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Spiffo posted:If you have an extra heavy or sniper squaddie, consider turning one of those into a MEC. Properly set up Col. Sniper MEC-3s are totally worth it. 2 nearly 100% accurate Railgun or Particle Cannon shots per turn once you get them in position, which is easy as gently caress with Punchfist/Rocket Boots and a free 100% reaction shot against anything that takes a shot at them, and things always shoot at them because the AI prioritizes things that are easy to hit. Current play through I have a Col. with like 179 kills, at least 140 of which were as a MEC. I just imagine that the trooper whose limbs get lopped off to become a MEC are diabetic and/or wounded to the point of amputation.
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Jan 23, 2014 21:33
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I've been dominating on Normal for a while now and it's starting to get boring so last night I decided to switch to Classic. I quickly realized that I have a lot of bad habits I need to adjust. I think I can manage alright but does anyone have any tips specifically for scouting? First mission I literally moved two guys half their move into the closest cover and uncovered a total of 6 Sectoids... it ended... badly. I didn't have a chance to start a new game yet, but are the troop placements typically that unforgiving or did I have a  moment? The map I was on was the Fast Food map.
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Jan 23, 2014 22:30
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Jestu posted:I've been dominating on Normal for a while now and it's starting to get boring so last night I decided to switch to Classic. I quickly realized that I have a lot of bad habits I need to adjust. I think I can manage alright but does anyone have any tips specifically for scouting? First mission I literally moved two guys half their move into the closest cover and uncovered a total of 6 Sectoids... it ended... badly. I didn't have a chance to start a new game yet, but are the troop placements typically that unforgiving or did I have a Urban maps with indoor areas usually have a mix of packs of enemies inside and outside. I'd recommend scouting the outer edges of the map first, close to the red-laser-line border, so you can activate one "outside" pack at a time without risk of accidentally activating an "inside" pack. After you've cleared them, feel free to slowly advance indoors. I've hardly if ever seen any Meld canisters inside buildings, so clearing the outside first gives you your best shot at claiming those too. As far as foresty UFO crash/landing maps, advance one guy to cover as far as he can move but do NOT dash; only use his first move. If you activate a pack, run him back to cover close to your squad and position the rest of your guys to weather the alien turn's first barrage (lots of Hunkering). If you advance your scout his first move and don't activate a pack, I typically bring the rest of the group up and Overwatch. Using your scout's second move to iffy cover (which way will the aliens be oriented??) at the risk of activating a pack he can then not retreat from is a death sentence in Classic and especially in Impossible. It's rare that I use both actions as moves before I've uncovered any alien packs or know that there's only one pack/alien left when I'm mopping up a mission. Basically, Normal taught you that firefights between you and the aliens were winnable; in Classic+, they are always a losing proposition and you will get murdered. Caution rules.
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Jan 23, 2014 22:47
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Backhand posted:I think I suck at Enemy Within specifically, though, even if I'm okay at XCOM now: I couldn't bring myself to build MECs. I am a giant baby and the thought of lopping off my soldiers' limbs for a bit of extra firepower just did not sit well with me. I also didn't get much mileage out of the Genetics Lab: I used it some, but I found most of the early abilities unimpressive and the late game ones fairly needless - by the time I could get them, I didn't need them anymore. I mostly just stopped caring about meld altogether by the midgame, as a result. I wasn't using it on anything. You should give MECs a shot, their abilities can really give you an edge, and there's nothing more satisfying than robot punching aliens in the face. Or frying 6 thin men at once. I really like how much SHIVs feel like HWPs from the original X-com now. Expendable and easily replaceable, but still very valuable and powerful. Nehru the Damaja posted:That's "Rack, Tap, Bang" which Xcom fucks up because it's supposed to be "Tap, Rack, Bang," Marine talk for clearing a jammed gun. Glad I wasn't the only one bothered by that. It's for clearing stoppages, so I don't know why they're using it as a reload voice over. The Army uses the acronym SPORTS for their immediate action drill.
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Jan 23, 2014 22:59
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I don't even care about rushing laser weapons anymore - just give me an officer training school for the squad size upgrades, and a Foundry, and I'm set.
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Infidelicious posted:I just imagine that the trooper whose limbs get lopped off to become a MEC are diabetic and/or wounded to the point of amputation. Yeah, I never MEC troopers who aren't already seriously wounded. Just feels wrong otherwise. Dunno if you can GENETICIZE wounded troopers, but you can certainly mec 'em if they're in sickbay.
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Jan 23, 2014 23:04
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Penguingo posted:Yeah, I never MEC troopers who aren't already seriously wounded. Just feels wrong otherwise. Dunno if you can GENETICIZE wounded troopers, but you can certainly mec 'em if they're in sickbay. I don't think you can. Might as well give someone covered in plasma burns lots of amputations though!
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Jan 23, 2014 23:11
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Penguingo posted:Yeah, I never MEC troopers who aren't already seriously wounded. Just feels wrong otherwise. Dunno if you can GENETICIZE wounded troopers, but you can certainly mec 'em if they're in sickbay. They need to be healthy to genetically modify them. Jestu posted:I've been dominating on Normal for a while now and it's starting to get boring so last night I decided to switch to Classic. I quickly realized that I have a lot of bad habits I need to adjust. I think I can manage alright but does anyone have any tips specifically for scouting? First mission I literally moved two guys half their move into the closest cover and uncovered a total of 6 Sectoids... it ended... badly. Like the other guy said, firefights are bad, so you want to get every advantage you can get. Every shot the enemy takes on your troops is a chance that things go badly, so don't let them! Never ever dash your units unless you know exactly what they're going to see. Also, use full cover as much as possible. You can hunker down behind half-cover (turning it into full cover), or use half-cover on your way to full cover. As for taking shots, it's Go Full Or Go Home (actually that soldier won't be going home, sorry)
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Jan 23, 2014 23:15
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The Midniter posted:Urban maps with indoor areas usually have a mix of packs of enemies inside and outside. I'd recommend scouting the outer edges of the map first, close to the red-laser-line border, so you can activate one "outside" pack at a time without risk of accidentally activating an "inside" pack. Thanks. What happened is that in moving my second guy into cover (after activating an alien pod with the first guy) he was spotted through a window and I activated the inside pod. Fun Fact: A squad wipe on the first mission is a game over. I'm pretty sure XCOM kept going, and that they just fired me for incompetence (Commander Bradford?).
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Jan 23, 2014 23:29
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Tiger Shark posted:Glad I wasn't the only one bothered by that. It's for clearing stoppages, so I don't know why they're using it as a reload voice over. Because even though it's not right, people will still recognize it, it's short, and it's not "Reloading!"
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Jan 23, 2014 23:30
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... I am an idiot and always heard it as 'half racked fang.' I learned something today, though. Also, watching footage of someone playing Normal on youtube now physically pains me. Dashing into fog, oh God, was I ever really that dumb?
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Jan 24, 2014 01:14
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Backhand posted:... I am an idiot and always heard it as 'half racked fang.' Don't feel too bad, this is way more metal 
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Jan 24, 2014 01:19
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I always thought it was "Rat tat bang," because it was what they were now ready to do.
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Jan 24, 2014 01:36
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My Russian Assault always said "I choose to die!". I have no idea what she really says in Russian, but since I am bad at assaults that't what I heard.
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Jan 24, 2014 01:47
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I was a little disturbed when my support reloaded and I heard "ohhhhh yeaahhhhhh" in a really turned-on voice.
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Jan 24, 2014 02:00
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Backhand posted:Also, watching footage of someone playing Normal on youtube now physically pains me. Dashing into fog, oh God, was I ever really that dumb? There was an lp here a while back, and it was amazingly hard to watch for that and other reasons.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:18
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So I just started playing EW after beating EU on Classic when it came out. Are there any general tips for dealing with those stealth octopi? Is it possible/worthwhile to run away until they de-cloak? Or is it just stand everyone in a circle and overwatch until they show up and pray for the best?
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Jan 24, 2014 05:20
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CaptCommy posted:So I just started playing EW after beating EU on Classic when it came out. Are there any general tips for dealing with those stealth octopi? Is it possible/worthwhile to run away until they de-cloak? Or is it just stand everyone in a circle and overwatch until they show up and pray for the best? Slowing the move speed and overwatching is pretty safe. They decloak right in your face, so your squad gets massive aim bonuses to offset the overwatch penalty.
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Jan 24, 2014 05:25
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CaptCommy posted:So I just started playing EW after beating EU on Classic when it came out. Are there any general tips for dealing with those stealth octopi? Is it possible/worthwhile to run away until they de-cloak? Or is it just stand everyone in a circle and overwatch until they show up and pray for the best? They always(or so it seems to me) target the one guy farthest from the group. So what I do is make sure that one guy is standing just slightly ahead of the group(I'm talking one or two tiles ahead) and make sure he is visible to everybody else. Then, yeah, overwatch like hell. I wouldn't advise running away. They do two damage at the most so long as you can free your soldier the turn after, so even during early game they aren't that scary(unless they catch you in the middle of a firefight against something more dangerous).
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Jan 24, 2014 05:26
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CaptCommy posted:So I just started playing EW after beating EU on Classic when it came out. Are there any general tips for dealing with those stealth octopi? Is it possible/worthwhile to run away until they de-cloak? Or is it just stand everyone in a circle and overwatch until they show up and pray for the best? Sometimes they decide to uncloak right away and shoot one of your guys in the side if they are flanked, I lost a really good sniper that way. So just be aware that the standing in a circle thing doesn't always work.
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Jan 24, 2014 05:26
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When you get battle scanners they will reveal them so you can shoot first.
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Jan 24, 2014 05:32
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SeaTard posted:Sometimes they decide to uncloak right away and shoot one of your guys in the side if they are flanked, I lost a really good sniper that way. So just be aware that the standing in a circle thing doesn't always work. They will only choose to shoot at you if all of your mans are immune to strangulation (the +2 HP thingy, chrysalid thingy, titan armor)
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Jan 24, 2014 07:40
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CaptCommy posted:So I just started playing EW after beating EU on Classic when it came out. Are there any general tips for dealing with those stealth octopi? Is it possible/worthwhile to run away until they de-cloak? Or is it just stand everyone in a circle and overwatch until they show up and pray for the best? All the replies above have the basics covered. The only time they're really problematic is if you've uncovered them along with a pack of other aliens at the same time. I'd try breaking line of sight and finding a place to hold up until one of the threats is killed off then.
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Jan 24, 2014 08:10
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GloomMouse posted:They will only choose to shoot at you if all of your mans are immune to strangulation (the +2 HP thingy, chrysalid thingy, titan armor) That's not true. I had one shoot and kill a squaddie in an early mission, and she didn't have any resistance to strangulation. It just flanked her and shot, shortly after the other one appeared and tried to strangle the sniper.
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Jan 24, 2014 09:51
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I think they'll take flanking opportunities now over strangling opportunities later.
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Jan 24, 2014 10:07
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Question, does anyone ever abort a mission if things are going badly? From what I understand, you'd need to be in the extract zone to abort, and the only times I think aborting a mission would be worth it are when I'm definitely never going to reach the extract zone.
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Jan 24, 2014 10:10
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I tend to abort if it's clear things are FUBAR near or around the start of the mission. If my soldiers are getting dropped, or I've activated the entire map without any explosives left (that kind of thing), I'll back off. A rise of panic isn't worth losing an entire squad of soldiers over.
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Jan 24, 2014 10:27
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Hopeford posted:Question, does anyone ever abort a mission if things are going badly? From what I understand, you'd need to be in the extract zone to abort, and the only times I think aborting a mission would be worth it are when I'm definitely never going to reach the extract zone. If you mean "just hit abort and abandon all your soldiers", no never do that. Otherwise yeah, sometimes you wind up in a situation where the choice is A) Lose the mission, raise the country's panic, lose all your soldiers, or B) Lose the mission, raise the country's panic, but get some of your soldiers out of there. If winning's off the table, then fuuuuuck this we're getting outta here
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Jan 24, 2014 14:50
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jwalrus posted:That's not true. I had one shoot and kill a squaddie in an early mission, and she didn't have any resistance to strangulation. It just flanked her and shot, shortly after the other one appeared and tried to strangle the sniper. They have limited stealth that gets used up as they move. So if one spots you from pretty far away it may have run out of stealth before it got close enough to strangle, so it flanked and shot instead.
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Jan 24, 2014 15:43
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Playing an Asia start where I got lucky and my starting nation gives a huge pile of cash each month. Month 2 has Squad Size II, Tactical Rigging, a MEC and three satellites going up at the end of the month. I'm doing pretty well, I think. Even if a thin man did outsnipe my Squad Sight sniper. gently caress thin men. Also: Reaper Rounds on shotgun assaults? A terror mission showed up with lasers like a month away, so I gave them a try and didn't notice a huge drop in accuracy, but also couldn't one-shot a chrysalid. Not sure how much of a difference they're making--Assaults tend to be my star soldiers anyway.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:27
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Jestu posted:They have limited stealth that gets used up as they move. So if one spots you from pretty far away it may have run out of stealth before it got close enough to strangle, so it flanked and shot instead. I think they're extra-wary of Overwatch, too. On an abduction mission I wiped out every single alien but the mission didn't end so I was running around the map until I revealed two Seekers hidden in the corner, easily within one half-turn's movement. I bunched my guys all together and just spammed Overwatch over and over but they never breached or attached anyone (this was on the map in the trainyard with the railcars positioned above the lower ground/half of the map). At one point I heard the decloaking noise but didn't see them anywhere. Turns out they'd retreated on the other side of the train cars, decloaked, and then floated up to shoot at my guys. Luckily they missed terribly and my MEC gladly chaingunned them into pieces.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:44
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aegof posted:Playing an Asia start where I got lucky and my starting nation gives a huge pile of cash each month. Month 2 has Squad Size II, Tactical Rigging, a MEC and three satellites going up at the end of the month. I'm doing pretty well, I think. Reaper Rounds do not increase max damage on weapons, they just add 20% to crit chance. Since the Shotgun does 3-5 damage normal and 6-7 crit, it is 100% impossible to one-shot a Chryssalid with a shotgun unless you have the Bring 'Em On perk. Also please note that Chryssalids are Hardened, which means that you have a -10% Crit modifier to all shots, so at best a Shotgun Assault with Aggression, Reaper Rounds, and Bring 'Em On at point blank range with max enemies in view would have a 60% chance to crit, with any crit killing the 'Lid. With just RR you have only a 30% chance to crit and no chance to kill. Best way to deal with Chryssalids are rockets followed up with ballistics.
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Jan 24, 2014 21:06
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CaptCommy posted:Are there any general tips for dealing with those stealth octopi? Perhaps you should try to avoid those tentacles. Alternatively - battle scanners on your snipers trivialise them, although by the time you have battle scanners they're kinda trivial anyway.
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Jan 24, 2014 21:22
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Penguingo posted:Perhaps you should try to avoid those tentacles. Yeah, I've never really felt they needed a strategy beyond "hang out for a few turns on overwatch." The only real danger is if you have a troop with only two health left.
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Jan 24, 2014 21:37
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, I've never really felt they needed a strategy beyond "hang out for a few turns on overwatch." The only real danger is if you have a troop with only two health left. Shotgun assaults are your friends, also bulletstorm heavies. My strategy for dealing with them so far is to have everyone fully-loaded, get in a circle, overwatch. Often the stalker will get blown away when it reveals itself, but if you miss you still get a decent amount of powerful shots you can take next turn. I've never had both decloak and strike at the same time thankfully. Can they?
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Jan 24, 2014 21:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, I've never really felt they needed a strategy beyond "hang out for a few turns on overwatch." The only real danger is if you have a troop with only two health left. That and burning a round or two off of the Meld timers.
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Jan 24, 2014 21:40
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Spiffo posted:Shotgun assaults are your friends, also bulletstorm heavies. My strategy for dealing with them so far is to have everyone fully-loaded, get in a circle, overwatch. Often the stalker will get blown away when it reveals itself, but if you miss you still get a decent amount of powerful shots you can take next turn. Yeah, they decloak to attack - if your overwatch attacks don't kill them (and the solider they target can't attack them) then they'll latch on and do an immediate two damage hit.
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Jan 24, 2014 22:04
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Seeing some flying squiddies early on with no battle scanners is pretty much just a sad acceptance that I won't be getting any meld this level.
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Jan 24, 2014 22:07
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Penguingo posted:Perhaps you should try to avoid those tentacles. She has a PhD from Harvard in STATING THE loving OBVIOUS. (P.S.: stop being coy, swype, you know perfectly well what I was trying to type there. )
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Jan 24, 2014 22:12
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CommonSensei posted:That and burning a round or two off of the Meld timers. Well, yeah, there is that. So people usually take battle scanner over disabling shot?
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Jan 24, 2014 22:13
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Well, yeah, there is that. I have never ever taken battle scanner once.
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Jan 24, 2014 22:16
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