The Commander's Field Manual to the XCOM 2 Resistance

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Emissary666: Sep 6, 2010

I was able to play Enemy Unknown on Normal, but Enemy Within and X-Com 2 have both had me playing on Rookie. For some reason, I became so unforgiving towards myself that I am no longer able to tolerate making the slightest mistake in X-Com, to the point of save scumming on Rookie. It is incredibly embarrassing and I am not proud of it, but, on the bright side, each time I gently caress up or reload a save, I'm learning from my mistakes. I will also admit to save scumming a lamp post because the Specialist hacking it had already gotten two Enemy Protocols and I really wanted a third just for the complete overkill of it.

# ? Oct 23, 2016 15:04

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 10:09

Canuck-Errant: Oct 28, 2003; MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS; Grimey Drawer

I was right about The Queen, by the way. :smuggo:

# ? Oct 24, 2016 20:28

Highwang: Nov 7, 2013; No Pineapple?
No Thank You!

edit: removing since jade apparently didn't post yet. Hmm.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 21:01

Halser: Aug 24, 2016

Bruceski posted:

There are a lot of little changes which make the early game more challenging. For example going from Veteran to Commander gives ADVENT troopers 4 health, putting them out of grenade range. In general:

Rookie: Pretty easy. Not to say you can't have fun here, but this is the level for if you want to do purposefully stupid things and get away with it.
Veteran: Normal. Can be pretty challenging for some, but in general the skill level is more "don't play stupid" than "play smart." (though if you're just learning the game everything's gonna ratchet up a notch because you haven't learned how to tell what moves would qualify as "playing stupid") Recovering from a big blunder can be frustrating, but doable.
Commander: Hard difficulty, this one's for people who have a feel for the game and still want a challenge. As Jade has shown if you have a good sense of when to be conservative and when to take risks you can get through pretty solidly, but when stuff starts going wrong it can really snowball, particularly if you fall behind on tech. This is where I'd say it's possible to get the game into an unwinnable state if enough things go wrong that you need to recover from.
Legend: If you like your games hard, this is the setting for you, but don't be surprised when the game doesn't cut you any slack. And don't go looking down on folks who won't go higher than Commander, either, you chose this pain.

the main issue is that all difficulties frontline the curve towards the first few missions and pretty much balance out(freak accidents aside) later on.

Starting the game on Legend is a goddamn nightmare, but later on it`s about the same as Commander, with the exception you have to grind longer for cash.

Unless you end up triggering two sectopods and six other assorted aliens at once because your Ranger just touched that one LoS Tile of Doom, you should be fine when you get a few upgrades.

I remember ragequitting on one of the last few missions because my ranger spotted three enemies, and on the way to provide backup my heavy spotted another three others, even though I made sure he didn't go a single step further. Guaranteed death right there.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 21:49

Grizzwold: Jan 27, 2012; Posters off the pork bow!

HOOLY BOOLY posted:

Does the game still cheat behind the scenes on rolls like it did the first game? Like if you're missing shots and getting shot yourself the game will purposfully make your next shot hit or the next enemy shot a miss?

Yep! On every difficulty below legend, the game gives you an invisible bonus to hit for repeated missed shots and dead soldiers. The opposite happens for the enemy, so if you start taking hits or losing people they get penalties. Here's the relevant bits from the config files.

code:

 ; Aim Assist
NormalSquadSize=4
ReasonableShotMinimumToEnableAimAssist=50
MaxAimAssistScore=95

; Rookie
AimAssistDifficulties[0]=( \\
	BaseXComHitChanceModifier=1.2, \\
	MissStreakChanceAdjustment=10, \\
	HitStreakChanceAdjustment=-10, \\
	SoldiersLostXComHitChanceAdjustment=15, \\
	SoldiersLostAlienHitChanceAdjustment=-10 )

; Veteran
AimAssistDifficulties[1]=( \\
	BaseXComHitChanceModifier=1.1, \\
	MissStreakChanceAdjustment=10, \\
	HitStreakChanceAdjustment=0, \\
	SoldiersLostXComHitChanceAdjustment=10, \\
	SoldiersLostAlienHitChanceAdjustment=-10 )

; Commander
AimAssistDifficulties[2]=( \\
	BaseXComHitChanceModifier=1.0, \\
	MissStreakChanceAdjustment=15, \\
	HitStreakChanceAdjustment=0, \\
	SoldiersLostXComHitChanceAdjustment=0, \\
	SoldiersLostAlienHitChanceAdjustment=0 )

; Legend
AimAssistDifficulties[3]=( \\
	BaseXComHitChanceModifier=1.0, \\
	MissStreakChanceAdjustment=0, \\
	HitStreakChanceAdjustment=0, \\
	SoldiersLostXComHitChanceAdjustment=0, \\
	SoldiersLostAlienHitChanceAdjustment=0 )

No, I'm not sure why the game does it for Commander too.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 22:24

Zomborgon: Feb 19, 2014; I don't even want to see what happens if you gain CHIM outside of a pre-coded system.

I never noticed until now that your soldiers have working flashlights on their guns during night missions. Nice detail!

# ? Oct 24, 2016 22:45

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

There was a good promo screenshot going around before the game's release that showed a sectoid recoiling from a soldier's flashlight before getting shot, but I dunno if that behavior is actually in the game.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 22:51

TheDarkFlame: May 4, 2013; You tell me I didn't build that?

I'll have you know I worked my fingers to the bone to get where I am today.

They definitely recoil sometimes when you go to jam a gun in their face, but I don't think it happens all the time and I don't think it's related to the light. Your people can react to shots in a tile next to them in the same way.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 22:54

Lunethex: Feb 4, 2013; Me llamo Sarah Brandolino, the eighth Castilian of this magnificent marriage.

It's just a happy accident.

# ? Oct 24, 2016 23:51

Zomborgon: Feb 19, 2014; I don't even want to see what happens if you gain CHIM outside of a pre-coded system.

It is indeed just coincidence, but I'll always enjoy these moments:

https://gfycat.com/RipeFlippantAsiantrumpetfish

e: Oh yeah, right, if you haven't actually played XCOM 2 at this point and are worried about spoiling a single enemy (even that's just its name and appearance), or you somehow haven't figured out what the last weapon and armor tiers are going to be, don't click on that.

Zomborgon fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Oct 25, 2016

# ? Oct 24, 2016 23:55

The Door Frame: Dec 5, 2011; I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.

Zomborgon posted:

It is indeed just coincidence, but I'll always enjoy these moments:

https://gfycat.com/RipeFlippantAsiantrumpetfish

Spoilers!

I love the utility of the SPARKs, especially how they are guaranteed to be used on any mission even if injured, but their gear is so loving expensive for just a single unit in your team. That combined with their initial production cost makes them less attractive than a blast padded Grenadier in experimental armor and the good experimental vest Jade wanted.

Also, you need some proving grounds stuff to get moving Jade; dragon rounds, life vests, and shredder blasts won't invent themselves. And barring a time investment, they're virtually free. _{As long as you don't go crazy with the Elerium and accidentally lock yourself out of top tier armors for a mission or two}

# ? Oct 25, 2016 00:42

Jade Star: Jul 15, 2002; It burns when I LP

Operation Naked Serpent

Totally a normal retaliation mission here, with only the introduction of Muton Berserkers to add any flavor to the fight. Berserkers work almost exactly the way they did in the first game. They carry no weapons and are only capable of melee attacks. The most noticeable difference is that when they are shot the new berserkers will roar and stay in place, rather than taking a half move towards the soldier that shot them like in the first game. This eliminates berserker ping-pong and makes them slightly harder to kill. Instead of taking a small move when they are injured the new berserkers roar and gain a buff that increases their movement range. It may work out to be effectively the same thing, but with out being able to draw the berserker around the map to set them up for easier shots by your squad. They still have a large amount of health to work though, but thankfully no armor so dealing with them usually isn't too bad if you can get multiple soldiers to fire on them in one turn. Berserkers are kind of like Stun Lancers in that you want them dead first. Letting them run into your group of solders and having them start pounding on your men is always going to very quickly go very bad.

I made use of scanning protocol this mission to! Yay me, Guava was proud. Honestly I was a little underwhelmed, only scanning something like 4 civilians with it. It did detect a faceless and let me kill it before it could even do anything, so that was kind of neat, but I was hoping for more. Like detecting the last alien pod that was only a little farther away into the shroud.

And nothing else interesting happened.

Oh right the Queen Berserker!

The second Alien Ruler to show up is a Queen muton berserker. Even bigger than all the other mutons and packing two giant pneumatic press plates or something strapped to her arms with Bane like tubes connected to tanks on her back the Queen can be really frightening. With 90 health and 3 armor the Queen will not go down easily. The Queen's attacks are more or less what you'd expect with a berserker, all melee and even an action to roar and make panic checks on all of your soldiers in a certain range. I'm not sure what that range is exactly, but it seems like it's if a soldier is in visual range of the Queen they are affected. The Queens direct attack can deal a lot of damage to a single soldier while the area of effect ground pound attack the queen has can do minimal damage to everyone in an area around the Queen. The worst part about the area of effect attack isn't the damage, it's that it can inflict status effects such as stun, disorientate, and even knocking a soldier unconscious. Getting unlucky with a ground pound can mean half of your team suffering from some sort of negative status and then letting the fight snowball against you. One quirk of the Queen is that it seems like she doesn't want to melee the same target twice in a row. This doesn't mean the ground pound and then a direct attack, but the Queen will at least not repeatedly melee smash the same soldier. I feel Jake put this in for game balance for other wise with the rule reaction mechanic it's easy to see a situation where the Queen gets next to a soldier that has used it's actions up and then punched over and over every time the Queen takes a reaction turn.

A fair number of people have a lot of trouble dealing with the Queen, and it's a fair problem. The Queen as too much HP to be dealt with very quickly so she will more than likely get into melee with you and start causing serious problems. More than before with the Snake King it's important to manage your action economy when fighting the Queen. A soldier with out line of site to the Queen is almost useless. Having to spend an action to move and then another action to shoot gives the Queen two turns. Forget that and look for options to deal damage in only one action. Be aware of your free actions especially against rules. Lightning Hands wont do much to a ruler, but it's a free action. Throwing the alien hunters axe will do good damage and is a free turn. The spider suits grappling hook counts as a free action and might be able to get you away from the Queen pounding your face in. Be aware of your actions, keep soldiers away from her with dashes when possible and ultimately one the best things to do is simply frost bomb the Queen somewhere you have lots of good lines of fire on and unload your biggest attacks on her while she's frozen.

Lastly, and I'm uncertain what causes this, but if you encounter the Queen with regular enemies around sometimes the Queen can go berserk and start attacking ADVENT units. I've only seen this once or twice, but then I've only run into the Queen with other regular enemies a small number of times. If I have to guess, I'd say dealing a fair portion of damage to her will enrage her and make her attack the nearest soldier, be it XCom or ADVENT. Super useful if you can get that to work out for you, but it's not something I could advise you on how to trigger.

Jade Star fucked around with this message at 10:53 on Oct 25, 2016

# ? Oct 25, 2016 01:59

Jade Star: Jul 15, 2002; It burns when I LP

Oh and as a note about this video and possibly future ones; I started the upload on this video and then passed out for sleep so it finished processing and was up on youtube hours before I woke up. That may happen again in the future and I appreciate some of you guys posting self control and not discussing it before it goes up in the thread.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 02:03

Green Intern: Dec 29, 2008; Loon, Crazy and Laughable

So the first time I encountered the Berserker Queen, she ran into my squad, stunned a separate soldier on each reaction turn, then jumped up to the sniper perch I had on a roof and collapsed it with a ground pound attack, killing one soldier outright and stunning the other.

She never attacked ADVENT a single goddamn time.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 02:11

The Door Frame: Dec 5, 2011; I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.

Jade Star posted:

...I appreciate some of you guys posting self control and not discussing it before it goes up in the thread.

Oops, figured since it was made public on your channel, it was fair game. Good to know

As far as Scanning Protocol is concerned, I don't know its actual range, but I've triggered Faceless on the other end of the map and had them run into the middle of a firefight a turn or two turn later. It's pretty funny to have guys on overwatch, trying to creep up on an enemy flank, and then have a Faceless sprint out of the fog of war into a wall concentrated fire. Even funnier when I've spent all of my moves and they come barreling towards my Ranger out of the fog, only to menacingly point at my squad and eat a free sword crit

# ? Oct 25, 2016 02:29

ousire: Dec 11, 2013; Now, Red! Seal the deal with a catchy one-liner!

A question about rulers since you mentioned acid grenades on them: If you give them some sort of debuff, will it persist through all appearances? So if you got acid or fire on the queen, would she still be taking damage every turn the next time you see her? And will she still be holotargeted?

Edit: And speaking of ways to reveal faceless, I have to say, thank you guys for convincing me to try battle scanners. I became quite addicted to them in my campaign and ended up equipping at least one to every mission, sometimes even two if I had an extra utility slot to fill or I expected particularly nasty enemies I wanted to keep an eye out for.

ousire fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Oct 25, 2016

# ? Oct 25, 2016 02:49

Green Intern: Dec 29, 2008; Loon, Crazy and Laughable

ousire posted:

A question about rulers since you mentioned acid grenades on them: If you give them some sort of debuff, will it persist through all appearances? So if you got acid or fire on the queen, would she still be taking damage every turn the next time you see her? And will she still be holotargeted?

No, all status effects are cleared when the ruler leaves the mission.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 02:50

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Try using an acid grenade on the berserker queen as it has a chance on glitching it and making the queen just stand still and take the damage.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:08

Lunethex: Feb 4, 2013; Me llamo Sarah Brandolino, the eighth Castilian of this magnificent marriage.

Everything bad that happened on that mission is Talow's fault.

Talow you suck.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:17

NuminaXLT: Nov 11, 2002

Lunethex posted:

Everything bad that happened on that mission is Talow's fault.

Talow you suck.

Bad things happening due to one squadmate? Sounds like we found our "Hitler"

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:21

Brainamp: Sep 4, 2011; More Zen than Zenyatta

Hunt11 posted:

Try using an acid grenade on the berserker queen as it has a chance on glitching it and making the queen just stand still and take the damage.

Also has a chance of soft-locking the game as the queen refuses to take an action.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:27

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Lunethex posted:

Everything bad that happened on that mission is Talow's fault.

Talow you suck.

I say it was Vahlen's fault. Cloning a super-berserker is one thing, but why did she have to give it all that equipment?

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:27

Ceebees: Nov 2, 2011; I'm intentionally being as verbose as possible in negotiations for my own amusement.

So, so far we've had Snake King and Berserker Queen. I'm gonna place my bets on number three being either the Jack of Chrysalids, or the Sectopod Prince.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:40

LEGO Genetics: Oct 8, 2013; She growls as she storms the stadium
A villain mean and rough
And the cops all shake and quiver and quake
as she stabs them with her cuffs

Cythereal posted:

I say it was Vahlen's fault. Cloning a super-berserker is one thing, but why did she have to give it all that equipment?

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:41

InwardChaos: Oct 21, 2010; Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos.

I had a glitch the first time I fought the Berserker Queen.
She appeared in a VIP capture mission, accompanied by two Mutons. In the reveal animation, when she roars at you, she swings her fists to her sides. This, for some reason, hit the two Mutons accompanying her, stunning them both. The Mutons then proceeded to do nothing for the remainder of the map.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:44

chiasaur11: Oct 22, 2012

Ceebees posted:

So, so far we've had Snake King and Berserker Queen. I'm gonna place my bets on number three being either the Jack of Chrysalids, or the Sectopod Prince.

The ace of face(less).

# ? Oct 25, 2016 03:50

Spudd: Nov 27, 2007; Protect children from "Safe Schools" social engineering. Shame!

Man I upgrade PCS's as fast as possible, they're so good.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 04:14

Chuu: Sep 11, 2004; Grimey Drawer

My first experience with the berseker king was triggering it with an overwatch trap on a mission with no timer, getting it down around 20 health due to an ungodly luckly string of crits, watching it enrage and go after a Berserker patrol, and dying quickly to snipers on my turn. Was fairly anticlimactic.

Karma came down hard when I found the third ruler.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 04:25

seaborgium: Aug 1, 2002; "Nothing a shitload of bleach won't fix"

Pretty sure the shaky cam is intended when berserkers appear and are wounded. I think it denotes that they're enraged, but it only happens to me when I shoot a berserker.

Also, gently caress the berserker king.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 04:47

thetoughestbean: Apr 27, 2013; Keep On Shroomin

What was the song Jade put in during the the pre-mission? Just asking 'cause I liked it and would like to listen to more of it.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 05:11

Ashsaber: Oct 24, 2010; Deploying Swordbreakers!; College Slice

thetoughestbean posted:

What was the song Jade put in during the the pre-mission? Just asking 'cause I liked it and would like to listen to more of it.

The home we once knew, from the Bionic Dues Soundtrack, IIRC. Its a good game, and most of the music is catchy. Thankfully (?) that one doesn't play anywhere but the main menu.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 05:41

Veloxyll: May 3, 2011; Fuck you say?!

Hunt11 posted:

Try using an acid grenade on the berserker queen as it has a chance on glitching it and making the queen just stand still and take the damage.

They fixed that bug. Which did hit Jade.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 06:43

EponymousMrYar: Jan 4, 2015; The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

Good Wilhelm and digital Wilhelm scream Jade :golfclap:

# ? Oct 25, 2016 08:47

Materant: Jul 22, 2010; see, what you don't understand is he now has

THE MANLIEST MUSTACHE

_{_{_{_{it defies physics}}}}

Jade Star posted:

Lastly, and I'm uncertain what causes this, but if you encounter the Queen with regular enemies around sometimes the Queen can go berserk and start attacking ADVENT units. I've only seen this once or twice, but then I've only run into the Queen with other regular enemies a small number of times. If I have to guess, I'd say dealing a fair portion of damage to her will enrage her and make her attack the nearest soldier, be it XCom or ADVENT. Super useful if you can get that to work out for you, but it's not something I could advice you on how to trigger.

This mechanic can get kinda... weird sometimes, though.

Jade finds the weirdest bugs. (spoilers, view at your own risk)

# ? Oct 25, 2016 10:14

Green Intern: Dec 29, 2008; Loon, Crazy and Laughable

seaborgium posted:

Pretty sure the shaky cam is intended when berserkers appear and are wounded. I think it denotes that they're enraged, but it only happens to me when I shoot a berserker.

Also, gently caress the berserker king.

The shaky cam is only supposed to activate when the berserker enrages, not persist onto the rest of your turn. Shooting the berserker again stops the effect.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 12:13