NeonSpyder"Das est NTLDR?"Join Date: 2003-07-03Member: 17913Members
Yeah no kidding. I'm have a really hard time with it even on the lowest difficulty level <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1613565:date=Mar 11 2007, 02:08 PM:name=NeonSpyder)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NeonSpyder @ Mar 11 2007, 02:08 PM) [snapback]1613565[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Yeah no kidding. I'm have a really hard time with it even on the lowest difficulty level <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, it's mainly because your recruits die faster then Stormtroopers and Red Shirts combined...
<!--quoteo(post=1613565:date=Mar 11 2007, 08:08 PM:name=NeonSpyder)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NeonSpyder @ Mar 11 2007, 08:08 PM) [snapback]1613565[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Yeah no kidding. I'm have a really hard time with it even on the lowest difficulty level <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Use smoke grenades on hot LZs.
Avoid sectoid and ethereal missions.
Goto EVERY terror side (even if you just dust of in the first turn, you wont get as much negative points as for an unattended terror site.)
Write down, which alien bases you have found and which ones destroyed (the bases are numbered. So if you find base 7, there are at least 6 more waiting for you).
Scientists and engis in transfer dont receive a paycheck (transfer them during the 31th)
If you want to build items for free, set the initial manufacturing quantity to 0. Now access the project and raise desired quantity to 1. This 1 item wont cost you any money and items.
Transfer a craft between bases and sent it to the geoscape before it gets refueled, results in the infinite fuel bug.
You want plasma rays ASAP. Plasma rays have a greater range than any ufo, except the battleship.
Every base will recieve weekly supplys from supply ships. These stay landed on the alien bases for about 4h. You can exploit this, by ground assaulting supply ships instead of destroying bases, resulting in a steady elirium supply. (Floater bases prefered)
You can attack a single ufo, with several aircrafts at once. (needed for taking down battleships)
If your first terror missions is a sectoid mission, try to capture the local sectoid leader. Early psi labs can win you the game.
Be aware that when you research plasma/blaster weapons, you cause ethereals and mutons to appear that much sooner - I dealt with lasers and floater aliens until I had avengers in production.
Until you get personal armor it's best just to use tanks as scouts. On the easiest setting X-COM is pretty easy once you figure it out (and especially once you get physic stuff) but before you do it's brutal. Until I got good at it, I had to load almost every battle just to keep from losing the entire squad somehow.
PulseTo create, to create and escape.Join Date: 2002-08-29Member: 1248Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1613605:date=Mar 11 2007, 03:25 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Mar 11 2007, 03:25 PM) [snapback]1613605[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Until you get personal armor it's best just to use tanks as scouts. On the easiest setting X-COM is pretty easy once you figure it out (and especially once you get physic stuff) but before you do it's brutal. Until I got good at it, I had to load almost every battle just to keep from losing the entire squad somehow. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> It's <i>always</i> best to use tanks as scouts. Also, there's nothing in the game itself to stop you from savescumming, but if you do it you're a bad person and should feel bad.
For me it was either savescumming or starting a new game every terror mission.
Ahh the memories... I was so good at defending against attacks on my base. I didn't have many defense structures, but my squad was so well-equipped it didn't matter. I had one blaster bomb launcher (with a backup laser pistol), two heavy lasers, four plasma rifles, and the rest of the 10-person squad had heavy plasmas. Oh, and everybody carried at least one alien grenade, a proxy grenade, a medkit (of course), and half the squad had motion trackers.
I usually don't make multiple squads. I prefer to have one really good one, then have an extra in case that one isn't available. I also usually didn't make bases with one function; I made them all multi-function bases, but my main base had the research.
ShockehIf a packet drops on the web and nobody's near to see it...Join Date: 2002-11-19Member: 9336NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
My tactic revolved around 1 Scout Tank, and 8 Psychics. Troops never met aliens in person in my squads, they just dominated them remotely.
Tank rumbles around corner. Tank spots alien. Trooper psychically dominates alien, with his 255 TU each, and there's 8 of them, I just tried again & again & again until I got hold of them. As soon as I got hold of them, either shoot the nearest friendly in the face, if they had a Blaster or Stun Launcher, fire it at the floor, or (my personal favourite) equip them with their grenades, and drop them neatly on the floor.
The only annoying thing was dominating Crysalids, because you couldn't get them to attack <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> You just had to run off and make it dance in front of Snakemen in the hope they gunned it down for you (which they never did, they were practically bloody immune to Plasma. Laser Rifles were where it's at, and you would have buckets of Elerium for reactors by not using it to make ammo) <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Only ever had to savescum once after that squad formed, and that was when by sheer chance, I had a goddamn Sectoid with a Blaster Launcher looking in the dropship door at the start of a mission. >_<
The only annoying thing was dominating Crysalids, because you couldn't get them to attack <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> You just had to run off and make it dance in front of Snakemen in the hope they gunned it down for you (which they never did, they were practically bloody immune to Plasma.<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Only ever had to savescum once after that squad formed, and that was when by sheer chance, I had a goddamn Sectoid with a Blaster Launcher looking in the dropship door at the start of a mission. >_<
- Shockwave <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ahahahaha!!! yes! i know what u mean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Or savescumm when you have your l33t team later in the game and you have one psi noob on your team and he decideds to get possessed and launched a blaster bomb right into the ret of your guys on the transport ship. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" />
PulseTo create, to create and escape.Join Date: 2002-08-29Member: 1248Members, Constellation
edited March 2007
<!--quoteo(post=1613716:date=Mar 12 2007, 01:03 AM:name=CplDavis)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CplDavis @ Mar 12 2007, 01:03 AM) [snapback]1613716[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=1613691:date=Mar 11 2007, 09:58 PM:name=Shockwave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shockwave @ Mar 11 2007, 09:58 PM) [snapback]1613691[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The only annoying thing was dominating Crysalids, because you couldn't get them to attack <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> You just had to run off and make it dance in front of Snakemen in the hope they gunned it down for you (which they never did, they were practically bloody immune to Plasma. Laser Rifles were where it's at, and you would have buckets of Elerium for reactors by not using it to make ammo) <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Only ever had to savescum once after that squad formed, and that was when by sheer chance, I had a goddamn Sectoid with a Blaster Launcher looking in the dropship door at the start of a mission. >_<
- Shockwave <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> ahahahaha!!! yes! i know what u mean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> Or savescumm when you have your l33t team later in the game and you have one psi noob on your team and he decideds to get possessed and launched a blaster bomb right into the ret of your guys on the transport ship. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" /> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> No excuse! I've been through my fair share of skyrangers and avengers in my day.
<i>Alfred Pennyworth: Took quite a fall, didn't we, Master Bruce? Thomas Wayne: And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.</i>
And what was a guy with a low psi score doing with a blaster launcher anyway? That's just asking for it.
<!--quoteo(post=1613721:date=Mar 12 2007, 04:00 AM:name=Pulse)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pulse @ Mar 12 2007, 04:00 AM) [snapback]1613721[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> ahahahaha!!! yes! i know what u mean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> Or savescumm when you have your l33t team later in the game and you have one psi noob on your team and he decideds to get possessed and launched a blaster bomb right into the ret of your guys on the transport ship. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" />
No excuse! I've been through my fair share of skyrangers and avengers in my day.
<i>Alfred Pennyworth: Took quite a fall, didn't we, Master Bruce? Thomas Wayne: And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.</i>
And what was a guy with a low psi score doing with a blaster launcher anyway? That's just asking for it. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You sir are hardcore.
Also, how exactly are people getting this to run without it being ridiculously fast?
<!--quoteo(post=1613724:date=Mar 12 2007, 11:17 AM:name=Nil_IQ)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ @ Mar 12 2007, 11:17 AM) [snapback]1613724[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You sir are hardcore.
Also, how exactly are people getting this to run without it being ridiculously fast? <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
These, Fallout and Jagged Alliance 2 are the only games that never leave my computer.
One thing I find helps is to make a manufacturing base, just with stores and the ability to manufacture laser cannons and just continually sell them. Makes you a lot of money if you can keep it up and make them sufficiently fast. I also like to use this base as a store and manufacture other things I need as well, so I can have more psi rooms, labs etc in my main bases.
I guess it's just because I'm generally bad at or impatient with strategy or RTS games, but I could never get into x-com. I'm surprised so many people love a game where one bad choice can blow hours of work. I definitely love the theme and style though.
<!--quoteo(post=1613691:date=Mar 12 2007, 03:58 AM:name=Shockwave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shockwave @ Mar 12 2007, 03:58 AM) [snapback]1613691[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> My tactic revolved around 1 Scout Tank, and 8 Psychics. Troops never met aliens in person in my squads, they just dominated them remotely.
Tank rumbles around corner. Tank spots alien. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That would be cheap if it WASN'T WHAT THE ALIENS DID EVERY TIME! It's even worse in TFTD.
Aquatoid: "Hey there's some guy over that hill." Gill Man: "Where?" Aquatoid: "Not sure. He was right there last I remember." Gill Man: "What do we do?" Aquatoid: "I don't know. Throw a bomb there or something." Tasoth: "I'll just molecularly control everybody who was there." Gill Man: "Yeah then I'll throw a bomb. Whoever lives is on our side!" All: "Huzzah!"
It didn't help that aliens could see a mile underwater, even in the dark.
It's kind of funny, because there's an X-Com mod utility that lets you turn off MC used by aliens. It makes the game remarkably easier. It doesn't work on TFTD, though. :\
And yeah, Laser Weapons were always really good. They had unlimited ammo, for one, which already makes them incredibly useful. I'd always have my squad have at least one heavy laser and laser rifle, for Sectopods and Chryssalids. Anything else that was resistant I just filled them full of a large amount of ammunition. My tactics were basically "if it doesn't die in one hit, shoot it again." With Lobstermen, that just got old after about 4 shots, though.
Oh, and if you're sad about Gauss weapons sucking, get the X-Com utility that lets you improve laser weapons in X-Com. It makes the gauss weapons in TFTD have unlimited ammo, and makes laser weapons in X-Com a tad bit better (slightly more damage).
LAST EDIT: One last thing. Here's a tip: If you're having trouble finding an alien base, and you KNOW it's somewhere (like, you see every supply ship and their mother flying around Florida), send a Skyranger there. They're slow, but they have a HUGE fuel supply and great sensor range. Have them patrol a bit until they run out of fuel or spot it. Obviously, make sure the Skyranger is empty. Also one more tip: before you decide to let a base live and just shoot down supply ships for stuff, make sure you can handle the alien retaliation. They get super PO'ed when you mess with their supplies all the time. And they <i>will</i> find your base... until you get mind shields. Once you get a Hyperwave Decoder, though, you can see which ones are on the way to attack you and possibly shoot them down.
In addition, I ALWAYS set my priorities to the scout craft first. Once you get a hyperwave decoder, you'll find out that they're the ones that try to form alliances with Earth nations. I always shoot them down first, even if I have to just obliterate them with Avalanche missiles or over water.
If it is still running too fast, use dosbox. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I have a mod that replaces the soundtrack with that of the PSX version (which is vastly superior to the PC soundtrack) which makes my copy run <i>perfectly</i> for some reason. Even better than using a patch or slowdown utility, which only slow it down to a playable level, not the speed it was meant to run at. I haven't been able to replicate the effect anywhere else no matter what I do, even with the mod, though.
Here's my tip for the day: Use explosives early and often. If there's a single barn or farmhouse left standing by the end of the game, you're doing it wrong.
<!--quoteo(post=1613789:date=Mar 12 2007, 03:52 PM:name=Pulse)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pulse @ Mar 12 2007, 03:52 PM) [snapback]1613789[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I have a mod that replaces the soundtrack with that of the PSX version (which is vastly superior to the PC soundtrack) which makes my copy run <i>perfectly</i> for some reason. Even better than using a patch or slowdown utility, which only slow it down to a playable level, not the speed it was meant to run at. I haven't been able to replicate the effect anywhere else no matter what I do, even with the mod, though.
Here's my tip for the day: Use explosives early and often. If there's a single barn or farmhouse left standing by the end of the game, you're doing it wrong. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You really, really, really should gimme a link to that mod.
As for my tip of the day: The soldier, leading your assault should be equipped with a pistol and primed grenades. Because shooting pistols cost nearly no time units you can often enough enter a UFO, fire 3 snapshots, throw a grenade and still get away just in time.
Aliens do not care about the daytime. Their night vision is as good as their day vision: Avoid fighting night-battles.
My first run through the game, on a 486, the game was still buggy and tended to crash any time I tried to save during a battle. So I had no choice but to beat it without save-scumming. Also certain sound effects didn't play, like the one that tells you whether the alien you just gunned down is dead or just unconscious, which was annoying when aliens I thought were dead would get back up after I'd moved on, and come bite me in the back, or maybe even just go hide in a corner so it took forever to finish the mission.
I never found explosives too useful though, because they only did about as much damage as one shot from a gun, and lots of aliens had enough HP to survive that. Plus you wouldn't know whether or not you were going to kill the alien until at least the end of the round, meaning they would get the first chance to shoot back.
If I suffered a total party wipe, I'd go ahead and load the save from before the battle started. But one terror mission had just a single survivor, who had lived through an alien grenade explosion at point blank range in light armor, due probably to the wooden fence between him and the nade. The fence was demolished, but it absorbed just enough of the damage that my guy lived through with like 6 health left. He was in sickbay for a full month after that mission. And he was promoted to Captain. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Two months later, he and one other soldier were the only survivors of an assault on an alien base full of chrysalids. *shudder* Half my squad was zombified. That was not a pretty mission. Earned me lots of score points though, since the zombies counted as enemies killed instead of friendlies lost. =)
You know what the most annoying part of missions against Psi-enabled Sectoids was? At the end of the mission, it was usually down to just the enemy leader left, who was mind-controlling some poor sucker with a low Psi score every turn, and if you killed the last alien your soldier would be considered MIA and disappear! You had to let that damned alien live as long as it took for him to get bored of mind control, or randomly fail, before shooting him.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You had to let that damned alien live as long as it took for him to get bored of mind control, or randomly fail, before shooting him.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's the second-worse thing from the first one that TFTD fixed. The first being, of course, the "5 million clips of ammo and no guns" bug when your base is attacked.
That wasn't strictly a bug per se, just a poor design feature. The base automatically handed you the first 80 items in your inventory, of whatever kind, and tucked the rest away safely in storage. It just so happened that the way items were sorted, that could very easily give you a pile of ammo with no guns, or just as common a pile of guns with no ammo.
But if you knew what you were doing, you could pause the game while a UFO was on its way towards your base, and manually rearrange your inventory to make sure you had what you needed. The spare items could either be sold or equipped to your Transport ships--Oh yes, did I mention all the items on your Transport ship didn't count, since they werent considered Base Inventory? If you had a limited number of powerful items that were all equipped to a squad for missions, you would find yourself without them for the base defense. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Plus base defense structures were worthless. Only one type of ship ever carried out base attacks, and it had 5000 hp. Damaging it did nothing, you had to shoot it down. And by the time you had high enough tech to put up 5000 damage worth of base defenses, you should just be building Mind Shields anyway.
Man, you guys have made me go play it again. It's only two months in, and I have flying suits...
Anyway, only interesting story I have was when my General took a direct blaster hit, and then went on to survive for another 10-15 rounds, while covering my 2nd in command, and insanely powerful psychic, from the other end of the corridor. He sadly died just before my psychic took control of an ethereal general, turned him around, and made him shoot the alien brain. That was brilliant.
ShockehIf a packet drops on the web and nobody's near to see it...Join Date: 2002-11-19Member: 9336NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1613795:date=Mar 12 2007, 03:33 PM:name=Cxwf)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cxwf @ Mar 12 2007, 03:33 PM) [snapback]1613795[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You know what the most annoying part of missions against Psi-enabled Sectoids was? At the end of the mission, it was usually down to just the enemy leader left, who was mind-controlling some poor sucker with a low Psi score every turn, and if you killed the last alien your soldier would be considered MIA and disappear! You had to let that damned alien live as long as it took for him to get bored of mind control, or randomly fail, before shooting him. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> The other dirty trick was to improve your score by Mind Controlling Civilians. The game never considered it, so if you Mind Controlled a civilian, once you released them they were flagged to the 'Alien' team, not the 'Civilian' one. As a result, you could MC the civilians bar one, then gun them all down happily for points, as well as use them as suicide grenadiers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Ok, i've come to realise that the last time I completed this I did it by so-called savescumming, so now I want to complete the game <i>properly</i>. The only thing is.... i'm finding it a little too easy.
I'm nearly two months in. I have lasers and personal armour is just being manufactured. I've lost a total of about 8 men plus 1 tank across 4 UFO missions and 1 terror mission. I'm just wondering whether its going to GET harder, or if I should restart and try to complete it on Genius difficulty....
If i'm going to complete this game again I want it to be really hard dammit!
*edit* Also, I just finished a terror mission without losing a single man. And only one injury. Something is wrong, or I am the master of all that is X-com, this doesn't FEEL like veteran difficulty.
<!--quoteo(post=1613969:date=Mar 13 2007, 10:59 AM:name=Nil_IQ)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ @ Mar 13 2007, 10:59 AM) [snapback]1613969[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Ok, i've come to realise that the last time I completed this I did it by so-called savescumming, so now I want to complete the game <i>properly</i>. The only thing is.... i'm finding it a little too easy.
I'm nearly two months in. I have lasers and personal armour is just being manufactured. I've lost a total of about 8 men plus 1 tank across 4 UFO missions and 1 terror mission. I'm just wondering whether its going to GET harder, or if I should restart and try to complete it on Genius difficulty....
If i'm going to complete this game again I want it to be really hard dammit! <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you want it to be hard, play a challenge:
Good start would be the Vampire challenge: Your Soldiers are Vampires and fear light. Thats why ALL battles have to be fought during the night. Artificial lightsources are still allowed (vamps fear UV <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />) (because cydonia is dark you can complete this)
The pacifist challenge: You are not allowed to kill aliens. (can be completed, but is really really hard, until you get the stun launchers)
The Xenophob challenge: You fear everything alien: All alien artifacts have to be sold. No research an alien artifacts allowed. (cant be completed but will teach you to use terran weapons)
Single Base Hawaii challenge: You are allowed only 1 base, which has to be located on Hawaii. Dont let this fool you. IT IS FREAKING HARD!
PulseTo create, to create and escape.Join Date: 2002-08-29Member: 1248Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1613792:date=Mar 12 2007, 08:23 AM:name=Faskalia)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Faskalia @ Mar 12 2007, 08:23 AM) [snapback]1613792[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You really, really, really should gimme a link to that mod.
As for my tip of the day: The soldier, leading your assault should be equipped with a pistol and primed grenades. Because shooting pistols cost nearly no time units you can often enough enter a UFO, fire 3 snapshots, throw a grenade and still get away just in time.
Aliens do not care about the daytime. Their night vision is as good as their day vision: Avoid fighting night-battles. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> <a href="http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7503" target="_blank">PSX Music mod</a>
<!--QuoteBegin-Nil_IQ+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Ok, i've come to realise that the last time I completed this I did it by so-called savescumming, so now I want to complete the game properly. The only thing is.... i'm finding it a little too easy.
I'm nearly two months in. I have lasers and personal armour is just being manufactured. I've lost a total of about 8 men plus 1 tank across 4 UFO missions and 1 terror mission. I'm just wondering whether its going to GET harder, or if I should restart and try to complete it on Genius difficulty....
If i'm going to complete this game again I want it to be really hard dammit!
*edit* Also, I just finished a terror mission without losing a single man. And only one injury. Something is wrong, or I am the master of all that is X-com, this doesn't FEEL like veteran difficulty.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> <a href="http://members.aol.com/stjones/xcomutil/" target="_blank">XcomUtil</a> <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->XcomUtil is a game enhancer. It is not really an editor and it is certainly not a cheat program. The original purpose of XcomUtil was to make the game more difficult, because there was a bug in the original game that forced all games to the Beginner difficulty level, regardless of what level you chose.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
While that sounds awesome, I think it broke my game. Not a problem since I was going to start again anyway, but it'd be nice to know which of the awesome extra features I chose caused it to bork...
*edit* Seems even if I turn all the whistles and bells of it still borkens <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
Update: It works now!
My first UFO mission went ok, we were outnumbered 9-to-8 and I lost three guys. I had a series of unsuccessful UFO intercepts, culminating in downing one JUST as a terror site appears on the other side of the planet. I respond with 10 guys. First turn goes pretty well, the first guy out of the dropship is mercilessly gunned down as always, but everyone else gets out alright and we take down five sectoids in the first turn alone. Then the cyberdisks show up. Two of them, on opposide sides of the street the skyranger landed in. They take a hail of rifle bullets and laser blasts without even flinching and gun down 4 of my guys. We return fire only to see more shots go *PING!* *PING!* *PING!*, including a high explosive heavy cannon round which hit dead centre. More aliens show up and gun down another 3 of my guys, leaving 3 left alive. They all panic except one. Who gets mind controlled. I'm not sure how the last 3 died but i'm sure it was equally horrible and painful.
Now this is more like it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Comments
Yeah no kidding. I'm have a really hard time with it even on the lowest difficulty level <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
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Well, it's mainly because your recruits die faster then Stormtroopers and Red Shirts combined...
Yeah no kidding. I'm have a really hard time with it even on the lowest difficulty level <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
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Use smoke grenades on hot LZs.
Avoid sectoid and ethereal missions.
Goto EVERY terror side (even if you just dust of in the first turn, you wont get as much negative points as for an unattended terror site.)
Write down, which alien bases you have found and which ones destroyed (the bases are numbered. So if you find base 7, there are at least 6 more waiting for you).
Scientists and engis in transfer dont receive a paycheck (transfer them during the 31th)
If you want to build items for free, set the initial manufacturing quantity to 0. Now access the project and raise desired quantity to 1. This 1 item wont cost you any money and items.
Transfer a craft between bases and sent it to the geoscape before it gets refueled, results in the infinite fuel bug.
You want plasma rays ASAP. Plasma rays have a greater range than any ufo, except the battleship.
Every base will recieve weekly supplys from supply ships. These stay landed on the alien bases for about 4h. You can exploit this, by ground assaulting supply ships instead of destroying bases, resulting in a steady elirium supply. (Floater bases prefered)
You can attack a single ufo, with several aircrafts at once. (needed for taking down battleships)
If your first terror missions is a sectoid mission, try to capture the local sectoid leader. Early psi labs can win you the game.
Fight in the daylight!!!!!!
<a href="http://www.strategycore.co.uk" target="_blank">strategycore</a>
Until you get personal armor it's best just to use tanks as scouts. On the easiest setting X-COM is pretty easy once you figure it out (and especially once you get physic stuff) but before you do it's brutal. Until I got good at it, I had to load almost every battle just to keep from losing the entire squad somehow.
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It's <i>always</i> best to use tanks as scouts. Also, there's nothing in the game itself to stop you from savescumming, but if you do it you're a bad person and should feel bad.
Ahh the memories... I was so good at defending against attacks on my base. I didn't have many defense structures, but my squad was so well-equipped it didn't matter. I had one blaster bomb launcher (with a backup laser pistol), two heavy lasers, four plasma rifles, and the rest of the 10-person squad had heavy plasmas. Oh, and everybody carried at least one alien grenade, a proxy grenade, a medkit (of course), and half the squad had motion trackers.
I usually don't make multiple squads. I prefer to have one really good one, then have an extra in case that one isn't available. I also usually didn't make bases with one function; I made them all multi-function bases, but my main base had the research.
Tank rumbles around corner. Tank spots alien. Trooper psychically dominates alien, with his 255 TU each, and there's 8 of them, I just tried again & again & again until I got hold of them. As soon as I got hold of them, either shoot the nearest friendly in the face, if they had a Blaster or Stun Launcher, fire it at the floor, or (my personal favourite) equip them with their grenades, and drop them neatly on the floor.
The only annoying thing was dominating Crysalids, because you couldn't get them to attack <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> You just had to run off and make it dance in front of Snakemen in the hope they gunned it down for you (which they never did, they were practically bloody immune to Plasma. Laser Rifles were where it's at, and you would have buckets of Elerium for reactors by not using it to make ammo) <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Only ever had to savescum once after that squad formed, and that was when by sheer chance, I had a goddamn Sectoid with a Blaster Launcher looking in the dropship door at the start of a mission. >_<
- Shockwave
The only annoying thing was dominating Crysalids, because you couldn't get them to attack <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> You just had to run off and make it dance in front of Snakemen in the hope they gunned it down for you (which they never did, they were practically bloody immune to Plasma.<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Only ever had to savescum once after that squad formed, and that was when by sheer chance, I had a goddamn Sectoid with a Blaster Launcher looking in the dropship door at the start of a mission. >_<
- Shockwave
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ahahahaha!!! yes! i know what u mean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Or savescumm when you have your l33t team later in the game and you have one psi noob on your team and he decideds to get possessed and launched a blaster bomb right into the ret of your guys on the transport ship.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" />
Only ever had to savescum once after that squad formed, and that was when by sheer chance, I had a goddamn Sectoid with a Blaster Launcher looking in the dropship door at the start of a mission. >_<
- Shockwave
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ahahahaha!!! yes! i know what u mean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Or savescumm when you have your l33t team later in the game and you have one psi noob on your team and he decideds to get possessed and launched a blaster bomb right into the ret of your guys on the transport ship.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" />
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No excuse! I've been through my fair share of skyrangers and avengers in my day.
<i>Alfred Pennyworth: Took quite a fall, didn't we, Master Bruce?
Thomas Wayne: And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.</i>
And what was a guy with a low psi score doing with a blaster launcher anyway? That's just asking for it.
ahahahaha!!! yes! i know what u mean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Or savescumm when you have your l33t team later in the game and you have one psi noob on your team and he decideds to get possessed and launched a blaster bomb right into the ret of your guys on the transport ship.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad-fix.gif" />
No excuse! I've been through my fair share of skyrangers and avengers in my day.
<i>Alfred Pennyworth: Took quite a fall, didn't we, Master Bruce?
Thomas Wayne: And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.</i>
And what was a guy with a low psi score doing with a blaster launcher anyway? That's just asking for it.
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You sir are hardcore.
Also, how exactly are people getting this to run without it being ridiculously fast?
You sir are hardcore.
Also, how exactly are people getting this to run without it being ridiculously fast?
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<a href="http://www.xcomufo.com/" target="_blank">http://www.xcomufo.com/</a>
Go to the download tabs and DL xcom1fix.exe.
If it is still running too fast, use dosbox.
One thing I find helps is to make a manufacturing base, just with stores and the ability to manufacture laser cannons and just continually sell them. Makes you a lot of money if you can keep it up and make them sufficiently fast. I also like to use this base as a store and manufacture other things I need as well, so I can have more psi rooms, labs etc in my main bases.
My tactic revolved around 1 Scout Tank, and 8 Psychics. Troops never met aliens in person in my squads, they just dominated them remotely.
Tank rumbles around corner. Tank spots alien.
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That would be cheap if it WASN'T WHAT THE ALIENS DID EVERY TIME! It's even worse in TFTD.
Aquatoid: "Hey there's some guy over that hill."
Gill Man: "Where?"
Aquatoid: "Not sure. He was right there last I remember."
Gill Man: "What do we do?"
Aquatoid: "I don't know. Throw a bomb there or something."
Tasoth: "I'll just molecularly control everybody who was there."
Gill Man: "Yeah then I'll throw a bomb. Whoever lives is on our side!"
All: "Huzzah!"
It didn't help that aliens could see a mile underwater, even in the dark.
It's kind of funny, because there's an X-Com mod utility that lets you turn off MC used by aliens. It makes the game remarkably easier. It doesn't work on TFTD, though. :\
And yeah, Laser Weapons were always really good. They had unlimited ammo, for one, which already makes them incredibly useful. I'd always have my squad have at least one heavy laser and laser rifle, for Sectopods and Chryssalids. Anything else that was resistant I just filled them full of a large amount of ammunition. My tactics were basically "if it doesn't die in one hit, shoot it again." With Lobstermen, that just got old after about 4 shots, though.
Oh, and if you're sad about Gauss weapons sucking, get the X-Com utility that lets you improve laser weapons in X-Com. It makes the gauss weapons in TFTD have unlimited ammo, and makes laser weapons in X-Com a tad bit better (slightly more damage).
LAST EDIT: One last thing. Here's a tip: If you're having trouble finding an alien base, and you KNOW it's somewhere (like, you see every supply ship and their mother flying around Florida), send a Skyranger there. They're slow, but they have a HUGE fuel supply and great sensor range. Have them patrol a bit until they run out of fuel or spot it. Obviously, make sure the Skyranger is empty. Also one more tip: before you decide to let a base live and just shoot down supply ships for stuff, make sure you can handle the alien retaliation. They get super PO'ed when you mess with their supplies all the time. And they <i>will</i> find your base... until you get mind shields. Once you get a Hyperwave Decoder, though, you can see which ones are on the way to attack you and possibly shoot them down.
In addition, I ALWAYS set my priorities to the scout craft first. Once you get a hyperwave decoder, you'll find out that they're the ones that try to form alliances with Earth nations. I always shoot them down first, even if I have to just obliterate them with Avalanche missiles or over water.
<a href="http://www.xcomufo.com/" target="_blank">http://www.xcomufo.com/</a>
Go to the download tabs and DL xcom1fix.exe.
If it is still running too fast, use dosbox.
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I have a mod that replaces the soundtrack with that of the PSX version (which is vastly superior to the PC soundtrack) which makes my copy run <i>perfectly</i> for some reason. Even better than using a patch or slowdown utility, which only slow it down to a playable level, not the speed it was meant to run at. I haven't been able to replicate the effect anywhere else no matter what I do, even with the mod, though.
Here's my tip for the day: Use explosives early and often. If there's a single barn or farmhouse left standing by the end of the game, you're doing it wrong.
I have a mod that replaces the soundtrack with that of the PSX version (which is vastly superior to the PC soundtrack) which makes my copy run <i>perfectly</i> for some reason. Even better than using a patch or slowdown utility, which only slow it down to a playable level, not the speed it was meant to run at. I haven't been able to replicate the effect anywhere else no matter what I do, even with the mod, though.
Here's my tip for the day: Use explosives early and often. If there's a single barn or farmhouse left standing by the end of the game, you're doing it wrong.
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You really, really, really should gimme a link to that mod.
As for my tip of the day:
The soldier, leading your assault should be equipped with a pistol and primed grenades. Because shooting pistols cost nearly no time units you can often enough enter a UFO, fire 3 snapshots, throw a grenade and still get away just in time.
Aliens do not care about the daytime. Their night vision is as good as their day vision: Avoid fighting night-battles.
I never found explosives too useful though, because they only did about as much damage as one shot from a gun, and lots of aliens had enough HP to survive that. Plus you wouldn't know whether or not you were going to kill the alien until at least the end of the round, meaning they would get the first chance to shoot back.
If I suffered a total party wipe, I'd go ahead and load the save from before the battle started. But one terror mission had just a single survivor, who had lived through an alien grenade explosion at point blank range in light armor, due probably to the wooden fence between him and the nade. The fence was demolished, but it absorbed just enough of the damage that my guy lived through with like 6 health left. He was in sickbay for a full month after that mission. And he was promoted to Captain. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Two months later, he and one other soldier were the only survivors of an assault on an alien base full of chrysalids. *shudder* Half my squad was zombified. That was not a pretty mission. Earned me lots of score points though, since the zombies counted as enemies killed instead of friendlies lost. =)
You know what the most annoying part of missions against Psi-enabled Sectoids was? At the end of the mission, it was usually down to just the enemy leader left, who was mind-controlling some poor sucker with a low Psi score every turn, and if you killed the last alien your soldier would be considered MIA and disappear! You had to let that damned alien live as long as it took for him to get bored of mind control, or randomly fail, before shooting him.
That's the second-worse thing from the first one that TFTD fixed. The first being, of course, the "5 million clips of ammo and no guns" bug when your base is attacked.
But if you knew what you were doing, you could pause the game while a UFO was on its way towards your base, and manually rearrange your inventory to make sure you had what you needed. The spare items could either be sold or equipped to your Transport ships--Oh yes, did I mention all the items on your Transport ship didn't count, since they werent considered Base Inventory? If you had a limited number of powerful items that were all equipped to a squad for missions, you would find yourself without them for the base defense. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Plus base defense structures were worthless. Only one type of ship ever carried out base attacks, and it had 5000 hp. Damaging it did nothing, you had to shoot it down. And by the time you had high enough tech to put up 5000 damage worth of base defenses, you should just be building Mind Shields anyway.
Anyway, only interesting story I have was when my General took a direct blaster hit, and then went on to survive for another 10-15 rounds, while covering my 2nd in command, and insanely powerful psychic, from the other end of the corridor. He sadly died just before my psychic took control of an ethereal general, turned him around, and made him shoot the alien brain. That was brilliant.
You know what the most annoying part of missions against Psi-enabled Sectoids was? At the end of the mission, it was usually down to just the enemy leader left, who was mind-controlling some poor sucker with a low Psi score every turn, and if you killed the last alien your soldier would be considered MIA and disappear! You had to let that damned alien live as long as it took for him to get bored of mind control, or randomly fail, before shooting him.
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The other dirty trick was to improve your score by Mind Controlling Civilians. The game never considered it, so if you Mind Controlled a civilian, once you released them they were flagged to the 'Alien' team, not the 'Civilian' one. As a result, you could MC the civilians bar one, then gun them all down happily for points, as well as use them as suicide grenadiers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
- Shockwave
I'm nearly two months in. I have lasers and personal armour is just being manufactured. I've lost a total of about 8 men plus 1 tank across 4 UFO missions and 1 terror mission. I'm just wondering whether its going to GET harder, or if I should restart and try to complete it on Genius difficulty....
If i'm going to complete this game again I want it to be really hard dammit!
*edit* Also, I just finished a terror mission without losing a single man. And only one injury. Something is wrong, or I am the master of all that is X-com, this doesn't FEEL like veteran difficulty.
Ok, i've come to realise that the last time I completed this I did it by so-called savescumming, so now I want to complete the game <i>properly</i>. The only thing is.... i'm finding it a little too easy.
I'm nearly two months in. I have lasers and personal armour is just being manufactured. I've lost a total of about 8 men plus 1 tank across 4 UFO missions and 1 terror mission. I'm just wondering whether its going to GET harder, or if I should restart and try to complete it on Genius difficulty....
If i'm going to complete this game again I want it to be really hard dammit!
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If you want it to be hard, play a challenge:
Good start would be the Vampire challenge:
Your Soldiers are Vampires and fear light. Thats why ALL battles have to be fought during the night. Artificial lightsources are still allowed (vamps fear UV <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />) (because cydonia is dark you can complete this)
The pacifist challenge:
You are not allowed to kill aliens. (can be completed, but is really really hard, until you get the stun launchers)
The Xenophob challenge: You fear everything alien: All alien artifacts have to be sold. No research an alien artifacts allowed. (cant be completed but will teach you to use terran weapons)
Single Base Hawaii challenge: You are allowed only 1 base, which has to be located on Hawaii. Dont let this fool you. IT IS FREAKING HARD!
You really, really, really should gimme a link to that mod.
As for my tip of the day:
The soldier, leading your assault should be equipped with a pistol and primed grenades. Because shooting pistols cost nearly no time units you can often enough enter a UFO, fire 3 snapshots, throw a grenade and still get away just in time.
Aliens do not care about the daytime. Their night vision is as good as their day vision: Avoid fighting night-battles.
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<a href="http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7503" target="_blank">PSX Music mod</a>
<!--QuoteBegin-Nil_IQ+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nil_IQ)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Ok, i've come to realise that the last time I completed this I did it by so-called savescumming, so now I want to complete the game properly. The only thing is.... i'm finding it a little too easy.
I'm nearly two months in. I have lasers and personal armour is just being manufactured. I've lost a total of about 8 men plus 1 tank across 4 UFO missions and 1 terror mission. I'm just wondering whether its going to GET harder, or if I should restart and try to complete it on Genius difficulty....
If i'm going to complete this game again I want it to be really hard dammit!
*edit* Also, I just finished a terror mission without losing a single man. And only one injury. Something is wrong, or I am the master of all that is X-com, this doesn't FEEL like veteran difficulty.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://members.aol.com/stjones/xcomutil/" target="_blank">XcomUtil</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->XcomUtil is a game enhancer. It is not really an editor and it is certainly not a cheat program. The original purpose of XcomUtil was to make the game more difficult, because there was a bug in the original game that forced all games to the Beginner difficulty level, regardless of what level you chose.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Release this month I think.
<a href="http://members.aol.com/stjones/xcomutil/" target="_blank">XcomUtil</a>
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While that sounds awesome, I think it broke my game. Not a problem since I was going to start again anyway, but it'd be nice to know which of the awesome extra features I chose caused it to bork...
*edit* Seems even if I turn all the whistles and bells of it still borkens <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
Update: It works now!
My first UFO mission went ok, we were outnumbered 9-to-8 and I lost three guys. I had a series of unsuccessful UFO intercepts, culminating in downing one JUST as a terror site appears on the other side of the planet. I respond with 10 guys. First turn goes pretty well, the first guy out of the dropship is mercilessly gunned down as always, but everyone else gets out alright and we take down five sectoids in the first turn alone. Then the cyberdisks show up. Two of them, on opposide sides of the street the skyranger landed in. They take a hail of rifle bullets and laser blasts without even flinching and gun down 4 of my guys. We return fire only to see more shots go *PING!* *PING!* *PING!*, including a high explosive heavy cannon round which hit dead centre. More aliens show up and gun down another 3 of my guys, leaving 3 left alive. They all panic except one. Who gets mind controlled. I'm not sure how the last 3 died but i'm sure it was equally horrible and painful.
Now this is more like it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />