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

[Trippy]

N00b question: Is there a way to see line of sight for a soldier like the grid display for movement? The main issue I'm having is if one soldier spots an alien and I want to move up another soldier nearby to take a shot at it often requires trial and error (i.e. save and reloading) to figure out which square to move to so that the 2nd soldier can see the alien as well.

[lamaros]

Also classic isn't that challenging. You can go through the game without losing a unit or a country on ironman...

Yea, you can. Its also possible to go through the game without losing a single unit or country on impossible. So long as your play is perfect and you're lucky...

Classic is pretty challenging, in that if you wipe any mission you're going to lose a country and there are many situations in which wipes are more than possible.

Yes, it is technically possible to finish impossible ironman without losing a unit. But I don't know if it will ever be done. Many people have finished classic ironman without losing any though.

Anyhow, on to other things:

I have decided that the sniper must get the battle scanners. It makes agressive missions, like terror and bomb disposal, pretty nifty. It's also quite handy indoors, to the point that a squad sight gunslinging battlescanning sniper is incredible useful wherever he goes.

The only choices I'm still weighing up are some of the support ones and some heavy ones. Assault and Sniper seem to have clear obvious choices is pretty much every point.

^Trippy: Unfortunately not. I just had a game where my sniper could only get a 50% shot, so I grenaded the cover out from the target. Which resulted in... the sniper losing LOS alltogether. There are a few issues like this I'm afraid.

[koro]

N00b question: Is there a way to see line of sight for a soldier like the grid display for movement? The main issue I'm having is if one soldier spots an alien and I want to move up another soldier nearby to take a shot at it often requires trial and error (i.e. save and reloading) to figure out which square to move to so that the 2nd soldier can see the alien as well.

Not that I'm aware of. I'd sorely like such a thing, though.

[Trippy]

^Trippy:

[lamaros]

^Trippy:

I'm not sure what came over me.

[brellium]

I had one of those constant reload situations, 3 Mutons in heavy cover. So the guys that can pretty much oneshot half my team I only have a 20% chance of hitting. Then there was the 3 Mutons plus 3 spawns of floaters all at once, so 9 floaters.

I wonder where the X-Com Project picked these guys up, an elite counter terrorism force and half the people couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from inside the barn.

[apocrypha]

When you start fielding a squad of Ultimate Badasses some of them end up with a LOT of buttons:


That'll be my first use of a SHIV too, no idea yet if they're any good or not. I'm guessing not, given that by now my assault has more HP than it does and a lot more abilities, but I suppose the replacement cost is much less painful for the tank.

[Goumindong]

Plasma Flying SHIV is pretty great. It can suppress and fly, does 11 damage per attack with a high hit rate. Its hardened against critical hits and has effective full cover all the time when its flying(half cover when not) its pretty great

[Ingmar]

^Trippy:

What, it wasn't an @ sign!

I think I'm closing in on the end of the game. I'm not sure the pacing with research and story missions is quite right, but maybe you take longer to build up to a point where you can do the story missions on difficulties above Normal. I pretty easily could have gotten to the point I'm at now while skipping a dozen or so research options.

I had one of those constant reload situations, 3 Mutons in heavy cover. So the guys that can pretty much oneshot half my team I only have a 20% chance of hitting. Then there was the 3 Mutons plus 3 spawns of floaters all at once, so 9 floaters.

I wonder where the X-Com Project picked these guys up, an elite counter terrorism force and half the people couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from inside the barn.

Rocket launcher = bye bye cover.

[DraconianOne]

I notice that some soldiers have UK flags on and some have Scottish flags on. Is this from a future where Scotland has gained their independence from the rest of the country? 

[Samprimary]

Impossible so far:

MONTHS ONE AND TWO: gentlemen, you are all food for thin men. You will all be clamoring over each other's corpses towards the febrile promise of real armor. You will all die and be replaced with people who do not have permanently gimped stats and an inability to largely expect combat revives.

MONTHS THREE AND ONWARD: gentlemen, sit in this smoke behind full cover and overwatch these suppressed shitholes to death. But for god's sake don't ever move forward more than three squares at a time, if you 'pop' more than one group at a time we'll all fucking die.

[Tebonas]

I notice that some soldiers have UK flags on and some have Scottish flags on. Is this from a future where Scotland has gained their independence from the rest of the country?  

All I know for sure is my Scots are pretty much all badass. I guess nobody dares to tell them to put the British flag on their armor!  

[apocrypha]

I notice that some soldiers have UK flags on and some have Scottish flags on. Is this from a future where Scotland has gained their independence from the rest of the country?  

Well that pair of shitcocks Salmond and Cameron have just signed an agreement to stage a referendum on independence before the end of 2014, so by 2015 it may have actually happened.

Plasma Flying SHIV is pretty great. It can suppress and fly, does 11 damage per attack with a high hit rate. Its hardened against critical hits and has effective full cover all the time when its flying(half cover when not) its pretty great

After using it just now I agree! Except mine doesn't have suppression, but it is most definitely flying plasma death. Edit: *Now* it has suppression, I just had to research it in the Foundry :)

[lamaros]

Yay.. playing my game and finally decided to get the containment chamber... expect I've got to the point that most everything I get are mutons at worst... and capturing mutons doesn't trigger the story events.. so I'm not actually able to capture anything...

[Merusk]

Snakemen were really dumb as aliens anyway, I don't miss them. Here's a D&D monster thrown in with all your space aliens!

Snakemen are still in the game... kind of. Listen to the Thin Men autopsy report. (I can't be the only one who noticed and was amused by that.)

Also, another cool little easter egg/cheat:

I missed the Autopsy audio because :kids:  and don't want to restart a game just to cap a Thin Man.  What was the audio?

I tried that easter egg.  Some different builds than I'd have done but wow are they powerful. I certainly see the point of "In The Zone" after one-shotting 3 chryssalids in a row on a terror mission.   Cheated stats do that, I guess. 

[DraconianOne]

I missed the Autopsy audio because :kids:  and don't want to restart a game just to cap a Thin Man.  What was the audio?

The autopsy intro says "...they seem to have real trouble concealing the eyes which appear to be reptilian in nature."

Then there's the results of the autopsy:

[Arthur_Parker]

Have two assaults and their close reaction shots never fail to scare to life out of me, so much damage.  Earlier was trying to level up some support rookies and got nothing but Mutons when I still had normal weapons, ended up with 5 of mine dead, the single medic left against 3 wounded ones, he someone killed all 3 so I let him stay in the team, getting real attached to some of the soldiers now.

[Merusk]

Ah ha, thanks, DO. Heh didn't catch any of that.

I'm attached to all my guys, but I'll still let 'em die once in a while if I accept that 1) I did something very dumb and 2) the greater mission was still a win.   I lost a colonel support yesterday because I didn't put him behind cover as I was setting up for a door breach on the overseer ship.  We still took the room in the next two turns with no further losses, so I let it stand.   My mistake, you'll be missed, "Deacon."

ed: That reminds me.  The nicknames are pretty great.  I haven't had one that I thought "well that's dumb" and only a few I've changed because it didn't fit my view of that character.  "Sheriff" is my favorite assault nick so far.  I got a support named "Deep pockets" yesterday. 

[Amaron]

It could cheat in a way that offers are varied play each time though, rather than a linear - you need x now, y next, z by month three.

Not really.  People would simply demand a harder difficulty.  Then you'd be back to square one.  The game can definitely use some balancing though.

[Polysorbate80]

ed: That reminds me.  The nicknames are pretty great.  I haven't had one that I thought "well that's dumb" and only a few I've changed because it didn't fit my view of that character.  "Sheriff" is my favorite assault nick so far.  I got a support named "Deep pockets" yesterday. 

I changed one, on my colonel sniper.  He's now Cheng "Thundercats" Ho   

[kildorn]

My medic got "Kitty" and I can only imagine she shot whoever proposed that nickname.

[eldaec]

My snipers are struggling: 'Drifter' and 'Nightmare'.

But everyone else is doing well.

Support medic 'Magic man'
Assault 'Chops' and 'Double down'
Heavy 'Road Block'

I find myself referring to them in my head by nickname, so I guess it works.

[murdoc]

My support got the nickname 'Freud'.

A buddy was playing and gave his 'A' team names of a group of us. I died yesterday and actually was mad he got me killed.

The missions I am doing pretty good with now. Started over on Ironman Classic and skipped the tutorial. Unfortunately, I suck horribly at the strategy part of the game and have 3 countries ready to leave after the first month. 

[eldaec]

Did you win your tactical missions? I'm not sure how you got 3 countries in red unless you're skipping missions?

You need to get a satellite, workshop, probably a generator built in month one. That means you can satellite one red country at month end and be ready to build another uplink. This is all higher priority than the containment room that the German lady is getting her knickers damp for.

Assuming you understand abduction mechanics (entire continent of the countries you don't assist get +1 panic) you should only have one or maybe two red locations by month end.

[murdoc]

Did you win your tactical missions? I'm not sure how you got 3 countries in red unless you're skipping missions?

You need to get a satellite, workshop, probably a generator built in month one. That means you can satellite one red country at month end and be ready to build another uplink. This is all higher priority than the containment room that the German lady is getting her knickers damp for.

Assuming you understand abduction mechanics (entire continent of the countries you don't assist get +1 panic) you should only have one or maybe two red locations by month end.

Didn't fail any missions and dumped a satellite over the UK who was all in huff over something. I think the problem is that I didn't get my uplink built in time and couldn't get another satellite up and that I didn't pay attention when scanning for missions about which country I assisted - I went after the reward I needed instead.

[CmdrSlack]

I finally lost two countries at once in May. I was playing the juggling act a bit too close on nation panic. If I'd rushed to the sat nexus, then I might have been able to prevent it. By the end of June, I'll have a third array up and hopefully a nexus underway.

After dropping down from classic, a no tutorial-start normal game is going amazingly well in comparison. I shot down a large UFO with one aim buff and an interceptor.

Granted, in the classic game, I made some bad choices while learning some of the mechanics. This game, I rushed to armor and laser weapons. Now I'm going after objectives and things are much easier.

In that one, I rushed to complete the first few objectives. I had just nabbed carapace armor and was beginning the long slog towards plasma when I met my first map with cyberdisks. That game is stuck on a mission map that I may not be able to complete. I might force myself to redo a few mission maps in it just to see if I can salvage it. I can see how I'm on the verge of a long slide into a world where I am forced to send countless rookies into the meat grinder.

[Ghambit]

This game is fucking up my brother's fucked up marriage.     Thank you Firaxis.  Thank you.  No really... thanks.  
edit:  I will be going into hiding when they open up modding.  "Space Hulk" redux anyone? 

[HaemishM]

ed: That reminds me.  The nicknames are pretty great.  I haven't had one that I thought "well that's dumb" and only a few I've changed because it didn't fit my view of that character.  "Sheriff" is my favorite assault nick so far.  I got a support named "Deep pockets" yesterday. 

My deadeye female heavy who was death in heels was nicknamed Big Momma. She is sorely missed now.

[Shannow]

edit:  I will be going into hiding when they open up modding.  "Space Hulk" redux anyone? 

 

[Rasix]

You do tend to get attached to your squad. 

Snipers:  "Ghost" and "Ice"
Supports: "Santa", "Atlas" and "Combo"
Heavies: "Tectonic" and "Flash"
Assault: "Chops"

Usually run two supports, one assault and either 1 or 2 Sniper/Heavy.  Ghost, Santa, Tectonic, Chops, and Atlas are my oldest members.   I just have a ton of supports. 

[Mrbloodworth]

My current game has a bad lack of support. I somewhat wish, if it is not, that class was based on actions. Use a health kit, support, get close and blast them, attack. So on and so forth.

[Ingmar]

My current game has a bad lack of support. I somewhat wish, if it is not, that class was based on actions. Use a health kit, support, get close and blast them, attack. So on and so forth.

Research the thing that makes new recruits come in as squaddies at the Officer School. You still don't get to pick, but at least you don't have to dick around leveling them up before you see what they turn into.

[Mrbloodworth]

Yeah, with my satellite issue, that's money I can't spare. I seem to always go for Engineers and scientists rather than cash.

[Pezzle]

Last night I learned that close combat specialist can trigger on the characters OWN turn.  My sniper threw a radar ball into the next room that revealed some enemies.  Assault move in, enemy movement triggers within 4.  Shotgun rage!  Then I get to run and gun for another shot.  NEED MORE ALIEN GOO

[Ingmar]

Yeah, with my satellite issue, that's money I can't spare. I seem to always go for Engineers and scientists rather than cash.

If you satellite all of Asia up (or have your base there) that stuff is half price, that might help.