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.
@@NebulonBMedicalFrig 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.
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 😂
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).
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 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!
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!
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
Xcom (og launch) was the 1st game that kicked my ass. I did eventually beat it. Xcom was the birth of my tried and true method: "when in doubt blow it up"
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
1:12 doesn’t this mean you’re technically not playing the original X-COM since settings have been changed from the original, or were said settings available in the original?
The settings are changed from the original game. I meant original in reference to the 2012 remake of the game. I just made sure the mention these changes so people knew what they were watching.
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!
I always bring 2 blaster launchers and a ton of bombs to the final mission, you can leisurely sit in spawn and blaster launcher a hole in the wall into the brain room after you've scouted it's location. The best is when you MC an alien with a blaster launcher and have him do it himself.
I really enjoy the mods allowed by OpenXcom. I've not played the final modpack personally, but I will be playing Reaver's Harmony Megamod for the next video!
It's a game from a different age, where people were more willing to take risks, and try out complex ideas. You don't really see this type of game anymore because making it is both a risk, and appeals to a smaller audience.
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.
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]
So im pretty sure i hold some form of world record for this: - Started the OG game, not even the windows patched version on super human difficulty. - Within a month, i see a very large ufo land and i say fuck it, pack it with laser rifles and full crew, 14 if i recall. - Battle through what must have been at least 50 aliens. - Miraculously stun both a leader and commander, both required to be researched before invading Cydonia - Use all my resources and the acquired ones from the UFO to craft an AVENGER craft. Takes about 3 months, meanwhile taking on small ufo landings. - Land on cydonia and win with laser rifles.
That's for sure. I will say that OpenXcom has made the game significantly easier to manage once you know what you're doing. There are lots of little QOL features that've been added.
What all the remakes fail to realize is that there is a fluency, and randomness in this games combat that the remakes do not capture or emulate. Also the UFO design is still the best, simple but fun to breach
There is something refreshing about how this game just kinda throws itself at you and expects you to figure it out. Alot of strategy games have an ungodly amount of tutorials or otherwise hold your hand for along time. Then UFO: Defense just looks you in the eyes and says “aliens are here, try not to die” and then it throws a cryssalid directly at your face. X-COM don’t fuck around.
@PotatoCaravan oh boy, your in for a treat. Half the weapons don't work on land, "flying" doesn't save you from "flying" Cryssalids. Lobstermen. Huge two stage terror missions and the icing on the cake; not knowing the tech tree and bricking your run by not capturing the right alien really early and because it's an "early" alien, you might seen them again for months!
The original, unpatched X-Com is incredibly difficult to beat on Superhuman because you have to do it in one sitting without loading a save, due to a bug that reverts the difficulty of the game to Normal when you load a save.
Thats a funny thought. I'm not certain of this, but since the original game had one executable for the geoscape and one for the battlescape, didn't it reset the difficulty after a mission, rather than just loading a save?
I played this a lot in 90s. My tactics were to use as many tanks as possible die the fact skills of team go up regardless of their participation in combat. So after some fights i had a team of terminators with tons of experience and health, immune to psy attacks (resistance is heavily affected by dying teammates) and so. And once you get plasma hovertanks, it gets supereasy.
One of my favorite games as a kid. I vaguely remember something about a bug that either made the easiest difficulty the hardest to impossible or it was the opposite with it making the hardest easy. Never managed to beat the game as a kid, but as an adult I found out that building laser cannons and selling them of was the easiest way to beat the game. Still haven't beaten it. Gonna watch the video now and see if you use laser cannon production to beat the game.
I don't believe I use the laser cannon trick in this video, however I to use it in TFTD with the gauss cannon. Additionally, there is difficulty bug in the original, however since I'm playing on OpenXcom, that is not an issue here. Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoy!
Original X-com despite brutal is not very hard once you get to know what to do. Though there are thing that I do differently: -I only use laser rifle then heavy plasma as my main damage source. -I tend to let the UFO land instead of shoot it down most of the time so I can recover all the elerium. If the UFO lower the altitude (which change every time they change direction), you can assume it's going to land, otherwise it's trying to leave. -I only use smoke on spawn, not everywhere. -I would risk soldier life to capture a psionic alien asap. Even failing the mission carry it back to base is fine. Once I get the psi-amp, the game it pretty much beaten. It's broken when the moment you see the alien, they are all mind screwed. -I build a factory base to mass produce things, including firestorm. Firestorm would be great if you have it on every continent since most UFO can't out run it.
Knowing what to do is definitely the hardest part. A lot of these differences could be attributed to playstyle, though the psi-amp is absolutely busted. I figured the amp would make the game boring, and didn't bother to get it in this run. I will say that I've been moving away from smoking everywhere the more I play, however the theory of keeping the edges of your view distance smoked is still something that I try and follow. Since the aliens can see a few tiles further than you, I like to try and reduce that advantage. Said advantage is still present inside of smokes, however it is far less potent as they only get a tile or two. Additionally I believe I researched the laser cannon before the heavy plasma both because I wanted to manufacture and sell it, and because I didn't think I had enough heavy plasma to deploy them widely. I never actually used any laser weapon past the rifle in the field, though I'd have to re-watch the video to see how that was communicated. Thanks for commenting, and thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan If you ask me, they give you some nostalgia and modern graphics. Other than that they are just too simple. Not saying easy to beat, every game can be made hard if you make the enemy bulletsponges. But they lack the complex decisions/alternatives you can make. I guess they made them more simple for the general player these days. The advanced games we saw before, we will probably newer see again.
@@Caspero83 You're completely right, I just figured that I'd want to make the videos for the people who have only ever played the newer games. There is a sizable audience that fits that description, and they will likely still have an in interest in the originals when showcased in video form.
@@PotatoCaravan Don’t get me wrong I love your playthrough. Hopefully with people like you, and the demand from the “general gamer” there could be some of the features added in the next upcoming games. Even if the chances are low. With guys like you we have a chance 👍😊
It's actually easier in some ways then genius. The problem is that superhuman is harder because it has more enemies, but more enemies means more resources. So ideally you'll end up flush with money even if you're barely scraping by in the battles. Genius while having less difficult battles tends to be rougher because you get less money. Which bleeds into everything else meaning slower expanses, personnel loses hit harder, ammo and weapons need to be manufactured, loosing an interceptor or skyranger can be near game ending. But as I said if you can win a few missions on superhuman you can simply have the funds to not care so much about said looses and will almost always win the war of attrition.
Superhuman is easier than genius in some ways, but many of the changes to alien mission spawn rates make it overall more difficult. The reduction in the number of enemies on Genius also shouldn't differ enough from super human to really impact your finances. The number of aliens spawned is only reduced by like 20-25%. Not nothing, but unlikely to hit you that hard.
Very lucky. Its likely that my base was in a location that the aliens preset patrol paths missed, as I should have been invaded at some point in this run.
Did they fix the issue where the aliens would mind control one of your units and place invalid objects in pockets (like an alien blaster in the leg). Then you get control back and you make the mistake of clicking on it and now you can't put it back where it was and you don't have room in your inventory so you have to reset the game?
I love these types of videos. You should try with the brutal AI mod so that the aliens are smarter. Might need to decrease the difficulty though, because stupidity is one of the main handicaps of the aliens normally. ;-)
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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.
@@NebulonBMedicalFrig 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.
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
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).
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.
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!
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!
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😂
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.
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'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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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 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 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.
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.
Great job on this. One of my favorite games that I have played on and off for 20+ years.
Thanks! It's a classic!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
Great video! I really enjoyed it and can't wait to watch your Terror of the Deep video
Thanks!
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.
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!
Xcom (og launch) was the 1st game that kicked my ass. I did eventually beat it. Xcom was the birth of my tried and true method: "when in doubt blow it up"
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 summary was awesome to listen to, thanks Commander!
Tyty!
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.
I really enjoyed your X-Com videos but I am partial to TFtD, thank you for making them!
No problem, 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.
Just to add to the algorythm! This is a good video, you deserve more supporters!
Tyty! Thanks for watching!
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!
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!
This was a great watch, thanks for the upload :)
No problem, thanks for watching!
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!
Really enjoy your content
Thanks!
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
You’ve earned a subscriber mate, cheers from Aus.
Tyty! Thanks for watching!
Great video! This game always stomped me as kid!
Tyty!
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.
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!
I played this game religiously on a 386/20mhz when it came out. Good times. :)
Still holds up too!
1:12 doesn’t this mean you’re technically not playing the original X-COM since settings have been changed from the original, or were said settings available in the original?
The settings are changed from the original game. I meant original in reference to the 2012 remake of the game. I just made sure the mention these changes so people knew what they were watching.
That finish date makes it look like we invaded Mars instead of the Middle East lmao
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!
I always bring 2 blaster launchers and a ton of bombs to the final mission, you can leisurely sit in spawn and blaster launcher a hole in the wall into the brain room after you've scouted it's location. The best is when you MC an alien with a blaster launcher and have him do it himself.
I used a similar strategy on a more recent playthrough. Works well indeed.
Epic story. Thanks for sharing. New subscriber here.
Glad you enjoyed, thanks for the sub!
I recently completed this game. Although this time, running The Final Mod Pack. Suffice to say, it was... interesting.
I really enjoy the mods allowed by OpenXcom. I've not played the final modpack personally, but I will be playing Reaver's Harmony Megamod for the next video!
I'm always baffled a game with this many mechanics, both simple and complex, was made in 1989. It's really mind boggling.
It's a game from a different age, where people were more willing to take risks, and try out complex ideas. You don't really see this type of game anymore because making it is both a risk, and appeals to a smaller audience.
Great video! Subscribed to see what's next. Any plans for X-COM: Apocalypse?
I'm waiting on OpenApoc at the moment. It's a project like to OpenXcom, however it is not done quite yet.
Amazing style reminds me a ton of old letsplays around the somethingawful forum era (like the start of letsplay).
That was before my time! An interesting comparison to make, not a perspective I would have ever been aware of. Thanks for watching!
It does pain me to know that the game is almost a decade older than you thanks. Great video!
Tyty, thanks for watching!
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.
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.
great video, got my xcom itch scratched by watching it.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed!
So im pretty sure i hold some form of world record for this:
- Started the OG game, not even the windows patched version on super human difficulty.
- Within a month, i see a very large ufo land and i say fuck it, pack it with laser rifles and full crew, 14 if i recall.
- Battle through what must have been at least 50 aliens.
- Miraculously stun both a leader and commander, both required to be researched before invading Cydonia
- Use all my resources and the acquired ones from the UFO to craft an AVENGER craft. Takes about 3 months, meanwhile taking on small ufo landings.
- Land on cydonia and win with laser rifles.
Loved this game as a kid. Scary as hell, too. Fun, but hard to play for a variety of reasons.
That's for sure. I will say that OpenXcom has made the game significantly easier to manage once you know what you're doing. There are lots of little QOL features that've been added.
It's a brutal game that NONE of the many variant's over the years have ever come close to.
It's why so many of us keep coming back to it.
What all the remakes fail to realize is that there is a fluency, and randomness in this games combat that the remakes do not capture or emulate. Also the UFO design is still the best, simple but fun to breach
Terror from the Deep and its army of nigh unkillable immortal lobstermen says hi.
@@robincray116 Oh no, TFTD at any point is scary.
My first mission was TPK without hitting a single alien... xD
Excellent, that was nice watching the game that stomped me as a kid get stomped in turn XD
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed!
Great video. I hope to see apocalypse at one point.
Thanks! Waiting on OpenApoc atm, we'll see how long that takes.
There is something refreshing about how this game just kinda throws itself at you and expects you to figure it out.
Alot of strategy games have an ungodly amount of tutorials or otherwise hold your hand for along time.
Then UFO: Defense just looks you in the eyes and says “aliens are here, try not to die” and then it throws a cryssalid directly at your face.
X-COM don’t fuck around.
It's a lot of fun, most people just don't have the patience for this type of game anymore.
Can’t wait to see Terror from the Deep. Fear the Lobster, man.
Funny enough I've never played TFTD before, so that should be really entertaining.
@PotatoCaravan oh boy, your in for a treat. Half the weapons don't work on land, "flying" doesn't save you from "flying" Cryssalids. Lobstermen. Huge two stage terror missions and the icing on the cake; not knowing the tech tree and bricking your run by not capturing the right alien really early and because it's an "early" alien, you might seen them again for months!
Don't forget that laser weapons are a profitable venture for X-Com engineers when between important jobs!
Yep, just never needed the trick in this video.
shooting down ufos over the sea spares you the mission sometimes
If you're over the water, the mission should always fail to spawn, just a bit hard to tell from the Geoscape view.
The original, unpatched X-Com is incredibly difficult to beat on Superhuman because you have to do it in one sitting without loading a save, due to a bug that reverts the difficulty of the game to Normal when you load a save.
Thats a funny thought. I'm not certain of this, but since the original game had one executable for the geoscape and one for the battlescape, didn't it reset the difficulty after a mission, rather than just loading a save?
I had a similar bs moment to that alien grenade. Six guys in I think basic got blown up, and only the outtermost soldier actually died.
The random damage rolls are certainly something.
Dame. Now we just gon find these little marks and smoke em!
*Gets out*
Chryssalid: Hello there!
*Leaves*
That was the right move and I'm sure civilians can handle this one on their own. 😆
They don't seem to be complaining!
I played this a lot in 90s. My tactics were to use as many tanks as possible die the fact skills of team go up regardless of their participation in combat. So after some fights i had a team of terminators with tons of experience and health, immune to psy attacks (resistance is heavily affected by dying teammates) and so. And once you get plasma hovertanks, it gets supereasy.
Interesting tactic with the mass use of smoke, is that as applicable in X-Division?
No idea as I've never played. Really just depends if it uses the same game rules as the classics.
One of my favorite games as a kid. I vaguely remember something about a bug that either made the easiest difficulty the hardest to impossible or it was the opposite with it making the hardest easy. Never managed to beat the game as a kid, but as an adult I found out that building laser cannons and selling them of was the easiest way to beat the game. Still haven't beaten it. Gonna watch the video now and see if you use laser cannon production to beat the game.
I don't believe I use the laser cannon trick in this video, however I to use it in TFTD with the gauss cannon. Additionally, there is difficulty bug in the original, however since I'm playing on OpenXcom, that is not an issue here. Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoy!
Great video! I love this!
Thanks!
Original X-com despite brutal is not very hard once you get to know what to do.
Though there are thing that I do differently:
-I only use laser rifle then heavy plasma as my main damage source.
-I tend to let the UFO land instead of shoot it down most of the time so I can recover all the elerium. If the UFO lower the altitude (which change every time they change direction), you can assume it's going to land, otherwise it's trying to leave.
-I only use smoke on spawn, not everywhere.
-I would risk soldier life to capture a psionic alien asap. Even failing the mission carry it back to base is fine. Once I get the psi-amp, the game it pretty much beaten. It's broken when the moment you see the alien, they are all mind screwed.
-I build a factory base to mass produce things, including firestorm. Firestorm would be great if you have it on every continent since most UFO can't out run it.
Knowing what to do is definitely the hardest part. A lot of these differences could be attributed to playstyle, though the psi-amp is absolutely busted. I figured the amp would make the game boring, and didn't bother to get it in this run.
I will say that I've been moving away from smoking everywhere the more I play, however the theory of keeping the edges of your view distance smoked is still something that I try and follow. Since the aliens can see a few tiles further than you, I like to try and reduce that advantage. Said advantage is still present inside of smokes, however it is far less potent as they only get a tile or two.
Additionally I believe I researched the laser cannon before the heavy plasma both because I wanted to manufacture and sell it, and because I didn't think I had enough heavy plasma to deploy them widely. I never actually used any laser weapon past the rifle in the field, though I'd have to re-watch the video to see how that was communicated.
Thanks for commenting, and thanks for watching!
Any altitude tips for TFTD to check for landings? Is it the opposite?
Just want to put out there for the older generation, rebelstar raiders and laser squad. you know who you are!
I love the first x-com games. 1,2 and "3" (Apocalypse) They are much more complex and thought thru than the newer ones.
I fully agree. I'll have to play the newer ones eventually, but will always favor these games.
@@PotatoCaravan If you ask me, they give you some nostalgia and modern graphics. Other than that they are just too simple. Not saying easy to beat, every game can be made hard if you make the enemy bulletsponges. But they lack the complex decisions/alternatives you can make. I guess they made them more simple for the general player these days. The advanced games we saw before, we will probably newer see again.
@@Caspero83 You're completely right, I just figured that I'd want to make the videos for the people who have only ever played the newer games. There is a sizable audience that fits that description, and they will likely still have an in interest in the originals when showcased in video form.
@@PotatoCaravan Don’t get me wrong I love your playthrough. Hopefully with people like you, and the demand from the “general gamer” there could be some of the features added in the next upcoming games. Even if the chances are low. With guys like you we have a chance 👍😊
It's actually easier in some ways then genius. The problem is that superhuman is harder because it has more enemies, but more enemies means more resources. So ideally you'll end up flush with money even if you're barely scraping by in the battles. Genius while having less difficult battles tends to be rougher because you get less money. Which bleeds into everything else meaning slower expanses, personnel loses hit harder, ammo and weapons need to be manufactured, loosing an interceptor or skyranger can be near game ending. But as I said if you can win a few missions on superhuman you can simply have the funds to not care so much about said looses and will almost always win the war of attrition.
Superhuman is easier than genius in some ways, but many of the changes to alien mission spawn rates make it overall more difficult. The reduction in the number of enemies on Genius also shouldn't differ enough from super human to really impact your finances. The number of aliens spawned is only reduced by like 20-25%. Not nothing, but unlikely to hit you that hard.
The x-com agent that scores the shot on the cydonia brain is caked up like no one's business. 🍑
Whoever he is.
keep in mind that if you run original game there is a bug that drops difficulty to beginner after you save the game
This is on OpenXcom, so the bug is not present.
2:32 so you didn’t get invaded? Welp, that’s lucky.
Very lucky. Its likely that my base was in a location that the aliens preset patrol paths missed, as I should have been invaded at some point in this run.
Did they fix the issue where the aliens would mind control one of your units and place invalid objects in pockets (like an alien blaster in the leg). Then you get control back and you make the mistake of clicking on it and now you can't put it back where it was and you don't have room in your inventory so you have to reset the game?
Great video!
Thanks!
Thanks, that hit the nostalgia.
Enjoy!
I love these types of videos. You should try with the brutal AI mod so that the aliens are smarter. Might need to decrease the difficulty though, because stupidity is one of the main handicaps of the aliens normally. ;-)
It's on my list of mods to play with. We'll see what happens after TFTD. Thanks for watching!
I love Xcom.. just beautiful
1:10 so on default settings weapons didn’t get accuracy drop-off at range?
They didn't drop off at all. This is a new feature enabled for the fun of it.
...doors? You don't make your own doors?
Bro, I just blow firing lines into the walls.
Not the first to say this. Just not my style.
Laser cannons are Xcom bread and butter for mass sales. Literal money printing there!
Yep, never needed the trick here. Used it in TFTD though.
cyber discs are vulnerable to laser's
2x2 units also get hit four times by explosions.
1x2 units in conversions get hit twice too.
Well done!
Thanks!
Love this video!!
Thanks!