The X-COM Topic

2013-09-28 01:37:39 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Haha nice, that'll get you some breathing room, how many of your guys got killed on that one?

2013-09-28 05:07:21 am

I'd been saving a ton throughout the mission itself, so by the end both of my Majors (Sniper and Heavy) were the only survivors. Might have only been the sniper if she could have taken down the commander the first time I got to the final room. That's why I made sure to bring two people into the end in case one of them was hit by MC.

Of course now I'm facing down a terror mission and stupidly let panic rise back up in Brazil because of choosing the wrong abduction site, so unless I backtrack a few weeks/missions to an earlier save I need to win the mission in order to prevent a game over again. Have a feeling that's how the rest of this run is going to be if I'm not careful.

Prime Hunter

2013-09-28 07:45:48 pm

Is it a good thing or a bad thing if I've resorted to the Fire Emblem approach of instantly reloading if either of my two Colonels die? Does that say something about how pathetic the rest of my barracks is in comparison?

tomatobob

2013-09-28 07:57:08 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

It's a Survive on Impossible Thing.

At a certain point even on lower difficulties Squaddies become about as useful as an empty slot on the team. If you have a good veteran core group you can bring one along slowly, but if all you have are the two Colonels then, yeah, priority is keeping those two alive while hopefully bringing some other troops up to speed. That's where Shivs start to come into play, I think, they might not be too effective in combat at this point, but they'll take a hit better than some bench warmer soldier will. Keep those Colonels breathing.

Especially that Sniper, a high level Sniper is a godsend and training one back up at this point would be brutal. If you can get some Archangel Armor going plus Double Tap they'll give those crappy replacement guys a fighting chance at becoming useful.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-29 04:21:26 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-29 04:21:18 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-29 04:17:46 am

2013-09-29 04:17:25 am

You know, after that terror mission I was progressing really well. Up to September now so every alien's on the list, but I'm ramping up tech and I've got the Firestorm ready to go once I get enough resources to build it, so things are looking pretty solid right now compared to what they were like earlier.

That being said...

I'm currently going in on a landed supply barge and ran into something that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. If this keeps happening I'm just going to screw this mission and lift off because there's NO WAY anybody could survive this without a few UFO Defense style Blaster Bombs:

What you don't see is the set of Chryssalids that ran off when all of this came down, or the Sectopod I unleashed after firing a rocket into that pileup. The game didn't know what to do at that point because it actually crashed completely when the Pod came strutting in behind them like it was Darth Vader or something. It's placement totally supported that too, as I'm pretty sure it came rolling in behind the Elites in the center.

You know, after that terror mission I was progressing really well. Up to September now so every alien's on the list, but I'm ramping up tech and I've got the Firestorm ready to go once I get enough resources to build it, so things are looking pretty solid right now compared to what they were like earlier.

That being said...

I'm currently going in on a landed supply barge and ran into something that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. If this keeps happening I'm just going to screw this mission and lift off because there's NO WAY anybody could survive this without a few UFO Defense style Blaster Bombs:

[hidden]
[img]https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/file/VqCsbHlXGI9WAW6wxnIVO7EDsJk[/img]

[img]https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/file/BMu4pgkAJ8bwZ%2BgRujLRYywtMB4[/img][/hidden]
What you don't see is the set of Chryssalids that ran off when all of this came down, or the Sectopod I unleashed after firing a rocket into that pileup. The game didn't know what to do at that point because it actually crashed completely when the Pod came strutting in behind them like it was Darth Vader or something. It's placement totally supported that too, as I'm pretty sure it came rolling in behind the Elites in the center.

Prime Hunter

2013-09-29 04:20:58 am

Yeah, that teleportation bug that plagued the game for ages can still happen sometimes apparently. Shocked

tomatobob

2013-09-29 04:25:26 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Hahahahahaha EXCUSE ME WE WE ARE HAVING A BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR SECTOPOD GO AWAY!

Prime Hunter

2013-09-29 04:48:35 am

But you should have seen it. It wasn't like the examples I've seen of that bug where they all came in at once. (And already ACTIVE too!) First came the Chryssalids which I thought had been hiding in the darkness so there was nothing out of the ordinary. But then in quick succession each group popped in one after the other, and once all were there like the first screenshot shows I swear they began their intro cutscenes and started moving for cover as the next group in the line started playing theirs. It all happened pretty quickly and I was in complete shock so I might be remembering it differently. Absolutely nuts either way, though.

And yeah, "Frostbite" there is my Colonel Sniper if it wasn't obvious. She and the Heavy were part of the original foursome from the first mission and the only two Psi units I have right now. Not sure which one is going to end up becoming the Volunteer yet assuming I make it to the end.

tomatobob

2013-09-29 05:01:42 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I think all enemy groups are active from the start on Impossible. You know because why not.

tomatobob

2013-09-29 05:03:33 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I think I've had something like that happen to me on Impossible before, not as bad because it wasn't literally every enemy on the map in one room, but a good portion of them charging right for me from the word go.

Prime Hunter

2013-09-29 05:15:23 am

Well yeah, there's charging in from across the map and then there's literally appearing out of nowhere like they did here. I've seen both variants now and neither is fun to deal with when you aren't expecting it to happen. (SO glad this isn't an Ironman run.) Although I also heard at one point that as soon as you find the Outsider/Commander/Ethereal group on a UFO it can sometimes activate everything else or at least point them all to your location. Seeing as the Commanders are right in the back end where I landed that's going to be a problem if it's true, which this party here seems to suggest.

Kinda stuck in a tight spot since I need more alloys to make the Firestorm and other high end equipment so I need to figure out how to deal with this scenario or else just wait for another UFO to come along later.

tomatobob

2013-09-29 12:55:12 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Yeah seeing the Commanders in that room is a surprise, did you shot that one down and blow up their little command room? or was the game just feeling nasty.

As for how to handle that... I think it's doable. But maybe not totally reasonable. A couple people can use the high cover by that entrance, you've got some Ghost Armor running so that can help with some auto crits and/or you retreat to better cover, you've got rockets and Psionics available you'd have to play it really tight though, no room for error against those odds. Can you restart the mission? cause being able to try that again without a guy getting MC'd would be good. And maybe you won't have a room full of everything on the map on a restart.

Of course there's still the matter of that Sectopod and the Chrissies Neutral

. Man, you really won the lottery with this one.

If you're stuck with where you're at I would suggest looking for a better position outside the UFO and retreating to there, stringing the enemy out a bit so you can pick them off in bite size chunks.

That looks like a fun situation to solve though. You know, from the perspective of someone that isn't caught in that dogpile.

Yeah seeing the Commanders in that room is a surprise, did you shot that one down and blow up their little command room? or was the game just feeling nasty.

As for how to handle that... I think it's doable. But maybe not totally reasonable. A couple people can use the high cover by that entrance, you've got some Ghost Armor running so that can help with some auto crits and/or you retreat to better cover, you've got rockets and Psionics available you'd have to play it really tight though, no room for error against those odds. Can you restart the mission? cause being able to try that again without a guy getting MC'd would be good. And maybe you won't have a room full of everything on the map on a restart.

Of course there's still the matter of that Sectopod and the Chrissies :neutral:. Man, you really won the lottery with this one.

If you're stuck with where you're at I would suggest looking for a better position outside the UFO and retreating to there, stringing the enemy out a bit so you can pick them off in bite size chunks.

That looks like a fun situation to solve though. You know, from the perspective of someone that isn't caught in that dogpile.

Prime Hunter

2013-09-29 03:12:28 pm

With the way I've been playing Impossible it's turned into Fire Emblem's Future Past missions all over again. Ones I have to complete at all costs that give me a ton of trouble until I figure out the puzzle and push through to victory. While this can be enjoyable once I get the right combination, Classic is definitely my difficulty of choice once I get through this run. Too many things are designed to completely screw you over on Impossible. I can't even imagine what this would be like with EW's new toys and the supposedly harder Classic/Impossible difficulties, though. But hey, at least I'd have a MEC or two running around to hopefully give me an edge.

But no, that's the back end of the ship, not the command center. (This is a landed craft.) I've seen the command group pop there before so that didn't surprise me, actually. And yeah I've been making a save at the start of the first turn on every mission I run in case I end up in situations like this, so I have some breathing room to maneuver when I go back to that in a few minutes. Maybe I'll try to go around the sides or something to avoid setting off the Commanders in hope that is what triggered the party. At least I know the exact alien crew though so that should help a bit. (Chryssalids were NOT on the Hyperwave menu, game!)

With the way I've been playing Impossible it's turned into Fire Emblem's Future Past missions all over again. Ones I have to complete at all costs that give me a ton of trouble until I figure out the puzzle and push through to victory. While this can be enjoyable once I get the right combination, Classic is definitely my difficulty of choice once I get through this run. Too many things are designed to completely screw you over on Impossible. I can't even imagine what this would be like with EW's new toys and the supposedly harder Classic/Impossible difficulties, though. But hey, at least I'd have a MEC or two running around to hopefully give me an edge.

But no, that's the back end of the ship, not the command center. (This is a landed craft.) I've seen the command group pop there before so that didn't surprise me, actually. And yeah I've been making a save at the start of the first turn on every mission I run in case I end up in situations like this, so I have [i]some[/i] breathing room to maneuver when I go back to that in a few minutes. Maybe I'll try to go around the sides or something to avoid setting off the Commanders in hope that is what triggered the party. At least I know the exact alien crew though so that should help a bit. (Chryssalids were NOT on the Hyperwave menu, game!)

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-29 08:28:06 pm

2013-09-29 05:12:24 pm

Haha, would you believe that in my final run of that mission I only lost the SHIV? Nearly lost a bunch of the others at times, including one guy who was crit wounded by the last Commander, but otherwise it went about as well as I could have hoped for. Thank you again whoever designed the Supply Barge to have that second floor in the center! I use that a lot to tackle these things and it saved my squad yet again this time around.

Although having a group of Heavy Floaters pop right on top of my Support who was already face to face with a Berserker could've ended a lot worse than it did. Thanks again squadsight!

Edit: So... apparently I ticked off the aliens by taking down the Overseer. Right afterward I get both a Battleship hovering over the US and a Terror Site in Russia. Couldn't make a dent in the ship since my Firestorm was damaged from taking down the Overseer, and the squad's on its last legs due to injuries from that same battle. At least my Sniper and a Shiv are part of the 5 man group heading to the military base. I still have hope of pulling this off and finishing Impossible despite this chaos the game threw at me right at the endgame.

Haha, would you believe that in my final run of that mission I only lost the SHIV? Nearly lost a bunch of the others at times, including one guy who was crit wounded by the last Commander, but otherwise it went about as well as I could have hoped for. Thank you again whoever designed the Supply Barge to have that second floor in the center! I use that a lot to tackle these things and it saved my squad yet again this time around.

Although having a group of Heavy Floaters pop right on top of my Support who was already face to face with a Berserker could've ended a lot worse than it did. Thanks again squadsight!

Edit: So... apparently I ticked off the aliens by taking down the Overseer. Right afterward I get both a Battleship hovering over the US and a Terror Site in Russia. Couldn't make a dent in the ship since my Firestorm was damaged from taking down the Overseer, and the squad's on its last legs due to injuries from that same battle. At least my Sniper and a Shiv are part of the 5 man group heading to the military base. I still have hope of pulling this off and finishing Impossible despite this chaos the game threw at me right at the endgame.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-30 01:08:53 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-30 01:08:46 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-30 01:02:35 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-30 01:02:30 am

Prime Hunter: 2013-09-30 01:02:10 am

2013-09-30 01:01:56 am

It's a beautiful thing...

That first shot also managed to capture all of the survivors in it somehow. The Uber had mind controlled my Assault (the guy in blue) and sent him chasing after my Heavy and Sniper. The Heavy ended up taking a bullet for her when he was critically wounded by the Assault on the turn right before MC was broken. I almost find it fitting in a way that this is how it ended because the two of them had been part of my initial four from the first mission.

tomatobob

2013-09-30 01:05:41 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Yeahhhh bitch!

Congrats.

Prime Hunter

2013-09-30 01:17:22 am

Yeah, I'm feeling very relieved to have finally gotten through this. Dancing

Thank you for all of the support you gave me along the way!

Playing through Impossible though made me realize how loaded the first few months are in terms of difficulty. Once I got past the Alien Base and that one Terror Mission things smoothed out quite a bit, but each new Terror Mission was a fresh nightmare since I couldn't fail a single one that that point. The last one I did right before the Temple Ship assault ended up having THREE Sectopods all activate within a turn or two of each other, but luckily I managed to fight them once at a time and whittled them down while their Drones kept healing and picking off civilians in the mean time. Only one civilian survived in the end but it was enough to keep the country from leaving and giving me a game over.

tomatobob

2013-09-30 01:30:58 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Yeah, I'm feeling very relieved to have finally gotten through this. Dancing

Thank you for all of the support you gave me along the way!

No problem, I had to do something since I've chickened out of my Impossible run for now because I'm too scared my crazy good luck from the last go I had will turn hard and crush my soul.

But yeah the game is very front loaded, the original was too really. At a certain point your tech is good enough and your soldiers become skilled enough that they just sort of stop dying aside from the occasional unlucky bullshit. It's a bit more noticeable in this game because Blaster Bombs aren't around to drive you out of your mind.

Prime Hunter

2013-10-09 12:55:58 pm

One of the bigger mysteries behind Enemy Within is finally revealed. Meet the Exalt:

Here's an article for more info on them and how they fit into the main game. Not really sure what incentive there is to take them on other than eliminating a threat, though. I'd assume if we get anything extra it would come in the form of early access to late game tech, extra resources, maybe some troops, etc. That sort of thing. Should still be an interesting way of expanding on the mission types and keeping things fresh.

But between the trailer and the Steam achievements that people have already found some form of base defense seems inevitable at this point.

tomatobob

2013-10-10 04:53:19 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Oh wow, so the human enemies seem to work pretty much like XCOM dudes. Kind of rules.

Prime Hunter

2013-10-30 02:56:05 pm

So rumor has it Sectopods are only going to take 50% damage from all attacks against them in EW thanks to a new buff/ability. Which in turn puts them at an equivalent to 60 HP. Combine that with the nerfs to Squadsight, HEAT Ammo, and lower crit bonuses from Ghost mode...

Not talking

tomatobob

2013-10-30 05:08:17 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Prime Hunter

2013-10-31 03:34:04 am

Heh, not surprised we're in agreement on that. Seeing that about our 'favorite' walking death machine is not something I like based on how much trouble they give me already. Mutons/Elites are supposed to be getting a buff as well from what I remember hearing but I haven't seen anything yet to confirm if that's true or not. Plus we have the Mechtoid and Seeker to worry about on top of that as well.

It's not surprising that I've seen some understandable fears about how balanced everything is going to be in EW once all is said and done. The new aliens, buffed aliens, Exalt, and everything XCOM gets to play with is going to completely change the nature of the game even before you get to the changes to the strategic layer. And since you can get MECs so early, according to some reports from people who have played the preview builds the first few months might not be as tough as they used to be, either.

Enemy Within should be quite the adventure no matter what happens, especially if you include all of the Second Wave options you can throw into the mix as well. I've debated about going in the first time with SW options and the tutorials on, but at this point I'm still not sure. I'll likely have SW but leave the tutorials and beginner speeches on just to experience any story changes they've made. (SO glad they give us an option to disable those. No more "Stop using explosives!" speeches from Dr. Vahlen!)

Heh, not surprised we're in agreement on that. Seeing that about our 'favorite' walking death machine is not something I like based on how much trouble they give me already. Mutons/Elites are supposed to be getting a buff as well from what I remember hearing but I haven't seen anything yet to confirm if that's true or not. Plus we have the Mechtoid and Seeker to worry about on top of that as well.

It's not surprising that I've seen some understandable fears about how balanced everything is going to be in EW once all is said and done. The new aliens, buffed aliens, Exalt, and everything XCOM gets to play with is going to completely change the nature of the game even before you get to the changes to the strategic layer. And since you can get MECs so early, according to some reports from people who have played the preview builds the first few months might not be as tough as they used to be, either.

Enemy Within should be quite the adventure no matter what happens, especially if you include all of the Second Wave options you can throw into the mix as well. I've debated about going in the first time with SW options and the tutorials on, but at this point I'm still not sure. I'll likely have SW but leave the tutorials and beginner speeches on just to experience any story changes they've made. (SO glad they give us an option to disable those. No more "Stop using explosives!" speeches from Dr. Vahlen!)

Prime Hunter

2013-11-02 03:47:22 pm

Decided to finally grab Slingshot so I can have that available when EW comes out. I figure it's the only piece of Enemy Unknown I wouldn't have at this point and I can toggle it on and off alongside the cancelled Progeny DLC missions that they're incorporating into the expansion if I don't feel like playing either of them each time.

Doubt I'll use Zhang much but it's nice to have all of the extra customizations and early access to Blaster Launchers and later tech. By the time I'd get them normally I'm ready to face the Temple Ship anyway so I don't get to use them too often as it is. I mean it's not like taking on a battleship earlier than normal makes it any easier, so I still have to fight for it and then have the time and resources to research them.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2013-11-03 06:10:09 pm

Prime Hunter: 2013-11-03 06:09:56 pm

2013-11-03 05:32:15 pm

Oh man, I just learned of a terrifying new council mission/mission type called a Site Recon. All I'll say is that the example I know of has you sending in a team after the council loses contact with a fishing village with reported alien activity. Not sure if this is the only mission of this type or if there are more than this one, but it sounds absolutely nasty either way.

Edit: Wow the map for this mission looks absolutely fantastic! If that's a sign of how all the new maps will look I'd say they definitely stepped it up in the level design department this time around.