XCOM: Enemy Unknown

BizzyC

ED E wrote: »

I've done some research but I dont wanna self spoil so I need help from somebody who's beaten the game:

Base assault isn't the end of the game

ED E

BizzyC wrote: »

Base assault isn't the end of the game

Cheers

Patser

Just finished it (Classic, non-Ironman) and have to say really enjoyed it. Really, really addictive. But in some ways looking back, maybe a little too short and scripted. Maybe it's nostalgia but I remember the original UFO games going on for ages.

That said it is a tense game that needs a lot of thinking to get the best out of it. The plasma sniper rifle in a veteran snipers hand is leathal which leads on to my last little niggle -

walked into the last room on the mothership, 3 Ethereals and 2 Muton Pluses. Use my Sniper to double tap the 1st (Head) Ethereal and that's it game over! Seemed way too easy a finish!

Also having trouble trying to motivate myself to play through again, as I feel the fact it is scripted will just make the game samey!

Edit: Oh and to add my bit to the X-Com maths debate, I missed a 100% shot!:pac: 2 squares away with a scatter shotgun, missed!:o

ED E

Finished it myself last night. Pretty decent game overall. Only had one Psi unit :rolleyes:

blatantrereg

Playing on impossible. Game going well. Have psi lab built and strong squad. Lost four countries from the council, but have sattelites over most of the others. S. Africa left after getting alien abductions after having a sattelite - which is something I thought couldn't happen after they have a sattelite so that was odd.

Starts off very hard on impossible but gets a lot easier after the second month or so.

tips if anyone is interested:

Rush to attack the base in the second month. The panic levels will be too high if you leave it any longer. Also the aliens in it will be weaker the earlier you go in. In my case I encountered two groups of drones with no accompanying cyberdisc/sectoid. I reckon that I went in too early in the game for them to appear (encountered my first one a couple of weeks later).

The soldiers you get at the beginning of the game have only 3 health. However any new recruits get 6 health. So get new recruits immediately.

I read online not to even bother with some maps, but that's not the case. I've succeeded with every mission, including the one with the fountain which was specified as being impossible. (Using basic weapons and carapace/skeleton armour). [I did have to restart some missions alright - and I didn't complete the first mission until my third attempt - the first mission is the hardest I think, because of the reduced health of your soldiers].

Skip laser weapons.

Stun units to get their weapons and research bonuses. Stun mutons asap for plasma research credit.

Prioritise satellites to build up a decent income and manage panic.

Sell corpses.

I started in Africa for the income bonus. This seems to have worked well.

I haven't upgraded ship weapons at all from the basic ones, and dont think I missed any ufos. Obviously this is down to a bit of luck on my part, but I think it is worth delaying research of ship weapons in favour of stuff to help your squad for a while. [I've been delaying in researching the next plot item so the overseer doesn't spawn before I can tackle it].

In the early game multiple heavies [with holo targetting] and snipers can help compensate for the weak weapons. I've wiped out half the terrain on some maps.

Be prepared to have cover destroyed quickly, and strongly favour full cover over half cover.

Enemy squads move around a lot more. This can be problematic since you can get swamped, but you can have it work in your favour too. If you set up a strong position they are more likely to walk into your killzone. I cleared the terrorist mission map with the tanks without even entering the complex after setting up a strong position at the entrance and killing the waves of enemies that came (25 aliens in that case - though a lot of them would have been civilians who had been implanted).

Dont worry about saving civilians. Alternative targets to your soldiers are good. Markers showing safe places to go are good. Extra chrysallises are manageable. Haven't noticed any practical penalty from getting a "poor" rating for civilians saved.

The thin men that drop on rescue missions have only 3 health sometimes (instead of 6). This makes them good targets to stun for their light plasma rifles. Do this even before you can use the guns.

Stercus Accidit

Where is the cheapest place to buy this game? GetGamesGo has it for 50€ which is pretty steep.

Also, what is the best difficulty to start the game at? Bear in mind I play most games on the hardest setting but this one reeks of old school hard being actually hard!

Patser

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Also, what is the best difficulty to start the game at? Bear in mind I play most games on the hardest setting but this one reeks of old school hard being actually hard!

There's 2 things to bear in mind when choosing how 'hard' you want the game.

1stly the obvious difficulty level and Classic (2nd hardest) is plenty challenging, whereas Impossible will really, really stretch you/

the 2nd thing is Ironman or not. Ironman will restrict you to 1 save game (which it auto updates as you go). This means that when your crack team that you've been building up lovingly for ages gets wiped out (and they will because eventually you'll mess up and get caught out (or you'll miss 3 90% accuracy shots in a turn, leaving everyone vulnerable)), you'll suddenly be left with a team of brand new Rookies who can barely tie their laces, facing off against Elite Enemies because you've progressed so far into the game - and there's no fall back to when times were good:(

ED E

Play Iron Man! DO IT. It makes the game, because every decision is final, it carries weight. The tension this causes rocks. And losing only makes you come back with a better strat from your first click.

Start normal+ironman and it its too easy you'll beat it quickly and can come back for classic.

Sarky

YAS.

Ironman is essential. It makes you genuinely afraid of the aliens and of losing a favourite troop. It gives the game a nice bite to the difficulty, and does wonders for the atmosphere in a meta way because you know there's no going back.

degrassinoel

yey! patch!

Major Fixes

• Abductor roof visibility problems resolved

• Interception game hang issues resolved
If two interceptors are sent after UFO
If Skyranger is returning from combat after an Interceptor was already deployed

• SHIV inaccessible issues resolved

• AI Alien Activity Hang resolution

• Multiplayer connectivity optimization

Other Fixes

• TempleShip optimization: All Soldiers properly spawn when restarting the mission after clearing the second room of TempleShip

• Snapshot penalty should no longer apply when Overwatching without first moving.

• Easy Difficulty is now easier.

Finally they fixed the shiv's and the camera inside the abductor class ships!

Wossack

Really fantastic Ironman Impossible series of videos on youtube, by a guy called beaglerush, that I highly recommend

First one in the series is just below, and well worth checking out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9zJE9GodMQ

apologies if its a repost

Cravez

degrassinoel wrote: »

yey! patch!
Finally they fixed the shiv's and the camera inside the abductor class ships!

Thank god that was really grinding my gears!

Also, you are able to send two ships after a UFO?

degrassinoel

apparently yeah, though I've never done it, i assume you hit escape or it's console equivalent before the first one reaches the target and send out a second one

Sarky

Sending two interceptors was essential in the older games, some of those UFOs were really big bastards.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

afaik you have to send the first ship back to the hangar, or let it get destroyed then you send the other ship out


watching some youtube videos of a guy playing ironman impossible there.. guess it's time for me to give x-com another shot

although im not doing iton ****ing impossible

Stercus Accidit

Just lost my game after 152 days on classic ironman, once you lose your top guys it all goes to hell! I remember thinking I should ignore that very hard mission, but I didn't, lost 3 of my best and it was downhill from there.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

ever get the feeling there are some missions the game just wants you to lose?

lost 3 soldiers in one turn because some upgraded mutons just appeared out of nowhere after I'd gone into cover

once they were gone it was a slow painful march towards death for the rest of my team

pissed off now

ED E

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

ever get the feeling there are some missions the game just wants you to lose?

lost 3 soldiers in one turn because some upgraded mutons just appeared out of nowhere after I'd gone into cover

once they were gone it was a slow painful march towards death for the rest of my team

pissed off now

Had that happen twice. Once on the building site level where every enemy triggered in one go and I got stuck in the gate way and ripped up. Second time I triggered a

sectopod

and then they just came out of the woodwork. 15+ enemies to shoot at in one turn....

Cravez

On any difficult missions (most missions after month 3) I'm pretty much doing one turn move, one turn overwatch. Find it makes it easier to move forward and if you're soldiers have a decent aim you can pick off any aliens that happen to appear out of cover, or at least do enough damage to them that your next turn will finish them off or they will run to alternate cover and out of your LOS

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

after losing my entire squad in the last mission, I pick myself up off the ground dust off my backup majors, liutenants and corporals and sally on forth

3 minutes into the next mission my major support gets killed by a floater

nuh-uh

no way, no how

time for a new game

Patser

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

ever get the feeling there are some missions the game just wants you to lose?

Just had a game there, continuing on from a save point. Had a thin man cornered, shot him with a pistol to get him down to 1 point of health and then ran up to stun him at point blank range. 90% chance, stun failed.

So reload and do it all again, 90% stun fail. Try again 3 more times out of pure curiousity. Always failed to stun but died easily when just shot with a light plasma. Game seemed to decide I just couldn't stun him.

Nody

Patser wrote: »

Just had a game there, continuing on from a save point. Had a thin man cornered, shot him with a pistol to get him down to 1 point of health and then ran up to stun him at point blank range. 90% chance, stun failed.

So reload and do it all again, 90% stun fail. Try again 3 more times out of pure curiousity. Always failed to stun but died easily when just shot with a light plasma. Game seemed to decide I just couldn't stun him.

Been noted before; the game has every option calculated when you save so you can't change the outcome of a single shot by saving and taking it again.

Grimebox

Nody wrote: »

Been noted before; the game has every option calculated when you save so you can't change the outcome of a single shot by saving and taking it again.

Or else your just very, very unlucky :pac:

ED E

Had one game where I needed to escape(After two deaths in turn two due to very lucky mutons) but there was no transport and no evac zone. Is this normal?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

happened to me on a couple of missions, i think it's only a specific kind of mission it happens on but cant for the life of me think which kind

Stercus Accidit

Playing on Normal now, not Classic, still ironman mode as it is by far the most fun and I am mopping them up with a team of Colonels. 100% Satellite coverage too, after this play-through I might actually be able for classic.

degrassinoel

lol, i'm taking 5 SHIV's out with a support guy with an arc thrower to repair them. Comical

Jim

Woot, finished Ironman Normal last night with one man left alive after the last mission....a rookie sniper

Grimebox

Jim wrote: »

Woot, finished Ironman Normal last night with one man left alive after the last mission....a rookie sniper

I had a similar situation on the last mission except my last sniper bugged out using cloak and remained cloak for the rest of the mission. Meaning he was invincible while I killed all the aliens. The only hard thing was that I couldn't move and shoot with him so the aliens kept running away.

Actually that's nothing like your situation. We both had snipers, thats all that was in common

sliabh

My desktop printer just cost me Brazil and I have to tell someone.

Playing on Normal-Ironman and I was doing a VIP rescue mission in Brazil which was at 4 panic. So this one was important.

Things were under control - the team had the VIP and were busy popping hordes of 3-health Thin men. With my most experienced Heavy (a Major) selected, I moved my mouse forward to target one of them when the right button bumped and got clicked under the paper feed tray of the printer on my desk. The poor bastard diligently ran out into the open to be shot twice. He was down to 2 health, but still up, so I legged him back into cover and let someone else waste the shooters. There was swearing, but the situation was salvageable.

The wounded Heavy then was crouched behind a car with the VIP when a final thin man spat poison and hit both of them. I ran in a support medic who had no choice but to patch up the VIP first. Next turn, before I could do anything the Major croaked it. 4 spaces away a rookie panicked at the loss and opened fire. Up to then he was there as the XCOM equivalent of Star Trek's red-shirts: to make up numbers and soak up fire until he qualified as someone useful. All mission he couldn't hit a thing, now with his panic shot he nailed the bloody VIP - VIP loss, mission loss, loss of my favourite Heavy, and loss of Brazil!

Moral of the story - Iron man is brutal and unforgiving, and clear your desk of obstacles before playing!