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XCOM 2 |OT| Be Aggressive! Be Be Aggressive!
- Thread starter Sober
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Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Just beat the game. Good stuff. It seems easier than the first game due to lack of time urgency in the strategic layer. In XCOM 1, you're racing against the clock to try and get satellite coverage or risk losing continents. Most likely, you won't end the game without having to make a hard choice over which ones to save and which ones to abandon.
In XCOM 2, you can take the game at a more leisurely pace. As long as you can wait it out, you can't lose anything. It reminds me of the difference between Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2.
Random thoughts on skills and items:
Ranger -
Grenadier -
Pretty strong, just like heavies in XCOM1. Very important, especially on higher difficulty levels, to remove cover and deal guaranteed damage. Comboed with a concealed scout, I could dish out AOE damage to enemy pods fairly consistently.
Specialist -
Sharpshooter -
Nerfed from XCOM 1 due to the squadsight penalty to aim, but still pretty good. I had a hard time getting Kill Zone to work properly, but when it did it was great. The new pistol skills are very useful. Face Off is godlike when dealing with codex clones.
I missed picking off Chryssalids with In the Zone from XCOM1.
Psi-corp -
Item thoughts:
Armor piercing rounds were awesome when I got them. Fuck armored enemies.
The way the armors are built confused me. I didn't realized there were limited and unlimited armors types. Hard to keep track of. In general there were a lot of things that seemed redundant. Two types of research, and two types of item manufacturing. Kinda confusing at first.
I skipped the magnetic weapons (except for the rifle) and went straight to plasma weapons.
Keeping track of the weapon upgrades was a hassle at times. Insta kill upgrades were amusing. Those, as well as the additional turn upgrades came in pretty clutch.
I didn't realize you could buy PCSs at the black market until I was at the last mission lol.
End of game thoughts: (plot spoilers)
In XCOM 2, you can take the game at a more leisurely pace. As long as you can wait it out, you can't lose anything. It reminds me of the difference between Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2.
Random thoughts on skills and items:
Ranger -
Cool class, the sword got kind of irrelevant later in the game for me. I wanted to use melee attacks more often, but they seemed to get outclassed later on. Reaper sounds so good, but later on the HP sponge enemies make it not so viable anymore. Maybe I can try adding on aim bonuses or perhaps there's an item I overlooked to make sword attacks more badass.
The concealment ability is pretty strong, and I abused it in this game just like I abused stealth and mimetic skin in XCOM1. Scout in concealment, reveal enemy, blow them away with grenades and snipers. My scout ranger hardly ever attacked anything the entire game, after he gained max level.
I liked to pair rangers up with a skullmine, and it would give me a 70% kill move, however later on in the game, the enemies' hacking skill was too high to overcome, and I'd get feedback too many times for it to be worth it. It was hilarious, though, to give a ranger Wraith Armor, a +movement PCS, and then skullmine officers from the whole screen away lmao@
The concealment ability is pretty strong, and I abused it in this game just like I abused stealth and mimetic skin in XCOM1. Scout in concealment, reveal enemy, blow them away with grenades and snipers. My scout ranger hardly ever attacked anything the entire game, after he gained max level.
I liked to pair rangers up with a skullmine, and it would give me a 70% kill move, however later on in the game, the enemies' hacking skill was too high to overcome, and I'd get feedback too many times for it to be worth it. It was hilarious, though, to give a ranger Wraith Armor, a +movement PCS, and then skullmine officers from the whole screen away lmao@
Grenadier -
Pretty strong, just like heavies in XCOM1. Very important, especially on higher difficulty levels, to remove cover and deal guaranteed damage. Comboed with a concealed scout, I could dish out AOE damage to enemy pods fairly consistently.
Specialist -
Didn't really use them that much. Damage output not so great. Good for hacking, I guess. I have no idea how to increase their hacking skill besides equipping them with a skulljack.
Sharpshooter -
Nerfed from XCOM 1 due to the squadsight penalty to aim, but still pretty good. I had a hard time getting Kill Zone to work properly, but when it did it was great. The new pistol skills are very useful. Face Off is godlike when dealing with codex clones.
I missed picking off Chryssalids with In the Zone from XCOM1.
Psi-corp -
Pretty OP. I had two because I accidentally upgraded my psilab. They fucking wrecked everything once they got Domination and Void Rift. I kinda miss having them just be side skills on your main class. I was confused as fuck when I first got the psi lab.
Item thoughts:
Armor piercing rounds were awesome when I got them. Fuck armored enemies.
The way the armors are built confused me. I didn't realized there were limited and unlimited armors types. Hard to keep track of. In general there were a lot of things that seemed redundant. Two types of research, and two types of item manufacturing. Kinda confusing at first.
I skipped the magnetic weapons (except for the rifle) and went straight to plasma weapons.
Keeping track of the weapon upgrades was a hassle at times. Insta kill upgrades were amusing. Those, as well as the additional turn upgrades came in pretty clutch.
I didn't realize you could buy PCSs at the black market until I was at the last mission lol.
End of game thoughts: (plot spoilers)
I like the concept and premise of XCOM2. It kept the ideas fresh. The ending was cool as a setup to Terror From the Deep, potentially.
I wonder what's killing the performance so much. The game looks good but not to the extent where it should be as erratic as it is. Even then, the most significant drops occur when buildings start coming down or with the fire effects and other things like that. I have to imagine the procedural generation for maps must be a reason but I don't know much about that stuff.
Incendiary
Banned
Just had a super intense Retaliation mission where my main Ranger was shot to bleeding out TWICE - the first time I stabilized then revive protocol'd her to put her back in action. I thought I had cleaned up all the enemies because a second Faceless had activated and no civilians were dying in the fog of war, so I went balls-out to kill the last Muton, only for the mission not to end and some asshole in the fog finally killed a civilian, dropping the total on the map down to exactly 6.
I ended up rushing my Ranger forward to activate the pod of two dopey Advent Officers who were just hanging out in the back not doing anything, just so they'd attack her instead of the civilians. Even with an Aid Protocol active she got shot and ended up in bleeding out status a second time, so I stabilized her with my last Medical Protocol. Unfortunately that gave the enemy time to flank and kill the Specialist that had so bravely kept my Ranger away from dying, and so the rest of my team avenged her by wiping the soldiers off the planet.
The worst part about it was that the Retaliation mission happened literally a day before I acquired my latest supply drop, which was going to give me enough supplies to purchase the Predator Armor - if I'd had the extra health and extra item slots for the Retaliation I would have probably A) not had as much trouble and B) wouldn't have lost my up-and-coming Specialist...sadly, that's XCOM for you.
I ended up rushing my Ranger forward to activate the pod of two dopey Advent Officers who were just hanging out in the back not doing anything, just so they'd attack her instead of the civilians. Even with an Aid Protocol active she got shot and ended up in bleeding out status a second time, so I stabilized her with my last Medical Protocol. Unfortunately that gave the enemy time to flank and kill the Specialist that had so bravely kept my Ranger away from dying, and so the rest of my team avenged her by wiping the soldiers off the planet.
The worst part about it was that the Retaliation mission happened literally a day before I acquired my latest supply drop, which was going to give me enough supplies to purchase the Predator Armor - if I'd had the extra health and extra item slots for the Retaliation I would have probably A) not had as much trouble and B) wouldn't have lost my up-and-coming Specialist...sadly, that's XCOM for you.
Pretty much all story missions reduce the avatar count to varying degrees.
Man, this game is punishingly addictive. Hard as shit, even just on normal. Savescuming my way through missions, but even if I don't let my characters die they'll almost all end up gravely wounded.
bar is at like 75%, only taken down the first
. Have only made like 2 contacts. Feel like I'm falling behind on the metagame.
Avatar project
blacksite
Just finished it myself. Specialists are really good, I think. I took two into the final mission. Had one for healing and one for damage. The assured hit from combat protocol never stopped being useful especially for killing robots and the final skill was really good. Hacking was mostly used to disable MECS for two crucial turns. Also granting an overwatch shot with aid protocol ended up being more useful than I anticipated. I can't see doing missions without them.
I couldn't imagine going along without a specialist with healing spec. It was dark times when I lost my best healer specialist on my ironman run.
You can also hack the scan towers for some neat bonuses. I once hacked a tower to gain control of an enemy unit for 2 turns. It was a Codex that was planted directly in the middle of a group of Advent, but also right next to the alien beacon that I had to destroy for the mission, LOL. I managed to get the beacon down to half health before the enemies destroyed the Codex. But it also had the advantage of drawing all of the attacks of the surrounding enemies, so while they were spending two of their turns to take down the Codex I was controlling, it allowed all of my XCOM squad to charge through the city directly to the alien beacon objective. Once that happened it was destroyed in short order. It made the mission so much faster, and there were no casualties. Heck, none of my XCOM soldiers even got hit lol.
On one mission I also hacked an Andromeda and took control of it for a while. That was fun haha.
Yeah my species are always in and out of the medbay and I really notice when they're in cos no magic ultra-range healing. Hell I don't even think there are ranges on healing or aid protocol, you can just magic it whereever your units are on the map.
How do hacked codexes work with cloning?
How do hacked codexes work with cloning?
Research mechanical shit. I think the 2nd tier was from Advent mechs. The 3rd tier one was definitely from Sectopod "corpse" research.
The swordmaster Ranger Jane "Duchess" Kelly is the spear tip of my A-team. Goes head first into deep shit and always comes out alive. Sometimes battered, sometimes pristine, but she always comes home.
CertifiedFP
Member
Not getting hit once? You think you're pro yet?
Try not even being shot at.
I'm... Going to have to disagree there. EU's time urgency was early-game only, and more of a Skill-Check than anything. The race against the clock is there the whole game as far as I'm aware here. And it's exasperated by resources being that much more constrained here in my experience (Though, in my EU playthroughs I always got the massive cache of Alloys and Elerium from the Slingshot DLC, so my vision may be skewed).
frontieruk
Member
Just don't stand to close to petrol stations if I've got grenades left...
Welp. I thought I fixed (AKA deleted) Dig Douglas bio as he kept the default one. For the next version.
Sorry
But this game is like windows phones fans the last bastion of hope
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
So uh, no second wave options?
I found that on Veteran, I was never really in a hurry. I always had facilities to assault if the timer got too high. On Commander, though, I'm a lot more pressed for time, since expansion is slower and resources (especially intel) are tighter.
There should be a mod that plays UFO enemy unknown's soundtrack in the background
I'm
uh
working on it
don't tell anyone
darkwing-buck
Member
I really hope someday someone makes an XMEN mod for this game Their's already psi abilities, imagine the possibilities
You got it
Their's already psi abilities, imagine the possibilities You got it
You can pretty much reset the timer anytime you can do a mission so imo it's not really a big deal.
UnrealEck
Member
Every time I play this game it seems unfinished. I find something new to complain about.
I just lost a soldier because when I went to heal, I thought it'd default to themselves (also being almost dead) and not the person next to them who was only missing 1hp. I guess this was technically my fault as I didn't look first to make sure, but it annoys me that there seems to be so many things that pop up every couple of missions that make me think things need changed/fixed.
Things like this are why I'm unable to stand playing Ironman without backing constantly backing up a save.
I just lost a soldier because when I went to heal, I thought it'd default to themselves (also being almost dead) and not the person next to them who was only missing 1hp. I guess this was technically my fault as I didn't look first to make sure, but it annoys me that there seems to be so many things that pop up every couple of missions that make me think things need changed/fixed.
Things like this are why I'm unable to stand playing Ironman without backing constantly backing up a save.
I just had the most amazing, large and intense firefight ever. Everyone survived, and I have no idea how.
Background: Previously, I screwed up the strategic component and ended up coming across the
, Armogedon thingy and a Sectopod in one mission while some soldiers still used normal guns. Managed to get through that mission with severe difficulty.
I was about to lose with a squad wipe until my ranger with Reaper sword stunned the goddamn Sectopod.
I decided I should get the EMP nade to compensate, and the next mission went well.
Now, with all my upgrades and one upgraded EMP nade, I got cocky.
..............
.............
The Blacksite mission.
I land, and see two pods next to each other.
Units:
1xCodex
1xArmo
1xMuton
1xArchon
Turn 1:
Confident in my abilities, I set a trap for them and use my best abilities/nades/weapons, knowing that the EMP device will take care of a Sectopod when I'm ready.
Nope. A Sectopod, despite being far away on a roof activates in that turn, and crits my Specialist. My ranger was too far away to immediately EMP it, and I had to wait a turn to get it in position.
Pod 3:
1xSectopod
1xElite Stun Lancer
And that's something strange happens. The LOS screws up completely, and 3 (!) more pods are activated, at varying distances. They arrive one turn after another in waves.
Oh, and there's another Sectopod. I only have one EMP nade. I have activated 5 pods in one turn, including two Sectopods.
Pod 4:
1x Sectopod
1xElite Trooper
1xElite Stun lancer
Pod 5:
1xShield Bearer
1xElite Trooper
1xElite Officer
Pod 6?
1xShield Bearer
1xTrooper
Reinforcements:
1xL2 Mech
1x Stun Lancer
1x Soldier
Well, fuck. I've got my A team here filled with Majors and Colonels. I can't afford to lose them.
Turn 2:
So I EMP the first secto, stunning it, buying myself some time. I use my grenadier with the salvo perk to fire two incendiary nades, and in combination with the proximity mine I used before hand, it literally set the entire battlefield ahead of my on fire. This was so effective that the enemy troopers had to run around it to get a firing angle, buying me one turn. Every piece of cover was destroyed ahead me, forcing enemies through a building, channeling them and preventing an attack from two angles.
Sectopod 2 crits another soldier. Both are still alive, but with only 2 HP.
Turn 3:
Combined fire, free actions due to weapon attachments and lightning hands mean that Sectopod 1 is destroyed.
Aid protocol saves my ranger, and I use my grenadier as bait to save the injured soldiers. I keep my grenadier out in the open so the advancing waves target him, so I can focus on the remaining Sectopod. They get two hits out of three, but my grenadier tanks it. The Sectopod walks inbetween my troops and prepares its missile launcher, while the other enemy soldiers push up close to my injured soliders up front.
Turn 4:
Combined fire destroys Sectopod 2, using all the abilities, including a failed hack, combat protocol, and lightning hands. I use my ranger + bladestorm + reaper to kill the troopers, including the stun lancer who attacks my untouchable ranger. A flashbang sooths the enemy soldiers, and they miss my injured ranger.
Turn 5 and 6:
I mop up Pod 6 and the reinforcements that landed right next to my landing zone.
So in 6 turns after breaking concealment, less than 5 tiles from where I started, I managed to activate every enemy pod on the map including reinforcements, killed them all for only 3 wounded. This included 2 Sectopods, and 1 type of every other enemy except the Viper and Gatekeeper. The map was cleared for my ranger to run in and finish the job without enemy contact.
Background: Previously, I screwed up the strategic component and ended up coming across the
Avatar
I was about to lose with a squad wipe until my ranger with Reaper sword stunned the goddamn Sectopod.
I decided I should get the EMP nade to compensate, and the next mission went well.
Now, with all my upgrades and one upgraded EMP nade, I got cocky.
..............
.............
The Blacksite mission.
I land, and see two pods next to each other.
Units:
1xCodex
1xArmo
1xMuton
1xArchon
Turn 1:
Confident in my abilities, I set a trap for them and use my best abilities/nades/weapons, knowing that the EMP device will take care of a Sectopod when I'm ready.
Nope. A Sectopod, despite being far away on a roof activates in that turn, and crits my Specialist. My ranger was too far away to immediately EMP it, and I had to wait a turn to get it in position.
Pod 3:
1xSectopod
1xElite Stun Lancer
And that's something strange happens. The LOS screws up completely, and 3 (!) more pods are activated, at varying distances. They arrive one turn after another in waves.
Oh, and there's another Sectopod. I only have one EMP nade. I have activated 5 pods in one turn, including two Sectopods.
Pod 4:
1x Sectopod
1xElite Trooper
1xElite Stun lancer
Pod 5:
1xShield Bearer
1xElite Trooper
1xElite Officer
Pod 6?
1xShield Bearer
1xTrooper
Reinforcements:
1xL2 Mech
1x Stun Lancer
1x Soldier
Well, fuck. I've got my A team here filled with Majors and Colonels. I can't afford to lose them.
Turn 2:
So I EMP the first secto, stunning it, buying myself some time. I use my grenadier with the salvo perk to fire two incendiary nades, and in combination with the proximity mine I used before hand, it literally set the entire battlefield ahead of my on fire. This was so effective that the enemy troopers had to run around it to get a firing angle, buying me one turn. Every piece of cover was destroyed ahead me, forcing enemies through a building, channeling them and preventing an attack from two angles.
Sectopod 2 crits another soldier. Both are still alive, but with only 2 HP.
Turn 3:
Combined fire, free actions due to weapon attachments and lightning hands mean that Sectopod 1 is destroyed.
Aid protocol saves my ranger, and I use my grenadier as bait to save the injured soldiers. I keep my grenadier out in the open so the advancing waves target him, so I can focus on the remaining Sectopod. They get two hits out of three, but my grenadier tanks it. The Sectopod walks inbetween my troops and prepares its missile launcher, while the other enemy soldiers push up close to my injured soliders up front.
Turn 4:
Combined fire destroys Sectopod 2, using all the abilities, including a failed hack, combat protocol, and lightning hands. I use my ranger + bladestorm + reaper to kill the troopers, including the stun lancer who attacks my untouchable ranger. A flashbang sooths the enemy soldiers, and they miss my injured ranger.
Turn 5 and 6:
I mop up Pod 6 and the reinforcements that landed right next to my landing zone.
So in 6 turns after breaking concealment, less than 5 tiles from where I started, I managed to activate every enemy pod on the map including reinforcements, killed them all for only 3 wounded. This included 2 Sectopods, and 1 type of every other enemy except the Viper and Gatekeeper. The map was cleared for my ranger to run in and finish the job without enemy contact.
No that's actually terrible. Ridiculous that it is still a thing. Dropping enemies directly on top of you and the CPU free turn advantage just fucking sucks. At least make a chance to get a free turn rather than a guaranteed turn or give the player a way to mitigate but nah.
A leader type with a coordinated strike type skill would be fine where you can set up shots if you come upon them under concealment. If I sneak up on you, that shouldn't give YOU a free turn.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
There should be a mod that plays UFO enemy unknown's soundtrack in the background
If there's one thing I'm underwhelmed at, it's the soundtrack. The first game's music was so much more cool.
Yep scouts are basically useless because of this, you're better off not knowing where the enemies are.
CecilRousso
Member
It is a bit weird how that's handled. That as long as you haven't revealed the aliens from the fog of war, they aren't part of the battle at all.
Not sure how it can be fixed either.
Slackbladder
Member
To mitigate the problem of setting off an enemy pod would be to allow the LoS marker that you get when concealed all the time. That way if your concealed Ranger sees a pod you can move your guys up confident they won't set them off. Of course the pod may be actively searching for you so maybe it won't always work.
But then going into overwatch whilst reinforcements arrive and blowing them away before they can get into cover and even if they do you still have another turn kinda' balances it out.
But then going into overwatch whilst reinforcements arrive and blowing them away before they can get into cover and even if they do you still have another turn kinda' balances it out.
Aztechnology
Member
I require Jedi/Sith Class mod. Psi Ops type training where you have a sword wielder with special psy attacks lol.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
What am I supposed to research to unlock battle scanners? I don't remember.
Aztechnology
Member
Yes, I'd also take a KOTOR conversion mod.
cripterion
Member
Don't know if it's due to Steam downloading in the background but just had A few crashes with the game trying to install something through Steam and then giving me an error. Pretty annoying.
Lanrutcon
Member
He's just jealous that they made a better puzzle game than him.
Scouts are only scouts if they have ranger concealment, making this actually not a problem.
This would be So Amazing. I wish someone does it.
Also would like a mod where you play as the Aliens, take over the earth and fight against XCOM.
Aztechnology
Member
Just encountered the
it did not survive the round. Freaked me out though.
Avatar for the first time
But what percent was that shot?
But your ranger can still stumble into enemy LOS randomly and trigger them right? Or do they still stay concealed even if they are the ones spotted? Have I been playing them wrong all along? D: