X-COM Preorders

JudgeDredd · October 13, 2012, 02:47:23 AM

^ That was one of the other things I noticed - the panic levels. There are little markers. Now I'd expect if I didn't help out an area once then one of those marks would fill - but on normal, I think 3 of them filled. Whatever the number - I thought they filled up too much and looks like it could be designed to bring the game to a conclusion at some point. Perhaps that changes on Easy - which I think I will try.

But I'm off to paint my P-40 today and I'm going to do A-10C or BS this afternoon.

tgb · October 13, 2012, 06:28:29 AM

I think that if you don't have a satellite over a country, there is still alien activity there - you just aren't "seeing" the missions, so panic continues to rise even if you aren't turning missions down. The real death spiral comes if you only have one squad of veterans and it gets wiped out. Try taking on a terror mission with nothing but rookies, lol. That's why I always bring a rookie or two along on every mission (I'm up to six person squads), so I have backup foe every specialty.

Bison · October 13, 2012, 06:31:00 AM

Quote from: Arctic Blast on October 12, 2012, 11:47:42 PM
Worst month ever in this game.

I had to flee from a mission when 3 of my 4 troops bought it. Two were shot, one was next to a truck that I hadn't noticed was smoking...soon it was exploding.

Then, I died on a mission. That always annoys me.

Finally, we successfully stopped abductions in Rio. Unfortunately, France decided to freak out. And then the UK. And then Russia. And then Mexico. Nigeria had already done so when I chose to go to Quebec over them.

This has disaster written all over it.

Isn't this why we have previous saved games? :o

JudgeDredd · October 13, 2012, 07:12:12 AM

Playing on easy with saves (NO Ironman) is much more enjoyable and less stressful. I'll play like this so it allows me to find out the kinds of aliens you come across

undercovergeek · October 13, 2012, 07:18:32 AM

Quote from: Bison on October 13, 2012, 06:31:00 AM
Quote from: Arctic Blast on October 12, 2012, 11:47:42 PM
Worst month ever in this game.

I had to flee from a mission when 3 of my 4 troops bought it. Two were shot, one was next to a truck that I hadn't noticed was smoking...soon it was exploding.

Then, I died on a mission. That always annoys me.

Finally, we successfully stopped abductions in Rio. Unfortunately, France decided to freak out. And then the UK. And then Russia. And then Mexico. Nigeria had already done so when I chose to go to Quebec over them.

This has disaster written all over it.

Isn't this why we have previous saved games? :o

rewind and reload? - say it aint so Bison

Bison · October 13, 2012, 07:44:27 AM

When I have a complete squad wipe, yes I do. After I play the game through and learn the skill trees, tech, aliens and such. I will play an iron man game.

JudgeDredd · October 13, 2012, 08:22:35 AM

Just had my first game "crash". Aliens activity stage - an alien moves towards a civilian ready to inject him with poison - the civvie turns to face it and the game has stopped. I mean - I can move the camera around, and the graphics are moving (water, alien feet, civvie looking about) but no action...stuck on Alien Activity!

Actually - I can't move the camera about - it's stuck focussed on the Alien that just moved!

Rayfer · October 13, 2012, 08:32:34 AM

Quote from: JudgeDredd on October 13, 2012, 08:22:35 AM
Just had my first game "crash". Aliens activity stage - an alien moves towards a civilian ready to inject him with poison - the civvie turns to face it and the game has stopped. I mean - I can move the camera around, and the graphics are moving (water, alien feet, civvie looking about) but no action...stuck on Alien Activity!

Actually - I can't move the camera about - it's stuck focussed on the Alien that just moved!

I had the same thing happen last night....one of those creepy thin men, or whatever they are called, spit poison at two troopers hiding behind a log. The game froze up. Had to alt-ctrl-del out. The one and only time this has happened through about 10 missions.

undercovergeek · October 13, 2012, 08:44:38 AM

Quote from: Bison on October 13, 2012, 07:44:27 AM
When I have a complete squad wipe, yes I do. After I play the game through and learn the skill trees, tech, aliens and such. I will play an iron man game.

weak is the multi-lingual prophet of the Empire

Bison · October 13, 2012, 08:45:58 AM

Bison · October 13, 2012, 08:47:04 AM

I actually just finished a mission that resulted in two KIA. Sad day at the HQ. My Canuck sniper and my Mexican heavy were added to the memorial wall.

Capn Darwin · October 13, 2012, 10:03:17 AM

I added a dedicated XCOM bug thread. See if we can collect up some reports and then post to the 2K forum.

Grim.Reaper · October 13, 2012, 10:29:21 AM

So, how does one learn all the strategy/building/tactical pieces of this game if you never played the original game before? There does not appear to be a detailed manual, not even electronic. The one on steam basically just identifies the user controls. How do you know what best to build and do, especially in the strategy layer?

Kushan · October 13, 2012, 11:43:21 AM

Quote from: JudgeDredd on October 13, 2012, 02:47:23 AM
^ That was one of the other things I noticed - the panic levels. There are little markers. Now I'd expect if I didn't help out an area once then one of those marks would fill - but on normal, I think 3 of them filled. Whatever the number - I thought they filled up too much and looks like it could be designed to bring the game to a conclusion at some point. Perhaps that changes on Easy - which I think I will try.

I think the campaign is designed that you go through each of the main quest objectives ASAP and beat the game before countries panic gets too high.

There are a number of lines in the core data files that references something called second wave. According to the developers it was a feature they had experimented with but never finished. Not sure if its possible to activate it but just reading the descriptions it could make for an even better game IMO if they were implemented.

Quote
ENABLE_SECOND_WAVE = 0
SW_FLANK_CRIT=100
SW_COVER_INCREASE=1.5f
SW_SATELLITE_INCREASE=1.45f
SW_ELERIUM_HALFLIFE=24
SW_ELERIUM_LOSS=0.05f
SW_ABDUCTION_SITES=4
SW_RARE_PSI=8
SW_MARATHON=2.0f
SW_MORE_POWER=2.0f

tgb · October 13, 2012, 01:06:34 PM

Supposedly someone was able to activate second wave by hacking the .exe file and does work, but no word on balance issues, etc.

Reaper, have you played with the tutorial on? (Not the one from the demo - that's just a small slice). It holds you hand through several missions and takes a couple of hours.

Re defusing bombs:

Am I the only idiot who thought that because the power nodes had three arrows around them that you needed thee units in position before they could be turned off? It took two missions before I figured it out.