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[Salty Catfish]

There's a lot more stuff you can miss out on in this game than EU in terms of construction. Finished the game without ever building an AWC, Workshop, or Laboratory and without ever getting to use my psi operative. I'll definitely prioritize the Psi Lab for my next game.

 

[Falk]

Well that's nice, but it's weird that they're just looking into it now because you could see that thing hitching on preview builds and review builds. Sure, too late for release, but a patch should have been spearheaded ahead of time.

TBQH you'd be nuts to think that the last few weeks were anything resembling the dev team sitting around twiddling their thumbs on a job well done.

 

[McNum]

Is there any real reason to build Laboratories in this game? I keep being supplies constrained, not research constrained when it comes to rolling out new stuff. Like I have Plasma Rifles researched, but not 250 Supplies to build them. Gonna research the other plasma variants and wait for next supply drop to give ADVENT a cheerful surprise all at once at this rate.

I mean, I probably could have afforded them this month, but I have a Psi Lab coming up that took priority. Does that take an upgrade for some amount of supplies and elerium to become better at... stuff?

 

[Baalzebup]

Is there any real reason to build Laboratories in this game? I keep being supplies constrained, not research constrained when it comes to rolling out new stuff. Like I have Plasma Rifles researched, but not 250 Supplies to build them. Gonna research the other plasma variants and wait for next supply drop to give ADVENT a cheerful surprise all at once at this rate.

I mean, I probably could have afforded them this month, but I have a Psi Lab coming up that took priority. Does that take an upgrade for some amount of supplies and elerium to become better at... stuff?

Nah, the lab is basically just even more scientists. There seems to be no secondary or hidden function to it. And the Psi Labs can be upgraded to fit in another trainee at the same time.

 

[Hazaro]

Is there any real reason to build Laboratories in this game?

N IOPE

*Tech rush, but you still need supplies and such, so really, not really imo

 

[twobear]

is it working as intended that implacable forces you to move after you make a kill? or is there a 'do nothing' hotkey that i've missed?

 

[Hazaro]

is it working as intended that implacable forces you to move after you make a kill? or is there a 'do nothing' hotkey that i've missed?

'End'

 

[Aztechnology]

N IOPE

*Tech rush, but you still need supplies and such, so really, not really imo

Well for us in legendary it's pretty useful. Alot of these research projects take obscene amounts of time.

 

[mbpm1]

You know, whenever I sword attack an enemy from higher elevation, I wish my guy would jump down and gank the alien from two stories up like a fucking ninja assassin.

That happened for the first time today.

"Melee attack that faceless, Ranger!"

"Wait, what are you doing? Why are you going to the roof? Oh."

Oh, I just found out something useful for downed UFO missions.

You know that when you get discovered, the UFO attempts to send out a distress call and you have to get inside and shut off the signal? Well, let's say you suddenly activate all the aliens and going to the objective is suicide, what do you do? You throw a grenade and blow the distress beacon up. Problem solved, turn counter disabled. Found that one out by accident.

Lol, before I found out about that I spent all my items taking down a sectopod to frantically try and get to the beacon.

Then the sectopod falls over and explodes, destroying it, and I facepalamed because I didn't think you could od that.

 

[Durrzerker]

Guys, I'm not excusing XCOM 2's bugginess, because it really is kinda fucked, but it's worth remembering that Firaxis is a VERY small team, especially for the games they put out. They're arguably the closest thing we've got to a PC-focused AAA publisher right now behind Blizzard, and part of why they can afford to do that is that they keep things pretty tight relative to other studios.

They have nowhere near the staff that studios like EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, etc do, so patches will probably come a bit slower.

Again, not excusing the game's jankiness and bugs at all, just explaining this is somewhat unsurprising, especially with how Civ V and Beyond Earth were.

 

[DrBo42]

I really hate the doomsday clock mechanic in this. It just feels like a lazy method of driving you forward. Is there anyway to remove multiple levels from it at once? I'm still pretty early on and just removing one block from it and them immediately getting 1 or 2 back in the same month makes me want to stop playing lol.

 

[LiK]

is it working as intended that implacable forces you to move after you make a kill? or is there a 'do nothing' hotkey that i've missed?

yea, there's no way to end it for that specific unit which is dumb cuz pressing End will just end everyone else's turn as well. I just tab through to other soldiers and get them to finish their turns before I end the turn for Implacable.

I really hate the doomsday clock mechanic in this. It just feels like a lazy method of driving you forward. Is there anyway to remove multiple levels from it at once? I'm still pretty early on and just removing one block from it and them immediately getting 1 or 2 back in the same month makes me want to stop playing lol.

some ADVENT buildings you destroy will take off 2-3 ticks off the bar. you can also do the missions that add ticks to the bar which is useful. yea, it blows but I found the council missions to be more annoying because they stress that they should be done right away.

 

[Falk]

is it working as intended that implacable forces you to move after you make a kill? or is there a 'do nothing' hotkey that i've missed?

I've been using tab and backspace prior to XCOM2 and didn't even realize this could be an issue if you didn't hotkey, hahahaha.

Spoiler

use tab and backspace

 

[twobear]

I really hate the doomsday clock mechanic in this. It just feels like a lazy method of driving you forward. Is there anyway to remove multiple levels from it at once? I'm still pretty early on and just removing one block from it and them immediately getting 1 or 2 back in the same month makes me want to stop playing lol.

yeah, the blacksites have 1-3 red dots underneath, which shows you how many progress points they'll remove from the avatar project when you complete them

I've been using tab and backspace prior to XCOM2 and didn't even realize this could be an issue if you didn't hotkey, hahahaha.

Spoiler

use tab and backspace

what does backspace do? tab cycles you through your available units, i know that one.

 

[Falk]

End all

 

[mbpm1]

I really hate the doomsday clock mechanic in this. It just feels like a lazy method of driving you forward. Is there anyway to remove multiple levels from it at once? I'm still pretty early on and just removing one block from it and them immediately getting 1 or 2 back in the same month makes me want to stop playing lol.

It's not that important. You have a lot of time.

 

[Maledict]

If the AWC only gives you bonus skills at certain levels, does respecting soldiers activate the hidden skills for squad mates who are already promoted above that level?

 

[DrBo42]

some ADVENT buildings you destroy will take off 2-3 ticks off the bar. you can also do the missions that add ticks to the bar which is useful. yea, it blows but I found the council missions to be more annoying because they stress that they should be done right away.

yeah, the blacksites have 1-3 red dots underneath, which shows you how many progress points they'll remove from the avatar project when you complete them

It's not that important. You have a lot of time.

Thanks all. Didn't notice the dots indicating how much is removed. I feel like they've done an absolutely shit job explaining the map/tactical layer of this one.

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

I failed 3 campaigns because I couldn't keep up with the aliens in equipment. Now though, I feel I finally have a handle on things.

 

[mbpm1]

I didn't notice the dots until I beat the game and read this thread. I just let the clock run down until like 4 days were left and then I'd do a facility.

 

[twobear]

also, if you rapid fire an andromedon and kill it with your first shot, you wont get your second shot against the shell, which i think is kind of lame

 

[xChildOfHatex]

also, if you rapid fire an andromedon and kill it with your first shot, you wont get your second shot against the shell, which i think is kind of lame

Yeah, found this out first hand on my first campaign, so now I usually use my gunslinger's lightning hands or a specialist to finish off the Andromedon. THEN, I go for the shell with a Rapid Fire shot.

 

[RandomSeed]

also, if you rapid fire an andromedon and kill it with your first shot, you wont get your second shot against the shell, which i think is kind of lame

That's strange, since this time around rapid fire has you totally reset your shot. It was cooler last time around how you'd only step out to shoot once, but fire twice.

 

[Apoc29]

Started my first campaign on Veteran, and after a kind of rough start I'm pretty much steamrolling through everything. I don't even know what half these enemies do since I kill them before they get a chance to.

Grenadiers do not give a fuck, especially when you upgrade all their shit. I'm sorry, did you say you want to rocket launch that guy halfway across the map? Well, I don't see how I can possibly stop you.

 

[Sulik2]

Is there any real reason to build Laboratories in this game? I keep being supplies constrained, not research constrained when it comes to rolling out new stuff. Like I have Plasma Rifles researched, but not 250 Supplies to build them. Gonna research the other plasma variants and wait for next supply drop to give ADVENT a cheerful surprise all at once at this rate.

I mean, I probably could have afforded them this month, but I have a Psi Lab coming up that took priority. Does that take an upgrade for some amount of supplies and elerium to become better at... stuff?

I found it really annoying that I couldn't do anything with scientists unless I built a lab, so I built one.

 

[xChildOfHatex]

That's strange, since this time around rapid fire has you totally reset your shot. It was cooler last time around how you'd only step out to shoot once, but fire twice.

I think it's coz there's a small cut-scene showing the Shell come to life once the Andromedon's pilot is killed, so I guess, since they're two completely separate aliens in this context (sucks, but that's what it seems), you don't get to "split" your rapid fire shots between them.

 

[Falk]

Hacked a Sectopod next to two Advent troops, succesful shutdown

Sectopod makes a beeline for my squad.

Then shuts down

Firaxis pls.

 

[Glitchesarecool]

TBQH you'd be nuts to think that the last few weeks were anything resembling the dev team sitting around twiddling their thumbs on a job well done.

The performance issues aren't a small problem for them. Plenty of people have commented that they'd rather just wait for a sale now instead.

Although I guess with how well it's doing, those people are probably a minority.

 

[McNum]

I found it really annoying that I couldn't do anything with scientists unless I built a lab, so I built one.

Yeah, I find that Engineers are way overpowered when compared to Scientists in this game. I don't see any reason to have more than five Scientists at most on Veteran, since they don't do anything and there's a fast diminishing return on more Scientists.

Engineers on the other hand have a facility that gives more Engineers in the form of GREMLINs and that's one of the best facilities in the game. Like, why is it an Engineer slot in the AWC for faster healing? Why doesn't

Spoiler

the Shadow Chamber staff a Scientists for stuff? Like needing one to get the enemy composition on the geoscape

. Scientists are just a number, really.

 

[Durrzerker]

The performance issues aren't a small problem for them. Plenty of people have commented that they'd rather just wait for a sale now instead.

Although I guess with how well it's doing, those people are probably a minority.

I'm sure they're trying their hardest, but it's a very small company. 180 people total, and not all of them are developers. Not to mention XCOM 2 may not look as shiny as the Tomb Raiders and such of the world, but there's a LOT going on under the hood. It's got the most physics I've seen in a game since RF: Guerilla, and there's very likely a lot more going on.

Again, not excusing the state the game's in, but I'm just saying it's not surprising.

 

[Falk]

The performance issues aren't a small problem for them. Plenty of people have commented that they'd rather just wait for a sale now instead.

Although I guess with how well it's doing, those people are probably a minority.

You're not getting my point. I'm pretty sure they were well aware of the performance issues right up to release date and were doing all they can to push it as far as it will go, what with digital distro, day 1 patches, and all that. That they're 'looking into it' in response to feedback seems like a more polite way of saying "yes we know, we're (still) working on it!"

 

[Dick Justice]

How much was EU/EW improved from release until now, in terms of technical performance? Was playing it before 2 was released, and it seemed to perform reasonably well, not much in the way of major bugs.

Also, if you want Bradford to shut the fuck up on retaliation missions, here you go.

 

[Artdayne]

I've been running with 2 psi ops on my team and its crazy how easy it is. You can dominate two enemies and chain stasis on Sectopods.

 

[Incendiary]

Is there anything better than crit killing an Andromedon, then hacking the shell and using it to terrorize the remaining enemies by running around and completely destroying all their cover?

I'm in love with this game. They really made all the classes complement each other and basically all the trees are useful in their own way. Some of the combo setups I've done through tactics just fill me with commander glee.

Question about a later game Dark Event:

Spoiler

Can you get blown out of the sky more than once? Or is it scripted that you go down once but that's it.

Because that mission was fun and tactical as hell and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

 

[Falk]

I don't think there were any major performance issues with EU when it launched. Not more than any "it's on PC with a billion different configs" and "update your drivers" launch, anyway.

I'm actually surprised that out of everything, randomized maps work as well as they do (outside of the occasional LOS glitch) because that was the one thing I was expecting to have issues here and there, with clipping buildings, problematic open stretches with no cover, etc. but the maps actually feel as natural as EU/EW's deliberately crafted maps, but remain fresh.

 

[RandomSeed]

Firaxis 180 employees
CDPR 230 empoyees
(yeah, who knows how many are actually messing around with the code)

Witcher 3 had a day 1 patch, another one a week later, then more as needed, not to mention they at least had some interaction with people about their concerns, other than some BS PR statement. It takes them how long it takes them, but anything about their company size is an excuse, plain and simple.

 

[TC McQueen]

Are there any research projects or buildings that help speed up Avenger scan times, because I can't even fucking scan for supplies without getting interrupted by at least two sets of missions, plus research or construction.

If not, someone should mod that in.

 

[Durrzerker]

Firaxis 180 employees
CDPR 230 empoyees
(yeah, who knows how many are actually messing around with the code)

Witcher 3 had a day 1 patch, another one a week later, then more as needed, not to mention they at least had some interaction with people about their concerns, other than some BS PR statement. It takes them how long it takes them, but anything about their company size is an excuse, plain and simple.

CDPR had 230 developers, not 230 people. They have a lot more than 230 people total.

As far as I know, Firaxis is 180 people, total. CDPR confirmed 230 people working on the Witcher 3 alone. 180 for Firaxis is the ENTIRE company. Marketing, clerical, other games, etc.

That's a huge difference. CDPR is also Polish, where development costs are partially subsidized by the government and cost-of-living is much lower. It's not comparable.

 

[Sblargh]

CDPR spoiled us.

 

[Falk]

nah man when one of their games has a problem there's an alarm in the middle of the building that rings and everyone incl. XCOM team, Civ team, small game teams, heck even Sid Meier himself all drop what they're doing to immediately attend to the issue.

 

[Steel]

I don't think there were any major performance issues with EU when it launched. Not more than any "it's on PC with a billion different configs" and "update your drivers" launch, anyway.

I'm actually surprised that out of everything, randomized maps work as well as they do (outside of the occasional LOS glitch) because that was the one thing I was expecting to have issues here and there, with clipping buildings, problematic open stretches with no cover, etc. but the maps actually feel as natural as EU/EW's deliberately crafted maps, but remain fresh.

Yeah, the layout is surprisingly good most of the time.

On the other hand, occasionally some buildings and vehicles spawn in without walls. Which gets incredibly awkward when you see a VIP through the nonexistant wall of a prison van, which triggers them to become one of your units, which in turn triggers all the enemies around it to murder him.

That being said, while that very specific scenario only happened to me once, I've had a few instances of walls not being where they should be.

 

[Palmer_v1]

nah man when one of their games has a problem there's an alarm in the middle of the building that rings and everyone incl. XCOM team, Civ team, small game teams, heck even Sid Meier himself all drop what they're doing to immediately attend to the issue.

It's where the in game timers came from.

"Commander, another forum poster has complained about performance issues! We're suffering massive casualties!"

 

[mbpm1]

nah man when one of their games has a problem there's an alarm in the middle of the building that rings and everyone incl. XCOM team, Civ team, small game teams, heck even Sid Meier himself all drop what they're doing to immediately attend to the issue.

Firaxis doesn't ignore them Dark Events.

"The MetaCritic scores are turning into a massacre!"

 

[twobear]

CDPR spoiled us.

i mean the scope of the witcher 3 was pretty impressive but lets not pretend it didn't have its fair share of technical issues (at least on consoles) at launch

 

[RandomSeed]

CDPR had 230 developers, not 230 people. They have a lot more than 230 people total.

As far as I know, Firaxis is 180 people, total. CDPR confirmed 230 people working on the Witcher 3 alone. 180 for Firaxis is the ENTIRE company. Marketing, clerical, other games, etc.

That's a huge difference. CDPR is also Polish, where development costs are partially subsidized by the government and cost-of-living is much lower. It's not comparable.

Cost of living has anything to do with Jake "I love twitter" Solomon letting people know what's up? I'm sorry, but all that is still an excuse. I'm sure smaller companies than them have communicated better. I hope you're not taking this like I'm attacking you or anything, I just don't see the point of defending a company like that...I'm more concerned about the gamers that buy the games.

i mean the scope of the witcher 3 was pretty impressive but lets not pretend it didn't have its fair share of technical issues (at least on consoles) at launch

What I said had nothing to do with the state of the game, good or bad. They had some communication going (devs even post on reddit bug hunting, showing concern when someone has an issue, telling them to send their save file directly to them), and they started patching quickly. The state of XCOM 2, no matter how good the game itself is, is the definition of a game that required a day 1 patch.

 

[Durrzerker]

Cost of living has anything to do with Jake "I love twitter" Solomon letting people know what's up? I'm sorry, but all that is still an excuse. I'm sure smaller companies than them have communicated better. I hope you're not taking this like I'm attacking you or anything, I just don't see the point of defending a company like that...I'm more concerned about the gamers that buy the games.



What I said had nothing to do with the state of the game, good or bad. They had some communication going (devs even post on reddit bug hunting, showing concern when someone has an issue, telling them to send their save file directly to them), and they started patching quickly. The state of XCOM 2, no matter how good the game itself is, is the definition of a game that required a day 1 patch.

They -did- let people know what's up. That's what started this argument. Is the problem that they didn't let people know sooner? I guess that's understandable, but I don't see how saying "We're working on it" a week ago would be any different than saying "We're working on it" now.

It's not that I'm jumping to defend the company, I just literally can't wrap my head around the difference it would make, since the logical assumption is, of course, that they're working on it. I don't need a tweet to tell me that.


EDIT: Unrelated - Holy shit, 66% of XCOM deaths in XCOM 2 are from 'collateral damage' like cars blowing up and roofs/floors blowing up https://xcom.com/xcom-2-stats

 

[dumbo]

The state of XCOM 2, no matter how good the game itself is, is the definition of a game that required a day 1 patch.

I've played the game through, I experienced no serious bugs, and IMHO it's a strong game-of-the-year candidate...

Similarly, reviewers had a equally 'buggy' game, stated that in their reviews, and the game is sitting at ~90% rating.

For most people, this game didn't "require" a day-1 patch. I think some people are 'bugaphobic' - they have an irrational aversion to bugs that mostly don't hurt them.

 

[Sblargh]

I like to think all of firaxis is just Sid Meier and Jake in a garage.

 

[Roshin]

Some of the characters in the game have mentioned my old favorite Dr Van Halen. Please tell me she really is in the game, guys.

 

[shadowstew]

They should get a sword upgrade that allows attack through high cover and just fucking gank a dude right through the wall

Yes, I want some more ninja shit.