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

The state of XCOM 2, no matter how good the game itself is, is the definition of a game that required a day 1 patch.

Eh. I disagree with that. Granted, I'm running the game on minimum settings and don't give a shit about performance. The only thing that I feel needs to be patched is the loading times between missions (which can be solved by caps lock, of all things, what the hell) and even then I just use that time to go to the bathroom or grab a snack or do things I should be doing instead of XCOM.

I've played for about 25 hours and haven't had any bugs in-game that made the game unplayable, so I think the idea that XCOM required a Day One patch is hyperbole.
 
I've played the game through, I experienced no serious bugs, and IMHO it's a strong game-of-the-year candidate...

Similarly, reviewers had a equally 'buggy' game, stated that in their reviews, and the game is sitting at ~90% rating.

For most people, this game didn't "require" a day-1 patch. I think some people are 'bugaphobic' - they have an irrational aversion to bugs that mostly don't hurt them.

Yep, that must be it. It's those dirty bugaphobes fault, and their silly expectations. Thanks, man, I've seen the light because of this, and I'll never question game reviewers or game publishers again.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
The state of XCOM 2, no matter how good the game itself is, is the definition of a game that required a day 1 patch.

How sure are you (pls no XCOM % jokes) that the game wasn't patched before release and wasn't performing worse prior?

My point these entire two pages is, there's no real definite point in game dev nowadays where you declare a game completely issue-free. You fix all you can, and when it's release date, it's release date. Everything else then gets shuffled to post-release support/patches.

unless you're Jon Blow and take your time making your game as perfect as possible, then on launch day people get nauseous and you need to patch it anyway :(

A "Day 1 patch" isn't a simple check mark you tick and it arbitrarily happens and makes the game better.

I've played the game through, I experienced no serious bugs, and IMHO it's a strong game-of-the-year candidate...

Similarly, reviewers had a equally 'buggy' game, stated that in their reviews, and the game is sitting at ~90% rating.

For most people, this game didn't "require" a day-1 patch. I think some people are 'bugaphobic' - they have an irrational aversion to bugs that mostly don't hurt them.

The game really does have issues though. I don't think anyone can argue against that in all honesty.
 
For most people, this game didn't "require" a day-1 patch. I think some people are 'bugaphobic' - they have an irrational aversion to bugs that mostly don't hurt them.

Unfortunately it sounds like there are some very serious bugs that absolutely do need to be fixed, and performance issues do impact some people's enjoyment of a game. It's very belittling to toss that opinion aside as an irrational concern.

My point these entire two pages is, there's no real definite point in game dev nowadays where you declare a game completely issue-free. You fix all you can, and when it's release date, it's release date. Everything else then gets shuffled to post-release support/patches.

I think the game getting delayed might have set my expectations that they were shoring things up a little more firmly than what came out. That mod-breaking-saves thing was real disconcerting to hear about, since it initially happened outside of the user's control.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Firaxis are always typically slow to patch, they seem to prefer to do big patches that fix as much as possible as opposed to several smaller patches.

At least that's the way it's been with past releases.
 
How much was EU/EW improved from release until now, in terms of technical performance? Was playing it before 2 was released, and it seemed to perform reasonably well, not much in the way of major bugs.

EU post-release was... a little ugly. Some people got very shirty that there was a huge amount of pre-release hype and engagement, and then poor engagement about bugs/patches after launch. One patch was dropped shortly after release, but there was zero info on remaining issues for a few weeks. It was handled really poorly from a community engagement perspective. There were some niggly UI bugs, and some serious ones, like getting a 'game over' screen when completing the game and aliens teleporting into the middle of your squad. As far as technical performance on PC goes, I think there were just some crash fixes, and one weird issue involving shooting a Berserker making your game stutter that I remember.
 

klaushm

Member
Andromedon is my nemesis now.

First mission this damn thing appeared, there were 2. The first one with 2 ADVENT soilders, which was a good chalenge, but he second one... it came with 2 codex...

Luckly, I have a grenadier with 2 acid grenades, EXO armor(rocket launch) and another one with 1 acid grenade, so the rest of the team could kind of handle him. The codex are easy.

Just a side note: I have no one with mind controll abilities, yet, and no plasma guns. Just now discovered that I can hack his second form *facepalming* >.<
 

Sciz

Member
I'm actually surprised that out of everything, randomized maps work as well as they do (outside of the occasional LOS glitch) because that was the one thing I was expecting to have issues here and there, with clipping buildings, problematic open stretches with no cover, etc. but the maps actually feel as natural as EU/EW's deliberately crafted maps, but remain fresh.

Yeah, I've been really impressed by the map gen. Feels like there's actually more height and full cover available in useful spots than EU offered, and I've only run across a map that I recognized as being very similar to a prior one once*. Can't wait for modders to start putting more chunks into the pool, even as large as it is now.

*Operation Gatecrasher aside, and even that's had more variation than I expected.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Is it a bug that one of my guys got lightning reflexes as his awc perk even though it's not in the game otherwise?

Yeah, Lightning Reflexes is the only perk you can get from AWC that's not from an XCOM2 soldier tree. Dunno if there's any official word if that's intended.

Also there's no official word if the way bonus abilities currently are dispensed (i.e. sorta-not-retroactive-unless-you're-lucky) is intended, so whatever until Firaxis says something.

Yeah, I've been really impressed by the map gen. Feels like there's actually more height and full cover available in useful spots than EU offered, and I've only run across a map that I recognized as being very similar to a prior one once*. Can't wait for modders to start putting more chunks into the pool, even as large as it is now.

Can't wait for the inevitable Minecraft tileset. It'd be low-effort, actually functional (in the low cover/high cover sense) and hilarious.
 
Yesterday my last soldier on a mission had a Faceless use his long arm attack on him and miss.

Then the roof gave way and he died from broken legs.

One more for the statistic

Your soldier shouldn't have been monologuing after the miss. That's what he gets.
 
I think I'm fucked. Lost several good squad members in a really tough mission which I had to evac from because a squad of ADVENT reinforced right BEHIND my troops. A couple of panics later and only 1 soldier managed to escape. My medic was rendered unconscious by a stun lancer and I couldn't get her out of there, and I have no money for new medkits. Oh, then the UFO attacked, which made me sacrifice several rookies who died heroically for humanity in order to get squadsight so my snipers could destroy the transmitter thing allowing the Avenger to escape. Any way to salvage this, or is is it restart/ reload save time yet again?
 

mbpm1

Member
The armor styles are kinda eh the higher up they go. I would prefer if they could mix the ragged rebellion look with high tech somehow.

Another mod idea
 

Sblargh

Banned
I think I'm fucked. Lost several good squad members in a really tough mission which I had to evac from because a squad of ADVENT reinforced right BEHIND my troops. A couple of panics later and only 1 soldier managed to escape. My medic was rendered unconscious by a stun lancer and I couldn't get her out of there, and I have no money for new medkits.

That sounds like you are fucked, yeah.
 
How sure are you (pls no XCOM % jokes) that the game wasn't patched before release and wasn't performing worse prior?

My point these entire two pages is, there's no real definite point in game dev nowadays where you declare a game completely issue-free. You fix all you can, and when it's release date, it's release date. Everything else then gets shuffled to post-release support/patches.

A "Day 1 patch" isn't a simple check mark you tick and it arbitrarily happens and makes the game better.

The game really does have issues though. I don't think anyone can argue against that in all honesty.


Watching let's plays and previews on youtube where they have an older build and still experienced the same problems makes me think there wasn't a substantial update to the game prior to release. Obviously I have no clue what they actually did, or are currently working on, I'm just chatting on a forum here. I think the "Oh, some people are experiencing performance problems?!?!?!? It's the first I've heard of it, and we'll look into it" just got under my skin a little.


I've been training a Psi Op for a long time, just now (towards the end of the game) started to use him...and it's pretty cool. Just dominating an Andromedon as soon as it was revealed on the map was great. For me. Great for me. Not for the Vipers with him.
 

dumbo

Member
The game really does have issues though. I don't think anyone can argue against that in all honesty.

True, but there is a difference between "has issues" and "requires a day 1 patch". For the most part, X-COM 2 bugs are in the category of "meh, it's a bug, it won't hurt you, get over it".

There are serious bugs, and I assume they will be fixed in-time (and other things 'improved' - notably the camera)... but if anyone is missing out on this great game because "it's buggy", then IMHO they are being irrational.
 

mbpm1

Member
Yesterday I discovered that moving between menus too quickly results in a crash. Even in bugs I keep discovering new things.
 

LiK

Member
Game def has jank and some performance issues. Def not super polished like games like StarCraft 2 but it's far from broken. I understand why people are upset with it but XCOM 1 also had a lot of issues and I think the jank in that was worse than XCOM 2 during launch.
 

Sulik2

Member
Yeah, I find that Engineers are way overpowered when compared to Scientists in this game. I don't see any reason to have more than five Scientists at most on Veteran, since they don't do anything and there's a fast diminishing return on more Scientists.

Engineers on the other hand have a facility that gives more Engineers in the form of GREMLINs and that's one of the best facilities in the game. Like, why is it an Engineer slot in the AWC for faster healing? Why doesn't
the Shadow Chamber staff a Scientists for stuff? Like needing one to get the enemy composition on the geoscape
. Scientists are just a number, really.

Wait what? What facility is this?
 

Jarate

Banned
Idk how people were lucky enough to not experience freezes and crashes, but my game has crashed like 3-4 times out of the few times I've played

Other major bugs that exist

-animations don't play like 10% of the time
-animations don't sync up half the time (is soldier goes to destroy glass, he does the animation to break if, runs through the window, then the glass just plummets as he's on the other side of the map)
-voices don't play even though you have a box in the top right corner with your engineer yapping away
-general sound bugs all around

Freezes are terrible, but the other stuff really takes me out of the moment. It may not bother some, but these things really take me away from my possible immersion.

Game is great though, just seems like a rushed release. Hopefully the engine isn't just horrible and they canbfic most bugs
 

Coketruck

Member
Other than performance issues and weird animation stuff (windows not breaking properly, soldiers dropping through the floor when they jump off a roof, etc.), I've started getting a bug where, during the tactical/combat portions, the game will freeze for a few seconds before crashing to the desktop. However, the game audio will still be playing and the computer still views the game as technically running, so I have to reboot to get everything working properly.

Fun stuff.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Game def has jank and some performance issues. Def not super polished like games like StarCraft 2 but it's far from broken. I understand why people are upset with it but XCOM 1 also had a lot of issues and I think the jank in that was worse than XCOM 2 during launch.

I honestly don't really remember serious bugs in EU other than the occasional pod teleport.

Then again EU was mechanically a lot simpler, too.
 
Wait what? What facility is this?

Workshop. It can provide 4 gremlins if you staff it with 2 engineers. The best tactic is to place it in the middle of second or third row and place your power relays and resistance comms adjacent to it.

I won't deny, it's saved me a couple of times -- especially when I had a couple of rangers near each other in a story mission.

Every time I hear people claim that a sword/machete ability has saved them, I get a feeling that the swords in my game are bugged coz whenever I need them to hit, they never do and at other times, I don't even bother with them.
I took the Bladestorm skill in my first playthrough for my main ranger and for some reason the damn ability ALWAYS WHIFFED. My assorted reactions to situations that cropped up during my first playthrough:

Stun Lancer! No worries, I got a Blades... FUCK! Need a medic.
Chryssalid! No worries, I got a Plasma blade on my Bladestorm rang... MOTHERFUCKER!
Berserker! Yeah, go ahead and whiff you useless pile of crap. Yeah, that went about as well as it could have.
 

mbpm1

Member
I honestly don't really remember serious bugs in EU other than the occasional pod teleport.

Then again EU was mechanically a lot simpler, too.

I think I had a pod glitch in this game once.

In my first playthrough one of the "Investigate a downed UFO like it's 2015" I sent a soldier over to get cover in one spot with the UFO wall blasted open. The plan doesn't work so I reload, send my soldier to the same spot...and suddenly there's an MEC and two ADVENT over there staring at me from the other side of the open UFO wall now.

Weird stuff.

But also a nice "callback" to Enemy Unknown
 
The Psi Op class being able to train and use abilities on both sides of the tree is strange. Almost seems like a glitch, but I guess it's intended. Makes me want to push for an early Psionics lab when I replay it.
 
I don't think there's any real TREE in Psionics this time around. On level up you get a randomised batch of 3 skills of which you can opt for one. I lucked out and got both Psi Lance and Void Rift as options in the first 3 levels.
 

LiK

Member
I honestly don't really remember serious bugs in EU other than the occasional pod teleport.

Then again EU was mechanically a lot simpler, too.

my experience was pretty janky as a whole. lots of weird things happened in EU. heard the console version was way worse. I beat EU before their first major patch, iirc.
 
It's the little things in this game that make me happy.

Like doing a retaliation mission with my B-Squad and getting a flawless, even though it was the first time I was facing Chrysalids.

Or having a stun lancer run right up to my Skulljack guy, whiffing his attack, and then getting Skullmined for his troubles.
 

Weebos

Banned
Beat my first campaign yesterday, Veteran Ironman. I enjoyed it a lot, I'm going to wait for a few mods before diving into another Veteran Ironman, then hopefully make my way up Commander.

About the ending:
They're clearly teasing some sort of Terror From the Deep expansion/sequel, right?
 

Wozzer

Member
With the last few pages discussing bugs galore, is it worth refraining from starting it until a patch or two? Got it today and would rather avoid critical issues, particularly if there's any save corruption (that I encountered with the first).
 

Sulik2

Member
It's the little things in this game that make me happy.

Like doing a retaliation mission with my B-Squad and getting a flawless, even though it was the first time I was facing Chrysalids.

Or having a stun lancer run right up to my Skulljack guy, whiffing his attack, and then getting Skullmined for his troubles.

Skullmining is incredibly satisfying.
 

Nete

Member
rWgtOXv.jpg


One step closer to whatever total conversion you have on mind.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=621306039
 
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