GEOSCAPE
The world! It's going to look a lot different if we let the aliens have their way with it.
I thought I'd take a few moments to start off this update with some explanation of the global layer of the game--the geoscape, as we used to call it in the first X-COM. Everything other than tactical combat falls under this heading: the world map, seen above, your base and its many sub-screens, and so forth. Let's start with the world. As I mentioned earlier, you can use it to fast forward time until the next incursion. You can also use it to see any current threats, and send out interceptors or strike teams to deal with the enemy. If threats are allowed to persist for too long (i.e you click the 'scan for activity' button to fast forward time while a threat is still current), you get a big fat failure and something bad happens. Usually this is just more panic for countries involved, but too much panic over too long a time will result in countries leaving the XCOM project, and eventually a GAME OVER screen.
The panic/satellite screen in the base, aka 'Situation Room'. (The Situation gets around, apparently.)
What's this panic thing, any way? It's an abstraction both of how terrified countries are of the UFO threat, and how far along alien infiltration is. If a country gets a full bar of panic (5 squares) and ends the month with that much panic, it will leave the XCOM project. The squares at the top of the map on this screen show how many countries you can hemorrhage before the game ends. Satellites are the most proactive way we have of dealing with panic: once built (and assuming we have enough room to deploy them in orbit, which requires a base structure called the 'Satellite Uplink'). Any country they're deployed in (or over, I should say) will immediately have its panic reset to 1. The best strategy is to rush as many satellites (and uplinks) as possible right away. The game is built to scare new players a little--even with a really good development strategy, there's a good chance on Classic difficulty you'll lose 1-3 countries at some point. It requires a perfect strategy and perfect execution to never lose any country on Classic. On Impossible, you should just expect to lose countries. And all of that is before Second Wave options & minor mistakes come into play.
Abductions, abductions everywhere!
Remember abductions? These are the default mission type that bring us to cities and other settled areas. They're a case of triage: there are always multiple sites attacked, and we can only go to one. The sites we don't go to will trigger sizable panic increases for every country on that continent. This is the main strategic dilemma of the geoscape: managing the panic of countries across the globe and deploying satellites just before the end of the month to mitigate the panic in countries that have reached max panic. Once all the countries in a continent have full satellite coverage, the chances of it being targeted by abductions goes down dramatically, so taking a whole continent "off the board" as soon as possible is a smart way to control the global panic game. In addition, each abduction site has a different reward that is offered for completing it, so we have to juggle our need for scientists, engineers, cash, or a seasoned recruit with whether that abduction site gels with our panic control plan.
Ye Olde Base Construction Screen. (Original X-COM.)
Ye Newfangled Base Construction Doodad.
This screen is where we construct the base's facilities (tch, duh!). Like most everything else about the geoscape, we have to balance several competing needs. First, we need to make sure we always have enough satellite uplinks to deploy new satellites as we make them. Second, we need to make sure we have engineers, because a certain number is required for each additional satellite and uplink. Engineers also shorten the construction time and cost of anything made in the engineering bay, which is basically anything solid: new prototyped alien aircraft, new weapons, new armor, new gatling-turrets-on-wheels, even medikits. Third, we've got to make sure that while doing all of that, we find time to build laboratories at some point so our research program doesn't stall and leave us shooting 18th century boomsticks at Laser Death Robots from Mars.
Oh, and we've got to make sure we have enough power to supply every facility. Most of the base grid starts off unexcavated--each unexcavated tile takes time and money to open up, and extending the access lift down to further subterranean levels costs money & power for maintenance. And just as one final complicating factor, every facility of the same type (laboratory, workshop for engineers, satellite uplink, power generator) built adjacent to the same type offers a further bonus to its yield.
Ye Olde Space Garage.
The hangar is where we keep all of our UFO-destroying toys. It's fairly simple and straightforward: we can purchase new interceptors here, transfer them to other continents, or outfit them with different weapon loadouts we research through the labs. Interceptors only cover the continent they're stationed in. Satellites that are left undefended (no interceptors on the continent) will soon be shot down by UFOs, which is a game-bungling error of colossal proportions, since satellites cost a lot of money and take a long time to build. So you always want to make sure you've got interceptors ready to go for any region with a new satellite. Eventually, we can reverse-engineer alien technology to make our own Chinese sweat-shop counterfeit of their flying saucers, complete with plasma cannons and other goodies. We have to manufacture those Firestorms ourselves, though, no ordering them from this screen: apparently the mail-order industry for interstellar aircraft hasn't taken off yet.
The officer training school is a sub-screen of the Barracks (which is otherwise just a boring list of all our soldiers, and whether or not their limbs are currently blown off). Through it, we can buy all sorts of neat perks like the ability to bring more soldiers on missions, wounds healing at twice the normal rate (really big deal on Marathon), more XP on kills, soldiers always getting critically wounded (KO'd on ground, will die in 3 turns unless revived) instead of killed, more Will on promotions, etc. It only unlocks after your first council mission. The laboratory and workshop are similar--you can only build each once you get a scientist and engineer reward from abduction sites respectively.
Ha, Gray Market! It's funny because--oh, nevermind.
The Gray Market is where you can sell off un-needed alien bits and pieces. The prices have always struck me as sort of hilarious--$5 for a corpse of a species previously never seen before in nature? I'm imagining XCOM operatives hawking sectoid steak to some redneck on the side of the nearest interstate as a substitute for venison. This is one of the most important screens in the geoscape: XCOM is constantly converting live aliens into corpses, and you only need a few for autopsies. The rest get sold. In the early game, the Gray Market often supplies 2-3X more cash than the funding countries and missions combined, once you tally up the figures. It's essential, and if you forget to sell off everything you don't need, you'll find yourself strapped for cash. There's an art to selling off everything you don't need while not selling *too* much and ending up missing materials for research or construction a month down the line.
And that's the geoscape! As a huge fan of the original, I have to say this is the one part of the game where the new XCOM really disappointed me. No aliens attacking your base. No ability to construct multiple bases, and manage their detection ranges. No multiple Skyrangers. I even miss the micromanagement bits of always having to keep plenty of ammo on hand. There was something very magical about defending your base late in the game with nothing but a few rookies and some pea-shooters, because all of your ace teams were out in the field along with all of your best tech and weaponry. Still, Firaxis does deserve some credit for two things: one, for having a Geoscape at all in this day and age. And two, for making it matter, even in its stripped down form. There is a whole array of risks to be dealt with, and choices to be made. While I wish it were more freeform, the fact remains you *can* fudge up the Geoscape, and it can lose you the game if you don't know how to approach it.
Now, let's get to it!
OPERATION FINAL JUSTICE
Our squad for the day. Some familiar faces, and some new ones.
Looking good, Tigranes, looking good. You know, Doc, I've got to hand it to you, I didn't think you could do anything outside of the bedroom, but the revivification process really worked.
...Other than the seepage around the optical implants.
What's a little retinal bleeding among friends? Besides, he's a much better aim than before! What's this mission about, anyway?
Our interceptors shot down the largest UFO contact we've seen yet. One of our pilots was nearly totalled in the dog fight. Stay frosty--expect heavy resistance.
I always expect heavy resistance! Especially in bed. Men, to the Skyranger!
We land right next to the crashed UFO...
And step in the shit right off the bat. It's month 2, so Thin Men can start appearing as random enemies. They use heavier weaponry than sectoids, have a little more health, and a trick or two up their sleeves.
We set up an overwatch farm and lure a Thin Man back. Everyone has a go, but that guy's got the aerodynamics for dodging bullets.
Blitzkitchen's african hunting genes help him land a shot for half its health.
The days of bunching up are officially over. The Thin Man takes that trick out of its sleeves and spits it on us. This is their special ability: long-range poison spit. Poisoned units take 1 damage every turn for a few turns, and have drastically lowered aim. Not good! In addition to its area of effect (one tile around the target), poison spit never misses.
Rookie does what rookie does best: throw 'nades, 'cause she ain't gonna hit the broad side of a Kraken with actual gunshots.
Varra uses a medikit to cure the poison and heal one of our squadmates. As a support with a few promotions under his belt, Varra can use the medikit 3 times before it's exhausted, so he's still got a few heals left.
Another gorilla thin man emerges from the mists of time alien craft.
Varra pops him like its nothing. This kid's got spirit. There's still one thin man left, though, over by the ledge of that hill...
So we jog Tigranes over! As an Assault, he has an ability called Run & Gun that he can activate to dash (extra-long movement that normally ends the turn without firing) and fire at the end of his movement. At such close range, he has a guaranteed hit & crit on the thin man. Oops! There's another one we didn't see before, hiding back there. Man, did we just get Tigranes killed again? So much for revivification.
Well, Tigranes still gets a great shot! The Thin Man goes flying. In an attempt to maybe save Tigranes from certain death, I advance our disposable rookie into clear line of sight of the last Thin Man, out in the open. Bait. I'm pretty sure the Thin Man is still going to gun for Tigranes, though, since he's closer and flanked...
...but we've still got an assault in the person of BlitzKitchen, who uses Run & Gun to get close enough for a decent, flanked shot on the Thin Man before our turn ends. Can his blackness triumph over all odds?
Majestic! Side-note: those clouds everywhere are from the Thin Men. When they die, they explode into poison clouds in the tiles directly around them that persist for a few turns. Point-blanking them is a delicate thing.
A quick glance at the battlefield, now covered in festering snake AIDS. You're welcome.
Time to clear the ship, room by room. We move in.
To withstand an impact like that, at such a velocity... the materials used in that vessel's hull must be at least an order of magnitude beyond any element we know of.
Commander... Commander! Are you sleeping in the Skyranger?!
Zzzz--IMPERIAL JUICE! Wh--huh, where am--sleeping? No, of course not! I'm... formulating a strategy. Men, approach the alien craft!
Uh... Commander, they're already inside the UFO.
But I just gave the order. Ha, they work with lightning speed!
Feh! This ship is filled with useless doohickeys. Where's the beautiful women waiting to be rescued? The vile monsters waiting to be vanquished?
Oho! A vile monster. Good shot, Tigranes. I don't care what Vahlen says, that optical implant is worth all the bleeding in the world.
There's another Thin Man hiding in the room we just moseyed Tigster into. This isn't as dangerous as the situation we got ol' Tigranes into before, though--we've got our whole team ready to rush through that door.
Women.
Whiskey Wolf blows him away. Aromatic snake Febreze fills the air.
Not done here, yet! We pile up on the doors to the navigation room. There's got to be a pilot, right?
Nope. We open the doors, and there's nothing. Bastard gave us the slip! But wait, there's a noise coming from this other room...
Sure enough, there's the pilot materializing out of thin air.
IT'S AN EVIL DEMON! CHARRRRGE!
Well, he had his orders from Commander Rance, didn't he?
That was a productive mission, when all's said and done. As you can see, soldiers earn nicknames when they reach a certain number of promotions. This has no additional effect--it's just a cute touch. I'd like to take this moment to draw attention to Tigranes' nickname. *salute*
Ahah! Tigranes gets much more survivable. This is one of the big abilities that Assaults get. Ignoring the first reaction shot on every turn gives them an unrivalled ability to move around the battlefield and generally thumb their nose at the enemy.
The damage taken debuff from the Shredder Rocket is only occasionally useful--far more awesome is that this rocket uses a separate ammo count from the normal rocket, giving him 2 rocket uses per combat map. With this and later perks, a full team of heavies can really trivialize the early to mid game.
A summary of the swag we picked up. This displays at the end of every mission. Elerium and alien alloys only come from downed alien UFOs. You can never manufacture them yourself.
OPERATION FINAL JUSTICE ENDS
Here's a glimpse of what's waiting for us next:
