MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

               WHAT IS ELERIUM-115 AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
        
   Elerium-115 is an element used in UFO Power Sources as a form of power.
   It is not available in our solar system, so it must be gained by 
   recovering UFO's with then Power Sources intact. Every Power Source 
   yields 50 units of Elerium (or 5 storage spaces). 
      It is important because Elerium is used in almost every alien
   artefact and is needed to fuel the UFO-based craft (Firestorm, Lightning
   and Avenger). As Elerium cannot be manufactured, you must never sell any
   of it. It is without exception, the single most important alien artefact
   in the entire game.
      You should consider using the Cautious Attack mode on UFO intercepts
   as this will in nearly every case ensure that the UFO crashes down with
   it's engines intact.
      If you have the first version of UFO, you can get thousands of units
   of Elerium-115 by allowing an alien raid on an XCom base, and then
   defeating them. This no longer works on versions 1.2 and above of UFO.

                    HOW CAN I PRESERVE MY ELERIUM-115?
   If you feel like a challenge, only use the Interceptor and Skyranger, as
   all the UFO-based craft require Elerium for fuel.
        
   Only use clips and weapons picked up during a mission.
   
   Unload all weapons before the battle is over for a free refill of ammo.
        
   NEVER, under any circumstances, sell Elerium-115! You never know when
   you will need it, and as it is not abundant, you can soon find yourself
   short. Only sell items which need Elerium-115 to be manufactured, and
   even then, don't sell items that you definitely need.
        
   Plasma clips do not need to be manufactured as you capture loads on a
   completed UFO recovery anyway. 
        
        
                           HOW DO I MAKE MONEY?

   There are three main ways of earning cash in UFO:
        
      1: The funding countries. This is where most of XCom's income comes
         from. If you keep alien activity low in the countries, they will
         increase their funding.
      2: Selling excess artefacts. Most alien artefacts can be sold for
         profit. For example, you only need 1 alien corpse for research,
         so sell any excess ones as they earn $20,000 each! If you are
         very successful you can make a packet just by selling alien 
         corpses. Also, you only need 1 alien food, alien surgery, 
         examination room and the other alien rooms. These make varying
         amounts.
      3: Selling manufactured goods. This is why engineers should never be
         kept idle. If you constantly tell your engineers to manufacture
         goods, particularly those which don't require Elerium or Alien
         Alloys, you can make a fortune selling off the manufactured goods.
                                
                HOW DO I KEEP THE FUNDING COUNTRIES HAPPY?
        
   * Intercept all UFO's flying over the country.
   * Shoot the UFO's down (this discourages other alien missions in that
     area)
   * Attack UFO's and capture live aliens, dead bodies and artefacts with
     no XCom deaths or casualties (you get more points)
   * Attack and defeat Alien Terrorists ASAP!
   * Destroy any Alien bases that have been built on Earth.
   * Don't let the aliens destroy your bases!
   * Research alien technology, and then use it to good effect.

                  WHAT ALIEN ARTEFACTS CAN I SAFELY SELL?
        
   Everything that cannot be used in Battlescape mode, except Alien Alloys
   Elerium-115, and the UFO components. The other artefacts only need one
   to be researched, so you can sell the rest. Alien Entertainment, and the
   other alien rooms offer nothing except research value, so you can sell
   these until you have nothing else to research.
      Selling alien corpses is definitely a money-maker. It is not
   essential knowledge to win the game, so you can research alien corpses
   right at the end. In the meantime, just sell the corpses and only
   research live aliens.

                  WHAT ALIEN ARTEFACTS SHOULD I NOT SELL?

   Under no circumstances should you sell your Elerium. Almost every alien
   artefact which is of use requires Elerium to be manufactured.
      Never sell any weapons or ammo clips, unless there are far too many
   of them. If you have 8 Heavy Plasma's in your possession, always keep
   around 24 Heavy Plasma Clips handy so that you can always reload.       
      Remember that the base and the transport have seperate storage areas,
   so if you have 8 soldiers, and twenty rifles in your BASE STORE, and you
   sell 12, you may still have 8 aboard your craft, so you can sell the
   other 8 that are left in the BASE STORE. Only keep enough rifles for the
   number of soldiers you have, because the excess items go towards the
   80-item limit, and they can make money for you.         

                    WHAT MANUFACTURED ITEMS CAN I SELL?
        
   The Laser Cannon can make you pots of cash, and it doesn't need Elerium.
   For this reason, it is ideal. You could sell the Hovertank/Fusion
   Launcher if you wanted more cash, but it uses Elerium.
        
                 WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH EQUIPMENT SHORTAGES?

   Isn't it annoying. You return from a successful mission and the game 
   informs you that there is not enough equipment left in the stores to
   stock the transport with. Here are some solutions on how to avoid this.
        
      The "Not enough equipment to fully re-equip squad" screen.
      This basically means that your base has not got enough equipment to
      take the craft back to it's previous load. For example, if you have
      8 Rifles and 8 Rifle Clips, and you use 4 Rifle Clips, and the base
      stores only have 2 Rifle Clips left, then there isn't enough to 
      take the number of Rifle Clips back up to 8, just 6. The only way
      around this is to buy/manufacture more of the required item.
                
      The "Not enough ammo to fully arm HWP" window
      You've just bought a HWP but you find out that you cannot put it onto
      the transport. Why? There isn't enough ammo for it. The following
      table shows you how much ammo each HWP needs:
      
      Tank/Cannon                           30 HWP Cannon Rounds
      Tank/Rocket Launcher                   8 HWP Rockets
      Tank/Laser Cannon                     ---- No Ammo Needed ----
      Hovertank/Plasma                      ---- No Ammo Needed ----
      Hovertank/Fusion Launcher              8 HWP Fusion Balls *
      
      * Fusion Balls must be manufactured, so keep plenty in stores.
                
      As a general rule, always keep about three times the amount needed
      to fully arm a HWP in the base stores.
           
      Not enough missiles to arm craft.
      There are two options, either buy/manufacture more ammo, or just use
      craft weapons that don't need ammo. If you use Avalanche Missiles
      (forget Stingray, they're useless) you should always have 12 missiles
      per Launcher in stock. Forget Fusion Cannon, it may be the longest
      ranged craft weapon, but you can only carry two rounds! 
         The alternative is to use an ammo-less weapon. I recommend Plasma
      Beam. It only needs Elerium when built. Laser Cannon is best suited
      to making money for the XCom project.
                
      When do I sack or get rid of personnel/craft?
      As a rule, you should always get a replacement craft if the old one
      is damaged above 65%. If the craft needs to be manufactured and you
      are short on cash/materials, then grin and bear it. Otherwise, get
      a new one pronto! 
         Soldiers with a strength of below 30 should be sacked, unless you
      are willing to put in the training time to get it higher. Also sack
      soldiers if they are not improving in skill over a large period of
      game time.
                
                        EQUIPPING TRANSPORT CRAFTS

   There is an 80-item limit on every craft you have, so planning ahead is
   vital. Here is some hints on how to equip your landing crafts properly.

   Use Laser Weapons
   Laser Pistols and Rifles don't require ammo clips, so you can bring a 
   lot more items along with you. EG, if you take 8 Laser Rifles instead of
   8 Plasma Rifles with 2 Clips each, that's 16 items off the list straight
   away, which can be filled up with PSI-Amps and MediKits, and grenades :)
        
   Don't mix and match
   If you bring both pistols and rifles (excluding lasers) you need two
   different ammo clips, adding to the items list. Nuff said.
        
   Bring less miscellaneous equipment
   You only need a MediKit on the medics assigned in your squad, unless you
   want more immediate medical aid. Likewise, Mind Probes and PSI-Amps
   don't need to be carried by everybody. 
   Motion Scanners should only be carried by one or two units.
                
   Don't forget the HWP's
   A HWP counts as one item, and the ammo is already loaded, so the ammo
   doesn't count on the item list. Even though a HWP takes up four spaces
   on the craft, this means that you take less soldiers, which saves you
   even more clips!
        
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