[PC/PS3/360] Xcom Enemy unknown

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by Elestia

The new maps are nice however a lot of them are now in very urban areas making it harder for squad sight snipers to work their magic. I guess this makes snap shot sniper more appealing.

Wow. Flamethrower is a very powerful and deadly weapon against organic units. It has a wide area of effect, does decent damage at the beginning, and best of all it instantly makes all enemies hit with it instant panic.

Randomization has gotten me some pretty sweet combos.

Sniper with rifle suppression-Pin down enemies from 1/2 of a map away.

Assault with Sprinter+ Run and gun + close and personal=dash across the entire map and pump a slug into some alien scum.

[Elestia]

Assaults new close and personal skill is pretty awesome. With rapid fire and said new skill you can unload three devastating close range blast in succession. That's enough to kill most aliens except Sectopods and maybe Ethernals.

Speaking of Sectopods, they are freaking dangerous now. I meet my first Sectopd in base defense mission and they came in pairs and just murder three of my colonels two MEC troopers and my anti mech heavy.

[Wandering_Youth]

Maybe it's just me, but after I assault the alien base and much of the abductions missions are gone it seems the map variety drops back down to the old EU ones. I haven't seen any of the new maps ever since.

Edit: Yep after defeating the alien base all of the UFO landings, terror missions and UFO crash landing maps are all the old ones from EU. Boooooo!

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Youth

Maybe it's just me, but after I assault the alien base and much of the abductions missions are gone it seems the map variety drops back down to the old EU ones. I haven't seen any of the new maps ever since.

Edit: Yep after defeating the alien base all of the UFO landings, terror missions and UFO crash landing maps are all the old ones from EU. Boooooo!

Enemy Within is specifically coded so that on your very first playthrough, you'll encounter the new maps more at the beginning. Subsequent playthroughs will see the map pool return to the random arrangements.

[ArchmageXin]

*punch wall*

First play though---failed. I was mass building econ, then at second month a large UFO showed up and I couldn't bring it down. Mexico go red, and 4 other countries went red.

T_T.

Also, Newfoundland = total bitch. I am never going there ever, ever again for vacation.

[Wandering_Youth]

I just encountered my first bug in this game. There's a spot within the alien battleship map where if you put a gene modded soldier there and let him regen his health with bone marrow ability during the enemy's turn he will get stuck there. He can't move, move shoot or do anything.


Anyone played the Slingshot DLC? I heard Enemy Within has that DLC included in it but I'm like near the end of the game where I just need to level up a Psi soldier and destroy the alien mothership and I haven't gotten that mission at all.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Youth

Anyone played the Slingshot DLC? I heard Enemy Within has that DLC included in it but I'm like near the end of the game where I just need to level up a Psi soldier and destroy the alien mothership and I haven't gotten that mission at all.

Slingshot is only included in Enemy Within for consoles. On PC, you need to get it separately. The only sidemission included with Enemy Within is Progeny.

Images

And the reason I love Enemy Within

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[ArchmageXin]

I just love the fact Slingshot and EW in general are the first game where Asian men speaks grammatically correct English.

(Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact non of the Asians, other than Dr.Shen, were Asian voice actors)

[MrTerrorist]

Are there any new cutscenes in Enemy Within?

[Wandering_Youth]

Yeah some new cut scenes which introduce you to your first MEC and Gene modded soldiers. The new side mission Operation Progeny and Exalt missions has some new cut scenes showing you an intro and ending to each mission.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Are there any new cutscenes in Enemy Within?

Yup, there's lots of new ones, mostly related to MELD tech like MECs and Gene Mods. Here's the intro to MELD for instance:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/lfZAuDcWmc0

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[Duo Maxwell]

Is my skill getting duller, or the game is harder? I have a hard time keeping my troop alive compares to before. People are way too easy to panic, and in one of the VIP escort mission, my troop turn around and shot at the VIP just because one of his teammate are wounded. Also those MELD makes it harder to take thing slowly. I found myself rushing a lot.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Is my skill getting duller, or the game is harder? I have a hard time keeping my troop alive compares to before.

I think you partially answered your own doubts

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Also those MELD makes it harder to take thing slowly. I found myself rushing a lot.

- - - - -

By the time I write this, I already completed Enemy Within. While you don't need meld to win, you will probably want them because of the enemies you are facing. The strongest foes aren't the new ones you will face, but existing ones with upgraded properties. The Sectopod now has double health and explodes upon death. It is almost required that you use every available firepower of your entire squad to take one down.

Then comes the base defense mission. IMO, this is the one single toughest mission in the game, and probably the closest you will get to an alien zerg rush. Not only will your core squad be defending the base, but other X-Com personnel will be pressed into fighting. Except base auxiliary are only armed with assault rifles and be forced to engage the likes of Sectopods & Mutons... If anyone played the original X-Com: UFO Defense, you know bringing an assault rifle against them is akin to having a deathwish.

And I really don't understand why Mec suits require a perfectly normal human being to be completely amputated before being able to properly pilot one.

- Tak

[ArchmageXin]

I am not sure if they nerfed research tech, but this time I outfit my entire team with Lazers rather go straight plasma.

I still didn't bother with Meld yet, is third month and I am still going old school--going to try to win without one.

[Duo Maxwell]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

I am not sure if they nerfed research tech, but this time I outfit my entire team with Lazers rather go straight plasma.

I still didn't bother with Meld yet, is third month and I am still going old school--going to try to win without one.

I've been skipping Laser and going straight for Plasma in the vanilla game. Is Laser worth taking your time and resource in this game?

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

I've been skipping Laser and going straight for Plasma in the vanilla game. Is Laser worth taking your time and resource in this game?

Depends. In the situation where you are mid-game and still unable to procure a working plasma device, it is recommended that you devise some of your resources on laser weapons. They are quick to research and cheap to produce. You won't be sacrificing much in terms of research resources on other projects.

Now, if you researched the arc thrower and started capturing live aliens early in the game, there is probably no need to research laser weapons at all.

Then again, it depends on the difficulty level.

- Tak

[Duo Maxwell]

Mostly because the Plasma pistol and rifle are sitting in my storage, while the researching time goes whooping to 20 days for the pistol only. Laser on the other hand only need 5 days, and I don't remember Plasma take that much time to access in the old game, so I wonder have they indirectly nerf Plasma in this game or not.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Mostly because the Plasma pistol and rifle are sitting in my storage, while the researching time goes whooping to 20 days for the pistol only. Laser on the other hand only need 5 days, and I don't remember Plasma take that much time to access in the old game, so I wonder have they indirectly nerf Plasma in this game or not.

I believe they have. The research tree had been altered quite a bit. This game is overall more challenging than vanilla.

- Tak

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Mostly because the Plasma pistol and rifle are sitting in my storage, while the researching time goes whooping to 20 days for the pistol only. Laser on the other hand only need 5 days, and I don't remember Plasma take that much time to access in the old game, so I wonder have they indirectly nerf Plasma in this game or not.

The Plasma research nerf is intentional according to interviews from previous months. Basically they're slowing down research for higher end stuff so that the early and mid game will be more challenging. That, and so that scientists and laboratories become a more useful consideration.

*****

Been following an LP I signed up for on another board, and I (genderbent) get to become a MEC Trooper!

YouTube

https://youtu.be/rwcVknxcG6A

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[Tak]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

The Plasma research nerf is intentional according to interviews from previous months. Basically they're slowing down research for higher end stuff so that the early and mid game will be more challenging. That, and so that scientists and laboratories become a more useful consideration.

Which is fine and dandy.

I actually like it this way. Laser weapons aren't half bad at all. They may be less effective than plasma weapons, but only slightly. It is a good investment to fill in the void between convention & plasma.

- Tak