Too much research...

[Charly1]

Aggghhh!!!

Hello

I am in April 1999...

I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of research I have available.

I currently have my hq with 40 scientists, and a secondary base with 35 scientists.

The thing is, I have 7 6 bases in total, so I have room to expand my science base, but I think I may have been a bit too blase (perhaps my mindset is still with the vanilla version).

I am not sure if I am "behind" where I should be. I am using laser weapons, but cant manufacture ammo yet. I have sky rangers and interceptors, drowning in cash. I can tell by writing this the answer is probably having a research facility in each base, but I was wondering if anyone can share their own reseach strategy/methods?

Oh, and specifically, how do I get to manufacturing laser ammo? Is it a case of  capturing sectoid engineers, and hoping they divulge battery tech?

I just started a second campaign with my son, and he is absolutely loving it too. Totally amazing what you have done with a 26 year old game. I keep reminding my son the game is 3 times older than he is

[ZakG]

Lol! did not think i'd see a long time X-com fan complain about having too much research!!! What i would have given for much more research in the original game - it was one of the best bits, just not enough!

Anyway i'm just in 1997 of my first game of this mod and i just want to thank Solarius Scorch and others for creating such an amazing transformation of one of the best games of all time. Absolutely loving it so far, and yes i'm drowning in research options also, but no complaints here (just need more than 5 scientists somehow?). However, do i need to research a 'wrench' or other such base items (pitchforks, crowbar etc) to unlock stuff? Or is it just flavour and making them a purchasable item in the lists?

Good awesome ultimate X-com fun.

[Charly1]

Lol, Please dont judge me...

I have 156 topics in my research list.

Dont bother researching "ordinary" items, unless you intend to use them in the field. You can use most convential weapons withou researching them anyway.

You need to increase your research capabilities asap. You can get a bio lab (5 scientists) and intel centre (5 scientists) early on. Research lab comes later to bring you up to 40 scientists. You cannot build multiple research labs in one base... so it might help to get another base up sooner rather than later.

[tarkalak]

A lot of the guns and other human stuff are just 2 science/days and all research gives you more points for the monthly review = more money.

You can hide the stuff you don't want with right click. At least I think so.

[Bananas_Akimbo]

I have 80 scientists in december of '99. 40 in main base, 10 in every other base. I'm going to stock up on more scientists for the invasion, but for now progress was fast enough for my taste. I don't have enough money to build all the stuff I research, anyway. I don't have lasers yet but Skymarshal, HWPs, Personal and Aqua Plastic Armour so I don't feel underpowered in the field. I do research the 'unnecessary' topics, as long as they are quick to do (Upper left shows you the expected duration, but in weird symbols and not in numbers - look here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,8663.0.html).

However, do i need to research a 'wrench' or other such base items (pitchforks, crowbar etc) to unlock stuff? Or is it just flavour and making them a purchasable item in the lists?

Middle mouse click on research topics and you can see, if they lead to further research.

[Charly1]

I can build lasers, but not the ammo. Fortunately you can pick up some in certain missions.

I have scores of plasma weapons that I cannot use yet. At least when I do get them researched I will have emough to upgrade most of my soldiers.

I think that I had a slow start, but I seem to be catching up now. I struggled earlier on as I only got one Advent mission in the first two years, which meant I was using the Humvee or helicopter for most missions.

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Don't keep all your plasma weapons. Sell all or most of them. You will get plenty more before you will be able to use them.

[Charly1]

Ha... I would if I needed the money. I have like £25m with nothing to spend it on. I prefer having weapons of mass destruction in my cupboard to hordes of cash.... Just seems cooler somehow.

I think that alien alloys sell for too much money, and crafts are too cheap to build, maybe? I think that is a consequence of so many missions.

[Solarius Scorch]

No worries, I fixed the money problem in 1.7

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Ha... I would if I needed the money. I have like £25m with nothing to spend it on. I prefer having weapons of mass destruction in my cupboard to hordes of cash.... Just seems cooler somehow.

If you are so rich, why don't you just spend the money on more labs and scientists? Seems like a no-brainer in your situation. What else were you saving the cash for?

[Charly1]

Yes, I have prety much begun upgrading all of my baes except my manufacturing one. The money influx actually came in the space of a couple of months. Several ufo landings & clone faciities, plus I am clearing about £5m a month in income.

I think I am still in the original game mindset of specialising bases. What can I say... I am old. Change is difficult.


Hi Solarius... Can I just say you have made 2020 more bearable. Locking down alone would have been more difficult without you. So thanks, mate.

I only just updated my game. How did you "fix" that? Or is it a (nasty) surprise? Or is it *checks quickly* maintenance costs? My recent quick expansion has left me massively overbudget... lol. Time to flog those plasmas off   

[Solarius Scorch]

Howdy! No, I haven't touched the maintenance, I only made it much harder to make money on production. Now you need to loot stuff!

[ZakG]

Lol, Please dont judge me...

I have 156 topics in my research list.

Dont bother researching "ordinary" items, unless you intend to use them in the field. You can use most convential weapons withou researching them anyway.

You need to increase your research capabilities asap. You can get a bio lab (5 scientists) and intel centre (5 scientists) early on. Research lab comes later to bring you up to 40 scientists. You cannot build multiple research labs in one base... so it might help to get another base up sooner rather than later.

Oh i was not judging you, just relishing having a big research tree in the game Having said that i do feel your pain, as i'm still on my initial 5 scientist HQ limit (have a bio-lab 11 days away) in 1997 and have about 30 topics to research already!!! Thanks for the tips to from you and other posters also, this part of the mod (how best to organize and run research) is hard to work out.

[Charly1]

Its a shame that the fireaxis Xcom games metagame cannot be as awesome as this. I really like their tactical combat, and Longwar goes some way to rectify the situation, but I was always judging it against the original UFO Enemy Unknown. This mod has upped the ante somewhat.

Imagine a word with no mods... a world of just consoles...

I think the mods realised the thing that keeps you excited is new toys to play with. The new xcoms have like 3 weapon tiers out of the box. Once you have leveled up it loses some of the magic. Same with the aliens. This mods have sussed that and the game keeps throwing something new at you. Something even as simple as changing the layout inside of a ufo.

Its funny, I only came across this game because I wanted to show my son what the old game was like after playing Xcom2. And it was old enough to run on the crappy laptop I bought him 5 years ago. I had already downloaded openxcom a few years back, and knew that it was a more refined experience, and it was only then I saw some of the mods available. I remember having an idea many years ago they they could do an xcom tv show, that maybe started off like a british version of xfiles... so when I saw this I got very excited. But I had no idea how big this was. It must be, what... 10-20 x bigger than the original.

Anyway... my lunch break is over... back to work!

[tarkalak]

I played vanilla Nu-COM 1 once to completion, and will never do that again. I just didn't bother with Nu-COM 2 without Long War. I guess the good news is I don't need to buy a gaming PC, because the new games are just boring.