Thats exactly how I did live alien captures right away in the original XCOM. Playing the tutorial really bored me and the absolute linear part of it. But with my difficulty on Classic and the tutorial no longer here (I restarted and just clicked it off) I am enjoying the game. Yeah, the technology tree isn't is broad for me to pick from 2343 different things like in the original, but im liking it so far. I agree with not having the ability to choose soldier classes as well. Guess it makes me play with my entire roster to get people to at least specializations instead of only my good 6 and hope for the best.
I was considering starting on normal, but after reading some of your experiences I think I'll go with classic ironman(?) difficulty.
^^^^^^^^^^^ Above couple post is one of the few times you will ever see the word "normal" used by members of the Skjaldborg as it relates to their actions. Forget the former NDA that kind of talk will lead to infractions!
I haven't tried Ironman yet. I will get into that after I test out the Classic difficulty a little more. Classic seems decent on combat missions and im coming up poorer than I would like for cash and resources. Good balance.
I'm running an Ironman Normal game right now, I had been playing a classic game but things were going downhill fast because I HADN'T paid enough attention during the tutorial and didn't really understand the importance of satellites... Now that I do, I kind of want to crank up the difficulty, but I think an "easy" play through on normal to get a better feel for the game then going up to a higher difficulty might be the way to go for me. So far I'm loving it - the improvements over the original really help with game play the special abilities are awesome and will take some time to perfect their synergies. I've gotten men all the way up to Colonel (or whatever the highest rank is), but only for the heavy class... Still not 100% on my ideal skills though. One thing I don't like is the tech level to acquire tank/robots is high. Risking machines instead of men was always my prefered tactic, and in a 6 man squad, brining along a "bad" performing machine is enough of limit IMO... But whatever. FYI, picking the Shedder rocket ability does not replace your normal rocket, it is in addition to the normal rocket (giving you 2 rockets per mission). Did not know that before and has been invaluable to me, especially so early on in the soldiers progression. Rookies still are on stun duty. If they survive, great, if not...
Unlike the original, cash/resources will always be a concern. My biggest complaint about the original was that after a few missions, money became essentailly no object. In this version, I like how every strategic base decision has an impat on your finances and could be detremental if not properly timed.
They don't explain satellites well at all. I'm kicking myself for not investing in them more heavily early on.
Depending on how far into the game you are, you honestly might want to start over. I was 6-8 hrs into my game when I realized how satilites worked and why they were needed, hour 10 it was all but lost - 3 nations exited, no money and a long way from launching any. On my restart I've moved forward with a keener eye on base facilities. So far so good, but it is an easier difficulty as well.
Get ready to laugh boys. So since I've started my Ironman game, I've really focused on soldier safety (smoke grenades, retreating, etc) and so far I've only lost 1 man, a misclick mistake that I'm still bitter about, but I digress. I was playing last night and things started to go bad - a man in trouble and the rescue attempt going south. Conceding the fight, I started to play very wrecklessly, running and gunning all over the place - just going to restart the mission anyway. I FORGOT I WAS IN IRONMAN. Oh dear. I had 1 soldier left out of 6, so many vets wasted... game over man. Only I was dreaming. My girlfriend woke me up and said I was babbling about floaters (I talk in my sleep) and asked if I was dreaming about poop.
Lol... next game is going on classic, first thing I'm doing is building a satellite uplink and 2-3 more satellites before I spend money on ANYTHING
So just to save some heartache when I get the game what benefit do satellites give that make them so crucial?
1) you can't see UFOs that are flying over the area unless you have at least a satellite over that continent. I kept wondering WHY the panic levels kept rising in places when I hadn't heard anything about UFOs or abductions at all. 2) Cash is scarce. Each country you put a satellite over gives you a cash bonus at the end of the month. This money is crucial in keeping you in pace with the aliens. In short, without satellites your allies panic levels will rise quickly (and make them stop supporting you) and you will constantly be cash strapped and unable to build satellites to help them. or equip your troops.
Thanks that seems to follow from the original if I can search back through the cobwebs and dust of my mind.
To add a little more clarity: You now only have 1 base instead of many. To detect UFOs, you launch satilites over member countries, who then give money OR OTHER PERKS, like engineers and scientists. Covering entire continents with satilites gives you additional bonus' as well (like 50% priced aircraft or +30% monthly revenue)
I loved the original UFO: Enemy Unknown but I never tried the sequels (The 1 underwater and whatever third was). I did pick up the more recent Altair ones which were pretty good but... i played 1 hour of XCOM this morning before work (Boss, i'm sorry to say but i overslept a bit, i'll be 1 hour late) and it was pure epic ^_^ PS: Don't even bother with normal difficulty, go for classic + ironman for a 'true' xcom feeling in my opinion
Yaaay... took down my first alien base. Got some laser weapons and upgraded armor (the grappling armor is AWESOME for snipers, btw). The sniper perk that removes the negative aiming penalty for overwatch is also great. I have that and the one that allows for firing after moving, so I move snipers up, set 'em on overwatch, anyone that comes into range BOOM.
I used to do the same thing with my snipers, but I've recently started favoring squad sight instead of the move and shoot. 1. Move and shoot decreases their accuracy quite a bit (and overwatch is also done at lower accuracy) 2. With squad sight, as long as they have a clear shot I don't think they have a range limit. Together, these things keep my snipers really accurate and well out out of harms way Not sure if there is a best way, just different appraoches. Maybe you'd keep one of each and on maps where you need mobility (bomb defusal, terror, etc) bring the move and shoot sniper
I still keep my snipers in the back of the formation, this is just a cover your ass move when you're moving up and don't know whats ahead, definitely saved my ass against the chrysalids a few times. I know I have the perk that removes the overwatch penalty, not sure if the penalty for moving and then firing/overwatch still gets applied, would be interesting to see the exact stats for that, but I do know the snipers rarely miss now when doing that.
