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[Zammon]

The unskippable intro has apparently been modded. If you google "XCOM Mods" it was, as of yesterday, the only one available!

Are people actually modding the game or just straight out hacking it? I guess it doesn't make much of a difference in the end, but I've always though of modding as through official or at least semi-official channels and hacking as through memory or binary modifications. And with everyone talking about mods, I still haven't nailed down exactly what will be / is modable officially.

You don't need a mod to skip the intros. Just go into \XComGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini   ctrl+F "PC Startup Movies" and remove the + signs from each of the four entries. Problem solved.

[Muz]

I don't know why anyone says this game is dumbed down. It has far, far more tactical depth than the original. I'd even love to watch people play the multiplayer competitively.

Yes, they cut some features out, but most of that stuff just slows the game down. There are plenty of features that I'd miss, but I love how streamlined the gameplay is now. It's almost cinematic, as you can just tab and move everyone all at once, and actually finish a turn in less than a minute. I didn't like those 3 hour bug hunts.

Also been playing ironman normal today and was royally screwed over. I had already lost the game around the time when I was fighting 10 Mutons with rookies + assault rifles, but it's a very rare AAA game where losing is fun. I love how damn good the Mutons are with strategy. Nothing like the old games where they just step out of vision and shoot. These guys really know how to utilize cover, outflank you, grenade you, suppress you while someone else kicks your ass.

While my first 'shock' of XCOM was with the Tentaculats, my first shock in XCOM EU was how tactical the Mutons were. They're actually a little weaker than your average squad member at that point, but they took out my top units with pure tactics. Or maybe because I was a noob and didn't really know how the cover system worked.

[Silent_Thunder]

Just wanted to let you guys know some people have already begun to crack open the files and begin modding over on the Nexus sites. Currently trying out the Balance Mod which among other things, allows you to attempt to intercept the abduction UFO's in order to reduce the number of cities to choose from when they land.

As usual make backups incase it bricks the game, God knows you don't want to have to play "find the broken file". Also take note that these PROBABLY break the multiplayer.

[Cthulhu]

The mutons are definitely a huge threat.  They're not especially strong, but they still fuck you up. 

I strongly suggest you level up your low ranking guys in easier missions before things start getting rough.  Squaddies are a liability against mutons and you can't count on your elite guys surviving the whole game.

Also god dammit, no more fucking snipers.  Maybe it's just because snipers have a lower attrition rate than close-combat classes, but it seems like I always have a million fucking snipers in my barracks and nothing else.  This is exactly like TF2

[umiman]

Alright! Here we go! Classic iron man! The definitive final stage!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was a long journey, so many people died. The world is on the brink of collapse. XCOM is filing for bankruptcy. Americans are singing the praises of our new alien overlords. Argentinians are having nekkid orgies with sectopods. Germany's latest cooking show is "Cooking for Floaters: Babies Taste Great!" Australia is fine.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's up to a few brave men and women to do something which I have no clue what yet but it involves purple and temples. Who will save mankind?!

A Greek, two Brits, two Chinese, and a Canadian.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I will conquer this! No looking back! If I fail here over 3 days of work will have gone to waste! Let's go!!!!

[Zangi]

Snipers... yea...  Had over +5 squaddies sitting around taking up space.  Even after releasing half of em.

Fun Fact: You can save-scum their class choice at the end of a mission.  Probably could too before they come in/when you order em if you got the squaddie perk.

[Virtz]

I don't know why anyone says this game is dumbed down. It has far, far more tactical depth than the original. I'd even love to watch people play the multiplayer competitively.

Yes, they cut some features out, but most of that stuff just slows the game down. There are plenty of features that I'd miss, but I love how streamlined the gameplay is now. It's almost cinematic, as you can just tab and move everyone all at once, and actually finish a turn in less than a minute. I didn't like those 3 hour bug hunts.

It's dumbed down because the basics are way less detailed and emergent than the original. You have no real inventory, instead you choose a really limited loadout that prevents soldiers from taking more than 1 grenade or 1 medkit unless they get some equally gamey class-based upgrade. The strategic layer is very gimped, as the aliens no longer act with purpose, but instead are just there to get fought off by you when the script deems it appropriate. There is nothing intuitively realistic about the Simoleon prices in the strategic layer, they're all really nonsensical for the sake of balance. There's a slew of oddities and limitations only there to introduce balance to X-Com features broken by streamlining (such as explosives that liquidate weapon fragments).

The only reason it's more tactical in any way is because it's easier to program an AI for a simpler system. And even with that in mind, a lot of the difficulty stems from gamey bullshit, such as the soldier limit or the inability to respond to more than one location at a time.

[jhxmt]

Also god dammit, no more fucking snipers.  Maybe it's just because snipers have a lower attrition rate than close-combat classes, but it seems like I always have a million fucking snipers in my barracks and nothing else.  This is exactly like TF2

This.  A million times this.  Heavies, Assault, Support - they all die like flies.  My snipers just keep on trucking - even when I'm using some of them as more-or-less front line attackers!

New approach: entire team of snipers.  Either they'll wipe out the enemy from miles away, or the enemy will even out my imbalanced barracks composition.  Win-win.

Edit: also, really not understanding the apparent loathing for the game.  I'm a massive original Enemy Unknown fan.  I loved TFTD.  I was okay(ish) with Apocalypse.  I've got Interceptor (and that's all we'll say about that).  I've got the After[inserthere] trilogy and love/hate various aspects of them.  And I love this game.  Is it as 'detailed' as the original?  That depends on the detail you were expecting.  If what you loved in the original was the minutiae of inventory management then no, you're not going to get that from this game.  It's not the same game.  Of course it's not, we're 18 years further on.  I'm not saying this makes the game 'better' or 'more advanced', it doesn't - it's simply a different game.  If what you were expecting was just a graphical and engine overhaul of the original UFO, then you'll be disappointed.  Also, Santa Claus doesn't exist.

I haven't found anything in the game so far (admittedly only a few days into playing it, but I've been looking) that isn't in line with my expectations of it.  But perhaps this is because I wasn't expecting an identical-but-prettier version of the 1994 original.  Your mileage may (and evidently does) vary.

[Vel]

So, uh, back to our discussion last night about the timing of misses and hits being kind of wonky:


I just had a 100% accuracy action fail.


so.

yea.

[LoSboccacc]

There is nothing intuitively realistic about the Simoleon prices in the strategic layer, they're all really nonsensical for the sake of balance.

please expand on this, I don't recall old xcom prices apart from having a couple stuff at really stupid high. what do you mean by nonsensical?

[Vel]

There is nothing intuitively realistic about the Simoleon prices in the strategic layer, they're all really nonsensical for the sake of balance.

please expand on this, I don't recall old xcom prices apart from having a couple stuff at really stupid high. what do you mean by nonsensical?

I would assume he means it costs slightly more than $40 to build an advanced futuristic fighter jet.

 

[Sirus]

There is nothing intuitively realistic about the Simoleon prices in the strategic layer, they're all really nonsensical for the sake of balance.

please expand on this, I don't recall old xcom prices apart from having a couple stuff at really stupid high. what do you mean by nonsensical?

I would assume he means it costs slightly more than $40 to build an advanced futuristic fighter jet.

 

Well yeah, but we aren't exactly using dollars here

[alway]

Or to put it more accurately, you wouldn't expect to pay about half the cost of a fighter jet for a medikit.

[Vel]

Or spend twice the recruitment bonus of a soldier in an elite force on a single medkit.

[Zangi]

Or spend twice the recruitment bonus of a soldier in an elite force on a single medkit.

Though... the medkit is reusable...  forever.  It can also be used 3 times per mission for support.   Its the latest advancement in medical technology, ever.  Able to heal wounds, fix damaged armor and even bring a critically wounded person into fighting shape in some cases.

It saves lives, which would otherwise require an operation or other advanced medical stuff you can't just bring into the battlefield.