Mr March

Oh, the infamous Escaflowne edit. One more reason, on a very long list, why I hate television and refuse to watch it. I caught an episode of Escaflowne when over at a friend's when he was watching it on YTV here in Canada. The story was so disjointed due to the editing, I don't think I could have followed it if I hadn't already seen the episode unedited. I shook my head and couldn't believe that stuff like this still happens after all these years. We think anime has come so far since the late 70's/80's, but damn do some broadcasters in this country have a lot of growing up to do.

That was absolutely awful! This is not a good first impression at all. That was some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a long time and lousy CG animation that would give that new Robotech movie competition for Llama of the Year. I was cringing throughout the whole thing and talk about boring! The entire sequence in which the fighter craft scan the system felt like an hour! The original X-COM animated intro is better than this. At least it had style and pacing. Ugh!

I just have to say something about some of the PSI-screening strategies I see on the internet. You know, the strategies that tell you to trash any soldiers that are mind controlled regularly or transfer them to teams that are non-PSI combatants, then recruit more soldiers to replace. Talk about the lamest, most useless strategy that ever was. I have never bothered with this strategy beyond my first attempt years ago. One, you invariably find out later in the game (once you have PSI lab) that on average 4-5 of any 10 man team is low-PSI and should be sacked. Two, you've no way of knowing about PSI until that point so you'd have to go through 4-5 psionic alien missions before you could even filter out each individual low-PSI soldier. Three, given the odds you've got a roughly 50/50 chance of any new recruit being low-PSI and hence another 2-3 psionic alien missions to discover this and then finally 1 or 2 more missions to test the third wave of replacement recruits. Four, in the early-mid game I encounter only 1-2 psionic alien ships per month. Which means it takes 2-3 months just to detect all the low-PSI soldiers in a given team and another 1-2 months to replace those. This is all assuming you can get that one particular PSI-screened team to reach each psionic alien mission (which is impossible in the early-mid game) and this is all just for ONE team of 10 soldiers (to say nothing of your other bases and squads). By the time all this happens, it's already month 6 or 7 and I've got PSI lab. Talk about a dumbass strategy and a major headache for very little gain. Has anyone here ever done well with this strategy or experienced any appreciable gain for the amount of effort involved?

You know, as much as Daikatana sucked, I did enjoy the whole behind-the-scenes drama. I followed the tragic development of Daikatana all the way through and must admit I got a kick outta the whole silly affair, along with it's eventual demise. It was like the gaming equivalent of the tabloids, in a way

I find early terror missions (during months 1-4) are just big write-offs. Your soliders are way too green to be effective enough to save anyone and the large number of aliens with heavy firepower is just ridiculous. I do whatever it takes to waste them and win. The collateral damage in my first few terror missions is unbelievably high. I bring grenades, high explosives, incendiary and HE ammunition for all my guns and I let the map have it. I barely move my units during the first 5 turns. I pull my team out of the Skyranger, postion around the landing zone, I lay a defensive smoke grenade and then let the ammo fly. Buildings are blown to bits, everything is ablaze and Gas Stations are fireballs waiting to happen. I hit fuel pumps the first moment I see them, I could care less who is inside. Ninety nine percent of the time, it's aliens cowering behind the pumps, trying to safely shoot at your soldiers thinking you won't risk an inferno by firing back at them. This is X-COM, alien biatches! The other ten UFOs I blew out of the sky this month guarantees I can do whatever I want during the alien terror missions and still come out smelling like roses at month end review Good thing is, once you've got Hyper-Wave Detector, you never have to do a Terror mission again if you don't wish it. Just intercept the terror ships before they land. I'll tell you what does annoy me about X-COM; the Alien Base assaults. I just completed my first. I figure, after allowing the first Alien Base to function for 5 months while I looted the Supply Ships that feed the base regularly, it was time to waste them. Funny thing is, I discovered a second Alien Base just a week before I assaulted the first. Anyway, Alien Base missions are difficult, but that's not what annoys me. What annoys me about Alien Bases is when they stack ALL the aliens around the insertion points and when there's nothing left to kill after the first 8-10 turns, the mission ends. The vast majority of the base remains completely unexplored because the aliens were stupid enough to bunch up around my soldiers who are tossing high explosives in every corridor. The final Cydonia assault was much more fun as an Alien Base assault. There, you have to hunt down the aliens scattered throughout the base. That is, if you don't cheat and instantly go for the control center if you already know where it is, having played the game before

Wow. That must have been something. To be working with Microprose during the glory days of X-COM, Master of Orion, Master of Magic...the only thing better could be working at id Software during the Doom-Quake 2 era or Valve during the original Half-Life era.

A man after my own heart Very nice strategy!

Oh the joy of secondary explosions! The Alien Bases in X-COM are the best. Fire a Balsater BOmb at the right spot and there like a dozen secondary explosions that all go off in succession. Just brutal.

Nah, you don't suck. I lose soldiers all the time, but I just reload the mission and try again (and I occassionally cheat with a mid mission saves). After you get over the kinks and loosen up in combat again, you'll find it's much easier and you won't die as often. It just takes a bit of time and patience. The game does have a learning curve. I wouldn't keep playing if you're loosing as many soldiers as described above. You have to reload at that point and try again. It's really important, especially in the early stages of the game, to avoid wasting money. Ninety five percent of your soldiers have to survive the first three to four months. With casualty rates 50% or higher, you'll have a harder time expanding and improving your bases, weapons and research. Plus, as you say, none of your soldiers will improve, since it becomes a revolving door of raw recruits. And you might as well not even bother doing that because you'll never be able to use green soldiers in Alien Base missions, against psionic Battleships or the Cydonia mission. I let one soldier die and allow one serious wounding per month...at most. Any more than that and it's just seriously handicapping my game. Especially serious wounds, that can leave a soldier laid up for over a month (at which point it's better to just sack him and get another soldier). Your team has to survive the majority of missions with minor wounds and minimal hospital time.

Terrain destruction is so much fun in X-COM. The number of uses is just brilliant. Have you ever sighted an alien inside a building with one soldier, then had a second nearby soldier run up to the wall and autofire both the wall and the alien inside? That much fun should be illegal

As Akilae and ruskiiVFaussie have mentioned, smoke grenades are your friend. When night vision gives the aliens the advantage, take it away by smoking the map. Tanks and smoke grenades...use your green to save those who are

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Comedy gold!

Omg, this website has Wasteland, the original post-apocalyptic RPG for the PC. Damn, talk about ancient! This game was so much fun, but could be quite hard ("Peels off a final shot", the most hated phrase in RPG history). Damn, seeing this next to Fallout is like night and day, just no comparison at all. Can't beleive I played this game. I think I'm feeling my age just a little bit right now

LOL @ F-ZeroOne I have to agree with Noyhauser. I can't recall ever possessing psi-capable soldiers BEFORE Ethereals arrive on the scene. Personally, the best I've ever done is to be training my soldiers in psi when the first Ethereals show up (around month six or seven if I recall). I certainly wouldn't call the game a loss just because you have no psi-soldiers when the Ethereals come. In fact, you're really doing just as good as the average competent player at this point. There are ways to defend against psionics aliens and ways to quickly attack them BEFORE you obtain psi-capable soldiers. Using the medikit to restore morale with pain killers is one method. Using psi-vulnerable - but unarmed soldiers - is a highly effective way to bait psi-aliens into wasting time mind controlling useless units. Get a Rocket Launcher Tank or better yet, a Blaster Launcher Hovertank and obliterate everything. When fighting masses of psi-aliens like Ethereals, it's no time for capture or salvage. Let not an alien nor building nor UFO remain standing. ANNIHILATE THE MAP! Blaster Launcher is your friend: with this weapon you can blow a hole in the roof of an alien vessel with one shot, then fire a second Blaster Bomb through the hole and into the bridge where all the cowardly psi-aliens think they are unassailable. There's nothing quite like killing four Ethereals on the bridge of a terror ship in only the second turn of combat

Don't know if it's common, but there's a booklet in the first season DVD set that I purchased.

To hell with sequels to all these side scrolling Mario-clones. I still want another good Star Control, Full Throttle, X-COM and Master of Magic sequel.

DOS Version 1.4 has fixed most of the bugs, though some still persist. Both the DOS versions and Windows versions can still be purchased and are relatively cheap. I think some websites have downloads of the full game, but I'm not sure where. I'd recommend DOSbox to play any old DOS game. I've got X-COM, Master of Magic, Full Throttle and The Dig all operating flawlessly under DOSbox (version 0.61 I believe). IMO, you can't go wrong with it and it's easy to use. Glad I could offer a little bit of advice. Good luck F-ZeroOne

Omg, that is so silly. LOL

Weird, but this just started happening to me this week. Firefox just closes for no reason. I could be in the middle of a post or just browsing a website. Boom, it's gone. Doesn't happen often, but even twice in the last week is too much. Never happened before.

Noyhauser is correct. You can't let battleships on an infiltration mission land, even for a minute or you'll lose your funding nation. This is a rule that doesn't change, it happens in all X-COM Enemy Unknown games on all skill levels, even beginner. Having said that, it's important to note that not all battleships are on infiltration missions. Important distinction. Make sure to group up your soldiers when trying for a stun and ALWAYS flank. If you have one group on the right side trading fire with an alien you want to capture, make sure your soldier with the stun rod comes from the left side. Enjoy and happy alien hunting!

Yes, indeed! The only downside is battleships are hard to take out. You have to wolf pack em with several combat craft simultaneously in order to get em down and still have all your ships surviving. And damn if the Avenger and Firestorm don't take FOREVER to repair following a battle. Personally, I always go with Europe for the first base at the very beginning of the game. It's the most expensive place to build a base in the game ($1,000,000 to construct), with the closest competitors being the two polar caps at around $900,000 each as I recall. Since you don't have to pay for your first base, the most expensive location is the most logical on a cost analysis basis. In North America, it only costs $800,000 to build a new base, a full $200k less, which can count for a lot early in the game (and can mean the difference between starting your second base in the third month rather than the fourth). Plus, while Europe doesn't have as large a single contributor as North America does with the USA, the combined funding from all those smaller European countries is significant. Seperately, the European countries aren't as financially important, but together as a single union, they represent the biggest economic power (just like in real life). Plus, they are all in the same area, easily defendable with one base, allowing you to maximize the number of nations you can protect. Whatever an individual player decides, I agree with your initial choices. The first three bases should be South East Asia, North America and Europe (with Europe as the most cost effective first choice).

LOL We're all good at different games and not necessarily the ones we like the most. I adore Starcraft and still play it to this day, both single and multiplayer. But I suck bad at the game Other games, just gel. Much like my days challenging tourney players in Quake 2 multiplayer, X-COM was one of those games that just meshed so well with me, I was naturally adept with it. If I can offer some beginning advice in X-COM it's don't neglect any one aspect of the game. Don't neglect capturing aliens; it's part of X-COM so don't waste any chance to do so, especially early in the game. The more captured alien leaders and commanders you have early in the game means you don't even have to bother getting anymore mid to late game. It's amazing what you can accomplish with just stun rods. Don't neglect research; make certain you research the technology you need to get ahead first. Don't neglect manufacturing; make certain that if there's nothing your engineers can make for your needs, put them to work building stuff that you can sell for profit. Don't neglect expansion; be bold and build your first new base as soon as you have 3-4 million. You may feel vulnerable with all these small bases with no defense, but remember your bases are all secret and subterranean, so the aliens won't know where they are, at least initially. Bases take several months to build up properly, so it's best to get started early. A note about...Surviving the game - Early success in combat comes from two items in my opinion: smoke grenades and tanks. The majority of most soldier deaths will come from some attack when units are out in the open away from cover. Buy smoke grenades and toss them around. These items remain useful throughout the entire game. Think alien capture is impossible early in the game? You obviously haven't seen smoke grenades and stun rods in action together. Tanks are fantastic expendable scouts and basically moving cover. Use them to go first into battle and run along behind them. Most aliens will almost always attack a tank when given a choice of targets, so it's just smart. Also, the missile tank is one helluva terrain leveller and fortifications buster. Use it to clear a field of trees or just to obliterate the top level of some building where you know aliens are entrenched. A note about...Research - Get those laser weapons, and fast! These babies even out the game like you wouldn't beleive. Go through the laser research tree at least until you get Laser Rifle. You can research more to get Heavy Laser, but avoid using it since it's junk. Laser Rifles require no ammunition, are quick to manufacture and remain useful throughout the game (especially later against the robotic Sectopods). Also note that it is in your best interest to get at least one base with 100 scientists as soon as you can afford it (and if you're really a risk taker, maybe even BEFORE you can afford it). With a hundred lab coats at your disposal, you can research nearly everything you need in a timely fashion. Just make sure to use them all on one topic at a time. A note about...Weapons - Auto Cannon is your friend early on. It may have it's disadvantages such as being heavy and not very accurate, but with Auto-Fire and all three types of ammunition, this baby can cause a lot of hurt to virtually all the aliens. And who needs accuracy with smoke grenades that can get your soldiers in close. It's also a great way to fight in night missions, using incendiary ammunition to light up the area. As mentioned above, Laser Rifle is your daddy, so get it as soon as you can. It's accurate, light weight, long range, has all firing modes and is twice as powerful as the standard rifle without the need for any ammunition. Arguably the best weapon in the game, despite it's lack of firepower compared to the plasma weapons. A note about...Troops - Choose soldiers with high bravery and reactions. IMO, no other stats matter (though it can't hurt to get a couple soldiers that "have it all" to assist early in the game). I demand these two stats are high for fresh recruits because they are the hardest to increase in game play. Every other stat will easily increase quickly just doing normal fighting. Really low reactions (30-40) are dangerous to increase because almost all the aliens will get off shots before someone with a 30-40 reaction will shoot. Psi-strength is sadly something you can't do much about, since you'll only find out the psi potential of soldiers late in the game, after you've already built up existing soldiers into mega fighting machines. Nonetheless, it can't hurt to hire one or two new recruits with strong psi potentials to bolster the combat veterans and maybe firing one or two of the lowest psi rated verterans isn't such a bad idea, since they might be more of a liability. A note about...Money - Start selling lots of alien stuff in the early-mid game. Guns, alien alloys even corpses can bring in tons of cash. Even my strongest squad of soldiers uses only a few plasma weapons, so theres no need to have 20 heavy plasmas in your stores when you can sell all but a half dozen. Sell all but a few items (with the exception of alien alloys, which you want to have at least 150-200 units initially). Don't worry, you'll get lots more stuff as you do more missions. Just don't sell elerium (ever!), ammunition (always keep it), ufo power sources and stuff you really need to build craft and armor. Keep one of at least everything else until you've researched it, including the useless guns and corpses. A note about...Bases - Build all your bases as easily defendable installations. As soon as you can, rearrange the inital base into a more defensible configuration, basically all the hangars on one side of the lift with everything else on the other side of the lift (and one square of seperation between the two sides, only touching where the lift is). Build all other bases in a similar configuration. Personally, I have rarely bothered with Base Defenses like Missile/Laser/Plasma/Fusion Ball defense or Grav Shields. They take up too many slots that I need for more valuable things like General Stores, which eventualy grow to number 4-5 at my first three bases (I like to have LOTS of storage for hundreds of clips of alien ammunition and lots of space for at least 1,000 elerium or more). Just build bases with an easily defendable layout, build a Mind Shield when able and have a group of soldiers at each base. It's a lot less expensive and your soldiers are useful in the game as more than just static defenders. That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck!

From what I recall, the infamous bug won't happen until much later. I think you've got at least a year and a half before it start's rearing it's ulgy head. I'd forgotten about the nations pulling out over long periods of time. Now that you've mentioned it, I remember that eventually all the countires will be infiltrated by the aliens and pull out, no matter how well your monthly rating is. I can still recall the first time a country pulled out, while I had a monthly rating of 2,000+. I was like, "What the hell? I'm doing so well, how can they pull out?" Then I researched Alien Origins, which told me the war was a losing battle and I needed to capture more alien leaders to find the main alien base. Eventually this leads to the revelation that victory against the aliens all depends upon winning the battle for Cydonia on Mars. Such a desperate story

Thanks Zinjo. Let me go through some stuff and I'll send ya a PM later.

To be perfectly honest, I'm stumped on this one. I went through all of SDF Macross as research for the upcoming entry of the SDF-1 (TV Version) for the M3 and frankly, the SDF-1 Macross seems to be the most color inconsistant mecha of the franchise. Virtually every second shot shows the ship with a slightly different color scheme. White sections in one shot will be blue in another and vice versa. The feet/main thrusters seem to be the worst offender, alternating from blue to white in virtually every scene. This is the best I could come up with: Shawn and Graham have some pictures of the toys, for whatever accuracy or lack thereof they may have. See middle of this following page: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/takatoku.htm Not much help I know. But there it is