XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

[Art Blade]

correct. :)

I almost never used those Psy powers and decided to ignore that rubbish altogether but with a will of around 100 (the higher, the more resistant, and with 100+ you're immune) was a good way of saying, err, thinking, "up yours, bitch," when they tried anything funny. >:D

[Art Blade]

Look, I will give EW a go once Christmas is over and I won't have to be so tight with the wallet. By then I should be over my current BE infatuation too :-D

I really do appreciate your interest and advice Art, cheers :)

Steam offer -80%

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/xcom/

[fragger]

Thanks for the heads-up mate, I'll be in for that :-X

[Art Blade]

welcome :)

however, those offers won't last forever.. and the rhyme was unintentional. :-D

[fragger]

 :-D

Ends 5th January.

[Art Blade]

 :-X :)

[fragger]

Bought it, now I just have to wait for it to download... Gonna take a while - as usual for this area, the influx of holidaymakers with their devices has left precious little bandwidth for us locals Bloody tourists.

It's been an hour and a half already and 1.4 of 7.2 gigs have come down... Normally it would take about half an hour to do the lot, if that.

Bloody tourists. Oh, I already said that, didn't I? Well, it's worth saying twice. They give me the right royals at this time of year.

[fragger]

@#$%&

I had to give up for now. I'll try later during the wee small hours when all these damned blow-ins hit the sack and get off the net. 4 hours in and the DL has progressed 0.2 GB during the last 2 hours.

BLOODY EFFING TOURISTS

[Art Blade]

next time you see a tourist, slap him across the face and tell him, "that's for being a bloody tourist!" and walk a few steps away, then return, explain, "for political correctness's sake, this is for not being a local," and slap him across the face again. Then walk away whistling a merry tune. :-D

[fragger]

Hehe :-D

Even well after midnight it took a couple of hours for the download to complete, but I finally have it (raises feeble sleep-deprived hurrah)

[Art Blade]

Excellent.  :-D

[fragger]

I picked up XCOM: Enemy Unknown again after a long break from it, and got addicted all over again.

I had a fright though last night. I decided to challenge myself by playing on Ironman mode. I think we all know what "Ironman" means, but just in case anyone doesn't, it simply means that you can't save a game until you quit, and you can't reload from a previous save. In other words, if you make a bum decision and end up screwing the pooch, you have to live with it.

The fright came when, after playing for a few hours, there was a power outage. Being in Ironman mode I hadn't been able to save, of course, so I thought I might have lost all the progress I made. Earlier, I'd actually jokingly thought to myself, "I hope there isn't a power cut while I'm doing this..." We almost never get blackouts - wouldn't you just know it? :D

Fortunately the game apparently does some kind of hidden autosave each turn, because when the power came back on and I reloaded, I'd only lost the turn I'd been in when the power went off. Phew... I'd hoped that would be the case, to allow for things like that.

Anyway, I still love this game. I had played most of the way through the EXP, Enemy Within, but I really prefer the vanilla Enemy Unknown. I felt that EW actually added too much to the game (and I hated those invisible squid things, they were quite a deal-breaker for me because they totally trashed my favourite tactical techniques). Some EXPs, like the ones for Civilization, can really elevate a game (and in Civ's case the EXPs are in keeping with the already sweeping nature of the game), but I thought EW somehow detracted from the quirky character of EU, a bit like taking a classic short story and trying to stretch a novel out of it. The vanilla game was fine as it was. One thing I did like about EW was being able to colour-code the soldier's armour, but for ten bucks I got the "Soldier Elite Pack" from Steam which lets me do the same thing in EU, so I'm a happy camper now :-()

There's still things I haven't experimented with yet, like some of the special optional rules, higher difficulty settings, different squad combos and special soldier abilities. One of the things I like is the approximate length of the game - long enough to be engaging but short enough so that there isn't too much time between one game and the next, so you don't get put off trying new things.

One of the best strategy and tactics games ever :-X

[Art Blade]

 ^-^ :) ^-^

Oh.. stay away from XCOM2 if you liked the vanilla and disliked EW. I certainly liked both but the next iteration is just as if EW went completely bonkers. Oh and I admit that the vanilla game indeed is the one I like best -- no over-the-top stuff.

[fragger]

Yep, I'll be staying away from XCOM 2. I've read some reviews and rundowns and I definitely don't like the sound of it. I really went off it when I read about some missions having time-limited turns. Bugger that - the thing I like most about turn-based games is not having to rush my moves! Racing against time in a turn-based game would drive me bats ????

Ironman is an interesting way to play. I'm doing pretty well, haven't lost any soldiers or countries. I'm almost up to the endgame, just waiting on the Gollup Chamber to be built. One consequence of Ironman play is that I have to live with whatever classes the game assigns my rookie soldiers when they rank up. I lucked out and got a pretty even spread of all classes, although I have more Support guys than I need :-() But sometimes one of the three Abduction missions choices will reward you with a particular ranked-up class of soldier, so if you're short of, say, Snipers, the game will offer you a chance at an extra one at some point.

Attacking the alien base as early as possible is a pretty good strategy, I've found. Capturing aliens, doing the appropriate research and building the Containment Facility early in the piece can mean delaying Satellite coverage a bit, but bagging the alien base early has two big advantages: world-wide panic levels are reduced (so Satellite production is no longer such a pressing priority) and your troops get to deal with easier enemy types in the base itself. I even once managed to get the base done before Cyberdisks appeared in the game, so the easy-to-take-out Repair Drones were present within the base but they had nothing to fix. All they could do was float around and fire their occasional trifling shots, which often miss or only do 1 damage when they connect. Since they made up 4 of the base's 22 defenders, my guys had a relatively easy time of it. The rest of the enemy forces were made up of Thin Men, Floaters and Crysallids. There weren't even any Mutons and my squad did the mish with just Carapace armour, a few laser rifles, and all other weapons ballistic. I only had one Major among the troops, plus three Captains and two Lieutenants. No Colonels. It wasn't a cakewalk, but thoughtful tactics paid off, especially against those fast-moving Chysallids, which were the biggest threat. There were eight altogether, and five of them came at my guys all at once ??? Two were right there within clawing range when my troops dropped them, using every last shot I could muster 8)

[Art Blade]

nice! :-X ???

The time-limited turns of XCOM2 w@&k the way recovering melt worked in EW: You're given a turn limit. Say, you must finish within 8 turns or it's game over. And most missions are designed that way. By golly, no thanks. That was something I didn't like about EW, having to get to those melt canisters within a given amount of turns.

[fragger]

Agreed. Time- or turn-limited play really spoils the experience for me.

[fragger]

First mission in Ironman mode completed. Almost perfect, I lost one soldier in the second-last mission. I could have ignored this mission as I was only 4 game days away from launching the final assault on the Temple ship, but I'd never refused a mission before and I didn't know what the consequences of ignoring it would be. Being in Ironman mode I didn't want to chance it, so I went ahead with it and ended up losing a guy. The rest of the team was getting well and truly hammered and I didn't want to risk losing any more of my best troops so close to the final showdown, so I aborted the mission and evacuated the remaining squad members. This counted as a mission loss :D

Ironically, the final mission went almost flawlessly - no KIAs, and only one trooper took a minor hit.

So, the final stats, with one soldier lost and one battle lost:

[smg id=8673 align=center width=600]

At least I still saved the world! I don't think I'll play Ironman again, but at least I can say I did, even if it was on Easy (and Easy isn't as easy as it sounds in this game).

I then started a new game and decided to give the highest difficulty level, "Impossible", a try, just to see how far I could get. It lived up to its name - I didn't even make it through the first mission! All four rookies KIA, and it didn't help when one guy panicked and shot one of his squadmates dead. Normally, on the easier difficulty settings, your rookie squad of four troops initially faces off against four Sectoids, the weakest of the enemy units with only three hit points apiece. In Impossible mode there are eight of them, and they have four hit points each (which they can boost to five by mentally enhancing each other). I ended up with one guy still kicking, but he was wounded and trying to deal with four enhanced Sectoids by himself. They promptly flanked him and plasma-zapped the dickens out of him. He didn't have a snowball's chance.

So this was the result - a message I've never had the ignominy of ever seeing before. If you don't wish to expand the image, the text says, "All XCOM operatives were lost. The XCOM project is terminated, effective immediately". So much for protecting the world...

[smg id=8674 align=center width=600]

Because a new game starts with the rookies already flying to their first engagement, which takes place before the player gets to do anything else at all, I didn't even get to see my own base! So stuff Impossible mode, I'm not enough of a masochist for it.

Sorry Earth. I'll save you next time, I promise

[Art Blade]

 :-D

+1 :-X for your endurance and courage playing through on ironman difficulty and with an outstanding result, even. I take off my hat to you mate  :)

[fragger]

Thank you mate :)

It struck me that this is one of the things that sets XCOM apart from almost all other strategy games: the depth of attachment you develop for your troops. After watching that soldier move up through the ranks from a grass-green Rookie to a veteran Colonel, then seeing him die after the 22 missions he'd survived, was something of a wrench. And the way he died... he got critically wounded and I only had three turns to get a Support medic to him before he bled out. But the squad was pinned down and I just couldn't get to him in time without very likely losing the medic as well. The medic would not only have had to cross an open area covered by two Mutons, three Heavy Floaters, a Sectopod and an Ethereal, he would have had to treat the wounded soldier out in the open as well. In other words, it would have meant certain death for both of them. So I had to make the decision to leave the wounded guy to die alone.

Command can be tough...

[Art Blade]

yes, and I agree with the attachment for your guys. I still remember the first sniper whom I had to give up along with the entire playthrough because I realised I couldn't win (no satellites.. lol) and when I started my 2nd playthrough, I kept my guys alive. Funny how you can remember certain situations like I remember critical sniper or rocket launcher shots. You actually remember certain single turns. Normal games gradually evolve and there are casualties, collateral, and the player develops a "like I care" kind of mentality. Not with XCOM :)

[fragger]

Yeah, some turns and moments stay with you. I remember the time one of my Support guys pulled off a very low-chance shot (8%) which ultimately saved the day. I also remember tearing my hair out when one of my assault guys missed a 98% shot and it very nearly cost me the life of another soldier.

It does have its moments :-X

[fragger]

I've been playing this again, just finished another game actually.

During the last half-dozen or so playthroughs, I've concentrated on taking out the alien base as early as I can. Among other benefits to doing this, I've noticed that by doing the alien base early (which then makes it possible to get access to the rest of the key missions sooner) I've avoided having to do any Battleship missions.

According to the Wiki, Battleships will begin to appear around Month 4, sometimes earlier if you ignore too many Intercept missions (I try not to ignore ANY missions). But I haven't seen one in my last six or so 'thrus, i.e. when I've done the Alien Base mission early. Which suit me fine - I hate Battleships, they're tough freaking missions. The downside to never doing a Battleship mish is that you never get to acquire any Fusion Cores (these are only found on Battleships) which means you can't develop the Blaster Launcher weapon for your Heavies (which fire homing rockets). But you can get by just fine without those.


My standard setup is:


I'm finding that South America is a good continent to start on as alien autopsies are carried out instantly, which will allow earlier access to the Alien Base mission (and some research credits).

As a first step (after the initial mission), since XCOM only starts with two Interceptors and they're both based in the starting continent, I transfer one of them to the next continent, then buy three more and transfer one to each of the remaining three continents as soon as they arrive. Allowing UFOs to shoot down too many unprotected satellites can trigger Battleship missions (not to mention having the headache of building and launching Satellites all over again). Get that Interceptor coverage happening ASAP!


Then my priorities are:


* Choose Xeno-Biology as the first tech to be researched (allows building of Alien Containment Chamber) then research Arc Thrower (to stun and capture an alien, but of course the Alien Containment Chamber needs to be built first or the captured alien will have nowhere to live).

* Build the Alien Containment Chamber as soon as possible (after, or simultaneously with, the first Satellite Uplink), then build an Arc Thrower and equip a soldier with it. Assault Class is best as they tend to have better aim then the other classes, meaning that you can use their Equipment slot for the Arc Thrower leaving each of your other classes' Equipment slots free for a Scope (for better aim), a Grenade or a Medikit (Scope requires Weapon Fragments to be researched, which is the second tech I go for. I can get this done while the ACC is being built, then I'll research the Arc Thrower).

* Use Arc Thrower to capture any alien type as soon as possible. I try to capture a Sectoid as this is the only way to be able to research and build Plasma Pistols later on.

* Interrogate the alien to reveal the Outsider secret.

* Use Arc Thrower to capture an Outsider (during a crashed/landed UFO mission).

* Research Outsider Shard to unlock the Skeleton Key.

* Build the Skeleton Key (it gets built immediately).

* Alien Base Assault mission then becomes available.


But I don't neglect the building of Satellites and their Uplinks either, to make sure I get enough funding from Satellite-protected member countries (no Satellite over a given country means no funding from that country).

Doing the Alien Base mission brings the world-wide panic level down by 2 so Satellites are no longer such a pressing priority, and you'll encounter weaker enemies within the base itself as each passing month means progressively tougher enemies to deal with.

It can be a juggle, but it's sweet if you can pull it off. I once managed to make the Alien Base mission become available just before the end of Month 1, but Month 2 to Month 3 is more realistic. You can usually get Laser weapons happening during Month 2 or by the end of Month 3, which are more effective against the groups of Chryssalids you'll inevitably encounter during an early Alien Base mission.

I tend to sell a lot of the Alien corpses on the Gray Market in the early days too as the extra cash is more important than the corpses. Also, as soon as I finish a downed UFO mission I immediately go to the Gray Market and sell any damaged hardware from the UFO wreck. Money is of the essence in the early stages of a game, you need all you can get.

[Art Blade]

I think you're doing a good job there, fragger :)

When I still played the game, I knew about your concept but I really, really wanted to get all the nice gear meaning I needed time and that inevitably brought those missions you try to avoid. I had a lot of massive fights involving battleships  :-D And as a result of researching everything, I was usually facing more or less equally well equipped and "evolved" aliens (OK, perhaps "developed" is a better term) And that made some missions, including the final mission, quite a handful to cope with. Then again, I enjoyed that :-()

[fragger]

Thanks mate :)

Did you ever capture a Muton? If you do, you can get an option to develop "Alien Grenades" in the Foundry. These do more damage than a human-made grenade. You can only do this in the month after they first appear, because in the first month of their appearance they don't have the grenades and they have Light Plasma Rifles. In their second month they upgrade to full Plasma Rifles and Alien Grenades.

Sectoid Commanders, Muton Elites and Heavy Floaters may also yield an Alien Grenade if captured.

I'd thought that when you recovered the first Alien Grenade, if you used it before you'd researched it, you'd lose it and would then have to get another one for research. But that's not the case. If you recover, say, one grenade, then use it before researching it, you'll still have it for the next mish - but you'll only ever have one (i.e. only one soldier can be equipped with it). Once it's researched, the Alien Grenades become available for all soldiers, just like the standard Grenades. You can still equip the standard Grenades, but I don't know why you'd want to when the Alien Grenades do more damage.

I like it when the Support class troops make Major and they get the "Deep Pockets" ability. I like to equip them with both the triple Medikit and a grenade. I also like to give them the "Sprinter" ability when they make Corporal. With those abilities, and once they get a Plasma Rifle and Titan Armour, they become extremely versatile units - as scouts, skirmishers, medics, and additional assault troops, as well as providing smokesceens when needed. They're my favourite class - if I had to choose just one class of troops to go in with, it would be those guys.

[Art Blade]

yes, I did and I too had the same thoughts about grenades.

If you like Support that much, feel free to use nothing but. Depending on missions, I will do stuff like, "send in only four snipers, as the one team. More men are not necessary." >:D I remember doing stuff like that and it was cool. :-D