UFO recover mission or TM?Originally Posted by Port
I have a question about X-COM. It's a game I wasn't into in the past but I'm going to give it another try (I own the DOS version so I'm not buying the Steam one). What version is better, PC or Amiga? I couldn't get the Amiga version to work properly (emulated) last time I tried but I'll give it another try if it's considered better.
....I'm reading your old nerdout posts and they are making me so happy.
The brutal difficulty is what makes the game so awesome. Also, when you first start playing you have no fucking idea that the aliens can fuck you so hard.
WTF ZOMBIES? imo.
That is so incredibly awesome. I've had guys mowed down coming off the Skyranger like Saving Private Ryan before, but never that bad.
One thing I intensely dislike about the flying suits is how if you're using them on a skyranger you come off the ramp and it takes 8 tu's to get down to earth, which ordinarily I wouldn't care about but floating decreases your accuracy, and it's important to land your shots to clear the LZ. Is there a trick to keeping them from taking off on the ramp?
ALSO: You don't use an HWP to scout? I guess soldiers are cheaper to replace buuuut....
Blaster launcher or rocket HWP is great for taking out buildings and other enemy cover, even if you don't scout with it. I typically carry a soldier with a rocket launcher (until I get blaster launcher) too just to take out terrain cover.
I haven't played in a while and I've forgotten: what explosives are capable of destroying:
ufo roofs
ufo outer walls?
Rockets can take out wooden buildings, foliage, etc. So can HE cannon rounds, and incindieary rounds are great for burning up jungle.
Ignoring the terror sties will severely damage your score and country rep though. I mean, if you suck you should skip the first one or two, or at LEAST try to fight during the day until you get the hang of the electro-flares. I like going into the terror sites and finding out which of my soldiers have what it takes to hack it as officers.
The biggest problem with early terror missions isn't being outgunned really, it's all the mind control and low bravery/morale. It's hard to win a fight when your soldiers are panicking every other turn. You should check the base stats of your soldiers and boot out the shitty ones, or use them as suicide grenadiers/bait.
Manufacturing stuff to supplement income is slow. Heavy Lasers are a good man item early on because they require no materials.
Someone said they won't touch pistols, but the laser pistol is easily attainable and if you're not rocking all heavy plasma/explosives you should really have two soldiers with pistols for mobility/scouting. They can move farther and still shoot once or even twice after it. Also, being able to shoot auto three times is useful sometimes, though you won't be doing that until your soldiers level up a bit.
I always forget about base defense when I jump back into this game. I try not to let myself be invaded. I captured a leader in my third month anyway, you just have to get your plasma cannons early and then down a very large, or catch one on the ground. Even if you don't have the launcher you can cap one fairly easily with 4 guys rushing with stun rods.
Remeber: wielding a weapon in each hand decreases your accuracy. Crouching increases your accuracy and makes you a narrower profile to get hit.
If you walk into a room spot an alien looking at you, flanking is the best way to handle it (if the alien hasn't burned its TU's already.) You generally get the first action when you come across an alien (though some corners will FUCK you) but if you miss or try to run/crouch an alien with TU's for a reaction attack can hose you down. However, as soon as you reveal an alien remember that everyone on the map with line of sight can now shoot it, and you can sneak someone up behind it without triggering the reaction attack once you have its attention.
Be careful though, a missed attack from behind will still trigger reaction attacks. Getting to within 2 or 3 squares and using auto is almost always a guaranteed kill, especially from crouch, but be careful you don't catch your guys in the crossfire!
Remember that most of the weapons in the game will break soft cover like bushes and wooden walls, fences, etc. Sometimes you will reveal an enemy in a house and one of your soldiers can do a classy move by simply blowing away the wall and shooting him from behind.
Another good thing to remember is that you aren't penalized for collateral damage, just for civilians being alive or dead. Are you getting sniped from a two-story warehouse halfway across the map? Fire some rockets into the side to expose the enemies, and then annihilate them. Remember you only need one spotter and then all of your forces, well back from the action, can spray as long as they need to until the aliens drop.
In UFO's that you have shot down, frequently the top floors will have holes in them that you can lob grenades up into or shoot through to kill enemies without putting yourself at risk. Once you have the flying suits, you can use those holes as convenient access to the top floors without having to use lifts.
Time to ride the crazy chair!
The bravery issue is the main problem with early terror sites. It's all well and fine to respond and then run away, but that's hard to carry out in practice when your guys won't stop panicking long enough to let you load them up and run away.
Grenades are fun. Try passing grenades from one soldier to another. That way, you can have somebody away from the battle prime the grenade and save some time units on frontline soldiers for reaction fire on the enemy's turn.
Don't forget to staff up your research and manufacturing. Build a living quarters (and a general store) immediately after you re-arrange the retarded default base to something that can be properly defended.
Destin < Razor in MvC3
What about the sequel?
Check out Mr. Businessman
He bought some wild, wild life
On the way to the stock exchange
He got some wild, wild life
I'm looking at the manual for the first time and I just noticed that the game recognizes hits to different areas of the body. I mean, I knew that there were direct hits and grazing hits, but wounds to the arms will reduce your accuracy, hits to the legs reduce your TU's, and hits to the torso reduce your energy recovery.
Hot damn.
There are like, three criticisms I could level at this game, but I mean it's from 1993, so they really aren't fair. And they're small things anyway.
Last edited by Cowutopia; 06 Sep 2008 at 05:57 AM.
All night I dreamed of ways to make this two-player adversarial or massively multiplayer a la planetside.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks