XCOM - Enemy Within expansion

[kevinsbane]

Thanks Dave, I ended up using a corporal assault last night to make my first Mech.....I havn't had a chance to use him yet.

Did I read right that mechs get no Cover bonus? Why would you ever take "Automated Threat Assesment" which gives +15 defense? Seems like even with that you'd be an automatic hit everytime.....I must be missing something there.

Mechs get an innate defense bonus to begin with, and also have a huge health pool. They don't get crit often, so are a lot more durable than one otherwise might think.

And Rocket Fist is just so satisfying. Getting into fist fights with Mechtoids, Berserkers and Sectopods just makes me want to play another round. 6x mechs and just punch EVERYTHING in sight.

I only wish they had a custom cutscene for punching ethereals.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Anyone tried out the Long War mod? I haven't put in much time with it but I have watched quite a few Long War streams and holy shit that mod is amazing. Puts the game somewhere between new and old XCom and just adds tons of features.

 

[Hinda65]

Mechs get an innate defense bonus to begin with, and also have a huge health pool. They don't get crit often, so are a lot more durable than one otherwise might think.

And Rocket Fist is just so satisfying. Getting into fist fights with Mechtoids, Berserkers and Sectopods just makes me want to play another round. 6x mechs and just punch EVERYTHING in sight.

I only wish they had a custom cutscene for punching ethereals.

Thanks for that info Kevin....I got the rocket fist on this guy...figured I go with the fire on the second

 

[bguile]

Anyone tried out the Long War mod? I haven't put in much time with it but I have watched quite a few Long War streams and holy shit that mod is amazing. Puts the game somewhere between new and old XCom and just adds tons of features.

Yes, I am currently playing it.

It's really hard, but fun though. I would highly recommend it.

I have had to restart several times though. I still haven't made it more than 3 months. Currently I restarted on normal because classic was just kicking my ass. One mission in particular was, for me, impossible. I started out in the graveyard map, and no matter what move I made, I would attract the attention of more aliens until I was overwhelmed. And they were just sectoids and the drones! Though in long war, the sectiods have limited psionic powers, and the drones armor thwarts most of my ballistic attacks.

btw enemy unknown is currently on sale for 14.99 on steam.

 

[futurefields]

Its been on saly for 9.89 at Amazon for days, enemy within as well.

 

[irishScott]

Anyone tried out the Long War mod? I haven't put in much time with it but I have watched quite a few Long War streams and holy shit that mod is amazing. Puts the game somewhere between new and old XCom and just adds tons of features.

I did not know about it. Looked it up, now I have something to do tonight!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

They don't get a cover bonus, but that doesn't mean the aliens are good shots.

Early on, they have 2-3x as many HP as your other guys, so they're, relatively speaking, damage sponges. Later on in the game, they can rush in and do massive damage in melee, or... hell, the flamethrower is the perfect anti-chryssalid weapong. (AoE and auto-panic.)

And the thing is, your units should support each other - so a heavy with a rocket launcher or bullet storm can knock out drones or supporting units, while a sniper disables the main target for a turn, while the MEC runs in a punches it to death, and a couple support guys do overwatch, then come in and heal everybody.

And I won't lie - I get a huge, shit-eating grin on my face every time I watch the melee finishing animations. Serious Pacific Rim stuff.

 

[_Rick_]

I might give Long War a try one day, from the streams it looked fun, but then, because X-Com doesn't have proper mod support, it's a pretty invasive procedure to install it.
Still, looks like more fun than the original, which just got too easy towards the end.

 

[Ganeedi]

The long war mod is fantastic. It does break your install, so if you want to go back to vanilla, you have to re-install. If you are playing on Steam, the simplest way is to play Offline, otherwise it will keep repairing the installation. Oh - and set the game to NOT update, in case you do go online.

Theres a couple bugs in LW Beta 9A:
1) The enemy research curve is bugged - it happens too fast on the lower difficulties. To fix it, you modify the DefaultGameCore.ini file. This file is in \Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config

MaxActiveAIUnits=130; Normal
MaxActiveAIUnits=120; Classic
MaxActiveAIUnits=110; Brutal
MaxActiveAIUnits=100; Impossible

and changing the numbers to, respectively, 70, 80, 90 and 100.

2) The game will lock up if you activate a group of seekers while they are in the range of a battle scanner - they will just continually try to stealth.
3) Currently the Exalt forces are extremely tough - they ramp in technology way too fast.

The above will be fixed in Beta 10!

(#1 is a copy/paste from a forum - i did not know this until a couple days ago).

 

[bguile]

The long war mod is fantastic. It does break your install, so if you want to go back to vanilla, you have to re-install. If you are playing on Steam, the simplest way is to play Offline, otherwise it will keep repairing the installation. Oh - and set the game to NOT update, in case you do go online.

Theres a couple bugs in LW Beta 9A:
1) The enemy research curve is bugged - it happens too fast on the lower difficulties. To fix it, you modify the DefaultGameCore.ini file. This file is in \Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config

MaxActiveAIUnits=130; Normal
MaxActiveAIUnits=120; Classic
MaxActiveAIUnits=110; Brutal
MaxActiveAIUnits=100; Impossible

and changing the numbers to, respectively, 70, 80, 90 and 100.

2) The game will lock up if you activate a group of seekers while they are in the range of a battle scanner - they will just continually try to stealth.
3) Currently the Exalt forces are extremely tough - they ramp in technology way too fast.

The above will be fixed in Beta 10!

(#1 is a copy/paste from a forum - i did not know this until a couple days ago).

Will I have to restart my game for these changes to take effect?

 

[GaiaHunter]

Mechs get an innate defense bonus to begin with, and also have a huge health pool. They don't get crit often, so are a lot more durable than one otherwise might think.

And Rocket Fist is just so satisfying. Getting into fist fights with Mechtoids, Berserkers and Sectopods just makes me want to play another round. 6x mechs and just punch EVERYTHING in sight.

I only wish they had a custom cutscene for punching ethereals.

Mechs can't be flanked either.

 

[Maligx]

nevermind.. thought xcom complete was $15 but its $25

 

[Maligx]

*sigh* clicked reply instead of editing other post

 

[Ganeedi]

Will I have to restart my game for these changes to take effect?

You dont have to restart to affect the research curve fix. It will at least slow them down.

 

[_Rick_]

I tried Long War for EU tonight, and got 5 or 6 missions deep, before a show stopping bug kept crashing one mission, even across reloads and even on another map.
Might have to give that another try tomorrow and see if I can find a non-corrupt save.

I was playing some normal, vanilla everything, because people were so vocal about the difficulty, but so far I've played pretty aggressively and still only lost 3 guys in those missions. My first sniper because his cover got blown away and he then got critted to death in a single turn, by two sectoids. Yeah....
I also aborted shooting down the big UFO, after I had three interceptors with repairs, which made Nigeria leave the funding council, without so much of a warning. Meh.

But yeah, most of the time it's fun.

 

[you2]

When does beta 10 come out ?

The long war mod is fantastic. It does break your install, so if you want to go back to vanilla, you have to re-install. If you are playing on Steam, the simplest way is to play Offline, otherwise it will keep repairing the installation. Oh - and set the game to NOT update, in case you do go online.

Theres a couple bugs in LW Beta 9A:
1) The enemy research curve is bugged - it happens too fast on the lower difficulties. To fix it, you modify the DefaultGameCore.ini file. This file is in \Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config

MaxActiveAIUnits=130; Normal
MaxActiveAIUnits=120; Classic
MaxActiveAIUnits=110; Brutal
MaxActiveAIUnits=100; Impossible

and changing the numbers to, respectively, 70, 80, 90 and 100.

2) The game will lock up if you activate a group of seekers while they are in the range of a battle scanner - they will just continually try to stealth.
3) Currently the Exalt forces are extremely tough - they ramp in technology way too fast.

The above will be fixed in Beta 10!

(#1 is a copy/paste from a forum - i did not know this until a couple days ago).

 

[_Rick_]

I think they're on Beta 11 now.
Anyway, still trying to play EU-long war, but it's super buggy (regular CTDs from missions, plenty of missing strings) and some of the maps are just unwinnable.
especially with terror missions, that's a touch blow.

Had the terror mission where you spawn in an urban environment by some cars, with a two story building straight ahead, and in the first turn I triggered two cyber disks. Couldn't even get everyone into cover, because there were only two cars there.
I think I got one of those disks, down, when I triggered four chryssalids and two mutons and two berserkers...in the next turn, still trying to get everyone into cover.
My mistake was then to try and control the situation, but then people started panicking.

Got five people out, lost valuable equipment and a country got out of the council.
What's also annoying, is that the evac zone occasionally goes invis. Already had to leave people behind, because I mis-guessed where the evac zone was.

Now, I don't mind unwinnable missions. Even unwinnable terror missions. But at least allow me to move out of the starting grid without getting slaughtered. Losing people isn't so bad, but losing equipment is disastrous. Playing Ironman was probably a bad idea

 

[NekoRinChi]

Even if the expansion wasn't as great as I hoped, it was/is still a lot of fun. It's also one of those games that I feel would have good replay value. I can't really complain because I bought it on steam sale and got the Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within for under $10.

Btw if you like pain and suffering try impossible difficulty.