Help me enjoy X-Com

Okay, So here is the current Squad (plus some dud redshirts that are going on suicide missions)

Everyone has Bravery of 40+

Podunk
MoonDragon
wanderingtaoist
stevenmack
RatBoy
Nightmare
Aetius
Itsatrap
lethial
Mayfield
LockAndLoad
Quintin_Stone
Tamren
Yoyoson
LtWarhound
Prozac
Yonder
Coldstream
complexmath
Redwing

The thing that made me love X-Com was actually when I tried to play it without save/load-ing my way through it. When I embraced failure in this game I really started to get hooked. Everything gets more exciting (even creepy during some missions), and some of your favorite soldiers will die in stupid/funny ways, but just like Blood Bowl it's a part of what makes the game awesome.

Edit: Guess I skimmed a bit fast through the posts. Prozac plays it just the way I like it!

And now you're in the squad, be prepared for your inevitable death So far the only casualties have been the suicide redshirts, charging in with their primed grenades.

This is one of the old games that starts out very, very difficult, and then gradually you master the environment, learn the tactics, and train your soldiers well enough to be able to survive. The satisfaction as you get better is very high, precisely you've been struggling so hard. People love this game as much as they do because of that. If you embrace the frustration, the payoff is big.

Lots of specific tactics up there, but a few general observations, from someone who actually only finished this game in the last couple of years:

Be a little patient with the UI. They hadn't thought of all our modern conveniences yet, and they were running on extremely tight-memory systems, so there are some niceties that are missing.

Remember that you can throw stuff to adjacent soldiers, like medkits and grenades.

Do be sure to bring medkits. You will need them.

The game ramps up difficulty several times on you, introducing new alien types that will rip through your carefully-groomed squads like buzzsaws. This is by design. You will need to learn new tactics, and will need to research new technologies, to be able to succeed. Succeeding even partially on those ramp-up missions will give you new stuff to research, and tools you can use to fight the new threats.

Setting up a manufacturing base in Antarctica, with no vehicles and running no interceptions, is often a safe way to get steady money flow. As you fail your way through the game, you will start to lose countries, and that manufacturing facility is what will keep you in business.

Try not to lose the US.

Fear the Chrysalids.

Questions: Does anyone know if the Steam version works without needing DOSbox lunacy? Is it worth springing for the $15 XCOM pack, or just $5 for the UFO Defense game?

I believe it actually runs under DOSBox in the Steam version; it's all packaged up for you. What I actually did was pull the files out from Steam's DOSBox and run it in my own, which was set to run much faster. Steam's settings are quite slow.

We've had our first fatality!

Itsatrap managed to misfire with his rocket launcher hitting the small stone wall at his feet instead of the giant side of the barn he was aiming at

Luckily he was the only one caught in the blast.

The most important thing to do is to name your troops after people you love and make sure one is named after you. If random troop go nuts and shots a rpg into your transport before anyone else gets out it wont mean much, but if your wife, best friend, or whoever you love did it it makes the game more meaningful. Plus having half your loved ones get wiped out because one of them went nuts really pulls at the heart strings.

Or you can name your troops after people you hate and send them on one man recon missions to flush out the enemy. If they survive maybe you can forgive them for whatever they did to piss you off. If they die you can comfort their wife. hmmm but they are probably alive in real life and might hurt you if you do that. Maybe stay away from the wives.

Prozac wrote:

We've had our first fatality!

Itsatrap managed to misfire with his rocket launcher hitting the small stone wall at his feet instead of the giant side of the barn he was aiming at

Luckily he was the only one caught in the blast.

This thread definitely needs some more screen shots.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Or you can name your troops after people you hate and send them on one man recon missions to flush out the enemy.

So... What I do with Quintin then?

We have a few Officers:

Prozac - Captain, 3 missions 4 kills
Tamren - Sergeant, 3 missions 1 kill

Casualties:

Itsatrap - Self Splosion!

Redwing got gunned down by a floater during our terror mission in Nigeria as he stepped out of the Skyranger. He had time to lob his primed grenade taking his killer with him.

Ruh, Roh. 4 Soldiers just got knocked out with a stun bomb at the exit ramp of the Skyranger.

It's alright, we survived. I was dissapointed in Coldstream. Podunk had to sling his unconscious body over his shoulder and carry the medic to safety.

Wow, a lot of promotions after that one. I think we may have a few too many NCO's now.

Colonel Prozac
Captain Tamren
Sergeant Coldstream
Sergeant Yonder
Sergeant Nightmare (he's a heavy :D)
Sergeant Warhound (not an LT yet)

Prozac has had, by far, the best idea in the history of awesome ideas.

Goddammit now I have to buy this again.

So when does the betting start?

I second the Antarctic manufacturing base (I call mine "Sweatshop"). I generally seem to have bad luck with a massed attack on the US or other important countries causing them to ally with the aliens early on, that secondary income source keeps me going.

Bah. What is it with you guys and the Rocket Launcher, it seems to be a magnet for trouble. On a Terror Mission in Russia Stevenmack had an alien grenade dropped at his feet. luckily everyone else was far enough away to survive the blast, although Podunk got pretty messed up.

Whoops, Aetius just shot a guy in the back, luckily it was of the Redshirts

Wow, two terror missions in about a week. So far we've only lost Goodjers on the terror missions.

Looks like the Aliens know how to relax. We just discovered an alien base on the main island of Fiji.

Yonder wrote:

I second the Antarctic manufacturing base (I call mine "Sweatshop"). I generally seem to have bad luck with a massed attack on the US or other important countries causing them to ally with the aliens early on, that secondary income source keeps me going.

Malor wrote:

Setting up a manufacturing base in Antarctica, with no vehicles and running no interceptions, is often a safe way to get steady money flow. As you fail your way through the game, you will start to lose countries, and that manufacturing facility is what will keep you in business.

If you don't build any aircraft hangars or radar domes, does it still get attacked?

Soldier recruitment is extremely important, too.

The first thing I do is dump everyone without at least 50 bravery and 28 strength. Anyone under that will be useless straight out the gate for missions.

Also pay attention to the soldier's stats. If someone has good firing accuracy give them a long gun. If someone is strong with good throwing accuracy, give them grenades and launchers. If someone has high bravery and psi defense, make them a medic.

Other than that you've got plenty of good advice here.

This is the game that gave me my GWJ login. Lester King was my commander the first time I beat XCom way back in high school.

Damn't... now I have to play too.

Somehow I have avoided playing any Xcom games my entire life. And now you lot are making me seriously contemplate getting the steam pack...

And I'm not just posting in this thread in the hope that Prozac will recruit me. Nope. Honest*.

[size=3]*Oh pleeeaaase can I?[/size]

Prozac wrote:

On a Terror Mission in Russia Stevenmack had an alien grenade dropped at his feet.

Story of my life.

Here's some threads on x-com since I joined that are all more than a year dormant.
Terror From the Deep Diaries
X-Com comes to Steam
Wave if You Love X-Com <- closest thing to a wave I can get from the built in smileys, and I think it works on a few other levels.

Man, this game gets a lot of love around here.

Prozac wrote:

Redwing got gunned down by a floater during our terror mission in Nigeria as he stepped out of the Skyranger. He had time to lob his primed grenade taking his killer with him.

Aww... well at least I went out taking down the bastard that got me! I like the think I was the plucky recruit that everyone liked, getting killed at the beginning of the movie to pull at everyones heart strings... I can dream can't I?

Ah X-COM, greatest PC game ever? Yes. The only game from my youth that I can still play to this day and enjoy just as much as modern games.

I want to be a replacement soldier...I'm seeing myself as 'Plucky Brit who fashions a superweapon out of £10's worth of wood, 5 elastic bands and a gift set from Halfords'.

Damn, now I have to threaten my brother with bodily harm so he`d return me my Xcom anthology CD. If I find out there`s beer stains on the CD, we could be looking forward to a domestic disturbance.

I have never had my sweatshop bases attacked, I put them in the center of the pole with only living quarters, storage, engineering, and later labs. Realistically there would be a stream of ships or aircraft bringing in supplies and raw materials, and leaving with the finished goods, but I think that only military action on your part will draw the aliens' attention.

For full disclosure I will admit that I have never finished a game of XCom, I have just played to the half way point several times before being distracted by some other shiny object. I always plan to build a Hangar or two down there so that I can build spaceships there instead of my other bases, but haven't gotten to that point.

Another precaution that I take is to avoid attacking any UFOs in the Southern third of Argentina and Chile, I try to wait for them to head back up North before I engage them.

Yoyoson wrote:
Yonder wrote:

I second the Antarctic manufacturing base (I call mine "Sweatshop"). I generally seem to have bad luck with a massed attack on the US or other important countries causing them to ally with the aliens early on, that secondary income source keeps me going.

Malor wrote:

Setting up a manufacturing base in Antarctica, with no vehicles and running no interceptions, is often a safe way to get steady money flow. As you fail your way through the game, you will start to lose countries, and that manufacturing facility is what will keep you in business.

If you don't build any aircraft hangars or radar domes, does it still get attacked?

I think there's always a main entrance, no matter what, so yeah, you can get attacked in one of those sorts of bases.

Edit: Also, this thread made me look in one of my hard drives that survived my last purge and what do you know? XCom with a game still in the early stages...

This reminds me of this:
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/XCOMUF...

Seriously, if you haven't read some of Something Awful's Let's Play articles, read them. They're hilarious.

Oh goodness, I haven't played this since college. I think I am going to have to fire it up again.

And then name all my scouts Prozac, and watch him die over and over again.

Then come tears of joy.

Prozac, you know you need kaostheory to help you rid the world of the evil Quintin!

I'll stray from the apparently approved Goodjer methodology and say that I don't like grenades much. I also rarely use lasers. Everyone carries at least one grenade as there will be some time you need it, but my luck with them has always been bad.

I carefully screen my starting recruits and most of them are still alive at end game. I try to avoid explosives as much as possible to avoid team/civilian kills, and focus heavily on reactions and accuracy. The beginning is brutal, but by midgame I can aimed shot snipe from halfway across the map with pretty much everyone on the team. Having two or three soldiers covering each other turns aliens to swiss cheese quickly.

It is okay to stand, take one step, kneel again, and forget that soldier until next turn.

Coldstream wrote:

You bastards. Now I have an urge to play this. However, in my defense, I've never played it (somehow missed it the first time around) and feel as though I should at least check it out to see a bit of gamer history.

Questions: Does anyone know if the Steam version works without needing DOSbox lunacy? Is it worth springing for the $15 XCOM pack, or just $5 for the UFO Defense game?

I'll second stevenmack. UFO Defense is legendary. Terror from the Deep is the same game done in blue with the difficulty ramped up. Apocalypse is worth trying, but you'll probably stop playing it before the end. The rest is forgettable.

The Steam version uses DOSbox. I have had no problems running any of the first three games on Windows 7 64-bit.

Oh, and one other thing explicitly for Podunk:

Play it on the PC and don't quit. If you're too frustrated with the beginning grind, grab a save game editor and up your soldier's accuracy.

Better to cheat a little and enjoy the game than quit outright.

I've never played Xcom, but I am digging Prozac's story of unfortunate GWJ mishaps!

Screenshots would be win, too.