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XCOM: Enemy Unknown |OT| Neo GAF is Under Alien Control
- Thread starter Jintor
- Start date
So I've just beat this on normal ironman and was looking forward to starting it on impossible..
So what's the checklist the perfect start on impossible difficulty? Here's mine, did I forgot anything?
-On the first mission, have at least one sniper promotion and one other promotion so you got two squaddies for the 2nd mission
-After the first mission, check that your base has at least one steam tile near the surface (even better if there are two near each other)
-Start researching Alien Containment and building a satellite
-Hire 3 new squad members who have better initial hp
-At this point, first abduction mission pops up before you can receive your new squad members, try to get past it somehow (probably the biggest hurdle in the start)
-The abduction mission you do should be located in one of the bigger, better paying countries and reward you with engineers, and hopefully at least only screw over one badly paying country - you can save one of the countries with the satellite you just bought
-Try to manage through the first month and get at least the alien containment, officer school, arc thrower and 2 satellites built. Get money and engis from abduction missions, scientists are worthless.
So what's the checklist the perfect start on impossible difficulty? Here's mine, did I forgot anything?
-On the first mission, have at least one sniper promotion and one other promotion so you got two squaddies for the 2nd mission
-After the first mission, check that your base has at least one steam tile near the surface (even better if there are two near each other)
-Start researching Alien Containment and building a satellite
-Hire 3 new squad members who have better initial hp
-At this point, first abduction mission pops up before you can receive your new squad members, try to get past it somehow (probably the biggest hurdle in the start)
-The abduction mission you do should be located in one of the bigger, better paying countries and reward you with engineers, and hopefully at least only screw over one badly paying country - you can save one of the countries with the satellite you just bought
-Try to manage through the first month and get at least the alien containment, officer school, arc thrower and 2 satellites built. Get money and engis from abduction missions, scientists are worthless.
Heh... mine I got a sectopod at the back row - while trying finish off another across the base. Wiped me out.
I'm gonna take a break. :/
I am streaming a classic ironman run. About an hour a day, maybe more on weekends. I did part 1 last night. http://twitch.tv/racelap
Happens all the time on classic as well.
Classic and impossible are hard enough as is, without the aliens getting increased chance to hit/crit.
Shit.
Terror mission in Australia. I go in a room with a bunch of civillians. Four chrysalids barge in. During the fight, while moving my guys around another three chrysalids spawn. It suddenly turns into Starship Troopers. Two of the chrysalids take out civillians so now I have two zombies to deal with too. Final move of my final turn, I manage to squeeze in a rocket between my support, down to 1 HP by now, two bunched up civillians and a final zombie.
I can't believe I got out without anyone dead. This game is absolutely nuts. I'm dreaming turn based combat at nights now.
Terror mission in Australia. I go in a room with a bunch of civillians. Four chrysalids barge in. During the fight, while moving my guys around another three chrysalids spawn. It suddenly turns into Starship Troopers. Two of the chrysalids take out civillians so now I have two zombies to deal with too. Final move of my final turn, I manage to squeeze in a rocket between my support, down to 1 HP by now, two bunched up civillians and a final zombie.
I can't believe I got out without anyone dead. This game is absolutely nuts. I'm dreaming turn based combat at nights now.
Metalmurphy
Member
Which is really dumb. Difficulty increase should only make the AI harder or come up with more difficult situations, it should never change the rules of the game for one side only.
That's the easy way out to do an harder difficulty.
I think the AI is already playing as well as it can on Classic. Lots of strategy games resort to giving the AI unnatural advantages on the highest levels.
In other news, I feel like this game could use one or two additional difficulty levels. The jump between Normal and Classic is pretty huge.
Basileus777
Member
I'm pretty close to finishing a game on Impossible, but to play it on Ironman mode would just be punishment. It'd be a frustrating waste of time because you cannot recover from any significant errors in the early game, any mistake would mean you would have to restart. And those early missions you would have to redo every time are the hardest part of the game.
weekend_warrior
Banned
So how's the PS3 version work? No odd bugs, shitty optimization, or broken MP?
Hey guys, just picked up XCOM off GMG. As a relative newbie to turn based strategy games and XCOM in general, what would be the recommended difficulty? I was initially thinking of Normal Ironman, since I'm not really the guy to reload stuff and I thought it'd be nice to finalize that choice. What do you guys think? Is Classic too hard to attempt? Should I let go of Ironman? Thanks!
Basileus777
Member
That's not the easy way, it's the way almost every single strategy game does it. If they did it another way, impossible difficulty would probably simply not exist and we'd be complaining the game was too easy.
forgeforsaken
Member
Normal for newcomers. I like Ironman mode a lot, and that's how I played it. Some folks have run into some bugs though that make me hesitant to blanket recommend that mode though until they patch it up a bit.
Metalmurphy
Member
Erm no. Throw more units, make them smarter, make the economy be a bit more difficult, etc. There's plenty of ways to make a game harder without cheating, which is basically, change a few parameters and you're done. That's the easy way out.
I agree completely, upping the hit/crit rate on the aliens makes classic and impossible feel cheap, they never should have done that.
Between this and the plethora of bugs still in the game, I think I'm done with Classic/Impossible ironman mode.
Basileus777
Member
They already do all of that, except for the smarter AI. And it's not so simple to create an AI that can handle a human opponent in this sort of game, especially for a niche difficulty very few people will play. If the enemy didn't get any bonuses and were the same as they were on normal mode, the tactical portion of the game would be too easy. The problem with the difficulty in XCOM is how frontloaded it is, not that they give bonuses to the AI.
I hate the fact that barriers aren't actually barriers in the game. I'm down to just squaddies after my first attempt at a Supply ship mission and another ship assault had my guys mowed down by those giant robots in addition to Elite Mutons.
Somehow I have to train everyone back up or get enough mats for the Plasma weapons I just researched.
Somehow I have to train everyone back up or get enough mats for the Plasma weapons I just researched.
SniperHunter
Banned
demo had too much screen tearing but otherwise it was fine
grimshawish
Banned
The game does lack ALOT of useful information like if I can target someone when I move a character etc. and I'd prefer the ability to order multiturn moves unless interupted. Number of times am 'overlook' and moving people forwards is a bit silly and a big waste of time; taking a lot of the tension/atmosphere away.
I can deal with all this; the game is still very good despite being a bit blunt in its precision.
However...the fucking camera when your on some of the larger UFO's...christ its dreadful - if am trying to move people on the upper floors I have to stare at the roof! I have to constantly turn and mess about.
Its a real issue and am not sure why they didn't deal with it before release; in the end it causes a lot of shenanigans (no I didn't want you to go there!) and just causes frustration to the degree that I now hate going on those UFO's.
Other than that am enjoying the game for what it is; its a bit 'meh' in areas but the management side of things and the half decent strategy makes up for things. The BRO stuff is stupid though.
I can deal with all this; the game is still very good despite being a bit blunt in its precision.
However...the fucking camera when your on some of the larger UFO's...christ its dreadful - if am trying to move people on the upper floors I have to stare at the roof! I have to constantly turn and mess about.
Its a real issue and am not sure why they didn't deal with it before release; in the end it causes a lot of shenanigans (no I didn't want you to go there!) and just causes frustration to the degree that I now hate going on those UFO's.
Other than that am enjoying the game for what it is; its a bit 'meh' in areas but the management side of things and the half decent strategy makes up for things. The BRO stuff is stupid though.
Anyone notice that everyone on the command deck is a man? Found it a bit weird.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
My first
mission kicked the shit out of me. My squad got totally anihillated. Heavy floaters in packs of six plus elite mutons and berserkers? Fuck that shit, there are not enough upgrades in the world to beat that.
alien base
Lost a soldier due to 4 pretty harsh misses in a row. Now ive got no supports and will have to make a newbie in to one 
Edit: Can someone help me with how interceptors work? I was struggling to kill things so i got the firestorm ship, which i thought would help. But still most ships get away from me and/or almost kill my firestorms. Are there upgrades i should be getting to help the ships? And if so where are they?
Edit: Can someone help me with how interceptors work? I was struggling to kill things so i got the firestorm ship, which i thought would help. But still most ships get away from me and/or almost kill my firestorms. Are there upgrades i should be getting to help the ships? And if so where are they?
weekend_warrior
Banned
Oh, hadn't even thought about checking for a demo, thanks!
Game gets boring as hell. My major problems:
-No strategy involved. Move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. Move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. Then move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. After that, move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. Zzzz
-If you managed the first two months quite ok on insane/classic you won the game.
... back to civ5 and waiting for simcity.
-No strategy involved. Move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. Move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. Then move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. After that, move 2 tiles forward, set everyone on Overwatch and try to trigger a spawn. Zzzz
-If you managed the first two months quite ok on insane/classic you won the game.
... back to civ5 and waiting for simcity.
Better guns are nice. A Plasma Cannon makes the Firestorm a match for anything. EMP Cannons and Fusion Lances are also nice, but to get the latter, you need to be able to kill a Battleship, and well... If you can do that, you can beat anything, so why get it?Lost a soldier due to 4 pretty harsh misses in a row. Now ive got no supports and will have to make a newbie in to one
Edit: Can someone help me with how interceptors work? I was struggling to kill things so i got the firestorm ship, which i thought would help. But still most ships get away from me and/or almost kill my firestorms. Are there upgrades i should be getting to help the ships? And if so where are they?
Also, I have a somewhat spoilerish question.
When you played the game, where was
the alien base
The Temple Ship
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I wrote this yesterday.
Today, Socks was one of two soldiers to survive a completely fucked landed UFO raid. It was a complete UI mistake on my part -- I was setting up my squad to breach the door when I accidentally clicked on the wrong position, which meant one of my Assaults went barging through the fucking door to take "cover" on the wrong side of the wall right in plain sight of two Sectopods and four drones. I probably should have just let her take the hits and pulled her back, but I decided to go all-in.
Socks survived, despite only being armed with a scatter laser and titan armor, while I lost three (THREE!) Colonels with plasma weapons, including my prized psionic sniper and my best support. I'm playing Normal Ironman, which means I had to live with it. I was freaking out while my men were all cut down, but somehow Socks managed to pull shit together. I was left with Socks, Rivera (a Colonel Assault), and my backup Sniper, as they systematically took down six Muton Elites. (The highlight of this middle section was when a Muton Elite turned around a corner to try to flank me and both of my Assaults unloaded on him in Overwatch, killing him in one turn.)
Then I lost my Colonel Assault while trying to take down another Sectopod and two Muton Elites, leaving only Socks and my Sniper. These two (down to about four health each at this point) managed to hold it down and take out those enemies, another Muton Elite, and an Ethereal. At the final standoff, the Ethereal mind-controlled my sniper, which meant it was all down to Socks to Run-and-Gun in and take out the Ethereal by himself, standing fully exposed in front of him.
XCom's ranks suffered a serious blow today, but Socks lives on.
StrangeADT
Banned
Ugh, why must I download a 2 GB file following retail installation? Come on 2k, that's horseshit. One of the biggest reasons I went physical is that a 2 GB dl takes me over 2 hours...that and the hardcover artbook and patch are pretty sexy bonuses
Also, does anyone know if the 360 version is 2 disks as well? Thinking of buying it for my little bro.
Gross. So glad I download from Steam at 6 MB/sec. 2 GB ain't no thang!
Lostconfused
Member
Yeah it's the easy way out and what you suggest would take too much effort for anyone to ever bother with. Adding more units means that they would have to make bigger maps. The AI is very intelligent in the first place, making it even smarter than it already is would probably be a significant time investment.
Yes there are plenty of ways to make the game harder, but nobody will ever do it that way because it would be too demanding.
Metalmurphy
Member
Man that's the third time I get this bug. An weapon is missing even thought the correct count shows up in the Workshop, and as soon as I buy a new one, the missing one shows up and I get 2 left. Waste of money -.-
My sniper has a knack for missing 85+% shots, over and over.
Do you lose gear if people die and you don't clear the mission? I've definitely had gear gone missing on me.
Metalmurphy
Member
No. It's just a bug where the gear is there, but it doesn't appear on the loadout menu unless you buy a new one. At that point 2 of them appear -.-
woo, finally beat it on normal ironman. On the final mission
I thought it was going to be a joke since my best sniper could hit the ethereal dude all the way back in the hallway, I kept my psi char safe in the back and rushed the other 4 in the room. Woops, turns out 2 more ethereals spawn and posses 3 of the 4 characters. So I had to camp in the back and kill my guys as they rushed at me. It was pretty easy after that though.
Some of the irritating bugs have crept into my ironman normal game. Time to just end it soon, I've been wasting time a bit getting my crew set. But the game fucked up when I had a terror site and a ufo crash at the same time - I had returned by skyranger because I was going to get demolished at the terror site, then a scrambled my B team to the UFO crash and in the end since then my B team shows as on an eternal mission. Finally had to dismiss them all, which really sucked as there was a captain and two LT's.
So now instead of 1 really elite squad and 8 really good backup soldiers I have my one elite squad, a couple of decent bench players and a bunch of low tier squaddies. Lame. Oh, and my hover SHIV died a few missions back and the next 2 freaking replacements were bugged, what a waste.
So now instead of 1 really elite squad and 8 really good backup soldiers I have my one elite squad, a couple of decent bench players and a bunch of low tier squaddies. Lame. Oh, and my hover SHIV died a few missions back and the next 2 freaking replacements were bugged, what a waste.
My classic ironman run started so well... and then the wheels came off in spectacular fashion. _Fuck floaters_
I have a request for Firaxis. It should be possible to use a fallen soldier's own medpack to stabilize them. It's so frustrating to stand over the injured body of a teammate, unable to do anything because your healthy soldier isn't carrying a medpack... even though the person on the ground is. That's silly.
I have a request for Firaxis. It should be possible to use a fallen soldier's own medpack to stabilize them. It's so frustrating to stand over the injured body of a teammate, unable to do anything because your healthy soldier isn't carrying a medpack... even though the person on the ground is. That's silly.
It would be really nice. I do mostly like the removal of in-game inventory management - having to constantly juggle ammo between belts and packs was more annoying than tactical fun - but it does remove some small benefits like being able to loot fallen comrades.
Dakota47
Member
- Start a new game after you've finished the tutorial
- Don't take all your vets along on a mission. Select some rookies, so you can create a big pool of seasoned soldiers
- Focus on satellites in the strategic part of the game
I was in the same boat: I say start on Normal non-ironman to do the tutorial and get used to the controls and such for a few hours. Once you get used to the UI and the finer points of base management (realize that building satellites will take 20 days and you need a new satellite uplink to launch them, which also takes time to build), then restart on Normal, skip the tutorial, and turn on ironman if you're feeling brave. Get used to people dying too!
That's basically what my strategy has downgraded to, except I'm a little more ballsier with my moves.
Yeah, that's pretty much why I both love and hate terror missions. They force you out of the overwatch routine.
Not that I really hate the "advance/overwatch/try to trigger patrol" style. It's still pretty tense on Classic.
Phoenix
Member
Awesome game breeds awesomeness...
Phoenix
Member
Indeed. Sometimes the person that has been downed has a weapon, grenade, etc. that I want to be able to use.
Riposte
Member
In my last game, I got two characters in the beginning (listed together) from the same nation with the same last name. I naturally assumed they were brother and sister, though I guess it comes down to me interpreting the RNG.
Anyway XCOM at night + classes in the city (train ride) early in the morning = pain. Working on 2 hours of sleep right now. Hmm, those are perfect conditions for tactical gaming right?
Anyway XCOM at night + classes in the city (train ride) early in the morning = pain. Working on 2 hours of sleep right now. Hmm, those are perfect conditions for tactical gaming right?
Phoenix
Member
Rocket and grenades... rockets and grenades. I was on an AB mission and we were assaulted and at close range had crysallids all over us. The only option? Fire rockets into the formation and take the friendly fire damage which would have been less than the damage from continual attacks from the crys.
Dammit -- XCOM alien activities always turn out to be buggy at least once every mission in the later levels for me on the 360. Stuck watching the game do absolutely nothing; normally its the chrysalids screwing me over. Put in 30 minutes on a mission and now they are once again stuck on foliage screwing up the mission by having me restart over so I can attempt again to complete it.