XCOM 2: DORNE WHEN

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > XCOM 2: DORNE WHEN

Zudrag: Oct 7, 2009

Helical Nightmares posted:

I'd love to see a 'Endgame Terror Missions' series where the aliens are trying to take over major landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Great Wall of China.

Ethereals/Sectoid Commanders using skyscrapers that they have a bunch of psionic people like Annette hooked up to, with a big antenna on the roof to attempt to psionically control the entire country could be fun and also be hilariously cartoony.

I only see one bomb mission per playthrough, they could easily have more than one.

While landmark missions like "defend the white house" would be neat, they would only work for that country. It would be better if it were a map that would make sense in any country.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:17

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# ? May 7, 2024 22:20

potaties: Apr 8, 2005; meow meow

I'm too bad at this game to have fun doing Classic Ironman. All of my runs usually end by the first terror mission, if not because of the first terror mission. I just can't deal with a full squad wipe, ever. Going from a decent squad to rookies that can't hit anything makes it so the run abruptly halts. I had a run earlier today that ended because three Thin Men crit my dudes that were behind full cover from across the map. There's just no contingency plan for that sort of bullshit.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:17

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Anias posted:

Turn on more of the second wave options. There's a video somewhere of their designed difficulty curve, and they basicly say that without second wave options there's an initial hill into a plateau and that's intentional. If you want it to be a steady climb, you have to enable that.

Which options would you guys suggest? I want both geoscape squeeze and danger on the battlefield.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:23

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

loving hell...Newfoundland is just not worth it.

I could enjoy the mission (and it is a good, and very different mission) and the risks if I just got PAID something for it.

I just completed and the only guy who got killed was one of my Heavies right before I began the "fuckrunrunrun" stage of the fight. Except, no, my support apparently died during the cutscene after everyone got to the evac zone.

Okay, fine, it's XCOM, it's buggy, but I don't even get paid money to make up for my loss.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:24

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Zoolooman posted:

Which options would you guys suggest? I want both geoscape squeeze and danger on the battlefield.

I always do Not Created Equally, Hidden Potential, and Training Roulette to open up the diversity of potential soldiers and break me of any habit to build the same classes over and over again.

Also, Total Loss increases the stakes involved in losing a soldier and Aiming Angles makes the combat less "boardgame"-like when it comes to maneuvering units. Both contribute to a more difficult tactical environment. I would also suggest Red Fog, but it seems to render units virtually useless if they get hit at all in combat, and at the higher difficulties, you can't really do much to mitigate getting hit, and you're already punished enough for simply existing in the combat zone.

Geoscape-wise, Results Driven is nice because it punishes you (somewhat) for floating every country in the orange and red; High Stakes mixes up the rewards for abductions so it's not always 1x soldier, 5x engineers/scientists, or some predictable amount of money, which adds another layer to the risk reward of controlling panic and building up your resources. New Economy can be nice, too: It somewhat randomly alters the amount of money each country is willing to contribute, thereby breaking the player of pursuing basically the same mathematical satellite strategies every game.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Nov 26, 2013

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:37

Speedball: Apr 15, 2008

Zore posted:

XCOM: Apocalypse

Make it happen Firaxis.

Toxiguns and brainsuckers, yeaaaah!

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:41

nnnotime: Sep 30, 2001; Hesitate, and you will be lost.

Ok, I'm feeling good about this second game: Implassic with Training Roulette and _no_ aiming angles. Maybe it's my primitive monkey brain but the aliens are not murdering my rookies so easily this time when I had aiming angles turned on.

One thing: my steam vent has started right under my satellite uplink. Is that a bad thing? I believe the adjacently bonuses are not vertical? Wanted to see if that base setup with the vent was advantageous or not.

EDIT: Thanks. That answers all my questions, then <restarts>
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

nnnotime fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Nov 26, 2013

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:45

Emy: Apr 21, 2009

Adjacency bonuses do apply vertically.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 05:46

WraithMind: Jan 26, 2011

Gee, sure sucks that I cut your arms and legs off Taja.

You know what else sucks? Trying to use a heavy that missed with all five rockets she fired.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:06

Zoolooman: Mar 30, 2003

Cream-of-Plenty posted:

I always do Not Created Equally, Hidden Potential, and Training Roulette to open up the diversity of potential soldiers and break me of any habit to build the same classes over and over again.

Also, Total Loss increases the stakes involved in losing a soldier and Aiming Angles makes the combat less "boardgame"-like when it comes to maneuvering units. Both contribute to a more difficult tactical environment. I would also suggest Red Fog, but it seems to render units virtually useless if they get hit at all in combat, and at the higher difficulties, you can't really do much to mitigate getting hit, and you're already punished enough for simply existing in the combat zone.

Geoscape-wise, Results Driven is nice because it punishes you (somewhat) for floating every country in the orange and red; High Stakes mixes up the rewards for abductions so it's not always 1x soldier, 5x engineers/scientists, or some predictable amount of money, which adds another layer to the risk reward of controlling panic and building up your resources. New Economy can be nice, too: It somewhat randomly alters the amount of money each country is willing to contribute, thereby breaking the player of pursuing basically the same mathematical satellite strategies every game.

Are any of these only available if I win on Impossible first? While I'm amazing at classic, Impossible is a step to tedium that I've never tried to seriously conquer.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:29

marshmallow creep: Dec 10, 2008; I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Grenadier / Rocketeer / Shredder Rocker with lovely aim is my go-to Sectopod cracker.

If only she had Heat ammo.

If only ANYONE had Heat ammo

I have one person with HEAT out of twenty-five soldiers. I have yet to get a single guy with Suppression, which has really forced me to change up my tactics compared to playing the game vanilla.

marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Nov 26, 2013

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:31

Bogart: Apr 12, 2010; by VideoGames

Man, I wish SHIVs were available right off the bat. The basic model is pretty believable equipment for today's super secret shadow armies. Bake them into the tutorial after your original squad panics, and Shen pipes in "Perhaps you'd like something a little more unflappable, Commander?" :smug:

I also wish you could upgrade it more. But who doesn't? I want horrible tiger/camoflague on my SHIV, with little doilies crocheted around its grab-handles for my (slow-rear end-poo poo Heavy) soldiers to hop onto and ride away into plasma filled adventure. Give SHIVs rank-ups. Meld gives its computerized processors minor organic improvements and learning capabilities, whatever. I want a SHIV that is of a higher rank than most of XCOM.

I'm not sure why the majority thread consensus is to ignore Alien Containment, though. I mean, I just play on Classic Flabby-Non-Ironman, but I don't see Lasers as absolutely necessary for the alien base, so long as you get there around or before month three. I prioritize the OTS for more boots on the ground and the Arc for cutting down otherwise horribly long research times. Who needs lasers when you have lots of bullets?

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:44

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Zoolooman posted:

Are any of these only available if I win on Impossible first? While I'm amazing at classic, Impossible is a step to tedium that I've never tried to seriously conquer.

Oh I didn't even think about that, I just swapped out the original file in my XCOM install with one on the XCOM Nexus that unlocks them all. I was in the same position as you: I didn't want to endure the tedium of playing other difficulties just to unlock one or two second wave options.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:48

Zudrag: Oct 7, 2009

Zoolooman posted:

Are any of these only available if I win on Impossible first? While I'm amazing at classic, Impossible is a step to tedium that I've never tried to seriously conquer.

Total Loss is unlocked through an Impossible victory. If you don't want to do that, and you are playing on PC, there's always a mod to unlock all the second wave options.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:48

Tehan: Jan 19, 2011

I always give my MECs beanies because I worry that they might be cold since they're strapped to a huge chunk of metal :ohdear:

# ? Nov 26, 2013 06:50

Mister Bates: Aug 4, 2010

I wish there was a stylish tuxedo armor deco option available for MECs. I've got one nicknamed 'Kingpin', and while I gave him the obligatory fedora, I still feel like he's missing something to complete that whole 'giant cyborg gang boss' image.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 07:04

Pomp: Apr 3, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Tehan posted:

I always give my MECs beanies because I worry that they might be cold since they're strapped to a huge chunk of metal

Commander Grandma also has fresh cookies and cold milk waiting for soldiers after a mission, and crochets memorials for the fallen

# ? Nov 26, 2013 07:04

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Pomp posted:

Commander Grandma also has fresh cookies and cold milk waiting for soldiers after a mission, and crochets memorials for the fallen

I am so worried sick of my men rolling out at night, we have a strict no-fly policy for any missions that may happen between the hours of 8PM and 8 AM.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 07:07

Eimi: Nov 23, 2013; I will never ~~log off~~shut up.

I kind of had the idea of doing a playthrough that stopped at laser tech for weapons(just to piggy back off the idea someone had of doing only 'human' tech), but the new Sectopods would put a massive dent in that wouldn't they? They've become the unkillable walls of steel and blood they were always meant to be, but I am at a bit of a loss for how to make the game a bit more exhilarating at the end game without it being a stomp in either sides favor.

Still how insane would classic only lasers be? Would it even be doable or should I like cheat and do like Alloy Cannon and Particle Cannon for my one shotgun assault and mec?

# ? Nov 26, 2013 09:35

Away all Goats: Jul 5, 2005; Goose's rebellion

What tech unlocks the final rank for MEC suits?

# ? Nov 26, 2013 09:43

Blisster: Mar 10, 2010; What you are listening to are musicians performing psychedelic music under the influence of a mind altering chemical called...

Training Roulette is pretty cool. All three of my assaults have Heat Ammo and Rapid Fire. 2 of them have suppression as well.

"All Day" Amad had up close and personal as well. He could bring down a Mechtoid in one turn single handedly. Sadly he was strangled to death by a seeker during the base defense. He had ended up in a far corner of the command centre and no one could get to him in time because they couldn't pass through the burning wreckage of the three cyberdiscs he killed. :black101:

The base defense is incredibly fun and I hope we get more missions like it in another expansion. The equipment thing is rough though. My highest ranked sniper showed up with just a basic rifle. She hit pretty much every shot but 3 damage doesn't do much against Mechtoids and Mutons. MVP is definitely my French Mech "Molly" (yeah the game gave her the nickname Molly, dunno why). Early on she tanked a bunch of hits to save other members of the squad, and then later the rocket punch was extremely useful for quickly finishing off the wall of Mechtoids and Berserkers (I think I killed at least 6 or 7 Mechtoids).

The security rookies really, really need to be added to your barracks after the mission.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 09:47

Legendary Ptarmigan: Sep 21, 2007; Need a light?

Away all Goats posted:

What tech unlocks the final rank for MEC suits?

Titan Armor. You will also want to research SHIVs to get the Kinetic Strike damage upgrade (12 -> 18).

# ? Nov 26, 2013 09:48

nuzak: Feb 13, 2012

Doctor Reynolds posted:

Holo-Targeting is so bad I don't even get why it exists.

S'why you turn on skill roulette, so many average skills get put on classes that make a lot of sense and the other option is much worse for that class. I got holo targeting on a sniper.

Wishlist: I would like a more sophisticated relationship with the council then them handing out cash for whatever they need and me saying yay or nay. Setting up individual meetings, asking for loans, something like that. A more developed geoscape battle.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 09:51

Woozy: Jan 3, 2006

WraithMind posted:

Gee, sure sucks that I cut your arms and legs off Taja.

You know what else sucks? Trying to use a heavy that missed with all five rockets she fired.

I do this but with genetic enhancement. Operatives who miss too often simply get their eyes gouged out and replaced with better ones.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 10:12

VDay: Jul 2, 2003; I'm Pacman Jones!

Which enemies can see "through" mimetic skin?

# ? Nov 26, 2013 10:48

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

Aiming Angles. How does it calculate?

If I'm X sat like so

...1.........2
..............
□□□□..........
...X..........

I can totally see that hostile 2 has a better shot, and aiming angles would allow for this. (formatting has screwed it a little, dude should be on edge cover on the wall here)

However the wording of the actual mechanic almost implies that he would get a lower penalty in this situation too.

...1.........2
..............
□□□□□□□□□□□□..
...X..........

Which doesn't make as much sense. Would he benefit?

# ? Nov 26, 2013 11:06

Darkrenown: Jul 18, 2012; please give me anything to talk about besides the fact that democrats are allowing millions of americans to be evicted from their homes

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

You're going to love it when you get cocky with your MEC and trigger 2 packs of Thin Men and they crit kill your MEC in a turn, leading to mass panic and a code black.

Never lost a MEC. At one point she lost 30 hp tanking the damage of 9 Thin Men though. MECs are great.

Doctor Reynolds posted:

Holo-Targeting is so bad I don't even get why it exists.

I...kinda like it. Early on it helps because everyone has poo poo aim, later on the Holo Heavy can either be retired or can take Danger Zone and Suppression to Suppress and Holo-target multiple enemies.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 11:33

Angry Walrus: Aug 31, 2013; Quinn it
to
Win it.

So I just installed Enemy Within and am enjoying it so far, but currently all the UFO missions are in urban environments. Is the RNG just loving with me, or does Enemy Within make all the UFOs crash in cities and such? Because, honestly, I really loved the forest crashes in vanilla X-Com.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 11:38

poptart_fairy: Apr 8, 2009; by R. Guyovich

Just been unlucky. The original maps are still there, including a few new ones - Bradford even mentions a UFO crashing 'way out in the boonies', the racist gently caress. :mad:

# ? Nov 26, 2013 11:46

Catsworth: Sep 30, 2009; Who doesn't wanna be Johnny Cat?

Someone mentioned it way earlier in the thread but I believe it is much more likely to give you new maps first but as the game goes on the ratio between new and old maps becomes about even.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 11:51

Angry Walrus: Aug 31, 2013; Quinn it
to
Win it.

Coolio. Here's hoping one of the new rural maps is a cornfield.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 12:02

Insert name here: Nov 10, 2009; Oh.
Oh Dear.

ShineDog posted:

Aiming Angles. How does it calculate?

If I'm X sat like so

...1.........2
..............
□□□□..........
...X..........

I can totally see that hostile 2 has a better shot, and aiming angles would allow for this. (formatting has screwed it a little, dude should be on edge cover on the wall here)

However the wording of the actual mechanic almost implies that he would get a lower penalty in this situation too.

...1.........2
..............
□□□□□□□□□□□□..
...X..........

Which doesn't make as much sense. Would he benefit?

I haven't tried aiming angles yet, but I would assume that shooter 2 does get a benefit simply because I doubt the devs thought to account for cover next to the piece you're hiding behind. Speaking of which, if anyone is curious about how aiming angles works on a base level this is from the ini:

code:

; Top down view
;
;     B  
;      \ 
;       \
;  A-----^
;        T
;
; T is a target with cover in the direction of '^'.
; A is a shooter with the maximum aiming angle aim bonus 
; B is a shooter with the minimum aiming angle aim bonus
; The aiming angle bonus increases linearly in the angle range between A and B
SW_AIMING_ANGLE_THRESHOLD=45.0f	; SW_AIMING_ANGLE_THRESHOLD defines the angle between segment TA and TB - its valid range is 0-90
SW_AIMING_ANGLE_MINBONUS=5		; Shooter B's aiming angle bonus is SW_AIMING_ANGLE_MINBONUS
SW_AIMING_ANGLE_MAXBONUS=-5		; Shooter A's aiming angle bonus is [T's Cover Bonus + SW_AIMING_ANGLE_MAXBONUS]

If I'm reading this right, you need a 45 degree angle before you start getting a bonus to hit, starting at +5 aim and ending at +15 versus light cover and +35 versus heavy cover. The bonus goes up linearly with the best bonus being one tile away from a flank.

Catsworth posted:

Someone mentioned it way earlier in the thread but I believe it is much more likely to give you new maps first but as the game goes on the ratio between new and old maps becomes about even.

Yeah I recall reading that the map selection is weighted towards the new maps when you first play so you're not constantly playing the old maps over and over before seeing a new one.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 12:07

3 Stacked Midgets: Jul 29, 2004; Triple Threat

Just eked out my first C/I victory. I went through three supports with memetic skin until I finally learned the habit of not spamming tab and Y on all my soldiers.

The early and mid game are both way more intense in the expansion, but the late game still drags due to the requirement of getting firestorm coverage everywhere and having to grind up a psi soldier. It's a bit better now that sectopods are actually scary.

One thing I do like is that once you get a few squad members with memetic skin, the missions can get really zippy.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 12:23

poptart_fairy: Apr 8, 2009; by R. Guyovich

I've got a Squaddy Heavy with 86 Aim. :catstare:

Do I cut his limbs off or wait for him to blossom further, you think?

# ? Nov 26, 2013 12:42

Happy Noodle Boy: Jul 3, 2002

potaties posted:

I'm too bad at this game to have fun doing Classic Ironman. All of my runs usually end by the first terror mission, if not because of the first terror mission. I just can't deal with a full squad wipe, ever. Going from a decent squad to rookies that can't hit anything makes it so the run abruptly halts. I had a run earlier today that ended because three Thin Men crit my dudes that were behind full cover from across the map. There's just no contingency plan for that sort of bullshit.

I learned to handle squad losses by never using the same troops twice. After the first mission I got through the barracks and dismiss anyone with horrible aim/will and hire some more then always pick the lowest ranked troops. Basically, treat your entire roster as your A-Team. If need be, give some extra time to a SS Sniper for Portent / Friends in Low Places but never corner yourself to just 4-5 soldiers.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 12:46

misguided rage: Jun 15, 2010; God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title

poptart_fairy posted:

I've got a Squaddy Heavy with 86 Aim.

Do I cut his limbs off or wait for him to blossom further, you think?

I'd probably chop him up. That's already good enough to make up for the lovely growth, and the earlier you MEC him the more HP he'll end up with.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 13:01

PirateBob: Jun 14, 2003

Is the Blaster Launcher worth getting :confused:

# ? Nov 26, 2013 13:02

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# ? May 7, 2024 22:20

Woozy: Jan 3, 2006

They also seem to have pulled some maps out of the rotation entirely, although strangely the most egregiously bad ones are still around. Demolition was thankfully replaced with uh, well another forklift/dumpster paintball range, and Gas Station was replaced with Better Gas Station but for some reason we still have to suffer through Commercial Street, loving Hurricane, and the terrible spawns on Slaughterhouse, which is actually still a really fun map for Bomb Disposal but sucks so hard on Abductions.

# ? Nov 26, 2013 13:06

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