Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Are old Xcom worth playing? And which ones?

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
You can also attack a ship with two interceptors, but its somewhat hard to do. They have to reach same target at once.
No they don't. If an interceptor reaches a target and you don't order it to attack, it will continue to tail the target until you either order it to attack or it gets away. If other interceptors catch up while this is happening, you can then attack with reinforcements. I use this feature all the time to tail UFOs until they head either over, or away from, water, before shooting them down, depending on whether I'm trying to avoid an unnecessary ground fight or cause a ground fight.
 

Emily

Arcane
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
3,068
Ok something weird is happening. I am.suddenly dominating my game,havent had a death in over a month,and I am.only seeing small and medium scouts. Could.this be the famous beginner difficulty revert bug?
It might be that you aren't detecting them (they could have a base in Antarctic or in some other middle-of-nowhere), you could check the alien activity in a given region.

Or just a sign that you might want to start wrapping the game up. Which month is it?

Generally, the farther you are in the game, the more vicious the assaults become. Relapses like these are unusual. But it has nothing to do with the difficulty bug.

Yeah they picked up and even are somewhat annoying. I am march 2nd year,I have all 70+ psi strength squad and two hover tanks. And I am thinking of ending it now.

My main beef with the end game so far is how broken and easy blast launchers and psi makes it. I have limited myself to only two psi and one launcher but it is still too easy. I liked the early game much more with wacke rockets,grenades,positioning etc. I heard Xenonaouts dealt with this issue so I might try it after.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The game is usually over by August or October. By December there are like 10 battleships spawning in a month, you don't even bother doing ground missions anymore or you'll end up bored fast.

The game is not meant to be played past that much. In fact, I've seen people speedrunning the game and finishing it by February of first year. Talk about Blitzkrieg. Taking on Sectopods and Chryssalids with starting pea-shooters and rocket launchers is a DF-level FUN.

Psi can be restricted to sight only, it's an option in OpenXCOM. Blaster Launchers... yeah, those are OP.

I think UFOextender for the original had a funny game mode, 'Council Funding Income Only'. You can't sell your equipment for profit and have to live on the scraps the Council gives. Suddenly the maintenance starts to matter, as does keeping a low head count (as soldiers, scientists and engineers have massive upkeep). Losing a country is a devastating blow, too. Makes for a fun challenge.
 

Emily

Arcane
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
3,068
The game is usually over by August or October. By December there are like 10 battleships spawning in a month, you don't even bother doing ground missions anymore or you'll end up bored fast.

The game is not meant to be played past that much. In fact, I've seen people speedrunning the game and finishing it by February of first year. Talk about Blitzkrieg. Taking on Sectopods and Chryssalids with starting pea-shooters and rocket launchers is a DF-level FUN.

Psi can be restricted to sight only, it's an option in OpenXCOM. Blaster Launchers... yeah, those are OP.

I think UFOextender for the original had a funny game mode, 'Council Funding Income Only'. You can't sell your equipment for profit and have to live on the scraps the Council gives. Suddenly the maintenance starts to matter, as does keeping a low head count (as soldiers, scientists and engineers have massive upkeep). Losing a country is a devastating blow, too. Makes for a fun challenge.
That actually sounds like a decent idea to play with. Probably should have went with that option,the money the game throws at you is just too much.

The reason why it took me so long as I was waiting for the psi squad to finish so I dont get mindcontrolled(i decided to go 70+ which was overkill,but I played ironman and didnt want to risk it) . Finished the last two mission with only one loss and didn't even use psi in the end lol. Just went with three tanks as recon and two blast launchers.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Taking on Sectopods and Chryssalids with starting pea-shooters and rocket launchers is a DF-level FUN.
Well, rocket launchers are among the few starter weapons that are genuinely good, to the point where I tend to use them all the way to Mars. You can probably get access to lazor fairly early, too, and their unlimited ammo allows you to lay out some fearsome barrages, since you can just hose down the landscape in endless shots without fear of running out of ammo.

I heard Xenonaouts dealt with this issue so I might try it after.
By "dealt with the issue", you mean "removed", since players do not get Psi or Blaster Bomb Launchers in Xenonauts.

Incidentally, Xenonauts does a much worse job with weapons than X-Com did: With X-Com, each tier of weapons you got was useful to some degree: Lazor had unlimited ammo and Plaz had the raw killing power. In Xeno, you pretty much skip straight towards the end because none of the intermediate weapons are profitable or offer any unique value, so manufacturing them only to replace them is a huge expense.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
By "dealt with the issue", you mean "removed", since players do not get Psi or Blaster Bomb Launchers in Xenonauts.

Correction: Players don't have psykers, while aliens do. Enjoy the idea of having aliens mind-raping your team all the time while having nothing to defend yourself with, not even mind shields/tinfoil hats? No? Then you'll hate the endgame.

On the other hand, Xenonauts has many good mods, so chances are one of these fixes this.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Taking on Sectopods and Chryssalids with starting pea-shooters and rocket launchers is a DF-level FUN.
Well, rocket launchers are among the few starter weapons that are genuinely good, to the point where I tend to use them all the way to Mars. You can probably get access to lazor fairly early, too, and their unlimited ammo allows you to lay out some fearsome barrages, since you can just hose down the landscape in endless shots without fear of running out of ammo.

I heard Xenonaouts dealt with this issue so I might try it after.
By "dealt with the issue", you mean "removed", since players do not get Psi or Blaster Bomb Launchers in Xenonauts.

Incidentally, Xenonauts does a much worse job with weapons than X-Com did: With X-Com, each tier of weapons you got was useful to some degree: Lazor had unlimited ammo and Plaz had the raw killing power. In Xeno, you pretty much skip straight towards the end because none of the intermediate weapons are profitable or offer any unique value, so manufacturing them only to replace them is a huge expense.
Also in Xcom some enemies like Sectopods are vulnerable to laser weapons while almost immune to Plasma. You had to use Heavy Laser or Blaster Bomb them multiple times.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Also in Xcom some enemies like Sectopods are vulnerable to laser weapons while almost immune to Plasma. You had to use Heavy Laser or Blaster Bomb them multiple times.
I don't actually remember the Sectopods being particularly tough vs. anything, probably because I expected a giant tank-like thing to absorb a lot of punishment and may have put a ton of bazooka rockets into it in response. I always a ton of bazooka rockets even when I have access to advanced alien weapons because bazooka rockets are cheap and, unlike guns, can attack around corners, through walls, etc.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Also in Xcom some enemies like Sectopods are vulnerable to laser weapons while almost immune to Plasma. You had to use Heavy Laser or Blaster Bomb them multiple times.
I don't actually remember the Sectopods being particularly tough vs. anything, probably because I expected a giant tank-like thing to absorb a lot of punishment and may have put a ton of bazooka rockets into it in response. I always a ton of bazooka rockets even when I have access to advanced alien weapons because bazooka rockets are cheap and, unlike guns, can attack around corners, through walls, etc.
I played Open Xcom using TFTD damage option where weapons do between 50% and 150% of their base damage instead of between 0% and 200% like in UFO. So in UFO you could get lucky shots that basically ignored their armor while with this option on Sectopod armor meant a lot more.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
I'm not sure that would make a difference. If anything, it would get easier the way you describe, since instead of unsuitable weapons doing 0 damage, they'd do 50% damage. Are Sectopods even supposed to be particularly resistant to rockets?

UFOpedia said:
The only infantry weapons that are effective against the front and side armour of a Sectopod (or under armour, for explosives) are (in order of effectiveness) the Blaster Bomb, Stun Bomb, Heavy Laser, High Explosive, Heavy Plasma, Laser Rifle and Large Rocket
Apparently not. Large Rocket is listed as a weapon that is effective, and I tended to resolve any problem in the traditional manner of a Quake player: By spamming rockets.
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
8,820
Location
Italy
all my teams always have at least 1-2 rocket launchers and 1-2 HE autocannons. you never know when you get pissed and just want to raze everything.
 
Joined
Jul 4, 2014
Messages
1,563
Last time I played my rocket launcher guys ended up requiring dedicated ammo carriers. Maybe because I used so much rookie teams. Or possibly mucho rockets.

w1W5dTY.jpg
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
all my teams always have at least 1-2 rocket launchers and 1-2 HE autocannons. you never know when you get pissed and just want to raze everything.
Razing everything is for Lazors, because you can blow away the entire landscape and never run out of ammo. Rocket launchers are for sniping.

Last time I played my rocket launcher guys ended up requiring dedicated ammo carriers. Maybe because I used so much rookie teams. Or possibly mucho rockets.
That sounds about right, yes. Typically, I'd have my plazmen carry extra rockets, and extra rockets would be left in the Skyranger to be throw--relayed to the front line.

Generally, some weenie Rookie would be assigned to carry the ammo, the exercise was good for him, make him stronk!
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
8,820
Location
Italy
since when lazors could level a whole floor in 1 hit and then burn the ground so whoever is stupid enough to keep hiding among the rubble is going to burn to a crisp?
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
since when lazors could level a whole floor in 1 hit and then burn the ground so whoever is stupid enough to keep hiding among the rubble is going to burn to a crisp?
Bah, levelling floors doesn't do anything in X-Com, buildings didn't actually collapse when floors were levelled until Apoc. To properly level buildings, you need to destroy every last floor tile and wall one by one, and that involves a lot of ammo if you don't use lazor with its unlimited ammo.
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
8,820
Location
Italy
leveling floors means "fuck you and your cover" and also, if anything inside the building survived, "free pot shots for snipers".
 

34scell

Augur
Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Messages
384
I'm not sure that would make a difference. If anything, it would get easier the way you describe, since instead of unsuitable weapons doing 0 damage, they'd do 50% damage. Are Sectopods even supposed to be particularly resistant to rockets?

UFOpedia said:
The only infantry weapons that are effective against the front and side armour of a Sectopod (or under armour, for explosives) are (in order of effectiveness) the Blaster Bomb, Stun Bomb, Heavy Laser, High Explosive, Heavy Plasma, Laser Rifle and Large Rocket
Apparently not. Large Rocket is listed as a weapon that is effective, and I tended to resolve any problem in the traditional manner of a Quake player: By spamming rockets.

"Effective" in that context means high chance of doing any damage at all. Sectopods have 90 under armour and a 0.8 damage mod against HE, which means you'll likely have to get many direct hits with the 100 HE large rockets.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom