Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Neonivek]

Yeah people who complain that normal is "Too easy" should keep playing...

I just got my butt handed to me and I was actually doing quite well for myself.

I will say that a BIG part of the game is simply taking things slow.

A lot of missions are easy, even pathetically slow, so long as you do not advance... or to put it another way "Aliens do not exist as long as you cannot see them" there are few missions that this does not apply.

Chryssalids. Four of them

Ouch!

Honestly the hardest part about fighting them is simply that a lot of the time you are going to end up fighting them after your turn

I'm not sure I like the look of Chryssalids.  I mean, come on.  It's just not a chryssalid without that volleyball head

That is because these Chryssalids are based off the Zergs.

[nenjin]

Taking it slow, full cover and medkits. Basic grenades are only useful against the small fries with 3 health or for clearing away cover. Meanwhile, being able to get shot more than twice and live can get you through a lot of BS early on.

If you can manage to unnerve the aliens, you can keep setting up overwatch as they dance in and out of your visual range. You have to have bloodied them though, and when you're talkin' Mutons, that takes a lot of firepower. Or rockets. God bless rockets.

And god bless snipers too. Between Squad Sight and a good position, your sniper can basically eliminate targets while the rest sit in full cover so they can keep slowly advancing. I want an upgraded sniper rifle already, so I can execute Chrysallids from a safe distance.

[Neonivek]

I just use Snipers for Mutons.

A Criticle hit on a Muton with a Sniper Rifle kills them... it kills a lot of things.

If it doesn't critical then I have a free stunned Muton.

Also Nenjin assault class gets a Double shot skill later on that can be a godsend for the Chrysallids if you can get the drop on one.

[Kilroy the Grand]

I just got to the first alien base. There were chryssalids. Lots of chryssalids. Managed to snag the alien commander though

[Aqizzar]

I have to say, the aliens are really not stepping up their game in this Classic-Mode Ironman run.  Yet.  By far my biggest danger is the increased panic in the places I don't save.

I have one particularly notable soldier so far.  I don't remember what he did in the first mission, but was a sniper for the second call.  After the leading man got killed by the last wounded Sectoid, the sniper panicked and took a potshot at one of squad members and missed.

Next mission out was a crash recovery, and scored first blood headshotting some crystal alien through a wall.  Then when a Sectoid wounded a rookie, him and the assault guy and the sniper all panicked, leaving only the French medic chick clear-headed... Except that the sniper blew away a Sectoid with his panic shot.

Then, a nearly perfect abduction run in Berlin, with the sniper kill-stealing from across the map with that handy dandy use-squaddies'-vision skill.  He's acquired eleven kills in four missions, and earned the nickname Pharaoh as a Sergeant.

Appropriately enough for a wall-shooting kill-stealing super-twitchy sniper, he's Korean.

[GlyphGryph]

Everybody's dead, Dave. (I'm gonna restart...on medium.)

No, not bro! Bro's still alive, right? He can't be dead.

[Neonivek]

The game hits a huge difficulty Spike Aqizzar as soon as you finish your first terror mission.

This game really feels like Xcom in the way it makes you feel like you are doing well only for it to say "Nah uhhh, you stink!"

[Sirus]

Well, if you don't mind a few spoilers, check this out:
http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?140951-Additional-settings-which-make-game-coolest!

It's a list of additional settings, kind of like Civs advanced options. Actually here, I'll copy and paste below as well. SPOILERS.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Second Wave: Advanced Gameplay Options
Note: These gameplay options will significantly increase the challenge of the game!

[eGO_CritOnFlank]=Absolutely Critical
[eGO_CritOnFlank]=A flanking shot will guarantee a critical hit.

[eGO_DecliningFunding]=War Weariness
[eGO_DecliningFunding]=Overall funding levels drop inexorably with every month that passes.

[eGO_DegradingElerium]=E-115
[eGO_DegradingElerium]=Elerium stores will degrade over time.

[eGO_EscalatingSatelliteCosts]=Diminishing Returns
[eGO_EscalatingSatelliteCosts]=The cost of satellites increases with every one that is built.

[eGO_InterrogateForPsi]=The Greater Good
[eGO_InterrogateForPsi]=The secret of psionics can only be learned by interrogating a psionic alien.

[eGO_LoseGearOnDeath]=Total Loss
[eGO_LoseGearOnDeath]=Lose all gear from soldiers who die in combat.

[eGO_Marathon]=Marathon
[eGO_Marathon]=The game takes considerably longer to complete.

[eGO_MoreAbductionSites]=The Blitz
[eGO_MoreAbductionSites]=The aliens will target a larger number of cities every time they launch an abduction attack.

[eGO_MorePower]=Alternate Sources
[eGO_MorePower]=The power requirements of all facilities are increased.

[eGO_PanicAffectsFunding]=A country will offer less funding as its panic increases.
[eGO_PanicAffectsFunding]=Results Driven

[eGO_RandomDamage]=Damage Roulette
[eGO_RandomDamage]=Weapons have a much wider range of damage.

[eGO_RandomFunding]=New Economy
[eGO_RandomFunding]=The funding offered by individual council members is randomized.

[eGO_RandomRookieStats]=Not Created Equally
[eGO_RandomRookieStats]=Rookies will have random starting stats.

[eGO_RandomStatProgression]=Hidden Potential
[eGO_RandomStatProgression]=As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly.

[eGO_UltraRarePsionics]=More Than Human
[eGO_UltraRarePsionics]=The psionic gift is extremely rare.

[eGO_VariableAbductionRewards]=High Stakes
[eGO_VariableAbductionRewards]=The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized.

[eGO_WoundsAffectStats]=Red Fog
[eGO_WoundsAffectStats]=Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier's stats for that mission.

I don't suppose these are anywhere in the files, are they? I did some cursory checking around the config files and found nada.

[alway]

Aww yeah. Very Difficult mission using 4 somewhat skilled troops and one rookie. No deaths. No injuries. Love rooftops sooo much. Between my heavy, support, and 2 snipers, nothing down below lived. At one point a thin man runs into range. 3 soldiers open fire with their overwatch.

That match lasted soooo long though, as I was mostly camping on the roof. I have to say, having that 5th squad slot is one of the best things you can get early on.

[Mech#4]

Hm, I've been reading that the download size is around 12.5gig. This is correct, yes? On steam it says to allow 20gig but that's just swap space.

[Tarran]

Yep, it's 12 gigabytes for the actual game.

[Drakale]

I concur on the difficulty spike. Was doing ok on classic, then suddenly a terror mission with 9 chryssalis, 3 floaters and a disk + 2 drones within 2 turns. I'm not even counting the zombies in there. I had 6 guys thanks to the upgrade, but half where green rookies.

All the rookies panicked, I retreat about half the squad and in the aftermath 3 nations abandon me, tipping me over the game over point. There was no way to win that one unless I brought a lot of explosive and blasted aliens and civilians appart.

Anyone noticed a huge increase in alien count once you upgrade the maximum squad size? Might be just a coincidence...

[Neonivek]

Might be just a coincidence...

It is a coincidence. It just so happens that you get the upgrade around the time aliens start pulling numbers on you.

[Mephansteras]

Oh gods...this just got brutal. Lost my entire Green Squad to some bad luck and rookies panicking. Bastards shot their own teammates twice, killing one guy. And then a misthrown grenade killed off my last surviving guy as he was trying to kill the final alien.

Had another fight go sour and had to retreat after losing 3 good soldiers.

And now I just lost my best Assault to a nasty Thin Man who managed to run up and blast him after dodging three reaction shots. Including my Scoped Sniper. *sigh*

Ah, well, at least I'm keeping on top of the panic so far. At least...I haven't lost any countries yet, although a bad selection of abduction missions might ruin that.

[Aqizzar]

I hate Thin Men with a goddamn passion.  I haven't had a mission with them yet that didn't turn to complete shit.  The only reason I didn't lose my whole squad to the latest mission is that the program crashed before they had a chance.  Bastards took out my tutorial squad, my all Squaddie-squad including that brave French and a reward soldier on his first mission, then shot Pharaoh in the temporally-lost mission.  They're just such pricks and really fast and accurate.

I also hate Argentinians and Russians, because they're total pussies.  Look, I can't help it if the aliens want to knock out my satellites that take a month's time and budget to build and then hit three cities at once every few weeks.  I can only keep so many plates spinning at the same time guys.