Wow, nice job. Did you skip lasers entirely to research the light plasma?

 

No scopes, no armor, literally got the arc thrower as fast as possible, picked up a thin man the next mission and then started the research. picked up two floaters every level I found them and that helped my pile grow. It's easier to stun floaters than thin men, just easier to pin them down due to their AI defects.

 

does anyone seem to get the bug where floaters / heavy floaters just pop up from no where ie there weren't there at the end of your turn but at the start of the alien's they run the floater cinematic and presto you've got a bunch of floaters flanking you!

 

Aliens spawning in clearly visible terrain? Happens to me all the time. Once had three of them appear right on my completely isolated sniper (who was isolated because I'd cleared the entire area he was in earlier). Wasn't pleasant.

It doesn't just happen with floaters either. I can't remember specific scenarios, but I do remember it happening at least once each with Berserkers and Mutons.

At this point I just take it as a challenge.

 

Been playing Xcom a lot more, and my god are floaters annoying. They always seem to fly on me, which means I can't stun them =(

I also had a bit of luck, where I had a rookie named Grace Kerrigan. I promptly renamed her to Sarah. She was my first lieutenant. Unfortunately she didn't have the Psi ability =(

 

If I'm not mistaken you can lock down their flight by using suppression.

 

So, i was playing and did a bunch of testing with the XP system for soldier ranks, and I believe I've pinned down the numbers.

I took one soldier along with me who never killed a single alien, never stunned anyone, only along for the ride. He ranked up at 2nd mission (1st rank requiring 90 xp), 4th mission (requiring 300) and 7th mission (requiring 510 xp).

My best estimate based on this data alone is that 1 mission survived gives about 85 xp. (definite bound limits are between 75 xp and 85xp)

I also did some testing on kills, which seem to give about 32 xp base. 3 kills in the first mission will give a notice in the field that the soldier has earned a promotion.

Also got the following data:

Rank 1 @ 1 mission, 1 kill (estimated total 117 xp)
Rank 2 @ 2 missions, 5 kills (estimated total 330 xp)
Rank 3 @ 3 missions, 10 kills (estimated total 575 xp of 510 needed)
Rank 4 @ 4 missions, 15 kills (estimated total 820 xp of 745 needed)

Forgot to record rank 5 for my killfeed soldier (FAIL >.<)

Rank 6 @ 7 missions, 32 kills (estimated total 1619 of 1560 needed)


85 xp for missions and 32 xp for kills seems to fit best--- 31 xp for kills would be an odd choice for them considering the Wet Work OTS bonus of 25%, and 30 xp for kills wouldn't meet the final data point even at 85 xp per mission, which is the definite upper bound for the previous test.


It's been a long night, but I hope this comes in handy for someone. Check my math if you feel like it, I'm rather tired so there's a chance of a mistake.

 

...Holy shit, Lokesin. I'm actually too impressed to make a smartass remark.

 

So... I finally picked up XCOM for my birthday. So excited. I enjoyed the original a great deal, but from what I've read, I think I'll enjoy the streamlined nature of the new one. I found the micromanagement of the original tedious after a while, and I rarely used all my soldiers on missions anyway.

Download faster DAMNIT!

 

Finally got far enough along to develop my first guy with Psi powers. Slowly starting to see the screw up in focusing only on the same squad every mission. I sent 3 to go get tested, and I almost got the other half killed. Need to spend more time training the newbies, and def. need to pick up a heavy with HEAT ammo.

 

A good trick for training up new rookies is to have em lug light plasmas around with scopes.

+20 aim makes even the worst rookies relatively accurate.

 

So my first thoughts as far as I've gotten are that I am loving the game.

Decided to start on Normal since I haven't played the old XCOM for a long time, disabled the tutorial because who needs it and jumped right in. Base in the US of course, because America. I wound up chugging along just fine, my first assault and sniper duo has been positively untouchable taking only light hits during any missions as well as not yet missing any.

Failed my third mission which was an extraction, but managed to get my team out in one piece. Thin men nearly got two of my rookies from the rooftops. Lost a rookie to two sectoids and two floaters when I had him check a building in the next mission.

Shortly after that I got my second satellite uplink online and got some new satellites up which was quite the blessing money-wise (and panic... the russians panic fast).

Par for the course XCOM-wise up until I hit my first terror mission. I had taken some serious damage in the mission before, so my 2 heavies and support were unable to come along forcing me to take 3 rookies with my sniper/assault.

Those Chrysallids very nearly did me in when I managed to agro 2 of them along with 4 floaters. I got lucky and the first one charged right into my overwatched team and lost all but 1 of its hitpoints during that turn while the second one ran off to infect a couple civvies. Wound up having to kill 5 Chryssallids total due to a combination of civilian and rookie casualties. Lost all three rookies, the poor bastards, but my vets are still up and kicking. That mission felt like the old XCOM reborn.

I have stopped there for the day, but I am really excited to continue tomorrow. Gots to kill me some aliens.

 

Fun fact, HEAT ammo doubles all damage on Mechanicals from the heavy.

Yes. That includes Grenades and Rockets

 

Right now, I'm trying to train a Valkyrie squad of female Assault Psionics. It's harder going than you would think. The RNG keeps screwing me over on the details. So you want Assault Psionics? Here's five men from Brazil who fit the bill. Oh, you wanted women? Well alright then, here's three non-psionic female Assault troopers.

Damn you RNG God. Damn you to the bowls of the d2.

I'm also still working on the capture =? XP thing. I need more data, but it'll be coming out soon.

 

Tried to see if my earlier results getting light plasma rifles before the first terror mission was repeatable. Turns out the answer is yes though I'm unsure if the trade-offs are worth the results. It's only possible by focusing on scientist collection over engineers, building a laboratory, and starting in Europe. I might miss other options but this is the only way I have managed to repeat it semi-regularly. XCOM still enjoys kicking my teeth in whenever I think I've nailed something down.

 

Damn. I'm just not hardcore enough for Impossible yet. Classic still kicks my ass, so fair warning that he strat I'm about to describe might be terrible on higher difficulties.

I've been starting out in Africa for the last dozen or so attempts to Ironman. So far I just rush satellites while trying to stay alive on the ground. If it's going well I can have up to five rolled out by month three. Research is painfully slow almost everywhere though - something that's mitigated slightly by primarily choosing abduction missions which reward with Engineers or Scientists. The cash really helps me cover a lot of gaps it seems, and always having satellites around is a nice feeling.

I'm thinking about trying aggressive satellite launches in South America so I can cut out interrogations/ autopsies immediately. Then I can tie up my time in research projects that might take a while since I'm behind on engineers and scientists.

Also hunker down is a godly ability. Makes life so much easier sometimes.

 

In my experience, I find trying to aggressively cover Asia has better perks, assuming you don't start there. The bonus Engineers are a godsend. Africa is also a good choice, though. More money isn't a bad thing.

 

So I'm starting to wish I had started with Classic difficulty.

Everything from month 3 onward has just fallen into place for me. Laser weapons came in for my troops just before I encountered mutons, I just finished complete satellite coverage and am about to start in on plasma weapons as soon as I get my advanced interceptors up and running across the continents.

I've had a few losses, lost two of my vets on my second terror mission. Chryssalids, nothing but Chryssalids as far as the eye could see. But aside from that and a damn unlucky Major who got hit by three mutons when I stormed a large UFO, the missions have by and large started getting to easy too quickly.

The new tech is cool though, grappling hooks are fun, and having a little SHIV puttering about makes my day.

Is it just me or are Assault's totally broken?

Here's hoping that the difficulty amps up a couple notches soon. I want to be hanging on by the skin of my teeth now and then. Maybe I'll just have to do two or three PRIORITY research/mission things in a row to ramp up the aliens. That and time are the triggers right? That's what I am acting on anyway.

 

Oh, don't worry. It's going to amp up real soon. If you haven't run into Sectopods yet, there's still a whole tier of upgraded aliens waiting for you. Spoiler Alert: mindshields are your friend.

Also, as a word to the wise, I'd stop using SHIVs. There's a bug associated with them that causes them to replace a squadmate when you come back from a mission (so you now have two SHIVs, the normal one and the bugged copy). Once this starts to happen, there's no way to stop it. Your soldiers will just start getting replaced en-masse by SHIVs. And as far as I'm aware, they haven't patched that bug yet. So you might want to hold off on using them for awhile. It's the reason I'm not using them now myself.

---------- Post automerged at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:24 AM ----------

DLC "Slingshot" has been announced. It involves acquiring a new squadmate with unique voice acting and appearance. His name is Shaoji Zhang, and he's a member of the Chinese Triad. You have to start a new file to be able to do his missions, but what the essentially are, are tech-hurdles. They're very difficult missions that take place on unique maps, but completing them allows you to snag some technology early, like the Fusion Lance and the Fusion Core. So if you can complete them early, you can reap massive benefits from them, but there's also a very high chance of a TPK when you're running the maps.

Also, more armor customizations are going to be included with this DLC.

Details here.

 

Damn. Didn't know they were bugged. Thanks a bunch.

And they were so cool too...