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The Situation Room Menu

While this is probably the one menu page you will spend the least overall time in, it happens to be the most important of the pages, largely due to what you can do there and the information that it provides about how your game is going. This Menu is neatly divided between information and actions, with the information taking the form of your current status with the Member Nations of the Council which is visually represented by the “Doom Tracker” meter, their Panic Level which has its own meters, and the Funding Levels you presently enjoy.

In addition to the above information elements, you also have the ability to obtain Special Missions from the Council here, and you will meet with the Council here for your monthly report in which your performance in your position of commanding officer is graded, and you get the just deserts of your rewards for however well (or badly) you did!

The Doom Tracker

Along the top of the world map there is a meter in bright orange lights, with each light segment representing one of the 16 Member Nations. Whenever you manage to allow panic to stay too high for too long in one of the Member Nations and they choose to abandon the Council, one of those light segments goes out. Once you lose eight light segments, you failed, game over, buh bye Mister Man!

So hey, don't let that happen, right? The best way to do that is to control Panic!

Controlling Panic

When you look at the world map in the Situation Room you get a birds eye view of the Panic levels in each nation. Nice soothing single blue lights are best, while lots of angry Orange or Red lights are bad. Bad! Avoid Orange and Red!

To reduce the Panic Level for a nation simply complete missions successfully in that Nation. You can also deploy Satellite coverage for that nation to get an instant Panic Reduction, but bear in mind that this only works ONCE. After that you really need to try to complete the missions with a sound strategy to help preserve the members.

There is one exception to this and that is Special Missions, which will have the effect of almost completely eliminating Panic in the country that the mission takes place in as long as you are successful and score a good result. That being the case it is never a good idea to ignore Special Missions, even if you really want to.

A Word About Funding and Special Missions

You probably figured out for yourself that each of the Member Nations contributes to the funding for your organization, but what you may not know is that they pay more the happier they are, and they pay more when they have Satellite coverage AND you have placed fighters in their region to help defend them from UFO's. That is something to bear in mind when you are looking for ways to increase your income.

You will also find that the Member Nations tend to increase their contribution of money and staff if you happen to have successfully completed a mission (or missions) in their Nation during the current month. Something to think about.

Launching Satellites

If you read the official description in the game it clearly explains that “Increasing XCOM's satelite coverage is necessary in order to successfully manage global panic levels. In addition, countries monitored by satellites will provide increased funding.”

That is good to know, but what you also need to be aware of is that deploying Satellites is a resource-dependent process, because you have to build a Satellite Uplink facility in your base for every two Satellites you want to launch! It is not entirely clear what the actual effect is, but when you build the Satellite Uplink facilities so that they are touching you see a green + sign and they seem to get a bonus.

Bear in mind that each region (as opposed to country) can have its Panic Level influenced by placing additional Satellites as well as result in some highly desirable rewards. To better understand why that can be a good thing and why you may want to focus on Satellites early on, look at what you can gain:

Africa - Bonus: All In
1 Satellite: +1 Engineer per month.
2 Satellite: +1 Scientist, +2 Engineer per month.
3 Satellite: +2 Scientist, +3 Engineer per month.

Egypt Satellite: +$105 per month.
Nigeria Satellite: +$150 per month.
South Africa Satellite: +$120 per month.

Asia - Bonus: Future Combat
1 Satellite: +2 Engineers per month.
2 Satellite: +3 Engineers per month.
3 Satellite: +6 Engineers per month.
4 Satellite: +8 Engineers per month.

Australia Satellite: +$90 per month.
China Satellite: +$150 per month.
India Satellite: +$90 per month.
Japan Satellite: +$150 per month.

Europe - Bonus: Expert Knowledge
1 Satellite: +2 Scientists per month.
2 Satellite: +3 Scientists per month.
3 Satellite: +6 Scientists per month.
4 Satellite: +8 Scientists per month.

France Satellite: +$120 per month.
Germany Satellite: +$150 per month.
Russia Satellite: +$225 per month.
United Kingdom Satellite: +$150 per month.

North America - Bonus: Air and Space
1 Satellite: +1 Scientist, +1 Engineer per month.
2 Satellite: +2 Scientist, +2 Engineer per month.
3 Satellite: +4 Scientist, +4 Engineer per month.

Canada Satellite: +$150 per month.
Mexico Satellite: +$75 per month.
United States Satellite: +$270 per month.

South America - Bonus: We Have Ways
1 Satellite: +1 Scientist per month.
2 Satellite: +2 Scientist, +2 Engineer per month.

Argentina Satellite: +$105 per month.
Brazil Satellite: +$120 per month.

And Lastly The Council

You already know that this is where you go for your monthly meetings with The Council, but are you clear on just what the Council is? They are a group of member nations that are made up of the following countries:

• Argentina
  
• Australia
  
• Brazil
  
• Canada
  
• China
  
• Egypt
  
• France
  
• Germany
  
• India
  
• Japan
  
• Mexico
  
• Nigeria
  
• Russia
  
• South Africa
  
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  
• The United States of America
  

Basically what these have in common is they have large populations and large manufacturing bases, big economies, and/or high tech development histories. Well, everyone except Nigeria, which got on the Council because they emailed them that they won the lottery and they just needed to send Nigeria their Checking Account number and... Heh.