It's here!!!

[The Veteran]

How on earth did you get a very difficult before chryssalids? I've still only had one terror site but am now onto large UFOs (just starting my first one, looks wierd!) terror site was ok but only as I was able to kill the 'lids pretty fast so only had 2 zombies. (This is a replay of the one that went badly wrong with the sniper who couldn't snipe! In that one I had to put down 6 zombies, 2 of whom were my own men!)

 

I just lost an interceptor putting down the large UFO but don't think it matters as they're so cheap and money is no longer so crazy for me, for now anyway! Got satellites in africa and russia with 3 planes in each and the same at home which is North America in this game. About to launch fourth sat in South America and already have 2 planes down there too. So looking up but getting worried about Mutons now!

 

NB. Carapace armour is an improvement of +3 health over the normal stuff, get it asap!

[NKF]

I'll be hunting for a copy of the game today, and I like the noises I'm hearing from all fronts. The 1-2Gb update makes me go pale though - I'll need to upgrade my broadband plan before I can get that. To think EU Classic is only 18 Megabytes...

 

On the random number generator, It sounds like they did the same thing in JA2, where rather than seed the random number generator with whatever's on the clock at the time the game loads up, it saves the random number seed at the time of the save so that the sequence of random numbers are always the same when you reload. Used a lot in game development where the RNG is involved. Worked around by doing something else before trying the move again.

 

- NKF

[Pete]

Onto Skeleton armour now Vet. About to assault an alien base, which I don't feel ready for - that's the way it should be though. At least I'm going in with decent armour and a squad of 6 even if my guns suck donkey balls.

 

NKF - for me, any niggles about "dumbing down" died away as I began to play. Sure, it's different, but it's still the most fun I've had with a game in a loooong time. The atmosphere on the terror site was spot on because of the stupid civvies running about amongst the Chrysalids, even if the map was small (fighting on a motorway/freeway leads to close-quarters fighting).

 

Beginning to think that Normal setting might be a bit too easy as I've only lost one guys and not had to reload yet, but I'm sure my ass-kicking is just around the corner in this alien base

[The Veteran]

You're just a pro Pete Normal is pretty much what it says on the tin for me. Had a few cock ups as you know but mostly as long as I don't mess up then it's ok. On the bridge of this large ship now (terror I think) and just opened a door with 3 'lids behind it! Pulled back and set up an ambush which two of them fell for. Now just need to move my bait and stick a rocket in them before hunting down the third!

 

One problem though (why I'm not killing lids right now) did you have any issues with the ceiling height on this map? I'm guessing you've done one of these ships if you're that much further on than me. I'm on the second level, the entrance to the ship up 2 slopes, and it's as if I'm stuck between levels. My cursor behaves as if I were on ground floor making it difficult to move on the level I want but if I add a layer then the roof of the vessel is put on so I can hardly see at all then! Any ideas? It's starting to really get on my tits and I'm only a few turns into this game!

 

Edit : Another bug now as I'm trying to spring my trap. One rookie has both moves left (clearly shown) but when I make her first one it says she's used both... Loaded the autosave to check I hadn't dashed but it's not me at fault! I NEED her to take a shot after she moves as part of the plan so I'm a bit screwed if it can't be fixed...

 

And again... : Just had 2 Sectoids forming the psychic link thing and took out the one who initiated it (the one with only 3 bars of health) which shoudl kill both automatically... But it didn't! The one with four bars just stayed stood there alive with his half of the psychic link still in place! Why is it only me that this funky shit is happening to!!!

[Pete]

Not had anything larger than the 2 small UFOs but I've cleared the first alien base already.

 

Extreme spoiler alert - only read if you've done an alien base mission:

 

 

I think there is only one alien base, but I hope it's only part of the plot and that the guys on the base just think that this is the case. Needless to say, the whole world now loves me and gave me lots of cash, but I'm so far behind on research and development that completing this mission early on may bring on the heat a bit too much too soon.

 

 

Preparing to have my ass handed to me at any moment now, but so far casualties are all too light... waiting for that ass-kicking.

 

Don't get me wrong though, I've had a lot of close calls with people nearly dying, and one guy who managed to get surrounded by Chrysalids was lucky enough not to get zombified (1 bar of health) whilst his squad-mate did get the Chrysalid treatment - I sorted that out whilst they were clustered around her pre-zombie corpse by taking them all out with a rocket

 

So far, it's been a lot of luck and a little tactics on my part I think.

[The Veteran]

Weird that things are happening to us in such a different order hey?! I'm off to bed now, didn't realise how late it was getting! My game is currently on May 26th (when is yours Pete?) and I've just got my first Very Difficult mission but it's only an abduction so should I'm hoping be fine! I've done a good few UFOs now but mostly the smallest 2, just had the big boxy looking one once! Turned out ok in the end but needed a few reloads due to the bugginess I mentioned earlier (if not for the bugs though it was actually a perfect mission!) Whenever my troops come up against a lid they get one shot zombified so I assumed that's all it took! Nice to know it can be survived so maybe my new armour will help against them too. Is the skeleton suit armour much of a health boost over carapace as I'm just about to finish researching it so will have it tomorrow (strangely enough I actually got FURTHER than this research wise in my classic ironman game ) Anyway not come close to having a base yet so no spoilers for me, bound to have one tomorrow though so will read it then! Night all!

[silencer_pl]

Finally I am installing xcom - to package was delivered yesterday at 10 P.M - grumble grumble. Too boot I got Bionical Hereos too.

[silencer_pl]

Heheh - my first mission - 3x 65% missed - GJ. Also I noticed that minde merege can heal wounded soldier - probably a bug to be fixed. I left a sectoid with 1HP mind merged - next turn he was mined merged and had 2HP and next turn 3HP.

 

Second thing that I don't like - when in overwatch 2 soldiers can fire on same alien in same instance.

 

Thrid thing - when during their turn when they are spotted they got additional move :/

[Pete]

@Vet - before I forget it's the 21st of May.

 

I'm only trying this on Normal setting though, but I think that like the original certain events spark off certain things. No Mutons yet, but the aliens are about to throw everything at me I reckon after I played this after winning an alien base mission:

 

These guys can't take a joke!

[The Veteran]

Wierd that I'm five days ahead but you have loads of things I don't! Guess our priorities are just a bit skewed... My research has been taking a long time so maybe certain technology triggers new events? Not sure why you've had terror sites and not yet terror ships though... But anyway I'm just going for skeleton armour and the SHIV which I only just found! Didn't have the foundry so I wasn't sure how to get it, started thinking maybe I dreamed it as a feature!!! I also still have a squad of 4 as I'm being rather careful with my cash. Most of what I've spent so far is on global surveillance, satellites and aircraft. Not invested too much in facilities and only have one steam vent in the base, had 3 in my classic difficulty game! Hoping to have my four guys in better armour and a SHIV on the team soon though, should help. First things first though I have a very difficult abduction to do! My first mission of this difficulty! Wish me luck

 

--------

 

Starting to get on really well now, no deaths for a long time, probably since the carapace armour to be honest! I finally figured out how to enlarge my squad, didn't realise it was so simple or I'd have had a full team ages ago... Now ready for my own base assault and the reason you're ahead of me is definitely research Pete as I hadn't been bothering to capture until now and you know how the tech tree affects the game hey Lost Germany and France which is annoying. Not because I lost them but because there was absolutely NOTHING I could've done to stop it... Right now I have another 5 countries on 4/5 bars and I can't help them either. All have satellite and interceptor coverage but I just don't get missions in the right place and every time I fail to attend one panic there increases by 2 bars which seems rather OTT for normal mode. A win should be -2, a loss should be +2 and a non-attendance should be +1 I think...

 

Question : I now have an alien grenade, 1 alien grenade. But it seems that I can equip it so that it behaves as an infinite number of alien grenades for the soldier holding it. Is that right? My heavies can chuck two nades per mission now and when I equip my 1 alien grenade it's shown as 2 in their inventory which I don't have. So does this mean when I come back from the mission that I will still have this 1 alien grenade equipped to the soldier for use in other battles?

ANSWER : Moved on in the game and realise this isn't an issue as

the foundry can upgrade all frag grenades to alien grenades once you possess one.

 

 

EDIT : ANOTHER bug! Now I'm in the alien base, first part still and after opening a door and sending my SHIV through I now can't move anyone through it at all. It shows movement options like the door is closed but graphically it's open and physically I can't interact with it at all... Had a nasty start to this mission getting jumped by 3 lids right at the start then 5 mutons on turn 2 but if I could just move through this door and lob a grenade it could be an ok game still! Why is noone else getting ANY bugs and I'm getting ALL of them?!?! Oh, and I just had 2 drones pop up from nowhere in an area I'd already thoroughly cleared. Is that meant to happen :s

[The Veteran]

Just played the alien base mission (reloaded to an earlier autosave to get by the door bug, had to change my moves though as it kept replicating when I followed the exact same process.) Well damn though, that mission would've made a HELL of an AAR! The base itself was intimidatingly large but in the end 90% of the enemies in it came to me before I was even out of the lobby! I had a couple of very close calls like the chryssalid ambush right off the get go but JUST managed to survive it. That was just the beginning though! Below (in a spoiler tab) is what I encountered in my first base mission. If you've done yours, which I know some of you will have done by now, please share your stories if you remember them!

 

 

In roughly the order they were met...

3 Chryssalids in lobby - nuked along with my Heavy who survived the ordeal with 1 bar of health!

3 Mutons in hallway, didn't die for many turns!

2 more Mutons in other hallway, quickly dispatched with shotguns to the face

2 Drones appeared from nowhere? but they suck...

3 Chryssalids in the rear of the hallway, charged while still fighting the 3 mutons there. rocket + alien grenade wiped them out immediately

2 drones and a Cyberdisk in hallway with Mutons, everyone was ready for them and they dies in one turn.

2 more drones, easy

Then from leaving that first corridor I passed all the way through the rest of the base unmolested until 3 sectoids sprang out from the command centre. Luckily I'd been moving so carefully I was able to immediately one-shot all of them!

Captured the commander in a risky but successful move!

 

Lost Captain Nabil, my star Support member while dealing with the Mutons in the corridor. First encounter with an alien grenade and a lucky shot afterwards finished him off

 

Now have my first major though which is cool, she was a corporal not too long ago so has come on leaps and bounds!

 

Let me know how your base missions went, I thought it was excellently done but I got swarmed early on which made it really tough!!!

 

[Knan]

Had some fun moments, rookies going batshit and in the process shooting the bad guy who scared them, etc...

 

And panicking is bad when you are crouching behind a car about to blow up.

[The Veteran]

Had some fun moments, rookies going batshit and in the process shooting the bad guy who scared them

 

This happened in a nasty mission I just did. Loadsa bad guys all over the place and all my good Commies were off sick so had 3 assault troops with low skills in a bleedin graveyard The only good one I had was a heavy who shit herself when the Muton she just shot used his 'intimidate' ability. She RF'd him and shot him to pieces, level won lmao

 

Just had an awesome terror mission too, rockets and grenades going EVERYWHERE! There were 10 'lids in this fight and I still managed to save 12/18 civvies with no deaths and no reloading which I'm pretty chuffed with. Had one civvie surrounded by 3 of them so he was a friendly fire kill but when does a chance like that pop up? 3 lids with 2 shots My men are crippled now though, 2 with 8 days to recover and the boss has 15!

 

Just had the council report for June and so far been A, A, B, A so not bad. If France wasn't so ready to surrender (like always ) would've been a perfect score!

[The Veteran]

2 more bugs, graphical and gameplay this time!

 

In my awesome terror mission I just mentioned, there were obviously zombies as I didn't save everyone! One turn, I had 2 near me, both of which were 1-shot'd by snipers, but then afterwards I noticed something odd. Two more zombies were stood together - on the same tile but not clashing they were stood neatly both on the same tile - but they did nothing and didn't count as enemies. This is the only time I've had it happen.

 

My tank bought it a few missions ago, I dashed instead of playing it safe and it found 5 mutons So I built a new one which is now ready (Goliath - 2!) but I just tried to equip it for a mission and it won't let me. It says it's active but it beeps at me when I try to do it. So I went to the barracks to check it was ok and it has no image... No image of the tank at all, just the standard info and option to dismantle. Also oddly it's got a rookie ranking and the last one I had came to me with a much higher ranking, at least corporal possibly higher.

 

Any idea on these or the million other bugs that ONLY I HAVE please let me know! My tank is currently not usable...

 

EDIT : Seems the SHIV thing is a very common problem so my game is essentially now SHIVless despite me just spending my money on a new one

 

Also another bug, if you can call it that... Just deployed on a landed UFO and the skyranger is on the opposite side of the map to my troops. Very strange indeed!!!

[Pete]

I've got you beat with injuries - had a Muton-only map (well, with added Beserker) all fielding Heavy Plasma. 3 men gravely injured with more than 2 weeks recovery time. 2 were about to bleed out on the battlefield but I pulled it back from the brink on the final turn.

 

A good tip for later on is don't be afraid to pull back if you're in trouble. Unless you've seen them use Overwatch it's safe to retreat... unless you're up against Chrysalids in which case stand your ground and hope you mow them all down.

 

Another good hint on the abduction ships (the square ones) is not to open too many doors or advance two quickly. The aliens stay in groups until they're alerted, so don't alert more than you can handle.

 

I'm on the verge of Heavy Plasma now, but need more Titan armour. Titan armour and a vest made of Chrysalids (I know, sounds lovely) gives you something ridiculous like 25 hit points, which is more than a Cyberdisc (but I'm betting less than a Sectopod, which I've fortunately not encountered yet). I have a nice Plasma rifle for my Sniper now, but had a moment of stupidity as one of my men was mind-controlled and I put said Sniper on Overwatch. Oops. Dead trooper as a Plasma-enabled Sniper at any range is extremely deadly.

 

My ongoing struggle is with cash and weapon fragments. I need to stop firing rockets at things!

 

Despite the limitations imposed and the fact that it doesn't look like there are many skills per class, you end up with a pretty diverse squad in a short amount of time, especially with the variety of weapons. This has stopped me from playing it as I played the original - rifles for everyone with Heavy Plasma at a later date. It makes me play a much more interesting way so despite any limitations, I'm enjoying it immensely.

 

Stopping for now though as it's been all day so far!

[Sorbicol]

My biggest problem (other than the cyber disk I just walked into which killed 3, including my best field medic) has been the lack of rookies becoming assault class. I've had 1 the entire game, the other 2 being rewards from successful missions. All ate now dead, they seem to get singled out by the aliens

[Sunflash]

Hate being sick. Everyone else has jumped so far ahead of me it's soul-wrenching! D:

[The Veteran]

Just had a mini break here as the alien attack plan has just changed massively and caught me really off guard!!!

 

Had a few losses lately (including the tank hich won't work now) so hired 3 new rookies. Thought a small scout would be the perfect place to train them so took along 3 good troops and 3 bad ones. Turned out to have what I can only presume to be a berserker on board and a host of other Mutons to boot! Normally that would be fine and it would've still been an easy win but my sniper got 1-shot'd from across the map so I must confess I decided a rewrite was in order!

 

Came away from the game for a bit and now going back in with a proper squad, no idea how I'll EVER get these rookies trained up though, they were useless! I already know it's mutons again and if the big boy shows up we're ready to take him home with us this time so ball is in my court! I do worry when I'll be able to replace the recent losses mind, if a small scout is too much for them what CAN they do?!

[The Veteran]

Come to the decision that it's simply not possible to complete missions with rookies at this point in the game. I guess that's why you're able to buy the upgrade that makes all noob soldiers squaddies right away but I don't have it so am effectively screwed. I'm on a pretty straightforward abduction mission atm but have 3 rookies (like the last mission I abandonned and reloaded) and it's just not possible. So far, that I know of, I've encountered 8 mutons with heavy plasmas, a berserker and 2 thinmen. Not that anyone cares about the thinmen... Trouble is I have no good skills with these guys. One sniper and 2 heavies but it's just not enough! I still have traditional weapons apart from the laser snipers and don't forget these rookies have 10 HP even in carapace armour. Only way to make it through this mission is lots of explosives as ALL of the aliens spawn in near the exact same place. I can take them in waves, thought I'd done it last time then another 3 climbed off the roof and killed the whole team... Think I may call it a night for now as this is really pissing me off. I can't keep losing good men if it's not possible for the rookies to survive even a single mission but I'm NOT in the way of reloading my way through the whole game. So far I replayed one terror mission because the sniper wouldn't hit anything and I lost two men to being stupid (first time with the new lids) and second time was for the last outing with the rookies that got all six people killed. I've lost my captain, my tank and a few others today and I'm not reloading my way out of it but I'm starting to find myself in serious trouble as all my good soldiers are always in and out of sickbay!!!

 

EDIT : Just realised something funny. The day of this mission is my 30th birthday

[Pete]

I think I had luck early on, but now some of my people are so tooled up they've got 24 hit points I don't have to worry so much. Took a berserker to the face and shrugged it off, but wouldn't recommend leaving them alive long!

 

I would recommend the early money be spent on the increased squad size plus that option you mentioned to have all new recruits trained up one level - the latter saves some headaches that you appear to be encountering.

 

I completed a mission today that have me a Captain as a reward - that came in handy!

 

Still not had to reload yet but again I think a lot of it is luck.

[FullAuto]

I would recommend the early money be spent on the increased squad size plus that option you mentioned to have all new recruits trained up one level - the latter saves some headaches that you appear to be encountering.

 

Yep. Early on, it's a race to get the OCS, it really helps in battle.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

Hate being sick. Everyone else has jumped so far ahead of me it's soul-wrenching! D:

Don't worry. There's worse things out there...like having a Chryssalid rip/tear through your chest with its pinchers, raise you up into the air and slam your ass onto the ground like some whacked power bomb...oh and then puking an embryo down your throat turning you into a zombie... Feel better?

[NKF]

Ha, I haven't even started, so I'm even more behind than everyone else. I've had the PS3 copy of the game in my hands all weekend, but due to a compounding list of excuses and events (a large part of it consisting of me figuring out how to set up my very first ever mobile phone), I've not played it yet. But soon, oh so very soon .. (rubs hands with glee)

 

- NKF

[The Veteran]

New XCOM vs. new mobile phone...

 

NKF I've never been so disappointed in you

[NKF]

Not quite, I'm thinking of the big picture here. It's one of these new fancy pantsy phones with bells on that are really little computers with a phone built in. So I can browse the web and visit all my usual X-Com haunts when I'm travelling on the bus or during breaks at work.

 

Not having the use of the tv was the other main reason. Not much good saving the world from sectoids if you can't see them.

 

- NKF