There’s a lot of smaller stuff that people aren’t mentioning. New grenades, new equipment, bunch of new techs… There’s a lot more stuff. I’m getting my money’s worth, for sure.
That said, the way it’s integrated so smoothly into the main game kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth. All this shit could’ve been in EU! This is pretty much EU: The Director’s Cut, the way it’s meant to be played. There’s no sense of NEWNESS, if you sat someone who hadn’t played the game before down and asked them to guess what parts of the game are the expansion pack they’d struggle real hard with that.
Unless things have changed with the expansion, this is not true. Oh, it’s true that you want to invest in satellites and uplinks right away, but you can’t really lose a continent until month 2, and even if you do, it’s not game over. Game over is losing 8 countries, not 2-4. Sure, it’s upsetting, but the main effect of losing countries is that it limits your end-game income. Which usually isn’t the problem, it’s the ramping up your income in the early months that’s a struggle. Losing a country doesn’t affect that, it’s just a country you can’t get when you’re finishing your satellite coverage.
He’s not interrogated in your base like the aliens are, so you don’t get to see it. I’m sure the council is pulling out his fingernails somewhere else though…
Quaro
4827
In my C/I run I skipped a month of satellites/uplinks to focus on laser/armor/mecs and it’s working out. I’m down 4 countries but managed to catch up in power level.
Kildar
4828
If you care to wait until December, it’ll probably be on 50% off during the Steam Holiday Sales. If you can wait until Summer, there is a good chance it might even be 75% off during a Steam Summer Sale.
ShivaX
4829
Yeah, I forgot how silly Classic is.
Not to mention that discs, mutons and those damned mech suits usually appear just as I’m starting to get laser weapons (and I’m not taking my time trying to get them).
I keep trying new things, but nothing works. I can’t even B-line for satellites because it takes so much money and my dudes with assault rifles can’t take on mutons, which seem to show up really fucking early. MECs don’t do jack to mutons, they just take 2-3 hits to kill instead of the usual one. Good thing they can’t use cover or those shots might actually miss once in a while.
Jab
4830
Correct me if I’m wrong, but did starting out as Africa and getting the all on bonus, always give you extra money to start out with? Also something I should have asked a long time ago. Is there a stat that determine’s movement range?
I’m starting to call BS on classic mode, either someone tweaked the stats or there’s a bug, but I don’t remember having this much trouble in classic mode last time I played EU. And it’s not me making any tactical mistakes, but I’m missing a lot more while the enemy is getting a lot more lucky shots. So far, one out ten iron man classic runs, I’ve managed to actually survive the first month without wipes and I haven’t since. I’m also running into a bug where the game sometimes doesn’t show cover status of enemies which doesn’t help things either.
ShivaX
4831
Classic has always given the enemy a +10 Aim and Crit chance, which is BS. You can go in the ini file and change it if, so inclined, I know I did when I played the first time.
jpinard
4832
You can’t edit that one via .ini anymore. That’s in the .exe.
You get the continent bonus where you start, and you don’t need any of the countries on that continent to get it. That is, even if you lost your initial country in Africa to panic, you’d still get the cash bonus.
There’s a school of thought that South America, despite being small and easy to get conventionally, is one of the better start bonuses. Africa is #2, so you go for that next. Since you’re planning on putting up satellites all over Africa in month 2, you ignore panic there because the satellites will bring those countries back when you launch them at the end of the month.
i’m on pc and I can confirm that enemy within doesn’t seem to recognize that I had beaten the base game on classic. I think i’m gonna do some ini editing if it’s possible.
edit: I see this on the wiki:
This expansion allows Second Wave options to be accessed and changed mid-game from the pause menu:
that would be neat, as I would jump in the game right away and then care about the other second wave stuff.
Alan_Au
4835
Classic is pretty punishing, but Normal is pretty “leisurely.” One idea is to start on Classic so you don’t get the free Officer Training School, and then switch to Normal for the rest of the game. You can also try enabling a bunch of Second Wave options to make a Normal game more challenging. Another idea is to turn off the enemy hitpoint display, which seems like a minor thing until you realize how much you depend on it.
Quaro
4836
FWIW I’m at least 1/3 through my C/I run and it’s my first attempt, so far looking good. In the original game I lost my first two C/I attempts. This feels perhaps a bit easier than the third ended up but I’m probably a better player now.
I think I lucked into a perfect difficulty ramp – I’m losing a person every few missions but haven’t wiped yet. Every mission feels incredibly important but doable. I am starved for meld and have many gene and mec options that I can’t afford, most of the meld went into the first two mechs.
My party has been saved by a mec walking up and punching Mutons or Cyber Discs a few times now. 100% 12 damage attack that doesn’t require ammo and gives the mec +3 movement.
thither
4837
I lost probably three or more Classic / Ironman games before giving up and trying just Classic so I could save scum a bit if I needed to, but so far I haven’t needed to, I think partly through luck and partly because I’m learning how to play the game better and more cautiously. (I also tried going back to Normal, but it actually seemed way too easy for me, at least in the tactical part of the game.)
I’m enjoying the Second Wave option that randomizes skills, though it makes it a little tricky to keep track of which units have which skills. I also occasionally get a skill selection I just don’t want, too, but I like that in the worst case, if one of my troops winds up with a terrible skill selection I can just cut off his arms and legs and make a Mec out of him (or her).
Jab
4838
What do you guys think about new economy ( randomizes how much each country is worth)? I’ve been having it on during my C/I runs but I’m thinking about dropping it. I’ve had cases where I’ve had extra money starting out, but the times where I don’t are just a killer. I’m starting to think that it’s too much of a dice roll if you’re going to play on classic and up.
about that: yeah there’s second wave tab in the pause menu. unfortunately it says “you cannot change these options while a game is active”. what the hell?
Telefrog
4841
Hilarious moment in EW for me last night. I’m fighting some Exalt and one of my Assault squaddies shotguns the rebel and says, “Scratch one x-ray!” I thought, oh, that’s awesome, x-ray for Exalt. Then it trickled through my brain.
Wait a minute. Didn’t the XCOM troops sometimes say that when fighting the xenos before? Yup.
Suddenly, I’m thinking about the name Exalt. Did the team at Firaxis pick a name for the rebels based on the already recorded bit the troopers sometimes say? Hmmm.
Just did the base defense mission, and holy cow was it tough even on normal. Lost multiple rookies.
I have 15 soldiers: 1 man, 14 women. something’s wrong here.
