XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

[Art Blade]

heh :-()

I too read the topic from the start again for nostalgic purposes and had fun while I was on it. I remember it to be a game that made me go, "damn, it's late already.. but just this one more mission," and you will have guessed that I kept telling myself that. Day in, day out.. it was quite addictive :) I hope that you'll have the same fun playing it ^-^

By the way I would have recommend playing on easy first -- good that you decided to do so already. The difference between two levels is enormous. Going from easy to normal is already kicking up the difficulty level a couple of notches.

[fragger]

I started a new game from scratch as I didn't get off to a very good start first time around, mainly because I wasn't aware of many of the game's finer nuances. This time I'm skipping the tutorial part because you lose three of your initial team of four during it, which then shows up in your stats. This seems to be built in to the tutorial, so by skipping that my stats show no losses of troops. I also lost a couple of guys during the first game by being blissfully unaware that there is a type of alien which can throw grenades. That was a rude little surprise :-\\ Some of these things you only learn the hard way, unless I suppose you bone up online and watch walkthoughs, neither of which I've done because I like to learn these things for myself, even if it hurts :-()

This new game is radically different from the first one I played. I'm still on Easy but I seem to be drawing much tougher missions - the first few were rated as "difficult" or "very difficult". I've run into a species of alien early in the piece which I never even saw during my first go, some four-legged critters that are quite tough and can turn people they've attacked into zombies, which are also quite difficult to kill. I had a mission where I had to rescue as many civilians as possible from an urban area and they were getting killed or zombified before I could even get near them (you have to get right next to them to rescue them). I could only save 8 civvies from 18 and got a rating of "poor". I heard five or six people getting killed in the first few turns while they were still a ways off in the fog-of-war, which I didn't think was very fair, and four other civvies started off in the same room of a building with three aliens already in there with them and they got done in before I could even get a shot at the aliens. I like to have at least a fighting chance of doing well... At least I haven't lost any soldiers yet.

Whether the tougher missions are a result of skipping the tutorial or if it's just the luck of the draw I don't know.

I really do like the game, though I have one minor gripe (which Art addressed earlier in this thread). When a new soldier goes on his/her first op, he/she starts as a rookie. Once they earn enough experience they get promoted to a "squaddie", and part of their promotion consists of being permanently assigned to a class (Heavy, Assault, Sniper or Support). You don't get to choose which class they get assigned to, the program decides. I would prefer it if I could choose the class, and the program could maybe compensate for it by limiting how many of each class I can have (so that I couldn't build an army of say Snipers or Heavies, which may tilt the odds too far in my favour). Art explained that the only way around this is to save the game before the final kill of the battle, then if you don't like the class a soldier subsequently gets assigned to, you can reload and try again until you get a result more to your liking. This is certainly doable, but I haven't done it, and as a result I now have one Sniper, one Heavy, one Assault, and a heap of Supports. Another Heavy or Assault trooper would come in mighty handy. My fault for ignoring Art's advice I guess, but I really don't like the way the program chooses that for me.

But that very minor whinge aside, this is a fun game (forgot to grab any battle screenies again - d'oh!) The tactical battle part of the game is the most fun for me. I've learned to use "overwatch" as much as possible. Each turn, every soldier has two moves they can make - they can move and then move again, or they can move then perform one other action such as fire at a target, throw a grenade, reload a weapon, or one of a few other things depending on their class/equipment, but one of the best options is to have them go into overwatch mode (as a rough rule, if they perform any action other than moving in the first part of their turn, say if they shoot or reload, they forfeit the second part of their turn. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule though). In overwatch mode, they will automatically take a shot at any hostile that comes into their line of fire/range during the aliens' turn. This can be an invaluable tactic and I try to use it as much as I can. There is a very occasional "time-limit" type mission where you need to move fast, but otherwise you can take your time moving up, in which case I will generally move each of my soldiers once then make them go into overwatch. They automatically come out of overwatch on the next turn, so I'll then move them up a bit more and make them overwatch again. It's a tactic that's saved my bacon a couple of times.

Environments are largely destructible (I also learned the hard way to avoid staying in cover behind a burning car that's about to explode :-()) so another tactic I've used a couple of times is this: If I know there are some aliens inside a building, I will position a Heavy (who has a rocket launcher as a secondary weapon) so that he has a clear shot at the building. Next turn, I'll get another soldier to throw a grenade near the wall of the building, which will blow a hole in it and, if all goes well, allow the Heavy to put a rocket through the hole and frag an alien or two inside, or at least weaken them enough for the other squad members to easily finish them off. The design of the game allows you to develop all kinds of cool tactics like this.

Positioning of your squad is important, so that they remain in good cover, can watch each others' backs and guard their flanks. The AI is pretty good and the aliens will often try to flank your positions (a flanking shot does more damage). Overwatch, overwatch... Relative elevations between shooters and targets are factored into the combat outcome, so a good sniper overwatching from a high position can pretty much rule the roost.

This is a very good thinking person's strategy game, one where careful planning, sound base management and thoughtful tactics will pay off, and being a turn-based game you can take the time to think these things through :-X It's not an easy game to beat, or at this early stage doesn't seem to be, but it is quite innovative and unique (well, as much as a reboot of an older game can be).

Screenies next time, promise :-D

[Art Blade]

I'll hold you to it :-()

Another nice report, fragger, I enjoyed reading it :)

I think that it was just some sort of bad luck that you had to start off with difficult or very difficult missions. The game is very random with regards to "odds"  :-() It was a good choice for two reasons, however, that you started (over) without the tutorial. First, as you found out, you won't lose those three poor sods that will inevitably croak during the tutorial. I tried to outsmart the game trying to save them but it cannot be done. Second, you got a clean base. With tutorial, some structures will already be in place but not necessarily in support of your own ideas. Now you earned the freedom of positioning facilities in a neat order and only when you need them.

As to manipulating the outcome of automatic class assignments, I found it utterly fair to add a missing assignment option so I made use of the only option I had. I consider it proper assessment of the situation. I encountered an obstacle, adapted accordingly and overcame. Part of my job as a commander.  :-() You could as well call it a tactical decision and as such countering the very random "favours" of the game particularly because the entire rest of the whole campaign was depending on it :-D I mean, hey, IF you have to recruit soldiers THEN you might as well assign them a job they're qualified for. What good is a sniper with poor eyesight and a heavy with excellent eyesight.. you might want to swap their assignments. Generally speaking, you might want to assign your recruits and going-to-be squaddies a class they're best suited for. Actually, they start out as recruits and their first operation is but an assessment centre. Their performance should be taken into account and therefore they should be given a job matching their abilities as good as possible. Well, I took care of a proper assessment and assigned jobs that matched the performance of my recruits :-()

[PZ]

Nice one, fragger  :-X

XCOM is not my cup of tea, but I enjoy reading your reports!

[Art Blade]

fragger, managing your troops: Have you tried to colour-code them? It means, for instance, use red for snipers, green for heavies, orange for assault and so forth. Makes it easier to spot who is who and by that it will improve your tactical oversight tremendously. ;)

[fragger]

Thanks for the tip mate, but I'm already doing that :-X :) I'm also changing their nicknames to better reflect their abilities and what kind of soldiers they are, e.g. I have a sniper nicknamed "BullsEye". I find that their nicknames catch the eye better than their actual names on the battle display.

I've got some screenies to post, will do that tomorrow. Got some other stuff I have to do tonight. Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of a good game?

I had a kind of fatal glitch earlier unfortunately, right in the middle of a battle :D I Suddenly found that I couldn't get any of my soldiers to move. The pointer was still did behaving the way it should, but the troops wouldn't move when I clicked on a space and the pause menu wouldn't come up. I had to close the game via Task Manager. Luckily I'd saved only a couple of turns before. Hope it reloads the save OK.

I still haven't lost any soldiers and I earned my first Colonel :-X A couple of countries have dropped out of the project though, couldn't get my satellites up quickly enough. I've also run into my first Cyberdisc but quickly learned to take out its repair bots first so they can't fix its damage. Much tougher game this go-around and I'm having quite an uphill battle, but I'm tenuously hanging in there :-()

[Art Blade]

good luck, commander. :-()

Reading your impressions, I was thinking about my own from back then and how lucky I was beating the game twice, on easy and normal difficulty, losing neither any country nor any soldiers. It was partly a matter of how much time you invest thinking through strategies and to cling to them.

[fragger]

Rub it in why don't you :-D

Just joking mate, that was an impressive effort :-X But I am flying pretty blindly here. I haven't watched any playthroughs online or consulted any wikis or tips sites. The only info I've gotten is from what I've read here, which has helped, but there's tons that I'm still trying to get my head around. I'm playing in masochist mode :-()

I don't know what I'm doing wrong in the satellite department though. I'm still getting countries dropping out of the project even when I have complete satellite coverage over the whole continent they're in ???? I've lost four countries so far - four more and I'm out. The panic factor remains very high in almost all countries, even those where I have continental satellite coverage. Maybe I'm missing some crucial detail... I'm taking on all abduction missions and making sure I pick the country with the highest panic factor each time out of the three on offer. I know that makes the panic factor rise in the other two countries I don't choose, but I can't seem to get on top of the panic. Does the global panic level only drop once every country in the game has a satellite?

I'm doing pretty well on the combat side of things, I've only lost one soldier and that was due to a brain fart on my part - I thought I had a particular soldier selected, but someone else was active and I moved him by mistake. It was his second action so I couldn't get him back for that turn and he got clobbered. It was late, I was tired, it was a tough mission, and since I'd neglected to save for a while I didn't want to go all that way back 'cause I'd done really well until I stuffed up, so I let it slide :-()

I'm up to the part where the mission to infiltrate the alien base on Earth has been offered. I'm psyching myself up for that, I imagine it will be quite a party :-() I will ask one question though: Am I right in assuming that you can take on this mission whenever you feel ready? I've been holding off on doing it for a bit while I try to get more of my base infrastructure up. Maybe that's a mistake...

I did get off to a bit of a messy start with my base facilities due to the random placement of several natural steam vents in my base region, which made it difficult to get a good arrangement for adjacency of my satellite uplinks, workshops and labs. Each type of building is adjacent to others of the same type, but not in the way I would have liked (I looked at your screenie of your base setup earlier in this topic, and your arrangement of uplinks was exactly what I wanted to go for, but the placement of the vents prevented it). The program seemed to go out of its way to pick the most bothersome places to put the vents in, although they were quite beneficial for my power generation.

But all that aside, I'm enjoying this game tremendously 8) I could read Wikis and so forth, and maybe I'll cave and do that if I find I just can't make any headway, but for now I'm happy to discover the game for myself, even when it bites me in the bum, or I bite myself in the bum, which I guarantee is quite a sight :-() Got to get on top of that panic factor, that's my biggest hurdle at the moment.

I'll have to post the pics tomorrow, I had an unexpectedly busy day today. I only had time for a bit of a game and post this, now I'm too buggered and droopy-eyed to prepare the screenies ^-^

And I've been meaning to say: Many thanks Art for getting me into this gem of a game. You're a legend :bow

[fragger]

As promised, here are a few screenies of the tactical part of the game. XCOM is so engrossing that I keep forgetting to take pictures. This is about all I have so far.

Here's my dirty half-dozen, with DeGroot being a little dirtier than the others. Someone give him a hanky, for crying out loud!

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My first soldier to make Colonel. Actually, this picture was taken before it occurred to me to use different hair colours for the different classes, like you see in the previous shot. This makes it easier to see who's who during combat. I've earned a bunch more Colonels since I took this pic.

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The "Skyranger" transport flying my squad in. Time to make some xeno-toast.

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This is the tactical battle view, immediately after your squad deploys. The big ghostly rectangle immediately behind the squad is a kind of extraction area, which is only used in certain missions even though it appears in all of them. It stays where it is and also serves to show that the Skyranger is nearby (you can see one of its engines in the top-right corner). Some missions, like this one, take place at night, some in the daytime. Missions locations are many and varied - outdoor, urban, industrial, commercial, city, and more. The details in the environments are rich.

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You move your soldiers one at a time. Each soldier has two "actions" per turn. A soldier can expend one action to move, then use the second action to either move again or perform some other action like reload a weapon, chuck a grenade, hunker down, go into Overwatch mode, or one of several other things depending on his/her class and special ability. As a general rule, if they do anything other than move for their first action they forfeit their second action, although there are a few exceptions to this. You don't have to make a soldier do both actions at once - you can make soldier A do one action, then order other soldiers around, then come back to soldier A for his second action. This gives you some tactical flexibility. Once all your soldiers have used up both their actions your turn ends, or you can end your turn whenever you like by hitting Backspace.

Another day, another mish... Holding down the RMB displays the hidden grid which the soldiers move around on, but I never bother with it as the mouse pointer is intuitive and gives you all the info you need.

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Hovering the pointer over a space which provides cover. The little shields show what kind of cover is available here from the indicated directions - a "full" shield gives full cover, a half-shield gives partial cover. Soldiers can still fire from cover. They'll pop out, take their shot, then duck back in.

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The cluster of little parallelograms floating above the selected soldier are his hit points, and the two arrow-like thingies below those indicate how many actions this guy has left - in this case two because he hasn't moved yet. The thin blue border surrounding the squad shows the selected trooper's maximum range for his first move should he take it, so you really don't need to bring up the grid.

The soldier can actually move beyond the initial move area, up to twice that distance if he "dashes", but that will use up his entire move for that turn. Hovering the pointer outside the initial move area brings up a more distant yellow dashing range.

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Dashing will make it harder for enemies on Overwatch to hit him, but of course he won't be able to fire after dashing (unless he's an Assault class trooper, in which case he can elect to "run and gun", i.e. dash and then shoot). You can move the soldiers in whatever order you like, by clicking on them to select. The display can be zoomed in and out through five levels, can be rotated in 45 degree increments clockwise or counter-clockwise, and can be raised and lowered to show different floors and rooftops in urban areas. It's all very smooth, and it's easy to see what's what.

When a soldier has a shot, the "Fire" icon illuminates (the crosshair icon numbered 1 at bottom centre). Clicking on that zooms in your view to this over-the-shoulder perspective, which will give you an idea of how the shot might come off. The display will stay like that until I either hit OK to fire, or Esc to back out. The 35% is the likelihood that the shot will connect if the soldier takes it.

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She takes it. She actually got lucky and scored a hit, but I snapped the pic just before her shot connected. Note the Union Jack on her back. Soldiers have all different nationalities and this is reflected by the uniform patches, which is a nice touch.

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Unless the situation is desperate, I normally won't take a shot if the odds are less than 50%. In that case, I'll put the trooper into Overwatch mode so that if the enemy comes closer during its turn, its range will shorten and it will have moved from cover, thus increasing the odds of a hit when the overwatching soldier automatically fires on it.

A couple of combat pics from other missions:

Hey! Aim straight, Mr. Magoo! This guy is so doing latrine duty when we get back to base.

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That's more like it! A "Sectoid' alien spills his gooey green guts. Adios, bobblehead!

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The view of the targets getting killed as in the above pic is a toggleable option. I usually have that one turned off though - I only included it here for screenie purposes.

Here are my guys in the middle of an earlier mission, infiltrating a large spaceship which has landed. I had to fight my way through a small army of big nasties to get here, including the first Berserker I've encountered. He was a tough bugger, but I lulled him into a state of deadness once I discerned his modus operandi.

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Care needs to be taken when fighting in or around a downed spaceship in case you damage any pieces of alien technology that your scientists and engineers can study and develop back at base. Among other things, this alien technology will be adapted and incorporated into advanced weaponry and armour for you troops, so it's worth taking the care to preserve as much of it as possible. Even so, damaged alien artifacts can be sold on the "gray market", thus boosting your finances a little. Every dollar helps.

You start off a new game with a roster of 12 soldiers, all rookies. They gain experience through battle and are awarded promotions based on this, and each promotion gives you a choice of one of two special abilities for that rank. Ranking up unlocks more abilities, and the abilities differ depending on the class the soldier belongs to. I like to add a rookie or two to the squad early on before the missions get too tough, so that if any soldiers come back from a mission wounded there'll be some stand-ins with at least a bit of experience to fill the vacant seats while the wounded guys recover. I haven't been bothering about buying new recruits. I still have eleven of the original twelve soldiers and received two more as rewards for completing certain missions, so I'm one up on the original roster. Apparently you can have up to 99 soldiers in the barracks. If you go through that many, I'd say you're not cut out to be in command ;D

*************************************

I wasn't aware of the importance of capturing certain types of aliens in order for the game to advance so I left it a bit too long. By the time I realised I needed to capture a Sectoid I was up into the harder missions where the Sectoids are much rarer - I went through about a dozen missions in a row without seeing any. By then I was fighting off bigger guys like Mutons, Cyberdiscs and Beserkers. Next time I'll try to get one of those pesky little Sectoids earlier on when there's still plenty of them about.

XCOM is like an iceberg - about 90% of it is hidden from sight at first. It's an excellent strategy game which subtly draws you into its depths, and there's lots to occupy your time. Doing field missions is just a part of it. There's base construction and management, developing research, maintaining your aerial fighting force, establishing satellite coverage, equipping and fitting out your ground fighters, and more. But be warned - this game may cause acute sleep deprivation...

[fragger]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong in the satellite department though ... Does the global panic level only drop once every country in the game has a satellite?

I'm up to the part where the mission to infiltrate the alien base on Earth has been offered ... I've been holding off on doing it for a bit while I try to get more of my base infrastructure up. Maybe that's a mistake...

I answered my own questions - I completed the alien base mission and world-wide panic was reduced by 2. All panic levels are now low or very low, except in the countries which dropped out of the program. Serves them bloody right for not having faith in me - hope they'll be happy in their alien-infested countries >:D

Tough mission, but I got through it without losing anybody. There were a few woundeds among them though.

[Art Blade]

I haven't yet finished reading all of your recent posts, only the first one of those, where I stumbled across your comment that I want to give you the answer to right away. I'll then continue reading and I glimpsed screenshots somewhere, looking forward to checking them out :)

Does the global panic level only drop once every country in the game has a satellite?

yes.

Read my old post (particularly the spoiler) because I think that it might help you understand the process.

[Art Blade]

you can take on this mission whenever you feel ready?

yes

I've been holding off on doing it for a bit while I try to get more of my base infrastructure up. Maybe that's a mistake...

You can postpone that mission. I suppose you want to use that time to do some research to upgrade your troops, at least as a side effect to whatever you may be doing. Your enemy will advance alongside you. So if you attack the base early, you will find weaker enemies. But you will be weaker, too.

The program seemed to go out of its way to pick the most bothersome places to put the vents in, although they were quite beneficial for my power generation.

Before actually starting the "real" second playthrough, I had started seven times over after the first playthrough, just so I got a somewhat beneficial placement of vents.

Many thanks Art for getting me into this gem of a game. You're a legend :bow

Heh heh :-() Many thanks, fragger  :)

[fragger]

Thanks for the answer Art, but if you look at the last post I sent before this one, I figured it out already. The hard way, as usual :-()

I actually started all over again as I didn't like the choices I'd made. I reached and completed the mission where you come across your first Ethereal and built the Psionics Lab, but I was struggling - losing those four countries earlier really put a dent in my finances and subsequently hamstrung me at weapons/equipment development. I didn't like my chances of going up against the Battleship with what I had available, and with my shaky finances it was going to take me quite some time to build everything up.

I'm doing much better this time around - got all satellites up, got the dough rolling in and have assembled a tough cadre of soldiers, with no losses of countries or troops. I'm about to assault the alien base again, but this time my guys are sporting Titan armour and are all packing plasmatic weapons. Last time it was Carapace armour, projectile weapons and a couple of lasers. They all made it through - just. Nearly all came home wounded to some degree, even after many field dressings :-\\

My favourite soldier class is Support. With the right combination of abilities, these guys rock :-X I like to give them these abilities as they rank up:

Sprinter
Field Medic
Revive (one Support with this and one with Rifle Suppression makes a good double)
Dense Smoke (I tend not to use Smoke though)
Deep Pockets (no choice here)
Sentinel (as with Revive, one guy with the Sentinel ability and one with Savior makes a good pair)

With these traits they're very versatile. I always take two on every mission. Generally, my standard squad is: 2 Support, 2 Heavies, 1 Sniper and 1 Assault (for the occasional Run and Gun with a shottie-type weapon, should the need arise). For missions later in the game which I know are going to be fairly tough I'll swap out the Assault soldier for a third Heavy.

I've also learned not to go crazy with weapons/armour/equipment purchases, e.g. since I only ever have one Sniper on a mish I'll only bother buying one sniper rifle (that is, one laser version and one plasma version as I develop them), and if I take a different sniper on a mission I'll just swap their weapons over, instead of buying a rifle for every sniper in the barracks. Same with Supports, I'll only buy two laser rifles, then later two plasma rifles. Pity you can't sell the weapons you don't use anymore, like you can with your obsolete Interceptors.

The beauty of the tactical part of the game is the way you can develop your own tactical style and tailor your squads accordingly. Two different players will probably have two different squad configurations and two different ways of doing combat. I also like how there's the strategic game (managing the project and constructing your base) and the tactical game (the combat). It's a great marriage of strategy and tactics.

This game's so cool I have trouble tearing myself away from it 8) Replay value? Definitely. There's so much randomness to the way the game unfolds that two playthroughs will never be the same. I don't think XCOM will ever replace Civ V as my favourite turn-based strategy game (Civ's strategy is like a mile deep and enormously flexible) but XCOM is still one of the best TBS games I've played. It loads up nice and quickly too, which is a big plus.

[fragger]

Rockets are fun.

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Lasers are fun.

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Plasma is fun.

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I'll say it again - rockets are fun.

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[PZ]

I think the guy in the first pic is somewhat intimidated.  :-()

[Art Blade]

 :-D

Nice fragger :)

I usually had 2 snipers and 2 assaults, 1 heavy and 1 support.

Every member of my unit has got SCOPE equipped.

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[Art Blade]

This game's so cool I have trouble tearing myself away from it 8)

Heh heh heh, told ya :-()

Replay value? Definitely. There's so much randomness to the way the game unfolds that two playthroughs will never be the same.

So true :-D

[fragger]

Heh heh heh, told ya :-()

And you were right, by gum! :-D

I take it that screenie is from XCOM: Enemy Within? I wish the armour colours could be changed in EU. I'll just have to get EW if I want to do that, I suppose :-()

Better performance this time - so far.

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In fact, I reckon I've earned a little R&R.

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...But this guy isn't invited. He's bad tempered enough as it is, I'd hate to see what he'd be like with a skinful.

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A nice touch is how you can smoothly zoom right in to the rooms in your base display. These rooms are quite small in the normal base overview, but there's pretty good detail in them when you zoom in, considering that they're just for display purposes, not for playing in. Same with the bar picture above - these folks are tiny in the normal view. The people don't move around within the base but they're animated where they are, as is all the machinery and so forth. It looks cool, a busy little hive of activity.

My subterranean base. This is an older screenie from my second aborted game. My new base is almost complete.

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Where the bar is (this is where it always is). You can see how tiny those two people in the bar picture above are in this view.

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Where the Foundry is (this is wherever you build it). Note the change pf perspective as I've scrolled the view down and to the side a little. The bar is above the Foundry.

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And these are the foundry workers - hey! Get back to w@&k, you bums!

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[fragger]

I made it through a tough key mission, to capture an alien "Battleship". My guys cleaned house right up until near the end, where I had a hard time battling a Sectopod. I hate these things - they're an extremely tough robotic unit with a very hard-hitting energy weapon and they can launch a rain of clustered mini-bombs. I managed to get my sniper up high and he drilled a few good holes in it, which helped, then the other guys wore it down. Even so I ended up with one soldier critically wounded, but fortunately I had a Support class soldier on hand with the "Revive" ability to get him back on his feet.

I'm doing psi testing of some of my guys now to see if they have the right grey matter for psi combat. I must confess I'm not so crazy about the later major missions in the game. The earlier missions that take place among urban landscapes are the ones I like best as opposed to the more confined spaces of the alien base and their big ships. At least the missions are different each time through. I saved the game right before going off to do the alien base mission, and when I got to the mission location I realised that I'd forgotten to upgrade one guy's weapon. So I reloaded the game at the point just before they headed out, gave the dude the right gun, then went off to do the mission again - and the base had a totally different layout. I've also noticed that the game doesn't appear have a store of fixed level designs for missions - instead, it seems to build them on the fly, so that the combat locations are never, ever exactly the same. I haven't yet seen the same level layout twice. Sometimes they'll be similar, or will feature the same elements like a gas station or a liquor store, but the way they're put together with the rest of the layout will be different. It's pretty cool.

The combat system is very good overall, but sometimes the application of a soldier's stats to a situation makes for some farcical outcomes. Among a soldier's stats is an "Aim" rating. At one point whilst onboard the Battleship I opened a "door" (actually an opaque energy curtain) and a huge, tough specimen of alien warrior called a Muton Elite was right there. I had two guys at the door and they both opened fire - and they both missed. They didn't have the greatest aim ratings, but they weren't that shabby either. I mean, really - Gomer Pyle and Beetle Bailey should be able to hit something the size of the Hulk when it's standing five feet in front of them. But I kicked the Muton's butt anyway soon after.

Anyway, I'm getting there. Still got my "A" rating and haven't lost any soldiers.

[fragger]

This thing that looks like a skinny Tars Tarkus in drag is an Ethereal.

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It's a thin, weak-looking being, but don't let that fool you - it's a formidable opponent with lots of hit points and highly developed psychic abilities, which can take control of a soldier's mind and turn him/her against their squadmates. The only way to regain control of a possessed soldier is to kill the possessor (you can shoot a possessed soldier if you really want to, but I think it will negatively affect your rating as a commander). Ethereals can also sometimes "reflect" a shot taken against them with their telekinetic ability, sending the shot back at the soldier who fired it. Not always, but sometimes. It's still very unsports-alien like. They can only do it once per turn, if they do it at all, so once it's done that your other soldiers can fire at it with some confidence that they won't end up eating their own plasma.

You can give the aliens back some of their hocus-pocus later in the game. This is my first Psi warrior. I couldn't help myself, I just had to give her that nickname (to the left of the little Japanese flag).

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Psi troops start off with the Mindfuck Mindfray ability (negatively affects an enemy's Will, Aim and Mobility traits for that turn, as well as doing some damage) and as they gain experience at using psi attacks they unlock new psychic abilities in much the same way as troops gain new combat abilities when they rank up.

Getting to the psi troop stage is quite a process. Not all soldiers have latent psi powers. They need to be tested for these, for which you first need to build a Gollup Chamber, for which you need to have captured an "Ethereal Device", which means eliminating the Ethereal who's guarding it, which means getting onto the Overseer ship on which it resides, which you can only detect once you've built a Hyperwave Relay, for which you need to have captured the aliens' hidden base on Earth, to get into which you need to have a "Skeleton Key" which you can only get by capturing a particular type of alien called an Ousider, which requires using a stun-device called an "Arc Thrower" to catch him and which first needs to be developed... and so forth. It's quite the merry road :-()

I said earlier that I wasn't crazy about some of the larger key missions in the game, which I'm not, but I should point out that these don't have to be undertaken as soon as they're offered. You can put them off if you like while you concentrate on ranking up your soldiers, doing more research projects or constructing more of your base. In the meantime you will still be offered conventional missions. The game will also offer some respite at times - even late in the game it will sometimes give you a bit of a break by throwing some much easier standard-type missions into the mix. My soldiers can pretty much wipe the floor with the same aliens types that gave them so much grief when they were low-ranked, under-equipped newbies.

So there's a good variety and balance of mission difficulties.

[Art Blade]

nice progress and fun to read your detailed observations :)

I too had my moments with troops that just wouldn't hit the easiest targets.. but the aliens have got the same problem. Sometimes they miss you when you're already wondering how to continue without that soldier and phew, hey, they missed him.. he's still on the team and kicking.

I usually avoided plain confrontations. I like laying out traps and ambushes. Sucker the aliens in and then wipe the floor with them. :-D

The colour upgrades for the body armour came with a DLC SLingshot

[fragger]

Cheers Art :)

I know what you mean. A couple of times I thought one of my guys was a goner, but survived thanks to some alien's inept weapon handling :-()

The first time I came across a Berserker I thought, "Oh, great - how am I gonna knock that big bugger down?" Then when I saw how he didn't have any weapons except for his fists and how when he got hit he moved forward a few steps toward whoever hit him, I realised it was just a matter of positioning my guys a certain way, then hit him with one soldier to make him go that way, then hit him with someone else to make him go that way, and pretty soon I could run him back and forth or in a zig-zag from one soldier to another until his hit points got worn out >:D I actually started to feel a bit sorry for the big dumb brute. I don't have much trouble with them anymore :-X It's those bloody Sectopods that tend to ruin my squad's day. Fortunately they're relatively few and far between.

The AI is interesting. I've noticed that the Muton Elites seem to be more intelligent than the regular Mutons. I've seen the MEs try to outflank me or get around behind my squad, and they'll w@&k together. I like how the aliens in general will make use of cover. It makes me laugh when I first uncover a group of Sectoids or Thin Men and they'll all look up startled, then bolt for cover. That's neat :-()

Regarding DLCs, I dropped in to Steam to look at the Slingshot one and I saw another DLC which looks like it might be more what I'm after called Elite Soldier Pack. Doesn't add any new missions or anything, it pretty much just adds cosmetics, which is all I'm really looking for. It was originally bundled with the XCOM pre-order but is now available for purchase for $7.75 USD, which converts to about $10 AUD.

Since all I'd like at this stage are some extra cosmetic options, I might consider ESP instead (I just realised what the initials of Elite Soldier Pack were - wonder was that deliberate?)

My data allowance is about to run out for this month but will reset in a week, and since I can't find any indication of how big the ESP DLC is at Steam, I may have to wait. Poking around on the net, I get the impression that it's about 7GB. That's pretty hefty just for some new armour colours and styles ???? Maybe that info is wrong - I mean, the whole game itself was about 9GB. I'll just stick with the defaults for now until I can nail that figure down.

[fragger]

This game loads up so quickly from the Main Menu/Load Game option (about 3-4 seconds on my PC) that I thought it was a tad ridiculous to have to sit through twenty seconds of company logos before reaching the main menu. So you can do the following to get rid of the logos on launch:

Go to your <volume>:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\XCOM-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Movies

Delete the following files (or move them somewhere else if you want to keep them, just in case you need to put them back - you shouldn't have to though):

1080_Logo_2KFiraxis.bik
1080_UE3TechLogo.bik
XCOMLogo.bik

Bingo! From desktop to title menu in about 4-5 seconds, and from desktop to in-game in as little as about 8-10 seconds depending on how quickly you can w@&k your mouse :-X

[fragger]

Finished! Got through the game without losing any soldiers, and all countries still supporting the project. My psi trooper, Colonel Takahashi (a.k.a. "Succubus") proved invaluable in the final "Temple" ship mission with her Telekinetic Field ability. This mind-projected force field protected my squad for one crucial turn (she can only use this ability for one turn, then she has to wait at least four turns before she can use it again), just enough to deflect the attacks from not one but two Sectopods and allow my guys to take them both down. The Sectopods had foolishly stayed right next to each other, so that they were both damaged by the blast radius of each of the two rockets fired by my Heavies. My two Support guys each then laid a good glob of plasma on them, and my sniper (with the "Double Tap" ability) finished them off with a well-placed headshot each. Nice w@&k, team!

Then on to the main target - the ship's bridge and its commander.

And this is he,  an Uber Ethereal, who appears at the end of the final mission on the bridge of the hovering Temple ship. He's like an Ethereal on mind steroids.

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He was guarded by two regular Ethereals and a couple of Muton Elites. Unluckily for him, I'd placed my sniper well and he was able to put two rounds through the Commander's head from way down the hall, and my two heavies had a bead on him with their one remaining rocket each. He went down like a sack of hammers - he didn't even get a chance to play any of his mind games on my guys. I had a feeling that if I took him down, his cronies would go down as well, since I suspected they were mind-linked to him. My hunch proved correct - when he died, the Ethereals and Muton Elites who were linked to him got snuffed along with him. Five for the price of one! Mission accomplished.

But then...

Oh oh... What's happening? (Rumble rumble, shake shake)

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This is not good - she can nae take it, Captain! She's gonna blow!

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It's all up to you, girl! Get this thing away from Earth before it takes the world down with it! Only you have the mind power to w@&k this device... Use the Force!

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The rest of the team escapes the doomed ship as Succubus willingly sacrifices herself to save the human race. Gad, what a woman! Her valour will never be forgotten - until the next playthrough.

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KABOOM!

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It's over! It's finally over! Now our leaders can get back to making war, ripping off the public and making life miserable for everybody. Maybe we'd have been better off with the aliens in charge...

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Some final stats.

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I'm definitely going back for more. I'm going to be a wuss and play on Easy again for now (which is still fairly tough). I want to try some different squad configurations, abilities and tactics. Some other tactical plans occurred to me while I was playing but my guys weren't set up to properly try them out.

Great game, I'm hooked 8) Looking forward to XCOM 2 in Feb next year.

[Art Blade]

congratz on finishing flawlessly :)

I heard bad things about that DLC you're willing to get. Basically, too much money for too little content. You should get the big one, Enemy Within, which comes with new armour. Also, the Slingshot DLC is good as it gives you some early access to a high-ranking heavy and through him to the plasma blaster cannon early on.