Castun

Throw more dots! More dots! More dots!

You are correct, but I think you’re completely missing my original point and instead focusing on a small part, and now we’re now arguing the semantics. Yes, abduction missions may only target countries that don’t have satellites, so the only way to stop them completely is to get satellites up everywhere. But on the other hand you can’t also prevent them by shooting down the UFOs before they reach their destination. Until you have 100% coverage, you will ALWAYS be forced to choose, at simultaneous abduction events, which country to help because the aliens know not to target covered countries in the first place. At least in the original you could detect and intercept these UFOs en route because they had to actually fly from whatever base they come from and onto their destination, sometimes passing through your radar coverage, whereas in XCOM:EU they completely avoid this by well, not flying there in the first place (unless of course you consider they could have just come straight out of orbit.) And that’s not to mention that the whole satellite coverage system feels very contrived and ‘gamey’ in the first place. Rather than having to maintain and secure funding by defending countries, now they don’t pay you at all without you having to launch satellites in the first place. You just wait until right before the end of the month to see which country you need to launch satellites in because countries always pull out right at the end of the month, and you now have a convenient ‘panic meter’ for each country. EDIT: Assuming of course, that you are correct...I've seen conflicting points of view when trying to find out.

That's not the way I understand it, there is a change you need to make in the one config file in order to be able to intercept all mission UFOs (both abduction and terror.) If you find yourself able to detect AND intercept all mission UFOs then it sounds like you're using one of the rebalancing / anti-alien-cheating mods out there. http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?162651-Top-Ten-Things-for-XCom-Vets-to-realize-about-X-EU&p=2234751#post2234751 More specifically: And a link to one of these mods: http://steamcommunity.com/app/200510/discussions/0/864948300017084740/#p1 And one of the all-important changes:

I'm still at about mid-game with my very first playthrough (have to do the first alien base raid mission, so I think that's about where I'm at.) My 2 cents: It's a pretty fun game, but even though I got it the weekend after release, I don't have a whole lot of time in it largely because it just doesn't leave me with that 'must play more' feeling that other really good games give you. Sometimes I get the 'one more turn' thing going while I play, but OTOH I'm also not usually looking forward to playing right after getting home. I also don't really understand the 'make fewer decisions but now more important' mentality that some of the die-hard fans of EU tout. It's what I consider a type of 'artificial difficulty' because it limits your freedom and decision making ability by forcing these scripted choice events. Abduction missions: choose between country A, B, or C because every time the aliens perform an abduction mission, they have magical 'stealth' UFOs that only perform synchronized landings. UFO interceptions are completely scripted and pointless because you can't intercept mission UFOs (without modding the game anyway, and if you do it unbalances your game because it wasn't designed to actually use that feature.) They're there purely to be shot down, and you're practically forced to unless you want to take a hit to the panic rating. No more can you make your job somewhat easier by being able to prevent alien missions from happening in the first place by shooting down UFOs before they land, instead you're forced to make stupid choices between who to help after they've already landed. It's just an illusion of choice and freedom. So long as you're careful and 'play smart enough' by always taking the obvious best choice/path, you're basically guaranteed to win. They almost make it too easy to win in this regard, because they make it pretty obvious most of the time what the best choice is. You're constantly guided and held by the hand with everyone telling you what exactly needs done. It can be pretty unforgiving when you screw up, but you usually have to be pretty careless and not paying attention, except when game breaking bugs occur such as the alien squad that teleports in right behind your squad near the start of a mission, or when an alien squad gets TWO free moves after being activated.

I agree with this, the hidden movement screen should be removed in favor of the camera staying focused on your guys, and if there's hidden movement going on there could be a message across the bottom of the screen that says Hidden Movement when you can't see anything happening instead.

I wish there were other download mirrors. Couldn't even get it to download through the Desura client, clicking on the .zip download didn't seem to do anything. Logged in through their site and got it to start downloading, but Desura's downloads are SLOOOOW.