2941

You can’t build workshops or labs until you rescue engineers or scientists respectively when choosing abduction sites. A very annoying decision imo, as I had cases on classic where I wasn’t getting the option to rescue scientist and had to go several months before I could build a lab.

I’m surprised that the game didn’t come with a manual, or if there is one it’s hidden. As a case in point, does hunker down provide a bonus when the player is already in full cover? Or does it only work in half?

2942

I don’t want to enter into that discussion, as scale of prices is unrealistic in soooo many games, of different games.

2943

To trigger an officer school you need to get a soldier up to sergeant rank

2944

It says it doubles the cover bonus, so I would think hunkering down in full cover would be -80% to hit.

2945

Re defusing bombs:

Am I the only idiot who thought that because the power nodes had three arrows around them that you needed thee units in position before they could be turned off? It took two missions before I figured it out.

2946

I don’t really care about it, but it would have forced you to have a backup squad even if you never a guy, because it would have let them stack events such that you might have an attack while your primary squad is still coming home.

Could make for some cool stories, where the ‘B’ squad has to save the day on the big mission. But I can see why they streamlined it out.

2947

Larger ufos seem to have severe unit selection/height problems. I have to basically fight the interface to go to the right height level or to make my troops move to the right place every time it switches active squad member. This has only occurred on the LARGE ufo though.

2948

I have that same problem, especially when trying to free aim a rocket/grenade/battle scanner when there are multiple levels.

And BleedTheFreak and I tried some MP last night, it was twice as bad there. Fighting to get the cursor to the tile I want to move to.

2949

Yep, combat in the multilevel ufos is a total nightmare. Really hope a patch fixes that.

2950

So which are some famous names past or present that have come up in the game for soldiers? I’ve personally got a Mary Martin and a Mike Wallace, and on RPS Alec Meer just got an Adam Smith awarded to him at the end of a mission.

2951

The visibility issue in large UFOs is hopefully a rather minor bug.
If you guys are talking about the same thing, the engine switches the line of sight to the level above if your soldiers are on an elevated position technically still belonging to the level below.
I.e., you are on level 1.5, and the engine rounds that up and selects level 2 LOS, which means you see all your troops hidden by the UFOs roof.
I found the issue was (while slightly annoying) easily resolved by just rolling the mouse wheel forward once and then back again.
Worked for me at least.

rezaf

2952

YMMV but for the larger UFO issue, I found that just rolling the mouse wheel back once forced it to relevel to the bottom level (which is the one you are most often on).

2953

Just got my Additonal Steam Key for Civ 5 from GmG, wasn’t the offer when I pre ordered so a nice surprise.

Anyways it’s going if anyone wants it as I already have it.

Gone to Raz

2954

Finished Normal Iron Man. 13503 was my overall score. 13 soldiers lost.

2955

Whew. After receiving an A in the first month, a C that felt more like an F in April, I got through May with a B and reasonable panic levels (my last mission really helped). My nerves are frayed from excessively careful play but I’m hanging in there and things are looking up.

Still pretty sure I’m going to lose because I’m way behind on both research for new equipment and satellite coverage. I’ll do better next time, hopefully.

XCOM would be my GOTY in any year that didn’t include a Mass Effect release.

2956

I swear to god the aliens cheat, or have some kind of to-hit roll biases.

My team will miss with a shotgun 1 square away with 80%+ to-hit chances.

Aliens will flee halfway across the map and crit with a blaster pistol. They seem to really enjoy killing my snipers.

2957

Dude, your AA never get cracked by 96o?

Once you play poker, this game makes perfect sense.

And… may you all run good.

2958

I’ve felt the RNG was very fair. Once I missed a 99% chance though :o

I played through ironman normal, and it was a bit too easy. Playing through classic now, and I’m really thinking that I often should be more conservative – rather than staying in half cover and taking a shot after discovering multiple aliens, I’m thinking I should often try to run back to full cover if possible.

I have a classic mode sob story already – doing well, around second month with 4 promoted officers, have succeeded my missions with 1 person lost here and there on missions.

Doing that first council escort mission. I kill all the starting aliens and am halfway back with the survivor. Alien spawns right flank, which I was expecting… he runs back out of sight. Next turn he re-enters. He is a bit too far for me to get a clean shot from cover for my right hand side, so I move up and get ready to hit.

Thin man reaction shoots me critically for 9 damage – instakill. Remaining guy #1 panics, fatally shotgun blasts the escorted guy in the face. This panics remaining guy #2 who runs somewhere freaking out. The spare 1-2 aliens run up and kill those two while they are still panic’d, while I run the remaining soldier to the lz for the lose.

One turn, perfect game with 4 strong officers. Half of one guy’s movement and a single alien reaction shot later, 3 dead officers and a failed mission.

2959

I don’t think I could ever play Ironman. I’m trying to play ironman-like, but I need the reload for misclicks. I’m fine with a guy dying because of bad die rolls, but if I die because I accidentally clicked on top of a ledge rather than behind a ledge, I have to reload.

I’ve talked about how much I love the game, so here are my niggles: The soldier selection screen does feel very consoley. I want a table of all soldiers (and gear) on the left and a paper doll the right. Also the jittery camera that doesn’t deal well with elevation/ceilings is my only other gripe.

Tony

2960

I noticed that I make almost every one of my 97% and 98% shots, and only missed one.