X-COM: Cheap AI

[ShneekeyTheLost]

No, really. It doesn't matter which X-COM you are talking about, all the way back to the one on my old DOS system. The computer is a cheap, cheating bastard. Which is, of course, half the reason we play it and why kicking its arse anyway is so damn satisfying!

So, I just picked up the bundled pack with Enemy Unknown, Enemy Within, and all DLC for $12.50 on Steam, and it now is available for Linux-based OS, which is double-plus good! Since I was running through the original before delving into EW, I'm reminded of a few builds I've made that have been effective, and figured I could share them, and others could share theirs. Plus, yanno, any other kind of XCOM chatter.

For Heavies, I have two main builds:

Moar Dakka: Bullet Swarm, Shredder Rocket, HEAT, Danger Zone, Mayhem.

This is your balls-to-the-wall damage output gun bunny. He's equipped with a SCOPE for additional accuracy so bullet swarm can do something other than miss twice as often (insert monk flurry of misses joke here). This is the guy you want around when the Sectopod shows up. Two rounds from HEAT ammo is enough to really bring the pain on one of those suckers. Plus he's got both Danger Zone and Mayhem to make his rockets more effective, and a shredder rocket to also help assist in even more kills and take out cover.

Nerf Bat: Holo-Targeting, Suppression, HEAT, Danger Zone, Mayhem.

This started out as an 'out of the box' kind of thinking that was brought up mostly because I clicked on Holo-Targeting by accident, and it actually turned out exceedingly well. This guy can afford to pack a grenade or other utility because it doesn't matter what his accuracy is when he is Suppressing. Which stacks on Holo-Targeting, and does so in a small area so you can hit multiples, and STILL does at least SOME guaranteed damage. While he won't be taking much down directly, he has an enormous amount of support capability. He can lock down an opponent, take out its cover, and give a bonus to aim for everyone else all in the same turn. That's... really not bad. In particular, he makes a wonderful 'newbie trainer' to bring alongside rookies to help them get kills. Don't forget he still has a rocket that can be used to blow cover, and he can afford to pack a grenade as well since he doesn't have to worry about his own AIM score as much.

I've got one basic Assault type, and I tend to not vary much from the golden rule:

Tactical Sense, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Close Quarters, Resilience

Assaults tend to end up on the short end of the stick. Fortunately, Tactical Sense and Lightning Reflexes really help with this. With Ghost armor and an Alloy Cannon, he's going to be guaranteed crits anyway, so why bother with Aggression when he can get some much needed defense if he ends up opening up the wrong door? Likewise, Close And Personal is not necessary since he's getting crits anyway. Enemy Within makes Close and Personal worth considering with the bonus shot, but getting to that shot without Lightning Reflexes might get dicey. I've never seen the point in flush. I've heard about 'Suppression/Flush' combo, but that absolutely stinks. You're taking a penalty on the reaction shot from suppression, so you might as well take the damn shot in the first place instead of taking up a third of your team to do the job. Assaults tend to end the job readily enough that Bring Em On just seems pointless overkill, whereas popping someone trying to run behind you is always for the lulz. The only real question is Resilience vs Killer Instinct, I could see it going either way. With KI, you can one-round a Sectopod with a rapid fire stealth crit combo. But immunity to crits on the guy most likely to take a bad shot is NEVER a bad thing.

My supports tend to be medics with guns, so I build 'em that way.

Sprinter is just dead useful, way more than Covering Fire that will probably miss since you're taking a reaction shot to something likely already in cover.
Field Medic is a thousand times better than Smoke And Mirrors, that just doesn't even seem to be a choice.
Revive vs Rifle Suppression is one I occasionally waffle over, but on higher difficulties, Revive is absolutely essential.
Dense Smoke vs Combat Drugs is a no-brainer as well, Combat Drugs boosts will for Psi troops. Dense Smoke isn't worth deploying.
And of course Savior over Sentinel any day of the week. Because healing 10 damage in a single medikit is necessary when you have heavy mutons and sectopods firing at you.

Snipers changed quite a lot in Enemy Within, but the basic game had them largely as long guns. Pick a vantage point, and provide support fire where necessary.

Squadsight is love. Squadsight is life. All hail Squadsight. In EW, Snap Shot becomes more viable, but in the base game, this is an easy choice to make. Blowing your AIM to try and pretend to be a Support is just not a winning proposition.
Damn Good Ground is... damn good. In EW, if you use a sniper as a covert op, then Gunslinger makes him far more viable on those Exalt missions.
Disabling Shot vs Battle Scanner. If you go Squadsight, you are NEVER going to need a Battle Scanner, so go Disabling Shot. Not only can it save your life, it can also disable a mind controlled ally. If you are in EW, Battle Scanners can be very useful on a Snap Shot sniper.
Then there's Opportunist or Opportunist. I'm sorry, is your sniper really ever going to have a low enough aim this high in the tech tree to need a bonus 10 aim on something already almost dead?
In The Zone or Double-Tap depends wildly on the RNG and how well you can set up flanking and busting of cover. Double-Tap is guaranteed every other turn getting two shots, and is reliable. In The Zone has no cooldown and can theoretically be far more powerful, if you can set up the proper conditions.

So, share your tales of angst and woe, where you had your start teammate critted by some alien you never saw, where you had two sectopods show up at the same time, where you had that ethereal somehow manage to MC your psionic unit despite having a 130 will... we've all been there. We understand. And... we will be watching.

[Triaxx]

My tale of woe is none of those. I have yet to find Sectopods particularly challenging, perhaps because of the way I play. Also, at least in EU, Battle Scanner's won't 'activate' enemies you can't see, so you can fling one and open fire on them, without getting shot back at.

No my tale of woe comes, as so many do from Terror missions. I was fast approaching the end game, reaching the point where very little could actually bother me. It was even the first mission during which I was able to field Titan armor. I enter the mission, and find myself rushing around a massive tank yard, full of Muton Elites, Chrysaliids and incredibly long distances between civilians that need saving. I'm even one shotting things left and right, but unfortunately I only save three civilians. Which was enough to cause Russia to drop out of X-Com, where I'd had an almost perfect record to that point.

I haven't had a result that bad since the original X-Com.

[Grif]

My tale of woe is none of those. I have yet to find Sectopods particularly challenging, perhaps because of the way I play. Also, at least in EU, Battle Scanner's won't 'activate' enemies you can't see, so you can fling one and open fire on them, without getting shot back at.

This is also true in Enemy Within. But then again, you have Mimetic Skin to do the job much better, so the point is probably moot.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

My squadsight sniper tends to be so far back that there's no opportunity for him to deploy a scanner.

And I still have nightmares about THAT mission. You know the one... the one where you had a Dutchman end up docking at a city that loses contact. THAT mission. Particularly when you end up doing it before you have a chance to get Beam Weapons and Carapace Armor.

[thorgrim29]

After you've been through vanilla a few times, give Long War a shot, it makes everything more difficult, gives a kind of "base management" to the aliens (so if you do very well they get weaker, but one slip up and you're up to your armpits in mechtoids), and adds a lot more customization and equipment options.

[McNum]

My squadsight sniper tends to be so far back that there's no opportunity for him to deploy a scanner.

And I still have nightmares about THAT mission. You know the one... the one where you had a Dutchman end up docking at a city that loses contact. THAT mission. Particularly when you end up doing it before you have a chance to get Beam Weapons and Carapace Armor.

Oh, the shooting gallery mission. Did you know that eventually they stop spawning? You can totally abuse the terrain to make you nearly invincible to them. They can't climb onto squares that already have an XCOM soldier in it. So force them to take a long path. More than their blue move. They'll crawl right up next to you and end turn. Assaults with shotguns love that.

After you've been through vanilla a few times, give Long War a shot, it makes everything more difficult, gives a kind of "base management" to the aliens (so if you do very well they get weaker, but one slip up and you're up to your armpits in mechtoids), and adds a lot more customization and equipment options.

Long War is amazing, it gives you a lot of new options, the flashbang grenades are amazingly good early on, all classes got split into two for a total of eight classes and each of THOSE classes have a corresponding MEC class. the current version has a somewhat nasty bug in it, so I'm waiting for the hotfix to beta 15a. Then starting a new game. If you do try it, just remember that air battles have gotten significantly more difficult, but in exchange, your aircraft level up as well now.

But the aliens do get really nasty. They get perks as well. You can, if you're lucky, run into a basic Sectoid in the first mission who has Low Profile and Mindfray. Have fun with that. Squadsight Mutons are also a thing and Chryssalids with Lightning Reflexes. Go on, Overwatch. I dare you. It's fun!

And for those who wants a Long War spoiler...

Spoiler: A Long War spoiler!

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Giant size Chryssalids and Sectopods with so much health that he game can't render all of the health bars.

[thorgrim29]

Ah yes, cryssalidzilla, such memories

[Hiro Protagonest]

Long War is insane. I watch Beaglerush play it (I/I) and there are so. Many. Enemies. Every single mission.

Also, he once took control of a superDrone using the arc thrower's ability. So awesome.

Of course, I don't have EW and the effort required to install the patch to make EU work with EU Long War is greater than my desire to play it.

[Rakaydos]

And I still have nightmares about THAT mission. You know the one... the one where you had a Dutchman end up docking at a city that loses contact. THAT mission. Particularly when you end up doing it before you have a chance to get Beam Weapons and Carapace Armor.

First time I payed itI lost 2 soldiers setting up the beacon, and a third was bleeding out with me out of medkits and the airsrike approaching. The remaiing soldiers reached the extraction point while he was still bleeding... and he lived. Mission complete apparently pulls dying guys out of ground zero.

[Leon]

I tend to play these days with Training Roulette on so i end up with some interesting classes.

[Triaxx]

My teams run Support, Assault, two Snipers and two Heavies. So I have both a squadsight and a snapshot sniper. Not necessarily the best mix probably, but when I need something killed NOW, I usually have the firepower to do it. (Shredder rocket, 2xHeadshot, regular rocket.)

Also, In the Zone is essential for Terror missions near the end. Hurt the 'lids, followed by an Archangel sniper ITZ'ing their way through the group.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

My teams run Support, Assault, two Snipers and two Heavies. So I have both a squadsight and a snapshot sniper. Not necessarily the best mix probably, but when I need something killed NOW, I usually have the firepower to do it. (Shredder rocket, 2xHeadshot, regular rocket.)

Also, In the Zone is essential for Terror missions near the end. Hurt the 'lids, followed by an Archangel sniper ITZ'ing their way through the group.

My only problem with that setup for Terror missions is that stupid map with the huge building that blocks LoS for your snipers and makes them much less useful. I tend to go two assaults and two heavies, personally. You only really need one ITZ angel sniper, but a pair of assaults can really do a job on just about any room you break into.

[tonberrian]

I really like the randomized perk option when setting up games. It makes my teams more dynamic.

[Surrealistik]

Long War is great, and is basically how the game should have been out of the box, complete with Mimetic Skin's effective nerfing.

That said however, the bad/ugly is that the AI is still exploitable by breaking LoS, MECs are broken, turning even that mod on I/I into EZ mode, traditional X-Com full on collapsing difficulty (one of the main problems that was supposed to be addressed) with 'I'm the Juggernaut Bitch' tier DR stacking enabling them to effortlessly deflect plasma off their armored biceps/abs at all angles (this is all the more true in B15 with heavy MEC frames and HEAT getting nerfed), and the head developer is _way_ too RNG happy (random death timers, random LR failures, etc; all his ideas). Further, the country starting bonuses aren't at all balanced. For example, Jungle Scouts is ridiculously strong; though its benefit applies to early armours only, the time when those armors are used is pretty much the most difficult point in the game.

[Triaxx]

Agreed. It's actually pretty terrible for Terror missions. I usually go two Assaults, two Supports, one Sniper and one Heavy. Need all the speed I can get.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I think I'm going to run X-Com EU/EW a few times until I can do I/I again before testing the waters with Long War. It's been a while, my tactical reflexes are lazy and out of shape. It's good to jump into a less forgiving tactical sim.

[tonberrian]

Punching EXALT troopers through brick walls is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done in XCOM.

[Leon]

Took the plunge into LW ~ Intro Mission TPK.

Since that ive been very careful and gone for the Defensive option for the most part on Troops, still lost 4 to assorted things (inc the first Covert Ops ~ which put the rescue squad out of action for an average of 2 months) Canada Up and left very early on and the rest of North America just joined them recently as i didn't do the chrysalid mission in Newfoundland (i tried but reloaded the Base Save after losing most of the squad in short order)

[banthesun]

Canada Up and left very early on and the rest of North America just joined them recently as i didn't do the chrysalid mission in Newfoundland (i tried but reloaded the Base Save after losing most of the squad in short order)

This is a Long War thing. One country will always leave in the first month. Alien base missions reclaim lost countries, so if they didn't cheat to do that then it could be impossible to beat the game due to playing too well.

The chrysalid level is a straight up terror in LW until you figure out how to do it. Bring lots of explosives and shotguns, and make sure to check the docks early. A bunch of pods can get stuck down there, and then spring you in a single turn due to the open sight lines. I don't think anything short of flying armour can protect you from 3-4 pods coming in all at once.

[Studoku]

This is a Long War thing. One country will always leave in the first month. Alien base missions reclaim lost countries, so if they didn't cheat to do that then it could be impossible to beat the game due to playing too well.

The chrysalid level is a straight up terror in LW until you figure out how to do it. Bring lots of explosives and shotguns, and make sure to check the docks early. A bunch of pods can get stuck down there, and then spring you in a single turn due to the open sight lines. I don't think anything short of flying armour can protect you from 3-4 pods coming in all at once.

The latest LW patch (B15) makes it even more terrifying.

Spoiler

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As well as Chrysallids, there are also Thin Men, forcing you to actually use cover

[thorgrim29]

Wait what? Seriously? Was beta 14 not hard enough for those maniacs? I started a beta 15 game this week and I've gotten thin men, floaters and a muton in month 1