X-com Enemy Unknown

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I played the demo today. 1994 reached through the fog of time and reminded me of days long forgotten. A time where developers weren't afraid to make a game about killing aliens with their own guns wielded by a specialized crack team of international alien cajone crunching badasses.

Anyone else as goddamn excited about Enemy Unknown as i am?

Play the demo. Seriously.

[Ramary]

We play different demos? I played one that was too short for its own good, and was hand holding me though most of it.

I am still interested in the game, even though I lack the money for it, but that was a terrible demo.

IN ADDITION: That fucker was like 6 GB for what was basically 30 minutes of play.

[Azisien]

To say that I have gone completely insane over XCOM: EU is a gross understatement. To date, I've watched over 25 hours of gameplay videos, which is something I've never done for any other game except perhaps StarCraft II when I used to follow the competitive scene.

XCOM: UFO Defense is in my not-usually-humble opinion one of the greatest strategy games ever made. Even my other heavy hitters, Civilization and Total War, have trouble standing up to the greatness that XCOM can be.

XCOM is also basically my Demon/Dark Souls. If I may be so bold, it's actually more difficult than both of those games, with an even harsher learning curve, and it's a strategy game instead of action RPG. I much prefer strategy, most of the time.

The thing that has made me particularly nutty over this whole thing was that I had completely forgotten about this game until two weeks ago. I knew there was some XCOM FPS on the way by 2K games, and I was at the peak of "Meh" as far as that was concerned. I heard a brief whisper about Enemy Unknown, but it faded into the shadows of games journalism because, really, who gives a fuck about strategy games, amirite? Let's just be excited for the 8th FPS with RPG elements of the fiscal year! Yeah! Then I saw one article on PC Gamer about the upcoming Enemy Unknown, and became totally enchanted. Within 12 hours I pre-ordered the game, and I haven't gone a day without watching some Let's Plays of the preview build.

Depending on how much time I have, I was thinking of doing some kind of Let's Play/interactive game/stream/casting of XCOM with NPF. Guess we'll see if there's any interest sooner to release. But I did just buy a new internal hard drive, and I've got a nice video card and Fraps. I figured thread participants could become squad soldiers and we could all see who dies first!

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Even better, azie, is the versus mode. Points capped squad vs squad goodness and aliens are not off the table.

Also, head shotting a thin man at 35% chance and critting is deliciously sweet.

[Azisien]

Even better, azie, is the versus mode. Points capped squad vs squad goodness and aliens are not off the table.

Also, head shotting a thin man at 35% chance and critting is deliciously sweet.

Yeah, not sure how stoked I am for multiplayer yet. The strategic layer was always a critical part of XCOM for me. But it's still nice that it's there. And the Warhammer/tabletop style points system is about the best way to implement it.

What platforms are folks getting it on?

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

PC of course! Don't have a console and have no interest in one either.

I really like how base modules get certain bonuses depending on what they're next to instead of the old waste money to make base layout optimized to slow infiltration defense missions.

I definitely plan on leaning heavily towards a research oriented antfarm build in my first play. Won't have the manufacturing speed of a buildy type base or the soldier perks that focusing on the officer academy. Europe is my prime choice for the geoscape. South america's 'we have ways' bonus is amusing. Instant autopsies and interrogations..wonder what sort of things interrogating unlocks. Unique research-like things only available from questioning captive aliens, maybe?

[Azisien]

Instant autopsies and interrogations..wonder what sort of things interrogating unlocks. Unique research-like things only available from questioning captive aliens, maybe?

The widely accepted rumour is that it'll unlock new tech tree paths, and more importantly, halve research costs for the rest of the game for certain techs. I think this will be huge, and it makes South America one of the hidden gem base locations.

[Gregness]

Downloaded it, then discovered that my graphics card can't run it. >.<

So, I may preorder it for the bonus goodies since I'm definitely getting it eventually, but actually playing it will have to wait 'till I can scrape together the funds to replace my graphics card from the cretaceous.

[Arcanum]

I was just dismissing this game as some lame squad strategy game, but seeing all the hype in this thread convinced me to give it a decent look. So I watched an hour long gameplay video (it was a livestream thing, they played two missions and talked about the game a bunch) and then played the demo. Despite the demo being extremely limiting and straightforward I can see the greater potential (having watched actual gameplay first helps) and I'm sold. Pre-ordering this game, and hopefully it hits the Tier 3 reward so I can get two games for the price of one.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

One of my favorite flavor things they talked about is the memorial wall dedicated tooldiers that fell in action. Great way to remember the units one gets attached to throughout the game complete with shotglasses and their picture

[greed]

I'm in on this, getting it for PS3. Been wanting a strategy game for the consoles for ages. And now between this and Little King's Story 2 for the Vita I'm getting two in a fortnight.

[Azisien]

Even though I already got this for the PC, I feel like it's worth mentioning that this game seems gorgeously designed for the consoles, which generally fall behind on strategy games. I really, really, really hope this manages good sales, and shows publishers that there's still an audience for strategy games. I've even gone so far as considering grabbing it on the 360 or PS3 to capitalize on the console friends I'm talking into getting this. Maybe. I do want to play the full game first.

[greed]

If you get it on PS3 I'll play you. But yeah between this and LKS I'm really hoping there's a sea change on strategy games for consoles and thus in general (cause they lead the market and if they work on consoles they'll probably flourish even more on PC, cause it'll be easier to sell publishers on them). Still wondering why there have been more Wii attempts you'd think the pointer would be almost ideal. But not even a Pikmin til the WiiU.

[Azisien]

Tweaked my new hard drive, Fraps, and video editting software. Here's the result sans commentary.

For people who don't want to/can't play the demo, I suppose you can just watch it!

I didn't do any commentary out of stage fright/microphone volume issues/I'd rather have a partner or two to banter with.

bp_XLJMftNU

A video LP of this would be so fun. I'll probably be following some while I play myself.

[Gregness]

Overwatch is your friend Azisien.

[Azisien]

Yeah, this was my fourth time playing the demo. I was rushing like hell and ignoring my usual XCOM tactics (take cover and pray). I was surprised I didn't lose anyone.

[EVILNess]

I am a huge fan of the original (Have actually managed to beat it twice!) and the underwater sequel (Never managed to beat it), but have not played the rest.

I look forward to this game so hard it physically hurts.

Getting it on PC for sure, and I hope enough people pre-order it for those free copies of Civ 5 to go out.

[PhoenixFlame]

Go forth, rocket tank! Defend humanity!

Until we get laser rifles in two weeks, anyway.

[Arcanum]

So, is the demo on easy difficulty? 'Cause the first time I played it I only had two injured squad members that needed time off to recuperate, and the second time I made it through without a single scratch on anyone.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Second play yhrough on the second mission my guys were completely at the mercy of X-Com Murphey. Shots were missing left and right. It came down to my sniper and shotgun commando to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. Sniper spent the last few turns in overwatch while Shotty flushed the aliens out. Up until then i was pleading "My kingdom for skeleton armor!"

I really really hope they flesh out psionics in this one. UFO defense's psi was okaaay, TFTD's molecular control was about the same, and apocalypse's was abysmally horrible. I've heard say of psi armor in this one to boost psi offense and defense of a soldier trained in psi. If that's the case, and it is viable, i am gonna go that route of mind warfare with the fury of zeus!

[Azisien]

So, is the demo on easy difficulty? 'Cause the first time I played it I only had two injured squad members that needed time off to recuperate, and the second time I made it through without a single scratch on anyone.

I believe it is. They are also 100% static missions whereas the full game will have randomized encounters/spawns. Watch gameplay of the game on Impossible and it'll set you straight.

Folks data-mining the demo files also seem to have uncovered New Game Plus type added gameplay options to make the game even more unforgiving.

[Melfice]

I've got the game pre-ordered (not on Steam, but in an actual store. I want my extra goodies that aren't Team Fortress 2 related).

Looking forward to it quite hard.

[Gregness]

So, is the demo on easy difficulty? 'Cause the first time I played it I only had two injured squad members that needed time off to recuperate, and the second time I made it through without a single scratch on anyone.

Confirming with Azisien that it is on easy difficulty, though it's possible to manually alter the config files and get it to harder difficulties. People have manually tweaked the squad size to 6 and put the difficulty on Classic (aka hard mode) and have been getting murderated. I'm officially not worried about the game being too easy.

EDIT: Yeah, classic mode will make you its bitch if you fuck up.

CPoXZSyoq54

q_adkx75s5c

[Arcanum]

I just finished watching those OXM squad videos (like, before even checking this thread) (also along with a bunch of other videos and recorded livestreams), and they have convinced me to play on Classic difficulty. It seems like it will be fun.

Also, the guy in the OXM videos makes some pretty huge mistakes, and it's pretty funny.

e- Just opened up my config files and switched the difficulty to Classic. Brb testing this out.

e2- It was slightly more difficult, but knowing where the enemies would be, and that they wouldn't move until I reached them, still made it pretty easy. I'm excited for randomized spawns and patrols in the full game :D

[Azisien]

It looks like all of us Steam preorderers will be getting a copy of Civ 5. We're at 90% today and even before the demo hit the bar was managing 3-4% per day.

Myself, and all of my primary gaming circle friends, already own Civ 5! What to do with it?

[Arcanum]

Yeah the past couple of days it's been going up 5 to 10% per day. In the six hours since Azi posted it's already gone up 5%.

[stefan]

Don't know if I'll preorder this (though Ive heard great things about civ 5) but the demo convinced me that this is a game I definitely want to get.

[Arcanum]

Well this is a pretty damn cool way to do a trailer. (http://youtu.be/93M_fLmmecU)

e- Also Steam pre-order is at 98%. Expect Civ 5 in an hour or two :D

[Gregness]

First look at a base assault so some minor spoilers ahead.

*FFFffuuuuuu- video got taken down*


I love how all the OXM videos lately are of them losing horribly.

[Arcanum]

Vid was taken down :(

[Gregness]

2FUDvEoamWM

You know, all these videos stressing "no, trust us you guys, the game will be hard" would be a lot more convincing if the people doing the demonstrating weren't awful at it.

[PhoenixFlame]

I know, right?

"Let's just dash everywhere, spread out and not cover our zones."

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

From the demo at least it definitely seems like the game rewards clever thinking even if it doesn't actually require it.
At least it did once it lets you put people where you want instead of dictating where you go every single move.

[Azisien]

There's been a lot of videos of Jake Solomon playing where he gets into a bind and finds a way out of it by playing really well. It shows great promise. Classic difficulty or higher will force you to become skillful, because you ain't progressing anywhere without decent tactics.

[Aerozord]

a game about killing aliens with their own guns wielded by a specialized crack team of international alien cajone crunching badasses.

I thought this was the backstory to halo

[Azisien]

I thought this was the backstory to halo

Well alien invasion stories, pretty common sci-fi antagonist, but...

X-COM UFO Defense - 1994
Halo CE - 2001

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Bit like saying Doom 3 was ripping off Halo for having a single soldier fighting impossible odds with a variety of weapons.

[Aerozord]

no I wasn't saying they were ripping off halo, I'm saying that we still use the "small group of elite soldiers using alien tech to fend off an invasion" idea. I loved the non-sense plots of the early 90's but that particular one never really left

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I demand a flogging for bringing the blasphemous title into this thread of xenos crushing glory.

I DEMAND SATISFACTION, SIR.

[stefan]

So I bit the bullet and preordered this thing, if only because the Multiplayer looks like it is going to be hilarious.

Anyone planning any sort of gimmick for their cannon fodder? I'm wavering between assigning each rank a color of the visible spectrum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game)) or just going the classic route of "red armor and full helmets for everyone below the rank of Major."

[Aldurin]

Clearly we need mods that make armor oscillate like a disco/rave depending on your epilepsy resistance.

Then we can kill the aliens with dubstep.

[Krylo]

Silly Aldy, Aliens don't care about dubstep.

It's the yodelling that takes them out. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhgnMX73Pw)

[Arcanum]

Rookies get red armor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_%28character%29). And my "squad commanders" (the higher-ranking, more valuable soldiers) will have a unique armor color. Not sure what color yet. I will probably also assign a color to every class. We shall see.

Also if you pre-ordered on Steam you can now pre-load the game. It's 12 gigs.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Taking reservations for forumites to have their alias assigned to a soldier in my first squad of mobile cannon fodder! Which one of you bastids will survive for the long haul?

[Marc v4.0]

Rookies get a Number and a full-faced helmet. No reason to get too cozy with Pvt. Meatstraction #22613 until It proves Itself.

edit: and Aliens totally love Disco, just ask the Vanu

[Krylo]

Taking reservations for forumites to have their alias assigned to a soldier in my first squad of mobile cannon fodder! Which one of you bastids will survive for the long haul?

Only if you promise to post, in great detail, my eventual death, and all of my victories.

[Azisien]

Awww the NDA goes until Monday, they shut down my "hahaha I'm playing it right now suckers!" thread. I had planned to name soldiers after people accusing me of lying/trolling and make them my "forward scouts."

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

My dear Krylo, it would tear me to pieces if you died as my soldier.

I will never let you leave my base for i fear even the slightest danger that might cross your path. The alien containment chamber will be renamed the Krylo Safety Cylinder.

No harm will ever touch a hair on your glorious head.

You will be safe.

Forever.

[Melfice]

Awww the NDA goes until Monday, they shut down my "hahaha I'm playing it right now suckers!" thread. I had planned to name soldiers after people accusing me of lying/trolling and make them my "forward scouts."

Yeah, I saw you playing it. You lousy bastard. :( Not content with having it earlier on account of being in North America, are you? Noooo, rubbing it in is more fun!

My dear Krylo, it would tear me to pieces if you died as my soldier.

I will never let you leave my base for i fear even the slightest danger that might cross your path. The alien containment chamber will be renamed the Krylo Safety Cylinder.

No harm will ever touch a hair on your glorious head.

You will be safe.

Forever.

I'm not sure if this is hilarious, or incredibly creepy.


At any rate, my rookies will be decked out in a generic grey or blue. Not entirely sure yet.
After that? Not sure. But they're not getting a custom colour until they get a nickname.

[Kim]

Hire Liz to write the story of my life in short story form.

Yes.

[Azisien]

Okay finally free time, finally able to name my tutorial squad after the people in this thread. Classic difficulty Iron Man, here we go!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a128/Azisien/NPFDiesvstheWorld.jpg

Krylo plays the most UFO Defense on my Steam so he gets to be the levelled guy! I'm glad I got to actually edit stuff during the tutorial mission.

BUT - and I'll find this out after I finish the tutorial - it seemed to restrict base location to NA/Europe only if you do the tutorial, regardless of difficulty setting.

Oh my, the second tutorial mission is different from the demo. Interesting!

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Civ 5 is now available to play for the folk who preordered. This will be adequate distractions until the day of reckoning hits.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Unless you already had it and you've played it for literal hundreds of hours.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Well that goes without saying, really. Spose it could be gifted to someone who doesnt have it.

[Arcanum]

Civ 5 is now available to play for the folk who preordered. This will be adequate distractions until the day of reckoning hits.

Uhhh I've had my Civ 5 from pre-ordering for about a week now. As soon as Tier 3 was hit it was unlocked.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Huh weird. I guess it never showed up 'cause i never got around to restarting steam for updates recently until xcom went on pre-load.

[Azisien]

Welp, just lost my first campaign on Classic. Squad wipe against first encounter with Chrysalids. That's XCOM, baby!

[Gregness]

Err, one squad wipe shouldn't cost you your whole campaign...

[Azisien]

Err, one squad wipe shouldn't cost you your whole campaign...

Actually, pretty close. Jake Solomon did not tell a lie, resources are very scarce.

You're correct in that I could have kept fighting what was probably a losing battle for another 5-6 hours before the true last stand. This is how I enjoy the game though. I explored some of the research tree and game features and have a much better idea of how to dive into the next campaign. This time without the tutorial.

[Krylo]

Krylo plays the most UFO Defense on my Steam so he gets to be the levelled guy!
:smug:
Welp, just lost my first campaign on Classic. Squad wipe against first encounter with Chrysalids. That's XCOM, baby!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/krylo/Reactions/351ic02.gif

[Azisien]

Krylo became a badass, and reached Captain rank before becoming Chrysalid food. Arcanum and Melfice both died heroic deaths on their first mission. Everybody else was somewhere in the middle, and also died. I love this game!

Things I currently don't like:
-action cam. It glitches out as often as it works.
-no mid-battle inventory management. ("hey, toss me your medkit")
-class-restricted weapons

The controls are phenomenal on console.

[Arcanum]

Krylo became a badass, and reached Captain rank before becoming Chrysalid food. Arcanum and Melfice both died heroic deaths on their first mission. Everybody else was somewhere in the middle, and also died. I love this game!

How come I feel like "heroic" actually means "as a distraction?"

[Krylo]

Son, I'm sure your death allowed me to pop a heavy machine gun round into the head of a sectoid fuck. If that's not heroic I don't know what is.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

So, call me crazy and unobservant but did the release date change like..over the weekend? It appears X-Com's release date on steam was sneakily moved up from the 9th to the 8th. Not that I'm complaining!

It is going to be a long wait until 9pm pst.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Still the Ninth for me!
WHICH IS ENRAGING

[Arcanum]

Release is apparently midnight eastern time, and usually things on steam release at midnight pacific time. So yeah, west coast folks will get it "earlier" but not really.

[Melfice]

Only three days and nineteen hours to go for me!

So stupid...

[Krylo]

Only three days and nineteen hours to go for me!

http://i.imgur.com/hVp8x.png

:smug:

[Revising Ocelot]

Only three days and nineteen hours to go for me!

So stupid...

If I was interested in that SPESS MEHREN game a while back, that took about 4 months to get on Steam outside of the US.

Luckily, I'm not interested in SPESS MEHRENS outside of memetic videos. Given the current raving for XCOM I'll be picking this up at a Steam sale, more likely than not. The Things I Want To Get At Christmas list is getting awkwardly large now.

[stefan]

Ahahahaha, second mission out had a Thin Man blast one of my rookies to one health. This then started a panic chain reaction of my entire team flipping the fuck out and shooting eachother to death.

THAT'S X-COM, BABY

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Snipers are love. Snipers send high velocity hugs. 'cause all an alien wants is a good hug.

http://i47.tinypic.com/20qgbdf.png

Most of those ki- hugs are overwatch hugs!

Enacted an awesome successful suppress-n-stun tactic with an assault soldier and my heavy to zap a sectoid..then a car blew up and killed the lil gray shit. THAT'S X-COM, BABY!

[Arcanum]

I have yet to see an Assault live past the rank of Squaddie. The game freaking focuses on them, even when I don't put the assault on the front lines. I've also had two of my higher ranking soldiers get critically wounded, so now they have the mental fortitude of a rookie.

The good news is I've had the same sniper since the start of the game, and she is absolutely amazing. She, along with my high rank Heavy, have pulled victory from the jaws of defeat a couple of times.

I love this game.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Yeah. My sniper is death incarnate. Gave him a SCOPE and never looked back. The gunslinger perk is amazing for when the snoipah has to move. Got a real nice interrogation credit for laser based weaponry that starts them off at a higher efficiency from the getgo so i made some rifles and pistols, which are damn nice.

Have yet to lose a soldier due to playing very defensively. I've found that heavy+ assault go togeyher like peaches and cream. Heavy does suppression fire when chance to hit isnt satisfactory and assault runs n guns up to unload a face fulla buckshot. If your assauly lives long enough you get some niiice perks. Either higher crit when more targets are in view or defensive boost when more are in view. I opt for defense. Lightning reflexes increase survival immensely. First reaction shot against assault ALWAYS misses.

I opted to give my support guy suppression fire as well. Between him and heavy the aliens movement is severely crippled. Tactics, hooooo!

[Melfice]

I got my physical copy today, which is earlier than Friday!
But, of course, Steam!

So, I spent three hours pre-loading the game, because - get this! - it won't even use the game-disc to do that. Which is absolutely stupid.

Fucking Steam.

[EVILNess]

Shot down a UFO.

It crashed in a German forest (That promptly caught on fire.) It was a big, wide open field.

All of my squaddies were injured, except one of my snipers. So basic troops HO! (SPOILERS: I carefully advanced all 3 of my rookies to the door and they promptly were massacred by like 5 dudes after panicking.)

But this is the story of my sniper. Her name is Ms. America and she single-handedly killed all 7 aliens.

She was a goddamn super hero.

Ms. America is my goddamn hero.

[Kim]

Do I miss out on anything if I disable the tutorial cuz I already played the demo?

[Krylo]

Not really! There's a little extra stuff explained and whatnot afterward but meeeeh.


Also, just had a terror mission.

There were ten chryssalids.

A cyberdisk

Two drones.

I saved 5 civilians, the game said that was poor.

Fuck you game, THERE WERE TEN CHRYSSALIDS! AND MY SNIPER WAS INJURED!

You should worship me for saving ANY!

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Protip: do not neglect to upgrade your interceptors.

I've put them on the wayside and I'm payin for it. Hopefully this large scout I shot down (interceptor had a sliver of health left and I was about to abort the attack!) gives enough material to make at least one plasma turret. Two would be nice.

On the upside, my original squad is still alive and kickin high ranked and all that jive. Not a single death yet. Sure a rookie took a head full of plasma and earned the nickname Drippyface, but he's still alive. Wears a helmet at all times though.

[EVILNess]

So I played on Impossible. It wasn't that hard.

Until the game sensed I had let my guard down and then threw a terror mission my way.

It went all down hill from there. Rather quickly.

[Arcanum]

I have psi units now. And Archangel armor on my sniper (who also has a plasma sniper). And I'm starting to outfit my squad with Titan Armor. And most of my squad has plasma weapons. And I just built two SHIVs (a heavy armor one, and a hover one).

So yeah, losing the US, Canada, and Japan on my second month was totally worth it once I fully covered Africa with satellites to get the All In bonus. With seven satellites online (and an eighth ready to be launched in case I need a panic reduction) my monthly income (before maintenance costs) is over 1k. It's great having the money to buy basically whatever I want.

[Melfice]

Wait. Waitwaitwait.
So, you can get the bonuses when you fill up the sky with satellites? It's not just limited to the continent you picked at the start?

Well!

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Arcanum, without spillin any beans or goin too far in detail for spoilerific whatsits about how far along does one need to be to get psi training?

I've discovered the alien base and am prepping for invading it, spending a little extra time to train up squaddies as a fallback in case my heroes get screwed up. Wanna get psi asap and build that aspect up. A you're close or got a ways to go will suffice.

Also, the Epic Meal Time folk are all the more awesome because of this:
yOMHmaH0DZk

[Arcanum]

You get psi research options after (these spoilers are the same as the spoilers in your post so it's safe for you to click them)the alien base.

Also, beat the game! And I only reloaded a save about 3 times (I was well over 2/3rds into the game when I first reloaded a save, because I didn't want to start from scratch after going so far. But all of my subsequent playthroughs are going to be with Ironman turned on now that I've experienced the game on my terms). I lost my amazing sniper who was with me for the entire game in the absolute final fight. The worst part is that it wasn't even a heroic death :(.

Also unrelated to beating the game, but still later game (I'd say shortly after you get psi units), fuck Sectopods. They are the worst.

[Kim]

I like that you can have tons of women soldiers in XCOM of almost any race but it's kind of aggravating that they've got so much smaller builds than the men even when in the same class

[Melfice]

I think that one fits into the "massive guns" cabinet. It's just a matter of quick recognition. "Oh, hey. That tiny one with the black hair is Kim. Better keep her out of the front-line since she's the sniper. I can tell, because she's carrying the barrel of a main battle tank in her arms."

Y'know what I'm saying?

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

I like that you can have tons of women soldiers in XCOM of almost any race but it's kind of aggravating that they've got so much smaller builds than the men even when in the same class

Definitely agree. I would have liked to see more variance in the builds in general too.

[Arcanum]

My sniper, the one that died on the final mission, http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576717989243714718/D65C28CB88E433CB42FAE92216C643FD0C5647E3/

Squad sight snipers are the absolute best.

[stefan]

I like that you can have tons of women soldiers in XCOM of almost any race but it's kind of aggravating that they've got so much smaller builds than the men even when in the same class

AFAIK having any sort of soldier customization at all was more or less an afterthought, since (this being X-COM) most of the grunts are going to have a messy death anyway. Personally, I could go with having some squad dudes who aren't gigantic hulking bodybuilders, but they clearly only got around to making two combat models. (which is hilarious when you load up a Hero unit like Sid Meier and you have a pudgy middle-aged face on the body of golden-age Ahnold)

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

So my heavy weapons guy is noe great credit to team. While he couldnt hit the broad side of a barn with his gun he is great for suppression fire. With psionic training he can damage shit or support the team better. Assault guy? Psionic too. He's goin full on psionic aggressive. Due to wielding a shotgun he wasnt too useful at ranges. That changed real quick.

Nothin like poppin floaters out of the air with one's brain!

Edit: I also make it a goal to try and capture at least one or two aliens per mission. Reduces spending on equipment and all that. Especially now that the aliens are generally using regular plasma rifles instead of light.

[Solid Snake]

Hmm. I'm torn between purchasing this for PS3 or PC.

...But unless AC3 gets awful reviews, it's probably not a purchase I'm making until the Holidays.

[Aldurin]

Apparently the panic system is pretty problematic.

4BefKxkCjm4

[Arcanum]

Apparently the panic system is pretty problematic.

That guy is either super unlucky, or purposely got into some terrible situations so he could record a bunch of chain panics. (He could also just be a bad player since his units are always grouped up too close together, making them easy targets for Thin Man poison spit clouds or grenades).

A few things on panic:

Soldiers with higher will are more resistant to it, and when soldiers level up so do their stats (ergo, higher level soldier means less likely to panic). Also, getting wounded gives a soldier the "battle fatigue" debuff, which lowers their will and makes them more susceptible to panic. Also, when a soldier dies all other squad members get a penalty to their will until the end of the mission (pretty sure this stacks with battle fatigue). So early game, playing poorly with some rookies/squaddies, yeah you're going to see some panic chains.

Also, the panic result is random. They can shoot a teammate, shoot an enemy, move, or hunker down (that's all I've seen panicked soldiers do). If there is no enemy in sight, then the chances are of shooting an ally are 1/3 instead of 1/4. Same goes if there's no allies within bullet range, and the chance of shooting an enemy. I have no idea if proximity affects panic results.

I never had such bad luck with panic. In fact I think I was super lucky, because most of the time my troops would shoot an enemy when they panicked. And I never had more than two soldiers chain panic.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Anyone got any thoughts about arming Assaults with rifles instead of shotguns? I've got two running around with Plasma rifles and it seems really effective, but I'm not sure if I'm just getting lucky or something.

[stefan]

Apparently the panic system is pretty problematic.



This is X-com, they were doing the Panic Death Spiral well before Dwarf Fortress was even a thing.

And the fans love them for it.

[Arcanum]

Every assault I equipped with a shotgun died. The one assault I equipped with a plasma rifle ended up being one of my strongest troops, and even developed psi powers.

e- Also if anyone on PC wants to play multiplayer, just message me on steam.

Also, on the subject of multiplayer, the game has voice chat, but microphones are set to "always on" and I can't find an option to disable that. I feel like that was put in for consoles and they just didn't change it for the PC version.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Shottie assaults shine when specc'd very defensively seeing as they have to be up close and personal. Especially with the perk that gives a free reaction shot when something gets within three or four tiles. Rifle assaults work better with crit since they'll have the luxury of range and cover.

The setup im using with my assaulter makes him damn hard to kill. Lighting reflexes guarantees he can get where he needs to be without taking a hit. I like him to see four targets so he has a +20 defense bonus. By then he's a steel turtle with a shotgun. His psi powers give him an extra edge on things.

[Krylo]

Shottie assaults shine when specc'd very defensively seeing as they have to be up close and personal. Especially with the perk that gives a free reaction shot when something gets within three or four tiles.

Get charged by three chryssalids while standing alone, kill one via CQC reaction, run and gun back to a nearby corner, shoot another with normal attack, next round last charges up and gets a face full of shotgun for its trouble.

Assault is amazing with shotguns, but I'd say just put them with whatever has the highest damage. You'll probably be able to capture plasma rifles before you can make the shotgun for that tech level, and the laser tech shotguns do less damage than plasma rifles.

So give them a plasma rifle and use them as you normally would, but with a little more ranged utility, until you can build better shotguns.

Though I always build pretty defensively because there WILL be times when you take fire no matter how deadly you are, and, if you can't survive, all that extra crit damage or whatever isn't gonna do shit for you.

Also: My heavies have a ridiculous number of kills so I don't know what's with this stuff I hear about them not being very good. Are you not using rockets or bullet storm or holo-targetting? 'Cause, like, all of those are fantastic abilities. As is suppression.

[Arcanum]

Suppression, heat ammo, and the skill that lets your suppression do damage. Guaranteed 6 damage against machines (with a heavy plasma, the damage scales with weapon tech I believe) from any range, in addition to reducing their aim. Can also be used on berserkers to get the guaranteed 3 damage, then a shot when they auto-move towards you (and then have an assault positioned so the berserker moves into the CQC reaction shot).

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Also: My heavies have a ridiculous number of kills so I don't know what's with this stuff I hear about them not being very good. Are you not using rockets or bullet storm or holo-targetting? 'Cause, like, all of those are fantastic abilities. As is suppression.

My game has yet to give me a second heavy. I get mostly support and snipers :I Heavy Chavez had the luck of the draw given a far less than stellar aim stat. But he supports the team by neutralizing targets with suppression fire. I was glad he qualified for psionics 'cause that gives him a guaranteed damage ability on fleshbags.

I tend to avoid using the rocket unless absolutely needed. I like my weapon fragments and other loot. Mostly use it when chryssalids, and/or zombies, are clustered together. 'cause fuck chryssalids and zombies.

[Gregness]

So, finally got to play it for a solid chunk of time tonight, and let me tell you how I managed to doom humanity in just under three hours.

I started on Classic with the tutorial enabled since I wanted the experience as the devs intended it. Had the standard three deaths in tutorial 1, no deaths in the second mission, one death each in the first UFO recovery and hostage rescue. I should note, that those single deaths were disproportionately painful since it was my most experienced soldier that died each time.

Then shit started to get real.

I got the mission to rescue the 'friend of the council' dude and touched down with an assault (my most veteran unit as of the losses of the previous mission) a sniper (with an oddly poor aim stat) and two rookies. Everyone had nanofiber vests since I hadn't finished my armor research yet and, frankly, fuck trying to capture an alien before my soldiers can take a hit. So, I start the mission and get everyone into cover advancing overwatch by the book. The guy on my right flank spots a thin man and they exchange shots. I reposition my guys to get a better angle on him, but he jumps down the the street below. I move my guys to the ledge thinking they'll be able to see him and take the easy kill, but he was nowhere in sight. It did, however, expose a trio of sectoids. I moved one of the rookies down the stairs to street level behind a car and next to the NPC's bodyguards. The sectoids take shots at him, which miss and yet DO set the car on fire. The thin man shows up and takes another shot which misses again but DOES detonate the flaming car killing my rookie and the two NPC's.

I have the sniper, assault and remaining rookie take positions at the top of the wall to slug it out. My assault makes a ridiculous cross-map reaction shot with her shotgun and instagibs a sectoid. The aliens retaliate with a nutty critical strike of their own dropping my sniper in one hit. I moved my rookie into cover down on the street to try and get a better angle, only to get reaction crossfire from the thin man and a sectoid. So, I'm down to one assault, against at least three aliens plus a VIP to protect.

Let me tell you about this BAMF assault.

This woman makes rambo cry himself to sleep at night. Overwatch at the top of the stairs catches the thin man on his way up. Run & Gun the next turn kills the sectoid on street level. Two turns off to reload and overwatch, then she Run & Guns to the other side of the street and kill the last sectoid. She runs over, grab the VIP and start escorting him to the skyranger. She gets all the way to the top of the stairs when two thin men drop in in flanking positions on her cover. She misses her reaction fire to their appearance, but kills one on the next turn while the VIP makes it safely to the skyranger. She takes a bad hit from plasma leaving her at one health, but Run & Gun is up and there's only one alien left. Dash to cover two squares away from the last thing man and...

Out of ammo. :aaa:

Well, shit, I'm behind cover so there's at least a chance he'll miss his shot and I can clean up next round. Except that poison doesn't miss, and she only had one bar left. So, despite the VIP being onboard, since I lost all my troops, the mission was a complete failure. Oh, and all my veteran soldiers are dead again.

I take an entirely rookie crew to handle a difficult rated abduction site since I needed a big win after that fiasco. Solid tactics and favorable engagements give me a relatively easy win with no losses and some decent experience for the new recruits. Next abduction site, two bad rolls and a panic chain means I've lost all my veteran soldiers AGAIN to a TPK.

That's not quite right, I had one squaddie sniper who couldn't come along to that mission due to injuries, so she and three rookies head out to investigate my second downed UFO. A mindmelded sectoid gets crits one guy, and the others die to a combination of flanking thin men and thin men poison (I didn't think that stuff would be this annoying at first but seriously, FUCK those guys).

At this point, I've FINALLY finished carapace armor and the first terror mission hits. Just the thing for a squad of rookies, right? I have enough alloys for one suit of armor, so I gear up and send them in. I start deploying around the landing site, but there's a dearth of good cover so I send the chick wearing the new armor (plus a nanofiber vest for added tankitude) over to my left flank to hide behind a corner. This triggers a pair of chryssalids, one of which runs off to murder civilians, the other of which runs over and one-shots the girl who saw them (who had my good armor). I try and focus fire it down, but they're all rookies and so of course none of them can hit a damn thing. Chryssalid spends the next few turns making short work of earth's last best hope.

AAaaand at that point I restarted the campaign.

Classic difficulty is legit, dudes.

[Kim]

This game is fuckass hard.

[EVILNess]

Yeah, my first serious campaign was effectively ended by my first terror mission. I think I may have just gotten unlicky on enemy and civilian placement though.

I had not lost a single soldier before then, had quite a few injuries though. In fact I had 6 active soldiers when the terror mission came up. Luckily, only one of my best 5 was actually still injured when the terror mission came up.

Long story short, I went into the mission and those little Chrysalid assholes killed a lot of civilians because they were all on the other side of the map AWAY from me and I got swarmed by zombies (Did you know the zombies do 8 damage a swing?) . Everyone died, mass panic, and I had one non-injured soldier to fight with.

Thus began the downward spiral of me fighting an incredibly losing battle. I fought to the bitter end though.

So, things I learned from that excapade:
1. Have at least one interceptor on every continent. Two is probably better, because your jets have to be repaired after each sortie.

2. The soldiers you start with ARE NOT ENOUGH, even if you never lose one. Rapid back to back missions can put everyone on the bench.

3. Support is a GREAT class, and their extra movement makes them my favorite alien catchers. Their ability to lay down suppresion fire, move extra, heal, and throw smoke to raise defense makes them hands down the jack of all stats, and they can cover many holes in your squad.

Any other tips you have stumbled upon?

[Arcanum]

I find scopes and laser weapons are preferable starting research path to vests and carapace armor. Even with a vest, a crit will still most likely kill your soldier. The best way to stop crits is to kill the alien before it shoots, and that means hitting it and doing enough damage in one shot.

Also, I never had more than 14 troops in my barracks, even when my squad size was up to 6. Granted, part of this was due to me getting the OTS upgrade that speeds recovery (which is amazing, because in most cases your wounded vets will be healed before the next abduction mission pops up).

And another good starting tip: get a heavy with holo targeting. It is so very useful early on when everyone has piss-poor aim.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Latest terror mission: 9 chryssalids and a cyberdisk. How i got through that mission with only 8 citizens dead. If it wasnt for suppression supports and two rockets it would have been bust D:

Fuck. Chryssalids.

[PhoenixFlame]

Finished my classic playthrough. Shit was seriously legit hard early on and I was feeling way in over my head despite having beaten UFO defense on superhuman multiple times. Fortunately, much like the original, once you get the ball rolling and your tech level starts ramping up, the game gets a whole hell of a lot easier.

Archangel Plasma Sniper and Ghost Armor Shotgun assault go together like cookies and cream.

Had to get used to the game punishing you for doing what you figure is intelligent, (throwing a wide castnet flank up one side, but oh wait, you activated those two groups of mutons who weren't patrolling. Oh look, now there's the patrolling floater group! Good luck!) but once you get used to the spawning mechanics, they're not so bad. Started getting in the habit of overwatch/opportunist'ing with my squadsight sniper and intentionally revealing enemies so she'd kill them during their scramble-to-cover action in the open.

I've taken to calling this tactic 'Deathwatch', because that's what the xenos deserve.

Edit: In the vein of snipers; as awesome as double tap is, In-the-Zone is leagues better if you take care to deprive your enemies of their precious cover. Killing exposed or flanked opponents don't count as using your action, which is delicious.

[EVILNess]

Killing exposed or flanked opponents don't count as using your action, which is delicious.

REALLY now?

I learned something.

That info will come in handy for me, I have designated my heavy the lots of explosives to destroy cover guy. Rocket+Shredder Rocket+Two Grenades = NO COVER FOR THOSE FUCKING MUTONS.

[Melfice]

I'm playing on Normal, so that may have had something to do with it, but I just finished my first Terror mission.

I think I did pretty good. Only four civvies got killed, and only because they're stupid and they hid behind flaming cars.

[PhoenixFlame]

REALLY now?

I learned something.

That info will come in handy for me, I have designated my heavy the lots of explosives to destroy cover guy. Rocket+Shredder Rocket+Two Grenades = NO COVER FOR THOSE FUCKING MUTONS.

With a sniper who has In-The-Zone, mind.

It doesn't work for just anyone. However, said sniper will be an unholy terror with those tactics, and just in general to enemies who never take cover (Berserkers, Chryssalids.)

Edit: I still like double-tap, though. Especially for the final mission. Just mentioning, because snipers are most likely to reach colonel due to their inherant survivability and lethality. Aliens cannot into long range.

[Ramary]

I find it funny that a lot of people had trouble with the first terror mission. I think I lucked out cause I have some experience with old XCOM and I was always waiting in fear for when the Chrysalid showed up to stomp my shit.

Mission starts, and they almost instantly pop out of a building and stand in front of my entire squad, proudly displaying there shiny bits to my bewildered troopers.

No civie died that day.

[Arcanum]

I find it funny that a lot of people had trouble with the first terror mission. I think I lucked out cause I have some experience with old XCOM and I was always waiting in fear for when the Chrysalid showed up to stomp my shit.

Mission starts, and they almost instantly pop out of a building and stand in front of my entire squad, proudly displaying there shiny bits to my bewildered troopers.

No civie died that day.

Yeah that's kind of what happened in my first playthrough. I got super lucky, as the game is ever so glad to point out now that I'm attempting ironman. First terror mission and the chrysalids spawned at the back or something, because first alien turn and two civvies die and the next turn my camera hovers over the fog of war meaning they are now zombies. This happens again the next turn. And then the next turn finally the chrisalids reveal themselves but then they run off into the fog again to kill more civvies. And then a group of floaters magically spawn out of nowhere right on top of my squad (I hate this glitch with a passion, it has happened five times to me so far).

Basically that mission ended http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576717989281881510/DFA8390678D4E74D3BF671D5C66E4E29552A123B/ http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576717989281872500/04FF0742F96157BD8A3C2F2461737B6FEAFBA4BA/.

And actually, I ran off a bit and found a glitch where the chrysalids couldn't pass a certain bit of terrain, even though it was perfectly flat. I killed four of them before they stopped running into nothing and ran off into the fog of war. After five turns of sitting on overwatch, I spent the next two turns moving up, and then 5 more chrysalids come out of the fog. When that last guy was wiped out, the stats screen said I killed 21 aliens. And that was poor.

[PhoenixFlame]

I just looked at the bottom right there and I'm imagining the guy's face is just frozen with an "I SEE ALIENS." expression.

[EVILNess]

The chrysalids really aren't that bad on the non-terror missions where they don't have all of those civilians to zombify.

I find mutons to be way worse since they grenades.

[PhoenixFlame]

Cyberdisks are even more awful, as they can hurl grenades an absolutely absurd distance. They also always seem to do this if they have difficulty hitting your units, or are under suppression fire, which frustrates my supports to no end.

Okay, we can pop smoke or suppress the disk, but it'll just kill us anyway! Run away!

[Arcanum]

I hate yet love the game because it forces you to keep changing your tactics. Early on I keep my troops closer together so they can cover eachother and focus fire targets easier. And then they throw mutons and cyber disks at me and it's grenade city if I stick to those tactics.

Although even more terrifying than grenades is a sectopod in the fog that knows where your troops are. I had this happen on my first playthrough and it was my second time seeing a sectopod (the first time I killed it with heat ammo and a double tap sniper before it could do anything). I thought, okay, I can let it run off and deal with it after I kill these mutons. Two turns later, a barrage of missiles rain down on my troops, dropping my Heavy in Titan armor from full health to one, and taking half of my support's health. I nearly crapped my pants.

[PhoenixFlame]

I've noticed floaters can see your entire squad if they have LOS to anyone in the squad. They will consistantly blast off and land behind my sniper, over 60 tiles away, which they cannot possibly see, with excellent cover to her and flanking her position.

Luckily, I had earlier decided to employ the gunslinger doctrine to snipers, seeing as UFO assaults have an interior stage as well as an exterior, and snipers can still play a part if their pistols are basically just more accurate assault rifles they can move and shoot.

Floaters beware.

[Krylo]

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. (http://i.imgur.com/eREVH.jpg)

[Arcanum]

Naturally high Will (possibly thanks to Iron Will from the OTS?), Psi armor, mind shield, combat drugs smoke grenade, that will boosting psi power, and possibly combat stim (no idea if stim boosts will)? Is that about right?

Also, I believe Mind Wrack lowers will, so you could have boosted your % even higher.

But still, damn, and I thought I was good for getting my MC up to 32% against an Ethereal (it still worked though).

[Krylo]

Naturally high will (100 after achieving her final promote in that mission, was 86 or something before), psi armor, mind shield, and will boosting psi power (psi inspiration). She has the combat drugs smoke grenade but didn't use it.

Mindfray does also lower will but I didn't use that either.

. . . It is what I actually used against it that round though. Mindfray was at 100%.

Edit: After her promotion it'll probably be 100% with one of her will buffs on for mind control.

[Arcanum]

Just played an online match with an Ethereal and two sectoids, against a fully decked out assault, a sectoid, and skeleton suit / plasma rifle / squad sight sniper. It was hilarious. My sectoid got an overwatch shot on his as he dashed around the building, and I finished it off on my turn. I then mind controlled his sniper before seeing the assault (would've rather grabbed the assault but oh well). The assault used double tap but my Ethereal reflected both shots (did 2 or 3 damage per reflect to the assault I think). I tried to move his sniper to get a flanking shot with the pistol on the assault, but the line of sight was weird so I moved up my Ethereal and dropped a Rift on both units, dealing a whopping 11 damage to both and outright killing the MCed sniper. Then the assault, seeing that he needs to do something activates run and gun and tries to run up to my Ethereal for a point blank miracle shot. Except it turns out moving further into a Rift causes it to do another hit of damage, so the assault took three steps before collapsing as another 11 damage finished him off.

What was especially great was that this guy was streaming, and on top of that I named my Ethereal "Cat In The Hat" and the sectoids "Thing 1" and "Thing 2."

[EVILNess]

Still trucking along on the single player. ADVICE: Do not build a Hyperwave Beacon until you have the advanced interceptors. That story UFO counts against you if it gets away. I got a C on my last council report despite getting excellent on all parts of my last terror mission, not missing a single normal UFO or abduction.

I was upset, because I have been getting A's with one B because of a iffy terror mission.

[Aldurin]

Well, X-COM is definitely well set-up enough that whenever I get the perfect opportunity to smoke an alien with a grenade or rocket, I always have this nagging feeling of "this is too easy, something is off". Then again I'm going on the second difficulty up (forgot what it's called) and on the tutorial mission I naded the last two sectoids because advancing on them while they were in overwatch evoked a "fuck this" tactic.

All kinds of awesome.

[EVILNess]

So, I am finding that I prefer to kill my enemies instead of capturing them for their weapons.

There are never enough weapon fragments. Never.

As for weapons themselves, the Light Plasma is amazing and I love it. It's cheap to make, does decent damage and gets that sexy +10 aim bonus. Pair it with a scope and your lower leveled guys aren't useless in the late stages of the game. +20 aim and extra crit?

Yes, please.

[stefan]

So, I am finding that I prefer to kill my enemies instead of capturing them for their weapons.

There are never enough weapon fragments. Never.

As for weapons themselves, the Light Plasma is amazing and I love it. It's cheap to make, does decent damage and gets that sexy +10 aim bonus. Pair it with a scope and your lower leveled guys aren't useless in the late stages of the game. +20 aim and extra crit?

Yes, please.

The Light Plasma is basically a must on any level above normal, as you can grab them off thin men/floaters really early and they're basically equivalent to a laser rifle. Later game I try to black bag at least one muton per mission so I have plasma rifles/heavy plasmas to kit out my entire team.

[Arcanum]

I'm done with ironman until this magic alien spawn glitch is fixed. Just saw my second squad (of pretty high ranking guys) get wiped out because a group of mutons magically appeared on top of them. And this was two missions after a squad took some heavy damage from a group of floaters magically appearing on top of them.

[Arhra]

So I shoot down my first UFO, right?

My men see one sectoid, all miss it and then three of them panic when it takes a pot shot at my assault which takes off half her health.

This results in my squad lader, a heavy, turning ninety degrees from the alien and shooting my sniper dead.

This mission he gets promoted and the nickname of 'Doomsday'! Why would you promote this man?!

[PhoenixFlame]

Because he is the bringer of doomsday, Arhra. Clearly, he is a comissar! The Sniper had thoughts of fleeing the battlefield and the emperor does not permit cowardice. Clearly, his timely actions rallied your squad.

In any case, I endorse titan armor with chryssalid carapace plating. In my classic ironman run I couldn't kill Claire 'Raven' Simmons, no matter how hard I tried or how many mistakes I made. Terror mission, cornered by two muton berserkers without ammunition? Don't worry guys, I got this, I'll tank them for two turns while you flank... It's cool. She carried B-squad so hard I had to promote her to A-squad.

Light plasma is fun for the aim bonus, but eventually it's going to show age. Later on, hitting stuff for 6 damage just won't cut it, no matter how accurate you are. Might aswell give squaddies regular plasma rifles and teach them to flank.

Flanking helps you get killed, it's true, but they're squaddies! It's not like they're people until they rank up at least twice. ... My 26 dead during that playthrough were all under lieutentant rank. I think half were rookies. Can you tell I played the original X-Com?

[Arhra]

CHRYSALIDS ARE SCARY AND EAT PEOPLE!

Just had my first Terror mission.

Ended up getting the hell out of dodge after I met my first chrysalid. It laid its eggs in a rookie, the rookie zombie ate the face of another rookie and the other zombies started shambling out of the fog. I knew going into a Terror mission with just a support, three rookies and basic guns was going to be painful. I'm just glad Rookie 3 and my support made it out of there.

I had a UFO mission immediately prior that had me pretty pleased. It cost me my favourite assault and stuck two other guys in the infirmary, but I managed to catch me a Thin Man, a Floater and an Outsider. She caught the Thin Man and the Outsider but the Floater got off a crit on her. RIP Hahn.

On the bright side, my first satellite uplink's just came online and my first satellite will be ready in five days.

[Gregness]

Yahtzee finally got around to XCOM. (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6468-XCOM-Enemy-Unknown)

[Arhra]

Hooray, I just won the alien base mission!

Four cyberdisks!

Four! Cyberdisks!

Dissssssssks! #$%@#$@#

[Bells]

Ok, so... just out of curiosity... anybody here named their squad mates after NPF people? If so.. how long before it all went to hell? i`m thinking during mission briefing...

[Gregness]

I'm only really able to sink time into this once a week or so, so I'm only in like month 3 or 4. One odd thing, you do NOT want to be a support or heavy in my game. XCOM soldiers don't have long high life expectancy in the first place, but for some damn reason I cannot stop losing my supports/heavies. My two main snipers kill the shit out of 100% of everything, and I've got a badass assault just shy of colonel too, but every time I get a heavy or support to about captain or lieutenant, they bite it.

Working on Titan armor now which should help that a bit.

[Krylo]

Titan is for chumps.

Ghost is where it's at.

[Krylo]

Titan armor: HP. Wooo.

Ghost armor: Slightly less hp, 20% passive defense (You are behind low cover even when you are standing out in the open), an extra two move spaces, grappling hook, and cloaking.

Edit: The defense boost combined with the extra defense assaults get, if you picked the far superior upgrade option, for every alien they see, means you can basically have your assaults standing about in the middle of an army of aliens and come out of it mostly unscathed. It's ridiculous.

The extra movement combined with sprinter can make your supports able to move a whooping extra five spaces, all said and done. They can go anywhere, do anything!

And for everyone else (other than psykers and snipers) it's just the all around best armor.

For snipers you're gonna want Archangel armor, though. It says it doesn't give high ground bonuses for flight, but it totally does, and even IF it didn't, on an exterior map a squad sight sniper can just jet straight up and sit there popping every enemy from on high like the Zeus himself with his mighty bolts.

Psykers obviously want psi-armor. Like, come on.

But yeah, titan is pretty much useless. It has a few nice fringe benefits but nothing that can compete with Ghost or Archangel/Psi for the classes those synergize well with.

[Gregness]

Well, I haven't unlocked ghost armor research yet. Like I said, I'm only ~3 months in and I grabbed carapace armor and laser weapons and have spent most of the rest of my time doing autopsies, interrogations, and researching UFO components.

The big ticket research items I have are Skeleton suits, Heavy Lasers, Plasma rifles, Firestorms, or titan armor (plus some other odds and ends).

But yeah, can't wait for Archangel Armor for my snipers. I just got one of them to colonel in time for my second terror mission and holy shit In The Zone is crazy good.

Still lost both my supports and my heavy though. =8^/

[Arhra]

I'm not sure how I just came through that...

I just built a Psi Lab and have three elite guys being tested. I didn't realise that they're unavailable for missions while they're doing that. I've also let my rookie reserves get dangerously low.

I had a terror mission! And I had to face it with my beta-medic, a new heavy, both of my elite snipers and two other snipers, one where I was experimenting with snap shot and the other one was just a squaddie.

I managed to trigger two muton groups (with bersekers), a pair of heavy floaters and two chrysalids in the same turn. Luckily one berserker apparently charged the wrong way, in search of civilian blood.

Heavy and Col. Kim, my best sniper, were the heroes of the hour! Heavy dropped a shredder rocket into the midst of them mutons and Kim had just made colonel last mission while raiding the alien base. She has In The Zone now, so shots against enemies who are out of cover don't count as her action if it kills them.

With the cover destroyed by rockets, Kim only stopped shooting when she ran out of ammo. So, another vote for In The Zone being crazy-good.

Heavy ended up being the only injury in that mission. He had to stay behind a car on the verge of explosion to get that rocket off. Man is a hero! I need to remember to check what his name is!

[Aldurin]

Shredder Rockets? I never saw much point to that upgrade compared to Suppression, which lets them be useful in the same way multiple times in case their hit chance isn't worth it normally.

And Suppression gets crazier once you get the 2 tile radius increase to rockets and suppression, since you can render almost any terrain into a flat crater once per battle and for the rest of the time hold down any aliens that aren't smart enough to stay apart.

Sniper is wicked OP though, especially once you get to the point where they're permanently in high ground on the other side of the map capping everything with a 200% chance to hit.

[Arcanum]

Shredder Rockets? I never saw much point to that upgrade compared to Suppression, which lets them be useful in the same way multiple times in case their hit chance isn't worth it normally.

And Suppression gets crazier once you get the 2 tile radius increase to rockets and suppression, since you can render almost any terrain into a flat crater once per battle and for the rest of the time hold down any aliens that aren't smart enough to stay apart.

Sniper is wicked OP though, especially once you get to the point where they're permanently in high ground on the other side of the map capping everything with a 200% chance to hit.


I make sure to have a rocket heavy and a suppression heavy. Shredder is especially great in the late game when things have more hp and you need to do more damage. Plus you still get your normal rocket. Also it's good for helping rookies get kills against harder enemies. Also it's four damage instead of the regular rocket's 6 (I think, been a while since I played) so you can do hefty AoE damage at range without worrying about killing most enemies.

Also support is probably better at suppression than heavy since aliens are rarely grouped tight enough for the heavy's multiple suppression to work, and support gets a reaction shot if the alien shoots without moving. The exception being getting the "deal 3 damage when you suppress" power on the heavy, which is good for weakening aliens before stunning them, softening them up for a rookie kill, getting free damage on a berserker and forcing it to move at you thus getting a shot off as well, or combined with heat ammo for a hefty guaranteed 6 damage.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I think in my next play-through i'm going to go a sillier route and have only gunslinger pistol snipers.

[Aldurin]

I think in my next play-through i'm going to go a sillier route and have only gunslinger pistol snipers.

They all need tasers. There's enough room in a single containment chamber for a few missions worth of aliens. Sure they may suffocate and/or begin oozing fluids that no one wants to describe but they may as well get the best treatment if they're gonna show up and treat civilians like ripe carrots.

[PhoenixFlame]

Shredder Rockets? I never saw much point to that upgrade compared to Suppression, which lets them be useful in the same way multiple times in case their hit chance isn't worth it normally.

Larger AoE, defense debuff, destroys cover. Low damage is actually a boon, you want salvage.

Pretty much everything the heavy does. I let my supports do suppression, people with rockets should be blowing stuff up.

If they should run out of rockets and enemies are still alive it proves that they are a BAD rocketman and they are sentanced to using holo-targetting for the rest of the mission.

[Krylo]

Yeah, other than a few certain enemies that I just want dead yesterday, I don't really see rockets as a 'kill guys' thing so much as a 'get shit out of the way so other people can kill guys thing, and if you happen to do some damage along the way good for you.'

And shredders are great for that second one.

Especially with blaster launchers. Any excuse to have another blaster launcher shot.

[krogothwolf]

Using Rockets to get to an enemy that thought it was safe is a great way of dealing with things.

[Bells]

i dunno if i'm doing something wrong here...

I'm on the very first mission (finally got the game) So i have my team, Bells, Smarty, Seil and Ryong (yep... wanna see who'll survive) and 2 aliens.

Now check this out...

http://i47.tinypic.com/abgsjt.jpg

See? Ryong is exposed to 2 aliens, i can only shoot one with 68% chance of hitting, or i can lob a Grenade with 90% chance of killing the bastard... but the game won't let me! I click and click and click.. and nothing happens.

Am i doing something wrong here? God Damn it Ryong, why won't you lob your Grenades?!

[Aldurin]

There's an interface issue where it doesn't like you clicking beyond the range of rockets and grenades, it should respond if you left click it within the circle, it just makes it hard to nail enemies at the edge of your range.

[Bells]

Thankfully it worked out in the end, and Ryong redeemed himself by killing two aliens inside a house with a well placed Grenade... the end result:

http://i47.tinypic.com/2gtbthc.jpg

Congrats Seil and Goddamn it Smarty!!

Well this should be an interesting team.... and apparently i'm french now

http://i49.tinypic.com/1hunmt.jpg

[EVILNess]

Well this should be an interesting team.... and apparently i'm french now


I knew it!

I mean, we all had our suspicions, but I am glad you are able to at least admit your problem.

First steps and all that.

[Aldurin]

But I don't wanna be French!

EDIT: I bet I'm gonna end up as a sniper if you can keep your team alive. I'll be the very best sniper.

[Arcanum]

i dunno if i'm doing something wrong here...

I'm on the very first mission (finally got the game) So i have my team, Bells, Smarty, Seil and Ryong (yep... wanna see who'll survive) and 2 aliens.

Now check this out...

http://i47.tinypic.com/abgsjt.jpg

See? Ryong is exposed to 2 aliens, i can only shoot one with 68% chance of hitting, or i can lob a Grenade with 90% chance of killing the bastard... but the game won't let me! I click and click and click.. and nothing happens.

Am i doing something wrong here? God Damn it Ryong, why won't you lob your Grenades?!

That looks like the tutorial, where it forces your only squaddie heavy onto the roof and exposes your guy unnecessarily. If that's the case then I don't think the tutorial will let you chuck a grenade at that point.

e- Also, grenades always go where you aim them, and it's a uniform 3 damage in the aoe sphere, so you can get an alien inside the edge and still do full damage to it. The rocket launcher on the other hand has that 10% chance to veer off course.

[Bells]

I knew it!

I mean, we all had our suspicions, but I am glad you are able to at least admit your problem.

First steps and all that.

Hey, you wanna be Australian? Cause i'll goddamn make you Australian!


But I don't wanna be French!

EDIT: I bet I'm gonna end up as a sniper if you can keep your team alive. I'll be the very best sniper.


Good day for you to play the lottery it seems

http://i45.tinypic.com/mlmv11.jpg

[stefan]

The rocket launcher on the other hand has that 10% chance to veer off course.

Which, in true X-COM tradition, works out as "will always go where you want it to except when you really need it to hit, at which it will hit your 5-HP-left psyker in the back."

[Aldurin]

Good day for you to play the lottery it seems

Now all you need to do is get me to having Squad Sight and then you'll revel in the the one guy who can safely pick off the most problematic enemy each turn.

EDIT: And the odds were 50/50 since it tries to evenly fill out the classes and sniper was one of it's last options.

[Ramary]

If you make me one of your troops Bells he better be a fucking assault.

[Aldurin]

If you make me one of your troops Bells he better be a fucking assault.

Translation for Bells: Sacrifice yourself on the next mission and have the only rookie on the next be Ramary to ensure 100% chance of shoving a shotgun in his hands before he cleans the alien guts off of himself.

[Arcanum]

Translation for Bells: Sacrifice yourself on the next mission and have the only rookie on the next be Ramary to ensure 100% chance of shoving a shotgun in his hands before he cleans the alien guts off of himself.

In my first game all my assaults kept dying, and I would usually have a rookie with me so I'd have a decent fallback pool, and most of the time that rookie would get promoted to assault after witnessing the assault die a horrible death. So basically: "Congratulations rookie you're promoted! Now here's that dead guy's armor and weapon. Make sure you clean that blood off before the next mission!"

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Also bells, avoid too much use of rockets and grenades early on. You wanna haul back as much fragment loot as possible early on.

Unrelated note: dunno if anyone mentioned this before but i stumbled on it by accident. Apparently when you mind control an alien and it dies its gear wont asplode. Easy way to get grenades and guns with much less risk!

[Aldurin]

Also bells, avoid too much use of rockets and grenades early on. You wanna haul back as much fragment loot as possible early on.

This is especially good to keep in mind since the true currency of the game is weapon fragments. Money comes monthly and you can inflate it's payout like an airbag while you actually have to go murder things to get fragments.

It wouldn't be really problematic if the X-com project didn't have such a small attention span to only babysit one squad at a time.

[Bells]

Yeah, my science girl back at the lab keeps yapping at me about not exploding the Aliens, so i'm trying real hard to make it work her way now, cause i really want better stuff...

But then...

http://i46.tinypic.com/350lxg7.jpg

"Oh Shit, Bells just blew that Alien sky high with a grenade next to the power generator of a Nuclear bomb! We should totally promote him!"

http://i48.tinypic.com/oa44cx.jpg

And this guy took a Shyria to the face. Didn't even knew what hit him!

http://i48.tinypic.com/xgb05v.jpg

And Flare shows that it only takes 45% to Crit an Alien from across the graveyard, holy crap!

http://i46.tinypic.com/6roy1k.jpg

And i'm happy to report that, yes, in fact... "One Hit Kill" Aldurin makes a very nice sniper.

[Aldurin]

We are the best team. Though you should buy the squad size upgrades if only for the advanced tactic of putting a rookie at extreme risk in order to aggro monsters to ground you control and to extend squad sight for sniping. I'm sure you'll have fun sending the mod staff to be the running targets.

[Melfice]

... Bells, I'm heavily insulted.
1) You're not French, you're Dutch.
2) You didn't make ME the Dutch guy. :(

Also, Aldurin, you're not French either. You can tell because the blue is actually black. You're from Yemen.

[Arcanum]

Okay, yeah, wasn't really paying attention to the flags or the country talk, but c'mon, France's flag is http://i.imgur.com/iBuTB.png not horizontal.

[Aldurin]

Also, Aldurin, you're not French either. You can tell because the blue is actually black. You're from Yemen.

Even worse . . . I'm from the country that . . . what the hell does Yemen do anyway?

[Melfice]

Even worse . . . I'm from the country that . . . what the hell does Yemen do anyway?

You're notable for being one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. So, basically, "Aldurin"'s a career soldier because there's nothing better to find there. :smug: You're gonna die so hard the moment you run into Mutons or Chrysalids.
On the other hand, you're the first country in the Arabian peninsula to grant women the right to vote. So there's that.

EDIT: Also, I just noticed. Did they fix the Dutch flag colour in a patch update? I could have sworn the blue was much lighter earlier... almost to the point where it looked like the flag of Luxembourg. ¬__¬

[Aldurin]

I just found out that Snipers are great against Cyberdisks when they have plasma rifles and Assaults tear berserkers to shit if you use rapid fire when they have the free overwatch upgrade.

Everything is dying forever.

[Arhra]

Hooray, I finally scrounged the weapon fragments together to research heavy plasma. Got it by raiding some sort of stupidly gigantic supply UFO for the first time. Black-bagged me a Muton Elite, a Heavy Floater and a Sectoid Leader too. First run in with the elites and a sectopod. Gosh those guys are tough.

PS: Ghost armour is stupidly amazing.

[Melfice]

Sectopods aren't tough. They just blatantly cheat!
Two attacks AND Overwatch? Bloody hell...

[Gregness]

I finally buckled down and ran the Alien Base mission. I had just barely enough cash and resources to make two sets of titan armor, two skeleton suits for my snipers, and a single plasma sniper for my Colonel. The two titan suits went to the greenest soldiers (a heavy and a support) in the vain hope they'd live through the mission, and I figured the rest of the squad (Two assaults and two snipers) could lean on their abilities for extra survivability.

My heavy got dropped by a trio of mutons assaulting a connecting chamber (my heavies, as you might recall, have SERIOUS bad luck) despite her shiney new titan suit, but thankfully it was just a critical wound and my support stabilized her. Now, since my supports have ALSO been getting gibbed left and right, she was low rank and only had one medkit use, and the heavy had the other one i'd brought along so that left me two rooms into the base with no medkits.

Thankfully, my two colonels (a sniper and assault) made most of the rest of the base their bitch. I got to the last room and set up my snipers on a balcony that had a beautiful view of the entire room except the pack of mutons sitting directly beneath them. I sent my support down (having not seen the mutons at this point) and was immediately flanked by two mutons and a berserker. I sent my colonel assault down to help which triggered the sectoid commander and a couple drones and I spent a good five minutes thinking about how to unfuck myself.

My other assault was down to 2 bars of health (from miscellaneous fighting in the rest of the base), so I basically considered her incapacitated. With just the other four left, I had assault rapid fire on the berserker, causing it to run forward and trigger the free reaction fire and instagib itself. Naturally, my colonel sniper meant that the drones were a complete non-issue because of In the Zone, but after she was done with them she missed a 95% shot. Thankfully the other sniper was able to make good. Support didn't get a chance to act seeing as her move down the ramp had been a dash. Sectoid commander mind controlled my support and blasted the colonel assault down to half health. I took a sniper shot at the commander and critted him down to one health.

Now, I got a bit greedy here and decided to run my colonel assault in for the capture. I sniped the last muton, and tried to disabling shot my support, but I missed (which was ANOTHER high chance shot [like 80% I think]) and my colonel sniper took battle scanner. On his turn, the sectoid commander mindfrayed the assault, dropping his health low enough for my support to kill him JUST as she regains control. Since the assault had my only arc thrower, I just headshotted the fucking commander and ended the mission.

[Aldurin]

A lot of reckless decisions there, the good thing to keep in mind is that you have no turn limit on those missions, and often going full overwatch while using minimal movement to get the best ground will serve you well, since enemies won't attack you on their turn if they trigger by wandering into your line of sight. This gives you a better situation to approach with. Also throwing heavy armor on an assault and having them scout and trigger enemy groups after you have a few turns of nothing helps lure bait back to the rest of your squad.

A good set of tactics and safe ways to approach a situation are detailed in this pretty good series on attempting Ironman Impossible difficulty, and this guy is still making more.
z9zJE9GodMQ

[Gregness]

Honestly it wouldn't have been so bad if I'd had any medkits left. As I said, my heavy getting dropped basically cost me two medkits all on its own. My first instinct WAS to put my assaults in the titan armor, but with the rate my supports and heavies have been getting fried I figured I'd never have any live long enough to get past corporal if I sent them out in Carapace armor. And as it turns out I was right in at least that regard: my support ended the mission with just three bars of health meaning if she'd been in carapace armor odds are she'd have died.

Honestly, most of my 'mistakes' that mission are in how I approached that last room. I had my snipers up on the balcony and both of them had their shots ready for the turn. I honestly thought they'd have seen anyone directly below them so I sent the support down and the rest is history. And, yeah, I should've just capped the damn commander when I had a chance, but a sectoid commander at one health was too tempting a target to pass up. :(

Or, were there other decisions there that you're considering reckless?

[Aldurin]

Mainly it was with how suffered a good bit from being taken by surprise by enemies. That's why the random event of "Hey, what was that?" which points to the nearest group is so good to have. Also in a situation where there may be in a really close blindspot, overwatch for a few turns to make sure that whatever might be in there wanders out or if your sound location points elsewhere.

The general plan of holding the good ground and waiting for the enemy to come to you actually works really well, and serves great for when you're clearing the larger UFOs since a systematic sweep doesn't always leave you with the best places to hold.

[Gregness]

Another thing I noticed from watching through that ironman impossible LP (which was pretty good btw) is that I apparantly don't use nearly enough explosives. I guess I always just feel bad blowing up my salvage, but I usually have MAYBE one grenade per mission with everyone else carrying arc throwers/medkits/nanofiber vests (and scopes on my snipers, natch).

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I have found that my support guys are probably the best units i have on my team. Two supports with suppressive fire effectively locks down anything the aliens throw at me. Which leaves the heavy as a third suppression if needed. This leaves the assault and two snipers to tear everything else apart without remorse or worry. Haven't even had any trouble with sectopods with this tactic.

At least one support has sentinel for even more tactical coverage and the other has more movement range. So when i got to the commander i had constantly rotating suppression fire on it between the heavy and support #2 runs in to stun when commander's health is low.

Remember, fortune does not favor the bold in x-com. The meek and overly careful always win. Being obsessively careful has enabled me to keep the same units from the beginning of the game the entire way through so far. There's been a few close calls but no deaths so far.

Also, i love supply UFO's. So much loot! I tend to go explosive happy in them when i get low on money. Ruined ship tech sells quite nicely on the gray market!

[Arcanum]

Also, i love supply UFO's. So much loot! I tend to go explosive happy in them when i get low on money. Ruined ship tech sells quite nicely on the gray market!

You know, intact ship tech sells even better. I mean, you're taking away from the amount of intact ship tech by blowing it up, why not try to preserve it and then sell some of it anyway? That's what I do, anyway.

[Aldurin]

Yeah, environment damage does factor in to how much you're able to strip out of each UFO. But if you have to be a little destructive at least watch out for the flight computers and power sources, since they're necessary for some pretty sweet late-game things you can build.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

If i do get blast happy it is usually around non-essential stuff like food supplies and the like.

[Bells]

Allow me to introduce you guys to X-Com Team B, the "Sweepers". These are the guys that jump into action when Team A is wounded, they are growing fast and furious!

http://i50.tinypic.com/fo0s9u.jpg


Also, i'm a bit afraid of investing on stuff right now (i believe i'm early game i just find out about Mutons...) but i'm focusing on improving Scopes, running after satellites and am beginning to experiment with laser weaponry... also Smarty has an Alien Grenade, so may god help us all....

Also, Smarty's nickname is "Scotch" Seren-fucking-dipity

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Fun fact, bells. When making multiple satellites the cost increases but days to build does not. Handy to have a couple on hand to put out panic fires later

Also motion to have my dude's nickname be Doctor!

[Gregness]

Jeeze, I WISH I had as many supports as you, Bells. Every time I recruit troops I get like 80% snipers, 10% assaults and 10% of the other two.

In my barracks, I have two colonel Snipers, Two lower ranked snipers as backups, and at LEAST two more squaddie snipers sitting around. This is AFTER I fired like 6 snipers.

[PyrosNine]

If any of you can make a character that murders the terrors from beyond with fire, let me know.

[stefan]

If any of you can make a character that murders the terrors from beyond with fire, let me know.

This actually makes me kind of dissappointed that there isn't a researchable flamethrower for assaults/heavies to use.

[Gregness]

Well, plasma weapons are kind of like fire if you squint and look at them sideways.

I'll just leave this here.

http://imageshack.us/a/img267/4552/chrysalids.jpg

[Bells]

Overwatch combos are the most awesome thing ever

http://i49.tinypic.com/975nhx.jpg

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Another fun little tidbit I recently discovered by accident: units who have burned through all their actions can still open doors. This can be used wonderfully with stealth mode!

[Arcanum]

This actually makes me kind of dissappointed that there isn't a researchable flamethrower for assaults/heavies to use.

have it replace the rocket launcher. Fires in a free-aim cone. Deal say 5 damage initially and then 1 damage every turn for 3 turns. Shredder variant would deal 2 damage per turn. Firaxis needs to make this happen so I can be terrified of being killed by flaming Chryssalids that are still alive after my entire squad except the flamethrower heavy missed their shots.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Firaxis is planning on implementing plenty more DLC for xcom. Slingshot is comin out pretty soon with mo' shit for the operatives to wear and council missions in China.

Also, I just finished another supply UFO run just now, things got a little dicey near the end..but nothin careful tactics couldn't handle. Amusingly the mission was called Operation Bleeding Ring.


19 aliens killed
Muton Elite captured (they've eluded capture up to this point)
236 alloys
118 elerium
56 weapon fragments
4 undamaged flight computers
2 undamaged alien surgeries
4 undamaged power sources
2 heavy plasmas
0 operatives lost!


Aliens were dealt a bleeding ring, I'd say :smug:

[Bells]

Here is a fun little thing... if you don't care about Achievements, change a soldier's name to

Sid Meier

Otto Zander

Ken Levine

Joe Kelly

Holy crap... love it!

[Arhra]

Project Psychic Superteam is slowly coming together. I've got two assaults, a support, a sniper and am starting to train up the heavy. I had a third support but then there was an unfortunate muton incident.

I managed to recover from an Elerium shortage and roll out the Firestorms so I've finally shot down that Ethereal jackass and jacked his device.

Gonna be rolling out the psychic armour soonish!

[stefan]

Kind of salty right now because I am literally at the endgame, have a gollop chamber and everything, but I don't want to actually go into the final mission until I research Blaster Bombs.

So, of course, in 3 months of shooting down UFOs I have yet to bag a single Battleship. Its not even that I found one and have no firepower to take it out (I have firestorms with plasma cannons and a full complement of mods) I just haven't encountered any.

Kinda frustrating.

[Arcanum]

I didn't even know that the Plasma Blaster things existed until a good while after I beat the game :S.

[Krylo]

Kind of salty right now because I am literally at the endgame, have a gollop chamber and everything, but I don't want to actually go into the final mission until I research Blaster Bombs.

So, of course, in 3 months of shooting down UFOs I have yet to bag a single Battleship. Its not even that I found one and have no firepower to take it out (I have firestorms with plasma cannons and a full complement of mods) I just haven't encountered any.

Kinda frustrating.

Don't shoot down ships.

The first ship in an area is a scout. Let it escape, don't attack it. They'll send in a battleship after that.

[Gregness]

Ran into my first sectopod tonight, and at first I expected to get wtfpwned due to all the hype surrounding them, but I backed out of the room and as soon as it came in pursuit, my two heavies on overwatch each crit it for a total of ~36 damage and dropped it instantly.

It never even got a shot off.

[Arcanum]

Ran into my first sectopod tonight, and at first I expected to get wtfpwned due to all the hype surrounding them, but I backed out of the room and as soon as it came in pursuit, my two heavies on overwatch each crit it for a total of ~36 damage and dropped it instantly.

It never even got a shot off.

You got lucky. When I first saw a sectopod, and backed up a bit, it didn't chase. It charged up its rocket salvo, while hidden by the fog of war. I didn't even see the fiery death rain coming until it was too late. I'm still not sure how I lived through that mission.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Yeah, sectopods alone arent too much of a bother. They become real mean when there are mutons, berserkers, muton elite, and an ethereal all clamoring for attention.

One committed suicide via stupidity by trying to launch a vertical missile salvo in a small hallway. Killed itself through massive collateral damage.

[Gregness]

You got lucky. When I first saw a sectopod, and backed up a bit, it didn't chase. It charged up its rocket salvo, while hidden by the fog of war. I didn't even see the fiery death rain coming until it was too late. I'm still not sure how I lived through that mission.

Actually, I think I was mistaken the first time in that neither of my heavies crit, I just forgot I had them both take HEAT ammo. So, still lucky just not quite as lucky.

Incidently, I'm sort of torn over what items I want my heavies to be taking along. On the one hand, SCOPEs help out their bad aim, but on the other, grenades for more cover busting. There's also an argument to be made for chitin plating since their bad aim means they're probably closer to the action and thus getting shot more.

[EVILNess]

Just beat Classic, my volunteer was a Heavy nicknamed "Big Momma." Now I am waiting for the Slingshot DLC and the "they would break my heart if they didn't do it" Terror from the Deep expansion.

I have had lots of fun with this game, and haven't enjoyed a single player experience like that in a long time. The game is challenging, but not unfair. Punishes mistakes, but allows some recovery. Also, it has the most finely tuned difficulty curve I have ever seen.

If any of you have not picked it up, do so at your earliest convenience.

[Gregness]

I actually thought the temple ship was pretty easy. The only casualty I had was when I misjudged the AOE on my psionic rift and ran one of my own guys into it. >.<

I also heard lots of horror stories about the uber ethereal but my Colonel sniper two shotted it.

I'm doing another playthrough with Ironman turned on and man, fuck thin men. Those assholes regularly headshot my highest ranked guys behind full cover and smoke grenades. This actually ties into Ness' point about the difficulty curve: I actually find the game mostly gets easier as it goes along. The first two months are relatively easy, then there's a spike in difficulty around the midgame, but after that you've got most of your infrastructure in place and so even multiple code blacks aren't game ending. In one of my ironman attempts (I'm on #3 right now) I had at least 4 full squad wipes and even after that the only reason I lost the campaign is that I lost my soldiers before I was able to rank up enough to unlock squad size upgrades.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

the "they would break my heart if they didn't do it" Terror from the Deep expansion.


Outlook isn't so good on that one, but hey things can change. The success of Enemy Unknown does open doors for more things. I can see it being a $20 to $30 expansion since a lot of things could be adapted fairly easily.

Also, for nostalgia's sake (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im6a7v7QgSs)

[Gregness]

So, my classic/ironman playthrough is pretty much in the bag at this point. I've got four promising psychics and enough research completed and income that even if I get like three straight code blacks in a row, I'll still be able to just use shiv's to handle anything short of a battleship assault.

I really wish the revive perk for supports made it to where someone you revive also recovers their lost willpower. As much as I love rifle suppression, I would take that shit every time. One of my psychics had a natural will of 100 and I was looking forward to having her go all professor X on everything once I got psi armor but then she got hit with a lucky crit and her will dropped to 85. =8^(

Speaking of Lone Wolf, I'm debating who to get it with. Heavies and supports seem like they'd be the best choice. Supports get that extra item slot, so you can bring mind shields without giving up medkits. On the other hand, if I run into a sectopod I'm pretty sure a support couldn't take it on their own which seems to suggest that a HEAT ammo heavy might be better. Another point in favor of a heavy is that I've brought down two battleships in as many weeks so I'll have blaster launchers pretty quick.

[Krylo]

I grabbed lone wolf with a psychic support wearing psi armor and using two medkits.

It was pretty easy. Mind control things as soon as you can, get them killed while doing as much damage as possible, repeat, and heal as necessary.

Killing the Ethereal that's at the end of most ships at that point will be the tricky bit. If you have a natural 100 will support in psi armor, though, you can probably just mind control it and have it rift itself to death after buffing your will with combat drugs and the psi buff.

[Gregness]

I'm guessing you used the hyperwave decoder and just flat didn't try it in any mission you'd find a sectopod or cyberdisk on then?

[Krylo]

Just did a small UFO. Don't remember if I had the hyperwave decoder. No sectopod, though. Don't remember on the cyberdisk.

Cyberdisks aren't as much of an issue as people give them credit for, though.

[Gregness]

Well, just gave it a shot on a small scout landing and everything was going smoothly until I got to the UFO and found three sectoid commanders and two groups of mutons (with berserkers) all standing right on top of each other. I triggered them all at once and just hit ghost mode and got the fuck out.

I actually reloaded my save (even though I'm on ironman [I have a copy of my save folder on my USB drive for when I play on different machines]) 'cause the first time I died to some shenanigans. I Had wandering mutons jump me while I was dealing with one group already and between all the abilities of the support class, the psychic abilities, and medkit actives, the ghost mode cloak was pushed off the toolbar and I couldn't activate it.

I guess I'll try again on a different UFO. :(

[EVILNess]

Cyberdisks aren't as much of an issue as people give them credit for, though.

The Cyber-Disks in this game aren't nearly as bad as the original, but they still can kill you. For one, their death explosions aren't nearly as powerful, and not to mention a HEAT ammo Heavy makes them mostly trivial.

I hate the bastards mainly because they throw grenades constantly.

[Krylo]

Anyone with a proper plasma rifle makes them mostly trivial.

[EVILNess]

I think they would have been much scarier if they appeared in packs instead of with drones.

[Gregness]

Oh man, impossible difficulty is bullshit. Or maybe it's just the maps i'm getting. Seriously, bomb disposal on the highway? Fuck you XCOM.

[Krylo]

Well, they DO call it 'Impossible'.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Welcome to terror from the deep difficulty! Only you dont have twelve plus units and an oversized map full of nooks n crannies!

Murphey's xcom laws are in effect. Grab ya ankles and pray it ends quickly. At least you dont have to worry about squadmates shootin squadmates because an 85% chance to hit an alien isnt good enough.

Steam teased me last night. Said DLC is available and i thought Slingshot was live. Nope. Just the soldier pack thing.

[Arcanum]

December 4th, $7.