Printable View
Flashbangs are really good in vanilla as well. -65% mobility and -50 aim to a cluster of enemies can save squads. It works on Floaters (god I hate Floaters... I hate Floaters so unbelievably much), Chryssalids, anything. It also makes stun-attempts a lot easier and safer. It's like a Suppression times two, on a group, which stacks with Suppression. -Aim to the Thin Men!
Attachment 11907
Finally! I must confess I found it harder than expected, but fortunately they decided to beef up the midgame and endgame enemies a bit. Sectopods truly are no joke anymore. But even with 14 soldier deaths I reeled in the I/I victory. Im glad so many died in the process - means the game pushes back all the way through, where EU was mostly a clean-up after month 2. MELD as a resource also spiked up things a bit. Dead soldiers is MELD wasted, which means my last 2 missions were purely MELD-grind for my t3 MEC Paladin EMP-upgrade. Which, in the last mission, proved... ultimately... useless. But fun!
I decided to go about the endfight a bit differently this time. Its spoilered for those that haven't made it there yet.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Speaking of that I didn't feel like it was all done. I spent most of the campaign with either 2 Assaults or 2 Snipers, and both make the game pretty easy. After seing Beaglerush lose colonels on his current playthrough and succesfully deploy various SHIVs to fill in the gaps Im thinking next playthrough Ill limit myself to 1 of each class: Assault, Support, Sniper, Heavy, MEC and SHIV (it really should be a 2nd wave option). I hope it'll spice up the campaign a bit. All I need is a sign that another campaign is coming up after my exams... some sort of visual reminder of why we do all this...
Attachment 11908
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Congrats!!
Would anyone be interested in a small, friendly XCom MP tournament? therother and I have played a few matches and it's pretty fun:
http://www.twitch.tv/mobiusgamers/b/503281576
http://www.twitch.tv/mobiusgamers/b/503287390
We were thinking it might be even more fun to get a larger group of people to play against each other. Anyone interested?
I'm guessing I should get this game.
Quite interested! They patched it recently, and it buffed almost everything I use (get Thin Man'd!) so messing around in the MP is something on my wishlist.
Myth: If you like turn based games, it's one of the finest I've had the chance to play since Warlords 3. And its got character to it. You should definitely give it a few watches on youtube to get a feel for it. High value.
So what were the big changes in the last update?
Just finding someone who has played Warlords 3 and recommending it is enough for me. Did you enjoy the Warlords: Battlecry RTS games?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jarmam
Ok, I'm going to try and do some work to get a small and informal XCOM MP tournament going. If you're interested, please post in this thread.
@Jarmam @HopAlongBunny
I must confess I lost touch with the series after Darklords Rising. The Might and Magic series took over. But I still have the soundtrack from vanilla and xp WL3 stored on my NASbox. Did I miss out? And can you get it on GOG? It will be high priority!... right after this THIEF-marathon is over.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
Would be interested, though probably not for a month or so.
Could not set an account at Mobius; can't get the CAPTCHA script to load
People of the .org that like XCOM, rejoice! Two major things of indescribable awesomeness have happened recently that I believe deserves attention:
1. Beagle is doing a new I/I series! There is only one part atm, but Im as excited as I've been for a while
2. You'll notice he's not playing the Enemy Within vanilla, but the mod "Long War". This is something I've anticipated the release of for EW for a while, and a solid beta is functional now. This mod owns. The changes are gargantuan, but briefly it's summarized as "the improvement of perfection":
-6 soldiers at the start, 8 max later on
-All soldiers can carry 2 items from the get-go
-8 classes
-Significant rebalancing of many perks, items, base buildings, continent bonuses aaaaand...
-SHIVs! Who are now awesome
-Big changes to the cover mechanic, making low cover less useless and giving cover a damage reduction bonus, making flanking even better and more important
-Grenades and rockets rebalanced and are now random damage to reduce "guaranteed control". Rockets also scatter from the target based on range and movement
-Soldiers suffer fatigue from being in missions, requiring 5 days of rest between missions to avoid risking them breaking down (getting them in sick bay for an extended period).
-Switch of the difficulty curve. Starting with 6 soldiers, the game is much easier in the first few missions, but quickly gets hard as the aliens (and EXALT) now also tech towards new goodies.
-Amongst others the enemies now get more health, and also field squad "officers" with different perks and bonuses. Sectoid leaders have Low Profile and +1 health, for instance
-Outsiders are terrifying now. As they should be.
-You can take back lost countries now, making it more viable to include continent bonuses in your strategy as a continent is never "completely lost" due to randomness
-Panic is now given and removed in 1/100's instead of 1/5's
-Interceptor system has been tweaked a little
and a mindblowingly long list of more excellent ideas. I've played the mod for way too long already and I am completely in love. Not because the vanilla game is bad, but because this mod is both a breath of fresh air and some much needed increase in variety in classes, maps, strategy (!) and so on. I highly recommend watching Beagle's video and a few hours of this VOD from his stream to get a feel for the whole deal.
Outstanding work bringing this to our attention Jarman, after completing an Ironman/Classic I put this one to bed, I had no appetite for it after that.
A mod that tweaks the things that quite obviously need tweaking in this game is great news indeed. I'd love to hear when this thing comes out of beta, because at that point I'm re installing and going back in.
Any update on that mod?
Ok then, I'll provide the update on this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014...-hardcore-mod/
~:smoking:
Ok then, I'll provide the update on this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014...-hardcore-mod/
~:smoking:
haha, sometimes not only does this website disappear w/o a trace, it also sometimes (like now) lags so badly you can't tell if a post has even posted
All the info I get from the mod is from Beagle and Steam updates. Since it's still a beta and it gets updated regularly, the patch-progressing is difficult to track and there is no "official current-beta site" like there is for Enemy Unknown's Long War Mod. All I can say for now is that the updates are great. They added random spawning in the beta patch 8, which makes every map a new experience. A lot of the balance changes are also solid. It has its problem, still, but I am completely confident in the project. There is some fine talent involved in it - Jake Solomon had good reason to praise the Long War people back in the day.
Here's a good display of the current state of things in beta. The entertainment value of the result of the random spawn pods is well worth a watch.
Just a quick heads-up for those that waver on whether to give this game a chance - it is currently on Steam Sale. 15 euro for the game, the expansion and a couple of merh'ish DLCs (they come with hats).
I'm on Month 3 in my current Long War (beta 9a) campaign, and it's getting better and better. I really like the new, smoothened-out difficulty curve, and the large amount of missions you get, making it quite possible to have 2.5-3 teams cycling. The medal system has been scrapped (sadly, I wish I could at least award symbolic medals for soldiers risking it all) - instead there is an officer system through the Officer Training School, which lets you select a squad leader who brings bonuses to the team if this person doesn't get noscoped by a Thin Man. It's pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to unlocking more of it in the OTS.
There is one major complaint that I do have to bring for those interested in trying out Long War: The Interceptor system is enfuriating. UFOs do not mess around, there are swathes and swathes of them and your poor paper planes are out for weeks at a time after taking a bit of hurt to their paint job. And they also cost 200 spacebucks per plane, with a solid 40 upkeep to boot. Have less than 4 of them over a continent? Good luck keeping satellites alive. When/If (when) I lose this campaign I'll take to prioritize teching straight for better Interceptors, since this is the area you cannot influence via tactics. The missions can be done with vanilla gear for quite a while, if you're ok with sacrificing some MELD, and I believe that's the best path to take for now. There is a lot to re-learn, it really is a new game. To weigh some positive input in: I really like the base management now. Both Workshops and Labs are worth it, and you need some careful base planning and a willingness to tear down structures to optimize the adjacency bonuses.
Edit: Yup, lost to a moderate Abduction mission, wiping the floor with all of my good soldiers. Cyberdisks - be afraid!
Thanks for the update, I'm keeping a watchful eye on this mod, but feel it still clearly needs some balancing (some of which they've already done, more of which they need to do).
I can only recommend that you play it out a bit. This way you can supply the modders with info on what needs to be fixed, what feels uneven and what might be a good idea to tweak or implement.
I'm writing a longer essay to them atm, and I've just returned from one of my most terrifying XCOM experiences ever to fill in some more details. My current game is going amazingly. I'm fatiguing everyone hard and there are always 10 people in sick bay, but I managed to do a UFO mission, a Council mission (for 160 bucks and 5 engineers - in LW Scientists and Engineers are very valuable) and an Abduction all within 48 hours. I've got a firm plan for my tech paths, my squad officers and everything in general. It feels so right.
Then this happens on my first terror mission:
Attachment 12974
The random pods idea is excellent. I love it. It makes every map feel fresh, and it has opened up areas of the maps that I never even noticed before. However, atm it feels quite bugged. Sometimes the Outsiders in small UFOs will spawn on top of the power generators. These will then blow up (apparently this happens when the generator is classified as "damaged" in the shoot-down). And this triggers the Outsider, who regenerates the damage and goes on the hunt. Outsiders are terrifying - you are now very afraid.
But at times you also have enemies spawn within vision range of your deployment position. As it: The combat music starts instantly and someone can shoot an enemy as their first move. Im fine with random spawns, but I really dislike that you can potentially aggro enemies before you have a chance to make any moves. And unfortunately the spawns can also stack really heavily on one another, as shown in that picture. It's the Mumbai Train Map remade into a terror map, and as you can see I have moved litterally half a move from the deployment zone - and triggered every single enemy on the map. 4 Chryssalids from the flank, 4 Floaters from the spawn and 4 more who patrolled into me during turn 2. I get that the game is supposed to be really hard on Ironman Impossible, but this just feels silly. I was seriously considering just bolting for it - fulfilling the Beagle prophecy of the nefarious Trainyard. Now the game was going so well that I decided to do something stupid: I took a very randomized fight, double-nading the Chryssalids, taking 3 75% shots at them who all needed to hit (they did), and then taking a straight up shoot-out firefight with the Floaters, utilizing how efficient Infantry, Gunners and Snipers are in a shootout scenario. I used my Assault to cover the squad by hunting down Floaters who would do the airlift thing behind the squad on the lamppost, and my Support and Engineer as support.
The result was very undeserved:
Attachment 12975
I still call this scenario problematic. If I had missed *any* of the Chryssalid shots, it could have been a teamwipe and the Floaters missed every single one of their 10+ shots at me. Hardcover is good, but it's not that good. I got really lucky. But what else can I do when the spawns are like that?
Stories and experiences like that are lost if the mod isn't being tested. A lot. Plus, if you roll the hard 6 like I did, you might even have a ton of fun ^^
Balancewise I think the mod is at a fairly solid position. I limit myself to 1 of each class to force myself to learn all the classes thoroughly, and I never feel that any of them is a waste to bring. The flow of income is consistent and the missions reflect the stated difficulty well. I still hate the dogfights, but what can you do. My only realexperience of genuine imbalance is that Month 1 Council Mission with 9 enemies, giving me cash and a massive 5 Engineers. But it's imbalance in my favour - so put on the sunglasses!
While I get where you're coming from with the provide them feedback thing, I just can't bring myself to playing this mod yet when what you described above would happen to me and whereas you got a lot of lucky shots, I'd end up experiencing a total wipe that I would consider completely unfair, at which point I'd remove the game and put it back on a shelf.
I applaud your efforts and those like you playing this mod and refining it, but I'm afraid I'm not willing to join in quite yet.
I play games for fun, arbitrary and capricious death is not my idea of fun. Anytime I want an entirely fair yet soul crushing loss handed to me I need look no further than Fritz 13. :wall:
So Long War is rolling along fine and is now on beta 13. There have been some severe bugs in the last few patches but they are reported to have been cleaned out in this version, and I have yet to experience any. Noticable improvements include a rebalance/overhaul of Interceptor weaponry, Interceptor attack stances (aggressive/balanced/defensive) that give you some sort of influence on how dogfights play out, and lots of new weapons with various specialities and drawbacks for a few classes.
So I decided that there's no time like the present to try and make a video series of Long War. Unfortunately, I am as green as that one superhero guy in green when it comes to video editing and uploading, so I'll have to practice a bit before I start anything resembling a real project. I also heard that when you commentate or stream, you will start playing worse than usually. Well, here's a crappy video of this happening in action. The quality is pretty rough and you can clearly tell that my new headset is in the mail, but I've tried to salvage it somewhat.
Edit: I should mention that the profanity is that of a frustrated noob at 1 AM. You have been warned.
So after a month of eurotripping on the trainroad I got back around to XCOM. We're still on patch 13, though the rough patch notes for 14 have been released and there are some welcome changes - primarily fixing the spawn-in-1st-turn-LOS and the nefarious Rocketeer bug that is the most damaging thing to gameplay in 13. It all looks pretty good, so I got around to doing a video with it. While it's only the first mission it does show a lot of the tactical changes in LW.
I'll stitch together a quick overview of the most important major changes from vanilla later this week, since that requires some planning if it isn't to end up a horrible mess. Also, trying to explain everything is hopeless. There's just so much of it.
So, whats's the word, have they got this mod polished sufficiently yet in your opinion?
Patch 14 seems to be one of the final "big content" patches - a little birdy told me that they'll shift their focus to just balance updates. So once it comes out I'll give my verdict. Patch 13 has some annoying bugs that are all announced fixed, and 14 gives the Medic a long-needed overhaul and nerfs the Base Defense mission, which is beyond difficult atm.Quote:
Originally Posted by easytarget
Thanks for the continuing updates, I'm interested in giving it a go, but wanted to sit back a bit and let them iron it out.
Anyone know if they are going to make another Xcom?
Considering how well this one sold and the reception this one got, it's almost a certainty.Quote:
Originally Posted by easytarget
I certainly hope so, it's been awhile since this one came out, one can only hope they are working hard on the next installment.
Played through Enemy Within on Impossible. First crack at the game. The startup is murder untill you figure out the satellites and stuff. Later on, two Squadsight snipers and save scumming got me through to the end. It is an icnredible, awesome, fun and stimulating game. I loved every second of it.
I'm going to do Impossible/Ironman now. I got rekt like 20 times on the first two missions, and one time I didn't get the UFO before the 11th so I couldn't afford the necessary satellites.
Anyone have any experience with the Long War mod?