X-Com on Steam?

[jeffd]

I noticed last night that X-Com (and Terror from the Deep) are available via Steam.

I bought them both, haven't tried them out yet. Do they actually work, or am I going to have to jump through hoops?

[BobJustBob]

False alarm, don't get excited. X-Com: TFTD is on Steam, the original still is not.

TFTD runs a little fast but it's still playable as long as you're not on Vista.

Edit: Found this on the Steam forums from a (supposed) 2K Games rep:

Jim:

To answer your questions...

1. It's a licensing thing. The original X-COM is available on another digital distribution service.

2. At this time (because of licensing issues) we are not looking to release the first game via Steam, but the rest of the series is possible.

And...you're welcome. I'm like the biggest X-COM nerd on the planet, so I was as excited to get it up as you were to play it.

[jeffd]

I could have sworn that the first game *and* Terror from the Deep were both on Steam... Will have to check what I bought when I get home.

JD

[Kunikos]

To the 2K Rep: How many people actually really want X-Com Apocalypse? :P

[SirTomster]

So does this mean that GameTap has some sort of "my preciousness only! Mine!" contract for the digital distribution? Or another distributor? If another, anyone know who it is?

Mine! Preciousness.

[Quitch]

To the 2K Rep: How many people actually really want X-Com Apocalypse? :P

Me! Handled real-time really well IMO.

[Fugitive]

A larger X-Com Collection is now available on Steam, including the original, TFTD, Apocalypse, Interceptor, and Enforcer (edit: Oh yeah, they're available separately too). No word yet if they've done anything to tweak them for modern systems, but the sys requirements do say XP.

[UncleSmoothie]

Holy cow, it's true! Will it work with XCOM UTIL, I wonder? There's no news item on the Steam RSS feed about it.

[Rob_Merritt]

A larger X-Com Collection is now available on Steam, including the original, TFTD, Apocalypse, Interceptor, and Enforcer. No word yet if they've done anything to tweak them for modern systems, but the sys requirements do say XP.


All of them except TFTD will run on Vista under dos box. I'm going to pick up Apocalypse.

[moss_icon]

Me! Handled real-time really well IMO.

i loved that game. not sure i'd play it again now, but at the time it was all i played for quite a while.

[Tciecka]

Do they use dosbox, or is this a windows port?

[Rob_Merritt]

Dos box. 2k worked with dosbox developers to customize the app to run these games perfectly. Or so they say.

[BobJustBob]

HOLY SHIT. Did not expect that this morning.

[Fugitive]

I had TFTD before and it looks like they still haven't updated it to use Dosbox, unless the one in this collection is different from the one they released before. It does work in Dosbox if you set it up yourself separately, though.

I'm tempted to pick up the original, since I've only actually played TFTD and Apocalypse, and the ones after that seemed forgettable from the reviews.

[Quitch]

The original and Apocalypse are the ones to own.

[UncleSmoothie]

The original (with XCOMUTIL installed) is a delight to play, and not as tedious as TFTD.

[DavidKaye]

These are the system requirements Steam lists on the original:

System Requirements
Supported OS: A 100% Windows 2000/XP-compatible computer system (only)
Processor: 80386 processor or better
Memory: 4Mb RAM
Sound Cards Supported: AdLib compatible cards, SoundBlaster compatible cards and the Roland LAPC-1.

Anyone tried running this version under Vista?

[Fugitive]

The way Steam's been phrasing their system requirements recently is weird. A "2000/XP-compatible computer system" isn't the same thing as actually running 2000 or XP...
</pedant>

[SirTomster]

Holy Shit.

I might have just creamed myself.

Damn.

And $4.49 just for X-Com.

$13.49 for the whole pack.

Soon Steam soon.

Sold!

[slantz]

These are the system requirements Steam lists on the original:

System Requirements
Supported OS: A 100% Windows 2000/XP-compatible computer system (only)
Processor: 80386 processor or better
Memory: 4Mb RAM
Sound Cards Supported: AdLib compatible cards, SoundBlaster compatible cards and the Roland LAPC-1.

Anyone tried running this version under Vista?
I'd been running the Abandonia.net version under XP and it wasn't particularly graceful. I had frequent crashes and the speed was way too wonky.

For what it's worth, I did not have those issues with TFTD that I bought from Steam. Presumably they did some touching up to fix the speed issues and make it run reliably on modern OS's.

I plan on buying the full set for $13.50. Hopefully that gives me a gift credit for TFTD since I already bought that through Steam.

[DavidKaye]

Right. I am wondering about Vista specifically, not XP.

[Fugitive]

According to this comment (http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=17846108#itemanchor_17846108) from one of the guys who worked on putting them up, they should all be fine under Vista. Except TFTD right now, but they intend to update that one to use Dosbox as well.

[Cubit]

i'm sure if they use dosbox, they will run just fine under vista as well. anyone able to confirm yet?

[McCrank]

purchased and purchased! all the games run fine for me in vista 64

[malkav11]

Can anyone confirm if they can be windowed? The resolutions people used back in those days don't play nice with my monitor.

[Cubit]

purchased and purchased! all the games run fine for me in vista 64

awesome, thanks mccrank. i have vista 64 also

[tylertoo]

The original and Apocalypse are the ones to own.

Sorry for the complete newb question, but before I hit purchase I want to be sure -- is the original the one subtitled "UFO Defense"?

[slantz]

Sorry for the complete newb question, but before I hit purchase I want to be sure -- is the original the one subtitled "UFO Defense"?
Yep.

5

[BobJustBob]

purchased and purchased! all the games run fine for me in vista 64

I have Vista 64 and I had TFTD before and it still won't work for me, but the first one works and is properly speed-limited and everything. Man, that intro brought back memories.

[flyinj]

I'd love to have the speed issue resolved. Have people played Xcom 1 and put time acceleration to 1 day? In TFTD, that would result in a spam of updates. Is that solved with the "tweaks" they made to it?

If so, I'm definitely getting xcom 1 and apoc.

[Fugitive]

Oh, and buried in the comments I linked to earlier, he reveals that they're working on releasing the original Colonization online, too...

[DavidKaye]

I'd love to have the speed issue resolved. Have people played Xcom 1 and put time acceleration to 1 day? In TFTD, that would result in a spam of updates. Is that solved with the "tweaks" they made to it?

If so, I'm definitely getting xcom 1 and apoc.

XCom seems to run perfectly on my Vista laptop. No problems with time acceleration.

[jeffd]

I'd like to point out that I CALLED THIS over a year ago. ;)

[Shadari]

I'd like to point out that I CALLED THIS over a year ago. ;)
But was it in your blog?

[UncleSmoothie]

I can confirm that XCOMUTIL runs just fine with this version of X-Com.

[flyinj]

How about running in a window?

A resizable window?

[Fugitive]

How about running in a window?

A resizable window?
I can confirm that you can hit Alt-Enter to have it switch between full screen and a window, at least. If you want to have it windowed by default, or scaled to a different resolution, you'll have to mess with the options in the dosbox.conf file in its steamapps directory.

Edit: Going windowed also turns off composition under Vista's Aero. And the default scaler is one of those that puts rounded corners on everything, but again you can adjust that in the config file.

[flyinj]

Does anyone have a list of hotkeys for Xcom and Apoc? Were there hotkeys?

[Juntei]

Oh, and buried in the comments I linked to earlier, he reveals that they're working on releasing the original Colonization online, too...

This was released free a month or so ago on the disk i got with my PC Gamer. DosBox'd up and all... runs fine with the occasional odd musical quirks.

[UncleSmoothie]

Does anyone have a list of hotkeys for Xcom and Apoc? Were there hotkeys?

I don't think there were hotkeys. Definitely not for the original.

[BleedTheFreak]

This actually got me excited for a second play-through of the excellent UFO Afterlight. I never got into the first two UFO games, but the third one is terrific!

[Brinstil]

So for XP, do you have to jump through any hoops to get the first x-com working ok on steam? Or is it wonderfully simple?

[Fugitive]

It works fine as-is, since they've already set up the Dosbox environment to do the proper speed limiting and hardware support. TFTD doesn't, but they say they're going to fix it up a bit later.

[SirTomster]

So for XP, do you have to jump through any hoops to get the first x-com working ok on steam? Or is it wonderfully simple?

I bought.

I dowloaded.

I played.

Probably around 4 hours straight before I shut down because I need to go to bed. NO problems at all

XP system.

[Marcus]

14 bucks? Sold. Downloading now.

Only real question I have is can I play these games without steam being connected to the interwebs? I know that TQ does but I'd love to be able to play these as well.

[tylertoo]

So for XP, do you have to jump through any hoops to get the first x-com working ok on steam? Or is it wonderfully simple?

It was wonderfully simple. And I ran it windowed with the pdf manual (which includes text tutorials) open in separate window.

[Marcus]

Yeah they run great. 100% worth the money just to have them working and easily installed with no hassle. I've tried them all and they worked great.

[Skipper]

Wow this completely snuck in on me. Nice to see that on Steam. Purchased.

[ElGuapo]

This actually got me excited for a second play-through of the excellent UFO Afterlight. I never got into the first two UFO games, but the third one is terrific!

Explain in more detail please. Only about the last half of the last sentence. :)

[Jon_Danger]

excellent.

I never got to play this one... I am buying tonight!

[Staff Sergeant]

What was that X-COM clone with multiplayer game that Tom and Bruce played oh so long ago?

[Fugitive]

Laser Squad Nemesis, I think.

[Bob Violence]

These are the system requirements Steam lists on the original:

System Requirements
Supported OS: A 100% Windows 2000/XP-compatible computer system (only)
Processor: 80386 processor or better
Memory: 4Mb RAM
Sound Cards Supported: AdLib compatible cards, SoundBlaster compatible cards and the Roland LAPC-1.

Damn, my XP rig is a 286 with 2 MB RAM :(

[Staff Sergeant]

Laser Squad Nemesis, I think.

Ah, thanks. I thought it was Laser Squad Defense for some reason.

[Brian Rubin]

A larger X-Com Collection is now available on Steam, including the original, TFTD, Apocalypse, Interceptor, and Enforcer (edit: Oh yeah, they're available separately too). No word yet if they've done anything to tweak them for modern systems, but the sys requirements do say XP.
Oh, it has interceptor? I loved interceptor! Getting that ASAP.

[Sebmojo]

Explain in more detail please. Only about the last half of the last sentence. :)

He's meaning the three UFO copies, isn't he? Afterlight, Aftershock, ... Afterbirth(?)

[Fugitive]

Oh, it has interceptor? I loved interceptor! Getting that ASAP.
A word of warning that I've heard from other forums: if you're running Vista, there's a bug that apparently makes some enemy bases and probes unkillable, making the game unwinnable. No workaround yet that I know of.

[NowhereDan]

Ug. Just played some Apocalypse, and it reminded me about why I hated this game so much when it first came out. Turns out it wasn't because it wasn't enough like the original X-COM, it's because it just wasn't a good game. The interface alone is extremely frustrating.

[marxeil]

So as usual this isn't available here. I guess they couldn't get an agreement with whoever has distribution rights in Europe. What a shame.

[footmunch]

So as usual this isn't available here. I guess they couldn't get an agreement with whoever has distribution rights in Europe. What a shame.
I haven't actually purchased, but they all appear to be available here in the UK.

[Sneaky]

I just bought the pack on Steam in Germany, so yea

[BleedTheFreak]

Explain in more detail please. Only about the last half of the last sentence. :)

I remember years ago being really interested in UFO when it was first announced, but I really hated the demo. I skipped the second game as well, never even really tried it, but last year on a lark I tried the Afterlight demo, and while it's pretty complex I got really into it, and I ordered the full version right away. It's a ton of fun, all the great stuff I enjoyed from X-Com are here (but instead of having multiple bases on Earth you have just ONE on Mars, but it grows and you can expand it into adjacent territories, gathering resources by building mining operations and all sorts of fun "base management" stuff).

You can train your people, research amazing new tech, ally yourself with various other factions (or war with them if you want what they have), you terraform Mars as you are able, and the combat is a lot of fun. The combat is real time with pause, but you can issue commands in a que and play it out in slow-motion for the really tough battles. The enemies start off easy and get progressivly more terrifying as you play into the game, but you get absurdly powerful yourself with leveling up, training, and better gear (starting out with earth-based firearms and eventually having the latest in plasma technology and personal forcefields, etc.)

It's a nice looking game as well, with an intutive camera control (it plays a lot like WoW with holding the right mouse button letting you look around) and a UI that's deep but not obtuse.

If you have a few hours to kill, downoad the demo and give it a shot, anyone who likes X-Com should enjoy this one as well.

[Staff Sergeant]

Ah, thanks. I thought it was Laser Squad Defense for some reason.

Just like to let you all know that I popped onto eBay and found LSN for 4 dollars plus shipping... easiest buy of my life.

[Staff Sergeant]

Also, XCOM is abandonware, so I grabbed it to see if I was interested, and while it seems like a sweet game, there is very little explanation, and I had no idea what I was doing for a little bit, then I managed to attack a UFO ground force and the game promptly crashed.

Does the Steam version correct this problem? Because the download I had said it was gold version or something, and it mentioned something about a patch.. do I need to get XCOMUtil as well as the patch, or are they the same thing?

[Fugitive]

Technically it's no longer abandonware (which itself isn't a proper legal status) once it's for sale again...

The Steam version is the original DOS version, running under Dosbox, and compatibility has been good so far and shouldn't have the same kind of crash. XCOMUtil is more of an enhancement tool, and shouldn't affect stability.

[dogbert]

Also, XCOM is abandonware

??? This thread is about how you can buy it!!

[Staff Sergeant]

XCOM Abandonware (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/38/UFO+-+Enemy+Unknown.html) EDIT: Dead link, removed this morning (I swear it worked when I posted it)

[Staff Sergeant]

Technically it's no longer abandonware (which itself isn't a proper legal status) once it's for sale again...

The Steam version is the original DOS version, running under Dosbox, and compatibility has been good so far and shouldn't have the same kind of crash. XCOMUtil is more of an enhancement tool, and shouldn't affect stability.

When you say running under Dosbox... is that included or do I need to get Dosbox and then use it?

[Hudson]

XCOM Abandonware (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/38/UFO+-+Enemy+Unknown.html)

Wow you found warez on the internet. I also hear there are pictures of naked women.

[beloved one]

Wow you found warez on the internet. I also hear there are pictures of naked women.

Abandonia isn't warez. Ironically, it doesn't seem like a lot of people actually tried browsing the site before continuing on -- you can't download tftd or x-com anymore, evidence that they are not abandonware (such a status seems to exist in practice).

[Staff Sergeant]

Abandonia isn't warez. It's not like I downloaded a torrent/crack or something... they even announced that they will be removing X-COM shortly because of its recent entrance to Steam, so go fuck yourself you snarky bastard.

As of yesterday, the entire X-Com series is available for purchase through Steam, including the pin-offs X-COM: Interceptor and X-COM: Enforcer. The price is $5 per game or $15 for all five together. As a result, we have to remove the downloads of UFO: enemy Unknown and X-Com: Apocalypse. :(

Next time, at least try to make sure you know what you're talking about.

[nothings]

For what it's worth, the dosbox settings for the original (X-Com: UFO Defense) didn't work at all well on my machine (2.4Ghz core 2 quad). Hunting around I found the configuration file was "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\xcom ufo defense\dosbox.conf", and changing the line "cycles=auto limit 8000" to "cycles=50000" has brought it a lot closer to reasonable.

Abandonia isn't warez.

For most people, "warez" is "illegal copies", whether that involved stripping out some copy protection or not.

Abandonware isn't a legal status, so abandonware sites are providing illegal copies, aka warez.

[Staff Sergeant]

For what it's worth, the dosbox settings for the original (X-Com: UFO Defense) didn't work at all well on my machine (2.4Ghz core 2 quad). Hunting around I found the configuration file was "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\xcom ufo defense\dosbox.conf", and changing the line "cycles=auto limit 8000" to "cycles=50000" has brought it a lot closer to reasonable.



For most people, "warez" is "illegal copies", whether that involved stripping out some copy protection or not.

Abandonware isn't a legal status, so abandonware sites are providing illegal copies, aka warez.

In my opinion, a game is abandonware when it is nigh impossible to find in stores and is no longer being actively produced. Even if you exhaustively searched for it, it would cost like 4 dollars and barely anyone would profit off of that purchase (and the developers and publishers would probably make no money).

The move to Steam eliminated all of those conditions, so abandonia removed it. You may call it warez, but they do have scruples, you have to admit that.

EDIT: Also, I will be removing it from my computer (since now it is warez (and to be fair I just wanted to see if it lived up to all the hype/would work)), but I doubt I'll buy it. It seems unlikely that it will work on my computer, so I'm not going to spend money on it.

[Damien Neil]

Abandonia isn't warez.

I'm afraid the subtle distinction between "software provided in violation of copyright law" and "warez" is lost on many of us.

[malkav11]

The distinction is usually "will someone sue us?"

I mean, I love Abandonia and HOTU. I think they provide a really valuable service in keeping games available for play that would otherwise disappear either due to copyright holder neglect or nonexistence. But there has never been any pretense that most of the files they host are up there legally.

[flyinj]

So, any tips on shoring up performance on the original Xcom? I love how I was complaining that the previous steam release of terror from the deep was too fast to play, now Xcom is almost too slow to play. If I could just jack the "processor" speed up a smidge, it would be perfect.

Also, is there a way to fix the sound delay bug? It's super annoying that every sound plays .5-1 second after it triggers.

[Gendal]

So, any tips on shoring up performance on the original Xcom?
It's Dosbox (http://www.dosbox.com/), so you should be able to edit some ini files and set whatever speed you want. Just follow that URL and look at the documentation.

[fuzzyslug]

Side note: Terror from the Deep doesn't work on Vista.

To the person who noted an interceptor bug under Vista, was that in the Steam version?

[slantz]

Yeah, I'm one of the staunchest anti-warez folks around, as well as one of the staunchest defenders of copyrights.

But I use Abandonia, and I use it with a clean conscience. I use it only when it's impossible to download via other means. And in my case, I can't think of a single game I've downloaded that I hadn't already bought at least once over the years.

I realize it's a shade of gray, but I think it says something to their integrity that they appear to have proactively removed the downloads as soon as they knew the product was available for sale, and provided information pointing to where people can now buy it. Further, they don't profit from the games they distribute, and the only distrubute games which are very, very old (DOS) and to the best of their knowledge really have been abandoned.

Blindly lumping them in together with warez and cracks sites seems remarkably disingenuous.

[Cubit]

Man, way to bring up HOTU and break my heart. :( That was one of my favorite sites to browse and read features and ect... for many years. I wish Sarinee would either start updating it again, release it to the community to keep up and add content, or just shut it down altogether. You can't even download anymore because of slow speeds.

[Damien Neil]

Blindly lumping them in together with warez and cracks sites seems remarkably disingenuous.

Look, I'm not interested in the ethics of downloading games you can't find anywhere else. I've done it myself.

However, EFG started this by saying: "Also, XCOM is abandonware". Which is patently absurd, given that I just bought it off of Steam last night. Someone pointed this out. He then offered a link to Abandonia as evidence for the game being "abandonware". Which is still patently absurd, since Abandonia has no ability to magically make a game "abandoned" when it's for sale on Steam.

At a point when EFG could have bought X-COM off of Steam, he downloaded an illegal copy off the Internet. How is that not "warez"?

This isn't about Abandonia. It's about EFG using a hilariously inappropriate definition of "abandonware", which appears to be "anything that appears on Abandonia, regardless of any other circumstances".

[marxeil]

I haven't actually purchased, but they all appear to be available here in the UK.
I just bought the pack on Steam in Germany, so yea
This product doesn't appear to be available in your region.
Well, maybe its just not available for us middle easterners.

[Staff Sergeant]

Look, I'm not interested in the ethics of downloading games you can't find anywhere else. I've done it myself.

However, EFG started this by saying: "Also, XCOM is abandonware". Which is patently absurd, given that I just bought it off of Steam last night. Someone pointed this out. He then offered a link to Abandonia as evidence for the game being "abandonware". Which is still patently absurd, since Abandonia has no ability to magically make a game "abandoned" when it's for sale on Steam.

At a point when EFG could have bought X-COM off of Steam, he downloaded an illegal copy off the Internet. How is that not "warez"?

This isn't about Abandonia. It's about EFG using a hilariously inappropriate definition of "abandonware", which appears to be "anything that appears on Abandonia, regardless of any other circumstances".

I really couldn't give a shit about your semantics. If a game that is less than 100 megabytes is available online, I'm going to download it for free to test if it is compatible with my computer (especially if it is 15 years old) and is worth the money. In this case, I saved myself some money (it didn't work), and I deleted it.

I guess the phrasing that started this little debate was "X-COM is abandonware", when I should have said "X-COM was abandonware". In any case, I have a clean conscience, and you can bang your head against the wall trying to convince me otherwise all you want.

[BobJustBob]

If a game that is less than 100 megabytes is available online, I'm going to download it for free to test if it is compatible with my computer (especially if it is 15 years old) and is worth the money.

Wow.

In this case, I saved myself some money (it didn't work), and I deleted it.

Did you download DOSbox too? Did you download the DOSbox configuration files provided with the Steam version?

I have a clean conscience

Wow.

[Quitch]

You don't need to test it, there's a clearly labelled set of system requirements. If you don't meet them, don't buy it, if you do meet them and it doesn't work you can get a refund.

[slantz]

At a point when EFG could have bought X-COM off of Steam, he downloaded an illegal copy off the Internet. How is that not "warez"?

This isn't about Abandonia. It's about EFG using a hilariously inappropriate definition of "abandonware", which appears to be "anything that appears on Abandonia, regardless of any other circumstances".
It just stopped being abandonware by anyone's observation less than 48 hours ago. It sounds like he, like myself, had a copy from Abandonia long before it hit Steam.

I know in my case, I paid the $15 yesterday for the whole package on Steam now that it's available, despite the fact that I paid for TFTD as soon as that became available months ago. (No credit for a gift copy, for those wondering. That's a little disappointing.)

[Naeblis]

Downloading abandonware is as illegal as downloading a new game. What it changes its the ethics, abandonware is morally fine for most people but 'normal' piracy isn't.

[slantz]

You don't need to test it, there's a clearly labelled set of system requirements. If you don't meet them, don't buy it, if you do meet them and it doesn't work you can get a refund.
And I will say that so far, the Steam version is far more stable and time-synched than the Abandonia version ever was. So far I've had no problems at all w/ the Steam version.

[nothings]

So, any tips on shoring up performance on the original Xcom?

4 posts before yours (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1464263&postcount=72)

[Jab2565]

I think this issue is pretty interesting. I admit that I downloaded X-Com from the underdog site a few months ago. And I stand by my decision, at that time there were no other options for me to play this classic title. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a title that may or may not work on my current system and that wasn't really designed for the OS. I hate having to have some client to play a game I bought so gametap was out, (my rationale for playing TF2 on Steam is that TF2 is a multiplayer only title so I would need the client and to be online to play it to begin with.) Even though I liked X-Com I don't think I'm going to be picking up the steam edition of it. If at some point Good Old Games puts the same titles on its service, I would uninstall my version of it in a heartbeat and buy it from them. Because I know that the game will be my copy and I don't have to worry about clients or anything else.

If we were to be really technical about it, there is still no easy way of playing X-Com that requires a simple download and having a permanent copy of it. I agree that the ethics about it are very interesting which has inspired me to get a blog entry started on it.

[scharmers]

Just wanted to randomly add : anyone who posts here and doesn't know how to tweak DOSBOX.CONF should have their gamer badge taken away.

[Fugitive]

If we were to be really technical about it, there is still no easy way of playing X-Com that requires a simple download and having a permanent copy of it. I agree that the ethics about it are very interesting which has inspired me to get a blog entry started on it.
Actually, I just tested and confirmed that X-Com (the first one anyway) doesn't do Steam authentication and can run completely independently. You can archive or move its steamapp directory wherever you want, and just set up a shortcut to run dosbox.exe in its directory, without Steam running.

[Coca Cola Zero]

If anything, I think the Steam release kind of highlights the folly of wanting a "permanent copy" of old PC games because of how difficult it is to get them work on newer systems. If a game still holds up 10 or so years later, I'd rather just buy it again in a form that has already been made compatible with the OS and computer specs of the day than spend hours or days trying to hack the old version I bought to work via unofficial means... especially if they're selling the more recently compatible version for like $5 at the time.

[Quitch]

Anyone else experiencing a slight lag between visual and audio elements?

[flyinj]

Anyone else experiencing a slight lag between visual and audio elements?

Yes. It sucks.

I'd ask if this has anything to do with DOSBOX's emulation and if someone knows how to fix it, but scharmers will erupt in nerd rage and revoke my gamer badge if I ask any questions about DOSBOX on this forum.

[Marcus]

Yeah I noticed the weird hissue as well. I'd hope they fix that rather the me having to do it my self.

[Brian Rubin]

I got this yesterday and played some Interceptor...lord I love that game...WHEN played with a mouse. ;) I actually liked Apocalypse myself, but the original game and Interceptor are my faves.

[JPR]

So what's the two paragraph version of how to play this game? I just tried for the first time, and the aliens had set themselves up so that they would shoot at me (during my turn) when I walked into their range. Is there a way for me to prep for a counter shot with extra movement points at the end of my turn? What do I need to do before I go try to explore my first crash site? Is there something that I have to do in order to get artifacts and alien bodies, or whatever, or do they get automatically gathered up if I clear the level (all my guys died on my first attempt)? Anything else that's not obvious that I simply MUST know in order to play this game?

[scharmers]

Yes. It sucks.

I'd ask if this has anything to do with DOSBOX's emulation and if someone knows how to fix it, but scharmers will erupt in nerd rage and revoke my gamer badge if I ask any questions about DOSBOX on this forum.

VOGONS is the best place to look for specific game questions, including general tweaks to streamline your DOSBOX configuration, etc.

[Lokust]

So what's the two paragraph version of how to play this game? I just tried for the first time, and the aliens had set themselves up so that they would shoot at me (during my turn) when I walked into their range. Is there a way for me to prep for a counter shot with extra movement points at the end of my turn? What do I need to do before I go try to explore my first crash site? Is there something that I have to do in order to get artifacts and alien bodies, or whatever, or do they get automatically gathered up if I clear the level (all my guys died on my first attempt)? Anything else that's not obvious that I simply MUST know in order to play this game?


Generally speaking you want to give the better guns to your guys with the better stats (accuracy, bravery, reactions) and have your chumps be your pointmen that go ahead and get shot at. Once one guy spots an alien everyone can shoot at him even if they can't see him. Killing all aliens in a level nets you everything you can pick up. If all else fails you can physically carry stuff back to your ship and evac but generally the poo has hit the fan if you're at that point.

Best advice for early game is research and manufacture laser weaponry (rifles and pistols) as they are pretty cheap and solid until you can stock enough plasma weaponry (and research how to use it). I also like taking a rocket HWP on every mission early on as it's a pretty solid tank for scouting and I prefer to make my own doors into buildings rather than wait for aliens covering a door to kill a guy. I prefer to buy one of these and a fair bit of ammo before going to my first crash site. Also build general stores, living quarters, and workshop space early on too. Later on in the game blaster bombs will fill this role much better.

[Woolen Horde]

So what's the two paragraph version of how to play this game? I just tried for the first time, and the aliens had set themselves up so that they would shoot at me (during my turn) when I walked into their range. Is there a way for me to prep for a counter shot with extra movement points at the end of my turn? What do I need to do before I go try to explore my first crash site? Is there something that I have to do in order to get artifacts and alien bodies, or whatever, or do they get automatically gathered up if I clear the level (all my guys died on my first attempt)? Anything else that's not obvious that I simply MUST know in order to play this game?

You must resign yourself to absolutely horrendous casualty rates early on. Guys are going to get killed, lots of them. They're cannon fodder, but you will start to develop some veterans, and once you get on the research curve you can better their odds with armor and advanced weapons.

[nothings]

Is there a way for me to prep for a counter shot with extra movement points at the end of my turn?

Yes, it's called "reaction fire" and is one of the two most important things to succeeding. If a guy has sufficient time remaining to do one of the types of shots, he will shoot at enemies he sees who come into his cone of vision, although this effect is limited by his reaction stat.

To best take advantage of this, use the four(?) buttons at the bottom left (red? green?), which when depressed stay depressed. These reserve a certain amount of time; when you try to give a unit orders that exhaust that time reserve, it will display 'time reserved for auto shot' or some such. So you can set the thing to leave enough time for each kind of shot.

When shooting, you generally want to use auto fire, because the 2 sets of 3 shots at a lower chance generally work out better than the higher chance for the aimed shot.

Generally I reserve enough time for auto fire, then when they hit the limit I turn it off so I can kneel them and point them in an appropriate direction and they still have snap-shot time left--since there's no way to just reserve auto+5, and kneeling is a big advantage in terms of higher accuracy and defensively a smaller tactic.

(The other most important thing to do is scout with a guy, then use everyone else to shoot at a target he finds, and if the enemy survives retreat the scout to cover.)

What do I need to do before I go try to explore my first crash site? You can certainly succeed with the default load out and your basic guys without spending any time looking at their stats, so if you find all the other advice overwhelming, just try going ahead with what you have (it's just sub-optimal). Expect a guy or two to die; that's just how X-Com rolls.

[DavidKaye]

Scout out the immediate locale with the HWP at the start of the mission. I also like to cover the initial deployment with a smoke grenade.

[Jab2565]

Are the versions up on Steam any different then the ones that were on free sites before being taken down? The free version I played of the first X-Com would crash randomly sometimes when loading up a mission.

[Staff Sergeant]

Are the versions up on Steam any different then the ones that were on free sites? The free version I played of the first X-Com would crash randomly sometimes when loading up a mission.

Whoa, careful... talking about the "free" version of X-COM around here gets some people's panties in a twist.

[DrCrypt]

Christ, you're an idiot. X-Com was released on PC Gamer's CD-ROM years back. If you got it off of there, you're within your rights to not have paid for it. As opposed to the sort of chest-thumping doofus who wanders around citing Abandonia as official legal arbiter of abandoned copyrights.

Incidentally, the Steam version is 1.4... and there is a rather huge downer to using 1.4 over 1.2. In 1.4, all of the aliens lost their individual screams, to be replaced by a generic one. There's a patch here (http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242025565) but it only works on the Windows Collector's Edition.

[Chuck Jordan]

You must resign yourself to absolutely horrendous casualty rates early on. Guys are going to get killed, lots of them. They're cannon fodder, but you will start to develop some veterans, and once you get on the research curve you can better their odds with armor and advanced weapons.
That's always been my biggest problem with X-Com. I love the game, for about 45 minutes, until I get to my first crash site mission. Even if I go into it knowing that there are going to be casualties, it still pisses me off to watch everybody die, after I've gotten attached and gone to the trouble of learning their names. It's like being guidance counselor at the school from "Battle Royale."

[Shiroko]

That's the best part of the game, the first time you play it, go into a mission and end up with half the team dead by aliens and the other half by berserk team members.

Good stuff.
They don't make games like that anymore, they have all of those silly "tutorials" or something.

[Cat Master]

Is there a trick to intercepting? When I first tried to play, all but two of the UFOs outran my jets. I ended up losing all my funding and lost the game... on easy.

[rezaf]

Is there a trick to intercepting? When I first tried to play, all but two of the UFOs outran my jets. I ended up losing all my funding and lost the game... on easy.

Were you forgetting to give an actual attack order to your jets?
(You need to press one of the buttons below the radar screen to do that)

Otherwise, it's normal for the smaller UFOs to outrun interceptors on the geoscape, but you can get around that by having them fly "into you".

Failing that, you can always send a Skyranger to an UFO that landed by itself to do some abduction or something.
_____
rezaf

[nothings]

I love the game, for about 45 minutes, until I get to my first crash site mission. Even if I go into it knowing that there are going to be casualties, it still pisses me off to watch everybody die, after I've gotten attached and gone to the trouble of learning their names.

Then don't bother learning their names. Just don't even look at that screen until you're a few missions in. It shouldn't take 45 minutes to get to your first crash site, either. There's a bunch of useful management stuff to do at the beginning, but it's not worth overdoing it, especially in your first game.

IMO, all of the fun is in the tactical combat game. The "just play a little longer" comes from waiting on the research and manufacturing to make new equipment available, but you should be enjoying the tactical combat game or it's all over. So learning to be accepting of getting crushed once in a while is important, and in general treating your soldiers like hit points, not unique butterflies, is necessary. Although you can always save/load every turn of the tactical combat if it really bothers you.

(For me, I've found the sweet spot of fun, after playing many times, is to save after every mission -- in part because of crashes -- and to only restore after a total wipeout that feels unrecoverable. Also, I'll sometimes go on missions that I expect are unbeatable, planning on restoring, just trying the mission out for fun.)

Is there a trick to intercepting? When I first tried to play, all but two of the UFOs outran my jets. I ended up losing all my funding and lost the game... on easy.

No trick. To a certain extent, it's just luck whether the UFOs outrun your interceptors (it depends when you find them and how much time it takes your interceptors to reach them).

You should place your starting base somewhere that will have good coverage of an area that supplies high funding, to make sure you'll have funding for a while, since that's the area you'll be best able to defend. Creating new bases which just have a radar station should be a priority; in the long run you want to find all alien activity and have time to react to it, so eventually you'll want to deploy interceptors at those bases as well. Again, it's more important to do this in areas that have good funding (north america, europe, east asia; not antartica, africa, south america).

You can fight aliens on the ground without shooting them down, but you have to have a skyranger close enough for this to happen, so it's not that common until the later game (when your options will have changed for various reasons). And terror missions.

[Chuck]

Whoa, careful... talking about the "free" version of X-COM around here gets some people's panties in a twist.

As well it should. It's called stealing.

Abandonia quickly dropped their X-Com games from their lineup once they became available on Steam.

I just spent 5 bucks on the original, and although I've done plenty of abandonware, it felt pretty damn good to support the current owner of the game.

Can't wait for GOG.

[JPR]

I love the game, for about 45 minutes, until I get to my first crash site mission.

Okay, this is what I was getting at. When I played, I was at my first landing/crash site in about 5 minutes. Maybe less. What should I have been doing for 45 minutes prior to going to a landing site?

[ElGuapo]

As well it should. It's called stealing.

Abandonia quickly dropped their X-Com games from their lineup once they became available on Steam.

I just spent 5 bucks on the original, and although I've done plenty of abandonware, it felt pretty damn good to support the current owner of the game.

Can't wait for GOG.

Yes, it gets my panties in a twist when someone buys the rights to a game that was developed wholly by someone else. If the Gollop brothers get money from this I'd buy it in a heartbeat. As is I bought the original in stores (when some of the money went to the developers) and am now playing a copy that was released for free in an issue of PC Gamer. I would call that stealing, nes pa?

[ElGuapo]

Is there a trick to intercepting? When I first tried to play, all but two of the UFOs outran my jets. I ended up losing all my funding and lost the game... on easy.

Do the Steam versions not come with a manual? PDF or otherwise? This is a pretty complicated game to jump into if you've never played it, with no manual.

For those of you just getting into the game, after you've played it a bit, or if you need inspiration, you might enjoy this (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=32835). It's an AAR of the entire game, start to finish. Took over a year to write. Obviously, spoilers if you've never played X-COM. That thread is about the original, UFO Defense.

[JPR]

Do the Steam versions not come with a manual? PDF or otherwise?

No. I was a little inconvenienced.

[Fugitive]

There are manuals, but you have to go to the storefront page for it and find the link for it there. I'm not sure why they've stopped bundling them and putting them on the context menu right in the games list, like they used to do.

[ElGuapo]

No easy access to manuals would kill a TON of strategy games on Steam. I was thinking of picking up Civ IV on it, but having never played it, I would be completely lost. That's not very smart of them.

[JPR]

Oh, that's good news.

Yeah, Guapo, most of their games, you can right-click on the steam menu and there is a "View Manual" option. Since it wasn't there, I didn't think to go to the store page.

[Fugitive]

Just checked and there is indeed a "View Player Manual" right-click option for Civ4, but it takes you to the PDF via a web link, so you might want to save it away so you can refer to it when offline as well.

[RichardC]

If anything, I think the Steam release kind of highlights the folly of wanting a "permanent copy" of old PC games because of how difficult it is to get them work on newer systems. If a game still holds up 10 or so years later, I'd rather just buy it again in a form that has already been made compatible with the OS and computer specs of the day than spend hours or days trying to hack the old version I bought to work via unofficial means... especially if they're selling the more recently compatible version for like $5 at the time.

Where do I get a list of the games due to get this treatment over the next couple of decades?

[tylertoo]

Yes, I saved the X-Com manual pdf to my desktop and keep that opened while playing, its been helpful (I keep expecting tool tips to pop up when I mouse over buttons in the game).

And thanks for pointing to your AAR, El, its great.

[Jon_Danger]

Holy crap... I got destroyed my first encounter.

but man was it fun!

[Chuck Jordan]

Okay, this is what I was getting at. When I played, I was at my first landing/crash site in about 5 minutes. Maybe less. What should I have been doing for 45 minutes prior to going to a landing site?
If you're me, sending out interceptors only after the tiniest ships, ignoring large ships and other landing/terror alerts, doing everything possible to delay the inevitable. I developed that strategy after dozens of games where I'd take on the first crash site that was offered me and watched my team get taken down to one guy.

[idrisz]

I don't remember it was that hard at beginning of X-com, I basically outfit my crews with Auto-Cannon with explosive rounds then upgrade to laser rifle then to Plasma weaponry.

You don't have to protect every country, as long as 1 country left to support you. Later on in the game, you can make money just by making laser rifle and selling them.

[JPR]

The people asking about it have never played before and don't have a manual (and yes, I know the manual thing has been covered), so.... It doesn't necessarily have to be that hard, it's just not immediately obvious what to, you know, do. I, for example, went to a landing site within about 3 days of the game starting (my base was around Tennessee, and somebody landed in Cuba). I took my guys with their pistols, rifles, 1 autocannon, and 1 rocket launcher and tried to figure out how to play. I don't think anybody is complaining about the difficulty.

[RichardC]

If you're me, sending out interceptors only after the tiniest ships, ignoring large ships and other landing/terror alerts, doing everything possible to delay the inevitable. I developed that strategy after dozens of games where I'd take on the first crash site that was offered me and watched my team get taken down to one guy.

That's always been a large part of the fun for me - the way you start off completely doomed, outmanned, outgunned, and facing an insanely superior force, and spend much of the game desperately trying to keep your head above water. Makes it all the more satisfying when you finally hit that tipping point and start kicking the slimy bastards back where they came from with the business end of their own guns.

[Shiroko]

RichardC got it right, what makes the game so exciting is the awful starting point you have.
You need to try a few fight to actually kill an alien, you make tons of mistakes and almost every battle fills like a suicide mission. Every time I play the game and the first terror site happens I'm troubled if I can handle it.
You guys made me miss the game so much, I'll schedule a replay for once I'm done with Spore. Hope you guys are happy. This usually means X-Com 1&2 and occasionally even apocalypse.

[Cat Master]

There are manuals, but you have to go to the storefront page for it and find the link for it there. I'm not sure why they've stopped bundling them and putting them on the context menu right in the games list, like they used to do.

Thanks. I bought these to play while the wife was visiting her parents this weekend and was getting a little concerned about the brick wall of a learning curve.

[Quitch]

As they said, it's supposed to be a bastard. That's the fun :)

[SirTomster]

As they said, it's supposed to be a bastard. That's the fun :)

I have to remember to SAVE SAVE SAVE. I never do and then lose the whole team and get stuck and generally wither away.

But after installing and watching the intro it brought back so many memories.. Been playing since the weekend. Still suck but having fun.

[DavidKaye]

Manual is here (http://www.xcomufo.com/x1manual.pdf), incidentally.

Phenomenal game. It has not aged a day.

Well, except for the retarded pre-mission weapon loadout logic, which seems hell bent on giving all the heaviest shit to the weakest members of your team so they can barely drag their sorry asses out of the Skyranger.

[tylertoo]

So I bought a tank/rocket launcher, but when I try to equip it to my Skyranger, I get the message 'Not enough rockets to arm HWP.' Anyone know what this means or what I'm doing wrong?

[Talisker]

Sounds like you haven't bought ammo for it.

[Fugitive]

You also have to have bought enough to completely fill the tank, I think; it won't go out partially loaded.

[tylertoo]

Sounds like you haven't bought ammo for it.

Hmmm, I know I have 4 HWP rockets at the base (I see them listed under Sell Items). But when I go to equip the skyranger, they're not listed under the available equipment. How do I arm the tank/rocket launcher with the rockets?

[idrisz]

Hmmm, I know I have 4 HWP rockets at the base (I see them listed under Sell Items). But when I go to equip the skyranger, they're not listed under the available equipment. How do I arm the tank/rocket launcher with the rockets?

those aren't rocket you are looking for!

those are probably ammos for your interceptor missiles.

[tylertoo]

You also have to have bought enough to completely fill the tank, I think; it won't go out partially loaded.

Fugitive, you were right; turns out I needed 8 (found that in the UFOpedia), not 4, and as you said it won't go out partially loaded. Thanks.

[Fugitive]

Some other dosbox.conf options that might help with people experiencing glitches:

- Under the [sdl] section, the 'output=' value controls what rendering system is used, and maybe opengl or ddraw might be smoother on some systems. You can also reduce the 'scaler=' field under [render] to 'none' or one of the 'normal*' settings to reduce CPU usage and hopefully make things smoother.

- Under the [mixer] section, the 'blocksize' field affects the sound's lagginess and stuttering. I had to reduce it to 1024 to get rid of most of the terrible audio lag on one old P4 machine.

[slantz]

Phenomenal game. It has not aged a day.

Well, except for...
Actually, there's a lot of exceptions. The UI in many places is really bad. Like when you're buying stuff, it doesn't tell you how many of each thing you currently have. It also doesn't tell you how much storage capacity each item takes up, or how close to your max you are. (It tells you when you hit the max, but that's it.)

There's example after example of things about the UI which don't measure up to modern usability standards, though I agree the loadout screen is probably the worst of the bunch.

That said, I agree that the gameplay, and perhaps even the graphics themselves have aged remarkably well, even to my snobbish HD-loving eyes.

[ElGuapo]

Some general gameplay tips for the new . . . these are all over the internet but I'll list a few here:

1) Don't go on night missions. You'll get torn up. Yes, they are fantastically spooky and cool, but dangerous as hell. You can go on them when you're more experienced. If you are going for a downed UFO, and it looks like its going to be night (you can tell by whether the crash site is in darkness or light), set a waypoint near it and wait a bit until its light. If you MUST go on a night mission, buy and bring tons of electroflares ... I have at least 2 per soldier in the Skyranger at all times. Throw those suckers out all over the place ahead of you as you move out.

2) Always always take terror missions. The hit if you ignore one is enormous, both for point value and nations going over to the aliens eventually.

3) Research personal armor and plasma weapons as soon as you can. Those are the two most valuable tools for keeping your troops alive in the game. Eventually you will get Power Armor and Flying armor which is even better, but the personal armor might slug off 1 hit out of 4 or so in the beginning, which doesn't sound like much but is invaluable.

Enjoy the creepy story and mystery as it unfolds. I recommend doing for "landed" UFOs over downed ones, as you avoid the fight in the air and also recover a lot more stuff. Harder battles but much better payoff. You also get to see some fun UFOs intact this way, like . . . well not to spoil it but the aliens are up to no good, of course.

[scharmers]

Some general gameplay tips for the new . . . these are all over the internet but I'll list a few here:

4) Doors are not your friends. Take a lesson that the US soldiers in WWII Europe learned: make your own doors with high explosives and use those.

[Iron Xides]

So I bought a tank/rocket launcher, but when I try to equip it to my Skyranger, I get the message 'Not enough rockets to arm HWP.' Anyone know what this means or what I'm doing wrong?

Someone's going to tell you that you don't have enough (8) HWP rockets in inventory to fully load your tank, but your real problem is that you bought a tank instead of a bunch of rocket launchers and teenagers. When that $500,000 paperweight gets destroyed in one hit, you'll understand.

[nothings]

I made a demo of the first hour of gameplay to try to help out people who are getting overwhelmed, but the google video uploader is inexplicably failing. I don't really feel like divvying it up into separate parts for youtube, so I'm just going to post the AVI on my own site. Unfortunately, it won't stream, so you have to download all 500 MB before you can see any of it.

If somebody else wants to repost it to a service that converts it to a streaming format (google video, youtube, manually convert to a streamable .mov, MST3K-ified), please feel free. I'm not willing to sit through another 5 hour upload.

An hour of X-Com (http://nothings.org/remote/xcom.avi)
500 MB avi, Xvid, 480 x 360
1:04:00
3 tactical missions (farm, arctic, terror)
8 X-Com operatives killed in action

Note that I'm not recommending playing exactly as I do here -- default load out, never using grenades, smoke grenades, etc. I just want to show how you can do things with the basics.

DosBox video recording didn't work (because it switches executables, so you have to restart the video after every geoscape/tactical switch, and I couldn't remember to do it), so this was filmed with a digicam pointed at the screen, hence the crappy quality, especially in the artic mission. The filesize is huge because I was expecting to upload it to google video which would reprocess it smaller anyway.

[tylertoo]

When that $500,000 paperweight gets destroyed in one hit, you'll understand.

Yea, I learned that real quick the first time the tank rolled off the skyranger and was decimated in the next alien turn. After all I went through to get it there, I had to laugh.

[Wisbechlad]

Best PC game ever, I think.

Still replaying!

[BigWeather]

I made a demo of the first hour of gameplay to try to help out people who are getting overwhelmed

Awesome video, thanks!

"That's X-Com being sucky, ya know."

LOL.

[Sebmojo]

I have to remember to SAVE SAVE SAVE. I never do and then lose the whole team and get stuck and generally wither away.

But after installing and watching the intro it brought back so many memories.. Been playing since the weekend. Still suck but having fun.

One of my shining XCom memories is finishing it Ironman. Once you've got your head around the gameplay, it suits it really well.

[nabeel]

The first time I played it, for a while I actually didn't realise you could save the game in tactical combat, so I would play whole missions through which made things a little more hardcore than it needed to be.

[Jonathan Crane]

One of my shining XCom memories is finishing it Ironman. Once you've got your head around the gameplay, it suits it really well.

Absolutely.
(very mild spoilers follow)

At one point, I decided I was going to customize the loadout on the Skyranger, thinking I didn't need to bring clips for the plasma rifles. We landed outside a largish UFO, only to find that none of my soldiers primary weapons had ammo. I had one or two suits of power armor, and stun rods for everyone, along with two stun launchers. I was thinking, oh crap, how is this going to work? But Ironman is Ironman, so I played through the mission regardless. I could imagine the squaddies complaining: "What're we going to use? Harsh language?" But quartermaster screw ups are no reason to stop X-Com, so my poor little squaddies charged out with stun rods and naught else, with the occasional stun grenade for cover. I was sure I was sending them to their deaths.

Thankfully the Skyranger landed close to the alien ship, and the aliens tricksy ways were remarkably ineffective since most of my squaddies couldn't shoot anything, much less their comrades. A well placed stun grenade and a few lucky hits with the stunrods and I was able to bring down an alien. I only lost 3 squaddies, and once the aliens started falling, we were able to rearm in short order. It is still one of my most cherished gaming memories, and if I hadn't been playing Ironman, I would have missed it.

[Skipper]

Damn I love this game and damn you guys just got me to buy it ... again. And install it ... again.

I remember first playing this with about 5 coworkers and we did nothing at work for two weeks but discuss gameplay and strategy. Probably one of the best PC games I've ever played.

[Skipper]

Nice! 8 men dead on my first Terror mission. *pours out a little liquor for the homies*

I appear to be a bit rusty.

[slantz]

Nice! 8 men dead on my first Terror mission. *pours out a little liquor for the homies*

I appear to be a bit rusty.
8 men down on an early terror mission, likely before you have armor and laser/plasma isn't bad at all.

Hell, I consider myself lucky every time I pass a terror mission. Especially once the zombie-making aliens appear on the scene.

[DavidKaye]

OK, this is killing me. I'm on my first base invasion, which is also the first time I've encountered mind control. It's a bitch, but I'm also having trouble figuring out the rules around it. I was sure that the aliens needed line of sight to target you, but I'm pretty sure I have taken down everyone and I'm still getting psi attacked. Even more puzzling is that one of the guys under attack is in a tiny windowless room with the doors closed. How the hell are they getting to him!? It's driving me crazy.

[Jab2565]

Mind control is when things get tough, I believe that they don't need LOS to get your team.

spoiler warning:


You need to capture a live alien that can perform Psi attacks to be able to research means to be able to see the Psi defense stat of your guys. The better the psi defense stat the less likely an alien can affect their minds.

[DavidKaye]

Yep, I googled around some more and apparently, all the aliens need to do is get LOS once on any member of your team (tanks included) and they can target anyone on your team with PSI attacks. Brutal.

[Skipper]

I haven't had a base defense yet but I forget, do you pay for damages to the building after a base defense mission?

Also Hiro, I only took 10 on the mission and one was wounded, meaning I barely finished with one guy left. When I was down to 5 left from then on I had about 1/2 of my guys go nuts every round. It was pretty bad. I'm amazed any civilians survived since I blew up most of the crap near the end just trying to finish.

[nothings]

Yep, I googled around some more and apparently, all the aliens need to do is get LOS once on any member of your team (tanks included) and they can target anyone on your team with PSI attacks. Brutal.

And then they can do it nigh indefinitely on turns thereafter. (I suspect it might wear off after 4-8 turns if they don't mind control anyone, based on how the secretly-remember-seeing-you stuff works and that's it's probably connected to that, but I have no proof, as it's never happened.)

Although X-Com is very nearly (and maybe is) my absolutely favorite game, this is one of the short list of black marks against it. I'm almost tempted to try to decompile it and "fix" the problems (or maybe pay somebody else to), since the hope of ever seeing a clone that's as good seems hopeless (see old thread):

- alien mind control without LOS (I'd be find if they mind control one guy and use that to spot and mind control another, etc.)
- alien multi-turn cheat apparently used for aiming blaster bombs and grenades, not just for general tactics (e.g. it makes smoke grenades worthless as a defense after you're already spotted, since they magically know where you are anyway)
- occasional path finding stupidity (really needs to show the planned path before you click, which would be a ton of work)

Less crucial:
- more useful information than 'can't throw here'
- killing the last alien while somebody is mind-controlled loses them

Maybe one or two others I'm forgetting offhand.

[krise madsen]

spoiler warning:

You need to capture a live alien that can perform Psi attacks to be able to research means to be able to see the Psi defense stat of your guys. The better the psi defense stat the less likely an alien can affect their minds.

Also, as soon as you have the technology, check the Psi stats of all our troops. Get rid of those with lousy Psi power, no matter how good their other stats are. Using them as suicide bombers is a useful way to dispatch them. And great fun.

Also, the ones with lousy Psi stats are always your best troopers. So make sure from the start that combat experience and kills (which improves stats) is distributed evenly among your troops.

BTW: What ever happened to those 2K new X-COM game rumors?

Respectfully

krise madsen

[Mind Elemental]

In my ironman game, I formed a special squad of psi-weaklings for use against aliens whom I knew would be incapable of psi-attacks. Why risk having my precious psi-strength 90 trooper pot-shotted by a Muton when a psi-strength 20 soldier would do just as well?

[Iron Xides]

In my ironman game, I formed a special squad of psi-weaklings for use against aliens whom I knew would be incapable of psi-attacks. Why risk having my precious psi-strength 90 trooper pot-shotted by a Muton when a psi-strength 20 soldier would do just as well?

If you know how much psi-strength your guys have, you should have psionics of your own, which is eventually so ridiculously powerful that you should pretty much always field a large complement of psi-capable troopers, regardless of what you're fighting. Mutons are actually very psi-weak, which makes them good targets for new psi-guys as long as you stick to panic attacks and concentrate on one target.

[Pod]

In which case Mutons are training for your new Psi guys. I still wouldn't send out the strong PSIers unless needed. Those squishy psi weaklings can shoot just as well as my main squad, so they can acompany the new psi-boys in training.

[Iron Xides]

In which case Mutons are training for your new Psi guys. I still wouldn't send out the strong PSIers unless needed. Those squishy psi weaklings can shoot just as well as my main squad, so they can acompany the new psi-boys in training.

There's no combat situation in the game that can't be improved by the addition of strong psionic support. Psi is simply so powerful that there is no good justification for not bringing several strong psis to every mission; mind-controlling aliens makes most combat ridiculously easy, and it's not hard for rookies to get experience if you let them make panic attacks before the strong psis attempt mind control. Additionally, ethereals are pretty common in the late game and their psi attacks are so potentially devastating that once you have a surplus of rookies with decent psi-strength you should starting replacing non-psis with them no matter how strong their other abilities are.

Psionics is frankly so powerful that it eventually makes guns obsolete; you can mind control almost anything in the game, and the few things that you can't mc are vulnerable to expendable aliens and blaster bombs.

[Pod]

I thik I just blew most things up :)

[Omniscia]

I love it when the aliens stand next to the gas tanks.

[Skipper]

I finished up with the Warhammer beta so until Tuesday I plan to get back to my game. Last night I went from no armor up to full flying suit. That must have been the magic difficulty slider because I went from floaters (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Floater) and the occasional reaper (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Reaper) to ethereals (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Ethereal) and sectopods (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod) on the first terror mission after I built armor.

What the fuck chuck? Should I have gone to beginning armor first? Now I have a crew of squaddies getting ripped and mind controlled to shreds because it's their first taste of that in the game. I'm also still struggling with money since I *just* got my second base operational, although it doesn't have radar yet so it's nothing but a money sink.

Any tips on the ethereals? Right now I'm putting weapons in the backpack, Flying until I start getting blasted and locate the ethereal, then the next turn I equip the weapon and hopefully kill him without getting shot down in return. I think these guys are one of the few reasons they put in-mission saves in place. Fuck Ironman. The enemy has me by the nads.

The game also kept me up Saturday evening until 4 in the morning. Such an awesome game.

[Iron Xides]

I finished up with the Warhammer beta so until Tuesday I plan to get back to my game. Last night I went from no armor up to full flying suit. That must have been the magic difficulty slider because I went from floaters (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Floater) and the occasional reaper (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Reaper) to ethereals (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Ethereal) and sectopods (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod) on the first terror mission after I built armor.

What the fuck chuck? Should I have gone to beginning armor first? Now I have a crew of squaddies getting ripped and mind controlled to shreds because it's their first taste of that in the game. I'm also still struggling with money since I *just* got my second base operational, although it doesn't have radar yet so it's nothing but a money sink.

Any tips on the ethereals? Right now I'm putting weapons in the backpack, Flying until I start getting blasted and locate the ethereal, then the next turn I equip the weapon and hopefully kill him without getting shot down in return. I think these guys are one of the few reasons they put in-mission saves in place. Fuck Ironman. The enemy has me by the nads.

The game also kept me up Saturday evening until 4 in the morning. Such an awesome game.

You need to capture a live ethereal (any kind), then simply avoid losing the game while you research it. Also, stop flying around in the open, it makes it much easier for the aliens to spot you, which in turn means that they'll spend time shooting at you which would otherwise be spent wandering around aimlessly.

I don't think the aliens scale based on your equipment but rather your score and the elapsed time since the start of the game. The first armor you get is pretty weak anyway, so skipping it isn't a bad idea.

[ElGuapo]

One thing I read somewhere and that I almost always do now:

Once your new recruits have some experience (I personally wait until they get the rank of "Squaddie", which is one up from Rookie and awarded after their first alien kill, usually), rename them and take a look at their stats.

Use an abbreviation, either by role or, more complicatedly, by stats. For example, let's say you have a guy who has high accuracy but low reactions and low strength. Obviously you want him in the rear with a light, accurate gun. So he'd be named maybe "John Many Jars" and get the abbreviation "SNP" after his name. For sniper, of course. Other guys might by HVY (heavy weapons), SCT (scout), if they have a lot of movement points and maybe good reactions, and maybe even MED for a dedicated medic who carries medkits. Eventually some people get good at everything, and they get the special tag "CMD" for "commando". They are usually the squad leaders: best shots, best reactions, best strength, etc.

This not only allows you identify your troops easily in the field, it's especially helpful when outfitting them before a battle since you can't see their stats on that screen. You don't want to give all the heavy weapons to the quick weakling, for instance.

For some games I used the acronym ARS after their name. Strength, Accuracy, Reactions, and eventually P for Psi. So John Many Jars, above, would become "John Many Jars Ars". A capital letter if they are good at something, a lowercase letter if they aren't as good. How do you decide if they are or are not good? I used an arbitrary cutoff based on experience. Above 65 for accuracy, 50 for reactions, 40 for strength, and 50 for psi strength (later in the game ... or more likely I'd just drop people who were bad at psi strength).

This is a little work, but like I said, you don't do it for every new recruit, and it also allows you to designate people for duties they are good at and "get to know" them a better, rather than they be faceless names. Give the guy with lots of strength the autocannon, give the guy with quick reactions and good accuracy your best weapons for overwatch while moving forward.

Of course, you have to kill a bug before you get a nickname, otherwise you are just replacement fodder.

[Shiroko]

I think there is a magical difficulty slider.

I currently avoid researching the flying suit since it is quite useless , and makes unloading from the skyranger much more annoying.
And I have not seen anything but floaters and sectoids until now.
And I already own two firestorms, in the middle of building an avenger and got my economy going by mass laser production.

Better get the flying suit so I could be butchered some more I guess...

[Skipper]

You need to capture a live ethereal (any kind), then simply avoid losing the game while you research it. Also, stop flying around in the open, it makes it much easier for the aliens to spot you, which in turn means that they'll spend time shooting at you which would otherwise be spent wandering around aimlessly.

Thanks for the tip on scaling. I'm in my 7th month so I guess this just happened to be when this terror mission showed up. As for the flying though, I'm going to disagree, if only for this particular mission. The sight thing works both ways. Sure, I can't take cover (unless I hop on a building which I do as much as possible.) But I CAN avoid the grenades being thrown. Since they are taking control of my guys on this mission, throwing the gun in the backpack fixes me shooting myself, but it doesn't fix the problem with team or enemy thrown grenades. Also fortunately, the ethereals are concentrating on mostly trying to mind control and or panic my guys so they aren't shooting too much.

Other than this mission though, I agree with you. I do love the flying suit though. Once you are able to blast a new door in the side of a building it's so nice to be able to pop in that versus going in the door that the aliens have covered with drawn weapons.

Remembering back through previous games, I think the limbo time period before I got PSI ability I usually took a lot more small launchers with stun ammo. That way if the shit hit the fan I didn't nuke my team, just put them to sleep for a while. If I don't take back a live ethereal on this, I may just load those up before next mission.

[Skipper]

Also, ElG I do that already, but slightly less work than you. I usually just denote strength and psi ability in the name. The rest I don't worry about as much since I'm really only worried about normal weapon vs heavy weapon. I also throw med kits on multiple guys, usually the higher ranks. It both saves their ass as well as distributes the med kits around the map.

I might try the sniper and scout designations though, just to see if I can use that in any cool way.

[Iron Xides]

Thanks for the tip on scaling. I'm in my 7th month so I guess this just happened to be when this terror mission showed up. As for the flying though, I'm going to disagree, if only for this particular mission. The sight thing works both ways. Sure, I can't take cover (unless I hop on a building which I do as much as possible.) But I CAN avoid the grenades being thrown. Since they are taking control of my guys on this mission, throwing the gun in the backpack fixes me shooting myself, but it doesn't fix the problem with team or enemy thrown grenades. Also fortunately, the ethereals are concentrating on mostly trying to mind control and or panic my guys so they aren't shooting too much.

Other than this mission though, I agree with you. I do love the flying suit though. Once you are able to blast a new door in the side of a building it's so nice to be able to pop in that versus going in the door that the aliens have covered with drawn weapons.

Remembering back through previous games, I think the limbo time period before I got PSI ability I usually took a lot more small launchers with stun ammo. That way if the shit hit the fan I didn't nuke my team, just put them to sleep for a while. If I don't take back a live ethereal on this, I may just load those up before next mission.

The alien AI usually doesn't do anything sophisticated with regards to covering entrances except for certain bits of the UFOs. If an alien is outside the ship it tends to spend most of its TUs wandering around or shooting at any visible humans. If you stay on the ground and concealed you're much more likely to get the drop on them, whereas flying makes it likely that an alien will wander in from the limit of vision and open fire. In any case, if you're certain there's an alien inside a building the appropriate response is generally to blow up the building and shoot the alien if it survives.

[Skipper]

I'm probably attributing more intelligence to the AI than reasonable then. In some ufo's (one large and one medium come to mind) the control room is like a deathtrap. You can't go into the door without expecting 1-3 aliens who always get reaction shots when you walk in.

How do you guys deal with those specific issues?

[Shiroko]

Since blowing up the walls of the UFO is difficult (maybe impossible, I'm not sure), you can try sending several soldiers at once (The aliens have limited TUs for instincts).
You can try smoke grenades, though I never tried that.

Anyway in the Terror from the deep you can open a door without walking inside, which makes it easier to open the door and slide a torpedo inside.

Last idea, stalk the entrance and wait for the alien to peek outside, the problem here is they might not do it.

[Pod]

I remember making holes in the UFO. It might just take a lot of force?

[Quitch]

You blow open the roof, drop in a shit-ton of grenades and then let the rookies go first.

[ElGuapo]

All of these strategies require blaster bombs, FYI. Rarely you can let loose a dozen shots with heavy plasma in an interior wall and burn it down . . . all outer walls take blaster bombs.

[Skipper]

Thanks for the tips. I'm researching blaster bombs now, I just finished the launcher.

[Shiroko]

Well, I got confirmation on the flying suit.
After 9 months without anything but sectoids and floaters, the first ship detected was snakemen.
So the game does use the flying suit as a mark, never noticed that before.

[Pod]

Use an abbreviation, either by role or, more complicatedly, by stats. For example, let's say you have a guy who has high accuracy but low reactions and low strength. Obviously you want him in the rear with a light, accurate gun. So he'd be named maybe "John Many Jars" and get the abbreviation "SNP" after his name. For sniper, of course. Other guys might by HVY (heavy weapons), SCT (scout), if they have a lot of movement points and maybe good reactions, and maybe even MED for a dedicated medic who carries medkits. Eventually some people get good at everything, and they get the special tag "CMD" for "commando". They are usually the squad leaders: best shots, best reactions, best strength, etc.


I can't remember what scheme I used to use, but I remember I could fit most, if not all of their stats, into their name + still give them an actual name.

[Iron Xides]

I'm probably attributing more intelligence to the AI than reasonable then. In some ufo's (one large and one medium come to mind) the control room is like a deathtrap. You can't go into the door without expecting 1-3 aliens who always get reaction shots when you walk in.

How do you guys deal with those specific issues?

Motion scanners, basically. As long as the alien actually moved during its turn, you can can use the motion scanner to pinpoint its exact location and get a rough estimate as to how many TUs it has left based on the size of the blip (which grows larger the more the alien moves). If you see a big blip near the door, you can be fairly confident that a high-reactions soldier will get the first shot on the alien since reactions are heavily dependent upon remaining TUs. Also, if it's a situation where there are two entrances you can take on opposite sides, you can take a chance that the alien who just took one step towards one door is still facing that door, and send someone through the other.

For smaller UFOs, especially the ones that are just a single room, you can just put a few guys a little way off to one side of the entrance and wait for an alien to come out (if you do the front side, they'll be visible to any other aliens inside once the guy who steps out dies).

Well, I got confirmation on the flying suit.
After 9 months without anything but sectoids and floaters, the first ship detected was snakemen.
So the game does use the flying suit as a mark, never noticed that before.

I've seen snakemen without researching any armor whatsoever. (My anecdote is better than yours!)

[DavidKaye]

I'm probably attributing more intelligence to the AI than reasonable then. In some ufo's (one large and one medium come to mind) the control room is like a deathtrap. You can't go into the door without expecting 1-3 aliens who always get reaction shots when you walk in.

How do you guys deal with those specific issues?

That's what low accuracy rookies are for!

[SolomonGrundy]

That's what low accuracy rookies are for!
yep the pre-MMO tanks. Just get in there redshirt...you'll be fine...

[grahamiam]

If you're really cruel, you send them in with a grenade already set to blow.

[Skipper]

If you're really cruel, you send them in with a grenade already set to blow.

Mega Maid has gone from suck to blow!



... sorry, it's not every day the opportunity arises for a Spaceballs quote.

Thanks for the tips on the doors guys. Now to do some missions.

[DoomMunky]

This is an awesome thread, guys! I've never really played this one before (though I'm a giant fan of Silent Storm) and now I feel like I've got enough info to actually start a good game. Word.

[DoomMunky]

Btw, anyone know how to run DosBox in a window?

[slantz]

Btw, anyone know how to run DosBox in a window?
I've noticed that when I alt-tab out of x-com under dosbox, it switches to a window. Alt-Enter then toggles me back to full-screen.

Alt-Enter is a quasi-universal fullscreen toggle key, and I'd hazard a strong guess that it will put you in windowed mode from fullscreen. If not, you can try the alt-tab thing.

[Fugitive]

You should be able to set it to run in a window on startup by mucking around in the dosbox.conf file, too.

[grahamiam]

Btw, anyone know how to run DosBox in a window?

You need to edit the dosbox config file in the xcom folder.

location: program files/steam/steamapps/common/xcom ufo defense/

open with text editor and set the following:

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original

also, I had some stuttering, so further down, I changed blocksize from 4096 to 2048.

[DoomMunky]

Awesome! That worked great, as did pressing Alt + Enter.

Anyway to resize the window? I'd love to have it larger than the fairly tiny 640x480, and I put 1024x768 into the windowresolution field, but it didn't work...

[malkav11]

Awesome! That worked great, as did pressing Alt + Enter.

Anyway to resize the window? I'd love to have it larger than the fairly tiny 640x480, and I put 1024x768 into the windowresolution field, but it didn't work...

X-Com is 640x480 native and only. It's from an era when multiple resolutions were not a going concern.

[mandarin]

Anyway to resize the window? I'd love to have it larger than the fairly tiny 640x480, and I put 1024x768 into the windowresolution field, but it didn't work...

You should be able to get DOXBox to scale the window. I'm running it on OS X with window scaling. Here are my relevant settings:

windowresolution=1280x960
output=opengl
scaler=normal2x

Maybe the Steam version isn't set to opengl? Some of the other outputs won't scale...

[DoomMunky]

Perfect! 1024x768 and scaler at normal2x is just what I want.

LAST QUESTION, I promise: Any way to get it running nice and swiftly on a PowerBook G4? Now that I've installed it on my girlfriends' PowerBook G4, it runs really slowly when cycles are set to 'max', the presumably ideal setting. I've tried 40000 (which is great on my q6600), but it's slow and has lots of sound stutters.

It runs totally without Steam, by the way!

[DoomMunky]

One final note: you can install this Xcom on ANY computer you want, because it doesn't 'install'. Just copy all the files over and you're good!

[DoomMunky]

I'll just keep posting here for fun.

MAN this game is awesome! After a training game (of about 3 hours!) I started over and feel like I've really got the hang of the basics; now I know I can sell all the loot I get from crash missions, how to research effectively, how the loadout system works (and how not to waste space/time using it ineffectively, how to keep my guys under cover and avoid unnecessary deaths, and how to use scouts and sniper fire to avoid reaction shots.

It's super rad to watch my guys grow up, and for unexpected leaders and heroes to emerge. It's also heartbreaking when a seasoned officer is downed by a single, unexpected round of alien fire. Damn.

Great game (made even better because I can play it at work). Why didn't I play this before?

[SirTomster]

I'll just keep posting here for fun.

MAN this game is awesome! After a training game (of about 3 hours!) I started over and feel like I've really got the hang of the basics; now I know I can sell all the loot I get from crash missions, how to research effectively, how the loadout system works (and how not to waste space/time using it ineffectively, how to keep my guys under cover and avoid unnecessary deaths, and how to use scouts and sniper fire to avoid reaction shots.

It's super rad to watch my guys grow up, and for unexpected leaders and heroes to emerge. It's also heartbreaking when a seasoned officer is downed by a single, unexpected round of alien fire. Damn.

Great game (made even better because I can play it at work). Why didn't I play this before?

And QT3 has claimed another soul in the XCOM war. Wonder when Doom will start bitching that there has never been decent new version ever created. Like the rest of us.

[Tankero]

I'm not overly concerned with DoomMunky's soul yet. It's when the patient comes back here to post his own Xcom-sequel.plan file that the mind is slipping into the abyss...

[DoomMunky]

Oh no! I just got to April in the first year and lost funding from several nations, mostly European. My main base is in North America. I've got about 4 mil in the bank right now. Should I build a new base in Russia or Europe yet, or should I wait? Aiee!

[BobJustBob]

If you're lacking in cash, you can build a stripped-down base with just a radar and hangar and supporting facilities for that. Shoot down anything you see. It'll be a cash sink at first, but when those nations see that you're covering them, they'll help offset the expenses. You'll eventually have to turn it into a full base though or it'll be lost to the first invasion.

[DoomMunky]

Okay, base number two is slowly growing.

The pace of the game is frustrating. I want time to grow my bases, to earn money, and to research new tech and stuff, but I keep shooting down and having to seek/kill aliens. Grr.

Is there any point loss for not doing kill/recovery missions on UFOs you've shot down? In other words, just letting the downed UFO disappear from the map?

[Jonathan Crane]

Okay, base number two is slowly growing.

The pace of the game is frustrating. I want time to grow my bases, to earn money, and to research new tech and stuff, but I keep shooting down and having to seek/kill aliens. Grr.

Is there any point loss for not doing kill/recovery missions on UFOs you've shot down? In other words, just letting the downed UFO disappear from the map?

Without getting into too many spoilers - you're going to want to salvage as many UFOs as you can for later in the game.

[DoomMunky]

Okay, okay. I think I can take smaller teams for smaller ufos, too. That'll help the turn length.

[Woolen Horde]

Okay, base number two is slowly growing.

The pace of the game is frustrating. I want time to grow my bases, to earn money, and to research new tech and stuff, but I keep shooting down and having to seek/kill aliens. Grr.

Is there any point loss for not doing kill/recovery missions on UFOs you've shot down? In other words, just letting the downed UFO disappear from the map?

I start with a base in NA or EU. But within the first month or two you've got to start building a second base in whichever continent you didn't choose at first. (If you start in North America, build a second base in Europe). You need to build it in phases because of the construction times, so you don't need to pay for everything up front. The main thing is that you need to get a hanger, general storage (for holding missiles for the interceptor fighter in the hanger), and a radar system immediately. You need to start shooting down UFOs over both Europe and North America because that's where most of the wealthy countries are. Eventually (much later down the road) you can build up your second base with quarters and labs.

A good rule of thumb is that as soon as you have an interceptor base set up in a different region of the world, start building another. Priorities are to get global coverage, particularly over funding countries. Asia and Australia need their own bases, because it's so big. South America, too. And Africa.

[DoomMunky]

Australia is coming up next then. General Stores on base number two are underway, and it already has an Interceptor of its own (Transfer is awesome!).

Is there any way to change the order of the soldiers? I'm tired of taking the rocket launcher off the first guy in the list and giving it to the guy who's actually strong enough to use it effectively...

[Pogo]

You can't reasonably expect to keep the alien presence off of the entire world, and stretching your resources to do so is kind of foolish. Try to contain the alien threat to one continent, as raiding their bases is highly profitable and can provide the rest of the research you may need in the end game.

Also, it's not absolutely necessary to send your troops down to every crashed ship. At a certain point it's just not worth doing ground raids on small UFOs. You'll net some ammo and that's about it. Always raid the medium and larger UFOs, however.

[DoomMunky]

Awesome, that's what I thought about the small ufos.

I just built a new base between China and India, and at this point I'm going for coverage of South America and Africa as well. They'll be Intercept Bases mostly, with the raids being carried out by one of two base teams. Though I imagine I'll have to garrison each base against attack...

At this point I'm pretty flush with cash. It's May of 1999, and I've got $13 million. This is AFTER starting construction on my third base, the Asian Love Pen.

[Woolen Horde]

You can't reasonably expect to keep the alien presence off of the entire world, and stretching your resources to do so is kind of foolish. Try to contain the alien threat to one continent, as raiding their bases is highly profitable and can provide the rest of the research you may need in the end game.

Also, it's not absolutely necessary to send your troops down to every crashed ship. At a certain point it's just not worth doing ground raids on small UFOs. You'll net some ammo and that's about it. Always raid the medium and larger UFOs, however.

Yeah, there's a certain point where all you need to do is shoot down UFOs, particularly over the ocean since you can't recover the wreckage. But if you shot down a small UFO over land, there's a point that it's not worth sending a ground team, especially if you have other pressing matters. The risk of losing someone for the potential gain isn't worth it; the most valuable thing a UFO has to offer is ellierium (since it's the one thing you cannot manufacture yourself), and if you shoot down a UFO there's a high percentage that the reactor and its ellerium is destroyed.

On the other hand, if it's a small, landed UFO (ie, you didn't shoot it down but you've found it landed on the ground), it may be worth going after it for its fuel.

[Pogo]

On the other hand, if it's a small, landed UFO (ie, you didn't shoot it down but you've found it landed on the ground), it may be worth going after it for its fuel.

Yeah that's a point I forgot to mention. Near the end your troops should be so experienced, accurate, and have a lot of action points that taking out some greys in a small landed UFO should be quick and easy, and as you mentioned it's a good way to get the fuel you need.

[Jonathan Crane]

I can confirm that XCOMUTIL runs just fine with this version of X-Com.

Do you need to run XCOMUTIL? ie is the difficulty bug fixed in these versions?

[DoomMunky]

Okay, I'm dying over here. A lot. What's a good way to clear out the final rooms in alien bases, the ones with the 9-square red elevator in the middle and the Floater Leaders that have some kind of crazy warping mega-explody thing that can shoot around corners and kill everyone in my squad in one turn?

WTF!!

[Lokust]

Those would be blaster bombs. Generally speaking I prefer to have those for myself before I hit alien bases. They're effectively programmable remote control missiles that will follow a set path and then detonate, and they're the only thing in the game powerful enough to easily blow through alien walls, even ship walls. Beyond that the normal tactics of sending scrubs up to look around and waste reaction fire apply.

[Pogo]

Without having researched blaster bombs from UFO downings, AND psionics, taking alien bases is a pretty hard thing to do. I think in that situation you might want someone with a lot of movement points to scout ahead and, if you can, throw grenades up through the elevators.

[DoomMunky]

Sweet. Now is there a way I can get a country BACK from the aliens? I've lost the UK, France, and Australia so far...

[Staff Sergeant]

I deleted my "freeware" copy and I'm considering buying this off of Steam. I'm just curious, how/when does the game "end"? Is it possible to fully stave off the alien threat, or is the game just a matter of seeing how long you can survive?

[Pogo]

Sweet. Now is there a way I can get a country BACK from the aliens? I've lost the UK, France, and Australia so far...

You're... kind of screwed. You'll be contending with a LOT of activity from 3 bases. I don't think it's possible for a country to ever come back, even after destroying alien activity in that region. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure.

[DoomMunky]

Well, I hope that's not true. I have bases on every continent but Australia now, and have knocked off two alien bases, both in Europe.

Really? Am I totally hosed?

[Jab2565]

I also think that once a country goes to the aliens it can't be taken back. I'm not 100% sure of this though.

[Enduro_Man]

I deleted my "freeware" copy and I'm considering buying this off of Steam. I'm just curious, how/when does the game "end"? Is it possible to fully stave off the alien threat, or is the game just a matter of seeing how long you can survive?
See ElGuapo's X-COM...the QT3 game (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=32835). The explosive finish is on page 48.

[garin]

Countries don't ever start funding X-Com again once they've stopped. As the game progresses you can become more self sufficient through selling things you manufacture, though.

[Pogo]

Well, I hope that's not true. I have bases on every continent but Australia now, and have knocked off two alien bases, both in Europe.

Really? Am I totally hosed?

Well, if you have the manpower to deal with the alien activity, seeing as how you took out two bases already, then no you're ok. I was assuming you were in a worse position than you are. You should be more than capable of finishing the game.

[Pogo]

I was staring at my list of about a dozen or so modern 3D games last night, and felt no ambition to play any of them.

And then I spotted X-Com and said screw it, started another game on the medium difficulty level.

Maybe I was used to playing this game on easy, but I've found it nearly impossible to end most battles with more than 4 guys, until I realized that a tactic which has been implemented in more modern games like Silent Storm still applies here... scout ahead to spot enemies and then use your high accuracy snipers to take pot shots from out of range. I still leave most battles with half of my original force, but I also remember that the guys who live the most will eventually become very powerful, and there's a limitless supply of fresh cannon fodder.

And never keep a rocket launcher loaded when the guy who has it has the morale of a fucking rabbit stuck in a cage with half a dozen pit bulls.

[Fugitive]

Looks like they just updated TFTD on Steam to use the same DOSBox setup the others do, for those of you who thought to yourselves "Y'know, X-Com just isn't hard enough..."

[Staff Sergeant]

Rise!

So I bought this off Steam (I took some flak earlier in this thread for saying it was free, but those who have me friended on Steam because of L4D can verify that I paid for it), and the game is fullscreen, which is great (couldn't get it to do that with my, ahem, "other version") but it feels like the frame skipping has been jacked up, by that I mean there is too much delay between frames and too much delay between me moving the mouse and the cursor moving, for my tastes. Any idea on how to change this? Thanks in advance.

[Jab2565]

I had that problem too, which is why I kinda went back to the free version. It wasn't as bad in terror from the deep, but it was really bad for me in the original.

[croman]

I've had a pretty good experience with the Steam version (OG Xcom) ... no major input problems. You all tried tweaking Dosbox? ( core=dynamic, output=other-than-default, basic cycle tweaks....)

[Staff Sergeant]

Could you just tell me the lines in the CFG file associated with the FPS and frame skip and such? I want to keep the other settings and still play it through Steam, but I need less frame skip.

[Staff Sergeant]

Nevermind, I figured it out. Jab: there is a line in the cycles/cpu section of the CONF file that says "auto limit 8000" or something like that. remove the "limit 8000" and it will get rid of the frame skipping and behave like the free version but full screen :)

However, its a damn if you do/damned if you don't thing it seems. Getting rid of the limit makes the cursor move responsive and troop movement more bearable, but the globe spins way too fast and shots go way too fast now. There's no way to change globe speed, and shots are set to 1 and still go like 100 km/h. Set to anything higher than 1 they approach the speed of light.

[nothings]

As I mentioned before (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1464263&postcount=72), I used "cycles=50000" to try to find a happy medium. (Actually, I ended up at 45000, but the exact number will depend on your machine.)

[Staff Sergeant]

So did anyone else experience massive problems with XCOM: Enforcer? I get like 1 frame every 2 seconds with a shitty resolution and all video settings turned down.