XCOM Enemy Unknown

So apparently if you don't select Operation Slingshot as the very first council mission, you're fucked out of it for the entire game. Can't even imagine what kind of fucking retards they have doing their DLC design. Also, their 'teleport fix' that they rolled out with Second Wave actually made the bug happen more frequently instead of fixing it, and caused a host of other issues with aliens. Unbelievably disappointing how retarded the dev team at Firaxis is.

I did get a zero countries lost run going on my third attempt. You have to have to go balls out on adjacent sat uplinks and have enough engineers to build a new uplink at the beginning of every month. Satellite Nexus is basically worthless because it takes 42 days compared to the 28 days for an Uplink, and even more engineers to be able to build. If space management in your base was actually an issue, I could see building a nexus or two to replace uplinks, but you have more space than you could possibly need.

Also, to answer my own question in case anyone was wondering, no you don't have to shoot down the battleship in Slingshot.

Gavinrad_sl said:

I did get a zero countries lost run going on my third attempt. You have to have to go balls out on adjacent sat uplinks and have enough engineers to build a new uplink at the beginning of every month. Satellite Nexus is basically worthless because it takes 42 days compared to the 28 days for an Uplink, and even more engineers to be able to build. If space management in your base was actually an issue, I could see building a nexus or two to replace uplinks, but you have more space than you could possibly need.

Click to expand...

X++...X+X
+++.>.+N+
X+X...X+X
XXX...XXX
x = anything +=uplink N=nexus

Both are left side. Start > Transition. Provides perfect number of Sat coverage. By the time you can complete the design you're more than capable of building a nexus. Leaves your entire right side open to bullshit.

Sulrn_sl said:

X++...X+X
+++.>.+N+
X+X...X+X
XXX...XXX
x = anything +=uplink N=nexus

Both are left side. Start > Transition. Provides perfect number of Sat coverage. By the time you can complete the design you're more than capable of building a nexus. Leaves your entire right side open to bullshit.

Click to expand...

Yeah thats my exact pattern of satlinks. The issue is that with six satlinks I have enough coverage for the entire world, and you have more than enough room in your base to make it not really relevant to replace the middle satlink with a nexus just to clear up the upper right. Unless they add more facility options with future DLC, base space is pretty much meaningless because you have more room than you could possibly use.

Yeah I should mention that I had been playing on Marathon, which I guess flat out doubles most build and research times. Even though it was a successful zero countries lost run, I scrapped it shortly after the overseer ship due to frustration over being dicked out of slingshot, so I started yet another new game, this time without marathon turned on. Marathon seems very poorly tuned, they just sorta stretched everything out and called it a game mode. Still disappointed that there isn't a mode that causes more interceptions and random missions to pop up, I'd like to be constantly running multiple teams like you had the option to do back in the original.

Base construction is still a total joke though. Even if you build an array of laboratories, you're never pressed for space in a campaign, and since you just plain don't ever need to build labs, there is really no reason to ever build on the fourth level. They really need to change things up for base construction in a future DLC or something. Maybe even add an event where aliens raid your base.

Gavinrad_sl said:

So apparently if you don't select Operation Slingshot as the very first council mission, you're fucked out of it for the entire game.Can't even imagine what kind of fucking retards they have doing their DLC design. Also, their 'teleport fix' that they rolled out with Second Wave actually made the bug happen more frequently instead of fixing it, and caused a host of other issues with aliens. Unbelievably disappointing how retarded the dev team at Firaxis is.

I did get a zero countries lost run going on my third attempt. You have to have to go balls out on adjacent sat uplinks and have enough engineers to build a new uplink at the beginning of every month. Satellite Nexus is basically worthless because it takes 42 days compared to the 28 days for an Uplink, and even more engineers to be able to build. If space management in your base was actually an issue, I could see building a nexus or two to replace uplinks, but you have more space than you could possibly need.

Also, to answer my own question in case anyone was wondering, no you don't have to shoot down the battleship in Slingshot.

Click to expand...

Thats how I don't understand how this game can be so "critically acclaimed" and win so many awards. The game launched with lots of game breaking and/or ending bugs and upcoming dlc. The modding community fixed the second mission stuff before they did.

I still have enjoyed the hell out of the game though, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

The really pathetic thing is that I've mostly figured the bug out just from casual observation of it happening to me a few times. If I actually had access to a test build with a couple basic debug commands, I'm pretty sure I could have a thorough bug report together after maybe an hour or two of testing, tops. Even a vaguely competent QA team could have this bug worked out in a day, so I'm assuming they didn't actually test it at all before they rolled out the 'fix' with second wave. I dunno if Firaxis is following the industry trend of heavily outsourced QA, or if they're just stupid.

Show of hands: If they had a 60$ release of an expansion that went to the alien planet that was as long as the full game you recently played, would you pay for it?

I'd push someone out of the way brandishing my money.

I wouldn't, I'd wait til the steam summer sale rolled around. Plus it would give them time to fix many of those bugs, in theory. I didn't buy this last one until like 3 months after it was out and a game ending bug still fucked my 2nd ironman playthrough.

I'd pirate the shit out of it, then pay for it when it was on sale for a price that the quality of the game made it worth. Just like I did with the base game.

I'd pick it up for sure, but not at full price. Steam and their sales have turned me into a binge game buyer. I tend to buy tons of games during the summer and holiday sales and pick up fewer than 6 games at other times throught out the year. Of those 6 maybe 2 or 3 are purchased at full price. The last game I picked up at full price was probably Skyrim. I paid over $30 for Xcom during this years holiday sale and that's a strong testament to how excited I was for the game since I usually wait until they're under $25.

As for why the game received so many accolades I think it's because they are doing something different than the current mainstream and it turned out remarkably well. I can't think of any other turn based squad level strategy games in recent memory. The last one that I can recall was Silent Storm and that was something like 6 or 8 years ago. The next closest thing I can come up with is King's Bounty and HOMM, neither of which are really good comparisons. Honestly, everyone is trying to be Total War these days (except for Paradox, but that's completely different too). Is Xcom EU perfect? nope, but it's a title I'm having a lot of fun with and I hope they produce some meaningful DLC for it in the near future.

I'm also hopeful that it has been financially succesful enough to encourage others to expand the entries in the genre as well.

I admit that I've never even bothered trying an Ironman run yet due to the various bugs. If I had gotten fucked out of some Ironmans because of these bugs, my opinion would be a lot more negative.

Can't control myself to not reload so ironman is the only way to go.

mures_sl said:

Can't control myself to not reload so ironman is the only way to go.

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I find I'm the opposite, and every game I play has to be Ironman. That really doesnt help me when trying to to the Impossible difficulty achievement..

You can "reload" in ironman by killing xcom. In combat it saves at the start of the turn only. I abuse that when I get jewed by flanking bugs.

Didn't play for quite a bit so I figured I'd start Classic/Ironman game to check out some Second Wave options and the Slingshot DLC. Classic seems so easy after busting your nuts repeatedly on Impossible/Ironman.

I started my game with these Second Wave options enabled:
New Economy - The funding offered by individual council members is randomized
Not Created Equally - Rookies will have random starting stats
Hidden Potential - As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly
High Stakes - The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized

So far digging it. This random stuff brings nice flavor over the old were everything was fixed to same everytime.

I like Not created equal and hidden potential, although it does suck to have a heavy make it to colonel and have an even worse aim than usual. Marathon is pretty much complete shit, they just stretched out build and research times and fiddled with costs a bit, but they obviously put zero actual thought into balancing it. Amusingly enough, laboratories are still completely worthless in Marathon, because all your resources for the first couple months are completely tied up in keeping uplinks and satellites rolling out. Didn't try new economy or high stakes, definitely have no interest in another playthrough without some decent mods or non-retarded DLC.

So are the second wave options enabled as you beat the different difficulties or am I blind? Beat the game on normal and can't see any of the options past Marathon.About to beat an achievement run on easy then go for an impossible run, but I want some of the options after marathon that I can't see. :'(

I think you first have to enable some stuff somewhere in the options menu.

Sulrn_sl said:

So are the second wave options enabled as you beat the different difficulties or am I blind? Beat the game on normal and can't see any of the options past Marathon.About to beat an achievement run on easy then go for an impossible run, but I want some of the options after marathon that I can't see. :'(

Click to expand...

Yes.http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?t...e_%28EU2012%29

Gavinrad_sl said:

I like Not created equal and hidden potential, although it does suck to have a heavy make it to colonel and have an even worse aim than usual.

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Rookie with 70 aim sweet... after first promotion aim 71. fffuuuuuuuu...