Combat is indeed as shallow as in the demo, and the cover system is just as bonkers - think curving, space-time travelling bullets that go through walls. It's really just about going as slowly as possible overwatch to overwatch, killing every quicktime event pocket of aliens one by one, and making sure you don't send your flankers out too far as to trigger another alien pocket. What makes this problem even worse is the 'sound spotting' system which basically tells you where they are after a while. They basically stand still in the fog of war if you havn't 'encountered' them yet with the exception of crysallids for some reason. Encountering aliens also gives them essentially a free move turn so you don't want to be triggering multiple groups. Really feels like 'cheating' the system rather than beating it, especially on classic/impossible difficulty.
Its a shame, because the game overall is really quite fun with alot of potential replayability if you overlook the cover nonsense.
I'm having a lot of fun, and while I never got deep into the original I doubt Enemy Unknown has the kind of depth the originals had. When I played the original, which was only recently, it was like there was an economy and managing your money over multiple bases was critical to success. In UE, you only have one base and, while I was strapped for cash, I never felt pure desperation. I did play on 'Normal' which was surprisingly ease even with Ironman mode.
In regards to the actual battles, I share elodea's point of view. I really wish I played against a true AI controlling a team of aliens that responded to what I was doing/what I brought to the field. I found myself moving slowly on the maps, not for any tactical reason, but only so I triggered one pocket of enemies instead of two or three. Elodea is right when it felt like I was cheating the system rather than beating it.
Online is fun but there are a handful of things that, while potentially balanced, force you to play a style that isn't fun. For example, someone who stacks a lot of points in an alloy cannon, ghost armor assault class has 4 turns to be completely invisible. Once you identify their build, the counter is to dash around the map trying to avoid this person until he blows through his ghost armor. This creates super boring, super stupid gameplay. Seeing how most players aren't smart enough to counter ghost armor properly it's become the most popular load out on MP. Most of my MP games are me running in circles because of this.
That said, even with those gripes above, I still feel like this was one of my best purchases in years. When I lost the first solider I needed/cared about it really sucked. Then I lost another that was critical and I had to change my entire strategy. The gameplay can truly be thrilling and I thought I wouldn't form that 'attachment' to the troops everyone talks about. Well, I did, and I only really lost 2 or 3 that I cared about but each blow was heavy because I relied on them so much.
At first I thought I was clever noticing the above "abuse" of the alien spotted system but now it just feels cheap, and I won't change just to make it harder. Possible patch perhaps? This kind of thing sounds unintended in difficulties above normal. It's still really fun and tense. You certainly can't completely rely on the above function to be 100%. I've had a few enemies flanking in the fog of war even before spotted.
Anyone that get like, 70% of all new recruits are put as heavies? I have like 9 heavies, 3 snipers, 2 supports and 3 assaults. It's annoying because I find heavies the crappiest class due to their otherwise good rocketlauncher destroys tech so u can't salvage it and it can misfire and blow other xcoms up.
<!--quoteo(post=1990935:date=Oct 13 2012, 02:22 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Svenpa @ Oct 13 2012, 02:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990935"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Anyone that get like, 70% of all new recruits are put as heavies? I have like 9 heavies, 3 snipers, 2 supports and 3 assaults. It's annoying because I find heavies the crappiest class due to their otherwise good rocketlauncher destroys tech so u can't salvage it and it can misfire and blow other xcoms up.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No, I constantly got assaults. In my game I literally only got 1 support through the recruitment system. When I lost my support I got screwed. About 10 missions later I was able to get a reward of a Major rank support.
* Gameplay: Very good Combat UI is very minimalistic compared to the old XCOM UI, really point and click with hotkeys even. No list of marines, no inventory viewing, plenty of space for the action. Takes getting used to but once that's done it's very nice. To change in height, scroll, careful where you click, soldier might end up in between ETs. <b>Combat</b> Point of view in combat is isometric, like in old XCOM. All the combat camera moving did nearly make me motion sick at first, it's nice and flashy but is it really needed? <strike>Would like an option to turn it off.</strike> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/U6COv.jpg" target="_blank">There is such an option! --thanks TychoChelchuu! </a> Throwing grenades or shooting can make the camera move around too quickly, making it difficult. Some odd bugs when you shoot a rocket in between a squad of say Floaters and they go flying, if they go through the ground the camera follows, you have to wait until that finishes before you can get back to your marines. Also, you cannot escape to the menu when the aliens are busy, at all, somewhat frustrating when you see your marines exploding into bits, having to go through the mission failure screen, the skyranger flying back, landing, some more screens, THEN you can hit the load game option. Deal with it? Yes, I guess so. It is XCOM!
<b>Base management</b> Not as in depth as ye olde XCOM but fun, some differences: You get to view each room in action! Folks researching in labs, manufacturing in workshops, in the gym in barracks, etc. Time changing has been changed to "Scan for activity", after you hit the button the world will spin and time will go, grab on to something, slightly motion sickness activating. You cannot freely put a base anywhere you want but are restricted to some countries in some continents, no Antarctica base or so. Each region gives certain advantages, getting scientist or engineers and bonuses to air/land/research/manufacturing/interrogating. Important difference: you cannot hire scientists or engineers, you can only get them per month or by doing missions! No in depth item management, you cannot for example manufacture items and sell these freely, you will have to wait until a country requests. Most of the items however can be used for research or even manufacturing, wait before you sell!
Verdict: It is consolified but still a lot of fun.
Some tips for beginners: Build plenty of satellites and uplink stations or you will not be able to help out countries and will get behind on money and support. Armor and weapons weapons are important, you can only do so much with human weaponry. The "Officer Training Room" is I'd say one of the better rooms you get to build, it allows increase squad size above 4 and other very convenient upgrades! Mix up your squad, get one of each type. Even small UFOs can have big bad aliens, easy on the sending out rookies. When you pick marines, select (amongst other things) on will, panicking marines are terrible to work with, they end up upsetting each other and causing a massacre.
To disable the intro movies: 1) Go to: %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Config\ 2) Open the file: XComEngine.ini 3) Search for: StartupMovies 4) Remove the + signs in front of the StartupMovies lines. 5) save file and start game
edit:typos, intro skip edit2: camera movement can be disabled (Show action cam and Enabled third-person cam in Gameplay tab) edit3: typos
"Even small UFOs can have big bad aliens, easy on the sending out rookies."
They tricked me on this. They even go out of their way to say "consider taking more rookies when going after a small ufo". Boy was I surprised when said ufo had destructordiscs, mind controllers and several thinmen. Luckily only the rookie sniper was mindcontrolled and he tried to shoot the guy next to him, miss miss.
I accidentally deleted TychoChelchuu 's post where he pointed out that you <i>can</i> disable ingame camera movement: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/U6COv.jpg" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/U6COv.jpg</a>
Sorry Tycho.
Edit: pointed, not posted, I should get more sleep.
I think one thing they missed out on is when they do the action cameras they don't invert the camera when it's being done to <i>you</i>! Would make a massive difference in terms of how ######-scared you get.
I just finished it on normal difficulty ironman on the first try. Took me 18 IRL hours and 218 ingame days. Mighty fine game. There's some slightly non-obvious stuff they need to fix; it's not clear what you need to do to trigger the end mission, and the whole workshop/engineer count thing was a bit confusing.
I lost two alloy SHIVs during the course of the game. From that point on I couldn't put a SHIV on my squad. It would show up in the soldier list but would "bzdoo" when I tried to select it. Apparently I'm <a href="http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?152651-S-H-I-V-Unable-to-Deploy" target="_blank">not the only one</a> experiencing this bug.
<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120239-XCOM-Players-Discover-Bonus-Campaign-Mode" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/...s-Campaign-Mode</a> <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[...]some observant players have found a slew of difficulty tweaks tucked away in the game's files. [...]Here are the details on Second Wave's arsenal of modifiers:
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 Red Fog (Bugged): 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 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<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Was kinda hoping for options to remove some existing features as well (like alien reinforcements)...
The original Xcom was the first game i ever played, when i was about 10, and is the reason I got into gaming. Anyway i love this game except for when this happens
lost 3 of my best soldiers in one mission when i came up against a UFO that took up half the map. Got rushed by 6 mutons, a cyberdisk, 2 aliens commanders and 3 crysalids. I nearly cried. I'd had two of them since the start off the game, though i managed to finish the mission with my Colonel after the other 2 in my team were knocked unconscious. Took me ages and had to pee a few times.
I also like to sacrifice rookies for scouting.......
the difficulty from 'normal' to 'classic' is insane. In normal, in which I basically forced myself to play ironman (only reloaded twice, each time because of a bug that prevented me from going further in a mission), I had a sniper with 130-some kills. In classic, I can't get past the early game.
The shotting through walls stuff that lots of people have posted about is just lazy/complicated animations. This is more obvious when you learn to use 'hunker down'. Hunker down means your guys lose their line of sight, which effectively means they're no longer poking their head around corners. So if they're not looking around corners, you can't shoot them as easily - makes a lot of sense. The animations don't back that concept up well enough, and the default option of looking around and obfuscation of 'hunker down' also makes it less obvious. All of this can be blamed on consoles.
What bugged me the most was the lack of voice customisations. My multinational crew all speaks 7 tones of American. And they didn't even bother to cover a variety of American dialects.
Edit: good one, the forums. Thanks for going offline right after I accidentally submit an incomplete post...
Anyway yeah, the character customisations sucked. Voice first, then faces and hairstyles - there's one eccentric hairdo, 8 really short/military hairstyles and a balled option. Why even bother? Then the colour palette for armour was like the windows logo - lots of really bright colours with high contrast - perfect for military operations! All this stuff ruined the cinematic effect for takedown animations because it was so immersion breaking...
Next, the combat is so binary. You don't gradually lose health due to bad tactical decisions. You just flip a (heavily loaded) coin to see if your guy took enough damage to get killed. At best my guys had around 25 health and they would frequently take 10 damage from a shot and I've seen as high as 16. New soldiers start with 4 hp, so your options are a) run them through a meat grinder and see who survives or b) become a save-jockey. I would much rather be rewarded for good tactical play, taking a bit of damage here and there, maybe my guys spend a few days in the hospital but this system is designed to ensure soldiers are killed just to make you go "oh no that was so bad i lost all my good guys". It's really shallow.
I had a bit of fun but this kind of game could be awesome with maybe 20-40% more effort on the developer's behalf. I give it 6/10
<!--quoteo(post=1998300:date=Oct 27 2012, 02:06 AM:name=Khyron)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Khyron @ Oct 27 2012, 02:06 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1998300"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Next, the combat is so binary. You don't gradually lose health due to bad tactical decisions. You just flip a (heavily loaded) coin to see if your guy took enough damage to get killed. At best my guys had around 25 health and they would frequently take 10 damage from a shot and I've seen as high as 16. New soldiers start with 4 hp, so your options are a) run them through a meat grinder and see who survives or b) become a save-jockey. I would much rather be rewarded for good tactical play, taking a bit of damage here and there, maybe my guys spend a few days in the hospital but this system is designed to ensure soldiers are killed just to make you go "oh no that was so bad i lost all my good guys". It's really shallow.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Can you explain how "binary" combat is "shallow?" If someone dies in two shots rather than ending up in the hospital, what's wrong with that? It sounds like you're just annoyed that your people are dying, because you want to play a game where none of your soldiers ever die, they just get roughed up a bit and sit around in a bed and come back to life and they're OK and everyone is happy! That would fit really well with the bright armor colors you don't seem to like very much.
<!--quoteo(post=1998511:date=Oct 28 2012, 02:40 AM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TychoCelchuuu @ Oct 28 2012, 02:40 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1998511"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Can you explain how "binary" combat is "shallow?" If someone dies in two shots rather than ending up in the hospital, what's wrong with that? It sounds like you're just annoyed that your people are dying, because you want to play a game where none of your soldiers ever die, they just get roughed up a bit and sit around in a bed and come back to life and they're OK and everyone is happy! That would fit really well with the bright armor colors you don't seem to like very much.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Khyron is talking about the horrible implementation of RNG in this game. Soldiers are lost because of rng and accidently triggering quicktime alien event groups more so than because of bad decision making. Essentially, there is no 'skill index' and the mechanics seem geared around 'fixing' a certain intended immersive experience (your soldiers will die) i agree with him.
It's quite clear why hospital is infinitely better than dying due to the way the soldier progression system has been designed. The flaw is pretty evident when you've tried your hand at beating impossible ironman. Beating it essentially centers around whether or not you perform perfectly in the first 3 mission, which with rookies is entirely rng based (another binary system). If you do well, impossible ends up being just as hard as classic. If you don't, you might as well restart because there's no point wasting anymore time (you'll never recover if you don't get 4 satellites and ranked soldiers).
With all that said, sorry khyron for the recommendation, i really did think it was the best buy since ns2 (i guess that says more about the games industry).
<!--quoteo(post=1998663:date=Oct 27 2012, 03:43 PM:name=elodea)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (elodea @ Oct 27 2012, 03:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1998663"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Khyron is talking about the horrible implementation of RNG in this game. Soldiers are lost because of rng and accidently triggering quicktime alien event groups more so than because of bad decision making. Essentially, there is no 'skill index' and the mechanics seem geared around 'fixing' a certain intended immersive experience (your soldiers will die) i agree with him.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> That makes a lot of sense, thanks. I haven't played the new one beside the demo but those sound like criticisms I would probably agree with. The original X-COM killed your soldiers in one or two shots all the time, but it wasn't set up specifically to make that sort of thing happen. It was just an organic outcome of having no armor in the beginning and fighting against powerful alien weapons. You could level the playing field by getting your own armor and powerful weapons that would allow you to kill the aliens quickly too. When you died, it was because you started off behind the aliens, with less technology, or because you made some bad choices.
For what it's worth, I completely understand the depth and attachment you're supposed to develop with your soldiers and the game is trying to give you an emotional high & low by killing them off. So with the higher difficulties, the AI doesn't play better it just hits harder and more often. So whether you take more cover or play more cautiously doesnt matter, you just need to bring more medics because you will get hit. Unfortunately medics spending time healing instead of shooting creates its own problems.
Perma-death makes for a more compelling experience, I'm completely for it. eg. if you lost a 'few good men' on some particularly tough mission. Instead what happens is you play ridiculously cautiously (especially at the higher difficulty levels) and you will still lose one or more soldiers on every mission. And your tactics and strategy have little to no influence on that outcome.
The 'binary' combat I'm talking about is you either take a hit or you don't, and when you do take a hit it is MASSIVE in proportion to your total health. There are no glancing shots.
Btw, elodea, I didn't buy the game on your recommendation so don't worry! I had about as much fun with XCOM as I have with any other recent game - I think I'm just getting old and cynical. I kind of see games like this and get hung up on just how amazing it could have been if a few key parts had more effort and polish.. :(
<!--quoteo(post=1998864:date=Oct 28 2012, 01:24 AM:name=Khyron)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Khyron @ Oct 28 2012, 01:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1998864"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So whether you take more cover or play more cautiously doesnt matter, you just need to bring more medics because you will get hit. Unfortunately medics spending time healing instead of shooting creates its own problems.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I felt this way too. Maybe it's part of the lazy animations you were talking about earlier but when I first heard of X-Com I just assumed full cover meant you couldn't be shot at unless flanked in some way. It would be nice if cover provided some kind of advantage more than just a hidden number slightly being adjusted to your favor. I found I had more success just playing a straight push-the-line forward type of style, testing my luck with 45% chance shots, and hoping for the best rather than moving guys, flanking, etc.
I think it would be very cool if the game was much more extreme and predictable in it's rules. For example, if you were behind full cover the chance to by hit by projectiles would be extremely low, until you're flanked or your cover is destroyed. Conversely, flanking someone or finding someone in the open would have a extremely high chance to hit. This change would really encourage positioning, flanking, and actual strategy.
On the plus side, Khyron, there's still hope if you're not enjoying the game. I'm betting these feelings aren't exclusive to us and there are already <a href="http://xcom.nexusmods.com/" target="_blank">numerous player made 'balance mods'</a> out there. I haven't looked into them yet but I plan to.
/edit:
like this mod: <a href="http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/?tab=3&navtag=%2Fajax%2Fmodimages%2F%3Fuser%3D0%26id%3D18" target="_blank">http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/?tab=3&a...r%3D0%26id%3D18</a>
here's a helpful list of combat modifiers: <a href="http://www.xcombat.net/xcom-enemy-unknown/xcom-tactics/combat-math/" target="_blank">http://www.xcombat.net/xcom-enemy-unknown/...cs/combat-math/</a>
I think I miss the "sim" aspect of the original. Counting TUs wasn't fun as such, but the system allowed such great flexibility and detail, especially inventory management felt more like a real strike force being prepared for everything with the smoke grenades, electroflares, etc while still being limited in their use.
Also simulated projectile flight paths, aliens having different roles just like your dudes even within the same species ("Interrogate Floater Medic"), having to manufacture ammo for plasma weapons using precious elerium, much the same for fuel of high-tier XCOM craft...
...It's a very streamlined game, and maybe that's the problem.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Major Fixes • Abductor roof visibility problems resolved • Interception game hang issues resolved If two interceptors are sent after UFO If Skyranger is returning from combat after an Interceptor was already deployed • SHIV inaccessible issues resolved • AI Alien Activity Hang resolution • Multiplayer connectivity optimization
Other Fixes • TempleShip optimization: All Soldiers properly spawn when restarting the mission after clearing the second room of TempleShip • Snapshot penalty should no longer apply when Overwatching without first moving. • Easy Difficulty is now easier.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yay! SHIV fix!
Has anyone tried the multiplayer? It's surprisingly effective.
Comments
Its a shame, because the game overall is really quite fun with alot of potential replayability if you overlook the cover nonsense.
In regards to the actual battles, I share elodea's point of view. I really wish I played against a true AI controlling a team of aliens that responded to what I was doing/what I brought to the field. I found myself moving slowly on the maps, not for any tactical reason, but only so I triggered one pocket of enemies instead of two or three. Elodea is right when it felt like I was cheating the system rather than beating it.
Online is fun but there are a handful of things that, while potentially balanced, force you to play a style that isn't fun. For example, someone who stacks a lot of points in an alloy cannon, ghost armor assault class has 4 turns to be completely invisible. Once you identify their build, the counter is to dash around the map trying to avoid this person until he blows through his ghost armor. This creates super boring, super stupid gameplay. Seeing how most players aren't smart enough to counter ghost armor properly it's become the most popular load out on MP. Most of my MP games are me running in circles because of this.
That said, even with those gripes above, I still feel like this was one of my best purchases in years. When I lost the first solider I needed/cared about it really sucked. Then I lost another that was critical and I had to change my entire strategy. The gameplay can truly be thrilling and I thought I wouldn't form that 'attachment' to the troops everyone talks about. Well, I did, and I only really lost 2 or 3 that I cared about but each blow was heavy because I relied on them so much.
Anyone that get like, 70% of all new recruits are put as heavies? I have like 9 heavies, 3 snipers, 2 supports and 3 assaults. It's annoying because I find heavies the crappiest class due to their otherwise good rocketlauncher destroys tech so u can't salvage it and it can misfire and blow other xcoms up.
No, I constantly got assaults. In my game I literally only got 1 support through the recruitment system. When I lost my support I got screwed. About 10 missions later I was able to get a reward of a Major rank support.
Mini review:
* Audio: Excellent, music done by same guy as in Deus EX: HR! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9LV9NiPVFU&feature=BFa&list=PLydXsA6zXiiuEYPRU4RBWJl4d1xtIi2JL" target="_blank">XCOM Demo OST on Youtube</a>
sounds are very good, different marine voices, aliens sound like you'd expect them to, very distinct, weapons fire is as expected.
* Visuals: Good, perhaps a bit too cartoony to my tastes, not grim/gritty enough for the XCOM theme?
if you pre-ordered you can give the marines different armor appearances and coloring, you could make the rookies red for example.
Lots of gameplay movies, most of good quality some rather cartoony and cliché. (scientist firing laser rifle for example)
* Gameplay: Very good
Combat UI is very minimalistic compared to the old XCOM UI, really point and click with hotkeys even.
No list of marines, no inventory viewing, plenty of space for the action.
Takes getting used to but once that's done it's very nice.
To change in height, scroll, careful where you click, soldier might end up in between ETs.
<b>Combat</b>
Point of view in combat is isometric, like in old XCOM.
All the combat camera moving did nearly make me motion sick at first, it's nice and flashy but is it really needed? <strike>Would like an option to turn it off.</strike> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/U6COv.jpg" target="_blank">There is such an option! --thanks TychoChelchuu! </a>
Throwing grenades or shooting can make the camera move around too quickly, making it difficult.
Some odd bugs when you shoot a rocket in between a squad of say Floaters and they go flying, if they go through the ground the camera follows, you have to wait until that finishes before you can get back to your marines.
Also, you cannot escape to the menu when the aliens are busy, at all, somewhat frustrating when you see your marines exploding into bits, having to go through the mission failure screen, the skyranger flying back, landing, some more screens, THEN you can hit the load game option.
Deal with it? Yes, I guess so. It is XCOM!
<b>Base management</b>
Not as in depth as ye olde XCOM but fun, some differences:
You get to view each room in action! Folks researching in labs, manufacturing in workshops, in the gym in barracks, etc.
Time changing has been changed to "Scan for activity", after you hit the button the world will spin and time will go, grab on to something, slightly motion sickness activating.
You cannot freely put a base anywhere you want but are restricted to some countries in some continents, no Antarctica base or so.
Each region gives certain advantages, getting scientist or engineers and bonuses to air/land/research/manufacturing/interrogating.
Important difference: you cannot hire scientists or engineers, you can only get them per month or by doing missions!
No in depth item management, you cannot for example manufacture items and sell these freely, you will have to wait until a country requests.
Most of the items however can be used for research or even manufacturing, wait before you sell!
Verdict: It is consolified but still a lot of fun.
Some tips for beginners:
Build plenty of satellites and uplink stations or you will not be able to help out countries and will get behind on money and support.
Armor and weapons weapons are important, you can only do so much with human weaponry.
The "Officer Training Room" is I'd say one of the better rooms you get to build, it allows increase squad size above 4 and other very convenient upgrades!
Mix up your squad, get one of each type.
Even small UFOs can have big bad aliens, easy on the sending out rookies.
When you pick marines, select (amongst other things) on will, panicking marines are terrible to work with, they end up upsetting each other and causing a massacre.
To disable the intro movies:
1) Go to: %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Config\
2) Open the file: XComEngine.ini
3) Search for: StartupMovies
4) Remove the + signs in front of the StartupMovies lines.
5) save file and start game
edit:typos, intro skip
edit2: camera movement can be disabled (Show action cam and Enabled third-person cam in Gameplay tab)
edit3: typos
They tricked me on this. They even go out of their way to say "consider taking more rookies when going after a small ufo". Boy was I surprised when said ufo had destructordiscs, mind controllers and several thinmen. Luckily only the rookie sniper was mindcontrolled and he tried to shoot the guy next to him, miss miss.
Sorry Tycho.
Edit: pointed, not posted, I should get more sleep.
I lost two alloy SHIVs during the course of the game. From that point on I couldn't put a SHIV on my squad. It would show up in the soldier list but would "bzdoo" when I tried to select it. Apparently I'm <a href="http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?152651-S-H-I-V-Unable-to-Deploy" target="_blank">not the only one</a> experiencing this bug.
All in all: awesome game.
--Scythe--
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[...]some observant players have found a slew of difficulty tweaks tucked away in the game's files.
[...]Here are the details on Second Wave's arsenal of modifiers:
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
Red Fog (Bugged): 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
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<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Was kinda hoping for options to remove some existing features as well (like alien reinforcements)...
Was kinda hoping for options to remove some existing features as well (like alien reinforcements)...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Keep an eye out on <a href="http://xcom.nexusmods.com" target="_blank">http://xcom.nexusmods.com</a>
There is already like, 6 balance mods that more or less incorporate the stuff you mentioned.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v187/Mr.JEBURTO/2012-10-22_00001.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
lost 3 of my best soldiers in one mission when i came up against a UFO that took up half the map. Got rushed by 6 mutons, a cyberdisk, 2 aliens commanders and 3 crysalids. I nearly cried. I'd had two of them since the start off the game, though i managed to finish the mission with my Colonel after the other 2 in my team were knocked unconscious. Took me ages and had to pee a few times.
I also like to sacrifice rookies for scouting.......
What bugged me the most was the lack of voice customisations. My multinational crew all speaks 7 tones of American. And they didn't even bother to cover a variety of American dialects.
Edit: good one, the forums. Thanks for going offline right after I accidentally submit an incomplete post...
Anyway yeah, the character customisations sucked. Voice first, then faces and hairstyles - there's one eccentric hairdo, 8 really short/military hairstyles and a balled option. Why even bother? Then the colour palette for armour was like the windows logo - lots of really bright colours with high contrast - perfect for military operations! All this stuff ruined the cinematic effect for takedown animations because it was so immersion breaking...
Next, the combat is so binary. You don't gradually lose health due to bad tactical decisions. You just flip a (heavily loaded) coin to see if your guy took enough damage to get killed. At best my guys had around 25 health and they would frequently take 10 damage from a shot and I've seen as high as 16. New soldiers start with 4 hp, so your options are a) run them through a meat grinder and see who survives or b) become a save-jockey. I would much rather be rewarded for good tactical play, taking a bit of damage here and there, maybe my guys spend a few days in the hospital but this system is designed to ensure soldiers are killed just to make you go "oh no that was so bad i lost all my good guys". It's really shallow.
I had a bit of fun but this kind of game could be awesome with maybe 20-40% more effort on the developer's behalf. I give it 6/10
Can you explain how "binary" combat is "shallow?" If someone dies in two shots rather than ending up in the hospital, what's wrong with that? It sounds like you're just annoyed that your people are dying, because you want to play a game where none of your soldiers ever die, they just get roughed up a bit and sit around in a bed and come back to life and they're OK and everyone is happy! That would fit really well with the bright armor colors you don't seem to like very much.
Khyron is talking about the horrible implementation of RNG in this game. Soldiers are lost because of rng and accidently triggering quicktime alien event groups more so than because of bad decision making. Essentially, there is no 'skill index' and the mechanics seem geared around 'fixing' a certain intended immersive experience (your soldiers will die) i agree with him.
It's quite clear why hospital is infinitely better than dying due to the way the soldier progression system has been designed. The flaw is pretty evident when you've tried your hand at beating impossible ironman. Beating it essentially centers around whether or not you perform perfectly in the first 3 mission, which with rookies is entirely rng based (another binary system). If you do well, impossible ends up being just as hard as classic. If you don't, you might as well restart because there's no point wasting anymore time (you'll never recover if you don't get 4 satellites and ranked soldiers).
With all that said, sorry khyron for the recommendation, i really did think it was the best buy since ns2 (i guess that says more about the games industry).
That makes a lot of sense, thanks. I haven't played the new one beside the demo but those sound like criticisms I would probably agree with. The original X-COM killed your soldiers in one or two shots all the time, but it wasn't set up specifically to make that sort of thing happen. It was just an organic outcome of having no armor in the beginning and fighting against powerful alien weapons. You could level the playing field by getting your own armor and powerful weapons that would allow you to kill the aliens quickly too. When you died, it was because you started off behind the aliens, with less technology, or because you made some bad choices.
I have GTX670 SLI, 2500K @ 4.5GHZ, 8GB RAM, Windows 7 64-bit, and 128GB SSD.
For what it's worth, I completely understand the depth and attachment you're supposed to develop with your soldiers and the game is trying to give you an emotional high & low by killing them off. So with the higher difficulties, the AI doesn't play better it just hits harder and more often. So whether you take more cover or play more cautiously doesnt matter, you just need to bring more medics because you will get hit. Unfortunately medics spending time healing instead of shooting creates its own problems.
Perma-death makes for a more compelling experience, I'm completely for it. eg. if you lost a 'few good men' on some particularly tough mission. Instead what happens is you play ridiculously cautiously (especially at the higher difficulty levels) and you will still lose one or more soldiers on every mission. And your tactics and strategy have little to no influence on that outcome.
The 'binary' combat I'm talking about is you either take a hit or you don't, and when you do take a hit it is MASSIVE in proportion to your total health. There are no glancing shots.
Btw, elodea, I didn't buy the game on your recommendation so don't worry! I had about as much fun with XCOM as I have with any other recent game - I think I'm just getting old and cynical. I kind of see games like this and get hung up on just how amazing it could have been if a few key parts had more effort and polish.. :(
I felt this way too. Maybe it's part of the lazy animations you were talking about earlier but when I first heard of X-Com I just assumed full cover meant you couldn't be shot at unless flanked in some way. It would be nice if cover provided some kind of advantage more than just a hidden number slightly being adjusted to your favor. I found I had more success just playing a straight push-the-line forward type of style, testing my luck with 45% chance shots, and hoping for the best rather than moving guys, flanking, etc.
I think it would be very cool if the game was much more extreme and predictable in it's rules. For example, if you were behind full cover the chance to by hit by projectiles would be extremely low, until you're flanked or your cover is destroyed. Conversely, flanking someone or finding someone in the open would have a extremely high chance to hit. This change would really encourage positioning, flanking, and actual strategy.
On the plus side, Khyron, there's still hope if you're not enjoying the game. I'm betting these feelings aren't exclusive to us and there are already <a href="http://xcom.nexusmods.com/" target="_blank">numerous player made 'balance mods'</a> out there. I haven't looked into them yet but I plan to.
/edit:
like this mod: <a href="http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/?tab=3&navtag=%2Fajax%2Fmodimages%2F%3Fuser%3D0%26id%3D18" target="_blank">http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/?tab=3&a...r%3D0%26id%3D18</a>
here's a helpful list of combat modifiers: <a href="http://www.xcombat.net/xcom-enemy-unknown/xcom-tactics/combat-math/" target="_blank">http://www.xcombat.net/xcom-enemy-unknown/...cs/combat-math/</a>
Also simulated projectile flight paths, aliens having different roles just like your dudes even within the same species ("Interrogate Floater Medic"), having to manufacture ammo for plasma weapons using precious elerium, much the same for fuel of high-tier XCOM craft...
...It's a very streamlined game, and maybe that's the problem.
• Abductor roof visibility problems resolved
• Interception game hang issues resolved
If two interceptors are sent after UFO
If Skyranger is returning from combat after an Interceptor was already deployed
• SHIV inaccessible issues resolved
• AI Alien Activity Hang resolution
• Multiplayer connectivity optimization
Other Fixes
• TempleShip optimization: All Soldiers properly spawn when restarting the mission after clearing the second room of TempleShip
• Snapshot penalty should no longer apply when Overwatching without first moving.
• Easy Difficulty is now easier.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yay! SHIV fix!
Has anyone tried the multiplayer? It's surprisingly effective.
--Scythe--