greydan

XCOM Enemy Unknown

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turning off ironman.

i may never understand how the game actually works, but I'll be reloading instead of raging :)

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I'm enjoying my playthrough quite a bit on normal with some light save loading. Don't get me wrong, I bet a masochist classic ironman playthrough would be a good challenge, and maybe I'll get to that, but while I'm still having fun playing the game without having it kick my ass, I'll keep doing that.

Right now I think I'm maybe 25-35 missions in (I'm just starting to build Firestorms). How critical is it to get satellites up? Right now I only have five, and while I'm saving up to expand capacity, terror levels seem pretty under control.

Like I said, I'm really having a good time with XCOM, but I have to say, the skill trees are a little shallow (I guess they really aren't even trees, because they don't ever branch off). Also, I wish there were a few more classes. Ah well.

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I'm enjoying my playthrough quite a bit on normal with some light save loading. Don't get me wrong, I bet a masochist classic ironman playthrough would be a good challenge, and maybe I'll get to that, but while I'm still having fun playing the game without having it kick my ass, I'll keep doing that.

Right now I think I'm maybe 25-35 missions in (I'm just starting to build Firestorms). How critical is it to get satellites up? Right now I only have five, and while I'm saving up to expand capacity, terror levels seem pretty under control.

Like I said, I'm really having a good time with XCOM, but I have to say, the skill trees are a little shallow (I guess they really aren't even trees, because they don't ever branch off). Also, I wish there were a few more classes. Ah well.

Satellites are so important. They provide a massive influx of scientists, engineers, and money, which will break the game's difficulty curve at some point. I've found the real key in the metagame is getting up satellites as fast as possible without outdistancing your interceptor program, not that I have any advice on how to do so.

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I agree. I've had a lot of success on my current run by simply focusing on satellite coverage early on. The money and panic reduction benefits are great, and once you start getting continental bonuses you're set. I don't tend to experience very many UFO in flight missions, I've maybe had like 5 tops. Rushing satellites also allowed me to actually make use of expensive upgrades and facilities.

Edit: I've gotta say, I'm not sure how it works, but the way this game doles out nicknames is fantastic. Maybe they're just based on class, like my sniper named Ice or my heavy called Collateral, but a lot of the others are great. A sniper called Warlock!? Awesome.

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I agree. I've had a lot of success on my current run by simply focusing on satellite coverage early on. The money and panic reduction benefits are great, and once you start getting continental bonuses you're set. I don't tend to experience very many UFO in flight missions, I've maybe had like 5 tops. Rushing satellites also allowed me to actually make use of expensive upgrades and facilities.

Edit: I've gotta say, I'm not sure how it works, but the way this game doles out nicknames is fantastic. Maybe they're just based on class, like my sniper named Ice or my heavy called Collateral, but a lot of the others are great. A sniper called Warlock!? Awesome.

They're probably tied into the engine somehow, since they're not stored in a simple config file like the soldier names. And yeah, I was raving about this exact thing a few pages back. My first two upper-level casualties in my hardcore game were Assault Lieutenant Diane "Wednesday" Thomas and Sniper Sergeant Lin "Lockdown" Gao. I miss them both already.

Also noticed while combing the config files: references in \XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Config\DefaultDLC to "DLC_Day060" and "DLC_Day090". Looks like we have a while to wait.

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My best soldier is a psychic heavy named Cesar "Disco" Santiago, which i think is a pretty amazing name.

X-Com's name generator is ace.

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Maybe there should be an 'Ironman-lite' mode; IIRC the Ironman mode in Jagged Alliance 2 only prevents you from saving during combat, but you're free to save at any point in between. It means that you still have to exercise caution with your tactical decisions, but a squad wipe based on a bad roll or button mis-press won't write-off your entire campaign.

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My best soldier is a psychic heavy named Cesar "Disco" Santiago, which i think is a pretty amazing name.

It is. Unfortunately, Disco must never die. So you now bear a heavy burden.

Don't let the Bee Gees down.

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I just lost my first top level character. Thankfully it was a support that I didn't spec as I think I should have. Either way it still felt devastating. That entire mission was tense. Almost everyone emerged critically wounded. The feeling of managing your teams is really incredible in this game.

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My face after spending two weeks researching light plasma rifles to find out they are the same as laser rifles: :wtf:

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Maybe there should be an 'Ironman-lite' mode; IIRC the Ironman mode in Jagged Alliance 2 only prevents you from saving during combat, but you're free to save at any point in between. It means that you still have to exercise caution with your tactical decisions, but a squad wipe based on a bad roll or button mis-press won't write-off your entire campaign.

This mode already exists, it's called "don't save during combat." It is a bit easier, but there's one way in which it's harder than Ironman: you have to exercise willpower.

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This mode already exists, it's called "don't save during combat." It is a bit easier, but there's one way in which it's harder than Ironman: you have to exercise willpower.

I think the reason that Ironman is even a thing is because everyone knows that players don't have the willpower not to reload bad saves.

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My face after spending two weeks researching light plasma rifles to find out they are the same as laser rifles: :wtf:

I believe light plasma rifles have a +aim bonus on them.

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Okay, having played at least three Classic-level Ironman games that self-destructed because of squad meltdowns, I have to say I'm particularly frustrated with this chain of events:

1) I carefully comb the map from one side to the other, in order to avoid alerting too many groups of enemies.

2) I kill all the aliens except one, which retreats and does its "calling allies" animation on its turn.

3) Four aliens kick down the door behind me, use their free move from getting "spotted" to flank my squad, then kill one of my soldiers.

4) The rookie I brought along panics and kills one of his teammates.

5) The rest of the squad panics, moving out of cover or hunkering down in a flanked position.

6) TPK.

Seriously, this has happened in three consecutive campaigns and I have no idea how to prevent it. I even started leaving a guy behind specifically to watch the door, but that just means he dies when the party crashers roll in rather than someone else from my squad.

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I believe light plasma rifles have a +aim bonus on them.

Yup, a lot like laser rifles!

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So i finished the game and started a classic ironman playthrough and i am very certain that the AI is much more aggressive about roaming the map, they don't seem as much to just be waiting around to be activated by the player's line of sight.

Recruits also become a huge liability, so prone to panicking.

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Man, I wish I had known about that mod earlier. I started a new campaign on normal and it's way too easy - I'm getting ready to assault the alien base and I've only had one casualty and no countries withdrawn from the project. My success is due in large part to the lack of bullshit invisible modifiers to the hit% and critical% rolls. The game seems to have a relatively solid tactical foundation, I guess I'm just frustrated that the way they decided to make it more difficult was to increase the role that random chance plays in the game.

I'd restart with the mod, but I've already come so far, I might as well see this through to the end. Hopefully it'll get harder once I start running into the more advanced alien types. I can play classic with that mod after I've taken a break from the game, or better yet, once they've patched it to be like it should've been in the first place.

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The amount of vitriol on that mod's forum thread, specifically of the "you're a video game baby" type, is disgusting. It makes me never want to play XCOM again, if only because it's the same game these chest-thumping idiots enjoy.

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So i finished the game and started a classic ironman playthrough and i am very certain that the AI is much more aggressive about roaming the map, they don't seem as much to just be waiting around to be activated by the player's line of sight.

Recruits also become a huge liability, so prone to panicking.

I've been playing on Normal and that really makes me want to restart on Classic. The only real thing I dislike about the AI is that you have to trigger them through LOS. It feels very goofy.

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I've been playing on Normal and that really makes me want to restart on Classic. The only real thing I dislike about the AI is that you have to trigger them through LOS. It feels very goofy.

The crazy thing is that on Classic and Impossible difficulties, spotted enemies can "call" other packs to their position. The AI is capable of being responsive and coordinating between groups, but it's disabled in Normal, probably because that difficulty level has a hard cap of five onscreen enemies.

It reminds me a lot of the difficulty levels in the Total War games. You either get a handicapped AI and player bonuses, or the full AI and enemy bonuses. There's no middle ground. I can't be the only person who wants the former without the latter.

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I was just playing on normal and had a guy with LOS on at least six enemies, possibly more. Normal is definitely too easy, but I'm playing the campaign through so I will know more about the choices I can make in the strategy phase.

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I don't think there's an onscreen limit on enemies on Normal, I think there's a limit on how many can fire per round, again being five.

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