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Came here to rage at classic ironman. I feel like the game is rampping up difficulty harder than I scale at a certain point (enemy has floaters and mutons en mass, and I have like 2 laser rifles). I'll try this strat. I think I need to focus even more on unit retention early.
On October 30 2012 01:56 Maxyim wrote: First Mission - pick engineer bonus. Bring a rookie and seek to get her sniper promotion by giving her shots at targets far away.
So unit promotions arent random? What can I do to encourage a heavy promotion for example?
I'm going to try this build out, I'll come back for month three.
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On October 30 2012 02:54 michaelthe wrote:Came here to rage at classic ironman. I feel like the game is rampping up difficulty harder than I scale at a certain point (enemy has floaters and mutons en mass, and I have like 2 laser rifles). I'll try this strat. I think I need to focus even more on unit retention early. Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 01:56 Maxyim wrote: First Mission - pick engineer bonus. Bring a rookie and seek to get her sniper promotion by giving her shots at targets far away. So unit promotions arent random? What can I do to encourage a heavy promotion for example? I'm going to try this build out, I'll come back for month three. Assault - Close range kills Sniper - Long range kills Heavy - Explosive kills (aka nades) Support - Medikit use
Promotions can be a bit random as well but that's how to encourage certain promotions as far as I know/have experienced.
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On October 30 2012 02:54 michaelthe wrote:Came here to rage at classic ironman. I feel like the game is rampping up difficulty harder than I scale at a certain point (enemy has floaters and mutons en mass, and I have like 2 laser rifles). I'll try this strat. I think I need to focus even more on unit retention early. Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 01:56 Maxyim wrote: First Mission - pick engineer bonus. Bring a rookie and seek to get her sniper promotion by giving her shots at targets far away. So unit promotions arent random? What can I do to encourage a heavy promotion for example? I'm going to try this build out, I'll come back for month three.
no that's wrong. unit promotion IS random. Lead designer even said so himself (although he said it has a bit of a method to it that tries to keep class distribution even).
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On October 30 2012 03:00 Airact wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 02:54 michaelthe wrote:Came here to rage at classic ironman. I feel like the game is rampping up difficulty harder than I scale at a certain point (enemy has floaters and mutons en mass, and I have like 2 laser rifles). I'll try this strat. I think I need to focus even more on unit retention early. On October 30 2012 01:56 Maxyim wrote: First Mission - pick engineer bonus. Bring a rookie and seek to get her sniper promotion by giving her shots at targets far away. So unit promotions arent random? What can I do to encourage a heavy promotion for example? I'm going to try this build out, I'll come back for month three. Assault - Close range kills Sniper - Long range kills Heavy - Explosive kills (aka nades) Support - Medikit use Promotions can be a bit random as well but that's how to encourage certain promotions as far as I know/have experienced.
Right. I do think that the first mission goes out of its way to give you one of each class (I have certainly never seen more than one of a specific class at a time). My gut instinct is that it looks at your mans and determines who was closest to each role if everyone survives and is eligible for promotion. Results start to vary when only 3 are eligible, and I have seen some strange things, like a squaddie who had mostly close-ranged activity get a sniper promotion (unfortunately, she was also wounded for 18 days and I had to scrap that game). Case in point - plan on replaying the first mission a good bit as a good start is your best chance for 2x laser sniper rifle mans in time for the terror mission.
On October 30 2012 03:02 Ideas wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 02:54 michaelthe wrote:Came here to rage at classic ironman. I feel like the game is rampping up difficulty harder than I scale at a certain point (enemy has floaters and mutons en mass, and I have like 2 laser rifles). I'll try this strat. I think I need to focus even more on unit retention early. On October 30 2012 01:56 Maxyim wrote: First Mission - pick engineer bonus. Bring a rookie and seek to get her sniper promotion by giving her shots at targets far away. So unit promotions arent random? What can I do to encourage a heavy promotion for example? I'm going to try this build out, I'll come back for month three. no that's wrong. unit promotion IS random. Lead designer even said so himself (although he said it has a bit of a method to it that tries to keep class distribution even).
Source, please? I have played the first mission 20+ times now, and have routinely seen a pattern. It is rather obvious when you have only one person using a grenade and that person gets Heavy promotion many times in a row... As I said above, I am less certain about assault vs sniper vs support for the first mission, but I have successfully "forced" the game to give me a sniper by feeding long-range kills to a rookie, and have seen several times that a medikit rookie that is filling the place of a wounded support gets support promotion after a battle where he uses the medikit and qualifies for a promotion.
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Maxyim>>
Just wanted to reply on your post on previous page and say that I´ve allready completed classic ironman and I´d wish that you could play the same style on impossible but the fact is that impossible is a million times harder than classic.
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On October 30 2012 03:45 DaCruise wrote: Maxyim>>
Just wanted to reply on your post on previous page and say that I´ve allready completed classic ironman and I´d wish that you could play the same style on impossible but the fact is that impossible is a million times harder than classic.
I realize that; I do think that it's likely that you absolutely have to get the 21+ days to council UFO mission to "proc" in order to have a chance for impossible.
That said, I have personally never seen a UFO mission this early, and I found info that suggests that it is impossible:
http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Impossible_Difficulty_Tips_&_Walkthrough#Major_Changes_in_your_Base_and_Panic_Level
"Major Events during Second Month (I presume they mean first month?) Events can be off by 2-3 days. First Mission Abduction Mission (29 days until the Council Report) First UFO Contact (17 days until the Council Report)"
Have you personally been able to launch 4 satellites in the first month?
The best strategy may be to "plan" to lose 3 countries in Europe...
Also, to everyone else reading the thread; I have shot down the second UFO with stock raven with 0.018 seconds until contact loss so am not planning on having much success with the third UFO. I have not really figured out where to integrate alien containment but I get the feeling that it will be required to have at least have a 2nd tier ship to ship weapons and/or a few flight consumables by mid-third month. What are your experiences with this? I wonder if we can get by with Phoenix Cannon from Experimental Warfare + dodge consumable as Heavy Lasers takes a lot longer to research.
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On October 30 2012 03:56 Maxyim wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 03:45 DaCruise wrote: Maxyim>>
Just wanted to reply on your post on previous page and say that I´ve allready completed classic ironman and I´d wish that you could play the same style on impossible but the fact is that impossible is a million times harder than classic. I realize that; I do think that it's likely that you absolutely have to get the 21+ days to council UFO mission to "proc" in order to have a chance for impossible. That said, I have personally never seen a UFO mission this early, and I found info that suggests that it is impossible: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Impossible_Difficulty_Tips_&_Walkthrough#Major_Changes_in_your_Base_and_Panic_Level" Major Events during Second Month (I presume they mean first month?) Events can be off by 2-3 days. First Mission Abduction Mission (29 days until the Council Report) First UFO Contact (17 days until the Council Report)" Have you personally been able to launch 4 satellites in the first month? The best strategy may be to "plan" to lose 3 countries in Europe... Also, to everyone else reading the thread; I have shot down the second UFO with stock raven with 0.018 seconds until contact loss so am not planning on having much success with the third UFO. I have not really figured out where to integrate alien containment but I get the feeling that it will be required to have at least have a 2nd tier ship to ship weapons and/or a few flight consumables by mid-third month. What are your experiences with this? I wonder if we can get by with Phoenix Cannon from Experimental Warfare + dodge consumable as Heavy Lasers takes a lot longer to research.
Yes, I have a post on page 53 in this thread with a picture of my first council report and I got the ufo early enough to launch 4 satellites.
I dont have much experience with medium ufo´s on impossible but with the aim upgrade (sectiod corpse) it should be doable unless you are unlucky.
My biggest headache atm is when to get laser weapons as they are very needed in the second month but its hard to get them so early without sacrificing everything else.
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On October 30 2012 03:45 DaCruise wrote: Maxyim>>
Just wanted to reply on your post on previous page and say that I´ve allready completed classic ironman and I´d wish that you could play the same style on impossible but the fact is that impossible is a million times harder than classic.
I really don't find impossible that much harder. Honestly it's virtually the same to me, just some more aliens to kill per mission. I mean once you get lasers + carapace then you're pretty much sorted for the majority of the game until elite mutons.
I lost 3 countries first month, 1 in the second and 3 in the third. That isn't actually bad because by that time I had global satellite coverage and when that happens the game is virtually complete, you just pander about until you want to complete the game. Panic is a non issue and you're just doing UFO missions and the odd terror/council mission.
My second terror mission threw 19 chrysalids which spawned 10 zombies at me. One guy got scratched and that was it. I had ~6 of them on me at one point and after I cleared them, 6 more bunched up and came at me and they died easy too.
The only difficulty on classic/ironman is blundering into 1-2 sets of alien patrols by accident which is just bad game design as it is.
Laser weapons are my priority and then carapace armour. After that it doesn't really matter for a long time. I put scopes on everyone in my squad, I just find them the best piece of equipment especially with the upgrade. My support guys (I usually have 2 support, 1-2 heavy, 1-2 assault, 1 sniper) take scope and medikit when they can 2 slots although I'd change one to have a medikit and ARC.
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To me getting the +4 sats work is something like 4/5 tries to be honest. It's RNG, but often it works, if not, you go to your back up plan. I had been testing today a lot of the scientist first build order, and it feels lackluster compared to be honest. OTS comes too late and you don't get enough alloys because low sat coverage.
By the way, about the RNG, for the people who thinks the game "cheats" them.
http://www.schwanenlied.me/yawning/XCOM/XCOMPRNG.html
@Ojka do you put early scopes ? like... day 8 scopes ?
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Pretty much. It's the first thing I research and I use them straight after that.
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On October 30 2012 05:51 ToT)OjKa( wrote: Pretty much. It's the first thing I research and I use them straight after that.
I find grenades way more useful on impossible to be honest. Later on i change them, but not at the beginning.
I research them straight away, but to get my laz0rz.
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grenades are excelent for rookies to get their first kill. after that. i go with: scope for snipers, nades for assaults (should be close anyway), medkit for support of course, heavy get grenades or scopes, depending on the mission. arc throwers only when needed, i prefer supports with "sprinter" (and skeleton or ghost armor if possible)
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Not to get first kill, but to remove cover. That's it's primary use on impossible. Even scoped you just "even" the odds in a firefight against aliens, while grenades turn the table in your favor.
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@Maxyim: I am sorry but your starting base strategy is horrible. Only efficient build is start with NA, excavate and build power right away. First abduction mission go for engineers, build workshop after. Then you need to get an ufo mission 21+ days before council report (if not restart). Do UFO, sell stuff (almost everything, be sure to sell weapon parts and alloys last if you need to). Build 3-4 satellites. Do more missions or sell more stuff and build uplink at 15 days to council report. If possible make sure panic rises in africa from abductions. Put 3 satellites on africa before month 2. If you build 4 put it on some high panic one or high money one. Next months build one uplink and 3 satellites per month (and whatever else you might need like workshops and power).
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Why would you start with power ? What's the reason behind it. You don't need power on first month. At all, you only build it to start second month with power, but you build it after council mission normally. Is there some reason i am missing ?
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On October 31 2012 01:17 Godwrath wrote: Why would you start with power ? What's the reason behind it. You don't need power on first month. At all, you only build it to start second month with power, but you build it after council mission normally. Is there some reason i am missing ? You need it on classic difficulty, not enough power for both workshop and uplink on classic
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On October 31 2012 05:35 -Archangel- wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2012 01:17 Godwrath wrote: Why would you start with power ? What's the reason behind it. You don't need power on first month. At all, you only build it to start second month with power, but you build it after council mission normally. Is there some reason i am missing ? You need it on classic difficulty, not enough power for both workshop and uplink on classic
You sure about that??
Cause on impossible you DO have enough for both.
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On October 31 2012 06:16 DaCruise wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2012 05:35 -Archangel- wrote:On October 31 2012 01:17 Godwrath wrote: Why would you start with power ? What's the reason behind it. You don't need power on first month. At all, you only build it to start second month with power, but you build it after council mission normally. Is there some reason i am missing ? You need it on classic difficulty, not enough power for both workshop and uplink on classic You sure about that?? Cause on impossible you DO have enough for both. I just started a new game, you are right. I don't need power generator lol
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Yep, you are at 30/30 with workshop + uplink on impossible.
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Arghh. Just had the most frustrating shit happen to me on an escort mission.
It was the Van Doorn one, which is one of the easier imo. Everything goes smoth and I only need to kill the last 2 thin men and since I remember where they spawn I move my soldiers in and put them on overwatch.
When the thin men drop from the sky 3/4 misses and both are still alive. I finish 1 off with my assault but only manage to get the other one down to 2 hp. My sniper missed with 80% hit chance. But now the really stupid crap happens as the thin man 1 shots my assault, which makes my rookie and my sniper panic. The sniper fires at the alien and takes him out. Great! NOT! now that no aliens are alive my rookie turns to the VIP who is hunkered down in full cover and freaking 1-shots him!!!...game fucking over!
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