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

I

Impeccable

Member
First time XCom, jumped in straight Classic Ironman... with tutorial.

Finish the tutorial (as far as I know, I have to capture the second type of alien.) it's nice to have the game open up now and my choices matter.

Lost my hero Heavy from the start of the first freeform mission due to a ninja Thin Man on an escort mission, first solider loss that I took to heart.

Now Robert Pena, my sniper remains my sole experienced man now leading himself and four rookies into another escort mission to help Australia, sadly, all missions available this time were 'difficult'. I'm in for a world of hurt, I think.

Real life baby woke up so I can't play anymore for awhile but this game is amazing.

(Shout outs to my hero Rookie, Sarah, who stunned the sectoid against all odds.)
 
N

Noaloha

Member
One thing I didn't see anyone mention about dashing --

The main advantage of dashing is that it grants you a large bonus to Defence (evasion in this case, I guess) when moving. Its useful for getting places when you know the enemy have gone into overwatch.

This is mentioned in a loading screen by the way.

I have a question!

During my first game, with the Tutorial, I was able to immediately put two satellites into orbit. I've started my second game, sans Tutorial, and I'm confused about the information this screen is giving me:

itpzmG2twO9UK.jpg


1 of 2 Satellites in orbit. But no satellites available. I absolutely can't deploy that second one, which I supposedly own. What am I missing? (This game and the first game are using the same difficulty settings - Classic+Ironman.)
 
M

Magilla

Banned
You own one satellite and it is in orbit(1/2). You can have a maximum of two in orbit. You currently have 0 available to send into orbit. You first need to manufacture one and then send it into orbit(2/2).

Not sure I'm being clear. Sorry if I'm confusing things.
 
M

Mikeside

Member
Toodles said:
One thing I didn't see anyone mention about dashing --

The main advantage of dashing is that it grants you a large bonus to Defence (evasion in this case, I guess) when moving. Its useful for getting places when you know the enemy have gone into overwatch.

This is mentioned in a loading screen by the way.

I have a question!

During my first game, with the Tutorial, I was able to immediately put two satellites into orbit. I've started my second game, sans Tutorial, and I'm confused about the information this screen is giving me:

itpzmG2twO9UK.jpg


1 of 2 Satellites in orbit. But no satellites available. I absolutely can't deploy that second one, which I supposedly own. What am I missing? (This game and the first game are using the same difficulty settings - Classic+Ironman.)
Click to expand...

You have the capacity for 2 satellites (as in, you have 1 uplink) but only 1 bought/in orbit
 
W

whalleywhat

Member
Whoa, alright, got my first hang. A bunch of Sectoids appeared, and when the camera zoomed back to my unit, I couldn't do anything. That was a bummer.
 
F

F!ReW!Re

Member
Basileus777 said:
s

You can't actually use captured weapons until you've researched them. So you can't get access to weapons early, you just save resources from not having to build them.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about this but I think aquired weapons open up the research avenue for that weapon early though, it will just show up as "slow" research project...
 
N

Noaloha

Member
Ahh, thanks. Yep, I need to buy the satellite -- I just found it in Engineering > Buy/Manufacture > Vehicles. I hadn't gotten around to bothering with that tab since I assumed it was just Interceptor, etc. stuff.

Weird though, as I absolutely don't recall buying a second satellite during the tutorial. Maybe it was a prompted 'select this thing!' instruction that I glossed over. If that's not the case, I have to assume that, even on the same difficulty setting, enabling the Tutorial gave me a 'free' satellite.
 
S

Sephon

Member
garath said:
It happens. Also works in your favor. I've hit a number of 40-50% shots that made the difference in my missions.

So GAF, base strategies? I've opted to go Normal my first playthrough so silly things like building 4 Nano vests with the rest of my money thinking they are new body armor doesn't completely kill me like it probably would on Classic. But I am going Ironman so decisions matter. I'm trying to work out a solid plan for the base and struggling a little. I already feel like I'm off to a slow start.

My thoughts are get a second uplink up right away, but of course I need power for that, so I excavate to the nearest steam power. During that time the game wants an alien containment unit so I'm building that. Now I'm excavated and building the thermal power so I don't have to worry about it in the future but I'm out of money. Research is going slow because I keep taking missions with engineers. I haven't even gotten plasma weapons yet and I'm halfway through the second month. I already have 2 countries on panic watch. I have a feeling I'd be hosed in Classic. Missions are going well (haven't lost anyone yet) but I think I'm going to fall behind in tech very quickly. These 2 damage shots really suck.
Click to expand...


I'm in EXACTLY the same spot as you build-wise and I'm thinking of restarting since research is insanely slow and I've got like 20 engineers, so I went overboard somewhere, I think the key is balance between the two.
But I'm also going normal ironman so I should be able to balance this out unless normal actually is harder than expected.
 
G

garath

Member
Sephon said:
I'm in EXACTLY the same spot as you build-wise and I'm thinking of restarting since research is insanely slow and I've got like 20 engineers, so I went overboard somewhere, I think the key is balance between the two.
But I'm also going normal ironman so I should be able to balance this out unless normal actually is harder than expected.
Click to expand...

Glad to see I'm not the only one lol.

I was thinking about it more and might not be as poor off as I originally thought. The extra engineers means I'm building more things than I would if I was investing in scientists, I'll be able to get those satellites up before the next month if I get a mission with money (or sell something) and I'll have a real solid infrastructure:

thermal power, containment, officer training, 2 uplinks. And I'll be able to build a lab and a workshop next. By the time that finishes I should have knocked off a couple more research items and I can build the new tech right away. The key here is I'm still winning the missions without the tech so I think I'm in good shape for now.

I'm probably just going to play out the game as it stands and learn for my next playthrough (on Classic!!)
 
T

Twiccan

Neo Member
Mitama said:
Can't say I agree with that. For my first playthrough I'm doing Classic non-Ironman because I wanted to at least finish the game once without losing 10 hours of my time.
Click to expand...

Zeliard said:
That's fine, but I'm talking about the people intent on sticking with Classic Ironman. It's always an option simply to do a non-IM game or just play on Normal the first time through to get a feel for things, but some don't want or need any of those crutches and would rather jump into the fire immediately, taking the viewpoint that progress through the game isn't as meaningful as progress in skill and experience with a game that doesn't hand you anything.
Click to expand...

The difference between those two viewpoints is that the former sees playing for hours, dying, and having to restart a waste of time, while the latter sees it as part of the fun of the game. I personally agree with the Ironman players' philosophy that learning and dying is all part of the experience. It also forces you to deal with challenges as they come in "real time" and not with artificial foreknowledge because you know what is going to happen because you just reloaded your save game.
 
F

frankthurk

Member
I have a question I'm hoping someone can answer, I'm sure the answer is in the thread already but I'm really trying to avoid spoilers (I also avoided the tutorial and went straight into classic ironman which is probably why I'm confused).

So I did research on alien materials which allowed me to build vests, I went to engineering and manufactured 2 vests. When I go to soldiers and change their loadouts however only the standard combat armor is available. Any ideas?
 
T

The_Darkest_Red

Member
frankthurk said:
I have a question I'm hoping someone can answer, I'm sure the answer is in the thread already but I'm really trying to avoid spoilers (I also avoided the tutorial and went straight into classic ironman which is probably why I'm confused).

So I did research on alien materials which allowed me to build vests, I went to engineering and manufactured 2 vests. When I go to soldiers and change their loadouts however only the standard combat armor is available. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
If I'm remembering correctly you equip those vests in the item slot, not in the armor slot.
 
Mattdaddy

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
I watched my sniper miss about 8 shots in a row last night during an abuction mission, each one was anywhere between 70-90% accuracy. I was convinced I was bugged or glitched or something. Got my piss hot.
 
ttocs

ttocs

Member
I completely underestimated the difficulty of this game last night and watched two of my veterans get obliterated because of it. XCOM, I will respect you from now on, I promise.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Titan Armor + extra conditioning is such a satisfying combination on classic. Enemies want to crit my Assaults? Go ahead, it won't kill them anymore when they have 20+ HP.
 
E

electricpirate

Member
Please excuse the grammar here, I was rage typing.

Things were going so well, I'd cleared out a couple of tough missions, I had a nice sargeant sniper, nice seargeant assault, nice corporal heavy. I'd gotten carapace armor on everyone so it wasn't just one hit kills anymore. I got the OTS and got another squad member (SO KEY)

Then I ran up against the engineer cieling, and I couldn't get any laser weapons. Still, I had some good rounds. Squad sight is just an amazing ability. Then I get a mission that promises 4 engineers. YES. TO BATTLE. Very hard? I've got this shit.

Fight starts out really well, thin men and floaters, with lots of overwach we make short work of them. A moment of calm we reload, and take position against where we heard noise.

HOLY FUCK MUTONS.

Okay, Another moment of calm, I'm actually in good position, and haven't lost a soldier yet. I'm at the end of the turn so the one guy who can see them is in high cover, so he hunkers down. First aassault, things dont' go bad, 1 grenade heads out way, but we are spread out, and hunkered down, so it doesn't get a kill.

Our turn, rocket to the face, severely damaging two of them, and dropping their cover. Rookie, 70% chance to finish one off, go for it! Whiff.

Other rookie, in great position to flank, move into position...

Ohh god I just found two more floaters shit. It's okay, we still got this.

Sniper take a shot, did some damage, good, wait, intimidate?

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Squad site sniper: panicks, takes a crack at a muton doing heavy damage, all three mutons hurt, one of em charges my flanking uint, and damages her heavily, but he's next to her, exposed and has one health. She has an arc thrower. FUCK YES. Heavy panicks, nearly kills another muton. Aliens turn. one floater flys behind our line, the second holds tight. Charging muton damages the flanker, but misses miraculously, and the two hurt mutons ding my heavy knocking him out.

Our turn, rookie kills one muton, and the arc thrower brings down the other, but we are all flanked by the jumpers. One sniper has a grenade, brings down the cover and brings one floater to 1 health, our other sniper goes around the back and dings the second with his pistol to bring it down. Final floater takes a shot at a fully exposed unit and misses. The remaining Muton comes around the corner and brings down the rookie.

2 snipers, 1 rookie left. Sniper has a flank shot on the floater, 88% chance to hit.

WHIFF. Rookie moves to cover, reaction shot from the muton, she's dead. Sniper 2 moves to cover from the floater and pings it with her pistol.

Muton comes around back and takes out sniper number 2. Floater charges my last sniper and badly damages him. He takes the shot gets the kill, I thought I was safe from the Muton, but I was wrong, the muton finsihes him off.

I nearly threw my controller out the window :(
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
So far I think I'm doing okay... Haven't lost any soldiers who weren't rookies standing in whe my main guys were injured, and freaking *finally* managed to capture an alien to interrogate. You had to weaken them first to capture then, right? 'Cause I was having a bitch of a time getting an enemy low enough on HP to do that without outright killing them, and I'm going to slap myself if it turns out I could have zapped any old trash mob at any time.

After the interrogation, triggered a cutscenes and now have a "Very Difficult" rescue the civilians mission on my plate, but everyone is recovering from injuries except like... One sniper. She's got that ability where she can fire on any target in an ally's range of sight, maybe I'll just use the other guys to move forward and over watch/hunker down until enemies come into view, let her do the heavy lifting? Dunno.

Liking this game so far. It's not a looker on the 360, but it gets the job done.
 
F

FStop7

Banned
I'm starting to doubt my Classic Ironman decision. I've had to restart now 4 times after getting in no further than the third or fourth mission. In fact one time I restarted immediately because the very first mission claimed my entire squad.

Maybe Classic might be better so I can see and enjoy the whole game rather than continuing to hit my head against the wall so early.
 
N

Noaloha

Member
The main benefit of the Ironman game mode (or, rather, the main flaw with a typical save-then-reload-when-things-don't-go-your-way game mode), is what you see when you look back at your campaign.

In the save/reload version of events, where reloaded missions never occurred, Earth was a lucky fucking fucker. Everything went their way. There was never a setback. Sure there were setbacks in parallel universes, but in this universe Earth rolled a six every turn.

A game of snakes and ladders where you never travel down a snake is just a game of ladders.


EDIT: I should say, the above obviously doesn't just apply to this game. Its a weirdly pervasive thing that's largely inherent to any playthrough of any game where the player's constantly hitting quicksave and reload.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Mike M said:
So far I think I'm doing okay... Haven't lost any soldiers who weren't rookies standing in whe my main guys were injured, and freaking *finally* managed to capture an alien to interrogate. You had to weaken them first to capture then, right? 'Cause I was having a bitch of a time getting an enemy low enough on HP to do that without outright killing them, and I'm going to slap myself if it turns out I could have zapped any old trash mob at any time.
Click to expand...

Weakening raises the % chance. It's not strictly necessary for the weaker enemy types, but going for a stun and missing can be risky, so it's best to damage the stronger enemies first.
 
M

Mikeside

Member
electricpirate said:
Things were going so well, I'd cleared out a couple of tough missions, I had a nice sargeant sniper, nice seargeant assault, nice corporal heavy. I'd gotten carapace armor on everyone so it wasn't just one hit kills anymore. I got the OTS and got another squad member (SO KEY)

Then I ran up against the engineer cieling, and I couldn't get any laser weapons. Still, I had some good rounds. Squad sight is just an amazing ability. Then I get a mission that promises 4 engineers. YES. TO BATTLE. Very hard? I've got this shit.

Fight starts out really well, thin men and floaters, with lots of overwach we make short work of them. A moment of calm we reload, and take position against where we heard noise.

HOLY FUCK MUTONS.

Okay, Another moment of calm, I'm actually in good position, and haven't lost a soldier yet. I'm at the end of the turn so the one guy who can see them is in high cover, so he hunkers down. First aassault, things dont' go bad, 1 grenade heads out way, but we are spread out, and hunkered down, so it doesn't get a kill.

Our turn, rocket to the face, severely damaging two of them, and dropping their cover. Rookie, 70% chance to finish one off, go for it! Whiff.

Other rookie, in great position to flank, move into position...

Ohh god I just found two more floaters shit. It's okay, we still got this.

Sniper take a shot, did some damage, good, wait, intimidate?

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Squad site sniper: panicks, takes a crack at a muton doing heavy damage, all three mutons hurt, one of em charges my flanking uint, and damages her heavily, but he's next to her, exposed and has one health. She has an arc thrower. FUCK YES. Heavy panicks, nearly kills another muton. Aliens turn. one floater flys behind our line, the second holds tight. Charging muton damages the flanker, but misses miraculously, and the two hurt mutons ding my heavy knocking him out.

Our turn, rookie kills one muton, and the arc thrower brings down the other, but we are all flanked by the jumpers. One sniper has a grenade, brings down the cover and brings one floater to 1 health, our other sniper goes around the back and dings the second with his pistol to bring it down. Final floater takes a shot at a fully exposed unit and misses. The remaining Muton comes around the corner and brings down the rookie.

2 snipers, 1 rookie left. Sniper has a flank shot on the floater, 88% chance to hit.

WHIFF. Rookie moves to cover, reaction shot from the muton, she's dead. Sniper 2 moves to cover from the floater and pings it with her pistol.

Muton comes around back and takes out sniper number 2. Floater charges my last sniper and badly damages him. He takes the shot gets the kill, I thought I was safe from the Muton, but I was wrong, the muton finsihes him off.

I nearly threw my controller out the window :(
Click to expand...

That was a great read, though. Cheers :)
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Basileus777 said:
Weakening raises the % chance. It's not strictly necessary for the weaker enemy types, but going for a stun and missing can be risky, so it's best to damage the stronger enemies first.
Click to expand...

Is there a benefit to capturing them once you've already completed the capture objective?
 
A

Azih

Member
Twiccan said:
The difference between those two viewpoints is that the former sees playing for hours, dying, and having to restart a waste of time, while the latter sees it as part of the fun of the game. I personally agree with the Ironman players' philosophy that learning and dying is all part of the experience. It also forces you to deal with challenges as they come in "real time" and not with artificial foreknowledge because you know what is going to happen because you just reloaded your save game.
Click to expand...

The Losing is Fun mentality is a really odd one as it completely changes how games are approached and played.
 
M

McNum

Member
Mike M said:
Is there a benefit to capturing them once you've already completed the capture objective?
Click to expand...
Interrogations give research bonuses to various types of research the first time you do it per alien. Also, free plasma weapons. They only break when the alien dies, do if you stun one, you get its gun at the end of the mission.
 
E

electricpirate

Member
ttocs said:
You'll be back...they always come back...
Click to expand...

Fuck yea I'll be. I've learned quite a bit on this first one, so when I eventually fail, I'll look forward to doing much better on my second :).

BTW, don't neglect engineers. make sure you get at least 12-14 fairly early so you can build beam weapons before the Muton's arrive.

Also, I thought about restarting the entire game after I wiped early on, I didn't, but I'm thinking that was a good plan, since i'm sure I won't lose, now I'm experimenting a bite more, and finding out what works and what doesn't.
 
C

Calavera520

Member
Mattdaddy said:
I watched my sniper miss about 8 shots in a row last night during an abuction mission, each one was anywhere between 70-90% accuracy. I was convinced I was bugged or glitched or something. Got my piss hot.
Click to expand...
got my piss hot? ha what?

yeah the propensity for snipers to miss reminds me of the frequency of aimed shots missing in the original. Soldier has 70+ aim, spend all my TUs on aimed shot and whiff, screen is panning and panning as the yellow laser line tracks across the whole map.


BTW does anyone have a link to all the in game videos somewhere? I captured
a live outsider
, and I was clicking through the intermediate flying back to base video and ended up skipping the research video too
 
P

Protein

Banned
I want to disable this Han Zimmer-style primal drums combat- music, or at least make it more rare. I want more eerie ambient music.
 
Mattdaddy

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
Current situation: Classic Ironman

Panic is becoming high across the globe. Egypt and Germany have surrendered, several nations across Europe are at maximum panic levels and are expected to be negotiating surrender terms with alien forces within the month. North and South America are relatively safe for now, lower panic compared to the terror sweeping across Europe and Africa. Asia is sustaining at medium panic levels and possibly salvageable. All experienced XCOM operators have been KIA, except Lt Angela Soto, sniper unit. Overall situation is DEFCON 1 and in extreme danger of spiraling out of control. Funds are low and the command staff has approved the sell of alien remains to independent buyers to supplement the project's financing until the council of nations reconvenes within the month.

Green recruits fresh off the boat have just arrived at the ant farm to plug the gaping holes in our ranks. Priority is to complete production of Carapace armor ASAP to more adequately equip strike team members. Engineers are waiting the completion of a new engineering bay so they can commence production on experimental laser rifle technology. Excavation has also begun to accomodate planned officer training wing to increase number of deployable strike team members to hostile sites.

Our success or failure hinges on the ability to survive this month and get refunded. New funds will allow completion of officer training academy and production of laser rifles. These additions, along with the already in production Carapace armor, may be enough to stop the bleeding and stop the alien advance in its tracks for the time being. Failure to secure these items will undoubtedly result in the continued failure to accomplish mission objectives and massive losses of XCOM operator life. Good luck to you and your remaining strike team members, Lt Soto. We are all depending on you to get us through this month. God have mercy on our souls, because the aliens will not.

Addendum - Note to research lady. Until you learn how to interrogate the aftermath of a frag grenade bath, I think you'll find my results wanting. We're not getting within stun range of that thing. So we'd appreciate it if you'd stop bitching at us, we're all under a lot of stress.
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Protein said:
I want to disable this Han Zimmer-style primal drums combat- music, or at least make it more rare. I want more eerie ambient music.
Click to expand...

Try to tweak the INI files. I wonder if you can turn off the music and use the original tunes in the background with Winamp or something else.
 
E

eznark

Banned
So...this is basically the first game that has crippled my PC. What the fuck? During the Skyranger cut scene the frame rate drops to like 2 and it can't even complete playing it.

Is this a known issue? I have a GTX 570, just built the machine last year and have not yet had to lower any settings for any game.


Also, the demo ran like butter but this just fucking chugs. What gives!?
 
B

BearChair

Member
Am I the only one that really wishes that Firaxis would release a DLC total conversion of this game with the Starship Troopers license?
 
I

inky

Member
Toodles said:
One thing I didn't see anyone mention about dashing --

The main advantage of dashing is that it grants you a large bonus to Defence (evasion in this case, I guess) when moving. Its useful for getting places when you know the enemy have gone into overwatch.
Click to expand...

And it's great when you have a soldier with lightning reflexes to cover a lot of ground. That is how I was able to capture a Muton without much trouble yesterday.

Starting my second go today, sans tutorial. Let's see how it goes.
 
G

garath

Member
Azih said:
The Losing is Fun mentality is a really odd one as it completely changes how games are approached and played.
Click to expand...

It's not losing is fun, it's "it's the journey, not the destination".

Someone earlier said they don't want to do Ironman because they don't want to "waste" 10 hours just to lose. I won't criticize but I'm a little saddened by that. If you were playing for those 10 hours and tried valiantly only to lose, was it really a waste? Is the only "non waste" of playing a game beating it? If so, I've wasted a TON of time. I don't finish half the games I play. I enjoy them quite a bit along the way though.

I look at Ironman as a way of "keeping it real" so to speak. No temptation to reload just because that 80% shot missed. If I lose the game, I lose the game. I will have had fun doing it though (with some frustration thrown in there of course). I started on Normal because I want to get a hang of the game with a little more forgiveness and work on the strategy for my next playthough. If I beat it out of the gate with no ironman, there's not a lot of incentive to replay.

Darkone said:
Still thinking on what Difficult level to choose and to enable Ironman.

While in a mission play can you heal soldiers?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can heal soldiers with a medkit. Supports have a skill that lets you use 1 medkit 3x. Otherwise its a one shot
 
Mattdaddy

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
Darkone said:
Still thinking on what Difficult level to choose and to enable Ironman.

While in a mission play can you heal soldiers?
Click to expand...

Yea you can heal as long as you equip a soldier with a medkit, which you'll have to manufacture. The soldier can use it on his comrades too, you can heal a wound or stablize an unconscious soldier. Each medkit gets one use per mission though, so use wisely. Not sure if there are better future medkits that become available.

electricpirate said:
If I build another engineering lab do I get more engineers, or do I have to wait for a mision to pop up to do that?
Click to expand...

Yea if you build another engineer lab you get engineers (i think 5?), it says somewhere on the detail screen when you go to build it.
 
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