Interceptors: How often do aliens cheat?

[Vagrant]

So I'm in a situation here. I have a save but there's nothing I can do to overcome the next day.

I spin the globe, very large ship over Asia. I scramble a normal Interceptor with all 3 item buffs. I reloaded the save a few times just to see if luck could get on my side like the previous encounter but no luck, the plane's getting shot down or the alien escapes.

So I conceide, accept the failure and spin the globe. The globe barely moved. On the same day, another large unusual ship over Asia. Just great. I can't tranfer a another ship because it takes 3 days, can't equip better guns because time. So I can't intercept this second large ship and it destroys my satelite over China.

It seems I never had a chance to pour funds into the hangar since I always put my soldier's gear first.

How often does this crap happen? What I mean is most of the interceptions I had up to now was only 1 ship per day, not 2.

[Kash]

You are not meant to shot it down

[Bilateralrope]

I notice you only mention one Interceptor. I make sure to have two on each continent with satelite coverage. That way I can pull one back when it's about to die and send the second in to finish the UFO.

[red255]

One its a battleship, can't really take them down reliably with interceptors, you need Firestorms with EMP.

two, the second one is the battleship that comes to shoot down your satellight that the first one scouted for. overkill I know but usually its a smaller ship to call the battleship.

So yeah 'how often' is ...the value is in the ini folder. here I'll check. its 100% of the time you don't shoot down UFOs without stealth sats.

and 25% of the time with stealth sats.

[Vagrant]

I was able to change the outcome. Probably got lucky.

I ignored the 1st battleship, installed a Plasma Cannon on Asia's Interceptor. It took a couple of days this time, but the "satelite buster" still showed up. I was already face-palming when my ship won with 1hp left. Used all 3 consumables.

So yeah, I've cut my loss and I'm already planning more fundings for the hangar. I guess this was very bad luck to get 2 big ships back-to-back in a single day.

[red255]

again not exactly, the second big ship comes because the first one came and wasn't shot down.

[Vagrant]

Originally posted by red255:

again not exactly, the second big ship comes because the first one came and wasn't shot down.

No matter what I did, I could not gun down the 1st ship. Default gun wasn't enough with all 2 consumables.

[Hentaisocial]

Originally posted by Vagrant:

Originally posted by red255:

again not exactly, the second big ship comes because the first one came and wasn't shot down.

No matter what I did, I could not gun down the 1st ship. Default gun wasn't enough with all 2 consumables.

That's when you send the next interceptor to finish the job.

[SquarelyCircle]

I was very surprised to find that a single firestorm with an EMP cannon is soooo powerful. A single firestorm with an EMP cannon can take down all but the very largest ship class with 2 shots. I think the biggest one takes 3 shots.

[Hannibal Barca]

sounds like poor planning to me, I alway deck out my aircraft before my troops.

[Vagrant]

Originally posted by DeathMarch:

sounds like poor planning to me, I alway deck out my aircraft before my troops.

This is my 1st xcom game ever. I did not think the interceptor minigame had such an important role, seeing how lame and boring the minigame is (holographic ships on screen goes pew-pew on a diceroll).

Pretty much everything else but this seemed important.