Xcom: Enemy unknown discussion

Thanks, Lemonhead. Keep dropping that feedback. I'm still trying to decide what to purchase first between this and Dishonored.

Just remember to backup your save file if you go Ironman mode again. :)
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,138
Location
Florida, US
From what I've seen so far on classic mode, it appears that the aliens stay in stride with whatever advancements you make. It keeps the playing field even, and tactics seem to be really key to winning each battle. I've only lost 2 soldiers so far, but each was a blow.


-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
I remember purposely planning to lose low spec soldiers. Especially ones with low pysch resistance. I replaced the low spec soliders with higher spec'ed recruits by a sort of natural selection process. It really added another level of strategy. Is this in the new game (i.e. random stats, some of which which not improvable)?
 
Joined
Aug 18, 2008
Messages
15,679
Location
Studio City, CA
Yeah, in the old days I would eventually split my soldiers into 2 groups. The low-psionic group only got to do snakeman and muton runs. By the time you could see your psi stats and find each toon's ceiling, you usually needed 2 strike teams to keep pace anyway.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
Just tried a to set a multiplayer game with my brother which failed miserably. Neither LAN, public or private options would work. Oh well.

Making good progress in the singleplayer game.
Good things:
It's just... fun. a lot of fun.
Stays vaguely true to the original.
Combat is fun but gets a bit slow sometimes when advancing slowly towards where you think the aliens are. (a problem with almost all turn based combat)
Customizing your soldiers appearance and name is kind of fun and it's easier to connect with them. It makes me think twice before sending my RL best friend into a room full of chrysalids.
Managing the base, soldiers, choosing research, what to build, how to stretch your money until the end of the month, juggling which country to help, what continent to put satelites & intercepters on, how to equip your soldiers etc. Feels like quite a challange but a fun one and retains most of the complexity from the original.

Bad things:
Steam forced a 2GB update on me to download today. The changelog they posted seemed like minor stuff. Why 2GB?
There are some bugs: like soldiers seeing aliens that aren't there. You try to select the alien icon to shoot but nothing happens.
I could be wrong but it seems like all soldiers start out with the same stats. The lottery of life from the original game seems to be gone.
There is an annoying feature that let's aliens run for cover as soon as you spot them, it's like they always get an extra reaction turn. Kind of annoying.
You can't choose what initial direction your soldiers will take. It's a lottery if they get upgraded to assault, heavy, sniper or support. Feels strange and unnessesary. (after that you get to choose abilities or skills with each promotion.)
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
999
Location
The Great White North
The game has been totally solid for me in that I've had no crashes or corruption or weirdness. Steam says I have 14 hours of play time. I'm enjoying it but feel the there is not as much depth as I would have expected.

Make sure on the seeing alien bug and can't shoot that you are not focused on a sniper who has moved so cannot fire that weapon or someone who has expended all moves, I do that more than I'd like to admit.

I also dislike the soldier lottery. At least when you can buy a promotion which starts off all rookies with that first skill which gives them their specialty. The psi upgrade is more painful as it takes a long time to test for the skill but at least makes sense in game.

I also don't like that the aliens do not seem to wander the map and are waiting you to find them. Not sure it applies to the rescue missions but seems to.

My game also gave me a lot of abduction missions early so I had very high panic levels but then later there were much fewer of this missions. Not sure if that is intentional in making the game harder or something.
 
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Messages
688
My game also gave me a lot of abduction missions early so I had very high panic levels but then later there were much fewer of this missions. Not sure if that is intentional in making the game harder or something.

Do you know if it's possible to bring back countries that withdrawl due to panic? I've also run into problems with lots of early abduction missions, and it's caused a lot of countries to withdraw from the project.
 
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
2,163
The game on me didn't hiccup at all anywhere so far, except an odd bug where buying items screen wouldn't appear upon loading a previous save, but after the game restart this was sorted.

fadedc I think withdrawal is intended, I mean… I don't see how can you possibly cover all countries with sattelites in a short time. Seems we all get endless choose who to help abduction missions too early so we can't calculate efficiently which country to back up so other one or two don't panic too much.
Dunno if it's possible to gain countries that withdraw back. In my case, and I didn't play it much, Germany withdrew and I expect a few more countries soon to leave, so my efforts went into keeping in the council those countries that bring more money than others (Russia for example). Also I've started in NA so I covered with sats all 3 countries to grab the bonus. Dunno also if that's a good strategy, but then again, I'm playing it for the first time. ;)
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Aliens don't wander the map - they stay still in a little clump until they get visual. When that happens, they get a round where they are allowed to move but not fire. Also, aliens are extremely deaf. You can have rockets blowing out walls but, until the aliens actually see you, they'll just ignore it. (To be fair, most games have deaf enemies but somehow it seems more silly in this game.)

The interface is the real pain for me in this game. The camera is just awful! You can only spin around to one of four angles, the zoom is weak, and the camera gets really confused if you get near the edge of a map. The interface is also huge - yet still needs to scroll text because the fonts are even larger.

The manual is a terrible joke. You'll learn far more from the tips you'll see when loading missions and the game. (Woe to those who have the game installed on an SSD!)

On the plus side, though, the game is REALLY fun! Every time your squad seems to have gotten strong enough to take on the aliens, some new critter pops up and sends half your team to the hospital. One dumb mistake can end a favorite soldier's life for good. Well, OK, if you want you can always reload and try to keep them alive but don't do that too much. The game is a lot more exciting when you pay for your dumb mistakes.

The game has got some bugs so I wouldn't try Ironman yet. I've had it hang on me a few times and taking a Steam screenshot really mangles the game for me. There's also some things that seem like bugs but really aren't - like shooting through walls. The aliens' weapons are strong enough to blast right through a wall but the game sometimes forgets to destroy the wall when that happens, making it seem like the aliens (and later, your own squad) are cheating.

P.S. If there's a way to bring a nation back into the XCom fold, I haven't seen it. Maybe if I start protecting other countries in the same continent?

P.P.S. Yep, every rookie does seem to have the same stats.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
You cannot get countries back once they left so try to keep them at 4 bars or less. Its really part of the strategic layer, pick which countries you want to keep and which to lose as long as its under 8. There is a limit to number of countries that leave per month except for hardest difficulty. I lost 4 countries in the second month when I tried at that level and had 3 more really close. Its worth noting that losing a mission (or not choosing one in abduction) results in collateral panic in all countries on same continent as loss so Asia is good to keep happy.

I've basically settled on trying to maximize engineers to exclusion of scientists as they seem to be the limiting step for most things. I also try to keep a satellite in reserve near the counsel report to knock down panic on countries I want to keep but not really sure how good an idea that is.
 
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Messages
688
I only have one question how are the controls. The reviews mention poor pc controls and recommended a controller.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,185
Location
Spudlandia
^ the ui really sucks, totally made for consoles. mouse support is poor..
the levels also feels very generic, and there are way too few tile sets.
its still a fun game tho.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
142
I'm enjoying it a lot, the controls do seem more suited for a console but I'm having no trouble using them, so far. My one concern is that I didn't develope any psychic soldiers, and I'm starting to think at some point they may actually be required....if so, that would suck. A lot!


-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
Yeah, that's going to suck Carnifex. I've got two in my game. A pity I can't gift one to you!

Mouse/keyboard has worked fine for me except for opening doors. "V" is supposed to do that but it almost never works. Clicking the door with the mouse pointer seems to work fine.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Sooo......I did a mission, got a new sniper as a reward, turns out he was gifted and I won the game on the very next mission. ET got sent home in a f'n body bag!!! Great game, gonna replay it again at some point, but psi powers are WAY overpowered, don't get any squaddies with those abilities if you really want a challenge. My one psi guy mopped the floor with alien juice =p


-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
Since it doesn't work for me either, V not working to open doors is a bug. Mouseclicking works fine.
Poor PC controls? Ditch that article, it's a lie.
Camera is annoying in a few alien spaceships, it defaults to whatever level so you have to use the mousewheel constantly in those area. Other than that it's not that bad, you'll adapt.

Besides sending a sattelite, I've noticed also that alien lab mission lowers the panic level in the whole world. I've deliberately put that mission on hold till I cover all countries I can with sattelites, maybe I did that one too late - I've lost 4 countries in the process. :(
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Poor PC controls? Ditch that article, it's a lie.

It's more than one review and some people on other sites. They claim the UI and controls need more work on the pc. I'll take your and others word for it here though.

I will haunt you if your wrong.:p
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,185
Location
Spudlandia
The camera angle is a bit wonky at times, but that's the only issue I had on the PC while playing, and it was a trivial issue at best. Well worth playing as is on the pc right now.



-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
The big problems I ran into with the controls aren't things that would work any better on an XBox controller. In some UFO's, selecting certain squares makes the camera go outside the ship so you can't see what you're picking - it doesn't matter HOW you select the square. When you get two shots at an enemy, the second shot doesn't default to the one you just shot at - again, it doesn't matter how you selected that first shot.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Back
Top Bottom