XCOM: Enemy Unknown

TomCo

DeVore wrote: »

btw, I left mine for ages as a mission, several months at least in order to tool up for it so there isnt a time limit on it it seems. I wonder if I had gone immediately, would it have been full of sectoids and floaters only....

Mine was almost exclusively cyberdiscs

Cravez

DeVore wrote: »

I took on the first base mission last night. Foolish foolish Tom. 4am my squad crawled out. They were quite successful and the game does a really nice job of the post mission roundup but man my team was in bits and will take weeks to recover... i recommend medkits and skills to use them. Also, some stun guns!

I took my sweet, sweet time going through the (first) alien base. I had 2 assault, 2 support, 1 heavy and 1 sniper. Each of my supports had medkits with the x3 medkit usage so had 6 possible heals. Assaulters had the Ark Throwers. My sniper and Heavy were essentially firepower support.

How I did my tactics was I would move the team up to hunker down in a good area - usually high where I could look down below. I would use my assaulter to scout ahead to get alien attention and then lure them back for a barrage of bullets from soliders hunkered down. For the Sectoid Commander I used my sniper to crit shot him and then get the assaulter to run up and stun him.

DeVore wrote: »

The base mission is huuuuge, 22 mobs in mine but the rewards.... oh the rewards... Its like the promised fncking land, plus it may have saved my game...

Yep the loot can make for some good selling

DeVore wrote: »

btw, I left mine for ages as a mission, several months at least in order to tool up for it so there isnt a time limit on it it seems. I wonder if I had gone immediately, would it have been full of sectoids and floaters only....

Wouldn't have made a difference I think, I took the mission immediately and I was fighting thin men, floaters, sectoids, and quite a few Chrysalids. On top of that there was the Sectoid Commander and also those new floating robotic enemies also.

VenomIreland

Welp, lowered difficulty to Classic, still enjoying the game.

SeantheMan

Michael Cravez wrote: »

Wouldn't have made a difference I think, I took the mission immediately and I was fighting thin men, floaters, sectoids, and quite a few Chrysalids. On top of that there was the Sectoid Commander and also those new floating robotic enemies also.

Did you not have any Mutons ? They were the ones who took half my health down immediately. Chrysalids are horrible too..I hate them

Spear

So I've just lost my first game. Despite a sterling combat record, I lost because too many nations withdrew from the XCom project. Since, unlike the earlier games, you can't just battle through multiple simultaneous incursions, you're forced to pick one of three abduction sites and will inevitably piss off nations. It seems like you're set up to fail from the start unless you obsessively monitor and balance the nations panic levels.

Cravez

SeantheMan wrote: »

Did you not have any Mutons ? They were the ones who took half my health down immediately. Chrysalids are horrible too..I hate them

I think the Sectoid Commander is the Muton (must have gotten the names mixed, I definitely saw Sectoid Commander via research of it though!). Before he had a chance to attack I had crit hitted him down to One health, moved my Assaulter down to stun him but just out of reach. Muton took control of one my guys but next round I was within distance of stunning before he could get my soldier to do anything.

Grimebox

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

panic in argentina, canada and the uk
japan and australia alread pulled out of the council
i have no ranked soldiers, just a barracks full of rookies


I think it's time to start a new game

Let the game end itself. If that means just scanning until everyone leaves the council so be it. The failure video sequence is good

SeantheMan

Michael Cravez wrote: »

I think the Sectoid Commander is the Muton (must have gotten the names mixed, I definitely saw Sectoid Commander via research of it though!). Before he had a chance to attack I had crit hitted him down to One health, moved my Assaulter down to stun him but just out of reach. Muton took control of one my guys but next round I was within distance of stunning before he could get my soldier to do anything.

No, the Mutons are like bigger more muscular versions of the lads from Quake. Big green armor suits on them, loads of health...they were the first thing I encountered....they threw 2 nades and crit shotted my sniper.

NeoSlicerZ

On Normal... the end boss was surprisingly easy. Squad sight + a Double Tap sniper. Pew pew...

Cravez

SeantheMan wrote: »

No, the Mutons are like bigger more muscular versions of the lads from Quake. Big green armor suits on them, loads of health...they were the first thing I encountered....they threw 2 nades and crit shotted my sniper.

Ahh ok. Nope I haven't encountered those guys yet. How much health do they have?

SeantheMan

Michael Cravez wrote: »

Ahh ok. Nope I haven't encountered those guys yet. How much health do they have?

About 12-14 I think, they're not nice
So would this mean the difficulty for that mission scales with how good your team are or how many months into the game you are ?, cause then there'd be no point me spending time levelling up , as I'd come back to an equally hard mission

Tenger

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

panic in argentina, canada and the uk,
japan and australia alread pulled out of the council,
i have no ranked soldiers, just a barracks full of rookies,

I think it's time to start a new game

Hello old friend, I've missed you.

DeVore

re higher enemies

Mutons have 10 health and are tough as they have heavy armour. The commander has 20 health (like the discs). I wonder if you hadnt discovered Mutons, that they wouldnt be in the first base... ? Sounds like it might be...

Grimebox

I'm a bit confused as of how the economy works. You get a bonus amount of money per month per satellite per territory? If you cover a continent you get more still? So I should just be trying to launch as many as possible to get a decent backbone of income? I decided to skip the tutorial as I had played the demo already. I may missed some stuff

Big Knox

Lost my entire squad on Ironman today. My 6 highest ranked, all Col or Majors!

Had some free time at lunch so as you do I jumped on for a quick mission or two. It was a large UFO landed mission and I wasn't prepared for how hard it was going to be. Didn't help I was rushing as I wanted to get through it before I had to go.

Ended up pushing forward too fast and aggro'd about 6 Chrysalids and a team of Mutons at the same time. Grenades, panic, team kills, more panic and zombies followed by a failed retreat was pretty much how it went down!! :P

Going to restart tonight as I messed up my economy after the tutorial and I can't see myself getting very far with an entire team of rookies!!

DeVore

re: the economy, I think you are right... its not very clear. It seems to be that you should build sats for the paniced countries first starting with the rich countries and covering most with one each and live with the less optimal income. Then build second sats for the rich countries to boost income. That *seems* like the best approach... I guess the really poor countries could be left off the first round and just try to pick them from the list but if they leave you are never getting the continent bonus, which seem pretty tasty...

Tenger

Having read the forums before the EU launch there seems to be some logic in choosing Africa for your starting location. The greater income should allow you to build Sat more quickly thus further boosting your economy.

I chose Europe as the better research appealed to me. However the research seems quite linear so I might try Africa on my next campaign.

Just finished the Overseer UFO mission....4 new aliens types (including ethereal) .....was very lucky in that I only lost a major(who had 26 kills in 13 missions )....worth it I think

Anyone got any thoughts on optimal soldier perks?

-Run and Gun has saved me so many times on my current top guy.
-Personally I prefer Snap Shot to Squad Sight on my snipers. Better to have them keep up with the squad than hope no walls block vision. Damn Good Ground seems very terrain specific.
-Also the Heavy ability that doesn't end your turn upon firing is great,it allows 2 shots a turn.

I find I am usually aiming to field with 1 of each troop type, backed up with 2 more support or Support/Assault. I have 14 soldiers above Squaddie and really need them to ensure I always have a 6 man team ready.

Big Knox

Tenger wrote: »

Having read the forums before the EU launch there seems to be some logic in choosing Africa for your starting location. The greater income should allow you to build Sat more quickly thus further boosting your economy.

I chose Europe as the better research appealed to me. However the research seems quite linear so I might try Africa on my next campaign.

Just finished the Overseer UFO mission....4 new aliens types (including ethereal) .....was very lucky in that I only lost a major(who had 26 kills in 13 missions )....worth it I think

Anyone got any thoughts on optimal soldier perks?

-Run and Gun has saved me so many times on my current top guy.
-Personally I prefer Snap Shot to Squad Sight on my snipers. Better to have them keep up with the squad than hope no walls block vision. Damn Good Ground seems very terrain specific.
-Also the Heavy ability that doesn't end your turn upon firing is great,it allows 2 shots a turn.

I find I am usually aiming to field with 1 of each troop type, backed up with 2 more support or Support/Assault. I have 14 soldiers above Squaddie and really need them to ensure I always have a 6 man team ready.

Are you sure that's how it works, that you get two shots per turn? I thought it was made so you can fire and then back out before the turn ends if needed?

DeVore

I've found some perks were way more useful then I thought they would be... Run and Gun is one of them.

Squad sight is less useful then initially expected, but its still worth having one sniper take it. The alternative is move and fire yeah? I found that a lot more useful then I thought, mostly because of the dumbed down "two movement points" system.... even shifting over one tile means, no more shooting for you... while my heavy can run miles and lamp a dose of death into someone at close range.
Being able to change direction with a sniper to cover someone who just stumbled over a nest of Mutons (happens more than I care to admit ) is worth its weight in gold.

This game is going to be soooo different on Ironman... but I think I'll drop the difficult to normal for that, cos I dont hate myself that much

DeVore

I've definitely shot twice (cos it saved my ass against the berserker a few times!). I thought it meant something else too (like, you can just move after you have shot) but no, it means you can move or shoot again (obviously to shoot twice you need to stay still).

ChubbyHubby

DeVore wrote: »

re higher enemies

Mutons have 10 health and are tough as they have heavy armour. The commander has 20 health (like the discs). I wonder if you hadnt discovered Mutons, that they wouldnt be in the first base... ? Sounds like it might be...

Got to the commander room in the first base with 4 guys left and little health and no med-kits. Team then wiped and didn't want to beat it by save/reload so I went back to pre-mission save. Will do it later with proper equipment like more support guys with med-kits.

I am back in the base again now and have just met

a red melee muton

near the entrance which I haven't seen before in the side missions. I have a feeling I'll run into them now if I do a side mission because I have the level/equip/research to spawn them. So my guess is aliens that spawns are not linked to previous encounters.

djkeogh

Had been playing on classic ironman on my first run through. That proved to be a mistake. I managed to handle the first few missions competently enough but once the 2nd month started I began suffering heavy casualties and failing every mission.

I've dropped it down to Normal difficulty now and it is a hell of a lot easier. I'll get through this play through and be comfortable with the play mechanics before playing on classic or impossible again.

Great game. Really glad I picked it up

SeantheMan

DeVore wrote: »

re higher enemies

Mutons have 10 health and are tough as they have heavy armour. The commander has 20 health (like the discs). I wonder if you hadnt discovered Mutons, that they wouldnt be in the first base... ? Sounds like it might be...

I hadn't. They were the first time I came accross them

marshbaboon

Uber pro tip: You can afford to ignore panic on the continent you start on as you already have the continent bonus.

The game is really pretty balanced around you losing countries and soldiers. You have to lose 8 countries before it's game over. I also lost my entire squad, and every single other soldier was wounded, bar one rookie sniper, when a terror mission popped up. Had to ignore it and 4 ufos. Still wasn't game over, finished the game no bother.

Antar Bolaeisk

Eurgh, just lost six colonels, guys who'd been with me almost from the start, in a single mission and not one of them even landed a hit. Most hilarious part was when I desperately fired a rocket straight at a large pileup of enemies knowing that I'd lose one of my squadmates only for the rocket to go nearly 90 degress left of where it was bloody aimed!

Not a single one of them landed a shot even when the damn aliens were on their nose!

Time for a rage break me thinks.

Poor Sean Quinn *sniff*

SeantheMan

I've not come accross an Irish person yet, seems to be an overabundance of Nigerians though :P

Big Knox

What kind of squad set-up are people rolling with>?

My last playthrough I went with 2x Assault 2x Snipers 1x Heavy 1x Support

I think this time I'm going to drop a Sniper for an extra Support where possible! I think 2 Assault is essential though...

SeantheMan

I've seen pics and screenshots online where people have their squad members in different colour armor. Mine are always the same, all I can change is facial features and hair colour.
Am I missing something ?

Tenger

Big Knox wrote: »

What kind of squad set-up are people rolling with>?

My last playthrough I went with 2x Assault 2x Snipers 1x Heavy 1x Support

I think this time I'm going to drop a Sniper for an extra Support where possible! I think 2 Assault is essential though...

I think a single sniper is enough. I usually have 2 Support with the last 3 being a mix of Assault/Heavy depending on wound situation.

I try to have a single rookie on each mission but with the difficulty being racked up its seems not worth it. Currently have 5 rookies out of 18 on my roster.
I'm finding equipment quite scarce,usually allocating the 6 mission guys the best gear. EG. I have 2 Laser sniper rifle but 3 snipers, waiting to get access to Plasma sniper.


As regards the different colours, I do it as its easier for me to see at a glance where my various squads specialists are located in realtion to each other. Support=White, Assault=Dun Green, Snipers=Dark grey, Heavy=Red, Rookie/Squaddies=Tan/Khaki (Whatever that default settign is)

VinLieger

SeantheMan wrote: »

I've seen pics and screenshots online where people have their squad members in different colour armor. Mine are always the same, all I can change is facial features and hair colour.
Am I missing something ?

It was a pre-order bonus of steam, no idea if it was available for consoles, kinda hoping they release it as paid dlc as chopping out something thats available in the game like that for pre-orders is just punishing people who buy later on if they dont make it available