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

[thorgrim29]

So, one of my colonels is incredibly funny (to me at least).

He's support, and I got him after a mission in India. So, my support guy is indian. Furthermore, his nickname is magic man, and he's my first soldier to get mind control and one of the first 2 psykers. Finally, his name is Metha (meta humour)

[Zevox]

I feel like I get mostly heavies and very few of the other classes.

I was doing that early on. Got one of each class for the first four (which I'm suspecting always happens, since someone else here reported getting that too), then something like three heavies before I started getting other classes. Took forever for me to get more than one Assault, too.

Also all these bugs you guys are talking about are they on the pc,Xbox or ps3 versions?

I'm on the 360, so for the bugs I've mentioned, that version at least. Wouldn't surprise me if most were there across all versions, though.

Zevox

[Impnemo]

Argh, I think I've run into a bug that makes what I'm pretty sure is the final mission impossible to complete.

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It's the Temple Ship, just after you defeat the pair of Sectopods. I cannot access the door that leads me to the next room, it doesn't show up in the standard camera (Fog of war seems to shroud it even when I am standing right next to it) and I cannot open it, but I can clearly see it in the glam cam, and there does not seem to be any other door to progress through.

Anyone know if there is a fix for this?

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I had issues with the FOW obstructing the walls and doors the whole way down the ship. If I played with the camera elevation I could bring them into view for a bit. But this was pre-patch too, something may have changed.

Tangential curiosity, my VIP that mission also happened to be my sole survivor from the tutorial. Karmic goodness aside, I wonder if that was just a crap shoot or if the survivor is pre-set psionic.

[Cespenar]

As good as the game sounds, the bugs make it seem like a first time Ironman run would be too much hassle. Is this a close enough estimation?

[thorgrim29]

Other than very occasional glitches in the grid system (some squares, especially those on high ground in alien ships, are buggy) and that one time my drone didn't fire for the whole mission it's alright. Also the camera in buidings/ships needs a lot of work but that's not a bug.

In other news, I just shot down my first overseer with a EMP X-302 Firestorm, after a battleship got away with laughable ease from the basic interceptors I have in Africa (currently replacing my fleet with 2 firestorms per base, one EMP one plasma, but I'm not there yet). I'm super scared of actually assaulting the place since it has a bunch of muton elites and the big walker things that do crazy area damage and seem to always be on overwatch. Also an ethereal, whatever that is. The EMP might have been a mistake. So I'll be taking my 4 non-heavy colonels and my highest ranking non-colonel support guy and assault guy, all deacked out in titan armor with plasma weapons or alloy cannons, and hoping for the best. I might decide to let my sniper use her ghost suit, not sure yet.

[Anarion]

I hit another game-breaking bug this evening as well. I had mind-controlled a muton elite and had it run up to a regular muton inside a corner of the UFO and fire on it at point blank. The shot went to cinematic view, but due to the angle of the wall, it kind of went over the Elite's shoulder and then got stuck. Couldn't move my camera, couldn't select any other units, couldn't open the game menu. I had to force quit and restart from my last save.

Hopefully they patch some of this stuff, but I definitely recommend being very careful with mind-controlled units and with the edges of the map around fog of war.

*Foundry stuff

I've noticed that the aliens seem to come in waves, and if I just finish off the local group and then have everyone stay in place to reload they're prepped for the next group without ammo conservation. I'm sure it makes things easier, but until I had titan/archangel/psionic armor for my full 6 soldiers, it never seemed worth the cash. And rapid construction has been totally useless for me. I still can't research it because I've only encountered two sectopods total so far, even though I'm nearly done with the game, and I've already filled every slot in my base with structures.

I did research most of the foundry stuff now because I have nothing else to spend the money on.


Also, a question. I have no more research in the research labs, but I haven't gotten the achievement for doing all the research yet. I did get the achievement for doing every possible autopsy and I've interrogated every single alien type that I've autopsied, so I don't think that's the issue. Is there some other research that can be unlocked if you build the right items? Can you take a cyberdisc alive or something? Because at the moment, I can't figure it out.

[Vitruviansquid]

Note to self: Always bring an Assault with Lightning Reflexes on the missions where you know they'll drop in Thin Men on overwatch. Hell, bring a pair if you've got them. You can never have too much insurance against those damned, dirty Thin Men.

[KillianHawkeye]

Note to self: Always bring an Assault with Lightning Reflexes on the missions where you know they'll drop in Thin Men on overwatch. Hell, bring a pair if you've got them. You can never have too much insurance against those damned, dirty Thin Men.

I just had a group of those guys drop on me at the end of a bomb mission and all I had was a squad full of rookies. Amazingly, one guy charged forward triggering three Thin Mens' reaction fire and was missed by all of them!

Side Note: having enough carapace armor and shiny new laser rifles to outfit an entire 5-man squad really takes the sting out of botching a mission where all your good soldiers get killed. Mostly because lasers are sweet!

[Gamerlord]

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I had issues with the FOW obstructing the walls and doors the whole way down the ship. If I played with the camera elevation I could bring them into view for a bit. But this was pre-patch too, something may have changed.

Tangential curiosity, my VIP that mission also happened to be my sole survivor from the tutorial. Karmic goodness aside, I wonder if that was just a crap shoot or if the survivor is pre-set psionic.

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I tried putting it at max elevation, it still won't let me open it. The icon won't appear even when I am standing right next to it and the movement grid makes it look like this is a dead end,even though the map clearly says otherwise. And apparently if the support forums are any indication, I'm not the only one with this issue.

[Opperhapsen]

Seven snipers, one heavy, one assault, one support.

Screw the RNG.

Sidenote: Am I a bad person for laughing at "We have our ways"?

[shadow_archmagi]

That said, my game's been going fantastically well. Half the world has satellites, and the other half has left the council. Europe and most of Africa have been abandoned to the aliens, with Nigeria hanging around less because it thinks I'll protect it and more because it knows I'll sell it drugs or whatever in the back alley.

Every single one of my shady council requests has come from Nigeria. I've shipped them tazers, lasrifles, floater corpses... they seem to be running out of the money though, since they only offered me sixty bucks for six chrysallid corpses. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I finally bought all the upgrades the officer's hall, as well as all the good foundry upgrades (Possibly there are still more good ones yet. I have ammo conservation, alien grenades, improved medkit, and a laser alloy SHIV. )

After a successful raid on a terror ship, I brought back my first dead drones and cyberdisc, as well as a live Muton Beserker and *two* Outsiders! After destroying countless mutons and securing the ship, we were baffled as to where the aliens could be. The noises kept coming from back towards the skyranger, but when we walked over there, they started coming from back inside the terror ship! We split into two groups and then a quarter-dozen chrysalids dropped from the ceiling.

We opened up all the fire we had. Damn near killed them in one round, and the survivor only managed to very NEARLY kill Major Muffin Cook, so we were able to scurry away safely.

Do terror missions sometimes have very few aliens? My first terror mission (Well, the first one I went on. I let France burn because I knew I wasn't ready the FIRST time a terror mission cropped up.) I blitzed through, got the achievement for completing it in under five turns or whatever. It wasn't that I was super efficient, I just ran into two squads of floaters right at the start, and then a squad of chyrsallids the turn after everyone had reloaded, and that was game.

That said, oh man, six man squads make a huge difference. China's bonus is IMHO worth it alone just because you can get big squads early, and having more men increases the survival rate fantastically.

I might just beat Classic Ironman on my 4th attempt, barring the sudden appearance of Psionics. I keep hearing they're in this game but have yet to experience them, so they could ruin my A team.

[Codemus]

Okay, so I made some progress on my SHIV playthrough. First off, it is totaly worth it to rush out some workshops and just work with two labs (with bonus of course). Turns out that bonus from adjacent workshops also counts for things like Alloy, Elerium, and other materials. I'm getting a 21% return on facility and vehicle costs, soon to jump up to 49%.

As to an all SHIV mission, I fielded a dry run. Four Alloy SHIV and two soldiers. Two SHIV were severely damaged, since they can't take cover and have to rely on their armor bonus, but that wasn't too bad. My only regret was that they aren't amazing in the accuracy department, and will never improve (unless the plasma cannon does that). The laser upgrade is amazing, and I'm waiting egerly for the plasma.

On that note, the RNG is kinda weird this playthrough. I have yet to research the Outsider Shard, and I already have a Firestorm with an EMP cannon, as well as other high end technology.

That African bonus is amazing! I have satelite coverage of N.America, Africa, and one sat in Asia and I'm getting back about $1300 monthly. Well more than enough to fund further sats, workshops, and firestorms.

[Zevox]

I hit another game-breaking bug this evening as well. I had mind-controlled a muton elite and had it run up to a regular muton inside a corner of the UFO and fire on it at point blank. The shot went to cinematic view, but due to the angle of the wall, it kind of went over the Elite's shoulder and then got stuck. Couldn't move my camera, couldn't select any other units, couldn't open the game menu. I had to force quit and restart from my last save.

Hopefully they patch some of this stuff, but I definitely recommend being very careful with mind-controlled units and with the edges of the map around fog of war.

That was on the edge of the fog of war too, eh? Like the bug I ran into with the mind-linked Sectoids. I've noticed that the game seems to slow down when dealing with units on the edge of the fog in general, too, so maybe that's just a problem area for it.

I've noticed that the aliens seem to come in waves, and if I just finish off the local group and then have everyone stay in place to reload they're prepped for the next group without ammo conservation. I'm sure it makes things easier, but until I had titan/archangel/psionic armor for my full 6 soldiers, it never seemed worth the cash. And rapid construction has been totally useless for me. I still can't research it because I've only encountered two sectopods total so far, even though I'm nearly done with the game, and I've already filled every slot in my base with structures.

As I said, one of the biggest things is that it makes Suppress and the like much more painless to use. Normally you only get three shots from a Heavy's weapon before needing to reload, and suppress takes up two of them. With ammo conservation, that's six shots with suppress using two of them. Makes a massive difference.

Also, a question. I have no more research in the research labs, but I haven't gotten the achievement for doing all the research yet. I did get the achievement for doing every possible autopsy and I've interrogated every single alien type that I've autopsied, so I don't think that's the issue. Is there some other research that can be unlocked if you build the right items? Can you take a cyberdisc alive or something? Because at the moment, I can't figure it out.

I'm in almost the same situation, though I still need to research the plasma canons for my fighters. I know I got an achievement for completing all autopsies, but I don't think I've gotten one for completing all interrogations - though to be fair, I don't know for sure that there is one for that, I'm just assuming. I'm pretty sure the remaining units I haven't captured can't be captured, though, as they all mechanical. Except for Cryssalids, but I tried to capture one of those earlier, and it wouldn't let me even try, so I don't think they're possible either.

Also, I now have satellites operational over all sixteen countries. Lost nobody so far, so I'm getting all the bonuses. Not bad for my first try, even if I'm on normal, I'd say.

I do have something weird happening though - an abduction instance where all three missions were in Europe. Not sure how the panic level math will work out with this one...
Edit: Hm, it appears to have been a net +1 panic in the two locations I didn't visit. Guess that makes sense. It looks like panic increases by +1 on continents you don't help, an additional +1 in the country in question, but decreases by the same in the continent and country you do help. So the continent bonuses negate here, and just the individual country adjustments remain.

Zevox

[Codemus]

Edit: Hm, it appears to have been a net +1 panic in the two locations I didn't visit. Guess that makes sense. It looks like panic increases by +1 on continents you don't help, an additional +1 in the country in question, but decreases by the same in the continent and country you do help. So the continent bonuses negate here, and just the individual country adjustments remain.

Zevox

Good to know.

[NEO|Phyte]

Also, a question. I have no more research in the research labs, but I haven't gotten the achievement for doing all the research yet. I did get the achievement for doing every possible autopsy and I've interrogated every single alien type that I've autopsied, so I don't think that's the issue. Is there some other research that can be unlocked if you build the right items? Can you take a cyberdisc alive or something? Because at the moment, I can't figure it out.

Ran into this myself, did a bit of googling, pretty sure I found the reason. There's a tech that seems like it'd be a bit tricky to run across the bits for. Spoiler in case you want it to be a surprise.

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Blaster bomb launcher requires bits salvaged from an alien battleship to research.

[Anarion]

Ran into this myself, did a bit of googling, pretty sure I found the reason. There's a tech that seems like it'd be a bit tricky to run across the bits for. Spoiler in case you want it to be a surprise.

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Blaster bomb launcher requires bits salvaged from an alien battleship to research.

Oh, that does exist. It's not much of a spoiler, since I played the original X-com and I was wondering if that was around or not. Cool.

[Muz]

Something I couldn't resist doing. Chryssalid-kicking...for GOODNESS!

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"Minsc and Boo stand ready."


I admit that Minsc needs a better nickname. Ideas?

[thorgrim29]

Is it just me or is the X-COM project a mix of S.H.E.I.L.D and the stargate program?

[Opperhapsen]

Man the men are really big.
Have anyone else noticed?
They're huge compared to the women.

It didn't bother me until I got my first female heavy trooper.

Is it just me or is the X-COM project a mix of S.H.E.I.L.D and the stargate program?

It's basically a more realistic S.H.I.E.L.D., yeah.
I totes wouldn't mind some assistance from Captain America though.

[shadow_archmagi]

Is it just me or is the X-COM project a mix of S.H.E.I.L.D and the stargate program?

If you'd like to describe it that way, I suppose you might? Don't really know enough about the two organizations to say whether combining them would be an apt way to give someone an impression of what X-COM is like.

If you're talking about what creative works influenced the design of xcom, then I'd say it's unlikely that stargate had much impact, as the earliest stargate film debuted on the same year as the original xcom game and the show didn't appear until three years later.

SHIELD, on the other hand, dates back to the 60s, so it's entirely possible that xcom was influenced by it.

EDIT: Yeah, squaddie bros are massive compared to squaddie womanas. They're like two feet wider with arms three times as thick.

[Tengu_temp]

Also an ethereal, whatever that is.

Have fun. In the past I thought Etherals in the original X-Com were hard, but they're even worse here.

[thorgrim29]

Oddly enough the first one wasn't so tough, but the second one, along with 2 muton elites. a bad position and horrible luck, TPK'd my B squad.

[Anarion]

Have fun. In the past I thought Etherals in the original X-Com were hard, but they're even worse here.

Have you mind-controlled one yet? I got the achievement last night and let me just say, the AI ethereals are holding back. The aoe they can use if you mind control them is a 14 damage blast that appears bigger than a rocket launcher explosion and leaves an area of difficult terrain for a turn.

[Opperhapsen]

EDIT: Yeah, squaddie bros are massive compared to squaddie womanas. They're like two feet wider with arms three times as thick.

The female heavy troopers are just about the size of their guns, the male ones look like they wouldn't even notice the recoil.

I'd get some steroid testing going for xcom.

[BRC]

The female heavy troopers are just about the size of their guns, the male ones look like they wouldn't even notice the recoil.

I'd get some steroid testing going for xcom.

This is XCOM, if they did steroid testing, it would be to make sure the soldiers were on enough of them.

[Anarion]

The female heavy troopers are just about the size of their guns, the male ones look like they wouldn't even notice the recoil.

I'd get some steroid testing going for xcom.

They're making direct brain implants and combat stims supplements. I'm pretty sure they're going to light up a steroid test like a Christmas tree.

edit: ninjas, ninjas everywhere.

[Opperhapsen]

This is XCOM, if they did steroid testing, it would be to make sure the soldiers were on enough of them.

Exactly, the women are clearly under-juicing.

[Zevox]

Ran into this myself, did a bit of googling, pretty sure I found the reason. There's a tech that seems like it'd be a bit tricky to run across the bits for. Spoiler in case you want it to be a surprise.

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Blaster bomb launcher requires bits salvaged from an alien battleship to research.

Pretty sure I just got that. Had a UFO sighting in Egypt that my talky-people felt the need to point out was larger than anything we'd seen so far. Had a complement of 23, mostly Mutons, Muton Elites, and Berserkers; plus two Drones, a Sectopod, and an Ethereal. Spread out over a fairly large ship - in fact, the ship was so large that, unlike every other one I've shot down, my team started already inside of it. Got a bit tense when the Ethereal mind-controlled one of my troops, but otherwise went very well, and I find the game telling me that I got two new research possibilities out of it.

Re: Ethereals in general - I haven't found them so tough so far, but perhaps that's because I've developed a strategy. After the first (which I got extremely lucky on, since it double-move walked right up next to one of my heavies and in clear view of my other troops, allowing me to weaken and then capture it with ease) I've been mind-controlling its Muton Elite troops with my best psionic character, causing it to spend its first turn blasting the mind-controlled unit with a powerful psionic attack. I'm betting that attack has a few turns of cooldown, which is saving me from taking any real damage fighting them. From there it's just been a matter of shooting it until it dies, which is only slightly annoying since it has that ability to reflect shots at random (with thankfully massively reduced damage potential if it does hit the firing unit - I've never taken more than 2 from those).

Haven't mind-controlled one, and I'm surprised you can. The couple of times I've checked to see what psionics would do to one, I have something like an 8% chance to affect it with Mind Fray. Figured that meant it had massive resistance to psionics, which would make sense to me.

Man the men are really big.
Have anyone else noticed?
They're huge compared to the women.

Yeah, I've commented on that before. Makes my Persona-based team look weird. The girls aren't too bad, but the guys don't look anything like the characters they're based on, even with the best re-coloring I can do.

Zevox

[NEO|Phyte]

So, for people asking about all-SHIV squads, I come bearing news.

Yes you can do it, yes it is viable.

[Anarion]

Re: Ethereals in general - I haven't found them so tough so far, but perhaps that's because I've developed a strategy. After the first (which I got extremely lucky on, since it double-move walked right up next to one of my heavies and in clear view of my other troops, allowing me to weaken and then capture it with ease) I've been mind-controlling its Muton Elite troops with my best psionic character, causing it to spend its first turn blasting the mind-controlled unit with a powerful psionic attack. I'm betting that attack has a few turns of cooldown, which is saving me from taking any real damage fighting them. From there it's just been a matter of shooting it until it dies, which is only slightly annoying since it has that ability to reflect shots at random (with thankfully massively reduced damage potential if it does hit the firing unit - I've never taken more than 2 from those).

Haven't mind-controlled one, and I'm surprised you can. The couple of times I've checked to see what psionics would do to one, I have something like an 8% chance to affect it with Mind Fray. Figured that meant it had massive resistance to psionics, which would make sense to me.

Mind controlling an ethereal is an achievement and it's really hard. The way I did it was to use two guys with psionics in several steps. First, both of them had psi-armor, so they were above 100 will. Then I used the inspiration ability to give them another 20 will. That gave me two psionic troops that were at 121 and 125 will for a two turn period. One of them then used mindfray on the ethereal, which had about a 45% hit chance, and getting that off reduces its will. I got lucky and hit. Then the other used mind control, which, after all that, had a 69% hit chance.

If you want to do it safely, I suggest a minimum of 3 psionic troops in psi armor and with inspiration up. 4-5 would be better.

Oh and Zevox, you're getting lucky. I had been doing the same Muton thing, but then one time the ethereal killed a muton and it counted as a friendly death, made one of my guys panic and shoot another party member in the back.

Edit: in case anyone is curious, here are the ethereal abilities

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psi lance: targeted attack. No cooldown, damage is variable based on whether the target makes a will check. Psi lance is affected by cover and has to actually hit the target to work. Deals somewhere between 6-14 damage.

mindfray: identical to the human psionics ability.

energy siphon: steal health from an ally to restore ethereal's hp. Never tried using it, so I'm not sure how much hp they steal. I think it's 6.

mind control: identical to the human psionics ability

vortex: massive area of effect psionic explosion that creates a one turn area of difficult terrain and deals ~14 damage (variable based on target's willpower). I haven't entered the difficult terrain, so I don't know if it deals damage or just slows or something. 5 turn cooldown.

Shot reflection: automatic, deals 2 damage to reflected target.