XCom expansion incoming!

[Arctic Blast]

In November, Enemy Within shall be upon us. Bring forth a cavalcade of quotes!

First and foremost, Firaxis is addressing a couple of XCOM fans' most vocal complaints: you'll now be able to have French soldiers speaking French (among others, courtesy of allowing us to access localized voice files), and we'll see around 40 additional maps combined with Enemy Unknown's 80. That number will include UFO crash maps in urban and rural environments, instead of just forest.

We're also getting a fifth class of soldier: the Mech trooper. But this isn't a class you're born into like the existing Assault, Support, Heavy, and Sniper - this is one that, after the proper facility is built, you can move any soldier into. He or she will lose all of their current class abilities, but gets to choose from a whole new ability tree up to their existing rank.

We don't yet know the full extent of the Mech Trooper's skill tree, but we do know that the first skill they unlock will be Collateral Damage, which will allow us to more easily target terrain (which Gupta says is designed to get us closer to the free-fire weapons of X-COM: UFO Defense). There will also be an upgrade that heals every XCOM soldier in a radius. They'll also have an ability that allows them to serve as mobile cover for XCOM troops, making it easier to cross no-man's-land stretches without being gunned down, a jumpjet system, and Damage Control, which reduces the damage taken for one turn.

Mechs won't be able to equip standard guns and items, but they'll have their own weapon upgrade tree that goes from minigun to rail gun to an energy weapon, and they'll be the first XCOM units to feature a flamethrower.

Presumably, these upgrades will come from researching the one new enemy (of several promised) that Firaxis is prepared to reveal: the Mechtoid. These armored sectoids remind me a lot of the mechs from the TV show Falling Skies, and have the ability to fire twice in a turn (much like the Heavy's Bulletstorm ability). If another sectoid mind-merges with him, he gains a damage-absorbing shield, but he doesn't gain the vulnerability of dying if the caster is taken out. Killing that guy just disables the shield.

Mechs sound impressive, but there's a reason to keep your best and brightest out of a set of metal pants: upgrading a soldier to Mech status disqualifies him or her from receiving genetic enhancements. Every trooper have five slots for upgrades: brain, eyes, skin, chest, and legs. Each will have two options to choose from (which can be swapped if you're willing to pay) and we've gotten the details on two of those sets.

On the brain, you'll be able to choose from Neural Feedback, which inflicts damage on any enemy attempting psi attacks (though doesn't reduce the chance of success) or Neural Dampening, which renders a soldier immune to panic and, should an enemy succeed in mind-controlling him or her, will simply knock them unconscious instead of turning him.

On the legs, you can either upgrade to Muscle Fiber, which lets a soldier climb walls without a skeleton suit, or Adaptive Bone Marrow, which provides limited health regeneration if they're wounded. But remember: you can't have both at once.

Here' some more definitely good news: we're getting new grenade types, including a Needle grenade (unlocked after researching a Cryssalid corpse) with a large blast radius, but won't affect enemies in cover. Also, there will be stealth grenades that effectively splash allies with invisibility paint. That sounds overpowered, but Enemy Unknown reduces the critical bonus of stealth attacks from 100 to 30.

So there will be a lot more to spend your money, eleriuim, and alien alloys on in Enemy Within. Instead of increasing our cash flow, Firaxis has added a whole new resource, called Meld. Meld canisters will be randomly scattered throughout maps (in the same way that enemies are randomly distributed), but collecting them will require haste, because they have self-destruct timers. It's a system designed to get us moving quickly and recklessly instead of the slow, safe pace XCOM veterans have developed to keep our best and brightest alive.

But don't worry - there's now a Foundry upgrade that allows us to unlock the two-item capacity upgrade for every class!

...And then some, because there are new Second Wave options coming as well. There's one that will bring back some of the old-school XCOM terror by giving non-cover-using enemies (like Mechtoids and Sectopods) a 50% chance to fire on your soldiers on sight, and, far more exciting for me, one that randomizes the upgrade trees for soldiers beyond their initial class-specific ability. Imagine a Heavy with Lightning Reflexes and Battle Scanner? You might have that, if you're lucky. The possibilities are endless. Oh, and there's now a Reduced Beginner VO option that will shut up Drs. Vahlen and Shen, allowing us to do our walk of failed Iron Man Shame without being talked down to.

On the multiplayer end, we're getting eight new maps - a couple of which, admittedly, are recycled from the campaign. There's also a much-needed option to pre-configure your squads offline, before jumping into a match and awkwardly fiddling with your points for 20 minutes before starting a game.

Edit: Bonus info! There is a button in the pre-mission UI that strips all soldiers not currently assigned to the Skyranger team of all equipment. So no more digging through your entire roster looking for the off-duty guy who has the arc thrower equipped, or that extra set of Ghost armor!

[Capn Darwin]

Good XCOM:EW interview and footage here: http://2kgam.es/rev3xcom

11/12/13 is too damn far off.  :'(

[Yskonyn]

It already shows as released on my Steam! :)
Any other guys buying this?

[Steelgrave]

It already shows as released on my Steam! :)
Any other guys buying this?

Absolutely I'm buying it. But the release date says November 12 on Steam, although you can pre-purchase it now at a 10% discount.

[Yskonyn]

Oh sorry.. my bad. I just got the 'There is new content for your game' popup and in my enthousiasm thought it was available.. -.- Damn Steam mindgames.

[eyebiter]

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[Arctic Blast]

I've got it ready to go, but I probably won't have time to really sit down and play it until this weekend.  :'(

[PanzersEast]

Just some initial feedback after playing last night:

Mecs :: You get them pretty early in the game and they are fun and devastating to aliens on the field.  You will shat your pants and shout with glee as you mec's robotic arm picks up a alien and smashes him through a wall.....  Early on I can not tell if they are overpowered and they cannot take cover... so you can't just charge in.  The flame thrower really roasts aliens... almost like a impromptu barbecue.

One polishing feature I really like is that now when you are about to throw a grenade the items/persons that the grenade will effect are highlighted in red. More maps and some cut scenes are nice.  Lots of customization now with the genetic augmentations and the mecs.

While there are a lot of options, the one thing that remains in the game is you have limited resources so there for you have to pick and choose which path you want to go down.

Medals are nice and add some bonus you assign to the medal from a choice of 2 (for example +5 defense when fully covered or +5 aim for Aliens who are fully covered).  You apply one of the two bonuses for that medal for the rest of the game and then when they are earned, assign them to the solders you want.  This helps for slamming your keyboard when your highly decorated genetic solider dies.

A couple of new aliens.... a cloaked face sucking alien who preys on those you when you leave a solider without a friend......

So far I am enjoying it, more so than the initial release of EU.


PE

[eyebiter]

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[tgb]

Pro Tip:  You don't necessarily have to put squad members at risk to get Meld. When you finish a mission, you get all the Meld on a map that hasn't expired, even if you haven't found it.

Note: This is on Normal difficulty, so I wouldn't be surprised if it works differently on higher difficulty levels.

[PanzersEast]

Pro Tip:  You don't necessarily have to put squad members at risk to get Meld. When you finish a mission, you get all the Meld on a map that hasn't expired, even if you haven't found it.

Note: This is on Normal difficulty, so I wouldn't be surprised if it works differently on higher difficulty levels.

When you discover the first container of meld, you have 3 turns to claim... if not you lose it.  The remaining canister is activated once you get within range to sense it by the yellow line.... from there it is around six turns or so.  Depending on the alien seed and difficulty this can be hard to claim that quickly.....

I have been able to claim the first by reaching it and the second by killing all of the remaining aliens on the map.... never have been able to kill all aliens in time to get 2 canisters without having to claim the first.





PE

[tgb]

Pro Tip:  You don't necessarily have to put squad members at risk to get Meld. When you finish a mission, you get all the Meld on a map that hasn't expired, even if you haven't found it.

Note: This is on Normal difficulty, so I wouldn't be surprised if it works differently on higher difficulty levels.

When you discover the first container of meld, you have 3 turns to claim... if not you lose it.  The remaining canister is activated once you get within range to sense it by the yellow line.... from there it is around six turns or so.  Depending on the alien seed and difficulty this can be hard to claim that quickly.....

I have been able to claim the first by reaching it and the second by killing all of the remaining aliens on the map.... never have been able to kill all aliens in time to get 2 canisters without having to claim the first.





PE

Those numbers are not hard-coded.  I have discovered canisters that had anywhere from 1-5 turns remaining when I first saw them.

[PanzersEast]

Pro Tip:  You don't necessarily have to put squad members at risk to get Meld. When you finish a mission, you get all the Meld on a map that hasn't expired, even if you haven't found it.

Note: This is on Normal difficulty, so I wouldn't be surprised if it works differently on higher difficulty levels.

When you discover the first container of meld, you have 3 turns to claim... if not you lose it.  The remaining canister is activated once you get within range to sense it by the yellow line.... from there it is around six turns or so.  Depending on the alien seed and difficulty this can be hard to claim that quickly.....

I have been able to claim the first by reaching it and the second by killing all of the remaining aliens on the map.... never have been able to kill all aliens in time to get 2 canisters without having to claim the first.





PE

Those numbers are not hard-coded.  I have discovered canisters that had anywhere from 1-5 turns remaining when I first saw them.

Interesting.... I have to pay attention next time.  I guess on the first I generally notice I have three turns, however the later canister has been different.  I'll watch it next time.

Is it me or does the mec seem overpowered in the early game.... but is fun torching aliens.  If you place 2 mec(s) on the battlefield, they can be very devastating..... especially with perks.


PE

[Grim.Reaper]

Dumb question.....with this expansion, do you play a whole new campaign or do you play the original campaign with just the enhancements?  How are people enjoying so far?

[Jarhead0331]

Dumb question.....with this expansion, do you play a whole new campaign or do you play the original campaign with just the enhancements?  How are people enjoying so far?

original campaign with enhancements.  Its great. A must have add-on in my opinion.