2841

Is anyone encountering a bug where the game fails to respond to the keyboard? It’s happened twice since the patch, once in the base and once on a mission. You can’t even quit out of the game normally because the ESC and ctrl-alt-del keys don’t work either, and the only solution is a cold reboot.

Fortunately iron man has a save of your last good move, but it’s still a massive pita. And it must be rare, because I haven’t found anything on it on the official forum.

2842

I am playing on Normal and although I am not playing Iron man, I have never reloaded to re-do a mission. I rarely have a soldier die on any map and when it has happened, it has always been a rookie who gets one-shotted. I am just a very cautious player although the difficulty is ramping way up now after that alien base I raided, and while I have not had any real deaths yet, I can’t see that continuing.

2843

I had a “whew, there’s an autosave” moment: I was pinned down in a Montreal gas station, everything exploding around the squad, when one of the Heavies in full cover behind a van decided it was time to panic, and began shooting up his teammates. Then, everyone else started to panic. Then, my medic started screaming.

I didn’t see the rest of it as my head was firmly planted on my desk.

2844

My hard earned lesson of the day is that power generators need a certain amount of power before they can be built.

Don’t build pricey facilities that squeeze the power margin down so small that you cannot build generators. You’ll have to tear something down and then rebuild it later. A painful and expensive lesson.

XCOM will miss you, alien containment facility. We’d barely taken off the shrink wrap before we had to put you out on the curb for bulk trash pickup.

2845

I played on a fair bit since I posted that, and I haven’t yet reached levels that don’t feel like narrow tubes. Even the (first?) alien base was like that.

I’ve also come to really loathe the stupid mechanic that, even if they run into you unexpectedly while patrolling, the aliens get a free turn to run for cover.
Which idiot came up with that?

Spoiler

Probably the same guy that did the Chryssalid thingy during the base assault.

I’ve also had aliens “flank me” by appearing from thin air.

Losing soldiers was an important and integral part of X-Com, but the original game didn’t have to use cheap exploits like that to make it happen.

Also, I’ve come to really miss TUs. Well, not really all that much, but I think 2 actions/turn is too little. And why the heck does reloading waste my entire turn if I do it first?

rezaf

2846

On the build screen press the giant question mark in the bottom left?

2847

Thanks so much for pointing this out! I forced a fail state and was able to complete it the second time. Campaign salvaged.

2848

The way the combat works now, if the aliens didn’t get to scurry away when you find them, you would be able to blow them away pretty easily.

2849

Or alternatively they could all be in overwatch and instasmoke your guy.

2850

Yeah. Both those options suck. I was skeptical, but I think the scurry move is a good call.

2851

I miss them too, I liked being able to move a little shoot then get under cover. Can’t do that now.

Also something neat happened to me, I fired the game up on my Alienware laptop and the Alienware word located on the monitor panel lighted up blue on my turn then turned red for the aliens turn.

2852

You can also interrupt their scurry move with some later overwatch upgrades. It starts to work against them as you get into the game.

2853

This actually happens already, you just need to have “awakened” the aliens before. Like other things in this game, the particular move isn’t what bothers me, it’s that it ALWAYS happens that annoys me.

Another example: Weapon research.
Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Machine Gun, Sniper Rifle.
Laser Rifle, Laser Shotgun, Heavy Laser, Laser Sniper Rifle.
I can’t WAIT to see what exciting developments the Plasma Weapon branch will bring.

Also, like I had feared from the video, no destructible terrain AT ALL. That sucks.
UFOs should be more stable.

In my current campaign, I just had the second map come up twice (so far): A forest map was first, now the capitol map with the gardens and the bridge. Definately too small map selection.

rezaf

2854

Goddamn run and gun is such a good skill.

I like all the classes, actually. I was kind of worried that one would be much worse than the others, or something, but they all have their strengths. Still, my ideal team is 3 assault, and one of everything else.

2855

Pro-tip: If you’re yelling “ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME??” at the RNG, the answer is “Yes.”

I kid you not, I had a Grey run in front of 2 snipers and 2 heavies, all with Overwatch on, and they, to a man, completely missed him.

2856

What do you mean no destructible terrain? There’s walls, rocks, trees, gas pumps being destroyed all over the place in my game.

2857

Pfft, there hardly IS a RNG.
They used the immediately stupid approach of going with a predetermined “seed” that never changes and is even stored in the savegame. And it not only “steers”, it is basically in total control.
I tested one particular situation at the beginning of a turn.
Whatever their to-hit percentage, ALL six soldiers would miss their shot.
One had 95% to hit.

rezaf

2858

But like, the earth, man.

2859

Neither of these things is “terrain”. Destructible terrain means if you blow up a huge bomb, there’s a crater. If you shoot your rocket into a earthen hill, part of it collapses. None of these things can happen. The actual terrain is adamant, you can merely “destroy cover”.

rezaf

2860

Overwatch suffers from an aim penalty except for high-level snipers.

In one turn with three different units, I missed a 97%, 93% and 88% shot all within a few tiles of the intended victim. It’s a fantastic way to push a seemingly calm day into complete ragesville.