X-com Enemy Unknown

[Aldurin]

Apparently the panic system is pretty problematic.

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Aldurin

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]

Originally Posted by Aldurin

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by Krylo

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.

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.