Who's preordering X-COM?

[kevinsbane]

Yea, the first things you want to spend money on is workshops and uplinks. Don't neglect your workshops and grab engineers whenever you can. (without causing countries to defect of course)

I recently downed an overseer in classic. I took 3 supports because I figured I would catch me an ethereal. A sgt and a cpt stunner and a colonel medic who has mind control, a colonel sniper with mind control, a colonel heavy suppressor with 2 rockets and a low rank heavy who just got shredder rockets.

Everyone has titan armor and plasma weapons.

Killed 3 or so groups of mutons outside, they were mixed, some elites and berzerkers and normals. Made it inside and it was quiet, too quiet. a surviving wounded muton pops around a corner and reaction fire takes him out, and several walls. inside are an ethereal, 3 elite mutons, a few heavy floaters and 2 sectopod tanks of doom. It didn't go so well, those sectopods hurt, and they can fire their main weapon twice, and always seem to be able to make a reaction shot with their little plasma turret.

My first battle against Sectopods in Classic Ironman went sort of like this...

Reveal 2 drones flying around inside ship. Ok, let me go shoot one. "MISS!" hit the wall... blow away the wall... reveal Ethereal. OSHI----- Turn ends because I have no moves left... Ethereal, for some reason, does nothing!! BUT A WILD SECTOPOD APPEARS! Right behind my colonel assault OSHI------- Sectopod fires his MASSIVE BEAM OF DEATH AT POINT BLANK RANGE AND .... misses?!?!? I have a new lease on life!!

Double tap sniper takes down Mr. Ethereal in two hits! Booyah! Assault Crits the sectopod for 16 dmg! Booyah! HEAT ammo heavy blows up sectopod in 1 hit! Booyah!! Things are going right! Walk over to get a better shot at the drone... A sectopod appears... again... OSHI--- I'm so screwed. Turn ends.... Sectopod walks around to my support... flanks it... fires beam of DOOM at point blank range for the second time and.... misses?!?!? Again??!?

My turn baby! Eat point blank assault! Eat HEAT ammo! Crap, 2 hp left on sectopod... half my squad is in the open... one shot left, 80%... Please hit please hit please hit... MISS! OSHI----- Sectopod's turn... first shot - crit! 18 dmg! Sectopod KILLS ITSELF (and critically wounds my heavy in the process) That's XCOM BABY!

It's moments like that where you are so screwed and yet you somehow manage to pull it off without any

 

[acheron]

Finally finished my normal/ironman game the other day. Temple Ship wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I prepared a bunch beforehand.

Spoiler

Two sectopods almost ruined my day, but using the Volunteer for psionic rift helped a lot.

Started a new one at the same difficulty, if it goes ok I'll try classic. Everyone says it's a huge jump up from normal to classic, but I'll give it a shot.

 

[QuantumPion]

Finally finished my normal/ironman game the other day. Temple Ship wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I prepared a bunch beforehand.

Spoiler

Two sectopods almost ruined my day, but using the Volunteer for psionic rift helped a lot.

Started a new one at the same difficulty, if it goes ok I'll try classic. Everyone says it's a huge jump up from normal to classic, but I'll give it a shot.

Classic is way way harder than normal. Normal is a cakewalk. Classic took me about a dozen tries to get past the first mission. The beginning of the game is the hardest part, so going from end-game normal to beginning-of-game classic, you're in for a huge shock and difficulty cliff dive. D:

 

[nanobreath]

Classic is way way harder than normal. Normal is a cakewalk. Classic took me about a dozen tries to get past the first mission. The beginning of the game is the hardest part, so going from end-game normal to beginning-of-game classic, you're in for a huge shock and difficulty cliff dive. D:

This is always my problem with games like this with starting a new game and being so wimpy after being so powerful. I have to give the game a small break before I can start over because of this. All those special abilities and upgraded weapons and armor etc. can really cover up for a small mistake. Suddenly not having them makes things suck.

 

[Baked]

Holy crap, I'm playing Classic and getting my ass handed to me by the aliens. You can't rush the missions at all, it's all baby steps.

 

[acheron]

DLC was announced, and unfortunately it doesn't sound good. I agree with this:

Sure, this content will be interesting to play through at least a few times, but this is clearly not designed with replayability in mind. Where I'd hoped XCOM would expand in breadth by adding more content that would randomly occur in the campaign, such as extra maps, technologies, and aliens, this expands it as a more linear game with an event that will become available in the same way, each and every time I play.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/xcom-enemy-unknown/1226472p1.html

Good news though is that a bugfix patch is on the way soon.

 

[Ganeedi]

What maps do you guys hate the most?

I hate the goddamn fountain map - if you work your way up the sides, the aliens take the middle which is elevated and has good cover. If you take the middle, aliens pop on all sides and you get flanked. Got wiped on this damn map last night (escort mission).

The easiest for me, are the linear bridge/elevated road maps. You move slow and pop one or two groups at a time. Had a terror mission on classic on one of the bridge maps, think i only lost like 3 civies somehow.

 

[QuantumPion]

What maps do you guys hate the most?

I hate the goddamn fountain map - if you work your way up the sides, the aliens take the middle which is elevated and has good cover. If you take the middle, aliens pop on all sides and you get flanked. Got wiped on this damn map last night (escort mission).

The easiest for me, are the linear bridge/elevated road maps. You move slow and pop one or two groups at a time. Had a terror mission on classic on one of the bridge maps, think i only lost like 3 civies somehow.

The bridges are the hardest maps by far - there is no high cover period. Winning is based purely on luck.

For the fountain you want to go up the middle and one of the sides, that way you can deal with the aliens in either direction without getting flanked.

 

[thespyder]

What maps do you guys hate the most?

I hate the goddamn fountain map - if you work your way up the sides, the aliens take the middle which is elevated and has good cover. If you take the middle, aliens pop on all sides and you get flanked. Got wiped on this damn map last night (escort mission).

The easiest for me, are the linear bridge/elevated road maps. You move slow and pop one or two groups at a time. Had a terror mission on classic on one of the bridge maps, think i only lost like 3 civies somehow.

Currently, I hate the double decker ships the most. This is primarily due to the horrible programming that causes the ceiling to continually appear and means that the computer doesn't know that you don't want to 'Dash' all the way across the screen and then back to get to the square next to you, but down one level. And the fact that walls disappear and reappear unaccountably when trying to figure out where to go next.

Anything else is merely tactics. But That is just really horrible coding. I mean if the original could handle 4-5 level buildings with no problems, you would think that they could have handled two easily in this version.

 

[kevinsbane]

I hate the abducter ship. That one has the worst camera problems of any ship. Every time you're inside, you have to scroll up and down in order to get the right level to see through the roof of the UFO. And the walkways are narrow enough that changing the camera angle only helps moderately.

The supply ship is ok although sometimes I see clipping problems (the UFOs fly through ceilings) but that hasn't been a problem... they fly straight into overwatching snipers and heavys

 

[thespyder]

I hate the abducter ship. That one has the worst camera problems of any ship. Every time you're inside, you have to scroll up and down in order to get the right level to see through the roof of the UFO. And the walkways are narrow enough that changing the camera angle only helps moderately.

The supply ship is ok although sometimes I see clipping problems (the UFOs fly through ceilings) but that hasn't been a problem... they fly straight into overwatching snipers and heavys

yeah, I have had some problems with snipers as well. Even with that feat that allows them to snipe any alien in any soldier's sites. Yet still, there are points where someone is in clear view of the sniper and still no shot.

Also, has anyone else seen the 1% bug? What happens is, if you click on the (red or Yellow) alien head in the lower right hand corner, it will sometimes register 1% to hit. yet if you actually go into fire mode it adjusts. Sometimes this is because you moved and the % never updated. But other times no movement. ???

 

[Daverino]

The bridges are the hardest maps by far - there is no high cover period. Winning is based purely on luck.

For the fountain you want to go up the middle and one of the sides, that way you can deal with the aliens in either direction without getting flanked.

Really?

Semis, SUVs and pick-up trucks all offer high cover.

 

[Martimus]

I hate the abducter ship. That one has the worst camera problems of any ship. Every time you're inside, you have to scroll up and down in order to get the right level to see through the roof of the UFO. And the walkways are narrow enough that changing the camera angle only helps moderately.

The supply ship is ok although sometimes I see clipping problems (the UFOs fly through ceilings) but that hasn't been a problem... they fly straight into overwatching snipers and heavys

I lost my Psi Support Colonel due to camera problems. I thought I was running him behind cover, but instead he took an extra step and jumped over the railing into a room of 3 Mutons. That extra step turned a normal move into a dash, so he was a sitting duck.

Luckily I have one other psi in my group, but that was a big loss.

 

[thespyder]

I lost my Psi Support Colonel due to camera problems. I thought I was running him behind cover, but instead he took an extra step and jumped over the railing into a room of 3 Mutons. That extra step turned a normal move into a dash, so he was a sitting duck.

Luckily I have one other psi in my group, but that was a big loss.

This is exactly the kind of issue that I keep having.

 

[Daverino]

Count me in as someone who lost a top soldier to the large UFO ceiling crap. It was almost the same thing as described above. Instead of taking cover besides a door leading into a room full of Mutons he ran through the door and went to the opposite side of the wall.

He died. The guy I rushed to try and save him died. The sole remaining member of my squad was critically injured. Classic Ironman, of course.

I must say the DLC seems like a bit of a ripoff. It seems like an extra set-piece mission, similar to the various council missions, just bigger. I would want an expansion of the game itself: more aliens, more tech, more classes, more skills, more random stuff. I would especially like to see the list of items in the Officer Training School expanded. I want DLC that expands everything about the game from the beginning to the end, rather than just a singular addition.

 

[Blueoak]

DLC Info

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/firaxis-talks-future-xcom-content-slingshot-dlc-announced/

 

[thespyder]

DLC Info

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/firaxis-talks-future-xcom-content-slingshot-dlc-announced/

Yeah, gotta say I am pretty underwhelmed by that article and the news about the DLC. Seems pretty much like a money grab to me. No new aliens. No new weapons or tech. Simply three new missions? What's that, like 2.5 hours of game play? Even if it is 3X that much, that is pretty small to be charging for (IMHO).

I love the game and am very much enjoying it. But it does feel like it suffers from consolitise a bit. And if they start dribbling out DLC like that, I am not going to sign up to be someone's monkey.

 

[QuantumPion]

Really?

Semis, SUVs and pick-up trucks all offer high cover.

For 1 turn, until they blow up. D:

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Yeah, gotta say I am pretty underwhelmed by that article and the news about the DLC. Seems pretty much like a money grab to me. No new aliens. No new weapons or tech. Simply three new missions? What's that, like 2.5 hours of game play? Even if it is 3X that much, that is pretty small to be charging for (IMHO).

I love the game and am very much enjoying it. But it does feel like it suffers from consolitise a bit. And if they start dribbling out DLC like that, I am not going to sign up to be someone's monkey.

Agreed

 

[Iron Wolf]

My first battle against Sectopods in Classic Ironman went sort of like this...

Reveal 2 drones flying around inside ship. Ok, let me go shoot one. "MISS!" hit the wall... blow away the wall... reveal Ethereal. OSHI----- Turn ends because I have no moves left... Ethereal, for some reason, does nothing!! BUT A WILD SECTOPOD APPEARS! Right behind my colonel assault OSHI------- Sectopod fires his MASSIVE BEAM OF DEATH AT POINT BLANK RANGE AND .... misses?!?!? I have a new lease on life!!

Double tap sniper takes down Mr. Ethereal in two hits! Booyah! Assault Crits the sectopod for 16 dmg! Booyah! HEAT ammo heavy blows up sectopod in 1 hit! Booyah!! Things are going right! Walk over to get a better shot at the drone... A sectopod appears... again... OSHI--- I'm so screwed. Turn ends.... Sectopod walks around to my support... flanks it... fires beam of DOOM at point blank range for the second time and.... misses?!?!? Again??!?

My turn baby! Eat point blank assault! Eat HEAT ammo! Crap, 2 hp left on sectopod... half my squad is in the open... one shot left, 80%... Please hit please hit please hit... MISS! OSHI----- Sectopod's turn... first shot - crit! 18 dmg! Sectopod KILLS ITSELF (and critically wounds my heavy in the process) That's XCOM BABY!

It's moments like that where you are so screwed and yet you somehow manage to pull it off without any

My crisis moment in the current campaign (which is near the end now) was fairly early on, when I had just got medium armor and laser weapons for the team. I shot down a ship, and assaulted the crash ship with three veterans and three rookies (the rest of my "A" team was injured).

I was nearing the ship and had a mental lapse. I dashed my veteran assault in close, right in the middle of six mutons. Oh crap, he's dead. The only thing I could do was have my rookies take pot shots at the aliens, and had my support throw a smoke grenade. Then I waited for their turn.

Interestingly, the aliens all but ignored the assault guy in the smoke. One rookie was killed, and the assault and two others were slightly or moderately injured, and that was it. My turn.

I decided discretion was the better part of valor. Thanks to Lightning Reflexes, the assault guy could flee without harm, and everybody else ran back to the Skyranger, with the Mutons hot on our heels. Long story short, the three veterans escaped and the two surviving rookies got left behind. Interestingly, the panic level didn't increase, even though it was a failed mission.

 

[thespyder]

My crisis moment in the current campaign (which is near the end now) was fairly early on, when I had just got medium armor and laser weapons for the team. I shot down a ship, and assaulted the crash ship with three veterans and three rookies (the rest of my "A" team was injured).

I was nearing the ship and had a mental lapse. I dashed my veteran assault in close, right in the middle of six mutons. Oh crap, he's dead. The only thing I could do was have my rookies take pot shots at the aliens, and had my support throw a smoke grenade. Then I waited for their turn.

Interestingly, the aliens all but ignored the assault guy in the smoke. One rookie was killed, and the assault and two others were slightly or moderately injured, and that was it. My turn.

I decided discretion was the better part of valor. Thanks to Lightning Reflexes, the assault guy could flee without harm, and everybody else ran back to the Skyranger, with the Mutons hot on our heels. Long story short, the three veterans escaped and the two surviving rookies got left behind. Interestingly, the panic level didn't increase, even though it was a failed mission.

It's stories like these that really make the game for me. The fact that even when tactics fail, you can sometimes pull it out of your @$$ and survive. Of course, sometimes you pay for your mistakes as well.

 

[Howard]

What's the best way to deal with mind-controlling SCs?

 

[QuantumPion]

What's the best way to deal with mind-controlling SCs?

If you aren't in position to take them all out on the same turn, fall back out of visual range and regroup.

 

[Howard]

If you aren't in position to take them all out on the same turn, fall back out of visual range and regroup.

The problem is it is hard to get out of range of their allies, and it seems like Mind Control behaves as if Squadsight were enabled.

 

[alphasigmookie]

Well that sucked! Bug killed my Normal Ironman game right at the end of the Temple ship! Finished my first turn in the last room with the big bad guy and during enemy turn game crashed. Reloaded and started back at the beginning of the previous turn...free quasi save-spawn, nbd. Well I then proceed to see how far I can get my team into the room before the bad guys show up and in the process a door glitch occurs. I got half my team into the room but may last 3 including my 2 snipers and assault are stuck. The only doorway into the room acts like a closed door (although luckily my snipers can till take squadsite shots at a few guys (note my sniper was also my psi specialist so I lost that too). Manage to take out 2 muton elites and do some damage to the main guy but on next turn lose 2 of my 3 guys in the room to mind control. Use my 3rd guy for LOS and manage to get off a couple more shots from my snipers but on next turn he gets killed... overwatch gets a few pop shots off at etherials but none are killing blows, but overwatch also kills on of my mind controled guys. One survives though so I'm able to use him and my one remaining battle scanner to get in another pop shot or two before he is mind controled again and killed. Now I'm stuck with no LOS into the room and no way to enter and they won't send anyone after me. After 7-8 turns of infinite stalemate I gave up. No way to abort or restart the mission, game over.

I really enjoyed the game and want to play again, but no way I'm starting another game before a significant bug fix patch comes out. Frustrating to put 20-30 hours into a game to have it end like that. Sad too because I really enjoyed the game up to that point despite some of the frustration and bugginess of the cameras angles. Instead of replaying I may have to find a copy of the original and re-play that instead (or maybe Apocalypse, I really liked that one actually).