Who's preordering X-COM?

[Daverino]

I didn't play around with the shotgun much, but my recollection was that they were single action fire just like the assault rifles** So how does having a pistol help Shotgunners?

Shotgun accuracy drops off sharply with range** Anything beyond short range and the pistol will have a much greater accuracy** If you need to do damage and there's no safe way to close with your target, the pistol is critical for shotgun assaults** It is often the difference between a 50% shot and a 1% shot**

Personally, I don't use shotguns after I get the laser rifle and on forwards** I never tried the alloy cannon though** Late game, I usually run two assaults with plasma rifles, two supports with light plasmas, a sniper and a heavy**

Apparently, I use a lot of periods in my posts** I've been asterisked to death**

 

[ChronoReverse]

The reloading in EU as a mechanic makes way more sense than in UFO** In UFO, you never actually noticed reloads nor did you ever run out of ammunition** There's only two gun weapons you'd use past the very early game: Laser Rifles and Heavy Plasma**

Laser Rifles had _no_ ammunition so you just sprayed** Heavy Plasma had a HUGE clip (something like 30 shots) _and_ you get so many clips that you could sell off half of them and STILL never run out**

The reload mechanic adds something to manage in the tactical game while not actually removing anything in the strategic**


As for Pistols, they're obviously useful for Shotgun Assaults and excellent for Gunslinger Snipers but there's also ammunition conservation**

The unlimited ammo means that you can use them to avoid an unnecessary reload, on higher difficulties where you may not have the time to reload, if the pistol is a guaranteed kill to finish off an alien** Not important in late game of course (very little is since even Impossible late-game is easy) but critical in the early game**

 

[GoodRevrnd]

X-********

edit: lol

 

[thespyder]

Shotgun accuracy drops off sharply with range** Anything beyond short range and the pistol will have a much greater accuracy** If you need to do damage and there's no safe way to close with your target, the pistol is critical for shotgun assaults** It is often the difference between a 50% shot and a 1% shot**

Personally, I don't use shotguns after I get the laser rifle and on forwards** I never tried the alloy cannon though** Late game, I usually run two assaults with plasma rifles, two supports with light plasmas, a sniper and a heavy**

Apparently, I use a lot of periods in my posts** I've been asterisked to death**

So I guess I never saw the value of 'Shotgun Assaults'** I primarily used the Assault rifle** I DID use the Alloy Cannon quite a lot and never had a problem hitting anything**

And I just got what the whole thing with the asterisks** LOL************ Someone needs to rethink their patch update** *****

Still, I think that I will stand by a modified version of my original statement** There are EXTREMELY limited uses for pistols** I think there is a much better mechanic that could have been thought up here**

 

[kevinsbane]

So I guess I never saw the value of 'Shotgun Assaults'** I primarily used the Assault rifle** I DID use the Alloy Cannon quite a lot and never had a problem hitting anything**

Still, I think that I will stand by a modified version of my original statement** There are EXTREMELY limited uses for pistols** I think there is a much better mechanic that could have been thought up here**

Yep; you can replace pistols with rocket launchers! (on heavies) So if they implemented a wider variety of sidearms, that'd be a big boost** Pistols (well, sidearm slot) are a good idea; but there's only pistols (except heavies) and they get boring and relatively useless** If you could get customized sidearms - flaregun, breaching charge, incendiary, grapple, execution (one shot, one kill at point blank), axes, machetes, ***bat knife******

 

[thespyder]

Yep; you can replace pistols with rocket launchers! (on heavies) So if they implemented a wider variety of sidearms, that'd be a big boost** Pistols (well, sidearm slot) are a good idea; but there's only pistols (except heavies) and they get boring and relatively useless** If you could get customized sidearms - flaregun, breaching charge, incendiary, grapple, execution (one shot, one kill at point blank), axes, machetes, ***bat knife******

I guess I am not understanding what you are saying@#@# In my game, Heavies have a rocket launchers slot and a pistol slot@#@# The two are not interchangeable at all@#@#

Or were you proposing a to be state?

 

[Daverino]

I guess I am not understanding what you are saying@#@# In my game, Heavies have a rocket launchers slot and a pistol slot@#@# The two are not interchangeable at all@#@#

Or were you proposing a to be state?

Heavies do not have a pistol slot. They do not get pistols.

 

[Mem]

Speaking of heavies is it worth taking two?..I was thinking of taking two ie 2x snipers, 2x heavies,1x support and 1x assault.

 

[Drako]

OK, posting a dumb question

On the battle HUD, underneath the shield/cover symbol, what do the green ^ or red ˅ mean?

 

[thespyder]

Heavies do not have a pistol slot. They do not get pistols.

I guess I never really considered pistols to be worth it, so I never noticed that either.

 

[tydas]

OK, posting a dumb question

On the battle HUD, underneath the shield/cover symbol, what do the green ^ or red ˅ mean?

Green is a buff and red means some kind of penalty..hit F1 to show soldier profile and you can see what it is

 

[Drako]

Green is a buff and red means some kind of penalty..hit F1 to show soldier profile and you can see what it is

Ah, OK. I've been playing for a week or so now, and just noticed these

 

[tydas]

Speaking of heavies is it worth taking two?..I was thinking of taking two ie 2x snipers, 2x heavies,1x support and 1x assault.

I think it depends where you are in the game...i'd take a squaddie assault over a sqauddie heavy...however..once heavy gets heat ammo and double shot they are essential in taking out those mechs before they decimate you...

 

[Daverino]

Speaking of heavies is it worth taking two?..I was thinking of taking two ie 2x snipers, 2x heavies,1x support and 1x assault.

Depends on how much you want fragments back, I suppose. Late in the game I think heavies get more useful. The ability to fire twice and use HEAT rounds is great against Sectopods. Shredder rockets are great against Mutons that tend to bunch up. Having two Blaster Rocket rounds can be a life saver. Early on, I'm not too much of a fan of heavies because they seem to have crappy aim. But raiding late game UFOs, I can see taking two heavies.

Snipers, on the other hand. . . not sure when you'd want two of them. You give up quite a bit of front line firepower if you take two.

Supports and assaults are still the best in my book. Supports ability to take 3 medkits and extra speed make them the most versatile. Assaults have even better abilities for crisis management. Run & Gun to take out a critical foe. Lightning Reflexes to pop an overwatch and break any suppression. Close combat for free overwatch. And I can't tell you how much I love flush. I would rather have a pair of supports or a pair of assaults over two snipers or heavies.

 

[ChronoReverse]

If you're playing Ironman on Classic and Above, you'll find Heavies absolutely invaluable.

They're the ones who, if everything is going right, you won't seem to really need but when something goes wrong, they will be the ones to recover the situation by breaking out the high explosives and leveling the entire block.

The ability to suppress and do guaranteed unmissable 3 damage (and 6 to mechanicals) is also nice.



Absolutely critical are Squadsight Snipers. You play it safe on Ironman so this means soldiers who can rain death from outside the sight range of the aliens are exactly what you'd want. I'd go so far to say that your first tactical priority in Impossible is to get your Sniper to Squadsight and that you can recover from even near squadwipes as long as you have a high level Sniper.


A Support is nice for the triple Medkits and Smoke but you don't need two. As for Assaults, they're nice for taking away an alien Overwatch but the actual solution for that is to kill the Alien using a Squadsight.

 

[thespyder]

Snipers, on the other hand. . . not sure when you'd want two of them. You give up quite a bit of front line firepower if you take two.

This is my impression as well. One sniper with Squad site is just about optimal. That way you can use your other team members as spotters. Even if you have someone run into range and then back out of range after the sniper takes the shot, you are still doing more damage than just about any other combination to a single target.

 

[JamesV]

This is my impression as well. One sniper with Squad site is just about optimal. That way you can use your other team members as spotters. Even if you have someone run into range and then back out of range after the sniper takes the shot, you are still doing more damage than just about any other combination to a single target.

Squad sight/whatever is the most overrated thing ever. The alt-skill, which allows you to fire or overwatch after moving, blows away the 'fire on anything your squad can see' skill.

My main sniper, at nearly 4x the amount of kills of any other squad mate, has the fire after moving or overwatch skill. Sure it confers a -20 aim, but who cares when your aim is 95+15ish with SCOPE?

A plasma wielding overwatch on move sniper will own any team sight sniper easily in SP. Pack em with Ghost Armor and profit.

 

[acheron]

I did my last Normal playthrough with mainly two snipers. Playing on Classic now; not very far yet but I will probably just do one sniper for most missions.

 

[kevinsbane]

Squad sight/whatever is the most overrated thing ever. The alt-skill, which allows you to fire or overwatch after moving, blows away the 'fire on anything your squad can see' skill.

My main sniper, at nearly 4x the amount of kills of any other squad mate, has the fire after moving or overwatch skill. Sure it confers a -20 aim, but who cares when your aim is 95+15ish with SCOPE?

A plasma wielding overwatch on move sniper will own any team sight sniper easily in SP. Pack em with Ghost Armor and profit.

You must be playing non-ironman.

I have never gotten a snap shot sniper working anything as well as a squad sight sniper. They are just invaluable for general squad support and antisectopod duty if you don't have HEAT. And also essential when doing classic ironman. If you can see the enemy, the enemy can see you. And if the enemy can see you, he can shoot you. And if he can shoot you, eventually he'll hit you. And in classic, if they can hit you, they kill you as often as not. Retraining a high level sniper from scratch in classic ironman is tough and very annoying.

The only places I've found snap shot snipers superior has been inside certain UFOs. I've found that when I had both a squad sight sniper and a snap shot sniper, I rarely wished for the ability to snap shot, but I often wished for squad sight.

 

[MichaelBarg]

Depends on how much you want fragments back, I suppose. Late in the game I think heavies get more useful. The ability to fire twice and use HEAT rounds is great against Sectopods. Shredder rockets are great against Mutons that tend to bunch up. Having two Blaster Rocket rounds can be a life saver. Early on, I'm not too much of a fan of heavies because they seem to have crappy aim. But raiding late game UFOs, I can see taking two heavies.

Snipers, on the other hand. . . not sure when you'd want two of them. You give up quite a bit of front line firepower if you take two.

Sniper combined assault with run & gun is very useful on the civilian rescue missions. Get your snipers into a good position and then run & gun to rescue someone. No baddies and you pop into overwatch. If you do find baddies you get two shots though, maybe more if you have a colonel sniper. It depends a lot on the mission though. In buildings or smaller alien ships snipers are not so useful. Out in the open though they are really deadly. I tend to roll with 3 snipers/heavies and pick whether its 2 snipers or 2 heavies depending on how open the map looks. At least assuming injuries/recent losses give me the option.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Squad sight/whatever is the most overrated thing ever. The alt-skill, which allows you to fire or overwatch after moving, blows away the 'fire on anything your squad can see' skill.

My main sniper, at nearly 4x the amount of kills of any other squad mate, has the fire after moving or overwatch skill. Sure it confers a -20 aim, but who cares when your aim is 95+15ish with SCOPE?

A plasma wielding overwatch on move sniper will own any team sight sniper easily in SP. Pack em with Ghost Armor and profit.

The first Sniper (Squad Sight) I leveled up on my first playthrough lasted me until the end of the game, and racked up almost a quarter of the total kills for the game. (150 out of 600.)

The last spawn on the final mission was ridiculously easy w/ Squad Sight. (Park sniper outside door w/o cover, walk in scouts with max HP, sniper kills master alien, other enemies evaporate.)

If you're not seeing the benefit of SS, you're probably moving them too much, parking your sniper too close to the front, or you're otherwise positioning them poorly. Archangel Armor is useful here.

 

[Martimus]

My squad was usually two medic support, two assault, one heavy, and one sniper.

As for the non-squad sight sniper, I tried a move and shoot sniper for three or four missions (I won a Captain Sniper and decided to try move-and-shoot with him) and I found him useless. He has no more range than an assault without squadsight, and his accuracy isn't any better either with the -20 penalty to accuracy. Beyond that, he is missing all the benefits of an assault, so he ended up being a less useful assault and thus useless to me.

 

[darkewaffle]

Anyone else had stability issues? I'm only about 10 hours in but have had at 3-4 CTDs/lockups. Not that bad of a 'rate' but given the pace of the game one at a bad time could set you back quite a bit.

 

[PowerYoga]

didn't crash a single time when I played it. about 20-30 hours put into it total on normal and classic. (no ironman though...)

 

[thespyder]

Anyone else had stability issues? I'm only about 10 hours in but have had at 3-4 CTDs/lockups. Not that bad of a 'rate' but given the pace of the game one at a bad time could set you back quite a bit.

I had maybe 2-3 instances where it locked up. No CTD, but absolutely situations where the program stopped functioning as intended. Most times I was able to flip out to desktop and then flip back, causing it to start working again. But at least once I needed to end the program and go back in.

On the whole, I don't find it 'Unstable'. I put it down to not being perfect.