XCOM : Enemy Unknown - by Firaxis Games - Thread

[npjnpj]

It's been years since I played the original, and I've been spending the weekend playing both versions and comparing them.

I've come to the conclusion that I prefer the new one by far. I didn't remember the old game being so slow and plodding, the remake has done away with everything that disturbes me with the original. The only thing slightly bothering me is the movement point system where I prefer that of the earlier game, but that's all.

Each to his own, of course, but to my mind the developers have done a great job.

 

[Clav]

LOL! Aliens taking over the world with mind control and Plasma weapons....

And you can shoot down UFO's that are on their way to do missions such as abductions and whatnot. Which is even more realistic

 

[Sleepery]

I didn't remember the old game being so slow and plodding

A lot of people remember the exceptional moments in the original, the cool things you could do because the game was so versatile, but they tend to forget the 100th battleship mission where they had to plod through every room looking for that last remaining alien, who had panicked and was hiding in a barn on the edge of the map. Towards the end of the game I used to wait until ufos were over water before attacking so that I wouldn't have to go through another two hour mission.

 

[Crimefighter]

I've been playing it with the anti-cheat mod and I'm really enjoying it now. It removes the big aim and crit bonuses aliens have on classic difficulty but leaves the full ai and alien numbers. Makes it more realistic to me and removes the wtf shots that the aliens do ie those huge long range crits on full cover squaddies that insta-kill.

oooh, which mod is this? Sounds interesting...so the cause of the incredible alien shots is a bug? Or was it intended to be that way?

Ive recently switched to ironman mode for more of a challenge, and wow...talk about tension. Been doing alright, but missions take 3 times as long as I strive to position everyone "perfectly" before moving forward. Still lose someone roughly every 2nd mission though.

Did a "Very Difficult" abduction mission with a 4 man squad early in month 2....that was tense, and hard. Lost one guy early due to accidentally clicking smoke grenade rather than frag grenade...ended up buffing the aliens and losing my guy!!!

 

[Clav]

oooh, which mod is this? Sounds interesting...so the cause of the incredible alien shots is a bug? Or was it intended to be that way?

Ive recently switched to ironman mode for more of a challenge, and wow...talk about tension. Been doing alright, but missions take 3 times as long as I strive to position everyone "perfectly" before moving forward. Still lose someone roughly every 2nd mission though.

Did a "Very Difficult" abduction mission with a 4 man squad early in month 2....that was tense, and hard. Lost one guy early due to accidentally clicking smoke grenade rather than frag grenade...ended up buffing the aliens and losing my guy!!!

My post from a little while back:

I didn't know this game was able to be modded! Apparently there are quite a few features in the game that were included but left disabled in the code

Liking the look of this one - Anti-cheat mod
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/10

and this one - Second Wave
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/7

Full list and forums
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/categories/
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/559-xcom-mod-talk/

On normal difficulty Aliens do normal damage, have crippled AI and reduced HP/numbers. On classic they have full AI, increased HP/numbers and buffed aim/crit. On impossible the bonuses are increased even more.

What the mod does is on classic, keep the Aliens on full AI, keeps the numbers of them the same but takes away their aim/crit buff so they have the same shooting chances as your agents.

The 2nd aspect of the mod is to make the UFO's on their way to abductions, terror missions etc be detectable by your satellites. They are there in the vanilla game, just you have no way of seeing them. Potentially with the mod you can now shoot down all 3 UFO's on the way to do abductions meaning you won't then have an abduction mission that month and avoid the associated panic rises. Of course this will then increase the amount of UFO's which introduces its own set of problems.

That's just the anti-cheat mod. Some of them change the game a lot more, but I didn't want to massively change the original.

 

[Crimefighter]

My post from a little while back:



On normal difficulty Aliens do normal damage, have crippled AI and reduced HP/numbers. On classic they have full AI, increased HP/numbers and buffed aim/crit. On impossible the bonuses are increased even more.

What the mod does is on classic, keep the Aliens on full AI, keeps the numbers of them the same but takes away their aim/crit buff so they have the same shooting chances as your agents.

The 2nd aspect of the mod is to make the UFO's on their way to abductions, terror missions etc be detectable by your satellites. They are there in the vanilla game, just you have no way of seeing them. Potentially with the mod you can now shoot down all 3 UFO's on the way to do abductions meaning you won't then have an abduction mission that month and avoid the associated panic rises. Of course this will then increase the amount of UFO's which introduces its own set of problems.

That's just the anti-cheat mod. Some of them change the game a lot more, but I didn't want to massively change the original.

Thanks for that - yes I too would like to keep mods to a minimum at this point - am interested to see if those aim/crit bonuses on classic are intended to be there by the game devs.

 

[Clav]

Thanks for that - yes I too would like to keep mods to a minimum at this point - am interested to see if those aim/crit bonuses on classic are intended to be there by the game devs.

I believe they are.

 

[grimm]

I strayed away from the 'storyline' (progression) stuff for a while so I could try and get a handle on things first. All my earlier attempts I leapt on anything deemed a 'priority' development and the pace got away from me, so stayed away from the bait this time.

However, and to my point, this meant I didn't have an arc thrower until late in the game and I'm only getting to use it on stuff like heavy floaters, mutons, chrysalids - in doing so, have I cut myself off from some lines of research/engineering as I don't seem to be getting opportunities to try and capture thin men, sectoids, etc., anymore?

I tried doing this on my classic game, however the game still advances quickly anyway. I haven't even researched the "energy alien" yet and I'v got muton berserkers coming after me already. On this basis, I don't think the "priority" research stuff is what causes the game to advance. It seems quite relentless whatever you do.

I'v managed to get over the fact that I lost 3 funding nations in my second month and everything is on a pretty even keel now. All my soldiers have light plasma rifles, plasma pistols and laser sniper rifles (not using any heavies yet, I find them too inaccurate at the moment at least).

 

[mark43]

The glitches and bugs in this game are starting to irritate. Game is freezing now during overwatch cutscenes. Had to kill the game process and reload from an earlier save. Lucky I'm not on ironman setting I guess.

I've had this a few times and doesnt really cause a problem on ironman, when you reload you are generally just on the turn before it went wrong.

 

[Barry_H]

Completed this on normal. Now for Classic Ironman. I predict much gnashing of teeth.

 

[topdog@OC]

I tried doing this on my classic game, however the game still advances quickly anyway. I haven't even researched the "energy alien" yet and I'v got muton berserkers coming after me already. On this basis, I don't think the "priority" research stuff is what causes the game to advance. It seems quite relentless whatever you do.

I'v managed to get over the fact that I lost 3 funding nations in my second month and everything is on a pretty even keel now. All my soldiers have light plasma rifles, plasma pistols and laser sniper rifles (not using any heavies yet, I find them too inaccurate at the moment at least).

Thanks - I know it doesn't slow down the game advancement in that sense, but it does mean I had developed and made some gear worthy of facing off those aliens with instead of building my own alien zoo whilst my soldiers got their asses handed to them, but then it backfired again since you're stuck on laser gear until you do create the zoo, because of their self-destructing gear!

As luck would have it, my next abduction battle ship does have a pair of sectoids running around on it, so I'm trying to dodge an army of berserkers, sectopods, and chrysalids whilst I try and catch one of the little ******* before I kill them by accident

 

[Crimefighter]

Completed this on normal. Now for Classic Ironman. I predict much gnashing of teeth.

Im on my first Ironman Classic playthrough after beating it on normal, and its quite a different experience! Im miraculously still in the game...but its a close run thing.

9 soldiers lost...but mostly rookies, so I have an A team of sorts thats hardly ever all available...the medbay is busy in my base

In a way its good, kind of a forced experience rotation.

I nearly quit near the end of month 2, when I was down to 2 Corporal heavies vs 3 sectoids and a floater (all "activated"). Despite having no rockets or nades left they still pulled it out.

I could go on all day, loving the game...and Ironman really adds to it.

 

[SiD the Turtle]

Heavies seem to be pretty pointless. Even with the best LMG in the game they can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Assaults loaded up with the alloy shotgun rule however. Blowing away everything in their paths. If only they had double tap, they could down a sectopod in a single round.

 

[MrMoonX]

Heavies seem to be pretty pointless. Even with the best LMG in the game they can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Assaults loaded up with the alloy shotgun rule however. Blowing away everything in their paths. If only they had double tap, they could down a sectopod in a single round.

heavy lasers are the jazz!

 

[Borrish]

Heavies seem to be pretty pointless. Even with the best LMG in the game they can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Assaults loaded up with the alloy shotgun rule however. Blowing away everything in their paths. If only they had double tap, they could down a sectopod in a single round.

Well they do have rapid fire. If you get close enough it's just as good unless I'm missing something.

 

[Reemul]

Any tips for capturing live aliens without dying loads. Really struggling to get a handle on them.

 

[Crimefighter]

Any tips for capturing live aliens without dying loads. Really struggling to get a handle on them.

Ill try a few...

- Try to make it the last alien in a bunch that you stun, lowers the risk of return fire since you have to be close.

- The lower HP they aliens have the better chance of a stun, so you can switch weapons to a pistol on one of your guys to soften them up (from example to bring them from 4 hit points down to 2), before you move in for the stun.

- You can tease the alien you want to stun towards your squad by hiding them out of line of sight - the alien (if activcated) will move forward to chase your team, which helps you get someone within stun range. Make sure your squad is all in high cover of course.

- Pick your moment - sometimes its just too risky to try it, because you leave your soldier too exposed. Dont be tempted to put yourself into a bad position for the sake of a stun - there are 8-10 aliens per mission roughly so you will get other opportunities.


Those are kind of the prinicples I have been following for capturing in ironman.

 

[Crimefighter]

Heavies seem to be pretty pointless. Even with the best LMG in the game they can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Assaults loaded up with the alloy shotgun rule however. Blowing away everything in their paths. If only they had double tap, they could down a sectopod in a single round.

My Heavies have kept me alive so far...holo targetting snd suppresion keep the rest of my team alive and help them hit the barns . Rockets are guaranteed free kills with no risk every mission.

Love Assualts but I have a hard time keeping them aliev, they always to seem to agro more alien packs when charging forward to do their shotgun thing, Ive been forced to equip them with rifles for the time being . Maybe Im not using them right.

 

[Glaucus]

Heavies seem to be pretty pointless. Even with the best LMG in the game they can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Assaults loaded up with the alloy shotgun rule however. Blowing away everything in their paths. If only they had double tap, they could down a sectopod in a single round.

Heavies are awesome. Colonel, heavy plasma + scope(fully researched in foundry) + the two shots per tern perk.

They can take out the big ass deadly robot on their own, or at least get them down to allow someone else a one shot.

 

[Barry_H]

I nearly quit near the end of month 2, when I was down to 2 Corporal heavies vs 3 sectoids and a floater (all "activated"). Despite having no rockets or nades left they still pulled it out.

I'll probably not be so lucky, I'm anticipating at least a couple of restarts for myself.