X-COM Preorders

[LongBlade]

^Thanks for sharing Kushan.  One of the reasons that make this game great is the fact that just when you think a mission is going stellar, out comes a nasty surprise to test your skill.


Can anyone give me some advice on raiding the enemy base?  I just discovered the alien base and need to build the key to gain access to it.  Although I have some really good squad members I feel like raiding the base is going to be like the Kursk offensive.  Even though I've got the best panzers I feel like I'm gonna get shredded by T-34 hordes.  I'm scared!   :-[

I'm playing on normal difficulty and didn't have nearly as much trouble as I thought. Sound tactics - a reasonably well-prepared squad. That's the key to success. Just be careful going through it. *Always* move one move, then set to overwatch. You should be good to go.

[JudgeDredd]

As I said above - I had a medic, 1 support and 2 snipers.

Take grenades - much more useful than armour unless your member is low on points. I had a rookie with level 6 health - so I put extra armour on her to make her 9 in total. The rest of my squad were all around 9 or 10.

3 people had grenades, the medic had health. keep your medic mid ground and send the other two forward - NEVER going into dash unless to run away...and don't be afraid to head backwards to bring the aliens back into the los of the snipers. Keep your snipers at the rear moving forward when clear or to a better LOS. Obvious traits for the snipers like enhanced accuracy and shooting AFTER moving are handy.

If you've got good snipers, even better. They do alot of damage. If there is more than 2 or 3 - it's worth a grenade. Thos things with the legs that make zombies out of you - I'd rather run than risk damaging one only to have it kill me and zombiefy me anyway.

Slow - cover and move is the best way. You'll normally get attacked with at least 3 aliens at a time.

I found it stressful but not overly difficult - but I was playing on Easy. Having said that I had a rookie Assault class and a rookie sniper. I lost my best sniper. He was hit and I didn't actually know (it was the first time I saw it) he was bleeding out each turn. By the time I'd realised - he was toast.

[tgb]

I took another stab at the base, and while it wasn't a piece of cake, it was a lot easier.  This time I waited until I could afford Titan armor and Plasma weapons for everyone, and dropped one of my Assault squad members in favor of a Goliath (fortunately I have yet to be hit with the SHIV  bug).  No deaths and minimal injuries.

[W8taminute]

All good advice guys.  Sounds like I might want to hold off bringing my SHIV with me on this mission though.  Not sure if the bug is affecting the XBOX version of the game but I don't want to take any chances being so close to finishing this game.

[LongBlade]

I just produced my first SHIV but I'm so happy with my current crop of Humans that I didn't deploy it. Looked over my squad and decided, "Nope, I'm good."

[jomni]

Well the SHIV bug got me so I'm using humans now.

[JudgeDredd]

What is the "SHIV bug"?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

There was a bunch of unused code in the game called "Second Wave".  Modders have accessed it and rolled it into a mod that you can get from Nexus.

http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/7

While going through the files I found the second wave options and after a little bit of testing with them enabled they appear to work BUT I can't vouch they will all work perfectly. The menu with the options works just fine. You will have to complete the game before these options will show up.

To access the new options you need to first beat the game and then start a new game, you'll notice the options will be there where you pick the difficulty for the game. The new options for second wave are:

WORKS Damage Roulette: Weapons have a much wider range of damage

WORKS New Economy: The funding offered by individual council members is randomized

WORKS Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats

Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly

BUGGED Red Fog: Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier's stats for that mission

Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot will guarantee a critical hit

WORKS The Greater Good: The secret of psionics can only be learned by interrogating a psionic alien

WORKS Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete

Results Driven: A country will offer less funding as it's panic level increases

WORKS High Stakes: The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized

WORKS Diminishing Returns: The cost of satellites increases with every one that is built

WORKS The Blitz: The aliens will target a larger number of cities every time they launch an abduction attack

More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare

[Capn Darwin]

The Nexus has a number of cool mods. Only one I have running is the graphics mod. It does a great job upping the looks of everything. I will try some of the game balance mods once I finish my current game. I'm also waiting for the next patch to fix a few of the game altering bugs.

[Bison]

The DLC for the elite soldier was released today.  How the hell do I claim them in game?

[LongBlade]

Rolled my SHIV out for my first party. Worked OK. It's a bit fragile. Troopers with armor take a little damage and aren't wounded and out of the fight for a few days. The SHIV OTOH took three or four points of damage and is out for three days of repair. Fortunately the aliens don't attack more than every few days right now.

[tgb]

Rolled my SHIV out for my first party. Worked OK. It's a bit fragile. Troopers with armor take a little damage and aren't wounded and out of the fight for a few days. The SHIV OTOH took three or four points of damage and is out for three days of repair. Fortunately the aliens don't attack more than every few days right now.

You really want to wait until you can build the Goliath (Ally SHIV). It's like Timex. (Kids, ask your parents)

[Bison]

So anyone use these supposed elite troopers I got with the pre-order?

[jomni]

What is the "SHIV bug"?

You will not be able to deploy SHIVs into battle after the first one. So now it's just waste of money.

[Bison]

Holy crap.  Am I the only one tracking the DLC was released today?  I mean it might be possible that I've been using it the whole time. However I don't recall getting an elite troop.