Do I suck at XCOM?

Dark Prophet

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Jandau said:
I started playing a few days ago myself and I've found that managing the base and panic levels is harder than most missions, at least early on. A few things I picked up:

1. Start in the US or Africa. They have the best bonuses for early game.

2. Focus on satellites early on. Build Uplinks in a square formation to get the most out of adjacency bonuses. One of the four square should probably be a Nexus (you need to research a UFO Nav Computer to get it). 3 Uplinks and a Nexus gives you a 14 Sat limit, enough to cover all but two countries. 2 Uplinks and 2 Nexuses (Nexii?) gives you full coverage. Remember to start building Satellites before you facilities are complete, so you don't need to wait too long on them.

3. Try to cover entire continents. Abductions don't occur in countries with Sat coverage. Once you cover a whole continent, you're almost completely safe from panic in that area. Also, once you cover an entire continent you get its bonus (the ones you picked from at start). For this reason, cover your starting continent last (since you have that bonus already) or not at all (to farm Abduction missions).

4. If you need to sacrifice a country, cut South America off first. Their bonus is the least helpful. It's a nice touch, but research is rarely limited by time. You can afford to lose a few countries, but once a country is lost you can't get that continent's bonus anymore (since you can't get full coverage). If you still need to cut someone off, cut Europe. In general continent bonuses are N.America = Africa > Asia > Europe > S.America.

5. DON'T rush critical research too much. It advances the main story and escalates the alien deployment. Once you get to the base invasion, I'd suggest stopping and researching all your shit first, because all hell breaks loose once you do the base. On the other hand, clearing the base drops global panic by 2, so you might have to do it...

6. If you don't have any Steam Vents on the first two levels, you're fucked. Try to get an Elerium Reactor going and get adjacency bonuses on your regular reactors. If you do have a Steam Vent on one of the top two levels, try to get to it as soon as possible.

7. Labs are useless. Don't build more than one, and even that only if you have money to spare. Workshops are only really good for adjacency bonuses and maybe if you're VERY short on Engineers, but you can usually get enough of them from rewards and monthly bonuses. This is the reason why Europe's bonus isn't very useful.

8. When picking rewards, Money and Engineers (depending on what you need more) are a better choice than Scientists 90% of the time. Low Scientist numbers just slow you down a bit, low Engineer numbers prevent you from building things and make what you can build cost more. Of course, panic levels are the primary factor and you'll often be forced to pass on a good reward to stop panic from spreading in a critical area.

9. Skip Carapace armor and go straight for Skeleton armor. It costs less Alloys, gives a Defense bonus and the Grapple can be a cool touch.

That's some of the stuff that comes to mind. If I think of any more, I'll post.
Found a similar guide yesterday only yours explanes some things a bit more, if I fuck up my current game I'll try it your way, thanks.
 

Henriot

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I've played a couple of games of XCOM, even with the foresight of satellite build times and importance, I always seem to lose at least one country. First game I lost... 3. My latest Ironman I lost S. Africa.

As people have stated, utilise adjacency bonuses and build satellites/nexus/relays.
 

Bostur

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It's worth keeping in mind that you are meant to have some setbacks, especially early on when things tend to be panicky. Coping with those setbacks is part of the game. There is no such thing as a perfect playthrough.
 

Ed130 The Vanguard

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Sep 10, 2008
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Ultratwinkie said:
1. Build satellites at beginning of month. build uplinks when needed. Dont build Nexuses because they are useless.

2. Use satellites at end of month (before report) to save countries with 5 panic.

3. Rinse, repeat until full world coverage.

4. If necessary, abandon Africa.

5. Only raid the alien base if you have plasma and titan armor, or when you NEED to reduce panic to give yourself breathing room like over 2 countries leaving.
The Satellite Nexus provides 4 uplinks, freeing up valuable space and keeping you from having to use the lower levels of headquarters (the deeper you go, the more it costs)

Africa's 'All In' bonus mid to late game can really improve your cashflow. South America's bonus is less desirable compared to the others.

If you were quick off the mark you can complete the Alien Base with Laser and Carapace, it scales to the month in which you attack.
 

Shadowkire

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rhizhim said:
Jandau said:
rhizhim said:
take at least 2 assault class with you and give them stun guns.
I'm going to have to disagree with that part - don't give Assaults Arc Throwers. Give them to a Support. Why? Sprint. Supports can cover the most distance out of all the classes which means they have the best chance of getting in range for a Stun. Also, once a Support gets up in levels he can carry two items, meaning you can have both an Arc Thrower and a Medkit on one. Seriously, as soon as I moved my Arc Thrower to one of my Supports, captures became a cakewalk.
well, it worked with assaults with me since they can run/sprint to both "movement areas" and still go on overwatch or shoot with the hit and run bonus.
Except you can't use the Arc Thrower in conjunction with Run and Gun.
 

Tallim

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Jandau said:
Tallim said:
Jandau said:
Wow ok obviously different approaches make a difference as I disagree with an awful lot of what you say here.

How you could rate Europe's bonus above S. America is just weird to me but if it works fair enough. I usually start Asia then first 2 sats take S. America.

I agree though that Labs are essentially useless.
Well, I have both Europe and S.America at the moment and while Europe's bonus saves me a few bucks, S.America doesn't do much. Autopsies and interrogations are fairly quick anyway and I've started to run into periods of no research as I wait for more Alloys and Weapon Fragments. But both European and S.American bonuses are kinda crap.

As for starting in Asia, why? No, I'm serious, what's your reasoning? There's no immediate need for the Officer training upgrades aside from the Squad size upgrade and you can't even get most of them until you rank up your troops. Foundry upgrades aren't a priority either. On the other hand, N.America and Africa result in a direct boost to your budget from day one.

On a related note, anyone using the SHIV? I never liked tanks in the original game, so I skipped it here as well. Just wondering if it justifies not bringing a trained squad member?
S.America saves you nearly 2 months worth of research if you aren't pulling in scientists which I think we can both agree isn't actually necessary.

Asia's bonus saves an insane amount of money over a game and lets you field improvements very fast. Sure it isn't useful for the first month and possibly not the second month depending on how you micromanage levelling your soldiers but it locks the bonus so you don't have to keep all of Asia in line.




SHIVs are awesome, but they are also bugged some of the time which can make them a complete loss of resources through no fault of your own. They are extremely good on terror missions.
 

Jandau

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Tallim said:
Asia's bonus saves an insane amount of money over a game and lets you field improvements very fast. Sure it isn't useful for the first month and possibly not the second month depending on how you micromanage levelling your soldiers but it locks the bonus so you don't have to keep all of Asia in line.
Oh, it sure does save money in the long run, but as you said, you don't need it for at least the first month or two. And you can have Asia fully covered by the end of the 3rd month, right around the time you start needing the bonus. The fact that NA and Africa give you more money from the start means you can have your satellites up sooner, which I think we can all agree is the #1 priority. And once you have an entire continent locked down, you don't have to worry too much about losing it. At least, that's how I see it. I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, just sharing my thoughts on the matter. :)
 

Kragg

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Jandau said:
Tallim said:
Asia's bonus saves an insane amount of money over a game and lets you field improvements very fast. Sure it isn't useful for the first month and possibly not the second month depending on how you micromanage levelling your soldiers but it locks the bonus so you don't have to keep all of Asia in line.
Oh, it sure does save money in the long run, but as you said, you don't need it for at least the first month or two. And you can have Asia fully covered by the end of the 3rd month, right around the time you start needing the bonus. The fact that NA and Africa give you more money from the start means you can have your satellites up sooner, which I think we can all agree is the #1 priority. And once you have an entire continent locked down, you don't have to worry too much about losing it. At least, that's how I see it. I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, just sharing my thoughts on the matter. :)
on the other hand africa gives you more money but they start with giving you less aswell, so if you dont grab up high money countries soon you could actually be getting less money in month 1-3 :D
 

Psymon138

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SHIVs are brilliant, they are more durable than your soldiers (except MAYBE with Titan armour and a nano/chitin vest) the Alloy SHIV can be used as mobile cover, the Hover SHIV can bounce up onto a rooftop in no time at all for rescuing/chrysalid wrangling in Terror Missions. And perhaps most usefully, just as your psychic abilities don't work on Cyberdisks and Sectopods, alien psychic abilities will not work on SHIVs. I beat the final boss by parking a Plasma SHIV next to him and blazing away for a few turns, he couldn't do anything about it.
 

Jandau

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Kragg said:
on the other hand africa gives you more money but they start with giving you less aswell, so if you dont grab up high money countries soon you could actually be getting less money in month 1-3 :D
Indeed, African countries don't give much money. That's why you start there (to get the bonus without spending any satellites) and then use your satellites on rich countries.
 

x EvilErmine x

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Apr 5, 2010
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You can't save 'em all. I don't think it's possible to save everyone anyway so don't drive yourself mad over it (like I did on my first and second game). Pick a continent to fuck over and stick to it (Sorry South America, you may be my home but you're not gonna make it into my brave new world).

Get a thermogenerator up and running ASAP, if you have no steam vents on the first or second level then re-load coz the base expansion layout is randomly generated when you start a new game. Everyone tells you to build satellites which IS very important but you also have to have the power to run the uplinks. If you put an Elereum reactor next to the thermogenerator then you should be set for power.

Go for armour above weapons research, if the choice is between the two then generally pick armour. Now the exception is the arc thrower, get that (and alien containment) ASAP. Why? because if you capture thin men and sectiods you will be able to interrogate them and get access to plasma weapons. The light plasma rifle is beastly compared to laser and standard. These will keep your troops dishing out the damage for a long time when combined with the armour upgrades you should have already researched and built with the savings you made not having to make your own weapons.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Jandau said:
1. Start in the US or Africa. They have the best bonuses for early game.
Someone crunched some numbers on this a while ago. NA is the fastest start, followed by Asia. Africa ramps up and becomes very strong late game, assuming heavy satellite saturation. Due to low starting cash and the slow ramp up, I would not recommend an Africa start. Frankly, if someone is struggling, I wouldn't recommend any start but a NA start due to starting cash.

Jandau said:
2. Focus on satellites early on. Build Uplinks in a square formation to get the most out of adjacency bonuses. One of the four square should probably be a Nexus (you need to research a UFO Nav Computer to get it). 3 Uplinks and a Nexus gives you a 14 Sat limit, enough to cover all but two countries. 2 Uplinks and 2 Nexuses (Nexii?) gives you full coverage. Remember to start building Satellites before you facilities are complete, so you don't need to wait too long on them.
Good advice. You can get by with just uplinks, but mixing in a Nexus is nice if you have the means.

Jandau said:
3. Try to cover entire continents. Abductions don't occur in countries with Sat coverage. Once you cover a whole continent, you're almost completely safe from panic in that area. Also, once you cover an entire continent you get its bonus (the ones you picked from at start). For this reason, cover your starting continent last (since you have that bonus already) or not at all (to farm Abduction missions).
Also good advice.

Jandau said:
4. If you need to sacrifice a country, cut South America off first. Their bonus is the least helpful. It's a nice touch, but research is rarely limited by time. You can afford to lose a few countries, but once a country is lost you can't get that continent's bonus anymore (since you can't get full coverage). If you still need to cut someone off, cut Europe. In general continent bonuses are N.America = Africa > Asia > Europe > S.America.
Here we differ. I like to saturate SA 1st or 2nd, depending on whether I'm playing marathon or regular. You're dramatically underestimating the impact of being able to speed through interrogations and autopsies, it saves you something like two months of research time. Earlier access to research credits, faster research of critical technologies...it all has a snowball effect. And if you're following your early advice and prioritizing satellite saturation, you're ignoring science. You're rushing engineers, building workships to meet the requirements for uplinks, and you're not improving your science at all. Getting the SA bonus (an easy two satellites) completely mitigates that research shortfall and puts you right on pace as if you'd been building labs the whole time.

You're right about Europe though. Europe is utter rubbish.

Jandau said:
5. DON'T rush critical research too much. It advances the main story and escalates the alien deployment. Once you get to the base invasion, I'd suggest stopping and researching all your shit first, because all hell breaks loose once you do the base. On the other hand, clearing the base drops global panic by 2, so you might have to do it...
This actually isn't the case. There are only two things you can trigger, and that's the appearance of Sectoid Commanders and Ethereals (and I believe Sectopods accompany the latter), which require doing specific story missions. The alien development ramps up quite cheerfully whether you're doing critical research or not. On my last marathon game I had serious science issues that had me still in normal armor and weapons when Cyberdisks were showing up. That was fairly bracing, I don't need to tell you. The only thing diddling around and waiting on essential research gets you is behind, especially early on, as the essential research is often pointing you at research credits so it doesn't take you a month to research carapace armor.

Jandau said:
6. If you don't have any Steam Vents on the first two levels, you're fucked. Try to get an Elerium Reactor going and get adjacency bonuses on your regular reactors. If you do have a Steam Vent on one of the top two levels, try to get to it as soon as possible.
Hardly "fucked". It's a fairly minor inconvenience. Too much steam is actually more irritating, as is steam on the wrong side (say, right in the middle of your uplink cluster).

Jandau said:
7. Labs are useless. Don't build more than one, and even that only if you have money to spare. Workshops are only really good for adjacency bonuses and maybe if you're VERY short on Engineers, but you can usually get enough of them from rewards and monthly bonuses. This is the reason why Europe's bonus isn't very useful.
Yes to labs, they are pointless. No to workshops, you usually need 2 if you're pushing for rapid satellite coverage. Missions alone won't get you the engineers you need, especially if you're giving some mind to panic levels.

Jandau said:
9. Skip Carapace armor and go straight for Skeleton armor. It costs less Alloys, gives a Defense bonus and the Grapple can be a cool touch.
I...wouldn't recommend this. Carapace gives slightly better coverage and is available sooner. Skeleton armor can still get you one shot with a crit.

unstabLized said:
Any tips from you master strategists? :p
I wouldn't call myself a "master strategist", but I made a fairly long post on this subject a while back, and I believe Bostur had some good elaborations as well.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.392446-I-find-XCOM-really-difficult#15829154

Along with Jandau's solid advice that should see you through to victory on Classic difficulty, at least.
 

hermes

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Jandau said:
On a related note, anyone using the SHIV? I never liked tanks in the original game, so I skipped it here as well. Just wondering if it justifies not bringing a trained squad member?
Yes, SHIV are great. They have good mobility, pretty durable, work as mobile covers and, as someone mentioned before me, are completely immune to psionic attacks. It is also a pretty good choice to go against Chryssalids in panic missions, since it can't be turned.
 

Occams_Razor

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Oct 20, 2012
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I think everyone sucks at XCOM on their first go. I'm on my first playthrough(and loving it!) of any XCOM game. Biggest mistake is I didn't rush satellites from the start, so I had some trouble managing panic levels. So I've lost a few countries from the project already, looking like a minimal victory at best in this run...

I have another question though, what is everyone's plans for interceptors? How quickly should I be rushing to develop Firestorm interceptors, and what weapons do you use? I've only failed to take down one UFO, the first large encounter, but its getting a little close for comfort on some of them, I'm worried that i might have waited too long.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Occams_Razor said:
I have another question though, what is everyone's plans for interceptors? How quickly should I be rushing to develop Firestorm interceptors, and what weapons do you use? I've only failed to take down one UFO, the first large encounter, but its getting a little close for comfort on some of them, I'm worried that i might have waited too long.
I've never rushed Firestorms, and it's never cost me. Worst case scenario is I have to wave at a few Battleships as they pass through. Always TRY to intercept...it seems like you get a stiffer penalty if you just ignore them...but immediately bug out after firing one shot.

Vanilla interceptors can take down everything up to and including large scouts if you employ more than one. 3 is usually sufficient, even given a worst case scenario.

Firestorm is important, but getting Titan Armor and Plasma Sniper rifles is MORE important, so it always gets pushed deep.
 

Occams_Razor

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Oct 20, 2012
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BloatedGuppy said:
Occams_Razor said:
I have another question though, what is everyone's plans for interceptors? How quickly should I be rushing to develop Firestorm interceptors, and what weapons do you use? I've only failed to take down one UFO, the first large encounter, but its getting a little close for comfort on some of them, I'm worried that i might have waited too long.
I've never rushed Firestorms, and it's never cost me. Worst case scenario is I have to wave at a few Battleships as they pass through. Always TRY to intercept...it seems like you get a stiffer penalty if you just ignore them...but immediately bug out after firing one shot.

Vanilla interceptors can take down everything up to and including large scouts if you employ more than one. 3 is usually sufficient, even given a worst case scenario.

Firestorm is important, but getting Titan Armor and Plasma Sniper rifles is MORE important, so it always gets pushed deep.
Okay, good, so I'm not too far off. I have Plasma Snipers and regular rifles, and am researching Titan Armour. I've researched the Firestorm but haven't built it yet. But ya, might try just loading up on vanilla interceptors in every area, we'll see how it goes.