X-Com Enemy Unknown: Firaxis remake

[Harmor]

Some of you may have noticed the difference in alien numbers between normal and classic difficulty - there's a way around that. If you don't want cheating aliens on classic (the RNG is weighted in alien favor on classic and impossible) yet like the amount of aliens on those levels play normal - with a twist.

 

This is how you do it: http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?155726-Want-to-fight-more-enemies-Try-this-out

 

Seems like fun

[D-Lyrium]

(the RNG is weighted in alien favor on classic and impossible)

 

Hah, I WAS right. This sounds like the perfect solution. Thanks a tonne for that. It basically completely eliminates all my problems in my above posts.

 

There are still a few issues though. Some definite issues, and some things that I personally don't like.

 

The main issue being the camera. Dear God, why? Any time you get near a building, everything goes to ****. Bits of the building randomly appear and disappear, making it hard sometimes to - for example - move a character behind cover just inside a door (because it's hard to tell which side of the wall the cursor is on, as the wall disappears even if the cursor is still outside it). Moving up to the second floor of a three-storey building is a pain in the ass because it refuses, no matter how high up I go in camera elevation, to show the floor of the second storey. I thought that was the entire point of raising camera elevation? If I want to see the ground floor, I'll move the camera down to the ground level. :/ But no, it won't cooperate at all, so I have to basically guess which floor the cursor is actually on. Oh, and if you're too close to the edge of the map, the camera goes to such a high angle shot you basically can't see more than a foot in front of your character. Plus, as JC pointed out, if you're trying to aim anything freely (rockets, grenades, scanners), it shoots off at 300 miles an hour regardless of sensitivity settings.

 

The camera's definitely got issues.

 

As for the things I personally dislike (that aren't mostly fixed by the swapping difficulty thing), they mostly pertain to the cover system, which is absolutely terrible (well, it WAS terrible, after getting used to it a bit, it's now just 'bad').

 

For starters, to be 'flanking' someone, the cover you're behind (or your character, if you're in the open) has to be at >90 degrees to the cover they're hiding behind. Nothing else matters. If they're behind the back of a car, and you're behind the back of another car parked right the hell next to it, no flanking for you. You're DEAD LEVEL with the guy. When you aim, there is NOTHING between your gun and his face. But his car is level with yours, so it's not flanking. The amount of times I've had a perfectly clear line of sight to the alien, and the aim percentage has been about 40% due to him being in cover placed so that would be completely useless to him in that scenario... gah. At least it works both ways, though. This isn't something the aliens have as an advantage, it's just crap design.

 

Secondly, I really hate how aliens on top of trucks in no cover at all get an elevation bonus when I shoot at them. It makes no sense. If you're on top of a truck, and I'm crouched behind a car a few yards away, you're a lot easier for me to hit than you would be if you were on the ground. Sure, you get a bonus vs. me, but I should also get one vs. you (unless you're in cover, such as on a rooftop with a low wall around it). I certainly shouldn't get a *penalty* vs. you.

 

Thirdly, I really, REALLY hate it when aliens shoot straight through hard cover, when I'm crouched behind soft cover behind it. I realise I'm using Warhammer terminology here (I think it's High cover and Low cover in X-Com?). I have no objection to being able to shoot through high cover in the first place, I've got used to that (I guess it symbolises shooting at me while I peak out to take a look, or something). What really gets my goat - whether I get hit or not - is when an alien, for example, shoots through a wall at me hiding behind a desk. What's even worse is, often if such a shot is missed, it'll be the desk that blows up. HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?! You just shot THROUGH A WALL and not only did the wall take no damage, but THE DESK DID!?

If you're going to allow aliens to shoot through walls (I notice humans can't, because I can't SEE the alien. BECAUSE THERE'S A WALL IN THE WAY), at least have the decency to animate it in such a way that the wall explodes and then I get hit. Don't have me get hit, but the wall be perfectly fine.

Walls and cars take far more damage from shots that miss me, than they do from shots that hit me through them.

 

Uh... what else do I hate... My entire squad Overwatching on the same alien, who dies to the first guy's bullets. I guess that makes sense, because in theory all the action happens simultaneously so nobody has chance to notice that he's already been shot. Still, it's good to get it out of my system, I've been playing for hours.

 

Another one that's more of a 'sorry about your damn luck' than a proper problem; when your medic gets critically wounded. Since you can give medkits to anyone, it's safe to assume everyone is trained to use them to a basic level. So it'd be nice if a medic who was bleeding out could be stabilised by anyone from within the usual stabilisation range. Since the medkit is RIGHT THERE.

 

Your team members running through poison clouds when they don't have to. Surely the AI should be smart enough to realise that if they can still get to their destination in one move without going through the poison cloud, that'd be the way to go? We can't set waypoints, and it's almost never worth taking an entire turn just to deliberately go around the cloud and save 1hp, but even so...

 

Speaking of the AI (which I have to say is, on the whole, pretty good), I've noticed two particular quirks it has that annoy me somewhat. Both on Normal difficulty (though the first happens on any difficulty):

 

- No matter how you do it, every time you discover a group of aliens for the first time on the map you get a cutscene and they run to cover. Even if you silently open a door. Seems a little unfair. If you bash the door down, or throw a scanner, or blow the front of their house off with a rocket launcher, fair enough. But if you discover them by silently opening a door, or moving up to a window and peering in, why should they get a reaction move? That's essentially what silently opening doors is for.

On the subject of doors, since it's free to do (as is disarming bombs), you can do it even after the last move of a character's turn, as long as you still have characters with time left so the round doesn't end. For instance, you can dash up to a door with one character, click on that character again and open the door. Then the next character can act accordingly on what is inside the room. Not technically a bug (as the action is free), but probably not intended because your last character doesn't get a chance to do it before your turn ends.

 

- Melee-only enemies (Berzerkers and Crysalids/Zombies) will often use both their moves, without worrying about what predicament that leaves them in. For example, they'll often rush up to me, then stop right in front of my face because they've used both their moves and can't attack. Leaving me with a 100% hit chance.

 

One great thing the AI does though, is if an enemy knows it can't kill you in one turn, and trying to do so would leave it out in the open, it won't try, even if it means it has to look completely craven . I once had a Muton run out into a courtyard with it's reaction move, so it was in the open but flanking me. As it couldn't have killed me without a critical hit, it didn't even try and dashed off into cover (the same way it entered), ending it's turn. Sensible, but not really very Muton-like . They'll do this even if not killing me means they're almost certain to die (almost certain is better than certain, right?) which is really cool. A lot of games wouldn't have thought of that. Some AI I've played against in Frozen Synapse is pretty gung-ho about the whole 'killing me' thing (don't get me wrong, the AI in FS is really good, but it's not shy of a little Shotgun Sacrifice now and then, where it runs up to shoot me with a shotgun, knowing full well I probably won't die and it's leaving itself really exposed).

 

Also, has anyone ever seen them use a grenade if it can only possibly hit one person? Keeping my guys spread out has so far proven a foolproof way of avoiding them completely. Makes perfect sense, as their guns can do more damage than a grenade if there's only one guy there. What it doesn't seem to realise is, that if I'm hiding behind a car, the explosion from the grenade would blow the car up that same turn (not just set it on fire), so I'd probably be killed. But better not to tell them that, I think.

 

Oh, another annoying thing: Sometimes a car will be set on fire and explode in the same (enemy!) turn. So you go from "hah, you missed!" to dying anyway, without getting a chance to do anything about it.

 

Still loving the game though. If I hated it, I'd just say it was crap and move on without writing a (Edit: massively long, as it turned out) post about it on a forum that didn't have any connection to it at all.

 

Pretty sure I've got my first 'proper' emotional connection to a character, too. I mean, I was quite gutted when Raul the sniper died, but that was only because he had Snapshot and the other one didn't. But if anything happens to 'The Mighty' Thor Jacobsen (the name is generated, but I changed the nickname) I'll be distraught. He's up to Major now, and is a total badass. He's the first to try out anything new I research (chitin armour is his new toy. On top of Carapace Armour he's essentially a tank at this stage). In his first mission with the stun gun, he took down a Thin Man and a Sectoid in the same mission, and once survived a critical hit from a Muton rifle at close range (he was critically injured, but that was about the only mission ever where the medic didn't die, so he was stabilised). I haven't bothered researching the Scatter Laser, because his light plasma rifle is better anyway (he's Assault). I was quite gutted when Sam 'Zeus' Kim died. And Ricardo 'Poppa' Perez, but I got him as a mission reward so meh. You definitely do get attached to some of them though, don't you? Sometimes a guy'll die and you'll be all "damnit!" because your combat efficiency was reduced. Other times someone'll die and you'll be all "NOOOOOOO!".

 

The most heartbreaking example was Poppa Perez. He was a support guy with a medipack (he got promoted to... er, Lieutenant? The one above the rank you get 3 medipacks at), and was critically wounded near the end of a mission. With one turn left before he bled out, one of my rookies had a 90% shot on an injured floater and missed. It turned out to be the last alien on the map, so if he'd hit him Perez would've survived. He got fired for that out of spite.

 

On the other hand, for every Thor, there are hundreds of medics. I've only ever had two rookies be promoted to Support roles (plus the aforementioned Poppa Perez who was a gift already made sergeant), and they all tragically died (though one made Corporal before he became incorporeal ¬_¬). Since then, I think... two? Two is about right. Two rookies have ever survived a mission when they've been equipped with a medpack, and neither became a support class. Medpacks are like little red death sentences. Or Star Trek uniforms. ¬_¬ I'm also lacking heavies from promoted rookies, but luckily I still have one of those alive. I've had more promoted to heavy than support, but they've all died.

[Dragonmack]

I haven't had any game breaking bugs so far, but yeah the camera on trying to use a rocket or grenade is a major pain in the ass. I would have preferred just being able to select a tile and then some kind of range indicator like they already have for movement. Then there could be the possibility of some random scatter from that point. Also I have noticed a pattern in missions, at least for the first month or so.( this is on classic)

 

If you skip the tutorial, you start off with an alien abduction mission and then you go into the quick introductions to the research and engineering and choose your first research item and\or decide if you are going to build any of the currently limited options as far as facilities and items.

 

Then usually within a couple days ( actually have happen on the same day, in the game I am doing a diary on) you get the 3 choice abduction mission which means panic is going to rise on at least 2 continents. Then about a week to two later, you will have your first ufo aerial encounter, shoot it down, and launch a ground assault. Then generally somewhere in the latter half of the month you will have a 'special' council mission.

 

Granted its a small sample size so far, but I have done the first month in 3 classic ironman games and its followed this pattern in everyone so far. The days change a little, the locations and maps are different, and even the council mission is different, but theres definitely a pattern going.

 

As to the council missions, I am really starting to hate those on classic. I had one escort mission where i have to take an npc to the extraction zone, but they have me set up in a corner of the map to start. I do my round, get my guys into cover and overwatch and the npc hunkered down, and then they drop a thin man right behind me! Remember that I actually started in the corner of the map so it wasn't like there was any buildings etc where the alien could have been stationed before. He just literally drops out of the air, right behind my entire team and the npc, in perfect place to take a wide open shot. I had one person take a reaction shot, which missed, fortunately the thin man, instead of wasting someone or poisoning someone, ( which cost me one of these missions before when he poisoned the NPC who only has 3 health.) he goes into overwatch, allowing me to unload on him. But next turn I advance towards the extraction zone, uncovering another thin man who drops out of the air, and a group of three sectoids. I am still pinned on the left corner of the map with not much cover or room to manuever. The sectoids get one of my guys, and then the entire team panics. One shoots an alien ( which actually up till then every time one of my team has panicked, he either shot the alien, or hunkered down) but the next one unloads on the npc, blowing my mission right there. Remember, this is only two turns into the mission. Needless to say I kind of rage quitted that game.

[D-Lyrium]

I think the first month's worth of missions are supposed to be the same, because they gradually introduce you to each specific type of mission (and it'd be a little silly to have the "we need to take one alive" cutscene and then give you a bunch of missions where there are no sectoids ). I *think* that after you find the base, whether you do it right away or not, they become less structured.

 

Generally the more satellites you have, the more UFO interceptions you get and the less abductions since abductions only happen if you don't shoot down the satellite carrying the aliens. In theory, if you have a perfect satellite network and shoot down every UFO, there'll never be an abduction. Of course, there will in reality as a perfect satellite network is impossible, but the theory holds up I think. The better your satellites, the more UFOs you catch before they 'turn into' abductions. Not sure about terror missions and council missions though. They're certainly not every month (they might be every other month).

 

In my current game, I'm desperate for alloys because I haven't had a UFO mission for aaaaaaaages (although I did miss out on two when I couldn't take the UFO down in time).

 

And as for the Thin Man, I agree. It's annoying as hell (as I mentioned in my marathon post earlier) when they drop out of thin air. In my experience though, when they do drop out of thin air like that, they ALWAYS go into overwatch afterwards in my experience (as opposed to discovering them, where they get a reaction move), as they drop right at the end of their turn. It's probably an extra round between their turn and yours, where extra aliens are spawned but can't take any actions other than overwatch.

 

It's quite funny how many times one of my characters panicks and shoots an alien that she couldn't hit when she was calm. ¬_¬

[crownsy]

This isn't something the aliens have as an advantage, it's just crap design.

 

It's not actually. Xcom is essentially a tabletop game. The flanking rules are done by the grid system. They carried that over from the original, there's a thread on it at the 2k forums.

 

Essentially they wanted to keep the grid, table top strategy aspect but also update the graphics. so while it's annoying that hiding behind a trash can and hiding behind a concrete barrier is the same for cover/flanking purposes, It stays true to the top down grid table top system. They decided squad combat worked better that way rather than assigning actual cover values to every piece of cover, counting flanking based on how you could see an enemy in cover, ect.

 

On a side note, im getting my copy tonight, finally! can't wait to play.

 

also someone on the 2k forums confirmed that if you leave the alien base alone once discovered, there's no penalty and the game essentially random generates missions till you kick off the next "storyline" mission by killing the base.

 

So if ya wanna level guys up/ play it out alittle longer, that's a way to do it.

[Dragonmack]

The only issue with that is that the panic levels essentially put a clock on the game as well, and the base mission needs to be done at some point as its a general panic reducer if not done.

 

One of the key things is the abduction site missions where you only choose 1. It doesn't just raise the panic in the other two countries you don't choose, it raises it for all the countries in that area. So if you don't do France, then France, Germany, UK and Russia all rise in panic levels.

 

Especially on classic, where you already start with some panic levels raised, You really can't hold off on the base mission too long. You will want to do it at some point just to avoid losing several countries because if a country is at 5 panic at the end of the month, they pull out.

 

Thats why strategically its best to try and launch your satellites near the end of the month so you can essentially prevent a country from withdrawing as getting a satellite reduces their panic level, and the base mission should also be done near the end of the month as well since it reduces panic across the board ( assuming of course you succeed and don't get blown to hell.)

[D-Lyrium]

It's not actually. Xcom is essentially a tabletop game. The flanking rules are done by the grid system. They carried that over from the original, there's a thread on it at the 2k forums.

 

Essentially they wanted to keep the grid, table top strategy aspect but also update the graphics. so while it's annoying that hiding behind a trash can and hiding behind a concrete barrier is the same for cover/flanking purposes, It stays true to the top down grid table top system. They decided squad combat worked better that way rather than assigning actual cover values to every piece of cover, counting flanking based on how you could see an enemy in cover, ect

 

See, that explanation doesn't really cut the proverbial condiment. Tabletop games happen to be my 'thing' (which is why I keep subconsciously comparing it to Warhammer). I can see what they're trying to do, and I appreciate it, but it just doesn't work for me.

 

Consider this image, randomly pulled from google image search as an example:

http://www.anglesey.info/Leo's%20Car%20Park%20BW%20Jan%202006.jpg

 

According to X-Com, someone in cover behind the red BMW would not be flanking someone in cover behind the blue... whatever that is on the far right. That's quite clearly BS (to clarify, by 'behind' I mean, stood at the rear of the vehicle looking into the rear windscreen).

 

Furthermore, if I was stood on top of the JCB in the background, I'd have a cover BONUS vs. the guy behind the red BMW. Why in the hell? Every wargaming rule I've ever read - and common sense - says the exact opposite.

 

I just hate the whole way that cover works in the game. And it's easily changed, without compromising the grid-based system.

 

Firstly, you should count as flanking anything in a horizontal line from your position. Currently you don't, they have to be MORE THAN 180 degrees to you (I think I said 90 in a previous post, it was 5am ¬_¬).

 

Secondly, I can see what they're trying to do, but considering some of the other decisions they've made, it feels weird that if you're being flanked *everyone* gets a bonus against you (not just the guy doing the flanking).

 

Thirdly, and for me most importantly, if you're behind any sort of cover, which is also behind more cover in the view of the shooter (for example, hiding behind a desk when the shooter is outside, so he'd have to shoot through a window/door/solid wall and your desk to hit you), at the very least that should incur two aim penalties (one for each cover). It should definitely not allow the bullet to pass straight through the first source of cover, and (if it misses you) destroy the second. That's just silly.

 

And lastly, it'd be nice if there was a distinction between "obstacles" (such as a hedge, bush or curtain, which obscures the shooter's vision but doesn't impair the actual bullet) and "cover" (which would stop a bullet - either partially or completely depending on the weapon's strength and the type of cover ("high" cover more than "low" cover, for instance).

So you could then have:

Low Obstacle (small bush, hedge, etc) which reduces aim slightly but nothing else.

High Obstacle (large bush/hedge, curtain rail, thin tree, door) which reduces aim a lot, but nothing else.

Low Cover (low wall, a small car or large car with open door, trash can, most of the stuff that currently counts as low cover) which reduces aim slightly more than low obstacle, and reduces the damage of low/medium strength weapons.

High Cover (a large car, wall of a building, one of those alien abduction cubes, large tree, etc, most of the stuff that currently counts as high cover), which reduces aim a lot, and reduces the strength of all but the highest strength bullets.

 

Then, on your aim roll, you'd essentially have two values (although one would be hidden). The lower one (visible to the player) would be the total chance of hitting "the target". Then the top portion of the aim chance (say, 95%+ on a 75%+ shot through hard cover, increasing with aim (so a scope would increase that to 90% maybe)) would be the chance of hitting the target as he peeps out from cover, dealing full weapon damage + potential crit.

The lower portion would be the chance of hitting the target through the cover, doing [weapon damage] - [cover type reduction] and no potential crit but destroying the cover in the process.

 

That would also apply to the wall/desk scenario from earlier. The chance of getting a clean shot on the target would be astronomically low, maybe even 0% depending on your aim. If you manage to hit the target through the wall, you'd roll again to see how you faired against the desk (taking into account the reduced weapon damage from the wall). So if you did manage to take out both the wall and the desk, the damage actually dealt to the target would be significantly reduced.

 

That's how I'd do it... It'd never work in a game of Warhammer, but we have computers to work this crap out, so why not use them?

 

Hell, why take out the whole wall? Why not just 'damage' that section of wall (a sniper rifle round is unlikely to destroy and entire section of wall in one shot). Instead of being destroyed, that section of high cover becomes low cover. A low cover section that gets hit, gets destroyed.

 

 

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. Coming to a PC near you... whenever I get financial backing, a software house, a budget, a license from GW, and all the other stuff I no doubt need... ¬_¬

[Dragonmack]

 

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. Coming to a PC near you... whenever I get financial backing, a software house, a budget, a license from GW, and all the other stuff I no doubt need... ¬_¬

 

I swear, I'd practically kill for a warhammer or 40K computer game that was turn based and at least kind of followed the rules of the tabletop game!

 

The closest i ever saw was the old SSI game Chaos Gate where you controlled a squad of Ultramarines vs Word Bearer Chaos Marines and their chaos cultists. While nowhere near accurate to the tabletop game, to me its the only game that even tried to capture some of that flavor. THe Dawn of War games are visually very appealing but I have never been a fan of real time strategy games, especially on the large scale like Dawn of War does.

 

I'd prefer working more at the squad level, with a max of 3-5 squads or so on each side. Something where you have options to mix and match your troop types but not so unwieldy as to take forever just to do your turn. With some modifications, they could even adapt this engine to do something like that, but it will probably never happen

[Harmor]

...but it will probably never happen

 

Sadly I have to agree, because I think a computer game following the W40k TT rules would have Games Workshop spooked about it hurting the sales of the table top game. So at least with both core games they have this is highly unlikely - but it HAS happened with Blood Bowl and I could see it working with their other specialist games, Gorkamorka, Battlefleet Gothic and Necromunda.

[D-Lyrium]

I swear, I'd practically kill for a warhammer or 40K computer game that was turn based and at least kind of followed the rules of the tabletop game!

 

The closest i ever saw was the old SSI game Chaos Gate where you controlled a squad of Ultramarines vs Word Bearer Chaos Marines and their chaos cultists. While nowhere near accurate to the tabletop game, to me its the only game that even tried to capture some of that flavor. THe Dawn of War games are visually very appealing but I have never been a fan of real time strategy games, especially on the large scale like Dawn of War does.

 

I'd prefer working more at the squad level, with a max of 3-5 squads or so on each side. Something where you have options to mix and match your troop types but not so unwieldy as to take forever just to do your turn. With some modifications, they could even adapt this engine to do something like that, but it will probably never happen

 

Have you tried DoW2? That's squad-based, albeit still an RTS.

 

But yeah, I agree. Unlikely to ever happen, because as Harmor said it's basically suicide. Necromunda/Mordheim is a possiblity I guess (although Blood Bowl only happened because Cyanide already made the game (Chaos League, which amazingly got a sequel and an expansion to the sequel before GW sued) and 'converting' it into a proper Blood Bowl game was part of the legal settlement.

 

We can dream...

 

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'd like Necromunda more than full-on 40k. Let's be honest, you can never have a balanced game involving space marines, because the space marine player would only get one guy to move around, and at X-Com level would still be overpowered. ¬_¬ But a Necromunda game... now we're talking.

 

I guess a game based on Necromunda would be very hard for GW to stop, if everything was renamed... So I've got this idea. There's a massive city in the far future (where only war exists), and underneath it there's this 'undercity', right, which is very reminiscent of a honeycombe, so it's called the UnderCombe. There's loads of cool stuff to explore. Six noble houses have become interested in recent finds from down there, old technology and the like that modern factories have forgotten how to make. So they regularly send down these teams of guys, and each house specialises in certain techniques and methods (like the mysterious, technologically advanced House Van Persie, and the freakishly strong House Gargant who basically fight with pointy sticks). And there are mutants and stuff, and don't forget the Ratskins... wait, Skavskins, because they're the coolest. And what happens is... ¬_¬ ¬_¬ ¬_¬

[Derek B]

I'm 3 months into my game (Normal, Ironman). My computer got pretty excited at the game early on and kept overheating, causing it to swtich off. Have got a little doorstop with a cute little mouse on it to keep my computer getting air to it's warm spots, the cute mouse has now become my Xcom mascot. It's also seen me get 3 good report cards so far, with me going A, A and B so far.

 

I've been naming all of my soliders after characters from the Cornellverse so far, with my most notable death being for poor Tommy Cornell after just 10 missions. He was doing okay but I lost him when I assaulted the alien base. I'd been doing so well, hadn't lost anyone until I got to the final room. Some floaters took down Steve DeColt () in there before the Sectoid Commander proceeded to mind control Sean McFly (my super sniper) and then gun down Cornell who couldn't quite run and gun his way to victory fast enough. Was the first time in a while I'd lost anyone and I thought it was going to be so much worse than that.

 

I've had a UFO mission that had 2 section commanders that I thought were going to obliterate me. Stumbled across the sectiods at the same time as I found 2 mutons and 3 floaters. I don't know how I got out of that mission with only 1 casualty but running away from mind controlled aliens and some serious luck were on my side there. Put poor Sensational Ogiwara kept getting mind controlled while Thunder Hike was terrified almost to death. And the aliens lobbig mind bullets at some of my folks left almost the entire team form that mission on the injured list.

 

An alien abduction mission proved to almost be my undoing too. Took a severely weakened team with me (they were all I had), which was basically Sean McFly (sniper), 3 squaddies of various skills and 2 rookies. Mutons and Floaters almost took out McFly but some luck held out and some vital shots were made or missed. Only McFly and 1 rookie (Speedy Marie, don't know how!) made it out alive by the end, guys just kept falling all over the place.

 

Haven't had any other particularly tough missions yet, have rebuilt the squad quite nicely. Have 2 Colonels in Sean McFly and Steve DeColt (assault), who have about 60 kills between them over 23 missions. Both have been injured a fair bit, but that's the hazards. Officer training has helped me promote everyone to squaddie so now I can at least always get some basic usefulness out of folks before they die. Now I just need to stop letting McFly snipe everything to death... let some of the others get some more kills and level up. Swoop McCarthy has done pretty well so far, picking up a promotion to corporal after 3 kills in his first 2 missions. And I'm training up some more awesome snipers so that I can save McFly for the most important missions.

 

With some psi training on the way for some young recruits, I'm looking forward to being mean to aliens in some new and interesting ways. But I've got a long ways to go before I'm ready to save the earth... panic levels are rising, I don't really have enough satelites up and I'm starting to feel the pinch. France is terrified, but I'm gonna sort them out soon with my next satelite... just gotta hope I can make it til then.

[Harmor]

Exciting things...

 

That sounds like one hell of a game you've got going there - and I got a question regarding psykers. Do you get to choose who is trained or is that random?

[Derek B]

That sounds like one hell of a game you've got going there - and I got a question regarding psykers. Do you get to choose who is trained or is that random?

 

Once I'd built the lab I got to choose up to 3 people to train in it. I probably should've put some higher ranked folks in but I chose some rookies instead. No idea how it's going to play out, it's pretty mcuh the most recent thing I've done so I could be ages away from being able to use it properly. But I will be getting my snipers trained in it soon, any excuse to be able to do things from far away and kill all sorts of aliens is a good thing.

[crownsy]

Got it last night after my Bday party, got to play a few hours. Girl even came through with the pre ordered version so I got the armor customization.

 

Played one month of a hybred Normal/Classic game, using the strategy in this thread Hamor linked. Pretty much I started the game on Classic Ironman to get the penelties for classic to health and panic level, but I pull the trick he linked to get more aliens with Normal's non-weighted dice in missions.

 

Basicly I like Normal because the rolls seem fair, but the fact that they cut the aliens in half make it to easy. Following hamors method, you can get the roll rules of normal with double the aliens from classic's spawn chart. Works out pretty good for a first playthrough, next time I'll just go full classic.

 

As to the actual game I love it. I spent the first 30 minutes editing all my rookies, and I have to say I'm already deeply attached to a few. We've managed to only lose 2 guys, and that was from the first mission when I stupidly put one of them forward in a subway car and couldnt cover his retreat well enough. Lost the guy and the attempted rescuer.

 

Some of my people I'd be gutted If i lost them and thier mini stories:

 

Steve Austin- Sniper = Steve is my rock. he has squad sight and early on it makes him a murderer. The game assigned him "zero" which I guess is kinda stone coldish..? I was gonna edit it but I like the nick kinda. I don't even mind him stealing all the kills on missions he's on. I knida feel like that's "realistic" that snipers level quicker and kill so much better. Snipers are generally the best of the best after all.

 

Karrin Murphy- assualt Karrin is from the UK so she gets her name via book series. (yes I have a naming system based of what area of the world they come from, I'm a sad, sad dorky man)

 

Karrin is awesome because she's turning out exactly like her character in the dresden files. She makes more low precentage shots in the clutch than any small women with a ponytail should. You need an alien shot from long distance with a 20% chance to hit or youll lose a squad mate? Karrin is your women.

 

Lora Croft - heavy - queen of overwatch and ticking the doctor off as she destroys the map. She has a lead on kills from steve at the moment because 3 sectoids chose to take cover behind 2 parked cars in an aubduction mission. Lora's rocket launcher did not approve.

 

Can't wait to get hom tonight, already told the GF i'm stealing the TV lol

[Clarity]

My first game tanked as i lost country after country. Took that knowledge and applied it to my 2nd game (this time without tutorial allowing me more options on base location)

 

Just completed the compulsary mission in april

[D-Lyrium]

Quick straw poll: How many of you guys use Squad Sight? I know crownsy does because he just said so, but I can't justify it to myself.

 

I mean, Squad Sight isn't a bad skill or anything, but it means NOT having Snapshot. Which is just... exponentially more useful. To me it is, anyway. Being able to actually move your sniper.

[Clarity]

Quick straw poll: How many of you guys use Squad Sight? I know crownsy does because he just said so, but I can't justify it to myself.

 

I mean, Squad Sight isn't a bad skill or anything, but it means NOT having Snapshot. Which is just... exponentially more useful. To me it is, anyway. Being able to actually move your sniper.

 

I use squadsight. I dont really move my snipers too much and if i remember correctly, snapsnot had a - on aim

[crownsy]

Quick straw poll: How many of you guys use Squad Sight? I know crownsy does because he just said so, but I can't justify it to myself.

 

I mean, Squad Sight isn't a bad skill or anything, but it means NOT having Snapshot. Which is just... exponentially more useful. To me it is, anyway. Being able to actually move your sniper.

 

 

I think it depends on your build for your sniper and his tactics. For Steve, he always goes to the highest ground available near our starting location and gets full cover. He often gets deployed on alien abduction missions and crash missions alot with assualt and support troopers, so they in essence become his eyes and he can hit from across the map in saftey. They move forward and find a shot for him.

 

Now, my other sniper, who has snapshot, tends to go with squads who are going to have to retrieve a VIP, or are going to bust heads, because he needs to move with them. He can move with them and avoid having the situation where he cant get a shot because the terrain doesn't give him LOS (the train tile squares come to mind)

[D-Lyrium]

But it's only 10%, IIRC. Meaning a SCOPE negates it entirely [Edit: Was replying to Clarity]. And with the +Pistol Damage upgrade, it means you can have a mobile sniper who can deal decent damage to basically anything at any range. As opposed to an immobile sniper who's only really useful at elevation (since taking the +pistol upgrade over the +elevation upgrade would be useless if you've taken squadsight).

 

If you're in a UFO mission in the forest, your Squadsight dude becomes a rather poor choice, as one of his upgrades is useless and the other one becomes useless against anything inside the UFO. Wait... please tell me Squadsight doesn't work against things inside the UFO while your sniper is still miles away at the back of the map? I. Will. Rage.

 

I can definitely see that squadsight, combined with certain other skills (DGG, Battle Scanner, Opportunist) can become a god in certain situations, if you use a sniper in a certain way. I can just see my squad leaving the sniper alone on a rooftop at one end of the map, only for three Thin Men to drop out of nowhere on said roof. ¬_¬

 

I just prefer a more mobile sniper, personally. Snapshot, Gunslinger, Disabling Shot, Executioner, In The Zone.

 

It's great that they've actually managed to create two "specs" for a class where one isn't blatantly miles better than the other for once. ¬_¬

[Harmor]

Squadsight for both my high level snipers - sure, snapshot would be very nice but I rarely move my snipers if I don't have to. But this is all down to playstyle tbh - I'm rather sure though that I'll try different builds in my next game.

[crownsy]

But it's only 10%, IIRC. Meaning a SCOPE negates it entirely [Edit: Was replying to Clarity]. And with the +Pistol Damage upgrade, it means you can have a mobile sniper who can deal decent damage to basically anything at any range. As opposed to an immobile sniper who's only really useful at elevation (since taking the +pistol upgrade over the +elevation upgrade would be useless if you've taken squadsight).

 

If you're in a UFO mission in the forest, your Squadsight dude becomes a rather poor choice, as one of his upgrades is useless and the other one becomes useless against anything inside the UFO. Wait... please tell me Squadsight doesn't work against things inside the UFO while your sniper is still miles away at the back of the map? I. Will. Rage.

 

I can definitely see that squadsight, combined with certain other skills (DGG, Battle Scanner, Opportunist) can become a god in certain situations, if you use a sniper in a certain way. I can just see my squad leaving the sniper alone on a rooftop at one end of the map, only for three Thin Men to drop out of nowhere on said roof. ¬_¬

 

I just prefer a more mobile sniper, personally. Snapshot, Gunslinger, Disabling Shot, Executioner, In The Zone.

 

It's great that they've actually managed to create two "specs" for a class where one isn't blatantly miles better than the other for once. ¬_¬

 

I've hit guys from the back inside a UFO, but that map (i've only done two downed UFO's so far) was a forest but the approach was from behind a large hill and the UFO had "plowed the road" so to speak and there wasen't much, if any, cover between where i hid steve and the blown out side of the UFO. So I think even with squad sight, steve had a clear shot into the interior from his position 3 squares up and a mile away

 

The drop in thing defintly is a concern though. Plus I've heard of a pretty vicious bug where the game spawns alien squads and drops them in the middle of the human squad. and not like, the thin man drop in move. Like you get the reveal cut screen and then instead of them being where you saw them they get the reactionary move to cover from like, right next to you.

 

Apperntly it's rare but not looking forward to that with Iorn man on. That's one thing that scares me, Iornman being screwed up by a bug that traps me in a mission.

[D-Lyrium]

Yeah, as long as you have line of sight to the target, a sniper should be able to hit it with squadsight no matter how far away he is. What troubled me was the idea of shooting at something that not only can a sniper not see, but a bullet couldn't possibly reach.

[Dragonmack]

I love squad sight, I think its a definite must. And the having to move, really once you get a laser or plasma pistol and the pistol perks and foundry upgrades, there is no reason not to get squad sight.

 

If you need to move the sniper, then move them and switch to the pistol for overwatch that turn.

[crownsy]

one thing I hope they add in the patch, after playing for a minute, is the ability to set how many aliens spawn apart from the difficulty.

 

It's crazy fun with the trick, but I get tired of:

 

1. Changing Difficulty to Classic/Impossable (impossable spawns so many aliens on screen ha) and then scanning for missions

 

(Note: it's confirmed now, the difficulty AT TIME OF SCAN on the globe sets number of aliens and thier health levels, so you want it on classic/imposs at that point if your trying to up the alien numbers)

 

2. Landing the SR, then before doing anything, changing difficulty to normal to negate the loaded dice effect of the aliens, but still get the overwhelming number you'd get on classic/impossable to make normal actually challanging

 

3. changing back to classic once at base.

 

 

Just let me set Roll Difficulty/ game rules seperate from aliens spawned on a map.

[D-Lyrium]

Just had another of those heart-in-mouth moments, when my at-the-time-only Major, 'Mighty' Thor Jacobsen managed to miss a pistol shot (his rifle was out of ammo) on an enemy in cover behind the same bit of wall Jacobsen was in cover in (they next to a doorway, on opposite sides of the same bit of wall). 95% chance, and he misses! The alien then hits him, and to my sort of relief only critically wounds him.

 

Of course, my medic had been critically wounded early in the mission (which as I said before is even more gutting than if he'd been killed. The medikit is right there... ).

 

Luckily, a rookie managed to finish off the alien, and it turned out he was the last one. So Mighty Thor survives again!

 

I've been practically forced into doing the base mission now though, because three countries are at max panic and the end of the month is two days away. Both my experienced Assault guys are out with injuries (both Majors now), I've got a support captain as a reward for that last mission, and an ok sniper. No experienced heavies.

 

So my team for the base assault will be a Lt. Sniper, a Capt. Support, a robot tank thing, and three squaddies (a sniper and a heavy who were promoted in the last mission, and an assault I think). ¬_¬

 

Edit: Well, that was a total failure. Berserkers are ridiculous. One-hit-kills on a Major with Carapace Armour and Chitin Plating, and so much health that three snipers with laser sniper rifles can't take him down unless at least one gets a critical hit. Pretty hardcore. So imagine how much **** I was in when I had to face three at once... with nine regular Mutons.

 

I was being so careful too. Everyone was on overwatch every turn unless one of my squaddie snipers had to move, in which case he hunkered down (it turned out that the squaddie assault I thought I had was a squaddie sniper, so I had three in total, one being a lieutenant). The robot scouted ahead and even he went on overwatch at the end. It was all going pretty well. Until the apocalyptic-sized Muton Bomb (not a bad finisher name...) hit me and wiped me out in two turns.

 

Oh, and I've added another item to my List Of Things I Hate About This Game:

 

Panic. Don't get me wrong, the idea of panic is fine. Soldier gets panicked, opens fire randomly while ****ing his pants. Except that he doesn't "randomly open fire", hitting benches and walls and 'the air' and 'the ground', he can't do that. He has to open fire on a specific (though seemingly random) target. Normally this is an enemy, but what happens if he can't SEE any enemies? He opens fire on his mate, stood right next to him (for me? You guessed it; usually the medic). Your only hope at that point is that he misses. Not likely when he's technically flanking the guy and stood right next to him.