The Firaxis XCOM Series

I used Aiming Angles and Red Fog for Second Wave options on my game - I found it made aggressive action far easier with not needing to flank as far to shoot more reliably and damaging enemies first with grenades to stop them for aiming any good while you move in.

Be sure to make use of all of the grenades you start with to help deal with Overwatch - HE (obviously) breaks their cover and allows you to shoot at them without having to get closer while stopping Overwatch upon damage, Smoke can be put down to let one of the farther members of your squad (more safely...not guaranteed, though the odds are much better good) trigger Overwatch, and Flashbangs of course will stop an enemy from basically doing anything useful when applied. The AP grenades are also very good for going for a kill on aliens instead of shooting when your rookies...really can't, but make sure you place it so cover isn't between it and the blast's center.

That being said, I'm sure my current game is a wash and I'm going to have to start a second one

edited 11th Jul '15 12:21:51 PM by VutherA

Am I the only person in the world who wants to see an RTS or real-time tactics game in the vein of XCOM? Forget the UFO Afterblank series, tedious micromanagement etc. I want something like Men of War, the Ground Control series or World in Conflict- you form squads of units that you put together yourself from individuals you select, and you can name these squads and specialize their equipment, personnel and behavior to whatever you want.

Now if only RTS weren't basically dead.

edited 11th Jul '15 12:44:42 PM by Gault

I certainly would because I'm a fan of that kind of RTS (or whatever the label of it is), but I don't know if the series' general traits would translate to an RTS well. Assuming options strictly from the series' general offerings, I'd actually guess the game would be a bit scant compared to other RTSes. Assuming units are limited to infantry like the series is, choices in weapons would be small at around 5 types, armour around the same, with the only category offering a quantity of choice really expected for RTSes would be items.

Additionally, assuming a general lack of vehicles would be a lack of an entire dimension of gameplay that all the games you mentioned have - I'd be uncertain if the few MECs and mechanic units would have quite enough distinction to alleviate that if put in.

As well, customization via individuals as proposed would translate poorly to a multiplayer setting, where players fervently click ASAP to not fall behind their opponents, so multiplayer would probably be out, while multiplayer tends to be a pretty big appeal to RTSes (be it competitively or compstomping).

Lastly, players tend to like particularly large battles for RTSes and the XCOM series currently as is certainly tends toward a smaller scale, though I think I heard the original was a lot bigger. In accordance with that, a larger battle would render customization fairly clunky as well.

Naturally, they could expand on whatever issues I mentioned to fix it, but I'd nonetheless not expect its current fanbase to all take to such a game well. Could still work (Halo Wars got made after...), I just wouldn't immediately assume the series is a perfect fit for it.

edited 11th Jul '15 1:22:00 PM by VutherA

Debating about restarting with second wave options. I do kind of have "the way the game is meant to be played" stuck in my head, which is why I generally don't run mods in the first place. But yeah, I have horrible luck and I don't know if they messed with the RNG aspects or what. I'd feel the nerf to grenades more if I ever used them in the base game.

So thinking of maybe Aiming Angles, Cinematic Mode strikes me too much as using like an aimbot. Also debating if I want to assign soldiers or just stick with what they roll up. Is the random subclass actually random or is a set unidentified option—if I try it and reload the save, do I get a different result?

Also, not sure if going Mexio with the scope item was a good starting point.

edited 12th Jul '15 5:19:41 PM by Rotpar

I don't really know about the Random option while using Commander's Choice, I've never really used it. All in all though, I quite like Commander's Choice.

edited 12th Jul '15 6:23:19 PM by VutherA

If their patch notes are anything to go off of, the only thing that changed with the RNG was removing the rigging that Easy and Normal would do to offset the player's bad luck (consecutive misses added hidden bonuses and a dwindling squad size gives bonus aim and dodge that scales with losses to the survivors).

So that explains why I can't hit shit. Damn them, damn them all to hell!

I always use aiming angles. It adds realism to the mechanics. Also just started another friendslist playthrough, told myself I would minimize reloading ended up doing it twice in the second and third missions because I was rusty and forgot just how much I can't push my luck with "ahh, they can probably survive the overwatch" or "sure, the half cover will protect them."

Sidenote: does Red Fog apply to aliens also?

Yeah.

Red Fog: The ufopedia wiki is ambiguous about it, but since the Long War version thereof says "Significantly changed from vanilla. Aliens and robotic units are affected." I wouldn't get my hopes up unless you're playing Long War.

Edit: This other page says "Affects only XCOM soldiers".

edited 13th Jul '15 9:10:15 AM by Medinoc

So I have become a better X Com player thanks to Long War making me look up the cover mechanics. They aren't as detailed/complicated as I thought and I've been playing as if Aiming Angles was on the whole time without getting benefits.

Here's to knowing how to exploit the map-wide cover line at long last.

Alright, decided to go for another friendslist playthrough. Blasted through the first 4 or so missions somewhat easily via copious amounts of grenades and hunkering down.

Then I got a Council mission, bomb defusal in that graveyard. Started off okay, we cleared a section and tased a Thin Man, one guy died to deactivate a power node, and my highest ranking guy (a support sergeant) deactivated the bomb, only for the last wave of reinforcements (four dudes at once on auto-overwatch) to rock in and kill everyone.

Last mission of the night, and I didn't have a save prior to that moment, nor one prior to that mission due to the way autosave overwrites previous saves.

So...here's to my first canonical Code Black?

Addendum: might still be recoverable, due to spread-out promotions meaning I still have an assault corporal and like 5 or so squaddies.

edited 14th Jul '15 11:51:43 AM by PRC4Eva

Unless the team is full of Heavies who saved their rockets (to insta-gib any spawns overwatch doesn't pick off, which, given poor early Aim, can quite realistically be zero), first council mission bomb disposal on the top two difficulties is almost never worth it. To move at the required pace, the soldiers have to be both landing most of their hits when their Aim is poor, and making dodges when they're likely to be forced into poor cover. Not that it's impossible, but it's a seriously dicey situation where the price of failure is extremely high.

I just use a full team of shivs for it if posible.

Shivs are expendable.

You usually won't have a single SHIV for the April Council mission.

Yeah, bomb disposal for April is super rough. Not to mention the covers for those maps are either sparse and destroyable or full of elevation where thinmen can shoot at you from above.

Ah, I was thinking about vanilla EW.

edited 14th Jul '15 3:06:57 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Long war, I start with them.

And they get +10 aim bonus.

Ghost in the Machine is an amazing start bonus.

My statement is also entirely about vanilla EW (or EU), as I've never played Long War.

I may need to change what I'm doing, slow down further or whatever. My infirmary is filling up with soldiers and normally I wouldn't care too much if the healing wasn't so bloody slow (and realistic?). I'm not taking the meld bait anymore and I'm advancing slowly and always using cover. Soldiers get wounded—especially when unseen enemies always get a free move and I regularly miss 80%+ shots.

@Vuther A, #4728

Real-time tactics is what you're thinking of, I bet. I don't think XCOM would work as a traditional Command and Conquer-style RTS, nor do I think it would be in the spirit of the series. I was imagining something more along the lines of a squad-based tactics game with a heavy focus on simulation. Physically simulated bullets, fairly realistic engagement distances (200-300 meters for assault rifles), smart cover, terrain types and camouflage, heavy emphasis on soldier traits and individual-level AI.

I remember that Company of Heroes put great marketing emphasis on how the infantry under you have character and react individually to things. Of course, it turned out to be fairly shallow, but given XCOM's legendary reputation for making you care about your soldiers, an expanded system of individual soldier traits and behaviors is a must. Dawn of War included squad-level morale as a gameplay feature, with the chance to panic perhaps being based on this variable.

Another hallmark feature of XCOM is unit customization. Earth 2150 has a feature that allows you to design your own vehicles by choosing which parts to build them out of, determined by your research. Given that reverse-engineering alien technologies is an integral part of XCOM's mission, a feature like this where you get to pick your soldiers' equipment from technologies your research unlocked for you would be great.

The breadth of gameplay concepts that appear in the RTS genre are diverse enough that they could be put together to make a good real-time tactics XCOM game, I think.

^ How does Earth 2150 have unit customization? Or do you mean Warzone 2100?

I might, it's been a very long time since I've played any game in that series. I remember one of the games letting you do things like put different kinds of armor on your vehicles, which augments their resistance against various kinds of damage e.g. toxic, physical etc.

^ Oh, apparently it seems BOTH of them have unit customization...sorry.

Ok, Highway 1 has to be one of the most hellish maps I've played. It sucks when you start at the top, my first LW attempt with zillions of sectoids active at once, and when you start at the bottom, the game I'm in now—floaters above and a swarm of mutons too close nearby.

I think the map is also throwing me a bone, because a second pod of floaters decided to active and one just...flew off the map and died?

EDIT:

Finished said mission. Pain in the ass.

Also, having faced my first mutons in LW, Dr. Valhen woke up and threw the laser prototypes at Dr. Shen for manufacture.

edited 17th Jul '15 4:56:19 AM by Rotpar

Heh, sounds like my experiences with the small cemetery on unmodded Impossible; take one look in and everything on the map aggros.

At least Squadsight Snipers clean that highway up pretty handily. I feel that the small cemetery is much worse because they can't do that as easily from a decent safe position, since those waist-high cement walls block LoS from farther out for some weird reason.

Most of the highway maps are bad. Cars are terrible cover with frequently terrible placement/arrangement.