XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Strategy Game - Developed by Firaxis

kazooka wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

There is an Officer Training perk called 'Lead by example' where the squad leader substitutes his will score for the lower level will of others. There doesn't actually appear to be a squad leader so is it just the person with the highest will?

Believe the text says that it's the "highest ranking squad member with the highest will power."

The squad leader is the one foremost in the squad line-up before a mission. They always are first in a turn (or at least the first turn) - they have a little symbol next to their name (IIRC) during the tactical battle.

But, yeah, I'm not sure what the perk text says.

Duoae wrote:
kazooka wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

There is an Officer Training perk called 'Lead by example' where the squad leader substitutes his will score for the lower level will of others. There doesn't actually appear to be a squad leader so is it just the person with the highest will?

Believe the text says that it's the "highest ranking squad member with the highest will power."

The squad leader is the one foremost in the squad line-up before a mission. They always are first in a turn (or at least the first turn) - they have a little symbol next to their name (IIRC) during the tactical battle.

But, yeah, I'm not sure what the perk text says.

I've played like hundreds of hours in this game and never knew that.

Oh is that what the little star thing is?

kexx wrote:
Tamren wrote:

I tried proxy mines and the flamethrower. I don't like em, or at least as much as Kinetic Strike and EMP. The latter two just seem to be useful in more situations.

I really liked the flamethrower, but giving it limited uses makes it a no-brainer. I can't think of another way to balance them out, because infinite flamethrower might be too overpowered, but for me, there's just no comparison between infinite punches vs. 2 flamethrower blasts.

On another topic, I just finished XCOM base defense mission on classic, and... it feels like everything is downhill from here. I still have the EXALT HQ mission, and the Chryssalid mission, but it's just... bleh, I don't know. Not feeling it anymore. Anyone else feel the same?

I'm pretty much just going for achievements. But yeah, the late mid- to end games aren't as good. It's why I wish you had a way to start over with an insane difficulty level, but your current squad. Or something like that, maybe access to technologies faster.

It may sound counter-intuitive to make certain things easier with Second Wave, but considering how few people complete impossible, being able to have a MEC in month 1 might make it worth trying for a lot more folks. Hell, I'd do it again just to get that device that

Spoiler:

tells you how many aliens and which ones are on a mission. Who the hell is going to waste their item slot on a respirator if there won't be those strangling aliens on a mission? If you knew ahead of time, you'd switch your gear and soldiers around a lot more.

Ran into an odd bug where my MEC was mind controlled and they got control of it the same turn. Not great for me.

I've finished my Classic play through. Great fun.

I took the Telekinetic field for the top ability on one of my PSI troops, figuring it would help me when facing two Sectopods, giving me cover for one turn. Unfortunately, the sectopods hit all their shots through the shield anyway (I understand it's percentages but smoke often had a noticeable effect, in terms of enemy shots missed, where as the shield seemed to have no effect the one time I really needed it.) As it only lasts one turn it would be nice if it was near guaranteed cover for that turn*. Another downside was that the person using it moved out of position. My sniper climbing onto a console as he deployed the shield. At the end of the fight I found that he was stranded there and couldn't climb down so I had to reload.

I enjoy the last third of the game. Base building isn't really my thing and I enjoy having most of my upgrading work done. It's also a relief to have soldiers who quite so fragile and to have lots of tactical toys to play with. The varied scenario missions are great but I wouldn't want every mission to have a gimmick. I love just heading out and exploring a downed UFO or dealing with aliens on the streets. Many of those missions are so atmospheric. The turn based combat hasn't gotten old for me. I even enjoyed the final mission but I've only played it twice.

I'll take a break for now but I'm planning to come back and have another go at Ironman.

*Thinking about it, maybe mechanical enemies aren't effected by a PSI shield?

Yeah, I was under the impression that that was only for organics. But I could be misremembering. Once I finished my last playthrough, I found I'd burned myself out on the game for now. Will give it a go again in a few months I bet.

What naming rules did you guys use?

I had a whole list of names I used and had a random-number generator to assign them, except for some nationalities that would get certain names. On my EU playthrough, I would assign names once someone got to Squadie, but they would have the tuque, goggles, and earphones. Once they hit Corporal, they'd get a face. Sergeant, a nickname. Lieutenant, a colored uniform. All rookies would have a helmet covering their faces.

With EW, I ended up waiting to assign names, faces and nicknames until they hit Lieutenant cause I seemed to loose folks earlier than in EU. This ended up with me keeping a couple of folks with their original names cause their nicknames were pretty cool. Had a Heavy nicknamed "Tectonic" that I liked.

mwdowns wrote:

Yeah, I was under the impression that that was only for organics. But I could be misremembering.

The more I think about it, the more that's the obvious answer. My cunning strategy for dealing with twin sectopods wasn't so cunning after all.

mwdowns wrote:

What naming rules did you guys use?

First time through I named my characters using a list of great character names I've created for use in games (It's an obsession. I'm always scanning the credits in TV shows and films for great names.)

Second time through I took the names I was given mostly. My base was in Africa so I had lots of great African names I couldn't really improve on. I'd only change a surname, first name or nickname if I really didn't like it. I did tweek faces and hair styles. I really liked the swept back hair shaved sides look for female troops but I tried to only use it on one or two key women. I liked to have strong varied colours for armour but not too bright and I would change the colours if they didn't seem to suit the person as they developed. The main thing was to get them looking like individual characters.

The tooltip for the shield specifically mentions "everything" under the shield.

When you say you used the shield, do you mean your guys were already in cover? Or did you try to use the shield as cover?

Tamren wrote:

The tooltip for the shield specifically mentions "everything" under the shield.

When you say you used the shield, do you mean your guys were already in cover? Or did you try to use the shield as cover?

My guys were in cover and then I deployed the shield (which is massive) around them. One of the sectopods may have been inside the shield the other one was definitely outside. The tool tip didn't mention it not being effective against non organics (as far as I remember) but it's logical it wouldn't be if it's not a physical barrier but a 'screw with people's perceptions' barrier.

Tamren wrote:

The tooltip for the shield specifically mentions "everything" under the shield.

When you say you used the shield, do you mean your guys were already in cover? Or did you try to use the shield as cover?

The Psi Shield is +40 defense. It's pretty great. But you have to remember that the enemies in classic/impossible have a very high percentage chance to hit. I have used it in exactly the situation you're talking about, and it saved my ass, but I:

1) smoke bombed (+20 defense, +20 again with the upgrade)
2) hunkered down (+40 defense half cover, +80 defense full cover)
3) psi shield (+40 defense)

Sectopod and damn near everything else missed their shots at near point blank range. It's kind of an "oh sh*t" button. I explored farther than I should have and turtled up for one turn to get my bearings.

Just throwing +40 defense out there isn't going to do squat, same way that enemies still shoot the crap out of you when you're in full cover, even with a smoke bomb.

Also, if you're flanked, you're flanked. So cover wouldn't help.

If you're going for the Edison achievement in Enemy Within ... don't. It apparently only works in Enemy Unknown. So don't waste hours trying to get that last floater interrogation.

Edit: Apparently the field doesn't affect units above the field. But if you used a flying unit + psi shield, it'll extend to the ground. Good to know.

I just played something like 20 hours of the expansion, I think. It is awesomesauce. Worth every penny. MECs are my new love. I'd love the genejacks, too, if their graphics weren't so unadulteratedly lame. Firaxis violated their own aesthetic principle with the genejacks - every armor type on them looks nearly the same!

So, the MECs. I can't find the words to express how much I like them, so I'll just drop in everything in a list.

1. Collateral Damage. Nearly free, instant cover demolition on a platform! This is for those of us old-timers who might have missed making our own doors and entrances into various enclosures. It's back in a big way with MECs.

2. New Class! Everything about MECs is awesome. From the way they're HP-buffed but defense-starved (balanced but different) to all the different ways you can spec them. The flavor is spot on, with the creepy factor boosted by the fact that you don't recruit MECs - you make them out of soldiers.

3. Firing gigantic cannons and punching enemies with elbow rockets makes XCOM better.

4. Cool looks, nice voice overs. 'Nuff said. I love commanding them just to hear their robocop voices.

It was great to realise that a problematic alien was in range of your mec so you could just run over and punch it through a wall.

The mectoid take down animation is also fun.

I believe Psi-shield works just fine against Sectopods, which is to say, incoming Sectopod fire is subject to the random number generator like everything else. The annoying part with Sectopods is that they get to fire twice, and then they get that free overwatch afterwards.

During the final assault, I usually use the volunteer's Rift ability to kill the pair of Sectopods. That's because Rift does damage based on the difference in will between the attacker and target, and Sectopods have a will score of 0. (So do SHIVs--keep your SHIVs out of the Rift area.)

Higgledy wrote:

It was great to realise that a problematic alien was in range of your mec so you could just run over and punch it through a wall.

Through walls? Why did I never think of this!

As an aside though I really wish they would let you punch without a target, that would let you poke holes in stuff without needing ammo as Collateral Damage costs a lot.

I finished up the new expansion pack over the weekend. Really enjoyed it. Love all the new toys and gadgets and level 3 MECs and fully upgraded gene soldiers were so very awesome. Can't wait to see what Xcom 2 will be like

Playing through now and really enjoying it.
Realising I should probably have trained more rookies while the missions were easy (they all just die now)
It's not like Pokemon where you can just train weak ones against weak ones. The game actually progresses and you have to keep up.
Been really clingy to my team resulting to any losses forcing me to load again and play smarter.
Up to the part where I encounter my first Ezreal thing. It is freaking scary. Low percentages to hit it and it just reflects stuff anyway.
The first thing it did was mind control one of mine, using her to kill my other, causing my others to panic and kill the mind controlled one too...
Any tips on how to beat this thing + shield?

Guaranteed damage is guaranteed.

Use Council missions and Small Scout UFOs to train up newbies. Have them accompanied by 2 high-ranked officers to tank and soften up the targets. Alien grenades are your friend.

Yeah, against Ethereals area damage is great because it doesn't miss and they can't reflect it.

The Neural Dampening gene mod you get from a Beserker autopsy is very good. Soldiers are stunned for one turn rather than mind controlled.

Also, punching them with a MEC fist helps.

(To a MEC with a kenetic strike module everything looks like an alien in need of a damn good punching.)

Higgledy wrote:

The Neural Dampening gene mod you get from a Beserker autopsy is very good. Soldiers are stunned for one turn rather than mind controlled.

Also, punching them with a MEC fist helps.

(To a MEC with a kenetic strike module everything looks like an alien in need of a damn good punching.)

Are all your MECs painted green?

Every time I see one punch, I'm now going to be thinking of Hulk smash!

Actually, it was green for a long time. Clearly my inner Hulk was having an effect on my colour choices :).

Close and Personal is my new favorite ability. The ability to polish off a target at close range and still have the ability to move, attack, reload, or whatever feels like I have Bullet Swarm on my close combat Assaults, only better.

I had a Captain level Assault rush to a position and take out two targets in one turn. Super stylish if you do it with a pistol as an Operative. I think I want to name him James Bond.

LarryC wrote:

Close and Personal is my new favorite ability. The ability to polish off a target at close range and still have the ability to move, attack, reload, or whatever feels like I have Bullet Swarm on my close combat Assaults, only better.

I had a Captain level Assault rush to a position and take out two targets in one turn. Super stylish if you do it with a pistol as an Operative. I think I want to name him James Bond.

I agree. Discovered the utility of that when trying out ability roulette and had a medic with it. On the assaults it's a tough choice between that and lightning reflexes but I now like to have some of each whereas before (whatever it has replaced) lightning reflexes was the only way to go!

Thanks for the tips with the Ethereals. Explosives is the way I went about it and even managed to stun one.
I've noticed a few bugs while I've been playing which have been really killed the buzz of the game.
Firstly every time a Muton Beserker moves after it's been shot and it's intimidate ability is activated the game lags really badly.
Another one has been just plain freezing on "Alien Activity".
The last is really annoying having gotten halfway through this Temple Ship (which seems to be the last mission) I had a Muton Beserker mind controlled and just as it rolls around to my turn to use it against them the game won't let me press any buttons, click anywhere nor scroll. I can however still Shift + Tab which shows the keyboard was not broken.
Freaking Muton Beserkers! Why you so buggy!
Would be curious to know if anyone else is having the same issues.

I gets even better with assault psi troopers because they can move-attack and still use a power.

I just used Close and Personal with Rapid Fire to kill a Cyberdisk and a Muton with a single Assault trooper in a single turn! And she just walks away without a scratch like it ain't no thing. Godly equipment + Normal is really a powertrip in the late game.

How do you actually get Alien Grenades now? In the base game they just sort of showed up as a research option. In my play through of Enemy Within I didn't see them at all, and I ran out of things to research.

Vargen wrote:

How do you actually get Alien Grenades now? In the base game they just sort of showed up as a research option. In my play through of Enemy Within I didn't see them at all, and I ran out of things to research.

When you capture a Muton, you get an Alien Grenade. I believe at some later point, you can use the foundry to upgrade to be able to build Alien Grenades yourself.

Tamren wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

It was great to realise that a problematic alien was in range of your mec so you could just run over and punch it through a wall.

Through walls? Why did I never think of this!

As an aside though I really wish they would let you punch without a target, that would let you poke holes in stuff without needing ammo as Collateral Damage costs a lot.

Good news. You can do that. I just confirmed it in-game. Just walk right up to the wall and punch it.