/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1864783]

This game. This fucking game. I'm fucking loving it, yet hating it at the same time. How do I git gud? Even on beginner my tank gets blown up in one shot and I lose soldiers left and right.

[Anonymous No.1865096]

In battle, for the first turn just throw a smoke grenade out the back and chill out so you don't die of reaction fire right off the bat. After that, it's best to keep or two disposable units ahead of the others. Ideally one guy spots an alien while everyone else hangs back with full TUs and shoots. And if you're having issues with aliens popping out behind scenery, blow up everything with high explosives and rockets.

The aliens that stay in the ufo usually follow specific patterns of behavior and patrols. Like in the + shaped scout the aliens always seem to watch the door on the right while one alien patrols through the two doors on the left.

[None !4X8vLLNDE2 No.1865120]

In the early game, getting started is really hard. Stay with it.

In battles, taking a tank along is a very good idea until you have a decent squad of soldiers. They can take hits and have decent stats. Regular tanks will probably be obsolete by mid game.
Battling during the day will give you the sight advantage. Aliens see better at night. If you have to attack at night, load your suicide runners up with flares. It's cheap and flare chucking will build strength; if they survive, they become valuable.

Keep your engineers and scientists active at all times. Certain gear you can manufacture and dump on the market for a little extra profit if you're careful.

Expand asap, try to cover as much globe as possible with your bases.

[Anonymous No.1865125]

Tanks are a noob trap just use rookies.

[Joseph Joestar No.1865215]

>>1864783
I'm no expert, but I did alright by hiring as many scientists as possible, researching lasers till I got the rifles (which are pretty great), then researching alloys till I got personal armor. I did UFO power source and Elerium research after that, which unlocked power armor, which is a big improvement on personal.

Also I've been savescumming during battle but you know what, fuck it.

[Anonymous No.1865220]

>>1865096
yeah sure
play like a gamey autist pussy
than you'll really enjoy a turn based tactical
next you can play baseball with your friends
in slow motion
so noone makes mistakes

[Anonymous No.1865236]

i gave up after half my unit got wiped out by some flying green fireball blew up half the screen in a very large landed ufo attack

i enjoy the thrill of the unknown but this game doesn't have much replay value

[Anonymous No.1865254]

>>1864783

>auto cannon
>he rounds
>shoot at everything

[Anonymous No.1865425]

Is there anyway for my guys to have better aim? And how do you guys manage your money to have more than two or three bases? Countries give me about 6 million, but my operating costs are like 4.5 with scientists and shit. Then I have manufacturing cost.

I sell almost everything from crashes and stuff, but that still barely keeps me a float. I lost an interceptor and pretty much couldn't get another one for almost a month.

[None !4X8vLLNDE2 No.1865553]

>>1865425
Use aimed shots only until you have better soldiers. Try to keep your units distant enough not to get wiped out by a nade, but enough to support each other. Leave a few guys with without TU for a reaction shot.

Try not to over-build your bases early on. Yeah, it's nice to have all the facilities and suites, but you don't need everything at every base.

I think certain manufactured equipment sells for more than it costs to make. If you don't mind the micromanagement, you can make a few extra bux this way.

Interceptors can be a bit fragile, if you see anything larger than a medium UFO, it might be better to just let it land and send in a skyranger for a tough cleanup.

The bulk of your funding increases will come from doing well. First, that means showing up to every alien party that arrives. You also have to both win and not lose the bulk of your squad in the process.

Part of the appeal of the original X-Com is the high stakes combat. Sometimes you lose big. Other times you clean house.
As you start researching and using better gear, it gets a lot easier.

[Joseph Joestar No.1865597]

>>1865425
If you're having money problems early on, manufacture & sell motion detectors or whatever they're called - you can make a decent profit on them.

Also, sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but there's some good tips on getting started and what to research, etc. on this thread (we're playing it for this month's GC9x podcast): http://hg101.proboards.com/thread/11565/game-club-199x-defense-amiga

[Anonymous No.1865602]

>First time playing
>Check some guides to I'm not walking into it completely blind
>Manage to intercept one UFO out of three, the other two escaped unharmed
>Crash it into ocean
>Suddenly, TERROR ATTACK in China
>It's only the first month

I got no idea what I'm doing, but my guys are going in with some laser pistols and a tank. They'll be ok, right?

[Anonymous No.1865604]

>>1865602
And I dun goofed. Thought I could wait until sunrise to attack, but when I redirected my intercept craft I lost the location and can't send anyone there now.

I really should read the damn manual.

[Joseph Joestar No.1865629]

>>1865604
It's better to hold out for the rifles, they're more accurate and do more damage.

Get Power Armor ASAP, it will reduce the number of one-shot kills you experience.

[Anonymous No.1865642]

>>1865629
Already too late, entire team got wiped out on first crash site mission, then UFO's took over everything.

All it took was one alien on a hill. That was it. None of my people could shoot him without being point blank since apparently shooting uphill is impossible for rookies or something. And tanks too. So I rush them in point blank to attack, and they all get wiped by a single alien. On the easiest difficulty. I tried using people as scouts, but the aliens would just shoot them as soon as they were visible, and I'd have to send another scout. In the end, I couldn't even land a hit on the alien that killed everyone. What the hell?

I know people say this game is hard, but this is kinda messed up. Is there an item or mechanic I'm not aware of here?

[Joseph Joestar No.1865645]

>>1865629
Also if you're overwhelmed by the enemies in a terror attack it's better to show up and leave immediately than it is to ignore the terror attack (which will potentially lose you the funding from that country, as opposed to just losing points).

[Anonymous No.1865653]

>>1865645
So I've heard, but I didn't reach the terror attack.

[Joseph Joestar No.1865654]

>>1865642
I'll be honest, it's probably best to restart at this point - I ended up doing that and noticed I was tearing shit up the second time around.

I wouldn't use rookies as cannon fodder indiscriminately, you need them to survive so they can get promoted (and get better stats). The tanks are better at scouting than they are killing, IMO. Use smoke grenades on areas where you really think there'll be an ambush. If you're far enough away they won't be very likely to hit you, so you can draw their fire with someone if you have enough space.

[Anonymous No.1865680]

>>1865654
Sure, but how do you fire uphill? Can you? Is it possible?

[Anonymous No.1865794]

>>1865680
Anyone? Is there any way to fire uphill in this game?

[Anonymous No.1865830]

Use a pair of forward scouts to find enemies, the rest of your team should snipe what they find. Blow up obstacles to clear lines of sight. Yeah, that means toss detpacks at buildings, farmhouses, crops, and anything that's not a UFO.

Once you do that, the majority of the game becomes easy until base missions where you have to fight in tight quarters, but hopefully by that time you have power armor.

[Anonymous No.1865901]

>>1865553
Auto-shots actually have a higher chance of scoring a single hit (Not counting that they can score multiple hits as well) than an aimed shot for the TU cost until you approach the extreme edges of accuracy (close to 0% or 100%.).

For the autocannon, going by its base accuracy rating, you can fire six times at 32% chance to hit or once at 82% chance for the same amount of TU. You have about a 9% chance of missing every shot with two autoshots, and an 18% chance of missing your shot with the aimed shot. The chance to score additional hits just adds to the reason never to use aimed shots for the autocannon.

The rifle's somewhat of a different story because it's really accurate with aimed shots compared to auto shots. Even though you can attack more than six times to one aimed shot, a soldier with high accuracy has a chance to push up the chance to hit to 95-100% when kneeling, which means if you really need one solid hit, it's the way to go. I'd still vote for auto shots because of the chance of additional hits, but if you know you only need one to bring down an enemy, then that's the safest route.

[Anonymous No.1865904]

>>1865794
Try throwing a grenade since it arcs. If something's at the correct angle, they're going to block every shot by intervening terrain, so you're going to need something indirect to hit them.

Hills aren't a very common occurrence, but buildings can cause the same problem, but they often block the enemy's LOS as well.

[Anonymous No.1865914]

Make sure you're using OpenXCOM.

[Anonymous No.1865926]

>>1865642
>I know people say this game is hard, but this is kinda messed up. Is there an item or mechanic I'm not aware of here?

X-COM is brutal as fuck. On higher difficulties, the game is outright trying to murder you. Losing 50% of your team is considered an acceptable victory in many cases.

That said, there are tons and tons of strategies and tactics that can keep you from kicking it, even on superhuman difficulty. You don't have to know all the tricks, but it's good to be aware of the best ones.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Category:Tactics

[Anonymous No.1866325]

>>1865236
>quitting after a failed mission and not manning up.
>not leaving brazil behind because chryssalid terror mission and all the civilians are no zombies
>not even complaining about your favorite soldiers becoming worthless when psionics rolls around because they are shit at it

>>1865425
If you're scared of engaging things with your interceptor (use avalanche missiles always), if you minimize the intercepting window, it'll let time lapse and your second interceptor can catch up, then you can shoot at a ufo with both at the same time

>>1865642
If you're having problems engaging a alien on a hill, throw smoke grenades on your soldiers and between the hill and the sectoid if for some reason you don't want to throw High Explosives up the hill to wipe him and the land mass out out (which you should have done) and you'll at least narrow his vision down and make him move so it isn't a complete deathtrap.

I've been at work too much and haven't gotten to play as much as i want to

[Anonymous No.1866343]

>>1866325
I still have the save mission. But with my foreknowledge now it won't be as enjoyable. The game state is one of eventual loss anyhow, but I may pick it up later.
After this mission i'm pretty much done with the western hemisphere. The very large ufo was in Montreal and USA had already capitulated. Problem being USA sports my secondary research facility.
Psionics never had a great impact on my missions except when I had lost enough morale. By that time I'd already cleared most of the map so no prob there.

[Anonymous No.1866350]

>>1866325
>i'm such an expert
>i lost several dozen soldiers in the first 3 months
cram your advice up your fucking ass noob

[Anonymous No.1866770]

Best way to kill cyber disks early on? And are base defenses even worth it?

[Anonymous No.1867081]

>>1866350
its with the final mod pack, you don't get lasers at all to improve your safety and damage, and I get a little crazy with the flamethrowers.

[Anonymous No.1867093]

>>1866770

Nah. It's better to build your base so that there's only one connection between the hangers and the rest of the base. That way you can line your men up like a firing squad and slaughter the invaders. A lot of players do this for an easy way to make money, as you can sell their equipment after.

[Anonymous No.1867343]

>>1866770
Hit cyberdisks with missle launchers. Cyberdisks love missle launchers.

[Anonymous No.1867349]

>>1865425
>Is there anyway for my guys to have better aim?
Always use auto. The way the probabilities work means that on average you'll hit more than if you used snapshot or aimed shot.

[Anonymous No.1867360]

>>1866325
What are the letters after the name, like "cwm".

[Anonymous No.1867560]

Are the sequels any good?

[Anonymous No.1867594]

>>1865425

Use rawket lawnchairs, you get the same shooting exp for splashhits as you do for getting them dead on. Besides that, kneel before shooting or finishing a turn, you get better accuracy and make a smaller target. Set up skirmish lines, push into new areas with several rookies holding laser pistols, so that anything that pops up is likely to trigger one of them, which will usually spook them enough to push them back into their hidey hole.

As for money, you can build stuff to sell, motion detectors and laser weapons are easy money. You should also try to tail UFOs and attack them when they land of their own accord, that way they aren't damaged, giving you the full elerium load and other goodies. And if you find a base, plonk your own down next to it and raid their supply ships. Floaters or Snakemen are best for this, and it's great for knocking the green off some rookies.

>>1865236

Blaster Launcher. The blast radius is big, but you really only have yourself to blame for bunching up and not putting your guys on multiple levels with flying armour. It's a bitch when they fling one into the Skyranger, but if you use small teams and spread them out, you'll rarely have a target-rich enough environment to get the xenos to use them.

[Anonymous No.1867714]

Alrighty, after a few more aborted runs and some really dumb luck, I finally managed to live beyond the first month or so. Building a second base in the EU so I can protect my funding sources there, and so I have a second fireteam to send out. Currently setting on 7 million in cash, got laser weaponry and power armor so my troops are actually staying alive these days. Which is good, since only two of my original troops are still alive. My current SOP is to send two intercepters to make sure the job gets done, then I follow with the ground team with two rocket tanks and 6 soldiers in power armor. Everyone is carrying smoke, prox, and regular nades, and the team usually makes quick work of things. Currently March of the first year, I'll see how it goes from here.

But I finally figured out how to shoot uphill or downhill. There was a button for it.

[Anonymous No.1867748]

>>1867360
I left the statstrings option on, so c is coward (10 brave), w is for weak (less than 25 strength) and m is for marksman (60 or higher aim)

>>1867560
TFTD is even more brutal, and no one likes 3 hour cruise liners, Apocalypse isn't bad but is different, stay away from enforcer and interceptor, and the Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within are pretty shit compared to the old ones, but are "good" for streamlined version of this

[Anonymous No.1867756]

>>1867714

Oh, you mean you didn't know how to change Z level? Yeah, that'd suck on ice. You can also press those little glowing numbers that pop up when the selected soldier has line of sight to snap to the alium.

One thing I'd advise is using the graphs, they can help you to pinpoint alium activity outside of radar range. Mostly good for getting someone in range early, but you'll sometimes find alien bases or detect an alien infiltration, which sucks but you can at least fly a Skyranger over to harvest some Battleships and other big, juicy targets.

Oh, and try to tail UFOs with the Skyranger as well and only intercept with a view to shooting them down if they don't land, landed UFOs yield more loot, and more importantly more elerium, than ones that crash and get damaged.

[Anonymous No.1868142]

>That's nice EVERYTHING you have there

[Anonymous No.1868197]

>>1867714
>But I finally figured out how to shoot uphill or downhill. There was a button for it.

With OpenXCOM you can use the mouse wheel to scroll through z-levels.

In the menu, it's the buttons with the ladders.

[Anonymous No.1868201]

>>1868142
Fuck these cunts. I failed two missions trying to capture one of these assholes on superhuman. I finally did it after landing at the corner of the map and passing my turn until one of them walked into the fucking Skyranger.

I lost four soldiers trying to stun that son of a bitch. He took four stunbombs and a stun prod before going down.

[Anonymous No.1868216]

>tfw stuck on first terror mission in India

;_;

[Anonymous No.1868237]

>>1868201

Do remember that you can mix regular damage and stunning, their stun level only needs to be higher than their current HP to take them down. Even if they wake up later, you're still dealing with fewer aliums per turn.

[Anonymous No.1869283]

This was the result of a Snakeman terror mission. At night. How I managed to not lose a single rookie I'll never know. As soon as I saw the UFO on radar and it said "SNAKEMEN" I panicked. I touched down at the terror site ready to lift the fuck off if so much as 2 rookies died, but it never happened. Flares everywhere, Chrysalids couldn't even sneak up on us. I'll likely never reproduce such a feat ever again.

[Anonymous No.1869302]

>>1867594
>blaster launcher
i was researching launchers, would be nice to have em. I was bunched up for tactical entry on the very large doors. didn't have flying armor yet. just bad luck i ran it again and again to see if the fucks would try the same surprise attack but they didn't. think i'll keep the game with half of my men dead and play out the end of days in europe and asia.

[Anonymous No.1869318]

>>1869283
>Aliens killed: 27

[Anonymous No.1870095]

>>1869283

Jesus Christ, it looks like the turned every civvie on the map. This is why you throw explosives around without regard for civillian casualties. Hell, maximising them makes sense when 'lids are about.

[Anonymous No.1870106]

>>1868201
I really, really wish there was psi-armor or something you could equip to reduce the effect of psi on your forces. Like, I'd be ok with not getting psi until later and having god psi troops being even more rare than before if capturing a sectoid psi guy gave you mind shields. Heck, you could make it a dampening thing so that wearing the mind shield disabled your own psi as well, and then you'd actually have a reason to use non-psi troops late game.

[Anonymous No.1870248]

>In March of the first year
>TERROR ATTACK IN SOUTH AMERICA SOMEWHERE
>Send team in, immediately evac cause I can't handle that crap
>some random soldier gets promoted
You didn't even get off the damn plane, why did you get a promotion? No wonder my soldiers suck, they obviously aren't expected to perform to any standard.

Things are lookin pretty good. The only problem I seem to have is being able to recruit enough replacements to cover losses. Every time I get reinforcements they get wiped within the week, just in time for the next batch of soon-to-be-casualties to arrive. Power Armor does make them live longer, but they still keep dropping like flies.

[Anonymous No.1871398]

>>1866350
If someone doesn't have a long list of dead soldiers they're either playing on easy, or savescumming, or both.

You have the first 4-6 out of the skyranger as acceptable losses you can and expect to lose, and use as advance scouts. Only 4-6 in the back are gonna possibly make it to another mission, and even out of those you'll only end up with 2-4 that make it to late game, if that.

And by late game all those guys will probably be sacked or put on guard duty because their psionic strength is too low.

[Anonymous No.1871406]

>>1865425
>And how do you guys manage your money to have more than two or three bases?

My second or third base is usually a base in Antarctica that has nothing but engineers building laser cannons around the clock.

[Anonymous No.1871425]

>>1870248
>No wonder my soldiers suck, they obviously aren't expected to perform to any standard.

While the game manual claims soldiers available to X-Com are recruited from the very best soldiers of the military factions of the world, most everyone agrees there are a bunch of snickering commanders unloading their Gomer Pyles into the recruitment rosters for the "secret military project."