XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Strategy Game - Developed by Firaxis

Two questions:

1. Can you not change soldier colors on XBox? I didn't see where I could.

2. Why is there not a recorder built into this game? I'd love to be able to play back my assaults, and to share them.

lostlobster wrote:

Two questions:

1. Can you not change soldier colors on XBox? I didn't see where I could.

2. Why is there not a recorder built into this game? I'd love to be able to play back my assaults, and to share them.

You should be able to under the customize section for each soldier. I've gone so far as to color code the armor baswd on the soldiers role to help them stand out a little bit more.

lostlobster wrote:

Two questions:

1. Can you not change soldier colors on XBox? I didn't see where I could.

2. Why is there not a recorder built into this game? I'd love to be able to play back my assaults, and to share them.

1. You can, but only if you have the Elite Soldier Pack. The keys for that were supposed to only be included in Pre-orders, but I've seen some bought after the game launched that include the pack. If yours has it, you need to download that DLC. If it doesn't, you can purchase the DLC.

2. Yeah, we really wanted to include a recorder for the game, but had to scratch the idea due to time and resource limitations.

Tkyl, thanks for the answers. Nice having someone on the dev team in the conversation.

Tkyl wrote:
Cayne wrote:

Tkyl two things, one i don't have the plague acheivement (or play any multiplayer at all) would love to get a match in at some point against you.

And two does Firaxis have any plans for mod support, i like playing with the warspace extension mod made by Blackalpha over at http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/
but Steam workshop support would be awesome, like Civ V or TF2.

1) I can definitely get a match in. Though it will have to be next week.

2) As far as I'm aware, we haven't announced any mod support.

As far as I was aware Firaxis' official position was that there would not be any mod support (I remember reading it in an interview post-game release).

I'm surprised no one has posted Russ Pitts' article...

checkm-8 wrote:

I'm surprised no one has posted Russ Pitts' article...

So you're saying I should have applied to work at LucasArts right out of college and we could have a new TIE Fighter in about 5 more years?

firesloth wrote:
lostlobster wrote:
firesloth wrote:
lostlobster wrote:

Just started playing on the 360. Loving it. Posting for followage.

I just ordered a copy, as well. Better late to the game than never, eh?

Absolutely. I'm already so down the rabbithole with this game that I'm trying to carve out any time I can get to play it. Unfortunately, living with two small children and a non-gaming wife means that me-game-time is rare.

Wow, you could have been writing about my life!

I think my life also fits this description.

I liked the Slingshot DLC also if you guys want some more options for customizing your team.

Tkyl wrote:
Cayne wrote:

Tkyl two things, one i don't have the plague acheivement (or play any multiplayer at all) would love to get a match in at some point against you.

And two does Firaxis have any plans for mod support, i like playing with the warspace extension mod made by Blackalpha over at http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/
but Steam workshop support would be awesome, like Civ V or TF2.

1) I can definitely get a match in. Though it will have to be next week.

2) As far as I'm aware, we haven't announced any mod support.

I'd love to sign up for a match as well. Not sure when a good time would be as I'm sure our timezones aren't exactly aligned, but yeah, I'll gladly give it a go. Surely it can't be any worse than our Frozen Synapse matches

Also, offer goes out to everyone else as well. If you see me online, shoot me a message and if I respond, cool, if not, I'm probably at work and the kids are on my PC.

Stele wrote:
checkm-8 wrote:

I'm surprised no one has posted Russ Pitts' article...

So you're saying I should have applied to work at LucasArts right out of college and we could have a new TIE Fighter in about 5 more years? :D

And that I should have applied to Volition so we could... oh.

I seem to be having awful luck on my Psi tests. 12 in a row without a gifted squaddie showing up. Maybe I am due for a rush of success.

As mentioned up-thread you'll have better luck if you get them a few ranks before testing them.

bighoppa wrote:

As mentioned up-thread you'll have better luck if you get them a few ranks before testing them.

Yeah, but... I find it easier just to keep cycling squaddies through so I don't have to risk getting anyone hurt or killed until I know they have promise. It is risky to even the veteran team members to carry a squaddie to which you are "feeding" kills to get them up in rank.

I'm in the end game phase so investing time/kills getting a squaddie to a point where they *might* have some psi skills is a tough thing to balance.

I wish the council would send me more missions. Thin men are a great way to rack up kills and skills.

OUCH. I'm not actually very far in (it feels), and I found my first alien base. Evidently I wasn't prepared to take it on, though, as I lost the whole squad, including my two captains.

In fact, one of those captains went down in the turn in which we bumped into the first aliens.

There was one lone soldier who stayed in for a long time, taking out about 9 aliens on his own. I thought he might make it, but eventually he succumbed to a swarm of Chryssalids.

I mind controlled my first ethereal yesterday. It was awesome.

It was on a battleship mission and I figured that the easiest way to make it happen was to keep him busy dealing with nuisance threats. I had fought my way all the way to the bridge without taking any damage and had six psionic colonels with will scores in excess of 100 ready to go.

First, I ghosted all six troopers and ran them into the bridge area. There, I uncovered two muton elites and the ethereal. On my reveal, I took control of the two elites and put my troops in wait mode. The ethereal responded by failing a mind control attempt on one of my assaults.

Next, I moved the elites closer to the ethereal and tossed their grenades at it. After which, I attempted mind fray attacks from all six of my troopers. One succeeded. It responded by psi lancing one of the elites and killing it.

I moved my troopers into pairs and waited again. I ran the remaining elite adjacent to the ethereal and ended the turn without action. The ethereal responded with another psi lance attack that took the elite down to one point.

After that, I used psi inspiration to up my will power to three soldiers who, in turn, attempted to mind control the ethereal. The third one managed it and the turn ended with the elite breaking mind control, but too confused to take aggressive action.

Just for giggles, I decided to rift the elite along with the ethereal. The friendly fire warning came up and I ignored it. It killed them both but the animation stopped with the ethereal frozen in mid air. It remained there until the scenario ended five turns later when I managed to hunt down the one drone still floating around on the opposite side of the map.

Fun times.

Green Man Gaming has Enemy Unknown for $16 when you use code GMG20-P4DLK-FKYRS

evilseed wrote:

Green Man Gaming has Enemy Unknown for $16 when you use code GMG20-P4DLK-FKYRS

Someone should PM this to kexx who bought the game last week at full price.

I beat the game in normal a couple of weeks ago.
I'm now torturing myself; first I tried Classic Ironman. The game was happy to explain how I was nowhere near ready to play at that level.
I restarted on Classic with saves enabled. Because I don't love myself and everything that is bad happens for a reason, I added Second Waves options.

Actually ONE option, "marathon" which is briefly described as "game takes significantly longer to complete".

Nowhere did it explain soldiers will be wounded for 36 days, research and Engineering facilities will take twice as long; but it can be implied. What really confused me, was the fact that facilities cost 100% more in this mode.

I need to go back to the beginning of the thread and read; after many saves and loads, I can attest to the game's unmovable tenacity. If the game decides an enemy unit will not be hit, then it will not be hit; even if you walk up with an Assault Soldier point blank with a 96% chance to hit, 100% to crit.

Does anyone know if more DLC is coming out?

They say yes. And that what they're working on is awesome.

EDIT: http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/9/3855...

Are the DLC's coming to Xbox? I bought it on CD because I didn't have a good enough computer to run it, but now I do. Should I just buy it on steam again so I can use those DLCs?

Mex wrote:

Are the DLC's coming to Xbox?

Yes, all the DLC is available on the Xbox.

Prebuy Bioshock infinite and if enough people do get a free copy of Xcom...

lostlobster wrote:

They say yes. And that what they're working on is awesome.

EDIT: http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/9/3855...

Huh. I clicked through thinking that there would be at least some info.. but it was literally "its'll be awesomes!".

More fool me!

Really, I just want XCOM 2 with better overworld gameplay and base attacks etc. Not more tweaks on the first game that I've played through 10+ times and experienced everything possible in it.

If they'd fix two things, one basic and one not, I'd be very interested. The basic thing: stop with the goddamn cinematic reveals. Those suck. They really screw the game up.

The advanced thing: what robbed the game of replayability for me was the complete lack of being 'in a system'. That is, in the original, the aliens were doing their own thing, and it was obvious that there was some kind of simulated master intelligence dispatching different missions with different goals. You could keep up, or not keep up. The aliens were trying to find and kill you, among their other goals, and if they found a base, they'd do their best to destroy it.

The new system has no feeling of a deeper system you're puzzling out. Everything is highly scripted, and once you've seen the script, there's not much reason to play it again. It's actually kind of related to the 'cinematic reveal' of aliens in combat; they want to FORCE it to be cool, instead of letting it be organically cool on its own. They're forcing it into movie mode, where the original game felt real, within the limits of the technology of the time.

Most of the other changes I can live with, or even outright appreciate, but those two things kinda broke the game for me. I played through it once, enjoyed it, and never want to touch it again. I still play the original game, now approaching 20 years after it first shipped, and I can't really imagine doing that with this title.

Malor wrote:

If they'd fix two things, one basic and one not, I'd be very interested. The basic thing: stop with the goddamn cinematic reveals. Those suck. They really screw the game up.

Got to Options. Under Gameplay there is a check box for Glam Cam or Cinematic Cam or something like that. I play with it turned off as well.

I was thinking that option didn't disable everything though?

I think there was something in the ToolBoks mod that turned off everything.

I really need to get back into this sometime...

Malor wrote:

The advanced thing: what robbed the game of replayability for me was the complete lack of being 'in a system'. That is, in the original, the aliens were doing their own thing, and it was obvious that there was some kind of simulated master intelligence dispatching different missions with different goals. You could keep up, or not keep up. The aliens were trying to find and kill you, among their other goals, and if they found a base, they'd do their best to destroy it.

The new system has no feeling of a deeper system you're puzzling out. Everything is highly scripted, and once you've seen the script, there's not much reason to play it again. ... I played through it once, enjoyed it, and never want to touch it again. I still play the original game, now approaching 20 years after it first shipped, and I can't really imagine doing that with this title.

I agree with you Malor. I think it is a great game, I spent about 30 hours playing through the campaign. But when I beat it I just have no real reason to go back and play again, it will be the same script. Which is fine, I really like scripted campaigns and don't play games without them really (/glares at Sins). At the same time I don't really replay the campaigns again either.

I am hoping there is an expansion or something in the works that will add a new campaign story, different mission types and enemies, etc.

Got to Options. Under Gameplay there is a check box for Glam Cam or Cinematic Cam or something like that. I play with it turned off as well.

Does that stop the groups of aliens from doing the 'look up/assume new positions for free' nonsense, or does it just not zoom in with the camera? I actually don't mind the cinematic camera angles that much (which surprised me, as I thought I might hate them), but I don't like the way they always get to move into cover, right in the middle of my turn. (or, worst of all, right at the very END of my turn.)

In case I wasn't clear, I definitely enjoyed this game, but I just can't see it as an all-time classic for the ages, because there's just not enough to it. There's no real system to explore, you're being herded down a set path. This may make your first playthrough more fun, but it sure screws up the rest of them.

Malor wrote:

Does that stop the groups of aliens from doing the 'look up/assume new positions for free' nonsense, or does it just not zoom in with the camera? I actually don't mind the cinematic camera angles that much (which surprised me, as I thought I might hate them), but I don't like the way they always get to move into cover, right in the middle of my turn. (or, worst of all, right at the very END of my turn.)

What nonsense? You're not supposed to get a free shot at them, not unless you're using ghost armor, anyway.