Good times and bad times

[Pete]

I thought I'd start a thread to show good and bad things that have happened in game.

 

I've been playing on Classic difficulty recently and getting very annoyed with it - it's all my fault as I didn't research armour quick enough and bypassed Laser weapons altogether (so since I was hell-bent on plasma weapons I died a lot until I had them).

 

I quickly resigned this playthrough to being an experiment as there seem to be some missions you simply cannot complete early in the game - I think it's the dev's way of trying to tell me I should know when to bravely run away

 

Anyhow, here's a fun request that, when I completed it, basically allowed for massive advances in base facilities, barracks upgrades and some weapons and armour I sorely needed:

 

 

And on the flipside, I had the most hideous mission earlier in the game that I had to re-load about 20 times just to beat as all my guys had light armour and basic weapons against this lot. Look at the compliment of aliens in this UFO - it's a tad ridiculous as it's quite a small UFO (plus I suspect Mutons would eat the other aliens... they look like they would ):

 

 

Does anyone else have any amusing/horrendous screens to share?

 

I did have another one recently in the same game where a coutry wanted just 3 alloy cannons for another 1400 credits, so I was happy to oblige on that one too

 

I'm also purposely not doing the alien base just yet, but have already triggered whatever sets off the harder Mutons, Floaters and Sectopods (must be research advances). On the bright side, no Sectoid Commanders yet because I've not done that mission, so that's one less enemy to contend with.

 

I also have a full squad of ridiculously high ranking guys now all in Titan armour, so I actually fancy my chances on the later and last missions of the game.

 

Oh, and before I forget, I only foudn out the other day that the Blaster Launcher is in this game too - I raced through the Normal playthrough so fast I missed a lot of research (plus I just couldn't do the UFO that that tech stems from as I couldn't shoot it down the first time through).

[silencer_pl]

I quickly resigned this playthrough to being an experiment as there seem to be some missions you simply cannot complete early in the game - I think it's the dev's way of trying to tell me I should know when to bravely run away

 

Nah, you just spread your ass, and shouted "RAPE ME HARD GAME"

[NKF]

Satellites. Get those satellites out as fast and as far away from your main base as you can. That's perhaps the best way to deal with the onslaught of no-win choices the game throws at you early in the game..

 

I think I might have mentioned this elsewhere, but twice now in different playthroughs I got my best and longest lived team wiped out in the exact same way. Just off the Skyranger, the very last guy to move moves just a tad too far to enter a dash and use up his second move. This in turn wakes up several mobs of Mutons. And both times, they leave about 3 ~ 4 standing. Half of them with soiled pants and no way to get back to the safety of the Skyranger before the berserkers come in and finished them all off.

 

The second time though I was blessed to have two of my better assault troopers recovering in med-bay. So they were able to coach a bunch of rookies that are in turn now coaching the new batch of gifted psi troopers that I've started to screen (since none of them are gifted, sadly).

 

Oh, and I underestimated skeleton armour (that is to say, I never got to build any in the last 3 games). In some instances, that grappling hook can move you further than you can walk in one move bar. It's nice that they've made the armour more diverse and they're all quite effective (depending on the scenario).

 

- NKF

[Ki-tat Chung]

Back on my first play though (still haven't gotten around to my second yet, in the middle of an Apoc play though), I skipped the Carapace and went straight from the Skeleton and indeed found the grappling hook quite useful. Basically whenever there was higher ground and ledges, I would always check to see if it was more Action Point economical to grapple or to walk. By the way, you can grapple to same height and lower height ledges, not just to ledges above you. Which is useful if say, you want to grapple across a gap.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

I skipped the Carapace and went straight from the Skeleton

I wouldn't of skipped Carapace if I were you.

[Knan]

Three months into a classic ironman game, and I'm getting smacked. Lost six countries, and haven't managed a live capture yet; last mission I finally managed to stun a thin man - only for two mutons to show up at the end of the mission - when resources and available cover was pretty depleted - and wipe the floor with the whole squad. (The sacrificial rookie managed to nail one of them, but the other one retaliated and finished the job.)

 

I now have five soldiers total. But I'm not beat yet, you alien bastards!

[Hobbes]

My Memorial Wall of my current Classic Ironman:

3 Colonels

2 Captains

2 Sergeants

2 Corporals

3 Squaddies

0 Rookies (some squaddies were promoted after death)

 

I lost 2 Colonels on the same mission and almost lost a 3rd but managed to kill the remaining aliens before it bled to death. Right now I got 8 Colonels, just promoted one on the last mission.

[silencer_pl]

You can have 8 colonels and 0 of them are gifted - now they turn into a rubbish soldier

[Hobbes]

You can have 8 colonels and 0 of them are gifted - now they turn into a rubbish soldier

 

Just finished testing - 3 are gifted and 1 is a Support, which seems to be the best class to be the Volunteer.

[Knan]

As for satellites anywhere and everywhere... doesn't that lead to ufos detected with no available interceptors to handle them, which is also Bad ?

[silencer_pl]

I jump for joy if my assault is gifted. On my first playthrough my favorite assault was the first one that bear the gift and she had 99 Will at the end (she wasn't the Volunteer of course)

[Sorbicol]

As for satellites anywhere and everywhere... doesn't that lead to ufos detected with no available interceptors to handle them, which is also Bad ?

 

It's best to cover continent by continent, as interceptors will cover all countries in that continent. Of course that's sort of dependant on where the panic levels are worse

[Knan]

While we're on the subject of bad times... Managed to nail a terror site by the skin of my teeth with a sniper sergeant and a bunch of rookies; all the survivors are ranting in straitjackets in med bay. Then abduction missions show up, one day before the new crop of rookies arrives and obviously before any of the veterans are done hallucinating and drooling. Panic and hilarity ensues, since I have absolutely no soldiers available.

 

That was the last month of the XCOM project. (Nice losing movie, btw.)

[NKF]

As for satellites anywhere and everywhere... doesn't that lead to ufos detected with no available interceptors to handle them, which is also Bad™ ?

 

UFOs, thankfully do not show up as often as the abduction missions early on, which are the missions that take the most toll on you at first. So the less varied abduction missions you get, the more control you will have over the panic levels.

 

Of course, in addition to covering the continents with satellites, you should start adding at the very least one interceptor to each continent, and especially upgrade their weapons.

 

It's a costly and protracted exercise, but oh so worth it.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

That was the last month of the XCOM project. (Nice losing movie, btw.)

 

The movie kinda made me wonder if the aliens weren't controlling the bald Council dude the whole time...

[Pete]

What frustrate me about interceptors on each continent was that a UFO was flying over the USA and kept coming close to Mexico, but the game simply refuses to let my Mexican pilot fly over the border.

 

In the original of course it plays fair and gives you a chance to launch multiple interceptew to get the job done.

 

Bad times again, but my score at the end of the month was alright.

 

7 finding nations lost, but it does make cheering up the rest easier

[7h30n]

Fresh bad time:

 

I just finished the Assault on the Alien Base on Classic Ironman. It was in July and I was doing fine then suddenly a wild muton appeared out of thin air among my squad. Ofcourse it was a narrow hallway with most of my troops around each other and he used his magical yet insect based surprise to throw a grenade. It was Super Effective, taking out 3 of my men!

Later in the alien base the game managed to bug me even more and spawn a cyberdisc along with 2 drones in the middle of my squad yet again out of thin air. Luckily since it was a "proper spawn" this time, I didn't get shot and dealt with it quickly and easily. In the end I lost 1 more guy since both of my supports were dead beacuse of that muton and no one could heal

 

Curse you bloody bugs!

[Knan]

Had a Muton hiding behind destroyed ufo walls taking reaction shots at my team. Almost impossible to spot, as if the walls still were there.

 

I got my revenge, but then the XCOM project was shut down.

[Space Voyager]

I got the same mission Pete has shown in the OP... Started all kinds of projects, bought mostly everything available and still have 1500 waiting for more power. Times are good, aliens disagree.

[NKF]

Those wacky teleporting mobs - I don't know how many times a mob of heavy Floaters or Muton Elites suddenly materialise amongst my team and really mess them up. Had a rather funny one happen with a sectopod suddenly spawning on the very corner of the roof of the bridge of a supply ship. Was crawling around it when, pop, there's a sectopod on the roof. Since it didn't move much, it was double energy beams to the face for a few frantic turns.

 

I'm not too fond of the way the alien encounters are set up, there's almost no such thing as being able to stealthily sneak up on enemies while they are unaware, as they'll instantly strike a pose and then run for cover, followed by a much exciting repartee of gun shootage. Only on rare occasion will you see them at a strange angle or at the very edge of your vision without triggering them.

 

Personally, I think the aliens are cottoning onto you so easily because your soldiers are making a lot of noise as they advance shouting out motivational slogans like "On Overwatch!", "Eye-Firmative!" "Eyes Peeled Commander!" and other witticisms. It's like how you get the orange wavy thingy that indicates the aliens are chattering away nearby.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

Those wacky teleporting mobs - I don't know how many times a mob of heavy Floaters or Muton Elites suddenly materialise amongst my team and really mess them up. Had a rather funny one happen with a sectopod suddenly spawning on the very corner of the roof of the bridge of a supply ship. Was crawling around it when, pop, there's a sectopod on the roof. Since it didn't move much, it was double energy beams to the face for a few frantic turns.

 

Player's opinions seem to be divided on this but I personally like the random appearance/disappearance of aliens because of its randomness. Sometimes it can be frustrating when you've cornered the aliens to a room and find out that they zapped into another location (it has happened once) but it turns predictable firefights into tests of improvisation and quick thinking.

 

I'm not too fond of the way the alien encounters are set up, there's almost no such thing as being able to stealthily sneak up on enemies while they are unaware, as they'll instantly strike a pose and then run for cover, followed by a much exciting repartee of gun shootage. Only on rare occasion will you see them at a strange angle or at the very edge of your vision without triggering them.

 

Personally, I think the aliens are cottoning onto you so easily because your soldiers are making a lot of noise as they advance shouting out motivational slogans like "On Overwatch!", "Eye-Firmative!" "Eyes Peeled Commander!" and other witticisms. It's like how you get the orange wavy thingy that indicates the aliens are chattering away nearby.

 

- NKF

 

It's difficult but there's ways to avoid activating enemies while approaching them - that's another challenge I think. I also use the 'run for cover' mechanic to my advantage on a number of situations, by placing soldiers on Overwatch before activating the aliens to take a shot as they run for cover. One nice situation is when opening the UFO bridge door to wipe out the Outsider before it reaches cover.

[7h30n]

Pfft, I just had a "run for your life" moment. Never thought things could get this hard on tactical side. Started a terror mission at the end of August in Russia. Sent out a rookie to scout, spotted a spawn of Heavy Floaters. My sniper got to work and took out the first one. On alien turn 3 more spawns of floaters enter the area and get their free turn. One falls to overwatch the rest remain alive. I fire off a rocket at the civilian standing between 2 floaters and my assault runs to good position to take one out. Next turn, even more floaters come to fight. This time overwatch wasn't effective at all.

I said, eff it! Dashed all my guys into extraction zone and aborted the mission.

 

Russia immediately withdrew from the project!

 

Council report gave me an A rank, lol!

[JellyfishGreen]

Hi All! I got the game for my birthday Friday and stormed through the first 8 missions on Normal with only 1 KIA. Even he did not fall in vain, we got an Outsider crystal out of the same mission. That plus some interrogation got us the Alien base approximately March or April. We were still on conventional weapons but kicking butt and fielding a full squad of 6 soldiers, so I figured why not try the base mission.

 

Chrysalids, is why not.

 

OK, here come the first two. Panic, panic, no line of fire, oh wait, we can save our scout by hitting them with grenades.

The damn thing took two frag grenades point blank and is still standing. "Grenades do 5 damage." Chrysalids have 15HP. Between three team members, we take down one - ONE! of these things. This is rather a jump from Floaters, even. The surviving Chryssie attacks with claws and blades, and I know what happens next.

 

Luckily the Heavy guy they attack has our new carapace armor, even so, he survives with only 1 HP. Can he stun the thing at point blank? No, they must be immune to Arc Throwers, its not even an option. The full team response takes down the wounded alien. Rookie gets to our guy afterwards and applies medkit.

 

All right, what's next? We blow through four sectoids and get to an open area. Two thin men. Some robotic probe. We can do this.

 

A second wave of Chrysalids. Ok, they're at some distance; the wounded Heavy gets a rocket into the midst and hit two of them.

Rockets don't kill them?!

The third unzips the Rookie like a sleeping bag full of offal. But he gets back up. Go on there, Rookie! He lurches towards the Lieutenant, who finds himself literally shoulder to shoulder between this zombie and the sauntering Chrysalid, who hesitates. Maybe it doesn't like the Lieutenant's smell. He's had better days, but judicious use of Bullet Storm by the wounded Heavy and some careful point-blank Sniping saves the Lieutenant's bacon.

 

The 5 remaining soldiers cautiously advance. Its... a third wave of Chrysalids.

Despite our caution, and some sniper shots, we can only take down one and the other two slay our Assault "Spitfire" and zombify the wounded Heavy. NO! Yes. I don't know how we pulled it off exactly but we're left alive, with the Lieutenant badly wounded, and only the two snipers backing him up. It's time to abort... we can't abort.

 

OK, forward, squad wipe or glory for team, so... screw those "capture the commander" orders. Very very cautious, overwatch leapfrog, narrow corridor into what please god is the end of this chamber of horror. Both snipers overwatch as the Lieutenant tries sticking his neck out (one move) and pulling it back quick (second move).

He walks forward and sticks his neck out into the far room.

Two Chryssalids perk up, and get pantswettingly close.

He pulls back quick, and uses his second move to run back up the corridor for the slim protection of the snipers, run, run from the nightmares. The first chryssalid comes around the corner blind. It staggers from one sniper shot. The second goes straight for the Lieutenant and shreds his armor away. Down to one HP- and it's our turn.

Headshot. Headshot. LMG. That's the end of the fourth Chryssalid wave, thanks be to F*(&.

I save the game. Its 1 am. I don't know how it ends yet, but I need sleep. I need sleep like those soldiers needed that lucky break.

[Pete]

The aliens are similarly given away for their fondness of crisps (potato chips) as popcorn - their evil ways, usually seen in cinemas when they rustle a bag and munch loudly, are what gives them away on the battlefield too

[7h30n]

Oh shit! This is it, I'm embarking on the final mission!

Wish me luck! Hopefully there won't be many sectopods, because my first encounter with them was heart stopping!