X-Com: Apocalypse - stuck because of Transtellar

I've had some free time, so besides painting I've been playing X-Com: Apocalypse.

I wanted to finish off the alien dimension and win the game.



It was a hard slog for a bit - alien raids often, usually with two motherships (it's called the "mothership ex nilio" situation - they have one, but deploy two.) I raided the alien dimension and barely made it out alive thanks to swarming ships. But persistance and additional escorts allowed me to actually clear the alien ships from their own dimension, and I haven't seen any since I wiped out their manufacturing facilities.

But I do have a bit of an enjoyment problem.


Somewhere during an alien incursion into the city, I must have done a lot of damage to Transtellar's properties. They went hostile. I kept pausing combat and bribing them, but it was no use - they went hostile.

They demanded a bribe to go neutral, and did, but still showed as unwilling to negotiate. They promptly snapped back to hostile.

This has actually crippled my game - I can't transfer people or goods between my bases. So my X-Com craft returned from the alien dimension with a critically important captured alien . . . but we need a large-sized lab to analyze it. Okay. But I can only that one of two ways:

- transfer the alien to my other base, which is designed as a research center

or

- demolish a section of my base and build a new lab, then hire new scientists

Neither is good.

I know if Transteller and I have it out in a big enough battle, and I paste them, they'll likely offer an armistice. Most online sources recommend attacking one of their buildings. I saved the game and tried that - it ended up with most organizations going hostile to me, and Transteller still didn't budge. Sigh. I tried raiding their locations with troops, and killed a bunch of their guards and blew up parts of the building. But still nothing. It's annoying.

I found a save game from a week or two back, and I think I'll redo things from there. I can win the game without further research. I want to win the game with all of the research. I won this game back when it came out - twice, even. I want to win it again, but get to use anti-alien gas, Toxigun C ammo, etc. I can't do that without Transteller letting me ship people around.

I might just restart from that earlier save and re-do a lot of stuff. It'll be less fun but at least then I can end up with all the widgets.

Or I'll finish this sucker out, and mark the earlier save as a point for my next play-through to begin. Not sure yet which, but neither is really exciting at the moment.