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

How long does the game last/whats the endgame? I have the mission to
assault the alien base, but I'm sure it'd wipe the floor with me,
I'd really rather gear up and keep researching.
 
Castor Krieg said:
The problem with shotguns is they are useless in Classic Ironman and above. Sure, if you are playing non-Ironman just run up, save, reload if missed. If you are playing Ironman, at least on Classic, you want to be behind full cover with Overwatch every turn and as far away from aliens as possible.

Basically X-Com equivalent of "spotters+snipers" from earlier games.
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I don't find this to be even remotely true. My shotgun-wielding assault troopers don't miss, mainly because they have 100% chance to hit when standing right behind an alien.

Lightning reflexes+run&gun+shotgun=dead aliens everywhere. My soldier with most kills on my first attempt at classic/ironman was a shotgun-wielding assault.
 
Snapshot King said:
How long does the game last/whats the endgame? I have the mission to
assault the alien base, but I'm sure it'd wipe the floor with me,
I'd really rather gear up and keep researching.
Click to expand...

Don't leave it too long, worldwide panic will continue to increase and you'll struggle to keep all the countries in the council.
 
Well, I lost the United States, but now I've got the capacity for 9 satellites, so I think I've turned the corner.

The US thing sucks because North America was fine until I decided it was time to upgrade the weapons in my hangar. Not 8 hours after I chose to switch weapons on my North American plane, a large UFO appeared over the US. Instant panic.

I've stalled long enough, so I figure now I should assault that first alien base and see what happens.
 
I feel my base/geoscape situation is about to stabilize, I'm 3 and a half months into the game and I've got 5 satellites up in space, with a satellite nexus (able to support 4 additional satellites!) almost constructed and 3 satellites being prepared at the same time. They should be ready before the end of the month.
Got my squad expanded up to 6. I have 2 workshops up and running. Other than that nothing much of note. Near future plans are constructing a second steamvent powered generator and perhaps a foundry or lab.

3 countries have already left the council though. However, I don't feel it's a big deal at this point. On classic ironman you're bound to lose some countries.

I'm starting to feel confident in my combat ability as well, though I must say I haven't encountered the dreaded army of cryssalids and cyberdiscs yet. Only had one cryssalid mission so far where only 3 appeared. Had a couple of missions with mutons of course but they never touched me. Feels good!

Currently I left the game just after landing at an abduction mission in France, which was rated very difficult. France's panic rating was one shy away from max so if I can complete this one successfully my satellites will be able to take care of the rest of the panic levels in other countries.
This will be my first mission with a 6 man squad, most of my crew are at least level 3, there's also a couple of 4's and a 5. So I'm feeling confident about it. Famous last words right?

Bummed that I've lost my sniper who I named Duke Nukem... But he was definitely kicking ass and not chewing bubble gum because he was all out of bubble gum before he died. He got a fair amount of kills in a short time so I was really starting to get fond of him too. :(
He got easily flanked by a thin man I had in view, but I had to use all my firepower to take down 2 mutons and had noone left to put in overwatch. The stories about muton grenades scare me I have to admit, so I wanted to take the mutons out before they had a chance to do anything.
While underfire the mutons let out a terrible roar and caused 2 squad members to panic which set me at a disadvantage. Still losing only one guy doesn't feel too bad. But why did it have to be Duke Nukem? Aliens must have had a long standing grudge against him for some reason.
 
taking out the base i think decreases panic building over the next few months - i think it cuts down on abduction missions for a while
 
I finally got my sniper fully ranked. He is now very, very deadly at range. I love how this game can really cater to different play styles, I can already see myself going a completely different build with every single class next play through and, in turn, playing an almost completely different style.
 
Though my squad is starting to look pretty bad ass, the thought of doing an alien base assault scares the shit out of me right now.
 
Woo-Fu said:
I don't find this to be even remotely true. My shotgun-wielding assault troopers don't miss, mainly because they have 100% chance to hit when standing right behind an alien.

Lightning reflexes+run&gun+shotgun=dead aliens everywhere. My soldier with most kills on my first attempt at classic/ironman was a shotgun-wielding assault.
Click to expand...

You can rack up a lot of kills that way, but it can backfire in a couple ways:
- you fail to kill the alien at point blank range, and then they kill you the next turn.
- by running in, you aggro a new group of aliens before you're ready for them.
 
I've only done one alien base assault (I assume there are more), but it was incredibly deadly. I play a spread out but very slow moving style and when 6 Chrysalids popped out of fucking no where I was in a very good position to whittle them down. It was fucking amazing, just a polished, clock work death machine. I love this game.

Uthred said:
Why would you ever taken the pistol upgrade ability with the sniper?
Click to expand...

You can upgrade pistols to be pretty deadly if they crit, and if you play a fast moving sniper I can imagine that would be useful.
 
TemplaerDude said:
I've only done one alien base assault (I assume there are more), but it was incredibly deadly. I play a spread out but very slow moving style and when 6 Chrysalids popped out of fucking no where I was in a very good position to whittle them down. It was fucking amazing, just a polished, clock work death machine. I love this game.
Click to expand...
What do you consider spread out? Usually I tend to keep at least 3-4 spaces between guys or more. But sometimes 2-3 will be close together depending on how the cover is distributed etc. Other than that I feel that slow moving is the only way to go on classic ironman. And I'm very slow moving. Sometimes not moving with anyone an entire turn if one guy needs to reload or just because I'm turtling up. Or only moving one guy up while the rest stays in overwatch. Moving one square etc.
 
Can anyone list all of the alien types in this game based on official hint books? Which alien types from the classic X-Com are absent in this go around?
 
Nocebo said:
What do you consider spread out? Usually I tend to keep at least 3-4 spaces between guys or more. But sometimes 2-3 will be close together depending on how the cover is distributed etc. Other than that I feel that slow moving is the only way to go on classic ironman. And I'm very slow moving. Sometimes not moving with anyone an entire turn if one guy needs to reload or just because I'm turtling up. Or only moving one guy up while the rest stays in overwatch. Moving one square etc.
Click to expand...

Definitely 3 or more, for myself usually 5 or 6 depending on the map. It really depends on the composition of your squad, I've been rolling with two support, two heavies, a sniper and a shotgun wielding death machine assault guy. I never rush anyone other than the assault guy, and only when the rest of my squad has done their initial moves, and the sniper at the very beginning of a mission to get him into a high vantage point. It has worked wonders for me so far.

I got pegged once early on having my men in a tight spot and a grenade took out two of my squad and critically injured a third. Haven't looked back on my strategy since then.
 
Did you guys know that your chances to hit a target increase if you time your execution of the fire order with the reticle arrows synched? The arrow glows for a split second when they're combined. I know it sounds insane but I swear it helps.
 
Ezenzer said:
I'd gladly take 12 mutons over chrysalids half that number, to boot.
Click to expand...

I haven't found the Chrysalids to be too bad this time around. They don't have huge HP, and as they are melee-based they are heavily susceptible to abilities like Overwatch, and can also clump up in a way that makes them a good target for AOE attacks. So long as you are relatively conservative in the way you move around, they've generally not been a huge problem in my experience. If you are dash-happy or otherwise unnecessarily aggressive around them, they will probably ruin your day.

The most annoying thing about them is when they impregnate a civilian. Those zombies don't mess around.
 
Nocebo said:
What do you consider spread out? Usually I tend to keep at least 3-4 spaces between guys or more. But sometimes 2-3 will be close together depending on how the cover is distributed etc. Other than that I feel that slow moving is the only way to go on classic ironman. And I'm very slow moving. Sometimes not moving with anyone an entire turn if one guy needs to reload or just because I'm turtling up. Or only moving one guy up while the rest stays in overwatch. Moving one square etc.
Click to expand...

Muton grenades and the
Sectopod
will have fun killing your squad :)
 
Zeliard said:
I haven't found the Chrysalids to be too bad this time around. They don't have huge HP, and as they are melee-based they are heavily susceptible to abilities like Overwatch, and can also clump up in a way that makes them a good target for AOE attacks. So long as you are relatively conservative in the way you move around, they've generally not been a huge problem in my experience. If you are dash-happy or otherwise unnecessarily aggressive around them, they will probably ruin your day.

The most annoying thing about them is when they impregnate a civilian. Those zombies don't mess around.
Click to expand...

The problem is that those terror missions force you to be way more aggressive so you can save a few people and not have to deal with hordes of zombies.

Just unlocked titan armor. This shit is going to be expensive, and I have 6 dollars.

You can upgrade pistols to be pretty deadly if they crit, and if you play a fast moving sniper I can imagine that would be useful.
Click to expand...

Squad sight + Scope + Doubletap stationary sniper is the best sniper.

xcomgame2012-10-1103-k5ps9.png
Click to expand...
 
Castor Krieg said:
The problem with shotguns is they are useless in Classic Ironman and above. Sure, if you are playing non-Ironman just run up, save, reload if missed. If you are playing Ironman, at least on Classic, you want to be behind full cover with Overwatch every turn and as far away from aliens as possible.

Basically X-Com equivalent of "spotters+snipers" from earlier games.
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily agree with this. While you definitely do want to be conservative most of the time on Classic IM, sometimes well-timed aggression can work very well. The benefit to the shotgun is that if you are close enough, it will hit for 100% or otherwise very high with good base damage and huge crit chance. Used in conjunction with run and gun and Rapid Fire, you can get Assault troops into position to absolutely obliterate a particularly difficult and/or meddlesome enemy. Works even better if your Assault guys have crit bonuses, i.e. the Colonel one that gives a large crit bonus when you use run and gun.

You definitely do have to be careful with close-up shotty action, but it's come in handy more often than not in my experience.

Ceebs said:
The problem is that those terror missions force you to be way more aggressive so you can save a few people and not have to deal with hordes of zombies.
Click to expand...

True but you still want to move at a fairly measured pace; you can't help anybody if your vets are killed and zombified. Also helps to have Assault guys with abilities like Close Combat Specialist if/when Chrysalids and their zombies do get in range.

Ceebs said:
Squad sight + Scope + Doubletap stationary sniper is the best sniper.
Click to expand...

Damn skippy. My sniper's been with me since the start of the game, just wrecking fools. I've lost count of the number of absolutely clutch shots that he's hit.

I finally did get another sniper (they definitely seem to be a lot more rare to have than the other classes, probably because they're so powerful).

Contemplating whether to take him down the same long-range-beast path of my Colonel sniper, or take him down the other path and make him more of a mobile, utility guy. I'll probably go long-range again.
 
Zeliard said:
Damn skippy. My sniper's been with me since the start of the game, just wrecking fools. I've lost count of the number of absolutely clutch shots that he's hit.

I finally did get another sniper (they definitely seem to be a lot more rare to have than the other classes, probably because they're so powerful).

Contemplating whether to take him down the same long-range-beast path of my Colonel sniper, or take him down the other path and make him more of a mobile, utility guy. I'll probably go long-range again.
Click to expand...
I have like 3 snipers. I have only had 2 heavies all game, and one was murdered brutally in a muton capture gone wrong.

I find my mobile sniper way less useful than the squadsight one. He becomes a liability as I have to put him in harms way sometimes to get a LOS on cluttered maps. The Squad sight, I just grapple up to a roof and camp. Yeah I have to make sure she is in a good position well before anything shows up, but once it does she will one shot almost everything I am fighting.
 
The base assault was a success, but I took a lot of injuries. Just a few days later, I can only field a squad of four (including two rookies) for an abduction mission. I'll tackle it in a bit, but if anyone takes injuries, things could really go wrong.

Just out of curiosity, I'm finding I can basically paralyze enemies on Normal by using overwatch a lot. Does that work on Classic, or will they remain aggressive?
 
Man, I am really struggling to get any supports. Definitely missing the 3 use medkits since the game actually got dangerous on normal.
 
Ceebs said:
I have like 3 snipers. I have only had 2 heavies all game, and one was murdered brutally in a muton capture gone wrong.

I find my mobile sniper way less useful than the squadsight one. He becomes a liability as I have to put him in harms way sometimes to get a LOS on cluttered maps. The Squad sight, I just grapple up to a roof and camp. Yeah I have to make sure she is in a good position well before anything shows up, but once it does she will one shot almost everything I am fighting.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the only thing I'll change is probably give sniper #2 Executioner instead of Opportunist.

Opportunist has been quite awesome though, as someone who puts my sniper on Overwatch all the time (ammo hasn't been a problem at all for me). I love how well some of the abilities complement each other in this game. Scope + Squad Sight + Damn Good Ground + Opportunist will make your sniper devastating with reaction shots. It works beautifully when you suddenly come across a group of enemies as well, as their movement on their initial turn will trigger the sniper's Overwatch.
 
So if you get PC XCOM on disc you can't actually install the thing before release date, but you CAN pre-load it. So I have a disc full of data I can't install, but if I want to play the moment the game is unlocked, I have to download all the data instead.

Awesome. Fuck's sake, they should've just given me an email code and sent me my feelies later.
 
Holy shit I love this game. Playing on classic. Story time!

I'm doing the third tutorial mission, so I'm not that far. This squad is the first squad I customize and it automatically makes the game 100x more fun. After messing around a bit, I end up creating a colored coded Reservoir Dog squad of Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, and Mr. Blonde.

Get out of the craft. Up against a lone Thin Man to start off with, okay no big deal...except after all my guys get into cover, he poisons Mr. White. Shit. Not a great start since I have no medics yet. Mr. Blonde takes up cover inside a bus, wounding the Thin Man but not killing him. The other two miss, and like an idiot the commander (me) directs Mr. White to get on the roof of the bus for a better vantage point so he can kill the Thin Man and hey, he's poisoned anyway. Guess what happens. Yup, Mr. White misses and boom. First casualty. Ouch. No big deal, Mr. Orange flanks the Thin Man and eliminates him. One alien down.

Two more sectoids appear as the squad moves forward. Dispatched without trouble, but a third sectoid appears. Mr. Blonde charges forward, taking a cover spot above the sectoid thinking he has sufficient cover and a higher vantage point so the sectoid can't hit him. Guess what happens? Yup, the sectoid shoots through a space in the cover and critically wounds Mr. Blonde. Damn. No medics, and he has three turns to live. No way I'm getting the hostage back to the plane in time. We've lost two now. Mr. Pink retaliates and blows away the sectoid in revenge, then moves forward to rescue the hostage and escort her back to the plane.

Except wait! A Thin Man and sectoid appear on the other side of the map, in overwatch. Now it's tricky. Mr. Orange takes point, while Mr. Pink is escorting the hostage. Both Mr. Orange and Mr. Pink lure out the overwatch, ducking and weaving like a boss so the hostage can get out of range and closer to the evac point. Except the Thin Man throws a curve ball...he poisons Mr. Orange! We're close, though, we can get out of this, right? Wrong. Mr. Orange panicks and runs straight at the Thin Man, firing wildly but missing. Guess what happens next. Yup, Thin Man headshot to Mr. Orange's face.

Now it's just Mr. Pink and the hostage, but they're close to the evac point. They can make it....nooooo another Thin Man drops in front of the evac point. All by himself, Mr. Pink steels himself, goes in for the kill...BOOM, crit on the Thin Man, clearing the way for the hostage to dash to the evac point. All good, right? No, the commander tells Mr. Pink he has to go back in there and finish off the other aliens. One man versus two aliens. Can he do it?

The Thin Man is closer. Mr. Pink tenatively gets close, trying to lure the Thin Man into an Overwatch kill. But the Thin Man is too smart for that. He poisons Mr. Pink! All hope is lost! Mr. Pink panicks!! He runs behind a car, firing wildly at the Thin Man, but misses! The Thin Man and Mr. Pink exchange fire, each hiding behind cars, until...BOOM! Critical shot by Mr. Pink and the Thin Man goes down! But...Mr. Pink is on his last health point and he's still poisoned. The sectoid closes in, firing but missing, but obviously gloating.

....and then miracle of all miracle..Mr. Pink discovers...the poison doesn't kill him! He's alive! He has another turn! And so with skill and precision, he closes in on the sectoid...and nails the fucker in the face.

Three casualties on the third mission, the survivor limping home poisoned and near death.

I love this game.
 
DrBo42 said:
Did you guys know that your chances to hit a target increase if you time your execution of the fire order with the reticle arrows synched? The arrow glows for a split second when they're combined. I know it sounds insane but I swear it helps.
Click to expand...

But what happens if I press up and mash AB when the arc launcher is in the air
 
Tomorrow.... Tomorrow.

God damn it it feels like it's been aaaaaaaaaaaages since people gotten their hands on the game.

Jintor, you caved as well or are you holding out for tomorrow?
 
Holy shit, just got through an intense crashed UFO mission with no causalities. It was by far the most aliens I've fought in a single mission thus far.

My two star soldiers at this point are Roy Batty (heavy) and Rick Deckard (support). Been with me since the beginning and they're owning fools left and right at this point. Now let's just hope this post doesn't jinx either of them :lol

Only thing I'm a little worried about is my lack of satellites. I only have two after eight missions, one over Germany and one over the United Kingdom. Seems tough to be able to build up to another one. First I was short on cash, then I didn't have enough engineers, then I had to build a power generator, and then I believe I'll need another satellite uplink. Only a few days until the generator is done, so I hopefully after that is gone I can build another uplink and send out a third one. Just not sure if I'm doing something wrong here and should be getting satellites at a quicker pace. Guess we'll see.

It's been a lot of fun overall, though. It's funny how attached you get to your veteran soldiers. They just become so valuable. I have two solid squads of 4 at the moment, but I should probably take a couple rookies out for a few missions in case I take some casualties.
 
Ok, I'm starting to get annoyed by the shots clearly going through walls. Sure, help to my most veteran soldier(actually a guy from tutorial mission 1) that has 9 points with one shot THROUGH a high cover wall. Good thing I didn't start on ironman.
 
Corky said:
Tomorrow.... Tomorrow.

God damn it it feels like it's been aaaaaaaaaaaages since people gotten their hands on the game.

Jintor, you caved as well or are you holding out for tomorrow?
Click to expand...

i think i might play the walking dead or xenoblade tonight... and cry all of tommorrow
 
Corky said:
Tomorrow.... Tomorrow.

God damn it it feels like it's been aaaaaaaaaaaages since people gotten their hands on the game.

Jintor, you caved as well or are you holding out for tomorrow?
Click to expand...

Bro, I unlocked mine last night!

Four dead soldiers so far :(
 
I like the enthusiastic "sortie stories" being shared, regardless of the success or failure of the mission..its great that you can literally close your eyes and SEE the scenario..Xcom works so well because of the emergent circumstances that the gameplay sets up, i like how its inspiring the personal narratives, keep them coming!
 
So what's the best way to get into the game for someone who has never played XCOM? I've read about the "restart after tutorial" thing and some stuff about playing normal a bit to get used to it and then switching to classic.
 
Woo-Fu said:
I don't find this to be even remotely true. My shotgun-wielding assault troopers don't miss, mainly because they have 100% chance to hit when standing right behind an alien.

Lightning reflexes+run&gun+shotgun=dead aliens everywhere. My soldier with most kills on my first attempt at classic/ironman was a shotgun-wielding assault.
Click to expand...
Yep, shotgun wielding assaults are not only viable on classic, they are extremely useful. You can't rush out like an idiot and you need to back them up with overwatch, suppression, and use of those sniper vision balls, but used correctly assaults are as deadly as squadvision snipers. And at high ranks assaults become tanks with super high hp and crit immumity, making close quarter combat even more effective.
 
Lightning reflexes is also great for making aliens waste their Overwatch so that you can safely move other soldiers into better position.
 
Ken said:
So what's the best way to get into the game for someone who has never played XCOM? I've read about the "restart after tutorial" thing and some stuff about playing normal a bit to get used to it and then switching to classic.
Click to expand...

Finish tutorial and then continue. Normal non-Ironman. After you get a hang of it you can switch to Classic non-Ironman. Classic Ironman is a completely different beast.
 
Ken said:
So what's the best way to get into the game for someone who has never played XCOM? I've read about the "restart after tutorial" thing and some stuff about playing normal a bit to get used to it and then switching to classic.
Click to expand...

you don't have to switch to classic if you find normal to be challenging. However if you are beating normal easily, classic (and ironman ) will offer a much better experience.
 
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