5404

There’s a new version out for EW. Works fine so far for me.

5405

The more I read about Long War, the more I interested I am in playing it. However, I’ve got a billion things in my backlog right now, most of which are really more likely to be excellent.

So I did something weird. I just added “play long war” to a long-term to-do document. Because I know it’s about 90% likely I’ll forget in the meantime.

Now, back to Factorio…

5406

I want to get Long War, but the Nexus site isn’t letting me log in, and when I go the “forgot my password” route the promised email never arrives. That’s OK - it’s going to take most of the night to download EW again, and perhaps by tomorrow morning the issue will be resolved.

5407

I bought this during the Steam Summer Sale and just finished – it was really, really good. I was kind of surprised at how quickly I got through it. Usually a game’s mechanics support only like, 8 hours of interest from me, but I was locked in to the progression the whole way. And I don’t think I’m able to get tired of ruining aliens with my sniper. (Snipers are completely overpowered, yes?) Here’s hoping Enemy Within gets put on a similarly deep discount soon.

Some questions for the vets:

Any of the Second Wave options highly recommend? I’m going up to Classic for the next playthrough.
Any suggestions for good variants to try, RealmsBeyond style?

5408

I’ve put well over 100 hours into this game and tried a few of the variants - most of them I don’t like. They make the game too random and with the squad sizes so low and individual soldiers being so important it just makes it frustrating for me.

The best thing to add fun is to up the difficulty. Classic / Ironman is a sweet spot for me.

Also the option to randomize the skill tree can be fun. If you want a really long and challenging game look up the long war mod.

5409

Sounds good. I was a little skeptical of Ironman, but I think I’ll give it a shot; my flow would be improved if I weren’t dipping into a menu every 5 turns to save. (I am not crazy about losing assets while still learning the game.)

Oh, and I had an amazing glitch in the final battle. My sniper’s name was Suarez; basically, the RNG had rolled me up my very own Vasquez, from Aliens. My only modification was to give her a butch haircut, dye it hot pink, and set her loose. Absolute monstrosity; squad sight, gunslinger, double tap, executioner – she ended up killing ~80 aliens over 27 missions. So I was not happy when the final boss chose to mind control her. But instead of turning on her comrades with her plasma pistol, Colonel Suarez fired her grappling hook into the darkness behind us, and simply vanished. She flew through the corridor and into the shadows; I couldn’t find her on the map. When she came to her senses a few turns later, she was halfway back to the starting point. I told her to shake it off and book it back to the firefight; she showed up in time to see the last alien gunned down by my punchless support. Having seen that, Suarez had to promptly do a 180 and run her ass off from the burgeoning black hole!

Also, I had a cueball-bald soldier who got the nickname Mr. Clean. Was that an accident, or is the game’s nicknaming system contextual? Either way, I was completely delighted.

5410

Honestly, classic is almost a whole new game. I would definitely try it straight before mixing it up. And absolutely play ironman.

5411

It makes ALL the difference if you’re relieved of this burden, the game really comes alive and gets nail-bitingly immersive, and forces you to slow down and consider moves seriously. It’s the way it’s “meant to be played.”

Don’t be ashamed to do a few restarts though, you want a “clean” start where you haven’t lost a guy (preferably no-one injured) in the first 2 missions, and your base has no steam in the top left quadrant. So: clean first mission (pref all promoted) check base, if base crap restart; if base good, clean second mission with rotated team (pref all promoted), if crap restart. Or course you can beat the game without being persnickity about this, but first time Ironman I’d recommend it, it gives you a fighting chance if you’ve got your top left quadrant clear of steam and haven’t lost anyone (and preferably have 8 promoted guys) after two missions. To do this, use grenades liberally and step out of cover to get into range to use them if need be (also step out of cover with as many guys as necessary if you can get clean shots with guns and it doesn’t leave your guys exposed after dead mob).

5412

Dipped my toes into the waters of Classic/Ironman and discovered it was not water but blood. My god. Nothing clean about these missions so far; it’s quite a change of pace to be shooting at such low percentages, and to be hit at such high percentages. Guru, those are clearly good tips, I’ll let you know how they work when I take another run. And yeah – love grenades.

5413

Are you playing with enemy within? If not get that and then the training roulette second wave option is a lot of fun

5414

I agree with Giaddon - if you’ve only played Normal, put off options like “training roulette” until you’ve won on Classic at least once. Classic punishes a lot of sloppiness that Normal does not, and shifts priorities.

5415

I started on classic and enjoyed it but I didn’t mind losing the first few campaigns

5416

When you’ve done your first Classic Ironman, then you will know you are a gamer, my son :D

Just like with the original (by all accounts - I missed the boat with that and I’m too much of a graphics whore to get into it).

5417

For CI and II breaking line of sight is the best cover, never use half cover, hunker down in full cover - unless you can guarantee a clean all kill.

5418

I just started a new game on Normal in EW - And is getting my ass kicked already. Anything one should be observant about in EW? I see a TON of things to research, and have no real idea what way to go, even though the body modifications look pretty cool.

5419

Mechs with fist attack.

Do it.

5420

In particular, a Sniper mech with a fist was a high priority for me when playing Enemy Within. Snipers get a huge boost in Aim, but pay for that compared to other classes by losing move and shoot. Switching to mech regains move and shoot without losing the accuracy.

The thing to remember about Mechs is that they’re squishy. They look tough, but the only cover they can take is breaking line of sight. They work best if you only expose them to one enemy at a time, an enemy you intend to kill with the exposed mech.

5421

Thanks guys - That seems like a decent start!

5422

Oh my God! Newfoundland! WTF Firaxis?! That was hell and I lost one of my best soldiers. If the council wants to send you to Newfoundland JUST SAY NO!

5423

Despite owning Enemy Unkown for a while I haven’t played the game yet save for a little on my PS3 when my PC motherboard died. My PC is back up an running and I was planning to start a fresh campaign with EU. Is it too punishing to start with Classic Ironman for my first pass? I have a sense that Normal will make learning the game easier, but I also don’t want the game to be too easy or forgiving of sloppy play. Should I just man up and start with Classic Ironman even if I fail miserably and need to restart at some point?

I plan on playing Ironman either way since I appreciate the tension and I don’t want to spend my time save scumming and redoing everything over and over.

I also own Enemy Within, but I want to play the vanilla XCom first before I add on the expansion.

Thanks,
Todd