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chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Sent in a character, realized I left out my user name, and sent the sheet again with the corrections included.

Who doesn't want to die for XCOM? Communists, probably.

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chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Plasma in the air
Courage is the best armor;
Oh poo poo, my torso.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Gridlocked posted:

I move on target,
Oh poo poo! Three loving pods!
Mimic Beacon go!

:smuggo:

New patch is released.
Mimic beacon now fails me.
Unfix your game, Jake.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Bruceski posted:

What are you talking about? That guy is totally human. He even wears sunglasses at night like humans do.

He just needs to keep track of the visions in his eyes.

Or maybe it's just that the future's so bright.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



VolticSurge posted:

I dunno,Lilly's got her moments. Tygan's as boring as a stick,though.

Yeah, XCOM 1, everyone had a good niche. Shen was the science grandpa who worried about the Moral Implications. Vahlen was the madwoman who put "vivisection" as one of her interests on her online dating profile, and Bradford was the idiot you all rolled your eyes at. Here, I can see the intended dynamic (Shen's the new generation, Bradford's the tired veteran, and Tygan's the guy who was on the alien's side until he found out what was really going on), but Tygan never really had either the Vahlen style "Oh yeah, I did some hosed up poo poo." or the "Wait. See this poo poo? This is why I quit. I get that we're desperate, but is this the angle we're going with?" you'd want for someone who's rebelling on purely moral grounds.

Lilly and Bradford both have their angles explored, Tygan's... isn't.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Cythereal posted:

Vahlen's eccentric to be sure, and without supervision probably would get carried away, but I found her endearing and the most memorable character in the game.

I agree with all of this.

I just assume "eccentric" involves a lot more... war crimes.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Night10194 posted:

Who said anything about being upset about it? Vahlen was awesome.

Yeah, part of why Vahlen was great was that she put a face onto the assumptions we'd had about X-Com's science teams all along.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Gridlocked posted:

I guess it's for people with supreme confidence in their ability to win extra pod or not, but who want to pad out their squads rank with the 3 bonus kills.

It's mostly a move for when you've nearly won already, on missions where you get the loot after. A few more bodies can nicely help with the monthly budget.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Brainamp posted:

Never forget...



80 survivors. That's almost a 20% survival rate! And they say that being in X-Com is dangerous.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Godnnelg posted:

I thought the Mimic beacons would be crap when I first played Xcom 2, then on a whim I just threw it out there as a last ditch effort since my last soldier didn't have a good shot on anyone and that's all I had.
That beacon saved my bacon, and I had 2 in inventory per mission from then on..
They are a good and Free Get out of a poo poo storm ticket, so long as you use them right.

And they used to be even better.

Now, they can make a total shitstorm survivable, removing enough enemies from the equation to keep you in the fight.

Original flavor Mimic Beacons basically locked down the entire alien team for a turn.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



GuavaMoment posted:

Apocalypse - Toxigun B
Interceptor - Tracking Tracer Cannon

Out of all the OP mid-to-late game changing equipment the XCOM universe has, I wonder if anything is actually more broken than the Toxigun. Psi-Amp/MC Disruptor mind control comes close, but it's still not vomiting forth clusters of shield-piercing neurotoxin darts at your enemies. :allears:


I still think the psi-amp is still even more busted. Spot one enemy, and he's neutralized, everything in his LOS is neutralized, and everything in THEIR LOS is neutralized, AND they can soak ambush fire for your troops. All from the safety of the skyranger.

At least you have to use ammo for the toxigun. Technically.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



zyxophoj posted:

I'd say a squaddie grenadier or ranger is meaningfully different from a rookie - although once the gorilla tactics school is built, we shouldn't be running out of those.


Gorilla tactics school upgrade 1: Silverback.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Cythereal posted:

There was one specific type of weapon they were very weak to, but getting access to those weapons relied on autopsying a specific alien that it was very possible to ever encounter at all because it was an exclusively land-based terror unit for an early game race that rarely went on terror missions. If you never saw a calcinite, no melee weapons for you.

They were also weak to stun weapons, but that mostly meant spending your whole turn to smack a lobster in the face, and if it failed, that soldier was probably screwed.

Meanwhile, the unlockable melee weapons were fast. The slowest of them fired as fast as a pistol. Good stuff, if you could get 'em.

Of course, they looked better because almost everything in TFTD was kind of poo poo. Gauss was lasers with all the fun stripped out, dart guns were worthless, Sonic weapons did good damage but were slow as hell, the torpedo cannons didn't work on land...

Oh. And that's before considering enemy damage resistance, which was very much a thing. TFTD, man. Romhacking before most of us knew what romhacks were.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Rogue 7 posted:

Talking about shots missed and the 100% you got: Didn't your sniper miss a shot when you misclicked?

I think grenades also factor in. They count as hits if you land them, but they don't count as shots taken, so a high number of grenades used can artificially inflate the accuracy scores.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



apostateCourier posted:

It's mostly just a legacy thing from the original X-com.

Of course, in the original, usually the best thing to do was have the CO sit at the back of the skyranger and look inspirational to keep the rookies from panicking, since if they got shot, everyone would poo poo themselves. Officers were pretty much just a panic control mechanic.

Which is kind of awkward since the order in the skyranger is set by recruit order, so it's quite likely the person at the front will get the first promotion. Which leads to them getting the second, and then before you know it, one shot off the ramp and you've got a panic spiral.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



InfinityComplex posted:

In murdering ADVENT like he was going to do if he did managed to get the body. Buddy wanted to murder everyone, including ADVENT.

If you can't kill the ones you hate, hate the ones you kill, that's what I always say!

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



heenato posted:

Nickname Julian Shok Launcher Because what else is good at taking out a lobster?

Vibro blades?

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



For the record, I vote butter robot. Nothing kills lobsters like butter, AND he's yellow.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



sincx posted:

As long as Julian doesn't start singing afterwards.

Don't worry. As an insane homicidal killbot, all he can sing is "Daisy Bell".

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



The Door Frame posted:

Unless there's a skill that puts the beginning of the pistol's long range penalties at about where the sniper rifle starts to get its close range penalties or vice versa, I really don't know why they think that people would spec for pistols when there's a perfectly good shotgun unit in the game. IIRC, EW's second foundry upgrade to the pistol did something like that, but it mostly just made for better infiltration units



Ooo, I would love to see EXALT again, like as vigilantes in urban maps. Take cover near a random civilian after breaking stealth, then he pulls a bandana up and trains a plasma pistol on you, like a tiny, annoying Faceless. It would almost make sense to start installing sleeper cells in cities now that XCOM has started to become a legitimate problem for ADVENT and it sounds like almost everyone gets gene therapy from the aliens anyways. That might be a little too far though, since it would incentivize blowing up random civilians just in case they're secretly evil

Why would EXALT help the aliens?

They were scum, but they were freelance scum. The aliens hated them as much as we did.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Bruceski posted:

This is a tyranny, not a democracy. One man, one vote.

I'm pretty sure that's a democracy.

Which means Jade is unfair and unjust.

I will admit, however, that he's been scrupulously even-handed. He is unfair and unjust to everyone, without fear or favor.

chiasaur11 fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Aug 28, 2016

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Green Intern posted:

It's possible they have containers of chlorine, and one decided to have a party.

Or someone decided to clean a toilet full of piss using bleach.

And, of course, you should never entirely discount the possibility of witches.

Just, rule of thumb and that.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



I saw someone tell a story of one of their soldiers killing every single ruler with a repeater on first contact. Seems the best way to deal with them, honestly.

And the achievement is called "Not throwing away my shot" in reference to Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury.

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).

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



The Door Frame posted:

It's a niche that he fills perfectly, but when I have to listen to every step of hist thought process for every move, I feel like I'm watching a walkthrough instead of an LP. I find it frustrating, personally. All he has to do is a little editing so that his videos aren't a loving slog to get through. People who edit and do post-com like Jade explain their choices and thought process while we watch it happening, not while we're waiting for it to happen, so we get real commentary in the videos, not just strategy talk with ummming and errring

He did do editing when he started. Rather a lot of it. Then, to deal with the slower video production as compared to demand, he started doing livestreams, which were a hit. Basically, he was just responding to the market.

Seriously, the early videos were pretty snappy.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Cythereal posted:

Like I said, I regard and use MECs as an early game crutch. I make them and use them, then take them off active duty once I get lasers and carapace online - usually around the time I attack the alien base. MECs are useful, but I find their relative value peaks early and then drops off whereas gene mods take a while to get up and running but end up solidly enhancing your troops.

See, I liked gene mods, but a maxed out MEC filled a niche nobody else could. Ignoring the broken status of mimetic skin, gene mods just let your guys do what they did already a little better. MECs fire off two high damage shots a turn, fire shells outside LOS, give you unlimited cover destruction, and generally allow you to do things no other units can do.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Cythereal posted:

The unique things a maxed out MEC brings to the table, I consider less valuable than what a maxed out gene trooper (even without mimetic skin) brings to the table instead.

Mobility, durability, and absurd damage output are all pretty good. A Not Created Equal or late promotion sniper or support MEC lets you fire the biggest guns in the game twice a turn with a high degree of accuracy. I'm not saying to build a whole team of them, especially since they can't be psychics, but there's so much a MEC can do to help the team, depending on the build. They're excellent for both flushing swarms from cover and dealing with fuckoff huge single targets with the highest damage options in the game.

I can see the appeal of running gene mods, but I prefer getting new options to being able to do what I was doing already a little better.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



sincx posted:

A watched pot never boils.

A fish out of water sees more than two drowning wolves.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Veryslightlymad posted:

Jade, how are you getting so many hidden abilities? I have like, 5 colonels on my file and a bunch of other high level dudes and exactly one squaddie has ever rolled a hidden ability.

Mod. True AWC or something like that, guarantees you eventually get a hidden unlike the base game crapshoot.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



Kwyndig posted:

Yeah Apocalypse was pollution writ large. Also there was only one Mega City. There were plans in the lore to build more but the enormous expense of construction of the first one which was followed by an immediate extra dimensional invasion put those on hold. I don't think they ever wrote anything for a post-Apocalypse timeline, after that they focused on spin offs set before it.

There was a planned but unproduced sequel where the aliens from the first X-Com invaded again, but again, unmade.

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chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



sincx posted:

The aliens haven't figured out PCR.

Less relevantly, they also haven't figured out PBR or CCR.

The mysteries of swamp and blues rock are still a key advantage for human propaganda efforts.

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