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XCOM 2 |OT| Be Aggressive! Be Be Aggressive!

General consensus of this game seems to be "keep waiting"

I know Long War is supposed to be awesome...there was no word of it coming to console right? Could have sworn I heard it was coming to console.
AFAIK, none of the Long War Studio mods are coming to consoles... which isn't a bad thing, since they may actually ruin the game for people.
 

SRG01

Member
Not sure if anyone still checks this thread, but does anyone know how to turn off the speedy camera? It seems to be LW2 specific and is making me really dizzy :(
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
I wish there was a way to know when an enemy gets multiple turns... really annoying to have your entire mission go sideways when your sharpshooter misses a 90% shot and then that enemy attacks 3 times.

This game is close to what I want from turn-based squad combat, but somehow still very far away.

Idk, I'd say it's 70% frustrating and 30% fun. Frustration can be fun, but that's a difficult balance, and XCOM2 is missing the mark in most areas. Not the game's fault it isn't scratching the itch though... it is what it is.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
I wish there was a way to know when an enemy gets multiple turns... really annoying to have your entire mission go sideways when your sharpshooter misses a 90% shot and then that enemy attacks 3 times.

This game is close to what I want from turn-based squad combat, but somehow still very far away.

Idk, I'd say it's 70% frustrating and 30% fun. Frustration can be fun, but that's a difficult balance, and XCOM2 is missing the mark in most areas. Not the game's fault it isn't scratching the itch though... it is what it is.

What do you mean multiple turns? The AI never gets consecutive shooting turns, ever. At most, they get a scamper free move when you spot them.
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
What do you mean multiple turns? The AI never gets consecutive shooting turns, ever. At most, they get a scamper free move when you spot them.
Uh... the lieutenant guy shot me three times after my sharpshooter missed an easy shot. He killed my sharpshooter,"marked" my specialist, shot (wounded) my specialist, then shot (wounded) my ranger. I was watching in disbelief, but didn't call bullshit, because I vaguely recalled multi-shots from last time I was playing this months ago. (Though I'm not as confident in that recollection -- this thing yesterday was literally the last thing I played, so I remember it clearly). After, on my next turn, the specialist got killed when a car next to her exploded, and the game crashed during my first move order... and then I left a salty error report message.

I guess I should've hit the share button? I never considered it could be a bug. I just thought I got dicked the way XCOM has a way of dicking you over (I mean the car exploding was pure insult to injury) and that the crash was a wholly separate thing.

Now I wish I would've attached the vid to the error report when it asked... didn't realize that multi-shots weren't an actual thing.

This was early-game, btw... recently started over.
 

void666

Banned
I was bored last night when i decided to start a new campaing. I haven't touched the game for a whole year. That was around 11pm. It was 3:30am when i had to force myself to stop playing.

Question: I know the DLC adds some tough enemies. If i just ignore the DLC missions those enemies won't show up right? Are these missions supposed to be endgame?
 
I was bored last night when i decided to start a new campaing. I haven't touched the game for a whole year. That was around 11pm. It was 3:30am when i had to force myself to stop playing.

Question: I know the DLC adds some tough enemies. If i just ignore the DLC missions those enemies won't show up right? Are these missions supposed to be endgame?
If you started a new campaign, then you have to do a mission to trigger them. Then they become recurring enemies in the game.
 

Joohanh

Member
This has certainly been touched upon previously in this thread, but man does this game suffer from some poor pacing. It's an incredible game otherwise, but often it feels like the developers are actively working against the mechanics which primarily make the game more satisfying.

It's been a while since I played the first one, but I don't really recall there being so many forced time-sensitive missions being forced down your throat one after another. It's so frustrating to clear one mission with a plan formed in your head on how to improve the squad and equipment, only to have the development metagame being cut off by some fucking guerrilla ops mission or something. It really hampers the enjoyment I get out of what I think is one of the constitutional mechanics in this game.

Of course, there's the possibility to skip a mission, but then the game presents you with a message along the lines of "IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES". Which kind of forces me to do them as I don't want my campaign to fail.

These abrupt ad hoc -missions also really fuck with you when you're trying to do an actual mission. Sometimes you're all set and ready to go, and the game hits you in the face with a Retaliation Strike or something when you're traversing to the mission location. Jesus!

While the combat gameplay is good, much of the enjoyment in it comes from testing upgraded equipment and soldier abilities in the field, as well as fighting new enemies (which are extremely well-designed and very interesting). Doing these trivial missions removes the excitement from the combat as you already know you're just going to do the same VIP extraction you've done like 20 times before.

It's odd how this problem wasn't picked up during testing.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
This has certainly been touched upon previously in this thread, but man does this game suffer from some poor pacing. It's an incredible game otherwise, but often it feels like the developers are actively working against the mechanics which primarily make the game more satisfying.

It's been a while since I played the first one, but I don't really recall there being so many forced time-sensitive missions being forced down your throat one after another. It's so frustrating to clear one mission with a plan formed in your head on how to improve the squad and equipment, only to have the development metagame being cut off by some fucking guerrilla ops mission or something. It really hampers the enjoyment I get out of what I think is one of the constitutional mechanics in this game.

Of course, there's the possibility to skip a mission, but then the game presents you with a message along the lines of "IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES". Which kind of forces me to do them as I don't want my campaign to fail.

These abrupt ad hoc -missions also really fuck with you when you're trying to do an actual mission. Sometimes you're all set and ready to go, and the game hits you in the face with a Retaliation Strike or something when you're traversing to the mission location. Jesus!

While the combat gameplay is good, much of the enjoyment in it comes from testing upgraded equipment and soldier abilities in the field, as well as fighting new enemies (which are extremely well-designed and very interesting). Doing these trivial missions removes the excitement from the combat as you already know you're just going to do the same VIP extraction you've done like 20 times before.

It's odd how this problem wasn't picked up during testing.

The reality is that real goals get boring if the road too them is too straightforward.
It's a feature, not a bug, and has always been.
 
2K and Firaxis are teasing a reveal for the (very expected) upcoming "big" XCOM 2 expansion pack at the PC Gaming show early next week.

"The Real War Begins", which presumably means that Jake needs more tears to sustain his existence.
 
2K and Firaxis are teasing a reveal for the (very expected) upcoming "big" XCOM 2 expansion pack at the PC Gaming show early next week.

"The Real War Begins", which presumably means that Jake needs more tears to sustain his existence.

So I'm guessing they're going forward with the ending with
There's bigger, badder aliens out there and humans aren't ready for em.
 

SRG01

Member
Hmm, I'm not sure if I can go back to normal XCOM2 after playing LW2. The base game just lacks a lot of depth in comparison.

Ehhh, I actually dislike LW2 because it comes down to a) Shinobi everything or b) go in loud with a huge squad. There's very little room to play between the two, especially once the mid-game opens up.

That's not including the class balance issues as well as the re-tweaked mechanics.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Ehhh, I actually dislike LW2 because it comes down to a) Shinobi everything or b) go in loud with a huge squad. There's very little room to play between the two, especially once the mid-game opens up.

That's not including the class balance issues as well as the re-tweaked mechanics.

1.3\1.4 killed stealth.
The game is in a *much* better place right now. Smash n' grab was a great addition.
 
LW2 1.4 is fantastic. Like the original LW, it's not for everyone but if it is for you man it is for you :).

The difference with XCOM 2 is that there are some very good mod stacks outside of Long War. With XCOM:EW , it was Long War or bust. ABA2 , for example, is a hella fun campaign to play once you have everything tweaked.
 
I finally double dipped and bought the digital deluxe version on PC since it was on sale on steam.

Crossing my fingers that my video card can handle this decently ;_;
 
I have a 960 4GB and it runs fine in windowed mode.

I have an old vid card that I'm embarrassed to mention ;_; CPU and RAM are fine. I can run EW just fine though and it can run some modern games decently like Wolfenstein TNO alright.

I'm hoping I'll be alright.
 

Erheller

Member
I have an old vid card that I'm embarrassed to mention ;_; CPU and RAM are fine. I can run EW just fine though and it can run some modern games decently like Wolfenstein TNO alright.

I'm hoping I'll be alright.

I used to run the game at 20-30 fps on a 650M, haha. The game should be playable with your graphics card - it just might not look pretty.
 
If you've got a Ryzen 5 1600(X), you can mod BaseEngine.ini to use 4 cores for shaders and it doubles the frame rate in combat when paired with a GTX 970.
 
The expansion coming out looks crazy. Sooo many changes to the game. I started a new game earlier this week but part of me almost wants to wait the few months and start when the expack drops.
 
Question for console versions.

Since we can't use mods, is there any play to play a campaign indefinitely? I expect the answer is no but just checking.

Also, assuming the answer is no, I know with the upcoming expansion one of the bonuses you get from siding with one of the new factions is -1 to the doomsday counter every month in game. Would that theoretically be enough to play indefinitely?
 

Grimsen

Member
Question for console versions.

Since we can't use mods, is there any play to play a campaign indefinitely? I expect the answer is no but just checking.

Also, assuming the answer is no, I know with the upcoming expansion one of the bonuses you get from siding with one of the new factions is -1 to the doomsday counter every month in game. Would that theoretically be enough to play indefinitely?


You can play indefinitely in vanilla. Just accumulate the alien facilities and play them once the doomsday clock is high.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Question for console versions.

Since we can't use mods, is there any play to play a campaign indefinitely? I expect the answer is no but just checking.

Also, assuming the answer is no, I know with the upcoming expansion one of the bonuses you get from siding with one of the new factions is -1 to the doomsday counter every month in game. Would that theoretically be enough to play indefinitely?

In vanilla, once the avatar project gets full, a timer starts.
If you do a facility or any -1 at 1-2 days left, the entire timer resets.
 
In vanilla, once the avatar project gets full, a timer starts.
If you do a facility or any -1 at 1-2 days left, the entire timer resets.
Won't you eventually run out of facilities though?

Curious too I'm settled in pretty comfortable and just started running into Sectopods, and honestly I'm attached enough my crew that I'd rather just keep play indefinitely too rather than finish the story hhh. At the least I'll probably keep a save file before the end section starts on a USB or something (since I'm on Ironman) just so if I really want to revisit 'free roaming' [just for fun] post-ending I at least have the choice.

The story is pretty cool but actually sort of like XCOM EU/EW or even Invisible Inc.'s Endless Mode (the story changes to 'the company is almost bankrupt/rebuild our bank account/just go rob data vaults) when you can just play free roam forever and just keep building up your 'organization' bigger and bigger indefinitely.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Won't you eventually run out of facilities though?

Curious too I'm settled in pretty comfortable and just started running into Sectopods, and honestly I'm attached enough my crew that I'd rather just keep play indefinitely too rather than finish the story hhh. At the least I'll probably keep a save file before the end section starts on a USB or something (since I'm on Ironman) just so if I really want to revisit 'free roaming' [just for fun] post-ending I at least have the choice.

The story is pretty cool but actually sort of like XCOM EU/EW or even Invisible Inc.'s Endless Mode (the story changes to 'the company is almost bankrupt/rebuild our bank account/just go rob data vaults) when you can just play free roam forever and just keep building up your 'organization' bigger and bigger indefinitely.

Skullmine enough and you won't.
The aliens still need to refill the last pips before the timer starts again, and the timer is pretty forgiving (20d on veteran, 15d on commander), so realistically you need a facility every 40 days or so.
Consider this:
The Dark Event "Minor Avatar Project breakthrough" increases progress by 1.
The Dark Event "Major Avatar Project breakthrough" increases progress by 2.
After several weeks an Avatar Project Facility will increase progress by 1.
When an Avatar Project Facility appears it will increase progress by 1.
Every several weeks progress will increase by 1.

All facility doom can be rolled back by destroying the facility.
You actually only need to timer-abuse for the "every several weeks", which standing at the .inis, is 14 days, meaning you need a facility reset every 34 days or so.

Not entirely sure you can stall FOREVER, but you can sure stall for a long ass time.
 

Sullichin

Member
Holy shit does this game ever fucking end ?!?

Resuming my playthrough from last year. Good to be back. Killed an avatar, have codex brain coordinates + avatar autopsy missions in queue. Am I close? I have no research left. Avatar project only at one block tho. I've been stretching out this campaign for a while.

Is any of the current DLC worth it?
 
Holy shit does this game ever fucking end ?!?

Resuming my playthrough from last year. Good to be back. Killed an avatar, have codex brain coordinates + avatar autopsy missions in queue. Am I close? I have no research left. Avatar project only at one block tho. I've been stretching out this campaign for a while.

Is any of the current DLC worth it?
Shen's Last Gift and Alien Rulers. They'll get rebalanced with the expansion, though.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Holy shit does this game ever fucking end ?!?

Resuming my playthrough from last year. Good to be back. Killed an avatar, have codex brain coordinates + avatar autopsy missions in queue. Am I close? I have no research left. Avatar project only at one block tho. I've been stretching out this campaign for a while.

Is any of the current DLC worth it?

Should have just the Network Tower + Final mission left, and those are back-to-back.
 

Sullichin

Member
Should have just the Network Tower + Final mission left, and those are back-to-back.

Well with Shen's missions you have to do it at the beginning of the game or you get locked out of it.

Thanks! Looks like I'll (finally) finish this campaign and then probably start a new one with the current dlc.

I am scared of the final mission from what I've heard. Plus I just lost my best ranger :(


Have they nerfed mimic beacons? I used them a lot early in my playthrough, and they were really an amazing crutch. I haven't been using them at all since resuming my playthrough though. Pretty much all grenades + special ammo in my slots.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Thanks! Looks like I'll (finally) finish this campaign and then probably start a new one with the current dlc.

I am scared of the final mission from what I've heard. Plus I just lost my best ranger :(


Have they nerfed mimic beacons? I used them a lot early in my playthrough, and they were really an amazing crutch. I haven't been using them at all since resuming my playthrough though. Pretty much all grenades + special ammo in my slots.

Nerfed, still outrageous.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Do gatekeepers/sectopods ignore them now?

No that i knew of. I didn't build any on my last vanilla L/I run (as a self-imposed challenge), and they're not present and all in LW2, so not sure.
 

Erheller

Member
Thanks! Looks like I'll (finally) finish this campaign and then probably start a new one with the current dlc.

I am scared of the final mission from what I've heard. Plus I just lost my best ranger :(


Have they nerfed mimic beacons? I used them a lot early in my playthrough, and they were really an amazing crutch. I haven't been using them at all since resuming my playthrough though. Pretty much all grenades + special ammo in my slots.

I haven't played through vanilla in a while, but I think mimic beacons (post-nerf) fall off the farther you get into the game. They have a set amount of hp, so they can soak up a bunch of hits early-game, but die almost instantly late-game (although the ability to soak even one hit for free is still incredibly powerful).

Haven't heard of specific enemies ignoring them, but I haven't really been keeping up with this game that much tbh.
 
Cool thanks I'll try that. I haven't done much skullmining yet hhh I always neglected the arc launcher in EW too. Even 25 missions or so in I feel like I've barely scratched a quarter of the map. And only even did 1 facility so far; I waited until I had like 15 days left (just because one light gameplay spoiler/hint I happened to see was that don't overweigh the threat of the Avatar timer haha so I've mostly ignored it).
 
Did they say how much the expansion will be? Any bundles with the dlc? I beat the base game so I'm looking to get back in since XCom 1 still kicks my butt.
 

Sullichin

Member
No that i knew of. I didn't build any on my last vanilla L/I run (as a self-imposed challenge), and they're not present and all in LW2, so not sure.

I haven't played through vanilla in a while, but I think mimic beacons (post-nerf) fall off the farther you get into the game. They have a set amount of hp, so they can soak up a bunch of hits early-game, but die almost instantly late-game (although the ability to soak even one hit for free is still incredibly powerful).

Haven't heard of specific enemies ignoring them, but I haven't really been keeping up with this game that much tbh.

Cool. I gave up on using a mimic after equipping it one mission and not using it. It was fun for setups in the early missions but seems better now to have ammo/other utility items.

I am up to the network tower mission... I think I am finally almost done with the campaign. I'm really happy I was able to salvage my old save and make it. Kind of assumed I left myself in an unwinnable position but was able to get avatar project down to one tick and things went way faster when focusing on the story objectives. I had put off skulljacking a codex for way too long for example. Basically sent a ranger on a suicide run to do that but he came out fine.
 

Grimsen

Member
Cool. I gave up on using a mimic after equipping it one mission and not using it. It was fun for setups in the early missions but seems better now to have ammo/other utility items.

Mimic beacon is still OP. It's a lifesaver throughout the campaign.



Also, first look at the Assassin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRLOkk-Lhdw

The abduction ability looks awesome. I think I left behind a soldier only once in vanilla, so getting soldiers back through missions is going to happen more often.
 

Sullichin

Member
Mimic beacon is still OP. It's a lifesaver throughout the campaign.



Also, first look at the Assassin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRLOkk-Lhdw

The abduction ability looks awesome. I think I left behind a soldier only once in vanilla, so getting soldiers back through missions is going to happen more often.

I'm confused if this is a standalone campaign or just adding to it, but it looks awesome and i'm excited.

I'm terrified to do the last couple missions in my playthrough :(
 

Lister

Banned
Holy shit just watched this PCGamesN interview with Jake Solomon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvF8d5ot6Q&t=434s

Oh man, this expansion sounds so damn good. Can't wait!

New interactions between tema mebers, new objectives and mission types, a system akin to the Nemesys system form Shadow of Mordor. New story elements, new cutscenes, new enemy types!

Be still my heart!!
 
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