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« on: May 16, 2023, 01:19:28 am »
Xcom Files Notes:
Sorry for the long post it's a document I started when first playing this game in version 2.2 January 2022. I spent 4hr per weekend, excellent mod/game. I had played oringal xcom and thought why not give the most popular mod a try. (So below is my 1.5 year in the making opinion)
-The game flowed really smoothly for the first few in-game months. Things made sense. Then I felt lost in research, (like where is any of this going? how is any of this connected?) Cults, Dossiers, monsters... well I guess I'll find out.
-Then, I accidentally found the middle click button... I should've read button config. Thusly, things started falling into a rhythm, which was cool. I do like how early on there is no penalty for aborting a mission. Like showing up in a car with 2 agents armed with glocks and being surrounded by 30ish snakes. I killed one, picked it up, and was like "nope not today" and left without penalty.
-Getting a van was very exciting I called the van the A-Team van and another the Scooby-Doo Van and a third the Ice Cream Van. The Cultists can't aim, but neither can Xcom (good ol' stormtrooper shoot out, highly enjoyable). The myth and lore throughout has been very interesting, and the disguise missions were well done also. Nothing feels out of place, except the Humvee; it came in way too late, because the Dragonfly was unlocked shortly after (it is the same research tree/tier). So I never bought a Humvee, but if the Humvee unlocked sightly sooner (like before Promotion 2), I would've bought one.
-Wow, Promotion 2 was big.-
There was a mission where the enemy had an Armored Car in the first month with combatants throwing grenades. Its like once you get black Ops weapons, the enemy brings thier out their commandos (they know how to aim). Although I do wish the mansion seige (more like armored car seige) was tied to explosives licensing and not Promotion 2. Eitherway I still squeeked by on that mission. (Shooting the enemy once they got inside and using thier grenades helped.) Yea I thought bio-exosuits were awesome... till grenades and full auto weaponry came on the scene.
- lol, just realized if I held down ctrl the agents sprint (should've read the tip/help pages)
-After 4 months into Promotion 2, I started wondering about the dossiers from the cults and did they play a roll in anything or are they just a token part of research. (Until Natasha's, lol)
-At the beginning I thought the monsters were just fun fiction added to spice things up, but wow excellent job in keeping their backstory secret. (I like the plot twist, no spoilers)
-On a sidenote, its too bad feral Lobersterman Corpses can't be used for Carapus plates.
-Another thumbs up on the MAGMA missions. I won't give spoilers, but I will say, very entertaining, very fun. (Monster tank shootout, lol yes)
I was impressed the game has an extra smooth transition into promotion 3
-Promotion 3-
-The invasion was fun, the large number of scouts, it gave me a panic/challenge. Although the mutons showed up... sectiods taking a break, but leathal bullet sponges are fully ready to bring your bravado down from your chin to your ankles, but *spoiler* the threat is nothing that flame throwers, napalm, and mortors can't solve... also flame glove= life saver. But just as I repelled the invasion, the second month hits me with two colonies. As a sad joke, I unlocked the CF arrow, right after finishing researching the Raven.
-Month three after invation, the Aliens just sent scout after scout, and I unlocked the Improved reseach center and built one. Month four was an abduction storm and the eventual loss of another nation to infiltration. (Lost china and russia, wow)
-Looking back I think I chose the wrong difficultly, instead they should read: first time?, experienced, challanging, hard, and good luck.
-I never built a hawkeye, because I felt they were a waste of alien alloy since they have completely identical stats to the AWACS (except for carrying soldiers...why? especially when you have a skyrider available?).
-A shout out to the Kitsume, best addition for surviving the battlescape (especially hiding from plasma snipers). It's design has saved my butt multiple times.
-I felt game quickly jumped from using Tri-titanium ammo on missions to using rockets/motors and mass drivers. I didn't get as much time with Tri-titanium ammo because I unlocked mass driver weapons shortly after. I was also disappointed I couldn't reverse engineer a syndicate walker (oh well, there's always Sectopods)
-A Big Big Suggestion, I made the mistake of eliminating the black lotus early on. There should really have been more distiction between The Ninja Assassin and the basic Black Loctus Warrior. They look completely identical, I thought they were the same thing, and I didn't realize my mistake before terminating the black lotus. (Well there goes ninja training and helix warrior)
-I got excited after doing all the research to get the Medi-Kit, yet I was hoping there would be an Advanced Sick Bay. An Advanced Sick Bay could give me a purpose/reason to research examination room (since it has a depency of nothing. And would fit well on top of the Medi-Kit tech tree.) An Advanced Sick Bay would help with high health agents and thier plasma burns.
-Holo-grenades require optronics and not optronic parts which I am still confused about. So I've been surviving without them.
-Also, Fun fact, I learned how to gain the system/buy time. The mutons had already influtrated four nations (including USA), so I decided to research anything and everything that said *effects game progression.* And suddenly the UFO attacks slowed/paused. And oh crap, three months later the Aliens went from Mutons to Ethereals. Xcom files never ceases to surprize me.
-Something strange I'd like to note, by the time I get an advanced lab, gain access to plasma weapons, and gain access to the cyberdisc plasma... I unlocked the plasma tank and hover plasma tank. I rarely made use of the Cyberdisc plasma, except for the fact it does 5 more damage than the hover tank plasma. Cyberdisc laser is the best use for a cyberdisc, because it can be achieved much earlier in-game (and does same damage as a laser tank, but flies). I did use the cyberdisc plasma to kill turrets due to its high damage.
-Looking back, I appreciate the subtly of the game going from mutated rats and bats, to awesome killer dogs, then to AI robots. Eventually I had to let go of the rat and bat agents because they are wayyy too fragile. Sadly, I worked hard to max the stats of 2 bats and 2 rats (can't they at least get neoderm transformation?). As for dogs... still debating keeping them. Their use is almost end game worthy. I would often use dog and tank combo (hide dog behind the tank to get close enough for dog to then ambush and crew up my opponent's front line).
-I found an awesome combo, Juggernaut Armor plus carapus plate means and agent can take a rocket hit to frontal armor and still remain undamaged. It was glorious. Also immune to plasma grenade splash (for those times when the aliens occasionally miss).
-Also I like the juxtaposition of uncover missions once plasma weapons are unlocked. It's like you have the ability to land an Avenger (a heavy armored ship) overwhelm your opponent by sheer force and technological prowess, but for the sake of the council's money and the image of your organisation to said council... you have to go in with a few agents armed tasers and plasma pistols, without any armor, and pulling up in a land Rover. (Gotta love irony)
Nevertheless still able to rock out the undercover missions with a team of skilled agents (I challenged myself and almost knocked out every combatent there... hows that for low profile. One agent punched so hard it killed).
-Also spoiler alert! But I didn't realize the cults were tied to organizations till the end. Spoiler: Apocalypse was tied to UAC, Dagon tied to T'Leith, Exalt tied to MiB, Red dawn to Osiron, Zombies to MAGMA, Monsters to Syndicate, and Black Lotus to... don't know at this point.
-I got to the moon! Hovertank/Carrier not allowed in space or moon... not sure why. Also conquered underwater city, UAC aerospace lab, and finished many story arcs. Strangely, I'm running out of items to research. Also suddenly mib has taken interest, maybe moon base = new threat to mib. Also secured dimension X plot line but no dimension X wrapup it said I am missing securing ancient alien shipwreck (hmm...) that might also explain why I can't process mib shock armor. (Or get dimension X exploration. Or unlimited supply of acid grenades)
-In hindsight should've done easy for first time play through. Thinking because I mastered vanilla Xcom I should start upper mid difficultly was an error.
-I've been visiting the xcom files wiki page to learn more about the mod. I think I haven't gotten the spartan upgrade, nor syndicate package maybe on the basis of not wanting to finish up the monsters story arc.
-Oh once you are in space then floaters, and chasers show up... fascinating.
-also the gap between lunar suberbia and lunar control room seemed quite long.
-Thank you so much for all your hard work creating this game. It is how Xcom should've been when it was released in 94. (If they had the coding ability back then with MB processors)
Other Suggestions: Samurai power suit, (+20 tu, +30 stamina, good armor-50ish, resistance cutting)
Maybe starting sooner to allow more time to build up to the alien invasion, unless the two year sprint is intentional (or maybe I should've done easy first time around)
I'll download the lastest version soon, I'm guessing a lot has happened in 1.5 years since its now 2.9 when it was 2.2.
-If you've read this far you have my respect-
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