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[Chiefwaffles]

I find exalt the easiest enemy unless they swarm before your squad can actually start attacking. Otherwise, I just get to kill each exalt enemy as they drop in and attempt to do whatever.

[Sirus]

Sirius: Just kill all the exalt troopers and that glitch can never happen.

I did. The glitch happened anyway.

[crazysheep]

now Sirus is all scared of (mostly) pushover EXALT kiddies :<

Although I did lose a covert operative once, due to bad planning on my part. He ate a critical laser sniper shot, but only started bleeding out. He was carrying the only medikit.

You can guess how the rest played out then.

[Lightningfalcon]

now Sirus is all scared of (mostly) pushover EXALT kiddies :<

Although I did lose a covert operative once, due to bad planning on my part. He ate a critical laser sniper shot, but only started bleeding out. He was carrying the only medikit.

You can guess how the rest played out then.

"Oh thank God, he is only bleeding out.  Now to find my medic.  Are you the medic? Are you? Are you? Are you?  Please please please be you... damn it."

[Sirus]

I'm not exactly scared of EXALT. I just dislike how they can cause insta-panic in a country, and then if I go to fight them and win the battle perfectly I can still lose a soldier to the whims of a bug.

Sooner I eliminate them, the better.

[Shadowlord]

I used my gene-modded colonel sniper for the covert operative, with a plasma pistol, the treats-half-cover-as-full-cover skill, double-tap, etc, and that is just terrifyingly effective. 'Course, it was still normal difficulty, so exalt wasn't very threatening unless they decided to use their rockets.

Edit: Oh, IIRC that bug can only happen on one of the two mission types (the extraction one, not the defend one), and you can save before launching the mission and reload if you get the extraction one, and it'll reroll it and potentially give you the other mission type. So you can avoid it entirely that way.

[crazysheep]

"Oh thank God, he is only bleeding out.  Now to find my medic.  Are you the medic? Are you? Are you? Are you?  Please please please be you... damn it."

Pretty much, lol. We still went on to eliminate EXALT though, no lasting phobias.

@Sirus: Yeah, bugs are a real pain, especially during ironman runs. Commiserations, but that's about all I can say.

[Sirus]

I used my gene-modded colonel sniper for the covert operative, with a plasma pistol, the treats-half-cover-as-full-cover skill, double-tap, etc, and that is just terrifyingly effective. 'Course, it was still normal difficulty, so exalt wasn't very threatening unless they decided to use their rockets.

Edit: Oh, IIRC that bug can only happen on one of the two mission types (the extraction one, not the defend one), and you can save before launching the mission and reload if you get the extraction one, and it'll reroll it and potentially give you the other mission type. So you can avoid it entirely that way.

...Okay, the skill of the covert operative had nothing to do with anything. The operative I lost was a skilled assault who didn't take a single hit during the course of the mission, and indeed killed a few EXALT soldiers. We cleared the map of enemies, and I moved the operative into the evac zone. The mission ended immediately. Then when we got back to base, he randomly died. The result would have been the same whether the operative were a rookie or a gene-modded colonel.

THAT'S why I dislike fighting EXALT. Because their missions are buggy and soldiers can die completely at random. And I play Ironman, so no reloading to get a favorable mission type.

[Sharp]

I'm wondering if the higher difficulty settings are more of a challenge, or if I should just try Long War (or if it would be a mistake to go straight from Normal to Long War because of how easy/forgiving Normal is)?

Normal difficulty on vanilla XCOM is pretty easy (easy difficulty is like kindergarten mode), classic is a significant step up and impossible is much more difficult. A big factor change between Impossible and Classic is grenades not 1 shotting sectoids but the big change between normal and classic is that the AI will do less super stupid stuff.

[Neonivek]

I'm wondering if the higher difficulty settings are more of a challenge, or if I should just try Long War (or if it would be a mistake to go straight from Normal to Long War because of how easy/forgiving Normal is)?

Normal difficulty on vanilla XCOM is pretty easy (easy difficulty is like kindergarten mode), classic is a significant step up and impossible is much more difficult. A big factor change between Impossible and Classic is grenades not 1 shotting sectoids but the big change between normal and classic is that the AI will do less super stupid stuff.

There is quite a bit more between normal and classic.

Sectoids being able to one shot kill your troops, aliens are able to kill civilians during terror missions when you aren't looking, and hmm I forget it has been a while.

[Sheb]

Only ever played on vanilla normal so far, but what I really enjoyed about the Exalt missions (especially the transmitters missions) was that since Exalt loot is mostly worthless, I felt free to just turns everything into a wasteland with explosives. It's much easier once you've destroyed all cover around the transmitters and can just shoot coverless Exalt operative.

[Shadowlord]

aliens are able to kill civilians during terror missions when you aren't looking

This happens on normal too, particularly with chryssalids.

[Sirus]

aliens are able to kill civilians during terror missions when you aren't looking

This happens on normal too, particularly with chryssalids.

Yeah, I'm not sure where you got that particular difference from. Aliens might be more aggressive about killing civilians during terror missions on Classic difficulty, but it still happens quite a bit on Normal.

[Mephansteras]

The main difference is that chryssalids turn the people they kill off screen into zombies more often on higher difficulties.

[joemoben]

But the worst part about terror missions on any difficulty is the fact that sometimes civilians just die without rhyme or reason if you can't see them. Easily the most aggravating part of terror missions for me.