Xcom, very late to the party

[Unimatrix11]

In my game, i had red dots all over quite exactly after half a year. Several biig ones at a time too, and those are dangerous all by themselves - after they shot down a couple of my interceptors, i decided to stay clear of them until i have something better at hand (which i am pretty upto right now). I lost a base as well - this is like 1942 WW2 (kinda) - the next couple of weeks will tell...

Yeah, clicking the red indictor will center on the alien. JA and XCOM really taught each other...

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm up to June 1999 and the UFO sightings are getting really intense. There were four just recently. I have researched Power Armor and most of my senior soldiers have that. I have a Commander level soldier, and a few Captains. Maybe a Colonel. I have three bases - Europe is the manufacture and research center, and America and China each have a couple of interceptors and a fully loaded transport plane.

So far the main weapons I'm using are laser rifles, rocket launchers, and heavy cannons. The Europe base has a cannon tank, which is my first tank and I'm testing it out to see how it works.

Laser rifles seem to be a really good weapon. They are very effective against the Chryssalid enemies that used to give my team so much trouble. Heavy Cannon is only useful if you have the High Explosive rounds, which can take out a number of enemies. It's not very good for clearing obstacles. Rocket launchers are still very useful, just as they were at the start of the game.

More and more of my interceptors either get completely trashed by the UFOs, or hobble back to base with lots of damage. I'm researching something that I hope will even the score a little, but only Europe has any scientists and they're going full-bore on this tech.

The last month, I got an "Excellent" monthly rating from the nations and nearly all of them increased funding. When the budget got through, I only gained 100K dollars! I think the decision to have three bases is probably draining my cash.

I have to keep selling off a lot of the stuff I pick up from the aliens just to make enough money to last the month's end.

[EPW]

Has anyone played UFO: Extraterrestrials?

[Spaced Cowboy]

LOL, I just remembered, be freaking careful in the gas station area on the terror missions. I lost about a 1/3 of my guys on a rocket implosion on a gas pump.

Ya know, I never actually finished a game of this. Seems like something always came up that stopped my progress, or maybe I just got bored with the missions.

by EPW Has anyone played UFO: Extraterrestrials?

I really can't remember all the sequels, is this the one that tried to use the exact graphics and such, but changed a few gameplay elements, and as I recall, never quite finished it properly?

Or is this one of the realtime combat remakes?

[EPW]

I really can't remember all the sequels, is this the one that tried to use the exact graphics and such, but changed a few gameplay elements, and as I recall, never quite finished it properly?

Its pretty close to the original, except its takes place in the future on a different planet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_Extraterrestrials

The mods are supposed to be great though.

[El_Cid]

@ Main_Brain,

Yeah you can jump right to the 'hidden' alien by clicking the warning icon! I'd forgotten about that - cheers!

@ Unimatrix11 - ouch loss of a base is a big blow! i hope you can battle back from it, i trust it wasn't your main base or i'm sure you would be 'effing and blinding' alot more about the loss?

@AC, cool - powersuits You sound like you got through the tough initial stages ok in the end Although i must admit i'm very impressed you've only stared to use a tank now! They save lives in the early stage(especialy in terror missions, good for drawing fire/scouting). Money is always a problem, i don't think i've ever played a game where by the funding by itself is enough. You need to manufacture stuff for sale, apparantly the medikit is one of the more profitable items for this(in terms of cost vs sale price).

I always feel a bit odd about selling of my surpless alien tech to the black market, but you have to it seems - maybe one small area for me that didnt feel well thought out?

I don't know about you but i just love all the ufo info you discover through your research - some is very well written and fits in really well with folk-ufo-lore in our own world(fans of X-files will enjoy it all also).

Laser weapons are great - not the most powerful, but in the hands of well armoured and skillful soldiers they are a great weapon, one of my favourites. Not needing ammo is a big plus

@ Spaced Cowboy,

yeah gas station mistakes really can spoil the party(one reason i'm wary of rocket launcers!) - it can be a long slog, but it really is worth finishing the game, it just such a fun mission of discovery and story building. True the battle maps can get a bit much, but like any essential job it just needs to be done, the whole fate of the world is in your hands!!

@ EPW,

No i always understood all these Xcom type games just missed out on important elements that the original game already contained. Most seem to favour better graphics but leave out rather than add to or improve on the original game. I think it is why people still talk about and play Xcom(Microprose) to this day

the overall reviews for UFO:Extraterrestrials seem quite low?:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/ufoextraterrestrials?q=UFO

[EPW]

@ EPW,

No i always understood all these Xcom type games just missed out on important elements that the original game already contained. Most seem to favour better graphics but leave out rather than add to or improve on the original game. I think it is why people still talk about and play Xcom(Microprose) to this day

the overall reviews for UFO:Extraterrestrials seem quite low?:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...estrials?q=UFO

Like I said, the mods are supposed to be excellent.

[Unimatrix11]

Well, it was Bogota - Only a Hangar/Radar base basically.

@AC: Why do you maintain multiple skyranger sites? Are you ground troops so busy, that you need two of them? Thats a lot of cost right there.

I dont attack large (or bigger) UFOs with the standard fighter anymore - those are suicide missions, which caused me to have 2 of my now 5 bases (Bogota wasnt rebuilt) idle, waiting for the proper weaponry to finish.

We have a prototype, which has already proven to work excellent (no more info on that, yet) and are now hastely building more of it.

A note for the german language player: ´Schweres Plasma´ actually means ´...Gewehr´. (Heavy plasma rifle is just labeled as heavy plasma - so i thought it was some sort of ressource - i had so many stored, that when i found out and sold all but 20 or so, i had $20M).

Another alien base has been discovered in SE-asia. This time, we have to be quicker...

[Spaced Cowboy]

Its pretty close to the original, except its takes place in the future on a different planet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_Extraterrestrials

The mods are supposed to be great though.

I think you need to guinea pig it for us. I must have missed this one somehow, still seems to have an active community though.

[El_Cid]

Yeah! go guinea-pig for us EPW and give some links about it's good/best mods etc. I'd always thought this was part of the really not great other UFO series:

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/ufo-series

which were basicaly a flashy 3D remake with most of the gameplay based around the battles(no economy/research/base building etc....i think).

Ufo:Extraterrestrials might have got bad reviews, but it did try to be a more complete Xcom remake it seems(even if not great vanilla), so more info on those mods might be the key

[EPW]

Considering I didn't like the original Xcom, I might not be the best judge of the game.

[El_Cid]

It's ok, i read some posts at another forum and even with mods it's not as good as the original game, well that seems to be the general consensus.

"move along, move along...these are not the xcoms we are seeking"

[Dis]

damn I want to play now . Don't think I have a rig slow enough for this. I think the slowest rig I have that can works is 700 mghz.

And I forgot about selling stuff. It wasn't something I did much in the game, I probably could have competed at higher levels had I. I concentrated mostly on missions. As they were the most fun. But research was fun as well.

I think using heavy explosives damages alot of alien tech, which means you recover less. Some sells nicely and you need some for research. Need that plasma tech asap. But I never put much emphasis on laser rifles, maybe I'll do that if I play again.

I used to name my toons like Terminator and Predator and such lol. You can tell what movies I used to like (and still do). I might tack on a stat at the end like their accuracy or bravery. In the beginning I concentrate on accuracy. But you need to start protecting your guys with strong bravery and weeding out those who don't. Mind control is very annoying.

[lord of the mark]

damn I want to play now . Don't think I have a rig slow enough for this. I think the slowest rig I have that can works is 700 mghz.

You dont need a slow rig for the XP versions for sale online (I can see not wanting to buy it again if you still have your disc)

[Jon Miller]

Hmm, how much was it for the steam version?

JM