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Peanut3141 posted:I don't disagree with anything you've said, other than I prefer Adrenal Neurosympathy to the gene mode you mentioned. Aim and movement are the two most useful stats to me and constantly keeping them boosted as my squad makes kills is too much to turn down. Plus that mod is cheap as hell, so modding it onto your entire squad is easy. Well, total party wipe as in 'everyone who could get shot did get shot', the sniper should generally be about two moves behind everyone else so they can just run to the extraction zone in most situations. I did consider adrenal neurosympathy but I like having the option of facetanking with a soldier, partially because I only rolled lightning reflexes on my sniper last game so I had trouble dealing with overwatch otherwise. Being able to use a soldier to absorb reaction fire is helpful.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 20:13 |
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 11:45 |
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I think the moral of the story is that there is lots of way to play a game, and you shouldn't insult someone else's playstyle unless they are actively being DSP and acting dumb then blaming the game. I've watched people stream ironman/classic Enemy Unknown without a single death, so they never needed replacements! I've also watched Jadestar stream and lose three soldiers on one mission because a muton came out of nowhere and grenaded his bunched up group of five people! And then complain about having to use rookies. Whether you keep replacements or not, either style of play works just fine.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 20:17 |
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OwlFancier posted:Well, total party wipe as in 'everyone who could get shot did get shot', the sniper should generally be about two moves behind everyone else so they can just run to the extraction zone in most situations. gently caress tanking, make the whole squad go super-saiyan when any of them get a kill.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 20:27 |
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KittyEmpress posted:Whether you keep replacements or not, either style of play works just fine. The game is good in that way, it doesn't require optimal play, but it does encourage it. It allows a surprising amount of flexibility in how roughly you want to approach a situation.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 20:28 |
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OwlFancier posted:I can understand keeping some of your soldiers in reserve if you're worried about losing your frontliners, but snipers especially are one of the units where you shouldn't really be losing them. I don't find it necessary to bench everyone who achieves a high rank for a worse scenario. Seems a lot like the XCom equivalent of never using the BFG9000 in case something harder comes along. Except in this case, you can level up your pistol into a BFG 10500 instead. Getting a new guy up from Rookie (or Squaddie when you have New Guy) to Colonel with Iron Will on for the whole duration is always nice. And if you've got Not Created Equally and/or Hidden Potential enabled, any dude could be a star. I usually end up replacing about half of my starting squad on average just because someone turns out better while I'm getting some depth in the Barracks. Sure, that original sniper's 110 Aim / 86 Will is pretty nice, but when a 120 Aim / 127 Will sniper comes around...ohoho that is some MURDER.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 20:35 |
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Oh, THAT Cyberdisk. When it was discussed earlier I thought it was at the start of the mission for some reason, so I was very confused. I remember that Cyberdick decided to kill my support with a crit. I usually have my B team around for this mission, since A team is wounded from the previous, so Thin Men get to have free shots at my guys because my B team can't reliably kill them when they appear. And as we all know, Thin Men are made out of pure bullshit, which is the reason why the aliens are invading the earth. Why do you think they're abducting all those cows??? When it comes to ITZ vs DT, I generally prefer DT. The primary reason is I have to worry less about my Sniper's positioning. Enemies lategame also have a lot of HP, my Snipers are usually Colonels first, so I use a Sniper to soften up units to have a lower rank soldier take out the enemy. I also have lots of "Oh poo poo" moments where because I play aggressively I bite off more than I can chew, and I just need my Sniper to put out that extra damage to take out an enemy that I underestimated. Where as heavies can fire twice in a turn, they can only do that if they don't move. Usually I'll uncover something I didn't expect while trying to move my troops to deal with a current threat, make a string of expletives, then pray my Sniper can take out the uncovered threat. ITZ can be amazing, especially when you can see the enemy with something like a Mimetic skin-using scout. When I utilize ITZ, I generally have a lot of heavies in my squad that soften up a large group of enemies with rockets/two shots per turn, then the Sniper just murders them all.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 21:03 |
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my dad posted:Catapults. Because they can. Great, now I'm stuck with the mental image of a Thin Man Booshing as he is catapulted forward. ... (I'm so, so, so, so, so, so very sorry) "C'mon commander! Let me at them!"
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 21:13 |
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Brainamp posted:gently caress tanking, make the whole squad go super-saiyan when any of them get a kill. gently caress yes, I gave an Assault Annette Adrenal Neurosympathy, and holy goddamn hell how did it take me seven games to do this? I got the full-party-rush achievement on her first kill, and my next turn was glorious.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 22:16 |
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Now we know why it took so long to get the video out. No punches to boosh to.
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# ? Mar 29, 2014 22:51 |
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Hopeford posted:Great, now I'm stuck with the mental image of a Thin Man Booshing as he is catapulted forward. Why would you ever be sorry for this?
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 00:50 |
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Added some extra Boosh! to the OP. E: Also art, brought to you by our next new recruit. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Mar 30, 2014 |
# ? Mar 30, 2014 01:12 |
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New mod idea: Rookies provoke reaction fire when opening doors. Call it "NostalgiaMod."
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 04:49 |
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Pvt.Scott posted:New mod idea: Rookies provoke reaction fire when opening doors. Call it "NostalgiaMod." Cue grenades and rockets beginning to be called "doorknockers".
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 04:55 |
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Please review this image from a simulation of rookies opening doors.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 05:30 |
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Pvt.Scott posted:New mod idea: Rookies provoke reaction fire when opening doors. Call it "NostalgiaMod." Newnew mod idea: Rookies are sent out with nothing but a stun rod and smoke grenades and are immediately shot at the moment the map begins.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 06:32 |
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LEGO Genetics posted:Newnew mod idea: Rookies are sent out with nothing but a stun rod and smoke grenades and are immediately shot at the moment the map begins. Hey now! That's a legitimate strategy. Also stop making me want to play Old X-Com drat it.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 06:40 |
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Why does that sound like something Big Boss would do?
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 10:18 |
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InfinityComplex posted:Why does that sound like something Big Boss would do? Because if you add balloons to the mix, he did do that.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 10:31 |
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ulmont posted:I beat Classic Ironman this way, so color me unconvinced. So, you ask the thread "when do you let colonels see the battlefield," I mention situations where I let Colonels see the battlefield, and your reply is essentially "no, you're wrong/I'm not convinced/anything you did, I did better?" do go on e: ok in fairness your preference for non-Colonels/non-wounded and 2 rookies is legit but the rest of your post is pointless bragging, so maybe stop batting .333 Psion fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Mar 30, 2014 |
# ? Mar 30, 2014 15:22 |
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I like to imagine a sectoid commander on the deck beneath Isis hitting the ceiling with a hyper-advanced sci-fi broom handle whenever she took a step.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 22:32 |
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Jade Star posted:In The Zone vs Double Tap Just wanted to share something that just happened to me the other day. Impossible, late game, terror mission. Annoying right there, right? It's one of the maps with a central block of buildings, so I head there from the drop point and find everyone's best friend, a Sectopod. Great. I start moving into position ("where's cover? poo poo!") to blow it apart. This triggers a spawn of floaters off to my left and - don't ask me how since I didn't get a revealed cutscene - a pack of Chryssalids fly in from the right. I go from a sectopod and two drones - whatever, obnoxious but possible one-turn kill - to three floaters, three Chryssalids, two drones, and a Sectopod. This is on like, turn 2 of the mission. They're on three sides of my wedge of guys, so I figure no matter what someone's getting owned and it's probably me. Except, ah yes. ITZ sniper with Archangel. ITZ sniper takes out both drones, two Chryssalids, two of the three floaters, then the rest of my squad focuses on the Sectopod. In doing, they blow apart the exact right wall to give my sniper an angle on the third Chryssalid. Down it goes, the Sectopod dies, and I put the sniper on overwatch to end the turn. Which nails the last lovely floater as it comes out of cover to shoot a civilian or something. DT is awesome, but when poo poo gets real and you're looking for that scene from Bad Boys 2, ITZ is ridiculous in how it can turn around some bad spawn luck into a map-clearing turn in no time. I was thinking "well time to restart this mission" until it went from that to a zero casualty stomp.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 22:51 |
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Psion posted:Just wanted to share something that just happened to me the other day. I think everyone has some story where an ITZ sniper has pulled their rear end from the fire. But the fact of the matter is that tends to be the exception rather than the rule, and on paper there are just more instances where DT can be useful. That being said I still always pick my first Col. sniper to get ITZ and use them for every mission where there is even a chance I might need rear end-saving.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 23:01 |
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SpecialK800 posted:I think everyone has some story where an ITZ sniper has pulled their rear end from the fire. But the fact of the matter is that tends to be the exception rather than the rule, and on paper there are just more instances where DT can be useful. That being said I still always pick my first Col. sniper to get ITZ and use them for every mission where there is even a chance I might need rear end-saving. Yeah, but those stories are half the fun I think the DT vs ITZ argument was a lot stronger in EU, but with EW giving you MECs and on-demand cover destruction, extra inventory slots for grenades, all that - you can easily force a tactical situation to be ITZ-perfect if you want, much moreso than in EU. I do think this calculus has changed in EW to slant towards ITZ even if you were pro-DT in EU. I certainly was, my first time through the game. After all even a two shot ITZ chain is better than DT; those aren't hard to get. Map-clearing, rifle-emptying alien killing sprees are much rarer, sure, but the cutoff on paper for ITZ to edge out DT is two shots. e: that said, I always have one of each.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 23:13 |
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Speaking of all these skills makes me wonder, what's everyone's wonder skill set for each class if you managed to get them via training roulette?
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 23:17 |
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For me, it was a Double Tapper that saved the day. I'd activated a group of 3 Commanders in a landed small scout, two of whom had taken cover deeper in the ship. I had my punchyMEC boosh a wall out to get some better lines of fire on them. Unfortunately, this revealed a Mechtoid, two Sectoids, and two Seekers. I thought I was entirely hosed until the Commander who hadn't left my sight mind-melded. As you may be aware, the Commander's mind meld affects all nearby Sectoid targets. So I headshot him. 9 damage. gently caress, he's still up! Wait, this sniper has Double Tap. Boom, he's down, the other Sectoids are down, the Mechtoid has no shield. Annette, lay some fire on that Mechtoid, punchyMEC, go boosh it. Other Assault, Run & Gun, go get the other Commander. Oh, look, there's the third Commander, running right into your Close Combat radius. Went from hosed to just overwatching for Seekers in one turn. fake e: InfinityComplex posted:Speaking of all these skills makes me wonder, what's everyone's wonder skill set for each class if you managed to get them via training roulette? Assaults with Sprinter instead of Flush, but everything else as they are. Anyone with both Field Medic and Savior . A Grenadier with Deep Pockets.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 23:36 |
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Oh, something that should probably be added to the ITZ plus pile. ITZ will proc once on a pistol. This makes it excellent for an operative, or even just saving a bit of ammo if you happen to be close enough to a low health alien out of cover.
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# ? Mar 30, 2014 23:48 |
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Dareon posted:Assaults with Sprinter instead of Flush, but everything else as they are. Anyone with both Field Medic and Savior . A Grenadier with Deep Pockets. oh yeah, sprinter assaults would be great. The ultimate medic could be something like Sprinter, Field Medic, Savior, Deep Pockets, and Lightning Reflexes: don't give a poo poo about anyone or anything, I have people to save this turn (halfway across the map). basically Sprinter on uh, every single class? Yeah. oh also Low Profile, so I can gene-mod mimetic skin on everyone and basically never be seen again. Psion fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Mar 31, 2014 |
# ? Mar 31, 2014 00:44 |
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InfinityComplex posted:Speaking of all these skills makes me wonder, what's everyone's wonder skill set for each class if you managed to get them via training roulette? For a Sniper (which only has two TR slots): HEAT Ammo and drat Good Ground (or Gunslinger, or Executioner, or Opportunist). But always HEAT Ammo.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 01:00 |
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About ITZ: If I have an archangel sniper flying around at the maximun height, does it mean every enemy is uncovered for the shot?
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 01:25 |
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Cover doesn't work that way, sadly. You cant flank by being higher than the enemy.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 01:35 |
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Vincent posted:About ITZ: If I have an archangel sniper flying around at the maximun height, does it mean every enemy is uncovered for the shot? No, and in fact Squadsight doesn't even properly handle what is flanked most of the time. Though I'm uncertain if that transfers over to ITZ (I always have someone else take the flank shot because I'm chicken), you end up with plenty of people just plain out of cover to get your ITZ kills. And as other people have mentioned, with EW you have a lot more opportunity to make your own not-cover with explosives and MECs. So you still get plenty of free murder from that setup.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 01:39 |
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The best ability on anything is Bulletswarm. Shoot first and shoot/reload/or move offers a level of damage and tactical flexibility no other skill can really achieve. It is telling that the only classes that get the skill in full have the lowest aim growth in the game. And that the two classes who get stripped down versions with cooldowns still consider it one of the better skills they get (Double Tap/Rapid Fire). Also it combines hilariously well with Close Quarters Combat and Rapid Fire if you just want to spit out four attacks per turn!
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 02:23 |
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Zore posted:The best ability on anything is Bulletswarm. ...sadly unavailable on a Sniper through Training Roulette (or so claims UFOPaedia).
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 02:41 |
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Vincent posted:About ITZ: If I have an archangel sniper flying around at the maximun height, does it mean every enemy is uncovered for the shot? The only shots that count are those where your target symbol is yellow or if the alien is a type that does not use cover at all, in which case they'll just be red but will always count for ITZ. It procs whenever the game designates a target as "Flanked" (In cover facing the wrong direction from your shot on the X and Y angles, Z never counts) or if the target is completely out of cover. You could be at the flying skybox and if a sectoid is crouched in half-cover that faces the square your character is flying above, it won't trigger ITZ. That's not to say flying ITZ snipers aren't the best things ever. If you have squadsight and a good flying position an ITZ sniper will basically see every enemy on the field and you can wipe out entire squads of Floaters, Chryssalids, Zombies, Seekers, Drones, or anyone whose cover has been blown away or is facing the wrong way relative to your sniper. It really helps to be able to wipe out drone escorts on mechanical enemies and still put a shot into them, or blow away an entire pack of floaters the moment they reveal. I always take ITZ over Double Tap, but both are legitimately great skills. I have a really great ITZ story but it involves the upcoming enemy type introduced in EW, so I can't quite talk about it beyond saying that one sniper cleared out the entire final portion of the map in one turn thanks to a fully loaded plasma rifle and mimetic skin. Fumbles fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Mar 31, 2014 |
# ? Mar 31, 2014 03:31 |
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Zore posted:The best ability on anything is Bulletswarm. Shoot first and shoot/reload/or move offers a level of damage and tactical flexibility no other skill can really achieve. Rapid fire's competitively good with bulletstorm even ignoring the class it comes attached to. No cooldown, aim penalty small enough that it almost always comes out to a net boost, and you can move before deploying it. Bulletstorm improves versatility, but rapid fire improves raw actions in a way very few skills do.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 03:33 |
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Fumbles posted:The only shots that count are those where your target symbol is yellow or if the alien is a type that does not use cover at all, in which case they'll just be red but will always count for ITZ. Addendum: Targets that are out of cover don't have yellow heads.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 04:13 |
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chiasaur11 posted:Rapid fire's competitively good with bulletstorm even ignoring the class it comes attached to. I find it hard to ignore someone who can run directly up into your face with a gun that fires thousands of tiny, razor sharp shards of a previously unknown super-alloy at extremely high speed. Seriously, they must've (should've) had an hour long back-patting session when they thought up the Alloy Cannon. That is metal as all hell. Literally. I'm just glad they thought to put helmets on anything with enough health to survive a crit from it, because I can't imagine unprotected flesh and bone standing up to that for even an instant. I bet all the scientists (except Vahlen, naturally) blanch the first time an Alloy Cannon'd regular muton is brought home.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 04:33 |
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Vahlen would just complain it wasn't a live capture.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 06:05 |
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Felinoid posted:I find it hard to ignore someone who can run directly up into your face with a gun that fires thousands of tiny, razor sharp shards of a previously unknown super-alloy at extremely high speed. I hear Liquid-Muton has many uses.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 06:08 |
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 11:45 |
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Travic posted:I hear Liquid-Muton has many uses. Protein shakes are delicious, I hear.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 06:14 |