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I think the gameover screen would see a lot more views if the loss condition was reverted back to being unable to fund the upkeep of the project, similar to the original, while at the same time making the second-wave mechanic that scales funding inversely with panic level (with no funding at all at panic level 5) and perhaps a milder version of the increasing-panic-over-time mechanic part of the core game, but removing the concept of countries permanently pulling out of the project. If the numbers get tweaked right, panic could be a much more enduring issue. You can afford to lose maybe up to half the council in the first couple of months, but as your base grows larger and more expensive in upkeep, you'll need to get more of them back on board or sell off artifacts to make up the difference, eventually reaching a point where your hope for supply ships to raid because even the entire council can't fund your mega-base and squads of colonels with cash infusions from the grey market. Add in a tiny random variance in monthly funding (say 5% in either direction) as well, so that even if the player's balance is slated to go into the red, there's an incentive to stick it out until the council report just in case the council decides to throw you a bone.
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May 15, 2013 23:22
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Was there a patch to keep Sectoids around longer? I'm now regularly seeing cyberdiscs and berserkers, but the last three UFOs I've cleared all had a sectoid pack in the mix as well.
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May 15, 2013 23:28
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Muscle Tracer posted:
I've been thinking about this - What would happen, exactly, if the X-COM project failed? The old X-COM made it clear that the human race was slaughtered to almost extinction and then mutated into your average republican. The new X-COM doesn't really have that kind of sinister ending anyway. The Etherials want to uplift mankind anyway for whatever it is, wouldn't it just end in a possible reversal of District 9, at the end?
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May 15, 2013 23:31
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I just wish I'd thought to prioritize high-panic countries for satellites rather than high funding above all else. Also getting an entire continent stops missed abductions from putting panic up continent-wide so that probably would have helped management too. In the end I only lost China on Normal and given their real-world level of international peacekeeping / aid cooperation I probably should have expected it. Shumagorath fucked around with this message at 23:34 on May 15, 2013 |
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May 15, 2013 23:32
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WarpedNaba posted:The new X-COM doesn't really have that kind of sinister ending anyway. The Etherials want to uplift mankind anyway for whatever it is, wouldn't it just end in a possible reversal of District 9, at the end? The thing about XCOM:EU is that the consequences are extremely vague. You lose and the Council gets mind-controlled, but what does that mean? XCOM continues and fights humans now too in a civil war? Humanity half-ascends and there's a purestrain rebellion later? Who knows!
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May 15, 2013 23:48
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My god, I thought I'd give classic Ironman a shot after finishing my first classic game. What. A. Pain. I can't remember who said "I won't play ironman again until they fix those LOS issues" but now I know what you mean. I just had the most bullshit UFO mission ever, including teleporting sectoids, broken LOS bugs, the infamous "we're standing on both sides of a corner but only the sectoid has a flank on me", and to top it all my support missed that 99% pistol shot that could have salvaged the whole operation. (right after my assault got killed for missing the 90% shot that would have saved his life of course) Code black, mission aborted, my A-team has been wiped out but fair enough ... I'll suck it up and carry on, it could make for an interesting comeback right ? Next abduction mission: I lose two rookies within the first minute over a high cover bug on a pack of floaters. gently caress you XCOM. 
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May 15, 2013 23:50
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Tiger Sushi posted:My god, I thought I'd give classic Ironman a shot after finishing my first classic game. This is pretty much my current frustration, but on I/I. Got through the 1st abduction & UFO generally fine. Lost 1 soldier each mission, but it was due to my dumb rear end, so I let it go. 2nd abduction is on the mausoleum map and my god I trigger all 12 sectiods in 1 turn. Not because I'm moving indiscriminately, but because 2 packs teleport into my LOS at the beginning of the alien turn, and a 3rd is some how not seen by a soldier already in the area, but were revealed by the next soldier I moved up. Also somehow, the little raised garden area you start on has like, 0 visibility down the side paths. Yet move down to the main lower section and you can practically see across to the other end.
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May 16, 2013 00:35
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Shyfted One posted:Does anyone still play MP? I have a friend who wants to play and I've never tried it myself. My first thought was use as many Thin Men as I can afford because they're assholes and I hate them, but the squad size is limited to 6. And what difficulty is the health based on? A Thin Man having 4 health instead of 6 is a big difference MP is a hot buggy mess, but it's a super fun hot buggy mess. I highly recommend it. Just don't take it too seriously.
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May 16, 2013 00:37
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Elephant Ambush posted:I wish there was a way to have a SHIVolunteer. The ending cutscene would be hilarious. *robo-voice* I know now why you humans cry Cue T2 music
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May 16, 2013 00:47
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Dear lord, I think XCOM has it in for me this run. Opening mission: graveyard. First abduction mission: road under construction. First council mission: bomb defusal in the graveyard. I nearly made it to the end of month 2 now - I'm basically crippled. I've only got three healthy troopers, only one of which can use the laser rifles I've rolled off. Every single one of my supports is dead, and I'm down to one sniper. But I'm on track to have at least seven sats by the end of the month, I've got five experienced troopers coming off injuries in the next three days, precision lasers in two and a load of new rookies in one. Terror mission on the broken highway with a squaddie heavy, a squaddie sniper and a sergeant assault. One laser rifle between them. 
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May 16, 2013 00:48
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UFO landing. I just produced my first laser rifles this game, and it's time to test it on some alien scum. Two floaters pop up on the left of my squad, I land a 55% shot, killing the first floater, forcing the other to run away on his turn. I remember reading Coolguye's post on how overwatch works, and because this floater actually ran far enough away to the fog of war, I decide to place all of my people on overwatch, knowing that eventually that floater will charge at me and get slaughtered. A turn later, Four lasers from two rookies, a support and an assault, plus an HMG and Sniper rifle completely obliterate this floater in midair in a spectacular fashion and- X.Com Enemy Unknown has stopped working. Game crashed.  By the way, I read what you do at the end of the game, and i feel like I spoiled myself on a great movie. All I wanted to do was figure out some upgrades, thanks wiki. Still, I'm gonna push through to the bitter end, and save the world. Also, I'm having a great time playing this under "Not created equally" and "Hidden potential". I now have a sniper Lieutenant with 103 aim, and a sergeant assault with 95 Aim, it's loving awesome. Fargin Icehole fucked around with this message at 01:09 on May 16, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 01:05
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Fargin Icehole posted:
Bloody. loving. Hell. That's like a XCOM blowjob, dammit XCOM you killed my two best rangers where the gently caress is my luck at?!
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May 16, 2013 01:24
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Orgophlax posted:
Yeah I know the one, don't even get me started on it. I lost a good soldier on that map too because my squadsight sniper was unable to see anything and couldn't provide any fire support for most of the mission.  I really hope they concentrate on fixing these issues with whatever they're planning next, because as much as I love the game it sometimes feels really unfair. I can deal with the RNG giving me the finger from time to time, but having to wrestle with these glitches on top of it is obnoxious.
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May 16, 2013 02:22
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Fargin Icehole posted:Also, I'm having a great time playing this under "Not created equally" and "Hidden potential". I now have a sniper Lieutenant with 103 aim, and a sergeant assault with 95 Aim, it's loving awesome. I finally retired my two best soldiers in my current game, because they were just owning everything:   And while yes they do look like twins, both were randomly assigned soldiers. I didn't think you could get Aim that high, I think I must have gotten max aim on every single level up. Even the base hp is pretty good, although my sniper does have a pretty short movement range. The two of them were completely game breaking.
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May 16, 2013 04:23
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My lead character (and first psyker / endgame psyker host) was Artyom "Cobra" Zaytsev. As if being named after one fictional and one real Russian hero wasn't enough, the game gave him that nickname because literally everything that came within four tiles of him died instantly. From the early game onward he was using Run & Gun every cooldown and owning aliens well ahead of the rest of the team's advance, seemly criting way above the shotgun's 20%. Eventually he was immune to overwatch and criticals, and once cleared a squad of Chrysalids and a Berserker on reflex to basically win a terror mission in the opening two turns. Oh, and he never missed a Mind Control. Mona "The H.E.A.T" Hansen and Bong Soon "Road Block" Park, my two star Heavies, were a distant second compared to how hard this guy owned. Shumagorath fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 16, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 04:39
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I managed to have a guy become memorable by simply being... not. Cargo was a support guy that was always just kinda... there. His aim was average, he never pulled off anything spectacular, and more often than not the only time I even needed him specifically was because he had a medkit (or three) on him. In the end, he even died because he was forgotten. I'd moved the rest of the squad because of a Sectopod missile strike, but forgot to heal Cargo. An Elite Muton shot him in the face with heavy plasma  .SeaTard posted:I finally retired my two best soldiers in my current game, because they were just owning everything I think you've got it backwards. Clearly everyone else on the squad is useless and you should send one of those two soldiers in on their own  .
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May 16, 2013 04:58
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I cannot keep an assault character alive. I have several colonels and I am kicking rear end, but the assaults all die. All of them.
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May 16, 2013 04:59
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oilcheck my rear end posted:I cannot keep an assault character alive. Odd. My assault is the only one of my five colonels so far who's still alive. Keep on trucking, Lucia "Wolverine" Castro.
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May 16, 2013 05:05
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Well, if we're all swapping stories, had an assault a couple games back who pretty much set my gold standard. Eventually. See, the thing about Paul Thompson is, well, I kinda dismissed him when I first saw him. I was testing out Not Created Equal, and he was one of the first four. One of the lovely ones of the first four, looking at the stats. Something like 45 aim, middling will. He was just a drunk Australian bastard who couldn't shoot. Did not like my chances. Especially after the one guy with good aim got gutshot. Sectoid was all the way across the map and behind full cover in a truck. Then I looked at Thompson's movement grid. Then Thompson got a point blank flanking kill. Got promoted to assault after that, and he became the team leader. His aim never picked up, (capped out at 77) but the fucker was head of the A-team, and for good reason. He would not die. Close range Thin Man in overwatch? He ducked the bolt, then blew its skull open. loving rookie blows away his cover instead of shooting a sectoid? He sucked down the crit, then blew the sectoid to hell. Surrounded by five thin men and in half cover? Barely got hit. By the end of the turn, they were firing at anyone else, having realized that their plasma only made Paul angry. Game called him twitch. I couldn't disagree. He also once made a long range overwatch kill with an alloy cannon just to troll the squad's sniper. Blew a thin man out of midair a fraction of a second before she'd hit it. Liked my two snipers in that run. Psychics with natural aim north of 110 are always appreciated. But Twitch was the favorite.
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May 16, 2013 05:06
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oilcheck my rear end posted:I cannot keep an assault character alive. They need to be heavily supported, otherwise they're suicide troops. And don't be afraid to pull them back out of a fight
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May 16, 2013 05:13
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I had good luck abusing Ghost armor on Aileen "Luck" O'Reilly but once you're immune to criticals Titan armor will make you unkillable by anything short of the robotic enemies. In pairs.Neddy Seagoon posted:I think you've got it backwards. Clearly everyone else on the squad is useless and you should send one of those two soldiers in on their own
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May 16, 2013 05:21
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oilcheck my rear end posted:I cannot keep an assault character alive. Chitin Plating. And don't go for the flank after you've already burned your sniper shots and heavy moves. The close range flank is not the backup plan, because it's very bad when it fails. It should be the plan with a backup behind it. Edit: and take the defensive perks. There's plenty of native crit and damage once you're eye to eye with a shotgun. j4on fucked around with this message at 05:31 on May 16, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 05:28
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I had a point towards the end of a run where I had two Colonel assaults and a Captain, and took three squaddie assaults on a UFO mission, just for kicks. Gave all the rookies rifles and grenades, gave the officers alloy cannons and chitin plating. It was one of the most fun maps I've played, even without the benefits of suppression or squadsight. Nothing lived long enough to fire a weapon once they were uncovered, because they were always flanked by somebody or other.
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May 16, 2013 05:47
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j4on posted:Chitin Plating. And don't go for the flank after you've already burned your sniper shots and heavy moves. The close range flank is not the backup plan, because it's very bad when it fails. It should be the plan with a backup behind it. I use the close range flank with a shotgun, usually with run and gun, as a finisher in a controlled situation. I often run into cases where I've got the area secure, but there's still one alien who I want to kill this turn. Especially if they're in cover, the close range flank is perfect for finishing them off. However, I try to only do this if I know the area is otherwise secure, like if I'm breaching the bridge of a UFO and killed two of the sectoid commanders but the third is still alive on low HP.
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May 16, 2013 05:51
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Every rookie I get with base aim 80 dies. Every loving one. The latest was I had two brand new squaddie heavies, one who started with a 75 and one who started with an 80. Both great candidates to replace my "can't shoot worth a drat" major heavy mission "reward" who still has 63 aim (first and only time I have picked holo targeting. Why bother getting bullet swarm? I just take him for suppression and a rocket). Anyway, a pack of mutons trigger and all stand within rocket radius of one another. So naturally wanting the one with 80 aim to get the kills I plan to launch two rockets starting with the 75 aim guy. He hits, muton intimidates and he turns and blows the head off his rival. Well it worked and the Machiavellian fucker has the number one job instead of being a benchwarmer behind his more talented colleague.
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May 16, 2013 06:31
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Is there a way to just remove Thin Men from the game? I don't mind them, but I can't stop wondering why the hell the aliens keep these things around, and in such numbers. It's like if one of the alien types was just a sectoid with a big paper mache human head. On second thought I'd just want to replace all the Thin Men with that.
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May 16, 2013 06:33
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Nothing like making it 3/4ths through the game on Ironman and then getting destroyed on that construction zone map because you can't find cover fast enough. Got attacked by a berserker, 2 mutons, 2 muton guards, 3 upgraded floaters and a disc simultaneously. Lost my entire squad. I've figured out now that I should have had everyone immediately flee into that alley to the left of the landing zone, but too late now. Sucrose fucked around with this message at 06:43 on May 16, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 06:36
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Muscle Tracer posted:The thing about XCOM:EU is that the consequences are extremely vague. You lose and the Council gets mind-controlled, but what does that mean? XCOM continues and fights humans now too in a civil war? Humanity half-ascends and there's a purestrain rebellion later? Who knows! They're not that vague... See, the Ethereals are NOT invading Earth. Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen, they both suspect that from the start of the game. They're just looking for the Gift, nothing more. They could have done it behind the shadows, but apparently they give absolutely zero fucks about humans and see us as cattle, so why even bother? When a country leaves the Council, it gets infiltrated, just like in the original UFO:EU. Just read the news at the situation room, it's there. So, about the bad ending. What happens is: A) If the Ethereals find the Gift: their search is over, new bodies for everyone, brothers of the collective hive mind! B) If the Gift is NOT found: welp, another fruitless endeavor. Enslave this race like the others and lets genetically twist them into fighters for our cause. The search continues. The irony about XCOM's story is that the Ethereals' enemy actually PRESENTS them with a gifted human in the final act, we actually send (at least) one specimen to their very Temple Ship. Sure, they don't get to keep the specimen in the end, but if there are more Ethereals out there in the universe... now they KNOW.
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May 16, 2013 13:48
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Andre Banzai posted:They're not that vague... Yes, obviously. I'm saying that, while that be the ultimate endgame for the etherals, the fact that the council has been infiltrated and XCOM has run out of funding and psi-empowered and regular humans alike are being enslaved is a much more interesting scenario to start at than "we did it before, and we can do it again." We know exactly what happens when we win: we rebuild, they (or something similar) come back. There're a lot more potential story arcs if you fail.
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May 16, 2013 14:15
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Muscle Tracer posted:Yes, obviously. I'm saying that, while that be the ultimate endgame for the etherals, the fact that the council has been infiltrated and XCOM has run out of funding and psi-empowered and regular humans alike are being enslaved is a much more interesting scenario to start at than "we did it before, and we can do it again." I certainly agree with you and, actually, that can happen even if you win. Just picture this: if the Ethereals were NOT invading before... and now they know the planet is full of potentially gifted humans... and now they know where the XCOM base is located because they've looked inside The Volunteer's mind (when you stare at the abyss, the abyss also stares at you)... well, do the math. That could be the starting point of the expansion, couldn't it?
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May 16, 2013 14:22
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Andre Banzai posted:and now they know where the XCOM base is located because they've looked inside The Volunteer's mind (when you stare at the abyss, the abyss also stares at you) I like to imagine that the X-COM facility works on the same security that the Alpha Protocol facility does: Everyone is drugged before entering and before leaving. As long as the transport ship doesn't have any windows, there's no reason to worry that the soldiers would know where the base is, and the pilot always bugs out before he can be captured, which explains why the base never gets attacked.
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May 16, 2013 15:06
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I sent that optimal satellite rush build order to a friend and he told me last night that he can only get 9 engineers by the middle of the month, and you need 10 to build the second uplink. He says he followed the instructions to the letter. Is there any crazy wackiness that may have happened that would not allow him to get the necessary engineers?
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May 16, 2013 15:14
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Does anyone else play with house rules, like no more than one officer on each mission, and colonels have to stay home or get retired? I do because it kind of feels silly to have six colonels running around on the ground. I guess I could use an editor to change the rank titles for ~*immersion*~, but this adds a little more challenge to it as well.
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May 16, 2013 15:15
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Elephant Ambush posted:I sent that optimal satellite rush build order to a friend and he told me last night that he can only get 9 engineers by the middle of the month, and you need 10 to build the second uplink. He says he followed the instructions to the letter. Is there any crazy wackiness that may have happened that would not allow him to get the necessary engineers? Is he playing with randomized council mission rewards? It's reliant on getting that Engineer-based council reward and the worskshop up in time.
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May 16, 2013 15:16
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Elephant Ambush posted:I sent that optimal satellite rush build order to a friend and he told me last night that he can only get 9 engineers by the middle of the month, and you need 10 to build the second uplink. He says he followed the instructions to the letter. Is there any crazy wackiness that may have happened that would not allow him to get the necessary engineers?
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May 16, 2013 15:17
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Fister Roboto posted:Does anyone else play with house rules, like no more than one officer on each mission, and colonels have to stay home or get retired? I do because it kind of feels silly to have six colonels running around on the ground. I guess I could use an editor to change the rank titles for ~*immersion*~, but this adds a little more challenge to it as well. I usually end up with something like 12 colonels by the end of the game. Once I've got mostly non-iron will colonels built, I've hopefully got some corporals ready to go to level up with the Iron Will bonuses. Depending on the difficulty of the mission, it usually ends up being 1-2 pre-IW colonels, with 4-5 lower-rank dudes to get IW-level of Will. I can usually get it to the point that I've got a bunch of 100+ will colonels ready for Psi training/end game stuff. It's nice to have a stable of badasses going, you can weather some insane 4-missions-over-5 day stretches.
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May 16, 2013 15:20
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Fister Roboto posted:Does anyone else play with house rules, like no more than one officer on each mission, and colonels have to stay home or get retired? I do because it kind of feels silly to have six colonels running around on the ground. I guess I could use an editor to change the rank titles for ~*immersion*~, but this adds a little more challenge to it as well. There are mods that change the rank names. Never made sense to me since the image of 6 of the most badass colonels on the planet going on the field themselves to fight the alien menace is pretty cool in my head. "gently caress orders, we're gonna go down there and show our men how we do it here at XCOM!"
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May 16, 2013 15:22
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Fister Roboto posted:Does anyone else play with house rules, like no more than one officer on each mission, and colonels have to stay home or get retired? I do because it kind of feels silly to have six colonels running around on the ground. I guess I could use an editor to change the rank titles for ~*immersion*~, but this adds a little more challenge to it as well. I agree with Brainamp, 6 colonels is really badass. But I also always give colonels long holidays as soon as they reach that title. They then get saved for psionic probing and the final mission. No colonels on the field until the final mission.
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May 16, 2013 15:29
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Does Mayhem make a heavy's Blaster Bombs/Alien Grenades do more damage than their conventional counterparts?
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May 16, 2013 15:32
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Fister Roboto posted:Does anyone else play with house rules, like no more than one officer on each mission, and colonels have to stay home or get retired? I do because it kind of feels silly to have six colonels running around on the ground. I guess I could use an editor to change the rank titles for ~*immersion*~, but this adds a little more challenge to it as well. I've done this on a couple of Classic games and it makes for a very varied end game. Basically, only take 1 guy at or over Major level, everyone else is fair game. Basic missions become more asymmetric, and you end up with a much cooler looking barracks and memorial. If/when I get everything marshaled around for an LP of EU that I have in mind I will definitely be using house rules like that.
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