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[USEC_OFFICER]

How are Cryssalids anyway? Obviously, they aren't as magically fast and bullet resistant anymore.

Well, they're not so resistant, but still pretty fast. Oh, and they're no-longer limited to just terror missions. Turning a corner in a UFO and seeing a group of Chyssalids chilling isn't the greatest of feelings.

[EnigmaticHat]

How are Cryssalids anyway? Obviously, they aren't as magically fast and bullet resistant anymore.

Cryssalids are a nightmare.

The problem isn't that they're super powerful, although they are inhumanly tough and fast its still pretty reasonable.  The problem is they show up in terror missions, which are already pretty hard, and add another element of difficulty.  If you choose to go for victory over the aliens instead of saving civilians (read: take things slowly), the cryssalids will kill everyone, get a horde of zombies, which are fairly slow but are tough, that will randomly become cryssalids AND STILL GET A FULL TURN.  So its like a bunch of walking time bombs that you may or may not be at a safe distance from, and that collectively have many times your health.  Or you could rush to save the civies, and face a bunch of floaters and cryssalids at close range.

This is all based on one encounter with them, so there may be a strategy I'm missing.  But in the early encounters... watch out, man.  Oh, and they can leap up walls now.

[Cthulhu]

Surprisingly, the game actually seems a lot harder than the original.  I'm thinking one thing might be that your units are much less expendable now.  With all the upgrades and fancy shit, losing a guy actually means a lot now.  Even your elite guys weren't really that huge a deal.

[Sirus]

Oh, and they can leap up walls now.

Thin Men can as well. Don't think that all you need to do is hold a staircase against them.

[Silent_Thunder]

Surprisingly, the game actually seems a lot harder than the original.  I'm thinking one thing might be that your units are much less expendable now.  With all the upgrades and fancy shit, losing a guy actually means a lot now.  Even your elite guys weren't really that huge a deal.

Heh I know what ya mean there. Still don't have the new one, but I remember in the old one easily sacrificing 4-5 rookies every mission. Hell some of my tactics NEEDED the rooks to die, such as the "Self Guided Anti-Personell Bomb" (A rookie with a primed grenade intended to die inside the UFO)

[Mephansteras]

Installing....installing...Install Faster!!!

[Cthulhu]

Something that I've been wondering about the aliens is why they seem to limit their invasions to tourist traps.  I head to Mexico City and find that they've attacked a kitschy little America-themed village, with American-style restaurants and not a word of Spanish anywhere.

[IronyOwl]

How are Cryssalids anyway? Obviously, they aren't as magically fast and bullet resistant anymore.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

*cuts to static*


Or at least, that's been my experience with them.

Anyway, I think I'm done with Classic, at least for now. Gonna give Normal a try- nice, wussy, everyone gets to mostly live normal.


My second attempt was pretty funny, though. I got this one guy, Makharov or something. Only survivor of the very first mission, partially because he panicked and shot an ally. Then he upgrades to assault and two funny things happen.

One, he just can't stop shooting allies. Most people, if and when they panic, either shoot enemies frantically, hunker down, or run. Not him. He shoots his teammates whenever he panics, which is always.

Two, he's awesome. In addition to being the last surviving squad member several times (and having something like 14 kills in 4 missions), he explains to me why assaults are deadly. See apparently shotguns have 100% accuracy point-blank, and combined with run and gun... wow. So that's how you use an assault properly. Managed to pull off several do-or-die situations with that one, like charging past a mind-boosted sectoid to blast his boosting partner (before I knew they had 100% acc, incidentally, which made pulling that off all the sweeter), or rushing the last floater to finish him off before he shreds my out of cover squad.

His death to you-know-whats was basically when I called the game. Rest of the squad was overwhelmed, he and another guy retreated, then I thought if they dashed they could keep out of range and get back to the Skyranger. Nope. You died a tragic and heroic death, you magnificent teamkilling panicky son of a bitch.

[nenjin]

So has anyone sussed out the rate of escalation of aliens? Is it tied to the objectives or is it independent like it was in X-COM? That was the real bitch of the original, you couldn't sit back and take it slow because the game escalated without requiring you to have researched equivalent technology.

I blasted through a ton of objectives before I'd even seen laser rifles and a lot of missions are now showing up at very difficult or worse. Does it base mission difficulty on your previous month's XCOM Rating? I've been save scumming like a putz on a normal, trying to get a feel for what you can get away with, and I've only come close to once having a guy in such a messed up situation that he was guaranteed to die once. The other tight spots are something that reverting a round would have avoided. Although I'm usually getting no less than 10 aliens in missions now. Taking on a single group of a three sectoids alone isn't a big problem, especially with a sniper in a good position. But get two groups of different alien types coming at you at the same time....that shit sucks.

I'm wondering if you can just not pursue the objectives and keep the challenge of the game semi-static while you build up. Or if it's just on a downward slope towards the apocalypse like X-COM was.

On Chrysalids it takes at least two laser rifles to bring them down. I did my first terror mission and went straight to the middle, and once I knew where it was coming from, I just set up a firing line outside of its charge range and brought them down. There's also those Chrysalid Armor plates. They say they reduce melee damage, although I wonder how much is enough.

Something that I've been wondering about the aliens is why they seem to limit their invasions to tourist traps.  I head to Mexico City and find that they've attacked a kitschy little America-themed village, with American-style restaurants and not a word of Spanish anywhere.

Maybe Souvenir Shops are their sworn galactic enemy.

[Wrex]

See, in the original, Snakeman Terror missions were best handled as follows:

Make perimeter around skyranger.
Wait.

Or:

Equip Autocannon
Equip Incendaries.
Burn everything to the ground.

Two laser blasts was about as much as they used to take, anyway. Also, if you shot down a terror ship, there could be Chryssalids on it.

[USEC_OFFICER]

So has anyone sussed out the rate of escalation of aliens? Is it tied to the objectives or is it independent like it was in X-COM?

It's definitively independent. I've been stuck on one objective for several months because of a lack of alien alloys, yet I've seen new aliens pop up since then.

[Pnx]

Something that I've been wondering about the aliens is why they seem to limit their invasions to tourist traps.  I head to Mexico City and find that they've attacked a kitschy little America-themed village, with American-style restaurants and not a word of Spanish anywhere.

I did also wonder why the French police seemed to have police cars that had a colour scheme that made them look like they belonged to the metropolitan police service, and why Paris had what looked like one of London's red double decker buses.

[Cthulhu]

One of my squad members is a Canadian sniper named Landon Patterson. 

Spoiler: I edited none of this, except the armor. (click to show/hide)

That is perfect.  That is Landon Patterson, the immutable essence of what it is to be a Canadian marksman named Landon Patterson.  I can hear his voice, how he would sound if he could talk, and I know you can too.

[mikefictiti0us]

Look at that steely, hawk-like gaze. There's also a glint of mischief in the set of his mouth, an almost sensual undercurrent that hints of his barely contained sexual masculinity.

[EnigmaticHat]

Before they died, my 6 experienced soldiers included a pair of yellow armor wearing soldiers named Lewis & Clark.  Not intentional in the slightest.