Messages

1

The X-Com Files / Re: Some of your most Bizarre missions?

« on: September 20, 2023, 04:59:22 pm »

Ah, got old one before Solarius patched it (didnt get it again yet) but it was Terror mission in a port map, which caused the port to spawn inside of the city itself, splitting the map in half by the water.


At one point i was like "ah shit, no flying armor, wtf am i suppose to do ?".
Then after few moments i was like "Oh hold on, the Sectopods primary laser might be strong enough to melt the dock titles, clearing way through" before i tried other weapons, the heavy blaster also seems to be capable of it and if went back to my craft i assume explosives would do as well.


So XCOM just had to play Minecraft and just dig a way through for infantry to pass

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The X-Com Files / Re: Does anyone else love the early game ?

« on: September 20, 2023, 03:37:31 pm »

I actually love it too over the late game, for the following reasons

• Less rocket tag gameplay, once aliens show up with their plasma weapons, combat gets alot shittier for XCOM because for overwhelming majority of the game you cant do shit to protect your dudes from being instantly killed from full HP in like 1 hit (Best you can do is spam smoke and hope for the best) i find game more interesting if both sides can actually take hits from each other instead of dying instantly, if the aliens would also use laser weapons way more it would be better, there seems no escalation time and instantly enemies are walking around with heavy plasma rifles that one shot XCOM soldiers or 2 tap a tank

Like look at this, before you can make an armor that actually works and stops most attacks from killing instantly, then you are looking at the Juggernaut armor, which is THE end game armor. Before that if you are lucky you can get power armor from MAGMA, which is actually more vulnerable to plasma weapons so the actually scary shit like heavy plasma will melt them anyway.

The best you have before that is the Personal Armor, which has massive plasma resistance, better than the heavy Tritanium armor, but is otherwise meh, this is the thing you would be using for most the game when facing aliens.

• Armor and weapon progression in early game is the real shit, actually you feel it when you switch from kevlar vests to armoured vests, from kalasnikovs to black ops rifles

XCOM files might be the only XCOM in the entire franchise where armor is actually satisfying to see in action, when you see bullets bouncing off your dudes as they run through gunfire, you can feel it, but you still are not safe to make the game a complete breeze, given armor is directional, one sneaky enemy could put a bullet through your soldiers backside and armor wont help in that case.
And game has plenty of anti-armor attacks you need to watch for, melee attacks tend to hit as hard as truck when they connect, chemical attacks will corrode its protection value, fire bypasses armor, explosives will go through the under armor which is generally low.

• Economy and financing is actually a problem

Shit is expensive, you get some pocket change from council, but otherwise its scavenging operation and selling loot from enemies and corpses. Money feels more as a threat as it should when a single haul from UFO doesnt give XCOM enough money for the entire month and half. Plus if you look at plasma weapons you get from enemies, those are things you absolutely sell because for 98% of the game you wont be able to use them and they sell for alot of money, i dont know what will the Council nations do with these if not even XCOM can know what to do with it. In the early game, managing budget and actually having to cut corners like a real life organisation would, it simply adds realism to the game that not every base and squad will have top gear all the time, some will have to do with what you have looted.

• Probably the biggest thing - combat against fellow humans that use all features of the game to its full capacity, all gear is usable and tactics are most open to the player

When enemies dont see you through walls
When enemies dont see you on the other side of the map through darkness
When enemies can lose their shit and break ranks faster than aliens
When enemies can surrender so you dont have to hunt down 1 dude hiding in a corner of the map
When enemies use weapons you can use and whatever you kill, you can loot and use it. Dont have a minigun ? nail that EXALT liquidator and just pick it up
When armor is actually relevant and its progression is actually visible
When combat is really open and you have so many options for weapons. There isnt like 1-2 laser rifles in mid to late game, there are like 6-7 different assault rifles, each being slightly better against different enemies or in hands of different soldiers, you have access to both generalist weapons  AND more focused weapons and its up to you which weapons you prefer (I personally prefer generalists like BlackOps weapons)
When the progression is open to you and there are multiple ways to get to Promotion III, paths that will wary between campaigns.


It makes an experience that is simply impossible to get in any other XCOM game to date, the early to mid game is perfection. Late game needs smoother tech progression (less massive leaps of tech, also the RNG roulette of commanders/engineers locking all the actually good stuff is imho more damaging to the late game progression than its helping) smoother enemy weapon progression and maybe some mission redesigns to be less RNG dependant on spawning.

3

The X-Com Files / Re: Crazy Temple Mission

« on: December 27, 2022, 03:30:10 pm »

Gillman, their electric attack has like 200 tile range (or similarly crazy range) and does around 100 damage on hit, why this enemy with such a long range damaging attack is present in one of the starting cults is beyond  me. Its super likely to one shot whoever it hits unless you start rocking really high HP troops and with advanced armors. I absolutely hate them, the only solace i find is that their ranged attack is arced, so its possible to hide in structures or behind obstacles that would prevent the Gillman from one tapping your dude across the map because the bolt would hit the roof.

[Spoiler]

4

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.7: Spectral Entities

« on: December 01, 2022, 01:34:34 pm »

The XCOM file arsenal addition submod has standalone shields that can be equiped with any armor as secondary weapon, comes with the guard ability to activate it for it to soak damage.
Here is the assault shield as example

Spoiler:

Maybe ask him if you can borrow it ?

[Spoiler]

5

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.7: Spectral Entities

« on: November 27, 2022, 12:48:05 pm »

I thought of a really cool story line for this game. i hope I'm not too out of line by suggesting it.
But would be super interesting if some of your soldiers (that were previously killed by cults/aliens) could be turned into zombies (maybe a super hard to kill boss) later in the game.
Like that one soldier you hated losing, his body was recovered by the aliens and fighting you in later missions.

Just a thought. Hope everyone is having a great day.
Still loving this game a lot. Find it really well thought out (the story line).

Impossible because XCOM already retrieves bodies to....

Spoiler:

You can revive dead soldiers via a tech called Proteanism, yes, you can bring them back from the dead as long as their death actually left a corpse behind, so not turned in to ash by plasma weapons or being turned in to monster via Chryssalid incubation or infestor bite

6

The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 19, 2022, 12:30:15 pm »

I never understood if "downhill" is a good or a bad thing.

Obviously uphill is always struggle... Especially if you are trying to skate.

Once you start rolling downhill and start picking up velocity, its going to be harder and harder to stop.
In game, once XCOMs tech advantages start piling up, it becomes harder and harder for aliens to stop you, hence it goes downhill for their Earth domination scheme.

[Spoiler]

7

The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 18, 2022, 06:01:03 pm »

So how does the rest of your tech tree doing now ?
Got Dragonfly already ?
Did the heavy armor proved its worth ? With promotion 3, you will be able to mass make them yourself in workshop, even better, given you captures a ship, that means you got alien alloy, which means you will be able to make the blue version.
Now, given you dont have it unlocked (you cannot inspect its stats yet), take a look at the shopping list of resistances on this thing and why you want it ASAP:

Spoiler:

Dont get comfortable, you are still against the time, the aliens are quite lenient at the start of the invasion.  Once you get promotion 3, you should wrestle the control of the skies and map out where all the cult mannors are (And also you should take out all the remaining cults)so you can actually "save them up" as "emergency food" when something awful happens and you cant do anything about it, like terror mission, that if you were to attend, everyone you send would get slaughtered by enemies way ahead of what you can chew off.

So when you are negative 1500 points in debt, you still have missions where you can make it all back and keep going.

Getting to promotion 3 (by getting a leader, deep one, cyberweb portal or hidden caves) is pretty much THE test for XCOM. Once you get behind that, things will slowly start rolling downhill...for aliens.

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The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 17, 2022, 03:30:00 pm »

[/spoiler ]

I just don't have the fire power to take those out yet. Need to focus now on taking out that mansion.

Turrets hit insanely hard, but they are static objects, meaning its possible to get an angle from which you can lob explosives and still hit them with splash, just set the timer to 2 on something like a high explosive or dynamite, toss it as close (but without getting to LOS) to the turret and run.

The second, is more viable in places where you can actually flank them, but turrets can be defeated by agents in close quater combat, not sure how but i always picture it as agents riding on top of the turret while trying to bash its control panel with the melee weapon.

Turret itself is midly armoured, but a chunky melee weapon hit from the rear could easily destroy it in one swing, Tritanium Sword for example has the potential to one shot it when it hits but if you have something like bardiche it could do the same.
I would try the ship again, if you can get the leader, you will get the promotion 3 right there and get better gear (mainly, you will be able to mass produce the heavy tactical suit, which is almost bulletproof and will make manors much easier).

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The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 17, 2022, 01:09:16 am »

Are your Sectoid bosses not wearing those little gold circlets?

Those are commanders (not leaders), that are required for other end game stuff and i only ever manage to get one of these during a base defence, but its nice that they are, unlike their common counterparts actually marked as "Do not kill this one".

And base defence isnt something he should be worried about...well for some time that is.

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The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 16, 2022, 08:55:16 pm »

I will use your edited file (I just downloaded it). Thanks again. I owe you one.

No problem...but you are not out of the water yet. Maximum speed is required to not get in to another failure spiral, better crafts, better weapons, really, try to get the Dagon sorcerror alive, get him to talk and unlock the Osprey, the difference between having able to send 8 (w dragonfly) and 16 is massive. The Invasion is somewhat lenient at the start and those small UFOs will be manned mostly with sectoids and snakemen, who arent durable as the other things that can appear as crew, Mutons (The green hulky dudes) are your first stonewall because they have 40% DR against bullets on top of having decent armor (Most blackops weapons wont even scratch them, so incendiary, laser or chemical weapons must be used to fight them).

Furthermore to research topics, once you completed all i pointed out, you should research these topics and why
1) Advanced healing spray
Carries 3 charges, 3 point wounds are super common, but its quite pricy.
2) Knockout grenade
This is a ranged stun weapon, throwing in certain ways is better than shooting and you can use it on people and animals (And aliens) alike, problem is that you need a workshop to make these.
3) Chemweapons
These are short range chemical weapons, they absolutely anhilate humanoids, but they are fairly innacurate and short ranged, they also melt armor and can cause panic on targets (or stun them), they also let your soldier get the Chemist award, which increases sanity. Eventually, once you unlock the next laboratory, you can research how to make and use the Canister Gun, which is advanced medium ranged chemical rifle that hits hard as a truck (easily one taps alot of enemies), you do have one of these in your stock so you just need better lab to inspect it, you do alredy have it qued in your research (Science laboratory) so just finish it and unlock next batch of research topids.

4) Alien biology
Lets you research the alien contaiment facility, so you have somewhere to actually keep alive aliens after mission

5) Getting to promotion 3 ASAP
There are 4 ways you can get here
A) Integoriating a alien with rank of Leader
Might be the hardest one, given Sectoids are the same visual wise and without mind probe you cant discover who is a leader and who isnt, Snakemen though, those with red shell on their back are leaders, engineers are green (engineers are also super valuable) + the whole gameplay with aliens and their one shot full HP plasma weapons even in the...gifted armor you recieved.
B) Deep one communities
This is the underwater arc, by capturing a live Deep One.
C) Into the Dark
This one is easiest difficulty wise, but has harsh difficulty of random number generation, you need motion scanners, in to the dark and Hidden Caves, which requires UFO signiature science tech (alien comunicator) + you need to study a living spider AND shambler.
D) Cyberweb portal
Requires cyberweb story line progression, together with capturing live aliens, these two are the hardest one, combat difficulty wise because Cyberweb has some really massive maps, somewhat durable enemies and they hit quite hard, though having the six outfits i gave you might change that drastically, esp the blue version can facetank alot of their weapons.

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The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 15, 2022, 08:49:11 pm »

ini edits

I edited all you need and attached the "upgraded" save file to this post here, use it.
what i did is simply to push the clock inside of it that its the end of a month instantly, meaning the moment you load the save, you get score screen and you end up with negative 400 points, this is enough to continue playing (council is still happy enough) so now you get 2 months to straighten up.

Oh and also i included a small...second wind bonus to your armory, these should help you clear out the manors, they wont help you against aliens and you got limited amount of it, but will against bullets and explosives, your US base has recieved a shipment of high grade protection, enough for 6 soldiers, 5 regular and 1 for your officer/squad leader, gear them up.

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The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 14, 2022, 07:46:48 pm »

First off let me thank you so much for this. I was amazed how well you knew everything that was going. You are 100% right about the base in in Italy (Milan).
It's a nightmare. I couldn't get the chopper in there because it was getting shot down every time. So I went in with the van (4 soldiers) and I'm getting laid out.
Every time I get the upper hand, A message comes up that says "Reinforcements coming in". Or something like that.

What happens is next is these dudes drop in that look like Navy seals and they don't mess around. They have me pinned down at the gate (even tough i took out the tank with dynamite). I'm backed into a corner with no where to go. having to reload saves and now I'm stuck in an infinint loop.

I honestly feel embarrassed that I'm playing on beginner. and doing this bad

Thank you so much for the direction and time you have taken to check this out. I've looked at downloading a text editor to try and edit the .rul file (rules set/Alien deployments).
But I don't mod at all. I'm just reading about it as much as I am trying to get to the next level in this game (trying to keep my head above water)

I just hate the thought of throwing away all these hours. I do have previously saved games from a month or 2 earlier but I fear of doing this same loop again.

XCOM files can be edited with a humble notepad (I use notepad plus) and is super easy to navigate in, in it you can see things like alien activities, XCOM activities etc... these are the entries you want to alter to boost yourself back up and take down Aliens down, you can also haxxxxxxxxxor many things but try to only do the score shuffling.
Just open your save file with notepad and start hacking away, with precision of course, given unforseen consequences might otherwise occur.

You do really need to get better crafts ASAP, getting to promotion 3 also unlocks you Migs which can clear the way of cultists aircraft, there is a second way i prefer prior to having migs/interceptors is to simply lure out the guards by sending a craft to the manor, once the warning about interception pops up, get it out of there and sneak in a second, actual infantry craft, Helicopter is too slow, but Dragonfly is fast enough, their jets do require a refueling time so there is a window of time you can sneak in it.

Once you get in there, you can metagame the hell out of the reinforcements given their arrival is completely RNG (Just save before the end of each of your turn and reroll the save each time they spawn). Second thing you should know that any mechanical, alien or animal units on the map alive will prevent surrendering of occupants, surrender usually happens if you battered them to shit enough and only some enemies left. But enemies like gilldogs, gillmen, armoured cars, dogs etc...
Hybrids do use surrender mechanic, i am mentioning this in particular given in this mission with RNF waves, it can be very frustarting having some 4-6 cultists holled up somewhere that gave up on fighting, but there is like a gilldog, stuck in a garden on the other side of the map preventing you from getting the victory screen and when you do finally find it and kill it, BOOM, instant victory screen.

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The X-Com Files / Re: I messed up somewhere and looking for advice

« on: November 13, 2022, 06:19:21 pm »

Alright i took a look

First things first, clean up your research and focus down on these research points, you have too much going at once.

1) UAC
- Gives access to Dragonfly, which is a 8 troop, fast infantry transport, pretty much essential upgrade to your helicopter, plus its fast enough to "outrun" some Cults units like Apaches on the globe
UAC contact also gives you access to craft weapons for your interceptors like the cannon.
2) Xenonauts
- Gives access to armoured vest, which is 28 frontal armor for your infantry, it takes 30% less damage from bullets, it makes your men really hard to wound with low caliber weapons like pistols and pretty much makes then almost invincible towards shotguns, it also comes with a shield variation which has 38 frontal armor, together with taking only 70% damage from bullets, your agents with shield should have no problem tanking submachineguns and rifles.
3) If possible, try to research Church of Dagon operations, its the last prequisite for Osprey, you need to research a living Dagon Sorceror/Chosen fo Dagon
Osprey can carry up to 16 soldiers and can use heavy weapons for its gunports, meaning Osprey can fight against low level cult vehicles and destroy them.
3) FINISH TERMINATING RED DAWN ASAP
Or else there is a negative -500 misssion (concealed only, super short timer) waiting for you, its possible to finish it before it pops up but you really need to pull scientists from everything and dump them all on this project

Misc.
1) Once you get above the water, you have at your US base, 6 eligible soldiers for bio enchantments, bio enchantment, despite the sanity penalty is pretty much no brainer for me because its one of the very few ways to boost carry capacity which is essential as you get better armor which is also heavier at the same time and otherwise limits your soldiers possible firepower, its also problematic with weapons like miniguns that are heavy already.
Only mechanized armor otherwise helps you boost your carry capacity, like power armor, which is end game.


I also took a look what are these white dots, they are MIG fighters or Helicopters, not UFO (And probably all the dots walking on the map are Cult units, not aliens), meaning there is a cult base somewhere


You are in for a hell of a fight, if you use your van (van cannot be spotted by globe units), you can force move it to certain location and patrol, this lets you detect enemy bases in the area, here is what i found in Europe and i must say, i do feel pity for you actually, by sending the van to Europe, i instantly found 2 bases, one for Red Dawn and one for Church of Dagon.



Here is the thing that actually worries me,


Manor number  13, there are, at minimum, 13 bases on the planet of Cults on the planet.

13

I...it will be a really tough fight even if you could slip a helicopter in there, Cult Manors, while far from being that difficult, are something i only ever attempt to do with armoured vest and Dragonfly at minimum because you do face alot of enemies at once, you are against RNG timer of reinforcements (which can be savescummed btw) and the map is total shitfest with next to no cover for your men (hence armor is important)

BUT, these missions will give you ALOT of score due to the bodycount and the loot you get from them, so if you can savescum your way through them as you did for the whole campaign already (0 dead soldiers in Feb 1999 is sus with your nonexisting protection gear and looking in the possible research stuff, you had quite some harder missions already done.

If everything else fails, i can simply do some voodo background magic to the save file so you will get good rating at the end of the month anyway regardless of what happens. Though i prefer you would do the hard and honest work of save scumming first and use the latter as last resort so you your work doesnt burn up like paper

But anyway it is kinda late for your campaign anyway and will take you a herculean effort to make it up for the time lost, by the 1999, you should be ready to get to promo 3, if not have promo 3 already given the real game now begins with aliens invading.

IF, you have a save, PRE 1999 of in game time (And pre December 1998 just to be sure, its possible with save file edits to reverse the clock and give yourself more time to sort your shit, like giving you extra year to mop up Cults before the meatgrinder starts with aliens. Once the invasion starts, there is no going back with clock editing.

[Spoiler]

14

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: November 13, 2022, 11:40:20 am »

Havent updated to the newest version yet (so 2.6), but i got a terror mission with a impossible terrain for non-fliers, i doubt the submod arsenal additions changes anything about terrain generation so i guess this has to be a unfortunate combination of the terrain. But i got this port-esque map in Australia where the port cuts me away from half the map and there is only one way to me and i had no initial way to board the ship to kill the crew inside to finish the mission.
I put in the spoiler to not clog up the threat with pictures to show and what i had to do to get to the other side, i almost turned back and left the mission.....

Spoiler:

And its like that, cutting across the map with no initial way to get on the other side


THAT WAS TILL I STARTED DIGGING with sectopod laser cannon.

[Spoiler]

15

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.7: Spectral Entities

« on: November 11, 2022, 02:31:03 pm »

Also if anyone could answer or share their POV, is there any benefit or detriment monthly to unlocking extra missions/branches through research before completing previous? Such as

Spoiler:

unlocking Hybrids, Syndicates, Dagon, etc before completing/eliminating the cults.

Mainly wondering if their impact mission pop up RNG monthly or not by unlocking them.

Its a both sided thing, usually opening up more arcs means more missions you have to attend to (+ more negative events) and usually, some arcs require alot more effort and tech to finish than others.
But on other side its simply more oportunities for score, loot and XP.

Though i wouldnt bother fighting against enemies beyond the cults till i atleast got the heavy tactical suit going (Promotion 3) and people and bases ready to handle more missions aorund the globe.