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

[GloatingSwine]

I've been worrying that my plot progress might be outpacing my resources. Due to a bit of a satellite gap in the early months, I've had to scrimp on building a lot of good stuff... But now that I've got 4-5 firestorms with plasma cannons built, it's a little easier. Can get to working on Titan armor and heavy plasmas all around!

Total waste. At least on Normal. The only things that the standard interceptor with a plasma cannon can't take out are that one story UFO and battleships. Everything else is trivial and interceptors are cheap.

Concentrate on satellites first, ground forces second, Firestorms last.

Hell, I only spam built Firestorms at the end of the game because I didn't have anything else to do with my infinite quantities of money. Most of the game it was one interceptor per continent with plasma and that shot down everything ever except battleships, and they appear so late you'll have infinite stuff to deal with them.

[Surrealistik]

A full team of Sectoid Commanders and/or Heavy Floaters and Sectoid filler (great scouts/suppression and niche mind meld) is master race in MP 10k (maybe with a Sniper).

Chryssalids are disappointingly UP. They need to deal significantly more damage and implant even when they don't kill. They also should zombify alien biologicals. 3k for what little they offer is a joke; totally overcosted.

Mutons I dislike. Too psi-vulnerable, especially for their cost. Psi teams will turn these investments into expensive liabilities.

[BRC]

Sure, big whoop you have an uber-ethereal. I have blaster launchers. This is not a discussion.

This is wonderful, and I may have to sig it.


I just beat the game and

Spoiler

Show

Yes, they kind of dropped a lot on us at the end, but I didn't buy XCOM for the deep and insightful storytelling.
Although the behavior of the Ethereals was kind of strange.

So If I understand it.

The Etherals think it's their job to find and/or build the next race of super psychics. They go around the galaxy, but all they get is failure, until they come to earth. They send their previous projects down to gather up Humans for testing (The Abductions). They then proceed to start their normal routine of genemodding and cybernetic implants, until the upstart locals actually fight back and develop their own psychics first.

Then, they're all giddy with glee, up until the moment when the humans reach the end of the temple ship and start shooting at them. At which point they're all "BUT WE WERE GOING TO BE BROOOOOOOOOOOS".
Then you kill them (with a sniper shot and a blast from one of their own bodyguards, who then jumped on his own grenade), and their ship starts to turn into a black hole for some reason, allowing for the big, showy finale.

And now to begin my Classic playthrough. Things to do

1: Start in Africa, for that sweet, sweet +30% monthly cash bonus.
2: Focus on getting some satellites ready early on.
3: Live-Capture enough Thin Men to outfit a squad with Light Plasma rifles, thus saving the alloys and money I previously spent building Lasers (Which is kind of a shame, nothing says "XCOM" like a bunch of dudes with laser rifles)

[Anarion]

This is because the game stores what the result was even if you reload the save, in order to prevent exactly what you tried. Also, I played on Normal, and I didn't have inaccuracy issues nearly as bad as what you say. Are you sure it isn't some sort of bug?

That's not quite right, though it's very close. As far as I can tell, what the game stores is a set of, essentially, dice rolls in order. This means that saving and reloading won't change your result, but saving and reloading and reordering your actions might change the result. For example, let's say that your next dice roll was a 10 on a d%, meaning that only someone with 90%+ hit would score a hit on that roll. If you had a heavy fire, miss, and the reload and have a sniper with 95% hit rate shoot first, then the sniper will hit. If your next stored dice roll is higher, the heavy could also hit. So reloading to alter the sequence of actions can change your result sometimes.

And now to begin my Classic playthrough. Things to do

1: Start in Africa, for that sweet, sweet +30% monthly cash bonus.
2: Focus on getting some satellites ready early on.
3: Live-Capture enough Thin Men to outfit a squad with Light Plasma rifles, thus saving the alloys and money I previously spent building Lasers (Which is kind of a shame, nothing says "XCOM" like a bunch of dudes with laser rifles)

I've converted to Asia being better. You start with only 1 satellite in classic, so the Africa bonus doesn't really kick in compared to getting squad size and the officer training school that much faster. Also, I think thin men have plasma pistols early on, not rifles.

[thorgrim29]

Do you need to research beam weapons to get the light plasma research?

[NEO|Phyte]

Do you need to research beam weapons to get the light plasma research?

no, you can skip lasers entirely if you like. Just need to loot plasma weapons to unlock the research for them.

[Zanfib]

Do you need to research beam weapons to get the light plasma research?

No.

Spoiler

Show

[Zevox]

That's not quite right, though it's very close. As far as I can tell, what the game stores is a set of, essentially, dice rolls in order. This means that saving and reloading won't change your result, but saving and reloading and reordering your actions might change the result. For example, let's say that your next dice roll was a 10 on a d%, meaning that only someone with 90%+ hit would score a hit on that roll. If you had a heavy fire, miss, and the reload and have a sniper with 95% hit rate shoot first, then the sniper will hit. If your next stored dice roll is higher, the heavy could also hit. So reloading to alter the sequence of actions can change your result sometimes.

Fire Emblem games do the same thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if this game does exactly that as well. Especially since this one is much more generous with allowing in-battle saves than Fire Emblem is.

Zevox

[shadow_archmagi]

Welp. Sectopods are problematic. Fortunately I had a big enough lead that I can afford to soak some losses and start training from rookies again.

[BRC]

Welp. Sectopods are problematic. Fortunately I had a big enough lead that I can afford to soak some losses and start training from rookies again.

Yeah, Sectopods are nasty. Not only do they have one of the most powerful attacks in the game, they get to do it twice a turn, and have a pile of hitpoints. They're the reason I give basically every Heavy I have HEAT ammo.

[Anarion]

Heavy plasma+heat ammo+ghost armor cloak will 1-shot a sectopod. I'm willing to take a risk and say that it always works, though I'm sure I'll be proven wrong by some corner case.

[Zevox]

Welp. Sectopods are problematic. Fortunately I had a big enough lead that I can afford to soak some losses and start training from rookies again.

Sectopods are likely the most difficult enemy in the game, all told. AoE normal attack that hits hard, the equivalent of Bulletstorm allowing them to fire twice per turn, an area-missile-bombardment, the highest health of anything in the game, and they always seem to be on overwatch with that little green laser of theirs.

Big things to remember when fighting them:
- Suppress. Sectopods rarely fall in one round, especially if there are other things around that you may want to take out because they fall so much faster, and making it harder for them to hit you makes a big difference.
- Rockets. They're basically guaranteed to hit, do good damage, and could take out other nearby things. (Grenades could serve the same role, but they have less range and damage, so they may not be the best choice.) Shredder Rockets also increase damage taken from other sources afterward. They're also affected by the next point...
- HEAT Ammo. Between Cyberdisks and Sectopods, every Heavy should have this. Double damage to these things, especially Sectopods, makes a huge difference.

Zevox

[BRC]

Rockets also have the advantage of killing any Drones buzzing around the Sectopod.

[Zevox]

Things are largely progressing well with my Iron Man file. I've added a few new characters - Hsien-Ko (Support), Mike Haggar (Heavy), and She-Hulk (Heavy), bringing me to two of each class plus a third Heavy now. I actually only have one recruit left that I haven't gotten a class to, so I'll have to begin hiring new ones soon.

I've had no further casualties so far, though I've only done a couple of abductions and a couple of UFO interceptions, so nothing too hard. Had a fight at that gas station map where I was scared out of my wits that one of the aliens would hit something explosive with a missed shot, though. Fortunately, that mission had only four enemies, so I mopped it up quickly.

I'm not as enthusiastic about the panic levels, however. Because the Council hasn't been giving me mission requests, I haven't been getting chances to lower panic without raising it except when I launch new satellites. The end result is that I now have two countries at 4 panic (India and Argentina), and plenty more at 3 (mostly in Asia, a couple in Europe, plus South Africa). I've got another satellite in production which will be ready soon, and I'll put that over Argentina (since it's at 4, and I already have one over Brazil, so that'll get me the continent bonus for South America - which is good, since that's really only decent if you pick it up early). Still leaves me very worried for Asia though, and none too comfortable with the number of other 3-panic nations.

I think I've encountered a couple of bugs too, both quite annoying. One has to do with time spent recovering from wounds. Doctor Doom suffered a 4-damage hit in one mission, but he was wearing a nano-fiber vest, so only 2 of that should've counted towards his recovery time. Instead he got 13 days, which is more what you get when you're left with only a point or two of health. Really not sure how that works.

The other is that Deadpool picked up Squadsight, but it didn't appear to be working in the mission I took him on afterward. I know for a fact that there was at least one instance where it should have been giving him a shot but wasn't, and I suspect there were more, as there were a few instances where I thought he should, but was just iffy enough on line-of-effect to be uncertain. Thankfully, Morrigan's Squadsight is working fine. Hopefully it was a one-mission thing with Deadpool too, but I'm worried that it may not be.

Zevox

[DaedalusMkV]

Well, I have to say I've been enjoying this game immensely. It does occasionally get a little bit repetitive, especially when you're doing one of the really big missions (Supply ship, oh how I despise your huge, empty rooms with endless blind corners), but it's pretty much perfect for what it's supposed to do. I'm just before the final mission on my main playthrough, and my team is now an unstoppable engine of destruction. Alfred Bester, my Psi-armoured Psi-cop is death incarnate, and his backup squad of four other psychics of varying roles and my sniper Archangel (named her before getting the armour, was impressed when it popped up) pretty much mow down everything in their path. The only things that even worry me at all anymore are Sectopods and very lucky Berzerkers (IE, the ones that laugh at your 80% hit rate and survive your last shot with one HP), everything else is pretty much a joke. Which matches up with the original X-com's difficulty curve once you get a whole squad of high-end psychics, so whatever. At this point I only have three issues with the game:
1: No shooting mind-controlled aliens? Bad. The first time I mind-controlled an enemy I was trying to use it to capture him for his Heavy Plasma. Needless to say, one of my guys wound up getting shot and I was very frustrated.
2: Is it just me, or are Snipers without Squadsight completely useless? I've only managed to get two Snipers up to that point, the rest of them wind up dead to lucky alien shots while I try vainly to get them to take a shot, and when they do shoot they usually miss.
3: Armour customization as a preorder "bonus". My soldiers are all stuck with default colouring and can never have helmets, no matter what, even when Titan Armour looks absolutely terrible without one. There is nothing I can do about this. It irks and frustrates me. Some customization options for pre-orders (a cool-looking helmet, fancy decals, Guile hair, etc), I'd have no problem with. Cutting out what is (to me) a pretty important part of the system (as-in, 90% of the character model) for everyone who waits until after the game actually comes out to buy it? Not cool, 2k. Not cool at all.

[mistformsquirrl]

I was confused/annoyed about that last point too DaedalusMkV - It seems to me almost like ti was originally part of the system, and then they changed it to a preorder bonus later because "You gotta have a preorder bonus!".

I say this as someone who DID p reorder and has the armor customization option.

That said, i don't mind Titan without a helmet. I had all my male soldiers wearing helmets until the last mission when I finally decided to give everyone a little more personality, being as it was portrayed as very likely a suicide mission. I liked them a lot better sans-helmets once I finally did it.

I'm kinda hoping some of the DLC adds more armor decoration options though* - there's no decoration option for Titan armor for one, and the color selection is kind of weak - 32 presets; many of which are very very similar.

----

I've also started - and now restarted - a Classic Ironman game. I had to restart because my second and third missions in a row were wipes >.< I noticed soldiers are 15 Credits each on Classic rather than 10 too >.< So I couldn't replace my losses.

My new plan is to be VERY liberal with grenades for the first few missions, and then build a SHIV ASAP and use that as my pointmachine. I figure if a SHIV dies, oh well; if a soldier dies, especially an experienced one... that's an issue ><

Not having that OTS starting out is a problem too ><

*For everyone, not just preorder holders.

[Arbane]

I just beat the game (on Normal).

Spoiler

Show

Much to my amusement, the Volunteer who died to save the world was named Jesus. (Last name Sanchez.)

He was the only survivor of the tutorial mission. Does that character always ping for psi-powers if they live long enough to get tested?

And wow, that last fight was nasty. Next time, I bring tinfoil hats for everyone. And I strongly suspect the aliens' ranting in the last mission was setting up a sequel...

I just beat the game and

Spoiler

Show

Yes, they kind of dropped a lot on us at the end, but I didn't buy XCOM for the deep and insightful storytelling.
Although the behavior of the Ethereals was kind of strange.

So If I understand it.

The Etherals think it's their job to find and/or build the next race of super psychics. They go around the galaxy, but all they get is failure, until they come to earth. They send their previous projects down to gather up Humans for testing (The Abductions). They then proceed to start their normal routine of genemodding and cybernetic implants, until the upstart locals actually fight back and develop their own psychics first.

Then, they're all giddy with glee, up until the moment when the humans reach the end of the temple ship and start shooting at them. At which point they're all "BUT WE WERE GOING TO BE BROOOOOOOOOOOS".
Then you kill them (with a sniper shot and a blast from one of their own bodyguards, who then jumped on his own grenade), and their ship starts to turn into a black hole for some reason, allowing for the big, showy finale.

Yeah, I think

Spoiler

Show

The Ethereals are trying to be a much-less-benevolent version of the Overlords from Childhood's End. I think those hologram-icons you see on the bridge that look like two-armed Ethereals are the species that uplifted them in the first place, then ascended to a higher plane of existence. For whatever reason, the Ethereals can't manage that ascension themselves, so they're desperate to find or make someone who can.

That's my guess, anyway.

[Debe2233]

About the ending... (spoilers)

Spoiler

Show

I was a bit… ok a lot, confused by the ending.

I watch my PSI-GUY head into this room I’ve built with the glowy thing, the room for some unknown reason appears to be filled with ankle depth water but why I’m not sure… unless the ankle deep water has some kind of effect, does it? Because if not why did the engineers obviously charge me extra to have a water feature in a room that I’m apparently going to use once?
My PSI-GUY heads over and prods the glowey thing and some alien tells him we have succeeded where they failed… errrr….aaaalright.

Then off to assault the temple ship!

Wait… what? Why? Why suddenly now is the best time?… we prodding the orb, had an alien pat us on the back and suddenly we want to take on the big alien mothership as the logical next step? Will someone please expl.. oh we’re here already… they just… let us land?

And now we’re being told about what the aliens are for and why they’re here… so the Ethereals… want us to win? No the Uber-Ethereal is attacking us… well I’ll plug him with some sniper double-taps then, maybe it’s a test?

Nope… Uber-Ethereal disappears with his buddies telling with a final taunt that vaguely sounds like “I’ll get you next time Gadget…. Neeeext tiiiiiime!!!”

And then we find that the alien glowey orb on the ship is now a black hole…. Maybe water features stop black holes?... I hope so because if not I have a particularly deadly twin ornament now sitting in the XCOM basement.

Then PSI-GUY sacrifices himself with his new found super powers and rescues the entire planet and everything explodes… then you get a report card with a smiley face.

The ending isn’t awful it could just use a bit more talky bits between poking the glowey thing and landing on the temple ship imo.

[shadow_archmagi]

Ugh. I had a Heavy Plasma with HEAT try to take to take down a Sectopod. Should've been able to drop it in two hits or so. Of course, there was no decent cover anywhere near the damn thing, so he had to shoot from far away. He missed every shot for three or four turns. At the same time, when my assault tried to flank, she trigged four elite Mutons.

R.I.P. that squad

[Brumski]

As for differences in difficulties, Normal and below the aliens are capped by your progression, Classic and up they progress whether you're ready for it or not.

Ha, that would explain why in my second playthrough the sectoids have been in missions for much longer. I've been concentrating this time on getting satellites and workshops built, last time I had three labs next to each other pretty quick, instead.

Funny thing with the psionics, when you have to have a soldier with strong enough will to progress the plot (anyone know that exact number), my strongest was 78, and that wasn't good enough. So I got the Iron Will upgrade and was getting ready to try and power-level some squaddies, figured I'd take my two bad-ass psionics and 4 newbies. In outfitting my two psionics I built my first psi-armor, equipped it and now I can progress the plot. Putting on armor to reach the appropriate will seems, idk, like I was cheating, or it was a cop-out or something. I assumed the will score would have to be innate.

Anyway loads of fun.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Ending Spoiler.

Spoiler

Show

It seems to me, they go around trying to make some super race because they themselves are failures of some previous race. They want strong body like the Muton, but strong psychic powers like themselves. Thin Men and Sectoids aren't really good enough at any of it. Then along comes Volunteer™ who is exactly what they want. Whats that? They are attacking us? Well lets try to reason with the invaders so they'll stop attacking. They won't stop? Well just kill them. We have a proof of concept prototype so we can just make more. Oh bugger, the load bearing boss is dead.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Ha, that would explain why in my second playthrough the sectoids have been in missions for much longer. I've been concentrating this time on getting satellites and workshops built, last time I had three labs next to each other pretty quick, instead.

Funny thing with the psionics, when you have to have a soldier with strong enough will to progress the plot (anyone know that exact number), my strongest was 78, and that wasn't good enough. So I got the Iron Will upgrade and was getting ready to try and power-level some squaddies, figured I'd take my two bad-ass psionics and 4 newbies. In outfitting my two psionics I built my first psi-armor, equipped it and now I can progress the plot. Putting on armor to reach the appropriate will seems, idk, like I was cheating, or it was a cop-out or something. I assumed the will score would have to be innate.

Anyway loads of fun.

There is no "strong enough" psychic. Just any psychic with a psi suit will trigger then end of game mission.

[BRC]

I've started my classic playthough, for some reason under "build Facilities" it will only let me build power generators and Sattelite Uplinks. I took a Cash bonus for my first abduction mission in hopes of getting my Officer Training School up and running.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I've started my classic playthough, for some reason under "build Facilities" it will only let me build power generators and Sattelite Uplinks. I took a Cash bonus for my first abduction mission in hopes of getting my Officer Training School up and running.

You need someone at least a sergeant before you can build OCS.

[BRC]

You need someone at least a sergeant before you can build OCS.

What about labs and workshops?

[Iskandar]

What about labs and workshops?

At least 6 scientists and engineers, respectively

[SlyGuyMcFly]

At least 6 scientists and engineers, respectively

Making it pretty much essential to take the engineer reward from your first round of Abductions, since you need to build a Workshop before you can get a second Satellite thingy (needs 10 engineers) online by the time the first Council report comes in with all that sweet cash.

[Iskandar]

Making it pretty much essential to take the engineer reward from your first round of Abductions, since you need to build a Workshop before you can get a second Satellite thingy (needs 10 engineers) online by the time the first Council report comes in with all that sweet cash.

Oddly enough, in my LP, it is May, I have almost 30 engineers, and no workshops. I got lucky with rewards, I think.

[tensai_oni]

It took me about 20 failed tries, but eventually - behold!

Spoiler

Show

Steam achievements to confirm

[BRC]

It took me about 20 failed tries, but eventually - behold!

Spoiler

Show

Steam achievements to confirm

Having just started a Classic game with shameless save-scumming, you sir are a god among men.