UFO: Enemy Unknown, remake by Firaxis

[Mark the Bold]

Just finished my first Normal game. Very well thought out game and I am very excited to try it again on Impossible (to heck with classic)!

Favorite Soldier:
Heavy, heavy and more heavy. Read on other threads that "Heavies suck" and I couldn't disagree more. Once I got the heavy plasma gun "Moose Johnson" simply owned. Fires twice every time, nigh indestructible in cover and Shredder rockets simply own.

Now I was one of the 2 people in the world who didn't take Double Tap for my colonel sniper. Didn't think too much about at the time but boy oh boy was I glad I took In the Zone instead.

Sniper (In the Zone) + Heavy (Shredder Rocket) = Alien Genocide

On the later levels where there are large quantities of tough aliens grouped together under cover (ESPECIALLY on the terror missions). Get your sniper in position and fire a shredder rocket into the building with a heavy. This typically leaves ALL the aliens out of cover, slightly damaged, which means FREE shots for your sniper on everyone of them in a single turn. I once took out 5 aliens in a single turn with my sniper after a good shredder shot. And these weren't wimpy sectoids either, but mutons, heavy floaters and crysalids.


Cons:
Squad sight / archangel armor does not work. I don't care what people say about line of sight, yadda yadda. Also, Archangel armor is waste of money. I've had my colonel sniper practically flying over aliens that he was not allowed to shoot, let alone aliens out in the open flanked by multiple squadmates. Still no shot allowed. Maybe Firaxis stealth-nerfed it. Until they fix it, I'm going with snap shot / ghost armor from now on.

 

[PhilBowles]

Just finished my first Normal game. Very well thought out game and I am very excited to try it again on Impossible (to heck with classic)!

Favorite Soldier:
Heavy, heavy and more heavy. Read on other threads that "Heavies suck" and I couldn't disagree more. Once I got the heavy plasma gun "Moose Johnson" simply owned. Fires twice every time, nigh indestructible in cover and Shredder rockets simply own.

I find Snipers most effective, but I like Assault a lot when they get highly promoted - unfortunately I have a lot of trouble keeping my assault units alive.

Now I was one of the 2 people in the world who didn't take Double Tap for my colonel sniper. Didn't think too much about at the time but boy oh boy was I glad I took In the Zone instead.

I can see some use for this, mostly because it's very effective against Sectopods and Berserkers (which always count as exposed) and can allow you to use a psionic sniper for both his weapon and psionic power in the same turn, but I think it has a somewhat niche application.

Sniper (In the Zone) + Heavy (Shredder Rocket) = Alien Genocide

On the later levels where there are large quantities of tough aliens grouped together under cover (ESPECIALLY on the terror missions). Get your sniper in position and fire a shredder rocket into the building with a heavy. This typically leaves ALL the aliens out of cover, slightly damaged, which means FREE shots for your sniper on everyone of them in a single turn. I once took out 5 aliens in a single turn with my sniper after a good shredder shot. And these weren't wimpy sectoids either, but mutons, heavy floaters and crysalids.

Hmm, I'd read it as only giving one free shot a turn; if that's not the case it can certainly be helpful.

 

[coanda]

So I went ahead and loaded it up on Classic difficulty without the tutorial first game, because... Classic is supposed to be hard, but most people don't really pay attention and think about what they're doing when playing TBS games, so I assumed people were overstating the difficulty.

The tactical difficulty was definitely not as bad as the doomsayers suggested; I finished about a dozen missions without losing any units (albeit I had a couple close calls which luck played a part in, and I did reload once when I made a really, truly, deeply stupid move because I just wasn't paying attention).

The strategic difficulty... I can't decide if it's just that I'm not used to the tech paths and priorities in this game and need a bit more experience, or if it really is hard. All I know is that I'm getting my *** handed to me. I should live through the third Council check-up barely (with 7 countries withdrawn from the Council), but I expect to fail out on the fourth one.

 

[Disgustipated]

I did end up buying this. I couldn't find it at any store despite searching 3 different stores (although Best Buy did have Special edition- but I don't think the game is worth $60). So I downloaded from Steam.

After nearly 2 full days of downloading on my slow ass internet connection it's ready to play. Yay

I'm still not sure what difficulty level I'll start at. Definitely not classic. I may start at the level below normal just to see how difficult it is. I never had much difficulty with the original X-com, and I was able to finish it. But that was apparently the easiest level because of the bug.

edit: The game doesn't work. I have a feeling I paid $50 for nothing. This is a problem I have with my windows. I've gotten this Net framework bug before on another game which I can't remember. I found a way around it, but I can't remember how. Yes the obvious solution is to download net framework, but that won't install correctly.

Question: Should I reinstall Windows on my computer? I don't have to wipe my hard drive do I? I really don't want to do that. It would take forever to re download all my games.

edit: Nevermind, it just started working on it's own. Seriously, the game started running by itself even though I didn't hit Play. But it only did that after a message from my PC tools firewall came up. Once I allowed it access it seems to work. Except I'm in the main menu and my mouse doesn't appear to work, and I can't select anything. Hmmm.

re-edit: my mouse works now, just had to accept another firewall message.

No opening movie though? Or maybe there is when I start the game.

 

[PhilBowles]

edit: Nevermind, it just started working on it's own. Seriously, the game started running by itself even though I didn't hit Play. But it only did that after a message from my PC tools firewall came up.

Windows does that with all Steam games, since they now require internet access to work even for single player

No opening movie though? Or maybe there is when I start the game.

Yes, it's when you start a new game. Which is probably a better way of doing it since it means you don't need to wait through or hit ESC to avoid the intro movie every time you load a game; a few other games take the same approach (such as Company of Heroes).

 

[Unconquered Sun]

I found the heavies underwhelming at first, while playing on Classic.

On Impossible however, so far they've been the most useful spec. Their main rocket does guaranteed six damage, which is very important because of the masses of floaters/snakemen. They are great at removing enemy cover. I use high accuracy setup with holo-targeting and scopes for all heavies/snipers.

 

[Disgustipated]

Is there any way to change what soldiers go out on the Skyranger? I haven't figured that out.

Been playing for a while, on my first terror mission, but I have to get to sleep. So I'll save that for tomorrow.

My main issue is my guys getting wounded, but now I have the base facility to reduce time wounded it may not be so bad. The missions aren't too close together which is nice.

I still suck though. I don't know how to prevent my guys from getting hit from alien fire. I also suffer from being perpetually broke.

 

[PhilBowles]

Is there any way to change what soldiers go out on the Skyranger? I haven't figured that out.

There's a 'Clear Unit' option below the 'Edit Unit' option in the squad selection screen, so you can remove a unit. Click on the empty slot and it will take you to the soldier list to select a new one.

I still suck though. I don't know how to prevent my guys from getting hit from alien fire. I also suffer from being perpetually broke.

Spend early cash on building satellites and a new nexus - that will let you launch satellites over more countries, which increases your income.

Best way to prevent your guys getting hit are, in order, (1) stay out of their sight (this is why squadsight is the most important ability in the game), (2) smoke grenades, and (3) hunker down (you will usually want to do this with assault troopers particularly, unless you're within one or two tiles of an alien, since they aren't going to hit at ranges much longer than that). If you have only one alien target, suppressing him with one of your units is a good plan as well. Once you've survived for a bit, nano vests and better armour will at least help you survive being hit.

 

[PhilBowles]

An article mentioned on Steam lists 'Second Wave' features that the designers had planned to include (features that go live once the game's been completed once) but dropped due to time constraints. I don't know whether these will be revisited as DLC or unlocked in a future patch, but they're apparently moddable. But still more interestingly to me, they display designer awareness of quite a few things they realise are missing from the main campaign and so planned to reintroduce (most important to me bolded), and most are features from the older games:

Damage Roulette: Weapons have a much wider range of damage
New Economy: The funding offered by individual council members is randomized
Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats
Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, his or her stats increase randomly
(Bugged) Red Fog: Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier's stats for that mission
Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit
The Greater Good: The secret of psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien
(Bugged) Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete
Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases
High Stakes: The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized
Diminishing Returns: The cost of satellites increases per construction
The Blitz: Aliens target a larger set of cities during abduction attacks
More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare

 

[coanda]

I found the heavies underwhelming at first, while playing on Classic.

On Impossible however, so far they've been the most useful spec. Their main rocket does guaranteed six damage, which is very important because of the masses of floaters/snakemen. They are great at removing enemy cover. I use high accuracy setup with holo-targeting and scopes for all heavies/snipers.

I think this ties in to the main reason I found them underwhelming, and most Classic players are... you just don't need rockets on Classic very often, and you earn slightly more for not using them. When you're avoiding using rockets, the heavy is a weaker class.

But if I raised alien difficulty, suddenly I could see a lot of fights where I said "let them shoot at me, I have good cover and will be flanking next turn" become "nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be safe." Not worth that extra $7 in corpse and weapon parts if it costs a Captain, or even leaves the Captain out of action for the next half-month... and a well-placed rocket when the rest of your squad is prepared to take advantage of the removed cover is usually 2-3 easy kills.

 

[sherbz]

Just finished my first Normal game. Very well thought out game and I am very excited to try it again on Impossible (to heck with classic)!

Favorite Soldier:
Heavy, heavy and more heavy. Read on other threads that "Heavies suck" and I couldn't disagree more. Once I got the heavy plasma gun "Moose Johnson" simply owned. Fires twice every time, nigh indestructible in cover and Shredder rockets simply own.

I certainly dont think heavy's suck. I think they are highly useful, and almost indispensable late on in the game because of the perk that gives you +100% damage against mechanised aliens (very good against cyberdisks and sectopods). Im not sure about taking the shredder rocket perk thogh. I think surpression is better as it allows your heavy's to defend vulnerable units.

 

[PhilBowles]

I think this ties in to the main reason I found them underwhelming, and most Classic players are... you just don't need rockets on Classic very often, and you earn slightly more for not using them. When you're avoiding using rockets, the heavy is a weaker class.

But if I raised alien difficulty, suddenly I could see a lot of fights where I said "let them shoot at me, I have good cover and will be flanking next turn" become "nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be safe." Not worth that extra $7 in corpse and weapon parts if it costs a Captain, or even leaves the Captain out of action for the next half-month... and a well-placed rocket when the rest of your squad is prepared to take advantage of the removed cover is usually 2-3 easy kills.

I find that on Classic, being in good cover while flanking is no guarantee of safety, but then I am still at a game stage where my troops die to critical hits from plasma pistols. Indeed I only have one surviving soldier ranked above rookie 6 or 7 missions in.

As for the Heavy, the problem insofar as it exists I think is not with the class but with the fact that heavy weapons aren't detectably any more powerful than sniper weapons (and much less likely to score critical hits). The Heavy has a decent set of abilities (although rocket damage doesn't scale so the rockets are only useful later in the game to remove cover), and is valuable against Sectopods in later game stages.

 

[sherbz]

I find that on Classic, being in good cover while flanking is no guarantee of safety, but then I am still at a game stage where my troops die to critical hits from plasma pistols. Indeed I only have one surviving soldier ranked above rookie 6 or 7 missions in.

As for the Heavy, the problem insofar as it exists I think is not with the class but with the fact that heavy weapons aren't detectably any more powerful than sniper weapons (and much less likely to score critical hits). The Heavy has a decent set of abilities (although rocket damage doesn't scale so the rockets are only useful later in the game to remove cover), and is valuable against Sectopods in later game stages.

Im a bit disappointed that the blaster was not incorporated as an upgrade for the heavy's rocket launcher. i would have thought that made logical sense.

 

[PhilBowles]

Im a bit disappointed that the blaster was not incorporated as an upgrade for the heavy's rocket launcher. i would have thought that made logical sense.

Me too, especially since the rocket launcher does count as equipment and so is the only piece of gear in the game with no upgrade path or replacement option.

The Marathon setting in Second Wave was supposed to include a longer campaign - more story missions (which might be those related to the new achievements) have to be part of it, but there's little point in having a longer campaign if the tech tree isn't also longer (although it does give a longer shelf life to toys like psionics and the Firestorm that come too late in the game to be used for much other than story missions, and I never even used archangel armour - I would say the current tech tree is too packed for the duration of the campaign, so not many extra techs are needed). I wonder if blaster launchers and some other elements not in the campaign as released (additional aliens, elite versions of Thin Men or terror units etc.) were intended to be part of that?

I'm still hopeful that Firaxis will complete work on Second Wave and release it as a patch or DLC - and I do think there's a realistic prospect that the new achievements relate to that (see the XCOM DLC thread).

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Im a bit disappointed that the blaster was not incorporated as an upgrade for the heavy's rocket launcher. i would have thought that made logical sense.

It is in the game. I had one.

 

[PhilBowles]

It is in the game. I had one.

That's good to know. Now to work out how to obtain it (no spoilers...) Does it still have the smartbomb capability?

 

[Disgustipated]

There's a 'Clear Unit' option below the 'Edit Unit' option in the squad selection screen, so you can remove a unit. Click on the empty slot and it will take you to the soldier list to select a new one.



Spend early cash on building satellites and a new nexus - that will let you launch satellites over more countries, which increases your income.

Best way to prevent your guys getting hit are, in order, (1) stay out of their sight (this is why squadsight is the most important ability in the game), (2) smoke grenades, and (3) hunker down (you will usually want to do this with assault troopers particularly, unless you're within one or two tiles of an alien, since they aren't going to hit at ranges much longer than that). If you have only one alien target, suppressing him with one of your units is a good plan as well. Once you've survived for a bit, nano vests and better armour will at least help you survive being hit.

Yeah I screwed up spending my money on a research lab first and other stupid crap. I didn't read the manual, so I didn't know you needed a satellite link to build satellites. I think only having 2 satellites is what's hurting me bad right now. I really don't want to restart though. I'm not playing classic, so I think I can recover from this.

And don't smoke grenades also make it harder for your own guys to hit? I have yet to use one. I haven't used squad sight yet either, or hunker down (it says it doesn't work with cover), and I haven't used suppress either. I need to look into using these abilities.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

That's good to know. Now to work out how to obtain it (no spoilers...) Does it still have the smartbomb capability?

Kind of.

 

[sirtommygunn]

And don't smoke grenades also make it harder for your own guys to hit? I have yet to use one. I haven't used squad sight yet either, or hunker down (it says it doesn't work with cover), and I haven't used suppress either. I need to look into using these abilities.

It only makes it harder for your guys to hit if you also put the enemies in your smoke radius. Squad sight is automatic and is basically just a way to extend the range of your sniper. Supression is very rarely worth it on normal difficulty.

 

[PhilBowles]

Yeah I screwed up spending my money on a research lab first and other stupid crap. I didn't read the manual, so I didn't know you needed a satellite link to build satellites. I think only having 2 satellites is what's hurting me bad right now. I really don't want to restart though. I'm not playing classic, so I think I can recover from this.

The manual is literally a page long - I don't think it explains it. You can build satellites any time, and it's good to have them in reserve, but if you try launching them the game will tell you you need more satellite links.

Haven't really found a use for research labs - workshops cost you fewer resources, which is important, but teching is quick and you get more scientists and engineers than you need automatically as the game goes on. It does seem teching's a bit slower on Classic, though.

And don't smoke grenades also make it harder for your own guys to hit?

Only if the alien's in the cloud, and so far my experience on Classic and Normal is that aliens aren't smart enough to enter smoke clouds to get the benefit. Smoke is very effective - I've very rarely had units killed in a smoke cloud as long as they're also in cover. I always take the upgrade that increases defence further for units in smoke, haven't tried the other (which I think increases Aim and Will).

Thinking of the support guy as just the squad medic is a mistake - I'll take the 3 medikit promotion, but mostly I use them as fire support with Covering Fire and smoke.

I have yet to use one. I haven't used squad sight yet either, or hunker down (it says it doesn't work with cover),

Not sure what's meant by not working with cover - hunker down is only available if you're in cover. The only real weakness of Squadsight is that that doesn't work with flanking, so you will always have your base chance to hit using it (which on Classic is generally low for enemies in cover).

and I haven't used suppress either. I need to look into using these abilities.

Also a very useful thing to give the support guy (or a heavy since it works very well with both holotargeting and bullet swarm, and heavies can take an upgrade that increases any damage they do with reaction shots against suppressed targets - not something that often happens since suppressed aliens tend to stay still). Suppress is best used if you're trying to flank an alien but your soldier can't reach the right position and fire before the alien's turn. A suppressed alien can move, but the AI either assumes it can't or tends to stay still for fear of reaction fire, and it's much less accurate when shooting. So you will tend to pin an enemy in place as you flank it (no danger of it running to a safer position), at the same time as your flanker is fairly safe from its attack (particularly if you dash to get into position, then the alien has cumulative negatives to hit from suppression, whatever cover your soldier has, and trying to hit a dashing target).

Supression is very rarely worth it on normal difficulty

I'd agree with that unless the player has trouble keeping his soldiers alive, but that's mostly because accuracy and damage is such on Normal that it's very rarely necessary to flank enemies. Suppression is - as you'd imagine - primarily for helping keep aliens' heads down while your troops get into good positions, so it's only going to be helpful when positioning is important.

On Classic, though, you really need the accuracy and critical hit bonuses - like a few other benefits that aren't really important on Normal (such as Headshot, or the aggressive side of the Assault tree) it really comes into its own.