XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[chandra]

I just aborted a mission that had me running my backup sniper back to LZ, and I lost Germany and France over it, I think I may be approaching the end of my first game, its June - surprised I made it this far. I never played the original X-Com but my partner had and was all too happy to bring this home, first game in a while we’ve both played so routinely, fortunately it is just as much fun to be the armchair general when the other is playing.

I couldn’t resist logging in just to rave about this game even though I never played the original. I think my last posts here were when I felt this way about Viva Pinata. Anyhow I just wanted to rave and throw my love onto this thread before I got back to playing the game.

I even don’t mind killing aliens, which as a genre I usually find a bit too dark or boring visually (but then you add zombies and everything gets better).

[Giaddon]

Mostly true.

The other perk you can choose from when selecting Squadsight is Snap Shot, which allows you to move and shoot - or move and select overwatch - in one turn. So you can either shoot at anyone in any squad members line of sight, or move/shoot like everyone else.

Personally, I had trouble with Squadsight. I could rarely get the LOS thing to work out, and ended up always using the Sniper that had the Snap Shot perk instead.

Snap shot has a nasty -20% aim penalty, though. You can partially offset that with a scope, but I like my snipers as accurate as possible.

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Snap shot has a nasty -20% aim penalty, though. You can partially offset that with a scope, but I like my snipers as accurate as possible.

I agree with you on paper, but I have just one sniper and he’s a Colnel right now, and I have wanted him to have snap shot WAY more often then he’s actually fired his rifle, it seems like. On the other hand… he has Double Tap now, so it’s aaaaaaall good.

[DeForrestation]

I think his concern is that the terror mission is the first really, really tough mission in the game, comparitively, and he HAS to take it or scrap the entire game, and it sounds like he’s a little under equipped (maybe). I would be worried to, but terror missions are ALWAYS rough. To be fair, I don’t think I had lasers or anything on my terror mission, nor did I have any one of any significant ranke.

Same here. My first terror mission was absolutely exhilarating. All the baddies were in a two story building, and when I approached, two Chrysalids smashed out of upper story windows and dropped in adjacent to my soldiers! AHHHHH run away, run away, Shredder rocket, run away , run AWAY, RUN AWAY!!!

[Virgil_Hilts]

With a good pistol and Gunslinger snap shot is unnecessary, while squad sight provides a tangibly unique ability to get >75% shots from halfway across the map. No contest. Really, the sniper’s skill tree isn’t balanced very well. Gunslinger, Squad Sight, and Double Tap are all borderline requirements because a sniper with those three skills dominates the field like nothing else.

[Virgil_Hilts]

This game has a terribly uninformative interface. The XCOM database is less than worthless, you can’t see what a weapon’s stats are until you build it, there’s stuff like that one ability that gives you extra damage against robots(but what counts as a robot?), until you actually use a SHIV in combat you have no idea what it can do, etc. Come on, Firaxis, the whole game doesn’t need to be a black box.

[forgeforsaken]

With a good pistol and Gunslinger snap shot is unnecessary, while squad sight provides a tangibly unique ability to get >75% shots from halfway across the map. No contest. Really, the sniper’s skill tree isn’t balanced very well. Gunslinger, Squad Sight, and Double Tap are all borderline requirements because a sniper with those three skills dominates the field like nothing else.

Plus you can upgrade pistols in the foundry as well, making that an even better build.

[Hugin]

Mostly true.

The other perk you can choose from when selecting Squadsight is Snap Shot, which allows you to move and shoot - or move and select overwatch - in one turn. So you can either shoot at anyone in any squad members line of sight, or move/shoot like everyone else.

Personally, I had trouble with Squadsight. I could rarely get the LOS thing to work out, and ended up always using the Sniper that had the Snap Shot perk instead.

The key to Squad Sight sniping is positioning your sniper. You’ve got to figure out on the map where the most fruitful firing position will be (usually elevated) with the longest (or most, depending on the map layout) unobstructed shooting lanes.

[Sepiche]

Yeah, squad sight and double tap especially will own a battlefield if there’s lots of open space to give good lines of fire.

My best sniper had double the kills of the next best soldier because she could generally just casually sit back on a hill overlooking the battlefield and pop heads off enemies as fast as my guys could find them.

In my next game I’m planning on training up two for my main assault group.

Just finished up my first game last night and had a blast all the way through. Final battle was certainly interesting, and a pretty good endurance challenge. I really kind of wish I had brought two support troops on it instead of two snipers, but I managed by being a bit more careful than usual.

[Giaddon]

This game has a terribly uninformative interface. The XCOM database is less than worthless, you can’t see what a weapon’s stats are until you build it, there’s stuff like that one ability that gives you extra damage against robots(but what counts as a robot?), until you actually use a SHIV in combat you have no idea what it can do, etc. Come on, Firaxis, the whole game doesn’t need to be a black box.

Agreed, if you learn anything, add it to the combat mechanics thread.

[HumanTon]

Quick question, that’s probably been asked and answered several times but the thread is moving too fast: Anybody playing on console? Recommended? I’ve heard several places say that the interface is pretty controller-centric, but I’m still leery about some of the menu / equipment kind of stuff.

I’m playing on the 360 and having a grand old time. The controller interface is good – you’ll need to look at the layout a couple times at the start, but you get the hang of it very quickly.

[flyinj]

I’ve played about 10 games of Ironman Classic, and in every one of them 2 countries leave the alliance midway into the first month. Is this supposed to happen?

I have no idea how I could stop them… in that two week span I can only get 1 abduction mission in one of the four that start with 2-3 panic to reduce their panic levels, but then the neglected others go up in panic drastically because they are ignored.

[tgb123]

I think his concern is that the terror mission is the first really, really tough mission in the game, comparitively, and he HAS to take it or scrap the entire game, and it sounds like he’s a little under equipped (maybe). I would be worried to, but terror missions are ALWAYS rough. To be fair, I don’t think I had lasers or anything on my terror mission, nor did I have any one of any significant ranke.

Though, I also lost everyone except the sniper that made it back to the LZ and boogied out of there, then the game spiraled out of control from there!

That’s exactly what my concern was. I only lost two squad members, which is good, but also only managed to save 4 civvies. I did get the panic reduction, so it was worth it.

[Tyjenks]

I just had two leave early in the game on normal/ironman and I have no idea what I could have done differently short of moving all research and engineering towards satellites and still do not think you could have the coverage necessary. It would appear that the game does not intend for you to have the whole planet on your side for a substantial part of the game.

[Universal_Leader]

Classic is tough, but it doesn’t seem scripted to lose you countries in the first month. I’ve played games where I didn’t lose any countries until the second month.

[Sepiche]

The good news is losing a country isn’t a death sentence. It’s good to avoid, but it’s not crippling. Sometimes you’ll lose a country and just not really be able to do much about it.

One good piece of advice is to hold off on launching satellites until a few days before council meetings. That lets you launch them over somewhere that’s getting close to leaving the council just before the meeting.

[Savillo]

I finally had a chance to play a little after the patch, and what an improvement to performance! Edge scrolling is smooth and the mouse doesn’t feel laggy.

Did anyone else notice that you can now simply click on aliens to target them? Unless I’m not remembering correctly, but I don’t think that was possible pre-patch.

[flyinj]

Well that sucks. I actually did put a satellite up over a country that had 3 bars to prevent them from leaving. I lost two though. I’m doing REALLY well this time around though, and I’m most likely going to lose another one on the second month. I guess I just got really unlucky with the initial panic distribution roll? Am I pretty much screwed if I lose 3 countries in the first two months?

Also, does putting a satellite over a country make the whole continent more happy, or just the country it’s over?

[Nathan_Phoenix]

Post patch, berzerkers that get their intimidate move make both of the machines I play this on freeze up for a few seconds every time, which is not game breaking but annoying. Didn’t have that happen before.

[Savillo]

Post patch, berzerkers that get their intimidate move make both of the machines I play this on freeze up for a few seconds every time, which is not game breaking but annoying. Didn’t have that happen before.

I was experiencing that pre-patch. I’m disappointed that it’s not fixed.