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[Urthor]

Of course it is mod compatible. But once you mod the game you can't just expect it to always work once you remove that mod and try to play the same saved game...

I don't expect it to always work in every single case, but I expect it to work where modders are technically able to get it working, a la Skyrim, not have a situation where my Santa Hat mod breaks my save file just because "all mods break save files."


It wasn't the case on XCOM:EU, I'd expect it to be the same as or better than EU as a minimum, and from what I've heard about Hidden Potential it's not true, which is incredibly scary.

 

[Sblargh]

In EU, if you dashed you had a reduced chance to be hit by overwatch. Also, dashing can get you slightly further because you are taking the shortest path possible. So there actually are reasons to use dash instead of moving twice. There might be a few others that I can't think of atm.

As far as concealment goes, you don't want to ignore cover... at least not always, even when moving your first move. That is a bit reckless because you might need to use your second move because you triggered a pod unexpectedly or have a really good action set up. Plus there is almost always some cover around, so utilize it unless you have a really good reason to not.



I hope you are aware that if an alien flanks your guy while they are in concealment, they can shoot immediately and kill your troops.

You can see the route you would do if you were to das and just move to the last blue tile.

If you are not even seeing the aliens while on concealement, they won't be close enough to spot you on their turn unless they are right on the corner or something. And if that is the case they might flank you regardless.

If you pass your turn out of the concealement with no enemies on screen, positioning your soldiers behind the one soldier who already moved is a thousand times safer than risking activating a pod looking for cover.

 

[Jintor]

mimic beacons are a godsend. Toss them into the middle of an empty room and ADVENT will run right up next to it and try and give it a handshake.

Hell, a MEC stood on top of a firey floor to shoot it and then fell through and got damaged cos it was a dumb.

 

[mbpm1]

It wasn't the case on XCOM:EU, I'd expect it to be the same as or better than EU as a minimum, and from what I've heard about Hidden Potential it's not true, which is incredibly scary.

I hope they make a mod to fix this issue

 

[Phanatic8390]

Every time I convince myself to start this I read about more glitches.

Seriously, should I hold off? I've got a backlog a mile deep so its not like I'm hurting for something to play.

 

[Sober]

Every time I convince myself to start this I read about more glitches.

Seriously, should I hold off? I've got a backlog a mile deep so its not like I'm hurting for something to play.

You should know you'll end up starting a new game eventually, so it's all good!

 

[Admodieus]

Every time I convince myself to start this I read about more glitches.

Seriously, should I hold off? I've got a backlog a mile deep so its not like I'm hurting for something to play.

I'm having way too much fun to care about the occasional stuttering I have. I'm not using any mods either and I haven't had any bugs/crashes so far.

 

[Aselith]

Every time I convince myself to start this I read about more glitches.

Seriously, should I hold off? I've got a backlog a mile deep so its not like I'm hurting for something to play.

Sure give it a few patches if bugs bother you. Performance is kinda bad too maybe you'll catch a deal in the meantime.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Never, ever move to an area without cover unless you know there's zero chance of retaliation. There's far too many things that can go wrong, even when no aliens are visible.

By moving to cover in your first move, you're free to do whatever you want during your second action, rather than being forced into cover using another action. Scouting is also better from cover, because you'll have superior views vs. non-covered positions (i.e. around corners and lower elevations).

Edit: And an advanced cover tip: Always consider the type of cover you're taking. Is it easily destructible (low cover has low survivability, high cover is tough to destroy) or more importantly, explosive? (e.g. cars)

Every time I convince myself to start this I read about more glitches.

Seriously, should I hold off? I've got a backlog a mile deep so its not like I'm hurting for something to play.

Risks are what XCOM is all about.

 

[TharpDaddy]

Holy moly i'm struggling with this game compared to the previous game. I started on the "experienced with XCOM" difficulty and i'm getting my ass handed to me. I've had to extract my crew from multiple missions that were going sideways, and had to roll back a save to before a mission I just tried since I played a little two safe, had no casualties, but was one turn too short to able to take out the objective.

I feel like if I don't put my people in full cover they're likely to die or get very injured in the next turn. I might have to turn down the difficulty, i'm worse at this game than I expected and i've ended up save scumming my way through a lot of them.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I just beat the game and

Spoiler

was a teaser for Terror from the Deep or something?

There's a thing in the interquel novel about

Spoiler

some kind of containment zone(s?) the aliens are scared shitless of. Won't go in it or anything.

More likely to have something to do with those/that.

 

[Falk]

Full cover isn't "just 20%" more cover. That's what hangs people up a lot. If an enemy has 60% hit chance, the difference between low cover and full cover is 40% and 20%, meaning you're twice as likely to get hit in low cover.

In other words, low cover is a trap and should be a last resort. No cover isn't a consideration in a combat situation unless you've disoriented everyone or have a mimic beacon up or something, and even then pray to RNG deities.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

So what rooms should I be building first after my first excavation? Xcom 1 was all about satellites, what is the deal in 2?

 

[Echoplx]

So what rooms should I be building first after my first excavation? Xcom 1 was all about satellites, what is the deal in 2?

Resistance comms to make contact with new regions.

 

[arevin01]

I couldn't get into XCOM 1 because I wasn't very good at strategy, I hear this is even harder?

 

[mbpm1]

Do you mean tactics?

Also, yes.

 

[roadrunn3r]

I couldn't get into XCOM 1 because I wasn't very good at strategy, I hear this is even harder?

Yep it is harder than the first. Maybe watch some vids and see if you can enjoy the gameplay. If you didn't like the first you will not like this for sure.

 

[LurkerPrime]

XCOM 2 takes XCOM: EU and layers a bunch of stuff on top of it. If you were struggling with the fundamentals of EU, 2 will be that much more difficult.

 

[mbpm1]

The first enemy of XCOM 2 has crowd control abilities usually restricted for end-game XCOM 1, to put it frankly.

 

[Metroidvania]

The toolbox eventually increases on the tactical level to make the playthrough easier, the beginning is always going to be the struggle, especially on harder difficulties. But for MC and the like, there are early-game ways to manage that can be found out if you try. But if you struggled with the angles/flanking/enemy-gets-a-free-move-when-exposed system, it'll be more difficult here, especially with the timers on certain missions.


Personally, I find the strategic layer to be more of a crapshoot this time around than in EU/EW.

There's no longer an 'optimal' satellite rush strategy, but while I can't quite pinpoint it, it definitely feels like something was lost in the transition to the new GeoMap.

It just feels more lenient. Avatar countdown is more lenient than "Lose a country, and supplies, and there's no 20 day buffer period"

Though that is also true.

 

[mbpm1]

It just feels more lenient. Avatar countdown is more lenient than "Lose a country, and supplies, and there's no 20 day buffer period"

 

[LurkerPrime]

XCOM 2's Geoscape puts a lot more on your plate, though, and forces you to plan ahead on your global actions (in a way that XCOM EU didn't). It can be overwhelming, even if it is more flexible and forgiving overall.

 

[E-flux]

It's a shame that there was no second wave options in the start of the game, i really liked to play the enemy unknown with those.

 

[mbpm1]

Other mod idea:

More random perks from the AWS

 

[Falk]

Maybe they figured they didn't need second wave options with mod support.

!!!

(Kinda true)

 

[Aureon]

Yeah, uhm

I did the skulljack a codex in a advent facility assault

The Avatar proceeded to teleport away, and in ONE movement (not dash) i uncovered FOUR pods, including, of course, a sectopod.
from 1 to 11 enemies on screen in one turn.

I had meant for this a "Ironman Lite" run (No reloads except in cases of misses and misclicks).

I was prepared to fight that HORDE.

Then the avatar mind controlled one of my guys, who proceeded to throw a crit \ hair trigger \ crit on my sniper colonel, and no, this is too XCOM even for me.

I already couldn't believe the (non-flanking) crit, but the 5% hair trigger proc was too much.

 

[mbpm1]

Yeah, uhm

I did the skulljack a codex in a advent facility assault

The Avatar proceeded to teleport away, and in ONE movement (not dash) i uncovered FOUR pods, including, of course, a sectopod.
from 1 to 11 enemies on screen in one turn.

I had meant for this a "Ironman Lite" run (No reloads except in cases of misses and misclicks).

I was prepared to fight that HORDE.

Then the avatar mind controlled one of my guys, who proceeded to throw a crit \ hair trigger \ crit on my sniper colonel, and no, this is too XCOM even for me.

I already couldn't believe the (non-flanking) crit, but the 5% hair trigger proc was too much.

RNG smited you that day

 

[Durrzerker]

Wow, burning is ridiculous. My stupid grenadier pathed through fire she was nowhere near like an idiot, hit her for 3 a turn until she died. First mission of the game, haha. At least no big loss on that playthrough.

 

[superseohyun]

mimic beacons are a godsend. Toss them into the middle of an empty room and ADVENT will run right up next to it and try and give it a handshake.

Hell, a MEC stood on top of a firey floor to shoot it and then fell through and got damaged cos it was a dumb.

thats why i stopped using them. Feels like cheating. Went back using smoke, weaker, but at least make sense.

whats with the mimic beacons anyway. Is it a mind controlling device that mind controls enemy into attacking it brainlessly?

 

[Corpekata]

Wow, burning is ridiculous. My stupid grenadier pathed through fire she was nowhere near like an idiot, hit her for 3 a turn until she died. First mission of the game, haha. At least no big loss on that playthrough.

You should see an icon if they're going to walk through fire (or acid) so you can avoid that.

 

[mbpm1]

Wow, burning is ridiculous. My stupid grenadier pathed through fire she was nowhere near like an idiot, hit her for 3 a turn until she died. First mission of the game, haha. At least no big loss on that playthrough.

I had a UFO attack mission. The clock was ticking down. I saw i had one soldier who could get to the device in time to stop the countdown.

She got there and proceeded to do nothing. Because you can't hack computers when you're on fire.

I couldn't even tell she was burning :|

Later I learned I could have just blown it up :|

 

[roadrunn3r]

Random mod idea: rename medium settings to ultra so some people can finally play the game. /s

 

[Lemondish]

The toolbox eventually increases on the tactical level to make the playthrough easier, the beginning is always going to be the struggle, especially on harder difficulties. But for MC and the like, there are early-game ways to manage that can be found out if you try. But if you struggled with the angles/flanking/enemy-gets-a-free-move-when-exposed system, it'll be more difficult here, especially with the timers on certain missions.


Personally, I find the strategic layer to be more of a crapshoot this time around than in EU/EW.

There's no longer an 'optimal' satellite rush strategy, but while I can't quite pinpoint it, it definitely feels like something was lost in the transition to the new GeoMap.



Though that is also true.

Accuracy. Geographic accuracy was lost.

Once landed in northern Siberia only to learn that I'm apparently in Beijing. I guess the aliens moved a few cities around, nbd.

thats why i stopped using them. Feels like cheating. Went back using smoke, weaker, but at least make sense.

whats with the mimic beacons anyway. Is it a mind controlling device that mind controls enemy into attacking it brainlessly?

Wait, so the enemies will attack it no matter what? I was throwing it into open ground so it appeared to be the juiciest target. I just assumed they were attacking it because it was the best option. That's why I continued to throw them in the open.

 

[Jintor]

Wow, burning is ridiculous. My stupid grenadier pathed through fire she was nowhere near like an idiot, hit her for 3 a turn until she died. First mission of the game, haha. At least no big loss on that playthrough.

friend let me tell you about waypoint mode

(hit ctrl)

 

[Jintor]

Wait, so the enemies will attack it no matter what? I was throwing it into open ground so it appeared to be the juiciest target. I just assumed they were attacking it because it was the best option. That's why I continued to throw them in the open.

I think they just go for it cos it has the best hit chance

 

[AJLma]

I think I need a mod to replace Stun Lancer units with just about any other mob. I'm just not a fan of the style of play they introduce into the game, and they show up way too often.

 

[ISee]

Holy moly i'm struggling with this game compared to the previous game. I started on the "experienced with XCOM" difficulty and i'm getting my ass handed to me. I've had to extract my crew from multiple missions that were going sideways, and had to roll back a save to before a mission I just tried since I played a little two safe, had no casualties, but was one turn too short to able to take out the objective.

I feel like if I don't put my people in full cover they're likely to die or get very injured in the next turn. I might have to turn down the difficulty, i'm worse at this game than I expected and i've ended up save scumming my way through a lot of them.

I think most people had/have a very similar experience and to be honest the first few hours are the most difficult ones especially for xcom 2 newcomers. Early missions and enemies are way harder in xcom 2 then in xcom 1, there is no doubt about that. Granted later enemies are even more powerful but you'll have much more options and ways to deal with them. And yes hard cover is a must do, also using flashbangs to crowd control enemies and normal grenades to destroy cover (do not hesitate to use flashbangs while in hardcover!). You also need to follow a strict kill order to succeed. For the early game Viper>Stun lancer>officer>trooper>sectoid worked for me so far.

Also do not feel bad about not reaching every mission goal, sometimes the map design/enemy placement can be unfair.

 

[Jintor]

I think I need a mod to replace Stun Lancer units with just about any other mob. I'm just not a fan of the style of play they introduce into the game, and they show up way too often.

I dunno, once you get predator armour they do like 2 -3 damage (maybe more on a crit) and these days with mag weapons + ammo even heavy lancers disintegrate if you blow on them lightly. Or you can jam a skulljack into their brains half the time if you're lucky.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Personally, I've found ADVENT Officers and their markers to be more troublesome to my squads. In a prolonged firefight, it leads to a dead soldier more often than not...

The lancers just kinda run up, poke someone, and then get smoked via a flanking attack. Annoying but manageable.

 

[Dick Justice]

Idk, I think it's a question of scale. I'm no programmer, but it seems like it could just be a smaller version of the missing class problem.

CameraSetting = Fucked > GameStart = Potentially Fucked for whatever failure conditions the devs put into the game

I imagine this would also depend on how the modders themselves coded the thing though.

Also wat, the camera rotation mod is gone?

No, just something I noticed when I accidentally disabled it one time.

And I've played other games with mods on a similar scale (e.g. Witcher 3 UI mods, gameplay balance changes, etc), nothing bad happened when I uninstalled those mods and carried on playing on the same save. As I said, it's Firaxis covering their asses by being overly cautious.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Wow, I'm crushing this fourth Commander run. I turned off Ironman this time to do self-imposed Bronzeman (I save once at the start of the mission and reload if the squad wipes), but I haven't even had to bother yet. I'm sure misery is just around the corner, but I just did an Enemy VIP extract with five turns to spare and hung around just to farm the reinforcements for XP.

Also, I no longer bother with Mag Rifles. Only Specialists and rookies use them, I don't use rookies, and having the Stuttergun's +3 mobility is so much more useful given the range of abilities Specialists have and the role they often serve (hacking an objective within a set number of turns). Nigeria was my favorite LW start, of course.

 

[Aselith]

Wow, I'm crushing this fourth Commander run. I turned off Ironman this time to do self-imposed Bronzeman (I save once at the start of the mission and reload if the squad wipes), but I haven't even had to bother yet. I'm sure misery is just around the corner, but I just did an Enemy VIP extract with five turns to spare and hung around just to farm the reinforcements for XP.

Also, I no longer bother with Mag Rifles. Only Specialists and rookies use them, I don't use rookies, and having the Stuttergun's +3 mobility is so much more useful given the range of abilities Specialists have and the role they often serve (hacking an objective within a set number of turns). Nigeria was my favorite LW start, of course.

You can attach any name you want but it's still puss mode.

 

[Shake Appeal]

You can attach any name you want but it's still puss mode.

Cool, thanks for the input.

 

[ISee]

Ever wondered what advent troopers are saying? But be careful once heard, it can not be unheard. Especially

Spoiler

"Great Tits ahoy!" and "Eat Pizza, Cool!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDSFcyMpFg

 

[Aselith]

Cool, thanks for the input.

I kid of course

 

[roadrunn3r]

Ever wondered what advent troopers are saying? But be careful once heard, it can not be unheard. Especially

Spoiler

"Great Tits ahoy!" and "Eat Pizza, Cool!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDSFcyMpFg

You need to read the previous page, anyway hug that shit!

 

[Mr. F]

Finally got to start playing tonight after being busy with work all week, but my hype has been a bit hampered by technical jank.

Has anyone else been experiencing issues with audio? Seems to be normal during gameplay, stuttering during in-engine cutscenes, and completely mute after a couple of seconds during cinematics. :/

 

[SRG01]

You need to read the previous page, anyway hug that shit!

Some of those translations are perfect for a thread title

 

[Artdayne]

 

[Falk]

Ever wondered what advent troopers are saying? But be careful once heard, it can not be unheard. Especially

Spoiler

"Great Tits ahoy!" and "Eat Pizza, Cool!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDSFcyMpFg

I got to 0:17 of the video and I saw him shooting at enemies 1 tile away from the edge of the roof, i.e. no cover and I closed the video because it was too scary to watch.

This game has affected me.