NKF:Talk

Welcome to NKF Talk. NKF once asked the question "What is NKF Talk?" - he didn't have a clue, so he decided to make it up as he went along. NKF Talk is now NKF's personal but ultimately temporary soapbox for ... well anything NKF jolly well wants, but it will be for X-COM-related articles in this wiki, that's for sure. NKF is definitely not going to go on about his hobbies/obsessions apart from the X-Com related hobby.

Note that there's an 'add to discussion' button at the top of the screen in the guise of a + symbol. NKF does not intend this page to be a discussion forum (or a blog), so any discussions will be temporary at best. For actual discussion beyond a single party, NKF recommends using any of the X-Com themed forums on StrategyCore and XcomUFO - where he frequents.

NKF is referring to himself in the third person for no apparent reason - although is rumoured to be absolutely bonkers, which explains a lot.

P.S: NKF is not NFK. NFK is some weirdo that keeps stealing NKF's thunder. Also NKF doesn't have any hidden psychological meaning, and are merely initials.

The NKF-Centric Notes of Doom

The first of the articles I'd like to see started is an "X-Com Apocalypse Starter's Guide", as I've been concentrating far too much on UFO and TFTD, might as well get started on the third game. I've written a lot about the subject on several different Apocalypse forums - it's high time to gather everything into one place. Where to begin? Time will answer that question. Hopefully not too much time.

Understanding the energy recovery formula for UFO/TFTD is currently high on my list.

Them Articles

Or rather, short paragraphs that will eventually lead to a larger article.

NKF's X-COM Apocalypse: Starters Guide

An article by NKF

Preface

Starting an X-COM Apocalypse game can sometimes be daunting for first time players, even if they are veterans of the first two X-COM games. So, where do we begin? Well, before we begin, I want to say what this guide is not.

It is not a complete start to end walkthrough. It is only a guide to get players up and running in a new game. It is not meant to be a replacement for the game manual. While this guide may list a few keyboard and mouse commands, players are assumed to know most of the essential interface commands. And even if you don't, well, I'm not going to stop you.

Starting the game

Starting a new campaign is generally a simple task of picking the right difficulty level and jumping right into the action. Fair enough.

Choosing a Difficulty Level

The main reason to deliberate on a difficulty level will be to decide how toned down your opposition will be, but it will ultimately influence the type of map you are to play on. On easier levels Mega Primus is a small scenic city that is easy enough to manage, but as the difficulty is ramped up, the city turns into a sprawling Megapolis. On easier levels you only have six possible base building sites, while on harder levels you have eight possible building sites. Unfortunately, not all bases locations are equally distributed around the city.

Your first base

If you don't have any trouble choosing your first base, you may want to skip to the next section. Otherwise read on for a few ideas that might help you make your decision.

You cannot officially choose your starting base or the layout of its base modules. Base selection and initial module layout is random. You can however meddle with fate somewhat by doing a base scrum. Restart the game on the difficulty level of your choice over and over until you get the base site or perhaps module layout that best suits your needs. Note that you will often only get the same selection of starting base sites, so it would be better to just pick one that bests suits your needs and be done with it. But do not be discouraged. It is possible to get any base on the map. It just takes a lot of patience.

Real Estate

Bases are differentiated by corridor layout and the topside building that the base is hidden under. There are only two types of buildings that X-Com bases can be built in. Slums or warehouses.

A slum block can be huge, massive even on some maps. But they are very weak and any small section that is damaged can collapse other sections in a domino effect chain reaction, making slums very fragile. A section of slums can easily fall to even the lightest of mis-fired rockets.

Warehouses are smaller, but they are tougher and can withstand more damage than a slum block. They are also more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.

Corridors

The beauty of the various corridor layouts lies not just in how much building space is available, but in how the layout can be utilised in base defence. Each one is better suited for one purpose than another.

Small layouts are the best for defence as you can force attacker to take one path and walk right into a concentrated defence module chokepoint. However they lack the space to allow for constructing a multi-purpose base that has a little of everything - forcing them into specialised roles. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The main headache is deciding which facilities to decentralise and move to a new base.

Bases with large wide open layouts offer the opposite. With more space you get more room to build facilities, but your six teams of soldiers and technical staff will be spread all over the base. If the base has a repair bay, your defence modules will have to spread thin to cover both the repair bay and the grav-lift. As the game can only operate so many defence turrets at any given time, attackers will be able to break through the defence guns a lot easier and possibly infiltrate the base.

Grav-lift locations can also make or break your primary base as they are fixed. Take their locations into consideration as well when choosing a layout.

Weigh up your options and go for the base that you think would work best.

Initial Housekeeping

So you've bought your base, and you're happy with it. Good. In the next update, we will start to take inventory of our base and maybe spend a bit of money.