Support NeoGAF

[famousmortimer]

25 hours into an ironman... I had lost Africa and Asia really early in the game but I was keeping Europe, NA and SA in check. Every country at 1 bar. But I totally ignored the doom meter which I guess goes up on its own for different reasons than the country meters. There was a terror mission in the UK, which was 1 bar, and it was "very difficult" and i had my only good soldiers in the

Spoiler

psi-labs

for 10 days so i figured screw it and skipped it. Game over.


I sat there in shock for a good 15 minutes. I've learned the lesson to keep an eye on the doom meter along with the individual countries. I will pick myself up and get back in the fight later tonight.


This game is awesome/terrible/amazing.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

This game is awesome/terrible/amazing.

Box Quote right there.

 

[jhawk6]

25 hours into an ironman... I had lost Africa and Asia really early in the game but I was keeping Europe, NA and SA in check. Every country at 1 bar. But I totally ignored the doom meter which I guess goes up on its own for different reasons than the country meters. There was a terror mission in the UK, which was 1 bar, and it was "very difficult" and i had my only good soldiers in the

Spoiler

psi-labs

for 10 days so i figured screw it and skipped it. Game over.


I sat there in shock for a good 15 minutes. I've learned the lesson to keep an eye on the doom meter along with the individual countries. I will pick myself up and get back in the fight later tonight.


This game is awesome/terrible/amazing.

Pretty sure the doom meter doesn't rise on its own accord. It only represents the number of countries that have been lost.

If u lost all of Africa and Asia like u said, that's darn near if not 7 countries right there. Skipping a terror mission will usually either launch full panic or immediate withdrawal which in your case UK was obviously country #8 to pull out causing game over.

 

[McNum]

And once again, the day is saved thanks to... no, not the Powerpuff Girls. Thanks to XCOM!

Normal is... hmm... yeah. Easier than the original, but it's not so easy that it doesn't have its cruel moments. Not an Ironman, and I must have reloaded 4-5 times due to things going bad, but honestly, I think I can Ironman normal if I wanted to. Still need to get better at base building, was hurting for credits for too long. Researching cool stuff doesn't matter if you don't have the credits to make it.

I think, perhaps, a replay will just be another Normal game, with the goal of a 230 day clear or less. So October 16th is the day to beat. Since I was low on Credits and didn't get the

Spoiler

Hyperwave Decoder

built for over a month, I think I can beat it. Aliens permitting, of course.

As for the final mission and ending. Not what I expected, but it was alright. Although, when I said that

Spoiler

the final mission could turn out to be a shooting gallery,

I was only joking. The game, however, was not. I get what they were trying to do, but it could have been a bit more challenging, I suppose.

Spoiler

Going to Mars was a more interesting ending, though...

 

[masterkajo]

I love this game though the bugs become more and more apparent. Built 4 Hover SHIVs and 2 were invisible and not working for missions. My Double Tap sniper gets his second shot only about half the time and the mouse control inside is really troublesome (well I got used to it by now but I shouldn't have to).

 

[calder]

Man, this SC2 pro/XCOM crossover event would be a lot easier if there were more squaddies from South Korea or Europe. Had to cheat a bit with the Congo member.

 

[Shorty11857]

The best part of this game is when you come so close to failure then against the odds somehow turn it around

3 squad members downed
2 mind controlled an Assault and a Heavy
Only sniper with 2 hit points is left

versus
2 of those mind control enemies
1 enemy suppressing my sniper

Sniper fires at one of the mind control aliens with a 10% chance to hit and kills him with a crit hit, freeing my assault who crits the other mind control alien to free my heavy who fires his rocket launcher at the final alien blowing him up

God damn I love this game

 

[Neuromancer]

It's fair to say you can't play this game indefinitely, correct? Even on easy, panic will continue to rise all over the world until game over (unless you progress through the story)?

 

[lvclix]

It's fair to say you can't play this game indefinitely, correct? Even on easy, panic will continue to rise all over the world until game over (unless you progress through the story)?

Not sure. I know there was a point in the original where you reach a point of no return. You either do the final mission or get swarmed all over the world with the largest class ship where you don't even have time to fly back to base.

 

[FStop7]

Man, this SC2 pro/XCOM crossover event would be a lot easier if there were more squaddies from South Korea or Europe. Had to cheat a bit with the Congo member.

No FruitDealer?

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Screw this freaking game. Seriously, I am so freaking pissed off right now. Apologies but I need to vent:

So I go into the

Spoiler

alien base

mission with 5 of my best units and a squaddie because I had no idea what I was getting into. I spend easily an hour on the mission, carefully picking off enemies one by one and losing two of my units in the process (they didn't die they were just incapacitated). No problem, I've still got my lead assault, the squaddie assault, a sniper, and a support.

I make my way through the entire level and clear out everything to the point where I know there is just one or two more aliens left (keep in mind this took at least an hour) so I start searching for them. Now here's where things get annoying. I want to grapple to the top of the area so I shoot the grapple and the game decides to send me flying off into some ether that exists outside of the game map. Wonderful, now I'm stuck with 3 units and I lost my best one, but at least the level is almost over so I'll just stick it out, right?

Wrong. I run into the last group of aliens, which just so happens to be three chrysallids! Fantastic. My three remaining units valiantly attempt to hold them off but they never really had a chance, they were surrounded as soon as the enemies appear. So now I'm really pissed off because I just lost two of my best units and the only one I have left is the one I literally cannot move. I sit there for about 10 turns trying to move and overwatch hoping the aliens will somehow make their way to me but no luck, I'm stuck for good.

This sucks so much. I just lost my 5 best units (been with me since the start of this 15+ hour normal ironman run) because I didn't have my best one there to fight due to a glitch. I had to quit out of the stupid level because I had no other option and then the game just sat there frozen on the screen with the ship flying back to base, repeating the clip ad nauseum. That's when I turned it off.

Seriously, screw this game. Don't implement a freaking mode that makes everything permanent when your stupid game has game breaking bugs in it.

It sucks because this game was seriously poised to be my GOTY and now I feel like the entire experience has just been ruined. Maybe I just need some time to cool off but I can't see myself picking it back up for at least a few days or so.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[Almighty]

It's fair to say you can't play this game indefinitely, correct? Even on easy, panic will continue to rise all over the world until game over (unless you progress through the story)?

I hope not.

Unless the game has some bullshit thing that kicks in after a certain date I should be able to keep control on panic. I am in September or October on Classic Ironman and only Germany has more then one and its only 3.(been at 3 for months now.) Once I put up satellites over every country(that's left) and got my air power upgraded the aliens haven't been able to raise it anywhere.

I don't know if I have just been lucky or if it is a mechanic since I have things on lock down now, but I haven't had an abduction or any of the other pick one or the other choices in at least three months now. Besides UFOs once in a while I will get a terror mission or a council mission that's it.

Anyway I am on the verge of assaulting the alien base once again. I am hoping it will go better then last time.

 

[Slackbladder]

Sounds like Ironman is asking for a lot of pain. Not from the gameplay but from the glitches and bugs.

 

[Blu10]

Super pissed

Final Battle spoilers

Spoiler

I'm about to send my guys into the last room, so clump them up in the doorway making sure all ammo is reloaded, and everyone is healed up with my assault and sniper at the front. Once everyone is ready to go I put everyone on overwatch and throw out the snipers radar thing as the last move of my turn (you know the one that the aliens supposedly can't detect). That triggers the cutscene and the 2 other etherals, 2 mutons spawn and move out.

It is now their turn. They take control of the assault guy at the front, and the assault guy at the back. Both have the perk that makes them shoot at anyone who moves within 4 tiles. I cannot move my guys, AND none of the aliens are in sight of any of my guys.

Needless to say everyone died

I am playing on normal ironman. I had lost 0 soldiers, and 0 countries through my entire game... it's now november. Granted, I probably should have been playing classic from the get go, but I played both XCOMs as a kid and never beat either of them... figured I'd finally beat this one, so normal it was.

Fucking bullshit., just quit out of the game... I need a break from it.

--- and of course this is post 6666

 

[fasterthanu]

I'm curious about what kind of enemies you were facing near that 18 hour mark before u captured any aliens.

The game definitely seems to send tougher enemy types at you the further in time u progress on the in-game calendar but surely the game would still have to regularly supply you with sectoids or outsiders to capture for story progression purposes which would be hella easier if a pack of those spawned instead of say 2 sectopods or mutoid elites.

Yeah I was getting a lot of the harder enemy types but not

Spoiler

sectoid commanders, elites, sectopods or ethereal.

I was never getting sectoids at that point and thin men were rare, but then the council gave me a mission with a lot of the easy enemy types and that was when I captured my first sectoid.

 

[RyanDG]

Fucking hell. I'm in September in my Classic Ironman game when I just pull off a victory on an escort council mission from the jaws of defeat (I was down to my last guy, a heavy, who just abused the hell out of Rapid Reaction to clear the way for the guy to make it to the extraction). I get the victory screen and just as soon as the game goes back to the base screen, it freezes on the base screen. I Alt+F4'd to go back to the save game and I ended up completing the mission a second time. Guess what happens when it comes back to the base screen again? Yep. Frozen.

Dammit.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Fucking hell. I'm in September in my Classic Ironman game when I just pull off a victory on an escort council mission from the jaws of defeat (I was down to my last guy, a heavy, who just abused the hell out of Rapid Reaction to clear the way for the guy to make it to the extraction). I get the victory screen and just as soon as the game goes back to the base screen, it freezes on the base screen. I Alt+F4'd to go back to the save game and I ended up completing the mission a second time. Guess what happens when it comes back to the base screen again? Yep. Frozen.

Dammit.

I'm done with Ironman after this stupid stuff. It's a shame but it just isn't worth this garbage.

 

[ii Stryker]

Terror missions are a spike in difficulty at the start. Luckily most missions are not terror missions. Still, they're doable; just make sure you overwatch the ^*!%@$ out of everything and move slowly, triggering only a small group of enemies at a time. Don't worry about the civilians for now

Yeah, my problem was I was dashing into danger and not letting the AI move to me.

I had to realize the cold hard truth that I'm underfunded, understaffed, and fighting a foe far too superior to be taken head on. Keeping my guys close and overwatching the shit out of them equals mission success(mostly).

 

[Basileus777]

I'm done with Ironman after this stupid stuff. It's a shame but it just isn't worth this garbage.

These stories make me never want to play Ironman mode. I have the self-discipline to prevent myself from save-scumming just like I can avoid doing it in every single other strategy game that doesn't have a mode like this. Ironman mode is good for an achievement, and the risk of something terrible going wrong, I don't think it's worth it.

 

[sTeLioSco]

These stories make me never want to play Ironman mode. I have the self-discipline to prevent myself from save-scumming just like I can avoid doing it in every single other strategy game that doesn't have a mode like this. Ironman mode is good for an achievement, and the risk of something terrible going wrong, I don't think it's worth it.

i don't play ironman or hardcore modes or similar for first walkthrough of game!

im really enjoying my normal game.not rushing story missions and just taking a long time.
dont plan on finishing it anytime soon.im just doing mission everyday.reloading if something goes horribly wrong.

until the next xcom gets released(!) you have time to try every difficulty thousands of times.......games are for enjoyment.

 

[TTG]

Point of no return question:

Spoiler

I can use the Gollop Chamber. Is this it?

I'm wondering because I'm at a point where I want to explore as much of the game as possible before starting another campaign.

 

[Impeccable]

I'd just like to elaborate on the game locking up on PS3.

I got to play some more, and did the mission that it locked up on before. Go back to my base, do my business and then the next mission loads up.

Skyranger video lands.

Black screen. Locked up.

Seriously, I love this game but is it going to lock up this often now? I'm fairly deep into the game in Ironman mode ... in fact I could do the final mission if I get everyone healed up. I'd like to level some soldiers a bit more by doing some missions... but fuck.

The kind of stuttering and locking up reminds me VERY MUCH of Skyrim before the save file patch.

 

[Basileus777]

Point of no return question:

Spoiler

I can use the Gollop Chamber. Is this it?

I'm wondering because I'm at a point where I want to explore as much of the game as possible before starting another campaign.

The game will give you a clear prompt that it is the point of no return before the final mission. And

Spoiler

yes, it comes after you use the Gollop Chamber.

 

[sTeLioSco]

I'd just like to elaborate on the game locking up on PS3.

I got to play some more, and did the mission that it locked up on before. Go back to my base, do my business and then the next mission loads up.

Skyranger video lands.

Black screen. Locked up.

Seriously, I love this game but is it going to lock up this often now? I'm fairly deep into the game in Ironman mode ... in fact I could do the final mission if I get everyone healed up. I'd like to level some soldiers a bit more by doing some missions... but fuck.

The kind of stuttering and locking up reminds me VERY MUCH of Skyrim before the save file patch.

it reminds me of hardcore characters dying from bugs in vanilla Diablo 3.

 

[Salsa]

So uh I have an invisible alloy shiv that I can't use

 

[fasterthanu]

So uh I have an invisible alloy shiv that I can't use

Yeah I had the same problem. I was never able to use it so I just scrapped it. That was my second and last shiv.The first one worked, but I wasn't going to be wasting any more credits. They were both alloy so I don't no why it happened, but my first one got destroyed so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[Jintor]

I'm guessing they didn't playtest Shivs very well

 

[TemplaerDude]

I've yet to even research it on the 3 playthroughs I've had so far. I prefer my troops squishy and with names so I can get really angry when they die. Like Col. Ivana "Flash" Humpsalot, R.I.P. Second squad heavy leader. Took down 4 mutons BY HERSELF before getting slashed up in a surprise beserker assault. Been with me from almost the start : (

 

[Funky Papa]

So uh I have an invisible alloy shiv that I can't use

I haven an invisible laser rifle and a invisible caparace armour. On top of that, after a monthly report I didn't get paid. Thank god I had a recent save.

I previously said that so far I had yet to encounter a game breaking bug, but lately I've had to deal with a few that would have ruined any Ironman game. Sometimes the game goes full retard just like that.

 

[Salsa]

I haven an invisible laser rifle and a invisible caparace armour. On top of that, after a monthly report I didn't get paid. Thank god I had a recent save.

Well shit. I'm playing ironman so now I'm scared. Having wasted credits on the shiv sucks enough

 

[Agkel]

For those of you on the fence on whether to use a pad on the PC... Do IT!
Normally I think that K+M combo cannot be beaten in FPS, RPG, RTS etc... but this, this game is glorious with a pad. Took me about 15 min to get used to it, having played more than 15 hrs already on K+M but I'm not looking back for this particular title. It is so much more enjoyable and you dont get to deal with the finicky camera and the mouse going all crazy when you are doing free aim.

Also I dreamt last night that Firaxis came up with an expansion where the alien

Spoiler

experiments on humans

caused a mass spread of zombie-esk virus and you start the campaign visiting your parents, only to find out they were turned and both come at you at the same time... Now the interesting part was that I had a shotgun and I took a shot which surprisingly took both of them down.

Splash shotgun damage, make it happen Firaxis

 

[Mesoian]

YES!

Now for Ironman Classic.

 

[Smiley90]

Hey guys, I'm stuck at a mission where there's 3 mind-controlling guys in the end and I only have 1 soldier left.. impossible to win. If I exit the mission/evacuate, can I go back again later? And if so, does the map reset?

 

[Mr_Appleby]

For those of you on the fence on whether to use a pad on the PC... Do IT!
Normally I think that K+M combo cannot be beaten in FPS, RPG, RTS etc... but this, this game is glorious with a pad. Took me about 15 min to get used to it, having played more than 15 hrs already on K+M but I'm not looking back for this particular title. It is so much more enjoyable and you dont get to deal with the finicky camera and the mouse going all crazy when you are doing free aim.

yeah for some reason it didn't occur to me to try it until this morning even though i spent like 15 minutes trying to click on a particular tile last night.

 

[r1chard]

For those of you on the fence on whether to use a pad on the PC... Do IT!

I've never considered getting a gamepad for my PC until now. What sorts of issues should I keep in mind buying one?

 

[epmode]

So yeah, I'm holding off on playing this until there's another patch. It's surprisingly unstable for something that was in production for so long.

 

[Basileus777]

I've never considered getting a gamepad for my PC until now. What sorts of issues should I keep in mind buying one?

Buy a wired 360 controller, plug it into a usb port, and you are good to go.

 

[chiablo]

I've never considered getting a gamepad for my PC until now. What sorts of issues should I keep in mind buying one?

Be wary when buying an XBox 360 Wireless PC adapter, some are knock off Chinese made ones. Obviously, this is not an issue if you get a wired one.

 

[Mesoian]

Maybe it's just me, but does the aiming percentage on Classic seem...unreasonable?

I just had 3 squad wipes in a row because the enemy are sniping me with pistols from 15 squares away and my guys can't hit the broadside of a barn.

 

[TTG]

I'm guessing they didn't playtest Shivs very well

I think they're very interesting, in terms of tactics, so much so that I was planning on making a permanent spot for them in my squad. Too bad that once the first one was destroyed, I couldn't get another one of them going, at all. Hover SHIVs, regular alloy kinds, didn't matter.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I thought I was doing well. Going through mission relatively easily, then I reached a terror mission in China. Everything completely fell apart. I guess I wasn't finding survivors quick enough. They were dropping like flies, then these bug creatures with tons of health appeared. Everyone needed to reload. Then fucking zombies. My entire team decimated. I'm only playing on Normal. I'm crushed. It's relatively early, only 9 missions. I just didn't know how to approach that type of mission.

I really don't feel like continuing with this save. I'm probably just going to start over and maybe learn something from my mistakes. I think I probably should have just retreated to the extraction point when things started spiraling out of control.

 

[Salsa]

Welp, there's nothing like losing a max level psychic assault that's been with you since mission 1 by a critical landed on an overwatch shot.

 

[KingKong]

I gotta say, the game becomes pretty easy on Normal after a certain point. Once you put up a bunch of satellites, you basically don't have to worry about countries pulling out, and good reports + a few $ missions + selling stuff means you can build tons of stuff and go through all your officer training

Of course Classic totally kicks my ass, but the main goal (getting satellites up asap) is the same, its just that the rng can fuck you over when good troops die

Not really sure how to fix this, but imo this focus on satellites means you don't really need to make as many hard choices and there aren't a lot of different paths to go through. You either get satellites (by making the uplinks and rushing the nexus) or you lose

 

[Ferrio]

Can you continue your progress from the demo if you buy the full version on steam?

 

[forgeforsaken]

Welp, there's nothing like losing a max level psychic assault that's been with you since mission 1 by a critical landed on an overwatch shot.

Should have gone Lighting Reflexes...

 

[Salsa]

Lost 4 of my main squad in this one mission. Two of them were with me since day 1. Dang.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I probably made bad tech decisions. I only had my base satellite and one other in the US. God, I must suck.

 

[ixix]

Maybe it's just me, but does the aiming percentage on Classic seem...unreasonable?

I just had 3 squad wipes in a row because the enemy are sniping me with pistols from 15 squares away and my guys can't hit the broadside of a barn.

On Classic aliens get an across-the-board bonus to their hit and critical rates. Painful in the early going, but it becomes increasingly less noticeable as time goes on.

 

[Salsa]

Awh man I just realized there's no cheevo for normal – ironman. That's bs

 

[Mesoian]

On Classic aliens get an across-the-board bonus to their hit and critical rates. Painful in the early going, but it becomes increasingly less noticeable as time goes on.

So I should just...struggle through the constant rook wipes then?