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[Eagle of Fire]

In my book the Xcom serie stopped at Apocalypse just like the C&C serie stopped at the original. The others were only milking cows which borowed a name to boost sales and turned out to be awfull games.

[Deathsangel]

Okay, I just got in to the X-com series though I did not do X-Com Terror of the Deep, seeing the reviews. Though with X-COM: UFO Defense I have no problems (currently genius level, never a soldier lost, now in april and making my first avenger, having plasming beams, laser rifles, heavy plasma and personal armor), I do have some difficulties with the x-com 3 game.

I have read a few of the post, but they generally deal with later in the game seeing all kinds of weapons I haven't got yet and fighting styles in the air (I do not look at ground combat, for as with X-Com: UFO Defense - I have never any losses (turn-style combat)).

The following points I wanted to ask:

I) I get a report every day of my score, with also a balance count. This states that my money should go down due to base maintance and salaries. I am fine with it, but .... it does not happen. My bank account the same, is this because I play currently at easy (as to learn the game) or is this later deducted at an end of the week

2) I see no income. Now I noticed I should have it according to the UFOpedia, but I only get it from heavily raiding the cult of Sirius and selling the loot the money. Not that I loose money, due to bug 1 but still.

3) What are ways to get organisations to look at you differently. I only can get them angry (invading buildings in search for aliens due to 19% infiltration (apparently bad idea)). I have noticed the bribe button, but I wonder if their isn't a more better/normal friendlier way (besides the tip I read of letting Aliens wrack buildings as you fly low). For some reason the mutant allience is happy with me, but I have 2 hybrids and 3 androids but S.E.L.F. is not impressed

4) The speed of the game. Now my computer isn't that quick I give in, but I can run games like BG2 without slowing down, but one battle here takes me more than an hour, with alien/enemy turns lasting 2 minutes or so. And civilians when in sight... oh brother.
(Dosbox setting -> cycles:max (auto lowered the speed even more))

5) UFO intrusions score incredibly high and they are gone in a flash, with the current map. I was extremelly lucky to down 2 (well 1 got destroyed). This only works by sending in every air unit of the start of the game (probably heavily laughable) - meaning the interceptor and two hovercars. The rest comes to late. which means my personal carrier joins the fight.

6) At novice for my first 2 days of getting the controls right megapol helped to down UFO's. In easy they just... are never in sight when UFO's are around. Is this correct? Or just coincidence? I ask this as the people say megapol helps to down them, but if they stop already at easy...

7) I do a lot of raids to get points per day as there seems to little to score by otherwise and alien intrusions score quickly down as with forementioned 5 & no help due to 6 they happen a lot without me downing them.

That was all for now.

P.s. I noticed a lot of other spin-offs on Wikipedia when you search for X-Com: UFO Defense for those interrested.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I) I get a report every day of my score, with also a balance count. This states that my money should go down due to base maintance and salaries. I am fine with it, but .... it does not happen. My bank account the same, is this because I play currently at easy (as to learn the game) or is this later deducted at an end of the week

This is deducted immediately.

2) I see no income. Now I noticed I should have it according to the UFOpedia, but I only get it from heavily raiding the cult of Sirius and selling the loot the money. Not that I loose money, due to bug 1 but still.

Income enters your account at the end of each week.

I only can get them angry (invading buildings in search for aliens due to 19% infiltration (apparently bad idea)).

Newb error, one which I also made the first time. Raid building = attack the organization. Invesitgate = search for aliens.

I wonder if their isn't a more better/normal friendlier way (besides the tip I read of letting Aliens wrack buildings as you fly low).

IIRC, you could do it by attacking the organization's enemies.

The speed of the game. Now my computer isn't that quick I give in, but I can run games like BG2 without slowing down, but one battle here takes me more than an hour, with alien/enemy turns lasting 2 minutes or so. And civilians when in sight... oh brother.
(Dosbox setting -> cycles:max (auto lowered the speed even more))

That is worth a topic by itself. First, before running the game you need to shut down every program you've got running in the background. EVERY ONE, that includes virus scanners, instant messengers and whatnot.
I go as far as to shutting down Windows Explorer, for that extra percent of boost.

Second, it takes some messing with the DOSBox config to get the max efficiency. I'll name the settings, but they're a little scattered inside DOSBox.conf, so you'll have to find them yourself

For the graphics, we have to make the game run in fullscreen, at its native resolution and without any scalers or aspect correction (neither is neccesary here). Also, Frameskip must be set to at least 1. (2 is faster but the graphics may become a little choppy):
fullscreen=true
fullresolution=640x480
output=ddraw
aspect=false
scaler=none
frameskip=1

Second, disable all unneccesary sound emulation components. It's a small gain, but one nonetheless
mpu401=none
gus=false
tandy=off
disney=false

Third, you need to set
core=dynamic
cycles=20000
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000
Play around with increasing the cycles value during the game to see what's the max your machine can handle, then change cycles=20000 to that value (in my case, about 35000 does the trick). The max setting auto-detects the maximum speed, but is far from perfect - manually adjusting the value got X-Com 3, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D running much faster than on the automatically detected maximum for my machine.

Sound lagging can be fixed by adjusting blocksize and prebuffer settings in the config file. Forgot to mention this part before so I'm editing it in. These values were recommended by Data to someone else a long time ago, but work for me just fine:
blocksize=4096
prebuffer=30

5) UFO intrusions score incredibly high and they are gone in a flash, with the current map. I was extremelly lucky to down 2 (well 1 got destroyed). This only works by sending in every air unit of the start of the game (probably heavily laughable) - meaning the interceptor and two hovercars. The rest comes to late. which means my personal carrier joins the fight.

Hoverbikes. Use them. Love them.
They're cheap and expendable, so you can use them to swarm the enemy.
Also, don't forget to arm yourself with some better weaponry whenever possible.

6) At novice for my first 2 days of getting the controls right megapol helped to down UFO's. In easy they just... are never in sight when UFO's are around. Is this correct? Or just coincidence? I ask this as the people say megapol helps to down them, but if they stop already at easy...

This is more or less correct. Megapol may assist you on Novice (and probably higher difficulties too, except less frequently).

7) I do a lot of raids to get points per day as there seems to little to score by otherwise and alien intrusions score quickly down as with forementioned 5 & no help due to 6 they happen a lot without me downing them.

Don't forget that by raiding a corp you'll earn yourself it's hostility.
But - and here's a trick to massive cash, as long as you use real-time combat for this - if you're allied with a corp and your attack is ONLY done using Stun Grapples as weapons, you're going to get plenty of loot without any drop in your relationship with the corp. The three most frequently suggested are Marsec, Megapol and Government. Also, do the same to gangs - Psyclone implants can be sold for major cash.

[laiocfar]

Also, we may add that hoverbikes dodge most of enemy fire, they are the first defense line. Even when selfdesigned aircraft is avaible, no other unit will dodge so much enemy fire.

[Deathsangel]

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

This is deducted immediately.

I would have expected that, but it is not deducted. As said my cash remains the same. Example:

I have $140.000, due to salary it says I will drop to $110.000. I hit the OK button -> I still have $140.000

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Income enters your account at the end of each week.

Ah, that may be it than due to slow speed.

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Newb error, one which I also made the first time. Raid building = attack the organization. Invesitgate = search for aliens.

Sorry, but not a newb error. Why? I do search for aliens, but it says no aliens were found and that the organisation did not the intrusion. It is not like the raid where you go in the building and got to handle the security guards. The alien infiltration was 19% and I had little to do so I wanted to kick their ass, but as I did not find them the organisation was not happy. Probably 19% isn't that much, but the building is next to portals and is already targeted like three times by those unmanned ufo's.

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

IIRC, you could do it by attacking the organization's enemies.

Yeah, so there is no friendly way like I asked. . I wonder what the enemy is of mutant allience though. I had only though an allien attack at diablo and they started to like me.

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

That is worth a topic by itself. First, before running the game you need to shut down every program you've got running in the background. EVERY ONE, that includes virus scanners, instant messengers and whatnot.
I go as far as to shutting down Windows Explorer, for that extra percent of boost.

Second, it takes some messing with the DOSBox config to get the max efficiency. I'll name the settings, but they're a little scattered inside DOSBox.conf, so you'll have to find them yourself

For the graphics, we have to make the game run in fullscreen, at its native resolution and without any scalers or aspect correction (neither is neccesary here). Also, Frameskip must be set to at least 1. (2 is faster but the graphics may become a little choppy):
fullscreen=true
fullresolution=640x480
output=ddraw
aspect=false
scaler=none
frameskip=1

Second, disable all unneccesary sound emulation components. It's a small gain, but one nonetheless
mpu401=none
gus=false
tandy=off
disney=false

Third, you need to set
core=dynamic
cycles=20000
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000
Play around with increasing the cycles value during the game to see what's the max your machine can handle, then change cycles=20000 to that value (in my case, about 35000 does the trick). The max setting auto-detects the maximum speed, but is far from perfect - manually adjusting the value got X-Com 3, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D running much faster than on the automatically detected maximum for my machine.

Okay, first of all thanks for so much info.
I have seen many topics on this but tips tend to vary, which also leads to the second part of the reply to this.
If I do all these changes... what happens to my other simulated games? I have other games I run with DosBox, most noteably MoM and that is 200x320 resolution if I remember correctly. Won't that go screwy with these setting.
Also putting off sound emulation, won't that disable some sounds to be played in this or other games? If so I rather not touch it.
I might be annoying over this, but I rather have a dosbox working for all games that just focused on one.

P.s. I am using my slow laptop as my PC is a bit down and out for the count...

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Hoverbikes. Use them. Love them.
They're cheap and expendable, so you can use them to swarm the enemy.
Also, don't forget to arm yourself with some better weaponry whenever possible.

Okay, that sounds like a plan than. The game seems lovely but in comparison to X-COM: Enemy Unknown this has so many options it boggles me...

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

This is more or less correct. Megapol may assist you on Novice (and probably higher difficulties too, except less frequently).

check

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Don't forget that by raiding a corp you'll earn yourself it's hostility.
But - and here's a trick to massive cash, as long as you use real-time combat for this - if you're allied with a corp and your attack is ONLY done using Stun Grapples as weapons, you're going to get plenty of loot without any drop in your relationship with the corp. The three most frequently suggested are Marsec, Megapol and Government. Also, do the same to gangs - Psyclone implants can be sold for major cash.

Ah, I won't do this. Why? I hate real-time combat... I love it in Lords of the Realm 2, but in here? My soldiers with their poor accuracy start to shoot immediatly when they see the enemy through glass (like the poor AI) destroying the building, making tactics poor and stuff. Even if real-time combat ran more smoothly - It is a bit of cheating doing that and I am not into cheating, trainers and the like.
I rather just go the normal way.
On the not of Psyclone implants... can you use them on your soldiers actually? Reading the description I had hoped to get my soldiers with little bravery a bit boost in it due to different stimuli, but I can't seem to get it done (after all bravery is so hard to get up in X-Com (whichever version)).

[The Fifth Horseman]

Sorry, but not a newb error. Why? I do search for aliens, but it says no aliens were found and that the organisation did not the intrusion. It is not like the raid where you go in the building and got to handle the security guards. The alien infiltration was 19% and I had little to do so I wanted to kick their ass, but as I did not find them the organisation was not happy. Probably 19% isn't that much, but the building is next to portals and is already targeted like three times by those unmanned ufo's.

I drop in to check at the slightest sign of contamination. Can't be too cautious.
The aliens drop in on specific buildings and then spread from there, so in order to find them you need to crossreference the UFO trajectories from most recent intrusion with buildings owned by that company. Works 99% of the time.

Okay, first of all thanks for so much info.
I have seen many topics on this but tips tend to vary, which also leads to the second part of the reply to this.
If I do all these changes... what happens to my other simulated games? I have other games I run with DosBox, most noteably MoM and that is 200x320 resolution if I remember correctly. Won't that go screwy with these setting.
Also putting off sound emulation, won't that disable some sounds to be played in this or other games? If so I rather not touch it.
I might be annoying over this, but I rather have a dosbox working for all games that just focused on one.

This might sound a little complex, but there is a way of having several different DOSBox configurations, associated with specific shortcuts.
Go to Start menu/Programs/DOSBox. Right-click on the DOSBox shortcut and choose copy. Right-click on your desktop and choose Paste.
Now right-click the new shortcut and rename it to X-Com 3, then right-click it again and choose Properties.
Under Target, you'll have something like this (might differ slightly depending on where you installed DOSBox and what version it is):
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf"
The second part dictates which config file the shortcut uses. So change it to C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\xcom3.conf , then go to DOSBox directory and create a copy of dosbox.conf, renaming it to xcom3.conf . Changes made to that config will not affect your main one, while you'll be able to run DOSBox under the altered configuration instantly by clicking the modified shortcut on your desktop.

On the not of Psyclone implants... can you use them on your soldiers actually? Reading the description I had hoped to get my soldiers with little bravery a bit boost in it due to different stimuli, but I can't seem to get it done (after all bravery is so hard to get up in X-Com (whichever version)).

Nope, Psyclones can only be sold for cash.

My soldiers with their poor accuracy start to shoot immediatly when they see the enemy through glass (like the poor AI) destroying the building, making tactics poor and stuff.

Give them sniper rifles, set them to kneeling position and fire mode to aimed. They won't shoot too often, but they'll hit most of the time and their accuracy will rise through the roof.

It is a bit of cheating doing that and I am not into cheating, trainers and the like.
I rather just go the normal way.

You may be interested in knowing that the game automatically reacts to such a massive increase in your score and sends out more and better equipped aliens against you.

[Deathsangel]

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

This might sound a little complex, but there is a way of having several different DOSBox configurations, associated with specific shortcuts.
Go to Start menu/Programs/DOSBox. Right-click on the DOSBox shortcut and choose copy. Right-click on your desktop and choose Paste.
Now right-click the new shortcut and rename it to X-Com 3, then right-click it again and choose Properties.
Under Target, you'll have something like this (might differ slightly depending on where you installed DOSBox and what version it is):
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf"
The second part dictates which config file the shortcut uses. So change it to C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\xcom3.conf , then go to DOSBox directory and create a copy of dosbox.conf, renaming it to xcom3.conf . Changes made to that config will not affect your main one, while you'll be able to run DOSBox under the altered configuration instantly by clicking the modified shortcut on your desktop.

Haha, not complex at all. It is simply a multi-install.
So the answer was; no - but I suggest cloning using this technique. Okay, I can do that. I have done so before. Thanks a bunch.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Also, you can declare multiple config files, like this:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\apocalypse.conf"
The first config file needs to be full, but the subsequent can be incremental - ie only have those settings they're meant to change and nothing else. Autoexecs of both configs are executed in the order in which the configs were declared, so you can have the first config mount your games directory and the second run a specific game.
This is how I've been doing this - now I have over a hundred games set up this way, and just keep adding more.