Anyway, last night I played a little on OpenXcom and the first terror mission of the game came up. There was a large UFO that I followed with an Interceptor (trying to attack it would just get my aircraft blown out of the sky) and when it landed it started a terror event.

So, I then sent my Skyranger over to start the mission and found that it was just impossible (and I have the game at the easiest difficulty). The aliens had at least 3 Cyberdiscs, and I was getting attacked psionically as my soldiers were getting mind controlled. The rest of the team ended up getting killed, panicked, going berserk, etc. The result, reloading, taking a few pot-shots at the first Cyberdisc, then when it didn't die I aborted the mission to save my assets.

Now, why do I mention this? Well just because I don't remember the first terror mission being so hard when I played the game some years ago. If I remember rightly I played the Windows collector's edition version with UFO Extender applied to it. I think the first terror mission had me up against Mutons and Sectoids, not Cyberdiscs.

So, has OpenXcom made this harder or was it just bad luck in having a large UFO cause the terror mission with Cyberdiscs and psionics?

Bear in mind that this was at the end of the first month in the game. My soldiers are still using regular rifles, though some also had laser pistols in their backpacks should they be needed, as I've not had chance to research laser rifles or plasma weapons yet, and with only 4 previous missions for the most experienced of my soldiers, they aren't exactly levelled up all that much.

It boils down to bad luck. If you play on the easiest difficulty setting, it should be about the same. The higher difficulty levels are harder in openxcom, because the infamous difficulty bug from the original doesn't exist.

Ah well, I can deal with it if it is just bad luck. I still got funding increases at the end of the month, after the terror mission failure, so it wasn't all bad. I guess I need to ramp up on the research now that I have some funds to spend.

Just visited the UFOpaedia to remind myself of what else comes along, and I'm going to need to get busy as I'm going to need better weapons and armour, and much faster research. Not sure how I managed to beat the game all those years ago. Maybe I'm getting slower as I get older. :S

Sectoids and Cyberdiscs always terrorize together, Mutons are a late-game race.

And yeah Sectoids with psi and Cyberdiscs are pretty tough without advanced weapons and/or careless use of explosives. Floaters are the easy early race.

My memory of the game the first time I played through must be somewhat lacking too. It must have been Floaters then that I faced in the first Terror mission back when last played it. I know I was able to beat it. I was at university when I played it, so that means it must have been around 14 years ago.

No, sounds about right. I might recommend turning on the PSI Line of Fire option - I found it makes psionics less of an "I win" button for the aliens {and you once you discover it}. First time around, I suspect your first month terror might have been Floaters - they have some extra mobility and resilience, but the vanilla psi is just too broken.

TGIF, amirite?

{Tanks Go In First}

exactly

Norton *killed* my OpenXCom (fewer than 5 users used openxcom_git_master_2020_05_04_1956.exe)

Each and every file was marked with a high risk labeled "Heur.AdvML.C". Not only Norton put the *.exe file in quarantine like it did always before that but it deleted the whole folder and when I try to restore the contents it asks me where should it put it back and for about 100 times I clicked that f@cking folder through a *very convenient and easy to use* tiny menu and nothing!!!

All my saves and I captured leader, navigator, medic and even live speciments of cryssalids and reapers, and researched all laser, plasma and armor tech possible.

Yeah, only 289 files, f@ck! So I should have probably clicked only 298 times, because clicking only ONE time would be too easy for me. F@cking quarantine and Norton with its quarantine...

EDIT: I clicked like 350 times and nothing restored. That's just great.
EDIT 2: My saves are saved (in separate folder), thank goodness!
EDIT 3: Never ever use installers go for archived version

Opencom - it just alternative. As always. Not perfect. With differ - not improved - AI. With bugs that cannot be fixed (like any open source projects). With not so large battlegrounds like in TftD, supported by OpenXcom too.

Maybe it better to play GOG version of X-com 1, cause it not latest\ripped (no Windows).

Too many bugs in original version like difficulty swapping to Beginner after Day 1, maintenance cost for dismantled buildings (paying for dirt), possible bug with entering alien base (should be fixed by ver 1.2), phantom radar, text typos (not talking about UK > US differences, such as "Armour" > "Armor"), possible bug when saving in geospace, Human made UFOs (crafts based on alien tech) always don't have enough fuel, possible game crash if research a Medic *not in proper time* and many others...

I do not suggest playing original UFO Defense / Enemy Unknown game at all. Play it with OpenXCOM unversal patch at least, with UFO Extender or XcomUtil.

As for AI - I haven't noticed ANY difference in enemy AI even on NOT Beginner difficulty like I was playing it during my younger years. I just got much more aliens on 1 map even for crushed UFOs (which is cool to sell all that stuff), maybe they are just a bit more aggressive, I still think it's the same AI as in original.

Why I like this Mod is that you could actually tweak the game: you can add the ability for unconscious aliens to pick up their weapons when they get up (much more realistic and interesting that way), you can tick the *sell* option for manufactured items (saves a lot of time and more space efficient), you can add colored arrows to display Time Units before doing a move (very convenient), and equip screen is much more intuitive with weight and other stats (if enabled of course), you can also enable Main base arrangement of buildings and place those 2 big Hangars properly on 1 line up above (I haven't enabled it, prefer to play this the vanilla way, but I barely was in time with relocating them just before aliens attacked my base), and many-many other good features (e.g. selling live aliens for sex slaves...).

does openxcom support 1080p? Thanks

Yes. Many options for video. High resolutions, including 1080+. Filters/scalers if you want, but can also keep the pixelated original. Also has letterbox option to help with aspect ratio if ellipses bug you when they are supposed to be circles.

I have played many times the original X-Com Terror from the deep and this time i tried with OpenXcom and it is not the same, in regular maps like ships assaults maybe it is the same at the beginning but not in mid or last game

In the original when you play a ship bigger than a cruiser the high ranking aliens always stayed on the deck, never moves no matter how many turns pass, with OpenXcom the commander alien can be found on the ground fllor and maybe out the ship

Colonys have the same issue, the commander left the room even at close at turn 3 which it shouldnt, easier to capture but no, it should stay on the room with the other 2 lobsterman

And the final mission dont feel the same, alien distribution and movements (this also on colonys) are not equal, it is not what you expect

Not to mention that for example waking up after being stunned or fired it is much more common on OpenXcom that on the original and it is bad since you cant change it at all, but it is not the same value, on a full campaign you could expect this to happen 10 times at most, on OpenXcom on every mission if it takes long enough and not all of them are dead will happen, which it is bad since it forces to destroy the body and lot with an explosion or to leave some behind just to wait for it and put it down for sure

Plus some default choices on OpenXcom are not the ones it should, you can change but you need to know what to change, for example alien deads because of fatal wounds, in the original is on, on the OpenXcom it is off

So play the original if you want the same feeling you are used to since OpenXcom it is not just fixes and updated graphics, they changed many things that alter the feel of the game

You're better off taking these observations to the official OpenXCOM forums. They'd be pretty receptive to legit claims OpenXcom changes the vanilla game outside of bug fixes.