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[axident]

Originally posted by My-Q@Mar 9 2005, 09:42 AM
Well, I always liked using the MC function to make the alien work as scout. I never use the alien puppet to kill other aliens, since the point is.. why improve something you'd kill afterwards?
I like grouping the puppets in one corner, and blow 'em up to smithereens in the next turn using the blaster.. the scream of pain is so loud LOL

And i don't think that bravery factor can be increased. The same thing applies with psionic strength, which can't improve.

Also, i never knew that holding something else in the other hand while one hand is holding a gun will affect the accuracy.. that's new.. i guess there's no telling that we know EVERYTHING about this game huh?

I don't even like mind-controlling aliens to scout. Maybe to drop weapons (by using the "next soldier" inventory trick; click on inventory of a regular soldier and keep clicking next soldier while in the inventory screen) and run towards my guys who flatten them, but that's about it. The problem is that I don't want ANY aliens to die by anyone other than a living, breathing soldier. Sending them as scouts may mean that they die against other aliens.

That said, I do agree that MC is a lot of fun sometimes, esp. on the last mission when I don't care about improving soldier stats.

It IS possible to improve EVERY stat EXCEPT Psi Strength. I know of no way to increase Psi Strength, only Psi Skill, which is not important to me since I almost never use mind control anyway.

When I buy 100 soldiers and sack 90 or 95 of them, I look for the stats that are most difficult to improve: Bravery (very hard to improve) and Reactions. Everything else like time units, health, strength, firing accuracy, throwing, etc. is easier to improve. I think bravery goes up if someone panics a lot but survives a battle anyway.

Reactions is hard to improve because
1) if it's too low (I don't hire anyone less than 50 unless they have gonzo stats elsewhere), the soldier may not react in time to safe his or her own life = no improvement, only a dead soldier

2) usually your soldiers have some variation in reaction time. Say you have three soldiers parked next to a door, one with 40, one with 50, and one with 60 reactions. An alien pops his ugly head out the door. Your 60-soldier pops him. At the end of battle, they have 40/50/61. If this keeps happening, you'll soon have something like 40/52/67. (The 50 guy will probably get a few kills in, because Mr. 60 sometimes misses.) The fast get faster and the slow stay slow. You can try to fix it by sending Mr. 50 and 60 somewhere else, but then if Mr. 40 MISSES the alien or is too slow to shoot him in the first place, Mr. 40 probably ends up dead. Moral of the story: Reactions is one of the hardest stats to improve easily, so when picking your soldiers, focus on Psi strength, Bravery, and Reactions, which are the top three hardest stats to improve. Everything else you want good stats too, and if you can afford to hire 100's of soldiers try to get at least 40 bravery and 50 reactions with 60+ accuracy. Of course, many of those soldiers you will find out in a month have crappy Psi strength, but it's hard to get around that without cheating.