XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Woolen_Horde · 2012-10-22T20:40:52.000Z

Heavy = Red
Assault = Stormtrooper White
Support = Yellow
Sniper = Green, like camo
Rookie = No Color, Rook.

beloved_one · 2012-10-22T20:41:46.000Z

habibi:

In my 15 missions I have never found the need to switch weapons to a pistol or anything (aside from Arc Thrower)… when do you need to switch? Isn’t the secondary weapon redundant?

Personally I use the pistol in the following circumstances: Sniper moving then overwatch with pistol, sniper moving then attack on appeared enemy, similar situations with shotgun assault, use pistol at longer distances, sometimes use pistol to chip away health to make capture easier, finally rarely when the first weapon runs out of ammo (usually assault that is firing off multiple double-shots, occasionally with sniper who may also be using double shots).

Quaro · 2012-10-22T21:22:55.000Z

Giaddon:

With a keyboard it is also always Y!

Push Y! It’s so much fun! You’ll be glad you did!

Also X to switch weapons and R to reload!

You can remap everything to be easily hit by your keyboard hand too, that’s what I did. I can tab overwatch my whole team in less than a second.

Alex_Hopkinson · 2012-10-23T02:55:59.000Z

Quaro:

Here’s how to enable it:

Edit XComGame.ini (in your XCOM folder under My Documents\My Games) and add the following lines at the end:

[XComStrategyGame.XGCustomizeUI]
bArmorDecoAvailable=true
bArmorTintAvailable=true

This doesn’t activate the preorder armor models but it does give you the ability to change colors.

Basic colors is all you need if you just want to color code various roles and make the battles more readable.

Thanks for this Quaro.

gambrinous · 2012-10-23T03:32:28.000Z

I’d like it if ctrl-y or shift-Y did an overwatch-all-and-end-turn

Alistair · 2012-10-23T03:51:11.000Z

Or if end turn did an overwatch-all-and-end-turn.

Giaddon · 2012-10-23T03:53:41.000Z

That would be bad because you don’t always want to overwatch all when you end turn!

Savillo · 2012-10-23T06:12:59.000Z

Giaddon:

That would be bad because you don’t always want to overwatch all when you end turn!

It’s always in your interest to put units in Overwatch if you have an extraneous action at the end of a turn. Even though Overwatch shots have reduced accuracy, I think (though I’m not entirely sure because I can’t find any place where this is documented) that the enemy being out of cover (which increases your chances of a critical hit significantly) outweighs the reduction.

Unless you’re using Hunker Down for a forward unit, it’s always better to take a shot on Overwatch at approaching enemies than have your soldiers stand there and do nothing (and potentially eat plasma fire) just to save a round of ammunition. If your soldiers score a kill while on Overwatch, you’ll have plenty of time to reload later.

Reaction fire was automatic in UFO Defense if you left enough time units for a soldier, so I don’t see why Overwatch can’t be likewise automatic in Enemy Unknown. If you really don’t want that and want to let soldiers waste an action by doing nothing for half a turn, then Firaxis could just make this a togglable option.

gambrinous · 2012-10-23T06:17:11.000Z

Generally, but not always. Sometimes you have just one enemy left and want to arc thrower him for the free weapon he’ll drop and don’t want your far off sniper to overwatch him while you run people close enough

Savillo · 2012-10-23T06:20:43.000Z

gambrinous:

Generally, but not always. Sometimes you have just one enemy left and want to arc thrower him for the free weapon he’ll drop and don’t want your far off sniper to overwatch him while you run people close enough

Fair enough. I guess I’m just not very good about capturing aliens. I get too caught up in just killing them, heh, especially after I’ve finished the required story goals.

Wendelius · 2012-10-23T06:24:51.000Z

Yep. Capturing aliens, hunkering down or reloading are the main cases where some or all of my characters don’t end the turn in overwatch.

Overwatch is hardly a pain or slow to set with the Y keyboard shortcut though. Even if there was an auto overwatch setting, I wouldn’t use it. I prefer the flexibility of being in control.

Wendelius

SlyFrog · 2012-10-23T07:50:48.000Z

Any word on patch timing? I’m really digging this, but starting to get worried in my next run through that I’m going to be hitting the vehicle bugs, etc.

Also, I’d really like hitting “B” to actually put my guy on hunker down. :)

Wolff · 2012-10-23T08:04:04.000Z

Over watch shots can’t crit unless talented I think

Wo1verine · 2012-10-23T08:37:08.000Z

SlyFrog:

Any word on patch timing? I’m really digging this, but starting to get worried in my next run through that I’m going to be hitting the vehicle bugs, etc.

There’s a lot of concern over in the 2K Games forum about the lack of any official feedback from Firaxis or 2K. The Marketing people and devs that were out in force before the game released have suddenly vanished. No messages on the next patch, DLC, anything.

hepcat · 2012-10-23T08:43:37.000Z

Just a quick question on lost countries. If I lose three, should I just restart? I lost India, Australia and I believe Nigeria last night in one turn (didn’t have enough coverage yet…but I think I do now). I think I can keep the rest on board though.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-10-23T08:52:26.000Z

What difficulty? Just curious. I don’t think it matters, I believe you are still good to go. 3 isn’t uncommon on Classic, and if you have satellites and a handle on stemming the flow, you should be fine. I had a ton of unused credits by the end of my second game, the income you lose from 3 nations isn’t awesome, but it’s not insurmountable.

Worse is you lose the potential bonus from having a satellite up in all of a country in up to three possible countries, depending on who you lost, and if that impacts what you had planned (if anything) for the late game, that might be a consideration. It probably isn’t though.

I’d just play it as it lies, so to speak, and get as far as you can - you’ll learn more that way than starting over, if nothing else.

hepcat · 2012-10-23T08:53:36.000Z

I’m on classic for this attempt. I can’t seem to get myself to settle with normal difficulty. I always feel like I’m not getting that XCom experience when I go that route.

Telefrog · 2012-10-23T09:05:37.000Z

Wo1verine:

There’s a lot of concern over in the 2K Games forum about the lack of any official feedback from Firaxis or 2K. The Marketing people and devs that were out in force before the game released have suddenly vanished. No messages on the next patch, DLC, anything.

I’m pretty sure we all have to wait for the patch to go through cert for the 360 and PS3.

Giaddon · 2012-10-23T09:57:29.000Z

hepcat:

Just a quick question on lost countries. If I lose three, should I just restart? I lost India, Australia and I believe Nigeria last night in one turn (didn’t have enough coverage yet…but I think I do now). I think I can keep the rest on board though.

Keep going! None of those give a ton of cash, and while losing the continent bonuses hurt (although if you started in Asia or Africa you still have one), it’s doable. You need to lose 8 countries to lose the game, remember, so you’re still in decent shape.

hepcat · 2012-10-23T09:59:35.000Z

Cool, thanks!