What is X-COM?

[Karanelle]

There may be some of you who joined Cydonian Dream without even knowing what the heck X-COM is. While we won't turn you away for not knowing, we do feel that it's our job to educate you so you know what the Guild focuses on.

The best link, in terms of raw data (careful, it redirects from Gaia Online), is the UFOpaedia Wiki.

After reading the information presented at these two sites, ask further questions here if you're still confused and we'll do our best to help you out! Just remember that this is not a strategy topic -- go to the Laboratory subforum for information regarding tactics and strategies.  

[Weregirl89]

Thank you for making this for me as I am going to assume it was my lack of knowledge on the subject that led you to create this. "heh sweatdrop " Thanks! 3nodding I have a question on if you are having too many supplies or troops and you want to sell them for a certain amount when you need them again will they sell them to you for the same price? confused  

[Karanelle]

Weregirl89

I have a question on if you are having too many supplies or troops and you want to sell them for a certain amount when you need them again will they sell them to you for the same price?

For items, it depends on whether it can be bought on Earth, made on Earth or made by Alien hands. Items often sell at a much lower price than retail if it can be bought. If it's Earth-made by XCom, you can turn a decent profit by manufacturing the right items. For Alien technology, everything has a set price and the only way to get it back is to collect more from raids on Alien craft and bases or to manufacture your own.

For personnel, scientists and engineers/technicians are fired en masse -- that is, you select the number to fire ("sack") and confirm. With soldiers, you can only sack soldiers not assigned to transports, and you must choose which soldier you want to sack. You don't get any money for sacking personnel -- after all, if you were firing somebody in a real-life corporate setting, would you really expect them to pay you for the privilege of losing their job?

The thing to remember is that three things between the two games should not be sold/sacked unless absolutely necessary: Elerium, Zrbite and soldiers/aquanauts. The first two are completely unique and cannot be reproduced, making them a commodity more valuable than cash. Soldiers should only be sacked if they're really low-ranking or if their abysmal attributes necessitate that they're fired before they do more harm than good in a combat situation. Obviously you don't want to sack your more experienced soldiers (and thus your more valuable ones). You CANNOT get a soldier back once sacked unless you immediately save, quit your game and hack the soldier database file to restore that soldier. (Also, you can't hire new soldiers as they will replace the entries for the recently sacked soldiers.) Because a sacked soldier is considered dead by game standards, you can also resurrect your fallen troops if you know how to manipulate the soldier database for a saved game using a hex editor or a save game editor. Of course, this is major cheating and most true players won't do that sort of thing. (I, on the other hand, am not above cheating. I'd pay money on a bet to claim that Dathril's a better XCom general than I am!)