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[Iduno]

The base building part is also interesting, because you're in a race against time (kind of). You need better tech to handle your opponents, but you're on a limited budget. You need to make money, so you must win missions and probably produce stuff to sell so you can afford the people who are winning missions, doing research, and producing stuff.

Plus, Open X-Com fixes a lot of bugs, and lets you mod things.

[Aoi]

I'm of a different take on it; I had a pretty good time with the new X-Coms, but could never get into the old ones... I think I still have 3.44 diskettes of TFTD lying around somewhere.

On the other hand, I'm quite enjoying the X-piratez mod which works on entirely different design concepts. The originals you're basically in a constant desperate race against time to keep yourself alive and competitive. There's also much more distinct technology tiers where you're either using the latest and greatest, or you're liable to be cannon fodder. The mod is more likely being a plucky ramshackle group fighting from the bottom up with whatever they can get their hands on with no (minimal) pressures of time.

[Rolan7]

It's funny people remember the originals as being a race against time.  It's true, sure, but less so than NewCOM's designs where there's a very clear counter ticking down to your loss.  Unless you're playing Long War, time is obviously your enemy in NewCOM, as abductions cause a net increase in "panic" even if you do the mission perfectly.

OldCOM had a mechanic for removing your funding nations but it was relatively rare.  And the game mostly ramped up in difficulty if you were doing very well.  NewCOM has very little room for error on the "geoscape", OldCOM was very forgiving on the geoscape.  Of course, those descriptions are reversed for the battlescape   EVERY hit with the main enemy weapon has a significant chance of killing soldiers in full power armor. 

[Iduno]

I'm of a different take on it; I had a pretty good time with the new X-Coms, but could never get into the old ones... I think I still have 3.44 diskettes of TFTD lying around somewhere.

On the other hand, I'm quite enjoying the X-piratez mod which works on entirely different design concepts. The originals you're basically in a constant desperate race against time to keep yourself alive and competitive. There's also much more distinct technology tiers where you're either using the latest and greatest, or you're liable to be cannon fodder. The mod is more likely being a plucky ramshackle group fighting from the bottom up with whatever they can get their hands on with no (minimal) pressures of time.

And also, you're super-human mutants with lightly armored skin. So a light breeze will no longer kill your new recruits (unless you choose to use slave soldiers/peasants/dogs). I think I like Piratez because it keeps the best parts of X-com, expands it, then lowers the consistency with which you die.


Also, speaking of Piratez, I'm attacking a landed ship, because that's almost always a good choice. It's Star Gods, but I can like 70% handle them. However, there is sometimes an invisible enemy who shoots at me. What is up with that? Edit: Apparently a black powder bomb will solve the problem, whatever it is.

[Aoi]

It's funny people remember the originals as being a race against time.  It's true, sure, but less so than NewCOM's designs where there's a very clear counter ticking down to your loss.  Unless you're playing Long War, time is obviously your enemy in NewCOM, as abductions cause a net increase in "panic" even if you do the mission perfectly.

OldCOM had a mechanic for removing your funding nations but it was relatively rare.  And the game mostly ramped up in difficulty if you were doing very well.  NewCOM has very little room for error on the "geoscape", OldCOM was very forgiving on the geoscape.  Of course, those descriptions are reversed for the battlescape   EVERY hit with the main enemy weapon has a significant chance of killing soldiers in full power armor.

As I recall, the old X-Coms had more attacks and stronger aliens showing up as time progressed, so if you played at an unaggressive pace, you would fairly quickly lose support since you were unable to deal with everything. Which was actually my primary cause for failure. Fast play helped since, while they'd push out more advanced guys to keep pace with you, the quantities didn't increase.

I didn't have any problems like that in the new X-com, probably because the timers in the new ones were more or less literal timers, rather than an invisible scale pushing you off the edge.

[Aoi]

Also, speaking of Piratez, I'm attacking a landed ship, because that's almost always a good choice. It's Star Gods, but I can like 70% handle them. However, there is sometimes an invisible enemy who shoots at me. What is up with that? Edit: Apparently a black powder bomb will solve the problem, whatever it is.

Is it a Star God Operative?

Those guys are invisible until you're like three steps away or something.

[Rince Wind]

OldCom is more forgiving on the battlescape in the way that the individual soldiers are not as important and a lost mission or three won't bring you to the brink of defeat (usually).

It has the same problem as NewCom in that the beginning is the hardest and when you get plasma/sonar missons actually become easier, as the enemies don't evolve, once you found all the races. And it is rather easy to research the enemy weapons, you can even skip tier 2 (lasers/gauss), iirc, or just need the base research for that.

It can also be a bitch, I lost a TftD game where I wouldn't see any enemy ships, or maybe apart from very small ones that blew up when I shot them, until about 2 1/2 months in. A cruiser came to my base of rookies and killed them all.


Also Tasoth are one of my alltime favourite videogame enemies.

[Soadreqm]

The Siberia base will stick around for a good long while if I don't want to attack it right away, won't it? It's a base, it's not like they should be able to move it.

[sambojin]

OldCom is nice simply due to the expendability of soldiers and the incredibly low requirements to get quite functional weapons going. This makes the battlescape part of the game much easier.

A new recruit with a laser/plasma pistol, a medikit, and some smoke grenades and flares is often your man of the match. You can complete the game reasonably easily with just laser rifles. Plasma weapons are incredibly easy to research and are very abundant (anyone, no matter their stats, with a plasma rifle or heavy plasma can take on anything). You start out with massively destructive rocket launchers (and heavy/auto-cannons). Stun rods are the only option for captures for ages, but again, are very early-on in the tech-tree. Your starting craft has a massive troop compliment too, although it's a horrible interceptor (it's ridiculously good without the 80 item limit in OpenXcom).

Basically, you get the tools to succeed very early on. Sure, you'll lose plenty of men. But as long as you can get the next rookie on board a skyranger, give him the biggest, deadliest or cheapest thing you have laying around, they're an instant super soldier, even if they are a glass cannon.

No leveling, no decision making, just give them what you want and run them through the grinder. OldCom recruits get a lot of flak for their stormtrooper-like accuracy, but they do come fully trained for any role, be it sniper/heavy/CQB/grenadier or medic. And they can do it all in one mission if required. If they survive, they'll get better. At everything! Strength and TU are your "better at everything" stats, and doing nearly anything raises them. Enemies might seem harder, but you can dish out the same amount of instant death as them, yet only take the same amount. Next super soldier, step right up! The world needs you...

Armour, craft and craft weapons all come in a bit later. But it's really simple to get profitable things to manufacture, the timers are pretty lax as soon as you do, and even with a total squad wipe where you lose all your goodies, you can just send in a new squad with rocket launchers and smash'n'grab for some new toys whenever you need to (assuming you left someone in the skyranger to bail out of a mission when needed).

Honestly, after playing X-piratez and realizing that some of the techniques you use in that are just as applicable to OldCom, it seems a lot easier. But there's no research malarkey or tech-gating, no "must-do" missions, no real timers, just tonnes of cheap recruits on a huge replaceable transport with super-weapons (and even superer weapons available at a moment's notice).

TftD is a bit harder, with underwater/above-water weapon differentiation, more tech-gating, and generally scarier stuff to fight/the AI they use, but it's not all that different once you work out the basics.

OldCom is really quite relaxing and enjoyable compared to NewCom or X-piratez. No stress, no hassle, just nuking entire maps from day 1, followed by accurate sniping/CQB and captures shortly afterwards, and maybe a bit of heavy armour or voodoo shenanigans after that. It's refreshing

[GalacticMonkey]

ok, I'll give a try, although it seems I will miss all that soldier customization options and feels from newXCOM. But perhaps soviet human wave XCOM is also fun to play.

[Darkening Kaos]

The Siberia base will stick around for a good long while if I don't want to attack it right away, won't it? It's a base, it's not like they should be able to move it.

     Bases generate negative score every month, lowering your score, which in turn lowers your income from the nations/sectors/governments.  You can afford to ignore it for maybe a month, but you do need to deal with it long before you think your cannon-fodder is ready for it.

[sambojin]

 

ok, I'll give a try, although it seems I will miss all that soldier customization options and feels from newXCOM. But perhaps soviet human wave XCOM is also fun to play.

Just remember, never sell all your plasma pistols or plasma rifles. I know it's tempting to just give rookies a laser pistol, a grenade or two, some smoke and maybe a stun-rod, but don't.

Plasma pistols are precious. You might only get 20-30 of them in any play-through. Their clips, even more-so. No-one wants to waste time or elerium to manufacture more of them. They are what turns a rookie scout from a spray-and-pray spotter, into a "oh, there's three aliums here, no worries, I'll auto down two and walk back around the corner" type CQB expert.

The change from 28% autofire accuracy to 50% with a bit of extra damage is so huge, it's amazing. The difference of 25% TUs to 30% TUs is kinda irrelevant. Yes, you can spam 12 shots with laser instead of 9 with plasma, and yes, you'll reaction snapfire a bit more often at 20% TU on the laser pistol instead of the 30% TU with the plasma pistol, but the accuracy and damage is amazing on plasma. Where you'll need 2-3 soldier's full set of TUs to deal with something with laser weapons (even rifles sometimes), a plasma pistol can do it with one soldier, while retaining the versatility of a pistol. Which levels up that soldier because they got both hits and kills. Which gives them even more strength, TUs and accuracy. Which starts to transform them into an "actual Xcom soldier". The 0%-200% damage spread is a constant wall to get over anyway, but you have to land shots first to even have a chance to cross it. Plasma does that.

Plasma rifles are like this too. Save about 12 of each and as many clips as you can afford not to sell. 4 of each on the skyranger, 2-3 get shipped to each major base.

I know they're a major cash-cow at the beginning of the game, letting you ramp-up your manufacturing, research and facilities much more quickly. But honestly, hold onto at least a few of them, and plenty of clips. They're what turns a low-strength rookie into a murder machine, instead of a storm trooper wannabe.

A lot of people just think "nah, heavy plasma only". But seriously, one-handed 50% accurate autofire on the pistols, or 86% accurate snapshot reaction/sniper fire on the rifles is amazeballs. You only need a few of them, so never sell all of them. Or the clips you need for them.


Everyone's a specialist in OldCom. It just depends on what they can carry. But you bring an entire arsenal, not 6 mooks and a few explosives. Aliens are invading! Send the best of the best! All of them!

(oh, and always pre-prime a couple of smoke grenades in OpenXcom on your first two soldiers. Chuck them out the skyranger's door, then end turn (unless there's something that REALLY needs a rocket fired at it). It's not a human wave, it's a tactical deployment.The casualties can rack up from there)

[Rince Wind]

The Siberia base will stick around for a good long while if I don't want to attack it right away, won't it? It's a base, it's not like they should be able to move it.

It is a mission like others and will disappear. But it will come again until you researched the papers you can find there.

[Soadreqm]

Bases generate negative score every month, lowering your score, which in turn lowers your income from the nations/sectors/governments.  You can afford to ignore it for maybe a month, but you do need to deal with it long before you think your cannon-fodder is ready for it.

It's not technically a base, just a regular mission that takes place at a base.

It is a mission like others and will disappear. But it will come again until you researched the papers you can find there.

I assume it also reappears if I bail out? Because I just tried it, and boy that's a lot of supersoldiers. I think I'll need more psykers.

[Rince Wind]

     Bases generate negative score every month, lowering your score, which in turn lowers your income from the nations/sectors/governments.  You can afford to ignore it for maybe a month, but you do need to deal with it long before you think your cannon-fodder is ready for it.

Nah, the penalty isn't that bad, I have 3 bases that have been around for about  years now. Couldn't really be bothered to attack them. But one is now in a region I fly over pretty often apparently (Madagascar), so I might take it out to stop the hunter killers from there.
I can also use the Guildmaster that is there (hopefully, might be academy).

I assume it also reappears if I bail out? Because I just tried it, and boy that's a lot of supersoldiers. I think I'll need more psykers.

Yeah, the chance for it to reappear is pretty high I think. And it will stay in the pool until you research the papers.