XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Strategy Game - Developed by Firaxis

What the goo are you all talking about? All these posts make me think expansion. Stop crushing my hopes!

*sigh*

Anyone who wonders where the black goo ideas originated, and apparently died, it looks like it was an E3 2010 demo. Here's a bit on it.

Keithustus wrote:

Anyone who wonders where the black goo ideas originated, and apparently died, it looks like it was an E3 2010 demo. Here's a bit on it.

Looks like all's i'm left with is goo in my dreams...

Does it really matter what color the goo is?

Sorry, I forgot where I was for a second.

Mixolyde wrote:

Does it really matter what color the goo is?

Sorry, I forgot where I was for a second.

Sure! It gives an indication of what's wrong with the patient!

XCOM is on sale for the next 19 hours. I noticed Slingshot was discounted so I snagged it for a couple bucks. I wonder if that will fix the laser crash?

I had a very aggravating end to my latest (and best) attempt to win without losing a country in Classic Ironman.

I was scanning for activity and sending my new firestorms around the place, and saw them all arrive.

So I hit the button to drop out of scanning and back to the hangar screen.... exactly when a terror mission popup happened... and it decided my second button press was "don't bother doing the mission" and then I got the "Germany quits" message

Amazon has a deal going on right now. I'm not sure how long it will last.

Civ IV Complete Pack, Civ V Gold Edition and XCOM: EU for $19.99

Holy crap that's awesome. Did Amazon get jeoulous of Steam sales?

I am tempted to buy that just for the Civ 5 Gold, just for G&K and all the extra stuff....but I know I'll never get that far down into my pile.

Still waiting patiently for news on an xcom expansion. One day...

I'd rather take a sequel over an expansion, since I haven't been at all interested in the current DLC.

Well the current DLC is little afterthoughts, or content that preorderers got. We still haven't heard about a real expansion-type DLC at all.

Keithustus wrote:

Well the current DLC is little afterthoughts, or content that preorderers got. We still haven't heard about a real expansion-type DLC at all.

Well his is what I was referring to. I want a full expansion, not just a small dlc pack.

Man, this game can be tragic on Ironman mode. Lost my entire crack squad last night to a combination of a Berserker, a Cyberdisc, and three Commanders. I was one turn away from salvaging the whole thing when a Mind-controlled Assault shotgunned my sniper from across the map.

Anyway, how should I best be using my Heavies? I feel like I have a good grasp on the other classes but my Heavies just seem like poor performers. Suppression doesn't seem to do much and the Rockets are limited use. What am I doing wrong?

Normal or Classic?

On Normal, I use Heavies for, er, heavy firepower. Bullet Swarm is one of the best offensive powers in the game. All my Heavies take it for double-shotting when they don't need to move. Or shoot-move, which is also useful. Shredder Rocket provides you with a second Rocket to use. Rockets are NOT to be used for damage. Their main effect is to remove cover so your guys can mass-kill everything in the affected area afterwards, so Rockets are usually the first salvo into a bunch of hunkered aliens during a good turn.

HEAT Ammo is fantastic against Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. I never leave the base without at least one HEAT Ammo Heavy, once I have one.

LarryC wrote:

Normal or Classic?

On Normal, I use Heavies for, er, heavy firepower. Bullet Swarm is one of the best offensive powers in the game. All my Heavies take it for double-shotting when they don't need to move. Or shoot-move, which is also useful. Shredder Rocket provides you with a second Rocket to use. Rockets are NOT to be used for damage. Their main effect is to remove cover so your guys can mass-kill everything in the affected area afterwards, so Rockets are usually the first salvo into a bunch of hunkered aliens during a good turn.

HEAT Ammo is fantastic against Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. I never leave the base without at least one HEAT Ammo Heavy, once I have one.

Normal. I haven't used Shredder Rockets or Heat Ammo. I'll have to invest in those and try 'em. Also, I never found good situations for Bullet Swarm - I'll have to give it another try.

Losing my veteran soliders in 1-2 encounters has taught me the value of deep rosters.

The "problem" with Heavies is that their base accuracy is something like -5 that of your normal Assault guy. However, the Assault guy takes -15 per shot when he shoots with Rapid Fire. It's still remarkably deadly, right? Heavies don't take penalties to Attack with Bullet Swarm. It's just a straight up second attack. Really strong.

My tip is to use exclusively Squaddies and Rookies for Council missions. That will level them up to Corporal, at which point they're actually useful. Then use 3 Corporals/Sergeants on a 6 man team for Small missions, headed by a Captain or Major.

finally....FINALLY finished this game. I came back to it before the long weekend and for the first time I was totally hooked.

I haven't been following this thread that closely..have you guys talked at all about how much BS happens in this game? The faulty line of sights, free enemy turns, terrible free aim controls, frequency of misses on 99% chance shots (I had 7 in just the last three days)..the fact that hits are pre-ordained despite the shown percentage (if you miss a shot, try re-loading the game and taking the same shot again. You'll have the same outcome 100% of the time). That last one might be the same thing, just done in a different order, but it annoyed me nonetheless. It makes the idea of ironman and classic runs almost a joke to me. A cruel, unfair, masochistic joke.

Overall, loved it. Music, design, story, atmosphere..great.

Also, the only games that scream out to me to be played in 3D are these isometric games for some reason.

Line of sight is generally okay. It does get to be an issue now and again, but it's mostly okay. Could be better.

Enemies do not get free turns. They only get 1 free movement when they spawn. Do NOT spawn enemies with your last guy in a turn or you will not like it. This is necessary because enemies spawn in the open. If they did not get a free movement, they would be dead the turn you see them (because not being in cover increases to-hit and critical by ridiculous amounts).

Free aim is horrible.

Hits are determined from a random number sequence generated from a seed. All computer generated random numbers are like this. XCOM uses the same seed for the same action so it's harder to save scum a low percentage shot by reloading until it hits.

All true except

LarryC wrote:

Hits are determined from a random number sequence generated from a seed. All computer generated random numbers are like this.

For all practical purposes, the vast majority of random number generators are seed based whether that's a fixed value from a save file, a time stamp, or other procedural method. I've been doing the programming thing for over three decades and the exceptions to that rule are very rare and usually only done for computer science or mathematical modeling purposes.

Having said that, the way to spoof a fixed seed is to change the order in which you roll the dice. That also works for loot drops and the like in other games that save a fixed seed.
--
TAZ

....or console games from before around 2000, and often still lingering in their remakes. It makes certain RPGs a bit easier to cheat, if you're into that.

It also makes for much easier to reproduce bug reports during development. I suspect it will be a while before games start using something like /dev/random for RNG. It's slow and often not worth it vs a good pseudorandom algorithm.

So, I'm wondering about the console controls. The podcasts said a lot about playing with a gamepad.
I'm looking for another game that is away from my work desk.

I can't play a shooter on the PS3 controller.
I can play Kingdom a Amalur, but not Mass Effect.

Should I try for this as a console title?

*edit*
Nevermind
http://www.giantbomb.com/xcom-enemy-...

http://www.giantbomb.com/xcom-enemy-...

http://www.giantbomb.com/xcom-enemy-...

Looks like gamepad is good.

Will I regret PS3 for a lower eyecandy effect?

I also feel tunnel vision on console titles generally. How is that?

Do you have a 360 controller for your PC? Or is this more a matter of where you want to play.

complexmath wrote:

Do you have a 360 controller for your PC? Or is this more a matter of where you want to play.

My gaming rig is my work rig, at the desk where I sit 50-60 hours a week.

I need to get onto the couch, but what ends up happening is, I buy the game, and I can't cope with a control scheme, or a FOV, and I then I don't play a great game.

Ghost, there's a lot of different kinds of games. If you're concerned about controls and FOV, it sounds like you're forcing yourself into only a few genres. I would recommend playing on lower difficulty levels (don't feel bad bout enjoying a game) and/or trying categories of games that you might not even know whether you'll like. Try different platforms, different sized games (e.g. indie instead of only AAAs). You never know when you'll find something like Frozen Synapse, FTL, or Game Dev Story that will suck you in and give you that game fun-ness again.

Ghostship wrote:

I need to get onto the couch, but what ends up happening is, I buy the game, and I can't cope with a control scheme, or a FOV, and I then I don't play a great game.

If FOV/controls are your main issues then keep in mind stuff like that is much easier (or only possible at all) with a PC.

Anyone know how to get to the DLC? I purchased the DLC for this today, and it doesn't seem to be showing up. The description for the Elite Soldier Pack says:

"Customize your squad with three new bonus items. Instantly unlock a new recruit in your barracks inspired by the original X-COM: UFO Defense. Outfit your soldiers with specialized armor upgrades including the new Hyperion and Reaper soldier armor kits. Customize your soldiers’ appearances with a variety of colors and tints for all armor sets."

I don't see any of that in-game. According to Valve, I bought the DLC (I got the codes from GMG, where I had store credit, and put them into Steam, it said activation successful on both).

The new recruit isn't there, nor is any of the armor upgrades or the rest of it. I also bought the Slingshot DLC, and don't see anything about it in game either. I've tried restarting Steam.

Anyone have any ideas?

Is it talking about being able to customise your recruits with flat top guile-style hair dos? Seems like it's written very poorly.