XCOM: Enemy Unknown

rezaf · 2012-10-31T12:48:37.000Z

I’ve seen the patrolling on Normal - so it does happen - but it’s VERY rare.
Supposedly more common on Classic, though - I’m sure someone here can attest to that.
(Edit: Thanks Ender)

The teleporting was more common, but still very rare. Happened maybe thrice or something in 4x missions. I wasn’t on ironman, so I just reloaded, but it definately feels cheatish.

This way, I discovered that those same aliens were idling one “waypoint” further and - triggered by whatever - teleported on top of me (or not - after reloading the teleport did not happen at all, even though I did mostly the same moves).

On one hand, I wonder why they had to take such AI shortcuts on todays hardware, but on the other hand, I recently replayed Silent Storm, and - even on a modern computer - waiting out the long enemy and neutral turns can really get somewhat tiring indeed.

One objective I definately feel they succeeded with in this game is eliminating most any unneccessary idle times, to the point where the turn-based engine can be operated faster than many a real-time engine.
This achievement came with a price tag, but there’s no denying that they accomplished it.

rezaf

Quaro · 2012-10-31T21:56:02.000Z

I’m not sure about the patch note that mentions no snapshot penalty if you don’t move. When you play perfectly you already move very slowly to minimize risk and this could make the optimal play even slower.

garin · 2012-10-31T22:04:58.000Z

Quaro:

I’m not sure about the patch note that mentions no snapshot penalty if you don’t move. When you play perfectly you already move very slowly to minimize risk and this could make the optimal play even slower.

You’ve misread it, I think.

Snap Shot is a sniper skill that lets them fire a sniper rifle after moving, but with an Aim penalty. The bug is that characters with the skill would sometimes get the penalty even if they didn’t move that turn.

Quaro · 2012-10-31T22:09:22.000Z

Ah yeah, for some reason I was thinking snapshot was the term for the penalty everyone gets on overwatch shots.

garin · 2012-10-31T22:10:33.000Z

Khelavaster:

I have also yet to encounter an instance of the aliens’ patrolling as others have mentioned – so far my team has gone through the same motions in every mission: bump into a group of 2-3 aliens, “surprised” cutscene, free move. Playing in Classic Ironman mode.

The aliens patrol in unalert mode-- when they first come into view, they will still show the reaction cutscene and get their free move. The only difference is that rather than waiting for you to stumble into them, they can stumble into you.

I think they often run a route… on abduction missions they seem to move around between the webbed-up civilians on the ground.

Quaro · 2012-10-31T22:50:51.000Z

I wish they mixed it up more with things like the Terror missions. Those break the mold where the aliens are just waiting for you to aggro them, in terror missions, they are clearly out on the map doing their own thing. Chrysalids in particular are interesting because if you just sit there in a defensive posture and wait for them to find you, you could end up giving them time to reproduce and turn more and more civilians in Chrysalids. At least on classic and above where this can happen.

mjgreeny75 · 2012-10-31T23:39:02.000Z

A suggestion for all those people who think the combat is better on classic but are getting their behinds kicked on the classic strategic map (like myself):

I accidentily started a game on normal last night, while I wanted to start a classic game. I could of course restart, but I kinda instantly liked the 4 soldiers I started with. Since the attachment to my soldiers is a very big part of the fun for me, I decided to change the difficulty in-game and see how that goes.
When returning to base, I found I still had the officers trainingschool (that I would not have gotten had I started on classic). Big advantage, because in other games on classic I have so far struggled to get enough money to build that facility. And another usefull thing: the soldiers I started with don’t have the health penalty you get on classic, so they don’t die so easily, which is very usefull early on.

So far, these 2 bonuses give me just that little bit of help that I need to cope with the classic strategic map. It is, of course, cheating a bit, and I probably wont get the achievement for completing on classic (if I ever will). So all the hardcore players in here will probably shoo me, fair enough. But for everyone here who doesn’t care so much about the achievement and just likes to try something somewhat between normal and classic: you could try this…

Dejin · 2012-11-01T02:16:47.000Z

mjgreeny75:

A suggestion for all those people who think the combat is better on classic but are getting their behinds kicked on the classic strategic map (like myself):

I accidentily started a game on normal last night, while I wanted to start a classic game. I could of course restart, but I kinda instantly liked the 4 soldiers I started with. Since the attachment to my soldiers is a very big part of the fun for me, I decided to change the difficulty in-game and see how that goes.
When returning to base, I found I still had the officers trainingschool (that I would not have gotten had I started on classic). Big advantage, because in other games on classic I have so far struggled to get enough money to build that facility. And another usefull thing: the soldiers I started with don’t have the health penalty you get on classic, so they don’t die so easily, which is very usefull early on.

So far, these 2 bonuses give me just that little bit of help that I need to cope with the classic strategic map. It is, of course, cheating a bit, and I probably wont get the achievement for completing on classic (if I ever will). So all the hardcore players in here will probably shoo me, fair enough. But for everyone here who doesn’t care so much about the achievement and just likes to try something somewhat between normal and classic: you could try this…

Great suggestion mjgreeny75.

Khelavaster · 2012-11-01T03:05:06.000Z

garin:

The aliens patrol in unalert mode-- when they first come into view, they will still show the reaction cutscene and get their free move. The only difference is that rather than waiting for you to stumble into them, they can stumble into you.

Thanks for the clarification. The reaction cutscene happening always may have confused me.

Spam · 2012-11-01T03:50:31.000Z

Played around a bit with a friend’s copy.

Buggy as fuck. Why does a 1994 game have a better camera implementation than this?
Tactical feels like an exercise in arbitrary limitations.
Geoscape is more or less just a build order ala RTS.

My experience with the originals seems like a huge liability cause, particularly in tactical’s cramped locations and its dead simple, incomplete ruleset, I am constantly reminded I’m here to play a gamey game, not be part of a rag-tag crew improvising our way through a desperate struggle.

I’ve read the devs said they had a working 1:1 copy of UFO’s system in place, then started making changes to get the game they wanted. Why wasn’t it left in as an optional mode? There is a lot to like but I need more options. Might pick it up once some interesting mods are out.

DeepT · 2012-11-01T05:26:02.000Z

What do you do if Normal is too easy and classic is too hard?

Sepiche · 2012-11-01T05:28:32.000Z

DeepT:

What do you do if Normal is too easy and classic is too hard?

One thing you can try is a trick to increase the number of enemies. Start a game on normal, but before you leave on each mission turn the difficulty up to impossible. Once the mission starts change it back to normal. That will give you roughly twice the enemies to fight, but without any of the other penalties from classic/impossible.

TurinTur · 2012-11-01T05:30:10.000Z

DeepT:

What do you do if Normal is too easy and classic is too hard?

You make your own difficulty tweaking the game data.

Jason_Townsend · 2012-11-01T05:31:30.000Z

There are difficulty mods already. The difficulty “switches” are in .ini files but you need to modify the .exe to get it to work I gather.

davidf · 2012-11-01T08:42:18.000Z

Jason Townsend:

There are difficulty mods already. The difficulty “switches” are in .ini files but you need to modify the .exe to get it to work I gather.

Did they fix the issue, where the game if connected to the internet wipes out your custom data?

Telefrog · 2012-11-01T08:46:18.000Z

I don’t think Firaxis or 2K considers that an issue to fix at all. It’s working as intended.

Savillo · 2012-11-01T09:58:39.000Z

davidf:

Did they fix the issue, where the game if connected to the internet wipes out your custom data?

I’m not sure this is an issue. I read about it on the official forums, but I’m still able to run the second wave mod and a graphics tweak mod while connected to the Internet. I haven’t played in nearly a week, though, because I don’t have power at home.

gambrinous · 2012-11-01T10:27:30.000Z

I changed an .ini file to not show any of the movies at startup and it started up incredibly fast… for a couple of weeks. Now it’s back to showing the startup movies; I’d say the ‘reset files when connected’ thing is to blame

Sepiche · 2012-11-01T11:34:14.000Z

gambrinous:

I changed an .ini file to not show any of the movies at startup and it started up incredibly fast… for a couple of weeks. Now it’s back to showing the startup movies; I’d say the ‘reset files when connected’ thing is to blame

More likely a patch or Steam that reset that file. You just have to go back in and edit it from time to time… happens with lots of games.

ElGuapo · 2012-11-01T20:22:37.000Z

DeepT:

What do you do if Normal is too easy and classic is too hard?

What I want is Classic difficulty on missions, and Normal for the Geoscape. My first game on Classic I lost 7 countries, even though I won every mission.