Kaffeemann
Banned
Oh shit, that looks amazing!
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XCOM 2 |OT| Be Aggressive! Be Be Aggressive!
- Thread starter Sober
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TC McQueen
Member
The weapon meshes are different, but they have the same overall aesthetic, which is great.
Oh, they picked him up? (or was he always with them?)
Either way, it's great, his stuff is really professional.
LurkerPrime
Member
So, uh... one of the SPARK voices is totally Michael Dorn, right? (aka Worf from Star Trek: TNG) In any case, I'd swear it's him.
Also, creating a pool of characters is more fun than ever with that anarchy DLC. I'm actually surprised at how useful such an off-the-wall assortment of items is. Kinda hope it doesn't appear on pregenerated characters though, because it clashes super hard with everything XCOM 2 is supposed to be, atmosphere-wise.
Also, creating a pool of characters is more fun than ever with that anarchy DLC. I'm actually surprised at how useful such an off-the-wall assortment of items is. Kinda hope it doesn't appear on pregenerated characters though, because it clashes super hard with everything XCOM 2 is supposed to be, atmosphere-wise.
There's a slider on an option menu somehwere of how much you want anarchy stuff to show up on pre-generated characters. Just slide it all the way off and enjoy.
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I am playing a bit with the LWS classes and, so far, they seem better than the vanilla classes. Other modded classes I tried just seemed weird mashes of skills, but these ones seem actual improvement. My problem is with how many of them are there because my neurotic self was very happy with 4 classes + psi ops + spark = a neat 6-person squad.
LWS have 7 classes + psi ops + spark = a very awkward 9-person squad. And having experimented a bit, I quite like the vanilla setup of starting with 4 and building up to 6, so I think I'll choose 4 classes.
Shinobi really feels like what the ranger should be from the start. Start with phantom, then you either improve your phantome-ness or the sword while the vanilla assault is more extreme in that you are either a specialist blademaster or a specialist phantom, imo.
The ranger itself feels a bit out of place now, I don't know, I guess I'm ditching that. The rifle is just plain horrible in this game. It was horrible to have to run a specialist in the squad before because it meant a horrible rifle in the mix; now with the alien rulers and the one-shot stun thingie, that problem is solved, so I am not reintroducing the problem by playing a class focused on the assault rifle.
Sharpshooter seems like an improvement, too, and while vanilla sharpshooter usually ends up being my unit with most kills at the end of a campaign (going 100% the sniper tree), I think I'll ditch it too, because a sniper doesn't feel "guerilla" enough. (also, it doesn't mesh well with the actual guerilla war mod, which seems to be the future of this game to me).
Specialist seems good. It already starts with both the long range healing and haywire protocol, so I guess it goes into that philosophy of the ranger that it already does the basic of both trees, you just need to choose which side you will buff.
And then they broke the grenadier into a gunner, which seems like a cool class based on "support shots" like suppression and holo-targetting and the actual grenadier, based on blowing stuff up and being OP. I'll take both.
Dick Justice
Banned
Anyone else have an issue with flashing lights/colours? The few times it's happened, it's started when launching a mission with the squad in the skyranger. Restarting the game fixes it, but it's cropped up a few times since.
Same here. Since it is fixable by a restart it doesn't bother me, but it does happen.
LurkerPrime
Member
Good to hear about the DLC availability slider for random soldiers.
I'm about ready to jump back in with all of the LWS mods. Gonna be an adventure. Only thing I'm unclear of is whether they're all compatible with the SPARK dlc.
I'm about ready to jump back in with all of the LWS mods. Gonna be an adventure. Only thing I'm unclear of is whether they're all compatible with the SPARK dlc.
The LWS ones I believe so. I had no trouble with them so far.
Dick Justice
Banned
So it's not a hardware problem on my end. Good to know, thanks.
Zod the Bear
Member
It has its uses for me--I'm playing with the Perk mod from LWS, and have had a hard time getting a specialist early in the game with the class diversity (I've had 2, both've gotten one shotted) and no GTS yet. The Spark gives me a backup unit with remote hacking for certain objective missions that can take some hits and provide full cover for a unit behind it.
Not going to be part of my regular rotation, but it's a fun backup.
Not going to be part of my regular rotation, but it's a fun backup.
TC McQueen
Member
Alien Hunters is good as long as you don't trigger the Rulers before you're ready for them. Shen's Last Gift is pretty good, unless you're actively trying to mod it.
Baron_Calamity
Member
I triggered the Alien Hunter Bosses the first month in a new game and I believe this campaign is doomed. I have two Dark events from the Avatar project completing, the mission I'm on will jump the Avatar Project 2 events if I lose and an alien boss (The Queen?) is on the mission kicking my butt.
I think both DLC packs are rough if you trigger them at the beginning of a game, but waiting makes it too easy.
I just tackled them in the last few days on Ironman Commander, and with a 6 squad with magnetic weapons, it's too easy. Destroyed Julian pretty quickly, and took down the Viper King in his lair.
Last nigth, I had the Berserker boss show up unexpectedly. (damn loot) My guys were armored up to tier 2, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
IMO, the sweet spot to start the DLC on Commander difficulty would be 6-man squad with conventional weapons. Bring a mimic beacon and you're set.
I just tackled them in the last few days on Ironman Commander, and with a 6 squad with magnetic weapons, it's too easy. Destroyed Julian pretty quickly, and took down the Viper King in his lair.
Last nigth, I had the Berserker boss show up unexpectedly. (damn loot) My guys were armored up to tier 2, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
IMO, the sweet spot to start the DLC on Commander difficulty would be 6-man squad with conventional weapons. Bring a mimic beacon and you're set.
Baron_Calamity
Member
I hit both with 4 men team with starter weapons. its not been a fun campaign.
Lan Dong Mik
And why would I want them?
I've been wanting to pick this up for a while now I just got two questions if someone can help me out here that'd be sweet.
1. Where is the cheapest place I can buy it from? Shit is still 59.99 on Steam
2. I've read a few reviews that say there are major technical and performance issues with the game. Have patches significantly improved performance?
1. Where is the cheapest place I can buy it from? Shit is still 59.99 on Steam
2. I've read a few reviews that say there are major technical and performance issues with the game. Have patches significantly improved performance?
TC McQueen
Member
You missed out on major deals during the Steam Summer sale and Amazon Prime Day sales. You might be able to catch a deal on it at some point from a store like GMG or Steam.
The patches have improved performance a lot, but to get the absolute best performance, you need to go to Documents/My Games/XCOM 2/XComGame/Config/XComEngine.ini and set it to DX11 = true, and follow this guide.
Lan Dong Mik
And why would I want them?
oh shiiit! thanks man, I'll definitely do that. sucks i missed out on the deals. took a chance and bought a key off of one of those cdkeys websites for $30.00.
LurkerPrime
Member
Going to try this out and see how it works. Thanks for the link!
The DX11 thing is that D3D11 entry though, right? Don't see any "DX11" setting in my .ini otherwise.
Edit: Thanks!
TC McQueen
Member
Yeah, that should be it.
Thanks! It seems to have improved the performance on my end. I didn't make the ini file read only, though, since some of the comments mentioned issues with mods. I made a backup of my optimized ini file, and will check on it if I see any drops I'm performance .
LurkerPrime
Member
FYI, the read only thing is generally to stop a game from automatically reverting ini changes, "fixing" the file. It's the same way that it will regenerate that whole folder if it is deleted, renamed, or moved; handy, but a double-edged sword when it comes to modding. The "set to default" trick he mentions is how they get around being unable to change graphics settings with a locked ini (at least, I think that's what the guide was saying).
So, yeah. You might want to double-check that the changes held, particularly after you've played the game again (or sometimes, looked at the options/settings menu).
Kaffeemann
Banned
Good but not overpowered.
The strongest normal vanilla class is probably the shotgun ranger.
But I'd suggest trying the Long War Studios Perk Pack. Vanilla classes are super boring in comparison.
Baron_Calamity
Member
I posted this in the current Steam community topic and no one seems to know the answer:
Anyone know what Valve's stance is on ip violations in the workshop? If someone complains, what would valve do? I assume the mod would be taken down but would the user lose their account?
The reason why I was asking is I was thinking about doing a voice pack mod for XCOM 2. I have several ideas but I don't know if I can find enough clean audio samples to do the different ip justice. I don't want to put a lot of effort into something that would get my steam account banned. Currently there are a bunch of voice packs that are mostly rips from other games so i guess everyone is ok with it or at least looks the other way.
Anyone know what Valve's stance is on ip violations in the workshop? If someone complains, what would valve do? I assume the mod would be taken down but would the user lose their account?
The reason why I was asking is I was thinking about doing a voice pack mod for XCOM 2. I have several ideas but I don't know if I can find enough clean audio samples to do the different ip justice. I don't want to put a lot of effort into something that would get my steam account banned. Currently there are a bunch of voice packs that are mostly rips from other games so i guess everyone is ok with it or at least looks the other way.
TC McQueen
Member
AFAIK, they just take down the content, but I'm not 100% sure of the rules on that.
Edit: if anyone wants a deal on XCOM 2, Newegg has it for $30 digital.
I just finished the game on Normal yesterday. I agree with you in that the Spark isn't as good in late game because its aim doesn't improve as much as a soldier's. I still took one on the final mission though, just because I was so used to using one to take point and act as mobile cover.one death was worth it if you did the mission as soon as it popped because Spark is soooo good that early game. Later on, the enemies difficulty scale to catch up with him, but just that rocket of his is godlike before the more tough stuff start appearing.
Just finish my all DLC legend run. 2 deaths overall, one on gatecrasher, fuck that mission.
The other was so unfortunate, a sniper I had non-stop since the first mission, never even got injuried, always back and usually safe, until this one time where a crysalid appeared behind him while the rest of the squad was way upfront still fighting the Archon King. I kept him back because was just one crysalid, but that one crysalid started attacking civilians and soon enough I had to deal with baby crysalids and so unfortunate.
A real hero, that one.
Overall I really liked the game. I think it did difficulty progression better than the first game, and the last mission was actually pretty hard instead of the cakewalk that was the XCOM EU/EW final mission. The sheer number of enemies that the game threw at you by the end meant that you really had to use the strong abilities well, which led to some really cool combos and some moments when you really had to go loud with all sorts of crazy shit. I had a Ranger get like 5-7 kills with Reaper at one point because she cut up like three guys, grappled to a nearby area for a free movement, then Reapered another two before it was over. I also had a guy use the high end shredder cannon and took out another 5 guys with it in one shot. Stuff like that saved my squad from really bad situations.
I think I'll go through it again at a higher difficulty.
Is gatecrasher the one where
you get jumped by like 15 chrysalids at once?
sneaking for a flank aggroed like 10 chrysalids and though an emergency shredder cannon took out most of them, she still couldn't deal with the remaining hits. 
Is gatecrasher the one whereI lost one of my rangers there. She was my stealth person and well...you get jumped by like 15 chrysalids at once?sneaking for a flank aggroed like 10 chrysalids and though an emergency shredder cannon took out most of them, she still couldn't deal with the remaining hits.
Gatecrasher is the first mission.
So I played this for around 7 hours back at launch, then got swamped with all the other big games coming out.
I've tried getting back into it recently and I'm getting frustrated. Is this game supposed to be super fucking hard? After a few more hours over the last couple of days, I'm down to less than a squads worth of soldiers and barely any resources, meanwhile the avatar thingy is just over halfway done.
I've tried getting back into it recently and I'm getting frustrated. Is this game supposed to be super fucking hard? After a few more hours over the last couple of days, I'm down to less than a squads worth of soldiers and barely any resources, meanwhile the avatar thingy is just over halfway done.
Baron_Calamity
Member
Yeah. The first game was a cakewalk compared to this one. I have about 40 hours in till I really got it and I've played all previous Xcom games.
Kaffeemann
Banned
What difficulty do you play on? You can lower it during the campain if you want to.
The weird thing about XCOM 2 is that you snowball harder than in XCOM EU/EW if you're lucky and don't get any wounds. But it's also way easier for your troops to get hit and ruin your snowballing. On Legendary (and the lower difficulties), if you don't get hit in the first two or so months, you're going to have a really easy campaign, but a single wound on the wrong soldier can make you start taking more hits and eventually end your campaign if you're not careful. And there are tons of enemies that have a pretty high chance of hitting your soldiers if you let them go unmolested for a turn (fun lancers, mainly, also vipers).
Don't worry *too* much about the Avatar project, you'll bring it down by advancing the plot and doing ADVENT facility missions.
Don't worry *too* much about the Avatar project, you'll bring it down by advancing the plot and doing ADVENT facility missions.
Dick Justice
Banned
Is there a way to sort props added from mods? Changing the load order via the alternative mod launcher doesn't do anything.
Install the mod that makes damage that doesn't hit the soldier's root health pool not cause wounds. This change from EU annoyed the heck out of me, if my armor adds 10 health getting scratched for 3 damage shouldn't put my soldier out for two weeks.
TheThunder
Member
My god the Legend difficultly is brutally kicking my ass. I've started more than 10 campaigns already and I still can't get passed the 3rd mission. I already finished the game twice on Commander but the difficultly jump from that to legend is insane.
RandomSeed
Member
Picked up the Reinforcement pack for $12 on Green Man Gaming. I probably won't touch the game for a while yet, but I guess I'd like all the DLC for when I do replay it. I mainly wanted Shen's Last Gift, but it's like, $9.99 for that, or $12 for all the DLC...tough call there.
schadenfood
Member
For anybody who was waiting, Shen's Last Gift became available for Mac over the weekend.
I started another run last night and it's just as fun as the 40 hours I put in back in February--the DLC mission came up about three hours into the campaign.
I hope we get an Enemy Within-style expansion eventually. I'd love to be able to come back twice a year and have a new experience with new goodies. I love this game!
I started another run last night and it's just as fun as the 40 hours I put in back in February--the DLC mission came up about three hours into the campaign.
I hope we get an Enemy Within-style expansion eventually. I'd love to be able to come back twice a year and have a new experience with new goodies. I love this game!
Baron_Calamity
Member
Finally got to the end of the game. Took 3 campaigns and 115+ hours but I beat honestly. Man the last mission was a huge disappointment. Game play wise it was fine, kinda sorta.
The whole deus ex machina where the commander was "The One" just rubbed me the wrong way. Basically it comes down to the game giving you this uber unit. It just felt unsatisfying.
RandomSeed
Member
You don't play this for a while, and you forget how glitchy it is.
-Grenade the floor, and watch as an Advent takes damage, teleports to the ground (still standing), then the fall damage registers, and he/she dies.
-Get an overwatch shot through a wall, looks like a miss, then you see damage numbers, then they die.
-Charge through a closed door to take a close range flanking shot, then watch the door open after going through it.
All in one series of events, heh. But seriously, I haven't had a single door work yet in the little bit I was screwing around with the game.
-Grenade the floor, and watch as an Advent takes damage, teleports to the ground (still standing), then the fall damage registers, and he/she dies.
-Get an overwatch shot through a wall, looks like a miss, then you see damage numbers, then they die.
-Charge through a closed door to take a close range flanking shot, then watch the door open after going through it.
All in one series of events, heh. But seriously, I haven't had a single door work yet in the little bit I was screwing around with the game.
Kaffeemann
Banned
Sweet! The Long War Muton Centurion pack was upgraded to the Long War Alien Pack.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577474474
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577474474
TC McQueen
Member
There really isn't one, just a bunch of Long War Studios mods.
Apparently there's a fifth unannounced one coming up, maybe that's the gameplay/strategic map one?
Kaffeemann
Banned
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the last mod will be big. Otherwise, why keep it a secret?
Praise johnnylump and the rest of the LW team, theySweet! The Long War Muton Centurion pack was upgraded to the Long War Alien Pack.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577474474
Meanwhile I'm too chickenshit to even start a new game with Alien Hunters.
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