------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Introduction 2 Game Statistics 3 Reviewed on 4 Ratings 5 Starting the game 6 Main screen 7 Bases menu 8 Intercepting an alien craft 9 Intercepting a crash site 10 Greets ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Introduction Title: XCOM - Terror of the Deep Producer: Microprose Released by: Tyranny Typed by: Sdk This game is basically the same as it's predecessor, with the addition of new graphics, sounds, aliens and weapons. Watch the introduction of the game to see what has happened since last. 2 Game Statistics This game comes on four 1.44's and takes up approximately 15 megs when installed. In terms of sound it supports: Soundblaster, Soundblaster Pro, Soundblaster 16, Soundman Wave, Gravis Ultrasound, Pro Audio Spectrum, Pro Audio Spectrum 16 and also has an option for no sound. 3 Reviewed on This game was reviewed on a Pentium 75 with 16 megs of RAM, PCI bus, Gravis Ultrasound and a Cardex Power Pro 64 S3 864 2MB VRAM video card. 4 Ratings Sound: The musical score is quite good and suits the atmosphere of the game. The in game music's volume can be adjusted by using the + and - keys. Digital effects are also very well done, and with a Gravis Ultrasound there can be upto eight digital sounds played simultaneously. Graphics: The graphics aren't anything flash, but the game play certainly makes up for it. However there are some nice trademark XCOM effects such as the vapor trials after a weapon has been fired, and underwater air bubbles and smoke. Speed: No one should really have troubles in this department unless they have a slow CPU or video card. This game isn't really that processor or video intensive compared to some of the current day releases. Playability: Well as with all Microprose games, the game play kicks ass. Enuff said. 5 Starting the game This game is pretty easy to get into since it has informative structured menus, and an in game UFOpedia which supplies you with information about all the craft, weapon, alien etc types. You play XCOM, an organization who has been funded by various countries around the globe to stop the alien scourge. Firstly after selecting to start a new game, you must choose the level of difficulty. There are five levels of difficulty: beginner, experienced, veteran, genius and superhuman. If you didn't play the first XCOM, definitely choose beginner. Secondly, you must select where to build your first base. It is advisable that you should build several bases now, as it takes a long time to complete the building of XCOM facilities. Good places to establish bases are in the South Atlantic, South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Establishing bases in these three areas will give you a wide area of operation. The first base you established has the basic facilities already built, two Barracuda crafts, one Triton craft, eight Aquanauts, ten technicians and ten scientists. 6 Main screen After you have established your first base, you will be presented with the main screen. There are six options: Intercept: Intercept displays all of your crafts, which are used to intercept aliens or crash sites. This option is used to deploy a craft simply by clicking on the craft you want, and then it's destination on the globe. Look at the status column to make sure that a craft is ready for deployment. If a craft is refueling, refitting or rearming, it cannot be deployed until that task has been completed. Also look at the weapons/crew/sws column to make sure a craft is armed. Bases: This option takes you to the bases menu, which is discussed in section seven. Graphs: This option gives you graphs of alien activity in seas, alien activity in zones, XCOM activity in seas, XCOM activity in zones, income and finance. UFOpedia: This option gives you information about all the craft, weapon, alien etc types. This is a definite must look at option so you can become familiar with the game and know what equipment to purchase depending on your situation. Options: This option allows you to load, save or abandon the current game. Funding: This option gives you a detailed list of the countries and organizations who are funding you, including the amount which they give you in funds. You should start the game with approximately four million dollars in funds. The amount which they give you in funds throughout the game depends on how well you perform. If you perform well in a certain region, those countries and organizations that are closest to that region of the world will increase your funding. However if you perform poorly, they will decrease or withdraw your funding. The main menu also has other options. You can increase the rate at which time passes. At default, this is set to five seconds. This can however be change to five minutes, thirty minutes, one hour or one day by clicking on the appropriate icon at the right hand side of the screen. The picture of the earth is used to view the location of your bases and craft, as well as that of alien craft, crash sites and areas under alien attack. The picture of the earth can be rotated by clicking on the appropriate icon at the bottom of the screen on the right hand side. Clicking on one of your bases is the same as selecting the intercept option, except that it only lists the craft which belong to that base. Clicking on one of your craft while it is out from base allows you to give it new orders. Clicking on an alien craft, alien crash site or area under alien attack allows you to center the picture of the earth on that location. 7 Bases menu There are eleven options in the base menu: Build new base: This option allows you to build a new base. This process usually costs between five hundred thousand and one million dollars. You basically just repeat the same steps you did when you built your first base. Base info: This option shows useful statistics like personnel available, defense strength, transfers, monthly costs, percentage of laboratory/workshop space used etc. Aquanauts: This option lists all of your Aquanauts, displaying their name, rank and the craft they are currently assigned to. Equip sub: This option allows you to arm and man your crafts with items that you have purchased, recruited or manufactured. With your first base, your three crafts are already armed and manned. With the Triton craft which is provided with the first base, it's recommended that you sell all it's staff weaponry and reequip it with more potent arsenal. Goto the purchase/recruit option and buy six hydro jet cannons with twelve hydro jet phosphorous rounds, two torpedo launchers with eight phosphorus torpedoes, sixteen magna pack explosives, eight dye grenades and a coelacanth/aquajet submersible weapons system with as many aquajet rounds as you have space for. Build facilities: This option allows you to build facilities at your bases. With your first base, your basic facilities will already be built. At the start of the game be sure to add alien containment, wide array sonar and torpedo defense facilities. It is also important to establish more laboratories and workshops, as well as living spaces so you can recruit more scientists and technicians to work in these facilities. A facility is built by simply selecting which facility you want to build, and then by placing exactly where you want it established on the picture of your base on the left hand side of the screen. Remember that some facilities take upto thirty days or more to build, so plan for that. With secondary bases, plan their structure so that it's similar to your first base, or if you are more experienced you can design it around your specialist needs. New defense facilities will be discovered throughout the game, so be sure to employ them. To remove a facility such as an old defense structure, simply click on it in the picture of your base and select ok at the prompt. Research: This option allows you to research new technology, and is extremely important to how well you will do in the game. You need to discover new technology as quickly as possible so you reach the same level as the aliens current superiority. New technology is gained by researching aliens and alien corpses, alien crafts, alien weapons and alien artifacts which have been collected after successful missions. It is extremely important to research alien weapons and resources so that your own staff can use them. Besides the fact that alien weapons are more powerful and advanced than XCOM's, having research on them allows you to manufacture and use them with your own staff during battle. It also allows staff to pick up and use a dead alien's weapon and or ammunition during battle, which is very handy indeed. You can also research XCOM Gauss technology, which is discussed in the manufacturing option below. Research also allows you to get a better understanding about your alien enemies, and their origins. Researching alien origins allows you to gradually locate the 12 alien strongholds which must be destroyed to win the game. Researching requires scientists which can be recruited through the purchase/recruit option. Remember that for every fifty scientists you will require one laboratory facility and one living space facility. You can assign as many scientists as you like to each program of new technology that you are researching, and the more scientists you have working on a program: the quicker it will be completed. Manufacture: This option allows you to manufacture your own weapons and items, which can only commence after you have researched them. Construction of alien weapons and technology requires alien resource materials known as Zrbite and Aqua Plastics. These are collected from successful missions and are required in the manufacturing process. If you have run out of these materials, look at manufacturing XCOM Gauss technology. Although these weapons aren't as powerful as the alien ones, they don't require any resource materials to produce, allowing them to be manufactured at will. Manufacturing requires technicians which can be recruited through the purchase/recruit option. Remember that for every fifty technicians you will require one workshop facility and one living space facility. Transfer: This option allows you to transfer items or staff in between your bases. Purchase/Recruit: This option allows you to purchase items or recruit staff. Items and staff must be delivered to your base from the mainland and can take anywhere from 1 hour to several days to be delivered. Make sure that you refer to the UFOpedia so you know what you are purchasing. Also, the amount that you can purchase depends on the amount of space you have in your general store(s). If you run out of space, sell off unwanted items or build new general store facilities. The same goes for recruiting staff, except for the fact that it's dependent on how much living space you have free. Upto fifty staff can live in one living space. Sell/Sack: This option allows you to sell or sack unwanted items. Geoscape: Returns you to the main screen. 8 Intercepting an alien craft Alien crafts are picked up by your sonar device at any one of your bases. Standard sonar has a range of four hundred and fifty kilometers at most depths and wide array sonar has a range of seven hundred kilometers at all depths. When an alien craft is detected, center the picture of the earth on it's position. Then look at the earth and see which one of your bases is closest to that position. Then click on that base and then click on the Barracuda craft that you want to intercept it, and then finally click on the alien craft. The Barracuda craft will then try and intercept and make contact with the alien craft. A Barracuda cannot attack the alien craft in the air, and must wait until it's submerged in the water. The Barracuda won't always make contact with the alien craft, and if this happens select the goto last known alien craft location option. If it relocates the alien craft, click on the Barracuda and click on select new target and then on the alien craft. The Barracuda will then reengage. When the Barracuda is attacking the alien craft, you will be presented with these various options: Standoff: This option will make the Barracuda follow the alien craft without attacking. Cautious: This option will make the Barracuda launch a cautious attack on the alien craft. Standard: This option will make the Barracuda launch a standard attack on the alien craft. This is usually the one to select, since it doesn't waste off all you missiles like in an aggressive attack. Aggressive: This option will make the Barracuda launch an aggressive attack on the alien craft. This option tends to waste off all of your missiles, but is useful for when you are facing tough opposition. Disengage: This option will make the Barracuda disengage the attack. Also, remember to refer to the Barracuda's energy level which is displayed in the form of a ship outline. If the ship is nearly completely red, immediately disengage unless you want to lose your ship. A successful attack however, will result in the downing of the alien craft in which you will then have to launch a Triton to intercept the crash site. 9 Intercepting a crash site After having shot down the alien craft, you will need to click on your nearest base and select a Triton craft to intercept the crash site. Make sure that the craft is fully manned and armed. The crash site will be marked on the picture of the earth with a cross. When you have intercepted the crash site, you will be presented with each individual staff member aboard your craft and the items that they are carrying. If you wish for a staff member to drop an item, simply click on the item and drag it from the persons body to the section of the screen marked as ground. If you wish for a staff member to pick up an item, do the opposite. Once you are happy with the way that each individual is armed, select ok. Battle is taken in turns, first you then the aliens. Within each turn, each member of your staff has a certain amount of time units. Each action that the individual makes within the turn takes a certain amount of time and this is subtracted from the players total amount of time units that has been allocated for that turn. The amount of time units is displayed in the green bar graph at the bottom of the screen. The orange bar graph represents the individuals energy, the red bar graph represents the individuals health and purple bar graph represents the individuals moral. Moral is important, as when a individuals moral is low they can panic or go berserk. When they panic, they usually drop their weapons and run away, wasting their time units for that turn and the next. You then have to spend the turn after that making the individual go and pick up their weapons again. When they go berserk they start firing whatever weapon they have in their hands anywhere. For this reason, don't let individuals hold primed grenades over several turns. Only prime the grenade when you are going to throw it in the same turn. If a wounded individuals moral is low, use the pain killer option on the medi-kit (be sure to equip staff with these once you have the technology to produce them) to restore morale. The medi-kit can also be used for healing: which restores health and heals one fatal found and stimulant: which restores energy. Looking at the layout of the screen, there are several icons down the bottom. The ones which you will need to use regularly are: Black boxes: The black boxes on either side of the screen show what weapon or item the individual is holding in their hands. To fire a weapon, simply click on the weapon, choose the level of accuracy (less accuracy, the less time it takes to fire the shot), and then aim at the target and click. To prime a grenade, click on the grenade and select prime, then select the number of turns you wish the explosion to delay (you normally set this to zero so that it explodes at the end of the current round), and then click on the grenade again and select throw, then select your target and click. Make sure the thrower is some distance away from the target of the grenade otherwise that individual will be hit by the explosion. Grid and square: This option presents you with an overall map of the area, giving you an overhead view. It also allows you to view the different levels of the landscape. Use this to plan routes of attack and ambush. Single person: This option allows you to change the inventory of the individual, allowing you to reload weapons by clicking on the ammunition and then on the empty weapon, it allows you to pick up items that are on the ground which you are standing over and it also allows you to drop items which you are currently carrying. It's exactly the same layout as at the start of the mission when you are arming your staff. Single person/Squatting person: This option allows you to make the individual squat or stand up. Either action takes four time units. You should always make the character squat at the end of their turn, as it reduces their chance of being hit. Single person with arrows either side: This option allows you to center the screen on the current individual. Individuals name: Clicking on the individuals name will give you a detailed bar graph of the current individuals statistics. Square with number: This option allows you to change the level at which the landscape is shown. Craft with arrow: This option aborts the mission. If you are going to abort the mission, make sure that all of your staff are inside of the craft, otherwise they will be left missing in action (in other words killed by the aliens). Circle with line through it: This option ends the current turn. To use an individual character, simply click on them. A yellow arrow will appear over their head to signify that they are the current individual that you are controlling. To move a individual, simply move the red box to the destination and click (make sure the correct individual has been selected before doing this). To pick an item up off of the ground, make sure that you are standing directly over it, and then click on the single person icon. When you are using the medi-kit for healing a character, you must be standing directly on top of them as well. To complete the mission you must kill all of the surviving aliens, and once that has been accomplished, the mission will end with you automatically collecting the spoils of war, such as alien weapons and artifacts etc. When you have armed all of your staff and you start the mission, you must deploy your staff from your craft. Don't deploy every one at once, just deploy your SWS and about four crew. With this, keep individuals spread out. Bunched up individuals are just asking for an alien to throw a sonic pulsar at them, and their goes half your team. Use your SWS to locate the alien craft. This will allow you to locate where the aliens are, as there are always at least one to two aliens still inside their craft. Keep one to two staff members in direct support of the SWS, so they can protect it as SWS's make an easy target and aliens seem to try and take them out first. Don't bunch them up with the SWS, just keep them in range so they can take out any aliens who decide to confront the SWS. When the alien craft has been located, either look for a door or opening and lob a magna pack explosive or sonic pulsar in there. That usually takes care of the inhabitants inside. Or alternatively, fire a shot in there with the SWS, as this will take out soft skinned targets. In general, it is very important to watch when the aliens have their turn. This often gives away their location in ground your haven't explored, so that next round you can chuck a grenade in their general direction. In the earlier missions when you don't have sonic pulsars, use magna pack explosives as grenades, as magna blast grenades don't really do anything. However, magna pack explosives do have a wide kill area, so make sure your thrower and or individuals are standing well back. Basically, you should pick up basic tactics in the first few missions, and experiment with them to find out what works best for you. 10 Greets Greetings to all my IRC friends...you know who you are :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ллл ллл мллпллм лллпллм мллпллм ллл ллл мллпллм мллпллл мллпллм ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл мммллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл лллпппп ллл ллл мммллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл пллмллл лллмллп пллмллп пллмллп пллмллп пллмллл пллмллл ллл мллпллм мллпллм мллпллм ллллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл лллпппп ллл ппп ллл ллл ллл ллл пппллм ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл ллл P™! пллмллп пллмллп ллл ascii by mr. popeil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------