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[Shake Appeal]

What's the range of noise for breaking stealth? I started the third mission and had a guy bust through a door. Alerted the aliens but there really wasn't one anywher close by. Is it just a straight up no noise at all thing?

It's not a range thing, as far as I know. Certain actions just break concealment, including breaking in doors or windows. If your path is going to do that, you'll see little red pop-ups along it to show you what the problem is.

(You can safely open and close doors while standing next to them without breaking concealment.)

 

[mbpm1]

Idk that noise is a factor but opening a door or vaulting through a window will always break concealment.

Opening doors is fine. Smashing through them isn't.

 

[Dick Justice]

Idk that noise is a factor but opening a door or vaulting through a window will always break concealment.

Kicking a door open will break concealment. Opening one normally won't.

 

[LiK]

Is it odd that Firaxis haven't said a single word about potential bug fixes, patches, performance improvements, etc.? I know it's only been a couple of business days since release, but this is a PC game.

just released so I'm sure well see them say something soon. probably still checking out what bugs are cropping up. i haven't encountered any bugs that are gamebreaking so far. only saw one hilarious one where an enemy was walking to a train and ended going underground and then popping back up top,. but haven't seen a lot of wonkiness like I did with the first game at launch.

 

[Falk]

The one time you wish Central would yell at you to remind you of something

Technically since there were no injuries and you just have to do the mission again, all I lost was IRL time.

Aliens probably shrugged, put the guy back in his stasis tube and called it a day.

 

[ISee]

I just finished the game on veteran. The 'Bossfight' at the end of the last mission was brutal. Overall I do not know how I feel about the increased difficulty in Xcom 2.
I always felt preassure playing this game and not in a good way because rng fucked me up sometimes. And I'm not speaking about chance to hit, but randomised maps with unreachable mission goals because of timers and randomised pack locations. For example once a mission objective was destroyed in 3 turns by the aliens, there was no way to reach it.
I also hate retaliation mission with Chryssalid, you have to play slow because every move is a risk but the game mechanic forces you to move fast. Overall this game doesn't feel balanced and seems to be targeted at the hardcore long war gamers out there and granted often enough a higher difficulty can be a good thing like in Dark Souls. But there is one very important difference between DS and Xcom2. DS is predictable, you die because you make mistakes but you also improve because you gain experience from repeating the same challenge over and over again. XCOM 2 isn't predictable at all and normally this would be a fantastic thing but the random nature and challenging difficulty can produce unwinnable situations and every unwinnable situation is just frustrating in a game and feels like a waste of time. Overall I had more fun playing Xcom 1 and I immediately started a new campaign on ironman mode after finishing the game for the first time. With Xcom 2 I feel like I need to take a break.

 

[Sblargh]

Depends on the definition of gamebreaking. I never had a bug make me restart a campaign, but lots of little "rulebreaking". Vipers teleporting, turret floating in the air like a dalek after the floor was blown, vision and hit through solid wall even if the same wall is giving full cover bonus.

It adds up.

 

[mbpm1]

I see what you mean.

personally since I savescummed at every hack opportunity until I got to take over every sectopod, mec, and optional hacking point I think I've got my share of winning. Now I can play the game as it was meant to be played: Ironman mode.

Where I will probably die to a bug or accidentally killing my own men with explosives.

Worth it.

Depends on the definition of gamebreaking. I never had a bug make me restart a campaign, but lots of little "rulebreaking". Vipers teleporting, turret floating in the air like a dalek after the floor was blown, vision and hit through solid wall even if the same wall is giving full cover bonus.

It adds up.

Things like the loading screen hanging for ten minutes until I restarted, enemy turns just freezing for 20 seconds until something processed and it worked, the last mission turning into Disco Inferno, the game giving me control during times I shouldn't, like just before an enemy enters Enraged or Battle Frenzy mode (so the game hangs for 20 seconds), or when my soldier is being seduced by a Viper and can't actually do anything, and the game just crashing after the ending cutscene made me frustrated at times, yeah

 

[Joe Spangle]

just released so I'm sure well see them say something soon. probably still checking out what bugs are cropping up. i haven't encountered any bugs that are gamebreaking so far. only saw one hilarious one where an enemy was walking to a train and ended going underground and then popping back up top,. but haven't seen a lot of wonkiness like I did with the first game at launch.

Ive noticed a few weird bugs like glass not breaking and my airship flying through a building at the start of a mission but yeah, nothing game breaking for me.

I am looking forward to joypad support - don't know if its been mentioned already but I tried the pad in game yesterday and it sort of works a bit. The buttons worked in a mission but not the sticks. weird.

 

[Lister]

I keep hitting the same wall in my playthroghs on ironman (Veteran difficulty so normal, right?). This is my third attempt and I think I'm going to start over again.

I think the Geoscape is the part I'm not handling right. There comes a time when I end up low in supplies and intel, still haven't taken the first black site, and I have one wipe of my best guys, usually the first time a muton enter the scene. Without supplies or intel I'm stuck with rookies who easily die at the hands of any mech or snake guy - never mind muton or group of lancers.

What should I be prioritizing in the Geoscape guys? What about research wise? And are there missions that I can skip? The retaliation missions, specially the second oen with the muton have always bene brutal, can I skip it until I atleast have armor or magnetic weapons? What the penalty for skipping missions like that?

 

[xChildOfHatex]

Depends on the definition of gamebreaking.

I posted a while back about a bug that's reared its ugly head in my Iron Man games twice now. Both times, my grenadier was the one who took the last turn and shot a grenade at an enemy on higher elevation, destroying the ceiling and dropping the alien to the ground. On the alien turn, the game was frozen with a background sound of something falling and nothing happened even after waiting for 10-15 minutes. I tried everything. Restarted the game and my PC, checked online for something similar, but ultimately I gave up and restarted the game. This was when I had 20+ hours invested in the game.

What should I be prioritizing in the Geoscape guys? What about research wise? And are there missions that I can skip? The retaliation missions, specially the second oen with the muton have always bene brutal, can I skip it until I atleast have armor or magnetic weapons? What the penalty for skipping missions like that?

I always try to get the first three contacts as soon as possible. Research-wise, I go for Modular weapons -> Hybrid materials -> Alien autopsy -> Officer Autopsy (for Proving Ground) -> Mag weapons. I can usually do this BEFORE mutons show up in the game. Once you have mag weapons, you can't really screw up research wise, as long as you get Resistance Comms up and running right after Mag weapons research because you'll be needing more supply drops soon. Remember to tech up to Plasma weaponry as soon as possible by doing Elerium research.

If you feel like you have an underleveled squad for a retaliation mission, go on the mission regardless, but once it feels like you're about to get wiped, call in the evac (I don't know if this works, as I've never had to call in the evac in a retaliation mission). If you absolutely don't have the squad strength to do retaliation, skip it. You only get penalised with a significant, but not too big, decrease in supplies that that particular area would give and you lose contact with them. You can easily make contact again and the decrease in supplies isn't too crippling if you plan your facilities in avenger to get the maximum no. of contacts available ASAP.

 

[Sblargh]

I just finished the game on veteran. The 'Bossfight' at the end of the last mission was brutal. Overall I do not know how I feel about the increased difficulty in Xcom 2.
I always felt preassure playing this game and not in a good way because rng fucked me up sometimes. And I'm not speaking about chance to hit, but randomised maps with unreachable mission goals because of timers and randomised pack locations. For example once a mission objective was destroyed in 3 turns by the aliens, there was no way to reach it.
I also hate retaliation mission with Chryssalid, you have to play slow because every move is a risk but the game mechanic forces you to move fast. Overall this game doesn't feel balanced and seems to be targeted at the hardcore long war gamers out there and granted often enough a higher difficulty can be a good thing like in Dark Souls. But there is one very important difference between DS and Xcom2. DS is predictable, you die because you make mistakes but you also improve because you gain experience from repeating the same challenge over and over again. XCOM 2 isn't predictable at all and normally this would be a fantastic thing but the random nature and challenging difficulty can produce unwinnable situations and every unwinnable situation is just frustrating in a game and feels like a waste of time. Overall I had more fun playing Xcom 1 and I immediately started a new campaign on ironman mode after finishing the game for the first time. With Xcom 2 I feel like I need to take a break.

Unwinnable maps aside, the game is a lot less random than it seems. You can get better at it and I do think the difficulty is a lot like dark souls, except it is a lot less intuitive what is a wrong move and what is a right move.

But you can get good at it (I hate the git gud meme, by the way, so I am speaking from a positive point of view, not dismissing your criticism).

Not that I am amazing at the game, but I am running at commander with a certain ease, so I think later I'll make a post with tips. Most of them is xcom eu stuff, but this game punishes you way harder for not following certain non written rules.

 

[LiK]

Ive noticed a few weird bugs like glass not breaking and my airship flying through a building at the start of a mission but yeah, nothing game breaking for me.

I am looking forward to joypad support - don't know if its been mentioned already but I tried the pad in game yesterday and it sort of works a bit. The buttons worked in a mission but not the sticks. weird.

oh yea, sometimes they would even do the glassbreaking animation on windows that are the lasers which was pretty funny. yea, there are some minor bits of wonkiness here and there. I just chalk it up to the canned animations

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Glass breaking is hilariously buggy. Sometimes the glass doesn't break other times it breaks like 5 seconds after someone jumped through it.

I've also had glass break from a sword attack that was like 5 spaces away.

 

[Intheflorsh]

I'm kind of disliking how eager enemies are to fuck you over even at the cost of their own self preservation. Stun lancers will always run up for a melee hit even if that means they'll get flanked by three of my guys and guaranteeing they'll die on the next turn.

 

[mbpm1]

oh yea, sometimes they would even do the glassbreaking animation on windows that are the lasers which was pretty funny. yea, there are some minor bits of wonkiness here and there. I just chalk it up to the canned animations

It was funny when a muton in the last mission smashed his barrel at glass in the enclosure which refused to break, then phased his gun through the window and broke it by shooting through it

I'm kind of disliking how eager enemies are to fuck you over even at the cost of their own self preservation. Stun lancers will always run up for a melee hit even if that means they'll get flanked by three of my guys and guaranteeing they'll die on the next turn.

Advent and their suicidalness. It's kind of endearing that they'll run up directly into and take cover in an area where a sectopod is prepping it's explosive blast just to get a good position on you.

 

[Dick Justice]

Overall this game doesn't feel balanced and seems to be targeted at the hardcore long war gamers out there

Except Long War did a much better job of making the game challenging, not obnoxiously, unfairly difficult for the sake of it. Long War didn't have anything nearly as stupid as enemies that can attack you right after teleporting/running in from the fog of war/transforming from civilians.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

Just had my entire squad captured because of the stupid turn limit.

 

[LiK]

aside from the glass bugs, I do love how everything is so easily destroyed. it's especially impressive when you get those big enemies that basically ram through buildings and destroy so many structures. love it.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

K, the research for the

Spoiler

avatar autopsy

is now finally unlocked for me to do

Am also able to research lots of what I assume are late game tech, and have just encountered Chrysallids. So I'm wondering how much is there left to go?

Anyone?

 

[mbpm1]

Anyone?

Not much longer now.

 

[pantsmith]

Can we talk about how great the props section of character creation is, and that you slowly unlock them over time?

My rookies all started out wide-eyed and full of enthusiasm - now they've got scars (which I add as a rite of passage whenever a soldier is gravely wounded) and personal affects that match their personalities as they've continued to climb the ranks. I'll give them a tattoo for major milestones, and my ranger who spent 80% of the game under the shaken status is decked in all black to match the horrors she's been through.

I love how they enable you to do passive story telling and shape who your soldiers have become, not just who they started as. The optional bios and eulogies are nice touches too.

 

[Rhaknar]

I fucking love this buggy mess of a game

 

[mbpm1]

Can we talk about how great the props section of character creation is, and that you slowly unlock them over time?

My rookies all started out wide-eyed and full of enthusiasm - now they've got scars (which I add as a rite of passage whenever a soldier is gravely wounded) and personal affects that match their personalities.

I love how they enable you to do passive story telling and shape who your soldiers have become, not just who they started as. The optional bios and eulogies are nice touches too.

That is pretty awesome. I never though about doing that, probably because my soldiers are all just characters from movies/games who are already hardcore.

 

[Onivulk]

Kicking a door open will break concealment. Opening one normally won't.

Fuuuuuck. This whole time! My bad lol.

 

[maabus1999]

get the Plasma Grenade asap. the ability to

Spoiler

shred 2 armor

against the later enemies makes a huge difference.

Grenades plus

Spoiler

AP Rounds which allow shots to ignore 5 armor

are almost necessary to win near the end I've found.

I just wish the experimental items from the proving grounds were selectable, or I'm missing something in how they work (random, circular, etc...).

 

[xChildOfHatex]

Can we talk about how great the props section of character creation is, and that you slowly unlock them over time?

My rookies all started out wide-eyed and full of enthusiasm - now they've got scars (which I add as a rite of passage whenever a soldier is gravely wounded) and personal affects that match their personalities as they've continued to climb the ranks. I'll give them a tattoo for major milestones, and my ranger who spent 80% of the game under the shaken status is decked in all black to match her crippling depression.

I love how they enable you to do passive story telling and shape who your soldiers have become, not just who they started as. The optional bios and eulogies are nice touches too.

This is the main reason I was so pissed when my 20+ hour save game got corrupted. I had 4 vets who had shaken off PTSD, all with varying scars and shit to show for them (all assigned by the game) and they used to shrug off sectoid psi-attacks coz they'd seen and experienced worse. It wasn't so much about losing the game progress but losing a bunch of people whose character development I had gotten invested in.

 

[Rhaknar]

welp, time for my first defend the avenger mission. any last minute tips?

 

[Falk]

UFO tactical spoiler:

Spoiler

it turns into a timed mission when you break concealment

 

[Sblargh]

welp, time for my first defend the avenger mission. any last minute tips?

Line of sight + sharpshooter. You will understand.

 

[LiK]

Grenades plus

Spoiler

AP Rounds which allow shots to ignore 5 armor

are almost necessary to win near the end I've found.

I just wish the experimental items from the proving grounds were selectable, or I'm missing something in how they work (random, circular, etc...).

i'll need to grab that

 

[ISee]

welp, time for my first UFO mission. any last minute tips?

Did an UFO

Spoiler

shoot you down or are you 'attacking' a stranded UFO yourself

?

For the first one:

Spoiler

Hold your ground and finish of the first waves, that's not easy but doable. Then take one of your rangers, conceal him and stealth forward till you have line of sight to the mission objective and finish the device with snipers via squadsight while the rest of your squad keeps on defending your ship.
(worked for me several times)

For the second one:
It's easy enough. There is no timer and nearly no preassure here. Just take your time, it's not that hard.

 

[xChildOfHatex]

welp, time for my first defend the avenger mission. any last minute tips?

Strategy depends largely on the placement of the

Spoiler

Spike

on the map. If it's too far away, you have to either fight all the way over to it or hack a mech to do your dirty work for you.

On the other hand, if the

Spoiler

spike

is placed near your starting position, a Phantom ranger can give your Sharpshooter Line of Sight in as low as 2 turns and you can be done and back in the bar aboard the Avenger before the Bradford can say, "I'll be in my bunk."

 

[mbpm1]

welp, time for my first defend the avenger mission. any last minute tips?

Take out enough enemies to give you some breathing space, then snipe the

Spoiler

spike.

 

[Steel]

Glass breaking is hilariously buggy. Sometimes the glass doesn't break other times it breaks like 5 seconds after someone jumped through it.

I've also had glass break from a sword attack that was like 5 spaces away.

Then there's random truck explosions when you know no one shot anything anywhere near them, and walking through closed doors... Yep, this game is definitely buggy. Still having a blast.

 

[Rhaknar]

meh lost someone, bled out, couldnt carry her back in time

 

[mbpm1]

So, last mission spoilers

Spoiler

The part where an Ethereal (which you hadn't actually seen/heard in the game AFAIK) appears and says "you will defeat them, as you did before" weirded me out a bit. What was up with that. I mean there is no "before" where you defeated them bc the EU ending didn't happen. So...what

 

[Onivulk]

I think I just encountered a sectopod that had stepped on some cars before entering combat. The two advent troops following it already had significant damage done to them.

 

[Palehorse]

I had a heartbreaking bug last night.

I had a couple soldiers on the back of a semi and one took a stun baton, put her unconscious. (My specialist who can zap people conscious, of course). So my grenadier next to her picks her up and runs away, puts her down in safe cover. A couple turns later that semi gets blown up and my rookie loses his shit, panics. "Why?" I wonder.

I finish the mission, it's not an evac so I get all the loot etc. But I've got two dead soldiers, the rookie who lost it and my specialist. Wtf? Then I realized I had seen her gremlin hanging around the semi after I moved her body. The reason the rookie panicked is because the game thought she was still there and killed her....

Damn, I really liked her.

 

[Poodlestrike]

So, last mission spoilers

Spoiler

The part where an Ethereal (which you hadn't actually seen/heard in the game AFAIK) appears and says "you will defeat them, as you did before" weirded me out a bit. What was up with that. I mean there is no "before" where you defeated them bc the EU ending didn't happen. So...what

Wild guess: the events of the first game, where you won, did happen. But thanks to psychic mind-travel shenanigans, the Ethereals found out about it... in the past. This allowed them to sabotage XCOM preemptively, leading to the events of XCOM 2.

 

[RandomSeed]

just released so I'm sure well see them say something soon. probably still checking out what bugs are cropping up. i haven't encountered any bugs that are gamebreaking so far. only saw one hilarious one where an enemy was walking to a train and ended going underground and then popping back up top,. but haven't seen a lot of wonkiness like I did with the first game at launch.

There is no way these bugs and crap performance are something new to them, that they are just discovering now. The game was released a mess, and 2K/Firaxis knew it. I would expect they have already been working on a day 1 type patch (that wasn't released day 1), with more user discovered bug fixes to come later, but what do I know.

I'm kind of disliking how eager enemies are to fuck you over even at the cost of their own self preservation. Stun lancers will always run up for a melee hit even if that means they'll get flanked by three of my guys and guaranteeing they'll die on the next turn.

That was actually on my wishlist going into this game from the first. Sadly, they still do it in both. I do admit, it was almost worth it for the laugh of fragging a viper taking cover behind a car, watching her move on her turn to get away, only to have another viper take her place to try and get a shot off on me.

 

[masterkajo]

I had a heartbreaking bug last night.

I had a couple soldiers on the back of a semi and one took a stun baton, put her unconscious. (My specialist who can zap people conscious, of course). So my grenadier next to her picks her up and runs away, puts her down in safe cover. A couple turns later that semi gets blown up and my rookie loses his shit, panics. "Why?" I wonder.

I finish the mission, it's not an evac so I get all the loot etc. But I've got two dead soldiers, the rookie who lost it and my specialist. Wtf? Then I realized I had seen her gremlin hanging around the semi after I moved her body. The reason the rookie panicked is because the game thought she was still there and killed her....

Damn, I really liked her.

Already experienced something similar where my specialist dies because of the gremlin moving through poison. Playing on iron-man these bugs really hurt.

 

[mbpm1]

Wild guess: the events of the first game, where you won, did happen. But thanks to psychic mind-travel shenanigans, the Ethereals found out about it... in the past. This allowed them to sabotage XCOM preemptively, leading to the events of XCOM 2.

Honestly it made me think

Spoiler

they were going to do a horrible "this was all another combat simulation" thing for a while.

Fortunately they didn't? But it's still interesting.

 

[Shake Appeal]

aside from the glass bugs, I do love how everything is so easily destroyed. it's especially impressive when you get those big enemies that basically ram through buildings and destroy so many structures. love it.

Yeah, I love when a building is torn to shreds at the end of an extended firefight.

 

[megalowho]

I've taken down a few Avatar sites and still really enjoying my time but getting a little weared down by the stressful nature of the different systems. Was describing what I liked about the game to a friend and realize I'd used the word 'stress' a few times, which usually isn't how I'd sell someone on a thing I like.

I just never feel like I'm able to adequately balance research, intel, time, expanding my network and upgrading my base along with everything else you're presented with. I get that's kind of the point with tough decisions and all that but there's so many bottlenecks that it can be more annoying than challenging depending on what my goals are. The immediate attention missions always come at the worst time, and the window is so small that you can't even advance 1 day of game time to finish a task before addressing it.

The tactical gameplay is still really satisfying, the lower half of the talent trees seem quite powerful and the environmental destruction is continually impressive. I still feel like I'm at a major disadvantage as most encounters are Very Difficult now, still haven't been able to upgrade armor or take advantage of Psionics yet but both of those should help even things out in the near future (until more powerful aliens start getting thrown my way at least).

Thankfully the game hasn't been buggy at all for me so far. One instance of a Specialist unable to move, but a save from the last turn fixed that.

 

[Berzerkiymc]

is there anyway to save guys who get captured?

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I had a heartbreaking bug last night.

I had a couple soldiers on the back of a semi and one took a stun baton, put her unconscious. (My specialist who can zap people conscious, of course). So my grenadier next to her picks her up and runs away, puts her down in safe cover. A couple turns later that semi gets blown up and my rookie loses his shit, panics. "Why?" I wonder.

I finish the mission, it's not an evac so I get all the loot etc. But I've got two dead soldiers, the rookie who lost it and my specialist. Wtf? Then I realized I had seen her gremlin hanging around the semi after I moved her body. The reason the rookie panicked is because the game thought she was still there and killed her....

Damn, I really liked her.

I lost my favorite ranger due to a "bug", or perhaps odd mechanic. I never used proximity mines before (you probably know where this is going). I used one on an alien, then I killed the alien, which happens to explode on death. Later my favorite ranger dies to a random explosion. I didn't figure it out for several turns... Proximity mines do not explode from other explosions apparently, and it was covered by a corpse so I didn't even see it.

 

[LiK]

Yeah, I love when a building is torn to shreds at the end of an extended firefight.

it's hilarious when a Sectoid goes into a house and then when it attacks, it stands up and makes a giant hold into the roof.

 

[Terra_Ex]

is there anyway to save guys who get captured?

They'll pop up as VIP rescue missions in time. it's random though.

 

[213372bu]

Just killed a transforming

Spoiler

mech

that was about to kill 3 soldiers with my Ranger on

Spoiler

a Reaper slash spree.

x999

I've never been so hyped playing by myself EVER.

All that's left is to add

Spoiler

Raiden, Metal Gear models, and a MGR music pack

and we've reached the pinnacle.