3341

From what I can tell, it auto-saves about once per turn, usually at the beginning of your turn. It might also save at the beginning of the alien’s phase, but I’m not sure about that. I’ve been able to save-scum my iron man game slightly to make up for interface issues (pressed wrong button accidentally), and it puts me at the beginning of my last turn.

On consoles, you can also press start to “save and exit” which forces a save in the exact state you were in when that save was made.

3342

PC version also have Save and Exit.

3343

I finally finished Normal+Ironman and I still lost over 50 soldiers throughout the game, mainly because I had all my best troops killed on one particular story mission about halfway through. It took 2 more squad wipes, mostly rookies, before I was finally able to beat that mission. I might have quit and started over but I’m glad I persevered. My best soldier started as a rookie on that mission; eventually she made Colonel.

Reviewed in the New York Times today.

3344

Yeah Fret - I might have my quarrels with the game, but you took my statement out of context.
I think the standard combat operations can get a bit tedious, but it’s the abilities that speed up combat again to compensate. Thus, in the bottom line, it’s hardly ever tedious. Well, sometimes it is, in the bigger levels, but it’s rare.

In the first playthrough, everyone should have at least a decent amount of fun with the game - whether he’s nitpicking about the things he doesn’t like or not hardly matters.
Then it immediately depends what type of gamer you are - if you don’t mind the map, story and other repetition, you can have fun a few more playthroughs, I guess. Afterwards, without mods or substantial DLC/addons, it’s most probably shelving time.
Well, unless you REALLY REALLY enjoy the new tactical combat mode.

rezaf

3345

Playing Normal+Ironman and lost a full Elite squad of Six on one of the story missions. Not attempting that thing again until tech is significantly leveled up.

Up until this point I’ve lost maybe two guys and was feeling pretty lazy and expecting the usual happy handholding we see in most modern “mass market” games.

X-com even on Normal isn’t afraid to turn up he heat. I think I’m in my 3rd month of gametime now, and it’s anyones bet on if I’m going to win or not. Giggity

3346

The ethereals… omg, until I got up to plasma and alloy cannons they were still giving me fits.

Last night I captured a beserker for the first time…which turned out to be complete useless as far as I could tell. He gave me armor research credit, but because I started in Europe I’m already fully down that tree. Thinking I need to get the improved arc thrower earlier in the game to make the captures more worth it.

3347

Sorry for that; I was worried the abilities were basically fun but non-optimal. If they’re optimal (most of the time) and fun, that’s great.

I’m sure I’ll have a great time when I eventually pick it up. I’m just finding it hard to justify full-price games on Steam, when I have such a backlog and I know in a year or two it will be half (or less) its current price.

3348

Well, thats it for me.

Last mission was a royal fuckup because of the god damn stupid camera as soon as the ufo is more than 1 level high. I simply refuse to play a game where the the system punishes you because it doesn’t work.

Yeah - classic rage quit, but it IS annoying, and not really something that is indicative of good design. They REALLY should be able to make the move selection work before releasing the damn game.

3349

Is the Skeleton/Grappler Hook Suit worth researching? It seems like I’ve always got a huge number of unresearched items, and researching something that’s only good for Snipers and only in specialized situations seems like a bit of a waste. So I’ve never tried to get it. How much am I missing out on?

3350

IIRC, skeleton armor has +10 defense, but has 1 less HP than Carapace. Given that 10 defense is a -10% to-hit, I’d say it’s a significant upgrade.

3351

Do you put it on your non-Sniper soldiers as well?

[Edit] Now that I think about it, I probably don’t have enough money to equip them on anyone except Snipers anyway.

3352

I believe it has more mobility, as well, so it’s actually good for any unit in that regard, especially support.

3353

Thanks CLWheeljack and BleedTheFreak. Okay, maybe I’ll have to give it a shot. I’ve also got Alien Navigation, UFO Power Source, and all the follow-on Laser Weapons past Beam Weapons, so I’m feeling a bit behind on research. And the Skeleton Suit needs 16-days (the longest time of anything on my list)!

I’m presuming Beam Weapons is a predecessor to any of the Plasma Weapons (is that true?). If so, are Heavy Lasers, the Shotgun Laser thing, and Sniper Laser’s predecessors to whatever their Plasma equivalents are, or do you recommend skipping over them and waiting for Plasma?

3354

Nope. Once you get a hold of an intact plasma weapon you can research it and that will open up the specialist guns. The research times are pretty high, but if you capture a muton you can get a plasma weapon research boost that helps a lot.

In my classic game I made a beeline for the arc thrower and made a point to grab the first muton I saw. The only drawback to skipping lasers was I ended up having to fight mutons with conventional weapons for 3 or 4 missions until I got plasma researched and in the field, but as long as you capture a lot of aliens and build up a stockpile of plasma it will save a lot of money in the long run.

3355

Thanks, I’ll have to keep that in mind for my next playthrough.

3356

On one of the forums I’m on, I think it was this one, but might have been OO or GT, there was a discussion on Terror Missions, and the conclusion was that saving citizens doesn’t matter. Just saw a loading screen tip that “The number of saved citizens affects how much panic levels drop across the continent.” So while keeping your squad alive is probably your number one goal (since otherwise you lose the scenario), apparently you can get some good benefits by getting those citizens to safety.

3357

This is the strategy I followed in my most recent game, capturing each new alien type as it appeared. I got to use the light plasma rifle relatively early, but that’s not much more powerful than a laser rifle (it only has the aim bonus). I couldn’t research the regular plasma rifle until I (much later) captured one from the first Mutons that showed up.

I did end up researching beam weapons for the heavy laser and sniper rifle. It’s pretty quick with research credits, and otherwise you end up waiting far too long to get your hands on upgrades for those classes.

3358

Yeah, my current game Snipers are kind of shit, but that’s probably largely because they’re still on regular weapons and everybody else is on lasers. I may just have to avoid using them altogether until I can get the research done.

3359

If I don’t do the alien base mission for a while, will the game not up the difficulty? Or will the difficulty and # of aliens continue to ramp up regardless?

I kind of viewed the alien base mission as a trigger to move you on. I might mod the game (playing on Classic) if this is so, so I can stay in early game longer.

3360

I started a second game on Normal, and am finding it feels quite different depending on where you put your base. The first time I put it in Europe, the second time in East Asia. Seems like the tech progresses quite a bit faster with the former location.