One shall stand, one shall ball.
Watching a Sectoid get punched into a car with explosive force is pretty magical.
Oh wow yeah the Second Wave option about flanking sounds great.
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Also forgot to mention the fact that you can now make your squad non-American! I had to laugh at that because it's been a long requested feature but the solution was so simple. Don't have to hire more voice actors to do lines and they please the fanbase at the same time. Win-win scenario for Firaxis right there.
But honestly I am happy about this little feature making it in. More customization options is always a good thing and this is something that makes a lot of sense for what XCOM is supposed to represent.
But honestly I am happy about this little feature making it in. More customization options is always a good thing and this is something that makes a lot of sense for what XCOM is supposed to represent.
I went and checked the 2K Twitch schedule for PAX Prime since I remembered watching some of that last year before Borderlands 2 and EU came out. They've got a few XCOM related sections lined up from the looks of things. The one that caught my eye is called Strategy Masterminds Mega Panel - Enemy Within which starts at 3:30 PM PDT tomorrow. I'll most likely I'll try to catch that at the very least.
Either way I'll let you know if I learn anything interesting about EW over the next few days.
Either way I'll let you know if I learn anything interesting about EW over the next few days.
So I just finished watching the panel, which was an hour long. Most of what they talked about was stuff they've already revealed, but they did have some new goodies towards the end. Showed off a 2nd new alien type (which seems pretty awesome to me) and then played a crashed UFO mission at the new farmland map, which also looks really cool. I'll post some more details later and see if I can find the new gameplay trailer they showed off too.
Edit: Knew it would be online pretty quick.
The new alien is called a Seeker and was described as a flying mechanical spider/shark thing that can cloak and likes to go after lone troopers in order to strangle them with their tentacles. (They specifically mentioned these guys will hunt for your squadsight snipers, for example.) This leaves your soldier unable to move until they are freed and I think they take damage each turn on top of that as well. Pretty dangerous new addition to the alien ranks. I'm wondering if these guys are going to become the key to unlocking Ghost armor, too.
Edit: Knew it would be online pretty quick.
The new alien is called a Seeker and was described as a flying mechanical spider/shark thing that can cloak and likes to go after lone troopers in order to strangle them with their tentacles. (They specifically mentioned these guys will hunt for your squadsight snipers, for example.) This leaves your soldier unable to move until they are freed and I think they take damage each turn on top of that as well. Pretty dangerous new addition to the alien ranks. I'm wondering if these guys are going to become the key to unlocking Ghost armor, too.
From what they said in the panel they needed to create a bunch of new AI for the Seekers. They use hit and run tactics, like to hide and wait until you're engaged with other aliens before moving in themselves, and will hunt around in certain parts of the map looking for individual soldiers to pick off. When they played the farmland map at the end there were two Seekers and both of them followed this plan of attack pretty well from what I saw. Came up out of nowhere to strangle two guys while the team was engaging the rest of the aliens. So easy to lose track of them but they said there are ways to counter their cloak such as the battlescanner and one of the new gene mods that can help detect nearby enemies.
I'm also concerned that Mechtoids can get up to two attacks a round like Sectopods. That's going to be painful since normal Sectoids can merge with these guys and give them a psi-shield (6 extra HP?) instead of/in addition to the normal bonuses. Killing the Sectoid will drop the shield.
I'm also concerned that Mechtoids can get up to two attacks a round like Sectopods. That's going to be painful since normal Sectoids can merge with these guys and give them a psi-shield (6 extra HP?) instead of/in addition to the normal bonuses. Killing the Sectoid will drop the shield.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Like they're making a strong effort to make make Snipers less hilarious, giving battle Scanners more value, countering the stay at the span point and god mode. Pretty cool actually.
I'll have to get a look at how those things work in practice, even with the Battle Scanner dealing with that cloak sounds tricky/maybe annoying, doesn't sound like you can effectively screen your Snipers against that like in vanilla.
I'll have to get a look at how those things work in practice, even with the Battle Scanner dealing with that cloak sounds tricky/maybe annoying, doesn't sound like you can effectively screen your Snipers against that like in vanilla.
I've been trying to plow through Impossible difficulty for the last few weeks before Enemy Within comes out just to see if I can and to try to fill out the Second Wave options. After a dozen or more failures on the first mission/first month alone, I finally put Ironman to rest for the time being. I was actually making some pretty decent headway for once but global panic accelerates so quickly on Impossible that I can't get both satellite coverage and decent tech going at the same time before I get overwhelmed.
Have to give a shout out to the one Alloy Shiv I managed to create during this run, though. Even with the standard minigun it was demolishing things left and right and shrugging off damage at every turn. It was a beautiful thing after how many times I've seen my squad crushed into dust by everything.
And seriously, screw terror missions. It's enough of a struggle against the Chryssalids themselves before the game starts cheating and making zombies out of completely safe civilians. There's no way they can be multiplying so quickly when the only group of them is right in front of me in plain sight! On one attempt I swear there were about 1/2 a dozen zombies chasing me down on turn 3! How do I fight against that when I haven't even gotten lasers and armor for everyone yet?
Have to give a shout out to the one Alloy Shiv I managed to create during this run, though. Even with the standard minigun it was demolishing things left and right and shrugging off damage at every turn. It was a beautiful thing after how many times I've seen my squad crushed into dust by everything.
And seriously, screw terror missions. It's enough of a struggle against the Chryssalids themselves before the game starts cheating and making zombies out of completely safe civilians. There's no way they can be multiplying so quickly when the only group of them is right in front of me in plain sight! On one attempt I swear there were about 1/2 a dozen zombies chasing me down on turn 3! How do I fight against that when I haven't even gotten lasers and armor for everyone yet?
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Quote from Prime Hunter:
How do I fight against that when I haven't even gotten lasers and armor for everyone yet?
On paper? Very carefully and very tediously, tag a token civvy and survive from there on out.
Realistically? Don't.
Priority 1 on Impossible is getting some sats up for income in the months leading to the Terror Mission. Priority 2 is getting Laser Rifles researched and purchased. Nothing else matters, if you can get a Laser Sniper in there too it's nice but not as vital as just getting laser Rifles in the hands of those Assaults and Supports.
I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating but I'm really, really not. Lasers are the single most important research in the game, your standard ARs are garbage that will get you killed and Assaults are not sturdy enough early on to go shotgunning and the Basic Shotgun isn't as certain to kill anything above a Sammy as it is on Classic.
Because the AI is super cheaty on Impossible and Lasers are your only counter to it early on. Armor does not help, Shivs do not help, only killing your enemies dead will help. If you can't kill them about as fast as the can kill you you'll get overwhelmed real fast. Impossible is weird in that you have to build for offense but play super defensively, especially early on.
There's also a lot of praying not to get screwed by getting a map with very little full cover. Half cover is essentially the same as no cover on Impossible because the game is in full bullshit mode.
I had something like three steam vents in the top three levels and I'd tapped into one of them during this run, so the base was actually pretty good to me for once. And I forget, you don't really use Shivs that much do you? Because that Alloy one I mentioned before was the sole reason I got as far as I did. It had more HP than everyone else AND did more damage than most with its basic weapon so because of the way the AI works it was tanking things all the time and allowing my troops a few more turns to survive and conquer.
But yeah, the main things that held me back were global panic levels and never having enough alloys to build everything I needed. I always seem to run into that second problem unless I turn on Marathon, but here it was 10 times worse.
But yeah, the main things that held me back were global panic levels and never having enough alloys to build everything I needed. I always seem to run into that second problem unless I turn on Marathon, but here it was 10 times worse.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Yeah I don't really use Shivs because by the time I can get them up and running I've got a pretty good squad running. Mostly because I'm not great at managing my resources and on Classic and Impossible I want my money going to sats and better weapons for the soldiers in that order and those alloys and weapon frags could be going to better equipping the squad.
In my experience with Impossible just two Laser Rifles in a squad of four will do more for you than one Shiv in squad of three. I suppose you could get two Shivs and use them to replace both a Support and an Assault if you're looking for pure fire power, but the skills those two classes gain could end up more helpful and it would be an expensive prospect. Could keep a Support/Assault and replace a Sniper I suppose, early game Snipers aren't hugely useful on all missions especially without the upgrades to get six people in the field at once. Might be doable but I think Laser Rifles are going to be more cost effective, and that might mean more on Impossible than anything else.
In my experience with Impossible just two Laser Rifles in a squad of four will do more for you than one Shiv in squad of three. I suppose you could get two Shivs and use them to replace both a Support and an Assault if you're looking for pure fire power, but the skills those two classes gain could end up more helpful and it would be an expensive prospect. Could keep a Support/Assault and replace a Sniper I suppose, early game Snipers aren't hugely useful on all missions especially without the upgrades to get six people in the field at once. Might be doable but I think Laser Rifles are going to be more cost effective, and that might mean more on Impossible than anything else.
I had some time to think about XCOM today and I decided I'm going to try an interesting tactic on this next attempt: Start in Africa so I can build up extra money while making a mad rush for Light Plasma Rifles and an Outsider capture so I can have the alien base mission ready to go if my global panic looks like it's about to put me under. I'm thinking that the earlier I can get the base out of the way the better. Not only will I get Psionics off the ground faster, but I can avoid seeing the more dangerous enemies start popping up in there which would be an absolute nightmare.
It's probably going to get me horribly killed, but it might just give me the advantage I need to make some decent progress.
It's probably going to get me horribly killed, but it might just give me the advantage I need to make some decent progress.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Don't rush Plasma Don't rush Plasma Don't rush Plasma Don't rush Plasma Don't rush Plasma.
It's only viable on Normal, takes too long to get off the ground for Classic/Impossible. Africa's a great starting point though, put your first sat over the US unless you really need to save another country and even then think hard about it because that is a huge income boost which means more sats which means more money which means more stuff. Africa owns.
It's only viable on Normal, takes too long to get off the ground for Classic/Impossible. Africa's a great starting point though, put your first sat over the US unless you really need to save another country and even then think hard about it because that is a huge income boost which means more sats which means more money which means more stuff. Africa owns.
Yeah I forgot how long it's going to take to get LPRs. (31 days to research??? Yikes!) Played up through early April before I went to bed this morning and managed to score a double capture in a UFO landing shortly before I stopped. Sectoid and Outsider. So far the rest of my plan is working pretty well though. I've got beam weapons already in the time it took me to get those captures so it's not like I've completely avoided alternatives. Just need to finish the workshop I'm building so I can get those extra engineers.
It's funny you mention that, because the US is precisely where I put my first satellite. Sacrificed Mexico (and 3 other nations) to do it unfortunately, but I'm hoping I can get satellites up quick enough and have the base to compensate if things go south. I'd been playing with New Economy on for ages now, and while scoring a 230 from a single nation once I figure the more stable options are better than having a bunch in the 50-75 range like I tend to get.
It's funny you mention that, because the US is precisely where I put my first satellite. Sacrificed Mexico (and 3 other nations) to do it unfortunately, but I'm hoping I can get satellites up quick enough and have the base to compensate if things go south. I'd been playing with New Economy on for ages now, and while scoring a 230 from a single nation once I figure the more stable options are better than having a bunch in the 50-75 range like I tend to get.
Congratulations, me! Boxed yourself into a corner where the only way to keep going is to somehow pull off an amazing victory at the alien base before global panic overwhelms you! I have two Majors and a bunch of lower guys, only ONE set of Carapace armor, and not enough laser/plasma weapons to go around. Up against Mutons and Chryssalids. Sounds like a cakewalk, right?
...Right?
Oh god, we're all doomed.
...Right?
Oh god, we're all doomed.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
You can do it, I believe in you!
Remember when you save in battle the RNG seed saves with it so that 76% shot that missed is still going to miss when you reload unless you've taken some different actions. Usually when i reload a save when when things have gone badly I find the smart move is to retreat a out of their visual range and try to string them out a bit more.
Remember when you save in battle the RNG seed saves with it so that 76% shot that missed is still going to miss when you reload unless you've taken some different actions. Usually when i reload a save when when things have gone badly I find the smart move is to retreat a out of their visual range and try to string them out a bit more.
Yep, there's actually going to be a new Second Wave option in EW that will reset the seeds whenever you reload too. Only time I'd see myself ever using it is if I attempt Impossible non-Ironman again sometime down the road.
But I'm not done with this game yet. The fact that I'm starting to get more acquainted with the rules of Impossible is certainly going to go a long way to breaking through in the end. I'm just not sure how long it'll take to get there, or if this particular run is going to be the one that does it.
But I'm not done with this game yet. The fact that I'm starting to get more acquainted with the rules of Impossible is certainly going to go a long way to breaking through in the end. I'm just not sure how long it'll take to get there, or if this particular run is going to be the one that does it.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Yeah you pretty much have to relearn the game when playing on Impossible. I base my plans on the assumption that my guy will miss and the enemy will hit and kill my guy and keep some kind of explosive on the table to caver for that. grenades don't kill anything anymore but are probably at their most useful on Impossible.
Quote from tomatobob:
grenades don't kill anything anymore but are probably at their most useful on Impossible.
I use grenades pretty often on Classic to begin with, but I totally understand where this is coming from. Blowing up cover or dealing that last bit of damage to an alien to take it down is key to survival here. They might not kill things outright but they more than make up for it with all of the other useful things you can do with explosives. (Like destroying downed civilians before they rise up the next turn as zombies!)
Seriously. That can be a HUGE lifesaver in certain situations, as you can probably guess.
Of course, the opposite can apply where an explosion goes off and kills your wounded soldier or a stunned alien so you've got to be careful about both your own explosives and any aliens packing grenades. Lost a stunned Sectoid Commander that way in a Classic/Ironman game once when I was using that SW option where you need a live capture to get Psionics. I'd finally managed to get one after spending countless missions trying to do so only for its ally to take it out while trying to grenade the guy who had stunned him. Probably one of the biggest rage moments the game has given me to date.
But on better news, I blasted through 30 aliens to survive the base assault! (After numerous reloads. Just ignore those...) It probably had the most fitting name for a mission I've ever seen too, given the circumstances: Operation Banished Grave.
Of course, the opposite can apply where an explosion goes off and kills your wounded soldier or a stunned alien so you've got to be careful about both your own explosives and any aliens packing grenades. Lost a stunned Sectoid Commander that way in a Classic/Ironman game once when I was using that SW option where you need a live capture to get Psionics. I'd finally managed to get one after spending countless missions trying to do so only for its ally to take it out while trying to grenade the guy who had stunned him. Probably one of the biggest rage moments the game has given me to date.
But on better news, I blasted through 30 aliens to survive the base assault! (After numerous reloads. Just ignore those...) It probably had the most fitting name for a mission I've ever seen too, given the circumstances: Operation Banished Grave.