Line of sight is almost always blocked by objects that provide full cover. If an alien isn't in a spot where an adjacent square is out in the open or only covered partially, then you might not have line of sight to it after you move. The times when it doesn't make sense isn't enough to introduce such a balance-shitting idea.
That's definitely a bug, Monkey. I wonder if the game calculates one final ending month for panic and country withdrawals, even if you're not at the end of the month when you finish? Either way, that second cinematic you got is indeed a losing cinematic and shouldn't have played... but it's cooler than the winning cinematic anyways so congratulations on seeing it.
Congrats on the victory, MonkeyPunky! I just wrapped up my own Classic Ironman game and it is a GREAT feeling.
Suggestion: It would be cool if I could buy the consumable enemy component drops for an exorbitant fee on the Gray Market. Hell - maybe I can later, but right now I'm trying to clean up my plate before I do my first base insertion and it turns out that I need a lot more of those than I actually have. Specifically, I need a lot of weapon fragments, which seems weird, because I would think you would need a bunch of alloy to make a new ship and not a bunch of weapon parts, but there you go. The game itself seems to be content to stay in a holding pattern while I do all this nonsense, since all I've gotten in a month since I opened that plot mission was one abduction, one disposal, and a couple of shoot-down follow-ups, though, and my current regular ass planes are not having a hard time shooting down anything with plasma cannons strapped to them, so I figure I'm probably good to go on without finishing up quite all of the research opportunities before I jump into the next story point. Also, I'm not sure but I think that either the Close Combat Specialist talent is written incompatibly with my brain or it doesn't work quite as advertised. My dudes will only take their reaction shots when an opponent starts moving that close to them. At least, I think that's it. Because I was raiding a ship and a Berserker came barreling up out of the wreckage at my dude (stopping right next to him to flex menacingly before presumably breaking Lopez in half over his knee on the next turn) and he didn't do anything, but then when I had my snipers start coaxing him away he turned around and took his reaction shot for that. I could swear that the first time I ran into a Berserker, though, he fired his scattergun at a distance, hit the guy, dude came running forward, and then he shot him again with a reaction and killed him, because I was trying to taze the guy and I remember being slightly annoyed with myself for having forgotten that my dude with the cattle prod had that ability.
So has anyone seen sales numbers for this yet? I'm wondering if we're going to be looking forward to a remake of Terror from the deep... or if we're going to be subjected to the X-com they announced a few years ago that had nothing to do with the original Xcom (other then the name)
Wait... what's on track for next year? Terror from the Deep? or X-com-in-name-only? (Keep in mind I'm at work where I can't even get to Gamestop.com yet alone any gameing news sites)
You can always hope for an expansion to XCOM - which is probably likely given Friaxis' history. I doubt it will be TFTD, but may incoporate some of those ideas.
The XCOM-in-name-only game looked horrible when it was the only XCOM game on the horizon. With Firaxis rebooting the original and doing it in a rather impressive fashion I find that I no longer mind XCOM going FPS. Those of us who loved XCOM all these years weren't abandoned and now the FPS can come out without that shadow of what-ifs hanging over it.
I always thought the XCOM FPS looked good. It has a really cool aesthetic and it's made by the Bioshock 2 team. If I had to pick one, I'd take the Firaxis game of course, but I'm happy both will (probably) be coming out.
I'll just recycle this joke from my Steam recommendation of Xcom: Set an aquarium in front of your monitor while playing for a preview of the Terror from the Deep remake that Firaxis will release in 2014.
Jesus. Does that base get harder if you leave it alone for awhile? Because that was not easy. That was three Sectopods. Two at once. I also assume that you can't nab the guy at the end on account of his autopsy is now a green thing for me to do, but I'm unsure how I intend to get one of those things alive for interview. I know what that Sniper skill that turns off a target's weapon is good for now, though.
Oh yeah... when I did the base, The worst thing was 3 Chrysilids. Other then them it was all Thin Men and Sectoids (and the 1 Sectoid commander)
I should hope something is going on. I just shot down the special spaceship that has fusion cores and it had basically the same number and type of enemies as in the base. That's getting kind of hard. And the supply ship that landed somewhere also had three Sectopods in it. And a funny bug. You know what's better than Thin Mints teleporting in like they're supposed to during an evac mission? Two entire Sectopods and a Muton teleporting into the middle of your squad when you're just standing around. I'm guessing that was a bug anyway. Maybe they jumped down from the roof. On the plus side, I did figure it out. If I'm really pressed, I can drop two Sectopods in a single turn with some luck (since the Snipers each get two shots apiece when I'm rolling with my big dudes and my Assault guys can whip two shots out with an aim penalty, and that aim penalty mostly doesn't matter when you're running up to get a 100% shot in the open, and my Heavies get two shots when they don't move). It's not much fun, though. Is there a thing that I get at some point that lets me get unit descriptions of these things? Because I still haven't figured out Sectopods. I think they get three actions in a turn with at least two different types required, because I've had one walk and shoot his booby cannons twice, and I've had one walk twice and shoot once, and I've had one walk, shoot once, and prep missiles, and I've had one shoot his booby cannons twice and prep missiles, and I've had one walk, shoot once, and then apparently put himself in Overwatch because a green gun shot my dude in the back when I tried to run away after my cover got exploded, but I'm still just guessing at this point. Also, is it weird that I kind of really wish I could build tanks and shit and have fights in those? Just because that would be another cool thing to do with the game. It's not like the game is missing anything, but that seems to me like it would be a whole lot of fun. That's probably heresy, though.
Yes. The game definitely balances its aliens around your tech level. Your power curve still skyrockets at some point (like it did in the original), but if you hit that base in between tech levels you may start getting things you're not equipped to deal with. I think the first time I went in was with all Laser gear and I was hitting several Mutons and Chryssalids. Spoiler for handling Sectopods, if you really want to know:
I think I'm probably equipped to deal with them alright. I haven't lost dudes yet, anyway (though I will admit that for my first run through I am cheating all over the place and saving in mid-fight so that I can learn), and I recently invented some powered armor that lets me live through one round of lasers if I'm not really unlucky. Whoever on the Bombcast said that plasma and laser weaponry were interchangeable was completely drunk, though. Plasma does objectively greater damage so far as I can tell. As for Sectopods:
I'm still stumbling through my first, normal, game. I'm perpetually low on funds, can't get all of my soldiers equipped like I'd like, and can't afford new satellites. Other than that it's going smoothly. I'll admit that I've reloaded a couple of times to stop my highest-ranking soldier from dying. Hey, I'm still learning. Next game is going to be Ironman, so I figure I can ease off a little bit this time. Especially since I'm having a hard enough time as it is. I just ran into my first Sectopod and, luckily, I was in a position to bring it down without any real trouble. I doubt that will carry over to the next one. When I had to go to bed last night I was in the process of getting hammered by my first Muton Elites. Those suckers hit a lot harder than their non-elite cousins. How many soldiers do you guys keep in the barracks? I have about 20 right now, including one SHIV. Is there any point to having more than that? I figure that's two full backup squads if one gets totally wiped or people are out with injuries. Also, is there anything to be done about a soldier with low willpower? My most experience sniper has a pitifully low willpower (mid-30s), and seems to panic on just about every mission. I'm about ready to just get him killed and train up his replacement, since he's becoming a bit of a liability (although he did panic-kill a berserker last night, so I guess that's something?).
aaron are you selling things through the Grey Market? My friend had a really rough time and didn't realize he could sell stuff. It's definitely part of the balance of the game.
I have about as many as you (maybe a couple fewer) and a recent development that requires me to take up to three of my dudes out of action for ten days at a time has me wishing that I had maybe a few more people, or a better spread of them anyway (the game has only given me one Heavy from the random set, and I managed to get a second from an abduction mission, but that's it). That's a one-time thing for each soldier, though, so I'm not sure if there would be any actual advantage to staffing up. For money, I have more than I can spend right now, but my basic strategy was to turtle. I try not to do the current objective until I've exhausted most or all of my other research and engineering opportunities. You might check your inventory for (Damaged) UFO parts. Anything with that descriptor basically exists only to be sold on the Grey Market and they'll turn around a little bit of money. I remember having some cash stress around the second or third month, but I think I put all my money into Satellites and got them launched posthaste and ever since I've been okay. I'm also starting out of Africa, though, which should be amplifying my monthly intake.
I'm selling. I was actually a bit overzealous early on and ran into resource shortages because I wasn't paying attention to things like weapon fragments and elerium necessary for new weapons, armor, etc. Also I had a couple of Council requests that I couldn't complete because I just sold those corpses or wrecks or whatever. I've probably swung back a little too far in the other direction and could sell off a bit more than I am. Edit: I realize now that I gotten a little too deep without concentrating enough on satellites. I only have four in the sky (two more on the way!) because I've been spending money on things like new armor and weapons. I probably could have balanced that a little better and ended up in a better financial position than I'm in right now.
Money: The best strategy, I think, is to be just scraping by the first month or two and build satellites and satellite controllers. Getting 3-4 sats up over the big-money countries really makes things easier as you go on. Also, I started a game with my base in Africa for the "All In" continent bonus (+30% funding) and it really helps. You have plenty of time to get the other major bonuses, which don't help you hardly at all at the start anyway (the only other continent that is any use in the first few months is South America's "We Have Ways," instant autopsies & interrogations). Long-term, having lots of engineers saves you BIG TIME money. Go for abduction missions that give engineers when it is at all possible. Build workshops early. Progress: It may be a mistake to exhaust all other research before progressing. Although Pogo said the game balances the aliens around your tech level, I think they actually just progress at their own rate. If you are putting off plot missions for a month or two to exhaust other things, you're going to make it so the big plot missions have super-tough aliens. Fighting sectopods in the alien base is wack. Soldiers: Number of soldiers doesn't matter as much as how many you are actively working up. In the late game, I have 8-10 soldiers ranked Captain and higher, basically a full squad of badasses (Colonels and a Major or two) and a handful of backup people. I try to slot at least one lower-level person into each mission, and on easy missions (small UFOs, etc) I will take 4-5 low level guys. Try to give kills to people who can promote if you can. On the harder difficulties especially, you will have high-level guys get killed. If you don't have backups mostly ready to go, you are going to be in trouble. In my current Classic game, three missions ago I lost a Colonel Heavy, and on my last mission (a tough plot mission) I lost his backup, who was a Captain, plus a Major, plus two of my other big hitters got wounded. I am now doing difficult missions with a squad that has four low-ranked guys, and it is really tough, at least until people get out of sickbay. I can't tell if this is a death-spiral or not. Sectopods: Teleporting Enemies Bug:
I agree with Rywill for the most part, but disagree on the workshops, my playthrough on classic, I just built satellites uplinks and the required buildings (Power Generators, Officer school, etc), and had plenty of cash by the midpoint. Workshops and Labs are superfluous.
I ended up building workshops late to recoup some of the expenditures of constrained resources on Foundry projects, so I don't have much notion of how that would impact the early game. I just built labs for the achievement, as I was already burning through all my research in time I could count on one hand. Does that get more expensive to do as you increase difficulty? That's the only real reason I can think of for Laboratories to exist. The whole base system seems like there's something to it that I'm just not getting at this point - I've got power to spare ever since I brought the thermal generator online, I'll never need another Satellite facility at all, Labs don't seem to do a whole lot for me - basically the only things I feel like I'm encouraged to build at this point are plot facilities and Workshops. I assume that there will come a time further down the line where that changes, but I haven't seen it thus far in my first trip through. So far as progress goes, it's hard to tell whether it's on an independent track or tied to me. I think you're probably right that these things go at their own pace, but certain things (like Sectoid Commanders, I suspect, unless my turtling led the game to smoosh two different plot events together with the first base strike) seem to be plot locked. For instance, I have yet to meet, shoot, or hear about anything like an Ethereal, but just about any spaceship that I don't shoot down (and one that I did, but I'm pretty sure the fusion core ship is a scheduled event based on the fact that it opened two research projects and was a heretofore unseen variety of ship for me) comes with at least three Sectopods and a couple of elites. I'm trying to research everything basically to clear out achievements on my first run through, so that I don't have to worry about this crap in the future (and also so that I understand the tech tree on higher difficulties, so I know what to focus on and what to leave for later on higher difficulty settings, which I could look up online but I learn best through doing). Though I'll probably end up turtling in the game no matter what. I pretty much always seem to do that.
You're right that commanders are tied to the plot. There's a certain plot point where they change from the first commander type (confusingly called an "Overseer") to Sectoid Commanders, and another plot point where they change from Sectoid Commanders to Ethereals. Once each change happens I think you never see the old commander type again. But everything else -- what types of non-commander aliens you meet, what weapons they have, what ships they are flying, what types of missions they run -- are all independent of your research, I think.
I'm pretty sure I remember seeing Sectoid Commanders acting as Lt type mobs on Ethereal run ships occasionaly. But once I caught an Overseer and Sectoid comanders started showing up, I never saw any more Overseers.
Playing Impossible is like and entirely different game. I had to give up ironman because I need to relearn how to approach the missions and maps on Impossible and it's so farking difficult to make it past the first mission. I've been save scumming along in Impossible and beagle's tips help a ton.
Yeah it's true that they might just advance at a set rate, which may have just matched my rate of advance and kept things even.
One of the designers mentioned in an interview somewhere that the aliens advance on their own schedule, irrespective of your progress.
After a fun but exhausting Classic Ironman run, I went back to playing Normal. It feels so easy! Actually though, the biggest "problem" I have is resisting the temptation to go back to using gung-ho tactics like dashing up to forward firing positions and relying on low cover. I'm pretty sure the alien progression moves along based on time. That is, it's definitely possible to get ahead of (or fall behind) the curve. From experience, hitting the alien base early means you get to deal with less-dangerous enemies, at the cost of introducing Sectoid Commanders into the mix. One thing I'm not sure about is whether the harder difficulty levels change the rate of alien progress. (I don't think it does.)
I must've always hit things pretty slow, I rarely ran into sectoid commanders other than the scripted base mission and the ending mission. Heck, I don't recall running into any ethereals much, if at all, outside of scripted missions either.
Rocking Titan/Ghost armor and plasma weapons. And mind control. What now, alien bitches? Oh. Oh, two Cyberdiscs, a Berserker, a couple of Elites and a Sectopod all at once and on three sides? Oh my.
Those are great videos and a solid argument for bringing grenades instead of scopes if only for their ability to destroy cover. Even alien grenades are pretty sad at 5 damage, but taking out cover so your other guys have clear shots is an approach I've never taken with anything other than Heavies.
Yeah - many different tactics come into play that I completely missed when I played normal. Using grenades to play up cover is a big one. Using a team member under High cover and hunker down to "trap" enemies to free up your other team members to move, or to set traps is another. The aliens will try to flank you if they don't have a very good shot.
