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[The_Darkest_Red]

I started a fresh run on Normal Ironman yesterday and so far things are going pretty well. I just reached the first terror mission and it's rated "very difficult." Should I give it a shot or am I just sending my squad out to die? I've been trying to answer this question ever since I stopped playing, haha.

 

[Ken]

i think everyone got the soldier pack, regardless of preorder or not.

Huh. I hope so. I guess I wouldn't be able to check for another 10 hours or so though. Thanks.

 

[Jintor]

that's a 1/4 chance each time to miss!

 

[marjo]

This. Honestly I restarted my normal game because, though my economy was doing good and research was going well, it was drying up fast because all my vets were dead and any downed UFO was wiping me with

Spoiler

Mutons, Heavy Floaters, and Sectoid Commanders

. Even on Normal difficulty, its proving very difficult. Though I'd swear the to hit rates are not calculating correctly. You can't miss a 75% hit chance 5 times in a row.

The probability of missing 5 75% changes in a row is approximately .01%. While that sounds low, you have to realize that over a large number of occurrences, it's actually quite likely to happen.

Let me put it this way. Let's say I told you that every time you got in a car, you had a .01% chance of dying. Does that make you feel safe? It shouldn't. With those odds, people who take 2 cars trips a day are more likely then not to be dead within a year.

 

[Lusankya]

Just to be sure: X-COM: Enemy Unknown is a remake of UFO: Enemy Unknown with better graphics and different controls? Or is there more to it?

 

[forgeforsaken]

Define finish. Because, unless I've somehow fundamentally fucked up in the geospace, my guess is that most people will "finish" relatively early,

Spoiler

alien base

That's only about 1/3rd of the way in I think. Or are you suggesting that that is where people will wipe?

 

[raphier]

Just to be sure: X-COM: Enemy Unknown is a remake of UFO: Enemy Unknown with better graphics and different controls? Or is there more to it?

new content and some other things. It's a re-imagined version for modern gamers. It certainly is different.

 

[Basileus777]

So is the new recruits starting with easy level HP thing a bug? On classic, they get 6 HP as opposed to the starting soldiers getting 4.

 

[Truant]

Why can't I pick all the base locations if playing with the tutorial stuff? What a strange design decision.

 

[red731]

Why can't I pick all the base locations if playing with the tutorial stuff? What a strange design decision.

Play tutorial to finish if you want, then disable it when choosing difficulty(advanced options on that screen), untick tutorial a you are good to go.

You can then select from all the locations and your rookies won't die. If you won't let them, commander.

Maybe if you choose something else then USA or EU you wouldn't have the resources to build something or I don't know.

 

[Mupod]

Rocking plasma weapons and I haven't even

Spoiler

been to the base

yet, although I stopped last night literally right before heading there. Well, I only have one heavy plasma and a bunch of light plasma that I found on the ground, can't afford to make anything else yet because they cost 200 freakin spacebucks each. But it gets the job done that's for damn sure.

Alien Pokemon has been working out pretty well for me, I haven't missed any yet. And my research ability far, far outpaces the rate at which I shoot down UFOs for materials - even that large UFO I took down barely had enough to keep my research going. Really should've made 3-4 workshops instead of 3 labs. I haven't lost any countries yet though, made enough satellites to cover north america and japan.

Haven't had a single soldier death since my first landed ufo mission, and that was just a rookie (although she did capture me a Floater, so she will be remembered). I did however have my best heavy take a critical wound because I let him get blown up by a car...whoops. He's backup now.

Also apparently big trucks can explode, but only the front part, and it bugged out so it didn't LOOK like it was on fire (there was just a little flame on the ground in front of it). Fortunately the assault soldier standing there had buttloads of hp, but I'm STILL waiting for her to recover.

Speaking of recovery - I noticed that my soldiers can take hits now and not be out for 6 missions. Does it only count as 'wounded' if they take enough damage to get through all their armor and into their 'real' hp?

 

[raphier]

missed 3 99% shots in a row, entire squad gets wiped by a sectoid. GG.

 

[Torraz]

Anyone know how long the "coloring your soldiers"-DLC will persist? Is it only for pre-orders?

 

[Jintor]

"First run" only. Don't know what that means in terms of digital copies but whatevs

 

[Jintor]

Had a look in the bug support forums to see if anything new had come up. First thread was some idiot bitching about the accents on Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen. "It's like their Russian or something! I expect a game in english to have nice english accents!"

Fuck off.

1. It's not a goddamn bug for a support forum
2. I like having dudes with accents in-games because it reminds me that dudes with accents actually exist in the world
3. If anything, there's not enough accents in this game for an international fighting force
4. What a goddamn idiot.

 

[TTG]

That's only about 1/3rd of the way in I think. Or are you suggesting that that is where people will wipe?

Looking back on it, I did waste a few turns early being extra careful, positioning guys around(which I suppose could have led to a whole slew of enemies bunching up like they did). Anyway, here's what happened:

After a pedestrian first third of the base, I killed maybe 4 mutons and 3 sectoids? A rookie was dead, leaving the team down to 4 and I had wasted my lonely rocket. As I mentioned, then there was a lull in the combat as I traversed the base until I got to a point where, the first time through, I had triggered about 10 enemies in the span of 2 turns. First, no less than 7 aliens were lit up on the screen, all mutons, cryssillis and floaters. Then, another batch of mutons joined in. After reloading a couple of times, I was able to control triggering these guys to 1 wave per turn, more or less.

I don't know if I could have dealt with all of them 1 time out of 10, if I couldn't save mid way through, or avoid them because I knew what was beyond the fog of war. You literally don't have the time to reload your weapon in a spot like that. All 4 of my squad were about as veteran as it gets, 3 of them were there since the beginning. They had upgraded armor(which netted around 10 hit points per person) and 2 had light plasma rifles. I was happy to finish with only 2 casualties and a bunch of wounded.

 

[patapuf]

Had a look in the bug support forums to see if anything new had come up. First thread was some idiot bitching about the accents on Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen. "It's like their Russian or something! I expect a game in english to have nice english accents!"

Fuck off.

1. It's not a goddamn bug for a support forum
2. I like having dudes with accents in-games because it reminds me that dudes with accents actually exist in the world
3. If anything, there's not enough accents in this game for an international fighting force
4. What a goddamn idiot.

agreed. Sometimes they are clishee but accents are awesome. Especially in a game like xcom where the people are supposed to be from all over the world.

 

[red731]

agreed. Sometimes they are clishee but accents are awesome. Especially in a game like xcom where the people are supposed to be from all over the world.

I agree too. Just read that thread on 2k forums. I wanted to (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻.
WTF

ed: he is responding with more bullshit awshit

 

[Jintor]

I know official forums are hotbeds for idiots but that one really got in my grill.

 

[McNum]

Speaking of recovery - I noticed that my soldiers can take hits now and not be out for 6 missions. Does it only count as 'wounded' if they take enough damage to get through all their armor and into their 'real' hp?

It is exactly as you say. If a soldier take less damage than the armor grants bonus HP, it doesn't count as a wound.

 

[dondarm]

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.

Hey, I'm a bit late on this, but did you try to force-install from DVD?
I think it was Run->Steam.exe -install F: (or whatever your DVD drive is)

 

[Teletraan1]

It doesn't happen very often. Point blank shots with a shotgun usually have 90-100% chance to hit.

Except they sometimes don't. Have had a enemy point blank with a shotgun and the percentage was 50. I have a feeling there is something off with some of the percentages that are being reported by the game from time to time. Might be something more to it than just an unnecessary "Probability How does it work?" comment since the odds of missing some of these shots in a row based on the reported percentages are getting into Lottery Winner territory by multiple people. Its not like the game is bug free so I wouldn't doubt it.

Still love the game. One of the best I have played all year.

 

[Incendiary]

I've been playing on Classic and I can't tell if I've been doing good or not. Didn't check Ironman, but I've done kind of a self-imposed one where I'll continue on with casualties, but if I get a full party wipe I'll redo the mission. I've gotten to the

Spoiler

alien base

but I'm really struggling with funds, haven't built more than 2 satellites yet although I do have a 5-person team. I honestly can't tell if I'm doing well or doing poorly, but it feels like I'm doing poorly since a lot of countries are panicking already.

Got my first terror mission, but the game froze a few turns in so I took it as a sign to quit for the day.

 

[garath]

I started a fresh run on Normal Ironman yesterday and so far things are going pretty well. I just reached the first terror mission and it's rated "very difficult." Should I give it a shot or am I just sending my squad out to die? I've been trying to answer this question ever since I stopped playing, haha.

Go for it. I've been rocking my Normal Ironman. *knock on wood* I haven't lost a single soldier so far. Closest I've come is a couple guys knocked down to 1hp, which I then proceeded to back them out of the map and hide.

I remember that mission in particular. I was scared of the very difficult but it turned out not so difficult. But I did have all 6 squad members. If that mission was classic it surely would have been far more challenging.

So far my strats have been paying off. I have 2 assault guys equipped with carapace armor and nano vests. One with the crit skill, one with the defense and both with the skill that they attack anything that moves within 4 squares. These guys are my point men. They go in to flush out the enemy and take the hits. I have my one support gal, she is actually one of my highest ranked, just made captain I think. She's never even been wounded. I use her for a flank and overwatch position. I also took suppression on her. Very valuable. My sniper is the other lynchpin. Squad site is key for him. I get him to high ground and just own things. Researching skeleton armor right now.

I wish I had a second sniper but every single rookie I've trained so far has been assault or heavy. I don't even have a second support. It's aggravating.

What do you guys do for research? There are SO many things to research! I have 3 different corpses, a floater and a heavy to interrogate, experimental warfare, etc etc. I have like 10 things I can research. I feel spread so thin. I need a solid plan. Probably need the upgraded planes. I barely took down a large ufo last night with my interceptor. Luckily I had built a couple aim mods.

I love this game lol.

 

[Alcoholikaust]

HEADS UP***

PC download of Xcom Enemy Unknown available at gamefly.com for digital download for $39.99 with coupon code: 2GF82012

for anyone interested-

 

[Castor Krieg]

What do you guys do for research? There are SO many things to research! I have 3 different corpses, a floater and a heavy to interrogate, experimental warfare, etc etc. I have like 10 things I can research. I feel spread so thin. I need a solid plan. Probably need the upgraded planes. I barely took down a large ufo last night with my interceptor. Luckily I had built a couple aim mods.

I love this game lol.

On Classic Ironman I rush for laser weapons before the first terror mission.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Go for it. I've been rocking my Normal Ironman. *knock on wood* I haven't lost a single soldier so far. Closest I've come is a couple guys knocked down to 1hp, which I then proceeded to back them out of the map and hide.

I remember that mission in particular. I was scared of the very difficult but it turned out not so difficult. But I did have all 6 squad members. If that mission was classic it surely would have been far more challenging.

So far my strats have been paying off. I have 2 assault guys equipped with carapace armor and nano vests. One with the crit skill, one with the defense and both with the skill that they attack anything that moves within 4 squares. These guys are my point men. They go in to flush out the enemy and take the hits. I have my one support gal, she is actually one of my highest ranked, just made captain I think. She's never even been wounded. I use her for a flank and overwatch position. I also took suppression on her. Very valuable. My sniper is the other lynchpin. Squad site is key for him. I get him to high ground and just own things. Researching skeleton armor right now.

I wish I had a second sniper but every single rookie I've trained so far has been assault or heavy. I don't even have a second support. It's aggravating.

What do you guys do for research? There are SO many things to research! I have 3 different corpses, a floater and a heavy to interrogate, experimental warfare, etc etc. I have like 10 things I can research. I feel spread so thin. I need a solid plan. Probably need the upgraded planes. I barely took down a large ufo last night with my interceptor. Luckily I had built a couple aim mods.

I love this game lol.

Sounds good, you have motivated me to give it a shot. My team is fairly competent, I've only lost one rookie so far so everyone has some experience under their belt, but I haven't researched carapace armor or laser weapons yet (focusing mostly on developing my base with my funds and making at least 2 satellites per month).

I definitely feel like I learned a lot from my first attempt at the game. My research was much farther along in that one but the overall state of panic in the world was significantly higher so I feel like the trade-off is probably worth it. At least, I'll feel that way until my squad gets wiped or something.

 

[garath]

Sounds good, you have motivated me to give it a shot. My team is fairly competent, I've only lost one rookie so far so everyone has some experience under their belt, but I haven't researched carapace armor or laser weapons yet (focusing mostly on developing my base with my funds and making at least 2 satellites per month).

I definitely feel like I learned a lot from my first attempt at the game. My research was much farther along in that one but the overall state of panic in the world was significantly higher so I feel like the trade-off is probably worth it. At least, I'll feel that way until my squad gets wiped or something.

Awesome. I don't think I had laser weapons or carapace armor for that mission. It's tough to remember, I played for about 5 hours yesterday. I definitely didn't have carapace and I definitely had at least 5 squad members.

I'm with you on the satellites too. I've neglected research for engineering and I have 2 uplinks running with a total of 4 satellites out there. I have 2 more built waiting for next month when I have the funds for a satellite nexus. I've let panic go up in a couple places just to quell it with a satellite launch. I'm not getting many extra bonuses because I launch satellites in response to panic more than anything but I haven't lost a country yet.

Classic is going to be so much harder. It'll be fun

 

[Astery]

I am wondering if I can farm for experience, money before doing the priority researches and objectives hence advancing the main story plot and avoid encountering over powered enemy types relative to my research and facilities progresses. Or does this not work?

 

[Hari Seldon]

I had a full rookie squad wipe last night because I stupidly chose a "very hard" mission option since the panic level was higher in that area. All my vets were injured. Ironman is the only way to play this game haha.

 

[Lord Panda]

Just wondering about a few things:

1. Do support classes get XP for healing and using their support skills?
   
2. Do you get EXP for capturing aliens? One of my soldiers (assault class) managed to capture a sectoid
   Spoiler

   commander
   but didn't seem to get diddly squat XP for it. They should have made a golden statue of her for the sacrifices she endured to get to the bastard and then pull off a stun.
   
3. Is there a point capturing units that have already been captured and interrogated before?

Sorry if these Q's have already been answered ad nauseum.

 

[Mupod]

On Classic Ironman I rush for laser weapons before the first terror mission.

Yeah, rushing to laser weapons worked out great for me. Alternatively you could capture some aliens and research their light plasma rifle, but without the

Spoiler

Muton interrogation bonus

plasma tech takes FOREVER. The upside is that if you're good at capturing you get a LOT of those rifles for free.

I definitely should have stopped at 1 or 2 labs and got more engineers though. The limiting factor was not research time, but the availability of alien alloys. If I hadn't caught a landed ufo with its pants down I might not have had enough.

 

[Zeliard]

I had a full rookie squad wipe last night because I stupidly chose a "very hard" mission option since the panic level was higher in that area. All my vets were injured. Ironman is the only way to play this game haha.

The game balances out long-term and short-term gains pretty brilliantly and forces you to consider things carefully. Do you go for an easier mission that also nets you immediately helpful cash, but in a region that has very low panic? Or do you go for the mission that gets you, say, scientists and is listed as very tough, but reduces panic in a country on the verge of collapse?

WHAT DO YOU DO?

 

[Noaloha]

Except they sometimes don't. Have had a enemy point blank with a shotgun and the percentage was 50. I have a feeling there is something off with some of the percentages that are being reported by the game from time to time.

I'm not in a game right now (more on that in a second!) so I can't check, but does the 'Hunker Down' option state that it doubles the effectiveness of cover or that it just doubles defence? It's fair to assume that the enemy can use that ability too. At any rate, my first assumption would be that the 50%-instead-of-100% thing and similar are buffs of some kind that are currently active. For example, I don't know what Muton's 'Intimidate' thing actually does. I'd be wary of crying bug in one of those situations until after checking the 'More Info' button against an autopsied enemy type.

-----

GAME OVER

Second attempt. Lessons? I'm fine in the field. I suck in the book. Geoscape management was what ended things, plain and simple, but that's the nature of playing things by ear and winging it. Satellites man. Fucking satellites. So important.

What specifically prompted the (neat) game over movie was a panic mission in Durban, South Africa that I chose to ignore, since Africa was fucked anyway and I'd *just* started getting some satellites up in Europe and NA. My intent (as in, the only path I could see) was to lock down two continents and regrettably salute the fallen rest, helping out if I could but doing so rather calculatingly. And now I'm not sure you can get by with just two continents. The fall of Durban was my Game Over. However, that specific month XCOM was operating at a net loss of minus-nine Earthbucks, which is something that I figure must heavily weigh on the Council calling you out.

I *think* I'm gonna try running Tutorial again for Game 3 (this last game I turned the Tutorial off). Firstly, I want that free satellite and I'm hoping I can work around the heavy Tutorial restrictions. Secondly, I'm interested to go through it again just to see how much emphasis Firaxis placed on Satellites in their guidance text. I don't recall them being stressed at all.


Oh, a question!
So, I'm finding Squad Sight to be a little unpredictable. Is it not as plain as the ability-text makes out? 'Allows the Sniper to fire on targets in an ally's line of sight.' Because I've *definitely* had turns where sometimes I could not do that. If an ally can see an enemy, but my Squad Sighted sniper can't shoot them, what are the causes of that?

 

[Mupod]

I always go for highest panic now, but early on I focused on whoever gave engineers.

If you have enough engineers (I still don't) then you can respond to rising panic with satellite launches and interceptor coverage.

I don't really factor difficulty into it, but so far it seems like things like Cyberdiscs tend to show up in the higher difficulty missions which can actually help you plan who to bring along (I have a HEAT ammo specialized heavy).

 

[Darkone]

Anyone playing the game on Impossible difficulty?

 

[Zeliard]

Oh, a question!
So, I'm finding Squad Sight to be a little unpredictable. Is it not as plain as the ability-text makes out? 'Allows the Sniper to fire on targets in an ally's line of sight.' Because I've *definitely* had turns where sometimes I could not do that. If an ally can see an enemy, but my Squad Sighted sniper can't shoot them, what are the causes of that?

The tooltip could be a bit clearer. Your sniper still needs line of sight to the target. If that's obstructed by something, he won't be able to shoot at it. This is the reason why Squad Sight works much more effectively if you get your sniper to high ground. And combine it with the aim buffs from Scope and Damn Good Ground and the enemy is in for a world of hurt.

 

[sonicmj1]

Oh, a question!
So, I'm finding Squad Sight to be a little unpredictable. Is it not as plain as the ability-text makes out? 'Allows the Sniper to fire on targets in an ally's line of sight.' Because I've *definitely* had turns where sometimes I could not do that. If an ally can see an enemy, but my Squad Sighted sniper can't shoot them, what are the causes of that?

Shit in the way. Squad Sight extends their firing range as far as their allies can see, but there still needs to be a clear line for the sniper to fire down.

I'm getting close to the point where I outpace Normal, I think. I'm glad I started here (even on Ironman) because it was a lot more forgiving of my initial miscalculations in base construction. I'm still pretty far from main story completion, but whenever I do a new run on Classic, I'll be glad I got this experience.

 

[Noaloha]

The tooltip could be a bit clearer. Your sniper still needs line of sight to the target. If that's obstructed by something, he won't be able to shoot at it.

Makes perfect sense, thanks. For some reason I'd got in my head (possibly because I'd seen my sniper do this on at least one occasion) that the shooting-through-walls 'feature' applied across the board with that sort of shot.

 

[garath]

Oh, a question!
So, I'm finding Squad Sight to be a little unpredictable. Is it not as plain as the ability-text makes out? 'Allows the Sniper to fire on targets in an ally's line of sight.' Because I've *definitely* had turns where sometimes I could not do that. If an ally can see an enemy, but my Squad Sighted sniper can't shoot them, what are the causes of that?

I THINK I have this nailed. I was very disappointed with this ability previously as it didn't seem to do jack or squat.

However, the key is the sniper needs a shot. Even if he can't see an enemy, there needs to be a clear path for him to shoot the enemy. i.e. they are out of range to him normally but he has a clear shot. If there's a building or a tall truck in the way, he won't be able to take the shot. Squad sight gives him the distance he needs to take the shot but he still needs that line of sight. High ground is crucial to make the most out of this ability. It's nearly useless in crowded urban maps unless he can get up on a building to cover all open streets but it's insanely good in the rural maps.

On rural maps I've had rounds where I rush an assault up and he gets vision on a couple enemies and I just instantly have my sniper take one out. Very very handy.

edit: beaten by a green mile

 

[F!ReW!Re]

Had a look in the bug support forums to see if anything new had come up. First thread was some idiot bitching about the accents on Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen. "It's like their Russian or something! I expect a game in english to have nice english accents!"

Fuck off.

1. It's not a goddamn bug for a support forum
2. I like having dudes with accents in-games because it reminds me that dudes with accents actually exist in the world
3. If anything, there's not enough accents in this game for an international fighting force
4. What a goddamn idiot.

I totally agree!

I'm actually more bothered that none of the voices you can select in customization of the troops have accents. They're all flat out American voices which is a bit weird if you consider 95 percent of the rookies you recruit are not American

 

[Mupod]

I found an interesting variant of the shooting through walls feature. There was a drone in a downed UFO that was INSIDE the walls - I had 3 guys in the UFO who couldn't see it, and it was shooting them with impunity, making my rookie panic over and over. Because apparently taking 1 damage is terrifying when you're wearing carapace armor.

Anyways I had to grapple up on top of the UFO and stand in a very specific spot in order to hit it. My guy shot straight down through the ceiling with a 100% chance, heh.

 

[McNum]

What does "World" mean on the results screen, anyway? I've only seen "-" on the screenshots I've seen so far.

 

[Noaloha]

What does "World" mean on the results screen, anyway? I've only seen "-" on the screenshots I've seen so far.

Playing via VPN? I am. Maybe the game keeps track of global stats across players.

 

[Dyno]

Started up my game last night and was immediately sucked in. I went with research that would better protect my squads and so far that has worked out well. Only one death after the tutorial and I have a host of levelled up dudes. What a fun game! Looks like there is a fair bit of replay as well. There should be more games like this on console.

 

[Zeliard]

High ground is crucial to make the most out of this ability. It's nearly useless in crowded urban maps unless he can get up on a building to cover all open streets but it's insanely good in the rural maps.

Squad sight is definitely less effective in the more dense urban settings but it can still be quite nice to have since the sniper's range is normally fairly low. Even in urban maps, you can use squad sight to keep him decently away from danger and just make sure he's getting line of sight to most of the targets, and he'll be hitting plenty of aliens (especially since you can shoot through windows and such).

 

[electricpirate]

For those farther into Classic than I

Spoiler

need to interrogate the Other, day 55 or so.

how many engineers would you say you need? I'm sitting on 24 right now, but my research is le terrible, first lab comes online in 3 days. Should I build more workshops?

I'm generally not sure how Fucked I am, I've lost Russia, the US and canada. I have a good squad of vets though, unfortunately, my Sniper Major just went down with nasty injuries and I've got a "Very hard" abduction mission coming up, which probably means Mutons. Need moar lazers. Get well soon Bryan Boytano, your squad sight headshotting abilities will be missed.

 

[McNum]

Playing via VPN? I am. I assume the game keeps track of global stats across players.

Nah, I'm waiting to pick it up at Gamestop tomorrow. Gotta have my feelies. The soundtrack and artbook in particular will be nice to have. Plus, you know, and installation disk. I can download 15GB no problem. But if I don't have to, I'd like to skip it.

 

[forgeforsaken]

Squad sight is definitely less effective in the more dense urban settings but it can still be quite nice to have since the sniper's range is normally fairly low. Even in urban maps, you can use squad sight to keep him decently away from danger and just make sure he's getting line of sight to most of the targets, and he'll be hitting plenty of aliens (especially since you can shoot through windows and such).

It's amazing if you can get high ground. On one of the road maps I just had my sniper climb up on top of a truck near the start and never moved her again and she killed an alien every turn after that.

 

[Cheech]

Stuck at work wishing I could play. This year's crop of games has been so poor, this hasn't happened with me since Mass Effect 3.

Put a few hours into it last night, and it's great. Firaxis is a spectacular dev house.