79 replies to this topic

[Chris StarShade]

I was just contemplating the concept of playing the game in new and bizarre ways.

The X-COM Util homepage has a few of these possibilities, and I'll talk about a few of them and enumerate on some others that I have thought up.

Xenophobe: X-COM is xenophobic and sells all recovered loot immediately without researching it. It is impossible to truly win the game in this mode.

Cost-Cutter "Bean Counter": X-COM beauracracy is obsessed with cost-cutting and maxxing profit. Nothing that needs to be replaced after being used may be used. Further, shooting down UFOs is a no-no so it is all Ground Assaults. No clip-based weapons may be used, etc. It is possible to win the game in this mode. The monthly costs of conventional craft and the elerium use of advanced craft balances out so either kind can be used in this kind of game when available.

Explosive/Pyromania: X-COM officials have a psychotic love of blowing stuff up. The only weapon type permitted is high explosive. No other type of weapon may be used. It is possible to win the game in this mode.

Nocturnal "Photophobe": X-COM is made up entirely of vampires. X-COM soldiers will only fight during night. It is possible to win the game in this mode.

Technophobe: X-COM is made up of pseudo-Amish. All scientists and engineers are sacked at the beginning and laboratories and workshops dismantled. All alien artifacts are sold when they are acquired. If it can't be bought, it can't be used. It is not possible to truly win the game in this mode.

Xenophile "Neo-Pacifist": X-COM officials are goody-good two shoes who can't stand to kill anything. Only nonlethal weapons may be used. The exception to the rule is proximity grenades, since you don't really "kill" the thing that walks into the grenade, it "kills itself". It is possible to win the game in this mode (although you must destroy the brain with proximity grenades).

Hawaii 5-0: X-COM has one base, and it is in Hawaii. In order to do well in this scenario, you must send craft on patrol missions frequently. It is possible to win in this mode.

No Transports: This mode is only viable if you edit the game to give transport capability to the Firestorm and Interceptor. In effect, you play the game through using only Firestorm and Interceptor craft. It is possible to win in this mode.

Shootdown: Ground Assaults are not approved unless the target is softened up by shooting it down. No UFO Assaults commence, but only crash site recoveries. It is possible to win in this mode.


And now, I would like to add one of my own to the list...

The Secret Base: You operate only one base, it doesn't matter where. If the aliens detect the base and launch a successful assault on it, you must immediately build a new base in a different location (preferably on another continent) and transfer EVERYTHING from your original base to your new base as it becomes possible to do so, and then dismantle your original base. It is possible to win in this mode.

[Blehm 98]

someone should pin this....

[NKF]

Wish granted.

Now, hmm. Lessee... well, I've got my play-from-scratch challenge that makes it so that you start the game with extra funds, but no base and absolutely no support from any of the countries.

It's impossible to get a Skyranger up and running before the end of the month, but you can still win the first month with a slightly positive score.

Win-able. The main challenge is to become self sufficient.

---

Then there's the grenade-only campaign I tried once, and found to be excellent. Completely changed my opinion of grenades. Before that I thought they were horrible. I made it slightly more lenient and allowed a laser pistol to only take out units that are floating in the air in such a way that they cannot be attacked by grenades (like there's no nearby roof to throw a high-explosive). But if I ran out of grenades, I had to either scavenge for more grenades or retreat. You don't know how many humiliating retreats I had to make. Kind of makes the game more interesting that way.

---

Then I tried a pistol-size-weapon-only campaign. Amazing game. Got trounced the moment the sectopods showed up though. Otherwise, great game.

---

Of all these games, the one thing that remains constant is that I also refuse to use the psi-amp. Makes it even more interesting that way.

---

Uh, lessee. I also once tried to play a very jittery game where my soldiers could only kill with reaction fire. Did well the first few missions, but gave up shortly afterwards.

- NKF

[Paladin]

NKF gave up on an experiment!! :o

I don't beleive it!!!!

YOU MUST BE AN ALIEN IMPERSONATING OUR GOD!!!!
::

[GDD]

well i did a play a mission with no weapons hoping to pick one up from a already dead alien but it didn't work out well.

[Paladin]

You bet ::
in order to pick up weapons from dead aliens, you've got to find the ones INSIDE the crashed UFO, where it's buddies are kinda in your way...

[NKF]

Hey, I was given this wacky idea a while back.

One standard grenade. One soldier. Cydonia.

In theory, it's possible. But in practice, it's your proverbial million-to-one chance. It just might work, but then again...

You could probably adapt it. One grenade, one team of troops. You'd have to do this after you've researched plasma tech, of course.

- NKF

[Ambegen]

Word Dominance : Your truly mission in not to defeat aliens but to conquer the whole Earth. You just use alien huntings as cover for your truly plans. You must be only one who poses all alien/advanced technology. So you cannot sell any alien stuff ( except corpses and alien food,surgery and entertaiment - they are useless anyway ). You cannot sell anything that your scientists could create too. This way during the whole game your income will be limited to nation funding ( he he he that's irony - they support you and your truly purpose is to make them slaves ).

PS. Before final mission you schould prepare invading fleet - i think 30 avengers and 1000 soldiers schould do the trick . Of course every soldier schould have some basic treining, psionic strenght>50, be fully armored and equiped.

Have fun conquering earth

Btw. in X-Com 2 you schould play as remaining aliens and try to stop X-Com invasion.

Of course it isn't possible to fully win in this mode ( you can only slaughter aliens ).

Edited by Ambegen, 28 September 2004 - 08:07 AM.

[Chris StarShade]

I disagree, it IS possible to win in that mode. After all, "This planet ain't big enough for the two of us."


Another concept:

Made on Earth: You refuse to use equipment captured from the aliens. Any equipment captured by the aliens must be immediately sold (except for one unit which may be kept for research). You may use only equipment that your own engineers produce (or which you can buy).

The only exceptions to the rule are Elerium-115, and Alien Alloys. Elerium is not technically "made" by the aliens, but rather is "mined" by them (theoretically). As for the alien alloys, the alloys might have been invented by the aliens, but they are only the substance of the outer "shell" of the UFOs, and is thus the equivalent of scrap metal for the purposes of this scenario.

The biggest difficulty is keeping track of how many alien-design weapons you are accumulating, so as to know how much to sell and how many to keep because you made them, though if all your advanced weapons are assigned to the ships it shouldn't be too difficult.

Variations on the theme: The first variation is, naturally, to include Alien Alloys among the things which you must sell immediately and recreate. (puts things in a whole new perspective).

The second variation is that you are so patriotic, you refuse to use anything of an alien design (except when it is a component for a larger system). Thus, if this is the case you would never use plasma weapons, stun bombs, alien grenades, blaster launchers or mind probes. However, you could use psi-amps, plasma beam craft weapons, and all types of HWP. This makes the Launcher Hovertanks more valuable because none of your troops uses Blaster Launchers.

Finally, there is a theme which can be used on its own or mixed with any of the above: Anti-Flying Saucer.
When using this theme, you never build Firestorms or any type of Hovertank because of their resemblance to the classic 'flying saucer' UFO design. Thus, for faster interception you are forced to use Lightnings and Avengers, having no Firestorms available.

That's all I can think of for now.

[The Master Maniac]

I'm very tempted to try the one-man, standard-grenade Cydonia assault thing. Are, uh, flying suits okay?

Will post results soon. Hee hee...

[Paladin]

hehe... I'd like xenocide to kill any T-shirt guys wandering on mars for more than a turn... even Personnal armors...
Or at least give the Vac-suits ::

[Chris StarShade]

You didn't know? The magnetic fields of Cydonia produce an atmosphere of Oxygen-Helium. Thus, the troops can breathe fine, they just sound funny when they talk.

[Paladin]

hehehe... Nice try
but I'll stick to what we can see from Spirit & Opportunity...

[Snakeman]

I'll save you some time. The face was originally a sculpture of their first leader...Sectoid Bob. Wind erosion has made it look more human, and after I wiped out the brain, it looked more like a human with severe acne.

Anyway, I'm sticking to a mostly laser pistol battle at the moment working up my soldier's reactions.

[Paladin]

then why does it have a nose


and this makes me think wat will alins think about mt rushmore arter we are extinct

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, Mount Rushmoore is artifically created, so unless the "aliens" come in fast enough (and millions of years of erosinon have not destroyed it completely), they'll still see lots of proofs that it's artificial. -_-


Cydonia, on the other hand, is quite natural.
The "human face" on mars is just an optical ullusion, you have to look at it at the right time in the right part of the year to see the shadows make it look like a face, but it realy is not... sorry to diapoint you guys.

Here's the NASA pictures that explains it. Quite interesting

[Serega]

Alright, here is my input. I don't know if anybody else ever tried playing this way, but my friends and I have been doing this since the unmentionable times. Depending on the number of people playing the game (you could just do missions one at a time) you pick one soldier and name him after you. Then, for the remainder of the game, your purpose is to help him survive and get stronger. It really adds personal touch to the game because now you have sort of personal obligation and liability to be extremely careful with at least this guy/girl. Oh, and yes, it does hurt to see that guy die. Try it.

[Snakeman]

Yea, personalizing a few of them makes it all the more bitter sweet if you lose one. I think one way to make this more challenging might be to mix in a few others ideas here, plus personalize a few. Choose your difficulty how you want but make them have to go on every outting including Cydonia

Heh, now try the 'only earth grenades and laser pistol' thing with 'im sans using psi etc.

[NKF]

Laser pistols and grenades is possible and can be won. The only alien that'll give you any problems will be the sectopod. But you don't need sectopods to win the game. You can kill all the other aliens on superhuman with the laser pistol - eventually.

You do need a stun rod if you want to win the game though, so you might want to make it a little more lenient and allow one stun rod. You can stun an injured alien with a grenade if you can time it just right, but hey, that involves luck more than anything else!

---

As for cooperative games:

I and a friend actually played a two-player hot-seat game where we each commanded a sub-squad each. We just tacked our first initial onto the end of our soldiers and took turns moving our own soldiers.

Kind of fun playing that way.

- NKF

[Paladin]

Great idea, the sub-squads

But if the "soldier that must not die" is the one with the blaster launcher, he won't die...

[Ambegen]

Hey, I was given this wacky idea a while back.

One standard grenade. One soldier. Cydonia.

In theory, it's possible. But in practice, it's your proverbial million-to-one chance. It just might work, but then again...
You'd have to do this after you've researched plasma tech, of course.

- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How about only one soldier in personal armor conquer Cydonia?
No weapon and plasma/blaster tech not researched.





It's probably possible ( ethereal shooting at you and hitting brain or shooting with blaster and killing both ) but chances are a little low...maybe quite low...actually enormous low...better forget about that :crying:




To make things a little easier make sure your personal armor has 255 strenght all around. ::

[Paladin]

Which is... cheating? ::

[Paladin]

Oooooh, here's another variation...
Take over Cydonia using only one guy... and a psy-amp... ::

[Ambegen]

Word Dominance : Your truly mission in not to defeat aliens but to conquer the whole Earth.
PS. Before final mission you schould prepare invading fleet - i think 30 avengers and 1000 soldiers schould do the trick . Of course every soldier schould have some basic treining, psionic strenght>50, be fully armored and equiped.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

unfortunetly that won't work
you can only have 250 soldiers
in x-com there's limit for everything

[Ambegen]

Oooooh, here's another variation...
Take over Cydonia using only one guy... and a psy-amp... ::

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

how about:
Take over Cydonia using only ... a psy-amp...
But seriously, did you try to send empty craft to Cydonia?

[NKF]

One guy, one psi-amp. I always thought you could play through the entire game that way (When you got the psi-amp, of course).

The only problem with this, for standard recovery/terror/defence missions, is that you have to somehow get the last alien to kill itself. And I mean without the aid of the inventory trick - so that it works with TFTD as well (the inventory trick doesn't work there).

How would you disable the last alien though? If it was carrying a small launcher or a blaster launcher, well, no problem. But if all it has is a heavy plasma... you'd have to do the coup-de-grace yourself.

It's no problem for a base attack or the Cydonia mission. The base attack only requires you to destroy the four command tables. The cydonia mission ends the moment the brain is damaged.

Bit of a puzzler there.

- NKF

[Admiral Harkov]

Search the part which is always with smoke and send there the alien till it collapses.

[Hailfire22]

How would you disable the last alien though? If it was carrying a small launcher or a blaster launcher, well, no problem. But if all it has is a heavy plasma... you'd have to do the coup-de-grace yourself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can always find an alien grenade and have him arm and drop it.
Of course that's fun to do in any game. ::

[Snakeman]

Harkov has a point about continuing to send the alien and park him in smoke using MC. However, if in this challenge you can't make any with the last alien cause the smoke goes away after a while, another solution might be to find somewhere on the map you could drop him off of several times Course you might need to use his weapon to make a path through a wall or something if the map layout is odd. Then the only problem is maintaining your line of sight to it. At least, that's how I'd handle the last alien with psi amp.

[NKF]

Sorry if I'm not reading you correctly, but you mean cause fall damage like you can in Apocalypse? Unfortunately, there isn't any fall damage in UFO. Getting it to stand in something that's on fire might work.

And as for smoke, it would only work on easier levels and on the lower alien ranks. I once had this amazing base defence mission (first defence mission a few weeks into a brand new superhuman game) and by the time I was down to my last panicking alien, I'd also completely run out of pistol and rifle bullets, all my grenades and literally everything else (item limit cut out the stun rods) but a set of smoke grenades. Yep, completely dry except for the smoke grenades. Turned out the panicking alien was a sectoid commander! You can imagine how happy I was to get an alien of such caliber this early in the game! As I'd captured a leader earlier, Cydonia or Bust would've only been weeks away.. if only the smoke grenades had worked.

Sadly, no matter how long I was able to keep the smoke at its thickest, the sectoid commander just wouldn't go down while my soldiers were all spluttering their sooty lungs out (was keeping it blocked in - see).

Since I didn't want to cheat, and I had no other 'base' built at the time, I had to forfeit the game and restart.

If the last alien is a large terror unit with a built-in turret (Sectopods and cyberdisc), it could kill itself, easy. But again, the missions without the terror unit might be a bit tricky. Heh, imagine having that lone soldier lug everything back to the Skyranger just to evacuate because the last alien can't kill itself. Not exactly my preferred way to spend an evening.

-NKF

[Paladin]

One guy, one psi-amp. I always thought you could play through the entire game that way (When you got the psi-amp, of course).

The only problem with this, for standard recovery/terror/defence missions, is that you have to somehow get the last alien to kill itself. And I mean without the aid of the inventory trick - so that it works with TFTD as well (the inventory trick doesn't work there).
(...)

Bit of a puzzler there.

- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Naaahhh... There is absolutely NO problem here... We''re talking about Cydonia here, so LOTS of Blaster launchers lying around...
Bersides, the las t alien CAN throw his gun to you ::

[Admiral Harkov]

Uhm yeah. But I don't remember any mission that ufo's smoke had ceased. Maybe I didn't lent too many attention to that.
But this has make me remember something: in one mission, in the start, I found that a granary had smoke and two floaters were inside unconscious, one of them woke up before the end of the mission, and it was far away the UFO.

[NKF]

Paladin: Well, you don't need to kill the last alien to win Cydonia. Just a matter of getting to the exit pad for the first half, and then harming the brain in the second.

I was just trying to think how it would be done were you to play a whole campaign that way (After you get psi-amps and can start using them, of course).

- NKF

[Snakeman]

Sorry if I'm not reading you correctly, but you mean cause fall damage like you can in Apocalypse? Unfortunately, there isn't any fall damage in UFO. Getting it to stand in something that's on fire might work.

I could have sworn there was some form of fall damage at play in UFO. Its been awhile since I've done anything like fallen off a second story roof for example, but I thought the unit took a hit to health/strength/stamina or something at least.

[Paladin]

Nope, NO fall damage whatsoever ::

[GDD]

what about getting people who have low moral so they panic all the time and get MC'd

[Paladin]

Your point being?

[Kirill]

Xenophile "Neo-Pacifist" is just too cool! I play it with no proxy & no psi but a HE in cydonia(is very fun having the entire squad covering THE soldier with THE "package" )
While at the beginning is really fun the chryssalid mode (rookies&stun rods), later in the game is quite a challenge using only small launchers (specially against flying units) due to the sniper mode (one shot per turn + extremely limited ammo)

[braindamage]

Here's some things to the make the game more intresting

On missions:

Two of your soldiers stay inside the craft or at least VERY near of the craft. Why? Because they are the pilots of the craft. The craft can't cannot leave from the mission if either of these two pilots are injured, stunned and/or dead. Remember to edit the "Pilote" to the end/front of their names.

Also, you have to name one soldier to command for each and every tank you have on the mission. If the trooper commanding the tank should die, another person must take the command panel (i use high explosive as the command panel, kinda looks like a remote control ) from the corpse and spend one entire turn to re-program it. For the time being, the tank stays where it is and cannot move nor shoot. Better yet, if the trooper who is the pilot of the tank dies, the tank must stay where it is to the bitter end.

Remember: Pilots cannot use any weapons more powerfull than pistols at any point

A medic. Only one of your troopers can use the medikit. He cannot pass it to anyone else, because he is indeed the only one with the skills to use it. Medics can only use pistols. If you medic will get promoted later, he can use the stun launcher.

Rocketeers: When launching a rocket launcher you must use one entire human turn to reload, then on the next turn you can take another shot.When launching a blaster, you must wait for 2 entire turns to take another shot. A trooper with the big launcher must not have any ammunition on him, except the one in the gun. He must have another trooper with him who is only carrying ammunition for him.

--Ranks and rules--

I do not let my rookies and squaddies use any powerful weapons or armors.I like to think good equipment are rare and only higher ranked troopers can use them. The general rules are these:

Rookies - Can use pistols, rifles, normal grenades, stun rods. No armor, no heavy weapons (Yes, even auto cannon etc. are fobridden)

Squaddies - All the normal weapons are useble, rocket launchers, auto cannons, normal grenades, high explosives, electro flares and eventually the stun launcher. No armors for squaddies.

Sergerants - It gets a lot easier here. Sergerants can use laser weapons and personal armor. BUT, when using a personal armor, it drains some hit points. You must always remember to use 10-15 time units unused when wearing a personal armor. Now you can use alien grenades also.

Captains - Plasma weapons and power armor allowed now. Allthough, if you wish to wear a power armor, same thing as with the personal armos, but this time you have to leave 15-20 time units unused.

Colonels (also the Commander) - These guys will never leave the base. The only time you will see a Colonel or the Commander in action will be base defend, alien base or Cydonia.

--Geospace

You can only hire 3 more new rookies in a month

You can only have 20 researchers / base

You can only have 20 engineers / base

You can only have one fighter craft and one craft to transport the troops. This goes throughout the game. At the point where you have 3 or more bases, you can have another figher craft.

When the psi lab is built, you can only train one of your troopers at a time so select with consideration. The trooper going to the psi training must be ranked captain or higher.

[Sergio]

Braindamage you are a serious massocist. Man you make it hard for yourself.
Do you relaod much? If you are only allowed 3 new rookies per month you must be pretty carefull with your men?

[GreatGold]

Howdy -

It would be a very neat feature in Xenocide to allow for pre-set scenerio rules. Similar to how Halo allows online gamers to set the rules for each match. That way, if you wanted a game with no laser tech, you could set that before hand. With a built-in tool like this, it would be simple for people to create their own Xenocide scenerios and post the file for other people to try. Same as in the Civilization series. I imagine this would not be too difficult a tool to implement since Xenocide is using a data driven setup (i think).

So in theory, the scenrio setup could be XML based. You just set the number of allowed bases, techs, lengths of games allowed, etc. Would be pretty interesting. heck, you could even expand that idea to the Battlescape.

Anyway, just thinking out loud.

- Gold

[braindamage]

Braindamage you are a serious massocist.  Man you make it hard for yourself.
Do you relaod much?  If you are only allowed 3 new rookies per month you must be pretty carefull with your men?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh, no i'm no masocist. Remember that you don't have to play super human difficulty level using these methods. You just gotta adjust your own toughness level.

And yes, i play it carefully with my soldiers. I gave them all personal names and try not to loose a single trooper. I might reload sometimes if too many of my strike force falls down on a mission, but it's possible. I've sometimes played for 2 months without any corpses. Sometimes a might loosen up my rules and hire a couple extra rookies but hiring only 3-5 rookies makes it challening, intresting and sometimes annoying as heck

[teukros]

Hey Braindamage, you forgot one.

Research Elerium-115 _before_ you research laser (or plasma) weapons.

[Sinscale17]

Suicide Bomber. Those pesky aliens won't get your brain!

Every single soldier must begin equipped with a High Explosive in their hand, and their first turn must be spent arming it to 0 turns. You can't throw or drop it, but once you die, you can be assured that those stinking aliens won't benefit from YOUR genetic material. Or that of the five guys next to you your bomb just killed.

You can complete the game with this one, and probably have some fun suicide runs too.

Ooo yeah, forgot panicking, on the offchance your man runs far enough away to live, just have him pull out a spare, odds are you'll find your explosive redemption eventually. ^-^

Edited by Sinscale17, 06 February 2005 - 04:21 AM.

[Vlas]

I play what I call SHADO mode (after the show UFO by Gerry Anderson).

My task is to defend Earth against Alien incursions, but my means are limited.

1) I always try to shoot down every contact (wish I had a skydiver for those contacts over the ocean).

2) I go for recovery of every crashed or landed UFO

3) I don't build alien containment and I don't capture aliens

4) I can research and use, but not manufacture Alien technology

5) I can only have 20 scientists and 10 engineers (to manufacture earth tech only)

I see how long I can last. It gets very exciting when sometimes when I can only use captured Alien weapons!

Even way back when I first played XCOM (back in 94!) I used to MUCH prefer the early game to the late. I completed the whole Cydonia thing a couple of times, but I wasn't very interested in that aspect of the game.

Multiplayer: My friend and I used to play together. One would be the commander of XCom, taking care of all strategic and logistical decision, the other was the field commander, controlling actions in the battlescape. We used to trade roles for every new game. Those were the days.

XCom gets my award for best computer game in history. Elite and Shadow President get a tie for second place

[stewart]

I play the game two ways:
One - I actually try to simultaneously save money and people. I place artificial restrictions in the research tree to force me to research everything. I assume base defenses have an effect on invading crew size. And I try to use all equipment.
Two - I dont give the slightest rats a$$ about my troops; happily sending them into the meat grinder. I research only what I MUST. I use a limited set of equipment. My only base defense is the choke point (one missile defense) and mind shield.

Generally two is easier, but one is funner.

[Pherdnut]

Earth Tech Only was my favorite game so far although not as tough as this grenades and laser pistol NKF is talking about. All lasers, motion scanners, and med kits are allowable and you can only research and build a single avenger for the purpose of getting to Cydonia. A very interesting game requiring you to really take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of various types of weaponry. I still found Rocket Launchers to be useful throughout and I found it useful to give Heavy Lasers to a couple agents for the more heavily armored targets. Once you've played a game in this style, going back to a full research game will seem 10 times easier.

Solo Agent is tough but doable and that agents stats become godly in no time. I think I cheated and used a tank until I got my hands on personal armor, but that was mainly so the guy could step out of the ship and find cover without getting killed by a plasma pistol. Cydonia was hilarious. I just brought a crapload of BL rounds and bombarded every square inch of the first area. Scorched Earth! It was a pretty uneventful walk to the exit pad after launching about 22 BL rounds.

[JoeJoe]

I like to play as if it were real. As in, no meat grinding of endless rookie after rookie. Using each piece of equiptment to my advantage, building bases on ever continent, not giving new troops the best armor (unless im rolling in the power suits).

Above all, i dont use ANY exploits. No grenades through the roof, no smoke through the walls (unless its unintentional). pretty much i limit myself to what the game is suppose to allow.

and yes, no loading except in one case, where I find that due to a glitch or exploit by the aliens (yeah sounds like im a crying baby).

its fun.

[gufu]

A new way to play-grenades and exposives only!
MC weapons only for use alien to use it's own grenade on self!