Obtaining alien artifacts, weapons, etc..do you have to do anything extra?

[EbonHawk]

I'm just curious if I'm missing something...couldn't find anything conclusive in a search.

When you are clearing a map (early in the game so far) and you advance a ways across it, do you have to do anything specific to obtain alien technology? I've completed some maps fairly fast, and I was wondering if you have to try and prolong engagements to find more stuff, or cover more of the map's area to get all the "loot", etc.

I get a summary screenat the end of a map that shows the stuff I've picked up. Sometimes it's a very small amount, sometimes there's quite a bit of stuff listed. Seems random. I was just wondering if exploration was rewarded with more stuff, or if you had to do something else to get the maximum bounty for a map. (I know you're not supposed to use explosives or it destroys some objects, and there's the Arc Thrower that lets you capture aliens for more stuff. I just didn't know if the basic exploration and revealing more of the map netted you any benefit or not. Thanks!)

[hghwolf]

Map "exploration" is utterly irrelevant to the gained "loot". It breaks down like this :

Every killed hostile alien gives a corpse and some fragments, except the Berserker and the Chryssalid, which only give their corpse.

Every alien stunned can be interrogated - once per type only - and you also get any weapons they have. So when you stun a sectoid you get a Plasma Pistol, stunning a Muton gives a light or normal Plasma Rifle and an alien grendae if they haven`t used theirs etc.

Every alien killed while under your control also gives all their weapons intact.

UFO loot is dependant on type and terrain damage. If you blow up the power source in the mission you won`t get an intact one even if it was still intact when the mission began.

[EbonHawk]

Did not know you could interrogate each type. Maybe my research doctor would let me know like she did on the first one (sectoid)? Didn't know you could obtain their weapons with the stunner either. Thanks for those tips, helps me out a lot.

Very fun, enjoyable game. Bit of a learning curve with the overload of weapons, items, ships, researches, keeping troops safe/alive while navigating the combat maps, etc, but I really like the design and style of the game. If the discussion forums supported it, I'd +rep both of you.

[Milk]

Ufopaedia[ufopaedia.org]

It's a good reference.

[alexshiro]

Doctor won't let you know anything, just cpature each new alien you see (robots and bugs aren't capturable). I like to carry 2 arc throwers and capture everything I see:) I had all my dudes equipped with Light Plasma before I researched Laser Rifles, enough Heavy plasmas for all my Heavyes and more alien grenades than soldiers :P I was save scumming that playthrough tho, it's very risky now that I'm not, but I still think the gear and the tech is worth the risk.

[EbonHawk]

Is the soldier's first specialty chosen completely at random? I can find no way to pick if you want to go sniper, assault, heavy, etc. It seem totally random. Of all the things you can customize about your enemy-fodder soldiers, you can't pick their profession? Makes no sense.

I seem to get like 10:1 Assault/Support to Heavy/Sniper

[Bindal]

Complete random, with two exceptions: Your first four guys will be from every class (tho who is becoming who is random, again) and when you got less from a class than others, it has a higher chance of that class than the others (but still not garantueed, tho)

[achus93]

in Enemy Within you will need to obtain the new type of resource called 'Meld' in the field...

[Bindal]

Originally posted by achus93:

in Enemy Within you will need to obtain the new type of resource called 'Meld' in the field...

Not entirely - if he's fast enough in killing all Aliens, he gains all Meld on the map without collecting it. Collecting it, however, makes sure that you get it even if you need more turns than available (seems 5 and 10 turns for the easy and hard canister, respectively)

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Bindal:

Not entirely - if he's fast enough in killing all Aliens, he gains all Meld on the map without collecting it.

Were did you hear that?

[LGear]

Originally posted by Garatgh Deloi:

Originally posted by Bindal:

Not entirely - if he's fast enough in killing all Aliens, he gains all Meld on the map without collecting it.

Were did you hear that?

From the devs and the PAX Prime gameplay demo. While MELD does have a timer, if you can kill all the aliens in the map before the timers expire, you get all the MELD even if you haven't discovered where the MELD are.

[achus93]

Originally posted by LGear:

Originally posted by Garatgh Deloi:

Were did you hear that?

From the devs and the PAX Prime gameplay demo. While MELD does have a timer, if you can kill all the aliens in the map before the timers expire, you get all the MELD even if you haven't discovered where the MELD are.

also, there'll be two Meld canisters, one close to where you spawned, and the other one you have to look for...

[EbonHawk]

Originally posted by Bindal:

Complete random, with two exceptions: Your first four guys will be from every class (tho who is becoming who is random, again) and when you got less from a class than others, it has a higher chance of that class than the others (but still not garantueed, tho)

Okay, I was afraid of that. "Random" is turning out to be very heavily against snipers and heavies. Oh well. Thanks for the info.

I have no idea what Meld is, or canisters. I'm playing Enemy Unknown. I didn't specify which XCom it was, but we're in the 'Enemy Unknown' forum. Is 'Enemy Within' included in this forum too?

[P-47 Thunderbolt]

Enemy Within is an upcoming expansion for Enemy Unknown. I am not sure if it will have its own forum but for now both are discussed in this one.

[Bindal]

Enemy Within is going to either get a sub-forum here or be part of this one, considering it is an expansion pack and not a seperate game.