XCOM: Enemy Unknown, It's up for prepurchase on Steam. Options

[X-Kalibur]

Pfff, it's just that I used to play Xcom1 ALL. THE. TIME.

I wasn't trying to map out the entire strategy for him. Just a good starting point and "go thataway" general direction. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Rifles can also be profitable, though less-so than pistols.

Later in the game, it can be handy to have 1 laser pistol for every soldier, JUST in case their primary gun runs out of ammunition.

You and me both on the first point. Until recently I knew where my diskettes for it were.

I think most people just don't realize there are some manufacturing projects that can be profitable.

Funny enough there is one late game terror / base enemy that is really weak to lasers.

[_Pax._]

Lasers are just strong enough against most enemies, that they're a viable weapon throughout the entire game, IMO. Especially two-part missions.

EDIT TO ADD: Another thing never ever ever EVER to sell: Stun Bombs. Also, keep as many as 10 launchers on hand. Oh gods, these make capture SO MUCH EASIER.

If you get lucky, and there's a base very near your own HQ? DON'T RAID IT. Let them constantly send in Freighters on Supply missions. Intercept those, ON THE GROUND, and take the ship as intact as possible. Enjoy rolling in an infinite supply of Elerium, Alien Alloys, and UFO Components (not to mention sellable corpses & weapons). Oh, and be happy that you can keep your supply of Plasma Rifle Clips in the high three digits for the rest of time, too.

I had one game like that, and let me tell you, it was "gravy train" 24/7/52. Even better, I had stun bomb launchers for eight of my capture team ... and blaster launchers for the other two. The blasters stayed with the landing ship - and knocked a hole in the roof of the UFO (yes, Blaster Bombs can actually blow holes in UFO hullmetal. DON'T GET SHOT BY ONE!) ... upon which, my eight flying-suit stun-launcher soldiers could go "four high, four low" and storm the ship from two sides, simultaneously.

Good times ... good times.


...


I don't remember much TFTD, though you want to get Gyrojet weapons ASAP, then work towards Sonic Cannons for your flying subs.

...

In Apocalypse, buy every stun grenade you can, and make LIBERAL use of them. (Get an Alien Containment unit for your transport, and in your base, ASAP.) That green gas is your BESTEST FRIEND EVAR.

Also, hover-bikes loaded with Janitor missiles are awesome for dealing with early- and even mid-game UFOs. small, fast, hard to hit, and loaded for bear. What's not to love?

[CanRay]

Hover-Bike Mass Mob Rush!!! "I own the ultimate bike gang, you invading bastards!!!"

[X-Kalibur]

For TFTD you're talking about the Gauss weapons. And yeah, those are awesome. Sonic weapons are good... but they don't get autofire. Lobster are tough to crack (heh) until you research drills. Prior to that my personal favorite method for dealing with a group of them? 1 rookie. Backpack : loaded with sonic grenades. In his hand: a single, primed, grenade. Run him into the ship, let him get shot...

[Bastard]

Next priority for research should be Plasma Cannons (for yoru interceptors). You'll need to research Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle, Heavy Plasma, and the magazines for each, before you can start on the Cannons. But, those cannons have most of the range of an Avalanche, and INFINITE FREE AMMUNITION.

I thought Plasma Cannons cost Elerium to recharge/reload. It's been three years or so since I last played. That is one reason why I always kept an Interceptor with Laser Cannons, which was unlimited ammo, plus I could use it to shoot down small to medium ships without doing as much damage or completely destroying them, leaving me with more loot.

My research priority was a little different.
1/ Laser Pistols, Laser Rifles
2/ Armor
3/ Plasma Pistol, Rifle, Heavy
4/ Heavy Laser, Laser Cannon

If I remember correctly, starting out the plasma weapons took a long time to research, plus you had to research the clip too. I could research Alien Alloys, then Armor greatly increasing my defenses, while the same time the Plasma Pistol wasn't a big improvement over the Laser Rifle, as you sacrificed range and accuracy for minor damage increase. (This could be inaccurate, as its been a while since I played.)


Am I the only one who used Heavy weapons? The Heavy Laser sucked, but I loaded up all my troops with Heavy Plasmas ASAP. I also used the Auto Cannons (not Heavy Cannons) in the beginning, with troops that could handle the load. Mostly cause I loved Incendiary rounds, even though the damage sucked, I just found it amusing to set all the aliens on fire. You could also knock them out with smoke inhalation by setting the buildings ghetto were hiding in on fire.

[X-Kalibur]

I thought Plasma Cannons cost Elerium to recharge/reload. It's been three years or so since I last played. That is one reason why I always kept an Interceptor with Laser Cannons, which was unlimited ammo, plus I could use it to shoot down small to medium ships without doing as much damage or completely destroying them, leaving me with more loot.

My research priority was a little different.
1/ Laser Pistols, Laser Rifles
2/ Armor
3/ Plasma Pistol, Rifle, Heavy
4/ Heavy Laser, Laser Cannon

If I remember correctly, starting out the plasma weapons took a long time to research, plus you had to research the clip too. I could research Alien Alloys, then Armor greatly increasing my defenses, while the same time the Plasma Pistol wasn't a big improvement over the Laser Rifle, as you sacrificed range and accuracy for minor damage increase. (This could be inaccurate, as its been a while since I played.)


Am I the only one who used Heavy weapons? The Heavy Laser sucked, but I loaded up all my troops with Heavy Plasmas ASAP. I also used the Auto Cannons (not Heavy Cannons) in the beginning, with troops that could handle the load. Mostly cause I loved Incendiary rounds, even though the damage sucked, I just found it amusing to set all the aliens on fire. You could also knock them out with smoke inhalation by setting the buildings ghetto were hiding in on fire.

I used the heavy laser to good effect with a high ACC unit. Thing was super accurate but for regular troops the rifle was better.

I also loved auto cannons in the beinning, both for Incindiary rounds and HE rounds. Alien hiding in that barn? Autofire the wall away.

Side note for the TFTD - the heavy cannon equivalent was AWESOME in it and could be fired both in and out of water (while the AC equivalent could not).

[_Pax._]

I thought Plasma Cannons cost Elerium to recharge/reload.

Nope. They each carry something like 100 or 200 shots per intercept mission, and they reload for free. Just like Laser Cannons, but writ larger.

[...] plus I could use it to shoot down small to medium ships without doing as much damage or completely destroying them, leaving me with more loot.

An interceptor armed with a single Plasma Cannon can do that, with less danger from Large Scouts or other armed UFOs.

Am I the only one who used Heavy weapons?

No, for a while I was a fan of Autocannons loaded with HE rounds. Walk a line of fire across the map, poof mission complete.

Then I realised, I was getting spit-all for alien artifacts and (semi)-intact corpses that way, so I modified my strategy to a less .... widely-explosive approach, if you will.

[Bastard]

An interceptor armed with a single Plasma Cannon can do that, with less danger from Large Scouts or other armed UFOs.

Never thought of that. I did however follow them around until they were at a low altitude before engaging.


Did everyone mass produce Laser Pistols? I produced Laser Rifles constantly throughout the game. I believe the payoff is equal, profit to man hours, but saved store space. This way I could have two or three bases cranking out Lasers until the storage was full... or I ran out of money.

[_Pax._]

Once I had the Avenger, I used to follow UFOs around until they landed. "Mint Condition" is better than "Mostly Intact", after all.

As for the pistols-versus-rifles thing: if money is rolling in nicely enough I used to move my Research and my Production ops to secondary bases - sometimes, just one base with NO INTERCEPTORS, and tons of defense:

[X] [X] | [G] [-] | [H] [H]
[X] [X] | [G] [-] | [H] [H]
------ + ------ + ------
[?] [?] | [?] [?] | [-] [E]
[C] [D] | [L] [L] | [-] [R]
------ + ------ + ------
[S] [S] | [L] [L] | [-] [P]
[S] [S] | [L] [L] | [W] [W]

X: Base Defense (best weapon available)
G: Gravity Wave (yes, four guns and two G-Waves = 12 shots
H: Hangar (kept empty - it's for building advanced Craft)
?: Laboratory
L: Living Quarters (300 capacity; 200 scientists, 80-90 engineers, 10-20 soldiers)
C: Alien Containment
S: Stores
W: Workshop
D: Hyperwave Decoder
R: Radar
E: Elevator
P: Psi Shield
-: Empty

Since no interceptor flights ever came out of it, and it has a Psi shield ... it was unlikely an attack would happen. But if one DID? Yeah, twelve Blaster Array attacks would do for even a battleship, 9 times out of 10. A dozen well-equipped soldiers and six or eight Plasma TWPs would do for the 10th. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

OK, just found out about the new XCOM's "Cheat Codes": Legendary Characters.

The one example given was Sid Meier. Who is very, very scary as a soldier. Just rename a trooper (and we all know we're going to do that), and suddenly you got a major powerhouse available.

Which might come in very handy early in the game on whatever the highest difficulty is.

[X-Kalibur]

OK, just found out about the new XCOM's "Cheat Codes": Legendary Characters.

The one example given was Sid Meier. Who is very, very scary as a soldier. Just rename a trooper (and we all know we're going to do that), and suddenly you got a major powerhouse available.

Which might come in very handy early in the game on whatever the highest difficulty is.

I remember being able to do that to various amusing effect in Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII.

[Bigity]

Be patient. Clear them.

Explosions destroy corpses, and artifacts. Both of which are an important source of early-game funding.

Only thing I'm interested in early game is finding out which soldiers are useless.

[Bastard]

Only thing I'm interested in early game is finding out which soldiers are useless.

I buy a whole bunch of troopers early on and start shit canning anyone with a bravery < 30. Then I look at TUs and FA. Low health isn't a deal breaker, and high reaction is a plus.

That's the stats I prefer. Hate getting mind controlled especially early.

[Bigity]

Yea that and panic really sucks, especially at the beginning.

Eventually my scouts/live capture teams are my rookies. They get a stun rod and smoke grenade. Go go!

[LurkerOutThere]

I'm going to disagree with pax on a couple points from the old game.

The very first thing you build should probably be your alien containment facility along with a general store. More scientists is nice but you won't hit the 50 cap for a little bit and scientists are expensive on a number of levels. Do hire more scientists as your budget allows and do get that second lab up and running asap, but it's better to spend your early game funds on an alien containment and maxing your current lab then getting a second lab going. I do absolutely agree that laser rifles are a priority and should be your first research task. Manufacture 5-10 laser pistols while waiting for your laser rifles to be done so you have something at least until you switch.

The reason you want alien containment facility asap is if you have by some stroke of luck manage to bag an alien navigator early, either through him passing out from regular injury or getting lucky with the stun sticks. Navigators allow you to research the hyperwave decoder which is just flat better then every other radar system and in fact you can then decommission the other radar. However by the time you implement them you MUST have plasma beam equipped interceptors making heavy plasma research a priority. Otherwise all these new UFO's you are detecting (because with radar you are not detecting a majority, the aliens are insidious) that you can't shoot down because of your craft weaponry being a joke.

Squad equipment: I completely agree with Pax on dumping all non rifles and regular grenades in the early game, none of that other stuff is worth messing with. One other thing you'll want to do right off the bat is by a HWP/tank and 30-35 rockets so you can deploy it. Don't actually shoot things with the tank unless you really need to to save a troopers life, but in the early game the tank has a lot more TU's then your guys so it's effective for scouting and flushing. Once you've got laser rifles your pretty much set for the game as the simple fact that their accurate, have decent punch, and fast in addition to the all important FREE AMMO mean they can and should be your go to weapon for much of the game. I generally send my soldiers out (pending research) with a laser rifle as primary on all missions but terror missions and vs mutons/ethereals. Snakemen are arguable for plasma on non terror as they are a little tougher then normal but hopefully by the time your guys are facing them three round bursts will put them down. For terror missions and anything else where putting aliens down faster is a priority I skip in the research tree right to heavy plasma.

Cheasy ammo trick: On your last turn of a mission if you know everyone's dead (either though save scuming or just otherwise clearing) have anyone with a plasma weapon eject their clip. Clips in guns that have fired count as expended, seperate clips out in the world always count as full.

Craft equipment: The very nice thing about hyperwave decoder is it tells you what kind of craft your going up against and what it's doing before you even launch. For scouts and such you can send intercepters with the starting loadout out, or better yet replace them with avalanche launchers to have an almost guaranteed take down on scouts. The problem is both plasma beams and avalanch launchers tend to make a mess of the craft, but better to have it downed then not from a councils perspective. The only thing worse then a craft not shot down is a craft not engaged at all I believe from a council scoring perspective. A plasma beam equiped interceptor can take any alien craft in the game except battleships, sometimes multiple in one run as the fuel holds out. Terror ships will get enough licks in sometimes to bang up your interceptor. Don't even bother sending interceptors after battleships unless you want to mess around with some swarm tactics, and even then your probably going to loose one or two. Your only options for taking out battleships is take them on the ground or send avengers with plasma beam after them. Firestorms and maybe Avengers with fusion ball launchers might be an option but I never mess with either because ellerium is a finite resource. Oh the best part about about plasma beam? Free ammo! That means you can have plasma beam interceptors stationed all over the world and never have to worry about their upkeep once their in place.

Squad Selection: You usually want at least 3-5 open personel spots in your base, fortunately living quarters are (relatively) cheap. The reason for this is because most of the troops you receive are garbage. Personally what I do is review all my troops asap and rename anyone with a score in shooting, bravery, or reaction less then 30 with cut and then sack them. Other troopers I generally give names associated with how good their scores are or if they are particularly exemplary. (High shooting get Snipe, High reactions get Breacher). Honestly your first squad your probably going to have to just put up with what you got until you have a lot of funds because this selection process is a pain in the ass and rather trying on your early game funds.

So yea early game research my recommended priorities. Again you don't want the hyperwave decoders up and running before you have plasma beam weaponry but since they have a long build time (45 days IIRC) you've got some time to play with.:
Laser Weapons > Laser Pistol > Laser Rifle
*Alien Navigator > Hyperwave Decorder
*Heavy Plasma Clip <> Heavy Plasma > (Something i can remember, plasma defense?) > Plasma Beam
Medkits
Alien Alloys > Personal Armor
Other things as your own tactics and doctrine dictate.

Ok done geeking out about old x-com, back to work.

[LurkerOutThere]

Also personally especially at higher difficulties I wanted aliens landing at my base, it took a little more careful building but basically all my secondary bases were huge deathtraps with a single long corrodor for shooting aliens in with the lift and hanger at the far side. With that kind of setup even untested (but good stated) rookie security guards could hold the base especially if augmented with plasma tanks. The aliens land and and attack essentially bringing me free gear to sell off for XCom Enterprises Inc: Defending Your World and Making a Good Living Doing It. Plus once the Psi project got stood up these groups of rookie became a pre-built candidate pool who just might have a psi of 80 plus necessary for consideration.

Main base always got fusion ball or plasma defenses and a gravity shield because it's layout was so fubared to begin with I don't even want to try defending it. 4-5 fusion balls and a gravity shield means nothing is landing at that base. And on the astronomically low chance they actually did main base is where Alpha Squad lives, alpha squad by that point is full of people who eat aliens for lunch.

[_Pax._]

I'm going to disagree with pax on a couple points from the old game.

The very first thing you build should probably be your alien containment facility along with a general store. More scientists is nice but you won't hit the 50 cap for a little bit and scientists are expensive on a number of levels.

.... I just realised, I'm spoiled by the Improved and Defensive startign base options of XComUtil (which comes with the Steam versions, I believe). Those start you off with (a) a base design closer to the ones I advocated, and (b) 50 scientists, 20 engineers, and 10 soldiers.

*Heavy Plasma Clip <> Heavy Plasma > (Something i can remember, plasma defense?) > Plasma Beam

Odd, last playthrough, I got Plasma Beams after only the Pistol, Rifle, and their clips.

[Warlordtheft]

My general strategy was to put the crappy troops along with any obsolete equipment in the auxillary bases. My main bases (I typically had 2), would be where 2 Hangers with troopships would be located. THe auxillary bases would have interceptors (3) available along with the larget number of sensors and defense weapons I could fit in. My bases were either science focused or engineering focused so I could turn out things real quick.

In the early game (let's face it you want plasma asap) I found the grenades extremely useful....hear an alien nearby, chuck a grenade. Remember close counts in horseshoes, handgrenades and nuclear weapons....(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) By the time you get to mutons though better have researched the alien grenades!!

[CanRay]

Having recruits with Laser weapons on the secondary bases (Thus no need for ammo worries) was my usual tactic.

[Warlordtheft]

I also loaded up on sensor grenades at all my bases. Noting like hearing the enemy walk through a minefield.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[X-Kalibur]

Soon... very soon.

[LurkerOutThere]

Pre-downloaded already.

[Tanegar]

Damn you all, with your talk of tactics and base-building and awesome weaponry and alien-murderificating. I pulled the trigger. I drank the Kool-Aid. I prepurchased.

[CanRay]

Tomorrow... TOMORROW!!!

[lorechaser]

Tomorrow... TOMORROW!!!

YES!

I nearly canceled my Special Edition just to get the digital download, and have it at midnight tonight, but the stuff was too fun.