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[Dunkelgrau]

I wonder if there is anything to collect (or explore) on the battlefield, beside the things you get automatically after finishing am mission?

I am playing on classic-mode right now and had no problems so far: Am I doing something wrong? ;-) I think the most important thing is to build satellites, right?

Is there an option to change the nationality of your squad-members?

 

[The Stig]

nothing to pick up, which might have been interesting.

cant change nationalities of your soldiers.

as for advice for classic, keep your soldiers together while exploring. always take full cover.

 

[DY_nasty]

How can I fix this teleport bug? Its breaking my game

 

[weekend_warrior]

How can I fix this teleport bug? Its breaking my game

Be prepared, don't spread your troops out too much so if it happens you'll have as much firepower available as possible.

 

[AnonymousTipster]

How can I fix this teleport bug? Its breaking my game

I've found that being teleported on is not too huge of a problem if you're outside of combat (end every turn if possible on overwatch), but it can be absolutely disastrous if it occurs while you're already in combat.

A few times that's happened to me and it's been gg. I recommend making sure you always have a place to fall back to and regroup.

 

[Dunkelgrau]

After two or three in-game-months two countrys have left the XCom-Project. I figured out to late that you can seel stuff at the black market. Are they forever lost? Hope I can beat the game anyway?

 

[The Stig]

no way to get them back. sadly.

IMO there should be a way to get them back

 

[AnonymousTipster]

no way to get them back. sadly.

IMO there should be a way to get them back

Yeah, it would be cool if you had like a one-time chance per country to do a really long, really difficult mission that if you successfully completed would bring them back.

 

[The Stig]

there should be a way. but we all wanted this game to be a little more complex, didnt we?

 

[weekend_warrior]

After two or three in-game-months two countrys have left the XCom-Project. I figured out to late that you can seel stuff at the black market. Are they forever lost? Hope I can beat the game anyway?

Can't get them back, but they'll still be able to win fine.

 

[Alo81]

This game should still give you a monthly update on the countries that leave the XCom project, and after a couple months have the report be something like "Canada was completely obliterated by the alien menace."

 

[The Stig]

maybe that treaty they signed actually worked out for them?

 

[brentech]

Just ordered this for PS3. Never played, but the idea sounds like my kind of play. I don't mind difficulty, but I think I have a lot to learn here.

 

[Alo81]

maybe that treaty they signed actually worked out for them?

Yeah! Every once in a while, you get an update like "Man, that country totally kicked ass. Who needs XCOM?"

 

[Uriah]

Any advice for capturing aliens on classic?

 

[Fragamemnon]

Any advice for capturing aliens on classic?

- Support/heavy suppressive fire.
- Disarming shot from a sniper.

 

[Sothpaw]

I'm getting close to finishing the original XCOM and I'm loving it. Now that this new version has been out for some months, what do you vets of the original think of it. Any positives/negatives compared to the original? I will probably pick it up during the next Steam sale anyway, just curious.

 

[sixghost]

I think I'm finally in the home stretch in my Ironman classic game. The key was definitely getting 5 satellites up in the first 2-3 months. Grabbing Africa as the 3rd 4th and 5th countries practically tripled my income. 2 months later I was able to afford a nexus and 4 more satellites which finished off Europe, and I've been on easy street since then. I have so much money, everything is cheap, research is going quickly, I cleaned out the Officer Training School, Panic is low everywhere except the 5 countries that bailed. I have 7 Colonels: 2 snipers, 2 assault, 2 heavy, 1 support.

Barring some horrible disaster, this has to be the game I finally win. Every single one of my soldiers are absolute beasts. My 2 snipers are just untouchable though. Both of them average something like 4 kills a mission. They just pick enemies off as soon as they even come into range. This game is great.

 

[drizzle]

So I finally bought the game on GMG for 16 bucks and I'm wondering if I should also buy the DLC.

The Elite Soldier Pack sounds like it's just some cosmetic differentiation on the soldiers, but since that means I can change the color of the armor, I'm interested in it.

However, I'm not sure the Slingshot Content Pack is something that is better enjoyed on my regular play through or if it's some sort of extra content bonus for people that already played the game. I don't want to read up more on it because I don't want to spoil myself.

What I'm mostly asking is if they improve the gameplay significantly. GMG is providing a 30% discount code that works with them, but I kinda rather wait for a big Steam sale 66%-75% discount on the DLC

Any insight would be helpful

 

[Fragamemnon]

The Slingshot DLC is definitely for people looking for more from the game after their first few playthroughs. I wouldn't get it in your position.

 

[drizzle]

The Slingshot DLC is definitely for people looking for more from the game after their first few playthroughs. I wouldn't get it in your position.

That's what I wanted to know. I think I'll wait for the inevitable Steam Deal also.

Thank you.

 

[brentech]

I assume it's fairly normal for a country to drop out? Been playing for about 10+ hours. Still learning some things

 

[Rufus]

I assume it's fairly normal for a country to drop out? Been playing for about 10+ hours. Still learning some things

Yeah, it happens, especially on your first time. On higher difficulties it's also rather difficult to keep them all. It's certainly not a reason to start over or anything. It's like losing soldiers. Try to avoid it, but you know, shit happens.

 

[brentech]

Yeah, it happens, especially on your first time. On higher difficulties it's also rather difficult to keep them all. It's certainly not a reason to start over or anything. It's like losing soldiers. Try to avoid it, but you know, shit happens.

Yea. Thought so, on both cases, thanks.

 

[sixghost]

Is it necessary to have lots of psionic guys for the last mission? I only have one of my 8 Colonels that are gifted, and he hasn't leveled up his psi at all. I cheated a bit and looked at what the last mission entails and the last room looks a bit dicey. 3 of my guys are fairly low on will.

On classic by the way.

 

[McNum]

Is it necessary to have lots of psionic guys for the last mission? I only have one of my 8 Colonels that are gifted, and he hasn't leveled up his psi at all. I cheated a bit and looked at what the last mission entails and the last room looks a bit dicey. 3 of my guys are fairly low on will.

On classic by the way.

No, but it never hurts. There's a trick to the last room, though. Don't read if you don't want to know.

Spoiler

You only have to kill the Uber Ethereal, the rest will despawn when it dies. So give it everything you have and take it down in one turn. The game ends as soon as its HP hit zero.

 

[Rufus]

You only need one but it's riskier that way, of course. Then again, the mission is very predictable and you'll get to try again if you fail, so...

 

[brentech]

Did some reading on IGN about basic strategies. Feel like I'm doing okay for my first play, but some small adjustments I can make to keep my guys from usually coming back injured or heavily injured.

I never remember that I can move whoever during my turn. Doesn't have to be in order.

 

[ShaneB]

Did some reading on IGN about basic strategies. Feel like I'm doing okay for my first play, but some small adjustments I can make to keep my guys from usually coming back injured or heavily injured.

I never remember that I can move whoever during my turn. Doesn't have to be in order.

As was recommended to me I started... Beaglerush's Impossible Ironman playthrough - informative and hilarious! Sure it's Impossible mode, but it's still an excellent series to learn what to do in any mode.

 

[brentech]

I'll have to check that out when I get home

 

[afternoon delight]

Has anyone tried out the Aetius Classic Rebalanced mod yet? Thoughts?

 

[ScrabbleBanshee]

The other night I lost nearly 3 hours of progress on the PC version because it decided to get stuck somewhere during one of my turns. I had completed a bunch of difficult missions in that time and was doing very well on another one that I thought I was going to get wiped on... I am pretty pissed and not sure how long it's going to be before I have the will to start over again now.

 

[weekend_warrior]

The other night I lost nearly 3 hours of progress on the PC version because it decided to get stuck somewhere during one of my turns. I had completed a bunch of difficult missions in that time and was doing very well on another one that I thought I was going to get wiped on... I am pretty pissed and not sure how long it's going to be before I have the will to start over again now.

Why don't you have auto save on?

 

[sixghost]

Finally did it. Classic Ironman.

Conclusions:
Snipers are way too powerful. I think my first Col. Sniper ended up with 100 kills or something. The aliens have literally no counter against 1 or 2 squadshot snipers with Double Tap. My strategy for just about every non-interior map was to sit a couple assault/heavy soldiers on the front line to gain line of sight and agro, then just pick them off one by one.

I also think camping is too dominant a strategy. Once I started being much more careful and trying to bait enemies into my entire squad of overwatching guys, the combat was a bit too easy. That said, I think the game is a bit unbalanced when you aren't doing this. Once you are forced to be the aggressor.

I found that the dominant strategy in the management phase was to start in either NA or Europe, drop a second satellite in a high $$ country in your starting continent, or somewhere else if they are all extremely low. Then once you are 10 days into the 3rd month you need to save up enough money to build an adjacent satellite facility and 3 satellites in Africa to get to 30% bonus, which will give you an obscene amount of money each month.

The game was still fantastic, but I think I sucked a bit of the fun out of it when I figured out the only real way to keep soldiers alive consistently was to be extremely careful. It certainly lost the feeling of terror that I had in combat the first 20 hours or so.

 

[ScrabbleBanshee]

Why don't you have auto save on?

This is probably the first game since autosave was invented that has it disabled by default after install that I can remember... hence, I didn't even know I had to enable it.

+ goddamn it should be enabled by default when the game contains game stopping bugs that don't even allow you to abort a mission so you can at least save.

 

[FrankCaron]

Xcom is coming to Mac via Feral:

http://www.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-games/xcomenemyunknown/

 

[Grimsen]

The game was still fantastic, but I think I sucked a bit of the fun out of it when I figured out the only real way to keep soldiers alive consistently was to be extremely careful. It certainly lost the feeling of terror that I had in combat the first 20 hours or so.

Good thing you still have a difficulty to go!

 

[sixghost]

Good thing you still have a difficulty to go!

I was reading about some of the changes from Classic to Ironman, and no thank you, lol. If I ever played the game again I would more likely do a no-sniper playthrough.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Has anyone tried out the Aetius Classic Rebalanced mod yet? Thoughts?

Late to respond, but I checked out the changes in this. It seems like it would make for a slightly more manageable impossible ironman playthrough due to shooting down Abduction UFOs, more accurate laser rifles, and especially the +1 human grenade damage. Ironman Impossible would definitely be much less of a crapshoot in terms of how you can perform as you start the game.

Ironman Classic is already dirt easy if you know what you are doing.

 

[Sentenza]

There is plenty of freedom in your research paths. Are you playing the game on classic? Playing on normal it didn't matter what I researched since the game was so easy, but playing on classic really requires you to optimize your research patterns like a game of StarCraft or something. I'm on my 12th ironman classic game and I constantly find more efficient paths of research each time I play. You really need to plan out exactly how many engineers you need to manufacture stuff or how many scientists you need, or whether you eschew all that and try to expand early and get 5 satellites as soon as possible.

Classic really put the pressure on when it comes to researching.

I didn't bother answering at the time, especially cause of the needlessly aggressive tone your reply had, but yeah, the bold part is exactly the problem for me: it feels like there is just a right way to do things and a lot of wrong ones.
Arbitrary, unintuitive cause and effect relations for personnel necessary to research/build, a lot of story-driven missions that repeat themselves almost identically across different playthroughs and so on, are all elements that make the campaign far less "open" (and in the end enjoyable) than it used to be in the original UFO.

And NO, it isn't "nostalgia" talking, I'm not remembering the original game "through rose-tinted glasses". I still played it from time to time until few months ago.

 

[reggie]

.

 

[McNum]

Losing countries happens, depending on difficulty, it may be inevitable. Still, you should take a look at your satellite strategy. Countries leave at the end of the month, or if you fail a Terror Mission, so having a satellite or two in reserve for the last of the month to turn a level 5 panic into a level 3 in a country is a good backup plan.

 

[speculawyer]

so do we have any info on the 2nd DLC that is apparently happening?

I need more DLC. I love the game but I'm tired of playing the same maps & missions.

 

[speculawyer]

Playing this for the first time and have already lost a country. Is this inevitable or am I playing wrong?

It is pretty hard to not lose any countries. But the key is to make sure you build satellites in advance (they take a while to build) and build satellite antennas as fast as you can.

Always send your drop ships to the countries with the highest panic levels. Launch a satellite when a country hits the top panic level.

Doing the alien base mission will reduce every countries panic.

 

[KePoW]

I know this question has been asked a lot, but I haven't checked this thread since the game launched and I beat it the first time.

I'm starting a second playthrough now on Classic. When is the best accepted time to assault the alien base? I just unlocked the mission, but I only have like two Laser weapons and two pieces of Carapace armor. I could buy more, but have been holding off in case I need the money for other stuff.

Thanks in advance!

 

[McNum]

Isn't the right time to assault the base as soon as you're able to? Taking out the base makes the panic management easier, plus it's a global -2. Get a full set of carapace and lasers on some reasonably competent soldiers and attack before the nastiest aliens show up. If it's late in a month and several countries are at high panic, do it to know them all down to 3 in one move.

 

[KePoW]

Isn't the right time to assault the base as soon as you're able to? Taking out the base makes the panic management easier, plus it's a global -2. Get a full set of carapace and lasers on some reasonably competent soldiers and attack before the nastiest aliens show up. If it's late in a month and several countries are at high panic, do it to know them all down to 3 in one move.

Not sure, I remember reading a lot of people saying to delay the Assault until a certain time.

But of course it does depend on how the global panic situation is in each particular game.

 

[Sentenza]

Playing this for the first time and have already lost a country. Is this inevitable or am I playing wrong?

The dirty trick is delaying main story missions just a bit before monthly evaluation and then doing them, because they cause a global panic reduction, preventing any country from being "5 marks red".

 

[reggie]

.

 

[McNum]

Yeah, laboratories are useless. Build workshops instead.

The difference between a lab and a workshop is that you get engineers with the workshop, but you don't get scientists with the lab. And it's the amount of engineers or scientists that determine research speed and price of manufacturing.

Also Squad Sight is a fantastic skill on a Sniper. You should get that on one.