something i have had an issue with, what kind of weapons are you using khade?

[igpron]

@Khade - you can try shooting the ghouls while they're on the ground until they're just dead.

Would be useful to be able to remove body's helmets and expose knocked-out people to smoke.

@legion - yeah, bats at first but switched to handles once my hands were experienced and getting Monster awards regularly. Combo with the ... umm... blackswamp? pistols, which seem to have good range and accuracy and stopping power and availability, and I was golden in that pogrom until the armored car turned the corner.