3681

The argument would be that it isn’t communicated to the player, so he has no way of knowing which version is “fixed”. A lot of this information came from user reports or from looking at the ini files.

Besides If the reviewer has a bad experience on normal (the “default” difficulty), it’s a legitimate criticism. Maybe it’s not completely accurate when looking at the game as a whole, but since a reviewer is unlikely to try both modes (especially if there’s no explicit explanation describing how they differ), it becomes a “best foot forward” kind of case. Also, since that isn’t the only way that classic is harder, for that player it may go from tedious to impossible with no in-between.

I’m kind of devil’s advocate-ing though; In my own case, I don’t really have a problem with it (so far). I think the balance works pretty well even on Normal, thanks to the cover / LOS placements requiring you to explore territory you may not, ideally, want to. You can be mostly careful, but eventually things will go pear-shaped, and that kind of routine punctuated with “oh shit” works well. (Also, playing on Ironman helps, I think).

3682

I will really have to try and force myself to play again but on classic this time to see if the game really does get better. I have a tough time with multiple play throughs unless a game is more open ended - like a game of Civ. I wish I just played on classic for the first game.

3683

It’s definitely worth it I think (although best to wait for a patch to clear up some of the more annoying issues). My first playthrough was on normal and it was a fun and excellent way to learn the game, but I only lost 1 trooper through the entire game, and that was because he got mind controlled and my other guys reaction shotted him before I could do much. :P

On classic I think I lost a good 10 or 15 guys. Never had a full team wipe, but I had lots of tough fights where I came through with only 2 or 3 guys still standing, and my game was suitably more exciting for it.

3684

Wow, I’ve lost a screen on the memorial’s worth of troops in my first Normal game so far. Playing hardcore without the hardcore flag switched on. I lost 5 wiley veterans in one mission yesterday. I cried.

3685

It happens on normal too.

3686

Hmm, something is different in Classic. In Normal it seemed like it was always me initiating an encounter, I would be moving and get the cutscene/camera view change thing, showing a new bunch of aliens then they would take cover and its back to my turn.

In Classic, this seems to happen on its own during the Aliens’ turn, especially if I have a different group already engaged.

3687

If it does, I didn’t see it in my normal game that went a few months before I switched to Classic.

Normal has the goofy drop-in aliens, but I didn’t see any moving patrols as you see all the time in Classic.

3688

Aliens do patrol on normal. I’ve seen it happen by using the Battle Scanner and ghosted soldiers (and this is where you’ll see that the game shortcuts their movement by “teleporting”) in addition to having a group or two walk into view. The latter, admittedly, feels rare on normal, though, compared to classic.

3689

I suspect that ties into the limited number of active units mechanic on normal. If you’re already at the unit limit it probably holds back patrolling units or something similar.

3690

Well that last mission is absolute crap. Put a real dampener on the game for me.

All those crapy cutscenes, moving-into-a-room-triggers-enemy-spawn stuff. Bah. Also, I had a bug where I couldn’t seem to get everything through the final door. Coupled with a ‘saves not always appearing in the list’ bug and I had a very frustrated time.

TIP FOR THE LAST MISSION TO STOP YOU HATING THE GAME: the final ‘door’. Conga line everyone inside before doing ‘the trigger’. You can even get your people in good positions before hitting the ingame trigger. Do this because the game seems stop people walking through the clearly open doorway.

SPOILER TIP FOR LAST MISSION

Also: you can just blast the main alien and ignore the 2 mutons and the 2 floaty guys and that’s it, well done, you are winner

I like the stats screen at the end though. Made me feel slightly better than average, but overall still average.

He’s a textfile of hatred I kept whilst playing. No spoilers, but it folds up

"

[ul]
[li]needs button to unequip everything[/li][li][INDENT]psi training doesn’t strip a person of their gear?[/INDENT][/li][li]needs tabbing between soldiers in loadout[/li][li]do not like computer assigning things, loadouts, teams etc[/li][li]overwatch all shooting at the same target. arg[/li][li]abilities change hotkey numbers on different soldiers.[/li][li]the way the camera snaps down to your troop in lowest zoom, instead of just staying zoomed out is really annoying[/li][li] send single squad member back to hide in skyranger is not allowed :/[/li][li] scanner doesn’t seem to do z levels or work well indoor?[/li][li] someone on the roof of the giant ship shot at someone below him[/li][li] los on these large walled maps is fucked[/li][li] circles for bombs etc – square based game, hard to tell what is covered[/li][li] los in general is hard to see. can’t tell if destination square can see square x[/li]
[li]cars kill about as much as the aliens do. they often go from OK->explode in a single turn, given enough incoming fire[/li]

[li] I want the game to remember that ARMOR DECO = 2 for carapace[/li]
[li]mousehweel in the menus sucks[/li][li]auto scroll in foundary makes text a chore to read. why no scrollbars?[/li]

[li]don’t like these ‘story’ levels with triggers[/li][li]can’t skip the in mission ‘cutscenes’[/li]
[li]can’t get through the fucking door on the last mission[/li][li][INDENT]stupid save bug not showing up until old ones are deleted[/INDENT][/li][/ul]

I don’t feel the compelled to play the game again, not even for the joy of doing classic ironman. Not until they sort out the problems, add some random missions and possibly an option to avoid all ‘story’ missions. Overall I had a good time, though it’s no Jagged Alliance or original XCOM.

3691

Whatever it is, the non-existence of patrolling units in normal is what made me switch over to Classic mid-game, after I read about patrolling in this thread. The game just felt so static.

I do wish they made patrolling more realistic (e.g., the aliens leapfrogging via cover) rather them popping up and then getting their reaction turn. Still, that’s mostly cosmetic, so I can deal.

3692

Playing Normal, I frequently encountered situations where I was immobile in cover – reloading or having moved someone elsewhere, and aliens found me on their turn. That may not be a patrol so much as randomly moving around, but it wasn’t that rare later in the game with more units per map. Early in the game it didn’t happen that much, and I was mostly just activating little groups in the usual way.

3693

No. We clearly articulated that we dislike how it affects the game’s pace and the tactical options. You’re weeks behind the conversation.

3694

Yeah, that sounds about right to me. Most of the groups on normal do appear to just be waiting for you to show up (and you can see this when you get close enough to see a group in the fog of war without actually triggering them, and they just sit there for a whole turn doing nothing).

Same here. The last mission just throws out everything you’d been learning in the tactical game. One more tip to get though the end quickly:

Tip

Bring two Double Tap Snipers with you and a spotter in Ghost armor.

[/li]
I think this is fixed, somehow. In my current game, I’m noticing that Overwatch soldiers are shooting reaction fire one at a time. I don’t really have an explanation because I noticed the same thing (all shooting at the same target simultaneously) on my first playthrough. But the game doesn’t handle it well, and sometimes the shot will happen offscreen while the camera pans over to something else.

It’s particularly noticeable if you like to exploit the predictability of the bomb diffusion mission as I do. The turn that I switch off the bomb, I put everyone on Overwatch. When the Thin Men fall from the sky, my soldiers will start shooting at the first ones to drop as the others are still falling. And that results in reaction fire happening offscreen.

3695

Wow, someone’s cranky today! :P

Since you use “it” to describe what you dislike so much it’s a bit hard for me to understand what you’re complaining about exactly, but looking back through your posts in the thread for the last couple weeks you haven’t commented on anything touching on the fog of war or the aliens activation move, so maybe you could articulate your position instead of letting “we” do it for you? Is it the activation move you dislike? The fog of war? The activation cap on normal?

Yes, I quite agree. ;)

3696

It’s not that big of a deal. I jumped on you for putting words into our mouths because certain preview cheerleaders were doing the same at release. Just wanted to nip that in the bud.

I made multiple posts about it (the enemy wakeup problem) on the first page of search results under my name. A few other people joined in. Enjoy. I concluded that I wished they had come up with a better solution to a difficult problem, though I don’t hate what they have there now. Mostly I just wanted people to stop talking about X-Com’s pacing problems as if that’s the last word on XCOM.

3697

Ok, so I have some things I want to play with - is there a modding guide out there somewhere? I recognize I will have to run Steam in offline mode for any changes to have an impact.

-CJ

3698

I solve the “enemy wake-up problem” by putting squadsight snipers on overwatch before exploring.

3699

Is that optimal though? Overwatch incurs penalties. But you usually catch them out in the open. So there’s a tradeoff. I wonder if it’s better to let them rest and then snipe them, as you’re able to choose a preferential target, though sometimes they run away rather than towards so you need to catch them in that initial turn.

Hmm. Someone, other than me, should do some investigating!

3700

http://xcom.nexusmods.com/ seems to be the best place to start.