Population (Apocalypse)

Overview

The population of Mega-Primus is very varied. Here is an overview of the different characters that X-COM may find and interact with in the buildings and streets of the city.

With the exception of civilians, you will encounter other humans only in the following situations:

• If you investigate a building with aliens in it that is controlled by a hostile organisation
• If you raid any building (whether or not the owners are hostile)
• If another organisation raids or storms an X-COM base (hostile organisations will occasionally do this; the chance is tripled if the organisation is Megapol, a gang, or infiltrated).

Megapol will use Police. The gangs will use Gangsters. The Cult of Sirius will use Cultists. Everyone else uses Building Security in their own buildings and Corporate Hoods when attacking yours. While there are slight differences between these units, the similarities are much greater; in general, you can expect the following of human opponents:

• Stats are randomised, like your own soldiers', and each individual has a name.
• A bit tougher than Anthropods and Skeletoids, particularly against weak weapons like the Lawpistol and M4000 Machine Gun. The Toxigun is much less effective, for obvious reasons.
• Very prone to panicking; human enemies have 40-80 Bravery, while humanoid aliens have 70-80 and the rest are immune to morale entirely.
• Most of their weapons are low-powered and will bounce off Megapol Armor, but a few will have Marsec Heavy Launchers (and, later on, Devastator Cannons) which are far more lethal. They're generally comparable shots to Skeletoids or even slightly better. Grenades are another danger.
• Very susceptible to the Mind Bender (usually more so than Anthropods), but do not spawn with Mind Benders of their own.
• Intelligent enough to pick up a weapon on the ground nearby if disarmed or out of ammo.
  • Guards will also pick up loose and valuable goods such as armor parts, elerium pods and Psiclones and flee the battle with them. Whether by coincidence or design, this acts as minor but effective foil to an X-Com raid by reducing the amount of goods that can be recovered. If conditions allow, tool using aliens may also exhibit this behaviour.

Police

Megapol police officers are responsible for enforcing law and order on the city. Since they are also well armed they would be of a great help during Battlescape, but unfortunately they will not aid X-COM Agents during investigations.

Megapol officers are fairly well-armed (starting Tech Level 3), and have marginally better Reactions and armor than average (though they do not wear Megapol Armor). However, they are also more vulnerable to Psionic attacks. Police will be encountered in large groups of 12-20.

Cultists

Cult of Sirius members are moderately armed (starting Tech Level 2). Their Accuracy and armour are somewhat poorer than average - the Cult is a civilian organisation - but their Psi-defense is better than other humans' (typically on par with Anthropods). Cultists fight in groups of 7-12.

Gangsters

Gangsters are very well-armed (starting Tech Level 4). Their Accuracy and Psi-defense are a little poorer than average, but their Reactions are better. Gang members fight in groups of 8-20; Osiron groups are the largest, Psyke groups are the smallest.

Building Security

Security guards' armament and numbers depend on which organization employs them (starting Tech Level can be as low as 1 or as high as 4, and there can be anywhere between 5 and 17 of them). In particular, the Government, Marsec, Solmine, Cyberweb, S.E.L.F. and the Mutant Alliance use better-equipped and larger groups of guards.

Security guards' Accuracy is a little poorer than average.

Corporate Hood

Corporate hoods vary in numbers and equipment depending on who employs them in the same fashion as building security. They have a bit better Accuracy than average, though.

Civilian

Civilians will be found on some building investigations (typically those of more populated buildings, like schools, offices and apartments). They will mostly run around in panic and won't take cover. They cannot pick up or use any equipment.

X-COM will receive a 10-point penalty for each civilian death. However, unlike in the first two games, aliens do not actively attack civilians.

The appearance of civilians will be different depending on in which building they appear; they can be lower, middle, or upper class.

X-COM Technical Personnel

During base defense missions, any X-COM Scientists and Engineers assigned to the base will be vulnerable to hostile aggression. X-COM personnel can be directed to walk or run to any location, but they cannot kneel, crawl or use or pick up any equipment. They are also slower than X-COM Agents and completely unarmored, and therefore quite vulnerable.

Survival of X-COM personnel is one of the highest priorities for X-COM Agents while repelling raids.

Since technical staff use the same portraits as human Agents and are assigned the Rookie rank, their icons on the Battlescape control panel look identical to those of Rookie human Agents. Care should be taken not to confuse the two when issuing orders.

Sectoid

Only present in the Alien Dimension, X-COM's old enemies have become an alien delicacy, and some are being held captive in their Food Chamber. Rescuing them will give a huge boost to X-COM's relations with the Mutant Alliance and will also make the Mutant Alliance hostile to the Aliens if it wasn't already.

For all intents and purposes, the Sectoids in this game are treated exactly like civilians, and display similar behaviour. The Aliens will not deliberately target them during the mission, and X-COM will receive a 10-point penalty for each Sectoid death.

See Also

• Organizations
• Relations
• Strategies for Troops
• Alien Tech Levels (for information on equipment loadouts of human opponents)