Already pre-ordered. Now I am just waiting on it to be released.
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Yeah, I'm so looking forward to the XCom 2.
I started an XCOM RPG campaign (using Shadowrun rules, players research bioware, cyberware, various other tech) from aliens captured and items retrieved.
I'm having it span pre alien invasion, the actual invasion (that will be done using the XCOM Boardgame on expert difficulty to insure a loss) and XCOM 2 (after the invasion)
I'm far from having the computer that can support a game like X-COM 2, and I don't think we'll upgrade our XBOX 360 for ONE just yet, so I guess I'll have to enjoy Enemy Unknown/Within for a while.
In the meantime Major Jessica "Boomer" Barnes is rocking her new scatter-laser shotgun. T'was about time too, cyberdiscs are starting to appear on the battlefield...
As long as it will run on a system that was capable of running XCOM 1, I am ok with that... :P
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OS: Windows® 7, 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6 GHz or AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core 2.6 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or better
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 45 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
Those are the minimum requirements
45 GB? Ugh... Some cleaning and deleting will be in order...
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Aaaaah, the aliens are invading my base! MY BASE!
And I only have three of my guys, plus two xcom guards with basic rifles. S!$&, there are mutons all over the freaking place, and chryssalids too. Not sure how we're supposed to get out of this one!!!
[edit] ok, got reinforcement, major Barnes to the rescue with two more troopers!
Aaaaah, the aliens are invading my base! MY BASE!
And I only have three of my guys, plus two xcom guards with basic rifles. S*$$, there are mutons all over the freaking place, and chryssalids too. Not sure how we're supposed to get out of this one!!!
[edit] ok, got reinforcement, major Barnes to the rescue with two more troopers!
are they killing your dudes?
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are they killing your dudes?Aaaaah, the aliens are invading my base! MY BASE!
And I only have three of my guys, plus two xcom guards with basic rifles. S*$$, there are mutons all over the freaking place, and chryssalids too. Not sure how we're supposed to get out of this one!!!
[edit] ok, got reinforcement, major Barnes to the rescue with two more troopers!
Things started to look really grim. I was flanked from both sides in the map room, with three cyberdisks and their drones on one side and berserkers on the other. My heavy just barely survived the berserker's assault, and the rest got bombarded by cyberdisks' grenades, wounding most of my soldiers and killing one of the base staff member. Then a door opens, and I'm thinking "alright, this is the end"...
But it wasn't an enemy, it was my best healer support coming as reinforcement! Her combat drug smoke grenade shielded my troops just long enough to wipe the cyberdisks and berserkers without further casualties.
The rest of the fight wasn't exactly a walk in the park, with some of my troops mind-controlled and my over-confident assault basically melee-ing with mechtoids, but nothing as nerve-racking as the map-room fight. While the infirmary will be crowded for a while, that X-COM base guard was the only casualty. What a fun mission!
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With 8 days to go, the Long War leading up to humanity's eventual loss will has began. Normal, neither story scenario, cinematic shooting and untapped potential options enabled.
Month 1
XCOM base founded in North America, 'We have our ways' option to pool in the best minds to chop up aliens as quickly as possible. The team's first mission ends in a rousing success, as the drones and sectoids are put down with prejudice. Contact with aliens begins, as a small UFO strafes the US, avoiding 3 interceptors before returning to space. The second and third UFO's weren't as lucky, being downed and cleaned by the XCOM forces, with few losses.
The month continued with Argentina pulling out of XCOM, abductions in South Africa, and Mexico. We now understand their biology, and have chopped apart a sectoid and tall man. Positive review by the Council encouraging.
I love reading people's XCOM saga. I don't have the will nor the time to write mine, but I decided to describe the "cast" of my XCOM adventures, as they were when I last stopped playing.
So in order of appearance:
Class: HEAVY
Country of Origin: ARGENTINA
Status: in psi-testing (10 days):
Crash is XCOM’s senior agent and squad leader of Strike-1. He is a team player, helping his teammates with holo-targeting and suppressing fire.
Sole survivor of the first encounter with the extraterrestrials in Germany, Crash has participated in every single mission and somehow managed to come back uninjured every time, that is, every time except the last EXALT covert operative retrieval mission. His armour took the worst of the blow really, but the doctors insisted that he spends a few days at the infirmary. He watched the two following missions from the monitors back at the headquarters of XCOM and saw that he had trained his crew well. That’s when Dr. Vahlen approached him to become XCOM’s first psi-trained officer…
.
Class: SUPPORT
Country of Origin: INDIA
Status: ACTIVE:
“Pixie” is a dynamic woman part of XCOM’s “original fours”. Her good spirits lifts the squad’s morale and her skills as a combat-medic saved her teammates many times. She and her good friend Juan “Crash” Delago have participated in the most mission, and Pixie seems to be blessed with incredible luck. Plasma bolts seem to fly over her head, and she alone resisted an alien’s attempt to control her mind.
Pixie is everything a good support can be but most importantly, she is the soul and essence of the team. She is everything that XCOM represents. Would she be killed on the battlefield, XCOM would lose much more than a good fighter…
.
Class: HEAVY
Country of Origin: CHINA
Status: ACTIVE:
Our “friend in low place” Zhang used to be a member of the Chinese triad but he risked everything to bring valuable information to the XCOM project. Ultimately, this led to a tide-turning victory when a battlecruiser appeared over Asia. Skilled with heavy weapons, Zhang has been fighting along us ever since.
It took some times for the team to accept Zhang’s sincere adherence to XCOM but after a few mission, his loyalty was no longer doubted. Zhang shone in every mission in which he participated, always ahead of the squad and drawing fire from enemies. More mobile than Crash and quicker on the trigger, Zhang makes-up for most of the team’s firepower. His role was essential in key missions such as Newfoundland, the assault on the battlecruiser and the invasion of the alien base. Zhang was also among the first soldiers to be deployed when the aliens attacked XCOM’s headquarters. His stand against the berserkers was worthy of an epic opera and will be always remembered as such.
.
Class: ASSAULT
Country of Origin: CANADA
Status: Wounded (6 days):
Boomer is one tough gal. Born in St-John’s Newfoundland Canada, the young rookie Barnes enthusiastically volunteered for a council mission to northern Newfoundland. The horror we witnessed there changed everyone, but it affected Barnes most of all. She spent days in front of Double Down’s locker, the man who died covering her from the Chrissalyds. With the sounds of his shotgun still resonating in her mind, she resolutely took his back-up shotgun and insisted to be on the away team when the alarm rang for a new mission. The squad needed an assault on the field!
.
Class: SNIPER
Country of Origin: ARGENTINA
Status: ACTIVE:
An abduction mission brought the XCOM squad to Argentina shortly after the disastrous mission in Newfoundland. Locals put up a good fight as the aliens unknowingly attacked the residence of an Argentinian drug baron. Nevertheless, the local authorities and their unlikely ally were overwhelmed and sent a distress call to XCOM. Alien resistance was minimal when the squad landed and was quickly dealt with.
The drug baron’s wife was our contact upon arrival. After losing her husband and now being exposed to the authorities, she expressed her desire of joining the XCOM team. A quick assessment of her skills showed that she excelled with long rifles and the team was in desperate need of a sniper after the death of Claymore. Thus HQ command agreed to her request.
Her name is Rosa Garza but around here, we simply call her “The Baroness”. She proved to be a most essential asset and played a key role in the defense of XCOM’s headquarters, receiving the Star of Terra medal for her extraordinary contribution. Despite her habit of confirming commands in Spanish, she is a fighter on which the squad can rely.
.
Class: SUPPORT
Country of Origin: RUSSIA
Status: ACTIVE:
Sporting a bright pink and blue armor, Vita Sofia is an energetic and athletic soldier, and by far the best runner of the XCOM’s team. Training under Pixie as XCOM’s secondary support, Vita Sofia quickly rose in rank and abilities. The two work exceptionally well as a team and often get deployed together. Whereas Pixie specializes in healing soldiers on the field, Vita often acts as a scout and spotter for The Baroness. Needless to say, we owed much of our MELD collection to her.
Vita Sofia played an essential role during the alien attack on XCOM’s base. As things were looking desperate, she managed to hack her way into the map-room and save the squad with a well-timed smoke grenade. Flanked by cyberdisks and muton berserkers, the team would not have survived the assault if it wasn’t for her timely intervention. In private, Crash believes that Vita should have been awarded the Star of Terra. The Baroness surely contributed more to the fight, but Vita’s intervention was the turning point to victory.
.
Class: HEAVY, GENETICALLY MODIFIED
Country of Origin: GERMANY
Status: ACTIVE:
“Arcade” is a recent addition to the XCOM’s team but she is showing great skills with her heavy plasma gun. Her lightning-fast reactions makes her a good bodyguard for The Baroness; she disabled many threats while our sniper was getting in position.
While she is a good team-player on the battlefield, Arcade is a bit of a loner back at the base, preferring video games to real combat simulations, while listening to ‘90s techno music. Perhaps these interests prompted her to volunteer for Dr. Vahlen’s MELD mutation program. You should look at her jump!
Her bright pink hair and personalized armor distinguishes her as an artist and a bit of an anti-conformist. When Crash confiscated her xBox, she spray-painted her whole room at the barracks. If you ever see a “XCOM was here” graffiti on a burnt wall, you’ll know that Arcade was there.
.
Class: SNIPER
Country of Origin: RUSSIA
Status: ACTIVE:
“Ice” got her nickname from her cool nerves. Although she is trained as a sniper, she is not afraid to get into tight corners. Her ability to shoot from the hip with her rifle allows her to advance with the rest of the team and while she is a decent sniper, pistols are really “her thing”. She is always the one pushing for new pistol technologies and upgrade.
Polina is also a quite capable hacker. With her nerves of steel, knack with guns and computer skills, Polina is an ideal candidate for covert operation. She has so far infiltrated four EXALT cells. Now if only HQ command could figure out where they are hiding with all the information she is bringing back every time…
.
...and those who feel on the battlefield:
.
Class: SNIPER
Country of Origin: SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM.
Status: KIA:
Daniel “Claymore” Matthews was also part of the original four-man team of XCOM. He was a quiet and calm man, always very polite and respectful of his colleagues. His teammates used to say that he wasn’t a true Scott!
A series of bad decision from HQ command spelled his death. The team deployed in the wrong direction and allowed it to be flanked. As Claymore was gaining height on a train cart, an ill-chosen route from Double Down attracted the attention of a pair of mutons who attacked from behind. Claymore was taken as target and killed on the spot. Their death left XCOM without a sniper for a series of mission, which proved to be disastrous in Newfoundland.
From that point on, every member of XCOM would wear carapace armor regardless of their role and position, no matter how much these armors cost.
.
Class: ASSAULT
Country of Origin: USA
Status: KIA:
Paul Johnson was part of the original four-man-squad as XCOM’s assault squaddie. His boldness and his speed on the battlefield quickly gave him the nickname of “Double Down” and the rank of major. He spent half his days on the battlefield and the other half in the infirmary, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Double Down felt responsible for the death of Daniel “Claymore” Matthews when his recklessness attracted the attention of a pair of mutons. Taking the squad by surprise, they shot the sniper before they were shot themselves.
The following mission brought the team to Newfoundland Canada. Never forgiving himself for the death of his teammate, he took upon himself to protect young rookie Barnes who was asked to re-activate the ship’s transponder. He and Tombstone did the best they could, but Johnson never made it out of the ship. Double Down died covering Barnes out of the ship’s cabin, but at least he was redeemed and his soul now rests in peace.
.
Class: ASSAULT
Country of Origin: MEXICO
Status: KIA:
Javier “Tombstone” Moreno was the first rookies to be promoted after the “original four”. He stayed with the team for most of the winter and kept-up with Double Down. The two worked best in pair, flanking opponents and protecting each other with their close-combat skills.
Tombstone was killed in action during the Newfoundland mission. He and Double Down were charged to protect the (then) rookie Barnes from the cryssalids emerging onto the deck of the whaler ship. Unlike his brother in arms, he escaped the ship and made it almost all the way to extraction. His way was cut by a pair of cryssalids freshly born from shark carcasses. “GO!” he screamed as he entered a building. All we saw is the cryssalids blocking every exit before we boarded the skyranger. We heard a few shotgun shots, and the skyranger took off just before the airstrike. We can only hope that the blast killed him before the cryssalids.
The interesting thing with Long War is that you can't just keep one squad. You have to maintain a large rotation, or fatigue spiral Will kill you.
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*tell me about it*
Letting everybody rest is probably the most challenging aspect of playing Long War for me (other than research taking *forever*). Playing vanilla 'Within, most of my original 4 are in every mission once squad gets to 6 (barring healing or death). Long War forces me to pull 1 or 2 pfc's in every mission. It just sucks when none of them level up into Medics @_@ (I have 2 out of like 25 ranked-up squaddies). Second after having to bring a red-shirt (pfc's literally all wear red suits) to every mission, I'd say the escalating HP bonuses of aliens.
Though, to be fair, I usually give up on a Long War game when I'm still struggling to outfit everybody with laser weaponry a year after invasion.
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Month 2 - In progress
The XCOM forces, constantly plagued by fatigue timers, managed to barely shoot down a scanner UFO, and wipe the floor with the 4 survivors. Immediately following, however, were reports of aliens causing Terror across Paris. XCOM responded and discovered the most horrific alien yet, the cryssalid. When first responding to the site, the squad uncovered 4! chomping on a fresh corpse right adjacent to the entry zone. Thankfully, someone remembered to bring an AP grenade and through suppression, the quartet were wiped out prior to zombifying any civilians. Floaters demolished the majority of the civilian population though (as half the maps civies were in one building on the far side of the map where 2 floater mobs started).
Returning to base, XCOM received reports of Abductions in Africa. Nearly every experienced soldier was on R&R, so two rank 1's led four red-shirts (Long War's initial squad is 6 vs vanilla's 4) into a bloodbath. Combat started easily enough, with forces getting the jump on 2 tall men and 3 seekers. Two seekers cloaked, and after a few moments, four of the 5 enemies were dealt with. One seeker, however, declined to attack. As they were regrouping, another 4 tall men busted through the back door of the nearby restaurant. Taking cover in the courtyard, XCOM soldiers began the meticulous work of picking them off. However, three more tall men entered combat through the adjacent book-store. Forces began clipping down their seven enemies, when through re-positioning, one of the senior soldiers uncovers another 4 tall men! As the squad began re-re-positioning to cover their exposed flank, the seeker returned and strangled a red-shirt to death atop the serving counter in the restaurant! XCOM forces began dropping like flies to the combined might of a seeker drone and flanking tall men. Private Fritz, from Germany, took 2 blasts of Acid, lost a will power check, and went berzerk when his fellow redshirt was blasted right next to him. Fritz abandoned his cover and went on b-line for the seeker choking out the last remaining ally, the Sniper, temporarily freeing him from the seeker's vice. It was a short lived reunion, however, as the sniper's pistol whip couldn't put the seeker down, and it chocked him into unconsciousness the following round.
Fritz, alone, regains his composure, takes cover behind an orange barrel, and guns down the seeker. Two tall men remain, moving around him to get a flanking position, but Fritz has their number, popping one as he emerged from behind a truck, then in a last ditch effort, charged the final tall man for a flanking bonus. Fritz grabbed the snipers gasping body, dragged him to the evac zone, and returned alone to XCOM HQ, where he was promoted into a Medic (thank god, #3 of 251 soldiers).
Just discovered Sectopods. God daaaaaamed.
There are a couple second wave options I feel are essential to having a fun long war, rather than just a frustrating. First, the option to always choose classes. Amazing choice that I felt should have been there from the start. I should decide what to specialize my soldiers in, not RNG.
Second, I tend to use the option that makes your interceptors more accurate early. A huge part of Long War is the snowball, and when they aliens start to snowball you in the air it is really hard to recover from it.
Both of those not withstanding, and differences in individual preferences not withstanding (I haven't made a medic in... a long time), there are a couple things you seem to be doing to make life more difficult for yourself, key among them pushing up / exploring when you are dealing with contact, especially when you don't have a get out of jail free team (heavy on snipers and / or assaults). Generally speaking, the biggest rule of Longwar is never activate more than one pod if at all possible.
You also seem to be taking experienced squads together on early missions. Generally speaking, on shoot-downs and early missions as a whole (first 3 months) I take 1-2 vets and the rest red shirts. It makes those missions punishing, but if you don't get at least ~20 people ranked you end up getting toast bagged. The only exception is terror missions or swarmings, where you need more vets.
Good luck man. I'm currently just into Exalt land in my run, and my roster is in pretty good shape. The only exception is scouts, because I've got four or five in the med bay, mostly due to stupid mistakes. I think I've got 2, or maybe 3 total deaths on my roster thus far. It's rough times though, because I'm only starting to get lasers on my interceptors, and I'm really short on alloys.
With cinematic shooting though you should still be fine. Just play smart.
It's too bad that starting a Long War playthrough is a bit late now, because XCom 2 comes out in six days. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to go back to the first game after playing with all the improvements of the sequel.
I do wish long war was available for xbox 360, but I can see why it wouldn't be.
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Month Three - AKA when the $#!+ hits the fan.
XCOM has finally captured an alien, but its a floater (and for some reason I can't just interrogate him immediately? probably something in the long war tech tree), not an outsider. Things get bad in the skies, though, as or air units have been forced to let a few Battleships through uncontested, as we lack the firepower to reliably bring them down. Our host nation, the USA, has withdrawn from XCOM after one of the battleships landed in Miami. We played Will Smith's hit tune Miami in memorium of the city, as XCOM turned its sights to less dangerous missions than a 4.5 dash terror alert. #SouthBeach #NeverForget
Mutons have entered the field of combat as the X-Rays begin ramping up their response to our forces. These brutes have proven to be our deadliest enemy yet, with their roar terrorizing even some of the officer corps. With our funding reduced going forward, I'm not sure how much longer the council will be willing to put up with our measured responses.
You cannot pass on terror missions in Long War. It will cost you the game.
You don't fight crys with grenades as a rule early on, you do it with a pair of assaults that get reactionary shots. I don't recall the last time I took ap grenades in any case. HE and cover destruction is much superior. When they run it is annoying, but you are doing yourself no favors and only making it harder by not taking the mission. Long War snowballs, and missing a terror mission this early may be enough already to put the game out of reach.
You are saying you are afraid of losing a mission, so you'd rather lose the game. It makes no sense. It's supposed to be hard.
The first terror mission is always in month 3. Either have a squad ready or be willing to exhaust your best team. It is arguably the most important mission of the game in Long War.
The key is accepting civs will die. Play it slow and careful. No big activations. No risky moves. Methodically work your way across the map. With restarts it is far from impossible to finish one with no casualties.
My preferred loadout for urban terror is two or three assaults, two engineers with sapper and HE if possible, a scout, and a sniper. On.more open maps like roadways swap one or both engineers for snipers. My seventh squad is almost always another sniper.
Good hunting man.
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Finally finished Ennemy Within. The Volonteer was Juan "Crash" Delago. my sqad leader and sole survivor of the tutorial mission (and of the original four after Pixie's death).
Ironically, it is the Uber Ethrereal's mind control attempt on my gene-modified heavy that spelled his death (can't recall the name, but one that deals damage to the mind controller). Live by your sword, fall by your sword...
All and all, I really enjoyed that game. I'm glad I resisted reading all the guides and spoliers on internet, and save-cheat my way through (except a few mission in the beginning), that made the game very "real" as I was evolving with my operative, with few twists and nasty surprises (like Site Recon in Newfoundland, for which I now realise how unprepared and underquiped I was)
It's funny how you get attached to your operatives; I don't recall feeling the same with the orininal game. I'm starting a second wave game now, but I have the feeling my first crew will always be the one I'll remember.
commander out.
I know what you mean, Laurefindel. I worked as a security guard in college and I named all my recruits after others who worked security with me (plus, my first run through was Iron-man, so no save-cheating at all!) and man oh man, did that get me attached to my crew.
And the nicknames the game comes up with made that even more amazing. I uploaded a bunch of the videos to youtube and shared them with the guys and now, as a result, we all call my buddy Zack "Zeus" since that's the name the game gave him.
I can't wait for XCOM 2 to drop in price a bit so I can do it all over again! =D
The kill your enemy when they mind attack you with your mind retaliation is one of the achievements I don't think I'll ever get. Congrats!
I won't get it either, probably... It might have something to do with the fact I hardly had time and resources to install that implant, though.
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Just picked up enemy within on the advice of Sharoth and a certain someone from the chat. Here's hoping it's as awesome as it sounds...
Just picked up enemy within on the advice of Sharoth and a certain someone from the chat. Here's hoping it's as awesome as it sounds...
good luck commander
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Newfoundland...I'm still in Newfoundland,
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Just picked up enemy within on the advice of Sharoth and a certain someone from the chat. Here's hoping it's as awesome as it sounds...Dude. You should totally post your ups and downs here! It'll be great!
"Fighting through XCOM: Enemy Within with Freehold DM."
challenge accepted.
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challenge accepted.Just picked up enemy within on the advice of Sharoth and a certain someone from the chat. Here's hoping it's as awesome as it sounds...Dude. You should totally post your ups and downs here! It'll be great!
"Fighting through XCOM: Enemy Within with Freehold DM."
Hoo rah! Best of luck, Commander.
Ok.
I have activated everything but training roulette under the advanced options because I'm nutty that way.
Should I use random nicknames as created by the game or use posters in the thread?
Am not doing an Ironman run this time around.
rofl - oh man, I'm looking forward to these updates, Freehold! Best of luck, Commander!
Hmmm..they aren't letting me choose Africa for a base location...or south America or asia...just Europe and North America.
No likey.
I guess I'll go with Europe.
Aliens are attacking. I had to choose between baltimore, MD and a small city in China. Since I've been going to otakon since 2002, I chose baltimore. Also, the 4 scientists I get will aid me a lot more than the 200 bucks China was offering. Will aid China in future, possibly between missions.
Holy crap I can make my soldiers look different!!!
Now, to pick a theme...hmmm
You can't? Strange, I thought all the continents were available...
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Okay. Going with helmet 28, armor deco 2 and armor tint 5 for my rookies. Squaddies and up get individual looks depending on their job.
Yes I just saw star wars again, and I dig the stormtrooper look. What.
The uniform tweaking adds a lot of fun to the game, imo.
Amazingly, the colors in this combination almost perfectly matched the blue and yellow of our uniforms from working security in college. BLEW MY MIND!