I told myself when I started playing this game that I'll leave it as it is and whatever happens, happens. But as time went on and more of my soldiers started ranking up I started getting to attached too them, even editing and renaming some of them (My personal favorite being "Bumbee" who looks kinda like the puny little autobot), I even started hash tagging some with an [X] in their name to show that they are the alpha's of my team. Guys, I think I made a huge mistake of renaming and customizing the soldiers because now whenever they die I've found myself reloading to a previous load in hopes I can butterfly effect the outcome of their death, even to the point of replaying whole missions. Anybody else been tempted or are most of you just living with the circumstances of your fallen soldiers?

Yeah quite often because the game pulls some bullshit on you at times.

Still find it ridiculous that you can miss point blank. With a sniper.

@Sooty: Yeah been noticing that alot, the mutons are freakin long range snipers who can cause critical damage at a distance. I'm hoping the game isn't this fudged and that further upgrades in tech will even the odds.

Living with your losses is part of the fun for me, so I just go with it. Makes things extra tense.

I'm on Ironman mode so if anyone dies, I have to live with it. It's the only way to play the game in my opinion.

Nope. I live with my consequences.

Isn't that how you play the game, except when you don't?

@Sooty said:

Yeah quite often because the game pulls some bullshit on you at times.

Still find it ridiculous that you can miss point blank. With a sniper.

Snipers lose accuracy the close they are to the target. Snipers can pull of a mile long shot with 100-85% accuracy, but get to close and the accuracy will get dumped down to like 65%. When you do get too close, just switch to laser or plasma pistols if you have them since they get a significant aim boost with pistols when at medium range.

@Dark_Jon: Didn't even see Ironman when I started a game will definitely have to replay the game on ironman mode next time through to take away the temptation of reloading.

Only if my mouse fucks up and I click on a bad spot for my guys to go to that is in the open. Makes me tempted to go xbox controller.

I'm playing on ironman so no. There are times when I just do simple miss clicks and the fact that I can't undo them really drives me crazy, but it's worth it for the tension it brings in.

@I_Stay_Puft: The option for Ironman is under the advanced tab when you're selecting the difficulty of a new game. It's easy to miss if you're not looking for it.

After going through my first terror mission, I'm tempted to reload. As it is, that beat my will to play right out of me

I just lost two of my best soldiers during one mission.

I shouted at my computer, but I still kept on going...

@Sooty said:

Yeah quite often because the game pulls some bullshit on you at times.

Still find it ridiculous that you can miss point blank. With a sniper.

Point blank is where I would expect a sniper to miss. I'm sure aiming down a 12x scope at someone ten feet away isn't easy.

I just got the game today and I plan to not reload saves to save men. It gives the game a more dangerous feel, if my soldiers can die at any moment.

I do it if I'm not in an Ironman game and I lose a soldier to a total BS reason like a glitch, a bug or missing a 100% shot.
 
Doubt save-scumming would make Impossible difficulty any easier though.

If you keep loading the game when loosing soldiers then you're ruining any tension you might have in the game.

I may not get "the point" of this game but if I didn't reload when shit got too fucked up I would've stopped playing a long time ago. I love the gameplay but I'm not a fan of how brutal it is so I'm glad I can "exploit" the save system.

I used the max number of saves in my first game, so yeah I was retrying shit all day. I plan to do a classic iron man mode next after playing some other games for a little bit.

I played Ironman, but I noticed when the game would save, and it only saved when you ended your turn. So if I felt I was in a really bad spot and my guys would die upon ending my turn, I alt-f4'd that shit. The thing is, I got through over half the game without losing anyone, or alt-f4ing. So my squad was fully leveled up and I had 0 backup soldiers who were not rookies.. Losing any of them would have been a huge hit - one I wasn't willing to take. Which is why this:

That one soldier lost wasn't even a soldier. It was a SHIV I didn't care about. I don't have any global stats because I was using offline mode in Steam (I unlocked the game earlier than the EU release through VPN). Too bad because I'm interested in those stats..

I did it once to save my commanding officer because she was my only sniper in the mission.

For now, just because I'm interested in the story (even though I'm pretty sure I know what the twist is, and it's a lame one). On subsequent playthroughs, I'm letting it ride.

Also, why the hell isn't there a skirmish/quickplay mode?

IRONMAN.

In my run through on normal, I did reload a few times. My Colonel Heavy missed a 97% chance shot, and was killed immediately after. I reloaded because REALLY?

Yup! ive only played it for like 2 hours in total though so i'm making some early bad tactical decisions and i end up saving before a mission and going back to improve on how i did if i did really bad. Being legit don't bover me at all.

If i get attached to the game then ill try it on ironman.

Ironman, so no.

Had a squaddie assault blow my main dude's head off when she panicked trying to get close enough to use the arc thrower and kinda wished I could have reloaded though.

XCOM can be a real bitch.

If I weren't playing on Ironman, the name Lieutenant "Bonus" Ito wouldn't mean anything to me. Now she's the highest-ranking soldier I lost during a Terror attack in Edmonton. I learned to cover advances and keep space between soldiers when her and the rest of the squad were all killed. Reloading would ruin everything about XCOM that makes it good to me.

There are some soldiers I am not willing to part with. 4, to be precise. My sniper, my assault, my support, and my psionic assault. For now at least. At some point I may think to myself "Mancini, my glorious sniper, it's time".

For now though anyone else can eat it, and it'll suck, but I'll leave em lie.

@jeffrud said:

If I weren't playing on Ironman, the name Lieutenant "Bonus" Ito wouldn't mean anything to me. Now she's the highest-ranking soldier I lost during a Terror attack in Edmonton. I learned to cover advances and keep space between soldiers when her and the rest of the squad were all killed. Reloading would ruin everything about XCOM that makes it good to me.

In Edmonton? Aliens would never attack here, would they?

I haven't reloaded yet, but got into some major serious crap when my Korean wife asked me how my Korean soldier, Yong Sam Yoon was doing and I told her that he was the only one who didn't make it back.

Only for my highest-ranking/best officer, and only if I don't have a replacement lined up who's just as good.

@BoG said:

IRONMAN.

In my run through on normal, I did reload a few times. My Colonel Heavy missed a 97% chance shot, and was killed immediately after. I reloaded because REALLY?

I had a 95% and a 98% miss in two consecutive missions.

The only reload I did was when I missed 4 75% shots IN A GODDAM ROW and lost half my squad because of it. That was some real BS.

I reloaded ever since I did some experimentation and realized the RNG is legitimately fucked.

4 possible 92% shots. Miss them all. Switch to pistol, also 92%. Miss all 4. Use a Heavy with holo-targetting to bring it up to 100%? STILL MISS

IT'S POSSIBLE TO MISS A ONE HUNDRED PERCENT SHOT

The game can cheat really bad at times so I don't feel bad when I reload.

I've only been playing Ironman, so no.

@sins_of_mosin: YES! clipping is a huge issue shots will be blocked by the environment and other shots (mostly by the enemy) will clip through the cover and hit you. I once had one of my guys hiding behind cover near the driver side of a big rig, the enemy from the other side shot my guy critical hitting and killing him. That's when I had to walk away for a few minutes to compose myself.

If the game actually played fair I would consider it, but since it's rather glitchy and the percentages are just straight up LIES sometimes (missing an 80% shot...three times in a row) I don't see the point in making myself that angry.

@Terramagi said:

I reloaded ever since I did some experimentation and realized the RNG is legitimately fucked.

4 possible 92% shots. Miss them all. Switch to pistol, also 92%. Miss all 4. Use a Heavy with holo-targetting to bring it up to 100%? STILL MISS

IT'S POSSIBLE TO MISS A ONE HUNDRED PERCENT SHOT

@depecheload said:

If the game actually played fair I would consider it, but since it's rather glitchy and the percentages are just straight up LIES sometimes (missing an 80% shot...three times in a row) I don't see the point in making myself that angry.

I hope you guys understand that the RNG seed is generated at the beginning of a map. So if you miss and 89% shot or whatever, reloading won't help you. They did it that way for a reason. The 100% thing seems fucked though.

I missed a 98% shot earlier. It was kind of a bummer.

As far as reloading when I lose soldiers: not really. I only did once for my like, main dude. And then once because one of my only assaults died because a tank decided to randomly blow up and I had no clue that tanks could blow up at all.

i have reloaded once since there was a bad where i was standing right infront of an enemy with 3 guys point blank and could not do aything since it had problems with detecting wich level in hight i was on. and thats that but im only playing on normal and not ironman, its my first time thought the game.

i wanna get to know it some more before i do that

The one time that I did re-load to save a soldier was because I wasn't thinking too much and made a very bone-headed move after making a single bone headed move that put my soldier in the direct line of fire to begin with.

Mostly because other TBS games will often preview the conditions of your move before you make the move. Such as in FFT and Advance Wars, you can view the min/max range of your unit at their new position before confirming the position and can undo the move until you make an attack-move. Sooo I clicked without thinking and then put my leader in the middle of three sectoids and then he got critted down.

Since then, I've just been playing more carefully and havent re-loaded due to any wounding or deaths, and on CRASHING, re-playing the same moves since the game's RNG is seeded.

Edit: "What about fog of war?" Well you could have the move not be able to be undone once locked in, and only show the the revealed vision afterward.

@seannao said:

Mostly because other TBS games will often preview the conditions of your move before you make the move. Such as in FFT and Advance Wars, you can view the min/max range of your unit at their new position before confirming the position and can undo the move until you make an attack-move.

It really would be nice if the game had more information about where you're moving to :( It is a little disappointing after having played Shadow Wars, which very much goes out of its way to give heaps of feedback about all available moves.

Yep, because that's how I played the original, that's MY "classic mode".

I was blitzing through the game on a normal ironman run, going straight for the priority research and priority objectives. I got to the alien base mission and threw all my soldiers at it. The 6 of them were hardened veterans, the best of the best, unstoppable killing machines.

Needless to say, they all perished. I was still rolling with stock armor and stock weapons (the only upgrades I bought were the squad size ones) and I was completely unprepared. I did not expect that.

So my vets died. The empty skyranger returns home, and my barracks has two soldiers in it. Just two. I can just barely afford another four to fill up my ranks.

Next mission, I'm introduced to the Mutons. More specifically, my 6 greenhorn rookie soldiers are introduced to the Mutons. They all die horrible, grisly deaths. The council report rolls around. Russia pulls out. China pulls out. Germany pulls out.

I mount several more unsuccessful attacks. The XCOM program meets its end before the month is through.

It reminded me of all of my old X-COM campaigns: mired in tragedy. I've done a few more runs since then, all on ironman classic difficulty. I can't imagine reloading to save my soldier's lives. I'm not the sort of person who swears often, but when my favorite units die, I can't help but let slip a "Fuck!" and it's great.

I just love how these berserker can avoid 90-95% chance sniper shots every map I encounter them.

Only when I lose all 6 of my colonels, I'm okay when its just 1 or 2 of them, or even 4-6 rookies, but sometimes shit goes real sideways in one turn and I'm like fuck that. I think I'm gonna go on a harder difficulty and ironman my second playthroug though.

Getting that Don't Die on me perk as early as possible seems like a good idea, my colonels don't actually die anymore.

No, but I really want to.

If one or two guys die, I let it ride. But I like the option to roll back and take a different approach if shit goes real bad. I'll probably try Ironman Classic on my next playthrough, though, now that I know how to play somewhat competently.

Just activate Ironman. And really, all I edit is the Nickname, and the color of the armor according to class.

I only reload if a battle goes completely downhill and I lose most if not my entire unit. I happened to me once like 1.5 months into the game, it literally would have broken that play through if I hadn't reloaded I simply didn't have any other skilled units yet and no money to recruit replacements.

My very first game just came to a bloody end, and I was playing Ironman and intend to continue to do so. Watching my veterans meet a bloody end was almost heartbreaking and that was fucking awesome!

Having real consequence has given me a sense of tension few modern games (at least big releases) can accomplish.

Probably why I've been playing a lot of FTL and Binding of Isaac lately as well.

iron man bitch.

Not so far, I have only 3 dead:

-Charlie "somoner" Tonoku

-Leroy "NOOB" Jenkins

-Tom Byron

I find the game super easy at normal providing I take my time.