X-COM Preorders

[jomni]

I now have psyonic armor.  Is that any good? 
Is thet a defense from psyonic attacks? [Update: Psyonic protection is a separate accessory]

[Capn Darwin]

Chitan plate is good to have on one or more of your forward assault units who you use to open doors or to scout forward to find bad guys.

[LongBlade]

A word to the wise: Battleships are mega tough.

I took my elite-ist team into one and still lost two senior, senior members (one or both colonels - not exactly sure). Three others took damage. It was u-g-l-y. But I won.

I'm still weighing the cost on that because now I'm toting around my SHIV and two n00bs who can't hit squat on these uber uparmored aliens. Fortunately I have accelerated healing. It can't come fast enough.

[Capn Darwin]

Battleships must be like bases in size and content I would suspect. I need to get my B-Team upped a bit so I'm ready. I have a few vets who could use some serious R&R before hitting the overseerers and battleships. I also need to crank out a suit or two of ghost for my snipers. Too many wants and not enough cash...

[Grim.Reaper]

Not sure if anyone noticed, but in case you missed the pre order special of getting the elite soldier dlc, looks like now available for purchase.

[W.S. Hancock]

Does anybody know what triggers the aliens to scale up and get tougher during the game?  Is it number of missions you have run, the tech advances you have made, or the highest rank of one of your soldiers?

Want to figure out if there is a way to slow down how tough the opponents are or otherwise control it by the pace the player sets.

[tgb]

Does anybody know what triggers the aliens to scale up and get tougher during the game?  Is it number of missions you have run, the tech advances you have made, or the highest rank of one of your soldiers?

Want to figure out if there is a way to slow down how tough the opponents are or otherwise control it by the pace the player sets.

It depends on the level at which you are playing.  On normal they scale with your techs, which means if you do the base raid as soon as it comes up you may not encounter anything stronger than a Berzerker or Chrysalid.  On Classic they advance on their own timetable.

[W8taminute]

Speaking of increasing toughness of the aliens, my current game on Classic is now at an end.  Because I made some terrible mistakes in the beginning which ultimately led to my extremely limited income I just can't field the necessary weaponry to fight the mechanised aliens or the armored mutons.  I'm going to have to start all over again and try to do better with the lessons I've learned.

Unfortunately I'm so burnt out from having to play each and every mission over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until I win that I'm not going to be touching XCOM for quite a while.  The beginning missions where challenging but could be completed on the first try.  The later missions are just life draining events that I have no stomach for anymore.  I mean when your top level snipers and assault class soldiers are equipped with plasma weapons and can't hit the broadside of a barn it's time to give up.  It's getting old to have 4 men in perfect position all miss a beserker at medium range and then to lose those soldiers one by one on subsequent turns. 

I'm not going to step down the difficulty on my next playthrough as I think I've figured out how the pattern of battle works in this game but damn it if none of your troops can hit anything because the computer is dead set on killing your elites I just want to reach out and choke Sid Meier.  You gotta give me a chance to do some damage, I mean really.

[jomni]

Finished the game on Normal Ironman.  It was a very satisfying experience.  Overall, there is a decent amount of challenge (I loose some battles, and had a lot of soldiers killed) but not frustrating since I can still continue with what troops I have left.  It seems that my performance was worse compared to the rest (it shows your stats vs. the world in the end).  It took me more time, and lost more men.  But I guess the other players don't play Ironman and just do the story objectives as soon as they are available.

I may be moving to Classic but the though of it is dreadful.  At least I learned some lessons in my Normal game.  I spent 30 hours on Normal so it will be a while for me to start another game.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I think it took me 31 hours to finish on Normal Ironman, but I had to resort to an .ini file hack to pull the game out of Ironman at the end as the final assault was bugged and I couldn't progress.

[W.S. Hancock]

Does anybody know what triggers the aliens to scale up and get tougher during the game?  Is it number of missions you have run, the tech advances you have made, or the highest rank of one of your soldiers?

Want to figure out if there is a way to slow down how tough the opponents are or otherwise control it by the pace the player sets.

It depends on the level at which you are playing.  On normal they scale with your techs, which means if you do the base raid as soon as it comes up you may not encounter anything stronger than a Berzerker or Chrysalid.  On Classic they advance on their own timetable.

So a strategy of not researching any/few techs, while trying to get one soldier quickly up to Major to buy the bonus willpower increase at each promotion, while keeping most of the rest of the squad as undeveloped as possible (so they can benefit from the bigger willpower increase at each rank promotion) would be valid?  Or would it get shredded as my weapons and armor would not be able to hold up at original techs during the 7-8 missions that would be necessary to rush someone up to Major?

[LongBlade]

Does anybody know what triggers the aliens to scale up and get tougher during the game?  Is it number of missions you have run, the tech advances you have made, or the highest rank of one of your soldiers?

Want to figure out if there is a way to slow down how tough the opponents are or otherwise control it by the pace the player sets.

It depends on the level at which you are playing.  On normal they scale with your techs, which means if you do the base raid as soon as it comes up you may not encounter anything stronger than a Berzerker or Chrysalid.  On Classic they advance on their own timetable.

So a strategy of not researching any/few techs, while trying to get one soldier quickly up to Major to buy the bonus willpower increase at each promotion, while keeping most of the rest of the squad as undeveloped as possible (so they can benefit from the bigger willpower increase at each rank promotion) would be valid?  Or would it get shredded as my weapons and armor would not be able to hold up at original techs during the 7-8 missions that would be necessary to rush someone up to Major?

I upgraded my guys gradually, trying to spread the development around. If I was winning on the ground, I tried to remember to upgrade my air units before they were entirely outclassed. I think I'm finally at the end game.

[LongBlade]

Finally beat the game. w00t!

[Capn Darwin]

Way to go Zabek-san. I'm close to jumping off on the final mission. Working my Psi troops a bit and smoking aliens with blaster bombs. Good times. My main heavy is 2-3 kills from the century mark.

[LongBlade]

Way to go Zabek-san. I'm close to jumping off on the final mission. Working my Psi troops a bit and smoking aliens with blaster bombs. Good times. My main heavy is 2-3 kills from the century mark.

Cool. Unfortunately my game locked up as I was looking over the final stats.