4864

Damn it, again, Normal is too easy and Classic too hard.

Just started a Normal game, and haven’t even been close to threatened in about the first 7-8 missions (this is with Ironman on, no save scumming, etc.).

I suppose I just need to keep trying Classic and get better at it.

4865

Yeah, the jump in difficulty is pretty high. Classic is doable, though, despite some recent complaints in this thread. It requires significant changes to how you play. High cover is essential, staying in low cover is an invitation to death, and in the early game grenades are your friends. The difference between “might partially wound the target” with an assault rifle and “will absolutely kill the target” is huge. You can worry about the drawbacks of explosives later when your troops and equipment are better.

4866

The big problem for me with the jump from normal to classic is that the tactical combat relies too much on luck and not enough on player tactics and skill to make it meaningful for me.

Far too often I lose high ranking characters because of something that I took every possible measure to prevent. And with the rate of promotions seems to have been slowed, that’s a killer in the early months. For instance, I just had a game where I lost three out of my four squaddies to an outlander while they were in heavy cover protected by a smoke screen who got them all with critical hits.

4867

If you’re letting an Outsider shoot at your guys, you’re doing it wrong. Yeah, Outsiders are very dangerous in the early game, but there’s only one of them, he’s alone, and you have a pretty good idea where he is. Generally speaking once I got the hang of the game I was putting the Outsider down before he could act.

It’s possible to run into multiple Outsiders in the late game, but by that time you have armor that will prevent them from getting one-shot kills.

4868

The unfortunate problem here is that the maps already funnel you through certain routes because of the limited cover options, and making full cover mandatory just restricts your tactical options further.

I think I’d enjoy the XCom difficulty scaling more if it was less about the ‘to hit’ and ‘crit’ odds and more about timed objectives and other external pressures (like the terror missions and council missions where you, theoretically, have something other than impatience driving you to dash forward and engage the enemy in suboptimal situations).

4869

I find the large maps exhausting. I dread shooting down a large UFO knowing the mission will be so long and have so many doors to open. I really enjoy the tight little corridor maps where you can fight a quick and bloody battle and be done with it.

I don’t think full cover is mandatory – I quite often sacrifice cover to get extra offense in.

4870

Yes, I do not fully understand this. Most maps, from what I have seen from one complete play through and a couple of other games where I got a good way in, simply do not have full cover available for all or even most of the soldiers. So I don’t fully understand how you can keep everyone in full cover while still doing anything tactically.

4871

For classic the key is to do significant damage on each of your turns - high cover is only needed if you are going to be taking volleys and if you are that soldier should hunker down. Pulling back behind a wall of high cover is ideal - enemies can’t shoot what they can’t see.

You need to focus generally on upping your damage potential as soon as possible - in eu this was beam weapons or squad size - not sure how mecs fit into this yet.

Also 1000s of people are now locking up on the title screen myself included.

4872

But he’s the happiest dude in the base.

Or the saddest.

4873

The secret to MECs is to just not bother until you get someone to Colonel. Once they get there, you’ll have enough upgrades and with all the skills unlocked they become monsters.
Getting them too early just means they die and cost you a fortune in my experience. I have one MEC from a Support Colonel I converted that had crap skills (using random training thing). He’s now a beast that kills everyone.
SHIVs are a better move early on if you want something burly with a big gun.

4874

I have good news! Assault troopers are pretty good pistoleers themselves. Sure, you don’t get +2 damage, but you get to dash to a flanking position and then shoot twice (and maybe you have serious crit bonuses, too), which is pretty handy.

4875

I’m getting my ass kicked on Classic. Definitely seems harder than vanilla XCOM, at least in the early stages. On Classic are people going for early Satellite Uplink? That was my old plan, but now I think I need to go military early on.

4876

I can see what everyone is talking about in terms of promotions, it seems like they are much slower. Normally by the second month I can at least unlock the officer training school, but not anymore. I think I may just move on from EW and wait for a patch or something, as Classic is just too frustrating to play on, regardless if I move fast or use cover.

4877

I think you want to go mec very early, where you get a unit with much more HP and damage far before you get to laser/carapace, OR late. Probably not in between if you were min maxing.

4878

I’d change the promotion exp amounts if I could mod it. I wouldn’t feel so angry when losing someone knowing it could gimp the rest of my game and would allow me to experiment more. Right now it feels like if you don’t play on a pre-designated rail you’ll lose, and Normal is way too easy. Classic is the only option for me.

4879

Man I want to play this but the $30 price point bothers me. I am normally not cheap when it comes to games, I have plenty of purchases that I have never even played, but something about this one bugs me. I am sure I will cave at some point, I now wish I had pre-ordered it for $27.

4880

Greenman Gaming still has a 20% discount code on thier front page.

4881

If any other Aussies are still on the fence about this but balking at the ridiculous $50 AUD price on Steam, I got a code from ozgameshop (http://www.ozgameshop.com/pc-games/xcom-enemy-within-code-by-email-game-pc) for $24.99. Listed as out-of-stock at the moment, but you can ask them to email you when it’s back in via the link.

4882

Yeah I got mine there too, had the code early Friday morning. First time I’ve bought a code from them, had only purchased physical games before and their shipping for those wasn’t great, but their code service is fine.

Very much enjoying the second wave options for random stats & abilities, it’s making my squad feel much more unique.

4883

I’m really surprised the modding community hasn’t figured out a way to add more maps. The lack of map diversity is one of the few things (the other being crashing/bugs/teleporting aliens) that I actively dislike about the game.