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

[Merusk]

I find most aliens will stay still if you overwatch them all to fuck.

If they see you, yes.  The issue I've had with snipers is the Ai can't see your Squad-sight sniper on overwatch and tries to move in for the kill or to better cover. 

[Zetor]

The best part about muton berzerkers is figuring out the best order to hit them in to maximize damage while using as few attacks as possible. Close combat specialist assaults (auto-attack if enemy gets within 4 tiles) are a bonus.  

Then after you're done playing with the zerker, you get caught out of position by a surprise sectopod coming into view in the next round.

[Sophismata]

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...

I'm fairly sure you must lose 3 countries minimum in impossible, because the game won't let you take all three abduction missions.

[Goumindong]

I'm fairly sure you must lose 3 countries minimum in impossible, because the game won't let you take all three abduction missions.

Impossible starts with 16 panic around the world. There are 16 funding nations so this is, on average, 2 in each.

You will have two abduction missions and one ship in the first month. Two abduction missions add 2 panic to the country they're in and 1 panic to the continent.

Supposing that both abduction missions do not have two overlapping continents (I.E. you don't get Europe,Asia, SA and then Asia,Europe, Africa as choices) then choosing the single overlapping continent will leave you with +1 panic in all of the continents and +2 panic in one country in each. With minus 1 panic in the countries you did the abduction missions. So long as you don't get an abduction mission in two countries which are both at 4 you're OK (i think that the +2 will immediately make them leave)

So you're can get it so that you have 5 panic in only two nations.

If you make sure that its your starting nation as one of the nations that has 5 panic then you will get two panic reduction in it from downing and killing the aliens in the alien ship and so can get to the end of the month with only 1 nation at 5 panic.

Place your satellite in that nation.

Its not likely, or easy, but its do-able

Also i believe its possible to get >1 satellite up before the end of the first month so long as you skimp on everything else. Though this probably isn't a great idea because of panic increases from not being able to shoot down aliens

[eldaec]

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...

I'm fairly sure you must lose 3 countries minimum in impossible, because the game won't let you take all three abduction missions.

Not losing any soldiers at all requires luck but only losing a handful is perfectly practical on any difficulty.

As for countries you shouldn't need to lose more than one or none unless you are unlucky. Biggest luck factor I've come across is finding your steam vents are on the bottom of your base and being basically fucked as a result.

[CmdrSlack]

Mine were/are on lv 3 and 4. I rushed to them with lifts and excavation. I only lost two countries, and that was in May. It does hamstring you for money, but I got lucky and downed a large UFO in April. That netted me loads of junk to sell that could not be researched. Now that I have my sat systems online, I am hoping that the worst is over.

[Pezzle]

Running a modded classic game that unlocks the ability for you to intercept aliens that would normally be missions when they land.  It makes the start potentially much harder because countries will be pissed if you ignore the intercept.  On the plus side you can eventually take on battleship class ships and get the tech.  It can also mean less panic later because by shooting the aliens down you have less choices to cover later on the abductions.  You can also generate quite the pile of R&D materials by storming all those beat up ships.  Hello Mr Muton Elite.  IT IS ALLOY CANNON FACE TIME.

[Teleku]

Well, finally finished a game (been playing classic only).  Incredible amount of fun!  Though I agree the ending was pretty damned lackluster.  Its a sandbox game, which almost always means weak story, so I wasn't expecting much.  I still enjoyed the narrative they did along the way, however.  It was all good up to the end, which was a bit sloppy (not totally horrible.  Just sloppy).  I was sad that I after all my testing, I only had one single damn soldier who was psi capable.  But my Canadian Heavy Weapons chick was pretty bad ass, so it balanced.

I've been trying Ironman for a while now, but its god damned near impossible.  The first half of the game, without using reloads, I wipe constantly, no matter how defensive I play.  Basically, until I get plasma rifles, anything below 80% chance to hit will miss, EVERY FUCKING TIME.  Meanwhile, almost every shot made by the aliens against my in cover guys will hit, and very often crit, even if they are on the completely opposite side of the screen.  I think I've burned though about 15 attempts at ironman classic already, with my entire squad being wiped out within the 2nd or 3rd mission.

[Zetor]

Just finished this on normal, definitely have to do a classic playthrough sometime - I feel like I was missing out on a fair bit of stuff. In the end, the tactical part of the game reminded me more of a sRPG (like the old SSI gold box games, Shining Force, Tactics Ogre, etc) than XCOM/JA2/Silent Storm. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, btw.

Overall this is a great game, but here are some random nitpicks (non-spoilery) because :f13:  
- In most of the missions I felt like I was killing batches of 2-4 aliens (depending on 'spawn size') at a time, while the rest were patiently waiting for me to get in their 'aggro circle' or have my 'tank' 'pull' them. I assume they get more proactive at classic difficulty? Also, apologies for the terrible DIKU analogy as well as the overuse of quotes.
- Some of the maps felt very linear (with like 3 parallel paths leading down the same passage) and game-y. I don't recall many advantages of using the z axis in multi-level maps other than perching my sniper in archangel armor at the highest possible elevation.
- This was posted before, but bears repeating: fuck that map where all the cover is either behind cars or highly explosive fuel pumps.
- Most of the neat tactical tools were unlocked way, way too late in the game. Heck, I ended up fighting about 1/2 of the enemy types only using the starter weapons -- didn't have time to finish research/manufacturing lasers, and didn't know what to research for plasma. This may be just because I didn't know what to research and didn't focus on scientists at all, preferred getting engineers instead for the discounts / manufacturing requirements.
- It's kind of annoying to get a large ufo over a continent that doesn't have decently-equipped interceptors... what's the best strategy to handle interceptors on classic+ anyway?
- The ending/story was kind of ugh, but it wasn't the point of the game anyway. Still, at least they tried!

[HaemishM]

- In most of the missions I felt like I was killing batches of 2-4 aliens (depending on 'spawn size') at a time, while the rest were patiently waiting for me to get in their 'aggro circle' or have my 'tank' 'pull' them. I assume they get more proactive at classic difficulty?

I haven't played normal, but yeah, they flank the fuck out of you on classic.

[Goumindong]

- In most of the missions I felt like I was killing batches of 2-4 aliens (depending on 'spawn size') at a time, while the rest were patiently waiting for me to get in their 'aggro circle' or have my 'tank' 'pull' them. I assume they get more proactive at classic difficulty? Also, apologies for the terrible DIKU analogy as well as the overuse of quotes.

-On Classic Difficulty and above there is no limit to the number of aliens on screen at once. On normal there is a limit of 5 aliens. On Classic and above aliens will also call for reinforcements which will bring aliens from other areas of the map. Small maps become extremely dangerous for this reason. You will discover a group of aliens and then the next turn the entire map will come into view. I think the worst one I had of this was two cyberdisk groups and 3 chyssalid groups who all came to my position on a terror mission on the first three turns. [So, 7 Chyssalids, 2 cyberdisks, and 4 drones.

Lucky for me i had two heavies and the cyberdisks were near cars which allowed me to one shot both groups and the chyssalids were more concerned with eating civilians than trying to run through my close combat assault.

- The Z axis is valuable for aiming rockets and for sniping mainly. That being said, elevation (that isn't flying) does give you a bonus which is very valuable. Note that flying does not give you this bonus.

-The best way to deal with large UFO's over continents that don't have decently equipped interceptors is to have decently equipped interceptors. A raven with dodge boost and plasma cannons can take down pretty much anything except battleships i think. Just make sure you have some dodge and tracking boosts for when you might have to take something down with a raven.

[Teleku]

It also doesn't help if your like me.  I am THE MASTER at moving my very last guy on his very last move, only to uncover some huge fucking spawn of aliens, who then get a free turn to move into great positions, then get another full turn to move in and rape my team who is out of position trying to take out some other group.  This happens to me so fucking often, even when I am doing my damnedest to not let my final movements take me anywhere near where I think aliens might be.   

[Goumindong]

Yea, not doing that is pretty much the only way to survive a full classic ironman run.

[lamaros]

Yeah, never use the second part of a units turn until all other units have moved, it doesn't work otherwise.

Playing with random stats of units is pretty fun. I've got a support unit that covers half the map in one turn with 106 aim at Ll. (I think), which is great, but I've also got only 4 other useful soldiers out of the whole group. When a good ones dies you often have to spend a lot of money on new rookies to get someone decent again.

[Ironwood]

This Game.

Fuck me, this game is both brilliant and truly annoying.  Only been a day and I'm scunnered.

Great stuff.

[Megrim]

After the first couple of C/I games got wrecked due to losing too many people, I've finally managed to make it into the second month in good shape. Doing decently, but just lost a level 3 guy because the ui is a pos and designed by scumbags.

[HaemishM]

Fourth classic ironman playthrough is fucked. I was doing just fine, had made it to the 4th month and though I lost the entire African continent, I had a decent contingent of soldiers, full contingent of satellites and had a SHIV on the way. Three straight complete wipeout missions later and I'm sending a 5-man squad of nothing but rookies with laser rifles and carapace armor in against a ship landing (not a crash site). Needless to say a cyberdisk, multiple mutons and a muton leader were too much for the rookies to handle.

I think Ironman is just a bit too much for me. Think my next playthrough is going to be just classic. The ability to reload a mission after a wipe might be necessary for my skill level.

Also, fuck you terror missions with 6 chrysallids.

[calapine]

You are such a group of fanbeings! This is F13, where is the cynicism?! 

[Ironwood]

There are downsides to this game, of course, and some things I might have done differently, but after what's been a non stop 48 hour play session, I can honestly say that these chaps understood X-Com and have given us a great and fun tribute to that fantastic game.

It tends to dissolve cynicism.  It has for me anyway.

Also, fucking laser rifles.  Just as in X-com, the accuracy is shite.

[eldaec]

I finally put an end to my classic game.

It was all really fun, and ending made more sense than the original UFO.

But I did get a feeling that it tailed off after the alien base. Once I had a few colonels, basic armour and lasers, my guys were pretty much a match for anything and the threat just sort of goes away - you aren't rushing to keep up with new aliens so much as finding interesting ways to beat the shit out of them. Getting psionics, plasma, invisible armour, alloy cannons, in-the-zone flying snipers and blaster launchers was fun, but honestly I was dragging out it to play with all the toys.

Interesting that I've seen almost no one discuss the psi abilities, I suspect this is because while they are great, you've basically won once you reach them.

It also suffers a bit because the only surprising enemy was the sectopod, and the cyber-disk has some new abilities. Maybe a dlc new campaign with different aliens and technology would help. I get why they did this, but you do miss the surprises.

Deploying six hover shivs against a bunch of psionic ethereals is amusing in its own way, but not very scary.

[UnSub]

You are such a group of fanbeings! This is F13, where is the cynicism?! 

I'm waiting for this to be patched a few times to remove some of the bugs.

[tmp]

It also suffers a bit because the only surprising enemy was the sectopod, and the cyber-disk has some new abilities.

I liked the ethereals having four arms reveal

(captured my very first ethereal alive, so i didn't get the dissection drawing spoiler)

[Ingmar]

You are such a group of fanbeings! This is F13, where is the cynicism?! 

I'm waiting for this to be patched a few times to remove some of the bugs.

Bugs I've seen: 0

That isn't to say they don't exist, but I don't think you could call them rampant.

[koro]

I haven't encountered many bugs myself, but the few big ones I have run into are typically of the game-ruining variety, like a guaranteed freeze on the alien turn in Ironman (which ruins a save), aliens being spotted on the edge of your furthest soldier's vision and then suddenly teleporting into your squad, free to wreak havoc, or squad members slowly becoming unable to go into cover at all, one after the other.

There's other, lesser, annoyances, like the utter balls UI for mouse control, soldiers and aliens moving and then hitting some kind of physics error and flying off outside of the map to instantly die, the numerous problems with SHIVs, the inconsistent flanking mechanic, guaranteed hard crashes if you hit the spacebar to fire fast enough after an autosave, and the very inconsistent triggering of the assault's Close Combat Specialist.

Still a great game and I love it to death, but I really hope some patches come out soon.

[tmp]

Occasionally you'll get an alien appear out of thin air right on top of your guys rather than at some place in the distance where they should be. That's with species lacking jump/tp moves so no way it'd happen without some kind of a bug. It's rare, though.

There's also stuff like solid rock walls in the alien base that don't actually block the view, which can catch you with pants down.

[Megrim]

I've had my guys throw nades through walls.

[Mrbloodworth]

You are such a group of fanbeings! This is F13, where is the cynicism?!  

I'm waiting for this to be patched a few times to remove some of the bugs.

Bugs I've seen: 0

That isn't to say they don't exist, but I don't think you could call them rampant.

I have hit a few of, what I can only call "Script freezes". Had to crash it and reload. Also some odd issues with my only action being to reload, when my weapon still has ammo. But no, not rampant.

[eldaec]

I've had plenty of issues with brick walls not being worth a shit, or fully visible aliens somehow being 'in cover' but I don't think any of that is bugs, just the inevitable consequence of not tracking projectiles and having very basic cover rules. I've also had some strange cases of aoes affecting or not affecting things for no obvious reason, for example you can explode a grenade on one side of a wall, kill the thing on the other side, but somehow not affect the wall. Possibly we're using neutron grenades.

Had a couple of alien activity freezes, but nothing major.

[UnSub]

I'm not too princess-y about non-gamebreaking bugs, but in a game like XCOM that already likes to put the player on the razor edge I'm not interested in seeing a squad wipe due to some of the things that have been mentioned. Like aliens spawning on top of you.

[eldaec]

Personally I've never seen that, except for stumbling on aliens hidden behind a wall, or floaters using their launch ability. But I don't think that's what people mean.

[koro]

What the "aliens teleport in on you" thing is, is some error regarding alien discovery and LOS; when aliens spawn in just out of the LOS of the furthest soldier afield (to simulate being drawn by noise and/or gunfire so they can wander into said soldier's LOS and do the standard discovery routine), they can occasionally get a brain fart with certain pieces of geometry and fail to path... which ends up having them warp over to the nearest valid piece of terrain within sight range of one of your troops.

Sometimes this can mean they just get zooped a short ways away from your pointman, but more often than not it plops them in the middle of your whole squad. For certain enemies this isn't so bad, but if you're already engaged in a battle and suddenly instead of having a different front open up to deal with (which can be bad enough), the enemies are now mixed in with your squad? That's a potentially mission-ending situation with even something as simple as thin men; imagine if it's a squad of heavy floaters or even a sectopod that does it.

[Merusk]

In retrospect that explaination certainly seems to track with my experiences when I've seen it.  (Had it happen on my Battleship mission over the weekend, too.)

I'm totally on board with the "alien maps are too linear" complaint.  The maps are great fun but lack a little more tactical flair as the pieces aren't truly random and the ships and bases definitely have a "single best plan of attack" to them.   I don't remember that being the case with the bases in the 1st, and the exploding interior walls meant the ships had a little difference between them in the 1st.

Still, I finished it last night and was pleased.  I'll come back and do another game in a while, trying to keep from losing the first two countries is my new goal.  Then getting things done in fewer than 200days. (My final length of game; though I'd drawn it out after researching the ethereal device to farm for xp and more mentally-strong soldiers.)

I'll confess I'm totally disappointed by the blaster launcher, though it's primarily because they put such a short max range on the rockets.  They're a much more limited resource than the first game since you can only fire one, possibly two a mission.  No reason to keep them so neutered on the range.

[lamaros]

A tip for getting one of the achievements.

[Merusk]

Thanks, I was wondering how the hell you'd do that.  My game I had 0% chance every time I had the opportunity.  I blame having my only Psi-Guy be one of the guys I had before the Officer School willpower training.

[Goumindong]

A tip for getting one of the achievements.