XCOM - Thoughts and Encounters.

[Ravelle]

So far the grappling hook has not been very helpful as you're target practice once you're on a roof, same goes for ArchAngel.

Anyways, I just had to load a previous save because two of my guys couldn't move anymore since their cover got blown up and surrounded by puny flames, they were locked in and meat for the grinder. I accept casualties of war but this bullshit I didn't tolerate.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

Archangel is for snipers. Fuel is only used for moving around, so they can stay in perfect firing position all mission with the defensive traits they get.

[Tikey]

going to a roof is great for snipers with squadsight, but not too good to be in the middle of the action.
There is a level that's like a collapsed highway where you can get a sniper to a high palce and dominate the battlefield.

[Gray Guardian]

going to a roof is great for snipers with squadsight, but not too good to be in the middle of the action.
There is a level that's like a collapsed highway where you can get a sniper to a high palce and dominate the battlefield.

But watch out, sometimes Chrysalids lurk up there!

[Ravelle]

But watch out, sometimes Chrysalids lurk up there!

Crystalids lurk everywhere!

[Tikey]

But watch out, sometimes Chrysalids lurk up there!

Oh crap, never happened to me luckly!

[Gray Guardian]

Another entry in the Great Book of XCom bugs: after a game over in Classic Ironman mode I found that I can still load the game from the list of saved games and continue from that point. The game has a soft crash however whenever another game over is likely to occur. It's actually pretty cool, kind of like a Get Out of Jail Free Card :P

[TailSwallower]

Anyways, I just had to load a previous save because two of my guys couldn't move anymore since their cover got blown up and surrounded by puny flames, they were locked in and meat for the grinder.

I wasn't even aware that that's what happened, but now that you mention it, it makes sense. I had 2 or 3 Titan-armour-equipped, alien-blasting, badass-motherfuckin' soldiers that couldn't move into a building because of flames so small that I would happily step over them. The fires died down after a couple of turns, but yeah, my troops were out of the fight for too long because of that bullshit.

You should be able to move through the fire and take damage, not just be totally blocked. Risk vs reward - do I charge through the flames and take some damage, or do I go the long way/wait out the fire? And yeah, if they do change it to work that way, make the fires large and menacing looking, 'cause it's a joke at the moment.

[Olero]

Finally had a good go with Xcom (currently 9 hours played, and only once restarted). I really like the game so far, but it's not solid gold.

The things I like:

• The tension and atmosphere. Surrounding an UFO or playing hide & seek (with an arc-thrower) at a graveyard still makes my nerves twitch. And the first terror mission was a nerve-wrecking disaster (my rookie (as if I didn't made him do it) rushed to save 3 clustered civilians, and was awarded 3 floaters, 3 cryssalids and a short live as a zombie, who clubbed my assault for weeks to the infirmary and butchered his fellow rookie)
• The destruction the weapons cause. So much for safety behind cover. But it would be even better if buildings would crash down, Red Faction Guerilla style. I do hate the highly flammable cars though (and the fact civvies/escort-able VIPs will stand right next to 'em)
• The slow progress of both enemies, technology and science (but so far strangely not the urgency to save the earth). I've read as little as possible about all enemies, which really helps in keeping things interesting.
• The art-style/graphics. Sure it's not state of the art, but it does work, given how strange the maps are sometimes (especially the UFO/forest ones). And it looks very level-editor friendly, so here's hoping they release it someday.

The things I don't like:

• The interceptor mini-"game". Would be better if it wasn't even there. The only thing I've done so far with the interceptors is flying them to other countries. Haven't touched any of the upgrades so far.
• The console-y controls and camera. Already mentioned plenty of times, so no further words are needed I think
• The blandness / repetition of levels. There's a whole lot of deja-vu in the maps, and sometimes they're just plain ol' boring ones as well. They could tell so much more with the scenery, just like Fallout 3 / New Vegas did so well (sometimes). In addition of the boring green human left-overs, the could have large car crashes, looted shops, a failed last stand of the police/army, an abandoned zoo. Stuff like that.
• Bugs. I've not encountered too many, but those few I did were annoying. My assault once didn't lose the alien head symbols, presenting the number of enemies seen, even when she had shot them all. My sniper once started a map by immediately throwing out the scanner device...next to the skyranger... And a lot of the time, the chance to hit is wrong, and changes when I deselect and reselect my units.
• I do miss a bit of extra customization. I understand it from a gaming point of view, but my normal tendency to hoard items is sorely neglected...

[Gwilym]

I just noticed a cute little shout-out to the original game on the insignia behind the research scientist's head. I'll have to keep an eye out for more of that sort of thing. I know there's one during the laser rifle video too, but it's pretty explicit and I don't want to spoil a grinmoment. Like Alec said in his review, the base view goes pretty much completely ignored during gameplay (I feel really sorry for its architects), so it wouldn't surprise me if there were dozens hidden in plain sight.

edit: a cursory search reveals
-an XCOM arcade game in the lounge
-XCOM branded gym weights
-XCOM's weapons are 'manufactured in space'
Basically, widespread misuse of XCOM funding. It's actually quite fun browsing the base and I recommend it. It's quite lavish and lovingly done.

Bugs aside, I'm doing my best to upsell this game to as many people as I can; it's slightly bizarre that it exists and even moreso that it's turned out as well as it has. I really hope it sells. I held off purchasing for like a week (I knew buying it before finishing my final essay would doom me), and the shop assistant said I was the first non-employee to buy it. That's disheartening. I'd like to believe it's because the target audience is savvy enough to have forsaken the mall outlet as their gamesource, but I'm not sure I actually do.

[NathanH]

Simultaneous sectopods. Naaaaaasty.

[Makariel]

I had an annoying bug in the last mission, where my sniper for some reason wasn't able to enter the last room. Hence I had to fight with 1 less. Even reloading a save didn't help and I didn't feel like repeating the entire level just for that. I was originally intending to do an ironman playthrough, but I'll wait for some patches to sort out some of the bugs and fix the camera. There are some specific UFO's where I was battling the camera more than the aliens.

In terms of armor I love the ghost armor. Found the grappling hook & stealth more useful than flying for most of the maps. I had a soldier with archangel armor, but never really used the flying since I prefer my people to stay in cover. Never felt that sending my sniper flying would benefit much compared to grappling up to a high building and snipe from there, with the ability to turn invisible if something goes wrong.

Overall I really enjoyed the game. Will play through it again for sure, but not right now, there is still Dishonored waiting for me :)

[Ravelle]

Simultaneous sectopods. Naaaaaasty.

Be sure to have a sniper ready to double tap that nasty bugger and keep your other guys well covered, his missile attack is what you need to watch out most for, don't stack your guys up next to each other.

[NathanH]

I can never get snipers promoted, I find them useless at low levels. The best answer to sectopods seems to be heavies with the two-shots-per-turn and the double-damage-versus-machines skills, they can singlehandedly destroy one in a turn. It's fortunate that the sectopods waste their time on the charge-up attack rather than start at their two-shots-and-overwatch nonsense.

[QuantaCat]

Be sure to have a sniper ready to double tap that nasty bugger and keep your other guys well covered, his missile attack is what you need to watch out most for, don't stack your guys up next to each other.

or use "Disable weapons", itll actually take him two turns to be useful again. by that time, dead, hopefully.

[TailSwallower]

Bugs aside, I'm doing my best to upsell this game to as many people as I can; it's slightly bizarre that it exists and even moreso that it's turned out as well as it has. I really hope it sells.

For sure. I might be bitching about some of the bugs, but that's just because the game is so good, that the few problems really stand out, and I just want it to be perfect. I've already got one friend to buy it, and another will likely buy it once his schedule clears a bit.

Another thing I hope Firaxis change - let us skip the damn opening logo screens! Why are unskippable ones even still a thing?

ETA:

or use "Disable weapons", itll actually take him two turns to be useful again. by that time, dead, hopefully.

Does that work on Sectopods? That's a really good idea. I didn't take it with my main sniper and regret it, 'cause the Battle Scanner seems to simply not work. I've thrown it to places where I thought enemies were, it didn't show up anything, but then when the troops moved closer the enemy intro cinematic got triggered.
But yeah, I got a sniper Major as a reward and I've specced him with Disable.

[kataras]

or use "Disable weapons", itll actually take him two turns to be useful again. by that time, dead, hopefully.

I usually do this but I m pretty sure (I don't know if it's a bug) that a couple of times the disable bit lasted only one turn. Anyway if you have double-tap as well you can usually take another shot and the rest of your guys can finish it off.

My sniper has the most kills and he stayed alive by staying far away, in cover and with a good line of sight. The two-three times I actually used a sniper to go on a roof or somewhere elevated, I lost them. Having said that, now the sniper feels overpowered with double-tap+Archangel suit. But I m not gonna complain!

[Sparkasaurusmex]

The snipers disable shot seems to only affect one of the sectopods two shots. Have not tested it enough.

I love my snipers. Deadliest class in the game, for me. They almost always crit (even without headshot) and they do that twice in one turn, often killing two aliens before they know there's a sniper gunning for them.

[QuantaCat]

The snipers disable shot seems to only affect one of the sectopods two shots. Have not tested it enough.

I love my snipers. Deadliest class in the game, for me. They almost always crit (even without headshot) and they do that twice in one turn, often killing two aliens before they know there's a sniper gunning for them.

I prefer the Heavies and Assaults, theyre much better all arounders, although you can skill a sniper to be deadly long or short range (due to the plasma pistol, and that one skill that gives 2 extra damage to it)

[Sparkasaurusmex]

Yeah, although typically my snipers are "pure" snipers (elevation bonuses instead of pistol).
Certainly not "all arounders" at all, just very skilled at staying put and killing everything. I currently prefer Assault as an all arounder, and I could easily see taking a team of exclusive assaults before heavies...

Actually if I was to take a team of only one class they would probably all be support.

What is the best kit for scouting? I haven't built a real Ghost Armor wearing soldier yet. I'm thinking support for their movement bonus, but a sniper with battle scanners is interesting.