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Cream-of-Plenty posted:Yeah, that's what we were talking about and what made me wish that "damage roulette" did the same thing. I was responding to the guy thinking the grenades did 2-6 damage.
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Aug 20, 2013 04:57
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1stGear posted:I've finally admitted defeat and am going to give up on trying vanilla Impossible Ironman. There's only so much good tactics and planning can do for you when sectoids can one-shot guys in full cover from across the map at whim. The only way I beat I/I was with the DLC - which allowed me to skip council missions until I was ready (they're basically impossible if you try to do them as soon as they come up), and also I had to restart about 15 times before I made it out of the first 4 missions or so and got my squadsight going. So yeah..
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Aug 20, 2013 04:58
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wolfman101 posted:Long War grenades do 1-5 damage. Getting the Sapper perk for your Engineer fixes basically all problems with grenades.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:03
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wolfman101 posted:Long War trip report #2. Grenades are no longer useful for anything beyond clearing cover. If you take more than 2 grenades you are a fool who is going to lose because you foolishly thought throwing a grenade at 2 HP sectoid hiding behind a burning car was going to prevent you from getting shot in the face. Grenades can still badly hurt aliens and will take out most cover. Plus an Engineer with Sapper (increased damage to cover) can blow up almost anything. And then you shoot the exposed aliens. Now alien grenades are brutal. I've killed Mutons with them. And very little cover survives for more shooty fun.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:11
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So I'm up to the Assault the Temple Ship mission. Is this the final mission? I'm playing on Ironman for my first playthrough and I understand that if I gently caress this mission up, it will allow me to load from right before that mission.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:31
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lechunnel posted:So I'm up to the Assault the Temple Ship mission. Is this the final mission? I'm playing on Ironman for my first playthrough and I understand that if I gently caress this mission up, it will allow me to load from right before that mission. Yes, this is the final mission of the game. No going to Mars for you.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:58
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What's sad is that my very first recruit got gunned down by Mutons in the mission just prior. He almost made it all the way  RIP Jorge "Nuke" Valdez.The fact that I felt sad about a generic, personality-less video game character reflects the fact that this is probably my favourite game from the last couple of years.
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Aug 20, 2013 09:05
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Playing this game virtually nonstop for the last couple of days, and I sure hope EW is packed to the brim with new maps/some form of random generation.
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Aug 20, 2013 10:14
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Reading the Bureau thread here in SA is pretty drat depressing. Seems like the game is getting OKish reviews simply out of sympathy. quote:- You cannot research anything in any way. quote:Also that first mission people are conplaining about not only breaks the xcom 'researching alien tech' thing, but it does so with an underground usable artillery strike power. Also they have posted the super plot twist there and... it's a twist, for sure. But I don't think I'd actually want to consider it canon. Sad feelings. But at least we have EW being announced tomorrow.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:29
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Andre Banzai posted:But at least we have EW being announced tomorrow. That's the way I'm looking at it. I feel like they know where the focus of the series should be and just pushed the game out so they could move on at this point. Whether you hate The Bureau or find it mildly entertaining, EU is getting a sequel/expansion either way, and we'll find out about it tomorrow.  Part of me is hopeful that it's going to be released very soon since they took the time to upload the achievements to the base game already (and that they were hinting at it during PAX East).
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Aug 20, 2013 14:40
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Andre Banzai posted:Also they have posted the super plot twist there  My policy of not reading game threads coming up to release pays off again.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:41
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Having never visited the bureau thread nor kept up with news after it was created, that just makes me want people to immediately cease talking about it so those fortunate unspoiled souls like me can continue playing EU in blissful ignorance of what they tried to do with the franchise.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:41
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Andre Banzai posted:Also they have posted the super plot twist there and... it's a twist, for sure. But I don't think I'd actually want to consider it canon. Sad feelings. But at least we have EW being announced tomorrow. I suspect if the Bureau had been a success or even just well-received, Firaxis would have included references and allusions to it in future XCOM games. As it isn't being well-received and probably isn't going to be a success (2K releasing it against SR4 and Blacklist tells me they either knew they had a dud or were hilariously overoptimistic), I don't think you need to worry about the Bureau being "canon" any time soon.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:43
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MadJackMcJack posted:
To be fair, the poster makes it pretty clear that THE major spoiler is coming up and then hides it behind *spoiler* tags.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:44
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This news about The Bureau bums me out, I was starting to think it actually looked pretty good. Ah well, there's always EU to go back to.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:45
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1stGear posted:I don't think you need to worry about the Bureau being "canon" any time soon. Amen, brother. Let us hope Firaxis writes a different story for the XCOM franchise.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:57
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I was planning to get The Bureau but now I think I'll get Enemy Unknown instead. How well does it play on MacBook?
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Aug 20, 2013 15:03
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SgtSteel91 posted:I was planning to get The Bureau but now I think I'll get Enemy Unknown instead. Be prepared to play on the lowest possible graphics settings and have some choppy animations unless you live in a refrigerator. But it will still play perfectly well, and even the lowest graphic settings are beautiful. Muscle Tracer fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 15:05
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Muscle Tracer posted:Be prepared to play on the lowest possible graphics settings and have some choppy animations unless you live in a refrigerator. But it will still play perfectly well, and even the lowest graphic settings are beautiful. Even for MacBook Pro? (Sorry I play very little PC games)
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Aug 20, 2013 15:08
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SgtSteel91 posted:Even for MacBook Pro? (Sorry I play very little PC games) Yup. My computer has a 2.4 ghz processor and 4gb ram, so if those specs are yours, so will this performance be. If yours is newer, your performance will probably be better. But either way it's playable and you should buy it.
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Aug 20, 2013 15:10
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Andre Banzai posted:Amen, brother. Let us hope Firaxis writes a different story for the XCOM franchise. Making a good story for XCOM is pretty drat hard if they keep making more than a few games. One of the core mechanics is starting with mundane technology and researching all kind of crazy poo poo. In the sequels you either have to handwave those away or keep creating more and more powerful stuff. Alternatively you can make some sort of spinoff but those would likely lack the feel of the main campaign. I wouldn't mind if they had a canon reset every 5-10 years. It's kind of how Alpha Centauri works as a sequel for Civilization but there's no reason to make the third game.
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Aug 20, 2013 15:35
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Bureau is Bad Mass Effect? That sounds like what we were worried about in this thread almost to a goddamn T. 
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Aug 20, 2013 16:22
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The general opinion of it seems to be around a 3/5. Mediocre, arguably worth the money but not more. But then if you look at the kind of development hell this game went through it's a goddamn miracle that it's even playable; PonchAxis posted:Here's a huge article detailing just what the gently caress happened during development. http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/8/19/4614410/xcom-the-bureau-development-2006-2013 I still haven't played it, but to me a copy of EU to give away, Spec Ops, the varions X-Com spin-offs, and a mediocre tactical shooter is still a good deal for 45€. Someone, either in this thread or the Bureau one, pointed out that you could've gotten the pre-order bonuses for 30€ on a sale. Which leaves 15€ for the Bureau itself. 15€ for a 3/5 tactical shooter? Doesn't sound too bad to me.
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Aug 20, 2013 16:48
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Groetgaffel posted:The general opinion of it seems to be around a 3/5. Mediocre, arguably worth the money but not more. 2k was giving thought to releasing The Bureau as a budget title, and it wouldn't have been bad at that price. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth from the game plus the pre order bonuses but it should be a game you pick up on a sale unless you really have to scratch your Brothers in Arms itch.
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Aug 20, 2013 16:56
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So this is weird: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Uber_Ethereal (spoilers~) Slight lore question, but the last phrase spoken by the Uber seems to imply that they didn't actually want the XCOM team to KILL them upon invading their ship - just to make it past the gauntlet by killing their underlings and leaving the ethereals themselves unharmed? For debriefing / discussion / exposition / whatever? If that's the case, the mechanics don't exactly jive with the story. I don't really recall the last mission that well - is that what is said? And the third to last phrase.. are the 'Ethereals' encountered in the game themselves a failed experiment of the 'Ethereal Ones', whoever they may be? immortal flow fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 19:43
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immortal flow posted:So this is weird: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Uber_Ethereal (spoilers~) I don't see the problem with the story. They're looking for a race that's physically more durable than a Sectoid, and mentally at least nearly as durable as an Ethereal, which is proved via the use of the Gollop chamber and is why the Temple Ship even arrives. They want the Volunteer to arrive, so they can see exactly what's going on in their brains after being in the XCOM psi lab, where humans did what the aliens never have.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:04
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So after reading the Bureau spoiler: There's basically no doubt left that this'll be a human vs human expansion. That kinda sucks, I wanted more aliens, plus base invasions don't see as likely now for whatever reason. Guess we'll find out tomorrow. By the way, for those wanting the bureau spoiler: Your character is controlled by the Ethereals the whole time. Yeah, it's that lame.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:12
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immortal flow posted:So this is weird: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Uber_Ethereal (spoilers~) Yes? It's not super clear in game, but there've been a few ideas floated in this thread to explain the aliens' motivations. My personal interpretation is that the Ethereals you fight in game are essentially meat puppets of some Star Trek style, ascended glowy super-psychic-hive-mind consciousness. That hive mind is constantly looking for newer and better species to "uplift" into it/use as meat puppets. The non-Ethereal species are all "failed" in the sense that they just didn't meet whatever semi-arbitrary expectations the hive mind had for them, and were instead redesigned to serve the hive mind in lesser roles (like being sad little front line science guys like the Sectoids). The way XCom's story plays out is basically that you're constantly disrupting the Ethereals' plans, but in such a spectacular way, and using so few people, that they don't just turn on the mothership's guns and win. Instead, each battle is looked at with sort of a "let's see how they respond to this" attitude, with the Ethereals getting progressively more excited at the prospect of finally finding another species worth joining the collective. When XCom fights its way through the corridors of the mothership, the Ethereals are treating it as a final test: if an agent can reach the bridge, then Humans have demonstrated that they are worth absorbing into the collective. Unfortunately for the Ethereals, their offer isn't terribly enticing to anyone who isn't already a part of the hive mind, and XCom just blows the crap out of the bridge and everyone on it. I also like to believe that if XCom had accepted the offer, that the Ethereals would've just gone back to abducting people (with XCom's help), experimenting on them, and, because their criteria for judging a species' "perfection" aren't actually like, objective, or written, or anything (because what even?), would eventually just get all pissy that Humans weren't "perfect" enough, and then just turn Humans into a replacement for Mutons and Sectoids.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:29
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Revener posted:So after reading the Bureau spoiler: There's basically no doubt left that this'll be a human vs human expansion. That kinda sucks, I wanted more aliens, plus base invasions don't see as likely now for whatever reason. There's not really any indication that Firaxis is taking story cues from The Bureau. I'm pretty sure Jake Solomon understands XCOM well enough to not make Enemy Within purely human vs. human.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:32
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Isn't Enemy Within getting revealed at Gamescom tomorrow? That should get the bad taste of The Bureau out of everyone's mouth at least.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:36
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1stGear posted:There's not really any indication that Firaxis is taking story cues from The Bureau. I'm pretty sure Jake Solomon understands XCOM well enough to not make Enemy Within purely human vs. human. Not *purely*, but fighting Ethereal-controlled humans does add a new layer of tension and moral complexity to the game. Suddenly, you're faced with the option to use your plasma weaponry against your own race... or develop new ways to incapacitate your enemy. I could see something like this leading to many different Council missions, as well as Terror Sites. Funnily enough, the Skyranger would return to the base, package NOT on board, and the countries would begin to leave the project, one by one, claiming that the XCOM project is "no longer necessary".
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Aug 20, 2013 20:47
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Long War question: I finally finish construction of the Containment Facility and Arc Thrower and on the next mission stun a sectoid. Anxious to put the screws to that little bastard I go to the lab afterward, but sectoid interrogation research is not listed. Am I missing something? Or simply brain dead at 4am?
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Aug 20, 2013 20:50
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Andre Banzai posted:Not *purely*, but fighting Ethereal-controlled humans does add a new layer of tension and moral complexity to the game. Suddenly, you're faced with the option to use your plasma weaponry against your own race... or develop new ways to incapacitate your enemy. I could see something like this leading to many different Council missions, as well as Terror Sites. If we're taking a cue from previous X-Com games (where people merrily raided and bombed the brainwashed Cult of Sirius ad nauseum) or Enemy Unknown (where Terror missions involve saving a single civilian and abandoning the rest/blowing them up before they can become infected) I'm going to take a guess that most players will continue to think that life is cheap in the XCom universe and moral complexities will feel contrived and inappropriate. It's certainly possible for Firaxis to try an angle like that, but I'm not sure the game is really conducive to it.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:53
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Supernorn posted:Isn't Enemy Within getting revealed at Gamescom tomorrow? Yes. Yes it is. Here's a taste: 
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Aug 20, 2013 20:56
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Cream-of-Plenty posted:If we're taking a cue from previous X-Com games (where people merrily raided and bombed the brainwashed Cult of Sirius ad nauseum) or Enemy Unknown (where Terror missions involve saving a single civilian and abandoning the rest/blowing them up before they can become infected) I'm going to take a guess that most players will continue to think that life is cheap in the XCom universe and moral complexities will feel contrived and inappropriate. I've long wanted to see some operations where XCOM works in tandem with local military/police forces, and this would actually work really well with the problem you describe. If you can stun/free the brainwashed soldiers you're fighting, they join your side, or get better benefits from their bosses. I'd also love to see a mechanic where PSI attacks against a mind-controlled unit affected the unit's controller, not it itself, too.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:56
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There weren't any penalties for killing every civvie like there was in the original. You could kill every alien on a terror mission and still lose just because of th aliens killing civvies, or take a 2x penalty if you killed them before the aliens did. That should be back in some way, but maybe not quite so harsh.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:58
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Toozler posted:Long War question: I believe in Long War you are required to perform an autopsy first before you can interrogate. In a way this makes perfect sense since Vahlen needs to know how all their internal bits work so she can torture them more effectively.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:59
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Cream-of-Plenty posted:If we're taking a cue from previous X-Com games (where people merrily raided and bombed the brainwashed Cult of Sirius ad nauseum) or Enemy Unknown (where Terror missions involve saving a single civilian and abandoning the rest/blowing them up before they can become infected) I'm going to take a guess that most players will continue to think that life is cheap in the XCom universe and moral complexities will feel contrived and inappropriate. It's certainly possible for Firaxis to try an angle like that, but I'm not sure the game is really conducive to it. Unless there are serious consequences for killing humans left and right. But anyway, I am not especially skilled at clairvoyance and I actually don't believe they're going that route. I'm just anxious to know what the hell EW is all about.
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Aug 20, 2013 20:59
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Andre Banzai posted:Unless there are serious consequences for killing humans left and right. Icon Of Sin posted:There weren't any penalties for killing every civvie like there was in the original. You could kill every alien on a terror mission and still lose just because of th aliens killing civvies, or take a 2x penalty if you killed them before the aliens did. That should be back in some way, but maybe not quite so harsh. Yeah I'm actually surprised that you could succeed in a Terror mission by saving only 1/18th of the civilians present. Heavier penalties for civilian deaths would go a long way towards encouraging players to actually do their job.
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Aug 20, 2013 21:01
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amanasleep posted:Yes. Yes it is. Here's a taste: What the hell is that insignia on the left, with a skull?
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Aug 20, 2013 21:04
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