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Blind Sally posted:
I'm sure he'll get along fine with Hugh Mann. Now there's a name you can trust!
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Feb 25, 2014 12:51
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"I, for one, look forward to fighting alongside such a brave and noble warrior, such as Chris Salid. There's something about his 'never-say-die' attitude that really resonates with me."
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Blind Sally posted:
This is great, i love it, can i use this as an forum avatar? I think i need to update my appliance. My dumb wordjoke is really getting a life on its own.
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Feb 25, 2014 13:11
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Tzarnal posted:To be honest I really want the ability to recruit/permanently mind control/hack certain enemies and take them with you on missions. I wouldn't mind have a cryssalid or a cyberdisk along every now and then. Have you tried the multiplayer? Mixing aliens and XCOM is one of its main features. 
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Feb 25, 2014 17:52
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Kasrkin posted:This is great, i love it, can i use this as an forum avatar? Use away!
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Feb 25, 2014 18:38
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Changing the topic a little because I can't see a time where this will neatly segue. Jade Star: Do you have any plans to up the difficulty to Impossible mid-LP? I feel like Classic has the most fun early game, like you and Guava said in the first video. You don't have to do that silly tactical-square Overwatch tiptoe bollocks. But lategame Impossible is still easy when you know what you're doing and have some Captain-plus troops; lategame Classic is basically a joke. So I normally start my games on Classic, then bump up to Impossible through the options menu once I hit some pre-planned tech level. As well as you play, I wonder if this might keep things a little fresher once you get to the "More mechtoids? Neat, free Meld" phase of things.
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Feb 25, 2014 18:46
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Blind Sally posted:Use away! Hope you don't mind me making a colored avatar-sized version then. 
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Feb 25, 2014 18:51
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SovietPotatoe posted:Hope you don't mind me making a colored avatar-sized version then. Not at all.
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Feb 25, 2014 18:55
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Sorites posted:Changing the topic a little because I can't see a time where this will neatly segue. No plans for this yet. The aim of the LP was to do a straight run through on classic and show the game like that to demonstrate how to survive and win on impossible. Given that I can produce an update in a day or two since they're rather small I've been considering a lot of extra content at after the current classic run is completed. Straight impossible run maybe, training roulette run most likely, etc.
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Feb 25, 2014 20:01
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Sorites posted:So I normally start my games on Classic, then bump up to Impossible through the options menu once I hit some pre-planned tech level. Holy poo poo. I can't understand why I didn't think to do this. I hate the early phase crap with naked squaddies eating poo poo from sectoids in Impossible, but I love the mid and late game 'oh crap, I may lose a guy on the regular' feeling. I've been making up the difference with damage roulette, but that almost evens out, considering that I occasionally one-shot berserkers and other nonsense. I can't believe I forgot you can do that both ways. When I was new at EU, I only ever used it to back down off of Classic or Impossible to an easier mode, never the other way around when I got bored.
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Feb 25, 2014 20:15
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True to my word. I now eternalized blind sally and sovietpotatoe's work, as my avatar. Credit where its due. (Until the day i piss someone off enough to change to something humiliating) Also, after all the talk about training roulette i gave it a try, its hilarious, literally all of my soldiers are walking tanks, half of them got resilience at one point, in various additions to low profile or will to survive (or all at once, in zhangs case) It almost makes up for my heavy getting revive as his second to last promotions. Is it just my luck, or tends training roulette even more to create a few supersoldiers and otherwise just tons of tons of cannonfodder than hidden potential?
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Feb 25, 2014 21:40
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Training Roulette really does let you create supersoldiers. Here's how it breaks down, in my opinion: Getting an otherwise-good soldier with bad perks is okay. That's just your face-shootin' soldier, everyone needs a grunt or two and only Supports are vulnerable to being totally ruined by useless perks My first Training Roulette run, my first six soldiers all got Overwatch perk combos. Sentinel plus Opportunist, Opportunist plus Covering Fire, Suppression plus Sentinel...it was bonkers. So for the first time ever I played a defense-heavy style, letting aliens run facefirst into six-or-more Overwatch bursts each. Even took Flush - Flush - on one of my heavies to let me use my super-Overwatch on Player Phase.
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Feb 25, 2014 22:54
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Zomborgon posted:I would guess that the civilians' deaths off-camera were only in EU, seeing as the teleporting enemy pods were removed for EW. Personally, that's my favorite mechanical change. I don't believe teleporting enemy pods were removed. They patched it so that "it is far less likely for enemies to teleport into the middle of your squad" but enemies still move off-screen by teleporting as far as I can tell. I've still had enemy squads pop up near my guys where there was no way to approach without being spotted a mile off. But it is far rarer than it used to be. As far as civilians dying off-camera, they can loving die for no reason ON camera. Once while playing the Tank terror mission that Guava mentioned in the video, there was a civilian on the Skyranger side of the initial wall. There were no aliens within his line of sight. There were no aliens on that side of the map. My entire squad was between him and the tanks/engagement zone. I decided to leave him there because he was safe, right? I didn't want to waste a soldier's whole turn just to go save him when he was already effectively safe. He keeled over dead with a soldier not 5 squares away, in full line of sight, on turn 2. I also don't mind the tank map all that much. The tanks can explode, yes, and it's burned me before, but there is enough other cover on that map that you can advance without exposing yourself too badly, even without the tanks. You just have to treat them like cars and pay attention. The terror maps I hate the most are the highway maps. There's the original from EU where it's a highway full of half-cover cars that connects to half an overpass on the right. There are 100% no flanking opportunities anywhere on that map, and no high cover at all until you've cleared the majority of it already. It's a single long path from start to finish. When Chryssalids decide to retreat and murder civilians, it's incredibly difficult to get close enough to them, quickly enough, to stop them from just swarming you with zombies. If it's the first terror mission of the game, you likely don't have the firepower to make any headway and it becomes a stalemate that ends with 18 dead civilians. The other highway terror map that I've seen came with EW, and it's similar; just a straight line with a bunch of cars and way too much space for chryssalids to work with and murder civilians to swarm you with zombies. They aren't the Cruise Ship™. But I dread them every single time.
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Feb 26, 2014 01:06
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I like the highway maps because they're long, narrow maps with no large objects blocking lines of sight. They're sniper heaven, and it's not like cover matters against chrysalids anyway.
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Feb 26, 2014 01:17
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Operation Falling Thorn Polsy Operation Sling Shot! This is the first mission of the first DLC pack Operation Sling Shot, the first DLC released for XCOM. It is a three mission arc with some really great set pieces, nice maps, and the third mission has a high degree of difficulty, mostly do to a long map with high enemy count. The first map introduces us to Zhang, a Chinese triad whom somehow came into possession of an important aline artifact. How he got his hands on it or what it even is, is never explained. Like Portent, the enemies encountered on this mission are scripted and can be planned for. Most of them are air dropped in based upon movement, while a couple are static spawns you will reveal like normal. The drop points on this map will differ depending on where you move, which is a change from Portent. There are paths that use high ground to the left and right of the main cemetery. Running through there will cause Thin Men to drop in different places. The main difficult of the mission is the same as Portent though, a fairly large number of Thin Men being air dropped on your troops with the potential to land in a flanking position combined with weapons powerful enough to one shot most of your troops. New Enemy Type! Mutons are back, and in a big way. They're bigger and meaner than ever. They start off with 10 HP and a natural +10 defense, making them tough to kill. Mutons sport Plasma Rifles, the bigger and more deadly brother to the Light Plasma Rifles we see Floaters and Thin Men carrying. If we're cautious of the LPRs killing a soldier in one hit, we can be sure a Muton will kill them in one hit for certain. Mutons also carry aliens grenades, dealing 5 damage to anything hit by it. The AI is usually very good on classic about grenading a player when multiple soldiers can be hit at a time. Lastly Mutons have a couple of abilities to use as well. Blood Call will buff all near by Mutons for a couple of turns, but is largely a forgettable skill. Mutons also have a reactive skill called Intimidate. When shoot at and hit, a Muton will let out a war cry in an attempt to intimidate the soldier that shot it. This forces a very low threshold willpower check, and is also largely a forgettable skill, but every now and then a low skilled solder or rookie might just panic because of it and throw a wrench into any of your plans. Rapid Fire vs. Flush Rapid fire is the clear winner. This is the most one sided choice in the game. Flush is so terrible that it hasn't even fooled people into thinking it might be good like Snap Shot has. Rapid Fire allows for two shots in one action, at a -15% aim penalty. The penalty to each shot isn't enough to discourage constant and continual use of Rapid Fire. Math proving that in the link below. All Flush does is force an enemy out of cover and take a short move into some other cover. They don't stand out in the open like you might hope. Its use is almost nonexistent, and what little value it has is so totally overshadowed by Rapid Fire that no one should ever consider flush for a moment. Rapid Fire + Big addition to the killing power of any assault. + Use it every turn. + Seriously, almost zero situations to not ever use it. Flush + Forces a enemy out of a particular piece of cover. - They then move to a different piece of cover. - Doesn't deal full damage. Rapid Fire. Always. End of discussion. But if you want some facts behind it, this blog post details the mathematics behind Rapid Fire and why you should be using it almost every single shot you get. Executioner vs. Opportunist Executioner is one of those skills that sounds nifty, but is just so overshadowed by the other choice to pick that no one should ever think of it. +10 Aim to half health units sounds great but when you count how specific it is, how many times are you going to be shooting at a less than half HP enemy with your sniper, that its perceived use falls away. Early game enemies go from full to dead in one good hit. While late game enemies offer some window of opportunity for it, it requires set up to see any use. Opportunist on the other hand is useful every single turn you don't actively shoot at an alien. It removes the aim penalty to over watch shots and allows over watch shots to score critical hits. It used to be better when you could crit through Squadsight, but it still offers way more value than Executioner. Executioner + Slight boost to securing kills on wounded targets. - Requires enemy to be under half HP. - Requires set up and/or remembering to leave wounded targets for the sniper. Opportunist + Big boost to effectiveness of sniper overwatch shots. + Even more valuable skill with the snipers overwatch 'feature'. - No use if not on overwatch. The answer is always Opportunist. It just does way more for the team than Executioner. +10 aim is nice, and I love my aim on snipers, but it's far to situational to bypass Opportunist and its effective +20 (or +40 on a dashing enemy) bonus. For me, any round a sniper isn't shooting at something then its on overwatch, and that means I get a lot of usage out of Opportunist. HEAT Ammo vs. Rapid Reaction HEAT Ammo gives a straight +50% damage to mechanized enemies, while Rapid Reaction allows a second overwatch shot for the heavy if the first shot is a hit. With heavies that is a big if. Heavies are the least accurate guys around to being with, plus the penalties to reaction fire on top of that means you usually wont get a lot out of Rapid Reaction. On the other side, mechanized enemies become more common later in the game and they have a lot of HP so anything to wear them down faster is a great help. HEAT Ammo + Extra damage is always good, especially on high HP targets that are also very dangerous. + Affects rockets as well. - Only good versus mechanized units. Rapid Reaction + Extra free shot on overwatch - Only activates if overwatch shot was a hit. - Heavies aren't your most accurate troops, added reaction fire penalties make activation chance of Rapid Reaction dubious. - Even if first shot is a hit then Rapid Reaction is still only useful if the target doesn't die from the hit. Or if a second alien offers an opportunity for a second shot. It just isn't a close call at all. HEAT Ammo is a 100% thing versus a fair good number of enemy units, and those units are usually the more dangerous ones with tons of HP. Rapid Reaction relies on heavies being useful on overwatch, and while nice in theory and it is in no way an equal value for HEAT Ammo. Rapid Reaction is sort of a poor mans version of Sentinel (Support skill), only it's worse because it is reliant on the first shot being a hit and heavies have the lowest base accuracy of the classes.
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Feb 26, 2014 02:53
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Jade Star posted:Rapid fire is the clear winner. This is the most one sided choice in the game. Flush is so terrible that it hasn't even fooled people into thinking it might be good like Snap Shot has. Jade Star posted:Executioner is one of those skills that sounds nifty, but is just so overshadowed by the other choice to pick that no one should ever think of it.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:12
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Sure, but that's just taking the least lovely option of two lovely options. It doesn't make either good.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:19
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On lower difficulties you do still get a Chrysalid there, I think you don't get a Muton until Classic.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:32
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Jade Star posted:Sure, but that's just taking the least lovely option of two lovely options. It doesn't make either good. I actually like Flush against certain lategame enemies, because I find that I can't hit the damned things without the +30% aim bonus.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:35
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Rapid Reaction is actually great on Squadsight Snipers. Even better later with In The Zone. Clean up all the visible aliens, then go into overwatch and kill two more on the enemy turn. There are better abilities, of course--I'd love to see Bullet Swarm or Rapid Fire on a Squadsight Sniper--but generally speaking you won't feel cheated if Rapid Reaction is one of your level up choices for them. I don't think I can ever play without Training Roulette again. It adds a lot of freshness to the game.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:39
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Feinne posted:On lower difficulties you do still get a Chrysalid there, I think you don't get a Muton until Classic. I've read that it's only supposed to be a muton impossible, but I thinks it's one of the things they changed with EW. ulmont posted:I actually like Flush against certain lategame enemies, because I find that I can't hit the damned things without the +30% aim bonus. Use rockets. 
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Feb 26, 2014 03:41
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ulmont posted:You really need to do some Training Roulette runs at the end of this, because you'll find yourself using things like Flush and Executioner. When they are up against items more like Revive (with one medikit use) and Holo-Targeting, you might take them a bit more. I really wish Training Roulette was a bit less super-random. Revive is okay with some of the other options. Unlike Flush. If Flush just made them step out of cover instead of run to new cover it might be something choicelike. Or you can get flush on a heavy so they actually hit things occasionally 
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Feb 26, 2014 03:45
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Ah, Slingshot, the "easy" way to have all the resources you'll ever require... Have a good time with mission two, that's a... FUN... one. Ugh. Current events: The obvious nickname for Kartal is "Druggie" or something, then have her showcase the under-loved stimpack. Mutons are either difficult hilarious to deal with in the early game; nothing beats having a Rookie get a promotion from a panic-shot that finishes off an intimidating Muton. As for skills, the main use I've ever gotten out of Flush is for when I want to keep a low-rank Assault of of trouble by using the aim bonus to help finish off low-health enemies. I occasionally also can scare off enemies that would otherwise get a better firing angle or into melee range. Still, there's no contest with double damage by the endgame. Also, I need to quit using RR and Executioner, I'd never really looked at the math close enough to realize the idiocy of using them. Really, using the accuracy-needing skill on the Heavy is stupid, while Snipers shouldn't need another aim bonus by that point.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:45
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On the mission, the drops are triggered by any movement forward. You can test this if you cheat a guy with ghost armor, cloak him, and sprint to the end. You'll get every single drop even with everyone else in spawn still.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:55
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I'm pretty sure he was a member of the Triads, by the way. I think it's mentioned like once or twice in only writing.
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Feb 26, 2014 04:00
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Zhang might have pretty poor aim, but he's got pretty high will, and is more often than not a psychic. He was very reliable before Enemy Within, which has its own deal with psychics. Zhang usually ends up in my go-to group of 6 Colonels by the end of the game, and almost always ends up with tons of grenades and rockets, so it's not like he even needs to aim all that much.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:00
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ulmont posted:You really need to do some Training Roulette runs at the end of this, because you'll find yourself using things like Flush and Executioner. When they are up against items more like Revive (with one medikit use) and Holo-Targeting, you might take them a bit more. I had a situation with TR where I could choose between Flush and some other skill and I chose Flush on my support. She flushed an alien backwards out of line of sight, into another pack of aliens I didn't know was there, and triggered when I moved in for the kill. gently caress Flush.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:12
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For flush, I actually ran my assaults with rifles and had them buddy up with the rest of my squad. Long range fire to run them out, lots of overwatch... of course I played the game incredibly safe.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:41
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I usually run one of my two assaults with a rifle, too. Shotguns are great but there are some times when you don't want to be right up in something's face, and then sometimes your assault just isn't in range to hit anything with the shotty and run&gun is down.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:48
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Nickname for Hilda should be "Brand"
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Feb 26, 2014 07:04
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Flush has one use. One, single use. You didn't state in your rundown that Flush has a bonus to accuracy. If you have an enemy that has 1 or 2 HP Flush is great for cherry-tapping them over death's door. Or just, you know, use Rapid Fire and shoot twice because gently caress ammo conservation. Flush is terrible and should only be considered if it comes up against something like Covering Fire on Training Roulette.
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Feb 26, 2014 07:27
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Just for the record, I did check the XCOM wiki (I don't have the DLC myself), and the identity of Shang's widget is revealed for the second mission in the DLC. Also, while I'm thinking of DLC: Jade Star, GuavaMoment, what are your opinions on the various bits of DLC (including Enemy Within)? Maybe offer a +/- breakdown like you have been for skill choices?
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Feb 26, 2014 07:59
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Before Enemy Within there was no Portent. Slingshot used to come near the end of the first month so a Muton drop would just be stupid hard. The Chrysalid that dropped was still an rear end in a top hat. Playing that mission with a 4 man squad with base everything and maybe a couple of guys with a few promotions made for a few casualties every time.
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Feb 26, 2014 08:13
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Alkydere posted:Flush has one use. One, single use. You didn't state in your rundown that Flush has a bonus to accuracy. If you have an enemy that has 1 or 2 HP Flush is great for cherry-tapping them over death's door. In enemy within, I would say covering fire is a MUCH better option than flush, simply because you overwatch BEFORE the enemy shoots, which means you can kill it before it gets the shot off. It's normally only a non-choice because it's up against sprinter, but if the choice is flush or covering fire, I would take covering fire any day.
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Feb 26, 2014 08:29
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FredMSloniker posted:Also, while I'm thinking of DLC: Jade Star, GuavaMoment, what are your opinions on the various bits of DLC (including Enemy Within)? Maybe offer a +/- breakdown like you have been for skill choices? I'll try to be vague for stuff we haven't done yet Elite Soldier Pack (preorder bonus): + New outfits, guile hair - 5 bucks. Geez. Maybe worth it on a steam sale depending on your taste. Slingshot: + more hats + kinda interesting the first time - like any pre-made mission, gets old fast on replays +/- winds up giving a lot of loot at the end. You need to earn it though. Enemy Within: + A lot more gameplay options. + Seriously, a LOT of gameplay additions. We're talking "Civilization expansion" scope here. - getting one of the old maps really feels its age once you play a new one, particularly the no-cover forests. - Portent (comes with this though it was originally gonna be a Slingshot-style DLC) missions aren't as fun as Slingshot.
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Feb 26, 2014 08:33
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Bruceski posted:I'll try to be vague for stuff we haven't done yet You forgot to mention that EW comes with even more hats to play with. There was a huge rant on Slingshot over Portent here but I felt it really wasn't needed. In short, Slingshot added some interesting new missions that were actually pretty well executed mission wise and fairly fun. Though the story was groan-worthy and the rewards edged a bit close to "pay to win" territory. Portent, in comparison, has a story that makes a bit more sense but two really hard missions that suffer from a bad case of "predictable enemy spawn"-itus that are also massive walls of difficulty, followed by a pathetically easy and forgettable final mission. I suspect Portent's mission design suffered compared to Slingshot because they wanted to include it but after Slingshot players made it very clear that they wanted actual new mechanics instead of having plot for random characters forced into their faces in a game that is all about writing your own story out of the brutal RNG. Therefore Firaxis made sure what they had wasn't buggy and threw it in the pile of content and didn't give it the love they gave Slingshot's level design before they went to work on giving the fans the actual shiny toys they wanted. And boy did they deliver on shiny toys.
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Feb 26, 2014 09:23
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Brainamp posted:I've read that it's only supposed to be a muton impossible, but I thinks it's one of the things they changed with EW. I have never been anywhere near anything higher then normal, (I like to keep all my soldiers alive and until shortly before EW came out, I was pretty bad at the game) but I am fairly certain that I have allways come back from that mission with a muton corpse.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:41
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On the topic of how long it's taking you to research beam weapons, I've been hearing some people are having success with skipping Beam Weapons entirely and going straight to the next tier. Would you recommend this, or is the damage upgrade too good to pass up early on?
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Feb 26, 2014 12:20
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Fumbles posted:On the topic of how long it's taking you to research beam weapons, I've been hearing some people are having success with skipping Beam Weapons entirely and going straight to the next tier. Would you recommend this, or is the damage upgrade too good to pass up early on? That can work if you have a lucky early capture of certain aliens, and if you've got the scientists to make research go faster. As it is right now, if Jade devotes his time researching tier 3 weapons (I don't even know if he has the option unlocked yet) it could take him an entire month. That's a month where he's not getting any other improvements to his soldiers. Lasers are a pretty good bump in damage, so you can work with those for a while, and Jade isn't hurting for cash now that his major initial base building spree is done so he'll be able to outfit everyone due to his large engineer discount. tl;dr: Sometimes you can skip laser weapons.
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Feb 26, 2014 12:59
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That muton is one of the undervalued rewards of Slingshot. You can have really early plasma weapons if you capture and interrogate him, then study his gun.
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Feb 26, 2014 14:04
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:29 |
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Fumbles posted:On the topic of how long it's taking you to research beam weapons, I've been hearing some people are having success with skipping Beam Weapons entirely and going straight to the next tier. Would you recommend this, or is the damage upgrade too good to pass up early on? It's not really worth it to go straight to plasma over lasers, since doing so pulls out the bigger aliens sooner.
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Feb 26, 2014 14:08
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