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[game on]Sectoids in Uranus! X-Com
SkutSkut
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So with people getting into X-Com because of the steam sale I figured I'd make a new thread.
What is X-Com?
X-Com is a harsh mistress of a turn based strategy game where aliens have invaded earth, for no raisin! It's up to your army of redshirts to stop them and die, mostly die. They die a lot.
Spanning a series of 3 whole games, X-Com uses isometric views and sprites as well as an overlay of the world (or city for Apoc) for your bases. You then send out squads of alien food to potentially kill aliens, but they'll most likely die (they do that alot).
X-Com/ UFO Defense Enemy Unknown
The first, some people say best (my favorite), not the hardest but pretty damn hard. Should be the first one you play. Aliens set on doing something to earth attack and it's up to your army of dying redshirts to save the day. Sure some may survive, even make captain, but they'll just die another day.
Like this asshole.
X-Com Terror from the Deep
The second in the series, the most asspounding rapetastically hard game ever!
Terror's not just the name of the game, it is the game!
X-Com Apoc
Also has a real time mode and is set in a city, kinda like those old school adventure games where oops, you missed the invisible cat at the start of the game, unwinnable now! Good besides, the real time combat flows smoothly and is really the prefered method. Just make sure to research your tech. Takes place in a city setting rather than the whole world.
wait, 3 games, don't you mean 5?
No.
Happy hunting, and post stories/ask for help.
And die, die like the wind!
LPs
there's a billion of the damned things so here's the PA one. In Progress. Declared "best LP" by press.
Part 1
Part 2
The 4 hour apoc read It's good tho, what a tweest!!
Current SA one
TALES OF INTEREST
The Legend of Patrick Stewart
Tales of Bravery from the Log of Synthetic Orange
Tales of Aquatic Valor from the Log of QuietlyConfident
UFOPEDIA
Mods
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76#UFO_Extender
http://xcomutil.scotttjones.com/
What is X-Com?
X-Com is a harsh mistress of a turn based strategy game where aliens have invaded earth, for no raisin! It's up to your army of redshirts to stop them and die, mostly die. They die a lot.
Spanning a series of 3 whole games, X-Com uses isometric views and sprites as well as an overlay of the world (or city for Apoc) for your bases. You then send out squads of alien food to potentially kill aliens, but they'll most likely die (they do that alot).
X-Com/ UFO Defense Enemy Unknown
The first, some people say best (my favorite), not the hardest but pretty damn hard. Should be the first one you play. Aliens set on doing something to earth attack and it's up to your army of dying redshirts to save the day. Sure some may survive, even make captain, but they'll just die another day.
Like this asshole.
X-Com Terror from the Deep
The second in the series, the most asspounding rapetastically hard game ever!
Terror's not just the name of the game, it is the game!
X-Com Apoc
Also has a real time mode and is set in a city, kinda like those old school adventure games where oops, you missed the invisible cat at the start of the game, unwinnable now! Good besides, the real time combat flows smoothly and is really the prefered method. Just make sure to research your tech. Takes place in a city setting rather than the whole world.
wait, 3 games, don't you mean 5?
No.
Happy hunting, and post stories/ask for help.
And die, die like the wind!
LPs
there's a billion of the damned things so here's the PA one. In Progress. Declared "best LP" by press.
Part 1
Part 2
The 4 hour apoc read It's good tho, what a tweest!!
Current SA one
TALES OF INTEREST
The Legend of Patrick Stewart
Tales of Bravery from the Log of Synthetic Orange
Tales of Aquatic Valor from the Log of QuietlyConfident
UFOPEDIA
Mods
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76#UFO_Extender
http://xcomutil.scotttjones.com/
SkutSkut on
Posts
They planned way more political stuff, and aliens corrupting factions and taking them over and having them work against you.
lost 2 men though
I dunno what's in the sludge I'm feeding these fuckers, started up a new game of X-Com UFO, one guy takes two shots and snapshots a sectoid between two team mates and guns it down to finish the mission. Second mission a guy takes five plasma shots to the chest and chases a lil sectoid fucker around a corner and guns him down before bleeding out.
Really, unarmored redshirts shouldn't be taking that kind of punishment, I'm honestly shocked. I've had guys in flying suits go down in one stray shot, but Zapp Branigan took a shot, charged forward, took two more the next turn, rounded the corner and autofired a round into the thing it returns two more shots into him, his last shot killed it and he lived for two more turns. It was surreal. Kinda sad to lose him.
The best LP ever, part 1.
The best LP ever, part 2 (in progress).
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
edit- and it says best now
I bought the pack for myself, and gifted it to a friend last night. So cool to find it all so cheap.
I remember when I first played Terror From The Deep when I was like, 9. Man, that was amazing back then. "You mean I can build bases, do research, and shoot aliens!?" It was like Civilization, SimCity and Commander Keen all rolled up in one.
The Legend of Patrick Stewart
Tales of Bravery from the Log of Synthetic Orange
Tales of Aquatic Valor from the Log of QuietlyConfident
As the legend of Patrick Stewart tells us, its all in the name.
Also, I'll end up second guessing my base building, research decisions, and so on. So I expect that I'll be starting up a lot of new games as I continue to find my depth.
I'm gonna drown, aren't I?
And everyone is expendable.
Tech research
Laser Weapons
Laser Rifles
Medkits
Armor
or
Laser Weapons
Laser Pistols
Alien Grenades
Medkits
Armor
depending if you wanna blow shit up, or shoot shit. Some HEs are nice and you'll want to research alien grenades later anyway. And while it's not a big concern build an alien holding facility asap just in case, highly unlikely you'll catch one right away though.
Chrysalids are always the best. Especially Terror Missions.
One Terror mission I had everyone line up around the Skyranger, everyone was armed with Plasma rifles, and they put almost 5 rounds into anything that moved. I stood there reaction firing everything that moved for 20 turns, untill I moved through the city in a line, never breaking formation.
And by never breaking formation, I mean if there's a building in the way, you plasma the fuck out of it untill it isnt there anymore.
Its pretty much the closest to Late WWZ Army Tactics ive ever gotten in a videogame.
In another Terror mission against chrysalids, I did the same tactic, except I decided to do some scouting. I sent my captain, who I remember was named Dracht, along with two redshirts south to see what I was dealing with, whatever shooty units comes with chrysalids, snake men I think? I killed two of them before reaching a small house.
Hmm, this is a good place to hunker down for a while I thought.
They lasted for 15 turns, completely separated from the main line, when suddenly a snake men takes out Dracht and some other redshirt, the remaining redshirt runs for his life back to the main line, and stands in formation as we marched through the city, destroying every building and chrysallid in its path.
Using the solid line of plasma tactic, I only got one of my agents zombified.
Edit: God X-com is a great game, also, how does the steam version of Apocalypse run? I had to DOSBox UFO Defence, but ive heard that I can't do the same with apocalypse.
I really should do that. But ive only done the scouts thing one time, since I know the awesome of Dracht's House will probably not happen again. Primed Grenades on the firing line will result in disaster if a shooty man gets one of them, although it will be a hilarious disaster.
I'm guessing Interceptor and Enforcer don't exist then.
A friend loaned me Enforcer. He should have just raped me.
Sometimes they move around, taking fire from all directions, Ride of the Valkyries blasting from the stereo inside, mowing aliens and buildings down...
...and other times they take one plasma shot and they're down for the count.
But in other news... BEST.$2.EVER.
Me blogging about my (amateur) indie game programming
what is it I'm supposed to be doing? waiting for a ufo to show up?
I got bored really fast and somewhat nervous I was doing something remarkably stupid/wrong
Basically you research stuff, gather money and hunt aliens. When an alien ship shows up you send one of your fighter ships to shoot it down. Then you send your transport with troops. Speed up time to make it go faster (it should stop when an alien ship appears on radar). A lot of ships will get away early on. Sometimes an alien ship will land and you'll need to send a transport to it. The game requires a lot of patience and quite frankly, is a lot better when you don't have a backlog of other games to play. It can get a bit repetitive.
Build your first base in either Europe or North America, and then do research while waiting for your radar to detect a UFO. Get going quickly on laser weapons and maybe med-kits. Purchase additional soldiers if necessary (i.e. if you have too many low-accuracy trash soldiers) and purchase additional researchers whenever possible.
Expand your base by building additional living quarters and general stores fairly soon as you'll need both. Alien containment as well. Look into a base building guide online to give you an idea of how you should be laying things out to be least fucked when the aliens invade your base.
Once you have something like laser pistols researched start manufacturing them to sell at a profit ($8,000 to build, $20,000 sale price I believe). Whenever your engineers are not manufacturing something essential - like better weapons, armor, or new ships - put them to work on churning out items you can sell for a profit. Don't ever let them sit idle. Ditto for your scientists - they should always be researching, even if you have no personal interest in the options available, they may open more fruitful areas of research upon completion.
Oh, and since aliens don't show up every 5 minutes, once you have the basics set then go ahead to something like 30 mins or 1 hour as the time interval on the global map, and just take care of business as it comes up.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3220122&pagenumber=1
It's TFTD. And it's multiplayer. And Guava (the expert) is playing the aliens. It's terrible. Awful. He crushes everyone (until the last video, where he weights it completely against himself AND finds a competent opponent).
Anyway, UFO Defense/Enemy Unknown is the best game ever made. Love it so very much.
Tanks are a great investment to protect your troop. If it dies, morale doesn't drop like a stone, they also don't require experience to be good. Also immune to stupid stuff, like panicking and psionics.
I always roll with one.
Ultimately its exactly as you said though, its impossible to predict how many shots it will take..
Dont forget the Fishman LP in Social entropie http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=101123
Got the steam pack because it has no DRM unlike the original from 199X (and the steam one runs on my comp:).
Good luck with the Sectiods from Uranus!
Which always didn't make sense to me. I mean if I saw a tank blow up after one hit I'd be like, "Oh snap, we're boned."
My main use for tanks was soaking up reaction fire before I unload some grunts.
Until All Are One...under the Newell
My Boardgames
Nintendo Network ID: RollaJ
Go go go Ufopaedia.org
The most indept site on al things ufo.
For recruit stats go here http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Raw_recruit_statistical_likelihood
I generally bench anyone with less than 30 bravery. One comrade down and they're likely to go nuts.
Sure it makes sense. Seeing a tank blow up isn't anything like wearing for a hat whatever parts of your squadmate that didn't get totally vaporized from that plasma shot.
So, being new and all, I started playin on Beginner, after a couple of minutes of playing a UFO landed or crashed, so I sent my SKYRANGER, my team hopped out of the ship, only to have them sniped by a grey from some place far away.
Everyone died.
I have tried reading faqs, but looks like most of them expect you to know about X-Com, I have started reading the manual too, but still, could someone give me some BATTLE tips? I don't want to rename my squad as my friends only to have them raped again.
Completing the mission is more important than leveling up your soldiers, especially early on. Once they have the resources to not die immediately is when you can worry about their skill. Blast everything in sight!
But...
Tanks cost like four times as much as new recruits.
Protect those tanks, too.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
If theres something ive learnt so far its not a case of IF but WHEN
Until All Are One...under the Newell
My Boardgames
Nintendo Network ID: RollaJ
Buy a tank (HWP), preferably with a rocket launcher imo. It will be the first thing off the dropship every time, and is easier to replace than a good soldier if you do get sniped immediately.
Avoid night missions unless doing so would skip the mission entirely. Fly your Skyranger to a nearby point and have it patrol until daylight if need be, and then send it to the ship/base/terror site.
Keep your soldiers behind cover whenever possible. Clear map areas methodically so that you don't get killed from behind by a missed alien. Always reserve time for a shot with any soldier who might encounter an alien during their turn (any soldier not deep in already cleared territory). I reserve time for a snap shot, others may do it differently. The exception here is when reserving time would leave a soldier exposed to a visible alien who can see them. In that case you typically want to take as many shots as possible/necessary to remove the threat, even is it leaves you with no reserved time. Assuming you can position more favorably, end your soldiers' turns in such a way that they will be able to snap a shot off at an alien that turns a corner, or exits a building, or what have you. Do not leave your soldiers out in the open unless unavoidable to get them where they need to go. Keep your soldiers paired up or in larger groups whenever possible to keep all likely angles of approach covered, but not so close to each other that a single grenade would take several out at once.
Kneeling increases the accuracy of your shots and also makes your soldiers less of a target.
Be careful in how you approach things - does that building you need to clear have a number of windows that would give you a good view of the interior? Have your soldiers walk up to the windows and look through at all angles necessary to see as much of the interior as possible before sending one in through the door.
Identify your less worthy soldiers (most with less than 60 firing accuracy, imo, and definitely anyone with less than 50) and use them to scout out dangerous areas. Time to open the door to the alien ship? That guy with 47 accuracy and low health and time units is first in. At the same time, breach enemy ships smartly - I like to have at least 2 better soldiers present and poised to fire in through the door as soon as it's opened when I send the meat scout in. Sending the meat in with a primed grenade might not be a bad idea if you aren't looking to capture a live alien. Oh, give your low accuracy soldiers a lot of grenades and high explosives so that they have some value besides just being human targets/shields.
Dump soldiers with very low bravery. They just aren't worth it.
Get some laser rifles in your soldiers' hands as quickly as possible. From there, research plasma rifles or heavy plasma as soon as feasible when you loot them.
More when I have a chance, I guess.
Generally, you are going to take casualties no matter what, especially early on, so I wouldn't name 'em after your friends. Avoid that trauma, at least!
Can recommend caution until you find your feet. Try and keep your guys behind cover, always knelt at the end of their turn (improves accuracy and makes them a smaller target to hit), and with enough AP left over to get a shot or two away during the aliens turn if they wander into view. If you are worried about getting shot the instant you step out of the transport, it might be worth throwing a smoke grenade out the door first turn to provide some cover while you get the troops out and into decent positions.
Also, avoid night missions like the plague if you can.
Will try and add a few more specific tips later, but have to dash now, sorry!
Edit: Beaten to it! But awesome post just above. Lotsa good stuff!
This is good advice! Smoke grenades actually do provide some concealment if you need to get from point A to point B quickly without dying. However, this works both ways; you won't be able to see the enemy either. If that's not a concern though, then use smoke.
Another thing: you don't have to down every alien craft or investigate every alien crash/landing site. Downing a ton of craft may provoke an Alien Retaliation mission against your base. Shoot them down (if possible) away from your base. Some craft you should always shoot down though. Terror missions from large craft because they'll lead to a worse situation. Don't let alien infiltration ships make it to major contributor countries. Alien bases are tough to destroy once they are established.
If you don't have the manpower/time to send out the Skyranger, shoot down the craft over water or just let it disappear. It's tough to investigate hundreds of crash sites over the course of the game. Let the minor ones go; you don't lose anything really.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
One day I will show those aliens who's boss. One day.