http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-05-firaxis-xcom-enemy-unknown-announced
QuoteFiraxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced
By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 5 January, 2012
Turn-based strategy game re-imagined by Civilization dev.
Civilization developer Firaxis is making XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a re-imagination of the classic turn-based strategy game.
US magazine Game Informer revealed Enemy Unknown, saying it "introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place". It launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.
"Unlike 2K Marin's previously announced XCOM shooter, which sparked tempers among longtime fans for turning its back on the series' cerebral roots, this title is a full-on strategy game that puts players in command of a global anti-alien defense force," Game Informer said.
"XCOM's leader needs a worldwide perspective where threats are identified, populations reassured, and national leaders mollified - but a tactical mind is just as critical considering every shot XCOM's soldiers fire on the battlefield is under the player's turn-based control."
Firaxis boss Steve Martin added: "It's been a dream of ours to recreate X-COM with our unique creative vision. We're huge fans of the original game and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-envision a game that is as beloved as X-COM.
"We were careful to keep XCOM: Enemy Unknown true to the elements that made X-COM such a revered game while delivering an entirely new story and gameplay experience for both die-hard X-COM fans and newcomers to the franchise."
Firaxis' XCOM has destructible tactical environments, and fuses a real-time strategic view with turn-based combat.
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Firaxis picked it up? Hooray!
I thought the new xcom was to be a fps?
Nonetheless...aint...xenonauts or somesuch due soon?
Quote from: Tyr on January 06, 2012, 12:53:52 AM
I thought the new xcom was to be a fps?
That's coming too.
I don't think Firaxis has ever made a really bad game. They produce a lot of games, but all the ones I've played I really liked.
X-Com was the best game I have ever played, hands down.
It had been the sole reason I bought a playstation.
I was disappointed when I had read about the FPS (even though I will probably purchase it), but now I am excited....Fall 2012 can't come fast enough!
Yay! I loved XCOM, the first one, not so much the sequels. This will be a must have for me!
Quote from: KRonn on January 06, 2012, 08:00:37 AM
Yay! I loved XCOM, the first one, not so much the sequels. This will be a must have for me!
I actually didn't mind Terror from the Deep. To me, it was the same game just in water...though the harpoon weapons were pretty lame.
I've played all the rest.....I played them because I am a huge X-Com fan, but they were all extremely horrible
I actually liked Apocalypse quite a lot. I still play it from time to time.
As for turns, I'd rather see a Combat Mission style system.
:rolleyes: Great. Heaven forbid anyone actually makes a new game.
Quote
US magazine Game Informer revealed Enemy Unknown, saying it "introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place". It launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.
Crap.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on January 09, 2012, 01:11:58 PM
Quote
US magazine Game Informer revealed Enemy Unknown, saying it "introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place". It launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.
Crap.
Agreed. This will suck
up time like nothing else.
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QuoteFirst Screens And Details Of XCOM: Enemy Unknown
feature
by Adam Biessener on January 09, 2012 at 11:00 AM 35,335 Views
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Come on in to have your questions answered and to get the first public look at what Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown looks like in action.
Click on any of the three screens on this page to view a high-resolution version.
Find below our answers to some of the most common questions we've seen floating around the Internet since our cover reveal last week.
Wasn't there another XCOM game?
Yes, 2K Marin is developing a previously announced first-person shooter, simply called XCOM. That game was originally scheduled to come out last year, but has since been delayed out of 2011.
How do those games relate to each other?
The shooter takes place earlier in the fiction, chronicling the aliens' first attacks in the United States. The strategy game we're talking about here deals with the global response to the later full-blown alien invasion of Earth.
So this is some kind of RTS?
No, not in the way the term "RTS" typically applies to games like StarCraft. The real-time element of XCOM is confined to the global view, where the player keeps track of known UFOs and abductions going on around the world. Managing research and development at the XCOM organization's secret base can be done at the player's leisure, and all combat is completely turn-based.
You switch between real-time and turn-based?
Yes. When your aerial transport lands at an abduction site, the game switches to a tactical view and you command your squad of personalized soldiers in battle against an unknown alien threat.
So what do you do in the real-time global view?
On the strategic layer, players direct research into alien technology, give their engineers and foundries fabrication requests, interact with the nations of the world (who have to be mollified to secure funding for XCOM), intercept airborne UFOs with jet fighters, level up their soldiers and recruit new ones, and dispatch the Skyranger transport to engage alien incursions on the ground.
Is this a remake of the original?
Kind of. Re-imagining is probably a better term. Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown doesn't directly copy the underlying game systems – for instance, soldiers have different stats than they did in the 1994 original – but the concepts are still here. Players still have to manage multiple resources and threats on a global scale in a seemingly hopeless war against extraterrestrial forces with far better technology and capabilities.
Is this going to be dumbed down for the "wider console audience"?
Firaxis is undeniably streamlining aspects of the game and removing no small amount of micromanagement, but from what I've seen I wouldn't call it "dumbing down" the game so much as getting rid of tedium and uninteresting mechanics. Soldiers still die permanently, fog of war and line of sight are hugely important in combat, and you absolutely can lose the game if you screw up too badly.
:hmm: I cannot think of anything from the original I would consider "tedious micromanagement". In fact, it could stand to add some cool depth to some decision-making and other aspects (like making it possible to "win back" nations that switch over to the aliens).
But I dig what seems to be the base map.
I like the aliens at the bottom of the bottom screenshot, with the elephant necks and the rubbery limbs. The blue outfits have to go, though.
Firaxis is certainly saying all the right things, as far as I am concerned. And it's about time they did something other than polish the turd that is Civ III+
The screenshots look great!
Research was one of the best parts of the game.
Quote from: Mr. Grey on January 11, 2012, 12:34:16 PM
The screenshots look great!
Research was one of the best parts of the game.
Yeah, I liked research. I also liked building bases, though I think the game had a glitch and very rarely did your bases get attacked. I had one attack on a base that I can recall; I think not many or any more than that. It was a pretty cool situation though.
Link to page showing a video on the art design, plus some more screenshots....
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/11/the-art-of-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx
...the video also shows how the Skyranger/Interceptor look.
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Quote from: grumbler on January 10, 2012, 08:46:35 AM
I like the aliens at the bottom of the bottom screenshot, with the elephant necks and the rubbery limbs. The blue outfits have to go, though.
Firaxis is certainly saying all the right things, as far as I am concerned. And it's about time they did something other than polish the turd that is Civ III+
Hah, I thought the "suits" were just placeholders in an early alpha or some such...turns out from the latest article on gameinformer.com, that they're a new enemy (the Thin Man, meant to be some kind of infiltrators).
The odd looking alien from the gas station pic above seems to be a Cyberdisc after it has "deployed" for attack. (and you can see an undeployed one just above it).
The other "big dude" in the other pics is the Muton.
I figured the guys in suits were some sort of Men In Black types.
The latest update had an 18min video interview with one of the developers. Besides discussion of the basic game concepts (basically making the new game to work like the old game), the only tidbit of changes from the original is that sometimes the funding nations might give you task/make requests during a given month, instead of just adjusting their contributions at the end of the month.
From today's update, a nice overview of tactical combat (including lots of screenshots).
Optimism = growing.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/26/advanced-tactics-exploring-xcom-39-s-combat-part-1.aspx
Firaxis is a good developer. I've never bought a game from them that I thought was really bad.
Quote from: Razgovory on January 26, 2012, 11:31:22 PM
Firaxis is a good developer. I've never bought a game from them that I thought was really bad.
Didn't buy the colonization remake it I guess then?
Nope. :)
Quote from: Tyr on January 27, 2012, 04:23:33 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on January 26, 2012, 11:31:22 PM
Firaxis is a good developer. I've never bought a game from them that I thought was really bad.
Didn't buy the colonization remake it I guess then?
I hadn't either, as I figured it was really just a glorified Civ IV mod.
Quote from: Tonitrus on January 27, 2012, 07:17:36 PM
Quote from: Tyr on January 27, 2012, 04:23:33 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on January 26, 2012, 11:31:22 PM
Firaxis is a good developer. I've never bought a game from them that I thought was really bad.
Didn't buy the colonization remake it I guess then?
I hadn't either, as I figured it was really just a glorified Civ IV mod.
It was a non-glorified one.
I never bought it but I can recall briefly playing it (A demo maybe? Can't remember).
It sucked big style.
Part 2 on tactical combat...
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/28/advanced-tactics-exploring-xcom-39-s-combat-part-2.aspx
If anything, tactical combat/strategy is looking to be much more intricate than in the original.
Can you still groom an uber soldier and then finally find out that he has the willpower of Homer Simpson and will be constantly mind-controlled?
Quote from: The Brain on February 02, 2012, 08:42:18 AM
Can you still groom an uber soldier and then finally find out that he has the willpower of Homer Simpson and will be constantly mind-controlled?
Dunno, but it appears they added the feature of giving people callsigns/nicknames....just call him "Siege".
Interactive "ant farm" of the new base layout.
http://www.gameinformer.com/p/xcom-interactive-ant-farm.aspx
My anticipation meter is starting to approach a "Timmah" level.
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 04, 2012, 06:12:28 PM
Interactive "ant farm" of the new base layout.
http://www.gameinformer.com/p/xcom-interactive-ant-farm.aspx
My anticipation meter is starting to approach a "Timmah" level.
xcom clearly works withMicrosoft products...
Office training school?
This looks better the more I see of it. I have to hope the game play measures up as well.
From looking at the forums on Firaxis's site, the biggest potential (as in not totally confirmed) "Cons" I have seen are:
- Tactical squads may only be 4-6 troops.
- Only one base
- No more TU's in tactical combat (this is, per an interview with the lead developer, confirmed, and replace by some new system)
- No ammo/inventory, or the ability to pick up fallen teammates/aliens equipment
Another possible detraction, though I don't mind it much myself, is that each Rookie will start with a "hidden" class that isn't revealed until they are tested by combat.
FAIL
4 troops is too few. But I don't mind fewer soldiers. This will make the game faster and less tedious.
I don't have a problem with only one base. The only reason I built more than one base was because there wasn't enough room to expand. If there is enough room in the single base, that's fine by me.
The other main reason for bases, for me, was also to expand capacity of Interceptors, as well as better global radar coverage.
It looks like they have a new system for expanding detection coverage.
Also, from looking at the base map thing, it looks like you have one each "Science" and "Engineering" section that is then expanded on with smaller "labs" and "workshops".
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 05, 2012, 04:16:40 PM
Another possible detraction, though I don't mind it much myself, is that each Rookie will start with a "hidden" class that isn't revealed until they are tested by combat.
This is an interesting concept.
I wonder if the alien rocket launchers are still hilariously OP.
I always beat the game by rolling out to Cydonia with half my squad using those and the other half using heavy plasma. 'EY NIGGAZ HERE COMES BIG DADDY D WIT YO' OWN SHIT
New trailer with in-game footage:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/06/xcom-enemy-unknown-trailer/
I look forward to all Languish squad, will have martinass and Jaron as suicide pointmen on all missions :menace:
A new preview/interview: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/xcom-enemy-unknown/1220087p1.html
QuoteHonestly, I wasn't expecting it to look this good in action. As a die-hard fan of the original X-COM: UFO Defense, I've been waiting 18 years for someone to make a new game that'd live up to the name. After Firaxis showed me a demo of four specialized XCOM soldiers taking down a few packs of aliens, for the first time in a long time I'm hopeful that it might actually happen.
So much is the same, yet so much is different. I love the look of it -- the slightly cartoonish soldiers (whose names and looks are fully customizable,) the oversized weaponry you can spot a mile away, the eerie lighting, and of course the completely destroyable urban terrain. I love the active feeling that Firaxis has given this turn-based tactical combat with clever use of mini-cinematics and a camera that zooms in to interesting viewpoints when soldiers take their shots. I loved watching the Sniper soldier use a grappling hook to quickly climb to the roof of a gas station, and the Support soldier pin a creepy-looking Sectoid in place so that the Heavy Weapons guy could toss a grenade at him.
At the same time, it's too early to tell how to feel about the revamped movement and action system, which does away with the old time unit system in favor of an admittedly much simpler and more intuitive one move and one action per turn setup. I'm a little nervous about limitations like squad size being capped at six troops, since losing a single soldier is now a 17 percent loss of a squad's firepower -- I never left a base with less than 10 troops in my Skyranger in the original.
And I'm downright antsy about the way certain weapons, such as a sniper rifle, can only be equipped by certain soldier classes, and weapons and gear can't be picked up off the body of a fallen ally (or enemy) mid-mission. The one thing I saw in this demo that hadn't yet been revealed was a new alien, called the Berserker. He's roughly the same size and build as a Muton (read: hulking), but red instead of green and equipped with spikes on his fists for better smashing. Demonstrating how dangerous these guys are, Firaxis moved the Support soldier near one of the walls of the building the Berserker was hiding in and ended the turn. The Berserker huffed and puffed and charged the wall, knocking it down and exposing the soldier. The big alien grabbed him and beat the living hell out of him, until he went limp and one of his squadmates cried "He's gone!" Oh yeah, I also love permanent soldier death.
GameSpy: I noticed in the demo, there were a lot of one-shot kills. Particularly on Mutons...with conventional weapons.
Jake Solomon: Right. That's the old demo magic. If you had a leveled-up assault soldier, you could potentially crit a Muton with a shotgun. But I wouldn't bet on it, I guess, is what I'd say. I think that by the time you run into Mutons you'd better have some upgraded gear for sure. But through the old demo magic, we were able to pull off some pretty lucky shots there.
GameSpy: The equipment that we saw on the soldiers -- is that more or less stuff that you'll start with?
JS: Yeah. That's stuff you start with. Across the board, the conventional stuff, the idea is that XCOM has the best of the best when the game starts, as far as world technology. You've got access to those sniper rifles, LMGs, shotguns -- the player starts with that. But from that point on, it's basically...up.
GameSpy: If you've got no ammo restrictions on there, how do you keep the rocket launcher guy from demolishing the entire map?
JS: Oh, but we do have ammo restrictions. Especially for things like the rocket launcher and inventory-item things like grenades. Those are inventory locked. The rocket launcher actually does have a restriction on it, you really only start with one rocket. Now, you can have abilities that increase that capability, but no, the rocket launcher is a limited-use weapon for sure.
GameSpy: When the rocket soldier runs out of rockets, what does he do?
JS: He uses his gun. The heavy's the only guy who carries the rocket launcher, so he still has a big-ass gun that he can use. The rocket launcher is sort of like the special thing that defines his class.
GameSpy: The class thing -- that unlocks after they level up a couple of times, right?
JS: Yeah. They all start as rookies, and then they level into a class. Again, this is sort of a continuation, for me, design-wise. XCOM is very much about playing with the hand you're dealt. Dealing with soldiers being wounded, soldiers being killed. This plays into that, the idea being that when soldiers level up, they reveal a proficiency for one of these classes. And the classes aren't meant to be limiters, they're not meant to be drawbacks at all. All soldiers are good at killing aliens. And so the classes are meant to be augments on the top of that. Every soldier across the board is going to be equally good at killing, but the extra-cool things that they do are added by their classes.
GameSpy: One thing we didn't see in the demo -- but it's the absence of it that was notable -- was that you were operating in an urban area but I didn't see any civilians.
JS: Oh, yeah. But in terror missions there will definitely be civilians. You will still be herding cats. So when you go on terror missions, like on the original game, you've gotta manage that. The aliens are going for civilians, and they're going for your troops at the same time, while you're trying to rescue in a destroyed urban environment. So yeah, they'll definitely make a return.
GameSpy: Will there be police officers or other armed civilians in there?
JS: You'll encounter other troops from around the world in the game, for sure.
GameSpy: It's obviously very heavily inspired by UFO Defense. Is there anything in there from Terror from the Deep or Apocalypse?
JS: No. For this one, I basically just stayed with Enemy Unknown [the original UK name for X-COM: UFO Defense is UFO: Enemy Unknown]. For me, I love Terror from the Deep for what it is. I love Apoc, actually a lot. But I drew all the inspiration for this game, and the team drew all their inspiration, from that original game. I think the special thing about that is the fact that it is the setting really resonates. Terror from the Deep was awesome, but that was fought, obviously, mostly underwater. Something like Enemy Unknown, you can look out the window and see the scene that we showed today. That, to me, is why it was always so special.
GameSpy: We saw three different alien types in this one map, but in the original there were pairs of aliens that worked together.
JS: The symbiotic pairs, yeah, sure, like Cyberdisc/Sectoid, yeah. We still have that relationship, but tactically I just wanted those maps to have the mix. Tactically it's kinda fun to go into a map, you see one group of aliens, but you still don't know what the other group of aliens is. There's always that tension of how you could face off against all these different aliens. So yeah, we still do have aliens that have an affinity for each other. But in a lot of missions, we mix it up even more, where we have three or four different types of aliens on the map at the same time.
GameSpy: Does that type of diversity replace the different ranks of aliens, or will there still be alien commanders and soldiers and engineers?
JS: You're right, that basically does replace that idea of the different ranks, you have the engineer, you get the hyperwave, all that stuff. That is something that we haven't included in this game. That diversity of species has replaced the ranking system within the aliens.
GameSpy: Early on I noticed a couple things. One was in the UI, it gave the objective of the mission, which was to sweep and kill all the aliens. Which implies the existence of other objectives...
JS: Yes, absolutely. We're trying to recreate a lot of the mission types from the original, but a lot of those mission objectives were extermination. Even terror, it's like you're trying to save civilians while exterminating aliens. And we do have some other missions, called council missions, which can be generated by members of the council. Those have lots of varying sub-objectives.
GameSpy: That's like where Japan will ask you to do something in exchange for scientists?
JS: Yeah, for a lot of different rewards. But it could be, rescue a VIP, things like that. We do have missions with more varied sub-objectives as well.
GameSpy: So there will be missions where you'll go into an alien base and extract a hostage?
JS: Well, not that specifically, but something like that, yeah. Cases of hostage extraction, VIP rescue, things like that.
GameSpy: One thing that's always irked me about the original X-COM is that when somebody gets killed, it doesn't tell me who got killed. I noticed your demo didn't tell me the name of the dead soldier either. I guess if you've only got six guys, that's less of a problem?
JS: No, you're absolutely right, and in fact we have a UI screen, the next thing, that we didn't show in the demo. When you come back to base, in addition to that science debrief, there's also a soldier debrief. So when you get back you're going to see this listing out of all your soldiers, pictures over here, and it'll say either "promoted to so and so, these are their stat changes," and then you can go and do the actual promotion, but it'll also have KIAs here. It'll list out every one of your soldiers and what happens to them. Some of them will be wounded, out of commission 14 days, some of them will be straight up KIA. You'll see all that at the end of the mission. You don't miss anything, man. I like that.
GameSpy: The other major thing at the very beginning is the auto-deployment. No more taking soldiers out of the Skyranger?
JS: This is true. We do have auto-deployment, because there were some moments in deployment that... I guess they were very X-COM. You step your guys off and you get blasted or someone would already be in reaction fire up there.
GameSpy: The D-Day moment.
JS: Right, exactly. And everyone would just step off over the bodies of the people in front of them. But yeah, now, basically, the player starts deployed from the dropship. We actually had it where they deployed from the Skyranger, so in the first turn they deployed from the Skyranger, and what we found is that a lot of times it was just... It sort of added two extra turns of deploying off the dropship that felt the same for every map. Now, there were some moments where aliens were lying in wait, but we wanted it to start where the player has a safe spot to start, and their first move was tactically different every time.
GameSpy: For the geoscape, and the map view, I assume that you only get one base this time around.
JS: That's true. You only get one base, and there are a couple reasons for that. But you have one base, and then you have hangar bases on every other continent that you expand your interceptor force into. So you still do interceptions on every continent, or every continent where you have satellite coverage. But the one base, also at the beginning of the game, when you choose what that continent is, every continent has specific bonuses associated with it. So the starting point has a difference in terms of what bonus you'll get, and as you add more satellites, then the bonuses increase on that continent. So there's a draw to expand your satellite coverage to other continents, because you're getting those continent bonuses, and there's also an exponential reward for keeping your satellites on the same continent.
That's one of the things that happens on the geoscape. And then, because we have one base, and this is where research takes place and engineering takes place, and all your soldiers are now in the barracks at this one base, the base-building is a little more involved. We have new facilities, and there are one-off facilities, but there are also facilities where, as you build them, the adjacency becomes more important. As you start to excavate, then you want to keep your, let's say your satellite uplinks or your power stations or your laboratories, adjacent to each other, because they all offer distinct bonuses if they're built horizontally or vertically adjacent. Things like that.
GameSpy: Does that base ever come under attack?
JS: Yeah. Later missions, we're not talking about.
GameSpy: I noticed you've turned scanning for UFOs into some kind of active gameplay thing?
JS: No, actually all that is is basically fast-forward. Saying "scan for activity" is basically a way of saying "carry on." Let's fast-forward at the one-day rate basically.
GameSpy: How have you made the interception mini-game not suck?
JS: A fair question. Interception is still in, and it's still a pretty short experience, because we didn't want to add a whole third game. We thought two games was enough for one game, you know? Combat, strategy. We haven't shown it off yet, but it actually has more gameplay elements to it. But yeah, we're not talking about it just yet. Yes, we're aware.
GameSpy: It would be hard to make it any more simple than it was. "Push the 'shoot down' button and wait."
JS: We could say "stance" and then "just wait, baby"...
GameSpy: For the tactical maps, how big are those, and how have you avoided the bug-hunt scenario?
JS: They range. The map that we showed down in the demo was a pretty small map. That was a couple of buildings and the surrounding geography. And they range pretty big. If you can imagine that you can shoot down some capital ships, you can get some pretty big ships on the ground, those are some pretty big maps. They range in size pretty good. Even the urban maps range in size. So yeah, the idea of that last remaining Sectoid who's wandering around out somewhere, or even worse, Terror from the Deep... You know what I'm talking about. The cruise liners and you have to find the exact closet.
One way that's combated is that you can hear aliens and aliens can hear you in this game. We didn't show this in the demo, but you can actually get audio cues. There's a system that I wrote called the Overmind, and that's basically the alien player. These aliens are out there and they're not static, they're all patrolling and moving around and doing their thing. But they can hear when things happen. If you just kick in a door -- There are a couple of ways to open a door in XCOM -- if you move up next to a door and take cover then you have the option of pushing the door open, and that's silent, but if you were to just path through the door, then your guy's going to run up to it, boot the door in, and then continue on. And that's better if you want to move further, but that's not as good because any aliens in the area are going to hear that, and they're going to let you know. "Okay, I just heard it." They hear all kinds of things, glass breaking, guns going off. And as a result you can also hear aliens as well. On some of the bigger maps, like some of the nature maps, some of the UFO maps and things like that, we have to make sure that the player is directed. But because you can hear the aliens, typically you don't find yourself just wandering around in empty space for turn after turn.
GameSpy: Is there any replay function? Like from the original, if I saw an alien run into my vision for a couple of steps and then leave again, I wouldn't even be able to tell on the map where that was.
JS: Where that occurred. Well, the way we're trying to do that, too, in the original you had camera cuts. In ours, that's a lot of interpolated camera movement. So we've tried to make it so that when that sort of thing occurs, we're not doing cuts. We basically interpolate and from here, we go *whoop* and show you -- okay, this guy's moving -- and then we interpolate back. So a lot of times you have a pretty good idea about that stuff. We've talked about other things, but right now that's what we're doing.
GameSpy: I did get a great sense of action, more action than I thought I would get out of any turn-based game, from all these mini-cutscenes. All the actions, the kills, the shots. The one thing that worried me about that is, if that happens every time, is it going to get repetitive? And speaking of which, did the aliens get some kind of reaction movement turn when they were spotted?
JS: Yeah, the scamper. When you reveal they get the scamper... It depends on when you encounter them. If they hear you, suddenly they won't come hunting you, they'll go into overwatch and wait for you to appear. It depends on what type of map, what they're doing. But yeah, when you reveal them, the aliens get a scamper to...cover... Well, some aliens get an aggressive scamper. It just depends. In that case, when you revealed them, they all scampered. The Mutons too.
GameSpy: You had that mini-cutscene in there where you spot them, and they look up and go "Oh! Hello!" and they run away. Does that happen every time I spot a group of aliens?
JS: That happens every time you spot a group of aliens. Now, to be fair, the demo is kind of condensed gameplay. That was only three or four turns and typically your abduction missions are going to last a little longer than that. I mean, it's the sort of thing we've always worried about. We've always worried about that. Is this the sort of thing where it's going to get repetitive? But when we actually played it, man, I've seen those cutscenes more than anybody on Earth. And I don't get tired of them, because they're really fast. When you're actually playing the game, you've got that XCOM, like, "oh shit!" You move too far, and you're like, "oh shit!" I think it adds to the feel. We have the potential, of course... It wouldn't bother me if we gave people the option say, "Nah, I don't want to see the mini-cameras," or "Cinema cameras first" or something like that. That's not something we've implemented but that's definitely not something I'm opposed to either.
GameSpy: One last really quick one: is there a hex grid under everything, or a regular grid? How does that work?
JS: It's free movement, actually.
GameSpy: So no grid?
JS: Yeah, no grid.
As a final closing thought, I leave you with this: Solomon would neither confirm nor deny the existence of multiplayer in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. That doesn't mean that there's definitely going to be multiplayer, but do you know how often a developer refuses to rule out a multiplayer mode less than a year from release when there isn't a multiplayer mode? Not very many.
:thumbsup:
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Firaxis are adding a multiplayer component.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mIgxX39JCN4
New trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz5ePZTXLOI&feature=player_embedded
An hour worth of single-player gameplay: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/29/enemy-yours-watch-an-hour-of-the-xcom-remake/#more-121893
Looks great so far.
This is defiantly a game I plan on getting.
Quote from: Razgovory on August 30, 2012, 11:59:19 AM
This is defiantly a game I plan on getting.
and who will you be defying?
I am thrilled with the multiplayer addition. I still remember playing 'co-op' with my friends on the original xbox...each of us controlling x amount of people on the away mission.
I didn't like the ideas of mix-n-match teams at first, but I think it could be interesting.
I have my copy pre-ordered...can't wait!
I will defy anyone I need to.
Some Germans play through what I think is one of the tutorial missions. http://youtu.be/muvjy3yEn1c
Um funk. It is all in German. :rolleyes:
Video games are better in German.
bought it for my friend's birthday. He's a long time fan of the game. I'm waiting for the release and his appreciation to see if it's worth it.
Multiplayer looks... good. :o
http://youtu.be/yv7snyLUywE?hd=1&t=4m33s
This is pretty much one of the funnest interpretations of X-Com I've played.
a little over 2 weeks before release...I haven't been this excited for a video game in years.
I couldn't decide if I wanted it for xbox or pc....so I pre-ordered both :D
Quote from: Mr. Grey on September 24, 2012, 09:50:36 AM
I couldn't decide if I wanted it for xbox or pc....so I pre-ordered both :D
Odd. :D
Demo is out now. :)
Downloading. :)
It won't let me download the demo. :(
Restart Steam, I had an issue too.
Well 1st mission is tutorial which i had just watched online yesterday.
Looks promising all in all.
Human power. Death to all beast men and some sort of creepy-crawly things.
Irony award: Potential to let Mexico be overrun and destroyed by illegal aliens.
Quote from: garbon on September 24, 2012, 09:57:11 AM
Quote from: Mr. Grey on September 24, 2012, 09:50:36 AM
I couldn't decide if I wanted it for xbox or pc....so I pre-ordered both :D
Odd. :D
Yes, I enjoy wasting money I do not have :Embarrass:
I prefer playing xbox when I am home, but my wife enjoys hogging the tv and I thought the pc version might allow more customization.
I thought the demo was amazing. I am bummed about the 6-person squad limit, but I will get over it. I remember always bringing the maximum number of people on all my missions....just in case! Looking back, it was usually a mistake because half were usually rookies that got mind controlled into tossing a grenade within the skyranger!
Well, the demo looks nice, but apparently my laptop refuses to handle it (i.e., overheats and shuts down). Anybody got a link to how to manually tweak the settings down to "utter bullshit"?
I thought the demo was okay. A few to many cut scenes though. This might be the first Firaxis game I've ever played that had gore in it. Blasting sectoids was good fun.
Quote from: ulmont on September 26, 2012, 09:41:27 AM
Well, the demo looks nice, but apparently my laptop refuses to handle it (i.e., overheats and shuts down). Anybody got a link to how to manually tweak the settings down to "utter bullshit"?
You can reduce everything in-game, including the resolution.
Yeah, the demo definitely makes me want to play the game...for about $25 or so. Not 40 or 50, though. Blastin' sectoids and their weird jetpack cyborg buddies is fun.
lol three of the people in the first mission get killed and you can't prevent it.
For 2nd mission is there way to increase difficulty? Couldn't figure it out for myself.
Quote from: katmai on September 26, 2012, 09:08:40 PM
For 2nd mission is there way to increase difficulty? Couldn't figure it out for myself.
There's a demo editor floating around that might do that. Haven't tried it myself. http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?140536-Demo-Editor-I-just-Made
Another thing in the second mission is that the tutorial thing says to try to stun the thin guys...but I couldn't find a stun ability on any one of my people, even upon getting face-to-face with the thin guys. So eventually I blasted them and everybody got poisoned.
Quote from: JonasSalk on September 27, 2012, 07:27:37 PM
Another thing in the second mission is that the tutorial thing says to try to stun the thin guys...but I couldn't find a stun ability on any one of my people, even upon getting face-to-face with the thin guys.
There's no stun available in the demo. It's basically a hint for later on.
Quote from: JonasSalk on September 26, 2012, 09:05:25 PM
lol three of the people in the first mission get killed and you can't prevent it.
lol I was cursing at my screen wondering why they would purposely make this my first experience with the game.
I had to tune down the graphics a bit...my laptop is 2 years old and was struggling.
On a side note, I just had my entire team wiped out on a cruise liner mission in TFTD...mind controlled even before I could get most my squad out of the skyranger!
"Hey hey, look at this! Badass squad of badasses here! Rawr, they got huge guns, and the Japanese chick sounds like an American, but is also a doctor! BOOM, OOPS, SHE'S FUKKEN DEAD."
The voice acting could use severe work. My Honduran, Russian, German, South African, and Japanese teammates should not sound like Amurrkun bros from California or the Mid-West.
One day till the alien invasion.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 07, 2012, 11:03:20 AM
One day till the alien invasion.
for people who bought on steam it will be active at Midnight on 9th/9pm west coast on 8th.
Or for me at 8pm tomorrow.
EU is couple of days later. When will they stop this nonsense of non-simulatious releases.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 08, 2012, 02:24:31 AM
EU is couple of days later. When will they stop this nonsense of non-simulatious releases.
I was quite on the fence about shelling out 50 euros for this, but they made the call easy, since I will be able to torrent it more than 24 hours before being able to acquire it legally.
I might pay the iron price first, then pay the gold price when it goes down during the Christmas sales.
RPS has posted its review:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/08/xcom-review/
I like the intro:
QuoteThis statement is probably a little too navel-gazing, but right now I'm circling around this write-up trying to find a way in. I'm acutely aware of the need to balance any commentary on XCOM between addressing the questions and concerns of long-time X-COM fans and treating it as a brand new 2012 videogame aimed at at least as many people who don't know the original well or at all. This must be what Mitt Romney feels like when he tries to find words that will somehow appeal to two groups of people with fundamentally different attitudes towards society. Jim recently described XCOM as 'the critical challenge of the year', which only made me more fearful, damn his eyes.
It's a rather long and in depth review and seems to touch on all the questions/issues potential buyers may have.
Yeah, nice review.
I AM in an excited/worried state. I want the old UFO experience but to re-live it, not to repeat it, if you know what I mean. Kind of big expectations.
I think for the time being I will re-install Silent Storm. :P
Downloaded and ready to play tonight.
Will be using all of you as my squads. :menace:
Quote from: katmai on October 08, 2012, 08:56:04 AM
Downloaded and ready to play tonight.
Will be using all of you as my squads. :menace:
Please include me. I look forward to a particularly gruesome death. :)
Oh you are on list of about 60 languishites I have planned out :D
Want a multinational force so using even folks like Ikk, mr. Penguin etc...
Quote from: katmai on October 08, 2012, 08:56:04 AM
Downloaded and ready to play tonight.
Will be using all of you as my squads. :menace:
Don't kill me. :(
Hmm... better to buy for seXbox or PC? Anyone seen any comparisons of the versions? :hmm:
PC is always better.
Quote from: Habbaku on October 08, 2012, 01:03:10 PM
PC is always better.
With the exception of sports games, I still have yet to see a single game of any kind where this is not true.
What sucks is seeing PC games UI's neutered to be worakable with two joystics and 8 buttons.
Looks like we dirty european peasants will have to wait until friday. :(
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 08, 2012, 11:04:53 AM
Quote from: katmai on October 08, 2012, 08:56:04 AM
Downloaded and ready to play tonight.
Will be using all of you as my squads. :menace:
Don't kill me. :(
im gonna try and not kill anyone. But i don't make any promises.
Welp two missions in, Meri has been promoted to Heavy Weapons, Brazen died in 2nd mission and France is freaking the fuckout already and close to abandoning XCOM :lol:
Playing on Classic difficulty.
Jaron died on his first mission :(
Seedy has done better and promoted to Support Class, while Capturedfairy was designated Assault class.
how the FUCK can it be unlocked for you already?
Quote from: Tamas on October 09, 2012, 01:35:06 AM
how the FUCK can it be unlocked for you already?
Because it unlocked on steam at midnight east coast, which is 8pm monday for me. :P
So after six missions,
Brazen and Jaron are KIA, France has surrendered :rolleyes:
Beeb has joined the ranks And been designated as Heavy Weapons just like Meri, Derspicy is support class joining Seedy. And just one assault soldier, that being CF.
only sniper I have is rng Japanese soldier who is also highest ranking xcom at
Lt.
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 01:46:57 AM
Quote from: Tamas on October 09, 2012, 01:35:06 AM
how the FUCK can it be unlocked for you already?
Because it unlocked on steam at midnight east coast, which is 8pm monday for me. :P
lol nice. So how is it? Apparently vpn unlock works on it, so if I can find a cheap enough cd-key source I might buy it today :P
Amazon.com had a pre-order at $45 (€35).
I'm enjoying it (the original is reason I first bought a PC). You can customize your squads name, nickname and appearance as well as the color tint of armor, but can't customize their nationality hence why no Syt yet on my squad.
Important to get satellites to reduce panic on the continent you don't choose as home
Base. (How I lost France was overlooking satellites)
Ran into three species so far the sectoids, thin men shown in demo and new
Class.
Missions have been 1 scripted rescue important figure, two downed ufos and three alien abductions site.
And most important is remember to end squad in cover (brazen died) and to being medi packs(jaron died)
Make me a sniper! Not a Japanese one though :P
Quote from: Tamas on October 09, 2012, 02:25:04 AM
Make me a sniper! Not a Japanese one though :P
have no control of what class the soldier gets designated.
All rookies start generic class and after one or two missions are given class.
So odds of Hungarian becoming sniper are 1/4. :P
bah!
I'll start it today. I've been sick lately and couldn't stay up very late last night. Gots me a cold. :(
50$(or 45 on GMG) for a pc game, seriously?
:lol:
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:21:13 AM
50$(or 45 on GMG) for a pc game, seriously?
:lol:
Seems pretty standard. AAA titles are usually €40-€60, mid range ones at 20-30 and budget titles are 0-20.
And that hasn't really changed since, well, ever since I've started playing computer games, oh, 20 years ago.
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:21:13 AM
50$(or 45 on GMG) for a pc game, seriously?
:lol:
50 or 60 USD is the norm for new PC releases and has been for ages, iirc. :huh:
No it's not. It is for cross platforms games where there is also a console version that you need the inflated price for like Call of Duty, Borderlands, etc or the ad-hoc Blizzard games
Look on steam, most games aren't 60$. Darksiders 2 was (a cross platform of all games) 40$ at launch. Torchlight 2 is 20$.
It's too much money, those games aren't worth that much when there is many many more alternative for a fraction of the price.
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:50:08 AMthose games aren't worth that much
I think they're worth what customers want to pay for them and companies want to charge for them.
Most games on Steam aren't AAA titles.
Just to be clear, GF, $60 is too much for me personally, too. I bought Xcom off GMG for $45 and a $10 in-store credit, and the free copy of Civ 5 might make a nice gift later.
I'm not made of money. :P
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:50:08 AM
No it's not. It is for cross platforms games where there is also a console version that you need the inflated price for like Call of Duty, Borderlands, etc or the ad-hoc Blizzard games
Look on steam, most games aren't 60$. Darksiders 2 was (a cross platform of all games) 40$ at launch. Torchlight 2 is 20$.
It's too much money, those games aren't worth that much when there is many many more alternative for a fraction of the price.
Sucks that you're poor, bro.
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2012, 11:26:10 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:50:08 AM
No it's not. It is for cross platforms games where there is also a console version that you need the inflated price for like Call of Duty, Borderlands, etc or the ad-hoc Blizzard games
Look on steam, most games aren't 60$. Darksiders 2 was (a cross platform of all games) 40$ at launch. Torchlight 2 is 20$.
It's too much money, those games aren't worth that much when there is many many more alternative for a fraction of the price.
Sucks that you're poor, bro.
It really does. Share the wealth buttman, share!
Also :pirate:
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 11:39:02 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2012, 11:26:10 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:50:08 AM
No it's not. It is for cross platforms games where there is also a console version that you need the inflated price for like Call of Duty, Borderlands, etc or the ad-hoc Blizzard games
Look on steam, most games aren't 60$. Darksiders 2 was (a cross platform of all games) 40$ at launch. Torchlight 2 is 20$.
It's too much money, those games aren't worth that much when there is many many more alternative for a fraction of the price.
Sucks that you're poor, bro.
It really does. Share the wealth buttman, share!
Also :pirate:
What does a pirate colon have to do with this?
Quote from: garbon on October 09, 2012, 11:44:26 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 11:39:02 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2012, 11:26:10 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 09, 2012, 08:50:08 AM
No it's not. It is for cross platforms games where there is also a console version that you need the inflated price for like Call of Duty, Borderlands, etc or the ad-hoc Blizzard games
Look on steam, most games aren't 60$. Darksiders 2 was (a cross platform of all games) 40$ at launch. Torchlight 2 is 20$.
It's too much money, those games aren't worth that much when there is many many more alternative for a fraction of the price.
Sucks that you're poor, bro.
It really does. Share the wealth buttman, share!
Also :pirate:
What does a pirate colon have to do with this?
Rebranding, Pirate Bay was getting to big.
It would be nice if they gave me the order capture an alien after they give me the equipment to do so, and not before.
Until you have built the stun gun and alien containment facility it is all moot. But they will keep friendly reminding you to try and capture some aliens.
I hate you guys, I will have to wait over a month before I can play this.
Sorry hansie,
And to whomever was asking about PC vs Xbox, PC for sure since the designers have mentioned game was made with expectations of people making mods.
I bet the chair force at bagram has it.
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2012, 01:56:50 PM
I bet the chair force at bagram has it.
they probably wrote it off as "training material"
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2012, 01:56:50 PM
I bet the chair force at bagram has it.
I don't know, they might consider it too violent for those gentle souls.
:lol:
They are downloading Thomas the tank engine.
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 01:51:47 PM
Sorry hansie,
And to whomever was asking about PC vs Xbox, PC for sure since the designers have mentioned game was made with expectations of people making mods.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.deviantart.com%2Fdownload%2F123190068%2FPC_Gaming_Master_Race_by_Claidheam_Righ.jpg&hash=37bf7b6b4d4d6c811e5a2ed30973932e9d0f62ff)
Quote from: Hansmeister on October 09, 2012, 01:46:56 PM
I hate you guys, I will have to wait over a month before I can play this.
It's going to be a couple of months before I bother. I figure that Steam's holiday sale will mark it down at least 50%.
Quote from: Habbaku on October 09, 2012, 02:20:58 PM
Quote from: Hansmeister on October 09, 2012, 01:46:56 PM
I hate you guys, I will have to wait over a month before I can play this.
It's going to be a couple of months before I bother. I figure that Steam's holiday sale will mark it down at least 50%.
this
Quote from: Habbaku on October 09, 2012, 02:20:58 PM
It's going to be a couple of months before I bother. I figure that Steam's holiday sale will mark it down at least 50%.
:yes:
Has anyone figured out how to hire more Engineers? I want to put more sats over China but I can't without building a new sat room. I can't do that without more engineers.
If need more engineers means need more workshops as that is only way I know to increase your amount.
You also get more engineers through some missions.
Quote from: ulmont on October 09, 2012, 05:36:59 PM
You also get more engineers through some missions.
Indeed, just did one that gave me 4 more.
I'm a little fuzzy on the interceptor stuff. When I have the thing scan for UFOs it seems to go very slowly. When I turn it off it goes very quickly. I'm unclear as to what I'm suppose to be doing.
Unlike katmai I value the lives of my X-COM soldiers: Three missions into Classic/Ironman (no tutorial) and no KIAs. :showoff:
X-Comrades Golda Meir, Augusto Pinochet, and Bruce Willis are grateful I am such a thoughtful commander.
<_<
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 09:09:08 PM
<_<
Of course after I post that I lose three guys in two missions. :lol:
Golda Meir took a plasma shot to the face and Sylvester Stallone didn't even last one mission. :rolleyes:
:nelson:
that's what you get for disrespecting me!
Downloading the demo now. I'm on the fence, with the Civ5 deal and all.
Quote from: DontSayBanana on October 09, 2012, 10:30:40 PM
Downloading the demo now. I'm on the fence, with the Civ5 deal and all.
I thought CIV V deal was only for preorders. I can give you a copy of CIV V, but only if you promise to say my name really loud when chasing a duck.
Nope, they are still giving away a copy of Civ V with a buy.
Game is absolutely amazing. Although I liked the demo, it did not do it justice.
I played for 8hrs straight.....just couldn't force myself to stop! Everytime I tried to stop and go to bed...it was like, "1 more day til research complete!" "Now just 2 more days til my new facility is built!" "Oh nos, Aliens terrorizing those poor Canadians, I must save them!" :P
I'm really happy with the remake so far.
Yeah, this game really has the Firaxis "one more turn" thing going for it.
I'm going to disappoint Nigeria. They wanted a satellite, but I can't build one fast enough. :(
Quote from: Razgovory on October 10, 2012, 09:22:22 AM
I'm going to disappoint Nigeria. They wanted a satellite, but I can't build one fast enough. :(
After I placed my order for 1 satellite, I started yelling at my screen when it kept telling me I didn't have any to launch. I overlooked the whole '20 days' to manufacture just one.
India was already at lvl 4 panic and I was freaking out. Thank heaven, a terror mission there popped up and their panic level went to zero after I kicked some chryssalid ass!
Ugh! I just want to go home and play all night again! :mad:
The game really "clicked" for me during this bomb disarmament mission in Australia... Thin Men almost eradicated my squad. My only sniper was ambushed one one Thin Man just after he overwatch-shot an other one.
Due to experience soldiers making such a huge difference, losing them HURTS. I am of course playing Ironman.
I wonder if I got this for the PS3 for my son I can get him off my laptop (he plays RTW on it every afternoon <_<).
Ok, bought the game from Amazon US for $45 . . . still have to wait for unlock? WTF?
Also, in the day of digital retail I find it silly to have staggered release dates around the world. :rolleyes:
QuoteAvailable: 12 October 2012
This game will unlock in approximately 1 day and 5 hours
Poor Syt.
Any of you guys tryed the game using Steam big picture?
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 10, 2012, 02:01:30 PM
Any of you guys tryed the game using Steam big picture?
I plan on doing this once I get the huge HDMI cable I ordered in the mail. Should be in this week. I want to play XCOM while sitting on the couch with my laptop on my, uh, lap, gawking at my giant television.
I don't understand. What's the appeal of that?
I think I'm going to restart on Ironman. The temptation to reload after an alien gets a lucky hit is to much.
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2012, 02:28:22 PM
I don't understand. What's the appeal of that?
I don't know yet, as I've never done it before. :P
I thought it might be cool to try. The cable is only $6 so if I don't like it, no big loss.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 10, 2012, 02:43:13 PM
I think I'm going to restart on Ironman. The temptation to reload after an alien gets a lucky hit is to much.
yeah but its fucking frustrating that way. Altough I'll stick to Ironman since otherwise I would be just reloading constantly, yeah.
Quote from: Tamas on October 10, 2012, 04:36:32 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 10, 2012, 02:43:13 PM
I think I'm going to restart on Ironman. The temptation to reload after an alien gets a lucky hit is to much.
yeah but its fucking frustrating that way. Altough I'll stick to Ironman since otherwise I would be just reloading constantly, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, Playing Ironman is fucking tense. I swear my soldiers are worse shots as well. I had four guys miss 45% in a row.
Well, this is a mixed blessing. My computer lags like hell on the demo, so it doesn't look like I'll be buying it just yet; at least, not until I finish my new rig, which isn't really a priority at the moment.
My best soldiers so far have been slavs. My worst: Canadians. :hmm:
We don't own guns!
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 10, 2012, 03:22:18 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2012, 02:28:22 PM
I don't understand. What's the appeal of that?
I don't know yet, as I've never done it before. :P
I thought it might be cool to try. The cable is only $6 so if I don't like it, no big loss.
This is why I got it for both pc and xbox. I've tried hooking my laptop to my projector and used wireless keyboard/mouse....it just doesn't feel as natural as playing on the xbox.
I can't believe how good snipers are. Squad site and double tap make them wrecking machines! My best one just hit colonel.....he is Canadian...wtf?
You could have use a 360 controller with your laptop.
Quote from: Mr. Grey on October 11, 2012, 07:45:59 AM
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 10, 2012, 03:22:18 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2012, 02:28:22 PM
I don't understand. What's the appeal of that?
I don't know yet, as I've never done it before. :P
I thought it might be cool to try. The cable is only $6 so if I don't like it, no big loss.
This is why I got it for both pc and xbox. I've tried hooking my laptop to my projector and used wireless keyboard/mouse....it just doesn't feel as natural as playing on the xbox.
I can't believe how good snipers are. Squad site and double tap make them wrecking machines! My best one just hit colonel.....he is Canadian...wtf?
Yeah re-nicknamed my sniper "reaper" as seems to rarely miss. Leads squad in kills by 2-1 margin.
Does anyone have a strategy for dealing with Chrysalids?... Tired of having my teams turned into walking dead.
Strategy?
Um unless the mission has mutons I haven't faced any other alien using grenades so if mission without them I ignore my normal approach and keep my guys with LOS of rest of squad when facing those zombie making bastards.
The floating discs will whip grenades. I'll try a tigher group and see what happens. My worst encounters have been floating discs and chrysalids. Bloody nightmare.
With that combo you are fucked. Just have to hope get lucky and researched enough weapons and armor.
I got two Russian chicks with the last name. I wonder if they are sisters. :hmm: I have a lot more Americans this time around. Last game I had mostly Nigerians for some reason. I also have one chick from Britain and one from Scotland. I didn't think Scotland was an independent country. For some reason women survive longer then men in this. I call it, "The Ripley effect".
Just as a side note - since I've started playing this my parrot now shouts in a pained voice "Awww Fuck OFF!"
What continents do you guys start in? I like Africa for the extra funds.
If you launch a satellite over a different continent, do you also get the continent bonus? Or just the country bonus?
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 11, 2012, 12:04:18 PM
If you launch a satellite over a different continent, do you also get the continent bonus? Or just the country bonus?
Country, until you have a sufficient number of satellites over the continent, at which time you pick up the continent bonus. I hear starting in Africa and immediately throwing satellites up over Europe (starting with Russia) is a pretty good economic strategy.
UFOpaedia has a section for the new X-COM, but it's kinda light on information right now.
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Enemy_Unknown_(EU2012)
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 11, 2012, 12:04:18 PM
What continents do you guys start in? I like Africa for the extra funds.
If you launch a satellite over a different continent, do you also get the continent bonus? Or just the country bonus?
I started in the USA, cause you know. USA! USA!
It's a little annoying that when my soldiers panic, they feel the best way to express themselves is shoot at one another. I kinda assumed that X-com was taking the best of the best and the rookies were like special forces from their respective countries. Maybe they are just raw recruits.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 11, 2012, 10:09:02 PM
It's a little annoying that when my soldiers panic, they feel the best way to express themselves is shoot at one another. I kinda assumed that X-com was taking the best of the best and the rookies were like special forces from their respective countries. Maybe they are just raw recruits.
Is it just the women or is it everyone?
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 11, 2012, 07:48:52 AM
You could have use a 360 controller with your laptop.
^ so sad that I just learned about this a few weeks back.
Stupid Chryssalids! I thought I had killed the last muton on a landed UFO...but no extract and the alien 'noise beacon' thing pointed back outside the ship. I figured one of those crafty bastards snuck outside to flank me. I sent my assault (MAJ w/Laser shotgun) dashing outside....into a pack of 3 Chryssalids. My first officer to be KIA.
I do love that beacon thing...I recall my frustration spending an hour looking for the last stupid sectoid on 'very large ufo' missions in the original (motion sensor was stupid!). I am only playing on normal difficulty, but it doesn't seem like enemies actually move on the map until you move a squad member to a predetermined area. I hope this is not the case on higher difficulties.
Quote from: The Brain on October 12, 2012, 12:05:00 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 11, 2012, 10:09:02 PM
It's a little annoying that when my soldiers panic, they feel the best way to express themselves is shoot at one another. I kinda assumed that X-com was taking the best of the best and the rookies were like special forces from their respective countries. Maybe they are just raw recruits.
Is it just the women or is it everyone?
Actually the women seems to fire at the aliens when they panic. The men seem to have issues and start firing at the chicks. I met my first trio of Mutons. Bastards were hard to hit. Ended up using grenades and rockets to really put them down.
I lost my first soldier, on the first mission before I could rename him, his name lost to history.
:(
My best sniper so far is named after my GF, in hindsight, that was a bad idea.
Also, I change everybody's head to an helmet. Especially the Assaults & Heavies. Dudes, aliens, atleast wear some protection.
A couple crashes so far. That's one demerit to playing on PC. <_<
A couple missions in and I like it a lot (playing Classic/Ironman).
My first soldier has earned her nickname - a NZ girl sniper. I had a Swedish assault chick ( :perv: ?) equipped with a stun gun to capture an alien. She got a bit unlucky during the following mission - she was poisoned once at the beginning of the mission, then again at the end of it which caused her to panic, before a Thin Man finally put her out of her misery. :( She already had a WTF moment in a previous mission where she and a sectoid duelled at point blank range with only limited success on both sides.
The mission had a bit of a funny moment, too. A Thin Man is dropped into the mission area - three of my squad get up simultaneously and blast him to bits. :lol:
In the mission before that (clearing a downed UFO) a German girl was down to her last health blip and in the line of fire of three aliens. She managed to survive and even take out the last aliens (two linked sectoids) with a 25% hit chance. ^_^
My first soldier (from the tutorial mission), an Argie heavy died on his third mission when he (literally) ran into a Thin Man. :pinch:
Quote from: Mr. Grey on October 12, 2012, 07:25:37 AM
I am only playing on normal difficulty, but it doesn't seem like enemies actually move on the map until you move a squad member to a predetermined area. I hope this is not the case on higher difficulties.
It seems to me that there are two groups of aliens.
1) Those that hang around in one location and wait for you.
2) Those that actively move around the map on patrol.
I'm playing on normal right now and the former group is the most likely, but I have seen the groups of the latter come waltzing into my detection range and then scatter. What annoys me most is that they get an extra "reaction" turn as soon as they notice you.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 12, 2012, 07:54:50 AM
Quote from: The Brain on October 12, 2012, 12:05:00 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 11, 2012, 10:09:02 PM
It's a little annoying that when my soldiers panic, they feel the best way to express themselves is shoot at one another. I kinda assumed that X-com was taking the best of the best and the rookies were like special forces from their respective countries. Maybe they are just raw recruits.
Is it just the women or is it everyone?
Actually the women seems to fire at the aliens when they panic. The men seem to have issues and start firing at the chicks. I met my first trio of Mutons. Bastards were hard to hit. Ended up using grenades and rockets to really put them down.
I rushed research to laser weapons as soon as I saw it and Mutons haven't been much of a problem, especially with Snipers on Squad Sight, which just kills anything.
Have you guys seen any daytime missions?
Daytime missions mostly come out at night. Mostly.
Quote from: Kleves on October 12, 2012, 09:42:10 AM
A couple crashes so far. That's one demerit to playing on PC. <_<
is it happening in same spot?
Haven't had any problems yet here.
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 12, 2012, 11:00:16 AM
Quote from: Mr. Grey on October 12, 2012, 07:25:37 AM
I am only playing on normal difficulty, but it doesn't seem like enemies actually move on the map until you move a squad member to a predetermined area. I hope this is not the case on higher difficulties.
It seems to me that there are two groups of aliens.
1) Those that hang around in one location and wait for you.
2) Those that actively move around the map on patrol.
I'm playing on normal right now and the former group is the most likely, but I have seen the groups of the latter come waltzing into my detection range and then scatter. What annoys me most is that they get an extra "reaction" turn as soon as they notice you.
I was reading on the XCOM forums about certain groups 'patrolling.' I just haven't noticed it yet.
I think the 'reaction turn' they get when you stumble upon them is unfair. Does your squad get the same when alien patrols come upon you?!
I have made the command decision to get the new guy training next. I do have a fair amount of vets, but bringing a rookie on a mission mid-game is horrible. Even the basic perks make a big difference.
I don't get the reaction turn hate, maybe it's because I've never played the original.
I see it has where they end up is where they should have been along all that time. The original spot is just a scenario to play a nifty cutscene a billion time.
I agree about it just being part of the cutscene; just annoying.
In the original..if you stumbled upon them, you could take a shot. They only reaction aliens could make was taking a shot if they were on overwatch, they couldn't just run away into cover.
I also realized last night how much I miss aim/snap/auto shot. When a chryssalid is 1 tile away from me...it would be nice to take a triple shot!
Normal battlescape might be a little too easy. I think I've done maybe 15 missions total and haven't lost a single soldier. :huh:
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 12, 2012, 11:03:19 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 12, 2012, 07:54:50 AM
Quote from: The Brain on October 12, 2012, 12:05:00 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 11, 2012, 10:09:02 PM
It's a little annoying that when my soldiers panic, they feel the best way to express themselves is shoot at one another. I kinda assumed that X-com was taking the best of the best and the rookies were like special forces from their respective countries. Maybe they are just raw recruits.
Is it just the women or is it everyone?
Actually the women seems to fire at the aliens when they panic. The men seem to have issues and start firing at the chicks. I met my first trio of Mutons. Bastards were hard to hit. Ended up using grenades and rockets to really put them down.
I rushed research to laser weapons as soon as I saw it and Mutons haven't been much of a problem, especially with Snipers on Squad Sight, which just kills anything.
Yeah, I had laser weapons. The Muton was just hard to hit despite being right next to me. They also have an ability to panic your soldiers. I went into an Alien base with my "A" team, and a guy shot a muton with a laser. The Muton responded by going into a Frenzy which freaked my guy out. His response to panic: Shot the Muton again. :lol: Also captured one the big bastards in that mission. I've been playing Normal-Iron man and lost four guys so far. Two Rookies and two Squaddies. Usually I lose them do to bad luck, though one died because of a Chrysalid.
What kind of squads are you guys putting out? I've been putting out mixed groups of vets and rookies. Maybe one really good guy, and a few squaddies and Rookies. Lasers and carapace armor help quite a bit.
I usually like two snipers, two assaults, one support, and one heavy. I'll usually bring a single rookie or a squaddie along so they can level up.
I never get enough Assaults. I'm afraid if I put to many vets in a unit, that if some terrible disaster happens they will get wiped out. I did put together my "all star team" for some of the really hairy moments.
Yeah I also run the 2A/2S/1H/1S combo. Just seemed like the best one from my limited play and so far it worked really well. Run and gun assaults with a laser shotgun are a wrecking ball and the snipers with upgraded scopes and lasers are demolishing anything that run into sight.
This game is something I havent done in quite a while. I start with a mission and all of a sudden 9 hours have passed and its light outside.... :Embarrass:
Assaults are great because you can give them rifle and they're still really effective. I like the added flexibility. I'll give one Assault the Laser Shotty who closes with the enemy while the other Assault works in tandem with him. The Support stays near the Heavy who just blasts things whatever the chance to hit because Holotargetting works every time.
I only have to do that if anything gets past the two Snipers, which is rare. A fully-vetted Sniper with a SCOPE and Double Tap is incredible.
Also, the SHIV is super useful. I cleared out an Alien base with no losses because it would just roll up, spot for my Sniper and laugh at the aliens. Later it got gangbanged by Chrysalids so I had to hoof it with the regular troops. :mad:
Quote from: Razgovory on October 12, 2012, 04:40:53 PM
I never get enough Assaults. I'm afraid if I put to many vets in a unit, that if some terrible disaster happens they will get wiped out. I did put together my "all star team" for some of the really hairy moments.
I have too many Assaults in my game. :P
I really like Supports but my game wants to be stingy with them. Cpt. Audrey Hepburn can't pop smokes and medkits on
every mission goddamnit.
Bet She looks good doing it.
She does. :wub:
Those little little mind control bastards are annoying. Fortunately they haven't cost me anyone yet. I wonder if when they mind control someone that person will use their special abilities. I'd be pretty fucked if they mind controlled my heavy and then she fire a rocket at everyone. Oh well, I took one home alive (almost lost a few guys in that attempt), so he'll get his.
I really like this game. I like the fact that I don't have to micromanage the inventory, and that I can trust my special forces guys to carry enough ammunition into battle. One thing I've found annoying though, I wish when I send a guy to the barracks so another rookie can have some fun he'd have the decency to bring to bring is weapons, medkits, and armor back to the armory, instead of me having the track the bastard down to find out who has the armor and scopes.
I get really engrossed in the research element of the game. It's fun to bring back a poor alien so that German doctor can torture it to death. I get so interested in research that sometimes I'm annoyed that I have to go out and stop sectoids from vandalizing gas stations and the like.
I'm only up to having 5 squad mates but I like rolling with 2 Heavies.
I also lost my only Assault, Katmai.
Sorry mate.
:angry:
This game is wonderful and I can't stop playing it but damn it's buggy. My newly-built SHIV won't deploy for missions, animations hang up the game forcing a restart (thank god for auto save), soldiers shoot in the opposite direction of the target yet still get a critical hit, WTF.
It's a flawed masterpiece. :wub:
Bummer. Still had one problem so far, since they updated it thur, when trying to throw grenades the mouse cursor is way too sensitive.
Haven't used a SHIV yet. What does it do?
Quote from: Razgovory on October 12, 2012, 11:44:26 PM
Haven't used a SHIV yet. What does it do?
A robot with a gun that you should use as a scout to spot for your snipers or rocket dudes. Upgrades can give it a better gun, turn it into moving cover for your soldiers, and use Suppression. Takes quite a beating as well. Great little thing and it all costs is a little cash and some alloys.
as always with these kind of games it annoys me how the national governments aren't even bothering to fight back. Instead they're trying to cover up the whole thing. FFS, there's alien battleships (Neil is the alien warminister?) flying trough the air!
Finally played the demo. Wow. That's great fun. What a fantastic iteration of the idea. Most importantly- no shitty conflicts about who gets out of the fucking plane first.
Well, my Sniper Lieutenant bought it. She was wounded by an alien, then a panicked rookie gunned her down. My medic died in the same mission. On the next mission, my other sniper and an assault trooper were killed. And finally, during a terror attack on Paris, my other assault trooper was killed by a zombie, my heavy was killed by another zombie, and now I'm out of specialists, have no funds and France has withdrawn from the XCOM initiative. If only I'd had the money/engineers to buy those laser weapons/better armor.
Time to start over, I guess.
And I bought it on Amazon, saving $5.00. WOOHOO!
Also, what's up with the hit probabilities? 74% has me miss ca. 7 out of 10 times. Even with 80+% hit chance I miss more often than I hit.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 13, 2012, 04:39:17 AM
as always with these kind of games it annoys me how the national governments aren't even bothering to fight back. Instead they're trying to cover up the whole thing. FFS, there's alien battleships (Neil is the alien warminister?) flying trough the air!
I assume that national governments are fighting back, just ineffectively. If they ever make expansion packs or DLCs I'd like to see missions where National governments attempt to undermine you, by spying on you, stealing your stuff, secretly signing pacts with the Aliens and ambushing your soldiers... I'd also like to see mission where you can bring governments back to the council or assassinate human quislings. More cloak and dagger stuff would fit the theme I think.
I WILL NOT GIVE UP PLAYING ON IRONMAN! I WILL NOT!
NOT EVENT WHEN ON MY Xth RESTART MY 16-kills ÜBER HEAVY BITES THE DUST!
Quote from: Razgovory on October 13, 2012, 10:25:11 AM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 13, 2012, 04:39:17 AM
as always with these kind of games it annoys me how the national governments aren't even bothering to fight back. Instead they're trying to cover up the whole thing. FFS, there's alien battleships (Neil is the alien warminister?) flying trough the air!
I assume that national governments are fighting back, just ineffectively. If they ever make expansion packs or DLCs I'd like to see missions where National governments attempt to undermine you, by spying on you, stealing your stuff, secretly signing pacts with the Aliens and ambushing your soldiers... I'd also like to see mission where you can bring governments back to the council or assassinate human quislings. More cloak and dagger stuff would fit the theme I think.
if you read the ticker in the sitrep room yuo get the distinct impression they're covering everything up. Even XCOM is a secret!
After having my new squads wiped out in missions 2 and 3 respectively in two new games I think I may play on normal instead of classic for a while. :blush:
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 13, 2012, 10:59:56 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 13, 2012, 10:25:11 AM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 13, 2012, 04:39:17 AM
as always with these kind of games it annoys me how the national governments aren't even bothering to fight back. Instead they're trying to cover up the whole thing. FFS, there's alien battleships (Neil is the alien warminister?) flying trough the air!
I assume that national governments are fighting back, just ineffectively. If they ever make expansion packs or DLCs I'd like to see missions where National governments attempt to undermine you, by spying on you, stealing your stuff, secretly signing pacts with the Aliens and ambushing your soldiers... I'd also like to see mission where you can bring governments back to the council or assassinate human quislings. More cloak and dagger stuff would fit the theme I think.
if you read the ticker in the sitrep room yuo get the distinct impression they're covering everything up. Even XCOM is a secret!
Well, the ticker for me says that Russia is mobilizing tanks to fight the Alien incursion, so they are pretty shitty at covering things up. X-com is a secret, but the alien attacks aren't. I'm not sure why they bother to keep it a secret. After the 3rd or 4th terror attack it's pretty clear that aliens are running around blowing shit up for some reason.
June has a been a rough month on X-com. I've lost 3 guys. An LT. and two Squaddies. Damn Mutons. Taking 7 of them on at once is not easy. So far I've lost 7 people, 4 in April, the cruelest month, and 3 in June. I've got to get that psychic thingy up and running.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 13, 2012, 12:02:09 PM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 13, 2012, 10:59:56 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 13, 2012, 10:25:11 AM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on October 13, 2012, 04:39:17 AM
as always with these kind of games it annoys me how the national governments aren't even bothering to fight back. Instead they're trying to cover up the whole thing. FFS, there's alien battleships (Neil is the alien warminister?) flying trough the air!
I assume that national governments are fighting back, just ineffectively. If they ever make expansion packs or DLCs I'd like to see missions where National governments attempt to undermine you, by spying on you, stealing your stuff, secretly signing pacts with the Aliens and ambushing your soldiers... I'd also like to see mission where you can bring governments back to the council or assassinate human quislings. More cloak and dagger stuff would fit the theme I think.
if you read the ticker in the sitrep room yuo get the distinct impression they're covering everything up. Even XCOM is a secret!
Well, the ticker for me says that Russia is mobilizing tanks to fight the Alien incursion, so they are pretty shitty at covering things up. X-com is a secret, but the alien attacks aren't. I'm not sure why they bother to keep it a secret. After the 3rd or 4th terror attack it's pretty clear that aliens are running around blowing shit up for some reason.
June has a been a rough month on X-com. I've lost 3 guys. An LT. and two Squaddies. Damn Mutons. Taking 7 of them on at once is not easy. So far I've lost 7 people, 4 in April, the cruelest month, and 3 in June. I've got to get that psychic thingy up and running.
haven't seen that in the ticker yet. But then I've only had 1 terror attack so far. I'm still seeing that the government says that the attacks by 'aliens' are not done by aliens. If it indeed changes from denying to mobilising it's a nice touch. But one I'd like to see translated in troopers on the streets and jets in the air.
After 20+ missions, I've lost my first man.
Cpt. Pancho Villa was a new recruit we picked up after a routine abudction mission in South America, a mission we chose because we needed men with his particular skillset. His training as a Support fighter was deemed useful and we needed a backup for Maj. Audrey Hepburn, the darling of the XCOM top brass who apparently needed extra time with her whenever she took time off to recuperate from battle wounds.
On this mission we touched down right next to a landed UFO. It was one of the larger ships, decked out with stasis tubes and a full complement of the alien empire's best soldiers. We crept up a hill to give our snipers vision on the open cargo bay, hoping for some easy kills before we stormed the ship. Col. Russ Feingold and Lt. Bruce Willis prodded up the middle, hid behind some trees, and spotted three Mutons lingering inside the ship for some unknown reason. Pancho Villa crept up on the right flank and took cover behind a log, hoping to throw a smoke grenade and get enfilading fire on the Mutons idling inside the ship. That's when the Berserker came.
The Berserker was escorted by two Mutons on patrol on the periphery of the alien vessel. Our guys in overwatch finished one off before it could find cover: Cpt. Michael "Fucking" Ironside is an ace shot from 100 meters. But there was still the Berserker and one Muton left.
Immediately Senor Villa retreated to the other end of the fallen log behind which he had taken cover. He shot it point blank with his laser rifle but the damage was negligible. Bruce Willis took some potshots at the Berserker from his perch on a hill but the damage wasn't enough. It just enraged the beast more. Russ Feingold ran to help but could do little as his shots missed. Col. Sean Connery, the sniper on the right flank who Senor Villa was screening, had to retreat behind another tree and popped off a shot from his laser pistol. The laser burnt a hole into the alien beast but could not fell it.
Then the Berserker lumbered up to poor Pancho Villa and caved his face in. Miraculously, Senor Villa was still alive, though just barely. He was able to get to his feet again before the rest of his face melted off and his skull exploded by a ball of hot plasma, fired by the Berserker's Muton escort.
Our team, stung by this loss, rallied and avenged his death. The Berserkers, his Muton friend, and the rest of the Mutons and Sectoid Commanders in the ship were brutally annihilated. But nothing will return to us our dear friend, Senor Pancho Villa, Captain in the Support division. He lasted only one mission. We wished there had been many more.
Godspeed, Senor Pancho Villa. Of all the souls I have met in my battles, his was the most... Mexican. :cry:
has anyone notices how the base health of your initial squaddies is lower than the base health of new new recruits?
I haven't purchased the game yet, so maybe this is answered...but if governments around the world know there's aliens trying to steal and murder people, why do they give you what amounts to pennies to save the human race? Why not spend billions on more R&D and so forth, rather than trusting this dinky little semi-secretive outfit and hope they don't all die? Why send tiny 6-man squads to fight the aliens, instead of, say...an entire planeload of paratroopers?
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 12, 2012, 11:34:48 PM
This game is wonderful and I can't stop playing it but damn it's buggy. My newly-built SHIV won't deploy for missions, animations hang up the game forcing a restart (thank god for auto save), soldiers shoot in the opposite direction of the target yet still get a critical hit, WTF.
It's a flawed masterpiece. :wub:
So wait for a future patch and get it at a knock down price?
Is it better than the original? -looked at now, not for the time and putting aside all nostalgic feelings.
You guys enjoy the extended beta testing. I'm going to wait 'til it's finished and $20.
I never really mind forking out dough for any just released game that interests me. I dont think this one wil intrest me. So, I'm on the fence.
Quote from: Tyr on October 13, 2012, 09:41:44 PM
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 12, 2012, 11:34:48 PM
This game is wonderful and I can't stop playing it but damn it's buggy. My newly-built SHIV won't deploy for missions, animations hang up the game forcing a restart (thank god for auto save), soldiers shoot in the opposite direction of the target yet still get a critical hit, WTF.
It's a flawed masterpiece. :wub:
So wait for a future patch and get it at a knock down price?
Is it better than the original? -looked at now, not for the time and putting aside all nostalgic feelings.
It plays a lot easier than the original. It's a good remake and replicates the feelings you got playing the original. It's not "better" per se, but different and very good in its own right. I'd say it's equally as good.
On the subject of buying it, it's still a little buggy but very playable. If you don't mind paying full price now for a faithful remake of a classic, go ahead. Otherwise get it for $40 or less.
Quote from: JonasSalk on October 13, 2012, 08:31:29 PM
I haven't purchased the game yet, so maybe this is answered...but if governments around the world know there's aliens trying to steal and murder people, why do they give you what amounts to pennies to save the human race? Why not spend billions on more R&D and so forth, rather than trusting this dinky little semi-secretive outfit and hope they don't all die? Why send tiny 6-man squads to fight the aliens, instead of, say...an entire planeload of paratroopers?
Uh, because it's a video game. :huh:
I demand more realism in my dark alien murderfantasies.
Meh. I already played X-COM. Maybe I'll look at this when it's $10.
I haven't come across any bugs except graphical errors like clipping. I doubt that will be fixed. I'm happy with the game.
Quote from: JonasSalk on October 13, 2012, 08:31:29 PM
I haven't purchased the game yet, so maybe this is answered...but if governments around the world know there's aliens trying to steal and murder people, why do they give you what amounts to pennies to save the human race? Why not spend billions on more R&D and so forth, rather than trusting this dinky little semi-secretive outfit and hope they don't all die? Why send tiny 6-man squads to fight the aliens, instead of, say...an entire planeload of paratroopers?
Actually they never say how much money they give you. It's all in credits, so I have no idea what a credit are equal to. We have pretty good R&D though. I started out with assault rifles and kevlar in March and now have power armor and plasma rifles in July, so we are doing pretty good.
Are credits only good at the company store?
Quote from: The Brain on October 14, 2012, 03:03:22 AM
Are credits only good at the company store?
Probably.
I failed my first mission. One of those damn abduction ones no less. Started off on that grave yard map and as soon as I got off the airplane I was attacked by a Cyberdisk and two of those thin guys. Not too hard, but while my men were reloading from that fight a patrol of Mutons attacked. Okay, they got the jump on me, but I can take them. The next round a another patrol of Mutons attacked from the other side along with a Bezerker. After killing half my squad two of my guys panicked, while the last guy (a major who was the leader of this little outing) ran off to the evac. Now all of Asia, Europe and Africa is mad at me. At least I got to keep their gear. That shit's expensive.
I think I might have found a bug on my next mission though. I had two Mutons and a Beserker spawn in the middle of a field two squares in front of me. Fortuantly everyone was on overwatch. And we fried them.
I swear though, sometimes It seem like the aliens get two free turns when they start.
I notice that if you put someone in overwatch, then on the same turn "activate" aliens, say Sectoids, who scramble for cover - your overwatch guy may fire on them if they pass through his FOV. Of course, coordinating that may be a bit hard. :P
Quote from: Syt on October 14, 2012, 05:04:42 AM
I notice that if you put someone in overwatch, then on the same turn "activate" aliens, say Sectoids, who scramble for cover - your overwatch guy may fire on them if they pass through his FOV. Of course, coordinating that may be a bit hard. :P
Yeah, they usually do, but that battle in cemetery everyone was reloading cause I didn't expect to be rushed by Mutons. I move very slowly across the map. Moving at half speed so I can put people on overwatch. Sometimes overwatch doesn't work and my soldiers will just stand there idiotically while aliens scatter. You'd think hitting an 8 foot tall purple fellow who looks to weigh near half a ton would be a bit easier, but for some reason I have a hard time hitting them. Harder then shooting a 3 foot tall sectoid who crawls around on his hands and knees. It kinda looks silly when a Muton is hiding behind a two foot tall tombstone and and there's like 4 square feet of him showing. It's even worse when my men only are 10 feet away from said Muton and missing their shots. Especially with some kind of laser machine gun.
Quote from: Syt on October 14, 2012, 05:04:42 AM
I notice that if you put someone in overwatch, then on the same turn "activate" aliens, say Sectoids, who scramble for cover - your overwatch guy may fire on them if they pass through his FOV. Of course, coordinating that may be a bit hard. :P
yeah.
Also an important discovery for me is that mission difficulty, especially early on, can be tackled better than expected, as it means more enemies and more agressive behavior. The latter can be exploited.
Quote from: JonasSalk on October 13, 2012, 11:27:40 PM
I demand more realism in my dark alien murderfantasies.
Fair enough :P
One other thing to think about for those of you on the fence: The games menus are heavily consolized, which is really fucking annoying. Why do I have to flip from soldier to soldier just to look at their stats instead of looking at just one screen? Shouldn't I be able to sort the order in which I view my soldiers? Do I really have to go through three screens just to switch loadouts between soldiers from the mission launch screen? Why can't I just see all the information for one soldier on one screen? Instead I have to flip between four different sets of information for each soldier. And the menus are too damn big. They fit like four lines of text.
I don't know if stuff like this moddable, but if it is hopefully it'll be fixed soon.
Fucking Firaxis. :rolleyes:
Ok, after giving up on the Classic Mode I think I've hit my stride with the Normal mode. I do still have casualties, most likely because I suck, but no squad wipes so far. :lol:
Finally made it into the first alien base (did I mention I suck?). I sent in my elite squad. My Egyptian assault chick got lucky a few times.
First, she's attacked by several baddies, but manages to stay alive although her cover is shot to pieces.
Next she runs&guns at a drone and shoots. Of course I forgot to switch back to laser-shotgun, so she shoots the robot at point blank range with her pistol and takes off one health. (She's saved by her Captain - now Major - who gets a lucky shot with a laser rifle.)
Finally, she is shot at point blank range by my best sniper who had been taken over by that Sectoid Psi dude (sniper is saved, fortunately).
My two heavy sergeants bought it during the mission, though. Three Chryssalids came at one of them at once. My snipers took down two, but before the third got it, it gored my heavy. Who returned as zombie to kill my other heavy because she couldn't get away fast enough.
The combat difficulty is more murderously difficult than the original. I mean, wow. I've restarted the tutorial on classic and ironman, because I wiped on the first Chryssalid mission.
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 14, 2012, 09:08:38 AM
Quote from: JonasSalk on October 13, 2012, 11:27:40 PM
I demand more realism in my dark alien murderfantasies.
Fair enough :P
One other thing to think about for those of you on the fence: The games menus are heavily consolized, which is really fucking annoying. Why do I have to flip from soldier to soldier just to look at their stats instead of looking at just one screen? Shouldn't I be able to sort the order in which I view my soldiers? Do I really have to go through three screens just to switch loadouts between soldiers from the mission launch screen? Why can't I just see all the information for one soldier on one screen? Instead I have to flip between four different sets of information for each soldier. And the menus are too damn big. They fit like four lines of text.
I don't know if stuff like this moddable, but if it is hopefully it'll be fixed soon.
Fucking Firaxis. :rolleyes:
OK they don't want my money.
FUCK random psi talent. Fuck it to hell.
Australia left. Fuck those guys.
Really tempted by this...but so many half finished games and even some unstarted games....
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 12, 2012, 02:57:58 PM
I usually like two snipers, two assaults, one support, and one heavy. I'll usually bring a single rookie or a squaddie along so they can level up.
This has become my typical setup. High-ranking assaults are sick, especially with the alloy cannon. I did just start using the hover SHIV the last two missions...it was nice not having to make a poor squaddie charge into a room!
I am at the last mission on normal. I am sad that I am already about to finish my first playthrough; happy that I can start a fresh game on classic with a better plan
*already looking forward to DLC!! I am very satisfied with the outcome of remake.
my assaults die like flies
I have a pretty sick Egyptian female assault major. I gave her defense boni, so she usually runs at helpless single enemies and blasts them to bits with her shotgun or tries to capture them.
I wish the game was moddable, so someone could make a proper Aliens/Colonial Marines mod.
I have finally hit upon a successful play style, which is largely based on judicious risk taking and destroying the cover those slimy bastards hide behind.
BTW, how the fuck do you miss a Muton at point blank range with a shotgun? My assault didn't even have 100% from a space away. WTF? Of course, they died that mission. And I had no more soldiers. So I started my sixth Classic-Ironman game, and I'm finally making it work.
Quote from: Mr. Grey on October 15, 2012, 07:01:56 AM
Quote from: FunkMonk on October 12, 2012, 02:57:58 PM
I usually like two snipers, two assaults, one support, and one heavy. I'll usually bring a single rookie or a squaddie along so they can level up.
This has become my typical setup. High-ranking assaults are sick, especially with the alloy cannon. I did just start using the hover SHIV the last two missions...it was nice not having to make a poor squaddie charge into a room!
I am at the last mission on normal. I am sad that I am already about to finish my first playthrough; happy that I can start a fresh game on classic with a better plan
*already looking forward to DLC!! I am very satisfied with the outcome of remake.
I like mixing it up with the SHIV too. I started using the tactic of running a SHIV in to get visibility on entrenched aliens and then launching a rocket at them to destroy cover and to give LOS for my snipers.
Also goddamnit I hate fucking escort missions.
Here's a hint. When you get psi tester, make sure your soldiers are not equipped with expensive armor or weapons before you put them in, cause you can't give the armor to someone else while that person is being tested. Dumbasses must walk in to the damn tubes in full battle gear unless I expressly tell them not to. Also the that damn alien overseer ship is a bitch to shoot down. The whole interceptor part of the game could use work. I'm not expecting a flight sim or anything but there could be at least some strategy to it.
I don't mind escort missions...at least on normal. The thin man poison is annoying. I thought in titan armor and on, soldiers are immune from poison. That doesn't seem to be the case for me.
I am going to mess around with the alloy shiv, as I am noticing that you can't use the hover for cover. I had only used the normal shiv once starting out....I rolled it up as a scout and it died before firing a shot. Now, I am loving it!
What rank was your assault that missed with the shotgun? I purposely charge to 1 tile away so i get the 100%...but that is with colonels on normal.
I had only researched the blaster launcher a few missions before temple...discovering the joy of totally destroying enemy cover!
Quote from: Razgovory on October 15, 2012, 11:30:48 AM
Here's a hint. When you get psi tester, make sure your soldiers are not equipped with expensive armor or weapons before you put them in, cause you can't give the armor to someone else while that person is being tested.
This drove me insane.... I wish it auto-stripped soldiers you take out of your squad instead of having to search for items.
Capturing aliens is hard. The arc never seems to be in range. 2 squares my ass.
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 15, 2012, 01:56:24 PM
Capturing aliens is hard. The arc never seems to be in range. 2 squares my ass.
If the active soldier is holding the arc thrower, you can mouse over an alien and see how close you need to get to stun...if you don't see a colored stun range bubble, the alien is not stunnable.
I'll try that. I rarely get close, I roll with too many snipers for that. Papa wants some Plasma weapons tho.
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 15, 2012, 02:03:06 PM
I'll try that. I rarely get close, I roll with too many snipers for that. Papa wants some Plasma weapons tho.
Rookies are assigned arc throwers.
It also helps if you kick the shit out of the alien first. You chances of capturing it are based on much life it has left. You'll have to have it as 3 or below to capture it. The Scientist chick keeps telling me I can learn more through some kind of unit viewer, but I'm not sure what that is or how to build it. I've also run out of things for her to research because she requires weapon pieces for her research and I'm running out of them. I think there is a way to capture one of those discs, but I never let one live long enough to try. As soon as one of those bastards appear I start shooting rockets at it.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 15, 2012, 02:37:40 PM
It also helps if you kick the shit out of the alien first. You chances of capturing it are based on much life it has left. You'll have to have it as 3 or below to capture it.
You don't have to have it at 3 or below, but it helps; I've captured Thin Men and Floaters at full (4) health.
Played the demo on the sexybox. Fucker is awesome on a 73 inch screen. Lost Olga the Russian sniper learning to maneuver. :lol:
I have joined the sad fuckers who play at Normal Difficulty/Ironman. Way too easy. The leap between Normal and Classic is exactly one order of magnitude, but they're both tuned poorly.
What does normal make easier?
Less of your guys dying?
Just beat it on normal/ironman. I had 6 Colonels in the final assault - 2 heavy, 2 support, 1 sniper, 1 assault. I lost 3 of them (1 heavy, and both supports). Apparently the fuckers die if they're mind controlled at the end; serves them right, the weak-minded fools. Two of my survivors had been with me the whole game. I'm glad they made it out. The end was fairly exciting: [spoiler]2 etherals and the boss etheral mind-controlled 3 of my soldiers - the ones who ended up dying. I didn't want to kill them (whoops), so I had my assault try and take out one of the mind-controllers, so that I could start to get them back. The fucker missed like a 90% shot, and I was down to two guys surrounded by 3 etherals, 3 mind-controlled teammates, and 1 elite muton. My sniper (a complete and total badass) knocked the boss down to 1 health, and then it was up to my heavy - the Argentine that survives the very first mission of the game. He pulled out his rocket launcher, fired across the map, and sent the the rocket right into the alien boss' face (incidently killing half the squad via psychic reverberations or some shit at the same time). Cool. [/spolier]
I finally got that son of a bitch UFO. He's down in South Africa. I'm sending my A Team in to get the motherfuckers along with a big robot. I also have a black guy named "Prophet" wearing power armor with super powers. I think he might have walked into the wrong game...
Quote from: Razgovory on October 16, 2012, 04:01:36 AM
...I also have a black guy named "Prophet"... with super powers....
You should name him Obama :)
I lost. They all died. :( I have to start over. The Ethereal was a bitch, and the Sectapod wasn't much better.
I encountered my first mutons. Bastards hurt, killed Mery & Tricky Dick but then the game crashed & I couldn't resist the temptation of starting that mission over.
I may give the game a break. Fire up Skyrim which I bought but haven't played yet.
Heavys and Laser Snipers are a muton's best friend.
I gave in.
It is very pretty and flashy. The base system is kind of simplified, I hate the satellite system and the way it only covers one country (stupid), but OK....It is really making it look likely I'm going to lose India and Canada though.
Snipers I find to be rather useless. Areas are too cluttered and you have to keep moving your guys forward.
One interesting difference to the original is the way combat areas are quite linear here. Straight forward dashes. In the original I remember a big challenge was having your landing craft in the middle and aliens possibly being all around you.
Its nice not to have to bother with debarkation, that was always a pain.
Snipers get the remote-spotting skill on their 2nd sniper-level meaning they can fire at stuff their teammates see, provided they have a LOS.
That skill makes them a great asset.
All classes are great in some situations in fact. Assaults can finish off a lone remaining enemy when its fully entrenched behind cover otherwise. Rockets of heavies are GREAT for killing off groups of enemies, or seriously weakening strong ones while destroying their cover.
Support gets to shine once they got the "use 3 medikits in a battle" skill.
I lost another Assault. Never got one passed Squaddie so far.
how do you get engineers?
I've gotten pretty far in the story but am doomed to lose a bunch of nations as aliens do stuff there without me being any the wiser due to being able to launch satellites.
A couple per months, as missions rewards and by building workshops IIRC.
I soon will lose ALL of Asia but that's ok. I've consolidated my network over Africa(base), Europe & NA.
Quote from: Tamas on October 17, 2012, 02:12:07 AM
Snipers get the remote-spotting skill on their 2nd sniper-level meaning they can fire at stuff their teammates see, provided they have a LOS.
Support gets to shine once they got the "use 3 medikits in a battle" skill.
Early on when I was struggling, I actually rolled with 3 snipers. The squad sight is amazing...especially since all the maps are setup for more or less moving straight forward. When snipers get double tap, along with squad sight, it makes snipers the most op class. I love defuse/escort missions because snipers can 1-shot thin men. My last bomb defuse had 5 thin men in front of me....after my two snipers took their turn...only 1 left!
I hate support class until they can use 3 medkits. I think the smoke grenade needs a buff.
So its impossible to do the game without losing nations? I really hate this limited range satelite system. It just makes no sense that one satelite can cover the whole of Russia but you need a seperate one for every country in Europe.
I'm thinking of restarting, I lost Britain when I chose to save India on one of those horrible choices which seem to be the most common mission since it was already on 4 panic. Gah. I felt I was getting pretty far too, I know where the alien base is, just havent got enough engineers to build the key
Quote from: Tyr on October 17, 2012, 07:09:37 PM
So its impossible to do the game without losing nations?
From what I've seen, no. You have to pre-build satellites like hell, sell everything else, and then launch your sats at the end of the month to lower panic.
Well, I just reached the first mission I am not interested in fighting through- large, intact UFO on the ground. Not happy at all. And this is right after I first encountered Armored Mutons. And I'm down to one Assault. Sigh.
Never played the original. What difficulty should I start with?
Normal? Ironman?
Playing on Classic difficulty, no ironman (though I haven't reloaded yet).
Bodies are piling up fast, was I supposed to lose three guys in the tutorial. :unsure:
So far in the tutorial and four missions I've lost 3, 1, 2, 2, and 2.
Yeah tutorial will always lose those three.
I can't help but reload. I'm too much of a perfectionist :blush:
Quote from: Tyr on October 20, 2012, 06:03:42 AM
I can't help but reload. I'm too much of a perfectionist :blush:
That's why there is Ironman. That's my problem as well, If I can reload I will.
I lost Russia. Damn it. Even if it had a satellite over it. :shrug:
Ironman Normal too easy, Ironman Classic just a bit too hard.
The most important thing is to get the OTS quickly, and get that first extra squad member.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 20, 2012, 09:20:21 AM
Quote from: Tyr on October 20, 2012, 06:03:42 AM
I can't help but reload. I'm too much of a perfectionist :blush:
That's why there is Ironman. That's my problem as well, If I can reload I will.
Ironman seems a bit too harsh though. There are times when the game bugs up and things go weird through no fault of my own.
Quote from: Tyr on October 21, 2012, 08:20:23 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 20, 2012, 09:20:21 AM
Quote from: Tyr on October 20, 2012, 06:03:42 AM
I can't help but reload. I'm too much of a perfectionist :blush:
That's why there is Ironman. That's my problem as well, If I can reload I will.
Ironman seems a bit too harsh though. There are times when the game bugs up and things go weird through no fault of my own.
Yea stupid useless gunless shiv.........
started third attempt with classic/ironman.
Meri was promoted to sniper and promptly died.
Seedy is my main assault and nicknamed "pitbull"
Seedy is my main Heavy, his nickname is Yeti.
Him & Tricky Dick are the 2 squad members that I will reload upon their death.
Finally had enough time to complete the last mission. I really enjoyed my first playthrough. It was only on normal, lost no nations, lost 14 people.
I guess it is time I move onto Classic!
I got really lazy towards the end and was shooting every UFO down with the fusion lance and sending 2 alloy shivs with my squad.
Ran into an annoying bug. Shot a ufo down and cleared it. Then when I fly home the plane goes to the Arctic and the view shifts to the globe and sticks there. :mad:
Entered the hollow earth?
Exec summary please: is this game worth £30?
DLC coming (:))... and it sounds shitty(:():
Quote"Slingshot" is a reference to the biblical tale of David and Goliath, in which [Spoiler Alert] underdog David takes down the giant Goliath by throwing a rock at his head and then decapitating him while he's down. In the first chunk of XCOM DLC, we'll be given the opportunity to go Old Testament on a massive alien ship hovering over China in a three-mission story arc with a potentially rich reward at the end.
The first two of the three Slingshot missions will take place on the ground in China, on identifiably Chinese maps. These will be the first XCOM maps that aren't geographically ambiguous, which is a great step forward in making it feel like we're actually responding to a crisis in China rather than Montana. Sadly, Firaxis tells me these maps won't pop up elsewhere in random encounters due to a commitment to not repeating maps in a single game.
Dissent in the Ranks
Also, for the first time in XCOM there'll be a named character on the tactical field (other than VIPs in escort missions) who you won't be able to rename or customize his look due to his unique face and voice actor. All we know about him at this stage is that he'll be a Chinese Triad gang member who'll be a VIP in the first stage of Slingshot, but will then join XCOM as a mortal, disposable Heavy with greater-than-normal stats (but no unique abilities).
When Slingshot's missions are all over, you'll earn a shortcut through the tech tree that'll allow you to research the powerful Blaster Launcher and Fusion Lance technologies -- they'll still be very expensive to research and build, but you won't have to shoot down an alien battleship to get them. I think that's a good thing, as in the normal campaign the Blaster Launcher only becomes available in the leadup to the final mission, which only gives us a few missions to mess around with it before the end. Firaxis says it's not expected to unbalance players' progress, since going in early will be risky move with a big payoff, and going in late will be a cakewalk for a reward you'd have gotten soon anyway.
New Look
While there won't be any new equipment, abilities, or aliens added, there will be alternate looks for Titan, Ghost, Archangel, and Psi armors, plus additional hairstyles and helmets to give your squads a little more visual variety. Unfortunately you won't be able to take that Chinese voice and apply it to other Chinese soldiers, as it's too specific to his character. Firaxis says it's aware of gamers' desire for accented voices for each of the countries involved, but because of the logistics involved it's not something it's planning on right now.
Don't get me wrong: having now logged over 100 hours of XCOM and completed my first Classic Iron Man playthrough, I'm definitely looking forward to trying out these missions. However, I have to say I'm disappointed in the direction Firaxis is taking in expanding XCOM with Slingshot. Sure, this content will be interesting to play through at least a few times, but this is clearly not designed with replayability in mind. Where I'd hoped XCOM would expand in breadth by adding more content that would randomly occur in the campaign, such as extra maps, technologies, and aliens, this expands it as a more linear game with an event that will become available in the same way, each and every time I play. Considering that Council Missions are already the most scripted part of XCOM, and thus the part that becomes predictable and uninteresting the fastest... well, let's just say I'm hopeful that the next piece of DLC will be something that sounds like it'll make XCOM less predictable and more replayable and less like a tacked-on handful of missions that'll get old after a few runs.
Furthermore, I'm not wild about the the idea of shoehorning in a static character. I loudly applauded Firaxis for allowing me to name and shape my squad as I saw fit in the stock game, but this Triad guy goes against that. Sure, I don't have to take him on any missions at all after that first one, but dangling an innately superior Heavy in front of me feels like I'm being bribed to use him in place of my own characters.
We shall see, when I get a chance to play it... a date which which, by the way, we don't know yet. 2K has yet to announce the release date for Slingshot, or the price. Of course, considering the preorder bonus DLC, which allows you to customize your soldiers' armor colors (plus adds the classic absurd flattop hairstyle and bonus helmets) will soon go on sale for $5, I'll be surprised if the price for Slingshot is anything other than $10.
QuoteSadly, Firaxis tells me these maps won't pop up elsewhere in random encounters due to a commitment to not repeating maps in a single game.
:unsure:
Pretty certain I've had the same maps reappear
I know I have.
Quote from: Warspite on October 23, 2012, 12:08:44 PM
Exec summary please: is this game worth £30?
Woah! Haven't seen you in along time! :hug:
katmai died on my mission... he bled to death. :(
Quote from: Jaron on October 23, 2012, 11:33:36 PM
katmai died on my mission... he bled to death. :(
No that was you in my mission :rolleyes:
While the DLC sounds small and borderline lame, I will still buy it. The game just came out a few weeks back, so at least a small DLC is better than nothing.
I do hope they plan a real DLC that adds real substance. It would be nice if they add
gauss tech or any new items. It just seems like a fast transition in weaponry.
I do find it sad that I read the Elite soldier pack is now a $5 DLC......wtf? Floppy hair
and neon armor? I know I've bought all the CKII sprite and music packs off steam...but those were priced at $1 or $2. I highly doubt I would have paid $5 for any of them!
Apparently there is a mod out there that adds a bunch of difficulty tweaks that Fraxis was planning on putting into the game and then scrapped. That would be the sort of thing I would be interested in.
BTW, what's the point of archangel armor? I guess you can fly around cover or something, but you don't move very fast, and you're a much bigger target in the air.
Archangel armor is for snipers with squad sight. Jump them a couple of levels up and boom, line of sight to everywhere from their starting position.
I want mod for voices. Nothing too demanding Amrite?
Quote from: katmai on October 24, 2012, 04:27:24 PM
I want mod for voices. Nothing too demanding Amrite?
Learn English! :grr:
Nyet!
Btw, did you mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorite ?
No I meant what I typed.
Playing classic difficulty, I've completed every mission assigned but China, Japan and Egypt just bailed on us.
I just keep getting conflicting abductions on the same continents so no matter what I do I'm screwed. <_<
That's sorta of the way the game goes. Unless you finish story missions fast enough you will eventually lose.
I think not being in a hurry to do the story is the way to go, attacks seem to increase as the story goes on. I've managed to get pretty far with nobody leaving me on my second try. Just concentrated on getting more engineers at all costs and getting satelite capacity up, if a nation panicked- launch satelite.
I've encountered my first cyberdisks.
I think I'm still shaking.
Quote from: Tyr on October 26, 2012, 04:36:43 AM
I think not being in a hurry to do the story is the way to go, attacks seem to increase as the story goes on. I've managed to get pretty far with nobody leaving me on my second try. Just concentrated on getting more engineers at all costs and getting satelite capacity up, if a nation panicked- launch satelite.
Panic levels are essentially a non-standard timer. You can slow it down with satellites but eventually you will lose enough to end the game.
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 26, 2012, 06:37:03 AM
I've encountered my first cyberdisks.
I think I'm still shaking.
Man, Cyberdisks are fucking unnerving. But they are really fucking dumb.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on October 25, 2012, 08:45:25 AM
Playing classic difficulty, I've completed every mission assigned but China, Japan and Egypt just bailed on us.
I just keep getting conflicting abductions on the same continents so no matter what I do I'm screwed. <_<
It's hardcoded to lose those three. The Chinese are sneaky bastards, the Japanese has made a deal with the aliens which will greatly expand the Japanese porn market and the Egyptians are just mad they can't mass grope your female soldiers.
I was trying to drag on a game....because I was enjoying my characters and I was trying to finish the 'shoot down 40 UFO achievement.'
But even with full sat coverage, panic was slowly creeping up and I had no choice but to do the final mission, lest I start losing countries.
I'm going to cut back on my gameplay until the DLC. I'm getting nothing done around the house and it's also that time of the year when I step away from my usual genre of games and get the wwf game. This was going to be the first year I passed on it, but now it has Diamond Dallas Paige and Goldust!!! Just the thought of playing online and giving people the 'shattered dreams' over and over makes me chuckle! :menace:
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 26, 2012, 06:37:03 AM
I've encountered my first cyberdisks.
I think I'm still shaking.
You don't know fear to you meet a sectopod. They don't play fair.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 26, 2012, 06:53:25 AM
Quote from: Tyr on October 26, 2012, 04:36:43 AM
I think not being in a hurry to do the story is the way to go, attacks seem to increase as the story goes on. I've managed to get pretty far with nobody leaving me on my second try. Just concentrated on getting more engineers at all costs and getting satelite capacity up, if a nation panicked- launch satelite.
Panic levels are essentially a non-standard timer. You can slow it down with satellites but eventually you will lose enough to end the game.
I dunno, I'm doing OK. I think I'm approaching the end and with one mission I had a while ago I had all my panic levels reset.
Missions don't seem to coem in nations with satellites and ships can be shot down in those.
Found this interview with the creator of the game:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/10/06/xcom-s-classic-ironman-mode-is-an-even-match-for-its-creator.aspx (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/10/06/xcom-s-classic-ironman-mode-is-an-even-match-for-its-creator.aspx)
I wanted normal to be a game where people didn't have to worry about the strategy layer. I felt like if you wanted to mess around there, the strategy area was like a fun area but you got a lot of things for free, like the Officer Training School was already built and you get way more scientists and engineers. In normal just by building satellites you'll get all the scientists and engineers you'll ever want, then on Classic that's cut, basically, more than in half.
On Classic to be successful you have to worry about the strategy layer. It's much harder if you're playing Ironman, or especially Classic Ironman, then your SHIVs become almost essential.... When you're playing on a harder difficulty level losing somebody who is an experienced soldier is actually – the blow is that you're going to have to move forward with rookies. (...)
Ironman ended up being the bridge between the difficulty levels, so normal is easy for a strategy guy; pretty straightforward once you learn the mechanics. Classic is challenging even if you know how to play, but normal Ironman is in between those two and I didn't expect that. (...)
I can't play normal, I have to play Classic. It's just more fun to get back from combat and have all these new worries (...)
Casey our lead programmer just lost on Classic. If I'm playing Classic Iron Man I definitely lose easily as much as I win just because if I'm not paying attention and I lose a good soldier or two early then I know I'm going to have a really hard time. Obviously that makes us happy making sure people can lose on Classic. It's interesting, Ironman kind of bridges the gap because Impossible is truly impossible. (...)
Classic Ironman is what I consider to be the best form of the game. (...)
Started playing again a few days ago, and beat it on Ironman-normal. The last battle was rough. When three of my squad got mind controlled I thought I was pretty fucked. I was down to my last action, which was to use that Rift thingy. It was sufficient enough to kill the big baddy. I fucking cheered at that point.
Normal Ironman is a lot of fun, but I'm going to classic next time around. My squad for the alien base assault are all colonels: two snipers, two assault, one heavy, and one support. Snipers with double tap, squad sight, and Gunslinger are so money.
Every arab soldier in my squads are worthless. Panicky whiny fucks.
What's really annoying is when one of my Psychic guys mind controls an alien, then the alien gets killed and the rest of team gets a morale penalty for losing a teammate. I've heard of people having member of their team panicking after that happens and then shooting each other.
Welp, had an Arab panic, and he shoots my American elite sniper chick.
RELOAD! All Arabs get to sit in barracks now.
In my game I couldnt get an american male for Seedy so I ended up renaming an Egyptian Heavy after him. Was a beast all game.
I beat the first base, and the first mission afterwards? A horde of those Zerg like things chopping up Liverpool.
HOLY CRAP, the game decided to fuck me in the ass.
Quote from: Ed Anger on December 04, 2012, 06:50:03 PM
I beat the first base, and the first mission afterwards? A horde of those Zerg like things chopping up Liverpool.
HOLY CRAP, the game decided to fuck me in the ass.
Zerg-like things. You mean Luis Suarez?
Deploy a squad of Arabs to suicide bomb the fuckers. :lol:
Quote from: FunkMonk on December 04, 2012, 07:04:21 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on December 04, 2012, 06:50:03 PM
I beat the first base, and the first mission afterwards? A horde of those Zerg like things chopping up Liverpool.
HOLY CRAP, the game decided to fuck me in the ass.
Zerg-like things. You mean Luis Suarez?
Deploy a squad of Arabs to suicide bomb the fuckers. :lol:
I deployed the B team( since A team was nicked up) and they all shot like Andy Carroll.
No Arabs will be deployed on missions ever again.
Quote from: Ed Anger on December 04, 2012, 07:17:03 PM
No Arabs will be deployed on missions ever again.
I enjoyed pretending they would scream ALLAHU AKBAR when faced with a Muton Berserker. ;)
They released a DLC for this the other day. It just adds some council missions. Wish it did something neat like added new aliens or new types of missions.
Quote from: Razgovory on December 04, 2012, 07:33:38 PM
They released a DLC for this the other day. It just adds some council missions. Wish it did something neat like added new aliens or new types of missions.
I've decided to pass on the DLC. 3 missions and a unique heavy just doesn't seem worth it. New maps in the rotation and some new tech would have been nice.
Judging by achievements on Steam, the next DLCs are going to be like this as well. Probably one for each continent. I'll get them when they are all bundled together. Maybe they'll release an honest to God expansion that alters game play. Maybe making the UFO dogfights more interesting or something.
Quote from: Razgovory on December 06, 2012, 04:22:47 PM
Judging by achievements on Steam, the next DLCs are going to be like this as well.
Really? They did a good job with the game; I kinda have a hard time they would screw up all the DLC so badly.
There is a thing on Steam where you can see how many people achieved a certain number of achievements. There several that nobody have gotten yet. The ones related to the DLC were amongst those, but now several people have them. There is an additional six that nobody have gotten yet, and they use the same art style as the DLC ones. My guess is that these were planed at the time of release and the achievements were made before the DLCs were finished.
The Second Wave patch is out today, maing the stuff modders unlocked official, and patching it properly.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/08/solomon-vows-firaxis-on-xcoms-second-wave-add-on/
QuoteHere are those details of the Second Wave DLC, that should have patched into your Steam version by now.
- Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.
- New Economy: Randomized council member funding.
- Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats.
- Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.
- Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier's mission stats.
- Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.
- The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.
- Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete.
- Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases.
- High Stakes: Random rewards for stopping alien abductions.
- Diminishing Returns: Increased cost of satellite construction.
- More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare.
And once you've completed the game on Impossible difficulty (which seems something of a contradiction):
- War Weariness: Funding goes down over time.
- E-115: Elerium degrades over time.
- Total Loss: Lose all soldier gear upon death.
- Alternate Sources: The power source cost to build facilities increases dramatically.
I lost my savegames when my old computer's HD died (seems cloud saves were off by default :( ), so this is as good an excuse as any to restart. :)
The link above has an interview - funniest bits:
QuoteRPS: Is there anything that alters the fixed hit chance thing? The way the game seems to pre-determine some outcomes and keep them even if you reload?
Jake Solomon: Oh, that's a good point. I probably should have done that, actually. Sorry. I think Civ includes an option, don't they, where basically you can either have things be synchronised where every single time, even if you reload, the same thing happens, or it's random. I could probably have made an option where the results weren't synchronised. [Sighs]. That's a good idea. I didn't do that. I'm sorry.
[...]
when I was doing press before the game came out, it was this big thing that the maps were pre-made, but don't worry, you can play through the game twice and you probably won't see the same map. But in hindsight that's not very helpful, because we didn't realise people were going to play the game that much. A lot of people have played it four times, or five times, or they'll start it over and over because they're playing Iron Man.
Okay, I bought this game during Steam's Christmas sale, and it's a blast. SOme questions, though:
Anyone here experienced glitches in his saves after the patch? I am SURE one of the rookies got promoted to sniper class ("Mono" Wang, China), and he was the only replacement to my main sniper, but after the patch he (for sure) and (probably) some other rookies/squaddies disappeared, WTF??
[spoiler]I've built the key to the alien base, question: is it an early-to-mid-game mission? because my team is still rather behind in development, should I wait some more to attack the base?[/spoiler]
L.
With a bit of unluck in spawning, the base can be quite hard.
I'd say the base starts the mid game. You should probably research lasers and the early armor. I didn't have to much trouble with it.
Quote from: Pedrito on January 15, 2013, 05:31:21 AM
[spoiler]I've built the key to the alien base, question: is it an early-to-mid-game mission? because my team is still rather behind in development, should I wait some more to attack the base?[/spoiler]
Do the alien base as fast as you can - as soon as you get laser weapons and carapace armor. The longer you wait, the more powerful aliens you'll see in there.
Quote from: ulmont on January 15, 2013, 09:38:41 AM
Quote from: Pedrito on January 15, 2013, 05:31:21 AM
[spoiler]I've built the key to the alien base, question: is it an early-to-mid-game mission? because my team is still rather behind in development, should I wait some more to attack the base?[/spoiler]
Do the alien base as fast as you can - as soon as you get laser weapons and carapace armor. The longer you wait, the more powerful aliens you'll see in there.
so THAT'S why it was hard as hell the first time around.
I didn't have much of a problem with that mission. I only had problems when I first ran into a giant robot.
Damn Mutons <_<
The first time I've encountered them, three of them wiped away my best (and only) squad, and now all I've got is a bunch of south african and middle eastern rookies. Time to restart, methinks. THis time my home base will be in Africa.
I want my guys to wear a helmet, but all I can see is a slider to change their faces: am I missing something?
L.
Quote from: Pedrito on January 15, 2013, 05:46:22 PM
Damn Mutons <_<
The first time I've encountered them, three of them wiped away my best (and only) squad, and now all I've got is a bunch of south african and middle eastern rookies. Time to restart, methinks. THis time my home base will be in Africa.
I want my guys to wear a helmet, but all I can see is a slider to change their faces: am I missing something?
L.
Helmets are in the diff hair selections slider
Quote from: daveracher on January 15, 2013, 05:48:45 PM
Helmets are in the diff hair selections slider
...but only if you have the DLC, I found out <_<
BTW, this is one hell of a game: it's the first time since many years that I find myself up at 2 a.m. to play that one more turn, or wait for the next tech advance.
Despite it having some shortcomings, it's ridiculously funny and engaging.
Things I hate:
- shooting a rocket or throwing a grenade is difficult due to the sensitivity of the aim control;
- the consolification of the menus is rather irritating, not to say it's a pain in the ass;
- I want some more info and statistics, especially on the aftermath of missions and about my fallen soldiers; give me a spreadsheet with some useless stats, I want to remember how my three best assaults were fried in three consecutive missions, damn!...and by whom they were fried, too.
- I am ALWAYS in dire need of more money; I spend 80% of the month's budget in the first three days <_<
- Chryssalids; may they rot in alien hell.
Thing I like:
- pretty much everything else.
I've finally conquered the alien base, pity my best assault, Maximo Park, was killed by a muton immediately after stunning the base commander. Buddies Deep Purple, Daft Punk, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy and Joy Division mourn the loss of their comrade.
A spoilerish question: [spoiler]is there a way to interrupt the mind control of one of my men, other than killing the mind controller? I don't want my soldiers to kill their controlled buddy, but I haven't found any other way to free them.[/spoiler]
L.
Use a controller
Mind control the mind controller
Start in Africa
Interesting the thread should be updated as I just got around to finishing the game yesterday.
My first try at the last mission was a failure. Some bug stopped me taking half of my men into the last room so I had to reload, which meant I knew where everything was and stormed through effortlessly.
Spoiluxus maximus:
Wonder why they dont show the Outsider on the last mission. :hmm: Obvious sequel setup generally though.
Coming for the Mac too on April 24th. Hopefully, not a Cider port... PC mods not too hard to install would be nice too.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/03/24/firaxis-2k-games-reveal-xcom-enemy-unknown-port-for-ios (http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/03/24/firaxis-2k-games-reveal-xcom-enemy-unknown-port-for-ios)
QuoteEast iOS announcement also came with a release date for the Mac version of the game. Mac gamers will get their port on April 24. The iOS version is expected to arrive some time over the summer.
Is there much point in mac ports these days? I thought modern macs could play windows stuff. And even before that was so the mac was hardly the land of games
Less so nowadays than before indeed, but companies can charge more for a Mac port than a PC, specially when the Mac is released some time after the PC.
I'm more sceptical about the iOS port though. Don't know much about iPad gaming but it has to be better than playing on a smartphone.
Teaser video from PAX:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sF1MqYb0dmE
17 minute chat between the designers of original X-COM, Julian Gollop and the new XCOM, Jake Solomon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z8zZsecTRfM
Even more X-COM fun for the winter:
Enemy Within
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/21/xcom-enemy-within-announced-tons-of-details (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/21/xcom-enemy-within-announced-tons-of-details)
For starters:
QuoteFirst and foremost, Firaxis is addressing a couple of XCOM fans' most vocal complaints: you'll now be able to have French soldiers speaking French (among others, courtesy of allowing us to access localized voice files), and we'll see around 40 additional maps combined with Enemy Unknown's 80. That number will include UFO crash maps in urban and rural environments, instead of just forest. Will there be an XCOM base-defense mission? Firaxis didn't say no... which means almost certainly yes.
We're also getting a fifth class of soldier: the Mech trooper. But this isn't a class you're born into like the existing Assault, Support, Heavy, and Sniper - this is one that, after the proper facility is built, you can move any soldier into. He or she will lose all of their current class abilities, but gets to choose from a whole new ability tree up to their existing rank.
Serb soldiers must speak SERB!
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 23, 2013, 06:18:52 AM
Serb soldiers must speak SERB!
You'll get Polish and Russian so Serbs will be happy at least :)
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 23, 2013, 06:18:52 AM
Serb soldiers must speak SERB!
Can we equip them with sportswear?
Gameplay video for the expansion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buW1FtMOTwI
Quote from: Syt on September 05, 2013, 12:40:34 AM
Gameplay video for the expansion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buW1FtMOTwI
Anybody pick it up yet?
I did. Haven't gotten far enough to use the new resources.
Did anybody try the X-COM extension, Enemy Within? I wanted to get the boxed product and forgot I could have it earlier in the US PS store. :(
[spoiler]Base attack, mechs and genetic manipulation and [spoiler]human[/spoiler]traitors inside![/spoiler]
"Killing it with fire". Mecs are amusing. Gene splicing is ok... second hearts for all!
Base defence was a bitch.
Lots of gameplay rebalancing for the better, except the game beginning is even harder.
MELD is a real bitch to get in time and even find if the opposition is too strong to allow scouting.
I'm getting my ass handed to me on Classic difficulty. I went to the first Exalt Mission which occured during the second month. I only have 4 in a squad and no advanced weaponry. I took down 9 thin men before I was They killed the VIP. That's not exactly fair.
It really is tough on Classic. The Council Missions are especially brutal; they seem to lead to squad wipes for me as often as not. In one mission (which actually was a lot of fun), I killed 28 Chryssalids (plus some zombies). Essentially they just keep spawning until you make it to one end of the map and back again. In another I had a guy move up to escort a VIP, only for him to reveal 9 aliens surrounding him.
So, I guess I should buy the expansion?
No. :beet:
Bought it, seems great so far.
Played that mission on classic Raz, had to reload it more than half a dozen times before successfully completing it. Killed 12 thin men and a Sectoid, lost two men and had a third gravely wounded.
Quote from: Razgovory on November 15, 2013, 09:52:28 PM
I'm getting my ass handed to me on Classic difficulty. I went to the first Exalt Mission which occured during the second month. I only have 4 in a squad and no advanced weaponry. I took down 9 thin men before I was They killed the VIP. That's not exactly fair.
For Exalt missions, the key is to remember that whenever you activate a transmitter you get a free turn after that (look at the Exalt guys, they'll have a status that's something like "disabled" and have to spend a turn reloading).
Quote from: jimmy olsen on December 31, 2013, 12:38:49 AM
Bought it, seems great so far.
Played that mission on classic Raz, had to reload it more than half a dozen times before successfully completing it. Killed 12 thin men and a Sectoid, lost two men and had a third gravely wounded.
played a couple of missions. Nothing to blow the skirt up about....meh. So so game so far.
Beta 15 for Long War is available for PC
If you've got 5 hours (!) to kill and love detailed spoilers about the new features follow this Impossible (level) playthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MLLJHLSG6E&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MLLJHLSG6E&feature=youtu.be)
Some vanilla perks are actually back
http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/? (http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?)
Link to the mod
Long War strikes me as a classic mod overkill. More, more, more of everything is bad game design.
I like the dynamic aspect of the mod, closer to the original XCOM (Air War is also closer as in really challenging) and the challenging aspect of any playthrough till the very end.
Of course, it's not for everyone, pretty challenging and time-consuming, and that's not how this new XCOM should be approached at first.
Bonus points for making it available to Macs and Linux.
Quote from: DGuller on March 03, 2015, 05:03:04 PM
Long War strikes me as a classic mod overkill. More, more, more of everything is bad game design.
It does appear that way from the outside, yes.
I've been playing Long War. Some additions are very good. But yeah, it feels like it's be put together by people who don't know how to edit.
XCOM 2 officially announced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_-2wIJIzQ
Basic premise: Aliens won, XCOM is the resistance (running around on a airborne carrier as the "base")
Also: Supposedly random tactical maps. Snake(wo)men return!
The DLC is on sale today. Prolly gonna pick Enemy Within up.
Quote from: Tonitrus on June 01, 2015, 08:35:26 PM
XCOM 2 officially announced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_-2wIJIzQ
Basic premise: Aliens won, XCOM is the resistance (running around on a airborne carrier as the "base")
Also: Supposedly random tactical maps. Snake(wo)men return!
For the aliens to defeat the insurgents, they will need to harvest hearts and minds.
^_^
I hope this one will have controller support too, I really liked XCOM's with a 360 controller.
Quote from: Grey Fox on June 02, 2015, 04:05:55 PM
I hope this one will have controller support too, I really liked XCOM's with a 360 controller.
While it may not kill that idea, I should also note that XCOM 2 is slated to be PC only.