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[ixix]

Yeah it's as though when an alien is under your control, the game treats it like its just another member of your team for those three turns.

I think the panicking soldier had spent all his downtime hanging out in the research lab and watching the captured Alien Entertainment units. After a while his social isolation and obsessive fixation on novel forms of foreign pop culture combined to convince him that he was born on the wrong planet and only the Cydonians could truly understand him. Secretly he began to concoct plans to travel to Mars and make pilgrimage to the land that was his birthright, but which had thus far been denied to him by the whims of fate which had thus far seen fit to confine him to terra firma. He began to feel guilty for the way in which he earned his daily bread, and resolved that he would abstain from any violence against his alien brethren-to-be, instead gnawing away slowly at the XCOM project from within by collecting his monthly salary. It was but a trifling resistance, but it was all he could muster.

Then suddenly all his planning fell by the wayside when a series of unfortunate injuries left XCOM in need of second-string soldiers to fill out the numbers of the strike team. A plasma rifle was shoved into his hands and he was sent into combat against the only beings in the universe who could understand him. He planned to keep his head down and avoid doing any direct fighting, but then, in a fateful moment, one of his fellow soldiers seized control of an alien's mind and, heedless of the beautiful culture which it had represented, sent it to its grisly end.

It was more than he could bear. Seeing red, he turned on the nearest XCOM authority figure and unleashed what fury he could muster. The shots scorched the Colonel's armor but failed to cause any meaningful harm. Immediately understanding the folly of his betrayal, he turned and ran into the Muton swarm, expecting them to welcome him with open arms as a comrade they had never expected but who, in retrospect, they had e'er yearned for.

His welcoming party wasn't quite what he expected, but at least XCOM had one less traitor in their midst.

or maybe the game just thinks mind controlled units are xcom operatives idk i think both theories are pretty sound

 

[Deraldin]

Is it just me or is the South American starting bonus garbage?

I like the bonus, but I can't say I would miss not having it. It's definitely not on the same tier as the others.

 

[inky]

Is there a kind of point of no return in this game, like there was in the original Xcom when you prepare for the final mission? And when I get to it will it be obvious? Thanks.

Yes and yes.

 

[Neuromancer]

I think the panicking soldier had spent all his downtime hanging out in the research lab and watching the captured Alien Entertainment units. After a while his social isolation and obsessive fixation on novel forms of foreign pop culture combined to convince him that he was born on the wrong planet and only the Cydonians could truly understand him. Secretly he began to concoct plans to travel to Mars and make pilgrimage to the land that was his birthright, but which had thus far been denied to him by the whims of fate which had thus far seen fit to confine him to terra firma. He began to feel guilty for the way in which he earned his daily bread, and resolved that he would abstain from any violence against his alien brethren-to-be, instead gnawing away slowly at the XCOM project from within by collecting his monthly salary. It was but a trifling resistance, but it was all he could muster.

Then suddenly all his planning fell by the wayside when a series of unfortunate injuries left XCOM in need of second-string soldiers to fill out the numbers of the strike team. A plasma rifle was shoved into his hands and he was sent into combat against the only beings in the universe who could understand him. He planned to keep his head down and avoid doing any direct fighting, but then, in a fateful moment, one of his fellow soldiers seized control of an alien's mind and, heedless of the beautiful culture which it had represented, sent it to its grisly end.

It was more than he could bear. Seeing red, he turned on the nearest XCOM authority figure and unleashed what fury he could muster. The shots scorched the Colonel's armor but failed to cause any meaningful harm. Immediately understanding the folly of his betrayal, he turned and ran into the Muton swarm, expecting them to welcome him with open arms as a comrade they had never expected but who, in retrospect, they had e'er yearned for.

His welcoming party wasn't quite what he expected, but at least XCOM had one less traitor in their midst.

or maybe the game just thinks mind controlled units are xcom operatives idk i think both theories are pretty sound

Haha xcom fanfic I love it

Yes and yes.

Excellent, thanks

 

[senahorse]

I can't launch this game at all from Steam, it goes to launch it, flashes up that I am playing the game (in my profile) and then my status goes back to 'online' and nothing. I have verified the cache and it found a missing or corrupt file but still it does not work. Any ideas?

edit: verifying game cache for a second time seemed to fix it

 

[Jintor]

I disagreed with someone earlier in the thread about starting bonuses, but now I too believe Asia to be the best by a country mile.

On classic takes way too long to get workshops up and operational anyway, but the faster you get those squad bonuses and shivs out the better

 

[Deraldin]

On classic takes way too long to get workshops up and operational anyway, but the faster you get those squad bonuses and shivs out the better

How good are shivs? I didn't actually bother to research them in my normal game.

 

[doomquake]

can you promote your shivs? Corporal Tin Bukkit

 

[xanavi]

I just had that moment where you flush a Muton out from behind cover with an Assault and your Sniper on overwatch takes his head off in the same turn. It was so damn satisfying. I had never even considered the synergy there.

 

[ixix]

I disagreed with someone earlier in the thread about starting bonuses, but now I too believe Asia to be the best by a country mile.

Asia start for life, yo. Europe and South America are the throwaways. Canada and Mexico can be given to the aliens if necessary as well. All you really need is Africa and Asia and then you just let the good times roll.

Haha xcom fanfic I love it

If you liked that you should see my unfinished Final Fantasy 5/GG Allin crossover magnum opus. I'm pretty proud of it.

Well, "proud" might be a bit of an exaggeration, actually. A teeny, tiny little exaggeration.

 

[Fumoffu]

So started to play Classic Ironman and was using my Lt. who was a Support class (and my highest ranked squad member) to capture an alien. Had the perfect opportunity to take it since it was 4 of my guys verse a Thinman on 1 health. So I basically cast a net on this Thinman with me a click away from ending its pityful life when my Lt. behind a Taxi ready to swoop in was crit hit for 8 and KIA. Needless to say I smoked that Thinman and then some! Rage insued!

 

[Protein]

Peak was 60,132 today on Steam. Dishonored PC was 19k for comparison.

 

[phinious]

How come I have a ton of soldiers in the barracks, but I cant use them because they are on a mission alraedy?

 

[Despera]

Select an enemy or character and press F1.

Base setup.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you have built the Thermo Generator over the Steam reservoir instead of the Elerium one?

 

[Jintor]

How come I have a ton of soldiers in the barracks, but I cant use them because they are on a mission alraedy?

bug'd

 

[phinious]

bug'd

Is there a way to fix this?

 

[Ken]

Yeah, kill them before they change!!!

RIP my team at Lyons.

 

[Deraldin]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you have built the Thermo Generator over the Steam reservoir instead of the Elerium one?

You build thermo generators on the steam reservoirs, not above them. He had a second steam reservoir where that thermo generator is located.

EDIT: Woo! Finally hit member status!

 

[inky]

How good are shivs? I didn't actually bother to research them in my normal game.

Extremely good I would say. The flying one is basically a great spotter for your snipers, has nice armor later on, does decent damage and is great for capturing Psi enemies since SHIVs have a suppressing fire ability.

can you promote your shivs? Corporal Tin Bukkit

Nope. Can't even change names which is dumb. Well, they have to leave some stuff for the expansion I guess.

 

[McBradders]

"Wow this game is great, so much like the old X-Com apart from being stupid easy..."

-sees new enemy type for the first time-

-entire veteran team gets slaughtered-

-goes to load save-

-sees autosave is not enabled by default-

-has 'lost' 6 hours of progress-

They did it... they really did it! Those glorious bastards did it.

 

[Sober]

I love this game. I fucking hate this game. Same goes for ironman.

I lost all my vets to the alien base assault, like my best six soldiers including a corporal sniper with double tap. This is also the same mission I met the cyberdisc for the first time and realized Mutons had grenades.

Now I have worthless veterans that panic from nothing.

 

[Fjordson]

The sounds of the alien activity before you actually spot them...terrifying. The mission I'm on right now is at night and in the woods which gives it that little extra something. My first time with a 6 person squad too so I brought along some rookies. Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever heard this enemy type before...who knows what's about to go down.

 

[Jintor]

The difficulty spike from Normal to Classic is amazing.

 

[Slackbladder]

I think going to the alien base early is a good idea. I had a tough time even with plasma weapons, due mainly to a Sectopod which, apparently, has better vision than your soldiers and a scripted attack by some heavy floaters who appeared out of nowhere right by one of my guys. I think it was Sept or Oct when I did the base. Still, got through it...just!
Also, the ambient sound is great now that I turned the music off. There was a abduction mission with shops and in one you could hear a radio playing music!

 

[Zeppelin]

Can't believe how incredibly shitty the camera and grenade/rocket controls are in this game. Absolute atrocities.

 

[Mesoian]

HA!

Anyone get the glitch where your SHIV turns into a headless rookie? That was fun until I actually needed it for anti psychic stuff.

 

[Ken]

Is Titan armor the last armor you can get? So there are no helmets if you didn't get the Elite Soldier Pack?

 

[Slackbladder]

Is Titan armor the last armor you can get? So there are no helmets if you didn't get the Elite Soldier Pack?

Titan isn't the llast. There's 3 more I think if you only have Carapace and Skeleton at the moment. And helmets only came with the Elite Soldier Pack yes.

 

[Ken]

Titan isn't the llast. There's 3 more I think if you only have Carapace and Skeleton at the moment. And helmets only came with the Elite Soldier Pack yes.

Boo.

Well I'm up to Titan atm. Was hoping there would be some full suits or even an option to "hide helmet" or something. Oh well.

 

[Amagon]

Just finished playing the demo on the PS3. Really liked it and will look to forward to picking up on Steam during it holiday sales. Nice to see a hispanic guy in the demo repping one of my countries which is really rare to see. Nicaragua!

 

[TTG]

I think going to the alien base early is a good idea. I had a tough time even with plasma weapons, due mainly to a Sectopod which, apparently, has better vision than your soldiers and a scripted attack by some heavy floaters who appeared out of nowhere right by one of my guys. I think it was Sept or Oct when I did the base. Still, got through it...just!
Also, the ambient sound is great now that I turned the music off. There was a abduction mission with shops and in one you could hear a radio playing music!

Wow, you really held back! I thought I held out as long as I could, how did you manage not to lose countries? Even with 5 satellites up and running, I sort of need the panic reduction in places. All I have to contend with are mutons and cryssalids.

 

[FtHTiny]

After bouncing back from 2 full teamwipes i won against the aliens on classic/ironman. Looked pretty grim after the wipes but some "easy" missions let me regain a strong group.
Going to try some multiplayer now.

 

[I should be doing hw]

Should I enable autosaving? Does it run the risk of creating points of no return, or does it create separate files each time so you can roll back?

 

[FlutterPuffs]

Can't believe how incredibly shitty the camera and grenade/rocket controls are in this game. Absolute atrocities.

The camera is pretty shitty yeah. Always rotate to see if you're heading towards the right square. Hope it gets fixed.

Other than that game is marvelous.

Should I enable autosaving? Does it run the risk of creating points of no return, or does it create separate files each time so you can roll back?

*spits out coffee*

Autosaving!? In my days young man, we didn't have autosaving. We had to remember and press buttons to save!

 

[Papercuts]

"I'm the one who taps."

Stay out of my territory.

 

[Incendiary]

Just had my first terror mission with chrysalids. It was a horrible experience for all parties involved, well, except for the chrysalids obviously. Also, zombies are now infinitely more terrifying because I had no idea

Spoiler

they can turn into chrysalids themselves if you leave them alone long enough.

 

[Ken]

What are the best abilities for/best way to utilize support? I find that I'm usually moving around too much for smoke bombs to be effective, but med kits don't seem too great either? At least, they don't when Chryssalids hit my assault for like 9+ damage and my medkit only heals 6.

 

[McNum]

What are the best abilities for/best way to utilize support? I find that I'm usually moving around too much for smoke bombs to be effective, but med kits don't seem too great either? At least, they don't when Chryssalids hit my assault for like 9+ damage and my medkit only heals 6.

You can upgrade your medikit later. And you really want the "use a medikit three times" perk. But for the rest, you just have to ask yourself, what you want the Support soldier to do. I went with Rifle Suppression over revive on one of mine, because Suppression is awesome. Combined with the ability to shot when the enemy tries to shoot on Overwatch, I can force the targeted alien to do nothing or get shot. And its accuracy is lowered if it tries to shoot.

 

[ixix]

What are the best abilities for/best way to utilize support? I find that I'm usually moving around too much for smoke bombs to be effective, but med kits don't seem too great either? At least, they don't when Chryssalids hit my assault for like 9+ damage and my medkit only heals 6.

Supports can get an ability that boosts Medkit healing even further. With that and the Foundry upgrade a single Medkit charge heals 10 HP. With the triple usage ability one Medkit on a fully leveled Support can heal 30 HP over the course of a mission. With how long some of the late-game missions can be that comes in pretty handy. Taking the healing increase means passing up an ability that gives you a second reaction shot on Overwatch, though.

I like to build them with Sprinter, Field Medic, Rifle Suppression, and Combat Drugs and have them carry a Medkit and an Arc Thrower, personally. I'm sort of torn between whether Savior or Sentinel is better as a final ability. Sentinel is the only way for a Support to get two attacks in a turn, which is always nice, but Savior increases healing capacity for missions that turn into long slogs. I usually opt for Savior in the end, since I run a single Support in my squads and they're the only one who carries a Medkit. My Support usually spends so many turns either suppressing or healing that opportunities to use Overwatch tend to be rarer than they are for my other squaddies.

 

[zchen]

just experienced my first never ending alien activities turn bug...

f'n sucks

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Beat the game.

Final level has amazing design.
Final "bos" fight is extremely bad.

 

[Castor Krieg]

I disagreed with someone earlier in the thread about starting bonuses, but now I too believe Asia to be the best by a country mile.

Although you should start in Asia or Africa, for Classic difficulty and above you should rush for SA bonus, all these days really make a difference.

 

[Totakeke]

So placing a satellite reduces the panic level of a country significantly. That's another information that would've been useful if I knew from the beginning.

So what are the goals for satellite placement? You already got your continent bonus, just move them to other continents?

 

[Ken]

It also helps to know that Satellites and Satellite Uplinks take forever to make. ;_;

 

[Totakeke]

It also helps to know that Satellites and Satellite Uplinks take forever to make. ;_;

Also quite a bit of resources. You need money, you need engineers, and you probably need to excavate some space.

 

[IblisGinjo]

Beat the game.

Final level has amazing design.
Final "bos" fight is extremely bad.

I just beat the game as well, great game, played on classic. Agree about the last boss... so simple. Good job with mixing story elements with the game.

 

[calder]

I finally stopped playing Dishonored (really, stopped avoiding XCOM with rebound game Dishonored) and went back to my really grim alien base assault. It actually... went great! I lucked out on a couple of sniper shots for a final wave of aliens and *twice* had chrysallids run up on my 4 survivors only to have them run of out movement one square away from a huddled pants-shitting point man. Took me almost an hour but I cleared out the base without further casualties.

Made a ton of cash, and since it was one day before a council appraisal it totally saved my month - I had been coming off a string of awful missions but the base attack dragged me up to a B rating. I was able to get some upgrades going and fixed my really poorly thought out satellite/interceptor coverage. Worldwide panic -2 really was incredibly well timed, it brought 3 countries from the brink of bailing on me.

Rattled off a few really good missions, then ran into a landed UFO that caused me serious problems. I had engaged a psionic alien already but didn't really alter my play which was nearly fatal when 3 sectoid commanders show up in the same craft. I killed the mutons and floaters easily and was looking forward to a quick win when the bastards mind controlled 2 of my squad and panicked another.

I thought it was going to be a wipe but luckily I had my snipers in overwatch and was able to avoid the mind controlled soldiers (who were too far from my snipers to kill them) long enough to get some damage on all 3 commanders. The mind control wore off on my captured support guy while he was in the UFO but he shat out a few horseshoes and was able to run out with 2 health left despite being surrounded by enemies, 2 of which shot him point blank. After that my squad was barely able to kill the remaining enemies - I had lost one rookie early in the fight but felt like it was a huge win in the end. It could have been so much worse. The diciest thing was probably remembering to keep my snipers off overwatch so they didn't shoot the mind controlled squaddies and keeping my one panic stricken assault guy running and hunkering down away from the snipers so the enemy kept trying to shoot him.

Starting to look good!

 

[Slackbladder]

Wow, you really held back! I thought I held out as long as I could, how did you manage not to lose countries? Even with 5 satellites up and running, I sort of need the panic reduction in places. All I have to contend with are mutons and cryssalids.

I think I had lost 4 nations by then but I had satellites over the majority of the rest, say 8 or so. When given the choice I always take the mission with highest panic levels. I have a shit load of engineers and scientists so if there are two high panic levels I go for the one with most money, sometimes for a high ranking soldier such as a major.

 

[Fjordson]

It also helps to know that Satellites and Satellite Uplinks take forever to make. ;_;

Yeah, I may have fucked my game because of that =[ I only have like three satellites active and I've done quite a few missions. Already have like 4 countries at almost full panic because of it.

 

[Slackbladder]

When I started my second game I built 3 satellites straight away and with the one I had that made 4. Had to wait until the following month to get them up but it really helped out. Not a tactic that may work on classic difficulty though.