North America or Africa are always the best starting points in my opinion. Africa gives you a lot more money versus NA's cheap fighter planes which save a bunch of dough. Soldiers and abduction/terror missions don't really change much. Autopsies should be your lowest priority, getting beam weapons or armor the highest after the first couple of "missions" you have to do. Interrogating live aliens should always be the highest priority if you want to get somewhere quickly... having a good supply of rookies to do the stunning is always good cause if they die you don't really care and your vets are safest with a decoy ahead of them to take the bullets/plasma. If you have laser rifles you should be able to defeat a terror mission because they do a good amount of damage and focusing fire on any exposed target will slaughter them.
P.S. - Scopes and Laser Rifles are good for assaults if you haven't tried that yet.
Apart from the bonuses you can get - some of which are more useful than others - each tech advance counts when your end-of-the-month council review gets written up. Since autopsies are relatively quick to do, they can be useful in keeping the council happy.
Playing through again for the umpteenth time, now with all the new tweaks switched on (random funding, flanking crits, longer game & so on), which puts a whole new twist on normal difficulty.
I've been enjoying the benefits from Asia during this playthrough, but I just got to the point of the game where UFOs are getting big and mean and had to spend nearly $1000 beefing up my global air force. Thinking about using North America next time. Africa is probably my favorite overall, but it's more of a generally useful benefit as opposed to giving you a specific niche.
First playthrough I got shut down just three days before they finished building the Gollop Chamber. >_< I was using Europre as my base, which was a problem. I'd also just lost Col. 'Boss Man' Torres, who was basically my Commander Shepard for that playthrough, so I knew I was screwed anyway.
Second playthrough, I used Africa. Got through the whole thing without a hitch either economically or on the battlefield, although I think I accidentally set the difficulty to easy. (Set it to easy for the first mission then changed my mind and went back to normal straight away, but it didn't accept the change).
From the two campaigns, I'd say pick Africa. Spend every bit of spare cash you have to begin with on power generators and satellite uplinks. Get at least a handful of birds into space in the early game, and you'll be set. Also, as soon as the chance comes up, build some advanced fighters. I neglected to maintain air superiority while I was beefing up the ground team, and it cost me dearly enough mid game in my second campaign.
Don't bother building too many laser weapons for your ground forces or fighters. Until things get really tough on the ground you should be able to win by superior tactics alone, at least until plasma weapons become available. Consider outfitting your assault guys with arc throwers as well. Taking aliens alive requires a lot of maneuvering for the tougher ones, but its well worth it if you can get hold of free weapons from them.
Apart from the bonuses you can get - some of which are more useful than others - each tech advance counts when your end-of-the-month council review gets written up. Since autopsies are relatively quick to do, they can be useful in keeping the council happy.
Playing through again for the umpteenth time, now with all the new tweaks switched on (random funding, flanking crits, longer game & so on), which puts a whole new twist on normal difficulty.
I know South America doesn't net me the most money, but I have about 5 satellites right now: one in US, one in Brazil to lower terror, 1 unused because waiting for uplink, and 2 more still being built(lucky before council meeting). I already have beam weapons done and am researching the armor. After the armor is done, I plan to finish the alien containment stuff and arc thrower and finishing all satellites in South America so that all my autopsies are automatic so I save time on them to start research improve interceptors.
Most guides say Africa or Asia.
Asia helps in the mid-to-late game with the discounts to the Foundry.
Africa gives you a bonus to income, and they don't call it 'liquid' cash for nothing.
(It's been a while since I've played so this may not be super accurate.)
EDIT:
You can always try toughing it out. It is possible to pull through.
Most guides say Africa or Asia.
Asia helps in the mid-to-late game with the discounts to the Foundry.
Africa gives you a bonus to income, and they don't call it 'liquid' cash for nothing.
(It's been a while since I've played so this may not be super accurate.)
EDIT:
You can always try toughing it out. It is possible to pull through.
Right now I am researching computers so I can get the Satellite Nexus. So far I am doing well, mostly because autopsies aren't weighing me down anymore after I picked up the rest of South America.
I know South America doesn't net me the most money, but I have about 5 satellites right now: one in US, one in Brazil to lower terror, 1 unused because waiting for uplink, and 2 more still being built(lucky before council meeting). I already have beam weapons done and am researching the armor. After the armor is done, I plan to finish the alien containment stuff and arc thrower and finishing all satellites in South America so that all my autopsies are automatic so I save time on them to start research improve interceptors.
I tend to go for arc thrower and containment very early. The sectoids, little rascals, carry plasma pistols which are by far the best handguns in-game. The more of those I scoop up, the fewer I have to pay for, and my assaults and snipers get a lot of use out of those sidearms. The only other alien to carry the pistol is the sectoid commander, and he can be a pain in the backside to capture.
Europe is pretty good. Of the two bonuses which are difficult to get (Europe and Asia) it's by far the best. You really have to use it to get anything out of it though, so build workshops (not labs, research isn't the be all and end all in this game) and make sure you're getting the rebate bonus (aiming to end up with a 3x3 grid means you'll get a huge rebate by the endgame, which means all your gear is super cheap).
The only other really strong choice is Africa. The funding bonus is really useful, and to top it off South Africa and Egypt don't give a whole lot of money so starting out there means you can let them withdraw without losing the epic bonus. Bear in mind, unless you play a perfect game you will lose some countries from the council, so better Africa and South America than Russia or the USA.
I've heard some people go for North America. The bonus isn't the best but on top of that the USA (your starting satellite) gives a huge amount of funding which can be an early game advantage.
Personally, I'd skip beam weapons altogether. You need carapace armour ASAP, and if you're lucky enough to have grabbed an intact alien generator early on it might be worth going straight for that line of research because..
it results in Titan Armour, which makes your guys insanely tough in the early and mid-game.
I find there's generally no problem sticking with ballistic guns until you're start capturing aliens and their plasma weaponry, the key thing is to make your guys as tough as possible so they won't die to random critical hits.
And yeah, if you're playing iron man you're going to end up restarting.. a lot.
But yeah, you seem to have grasped the basics. You need to keep building satellites and uplinks pretty much constantly. Don't worry so much about the bonuses, use them to control panic. Getting bonuses isn't worth much if countries start leaving the project.
And yeah, always bring your A-game to terror missions. Save as many civilians as possible (don't assume they're safe just because they're standing around, they seem to die randomly). Chryssalids are particularly nasty when they start creating zombie hordes, but don't forget you can use exposives freely against them. They don't have guns to collect.
Final tip. Snipers start out terrible but turn into absolute gods as they level up. Try and keep them alive.
Random question here guys. I just downloaded X-Com via Steam and it won't run for me. I already checked the online help and did its suggestion (running two .exe files and messing with the UAC controls and updating my drivers) and it still won't load. I get past the powered by Unreal screen and then an error message pops up and says "X-Com has stopped running" and it shuts down. I contacted Steam and have yet to hear back from them. Any thoughts or tips or helpful hints?
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