XCOM: One Does Not Simply "Shoot" a Cryssalid...

[Reynard]

Welsh, N. Irish and Jerseys don't get their own flag though.

I was using the real world as an explanation for Scotland getting their own flag in the game. Unless you were just talking about the real world, in which case I have to say I'm pretty certain about what flag I wear on my shoulder.

[Driderman]

Got my first Swedish character this morning. With a pure Danish name. So I had to rename him pronto!
Oh well I guess they can't think of everything...

He was probably a danish expatriate living in Malmø to circumvent danish law or save on living expenses.

[mistformsquirrl]

What instead of Borkson he was named Børksen?

I think it's to compensate for no Danes, give Swedes a random chance to have a Norwegian or Danish name. (Are there Norwegians in the game?)

Speaking of missing countries. Has anyone had a dude from the United Arab Emirates? Or a Saudi? Israeli?
Pretty sure I've had a Jamaican and it seems odd to include them but barely anyone from the Middle East.

I'm 99.9% sure I had an Israeli at one point; but no UAE or Saudis that I'm aware of. I heard there were 20 countries in total, so I'm assuming that's the 16 on the map, +Sweden, Israel, Scotland and another I don't recall.

[Luzahn]

Yes, there are Israelis, I've had several. And I'm sure there are more than 20, I've had Belgians and Ukranians as well.

[BRC]

So, we all agree that Rapid Fire is an awesome ability that is awesome.

However, I remain a steadfast defender of the Flush ability. It's one of the few moves with a higher accuracy, which makes it great for finishing off those pesky damaged-yet-in-cover foes, and by coordinating it with Overwatch, you can use it to set up some rather nasty tricks, forcing enemies out of cover and into your overwatch killzones.


Of course, those are specific situations, whereas Rapid Fire is a nice, all-purpose kill things ability.
Does anybody else have opinions on this subject?

[thorgrim29]

I've noticed a tendency for rapid fire to hit exactly 50% of the time... Don't know if that's a bug or a bad impression or something.

[Cikomyr]

Wait. If Scotland soldiers get their own flags, why would English soldiers wear the entire Union Jack?

For the record, if Scotland separates, will the U.J. Be amended?

[Rustic Dude]

I'm 99.9% sure I had an Israeli at one point; but no UAE or Saudis that I'm aware of. I heard there were 20 countries in total, so I'm assuming that's the 16 on the map, +Sweden, Israel, Scotland and another I don't recall.

I had one spaniard comrade in my team, so there's another.

(And then I proceeded to give him a Titan armor and painted it red and yellow, so he could become the Torero de Aliens.)

[Hiro Protagonest]

So, we all agree that Rapid Fire is an awesome ability that is awesome.

However, I remain a steadfast defender of the Flush ability. It's one of the few moves with a higher accuracy, which makes it great for finishing off those pesky damaged-yet-in-cover foes, and by coordinating it with Overwatch, you can use it to set up some rather nasty tricks, forcing enemies out of cover and into your overwatch killzones.


Of course, those are specific situations, whereas Rapid Fire is a nice, all-purpose kill things ability.
Does anybody else have opinions on this subject?

I like to send out two Assaults as soon as I get Squad Size I, so I think giving one Flush and the other one Rapid Fire is a good idea.

[DaedalusMkV]

Speaking of missing countries. Has anyone had a dude from the United Arab Emirates? Or a Saudi? Israeli?
Pretty sure I've had a Jamaican and it seems odd to include them but barely anyone from the Middle East.

I've had a Saudi and a couple of Egyptians (My second-best Assault in my Classic game is Egyptian). Someone I think might have been Pakistani as well, but couldn't be bothered to check the flag. Might have had others, since I've had a couple of people with vaguely Middle Eastern names and flags I don't recognize and didn't bother to check. Still, they appear to be quite rare. Egypt is one of the Council nations, yet it provides less soldiers than Sweden or Spain, at least in my experience so far. I find that odd.

Ah, that's interesting. Thought maybe that could be it.

On that line of thought, though, does anyone else notice odd patterns in soldier nationality? I often get clumps of soldiers of the same country.

Yeah, I've noticed that too. Game 1 was mostly Europeans, lots of Scots and Brits, a couple of Spaniards, an Italian, bunch of Germans, some Russians and Ukrainians. This game is throwing people from Asia at me. Nine or ten Chinese, six or seven Japanese, a couple of Koreans, five or six Indians, as well as a handful of North Americans, Africans and Europeans. My casualty rate has been much, much higher this game, though (over 20, almost 30 at the point of hitting the Overseer, compared to 9 over the whole game, counting 3 in the tutorial) so I've got a fair variety of nationalities to work with. Also, in the middle of mass-Psi-Screening, which inevitably leads to silly-large numbers of Rookies.

[thorgrim29]

Is there a way to get more then 3 guys in psi testing at a time?

[Anarion]

From what I've seen, the enemies scale up over time regardless of how fast you're doing the plot... my first run through, I didn't see Mutons until the alien base assault. My second, I took my time and saw them long before.

On classic or impossible they scale with time, so there's no advantage to going slowly, you want to get psionics as fast as possible (although there is an argument to putting off the base an extra month if no countries are panicking yet and you're not done with satellites).

On normal or easy they advance based on where you are in the story, so you want to go as slowly as possible and train up your recruits.

Man, ghost armors are by far the coolest and best of the lot, except psi armors, which sole purpose is to further break psionics.

The best military form is the one that doesn't have one, said Sun Tzu. The man was right, nothing beats stealth exploration, unlimited grappling hooks, free movements, movement bonus, cover bonus.

I can move around with the supreme mobility of a truly perfect military force. Defeat anything save a Sectopod without a scratch, and that's before I get psionics!

Yep. Ghost armor is the best. Completely changes your gameplay options and makes soldiers in anything but psi armor feel slow and weak.

Speaking of missing countries. Has anyone had a dude from the United Arab Emirates? Or a Saudi? Israeli?
Pretty sure I've had a Jamaican and it seems odd to include them but barely anyone from the Middle East.

I've had UAE, Saudi, and Israeli. I actually got a whole bunch of Israelis at one point, like the country sent me an entire squad at once. Half were psionic too.

So, we all agree that Rapid Fire is an awesome ability that is awesome.

However, I remain a steadfast defender of the Flush ability. It's one of the few moves with a higher accuracy, which makes it great for finishing off those pesky damaged-yet-in-cover foes, and by coordinating it with Overwatch, you can use it to set up some rather nasty tricks, forcing enemies out of cover and into your overwatch killzones.


Of course, those are specific situations, whereas Rapid Fire is a nice, all-purpose kill things ability.
Does anybody else have opinions on this subject?

I'm mixed. Rapid fire is incredible, it makes the assault capable of soloing things and one of the best damage-dealing classes. Particularly with a shotgun, the aim bonus can give you 100% hit chance or nearly that even while firing twice.

Flush is amazing against thin men and as a tool to weaken mutons since it's so likely to hit and aids you in capture. I find that unless you've used a grenade or rocket, the enemy just moves to some other cover, so it's only really great if you're doing a team with several opportunist overwatch snipers, but if you have a team with several opportunist overwatch snipers, nothing else really matters all that much, you're going to crush everything.

I've had a Saudi and a couple of Egyptians (My second-best Assault in my Classic game is Egyptian). Someone I think might have been Pakistani as well, but couldn't be bothered to check the flag.

Oh, I had a Pakistani. I couldn't figure out what that flag was, but since you asked, I googled their flag and I'm certain that I had one. Cool.

Is there a way to get more then 3 guys in psi testing at a time?

Nope

[Surrealistik]

Rapid Fire is definitely better than Flush. Doubly true for multiplayer where your opponent isn't retarded and will usually opt for a conservative movement that doesn't cross into Overwatch.

[Krade]

Stupid pathfindind gave cover to the sectopods against a shredded rocket (THEY WERE NEXT TO EACH OTHER!! HOW CAN A PROXIMITY ROCKET HIT ONE BUT NOT THE OTHER?!?!) and 2 turns later, both mechadroids blow up.

I believe that when a Sectopod readies it's AoE attack, it becomes immune to explosives. I haven't tested this thouroughly, but I'll pay more attention in the future to eliminate the doubt.

[JMobius]

On normal or easy they advance based on where you are in the story, so you want to go as slowly as possible and train up your recruits.

I've heard this, but I'm not 100% certain it is true. My girlfriend started encountering cyberdisks and berserkers after spending a lot of time not addressing the base, which we both found rather surprising.

[DaedalusMkV]

I believe that when a Sectopod readies it's AoE attack, it becomes immune to explosives. I haven't tested this thouroughly, but I'll pay more attention in the future to eliminate the doubt.

Sectopods just seem to be wonky against explosives in general. Even when they aren't readying their AoE I've hit them with rockets to no effect, including direct hits. It might be a result of the fact that they take up multiple squares or something. Regardless, I've found that nothing but placing the targetting reticule directly on top of the Sectopod will reliably cause damage to it.

I always take Rapid Fire over Flush. Ghost+Rapid Fire+Point-blank range+Alloy Cannon=Dead Sectopod or Etherial in one action. That's math I can get behind.

[Avilan the Grey]

I've heard this, but I'm not 100% certain it is true. My girlfriend started encountering cyberdisks and berserkers after spending a lot of time not addressing the base, which we both found rather surprising.

The way I heard it, the game will eventually push you, but you have plenty of time to get good armor and weapons before it does.

[Drasius]

So, I've been plodding along, enjoying a bug free game and generally enjoying myself immensely. Finally my dudes and dudettes have finished faffing about and collecting all their fancy green glowing toys, so they decide to go hang out at the huge purple party ship for one last hurrah.

The only issue is, they were a bit unruly and the hosts have locked them out in the front room. This displeases me greatly. I have encounted virtually no bugs or other wierdness, no odd firing angles, only 1 case of teleporting dudes (and since the cyberdisks teleported directly into the open about 4 squares away from my entire team on overwatch, I'm not that sad). Now I'm all the way to the end and no matter what I do, the mutons who are meant to appear, don't, so the doors won't open.

I has a sad.

[mistformsquirrl]

Rapid Fire is definitely better than Flush. Doubly true for multiplayer where your opponent isn't retarded and will usually opt for a conservative movement that doesn't cross into Overwatch.

I have to concur with this.

In my current game I have 2 assaults, one specced for Flush, the other for Rapid Fire... I use flush occassionally, but usually it doesn't do more than shuffle the enemy to a different piece of cover, which is essentially useless... Rapid Fire on the other hand can kill stuff dead soooo fast.

That said I may have to take back (some) of what I said earlier about Holo Targeting not being useful. In this same playthrough I'm using a pair of heavies, one specced for demolitions and HEAT ammo, the other specced for suppression and holo targeting.

The combination is very effective. I move the Suppression heavy up first - if she sees a target, she can fire or suppress it (and thus hit it with Holo Targeting), and then the rest of the crew gets a bonus to hit that mob for the rest of the round. The only downside to this setup is that on my Demo-heavy, I miss having the option to Fire then Suppress if I miss.

Still, it's a nice change of pace from my usual setup, which is good since I was getting bored running the same thing all the time.

----

Speaking of bored, I think I've hit on my biggest problem with XCOM:

It's WAY too short. I feel like if I wanted to, I could blitz through the entire story in just a few hours. I'd have to be careful which researches I felt were important and skip others altogether, but I think I could pull it off easily enough. I don't like that because I really enjoy the game and having to start all over to keep enjoying it is... bothersome.

Also really starting to wish there were upgraded kinetic weapons as an option instead of going with alien tech. I know X-Com is all about reverse engineering and all that; but some part of me misses good old kinetic weapons. (Well I guess there's the Alloy Cannon, but other than that I mean.)

[Luzahn]

Agreed, we tend to commandeer alien tech rather than improve our own. At least the lasers were our tech, but still.

[KillianHawkeye]

I have to disagree a little bit. It's true that we grab the aliens' guns and run with them, but we also develop the plasma sniper and alloy cannons based on their technology (not to mention lasers). So we take what they have and then improve upon it with our own ideas.

[Impnemo]

So, I've been plodding along, enjoying a bug free game and generally enjoying myself immensely. Finally my dudes and dudettes have finished faffing about and collecting all their fancy green glowing toys, so they decide to go hang out at the huge purple party ship for one last hurrah.

The only issue is, they were a bit unruly and the hosts have locked them out in the front room. This displeases me greatly. I have encounted virtually no bugs or other wierdness, no odd firing angles, only 1 case of teleporting dudes (and since the cyberdisks teleported directly into the open about 4 squares away from my entire team on overwatch, I'm not that sad). Now I'm all the way to the end and no matter what I do, the mutons who are meant to appear, don't, so the doors won't open.

I has a sad.

Just had a cleared map but no mission end on an ironman. Sectoid with mind merge buff moved to cover behind a car, fired, another fired from another position over his head, missed his target and set the first's car on fire. At the start of their next round, the car goes boom, I can the 3rd who was responsible for the mind merge has the animation still playing on the corpse. Kill everything, no end.

[KillianHawkeye]

I'm going to venture a guess that the PC version is the one everyone's playing with all these killer bugs. I have the 360 version, and so far I haven't experienced anything but a little bit of struggling with map elevation inside UFOs and the occaisional bit of lag during an alien activity phase. Definitely nothing game breaking. No crashes. All of my SHIVs have worked fine, too.

[RagingKrikkit]

Warning: Heatlessness

Spoiler

Show

Is this game less buggy than the original?

Yes.

Quit your whining!

[Avilan the Grey]

So... restarted without tutorial this morning.
Immediately fought on different maps I had not seen before...

Still struggling with getting engineers enough to get satelites up. I had to prioritize Australia in my fourth mission because their panic level was too high instead of getting the four engineers in the US. At least I get a Sergeant Sniper out of the deal.
Hopefully I should have enough engineers in a few days anyway, but it is annoying.

Now a question: A lot of strategy tips say "sell everything" the first months to buy satelites and interceptors, bt should I really sell nav computers etc?

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Now a question: A lot of strategy tips say "sell everything" the first months to buy satelites and interceptors, bt should I really sell nav computers etc?

Nav computers and power sources yes. Reason is you're not going to research them until like the fourth month anyway, and you'll have plenty of them by then to build everything you need. Alien corpses too, but make sure you have enough of those to pay for the relevant Foundry projects. Alloys, Weapon Fragments and Elerium you shouldn't sell. You won't be able to research/build stuff lategame if you sell those early on.

[Avilan the Grey]

Nav computers and power sources yes. Reason is you're not going to research them until like the fourth month anyway, and you'll have plenty of them by then to build everything you need. Alien corpses too, but make sure you have enough of those to pay for the relevant Foundry projects. Alloys, Weapon Fragments and Elerium you shouldn't sell. You won't be able to research/build stuff lategame if you sell those early on.

Thank you for the clarification.
Now if I only could go home and play instead of working and stuff...

Edit: Is it just me, or is the difficulty ranking on missions (in the beginning at least) a little too "sensitive"? I understand that Normal Mode is for people like me, who has played say the CIV games and a few others and that higher difficulties might have more drastic differences, but I honestly do not notice any change in difference between "Easy" and "Difficult" on the abuction missions?

[SlyGuyMcFly]

AFAIK, the only difference is that harder missions have more aliens in them. In Classic, a Moderate mission typically has 6 enemies, Very Difficult can have up to 10. It doesn't seem to affect what alien types you get, though. I've had Moderate missions with Floaters at the same time as Very Difficult with nothing but Sectoids.

[Cespenar]

Yeah, I remember having a relatively easy "Very Difficult" mission with 10-11 Thin Men and nothing else. The mission difficulties translate directly to enemy numbers, I believe.

[Opperhapsen]

I've had UAE, Saudi, and Israeli. I actually got a whole bunch of Israelis at one point, like the country sent me an entire squad at once. Half were psionic too.

IT'S A ZIONIST CONSPIRACY!11!1!eleven!1!!

Seriously though, I had the same thing happen with Irish troops.
Luck o' the Irish I guess.

Now, to feel less racist I need to make fun of my own nationality. Brb.

I was using the real world as an explanation for Scotland getting their own flag in the game. Unless you were just talking about the real world, in which case I have to say I'm pretty certain about what flag I wear on my shoulder.

Clearly you suffer from flag blindness, a rare disorder that only affects British people. (Just kidding)

I meant in game, just a bit weird how apparently the only soldiers are BRITISH and Scottish.
Seems like a thing you should've either gone all out with or just ignored.