The X-COM Topic

2012-11-26 11:49:22 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

lol it seriously took me four tries to beat my first mission on Impossible. I savescummed the hell out of the final attempt just out of spite.

tomatobob

2012-11-28 05:52:09 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

OH WHAT THE SHIT! Sectopod in the first room of the Alien base. I haven't seen one on any of the UFOs and I'm pretty sure I'm attacking earlier than I did on my regular Classic run. God I'm going to get wiped on my fist attempt Sad

Prime Hunter

2012-11-28 06:29:08 pm

What day are you attacking the base? If it's in the September/October area I think that's about when Sectopods start showing up based on personal experience. Either way that can't be fun at all. I've had them be my 1st encounter in bases too and I'm pretty sure I came out of it with 1-2 guys left for the rest of the base one time. Needless to say I didn't make it too much farther than that.

tomatobob

2012-11-28 10:23:35 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

It was September, but I feel like I attacked later last time an didn't get one, maybe it was earlier I don't know. I know I attacked later on Normal but that was Normal. Either way it scared me. The game tried to get me again with a couple Muton Elites in the final room but once you've dropped a Sectopod on the player there isn't anything scarier coming. Because Sectopod.

I actually got through the base unscathed, took a couple hits from a drone or two but lol drones.

After that it was an easy ride to:

Fun fact: I got the achievement for having a soldier survive every mission from start to finish, on Ironman somehow lol. The Sniper "Ice" from my earlier post about this run. She never got hit by anything, go dangerously close one time when a rouge Sectoid just sort of popped up in front of her on the second or third mission, he opted to kill a Rookie instead. After that all Squad Sight all the time, I love mid-late game Snipers.

Next time I'll probably do some lower difficulty runs and just mess around, give my self a chance to play with Psionics some since I sort of don't feel inclined to train it up when I'm likely to be running into Classic Ethereals and Sectopods. Just sounds painful. Don't expect to ever play on Ironman again, it's cool and all but fucking stressful, it's hard for me to rotate Rookies in because I'm worried they'll screw it up and get me a squad wipe.

But yeah I think Classic is going to be the way to go when I really want to play the game. Once you get your tech up (for the love of god lasers before Mutons) it can be pretty easy but it'll still rock you if you get careless. Strikes a nice balance.

It was September, but I feel like I attacked later last time an didn't get one, maybe it was earlier I don't know. I know I attacked later on Normal but that was Normal. Either way it scared me. The game tried to get me again with a couple Muton Elites in the final room but once you've dropped a Sectopod on the player there isn't anything scarier coming. Because [i]Sectopod[/i].

I actually got through the base unscathed, took a couple hits from a drone or two but lol drones.

After that it was an easy ride to:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/mYHNe.jpg[/IMG]

:cool:

Fun fact: I got the achievement for having a soldier survive every mission from start to finish, on Ironman somehow lol. The Sniper "Ice" from my earlier post about this run. She never got hit by anything, go dangerously close one time when a rouge Sectoid just sort of popped up in front of her on the second or third mission, he opted to kill a Rookie instead. After that all Squad Sight all the time, I love mid-late game Snipers.

Next time I'll probably do some lower difficulty runs and just mess around, give my self a chance to play with Psionics some since I sort of don't feel inclined to train it up when I'm likely to be running into Classic Ethereals and Sectopods. Just sounds painful. Don't expect to ever play on Ironman again, it's cool and all but fucking stressful, it's hard for me to rotate Rookies in because I'm worried they'll screw it up and get me a squad wipe.

But yeah I think Classic is going to be the way to go when I really want to play the game. Once you get your tech up (for the love of god lasers before Mutons) it can be pretty easy but it'll still rock you if you get careless. Strikes a nice balance.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2012-11-28 11:59:50 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-11-28 11:59:16 pm

2012-11-28 11:58:58 pm

Judging from those stats, I think you're flat out better at EU than I am. Only losing 3 soldiers on a Classic Ironman game? (And you didn't lose a single mission either? I'm impressed!) I easily lose up to 10x that or more on most of my longer runs. Usually from getting stuck in the rut of having rookies who can't handle late game scenarios, but my point still stands. Soldiers have a tendency to die when I'm in command, no matter what X-COM game I'm playing.

But that's what makes X-COM what it is, right?

tomatobob

2012-11-29 12:11:20 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The key difference is that you play X-COM correctly and I play like a paranoid baby. I also got super lucky with the few Cyberdiscs I wasn't able to down on the opening turn liked to double move instead of attack, they definitely would have had some kills if they wanted them.

There was also that early mission I posted about where a guy should have died several times and just didn't. This run was the RNG apologizing for the straight murderfest my first attempts at classic were. I think only one of those deaths was a one shot kill. I used up all of my luck right here.

Poision Envy

2012-11-29 03:27:34 am

Club 27 Goals

Man this game looks like a ton of fun but I just don't have time to get into it ;-;

Does it have any co-op? If so I might be able to.

tomatobob

2012-11-29 03:56:22 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

It doesn't. It has multiplayer but I haven't touched it.

It's actually a good game for playing for a little bit and coming back later on to kill some more time.

Prime Hunter

2012-11-29 10:47:15 am

Yeah there's only multiplayer, which is 1v1 skirmish matches on one of five different maps pulled from singleplayer. You get a certain amount of points that you can spend on a team of aliens and/or soldiers (can have a squad of all aliens, all soldiers, or a mix of the two if you wish) which does leave you with a lot of variety to choose from. Overall though it serves mostly as a side distraction for me. It can be a lot of fun, and once you find a team that you like and it works well against other team setups things can become interesting, but there's not enough there to justify getting the game solely for multiplayer in my mind.

I have to agree with Tomatobob in regards to singleplayer too. Because most missions are quicker than in UFO Defense you can come in and play a few of them at a time if you want to. Of course it also has the ability to grab hold of you with the "one more mission" addiction that some games are known for if you let it, so be warned.

tomatobob

2012-11-29 06:40:42 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Normal is really weird after Classic. Rookies can hit targets, don't die instantly, and there are like no aliens on any given map.

Prime Hunter

2012-11-29 06:56:39 pm

I'm pretty sure they also block reinforcements from arriving if you have too many aliens on screen at once too. They won't come rushing in and some will back off if you have more than 5-6 aliens on the map already, for instance. Thinking of some of my encounters on Classic like those pictures I showed you of inside the battleship, now that I think back to my 1 Normal run so far I don't remember ever getting overwhelmed like that when I was on Normal. (Other than the random teleporting Sectopod who likes to jump right into the middle of my squad while it's already been activated... that's fun on any difficulty.) Makes a huge difference.

tomatobob

2012-12-04 08:52:20 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The AI does some weird shit on Normal sometimes like I'll spot them wit hone or two dudes and then they all just fuck of to who knows where I mean I get that the AI is hindered somewhat on Normal but man is it weird to see Mutons just not attack after seeing the terrors they can be on Classic. Also I still really love Alloy Cannon Assaults, maybe my favorite unit in the game.

Prime, since you use Heavies more than I do, have you seen any real difference in damage against an enemy hit by a Shredder Rocket? Cause on my Classic Ironman run I felt like on any target that I might like the damage bonus for (Sectopods,Cyberdiscs) I was better off just using a normal rocket, especially with HEAT Ammo since that's 12 guaranteed damage as apposed to 8. I can't tell if I've just been getting bad damage rolls on the following shots or if the damage bonus is just worthless. I guess having an extra (low damage) rocket early is nice but otherwise Suppression has been way more useful to me.

Prime Hunter

2012-12-04 09:11:02 pm

Both Suppression and Shredder Rockets are useful, definitely. Most of the time it seems like I use them mainly to pick off easier targets or hurt clumps of guys at once. It seems like it's rare for me to use them for their intended purpose, but I have seen Shredders turn the tide of battle from time to time so they've proven their worth to me. Later on I tend to run with 2 Heavies anyway so I can always get 1 with each unless I find myself lacking in firepower, which means I'll grab Shredder just for some extra damage. Plus I flip flop between Rifle Supression and Revive (?) with my Supports and I often have SHIVs too so I'm never really lacking in Supression capabilities anyway.

I've also heard there's some funky percentage rounding with the Shredders at times and that they'll round down even if they're at x.98 damage or something, but again I don't have enemy health bars on so I can't be sure of this myself.

tomatobob

2012-12-04 09:24:11 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Yeah Supports kind of make Heavies redundant to me since I always go Rifle Suppression and they hit targets reliably. Once a Heavy's fired his rocket(s) he just not super useful to me I guess. But if there's some rounding oddness that would explain why it seems that more often than not a max 8 damage shot might only do like 8 or 9 on a shredded target for me.

tomatobob

2012-12-15 07:23:33 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Haha somehow this Normal game I've been slowly working through has given me the roughest Alien Base mission I've had. I mean it was largely due to a wall between the big room with the alien food containers and the final room not really existing apparently, but still! I had an Assault head for the door so I could breach next turn and WELP Mutons + Berserker! Oh hey these three Elites want to party too, open the door so they can go active, Berserker, thanks man you're the best!

So then my Sniper got to trade shots with an Elite through a wall until another Elite just blew it the fuck up because he realized it was silly, I guess and got tired of blowing up the wall my now heavily wounded Support was hiding behind.

And after we finish with that That same Assault went and stumbled onto a Sectopod in the Commander's room because of course she does. Soon after my Heavy got extremely lucky and I remembered how terrifying Sectopods can be. That cannon of theirs is loud and all of the cover withing three miles gets if they miss.

Also got an old sub woofer hooked up to my computer so Alloy Cannon and Sectopod shots sound appropriately thunderous. Cool

Haha somehow this Normal game I've been slowly working through has given me the roughest Alien Base mission I've had. I mean it was largely due to a wall between the big room with the alien food containers and the final room not really existing apparently, but still! I had an Assault head for the door so I could breach next turn and WELP Mutons + Berserker! Oh hey these three Elites want to party too, open the door so they can go active, Berserker, thanks man you're the best!

So then my Sniper got to trade shots with an Elite through a wall until another Elite just blew it the fuck up because he realized it was silly, I guess and got tired of blowing up the wall my now heavily wounded Support was hiding behind.

And after we finish with [i]that[/i] That same Assault went and stumbled onto a Sectopod in the Commander's room because [i]of course[/i] she does. Soon after my Heavy got extremely lucky and I remembered how terrifying Sectopods can be. That cannon of theirs is loud and all of the cover withing three miles gets if they miss.

Also got an old sub woofer hooked up to my computer so Alloy Cannon and Sectopod shots sound appropriately thunderous. :cool:

Prime Hunter

2012-12-15 12:58:30 pm

You know you tell your war stories really well, I've decided. I can just imagine the chaos of that battle and everything happening one turn after another, like that Elite getting tired of the rules and blowing out that wall just cause it looked at him funny. Some games you think the AI is completely out of it and are just giving you the win, and then they turn around and do something human-like and you start to question everything that happens from then on because you never know what the aliens are going to do next.

This is probably going to surprise you, but I haven't played XCOM in two weeks or more at this point! The last time I played were those pitiful attempts at the 1st mission on Impossible which I couldn't beat. I stopped because I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep trying that again, go back to Classic, or wait for the Slingshot DLC first because I had heard you wouldn't see the content until you started a new game and I didn't want to be in the middle of one. Seeing as I still haven't made a decision on whether I want to purchase it or not, I haven't gone back to the game at all yet. Plus I've been distracted with other games and now Arkham City is sitting in my living room waiting for me since it arrived this morning so I doubt it's going to happen today.

You know you tell your war stories really well, I've decided. I can just imagine the chaos of that battle and everything happening one turn after another, like that Elite getting tired of the rules and blowing out that wall just cause it looked at him funny. Some games you think the AI is completely out of it and are just giving you the win, and then they turn around and do something [i]human-like[/i] and you start to question everything that happens from then on because you never know what the aliens are going to do next.

This is probably going to surprise you, but I haven't played XCOM in two weeks or more at this point! The last time I played were those pitiful attempts at the 1st mission on Impossible which I couldn't beat. I stopped because I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep trying that again, go back to Classic, or wait for the Slingshot DLC first because I had heard you wouldn't see the content until you started a new game and I didn't want to be in the middle of one. Seeing as I still haven't made a decision on whether I want to purchase it or not, I haven't gone back to the game at all yet. Plus I've been distracted with other games and now Arkham City is sitting in my living room waiting for me since it arrived this morning so I doubt it's going to happen today.

tomatobob

2012-12-15 04:47:16 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Don't worry that was the first time I'd played in a couple weeks too. Good thing it was on Normal, I expect that would have gone much worse on Classic.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2012-12-23 05:25:19 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-12-23 05:24:43 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-12-23 05:24:04 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-12-23 05:23:49 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-12-23 05:22:08 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-12-23 05:21:58 pm

2012-12-23 05:21:38 pm

Decided to start a new game on Classic yesterday after getting demolished on another attempt at the 1st mission on Impossible. Game was going pretty well and I was mulching through Sectoids like they were nothing, no big deal. XCOM then decides I've had enough time to reacquaint myself with the mechanics before the Thin Men and Floaters come out in force. I think I've won maybe two missions since that 1st council mission, which was a wipe at the very end to the last Thin Man AFTER I got the VIP onboard the Skyranger.

But I just had to show you this latest abduction mission with my 1st Muton encounter. XCOM trolling at its finest:

Got both of these groups in one turn and they all decided to lineup against this same wall once they started moving towards us. Too bad I couldn't get a good angle on that car with a rocket.

This one was just too perfect not to get a screenshot. Out of ammo, injured, and ONE tile away from evac!

Decided to start a new game on Classic yesterday after getting demolished on another attempt at the 1st mission on Impossible. Game was going pretty well and I was mulching through Sectoids like they were nothing, no big deal. XCOM then decides I've had enough time to reacquaint myself with the mechanics before the Thin Men and Floaters come out in force. I think I've won maybe two missions since that 1st council mission, which was a wipe at the very end to the last Thin Man AFTER I got the VIP onboard the Skyranger.

But I just had to show you this latest abduction mission with my 1st Muton encounter. XCOM trolling at its finest:
[hidden][img]http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/file/Hl9GyeGYZzBCRXk8l4YXJi3Txpc[/img]

Got both of these groups in one turn and they all decided to lineup against this same wall once they started moving towards us. Too bad I couldn't get a good angle on that car with a rocket.[/hidden]
[hidden][img]http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/file/sutQ1q1euEaWuXlwEaHyiMN9oEw[/img]

This one was just too perfect not to get a screenshot. Out of ammo, injured, and ONE tile away from evac![/hidden]

tomatobob

2012-12-23 10:09:28 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I hope all of those guys were on overwatch too.

tomatobob

2012-12-23 10:10:10 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

hahaha Oh god I just noticed you were out of ammo. There's always more and it's always worse.

Prime Hunter

2012-12-23 11:58:26 pm

Nah I was able to run him around the bottom of the building trying to find a safe place to hide and plan an escape route but the Floaters caught up with me on their turn and that was the end of it.

For the record the two pics weren't the same turn and we managed to take out a Floater and/or Thin Man between the two, but it was still a massacre. Didn't hurt that I forgot to equip the 3 laser rifles and pistols I had built before this mission either. d'oh!

tomatobob

2012-12-24 12:06:42 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Yeah the only thing I could see working there is getting behind the white car, popping smoke, and praying everything missed. That guy was proper fucked.

Prime Hunter

2012-12-24 01:47:22 am

My luck's hardly ever that good, especially with how this current game has been so far.

Prime Hunter

2012-12-24 02:43:33 am

Want to know how my luck's been going this game? This mission resulted in a game over because of the madness I've have been left with back at base if I tried to keep going from here.

Trainyard bomb disposal, 1st mission I've played since that last one I just showed you. Thin Men destroyed both of my SHIVs and poisoned a guy with 1HP so it was instant death for him. My two survivors get to the bomb on the final turn after taking out the last standing Thin Man and turn it off. Que FIVE Thin Men dropping out of the sky to completely surround them in overwatch, leaving me with nowhere to run and no way to take them all out with only two people left. Go ahead and guess the result. aiwebs_009

God, I forgot how much I hate those divebombing Thin Men. EU was designed to be "Hard, but fair." they said... Shame on you

tomatobob

2012-12-24 03:37:00 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The thing about the divebombing Thin Men is that you have complete control over when they spawn. I mean obviously you were way under manned at that point so it didn't matter much, but it's entirely possible to have multiple squad members overwatching and killing them as they come in, if not there's still a free shot at an uncovered enemy next turn. The danger from them is mostly in the moment of panic when they start dropping in where you aren't quite sue how many there will be and where they'll be.

But yeah earlygame Classic will absolutely wreck you if you aren't careful, it's going to teach you to slow down and not bank on half cover even if that means killing you over and over. You really can't approach it like you can Normal

To be fair though, the lead designer said Normal was for people that wanted to finish the game, Classic is there to kick your ass in proper X-COM fashion.