XCOM: Enemy Unknown

OH GOD. OH JEEZE. OH :daisy:

XCOM DEMO OUT ON STEAM. DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR.


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

please dont be a let down!

edit: Played through the entirety of the demo, as expected it's essentially the first two tutorial missions. Mission 1 is entirely linear and teaches you the fundamentals of the game. How to move, how to shoot, ect. In mission 2 you get your choice of one of two maps responding to abductions. At the start of mission 2 your mission controller guides you a bit but after the initial engagement the game abruptly stops holding your hand and allows you full tactical control. It was like the game was teaching me how to ride a bike and just as i started to wobble a bit, it let go.

The demo was fairly easy I think, but I have a feeling it was set on the lowest difficulty (and I still managed to lose my best guy in the second mission), but despite the difficulty it was a lot of fun. It also ends way too soon. Just as you're getting comfortable and the narrative of the game is unfolding, the demo ends.

Despite being a tutorial mission 2 had some fun moments. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at my sniper who missed two shots that needed to be made on floaters. Two shots that were outdone by my medic with a normal assault rifle, who ended up gunning down the entire alien recon team. :laugh4: I saw my veteren (who is given for free from mission 1) taken down by Thin Men, who was avenged by my assault specialist who was packing a shotgun. Watching Thin Men erupt into poison clouds after taking a slug to the face? Priceless.

Damnit. I want this game, now.

Double post:

http://asia.gamespot.com/shows/now-p...com_eu20120924

Two hour stream of the game with commentary was just posted at the link above. I haven't watched it fully but it includes early game stuff as well as "late game" missions. Be warned though, most people directing me toward it warned the guy playing was "pretty bad" :laugh4:

And! The demo seemed a bit large for just two missions, both of which were the game's tutorial. 6gbs! Wonder why that was? Well, it's because they included every .bik video from the campaign in the demo. Obvious spoilers contained there, but if you have a video player that can open .bik files and don't mind spoils, have at it!

I'm getting very impatient at this point...but fortunately, I've not got expectations set too high. I simply want to start playing the game, and I'll take it on it's own terms and not compare it to the original.

Thing is, been hanging out too much on the 2k Xcom forum, so I've seen a couple week's worth of videos of other people playing the game, and I want to too!

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Originally Posted by easytarget

I'm getting very impatient at this point...but fortunately, I've not got expectations set too high. I simply want to start playing the game, and I'll take it on it's own terms and not compare it to the original.

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I think that's a very healthy attitude to have, honestly. From what I've seen and experienced with the demo (modded the ini files to let me play on impossible) the gameplay isn't exactly the same as the originals. There's noticeable differences and changes in the design philosophy that become apparent the more you watch footage, and the more you play. However it does come very close and doesn't lose the same 'xcom feel', imo. For example I've been playing Xenonaughts a lot. Xenonaughts has been striving to be as close as possible to the original games, and while both new efforts have much different systems (Squad size, inventory management, and action points all handled differently) they still invoke the same feelings and emotions in me, as a player. Which is probably the most important thing they can strive for.

The one negative I have to say about Firaxis' efforts is the UI. I really don't like it, it just feels very clunky with a mouse and keyboard. It doesnt get in the way, exactly, but it does take serious getting used to.

You can mod the demo to be more difficult:

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...-Settings-here

Managed to beat it on the hardest (I guess?) difficulty, but lost 3 of 4 squaddies on the second mission. Stupid floaters.

Also, the UI is very odd. I might have to invest in a gamepad. :/

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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

You can mod the demo to be more difficult:

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...-Settings-here

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Yup I did that too. +3.0 is indeed 'impossible.' I managed a perfect score on the second mission but had 3 out of 4 squadies critically injured, putting them out for weeks. Because i had meta knowledge of alien placements I dealt with the sectoids with a well placed grenade, took out the floaters with a rocket, and moved in on the Thin Men. They proved to be my downfall. Two really bad shots and their poison is absolutely nothing to joke about.

If i didn't have that meta knowledge (and the encounter wasn't scripted) it probably would have gone much worse.

As for the UI, yeah I hear you. I'll stay with mouse and Keyboard personally but it doesn't feel at all like they put much effort into it. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Skyrim's UI. Can you use a mouse/keyboard for it? Yes. Was it designed with it in mind? Noooo.

I love modders, i really do:

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Originally Posted by 2k forums

just found if u rename or change Act2_Bar_script.upk to Act2_Pier_script.upk, you will start the second mision without tutorial and with more sectoids , like 4 or 5 more.

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Yeah there is already one , i rename Act2_Pier_script.upk to Act2_Pier_script_backup.upk, then rename Act2_Bar_script.upk to Act2_Pier_script.upk.

Sorry for my grammar, english is not my natural tongue.

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The file in question can be found at steam/steamapps/common/xcom demo/xcomgame/cookedpcconsole

Also - Demo editor: http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...or-I-just-Made

Change the aliens you face. Obvious spoilers for unit/alien types, so dont use if you want to be surprised by the enemies you face in the retail version.

Dare I try it on impossible? Perhaps during lunch...

Well, one more weekend to wait through and then it's game on saving the world from aliens!

Certainly hope steam kicks on early download, Jake from Firaxis confirmed that would be the case, we shall see.

I'm quite happy seeing some signs of life in turn based gaming. It warms the cockles of my heart. And they did in fact need warming.

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Originally Posted by easytarget

Certainly hope steam kicks on early download, Jake from Firaxis confirmed that would be the case, we shall see.

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I think the more important question is why is he so charming and likable?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1pyJxcETmc

Seriously. Could they have picked a better face for this game? Firaxis' marketing and PR has been pretty awe inspiring. Also, if you guys have the time (ie, an hour of you life) I seriously suggest giving a listen to their PAX panel, aptly titled "A Thousand Stupid Ideas on the Road to Glory." Quite insightful and a fair bit entertaining after the initial introductions are over.

I'll try to embed here, but it may not work due to age restrictions. Track it down if the embed fails for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AmaMn3xb7U

I played around with the modded demo quite a bit over the last week, it was impressive enough to convince me to cave and drop down money for a pre-order. Well, that, and the extra customization options that come with the Elite Soldier pack. What can I say? I'm a sucker for helmets. :grin2:

X-COM: Enemy Unknown is also the top seller on steam and has been for three days, after spending a week at the number two spot.

Double post to say...

Soon.

https://i.imgur.com/JpoMY.png


Preloads have begun for pre-orders, word from 2k is Xcom is getting a midnight EST activation. Not sure if this is true or not but either way I am excited. :yes:

Curse my decision to preorder from newegg at a lower price!

A glorious review from the always excellent eurogamer http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...known-review_3

Man are we gamers getting spoiled lately

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Originally Posted by Fragony

A glorious review from the always excellent eurogamer http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...known-review_3

Man are we gamers getting spoiled lately

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XCOM is getting almost universal acclaim, which is really surprising given the shoes it's trying to fill. The lowest score i've seen so far is from PC Gamer and that was an 87.

Rock Paper Shotgun's review, which is nonscore based, paints an almost insanely positive picture with a few caveats, which are mostly aimed at the interface, camera and localisation for the game.

Release for North America is in 12 hours, rest of the world in a couple days.

I have been waiting for something like this since the hilariously flawed but oh so fun Silent Storm. Don't tell my mom but the most fun is dressing up your squad.

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Originally Posted by Fragony

I have been waiting for something like this since the hilariously flawed but oh so fun Silent Storm. Don't tell my mom but the most fun is dressing up your squad.

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:laugh4: I'm with you there, that's exactly one of the reasons i pre-ordered. More customization options is incredibly hard to say no to.

Steam says I have about 7 hours played. To be honest I am shocked. It did not feel like 7 hours, but I certainly felt time slipping away as I just kept telling myself "Okay okay, seriously, THIS is the last mission." I'm on my way out the door but I wanted to take a moment and reflect upon those 7 hours of gameplay, my failed attempt at saving the world.

The game is fantastic, I have to say, but the deeper you get into the game the much more apparent that it becomes: This is not a remake of XCOM, at all. In my opinion that same spirit is captured in the game's narrative, the feel of fighting against the unknown and the pain of loss from your soldiers, but it is very much it's own game. Perhaps far more than could ever have been observed from watching videos or playing the demo, once you're about a month into the game doing missions it becomes quite clear. XCOM is it's own game, fully and apologetically. It's XCOM in so many places that when you arrive at something that is different, it almost takes you by surprise.

In my opinion, I think it keeps just enough of the old mixing with the new to be something really incredible, but others may disagree! I think whether people will truly enjoy XCOM: EU, if they are an XCOM fan, comes down to whether they can accept that or not. If not, well, there's always Xenonauts to look forward to. ~:)

I played the game on classic, no ironman mode but it may as well have been because I didn't reload/save once. Crusader Kings II taught me the value of loss in a real way. It' was hard to resist hitting that reload button and before CK2 came along, i have to admit, I used to do it more than a few times. XCOM feels like a game that demands you play it 'fair'. No reloads, taking every shot it gives you on the chin without flinching.. but let me tell you, it can be tough. Over the course of my 7 hour attempt to stave off the end of the world I started to get really attached to my forces. I liked these guys, and after we ran all over the first 6 missions without any problem, I thought I had a venerable A-team.

And that's when a UFO landed in Nigeria. Landed UFOs are a mission type where the xenos have landed in a nonpopulated area for unknown reasons, so you send a team in to find out what they're up to. It's like crashed ufo missions except with maaany more enemies.. and my poor A-team got decimated. Not a single one survived, only one of my vets, Abby Robinson, aka "The Duchess" wasn't KIA. She had been in the infirmary from a previous mission. Losing so many of my best troops was hard, but i battled back and was making a really spirited comeback, likely due to still having one good core member to build around. I was able to progress for quite a few more missions.. and then the terror missions started.

The first one we took out with only one dead, but on the next.. oh my god. A broken overpass, fending off wave after wave of crysalides and zombies. It was like L4D if the zombies turned into mutant bugs if you didn't kill them fast enough. I finally got the upper hand, my troops were shot up but still going strong. And.. well.. let's just say XCOM is a game that likes to pile it on...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/56...E75D0503E2FCB/

Needless to say.. the heroic last stand, felt like a pointless waste of life. When The Duchess got a plasma bolt stuck in her chest and the mission was all but done.. I sort of had to just stop playing. Not that I didn't want to keep going, but I knew that was it. No more vets, my best soldier KIA, and only rookies back at base to face the ever increasing brutality of the xenos. 7 hours. 3 months of missions, the world had ended. And that.. was the most fun i've had in a while.

double post

So yeah, classic ironman is pretty fricken hard. I was lulled into a false sense of security - a half dozen missions and only 1 casualty, then an abduction mission I *really* needed to win ended in 4 of my best troopers KIA. There were just too many enemies and they overran us. :(

After sinking 8 hours into this, I can safely say this is the most fun game I have played this year.(Before CK2 of course:knight:)

Nothing is more soul-crushing then watching one of your Veteran soldiers receiving that one-shot kill, nothing is more satisfying then getting that unlikely kill for a particularly annoying enemy. It also seems to punish you if you rush too much and rewards you for patience. When in doubt; Overwatch and reload.

There was only one enemy in the game that was extremely tough to kill and you only encounter it 3 times throughout the game. As far as I know anyway, could have been a random enemy...:shrug:

Now I know you need about one of each class in your unit but my favorite was the assault class. "Run and gun" mixed with "Rapid fire" and a dash of "Quick reflexes", makes them the perfect killing machines.(My best Assault class Soldier is sitting at 60 career kills)

@Monk: I feel your pain on that terror mission....there was a difficult mission before that where you had to hit a supply UFO, which saw most of my Veteran team killed or in the hospital for a number of days. Had to take that terror mission with only my Best man and mostly recruits. Lost China(?) and only just barely made it out with my best unit, had to buy a bunch of recruits after that one.:sweatdrop:

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Nothing is more soul-crushing then watching one of your Veteran soldiers receiving that one-shot kill, nothing is more satisfying then getting that unlikely kill for a particularly annoying enemy. It also seems to punish you if you rush too much and rewards you for patience. When in doubt; Overwatch and reload.

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Absolutely. :grin2: A lot of the actual firing comes down to that randomness, but the game will reward you if you play well. You're always outnumbered, and for most of the game you are outgunned. But with skill and a little luck, you'll never be outfought.

As for skills, Hunker Down has got to be the most underrated skill in the game. Overwatch is grand for the front line troops, but when I am unsure and expecting an attack, Hunker Down is such a great move. An instant double to your defense while in high cover is no joke!

On my second on classic, this time Ironman. In the initial mission we were fighting in a convenience corner store, and after clearing out the first room we could hear sectoids scurrying around on the other side of a wall. So. I did what any red blooded American would do while in charge of a clandestine international para-military organization....

I told my Russian point-man to whip out his grenade and blow the wall separating our forces down BECAUSE WE'RE X-COM :daisy: AND THAT IS HOW WE ROLL. We mopped up local resistance and suffered only one wounded. It's gonna be a good game, i feel.

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Now I know you need about one of each class in your unit but my favorite was the assault class. "Run and gun" mixed with "Rapid fire" and a dash of "Quick reflexes", makes them the perfect killing machines.(My best Assault class Soldier is sitting at 60 career kills)

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Assaults have got to be the greatest example of XCOM's risk vs reward gameplay. Run & Gun is by far one of the best abilities in the game because of how much it changes the entire dynamic of a mission. Combined with Lightning Reflexes your assault troopers are the stuff of legends, I don't care what world you're from, a shotgun to the face will hurt.

Game downloaded via Steam: Check
Shortcut on Desktop: Check
Outside USA: Check

Can't play until the 12th of Oct local time...

BTW The game retailed in Australia on Steam for $69.95 US... What was the price for other countries?

I'm so used to paying $100-$120 AU (107-134US) as an Aussie tax.

I'm having a blast as well, I spend more time talking about it, but that'd be more time spent not playing, and work is interfering here enough as it is. Maybe after 3 or 4 run throughs I'll calm down and come back and chat about it. Ha!

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Game downloaded via Steam: Check
Shortcut on Desktop: Check
Outside USA: Check

Can't play until the 12th of Oct local time...

BTW The game retailed in Australia on Steam for $69.95 US... What was the price for other countries?

I'm so used to paying $100-$120 AU (107-134US) as an Aussie tax.

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Ouch, that's absurd.. I paid $50 US. ~:(

Second playthrough has ended in disaster. I can't get over the June hump in Classic, as that seems to be the month Cyberdisks start appearing. Does anyone have advice as to how to avoid wiping constantly on them? They totally rocked me just now.

Also.. i was forced to watch my best soldier turned into a chrysalid. You want to talk heartbreaking.. I Got pinned down really quickly in a Terror Mission and things went badly, really quickly. Dealing with floaters/Chrysalid packs pinning me and then out of nowhere a Cyberdisk warps in on my flank. You can guess what happened next.. :sweatdrop:

I rather like snipers with the plasma sniper rifle at the moment. It does upwards of 19 HP in one shot.

Playing Normal Ironman (NI)

I've already played had a few starts. Second mission was all female so I got the Valkyrie achievement. Purposely loaded up a new game to get the tutorial achievement.

Anyhow sat down to maximize the economy. Essentially only buying enough items for a single squad load out until the cash flow is running hot. Prioritizing health and armour upgrades. And keeping my rooster rotation happening in full swing.

First the economy. Satellites, satellites and more shiny orbital things. A typical satellite will pay for itself in a month, the uplink in the second and add pure gravy from there. Despite all the money, I'm trying to minimize panic so I keep a bird in the hand until the end of the month before deploying in the worst area. This would be USA or Russia by end of month two. That means I focus my abduction choice of three missions outside of NA or Europe and then on the cash.

By the end of the first month I had scored 402 credits in mission extras. By the end of the second month I was about to choose US or Russia when a special proposal popped up. USA offered me 200cr for satellite coverage. So I now have 4 birds in the sky, plenty of cash and a double steam vent asking to be tapped.

On the tactical side: I rotate squads and individuals in those squads too. Not only do I bring a rookie on every mission I alternate squads. Alpha and Bravo are my two line squads. Charlie replaces anyone WIA, Delta KIA.

Alpha has the armour plate style. Bravo the classic fatigues look. Charlie alternates.
I always pack two medi-kits, frag on rookie, nano vest on the fourth and fifth. With armour prioritized I managed to create 5 carapace suits and my first combat with them is a terror mission. The high armour has already saved one heavy from a 9 point hit. This mission has one Delta rookie, 2 Charlie squad heavies, one Support and one Sniper (cant remember which squad is on rotation.

To make things easier I rename all my troopers A.Lastname or B. or C. So I know which squad they belong to. By naming the Lastname this way you can see easily in the mission screen who is who.

Colour scheme depends on role and somewhat on squad
Rookies are hot pink
Assault are red
Heavies are yellow
Support are white if a medic, off white if an overwatch specialist (may change this to blue)
Snipers are black

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Originally Posted by easytarget

I rather like snipers with the plasma sniper rifle at the moment. It does upwards of 19 HP in one shot.

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I have found Snipers to be the polar opposites of Assaults. While Assaults are amazing from day one, Snipers take a bit of work to rank up into something worthwhile. Once their abilities (Squad Sight) and tech catches up they become absolute beasts. Until then, though, I find them very hard to use effectively.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

First the economy. Satellites, satellites and more shiny orbital things. A typical satellite will pay for itself in a month, the uplink in the second and add pure gravy from there. Despite all the money, I'm trying to minimize panic so I keep a bird in the hand until the end of the month before deploying in the worst area. This would be USA or Russia by end of month two. That means I focus my abduction choice of three missions outside of NA or Europe and then on the cash.

By the end of the first month I had scored 402 credits in mission extras. By the end of the second month I was about to choose US or Russia when a special proposal popped up. USA offered me 200cr for satellite coverage. So I now have 4 birds in the sky, plenty of cash and a double steam vent asking to be tapped.

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Impressive work, Pape :bow:

One of the harshest lessons i've learned playing this iteration of XCOM is that it will severely punish you if you aren't thinking ahead. You absolutely cannot play the game on a month by month basis, especially on Classic where Panic rises very fast. You really need a meta gameplan from the start that details what you're going to do, not only do you need to know what you're doing this month, but you need to be thinking about what you're doing next month. The economy can really get you if you're not careful.

Good to hear you've mastered it to some extent :yes:

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Colour scheme depends on role and somewhat on squad
Rookies are hot pink
Assault are red
Heavies are yellow
Support are white if a medic, off white if an overwatch specialist (may change this to blue)
Snipers are black

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:laugh4: I'll bet your Rookies just love looking so fabulous.

I've settled on a more uniform color for my team, trying to play into some kind of idea of "realism," or if not that very much an in-character way of approaching it. All troops wear a dark greenish color (tint 22) uniform to avoid the aliens singling out who does what on a color scheme. Yes, the AI can't do that, but I always think of the Starfleet uniform conundrum. Dress all your command officers in red and sooner or later, your opposition is going to figure it out and prioritize targets.

The one change that puts my units apart, if you could consider that, is all rookies are forced to wear helmets until they rank up to sergeant and get a nickname. Until they prove themselves to me in some way I don't want to know their name. They are expendable. Demolition experts (heavies with shredder rockets, Grenadier, ect) always keep their helmets due to the volatile nature of their ordinance.

Took the plunge!

No love from eb games or any of the other locals so downloading now.

I am soon to be a corpse near you :p

How exactly do I change the color of the armor?

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Originally Posted by TinCow

How exactly do I change the color of the armor?

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Unfortunately, 2k pulled perhaps the biggest :daisy: move of recent memory and put color customization and helmets for your squad in the pre-order bonus. The Elite Soldier Pack that came with all digital pre-orders, and I think, all physical copies has the DLC.

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Originally Posted by Monk

Unfortunately, 2k pulled perhaps the biggest :daisy: move of recent memory and put color customization and helmets for your squad in the pre-order bonus. The Elite Soldier Pack that came with all digital pre-orders, and I think, all physical copies has the DLC.

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I don't get helmets because I didn't pre-order? I am hoping that these helmets are decorative only.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

I don't get helmets because I didn't pre-order? I am hoping that these helmets are decorative only.

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Oh no, don't worry the helmets and colors are purely cosmetic and don't offer any in game bonus. The only benefit they provide me is shielding me from the faces of all the starry eyed men and women I've sent to their death. :sweatdrop:

Ok, I'm not too bothered then. Extra character customization options seem to be standard pre-order bonuses these days, so I don't think it's particularly bad. I didn't even really care until Pape mentioned his color-coding scheme for easier specialist identification. That sounded like a really good idea to me, which is why I asked.

It's useful in the aliens turn. However as this is turned based it doesn't create a disadvantage as long as you look around at the start of your turn. I think they should have released at least the first third of the colour schemes.

Finished the terror mission, 10 Aliens killed, 8 civilians killed, 2 Soldiers WIA and 3 walked away. Yay for carapace! I now with my squad rotation have a Lt. 4 birds are being built and I will be building two more uplinks to form a block of four.

I'm saving all my alien autopsys for when I put two birds above South America... This should auto unlock them. So right now research is on getting some weapons to go along with the armour.

Does anyone find a use for the more upgraded versions of the power room or satellite nexus, when you can just get to a steam area for power or link satellite up-links together? I only ever built one nexus...it was expensive and getting enough satellites and materials was just a pain.

The Psy lab remains the most unlikely building I thought I would have a use for...until I saw how OP some of the psy ability's can be. Even the most basic attack saved my bacon, when we run out of ammo and couldn't waste a turn reloading.

Got it loaded!

I seem to be building up a fair pile of corpses already (mostly mine) good fun :)

Whenever I go to the base I seem to get stuck ie: go to Barracks; cycle through soldiers; cannot get out of barracks. "esc" does not take me out, nor does it give me the menu_cntrl-alt-del to exit game!? really!!?? Gah!

I must be missing something obvious but I can't find it. edit: it was obvious :p follow what the tutorial asks you to do!?

Ok, I have a complaint. There should be an easier way to transfer loadout items from inactive soldiers to those who are on your mission list. It's annoying to have to find the inactive soldier with the item you want, load them up, remove the item, load up the soldier you want, and then equip the item. I cannot find any in-game reason to have more than one squad's worth of any item, other than the convenience of not having to do this item swap dance, and money is so tight that I need to save every credit I can. That means not buying more equipment than I need.

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Originally Posted by White_eyes:D

Does anyone find a use for the more upgraded versions of the power room or satellite nexus, when you can just get to a steam area for power or link satellite up-links together? I only ever built one nexus...it was expensive and getting enough satellites and materials was just a pain.

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They are more useful later in the game, when you are running out of room for new facilities, and the extra energy and satellites/per slot makes a difference.

I'm just about to complete my second run through, am almost ready for the final mission but want to have 6 psi operative colonels in my team so am playing on for quite a while after I could have completed it. One additional benefit is that I have the time and resources to play around with my base.

Foundries can be moved, but you lose the already completed projects. Same goes for the Officer school. You can get rid of Alien containment once you've interrogated the alien necessary for the "plot" and if you don't care about the research bonuses interrogations allow, and can scale back on labs entirely once you have enough scientists/research bonuses. For instance, with no additional labs I researched fusion in two days. In terms of planning to group facilities, squares are better than lines, and I prioritise uplinks then power then workshops then labs.

I was beginning to get a little blasé about the missions until I assaulted a cargo ship laden with 20+ aliens including muton elites, beserkers, cyberdisks, sectopods, heavy floaters and an ethereal. Twice I encountered serious firepower activating all at the same time. Nearly lost two (stabilised them just in time) and all 6 spent time in the infirmary after that encounter. Have changed my tactics and loadout ever since, moving away from titan to ghost armour for the ground crew and archangel for the snipers, and thinking about restricting having two snipers to only those missions where I know there will be mostly open ground or where the second sniper is a gunslinger (up to 7 damage with their plasma pistol). Definitely not two snipers for large ship assaults.

Similarly, I was happy enough with EMP-armed Firestorms, one per continent, but an encounter with a battleship has more than persuaded me to construct some fusion lances. I now have a relative abundance of resources, but losing a Firestorm would still hurt, and it was only a bit of luck and the dodges from the defence matrix that saved it. Now I'm begging for another battleship because I want another fusion core to construct another blaster launcher. Those things are serious weapons.

Oddly, though, I've not had an alien abduction mission in months, so world panic is not an issue. Don't know if this is because I'm ready for the final mission, I have worldwide satellite coverage, there are only a set number of them, I've been extraordinarily lucky or it's just a bug...

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Originally Posted by White_eyes:D

The Psy lab remains the most unlikely building I thought I would have a use for...until I saw how OP some of the psy ability's can be. Even the most basic attack saved my bacon, when we run out of ammo and couldn't waste a turn reloading.

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Psi abilities are extremely useful, plus are required for the final mission, where you get some seriously powerful psi powers. All of them are useful, although I tend to go with panic over inspire and MC over telekinetic field. There is nothing more satisfying than MCing an ethereal...

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Originally Posted by TinCow

Ok, I have a complaint. There should be an easier way to transfer loadout items from inactive soldiers to those who are on your mission list. It's annoying to have to find the inactive soldier with the item you want, load them up, remove the item, load up the soldier you want, and then equip the item. I cannot find any in-game reason to have more than one squad's worth of any item, other than the convenience of not having to do this item swap dance, and money is so tight that I need to save every credit I can. That means not buying more equipment than I need.

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Yes, it does have a number of UI quirks. For instance, would be nice to have easy access to a soldier's stats on the battlefield, especially will, without having to go into the info panel. Also, a tooltip over the ability icons would be handy. Not being able to ghost after selecting run and gun is strange, but have now trained myself to do it in the right order. Having to remember to rearm a newly constructed Firestorm after transfer is annoying, I often forget and then only have avalanche missles on hand when a UFO is detected. I also don't understand when you get the alien spotted sound during a movement but if you can't see it from where you end up you don't get any information about where it was. A little map would be great as well.

Edit: But for me the biggest issue by a country mile is controlling your soldiers movement when the terrain has different levels, especially larger ships. It's a real pain to have to get the right zoom and rotation settings to allow to move where you want to go...

So far I'm impressed. This has to be the cleanest game I've played in a long time.

Transferring equipment is a bit fiddly ie: "where did I put that other Medkit?" In a tight place camera control is painful. No game breakers that I can see so far; a very welcome relief after Skyrim. Now if I could just get "assault" units to live a little longer....

Give them rifles and use run and gun for conservative flanking, not bum rushing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

Give them rifles and use run and gun for conservative flanking, not bum rushing.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bOKsOveYD0

I have just made it half-way though one of the bloodiest months I have played on "X-COM:Enemy Unknown". It's like the game sense's that if it let's up for a few days, I am going to get my second wind and crush all opposition. I have had two UFO landing missions, another small scout that I shot down, 4 abduction missions, 1 terror mission and I also assaulted the alien base to get the panic levels down.

After that 4th abduction mission came swinging down when I was at my weakest, I had to ask the question if the game is trolling me or not...:wall:

I have over 500 alien alloys, 200 weapons fragments and tons of other stuff I will need later on. I am hurting bad after I lost three of my veterans with 5 going into critical care. Should I try it and risk losing 3 recruits and a newly minted squddie or just ignore it and hope panic levels don't go though the roof?

I am hoping that for the rest of the month after this, it's quiet and just lets my men get out of the hospital and get some new equipment researched...or this might be as far as I can go.:sweatdrop:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by White_eyes:D

I have just made it half-way though one of the bloodiest months I have played on "X-COM:Enemy Unknown". It's like the game sense's that if it let's up for a few days, I am going to get my second wind and crush all opposition. I have had two UFO landing missions, another small scout that I shot down, 4 abduction missions, 1 terror mission and I also assaulted the alien base to get the panic levels down.

After that 4th abduction mission came swinging down when I was at my weakest, I had to ask the question if the game is trolling me or not...:wall:

I have over 500 alien alloys, 200 weapons fragments and tons of other stuff I will need later on. I am hurting bad after I lost three of my veterans with 5 going into critical care. Should I try it and risk losing 3 recruits and a newly minted squddie or just ignore it and hope panic levels don't go though the roof?

---

Yeah. The game is certainly an attrition battle once you get out of the early game, to the point where if you've had a squad completely wiped out even once in the first few months, it's almost not worth continuing. You need higher ranked guys to face down the Cyberdisks in the mid game. If you're cutting corners with explosives on the battlefield as well, you're also missing out on resources that you will desperately need when you hit laser tech. You'll find yourself in that awful spot where you're bloodied and beat up with only squadies and rookies to face down Mutons (with heavy plasma) and Cyberdisks. It's a terrifying position to be in.


I'm on my 10th attempt at classic after a run through normal. This time I am doing much better, as playing on Normal allowed me to formulate a much more viable long term strategy. Rushing sats, engineers and laser tech seems to be a good plan for the early to mid-game. With smart tactics you can really decimate the enemy no matter what they send at you. Still, classic being classic, you're always one shot away from disaster at any time. Love the tension.

I lost my best sniper and one of my favorite characters last night, code-named Garrote. It was nearing the end of April and laser tech was just starting to come off the line, but no carapace armor as of yet when the council wanted an escort. It was the alley way map. Two tall buildings seperated by a narrow alley. We elected to move over the rooftops with the VIP and all was going well, until time came for the decent. Thin Men had been dropping in the mission periodically and I'd nailed a few, but as we neared extraction i made a grave error and placed the VIP in a really vulnerable spot.

You can imagine my dismay when a sectoid group showed up when half of my team were out of actions. The vip took a plasma shot to the chest, but he survived! Unfortunately.. he was in a spot where the next turn he was a dead man for sure. We took out two of the sectoids but one still had a good shot on him. I knew the mission was gonna be a failure if I didn't find a way to save him.. so I had to make the ultimate sacrifice. Garrote was in position on the roof still and was the only unit with an action, she dropped down and ran in close to the sectoid and pulled out her pistol. Without bothering to take cover, she popped a few rounds off at the nasty little grey. Not enough to kill it, but more than enough to get it's attention...

The AI doesn't consider things like who the VIP is or what the objective is, it seems to prioritize targets by what type of covor your men are in and their overall chance to hit you. Garrote was in the enemy's face the chance to hit her was super high. The enemy took the bait, the sectoid turned and fired, and my sniper died a hero's death. Next turn I got the VIP into heavy cover, hit run and gun on my assault and blasted that little piece of :daisy: into oblivion... Rest easy, Garrote.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Monk

Yeah. The game is certainly an attrition battle once you get out of the early game, to the point where if you've had a squad completely wiped out even once in the first few months, it's almost not worth continuing.

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I have learned this more times than I care to admit :p

I am slowly realizing that motion does not have to always be forward; I can't imagine the game would be playable with limited ammo.

Still playing NI. Almost had a total squad wipe with Bravo. I had shot down a large UFO after taking 90% damage to two interceptors.

I landed Bravo squad with members of Charlie to fill gaps and a rookie to learn the ropes.

My first encounter was two of the crystal energy guys, then I triggered two floater packs. My sniper missed every shot. Assault was under pressure, support was outside the ship, heavy was maintaining pressure and the rookie was racking up the kills. Wiped out the two floater packs and a third. Assault was on two health and we were out of med packs. Stumbled into the next chamber and was setting up my guys at the sides of doors when a corridor between them was defogged.

Three chrisalyids procceded to munch on my heavy and sniper. Support, assault and rookie fell back firing as they went. However after killing one of the aliens the support died. Two more firing retreats with 3 zombies and 1 chrisalyid left and the rookie was poisoned. She died soon after as she made a retreat and shoot maneuver. At that point the assault run and gunned to the extraction zone.

Luckily with those in the infirmary I still have 2 active Bravo squad (promoting a Delta to Bravo), assault in the infirmary and enough troops in Alpha and Charlie to field a battle experienced squad.

Still playing NI. Almost had a total squad wipe with Bravo. I had shot down a large UFO after taking 90% damage to two interceptors.

I landed Bravo squad with members of Charlie to fill gaps and a rookie to learn the ropes.

My first encounter was two of the crystal energy guys, then I triggered two floater packs. My sniper missed every shot. Assault was under pressure, support was outside the ship, heavy was maintaining pressure and the rookie was racking up the kills. Wiped out the two floater packs and a third. Assault was on two health and we were out of med packs. Stumbled into the next chamber and was setting up my guys at the sides of doors when a corridor between them was defogged.

Three chrisalyids procceded to munch on my heavy and sniper. Support, assault and rookie fell back firing as they went. However after killing one of the aliens the support died. Two more firing retreats with 3 zombies and 1 chrisalyid left and the rookie was poisoned. She died soon after as she made a retreat and shoot maneuver. At that point the assault run and gunned to the extraction zone.

Luckily with those in the infirmary I still have 2 active Bravo squad (promoting a Delta to Bravo), assault in the infirmary and enough troops in Alpha and Charlie to field a battle experienced squad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Monk

The AI doesn't consider things like who the VIP is or what the objective is, it seems to prioritize targets by what type of covor your men are in and their overall chance to hit you. Garrote was in the enemy's face the chance to hit her was super high. The enemy took the bait, the sectoid turned and fired, and my sniper died a hero's death. Next turn I got the VIP into heavy cover, hit run and gun on my assault and blasted that little piece of :daisy: into oblivion... Rest easy, Garrote.

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I think you should have hit "Hunker down" and she might have survived....but I understand wanting to kill him and not waste two weeks in the hospital.:shame:

Made it though the month very smoothly after that last abduction mission. I have Laser weapons, tons of other stuff researched, 3 of my best men/women being "tested" for psy power and a firebird nearly fresh off the line. In short, it was a VERY slow month and now I can curbstomp some Xenos. I missed that alien supply ship though...which just about destroyed my satellite.:wall:

That is going to hurt my material gathering efforts later on...:sweatdrop:

Found this tech tree in a post at strategycore:

http://i.stack.imgur.com/NGLEJ.gif

For me it makes the whole tech thing a lot easier to understand :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

Found this tech tree in a post at strategycore:

http://i.stack.imgur.com/NGLEJ.gif

For me it makes the whole tech thing a lot easier to understand :)

---

Saved. Thanks hopalong :D

Killed my first berserker tonight. Felt damn good. I have this picture in my head that my troops pried the sucker's helm off and mounted it in their rec room for the sole purpose of telling stories to scare the crap outta the rookies. :laugh:

Figured out the hard counter to Cyberdisks, no surprising it's Heavies equipped with the HEAT ammo passive. Good god. You wanna talk about wrecking machines, these guys put Ivan Drago to shame when it comes to destroying robots. A normal LMG with HEAT ammo does 10 (!!) damage to all robotic enemies, non crit. The trick is keeping your heavies alive long enough for them to get the ability in the first place. I've been putting Nano-fiber on the heavies to try to give them the extra survivability, but honestly, I'm finding SCOPEs to be even better. A heavy with a scope on high ground is ridiculous.



This is the first time i've made it passed June on Classic and I am starting to really hit my stride, having gotten plasma tech and on a real roll with my sat coverage I think i've finally turned the corner. I'm starting to understand what most people mean when they say the early game is the hardest. Once you get full coverage on one or two continents the abduction missions really slow down. Then it becomes a game of fighting off UFOs and raiding the ones that land, which I have to say, is much less arduous than constantly going into abduction missions where 2 out of 3 continents are gonna get panic. :sweatdrop:

Out of curiosity, who are some of your guys' best soldiers? Right now the leader of my troops is a particularly intimidating Assault trooper from Scotland. She's the only survivor of the original 4 man squad the game gives you for the first mission and is nearing on 50 kills now.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://i.imgur.com/3wSMt.jpg

Only thing that sucks about her is her low Will. She got critically wounded a few missions back and knocked unconscious so she has to live with the permanent negative to her stats. Still, it didn't stop her from gunning down 4 chrysalids on the last Terror mission :on_getsome:

Classic Ironman is hard.

Yes it is. If I had a better fix on LOS, I could probably tolerate how hard it is, but since the approach is more DND in determining hit, if I get unlucky and the aliens get lucky, the mission can go ugly just way too fast for my tastes. So, I'm backing off classic ironman, just annoying me too much. If however I had a way to determine LOS that worked like combat mission, well, then I'd be up for it.

Minor quibble, rather like working your way through multi-level ships and having the damn UI flip out on you constantly.

All in all though, my first run through to completion on a campaign was the most fun I've had in a long time. Put a big smile on my face. Just as my 66 kill PSI sniper Colonel with pink archangel armor amused me so much that I went out of my way to put him in harms way so he could find some more new and interesting ways to "reach out and touch" aliens and relieve them of their earthly burden. ;)

Because I'm a huge wimp I beat the game on Normal/Ironman. Pretty awesome, though I was getting tired of supply ship attacks by the end with the multi-level UI.

When I'm less emotionally drained I'll start up a CI game with the cutscenes and glam-cam off.

I am an even bigger wimp:p

Monk is at the point where all my "normal" campaigns fall apart; got plasma, good sat coverage, next level of armor researched (beyond carapace). All my "vets" die gloriously in a mission and just no way forward.

Changed up this go through. More interrogation, more sats early, got and did the alien base while still using bullets. I might even get to the end this time :)

Well, thanks to circumstances I got XCOM on day 1 and have barely had chance to play it. What I have played, I really enjoyed. There's a few things I'm not sold on, but I'll wait and see how they pan out across the game. Regardless, despite looking in askance at several large aspects of the design, I'm having a great time and can see myself replaying it quite a few times.

I'm at the beginning of month 3 now. Haven't even captured an alien yet. Took me about 4 hours to get that far ... I've actually left the game on standby for longer than I've played it. Well, could be worse. I've only managed to play 15 minutes of Dishonoured. :embarassed:

I've got 1 assault trooper on my team, and I will be completely heartbroken if anything happens to her! She's got the highest kill-count by far. Run and gun = dead alien. Pot shots from cover = dead alien. Reaction fire = dead alien. Shooting halfway across the map with a shotgun after my entire squad misses = dead alien! I can't believe some of the shots she has pulled off. The game named her 'android' and she's more than lived up to it - she's a total no-nonsense killing machine. Meanwhile my sniper misses plenty of shots, even with a scope and several promotions.

Terror From the Deep expansion now, please. I preferred that game's setting to the original's.

Attempting a stun on Classic Ironman is quite possibly the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done in any game, ever.

I am glad the game does not model friendly-fire casualties. I just had a Chrysallid vault from a second story; landed at the "five-spot" amidst a tight 4-pack of my soldiers; all were on overwatch, "bowed to their corner", and unleashed a storm of plasma!

That should have been mission over :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

I am glad the game does not model friendly-fire casualties. I just had a Chrysallid vault from a second story; landed at the "five-spot" amidst a tight 4-pack of my soldiers; all were on overwatch, "bowed to their corner", and unleashed a storm of plasma!

That should have been mission over :p

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Unfortunately, friendly fire did result in mission over for me on an earlier Ironman attempt. I was on a VIP escort mission with everyone in cover and the VIP completely secure inside a storage container with a Heavy in full cover on overwatch standing guard over him. I moved up an assault, which revealed a previously unknown Thin Man on a nearby roof. The Thin Man took a reaction shot and killed my assault. Which caused my Heavy to panic and gun down the VIP. Ugg...

That's not as bad as what made me abort an otherwise decent Ironman attempt either. It was a bomb mission and I was doing pretty well. I had one man down on an all-vet squad of four, but he had been stabilized and there was only one sectoid left right by the bomb inside a building, with all 3 of my remaining soldiers ready to burst into the room, kill the sectoid, and defuse the bomb. On the sectoid's turn, he ran out of the door of the building that only had a single man guarding it (not on overwatch, due to rushing to get to the bomb), resulting in flanking of my guy. By a bloody miracle, the sectoid's follow-up shot from near point-blank range missed. The first thing I did on my turn was take the flanked assault guy up to point blank range and finish the Sectoid with a single shotgun blast. Unfortunately, I had not checked movement distances, and he was the only soldier who could get to the bomb without dashing. Both of the other two soldiers ended 1 square away from the bomb and thus couldn't defuse it before it charged. And since all three of my men were right at the bomb when it charged, I couldn't get them back to the evacuation zone and the entire team was killed when it went off.

I'm currently farther along in Classic Ironman (attempt 28, only about 5 of which I played past mission 2), but I'm down to about 8 soldiers on rotation and am losing men regularly. I may have to give Ironman a try on Normal instead... I'm just not good enough for this. It feels like no matter how careful I am, there's nothing I can do to prevent sheer bad luck from causing the death of critical soldiers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TinCow

I'm currently farther along in Classic Ironman (attempt 28, only about 5 of which I played past mission 2), but I'm down to about 8 soldiers on rotation and am losing men regularly. I may have to give Ironman a try on Normal instead... I'm just not good enough for this. It feels like no matter how careful I am, there's nothing I can do to prevent sheer bad luck from causing the death of critical soldiers.

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When i played the game initially I thought that Ironman was the way to go, it just felt so.. visceral. So intense. It is no exageration to say every moment was an edge of your seat experience in Ironman. The fate of the world literally hangs upon every single shot you take, and that is not an experience that you can find in games very often.

The problem comes in how small scale your operation is. When you have a max of a 6 man squad (starting at 4), you can suffer a complete Pearl Harbor in a matter of seconds. The limited number of soldiers you have at your disposal means things need to go perfectly every single mission, if not? A Muton scores a lucky crit on your star assault and kills him, your sergeant heavy freaks the hell out and guns down another squadie, or worse, a VIP. End of game right there.

Those kinds of scenarios can happen in the blink of an eye, and you'll be sitting there completely stunned that the game is, effectively, over. It's a harsh sting largely because when you sit back and ask yourself, "Okay, why did I lose?" you will invariably come to the conclusion, "The dice just weren't on my side," and that is one of the worst feelings in gaming. You did everything right, it was just bad luck.

May/June is really the terminal point in my opinion, if you lose a single beefy squad on Ironman? You might as well just pack it in right there because you are now effectively so far behind you'll never win.

Ironman is an incredible experience because it gives you that tension.. but when your total failure state is, at any time, a single dice roll away (and you are literally rolling dozens upon dozens of dice every mission) it can quickly turn into an exercise in frustration. Everyone should without a doubt play Ironman to get that feeling I described, but if you want to keep your sanity? Play on regular. Trust me. You'll scream less obscenities at your monitor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TinCow

. Which caused my Heavy to panic and gun down the VIP.

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Ouch! Which brings up another reason why a mid/late game wipe is so devastating.

Rookies/Squaddies spend most of their time in "panic" mode when faced with the storm of firepower you end up facing. I guess that's why one reviewer noted you can become more "attached and protective" of your veterans than your own children.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TinCow

Attempting a stun on Classic Ironman is quite possibly the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done in any game, ever.

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I just captured a Muton, in CI, and I still have no idea how I did it lol

Still playing the same NI game. My roster rotation is absorbing my worst mistakes at the tactical level.

I encountered my first berserker. The heavy went into high cover and activated him within dashing range. He opened fire, then my top support shot at him and he kept on charging. Right into the arms of the squads assault with arc thrower. Took the live puppy home to the Doc.

Got through a couple months on Classic Ironman, much further than I ever did before. Attrition started to take a toll, however. Lost my only good sniper to bad luck. He was at full health in full cover, and got nailed by a critical hit that killed him instantly. Got out of that mission okay, but in the next mission my top Support got critically wounded and was down for a while. As a result, I ended up going into my first terror mission with three lowly squaddies accompanying the my veteran heavy and assault. I did pretty well, clearing about 2/3 of the map without issues. I'd lost about 1/3 of the civilians, but few of those losses were anything I could have prevented. I started to move into a warehouse to save the last of them. moved into a small entry room with two closed doors, rescuing a civvy who was inside. I stationed my experienced assault and my backup support at the door, ready for a breach entry with another backup inside and the other two on overwatch outside. Before I could open the door, a zombie rose up from the ground on the same square as my vet assault and killed him in one blow before I even got a chance to react. I have no idea how the zombie got there; both doors to the room were closed when I entered and the civvy was alive, meaning no aliens had ever entered. I managed to dispatch the zombie, but two Chrysalids showed up in the middle of it right next to my men. I knew none of my men would survive at that range, so I charged everyone I could into as close range as possible to try and blast them all down before they got to move. I got one, but the second didn't go down. It took down my support, critically wounded. Unfortunately, the only med kit available to stabilize him was on his body, which mean I was screwed. Then two zombies appeared. I actually managed to kill them both with my remaining 3 men before the support bled out, but in the process lost another assault. After that, I aborted the campaign. I had three three vets left, but two were wounded and wouldn't be available for the next mission, meaning I'd have to go in with a veteran sniper and four rookies. I wasn't even going to bother trying to play like that.

So, I started a Normal Ironman game, and I've breezed through my first two months without a single loss taking the hardest missions thrown at me. It's startling how much a jump there is in difficulty between Normal and Classic. I wish there was an intermediate level.

2k forums there is a few mentioning the large jump in difficulty.

One guy is playing impossible and once his squad is on the ground switching to normal. That way he gets lots of aliens but not the +/- modifiers for higher difficulty.

My biggest squad killer so far has been exploding cars. Particularly from suppression fire through vehicles other team members are hiding behind... Stupidity on my part.

One thing that really annoys me is the lack of a manual (dl version)

I am building stuff that does not appear to have any use: alloy cannon, blaster launcher. They certainly sound cool but no one/thing can equip them.

I really don't like playing the game like "blindmans bluff"

edit: ok, finally found the slots for those; I thought I had checked everything...but...there are an awful lot of slots :p So 3months after I built them I'll start to use them

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

I am building stuff that does not appear to have any use: alloy cannon, blaster launcher.

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Two of the best weapons in the game!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TinCow

Two of the best weapons in the game!

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Yes! Yes they are!!! Now that I know who equips them I don't know how I lived without them :laugh4:

That final mission was a bit of a shocker, but now I can see a clear use for the Mind-shield I had been ignoring.

Life with the carapace armour feels good lol
I assaulted the alien base with the normal one, succeeded, but boy that was tough, never played so defensively XD

LOL, on my last mission in current campaign I stunned a muton beserker and an outsider, but forgot I still had 3 days till the containment was built.

And my new best approach to getting soldiers dead: having one them get PSI'd and shoot up the rest of the team while I mess about trying to stun an Ethereal.

My best death: I got so used to having titan armoured squaddies I forgot my starting rookies' armour is useless, I started a new game, made my team stand out in the open and-
*PSSHH*
~:eek:


...It's kinda embarassing to have 3 of my best men mere 2 hours after taking out the final boss killed by sectoids and thin men.

A more complete tech-tree:

Attachment 7463

Much thanks to xdude whoever he/she/it happens to be :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

A more complete tech-tree:

Attachment 7463

Much thanks to xdude whoever he/she/it happens to be :)

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Looking at the full tech tree i'm wondering how effective a full rush to light plasma would be that skipped lasers entirely. I spent a LOT of time slogging through laser tech in my current game, but if I focused on containment right out of the gate and gave half the squad arc throwers, stocking up on Light Plasma Rifles wouldn't be that hard. It would just require clever tactics and a bit of RNG luck. Hm. This demands some experimenting on my next play through!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Monk

Looking at the full tech tree i'm wondering how effective a full rush to light plasma would be that skipped lasers entirely. I spent a LOT of time slogging through laser tech in my current game, but if I focused on containment right out of the gate and gave half the squad arc throwers, stocking up on Light Plasma Rifles wouldn't be that hard. It would just require clever tactics and a bit of RNG luck. Hm. This demands some experimenting on my next play through!

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I've done that on Normal. You miss the lasers a little bit, esp for your sniper. You save time and more importantly resources "skipping ahead". On Normal I can't see bothering with lasers, it might not work on higher difficulty.

in Normal you can easily skip right passed lasers

in Classic you cant afford to wait

All enemies except Sectoids have ramped up health and accuracy - you need them dead NOW - and your soldiers have reduced accuracy bullet weapons just wont cut it after the first month

Similarly in Normal you never need to use anything but light plasma rifles (for the +10 aim buff) but in classic as soon as the trooper has leveled enough not to need the bonus (captain and up in my experience) they should swap to a full plasma rifle for the extra damage (elite mutons have 14 health and come in groups of 2 or 3)

From my own experience Normal is cake walk - Classic is a true challange

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sir Moody

From my own experience Normal is cake walk - Classic is a true challange

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It is startling just how much of a difference there is. The numbers on my save games tell me that I tried Classic Ironman 37 times, with probably only about 5 of those going beyond mission 2, and only two beyond month one. In every case I lost important soldiers when I could not afford to do so, to the extent that I didn't think it worth continuing.

For attempt 38, I did Normal Ironman. I'm now many months into this game, my first on Normal Ironman, and have only lost 3 soldiers, all rookies, and have multiple Colonels. Satellites everywhere with terror levels low, and only lost two countries early on. Half the missions I go on no one even gets hit. I've gotten myself into serious trouble which, on Classic, would almost certainly have led to 3+ deaths, and emerged without any casualties. Indeed, of my 3 deaths, 2 occurred on a single mission when nearly all of my vets were wounded, forcing me to assault a landed UFO with a veteran sniper and 4 rookies. I finished the alien base assault mission almost effortlessly.

It's kind of amazing that I can do this well this easily on Normal Ironman, but can barely get off the ground on Classic Ironman.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TinCow

It's kind of amazing that I can do this well this easily on Normal Ironman, but can barely get off the ground on Classic Ironman.

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Agreed. I really think there needs to be a difficulty between classic and normal, something like "Normal+" or "Advanced" difficulty. Not quite Classic but not quite normal either.


Just got back from the UFO raid from hell. 3 sectoid commanders, 3 elites, 1 berserker and 2 mutons. I was feeling pretty cocky so I had rotated in two rookies to help clear it, boy was that a mistake. Had to gun one down because it was mind controlled (and I couldnt get a shot on the commander) and the other got turned into paste by a Berzerker. Poor rookies :no:

don't mourn them - that is what they are for :laugh4:

seriously however you should rotate rookies into your ranks early on to build up a solid core of troops - later it really isn't possible since they will panic CONSTANTLY

if you spend the first few months rotating in rookies you should be able to take a few hard knocks and be able to replace losses without having to fall back on rookies

on my own campaign - classic of course (I got bored with the Normal one so never finished it) - I am now able to start the final mission - its November and I only lost 9 men - only 2 higher than captain (a major and a captain - the major (my sniper) died in what I like to call the "mission from hell" - an abduction which saw me facing 9 Mutons and a Berserker ... at once - frankly I am amazed he was my only loss)

playing classic takes a completely different mindset - in normal you can easily push forwards and rarely have to stop - in classic you have to play a LOT more defensively - often you move a single unit forwards to the limmit of his first move - spot enemies and then retreat and move the rest of the unit into "crossfire" positions where they over watch - if done correctly the enemy will not see any of your men and thus will charge after you - right into the waiting crossfire

there is no feeling worse in classic than rushing a soldier forwards only to expose a Sectopod... those guys are just EVIL

Yeah, retreating to strong defensive positions is the key tactic on classic and impossible. You are often faced with 2 or more groups of aliens activating at the same time and you need all the help you can get.

This is made much easier when you get ghost armour. TBH, I think ghost armour is a little too good, even without the actual ghosting ability it would be a good choice: +6 to HP, high manoeuvrability (increased range plus grapple), +20 to defence (equivalent to being in half cover even in the open, full cover when in half). Then you have the ghosting itself: the ability to freely scout the battlefield, discovering alien positions without them triggering, ability to pull back from a fight with ease, and of course +100 to critical chance when firing from ghost. Which is really the icing on the cake. I often use it just to guarantee a kill: even sectopods can be taken down in one turn by one assault rapid firing their alloy cannon from ghost at point blank range.

The only drawbacks are 4 less HP than titan and it doesn't have the resistance to flame and poison. And the expense. But resources are usually easier to come by later in the game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sir Moody

don't mourn them - that is what they are for :laugh4:

seriously however you should rotate rookies into your ranks early on to build up a solid core of troops - later it really isn't possible since they will panic CONSTANTLY

if you spend the first few months rotating in rookies you should be able to take a few hard knocks and be able to replace losses without having to fall back on rookies

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Yeah I think I really messed up, that's been my one blunder on this go. I've got about 10 really good vets but I'm one bad mission away from being in a really tough spot. Rookies just don't have the ability to go face to face with Mind Control in the way I hoped. I should have rotated in many more rookies around June (i'm in November now, classic) instead of focusing on my A squad.

Quote:

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there is no feeling worse in classic than rushing a soldier forwards only to expose a Sectopod... those guys are just EVIL

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I haven't had a terrible moment with Sectopods yet as I've been extremely careful (and lucky) when encountering them. I always roll with 2 heavies with HEAT rounds, suppression, mayhem and Dangerzone. If they see a Sectopod it's time to bulletstorm that :daisy: into oblivion. ~D