To skip the intro videos:
\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Config\
Open DefaultEngine.ini
Under the header ; PC Startup movies, delete the "+" before the 4 entries there.
Thank you thank you thank you.
I've not read every page of this thread, but I'm glad I caught this one. No escape/enter/mouse click to skip logos? Seriously?
Anyway, I got the game for Christmas and only got around to installing it yesterday. I'm now on Game 4.
Game 1
My first game was Normal + Tutorial. With the opening logo sequence pissing me off I was then further frustrated during the opening missions with the pace of the commands given to you. "Now you move here", "Now you move here" with what seemed too long a gap between each move. It's probably only a few seconds but it just seemed to not flow.
Anyway, I got through the tutorial, built all the stuff they told me to build, did some missions, captured some aliens, etc. By this point I have no money, I have a steam vent directly below my sat uplink and a containment cell to the left (so losing any adjacency bonus with a new uplink), I've not built a new uplink, so I've not built any new sats and I've just discovered the
. My tutorial Heavy is getting strong, I have an Assault with a laser rifle and a decent ish sniper with squad sight. My first terror mission I managed to save 13 civs. I'm enjoying myself apart from a few "92% miss WTF my awesome guy is dead moments" and a single "What's that four legged thing, and why has it turned my dude into a kebab?" that a load and retry with a different action resolved.
With hindsight, I'd not used grenades/rockets because of Dr Whiney, used dart a
lot and not used oversight much, had 2 people wounded on lots of missions and had not made any med packs. Around that time I had some bits to do around the house so I stopped playing.
Game 2
Normal - No tutorial
By the time I've come back I have been looking around the web a bit and decide to start anew without the tutorial. Thereby not having three deaths on my hands without choice, choosing a base (Africa or Asia), not being forced into base building or research, and hopefully ending the first mission with 2 or 3 rookies leveled up.
I start the game and the tutorial starts. WTF. I quit back to the menu and discover that I had selected tutorial, rather than deselecting it. I assume that on your first game it auto selects it, and then on subsequent games it auto disables?
Balls.
Game 3
Normal - No Tutorial - take 2
Ah ha, finally I have my own team, I've picked Africa as my base for the extra money and we are going out on our first mission. Upon the level loading I hit F10 to quicksave and proceed to fan out behind cover. I engage a set of small white dudes, and in the process of flanking to the left I encounter more white dudes. My entire squad is dead after each missing some sitters. Rage quit.
After 15 minutes or so I've calmed down enough so try again with this save and load my quicksave from the start of mission 1. At this point I'm still not using grenades much, though have lowered my use of dart and raised my use of oversight to 2/4 of my squad per turn.
I remember where the spawns occur from the last less than perfect start so avoid the second batch. I take out the first two and take a hit on one guy who is wounded but still standing. I get my team round to get those other bogies and they manage to only target the one guy who is near death, my fault for not protecting him. I take them out and the mission ends. I've already lost one man, but at least I get 2 rookies leveled up.
The next mission comes up, everyone dies after more high percentage hits miss. RAAAAGEEEEE.
At this point I closed down again and played around with my Lightroom catalog and my webdev learning. However I was itching to try again. I've read a bit more this time, use grenades and ignore the woman, use oversight more, almost never use dash. Off I go.
Game 4
Normal + No tutorial
Starting in Asia this time, first mission sends me in to Japan. Everyone gets into cover on action 1, then oversight on action 2. I'm still hitting F10 so that I can see how things change when it goes wrong.
I send two of my squad to the right to get cover behind cars + oversight, on the next turn while moving forward they trigger the aliens who scarper. Right into the oversight of the other two who haven't moved. Bloke misses, Woman hits. Hurrah. My aim is to see if I can get every troop a kill on this first mission. I move my right side team up to the side of a lorry either side of a gap. They are in full over, but still in LOS. Alien dude makes a run for it, right into the oversight of those same first two from earlier. Bloke has shit for eyes and ears and misses his Oversight again. Woman is godlike, pow, alien dead. 2 down to one rookie with no damage taken at all. I'm enjoying myself again.
I hear bad guys over to the left and move Bloke and Woman over, while keeping the right team in oversight. The aliens spot me and get into cover again. This time one of my right team has a chance at a shot, 55% and misses. On the aliens turn he shoots up the lorry and take a couple of HP from the same guy. On my next turn I attack again and kill him. 3 dead with one injury.
The last alien is on the other side of the yard, I keep three guys in oversight at 3 and 6 oclock while I move one around to the 12 oclock. I manage to get there without being seen, and the alien hasn't moved. I have a look at my hit percentage at 60%. I'd expect it to be higher attacking from the rear but whatever. I take the shot, it connects. Marvelous. Mission ends with no dead guys, one injury and three promotions.
I play a couple more missions, launch the second satellite. No idea how far in I am, I have plenty of cash, but only 5 engineers. I can't build the uplink, and so I can't build a new sat. Argle wargle fargle!
And there it ended before bedtime. Sleep did not come easy.
I'll probably continue that game for a bit, or I might start Game 5 and try to get it right lol. The problem is that I'm on 12 hour days for the next 5 so won't get much play time
I've read a lot of this thread today so I've learned more about half cover, full cover, out of LOS cover etc etc.
Also can I just check, does holding higher ground offer no defensive bonus?