X-COM Firaxis - XCOM: Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within Expansion

[Heresiarch]

So, I've just fired up openXcom, and...well...are Cyberdiscs supposed to appear in the first month terror attack? It was just veteran difficulty mind you.

 

[Average Manatee]

So, I've just fired up openXcom, and...well...are Cyberdiscs supposed to appear in the first month terror attack? It was just veteran difficulty mind you.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Appearance_Ratios

All alien terror missions will come with the terror unit for the race, which for sectoids is Cyberdisks (and for Floaters its the joke-of-a-unit reapers).

What you should be more afraid about is that alien terror missions also always contain 1 leader class alien, which for sectoids means psi-capable. Though if you are a total baller you can start researching PSI in the first month by capturing him.

 

[Gozma]

edit - ^ u quick fukker

Why wouldn't they? They did in the original, even on the bugged easiest setting (along with a Sectoid leader, meaning psi). Normally you hope to get lucky and get a floater terror mission in the first month (their terror units, Reapers, are weak as hell), although if you are a badass getting the Sectoid leader captured in the first month is neat. A Sectoid base invasion in the first month is also possible.

You can kill them with strong HE like rockets; they're four tile enemies so one explosion hits them four times, unless openXcom changed that.

 

[Heresiarch]

Thanks guys. I think I have been reeeaaally lucky in the past decade playing X-COM and have faced only reapers and chryssalid in the first couple of terror missions. Then getting further spoilt by TFTD (never seeing Xarquids and the dinosaur like things until very late in game) and of course XCOM made me thinking that I was not supposed to face Cyberdiscs before even having laser rifles.

And oh my, I didn't know I could get laser rifles so fast in X-COM.

 

[Matalarata]

Ok found a very nice let's play on impossible ironman, is actually one of the two linked on the main page of LW. In this video he does a masterful setup killing 4 sectoids in one turn of overwatch. He somewhats discusses builds and I found enough info on classes interaction to have a rough idea and get started. The man is actually a good LPer for this game. He talks a lot but mainly (95% of times) he explains the mechanics, the reasoning behind his moves. Is a nice starter tutorial

End of second month atm and I actually like Long War a lot! Different weapon types give a choice even during balistic stages of the game. Interaction between inventory and skills has been revamped totally eg everyone can equip a smoke but taking the skill at level up allows you to start each map with a free smoke granade AND throwing smoke granades if used as first action doesn't end your turn.
I'm starting to get a feel of the older games even with the retarded 2 action system simply because everything is much more predictable, cover has been tweaked and improved, positioning matters a lot and I never lost a soldier if not due to my errors. I've lost 3 till now + 2 interceptors on the first month (that hurt a lot) self-imposed ironman and normal difficulty to get an hang of it.

Strategic level has been improved with a revamped and actually meaningful tech tree, choices and consecuences affect the kind of equipment you can field, the security of the various council nations (wich have a lot more interaction via the requests system and alien bases spawning), your air superiority and mechanized units (shivs are FUN). You cannot have it all and are forced to make painful choices.

Tactical level is rewarding and addictive (at least for now...) but actually quite easy. Again, normal diff but since you have a lot of way to customize your squad and mechanics for health, accuracy and cover have been revamped both for you and for the aliens, the flow of combat is.... predictable, manageable I'd say. Never I found myself in one of those FUUUUUUUUUU moment Vanilla loved to shower you, like thinman pinpointing a target in full cover, the other side of the map.
The spawning system is the old "pods of aliens", so they travel as a group on the map untill discovered, then they "Oh crap!" into cover as a free action. Retarded as we all know. They did their best to improve it, now aliens can spawn everywere and, if I understand correctly escept for cases like Pilots wich are always static, they can change their nature from static to moving and vice-versa. Not sure I'm not digging deep in the mechanics (still not enough)

TL;DR nice game, lost about 30h to it till now wich IMHO justifies the 29.90 price tag for the full package. Still planning to play so I take that into account...

 

[cvv]

The spawning system is the old "pods of aliens", so they travel as a group on the map untill discovered, then they "Oh crap!" into cover as a free action. Retarded as we all know.

Try to imagine the mechanics wasn't there. So your 8 guys would run into a group of 4 aliens out of cover and due to high chance to hit/crit would massacre them within one turn. Rinse and repeat. Would you like to play a game like this?

It's simple - in a game that punishes you so badly for being out of cover the "Oh crap!" moment is a necessary component of the gameplay. Otherwise you could go shoot fish in the barrel for more challenge.

 

[Matalarata]

Try to imagine the mechanics wasn't there. So your 8 guys would run into a group of 4 aliens out of cover and due to high chance to hit/crit would massacre them within one turn. Rinse and repeat. Would you like to play a game like this?

It's simple - in a game that punishes you so badly for being out of cover the "Oh crap!" moment is a necessary component of the gameplay. Otherwise you could go shoot fish in the barrel for more challenge.

I assure you if I had a somewhat better system in mind to implement I would have written it. As it stands, I mainly praised the mod. I'm perfectly aware that removal of said mechanic would require a complete rewrite of the game...
That said it's a mechanic, I know that, you know that and everyone who has half a brain should know that. So, again, what's your point in cherry-picking that single in a post mainly meant to encourage some bro to pick it up and try the game? Even if, for clarity's sake I added that line?

We're on the same team bro

 

[Jasede]

Goddamnit Firaxis.

I was so close to buying this game, starved for a squad-based TB game. I saw some LPs and it actually looked decent. Sure, it's a step back from the larger scale of the classic, and it definitely seems 'dumbed down' in some ways, but it still looked like it'd scratch the itch for some time.

So I was just about to pay for it before I noticed there was a demo. Cool, I thought, let's see how well it runs on my older notebook before I buy it!

Big mistake. You don't even get to decide where you move in the demo. You don't get to do anything in the strategy layer. Half of the demo forces you to move your soldiers into specific spots. If that's the approach they took to making the demo I can only fear what the rest of the game would have been like.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Demo=/=game with Long War mod.
At least no shooting through walls in nuXcom due engine limits.

 

[Jasede]

I'm not going to play any game, ever, with a mod. How worth is getting the game + xpac + dlcs?

 

[SuicideBunny]

without long war? eh... buy incognita/invisible inc/some other tb heist game coming out now, or wait for flashback.

 

[Jasede]

Is it really that good of a mod? My main problem with mods is that they tend to worsen the game itself by fucking the balance up in some way, or breaking things / introducing bugs.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

more than "is it really that good of a mod", it's "it's really that shit of a game".
long war is only for those who already loved xcox because it raises the difficulty beyond masochistic levels. a shame, because it adds all the variety the vanilla game desperately needed.

 

[Average Manatee]

It is actually that good. Vanilla quickly become far too easy and by-the-book.

Long War provides a lot of the original's feeling of randomness back. It is a bit buggy though in terms of crashing to desktop.

 

[Matalarata]

Is it really that good of a mod? My main problem with mods is that they tend to worsen the game itself by fucking the balance up in some way, or breaking things / introducing bugs.

Other way around bro... At firaxis they raped balance untastefully...
LW re-rapes replaces a lot of mechanics with a real sense of balance. Only point I feel to make is: Vanilla game has about 10% of the lenght of the proper LW mod, if the idea of going on for months on a single playtrough alarms you, just chek the "not so long war" option at the beginning.

Everything else? Just do a normal vanilla playtrough and then re-play the game with LW.... You'll understand. I did...

 

[Jasede]

"Alarms me"? UFO playthroughs used to take years. I sunk 3000 hours into the first and second X-Com games, combined, and easily another 100 into Apocalypse (before I went back to the better predecessors).

Haaaah, I don't know. I'm tight on the money. I'll ask one of my yiff buddies to gift it to me. :furry perks:

 

[Raghar]

Long War provides a lot of the original's feeling of randomness back. It is a bit buggy though in terms of crashing to desktop.

Crashing to desktop, that explains the randomness.

 

[Matalarata]

"Alarms me"? UFO playthroughs used to take years. I sunk 3000 hours into the first and second X-Com games, combined, and easily another 100 into Apocalypse (before I went back to the better predecessors).

That was just saying, I thought as much... Do not expect x-com, still (modded) game is good enough. If you get to buy/puppyeye the game, at least give a look at the nexus page (I know... nexus) or the wiki. Since this is a strategy game you should be able to get a better impression from raw data...

long war is only for those who already loved xcox because it raises the difficulty beyond masochistic levels. a shame, because it adds all the variety the vanilla game desperately needed.

Nope. Maybe you tried and older, unbalanced version of the mod? How much time ago did you try... Just asking
My impression is you have to be careful with research in the beginning, you can either field strong squad or go straight for air superiority. I did the first and tactical mission are quite easy... Strategy layer is brutal, I have 11 interceptors but very little variety, will post more impression as I go on. As it stands I'm desperately trying to catch up in aerospace concepts, 2 nations already left the council ( you can take them back via alien base assault)...

That look perfectly x-com level difficulty, wich is fine with me

Crashing to desktop, that explains the randomness.

Never had one in more than a week. Also the mod is in beta... I'd say is almost complete and quite professional in the presentation. I dare any first timer to try LW as their first playtrough and recognize the modded content (well, except for those "Long War" hints on loading screens)

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

long war is only for those who already loved xcox because it raises the difficulty beyond masochistic levels. a shame, because it adds all the variety the vanilla game desperately needed.

Nope. Maybe you tried and older, unbalanced version of the mod? How much time ago did you try... Just asking
My impression is you have to be careful with research in the beginning, you can either field strong squad or go straight for air superiority. I did the first and tactical mission are quite easy... Strategy layer is brutal, I have 11 interceptors but very little variety, will post more impression as I go on. As it stands I'm desperately trying to catch up in aerospace concepts, 2 nations already left the council ( you can take them back via alien base assault)...

That look perfectly x-com level difficulty, wich is fine with me

two months ago. no excuses.
it's no way "x-com level difficulty" when every (but even just one would be enough) enemy spawn consists of 3-4 muton berserkers, who charge at you and close in a single turn, each one with at least 35-40 hp, accompained by 4-5 more mutons, each one with 25-30 hp, when your best damage dealer is a sniper which crits for less than 20 hp, with no more research to unlock.
even if by sheer luck you manage to crit each and every shot, maybe surviving the encounter, there's absolutely no guarantee you would survive again, and you'll not at all if even a single more drone enters the fray.
in x-com you were supposed to make sacrifices in the thoughest situations, rookies were exactly that, ethereals bait, and you brought them for that exact purpose. you can't do that in long war, you have to lose, and there's no way to recover because the next mission will be always harder than the previous which cost you your best men.

 

[Matalarata]

Bro... methinks we played different gaimes... I only met berserker twice but I watched LP on classic/impossible ironman. Not once I saw what you're descriving, not even close. Wich difficulty where you on? 3-4 BERSERKERS??? Max I saw on screen where two and that's from 2 different spawn.

Please... have a look at the videos I posted earlier, the tactical level is simply different from old x-com, you have to think about line of sight and going into hiding. Also when you meet berserkers you fall back in cover and overwatch. IIRC they cannot use their free move when damaged during their turn, so you should actually be faster than them

I will post further impressions

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

so all you have to say is a totally out of place "l2p noob imma to pro 4 u"? interesting.

 

[Jasede]

Where does he say that?

 

[Matalarata]

so all you have to say is a totally out of place "l2p noob imma to pro 4 u"? interesting.

Bro. Take what I say with a grain of salt as you should take each and every opinion wich isn't yours. But that's totally not the point.
If you got 4-5 berserkers as an unique spawn more than once the game or the mod glitched on you badly and of that I'm sorry. If not, you're full of shit...

Again, don't worry, if I ever get a mission like the one you're reporting I'll be the first one to come here and bitch and brofist all your posts saying you were right from the beginning, really I do things like that...

 

[Executr]

So, guys, have you seen this?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/290410/?snr=1_4_4

It seems similar to XCOM:EU with PS2 graphics based on that shitty TV show.

 

[Seerix]

Similar? If Firaxis was bigger company they could sue them for this shit This is a blatant ripoff all the way to even targeting camera angles, ha.