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

[Avilan the Grey]

Originally Posted by Cikomyr

They will move into cover as soon as you see them, denying you flanking bonuses.

You should sandwich them. Assault inside the UFO, others outside. Have the assault waiting near the closed door until your others guys trigger their reaction.

And then, destroy them from inside the ship.

Oh I know (about them moving to cover). I also have my two snipers outside halfway up the map still; they do not do much good inside the ship. So there will be crossfire.

[Badgerish]

Awww, would have made that attempt all the more dramatic!

[BRC]

Hey, any thoughts on Double tap vs In the Zone. On Normal Mode, In the Zone was amazing, but now that enemies are more durable and better at getting into cover (In Classic Mode), I'm thinking that Double Tap may be a better choice. Any thoughts?

[CreganTur]

I never took In the Zone- only had 1 sniper who got leveled that high. I loved Double Tap- it was great to take out 2 targets, double-shot a really heavy one, or get a second chance at a miss when you really need it.

The only bad hting about Double Tap is when you really need it the turn after you use it.

[Iskandar]

Situational. In the Zone paired with a Heavy or two with Shredder rockets works amazingly well on some maps.

[The Mad Fool]

RE: Telekinetic Field, I took this my first game and found its uses limited. While I love its area of effect and its massive defense boost, by the time you can access it, the aliens will just respond to it by throwing a grenade at you. Unless you've got four guys with it (thereby being able to activate it every turn), its use is situational at best. Better to give your Psychics MC and equip them Psi Armor + Mind Shield. And since most of your later fights involve Mutons, MC is phenomenal even if you don't pump their Will to ridiculous levels because Mutons have no Will whatsoever.

[YakYak]

Huh, maybe TK Field would work for creating a sort of mobile cover, for when you end turn out in the open.

[BRC]

Originally Posted by Iskandar

Situational. In the Zone paired with a Heavy or two with Shredder rockets works amazingly well on some maps.

That was my thinking, but Double Tap just seems a lot more versatile.

It should be noted that all my snipers are Squadsight. My previous love affair with Snap Shot ended the moment I discovered Gunslinger.

[Iskandar]

Originally Posted by BRC

That was my thinking, but Double Tap just seems a lot more versatile.

It should be noted that all my snipers are Squadsight. My previous love affair with Snap Shot ended the moment I discovered Gunslinger.

Gunslinger plus the pistol improvements from the Foundry makes Plasma Pistols hit as hard as Plasma RIFLES. Makes Snipers very, very versatile. Long sight lines? Squad Sight from all the way across the map. Confined quarters? The Sniper is happy following along in the back of the squad, providing mobile support.

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by BRC

Hey, any thoughts on Double tap vs In the Zone. On Normal Mode, In the Zone was amazing, but now that enemies are more durable and better at getting into cover (In Classic Mode), I'm thinking that Double Tap may be a better choice. Any thoughts?

Double tap is better because it means the sniper, on her own, is able to be godly.

In the zone can be good if your team always has 2+ heavies and you're blowing cover all the time. In the zone is not good on impossible because you can't kill a muton elite in one-shot even with a plasma sniper crit.

Originally Posted by Iskandar

Situational. In the Zone paired with a Heavy or two with Shredder rockets works amazingly well on some maps.

Yep, the multiple rockets are critical. Helps if the heavy also has two grenades for the larger ships with lots of enemies.

Originally Posted by YakYak

Huh, maybe TK Field would work for creating a sort of mobile cover, for when you end turn out in the open.

It's not good enough. Remember, TK field is exactly the same protection as the upgraded smoke grenades from a high-ranking support, and those, while helpful, are not trustworthy enough to use unless your troops are already in cover. The smoke grenades and potentially TK field are good if you end up in a bad spot and have to leave a couple guys in half cover, but even then, the aliens are going to have a 20-30% chance to hit you by the time you have those powers, and that's still way too much RNG for me.

In comparison, if you just MC an enemy, you've essentially eliminated two enemies or more in one turn. One via MC, a second that will shoot at the nearby "enemy" that's out of cover, and if the shot doesn't kill your MC, usually a second one as well.

[Reynard]

This is why I've been running around with 4 Gunslinger snipers, an Assault and a Support, all with laser pistols (and shotgun/rifle, for the assault/support) and every pistol upgrade so far.

X-Cops, X-Cops, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you?

[Jade Dragon]

Originally Posted by BRC

That was my thinking, but Double Tap just seems a lot more versatile.

It should be noted that all my snipers are Squadsight. My previous love affair with Snap Shot ended the moment I discovered Gunslinger.

Originally Posted by Iskandar

Gunslinger plus the pistol improvements from the Foundry makes Plasma Pistols hit as hard as Plasma RIFLES. Makes Snipers very, very versatile. Long sight lines? Squad Sight from all the way across the map. Confined quarters? The Sniper is happy following along in the back of the squad, providing mobile support.

Even without Gunslinger, it still hits pretty hard thanks to Improved Pistol III. I might keep one guy with Damn Good Ground, but once he gets to that point, hold him back at base and bring your Gunslinger until you get to Archangel Armor, which makes Squadsight Snipers supremely strong.

---

Something else I found out. Your troops with Archangel Armor can stay in the air indefinitely, without wasting fuel, until they move. Your Squadsight Sniper can spend one fuel point getting up into the air, and then stay there the rest of the mission, firing at will. Each move costs a fuel point, not each turn.

[CreganTur]

Personally, I'm not a fan of Archangel armor. Even with squad sight it seemed like she didn't have aim on any distant targets.

I much prefer Ghost armor.

[Gorgondantess]

A question for all you X-Com fans out there:
I've been playing Enemy Unknown. It's pretty good, but I'd like to look into the older games. Which would you recommend and why?

[DaedalusMkV]

Originally Posted by Gorgondantess

A question for all you X-Com fans out there:
I've been playing Enemy Unknown. It's pretty good, but I'd like to look into the older games. Which would you recommend and why?

X-Com. Or UFO: Enemy Unknown. Whichever you prefer. It's by far the best of the bunch. Terror from the Deep is just inferior, rage-inducingly hard X-Com with more bugs in the ocean. Apocalypse makes a lot of changes, but fiddles with the base game a lot, only give it a shot if you really liked the first game and want more. Interceptor I never played, and if you ever feel an urge to play Enforcer you should probably just save yourself the pain and play Doom 2 instead.

[CreganTur]

The originals are on Steam- I'd buy from there so you don't have to fiddle with DOS Box or any processor fiddling add-ons which are generally required to get the original version of the game to work.

[Jade Dragon]

Originally Posted by Gorgondantess

A question for all you X-Com fans out there:
I've been playing Enemy Unknown. It's pretty good, but I'd like to look into the older games. Which would you recommend and why?

Whatever you do, find patches.

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by CreganTur

Personally, I'm not a fan of Archangel armor. Even with squad sight it seemed like she didn't have aim on any distant targets.

I much prefer Ghost armor.

I've converted to flight armor for snipers only. What does ghost armor actually do for a sniper? You shouldn't be moving your snipers on a turn where you expect to encounter aliens, and even if a random patrol comes unexpectedly, your sniper should be in back and not get shot at. So, effectively ghost armor is a 100% crit chance 4 times per fight. But snipers already get headshot for their crits, and later on the scope upgrade and their natural stats usually mean an extremely high crit chance anyway, generally 75%+ on most targets.

Being airborne, on the other hand, means the 20% hit chance bonus from high ground. If your sniper also has damn good ground, that's another 10%. That's enough to have a good chance at hitting enemies even in hard cover, and guarantees hits on the enemies like sectopods and ethereals that have high natural defense.

Originally Posted by Gorgondantess

A question for all you X-Com fans out there:
I've been playing Enemy Unknown. It's pretty good, but I'd like to look into the older games. Which would you recommend and why?

The original UFO: Enemy unknown, a.k.a. X-Com: UFO defense. It's the best of the series, and in some ways a better game than the new one.

[Gorgondantess]

Hmmm. Is the new one a remake of the original? Would it be pointless to play the original, having played the new one?

[Krade]

They are sufficiently different that I wouldn't say there's no point in playing the original.

However, as much as I love it, the original is horribly dated. There is no hand holding tutorial. The on-mission buttons have somewhat confusing heiroglyphs and no words anywhere saying what they do.

The aliens absolutely will shoot at you without you being able to see them. The one thing you NEVER want to see is an alien grenade fly at you because they were MUCH stronger in the original. And whether or not a soldier (or alien) takes a reaction shot is based entirely on how many time units they have and also thier Reactions stat.

Also, get electroflares as soon as you start a new game. It being dark on a mission actually effects how far you can see and doesn't effect the aliens' sight. Every soldier should have an electroflare before you go on your first mission.

There's lots of other things I probably should mention, but if I say much more you'll never want to play it.

[The Mad Fool]

Originally Posted by Gorgondantess

Hmmm. Is the new one a remake of the original? Would it be pointless to play the original, having played the new one?

Firaxis calls it a "reimagining" of the original game, which is a pretty apt term. I don't think it'd be pointless to play the original, as there are significant differences between them. They're still different games, even if built upon the same idea.

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by Gorgondantess

Hmmm. Is the new one a remake of the original? Would it be pointless to play the original, having played the new one?

Let me add to the chorus of "definitely not pointless." The original is much more detailed. Worldwide panic is based on a rather complex system, the alien craft go on several different types of missions, you can shoot down a terror ship before it arrives to avoid the terror attack, there can be more than one alien base, and soldiers movement and attacks are much more detailed and fully under your control.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Originally Posted by Krade

They are sufficiently different that I wouldn't say there's no point in playing the original.

However, as much as I love it, the original is horribly dated. There is no hand holding tutorial. The on-mission buttons have somewhat confusing heiroglyphs and no words anywhere saying what they do.

The aliens absolutely will shoot at you without you being able to see them. The one thing you NEVER want to see is an alien grenade fly at you because they were MUCH stronger in the original. And whether or not a soldier (or alien) takes a reaction shot is based entirely on how many time units they have and also thier Reactions stat.

Also, get electroflares as soon as you start a new game. It being dark on a mission actually effects how far you can see and doesn't effect the aliens' sight. Every soldier should have an electroflare before you go on your first mission.

There's lots of other things I probably should mention, but if I say much more you'll never want to play it.

This. So much this. I've been playing the Linux port of the original... UFO: Alien Invasion. It brings a whole new meaning to the term 'Nintendo Hard'.

As a suggestion... if you can beat the game on Ironman Classic. If you can beat it on Impossible difficulty. Maybe then you've effectively gone through the first mission tutorial which isn't included.

[thorgrim29]

ironman classic, done. just took me 14 tries....

[tyckspoon]

Originally Posted by Krade

Also, get electroflares as soon as you start a new game. It being dark on a mission actually effects how far you can see and doesn't effect the aliens' sight. Every soldier should have an electroflare before you go on your first mission.

I preferred just refusing to go on night missions; most things will stay on the map long enough that you can wait for daytime (or at least wait until it will be daytime by the time your Skyranger gets there.)

The biggest difference between the new and old versions of X-Com, IMO, is the ready available of explosives. New X-Com gives you one grenade per soldier, unless you want them carrying a different item in which case it's 0. Old X-Com let you pack out like a dozen 'nades per soldier if you wanted them, as well as being much less stingy with high explosives (you could put three-five rocket-grade 'grenades' on a bombing specialist if you wanted, and you *started* the game with access to a rocket tank that carried 8 rockets..) There was no concern about whether a situation warranted spending one of your explosives; if something was in your way, exploding it until it wasn't was almost always a reasonable solution.

[Jade Dragon]

Originally Posted by tyckspoon

I preferred just refusing to go on night missions; most things will stay on the map long enough that you can wait for daytime (or at least wait until it will be daytime by the time your Skyranger gets there.)

The biggest difference between the new and old versions of X-Com, IMO, is the ready available of explosives. New X-Com gives you one grenade per soldier, unless you want them carrying a different item in which case it's 0. Old X-Com let you pack out like a dozen 'nades per soldier if you wanted them, as well as being much less stingy with high explosives (you could put three-five rocket-grade 'grenades' on a bombing specialist if you wanted, and you *started* the game with access to a rocket tank that carried 8 rockets..) There was no concern about whether a situation warranted spending one of your explosives; if something was in your way, exploding it until it wasn't was almost always a reasonable solution.

Someone (it might've been you) mentioned wayyyyy upthread that they never really got decimated by Chryssalids because they preferred to scout with explosives and tanks.

I think I'll pick up the original when I get my new rig. Anyone care to point me in the way of good patches?

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by tyckspoon

I preferred just refusing to go on night missions; most things will stay on the map long enough that you can wait for daytime (or at least wait until it will be daytime by the time your Skyranger gets there.)

The biggest difference between the new and old versions of X-Com, IMO, is the ready available of explosives. New X-Com gives you one grenade per soldier, unless you want them carrying a different item in which case it's 0. Old X-Com let you pack out like a dozen 'nades per soldier if you wanted them, as well as being much less stingy with high explosives (you could put three-five rocket-grade 'grenades' on a bombing specialist if you wanted, and you *started* the game with access to a rocket tank that carried 8 rockets..) There was no concern about whether a situation warranted spending one of your explosives; if something was in your way, exploding it until it wasn't was almost always a reasonable solution.

You have to mention as well that it was harder to explode a lot of things. It's true that taking out a farmhouse was a total non-issue and there really wasn't any reason to storm a building, but UFO walls and interiors were much stronger in the original. The only weapons that could take out UFO interior walls were the blaster launcher and the heavy plasma, and the heavy plasma would only do it once every few shots, which made it somewhat impractical due to limited ammo. Outer UFO walls were blaster launcher only.

To be sure, the blaster launcher made most of the game a little silly since you could blow a hole in the room and then send a bomb inside to blow out the interior, but that took a long time to get, and in the meantime you had to just wait and storm UFOs the old-fashioned way.

Originally Posted by Jade Dragon

Someone (it might've been you) mentioned wayyyyy upthread that they never really got decimated by Chryssalids because they preferred to scout with explosives and tanks.

Yeah I think Chrysalids weren't as scary in the original. They could still get you by surprise though because they were extremely fast.

[Triaxx]

Interceptor is actually a fantastic game. I really enjoy playing it even now. It's a space combat game, rather than a tactical turn-based. It's hilarious if you're not adverse to pop-culture gags.

The actual game is actually very enjoyable, if at times a little frustrating. Plus if all you want is space combat, there's a combat simulator play with.

Honestly, not a lot of people seemed to like it, but it's my favorite.

[KillianHawkeye]

Okay, I shot down a battleship but I didn't get the achievement. Got the overseer already, too. Any guesses at to what ships I may be missing? Is there any way for me to see what I've shot down already? I need a checklist, darnit!

[The Mad Fool]

There are five generic UFOs in the game:
Small Scout
Large Scout
Abductor
Supply Barge
Battleship

In addition, there are two plot UFOs:
The Overseer Ship
The Temple Ship

However, you can't shoot down the Temple Ship, so there are six UFOs that can be shot down.

It's more or less impossible that you haven't shot down the scouts, due to how prolific they are, and I know you've shot down the Battleship and Overseer Ship. So what you're probably missing is either an Abductor or Supply Barge. I'd say it's most likely the Abductor you're missing, since Supply Barges get pretty common later in the game.