TemplaerDude
Member
I would pay 10 bucks for a decent sized map pack.
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XCOM: Enemy Unknown |OT| Neo GAF is Under Alien Control
- Thread starter Jintor
- Start date
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
Explosives are awesome, but they kind of suck early on because they vaporize precious resources.
God no. But I'd pay for a real level generator for sure.
I feel like a lot of people in this thread aren't aware of all the awesome stuff that would come with real map generation. There must be more first time players than I suspected. XCOM with fixed levels is like Civilization without world generation.
Maybe it has more to do with it being too hard to compile a new level from scratch in UE3. Seems like a huge oversight to me.
Has anyone tried the Graphical mod over at xcom nexus?
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/25/
I didn't really see much difference. In fact, the soldiers look worse in the menus at the base.
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/25/
I didn't really see much difference. In fact, the soldiers look worse in the menus at the base.
I am so willing to buy stupid amounts of DLC for this game. I keep wanting more, I haven't been so engrossed in a game for so long! I rarely buy DLC, but I'm gonna EAT THIS SHIT UP!
I like using two snipers, one assault, one support, one heavy, and one hover SHIV.
Snipers to bury things from afar; assault for run and gun, lightning reflexes, and auto-overwatch on melee enemies; support for the healing and the smoke; the heavy for rockets and HEAT ammo; and the hover SHIV as a scout, distraction, and plasma death machine.
Basileus777
Member
That is a later game strategy, but explosives often don't do enough damage to kill things on higher difficulties. They destroy cover and soften things up for the rest of your squad. Shredder rockets are great at that.
All the bugs have prompted me to pretend that SHIVs don't exist. I'm not sure I'd take out a human unit with a decent rank for one anyway.
Yeah I hope they fix that soon.
THIS. WHAT IS GOING ON.
On a side note, when explosives do work. 2 HEAT plasma rockets > Sectopod
Sectopods don't like the fusion bombs, that's for sure. I just with those things had more range.
I'm trying to get the research everything achievement. Once heavy floaters show up, will I ever see a normal floater again? I'm at the end of the game and I thought I had missed interrogating regular sectoids as well, but they just showed up on a consul mission.
I'm trying to get the research everything achievement. Once heavy floaters show up, will I ever see a normal floater again? I'm at the end of the game and I thought I had missed interrogating regular sectoids as well, but they just showed up on a consul mission.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if I missed or what but I shot a rocket at a sectopod, it took no damage but the one standing right behind it did? So weird, and it sucked because I let my best Heavy take some serious damage so he could get that rocket off.
Exactly how I roll, I like using the hover SHIV because it takes decent damage, dishes out the pain and I don't really care if it dies. Makes it perfect for bum rushing the UFO control room when you know an Ethereal is hiding out waiting to mind control someone.
My A-Team, they basically went on all the big ops including the last assault.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
With the cover system, there would be instant loss generations most likely.
TemplaerDude
Member
I bet it would be easier to hand make 40 maps than to create a dependable level generator. I'm sure that if they could have they would have included it in this game.
It's unquestionably easier. But this was in development for four years!
To the guy above, the point about the cover system is interesting but I believe it could be solved. I mean, the terrain doesn't have to be entirely random. It could be comprised of prefab set pieces strung together, just like the first game. Add in some code that scans a potential map for distance between valid cover and add/remove props as needed.
Basileus777
Member
It doesn't make sense to create a random map generator after the game has been released. They just need to make more maps, but they should be inserted into the existing rotation and not into some new special mode, which is what I'm afraid they would do.
I had a batch of them show up just after the alien base, but I think that is the only group of them I've seen. I had the same problem with sectoids. I waited long enough getting the arc thrower ready that sectoids stopped appearing. I spent 6 in game months just trying to get them to show up before I gave up and did the alien base. First UFO after that had sectoids. >_<
MacGurcules
Member
I had an Asset Recovery council mission come up super late in the game and it had nine sectoids and nothing else. It was kind of hilarious being able to just run around and clown all over them by that point. I made a point of capturing a few of them just to fill out my roster with plasma pistols that I could never bring myself to actually buy.
My first playthrough was that exact squad. I'm finding that 2 assault, 1 support, 2 sniper, 1 heavy is pretty ideal.
Basileus777
Member
You can take forever, there is no time limit for anything.
Fragamemnon
Member
Fiinshed Classic Ironman with no countries lost and only 1 squad member dying due to non-bug related reasons (two instances of clearly messed up LOS w/ squadsight, and a very scary situation where the teleport bug popped in a Sectopod right in the middle of my squad, which then got two shots after it teleported w/ no chance of reaction fire. Fun stuff.
I started in North America, went for the four engineers right off the bat on my first abduction mission. Then I built a workshop and satellites, then sold the farm to get a 2nd Satellite Nexus up on my first month. This delayed my OTS into month two but getting those early sats was key-I claimed all of Africa (which I intentionally ignored on abductions to maximize the effect of my fast nexus strategy) at the end of the first month. I built OTS, some power generators, alien containment and a third nexus+satellites on month 2 to claim South America next and keep another country out of panic for the council meeting. Sell Navigation and Power Cores to raise money if you have to, you can't really use them until later on and you'll get a steady supply throughout the game.
From there it was pretty easy to keep control of panic since I had enough money to launch tons of sats and the added coverage really cuts down on the places where aliens can do abductions (they cannot perform abductions in regions w/ coverage).
For science, I earnestly think the best thing you can get early on is scopes then beam weapons. You ensure one-hit kills when you connect up until Mutons, then track back to carapace armor after getting your alien containment up. Don't tech laser snipers and heavy lasers/laser cannons until after capping a sectoid, which is trivially easy.
I know some people advocate going right to plasma, but it's really expensive to produce plasma weapons compared to beam weapons and you have a lot of conflicts for your money at the point in the game where you want to transition over (mid-2nd/3rd month). Light Plasma Rifles are amazing (that +10 to hit makes them useful later on in the game for ranking up squaddies in council missions) if you get them fast but you can't get them without having to go into your first terror mission with just ballistic weapons, which makes the Chrysalids actually dangerous instead of easy fodder if you have laser weaponry+sniper rifles. Don't bother with shotgun upgrades until you get the Alloy Cannon at the end of the game.
I didn't bother with the alien base until I got titan armor+plasma, but definitely try to do it before Muton Elites and Sectopods show up. Titan Armor+beam weapons should also work fine. These enemies are very dangerous even with titan armor and you want to minimize how much time is left in the game once Sectopods especially start showing up.
I didn't build a foundry until I Mutons showed up, but once they did I built one ASAP for the ammo upgrade. SHIVs are also very good in terror missions. The Foundry pistol upgrades + plasma pistol let your snipers actually make it past squaddie late in the game so they can get squadsight (after which point they will carry themselves).
Tactical side of things-the biggest suggestion I can make is to build up your team with a diverse set of skills. You will need backups for all classes as you will hit LOS issues and bugs that will claim lives. I always retired Colonels once I leveled them, and was constantly leveling up newer troops. Really, the only class that is downright terrible at Squaddie is the sniper, but with pistol upgrades and some mobility you can get them enough kills to get squadsight. Heavies/Assaults/Supports all start out fine and get better. There are only a few real "absolute" better choices in the solider skill trees (such as HEAT ammo) and having a diverse set of skills helps. What you want in a mission where you clean up an alien battleship is different than what you want when fighting a terror mission after Sectopods show up, for example.
The only other suggestion I have in the tactical layer that hasn't really been mentioned yet is to use cooldowns, even one time use cooldowns, liberally when they make sense and help you get ahead. Most missions only have three or four real encounters, and using things like rockets and run and gun can help you keep you out of the fickle nature of the RNG. Especially with the use of the Smoke Grenades and Rockets, which are terrific at clearing out cover and doing damage at the same time.
I would love to take on Imposssible Ironman, but the number of restarts you have to make on that difficultly, even when playing optimally, is disgusting.
I started in North America, went for the four engineers right off the bat on my first abduction mission. Then I built a workshop and satellites, then sold the farm to get a 2nd Satellite Nexus up on my first month. This delayed my OTS into month two but getting those early sats was key-I claimed all of Africa (which I intentionally ignored on abductions to maximize the effect of my fast nexus strategy) at the end of the first month. I built OTS, some power generators, alien containment and a third nexus+satellites on month 2 to claim South America next and keep another country out of panic for the council meeting. Sell Navigation and Power Cores to raise money if you have to, you can't really use them until later on and you'll get a steady supply throughout the game.
From there it was pretty easy to keep control of panic since I had enough money to launch tons of sats and the added coverage really cuts down on the places where aliens can do abductions (they cannot perform abductions in regions w/ coverage).
For science, I earnestly think the best thing you can get early on is scopes then beam weapons. You ensure one-hit kills when you connect up until Mutons, then track back to carapace armor after getting your alien containment up. Don't tech laser snipers and heavy lasers/laser cannons until after capping a sectoid, which is trivially easy.
I know some people advocate going right to plasma, but it's really expensive to produce plasma weapons compared to beam weapons and you have a lot of conflicts for your money at the point in the game where you want to transition over (mid-2nd/3rd month). Light Plasma Rifles are amazing (that +10 to hit makes them useful later on in the game for ranking up squaddies in council missions) if you get them fast but you can't get them without having to go into your first terror mission with just ballistic weapons, which makes the Chrysalids actually dangerous instead of easy fodder if you have laser weaponry+sniper rifles. Don't bother with shotgun upgrades until you get the Alloy Cannon at the end of the game.
I didn't bother with the alien base until I got titan armor+plasma, but definitely try to do it before Muton Elites and Sectopods show up. Titan Armor+beam weapons should also work fine. These enemies are very dangerous even with titan armor and you want to minimize how much time is left in the game once Sectopods especially start showing up.
I didn't build a foundry until I Mutons showed up, but once they did I built one ASAP for the ammo upgrade. SHIVs are also very good in terror missions. The Foundry pistol upgrades + plasma pistol let your snipers actually make it past squaddie late in the game so they can get squadsight (after which point they will carry themselves).
Tactical side of things-the biggest suggestion I can make is to build up your team with a diverse set of skills. You will need backups for all classes as you will hit LOS issues and bugs that will claim lives. I always retired Colonels once I leveled them, and was constantly leveling up newer troops. Really, the only class that is downright terrible at Squaddie is the sniper, but with pistol upgrades and some mobility you can get them enough kills to get squadsight. Heavies/Assaults/Supports all start out fine and get better. There are only a few real "absolute" better choices in the solider skill trees (such as HEAT ammo) and having a diverse set of skills helps. What you want in a mission where you clean up an alien battleship is different than what you want when fighting a terror mission after Sectopods show up, for example.
The only other suggestion I have in the tactical layer that hasn't really been mentioned yet is to use cooldowns, even one time use cooldowns, liberally when they make sense and help you get ahead. Most missions only have three or four real encounters, and using things like rockets and run and gun can help you keep you out of the fickle nature of the RNG. Especially with the use of the Smoke Grenades and Rockets, which are terrific at clearing out cover and doing damage at the same time.
I would love to take on Imposssible Ironman, but the number of restarts you have to make on that difficultly, even when playing optimally, is disgusting.
Incendiary
Banned
It took me about three rockets and a grenade to realize they were immune (or glitching) to explosives. I just thought I was extremely unlucky and the 90% was missing but nope. Really weird.
The longer you take, though, the harder the enemies get. You can't just sit around for months and only fight Sectoids/Thin Men. You'll get tougher stuff in your missions as time progresses. I think the only things tied to the story are
Sectoid Commanders which only show up after the alien base, and Ethereals which only show up after the Overseer.
Basileus777
Member
And you can rush through the game and avoid/delay triggering the emergence of the tougher enemies in story missions. I did the
alien base and overseer ship
I agree, and as you pointed out before, some sort of medium between Classic and Impossible IM would have been nice to see. Gonna have to see what modders can cook up.
Basileus777
Member
Just play impossible and control how you use your saves. Set rules for yourself, don't use mid-mission saves, and only reload when it's to save yourself from wasting a ton of time restarting the whole thing from the beginning. I don't get the Ironman or nothing mentality, it's like you've never played a strategy game where you had to determine how to use saves yourself before!
I don't have that sort of self-control for a game where chance plays a part. I can easily set saving rules for myself in a game like Dishonored, but in a game like XCOM I would be easily compelled to load mid-mission saves if things didn't go my way.
Ironman was implemented for people like me.
I love its all-or-nothing style and I want to always associate this game with one that forces you to face consequences for all of your actions, regardless of how much you'd want a do-over.
Ironman was implemented for people like me.
I love its all-or-nothing style and I want to always associate this game with one that forces you to face consequences for all of your actions, regardless of how much you'd want a do-over.The unfortunate thing with this approach is that the underlying rule behind it is "Reload your game if your first abduction occurs after March 5th (and then reload if, similarly, you can't get your uplink built by the 15th)." Which is hardly optimal if the goal is a grand strategy to apply to the game.
Finished on Normal earlier...
First time playing an XCOM but I found normal to be too easy after the alien base. I was close to losing quite a few countries but pulled off a win there on the last day and was able to manage satellites well after that(P.S. Get fucked, Nigeria). Walter White just sniped his way to 110 kills after that, MVP of all things.
I managed to complete all the research in this game too, which is nice. The upgraded rocket you get from the battleship is fucking crazy.
I'm going to go again on Classic Ironman now, should straighten me out.
First time playing an XCOM but I found normal to be too easy after the alien base. I was close to losing quite a few countries but pulled off a win there on the last day and was able to manage satellites well after that(P.S. Get fucked, Nigeria). Walter White just sniped his way to 110 kills after that, MVP of all things.
I managed to complete all the research in this game too, which is nice. The upgraded rocket you get from the battleship is fucking crazy.
I'm going to go again on Classic Ironman now, should straighten me out.
Fragamemnon
Member
It usually seems to pop early enough, but if you don't get it by then it's easy enough to move into something more traditional, since you can't make the big early differentiating investment (the fast Workshop) anyway without the rewarded engineers.
By "selling the farm", I mean selling intact UFO nav units and Power Cores early on to raise cash since you don't need those things until late May at the earliest.
In terms of beating that fountain map, I like to use the bus on the side of the map.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
He probably means that he sold a bunch of stuff: corpses, power sources, nav computers, etc.
Don't shoot back and forth from low cover. Retreat to full cover, hunker down, then have another guy go around the bus and flank 'em.
yeah and they should be free because of base game is highly lacking.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
The blaster launcher is ace, but it doesn't have that visceral feel of a conventional rocket.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Just one.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
"Jay Wilson" just showed up in my pool of new recruits.
We're gonna spawn more chryssalids than you have ammo! Then, we're gonna DOUBLE IT.
We're gonna spawn more chryssalids than you have ammo! Then, we're gonna DOUBLE IT.
On the other hand, seeing it bend around walls or rising right into a cyberdisk is a completely different but still wonderful feeling.
Vol5
Member
How? I've game-overed twice after about 6-7 hours per game. I'm OK during the missions, but countries leave me like it's going out of fashion. I get OK satellite coverage but clearly I'm doing something wrong or moving too fast somewhere. It's soul destroying...getting a decent squad together but the game ends because I've no council members.
Wait, so is the 'tutorial' just the first mission? Someone said to restart after the tutorial, and I decided to restart after I built the alien containment facility, since the base 'opened up' and didn't say "disabled for tutorial", was that the right point in time? What's the point of restarting right after the first mission if that's the end of the tutorial?
Basileus777
Member
The tutorial lasts for 3 or 4 missions.
So did I restart at the right time?
Castor Krieg
Banned
The whole point of restarting the game is to be able to pick starting location and not automatically lose 4 guys in the first mission. Simply make sure you select option to skip the tutorial under "Advanced Settings" when choosing difficulty.
Ooh, ok thanks! I ended up losing a dude on the first mission because a sectoid one-shot him under half cover. I still picked Europe on my new play through but I don't really know which was better. So I assume it still goes through the same first few missions of researching stuff and building a containment facility?
Castor Krieg
Banned
Were you given an option to choose only Europe or the U.S.? If you disable tutorial you can build base elsewhere, with different bonuses for each continent.
There is a bit of tutorial text even if you disable it. The objectives also stay the same. What is skipped is the first mission in Germany, it is instead replaced with another generic mission on the continent your base is located.
Yeah I could choose the three different continents but I stuck with Europe, is there a huge difference in continent choice, or is there a 'best' continent choice?