So i could be wrong and this is kind of a bit of a rumor going around but i noticed the achievements went up from 55 to about 85 and others have noticed it as well. They are unnamed but we're guessing a new DLC pack is incoming. Some are suggesting it's basically the 'enemy within' pack like the 'terror of the deep' xcom game.
I suggest you all check your steam achievements for the 30 new unnamed achievements.
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I was going to add to the previous thread but it was over 3 months and i got a message indicating it'd be a thread necro so i made a new thread instead.
Well I hope it's a full out expansion, an entirely new campaign or something that follows up on the current story. I just dont feel like playing through it again on ironman and the highest difficulty just to see a few new missions
Terror from the Deep? Wow.. remember that game being as hard as nails! Although it was awesome getting that yellow heavy armour suit towards the end, and seem to remember it was the first x-com with a melee weapon (in the form of a drill-thing).
The great thing about mecs is that you can augment wounded soldiers. Your assault captain is out of action for 20 days? MEC him, and in 3 days you will have a killing machine.
The great thing about mecs is that you can augment wounded soldiers. Your assault captain is out of action for 20 days? MEC him, and in 3 days you will have a killing machine.
Isn't that a bad idea since damaged soldiers lose Will? (or so I thought)
There's a gene therapy that means your soldier grows a second heart. It means they will always be mortally wounded instead of being killed outright, and they will make a full recovery once stabilised, instead of having a Will penalty.
On the other hand, MEC troopers lose the benefits of all gene therapies they previously had, even the ones that make no sense. Sure, you're not going to be leaping tall buildings in a single bound once someone cuts your legs off, but there's no logical reason why eye, brain and chest mods shouldn't carry over.
They probably replace a lot of other parts of the body as well. Regardless, yes, you should be more careful with your MECs as the game progresses and enemies become able to deal tons of damage to things that aren't in cover.
Oddly enough, Muton Elites are the only things that ever threatened my MECs.
Does anyone know if that 4gig download the other day actually fixed any issues with the game or was it just giving me the files for the game and not letting me access them till I buy the DLC?
Spinner wrote: I had to download a 7-gig update when I got the DLC...so I'd say the basic game got patched!
I played earlier tonight, and all I have to say is, "Nope not even close to being patched." I'm still noticing the same issues as I was before the patch, like major ones like massive crap loads of lag whenever a Berserker moves out of turn.
Spinner wrote: I had to download a 7-gig update when I got the DLC...so I'd say the basic game got patched!
I played earlier tonight, and all I have to say is, "Nope not even close to being patched." I'm still noticing the same issues as I was before the patch, like major ones like massive crap loads of lag whenever a Berserker moves out of turn.
Omg they still haven't fixed those bugs. I wonder if they're even trying to fix bugs anymore. For me one of the worst ones is when an encounter with a patrol leads to every alien on the map arriving one after the other in your little section as if they were all waiting for you.
You know what'd be good though? Some enemies trying to alert other patrols. It'd annoy the h*ll out of me but it'd be an interesting feature.
Saying I love 'Enemy unknown' would be an understatement as I've invested over 650 hours into the game which even after the expansion is more total hours than all my Steam friends combined.
I have not had the fortune to play 'enemy within' yet but I look forward to 'impossible' difficulty in it and even perhaps classic. I would like to see all the new goodies they have given to us. In the game i still plan on giving a white woman a top hat and giving her the name 'Michael jackson' and possibly with the nickname 'smooth criminal' or something.
Spinner wrote: I had to download a 7-gig update when I got the DLC...so I'd say the basic game got patched!
I played earlier tonight, and all I have to say is, "Nope not even close to being patched." I'm still noticing the same issues as I was before the patch, like major ones like massive crap loads of lag whenever a Berserker moves out of turn.
Omg they still haven't fixed those bugs. I wonder if they're even trying to fix bugs anymore. For me one of the worst ones is when an encounter with a patrol leads to every alien on the map arriving one after the other in your little section as if they were all waiting for you.
That's not a bug. You know when a sectoid or whatever stands up and starts chirping? That's him calling for help. It may or may not bring in reinforcements, and it seems to happen more often on higher difficulties. Also, I found that in Enemy Within, high explosives tends to draw aliens to your position as well.
Spinner wrote: I had to download a 7-gig update when I got the DLC...so I'd say the basic game got patched!
I played earlier tonight, and all I have to say is, "Nope not even close to being patched." I'm still noticing the same issues as I was before the patch, like major ones like massive crap loads of lag whenever a Berserker moves out of turn.
Omg they still haven't fixed those bugs. I wonder if they're even trying to fix bugs anymore. For me one of the worst ones is when an encounter with a patrol leads to every alien on the map arriving one after the other in your little section as if they were all waiting for you.
That's not a bug. You know when a sectoid or whatever stands up and starts chirping? That's him calling for help. It may or may not bring in reinforcements, and it seems to happen more often on higher difficulties. Also, I found that in Enemy Within, high explosives tends to draw aliens to your position as well.
That's not the one i'm talking about though. The bug is when you start at the entrance of a large downed alien ship and for some reason squad after squad gets called in until everything or almost everything on the map teleports to that location. I have had like 20 guys come at me all at once in a supply barge mission where it lands. This is them all coming towards one small section of the ship in a very large ship. This is a bug. It most definitely is.
Spinner wrote: I had to download a 7-gig update when I got the DLC...so I'd say the basic game got patched!
I played earlier tonight, and all I have to say is, "Nope not even close to being patched." I'm still noticing the same issues as I was before the patch, like major ones like massive crap loads of lag whenever a Berserker moves out of turn.
Omg they still haven't fixed those bugs. I wonder if they're even trying to fix bugs anymore. For me one of the worst ones is when an encounter with a patrol leads to every alien on the map arriving one after the other in your little section as if they were all waiting for you.
That's not a bug. You know when a sectoid or whatever stands up and starts chirping? That's him calling for help. It may or may not bring in reinforcements, and it seems to happen more often on higher difficulties. Also, I found that in Enemy Within, high explosives tends to draw aliens to your position as well.
That's not the one i'm talking about though. The bug is when you start at the entrance of a large downed alien ship and for some reason squad after squad gets called in until everything or almost everything on the map teleports to that location. I have had like 20 guys come at me all at once in a supply barge mission where it lands. This is them all coming towards one small section of the ship in a very large ship. This is a bug. It most definitely is.
Again, not a bug. I believe you are talking about the Supply Ship, which tends to have pilot type enemies near the entrance. If you engage a pilot type enemy (such as an Ethereal, Sectoid Commander, or Outsider), then it triggers a "Protect the Boss" event, where every enemy homes in at your location. This is a well known mechanic on the 2k Forums. It happens more often on the Supply Barge, since the Boss tends to be in a typical places, and more often with Commanders, since they tend to be right near where you deploy.
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Spinner wrote: You can have a guy piloting a giant robot set Chryssalids on fire.
It is very worth it.
Oh yes. You can also use fire to chase Muton Elites out of cover and have them cut down with overwatch.
Or if you want to be a real dick, throw a mine at their feet, and then set them on fire. When they move, they will trigger the mine.
Velour_Fog wrote: What do you guys reckon the best class bonus is for mechs?
Melissia wrote: Considering that in Enemy Within you can throw a "mimic beacon" to call enemies to you, I'd say it's a feature, not a bug, as well.
Nice! Haven't got that far yet. That should come in very handy indeed.
Oh it is.
Many fun things to do
- Ghost Armor Ambush
- Mimetic Skin Ambush
- Mass Overwatch funtime
- Proximity mine party
The possibilities are endless
Anyway, all classes are fairly well balanced for MEC duty. Heavies and Assaults are tanks, though Heavies are more medium range and assaults are close range, supports protects your guys, and Snipers are firing platforms. I personally prefer Heavy MECs.
Had this preordered and hadn't got round to playing till tonight. Seems like they've cranked up the difficulty abit? Or maybe I'm just not familiar with the maps yet.
Been playing a ton of XCOM lately, and Enemy Within has been an amazing update to the game.
1: Mec Troopers are amazing. Not so amazing that the other classes are unnecessary though, which is good. I run 2 mecs, one built for support (support bonus, full cover skill, med dispersion, cover clear) and one for killing (grenade launcher, flamethrower and proxy mines). Being able to clear enemy cover so my sniper can just mow them all down thanks to In the Zone just never gets old.
2: Bio mods are pretty cool. I wish I had more meld so I could really get into the gene mods, but the Mec Troopers just seem so much more useful so far. Right now my heavy is rocking a few genemods, but that's it.
3: Exalt missions. The change up in enemies is pretty refreshing, as is seeing my agent run around plinking people with her plasma pistol. The first time I stunned an Exalt dude was just a "wut" moment.
4: New maps! New maps everywhere!
5: Nice seeing new enemies as well. I haven't done the alien base assault yet, so so far it's just Seekers and Mechtoids.
6: Seriously, punching a dude into a car which then blows up, never going to get old.
I don't know if they changed up how they assign call signs, but mine have been pretty specatcular lately.
Support: Angel
Mec Trooper: Gizmo
Heavy: Crater
That last one is especially appropriate given she has the shredder rocket, double regular rocket and double grenade thing going on.
Mec troopers become a bit weaker later in the game when the enemy has lots of high-damage ranged weapons and the Mec troopers can't go in to cover. a trio of Muton Elites can kill your mec trooper in one or two turns depending on your luck.
Yeah, I really wish there was a way to retrain skills, because I meant to give my support mec the "never more than 1/3 your life" skill instead of the "shoot back when you are shot" skill. Shooting undoes her counting as Full Cover, so suddenly the person lurking behind her isn't in cover anymore.
I just got this last night, but I don't think I have the expansion? Lots of fun so far though even though I'm just a few missions in. I like that it's more turn based than like starcraft where stuff is always happening when you're too old and slow to react fast like me.
I kind of wish there was an auto overwatch button though, so I don't have to click it every time I move. I'm lazy like that.
Melissia wrote:Mec troopers become a bit weaker later in the game when the enemy has lots of high-damage ranged weapons and the Mec troopers can't go in to cover. a trio of Muton Elites can kill your mec trooper in one or two turns depending on your luck.
Yeah, I'm kindof underwhelmed by them so far. I'd take a double-tap squadsight sniper in archangel armour over them any day.
Actually my dream squad would be five of them and one guy to be bait.
Necros wrote: I just got this last night, but I don't think I have the expansion? Lots of fun so far though even though I'm just a few missions in. I like that it's more turn based than like starcraft where stuff is always happening when you're too old and slow to react fast like me.
I kind of wish there was an auto overwatch button though, so I don't have to click it every time I move. I'm lazy like that.
If you get an option between Enemy Within and Enemy Unknown when starting the game, you have the expansion. On PC anyway. No idea about consoles.
Melissia wrote: Mec troopers become a bit weaker later in the game when the enemy has lots of high-damage ranged weapons and the Mec troopers can't go in to cover. a trio of Muton Elites can kill your mec trooper in one or two turns depending on your luck.
Well I will have to strongly disagree with this, so far I have had the original three Mech troopers account for hundreds of dead aliens and EXALT guys, granted that I have had some crazy luck. Alongside rail guns and two shots pr turn with each of them. I have found that having three said troops with the rank of Colonel, and suffienct amiunt of medals backed up by one support class with adequant armour and weaponry pluss one heavy and one sniper dose wonders too. It also helped when I got the psi lab rolling
Yeah, MEC troopers are still nasty late game, provided you upgrade the suit. If you have a Mk1 suit late game, it may have a hard time. A Mk3 suit will murder everything though, especially when used by a Col. rank wearer.
Check this out
29 missions and 104 kills. That means she killed on average 3-4 enemies. She was also part of the temple ship assault squad.
Also, does anyone else's game have the habit of giving you mostly female troops? My best soldiers these last few playthroughs have been mainly women. Don't get me wrong, I'm not displeased; I find the male character models to be a bit too bulky for my taste. It's just a peculiar trend that I noticed.
I'm on the Mac version, I think it's just Enemy Unknown, no option when I start.. but it's the ultimate edition or something. I'll just have to wait for the mac port, as usual. I was going to check for it on my PS3, but I'll probably be upgrading that soon
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Yeah, MEC troopers are still nasty late game, provided you upgrade the suit. If you have a Mk1 suit late game, it may have a hard time. A Mk3 suit will murder everything though, especially when used by a Col. rank wearer.
Check this out
29 missions and 104 kills. That means she killed on average 3-4 enemies. She was also part of the temple ship assault squad.
Also, does anyone else's game have the habit of giving you mostly female troops? My best soldiers these last few playthroughs have been mainly women. Don't get me wrong, I'm not displeased; I find the male character models to be a bit too bulky for my taste. It's just a peculiar trend that I noticed.
Agreed, in the latest session of mine one of the mentioned suits pumped one of those massive alien walker tingies full of railgun rounds, and when the dust setteled the ting was nearly dead after two volleys
Necros wrote: I'm on the Mac version, I think it's just Enemy Unknown, no option when I start.. but it's the ultimate edition or something. I'll just have to wait for the mac port, as usual. I was going to check for it on my PS3, but I'll probably be upgrading that soon
Yeah, I looked it up. You just have the Slingshot and Elite Soldier DLCs. No enemy within.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Also, does anyone else's game have the habit of giving you mostly female troops? My best soldiers these last few playthroughs have been mainly women. Don't get me wrong, I'm not displeased; I find the male character models to be a bit too bulky for my taste. It's just a peculiar trend that I noticed.
My entire starting roster was female, except for one guy down at the bottom of the list. If it wasn't for the Triad guy you get from Slingshot, I would not have a single male trooper with a rank above rookie.
Also, does anyone else's game have the habit of giving you mostly female troops? My best soldiers these last few playthroughs have been mainly women. Don't get me wrong, I'm not displeased; I find the male character models to be a bit too bulky for my taste. It's just a peculiar trend that I noticed.
Seems to be happening to me too, although I put it down to luck of the draw. My current top three are all female - an assault trooper with Close Combat Specialist who absolutely gutted the new Council mission (the one in the fishing village, don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't reached it yet!), a heavy with the nickname "Prototype" which resulted in my slapping every gene mod I possibly could onto her, and Jamie "Ripley" Gordon, the terrifyingly effective pilot of a bright yellow MEC (I..may have altered the nickname a bit.)
...come to think of it, it's less that I get more female agents and more that the males tend to get swarmed by aliens out of nowhere.
Also, does anyone else's game have the habit of giving you mostly female troops? My best soldiers these last few playthroughs have been mainly women. Don't get me wrong, I'm not displeased; I find the male character models to be a bit too bulky for my taste. It's just a peculiar trend that I noticed.
Seems to be happening to me too, although I put it down to luck of the draw. My current top three are all female - an assault trooper with Close Combat Specialist who absolutely gutted the new Council mission (the one in the fishing village, don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't reached it yet!), a heavy with the nickname "Prototype" which resulted in my slapping every gene mod I possibly could onto her, and Jamie "Ripley" Gordon, the terrifyingly effective pilot of a bright yellow MEC (I..may have altered the nickname a bit.)
...come to think of it, it's less that I get more female agents and more that the males tend to get swarmed by aliens out of nowhere.
Same here, with the exception of my sole male Mec pilot, whom has been with me since the first misson after I got the mec option I have a mostly female crew, and as for kills. Well my Mecs avarage 3 to 6 kills per game. Although my sniper racks up the kills on the terror missions. Although the last one saw my whole team swarmed by two of those damned alien giant robots and a somewhat probelmsome bunch of those mechanized sectoinds.
And yea....that fishing town. Whomever made that can go lick a grenade
My assault troopers have been better than my mec troopers.
Close Combat > Mec.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Also, does anyone else's game have the habit of giving you mostly female troops? My best soldiers these last few playthroughs have been mainly women. Don't get me wrong, I'm not displeased; I find the male character models to be a bit too bulky for my taste. It's just a peculiar trend that I noticed.
Unless they changed it, the default is a 70/30 split. But that said, it does seem more common.
Mind you I'm still waiting for the modpack that lets me alter it to 0/100 male/female, plus change the nationalities, to update to Enemy Within
Also the fishing village was easy and fun. But I made sure all my troops had poison resistance by early-mid game anyway.
Well yes but still, those damned things that crawled out of things still almost cost me a operative, well until my mecs saved the day by killing all sorts of evil E.T. On a side note, I just got the titan armour, and well.....I was expecting something a bit more awe inspiring than just a somewhat more fleshed out suit of PA
Yeah, getting a free shot at every creature that moves within 4 squares (including one that starts out within 4 squares and moves away) is soooo goddamned broken. Especially with a n alloy cannon. Mecs are powerful, but I still think that they have nothing on the utility of an end-game assault or sniper, especially gene-modded.
That's how I managed to run the fishing village. Everything that got past my initial round of firing got shotgunned into oblivion when they tried to close. Managed to get the entire team out, no casualties, on the last possible turn.
Just completed the game, and dear lord! I can not say enough how much satisfation it gave me to see my trusty mech punch the living dayligths out of the head evil ailen. So..much...hellzs yea where had
That fishing village mission doomed me, haha. I think i'm slowly learning how to play the game. I'm just not that good a juggling all the other things going on... maybe by my 100th playthough i'll get it.
ZebioLizard2 wrote: Has anyone tried the multiplayer with the expansion? Do you get to use the Genetics/Exalted/Mech/New Aliens in the Multiplayer matches?
Yes. After getting my arse kicked on campaign I went to multiplayer. It's quite fun.
I'm always too scared to get close enough for close combat. My sniper guy on the other hand, has a skill that lets him go again if he kills something, I forget what it's called. I had him single handedly wipe out a big ambush when we went into a ship. Aliens on all sides, he 1-shotted everything and kept going till he was out of ammo, then my heavy plasma guy finished off the last one. My team is 1 heavy, 1 sniper, 1 medic, and 3 assaults.. but I give my assaults plasma rifles. And titan armor for all.
Melissia wrote: Flamethrowers carry the risk of hurting your own soldiers; Clsoe Combat does not.
Well yes that can be an issue, hence I lead with my Mecs, and i always try to bring along one sacrifical lamb so to speak in the form of a rookie/ squaddie
Melissia wrote: Flamethrowers carry the risk of hurting your own soldiers; Clsoe Combat does not.
Well yes that can be an issue, hence I lead with my Mecs, and i always try to bring along one sacrifical lamb so to speak in the form of a rookie/ squaddie
Melissia wrote: Flamethrowers carry the risk of hurting your own soldiers; Clsoe Combat does not.
Well yes that can be an issue, hence I lead with my Mecs, and i always try to bring along one sacrifical lamb so to speak in the form of a rookie/ squaddie
You monster.
I know, but it feels sooo good to watch some six Mutons roast when my Mech opens up, and to this date only two rookies/ squadies have been turned to toast. And its simple battlefield economics too, its better to loose a untested rookie than a hardenden veteran that I know Il depend upon later
You must be very careless. To date, no soldiers of mine have been roasted. I may have barbecued a civilian though. I killed so many I lost count. Usually it's by explosives though.
Nope! Once they decide XCOM is useless, they apparently figure the war's over and we lost. If you watch the scrolling news in your situation room, it's implied that they start working with the aliens...
Nope. No way to get them back. I screwed up on my first play through too. You want to be building satellites quite often. (and uplinks as soon as you can).
Also, wait until just before the end of the month to launch your satellites (as that's when countries will leave if their panic level is in the red). You might get an event during the month which lowers panic globally or in the country that is in panic - so this way you don't waste satellites unnecessarily launching them as soon as possible for countries you're concerned about.
Melissia wrote: Once you get the respiration implant, thin men are utter pushovers, so there's always that.
Not really. LPRs still really, really hurt. Once you get carapace it becomes bearable though.
On my current playthrough, I'm trying to get the foundry early so I can have tactical rigging. That upgrade makes EW so much easier.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Yeah, though it's a pity they spam Thin Men. Having a council mission early game is a pain in the ass.
Well thin men are not really that hard to be fair, a sniper with a scope will kill them of easily enough, but yes. Implants & carpace armour really helps, particulary the carpace armour really makes it all more managebal early game.
I'll do that trick with the satellites though. I'm always so low on cash though, it's a pain. I sell my junk in the gray market and always try to pick the money missions. Guess I'm spending too much making items I don't really need and I spent more early on upgrading my men and not doing much with satellites till now.
carlos13th wrote: Its a shame enemy within cant be bought as an upgrade on PS3
For consoles it is only available in disc format as XCOM: Enemy Within – Commander Edition, a standalone expanded experience that includes all XCOM: Enemy Unknown content plus the Elite Soldier and Slingshot add-ons, for $39.99.
It might seem like a lot but you are getting a lot as well.
The game really deserserves to be played on a Pc, although granted I have not tried the consol version so I may need to do so before passing a finale judgement.
Trondheim wrote: The game really deserserves to be played on a Pc, although granted I have not tried the consol version so I may need to do so before passing a finale judgement.
The PS3 version was great. Just like I remember the old PC versions. I had no complaints other than how many save games it created if you had it set to auto-save.
The PC version has 3 autosaves per mission (alternating them at the beginning of each turn) and then one on each time you get back from a mission and then before you leave for a mission, IIRC.
Which is much less than I'd use if I was savescumming.
Melissia wrote: The PC version has 3 autosaves per mission and then one on each time you get back from a mission and then before you leave for a mission, IIRC.
Yeah, but it is easier to delete them on the PC, I imagine.
Melissia wrote: The PC version has 3 autosaves per mission and then one on each time you get back from a mission and then before you leave for a mission, IIRC.
Yeah, but it is easier to delete them on the PC, I imagine.
Probably! I don't recall the PS3/4 having a file UI that didn't suck ass...
Melissia wrote: I almost always go with South America as my base because its ability is so damned broken.
I prefer South America second. It's an easy continent to secure after all, with just two Council nations. Any other start lets you get all the continental bonuses with 13 or 14 satellites (doable with 3*uplinks and 1*nexus) while SA needs 15.
How did you build your mecs ? I'm trying to decide which
class ability I want to use.
I base all my mechs of heavies and assult troops. From there I tend to choose abilities that combines to give me a more flexible soldier. Like the ability that allows you to have two rounds of shooting pr Mec with said ability is golden on some of the missions towards the end. The last game I had I had two with flametrowers and the last with that grenade option I think. Combined with healing mist and reactive sensors to allow them to return fire without spending a roundof shooting doing said thing. Also it really helps to award them medals as you go. That and rail guns + a early T2 mech solves a lot of headaches
Sounds like I need to get this expansion. Still going through on the regular game (had to restart after a disaster of a mission loosing 4 colonels) and having a blast. But from what I see this added a good amount of depth to the game which is awesome.
Now to wait and see if steam puts it on sale for christmas
What difficulty do you guys play on? I've only been playing xcom for a couple of months. Normal is really easy for me now (finished an ironman game aswell), but Classic is a pain. Big jump in difficulty between the two.
Velour_Fog wrote: What difficulty do you guys play on? I've only been playing xcom for a couple of months. Normal is really easy for me now (finished an ironman game aswell), but Classic is a pain. Big jump in difficulty between the two.
Classic and Impossible are pretty fun once you get used to them. Impossible ironman is the bear.
I play impossible difficulty these days when I do play. I can't do impossible ironman yet. You need a strategy for what you research down to a T. This is also counting all glitches will be permanent and mistakes like clicking too far because of something messed up in the game can screw you up and kill off a bunch of your squad. I've been one shot by sectoids across the map and max distance while behind full cover at the beginning of the game in impossible difficulty. I don't think most people understand or fear and respect the impossible difficulty.
Anyway I have still yet to get the 'enemy within' expansion so I can't comment. It sucks being poor. Maybe the autumn sale on steam will have it but I'd probably doubt it.
My namesake in the game is a colonel, and now I'm pondering
just making him into a MEC trooper since he failed to have any
Psi Ability.
In fact, my top three colonels have not had any ability as of yet
(Support, Assault and Sniper, if I recall correctly).
Last game only one(!) of my 10 most used squad members was gifted, granted, their will was pretty low since I was playing on classic and I was broke for alot of the early game so I couldn't afford the Iron will upgrade. (Or the officer training school)
Necros wrote:I had a pretty tough time with some missions on the easy setting. Yes, I'm a noob.
I did finish the game the other day though. Maybe I'll try the next difficulty up next time and see how far I get before I ragequit.
It's not an easy game. I thought Easy was pretty harsh too sometimes when I started.
Definitely the hardest part of the game is the start when your soldiers are armed with pea shooters and wear armour that's about as durable as a wet paper bag, and to top that off they couldn't hit the proverbial barn door if it was right next to them. But once you get the ball rolling it gets easier and easier.
.... I played two missions on normal, restarted and beat it on classic ironman my second try. I haven't touched it since (original game, not with the DLC).
Bromsy wrote: .... I played two missions on normal, restarted and beat it on classic ironman my second try. I haven't touched it since (original game, not with the DLC).
Now the original XCOM, that could be hard.
XCOM EU could also be hard. Especially with the marathon. XCOM EW is even harder since tech progression is slowed down. Once you got the laser rifle economy and start building outposts everywhere the original X-COM also become a cake walk.
Easier is not a term I would describe games today...more helpful is more like it. Like, you won't find a game today that won't say something like "press the shoot button to shoot things!" I don't really care, unless the game stops you from playing. Like in Crysis 2 where the game stops you from moving at all until the suit tells you what it's powers were. That really annoyed me.
I feel that the game is balanced around Ironman. If you never screw up in missions countries don't withdraw and you keep getting maximum funding. By the end of my (non-ironman) classic game I had satellites over every country but mexico (couldn't get one up in time), had fully built my base, 2 plasma interceptors and 1 firestorm over every continent and still had about $6000 left over.
Velour_Fog wrote: I feel that the game is balanced around Ironman. If you never screw up in missions countries don't withdraw and you keep getting maximum funding. By the end of my (non-ironman) classic game I had satellites over every country but mexico (couldn't get one up in time), had fully built my base, 2 plasma interceptors and 1 firestorm over every continent and still had about $6000 left over.
I dunno, with Enemy Within I feel like the number of normal abduction missions has dropped dramatically. If I hadn't gotten the Alien Base mission when I did, I would have lost half the world in one month.
Granted, I've been sitting on satellites, but even then I feel like my panic levels have been much harder to manage this game, especially with EXALT stirring up crap.
Each month, scan for them at least once. I think it prevents
them from operating. The covert missions give you decent tech
and your teams gets tons of experience from mowing through
the large numbers of mobs. In the mid-game they become a
nice supply of laser sniper rifles, laser rifles, and heavy lasers.
I'm disappointed they didn't work the new stuff into the finale.
Spoiler:
I thought they could've done something more exciting with the EXALT base. I was hoping it'd be bigger and have a boss of some sort, but it was literally just 12 guys on the roof of a skyscraper.
I'm disappointed they didn't work the new stuff into the finale.
Spoiler:
I thought they could've done something more exciting with the EXALT base. I was hoping it'd be bigger and have a boss of some sort, but it was literally just 12 guys on the roof of a skyscraper.
It's not just that mission that needs improvement in that regard. The game relies too heavily on the equivalent of "Annihilation" scenarios. UFO Crashes, UFO Landings, Asset Recoveries, Alien Abductions, Base Defense and Base Assault all use the same mission objectives: kill all aliens to win, lose all XCOM operatives or withdraw to lose.
Random encounters during missions, geo effects like sandstorms or swampy ground and more types of missions would all be ways to mix up the gameplay.
I haven't finished the game yet so there's still a bunch left to do. Keep in mind I've been playing on impossible difficulty and though I saved a ton in the beginning I didn't need it after a while.
So yeah spoilers.
Spoiler:
I haven't tested the MEC suits much oddly enough but I seem to use gene mods a lot. Early on I've gotta say that the health regeneration gene mod is super helpful esp. now that everything seems to take longer to research. Cloaking can also be pretty nice. The jumping gene mod is a lot of fun. It gets you going where you need to infinitely faster than the grappling hook ever did but that said the extra movement is something I miss.
I've gone through everything but damn the base defense mission saw me nearly lose. I left that with one soldier and I thought I would've had more. The last mechtoid just blasted 3 of my guys like nothing. It really sucked.
As far as items go I don't really find myself that into the needle grenade but something tells me if you use it in combination with a rocket (rocket first then needle grenade) then it should be good. The double inventory is super helpful when you get the upgrade in the foundry. The poison grenade is probably good but I'm starting to enjoy the flashbang grenades. It has actually saved my *ss quite a few times when there was a biological enemy I had to disable for a bit. I can't give these things enough credit when facing enemies like exalt which have no psionics or mechs. This makes special grenades incredibly useful against them. Not too fond of the reaper ammo. I tried it but it just wasn't my thing even on shotguns.
For some strange reason I can't really find myself needing many workshops but I can't seem to research anything as fast as I could before. I feel like I need 4 more labs just to get things about as quick as they were.
The fishing village was fairly scary on impossible difficulty but I find the base defense was a bit hairier or other fights. Then again I took my 'A' team to the fishing village and lost 2 of my well trained guys. That said that was one of the games I lost and had to restart. I can handle a mission once in a while but 2 within a couple days of each other or even 3 is too much. My guys can't recuperate that quickly from battle wounds. I guess there's just too many *sses too kick.
Exalt is starting to seem kind of weak actually. They are numerous but if you throw flash grenades at some of their more elite dudes and pick off the exalt heavies and snipers then you should be good.
As far as new baddies I like the mechtoid though it's stupid strong if you don't take care of it quickly. I killed the first one no problem with just one assault colonel and not much else if anything. The seekers seem kind of interesting but they're more just annoying than an actual threat. Sometimes I just get into a near group huddle and go on overwatch instead of looking for more baddies. Of course then the 'meld' expires.
I still think more powerful guns and armor is more important than some of the new stuff but it takes longer to get the weapons and all these new threats happening all at once esp. on impossible difficulty is just so much to deal with.
