X-COM Preorders

[Tpek]

Still got 1 day 3 hours to go  >:(

British? European?
I know how you feel. I'm in the same boat.

It's annoying to see Americans buy and immediately play this game right away, while people like me who pre-ordered,
and are not American/Aussies, need to wait until Friday.

[JudgeDredd]

British here but I guess it's the same for the Euro zone

[Tpek]

British here but I guess it's the same for the Euro zone

Same for everyone who isn't from North America, Australia or New-Zealand, and wants a legal&legit copy.

[Arctic Blast]

The big difference with respect to country funding here, as opposed to in the original X-com, is that by mid-to late game in the original, country funding became unnecessary.  You could earn millions selling spare equipment and alien technology recovered from the battlefield. Here, in the new game, recovered gear is much more scarce, so I think its unlikely that there will ever be enough material acquired to fund on-going operations in a consistent manner like in the original title.

Also, you can't set up a permanent production line pumping out cheap laser weapons for double or triple profit per unit. Money is scarce now.

[jomni]

It's annoying to see Americans buy and immediately play this game right away, while people like me who pre-ordered,
and are not American/Aussies, need to wait until Friday.

As a consolation, Euro Truck Simulatior 2 gets sold in Europe first when it comes out this month if it matters to you as much as it matters to me.

[tgb]

I woke up 3AM yesterday and today to get the game in, and will probably do it again tomorrow.

Pro tip: Drinking and iron man don't mix.

[Kushan]

I'm taking a beating. Every time I start to think that things are finally going my way, I get hammered. Had my B team running a few missions to get the rookies some experience. The blazed through a couple of very hard rated mission. Then this last one, they got hammered. Some sort of robot/drone aliens ripped them apart. One veteran KIA, and everyone else is seriously wounded. The rookies did get promoted though so I guess some good came out of it. These Pyrrhic victories along with high panic amongst more then half the countries really have my on edge. Been a long time since a game a caused me to feel this way.

[CptHowdy]

i lost. saved a bridge in japan for last mission. went to mission control and forwarded a few days and got a cutscene. the shadowy figure guy shut me down!!!  i thought it was going well. maybe i needed to advance the storyline and attack the base? not sure. well time to try it again!!!

[Kushan]

Is there a secret to killing the flying saucer looking alien drones? I'm not sure of their name. Between their energy grenades and plasma shot they tear through my squad. All of my squad is equipped with laser rifles. Every shot I take at them or the smaller drones  the are always with them misses. I'm missing 70-80% shots against these them, and in return them seem to be able to 1 shot kill everything they shoot.

My first complaint against the game. I think it ramps up the difficulty way too quickly. I'm barely making it by and the game is throwing constant do or die fights at me. Sure, it may be realistic but that doesn't necessarily make it fun. I'm barely hold my own as it is and now I feel I should just throw all my rookies at these fights because my whole squad is going to get wiped out no matter what I do.

[tgb]

Kushan -

At what difficulty level are you playing?  I've got 20 or so missions under my belt playing Normal/Iron Man and the pacing has not been a problem, other than I don't have the resources for engineering to keep pace with research.

[PanzersEast]

Had my first (Disable the Bomb) mission and was a tricky one.  I disabled most of the power nodes to buy me some time, but the aliens put up a good fight... had one poisoned and the other near critical and luckily I had a member of my team with the medic ability, gives the ability to carry 3 med kits which saved 2 lives.  I customized him in red armor to distinguish him on the battlefield easily before the mission.

One thing I have noticed is I built 3 laser rifles and have been able to move them around to different team members without have to build more for several missions now.  The gift that keeps on giving!

The sniper Battle Scanner ability is very cool.  You are equipped with 2 "radar" grenades that shows you where the enemies are hiding in the direction you throw the grenade (limited range and can only use 2 time per battle), very handy ability, especially when approaching a large building.

I was able to stun and capture a Muton.... had him held up by a window in building.  Used suppressing fire while I had a team member advance on him.  To my shock once he had approached the window, he only had a %20 chance of stunning him.... next round my member who was doing the suppressing would have to reload....  rolled the dice and was lucky that time.  Fortune favours the bold!

Not sure at this point what to exactly invest in or do next, so I am winging it the best I can.... and that is half the fun, especially on IronMan....


PE

[Greybriar]

....Whats the best tactic for capturing an alien? Can't seem to get close without exposing my soldier to fire.

I don't know if it's the best or not but I used two rookies, the second of which had an arc gun. Using available cover, I ran them as close as I could to an alien to afford them enough movement points to reach it the following turn. Then I ran the rookie without the arc gun just past the alien and waited for the second rookie's approach. The second rookie (with the arc gun) ran right up next to the alien and stunned him. Then they used the same procedure to stun another alien. They went for a third, but the arc gun was out of uses and they had to kill the third alien. They bagged  a live thin man and Sectoid for research purposes and I was quite pleased with that.

[W8taminute]

My first complaint against the game. I think it ramps up the difficulty way too quickly. I'm barely making it by and the game is throwing constant do or die fights at me. Sure, it may be realistic but that doesn't necessarily make it fun. I'm barely hold my own as it is and now I feel I should just throw all my rookies at these fights because my whole squad is going to get wiped out no matter what I do.

I'm experiencing the same frustration as you are.  I'm playing on 'Classic' difficulty which is one level below 'Impossible' difficulty.  I don't mind the challenge actually because it's fun to try and out maneuver the aliens but what's getting my goat is watching my veterans get 86ed.  I played my first deactivate the bomb mission last night.  I must have reloaded my save file 6 times before I beat the mission type.  Once the bomb was deactivated the guy in the situation room told my squad that there were multiple inbound aliens.  I would have to clear them out and then the mission would be over.  Much to my frustration two Thin Men appeared out of nowhere killing my 4 mission veteran whom I had just stabilized his injuries.  That made me recall the scene in Saving Private Ryan where the medic saved a soldiers life on the beach only to watch a bullet go through his head a moment later. 

By the way, I noticed if you reload a save file you will not play the same exact mission as before the reload.  I like that actually.

[PanzersEast]

....Whats the best tactic for capturing an alien? Can't seem to get close without exposing my soldier to fire.

I don't know if it's the best or not but I used two rookies, the second of which had an arc gun. Using available cover, I ran them as close as I could to an alien to afford them enough movement points to reach it the following turn. Then I ran the rookie without the arc gun just past the alien and waited for the second rookie's approach. The second rookie (with the arc gun) ran right up next to the alien and stunned him. Then they used the same procedure to stun another alien. They went for a third, but the arc gun was out of uses and they had to kill the third alien. They bagged  a live thin man and Sectoid for research purposes and I was quite pleased with that.

I always setup Suppression fire while I have another approach.  I believe this reduces the alien aim 30%.... and there is a good chance the alien will target the soldier doing the suppression fire instead of the approaching soldier to stun.  I always use a lower rank to approach and stun.  I will also try and position my sniper with a good shot incase something goes wrong (if possible).

PE

[Kushan]

Kushan -

At what difficulty level are you playing?  I've got 20 or so missions under my belt playing Normal/Iron Man and the pacing has not been a problem, other than I don't have the resources for engineering to keep pace with research.

I'm playing on Normal.

I was actually enjoying the challenged level until I ran into the flying saucer drones (see below). They tear through my squad like its nothing, 1-hit dead, 1-hit dead...rinse and repeat. They appeared in the first mission after I captured the alien for the main story mission. Little frustrating watching my operatives get killed one by one without doing any damage.





Couple screenshots of the aliens I'm talking about. I've tried everything I can think of: Heavies with the Heat round ability, rockets, grenades, laser rifles...everything just bounces off them or misses. Could be I'm just getting really bad dice rolls but I'd like to think my operatives could at least hit something that close. Is this X-Coms version of a Kobayashi Maru scenario?