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I think it's fine that sectoids are support oriented but don't shoot. Conceptually the idea of a force multiplier unit is interesting and cool. The problem is if it's optimal to always kill them last and you just hope you kill everything fast enough that they're not a problem. There should be a compelling reason to kill the sectoid before his friends sometimes. I'm going to reserve judgement before I play some myself, but if it turns out that leaving sectoids for last is always the right move I might throw together a mod to balance it out. My first thought is the Intimidate ability from EU if one of the sectoid's nearby allies dies from an attack that doesn't also damage the sectoid. Doesn't scale with enemy strength, and it has no effect if you use AoE on the pod, but it's highly significant early game with low-will rookies and the sectoids pod buddies being ADVENT goons that die in one hit.
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Feb 2, 2016 01:59
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MarquiseMindfang posted:I know that if the game doesn't have a way to kick me in the arse and get me moving, I'll stall forever. Yeah. I think any game where you can hit a grinding holding pattern is annoying, because you're essentially coerced into either a.) grinding or b.) knowing on every loss that you could have just sat in a holding pattern first and won. It looks like XCOM 2 is like XCOM EU where it's almost a roguelike but sacrifices some of the fundamentals for a more cinematic experience. This is what burned me out on EU (but after I cleared Classic Ironman a few times and got my moneys worth) but it's not even frustrating here because I can just mod it into being my dream replayable roguelike.
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Feb 2, 2016 04:04
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And then stream dies because crashes. I uhh, think maybe I will Bronzeman my first WotC game.
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Jul 20, 2017 20:57
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Yup, I got on in time but it was gone a few minutes after that. Oh well, probably is worth $40 to be honest.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:59
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Zigmidge posted:Are they doing anything to counter balance these? It's not like the rulers were difficult as they were if you had three braincells to rub together. Unfortunately, the Alien Hunters steam page has tons of negative reviews from people who couldn't handle rulers, so I think they're probably just going to be nerfed into the ground ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Having said that, when they say the rulers are guarding a facility - if that means they don't warp gate away and you have to do the entire health bar in one mission, then the berserker and archon will be pretty rough.
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Aug 6, 2017 21:02
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Basically Gunslingers are more useful more often, but when long-range snipers are good they're really good. It's worth having both. Kill Zone and Serial offer some of the best one-turn killing power in the game when you can set them up, but it's hard to set it up on retaliations and any mission where you need to evac on a timer. (Timed missions where you don't need to evac, like device hacks, are a lot more forgiving.)
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Aug 17, 2017 18:14
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Vib Rib posted:It was my understanding from watching LPs that starting with a faction soldier is a Second Wave style option, not something that comes automatic if you turn off Lost and Abandoned. I wonder what'll end up being easier, Commander without Lost and Abandoned / free faction soldier or Legendary, but starting with a faction soldier.
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Aug 19, 2017 01:22
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Bogart posted:L&A is a stationary target you can build a team for, which I imagine is much easier to work around than trying to get in contact with the factions without that basic structure. Eh, but conversely Mox gets auto-captured and as near as I can tell someone getting wounded in the first encounter with the Chosen Assassin is unavoidable, plus the first faction solider starts getting exp earlier when you get them from mission one. I get the feeling that they "balanced" around L&A, free solider will be easier, and no solider will be (potentially much?) harder. I'm trying to figure it out because I want to do a release day stream and I don't want to do L&A, but it's annoying because it really does seem like that was their balance target. So I need to chose between commander with no faction solider or legend having one.
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Aug 19, 2017 02:19
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marshmallow creep posted:There is so much going on that Christopher Odd needed something like three videos just to unlock his second region. Also he got a bonus that turns any rookie trained in the GTS into an instant sergeant. Given several ops require sergeants and above to even run, that's a super good bonus to get even without the power boost. To be fair, Christopher just wanted to show off all the new stuff as quickly as possible and consequently his strategy layer is an outrageous clusterfuck. I don't think the contacts clock is going to slow down all that much when folks are playing optimally.
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Aug 21, 2017 06:53
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Zore posted:Ugh, I tried to watch some of the pre-release stuff since I was getting antsy. His geoscape is whats tilting me, especially the two months of floating the resistance contact order he's not using. At least on missions he's checking his remote starts now. Still, it's nice to see things going okay for him even with those huge inefficiencies, because it really makes me think WotC L/I will be easier than base if you just pay attention to all the new subsystems. So I'll probably just start on L/I.
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Aug 24, 2017 02:34
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Fangz posted:That's cheesy but probably not that imbalanced with the time limit, since unless you bring multiple only that sniper is doing damage each turn. In WotC Ruler's can only ever be found guarding Alien Facilities, which have no time limit. Honestly I wish they had done just that and not touched anything else about Rulers. It's easy to take pretty much zero damage from Rulers as long as you can have some teammates just not act each turn (in fact, on Legendary I took literally zero damage from the Viper King). The main thing that made them a problem was when they popped up alongside an aggressive timer. But punishing reloads and movement creates these really fun puzzles with ordering and which soldiers should just sit idle and those puzzles generally did have solutions that left your squad in good shape. But, hito posted:Unfortunately, the Alien Hunters steam page has tons of negative reviews from people who couldn't handle rulers, so I think they're probably just going to be nerfed into the ground ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think the gameplay team of a AAA company like Firaxis probably gets significant pressure from on high to "fix" a Mostly Negative/Mixed reviewed DLC on Steam, even if the fix is "No interesting puzzles involving ordering and selective activation because turns out most people suck at ordering and will always activate all soldiers, then write negative reviews"
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Aug 25, 2017 03:04
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TWIST FIST posted:you should watch part 20 at least, its an amazing clusterfuck While obviously he did a ton of misplays there, meleeing the muton is something I can't get mad at him for because that is one of the things I hate most about XCOM 2, design-wise. Having an enemy immune to melee is a neat tactical concern, especially an enemy that takes cover, is hard to kill, doesn't explode on death, and really would just be a fantastic target to melee. But having it be a "counterattack" instead of immunity and allowing players to input a melee attack against Mutons is just asinine. There is never a reason to do it. It's just immunity, plus we'll gently caress up your file if you didn't know about it. This isn't even coming from a place of salt - I read spoilers before playing so I've never procced the counterattack. It's just offensive aesthetically. Actually I go one further and say that removing F1 at all is awful and directly counter to the idea of a "strategy" game, but the Muton counter is especially heinous because it's so high-impact, there's no way you can anticipate it beforehand, and (unlike things like explosives hitting friendlies) there is absolutely no reason for Mutons to be a valid target for melee attacks aside from wasting thousands of hours of time from people for not knowing video game trivia they just made up. redreader posted:I just death spiralled and hosed up right at the end: thought I was ready to raid a blacksite when I hadn't made contact yet, and ran out of time. The ending stats screen is ridiculous. I am pretty sure most people either savescum or just plain cheat. Some of the results are pretty hosed up. Like for instance, on commander: How do you have only 250ish supplies gathered!? Are you trying to research tier 2 weapons/armor before resistance contacts or something? You should be researching resistance communications as soon as it's available and making contact with your two free regions very quickly.
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Aug 25, 2017 10:20
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I forget if it was here or reddit or wherever, but somebody pointed out the final mission is outrageously easier if you just avoid using explosives on the last bridge/wall to keep the cover up and just hide there. I had a mind-controlled Gatekeeper's zombie be the one to actually enter the room while my team just hung out along the wall and fired void lances at the Avatars. I managed to kill two avatars without ever breaking concealment on my Phantom ranger so she just ended the campaign with Icarus into a murderflank. It's night and day how much simpler it is if you avoid going in the room proper.
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Aug 26, 2017 01:15
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Zore posted:I know there's one for Reapers that makes any kill shots have a 0 percent chance to break out of concealment instead of the base 50. It's actually a bit more complicated than that. Basically when in Shadow the reveal chances are 0, 50, 80, 100 (at least I think those are the numbers). When Reaper takes a shot from Shadow they go up to the next number on the list and then roll that chance to reveal. If you have Silent Killer, kill shots skip the part where you go up one. So if you ONLY do kill shots, you'll never reveal; but if you did a non-kill shot first, your following kill shot might still break you out.
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Aug 26, 2017 21:38
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dogstile posted:Those resistance soldiers sure do make that first retaliation mission a breeze. I want them on my team, they never miss! Unfortunately, the first mission is only sometimes a resistance soldiers one. I've been running a few Legendary games and it seems like handling that first retaliation with the Chosen on the non-resistance soldiers version requires you to have the faction soldier and probably one other Corporal healthy and in the mission. Drag 'em out even if they're tired!
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Aug 30, 2017 00:50
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vosk posted:what the hell does the 'workshop construction' research do? After I completed it, workshop still cost 150 supplies, 40 days, 3 power. (it's actually more power than in regular xcom2? workshop got nerfed? thought it was 1 in vanilla) It does what it says on the tin, it's just that Workshops cost 300 supplies now.
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Aug 30, 2017 10:40
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Exposure posted:They roll a 50/50 chance when they die, unless it was through an explosion, which always causes them to explode. Is this confirmed from INI diving or anecdotal? Coulda swore I've had nades not denote it before but it's all running together in my head a bit.
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Aug 31, 2017 01:35
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Yeah but the reduced sightlines on Shadow vs regular concealment make a huuuuuge difference.
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Sep 1, 2017 13:28
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Dr. Carwash posted:Is it still a good strat to let the avatar clock 2 week timer tick down all the way? I vaguely remember doing that on release. Kind of.You always get one week when it goes back to full, no matter how low it got before. However, the tiredness mechanic means that having a mission pop up with one day left on the facility means that even if you get a flawless clear it still screws over the people you wanted to send on the facility. So you should decide based on whether the thing you're waiting for is worth the chance that your best soldiers might be tired. RBA Starblade posted:How do the lost actually work? I used remote start to try and find the chosen assassin on a rescue vip resistance op (she's camping the vip so it's impossible lmao), and it drew in a lost horde and twenty lost from the entire map. The next turn spawned another ten. Half have 6 hp. Pair up a Ranger and a Sharpshooter and they should pretty consistently be able to kill 10+ lost a turn. Prioritize dashers and it's likely that the ones you don't kill will need to double move towards you and not be able to attack. Make sure a third person can see them for rescues if they miss high percentage shots, but barring bad luck the two of them can easily clear swarms. Always reload, never overwatch.
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Sep 1, 2017 17:38
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Did they make environmental smoke more likely to obscure LOS in WotC, or something? I've been having a ton of situations where I grenade someones cover and then people who had a shot on them no longer do.
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Sep 1, 2017 22:11
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It feels like the Surgical Sitrep is just close to suicide. The nerfs to the pods seem minimal compared to how rough it is.
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Sep 2, 2017 02:30
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I'm pretty sure the timer confusion is that the timer only stops when the Chosen has "directly engaged" you. It's not on the Chosen being summoned, it's when they give their speech, if that makes sense.
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Sep 2, 2017 03:55
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Shumagorath posted:Training Centre is great all around but it squares the utility of a good Specialist. Being able to heal and hack with one character even if they're dedicated to e-war or revival is amazing. Yeah, I think probably the most reliable perk of Training Center is that you can take med and revival protocol on every specialist, then double back for Haywire and Combat on your first specialist to get significant buffs to hacking and have a dedicated anti-robot specialist.
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Sep 3, 2017 17:36
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Axetrain posted:Finished a play through on veteran just to get familiar with what the game is going to throw at me now and am going to start a "proper" run on Ironman/Commander. I see the advanced option lets me pick which new class I start with first, what do you guys think is the most useful class is early on. Skirmisher! Reapers are probably the best later on because of how good Shadow is, but before Squad Size upgrades, that's 1/4th of your team not doing damage. So you really need them to shoot, but without Silent Killer, it means your use of Shadow is limited. Templars can go nuclear with the right XCOM perks but their impact can be a bit more variable - sometimes you just get situations where the Templar can't do much, or kills one guy and lights up six more. Skirmisher perk is always useful, Grapple is almost always helpful, Justice is ~incredible~ against the ADVENT folks that'll be your main nemesis early on, and double-tapping means that Adversary: Skirmishers on the first Chosen is more likely to trigger more often (not to mention the disaster potential of Immune to Melee and Adversary: Templars).
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Sep 3, 2017 20:13
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Pierson posted:How's Commander Iron-man? Just less forgiving of mistakes but still basically fair, or does it require supernatural foresight and abusing AI (which I assume Legend also requires)? I think the big one is you really need a sense of the LOS rules. I've had some no-shame reloads for things like "I know from Target Definition that pod is there, and I don't think this will light them up, but I will reload if it does." It's really finnicky and unfortunately it makes an enormous difference. Aside from that I'm on Legend and I don't think I'm doing much "abusing AI". (Unless you count things like "Making sure your Parrying Templar is flanked by exactly one enemy" as AI abuse.) You just need to focus on action economy (much more important with bonds now), ordering, and anticipating next turn so you know which enemies to leave alive. You definitely don't need to do anything super scummy on Commander.
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Sep 3, 2017 22:17
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So I just used Interrupt on a reinforcement pod. They scattered, I tried to use Wrath and missed, and then they each got another full turn. It's my first time using Interrupt - is the whole abiltiy bugged, or is it something specific about reinforcement pods or something?
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Sep 3, 2017 23:53
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RBA Starblade posted:I think the assassin is scripted to be immune to overwatch. I've never seen or heard of it not having that. Mine doesn't have Shadowstep. Having said that, I've definitely noticed her having it more than usual, and I have seen it on every Lost and Abandoned video. I wonder if it happens such that she always has Shadowstep if she's your first Chosen?
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Sep 4, 2017 02:11
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Super No Vacancy posted:why would my sniper have started a mission with only one round in her chamber? I think there's a bug where the resistance people that join your squad on rescue start with whatever ammo they ended with on their rescue mission.
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Sep 5, 2017 03:45
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Tae posted:I think Double Agent might actually be the new cheating. Having a spare Elite Lancer saved my rear end so much, either as a giant KILL ME sign, or a scout for Cryssalid ambushes. And at worst, 75% chance of meleeing an enemy. Double Agent is the tech upgrade to Mimic Beacon
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Sep 7, 2017 03:10
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Internet Kraken posted:The siterep that makes you use units sergeant or below is basically unplayable. It has the same ADVENT "nerfs" that surgical does, so I'm pretty sure it's just that those nerfs are not nearly in tune with the restriction. Those two are pretty much going to be no-gos for me. I don't use balance mods besides bugfixes, but if I was going to mod for balance I would definitely make the "light threat" reduction more severe, because it's hardly noticeable at the moment.
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Sep 7, 2017 04:48
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Eh, I understand in theory that you can take Blast Padding and round back on Shredder. But there are so many points where grenadier wants both options (Heavy Ordnance and Holo-Targeting, Salvo and Hail of Bullets, Volatile Mix and Chain Shot if they're not just on Frost Bomb duty) that to me Blast Padding is still a hard sell. Grenadier AP is a precious thing.
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Sep 8, 2017 17:15
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turn off the TV posted:They're easy until you fail four 75%+ headshot rolls in a row, have your medic get killed, and then have a lost swarm spawn one tile away from the VIP while your soldier is right beside the objective raidus. I think it must have been a bug, I've never had a swarm pop up before reaching the VIP before. It's alright, though, the Templar and the VIP made it out and I got a breakthrough for interchangeable upgrades the next day. With Horde missions, you need to change your tactics around a lot. Against enemies with guns, 75% is a pretty good shot. But the Lost walk up to your guns, so 75% is a much less good shot. Your goal is to space yourself such that the Lost can all get directly next to you, but only by yellow moving. Then your Sharpshooter goes for the ones whose health is the same or lower than your pistol min damage. Then your ranger takes eight 100% shots and your other kids clean up or rescue if some of the other shots were like 95s and you got unlucky. But I generally don't take four shots at 75% or lower the entire MAP on a Horde mission. Let them spend their action walking toward you and do the work of making the shotgun a guaranteed kill. This is also why Horde is so much easier than mixed Lost-Advent - you don't need to take cover so it's a lot easier to get the positioning right.
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Sep 10, 2017 16:44
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Zore posted:Skirmishers also benefit more than anyone from +bullpup damage since they can shoot the most out of any class. Well, I think +pistol is the ABSOLUTE strongest, given Lost and Faceoff/Fan Fire.
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Sep 11, 2017 21:57
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Vengarr posted:I went the entire game without every using the Skirmisher's Interrupt. How does it even work? Is it any good? It's bugged on reinforcement pods, so don't use it then or you'll give them an entire turn after they scatter.
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Sep 11, 2017 23:53
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Taffer posted:Yep. Even shows the line. Are you sure it's not just Alien Cypher being active?
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Sep 12, 2017 07:07
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SulphagneSocialist posted:Shouldn't the Cypher just make it cost 80? Base is 40 since there's a tower next door. Or is it doubled on Legend? Yeah, it's doubled on Legend.
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Sep 12, 2017 07:15
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babypolis posted:Kill zone is very powerful but also unreliable since it works on the enemy turn, you cant really plan around it Like some folks here have said before, the best use of Kill Zone is with a concealed spotter. Start turn, sniper pops Kill Zone, then someone else triggers (often with an explosion), then you have Kill Zone proc on your turn and get the rest of your squad to clean up. It's also great on red flares or buried 'lids. Kill Zone rules, although like someone here said Darklance annoyingly has free reloads instead of the extended mag which does kind of hurt Kill Zone.
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Sep 14, 2017 01:43
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Vengarr posted:I've consistently had issues with this since launch. Sometimes it works. Other times, the sniper only fires one shot despite having all her ammo. Other times, the pod stands perfectly still and doesn't trigger it at all (this is usually a good thing, but on pods that are mainly MECs or other non-cover aliens it just cheats you out of damage). In regard to the last one, note that Mecs always overwatch instead of scattering and that any Advent that's been "lit up" by Lost won't scatter. No idea what's happening if it only shoots once, though.
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Sep 14, 2017 02:01
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Stronghold mission is mostly just made difficult by the fact you have to stumble in to the rules of the space coffin thing. Basically you should be willing to let the chosen live an extra turn if it means next turn you can pop them with your first action of the turn and have everyone else unload in to the coffin. Remember you can't miss, so you can do dual shotgun hits and stuff like that.
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Oct 3, 2018 23:37
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