X-COM: Enemy Unknown

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X-COM: Enemy Unknown

Post Post #0 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 6:51 am

Post by xRECKONERx »

Has anyone else played this game? I got it gifted to me a few days ago and I've got to say, I don't think I've played anything like it! I'm really enjoying it so far... the fact that there are so many options to build/upgrade really gives the game depth past just the missions which honestly don't last that long.
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Post Post #1 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 6:53 am

Post by ChannelDelibird »

I played it a lot over the summer and really enjoyed it, though I've never come close to actually finishing a campaign because I suck at games and holy frick is this one unforgiving. Tempted to get back into it sometime soon, dunno whether I'll pick up any expansions to go with it.
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Post Post #2 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 6:55 am

Post by xRECKONERx »

I haven't run into anything really difficult yet but I only played for a few hours. I saved and logged out right as I got to a mission marked VERY DIFFICULT so I may be about to lose my men :(
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Post Post #3 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:03 am

Post by Nexus »

Some of the "Very Difficult" missions aren't difficult at all.

I do enjoy it, but I don't play for long periods at a time. Because I've got an appalling tension span.
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Post Post #4 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:16 am

Post by Korts »

Make sure you take good care of your satellites. If you don't pay attention, you could lose a lot of countries - and their funding - in quick succession.
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Post Post #5 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:17 am

Post by xRECKONERx »

I have been trying my damndest to put up a new satellite but they keep saying I don't have enough uplinks. I *just* figured out that uplinks can be built.
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Post Post #6 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:18 am

Post by Nexus »

Yeah I keep getting the Uplink problem, then I don't have whatever else resource I need to build the Uplinks. I think I'll probably end up failing this first game and starting again.
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Post Post #7 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:24 am

Post by RedCoyote »

In post 2, xRECKONERx wrote:I haven't run into anything really difficult yet but I only played for a few hours. I saved and logged out right as I got to a mission marked VERY DIFFICULT so I may be about to lose my men :(
Those don't mean very much, I think. I've never found them too reliable in determining the actual difficulty of the missions.

However, the actual difficulty settings when starting a new game vary wildly. Call me a casual, but I don't even enjoy playing on Classic because it's so damn frustrating. It makes the game harder, but it's almost artificially harder because you just have to really take your time, go very slow, and plan more thoroughly. I can see the appeal, but it's just not for me. Normal is pretty fair, but becomes pretty simple once you get the hang of it.
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Post Post #8 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:00 am

Post by xRECKONERx »

I just lost my favorite squadmate :( RIP assaultgirl
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Post Post #9 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:04 am

Post by Korts »

Don't get emotionally attached. Your soldiers are going to drop left and right pretty soon. It's important not to lose all the training that went into one guy, sure, but you can always start over with a rookie and get them up to speed in a couple missions. It's way more important to manage your resources in a smart way.
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Post Post #10 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:09 am

Post by xRECKONERx »

What's a smart way to manage resources?
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Post Post #11 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:28 am

Post by Hiraki »

In post 10, xRECKONERx wrote:What's a smart way to manage resources?
Use them when you can.
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Post Post #12 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 9:22 am

Post by Korts »

Prioritize your research, make sure to expand your base at a steady pace, and don't spend everything you have on your ground troops' gear - sure, it's nice to have top-tier guns and armor, but if you don't have proper air defense, thorough satellite coverage, or a well-funded R&D department, you're going to be dead in the water pretty much immediately.

And take the stun gun with you whenever you can. Capturing alien specimen can unlock some pretty amazing research options.
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Post Post #13 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 9:49 am

Post by TheButtonmen »

1) Explosives are your friends.

Grenades can't miss and Rockets always have a 90% hit rate and while the damage grenades deal may not seem impressive keep in mind that they are extremely good at destroying terrain so while they may only deal three damage to a target they're also going to boost the rest of your squads hit-chance vs that target by 20-40%. Never be afraid to use explosives to punch a hole a wall to avoid a choke point either as it can let you flank entrenched units and avoid large open areas. You can also use explosives to cause cars to explode instantly rather then the beginning of the next turn which adds an extra six damage on-top of whatever you were already dealing.

2) Rifles are your friends.

Supports, Assaults and Rookies can all use rifles which makes them by far the most useful guns to research / build. I commonly have my heavies or snipers jump directly from the starting gunpowder weapons directly to plasma weapons because it's not worth taking the time and resources to research and build build their laser weapons.

3) Soldiers are your friends.

Experienced troopers are your most vital resource, never hesitate to use explosives on anything that looks like it might threaten one of your troopers. There will be countless more oppertunities to get salvage but once the game starts throwing higher tier aliens at you it's nearly impossible to level up rookies.

4) Replacements soldiers are your friends.

Never use a single squad repeatedly, you want to continually cycle in rookies and less experienced soldiers to build a stable of experienced replacements for when your prized support is killed by a critical hit from a thinman on the other side of the map.

5) Satellites are your best friends.

Satellites provide the lions share of your income, provide a steady stream of engineers and scientists, detect UFO's for you to hunt down for resources and most importantly reduce the panic level of a country when launched. You want to build them and their supporting facilities early and often.
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Post Post #14 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:19 am

Post by Sudo_Nym »

Just like the original X-Com, your dudes are going to die. Especially the rookies. Once you get a few leveled up and equipped, then you can start expecting them to survive. They might still die, though.
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Post Post #15 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:55 am

Post by hitogoroshi »

Do you have Enemy Within? I think it's really good for keeping it fresh. After beating EU once on Classic Ironman I was pretty much done with it but beating EW on Classic Ironman just left me with the desire to play again with some meaty second waves.

Biggest tips. From the strategic side of things, the number one thing is satellites. From day 1, you need a plan for how you're going to get your workshop to get a power station to power another uplink so you can have and deploy more satellites. Always, ALWAYS know what you're doing next for satellites. (As a hint, you should virtually always pick the engineers from the first abduction mission.) Remember, while they take time to deploy, you get the bonus instantly, so you can save them for the last day before the council report to give to any countries at full panic. Also, excavate more than you "need to", you'll find pretty quickly you need that space and being gated by not excavating is silly.

From the tactical sphere, if 50+% of your actions aren't Overwatches you're probably being too reckless. Stick together. The first person to move should be the one who explores the most unseen stuff - never have your last person look anywhere you haven't seen already. You can break your moves and usually should (that is, move solider A, B, C, D, then take actions with them in some order). I have side buttons on my mouse that I use for this - bind something convenient for switching between soldiers, because you'll use it a lot. Always get Squadsight on Snipers. Assaults and Heavies can get you guaranteed kills (by shotgunning at point blank and using rockets, respectively) and this gift should be treasured. Council missions are really poorly designed, and usually the answer is to just have everyone overwatch and let the thin men kill themselves on you. (If there isn't a timer like a bomb mission, it's not timed - which means the real answer for "target extraction" missions is to walk/overwatch over a series of invisible lines so thin men can fall from the sky and get shot. They're really stupid, but also easy if you know the trick.)
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Post Post #16 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 12:22 pm

Post by Umbrage »

aw shit I should play this

I'm not much of a strategy fan but you guys make it sound so fun...
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Post Post #17 (ISO) » Mon Dec 23, 2013 2:58 pm

Post by Siveure DtTrikyp »

The difficulty of missions just means how many enemies there are. What enemies is determined by how far into the game you are. So more difficult missions are better because you get more loot :D.
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Post Post #18 (ISO) » Wed Dec 25, 2013 11:49 am

Post by Nexus »

Took two rookies on a mission.

They died.

Turned into zombies.

Killed the rest of my team.

Fuck you rookies.
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Post Post #19 (ISO) » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:53 pm

Post by d3x »

I picked this game up on a whim during the Christmas sale and I must say, I freaking love the shit out of it.

I'm 24hrs into it and have only lost 2 or 3 soldiers {all of which were squadies}. It takes forever to finish missions, but if you can be very deliberate and make sure you're using solid move/cover tactics, it's possible to keep your soldiers around for ages. I think only one of my stable is less than max rank. I also always use 2{+} snipers, get those chumps leveled 1st and your life will become much easier. Overwatch is your best friend for reals.
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Post Post #20 (ISO) » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:00 am

Post by Siveure DtTrikyp »

What difficulty?

I play classic and usually only lose guys at about the midgame stage where they start sending tough aliens at you and i always forget to have proper armour my then so my guys get absolutely slaughtered.
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Post Post #21 (ISO) » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:09 am

Post by d3x »

I'm on Normal, I guess that's probably a big help, too... lol.
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Post Post #22 (ISO) » Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:56 pm

Post by JJcoolPants »

I always play this game to the point where a couple of my guys die, and I get scared to play again and then end up just starting over from scratch a couple weeks later.
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Post Post #23 (ISO) » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:15 pm

Post by Oman »

I love this game, but I feel like early on it's way way too easy to get RNG fucked. When the aliens start using grenades it's almost impossible not to be.

Enemy Within has changed the game for me. Meld having a time limit to collect makes for a really good time pressure when all I want to do is go super slow and overwatch until my triangle button falls off.
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Post Post #24 (ISO) » Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:11 am

Post by Siveure DtTrikyp »

On impossible, you MUST get rng. Especially impossible all countries.

Otherwise nah. You can avoid the rng issues. Grenades really don't mean much rng also, it's always 5 damage. (grenades are the best thing ever guys seriously).
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