XCOM : Enemy Unknown - by Firaxis Games - Thread

Mirage said:
So, after completing Normal last night I decided to start Ironman Classic today. I've just got the carapace armor and floaters have appeared. Must say, I'm really enjoying it, I was going to take a break before coming back but I've just spent 3 hours playing it.

Lost 2 guys so far, Ironman really makes the recruits available from missions a worthwhile choice. On my last play through I'd just restart which meant I ended up with the same 6 I started with. I can actually see me taking a SHIV now too. 3 satellites up across different continents.
Click to expand...

You're a better player than me, then :p I seem to lose a guy every other mission. Also iron man classic.

I tend to find that no matter how slowly and carefully I advance, I'm always triggering two sets of aliens at a time, and thus fighting 6 guys at once.

I think my stats at the end (defeat) of most games are 6/1 kills/losses. In some games that might be acceptable, but in XCom that's pretty poor, apparently.
 
Well, I'm enjoying the heck out of it, in spite of the odd annoyances.

Played the demo on Xbox and immediately decided to get it on PC :D (the 20% off at GMG helped a little too)

Playing through on Normal, with auto-saves on and not letting anyone die. Only reloaded twice, so I'm doing alright :)

Ironman Classic seems to be where it's really shining, so one I've won my current campaign I'll be giving that a try.
 
Got really fed up last night when playing a mission. Was a large abduction UFO that had landed so checked what was there. Sectopod, Cyberdisc, Muton elite, Berserkers, Heavy Floaters and a Ethereal.... OK thought I... off I went.


about 20 seconds into the mission, As I was positioning my last guy (sniper) he saw a cyberdisk..... then on the enemys turn a sectopod appeared and another cyberdisk... managed to kill the sectopod only to have a berserker appear..... once I killed him and a cyberdisk only to have a group of muton elites and heavy floaters... boom 4 of my 6 colonels died in 1 round..... /cry
 
stooeh said:
A good 30 hours to finish it for me on normal mode. Ironman means it constantly autosaves your game and you cannot load from an older save. All decisions therefore are final and you must suffer the consequences of a mission going badly :D
Click to expand...

If you have a total nightmare, shutting it down in task manager and then restarting will load the game a couple of turns back on Ironman (defeats the point but then the game can effectively rob you on some turns!!).

Also I am having major issues trying to navigate my men around an abductor UFO when walking around the second level. The game keeps putting the ceiling on so I cannot see anything and then my men are obsessed with going to the wrong tile as the blue box always 'snaps' to the grid square on the ground floor when the second floor is overlayed on top.
 
MBennett said:
If you have a total nightmare, shutting it down in task manager and then restarting will load the game a couple of turns back on Ironman (defeats the point but then the game can effectively rob you on some turns!!).
Click to expand...
I tried shutting down the game in task manager the other night when my highest ranking troop died due to him dashing to a tile on the wrong level & when I loaded again he was still dead, it had saved directly after the event which was massively annoying! I don't mind my troops being killed if its my mistake but when they die because of the UI not so much :(
 
Divinious said:
I tried shutting down the game in task manager the other night when my highest ranking troop died due to him dashing to a tile on the wrong level & when I loaded again he was still dead, it had saved directly after the event which was massively annoying! I don't mind my troops being killed if its my mistake but when they die because of the UI not so much :(
Click to expand...

In fairness, whilst i can definitely see mistakes like this happening because of the UI (its happened to me) it was still your fault, it isnt like you clicked one level and he went to a different one, it just jumped around the time you clicked. Your fault, and now he is dead, i love ironman :D
 
So is this best played with a 360 pad? To echo others, it can be quite tricky with a keyboard and mouse...

Also, are there any items which I should look to research first? not sure if I'm playing right lol.
 
Sleeve88 said:
So is this best played with a 360 pad? To echo others, it can be quite tricky with a keyboard and mouse...

Also, are there any items which I should look to research first? not sure if I'm playing right lol.
Click to expand...

May contain spoilers for people who have just started. Shouldn't if you have played past the first month.

All this is for classic mode. For me top priority starting out (after 2 failures) was cash, which meant satellites, uplinks and power. Second on the priority list was engineers, as many as possible. Which meant doing missions with engineers as the reward when possible, building a workshop asap and getting the satellites up to maximise extra engineers. I'm into July now and I still haven't even bothered building a Lab, they are just not needed imo. I've still only got 1 workshop but have 35 engineers. Foundry and Officer School are a must, but there is no point building them if you don't have the finances to actually use them. the first couple of upgrades are quite cheap but after that they get expensive!

Research wise I went for lasers first, armour second. But also doing autopsies and interrogations as a priority whenever I had the option as you get research credits. Early on the mission objectives will guide you to researching the arc thrower, alien containment and doing an interrogation so research those when available. If you don't start in South America, it only takes 2 satellites to get the "We have ways" perk which will make interrogations and autopsies complete instantly. This is very useful.

For missions, after getting the ark thrower try and stun at least 1 alien per mission if possible. This will build up a stockpile of plasma weaponry to research and use, it's very expensive to build your own. Also you could get lucky and get an early nation request for plasma weapons which pays very well. I had one in May for 5 light plasma rifles which paid me ~1400, at that stage of the game, on classic, the cash was a godsend. Even after re-building the 2 or so that I needed I was still around 1000 in profit.

One last tip, the first Alien Base mission is tough. You need at least lasers and the carapace armour to do it easily. However as a reward it reduces worldwide panic, so it's worth waiting to do it until a nation or 2 are about to leave the program to get maximum effect.
 
Last edited:
Antar Bolaeisk said:
Or that they just completely redesigned the movement system, movement when firing grenades is a right pain.

Also, why does it take two action points to reload, bit crap when you have to lose an entire turn just to reload.
Click to expand...

It's the same as shooting (bar sniper), if you do it first then it takes up both goes, if you move then reload you get your 2 moves.
 
Ive now had 3 full squads of captains/colonels wiped for no real reason, other than the game hates me

After the first 2 squads, I decided to never sprint, or split my squad up. All 6, moving as one, always in cover and always with overwatch. I did this on a landed supply ship, and it spawned 3 heavy floaters IN my squad, 2 Outsidiers on a ledge and 2Mutons/1 Beserker on the other ledge. Managed to fight them off as this was only at the entrance. Proceeded a bit further and managed to trigger 3 Chrysalids, 4 Mutons/2 beserkers and 3 sectoids! Needless to say, everyone got wiped, with 85% point blank shots going wide, people in full cover getting 9 hit shots against them, my only surviving medic panicking whilst just stood over someone needing revive etc etc...

Really thinking about starting again, non-iron man. Not really sure what more I could have done, at least in UFO, if you knew more enemies were out there, you could sit tight and pick them off with reaction shots when they approached. This just feels like the other way around...
 
The "I'm panicked, lets' shoot my team mates" thing bugs me to hell. That and the fact that they're all wusses, panicking just because somebody gets shot :p
 
Sleepery said:
The "I'm panicked, lets' shoot my team mates" thing bugs me to hell. That and the fact that they're all wusses, panicking just because somebody gets shot :p
Click to expand...

Yeah that annoys me too LOL.

To be honest though, I just don't think I'm very good at this game :P Too many times I've crept forwards with a guy, only for 3 Chrysalids (or whatever they're called) to spawn out of nowhere and proceed to gobble him up in their turn. I don't have the fire-power to possibly take them out in time at this stage, so it's a guaranteed death :/ I guess the best advice I've heard so far on this is to never push with the second half of your move (so you can always run back)... perhaps I should be more careful >_<
 
The more I play this the more I keep thinking
"If this was REALLY xcom I would be able to... right now"
Which is a shame, because it is a good game in it's own right.
 
stealthgeek said:
at least in UFO, if you knew more enemies were out there, you could sit tight and pick them off with reaction shots when they approached. This just feels like the other way around...
Click to expand...
too me that is not something I'll miss, sitting waiting for AI to walk into a trap seems more like exploiting the AI, if you get overwhelmed on a mission pull you're men out! sure you take a loss on the mission but you're troops survive.
 
munkez said:
My only major annoyance so far is not being able to pick up injured squad members kit!
I gave my support chap a medi-pack and he was shot and critcally injured early on, the message came up that he could be saved if someone had a medi-pack..... could I get any other squad member to go through his backpack or trouser pockets to get back the medi pack I knew he had? could I heck :rolleyes:
They all stood round him and watched him die slowly......... The load out sucks compared to what you could carry in the original.
Click to expand...

This is a bit annoying, although having lost a few this way most of my squad carry a med pack now.

MBennett said:
Also I am having major issues trying to navigate my men around an abductor UFO when walking around the second level. The game keeps putting the ceiling on so I cannot see anything and then my men are obsessed with going to the wrong tile as the blue box always 'snaps' to the grid square on the ground floor when the second floor is overlayed on top.
Click to expand...

This is the one thing that annoys me about the game, its quite badly done and very fiddly.
 
Last edited:
Divinious said:
too me that is not something I'll miss, sitting waiting for AI to walk into a trap seems more like exploiting the AI, if you get overwhelmed on a mission pull you're men out! sure you take a loss on the mission but you're troops survive.
Click to expand...

Can you abandon a mission once you are on the map in this?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom