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I only need to save 1? That makes things much easier, I assumed the panic rating would sink me if I let more than half die or something.
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Mar 31, 2013 18:36
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Azran posted:I'd love to see a difficulty in-between Classic and Normal. Normal is way too easy, while in Classic the enemy aliens are professional sharpshooters. Just had a horrible mission where my men would constantly miss on %77 and would get picked off by Thin Men while under Hunker Down. On classic, enemies get +10 to base on top of the +10 the light plasma pistols give, which is why the early game with sectoids and thin men is so hard. I edited whichever .ini contained that bonus to remove it, effectively making my own "normic" difficulty. It's a pretty good sweet spot for me.
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Mar 31, 2013 18:45
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Orgophlax posted:On classic, enemies get +10 to base on top of the +10 the light plasma pistols give, which is why the early game with sectoids and thin men is so hard. I edited whichever .ini contained that bonus to remove it, effectively making my own "normic" difficulty. It's a pretty good sweet spot for me. immortal flow posted:I only need to save 1? That makes things much easier, I assumed the panic rating would sink me if I let more than half die or something.
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Mar 31, 2013 18:51
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Ravenfood posted:and I think gets applied continent-wide if you get an "excellent" rating on civilians saved. This is definitely true on Normal, can't speak for classic and impossible though.
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Mar 31, 2013 19:38
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I call this "Disappointment - A Three Part Tale"
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Mar 31, 2013 22:41
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I just finished my first game on Classic and did relatively well. Two countries left because I spaced on building enough satellites early on. I only lost a handful of soldiers since I'd keep a save for each mission and reload if I misclicked or if I got the teleportating bug. By the end I was loving to run with two Assaults, a combat medic Support, a rocketeer/robot killing Heavy, and a couple Snipers. Unfortunately I tried to make a Snapshot/ITZ Sniper as a kind of pseudo-Assault but she ended up being just useless so I benched her for a SHIV for the latter part of the game. I can't decide if I want to try Classic Ironman or Impossible next. I imagine both will be frustrating as hell, though. Beaglerush's videos make Impossible in general look like a chore of skirting around the maps slowly, but Ironman with the teleporting bug seems equally annoying.
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Apr 1, 2013 00:39
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Classic Ironman is the best mode really. With good habits, it'll never feel that unfair but there's still the unpredictable element so you might have some setbacks but very little can actually kill your game.
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Apr 1, 2013 00:42
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After playing Impossible, going back to Classic is like playing on Easy.
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Apr 1, 2013 00:45
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Anyone want to weigh in on squad tactics and movement? I've read the wiki's articles and the post about overwatch but if anyone wants to come in I'd love to seer what you have to say.
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Apr 1, 2013 01:58
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vulturesrow posted:Anyone want to weigh in on squad tactics and movement? I've read the wiki's articles and the post about overwatch but if anyone wants to come in I'd love to seer what you have to say. * Never end your turn or move your last soldier in a way that would cause aliens to be revealed. * Related, once you reveal some aliens, try to finish them all off before revealing more aliens. But sometimes revealing more cannot be avoided, so prepare to act defensively in that case. * Full cover is much better than half-cover. Advance to full cover if possible, and be wary of only half-cover being available. * Pay attention to items that explode, like vehicles (any vehicle, including tanks). If alien-shots hit those cars in the engine block then you may need to move your troops to keep them alive. * Grenades are your most effective weapon in the early-game. I try to cycle my forward soldiers so that whoever is scouting and revealing new terrain has a grenade. Then before he throws it I make sure I have troops positioned that have line-of-sight on any remaining aliens in case the grenade does not finish them all off (if the situation allows this). * On terror missions the priorities should be: 1) Keep your troops from being over-extended or overwhelmed 2) Kill the aliens 3) Save civilians (at least one) If you find a safe opportunity to rescue a civilian then by all means do so, as that's one less civvie being converted into an alien. * On larger VIP escort maps, try to stick to one edge of the map. That way you limit your incoming attackers. However, an errant thin-man can still drop in the middle of your group, so make sure you have med-kits on the mission to cure any poison taken by the VIP. * This is a small thing, but I replace the shotgun on my starting assault soldier with a rifle. I don't believe you want to run-and-gun with shotguns until you get Ghost Armor and the Alloy Cannon shotgun.
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Apr 1, 2013 02:49
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The safest tactic I use, when available, is a slow overwatch retreat. You'll see beagle doing it in his videos a lot as its basically the only way to get through some of the early missions on ironman impossible. The principle is that on impossible if you are ever in a straight up firefight with aliens, you're at a disadvantage - even if all your guys are full cover and the aliens are all half cover, if you take that fight on a regular basis you will eventually lose. There are just too many aliens and your chance of taking a hit behind full cover is still too high. So you overwatch retreat - when you first scout enemies, if any of your guys can still be seen by them, they need to move back to full cover and overwatch. Do this with all your guys and always wait for the enemy to come to you, preferably with one or two of your units moving toward a flank. Sometimes it takes a few turns but eventually they will come towards you. You'll miss a lot of shots but you'll also get a few hits, and those free hits are what really tip the balance in your favor. It also allows you to catch the enemy in vulnerable positions as opposed to advancing on solid positions. Unfortunately you can't do this tactic all that often as there just isn't a lot of full cover and sometimes you're already at the edge of the map.
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Apr 1, 2013 03:01
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nnnotime posted:* This is a small thing, but I replace the shotgun on my starting assault soldier with a rifle. I don't believe you want to run-and-gun with shotguns until you get Ghost Armor and the Alloy Cannon shotgun.
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Apr 1, 2013 03:02
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Ravenfood posted:I disagree. Sometimes you really, really need to take out a Thin Man and don't have two grenades to do it. A shotgunner, on the other hand, will do nicely. Once you get laser rifles, I switch over to rifle-based assaults and then switch back once I get alloy cannons. Early game it seems like shotgunners are rarely useful ( as you aren't being bum rushed by dozens of mutons)but when they are they're life saving. I always like to have at least one dedicated shotgunner(or upgraded equivalent) on every mission.
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Apr 1, 2013 03:11
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Ravenfood posted:I disagree. Sometimes you really, really need to take out a Thin Man and don't have two grenades to do it. A shotgunner, on the other hand, will do nicely. Once you get laser rifles, I switch over to rifle-based assaults and then switch back once I get alloy cannons.
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Apr 1, 2013 03:16
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nnnotime posted:* This is a small thing, but I replace the shotgun on my starting assault soldier with a rifle. I don't believe you want to run-and-gun with shotguns until you get Ghost Armor and the Alloy Cannon shotgun. I agree with switching over the starting shotgun for a rifle at the start, but I wouldn't necessarily put off run-and-gunning until the endgame equipment. Assaults who've reached Sergeant become dramatically more capable of CQB (either through breaking enemy overwatch, which is my personal choice, or increasing the already significant close range crit chance). Scatter lasers, as well as hitting the sweet spot damage threshold for one-shotting most early-mid enemies, also have a longer engagement distance than the first shotgun. There's still some considerations when to use run-and-gun, however: 1) it's safer to use it on the last enemy in a group so your assault isn't left exposed at the end of the turn 2) don't use if it there's huge chunks of uncharted territory around the enemy, you don't want to risk triggering additional groups 3) don't necessarily rely on the crit chance, calculate whether the native damage will do the job at first 4) get up to the side of the enemy that's not against cover, sometimes the game won't treat your target as flanked for some reason even if your right in its face 5) leave some space between thin men and robotic enemies, they'll do AoE damage around their corpse It might look like shotgun assaults are very situational, but if you keep those considerations in mind, one out of every group of enemies can be a guaranteed kill at the hands of a shotgunner.
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Apr 1, 2013 03:27
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moot the hopple posted:Scatter lasers, as well as hitting the sweet spot damage threshold for one-shotting most early-mid enemies, also have a longer engagement distance than the first shotgun. This is actually a myth. All shotgun type weapons have the same range, bonuses, and penalties.
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Apr 1, 2013 03:43
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Aureon posted:Long-term survivability? Titan is for an assault colonel with combat drugs just standing in the open soaking fire all day long while his support colonel ghost buddy occasionally feeds him a med kit from cover. Ghost is for everyone else, except possibly snipers and psi users.
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Apr 1, 2013 04:24
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Aureon posted:As everyone who has played enough tabletop knows, the less you have to rely on dices, the better. Double hp is miles better than 50% evasion, if your deaths are permanent and the enemy's aren't. But we're not talking about double HP, we're talking about +20% HP versus +20% chance of not getting hit at all. e: let me refer to this earlier post: Coolguye posted:Here is a quick and dirty analysis for Ghost vs Titan: Muscle Tracer fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 13:06
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Don't forget RE: shotgunners; you can switch to the pistol. Which is basically what they should have equipped at all times until they're within shotgun range. Sure, you'll probably only do 1 damage with it, but 1 damage is better than none. And against thin men, their 1 pistol damage plus 3 from another soldier's rifle equals dead thin man. Assaults are incredibly useful in my opinion.
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Apr 1, 2013 14:53
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Tommofork posted:Ghost is for everyone else, except possibly snipers and psi users. Why wouldn't they use Ghost? Get ahead of the group, set up an area so Snipers can snipe next turn. Psi users can just mind control one of the Muttons which are the main enemy by the time Ghost is available and the enemy prioritizes the big uncovered guy over your Psi guy.
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Apr 1, 2013 17:07
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Few things in this game are more stressful than revealing a Sectopod, having it walk away, and not encountering it again for several turns. This was on a battleship, and I eventually caught it on the opposite walkway before the penultimate open area while others were engaging enemies in that area. I had no idea how to approach it.
Dr Christmas fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 18:28
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Dr Christmas posted:Few things in this game are more stressful than revealing a Sectopod, having it walk away, and not encountering it again for several turns. This was on a battleship That happened to me once (I think it was an abductor ship though) and I slowly swept the interior only to find it had somehow teleported outside back at the entrance.
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Apr 1, 2013 18:34
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Tae posted:Why wouldn't they use Ghost? Get ahead of the group, set up an area so Snipers can snipe next turn. Psi users can just mind control one of the Muttons which are the main enemy by the time Ghost is available and the enemy prioritizes the big uncovered guy over your Psi guy. Snipers, especially in outdoor levels, sometimes prefer Archangel. No range penalty, clear line of sight. Finger of God style fun.
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Apr 1, 2013 18:35
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Dr Christmas posted:Few things in this game are more stressful than revealing a Sectopod, having it walk away, and not encountering it again for several turns. This was on a battleship The worst is a Sectopod or Cyberdisk re-appearing when you're fighting Mutons and then tossing a grenade and blowing up all your cover.
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Apr 1, 2013 18:36
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Muscle Tracer posted:But we're not talking about double HP, we're talking about +20% HP versus +20% chance of not getting hit at all. You are missing the point here - you are comparing averages, when his argument is in terms of worst case scenarios. There exist situations where the stars do align, the shots do connect, and the agent wearing ghost armour would be dead while the titan wearer survives. That's the price in terms of increased risk (especially counting the critical immunity that further reduces risk for the titan user) you pay for the improved 'average' result, and it's up to you whether it's worth it or not. Fangz fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:47
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Wait, since when does Titan armor confer immunity to critical hits? E: also it's worth noting that you are relying on 'dices' regardless, the Defense boost from Ghost just tilts the dice in your favor. I also have no idea what you're talking about with 'every tabletop player knows...' The PvP nerds in D&D that take part in battle of the builds and the like will routinely ignore gobs of HP in return for 50% concealment, large boosts to saving throws, and finicky but powerful nonsense like Hide in Plain Sight. Most of the powerhouse builds in Battle of the Builds are built around a d6 or d8 hit die with CON as a dump stat. You see very little d10 or d12/high CON builds from these people who make an obsessive habit out of the 'dices'. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:59
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The only member of a squad with immunity to crits are colonel assaults.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:12
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Tae posted:Why wouldn't they use Ghost? Get ahead of the group, set up an area so Snipers can snipe next turn. Psi users can just mind control one of the Muttons which are the main enemy by the time Ghost is available and the enemy prioritizes the big uncovered guy over your Psi guy. Because archangel and psi armor. The latter is meh but the former is the most common way to do lategame snipers. Fangz posted:You are missing the point here - you are comparing averages, when his argument is in terms of worst case scenarios. There exist situations where the stars do align, the shots do connect, and the agent wearing ghost armour would be dead while the titan wearer survives. Titan doesn't confer crit immunity. And it's not just the improved averages: you're also getting increased movement, grapple, and game-breaking invisibility. Seriously, ghost could have a 0 innate defense and still be top pick due to stealth.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:25
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The Overseer UFO escaped me.  My Firestorm was in transit, and a Raven with Plasma Cannons couldn't bring it down.  When will it re-appear? Also - Interceptor damage does not stack? Is there any reason to keep more than 2 per continent then?
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Apr 1, 2013 20:44
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It shows up once every five days or so, in my experience, so don't worry. Be warned, each time it gets away it counts against your rating, if you still care about that.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:49
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Speaking of archangel armor, I'm really beginning to appreciate it more and more after some extended use on my full bird colonel sniper. I initially dismissed it because I thought it required fuel upkeep every turn but it turns out you just expend fuel for movement only, so you can theoretically change positions 12 times (with advanced flight) for maximum fuel efficiency. In practice, however, I usually park my sniper high up somewhere around the starting spawn and he's usually good from that position for most of the map. Even the larger, cramped alien ships like the abductor and battleship have large "arenas" in their middle sections for a flight sniper to remain viable.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:00
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Yup, plus getting +10 to AIM for being high up is gravy. Nothing like shooting mutons out of cover.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:04
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I'm kinda curious if drat Good Ground is worth it with flight in mind. I can already 100% hit enemies that are in half-cover while flying, would another +10 aim let me shoot through walls?  Also, does In The Zone trigger more often/reliably while in flight? I've never used that one ability and I've always been curious about its viability.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:12
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moot the hopple posted:I'm kinda curious if drat Good Ground is worth it with flight in mind. I can already 100% hit enemies that are in half-cover while flying, would another +10 aim let me shoot through walls? drat Good Ground doesn't trigger from flight IIRC, and in the zone happens when you get a kill shot. The beauty of flight is that, when mixed with squadsight, you can usually rise above most obstacles and have clear line of sight everywhere, so you can usually count on being able to target the weakened guys. The downside is that you have no actual cover, so you go down really easily. Archangel is amazing with a squadsight sniper, mostly useless with everyone else.
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Apr 1, 2013 22:55
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ChronoReverse posted:That happened to me once (I think it was an abductor ship though) and I slowly swept the interior only to find it had somehow teleported outside back at the entrance. I had one disappear at the entrance of a cargo UFO, only to have it teleport next to one of my guys at the entrance who was in cover.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:02
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TheAnomaly posted:drat Good Ground doesn't trigger from flight IIRC, and in the zone happens when you get a kill shot. The beauty of flight is that, when mixed with squadsight, you can usually rise above most obstacles and have clear line of sight everywhere, so you can usually count on being able to target the weakened guys. The downside is that you have no actual cover, so you go down really easily. Archangel is amazing with a squadsight sniper, mostly useless with everyone else. DGG does trigger in flight mode. While flying, you have 20% defense, +10% for DGG for a total of 30% defense. You are also unflankable/
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Apr 1, 2013 23:32
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You shouldn't be getting shot at anyway though because the whole point is to be able to tag people from across the entire map. Gunslinger is just a much better skill especially with the pistol foundry upgrades because it means your snipers can move up and help breach a UFO if you are in a pinch and need the numbers.
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Apr 2, 2013 00:04
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Okay, Xcom won. I was in the last mission, in my Classic playthrough. I had only the Uber Ethereal and its retinue left. But my Assault bugged out in the middle of the doorway. So my team can't go in, and he can't move at all, even if there's no else behind him. So yeah, gamebreaking bug right there. Saving, reloading, exiting, killing him. Nothing works. That door is impassable for everyone.  I really want to like this game, but it's so full of bugs, and I wonder if they are ever going to bother with fixing them.
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Apr 2, 2013 00:04
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Yeah, I'd take Gunslinger over DGG. +10% to hit isn't worth being unable to shoot and move without an accuracy penalty at basically rifle-equivalent damange.
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Apr 2, 2013 00:15
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Azran posted:Okay, Xcom won. I was in the last mission, in my Classic playthrough. I had only the Uber Ethereal and its retinue left. But my Assault bugged out in the middle of the doorway. So my team can't go in, and he can't move at all, even if there's no else behind him. You might of missed an alien in one of the rooms and its causing the barrier on that door to stay up.
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Apr 2, 2013 01:19
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