3741

Oh, and we should probably also mention that snipers, in terms of damage, are probably second only to the heavies (and that’s not counting the Double Tap ability)

Toward the end of the game, I was running
2x Assault
2x Sniper
1x Support
1x Heavy

3742

Snipers lagging behind? Just put everyone else on overwatch and spend a turn or two dashing your snipers up to better positions. With squadsight, your snipers don’t even need to be at the front; they just need to have a clear shot to the front.

3743

Currently redoing the game in hardest mode, will try to find a use for em, but I just didn’t feel the love last time…

I’d rather have a Heavy with HEAT shots on the front than anything else atm

3744

Aaargh, I went and tried to assault the Overseer UFO, and got wiped (on Normal). Turns out my best sniper’s vulnerable to mind control, as is my best assault guy. I assume that that means that (if I reload) it’s pretty much guaranteed that they won’t have psi powers.

3745

Anyone can be mind controlled.

3746

I usually solve the mind-control problem by killing the controller.

3747

Finished… 3 attempts, abandoning Ironman for the last. I reloaded after losing 4 key people assaulting a large spoiler just before the final battle, and made several attempts at the final battle itself. By that time it had become repetitive and I was glad to get it over with.

I liked the actual combat, and the way the campaign progressed along the technology tree. Some downers were the amazing vanishing walls, the UI for e.g. finding the best equipment for the mission team, the bland maps and the aforementioned repetition.

Worth playing once, will not DLC. Now for Dark Souls!

3748

Hmmm, thinking about XCOM some more, I realize I haven’t touched the game in weeks. That is, I enjoyed the time I spent with it, but I kind of feel like I’m done now. I might slog through my current game just for closure, but the DLC announcement seriously put a damper on my enthusiasm, and the lack of a patch (or even a patch announcement) is really starting to annoy me.

Don’t get me wrong, the game was fun, but in its current state it has minimal staying power.

3749

Yes. Well they do have max range issues, I think, but they certainly don’t have to be up front; that’s the whole point. Anyhow, I concur with everyone except Janster, snipers are not only useful, they’re overpowered. This is true as soon as they get squad sight with a regular old sniper rifle, much less later on with a plasma sniper.

With squad sight they rule. With double-tap, they almost make the other roles pointless. I beat the final boss (on Normal admittedly) with one sniper action. Two criticals from double-tap, and done.

3750

This I also agree with. I feel no urge to beat the game on classic after my ironman normal run through. It’s just too scripted and narrow a game with too few options and strategic decisions to make – I mean, too few that aren’t obvious, anyway. But it was certainly fun getting to the end.

3751

I agree, and said a similar statement on my blog when I looked at EU. The game just feels too limited in choices to make each play-through play out differently. I know how to build my base optimally, what perks to take and what researches to go after. I really hope that the council mission DLCs are the exception to the norm in terms of what Firaxis is going to make.

3752

Classic Ironman is just beating my ass. It’s such a different game from Normal Ironman. I beat Normal Ironman on my 4th game started, with just two KIA all game. I am on my 50+ CI game (lots of abandoned games obviously). The tactical game is way different, full cover is a must, rockets and grenades much more important. But the strategic game differences is what I think make it harder. I have routinely lost countries on the April to May cutover. I am always broke as fuck, having to make very tough choices on both research and engineering.

Loving the game but I feel like there is too much of a luck factor on Classic. Almost sure I will never play Impossible.

3753

Finished my (self-imposed) ironman normal at last. I did wind up redoing the victory sequence because of what I consider a mechanical quirk that spoiled my enjoyment of the victory sequence. (I’d suggest reading this, actually, if you haven’t done it, but I spoiler tag it to be extra safe.)

Last fight mechanic

If you kill the “primary antagonist-seeming” enemy in the final fight while any of your guys are under mind control, the game ends in victory but those characters “die,” (at least the “Col. Soandso is killed” text appears - they don’t show up as dead in the postgame stats) and don’t appear in the ending cinematic. I don’t know, given the fact that the stats don’t count them, that they’re even “canonically” dead, but it made my first trip through the ending cinematics sort of a bummer.

Aside from that I didn’t find the last mission as much of a let down as I’ve heard. Certainly not a strong section and not an improvement on, say, the base assault or big UFOs, but hey.

I rather liked that the ending/credits music was a remix of the deployment/skyranger theme.

3754

This was just about exactly where I was (if you swap Australia for Argentina anyway). I was just thinking I might try classic, when I lost a full squad of my best soldiers in the Overlord-mission (bad luck) and another full squad in the mission right after when I got introduced to a new type of alien…

I’m now slowly working up a group of rookies for my next try on the overlords ufo. No classic for me just yet…

3755

I agree that I’m not sure of he staying power after ou bet it on classic ironman. You’ve kind of seen everything and while I like what they have done but there isn’t enough randomness or choices to make it interesting on subsequent playthroughs. I find this game a lot like dark souls in that it rewards cautious play style which is me in spades. I’m currently doing very well in my classic game with self Imposed ironman ( didn’t know the option existed when I started my first game) I’m about 1/2 way through I think. Just started meeting sectiod leaders.

Hopefully future dlc will add things like base invasions (both sides) and more UFO sightings.

3756

I want to try a Classic Ironman run but I don’t want the bugs you guys have been seeing make me lose a game (esp. at the end). Any suggestions? Should I just not do Ironman but turn on autosave and not do any manual saves? Would that work in terms of not losing a whole game if a serious bug appears?

3757

That should do it. You’ll always have at least an autosave before the start of the tactical battle.

I’ve encountered a small handful of bugs (e.g., no rocket damage, alien turn won’t end), but I wouldn’t call XCOM a buggy game, at all. The level of bugs is pretty low, overall.

3758

I’m pretty sure having auto save on just auto-saves on the same single Iron Man save, so you don’t gain anything there. And since it auto-saves at the START of your turn, a bug causing you to (for example) move to the wrong cover on a multi-layer map, causing your soldier to get killed, gets auto-saved then when your turn starts.

3759

Best way to avoid game-breaking bugs in Ironman mode? Don’t play Ironman mode.

3760

If Alex Brandon did the soundtrack for Alpha Centauri, it would sound like the music in this game. Wonderfully atmospheric.