X-Com: Enemy Unknown

[NickAragua]

My bad. I didn't spend too much time reading it because I haven't played the "vanilla" expansion yet, so I was looking at it more out of curiosity than anything else.

I did apply the "no disappearing corpses" mod and it really helps to be able to admire your troops' handiwork (and it's also a little discouraging when you get to see the results of the work of a "heroic" floater who managed to whack six civilians all by himself).

[NickAragua]

Had an amusing incident the other day involving an exploding car and some EXALT guys who picked the exact wrong time to drop in.

I gotta say, those EXALT covert ops are *tough*. Especially the one where you have to hold on to the two doohickeys and kill everyone who shows up. That was brutal, I think I had one turn where there were at least twelve active EXALT guys on the board (compared to a nice, relaxing mission vs two squads of grenade throwing, one-shotting Mutons). Sure, I had my six troopers and the covert operative guy (who can hack terminals to disable EXALT weapons for a turn), but there's only so much you can do when half the terminals are each being covered by a squad of pissed off "fifth column" wannabes. The mission where your guy just has to hack two terminals is ok, 'cause you can just hack them and get everyone out ("terrible" performance with only 6 EXALT kills meaning there were probably like thirty guys total).

As always, Dr Vahlen sure complains a lot. "Don't blow up the alien navigation computers". "Don't blow up the alien power generators". "Don't blow up the alien goop containers." "Don't blow up the aliens.". Sheesh, lady, whose side are you on, anyway?

At the end of the day, this game still sets the gold standard for believable AI. You'll see it occasionally make mistakes (a.k.a. moves you can exploit), and it'll still get cheap "one in a million" shots against your guy behind full cover and under a smoke screen (which hurts a lot more than in the original X-Com because of the small squad sizes and comparatively high value of an individual trooper), but I almost never see it doing anything that I traditionally associate with stupid AI.

Now I just wish that Operation Slingshot would go on sale, 'cause I still refuse to pay 7 bucks for three missions and a Chinese gangster.

[Doomboy]

But the Chinese gangster has a scar. Seriously though, just wait for the summer sale. It will be discounted down to something more reasonable. I know, because I got it during one of their sales. It really is not worth 7 bucks.

[Pyperkub]

There might even be a spring sale, i kind of remember one last year.

[NickAragua]

Well, I guess the aliens got pissed off that I raided their base, so they sent a whole bunch of guys into my base. It was quite the tense mission at first, as the aliens dropped into the command center, flew in through the hangar, and tunneled through the mech bay. Unfortunately for them, I decided on the very first turn to take the high ground (there's a catwalk around the command center), so pretty much anyone who walked into that command center was walking into a kill box with at least four or five of my guys taking overwatch shots. I wound up losing a bunch of the random rookies that you get to panic and lucky muton shots, and there was a close call when a sectoid commander took mind control over my sniper colonel with "double tap" and made him run out in front of a bunch of chrysalids. Fortunately, the rest of my guys were on the ball and took the chrysalids and the sectoid out. Once the aliens weren't bunched up around the command center, it was easy to pick off the stragglers as they came in.

[NickAragua]

Finally assaulted the EXALT home base last night. I'm going to miss those alien-loving freaks - missions vs them got a lot easier once I got my guys some good armor, plasma guns and promotions. Got a little greedy and lost a captain when I rushed my mech in to a room punch out a wounded EXALT guy. Unfortunately, the room turned out to contain three other alien lovers who proceeded to incapacitate the mech. After three turns, I still couldn't dislodge the bastards so I made the call to have my medic run out and bail the mech out. For his effort, he was rewarded with an EXALT laser through the head. Not cool, guys, not cool.

Having spent some time using a mech, they're really badass. Their melee attack (if you pick that upgrade) does an incredible amount of damage and knocks the bad guys around like rag dolls. My mech guy managed to punch a guy through a truck! The 'collateral damage' attack is a good way of a) clearing out alien cover and b) reducing alien health in a controlled fashion for capture. Having a super long range grenade launcher is always welcome, and the electro pulse is a nice bonus if you're on the other side of a wall or just barged into a crowd of aliens. The inability to take cover (due to being huge) is a drawback as is the poor accuracy and low ammo capacity with the primary weapon attack, but the super high health and variety of other alien-destruction tools make the mech an overall win in my book. Of course, making a single level 3 mech used up all the meld I had built up over the course of about half the game (I'm really cautious and explosive-happy).

Gene mods are a pretty straightforward way to upgrade your guys so I've been enjoying them in limited amounts.

Now, I just have to shoot down that overseer UFO and then it's off to the finale.

[coopasonic]

I still haven't played again since my base was invaded. I have to restart. I can't bring myself to it.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, that's always a pain in the ass. Also why I never do Ironman. There's just too much risk of it crashing or me clicking on the wrong square or some other kind of cheap bullshit.

The "good" news is that those "rookies" that you get during you base defense mission? They're not from your soldier roster. I had the 'New Guy' officer training school upgrade (that turns every new recruit into a squaddie automatically), and I still got a bunch of hat-wearing rookies toting basic rifles, 1 hit point armor and two grenades apiece (thanks to the appropriate foundry project). I lost most of those dorks and didn't feel too bad about it, but there was one that got like five kills, which would have made her better than most of my squaddies. The bad part is that your "skilled" defense force consists of your top six guys on the roster (or at least it was six for me, maybe four or five if you don't have the squad size upgrades), so if you de-equipped *them* then you're in real trouble.

[coopasonic]

Now you have me wondering if I really have to restart. Maybe I wasn't as bad off as I thought. I swear I had some of my regulars using basic grenades and stock weapons, but I coul dbe wrong there.

The reason I play Ironman is that apparently I have no self-control when it comes to video game saves. It is the only way to keep me from repeating sequences looking for the perfect outcome. My game hasn't been screwed by a bug in the 4 or so times I have played through on Ironman. A mis-click has cost me, but not enough to bother me.

[NickAragua]

Give it a try, see how it goes. After you clear out the initial aliens that drop into the command center, it's really just a matter of camping out on the catwalks and shooting anyone that walks in with reaction fire.

[Stuie]

Finally finished the game for the first time. For some reason I just never got around to completing it before.

If I'd known...

Spoiler:

you only have to kill the Uber Ethereal

... it would have been a lot easier at the end.

Now I can play again with Enemy Within.

[coopasonic]

Give it a try, see how it goes. After you clear out the initial aliens that drop into the command center, it's really just a matter of camping out on the catwalks and shooting anyone that walks in with reaction fire.

Last night I went back and finished the Base Defense mission. It was pretty much as bad as I remembered. I had a couple colonels with basic grenades and assault rifles. Then I had to let one of my colonels that was properly equipped (plasma sniper *sniff*) die for the greater good. Cyberdisc death explosion took her out. It was the only one. Maybe it was for the best as she was the one that made the mission ridiculously hard as she was mind-controlled in a great position.

8 dead, 2 of them colonels. For being the first time seeing the mission and playing Ironman I guess it could have gone worse.

[tgb]

I downloaded the Long War mod last night and fired it up first thing this morning. Holy fuck, is it a ball buster. It took 2 tries just to complete the first mission, because I had no idea I'd be facing

Spoiler:

12 Sectoids with Psi power

I like the new commands like Steady Weapon and the new classes seem interesting. I haven't gotten very far because that "introductory" mission took an hour to complete, but I'm eager to jump in for more.

[RMC]

I downloaded the Long War mod last night and fired it up first thing this morning. Holy fuck, is it a ball buster. It took 2 tries just to complete the first mission, because I had no idea I'd be facing

Spoiler:

12 Sectoids with Psi power

I like the new commands like Steady Weapon and the new classes seem interesting. I haven't gotten very far because that "introductory" mission took an hour to complete, but I'm eager to jump in for more.

Where is the current long war mod located at, and is it easy to install?

Thanks.

[tgb]

I downloaded the Long War mod last night and fired it up first thing this morning. Holy fuck, is it a ball buster. It took 2 tries just to complete the first mission, because I had no idea I'd be facing

Spoiler:

12 Sectoids with Psi power

I like the new commands like Steady Weapon and the new classes seem interesting. I haven't gotten very far because that "introductory" mission took an hour to complete, but I'm eager to jump in for more.

Where is the current long war mod located at, and is it easy to install?

Thanks.

Here and yes. There are two versions - one for Enemy Unknown that is finished, and one for Enemy Within, that's available as a Beta (the one I'm playing). I assume they are both the same.

Some of the changes in this mod include:

An extended campaign requiring far more missions to complete
Tactical missions that allow up to twelve XCom soldiers per mission with the right upgrades
Eight soldier classes: Infantry, Assault, Sniper, Scout, Gunner, Rocketeer, Medic and Engineer, and eight MEC classes: Valkyrie, Marauder, Jaeger, Pathfinder, Goliath, Archer, Guardian and Saburai
New and modified perks, including Ranger, Sapper, HEAT Warheads, Lock N' Load and Javelin Rockets
New and modified technologies, including Xenopsionics, Alien Biocybernetics, Pulse Lasers, Gauss Weapons and Advanced Aerospace Concepts, and many new foundry projects
Five tiers of XCOM weaponry, many new armors and small items and S.H.I.V.s that can be equipped with perk-granting small items!
Much earlier access to psionics and vastly expanded psionics tree
A system of commissioning and promoting XCOM officers who provide bonuses to your entire squad during missions (replaces the Enemy Within medals system)
Overhauled interception game, with five new UFO classes such as the Fighter, Raider and Harvester, as well as six interceptors per continent, foundry projects to upgrade your aircraft, individualized pilot names and pilot experience, and the Stingray Missile weapon system
Overhauled strategy game, in which the aliens gather resources and conduct research -- efforts XCOM must interdict if it hopes to save humanity. XCOM can now retake countries by finding and conquering alien bases in those countries. Help council countries defend themselves by fulfilling their requests for alien technology!
Aliens and EXALT forces grow tougher over time, gaining stats and perks
New weapons for XCOM soldiers
Soldiers rest after each mission, requiring the player to build a much deeper roster of soldiers
Modified Second Wave options to support longer campaigns

[RMC]

Okay, that is all stuff I want, and will most likely download tonight.

Wildstar has my gaming time currently, but when my kids are using all the bandwidth, this might be the game to play.

[RMC]

That mod takes a good game and makes it an awesome game. Thanks for posting about it.

[Paingod]

That mod takes a good game and makes it an awesome game. Thanks for posting about it.

That mod needs to be incorporated into the game, STAT. The developers should talk with them and touch up some things and release it as a Free DLC.

[baelthazar]

Once you install the mod, it overwrites your vanilla game, right? Is there a way to NOT do that, in case you want to go back?

[RMC]

Once you install the mod, it overwrites your vanilla game, right? Is there a way to NOT do that, in case you want to go back?

I backed up my structure first, and then can just delete and copy back over. Not sure on how to uninstall it any other way...

[tgb]

Once you install the mod, it overwrites your vanilla game, right? Is there a way to NOT do that, in case you want to go back?

I'm not sure how much it affects, say, Enemy Within if you install the version for Enemy Unknown, or vice-versa.

When they named it the Long War, they weren't whistling Dixie. I probably have 5-6 hours in so far, played at least that many battles, and still haven't come to the end of the first month. And as I posted earlier, it's definitely not for the faint-of-heart. Despite 3 attempts my interceptors have yet to shoot down a Scout ship.

And try a mission with nothing but raw recruits because anybody worth a good goddamn is either laid up in the hospital or too fatigued to be of any use. Let me know how it goes.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it removes the choice of missions.

[Papa Smurph]

The only thing I don't like about it is that it removes the choice of missions.

I have found that due to casualties and fatigue, I am forced to skip some missions. It makes for an agonizing choice, whereas the vanilla game's forced "pick 1 of 3" thing felt arbitrary and was rarely a meaningful decision. So, while I initially thought the change was odd, over time it has become one of my favorite aspects of this mod.

[Pyperkub]

Give it a try, see how it goes. After you clear out the initial aliens that drop into the command center, it's really just a matter of camping out on the catwalks and shooting anyone that walks in with reaction fire.

Last night I went back and finished the Base Defense mission. It was pretty much as bad as I remembered. I had a couple colonels with basic grenades and assault rifles. Then I had to let one of my colonels that was properly equipped (plasma sniper *sniff*) die for the greater good. Cyberdisc death explosion took her out. It was the only one. Maybe it was for the best as she was the one that made the mission ridiculously hard as she was mind-controlled in a great position.

8 dead, 2 of them colonels. For being the first time seeing the mission and playing Ironman I guess it could have gone worse.

The reason you end up with colonels using stock weapons is the unequip all button, afaik. I got burned on that for the base defense too.

[tgb]

The only thing I don't like about it is that it removes the choice of missions.

I have found that due to casualties and fatigue, I am forced to skip some missions. It makes for an agonizing choice, whereas the vanilla game's forced "pick 1 of 3" thing felt arbitrary and was rarely a meaningful decision. So, while I initially thought the change was odd, over time it has become one of my favorite aspects of this mod.

No reason they can't do both - offer a choice of 3 as per vanilla X-com, but with the possibility that you can't take any of them if you don't have available manpower.

[wonderpug]

Is there any more official DLC announced as being in the pipeline?

[RMC]

Is there any more official DLC announced as being in the pipeline?

Not that I have seen.

[TiLT]

I think an actual sequel is more likely at this point, with the new generation of consoles having been out for a while and all.

[Buatha]

Once you install the mod, it overwrites your vanilla game, right? Is there a way to NOT do that, in case you want to go back?

I'm not sure how much it affects, say, Enemy Within if you install the version for Enemy Unknown, or vice-versa.

When they named it the Long War, they weren't whistling Dixie. I probably have 5-6 hours in so far, played at least that many battles, and still haven't come to the end of the first month. And as I posted earlier, it's definitely not for the faint-of-heart. Despite 3 attempts my interceptors have yet to shoot down a Scout ship.

And try a mission with nothing but raw recruits because anybody worth a good goddamn is either laid up in the hospital or too fatigued to be of any use. Let me know how it goes.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it removes the choice of missions.

I've been watching a few Let's Plays with the Long War mod since I haven't played it yet, so please feel free to correct my statements. I found that while you start out with better basic equipment, the speed of research and their prerequisites seem painfully slow. Like Baelthazar stated, you come up against Medium Scout ships pretty quick, yet the requirements for Beam-based weapons seem awfully slow for their Interceptors. They came across the Slingshot mission and were surrounded by a mix of Thin Men, Sectoids, and Squiddies who could shoot from distances that would only allow ~25% accuracy for the troops while they had some crazy accuracy.

Near the end, they ran into a Muton that almost squad-wiped them...in addition to some Floaters. They didn't even have Laser weapons yet due to lack of materials.

[RMC]

Once you install the mod, it overwrites your vanilla game, right? Is there a way to NOT do that, in case you want to go back?

I'm not sure how much it affects, say, Enemy Within if you install the version for Enemy Unknown, or vice-versa.

When they named it the Long War, they weren't whistling Dixie. I probably have 5-6 hours in so far, played at least that many battles, and still haven't come to the end of the first month. And as I posted earlier, it's definitely not for the faint-of-heart. Despite 3 attempts my interceptors have yet to shoot down a Scout ship.

And try a mission with nothing but raw recruits because anybody worth a good goddamn is either laid up in the hospital or too fatigued to be of any use. Let me know how it goes.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it removes the choice of missions.

I've been watching a few Let's Plays with the Long War mod since I haven't played it yet, so please feel free to correct my statements. I found that while you start out with better basic equipment, the speed of research and their prerequisites seem painfully slow. Like Baelthazar stated, you come up against Medium Scout ships pretty quick, yet the requirements for Beam-based weapons seem awfully slow for their Interceptors. They came across the Slingshot mission and were surrounded by a mix of Thin Men, Sectoids, and Squiddies who could shoot from distances that would only allow ~25% accuracy for the troops while they had some crazy accuracy.

Near the end, they ran into a Muton that almost squad-wiped them...in addition to some Floaters. They didn't even have Laser weapons yet due to lack of materials.

Yeah, it is tough, and you also have squad members that are exhausted, so you have to have a ton of troops. I have had to mass interceptors in each of the continents, so I can send multiple ships against the UFO's.

It is tough, and I agree maybe a little too tough, but it is fun. There are certainly more choices, and tons of new soldier types and other changes.

[The Bad Shepherd]

Beaten Enemy Within Classic Ironman. Kinda tempted to do a run through here, just because I like running through statistics and bashing the aliens. Especially Thin Men. I've heard the fanbase is fond of calling them crit-men. Having lost several majors to them over the course of playing this game...I am inclined to agree.
Keep bashing my head against Impossible. I like how Sectoids can survive a frag grenade in that difficulty, and on the first mission they outnumber your squad 2-1 and apparently have been taking lessons at the Battlefield Earth Terl Pistol Shooting Academy.
What's odd is that the nastiest aliens later in the game are paradoxically undone by how utterly ridiculous they are. Take Sectopods - 30 Health, can shoot twice and then still go into overwatch, take half damage, show up with two drones, -60% chance to crit, -40% to hit. They are absolutely insane, to the degree that in Classic you have no recourse but to build your soldiers specifically to take them down. But you see floaters with your 5/6 team of colonels in a routine abduction mission, and then they flank your squadsight sniper and kill him. It's a funny old game.
But the hardest part is getting through the bug eyed idiots and the Sid Meier Limbo Champions. Not fighting through psychic aliens and their nastiest war machines.
Oh, and an Ethereal showed up for the last two base defenses. Turns out they're weak to getting punched to death. Who knew?

[The Bad Shepherd]

Cool. Second Terror Mission on Impossible difficulty features three cyberdisks with two drone escorts each. And the drones have 7 health apiece. There are also two groups of Chryssalids, though they didn't get a boost.
Jesus Christ.

[coopasonic]

Cool. Second Terror Mission on Impossible difficulty features three cyberdisks with two drone escorts each. And the drones have 7 health apiece. There are also two groups of Chryssalids, though they didn't get a boost.
Jesus Christ.

Well they didn't name it Improbable difficulty.

[NickAragua]

Just remember that you only really have to save one civilian. The rest, well, better dead than a chrysalid zombie.

[Sepiche]

Lately I started watching one of the Impossible Ironman Let's Plays out there and it inspired me to make another try at the Classic Ironman achievement. I figured those guys make Impossible look so easy that surely I can manage on classic, but man I've had a string of terrible luck so far.

I've re-started a few times now... once because I found out after the first mission that the single source of steam in my base was in the very bottom corner and would cost me hundreds of dollars to even get access to, and another time because I took the "this soldier is immune to panic" medal before learning the mission after that that it apparently doesn't work. Ended up losing 2 soldiers on that mission because the trooper with the medal panicked after another was wounded.

My tactics are definitely improving at least, and I've started to understand and try to correct some of the flaws in my playstyle, but I just can't seem to muster up enough luck to get a reasonably clean start. Of course it would also be nice if I could find time to play that wasn't the middle of the night when I need to be going to bed, but that's another problem all together.

[The Bad Shepherd]

That's impossible beaten. What a truly ridiculous experience. My soldiers had seen so much shit by the end of the game that more than 60% of them were psionic - first time I've had all three of my first people for testing come up positive. Also the first time I was able to field an entirely psionic squad of colonels for the last mission (2 snipers, 2 heavies, 1 support, 1 assault). I had to skip the second Slingshot mission because I was in no shape to complete it when it came around, but I did manage Operation Progeny okay (the missions are much easier).
Lost five countries - the entirety of Northern America, Australia, and Argentina.
Normally when I play this game I end up with one assault soldier from early on who pulls off absolutely ridiculous stunts throughout the game and eventually became the volunteer. This time, a parody of that happened.
Timmerman made me proud early on by dodging many plasma bolts, and killing everything in sight. Then he got critically wounded, but came back in. Then he got wounded again.
By the time he was a colonel, he had just over 50 will. To put this in perspective, the majority of my other colonels were usually at around 90. I came to notice this when Timmerman would shoot a muton, and then the muton would successfully scare him into a panic.
Sadly, I had already invested several gene mods in him, and aside from being a nervous wreck he was still a colonel level assault. I would have let him be if the game had not inexplicably been making him squad leader for every mission he was on, providing a comparatively small will bonus compared to literally anyone else had they been in charge.
So I had him turned into a MEC. This partially shored up his will deficit, but then he got knocked out again on his first mission - a terror mission featuring three sectopods (IMPOSSIBLE IS FAIR).
His will in shreds, by the time sectoid commanders rolled around he was getting mind controlled constantly. From then on I only brought him along if I expected sectopods for the strike module and the EMP.
By the way, I think that while MECS are a godsend in classic, they're not nearly as effective in impossible. They have trouble actually hitting things, they can't take cover, and they're still vulnerable to panic. I would prioritize mimetic skin and SHIVs if I was trying to make combat unfair for the aliens. Also, I would recommend snap shot over squadsight for snipers (for abuse with mimetic skin). Get In the Zone, and you'll be able to shoot down drones, cryssalids, and floaters with pretty much no difficulty, while also having scouts that can one shot mutons while invisible.

[jztemple2]

Finally got around to downloading the Long War Mod and giving it a try. So far it looks interesting. It's been quite a while since I played XCOM:EU so I'm a bit rusty on the concepts, but I do like the feel of the game.

[RMC]

Finally got around to downloading the Long War Mod and giving it a try. So far it looks interesting. It's been quite a while since I played XCOM:EU so I'm a bit rusty on the concepts, but I do like the feel of the game.

Anyone know of a mod that adds the 'stuff' of long war mod, but doesn't add the insane difficulty? I love the changes, but really I don't want to have to slog through tons of super tough enemies before I have had a chance to really get anything decent for my troops.

I mean, I like to let my rookies scare up the aliens, but gah, in long war, I usually let me rookies just become living bullet catchers so I can get at least a few guys leveled up.

Also, I love to be able to drop into XCom, play a mission for a 1/2 hour and then call it a night. But with Long War, some of the missions are taking me over an hour, which I guess is great, but I really liked the shorter time to play some of these.

<shrug> The Long War mod programmers seem to like that their mod is hard and takes so long to play it. Which is fine, they did the programming. I just want one that I can really get into without having to take vacation to play.

[Paingod]

Sounds like you're looking for the Medium War mod... but I don't know if there's one out there.

[RMC]

Sounds like you're looking for the Medium War mod... but I don't know if there's one out there.

Yup that is about what I am looking for.

[TheMix]

Started playing Enemy Within.

And the single most annoying thing right now is the class assignments.

I have:
6 Heavys
4 Support
4 Snipers
1 Assault

...

Oh, and I should note that for the first missions I had 5 Heavys and 1 of each of the others.

Rockets are nice and all, but it's tough when that's all you have.