JOIN THE DISCORD TO ADD A SOLDIER TO OUR RANKS! discord.gg/Y4Qu5EjbB2 I've gotten over 100 names on the old name list, and could not manage this myself gracefully. Thank you to all the early joiners featured below, the rest of you can join the discord to add your name. See the recruitment instructions channel for details about the discord bot I setup. Old comment: I'm going to pull a few names from the comments (on Jan 16), but from here on out leave a simple reply on this comment if you want your name on a soldier. Don't want to pull random people's names who may or may not be interested if it's not required. edit: this will be pinned once youtube lets me (fixed it)
I’ve always wondered why I’ve never found anyone who had made this type of video before, and after finally finishing this off, I now understand. There is just too much information to try and gracefully organize, and to say that I was unprepared would be a massive understatement. On an unrelated note, I will be posting a number of random videos over the course of the next month for the fun of it. For the 3 people who subscribed to see my edit of the funny lethal company video, it’ll be out sometime this week. To everyone reading, happy new year! I’m hoping to do more with RUclips over this year, and any support is appreciated. See you next time for whatever I end up uploading.
Well, it depends on what audience you have in mind, complete strangers who dont know a sectoid from a heavy plasma, or people who are like OH COME ON WHO BUILDS FIRESTORMS ARE YOU FOR REAL?? (also, had to cry a bit about you _not_ instantly shooting the pyramid, entering with tanks, finding the maze, and shooting through the ceiling into the brain, _as one does_ , but whatever...) Seeing that this game is 30 years old, my guess is you can skip most details on tech and mechanics; But listening to your thinking process, in all its .. originality lets say (plasma canons needing ammo??) - that was fun!
@@peka2478 Thanks for watching! I'm just hoping for an audience that likes thinking about their games. I'm expecting to branch out post TFTD. We'll see what happens there. Also wasn't super familiar with optimal play and even some mechanics when recording. I'm glad that was entertaining. That's some of the joy with these style videos I find. And I had the same thought with skipping over tech and mechanics after editing this video. I've cut out a lot of that with TFTD thus far outside of major changes I had to relearn. Thanks again!
@@PotatoCaravan dont cut out what changed from original tftd to whatever the kids are playing these days though, please.. (I'm not familiar with open x-com tbh)
You made three rookie mistakes that cost you a lot of soldiers: 1: Letting the one who spotted the alien shoot it when they're not a tank or nobody else can hit it. This is crucial to avoiding reaction fire. 2: Not using prox mines on ship entrances (and alien base corridors). This stops aliens just being able to rush out and ambush you, as even if the mine doesn't actually kill them, you can camp from well outside where the mine is, so you know they ran out and can ambush them on your turn. 3: Not annihilating structures with explosives the moment you know there are unsighted aliens inside. Rockets are your friend, and alien-containing houses, your enemy.
The first mistake is something I've fixed in the recent videos. In recording this, I was coming off the of the X-COM files where accuracy is cut in half outside line of sight. Had to relearn this, especially for TFTD. Prox mines on the other hand are only so useful, as if the alien never comes, then you've just prevented yourself from accessing that part of the map. As for structures, I prefer using motion scanners. If I can be the one in the house, I'd like to leave it standing.
@@PotatoCaravan Ahhh, yeah that would do it. After a point, you forget the original game didnt have distance based accuracy penalties. There's a reason you'll hear players say to just use autoshot and nothing else. Since the accuracy doesnt decay with distance, once you hit a breakpoint of about ~40-50% chance to hit on auto, aimed shots and snapshots are basically obsolete. EDIT: MAN i fuckin brainfarted hard, i misread what this convo was talking about pretty bad. TLDR Smokes in og xcom were so busted for what strategies they enabled, and XCOM FILES adding LOS based penalties basically nuked them into the dirt (and for good reason)
@@PotatoCaravan Ah, even in that, I think it's still usually worth it with explosives, which are a generally good idea. As for prox mines, they can always be detonated with a grenade if the alien refuses to come out and you want to rush in, and the cost of a few grenades on your whole squad is minimal. Also, the aliens DO eventually come, because on turn 20 (IIRC), your positions are revealed to them, and then every 5 turns after that. This will absolutely destroy you in alien base missions, but it's to your benefit on craft missions, because you can just mine the ship entrance, reup the smoke, and wait until the aliens try to come kill someone and trip the mines. As for structures, generally there will be some cover anyways even after multiple rockets, as they won't take down the whole thing, and you'll have removed the walls facing your established area, not the ones facing the enemy's. At a minimum, a rocket is a good way to remove a wall between you and a motion scan detection without triggering reaction fire.
@@Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW I actually was not aware that you could force detonate a prox mine, but they are still not my favorite. To be clear, I don't doubt the efficacy of your strategies here, I'm just don't think it's optimal play. After a certain point, your strategy is mostly dependent on taste. I've received a number of similar comments with differing recommendations, and have made similar replies to explain my rationale. In this case, I'd guess I like to play the game at a faster pace than you. Thus, prox mines are more of a hazard to me, and my tendency to cling to walls makes it hard to destroy buildings unless I level everything long before arriving. While that could work, it's still fairly likely that something would survive inside to take advantage of the new line of sight they'd been given.
Third choice... I cannot forget one mission at a farm map where I had no flares and so I set every building ablaze and let it all burn in the night, and after some random rocket I won all of the sudden, barely losing any soldier. Good times. No loot, no problems.
Thanks! And likewise thank you for contributing to OpenXcom! I've had a ton of fun with playing and most of it's replayability is due to sheer number of mods available. I'll be getting to those soon! Thanks again!
@@PotatoCaravan one mod I've particularly enjoyed is the Final Mod Pack. Tons of content to explore, and I like how it extends the game enough that you can really get into each technology level
@@MykTaylor Final Mod Pack is on my list to play, looks like fun. It didn't win the poll that I posted a little over a week ago however (though I may have influenced peoples votes), so it'll be in future video. Reaver's Harmony Megamod is what I'm playing currently, and it's been great. Also made some pretty extreme changes to the game on superhuman.
Very nice! Is there a way to insert the sound effects and music from the PlayStation 1 version of Xcom into the OpenXCom project so I can play with the PC QoL features, but have the nostalgia of sound and music from PSX? That is literally the only reason I don't use OpenXCom since I can't figure it out (though someone has told me it is possible, when I've tried it doesn't work).
I had no idea the original X-COM I played throughout the 1990s had a bug that set the game difficulty to Beginner difficulty no matter which difficulty you selected. In my ignorance, I played the game a lot on what I thought was the Superhuman difficulty, and therefore thought I was pretty darn good at the game. Years later, along comes OpenXcom with all its patched goodness and I intentionally played it on Superhuman knowing that I had never actually played at that level before. I figured it would be harder, but I had played a lot, like, I mean, A LOT. Years of playing X-COM in DOS and then DOSBox. That first terror mission told me I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't even get my soldiers out of the Skyranger without dying. I had to develop new strategies from scratch. Smoke Grenades to cover soldiers exiting the Skyranger. Exiting the Skyranger in small groups so a single Alien Grenade can't take out the whole squad. Two-person teams of crappy-accuracy-scout and high-accuracy-sharpshooter. Motion Detectors so I don't waste time clearing empty houses. NEVER GO ON A NIGHT MISSION, EVER. I don't even go on missions until I research and build Laser Rifles because the starting firearms are GARBAGE (this takes about a month). By the time I have the Avenger, I run a team of four Plasma Hovertanks and ten soldiers in Power Armor or Flying Armor with Heavy Plasmas. The Hovertanks provide all the scouting/overwatch flying high around the map at Ludicrous Speed while the soldiers take Aimed Shots at anything the Hovertanks see. If I'm breaching a UFO, the Hovertanks literally block the doors so no aliens can suddenly pop out and take shots at my soldiers while they're setting up to breach. Base defense means building the base so there's a choke point and a long hallway where soldiers can hide in little rooms (to avoid being nuked by Blaster Bombs) and pop out to shoot at aliens coming down the hall. Crysalids, Ethereals, and Sectopods are still terrifying.
I don't know what level you play but to reach that on higher was difficult and failure without lots of sacrifice. Also i used up to 2 tanks as with heavy plasma they been useless and easy to hit with grandes and such. I used them for scouting, shere firepower in close quarters or just quick support. But i prefer 4 meatshields. The only time i struggle was chrisalis. Also not going on a mission even failed make you not earn money. All that loot and research. As for nights ive been guestimating to set em off or patrol waiting for a full dailight. Unfortunately terrors and long distance had to do at night with a different strategy of bug groups close quarters and scouting meatshields.
Even the developers weren't aware of the bug for the longest time, which is why Terror From The Deep is so insanely hard in its difficulty (because people were complaining that the hardest difficulty in the first game was "too easy")
When I was a kid in the 1990s I would play X-Com while listening to the Art Bell show. Art Bell had guests on who would talk about getting abducted by aliens and such. X-Com and that show went very well together.
One of the OXC crew here! This video turned up in my recommended listings and I had to stop and watch it! I play the game exclusively on Superhuman and I find the game to be less difficult than playing on Beginner or even Experienced. The value of incoming salvage really offsets costs for just about everything and once you can get a manufacturing base up and running, you can basically print money by manufacturing and selling laser cannons. Anyway, great run! I makes me so happy to see new people enjoying this 30yr old game!
Thanks for your work! I can see income being an issue on lower difficulties, as you don't see nearly as many aliens, and they have worse/cheaper weapons. Haven't played in recent memory, so I'll have to take your word for it with regards to difficulty. Thanks for watching!
pretty cool video! i love the structure and story-style way of explaining xcom, surely deserves more views, only recomendation would be better edditing graphics and maybe a better mic, otherwise nice job!^^
tyty. I can't promise any meaningful improvements with the mic any time soon, but hopefully I'll be able to put together something more visually interesting. I've always wondered why no one has made content like this (or maybe I've just not found it) for x-com, and thought I'd try and do it myself. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, thanks again!
Good watch! I love X-com but can't play it while I work. So the second-hand joy I got from hearing the narration was fun and entertaining while I worked. THANK U.
I used to try and play this game as a child but was always overwhelmed by the number of possibilities and combinations of alien encounters. Its fun to see someone do a full superhuman playthrough - great video! :)
I believe that opening doors without going through them is always enabled, even in vanilla OpenXcom. It was a feature in Terror of the Deep that was backported to UFO Defence in the PS1 version, so it's considered vanilla.
I'd somehow never tried opening doors without alternate movement methods. You're correct, it is always enabled. Also interesting to know that it was in base tftd. The original games were before my time, so I'm not super knowledgeable about bits of history like this. Thanks for commenting!
An obvious and interesting note about the patrol behavior is that OpenXCom Extended (I wanna say it's just an extended option but I could be wrong) specifically has a solution in the form of Hunter Mode. After a predefined amount of turns (20 is the norm iirc), the aliens will cease all forms of this passive patrol system and will instead go straight to the aggressive hunter system, even if they haven't detected you. This is kinda twofold fixes in a way: First, it means the camper style of play can be actually somewhat viable, as after a while the aliens will decide it's time to rush the player units. The second is to help solve issues with more complicated maps, making it so if the AI is stuck in a small room or area they'll eventually flush out and try to take you on proper. No matter which way, this also helps with making missions not just devolve into 'find the last alien' hunts that take forever as well. Similar to if all an enemy force is panicking, the mission ends as well.
I have seen this recently, I just wasn't playing on extended for this run. It's a mixed bag as the aliens also know where you are after the aggressive mode is triggered, but you won't be searching for long.
@@PotatoCaravan Oh for sure, it can come back to bite you as well, especially for high-population maps with high morale. Not culled enough aliens and you may get swarmed after the trigger hits. I wanna say the Piratez pack in particular is sadistic with expecting the player to do a bunch of stuff, grab good loot and scarper before the Hunt Mode hits.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was there 3,000 years ago and played and won this game on the Playstation 1. It was an incredibly long and frustrating slog. The internet wasn't around so there was no help I could find for the game. Seeing Independence Day in a theater gave me the final motivation I needed to actually complete the game.
Thanks for watching! This game really is from a different time (though maybe not that long ago), and it's interesting to hear about peoples experiences with it. I can't imagine getting through this in any reasonable amount of time without the internet.
I similarly love edited supercuts and fully commented playthroughs, so finding your content through this was a real treat. Very well played, well presented video.
One of the best Xcom videos I have ever seen. Ive always wanted to make a well editied rendition of one of my xcom games like this and this has honestky inspired me to actually work towards that goal again. Great work! Death to the Alien invaders!
I would love to see that! I'm glad you enjoyed, and super happy to to have inspired you to try for yourself! The one thing I'll say, my biggest pain point when making this was that I didn't take good enough notes. I had to spend way too much time digging through footage to find events I was looking for. Thanks for watching, and good luck!
I have have these same issues when editing longer games. Keeping notes and footage organized for what you want to talk about in your script is a tough job when juggling your recording process. Great video man@@PotatoCaravan
@@PotatoCaravan I am truly looking forward to it. One game completed per video is very difficult. But it is a trophy that stands out on RUclips and on that can be rewatched much easier than a series. Thank you again for meeting these. I am going to do my own run of XCOM using this format. When I release it, I would love for you to critique it.
@@Malkasphia Thanks again! I can take a look when your video comes out, but I am still figuring this out for myself. Not sure there is a perfect formula, you just need to know what you want the end product to look like. I'm trying something a bit different for TFTD, and have no idea if people will like it more, less or even notice a difference.
For the sectoid terror mission on superhuman -- the community consensus is you land the skyranger, note that it's not floaters, then just leave. The score from ignoring a terror mission entirely is IIRC -1000. The score from bailing is -400, and the potential for a complete squad wipe if you have a low-psi strength squad is rather high. Of course, you are using a tank, which helps. A lot of players choose to go extra dudes and skip the tank, since dudes are cheaper. But dudes can't scout without risking being mind controlled so... edit: lol! you need a soldier with near perfect aim to use the blaster launcher like that. But knowing that, it's the easiest way to clear the final mission. You have your best aim soldier take the shot as a final flex.
You're right about the score, though the negative for landing varies based on the number of civilians spawned. As for the mission, if I can get off the ramp, then I like to try it out. It never went sideways enough for me to back out, so I ended up doing the while mission.
I'm an expert at newer x-coms but never played through the original myself. The commentary on your playthrough makes me feel like I could play this game first time as an expert. Its really detailed and easy to understand!
Thanks! There are always details left out with videos like this, but nothing someone who is interested in this game can't figure out. I'm glad the explanations turned out.
I wasn't born during the originals heyday, but after seeing a video about it in 2010, it got me interested in the series so I bought it. The newer ones are great in that they were streamlined to bring more players into the series, and have modern graphics, but they lack the mechanical complexity that makes the original so great, I'd highly recommend playing it, especially since you like the new ones.
What a fantastic video. I first watched my dad play a bit of XCom back in the late 90s when I was around age 10 or so, and I only played it for the first time myself last year! Better late than never for this superb gem of a game. I’ll never achieve a superhuman play through but enjoyed watching your video and learned a lot in the process
Damage during interception doesn't affect UFO Power Source explosions, it's a flat 75%. But hey, if that's the only complaint... Great writing and editing here. Massively mpressive for a first video!
There are a number of little things like that I learned after finishing the video. Still have to sort though some of the incorrect conclusions I came to when I was younger and playing this game. Glad you still enjoyed the video! I'm hoping to get around to TFTD eventually.
Imagine if you had had such a video back then, it would have been so wird to suddenly know all the mechanics and learn to play strategy as a kid. Instead we learned hex editors 😂
Just came from your TFTD summary and had to check this one out while I'm working. It's really making me crave to try the game after failing to understand it when i was like 4 in the late 90s and kinda forgetting about it
It's a lot of fun, and the OpenXcom recreation of the game has made massive quality of life improvements. If you already own the game on a platform like steam, then there is no harm in checking it out. Regardless, thanks for watching!
I love UFO Defense. One thing I do to farm resources is placing a base near an alien base that isn't sectoids. The landed larges will match the base inhabitants and they show up every(ish) month. I just send rookies with laser rifles and personal armor. Laser rifles so you don't need extra storage for clips, and personal armor because you can create alien alloys to make them anyways. So you're trading money for elerium. And it pumps your score. Camping UFO doors for the streams of aliens coming out and murdering your guys, kneel and have them look at an angle in the room (or ufo) to both sides of the door, otherwise you'll just kill your own guy with reaction shots. This also protects them from immediate vision, forcing the alien to walk out, and then turn before being able to shoot giving you lots of chances at reaction fire. Also with laser/plasma can you shoot your own door into a UFO wall, but it might take a while to destroy. With hoversuits you can assault any UFO by shooting holes in the walls/roof for vision at different tile heights.
Holy crap, there are other people who still play this game?! I loved this game as a kid! I even replayed it a couple years ago for nostalgia's sake! I didn't know Open X-com was a thing, I think I'll check it out and do a playthrough of it of my own, probably doing the same ironman challenge that you did, as I've never actually beaten this game without saving/reloading before. Anyways, thanks for the video, learned a few strats that I never even considered that I'll try to employ in my upcoming playthrough!
Tyty! There are still a fair few people playing the game, it's just been mostly confined to lets play style video series. And good luck on your run! X-COM is not easy.
As an old timer i replay this game every 2 years or so. Usually few weeks. Sometimes months. Depends how much time i have. Now im into mods 😅 if it was difficult back then, now it makes it even more so.
This game is the number 1 in my all time list of games. Well done video walkthrough. Thinking of compiling openxcom for my Linux system instead of heading back to dosbox to play the original versions.
Thanks for watching! Looks like there is some amount of Linux support over on the Openxcom GitHub, so it shouldn't be too bad to get running. Best of luck with whatever you choose.
I quite enjoyed the video. For games like these watching the entire campaign is something I never manage to do. So a shorted rundown with the important points outlined was very fun. Glad you didn't make it too short, 50-60 minutes was just right.
Tyty! This is how I feel about a lot of games, so I thought I'd try making videos about some I have beaten. Funny enough, it's also a lot easier to finish something when you know other people are watching and waiting. Glad you enjoyed and though the pacing was right!
So much nostalgia here - I have been playing since the mid-90s too. One of my all-time favourite games, and a very entertaining video with great narration!
A really awsome video, got a soft spot for old x-com games, especially terror from the deep. Remember playing it on my dads 486 dx when I was 7. Obviously there was no way for me to beat that game, but defeating a single Homaroid with a squad of vanila rookis was surely an achivement.
I never had the chance to play TFTD when I was younger, and its been a joy to learn recently. I'm hoping to get a bit further than you did back in the day. Thanks for watching!
Thanks! It helps that there is a wiki for the game today. I don't have to spend hours of through trial and error working out what's going on, unlike in the past.
Great video. I've seen a video some years ago about someone beating UFO 1 on superhuman, but they checked soldier stats and hidden psi stat in some config file, and restarted until they rolled soldiers with high reaction and high psi. My comments are (from the perspective of someone who never played superhuman, I may have tried it can't remember): 1. Not caring about the soldiers is missing out on some great connections, celebrations and heartbreak. 2. Always using autofire misses out on some legendary feats of marksmanship to celebrate and have the bards sing about. 3. No mind control training? Perhaps that's for the best because: I remember to this day my legendary soldier/commander/leader by the name of Marcel Marcel. He ended up with completely broken stats (may have been a bug), with a huge amount of action points coupled with eventually unstoppable psi which completely trivialized the end game missions where Marcel Marcel would just mind control everyone from the comfort of the ship. Good times. Currently I'm attempting to relieve those times by trying really hard to love the second generation/modern XCOM 2. I'm not there yet.
This was the first video I posted, so it was a bit experimental. I agree with you on all these things, and (aside from autofire lol) did them in the TFTD run. I just didn't have a namelist here to play with, and couldn't be bothered to interact with PSI.
Nailing all that research in the first month! I first completed this on my Amiga 1200 but I used a program to edit the starting base and probably some other stuff. I bought a printed guide off a dude that I clipped into a folder. I'd always disregarded the traditional tanks but you've convinced me to give them a go.
Thanks for watching! I always thought tanks were a lot less fun than soldiers myself, but I gave them a try here. It's nice to have a unit that isn't made of paper in the early game.
@@PotatoCaravan I need to step my game up. And definitely explode more stuff. I'm enjoying the CRT style screen filters built into OpenXcom these days. Great vid.
tyty. It wasn't too bad, but I definitely could have taken better notes while I was still in the recording phase. Made finding what I was looking for in the vods a headache.
I remember this game so well, I bought it from the bargain bin, at a Staples of all places and it didn't disappoint. The game was amazing at building a genuinely creepy horror atmosphere in the most simplest ways. It really was ahead of its time.
This is almost my favourite game of all time. You did make some errors there as you know but hey, you got them. Kudos. Nice video, appreciate it. I have the original version but from GOG so it works on modern systems. I like the look of your version so will probably get that. Saves a lot of time in base construction. I tended to add suffixes to the soldiers to indicate what they were good at, as in the original version you had to equip on the skyranger. Scouts would have high reaction scores and snipers had the accuracy, strong guys were heavy weapons specialists. Anyone else was a rifleman till they got better. It worked most of the time. I originally got the game in a magazine as a preview, you just played out a terror mission with snake men and chrysalids. I learned to be good on that so when I got the special edition with the strategy guide I already knew what I was doing tactically. This and Daggerfall were the main reasons I bought a PC all those years ago. Just remembered something, you could port this over to Windows CE and I played this on my XDA just like the full size version. The XDA was a phone/handheld organiser/mini computer that fit your hand and used a stylus to interact on screen. I still have it too.
Very nice and high quality video, keep up the good work! Next time you could try the sequel, Terror form the deep. I'd like to be a soldier in your next playthrough as well!
Thanks for commenting, your name is on the list! TFTD isn't the next video (I've already finished recording), however is will be video 3. As an unmotivated college student, I can't promise when that will be, but I am still here. Edit: so much for not the next video
Tyty! I don't know that I'd ever beaten the game on superhuman before this either. There is just a point where you can't lose, and I would generally lose interest.
I love edited, narrative style videos like this, although it can be instructive to see the raw footage as we get to see exactly how tactics and strategies are carried out. You should give Xcom Apocalypse a try. It's pretty different, especially in real time mode, but it's an amazing game.
You probably already know this, as well as anyone watching this video, but some advice in regards to the points mentioned here, just in case: By memory, the go to anti chryssalid solution with the tier 1 tech is incendiary ammunition, with the rotary cannon in particular. OpenXcom probably fixed the bug with all characters standing in a smoke cloud taking damage when the cloud got hit by incendiary attacks, but it is still the most accessible resistance counter you have in the beginning of the game. Other than that, taking advice from the old gamefaqs guide, arming a grenade with detonation delay set to 0 on every trooper. Technically, less than immideately lethal injuries can make them drop it and thus kill themselves prematurely, but in case with chryssalid attacks that doesn't happen because they bypass the damage calculation entirely and the trooper is already dead by the time their inventory hits the ground. Proximity grenades can help with piling up some damage before they close in, if timely placed. But really, clearing out line of sight in all directions is the only real answer. You can load up the away party with enough explosives to blast any and all structures on most maps, and there is no reason not to do that when chryssalid get involved. Losses of material and points are insignificant. The reason grenade damage is so high is that all damage instances in this game roll a 50-150 percentage modifer on all attacks that do damage and only then apply it against resistances. (The sequel changed it to 0-200, which is one of the reasons it is so unpleasant to play.)
Thankfully I've never needed a tier 1 tech solution to chryssalids, but that is good to know. As for primed grenades on everybody, I would consider a solution like that, but it also destroys all the equipment the soldier is carrying. Additionally, I've never actually used proximity grenades, though I can see their use. Finally, blasting through structures is a great strategy that I've been employing for a while. While I did know about the grenade multiplier for the first game, I learned of it after recording. I was not aware that it got reversed for TFTD though. That really does make the grenades in that game terrifying. Thanks for commenting!
@@elchotocorazon Thank you for the clarification, I'll look it up. There was no real feedback, unlike with explosions, so the claim of it being unintended wasn't really challenged.
One of the options for OXCom (and in turn OTftD) is to select whether you want the 0-200 or 50-150 percentile, so if you wanna play TftD and ensure you always do a little bit of damage, there ya go.
This game and its sequel Terror From the Deep were a huge part of my childhood/teenage years and so it's awesome to see someone who wasn't even born when they came out playing them with such passion today.
I actually only beat TFTD in open XCom last year ha ha. Those two stage terror missions (oh God save me from cruise ships...) were so brutal when your only 12.
It's vastly different to the originals,but it still has that charm to it like the origina still have today. I'd definitely like to see you give it a play through. It's a bit awkward at first but pays off n grows on you the more you play it.
@@PotatoCaravan I'm downloading it to watch another day, 58 minutes is too much to binge, and I don't want to skim as xcom content is rare, might as well enjoy when im in an xcom mood :D
7:13 I mean, I have people call that that position the "doomed square of the murdercross (large scout)". Any unit standing there will always miss, in their experiences.
Heh. This game seems wild. I came to the series with Enemy Unknown and didn't look at the older games so this is just absolutely wild to see. Especially the depth!
Great video , used to love this game on the amiga, even if it did take an hour or more sometimes for the enemies movements [atleast seemed like that in my memory]
A big part of the difficulty of this games was that you were truly on your own to figure it out. There was no internet, no guides, no forums to ask questions. I remember restarting so many times as my playthroughs fell apart and I figured out key components. The game didn't explain a lot, so you had to figure it out as you went and it was extremely unforgiving.
Which in a sense was the best experience as it meant to be. How the hell im suppoused to know how plasma rifle work or that my laser guns will be obsolete 😅
Only true if you pirated the game and didn't have the manual. Especially Microprose put a lot of effort into their manuals, they were massive and explained in great detail how to play more complicated games like this. Games back then were designed with that in mind, thus them not explaining much. Also they included a lot of lore and background info, you missed a bunch without 'em.
Impressive! Such a great game, IMO the best one of all the xcom games (including the recent ones). I found TFTD a bit too hard but this one was in the sweetspot. I was surprised you didn't mention manufacturing as realising you could make profit manufacturing things was one of the things I remember making a huge difference between losing momentum and funds on losing and just being able to keep going - I normally ended up building a lot of workshops to get monthly income high and did some calculations to work out what the most profitable bit of gear to produce was per engineer hour! Basically just had sweatshops working flat out presumably arming other resistance/army factions!
This is like the 5th comment about this. I probably need an FAQ or something in the pinned comment, but I just didn't need the money this run. I used the trick in TFTD with gauss cannons, though I'm not sure if I mention it in the video.
@@PotatoCaravanJust finished watching it, you made it look so easy really, impressive! Do you think it would have been possible without all the smoke?! I'm not sure how much harder the higher difficulties are but it seemed like there were high alien counts even quite near the start
@@jonnyramsden1161 Tyty! While I'm sure you could have done with less smoke, it allowed me to play much faster and was generally easier to manage. I do use less smoke in mods, however that is normally because your range of sight is equalized with the aliens.
I've spent many many hours playing this game when I was younger. My favorite XCOM moment is a downed UFO mission at night and a sectoid used mind control to panic one of my soldiers. That soldier promptly panicked and took a wild shot into the darkness and promptly picked off a sectoid that I didn't even know was there.
@PotatoCaravan probably the oddest thing I ever saw, was during a terror mission. The game must have glitched out and a snakeman turned into a cryssalid.
Nice playthrough. It's interesting to see someone else's overall strategy. I almost never shoot down ufos, certainly in the early game. I shadow them with the sky ranger, let them land then assault. 100% guaranteed elerium + the engines sell for about 250k apiece.
Tyty! Letting the UFOs land leads to night missions, and those pretty much always a bad time. If you need the Elerium later into the game, you can always run supply ship missions, as those give 150 a piece. You're also unlikely to need bulk Elerium in the early game outside of research, so shooting down UFOs has never been a concern to me. Retaliation missions are another discussion, but those are generally fine so long as you have the manpower.
Yeah, I see your point. Like I said it's just a different strategy. It seems a bit callous even writing it down but a landed UFO is worth maybe 300k more than a crashed one and rookies cost 40k each. I look at it as a proving ground for the newbies. Once I have the resources for power armour/ flying armour for everyone I will switch to shooting down. Retaliation scouts always get shot down though, ofc.
this was an incredible game, with good depth and several game aspects, research, base building, ufo interception and tactical missions. very polished for the time.
This was one of my favourite games as a kid when it released. Played all the Xcom games that released after and return to Open Xcom from time to time. Funny thing, in my first playthrough ever, I managed to blow up the brain control room with the blaster launcher through the hole base at the first try XD
Thanks! I'd love to play through to bigger mods, but I'll need something I can post in the middle of those runs. Going to see how videos on other games do soon.
There is a discontinued multiplayer fan game called UFO: The Two Sides. While it's not complete, it is still available. It does also needs a bunch of files from the original and a bit of hassle. But then with a skilled opponent, you can truly have a good challenge. ^^
I’m loving that I’ve been playing this game and have been discounting tools like the motion scanner for not being straight up damage and durability upgrades and it’s made me completely inflexible which is why I keep losing runs
All I remember from playing this on PS1 is how ungodly LONG the load times were. And how PSIonics is your friend. Using mind control on one alien, finding his friends, mind controlling all of them, and then having them shoot each other was a godsend.
Love this video its great!! need more, not sure if yo udid it im gonna check later but can you do xcom apocalypse that was really really good and the music was great, also the real time mode.
Thanks for watching! I've not yet played apocalypse as I'm waiting for OpenApoc to be finished. Hopefully that'll happen sooner than later, but there's no ETA as of now.
JOIN THE DISCORD TO ADD A SOLDIER TO OUR RANKS!
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I've gotten over 100 names on the old name list, and could not manage this myself gracefully. Thank you to all the early joiners featured below, the rest of you can join the discord to add your name. See the recruitment instructions channel for details about the discord bot I setup.
Old comment:
I'm going to pull a few names from the comments (on Jan 16), but from here on out leave a simple reply on this comment if you want your name on a soldier. Don't want to pull random people's names who may or may not be interested if it's not required.
edit: this will be pinned once youtube lets me (fixed it)
call me Potato
P00bN00b!!!!!!
Mom said it's my turn on the name list
Regulus Starseed
Waiting for tftd and/or some mods like xcom files!
I’ve always wondered why I’ve never found anyone who had made this type of video before, and after finally finishing this off, I now understand. There is just too much information to try and gracefully organize, and to say that I was unprepared would be a massive understatement.
On an unrelated note, I will be posting a number of random videos over the course of the next month for the fun of it. For the 3 people who subscribed to see my edit of the funny lethal company video, it’ll be out sometime this week.
To everyone reading, happy new year! I’m hoping to do more with RUclips over this year, and any support is appreciated. See you next time for whatever I end up uploading.
Nice to see this is actually possible. I tried a run last year got about half way but then gave up
On 65 subscriber now 🤓 keep it up!
Well, it depends on what audience you have in mind,
complete strangers who dont know a sectoid from a heavy plasma,
or people who are like OH COME ON WHO BUILDS FIRESTORMS ARE YOU FOR REAL??
(also, had to cry a bit about you _not_ instantly shooting the pyramid, entering with tanks, finding the maze, and shooting through the ceiling into the brain, _as one does_ , but whatever...)
Seeing that this game is 30 years old, my guess is you can skip most details on tech and mechanics;
But listening to your thinking process, in all its .. originality lets say (plasma canons needing ammo??) - that was fun!
@@peka2478 Thanks for watching!
I'm just hoping for an audience that likes thinking about their games. I'm expecting to branch out post TFTD. We'll see what happens there.
Also wasn't super familiar with optimal play and even some mechanics when recording. I'm glad that was entertaining. That's some of the joy with these style videos I find.
And I had the same thought with skipping over tech and mechanics after editing this video. I've cut out a lot of that with TFTD thus far outside of major changes I had to relearn.
Thanks again!
@@PotatoCaravan dont cut out what changed from original tftd to whatever the kids are playing these days though, please.. (I'm not familiar with open x-com tbh)
You made three rookie mistakes that cost you a lot of soldiers:
1: Letting the one who spotted the alien shoot it when they're not a tank or nobody else can hit it. This is crucial to avoiding reaction fire.
2: Not using prox mines on ship entrances (and alien base corridors). This stops aliens just being able to rush out and ambush you, as even if the mine doesn't actually kill them, you can camp from well outside where the mine is, so you know they ran out and can ambush them on your turn.
3: Not annihilating structures with explosives the moment you know there are unsighted aliens inside. Rockets are your friend, and alien-containing houses, your enemy.
The first mistake is something I've fixed in the recent videos. In recording this, I was coming off the of the X-COM files where accuracy is cut in half outside line of sight. Had to relearn this, especially for TFTD.
Prox mines on the other hand are only so useful, as if the alien never comes, then you've just prevented yourself from accessing that part of the map.
As for structures, I prefer using motion scanners. If I can be the one in the house, I'd like to leave it standing.
@@PotatoCaravan Ahhh, yeah that would do it. After a point, you forget the original game didnt have distance based accuracy penalties.
There's a reason you'll hear players say to just use autoshot and nothing else. Since the accuracy doesnt decay with distance, once you hit a breakpoint of about ~40-50% chance to hit on auto, aimed shots and snapshots are basically obsolete.
EDIT: MAN i fuckin brainfarted hard, i misread what this convo was talking about pretty bad. TLDR Smokes in og xcom were so busted for what strategies they enabled, and XCOM FILES adding LOS based penalties basically nuked them into the dirt (and for good reason)
@@PotatoCaravan Ah, even in that, I think it's still usually worth it with explosives, which are a generally good idea.
As for prox mines, they can always be detonated with a grenade if the alien refuses to come out and you want to rush in, and the cost of a few grenades on your whole squad is minimal. Also, the aliens DO eventually come, because on turn 20 (IIRC), your positions are revealed to them, and then every 5 turns after that. This will absolutely destroy you in alien base missions, but it's to your benefit on craft missions, because you can just mine the ship entrance, reup the smoke, and wait until the aliens try to come kill someone and trip the mines.
As for structures, generally there will be some cover anyways even after multiple rockets, as they won't take down the whole thing, and you'll have removed the walls facing your established area, not the ones facing the enemy's. At a minimum, a rocket is a good way to remove a wall between you and a motion scan detection without triggering reaction fire.
@@Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW I actually was not aware that you could force detonate a prox mine, but they are still not my favorite. To be clear, I don't doubt the efficacy of your strategies here, I'm just don't think it's optimal play. After a certain point, your strategy is mostly dependent on taste. I've received a number of similar comments with differing recommendations, and have made similar replies to explain my rationale. In this case, I'd guess I like to play the game at a faster pace than you. Thus, prox mines are more of a hazard to me, and my tendency to cling to walls makes it hard to destroy buildings unless I level everything long before arriving. While that could work, it's still fairly likely that something would survive inside to take advantage of the new line of sight they'd been given.
Third choice... I cannot forget one mission at a farm map where I had no flares and so I set every building ablaze and let it all burn in the night, and after some random rocket I won all of the sudden, barely losing any soldier. Good times. No loot, no problems.
22:00 Imagine the relief of hearing X-Com come to save you only to hear them immediately turn back around and fly away. Total 0 to 100 to 0 moment.
well that really creates a sense of "this is beyond fucked up"
Great video! I contributed to the OpenXcom project (I wrote the mod system) and it's always special to me to see it getting air time!
Thanks! And likewise thank you for contributing to OpenXcom! I've had a ton of fun with playing and most of it's replayability is due to sheer number of mods available. I'll be getting to those soon! Thanks again!
@@PotatoCaravan one mod I've particularly enjoyed is the Final Mod Pack. Tons of content to explore, and I like how it extends the game enough that you can really get into each technology level
@@MykTaylor Final Mod Pack is on my list to play, looks like fun. It didn't win the poll that I posted a little over a week ago however (though I may have influenced peoples votes), so it'll be in future video. Reaver's Harmony Megamod is what I'm playing currently, and it's been great. Also made some pretty extreme changes to the game on superhuman.
Very nice! Is there a way to insert the sound effects and music from the PlayStation 1 version of Xcom into the OpenXCom project so I can play with the PC QoL features, but have the nostalgia of sound and music from PSX? That is literally the only reason I don't use OpenXCom since I can't figure it out (though someone has told me it is possible, when I've tried it doesn't work).
Thank you for your contributions to the project, OpenXcom was my first exposure to the original Xcom series!
Aliens wait around until turn 20, when the entire map gets revealed to them and they aggressively hunt you down.
Yep, I like to finish most missions before this point.
I didnt knew that, where you got that info?
@teseutressoldi3972 the wiki. They don't actually know where your soldiers are, though? It's weird.
I had no idea the original X-COM I played throughout the 1990s had a bug that set the game difficulty to Beginner difficulty no matter which difficulty you selected. In my ignorance, I played the game a lot on what I thought was the Superhuman difficulty, and therefore thought I was pretty darn good at the game. Years later, along comes OpenXcom with all its patched goodness and I intentionally played it on Superhuman knowing that I had never actually played at that level before. I figured it would be harder, but I had played a lot, like, I mean, A LOT. Years of playing X-COM in DOS and then DOSBox. That first terror mission told me I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't even get my soldiers out of the Skyranger without dying.
I had to develop new strategies from scratch. Smoke Grenades to cover soldiers exiting the Skyranger. Exiting the Skyranger in small groups so a single Alien Grenade can't take out the whole squad. Two-person teams of crappy-accuracy-scout and high-accuracy-sharpshooter. Motion Detectors so I don't waste time clearing empty houses. NEVER GO ON A NIGHT MISSION, EVER. I don't even go on missions until I research and build Laser Rifles because the starting firearms are GARBAGE (this takes about a month).
By the time I have the Avenger, I run a team of four Plasma Hovertanks and ten soldiers in Power Armor or Flying Armor with Heavy Plasmas. The Hovertanks provide all the scouting/overwatch flying high around the map at Ludicrous Speed while the soldiers take Aimed Shots at anything the Hovertanks see. If I'm breaching a UFO, the Hovertanks literally block the doors so no aliens can suddenly pop out and take shots at my soldiers while they're setting up to breach.
Base defense means building the base so there's a choke point and a long hallway where soldiers can hide in little rooms (to avoid being nuked by Blaster Bombs) and pop out to shoot at aliens coming down the hall.
Crysalids, Ethereals, and Sectopods are still terrifying.
I don't know what level you play but to reach that on higher was difficult and failure without lots of sacrifice.
Also i used up to 2 tanks as with heavy plasma they been useless and easy to hit with grandes and such. I used them for scouting, shere firepower in close quarters or just quick support.
But i prefer 4 meatshields.
The only time i struggle was chrisalis.
Also not going on a mission even failed make you not earn money. All that loot and research.
As for nights ive been guestimating to set em off or patrol waiting for a full dailight. Unfortunately terrors and long distance had to do at night with a different strategy of bug groups close quarters and scouting meatshields.
Even the developers weren't aware of the bug for the longest time, which is why Terror From The Deep is so insanely hard in its difficulty (because people were complaining that the hardest difficulty in the first game was "too easy")
When I was a kid in the 1990s I would play X-Com while listening to the Art Bell show. Art Bell had guests on who would talk about getting abducted by aliens and such. X-Com and that show went very well together.
I believe it!
Midnight in the desert.
@@MAXIMILLIONtheGREAT it was Coast to Coast AM actually. Or Dreamland
@@nothingelse1520 oh right, Midnight in the Desert was the newer one right? Man time is whack.
That whole era was wild. I miss it even though I wasn't around for it.
One of the OXC crew here! This video turned up in my recommended listings and I had to stop and watch it!
I play the game exclusively on Superhuman and I find the game to be less difficult than playing on Beginner or even Experienced. The value of incoming salvage really offsets costs for just about everything and once you can get a manufacturing base up and running, you can basically print money by manufacturing and selling laser cannons.
Anyway, great run! I makes me so happy to see new people enjoying this 30yr old game!
Thanks for your work! I can see income being an issue on lower difficulties, as you don't see nearly as many aliens, and they have worse/cheaper weapons. Haven't played in recent memory, so I'll have to take your word for it with regards to difficulty. Thanks for watching!
pretty cool video! i love the structure and story-style way of explaining xcom, surely deserves more views, only recomendation would be better edditing graphics and maybe a better mic, otherwise nice job!^^
tyty. I can't promise any meaningful improvements with the mic any time soon, but hopefully I'll be able to put together something more visually interesting. I've always wondered why no one has made content like this (or maybe I've just not found it) for x-com, and thought I'd try and do it myself. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, thanks again!
Good watch! I love X-com but can't play it while I work. So the second-hand joy I got from hearing the narration was fun and entertaining while I worked. THANK U.
Thanks for watching and commenting! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
I used to try and play this game as a child but was always overwhelmed by the number of possibilities and combinations of alien encounters. Its fun to see someone do a full superhuman playthrough - great video! :)
Thanks for watching!
Hey, I quite enjoyed that. Still one of the best game in the 90’s. Thanks for the long form edit.
Thanks for watching! I enjoy this type of content and thought I'd try my hand at it. I'm glad you enjoyed.
The music and pixel art in classic xcom is gorgeous.
I believe that opening doors without going through them is always enabled, even in vanilla OpenXcom. It was a feature in Terror of the Deep that was backported to UFO Defence in the PS1 version, so it's considered vanilla.
I'd somehow never tried opening doors without alternate movement methods. You're correct, it is always enabled.
Also interesting to know that it was in base tftd. The original games were before my time, so I'm not super knowledgeable about bits of history like this. Thanks for commenting!
An obvious and interesting note about the patrol behavior is that OpenXCom Extended (I wanna say it's just an extended option but I could be wrong) specifically has a solution in the form of Hunter Mode. After a predefined amount of turns (20 is the norm iirc), the aliens will cease all forms of this passive patrol system and will instead go straight to the aggressive hunter system, even if they haven't detected you. This is kinda twofold fixes in a way: First, it means the camper style of play can be actually somewhat viable, as after a while the aliens will decide it's time to rush the player units. The second is to help solve issues with more complicated maps, making it so if the AI is stuck in a small room or area they'll eventually flush out and try to take you on proper. No matter which way, this also helps with making missions not just devolve into 'find the last alien' hunts that take forever as well. Similar to if all an enemy force is panicking, the mission ends as well.
I have seen this recently, I just wasn't playing on extended for this run. It's a mixed bag as the aliens also know where you are after the aggressive mode is triggered, but you won't be searching for long.
@@PotatoCaravan Oh for sure, it can come back to bite you as well, especially for high-population maps with high morale. Not culled enough aliens and you may get swarmed after the trigger hits. I wanna say the Piratez pack in particular is sadistic with expecting the player to do a bunch of stuff, grab good loot and scarper before the Hunt Mode hits.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was there 3,000 years ago and played and won this game on the Playstation 1. It was an incredibly long and frustrating slog. The internet wasn't around so there was no help I could find for the game. Seeing Independence Day in a theater gave me the final motivation I needed to actually complete the game.
Thanks for watching! This game really is from a different time (though maybe not that long ago), and it's interesting to hear about peoples experiences with it. I can't imagine getting through this in any reasonable amount of time without the internet.
Best game 3ver on ps1.
I similarly love edited supercuts and fully commented playthroughs, so finding your content through this was a real treat. Very well played, well presented video.
One of the best Xcom videos I have ever seen. Ive always wanted to make a well editied rendition of one of my xcom games like this and this has honestky inspired me to actually work towards that goal again. Great work! Death to the Alien invaders!
I would love to see that! I'm glad you enjoyed, and super happy to to have inspired you to try for yourself!
The one thing I'll say, my biggest pain point when making this was that I didn't take good enough notes. I had to spend way too much time digging through footage to find events I was looking for. Thanks for watching, and good luck!
I have have these same issues when editing longer games. Keeping notes and footage organized for what you want to talk about in your script is a tough job when juggling your recording process. Great video man@@PotatoCaravan
@@Malkasphia Tyty. I started editing every session or two down right after playing, and its been a much better experience. TFTD eventually lol!
@@PotatoCaravan I am truly looking forward to it. One game completed per video is very difficult. But it is a trophy that stands out on RUclips and on that can be rewatched much easier than a series. Thank you again for meeting these.
I am going to do my own run of XCOM using this format. When I release it, I would love for you to critique it.
@@Malkasphia Thanks again! I can take a look when your video comes out, but I am still figuring this out for myself. Not sure there is a perfect formula, you just need to know what you want the end product to look like. I'm trying something a bit different for TFTD, and have no idea if people will like it more, less or even notice a difference.
For the sectoid terror mission on superhuman -- the community consensus is you land the skyranger, note that it's not floaters, then just leave. The score from ignoring a terror mission entirely is IIRC -1000. The score from bailing is -400, and the potential for a complete squad wipe if you have a low-psi strength squad is rather high. Of course, you are using a tank, which helps. A lot of players choose to go extra dudes and skip the tank, since dudes are cheaper. But dudes can't scout without risking being mind controlled so...
edit: lol! you need a soldier with near perfect aim to use the blaster launcher like that. But knowing that, it's the easiest way to clear the final mission. You have your best aim soldier take the shot as a final flex.
You're right about the score, though the negative for landing varies based on the number of civilians spawned. As for the mission, if I can get off the ramp, then I like to try it out. It never went sideways enough for me to back out, so I ended up doing the while mission.
The coolest part is I just watched a man beat the game in 12 minutes :D Great job on the video! Love Xcom and Xcom TFTD! :)
Glad you enjoyed! I can only imagine people have some super impressive records by now.
@@PotatoCaravan
There's like 3 people running this category. I believe willbobsled got somewhere under 6 minutes with insane strats and luck.
@@SGresponse That is insane. Can't even imagine what it would take to beat the game in 6 minutes.
I'm an expert at newer x-coms but never played through the original myself. The commentary on your playthrough makes me feel like I could play this game first time as an expert. Its really detailed and easy to understand!
Thanks! There are always details left out with videos like this, but nothing someone who is interested in this game can't figure out. I'm glad the explanations turned out.
I wasn't born during the originals heyday, but after seeing a video about it in 2010, it got me interested in the series so I bought it. The newer ones are great in that they were streamlined to bring more players into the series, and have modern graphics, but they lack the mechanical complexity that makes the original so great, I'd highly recommend playing it, especially since you like the new ones.
I appreciate the old skool intro music for the outro. That music slaps something fierce.
I believe that's either the games final victory music or the dogfight music lol. Glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching!
What a fantastic video.
I first watched my dad play a bit of XCom back in the late 90s when I was around age 10 or so, and I only played it for the first time myself last year! Better late than never for this superb gem of a game.
I’ll never achieve a superhuman play through but enjoyed watching your video and learned a lot in the process
Damage during interception doesn't affect UFO Power Source explosions, it's a flat 75%. But hey, if that's the only complaint...
Great writing and editing here. Massively mpressive for a first video!
There are a number of little things like that I learned after finishing the video. Still have to sort though some of the incorrect conclusions I came to when I was younger and playing this game.
Glad you still enjoyed the video! I'm hoping to get around to TFTD eventually.
i've owned and played this game since 1996 - i only finished it without cheats in 2021. maybe in another 25 years i'll finish it on superhuman :D
All you need is a good strategy and a little bit of luck!
@PotatoCaravan And time! Don’t forget to have time to sacrifice!
@@chrlpolk Very true!
Imagine if you had had such a video back then, it would have been so wird to suddenly know all the mechanics and learn to play strategy as a kid.
Instead we learned hex editors 😂
@@udirt I still have no excuse, I had the official strategy guides back then!! haha
Just came from your TFTD summary and had to check this one out while I'm working. It's really making me crave to try the game after failing to understand it when i was like 4 in the late 90s and kinda forgetting about it
It's a lot of fun, and the OpenXcom recreation of the game has made massive quality of life improvements. If you already own the game on a platform like steam, then there is no harm in checking it out. Regardless, thanks for watching!
This is one if my favorite videos on all of RUclips. The music, game, and your presentation were all exactly what I wanted. Keep up the great work!
Tyty! Glad you enjoyed! More content sooner or later.
I love UFO Defense. One thing I do to farm resources is placing a base near an alien base that isn't sectoids. The landed larges will match the base inhabitants and they show up every(ish) month. I just send rookies with laser rifles and personal armor. Laser rifles so you don't need extra storage for clips, and personal armor because you can create alien alloys to make them anyways. So you're trading money for elerium. And it pumps your score.
Camping UFO doors for the streams of aliens coming out and murdering your guys, kneel and have them look at an angle in the room (or ufo) to both sides of the door, otherwise you'll just kill your own guy with reaction shots. This also protects them from immediate vision, forcing the alien to walk out, and then turn before being able to shoot giving you lots of chances at reaction fire.
Also with laser/plasma can you shoot your own door into a UFO wall, but it might take a while to destroy. With hoversuits you can assault any UFO by shooting holes in the walls/roof for vision at different tile heights.
Holy crap, there are other people who still play this game?! I loved this game as a kid! I even replayed it a couple years ago for nostalgia's sake! I didn't know Open X-com was a thing, I think I'll check it out and do a playthrough of it of my own, probably doing the same ironman challenge that you did, as I've never actually beaten this game without saving/reloading before. Anyways, thanks for the video, learned a few strats that I never even considered that I'll try to employ in my upcoming playthrough!
Tyty! There are still a fair few people playing the game, it's just been mostly confined to lets play style video series. And good luck on your run! X-COM is not easy.
As an old timer i replay this game every 2 years or so. Usually few weeks. Sometimes months. Depends how much time i have.
Now im into mods 😅 if it was difficult back then, now it makes it even more so.
This game is the number 1 in my all time list of games.
Well done video walkthrough.
Thinking of compiling openxcom for my Linux system instead of heading back to dosbox to play the original versions.
Thanks for watching!
Looks like there is some amount of Linux support over on the Openxcom GitHub, so it shouldn't be too bad to get running. Best of luck with whatever you choose.
Going for OpenXcom Extended is a better idea, even if you don't want to play total conversions. It just has more features to play with.
I quite enjoyed the video. For games like these watching the entire campaign is something I never manage to do. So a shorted rundown with the important points outlined was very fun. Glad you didn't make it too short, 50-60 minutes was just right.
Tyty! This is how I feel about a lot of games, so I thought I'd try making videos about some I have beaten. Funny enough, it's also a lot easier to finish something when you know other people are watching and waiting. Glad you enjoyed and though the pacing was right!
I love this format. Much more focused and analytical than a traditional letsplay. I like the music too. A pity the geoscape music is not on youtube.
Tyty! If you own the game, you should be able to find all this music in the game files. That's where I found it myself, was under "SOUND" iirc.
So much nostalgia here - I have been playing since the mid-90s too. One of my all-time favourite games, and a very entertaining video with great narration!
I fully agree. Nothing has ever really come close to replicating what this game does. Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed.
Watched your terror of the deep a few days ago.
This video also did not disappoint. Excellent work.
Thanks! Glad you've enjoyed!
A really awsome video, got a soft spot for old x-com games, especially terror from the deep. Remember playing it on my dads 486 dx when I was 7. Obviously there was no way for me to beat that game, but defeating a single Homaroid with a squad of vanila rookis was surely an achivement.
I never had the chance to play TFTD when I was younger, and its been a joy to learn recently. I'm hoping to get a bit further than you did back in the day. Thanks for watching!
Great job on this. One of my favorite games that I have played on and off for 20+ years.
Thanks! It's a classic!
I grew up with this game (I would have been about 11 when it came out) but you have a knowledge of it that's beyond impressive. Well done, sir.
Thanks! It helps that there is a wiki for the game today. I don't have to spend hours of through trial and error working out what's going on, unlike in the past.
This was a great trip down memory lane :) I remember playing this game endlessly back in the 90s
Great video.
I've seen a video some years ago about someone beating UFO 1 on superhuman, but they checked soldier stats and hidden psi stat in some config file, and restarted until they rolled soldiers with high reaction and high psi.
My comments are (from the perspective of someone who never played superhuman, I may have tried it can't remember):
1. Not caring about the soldiers is missing out on some great connections, celebrations and heartbreak.
2. Always using autofire misses out on some legendary feats of marksmanship to celebrate and have the bards sing about.
3. No mind control training? Perhaps that's for the best because:
I remember to this day my legendary soldier/commander/leader by the name of Marcel Marcel. He ended up with completely broken stats (may have been a bug), with a huge amount of action points coupled with eventually unstoppable psi which completely trivialized the end game missions where Marcel Marcel would just mind control everyone from the comfort of the ship. Good times.
Currently I'm attempting to relieve those times by trying really hard to love the second generation/modern XCOM 2. I'm not there yet.
This was the first video I posted, so it was a bit experimental. I agree with you on all these things, and (aside from autofire lol) did them in the TFTD run. I just didn't have a namelist here to play with, and couldn't be bothered to interact with PSI.
@@PotatoCaravan I'll watch that one too for sure :). Also, excellent video for a first try, really.
@@ingerasulffs Tyty!
Nailing all that research in the first month!
I first completed this on my Amiga 1200 but I used a program to edit the starting base and probably some other stuff.
I bought a printed guide off a dude that I clipped into a folder.
I'd always disregarded the traditional tanks but you've convinced me to give them a go.
Thanks for watching! I always thought tanks were a lot less fun than soldiers myself, but I gave them a try here. It's nice to have a unit that isn't made of paper in the early game.
@@PotatoCaravan I need to step my game up. And definitely explode more stuff. I'm enjoying the CRT style screen filters built into OpenXcom these days. Great vid.
@@redStiv Thanks!
Excellent job, can't imagine the effort it took to edit together.
tyty. It wasn't too bad, but I definitely could have taken better notes while I was still in the recording phase. Made finding what I was looking for in the vods a headache.
this deserves more views and you deserve more subs, this was a fun af ride
Tyty! Hopefully some more uploads will help me get there. This much attention from one video has been great. Thanks for watching!
Just to add to the algorythm! This is a good video, you deserve more supporters!
Tyty! Thanks for watching!
This is a great way to get a good look at a game I can't bring myself to play 😅 excellent commentary!
I love these types of videos for that very reason. Thanks for watching!
Great Video!! Thanks for making a cool start to finish UFO playthrough into a vid that I can watch during a lunch break :)
No problem, thanks for watching!
Great video! I really enjoyed it and can't wait to watch your Terror of the Deep video
Thanks!
I remember this game so well, I bought it from the bargain bin, at a Staples of all places and it didn't disappoint. The game was amazing at building a genuinely creepy horror atmosphere in the most simplest ways. It really was ahead of its time.
It really was both ahead of its time, and something we aren't going to see again for a good while.
This was so incredibly cool. Thank you for this video
Thanks for watching!
Wow. Amazing run! Insane editing. Insta subscribed!
Tyty!
This is almost my favourite game of all time. You did make some errors there as you know but hey, you got them. Kudos.
Nice video, appreciate it. I have the original version but from GOG so it works on modern systems. I like the look of your version so will probably get that. Saves a lot of time in base construction.
I tended to add suffixes to the soldiers to indicate what they were good at, as in the original version you had to equip on the skyranger. Scouts would have high reaction scores and snipers had the accuracy, strong guys were heavy weapons specialists. Anyone else was a rifleman till they got better. It worked most of the time. I originally got the game in a magazine as a preview, you just played out a terror mission with snake men and chrysalids. I learned to be good on that so when I got the special edition with the strategy guide I already knew what I was doing tactically.
This and Daggerfall were the main reasons I bought a PC all those years ago.
Just remembered something, you could port this over to Windows CE and I played this on my XDA just like the full size version. The XDA was a phone/handheld organiser/mini computer that fit your hand and used a stylus to interact on screen. I still have it too.
Thanks for watching! The video isn't perfect, but I'm glad you enjoyed. Do enjoy OpenXcom, there's a lot to dig into.
Very exciting video, watched it from beginning to end
Ty! Thanks for watching!
Great video. Love these kind of challenge videos. Hope you keep em up
Thanks! More are planned.
Very nice and high quality video, keep up the good work! Next time you could try the sequel, Terror form the deep. I'd like to be a soldier in your next playthrough as well!
Thanks for commenting, your name is on the list! TFTD isn't the next video (I've already finished recording), however is will be video 3. As an unmotivated college student, I can't promise when that will be, but I am still here.
Edit: so much for not the next video
Wonderful video. I have spent so many hours playing X-Com, and I don't think I've ever beat it.
Tyty! I don't know that I'd ever beaten the game on superhuman before this either. There is just a point where you can't lose, and I would generally lose interest.
Great video, appreciated hearing your thoughts during the gameplay and condensed information about the game, it's very rare to see
Thanks! I thought it was odd that I couldn't find something like this on youtube. Glad you enjoyed my attempt!
I love edited, narrative style videos like this, although it can be instructive to see the raw footage as we get to see exactly how tactics and strategies are carried out.
You should give Xcom Apocalypse a try. It's pretty different, especially in real time mode, but it's an amazing game.
Tyty! I do plan on playing Apocalypse, I've just waiting for OpenApoc to be complete. Hopefully that happens sooner than later.
You probably already know this, as well as anyone watching this video, but some advice in regards to the points mentioned here, just in case:
By memory, the go to anti chryssalid solution with the tier 1 tech is incendiary ammunition, with the rotary cannon in particular. OpenXcom probably fixed the bug with all characters standing in a smoke cloud taking damage when the cloud got hit by incendiary attacks, but it is still the most accessible resistance counter you have in the beginning of the game.
Other than that, taking advice from the old gamefaqs guide, arming a grenade with detonation delay set to 0 on every trooper. Technically, less than immideately lethal injuries can make them drop it and thus kill themselves prematurely, but in case with chryssalid attacks that doesn't happen because they bypass the damage calculation entirely and the trooper is already dead by the time their inventory hits the ground. Proximity grenades can help with piling up some damage before they close in, if timely placed.
But really, clearing out line of sight in all directions is the only real answer. You can load up the away party with enough explosives to blast any and all structures on most maps, and there is no reason not to do that when chryssalid get involved. Losses of material and points are insignificant.
The reason grenade damage is so high is that all damage instances in this game roll a 50-150 percentage modifer on all attacks that do damage and only then apply it against resistances. (The sequel changed it to 0-200, which is one of the reasons it is so unpleasant to play.)
Thankfully I've never needed a tier 1 tech solution to chryssalids, but that is good to know. As for primed grenades on everybody, I would consider a solution like that, but it also destroys all the equipment the soldier is carrying. Additionally, I've never actually used proximity grenades, though I can see their use. Finally, blasting through structures is a great strategy that I've been employing for a while.
While I did know about the grenade multiplier for the first game, I learned of it after recording. I was not aware that it got reversed for TFTD though. That really does make the grenades in that game terrifying.
Thanks for commenting!
in GDT one developer explained the smoke igniting on incendiary rounds was intentional, not a bug if I remember correctly
@@elchotocorazon Thank you for the clarification, I'll look it up. There was no real feedback, unlike with explosions, so the claim of it being unintended wasn't really challenged.
One of the options for OXCom (and in turn OTftD) is to select whether you want the 0-200 or 50-150 percentile, so if you wanna play TftD and ensure you always do a little bit of damage, there ya go.
@@elchotocorazon It really doesn't seem intentional. Just retriggering fire damage whenever smoke is popped? If it was intentional... eesh.
The memories… Strongest of them is when an alien shot a rocket into my craft before I got the team out: 12 KIA in one blast😂
Those clever bastards
This summary was awesome to listen to, thanks Commander!
Tyty!
That was exciting. Good to see OpenXcom getting some love.
This game and its sequel Terror From the Deep were a huge part of my childhood/teenage years and so it's awesome to see someone who wasn't even born when they came out playing them with such passion today.
These games are just something special. Nothing has every really matched the difficulty, complexity, and mystery in quite the same way.
I actually only beat TFTD in open XCom last year ha ha. Those two stage terror missions (oh God save me from cruise ships...) were so brutal when your only 12.
This was a great watch, thanks for the upload :)
No problem, thanks for watching!
You’ve earned a subscriber mate, cheers from Aus.
Tyty! Thanks for watching!
Great video. I'm currently playing Xcom apocalypse from Gog. Those head suckers are a nightmare lol.
Tyty! Never played apocalypses myself, but I'm sure I'll get to experience that eventually.
It's vastly different to the originals,but it still has that charm to it like the origina still have today. I'd definitely like to see you give it a play through. It's a bit awkward at first but pays off n grows on you the more you play it.
This was a great watch! Love the original XCOM
Thanks for watching!
Never played an XCOM game. Found this thoroughly enjoying.
Glad you enjoyed!
Great video! This game always stomped me as kid!
Tyty!
I wrote a save game editor for this game back in the day. Could customize the soldiers and bases; man this brings back memories
It does pain me to know that the game is almost a decade older than you thanks. Great video!
Tyty, thanks for watching!
Really enjoy your content
Thanks!
This video was worth my time. ty!
Thanks for watching!
I really enjoyed your X-Com videos but I am partial to TFtD, thank you for making them!
No problem, thanks for watching!
Downloading this video, pretty cool to see OG xcom content in 2024
Glad you enjoyed enough to download!
@@PotatoCaravan I'm downloading it to watch another day, 58 minutes is too much to binge, and I don't want to skim as xcom content is rare, might as well enjoy when im in an xcom mood :D
@@theyellowarchitect4504 Fair enough, I've also got a TFTD video if you're interested. Happy watching!
7:13 I mean, I have people call that that position the "doomed square of the murdercross (large scout)".
Any unit standing there will always miss, in their experiences.
wtf brother, that was good, and only ~90k views?
godspeed, commander
o7
Thanks! Was a lot lower before TFTD, but I've caught some attention since then. Glad you enjoyed!
Heh. This game seems wild. I came to the series with Enemy Unknown and didn't look at the older games so this is just absolutely wild to see. Especially the depth!
Yep, love this game for the complexity. Thanks for watching!
Great video , used to love this game on the amiga, even if it did take an hour or more sometimes for the enemies movements [atleast seemed like that in my memory]
Thanks! It's crazy that it only takes seconds to process enemy movement now, even if it wasn't a full hour back in the day.
A big part of the difficulty of this games was that you were truly on your own to figure it out. There was no internet, no guides, no forums to ask questions. I remember restarting so many times as my playthroughs fell apart and I figured out key components. The game didn't explain a lot, so you had to figure it out as you went and it was extremely unforgiving.
That makes sense. That's the case with a lot of strategy games, not knowing how to play is the hardest part.
Which in a sense was the best experience as it meant to be.
How the hell im suppoused to know how plasma rifle work or that my laser guns will be obsolete 😅
Only true if you pirated the game and didn't have the manual. Especially Microprose put a lot of effort into their manuals, they were massive and explained in great detail how to play more complicated games like this. Games back then were designed with that in mind, thus them not explaining much. Also they included a lot of lore and background info, you missed a bunch without 'em.
Epic story. Thanks for sharing. New subscriber here.
Glad you enjoyed, thanks for the sub!
Impressive! Such a great game, IMO the best one of all the xcom games (including the recent ones). I found TFTD a bit too hard but this one was in the sweetspot. I was surprised you didn't mention manufacturing as realising you could make profit manufacturing things was one of the things I remember making a huge difference between losing momentum and funds on losing and just being able to keep going - I normally ended up building a lot of workshops to get monthly income high and did some calculations to work out what the most profitable bit of gear to produce was per engineer hour! Basically just had sweatshops working flat out presumably arming other resistance/army factions!
This is like the 5th comment about this. I probably need an FAQ or something in the pinned comment, but I just didn't need the money this run. I used the trick in TFTD with gauss cannons, though I'm not sure if I mention it in the video.
@@PotatoCaravanJust finished watching it, you made it look so easy really, impressive! Do you think it would have been possible without all the smoke?! I'm not sure how much harder the higher difficulties are but it seemed like there were high alien counts even quite near the start
@@jonnyramsden1161 Tyty! While I'm sure you could have done with less smoke, it allowed me to play much faster and was generally easier to manage. I do use less smoke in mods, however that is normally because your range of sight is equalized with the aliens.
I've spent many many hours playing this game when I was younger. My favorite XCOM moment is a downed UFO mission at night and a sectoid used mind control to panic one of my soldiers. That soldier promptly panicked and took a wild shot into the darkness and promptly picked off a sectoid that I didn't even know was there.
This game gives you some crazy moments, and it's always hilarious when they are in your favor
@PotatoCaravan probably the oddest thing I ever saw, was during a terror mission. The game must have glitched out and a snakeman turned into a cryssalid.
Nice playthrough. It's interesting to see someone else's overall strategy.
I almost never shoot down ufos, certainly in the early game. I shadow them with the sky ranger, let them land then assault.
100% guaranteed elerium + the engines sell for about 250k apiece.
Tyty! Letting the UFOs land leads to night missions, and those pretty much always a bad time. If you need the Elerium later into the game, you can always run supply ship missions, as those give 150 a piece. You're also unlikely to need bulk Elerium in the early game outside of research, so shooting down UFOs has never been a concern to me. Retaliation missions are another discussion, but those are generally fine so long as you have the manpower.
Yeah, I see your point. Like I said it's just a different strategy. It seems a bit callous even writing it down but a landed UFO is worth maybe 300k more than a crashed one and rookies cost 40k each.
I look at it as a proving ground for the newbies.
Once I have the resources for power armour/ flying armour for everyone I will switch to shooting down. Retaliation scouts always get shot down though, ofc.
this was an incredible game, with good depth and several game aspects, research, base building, ufo interception and tactical missions. very polished for the time.
It even holds up today with a bit of QOL.
The amount of X-COM PTST I have is impressive. Hearing the Chryssalid sound make me want to nope out of there. (:
One of my favorite games of all time! Still looks VERY cool 30 years after release!
It's got a great style that will hold up for a long time! Glad OpenXcom gave it the QOL it needed too.
great video, got my xcom itch scratched by watching it.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed!
"this is almost a decade older than me" that hurt me in the knees. I was playing the Demo of this when I was 14...
I played the crap out of that shareware disk
This was one of my favourite games as a kid when it released. Played all the Xcom games that released after and return to Open Xcom from time to time.
Funny thing, in my first playthrough ever, I managed to blow up the brain control room with the blaster launcher through the hole base at the first try XD
you've got better luck than me, thanks for watching!
honestly, one of the best videos i've seen of classic xcom. I'd love to see you play through some of the great mods for openxcomex.
Thanks! I'd love to play through to bigger mods, but I'll need something I can post in the middle of those runs. Going to see how videos on other games do soon.
Great work!
Thanks!
Brilliant!!! Sign me up for the next one, Commander!
Thanks! I've moved names to the discord link to the volume of requests I received, you can check the pinned comment for the link.
There is a discontinued multiplayer fan game called UFO: The Two Sides.
While it's not complete, it is still available.
It does also needs a bunch of files from the original and a bit of hassle.
But then with a skilled opponent, you can truly have a good challenge. ^^
Very interesting. I'll take a look at that.
@@PotatoCaravan
I have a winning aftermath battle on my profile, it's not much and silent.
But that last battle won the game for me.😅
Great video! I love this!
Thanks!
Yes, give me a hour of 90s XCOM! I just played both for the first time earlier this year. Time for another run I guess.
Enjoy!
I’m loving that I’ve been playing this game and have been discounting tools like the motion scanner for not being straight up damage and durability upgrades and it’s made me completely inflexible which is why I keep losing runs
All I remember from playing this on PS1 is how ungodly LONG the load times were. And how PSIonics is your friend.
Using mind control on one alien, finding his friends, mind controlling all of them, and then having them shoot each other was a godsend.
Love this video its great!! need more, not sure if yo udid it im gonna check later but can you do xcom apocalypse that was really really good and the music was great, also the real time mode.
Thanks for watching! I've not yet played apocalypse as I'm waiting for OpenApoc to be finished. Hopefully that'll happen sooner than later, but there's no ETA as of now.
Love that game, I rented it so much at the video store for the PlayStation. Got it later on steam, great game, classic.
One of my favorites too! Not much else like it.
This was great. Lucky me for finding your video.
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed!