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poptart_fairy posted:Also, how often do you guys rotate Rookies around in your squad? Early on I tend to have my fourth dude-lady be a newbie, but later on it feels like that becomes far too much of a liability. Always have one unless it's something that you need your big guns for. Like the alien base or terror missions. An extra gun is an extra gun, and lovely stats can be alleviated with scopes and armor.
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Oct 20, 2013 09:40
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My squads usually consist of one or two rookies accompanied with veterans that I rotate constantly to ensure that I have a healthy roster of trained soldiers to call upon for missions. Late game I buy the "new guy" skill from the officer school because how much of a hassle bringing rookies to fight late game enemies can be.
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Oct 20, 2013 11:51
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I generally main with the same guys until they hit Major at least. When I'm comfortable in my finances, I get Iron will then New guy so that as many recruits don't waste their will bonus. Of course, if Iron will works retroactively then the entire thing is kaput.
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Oct 20, 2013 11:57
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I got up to the last mission in Classic Ironman like 6 months ago, and just quit, terrified I'd mess up the final mission and ruin everything. Finally got around to finishing it last night, it was nerve wracking but easier than I thought. I unlocked a ton of second wave stuff I'd never heard of, so decided to try Impossible Ironman. Do the first mission with no KIA, down an alien ship with no KIA, and then I get the council mission... Bomb. Running through a map on a timer with buffed aliens at 150% normal population? Total wipe. I think I might just do Classic Ironman again with some second wave options on. Much more relaxing.
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Oct 20, 2013 12:38
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"Americans.  " Why are minorities always killing machines in my games.
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Oct 20, 2013 13:49
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Ravendas posted:I unlocked a ton of second wave stuff I'd never heard of, so decided to try Impossible Ironman. Do the first mission with no KIA, down an alien ship with no KIA, and then I get the council mission... Bomb. Running through a map on a timer with buffed aliens at 150% normal population? Total wipe. First month bomb disposal missions on I/I is probably one of the harshest things the game can throw at you. I've managed to complete one all of once. Even if you manage to make it to the bomb, the 5-6 thin man drop that comes in is a massive kick in the pants. The one time I made it, it involved a team of mostly heavies, and the systematic use of high explosives to level basically the entire trainyard. Even still, only two half dead troopers crawled back home from that one.
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Oct 20, 2013 13:58
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animatorZed posted:First month bomb disposal missions on I/I is probably one of the harshest things the game can throw at you. I've managed to complete one all of once. Even if you manage to make it to the bomb, the 5-6 thin man drop that comes in is a massive kick in the pants. The one time I made it, it involved a team of mostly heavies, and the systematic use of high explosives to level basically the entire trainyard. Even still, only two half dead troopers crawled back home from that one. The map they gave me was the one with a series of buildings. The first is the shop, with the freezer section in the back, that opens to a big truck in the back with another building beyond that. Had a guy get on the roof of the freezer section to scout, saw it was 'safe', so I ran in my assault and heavy to either sides of the truck. Turns out there was a pack of sectoids INSIDE the truck cargo. They walked out, instakilled the assault and heavy, the other two panicked, and I just quit. Such an unfair setup. Even worse that your troops have 4 life, and the sectoids have 4, and I swear the thinmen have 7?!
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Oct 20, 2013 14:14
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Ravendas posted:Turns out there was a pack of sectoids INSIDE the truck cargo. They walked out, instakilled the assault and heavy, the other two panicked, and I just quit. There's only one proper response to this  http://youtu.be/-2ighuZOpTc?t=23m50s Maybe EW will bring Beagle back. Maybe 
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Oct 20, 2013 14:34
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Alkydere posted:Normal to Classic is a nasty jump, isn't it? The game stops cheating for you to protect you from crits, all aliens get at least a small crit/aim bonus, and Thin Men get +1 HP so you can't run up and stun full health ones like chumps until you get the improved arc thrower. Oh, I knew all of those. What I didn't remember/realize is just how far thin men can move/jump. (I mean, I had a council mission earlier, but I never let the guys who dropped in on overwatch survive long enough to move.) So I wasn't expecting the guys that just ran away to suddenly appear *behind* me on the *other* side of the building. Then once I was down half the team and out of explosives I was outnumbered two-to-one and with red fog and no medkit my poisoned guy wasn't very useful...and then the game glitched and didn't recognize that my sniper had line of sight to the guys she moved to flank. Fortunately they stayed there and then next turn the game said "oh, wait, *those* guys? Yeah, of course you're flanking *those* guys!" and I was able to clean up. 
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Oct 20, 2013 14:43
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poptart_fairy posted:"Americans. I have fond memories of my first Hero Squad, which ended up consisting of five black women and some German dude.
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Oct 20, 2013 14:46
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MrBims posted:Yeah that animation is completely Hollywood, no basis in reality. Although it -does- explain why heavies have such poor aim! I actually always wondered if at some point in development they had the option to use the bipod that's modeled on the gun to set up a firing position.
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Oct 20, 2013 15:01
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Geight posted:I actually always wondered if at some point in development they had the option to use the bipod that's modeled on the gun to set up a firing position. Probably. Might explain why they use the elbow-crook posture for snipers too; after all, the game already clips pretty bad sometimes on certain shots/grenade tosses and setting up bipod animations would make it even worse.
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Oct 20, 2013 15:17
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Hi guys, I dusted off my copy of X-Com: EU in preparation for the new expansion, since it's been quite a few months since I last played. I decided to go with normal difficulty again; it's been way too easy though. I took my time to prepare, researched stuff, trained and upgraded everybody to lasers/carapace Captains+ before even capturing a live alien, and I only have three deaths of squaddies/rookies I was trying to rank up; I'm now almost fully upgraded and have 6 Colonels, 2 Majors and 4 Captains plus a bunch of Sergeants, only three countries have retired and the rest are covered by satellites, I have Firestorms all over the world, and just recently annihilated the alien base (took down a Sectopod in the 2nd turn since its appearance, while it was preparing to do the rocket barrage thing so it didn't even fire a shot at me). My main strategy is to be VERY cautious, always use cover as high as possible and blast the poo poo out of aliens before they get the chance to shoot me; I use grenades and rockets only sparingly, never dash into the unknown, usually dividing the squad up into 2 fireteams of 3 guys each, trying to have one of them flank the enemies while the other peppers them with suppressing fire and disabling shots. I'm finding the game too easy, but I'm scared of playing Classic mode  I don't like the idea of the AI having big bonuses to aim since they already pretty much out-aim me all the time, in a protracted firefight I'd be wiped out for sure... at least, I would if they used common sense instead of suppressing one of my guys left in the open rather than blasting his sorry rear end, or run past my guys with their second move and finding themselves flanked and out of moves instead of, y'know, shooting at me from the perfectly fine cover they were in.Is there a mod or something to make the AI smarter without showering them in bonuses? I'm okay with them having more HP, more aliens and better AI, but those aim and crit bonuses (plus the HP reduction for my guys, they die just fine even with +1/+2 HP if the aliens actually bother to shoot them) seem a tad exagerated. Also, what "bad habits" should I be losing if I switch over to Classic? VVVV I see, but that doesn't change the fact that they're already way better at aiming than my less-than-Major guys. TorakFade fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Oct 20, 2013 |
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Oct 20, 2013 15:28
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I know this is being pedantic but going to classic isn't giving the AI more bonuses, it's taking away all of yours to make it fair.
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Oct 20, 2013 15:59
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This game hates you. I've been playing Impossible, usually getting wiped on the first attempt on a mission but then miraculously coming out with no casualties on the second attempt. Except for my last mission. I was down to the last group of Sectoids and had them pinned down in the back room of a building. One of them got a lucky shot on my sniper and took him in to critical condition. This causes both my heavies to panic, luckily the don't shoot any team members. My support and assault finish off two of the sectoids, but somehow in the firefight one entrance to the room gets cut off by burning debris, leaving my assault stuck there. The last sectoid retreats. 2 turns left until the sniper dies, I move my support around, ready to bust through the other door of the building. 1 turn left. Flames go out so my assault is now free. The support kicks open the door- to an empty room. I blow up a wall with a grenade but still no sight of the alien. My sniper dies, Sectoid appears from the 1 goddamn tile out of vision he was hiding in, wings my assault but doesn't kill him. I finish him off for the mission win. The little bastard deliberately hid until my sniper bled out.
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Oct 20, 2013 17:22
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Zigmidge posted:I know this is being pedantic but going to classic isn't giving the AI more bonuses, it's taking away all of yours to make it fair. Personally I modified my files to get the smarter AI from classic but with the alien stats from normal.
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Oct 20, 2013 17:24
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Hammerstein posted:Personally I modified my files to get the smarter AI from classic but with the alien stats from normal. This. How do you do this???
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Oct 20, 2013 17:28
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Would making uplinks require a minimum number of Staff rather than a minimum number of Engineers (for example, you'd need 20 Engineers + Scientists in any combination to build your second uplink) go a bit towards sorting out the Engineer/Scientist reward imbalance without breaking the game? I'm 90% certain I've worked out how to do this but to get modified UPK files working you have to do a whole lot of bullshit and your achievements get disabled and ehhh.
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Oct 20, 2013 17:36
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TorakFade posted:This. How do you do this??? You need an editor, I use Resource Hacker (it's a freeware tool). Open your Xcomgame.exe in your Steam folder with Resource Hacker. It's usually in Xcom/Binaries/Win32 and then you can edit some of the settings in the files. The difficulty settings are under RCData/1020/1033. In there you just take the Alien stats from normal and copy them to classic, leaving the AI settings which are hard-coded somewhere else, intact. You can also edit some other stuff like weapon and armor stats and you can do some useful things like give another grenade slot to your armor. Unfortunately there is not much else there, or people would have modded more content in long ago. Hammerstein fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Oct 20, 2013 |
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Oct 20, 2013 17:44
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The Slingshot hats are amazing. I can't wait for the native language coming with Enemy Within though. Doesn't feel right that my psychotic Spanish assault lady-dude can't swear in her own tongue. e; Now in the 'gently caress Thin Men' club. Halfway across the map in full cover? Hahaha no, gently caress you, insta-death kill. Goddammit. e2; I have skeleton armour and laser weapons available, but not enough engineers to create them. 
poptart_fairy fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 20, 2013 21:12
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Carnalfex posted:Long war makes a lot of incredible changes, but the game wasn't really made for some of the things they try to do (like cramming 35 aliens into maps the size of my bathroom). It has potential but currently involves has a pretty good chance in many battles to have your squad murdered in the first couple turns of every fight as hordes descend on your skyranger, and even bringing heavies isn't the solution it might have been in vanilla as rockets have a much higher chance to go off course. Also the first small scout you see can and will put every interceptor you have into heavily damaged status which takes a month to repair, and if you're as lucky as I am it will still escape. See, it does look neat, but it does things like make research take much longer and reduces the number of satellites you can field per uplink which I think would make it frustrating to play. It would be nice to actually use SHIVs for a change though, I literally never field them.
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Oct 20, 2013 22:22
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Yea the mod(long war) has way too many missions compared to how slow everything else goes. I'm in mid-late May and I've probably done something like 2 dozen plus missions. My longest break without a mission was something like 4 days. The research is also really slow in the beginning, but whats not obvious at first compared to vanilla xcom is that engineers aren't quite as important while scientists/labs are much more valuable. Everything else is really cool and I generally enjoy all the other changes. Specifically, SHIVs are invaluable now with how much easier they are to get, how powerful/tough they are, and how nice they are at filling in an empty spot during a mission. The fact that they can now get cool equipment too is just icing on they cake. At one point I had something like 4 missions in the span of 5 days and the only troops available to me were 5 rookies and 2 shivs vs. a 'swarming' abduction mission. I thought I was boned, but all my rookies performed amazingly and with the SHIVS they just rocked the aliens. I was so proud, and then literally less than a day after a scout UFO appears, I shoot it down only to discover I only had 1 combat ready unit, a lone SHIV. I said gently caress it, packed him off to the LZ all alone in the skyranger and proceeded to murder every single one of those loving aliens. 3 floaters, 3 drones, 2 secotids, 1 thinman, and an outsider who missed my 2 Hp shiv at point blank range and then got murdered. That SHIV will be in the repair bay for nearly a month, but it earned it's rest, it's gonna get first dibs on all the upgrades and I like to think when I make my first alloy SHIV, its just gonna be an Up-armored Thunder-2  My most fervent hope is that EW gives you the option to rename/give nicknames to SHIVs.
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Oct 21, 2013 03:46
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I really like Shivs in the midgame. They're incredibly useful for UFO attacks due to not caring about the poo poo cover or psychics, but they get overshadowed when you get the super armor. They just can't keep up with your soldiers, and the new MEC stuff will probably replace it entirely.
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Oct 21, 2013 06:02
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FedoraDefender420 posted:I really like Shivs in the midgame. They're incredibly useful for UFO attacks due to not caring about the poo poo cover or psychics, but they get overshadowed when you get the super armor. They just can't keep up with your soldiers, and the new MEC stuff will probably replace it entirely. I like Alloy SHIVs quite a bit, but I can never justify the expense needed to acquire them. Plus, you know, every SHIV kill is just stealing XP from the mouths of your soldiers. Either SHIV's should level up, or half of its xp gain should be split among your troops, or something.
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Oct 21, 2013 06:57
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Yeah, I can just never ever justify the resources for SHIVs. I wish I could.
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Oct 21, 2013 06:59
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I think it's easily worth it in the late game, even if only as a damage sponge. The cost is nothing compared to the inconvenience of losing your Colonels, I'd be pretty terrified of fighting a Sectopod (or rather, even more terrified than usual) without a SHIV there to draw the fire.
Double Bill fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 07:49
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TorakFade posted:Hi guys, I dusted off my copy of X-Com: EU in preparation for the new expansion, since it's been quite a few months since I last played. Classic isn't that bad. It's a bit of a slap to the face at first but then you start getting used to it. Just accept that you can very well lose a guy or two due to bullshit now and then before shrugging and moving on. Oh, and try to go around the edge of the map at first instead of charging into the center at the very beginning, especially on UFO maps. Helps cleans up the stragglers without alerting too many groups at once. Vengarr posted:I like Alloy SHIVs quite a bit, but I can never justify the expense needed to acquire them. Alloy SHIVs are loving amazing in my opinion. Alien Alloys aren't really all that big of a cost so build one if you've got the money. My last game I just used them as mobile cover and damage sponges and went through about four of them. They're also magical because since you can't put them in cover anyways you can just tell the SHIV's operator to run the drone up until you place the barrel inside some unlucky Thin Man's or Muton's mouth before pulling the trigger. The Hover SHIVS lose out on the ability to be mobile cover but they're still great disposable scouts and they lose the normal and alloy SHIV's issues with rough terrain. Also, all the SHIV weapons hit like trucks: in my last game the hover SHIV I brought to the temple ship bitchslapped the Uber Ethereal from full health down to about 3 health on a crit. Double Bill posted:I think it's easily worth it in the late game, even if only as a damage sponge. The cost is nothing compared to the inconvenience of losing your Colonels, I'd be pretty terrified of fighting a Sectopod (or rather, even more terrified than usual) without a SHIV there to draw the fire. No kidding. I don't see this whole "Not worth the cost" thing. They're amazing, and they're not that expensive. The only one that's really all that expensive in my opinion is the Hover SHIV because that takes Elerium. The base SHIV is dirt cheap if you just want a big ol' gun that can't be stat-screwed, and the Alloy SHIV is a tank and doubles as emergency cover. They're the best scouts until you have a full set of ghost armor for your team (which really is loving expensive compared to a SHIV).
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Oct 21, 2013 08:16
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FedoraDefender420 posted:I really like Shivs in the midgame. They're incredibly useful for UFO attacks due to not caring about the poo poo cover or psychics, but they get overshadowed when you get the super armor. They just can't keep up with your soldiers, and the new MEC stuff will probably replace it entirely. MECs are still human so unless you splice them with mind control feedback gene tonic, they're still a mind controllable weapon for the aliens to turn against you. I never used Shivs on my first run but they do seem appealing now on my classic run for mobile cover along with immunity from mind control and chryssalid zombification.
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Oct 21, 2013 10:52
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Alkydere posted:Also, all the SHIV weapons hit like trucks: in my last game the hover SHIV I brought to the temple ship bitchslapped the Uber Ethereal from full health down to about 3 health on a crit. Now I kinda want to run the final mission with the Volunteer and 5 SHIVs. Both because the idea of the Ethereal's reaction to a team of little robo tanks assaulting their ship and beating their best troops is terribly amusing ("Robots! Why didn't we think of just using more robots?!"), and I would love to see the Volunteer heroically sacrificing themself to save a team of SHIVs.
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Oct 21, 2013 10:59
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Wait... bulletswarm gives your heavy an extra attack??
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Oct 21, 2013 11:10
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Tornado Lazers posted:Wait... bulletswarm gives your heavy an extra attack?? If you don't move, yes. It lets you use your movement action as a second attack, or to attack first and move second.
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Oct 21, 2013 11:15
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Tornado Lazers posted:Wait... bulletswarm gives your heavy an extra attack?? Yeah it's pretty cool. If supression heavy is your thing, take a lovely-odds regular shot first, then supress if it doesn't hit
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Oct 21, 2013 12:19
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Shoot and reload in the same turn. This is such a good thing to have on terror missions.
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Oct 21, 2013 13:17
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Yeah having a couple of heavies raining bullets on everything while my snipers clean up has been my go-to option when dealing with everything. I got somewhat far yesterday on my first play through and decided to start over on a 2nd slot now that I understand the game a lot more. My first game was surprisingly smooth sailing as far and man raining panic controls so I thought that was the norm. Also I'm actually planning my base and keeping in mind adjacent bonuses. Well that went about as well as I thought as the new game proceeded to completely gently caress me over with invasions and now half of Asia is in a state of panic because the invasions keep hitting the same 2-3 places and I can't control the panic. Sorry Australia, China, and India. On the plus side I've only lost one rookie so far so I expect to lose all my party soon enough as things get worse.
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Oct 21, 2013 13:27
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AtillatheBum posted:Yea the mod(long war) has way too many missions compared to how slow everything else goes. I'm in mid-late May and I've probably done something like 2 dozen plus missions. My longest break without a mission was something like 4 days.
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Oct 21, 2013 14:05
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:Yeah having a couple of heavies raining bullets on everything while my snipers clean up has been my go-to option when dealing with everything. Train up a B team! When your main squad bites it it's really handy to have replacements.
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Oct 21, 2013 15:31
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I use SHIVs to scout out ahead, because like gently caress am I gonna either risk one of my guys who can die permanently or spend forever creeping up until I find some aliens. I mean, unless I want each mission to last approximately a century, SOMEBODY is going to move ahead to find the aliens.
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Oct 21, 2013 15:31
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Darkrenown posted:Now I kinda want to run the final mission with the Volunteer and 5 SHIVs. Both because the idea of the Ethereal's reaction to a team of little robo tanks assaulting their ship and beating their best troops is terribly amusing ("Robots! Why didn't we think of just using more robots?!"), and I would love to see the Volunteer heroically sacrificing themself to save a team of SHIVs. I love Hover SHIVs, my favorite thing to do with them is barge into the final room of a late game downed UFO with an Ethereal in there (or fly over the UFO and drop in the hole in the ceiling that some of them have). Ethereals and Sectoid commanders just lose their poo poo and run from them; out the door into the rest of your squad, who are set up for dispatching or capturing them. Losing possible experience points for a human troop is one way of looking at it, but a SHIV can also play babysitter to a few squaddies, soaking up damage and suppressing enemies to feed the rookies easy kills. SlothfulCobra posted:I use SHIVs to scout out ahead, because like gently caress am I gonna either risk one of my guys who can die permanently or spend forever creeping up until I find some aliens. Yeah this too, creeping up on your umpteenth downed UFO in poo poo forest gets old real fast.
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Oct 21, 2013 15:44
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I've been rolling with a 4 heavy / 1 sup / 1 squad sight sniper gimmick. In a recent mission I managed to get a cyberdisk and two packs of berserkers charging me. Fire off a pair of shredder rockets to clear cover and I got to see the joy of my sniper get in the zone and murder everything. 
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Oct 21, 2013 16:40
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| # ? Jun 10, 2024 23:27 |
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Those perfect runs have spoiled this game for me, I can't stand to keep playing if I lose a single country anymore  which kinda sucks because (a) it's very luck-dependent, even with perfect play, and (b) there is precisely one "correct" way to play the strategy game if you're going for a no-countries-lost run. You basically have to bet that a single interceptor per continent will always win any aerial engagement (with the help of Aim and Dodge bonuses for the heavier UFOs) I'm really glad that EXALT will shake up the strategy game and that MELD punishes the Conga Turtle strategy in the tactical game, looks like they did a really good job of adding some depth to the game. A pity we have to wait a disc-pressing lead time for the sake of the console players before we can play EW on Steam.
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Oct 21, 2013 16:41
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