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[Owlga]

You can actually turn autosave on for non ironman games. I know we use it but without ironman since the touchpad on this laptop can be kinda sensitive about clicks, and that's caused problems when a door gets clicked on a button for an ability that wasn't intended gets clicked. Not to mention accidentally hitting to scan for activity rather than respond to abductions.

[Urist McSpike]

Batch of comments on some things.

First of all, Muton Berserkers are a major pain!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They advance every time they get hit, have a lot of health, and do big melee damage.

I've had the UI become absolutely horrible at times. For example sometimes the game ABSOLUTELY does not want me placing a unit on a perfectly logical spot.

The UI can be a pain - watch out any time you are trying to move a unit to an overhang.  I get a lot of flickering, and half the time it will send my unit down in front.  It seems like you can make these moves easier by rotating the map and trying again, but I had one spot on a map that I absolutely could not move into, even though it looked perfectly valid.

without Ironman the game does not autosave.  A CTD last night cost me my game that was steadily falling apart but I was still way into.

You have to go into the Advanced Options when starting a game, and enable autosave.  Which you need to do, because there are some (PC) menu bugs that have forced me to alt-tab, kill the game & reload.  At times, the UI menu options will be borked - for me, it always seems like the base pause/save/load menu just will not come up.  That's happened to me about 3 times, and I was able to get back to the latest autosave.  Battlefield saves are at the start of every turn (so if the aliens kill your guys, they are already dead in the save), but I'm not sure how often the Geoscape saves happen.  Probably when you hit a research/production event, or maybe daily.


Overall, there are some glitches & bugs I really hope get fixed.  Sight can be a pain, since the camera auto-adjusts when you're near the map edge, or to a set height.  It makes it a pain when you're in a UFO, have a 3 story building to go through, or you're trying to move someone to a certain point in a varying height map.  I really wish you could force the game to adjust to a level, like in the original.  The menu bugging out is a pain, and I had to kill the game one time because it froze up (or couldn't decide what to do) on Alien Activity.  I also wish they'd incorporated the UFOpedia from the original game - this has no in-game database of your stuff, and you have to check each of them out to see what they do.  But still, it's pretty solid otherwise.

[umiman]

The UI can be a pain - watch out any time you are trying to move a unit to an overhang.  I get a lot of flickering, and half the time it will send my unit down in front.  It seems like you can make these moves easier by rotating the map and trying again, but I had one spot on a map that I absolutely could not move into, even though it looked perfectly valid.

I've had that too. I couldn't move onto the only piece of cover in the area. It was a bit interesting, as it forced me to use a smoke grenade (which didn't work since there was no cover to hide behind in the first place). But most of the time everything works like a charm and the fluid movement is really nice. It's great how your soldiers just jump up and down and over stuff like nobody's business. Guess that's why they went for a lot of crafted maps rather than just randomly generated ones.

But yeah, I'm more impressed that there are so few bugs, rather than the few that exist but aren't too big a deal.

I wish I could undo movement though.

[Cthulhu]

Why are cyberdisks even in multiplayer?  Seriously, these fucking things.

[Briggsy16]

Anyone know when the game is unlocked in Europe?

[Sergius]

I especially like how the laser shotgun (Scatter Laser) makes a shotgun-booming noise...  And for the record - I think Assault's are my second favorite class (Snipers first).

In Real Life (TM), a laser with that kind of power (enough to kill an armored target I presume) would make a noise similar to a thunderclap, due to ionization of the air and whatnot.

Anyway...

I have been watching a lot of gameplay videos, and it seems to me that's it's pretty much impossible to avoid having bunches of countries withdraw their support. This doesn't seem to be only in the Classic or harder settings... Every abduction, two countries get TONS of panic (I mean a lot, like going from 1 to 4), one gets a slight decrease if at all... scripted missions don't seem to lower panic all that much and satellites take days and days to make and deploy (more if you count every time you have to make one of those sat base thingies). So what's the deal? Is it just a plate juggling game where there's a certainty that half of the dishes will fall and break? Opinions? This kinda irks me, if I can't keep everyone happy why even try?

[Sirus]

Every abduction, two countries get TONS of panic (I mean a lot, like going from 1 to 4), one gets a slight decrease if at all...

Oh it's worse than that. For abductions, the country you help (assuming you succeed) gets some panic reduction. For the other two countries, their entire continent experiences increased panic. So if you don't help Great Britain, all of Europe panics a little more.

scripted missions don't seem to lower panic all that much

Depends on the mission, it seems. I recently completed a major scripted mission, and panic WORLDWIDE decreased. Considering I had three countries on the verge of leaving, that helped tremendously.

[Fikes]

So what's the deal? Is it just a plate juggling game where there's a certainty that half of the dishes will fall and break? Opinions? This kinda irks me, if I can't keep everyone happy why even try?

Odd last statement. You can never make EVERYONE happy even in Real Life (TM). You try because you have to, or because you have something to gain.

I don't know why the "plate juggling" thing irks you. XCOM isn't a 100% success rate game. The fact that it makes you so angry is part of the fun.

[Kaje]

I especially like how the laser shotgun (Scatter Laser) makes a shotgun-booming noise...  And for the record - I think Assault's are my second favorite class (Snipers first).

In Real Life (TM), a laser with that kind of power (enough to kill an armored target I presume) would make a noise similar to a thunderclap, due to ionization of the air and whatnot.

Anyway...

I have been watching a lot of gameplay videos, and it seems to me that's it's pretty much impossible to avoid having bunches of countries withdraw their support. This doesn't seem to be only in the Classic or harder settings... Every abduction, two countries get TONS of panic (I mean a lot, like going from 1 to 4), one gets a slight decrease if at all... scripted missions don't seem to lower panic all that much and satellites take days and days to make and deploy (more if you count every time you have to make one of those sat base thingies). So what's the deal? Is it just a plate juggling game where there's a certainty that half of the dishes will fall and break? Opinions? This kinda irks me, if I can't keep everyone happy why even try?

Currently playing on 'Normal' and I haven't had a country drop out yet and I'm very close to the endgame (and I haven't played for anywhere near 20 hours, so that time frame is bull...)

Really disappointed with it, if I'm honest. It's very linear and not a patch on the classic X-Com games.

If they do a sequel (which they need to do sooner rather than later) then they need to change an awful lot.

[Urist McSpike]

I have been watching a lot of gameplay videos, and it seems to me that's it's pretty much impossible to avoid having bunches of countries withdraw their support. This doesn't seem to be only in the Classic or harder settings... Every abduction, two countries get TONS of panic (I mean a lot, like going from 1 to 4), one gets a slight decrease if at all... scripted missions don't seem to lower panic all that much and satellites take days and days to make and deploy (more if you count every time you have to make one of those sat base thingies). So what's the deal? Is it just a plate juggling game where there's a certainty that half of the dishes will fall and break? Opinions? This kinda irks me, if I can't keep everyone happy why even try?

Thoughts on panic, some confirmed, some speculation.  This game (4th) is on Normal mode, mid July; I've lost Russia & the UK, but everything else is ok.  If things go well for the next 3 weeks, I'll have my 3rd satellite nexus built, and be able to launch the rest of my satellites (14 total) - one for everyone except Russia & the UK.

Minor edit inside, on the negative results to an idea I had.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Missions, of course, reduce panic in that region.  Failing, aborting, or the two you choose to ignore, will increase it.
Finishing the base mission will reduce worldwide panic by 2.
Putting up a satellite will reduce panic for that country by 2 or 3.  I can't remember, but I think it might also have an effect on all countries in that region.
Speculation - Stationing aircraft in a region might reduce panic?  I'm not sure if it does, or if you need the satellites to see UFO's before you could actually shoot them down.  Then again, maybe just having aircraft stationed there will make the countries feel like you're doing something for them.  If simply placing aircraft will reduce panic, that'd be a huge plus for a North America base.
EDIT:  Simply stationing planes do not reduce panic.  Africa was at 3/3/1/3, bought one interceptor, no change.

[Mephansteras]

I especially like how the laser shotgun (Scatter Laser) makes a shotgun-booming noise...  And for the record - I think Assault's are my second favorite class (Snipers first).

In Real Life (TM), a laser with that kind of power (enough to kill an armored target I presume) would make a noise similar to a thunderclap, due to ionization of the air and whatnot.

Anyway...

I have been watching a lot of gameplay videos, and it seems to me that's it's pretty much impossible to avoid having bunches of countries withdraw their support. This doesn't seem to be only in the Classic or harder settings... Every abduction, two countries get TONS of panic (I mean a lot, like going from 1 to 4), one gets a slight decrease if at all... scripted missions don't seem to lower panic all that much and satellites take days and days to make and deploy (more if you count every time you have to make one of those sat base thingies). So what's the deal? Is it just a plate juggling game where there's a certainty that half of the dishes will fall and break? Opinions? This kinda irks me, if I can't keep everyone happy why even try?

Currently playing on 'Normal' and I haven't had a country drop out yet and I'm very close to the endgame (and I haven't played for anywhere near 20 hours, so that time frame is bull...)

Really disappointed with it, if I'm honest. It's very linear and not a patch on the classic X-Com games.

If they do a sequel (which they need to do sooner rather than later) then they need to change an awful lot.

Try playing on Classic. The increased difficulty helps a lot to keep the game interesting. Still feels linear in some ways, but it's hard enough that I can easily see different games going very differently so replayability should be fine.

[Fikes]

Currently playing on 'Normal' and I haven't had a country drop out yet and I'm very close to the endgame (and I haven't played for anywhere near 20 hours, so that time frame is bull...)

Really disappointed with it, if I'm honest. It's very linear and not a patch on the classic X-Com games.

If they do a sequel (which they need to do sooner rather than later) then they need to change an awful lot.

What do you mean by "It's very linear"? All X-Com games had a research path to get get to the end and beat the game, that is the only way I have seen that XCOM can be described as Linear.

Also what do you mean "not a patch on the classic"?

[Urist McSpike]

Somehow, it's oddly appropriate...   

Colonel Min Ju 'Demon' Choi, a sniper with 64 kills over 24 missions, is the first Psi capable operative I have.  (In The Zone is an amazing sniper ability, btw.)

[alway]

I especially like how the laser shotgun (Scatter Laser) makes a shotgun-booming noise...  And for the record - I think Assault's are my second favorite class (Snipers first).

In Real Life (TM), a laser with that kind of power (enough to kill an armored target I presume) would make a noise similar to a thunderclap, due to ionization of the air and whatnot.

Anyway...

I have been watching a lot of gameplay videos, and it seems to me that's it's pretty much impossible to avoid having bunches of countries withdraw their support. This doesn't seem to be only in the Classic or harder settings... Every abduction, two countries get TONS of panic (I mean a lot, like going from 1 to 4), one gets a slight decrease if at all... scripted missions don't seem to lower panic all that much and satellites take days and days to make and deploy (more if you count every time you have to make one of those sat base thingies). So what's the deal? Is it just a plate juggling game where there's a certainty that half of the dishes will fall and break? Opinions? This kinda irks me, if I can't keep everyone happy why even try?

Currently playing on 'Normal' and I haven't had a country drop out yet and I'm very close to the endgame (and I haven't played for anywhere near 20 hours, so that time frame is bull...)

Really disappointed with it, if I'm honest. It's very linear and not a patch on the classic X-Com games.

If they do a sequel (which they need to do sooner rather than later) then they need to change an awful lot.

Try playing on Classic. The increased difficulty helps a lot to keep the game interesting. Still feels linear in some ways, but it's hard enough that I can easily see different games going very differently so replayability should be fine.

Yeah, the countries are really kinda stupid on Classic. Starting at the end of month 2, I've had 3 dropping out per month, despite usually adequate rating. Those abduction missions are terrible for this. You succeeded in pushing back the alien threat on a 'very difficult' map? Congratulations, you are rewarded with -4 panic in the country the threat was in. Also a +2 to panic for each of the 4 countries in each of the 2 continents the other missions were in. It becomes unmitigated BS in that regard, as they drop left and right even if you succeed in pretty much all your missions.

I'm likely gong to lose by the end of month 4 simply because winning all but 2 missions apparently just wasn't good enough for them.

[Fikes]

Am I reading this right? A 1.8 GIG patch today? WTF!