Xcom advice

[Richard Bruns]

One strategy for dealing with crysallids/zombies is to have everyone keep primed grenades on their belts. It the chrysallids turn them into zombies, they drop the stuff and it explodes, killing the zombie and hopefully the chryssalid as well. This also has the added bonus of quicker throwing. But if a trooper gets shot while surrounded by teammates, the result can be disastrous. But if they are using grenades on you anyway, this bomb strategy will force you to spread out.

Have you researched heavy plasma yet? If not make it a priority. I try to make sure that I have power suits and heavy plasma by the time snakemen show up.
[This message has been edited by Richard Bruns (edited May 03, 2001).]

[Dis]

ahh yes heavy plasma I did not mention it. Mainly because many here are big on laser rifles. But this is always my top research priority. good range and firepower. and not too heavy that your weaker guys can't carry it. this makes one shot kills much easier. I usually skip laser rifles, pistols and plasma pistols. sometimes I research plasma rifles if heavy plasma is unavailable. The only time I use laser rifles is maybe on scouts I want to be fast.

I never use grenades (personal preference). They may be fairly useful though. I use rocket launchers with 1 or 2 guys. The time unit cost is steep though. grenades may be better. Maybe I should use grenadiers. I am realizing how great they are in fallout: tactics. they may be good here. just put grenades in both hands... They wouldn't be good on terror missions though.

[Father Beast]

quote: Originally posted by Dissident on 05-03-2001 04:58 PM I never use grenades (personal preference). They may be fairly useful though. I use rocket launchers with 1 or 2 guys. The time unit cost is steep though. grenades may be better. Maybe I should use grenadiers. I am realizing how great they are in fallout: tactics. they may be good here. just put grenades in both hands... They wouldn't be good on terror missions though.

Dang. the place I was considering using them was on terror missions. that's where I usually get creamed.

Richard, I haven't researched heavy plasma yet. I am busy researching laser cannons so I can put some decent firepower on my fighters. I finally got rid of all my cannons and put 2 avalanche launchers on each of my interceptors. the short range of the cannon made it all but useless.

Before Snakemen show up? is there a timetable? it's now june 1999 in my game, and I first saw these guys on a terror mission 2 months ago.

[Dis]

I always sell the cannons immediately. and get avalanche. I sell my stingrays too. I wouldn't recommend laser cannons. I believe they have the same firepower as heavy plasma or close to it. I'd have to look at the guide to find out. Heavy plasma is the weapon to get. most of your squad should have these. bring along laser rifles if your ammo gets low (they do burn a lot of eurilym). And research a longer range weapon for you interceptor too. and think planning to upgrade your interceptor and skyranger. Takes research and a lot of workshop space to do. and of course another hanger. I usually have 4 hangers in my main base and 2 or 3 in my europe base (or vise versa sometimes ukraine area is my main base). sometimes I'll put up a radar station in the south somewhere (still haven't found the best place- usually africa though close enough so I can cover brasil)

[Urban Ranger]

Don't worry. Father Beast, each person has a different playing style.

Plama weapons are good, but they use up your limited supply of E-115, which you could used elsewhere (flying suits, hover tanks, plama cannons for fighters, and blaster bombs). I myself prefer flying suits. They make attacking landed/crashed UFOs much easier, esp. if you also have blaster bombs.

For using grenades, you might try this tactic. Form 3 or 4 person terms, and have your squaddies in the back of the formation throw grenades. Rocket launchers are also good against terrorists in the beginning.

To reduce casualties you must master the use of opportunity fire.

If you have researched heavy lasers crank up the production since they are good cash items. You might want to consider build a research/manufacting only base in a remote place, such as the Antartica.


Dissident,

I found heavy plasma too slow and too heavy for my liking. A veteran trooper can dish out more damage using autoshots.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited May 04, 2001).]

[Richard Bruns]

Heavy laser and laser cannon are a waste of time. For about as much effort, you can get heavy plasma and plasma cannons. I research heavy plasma long before I have enough to equip a squad with, because plasma cannons are the best craft weapon. They only use elerium when you make them, they don't need reloads.

I don't manufacture alien weapons and I certainly won't waste elerium making ammo. I only use what I collect and I use the stuff sparingly. I also try to unload any unused clips before the end of the battle. But if a single shot has been fired, you lose the whole clip, so you might as well use it all up in the battle to flatten buildings and walls. Another trick is to look at the equipment of aliens you have killed. If they haven't fired a shot, unload the clip. If they have, pick up the weapon and start using it.

As a side not, I have never, not once, seen a heavy plasma slow down a soldier. They seem to weigh as much as laser rifles. One trick with heavy weapons is to toss them onto the ground at the end of your turn. The soldier will start the next turn unburdened, with full time units. Then they can pick up the thing and proceed.

I tend to have realy bad experiances with my reaction fire. On three missions yesterday, I had a trooper (veteran squaddie in each case) kneel with 40+ time units, looking at an area where I knew aliens were. In each case, the alien walked out in full view of the trooper and calmly killed him. One time, it also killed another soldier. I am quite sure that I would have suffered less casualties if I had charged ahead and tried to kill it that turn.

[Urban Ranger]

I was saying heavy laser is a good cash item. It fetches lots of money on the market and you should have a lot of engineers crank it out. You'll never run out of money.

As for reaction fire thing, I always have at least two troopers waiting in ambush in each of the areas that need covering. Always provide cover for your people, behind a wall is best, or prone on the ground if not. Also make sure your ambushers have a high reaction rating.

[Darkknight]

Man We still dont have X-com alliance over here. I have every other X-com game X-com Apocalypse was by far the best.

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" Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few "

[Urban Ranger]

BAH! A FPS.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited May 07, 2001).]

[Dis]

hey do you guys run the original x-com game in windows or in dos? I played last year but cannot remember which I ran it in. I can't get it to run in dos. in windows I ran go.exe and it worked. although my mouse moves accross the screen (in combat) extremely fast. and I have the slowest scroll speed selected. I know I did an upgrade since I last played, but still. and perhaps it is the size of my monitor that makes the game look bad. the graphics don't look so hot on a 19" monitor BTW by running in windows I mean opening up my computer and clicking on the go.exe icon. I think I used to run it by selecting run- shut down to dos and then switch directories and play the game (like you used to with dos games)

I would like to play again. also is there a screen where you can see what level you played on in your save games? I know I haven't beaten the game at the highest level. I cannot remember what level I played my last game as.
[This message has been edited by Dissident (edited May 08, 2001).]

[Richard Bruns]

The old version was designed to run in DOS; the manual warns against running it in Windows. But I never had any problem running it in windows on my old computer. I just set up a shortcut to the .exe and it ran fine.

But on my newer computer, I couldn't do that. It wouldn't tun sound at all, and without sound it was really choppy and buggy. Father Beast sent me a Windows version from a PC Gamer CD, and I use that now. It's a copy of the game altered to run under Windows. It works fine, but some of the animations go too fast. E-mail me if you want me to send it to you.

As far as I know, there is no way to see the difficulty of a saved fame.

[Garth Vader]

I'll email you when I get home, if you are willing to send it to me too!