The X-COM Topic

tomatobob

2014-02-22 11:00:42 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Oh man but a Heavy could have some fun with that. Could catch a lot of dudes in that Danger Zone.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-24 01:11:31 am

2014-02-24 01:10:54 am

Crashed through the Exalt HQ, Alien Base, and Base Defense missions today. For the most part things have been progressing pretty well, although I've lost some good people during the run at this point. (Unless I see a wipe coming, the only death I immediately reload for now is the Assault) Most recently it was my Colonel MEC on the last turn of the base defense because I was stupid and charged him around a corner where I knew a Muton was hiding and took an overwatch shot at point blank range when he had 2 HP left... d'oh!

But hey, one of the base security rookies managed to grenade the Ethereal that was invited to the party after he got blasted by a Double Tap Laser Sniper. Too bad a Cyberdisc decided to end her immediately afterward for her efforts. Gabriela Valdez of Brazil will go down in XCOM history, that's for sure! I'll probably make her in a future run since I've always taken screenshots of the rookies in case they do something amazing like that.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-27 04:54:16 am

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-27 04:52:36 am

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-27 04:52:31 am

2014-02-27 04:52:20 am

You were waiting for this, weren't you?

Yes, that is four Sectoid Commanders right there, plus a Mechtoid since Commanders like to tag along with them in the late game. First Supply Ship of the game and this is what I run into right off the bat. Great.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-27 04:59:56 am

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-27 04:58:00 am

2014-02-27 04:57:36 am

As expected, I completely wiped against that mess since another Mechtoid and a few normal Sectoids show up a turn or two later from the south.

So I reload and decide to avoid the bridge for now since that command group activates everything and head towards the center of the ship. Cue about 3 pods of Mutons with a few Berserkers, some Heavy Floaters, that one Mechtoid and his Sectoid followers who were late to the above party, and of course, the first Sectopod I've seen this game.

Tell me... which of those two scenarios sounds like the better deal to you?

tomatobob

2014-02-27 07:39:56 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I'd say I'd take my chances clearing out the bridge first but mostly because I still see Heavy Floaters swarms in my sleep. :v

But the second option is probably the most manageable since you can probably take the groups one at a time if you move along slowly. If nothing else you'll probably be able to string them out a bit and make use of some solid cover in the trees along side the ship/ Might be able to do something like that with the bridge crew actually if you run away fast enough.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-28 09:42:35 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-28 09:42:04 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-28 09:41:14 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-28 09:39:18 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-28 09:39:06 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-02-28 09:38:52 pm

2014-02-28 09:38:34 pm

Time for another terror mission! Two attempts so far, both squad wipes other than my Squadsight Sniper. This run just keeps getting better and better at throwing insane scenarios at me.

Of course, it does lead to some pretty cool moments such as this one. Neither of them hit him as he rushed over to my downed Assault and revived her.

tomatobob

2014-02-28 10:29:37 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Haha I somehow ducked the whole multiple Sectopods thing in my one late game Impossible terror mission. I was relieved and sort of annoyed at the same time. Felt like cheating.

tomatobob

2014-02-28 10:30:24 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Also that dude's name is fucking Mustapha that owns bones. Make that his nickname too, he needs no other name.

Prime Hunter

2014-02-28 11:02:07 pm

Yeah I've seen a screenshot from the official forums of somebody running into an entire terror site filled with just Sectopods and Drones. Two is hard enough, but FIVE? That's Lobstermen Cruise Liners all over again.

tomatobob

2014-02-28 11:39:52 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Hey at least the Sectopods don't go hide in a closet for two or three hours! :v

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-03-01 04:27:02 am

2014-03-01 04:26:10 am

No instead they absolutely murder everything in sight single-handedly... oh, wait.

I think the next time I load up the game I'm pulling the old land and leave trick. I keep wiping against that terror site with my current squad and I can't afford to lose people at this point because I only have a bunch of squaddies and a few SHIVs back at base. Luckily I somehow got this far with only 5 nations leaving the council so I have some breathing room.

Plus it's getting too frustrating to get far into the mission and still have at least one of those two Sectopods left to tear apart the remnants of my squad and be forced to start the whole mess over. One of the benefits of Ironman I guess, which is not something you'd immediately think of when choosing that option.

tomatobob

2014-03-01 06:22:47 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

This clearly calls for a Hover SHIV armada.

Prime Hunter

2014-03-01 04:07:18 pm

Which would be a great idea... except I don't have enough weapon fragments to research the Firestorm right now. I can make Alloy SHIVs with Plasma though. Not exactly the same thing obviously but they've proven to be very effective with all of the EW upgrades at their disposal.

Thanks to new Foundry upgrades, SHIVs can now have the following bonuses on top of their usual arsenal of abilities:
- Increased HP (+3)
- Increased movement speed
- Auto repair 2 HP a turn (indefinitely!)
- Equivalent of Close Combat Specialist

Plus they're a lot more maneuverable than before and can scale small hills like the soldiers, too. I loved these guys in EU and they're even more awesome in EW!

Prime Hunter

2014-03-01 04:52:47 pm

Wouldn't you know it? Only took another try or two (and a save in the middle of the mission, something I usually try to avoid) to get past those Sectopods. Lost 2 people and saved only 1/2 the civilians, but we made it! Dancing

Thank you Sectopod AI and not being able to use your overwatch Plasmas when trying to rocket my guys! Allowed me to get my Assault in close for a rapid fire Alloy Cannon on the final one.

tomatobob

2014-03-01 05:44:38 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Well look forward to getting Ghost Armor. In my Impossible experience the few Sectopods that actually had the opportunity never actually shot at me because they were always going with their rockets. I'm guessing that defense boost (Did they lower it in EW? It's, like, 40.) makes them decide shooting is too unreliable to be worth it so they just stand there looking menacing while I run and Assault up to Alloy Cannon it. It's possible I got super lucky with Sectopods not spawning in large numbers and being sort of dumb about how to attack me but man is that defense boost nice on Impossible.

Of course it took me forever to be able to afford one suit of ghost Armor once I'd unlocked it because I could not get Elerium for the life of me. Gonna guess they made it more expensive in EW.

Prime Hunter

2014-03-01 07:11:12 pm

Everything's more expensive on Classic/Impossible in EW I believe. I know there's longer research times at least. But yeah, it's taking me forever to accumulate enough resources for these endgame goods.

The patch that just came out a few days ago doubled the cost of Mimetic Skin, the gene mod that simulates Ghost Armor, so it's now something like 65 Meld and 150 cash I think to put it on one of your guys. Seeing as you typically get 20 Meld max on a mission unless you right Mechtoids that is a lot if you can't acquire it easily enough.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-03-01 07:13:53 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-03-01 07:13:20 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-03-01 07:12:23 pm

2014-03-01 07:12:04 pm

Also, just had another terror mission. Sorry Mexico, but my 3 officers are being psi tested right now. Please call back in a week or so...

NOPE! Not doing it, game! You can't make me!

tomatobob

2014-03-01 07:40:29 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Ahh the good old XCOM's asleep, send Sectopods maneuver. Pretty sneaky, guys! Think it happened in my Impossible game too, or the more recent Classic one. Just one day too soon. Confused

Prime Hunter

2014-03-01 11:43:04 pm

They did it to me again in the very next terror site, too. 3 Sectopods at the military base = another site aborted and Egypt pulling out.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-03-01 11:45:32 pm

Prime Hunter: 2014-03-01 11:43:36 pm

2014-03-01 11:43:26 pm

But it doesn't matter now. Dancing

Temple Ship was a total massacre. Uber Ethereal took two plasma bolts to the face from my snipers once I got there and that was the end of it.

tomatobob

2014-03-01 11:53:56 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Hahaha I don't care what anyone says popping that fucker's head off from outside the room is thoroughly satisfying after the bullshit one shot kills you receive on the way there.

Prime Hunter

2014-08-05 01:59:48 pm

So after debating back and forth with myself for a while I finally broke down and bought Xenonauts this afternoon. Lost 1/2 the squad on my first mission, one of which was due to poor placement on my part. It's been a while since I played the original X-COM so I wasn't sure if my guy was safe when his buddy fired a machine gun volley at the alien while he was standing a tile away from her. Took out both the alien and my guy by the end.

Gotta be careful with those things.

tomatobob

2014-08-05 03:31:16 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Haha The classic bullet flying out of the rifle at an 80 degree angle trick. I do not miss the wild inaccuracy of the old X-COM rookies. Or Squaddies. Or really any one of your dudes in X-COM.

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2014-08-06 03:22:02 am

2014-08-06 03:21:38 am

Actually judging from that one mission it seems the Xenonauts hire from better places than X-COM ever did. My sniper could already take a 95% aimed shot (using almost all of his TUs) with the basic sniper rifle, for instance. And with everyone else it seems the firing arc is a lot more narrow than we're used to with most of the standard weaponry. I just had the guy a little too close to that arc when I expected my heavy to fire over his shoulder.

I'll have to see if that was just luck or if things really have changed here.

tomatobob

2014-08-06 03:30:50 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Aimed Shot?!

Rule one of X-COM: Auto Shot is the only shot. Come on Xenonauts, if an Aimed Shot is anything other than a colossal waste of TUs it's not X-COM-like at all! Not talking