XCOM Enemy Unknown ...Help?

[DaedalusMkV]

Does XCOM - Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within work on XP or does it need to be Vista and above?

In theory it can be played on XP using a complex, technical and unreliable work-around. In practice, about 30% of people are actually able to make the game function to an acceptable standard using that work-around. If you don't have Windows 7 (or Vista, but why would you still have that?), I would not recommend purchasing the game.

[Sharoth]

~sighs~ I was afraid of that. I guess my X-Box 360 version will have to do. ~sobs~ I am sorry, Long War Mod, but we were not meant to be. ~grins~

[Rodin]

After seeing everyone talking about Long War, decided to give it a try. It makes a heck of a difference, I must say. The world map is actually something approaching proper X-COM now!

I read the thing saying "start on Normal", yeah, yeah. I did so and promptly wondered why I did. Plenty of wounded soldiers, none killed. Easy peasy.

Then I got one of my least favorite maps - the bar, where you start in the parking lot surrounded by cars that blow up if you breathe on them. I made a mad dash for the bar, and wound up fighting 8 Floaters in a pincer attack. Yikes.

Lost half my squad there, but FORTUNATELY my A team was recovering from the last mission and didn't go out.

Then the very next mission? Terror mission, and it was the freaking museum. The map that I've never beaten without extreme casualties, and I went into it with a mix of ballistic weapons and lasers.

It was a slaughter. Chrysalids everywhere, with Floaters suppressing my movement the whole way. Eventually my entire squad panicked, and everybody got eaten by zombies.

Welp. Guess I didn't need Argentina anyway.

[Grif]

After seeing everyone talking about Long War, decided to give it a try. It makes a heck of a difference, I must say. The world map is actually something approaching proper X-COM now!

I read the thing saying "start on Normal", yeah, yeah. I did so and promptly wondered why I did. Plenty of wounded soldiers, none killed. Easy peasy.

Then I got one of my least favorite maps - the bar, where you start in the parking lot surrounded by cars that blow up if you breathe on them. I made a mad dash for the bar, and wound up fighting 8 Floaters in a pincer attack. Yikes.

Lost half my squad there, but FORTUNATELY my A team was recovering from the last mission and didn't go out.

Then the very next mission? Terror mission, and it was the freaking museum. The map that I've never beaten without extreme casualties, and I went into it with a mix of ballistic weapons and lasers.

It was a slaughter. Chrysalids everywhere, with Floaters suppressing my movement the whole way. Eventually my entire squad panicked, and everybody got eaten by zombies.

Welp. Guess I didn't need Argentina anyway.

Good thing you can recapture countries in Long War as well.

[Anarion]

Good thing you can recapture countries in Long War as well.

Also, you can shoot down UFOs in Long War and prevent some of the painful missions from happening.

[Rodin]

That was the other bad thing that I wasn't quite prepared for - got a small UFO scouting for my satellite. It shot down THREE Interceptors sent to take it out. Two of them were just badly damaged, but the third got outright toasted.

It still really bugs me that you can't send multiple Interceptors to a single UFO, like, you know, the original freaking game.

[thorgrim29]

Yeah, the airgame in Long war is brutal, you need to sink a lot of research time and foundry resources into various fighter upgrades before you can reliably kill a scout with one fighter. Thing is, the way their ai work if you do enough damage they go home without completing their mission (scouting satellites, abductions, terror, shooting down satellites...) so even though you know you probably won't down them it's still worth it to chase them most of the time. BTW, super skyranger is an awesome tech, but you don't need it before the first alien base assault (it lets you take 10 guys for that mission)

[Surrealistik]

A quick and dirty guide to succeeding at LW:

Go North America; you'll need _lots_ of interceptors to down ufos, and downing/destroying ufos contributes substantially to your economy. For these reasons, NA is, as things stand, the best starting location. Later on buy interceptors for other continents so you can rotate them into your regions with satellites as interceptors stationed there become damaged.

Strive to maximize the number of explosives you can field; explosive spam, crowd control and cover clearing is the optimal approach when it comes to the tactical level, particularly when backed by Light Em Up and In The Zone. This means always taking Rocketeers when you get a Heavy option; Gunners are decent at the beginning of the game, but fall off in usefulness relative to Rocketeers by the mid game when the alien hordes start appearing in earnest. Engineers are preferable to Medics early on as they give you lots of invaluable early game cover clearing, but you'll want to focus a little more on Medics as the game progresses. By all means though, keep rolling Engineers; you'll need them for utility grenade spam in the mid to late game.

Get Paramedic, Sapper, Danger Zone and In The Zone always, and Smoke and Mirrors/Packmaster on Engineers. These are too powerful to pass up. Smoke and Mirrors for the Engi may seem counterintuitive, but trust me; in the late game, having them spam utility nades like Ghost/Chem Nades and Mimic Beacons is them at their best.

Don't bother with MECs; though they can be useful they cost way too much for what you get; I'd buy one at most.

Don't bother with SHIVs; since the recent nerf to Sentinel Drones, they're not really worth using.

Rush armour and beam lasers.

[Hicks]

Edit: Nevermind, my question was bad and I should feel bad.

In a less silly vein, starting on Long War for the first time, what should I know?

[Farix]

I've looked about...is there any way to get the Long War mod without paying the Nexus Forum people? Credit card currently unavailable due to 'number was stolen, aruging with Visa' reasons. Doesn't SEEM like paid content, since it is a mod...

Nexus accounts free, there's no need to pay for it or for Long War.

[Rodin]

Switched off in disgust after an aggravating series of events. Had my best trooper miss a shot at point blank range. Ok, frustrating but not the end of the world. Next turn, she can't target the alien at all - says she can't even see him. No cover, and all of 3 tiles away. I adjust her position to see whether that will correct it...and she gets sniped from across the map by a reaction shot.

Some things never change.

[Anarion]

Edit: Nevermind, my question was bad and I should feel bad.

In a less silly vein, starting on Long War for the first time, what should I know?

The stuff directly above your post.

More on point, satellites matter less and planes matter a LOT more. You should basically approach everything with a fresh pair of eyes and don't assume that all the stuff from vanilla XCOM is the same. Just read what everything does and evaluate it as best you can.

Switched off in disgust after an aggravating series of events. Had my best trooper miss a shot at point blank range. Ok, frustrating but not the end of the world. Next turn, she can't target the alien at all - says she can't even see him. No cover, and all of 3 tiles away. I adjust her position to see whether that will correct it...and she gets sniped from across the map by a reaction shot.

Some things never change.

Sometimes if that happens try saving and reloading. There are some things that can glitch and be fixed by doing that.

[Avilan the Grey]

I.
Hate.
Cryssalids.



In other news... I seem to be advancing slower than the game anticipated. Or it just randomizes DLC missions weirdly. I just blew up the power nodes on that big battleship thing... And my total opposition was 13 aliens, and 9 of those were Thin Men, two Cryssalids, one Muton and one Sectoid (regular).

Favorite mission so far was the "Place Tracers On The Subway Train" mission.

Observations:
I need to start upgrading my interceptors.
I WANT MONEY so I can build stuff!!
I blew all my money this month on the Training School and upgrades therein.
With six people on overwatch, Thin Men dropping in are about as much threat as a sectoid walking in it's sleep. "Drop. Overwatch!" *gets all kablowied*

[KillianHawkeye]

Man, I just got my rear-end handed to me on a landed supply barge mission on classic Enemy Unknown on the Xbox.

I am about a month or two after clearing the alien base; just got Titan Armor and plasma weapons. I start the mission just outside the ship's rear loading bay. Due to my relatively high success rate this go-around, I stupidly sent an entire group of squaddies with just a Colonel Assault to lead them.

Of course, the Colonel immediately gets mind-controlled by the group of commanders hanging out in the rear of the ship. In my failed attempts to kill the guy mind-controlling him, I uncover a trio of heavy floaters. So there I am trying to maneuver my guys around the crappy half-cover behind the alien ship, not wanting to kill my own best guy but unable to free him from enemy control. Then a bunch of elite mutons show up (I've only just encountered them one mission earlier) as well as another group of heavy floaters. I get miraculously lucky on the enemy attack phase, but I still lose one soldier and some others are heavily wounded.

Keep in mind that I'm basically right outside the open backside of the alien ship, uncomfortably close to the ETs that keep pushing forward.

I manage to down a couple of heavy floaters, but more keep patrolling into the area. More elite mutons as well. At this point, I've lost two guys and one is still mind-controlled (and I've totally lost track of where the last sectoid commander has gone off to). I'm facing around ten active aliens.

I should mention that I would have retreated way before this point if my skyranger evac zone hadn't bugged out on me, leaving me no option but to fight or die. Guess which one.

So, like I said, facing off nearly a dozen advanced alien soldiers with only half a team of low-level guys. I sent one of my two heavies off to the left side to suppress an elite muton that was off on that side. Then, sadly, my other two troops went down to enemy fire. I miraculously got my Colonel Assault back from mind-control, and he backed off and took a shot at the nearest floater, when that last sectoid commander came around the right side of the ship right behind him. I managed to Run-and-Gun away from the encroaching aliens and kill the last commander, but I was still down to two soldiers and of course a friggin' sectopod with a pair of drones patrols into the cargo bay behind all the other active aliens. Not that it even got a chance to do anything; the floaters and mutons wiped me out.

So, I'm pretty sure I had basically every enemy on the map come at me in that first room of the ship. With almost no good cover to hide behind. At least 15 baddies in total, and they kept showing up faster than I could kill them. I mean, even with plasma and light plasma rifles, it takes more than one shot to kill heavy floaters and elite mutons. I just couldn't keep up with all the aliens showing up.

I'm pretty fortunate that I still have half a dozen max rank soldiers on reserve. Normally, a mission that bad would have spelt the end of my game. As is, I should hopefully be able to recover, although I have no middle ground between my colonels and the huge group of squaddies I just hired.

[Nourjan]

You know, if you want tips on how to play the game and have time, watch a few Let's Play videos. I recommend ChristopherOdd's Youtube channel.
Here are a few tip pages (not sure if you are playing Enemy Unknown or Enemy Within):

ChristopherOdd isn't exactly what I would call stellar example on how to play XCOM, unless you're also planning to learn from his mistakes.While he's good enough(for the vanilla game) to not get slaughtered on the tactical level(he made too many blunders and bad decision to be called a "good player") he's rather bad at the strategic level.His Long War playthrough is even worse, he seems stuck into the vanilla game tactical mindset and applying sub-par class optimisation/utilisation while committing some rather odd fumbles.
I think beagelrush would be a better guide on solid gameplay, although he does rather frustrate me with choice of gameplay( not activating storyline based dlc, his choice or arbitrary difficulty raising).


BTW, I think we should have separate thread for the Long War mod to avoid confusion.It's gameplay is different enough to warrant it a different game.Strategy/tactics that are great in the vanilla game would no longer work in LOng War while some good Long War tips would get you obliterated in the vanilla game( at higher difficulty).

[Leon]

I like all the class and equipment options of it but not so keen on the massive increase in durations and difficulty

[Draconi Redfir]

had some random thoughts about xcom while at work today, would make for interesting mods, but unlikely to ever occur.

1. a friendly/neutral "faction", which basically just amounts to the area's local military/militia/police groups fighting against the alines themselves. you could equip them to help out better, if you encounter them on a mission they could give you an optional secondary objective they're trying to accomplish themselves, and then either you can control them on your turn, or with a second wave option, they move on the alien turn with their own A.I, working to achieve their original goal with or without you, though if you don't help out in some way you don't get any rewards for it. maybe you could even buy/sell troops with them, letting you see your own soldiers help them out on the field, or taking soldiers of theirs that did pretty well away from them for your own uses.

2. the ability to sell guns/captive aliens. or just a way to use captive aliens in general. as it is you interrogate them, then they just kinda don’t do anything. plus things like laser guns and the like do start to pile up. would be nice to get some cash back from what you don’t need.

3. exalt actually fighting against the aliens. I’m pretty sure they aren't explicitly working with the aliens, and are still fighting against them, but we never see it. it would be nice if we could encounter small exalt squads on some missions fighting the aliens with you, maybe asking for a temporary truce so they can evac, or if you kill them as well you could get some handy tools and info.

and 4. possible (as in rare) defection either to or from exalt. might get a mission or something of an exalt operative trying to defect into xcom, in which case if you succeed you get a pre gene-modded soldier with some decent gear as well as info/lore on exalt, and very rarely, an xcom soldier might try to defect to exalt, in which case you'd have to stop them, lest exalt get some cash and tech from you. and you would later possibly see your old troop on the battlefield when fighting against exalt.

[Nourjan]

Are you talking about a new mods for the vanilla of suggestion for Long War(again , we need separate threads for this)?

had some random thoughts about xcom while at work today, would make for interesting mods, but unlikely to ever occur.

1. a friendly/neutral "faction", which basically just amounts to the area's local military/militia/police groups fighting against the alines themselves. you could equip them to help out better, if you encounter them on a mission they could give you an optional secondary objective they're trying to accomplish themselves, and then either you can control them on your turn, or with a second wave option, they move on the alien turn with their own A.I, working to achieve their original goal with or without you, though if you don't help out in some way you don't get any rewards for it. maybe you could even buy/sell troops with them, letting you see your own soldiers help them out on the field, or taking soldiers of theirs that did pretty well away from them for your own uses.

Would love to sees this happen too

2. the ability to sell guns/captive aliens. or just a way to use captive aliens in general. as it is you interrogate them, then they just kinda don’t do anything. plus things like laser guns and the like do start to pile up. would be nice to get some cash back from what you don’t need.

The closest we have so far is in Long War which the council will request exchanging live alien captive for rewards .I don't think weapon pile up is ever a problem in the Enemy Unknown and its expansion/mods.As long as you only build what you need and heave a take no prisoner policy ,the chance of stockpiling unused weapon is next to nil.Of course Long War does require a certain level of inventory surplus as council request is more frequent and production is no longer instantaneous.

3. exalt actually fighting against the aliens. I’m pretty sure they aren't explicitly working with the aliens, and are still fighting against them, but we never see it. it would be nice if we could encounter small exalt squads on some missions fighting the aliens with you, maybe asking for a temporary truce so they can evac, or if you kill them as well you could get some handy tools and info.

Long War actually made the Exalt to be directly in cahoots with the aliens to the point that you'll be facing EXalt troopers AND alien fighting together against you on the tactical map.Oh they also buffed the exalt to ridiculous levels( entry level EXal operatives wearing shirts and ties having MORE
HEALTH THAN FULLY ARMOURED XCOM SOLDIERS??!)

and 4. possible (as in rare) defection either to or from exalt. might get a mission or something of an exalt operative trying to defect into xcom, in which case if you succeed you get a pre gene-modded soldier with some decent gear as well as info/lore on exalt, and very rarely, an xcom soldier might try to defect to exalt, in which case you'd have to stop them, lest exalt get some cash and tech from you. and you would later possibly see your old troop on the battlefield when fighting against exalt.

Unfortunately the trend right now seems to favour difficulty enhancing mods/add-on rather than more story based additions.Plus I think it might be harder to code for those type of angle.