5424

If you can handle numerous restarts ci from the get go, normal will not punish bad behavior enough.

5425

Its like the scene in Aliens, where the marines go in all confident like and then getting pwned hard. I can just imagine one of the x-com soldier blubbering: “game over man, game over!”

5426

I’d say Mech with Flamethrower first. It’s pretty useless in the later game, but extremely useful in the early to early-mid game, especially against the bane of your life at that stage, Thin Men.

You’ve usually got enough Meld to semi-pimp a medium Flamethrower mech (as a basis for that I like the extra defence circle that you get from a Support base, that plus smoke plus hunkering down in nearby emergency half cover within the circle can save your bacon quite often if you make mistakes; the “tank” variety seems less useful), for early to early-mid-game, then fully pimp another mech by the endgame, plus do whatever genetic stuff you want to do, and the endgame Mech should be a scooting puncher, no question - sort of like the Assault’s big brother, but specially designed to turn the big scary stuff like those suited-up greys, and especially Sectopods, into mewling pussies who want their space mama (the EMP AoE is a must-have for this). Building it round a Sniper makes it a fearsome gunner too.

Oh, top tip - make sure you have your A-Team prepped (i.e. listed in order at the top of the list - not hospitalized, etc.) prior to the assault of your base.

Gene mods, of course the thing that makes you invisible in cover almost breaks the game (almost, not quite), but they’re all contextually quite useful, it’s up to you and the flavour you want.

Oh and the full-on hovering Shiv with suppressing fire is another thing that almost breaks the game. You can be pretty lazy if you have that take point. It also looks and sounds quite cool, and it gives you a funny feeling of having a doughty little robot buddy that your guys trust.

5427

Unless you plan on playing many many times I would just start with the expansion installed. It is the exact same story and overall structure it just adds things.

Whether you start on classic Ironman is purely up to how much you can enjoy losing. It’s very unlikely you would beat the campaign your first try. I loved starting on classic Ironman but I was treating the game like a rogue like and getting farther each time. Ironman normal would be the choice if you want to have a chance at winning your first campaign.

5428

MEC pilots use the same stat gain rate as the Heavy, which have the lowest aim improvement rate. If you really want a high-aim MEC, it’s better to wait before converting. Of course, that means giving up that soldier’s other class abilities, so it’s a tradeoff.

I should really use SHIVs more during my playthroughs, but it’s just so expensive to get them up and running, and I would rather spend the money on satellites.

5429

The point to an early Sniper MEC isn’t to have a late-game high-aim MEC. It’s to have a soldier that will improve your squad survival rate the most in the early game, when it’s hardest. You can convert a Colonel sniper later if you want. The big Meld cost isn’t converting a soldier, it’s upgrading a MEC suit, and you can swap those between MEC soldiers.

5430

I decided to check this game out to see what enemy within (which i havent played yet) and long war are like.

It is still the game i love to hate. I just can’t get over how silly the hit system is in this game.

I have my elite assault team (which admittedly are rookies, but still elite!) and 4 of them using the accurate starter rifle from long war and laser scopes miss one of those flying aliens which is FLYING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM WITH NO COVER.

I did enable the option to lower stats with lower health, but 3 of them were at full health.

5431

If you want to grouse about “realism” (hah!), keep in mind that a turn-based tactical game gives an artificial sense of stillness. You’re visualizing this as an easy shot against a motionless target, when it’s almost certain that the alien did a pretty high speed move to get to the target square, and you should be thinking of them as a fast moving target. The “flying target” aiming penalty is about erratic, fast movements.

Scopes are actually a drawback against a fast, close target. The magnification and limited field of view make the rapid motion worse.

The other thing to keep in mind is that screwups do happen. If the hit chance was 90%, complaining about a miss means you’re insisting on the idea that it’s impossible to miss a particular shot, which doesn’t allow for fumbles.

5432

Yeah, i suppose it is just the turn based nature of the game that makes me feel my elite troops can’t hit the side of a barn if they were standing in it.

I’m assuming you mean in real life about the scopes and that i’m not taking a penalty for using them in close range in game?

Especially with long war, i feel most of the early weapons are useless because i have almost no chance to hit anything unless i take the carbine and a laser sight. This is a real shame because the mod adds a bunch of new weapons. Maybe when my soldiers get much higher rank they will actually be able to use them.

5433

It’d be great if a future TBT had a replay feature that took all those disjointed movements and blended them into simultaneous action. Then throw in some Halo 2 editing tools and let the machinima flow.

5434

Okay, got into this Classic-Ironman run; like you guys were saying, it feels like a different game. Here was my latest scrape, which included a pretty great Xcom moment:

It was during a council mission. I was extracting Anna Sing from that map with the two fountains in the middle. First casualty was my French sniper. He clambered up on top of a bus and got brained by a sectoid – tough break. The other three soldiers take note, and keep their heads down as they scramble into cover. Or at least they thought they did: my assault, Cunningham, gets shot through the bus windshield, a sightline I hadn’t seen. But he’s stable at 2HP. My heavy kills one of the two sectoids, and Cunningham gets the other. But the pathing of his approach is careless, and he wakes up a Thin Man on the other side of the map. That probably won’t be an issue in like two turns, right? We grab the freaked out Sing; she takes cover behind the bus and starts blithering. (Sorry you have to see Henri’s brain matter dripping down the bus window… but that’s full cover, lady.)

Cunningham and my support are the rear-guard, and the two hunker down with no aliens in sight. Things look good – Sing will be on the waiting Skyranger in three turns, max, and they’ll be on it in four.

Then the poison cloud descends on them. Already at 2HP, and with no medkits available (I like grenades too much…), Cunningham is doomed. Not everybody gets to come home from this deal, soldier. I order him to charge the thin man. At point-blank range, the shotgun blast cuts alien in half, releasing a second poison cloud, inside of which Cunningham succumbs. Now there’s just one sectoid remaining, and if the panicking support can get him right now he can get on the Skyranger before the toxins shut down his central nervous system. Feeling the seizures beginning, he staggers into the open, risking a reaction shot that doesn’t come, and pulls the pin on the grenade. The sectoid’s last known location was behind a planter. He lobs it into the shadows. There’s a blast, a flash of light. In his ear he hears Operations telling him there are still hostiles in the area. “Stay frosty,” he hears, as he collapses beside the fountain…

(The mission was a success in the end. After escorting Sing, the heavy doubled back, going from cover to cover like an American Gladiator contestant. She throws a perfect grenade and gets to go home on a Skyranger with plenty of open seats.)

Whew. So I should bring medkits, huh? Also, Thin Men are terrifying. 4 hp?! My grenades only do three!

Wondering what are the preferred research choices in the Classic early game. I reallllly want to get my hands on some carapace armor, but it’ll take 28 days to research it. Worth putting off Xenobiology?

5435

This xcom was sort of like that at some point in development, it was still turn based but it had a more cinematic feel and it looked like it was simultaneous.

And i cant find the damm link for the video.

5436

What the hell is up with Exalt missions? I tried reloading one I got in the second month 5 times now, with the exact same result - 3-4 soldiers dead in the SECOND turn… I can’t stop two teams with grenade launchers in any way. Is that normal? If so, I’m giving up on the game.

5437

So yeah, there are definitely reasons to convert a non-heavy to MEC early, one of which is the MEC bonus ability that’s based on class. However, the other caveat to early conversion to MEC is that it locks the soldier out of psi eligibility. It isn’t a huge problem, but it’s a risk.

I don’t remember Exalt missions being troublesome until the late game (and even then, quite manageable). Are you overextending on turn 1? Oh, and I almost always try to kill the Exalt Heavies first, because those rockets do a lot of damage and strip away your cover. Exalt snipers can be dangerous too, but it’s usually sufficient to break line of sight because they don’t have the ability to both move and shoot on the same turn.

5438

For council missions that are mostly thin men, you may not realize that med kits don’t just heal poison they make the person holding it immune to poison attacks entirely.

5439

Yeah, I can’t decide when I should convert someone into a MEC. Being a MEC locks them out of both gene mods and psi powers, plus they only get half XP for kills compared to normal troops and have the absolute worst aim stat growth of any soldier class except comparing the colonel rank with a heavy’s.

On the upside, crazy cyborg power armor for punching things!

5440

If you waited until you had a extra Colonel Sniper to convert into your first MEC you’ve probably already won the game, for all practical purposes. They are very useful in the early game with flamethrower for AOE, or punch for 100% hit high damage, and both versions with the ability to destroy cover.

5441

I always aim for an early mec before everything else, that punch can one shot almost every enemy.

Also remember that even tho a MEC can’t take cover, if you put him behind high cover he will be hidden from enemy.

5442

Excellent, I had no idea.

5443

Man long war is evil beyond belief.

I’ve probably done 4 battles so far and i haven’t even finished researching one thing. I certainly don’t have that stun thing researched, even though every time i kill something the lead scientist keeps yelling at me for not stunning it.

I made the huge mistake of trying to fight against a large UFO that came almost at the start of the game. If an ironman player didn’t know not to attack these, it would probably be a game over, or at least a lost squad. Luckily for me i’m not on ironman so i am slowly working my way through it. I even read the disclaimer in the patch notes that you didn’t have attack the large ufos at the start of the game but didn’t think about it before i started the battle (and don’t feel like loading the previous save).

Trying to fight 4 outsiders and one of the boss outsiders with absolutely no tech and rank 2 soldiers is lame, especially with them all regenerating 3 health a turn.

Enemies also have a habit of flying up in the air, landing right on top of one of my soldier’s heads and then one hitting them. I don’t remember them doing this so much in vanilla Xcom.