Pissed about an X-Com FPS? Firaxis hears ya...

[Polysorbate80]

Last mission before I finally turn off the Xbox and head in to work:

The rookie on the team panics.  Turns 180 degrees and point-blank shoots the Heavy standing right behind her, dropping him with a critical wound.

Fortunately she's the one carrying the medikit, so she can immediately patch him up, saying something about how "Medikits fix everything."

(I half expect to hear she's been murdered back in the barracks some evening, with a note reading "Medikit THIS, bitch!" pinned to her pj's)

[Yoru]

Has anyone figured out how to use a grapple? I couldn't. It's also a shame the flying is janky as fuck, they really did a one-pass on mouse selection of tiles and shoved it through QA because it's basically broken if you're in a higher floor view than the base.

Grapples work in one of two ways: Vertically, you stand directly under the ledge of something grappleable (e.g. a building or a balcony) and hit grapple. This basically teleports you up onto that ledge or balcony, but costs a move to do so. This means you can grapple + shoot or grapple + dash; I usually do the latter, as grappling tends to leave you in the open up top.

Horizontally, you seem to be able to grapple across to ledges/balconies within about 8 tiles laterally that are within 1 level of your own (one level up or down). Works the same way as the above.

I've used a grapple successfully several times. I have one on my best support - a Corporal with the double-shoot-in-Overwatch perk. I was on a map with 11 (!) fucking mutons and 1 berserker. My entire team is holed up on a roof, overwatched. One by one, mutons and berserkers climb a pipe and, the moment their wrinkly pink heads peek over the lip, they get a hail of plasma and laser to the skull.

Except for one asshole. One asshole sits in the middle of the street and begins systematically blowing the fuck out of my cover. Somehow he has LOS on my guys, but we don't have LOS on him.

Now, I can't leave the roof without being entirely surrounded by the remaining 4-5 mutons and probably losing 2 or more high-ranked dudes.

But I can grapple. I hit the grapple button and see grapple boxes all over the roof of a higher building across the alley. Grapple Girl spidermans her way over and then unloads hot plasma death into the muton below, who is foolishly standing in the open in the middle of the alleyway. One crit later, and he's adding some nice weapon shards to my collection.

[CmdrSlack]

So which is more delicious: beans or weapon shards?

[koro]

Bean shards.

So I've run into my first Sectopod in the worst possible way to run into one. I'm smack in the middle of a horrible clusterfuck of an alien supply transport, with 5/6 of my squad already pretty heavily wounded only two rooms in after slogging through nine Heavy Floaters, a Cyberdisk, its drone contingent, and two Sectoid Commanders. The worst part is, two of my higher-rank vets are convalescing in the sickbay while my two flat-out best guys (Assault and Support) are halfway done with Psionics training. So half my squad is my B-team of Lieutenants and a couple Sergeants, with three of my A-team Colonels leading them.

I'm in a big supply hallway with two walkways on the outside of the ship and a walkway down the center, I had my squad split into three: Support and Heavy down the left walkway, Heavy and Assault down the right walkway, and my second Assault hopping from cover to cover down the center with my Sniper perched up on a ledge with LOS down the whole shebang. I accidentally overextend my right hallway Heavy by one single tile; he Dashes one space past his normal move, but since it's into heavy cover I don't think much of it... until he reveals a Sectopod, two drones, and three normal Sectoids. His move ends my turn, and my Heavy gets mowed down by the Sectopod. He'd have lived if he hadn't gotten hit by some Floater fire earlier.

Not knowing how I'm going to take that thing out, I maneuver my mostly-healthy Support on the opposite side of where my Heavy died; my Sniper's Squad Sight gets him access to the Sectopod, and he crits with a Headshot for 16 damage. I pull my Support back, set up firing lines with my Assaults and last Heavy, and Overwatch. The Sectoids come in and get mowed down, but the Sectopod and its drones don't move. One of my Assaults moves up enough to get the Sectopod back on the scope and he beans it with his laser shotgun for about 7 damage. My Sniper sets up, takes aim, and wipes out the last of the 'pod's health with another crit from his Plasma Sniper Rifle. His Colonel-rank ability kicks in, letting him shoot again if his shot killed an enemy who was out of cover or flanked. Both drones go down immediately after.

It's going to suck losing that Heavy, but it was his time. He had a tendency to get wounded in most every mission and those wounds finally ended up taking their toll; his Will was so low from repeated injuries despite being such a high rank that a single Muton's Intimidate could send him into a panic, even when he was full health. He was turning into a liability, but I wish I could've just benched him into a quiet retirement instead of having to take him along because he was the ONLY Heavy I'd gotten through normal promotion (the other one was a mission reward).

Colonel Shaun "Diesel" Smith, you will be missed.

[Ard]

Yeah, they  managed to add a new word to the xcom dictionary of stuff that makes me cry with the sectopod.  I hate seeing those things more than chrysallids, and that's saying a lot.  The tentaculats from terror from the deep still are at the top of that list though.

[bhodi]

NEVER. SPRINT. SCOUT.

If your scout is not sitting in blue and overwatch, and you are on classic mode, you will regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Learn from my mistakes.

[koro]

Archangel armor on an Assault is just about the best thing ever, by the way.

[Quinton]

NEVER. SPRINT. SCOUT.

If your scout is not sitting in blue and overwatch, and you are on classic mode, you will regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Learn from my mistakes.

Even in Normal mode you can really hose yourself this way.

[Rasix]

Yah, I like sprinting ahead and running into a squad of crysallids or mutons.  FFFFFFFFFFF.  

Opened the door into a UFO and all of the sudden there's 3 floaters overhead. Uhhhh, OK.  So long my brave support guy, I barely knew ye.

[apocrypha]

Game unlocked at midnight last night for us Euros etc. I didn't manage to stay awake, however getting up to make my other half a cup of tea at 5.30am before she left for work meant I've played for a couple of hours already this morning. 

2 days of reading all your gushing praise left me with high expectations, and I'm happy to say that they've been completely met so far. This shit is gonna be addictive. I'm still only in the tutorial and I'm attached to my squad already!

The random.... pauses in the.... dialogue in cut-scenes are........ amusing.

[Kitsune]

Snipers get a magical scouting grenade thing that I find useful, since they can chuck it a good long ways.  In the opening round I'll have a sniper move up into cover and throw one, and it reveals enough of the battlefield that I know whether or not I can safely have the rest of the squad run forward.

[Yoru]

Snipers get a magical scouting grenade thing that I find useful, since they can chuck it a good long ways.  In the opening round I'll have a sniper move up into cover and throw one, and it reveals enough of the battlefield that I know whether or not I can safely have the rest of the squad run forward.

I like tossing it into buildings/wrecks or down alleyways. If you have two snipers, you can also use it to have a forward sniper set up a rear squad-sight sniper to wtfpwn some unaware aliens at extreme ranges.

[Merusk]

I'm still working out the mechanics of this, but it appears Satellites give you extra cash per one hoisted?  How the hell did I miss that?   Month 3 and I only *just* got enough power and cash to build an uplink and launch 2 satellites and suddenly my income jumped, despite China and Japan dropping-out.   

Wish I had more time to sit-down and grind through an entire game. Still working on the 1st and only just got skeletal armor and my sniper hit Colonel.

[DraconianOne]

Yeah, satellite coverage gives you cash and a bonus (engineers and/or scientists) for each country you put them on, as well as lowering the panic level. Plus, if you manage to get a satellite over each country on a continent, you get the same bonus as if your base was there. (You can also get a Satellite Nexus facility that can have 4 linked satellites rather than just the 2 per uplink).

[lamaros]

I've been playing impossible a bit. It is strangely much harder at the beginning than the state I'm up to now. I think I may have screwed my game with some poor strategy layer though - keeping away from tech tree spoilers has meant some less than ideal research so far.

Such a fun game.

[Shannow]

I finally got a sniper with squad sight and he dies a mission later.

Fricken picking which terror mission is the devil's choice....and of course the mission to the country with the panic level that i need to bring down is the hardest one.

Holy fuck 5 mutons make me cry.


God bless Firaxis for making the levels less of 'send everyone in different directions to play hunt the alien' and more a directed experience.

[Merusk]

God bless Firaxis for making the levels less of 'send everyone in different directions to play hunt the alien' and more a directed experience.

Totally agree here.  I've had a few "Oh, fuck this" moments uncovering a spawn of aliens on top of another spawn. (Funnily enough, at the Bar & grill map last night I, too, had 5 Mutons.  3 out and 2 in.)  But it makes the gameplay so much more directed than the old "Send teams of 2-3 in EVERY direction and hope one team doesn't get wiped."

[Mrbloodworth]

Expansions ( DLC, now I suppose ) Hopes: Terror from the deep ( Submariner stuff ). New Hybrid classes.

[Goumindong]

I'm still working out the mechanics of this, but it appears Satellites give you extra cash per one hoisted?  How the hell did I miss that?   Month 3 and I only *just* got enough power and cash to build an uplink and launch 2 satellites and suddenly my income jumped, despite China and Japan dropping-out.   

Wish I had more time to sit-down and grind through an entire game. Still working on the 1st and only just got skeletal armor and my sniper hit Colonel.

Satellites do FOUR things

1) They give you cash per month
2) They give you Engineers/Scientists per month
3) If you have them over an entire continent you get the continent bonus

4) Satellites prevent aliens from doing things in the nation with the satellite.

Notice that if you have a full continent of satellites you never get an abduction there? Its because your satellites intercept them and you can shoot them down.

If you have satellites over the entire world you will never have abduction missions.

. Such overwatch shots are taken at a penalty, and might not be on the unit you need to target or any number of other things.

They are at a penalty, but the penalty tends to be less than 20%. So if you can force an enemy out of any kind of cover you're better off with overwatch.

Early on, moving so that enemies lose sight on you and must move through and overwatched area is a very efficient way to kill them.

[CmdrSlack]

Overwatch is almost TOO efficient when you have the snipercam and squad vision.

My Aussie Assault soldier was about one turn from finally capturing an Outsider. The Outsider decided to move. I had left my Goddess-like sniper on overwatch. Whoops. She pretty much put the kibosh on THAT capture attempt. It was an amazing shot, however. And now she's a Colonel. So that's nice.

[HaemishM]

I had thoroughly buttfucked my first playthrough with the tutorial, so I decided to start over on Classic Ironman with the tutorial disabled. Started with a base in Europe and went on the first mission thinking it would be a toodle.

NOT A TOODLE.

Thank FSM you can restart the first mission instead of having to take what it gives you. I had to play through it FIVE FUCKING TIMES last night because I got wiped out four straight times by soldiers that couldn't shoot, panicked or otherwise just sucked monkey ass, all equipped with the dirt basic assault rifle that is balls. Finally, on the 5th attempt, I get some shooters and win with only 1 loss and no other injuries. Got 2 promotions, one to sniper and one to heavy. BOO-YAH. Nothing like fighting 6 sectiods with 4 green recruits armed with pea shooters and cheesecloth for armor. The second mission was a walk in the park. Kill 4 sectoids, which I did in less than five minutes, which meant I also got another promotion to support. In one mission sectoids went from ZOMGCOMINGRIGHTFORUS to MEH.

I'm sure my next mission will be Night of the Living Thin Mints.

[Sophismata]

You have a huge penalty to hit with overwatch is why.

A 30% penalty is offset by them having zero cover.  It's a flanking shot which gives a big bonus.

I'm pretty sure the overwatch penalty is much larger than the light cover penalty. I can count the number of times an overwatch of mine has hit (twice), and the number of times an enemy overwatch has hit (also twice). I've stopped bothering with it now unless the turn is over.

Is there anything in particular I can do to make sure a squaddie is promoted to sniper? I have a bunch of assaults , heavies , 2 supports and no snipers!

I also love the fact that grenades are actually useful in this game vs original xcom.

You're crazy, grenades are SO MUCH WORSE in this version than the original XCom. Smaller AoE, less damage (comparatively), you may only carry one, you cannot rig them to blow when your guy is shot, and you cannot throw them across the map.

Even so, I still use all my grenades every mission - but they are certainly less useful than XCom grenades.

The second mission was a walk in the park. Kill 4 sectoids, which I did in less than five minutes, which meant I also got another promotion to support. In one mission sectoids went from ZOMGCOMINGRIGHTFORUS to MEH.

Been playing Ironman Impossible, the second mission (abduction) tends to have in excess of 12 sectoids, which basically makes it non-winnable due to soldier attrition. I'm trying to figure out the best time to bail from abduction missions to minimise score loss.



Is anyone else regularly missing 96% and 97% shots? All the others are fine, but I've only hit once with a shot rated at 96% or 97% accuracy. Also I totally get the gripes about the interface, I feel like the mouse is being poorly substituted for another from of control, which is pretty annoying.

[Amaron]

I'm pretty sure the overwatch penalty is much larger than the light cover penalty.

A lot of overwatch shots happen at long range and thus they miss.  If you're actually forcing the enemy to move into the overwatch then the range is controlled.

[Pezzle]

Finally made it through the alien terror base for the first time.  I was woefully under gear for the fight, but got pretty lucky in the enemy doing some odd things.  Now is a much different story, new discoveries are coming quickly .  Is it strange to skip laser tech nearly entirely?  My early lack of scientists really hurt, and now I am rolling out some plasma tech.  Am I going to miss anything important?  

[Furiously]

Finally made it through the alien terror base for the first time.  I was woefully under gear for the fight, but got pretty lucky in the enemy doing some odd things.  Now is a much different story, new discoveries are coming quickly .  Is it strange to skip laser tech nearly entirely?  My early lack of scientists really hurt, and now I am rolling out some plasma tech.  Am I going to miss anything important?  

Laser does less damage, I'd skip it totally if you can do plasma.

[Pezzle]

Plasma it is!  Are there any useful techs unique to laser? 

[Trippy]

Finally made it through the alien terror base for the first time.  I was woefully under gear for the fight, but got pretty lucky in the enemy doing some odd things.  Now is a much different story, new discoveries are coming quickly .  Is it strange to skip laser tech nearly entirely?  My early lack of scientists really hurt, and now I am rolling out some plasma tech.  Am I going to miss anything important? 

Laser does less damage, I'd skip it totally if you can do plasma.

Lasers may be easier to manufacturer, though (e.g. don't need to stun as many aliens).

[lamaros]

Sorry Sophismata, grenades are amazing.

They do three things:

1. Rarely miss.
2. Destroy cover and massively improve other shot %.
3. Do a fixed amount of damage (great for capture attempts).

On impossible, especially the early missions where pretty much every enemy shot is a dead rookie, they are vital. Only my snipers have scopes, and once levelled support gets metkits.

[Merusk]

Once leveled, Support gets Medkits AND grenades!    (Or stuns if you really need to cap something.)

I'm finding Support; if leveled properly into a specific role; is nearly as OP as snipers.  +3 move, Supression and deep pockets!?  Hello my little capture machine.  I wonder if the stun launcher is in, or if I can only use the improved sungun  from The Foundry project.

[lamaros]

Once leveled, Support gets Medkits AND grenades!    (Or stuns if you really need to cap something.)

I'm finding Support; if leveled properly into a specific role; is nearly as OP as snipers.  +3 move, Supression and deep pockets!?  Hello my little capture machine.  I wonder if the stun launcher is in, or if I can only use the improved sungun  from The Foundry project.

Support is handy but so far on my Impossible playthrough I'd say I've got more milage out of mine with smoke grenades than anything else. Though she hasn't leveled much, so I only just got suppression.

I'd have to say the classes work pretty well. Almost every mission that I haven't been able to field one of each I have noticed the loss a fair amount (thank god for Heavy rockets - I have complete disregard for the Dr's words about exploding the enemy). Though the Sniper with squad sight (never get anything else!) and the Assault unit (only got one, damn rng) get most of the kills.

[Tannhauser]

Any advice for someone starting brand new?  I've played the demo twice, but not sure how best to start my base. 

[Pezzle]

I go for the steam vent early.  The thermal generator takes some strain off power needs.  Satellites will be a key to income, make sure you build them early too.  You can have more than one building project going at a time!  Most of my buildings with adjacent bonuses have been column stacks.  I tried to keep most of it on one side of the map so there was room to rebuild in better formations on the other side when and if the pressure eases, or at least there is room for the new stuff. 

[lamaros]

Build satellites early, but don't launch them until just before the end of the month. Use them on key priorities that are about to leave the council.

Build satellites early, but don't build them until you have a few engineers, leave them to the last possible moment - so they finish just before the end of the month, but not too soon that you don't get the engineer discounts.

Build your next uplink early so that you can add another two or three satellites in the second month.

Get the OTS and the extra squad members as early as you can.

Don't waste money on equipment unless you are absolutely using it. Don't sell stuff on the grey market until you need the cash for sure.

More game-y advice: If I was doing an impossible ironman I'd replay the first mission until you get it flawless, and then restart the game until you get a good steam square.

Also Megrim: I got my Civ5 code (in gmg, under 'keys') so if you haven't got yours and would still like it let me know.

[jth]

So this unlocked here today and a couple of hours ago I started it for the first time. However either the game is really buggy with the current patch, or it just doesn't like me or my computer... the first tutorial mission was fine, but I had to kill the game five times with task manager while I was trying to do the second one. The first thing I learned was that every time I used reload, the only command the UI accepted after that was "End turn", after which even ESC stopped working (and it didn't really end the turn). So I decided to avoid reload for the time being, but then I found out the same thing happens when I'm supposed to target something with the rocket launcher... I get the tutorial note about targeting, but at that point nothing works except, well, reload command  

I'll try it with a different computer tomorrow, but from a quick look around the forums it seems that this is happening to some other people too.

[kildorn]

I absolutely love my supports, but I bring 2 heavies at all time entirely for HEAT.