Is it better to destroy tiny UFOs or let them do their thing?

[SectoidLeader]

I usually just destroy tiny UFOs. But I was wondering if I let them do their scouting or whatever, if bigger fish will come along more frequently.

[Meridian]

Shooting them down does postpone the bigger fish by a few days... but also you're risking a retaliation (which you may or may not want).

[SectoidLeader]

So after I get the Hyperwave Decoder and know what they're up to, as long as they're not retaliation, it might be better to let them do their thing?

[Meridian]

Not exactly what I wanted to say.
By "risking a retaliation" I meant that after you shoot down any UFO, there is a chance that aliens will spawn a new retaliation mission, and your base will be attacked.
So, you may want to leave tiny UFOs be, to avoid new retaliation missions, or at least make them less frequent.


If you're asking about metagaming, then shooting down UFOs (any UFOs) is generally not good for you.
It is more beneficial for you to not shoot down any UFOs.
Reasons:
1. less retaliation
2. more loot (from landed UFOs)... in vanilla game a majority of UFOs land
3. less hangar space/resources/money needed for interceptors... you can easily win the game without having any interceptors

But that's just metagaming
As a true xcom fan, you should shoot them down like the scum they are

[SectoidLeader]

I guess what I'm actually asking is that when a tiny UFO does their mission, whether larger UFOs "use the info from that mission" to plan their missions so to speak? So like the tiny UFOs go back home and says "Hey! Here's a good place to send a harvester." Or "here's a good place to put a base" and the bigger ships follow. But if you shoot them down, the aliens are like "woah! that doesn't look safe".

Of course the code wouldn't literally say that. But there might be a chain of events that get interrupted if tiny UFOs are shot down.

[Meridian]

Yes, if the tiny UFO is shot down, the next UFOs in that same mission will be delayed by a couple of days.

Code: https://github.com/OpenXcom/OpenXcom/blob/master/src/Savegame/AlienMission.cpp#L532

Exact delay is between 24 and 224 hours, i.e. between 1 day and a little over 9 days.

[SectoidLeader]

It never ceases to amaze me how deep this game is. Another question I have, is whether the death of higher ranking units during a battle affect morale?

I doubt there is AOE for ranking officers like for the general in Total War. But then this game never ceases to amaze, so there might be?

[Meridian]

Yes: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Morale#Officers

[SectoidLeader]

I started playing Xcom in the mid 90s, then played again in the 2000s and I can't get over how well it's aged. It's like playing a modern strategy game with retro graphics.  I always knew it was a deep game, but for a 35MB game made in the early 90s, I never imagine it could even have so many levels.

[NancyGold]

The game punishes player for not intercepting UFOs (and especially for failing terror missions), after all that is the XCOM's stated goal. The engine does simulation, counting how many UFOs succeeded on their mission, which include infiltration and finding space for the new base. And if the "alien success" threshold gets over certain amount, countries withdraw funding, and then it is game over. I don't think it is necessary to recover the UFO - enough to just shot it down to prevent it from succeeding.

[EyeEye]

I try to assault landed ufos, almost never shoot it down - I hope it counts as interception) Anyway, game never punished me for ignoring flying UFOs as long as I don't let them take off. 

[Dadimus_Maximus]

I try to assault landed ufos, almost never shoot it down - I hope it counts as interception) Anyway, game never punished me for ignoring flying UFOs as long as I don't let them take off. 

That's something I actually liked from Xenonauts, those aliens aren't playing around, they're strafing any targets they see!

[The Reaver of Darkness]

In the vanilla game, shooting down a UFO causes its mission to be delayed for a few days before it can send new waves. The waves will still come, just later.

If you shoot down a single small UFO, you will probably cause the larger UFOs in its mission to take longer to appear. But there are also benefits to consider:

 * Shooting it down gives you points
 * Very small UFOs are a good source of mind probes
 * If you shoot down everything, the aliens can't retaliate, and you still get all the big UFOs, only they might show up later
 * Shooting down everything eventually causes you to have an endless amount of UFOs spawning in constantly, many of them retaliation scouts
 * Retaliation scouts are generally small and very small; if you shoot down only those sizes, you still protect your base from attack yet may still take on larger sizes when they land

But mods can change the way all of this plays out.