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[Sergius]

Unfortunately, the trick to down enemy UFOs completely unharmed and with all their elerium-filled goodness that works on Enemy Unknown doesn't work on Terror from the Deep.

[Soulwynd]

You just need to get the big ships when landed. Always a good source of materials.

[Sergius]

Yes but in UFO you can MAKE them land 100% of the time
Just give them a couple missiles and then pull back, they'll land a few seconds later.

[mainiac]

See, what I never got was how why X-com would wait for a perfectly good battleship to land, go in and kill all the aliens, then disassemble an interplanetary spacecraft for spare parts and scrap metal.  What?  Does X-com not want to fly a ship after the paint has been scratched?

[Il Palazzo]

You know, it's those non-ergonomic chairs and toilets.

[Aqizzar]

They don't have toilets at all.  Or any furniture except those tiny chairs (what do floaters and snakemen do with them?), glowy sferes, and useless exploding machinery.

Realistically, the ships probably just can't be operated by a non-alien.  Psi-computer trouble or something, so the humans have to break them down and build their own vessel from the ground up.

What I've always wondered is why you're the only force on Earth willing to attack the aliens, and you're only given by the 20 richest nations a budget equivalent to a minor transportation bill.  I've long had a completely different story running, that X-COM is actually a private military firm.

[Granite26]

yeah, but 50k is nothing to pay for a scientist capable of decyphering alien tech, and the cost of fighter jets is inappropriate as well

[Aqizzar]

Bear in mind that those are monthly wages/leases.  Those scientists, assuming none of that money is administrative costs, are making about 700k a year.  And remember that all of those costs are in 1994 dollars.

It still doesn't make any sense of course, but it's a game about killing aliens, not managing finances.  Even if you do have to turn into a private arms manufacturer to stay in business.

[Mephansteras]

I always made most of my money selling off alien corpses and weapons. You quickly get more then you can use, and a few heavy plasma are worth about a million.

[Omath Erius]

What I've always wondered is why you're the only force on Earth willing to attack the aliens, and you're only given by the 20 richest nations a budget equivalent to a minor transportation bill.  I've long had a completely different story running, that X-COM is actually a private military firm.

IIRC several countries attempted to engage aliens prior to X-COM's founding.

If you recall, before X-COM came along noone had anything but the standard rifles, which are horrifically ineffective, and instead of using the best and brightest exclusively like X-COM does, they have a regular military, or in some cases, just a police force.

The pathetic failure of individual countries to take on the aliens is what created X-COM, because unlike in Apocalypse, the world is still not actually unified, and therefore has many, many more things to spend money on besides X-COM.

[Aqizzar]

If you recall, before X-COM came along noone had anything but the standard rifles, which are horrifically ineffective, and instead of using the best and brightest exclusively like X-COM does, they have a regular military, or in some cases, just a police force.

The best and brightest...  I like to imagine the soldiers X-COM recruits to be in the vein of the recruits for forum LPs, both because it's funny, but also makes a perverse sort of sense.  X-COM looks for two qualities in their recruits.

One is expendability.  Especially when starting out, X-COM squad casualty rates are atrocious, as they get thrown into battle against forces outside their ability and comprehension.

The other is a lack of respect for human life.  Yes, X-COM is dedicated to defending the Earth against all alien threats.  But that's the high level.  When boots hit the ground, if a civilian gets caught in the crossfire, then a civilian will have to die in the crossfire.  Because to fight the alien menace with the force and ruthlessness required, X-COM soldiers can't afford to avoid collateral damage or non-soldier injuries.

There's also the third quality, born out of the first two, that X-COM recruits tend to be unhinged pyromaniacs with foolhardy bravery.  Since survivability and public relations are out of consideration anyway, this is as useful a quality as the others.

In light of all that, combined with way you have to support yourself selling alien artifacts and manufacturing weaponry, it's easy to see how X-COM evolved into the competitive private service company it appears as in Apocalypse.  And why by then, nobody except the government likes them either.

[Boksi]

The government and Megapol.

[a1s]

Those scientists, assuming none of that money is administrative costs, are making about 700k a year.

err... I actually only got 600k. and yes, those are administrative costs and whatnot, there are highly payed managers (with scientific background) above each 5-6 of your scientists. then there's the payment for secrecy- scientists are very keen of the whole spread-the-knowledge thing, plus everyone will think them to have burned out, as for so long as they work for you, they're not publishing any new papers. So yeah your scientists earn a bundle- you can either make peace with it, or try to fight the aliens with M16s.

edit: actually scientists only earn 30k a month, coming to $360k per year, with all of the above, I'm pretty sure it's you who is ripping them off in this transaction. (it's probably their natural curiosity- I mean "OMFG! Alien0rz!", right?)

[beorn080]

Most people don't become scientists for the money. I'm not quite sure why they get paid at all. Can't spend money if your couped up in a military base fighting off aliens. Most likely its food, booze, entertainment of varied natures, and other such activities. I mean really, if you were a dedicated scientist, and someone came to you and said "Hey, we've got a couple of alien FTL spacecraft. Wanna come work for us and have a look at them?" would you say no?

[Granite26]

Most people don't become scientists for the money. I'm not quite sure why they get paid at all. Can't spend money if your couped up in a military base fighting off aliens. Most likely its food, booze, entertainment of varied natures, and other such activities. I mean really, if you were a dedicated scientist, and someone came to you and said "Hey, we've got a couple of alien FTL spacecraft. Wanna come work for us and have a look at them?" would you say no?

What's being a dedicated scientist got to do with it?