Firaxis remaking XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Space Voyager]

As soon as I go over the game once, I'm going for that mod, too. Looks awesome.

[Hobbes]

B.) I find that Mines so far in my experience are only useful for 3 missions; Base Defense, Exalt, and the Canadian/Chryssalid mission. Course it's always fun to lay one down close to a solider and have that soldier hit a Berserker so that he'll come charging into the mine. Other wise does anyone even bother to use them?

 

I like to get 2 MECs, one with Prox Mine, the other with regular grenades. First you deploy a prox mine close to a group of aliens, then you use the other MEC grenade launcher to set off the prox mine and the aliens get the damage from both explosions.

 

C.) When you're able to capture an Elite Muton and Ethereal it gives you bonuses to all research, but by the time you DO manage to capture both is there really anything left to research?

 

They are really useful if you're playing Speed XCOM (complete the game as quickly as possible on Easy difficulty - my current record is 93 days), otherwise stun them for the Heavy Plasma since they're really expensive to build on EW.

D.) I also figured if you want to play EW on the hardest difficulty (Vanilla) you'll have to check Impossible, Iron Man and Marathon Modes. I can't possibly see how checking all those and completing the game is possible but who knows. Thoughts?

 

( Oops, just saw the page on UFOpedia on making the game harder. https://www.ufopaedia...Harder_(EU2012) )

-NoX

 

I'm currently playing I/I with all Second Wave options. I've won it before on EU but this is the first time I'm trying it on EW and it is a challenge.

 

@Silencer: I too found that my MEC had an accuracy of a blind chicken, but I thought that was caused by my bad choice of the soldier. Would choosing one of my elite snipers with 100+ accuracy not make a difference? The explosives it can carry are rather nice but if the main weapon is always this crappy (accuracy), meld might be better used on genetic modifications...

 

MECs retain the accuracy of the soldier when he/she is augmented, so if you want to use your MEC for long distance fire the best choice is to augment a Sniper Colonel with +100 Aim, without considering the additional aim given by medals or perks. Then you'll get a long range killer.

 

EDIT

I went for classic difficulty several times but each and every time the first contact with the goddamn Thin men ended very, VERY badly. Those bastards one-shot killed my entire squad on several occasions. As Silencer reminded me, it was also due to the plasma rifle that carries an accuracy bonus. The last game I started was on normal, which proved to be too easy. Still I went for a playthrough to at least see all the game's content but it all ended (as I wrote) in a corrupt save in the base defence mission. So I'm finding the time to start another classic game.

 

Bring Heavies - their rocket launcher is your best friend against Thin Men. Hunkering down is critical also on Classic/Impossible and if your soldier is carrying a Medikit it can't be poisoned.

[Space Voyager]

Ah, so it was just my poor choice of soldier! Thank you, Hobbes, I may yet go for a mech again.

 

As for Thin men, I completely agree. I was toying with a mission a few times, an extraction mission for the council. I still have four soldiers and no carapace armour, so I brought two heavies. I've been replaying that mission a few times to see if it is doable but no go. Even my best soldier usually ends in critical condition after a single shot, the rest just drop like flies. Carapace is a minimum when facing that race of snipers.

[silencer_pl]

Having to choose exact soldier is poor game mechanics, and as for Thinman - you must lure them to you.

I've only found them irritating in council missions.

[Hobbes]

Having to choose exact soldier is poor game mechanics

 

It's a matter of stats progression and how badly you want the MEC. MECs gain a total of +10 Aim by the time they reach Colonel. Snipers gain +40, Supports +25 and Assaults +24 by Colonel. If you want a MEC at the beginning of the game you should augment a Heavy since it gains only +10, although an Assault is also an alternative since either Heavy/Assault turned MECs will be used mostly in close combat situations where the Kinetic Strike Module will be more a better choice than the MEC's primary weapon.

 

I got 3 types of MECs I like to use:

* Assault - Kinetic Strike Module, Grenade Launcher and Electropulse. Shock-Absorbent Armor, Damage Control, Repair Servos and Absortion Fields. This is a charger MEC to take it close and personal.

* Sniper - Flamethrower, Restorative Mist and Proximity Mine Launcher. Platform Stability, Vital-Point Targeting, Expanded Storage and Reactive Targeting Sensors. Armored turret for long range sniping.

* Heavy - Flamethrower/KSM, Grenade Launcher and Proximity Mine Launcher. Body Shield, Damage Control, Expanded Storage and Absortion Fields. Artillery MEC to blast aliens and their cover.

 

Support MECs are a bit useless since Distortion Field doesn't apply to them and only gives +10 Defense, plus you'll be risking the aliens using grenades if you pack your soldiers together. Automated Threat Assessment and One For All are less useful than it seems since the first is cancelled after the MEC fires and it will usually fire at the less convenient alien, while the second risks alien grenades.

[silencer_pl]

I don't think it's the matter of stats progression. Just compare any standard soldier with same AIM and the MECHs % to hit. Standard soldier has much better chance to hit. Not to mention that gene boosting gives even more advantage.

 

My style that is all full offensive is 3x assault, 1x sniper, 1xsupport & 1xheavy. Sometimes I drop heavy for another assault. Just being able to run half the map without being noticed (ghost armour or gene boost) is soo advantegous. With run & gun it gets brutal at the colonel stage.

 

Noxs heavy 151 kills just doesn't talk to me because IF I wanted 1 of my soldier to rack up kills he would have twice that many. Instead of 1 soldier with 151 kills I have 3 with ~80 kills in approximately same amount of missions.

 

Sure I found it funny to punch Berserker into pulp, I loved the flamethrower too (run Chrysies run...) but in overall I found them less useful.

[Hobbes]

I don't think it's the matter of stats progression. Just compare any standard soldier with same AIM and the MECHs % to hit. Standard soldier has much better chance to hit. Not to mention that gene boosting gives even more advantage.

 

The math to me is different.

 

Take 2 Sniper Colonels with 100 Aim and augment 1 into a MEC.

* Regular Sniper Aim is 100 + 10 (SCOPE) + 20 (Flight/Elevation) + 10 (DGG) + 10 (Executioner) + 5/10 from Gene Mods (Depth Perception or Pupils) = 155/160 Aim (which is already quite a lot since you only need 140 to hit a target in full cover).

* Drop Executioner for Opportunist since you don't really need that much Aim, and he can reaction fire without the 0.7 modifier

* Total damage from a Plasma Sniper RIfle is 8-10, 13 or 15 with a critical hit, 2 shots with Double Tap

* Critical Chance 35 + 10 (Improved SCOPE) + 5/10 (from Elevation - can't recall how much) + 0/5 Gene= 55/60 critical chance

 

Now check a Sniper MEC:

* Aim is 100 + 10 (Platform Stability) + 20 (Jet Boot elevation, if possible) = 110/130

* Advanced Fire Control drops the Overwatch 0.7 modifier and Reactive Targeting Sensors give a free Overwatch shot against any alien who attacks the MEC

* Total damage for Particle Cannon is 11-13, 15 or 17 if critical hit, add +2 from Vital Point Targeting = 13-15 (base) or 17/19 (critical), 2 shots with Overdrive

* Critical Chance is 10 + 10 (Platform Stability) + 5/10 (from Elevation) = 25/30

 

Regular Sniper wins on Aim and Critical Chance, while MEC Sniper wins on Damage and Reaction Fire (extra shot)

 

If you further consider MEC Sniper vs Squadsight/Snap Shot Snipers, MEC Sniper can complement either type of regular Snipers. It doesn't have the long range of Squadsight neither In The Zone's ability for multishots but it can deal more damage than both against single large targets (and use the Flamethrower with Elerium Jelly for 12 damage against any close groups of organic hostiles) and its primary weapon doesn't suffer from the Sniper Rifle's Aim penalty at close range.

[silencer_pl]

There are other types of Mechs too... so compare them. Snipers are quite useless in big UFOs, and in most of my missions I barely have a chance to do real damage with them. There are missions of course where I can empty whole magazine in sniper rifle but that is rare.

 

So as you see AIM is better for human - you don't do damage if you miss. Critical is better - that means better damage. So gene mod wins. And yes I only take opportunist and double tap. The other skills are useless for my style. Also I take the Gunslinger perk since when you reach the archangel armour the bonus from the other perk is negated by flight if I am not mistaken - and in bigger UFOs your sniper will be relocating more - so damage from plasma pistol is very high then, so again it outperforms MECH. I tried snapshot once - never again (in Long War I think it was boosted).

 

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Changing topic. I've been playing the longest war. To be honest - the ground combat is far easier then vanilla. Starting with 6 people is such a great boost that now I know why the original starts with 4. For now I don't complain on troopers tree, there are quite nice combination and looks like the "Infantry" type soldier will complement my assault.

 

The major issue I know have with Interceptions. It's on bloody luck role with avalanche. You have only 10 seconds to shot ufo - and that is max 3 shots, but sometimes something goes wrong and your interceptor will waste few seconds doing nothing. I've also lost one continent just like that without any panic or other stuff. I'm guessing the base was put there - but on first month? The research takes twice as long and you don't get scientists / engineers from abduction - only cash.

 

Mod looks nice but it doesn't blow you off. I am playing on classic - just to get know how the mod works - there are 2 more brutal levels. I've only wished that they removed the mass panic because a soldier was hit for 1HP and half the team just goes nuts. They gave you item and perks for this but... I don't know -waste of perk slot and item slot in my opinion mostly I don't get hit that much.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

 

Noxs heavy 151 kills just doesn't talk to me because IF I wanted 1 of my soldier to rack up kills he would have twice that many. Instead of 1 soldier with 151 kills I have 3 with ~80 kills in approximately same amount of missions.

 

Sure I found it funny to punch Berserker into pulp, I loved the flamethrower too (run Chrysies run...) but in overall I found them less useful.

 

Heh, Ok first of all I DO have 3 non-MEC/Gene soldiers that have over 80+ kills.

Second, If you noticed I made the comment that yes that is the Asian guy from the Slingshot DLC, meaning I didn't start off with him and he did have to go through the process of becoming a MEC not to mention the countless days he spent being injured.

Third, I don't always allow my high ranking officers to go to every mission regardless if they are hurt, having gene/mec conversions/covert missions. There was many of times where I had 1 or possibly two officers accompanying rookies and or squadies to "level" them up. Ergo, I wanted to flesh out my roster of soldiers as opposed to sending in a consistent 6 man colonel killing machine. Hell if I wanted to I could of sent him on ever mission and racked up 300+ kills, I chose to have a well rounded squad instead.

[Thorondor]

https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/200510/header.jpg

 

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A Linux version of XCOM is now available on Steam and runs on Ubuntu 14.04 and Valve's SteamOS.

[Thorondor]

 

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According to Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown the fight begins today!

[Thorondor]

 

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It seems that a certain 'XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus' might be headed to the Playstation Vita, as reported by Eurogamer here.

[silencer_pl]

 

107 facts we all should know. If you didn't know, your not XCOM fan.

[Zombie]

107 facts we all should know. If you didn't know, your not XCOM fan.

 

I got all the X-COM stuff under control, I'm hit or miss on the XCOM area. Still a fan either way.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/200510/header.jpg?t=1447366133

 

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus is 2012's XCOM brought to PlayStation Vita. Now available for purchase here.