Hey, I have a regular issue in Apocalypse: several organizations (Marsec, Psyce and Diablo) started to be hostile towards me and regularly want a bribe every time I attack any UFO - how to deal with them? If I don't pay they start invading my bases and also refuse to sell the gear.
When I try to raid their buildings, there are no Aliens inside (no aliens detected)
Bottom line is its too late.
You need to sweep for aliens when they are dropped from UFOs. Immediately after clearing UFOs you can check for infiltrated organizations. Sometimes you miss a drop or they spread from the drop point to neighboring buildings. You may find aliens even if nobody calls 911.
The aliens that you can fight inside buildings die off over time, but if you don't clear them out the influence on that organization stays.
The only organization that is absolutely hostile to you is the cult of Sirius. The next most challenging is the one that transports goods and personnel (transtellar?) - every game I end up making them hostile to me through inadvertently destroying their craft. Any other organizations, it's up to your own actions towards them.
Whether an organization is taken over by aliens is entirely up to your inability to clear the aliens that are dropped by UFOs (except maybe cult of Sirius? I'm not sure whether they are automatically taken over but I suspect they just don't call 911)
Thanks, so I basically failed the game (they were source of e.g. hoverbikes that I extensively used)?
How do you actually check for infiltrated orgs early?
For overall progress I believe the graph showing alien activity for each corporation gives a decent indication of if they are being infiltrated (aka you didn't detect a drop or clear out all of the invaders dropped off).
Not sure it's considered "unsporting" but each time a UFO incursion occured watch for any enemies being deposited (either a biological tube or teleport energy beam coming down from a ship hovering over a building). Send and clear the building as you would normally do but be mindful of enemies retreating during the battle as they will go to neighboring buildings to continue the process. Save and then check each building connected to the location you just cleared out to make sure they didn't have a random alien wander over. Reload the save when you know which places has alien stragglers and clear them so your not tanking your rep just checking every place. If you get an alarm that aliens were discovered then reload the save made right after the wave of UFOs to clear the place before it becomes a problem. Might seem save scummy but the game is unfortunately half baked in a lot of ways so it's often guess work trying to figure out if an enemy on the other side of the battlescape randomly decided to leave the battle (and which building they traveled using the tube network).
Whether you failed the game I think depends. If you’re rolling out your own combat ships soon, you probably can let them go because you won’t need the hoverbikes anymore. Did you get the type 5 UFO yet?
If you think you’re more than a week or so away, you could just raid cult of Sirus or one of the gangs a couple times to pay off marsec when you need.
You won’t take the relationship penalty for fighting on the ground with your soldiers or for ufos shot down in the alien dimension.
Thanks, I will try to survive by paying Marsec:)
I’ve found that in situations like this, it can be beneficial to only shoot down the UFO I really need, as long you take the relationship penalty per ufo. Then fight the rest with your soldiers. The downsides are it takes more battles so more wounded soldiers and fewer exotic components from the UFOs. But if it’s only going to be for an incursion or two…
There is a chart for organizations being influenced by aliens. When UFOs show up, go to slow speed and watch them all. It will stop and hover and you will see a white tube that indicates aliens are being dropped into the building. This is the only reliable indication. Waiting for them to call 911 gives time for aliens to move to adjacent buildings, or sometimes you dont even get a call (like if its hostile or cult of sirius).
Also capture fallen UFOs for research and DONT MISS ANY.
You could start over. Hoverbikes are good early, as they are so hard to hit. As soon as you get the disruptor shield, put them on your hovercars because the bikes get killed by the better alien weapons.
1st phase is bike/hovercar with the laser that doesnt use ammo. 2nd phase is shielded hovercar with elerium laser. 3rd phase is when you start to build your own craft you fill out some hawk air warriors with disruptor / elerium and then swap that loadout over to the smaller craft (explorer?). Once you get the white ship with the 3 disruptors you can clear out all the UFOs. The annihilator is overkill (but the big disruptor is awesome)
Thanks, I will try to play a bit to see if I can reach endgame and somehow keep paying back Marsec if I need more hoverbikes
Well written.
A little add-on: besides Sirius, it is perfectly OK to have additional max two organizations hostile, so you can raid them all for loot, which you sell. Important is that you use stun grenades on turn based game with minimum explosions.
But you generally do not want other orgs to be less than neutral. On that note, it is quite inevitable to have constant problems with Interstellar and need to pump cash into better relations.
Cult of Sirius is the only enemy you need. The psiclone is the big seller on the black market.
If you are tryhard, it is possible to get Transtellar to like you.
Place unarmed evasive hoverbikes near their buildings early game and try to have the alien weapons fire damage them. If enough damage is done on the first few UFO incursions they will start to view the aliens unfavourably.
One of 2 things has happened:
Marsec has been infiltrated by the Aliens - if so they are lost forever. Their info tab will show the text "the aliens have taken control of this organisation" or something equivalent.
Marsec hates you because you are hurting their friends - which may be the aliens or another organisation. Their text will say "while XCOM continue to oppose our alien friends we will remain hostile."
In the second case they are theoretically recoverable but it is very hard. Essentially you need then to have a reason to stop liking the aliens. Usually this is them causing damage on the cityscape. Late game they will perform bombing raids/overspawn drops that trash buildings. If those buildings are Marsec you may see them readjust their standing.
This doesn't sound like Marsec is infiltrated by aliens, because if it was then they wouldn't ask for bribes, they'd just be permanently hostile towards you. You can check the alien infiltration charts, as long as any org is under 50% infiltration it's safe.
Now here's the problem: apoc's political system works in a simple but infuriating way where organisations will like someone less if that someone hurts them OR someone they like, and they will also like someone more if that someone hurts someone else they dislike. This applies not just to x-com, but to every other org including aliens too (as in, non-alien orgs perceive the aliens as another org with all the above that entails, aliens are still permanently hostile towards everyone but the cult of sirius).
So if Marsec ended up disliking you for some reason and then the aliens hurt you (by attacking your base or shooting down one of your hoverbikes for example) then Marsec will start liking the aliens, and when you shoot down UFOs, it will start hating you even more. This feedback loop usually happens to orgs that already begin the campaign liking the aliens - Cult of Sirius is the obvious example but Transtellar also starts with a minor pro-alien sympathy, traitors to humanity that they are. But it can happen to any organisation if it starts disliking you, for example because you caused collateral damage to their buildings in the city or tried to investigate their buildings for aliens but found nothing (this also worsens your relations with them).
In short, it's very important in apocalypse to maintain at least neutral relations with factions that you don't want to turn pro-alien. And if they dip below neutral then bribe them: you can buy them off to improve relations ahead of time, which is usually cheaper than doing so only when they start asking you for money.