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[ixix]

So should I make my assault troops carry a shotgun or assault rifle? I find shotgun way too situational at lower levels.

I always leave them with a shotgun at early levels, but I basically use them exclusively as Run and Gun flankers. One of their big advantages is that they basically get one of their most important skills in Run and Gun the instant they hit Squaddie, and they can make the best use of it with a shotgun.

I switch mine to the rifle equivalent with every new weapon tier during the time where the rifle is available but I'm still researching the shotgun upgrade, but outside that interim period it's all shotguns all the time.

 

[Jintor]

I tend to skip laser shotguns in favour of rifles, but alloy cannons cannot be beat

 

[Basileus777]

A long range grenade that can be used 3x per map? Mechs are pretty awesome.

 

[Jintor]

I forgot how goddamn classic classic is.

Fuck you rookies! 65% shot percentages means ONE HUNDRED PERCENT SHOT PERCENTAGE

thank god for sectoid mind-meld and 'nades.

 

[Falk]

Building totaled.

PC still working.

Truly master race.

Thanks Firaxis.

 

[Grimsen]

My new Rookie uniform includes the NATO-like helmet.

Hasn't helped them, though. My rookies have been dropping like flies. But the job gets done, and that's what counts.

 

[sclpls]

My first classic ironman campaign was abysmal. Didn't do anything too radically different from my normal play, but I couldn't even make it through to the mission with the chrysalids, whereas usually I can make it to the end game or pretty close. Definitely gonna have to rethink some things and try out some different strategies.

 

[Firebrand]

Is the Slingshot DLC worth it? Just realized I never picked it up during sales and XCOM unlocks at midnight.

 

[TC McQueen]

Is the Slingshot DLC worth it? Just realized I never picked it up during sales and XCOM unlocks at midnight.

It gets you more tech early on, some armor decos and helmets, and a fairly high level heavy early in the campaign, but that's about it.

 

[liezryou]

Sorry, I should have clarified.
I'm in Australia. Even with that discount still over $30

There are people who can help you get past regional price discrimination. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=394003 .

 

[Firebrand]

It gets you more tech early on, some armor decos and helmets, and a fairly high level heavy early in the campaign, but that's about it.

Hmm, okay sounds like something I can live without then. I don't really want "freebies" though more cosmetic options sounds pretty cool. Thanks.

 

[sclpls]

Is the Slingshot DLC worth it? Just realized I never picked it up during sales and XCOM unlocks at midnight.

I would say no.

 

[Jintor]

The early fusion core and early Sgt isn't bad, but kinda cheaty. The helmets are great though.

Annoyingly though between Progeny, Slingshot and Newfoundland, you don't begin to dip into the random pool for council missions until well after EXALT shows up.

 

[Tukker]

I was hoping it would be available in europe now but still nada

 

[Grimsen]

Ehhh any tricks to recover a seemingly corrupted save on 360? My Ironman game was going so well.

Shame on you, Firaxis.

 

[Boss Riovane]

Proximity Mine Launcher + Grenade Launcher= LOLOL anything stationary

 

[Remachinate]

Is there supposed to be a cutscene introducing Exalt? I just saw "Covert Ops" available in the Situation Room menu at some point and was able to send off an operative without any story preamble.

 

[Lostconfused]

Annoyingly though between Progeny, Slingshot and Newfoundland, you don't begin to dip into the random pool for council missions until well after EXALT shows up.

On the other hand all those missions early on provide you with a brutal difficulty curve.

 

[Jintor]

BeagleRush is streaming

His first mission in he lost an entire rookie squad while they were in full cover

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

On the other hand all those missions early on provide you with a brutal difficulty curve.

Indeed. Feels like bad design. I want more end game stuff when I'm actually pretty suited out

 

[InsaneElite]

BeagleRush is streaming

His first mission in he lost an entire rookie squad while they were in full cover

Hell, it's about time.

Funny coincidence here, was pretty hyped about the language packs, and all of my default roster save 1-2 rookies speak English.

 

[Lostconfused]

BeagleRush is streaming

His first mission in he lost an entire rookie squad while they were in full cover

Sounds like I missed out on some quality entertainment.

Edit: Nevermind! He is going to get wrecked again.

 

[ixix]

Ehhh any tricks to recover a seemingly corrupted save on 360? My Ironman game was going so well.

Shame on you, Firaxis.

Ironman save corruption's still happening? That's the whole reason I've never actually finished an Ironman game in Enemy Unknown.

Proximity Mine Launcher + Grenade Launcher= LOLOL anything stationary

Proximity Mines seem pretty buggy, though. Game seems to lose its shit sometimes when an enemy triggers them while doing anything outside of a standard move during Alien Activity. Monster closets in the sky, monster closets beyond the glowing red wall of unrendered world, and the auto-scatter move when you open a standard monster closet all seem to have a bad tendency to crash the game when they trip a mine.

Electro Pulse is mostly useless and Proximity Mines tend to crash the game. Makes for kind of an underwhelming final MEC upgrade choice.

 

[GoodCoffeeJoey]

I hate thin men so much it's unreal.

 

[TTG]

It's kind of cheap of me to ask, but this is classic ironman here so; early game new enemy spoiler:

Spoiler

Those squid things stealthed, I retreated for 2 turns now, do I have to wait longer? Threw a grenade their way, but didn't hit anything. How do I approach them?

 

[Fragamemnon]

thin men = raid boss

I am having much, much better success with Impossible/Ironman using a fast foundry strategy than a heavy satellite one. Early access to shivs and tactical rigging is a huge help.

(SHIVs are amazing, even with MEC troopers around. Especially in the early game.)

edit: April base assault is still doable even with the changed research times. It delays Meld and income progress in favor of SHIVs and infrastructure, but it makes living through April so much easier than if you go heavy sats.

 

[Jintor]

It's kind of cheap of me to ask, but this is classic ironman here so; early game new enemy spoiler:

Spoiler

Those squid things stealthed, I retreated for 2 turns now, do I have to wait longer? Threw a grenade their way, but didn't hit anything. How do I approach them?

get bio-skin or wait for them to stab you for 2 damage. The only way to save troopers pre-bio skin is overwatch fire.

 

[Dram]

Have they mentioned if they're planning anymore DLC?

 

[Uriah]

So I got a MEC and I loved how tanky he was. Less loved was how close you have to get to destroy cover. Seems super situational. Kinda wish I got flamer upgrade instead..

 

[Kainazzo]

I just managed to clear an abduction mission with 2 squids, 5 thin men, and 3 floaters. 16/20 of my guys were wounded, so I used 4 stock rookies, on classic, with nobody getting hurt.

Going for a no-death playthrough, so you bet I had to reload a LOT. Still, it's amazing what can happen when the RNG is in your favor. Feeling accomplished!

I really didn't have a choice in not getting hurt, as everything 1-shot me. Thin men are a sniping force to be reckoned with now, way more challenging than EU normal 0_o.

 

[TTG]

get bio-skin or wait for them to stab you for 2 damage. The only way to save troopers pre-bio skin is overwatch fire.

It's only the second month, bioskin?! They finally decided to shoot some plasma at me, got away unscathed. Kind of remarkable really, 4 floaters, 2 thin men, those guys and I carried a rookie through it on a 4 man team. I guess I'm building that new lab thingie next...

 

[ixix]

So I got a MEC and I loved how tanky he was. Less loved was how close you have to get to destroy cover. Seems super situational. Kinda wish I got flamer upgrade instead..

I've been running two MECs with different upgrade paths and I'm pretty torn on which I prefer. Flamer hits a pretty wide cone for 6 damage and causes panic twice per mission, which comes in handy in basically every mission. The big advantage of the fist is that it extends the movement range of the MEC, which I used a lot to nab objectives like Meld early on before getting Support troops with Sprinter. The actual punchy-punchy part has been pretty clutch on a few rare occasions; it's actually pretty beastly on maps with lots of enclosed areas. I had a mission on the map with the sort of warehouse/garage place and the big meat locker building with lots of enemies chilling inside and my MEC dude got to go on an old-fashioned spree of fisticuffs. Think he rocket punched a good four aliens to death over the course of that mission.

 

[fleck0]

It's kind of cheap of me to ask, but this is classic ironman here so; early game new enemy spoiler:

Spoiler

Those squid things stealthed, I retreated for 2 turns now, do I have to wait longer? Threw a grenade their way, but didn't hit anything. How do I approach them?

When those things show up I finish what I'm doing and put everyone on overwatch for a couple turns.

Spoiler

apparently they can do a ranged attack instead hugging you, but I've literally only seen them do it once

 

[Carcetti]

Squid tactics:

Spoiler

They do a ranged attack if you unmask their stealth cloak since they can't cloak for a turn or two after that. Best way to do it is with sniper's throwable sensors. After that they try to pull back and recloak.

Also, question for anyone who's managed to do classic or better playthough: how did you manage to bash through the hardest part,

Spoiler

the base defense

?

 

[Jintor]

I hope they have a Firaxis-tier second expansion that really ramps up the end game and the tactical layer. I think the first half of the game is pretty much perfect now (although maybe a more modular difficulty level between normal/classic - something that allows turning off OTS or bits and pieces of the difficulty) and it's all pretty good. EXALT could use a little more fine tuning and maybe a more impressive finale -

Spoiler

I was really expecting them to, I don't know, bust out an EXALT Mec trooper or something. Also, where the EXALT ladies at?

.

The main thing about the design philosophy of the whole game that I don't know if it's fixable is that you're always a very reactive organisation, meaning you can have an entire month pass where you only do three missions or you're just pressing that button waiting for research to count down. XCOM original, the ability to send interceptors out to patrol in regional hotspots if you kept an eye on the charts was great if you wanted to actively go out and tangle with xenos. That said, even when you have worldwide satellite coverage the alien scum don't seem to actually want to come down to earth very often. Oh, for the days when you could have 3 or 4 UFO contacts in a 24-hour period...

 

[afreaknamedpete]

Alight, here's a PSA. MEC Troopers apparently possess a crippling lack of train activation abilities. I don't know why, perhaps they are jealous of the train's sleek design. So despite being perfectly fine placing transponders and collecting MELD, don't count on your robots to be able to finish off Confounding Light.

On the other hand, it made my MEC Trooper responsible for inadvertently wiping out all of China, which I hope traumatized the useless bastard.

 

[Jintor]

Well you did cut off all his limbs

 

[afreaknamedpete]

Well you did cut off all his limbs

And replaced them with robot limbs! What use is a robot limb if it can't even hit buttons on trains?

 

[Jintor]

Hey listen! Just cos he's a robot, you think he can interface with every system? That's fuckin mechanist, man. I'm not sure I can serve under a commander who's mechanist!

 

[Carcetti]

And replaced them with robot limbs! What use is a robot limb if it can't even hit buttons on trains?

Did you give him a launch unit mecha? 0,4 percent of those have issues with the fingers.

 

[ixix]

The main thing about the design philosophy of the whole game that I don't know if it's fixable is that you're always a very reactive organisation, meaning you can have an entire month pass where you only do three missions or you're just pressing that button waiting for research to count down. XCOM original, the ability to send interceptors out to patrol in regional hotspots if you kept an eye on the charts was great if you wanted to actively go out and tangle with xenos. That said, even when you have worldwide satellite coverage the alien scum don't seem to actually want to come down to earth very often. Oh, for the days when you could have 3 or 4 UFO contacts in a 24-hour period...

I don't think this is really fixable since it's basically an effect of the difference in the way the Geoscape portion of the new XCOM functions relative to the originals. Ye Olde DOS Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep are basically asymmetrical 4X games in terms of the grand strategy layer, with the aliens establishing local bases, supplying them, and conducting missions from them on a global scale while the player tries to counter them.

New XCOM has some Second Wave options to sort of emulate the feel of the originals on the Geoscape, but absent an overhaul that essentially implements a full system of alien base establishment, mission conduction, and expansion there's not really any way to meaningfully enable a way for the player to pro-actively respond to alien threats in the way the originals permitted. The EXALT missions kind of seem like an attempt to create something like the aliens of the old games within the system they devised, what with them being rather divorced from the progression of the game's main plot and the cells popping up in randomized countries, but they're a bit hamstrung by how ancillary they are to the alien invasion as a result.

Firaxis would pretty much need to go back to the reliance on procedural and heavily-randomized content of the old games to really be able to compete with them in terms of the degree of strategic flexibility afforded to a player, and that seems way beyond the scope of an expansion pack.

 

[Jintor]

Firaxis would pretty much need to go back to the reliance on procedural and heavily-randomized content of the old games to really be able to compete with them in terms of the degree of strategic flexibility afforded to a player, and that seems way beyond the scope of an expansion pack.

Do you think the way XCOM's tactical game plays out at the moment necessitates the way its strategic game plays out (aside possibly from the materials economy)?

 

[ixix]

Do you think the way XCOM's tactical game plays out at the moment necessitates the way its strategic game plays out (aside possibly from the materials economy)?

If we're putting aside the whole Weapon Fragment quasi-currency progression system then no, not really. The tactical and strategic layer are almost totally segregated. Replacing the new Geoscape with something resembling the old wouldn't really need to change the tactical combat at all, I don't think.

 

[valouris]

Ok, I'm in EU, and after the 4gb update two days ago, my game is now downloading a 7gb update. Will I be able to play the game after it finishes or will I have to wait until it is Steam Store update time?

edit: Yup, it seems that I can now play. EW unlocked for EU confirmed

 

[Jintor]

If we're putting aside the whole Weapon Fragment quasi-currency progression system then no, not really. The tactical and strategic layer are almost totally segregated. Replacing the new Geoscape with something resembling the old wouldn't really need to change the tactical combat at all, I don't think.

If Firaxis ever gets around to Steam Workshopping + full mod supporting XCOM, I wonder if it'd be possible to mod a more procedural strategic layer back in.

 

[TC McQueen]

If Firaxis ever gets around to Steam Workshopping + full mod supporting XCOM, I wonder if it'd be possible to mod a more procedural strategic layer back in.

Probably not, since UE3 doesn't seem that great for procedural stuff from what I've heard and it would require tons of work to overhaul the crappy satellite/panic system to accommodate all that stuff. They'd be better off figuring out how to do procedural stuff for XCOM 2 instead.

 

[PeterVenkman]

I'm definitely one of the players who would appreciate a difficulty jump in between Normal and Classic. Give me unshackled AI without the stat bonuses maybe? I'm no XCOM guru so I'm sure there are other tweaks that could help out. All I know is that I breeze through Normal (especially with EW) and usually get wiped on the first terror mission on Classic.

We'll see how it goes this weekend, I should finally get to sink my teeth into the expansion. I built a Bio lab first, but I'm sort of wishing I built a MEC lab. Then I could threaten my rookies with "Robotomies" if they missed too many shots.

 

[Vaporak]

So how do the DLC missions work? If you ignore the first council mission that starts them off do you get offered it again, or is that it no more DLC story line? I'm finally getting my bearings on Ironman Impossible in the expansion and on my latest game the council mission "portent" just came up (the one where you save the guy from the attacked french covey). I'm pretty sure it's the first mission in the progeny side story line, and it's been the death of me every time I've tried it.

 

[Remachinate]

If Firaxis ever gets around to Steam Workshopping + full mod supporting XCOM, I wonder if it'd be possible to mod a more procedural strategic layer back in.

Have you tried the Long War mod? It's a comprehensive effort to make EU feel more like the original XCOM. Many more UFOs, multiple alien bases, aliens that upgrade, and so on. I played through the first couple of months and was pretty impressed. I'm not sure if it there's a way to downgrade your install after playing EW, but if so, it's worth checking out.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

Is the Slingshot DLC worth it? Just realized I never picked it up during sales and XCOM unlocks at midnight.

If you can get it on sale, yes. It adds a few missions with personality plus the heavy you get is super useful.

Have they mentioned if they're planning anymore DLC?

Last I heard is they have a few idea and some preproduction work but it really depends on how well this DLC sells and how the production of their other game is going.

If Firaxis ever gets around to Steam Workshopping + full mod supporting XCOM, I wonder if it'd be possible to mod a more procedural strategic layer back in.

I would love Steam workshop on this title.