XCOM: Enemy Unknown

srsly78

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Has anyone played with the second wave options yet? Any interesting combinations?

Training Roulette makes the game a lot more interesting.

TheChrisD

srsly78 wrote: »

Training Roulette makes the game a lot more interesting.

Close Combat Specialist Snipers. Awww yeah.

jaxdasher

Just got my ass handed to me in IC. Restarting again on same difficulty. In playing this as a rougelike. Love this frustration.

Tenger

Sarky wrote: »

Random starting stats and random stat increases can lead to some interesting troops........

It will probably cost you more on hiring soldiers, but it can help tailor your squads even further to your tastes.

How many more we talking? Double?

I usually (in Enemy Unknown) have a stable of about 20 troops....aiming to have 8-10 main guys that I cycle in and out as wounds permit. I would assume the MEC and genemod options require a deeper pool even before the random stats.

ancapailldorcha

Just lost my very, very mobile heavy. This could be interesting.

jaxdasher

Eff this I'm doing NI. My own hubris has defeated me. I'm just worried how in EU the difficulty eases up midgame when plasma weapons are out. Hopefully that's rectified and keeps it up all to the end.

sin0city

Yeah, I started last night on NI. The amount of options at the start is great. I enabled all of them, even the tutorial because I'd only gone through it once when I first got EW, and especially the one that stops things like Vahlen repeatedly warning you about grenades.

I enabled random starting stats and random promotion stat increases from the second wave options too. One soldier had 20 odd will so they'll be cannot fodder but one had 75 aim so that's promising. Love the way you can have your squad answer in their own language now as well.

I wouldn't worry about getting overpowered midgame, as far as I know there's plenty of new skill tree options and enemies to keep you entertained.

ancapailldorcha

jaxdasher wrote: »

Eff this I'm doing NI. My own hubris has defeated me. I'm just worried how in EU the difficulty eases up midgame when plasma weapons are out. Hopefully that's rectified and keeps it up all to the end.

It gets very easy once you're past the first few months. The only way you'll lose a fight is if you get complacent for which the game will punish you severely.

sin0city

Enjoying EW so far. Love the Mecs. It was all plain sailing until the mission

in the fishing village with the whale spawning chrysalids. Could not outrun them and lost 5 of my 6 soldiers. Great mission though.

But feck sake, they kept throwing the missions at me after that. Completed Slingshot and the abductions but when the first Exalt mission popped up, between the fishing village mission and the rest I just didn't have enough soldiers. I had to select "Not now" so how does that affect the Exalt missions? Are they gone for good now?

Grimebox

sin0city wrote: »

Enjoying EW so far. Love the Mecs. It was all plain sailing until the mission

in the fishing village with the whale spawning chrysalids. Could not outrun them and lost 5 of my 6 soldiers. Great mission though.

But feck sake, they kept throwing the missions at me after that. Completed Slingshot and the abductions but when the first Exalt mission popped up, between the fishing village mission and the rest I just didn't have enough soldiers. I had to select "Not now" so how does that affect the Exalt missions? Are they gone for good now?

Yeah that mission was a curve ball. I ended up finishing that with only two rookies who initially came along for training. Chrysalids have to be my favourite enemy. Either they don't do anything to you, or they completely fcuk you up. There is genuine air of fear around them.

Zulu

Oh. My. Fu(king. God.
Finally, after months, I finally got the bloody game working. Fell like I'm very late to the party, but sweet baby jesus, was it worth it. Played upto the

x-com base attack

! Deadly! Delighted to see this aspect of the original game back again.

Zulu

Grimebox wrote: »

Chrysalids have to be my favourite enemy. Either they don't do anything to you, or they completely fcuk you up. There is genuine air of fear around them.

So true, when they show up, if they aren't in range of my snipers, I fall back until they are! It's a major double time regroup.

Zulu

Just thinking. I'd be interested to see other peoples ideal team.

I nearly always go for:

Senior sniper with "in the zone" and "squad sight".
Trainee sniper.
Heavy.
Heavy.
Support with medpacks.
Assault with arcthrower.

Fawk Nin

Got this game on PS Plus and I'm finally going to start it tonight.
Any advice before jumping in? My only previous experience with tactical RPGs are Fire Emblem and Advance Wars.

degrassinoel

Sniper - Col. Archangel /w Plasma Sniper
Support - any rank above sergeant as a Medic
MEC -Col.(heavy with good aim) Kinetic strike for close support, and reactive sensors. (the German language robotic voice is a must for that one)
Assault x3 - any rank and spec at least one with close combat - Ghost armour and Alloy Cannon

degrassinoel

Fawk Nin wrote: »

Got this game on PS Plus and I'm finally going to start it tonight.
Any advice before jumping in? My only previous experience with tactical RPGs are Fire Emblem and Advance Wars.

Yeah dude, go slow, save often and don't get too attached to your troopers. Try to get a satellite uplink built first and get those satellites launched as quickly as you can each month.

ancapailldorcha

Try to move each soldier first before taking any shots or other actions. Hunker Down isn't useless. Use full cover when available (obvious but essential).

sin0city

sin0city wrote: »

...but when the first Exalt mission popped up, between the fishing village mission and the rest I just didn't have enough soldiers. I had to select "Not now" so how does that affect the Exalt missions? Are they gone for good now?

Turns out they are not gone for good.
When I selected "not now" it was similar to when you fail to shoot down a UFO and they come back and take out your satellite. The country the cell was in went into panic. I was then given a second chance to send in a covert operative, which I did. After successfully completing the extraction panic was reduced, by one point I think.

sin0city

Zulu wrote: »

Just thinking. I'd be interested to see other peoples ideal team.

I nearly always go for:

Senior sniper with "in the zone" and "squad sight".
Trainee sniper.
Heavy.
Heavy.
Support with medpacks.
Assault with arcthrower.

Well so far in EW:

(2 items each thanks to Tactical Rigging)

-Sniper
-Assault
-Heavy
-Support
-MEC Trooper (once you get the armor and movement upgrades in the foundry and combine them with MEC-2 or 3 they are beasts)
-Hover shiv / one extra of any of the above depending on the mission

EU I would have had a hover shiv, one of each class and then usually an extra heavy.

Also, I find you're better having the arc thrower on a support class. With sprinter they have increased movement. Combine that with a skeleton suit and you can get in position to stun fairly easily.

Zulu

Interesting, I NEVER use Shivs.

sin0city

Zulu wrote: »

Interesting, I NEVER use Shivs.

Well there's a few reasons I like them:

-Hover shivs with plasma weapons are fairly lethal and it's easy to flank with them.
-I don't mind losing them - it's not like losing a soldier.
-They can be great scouts, especially if you've a squadsight sniper in archangel armor.
-They're even more powerful in EW with the Sentinel Drone and other foundry upgrades.
-They're also immune to poison, panic, chrysalids, beserkers and any form of mind control.

Dacian

Fawk Nin wrote: »

Got this game on PS Plus and I'm finally going to start it tonight.
Any advice before jumping in? My only previous experience with tactical RPGs are Fire Emblem and Advance Wars.

-In the first month you will be offered a choice of 3 missions at a time. You can only do 1. Pick the one that offers Engineers as a reward. Extra engineers early on can mean you get to build a Satellite Uplink right from the start. Satellite coverage is how to keep panic level down in various countries.

-I would recommend starting in Africa for your 1st attempt. 3 countries here and you get increased funding. The late game bonuses from Asia/North America/Europe are less relevant to a beginner. If you lose a country in Africa it doesn't affect your funding bonus.

-As above, you have 2 moves per trooper. Make 1st move with whole team first then do the 2nd. Overwatch is your friend but EU forces you to move fast to get Meld ingame.

ancapailldorcha

For end game CI, I try and use one of each class along with a MEC Trooper and either an extra sniper or a hover SHIV. The Heavy's HEAT ammo ability is very useful against the newly buffed sectopods.
Generally, I'd try and go with:
1-2 Squadsight snipers
1 support with 3 medkits and sprinter
1-2 Assaults, at least 1 with lightning reflexes
1 Heavy
Either 1 MEC Trooper or 1 hover SHIV

sin0city

Fawk Nin wrote: »

Got this game on PS Plus and I'm finally going to start it tonight.
Any advice before jumping in? My only previous experience with tactical RPGs are Fire Emblem and Advance Wars.

Few other tips:

Only move into the fog of war on your first turn. At least then if you uncover enemies you've 5 more soldiers to deal with them (3 more early game). If you uncover a group on your last turn they will have a full turn to mess you up.

To get promotions early on use grenades a lot, especially on the higher difficulties. Rookies (unless you've random starting stats on) have very poor aim, even with a scope.

If you have to choose between countries going into panic and one of them is in your starting continent, always let them panic. You cannot lose your starting continent bonus so aside from the monthly income, losing those countries is irrelevant.

DeVore

About to assault the ship when I finally level up my one and only PSI enabled trooper.
I'm still working with the basic 4-man squad for the achievement but even so, its basically a cake-walk at this stage.


From my experience, I wouldnt recommend trying to skip Lasers section, in fact I would rush lasers next time... its just too long a stretch to get Plasma and not worth the extra time with regular crappy weapons.

Cravez

X-COM Enemy Within is only €6.24 on Steam for the next 24 hours. It's the cheapest iv seen it anywhere at all since it's release.

BloodBath

Sweet, I've been waiting for a good deal on this.

Kiith

Also picking that up. Fantastic price.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

also bought EW on the 13th

and i'm finally sleep deprived enough that reinstalling X-com seems like a good idea

i'll update this post if I rage out and uninstall it at some point in the next hour

--edit

1 hour later

decided to do the tutorial mission on the meld stuff, lost 3 soldiers. I don't see this ending well.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I have now restarted the opening mission 4 times....

i hate this ****ing game