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I think that's the main thing. I wouldn't really call X-com smarter than Xcom, but deeper definitely. I'm just in here being the Xcom defense force because even though it's a different style to X-com I think it's executed quite well and works great with the setting, but if it's actually enjoyable or not is a personal preference. Plus I'm shouting when incorrect things get mentioned like aliens not patrolling.
They are indeed. But when it comes to aliens on missions we have the weakest point in the design. that is how they pop up, how they get their free move and in some ocassions even spawn just behind you or in a small room. this you must agree with makes the game worse more than better. It is either due to AI reasons (likely) or because they want to speed up turns.
Reminds me of that time two roaming Sectopods and their drones opened a door in an alien battleship and rushed me, while all my soldiers stood still for 2 turns to reload weapons and heal. Needless to say, the mission ended in a huge clusterfuck. Fuck Sectopods.
So is it safe to say that the campaign is highly linear and event-driven? It seemed highly suspicious to me that my first terror mission popped up the second I completed a story objective. Can you meta-game and spend months at the same "mission stage" and not see an more advanced aliens and UFOs turn up just because you've been stalling?
If so, disappointing and highly damaging to replayability. Somebody needs to mod in an actual "classic" X-Com mode that is more freeform.
I don't mind the presentation of the game, by the way - the aliens actually LOOK alien and creepy and the annoying German doctor saying "Lookit these aliens, they're, like, ALIEN!" works for me in building suspense.
Except for the Chrysalid - it looks like it got lost from a Zerg invasion fleet. I want the old Grinman-type Chrysalid back!
So is it safe to say that the campaign is highly linear and event-driven? It seemed highly suspicious to me that my first terror mission popped up the second I completed a story objective. Can you meta-game and spend months at the same "mission stage" and not see an more advanced aliens and UFOs turn up just because you've been stalling?
You can sit there and dont do the recommended "story" researches and the aliens still send more and more dangerous ships/species to your ass. That's how I screwed over my first game. Terror missions are random aswell.
Ah, good. I thought the overworld was comically exploitable the same way the event-based tactical missions seem to be. Like in the 1st XCOM, can you stall indefinitely, keep client states happy, keep shooting down pissant UFOs with your top-of-the-line interceptors and keep raking in the dough or is there some sort of forced game end (because of your slackery, Motherfuckership Zeta has arrived in your solar system and zaps the planet. Game over!)?
Nope, the only "Game over!" mechanism is when a certain amount of nations bail out of the x-com project due to panic.
If you are fairly late or in midgame you can perfectly control those panic levels and play for a long time until you decide to go on "story missions". That's what I did in my latest game.
I think these impossible crit lucky shots might have been a way for the designers to tip their hats at old XCom/UFO, where you would get plasma shots off the screen, instakilling your guys and making you go what the fuck just happened?
Except in X-COM you had squads of like 10-14ish dudes, and losing 1-2 wasn't a huge issue especially as you always had a bunch of rookies to serve as meat shields. In the new game, losing 1-2 soldiers is devastating, and considering how easily the troops panic and kill each other even when they are at high levels, it can often lead to a Fission Mailed or even an outright TPK. Almost every mission I either fail horribly at or end up with zero deaths... sure, occasionally I will lose someone, but any more than one loss before the very end of the match spells game over.
Also it is proven that on higher difficulty AI knows were to move to kill your soldiers,they have aim and crit chance bonuses and respectively you have penalties.Fail design is fail.
Also it is proven that on higher difficulty AI knows were to move to kill your soldiers,they have aim and crit chance bonuses and respectively you have penalties.Fail design is fail.
- all aliens now play with default aim and critical hit values on classic difficult - ufos prepare for terror and abduction missions - second wave is enabled - halved construction time of new satellites
Weapons rebalanced: - Conventional guns are average. - Lasers do less damage but are more accurate. Higher chance to damage the environment and do criticals. - Plasma weapons do more damage but are less accurate. Highest chance to damage the environment and do criticals. - Plasma weapons take a few more shots to damage the environment compared to vanilla settings (in which they destroyed almost everything with a single hit). - Arc Thrower now goes in the pistol slot (it has full animation and graphics, so I guess this is how it was originally made). - Pistols have slightly less accuracy compared to rifles. - Pistols need to be reloaded, just like every other weapon. - Shotguns do more damage but have a bit less accuracy compared to rifles. Shotguns should be more useful now. - Sniper rifles have slightly more accuracy compared to the other weapons. - The sniper rifle's close range accuracy penalty has been removed (it still needs two moves to be able to fire, I think that's harsh enough).
How soon do you guys start buying more interceptors in your country/other countries? I tend to invest my money in building satellite uplinks but fucking forget about the damn interceptors.
Also it is proven that on higher difficulty AI knows were to move to kill your soldiers,they have aim and crit chance bonuses and respectively you have penalties.Fail design is fail.
How soon do you guys start buying more interceptors in your country/other countries? I tend to invest my money in building satellite uplinks but fucking forget about the damn interceptors.
So far I've been putting them in after I put a satellite up, but I'm on the verge of losing a lot more places so I guess mine isn't the most well thought out strategy.
I've gone through a classic ironman with one interceptor per continent, and in one of the summer months you switch them to firestorms (do it before you build the hyperwave decoder). If you have laser cannons or phoenix cannons the basic interceptors can shoot down anything but a battleship if you use the defense booster you make with floater corpses (I swear that phoenix cannons seem to absolutely wreck the engines and navigation salvage on enemy ships though, might just be confirmation bias). A firestorm with plasma cannons or EMP can shoot down anything without using boosters AFAIK. Alternatively you can station two interceptors per continent and send the second up after the first retreats, but I think in the course of a game you will only need to use the defense booster 2-3 times with single interceptors so I think it's cheaper - maybe if you have the North America Air and Space bonus it's cheaper to double up on interceptors and it saves you doing a floater autopsy. Either way you spend much more on other shit.
Just finished the game. And yeah what a shitty, garbage, stupid ending. Well, what a shitty final battle too. So much potential going wasted:
So you have a big ass alien mothership...but instead of putting some good challenges like a multistage battle, or massive waves of alien attacks, all you get is a loooong hallway devoid of features and only random aliens attack in small number. Meanwhile the pretentious boss uses his annoying voice showcasing his pets' backgrounds which feels so forced upon you. My best soldier got stuck in the roof right before the final room too.
The final encounter was an even bigger joke. I've put my sniper outside of the bridge's corrider and she could snipe the boss to death in 2 hits. But I wanted to see how the boss would attack so I spared him. In the next turn him and 2 other Ethereas mind controlled my 3 guy - INCLUDING THE SO-CALLED CHOSEN ONE - and that's all. So I let my sniper finish the boss...guess what, game over. The game tells me my chosen one was dead. If I was playing on Ironman I would be pissed.
Anyway I just reloaded and ended the game. The ending reeeeks of fucking Mass Effect. Mothership blows up, the hero sacrificied himself in a Shepard way, Skyranger comes back, game over.
Now I think about it, it seems it's the EXACT ENDING of TFTD and Apocalypse -
TFTD: R'lyeh T'leth blows up, heroes die, game over.
Apocalypse: Alien Dimension blows up, one poor sod died, Annihilator escapes back, game over.
Other things:
- I've never got the blaster launcher because I was so l33t that battleships never appeared. Not that I need it but man, without it my heavy guys became soooo weak in the end. Heavy weapons have garbage to-hit and doesn't really do better damage at all, while the standard rocket launcher and alien grenades became so useless in the end. They all do pathetic damage to mutons and shit, and while they're good at destroying covers, my snipers and assault were already killing stuff behind high covers with 85+% accuracy. Not to mention you need to position yourself one turn before using the launcher while for the grenade you need to be close to the aliens.
- Snipers are fucking awesome. Both double tap and in the zone are fucking ridiculous when combined with Ghost armor or Archangel. My in the zone + snap shot guy (the chosen one) could kill 4 - 5 Chryssalids in one turn while my doube tap + squad sight chick could destroy Cyberdiscs and commanders and the fucking boss across two whole screens.
- Psi is fun yet completely unlike the previous XCOMs. FFS the first psi attack you get is an almost guaranteed hit damaging attack. Luckily psi is only reserved to extremely few people, which in my playthrough was actually 2 of the 3 squadmates getting first psi tested.
- The fluff in this is very well fleshed out and interesting to read, but unfortunately they left out a lot of things. Like alien ships, Earth weapons, "pointless" stuff like alien entertainment or alien food, and you get only Firestorm as the upgraded ship, which can kill pretty much anything. In fact...where the hell is my Ufopedia? Using just a "review research database" or so does NOT satisfy me!
- Lategame council missions are EXTREMELY boring. Like someone said before, all you fight are thin men. It's a complete waste of time.
- Try not to savescum too much in this game. Otherwise the middle or late game would become so damn easy, even on classic. I haven't even used SHIV and EMP cannons, even though I was filthy rich after July or so, because I could consistently kick alien arses with my existing equipment and Elerium is so damn rare. If I didn't savescum so much, I would need to spend a lot more time on training soldiers and gathering money, which would surely prolong the game. Dunno if I should play on impossible though, because the game lacks quite a few things to balance on impossible (for instance, grenades and rocket launchers become even more useless).
- Unfortunately once you got past a certain threshold in your equipment, the difficulty would come down fast. Because there is no missions like TFTD alien bases which could still wipe out your top team if you are not careful. And like many people mentioned before, the final battle is a joke, so there is really no need to upgrade and prepare your guys once you get the chance to do it.
Also it is proven that on higher difficulty AI knows were to move to kill your soldiers,they have aim and crit chance bonuses and respectively you have penalties.Fail design is fail.
They are not more difficult,they flat out cheat.Some may be ok with it,but I don't like it and it's hidden and the normal difficulty is boringly easy.There is ton of methods to make aliens more challenging and some of them are in the game(like more aliens in a group,more on the map,better weapons and armour),but outright cheating AI is no-no.Also seeded random number generation just ruins the game even more.Strategy and tactic is joke,all you have to do is move square by square,flanking is pointless and dangerous...could give more examples,but there is non,because the game is so stripped from mechanics it's not even funny.
Earlier today, following the tragic incident at the gas station, it has been decided by the houses of congress and by myself that we will no longer be permitting the international meddlers of XCOM into the territory of Nigeria. Political church groups from the USA used to dealing with the XCOM problem have helped us draft this ban legislation and I was proud to sign it.
All exploitative funding is immediately cut to the XCOM NGO so that our money may be better spent equipping our native anti-UFO force, which is tentatively called UFO Force. We have many soldiers and dogs already. So far our scientists have researched a weapon we call "machine gun on the back of a Toyota pickup" which we hope will be very effective.
Some of you may wonder at the reasons why we are leaving the only anti-UFO coalition at a time when more UFOs than ever before are terrorizing Nigeria. Why are tiny, bug-eyed men scuttling in our streets? Why are your neighbors turned into human-shaped piles of grass? God is real, so why does he abandon us? He has not, my friends, but XCOM has.
XCOM ignored our pleas for help because we did not offer them scientists and instead went on UFO vacation to France.
XCOM never bothered to launch a satellite above our nation. We hear excuses, "Oh, sorry President Jonathan, half of our HQ is already satellite uplinks." This is not acceptable.
An entire bridge was destroyed by UFOs in Lagos and XCOM landed a team to rescue a UN official who was standing for hours in the middle of the burning bridge. Thank you for the help with our precious bridge.
Send out entire team of rookie XCOM soldiers to protect our precious gas station from the aliens. The UFO shot down over Mexico will wait. "It was a training mission," is not a good explanation when our gas station is in ruins.
For all of Africa there is only one jet fighter plane from XCOM to stop UFOs. Nobody has even bothered installing a laser beam or anything on it. When a UFO appears they do not even launch the plane.
XCOM immorally promotes homosexuals, attacking the families of Nigeria. Why is their armor so purple and pink and why do they all have 1970s disco mustaches? Who is responsible for this? It is as if their entire organization is some sick joke and it is shameful in the eyes of God.
Do not fear, my fellow citizens. UFO Force is being given a new base in the former gas station missing several walls and partly on fire. I assure you the fire has not spread to the important parts. Upgrades for UFO Force are also in the works, including purchasing a helicopter to be UFO Interceptor-1, as well as several berets, which are an advanced type of armor.
I have also personally reached out to the UFOs themselves. It seems that they are not so bad after all. The one that roars and charges around punching people into bloody pulps is relatable. The majestic transforming disc is a fine sight in the sky. And the purple energy surrounding my head cannot be a bad thing.
I have heard much loose talk of "experiments" on the people, but you cannot be so sure these are UFO experiments and not European drug manufacturers. The UFOs are only curing a different disease with undisclosed human testing and terrorizing of our population.
When you consider HIV, the UFO agenda is really no worse than the First World's agenda.
Aliens automatically knowing were you are is cheating, agreed. Aliens hitting automatically, no matter how infinitely small the chance should be, would be cheating.
Aliens getting bonus on to-hit and crit chance isn't. It's simply aliens being better at shooting and stuff than your guys and actually a better solution than e.g. the retarded but common hitpoint-inflation method, and certainly not worse than increasing the numbers of the aliens.
Yo capturing an outsider in March doesn't open up the ability to research it. Captured the outsider, I have the outsider shard in the "inventory" you can see in the grey market, and there's no research option. I thought maybe alien materials or something might be a prereq, but researching them doesn't open it up either. You also don't get the option if you wait around until April with the shard you got in March, so I dunno if it's that you still can't research it in April or if you have to get a new shard in April or the script doesn't work. So March alien base attack is no-go, and five satellites in March requires some ultra-unlikely shit (UFO on the tenth or earlier). Four is doable however, as in three new and the starting satellite, but you will probably not be able to buy an OTS. That is still one near-guaranteed panicked country on impossible and boy I'd sure like the OTS for impossible battlescape so three is more likely. I think that's actually more-or-less acceptable losses and it's better to focus on making the tactical layer less ridiculous - lost countries don't matter until you get to the point you would have a satellite to put in them, so it's not even until July or so that you will be at a point where you are really losing shit for missing out on 5-6 countries.
Aliens automatically knowing were you are is cheating, agreed. Aliens hitting automatically, no matter how infinitely small the chance should be, would be cheating.
Aliens getting bonus on to-hit and crit chance isn't. It's simply aliens being better at shooting and stuff than your guys and actually a better solution than e.g. the retarded but common hitpoint-inflation method, and certainly not worse than increasing the numbers of the aliens.
Every turn there is a roll that is made so AI knows where it need to go to hit you.So if you play on higher difficulty they move to this spots more often.GG
