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I got stuck on the first slingshot mission. I've done it easily enough on LW before but this time I'm getting so, so many thin men. I've tried reloading a few times but they just keep piling in and I'm not sure what's different from the other times except I don't have a shiv.
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Aug 30, 2014 23:01
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Verviticus posted:i thought there was a setting that lets them do that in second wave, maybe you checked that by accident? i otherwise haven't seen them do anything but go on overwatch immediately before my guys shoot them off the car/bridge/whatever they landed on Hmm it's possible. I did go in there to check red fog aiming angles. I'm already into September and it's only happened once, so I'll consider myself lucky. They usually just overwatch but this one dropped right down and capped van dorn immediately.
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Aug 30, 2014 23:04
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Should I install Long War from the get-go, or get used to the base game first?
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Aug 30, 2014 23:31
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The Lone Badger posted:Should I install Long War from the get-go, or get used to the base game first? Play the base game first, I recommend classic difficulty because  Don't do iron man though.Edit: And because it's cheap, make sure you get Enemy Within too because it's just really good.
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Aug 30, 2014 23:33
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The base game is still a solid, fun experience worth playing through at least once.
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Aug 30, 2014 23:34
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Ironman is up to you. If you play non-ironman just make sure that you make an effort to learn from your mistakes before you jam the reload button. Avoid developing bad habits like I have. 
Trilin fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 23:45
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Away all Goats posted:The base game is still a solid, fun experience worth playing through at least once. Yeah, ideally with Enemy Within, but either way it's all good. Long War is very much an 'Advanced' campaign. More classes, more gear, more choices, more freedom, and a properly escalating difficulty curve. While the vanilla game has a lot of random elements, progression is fairly linear and story-driven. Long War gives you just enough rope to hang yourself with, and an alien faction that genuinely wants to kill you. Learn the basics with the base game, then upgrade once you feel you're ready for something a little more flexible and more willing to hurt you. Dominic White fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Aug 31, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 23:46
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Finally got my LW campaign under control now that my interceptors have laser cannons and I can actually move satellites to more than my starting continent. Long War does a great job keeping the missions tense, even when I haven't seen anything beyond mutons and cyberdisks. Even terror missions are something else; I "won" one such mission without casualties to my own men but every civilian was turned into a zombie / chrysalid and we lost Japan as a result.
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Aug 31, 2014 02:45
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Hobo Siege posted:Welcome to my world. Europe has been almost impossible to hold thanks to sat hunter spam. Wasn't too long ago I had three attack in the same day, two of them over Germany. You'd better believe I savescummed that poo poo out of pure spite. I do not abide by these "no sorry you don't get to win" moments. Yeah, seconding this - any time I feel like the game is cheating me, I will cheerfully savescum guilt-free. Just a couple hours ago I was moving to flank a thin man; I was right next to him, about three tiles away, and somehow a waist-high fence that offered partial cover completely blocked my line of sight. I reloaded the poo poo out of that move.
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Aug 31, 2014 03:25
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i dunno how many times ive reloaded a fight with a giganto-sectopod because a half cover rock was blocking my view of a four story robot
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Aug 31, 2014 03:59
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Backhand posted:Yeah, seconding this - any time I feel like the game is cheating me, I will cheerfully savescum guilt-free. Just a couple hours ago I was moving to flank a thin man; I was right next to him, about three tiles away, and somehow a waist-high fence that offered partial cover completely blocked my line of sight. I reloaded the poo poo out of that move. Things I will not apologize for reloading on: -Misclicks that send troopers into an exposed space, or Z-axis weirdness that has my guys sprint for the roof -Doors that open when you don't click anywhere near them and activate pods before I'm ready to breach -Line of sight screwups like you describe -Long War EXALT. Everything. Straight up cheat my way through the missions, because they're bullshit. And this will continue in beta 14 because their health isn't the loving problem. EXALT are officially free money and experience. -Friends In Low Places activating too many thin men at once. This map was not designed with patrols in mind, Long War adding that, along with extra thin men, so early in the campaign, is a problem. You can't withdraw on this mission, the extraction zone is on the other side of the map. -(Vanilla problem, still exists in Long War) That loving Cyberdisk on Gangplank. Long war gave an interesting insight here: the cyberdisc is not placed on the map initially. I had the preplaced pods all patrol into me, killed them, the map was clear. (as shown by the immediate end for alien turns) Moved up and then suddenly the aliens are taking turns. The cyberdisc spawns via a script and is already activated. -Long War base attack. Losing is way, way too punishing, and too much is beyond your control on that mission. God help you if none of your currently-active top soldiers have HEAT. I think Long War's tougher aliens make this unreasonably difficult. -That stupid highway overpass map that randomly kills flying aliens? Sometimes aliens teleport behind me into the starting area. Once it was an EXALT pod on a terror map and they decided to be preactivated and got a bunch of free flank shots. The gently caress is wrong with that map? It's the only one where I have that kind of craziness. -Maps that have enemy pods start within visual range. If I take a single point of damage or have to expend a single consumable, I'm done. Hot LZ is not something I wanted to bring back from the original game. gently caress that poo poo, it's not fun. Has anyone gotten through long war on Ironman? Because I want to shake that bastard's hand. Deuce fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Aug 31, 2014 |
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Aug 31, 2014 04:02
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man, i wish i had bothered with collateral damage earlier. makes some missions very fun and easy
Verviticus fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Aug 31, 2014 |
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Aug 31, 2014 04:11
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Deuce posted:-That stupid highway overpass map that randomly kills flying aliens? Sometimes aliens teleport behind me into the starting area. Once it was an EXALT pod on a terror map and they decided to be preactivated and got a bunch of free flank shots. The gently caress is wrong with that map? It's the only one where I have that kind of craziness.
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Aug 31, 2014 04:27
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You know the game balance is out of whack when I'm more scared of EXALT missions than I am of 'swarming' terror missions. At least with the terror missions there isn't a guarantee that half my squad will be critically injured from eating rockets.
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Aug 31, 2014 04:42
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Vib Rib posted:I was actually going to ask if anyone else ran into this. I thought maybe they were just camped out invisibly behind a high-cover truck or something but it's really hard to believe I didn't spot four giant aliens standing around on the side of the highway. I can confirm this one, too. I had that entire bridge loving covered and advanced down it murdering sectoids and floaters. Then I lose a sniper in the back to a pod of Thin Men that literally fell out of the loving sky to active themselves. Assholes.
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Aug 31, 2014 04:54
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The most bugged map I've found is the rainy highway one, which I assume is what you're all talking about as well. Enemies spawn outside the active area and I thought my game was doomed but after waiting over 20 turns the group of 6 floaters finally showed up. Back where the mission started. With the best cover.
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Aug 31, 2014 05:00
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Deuce posted:Things I will not apologize for reloading on: Actually, I found that halving EXALT's HP improves a lot the mission MOST of the time. You can still get screwed by the map and the sheer numbers, but after I changed the .ini it took me some time to realize what was that weird feeling I sometimes felt during EXALT mission... It was "fun", this thing that LW had trained you not to associate with EXALT. The -2/1 HP for b14 is completely insufficient to adress the problem IMO. Maybe it will be more "balanced", but it won't be fun. Speaking of not fun, I'm running into an annoying bug lately: The game just... stopping the progression during the alien turn. Seems to have to do with an alien being under psi panic. There's no way of getting the menu, console command work though. (but a "kill aliens" won't end the mission). Has anyone run into that?
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Aug 31, 2014 05:06
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Zokalwe posted:Speaking of not fun, I'm running into an annoying bug lately: The game just... stopping the progression during the alien turn. Seems to have to do with an alien being under psi panic. There's no way of getting the menu, console command work though. (but a "kill aliens" won't end the mission). Has anyone run into that?
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Aug 31, 2014 05:31
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Zokalwe posted:Actually, I found that halving EXALT's HP improves a lot the mission MOST of the time. You can still get screwed by the map and the sheer numbers, but after I changed the .ini it took me some time to realize what was that weird feeling I sometimes felt during EXALT mission... It was "fun", this thing that LW had trained you not to associate with EXALT. The -2/1 HP for b14 is completely insufficient to adress the problem IMO. Maybe it will be more "balanced", but it won't be fun. It's really a synergy of problems. Long War upped the number of EXALTs, and added a bunch of maps to the EXALT repetoire. Combine large numbers with random patrols and maps that weren't designed with either in mind, and sometimes you just can't do anything but get swarmed by three or four packs that all activate on the first turn. Some of the "protect the encoder" maps I've had EXALT spawn inside the encoder area already. Not even waiting until their first-turn's move, the hacking indicator is red at the start. And their heavies can fire rockets beyond visual range. There aren't any circumstances where that is fun. quote:Speaking of not fun, I'm running into an annoying bug lately: The game just... stopping the progression during the alien turn. Seems to have to do with an alien being under psi panic. There's no way of getting the menu, console command work though. (but a "kill aliens" won't end the mission). Has anyone run into that? I've definitely had this same problem with psi panic. A couple times it has also hung up on using the panic ability itself. The trooper never seems to "finish" their action.
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Aug 31, 2014 05:43
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It's a buggy game, and Long War doesn't really help matters.  That's why you probably shouldn't play on Ironman -- the autosaves the game generates are super useful in case of a Sectoid falling off the map and into the Earth's core.
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Aug 31, 2014 09:07
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is there any way to coax a battleship into showing up? right now all of my elerium is generated from transports which is fairly slow. the assault carrier was only worth like 40 or 50.
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Aug 31, 2014 09:10
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If you want Battleships to show up then give the aliens a boost by accusing the wrong countries of harboring Exalt so they get more bases (Not sure if this helps just leaving them around but you can attack them for a lot of materials), let certain ships go on unopposed (Resource Gatherers are I think the ones that matter for this) because they only field the biggest and most dangerous stuff based on an unseen "alien resource" value. Also I heard Base Defenses are a good source of materials but I might be wrong on that since it still hasn't happened to me.
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Aug 31, 2014 09:15
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they had four alien bases (all of asia) up until recently when i took back my first one. the mission to take them back kinda blows though, controlling ten guys is really slow. kinda dreading temple ship
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Aug 31, 2014 09:17
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Zokalwe posted:Actually, I found that halving EXALT's HP improves a lot the mission MOST of the time. You can still get screwed by the map and the sheer numbers, but after I changed the .ini it took me some time to realize what was that weird feeling I sometimes felt during EXALT mission... It was "fun", this thing that LW had trained you not to associate with EXALT. The -2/1 HP for b14 is completely insufficient to adress the problem IMO. Maybe it will be more "balanced", but it won't be fun. All console commands can be bound to a button and pressed even if the console is turned off. You could try binding kill aliens to a key and pressing that. I can't remember the file to edit off the top of my head, possibly defaultgameinput.ini.
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Aug 31, 2014 09:20
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I halved the exalt health, but I also reduced Exalt heavy aim to 10. Hopefully this results in a rocket shitshow where it's going God knows where.
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Aug 31, 2014 09:54
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EXALT heavies and the slow rear end method through which you eliminate possible host nations are the main problems with that faction's balance, yeah. They're not so much a thorn in XCOM's side as they're a threat five times more terrifying than the aliens could ever hope to be. For as good as the mod can be, I think it seriously misunderstands the intended application for certain unit types.
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Aug 31, 2014 09:59
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Only for americans, apparantly. Will have to look for some european offers!
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Aug 31, 2014 10:31
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So I just started playing this game a couple of weeks ago after buying it in one of the steam midweek deal thingies. I am incredibly bad at strategy games that aren't Civ IV so I went through the tutorial on easy just to get to grips with the game and how it all works. I've been told that the tutorial teaches you what buttons to press but that it isn't good for learning how to play the actual game because it directs you to make some really stupid decisions. I asked in the "what should I know before I play this game" thread and along with some good advice, they directed me here! So does anyone have any advice for someone who is basically new to the genre as well as the game itself? I have both the base game and the expansion (as well as the cosmetic DLC since I got the complete collection but I figure that's not important to actually playing) and I have worked through the tutorial so I know vaguely what buttons to press but that's about it!
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Aug 31, 2014 12:11
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Do you mean tactical advice (e.g. the battles), or strategic advice (i.e. the base layout, research goals, etc)? Because broadly it boils down to "be cautious, never take double moves unless necessary, always have a backup plan for if a killshot doesn't work, flank a lot, probably hunker down if not in full cover, experienced soldiers are more valuable" for combat and "get sattelite coverage over as many places as possible as quickly as possible, research weapons first" for strategy.
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Aug 31, 2014 12:23
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Faerie Fortune posted:So I just started playing this game a couple of weeks ago after buying it in one of the steam midweek deal thingies. I am incredibly bad at strategy games that aren't Civ IV so I went through the tutorial on easy just to get to grips with the game and how it all works. I've been told that the tutorial teaches you what buttons to press but that it isn't good for learning how to play the actual game because it directs you to make some really stupid decisions. I asked in the "what should I know before I play this game" thread and along with some good advice, they directed me here! As I'm sure you've noticed, there are basically two layers to the game: Strategic and Tactical. Your main priorities on the strategic layer starting out will be the construction of satellite infrastructure, the hiring of Engineers, the hiring of scientists and funding in roughly that order. Building a workshop early on isn't a bad idea and it's also smart to have a lab up around month 3 if you can afford it. Prioritize R&D of weapons initially - Most ballistic weapons are complete rear end and will be of little help once the aliens begin to take you seriously. Production of new Sniper Rifles and LMGs can be safely delayed for a bit as those weapons are actually pretty decent in the right hands. Most importantly, know that people are going to die, especially early on. Even if your direction is flawless, your soldiers are going to find a way to gently caress up every now and again.
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Aug 31, 2014 12:24
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scalded schlong posted:Do you mean tactical advice (e.g. the battles), or strategic advice (i.e. the base layout, research goals, etc)? I -think- I'm actually okay on the battle side. I've been playing on normal mode so far but I know to never not be in cover, that snipers can't move and shoot their rifle in the same turn, higher ground is better, never dash unless you absolutely have to, Squadsight is a broken rear end ability and you're insane if you don't take it, and general stuff like that. Through playing I've also learned that if you've revealed any meld containers and they're still intact when the last alien dies you will automatically collect it, and the same goes for citizens during terror missions. Also you can't save everyone and trying to do so will often put you in unnecessary danger. As far as I know, I've at the very least got the basics down and that'll carry me through Normal difficulty with not much trouble. Where I suck is at the base and research stuff. My first non-tutorial game I lost a country in month 2 and I don't think that should be happening! So yeah, I think its the strategic stuff that I need the most help with, all I know is that at one point you get a laser sniper rifle and that sounds awesome.
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Aug 31, 2014 12:33
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Faerie Fortune posted:So I just started playing this game a couple of weeks ago after buying it in one of the steam midweek deal thingies. I am incredibly bad at strategy games that aren't Civ IV so I went through the tutorial on easy just to get to grips with the game and how it all works. I've been told that the tutorial teaches you what buttons to press but that it isn't good for learning how to play the actual game because it directs you to make some really stupid decisions. I asked in the "what should I know before I play this game" thread and along with some good advice, they directed me here! For a completely new player you should play your first game on normal. For the strategic overview focus on getting more satellites up in the first months (this gives you money) and you will definitely want to invest in labs and an early foundry. If you have Enemey Within installed I personally recommend cybernetics over the gene lab. You should also get lasers fairly early. For the tactical game make judicious use of the sniper, get them rank 2 asap for squadsight and just watch enemies explode. Always have your guys in cover and remember that some enemies can move quite far and will flank you if they can. Thin men are especially prone to doing this and are super accurate so focus on them early on and don't be afraid to use grenades, keep your enemies at range. If you have a sub 40% shot just overwatch or hunker down, if they move they don't get the cover bonus for the overwatch shot and will be easier to hit (but your guy still won't be as accurate). That's about it really, just play the game and don't be surprised if you lose your first campaign.
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Aug 31, 2014 12:34
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Also note that satellites are the best (and only) reliable anti-panic weapon you have. Make sure to deploy them as close to the end of the month as possible so they can be launched over nations that're about to pull out.
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Aug 31, 2014 12:45
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Tommofork posted:All console commands can be bound to a button and pressed even if the console is turned off. You could try binding kill aliens to a key and pressing that. What I meant is that I can definitely do a kill aliens (the console is still responsive), if I do it the aliens die, but the game will still be unresponsive, it won't trigger the end of mission.
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Aug 31, 2014 14:40
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Deuce posted:Some of the "protect the encoder" maps I've had EXALT spawn inside the encoder area already. Not even waiting until their first-turn's move, the hacking indicator is red at the start. I just had this happen last night. Infuriating. It was completely impossible to protect the encoder; I moved up on my first turn and activated a good 12 or so Exalt in a single move, in addition to the ones already in the capture radius. I suppose I could have interrupted the hack if I'd taken two turns to dash into the radius, but I most definitely would have lost at least the person I sent in and probably more than that. I can chalk it all up to usual Long War "you won't win every fight" mantra, but Exalt missions always seem to have stuff like that. On a side note, out of curiousity, what's this I've heard about some folks who will start in Africa for the continent bonus and then immediately switch to North America? I'm assuming you deliberately get your own satellite shot down to free up an uplink slot for another continent, but is that all there is to it? Just start the game, ignore a couple UFOs, and hope one of them shoots down your sat?
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Aug 31, 2014 15:43
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Backhand posted:I just had this happen last night. Infuriating. It was completely impossible to protect the encoder; I moved up on my first turn and activated a good 12 or so Exalt in a single move, in addition to the ones already in the capture radius. I suppose I could have interrupted the hack if I'd taken two turns to dash into the radius, but I most definitely would have lost at least the person I sent in and probably more than that. Yes. But pick Asia instead of Africa. Most of your income comes from missions and excess junk.
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Aug 31, 2014 16:11
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I'm continuing to watch NL's long war. 19 episodes in all his interceptors still have exclusively avalanche missiles. Good news though, he just researched advanced lasers and declared it's time to put some lasers on planes. He builds 3 super heavy [SHIV] lasers... *suicide*
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Aug 31, 2014 18:38
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Sorry Long War devs, for how great the rest of the mod is your implementation of Exalt is loving stupid.
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Aug 31, 2014 19:59
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Faerie Fortune posted:I -think- I'm actually okay on the battle side. I've been playing on normal mode so far but I know to never not be in cover, that snipers can't move and shoot their rifle in the same turn, higher ground is better, never dash unless you absolutely have to, Squadsight is a broken rear end ability and you're insane if you don't take it, and general stuff like that. Through playing I've also learned that if you've revealed any meld containers and they're still intact when the last alien dies you will automatically collect it, and the same goes for citizens during terror missions. Also you can't save everyone and trying to do so will often put you in unnecessary danger. As far as I know, I've at the very least got the basics down and that'll carry me through Normal difficulty with not much trouble. Be aware that normal will cheat for you. If you miss it ups the percentage chance of the next shot and keeps doing that every miss until you hit something. Aliens I think get invisible penalties for hitting you so they don't do it often, etc. In battle if you go higher than normal (go higher than normal at some point) there are three truisms that got me through Ironman Impossible 1) Not having somewhere to retreat to is death. Always have somewhere you can go to get out of alien sight ranges and set up for the next fight. 2) More than one alien per two xcom members able to shoot at you during an alien turn is death. They single out one dude and gently caress his day up alot, and then you're down a dude. 3) Explosives are not for doing damage, explosives are for removing cover to flank things.
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Aug 31, 2014 20:38
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Darkrenown posted:I'm continuing to watch NL's long war. 19 episodes in all his interceptors still have exclusively avalanche missiles. Good news though, he just researched advanced lasers and declared it's time to put some lasers on planes. He builds 3 super heavy [SHIV] lasers... *suicide* So I have played this game a lot, never made a SHIV, are they actually worth it?
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Aug 31, 2014 20:55
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