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RBX posted:Oh my God it scales now. Welp. The alien base has always scaled to how late you go into it, it just seemed to have a limit on what could be scaled to in the past. For instance, you go in at month twelve and still find drone pair packs and a cyber disk or two.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:26
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It scales, like everything else in this game, to your tech level. Go into base assault and defense with ballistics for the easiest time.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:40
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Zigmidge posted:It scales, like everything else in this game, to your tech level. Go into base assault and defense with ballistics for the easiest time. Are you sure everything scales by tech, rather than time? I'm pretty sure it's possible to never research any weapon or armor upgrades and still start hitting Mutons.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:50
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Your tech level will trigger scaling. Time as well but that one is really lenient.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:53
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General Battuta posted:Are you sure everything scales by tech, rather than time? I'm pretty sure it's possible to never research any weapon or armor upgrades and still start hitting Mutons. The alien "research" will match yours if you rush things like lasers, leading to early muton sightings. Sticking with the basic tech won't prevent later aliens from showing up, but it will delay them ever so slightly.
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Dec 27, 2013 21:05
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Brainamp posted:The alien "research" will match yours if you rush things like lasers, leading to early muton sightings. Sticking with the basic tech won't prevent later aliens from showing up, but it will delay them ever so slightly. So is there a happy medium for tech levels? I'm on month 2 of impossible right now and went beam weapons->meld->carapace armor first because I feel vulnerable without it, but on my classic game I think I waited way too long to push the story, since my HQ invasion was wave after wave of cyberdisks and 2 sectopods at the end. I don't know if I can handle that again on impossible. I'm not sure what I should be doing research-wise yet though. I figured I would go for the arc thrower after carapace finishes.
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Dec 27, 2013 21:33
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I've always taken the alien base after carapace and full lasers. That's a bit delayed now by mecs and gene mods competing for money and base space, but I'll consistently get - One mechtoid + sectoids Two drone packs Two chryssalid packs A cyberdisk One pack of floaters Either a pack of thin men or a pack of muffins On classic. Haven't played impossible enough to remember with that kind of clarity.
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Dec 27, 2013 22:25
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So, I've never really known about xcom, but picked up this and the expansion after catching a few interesting streams/youtubes. I "get" the whole dice rolls thing, and crisis management over perfect tactics (tactics about managing situations to prevent them from getting worse), and I'm having a good time on Classic. I don't quite "get" the Geoscape, however. At what sort of rate can I sort of expect nations to withdraw (understanding it works a bit more on milestones, like base assault rather than per month)? The macro game can be pretty time consuming, so I feel very reluctant to keep pushing ahead when it looks like I'm about to lose three nations in month 3. Ignoring that I'm still green, is losing nearly 1/2 of the Nations after 3 months something I should reasonably expect, or am I really screwing up the Geoscape macro game? Any tips? Is the macro game mostly about spamming Satellites to reduce the continental panic rise from abduction missions? I just don't really know how or what tech to prioritize for the long game since I'm not familiar with much of any of it.
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Dec 28, 2013 00:22
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3 dropouts is A-OK. In fact, any amount is manageable as long as it isn't 7. Don't sweat it, just make sure to get your satellite coverage completed and secured.
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Dec 28, 2013 00:26
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Kiggles posted:snip spamming satellites is pretty much the name of the game with the geoscape, as launching satellites generates money, allowing you to launch more satellites or keep up the pace and get pretty toys for your soldiers. As you have noticed, they also reduce panic in the country they are launched in making them useful for panic reduction. In addition, if you are having problems managing panic, an early-ish story mission(following the capture and interrogate the ufo commander mission) reduces the world wide panic by 1 when completed. Countries will only leave at the end of the month when at full panic, so feel free to save satellite launching for the last 2-3 days and using them to stop important members from leaving. e: as far as what tech to pursue, the most important is probably interceptor tech followed by weapon tech and then armor tech. The reasoning I have behind this is that incapable fighter tech is a game ender, because without the ability to kill ufos you lose out on missions, lose satellites(and consequently the countries hosting the satellites, and the elerium and alloys that ufo missions supply. Not keeping your air force up will result in near unstoppable failure later on. As to weapons over armor, with aliens not shooting at you before you activate them, the general consensus is if the aliens all die before they can shoot at you, your soldiers armor doesn't matter FoolyCharged fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 00:31
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Kiggles posted:So, I've never really known about xcom, but picked up this and the expansion after catching a few interesting streams/youtubes. I "get" the whole dice rolls thing, and crisis management over perfect tactics (tactics about managing situations to prevent them from getting worse), and I'm having a good time on Classic. I don't quite "get" the Geoscape, however. At what sort of rate can I sort of expect nations to withdraw (understanding it works a bit more on milestones, like base assault rather than per month)? The macro game can be pretty time consuming, so I feel very reluctant to keep pushing ahead when it looks like I'm about to lose three nations in month 3. Ignoring that I'm still green, is losing nearly 1/2 of the Nations after 3 months something I should reasonably expect, or am I really screwing up the Geoscape macro game? The only thing that really matters in the macro game is satellites, since they control both panic AND funding. As long as you feel you can compete on the ground with the tech you have, focusing on sat production will allow you to do more of *everything* in following months. If you are not having trouble on the ground and you want a strategy that focuses on controlling panic and generating money in the geoscape: Carnalfex posted:Start in North America for the first month income boost from being in the USA, sell everything except fragments, pick engineers for your abduction reward, build workshop, uplink, and sats. You can get put up 4 sats this way if you are lucky with the timing of the first UFO and abduction mission which is nice since that is exactly how many you can support with one extra relay built next to your starting relay. You have to start the workshop by day 6 and the uplink immediately after or you won't finish before the month is over (10 days for workshop, 14 for uplink). You have to build the sats by day 9 or 10 (20 days to build sats).
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Dec 28, 2013 00:34
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Buy sats individually (so you can cancel them individually). The game does not make this clear, but you can build sats before the uplinks are ready, and in fact it is absolutely vital that you do so. Build at least one sat uplink every month and the sats to go with them, you might need to start by building a Workshop (and don't forget about your power!) to get your Engineer count up. Each new uplink requires five more engineers, uplinks take 14 days to complete, sats take 20. Remember to start those off in time. On Classic it's possible to reliably avoid losing any countries (unless you get really unlucky with mission rewards and get starved for engineers) but unless losing countries inherently bugs you then don't bother going for the March/April extreme sat rush strat, it's just going to make your life miserable in other ways. As for base assaults... I dunno, in EU I'd rush the poo poo out of it, but with EW I tried taking it out in April with just kevlar and lasers and then a loving squadron of Cyberdisks and Mechtoids rolled up two weeks later and slapped my poo poo into next week. Put it off until you have at least lasers AND carapace, maybe even start teching to Plasma. Unless you wait until August or some poo poo the bulk of the scary aliens will be Mechtoids and Cyberdisks, the counter-attack will hit 2-3 weeks after you attack the alien base, so plan accordingly.
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Dec 28, 2013 01:50
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If I have both EU and EW which should I play? Seems like EW has some nice enhancements like the equipment stripping button but would it be too much?
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Dec 28, 2013 06:43
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EW is better in pretty much every way, and you miss 0 content from EU as far as I know. Play EW.
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Dec 28, 2013 07:04
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I wish the late game wasn't so goddamn inert. "Hey, XCOM! I've got a squad full of Colonels in Titan armor and with plasma weaponry, every possible upgrade, and they're all genemodded from brains to bone marrow. Every country in the world has satellite coverage. Panic is at zero and has been for months. There is nothing you have that can challenge me. Last mission right around the corner, huh?" "What? No. Here, have a psi chamber. Go find a psychic." "...okay. Found one. Wasn't on my A-team, but I found a guy." "Awesome. Train him up. All the way." "loving seriously? Now? When the only time I get anything to do is either when a UFO flies overhead or the Council has some Thin Men it needs shot, both being fairly rare cases and both I might add previously established as having no threat whatsoever any more? NOW is when you want me to grind up a newbie?" "Yeah. Get to it." "Man, gently caress you, XCOM."
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Dec 28, 2013 08:38
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CapnAndy posted:snip
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Dec 28, 2013 08:41
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FoolyCharged posted:the only requirement for endgame is a psyker in psy armor, his actual rank and psy rank don't matter at all, and the latter will be boosted to full regardless to boot.
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Dec 28, 2013 09:13
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NTT posted:EW is better in pretty much every way, and you miss 0 content from EU as far as I know. Play EW. Also one has rocket punches the other one doesn't
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Dec 28, 2013 09:29
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What should I look for in a soldier to make into a MEC? Should I do a veteran or a low level guy?
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Dec 28, 2013 09:43
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Jeffrey posted:What should I look for in a soldier to make into a MEC? Should I do a veteran or a low level guy? Make Heavies at low level, since they have the same stat growths, and Supports/Snipers at higher levels. Don't bother with assaults because they have the worst ability. I usually make a Heavy early on and supplement with a support or sniper who gets screwed with training roulette later. More than 2 MECs isn't really sustainable if you want to upgrade them though.
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Dec 28, 2013 09:52
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I'd say it goes Heavy > Support > Sniper > Assault as far as skill usefulness is concerned. But making one out of a high level Support or Sniper will give you far more aim, so if you're converting from a Colonel, Sniper > Support > Assault > Heavy.
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Dec 28, 2013 10:12
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Zore posted:Make Heavies at low level, since they have the same stat growths, and Supports/Snipers at higher levels. Don't bother with assaults because they have the worst ability. I'm more of a gene mod person myself. You can get more bang for your buck with gene mods than with MEC Troopers, cool as it may be to punch an EXALT dude or a Sectoid.
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Dec 28, 2013 10:17
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Boogle posted:I'm more of a gene mod person myself. You can get more bang for your buck with gene mods than with MEC Troopers, cool as it may be to punch an EXALT dude or a Sectoid. On the other hand, you can get a MEC up way earlier than you can get the good gene mods. And Colonel MEC Troopers in tier 3 armor are probably the most versatile and overall powerful units though they are beaten in a few areas (ITZ snipers on a bunch of aliens out of cover, Heavies for most AOE burst damage, Stuff with two shots and HEAT ammo versus Mechtoids/Sectopods). Not having at least one early MEC always felt like you were deliberately crippling yourself to me. Memetic Skin is stupidly broken though, I'll definitely give you that. And besides that, and Second Heart, gene mods aren't really anything to write home about.
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Dec 28, 2013 10:22
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CapnAndy posted:Oh for fucksakes! I've been training them up to full psyrank because I thought I had to to that. I'm not laughing at you, but I am going to use you as an example. Sorry. A lot of people get all loving pissed off at the game because they don't follow the story or the mechanics closely enough to understand what is happening. The game tries really loving hard to hold your hand, so I'm not sure what else it can do to make things easier or more obvious.
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Dec 28, 2013 11:08
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I wish multiplayer had more people playing. I just tried it out a few days ago and it is fun and intense.
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Dec 28, 2013 11:10
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Pohl posted:A lot of people get all loving pissed off at the game because they don't follow the story or the mechanics closely enough to understand what is happening. The game tries really loving hard to hold your hand, so I'm not sure what else it can do to make things easier or more obvious. Where is the handholding that tells the player they don't have to level up a psy soldier to max? I would be willing to wager that most if not all first time players, and even a few people with completed runs are under the assumption you have to level a psy guy to max for the gallop. I agree that the game has a lot of tutorials and explanations, but that particular part of the game is a huge failure to notify the player properly. There is no reason to assume psy armor would magically unlock the next mission by putting it on a psy soldier, it's not like they say anything super specific when you make it, ect. It's up there with the base defense mission as huge design mistakes. Giving the player the new "make items available" button was lovely, but punishing a first time EW player super harshly (up to and including ending an Ironman run if you get stuck without gear for a later game XCOM base defense) for using it in the narrow gap between alien base destruction, and XCOM base invasion is horseshit. It's super unfair to a new player, and not intuitive whatsoever. It's not difficult either, once you learn how to manage around the base defense it just becomes a game of being super careful about what six soldiers are going to be in play and making sure you micro your inventory until the mission pops. That's not fun, it's just tedious for no reason other than getting around the stupid auto equip mechanic for that one single mission.
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Dec 28, 2013 11:25
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Oh my god the SHIV is so adorable 
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Dec 28, 2013 11:41
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Pohl posted:I'm not laughing at you, but I am going to use you as an example. Sorry. The research for the Ethereal Device specifically says you need to find a Psi-capable soldier and develop his abilities. How is that "obviously" not referring to training?
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Dec 28, 2013 11:53
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Zore posted:On the other hand, you can get a MEC up way earlier than you can get the good gene mods. And Colonel MEC Troopers in tier 3 armor are probably the most versatile and overall powerful units though they are beaten in a few areas (ITZ snipers on a bunch of aliens out of cover, Heavies for most AOE burst damage, Stuff with two shots and HEAT ammo versus Mechtoids/Sectopods). MECs seem to me like an high Meld investment that peak in usefulness relatively early in the game. Punching Mutons through walls never gets old but once Cyberdisks, Mechtoids, Sectopods, Heavy Mutons and the like turn up a MEC is just a damage magnet liability. Gene Mods on the other hand are a decent way to enhance the A team. The brain mods negate the power of psi enemies, mimetic skin is hilariously OP, the jumpy legs are great for squadsight snipers and adrenal neurosympathy/hyper reactive pupils are great all round squad enhancers.
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Dec 28, 2013 12:54
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AttitudeAdjuster posted:MECs seem to me like an high Meld investment that peak in usefulness relatively early in the game. Punching Mutons through walls never gets old but once Cyberdisks, Mechtoids, Sectopods, Heavy Mutons and the like turn up a MEC is just a damage magnet liability. MECs have the best mobility of any unit in the game with servomotors and kinetic fist, the ability to dole out ridiculous damage with their version of Bulletswarm on a more powerful weapon than heavies get with higher aim (if convertrd from a sniper/support) or the ability to do 18 damage punches. This is on top of their numerous long range explosives or healing and multiple overwatcj shots per turn with either perfect accuracy or added defense. Oh and the ability to destroy cover or walls at will. MECs have a ton of indispensable abilities. I find them useful throuout the game, and I'm usually swimming in enough meld to support 2 and some other good soldiers. Gene mods are cheap as hell. I mean, I don't want to undersell how stupidly good memetic skin is but MECs are definitely really good too. Especially on impossible when you need good things early, not eventually.
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Dec 28, 2013 13:06
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Jedit posted:The research for the Ethereal Device specifically says you need to find a Psi-capable soldier and develop his abilities. How is that "obviously" not referring to training? Because Vahlen will then talk your ear off about how you should make some Psi Armor and then put somebody in the Psi Armor, and when completing that, she'll tell you that the preparations are complete for the Gollop Chamber. That then becomes a big flashing prompt on the ant farm. Press X to Gollop. I know everyone grouses about her explosions comment, but wouldn't you just naturally want to ROCKET LAUNCHER EVERY MOTHERFUCKIN THANG when you're fighting aliens? And you wouldn't realize that you lose some materials for doing so.
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Dec 28, 2013 14:16
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Bogart posted:Because Vahlen will then talk your ear off about how you should make some Psi Armor and then put somebody in the Psi Armor, and when completing that, she'll tell you that the preparations are complete for the Gollop Chamber. That then becomes a big flashing prompt on the ant farm. Press X to Gollop. Well she didn't for me, and I don't skip cut scenes the first time through so if it happened it happened in something that looks exactly like Generic Vahlen Conversation #23 for the nth time. quote:I know everyone grouses about her explosions comment, but wouldn't you just naturally want to ROCKET LAUNCHER EVERY MOTHERFUCKIN THANG when you're fighting aliens? And you wouldn't realize that you lose some materials for doing so. Want to, no, but frags are the easiest way for rookies to score that all-important first kill that ensures promotion. That turns her comment into "Guys, why don't you put yourselves at greater risk of being killed so I can have a few more research materials?"
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Dec 28, 2013 14:40
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Jedit posted:
But if the game didn't explain that explosives reduced material recovery, this thread would be full of people complaining how hard it is to get materials and raging that they kept such a major game mechanic hidden.
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Dec 28, 2013 14:57
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Zore posted:MECs have the best mobility of any unit in the game with servomotors and kinetic fist, the ability to dole out ridiculous damage with their version of Bulletswarm on a more powerful weapon than heavies get with higher aim (if convertrd from a sniper/support) or the ability to do 18 damage punches. This is on top of their numerous long range explosives or healing and multiple overwatcj shots per turn with either perfect accuracy or added defense. Oh and the ability to destroy cover or walls at will. MECs don't "peak" they're still amazing. They're just not as amazing as a fully modded gene soldier, and since MECs started so, so good compared to regular soldiers, the difference is shocking. I never felt like they were underperforming, and I had two of them on my last C/I run. MECs make great direct-damage dealers, great area damage dealers, are relatively okay healers (if you're doing Training Roulette, a RestoPack MEC with improved ammo capacity is probably your best source of healing unless you luck out and get a combat medic+savior combo), soak up damage nicely. They're not only versatile, they're very, very good at any role they do. The only reason (IMO) people rave about genemods are the utterly broken Mimetic Skin mods. Jedit posted:The research for the Ethereal Device specifically says you need to find a Psi-capable soldier and develop his abilities. How is that "obviously" not referring to training?
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Dec 28, 2013 15:01
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Jedit posted:
What an effective encapsulation of doc vahlen's personality! Re: MECs, I don't think any other class comes close to the utility they have for destroying cover. Whether it's punching through walls, bombarding walls with collateral damage or launching one of their three grenades at walls, MECs just give me too many options to not bring one along.
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Dec 28, 2013 15:34
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Trogdos! posted:Oh my god the SHIV is so adorable Wait until you buy some Foundry upgrades and take it into battle.  The upgrade that gives both 2 HP regen/turn and infinite "No touchy" auto reaction-fire zone for the SHIV is one of the best things EW added.
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Dec 28, 2013 16:08
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Trogdos! posted:Oh my god the SHIV is so adorable fully upgraded SHIV's are amazing. I know you're not supposed to be emotionally attached to them like your precious soldiers, but... they wiggle and potter about! so cute!
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Dec 28, 2013 18:32
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Aargh, gently caress thin men. Just sniped the VIP from portent from out of visual range while he was hunkered down in heavy cover.
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Dec 28, 2013 18:38
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NTT posted:EW is better in pretty much every way, and you miss 0 content from EU as far as I know. Play EW. I am the world's slowest tactical-map player, so the time-limited meld containers you have to get in EW generate a huge amount of stress for me.
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Dec 28, 2013 18:43
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 17:35 |
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Just ignore the ones you can't see/are too far away to capture without taking risks, and capture the ones that happen to be safe. It got easier for me when I saw that the numbers are balanced for getting a canister or less on each mission.
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Dec 28, 2013 18:51
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