Help me enjoy X-Com

Today was a really tough day for the Apocalypse army. The aliens increased their numbers per space dramatically. most notably this tragic scenario played out after the final mission this morning:

*knock knock* >door opens<
hellooo...? ?concerned look>

Are you Big Hoppa's mother?

a silence that can only mean yes

h-he... he won't be coming home...

>much wailing and gnashing of teeth<

I was very tempted to reload an old save after he, and 2 of his commrades went down in the same mission in a warehouse, and right before that 2 others went down in the luxury condo complex of the currently most contested organization between aliens and humans of the war.

We will soldier on and never forget the contributions that Big Hoppa made that were unparalleled!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the others that fell in combat were:
Moondragon (just when things were looking up!)
Norfair
Jakeleg
Strewth (it was inevitable)

There is a season, turn turn turn...

I wish I was fast enough on the draw to get a screen capture of the events "Elysium has panicked" and "Elysium has gone berserk" from when I sent my guys into a very large UFO. They might have come in to liven up my responses to his articles.

Alas, I've lost Prederick, who was under enemy control when I killed the sectoid commander, and was counted as missing in action.

DudleySmith wrote:

Alas, I've lost Prederick, who was under enemy control when I killed the sectoid commander, and was counted as missing in action.

Yeah, well i'm going to start my own UFO Defense organization. With Blackjack! And Hookers!

Prederick wrote:
DudleySmith wrote:

Alas, I've lost Prederick, who was under enemy control when I killed the sectoid commander, and was counted as missing in action.

Yeah, well i'm going to start my own UFO Defense organization. With Blackjack! And Hookers!

Is that the alien in you talking?

TheWanderer wrote:

Wow... What difficulty are you playing?

Genius

Prozac, how am I doing? Still a captain? Have I led my squad to numerous victories over the alien menace?

I wanna be a Prozac Ranger, living a life of team kill danger.

I tried in vain to get the old CD-ROM up and running with no luck, so it looks like Steam will be getting some coin when I get home. I love this game and I can't wait to rename my recuits my sons, daughter, wife and friends.

"I'm sorry boys, Mommie won't be coming home. She took a blast of hot plasma to the head during the last recovery mission. But chin up. HQ just ordered you a new Mommie!"

I am starting to have serious budget issues. I think it might be because I am doing too much research.

I have 120 scientists, 35 engineers and about 20 soliders.

I have three bases but only one is really combat ready. Once I get a couple avengers built I hope to lose the interceptors which should net me a million or so a month.

I have NOT tried the Antarctica manufacturing base. I think I might have to though. Money is tight!

Kier wrote:

I have NOT tried the Antarctica manufacturing base. I think I might have to though. Money is tight!

Do we know for sure that this place is as secure as everyone is making it out to be? In my failed playthrough, I lost a radar base in Spain (following the loss of my main European base in the UK) even though it never launched an interceptor, let alone had one.

Rat Boy wrote:
Kier wrote:

I have NOT tried the Antarctica manufacturing base. I think I might have to though. Money is tight!

Do we know for sure that this place is as secure as everyone is making it out to be? In my failed playthrough, I lost a radar base in Spain (following the loss of my main European base in the UK) even though it never launched an interceptor, let alone had one.

In a FAQ I read it said that the world is partitioned up to different locations and the aliens get aggressive and search for XCOM based on where they are being fought. Theoretically if you fight and kill UFOs in Europe they will search Europe for the base, even if the actual base involved was somewhere else.

This FAQ advised that you try not to shoot down UFOs really close to your base unless they were already looking for it for this reason, to try to throw them off. He also said not to attack people too close to your radar bases for that reason.

I have no idea if he is right, but that is the alien behavior I kind of assume when I play, I'll try to find a link later today.

There are two ways you can do this. One is to blackout all outside activity for a base. You can have radar but you can't launch any planes from it and never intercept something close to the base. The second route is air superiority, just take out EVERYTHING and anything that comes into your airspace. The downside with plan B is that the aliens will start to use battleships for "lesser" missions, often more than one at a time. I guess they get tired of losing small ships after a while.

Aliens do sometimes build bases at the poles. So if you see activity there you don't have much land to search.

TonyBone wrote:

I wanna be a Prozac Ranger, living a life of team kill danger.

I tried in vain to get the old CD-ROM up and running with no luck, so it looks like Steam will be getting some coin when I get home. I love this game and I can't wait to rename my recuits my sons, daughter, wife and friends.

"I'm sorry boys, Mommie won't be coming home. She took a blast of hot plasma to the head during the last recovery mission. But chin up. HQ just ordered you a new Mommie!"

I suggest looking at the Direct 2 Drive offering for X-com. It's completely DRM free and comes with a handy DOSBox configuration that works great.

Aw man. Bought the farm twice in less than 5 hours and 4 posts apart. I think I should stay home for the next few days. Maybe safer that way.

Nathanial I believe you're in the North American base at the moment, which isn't seeing much action. I'm currently building my 2nd Avenger, which should go to the Asian base which is commanded by Quintin Stone (the North Am base is commanded by Tamren)

Prozac wrote:

Nathanial I believe you're in the North American base at the moment, which isn't seeing much action. I'm currently building my 2nd Avenger, which should go to the Asian base which is commanded by Quintin Stone (the North Am base is commanded by Tamren)

I must strenuously object to any plans that might provide Quintin Stone with material support, or anything else that might prolong his life in a substantive way.

TAMREN is my boss??!?! I think I will engineer a training accident and then assume control. It's for the good of the world.

Look, just because the UK has signed up to the Alien Armada, doesn't mean that I shouldn't get a command...I'll even take a lie detector test !

Fall in line, Female Doggoes! Time to get this base SHIP SHAPE! I've assigned you all some PRIMARY ACTION ITEMS. Let's LEVERAGE some SYNERGY here, people! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an appointment at a JAPANESE MASSAGE PARLOR.

Please tell me I'm not part of Quintin's squad. Last time I was assigned to protect him the "enemy" couldn't kill him and killed EVERYONE out of rage instead.

mrwynd wrote:

I suggest looking at the Direct 2 Drive offering for X-com. It's completely DRM free and comes with a handy DOSBox configuration that works great.

Anyone using the Mac OSx version of DosBox to play X-Com?

Judge_Digger wrote:

Please tell me I'm not part of Quintin's squad. Last time I was assigned to protect him the "enemy" couldn't kill him and killed EVERYONE out of rage instead.

You've managed to kill just about everyone else but like the poor marksman you keep missing the target!

MrCompletely wrote:

Anyone using the Mac OSx version of DosBox to play X-Com?

I'm gonna try it, but haven't had a chance yet...

Ranger Rick wrote:
MrCompletely wrote:

Anyone using the Mac OSx version of DosBox to play X-Com?

I'm gonna try it, but haven't had a chance yet...

Please let me know if you have success, if so, I'm purchasing for the three days stuck at the in-laws (if my wife doesn't catch me sneaking the 360 into my bag).

MrCompletely wrote:

Anyone using the Mac OSx version of DosBox to play X-Com?

I've used Mac DOSBox for a few things, and it worked fine, but not XCom specifically. There were a couple of issues with the last release, but I think the current one is just about perfect.

Malor wrote:
MrCompletely wrote:

Anyone using the Mac OSx version of DosBox to play X-Com?

I've used Mac DOSBox for a few things, and it worked fine, but not XCom specifically. There were a couple of issues with the last release, but I think the current one is just about perfect.

Did you ever get a chance to try to run Silent Storm or its expansion? I am hoping that you have better luck, and that the problem is related to my hardware.

Does the Windows version work under Windows 7? I'd try, but I already have enough on my plate with this baby that's sucking up my team.

I haven't found the Silent Storm disk. I'm hoping I didn't lose it in my last move, a lot of CDs went walkabout.

Rat Boy wrote:

Does the Windows version work under Windows 7? I'd try, but I already have enough on my plate with this baby that's sucking up my team.

I couldn't get the game to run after installing it (SS and SSS) but I think (hope) that it is a problem with my hardware. You are welcome to give it a try though! It is well worth it, if you can get it to work.

So... who bought X-Com because of this thread? Just letting you know it's 33% off on Steam now