Alien Research (TFTD)

Information recovered from research of alien Medics may break the research tree progression. Don't research live alien Medics until the very end of the game, because you may need to interogate the actual live Alien (or research its corpse) instead of getting the information second-hand from a Medic class Alien.

There are problems getting the Thermic Lance and Vibro Blade research items if you don't have the Calcinite corpse to research. If the information is obtained from a Medic, then you will never get the option to research hand-to-hand weapons

Trying to get a Calcinite corpse after the initial glut of Terror mission from the Aquatoids is nigh on impossible. Well, not really because you can have "Mixed" race Terror Sites (usually on ocean liners). One problem that can arise is if one were to be researching a Medic, getting the results of any unresearched alien corpse or race would sometimes break the progression of research if those results were to lead to anything further down the research tree. eg:

---> ACTUAL Calcinite corpse = Calcinite Autopsy and Thermic Lance (if you are researching the physical corpse)

BUT

---> any Alien Medic = any possible Alien data

Hence: if you research any Medic, you MAY get "Calcinite Autopsy" as a result. If this were the case, the results display as per usual, but the research line stops dead for that path. ie: the next screen doesn't appear which would be "next available research" items. Thus, Medics can break the tree if the results lead to something more.

Note: i might have been a bit wrong with the vibro blade. I think that came from a Gillman race.... Damn! i really need to play a game so i can remember the tree. (but i'm absolutely sure about the Medic breaking the tree, BTW) - EsTeR

(Actually, Vibro Blade research comes from the Calcinite. Once that research is done, if you've autopsied a Gillman by that point (more than likely) you get to research Thermic Lance. Once Thermic Lance is researched, Heavy Thermic Lance, last in this line, can be researched. - cpj1227