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[MrWiggles]

Hey, can anyone give me a quick rundown of how to make sure I can set a non-Beginner Difficulty and keep it on that Difficulty? Does UFO Extender do that? I know XComUtil does but I might not want some of its other changes.

The new version of XComUtil has a prompt for (I think) all of its changes now.

[Puzzlemaker]

Hey, can anyone give me a quick rundown of how to make sure I can set a non-Beginner Difficulty and keep it on that Difficulty? Does UFO Extender do that? I know XComUtil does but I might not want some of its other changes.

You can opt for no changes when you set up XComUtil.

[Soulwynd]

Remember to run xcomutil outside dosbox when configuring it. If I remember well, a few options require java.exe.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I just had a fun run against a landed supply ship (I think it's a supply ship at any rate).

   My team of six barely-experienced agents and a tank landed amidst the lush green hills. No armor on anyone except the tank - either the aliens were scared of my little base, or the radar stacking bug really needs to be fixed somehow, because since after the first (small scout) UFO that exploded in the air, I had two terror missions and no luck against other targets that were either too fast or too hardy for my planes to take down... so, no alloys, and no armor. I did get to laser rifles, which made up the armament of 3 of my agents, the other three using a laser pistol/stunrod loadout. So, the mission begins, the tank rolls down the ramp, and immediately spots a Floater nearby. I think "what the heck", and snap-shot a cannon slug at it. It misses. The Floater cuts loose with a Heavy Plasma and now I have a tank wreck on my ramp. That went well...
   Unabashed, I continue, and the agent with a LasRifle that next exits the craft is able to efficiently subdue the alien. Nice. The rest of the group disembarks and spreads out a little to search for the saucer. Next turn, it is found, along with three other Floaters, one of whom reaction-fires one of the LasPistol rookies to death, and another gets a squaddie severely wounded. There's only a slight blood loss though, so the solder will last for a good while, but with his stats so lowered I'm keeping him back as I circle the saucer and gain entrance. One floater stunned in the entrance corridor, two more gunned down exiting the second elevator, and I'm left with only a few more to kill. The group splits up, two Rifle-wielders go to the second floor, the injured squaddie and two Pistol-toting rookies go for the third.
   The first group, on the second floor, is quickly reduced by one. Rounding a corner, the agent met a rather large explosion, which thankfully only stunned him. The second agent, after a moment of disorientation, finds the floater responsible and kills him with a single snap-shot. The other group, in the meantime, makes way to the control room. Judging by the length of "hidden movement" phase, whoever's there is all that's left. With the injured squaddie's health running dangerously low, and himself running dangerously ahead of the other two, he is the first to turn the last corner before the room, and quickly munches on a plasma bolt. Damn. The two rookies, approaching from different sides, also run up. There's the last bastard. A little overconfident in my abilities, I don't wait another turn and let them attack with what they have time for - one LasPistol burst each. The first rookie is in the same spot as the killed squaddie, and his burst does not kill the alien, but earns him a plasma bolt and a severe wound. The second rookie runs up behind the floater and fires his burst. Which still does not kill it. Cue "oh crap". The second rookie uses his last 6 AP to get to cover.
   With the only other agent still on the second floor scanning for hostiles, I can do no more, so I end turn. Predictably, the wounded rookie bites another bolt, and I can hear the floater get back into his quarters. Okay, I think, you're mine. The last pistol-wielding rookie storms into the quarters... and it's then I realize that this particular rookie skimped a little too much on physical training. He's left with 20 AP as he enters. Turning to face the floater to his right, leaves him 19. Using the stun rod? 20AP. Firing a laser pistol burst? 20AP. All I can do is a snap or aimed shot. Honest, if this shot was successful, I'd have accepted everything and finished the mission as it was. I do an aimed shot. It hits. It still does not kill the alien. One reaction fire later, the agent is dead. After a difficult fight with almost negligible losses (one rookie, one tank - guess which is more valuable) and several close calls, most of my team gets taken out by one alien due to the RNG. I could've probably finished the mission with my last agent, but I wasn't in the mood to lose so many people to a fluke of luck. Especially since I was down to 79K$ after investing a little too much into my new base near Panama Canal. Reload.

[Domenique]

I love how XcomUtil can make farm levels cleaner (less barns, freakin' labyrinths..). It's so much more fun to play with farms cleaner. Instead of 30 mins of pointless hide-and-seek, you get straight to the action.

[MrWiggles]

I forgot how hard and unforgiving this game can be. By god do I fucking love it. Whats nice, is that it doesn't feel like artificial difficulty. I'm not being challenge because I'm fighting the game but because the game feels difficult.

I got my squad decked out with Med kits, and laser rifles. Currently trying to get them all equipped with personal armor.

For myself, having the squad armored with Lasers and personal armor is the most iconic image of X-Com.

[Domenique]

I forgot how hard and unforgiving this game can be. By god do I fucking love it. Whats nice, is that it doesn't feel like artificial difficulty. I'm not being challenge because I'm fighting the game but because the game feels difficult.

I got my squad decked out with Med kits, and laser rifles. Currently trying to get them all equipped with personal armor.

For myself, having the squad armored with Lasers and personal armor is the most iconic image of X-Com.

Yeah, but without superhuman, it doesn't feel right. Now eight guys in PA and LR fighting against dozens of mutons. That's the UFO that you (should) play.

[MrWiggles]

My skills are a wii bit to rusted to try for superhuman.

[Domenique]

My skills are a wii bit to rusted to try for superhuman.

Mine too, but I find beginner boring (i played for five years beginner and then straight to superhuman). Not as many enemies etc. By the way, in superhuman you get much more experience and equipment for your troops, so there is a small trade-off. Some tactics, such as Smokey down the ramp make superhuman as hard as beginner .

[Sean Mirrsen]

Btw, for some reason I now consider the generic "Rifles" more versatile than Laser Rifles. My standard loadout now is 4 Rifle, 2 Las-Rifle, 1 Las-Pistol+Stunrod, 1 Stunbomb launcher. I can use las-rifles whenever I need to take down something large/heavy, but for normal day-to-day alien-busting I find the quick-to-fire Rifle much more practical. My team captain's reaction-firing is nothing short of devastating. The laser rifle needs way too many AP to fire, making it less than useful for scouts as well as fire support.

[Tarran]

Just wondering: Did anyone else have the same bad luck I did? Namely, did anyone else get an alien right out of the Skyranger on a 3 story high building in a night mission that's looking right at the exit and it's standing out of your LOS and it killed several of your men? Man, this mission is off to a bad start already. Two men dead in the first turn.

[Shadowlord]

I load the troopers up with electroflares on night missions, and toss a couple out the ramp (and then all over the place to light the area up). In general, though, the only reason I'd do something at night instead of waiting for day is because of a terror event. That'll boost the distance you can see. Won't stop you from getting shot walking out of the skyranger, though - for that you'd need to use a smoke grenade.

[Tarran]

This alien was smart, too. It had waited until after my tank got out of the way and after I had forgotten about the smoke grenades I had. Smart son of a gun.

I don't like waiting until it's morning. I don't know why, I just prefer to fight whenever my Skyranger gets there. More interesting for me.

[Sowelu]

I love how XcomUtil can make farm levels cleaner (less barns, freakin' labyrinths..). It's so much more fun to play with farms cleaner. Instead of 30 mins of pointless hide-and-seek, you get straight to the action.

What?  Barns and farmhouses are easy!...if you bring along a massive pile of rocket launchers.  Seriously, I don't even bother to go inside.  My first two guys out of the Skyranger always have rocket launchers, and smoke in their offhand.  If there's no barns in front of them, chuck smoke on the ground and inside the Skyranger, deploy next turn.  If there's any buildings in sight that I can hit from the Skyranger...nuke the fuckers, the second guys in line can usually get smoke outside (or at least drop it in the 'ranger).  If a building has any open doors, just keep pounding the area with rockets until something screams.  Hedge in the way?  Don't waste your time autofiring with lasers and hoping you'll get lucky enough to cut a small line of sight where you want it.  Blow them off the Goddamn map, and you get free smoke while you're at it!  Plus, who ever heard of "I used autofire to remove a wall and accidentally killed an alien?"  I guess it happens sometimes, but chucking rockets at farmhouses will get you accidental kills all the freaking time.

Seriously, those rockets are what, $900?  They're better at one-hit kills than plasma weapons, great accuracy at range, they do damage from 50%-150% of listed range instead of 0%-200% which is GREAT.  (Who cares if your plasma bolt does double damage--what really blows is if it does 10% damage three times in a row.)  And point blank explosives are the only way to hit under armor...even shooting someone from below doesn't do it!  Under armor is being hit by an area-of-effect weapon that explodes either on your tile, or on the surrounding eight tiles.  Usually grenades, but rockets count too.  One rocket is almost a guaranteed kill on anything short of a beefy terror unit or a Muton, and two rockets can and will waste the most badass and lucky of all Mutons.

Happiness, by the way, is seeing an alien chuck an alien grenade right in the middle of your highest-ranked troops (Oh crap!) and then discovering that, with their new awesome flying armor, even an explosion just a couple tiles away doesn't scratch ANY of them.

[justinlee999]

Also about the UFO extender, you can't use the windows version normally in Vista/7, but I read in the feature list that you can change the DirectDraw into D3D, as well as make it windowed. I guess it makes it Vista/7 compatible?