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[Puzzlemaker]

So I saw on steam that X-Com (The original) was five bucks.  I thought, hey, I heard of this game.  A lot of people seem to like it, I guess I'll try it out.

So I started it up, and promptly failed.  After looking online to find out how you get your guys to shoot (You have to click the gun) I started getting into it, and eight hours later I realized I haven't done anything productive all day.

I haven't gotten far, I keep having to reload saves after I get horribly horrible raped by aliens, but I am getting the hang of it.  Your soldiers tend to die though.  Often.  The ones that survive and gain rank I don't want to send into the battlefield, so it ends up that my forces in the field are all new recruits.  If they survive and gain experience, they get to have the luxury of chilling in my base.  At least, that's the backwards system I have ended up using.  I don't want my badasses to die...

There are a few problems I am having with it though.  Is it possible to have equipment assigned to soldiers, instead of assigning it every mission or whatever?  The random equipment assigner doesn't really do things my way.  Also, armor.  Can I have armor protect my experienced dudes so they don't die in one shot, or is that a reality I will have to accept?

Awesome game, though.  I can see why it's so popular.

[Phantom]

As for armor, see the research things? Yeah, research Alloys and then you can research much effective Personal Armor and then Power Armor. And you're gonna have to send out the 'Badasses' for them to be more effective later and giving out morale. And you can take equipment off dudes, put it in the giant rectangle and shove it on another dude.


Oh, and I would like to point you towards the various LP's people ran about X-Com. Azzuro did a spectacular one where the war was ended swiftly. And you kinda have to deal with the casualties for a while...

[Puzzlemaker]

Sweet, thanks.  I'll be sure to check out the LP's at some point.  As for the equipment, I meant like... it keeps giving this guy the big cannon and it keeps loading it with AP rounds, I want this other guy to have to and I don't want to have to switch it every single time.  Am I making sense?

Edit:  Wait.  So people with higher ranks improve the morale of others?

[Shadowlord]

(Trying to run a squad with SG-1-like technology, especially if you use limited numbers of troops, will get everyone killed. You definitely need advanced weapons and armor to survive reliably in XCom.)

Personally I keep promoted soldiers in the squad (until they die) - their improved abilities make it worth it, especially if you give them the better armor if you only have a limited amount.

There are three main ways to increase survivability:

1. Armor, starting with the standard armor, then moving onto power armor, then possibly the flying armor for some of your agents.
2. Research and build laser rifles for your troops, medkits, and then plasma weapons (plasma rifles, heavy plasmas). The laser rifles vastly increase your ability to hurt aliens. Medkits help survivability. Plasma weapons are better than laser weapons. Always use auto-fire (if you do the probability math to compare the different shot types, auto-fire works out to be the best for pretty much all guns).
3. You may want to check your soldiers' stats, and fire the ones with crappy stats. Of particular note is their bravery stat. If they have a low bravery, they'll panic easily, and you don't want that. The other really important ones IMHO are their reaction speed, and a hidden psionic-related stat, which you would need to send them through psionic training to unhide (so you can just ignore it safely until later).

Obviously this isn't a comprehensive guide to what to research, and I haven't told you in what order to research things. I've just suggested some things which vastly increase your soldiers' survivability.

You can manufacture and sell some items to make tons of money, for example: laser rifles. Or sell off extras of recovered alien stuff, such as alien corpses, or equipment or ammo that you don't need.

You may also want to try doing some things with conventional weapons in the beginning. For instance, I like having a couple guys with explosive or incendiary ammo in autocannons and heavy cannons.

[Burnt Pies]

Have a look at UFOPaedia, it's essentially the X-Com wiki. Gives you fairly detailed info on anything you need to look at.

Once you have a decent Tactic and equipment to back it up (Power Armour and Laser Rifles at least), Bravery becomes useless, as you should be able to take down most UFOs with no casualties. I've never really been bothered by it, Firing Accuracy and TUs have always been the things I look at in a soldier.

[Phantom]

Here's a tip when you start the Laser Tree:
Never go up to Heavy Lasers unless you need to fight something that won't show up for a VERY long time, or you need money.


Also: Yes, higher ranked troops increase morale but should they die troopers take a morale hit.

[Domenique]

You'd want to use some tactics to stay alive, by using them I never lose a soldier atacking a battleship on superhuman, even without psionics.

Here's some tips:

• Use smoke grenades. Throw one down the 'ranger's ramp at the beginning, it will hide your soldiers that come out. Use those when you want to cover your squad's movement.
• Do not send a soldier alone. Anywhere. A soldier must always be covered by a soldier that is covered by another soldier, but be mindful to keep distance between them, because later the aliens tend to use some badass 'nades at you.
• Don't rush, move slowly into unknown territory. Always leave some TU's for your front soldiers, scouts or whatever, and especially for the ones that cover your scouts. When you leave TU's, your soldier will have a chance to shoot an alien via reaction shot, which depends on his reaction skill.
• Scrap your Stingrays and Cannons for your interceptors, you don't need those at all. Buy three more Avalanches and arm your 'ceptors with them. These are the most powerful weapons available until you reasearch laser or plasma stuff.
• Med-kits are often life-savers for badass soldiers. Have a few onboard, if somebody gets shot, throw one to the closest guy, unless the closest guy already has one, then heal him. Trust me, you don't want your good men dead for a myriad of reasons.
• Auto-shot rocks, use it unless the distance is very very very very great, you'll still hit with your accurate soldiers.

That's all that I could think of, really, good luck and have fun!

[Deadmeat1471]

I haven't gotten far, I keep having to reload saves after I get horribly horrible raped by aliens

Ahh the familiar cries of a new X-Com player; 'WHY WHYYY?'

[Robsoie]

The first few missions will be a nightmare : your squaddies are not efficient , are loosy shots, are very weak and have terrible equipment. Especially considering that at that point, the enemy see from further than them, and will have often the possibility to fire 1st during an encounter.
The 1st terror mission by example is a nightmare with those kind of early troops.

But the squaddies that you manage to get to survive are getting experience, they're really improving, they will more often have an opportunity fire (firing first makes all the difference between a squaddie dying and surviving) and your researches will give them the much needed better equipement.

I think that the beginning of the game is much more difficult than the rest, as once your squaddies are good, they can put a good fight and survive missions more often, even with the more powerfull enemies.

[Neonivek]

The major reason why Armor increases survivability even though guns still hurt enough to kill even heavily armored troops is because of how the game handles explosives.

It is odd really... Unarmored an Alien Grenade can take down your entire squad... but later grenades are around the weakest weapons you will encounter.

[Shadowlord]

It does help to keep your troops moving around in separate squads of four or five people each, each watching in different directions with time reserved for auto-fire at the end of their turns, so nobody can sneak up on them.

[MrWiggles]

In my play through, I tend to make my second or third base a manufacturing base. It just churns out laser cannons, which get sold to the black market.

Until you're fairly seasoned you're going to need to sell items in order to keep a good cash flow. Elsewise you wont be able to expand, research and build the new spiffy weapons.

[Soulwynd]

Oh lucky... Playing it for the first time... I remember I played it at night and I was so fucking scared of all the screaming and then sighting an alien for a couple steps only before hearing the footsteps and the following shots and screams.

Btw, google for "xcomutils" it balances, fixes, and adds a lot of things for both X-Com 1 and 2.

It's practically a must for me.

[Domenique]

 I remember as a kid, watching my brother figuring out how to fire a weapon and getting scared to ass of aliens (when I was little i thought they're real). Until my brother figured out how to fire a gun, he knew how to use 'nades, so he only took grenades to battles and managed to play pretty well for a guy that only uses grenades.

[Burnt Pies]

Laser Cannons are a damn good money spinner. Definitely worth using any spare manufacturing capacity on them, although you shouldn't let them interfere with making useful stuff (Armour, Weapons) unless you really need the money.