3461

They just upgrade existing items as far as i know.

My arc throwers seemed way more effective after i researched the upgrade.

3462

Yeah, it upgrades existing items. I did the improved medkit and noticed an immediate upgrade in the next mission (after the research was complete).

3463

i.e. if you’re playing on Classic or Impossible

3464

Anyone else have problems with fairly regular lockups during alien turns? I get it a few times a night, where during the alien turn it will just stop during their movement. It’s not a hard lock because aliens are doing idle breathing animations, but they don’t do anything, it stays on ‘alien activity’ and I can’t even bring up the escape menu.

3465

This is a known issue, by known i mean by the player base, not firaxas as they seem to have been quiet on support issues. It sounds like the same issue that I, and others on this forum, have experienced on the player turn, although i haven’t personally experienced it on the alien turn.

3466

Nathan, that happened to me only once in the game I just finished. I thought the game had crashed. But after a LONG wait – at least a couple minutes – the alien turn did end, and I was able to proceed. But I imagine you’ve already tried waiting – even going to get a cup of coffee while you wait?

3467

So my Normal Ironman game was going great! I had a few Majors, no KIAs yet. Had done a Terror mission, I think I was in June. Routine UFO crash, made a foolish, lazy gamble and dashed to flank some aliens with a Captain Assault and triggered another group. Mad Dog died after 11 missions and 18 kills.

Like two missions later, my other Captain Assault, on the 2nd Terror mission of the game, it was like nothing but Chrysallids and they were going nuts on civilians. I used run and gun to chase down a wounded Chrysallid, it had just infected a guy the turn before. Had full cover, safely blasted him to hell. Then the zombie animates and hits my guy for 9! Killing him. Had no idea the zombies hit that hard. Almost lost another guy to the same zombie later. I think I only saved 10 of the 18 and still got a Good rating, that was kind of surprising.

So still doing well but my next highest Assault is a SGT…not so hot. Doing a mission now with a Captain Assault as the reward though.

The takeaway here is get Carapace armor ASAP, and actually build it…I had researched it, had it available during the mission I got the 2nd KIA but hadnt built any…

3468

I have a new theory on base location selection, which is that it’s best to choose something with a lot of countries in it (e.g., Europe) rather than a small number of countries. Continents with small number of countries are good targets for putting up satellites to get the bonus, instead of wasting your free base location bonus getting it. It’s pretty easy putting up three satellites in North America, which nets you the bonus for free, and US and Canada net a fair bit of cash – Mexico doesn’t but if you combine the 50 cash it gives you with the half-price on maintenance you’ll get if it’s the third NA country with coverage, it’s a pretty good deal.

3469

IMO armor is just critical. It’s generally the first thing I go for in terms of research.

One of the problems I had in the original X-Com was that before I got the Hint Book, I didn’t know the path to armor, and I somehow always chose research items that didn’t get me there. Running around with no armor just does not give Squaddies much survivability.

3470

Its a good theory. Until you lose one of those countries early on with no chance of avoiding it. :)

For bonuses its really hard to beat Asia. Great bonus and one thats hard to pick up later.

3471

I never played the original but went ironman on my first attempt and finished the game tonight. Playtime was about 25 hours.

My original sniper made it all the way through and got the final killshot. There should be an achievement for that :)

3472

How did you possibly do that? In my Classic Ironman game, my oldest guy was a mid game rookie.

3473

Yep in my classic ironman game up until just a few missions ago the expected lifespan of an x-com soldier was 1 mission. X-com is a very punishing game if you lose all your veteran soldiers in the mid/late game. Recovering from that may seem impossible but I am here to tell you even in the darkest night some light can shine… Just keep feeding troops into the meat grinder!! ;) if I survive I will post the endgame stats here.

(And for god sake withdraw from missions that aren’t going well before they turn into a total loss. As long as you shoot down the UFOs, and at least give each mission the old college try the council won’t be that mad. The real trick is making sure you succeed abduction missions. Fortunately those become way less common once half the world has withdrawn from the project ;)

Also I have tried all the different start locations and I have the best luck with Europe for some reason.

3474

That is amazing. Until I got the upgraded armor, my guys were fodder.

3475

Note to self: Even if the hit percentage says 90%, find cover before taking the shot.

3476

That’s still a 10% chance you’ll miss.

3477

Also, sometimes you hit and don’t kill the target.

3478

My favorite was having someone miss a 80% shot and then two people miss 95% stun chances in a row when i was trying to stun a new enemy. Although it is also possible that certain large enemies who basically blood rage (whatever) are immune to stuns when this happens and the game just has poor feedback.

3479

My jaw dropped when I had a sniper who missed a 98% shot. He died for it next turn. :/

3480

Only 100% means 100%.