Who's preordering X-COM?

[alphasigmookie]

What do you guys do for squad selection strategy? Depending on the difficulty of the mission I like to send between 1 and 3 low level guys on every mission. This provides 2 benefits. One I have a steady flow of guys leveling up, and two it provides me some fodder to use as scouts while my vets stay further back in support. If I lose a rookie oh well, for $10 I'll have a new one on the way, but if he makes it through he's usually got a kill or two and a promotion on the way. It also helps ensure that if my squad does get wiped out that I only lose a couple of my more advanced soldiers.

What do you guys think?

 

[darkewaffle]

Played the demo last night, seems pretty promising and it's been ages since I've had a good SRPG. May wait to see if it goes on sale this winter though.

 

[thespyder]

I am not really sure that it would qualify as an SRPG. Because your soldiers really get put through the meat grinder. It is more of a strategic simulation.

 

[PowerYoga]

What do you guys do for squad selection strategy? Depending on the difficulty of the mission I like to send between 1 and 3 low level guys on every mission. This provides 2 benefits. One I have a steady flow of guys leveling up, and two it provides me some fodder to use as scouts while my vets stay further back in support. If I lose a rookie oh well, for $10 I'll have a new one on the way, but if he makes it through he's usually got a kill or two and a promotion on the way. It also helps ensure that if my squad does get wiped out that I only lose a couple of my more advanced soldiers.

What do you guys think?

In the beginning I like to lvl up my squaddies evenly, so that there's a better chance that one of your desired guys can be a psy soldier later. You can swap out armor easily enough and it automatically unequips the gear too.

In the beginning I like to get snipers leveled up fast so they get squad sight. Then the composition of:

1 assault, 2 heavies, 1 support and 2 snipers.

Heavies with bullet storm and suppression + rockets, assault to flush and run-gun and snipers to pick off anything anybody sees. Support does scouting or healing, one or the other. On some city maps or big alien landings I'll bring 2 supports or 2 assaults, the 2nd heavy is often interchangeable depending on your squad rotation.

Later on you need all veterans, rookies/squaddies can't hit jack diddily squat even with a scope and a LPR.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Overall I'm satisfied and the perma-death of Ironman mode is oh so heart-wrenching! Learned the hard way last night that when using cars for cover they can explode! Lost two of my favorite veterans on like the 6th or 7th mission when the car they were hiding behind blew up in a blaze of fiery death! I didn't notice it was on fire until the end of my turn and both guys had used all their movement and didn't think about the fact that it could explode! Painful lesson payed for with the life of my only sniper and best assault class.

Cars always give you one turn of warning before exploding. If they're on fire, they will explode when you end your turn. The thing that sucks is when you dash to a car and reaction fire hits the car so you're stuck there : (

 

[Daverino]

What do you guys do for squad selection strategy? Depending on the difficulty of the mission I like to send between 1 and 3 low level guys on every mission. This provides 2 benefits. One I have a steady flow of guys leveling up, and two it provides me some fodder to use as scouts while my vets stay further back in support. If I lose a rookie oh well, for $10 I'll have a new one on the way, but if he makes it through he's usually got a kill or two and a promotion on the way. It also helps ensure that if my squad does get wiped out that I only lose a couple of my more advanced soldiers.

What do you guys think?

Right now, I roll with 1 heavy, 1 assault, 1 sniper, 2 support (one medic, one arc), and a rookie that is a backup medic.

 

[surfsatwerk]

What do you guys do for squad selection strategy? Depending on the difficulty of the mission I like to send between 1 and 3 low level guys on every mission. This provides 2 benefits. One I have a steady flow of guys leveling up, and two it provides me some fodder to use as scouts while my vets stay further back in support. If I lose a rookie oh well, for $10 I'll have a new one on the way, but if he makes it through he's usually got a kill or two and a promotion on the way. It also helps ensure that if my squad does get wiped out that I only lose a couple of my more advanced soldiers.

What do you guys think?

4 assault, 1 medic, 1 sniper.

 

[tydas]

For me, its 2 assault, 2 support, sniper and heavy. I'm still torn on weather to go defense or attack? I've got the upgraded armor and just got plasma rifle. I rarely use grenades or rocket launcher.

Question on abilities..do you go for the defenisve abilites or offensive?i.e tatical sense or aggression?

 

[surfsatwerk]

Heavies have never impressed me. They reliably can't hit the broadside of a barn.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Holotargeting is useful. I also enjoy using rockets to take out 3 aliens at once. I will say their percentages suck though, but somehow I hit all those 40-60% shots more often than I should.

 

[Daverino]

Heavies have never impressed me. They reliably can't hit the broadside of a barn.

I like that they can straight up fire twice in pitched combat. Fire and move. Fire, kill, and then overwatch. Fire and then reload. Fire and suppress.

Heat rounds are invaluable against cyberdisks. Double damage? Sign me up.

Rockets are the best way to eliminate cover now that free fire is gone. I once had a fight where I had my squad in a building on one side of the street and four Mutons in the building across the street. Used my Heavy first and took out the whole storefront with a rocket. Sniper, assaults and supports were able to light them up with them all out of cover. They went down hard.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I like that they can straight up fire twice in pitched combat. Fire and move. Fire, kill, and then overwatch. Fire and then reload. Fire and suppress.

Heat rounds are invaluable against cyberdisks. Double damage? Sign me up.

Rockets are the best way to eliminate cover now that free fire is gone. I once had a fight where I had my squad in a building on one side of the street and four Mutons in the building across the street. Used my Heavy first and took out the whole storefront with a rocket. Sniper, assaults and supports were able to light them up with them all out of cover. They went down hard.

I have my medic lob a grenado then assault swarm the building, run and gun all the way. Alloy cannon to the face! Granted this method tends to keep the hospital fully stocked with gravely wounded soldiers.

Edit: It took me several mission to remember that exploding cyberdisks are a hazard in shotgun to face combat.

 

[thespyder]

Rockets are the best way to eliminate cover now that free fire is gone. I once had a fight where I had my squad in a building on one side of the street and four Mutons in the building across the street. Used my Heavy first and took out the whole storefront with a rocket. Sniper, assaults and supports were able to light them up with them all out of cover. They went down hard.

Yeah, I am not liking that I can't target someone's cover. I think that is a bit of a problem. And a bit of an oversight on the part of the designers. You should be able to take away their cover with something other than a rocket. IMHO.

 

[Howard]

Yeah, I am not liking that I can't target someone's cover. I think that is a bit of a problem. And a bit of an oversight on the part of the designers. You should be able to take away their cover with something other than a rocket. IMHO.

Perhaps it was an intentional change. Maybe they didn't want people to eschew heavies altogether, so by forcing rocket usage they artificially create the need for all classes.

I do remember that walls could be opened with heavy plasmas.

 

[thespyder]

Perhaps it was an intentional change. Maybe they didn't want people to eschew heavies altogether, so by forcing rocket usage they artificially create the need for all classes.

I do remember that walls could be opened with heavy plasmas.

Could be. Seems kind of ham-Fisted to do it that way, but yeah. Could be.

 

[alphasigmookie]

Perhaps it was an intentional change. Maybe they didn't want people to eschew heavies altogether, so by forcing rocket usage they artificially create the need for all classes.

I do remember that walls could be opened with heavy plasmas.

Yeah my guess is it hurt the game mechanic too much. Basically all you'd have to do is have the first guy target the cover and everyone else take him out. Wash, rinse, repeat. It would completely negate 90% of the tactics and strategy in the game. Sure you can use the rocket launcher for the same purpose, but you only get one shot per Heavy early in the game and there are consequences in terms of lost resources by doing so.

 

[thespyder]

Yeah my guess is it hurt the game mechanic too much. Basically all you'd have to do is have the first guy target the cover and everyone else take him out. Wash, rinse, repeat. It would completely negate 90% of the tactics and strategy in the game. Sure you can use the rocket launcher for the same purpose, but you only get one shot per Heavy early in the game and there are consequences in terms of lost resources by doing so.

Not necessarily. All you would need to do would be to give the cover a damage rating based on it's material. So, you could blow away a wooden crate easily enough, but if you tried to destroy a car or something it would take maybe more shots than would be worth it. As for example.

it 'Could be' but I am more inclined to believe that either they never thought about it or that they wanted to add value to something like the heavy.

 

[Daverino]

Yeah my guess is it hurt the game mechanic too much. Basically all you'd have to do is have the first guy target the cover and everyone else take him out. Wash, rinse, repeat. It would completely negate 90% of the tactics and strategy in the game. Sure you can use the rocket launcher for the same purpose, but you only get one shot per Heavy early in the game and there are consequences in terms of lost resources by doing so.

Well, you can blow up cover when missing a target. But you need to see them to shoot them, unlike the previous iteration of X-COM. Perhaps it could be an trait in an expansion for support? Target cover? Would have a similar impact as flush, I think.

 

[zanemoseley]

So I just picked this up and am downloading it now. For a first time player what do you reccomend, normal with iron man?

 

[thespyder]

Definitely try normal first. Iron Man means you get one shot and if you die, you die. Normal lets you at least get in and try things. if you mess up, you can always go back to a previous save.

and if you find it too easy, then you can switch to Iron Man. Just my two cents.

 

[sactoking]

In one of the Dev interviews they asked about targetable, destructible cover and the answer was that it had been considered but was imbalanced.

 

[QuantumPion]

If you could specifically target cover it would be OP since one guy could shoot the cover than the next kill the alien. As it is now though you can usually blow up cover by suppressing a target, or sometimes by shooting & missing.

 

[thespyder]

I encountered my first bug today. I was up on the second level of my first downed large ship. Every time the camera changed, say to go to another soldier, it would draw back above the ceiling and block my view. So I spent most of the mission looking at ceiling and wire frames of my soldiers.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

still undecided...

Buy it.

Wait for the next couple bug fixes if you want to. (There's an issue with SHIVs that pisses me off) but buy it.

 

[KaOTiK]

Buy it.

Wait for the next couple bug fixes if you want to. (There's an issue with SHIVs that pisses me off) but buy it.

What is the issue with the SHIV's? Finally built my first one (Hover with plasma cannon) and used it a few times but haven't noticed anything weird about it yet.