XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Waldorf and Statler]

Yeah I'm playing on normal currently to get the hang of it. Thanks for the advice, I was gonna probably waste a lot of time with the labs then haha

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, the research boost provided by labs is really useful on harder difficulties but you really don't need it on normal. You might need to build workshops if you're low on engineers, though. So keep an eye on that. Sucks to save up for something only to find out you can't build it because you're 3 engineers short.

Edited November 29, 2012 by FLD

[deanb]

So I played this through last night. I hit a wall where basically once your veteran squad dudes start dying you care less and less. It's also doesn't help I was short on cash so it ended up with me going several months (surprised at how long that took) of me just ignoring the warnings until it decided to tell me I'd lost for whatever reason. (Yeah I'm not actually sure what the loss conditions are, since it's not a loss of cash, countries, squad members. So I assume a pre-set date by which you're meant to win?)

 

It's pretty neat though, get a very strong Frozen Synapse vibe from it, just in 3D. It somewhat annoys me you're clearly meant ot have researched certain tech by certain stages, if you don't have the proper research by the time pre-made mission #whatever crops up, then you're totally off-kilter and fucked (I didn't capture a grey in the mission immediately following the first time the containment quest crops up, thus putting me about a month behind in research).

[toxicitizen]

So I played this through last night. I hit a wall where basically once your veteran squad dudes start dying you care less and less. It's also doesn't help I was short on cash so it ended up with me going several months (surprised at how long that took) of me just ignoring the warnings until it decided to tell me I'd lost for whatever reason. (Yeah I'm not actually sure what the loss conditions are, since it's not a loss of cash, countries, squad members. So I assume a pre-set date by which you're meant to win?)

 

There is no time limit to the campaign. You can take as long as you like and postpone doing the main objectives for months. You get the game over screen only after a certain amount of countries have dropped out of the council. Not sure of the exact amount, something like half of them. All the things you mentioned are important factors, though. If you run out of cash and soldiers, then you're just not gonna be able to keep the countries from leaving.

[deanb]

So had a second playthrough and came across something odd and hugely annoying. Anyone had Thin Men just keep firing during your turn? They just stood there and fired a constant stream of plasma fire at my guys, which lead to two deaths before I realised what was happening. I'm still trying to work out how the money stuff works too and not even bothering with the whole panic stuff it's way over my head how that one is worked out. The elevation thing too, not sure what the games rules on that are as I've had a couple dudes killed while being higher (ad in cover) that the enemy, but I'm pretty sure the tutorial mode* tells you that if you're higher you fire on the enemies easier, not they fire on you easier.

 

*wow they really just throw shit at you when you're not in the tutorial don't they?

[Luftwaffles]

So had a second playthrough and came across something odd and hugely annoying. Anyone had Thin Men just keep firing during your turn? They just stood there and fired a constant stream of plasma fire at my guys, which lead to two deaths before I realised what was happening.

 

That's the suppression trait. If you move them out of cover of course they'll hit you, it also doubles as overwatch. Basically any time they're suppressing you those guys are pinned for a turn. You can try and fire, but the one thing you don't want to do is move out of that cover, as they'll fuck you up real good with overwatch shots.

[deanb]

I didn't move them, that's why they died. The thin men started firing, I waited for the animation to end, one of my guys died then I noticed the map was blue, it was my turn, so I high-tailed my guys well out the way.

[jayc4life]

So I played this through last night. I hit a wall where basically once your veteran squad dudes start dying you care less and less. It's also doesn't help I was short on cash so it ended up with me going several months (surprised at how long that took) of me just ignoring the warnings until it decided to tell me I'd lost for whatever reason. (Yeah I'm not actually sure what the loss conditions are, since it's not a loss of cash, countries, squad members. So I assume a pre-set date by which you're meant to win?)

 

It's pretty neat though, get a very strong Frozen Synapse vibe from it, just in 3D. It somewhat annoys me you're clearly meant ot have researched certain tech by certain stages, if you don't have the proper research by the time pre-made mission #whatever crops up, then you're totally off-kilter and fucked (I didn't capture a grey in the mission immediately following the first time the containment quest crops up, thus putting me about a month behind in research).

FLD's right, you can just not advance the main story at all by not doing prioritized research mandates and not building stuff that it says you should. That being said however, I'd try to do as much of it as you can in the early stages, and try to get satellites over a small 2-3 country continent to exploit their group bonuses. You'd be surprised how fast you can skim through a bunch of research just by having instant interrogations and autopsies active from South America.

 

Last time I played it, I stalled

outside the Secret Base

but I'm hoping when I get back to playing it that I can get it done ASAP because I'd really rather not do that mission with a bunch of Cyberdisks and Muton Bezerkers around.

[deanb]

Yeah I didn't end up in the base on my first play through, this play through I ended up capturing a..Outsider(? the shard things) before anything else so ended up with that kinda early. I may try the "don't do anything it says to" technique.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, from what I hear that's the best technique. Like how in an RPG you don't do any of the main/primary/urgent missions until you've completed every available sidequest first.

[toxicitizen]

So, looks like they finally patched in those Second Wave options. Really tempted to fire it up and check them out.

[madbassman39]

I got frustrated with the game, and had to put it down for a while. Every mission I went on I would make one move and alert somewhere around 8 enemies, who all got to shoot and kill my players before I could even move them all on their first turn.

 

I'm tempted to quit, and start an Iron man game. I want to play it on Iron man mode, but I can't stand not winning. I think If I go into expecting to not win I might be OK. Damn do I love this game though.

[toxicitizen]

If that happens to you repeatedly, then you're most likely doing something very wrong. After a few failed Classic Iron Man runs, I started being EXTRA careful with movement, never moving unless I had full cover to move to (especially at the start of missions), and I started performing significantly better. It sounds kinda tedious to move that slowly but it's actually very satisfying when you sneak up right on top of a pack of mutons and can take them all out before they can get their turn. Pro tip: don't use your full range of movement, get to the closest cover and spam overwatch. It really pays off. Especially when you stay in place for a few turns and let the enemies come to you. They don't always do but when it happens it can be glorious.

 

That being said, if you can't stand losing, then Iron Man might not be for you. Seriously. It can be maddening to be doing fairly well and see it all fall apart in a single shitty turn. I haven't yet finished my current run (haven't touched it in about two months now, was too busy with school ), but there were a few times where I just alt-F4'd out of pure rage. Incidentally, if you do it fast enough, it doesn't save the turn...

Edited January 8, 2013 by FLD

[madbassman39]

I actually do use Over watch and try to keep my soldiers in close range. I think its just this map the enemies are spawned in the building right infront of where my dudes get dropped off. I might have to just take this mission as a loss and move on. I wish I had a save that was not so far back

[deanb]

Terror Missions: Explain.

 

(Also it seems you can't stall how the missions advance by ignoring story mission/research)

[toxicitizen]

Terror Missions: Explain.

 

Seriously? ... Aliens are terrorizing a city. There are 18 civilians as well as many aliens on the map. Rescue as many civilians as possible by either walking up to them or killing all the aliens. Pretty straightforward. Also worth mentioning: unlike regular missions where you can pretty much do whatever you like if there are no active enemies, if you just sit on your ass in terror missions, the aliens are going to be murdering the civilians.

 

(Also it seems you can't stall how the missions advance by ignoring story mission/research)

 

Really not sure what you're trying to say here.

Edited January 18, 2013 by FLD

[deanb]

I get the point of the Terror Missions; how the fuck do you survive (let alone beat) them. Enemies that are nearly three times more HP than anything faced beforehand, that caused shit tons more damage and replicate is a bit of a leap from one mission type to the next. Best I can tell you're either meant ot send in rookies as fodder or skip them.

 

 

(Also it seems you can't stall how the missions advance by ignoring story mission/research)

Really not sure what you're trying to say here.

 

Both you n JayClife had previously said you can stall the game advancing by not doing the mission based research (i.e interrogating the aliens). Yet the Terror attack still happens.

[toxicitizen]

Ah, I see. No, you misunderstood. The game clock will still advance when you scan, the "story" is what you can stall. Events like abduction/terror/UFO missions aren't story-related. You get a little cutscene on the first terror mission to show that "this is a bigger deal than regular abduction missions", but that's it. What we meant is when the game stamps a big PRIORITY OBJECTIVE on a research or construction, you can postpone doing that for however long you like. That being said, as time advances, you will start to encounter progressively stronger enemies. So upgrading your gear is still something you need to keep doing.

 

As for how you beat them, well, don't sweat it, really. Prioritize your own survival more than anything. i.e. don't be reckless just to save a single civilian. I'm doing a normal run atm and I've had terror missions in the early game where I only saved about half of them and still got a "Good" rating. I've also put off doing the early research and construction story objectives to the point where I had endgame gear before doing the first big story mission.

 

 

The alien base assault.

 

Edited January 19, 2013 by FLD

[deanb]

Oh that sucks. I kinda figured since they were a cut-scene mission they were somewhat story based. Like because you'd interrogated X amount of aliens/advanced story based research to a certain level you'd get these kinds of missions.I'm getting better at keeping my guys alive, so they're leveling up more. Gotten the armour in place too which I hadn't managed before. Still not enough against the Chrysalids. I've seen stuff around the web saying to build satellites ASAP but you need a minimum amount of engineers which you won't get until a mission crops up offering engineers (and even then you still fall short with just one of those missions). So I've yet to be in a position where I've had the right amount of cash or engineers to launch any more than the default satellites. (So I'm probably doing something wrong there)

[toxicitizen]

Not really. Lack of engineers is definitely a big roadblock early on. Prioritizing the missions that offer them as a reward is the way to go but you can't rely on those alone. Workshops aren't really necessary on normal difficulty, but I ended up building a couple early on just so I could get a few more satellites up in the air faster. So if you're short a few engineers you might wanna consider building one. This is especially easy to do if you pick Europe as your home base location as it makes them (as well as labs) 50% cheaper.

Edited January 19, 2013 by FLD

[deanb]

Need to advance the game a bit though to unlock the ability to build workshops though so they're not much of a shortcut either. The missions to get engis and the workshops crop up around the same time.

[toxicitizen]

Well, what difficulty are you playing on? They both unlock pretty early on and the first terror mission usually pops up in the second month or so. If you're struggling that much then you probably need to rethink your approach to combat. Might want to watch a few of these.

 

He's playing on Ironman Impossible so he has to be much more careful and still ends up getting his ass kicked but there are some solid basic strategies to learn from watching him play.

Edited January 19, 2013 by FLD

[deanb]

Playing Normal. It may be "early on" but it's still weeks of game time to get enough engineers, cash, and have the power stuff built and base excavated and satellite uplink starting being built. By which point enough of the "pick one of three" missions have come up that 1/3 of the globe is in high level panic.

The issue isn't the combat, is the base. I'm doing alright at the combat side of things at the moment; on current playthrough I'd only lost two guys by the time terror mission rolled around. Just I'm clearly messing something up on the base side of things if I've not got the research/engineering in place to have any extra satellites up and the improved gear in place.

[TheMightyEthan]

It's actually easier if you don't play the tutorial, because the tutorial artificially restricts how soon you can get certain basic things, so you might consider starting over without the tutorial. That's what I did and I had a WAY easier time.

 

*Edit* - I mean, the tutorial is helpful, but it hinders your base early game so once you've done it you should restart without it.

Edited January 19, 2013 by TheMightyEthan

[deanb]

I've only played with the tutorial on the first time around.