Poll: Most fun way to play Xcom?

[BeerTent]

Long war, baby.

I'm not good, but X-com is the one game where I have spent numerous man-hours researching the mechanics, figuring out how to beat it. Since I started it up again,I haven't beaten it... Enemy Within seems to be kicking my ass and Normal is too easy. So I decided to give Long War a shot and I've been hooked. I find enemy within is all about removing Cover. It's got that one "win all" answer to any situation. Long war? Nope. AP Grenades are better than frags, and it's all about removing the enemy Overwatch, and removing the threat as fast as you can, and hopefully, one pod at a time.

If anyone wants to know more about LW, Xcom, or the mechanics to survive, feel free to hit me up. I fucking LOVE the newer X-Com.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Definitely recommend Enemy Within, though I found the difficult was a little wonky. On Classic, the game felt way too tough up until the first terror mission, and then got reasonable after that. I usually played on Normal until I beat the first terror mission, and then set it to classic.

Long war is interesting, you'll likely lose your first game simply because it's so different than normal X-Com. Research takes much longer, EVERYTHING requires time to build (no more 'insta-built' items). I've only played through "not so long war", and it reactivated my X-Com addiction all over. If you're gonna try it, here are my recommendations:
-The foundry is incredibly important. There's tons of new foundry projects that you're going to need, especially for your interceptors.
-Interceptor repair takes forever, so you need a lot of them. Also, bear in mind that doing weapons switches take about a week in LW (the logic being that they need to retrofit it for laser weapons or gauss weapons or whatever).
-Most of the money you make in Long War is gonna come from the Grey Market, which actually works in your favor because there are so many more missions.
-Stun and capture as many aliens as possible, even after you've already interrogated that species. The reason being is that, once you get to plasma weapons in LW, you can't simply build them, you need actual captured plasma weapons to make your own. Also, capture Outsiders whenever you can, as you need them to retake lost council countries (one of the very cool new features). But be careful, Outsiders are WAY more dangerous in LW.
-Be careful, because enemies (especially "squad leaders") have new abilities that can totally mess up your game plan.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Long War altough agressivly awesome, but it DID made me wish for some casual experience, wich Enemy WIthin delivered. I'm not saying EW is easy, but contrarly to what LW is, it's a tone down.

It's more casual, and you don't have to go paranoid with every micro-managment you perform, and considering i can't be playing constantly, EW delivers a tone down experience, and it still gives me mechs and Alien/ Zombie/ Alien-Zombie/ Robots/ Alien-Robots slaying.

The Mech part is important..... for science

 

[Alleged_Alec]

So, against all better judgement, I decided to try Long War. It was the best decision ever. This is the first time in a long while I've been intellectually challenged by games, instead of the micro skills I usually hone. The first mission went swimmingly, but the second was hard as fuck. I didn't have many decent aimers (I think my rookie pool had 3 guys with 70 or higher aim), so I was in for a difficult mission anyhow. However, what I didn't expect was two pods of greys and four drones bumrushing me in the second turn. One of my good aim guys was quickly critically wounded, and the fight quickly became a defence erected around the wounded soldier. I eventually won, but it was a hard battle. And it was fucking awesome. I know I'm going to lose this campaign already, since I probably made some very stupid mistakes already probably with the decisions of which guys go for which classes, but I'll love every minute of it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

X-COM - UFO Defense is the only way to play. Also you must blindfold yourself.

 

[BeerTent]

Long War altough agressivly awesome, but it DID made me wish for some casual experience, wich Enemy WIthin delivered. I'm not saying EW is easy, but contrarly to what LW is, it's a tone down.

It's more casual, and you don't have to go paranoid with every micro-managment you perform, and considering i can't be playing constantly, EW delivers a tone down experience, and it still gives me mechs and Alien/ Zombie/ Alien-Zombie/ Robots/ Alien-Robots slaying.

The Mech part is important..... for science

There are a lot of instructions to tone down numerous additions of Long war.

For example, to make capture easy, Ive set the Arc Thrower as a pistol. But you can tinker things like resources, Alien Tech speed, Fatigue, and, don't quote me on this, Alien stats and rate of attack.

Just offering, cause... Yanno... 8 classes, 8 solders per mission, Awesome Shivs...

 

[Alleged_Alec]

Long War altough agressivly awesome, but it DID made me wish for some casual experience, wich Enemy WIthin delivered. I'm not saying EW is easy, but contrarly to what LW is, it's a tone down.

It's more casual, and you don't have to go paranoid with every micro-managment you perform, and considering i can't be playing constantly, EW delivers a tone down experience, and it still gives me mechs and Alien/ Zombie/ Alien-Zombie/ Robots/ Alien-Robots slaying.

The Mech part is important..... for science

There are a lot of instructions to tone down numerous additions of Long war.

For example, to make capture easy, Ive set the Arc Thrower as a pistol. But you can tinker things like resources, Alien Tech speed, Fatigue, and, don't quote me on this, Alien stats and rate of attack.

Just offering, cause... Yanno... 8 classes, 8 solders per mission, Awesome Shivs...

Is it just me, or are they finally useful in LW? I decided to make one just because I'd want to have at least one as backup for when I get fucked by wounded/tired guys.

 

[Savagezion]

I always found shivs useful. Actually, the downside to shivs for me has been that they are XP leeches and I have to be careful with them or I will accidentally hog xp from my soldiers. However, they are great for those moments when you NEED an alien to die, period. I have seen a couple other people mention Shivs as worthless, and I don't get it. I have watched a lets play of Long War that the guy said that he found it made them less useful. (I think, I cant find the video now.) Seems everyone has a take on SHIVs from my perspective.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

So, against all better judgement, I decided to try Long War. It was the best decision ever. This is the first time in a long while I've been intellectually challenged by games, instead of the micro skills I usually hone. The first mission went swimmingly, but the second was hard as fuck. I didn't have many decent aimers (I think my rookie pool had 3 guys with 70 or higher aim), so I was in for a difficult mission anyhow. However, what I didn't expect was two pods of greys and four drones bumrushing me in the second turn. One of my good aim guys was quickly critically wounded, and the fight quickly became a defence erected around the wounded soldier. I eventually won, but it was a hard battle. And it was fucking awesome. I know I'm going to lose this campaign already, since I probably made some very stupid mistakes already probably with the decisions of which guys go for which classes, but I'll love every minute of it.

Best of luck to you. The biggest difference between Long War and regular X-Com is that Long War has a much larger element of strategic risk. There's gonna be times in Long War where you simply have to ignore abductions, UFO encounters, and maybe even Terror missions, because you have too many wounded guys, all your interceptors are being repaired, etc. Likewise, don't be afraid to run away when a mission is going poorly. Since you can take back countries that are lost, no damage is really 100% permanent.

 

[stringtheory]

I always found shivs useful. Actually, the downside to shivs for me has been that they are XP leeches and I have to be careful with them or I will accidentally hog xp from my soldiers. However, they are great for those moments when you NEED an alien to die, period. I have seen a couple other people mention Shivs as worthless, and I don't get it. I have watched a lets play of Long War that the guy said that he found it made them less useful. (I think, I cant find the video now.) Seems everyone has a take on SHIVs from my perspective.

When playing EU (haven't found the time or mental energy for EW or LW) I always brought along an Alloy SHIV for the light cover it provided my soldiers, especially great for those areas with little map cover. Not to mention while not the best shot, the heavy weapon could do some serious damage.

 

[BeerTent]

[...]

Is it just me, or are [Shiv's] finally useful in LW? I decided to make one just because I'd want to have at least one as backup for when I get fucked by wounded/tired guys.

Mind-blowingly so. The standard shiv is available at the start, and it's stats are far above a standard solder's. Even when your solders surpass it, the Alloy Shiv keeps things fairly useful, and it retains it's mobile half-cover capability Even with the Gatling gun, it's still far more powerful than my solders with laser weapons, and totes a significant health boost. Plus, if it gets destroyed, it's super cheap to repair them. I normally carry one on every mission. The DR and HP of it allow it to get in close and play the role as insurance, and of course, so does suppression, which you can get within the first month.

 

[greatcheezer2021]

its easy

people with 20 Bravery become reconnaissance units armed with stun stix and flares. high FA i give em a laser pistol.

people with FA 40+ get a laser rifle. 50+ FA and TA get laser pistols and 2 HE.

sergeants with 60+ FA and TA get laser rifle and 1 HE.

all officers are issued medi-kits unless specified.

sergeant grenadiers recieve 10 HE incremented by 1 each rank.

captains and officers of higher rank with 71+ FA are issued heavy plasma + 3 clips. if they are using rockets, they are issued blaster bombs. captains and officers of higher rank are renamed and given new titles.



---- this is where fun begins ----


take your troops, arm em and deploy in the avenger.

mobilize as followed. recons>recruits>grenadiers>support(officers)


have your firing line follow the recon, have your nades primed to 0, and have your support standing by to level any structures or hard hitting targets.

lets say recon has spotted 2-3 targets in a house and is going to prob die next round.

have one soldier shoot a hole in the wall. next stack recruits for a firing line and meatshield the support(officers).

next have grenadier breach by throwing 1 (or 2) HE into the broken wall. finish any momvement and set weapons to overwatch.

END TURN (BUILDING IS BLOWN IN HALF, 1 OR 2 ALIENS ARE DEAD. last alien may or may not fight, and may or may not get shot down by reaction fire. another alien shows itself on the top floor and shoots recon dead which is no real loss.

---- at this point, you have a bunch of options to blow up these next 2 aliens. either gun em down or destroy their cover and blast em out with grenades and rockets. psi may be a gamebreaker, but can be invaluable during base missions in tandem with these tactics.


the fun comes in mixing up the delivering of said payload to said alien forces and utilizing your troops to the maximum of combat efficiency, whether it be through tactics or simply blowing the fuck outta everything and shooting what remains. keep an eye on TU's at all times.

 

[Jarmam]

Enemy Within is a must. It polishes a lot of things, esp the balance of lategame missions and squadsight Snipers. The extra mission variety doesn't hurt. The MELD canister is a really welcome addition to abduction/UFO missions once you figure out a balance between tactical speed and just bumrushing to your inevitable squadwipe. Also some really good new maps and the removal of some (sadly not all) of the most bizarre EU maps.

Long War is for post-EW, though, since it's an entirely new game. It puts a lot of macromanagement into XCOM again, which can be pretty tedious if you're not into mechanics-diving or a hopeless theorycrafter like I am. It's also long. Very long. Takes a lot of time to test out a new strategy compared to Impossible XCOM vanilla. And you can spend 10 hours fighting a tidal wave of Defeated before you realize you'd lost 10 hours ago. If you *do* enjoy that sort of thing, then LW can eat your life to an extend only WoW has rivalled for me. I absolutely love the mod and I highly recommend a patient try for anyone who's beaten EW on Classic/Impossible and is looking for 2nd wave replayability.

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

I've tried both vanilla and Enemy Within, both are beautiful.

I have kind of weird way I like to play for role-play purposes. I like playing it while trying to avoid Psi/Mech/Gene modifications to my troops. I think there's that whole thematic undercurrent of "What is morally acceptable during wartime?" It's a really, really interesting theme for a video game that's wholly underutilized. I kind of wish the developers played around with it some more.

 

[ZeroFarks]

Everyone who voted for Long War: Get back to me after the first time you run into the three story tall Chryssalid with over 100 hit points.

And no, I'm not making that up.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I find a way to XCOM more fun is to name your squad members. Name them after friends, fictional characters, historical figures, whatever. It makes you more attached to them.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I wouldn't play Vanilla given the existence of Enemy Within. It just adds too many improvements to the game to leave it out but it doesn't add enough to differentiate the game entirely. Which means if you play Vanilla and then Enemy Within the game will feel very similar, but with more stuff available.

What I'm trying to get at is its just not worth playing without, your experience is only enhanced with it but not changed entirely. So you're not going to get a radically different experience playing with or without, but with is just straight up better.


Long War is an entirely different kettle of fish. You don't want to play that unless you're an experienced XCOM player looking for a new challenge and a new setup. Its far more in the vein of old-school XCOM and THAT game will happily chew you up and spit you out for your mistakes (TFTD, of course, didn't bother chewing and just squashed you into jam, fun though...kinda hoping for a TFTD remake).


Captcha: "press into service" I'm pretty sure the XCOM soldiers are all volunteers, captcha. It'd be rather impolite to throw non-volunteers into the horrors that await.

 

[Mutant1988]

I'm guessing you have already started your next playthrough, but I'd still like to promote the modifier Training Roulette.

It is a lot of fun and makes you much more attached to your soldiers when you're lucky enough to get them some extremely beneficial combinations of skills.

And I also think that Enemy Within improves the game in every respect. A lot more interesting combinations of skills with the addition of Gene mods and MECs as well as more opportunities to level up your troops by fighting Exalt.

I really should get back to my playthrough in progress. Too easily distracted by other games though.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Yeah, Enemy Within is a big improvement to the base game, don't play without it.

I played Long War a good bit. It looks good in theory, but in application I don't think it's reasonable. Some of it was nifty like the extra enemies but as a whole I would say it's only really an option for the top 25% most hardcore players of hardcore players. It's just so weighted against you with excessive repair times and obscene costs. Basically, if a change could be made to make it "harder" that change was made without much though to rationalization.

Last time I played Long War is also had some balancing issues - even for an ultra hardcore mod.