@@yourdadsotherfamily3530 that gives -1000 points to your rating, which will absolutely destroy your funding and make a country more likely to sign a pact
@@meanintellectual5222 Landing and immediately leaving is sometimes the best option if the battle seems impossible. There's a big score for *ignoring* the terror site (about -2000 points, I think) but if you land and then run away you only lose points for the dead civilians (usually around -400 to -600). Which is still bad, but a lot less bad. Sticking out a losing battle is the worst option; you'll lose points for all the dead civilians AND all your dead troops, and the material cost of those troops and their gear is arguably worse.
@@andrewdwilliams _"Landing and immediately leaving is sometimes the best option if the battle seems impossible."_ You can always high explosive bomb the hell out of them he he. There can be some civilian casualties but you will win the fight. This is the beauty of this game, there are infinite strategies to fight / win.
@@ajax700 True, but early game you can see your squad minced just by stepping out of the Skyranger! It's a neat approach when you can lob a dozen blaster bombs out of the door though.
1. Equip all Interceptors with Avalanche missile launchers and missiles and get rid of the cannon it's useless. 2. Autocannons are perfect early, use explosive shots and Auto fire, also always have a grenade in the secondary hand, if you get experience you may also prime it to zero for instant detonation, never do this from inside the landing plane. 3. Laser Rifles have the best accuracy in the game, mid game one or two snipers with Flying Suits will cover the entire map from above and deliver headshots after headshots. 4. Before you exit the Skyranger throw one smoke grenade in front of the ship exit and wait one turn for it to go off, you will thank me later. 5. Always deploy your troops close enough to cover each other with reaction fire but not one next to each other, leave 4-6 squares between them 6. Position two soldiers next to a door facing it and enter it with the third, additional position them in front of the door and just end the turn a few times, you will thank me later. 7. If the UFO is badly damaged it may have a hole where the Elerium reactor rods used to be, that's where you can lob the grenades inside and mess up the enemies before entering. To check for it just use the plus one level view until the roof of the UFO becomes visible. Any black squares signal missing roof tiles. Go back to the floor level and with the grenade Throw action move the cursor inside the UFO until the icon appears that you can throw the grenade inside. 8. You can prime grenades to explode instantly by selecting Zero from the timer, but make sure to increase the distance between your soldiers to 7-8 squares to allow for the nades to go boom if one of the soldier gets wasted by the aliens. 9. Later keep a soldier in the plane with a Blaster ready to fire. If situation requires it fire the blaster right from there and guide it towards the enemy then reload the Blaster. Keep another one here with a MindReader and check the enemies for Navigators, Engineers or Commanders in order to capture them alive. You can do this from the landing ship without the need to move the mind-reader guy. 10. If one of your guys becomes panicked or falls under alien control, use a stun bomb launcher to put him/her to sleep. Always keep stun launchers on each 3rd or 4rth soldier secondary hand, just in case. 11. Remember to have at least 1-2 medics with Medikits, and keep an eye on your most valued soldiers. If they fall without a noise it means they are not dead yet, rush to their bodies and while on top drag them to the inventory and then rush them to your ship. If possible use the Medikit to stabilize them. 12. Advance slowly and let a few soldiers behind with enough action points to react if an alien pops up.
X-Com is the proof that true gems never lose their shine. I've still got the original floppy disks from way back when it first sold, and I've played it a lot over the years (not from the floppies, mind you). It never gets old and only gets better. The thought of an early nightime terror mission with Chryssalids still gives me chills!
You should sometimes (once in a few years) put the floppies into a drive. Data on floppies is not permament. It can fade away after some time if not used.
I've long assumed that degaussing has messed up the data on those floppies, so I just keep them for nostalgia reasons. These days I play X-Com from an .exe I found online a few years ago!@@krzysztofpaszkiewicz1274
Skyrangers are great in UFO fights as tanks - they have more HP than interceptors, so use the Skyrangers to draw fire while the fighters do the damage. You can drop even battleships using just the 3 starter craft this way.
Thank you for this guide. Every other guide I've found served more as a walkthrough instead of a proper guide, and they tended to not actually explain anything, they just "told" me what to do. You actually went and explained the features and their significance and as a result this was the guide that legitimately got me started, with a rough understanding of what I was doing. Thank you very much :)
good reason for this, when you attack with multiple units enemy fire is spread out, so you can use the skyranger to absorb hits for your interceptors, keeping them in the fight longer.
For tactical combat, I'd say that learning about reaction fire rules and the mutual surprise rule is crucial. The basic scout-sniper tactic (which takes advantage of those rules) will save dozens of lives. Using lots of grenades and the grenade relay is also important.
True classic. Can't count the hours my friend and I spent in front of my amiga in the 90s. The only game at the time where you could destroy the whole map. 😁 Jagged alliance and silent storm are also great games. Battles like xcom but without the base building.
Thanks for the tips good sir. I’ve played the reboot games and wanted to try the original. I’ll probably die a horrible death but thats just how it is with games from that era.
Love you bro, this made my entry to the original games way easier coming from the reboots! Also, i will put my first base on the north pole, and you won't stop me
Great video, hope there's more to come. Thanks to X-Com other brilliant games were also influenced such as "Jagged Alliance", another one worth blowing the dust off.
make your squads really hench right off the bat, and its much easier. like give 2 people a rifle, pistol, stun batons, grenades, smoke grenades, and have them as dedicated snipers, get them into positions where they can cover your dudes, and have them stay there using all their APs to shoot long range shots. eventually their skills become really good if they survive, and they can hit anything. have 2 heavies. have them both with an autocannon, laser pistol, laser rifle, a few clips, stun batons, medkits. then have 4 solders, these have laser rifle, laser pistol, missile launcher, 2 missiles, stun batons, medkits. if you need to lay it down, you actually have the capacity to. your dudes will be a bit encumbered at the start, but as they level up, it stops being an issue, and having to drag all the extra kit around actually increases their strength faster. give everyone a pistol, because they used fixed APs per shot, opposed to a percentage of your APs which is what rifles do. so in close up fights, you can shoot a far greater number of rounds, and if you need to level a building, or take out a big group, thats what all the missiles and autocannons are for.
I'm revisiting this video a year after I first watched, and it just dawned on me that UFO Defense is the only game I know where you can mess up before you open the game.
xcom is EASY. lol, i remember playing this in 1990 something as a kid and still beating it, best tips i can give, try your best not to fight at night(ai has no disadvantage).. research and equip all your soldiers and ships with plasma weapons(laser weapons are decent till you have it) and from the start invest in stun rods and eventually stun launchers for the live alien captures, especially leaders for the end game mission. likewise from the start invest in tanks, sucks since they get no experience but they deal enough death to carry your squad and eventually you get hover tanks and end tier is the blaster launcher tanks). avoid snakemen terror missions unless you want to experience terror yourself and in the last mission, avoid spending blaster rounds until the 2nd mission where you just obliterate every square inch you see. spoiler alert xcom is not easy.
The year was 2019.. Watched gameplay of XCOM UAP* Defense.. Too lazy to learn the game and put it in cold storage for further study.. Anyhow, looks like a fun game and will slowly get into it, like walking trough alien goop up to my knees.
Nice video! Very helpful. You have a criminally low subscriber count for your quality. Subbed! Edit: Ah I see it is because you only have the one video.
I would do one thing differently though. Forget the auto and heavy cannons and equip 4 to 5 people with rocket launchers. Aliens tend to hide in barns and sheds and removing their cover or killing them outright without risking your soldiers is crucial. Just blast every building on the map. Next thing where this is helpful is your first terror mission. Not only you can remove covers but also blast the most resilient units like reapers or chryssalids. Auto and heavy cannons often struggle to kill them quickly and with rocket blasts not only you kill them, remove cover but there is a high chance you kill groups of enemies standing close or behind a wall. The innability o kill tougher aliens is also the reason you should prioritize laser weapons. But even after you have laser rifles, rockets are your friend. The last thing. If you are a beginner and you are struggling open xcom lets you start the game with more things in your base. The large radar system, more scientists and an alien containment facility. The last one is the most important because the first missions are easy enough for you to capture some live aliens. And an alien navigator is a game changer.
Lots of great advice here! Only thing I would add is that rockets start to lose effectiveness against armored aliens like Cyberdisks and Mutons. You also accidentally destroy lots of alien loot and civilians if you're using it frequently.
@@hailstar2075 Yeah the biggest downside is the lost loot. Civilians not so much because you'll probably get only one terror mission before you'll get decent weapons and won't have to use the rockets as much. And yes Cyberdisks are always a pain to deal with up until you get plasma weapons. They can tank multiple rockets and a variety of other shots.
In my last game, I was playing in the superhuman difficulty, and I would say that rockets remain useful until very late game. They're actually a great way to take down cyberdiscs. One direct hit is often enough. They're also good for clearing out buildings.
this game is amazing, if you over encumber your dudes, your dudes get really strong quick, so load up a couple of guys with auto cannons, 5 clips, a laser rifle and pistol, some grenades. then every single solder, give him a laser rifle, 2 missiles, and a missile launcher throw in a laser pistol too.. your dudes turn hench as fuck very quickly and its easily enough firepower to take on everything in a mission
You don't need to over encumber anyone to increase strength. Along with TUs and stamina, it goes up any time you gain experience in other stats like firing accuracy or reaction.
@Hailstar Hey, I hope you can still make the TFTD video! As a newbie to X-Com this video has been really helpful, your dark, blunt humor alongside knowing exactly what you’re talking about is an excellent combination for this game!
Have one guy with a rocket launcher at the door to the Skyranger, so you dont spawn in with a Sectoid in a window that guns down half of your troops like youre recreating Saving Private Ryan
Avalanches are definitely the way to go for interceptors. Smokes you can honestly go without. Follow up videos will be talking about specific strategies and gear recommendations.
@@hailstar2075 on beginner maybe...but I would advise to get used to smoking since later it's essential. In the vid you sold the extra avalanche launcher that is wierd. The first thing I do, is make one ceptor ready with 2 avalanche and buy 2 more. I believe if you prep ppl for superhuman that would work on beginner level too, so no reason to show different setups.
I keep one interceptor equipped with Avalanche/Stinger or Stinger/Stinger. Good for crashing "Tiny" and "Small" UFOs without completely destroying them. Those extra crash site missions are a little tedious but they improve your score, upgrade your troops, and give you infusions of money in the early game when you need it most.
It’s too cool to resist! If you want to keep going on that save I’d recommend getting the large radar quickly so you can hopefully extend your coverage over a couple other countries. Best of luck!
Oof! Avoiding those blaster launchers requires you to be so aggressive and take out anyone who might have line of sight. Mind control aliens and Blaster Launchers are a nightmare combination.
@@hailstar2075Yes sir, I need to be more careful and not keep my soldiers so tightly grouped on missions but sometimes we get bad luck. Thanks for your expert advice, it really helps.
just dropping in for a quick question, in the production menu it says that my profit is going to be negative, (e.g. Profit: -$400,000) is this actual negative profit or just an old game thing
I believe it will actually take money from you equal to that amount. This is usually a result of your base upkeep being too high, or manufacturing expensive things in your workshops. If you're strapped for cash try selling off extra alien corpses and surplus gear (for example you probably won't need more than 30 plasma rifles). Only sell alien grenades and plasma weapon ammunition as a last resort though. The goal is to have so much money in the bank that going negative on profit isn't a big deal and/or to win a bunch of missions and make countries happy so they increase their funding.
@@hailstar2075 Once you've researched laser weapons, build (and sell) laser cannons. Highest profit margin in the game. I usually build a dedicated base (LaserFab One) to churn them out and soon I have more money than I know what to do with. Funding becomes a non-issue (literally tens of millions). Don't ask who's buying all those laser cannons....
i wish this game wasnt so much of a "if you know what to do then youre good, otherwise get fucked" kind of game cuz i know i can get into it. its just intimidating
4:30 i see, vanilla does not have missile strikes like xpiratez also you start with so much cash. 6:00 the pain of everyone who plays the entire suite of og xcom and mods
Well... you can deactivate the non vanilla options and play a scalable for modern resolutions, non-buggy version of the game. The guide was a pretty good primer for newbies imo
When attacking UFOs, dont just send 1 interceptor, send them ALL. Leave them at standoff until all your interceptors are on target. Then you get multiple attack windows, send them all in at once. You can attack one UFO with up to 4 interceptors doing this, just move the attack windows around the screen so you can see them all.
