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[Leunam]

Started playing this yesterday after downloading from PSN. It's running pretty slow for some reason, and some long load times compared to my 360 version of EU.

Played up to Portent last night and I've gotten nothing but new maps so far compared to the initial release of the game.

 

[danthefan]

So I have the original XCom for the PC, but I haven't played it yet. Should I play through the vanilla game once before getting this expansion or would Enemy Within contain everything from the original game anyway?

 

[valouris]

So I have the original XCom for the PC, but I haven't played it yet. Should I play through the vanilla game once before getting this expansion or would Enemy Within contain everything from the original game anyway?

I think you should play it with the expansion. It is a Civ like situation, where the expansion just adds tons of maps/missions/stuff to the base game, which is largely the same.

On another note, I have completed the original campaign on normal mode. What is the best option to go for this playthrough?
I am thinking of Classic Ironman. What options from Second Wave are worth it though?
I really like "Not Created Equally" and "Hidden Potential". Also, what does "Aiming Angle" do exactly? I thought it was a given that chances increase when you flank an enemy?

 

[rybrad]

If you can get it on sale, yes. It adds a few missions with personality plus the heavy you get is super useful.

Is there something special about him? I just got him a little bit ago but haven't used him yet since my original Heavy is further along.

 

[Erudite]

So I have the original XCom for the PC, but I haven't played it yet. Should I play through the vanilla game once before getting this expansion or would Enemy Within contain everything from the original game anyway?

Play with Enemy Within, there's no reason not to have the extra content in there.

 

[speculawyer]

Free XCom: Enemy Unknown on Steam to the next person to post an Xcom picture.

 

[TC McQueen]

Free XCom: Enemy Unknown on Steam to the next person to post an Xcom picture.

Have an XCOM love beam:

 

[speculawyer]

Have an XCOM love beam:

What's your Steam UserId?

 

[TC McQueen]

What's your Steam UserId?

I'll PM you that.

 

[Lime]

How do I change the Second Wave settings for a specific campaign? It states that EW allows for mid-game changes in the description, but the option menu doesn't allow me.

 

[Deadman]

Moved my soldier next to a car without noticing it was on fire. It exploded and killed him which made another soldier panic and shotgun the VIP in the face. Mission failed.

XCOM.

Also i have a steam copy of the base game (enemy unknown) to gift, if anyone wants it?

 

[Lautaro]

Moved my soldier next to a car without noticing it was on fire. It exploded and killed him which made another soldier panic and shotgun the VIP in the face. Mission failed.

XCOM.

Ugh, what's with rookies shooting the VIPs? these guys are supposed to be highly trained military personnel... that's what stopped my last attempt to make an Ironman Classic playthrough.

Anyway, with this expansion I'm doing it again and not stopping this time (I'll just keep the rookies for the terror missions probably).

 

[danthefan]

I think you should play it with the expansion. It is a Civ like situation, where the expansion just adds tons of maps/missions/stuff to the base game, which is largely the same.

Play with Enemy Within, there's no reason not to have the extra content in there.

Thank you both, will pick up the expansion so.

 

[Lime]

How do I change the Second Wave settings for a specific campaign? It states that EW allows for mid-game changes in the description, but the option menu doesn't allow me.

Anyone?

 

[TC McQueen]

Anyone?

Shouldn't it be under Options/Advanced Options?

 

[afreaknamedpete]

Moved my soldier next to a car without noticing it was on fire. It exploded and killed him which made another soldier panic and shotgun the VIP in the face. Mission failed.

XCOM.

Also i have a steam copy of the base game (enemy unknown) to gift, if anyone wants it?

I feel your pain. Twice now I've had panicked soldiers rush to take cover behind about-to-explode vehicles.

 

[Mupod]

I'm on the last part of the Slingshot DLC, but I just caught me a Muton and I want to get some plasma weapons up and running before I try it. Can I just ignore the mission for a while? Like will it stay there, or go away and come back at another point, or what?

also, I'm loving my flamethrower MEC. This expansion justified itself completely the first time I set a pack of Chryssalids on fire and watched them all scatter in a panic.

 

[speculawyer]

I'm on the last part of the Slingshot DLC, but I just caught me a Muton and I want to get some plasma weapons up and running before I try it. Can I just ignore the mission for a while? Like will it stay there, or go away and come back at another point, or what?

also, I'm loving my flamethrower MEC. This expansion justified itself completely the first time I set a pack of Chryssalids on fire and watched them all scatter in a panic.

It will be offered again later.

 

[Vaporak]

Aww yes, Portent mission down on Ironman Impossible. Just got to take it super slow, the aliens have spawned in the same areas each time I've played it so this time I had a much better idea of what to expect. Still lost my new Heavy, now down back to just my core 4 >.>.

And now comes the first Terror Mission.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Have you tried the Long War mod? It's a comprehensive effort to make EU feel more like the original XCOM. Many more UFOs, multiple alien bases, aliens that upgrade, and so on. I played through the first couple of months and was pretty impressed. I'm not sure if it there's a way to downgrade your install after playing EW, but if so, it's worth checking out.

They are working on a version for the EU update that was made alongside EW's release.

Long War is, if you have the patience and time for it, the best way to play XCOM:EU. It by and large successfully smooths out the difficultly curves that Classic and especially Impossible have, and provides a huge amount of customization and varying strategies to the game.

 

[Astery]

Anyone used shivs in EW? Are they even more worthless than ever now that MACs are dominating everywhere?

I always wanted to use SHIVs, I really do, but they are just lackluster and can't be upgraded much to be of much use in EU. I heard there are some more upgrades in EW, but which also applies to MECs, so are they a waste of time and money to research now?

 

[Jintor]

basically yeah

 

[Grimsen]

Ironman save corruption's still happening? That's the whole reason I've never actually finished an Ironman game in Enemy Unknown.

It actually never happened to me in EU, and I completed a dozen games, with maybe half of them Ironman.

I started over, hopefully it won't happen again.

 

[Vaporak]

I wish there was some way to reduce panic on countries that already have a satellite over them. Europe was doing fine and I was gonna get it all at the end of the month, and then a medium UFO showed up over Russia that I couldn't shoot down. Now Russia's panics in the red and they've already got a satalite, good by expert knowledge.

Anyone used shivs in EW? Are they even more worthless than ever now that MACs are dominating everywhere?

I always wanted to use SHIVs, I really do, but they are just lackluster and can't be upgraded much to be of much use in EU. I heard there are some more upgrades in EW, but which also applies to MECs, so are they a waste of time and money to research now?

I found shivs to be invaluable in EU. On I/I a high casualty mission no longer means game over if you can field some shivs. Plus the upgraded hover shivs have great mobility, can survive shootouts with late game aliens pretty well thanks to their great defense, and make exceptional spotters for a squad sight sniper.

 

[Mupod]

I got a ton of use out of SHIVs on my classic ironman run of EU, mostly as disposable Sectopod suppressors. But MECs seem to just be a hell of a lot better.

Now as replacements for Heavies, not so sure there. Because bullet swarm heavies abusing psionics and ghost armor was kind of the most busted thing in the game.

 

[ixix]

It actually never happened to me in EU, and I completed a dozen games, with maybe half of them Ironman.

I started over, hopefully it won't happen again.

I had it happen twice in Enemy Unknown, which is when I decided that I'd been self-enforcing Ironman on myself in the original games forever, so there was really no reason to leave myself to the whims of the autosave system.

 

[pilonv1]

Going to have to restart my first EW playthrough. Forgot how long it takes to build satellites and lost Canada and Mexico in month two.

 

[Jintor]

Given the research lead times and the panic rejiggering I think classic players should expect to lose a country or two in the first two months. Just try and make sure it's one of the ones in your starting continent so you don't lose your chance at a bonus.

 

[Vortex566]

How does it run on the PS3? What's it like using a controller?

 

[pilonv1]

I wont mention I was playing Normal then.

Starting continent was Africa so I could have lost them but I could have avoided it if I thought more about it.

 

[Tukker]

It's impossible to capture Seekers or am I missing something?

 

[TC McQueen]

It's impossible to capture Seekers or am I missing something?

Probably, since you can't capture Cyberdisks, Sectopods, and Cryssalids.

 

[Tukker]

Probably, since you can't capture Cyberdisks, Sectopods, and Cryssalids.

Ohhh yea, it's been too long since I played I forgot you couldn't capture those aliens aswell >.<

 

[Zod the Bear]

Is it possible to stun one of the new sectoid mech guys? Haven't tried it yet, but was curious.

 

[InsaneElite]

Given the research lead times and the panic rejiggering I think classic players should expect to lose a country or two in the first two months. Just try and make sure it's one of the ones in your starting continent so you don't lose your chance at a bonus.

Yep, this was usually the case in EU and hasn't changed here.

Well into the midgame now and the difficulty's beginning to let up like it usually does, but I've yet to encounter Sectopods and Mechtoid/Cyberdisc frequency is beginning to ramp up. Definitely feels better than EU's endless stream of Mutons and Cyberdiscs.

Really can't suggest Aiming Angles enough. It changes the feel of combat so much once you stop seeing things as just half cover, full cover, and flanked or not flanked.

 

[N7_average_azn]

I think you should play it with the expansion. It is a Civ like situation, where the expansion just adds tons of maps/missions/stuff to the base game, which is largely the same.

On another note, I have completed the original campaign on normal mode. What is the best option to go for this playthrough?
I am thinking of Classic Ironman. What options from Second Wave are worth it though?
I really like "Not Created Equally" and "Hidden Potential". Also, what does "Aiming Angle" do exactly? I thought it was a given that chances increase when you flank an enemy?

Going from Normal mode to Classic Ironman can be quite a cultural shock at first, since your troops will get one shot killed much more frequently then you might be used to... It was for me a least.

Also, Aiming Angles is amazing. It makes so much sense that even if you aren't fully flanking an enemy, you still get a better hit chance the closer you are to flanking.

 

[Falk]

I'm going to go out on a limb and outright suggest that people who have a problem with aiming angles have simply just gotten way too used to the boardgame-esque mechanics where simply being up against a surface means you get your 40% cover despite being in literal full view of your attackers.

It might still not (yet?) be the same as old XCOM where everything in between, including trees, etc played a part in the accuracy of a shot, but it's a huge step in the right direction into making cover behave in a logical fashion. I'm just a little peeved that Firaxis is safely toeing the line by making it an option instead of outright baking it into the expansion and saying 'hey, here's what we think is best for our game, play it this way or gtfo'.

 

[Danj]

Anyone heard anything about freezing problems on the PC version? I was playing this a bunch this morning and it was fine, but now if I try to start up Enemy Within, without fail it freezes once it gets to the main menu screen.

EDIT: already tried verifying steam cache files

EDIT 2: tried uninstalling and reinstalling, also tried disabling steam cloud saves, neither of those things helped

EDIT 3: tried disabling auto updates then reverifying files, that didn't work either.

 

[CloudWolf]

Yep, I can't play the game anymore either because of those freezes. It looks like it's got something to do with Steam, because everyone who plays this on PC has experienced the same problem in the last hour. I really hope it's fixed soon, because it's literally impossible to play the game now.

 

[Danj]

Yep, I can't play the game anymore either because of those freezes. It looks like it's got something to do with Steam, because everyone who plays this on PC has experienced the same problem in the last hour. I really hope it's fixed soon, because it's literally impossible to play the game now.

Well shit. I hope they fix that soon then.

EDIT: there's a log file at C:\Users\yourusername\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\Logs. Seems like it's crashing when retrieving achievements from Steam?

EDIT 2: so this worked for me, I deleted the whole Config folder, then went into Enemy Unknown and configured that, then optimised it with Geforce Experience, then loaded up Enemy Within and now it doesn't crash. Weird.

 

[masterkajo]

I am about to start playing EW now and was debating on weather I should play Classic or Impossible Ironman. I finished XCom on Classic without much trouble (on the 4th try - the first 3 were just to get to know everything and understand the importance of satellites) and managed to beat Impossible as long as the first 2-3 missions (and 1st Terror mission) go fine.

The problem for me is that on Classic after playing for about 2 ingame months the difficulty flatlines and the game doesn't pose much of a challange anymore. I may lose 1 or 2 soldiers down the line but that's it.

So, do you suggest Impossible or is the difficulty curve changed in EW? Do the new elements add enough new content that if I screw something up (not research in time etc) I don't stand a chance on Impossible?

 

[Remachinate]

I am about to start playing EW now and was debating on weather I should play Classic or Impossible Ironman. I finished XCom on Classic without much trouble (on the 4th try - the first 3 were just to get to know everything and understand the importance of satellites) and managed to beat Impossible as long as the first 2-3 missions (and 1st Terror mission) go fine.

The problem for me is that on Classic after playing for about 2 ingame months the difficulty flatlines and the game doesn't pose much of a challange anymore. I may lose 1 or 2 soldiers down the line but that's it.

So, do you suggest Impossible or is the difficulty curve changed in EW? Do the new elements add enough new content that if I screw something up (not research in time etc) I don't stand a chance on Impossible?

I beat EU I/I a month ago, but started a C/I run for EW to learn the quirks of the new features, and it's been a breeze so far. I'd say you can probably jump right into I/I.

 

[TC McQueen]

I am about to start playing EW now and was debating on weather I should play Classic or Impossible Ironman. I finished XCom on Classic without much trouble (on the 4th try - the first 3 were just to get to know everything and understand the importance of satellites) and managed to beat Impossible as long as the first 2-3 missions (and 1st Terror mission) go fine.

The problem for me is that on Classic after playing for about 2 ingame months the difficulty flatlines and the game doesn't pose much of a challange anymore. I may lose 1 or 2 soldiers down the line but that's it.

So, do you suggest Impossible or is the difficulty curve changed in EW? Do the new elements add enough new content that if I screw something up (not research in time etc) I don't stand a chance on Impossible?

The difficulty curve has been really altered on Classic and Impossible. You think May is a bit much on Normal? It's even worse on Classic. Didn't think Impossible was hard enough? The developers heard that and decided to really make it impossible to beat.

 

[Boss Riovane]

How does it run on the PS3? What's it like using a controller?

Having an amazing time with it. Huge jump in quality from EU to EW. Lot of the graphical issues have been reduced and cleaned up. I like controller interface, pretty damn simple IMO. Not as sharp as the PC but I love it.

 

[Mupod]

The difficulty curve has been really altered on Classic and Impossible. You think May is a bit much on Normal? It's even worse on Classic. Didn't think Impossible was hard enough? The developers heard that and decided to really make it impossible to beat.

Yeah I decided on normal ironman for my EW run, even though I've beaten classic ironman before. Mostly wanted to take it easy and try out the new stuff at my leisure.

Despite that, the mission I did last night pretty much took me to my limits even though I have very advanced weapons fairly early. Midgame spoilers:

Spoiler

Base defense came out of NOWHERE and I basically only had 3 units with equipment, because most of my guys were wounded or unequipped from a rookie training exercise I did right before it happened. Barely scraped by without losing any of my real units, ended up having to use disabling shot on my own mind-controlled guys to keep them from slaughtering the rest of my team while my MEC charged in and stepped on the sectoid commanders. Really intense and memorable though.

I have only lost one unit so far, because goddamn cyberdiscs. I think they've been nerfed too, they transform and go into overwatch when you find them instead of getting 10 million miles of free movement.

 

[Uriah]

Did my first terror mission in EW. Went surprisingly well. Even got the scalpel achievement.

 

[speculawyer]

Impossible Ironman?

Does that mean the hardest difficulty with no saves at all and if you make a single mistake, it is game over? Damn, way too hard for me.

 

[Morokh]

Holy crap at that fishing village mission ! O_O"

Guess it's easier if you have a genetically modified soldier with the jump ability ready

 

[Vortex566]

Having an amazing time with it. Huge jump in quality from EU to EW. Lot of the graphical issues have been reduced and cleaned up. I like controller interface, pretty damn simple IMO. Not as sharp as the PC but I love it.

Thanks! I ended up picking up a copy this afternoon. This will be my first time playing X-Com

 

[TC McQueen]

Holy crap at that fishing village mission ! O_O"

Guess it's easier if you have a genetically modified soldier with the jump ability ready

Yeah, I restarted the mission with my gene-modded sniper with that ability and it turned out way better than the first time I tried it. And that was on Normal.