Talk:Supply Ship Smash and Grab

Unless you're planning to be a dirty bastard and use the UFO Redux exploit, why not finish the mission and get mondo points? Magic9mushroom 08:52, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

I hate casualties. It's rare I manage to take the 2nd floor without any.

I don't know the exploit you mentioned. Sauce plox kthx. Zarn 09:03, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Can't remember the redux exploit off hand, but I think it means shooting down the UFO once it takes off so that you can attack it again. Anyhow, it's a bit late so I cannot offer any of the points I'd like to make, but the one thing I want to say is: plug the lifts. That way you can control the upper levels at your own pace. -NKF 09:16, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Lay off the chanspeak please.

It's in ExploitsA.

NKF: Indeed. Plugging the lifts and then double-breaching the second floor works wonders. Magic9mushroom 09:20, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

It hurts to admit after some 19 years of playing xcom that I never found out that aliens never shoot straight up.

So - I never thought of plugging the elevators. Either I fought a bloody battle, or I pirated - which is certainly piece of cake comparing to battling your way through the 2nd floor. Zarn 13:25, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Well, plugging the elevators is usually a precursor to sweeping the 2nd floor. It's fairly easy if you remember to look around through every corridor, and if you do it with 8+ soldiers breaching both lifts simultaneously.

It's the 3rd floor that annoys me tbh. Magic9mushroom 21:58, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Many ways to tackle the upper floors. What I generally do is wait for a while and hope that some aliens decide to head for the lift. They can't shoot down from their positions, but your plugs can certainly shoot up. That takes care of a few of the ambling hazards you might encounter. You can use this opportunity to have the others scout the map for any stragglers outside the UFO. Wait a sufficient number of turns before venturing upstairs. 20 ~ 40 or more turns are good.

The easiest (and least sportsman-like) means of clearing out the 2nd and 3rd level is to just use area effect weapons. Go underneath the suspected area where you think there may be aliens, fire a few rockets or stun bombs into the ceiling. Voila. Since you're probably going to be doing the supply ships regularly, this is the quickest way to settle this debate.

Otherwise, there's always breaching through to the upper levels. Either with a blaster bomb from the exterior, or go inside and use a combination of heavy plasmas and flying suits to make your own access points in the UFO.

The third level is probably the most hazardous location to attack, but using area effect weapons around corners (particularly near the bends leading towards the bridge) can deal with any potential surprises. A Heavy Plasma is valuable for making a rear entrance into the bridge, which is much safer than trying the front door. I generally do this just to toss a high explosive in. -NKF 01:30, 9 September 2009 (EDT)

The upper floor presented no big troubles after I knew mt way around, mainly because in most missions the upper level aliens are very predictable: One goes down to check what is this suspicious noise. Two or three hand in from and in the bridge. Usually they don't wander around. I leave proximity grenade one tile away from the entrance of the other route and bomb with rockets/grenades the west wall.

Rarely they did something surprising - like an ambush righ behind the elevator door. But usually this was easy.

In the 2nd gloor they have several zillions places to hide. Damn.

btw, do people here hate chanspeak? Shame, I really like it for the punchline. Zarn 06:48, 9 September 2009 (EDT)

Ah, the second level. Definitely more room for ambush but another good place where a bit of patience works wonders. The second level occupants do eventually wander towards the lifts if given time. It's also a good opportunity to station someone in the engine room with a motion scanner and put it to work.

Apart from a reference to it in the Lucky Star anime I saw recently, I'm not sure what chanspeak is but if it's anything like txt language used in instant messaging, then yet its use would be discouraged (regardless of our personal opinions). Either way, I'd rather not see everyone getting upset over a trivial matter. -NKF 09:24, 9 September 2009 (EDT)

Don't worry. It's just a quirk. If you wish to know chanspeak get yourself in the murky waters of the various chans. this is probably a good place to start. Don't blame me if it goes wrong.. listen to the bunny [image:http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/d/d8/4chanbunny.jpg] Zarn 16:11, 9 September 2009 (EDT)

Dude, we don't really care about the chans. All I'm asking is that you converse in normal English instead of using stupid spelling errors on purpose. It achieves nothing to do so.

And seriously, the 2nd floor isn't a problem, even on superhuman. Just remember to look around a lot.

And would you PLEASE stop giving suggestions to "flatten the battlefield" when this is absolutely unnecessary and isn't really relevant to the article at all? Magic9mushroom 21:29, 9 September 2009 (EDT)

Main reason to flatten the battlefield is to make it easier to clear the map so that you can concentrate on the UFO - it's easy to employ the sniper/scout strategy on them. Alas, the alien base is going to be the one that dictates the terrain you end up fighting in - not counting the ones you shoot down.

It's not necessarily a bad thing as you do start getting really good at terrain with enough repetition! -NKF 01:34, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

My impression is that leveling farm terrain is much easier then careful (and slow!) sweep, so this is the advice I included. The whole idea of smash'n'grab, I think, is to answer the critical problem of elerium shortage, which substantially slow down game development. I believe this is not the scenario for skill and finesse. There will be plenty of battles for that... As for tactical advice - where else would tactical advice for smash'n'grab fit? The tactical section may be pasted into proper article and linked, if that's important Zarn 09:26, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

Terrain types

There is only one type of desert in the game files so it doesn't really matter what it looks like on the globe. You'll always get the same random selection of desert modules in a map. --Zombie 00:11, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

I really have to test this. I noticed 2 very different desert types - nearly flat and another with parallel ravines. There are no in-betweens. I think I checked and found out that it's the light colored desert and dark colored desert. I'll report back. Zarn 09:16, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

Combine with Base Farming Page

Do we really need two pages that describe the basic same tactic? My advice would be to combine the two. --Ditto51 17:43, 5 September 2013 (EDT)