5044

On the one hand, the base defense is linked to your assault on the alien base, so in some ways you have a little bit of control over when it occurs.

On the other hand, the “required” missions (alien base, base defense, temple ship) are probably the most tedious parts of the game to replay, because the missions are long and always occur on the same map layouts.

5045

The alien base is not quite so bad, because at least that has two possible layouts.

5046

OK, I’m feeling stuck. I swear, I didn’t have anywhere near this much trouble with the base game. Has anyone here gotten to the point where they can win Enemy Within consistently on Classic? Save scumming and outrageous luck don’t count.

Initial goals: a MEC ASAP, followed by Lasers and Carapace Armor. 1 satellite launch in month 1, 3 in month 2. So far I’ve yet to complete these - I always give up before I reach Carapace. I haven’t exactly lost, I just don’t want to play anymore after a wipe. Theoretically I could continue since you need to lose 8 countries to lose, and a wipe is hardly losing 8 countries. This may be my sticking point, that I am giving up too easily.

Money is tighter than in the base game, because getting an early MEC adds $145 in costs. $60 for the Cybernetic Lab, $10 for the Augment, $25 for the suit, and $50 for another power plant. That’s a lot in the early game. Maybe it’s not worth it. MECs are tough, but they’re also ridiculously easy to hit because they can’t use cover.

The money situation has pushed me to take North America as a start. I’ve tried all the other starts, and it’s a struggle to get a MEC and the satellites with the extra $80 in income from the US. Asia’s advantage doesn’t kick in until you get an Officer Training School, and I never make it that far. South America’s mostly about building an early Containment center and getting research bonuses from interrogations. Sectoids give you a Laser research bonus, but Alien Biology + Arc Thrower + capture a sectoid is much slower than just going straight for lasers.

Generally speaking my luck runs out somewhere in month 2. Sometimes early month 2, sometimes early month 3. I’m still dealing with health-4 enemies like Thin Men and Floaters, but sooner or later I get a series of bad rolls and wipe. Conventional weapons (except assault rifles) and MEC miniguns should be enough for health-4 enemies, so I don’t think it’s that I’m too far behind the power curve. Except that I don’t make it to size-6 squads, maybe wipes due to bad luck are inevitable with size-4 squads. Or maybe I’m not good enough tactically - I’ve read how Impossible players never expose their soldiers to enemy fire, and I just can’t manage that, I always end up trading at least some shots.

5047

I won C/I my first try but I was pretty experienced from normal XCOM. I picked South America and lost 6 countries. Sold very aggressively and actively sacrificed countries to get through early game difficulty. Early game was dominated by heavies and grenades. MEC Punch was much more useful than the gun in my experience – 100% chance of 12 damage saved my bacon over and over.

5048

Have you tried an Africa start? That 30% bonus funding really helps in the early game. That said, if I’m going to wipe, it’s usually somewhere around mission 3, so well before lasers and carapace. And yeah, if I recall, the accepted strategy is to always pick the 4 engineer abduction reward.

I’m not very far into my latest EW run yet, but I have mixed feelings about trying for an early MEC; they’re extremely expensive (because you also have to build the Cybernetics Lab) but that kinetic strike is a game-changer.

5049

Sorry, tech issue/question

I am having repeated computer crashes whenever the game plays a cut scene. Last night it was during the briefing for the Exalt. Before that it was the meld explanation scene. I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled but still get the same issue. Never had a problem with the EU.
I’m thinking some codec is not playing nice, but I have no clue how to fix. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

5050

In my latest attempt - which is still stuck in conventional weaponry late in month 2 - I did the first Slingshot mission with one Lt. Heavy and 5 rookies. I hadn’t quite appreciated how bad my casualties had been until I saw that I had only one experienced soldier left. Fortunately, there aren’t a lot of numbers on the Alien side in that mission, so massed assault rifle fire was enough to turn the day. As for the Muton, I managed to capture him - Shredder rocket + a couple of assault rifle hits took him down to 2 health.

I’m not ready to feel optimistic until I reach the Lasers + Carapace milestone. At least I managed to get the Officer Training School, and I’m on track to launch 3 satellites at the end of month 2.

5051

I prefer Asia to start with. The bonus is nice for getting Tactical Rigging and Squad size upgrades quickly, and I have 4 countries to focus panic into since it doesn’t matter if Asian countries are lost. The money bonus for Africa doesn’t really shine until month 3 or so IMO, as early on my income comes from selling loot and the $200 abduction missions.

Also I go for Carapace ASAP. Early on I’m relying on grenades, rockets and snipers rather than inaccurate rifles anyway. And pushing for Meld early on is a trap - once a unit gets Mimetic Skin + Low Profile, they can snatch all the Meld without much risk.

I think Slingshot is mostly useful for getting the Blaster Launcher by midgame, else you may never even see a Battleship.

5052

Yeah, most firearms aren’t all that great in the early game unless you have a flanking shot. Shotguns are the one good weapon before lasers, because if you manage to run in for a flanking shot, it’s often 100% to hit and 70% critical, and almost always one-shots 4-health enemies.

I vaguely remember going for Carapace first when I first started playing Enemy Unknown. The problem is that you really must have Lasers or plasma weapons by the time health 8+ enemies start showing up. Chryssalids are the first ones you encounter, and they can be really rough if you don’t have lasers yet. I’ve done one terror mission in my current game with conventional weapons, and it took a couple of turns of concentrated fire to take down one Chryssalid.

I’m currently giving South America another go. It’s the only non-money bonus, and the research advantage is significant.

I’m not sold on the Asia bonus - the majority of the cost for squad size 6 is the construction of the OTS and its share of the power plants. It’s $125 to build and $125 for squad size 6. Shaving $62 off that is small compared to the other bonuses, simply starting in North America gives you a larger cash bonus than that. All the other stuff adds up of course, but I think the squad size is the one thing that greatly increases squad survival rate.

5053

Fucking game keeps crashing on me right as it enters the main menu, “loading user settings”. Trying a wipe & reinstall now.

5054

In my current game I’ve gotten farther than ever before. That mission where I always get wiped to the
enemy type

white enemy that emerges from unkilled zombies

I got through it with only the death of my first two squad members. I have since lost another veteran squad member, which really hurt, but I’m still trucking. This last loss was on a mission with a new type of enemy that I’d never seen before: the Muton. I wonder if they’ll ever stop introducing new enemies in this game? This is brilliant stuff. Were all these enemy types in the original XCOM games too? Bloody brilliant.

EDIT: I will say, it feels a little like cheating. My first 4 games back a few months ago were MUCH harder. This time I am playing with all the second wave options turned on, so maybe that has something to do with it feeling so much easier, but I could swear the missions themselves have been toned down this time. There was a huge patch to the game the same day that XCOM: Enemy Within came out. I wonder if they made the early game easier in that patch?

5055

Wasn’t the muton in Xcom: Enemy Unknown already?? With a design changed since the original game.

What difficulty are you playing?

What second wave options have you enabled?

5056

I’m playing the base XCOM: Enemy Unknown, yeah. I don’t want to install Enemy Within until I finish the game at least once.

I always play Normal Ironman. I have all 3 of the Second Wave Options activated that appear on the screen when you start a new game.

And the game seems way easier this time. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky. Maybe it’s the second wave options that made the difference? I’m not sure.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and one other thing has been different in this playthrough. I discovered the “Gray Market” in the XCOM base, hidden away in the satellite screen. With it, I can make more money by selling stuff I recovered on missions. It’s made a HUGE difference in the amount of expenses I have available and I’m actually able to expand my base. Without it, in all my previous games, it seemed like there was never enough money to do anything in the base.

5057

Uh, somehow I thought you were playing EW, even if you never said it in the post.

Yeah, mutons are from the old game. Except they were pretty different.
http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Muton

You didn’t use the gray market in your previous playthroughs?? LOL LOL XD

5058

I managed to beat the St. John’s Fishing Village mission the first time, not knowing anything about it, on Classic difficulty. It’s not so bad overall except for the time limit at the end. I just barely managed to get my last guy into the evac zone with 1 turn to go. I was pretty much expecting something bad to happen when I pressed the button, so I only had a couple of guys near it, and they managed to run fast enough to escape anyway.

It’s a bit ridiculous that they don’t warn you of the time limit when they give you the “push the button” goal. Your command knows perfectly well what’s going to happen when you do, it’s not a surprise to them. The only thing that offsets that is that there are no ranged enemies in the mission, so you can run flat out while ignoring cover.

5059

For me it was a save file causing the problem for some reason. Selectively moving saves out had me find the guilty party.

5060

Lost the second Slingshot mission. That mission sucks, you have a time limit and they don’t tell you all of the requirements to finish it on time, plus Mutons teleporting in. The “falling from the sky” spawns in Council missions have always been a bad idea since they break lots of basic XCom mechanics, putting a hostile into a flanking position with no way to prepare other than foreknowledge of the mission. It’s only been acceptable because it’s Thin Men, and once you’ve got lasers + carapace armor that’s not instant death. Mutons are much worse - you’re not supposed to be able to one-shot those easily, and yet that’s what they’re requiring that you do.

5061

I repeatedly destroyed the entire savegame repository. Turned out my virus thinger was the culprit. Avast security meh.

5062

I just had the most miserable Alien Base assault experience that didn’t end in a total wipe. I wasn’t behind the power curve, I just had stupendously bad luck. Stuff like a Muton opening a door and killing a soldier with no reaction fire from the guys prepping to enter, followed by a Berserker waltzing through the door the turn after I killed the Muton.

By the time I made it to the Sectoid Commander, I had lost 5 soldiers, leaving me with a Colonel assault armed with a Scatter Laser. Normally going one-on-one with a mind-controlling enemy is an automatic loss, but I figured he could do it - and he just barely did. Mostly I stayed out of sight so he wouldn’t use psionics, and when the time came I charged in with Run and Gun and Double Shot. Which was just barely enough to kill the Commander in one round.

5063

Most miserable? That sounds like the most EPIC base assault ever! If you pull out a win this game it will be great.