The X-COM Topic

2013-01-17 02:28:27 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I went with the random stats/levels and then the one that requires a live commander for psionics. I seriously considered Red Fog but given the smaller squad sizes it seemed like the stat hit would be a way bigger problem than it was in the original.

Most of my rookies have 70 starting aim. Funny cause, aside from a guy who went on to become an Assault, the starting group had ~60. So of the two rookies I've rotated in and promoted in search of a better Sniper I've gotten two unusually accurate Heavies. Which isn't so bad I guess, but I'd really like Sniper that can hit targets. Need to get that OTS built for a proper squad way easier to train guys that way.

tomatobob

2013-01-17 03:54:15 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

That Assault I mentioned has now made Captain and gained all of two hit points in the process. He also has 96 aim he could have been an amazing Sniper. Sad

Finally did get another one though, she had a 70 base so there's hope. Although that original Sniper has actually come along ok statistically. He still misses everything for some reason.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-17 05:55:17 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-17 05:53:41 am

2013-01-17 05:53:26 am

Yeah that Colonel Sniper I mentioned before has about 109 aim I think, which is still nice except when compared to my rising Sergeant Sniper who already has 101 or so if I remember right. If he can survive crazy scenarios like the one I just had at a landed Abductor I foresee a great career ahead of him.

Almost lost my entire squad again, both Snipers included, thanks to a smart but cowardly Cyberdisc, some Chryssalids, and a pack of Mutons who decided to teleport right on top of us while were were starting to rush back to the Skyranger... it just wasn't my day.

You see that rubble in the center? That was a log where I had 4 of my squad hiding when the Cyberdisc bombarded us with a grenade before turning chicken and retreating back into the ship on his next turn as I was scrambling everyone to cover in fear it would blast one of my officers. Instead, because I was preoccupied with that the Chryssalids got 3 of my guys in the end before I aborted. I'm going to assume you can guess which one of the four in the picture didn't make it out in time.

You know, it's funny. I've seen several people complain about the AI not being as good as they expected. But then the game continues to give me situations which completely contradict that. Between this Cyberdisc, those various Floater encounters I've mentioned, and a VIP council mission I had earlier today where Thin Men covered 2/3 of my squad in poison while dancing all over the map to cause their typical annoyances, I feel like the AI can be scary good at times. Of course it can be incredibly stupid as well, but seeing as I'm no different I consider that a fair tradeoff.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but you probably did the right thing in not turning on Red Fog because at this point I'm not sure I'm going to use it that often in the future. From what I've heard as soon as you take damage of any kind it starts working, regardless of what armor type they're wearing. When you consider the Thin Man example I just mentioned each of those four poisoned soldiers were effected by the stat drop, which doesn't even include the normal effects of poison if they both apply at the same time like I assume they do.

Yeah that Colonel Sniper I mentioned before has about 109 aim I think, which is still nice except when compared to my rising Sergeant Sniper who already has 101 or so if I remember right. If he can survive crazy scenarios like the one I just had at a landed Abductor I foresee a great career ahead of him.

Almost lost my entire squad again, both Snipers included, thanks to a smart but cowardly Cyberdisc, some Chryssalids, and a pack of Mutons who decided to teleport right on top of us while were were starting to rush back to the Skyranger... it just wasn't my day.

[hidden][img]http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/file/wyfr2bJ1zKR%2BWFZxCb%2BeR3ImOtI[/img][/hidden]
You see that rubble in the center? That was a log where I had 4 of my squad hiding when the Cyberdisc bombarded us with a grenade before turning chicken and retreating back into the ship on his next turn as I was scrambling everyone to cover in fear it would blast one of my officers. Instead, because I was preoccupied with that the Chryssalids got 3 of my guys in the end before I aborted. I'm going to assume you can guess which one of the four in the picture didn't make it out in time.

You know, it's funny. I've seen several people complain about the AI not being as good as they expected. But then the game continues to give me situations which completely contradict that. Between this Cyberdisc, those various Floater encounters I've mentioned, and a VIP council mission I had earlier today where Thin Men covered 2/3 of my squad in poison while dancing all over the map to cause their typical annoyances, I feel like the AI can be [i]scary good[/i] at times. Of course it can be incredibly stupid as well, but seeing as I'm no different I consider that a fair tradeoff.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but you probably did the right thing in not turning on Red Fog because at this point I'm not sure I'm going to use it that often in the future. From what I've heard as soon as you take damage of any kind it starts working, regardless of what armor type they're wearing.  When you consider the Thin Man example I just mentioned each of those four poisoned soldiers were effected by the stat drop, which doesn't even include the normal effects of poison if they both apply at the same time like I assume they do.

tomatobob

2013-01-17 07:40:32 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Well the AI is actually pretty stupid in the sense that it's as exploitable as any other game's AI, but people complaining probably haven't played above Normal. I mean you can cheese things a bit by basically advancing only in a conga line, activating one group at a time and overwatch trapping, and flanking an alien and overwatching will lock it down pretty much 100% of the time. but that stuff can be finicky and tedious, really only for boring nerds that are concerned only with Optimal. XCOM has always been at its best when things have gone wrong.

But man fuck Cyberdiscs. Assholes.

And yeah Thin Men were pretty much the reason I dropped Red Fog, wound penalties on top of the suppression thing their poison does? Noooooooope.

tomatobob

2013-01-17 08:35:14 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Had a good "Things going poorly" battle earlier, myself. Not as drastic as yours, though.

We got a landed Large Scout in the US somehow spotted a day before my satellite went up, but whatever got X-Rays to kill. we start in a bad spot and move northwest onto some higher ground with a tree and some rocks for cover in the middle and a fallen tree covering the eastern ledge plus a standing tree next to it on a lower ledge. I one or two guys up there and they must have hit that perfect line of sight on a group of Floaters in the UFO because I never saw them aside from the little activation clip, but either way I scramble guys around into the best cover we're gonna get, that little island had pretty much the only cover between the Ranger and the UFO. Alien phase- basically the whole map activates. Three Thin Men come in from the northwest, two Floaters from the north east, and then more Floaters from the north and we're boxed in.

Floaters to the right of them, Thin Men to the left of them, Floaters in front of them, volley'd and thunder'd, storm'd at with plasma and more plasma. They boldly fire back, but not well. My turn comes around and I pick off a couple Thins and Floaters, but we're again largely ineffective as more Floaters come in from the east, likely the initial group, and more Thin Men come into view. Numbers get a bit foggy here, it just seemed like there was always more, I still lose track of reinforcements in less chaotic situations so I'm pretty lost in this one. More shots are traded and my Squaddie Sniper takes a hit but that's the extent of the damage to the squad somehow. I got crazy lucky and the Thins didn't press the attack much on their end, they came at us one at a time eating up reaction shots I wanted for the Floaters. But pretty much everyone but my higher ranking Sniper is on their last shot, he isn't because he's in a terrible position and I was convinced he could cover our flank with reaction fire, I don't think he managed to hit any of the few targets that presented themselves. Anyway we still have too many Floaters on the right and now just one Thin Man on the left, my Support ducks behind the tree in the middle and drops him, I move my alarmingly accurate Assault to handle one of the Floaters but he whiffs on a 94% shot, the Squaddie Sniper takes the other Floater, and my Heavy finally cleans up the one my Assault missed with the last of his ammo.

It was probably the longest single encounter I've had in this game. I don't think I've ever had to have multiple people in danger of running out of ammo in the middle of a fire fight, but they just kept coming. I've never seen so many Floaters. Full disclosure: I reloaded one turn a couple times because I was sick of my Snipers missing every shot, one of them was going to hit a target during that fight or so help me I will turn this car around. Seriously in all of that they accounted for at most two kills, probably just one, it was unbelievable.

Had a good "Things going poorly" battle earlier, myself. Not as drastic as yours, though.

We got a landed Large Scout in the US somehow spotted a day before my satellite went up, but whatever got X-Rays to kill. we start in a bad spot and move northwest onto some higher ground with a tree and some rocks for cover in the middle and a fallen tree covering the eastern ledge plus a standing tree next to it on a lower ledge. I one or two guys up there and they must have hit that perfect line of sight on a group of Floaters in the UFO because I never saw them aside from the little activation clip, but either way I scramble guys around into the best cover we're gonna get, that little island had pretty much the only cover between the Ranger and the UFO. Alien phase- basically the whole map activates. Three Thin Men come in from the northwest, two Floaters from the north east, and then more Floaters from the north and we're boxed in.

Floaters to the right of them, Thin Men to the left of them, Floaters in front of them, volley'd and thunder'd, storm'd at with plasma and more plasma. They boldly fire back, but not well. My turn comes around and I pick off a couple Thins and Floaters, but we're again largely ineffective as more Floaters come in from the east, likely the initial group, and more Thin Men come into view. Numbers get a bit foggy here, it just seemed like there was always more, I still lose track of reinforcements in less chaotic situations so I'm pretty lost in this one. More shots are traded and my Squaddie Sniper takes a hit but that's the extent of the damage to the squad somehow. I got crazy lucky and the Thins didn't press the attack much on their end, they came at us one at a time eating up reaction shots I wanted for the Floaters. But pretty much everyone but my higher ranking Sniper is on their last shot, he isn't because he's in a terrible position and I was convinced he could cover our flank with reaction fire, I don't think he managed to hit any of the few targets that presented themselves. Anyway we still have too many Floaters on the right and now just one Thin Man on the left, my Support ducks behind the tree in the middle and drops him, I move my alarmingly accurate Assault to handle one of the Floaters but he whiffs on a 94% shot, the Squaddie Sniper takes the other Floater, and my Heavy finally cleans up the one my Assault missed with the last of his ammo.

It was probably the longest single encounter I've had in this game. I don't think I've ever had to have multiple people in danger of running out of ammo in the middle of a fire fight, but they just [i]kept coming[/i]. I've never seen so many Floaters. Full disclosure: I reloaded one turn a couple times because I was sick of my Snipers missing every shot, one of them was going to hit a target during that fight or so help me I will turn this car around. Seriously in all of that they accounted for [i]at most[/i] two kills, probably just one, it was unbelievable.

Prime Hunter

2013-01-17 04:30:59 pm

Quote from tomatobob:

It was probably the longest single encounter I've had in this game. I don't think I've ever had to have multiple people in danger of running out of ammo in the middle of a fire fight, but they just kept coming.

Heh, welcome to my world. If you haven't noticed from most of the screenshots I've posted here, I'm always having ammo issues in the early game, which probably suggests I either encounter things too close together like your scenario or I take too many stray shots of little importance. But yeah, I'm quite familiar with the endless alien barrage at this point. Certainly keeps you on your toes, but sometimes I'd like to see more than 1/4 of a map whenever the aliens all decide to have a party close to the Skyranger. (Hmm... that part sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

Also I love the satellite bit. Never knew that could happen. Closest I've had is soldiers with 1 day of recovery left being pulled back to duty.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-17 08:26:42 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-17 08:25:28 pm

2013-01-17 08:23:41 pm

Well played, Sectoids, well played. Applause

I was doing my 1st Supply Ship of the game and the first thing we came across were the two Commanders in the central hallways of the ship. I have my Colonel Sniper shoot the closest one and then hit it with Disabling Shot on the Double Tap so I can get my only guy with an Arc Thrower into range. 95% chance to stun and we get the capture, but in order to get close enough I had to leave him out in the open and completely exposed to the other Commander, who after the 1st one Mind Frayed a nearby Heavy easily overpowered her with MC on the turn leading up to the capture. Rest of the team fails to kill the 2nd Commander and free her even though they connected a few times, so I know a shot's incoming. Pretty sure I had set off some Heavy Floaters and Mutons at this point too so things were getting completely hectic real quick.

As expected, the Commander crits my AC guy but doesn't manage to kill him. But I was unprepared for the Heavy to pull out a grenade and lob it at my AC guy, killing him AND the stunned Commander in the process!

Those two have got to be some of the smartest Sectoid Commanders I've seen yet. I would've had Psionics if not for them double teaming my Heavy like that and then pulling that stunt with the grenade afterward!

I was somehow lucky enough to survive that mess of a mission in the end despite almost everyone getting heavily wounded, someone needing to be revived, and losing two guys due to overwhelming numbers. Perfect example of a mission where it felt like they just kept coming and nothing was going right for me.

Well played, Sectoids, well played. :applaud_orig:

I was doing my 1st Supply Ship of the game and the first thing we came across were the two Commanders in the central hallways of the ship. I have my Colonel Sniper shoot the closest one and then hit it with Disabling Shot on the Double Tap so I can get my only guy with an Arc Thrower into range. 95% chance to stun and we get the capture, but in order to get close enough I had to leave him out in the open and completely exposed to the other Commander, who after the 1st one Mind Frayed a nearby Heavy easily overpowered her with MC on the turn leading up to the capture. Rest of the team fails to kill the 2nd Commander and free her even though they connected a few times, so I know a shot's incoming. Pretty sure I had set off some Heavy Floaters and Mutons at this point too so things were getting completely hectic real quick.

As expected, the Commander crits my AC guy but doesn't manage to kill him. But I was unprepared for the Heavy to pull out a grenade and lob it at my AC guy, killing him AND the stunned Commander in the process!

Those two have got to be some of the smartest Sectoid Commanders I've seen yet. I would've had Psionics if not for them double teaming my Heavy like that and then pulling that stunt with the grenade afterward!

I was somehow lucky enough to survive that mess of a mission in the end despite almost everyone getting heavily wounded, someone needing to be revived, and losing two guys due to overwhelming numbers. Perfect example of a mission where it felt like they just kept coming and nothing was going right for me.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:41:15 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:30:06 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:28:50 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:26:14 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:25:53 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:24:42 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:22:06 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:20:44 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:20:27 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:20:18 am

2013-01-22 05:20:06 am

Have you ever had one of those days?

Best name for a terror mission ever.

Only reason I survived this was because I got lucky and my SHIV took out the Sectopod late into the battle before it could blast my last two guys out of the air. Even though I ended up with a TON of Chryssalids by the end they couldn't touch those two. Lost two guys to the Sectopod and two others to the swarm because they couldn't outrun it.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:35:15 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-01-22 05:30:36 am

2013-01-22 05:29:49 am

Still, that's got to be one of my most memorable terror missions yet. I seriously thought I was doomed in that 2nd pic when I had the Muton, Berserker, Sectopid, and Cyberdisc appear within a turn or two of each other alongside that initial pack of Chryssalids. Now that I think about it I don't know if I even had a 2nd set or if those three were super productive while I was trying to deal with the bigger targets.

tomatobob

2013-01-22 08:11:31 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The one with the Cyberdisc in attack mode on the roof with a Sectopod sitting right under it is my favorite. But that last one with all the Zombies and Chrysailids is pretty good too, the XCOM-est picture.

Nice job getting out of that, looks like a mess. That Sectopod picked the most asshole spot to hang out lol.

Prime Hunter

2013-01-22 04:04:19 pm

The thing about that Cyberdisc is that it was originally inside next to the Sectopod as that 2nd shot shows. It then flew across the room and up THROUGH the roof to get to its spot, but thankfully I took it out pretty quick once it got there. But then I lost one of the two civilians I had saved to the last drone because when you rescue them they go invisible and huddle underneath the Skyranger, which means they're technically still on the map. As if the game wasn't throwing enough at me, it has to start cheating too?

But yeah this was a do or die mission for me since I can't afford to lose any more nations again. Game certainly made me fight for the win this time.

Prime Hunter

2013-01-25 04:13:38 pm

Found this last night, so now it's my new desktop background. (I'll probably try to crop out the words sooner or later) From what I read this was a concept the guys at Game Informer came up with for the cover of their reveal issue after seeing the original game's hidden movement screen and they sent the idea to Firaxis, who created the finished image for them. They went with something else because they felt the image alone made XCOM seem like just another shooter with the now standard male protagonist.

tomatobob

2013-01-25 06:01:36 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Just wish he had the Guile hair.

Prime Hunter

2013-01-25 06:27:12 pm

Yeah the Guile hair and maybe having Carapace/Laser would've made this even better. It's still cool though.

Prime Hunter

2013-01-25 09:15:18 pm

To save you the headache of doing it yourself, never go with the SW option that makes Psi even harder to obtain. (More Than Human I think it's called?) I've probably trained close to 50-60 people and only ONE has ever had Psi. If I hadn't been stupid enough to get him killed RIGHT BEFORE I was going to go to the Temple Ship I wouldn't be sitting here doing just Psi training and the occasional UFO or Terror Mission. I'm completely ready to go otherwise but I just need another Psi soldier and the game isn't giving me one!

tomatobob

2013-03-24 02:19:59 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Decided to fuck around with Impossible for a bit, and got my ass handed to me a few times on the first mission because 45% to hit means 0% to hit on Impossible, but the second mission owned.

Got This map and spent a few turns pinned down at that alien pod thing closer to the fountain and the advertisement board thing by the bench. Which is what normally happens when I play this map because I don't really know how to advance here. But on Impossible, when the Aliens show up in the smaller building, you're left at a range where you just aren't hitting because they are either out of range or hiding behind on of the walls and giving you a sweet ~20% chance of hitting so I got the bright idea (read: Remembered he had a shotgun and not a rifle ,thus was not going to hit even more than everyone else wasn't hitting. teach

) to sneak my Assault around to the right to deal with the couple Sammies that decided to come around the outside of the two story building. My Heavy followed him a turn or so later after the immediate threat in the are was dealt with (And Mr Shotgun missed a close range 70% shot on a flanked Sammy! Applause

). Back at the starting point my Rookie traded ineffectual shots with the aliens until she got hit and somehow didn't die. Then she and my Support, who had fallen back to the other Alien Pod thing out of the alien's line of sight due to the lack of cover from the aliens that were now firing from the small building and the bigger one, switched places for a few turns before she started to slip around to the right as well as my Assault and heavy started to gain control over there.

The aliens catch on to what I'm doing and start leaving the smaller building for the planter and bench just outside by the two story and manage to tag my Assault(Now in the large inset windows of the two story for the high cover) who also doesn't die somehow and kills one of them right back, the Heavy lines up behind him on the outside wall, which is now a support pillar thanks to my earlier use of a rocket to clear the area and overwatches while the Support runs into the office and chucks a grenade to blow the aliens' cover and the Rookie moves up to a nearby bench and misses a shot. Three of the five six remaining Sammies are now exposed and two more in the smaller building mind merge their injured buddies to heal them up a bit and the sixth ducks into the two story office and slips into a cubicle to take a shot at my Heavy. He survives the hit(!) and swings around to kill the Sammy in retaliation and the Assault moves into the freshly cleared space to down a one health Sammy with his pistol as his shotgun is dry, my Rookie moves into view and overwatches to pin the two exposed guys down and the Support moves inside the building to the doorway to take shots at the closer of the two Sammies inside the smaller building, he actually downs him either that turn of the next. But either way the ones we hit see are down on the next turn, the last one is on the opposite end of the smaller building overwatching, so I send my Assault, Heavy, and after a turn Rookie around the back interior wall of their building to avoid the overwatch and into the smaller one while my Support engages in one of the greatest staring contests of all time with the Sammy across the courtyard.

They do this for tree or four turns, overwatching the shit out of each other in what I imagine must be the most terrifying minutes of their lives as neither one refuses to even allow themselves to so much as blink in case that triggers a shot by the opponent. Just staring and frowning for what must have felt like years.

Then my Heavy popped around the corner and blew the little guy's head off.

And the Rookie for her like one kill and probably only landed shot of the battle or whatever got promoted to Sniper. Or maybe just because she survived the mission and I didn't have a Sniper got her promoted her despite probably not actually killing anything. Aside from that holy shit was I lucky, no deaths despite three people getting hit, not getting annihilated while I just sat near the starting point trying to figure out what to do, amazing.

I think for regular missions on Impossible my biggest problem is that I just don't know where to start, I can't really trust half cover and that's most of the cover on most maps so I'm just farting around trying to find the route that won't instantly kill me while aliens swarm across the map at my little squad cowering behind the one or two pieces of decent cover available, missing a whole lot and failing to kill when they do actually hit because the basic rifles are bad. But it can lead to some pretty tense stare downs which owns.

Decided to fuck around with Impossible for a bit, and got my ass handed to me a few times on the first mission because 45% to hit means 0% to hit on Impossible, but the second mission owned.

Got [url=http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Industrial_Office_%28EU2012%29]This map[/url] and spent a few turns pinned down at that alien pod thing closer to the fountain and the advertisement board thing by the bench. Which is what normally happens when I play this map because I don't really know how to advance here. But on Impossible, when the Aliens show up in the smaller building, you're left at a range where you just aren't hitting because they are either out of range or hiding behind on of the walls and giving you a sweet ~20% chance of hitting so I got the bright idea (read: Remembered he had a shotgun and not a rifle ,thus was not going to hit even more than everyone else wasn't hitting. :teach:) to sneak my Assault around to the right to deal with the couple Sammies that decided to come around the outside of the two story building. My Heavy followed him a turn or so later after the immediate threat in the are was dealt with (And Mr Shotgun missed a close range 70% shot on a flanked Sammy!:applaud_orig:). Back at the starting point my Rookie traded ineffectual shots with the aliens until she got hit and somehow didn't die. Then she and my Support, who had fallen back to the other Alien Pod thing out of the alien's line of sight due to the lack of cover from the aliens that were now firing from the small building and the bigger one, switched places for a few turns before she started to slip around to the right as well as my Assault and heavy started to gain control over there.

The aliens catch on to what I'm doing and start leaving the smaller building for the planter and bench just outside by the two story and manage to tag my Assault(Now in the large inset windows of the two story for the high cover) who also doesn't die somehow and kills one of them right back, the Heavy lines up behind him on the outside wall, which is now a support pillar thanks to my earlier use of a rocket to clear the area and overwatches while the Support runs into the office and chucks a grenade to blow the aliens' cover and the Rookie moves up to a nearby bench and misses a shot. Three of the five six remaining Sammies are now exposed and two more in the smaller building mind merge their injured buddies to heal them up a bit and the sixth ducks into the two story office and slips into a cubicle to take a shot at my Heavy. He survives the hit(!) and swings around to kill the Sammy in retaliation and the Assault moves into the freshly cleared space to down a one health Sammy with his pistol as his shotgun is dry, my Rookie moves into view and overwatches to pin the two exposed guys down and the Support moves inside the building to the doorway to take shots at the closer of the two Sammies inside the smaller building, he actually downs him either that turn of the next. But either way the ones we hit see are down on the next turn, the last one is on the opposite end of the smaller building overwatching, so I send my Assault, Heavy, and after a turn Rookie around the back interior wall of their building to avoid the overwatch and into the smaller one while my Support engages in one of the greatest staring contests of all time with the Sammy across the courtyard.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/icaHDck.png[/IMG]

They do this for tree or four turns, overwatching the shit out of each other in what I imagine must be the most terrifying minutes of their lives as neither one refuses to even allow themselves to so much as blink in case that triggers a shot by the opponent. Just staring and frowning for what must have felt like years.

Then my Heavy popped around the corner and blew the little guy's head off.

And the Rookie for her like one kill and probably only landed shot of the battle or whatever got promoted to Sniper. Or maybe just because she survived the mission and I didn't have a Sniper got her promoted her despite probably not actually killing anything. Aside from that [i]holy shit[/i] was I lucky, no deaths despite three people getting hit, not getting annihilated while I just sat near the starting point trying to figure out what to do, amazing.

I think for regular missions on Impossible my biggest problem is that I just don't know where to start, I can't really trust half cover and that's most of the cover on most maps so I'm just farting around trying to find the route that won't instantly kill me while aliens swarm across the map at my little squad cowering behind the one or two pieces of decent cover available, missing a whole lot and failing to kill when they do actually hit because the basic rifles are bad. But it can lead to some pretty tense stare downs which owns.

Prime Hunter

2013-03-24 10:04:35 am

That picture's awesome, by the way and I can totally relate to moments like that. laugh new

(Sammies! Have to thank you again for first pointing me towards that base assault video and Operation Blindfire. I love that battle.)

But yeah, that sounds like a heck of a fight and reminds me of one of the few successful missions I've had on Impossible. I think I've mentioned it before, but from what I remember it was the 1st mission of a new run (here) where I was forced to go around into the alley because they were all grouped up on that one wall between the first and second buildings getting ready to ambush my few surviving guys. One of the most intense battles I've had to this day, with my guys poking their heads out at the back doors and seeing 4-6 Sectoids staring back at them with confused expressions for having broken my normal path through the map.

I've thought about giving Impossible another run with some of the Second Wave options enabled, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. The game's been patched recently but as far as I know that was mostly to try and kill one of the more frustrating bugs once and for all and didn't add much else. (I've seen a players suggest the aliens spawn in new locations sometimes though, which is a plus if it's true.)

Speaking of XCOM, I thought at first you were posting about the announcements made yesterday at PAX when I saw an update here. Other than saying the game's being ported to a few different platforms, they threw out a very short teaser for what sounds like a full on expansion. Doesn't really give away too much, but at least it's a sign that they're still working on new content.

That picture's awesome, by the way and I can totally relate to moments like that. :laugh: (Sammies! Have to thank you again for first pointing me towards that base assault video and Operation Blindfire. I love that battle.)

But yeah, that sounds like a heck of a fight and reminds me of one of the few successful missions I've had on Impossible. I think I've mentioned it before, but from what I remember it was the 1st mission of a new run ([url=http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=CommercialStreet_%28EU2012%29]here[/url]) where I was forced to go around into the alley because they were all grouped up on that one wall between the first and second buildings getting ready to ambush my few surviving guys. One of the most intense battles I've had to this day, with my guys poking their heads out at the back doors and seeing 4-6 Sectoids staring back at them with confused expressions for having broken my normal path through the map.

I've thought about giving Impossible another run with some of the Second Wave options enabled, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. The game's been patched recently but as far as I know that was mostly to try and kill one of the more frustrating bugs once and for all and didn't add much else. (I've seen a players suggest the aliens spawn in new locations sometimes though, which is a plus if it's true.)

Speaking of XCOM, I thought at first you were posting about the announcements made yesterday at PAX when I saw an update here. Other than saying the game's being ported to a few different platforms, they threw out a very short teaser for what sounds like a full on expansion. Doesn't really give away too much, but at least it's a sign that they're still working on new content.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF1MqYb0dmE

tomatobob

2013-03-24 03:34:18 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Yeah I never really pay any attention to PAX ever so I actually didn't know about that!

But yeah I didn't turn on any of the Second Wave stuff for that Impossible game I figured I was already likely to have enough turnover in the soldiers department and I wasn't going to tempt myself to add more through randomized stats. The odd super Rookie just isn't worth the probable mountain of extraordinarily awful ones. They're already bad enough at hitting targets. Sad

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2013-03-24 07:00:37 pm

2013-03-24 06:59:37 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

It occurs to me that on Impossible the base management becomes much more important and that I am not good at it.

This isn't going to go well.

Also I forgot about how much more health Thin Men have, bleh. Sad

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-03-24 09:26:19 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-03-24 09:26:14 pm

2013-03-24 09:26:05 pm

As if they needed any additional reasons to hate them, right?

The added HP on top of everything else might be my biggest concern about Impossible based on my limited experience. Just from dealing with Sectoids I know I'm not going to enjoy that very much when it comes time for things like Mutons and Cyberdiscs. Thankfully Chryssalids don't have extra HP from what I remember reading, but Zombies do which in some ways is the worse end of that deal.

tomatobob

2013-03-24 09:58:34 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The problem is that it almost forces rushing lasers and even then you're still not going to have them before you're first Thin Men, and of course there's the issue of having to pay for them.

On Classic it's not a big deal because anyone can deal wit hthem, on Impossible Heavies with Bullet Swarm can take one if both shots land and their rocket is an option obviously, everyone else has to crit, Snipers and Assaults have ways of increasing their crit rate but it's still a problem when you have more than one target. I don't like relying on crits in any game that has them so Thin Men get legit shitty for me.

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2013-03-24 09:59:34 pm

2013-03-24 09:59:24 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

But I mean the difficulty is called Impossible so like if it didn't kick you in the balls it's be pretty stupid.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-03-25 07:05:58 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-03-25 07:04:20 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-03-25 07:04:10 pm

2013-03-25 07:03:54 pm

Quote from tomatobob:

But I mean the difficulty is called Impossible so like if it didn't kick you in the balls it's be pretty stupid.

Can we frame this quote or something? After our talk I decided to start a new game on Impossible this afternoon, and this was the result:

I can almost hear those Sectoids laughing at me from wherever it is the aliens are from in this version. I've never had March go that poorly. I love how that result somehow got a C rating. THAT is a "C" according to the council?

tomatobob

2013-03-25 07:07:15 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Haha. That C rating is like in the original where you lose half your squad and get a "OK!" mission rating.

Prime Hunter

2013-03-25 07:09:01 pm

Haha, I hadn't thought of that until you mentioned it.

From what I remember that was the result of choosing poorly for the 1st abduction mission since I couldn't analyze the panic levels and then getting lucky and having the 1st council mission be a bomb disposal one which I had to bail on.