Questions about force level

[HerrDoktorMencus]

I recently started my first L/I game after playing mostly C/I for a while.

I've encountered to missions that make me think I'm either encountering a force level bug ... or not understanding force level correctly. (Probably the later).

On my first post-gatecrasher GOP I encountered a Viper and on my 3rd I encountered a MEC. My teams sof squaddies and PFCs survived the Viper (mostly), the MEC ... not so much.

My understanding is force level is:

[*]the type of enemy spawning on GOPs is determined by a global "force level"
[*]FL starts at 1 and increases by 1 every 15 days on all difficulty levels
[*]It should not be possible to encounter Vipers at force level 1
[*]Per UFOPedia, MECs should not appear before FL 4 which would come mid-April.
[*]I don't recall the exact dates of the missions but would have been roughly March 10th and March 20th, or sooner.

What am I missing?

[Saph7]

As I understand it, there are occasional 'strong' or 'weak' pods in mission schedules, which have an effective boost or penalty to Force Level. That's how you can run into the odd MEC while still in March, and why you keep on seeing basic ADVENT Troopers way past the point where they're a threat anymore.

Strong pods are much more common on Legendary, as you'd expect.

[HerrDoktorMencus]

Thanks!

That makes sense. Sounds like I'm getting my ass handed to me fair and square.

As it should be.

[Rikokrates]

I started a new campaign on V/I I'm in May, i've contacted 4 regions and they are all at strength 1 except my starting region which is at 2. I'm meeting mechs and various snakes but in my previous campaign the regions were much higher levels than is this one, what gives!?

I've been running 9+ missions every supply drop and countered one batch of advent rnfs, where is the advent strength!?

[fowlJ]

I started a new campaign on V/I I'm in May, i've contacted 4 regions and they are all at strength 1 except my starting region which is at 2. I'm meeting mechs and various snakes but in my previous campaign the regions were much higher levels than is this one, what gives!?

I've been running 9+ missions every supply drop and countered one batch of advent rnfs, where is the advent strength!?

ADVENT Strength determines how many enemies there will be on each mission, not which enemies there will be. That's determined by the Force Level, which increases I believe once every 16 days, the first increase taking slightly more or less time based on difficulty.

[Dwarfling]

Legendary is different from Commander in that you start right away at "Snake level". So you might find one in Gatecrasher instead of the Sectoid, but it's random. Then comes the Stunlancers I think, followed by single Muton and then MEC, if I recall correctly.

[Rikokrates]

Legendary is different from Commander in that you start right away at "Snake level". So you might find one in Gatecrasher instead of the Sectoid, but it's random. Then comes the Stunlancers I think, followed by single Muton and then MEC, if I recall correctly.

Lovely. Trying my second playthrough on Veteran but i'll bear this in mind for future runs, thanks. Having a viper on gatecrasher is a big disadvantage though as it can potentially delay you researching psy! In my first run I had soooo many snakes in storage....

[Dwarfling]

You start at Strenght 2 on your home region, so it isn't difficult to push it to 4, but it's still up to luck whether you detect the Column with a decent time and that said Column has Sectoids. And then you have to eat retals so early... You have to adjust.