Alien Base Assault - Ambush

[Mikey]

I hadn't played XCOM in quite a while so I started a Normal Ironman campaign (Enemy Unknown).

Once the base assault mission appeared, I held off for about a month to improve my equipment. I eventually started the assault in July (I think that's around the 4th or 5th month??).

At this point in the campaign I only had about 3 casualties (2 of which were rookie/squaddie) and had satellite coverage everywhere but Brazil.

I felt pretty good going in with 4 Colonels and 2 Majors, laser weapons and carapace/titan armor. Right?

Ok the big base assault, this is sure to be a tough, but enjoyable, mission.

Contact at the end of turn 1. Mutons did their Blood Call.
What ensued was one of the craziest XCOM firefights I've ever been in. The entire enemy team arrived within 4 turns. Multiple Muton groups with berserkers, heavy floaters, chrysalids and even a random drone (which actually flew away halfway through the battle. I found it hiding at the end of the map all by itself. Lol).

All of this in the first room. 1 soldier KIA, 1 soldier stabilised and sleeping quietly. 3 soldiers heavily wounded and 1 Sniper untouched (nickname: Godfather. go figure) Now half a squad of wounded soldiers trudge on through to the other end of the base. Empty room after empty room. And of course I have to move cautiously - overwatching and not dashing - to avoid running into that drone or god forbid another group of aliens. A group of aliens that I knew wouldn't be there, but I didn't want to take any chances on Ironman mode. That was NOT fun.. just plain boring.

I guess it gave me a chance to enjoy the wonderful visual details of the rooms, quiet as they were.

Finally get to the end of the map, drop the cowardly drone and then have our first encounter with a Sectoid Commander. One shot kill. Gee, that was exciting.
Not even 1 pod of aliens in the last room to defend their commander.. come on.

Now sure, this alien rush has happened to me many times before. But I don't recall it happening on this kind of mission. It was an intense fight and yeah it was fun in a love/hate sort of way. But the overall experience of the base assault was not enjoyable. And I was really looking forward to it too. (waah waah)

I didn't get to employ much strategy or tactical gameplay during that ambush. Just shoot and end turn. If I didn't have lasers, heavy armours and Colonels I would have been wiped out.
It makes me want to play without Ironman mode, just so I can restart the mission when this zerg rush happens. I want to go through the map like Rainbow Six, not sit in place and defend against waves of aliens like COD. Does that make sense?

Just the thought of that happening on a Classic Ironman campaign gives me chills.

[Sir Fraser]

Thats odd for me it always had been the standard
First room-2 pods
second room- maybe 3 pods
and i just ended up having to battle through 2 pods at most per room untill the sectoid commander.
So i guess you were just either lucky/unlucky depending how you viewed that.

[Gotcha]

!

[Sansabar]

I've got 200+ hours into this game and have never seen a zerg rush like that, ever. Sounds like a bug.

[Mikey]

Escrito originalmente por Sir_fraser:

Thats odd for me it always had been the standard
First room-2 pods
second room- maybe 3 pods
and i just ended up having to battle through 2 pods at most per room untill the sectoid commander.
So i guess you were just either lucky/unlucky depending how you viewed that.

UNLUCKY!!! lol.

Escrito originalmente por Sansabar:

I've got 200+ hours into this game and have never seen a zerg rush like that, ever. Sounds like a bug.

I was hoping someone would say that. It happens to me all the time.. This was an extreme case, but I often find that after first contact, the entire enemy team starts heading my way.
I've kinda just gotten used to it. It's a rare occasion that I actually have to 'look' for the aliens.
Like when there is a UFO mission, the whole battle pretty much takes place outside of the ship. Rarely any contact inside. Except for the pilot, he's always chilling in there.

So any ideas? Files are validated.

I'm trying to think back to when I used to play, I think this kind of situation happened every once in a while with the Blood Call. But dang its all the time now..

[theworld]

1 Shredder Rocket (2 max) and 1 In The Zone Sniper will clean whatever Vanilla can throw at you in whatever numbers. Especially on Normal, where player gets hidden bonuses.

[yuri simp]

I hate those Drones that run away at the end of the alien base mission and I miss them somewhere, forcing me to backtrack all the way back to the start of the base.

In that sense, I would rather appreciate the "zerg rush", since the aliens coming right to me means I can dispatch them pretty easily without the hassle. That being said, it seems like a remnant EU bug. There aren't many of those anymore. /s

[red255]

Escrito originalmente por Sansabar:

I've got 200+ hours into this game and have never seen a zerg rush like that, ever. Sounds like a bug.

Happens in Long war.

Contact with one pod in any landed UFO and 50 aliens come out of the woodwork to charge your position.

[Temper]

It's a feature of the stock standard game.

Of particular note is landed UFO sites.Bradford even has dialogue related to the subject at mission start.

I like it,it's a welcome change from doing search and destroy missions and can really put your killing power to the test.

[yuri simp]

Escrito originalmente por Temper:

Escrito originalmente por TheWorld:

1 Shredder Rocket (2 max) and 1 In The Zone Sniper will clean whatever Vanilla can throw at you in whatever numbers. Especially on Normal, where player gets hidden bonuses.

Good luck with that theory on impossible.. =P

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=456739586

Mostly though

You're delaying the Temple Ship too much if terror missions escalate to the point where you get 3 Sectopods imo.

Also Flush and Close Combat Specialist you're such a card. :V

[Temper]

Escrito originalmente por hinge:

Escrito originalmente por Temper:

Good luck with that theory on impossible.. =P

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=456739586

Mostly though

You're delaying the Temple Ship too much if terror missions escalate to the point where you get 3 Sectopods imo.

Also Flush and Close Combat Specialist you're such a card. :V

I deleted my other posts after the first as I realize now (old age heh) that the thread is specifically about the alien base assault and I got carried away to old farts land.

One can delay indefinitely if they like,but the only requirement for 5 sectopods to manifest = impossible,September (february if marathon is checked) and a terror mission.

http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Sectopod_(XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iqf7DJs8fU

Flush and CCS add versatility and less likely to miss their target than Rapid Fire/Bring "em On.I need versatility with random terror maps,which is why she also has a plasma rifle and not an Alloy Cannon.I have two Rapid Fire assaults,but they sit random terrors out.

[Bullett00th]

Escrito originalmente por red255:

Escrito originalmente por Sansabar:

I've got 200+ hours into this game and have never seen a zerg rush like that, ever. Sounds like a bug.

Happens in Long war.

Contact with one pod in any landed UFO and 50 aliens come out of the woodwork to charge your position.

oh yes, this happens.

@op: I know your feelings, partially at least. my last base assault didn't throw all aliens at me in the first room, but had some of them rush to me and I've found one hurt sectoid and one mectoid hiding in the very end of the map. I've overwatched the hell out of that room only to find the two hiding in a corner mind merged. I almost heard them talk to each other 'it's alright bro, they won't see us here if we keep quiet' ))

[Mikey]

Escrito originalmente por TheWorld:

1 Shredder Rocket (2 max) and 1 In The Zone Sniper will clean whatever Vanilla can throw at you in whatever numbers. Especially on Normal, where player gets hidden bonuses.

Agreed, under normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances so your post doesn't help much. I know how to use rockets and snipers ;)

Escrito originalmente por hinge:

I hate those Drones that run away at the end of the alien base mission and I miss them somewhere, forcing me to backtrack all the way back to the start of the base.

In that sense, I would rather appreciate the "zerg rush", since the aliens coming right to me means I can dispatch them pretty easily without the hassle. That being said, it seems like a remnant EU bug. There aren't many of those anymore. /s

Haha yeah you managed to find the single positive aspect of this situation, nice ;)
But dispatch them pretty easily without hassle? They were joining the fight all at once, and I had no 'Full Cover' available. (unless you count those nice explosive tanks of green liquid, no thanks)

Escrito originalmente por Temper:

It's a feature of the stock standard game.

Of particular note is landed UFO sites.Bradford even has dialogue related to the subject at mission start.

I like it,it's a welcome change from doing search and destroy missions and can really put your killing power to the test.

Yeah, he says something along the lines of 'remember, this is a landing not a crash, so expect heavy ristance'
I can understand that.. landing or crash, I would expect the aliens to come out and defend their ship. That's fine with me.
But yeah, like I said I feel that it shouldn't happen on the base assault, not like this. Which is why I was thinking this could be a problem/bug.

And moreover, it seems now to be happening on literally every mission. The only missions I can recall of late where it didn't happen were the hostage rescue missions.





I have no idea what HINGE and TEMPER are talking about....

Escrito originalmente por Bullett00th:

@op: I know your feelings, partially at least. my last base assault didn't throw all aliens at me in the first room, but had some of them rush to me and I've found one hurt sectoid and one mectoid hiding in the very end of the map. I've overwatched the hell out of that room only to find the two hiding in a corner mind merged. I almost heard them talk to each other 'it's alright bro, they won't see us here if we keep quiet' ))

Hey if I'm in a firefight in one of the rooms (other than the first there's just no good cover) and some douchbags run in from the next room to join, that's fine! If it were like that I'd have no complaints! haha.
Lol, yeah recently I cought the Sectoid Commander butt-buddies. I threw a battle scanner into their bridge and they were both chillin on the same tile, looked like they were playing twister. I popped the door and they both ran out shrieking into an 'overwatch wall', hehe.

[Mikey]

These images are from a different mission, a UFO landing that was detected by the hyperwave relay.

Right on mission start, I sent 2 units around to the left to stack up on a door, and 2 units stacked up on the right-side door. Both doors opened into the large first room of the UFO you see here. (I didn't open the doors yet though)
Next turn, I sent the SHIV into the room. It startled 2 Sectoid Commanders who rushed out through the right side door. They were killed by my units at that door. Nothing else in the room.
Everyone does overwatch/reload, and end turn.

BAM. Sectodpod and 343 Guilty Spark (hehe) spawn right on the spot where I have highlighted with the movement circle (where it says dashing!). Notice that this area had been travelled through by the two units who stacked up on the right-side door. You can see both edges of the map where the fog becomes heavy.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=571976624

The very next 'alien activity', 3 groups of 2 heavy floaters appear in the empty room (both doors are open by this point so I can see inside). Only the group to the right actually came through a door... the other may have been hiding in a little dark corner of the room.. sure that's ok.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=571976809

About 2 turns later, a group of Muton Elites and their Berserker come through into the room, then Chyssalids 2 turns after that, then another group of Mutons 2 turns after that. But that last group just... appeared right next to my units. The door they 'could' have come through was unopened. Again, the movement circle shows where they spawned.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=571976964

That's it, end mission in that first room. Why design the huuge map of this ship with all those rooms then? I don't think it's supposed to go down like that... and I'm certain it wasn't like this last time I played the game. I can remember actually moving through the ship and finding enemies along the way.

It seems no one has a solid solution for this (besides 'duh use rocketz bro'), so I'm planning on uninstalling and completely removing all files I can find related to the game. Then re-downloading and crossing my fingers. Unless anyone has a better idea?

[theworld]

Do you have a savegame? Can I play it?

[Mikey]

Escrito originalmente por TheWorld:

Do you have a savegame? Can I play it?

Yea bud, luckily I haven't deleted it yet. Might be a good idea to keep it somewhere just for reference actually..
How should I send it to you?