XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Strategy Game - Developed by Firaxis

fleabagmatt wrote:

Also, wife wants to know what's up with a Dude named Sally.

He's all woman where it counts.

Redwing wrote:

I keep starting Classic Ironman games, and I keep getting squad wipes that make me want to restart. I wish it didn't take me 3-4 hours to get to that point each time though...

Same. On the upside, I am getting steadily better at the first few hours of the game.

MikeSands wrote:
Redwing wrote:

I keep starting Classic Ironman games, and I keep getting squad wipes that make me want to restart. I wish it didn't take me 3-4 hours to get to that point each time though...

Same. On the upside, I am getting steadily better at the first few hours of the game.

As some who has been there, I salute you and your brave fodder.

Know whats even worse? Playing ~ 15 hours in and having it go all pear shaped.

Worse then that, be 20 hours into an otherwise awesome game, and have things start to go to hell, and be left the decision to go forward with the current mission or turn tail and end up in a very bad place.

Last night I was in that position. Too tired to continue, I manged about 6 hours of sleep and then woke up and hard to make my choice.

Can't write about it in detail at the moment.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Also, wife wants to know what's up with a Dude named Sally.

What's more manly than a guy with a woman's name? Any less manly guy wouldn't be able to hack it!

MikeSands wrote:
Redwing wrote:

I keep starting Classic Ironman games, and I keep getting squad wipes that make me want to restart. I wish it didn't take me 3-4 hours to get to that point each time though...

Same. On the upside, I am getting steadily better at the first few hours of the game.

I think the major problem is the cascade effect. Having so few troops means that losing two or three (easily possible on classic) to panic because of poison or whatever is too easy...

The remedy to that is to rid yourself of troops with low "Will". Unfortunately, because troops cost money to recruit rather than being a number free per month (which I think they should be - based on how many countries you have backing the XCOM project) it doesn't make sense to hire and then immediately fire someone (or later on, fire a promoted soldier) if their will is low.

I'm not sure how the Will thing works to be honest. I realise that the random number generator for attacks is "fixed" and saved. So you can reload the same segment and get the same outcome if you do everything in the exact same order - or you can change order and choose to, for example, miss with trooper 3 rather than 2. Mainly, I say this because I'm playing Nironclassic and I've reloaded a turn which had ended badly only to find my troops were all panicking when they did not the first time around.

I have realised that the freebee Officer School when you play on Normal difficulty is a huge bonus. On Classic, you're always having to pick and choose where to spend your money, and it's essential to get a strong economy going, so I can't help but focus on satellites. Not having to worry about building the Officer School is really helpful, and getting a squad of 5-6 early can really help in the tactical battles.

Redwing wrote:

I have realised that the freebee Officer School when you play on Normal difficulty is a huge bonus.

This is probably a bigger handicap on Classic than the +30% crits, IMO. It certainly interacts badly with the latter; if that Thin Man one-shots your Heavy, the difference between four men left standing and three is enormous.

Finished the game this weekend. I was always really aggressive with the Sectoid Commanders and Ethereals, so I never got anyone possessed until literally the last turn of the game. So I got to hear Dr. Vahlens fret about how dangerous and powerful this ability was...right before we beat the aliens. Way to go, Doc.

Any opinions on the multiplayer? I'm guessing that if it were good someone would have mentioned it by now.

pgroce wrote:

Any opinions on the multiplayer? I'm guessing that if it were good someone would have mentioned it by now. :)

I've put 100 hours into the game. Haven't even touched multiplayer. Maybe I should... hmm.

I now have 8 colonel level troopers (half of which are assaults) and a full locker of Titan armor, plasma level weapons, and advanced fighters and have yet to assault the alien base. I figure I want to be fully prepared for the horror that I will encounter, so I am bringing folks up from the minors to train up in the event that I: 1) need a specialist with a different skill set and 2) manage not to have an advanced specialist available due to death or serious injury.

I am probably sandbagging though since I am, at current capability, perfectly able to finish off a cyberdisks and muton elites with one or two shots and sectopods with two or three.

Paleocon wrote:

I now have 8 colonel level troopers (half of which are assaults) and a full locker of Titan armor, plasma level weapons, and advanced fighters and have yet to assault the alien base. I figure I want to be fully prepared for the horror that I will encounter, so I am bringing folks up from the minors to train up in the event that I: 1) need a specialist with a different skill set and 2) manage not to have an advanced specialist available due to death or serious injury.

I am probably sandbagging though since I am, at current capability, perfectly able to finish off a cyberdisks and muton elites with one or two shots and sectopods with two or three.

You're more than ready for the base assault. If anything, you're overpowered. Go for it.

dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I now have 8 colonel level troopers (half of which are assaults) and a full locker of Titan armor, plasma level weapons, and advanced fighters and have yet to assault the alien base. I figure I want to be fully prepared for the horror that I will encounter, so I am bringing folks up from the minors to train up in the event that I: 1) need a specialist with a different skill set and 2) manage not to have an advanced specialist available due to death or serious injury.

I am probably sandbagging though since I am, at current capability, perfectly able to finish off a cyberdisks and muton elites with one or two shots and sectopods with two or three.

You're more than ready for the base assault. If anything, you're overpowered. Go for it.

I'm just picturing this endless wave of cryssliods backed by a dozen heavy floaters and a pair of sectopods ringed by a constellation of repair drones. Am I being paranoid?

I mean, that's how I would do it.

So I finally started this (360) over the weekend. VERY much enjoying it - but the game isn't terribly intuitive for a new player. I am about 5 hours in, and have lost France - but have been getting excellent ratings on everything I do. Kind of frustrating, but I am just learning through trial and error. So far, no big objections to RNG.

SallyNasty wrote:

So I finally started this (360) over the weekend. VERY much enjoying it - but the game isn't terribly intuitive for a new player. I am about 5 hours in, and have lost France - but have been getting excellent ratings on everything I do. Kind of frustrating, but I am just learning through trial and error. So far, no big objections to RNG.

Do you have satellite and interceptor coverage over France? What happens is that UFOs will land there without you even knowing about it.

Ah ha - I did not! This was only my like 2nd month. Frustrating. Oh well, I will finish this game and do better next game:)

Yup. I went full on coverage as fast as I could and covered the globe with interceptors. As a result, the freak out level dropped pretty precipitously and never really went up much despite the "hard choice" abduction events. I found the key to dealing with them was to do the mission in the country and continent most freaked out. This would result in a mild lessening of panic while the other two continents could probably afford to be reminded of XCOM's necessity ;).

One thing that I noticed is that the over half of my squad comes from the UK now. That and of the five soldiers in my wall of honor, three are Americans.

I wonder what that all means.

I just am so broke all the time. I haven't figured out how to make some money so i can start building better armaments.

SallyNasty wrote:

I just am so broke all the time. I haven't figured out how to make some money so i can start building better armaments.

Don't completely ignore the gray market. It is a terrible deal and you will most likely need the stuff later, but if use it sparingly (sell off just enough stuff to get enough cash to get your sats up), it is worth the short term pain.

Paleocon wrote:

One thing that I noticed is that the over half of my squad comes from the UK now. That and of the five soldiers in my wall of honor, three are Americans.

I wonder what that all means.

I have a Belgian on the team (Joske 'Attemzatis' Vermeulen), from my original squad. I'm wondering if that's a coincidence? Could be that the game checks your Steam profile and adapt.

SallyNasty wrote:

I just am so broke all the time. I haven't figured out how to make some money so i can start building better armaments.

Satellites.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I just am so broke all the time. I haven't figured out how to make some money so i can start building better armaments.

Satellites.

IMAGE(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dm5Hb8SiBmI/Tz7cDWYUv2I/AAAAAAAAD7Q/7g_z5R8DvII/s1600/Giorgio_Tsoukalos.jpg)

dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

One thing that I noticed is that the over half of my squad comes from the UK now. That and of the five soldiers in my wall of honor, three are Americans.

I wonder what that all means.

I have a Belgian on the team (Joske 'Attemzatis' Vermeulen), from my original squad. I'm wondering if that's a coincidence? Could be that the game checks your Steam profile and adapt.

It is possible.

I also noticed that there are a number of team members that come from nations that are not on the XCOM member nation list. One of my snipers, for instance, is from Israel. I try not to team her up with my colonel level sniper from Egypt. I wonder why I can't get a trooper from Korea though.

I assaulted the base last night and found it filled to the brim (24 combatants) with mostly Muton Elites, Mutons, Heavy Floaters, and a Sectopod with a constellation of drones. I armed two assaults with arc throwers and they batted 1000 coming back with 2 captives each. I find it easier to capture the Muton Elites than regular Mutons because they can take more damage. They often live through a full on plasma blast and have just enough health to live through an arc zap. Regular Mutons tend to die instantly upon getting hit with boiling hot plasma.

I set up the Psi Lab. So far only one of my troopers has "the gift". Is it possible to have others in your group with psionic abilities? I have, so far, tested 12 and only the one has shown ability.

Paleocon wrote:

I set up the Psi Lab. So far only one of my troopers has "the gift". Is it possible to have others in your group with psionic abilities? I have, so far, tested 12 and only the one has shown ability.

Psionic abilities are also liable to a RNG, with a higher chance for troopers with high willpower. I only have one gifted soldier as well, as I didn't buy the 'higher willpower when leveling' upgrade until very late in the game.

You might want to get this upgrade from the Officer School (if you haven't already) and level your low-ranked soldiers to increase their will check before testing them.

Chances are always fairly low though, even with high willpower.

At the end of my classic game I had a fully PSI-equipped squad member with 162 Will - She had a 93% chance to Mind Control Ethereals. 100% if the were softened up with the initial damaging PSI ability. Which was bad-ass. Rift is a whole lot of fun to throw on a pack of Mutons.

None of my troopers have a Will score above 80

Is that with Mind Shield and PSI armor? 'Cuz that's 50 right there. There's a chance that any character knocked into the critical status will lose Will points... so be careful with the ones you want to be PSI types.
So if you have the Officer School and you have someone with high will, you should definitely have the Iron Will perk before leveling them. With that, any new squad members have a pretty good chance of reaching 100+ before adding gear.

oddity wrote:

Is that with Mind Shield and PSI armor? 'Cuz that's 50 right there. There's a chance that any character knocked into the critical status will lose Will points... so be careful with the ones you want to be PSI types.
So if you have the Officer School and you have someone with high will, you should definitely have the Iron Will perk before leveling them. With that, any new squad members have a pretty good chance of reaching 100+ before adding gear.

I got the Iron Will perk late and don't have the stones to dismiss a colonel level trooper to make room for a scrub. I currently have 10 colonels.

That makes sense. TLC don't want none either.

I have been steadily building up my scrubs though. The newest colonel level support started off as a squaddie after I got the Iron Will perk and has an unmodified will score of 82. I figure I will slowly bring the last five up from the minors before I send them to the psi lab. If they live that long.

Paleo, since you already fubared your game with too much mechanics knowledge, I don't feel bad telling you: it doesn't matter. Just train your PSI guy/gal and off you go. If they are low on Willpower they just won't be very effective at their PSI skills. Which you don't need for anything except the story. Just blow through the rest of the game with your 10 uber overpowered Colonels and you'll be fine.

dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I set up the Psi Lab. So far only one of my troopers has "the gift". Is it possible to have others in your group with psionic abilities? I have, so far, tested 12 and only the one has shown ability.

Psionic abilities are also liable to a RNG, with a higher chance for troopers with high willpower. I only have one gifted soldier as well, as I didn't buy the 'higher willpower when leveling' upgrade until very late in the game.

You might want to get this upgrade from the Officer School (if you haven't already) and level your low-ranked soldiers to increase their will check before testing them.

Chances are always fairly low though, even with high willpower.

Out of 17 Colonels and another 16 soldiers of assorted rank I only found 2 Psis in my last Classic game. (both Colonels) I think the game is hardcoded to throw you a bone at around your 2nd or 3rd test. But the rest of them are purely RNG.

MoonDragon wrote:

Paleo, since you already fubared your game with too much mechanics knowledge, I don't feel bad telling you: it doesn't matter. Just train your PSI guy/gal and off you go. If they are low on Willpower they just won't be very effective at their PSI skills. Which you don't need for anything except the story. Just blow through the rest of the game with your 10 uber overpowered Colonels and you'll be fine.

I sort of figured.

The last few missions (including some "very difficult" alien terror missions) ended up being cakewalks because of the combination of uber abilities and maxed out equipment. Dr. Incurable commented that my flying, plasma sniper rifle equipped, double tapping death dealers along with my invisible Speedy Gonzales, rapid fire alloy cannon firing "scouts" made for a hilariously broken game. The rescue of Nagoya resulted in 20 dead x-rays (including a sectopod and several heavy floaters), 14 rescued civilians, and zero XCOM casualties. Only one of my troopers got shot at all and that was because she was rushing up to a drone for a vanity capture.