The air combat is legitimately awful in LW.
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XCOM 2 |OT| Be Aggressive! Be Be Aggressive!
- Thread starter Sober
- Start date
The air combat is legitimately awful in LW.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I think LW has some good ideas, but I think I am too spoiled by simple things like XCOM 2... like overwatch not firing 3 times at a dead enemy. I also really hated the air combat, especially in LW... my god it was such as asshat in long war.
Another thing you'll get sick of is the repetition of maps. And you have to do certain set pieces, like base attacks and HQ defense, multiple times.
Friendly Skies is an absolute must second wave option in LW. Losing a playthrough because of RNG air combat is no bueno.
Really enjoying Legendary (non-Iron). Probably moreso than Veteran difficulty despite the combat sometimes just feeling like complete BS (85% chance to hit you say?? more like 0%). Just did the first Blacksite mission, wanted to wait for the Mag/Gauss weapons before hitting it and only narrowly made it with 1 bar left on the Avatar Counter. Now I need to haul ass to the next Advent Facility before the counter ticks back up again.
The metagame felt too easy on veteran, even without knowing what to research first and how to go about things I was never in danger of failure and never felt stressed. Things feel right on Legendary.
The metagame felt too easy on veteran, even without knowing what to research first and how to go about things I was never in danger of failure and never felt stressed. Things feel right on Legendary.
Considering how punishing a normal campaign of LW is, you're better off just finishing XCOM 2 (unless you dont mind spending about 300 hours screaming in despair while your whole squad is panicking to a bunch of ayys)
Man... XCOM likes to remind you never to get comfortable lol.
VIP escorted out with 5 turns remaining, and I had a rooftop approach to the LZ with scanner knowledge about a pod on the floor. So what do I do after extract? Set up an overwatch trap on the second floor roof in case the pod pats up to check out the scientist's dashing for free exp from potshots & OW trap before bugging out. Except some of the misses from the trap shoot out the space where the LZ is, nevermind it being 5 tiles away from the nearest enemy. Turned an easy mission into ohgodgetmeoutofhere really quick lol. If it was down to the wire and I did that I would've easily had a campaign ender right there.
The hole in the ceiling in the upper right was the old extract point.
VIP escorted out with 5 turns remaining, and I had a rooftop approach to the LZ with scanner knowledge about a pod on the floor. So what do I do after extract? Set up an overwatch trap on the second floor roof in case the pod pats up to check out the scientist's dashing for free exp from potshots & OW trap before bugging out. Except some of the misses from the trap shoot out the space where the LZ is, nevermind it being 5 tiles away from the nearest enemy. Turned an easy mission into ohgodgetmeoutofhere really quick lol. If it was down to the wire and I did that I would've easily had a campaign ender right there.
The hole in the ceiling in the upper right was the old extract point.
I think you just explained what happened to me last page. Your LZ moved right on top of my squad!
ISee
Member
I did it. I finally beat the game on the hardest difficulty.
I love this game even more than the predecessor, but there are many problems that need to be fixed. Especially performance issues, line of sight issues, state effects sometimes not working (e.g. acid/burning), weapon upgrades sometimes not working (e.g. stock doesn't work with rapid fire, but 'instant kill' does). Honestly, the game is great but it's hard to recommend it to someone at the moment who isn't a xcom or genre fan. The game feels a bit like an early access game.
That said, I'm glad it exists and personally I'd buy it again. It just needs more polish.
I know nobody cares but me. 
I love this game even more than the predecessor, but there are many problems that need to be fixed. Especially performance issues, line of sight issues, state effects sometimes not working (e.g. acid/burning), weapon upgrades sometimes not working (e.g. stock doesn't work with rapid fire, but 'instant kill' does). Honestly, the game is great but it's hard to recommend it to someone at the moment who isn't a xcom or genre fan. The game feels a bit like an early access game.
That said, I'm glad it exists and personally I'd buy it again. It just needs more polish.
I did it. I finally beat the game on the hardest difficulty.
I know nobody cares but me.
I love this game even more than the predecessor, but there are many problems that need to be fixed. Especially performance issues, line of sight issues, state effects sometimes not working (e.g. acid/burning), weapon upgrades sometimes not working (e.g. stock doesn't work with rapid fire, but 'instant kill' does). Honestly, the game is great but it's hard to recommend it to someone at the moment who isn't a xcom or genre fan. The game feels a bit like an early access game.
That said, I'm glad it exists and personally I'd buy it again. It just needs more polish.
I care, commander. *hugs*
I have been thinking of balance changes of my own, lately.
I like the lenght of legend, and feel it could even be longer. What I don't like about legend is how you need to survive the first few months, but I do like the difficulty of the missions themselves, I just think the consequences are too harsh.
Otoh, I think harsh consequences are necessary. This balancing games thing is tough.
But here are my thoughts.
I like playing with the IESS+ mod (increased enemy size squad) and 6-8 soldiers, because it makes the game slightly more difficulty (having two extra soldiers against 3 extra stun lancers in a pod favors the AI, imo).
I like the long wounded times and the high XP requirements because it makes someone getting shot at or a high ranking soldier getting killed something that matters. Something that I really really do not want to happen.
I don't like losing the overall game too soon because getting back up from a failed mission or even from a string of successful missions that, nonetheless, pile up the dead and the injuried. Reading the other thread about how Darkest Dungeon works, I may have developed problems to losing the game at all. lol
So, my proposed changes (to myself, but I'm curious to see other people's opinion) is to reduce the rookie costs to zero, so you never lose until you actually see a game over screen. Still, you don't want to have people shot or killed (unless they are rookies, lol) because you don't want to keep throwing rookies out there, you want real soldiers who are actually capable of getting the job done.
I am fine with how the avatar timer works right now, but might extend its duration a little bit.
If the game ends up being too easy, to work on making one of my issues with the game even worse by somehow making the beggining even harder.
The thought is to make the overall game balance itself by preventing you to snowball into victory, yet not letting you lose because of free rookies.
I think, eventually, you get strong anyway because of how endgame tech and high ranking skills are amazing.
But by sheer force of failing missions and losing soldiers, getting to that point is a slow climb, instead of a sudden turning point.
I'm also thinking of some sort of adaptive changes too, like flawless missions triggering dark events or something, but you would have to pretend not knowing about that, lol.
Glitchesarecool
Member
I think the game needs better evening on the difficulty scale. It's stacked pretty heavily against you at the start, but by the time you've done your first Blacksite you can kinda handle almost any situation as long as you play smartly. Other than the very final
mission, the late game is almost a breeze with all the different ammo types you can make use of.
bullshit
Why would I carry ammo when I can take the glorious mimic beacon?
4 of em too!
I got you, I am thinking about you, it just that I take so long editing a post that it ends up going to the past.
Glitchesarecool
Member
Oh, right. You know I never really got into using them in my games.
This honestly is a result of snowballing. Take an average runthrough where you make a tolerable amount of mistakes from start to end. Balance against that
If you make more mistakes than that baseline, the game starts getting harder.
If you make less mistakes than that baseline, the game starts getting easier.
If you tuned a game according to that last sentence, instead, it would require much more perfect play from start to end with much less hope of rebound should you mess up.
This is why ironman really is the best way to play the game. If you don't mess up, it's essentially cruise control. You reap the rewards of your hard work, etc. If you do mess up, it's not a complete loss straight out. Making the most of a ragtag roster of 3 colonels, a lieutenant and two squaddies (lol) after a complete brainfart where I refused to start over (and eventually winning) was actually the most fun I had in I/I EW - it actually felt pretty well tuned, heh. Compare that to the natural instinct (for most people) to keep reloading till you get the best possible outcome every step of the way. You run headlong into the snowballing problem.
I that being said though, some anti-snowballing features/dynamic balancing could have a positive impact on the game. However, make it too blatant and it becomes as annoying as rubberbanding AI opponents in racing games.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I'd like to see additional alien types (or variants on the base types) that only show up if you start really thrashing them. If you're doing average or below average (taking wounds/deaths regularly, failing the occasional mission), you get the regular procession, but if you start really going ham on them you start to see peeps show up with extra armor, health, abilities, etc.
I had to extend my campaign for a month just to get AP rounds. C'mon Shen I have 20 elerium cores and 5 engineers doing fuck all, just make me some AP rounds. At least blue screen rounds aren't RNG dependent :/
Glitchesarecool
Member
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
I've learned a few things today.
1. Building on a power coil
2. Reaper melee on muton
3. AWC can give you
I have only played I can't tell a lie mode and I haven't had any issues that would be helped out by reloading to a previous save.
1. Building on a power coil
costs no energy. Although building a power relay seems to give a higher benefit faster.
2. Reaper melee on muton
doesn't work despite saying a guaranteed or 100% hit, I forget which it says.
3. AWC can give you
Lightning reflexes, which guarantees a miss on the first reaction shot taken at you. I got it on my long range sniper, so it's super useful http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...572/41F9C1788372C5D8E9D31528A82F24F2966F10DF/
I have only played I can't tell a lie mode and I haven't had any issues that would be helped out by reloading to a previous save.
LurkerPrime
Member
playing on legend be like
Haha.. glorious.
I hope someone mods these two into the game. Regular chargen just won't suffice.
I'm a pyromaniac.
I personally noticed myself saving a lot out of habit but never actually loading my games. I even save every time I make a choice on the Avenger for some reason o_o
At any rate, does anyone know when the next patch is coming? Is the game still playable from the most recent patch, considering all the bugs I've heard of it??
At any rate, does anyone know when the next patch is coming? Is the game still playable from the most recent patch, considering all the bugs I've heard of it??
TC McQueen
Member
It's not playable on Windows 10 version 1511, but that's because Microsoft broke .net compatibility.
That sounds precisely like my idea of fun.
I think LW has some good ideas, but I think I am too spoiled by simple things like XCOM 2... like overwatch not firing 3 times at a dead enemy. I also really hated the air combat, especially in LW... my god it was such as asshat in long war.
Another thing you'll get sick of is the repetition of maps. And you have to do certain set pieces, like base attacks and HQ defense, multiple times.
I'm going to miss timers and concealment, that's for sure.
Move>overwatch>move>overwatch>move>overwatch before meeting anyone was harsh.
(Also, i finished XCOM2 twice at this point, Commander and Commander\Ironman, got kinda bored in both lategames since it's basically streamrolling 101 after a while.)
? It runs fine for me? I just started a new game just to test this, so I guess I'll find out if the patch broke a lot of things...
Long War can be much more dynamic than EW if you want it to be. Battlescanners (you can even get them for free with perks) and concealment scouts make the scouting phase of battles a lot less risky.
Glitchesarecool
Member
Works fine for me.
I think they should link it to the amount of times you let the avatar project clock run up. Get something bad in there for letting it progress besides just being a doom counter.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I mean, sure, letting the Doomsday counter run up is something advanced players do deliberately because they know they can always recover inside of the time limit (which should probably be shrunk, honestly), but it also happens when you're, you know, losing the game. Don't want to pile on to people who're already doing poorly, just jack up the difficulty against those who're coasting.
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
Every time you perform well in a mission, the aliens scratch their heads and say hey... next time lets not try harder. We have endless advent troopers, but lets only deploy a couple. And when shit is hitting the fan, lets reinforce them with our weakest troops and low numbers and call it a day.
Or, every time you achieve a good, excellent, or flawless rating... the game gets a little bit harder in addition to the normal progression. I don't think this means new aliens faster, but more of the aliens you've already encountered, higher chance of reinforcements, dark events more likely to kick in etc..
Or, every time you achieve a good, excellent, or flawless rating... the game gets a little bit harder in addition to the normal progression. I don't think this means new aliens faster, but more of the aliens you've already encountered, higher chance of reinforcements, dark events more likely to kick in etc..
Glitchesarecool
Member
For some reason I think it would be hilarious, if you were just destroying every engagement and knocking down blacksites left and right, that Advent would have to revert to using old EU versions of enemies (sans Thin Men obviously) because you were disrupting their human gene supply line.
TC McQueen
Member
I figured it out: my antivirus software hates .Net programs now, so I have to disable it to get the game running.
Not sure about new enemy types but I would have liked the Dark Events to maybe be tied to player progression a bit more.. if you're for example getting Psi-Ops early, the enemy starts a Dark Event to equip their troops with Mindshields. If you're hacking MECs a lot, they do a Dark Event to increase their hack defense. Stuff like that maybe. As it stands, I only really look at the rewards for various missions and not what Dark Event it counters since most of them are kinda 'whatever, I'll deal with it'.
I'd love this.
Poodlestrike
Banned
That's a lot more finessed than what I was thinking, but also a very good idea.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Poodlestrike
Banned
I'm gonna need a mod supplying Wile E. Coyote animations and maybe sound effects ASAP
marvelharvey
Member
I love that he stood up first before realising.
RandomSeed
Member
Hah, that's great. That's honestly a much more smooth falling situation than anything I've seen in my game. This game takes jank to a whole new level, but I love it.
It tells you everything that happens before it shows it (promotions, enemy icons turn yellow if exposed, etc), and when it does show it, it feels like the game is going to crash.LurkerPrime
Member
Hah, that's great. That's honestly a much more smooth falling situation than anything I've seen in my game. This game takes jank to a whole new level, but I love it.
Oh. The screen hitched and some music started playing as my soldier moved. Looks like I found something... Yup.
At least the cinematic shots aren't predictable anymore. It was always a bummer knowing the soldier was going to miss in EU.
RandomSeed
Member
LOL, that's my sign to start clenching and hope for the best. Another thing that's funny is how one of the best situations to find yourself in after overwatching with your squad is getting a blank "alien activity" screen. You know a group walked into your trap, but the camera has no clue what to do. Sweet, I can't see shit! This should be good.
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
After I move a soldier I hit the switch character button. If it switches, I know I haven't ran into an enemy that move. But it sometimes doesn't switch for other reasons, like objectives or picking something up.
For me it's like "Oh, I can't skip to the next soldier. Enemies must be spotted."
When you see two soldiers promoted though
RandomSeed
Member
My favorite is seeing stuff light on fire, then debris fly all over, then the grenade goes off. It's like watching old atomic bomb test videos.
Started new game on commander difficulty.
I recommend using this mod http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=619302232 Increased Enemy Squad Size.
Right from the beginning challenge feels harsh but fair. If you want to go crazy town use this http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=625780621 [IESS+] Increased Enemy Squad Size Plus.
Good luck Commander. O7
I recommend using this mod http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=619302232 Increased Enemy Squad Size.
Right from the beginning challenge feels harsh but fair. If you want to go crazy town use this http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=625780621 [IESS+] Increased Enemy Squad Size Plus.
Good luck Commander. O7
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Yeah it's like in this video where it took nearly 10 seconds before the explosion went off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTJyrJL-n_k