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Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



Panzeh posted:

Just finished a run of x-com '94. gently caress psionics, especially etherials. Blaster bombs are annoying, too, but really, gently caress psionics.

I hated that they could go up lifts with zero issues, until I realized that:

Commanders are typically the ones carrying blaster bombs
They tend to hang in the command center of the base
2 blaster bombs shot at walls on opposite sides of the command center solves the problem of their commanders and command center existing on this (or any) plane.

This also goes for the VL UFOs and their officer suite (towards the bottom left of the craft, 3rd floor), but having your high-reaction people watching the lift solves that problem fairly well too.

:getin:

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binge crotching
Apr 2, 2010

Hunter Noventa posted:

Don't use the enforced Ironman mode. The game still has enough instability that you might have a crash ruin your save, so you're better off doing a self-imposed one.

I'm going to disagree a little here. Yes, the game is buggy and occasionally you'll get mod combinations that lead to permanent crashes, but ironman makes the game easier to deal with. You don't need to worry about saving the game when you quit, you don't end up with hundreds of saves cluttering things up, and usually the occasional crash isn't a fatal save-ruining crash.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.
But sometimes it is and that's bad.

Speaking as someone who's ironman run was ended by a save-killing bug.

The Cheshire Cat
Jun 10, 2008

Fun Shoe
Yeah I had ironman straight up eat an end-game save in XCOM2 after a crash. Like the game crashed in one of the end missions and when I booted it back up my save was just gone.

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??
HonestMan is the best way to play IMO. I was playing the final mission of XCOM 2 while super drunk, and accidentally bumped my desk causing me to hit the end turn button instead of taking the game winning shot. :frogdunce: A case could be made for "dont be a dumbass and hit the end turn button" but in my defense like 40% of the front of the PS4 is the end turn button.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

But honestman doesn't give me an achievement to satisfy my monkey brain :v: Could Steam Cloud serve as a backup? Like I could pull out my ethernet cable as soon as I crash...? I read online people suggesting to keep a backup save at the start of each month as well, I guess I could do that even if that kinda goes against the spirit of things a little bit.

Anyway after a few restarts I got through the first few missions, got my first casualty at Lost and Abandoned already. Though at least it was a rookie, that I did try to use as a bait. Not sure how to fully avoid that from happening. Hope you get lucky and the Reaper spots the Assassin?

binge crotching
Apr 2, 2010

blizzardvizard posted:

Hope you get lucky and the Reaper spots the Assassin?

Sprint your reaper down to the bottom asap, and then on the second turn do a blue move toward the alien canister thing. You are basically guaranteed to reveal the Assassin that way.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

binge crotching posted:

Sprint your reaper down to the bottom asap, and then on the second turn do a blue move toward the alien canister thing. You are basically guaranteed to reveal the Assassin that way.

Ah okay. I did drop the Reaper down to that front area but I was scouting the left and right area instead :v:

wuffles
Apr 10, 2004

blizzardvizard posted:

Ah okay. I did drop the Reaper down to that front area but I was scouting the left and right area instead :v:

as a general rule with the assassin, you want to move toward her. She’ll double-move toward your squad as soon as she shows up—try to anticipate where she’ll end each turn from where she starts. If you reveal her on your turn, the encounter will be much easier.

Keeping the reaper out front will help reveal her when she runs past.

Infinite Karma
Oct 23, 2004
Good as dead





wuffles posted:

as a general rule with the assassin, you want to move toward her. She’ll double-move toward your squad as soon as she shows up—try to anticipate where she’ll end each turn from where she starts. If you reveal her on your turn, the encounter will be much easier.

Keeping the reaper out front will help reveal her when she runs past.
I just rushed finding the Assassin's hidden base and permurdering her because she's so hard to deal with, and the Chosen appear on so many missions.

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

Clarste posted:

But sometimes it is and that's bad.

Speaking as someone who's ironman run was ended by a save-killing bug.

I had a Templar get shot so hard he took the game and the save with him into the grave.

Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



marshmallow creep posted:

I had a Templar get shot so hard he took the game and the save with him into the grave.

I feel bad for your save, but the idea of a Templar getting so brutally murdered by aliens that all of XCOM said “NOPE, WE’RE DONE HERE, THAT’S BULLSHIT” is giving me a good chuckle.

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??
Had a long war UFO staffed entirely by 10 seekers and a single thin man, who got lit the gently caress up by an LMG on overwatch during his reveal scamper. I also managed to pull a glorious entry on the UFO where the Outsider got flashed, suppressed, then lit the gently caress up when he tried to run. Feeling a bit better about failing that one mission where two thin men dropped and overwatched every turn while I tried to extract a scientist :v:

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"

Icon Of Sin posted:

I hated that they could go up lifts with zero issues, until I realized that:

Commanders are typically the ones carrying blaster bombs
They tend to hang in the command center of the base
2 blaster bombs shot at walls on opposite sides of the command center solves the problem of their commanders and command center existing on this (or any) plane.

This also goes for the VL UFOs and their officer suite (towards the bottom left of the craft, 3rd floor), but having your high-reaction people watching the lift solves that problem fairly well too.

:getin:

Yeah my main problem is that the engineers would shoot their blaster bombs in the elerium storage bays of bases because part of the calculation where the AI will decide to use an explosive is a check for how many units they'll get in the blast and they include themselves. Oof.

The funny thing is how you can just one-arm the blaster launcher and have a heavy plasma in the other hand with no penalty. That's fun. Even rookies can use the blaster launcher(just make sure they drop it at the end of the turn)

I'm doing mods now and some of them are kinda nuts. Getting huge points and an important tech gate by cleaning out a mansion full of nazis. xpiratez has some dumb aspects and is fairly NSFW but it is also sometimes very satisfying

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

So uh, I'm in April and the Hunt XCOM Dark Event just went through. How screwed am I?

dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?
I was curious and mario+Rabbids was cheap

I actually like their version of xcom lite. It won't be something I play again and again but the dashing and jumping mechanics are cool

reignofevil
Nov 7, 2008

blizzardvizard posted:

So uh, I'm in April and the Hunt XCOM Dark Event just went through. How screwed am I?

Depending on which one you got (WoTC added the Wild Hunt dark event) either you have a 50/50 chance of being shot down and needing to blow up an alien device (preferably with a conceal ranger and sniper combo) or you are gonna face more chosen on more missions for the month, in which case you will probably be fine.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

reignofevil posted:

Depending on which one you got (WoTC added the Wild Hunt dark event) either you have a 50/50 chance of being shot down and needing to blow up an alien device (preferably with a conceal ranger and sniper combo) or you are gonna face more chosen on more missions for the month, in which case you will probably be fine.

It's the former, the one with the UFO roaming around. I only have 2 continents unlocked so far so I don't think I can do maneuvers to prevent the UFO from catching me on the map. So it's kinda cheeseable? I also read that it's most likely gonna make around 10 of your squad tired or injured though, and I don't have that many soldiers right now - only about 15 or so.

KittyEmpress
Dec 30, 2012

Jam Buddies

UFO missions are pretty easy early on. You get a lot of units to use and the aliens aren't that tough yet. I find they're one of the things that get harder as the game goes on. 2 packs of 2 vipers + 1 advent soldier + 1 sectoid is much easier than 2 packs of 3 andromedans.

That is, if I'm getting my timeline on what should be appearing correct.

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
yeah i wouldn't worry about that. UFO missions are lethal if you are behind the curve on tech, but that early on you simply can't be that far behind.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

Almost three weeks in without the UFO catching me, fingers crossed. Even if it's a manageable fight it would really suck if it happens right before a retaliation strike and my best soldiers get wounded or something.

Also, is there a mod that lets me see my soldiers' current XP mid-mission? The Extended Soldier List mod only lets me see it in the armory; I have a Sergeant Ranger sitting at 39/40 kills to get to Lieutenant, which kinda sucks since I'd potentially be able to fish for a Captain promotion through covert actions otherwise.

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"


This is fine

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
i was gonna say it actually does look fine and then i saw the civilians nearby and well you are definitely losing those guys

next turn they are both going to jump directly into that inferno like they're moths

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??
First terror mission showed up in Long War and holy piss terror missions are actually terrifying again :staredog: by turn 3 there were seven zombies including two of my rookies, by turn six the only three soldiers left were hauling it for evac while the Chad Thunder-1 gave his life mowing down the giant wall of health bars encroaching on the evac.

How uh, how many missions should I expect to fail in Long War because while I'm great at abductions and pretty good at clearing yoofohs, any time the council calls me I get dogpiled by Thin Men and the councilman calls me a bitch

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"

Coolguye posted:

i was gonna say it actually does look fine and then i saw the civilians nearby and well you are definitely losing those guys

next turn they are both going to jump directly into that inferno like they're moths

I had an enemy with a nuke mortar go into an inferno, ext turn go berserk from the morale hit from being on fire and nuke six of his own teammates(the nuke mortar has a 28 tile blast radius). It's probably one of the easiest ways to get squad wiped if you're trying to tackle supply ships.



Just cleanin' out a house full of nazis

Panzeh fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Jul 30, 2020

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

Does Mindshield block the "Fear of X" negative traits from proccing? Google is giving me conflicting info

E: Also does it block panic from sending out Tired soldiers for that matter

blizzardvizard fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 1, 2020

Serephina
Nov 8, 2005

恐竜戦隊
ジュウレンジャー
I'm fairly sure it does? Been ages since I tested it however.

Also those X-com screenies are tilting me a bit, why the fark are they missing the bottom of the command bar?

wuffles
Apr 10, 2004

blizzardvizard posted:

Does Mindshield block the "Fear of X" negative traits from proccing? Google is giving me conflicting info

E: Also does it block panic from sending out Tired soldiers for that matter

Yes, at least on the first one. Never tried it on the latter, but probably.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

wuffles posted:

Yes, at least on the first one. Never tried it on the latter, but probably.

Okay great, thanks. The Assassin thought it would be very funny to inflict Fear of the Chosen on three of my soldiers I was about to send on a Resistance Mission with 100% Hunter appearance rate.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

Huh. I'm on said mission and the Hunter didn't show up. I'm pretty sure this is the 4th, or even the 5th mission I've done in his territory.

The game didn't bug out because I evac'd out of the mission he first appeared, did it?

E: nvm he appeared on the next, must've miscounted

blizzardvizard fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Aug 1, 2020

wuffles
Apr 10, 2004

blizzardvizard posted:

Okay great, thanks. The Assassin thought it would be very funny to inflict Fear of the Chosen on three of my soldiers I was about to send on a Resistance Mission with 100% Hunter appearance rate.

Mind shields are very strong against the chosen in general. One of the big ways they cripple you and prevent you from killing them quickly is by disabling soldiers—forcing you to fight a man or more down, and also spend non-disoriented/stunned soldiers’ AP to revive them.

Mindshields almost completely neuter the warlock, but also make you immune to some of the worst non-lethal abilities of the other 2.

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
Offer not valid on the hunter, who will decide to bleedout one of your favorite GI Joes at utter random no matter what

It’s a real blessing that guy is such a nihilist because if he actually tried he would be absolute hell.

wuffles
Apr 10, 2004

It at least mitigates his tranq shot and grenade—all the chosen fights (early on) are a race against time in different flavors. If you don’t go at them as aggressively as possible, you’re going to find yourself spiraling into failure. His bleed is just the most sinister of those soft timers.

If it’s not a specialist using revival protocol, every disabled soldier removes 2 of your guys’ turns on the next round: one soldier to move and revive, and the revived soldier dazed and having 1 AP—which makes him basically worthless for that turn. Then he’s still dazed and mostly worthless for, what, 2 or 3 more turns?

My personal opinion is that, in the early/mid game, you either ‘alpha strike’ them successfully, or you let them extract knowledge or abduct right off the bat. Extracting knowledge or having one low level soldier abducted is nowhere near as harmful as having a whole squad limp home or have several of them left for dead.

The Hunter can be an absolute monster, especially if he gets like, kinetic plating and regeneration for his first two abilities.

blizzardvizard
Sep 12, 2012

Shhh... don't wake up the sleeping lion :3:

Yeah he got Kinetic Plating and Low Profile in mine :v:

It does feel like I'm just waiting for him to gently caress up and move closer to me voluntarily - if he had just kept staying at range and taking rifle shots there's not a lot I could actually do.

wuffles
Apr 10, 2004

blizzardvizard posted:

Yeah he got Kinetic Plating and Low Profile in mine :v:

It does feel like I'm just waiting for him to gently caress up and move closer to me voluntarily - if he had just kept staying at range and taking rifle shots there's not a lot I could actually do.

As a general rule: keep as many grenades on your grenadier(s) as possible until you face him. The general/most effective tactic is to blast him out of his high-ground cover so he’s exposed on the ground and wail on him as hard as you can on that turn. Rinse and repeat. If you don’t have any soldiers disabled, two rounds of this is usually enough to end it.

The other thing he really can’t deal with if he’s alone is a Templar with a mind shield and parry. You just stay up in his face with rend, use parry, and watch him flail helplessly to do anything about it other than maybe call reinforcements.

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"

Serephina posted:

I'm fairly sure it does? Been ages since I tested it however.

Also those X-com screenies are tilting me a bit, why the fark are they missing the bottom of the command bar?

I've just left it off with the snipping thing i use

Songbearer
Jul 12, 2007




Fuck you say?
Commander.

We have some concerning news.

A new alien technology has allowed ADVENT to notice your bulge from across the room.

You must put an end to this threat.

We look forward to the swift action you will be taking to prevent this.

Rochallor
Apr 23, 2010

ふっっっっっっっっっっっっck
In like 3 WotC campaigns, I honestly can't remember what the Hunter does except that sniper shot that hits one turn later and is thus trivial to avoid. He's always been absolute lowest priority, whereas the Warlock is always summoning poo poo and the Assassin is constantly messing up your troops.

Grapplejack
Nov 27, 2007

The Warlock is honestly the worst because his unbreakable mind control is so overpowered.

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Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



Rochallor posted:

In like 3 WotC campaigns, I honestly can't remember what the Hunter does except that sniper shot that hits one turn later and is thus trivial to avoid. He's always been absolute lowest priority, whereas the Warlock is always summoning poo poo and the Assassin is constantly messing up your troops.

Be careful*, when the Hunter decides to wreck your poo poo he is absolutely going to wreck your poo poo, and you’ll lose good soldiers as they bleed out, get kidnapped, or (only) end up gravely injured for a few weeks.

*murder him as soon as possible.

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