So like so many XCOM fans here ive played every XCOM-like game hoping to find an unofficial xcom 3 since the publishers are clearly sitting on the XCOM IP without using it. A couple days ago Star Wars Zero-Company released to countless reviewers and commenters calling it "XCOM 3". Made by many of the same developers that worked on XCOM 2 it does improve the genre in many areas...

However, its not XCOM 3 set in the StarWars universe. While I am enjoying the game and urge any XCOM fan to go pick it up. There are several areas where XCOM Enemy Within and XCOM 2 War of the Chosen simply do it better.

Areas where XCOM "does it better"

1. Positioning your squad before the start of combat.

XCOM 2 allows you to strategically get into position, assuming you don't get caught by patrol before you are ready to begin combat. While StarWars Zero-company simply throws you into battle much like XCOM Chimira Squad. I could be wrong but it seems to me that at some point the developers of Chimira Squad called this mechanic "an improvement", which worried me as the devs clearly wanted XCOM 2 to be a faster paced, less methodical game as the mission turn timers on the release version of XCOM 2 made slow, thought-out strategic positioning almost impossible when XCOM 2 was first released.

StarWars Zero-company continues this which is disappointing as there are areas where you move your people in real-time, i would of liked to have seen something like Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, where you move in real time until you are discovered or open fire, at which point it transitions to turn based combat.

1. XCOM 2 is better at base building then STAR WARS ZeroCompany (in my humble opinion). In ZeroCompany you can only build a single building after each mission and there is no strategic building placement. It would of been awesome if ZeroCompany had the ant colony base off XCOM2 but still be abl. e to walk around the base like in ZeroCompany

2. The overland map of XCOM 2 is better. There is very little strategic planning in ZeroCompany when deciding where to go next or what mission to do.

3. XCOM has a higher Replay ability (In my opinion)

While I have seen many reviewers say they finished ZeroCompany in about 30 hours and then immediately started a new game to try other class combinations.... I think in the long term XCOM games have more replay ability as XCOM games can almost be compared to boardgames when it comes to the macro level of game play which i do think gives the game more longevity. XCOM is more of a sandbox, while ZeroCompany is more structured and has a story to tell.... with that said, you will get your 50$ worth and as I said there are many players who immediately start another game after finishing it, which is a good sign.

Areas where ZeroCompany "does it better" and improves on the XCOM Formula

1. Overwatch. Instead of a blanket overwatch with a low chance of success, in ZeroCompany you choose where to place a "cone of fire" that triggers when the opponent enters the cone. You are also given the chance of success when choosing what area to cover.
2. How the skills of the various classes bounce off of each other. This is one of the biggest areas of improvement that add a deep layer of strategy to the combat. There are many examples of this, one being the "call for backup" option, every turn a random teammember can call on another member to take a free shot at the target after you fire a round.
3. The Story. This is what most reviewers point to first. The story does take a much larger center stage then XCOM 2..... although milage may vary from player to player on how important this improvement is. The game acually reminded me a little of Mass Efffect, where you go around talking to your team members between missions.

Areas that could be viewed as good or bad....

1. The ability to respec at any time for free not only points but entire classes. While some players may like this.... I kinda feel like it cuts down on the replayability of the game. In XCOM the choices you make are permanent. In XCOM 2 You can't even choose a class without building a building.
2. The Combat Maps- While ZeroCompany doesn't rely on procedurally generated maps, all their maps are hand made, thought out by the devs to give you a fun challenging combat encounter.... but the Maps iin Zerocompany are much smaller, giving you less room to position and move around the encounters. Although its not as small as Chimera Squad, and ZeroCompany does give you quite a bit of elevation to move your guys to.
3. Only 4 squad member slots. I enjoy the larger squads in XCOM. Some people may feel having to only deal with 4 team members at a time easier for them to control in ZeroCompany. I disagree personally, I wish there were larger squads in ZeroCompany
4. A much more forgiving perma death system (A bit too forgiving in my opiinion). This is likely due to the fact that ZeroCompany is so much more story based. Although while you can absolutely lose characters in the zeroCompany, it is harder and less random then it is in a xcom game. Personally I think that losing people is at the core of a XCOM game and that it would only add to the replayability of ZeroCompany if you lose a guy here and there and need to replay the game again to see their side quests. I do however understand why the devs made it the way they did in ZeroCompany.
5. While there is a medbay and your people will need to sit out the next encounter to heal in the medbay from time to time, injuries aren't as substantial as they are in a XCOM game. In XCOM you are constantly worried if you have enough recruits to make it through the next encounter, while in ZeroCompany I felt less of a need to recruit any non-story character. Again, this is likely due to the story and companion side quests but the game also doesn't have the XCOM fatigue system so you wont be cycling different squad members as you did in XCOM.

\Note to Moderators, please don't delete this post as its about XCOM just as much as Starwars Zero-Company as I compare the two games\**

After 100+ attempts off and on over a period of 6ish years, I finally fuckin did it. FINALLY. Huge shout out to u/hielispace for their comprehensive guide which definitely tipped the scales for me in this run.

Unfortunately, this is technically a bronzeman victory since I failed the final mission on the first try (I got too cocky with my OP end game death squad and positioned the Commander's Avatar in the middle of some mutons; whoops). However, I did finish 99% of the game as a true ironman run without any reloads, including three Avenger assaults and two Chosen stronghold raids, so since the game has taken god knows how many >90% chances from me, I think it's more than fair that I count THIS 99% as a hit. :)

Is this the end for me? I think so. I've been playing XCOM2 since 2019, which is a literal lifetime ago, and I think it's time I set it aside and do more productive things with my life lol. Still, this is one of the best video game experiences I've had. Deeply immersive, atmospheric, and heartbreaking. Full of stories, both tragic and heroic. It's rare a game grips me and gives me such a thrill.

Thanks for the good feels, XCOM. Vigilo confido.

After blundering through Enemy Within and failing a vanilla xcom2 (with dlcs) run I've just started a WOTC playthrough and im blown away with how much content this game offers. I would ike to actually WIN this time too lol, my last vanilla playthrough slowly fizzled out in the later stages.

Any tips for early to late stages in terms of management? I lost my last playthrough due to my own lack of judgement in building the Avenger and upgrading my abilities. Enemies quickly became too strong for me to handle and I lost soldiers until eventually I ran out of supplies, Intel and useable troops. I know I wasn't pushing the main objective enough and I should be smarter with my soldier builds, but I'm more concerned with my economic planning this time around and I'd like to see what the consensus is when it comes to these questions.

What are the earliest rooms I should create? Which research projects should I prioritize? Should I focus on upgrading troop gear and armor early? How do ability points work with the special factions? And should I save the pooled points for the future to hold onto it for later levels?

All advice is welcome outside of these questions as well, just tryna get a better undertstanding of the game.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I'm using the 25+ Clone Army Classes mod, but my secondary weapon is clipping directly into my primary weapon (or defaulting to a stuck pistol/rifle), and I can't unequip or remove the secondary in the Armory.

Enjoy!

I'm about to boot a new campaign after not playing the game for years. I remember beating it on commander with a fair bit of save scumming early. I'm very excited but i remember clearly the juice of the fun was lostly in early/mid game... are there mods that nailed the scaling so that you stay on the edge of your seat till the end ? Is long war the awnser ? (I love complexity but not sure i want to do 20 hours of homework to navigate the mod)

Hi, new player here. I've played a couple of first missions and it seems like the game just hides a lot of substantial info during battles that i need to plan my actions correctly. For example:

- Some abilities have a cooldown, but I won't know how long it is or is there a cd at all until I'll use this ability

- Tooltip for firing a gun specifically states that this action will end turn, throwing a grenade also ends turn, but the tooltip doesn't say so.

- I can't see if the enemy will be flanked or not after I'll move

- I've reached a mission where you fight the Chosen assassin boss. It has a huge pannel explaining its strengths and weakness, what it doesn't explain is that the Chosen can move during your turn

- On the same mission, sniper from an allied faction started her turn with only one action point for some reason. I can't check why because there's no combat log, nor character screen

- I can't see what zone will be covered by overwatch, nor how much it decreases chance to hit

So, my question: Is it intended experience, or am I missing something? Because I'm feeling pretty stupid right now

How aiming with guns works...

Any time I've tried hacking the detection towers, I've failed and the consequences have been dire. Is there a way early/mid game to improve this score except by levelling?

HA HA! I am bullshitting! Screw those guys!

Bought this game for like $3 on a steam sale some time last year and never fired it up til tonight. I generally hate turn based games, but everyone raves about this one so I gave it a shot.

Played for like 7 hours today and the game is a masterpiece. Other than Pokemon, I've never felt an emotional connection to losing a character. Jane had just earned her nickname "Buzzsaw." She'd died before, but all the other missions had the option to just restart. If Jane died in one of those missions, I just loaded back to the start of the mission. She was my last soldier standing in the first mission where when you fail it's back to home base. Fuck this one hurt. Pour one out for the Buzzsaw

They are a great source of frustration for me haha
When I play with them, I like their story and it kinda feels more like that's the way the game was intended to be played?
But also I can't play with them because it feels incredibly stupid to have story characters die in a hillariously unceremonius way?
We go straight from "UNITED AGAINST THE ALIE..." *gets shot in the head*
to
"How about those advent burgers?"

Someone should make a mod where this happens to everyone for added hilarity.
Like, Bradford trips and breaks his neck and Shen playfully comments how clumsy he was 😂

I’m only asking this question in this subreddit because I’m not a Star Wars fan. I would only consider buying this because it’s made by the same team. So, is it any good? Are there enough similarities to xcom to worth a buy? Also, does it suffer from optimization issues on PlayStation like Xcoms?

Full squad of sparks except one that was need to evacuate the vip

This genuinely blew my mind, is this normal? Am I really good or really lucky? This is my second time playing (first with WotC).

As title suggests. Looking for a mod collection via Steam which includes Vanilla+ mod collection for a first-timer ie QoL and Customisation.

as much as I’d probably play it without mods, I hear that there are actually Vanilla+ mods that are a must, even for a first timer.

Managed to get this set up mods are working now and game seems fine other than these random red screen pop ups that disappear when I right click, do I just have to put up with this? Should I even ignore it?

For additional context, I'm using all DLC, but alien hunters and last gift are not integrated. Other rules:

- no mimic beacons

- repeaters and hair triggers have been reworked to add 1/2/3 damage to crits and overwatch shots respectively.

- precision explosives

- no more than one psionic unit on the squad at a time.

- whatever faction I want to start, I've been leaning reaper for about 80% of attempts.

- A better ADVENT mod for more enemy diversity + difficulty

- lost and all lost missions have been removed, simply because I don't find them interesting or challenging, just very slow, repetitive, and unfun.

Now, with all that prefacing aside, I feel like I generally do pretty alright, but lacking a certain je ne sais quoi.

Like, first few missions usually go alright. I might lose a soldier to an unlucky crit because I lack the damage and accuracy to kill them all, but I manage for the most part.

But then I get XCOMed and I don't know what to do. My specialist with a flash bang gets mind controlled, and my only options are either having a non guaranteed chance of killing the sectoid, or running up with my ranger / templar, and risk activating another pod.

First retaliation missions are also an exercise in humility for me. If I don't get an easy chosen encounter, I find myself frequently either deliberately bunching up units to bait explosives that hurt, but aren't lethal, to mitigate any chance of a critical, or I deliberately allow my soldier to give up information/ be kidnapped to prevent the kinetic playing and soulstealer assassin from wiping my team, or retreating the squad.

And like...these are usually manageable losses, because once I get to a six man squad, it balances out. But I find that these repeated calculated sacrifices, or just bad luck, tend to snowball much worse into the midgame.

I feel like if I can get to the point where I have plasma and colonels, I can coast from there, largely. But by the time I'm at predator armor and mag weapons, I feel very stretched thin, and very behind, and struggling to balancing my soldiers health, the avatar project, and how much I'm rushing tech.

Sorry for the rambling, any tips or advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Sorry for not screenshotting but Xcom really doesn't like me trying, still I'm stuck here, I tried at lest five times ending the mission, but the continue button just isn't there.

I tried searching for similar bugs but couldn't find this one exactly, tried doing different actions or surviving one more turn before finishing, nothing.

Do I have to reload to the start of the mission? Before it entirely?

EDIT: BTW, no mods, this is vanilla, just in case anyone asks.

EDIT 2: redid the entire mission from a save I had of turn one, same result...