[360/PC/PS3] XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Turtle]

I'm a big fan of the heavy suppression

Is there a difference between it and the support suppression?

Heavy suppression can be more effective since they have multiple skills that boost suppression effectiveness later, including one that guarantees 3 damage on something you suppress, which along with their AoE suppression skill allowed me to setup chain stuns that netted me a lot of resources.

[ATB]

Just got out of another touchy spot. I know better, but I used run n gun to flank an enemy and in the process set off visual on every enemy on the map leaving her dead center in the middle of them with only her one attack left.  She finished off her target and waited for the end!

Potential spoilers for enemy unit types and soldier abilities

Spoiler for Hiden:

Fortunately I had two turns on my support and was able to get in range to throw covering smoke on top of her.

She got mauled by a beserker, shot by two elite muties, got missed by a 3rd, (one regular muton got mind controlled by my psionic assault troop Sonny "Tae Kwon" Doh and killed another elite and the two other mutons were out of range) and was left with a single hit point.

Used both turns to evac her out and she was saved by the power of modern medicine!

Phew! Teapot has used up several of her nine lives, that's for sure!  

As to the present: Have a bad feeling about the mission that's just under way. Assault on a UFO.  Have my most veteran soldiers geared up and ready.  Save and quit.  Have to come back later.

[MonkeyFinger]

I'm having the damnedest time capturing an alien-  my guys are so good they tend not to wound.

Have you tried switching to a pistol to whittle their health down? The guide notes that as a tactic and also says the Arc Thrower works best when the target's health is down to 1/3 but more important is to believe the capture percentage when you target them so check that as well.

[ATB]

Bad feeling mission went just fine thankyouverymuch.

Think i'm nearing the end game.

[CeeKay]

I'm having the damnedest time capturing an alien-  my guys are so good they tend not to wound.

Have you tried switching to a pistol to whittle their health down? The guide notes that as a tactic and also says the Arc Thrower works best when the target's health is down to 1/3 but more important is to believe the capture percentage when you target them so check that as well.

heh, totally forgot my soldiers had pistols 

finally caught an alien but the game crashed during the mission- the game seemed to be running but nothing would happen when I clicked on any of the buttons, and the main menu would not come up when I hit escape.  re-did it and finally got the capture.   now China and Japan are in panic mode even though I've gotten no missions for either one at all and it looks like 4 other countries are about to join them.  I've already gone 45 days and had 9 missions pop up (including the tutorial ones). 

it feels like events in the game world are moving too fast compared to what I am able to accomplish due to time it takes to build stuff and cash flow. by spending cash to upgrade my troops and pick up some stuff from the OCS I've put myself behind with the base building as the second month will end just as the new satellite uplink is finished, and the third month will 2/3rds over by the time I get one new satellite.

[ATB]

Finis!





Very appropriate and enjoyable ending.  Question about possible glitch at end of game.

Spoiler for Hiden:

is the last shot the shot of the ranger flying with the metorites falling? Seems like it started another one but skipped right to the stats screen...

Game crashed on the final battle so I sort of got a redo.  But I'll take it!

[jztemple2]

This is kind of a neat mod from XCOM Nexus, Soldier Ranks That Make Sense

What changed? No more officers in fireteams. All the ranks are ones that suit soldiers going straight into combat, and not sitting behind desks, devising cleaver strategies or plotting support routes. It's still stupid having a fireteam comprised of four master sergeants but a lot better then them being all majors...

-==CHANGES==-

Rookie -> Private (Pvt.)
Squaddie -> Private First Class (PFC)
Corporal -> Lance Corporal (LCpl.)
Sergeant -> Corporal (Cpl.)
Lieutenant -> Sergeant (Sgt.)
Captain -> Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt.)
Major -> Master Sergeant (MSgt.)
Colonel -> Sergeant Major (SgtMaj.)

The ranks are based off of USMC as I thought it would suit a unit like X-COM the best.

I'm not planning on changing the Psi ranks, at least not until I played long enough to acquire them and see if something's wrong with them.

If you have any ideas for changes or additions, feel free to share them.

-==INSTALLATION==-
Just put the file into your XCOM_install_folder\XComGame\Localization\INT

Remember to back up the original file, just to be on the safe side.

[msteelers]

I had my second moment in my iron man game that made me want to load up an earlier save. The entire mission I was extremely unlucky. Soldiers routinely missed relatively easy shots, while the enemy made what seemed like damn near impossible shots every single turn. Muton firing from a lower elevation to an assault soldier who is behind full cover? No problem! Two successful shots in a row, equaling one dead assault soldier.

The worst was my only psi officer getting killed that mission. I had just unlocked his psi ability, and tried to use it against a Muton. The shot was given a 100% success rating... and it MISSED!

Outside of that mission, my only other gripe is that I just cannot recruit any assault soldiers. I bought the perk where all new recruits come with their first level, and I'm getting swarmed with heavy, supports, and snipers, but no assault. I have one assault soldier in my entire force.

[ATB]

Started over on classic/ironman. Kind of ridiculous.

Lost 6 guys on the first two mission, all 4 on the second.

Gonna have to bump it up a notch!

[Zinfan]

Finished my Normal/Ironman game tonight, was fun for sure and I lost 11 soldiers along the way.  Not sure what is next for Xcom, going back to Borderlands 2 for a bit and hopefully some Forza Horizons.   

[ATB]

More classic/ironman gripes.

I feel like the game is cheating. There's nothing I can do when using sound tactics and can still get zeroed from halfway across the map in full cover when my own guys get like 40% hit chance from standing right in front of the enemy.

Might have to just call it a day on xcom. Great ride for the 33 hours I spent on it. Would like to try at the classic, but I'm not going to put myself through it...

[jztemple2]

More classic/ironman gripes.

I feel like the game is cheating. There's nothing I can do when using sound tactics and can still get zeroed from halfway across the map in full cover when my own guys get like 40% hit chance from standing right in front of the enemy.

Might have to just call it a day on xcom. Great ride for the 33 hours I spent on it. Would like to try at the classic, but I'm not going to put myself through it...

A way to fix that is to use the mods over at XCOM Nexus. Assuming of course you're playing on the PC.

[Turtle]

Eh, a user shouldn't have to resort to mods to get what he feels like a fair challenge.

I tried Classic mode for 3/4 of my game. For the first 1/4 it was intentionally, then I thought I changed it to Normal, but it didn't stick until I checked again.

The game is somewhat reasonable in the early stages, but once thin men hit the field, the combination of the +20% (!!!) to hit and critical chance, along with the light plasma rifle's +10% to hit allows the aliens to routinely make shots that should be very rare, then when they hit they often kill.

Because the Aliens are basically attrition to XCOM soldiers, this means the game gets a bit stupid quickly. I went into the game ready to lose soldiers, but it just seemed like the game went out of the way to make sure I lost soldiers instantly by just looking at the enemy, as opposed to if I made any mistakes.

If you hadn't noticed, XCOM soldiers shooting at Aliens tends to kill in one hit unless you're significantly behind the tech curve, whereas Aliens shooting tends to plink away chunks of health, putting you on a time limit.

This dynamic breaks down with the difficulty changes are in effect, which coupled with the harsher resource limitations means the game can feel not challenging difficult, but rather just arbitrarily difficult to see how long a player can play through it.

[TiLT]

Uh, have you guys forgotten that this is how X-Com has always been? Arbitrary deaths are part of the game, and part of what gives it its charm. If you can't deal with it, simply play on lower difficulty levels, but don't complain about what is essentially a feature, not a bug. You're supposed to lose soldiers, and it's not always supposed to happen because you do something stupid. This isn't chess, where there's no randomness.

[Turtle]

The original XCOM was a great game, but it was as much a product of its time and had many flaws as much as it was a pioneering game.

This is not the same game as the original either.

Random arbitrary losses were part of the original, back when you had a full wagon of troops and expendable rookies to send out. As I just pointed out, the devs actually went with a different flow of combat where aliens worked like attrition on your tiny squad.

None of us are complaining about the deaths really, we're complaining about the arbitrarily high frequency of the kind of shots that cause those arbitrary deaths.

[ATB]

None of us are complaining about the deaths really, we're complaining about the arbitrarily high frequency of the kind of shots that cause those arbitrary deaths.

This.  It should be plausible. Every death shouldn't be a behind the back through a brass horn bounced off the wall behind the target critical hit.

[ATB]

Oh and there's a difference between the AI being 'unshackled' to use better tactics rather than just bumping up it's chance to hit numbers too.

[Doopri]

i am having an absolute BLAST playing on classic and found the midgame to be a slog when my troops were in constant danger and i was always "behind" ... however i took it slow and instead of advancing story missions i would plink away at a few landings, do some abductions and research research research!  the game was fantastic in that juuuuuust when i felt i was "on top of it" it would introduce something new and difficult to again ramp up the feeling of desperation.

that said, i could not IMAGINE playing classic ironman.  i lose soldiers a lot, but id be lying if i said i never went back after a surprise to "retry"

Spoiler for Hiden:

the final room in the first alien base for example...

  what im going to do is finish up on classic and go right into "normal ironman" and see how that goes...

and im with tilt on this one - if it were possible NEVER to lose a major the game just wouldnt be the same.  you can stack the odds (suppression, overwatch, certain skills, armor and such - who advances when and covered flanks go a long way) but you can never escape from that one shot...

[jztemple2]

Oh and there's a difference between the AI being 'unshackled' to use better tactics rather than just bumping up it's chance to hit numbers too.

In Classic mode both these things happen. So far, unless Firaxis updates the game, the only way you'll be able to unshackle the AI without the "cheating" bonuses is through modding.

[ATB]

Oh and there's a difference between the AI being 'unshackled' to use better tactics rather than just bumping up it's chance to hit numbers too.

In Classic mode both these things happen. So far, unless Firaxis updates the game, the only way you'll be able to unshackle the AI without the "cheating" bonuses is through modding.

The mods on nexus seem like just the thing. But it has been years (10!) since I've modded anything. How do I remove it once it's on?

[Destructor]

Oh and there's a difference between the AI being 'unshackled' to use better tactics rather than just bumping up it's chance to hit numbers too.

In Classic mode both these things happen. So far, unless Firaxis updates the game, the only way you'll be able to unshackle the AI without the "cheating" bonuses is through modding.

The mods on nexus seem like just the thing. But it has been years (10!) since I've modded anything. How do I remove it once it's on?

From my understanding so far, 'modding' is just running a program that opens up the core exe file, makes the changes, and closes it back up again. All you need to do is make a backup of said file before it gets modded (no doubt it mentions what it changes in the readme files) and you're okay.

[TiLT]

Maybe you want to consider the possibility that the aliens are designed around the stats they have on Classic, and that their hit chance on Normal actually represents a penalty, regardless of whether the game presents this as a bonus or a penalty in the game files? The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

It's very tiresome to see tons of complaints about an intended design feature, which doesn't even try to "reimagine" anything from the original but instead takes it forward almost exactly like it used to be. This goes for both soldier deaths and alien accuracy. Stop complaining and try, just try, to consider the possibility that the designers actually knew what they were doing when they made this game.

As for the attrition theory, screw that! I'm nearing the end-game on Classic and just finished a terror mission where I was swarmed with mutons and floaters, yet escaped without a scratch and with the vast majority of the civilians still alive. That was my second mission in a row where I didn't take any damage, not even to armor (and no, I didn't reload). The secret to surviving is to make sure the aliens never get to shoot at you. The aliens never fired a single shot in my last two missions, either because I used focus fire to take them down quickly, or because I used a combination of heavies and support to suppress them.

Sure, there are some unfair situations in the game, and a series of soldier deaths lead to an unfortunate slope towards utter failure, and to a certain degree it should be like that. But if you're really struggling to make your soldiers survive, it's not the random number generator's fault, nor is it the fault of a bonus added to the alien hit chance or the result of an "attrition tactic". If you're doing things properly, these factors should come into play so rarely that they'll barely matter.

[Doopri]

oooooh and another important thing is controlling LOS.  the game has an MMO-like aspect where you do NOT want to "aggro" a new group of baddies when you're still in sorry shape with the first.  it rewards careful, methodical and measured advances - you have to weigh a possible flank opportunity against the threat of unveiling a new group.

[Doopri]

oh and kate et all - i now once again LOVE my heavies   in fact i have to start sending in a rook to have another at the ready!

[ATB]

you have to weigh a possible flank opportunity against the threat of unveiling a new group.

Problem is, risking the move in to flank is the only way my guys can hit anything 

[lex]

Maybe you want to consider the possibility that the aliens are designed around the stats they have on Classic, and that their hit chance on Normal actually represents a penalty, regardless of whether the game presents this as a bonus or a penalty in the game files? The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

I remember reading something a long long time ago where the case was made that the computer seem to make those impossible shots because it knows the numbers.  The AI probably has all the hard numbers of the game mechanics built it, and understands more about the game beyond the % to hit value.

That's not saying the enemy might have an advantage on higher difficulties, but the computer makes better decisions.

anyways, late game is actually really fun when you try to figure out the best ways to combine the skills between your squadmates

[Roguetad]

The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

I'd like to think that the developers intended that I play whatever difficulty works the best for me.  I understand if what they meant was play classic for the closest experience to the original XCOM.  I appreciate that they have both Normal and Classic...and Ironman for both.   

[TiLT]

The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

I'd like to think that the developers intended that I play whatever difficulty works the best for me.  I understand if what they meant was play classic for the closest experience to the original XCOM.  I appreciate that they have both Normal and Classic...and Ironman for both.   

Yeah sure, that's not what I meant. It's good that they have multiple difficulties. The problem is that several people in this thread are assuming, without even a moment of critical thinking, that the aliens are getting hit bonuses on Classic when it may actually be the other way around.

[Roguetad]

I finished after a few long sessions today.  That was a fun ride.  Great game.  Hopefully they will add more content in the future.  Big thumbs up to Firaxis for making a faithful version of XCOM.   

[ATB]

The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

I'd like to think that the developers intended that I play whatever difficulty works the best for me.  I understand if what they meant was play classic for the closest experience to the original XCOM.  I appreciate that they have both Normal and Classic...and Ironman for both.   

Yeah sure, that's not what I meant. It's good that they have multiple difficulties. The problem is that several people in this thread are assuming, without even a moment of critical thinking, that the aliens are getting hit bonuses on Classic when it may actually be the other way around.

I don't spend my time pondering the inner mechanics of games and I don't care where the bonuses apply or not. I'm not a hippie xcom lover from back in the day worried about the preservation of some imaginary legacy of difficulty.

I play games to have fun. So far, classic is not fun to me, while normal was. And as I've said, I'll have to adjust my tactics to compensate.  Buuuut when I've done that and played soundly and still get zinged it reduces any enjoyment to zero...

[TiLT]

The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

I'd like to think that the developers intended that I play whatever difficulty works the best for me.  I understand if what they meant was play classic for the closest experience to the original XCOM.  I appreciate that they have both Normal and Classic...and Ironman for both.   

Yeah sure, that's not what I meant. It's good that they have multiple difficulties. The problem is that several people in this thread are assuming, without even a moment of critical thinking, that the aliens are getting hit bonuses on Classic when it may actually be the other way around.

I don't spend my time pondering the inner mechanics of games and I don't care where the bonuses apply or not. I'm not a hippie xcom lover from back in the day worried about the preservation of some imaginary legacy of difficulty.

I play games to have fun. So far, classic is not fun to me, while normal was. And as I've said, I'll have to adjust my tactics to compensate.  Buuuut when I've done that and played soundly and still get zinged it reduces any enjoyment to zero...

You said it, Classic isn't fun for you. However, it is very fun for me and loads of other people. If you're having fun on Normal and not on Classic, then what's the problem? Just stick to Normal and let the rest of us keep our favorite difficulty level as it is.

[ATB]

Oye!

[Harkonis]

I hear COD will also have a noob difficulty if you're interested 

[forgeforsaken]

The lead designer has repeatedly said that Classic is what they consider the intended difficulty for people to play on, which means that this is the kind of accuracy the aliens should have. And once again, this is like the original game, where the aliens were accurate and your guys were not.

I'd like to think that the developers intended that I play whatever difficulty works the best for me.  I understand if what they meant was play classic for the closest experience to the original XCOM.  I appreciate that they have both Normal and Classic...and Ironman for both.   

Yeah sure, that's not what I meant. It's good that they have multiple difficulties. The problem is that several people in this thread are assuming, without even a moment of critical thinking, that the aliens are getting hit bonuses on Classic when it may actually be the other way around.

I don't spend my time pondering the inner mechanics of games and I don't care where the bonuses apply or not. I'm not a hippie xcom lover from back in the day worried about the preservation of some imaginary legacy of difficulty.

I play games to have fun. So far, classic is not fun to me, while normal was. And as I've said, I'll have to adjust my tactics to compensate.  Buuuut when I've done that and played soundly and still get zinged it reduces any enjoyment to zero...

Are you using Hunker Down liberally or are you still ending all your turns in overwatch?   You really really need to use Hunker Down in Classic and higher.

[msteelers]

I might have to restart my ironman campaign after a few brutal missions.

I've made it very far into the game. I assume I'm almost at the end, because I have unlocked the achievement for performing an autopsy on every type of creature. And somehow I have yet to lose a country in the council. However, I have felt that this thing was loosely held together with some duct tape and bobby pins, and this morning it all fell apart.

In the span of 3-4 missions my entire force was nearly wiped out. The worst was this last mission. I had just gotten through a tough encounter without taking any damage. Half the team was reloading, the other half on overwatch. But then, out of nowhere, two of the alien giant robots were literally in the middle of my force. I don't know how they got there. They weren't shown walking in. They didn't trigger any overwatch, or anything. It's like they just appeared out of thin air. It was a bloodbath, no survivors.

I now dont even have enough healthy soldiers to field a full squad so I'm thinking about starting over, this time knowing that I need to focus on some workshops early. I don't have any, and its too expensive for me to build any equipment or new guns. I'm stuck with the weapons and armor from the mid game.

[Doopri]

msteelers everything MIIiiiiiight not be lost yet - it can be tricky but if youre running low on good equipment post-midgame (LOL) you can try what i started doing (mostly because i was running out of $)

Spoiler for Hiden:

use that arc thrower liberally!  i know it can be difficult, but i started making an effort to do this recently and it really helps to get some nice weaponry without breaking the bank at the workshop

i actually wish i had been doing it since the start of the game and will make sure i do on my next go around

[Roguetad]

Now that I've had a night to process the ending, I had a few questions.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Are there multiple endings?  If my sniper hadn't double tapped and killed the boss immediately, would that have triggered a different ending?  As it was dying it said something like, "This is not the path for you", and then all the enemies died and vanished.  My pysch sensitive ended up being the hero by guiding the big alien mothership into space before it exploded.  

I'm wondering if I had killed all of the enemies but saved the boss for last, or even tried to capture him if the ending would have been different?  Has anyone tried that approach?

   
Some things that worked well in Normal:
- Titan Armor is very good.  The sooner you can get to that armor, the better.  It grants immunity to poison and resistance to fire.  Plus it gives the largest health bonus of any armor I could make.
  
- As has already been mentioned, having a couple of snipers available with Squad Sight and Double Tap can make missions a lot easier to manage.  With the Archangel armor equipped (and at max height), they can park near the entrance of most encounters and cover their squadmates throughout the mission with good success.  I recommend always bringing 1 sniper.

- Regarding Archangel Armor, I had a duh moment when I realized that I could hover up and down in place just by changing the elevation.  I felt like a dumbass for not figuring that out right away.

- Having a well equipped interceptor in every region is important.  The council doesn't like escaped UFOs.  Also, downded UFOs lead to UFO assault missions, which result in lots of resources.

- Satellites are so important in the early - mid game that they should be the priority when first starting a game.  You can build as many as you have money and resources for (despite the nasty red warning).  That way as you unlock more satellite slots through base building, you have a supply of them ready to go.  

- I tried both medic Support and combat Support.  I found the medic skills so much more helpful that I would only go full medic in future playthroughs.  Heavies can do the same thing as combat specialized Support, and they do it better.  The 2x per mission smoke grenade is helpful, but that's nothing compared to a full medic, or a suppresion Heavy.

[ATB]

Now that I've had a night to process the ending, I had a few questions.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Are there multiple endings?  If my sniper hadn't double tapped and killed the boss immediately, would that have triggered a different ending?  As it was dying it said something like, "This is not the path for you", and then all the enemies died and vanished.  My pysch sensitive ended up being the hero by guiding the big alien mothership into space before it exploded.  

I'm wondering if I had killed all of the enemies but saved the boss for last, or even tried to capture him if the ending would have been different?  Has anyone tried that approach?

 

Nope. Same ending I got.  Same one that's on Youtube.

[Zinfan]

DLC
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-23-first-xcom-enemy-unknown-dlc-announced

[TiLT]

DLC
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-23-first-xcom-enemy-unknown-dlc-announced

Please oh please make that DLC fail hard. Predesigned, scripted missions is the last thing I want from this game (ok, next to last. I want more multiplayer features even less), and if Firaxis continues thinking that they are the easiest way for them to earn extra money on the game we can probably wave any other DLC ideas goodbye. No extra, random maps. No additional aliens. No expanded skill trees. Instead we'll be left with a few barely replayable missions that will appear every time you play the game.

Thanks, but no thanks.