Johnny_B

Hey, I just wanted to say I reinstalled the game by itself, without XCE, and tried starting a Normal campaign. The game is MUCH easier and more playable. Aliens no longer spend the game hiding and camping, and no longer have insane accuracy and reflexes. It's actually manageable now. Here is a post from another user describing exactly the problems I've been having: So it seems that CE actually does make the game a little too hardcore. Another issue I've been having is with the extra maps. Many of them are full of nooks and crannies for aliens to hide, and because of obstacles, my scout car/tank has a hard time going anywhere. That issue disappeared as well in the vanilla game. Anyway, it seems pointless to talk about XCE anymore, as it seems the mod is dead/no longer worked on. X-Division looks interesting on the other hand, I'll likely give it at try once I finish this campaign.

Thank you for the offer, but I just had another disastrous mission and realized this game isn't fun for me, so I already uninstalled and deleted it. Thanks anyway. Mods please delete this thread.

Like what? What can I possibly do when aliens just camp inside UFOs with full TUs and shoot me the instant I open a door or step into a room? I already tried using shields, tried using troops with high reflex scores, tried using grenades. Sometimes it works, but many times it doesn't. And when it doesn't, I always lose 1 or 2 soldiers. If there is something else that can be done, by all means please tell me.

Didn't want to start a new topic, but that is it, I am quitting this game. I bring my highest-reflex shield units forward, open a door, and two aliens on the other side get free shots on me. My last mission I entered a large scout UFO and there were FIVE sebillians camping inside, at least 3 of which got free shots as soon as I went through the door. I can still get through by reloading and trying different things, but that just feels like trial and error gameplay. What's the point? I don't know if it's CE or the base game, but this feels like something that has not been properly tested. And to be honest, it's just not fun anymore. Glad I didn't spend a lot of money on this game.

Thank you for the guide Pave. I'll try a few of those thing, especially stun grenades which I haven't really used so far. The problem with suppression is that I have to see enemies first in order to suppress them, and what usually happens is that I get shot whenever I open a door/go around a corner. I can't help but think that CE made the aliens a little TOO good at camping compared to the base game. But I'll keep trying, and we'll see.

I've found a few guides but they only give very general information and basic tips. The only let's play I found was Scott Manley's, and I don't think he's playing with CE because he doesn't seem to have my problems - namely, I open the door and get shot in the face. Or I shoot an alien and he returns fire and kills me, during my turn. Repeatedly.

I know this is an old post, but this is exactly what I am struggling with now. Assaulting UFOs with aliens camping inside is almost impossible without taking casualties and I'm looking for any hints.

I've started going through the game again with CE enabled and am enjoying it for the most part, but I cannot figure out how to take UFOs without heavy losses. The problem is that, as soon as I approach the UFO, aliens will start popping out the door, taking a shot at my troops, then running back inside. There is often no good cover between my guys and the UFO to prevent this. Then, if I manage to get close enough, opening the door leaves me without enough TUs to do anything else. Even if I manage to do something like take a shot, aliens will often shoot me back during my turn and kill 2-3 troops this way. I must have replayed the same UFO assault mission 5 or 6 times just to try out different strategies and nothing seems to work. I know the CE changes a few things like reaction fire, door mechanics etc. So what do I do?

edit: never mind. As usual, I found the answer about 5 minutes after asking the question.

I actually enjoyed some of the changes that added more streamlining (you can get basic equipment for free, don't have to worry about manufacturing/buying ammo, grenades etc), the air combat is improved (even if I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet and let it autoresolve most times), and lots of other small changes. The only thing I don't like so much is the increased difficulty curve from the original. I find this to be a very common phenomenon when small/indie devs do 'remakes' of popular games. They get carried away with the difficulty and make them too 'hardcore' in an attempt to please the veterans, so much so that they aren't fun for new or casual players anymore. In this particular case, the psi attacks are even more annoying than in the original because there's no defense against them, there are too many UFOs, and the game is far too stingy with money, making you feel poor all the time. Not only is it no longer profitable to manufacture things for sale, but the amount of money you get from missions is frankly pathetic. I recently cleared out my first alien base, a reason for celebration in the original game, while here it gave me about as much money as assaulting a medium UFO. Seriously? It's okay if you like a challenge and constant tension, I guess, but for someone who likes to relax and have fun with their games, I wouldn't recommend it.

I guess I'll give it another try. By the way, keeping my lab and workshop size reduced was not a good idea either, as my troops are now becoming hopelessly outclassed and outgunned. Anyone else think laser weapons are a bit excessive in terms of cost and production time? Like 6 days to make one laser sniper rifle with 15 engineers... I think I'll start over again, as I am now being attacked by those android aliens, whatever they are called, and they are almost impervious to my weapons. Need better weapons sooner.

I have reached the middle of November in my new game and am struggling again. It's the same problem as before - UFOs are starting to appear in waves of 3 or 4 at a time, and it takes all the aircraft I've got stationed nearby just to take one of them down. Then they've got to fly back and repair/refuel, and by then the other UFOs are gone. If I try sending just one airplane per UFO, it'll usually get destroyed or tell me it has a 1% chance of winning. I'm doing better at the ground combat part, but it's not making much difference when I am steadily losing funding and being overwhelmed by sheer numbers of UFOs. I need to watch a gameplay video or something. How many interception bases do you people normally keep? And how many planes in each? I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll probably start a new game anyway, since it'll be easier than trying to recover in this one. Gonna keep one strike team for the time being and no more extra labs and workshops. I'll also concentrate more on Foxtrots (for some reason I'd gotten it into my head that they are meant for fighting heavier UFOs because they come with Avalanche missiles as default, but of course you can change their weapons). I'll also probably set the difficulty to Easy this time, at least until I learn the game.

Well, I've got my main base with its 2x labs and workshops, a couple of Condors, a Foxtrot and a Charlie. I've got a secondary base in NA with my other Charlie strike force and 2 Condors. And I was building a third interception base in Indochina. At this point, my upkeep expenses were nearly as much as I was receiving in international support, almost $2 million per month. I wanted another base to cover Africa and maybe South America but I couldn't afford them. Airstriking a UFO crash site gives me something like $25k, and selling stuff from a successful mission doesn't give much more than that. I understand that the option to manufacture things for sale was removed for balance reasons, but I think the economy aspect is a little too hardcore now... Another problem, as I've said, is that I am starting to see 3, 4, even 5 UFOs pop up at once in a single day. I simply can't go after them all with my current forces, which in turn causes me to lose more support. Maybe I should have gotten more interceptors and tried to spend less on other things? I guess I still have a lot to learn.

Hi everyone, just wanted to say I've recently discovered this game and been having a lot of fun with it. I played the original XCOM and TFTD many years ago, and this about as faithful a remake as I can expect, while also improving on many aspects. One thing I seem to be struggling with is the difficulty. I'm playing on Normal, and for the first couple of months everything is going well. I have two bases, in Europe and North America, and building a third one to cover Africa (there seems to be a lot of UFO activity there). My troops are outfitted with Wolf armor and laser weapons, and they generally do well in missions. The problem comes around December, when my huge maintenance costs can barely be covered by what I get from countries anymore. In fact, I don't even know if I'll have enough money by the end of the next month. It also seems that airstriking crashed UFOs and selling stuff from missions nets very little money. Also, I am now detecting 3 or 4 UFOs almost every day, and can't afford to ignore them because that'll lose me support even further. I can't remember the original being this hard... am I doing something wrong?