Xcom, very late to the party

[El_Cid]

You are a mere beginner.

I have completed Xcom - three times infact

In Syndicate(not Sydicate wars) there was this damn level where i had some scientists to rescue, and they would always get killed in the chaos before i could reach the exit point........I tried it many times(dozens?) over and just could never get them out alive, which was mission fail

[DrSpike]

Like I said, a mere beginner.

[Unimatrix11]

El_Cid: Dont let it get to you - if i was running a game-mag, You would be my first choice (on poly) for an article writer - not many people surpass my experience when it comes to playing the games i like. Until recently, i thought noone could have possibly wasted more time on video-games than i did.

[El_Cid]

Edit for clarity! : "Until recently, i thought no one could have possibly wasted more time on video-games than i did"



I guess that is a kind of compliment!

Thanks, although your hyperthetical job offer would be better off with someone who can spell.

Dr's just pissy 'cause i know what he is finding out slowly about AAA console gameing, that's all.

But he is correct that it's pretty poor i never did complete one of the classic games from the 90's.

I wonder how LotM is getting on? - he's being strangely quiet. I hope Asher hasn't 'run him off' from here. I liked LotM's willingness to look beyond graphics and he has a pretty analytical mind. Maybe the 'greys' have mind controlled him?

[Quillan]

Only the grey commander. It was the ethereals who did most of the mind controlling. God, I hated those things!

[DrSpike]

Dr's just pissy 'cause i know what he is finding out slowly about AAA console gameing, that's all.

You'll buy a 360 before I buy a PS2.

[El_Cid]

I suspect, if thats your stance, that we will disappoint each other

[lord of the mark]

@ LotM, So where did you decide to save first?

College visits, Passover Seders, teen birthday parties, work, yet MORE Passover events, and yet one MORE college admissions event have interrupted my gaming. I know, I need to get my priorities in order.

When I do boot up XCOM next, I intend to start over with a first base in the heart of western europe, probably around switzerland or so, to get good access to UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

[Alinestra Covelia]

South Pole! South Pole! Earth's Arse! Earth's Arse!

[N35t0r]

I usually started in Yugoslavia, to be closer to Russia.

[lord of the mark]

South Pole! South Pole! Earth's Arse! Earth's Arse!

Are you troubled, my child?

[Unimatrix11]

So after one of those evenings, pondering what the heck to play, i decided to give XCom another shot. I got it over the net (on an abandonware-site - if that was legal, i am not 100% sure, but whatever - in this case at least - 15 years - come on! Take it as a swap for ´Terror of the Deep´, whose discs are burried somewhere deep inside my shed), unpacked and simply clicked the UFO.exe - et voilà: it works. No DOS-Box, no nothing, just XP. Okay, during combats, i need to turn everything to slow and turn off auto-scroll and i cant quite see, what the aliens do in their moves (too fast) and UFO-interception is quite hectic, but that´s still okay. Better than to have it run on some emulator and having to deal with how to get it to full screen, swap discs, loadtimes and such, anyways. So, I am joining you LotM, i guess.

Playing on the second-easiest level, i founded my first base in Rome (i try to make a compromise between coverage of supporters and significance to human civilization - Rome covers most of Europe and the Mediterranians and it´s significance to human civilization is obvious). It´s the middle of january 1999 right now and i had two close encounters (+1 shot down interception) so far. 8 humans were lost during the fights (both rated ´okay´). I didnt upgrade my base, nor did i built a second one, yet. I want to wait for the first monthly bill, before i do some investment planing. I did employ another 15 scientist though and started research on element 115. Most probabel investments in feb will be another lab, staff quarters and an upgrade for the radar.

As i am (also) playing for the story line, i´d like to ask you, not to post any spoilers outside of spoiler-tags, please. For example, i´d guess, my research choice was not optimal - in this case: Just shut up, please, and let me figure it out myself.

EDIT: Just browsing through the manual.
( http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/...f?t=1234632085 )
OMG, i feel so old! EMS, XMS and such are only the beginning. It´s been awhile, since someone explained to me, what ´clicking´ means, or when ´in-game´ was refered to as ´on-line´. ´Can i run X-Com on Windows 3.11? - It is not recommended. It is quite likely, that you have insufficient memory...´ - this is so much fun just by itself already...

[El_Cid]

I play Xcom on my P166 with a slow down utility to make it run at the correct speed!

You should be able to run something on XP as well, that will help address your speed issues. I suspect the biggest problem will be sound/music on an XP system? that can be solved with a utility called 'VDMsound'

This site has proven very useful over the years:

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/oldonnew/intro

[Unimatrix11]

the only issue really is that scrolling is only possible via the map and alien moves are FAST. Other than that, i dont see a reason, why to even try to use moslo or such. I dont hear any music while i am playing and the intro didnt play anything either - i dont know if thats because of my copy of the game (just noticed it says something about ´gold´ in the taskbar), or if thats default or an error or whatnot, but i couldnt care less, again.

This game could be so easily ported 1:1 to modern standards (graphics and interface mainly) though (like done with Pirates!), i wonder why it never was. I think it would be a huge success again.

So now i am in may. China made a deal with the aliens in march or so. The rest seems to be fine so far, and i have just begun to built a second base in N-America (named NORAD). You know, i am an idiot? I watched 16 episoded of Lost from saturday to monday, and still i didnt name my bases ´The Pearl´, ´The Swan´... hear the sound of my hand slamming my forehead...

My guys are fighting with level1 armor and plasma rifles by now, which is a huge improvement - China might have left, because i could not defeat an alien terror force in Beijing - those UFO-things were just too much...

The tank (rocket version) - one mission it does it all (almost), the next it gets toasted by the first enemy - i have mixed emotions about it. If it works, it´s well worth the money, but i dont want to spent 0.5M just to see it blow up in the beginning of a mission. Anyways, it surely helps to lower the fatality rate, which has has droped to maybe 25% from something around 50%, due to enhanced weaponry, personal armor and the tank.

Instead of a lab, i built some storage space, an alien habitat, and a small (accidental) and a large radar-array. 50 scientists and 35 engineers are researching and producing right now.

With the second base in construction, we are running out of money and i guess i will have to supplement my income with equipement sales. One of the interceptors will be transfered to NORAD asap. Right now, though, the ground team is on a mission in Madrid, where a large UFO has landed and terrorizes the local population...

[lord of the mark]

I started AGAIN. Base one is in switzerland - interceptors can actually reach the east coast of the US, South Africa, and comfortably reach India.

I started a second base in western China. I recruited 4 more soldiers, and this time I will make sure they armed before sending them out.

I am researching laser pistol.