I like you Jon. I don't have the time, cognitive function and soberness to play games most friday nights(or most nights for that matter). Then I watch your videos without clickbaits, overreactions and with a general British pleasant-ness and that fullfill my need for videogames. You are my David Attenborough of gaming.
"What's the point of dashing?" Units that are dashing gain a slight defensive bonus against Overwatch shots they trigger. It should only really be used in dire situations. Your instinct to move conservatively is correct.
Explosives only destroy pick ups from enemies they kill. They also destroy lots of types of cover. So explode things then finish them off with small arms fire.
It's a joke, Jon. It's something the talking heads say a bit too much. I definitely agree that you should blow up enemies any time you have a chance. Early game soldier aim is crap, whereas grenades will ALWAYS hit, and since they always deal 3 damage, will instant kill sectoids. Do you want a 45% to hit an enemy, followed by a 65% chance to deal enough damage to kill them? Or do you want to guarantee they die? You do not lose all THAT much upgrade materials from blowing up aliens. Aliens all give more or less the same amount (Usually two, with an additional part if they have a grenade they didn't use). Weapon Fragments only become in short supply in the mid to late game, when the game is easier in general.
Many A True Nerd The biggest tip I can give you is to mouse over (controller over) enemies. It gives you a breakdown of what is going on, what powers they are using etc. It should help you learn things like the sectoid mental boost you saw. The purple line. The caster uses a mental link to boost the health, aim and damage of the sectoid it is sending to. It tends to only last a round. As you saw, you can exploit this by killing the sender, which kills the receiver with feedback. It DOES NOT work the other way round. But seriously, check the enemy info to help learn your enemy's strats.
10 minutes in and he's already discovered the infamous "crawling overwatch" technique, which is so effective the developers designed the timers in XCOM 2 to prevent it.
yeah I had a laugh at john instantly discovering overwatch crawl. since I play XCOM 2 now-a-days it was also a little nostalgia trip at hearing young Central
You carefully move up and leave your guys on overwatch to cover each other making it near impossible for the enemy to get the first shot on you and allowing you to turtle the mission and make the game a lot easier but slower
I'll update as I watch Because by dashing you get the max out of your movement "space"(you can only take a blue and then a yellow move, and sometimes by doing a small blue move, you lose most of the distance you would have got) Red cover means that if you go there, you will be flanked by an enemy. And if the enemy marker is yellow, then they are flanked. On the blue/yellow move topic, a soldier can only, move within the blue zone and do another action, or dash into the yellow zone and do nothing else(unless they have run and gun) Interceptors are to protect your satellites and take down UFOs they spot, if you don't have a satellite over a place, it's better to not bother putting an interceptor there
Oh this’ll be interesting. I love Enemy Unknown, but Enemy Within is even better than this. And I absolutely adore XCOM 2. Starting on normal or easy is a good idea. It can be a pain to start off with, but you’ll love it.
gaterzoom Jon playing long war? Are you mad? It’d be fun, but incredibly stressful to watch. Chances are, Jon will do a playthrough of this (unlikely he will complete it), and if he wants to continue playing XCOM, he’ll switch to XCOM 2.
havent watched the video yet, but i can tell you are wrong, if people see something comming down the sky and falls next to them, you will have 100 selfies within 2 minutes. this is 2018 john, most people have no self-preservation
I love that you are playing this. I think you'll enjoy it! You need satellites asap, everywhere. Also improved armor and weapons. If you get them by may (maybe june?), when panic missions come, things will be easier. If not... Well, be prepared to say bye to a lot of good soldiers
My favorite continental bonus is covering South America with satellites. It only requires two, less than anyone else, and its bonus is it lets you conduct autopsies and interrogations instantly. Alien interrogations require you to take them alive, and aren't strictly necessary, but all interrogations speed up existing research in other areas, like lasers. So a South America coverage can speed up your early game immensely.
Dashing gets certain troops forward, and can let you see the battlefield better, allowing you to place the rest of your troops strategically. its one of those games that the mechanics become more clear as you get deeper in. im sure theres at least one timed mission...
Key tip: Grenades can also be used to blow up cover. So you can shatter what an alien is hiding behind without destroying their equipment. Eventually you'll be able to stun aliens to take them alive, and that also lets you take their WEAPONS intact.
Some characters are better scouts so dashing allows them to get sights on other enemies for your different soldiers. And also time limits sometimes lead to you having to dash to not lose anyone. And dashing makes it more difficult for aliens to shoot your people. At least, that's how it is in xcom 2. Not sure how different it is for this one.
With two XCOM games, one expansion for each, and one Long War mod for each, I oftentimes have a hard time remember which rule applies to which version of the game...
If you liked this, you should play XCOM: Enemy Within. Adds more customisation, new tech, new baddies, new soldier types, new Council Missions and a new faction trying to murder everyone! It's right up your street!
Jon, Sniper's are the most powerful class given that they can fire straight across the map from the second rank up. Also maybe switch over to Enemy Within, it adds so much to the game. And launching a satellite over a country lowers panic and lowers the likelyhood of a mission spawning there. if you get a continent fully covered by satellites you also get the continent bonus, if all of those contries are still part of the XCOM project.
I love the fact your stand in is a sniper. That means at first he will be a bit cumbersome, but with some tlc he can be your board nuke. That is to say he is a bit dreary at first but will really start to grow on you. Sound familiar, lol.
@many A True Nerd the point of dashing is if you need to go to the other side of the map for example and there are no aliens left, (this happens in escort missions) it goes way faster
ok here it goes john, easy steps: 1 ALWAYS USE HIGH COVER: incredibly important, never ever go for half unless its either that or no cover at all 2 try to use high terran as much as possible, incredibly good as it gives enemies lower chance to hit (altough they can pull some bs shots) 3 use common sense, some objects will be destroyed quickly by enemy fire like flimpsy walls, others like say a refrigerator will last longer 4 grenades everywhere!, use them as much as possible as they get targets cover destroyed 5 move in 2 turns, dont sprint any character unless you deliberately want it, this way you can uncover foes then take a step back to cover if needed 6 snipers are ultra super op, train one and take care of them, eventually will pay off. for now thats all the advice i can give. ill give more as i can recall it.
ah yeah, dont use overwatch unless you got nothing to shoot at, as it gets a hit penalty. but never use it at the very start of your turn to finish a unit action
High cover isn't THAT crucial. However, you should generally ask yourself why you are putting yourself in half cover. You should always have a specific reason like "I can flank the enemy from here" or "This is the only spot from which I can take a shot".
Dashing is one of the more important mechanics in the game, giving the ability for your soldiers (or probably as you'll refer to them, your units) to move farther ahead at the cost of immediately ending that soldier's action. Dashing is going to be something you'll use fairly often, due to you having to discover the aliens most of the time rather than the aliens coming to you (however there are missions that change this mentality). It's useful when you're getting one of your soldiers out of really bad situations, or trying to get a support unit to another soldier to get them a heal. Dashing also is important to remember when one of your soldiers is being flanked, as you can do away with shooting your enemy in order to keep your soldier safe. There's also a number of actions you can take to make Dashing a much more viable option in battle, for example when you have a soldier go into the position of Assault, they have the option of getting the ability Run & Gun, which upon activation, lets them make a Dash, then lets them fire upon enemies, albeit with a hit to accuracy. TL,DR: Dashing has a number of uses that, while not seemingly good at the offset, will become important later on. DON'T FORGET IT EXISTS. PLEASE. The red shields mean that, while that is usable cover, you'll be flanked. Flanked is a condition that occurs when you are in cover, but an enemy is to your side or back. Example: If you hide behind a wall, but an alien shows up behind you, you'll be flanked because your cover wouldn't protect you. Flanked can also apply to enemies as well, as indicated by the yellow alien/shield icons on the U.I. When you're flanking someone, you have a much better shot against them always. TL,DR: Try to flank aliens as much as you can, while keeping an eye out for other aliens that may flank you. Also, about the actual series, this'll be fun, especially with some of the missions that occur later on in the game. However, unlike the other comments, I disagree with starting with Enemy Within. There are mechanics in the game that add onto the base game, including new classes, abilities, items, and missions. I say, if you game over in Enemy Unknown, shift over to Enemy Within. You'll have a much greater understanding of how the game works rather than being chucked into the deep end. (And if you game over in Enemy Within, consider doing XCOM 2.) Also, XCOM's hit chances are either generous or greedy depending on how the game is feeling. I've found that 50/50 shots miss more often than they hit. Don't take shots when the hit chance is 35% or below, you'll probably miss 9/10 of those shots. Typically a shot that is 80% or more is likely to hit.
I echo everyone's "Enemy Within" sentiment. Also, just for trivia's sake - the thick-lined countries represent the ones that fund the XCOM project, and the ones that most of your soldiers will be from.
Jon, as you saw in your first mission, the Sectoids have a trick where one establishes a psychic link with another, giving the second one a single extra hit point. This is pretty much a waste of an action for the Sectoid, but it does give you an opportunity: kill the Sectoid who initiated the link, (as you did with the grenade), and you kill both of them! Also, ignore Vahlen - grenades are your best friends early on.
Yessss! XCOM. Like everyone says Enemy Within is better but whatever, no biggy. Glad to see you play it. WARNING: This game will brutally punish bad perception...so you'll need to make a series!
People usually suggest focusing on weapon research, but I tend to go for armor research for the extra hp due to a certain melee creature. However weapons research will help significantly once you can research aircraft weapons, done early enough and that large ufo near the start will be less difficult. Also I prefer the support class in the base game due to them gaining better mobility and 2 support item slots, back them up with an assault, a heavy and 2 snipers and most missions will be a cinch
Jon, Enemy Within is probably the better version to play. Same game, but with two types of super soldiers that you might enjoy (robo-people and people with DNA that’s been messed with so much that they’re now super human).
"I was gonna say there are 3 countries, but theres a bunch of little ones dotted around the Caribbean too" --A quintessentially European view of the Americas
My second favorite game series (the first is Fallout). I believe it was Fallout Tactics was targeted to compete against the original XCOM game back in the day and after this new version of XCOM came out, I had high hopes Fallout Tactics would get reborn like this.
Tip: - often it's good to make sure that no part of the bus or other long vehicles has caught any flames before using those as a cover. FOV can be tricky that way too :)
Yesss! I was waiting for you to play this, it's probably my favourite game after Fallout. As others said, you should play Enemy Within, it is the base game plus more stuff. Have fun with it Jon! :)
A few basic class explanations (with no specific ability spoilers): Support: This is the medic class, sure it can do some cool things with smoke grenades, but the most important thing it can do at higher levels is make better use out of a medikit than any other soldier, you should still have more than one medikit per mission though, just in case. Sniper: This class is arguably OP, the game offers you a bit of a choice between a mid range and an extreme range sniper, you can literally be taking down high-HP targets from halfway across a map on higher levels, especially in groups. Heavy: Explosives are nice to blow up cover so other troops can shoot at the now unprotected aliens, they also have quite a few abilities for their heavy machine guns and have the highest non-sniper damage potential with them, also somewhat good at crowd control in later levels. Assault: Not much to explain here, with a few upgrades they can be quite good at going in and taking some aliens entrenched in heavy cover, just be careful not to dash into another group of enemies or to send them into suicide runs. Their shotguns get very good at close quarters. EDIT: Non-Jon people, feel free to add corrections to this if I got stuff wrong.
10 Basic Tips for Jon: 1. As a new player, try to keep your whole squad relatively close together. Concentrated fire is key. 2. Moving all of your soldiers first, before choosing any of their actions, is highly recommended. Nothing is worse than your last soldier stumbling across a group of aliens, alone, at the end of the round. 3. Dashing is generally ill-advised. Not only does it cost both of a soldier's actions for the turn, but could lead him into the center of a nasty situation. 4. Try to avoid provoking overwatch shots. Kill these aliens before moving. If you must suffer an overwatch shot, dashing makes them more likely to miss. 5. Leave at least some soldiers on overwatch (or Suppression) every turn, especially after the aliens become aware of you. 6. The AI will try to avoid provoking overwatch shots from you if possible. Use this to prevent the aliens from moving freely on their turn. 7. Keep an eye on each soldier's stats. Aim and Defense affect their accuracy, and the accuracy of shots fired at them. Lower Will makes them more likely to panic when injured or when they witness the death of a teammate. All of these should inform their positioning in combat and the abilities they choose. 8. Try to level up your entire barracks in concert. Use as many of your lowest ranking soldiers as you feel comfortable with each mission. If you only have a few favored soldiers, you'll be out of luck when they are killed or injured without replacement. 9. Prioritise getting more engineers. You must meet a minimum amount before you can begin most of the valuable or plot-related projects. 10. Satellite coverage helps to both reduce and prevent panic, as well as granting you additional funds and personnel. Covering every country in a continent grants you a powerful bonus. Prioritise Africa and Asia. Defend satellites with Interceptors. Good luck, Jon! This is not an easy game. Mistakes are easily made and heavily punished. Hopefully your viewers don't give you a hard time. We were all new once.
Dashing helps if an enemy is in overwatch by making them able to hit you less. Or, if you need to get to a certain tile way the hell out somewhere at the edge of your movement range, then you don't have to worry about making a move, making another move, and then realizing you didn't make your first move the right distance.
Deploy those satellites wisely, Jon. The problem with panicking nations can get pretty intense mid-late game, as part of the managing mechanics of the base. Using satellites on low-panic countries can cause problems in the long run, since they can still drop out of the X-COM project due to high-panic, either by not being chosen to be saved during abduction missions or failing to take down alien crafts over their territory. A bit of a Kobayashi Maru there, unfortunately. A good tip is to always have a spare satellite and the ability to deploy it (especially early-game, they take a long time to be built) Also, during combat, high ground plays an important part especially for snipers hanging back, in my opinion. Be careful of shotgun users, sometimes you'll get a large open space map and it gets quite useless. Assault class with run&gun is a very good scout. For the support class, that is where you'll get your medics, with sufficient upgrades, they are able to carry two medipacks, not to mention the amount of heal they do increases. Always carry a Heavy, you'll get some very, very though enemies, either by having a ton of HP, being able to deal tons of damage (or both) or to take down a difficult enemy in a distant spot. I guess that's all I can remember from the top of my head, I hope it's helpful and accurate!
dashing provides a penalty to being hit when shot at by a unit on over watch the unit shooting is only allowed to shoot with 70% of their aim stat. this can be used to draw an over watch onto a more healthy unit that could survive a hit with the least chance of them actually being hit. Allowing a less healthy soldier to move to a safer location. Dashing does use up both actions to this may leave two of your units unable to take shots.
I believe it's mentioned in the game but if I'm remembering correctly the world's militaries aren't doing nothing during the events of X-COM. There is a larger war going on but what X-COM does is quick strike missions at key targets. Kind of guerrilla tactics style.
Also... Iron Will is worth getting as early as practical, both for increasing your soldiers' resistance to the aliens' psychic powers and another reason I don't want to spoil.
While I'm also of the general philosophy that "teching up early is a good idea", in the early and mid-game, engineers are more important than scientists. Build uplink facilities and satellites as soon as you can. Each satellite takes 20 days to build! Also, you don't get a continuous stream of money. You get paid at the end of each month (ie when the council briefing occurs).
did you notice the alien heads at the top left during an encounter that means an enemy is in range if a head or shield is yellow that means something is flanking them also if you want to complete the game you need to research that containment thing and capture SOMETHING trying not to spoil trust me i have experience also this game is hard.
Considering that UFO: Enemy Unknown, the predecessor of all the XCOM series allowed for full base construction by the player, including an isometric 3D view of the base in full floor plans, multiple floors, plus automated defensive positions, strategic layout, yada-yada-yada, you could actually do a LOT more in the base game than in the new XCOM series. Leaving that out XCOM Enemy Within is still a good game.
Yes, i am still pissed off by how dumbed down the game is. It is a good game but in comparison with the old ones it look like designed for mentally handicaped.
In this game spamming overwatch guarantees wins and maximises chances of getting soldiers up many levels. The game balance is to put in timed missions where you need to take some risks with your beloved meatbags. Good luck!
I wasn't sure at first if I was going to follow this or continue my own playthrough (I'm only in the beginning of the game), but after watching this first episode, I actually think I'll enjoy the game more if I watch you figure stuff out first. :D
You can use the dash to push forward in timed missions, you can also only take a shot if you have line of sight, so if you have a sniper using another unit to gain line of sight can be a good tactic.
Alright you asked for advice so here's what I've got- Combat- 1)Half cover reduces the chance of hitting by an additive 20% (90% chance becomes 70%), full cover by 40% 2)You gain an additive 50% chance to critically hit an unarmored enemy when they are not behind cover. 3)As you've seen sectoids have the ability to mind link with other sectoids, this gives the second sectoid more HP and better aim, however if you kill the sectoid who initiated the mind link you kill both of them. This is how you killed all four enemies in your first mission. Explosives- 1)Ignore Vahlen saying to not use explosives, if it's a situation where the explosives saves your troops or makes the situation significantly easier go for it. 2)They have the ability to destroy cover, and some cover is easier to destroy then others. (As you rightfully guessed a bench is not that good) It's been awhile since I've played the first XCOM so I don't remember if missed shots have a chance of damaging cover in this game like they do in the second one. Overwatch- 1)Overwatch in general has an aim penalty, if memory serves it takes a multiplicative 30% penalty normally(90% - 90%* .30% = 63% chance to hit), but if someone performs a dash then the overwatch shot takes a 40% penalty instead. To my knowledge that is the only tactical benefit from ever performing a dash rather then giving two seperate move orders. 2)Overwatched soldiers in XCOM 1 all take fire the moment an enemy comes into range. If an enemy enters the range of three overwatched soldiers all three will open fire regardless if the first shot killed the target, clever positioning can stop this from happening. Base Stuff- 1)You've already seen that buildings have adjacency bonuses, and are already planning on using them so good there. 2)Having more engineers will make items cheaper, and as you've seen building more satellite uplinks will require an ever increasing amount of engineers. Late game items and weapons will also require a minimum number of engineers. Basically engineers are important and you should get as many as possible. 3)If a country's panic level reaches max they will leave the council after a certain amount of time passes(I am wanting to say 2-3 weeks). If a country leaves they will no longer provide any funding and you will be unable to get the full continent bonus that country is a part of. 4) If you get satellite coverage of every country in a continent you will gain that continents bonus that you saw at the beginning when choosing starting location. You can never lose your starting continent bonus, so it is advantageous to lose a country in your starting continent rather then a different continent if you must ever make that choice. 5)Satellites when deployed immediately reduce panic in the country it was sent to by two levels. Always keep one or two satellites on stand by to deal with unexpected panic increases. That's all I've got for now, overall for a first time player you did pretty well.
The purpose of dashing is that it causes the enemy a -20% hit chance for their Overwatch shots, moving twice doesn't do this. Also, moving twice means you can sometimes lose a tile on your second move if you have to go around your cover. High ground gives +20 aim. Also, the cutscene is just because they've come into your view, it always happens. If the shield is yellow it means the enemy, or your soldier, is flanked so there's no cover and they're more likely to suffer a critical hit. The enemy psychic ability grants +1 health and, I believe, an aim bonus. Later on enemies can mind control your own soldiers. If you kill an enemy who cast a psychic link with another enemy that other enemy automatically dies, regardless of remaining health. For interceptors, you only really want them in places where you have satellites, otherwise you'e wasting money. Also, better interceptors are available later because the ships get bigger. I generally go with 2 interceptors per continent and then 2 of the improved ones later. Higher difficulty level missions increase panic faster. More scientists make research faster, more engineers make building things cheaper. Medikits are 1 use per mission, Support class gets an ability where they can be used 3 times per mission as they level up. Healing in mission does not reduce recovery time however. When choosing abilities it's generally best to stick to either left or right. Some mixing and matching is ok, but generally the column abilities link in with each other. The slot under your initial satellite uplink you're best saving for a satellite nexus which comes a bit later. Still gets the adjacency bonus but can hold 5 satellite links, not 2. Also, having satellites over every country in the bonus you still get the bonuses mentioned when you were looking at starting locations. I think this covers everything you questioned, I was updating as the video went on.
Be very careful when revealing areas hidden by the fog of war. The last thing you want to do during a fight is activate a second group of enemies. Try to reveal new areas with your first move of a new turn, giving you the most resources to deal with any revealed threats. I second the other commenters who have highlighted the importance of explosives - they’re key to doing reliable damage in the early game, and can destroy cover too. Panic in countries can be reduced by assigning satellites to them. Allowing panic to rise has dire consequences! Good luck and (try to) have fun!
Dashing reduces the chance to hit of enemy overwatch shots. It's not really worth doing because the chance to his is still decently high. Also, the best advice I can give is to count the enemies. It's very easy to start a fight with six alians, kill five, and then think that the fight's over.
I LOVE THIS GAME. I might not be the most knowledgeable, but we (My family and I when we would play together) always started with Africa as our base, and got N. America and Europe as quickly as we could covered with satellites. IDK, I just like the game :D
Also- As he probably doesn't know this, if you get all the satellites in a part of the world, then you get the bonus. I guess we started with Africa mostly because its easier to buy what you need.
Jon, coming from a longtime XCOM player, Good luck. Buy some booze. And get ready to want to throw your controller when you miss a 95% shot. Suggestion: Snipers are the best damage dealers. Once you have squadsight stick them in an elevated position and keep them there, dealing damage from afar.
Only advice I can give is make your snipers range as large as possible with promotions. Squad sight is better for range and teamwork while snap shot allows for more mobility.
You know, we always talk about how stupid it is for people to touch the weird, glowy thing that fell from the sky. I think that those people are just thinking about the 1/1000 chance that it might give them superpowers.
Regarding your question on if there is a functional benefit to dashing 1: You gain a defense bonus against reaction fire if you dash (you're easier to hit if you do a double move) 1b: No idea on the actual value here... in my experience it feels like +10 defense or a 10% chance to dodge 2: Weird discovering AI abuse. If you know where the enemy is but you haven't alerted them, you can cover more distance to force them in the direction you want them (as opposed to a few going here and a few going there) 2b: please don't try this. 8 times out of 10 it'll backfire because there are more in places you didn't know
Show of hands for who is revisiting the series because he’s currently running through XCOM 2
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I'm here because I just watched the Xcom 2 finaly and need more MATN XCOM in my life
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“When X-com came out, I completely missed it” *Perception -1*
What is Jon's perception at now like -100?
99% chance to play the game, that's X-Com Baby
Yes counting that it came out in 1994 :)
That's because he was a baby at the time. I played this same game without the knobs and whistles in 1994.
If his perception level was any lower, he wouldn't be able to find his own hands.
I like you Jon. I don't have the time, cognitive function and soberness to play games most friday nights(or most nights for that matter). Then I watch your videos without clickbaits, overreactions and with a general British pleasant-ness and that fullfill my need for videogames.
You are my David Attenborough of gaming.
Wille A that's actually a really clever comparison, love it
"David Attenborough of gaming." I could not agree more with that statement.
hear hear
agreed
I love this comment :)
"What's the point of dashing?"
Units that are dashing gain a slight defensive bonus against Overwatch shots they trigger. It should only really be used in dire situations. Your instinct to move conservatively is correct.
Medkits are not consumed permanently, the 2x just mean you can only equip 2 soldiers with them at the same time
Important to note: Jon, you may want to instruct your men to exercise restraint when using explosives.
But Tabby loves her rocket launcher :(
Well, the other side argues: If you have a rocket, you have a plan B. So go wild.
Explosives only destroy pick ups from enemies they kill. They also destroy lots of types of cover. So explode things then finish them off with small arms fire.
It's a joke, Jon. It's something the talking heads say a bit too much. I definitely agree that you should blow up enemies any time you have a chance. Early game soldier aim is crap, whereas grenades will ALWAYS hit, and since they always deal 3 damage, will instant kill sectoids. Do you want a 45% to hit an enemy, followed by a 65% chance to deal enough damage to kill them? Or do you want to guarantee they die?
You do not lose all THAT much upgrade materials from blowing up aliens. Aliens all give more or less the same amount (Usually two, with an additional part if they have a grenade they didn't use). Weapon Fragments only become in short supply in the mid to late game, when the game is easier in general.
Many A True Nerd The biggest tip I can give you is to mouse over (controller over) enemies. It gives you a breakdown of what is going on, what powers they are using etc. It should help you learn things like the sectoid mental boost you saw. The purple line. The caster uses a mental link to boost the health, aim and damage of the sectoid it is sending to. It tends to only last a round. As you saw, you can exploit this by killing the sender, which kills the receiver with feedback. It DOES NOT work the other way round. But seriously, check the enemy info to help learn your enemy's strats.
10 minutes in and he's already discovered the infamous "crawling overwatch" technique, which is so effective the developers designed the timers in XCOM 2 to prevent it.
yeah I had a laugh at john instantly discovering overwatch crawl.
since I play XCOM 2 now-a-days it was also a little nostalgia trip at hearing young Central
Overwatch crawl??
You carefully move up and leave your guys on overwatch to cover each other making it near impossible for the enemy to get the first shot on you and allowing you to turtle the mission and make the game a lot easier but slower
Would love to see a full series of this.
CONFIRMED.
I'll update as I watch
Because by dashing you get the max out of your movement "space"(you can only take a blue and then a yellow move, and sometimes by doing a small blue move, you lose most of the distance you would have got)
Red cover means that if you go there, you will be flanked by an enemy. And if the enemy marker is yellow, then they are flanked.
On the blue/yellow move topic, a soldier can only, move within the blue zone and do another action, or dash into the yellow zone and do nothing else(unless they have run and gun)
Interceptors are to protect your satellites and take down UFOs they spot, if you don't have a satellite over a place, it's better to not bother putting an interceptor there
Dash also adds a bit of defense from overwatch fire.
Oh this’ll be interesting.
I love Enemy Unknown, but Enemy Within is even better than this. And I absolutely adore XCOM 2.
Starting on normal or easy is a good idea. It can be a pain to start off with, but you’ll love it.
I really miss Bradford’s sweater.
I want him to play the whole series + lw
gaterzoom Jon playing long war? Are you mad?
It’d be fun, but incredibly stressful to watch. Chances are, Jon will do a playthrough of this (unlikely he will complete it), and if he wants to continue playing XCOM, he’ll switch to XCOM 2.
I started this game on max difficulty my first try because I am not a smart man.
He didnt pick africa so he is in for getin fucked.
havent watched the video yet, but i can tell you are wrong, if people see something comming down the sky and falls next to them, you will have 100 selfies within 2 minutes. this is 2018 john, most people have no self-preservation
this is going to hurt to watch XD
Jon the link is a buff but if you kill the one giving the buff the one getting buffed dies too
YES! He finally got around to playing XCOM.
Yes YEs YESSSS!!! This game was one of the best reboot's I've ever played!
I agree
I would love to see a series of this
Well then you're in luck :D
3 Overwatch Shots, 3 Misses. Yup sounds like XCOM
" How dangerous can aliens really be? "
Que a montage of all the times of Jon's soldiers being killed by aliens over the entire series
If I remember correctly, dashing lowers the risk of getting hit from reaction fire.
I always take we have ways myself; getting your research pumped out fast and early is a real life saver when they start dropping the big enemies in.
Oh my god yes, finally. Please make this a series
'Rookies are still very capable...' That line made my day...
I love that you are playing this. I think you'll enjoy it!
You need satellites asap, everywhere. Also improved armor and weapons. If you get them by may (maybe june?), when panic missions come, things will be easier. If not... Well, be prepared to say bye to a lot of good soldiers
Man, going and seeing Bradford and the Chairman in this game after knowing their stories in the sequels changes so much of how I view them.
It was really a pretty wild twist for them to be like "Hey remember that UI guy? Yeah he's a character now"
My favorite continental bonus is covering South America with satellites. It only requires two, less than anyone else, and its bonus is it lets you conduct autopsies and interrogations instantly. Alien interrogations require you to take them alive, and aren't strictly necessary, but all interrogations speed up existing research in other areas, like lasers. So a South America coverage can speed up your early game immensely.
23:38 Jon, you sound like Wallace just here!
YES! This is going to be epic searies! Also, everybody is going to die...
"How dangerous can aliens really be?" You will know the meaning of fear when you meet your first Sectopod.
that Jon hasn't had the joy of playing the very first Xcom back on the intel 286-486 days this will be fun to watch
Dashing gets certain troops forward, and can let you see the battlefield better, allowing you to place the rest of your troops strategically. its one of those games that the mechanics become more clear as you get deeper in. im sure theres at least one timed mission...
support class make great medics. this is going to be a lot of fun seeing you figure this game out ;)
XCOMis basically UNIT but competent.
Now this isn't really UNITs fault. Unlike UNIT, XCOM regularly meets alien menaces that aren't immune to bullets.
Key tip: Grenades can also be used to blow up cover. So you can shatter what an alien is hiding behind without destroying their equipment. Eventually you'll be able to stun aliens to take them alive, and that also lets you take their WEAPONS intact.
Some characters are better scouts so dashing allows them to get sights on other enemies for your different soldiers. And also time limits sometimes lead to you having to dash to not lose anyone. And dashing makes it more difficult for aliens to shoot your people.
At least, that's how it is in xcom 2. Not sure how different it is for this one.
With two XCOM games, one expansion for each, and one Long War mod for each, I oftentimes have a hard time remember which rule applies to which version of the game...
The psychic link basically just gives the alien the other alien is "linking" to, one healt point more than they normally have.
If you liked this, you should play XCOM: Enemy Within. Adds more customisation, new tech, new baddies, new soldier types, new Council Missions and a new faction trying to murder everyone!
It's right up your street!
Jon, Sniper's are the most powerful class given that they can fire straight across the map from the second rank up. Also maybe switch over to Enemy Within, it adds so much to the game. And launching a satellite over a country lowers panic and lowers the likelyhood of a mission spawning there. if you get a continent fully covered by satellites you also get the continent bonus, if all of those contries are still part of the XCOM project.
I feel like Jon would adore the additions in Enemy Within
You only want to dash if you use the ability "Run and Gun" which is unlocked by the assault class.
Run and Gun is definitely one of my most used abilities. I love my badass shotgun soldiers.
I love the fact your stand in is a sniper. That means at first he will be a bit cumbersome, but with some tlc he can be your board nuke. That is to say he is a bit dreary at first but will really start to grow on you. Sound familiar, lol.
well, this will fun to watch, with Jon's legendary ineptitude and negative Perception, there will lots of fun at Jon's expanse
@many A True Nerd the point of dashing is if you need to go to the other side of the map for example and there are no aliens left, (this happens in escort missions) it goes way faster
Been enjoying your XCom videos. I have played a lot of it, and XCom 2, but sometimes I want to relax and watch other people suffer from bad roles ;)
ok here it goes john, easy steps:
1 ALWAYS USE HIGH COVER: incredibly important, never ever go for half unless its either that or no cover at all
2 try to use high terran as much as possible, incredibly good as it gives enemies lower chance to hit (altough they can pull some bs shots)
3 use common sense, some objects will be destroyed quickly by enemy fire like flimpsy walls, others like say a refrigerator will last longer
4 grenades everywhere!, use them as much as possible as they get targets cover destroyed
5 move in 2 turns, dont sprint any character unless you deliberately want it, this way you can uncover foes then take a step back to cover if needed
6 snipers are ultra super op, train one and take care of them, eventually will pay off.
for now thats all the advice i can give. ill give more as i can recall it.
ah yeah, dont use overwatch unless you got nothing to shoot at, as it gets a hit penalty. but never use it at the very start of your turn to finish a unit action
High cover isn't THAT crucial. However, you should generally ask yourself why you are putting yourself in half cover. You should always have a specific reason like "I can flank the enemy from here" or "This is the only spot from which I can take a shot".
Dashing is one of the more important mechanics in the game, giving the ability for your soldiers (or probably as you'll refer to them, your units) to move farther ahead at the cost of immediately ending that soldier's action.
Dashing is going to be something you'll use fairly often, due to you having to discover the aliens most of the time rather than the aliens coming to you (however there are missions that change this mentality). It's useful when you're getting one of your soldiers out of really bad situations, or trying to get a support unit to another soldier to get them a heal.
Dashing also is important to remember when one of your soldiers is being flanked, as you can do away with shooting your enemy in order to keep your soldier safe.
There's also a number of actions you can take to make Dashing a much more viable option in battle, for example when you have a soldier go into the position of Assault, they have the option of getting the ability Run & Gun, which upon activation, lets them make a Dash, then lets them fire upon enemies, albeit with a hit to accuracy.
TL,DR: Dashing has a number of uses that, while not seemingly good at the offset, will become important later on. DON'T FORGET IT EXISTS. PLEASE.
The red shields mean that, while that is usable cover, you'll be flanked. Flanked is a condition that occurs when you are in cover, but an enemy is to your side or back. Example: If you hide behind a wall, but an alien shows up behind you, you'll be flanked because your cover wouldn't protect you.
Flanked can also apply to enemies as well, as indicated by the yellow alien/shield icons on the U.I.
When you're flanking someone, you have a much better shot against them always.
TL,DR: Try to flank aliens as much as you can, while keeping an eye out for other aliens that may flank you.
Also, about the actual series, this'll be fun, especially with some of the missions that occur later on in the game. However, unlike the other comments, I disagree with starting with Enemy Within. There are mechanics in the game that add onto the base game, including new classes, abilities, items, and missions. I say, if you game over in Enemy Unknown, shift over to Enemy Within. You'll have a much greater understanding of how the game works rather than being chucked into the deep end. (And if you game over in Enemy Within, consider doing XCOM 2.)
Also, XCOM's hit chances are either generous or greedy depending on how the game is feeling. I've found that 50/50 shots miss more often than they hit. Don't take shots when the hit chance is 35% or below, you'll probably miss 9/10 of those shots. Typically a shot that is 80% or more is likely to hit.
Classic setting = surviving Glasgow on a Friday night.
Impossible setting = surviving a weekend in Motherwell.
I echo everyone's "Enemy Within" sentiment. Also, just for trivia's sake - the thick-lined countries represent the ones that fund the XCOM project, and the ones that most of your soldiers will be from.
I’m excited to see you play this game. It gets hard, fast.
Jon, as you saw in your first mission, the Sectoids have a trick where one establishes a psychic link with another, giving the second one a single extra hit point. This is pretty much a waste of an action for the Sectoid, but it does give you an opportunity: kill the Sectoid who initiated the link, (as you did with the grenade), and you kill both of them! Also, ignore Vahlen - grenades are your best friends early on.
Yessss! XCOM. Like everyone says Enemy Within is better but whatever, no biggy. Glad to see you play it.
WARNING: This game will brutally punish bad perception...so you'll need to make a series!
Oh dear god... You've already named your soldiers. This is going to be tragic.
People usually suggest focusing on weapon research, but I tend to go for armor research for the extra hp due to a certain melee creature. However weapons research will help significantly once you can research aircraft weapons, done early enough and that large ufo near the start will be less difficult. Also I prefer the support class in the base game due to them gaining better mobility and 2 support item slots, back them up with an assault, a heavy and 2 snipers and most missions will be a cinch
Jon, Enemy Within is probably the better version to play. Same game, but with two types of super soldiers that you might enjoy (robo-people and people with DNA that’s been messed with so much that they’re now super human).
"I was gonna say there are 3 countries, but theres a bunch of little ones dotted around the Caribbean too"
--A quintessentially European view of the Americas
This is what I like to think happens in Stellaris when I expect my early game army to invade an Early Space Age planet without much trouble.
My second favorite game series (the first is Fallout). I believe it was Fallout Tactics was targeted to compete against the original XCOM game back in the day and after this new version of XCOM came out, I had high hopes Fallout Tactics would get reborn like this.
Tip: - often it's good to make sure that no part of the bus or other long vehicles has caught any flames before using those as a cover. FOV can be tricky that way too :)
Yesss! I was waiting for you to play this, it's probably my favourite game after Fallout. As others said, you should play Enemy Within, it is the base game plus more stuff. Have fun with it Jon! :)
A few basic class explanations (with no specific ability spoilers):
Support: This is the medic class, sure it can do some cool things with smoke grenades, but the most important thing it can do at higher levels is make better use out of a medikit than any other soldier, you should still have more than one medikit per mission though, just in case.
Sniper: This class is arguably OP, the game offers you a bit of a choice between a mid range and an extreme range sniper, you can literally be taking down high-HP targets from halfway across a map on higher levels, especially in groups.
Heavy: Explosives are nice to blow up cover so other troops can shoot at the now unprotected aliens, they also have quite a few abilities for their heavy machine guns and have the highest non-sniper damage potential with them, also somewhat good at crowd control in later levels.
Assault: Not much to explain here, with a few upgrades they can be quite good at going in and taking some aliens entrenched in heavy cover, just be careful not to dash into another group of enemies or to send them into suicide runs. Their shotguns get very good at close quarters.
EDIT: Non-Jon people, feel free to add corrections to this if I got stuff wrong.
already jonesing for part 2 of xcom 2 so this'll have to do to tide me over lol
10 Basic Tips for Jon:
1. As a new player, try to keep your whole squad relatively close together. Concentrated fire is key.
2. Moving all of your soldiers first, before choosing any of their actions, is highly recommended. Nothing is worse than your last soldier stumbling across a group of aliens, alone, at the end of the round.
3. Dashing is generally ill-advised. Not only does it cost both of a soldier's actions for the turn, but could lead him into the center of a nasty situation.
4. Try to avoid provoking overwatch shots. Kill these aliens before moving. If you must suffer an overwatch shot, dashing makes them more likely to miss.
5. Leave at least some soldiers on overwatch (or Suppression) every turn, especially after the aliens become aware of you.
6. The AI will try to avoid provoking overwatch shots from you if possible. Use this to prevent the aliens from moving freely on their turn.
7. Keep an eye on each soldier's stats. Aim and Defense affect their accuracy, and the accuracy of shots fired at them. Lower Will makes them more likely to panic when injured or when they witness the death of a teammate. All of these should inform their positioning in combat and the abilities they choose.
8. Try to level up your entire barracks in concert. Use as many of your lowest ranking soldiers as you feel comfortable with each mission. If you only have a few favored soldiers, you'll be out of luck when they are killed or injured without replacement.
9. Prioritise getting more engineers. You must meet a minimum amount before you can begin most of the valuable or plot-related projects.
10. Satellite coverage helps to both reduce and prevent panic, as well as granting you additional funds and personnel. Covering every country in a continent grants you a powerful bonus. Prioritise Africa and Asia. Defend satellites with Interceptors.
Good luck, Jon! This is not an easy game. Mistakes are easily made and heavily punished. Hopefully your viewers don't give you a hard time. We were all new once.
Dashing helps if an enemy is in overwatch by making them able to hit you less. Or, if you need to get to a certain tile way the hell out somewhere at the edge of your movement range, then you don't have to worry about making a move, making another move, and then realizing you didn't make your first move the right distance.
Deploy those satellites wisely, Jon. The problem with panicking nations can get pretty intense mid-late game, as part of the managing mechanics of the base. Using satellites on low-panic countries can cause problems in the long run, since they can still drop out of the X-COM project due to high-panic, either by not being chosen to be saved during abduction missions or failing to take down alien crafts over their territory. A bit of a Kobayashi Maru there, unfortunately. A good tip is to always have a spare satellite and the ability to deploy it (especially early-game, they take a long time to be built)
Also, during combat, high ground plays an important part especially for snipers hanging back, in my opinion. Be careful of shotgun users, sometimes you'll get a large open space map and it gets quite useless. Assault class with run&gun is a very good scout. For the support class, that is where you'll get your medics, with sufficient upgrades, they are able to carry two medipacks, not to mention the amount of heal they do increases. Always carry a Heavy, you'll get some very, very though enemies, either by having a ton of HP, being able to deal tons of damage (or both) or to take down a difficult enemy in a distant spot.
I guess that's all I can remember from the top of my head, I hope it's helpful and accurate!
dashing provides a penalty to being hit when shot at by a unit on over watch the unit shooting is only allowed to shoot with 70% of their aim stat. this can be used to draw an over watch onto a more healthy unit that could survive a hit with the least chance of them actually being hit. Allowing a less healthy soldier to move to a safer location. Dashing does use up both actions to this may leave two of your units unable to take shots.
Be sure to train a healthy pool of soldiers early on. If your star squad dies later you'll be screwed
I believe it's mentioned in the game but if I'm remembering correctly the world's militaries aren't doing nothing during the events of X-COM. There is a larger war going on but what X-COM does is quick strike missions at key targets. Kind of guerrilla tactics style.
MAKE THIS A BLOODY SERIES
Also... Iron Will is worth getting as early as practical, both for increasing your soldiers' resistance to the aliens' psychic powers and another reason I don't want to spoil.
grenades are basicly used as guaranteed damage and to blow up cover, exposing hiding enemies so you can get a flanking shot (extra crit chance)
While I'm also of the general philosophy that "teching up early is a good idea", in the early and mid-game, engineers are more important than scientists. Build uplink facilities and satellites as soon as you can. Each satellite takes 20 days to build!
Also, you don't get a continuous stream of money. You get paid at the end of each month (ie when the council briefing occurs).
So can we call dibs on character names?
Yep please!
we need a squad of Benor's
SmeX Jon The sexy Male Stripper turned solider. Pants down probes out.
"Dashing" decreases the chance that a reaction shot will hit your soldier.
did you notice the alien heads at the top left during an encounter that means an enemy is in range if a head or shield is yellow that means something is flanking them
also if you want to complete the game you need to research that containment thing and capture SOMETHING trying not to spoil trust me i have experience also this game is hard.
The point of dashing Jon, the game is just letting you know that it will take 2 action points to move there so you can’t fire if you run that far.
Considering that UFO: Enemy Unknown, the predecessor of all the XCOM series allowed for full base construction by the player, including an isometric 3D view of the base in full floor plans, multiple floors, plus automated defensive positions, strategic layout, yada-yada-yada, you could actually do a LOT more in the base game than in the new XCOM series.
Leaving that out XCOM Enemy Within is still a good game.
Yes, i am still pissed off by how dumbed down the game is. It is a good game but in comparison with the old ones it look like designed for mentally handicaped.
*Sees this in notifications*
... :O! I'm going to enjoy this!
"it's everything I look for" like 90% of games on this channel no matter how different they are
The pods land (as someone who has played xcom 2) the lost immediately come to mind
In this game spamming overwatch guarantees wins and maximises chances of getting soldiers up many levels. The game balance is to put in timed missions where you need to take some risks with your beloved meatbags. Good luck!
I wasn't sure at first if I was going to follow this or continue my own playthrough (I'm only in the beginning of the game), but after watching this first episode, I actually think I'll enjoy the game more if I watch you figure stuff out first. :D
Very appropriate that it started in the UK for you
You can use the dash to push forward in timed missions, you can also only take a shot if you have line of sight, so if you have a sniper using another unit to gain line of sight can be a good tactic.
Alright you asked for advice so here's what I've got-
Combat-
1)Half cover reduces the chance of hitting by an additive 20% (90% chance becomes 70%), full cover by 40%
2)You gain an additive 50% chance to critically hit an unarmored enemy when they are not behind cover.
3)As you've seen sectoids have the ability to mind link with other sectoids, this gives the second sectoid more HP and better aim, however if you kill the sectoid who initiated the mind link you kill both of them. This is how you killed all four enemies in your first mission.
Explosives-
1)Ignore Vahlen saying to not use explosives, if it's a situation where the explosives saves your troops or makes the situation significantly easier go for it.
2)They have the ability to destroy cover, and some cover is easier to destroy then others. (As you rightfully guessed a bench is not that good) It's been awhile since I've played the first XCOM so I don't remember if missed shots have a chance of damaging cover in this game like they do in the second one.
Overwatch-
1)Overwatch in general has an aim penalty, if memory serves it takes a multiplicative 30% penalty normally(90% - 90%* .30% = 63% chance to hit), but if someone performs a dash then the overwatch shot takes a 40% penalty instead. To my knowledge that is the only tactical benefit from ever performing a dash rather then giving two seperate move orders.
2)Overwatched soldiers in XCOM 1 all take fire the moment an enemy comes into range. If an enemy enters the range of three overwatched soldiers all three will open fire regardless if the first shot killed the target, clever positioning can stop this from happening.
Base Stuff-
1)You've already seen that buildings have adjacency bonuses, and are already planning on using them so good there.
2)Having more engineers will make items cheaper, and as you've seen building more satellite uplinks will require an ever increasing amount of engineers. Late game items and weapons will also require a minimum number of engineers. Basically engineers are important and you should get as many as possible.
3)If a country's panic level reaches max they will leave the council after a certain amount of time passes(I am wanting to say 2-3 weeks). If a country leaves they will no longer provide any funding and you will be unable to get the full continent bonus that country is a part of.
4) If you get satellite coverage of every country in a continent you will gain that continents bonus that you saw at the beginning when choosing starting location. You can never lose your starting continent bonus, so it is advantageous to lose a country in your starting continent rather then a different continent if you must ever make that choice.
5)Satellites when deployed immediately reduce panic in the country it was sent to by two levels. Always keep one or two satellites on stand by to deal with unexpected panic increases.
That's all I've got for now, overall for a first time player you did pretty well.
I forgot Bradford used to be a huge nerd instead of the best fighter with a God-tier gun he refuses to let soldiers use even though he doesn't fight
Dashing is for timed missions in order to complete the objective in time or to give your snipers a shot.
The purpose of dashing is that it causes the enemy a -20% hit chance for their Overwatch shots, moving twice doesn't do this. Also, moving twice means you can sometimes lose a tile on your second move if you have to go around your cover. High ground gives +20 aim.
Also, the cutscene is just because they've come into your view, it always happens.
If the shield is yellow it means the enemy, or your soldier, is flanked so there's no cover and they're more likely to suffer a critical hit.
The enemy psychic ability grants +1 health and, I believe, an aim bonus. Later on enemies can mind control your own soldiers. If you kill an enemy who cast a psychic link with another enemy that other enemy automatically dies, regardless of remaining health.
For interceptors, you only really want them in places where you have satellites, otherwise you'e wasting money. Also, better interceptors are available later because the ships get bigger. I generally go with 2 interceptors per continent and then 2 of the improved ones later.
Higher difficulty level missions increase panic faster. More scientists make research faster, more engineers make building things cheaper.
Medikits are 1 use per mission, Support class gets an ability where they can be used 3 times per mission as they level up. Healing in mission does not reduce recovery time however.
When choosing abilities it's generally best to stick to either left or right. Some mixing and matching is ok, but generally the column abilities link in with each other.
The slot under your initial satellite uplink you're best saving for a satellite nexus which comes a bit later. Still gets the adjacency bonus but can hold 5 satellite links, not 2. Also, having satellites over every country in the bonus you still get the bonuses mentioned when you were looking at starting locations.
I think this covers everything you questioned, I was updating as the video went on.
Operation: Falling Jester sounds like an assassination plot against Jared Leto.
A first timer Xcom series from John? This should be amazing.
Be very careful when revealing areas hidden by the fog of war. The last thing you want to do during a fight is activate a second group of enemies. Try to reveal new areas with your first move of a new turn, giving you the most resources to deal with any revealed threats.
I second the other commenters who have highlighted the importance of explosives - they’re key to doing reliable damage in the early game, and can destroy cover too.
Panic in countries can be reduced by assigning satellites to them. Allowing panic to rise has dire consequences!
Good luck and (try to) have fun!
plz full series i love this game, spec one of your snipers as a full on pistol user it is really op at the higher ranks
Enemy within.
It's basically just a raw upgrade in terms of content and gameplay
Dashing reduces the chance to hit of enemy overwatch shots. It's not really worth doing because the chance to his is still decently high.
Also, the best advice I can give is to count the enemies. It's very easy to start a fight with six alians, kill five, and then think that the fight's over.
I LOVE THIS GAME. I might not be the most knowledgeable, but we (My family and I when we would play together) always started with Africa as our base, and got N. America and Europe as quickly as we could covered with satellites. IDK, I just like the game :D
Also- As he probably doesn't know this, if you get all the satellites in a part of the world, then you get the bonus. I guess we started with Africa mostly because its easier to buy what you need.
overwatch overwatch overwatch take your time
Yes he needs to slowwww down when there is no timer
Jon, coming from a longtime XCOM player,
Good luck. Buy some booze. And get ready to want to throw your controller when you miss a 95% shot.
Suggestion: Snipers are the best damage dealers. Once you have squadsight stick them in an elevated position and keep them there, dealing damage from afar.
Jon, make sure you choose SQUAD SIGHT for your sniper when they rank up next!!!!
Only advice I can give is make your snipers range as large as possible with promotions. Squad sight is better for range and teamwork while snap shot allows for more mobility.
Jon my dearest we need XCOM 2
Can't wait for Jon to freak out at the original X-COM.
You know, we always talk about how stupid it is for people to touch the weird, glowy thing that fell from the sky. I think that those people are just thinking about the 1/1000 chance that it might give them superpowers.
PLEASE MAKE THIS A SERIES BUT WITH XCOM:ENEMY WITHIN that is like the game of the year version
Regarding your question on if there is a functional benefit to dashing
1: You gain a defense bonus against reaction fire if you dash (you're easier to hit if you do a double move)
1b: No idea on the actual value here... in my experience it feels like +10 defense or a 10% chance to dodge
2: Weird discovering AI abuse. If you know where the enemy is but you haven't alerted them, you can cover more distance to force them in the direction you want them (as opposed to a few going here and a few going there)
2b: please don't try this. 8 times out of 10 it'll backfire because there are more in places you didn't know