Did some modding last night and started up a new Classic Ironman campaign. Well...I started up two, but then realized that one of the Second Wave options is bugged and had to start over.
So I'm playing with the following changes:
Rifles can be used by any class.
Shotguns can be used by Rookies, Assaults, and Supports
Abduction and Terror UFOs should show up (haven't seen any yet, but then I only just put up my second Satellite)
Panicked units will only shoot 40% of the time instead of 50%. This will cut down on the friendly fire a little bit, although it also cuts down on the panic-kill of aliens.
Second Wave options have been enabled.
I'm running with these options enabled:
Damage Roulette
Not Created Equally
Hidden potential
High Stakes
The Second Wave options have a pretty huge impact on the game.
Damage Roulette has a surprisingly large effect. It basically drops the Minimum of all weapons down. This means that everything has a very high uncertainty. Grenades often only do 2 damage instead of 3, Stunning an Alien with 3 health has only a 70% chance to succeed, and you can lose a mission when your Heavy shoots the overcharging Scectoid for only 2 damage instead of killing it. Goes both ways, of course, since I've had plenty of alien shots hit for only 1 or 2 damage. Combat is a lot more tense when you can't actually rely on a hit taking out an enemy that has more that 1 hit point left.
Which reminds me, I was going to turn off enemy health. I'll have to do that.
Not Created Equally is interesting. I have one recruit with 56 Will and 80 Aim, and another with 24 Will and 48 Aim. You really have to pay attention to the stats of the people you bring along now. I imagine Hidden Potential will simply continue that trend.
High Stakes also has a pretty big impact. Since the rewards from doing missions are randomized a bit it can really impact the decisions you make. I haven't accepted a single Engineer reward mission on my current game, since they've all been 2 Engineers compared to the normal 4. The other rewards have been higher than normal, so I went with those. That is a bit problematic, though, since I can't build workshops yet since I don't have enough engineers. Not that it'd have mattered if I had taken the engineer missions since I lost the second Abduction mission because my guys couldn't actually kill anything when I needed them to.
Overall...it's a bit harder and feels more like a simulation than a boardgame. I do like being able to give rookies shotguns and my squaddie snipers rifles. It's been fun!
Oh, and avoid the Red Haze second wave option. It's bugged so that every units starts with a 15% aim penalty due to 'battlefield fatigue'. I routinely had shots against Sectoids in High Cover have only a 1% chance to hit. It was...brutal.
Author
Topic: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (New by Firaxis) (Read 960168 times)