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XCOM: Enemy Unknown |OT| Neo GAF is Under Alien Control

F

fanboi

Banned
So, was gaming on my lunch break... finished first mission like a pro...

Next... they had placed a bomb on a bridge which I needed to disarm. Everything went SO good, ran up and disarmed.

"Incoming wave"

YEAH 6 THIN MAN COMES FROM THE SKY ALL OVER THE PLACE.

THANK YOU.

All dead... my Captain and my Sgt :(

Then I think... "Lets fuck them up"

*build armour*

*Everyone get a Laser Rifle*

*Scan*

*Large fucking scout landed - You want to send skyranger?*

"FUCK YES"

*Land*

*Kills a couple of thin mens*

"FEELS GOOD HUH"

*Moves in on craft*

"HELL YE--- WTF IS THAT SHIT"

*4 Ogres (?!) with big fucking armour...*

*Squad wipe*
 
J

Jubbly

Member
How does something like this make it into the final game? Time and time again aliens are shooting at me through walls and I can't touch them...

j8P49.jpg
Click to expand...
 
T

TTG

Member
Had to reload a save 4 times on my second "escort a civillian home" mission. Important point here: never let your civillian lead the charge on the way back to the sky ranger! Doesn't matter how appealing that huge dash is. Managed back with all 4 guys in various states of wounded, but only after I figured out the trigger for the aliens to drop in behind you/around the skyranger.
 
N

Nocebo

Member
TTG said:
Had to reload a save 4 times on my second "escort a civillian home" mission. Important point here: never let your civillian lead the charge on the way back to the sky ranger! Doesn't matter how appealing that huge dash is. Managed back with all 4 guys in various states of wounded, but only after I figured out the trigger for the aliens to drop in behind you/around the skyranger.
Click to expand...
I really don't like the idea of triggers like that. Especially playing on ironman. Doesn't seem fair.
 
J

JambiBum

Member
Jubbly said:
How does something like this make it into the final game? Time and time again aliens are shooting at me through walls and I can't touch them...
Click to expand...
That's not a glitch. That's most likely squad snipe at work. If anyone in your squad has a vantage point then your sniper can attempt to shoot them. Walls aren't as safe as you are used to with other games. They really don't mean shit in x com most of the time
 
O

Onemic

Member
why is playing through Tutorial a bad idea?

Im already pretty much fucked in Classic ironman from failing the very first mission after tutorial as all my vets are dead(half died in the tutorial missions) and my one sniper I had is gravely wounded and isn't expected to come back in 19 more days. Not to mention I'm dead broke and so I have no money to hire new recruits(down to 4) and can't make a school so I can at least use 5 squad members. Also Panic levels are near critical in 4 countries and critical in two. Think I'll restart the game now haha.
 
D

DrBo42

Member
Why do these elite soldiers miss everything? I have a trained sniper that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Why classic, why?
 
T

TTG

Member
Nocebo said:
I really don't like the idea of triggers like that. Especially playing on ironman. Doesn't seem fair.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you would have caught on eventually. I've only played the 2 missions, but it seems aliens get dropped in on escort stuff as the VIP civilian makes his way back. So, it's very prudent to never let him get ahead of your squad. I did and was in a really tough spot because there was a bottleneck in the map, VIP was on one side of it and the 2 squat members that weren't panicked or on life support were stuck on the other.
 
J

JoeBoy101

Member
Was doing fine on Normal Ironman and last night it went to tears. Right after
alien base
I got a terror mission that ended with most everyone killed, including most of my vets. Then right after, a large ufo landing that wiped my squad, and the rest of my vets. Had one heavy that stuck in and managed to kill 4 mutons and a sectoid commander on his own, but finally got downed by two other mutons, one wounded.

Getting to think I should have researched EVERYTHING before doing the
alien base
, because now I'm hitting those damn Mutons and those FUCKING Berserkers regularly.

fanboi said:
*4 Ogres (?!) with big fucking armour...*
Click to expand...

Mutons. Wait till you find the ones that are real angry and carry close combat weapons. They are no fun.
 
Z

Zeliard

Member
Nocebo said:
I really don't like the idea of triggers like that. Especially playing on ironman. Doesn't seem fair.
Click to expand...

You can start to predict them to some degree. Enemies will typically drop down around the civilian when you reach him, and then around the Skyranger drop-off point when you get near it. Keep guys stationed at good spots with Overwatch and you can slaughter aliens with reaction shots as they drop down, before they have a chance to do anything.
 
S

Sephon

Member
Wussed out on Classic mode yesterday and restarted on Normal but with Ironmode, and it's heartbreaking.
First of all, once my friends die I'll be extremely careful of naming cannon fodder after my friends, but then again. The best moments of the game comes out when you're actually terrified in real life that you might lose your beloved soldiers.

My awesome mission yesterday was to engage a landed ufo, which I realized would be extremely tough, and how correct I was.

It started out as any ordinary mission with advancement and picking off small groups of sectoids, but once I found the entrance to the ship things went south.
3 T-men showed up, which I finished off quickly thanks to my sniper.
Afterwards I got that weird
light fellow
followed up by another 3 T-men, this is when I lost my first operative to a coma (just some dude fortunately).

My sniper and assault picked off the T-men, but it cost most of the hp. When I prematurely shouted my cries of victory as my sniper finished of the last enemy with her pistol, 3 more sectoids showed up and destroyed my hopes of getting everyone out alive.
So a hastely retreat and OW-tactics was my only chance, which didn't pay off since the damn rats didn't follow.

But thanks to my snipers "partner vision"-tingy I managed to take some good shots and after about 10 more turns I was victorious with no casualties but a lot of sicktime.


Now I don't want to use those soldiers anymore, I simply love them too much to let them risk their lives like that... They're on defensive duty from now on.
I gotta marry my sniper too, I think.
 
O

old manatee

Banned
onemic said:
why is playing through Tutorial a bad idea?

Im already pretty much fucked in Classic ironman from failing the very first mission after tutorial as all my vets are dead(half died in the tutorial missions) and my one sniper I had is gravely wounded and isn't expected to come back in 19 more days. Not to mention I'm dead broke and so I have no money to hire new recruits(down to 4) and can't make a school so I can at least use 5 squad members. Also Panic levels are near critical in 4 countries and critical in two. Think I'll restart the game now haha.
Click to expand...

The tutorial restricts some choices. People are saying that you should play the tutorial and then restart with it turned off.
 
M

Mikeside

Member
I'm guessing a great trick that everyone else probably does I've been missing out on is to rotate soldiers early on in the easy missions to get a wider, more experienced pool to draw from later in the game?
 
N

Nocebo

Member
Zeliard said:
You can start to predict them to some degree. Enemies will typically drop down around the civilian when you reach him, and then around the Skyranger drop-off point when you get near it. Keep guys stationed at good spots with Overwatch and you can slaughter aliens with reaction shots as they drop down, before they have a chance to do anything.
Click to expand...
True I guess. First escort mission I did one dropped down when my men were out of position and my men got slaughtered. That whole game was starting to go down hill anyway. The next time I had a different escort mission but managed to deal with the drop ins fairly easily. But still, feels cheap :p I guess once you do more you can anticipate them a bit as you say.
 
Z

Zeliard

Member
CaptainAhab said:
The tutorial restricts some choices. People are saying that you should play the tutorial and then restart with it turned off.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did. Played the tutorial on Classic to get my feet wet, then as soon as it gave me free reign (soon after it tasks you with bringing an alien back alive), I just immediately started a new game on Classic Ironman.

Tutorial only gives you two locations to build a base in and forces you down certain paths with some of the strat stuff, i.e. building an alien containment unit early when that's probably not the greatest idea.
 
T

TTG

Member
People have been complaining about the base stuff, but even so early on, I find the choices interesting. I just unlocked some of the 20+ day research projects(hopefully whenever my new lab goes online, that number will come down) and all of a sudden it doesn't feel like there's not a big difference in what I research. Also, it looks like my freshly bought stock of armor could be obsolete already very soon.
 
S

SuperSonic1305

Member
Sometimes I wonder if the game is playing fairly. I don't know how I can get hit from literally the opposite side of the map when the absolute longest range of my characters is almost half that. It was a crit for 9 damage to boot killing my favourite character who was near the starting point.
 
Y

yarden24

Member
encountered a really annoying bug, sent my assault up to a crsyalid to try and capture it, and the game then decide I cant press any button but the over-watch one, turn ended, she missed, died, and I got no live crysalid...
 
N

Noaloha

Member
Jintor said:
The chances of a total party wipe are ever-present
Click to expand...

Yep. Never, ever, *ever* think to yourself, "Oo-hoo, this mission's going well."

If you accidentally do, my advice is to immediately -- without committing to a single in-game action -- seek out a witch-doctor and arrange for whatever mystical rites can be performed to remove the heavy-duty jinx you just placed on yourself.
 
J

Jintor

Member
Well i'll give you a hint: you can't fucking capture live chryssallids. They're mother-fucking chryssalids.

*disclaimer: I'm pretty sure anyway
 
F

fanboi

Banned
Jintor said:
Well i'll give you a hint: you can't fucking capture live chryssallids. They're mother-fucking chryssalids.

*disclaimer: I'm pretty sure anyway
Click to expand...

Oh man, I wonder how that order would have been taken:

Cpt: So rookie, you need to get close to that, yes, that thing with sharp blades and shit coming out of it. Oh and it turns you into a zombie unless you are lucky and become ONE of them.

Rookie: okaysadface.jpg
 
Y

yarden24

Member
Jintor said:
Well i'll give you a hint: you can't fucking capture live chryssallids. They're mother-fucking chryssalids.

*disclaimer: I'm pretty sure anyway
Click to expand...

man, thats terrible =/, my assault died for nothing! (though it didnt let me shoot it either, so it was still a bug sadly)
 
T

The_Hitcher89

Member
I'm thinking of getting 2 saves going, one easy/normal ironman, one normal/hard with wriggle-room. Which difficulties would you recommend for someone with no background in tactical games?
 
J

Jubbly

Member
Jubbly said:
How does something like this make it into the final game? Time and time again aliens are shooting at me through walls and I can't touch them...
Click to expand...

JambiBum said:
That's not a glitch. That's most likely squad snipe at work. If anyone in your squad has a vantage point then your sniper can attempt to shoot them. Walls aren't as safe as you are used to with other games. They really don't mean shit in x com most of the time
Click to expand...

No, it is a glitch, because I don't have Squad Snipe.
 
D

dondarm

Banned
yarden24 said:
encountered a really annoying bug, sent my assault up to a crsyalid to try and capture it, and the game then decide I cant press any button but the over-watch one, turn ended, she missed, died, and I got no live crysalid...
Click to expand...
You can't capture all alien types. If you have a soldier with an arc thrower, it usually shows a circle around the alien which marks the range you have to be in to do so. If it doesn't, you can't cap the alien.
 
M

McNum

Member
What happens if you
mind control
the last alien? Does it count as a capture? Chryssalids are only invulnerable to Arc Throwers...
 
T

The_Darkest_Red

Member
So I started up in Normal Ironman yesterday with the intention of playing for a few hours or so... next thing I know it's midnight and I've been playing for 6 hours straight. I'm probably completely screwed though, I lost 3 of my 5 good characters on a "very difficult" mission (because I was curious enough to wonder just how hard it could be) and then lost another on the following mission. Now my team is one good sniper and a bunch of rookies, haha.

Ironman is brutal but I don't think I'd have it any other way.
 
Z

Zeliard

Member
Nocebo said:
True I guess. First escort mission I did one dropped down when my men were out of position and my men got slaughtered. That whole game was starting to go down hill anyway. The next time I had a different escort mission but managed to deal with the drop ins fairly easily. But still, feels cheap :p I guess once you do more you can anticipate them a bit as you say.
Click to expand...

In my experience so far, Overwatch is easily the most important ability (at least, the most important ability that everybody shares). If you position your guys well with Overwatch you can wreck havoc with free reaction shots.

It's particularly useful in escort because it allows you to essentially get two free hits with one soldier on enemies that suddenly appear. Say two Thin Men drop down around the Skyranger as you near it - with one soldier, you'll get a free reaction shot on one Thin Man and probably kill him right there. And then your turn will come up and you've got a shot on the other.

Even better if that soldier happens to be a sniper on Overwatch that you've kept near the start of the level, since he'll be around Skyranger point. Reaction shots with a sniper rifle can be quite deadly.

Snipers are uber. Place them in a good defensive spot, give them abilities like Squad Sight, and they can completely dominate. Since they tend to be away from the thick of things and wrack up tons of kills, they're also relatively easy to keep alive and rank up.
 
M

McNum

Member
theytookourjobz said:
Is there a lot of replayability in Xcom? My interest is piqued but there's so much out recently.
Click to expand...
No two games are the same. The aliens have a different plan each time, so even if you were to build your squad and tech up the exact same way, you'd get different missions and UFO locations every time.

Then there's the difficulties. Beat Normal? Try adding Ironman. Beat that? Try Classic, then Classic Ironman. Master that? You're ready for Impossible. Impossible Ironman is only theoretically possible to win, but you know, it's something to try for. When you're an absolute master of the game.
 
W

whalleywhat

Member
fanboi said:
Oh man, I wonder how that order would have been taken:

Cpt: So rookie, you need to get close to that, yes, that thing with sharp blades and shit coming out of it. Oh and it turns you into a zombie unless you are lucky and become ONE of them.

Rookie: okaysadface.jpg
Click to expand...
"Yeah, I know all of these highly decorated, nicknamed soldiers have found positions in high cover and have either hunkered down or are in overwatch, but we're looking to you to take the lead on this one. We think you've got what it takes. We think you're special... uh... sorry, I'm terrible with names."
 
B

bistromathics

facing a bright new dawn
How do I build the skeleton key? I only have 20 bucks and 5 engineers, but building it requires 15. I thought the ability to get more engineers was going to unlock after a mission of some kind, but i'm at a story event to break into the alien base and cant progress any further.

edit: oh nevermind, i can still select 'scan for activity'
 
T

The_Darkest_Red

Member
So do you guys ever feel like certain members of your team are personally responsible for the deaths of others? You know, like when someone misses a key 75% chance shot only for that enemy to finish off one of your other squad members on the next turn? I make sure those idiots know that this is all their fault, and certainly not that of the commander.
 
O

Orgun

Member
bistromathics said:
How do I build the skeleton key? I only have 20 bucks and 5 engineers, but building it requires 15. I thought the ability to get more engineers was going to unlock after a mission of some kind, but i'm at a story event to break into the alien base and cant progress any further.
Click to expand...

How do you only have 5 engineers at that point? :) I haven't even got to that point and i'm near 30 engineers and 21 scientists.

You can build workshops, they give you +5 engineers but they cost more money than you have.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
Can someone tell me exactly what the foundry does and why it's different or better than a workshop? The in game description is not very helpful. Thanks.

Also a personal shout out to my medic Col. Waseme "Strings" Ngele. She's like the Ripley of my game, more badass than any of the dudes on my team. Almost never misses.
 
O

Orgun

Member
Neuromancer said:
Can someone tell me exactly what the foundry does and why it's different or better than a workshop? The in game description is not very helpful. Thanks.

Also a personal shout out to my medic Col. Waseme "Strings" Ngele. She's like the Ripley of my game, more badass than any of the dudes on my team. Almost never misses.
Click to expand...

It allows you to upgrade items, Pistol Mk2 etc and enables the construction of SHIVS
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Neuromancer said:
Can someone tell me exactly what the foundry does and why it's different or better than a workshop? The in game description is not very helpful. Thanks.

Also a personal shout out to my medic Col. Waseme "Strings" Ngele. She's like the Ripley of my game, more badass than any of the dudes on my team. Almost never misses.
Click to expand...

The foundry isn't something you build to give you bonuses like workshops, you just one build one foundry to open up another menu to do different sorts of upgrades. It's more like the science version of the Officer Training building.
 
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