XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Strategy Game - Developed by Firaxis

I thought I was doing well until the aliens "turned up the heat" a bit after about 3 months. My entire squad of crack veterans, including a Captain and three Sergeants were slaughtered. Time for Game 2, as I've clearly made some mistakes.

One thing that annoys me a bit - and I stress a bit - is that the requirements for certain research and technology items is not clear. Maybe this is a case of me not RTFMing. I managed to capture a plasma rifle and spent almost three weeks researching it so I could build my own, bypassing the beam weapon option. I completed the research, only to discover I was short about 10 engineers and couldn't manufacture any of them. This put me at a big disadvantage firepower-wise.

Boudreaux wrote:

I managed to capture a plasma rifle and spent almost three weeks researching it so I could build my own, bypassing the beam weapon option. I completed the research, only to discover I was short about 10 engineers and couldn't manufacture any of them. This put me at a big disadvantage firepower-wise.

I was facing a similar lack of information problem. Wondering if I want to spend my scant resources on a laser rifle. For the life of me, I could not figure out how much damage it is supposed to be doing, without actually building one.

Moon

After I typed it, I realised only the last option wasn't available to me. I understand there are limitations on weapons and that you can get perks that modify things, but, again as a first impression, it really stunts the kind of tactics I want to use. But, hey, I trust that the designers had compelling reasons to do it like that.

MannishBoy wrote:
muttonchop wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
Tkyl wrote:

Did you by chance hit them with an explosion after you stunned them? If so, they ended up dying before the mission ended.

Nope. Just walked up and zapped them.

Was the mission a success? I had to abort one mission and it left my stunned aliens behind.

I got an excellent and a good on it, but failed to save the VIP. So I guess I failed? But I still made it back to evacuate with everybody alive.

Might test that theory and run it again and see.

Yep, this time I saved the VIP and it brought the aliens back to base.

MoonDragon wrote:
Boudreaux wrote:

I managed to capture a plasma rifle and spent almost three weeks researching it so I could build my own, bypassing the beam weapon option. I completed the research, only to discover I was short about 10 engineers and couldn't manufacture any of them. This put me at a big disadvantage firepower-wise.

I was facing a similar lack of information problem. Wondering if I want to spend my scant resources on a laser rifle. For the life of me, I could not figure out how much damage it is supposed to be doing, without actually building one.

Laser rifles are much easier to build and research. I'd highly recommend getting them, I'd consider them one of the most important items for my squad so far.

MoonDragon wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:

attack and move once.

Normally, you can do all these things except the last one. If you attack on your first half-turn, you can no longer move.

heavies (I think) can take a perk that lets them shoot again if they shot during the first half-turn.

That perk allows heavies to shoot and move. Or shoot and reload. Very useful skill.

Its a pretty game, and fun, but as I expected its not X-Com. Lack of troops (4/6 man fireteam? dinky), lack of secondaries, inability to exchange gear on the field, the compromises of the action system (instead of a TU system), etc, etc. It was talked to death earlier in this thread, so I won't keep kicking the horse's corpse (managed to stay out of it before, don't feel the need to get in to it now).

The maps feel cramped compared to the original X-Com, seems like every time I turn around I'm running into the edge of the map. This leaves me feeling like I'm being funneled, and removes the ability to effectively flank and maneuver. Much the same way a lot of modern FPS games have very narrow and small maps. Of course, with so few troops, it removes any squad level tactics, reducing you to fireteam level tactics at best.

I do so love the way the game lays out exactly how far you can move or dash, very clean and helpful. Its a good interface, despite the usual limitations imposed by console requirements.

Good game, certainly wouldn't tell anyone not to get it, but I'm already thinking of going back to Borderlands 2 to play through the DLC, and that's not a good sign given the hundreds of hours I sank into the original 3 X-Com games.

Thanks, Tkyl!

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A4zAsgzCEAAzNh9.jpg)

1Dgaf wrote:
Robear wrote:

Idgaf, on the pc version, I can make someone's first move, then go on to other characters and come back to finish up later. I don't know if that is in the 360 final version, but it is in the pc one.

Thanks Robear. I now realise it's because shooting/attack stops you being able to move. That's annoying. Thinking about Ravenloft, for example, I'm pretty sure you could move once and attack, move twice, or attack and move once. Without playing more of Xcom, I prefer that way of doing things.

It is.

I was pretty worried after the demo, frankly, but I have to admit I'm loving the game so far! One thing keeps bugging me though - is there any way to stop the "zoom" level from changing when I switch soldiers? Minor quibble, but why won't the game just let me pick a zoom level and stay there until I want to change it?? Am I just missing something?

Boudreaux wrote:

I thought I was doing well until the aliens "turned up the heat" a bit after about 3 months. My entire squad of crack veterans, including a Captain and three Sergeants were slaughtered. Time for Game 2, as I've clearly made some mistakes.

One thing that annoys me a bit - and I stress a bit - is that the requirements for certain research and technology items is not clear. Maybe this is a case of me not RTFMing. I managed to capture a plasma rifle and spent almost three weeks researching it so I could build my own, bypassing the beam weapon option. I completed the research, only to discover I was short about 10 engineers and couldn't manufacture any of them. This put me at a big disadvantage firepower-wise.

There really isn't a manual...yet. The one they direct u to, is the same small 'reference' card that comes with game.

Crockpot wrote:
oMonarca wrote:
troubleshot wrote:

Where did I hear that all your units speak with an American accent, regardless of their country of origin? Also thought I heard someone say there were international voices recorded for the game... Conflicting points. Can anyone clear this up, I'm hoping we get lots of accents.

Only played the demo, but if nothing changed, then unfortunately everybody speaks and sounds 'merican, regardless of country of origin. It's the future, and the effects of globalization are hard felt everywhere, it seems.

It's so weird, given it's Firaxis we're talking about. They voiced dead languages for Civ V, for chrissake.

I'm seriously not ragging on you guys but They made a damn fine game If this is the thing you choose to complain about. Just a observation!

Anyways I'll join the Greek chorus and say this game is really awesome so far. Really great year for the PC and turn base games.

As commander I decided to recurit only the best. I recruited the legends among us like Hulk Hogan, Steve Urkal, Dean Cain, and Bruce Lee. Earth is in good hands.

I'm certainly not complaining, just something I would like..

Me neither. Just one of the usual quirky, douchey observations of mine.

Can't seem to shake this thread off.

It's not a docuehbaggy observation. It's fair comment given the premise of the game and the inclusion of national flags and country-appropriate names.

I'm having an amazing time with this game, but I've been hit three times now with the thing where the game just stops accepting input for a random period of time. It lasted about 45 seconds once, a couple of minutes another time, and about fifteen seconds the last time. Really weird.

So has anyone who pre-ordered through Greenmangaming got their copy of Civ 5?

At first I was unhappy with the game. But after a bit of time with it, I thought of what Rob Zacny said and started treating this more like a board game with clear mechanics and less of a simulation like Silent Storm. I'm much happier now to have a board game that I can play all the time and its super fun.

I still want a proper update with the awesome depth that Silent Storm brought.

Once the sniper gets going, it's real hard to keep him from killing everything on the map. Almost seems overpowered compared to all the other redshirt bastards.

BlackSabre wrote:

So has anyone who pre-ordered through Greenmangaming got their copy of Civ 5?

Yeah, I just checked and mine is appearing in my account now. Select "Keys" and scroll down to the entry XCOM- Enemy Unknown. Underneath that I have two keys, one for XCOM and one for Civ V. I think it shows up there instead of as a separate game in "My Games" to prevent past customers who owned Civ V from being screwed over by the existing limitation in GMG's system that prevents you from owning two copies of the same game.

EDIT: On a related note, my $10 credit is showing up as well. Does anyone know if the credit has an expiration date? I didn't see one on the site.

Is squad sight affected by cover? I had a SS shot hrough a window and through a wall. 35%'to hit. I removed the wall and, IIRC, still had 35% to hit.

Is it even SS If you can see the enemy?

Jasonofindy wrote:
BlackSabre wrote:

So has anyone who pre-ordered through Greenmangaming got their copy of Civ 5?

Yeah, I just checked and mine is appearing in my account now. Select "Keys" and scroll down to the entry XCOM- Enemy Unknown. Underneath that I have two keys, one for XCOM and one for Civ V. I think it shows up there instead of as a separate game in "My Games" to prevent past customers who owned Civ V from being screwed over by the existing limitation in GMG's system that prevents you from owning two copies of the same game.

EDIT: On a related note, my $10 credit is showing up as well. Does anyone know if the credit has an expiration date? I didn't see one on the site.

I checked there just then and it's only got the xcom key. I'll give it some time. Maybe because it isn't unlocked yet? Not sure.

I'm having some trouble choosing the appropriate difficulty setting. Normal has little tension, and everyone dies on classic. I need to stick with classic I guess but as th enemies ramp up I'm worried it'll get too frustrating.

BlackSabre wrote:

I checked there just then and it's only got the xcom key. I'll give it some time. Maybe because it isn't unlocked yet? Not sure.

Probably is, they don't want you to cancel and keep the $10 credit. They hit the NA accounts late last night I think.

I assume this credit just stays on the account like the referral bonuses did, so it won't expire. But that's just my assumption.

$10 credit? Wait, what?

Is anyone having trouble with audio skipping on the Playstation 3 version? It seems to happen quite a lot - skips in the music and character comments during missions.

crunchy wrote:

I'm having some trouble choosing the appropriate difficulty setting. Normal has little tension, and everyone dies on classic. I need to stick with classic I guess but as the enemies ramp up I'm worried it'll get too frustrating.

I suspect Classic is made extra difficult by the fact that all of your strategic resources - credits, materials, scientists, and engineers - are very limited. I've run into the problem of having lots of great new equipment I've researched, but I can't manufacture any of it because either I don't have enough engineers, or money, or materials. I'm playing on Classic and I'll admit I'm doing a lot of reloads during missions. I'm also finding the various trained abilities of the soldier types to be hugely important and useful. My Assault guys' Run and Gun ability has saved my bacon more than once.

Going back to one of my earlier posts, I also noticed a loading screen tip that said something to the effect of "Certain advanced technologies require a minimum number of engineers to manufacture - plan accordingly." THAT ticked me off. How can I "plan accordingly" if you don't tell me how many engineers I need until I've spent two weeks researching the tech?

BlackSabre wrote:

$10 credit? Wait, what?

GMG added a $10 account credit for all orders several days ago. Can't find the original post where they announced it, but here's a forum thread.

Keithustus wrote:
Vega wrote:

I'm having a lot problems trying to remap keys. It seems to not like me wanting to change camera controls and the weapon swap settings. It looks like they take on the screen, but after Save/Exit they don't work ingame and going back into the settings those entries are blank. Set them again, Save/Exit, go back to settings and they're blank.

I also can't remap keys. I want to swap T/G to be up/down a floor, and mouse wheel up/down to be zoom. Whenever I make the changes in the config, it shows that they are remapped, but as soon as I save and leave the options, it reverts to default.

So, if anyone else is having problems remapping their keys I figured out how to remap them manually in the config files.

First, if you all ready tried to remap the keys and it's not saving your settings, go into the game settings and reset them to the default**. The file you want is called "XComInput.ini" and it's under your \Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Config\ folder. Open it in Notepad and look for the section called [XComGame.XComTacticalInput] and all the key mappings are under it. There's no descriptions for the keys so if you're going to be changing a bunch of them make sure you make a list first and know what you want to change. Only change the part at the very beginning that says Name="Key" to switch things around. And be sure you don't accidentally have any duplicates.

**The reason you need to reset the settings first is I think the problem (this is just me guessing) is that when you remap a key1 to be key2 that all ready exists it actually removes the entire entry for key1 from the file. So then when you try to map key1 to be something else, it's entry doesn't exist in the file so it's not saving it. So if you don't reset back to the default settings then you might have missing lines your file when go to manually fix it.

Overwatch is your friend.

If and when Captain Jake "Snake" Doon dies I may shed a tear. I will admit that snipers seem to be a tad bit overpowered when they go "in the zone" but I'm not complaining as he has saved his squad numerous times.

MannishBoy wrote:
BlackSabre wrote:

$10 credit? Wait, what?

GMG added a $10 account credit for all orders several days ago. Can't find the original post where they announced it, but here's a forum thread.

Thanks for that. It looks like the $10 credit is for NA only, which doesn't bother me as internationally we got a better price. But anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread. Back to waiting for xcom to unlock... 2 more days...

Game just crashed right in the middle of a monstrously huge downed UFO level. I'd been in it for over an hour and killed like twenty aliens. Not even sure I want to see how much progress I lost.

*Ironman mode saves the day. It autosaved on the turn just before the game crashed