Sogno di Venerdi (Friday)

[JasonPratt]

I was taking a stab through XCOM:Long War again, and realized today that I've probably completely screwed over my progression by selling off sectoids a little too soon, before using them for critical plot research -- that I can't do now and maybe never will be able to do!  #:-)

When I got swarmed by no less than 12 Chryssalids, PLUS upgraded Thin Man support, in one mission, I used that as an excuse to give up and plan a restart.  ::)

(In the mod's defense, I'm playing on Dynamic War which shortens the overall mission-plot structure by a fair amount, thus explaining why I'm past the missions with Sectoids a little too soon.)

[solops]

Solops -- Please let us (well, me anyway) know your opinion of the new DLC for Stellar Monarch.

Having not played in a year I had to re-learn it. The first two turns took a long time. Then things speeded up faster and faster. Sometimes, with plans are in place I may spend as little as 30 seconds on a turn. Then, ops get complicated and it can take a bit to sort things out. And periodically, you have to sort through a lot of the info to make sure things are working properly. When I have my personnel and budget sorted properly, I generally just check Industry to monitor food and electricity production, flash by R&D and then move fleets. A periodic check of fleet composition after battles or when a new ship type becomes available is often in order. The patches and new DLC make the game seem more..."complete". There are more aliens to deal with diplomatically and the new R&D is more fun. The map is more colorful with more factions  :) . I am trying my first game with random and hidden techs. It adds variety. The new megastructure and satellite system is still mostly an unknown.

[solops]

The game can seem overwhelming at first because there are so many information tabs. What I found was that most of it gets looked at rarely. Once you know what is where and what matters, the game is vastly simplified. The long time mentioned above on the first two turns was re-familiarization with the game. Now I can set up and roll quickly. I waste a lot of time on many turns looking at the R&D page, wishing I had this or that tech. I think of it as the  "Are we there yet?" syndrome.

[al_infierno]

Appreciate the input solops.  I picked up the game on sale and I'm diggin it so far.  How much do you manage your fleets yourself?  Do you mostly set them to autonomous?

[nelmsm]

PBEM files and play testing for the WDS group on some JTS titles. Five more days and then I'm off for twelve days so the serious gaming starts then.

[solops]

I like to manage my fleets myself, no AutoAdmirals.