XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Reverend]

^Clearly, you didn't read up enough.


In other news, I just got my first battleship mission, managed to get through the whole thing without any fatalities (though many injuries) aaaaaand the game crashed...

On the up side I did save about half way though, just after destroying the sectapod, so it's not a total do over. Mostly I'm annoyed because I was able to get my new psi-talented support solder enough kills that I'm pretty sure she would have gotten a promotion. It involved a lot of careful softening u of enemies and luring them into her field of fire because she's just not a very good shot.

[Alidar Jarok]

Lookingglassman. Log onto Steam. See if you can still play the game.

[archeryguy1701]

It's definitely worth a good look. It took me a couple missions to get use to the controls and the angles, but it was well worth the purchase.

[throwback]

I have attempted thirty separate games. I am running into the issue that there isn't enough money in the game to keep the troops updated with the latest equipment and armor, to keep a minimum number of satellites in the air, and to fund all the research and foundry projects. In one game, I was shoehorned into assaulting the alien base when I didn't feel ready.

I think of returning back to Fallout 3, where I can set my own pace, or buying and playing Far Cry 3. I like games where I can develop at own pace. I feel that XCOM has its pace, and the player is attempting to play catch-up.

[Reverend]

^The trick is to hold off on doing the "priority" research projects until you're ready for the next story mission to unlock.

You also need to be pretty aggressive with your base expansion early on to get enough satellites in the air ASAP. You should always have at least one satellite on the build, if not more. They take 20 days to construct, so if you need one in a hurry you'll find yourself up a certain creek, sans paddle. Another thing to remember is that you're not really supposed to be able to get *all* the new equipment. You're supposed to choose what you think you need the most and prioritise accordingly.

Personally (I'm still on my 1st playthrough btw) I only made about 4 or 5 laser rifles and two or three laser pistol. Didn't bother with the other laser based weapons and went straight to plasma, which was a huge saving in resources. Thist was possible early on as I was capturing as many aliens as possible and stockpiling their dropped weapons.

[Kadratis]

Lookingglassman wrote:

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I knew it was not a first person shooter and I read up on it, but the impression I got was it like a third person shooter, but turn based strategy game.

Believe it or not, there is a different XCOM game (preview) coming out very similar to what you described next year.

[Reverend]

^Wasn't that game "coming out next year" almost three years ago?

[archeryguy1701]

I was watching one of the videos connected to that one called "The many delays of XCOM" (sorry, I can't find it for some reason), and it said that it has been pushed back to the nebulous date of "Fiscal Year 2014, or sometime between I think April 2013 and March 2014.

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, I bought it during the last Steam sale. Lots of fun so far. At times very scary. I'm still figuring things out, but I selected the tutorial and normal difficulty and I'm basically using this as a trial run-through. I almost got depressed during the mission with the downed spacecraft because I lost two people in a single turn. Then, a third person in my mission began to have a panic attack and became useless. I literally won it with my last person on a lucky shot. Then the next mission, I lost somebody else in an ambush.

But I've gotten better. I haven't lost a single person since that point (last round, someone was bleeding out, though, and I won a turn before he died). I still don't quite get cover the way I should and I definitely have trouble getting the situations where aliens can shoot at you when you run from one cover to another, but I think I'll eventually get the kinks out.

[Alidar Jarok]

Double post because I have a question. Is there a good reason not to give technology to member states who ask for it?

[FPAlpha]

Alidar Jarok wrote:

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Double post because I have a question. Is there a good reason not to give technology to member states who ask for it?

Depends on the technology.. if they ask for something you can easily produce like a laser rifle and make some profit of it go ahead. You'll need the money.

If it's some critical parts like non-damaged UFO components like Nav Computers and such i'd think twice.. without wanting to spoil things you might think about using these components in future projects and they are often hard won (especially in the later stages of the game) so the reward must be significant. It's sometimes a tough choice.

As to your other problems.. effectivity of cover depends on where you are shot from. If the cover is in front of the alien your soldier will get a boost in his defense rating depending on several factors (like distance, type if cover, i.e. half/full etc). If you are shot at from the side or the back then obviously cover is useless.
Best bet is to move with a single action from cover to cover and use the second to place your soldier on overwatch so when an alien comes into his sight on his turn you get a shot at it and might kill it before it can act further.

Obviously the aliens can also overwatch fire which is the reason they can shoot at you when you move from cover to cover. Your assault troopers get a useful skill to counter that.. Lighning Reflexes which makes the first overwatch fire miss automatically. Useful for advance recon, get the location of the alien and then nail him with a sniper for example.

[Jono]

It took me five games but I finally finished a game, though I only restarted for the fifth game so that I could access the DLC content. I only played it on normal and I didn't accept any casualties, so I replayed quite a few missions. My next step is to try Ironman and see if I can handle it.

[FPAlpha]

Good luck.. Ironman on Classic difficulty level was the hardest thing i ever played and after about 2-3 months in game i gave up everytime.

Aliens make ridiculous shots many times (and of course often enough just kill my guy) and even if you make it through the normal combat missions with minimal lossess when the game presents you with the first Terror Mission you are most likely screwed if you play it and also screwed long term if you don't.

Classic without Ironman is ok.. hard, but manageable if you don't mind reloading saves but otherwise the difficulty levels are brutal (i haven't dared the Impossible level for fearing i'd deinstall the game ).

[Jono]

I have little doubt that within a short period of time I'll be swearing at the game, closing it down and walking away from the computer in a huff, muttering under my breath about how much BS everything that has ever happened is.

[Reverend]

^My advice: be aggressive with the base management and cautious on the battlefield. The most important thing is to get off to a solid start and get as much cash as possible. Focus on getting as many satellites built as you can afford, with South America & Africa being the priorities since their bonuses give you instant autopsies/interrogations and an overall cash boost respectively.

Also capture as many enemies as you can early on because those light plasma rifles will come in handy later. even more so if you follow my advice and skip right past most of the laser weapons and go right to plasma asap. You'll still need laser rifles and pistols, but I wouldn't bother with the scatter, sniper or heavy.

As for the armour, all you really can do is settle for carapace armour until you can get to the titan armour. Don't worry too much about the more specialised ones until later. Oh and nano vests are literally a lifesaver early on. All assaults not carrying the arc thrower should be so equipped. Grenades just aren't worth it till *much* later.