Xcom

[melkathi]

 

 

I barely killed the last Muton on a level because my Major missed him at 97% XD.

 

Fortunately my 69% last chance shot did hit him.

 

Which is perfectly right according to X-COM probability theory!

[Humanoid]

Firaxis has me trained to interpret their numbers already anyhow - a half decade of Civ4 ensures that.

 

 

Plus it's still less wonky than the VATS percentages for throwing explosives.

[mrmud]

Then you can up it to Classic I suppose (difficulty isn't static).

 

 

EDIT: What other LOS issues are you having? I do find that there are issues with knowing how far a guy can see in the distance (this exists in most games of this nature I find).

 

Fire off some pics maybe and describe where you're having issues? Most of my LOS issues came from not entirely understanding cover, but I seem to have figured that out now.

I took some screenshots of instances where I should have been in LOS but was not. But I dont know where XCOM stores the screenshots and trying to paste it from memory into GIMP didnt work.

[WorstUsernameEver]

This topic convinced me to grab it and pre-load it.

[Starwars]

Goddamn...

Just did the "story mission" where you assault the alien base... After "discovering" two Chrysalids and two Floaters in the same turn in a rather nasty position (soldiers were a bit beat up also), I was pretty sure I was done for. Only my Sniper managed to stay alive at the end of the battle with 4 HP left.

 

Luckily, there was only one enemy left after that... She carefully crept through the level, and when she discovered the enemy, managed to instantly put him down with a critical Headshot. She is now my hero.

 

 

The game can be pretty damn tense at times. I hope they can patch out some small annoyances though.

[Morgoth]

There just have been a 1.8 GB patch released on Steam, without any patch notes.

[alanschu]

Yeah was curious about what's included in that too.

[Deraldin]

There just have been a 1.8 GB patch released on Steam, without any patch notes.

 

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?154266-XCOM-Enemy-Unknown-patch-notes-for-10-11-12

[alanschu]

Seems like standard early patch type stuff.

[Hurlshort]

My two assault guys, Tango and Cash, are just phenomenal. They breach doors, they knock out sectoid commanders, they shrug off plasma burns like nothing.

 

I had a third assault guy and I was calling them the Hanson Brothers, but he got eviscerated by a Chryssalid.

[Majek]

This could have been such a great weekend ... but no game. ;_;

[WorstUsernameEver]

Dammit. I was expecting normal to be reasonably easy given the average difficulty of a modern title and have already lost 13 soldiers. Holy moly.

[Hurlshort]

I've found normal to be somewhat easy, but I also take it very slow in combat and almost always have my squad on overwatch at the end of the turn. I've lost 4 soldiers so far.

 

I do get a lot of folks in the medbay though. I almost feel like it was cheap to buy that upgrade where they get out in half the time. It was more fun seeing extremely injured soldiers out for 20 days.

[alanschu]

Now that I know the game a bit, I find Normal still tense (I am super cautious too), but in this Normal Ironman game I only just lost my first solider (A Heavy Captain) and it was a calculated risk to protect a Colonel that was flanked.

 

 

I lost horribly while doing Ironman (I only play ironman) Classic my first playthrough though haha. Stupid lack of engineers.

[Starwars]

I just started over on cCassic.

 

You can and will definitely lose soldiers on Normal, WorstUserNameEver, but you will tell that it's not too hard in the long run (not that I finished the game but it got a lot easier as the game went on).

 

Think Classic will stomp me pretty good. I've read around a bit though and it seems like the strategy layer in Classic could use with some balancing, hopefully there'll be a patch of mod for that eventually.

[mrmud]

Lost my first guy on normal ironman today to a group of 3 mutons bum rushing me inside a UFO.

As a comparison, when I pulled out of classic ironman I had lost 10 guys in 5 missions.

[Tigranes]

Downloaded demo days ago but still haven't tried, I simply never have a block of more than an hour for gaming these days. So I end up playing Dredmor or Pro Evo Soccer.

 

I'm... I'm turning into an old, casual gamer! OH GOD

[Malcador]

Turn in your moderator badge and report for re-education!

[Hurlshort]

Xcom is somewhat decent for short play sessions though. Basically I save the game just as a mission starts and then decide if I have time to keep playing. Each mission takes about 15-30 minutes at the max, it seems, so they are easily digestible in small portions.

[Deraldin]

Finally beat my Normal Ironman game last night. Lost a total of 4 soldiers over the course of the game. 2 were rookies that were one shot criticals. Another was a squaddie and the third was a captain heavy that had been with me since the beginning. I didn't lose anyone in the last half of the game, although there were a couple close calls including the time my major support was critically wounded by a muton patrol that managed to get one lucky shot off through low cover, suppression and smoke.

[Gorth]

Those who have finished it, how does it compare with the original xcom (ufo enemy unknown) when it comes to number and variety of enemies, research implementation, equipment manufacturing, types of missions etc.?

 

I haven't managed to find a decent review yet that actually compares anything, just drooling and thinking it was "awesome" (and I wasn't impressed by the demo).

[alanschu]

Research is very similar in that you typically get your ideas from alien artifacts, as well as some that chain without needing new artifacts.

 

You can only have one project on the go

You don't recruit scientists, but are given them for completing missions, as well as monthly for having satellite coverage over nations.

Some research improves your research/production of particular fields (i.e. beam weapons).

Your research rate is determined by your total scientists, modified by the amount of laboratories you have. Adjacent labs give additional bonus.

Research consumes resources (i.e. alien artifacts, corpses, etc.)

 

 

Engineering is the same for recruitment. Though building a workshop will increase your total engineer count by 5 as well. Though you need a minimum number of engineers which scales up as you build workshops. Workshops get a bonus if you put them adjacent.

You have no limits on how many things you can build (many things are immediately built - only bigger projects take time), though you must have a minimum number of engineers in order to attempt most projects (same with building base improvements)

Engineering also has a "research" component once the foundry is built, that lets you improve upon existing technology.

Engineering is heavily limited by resources: Money, Alloys, Elerium, etc. So you can't just be all "more more mroe mroe more"

 

 

Types of missions include usual base assault, terror missions, ufo landings/shoot downs. There are new "abduction" missions which are basically "alien activity reported, go investigate" which usually requires the player to make a choice between a variety of places. Base defense is out, unfortunately. Jake Solomon said it was cut because ultimately they just weren't a fun experience (not sure the details why) with the way the game was currently set up.

 

Alien variety seems to be about the same as the original. Some old classics are in, with some of the lamer ones (snakemen) replaced with newer types.

Edited October 13, 2012 by alanschu

[Gorth]

Ah what the heck... off to gamersgate (because it's way cheaper for aussies there than on steam) to buy it. Thanks

[alanschu]

I don't care where you buy it, as long as you do

 

I'll be on Steam if you have any questions

[WorstUsernameEver]

Downloaded demo days ago but still haven't tried, I simply never have a block of more than an hour for gaming these days. So I end up playing Dredmor or Pro Evo Soccer.

 

I'm... I'm turning into an old, casual gamer! OH GOD

 

The demo is pretty weak in terms of showing what the game is about though. It doesn't even offer the full tutorial. I mean.. you get a feeling of the tactical options, but not of the kind of choice-making you'll have to make, and since the characters are all rookies, even combat is somewhat limited.