XCOM 2: War of the Chosen |OT| Mario + Rabbids + Autopsies
- Thread starter Jintor
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johancruijff
Banned
lol
It's not really important anymore as that mission is super easy now. A sniper on the ramp can destroy the device, while others defend the avenger
i'm not really talking about easy, just about how fun it is.
xcom:ew base defence was basically another corridor, but it was a pretty fun one. This one was just steadily crawling up to enemy camps and alpha striking them into the ground, with the slight mixup of the hunter... who decided to camp next to the battery and took 29 damage when i squadsighted it from a mile away
xcom:ew base defence was basically another corridor, but it was a pretty fun one. This one was just steadily crawling up to enemy camps and alpha striking them into the ground, with the slight mixup of the hunter... who decided to camp next to the battery and took 29 damage when i squadsighted it from a mile away
That's the thing though, there is barely any room to crawl slowly. You get within range in about 2 moves. I was surprised by this as I remember the original avenger mission was not this short and had way more enemies and took a while to finish.
I'm starting to learn to take advantage of the AI because just shooting and trying for flanks isn't good enough.
Sectoids seem to always follow the same script, right? If there are dead bodies around, they will always spend their first turn ressing them. After one res, they'll try to attack one of your units. Unless I'm mistaken.
Using that first turn to reposition and set up an attack has been invaluable.
From my experience, they'll Rez or do psionics on one of your troops over shooting their gun. But it's not 100%.
TC McQueen
Member
Here's a great video of a panel with Jake Solomon and Julian Gollop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSelRx8YkKE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSelRx8YkKE
Incendiary
Banned
Started a new game after losing at the Chosen Stronghold, but disabled the Lost & Abandoned starting mission. Holy shit does having a Templar rule in the early game. The 100% hit guarantee + Momentum is just beastly on the early soldiers. Also decided that Precision Explosives is dumb. Tried it on my previous playthrough and it basically made grenades useless aside from shredding armor. Removed it for this playthrough and did extended Avatar and mission timers because a few times I lost timed missions because of the new varieties and the random generation of the things you have to destroy.
Finally beat WOTC tonight. Loved it!
BTW, when did they patch theOh well.final mission so that you're unable to get out of the large room with all the gates, and set up your squad outside on the roof of the "human habitats"? It used to be fun to funnel the aliens out through that one corridor, and absolutely destroy them with an overpowered squad (with the height advantage) set to overwatch. The fight inside the room was pretty entertaining, but it wasn't quite the flawless Xcom domination party I was expecting going in to the final mission. One of my guys was grazed by a Muton before I took down the 3rd Avatar.
My experience with the last mission in the vanilla game the first and only time I beat it made me never want to play it again. How the hell do you go through that mission and only get grazed once? I'm sure i'd do better next time around, but damn.
Eclectic Sk3ptic
Member
I played WOTC on standard difficulty, veteran I think? The one above rookie. IMO WOTC made my job much easier with the ability to unlock a full-array of abilities for all of my colonels, and build up a death squad with a ton of extra perks like dodge, aim, hack, etc., gained through resistance ops. Most of my team had holo-targeting, rupture, fully upgraded weapons with advanced/superior repeaters, experimental ammo, mimic beacons, not to mention the chosen weapons which are great. Stuff like "serial" and "reaper" combined with the Darklance and the Katana can be extremely OP at that difficulty. Of course, I also took my time, and it wasn't my first, or second BBQ, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect in general.
Oh yeah, and I got lucky for sure.
boybrushdRED
Member
So, in my game, the assassin chosen was already killed in the stronghold mission. But months later, after rescuing a soldier that she captured, she was still able to talk to me and taunt me. Kind of an oversight by the devs.
Right?
I think the Templar is the weakest of the three (but I change opinion about this every day, so...), but he is probably the most fun, too.
The reaper, to me, is almost like cheating. It is basically a map hack. The skirmisher is balanced enough he could be a "normal" unit instead of a hero one.
But the Templar just hit that spot between risk and reward that just makes him fun. Every time you send him running there is that tension of "holy shit please don't activate other pods".
Reckless use of the Templar can absolutely lead to tragedy, but it is so tempting when you know that you can for sure kill that one sunuvabitch behind full cover. He is either a super problem solver or a horrible problem creator.
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Man, I like this game so much that I took advantage of the 80% discount and just got Hard West. Jake is right when he says that this is a genre where one good game helps the others.
Knee-deep into my Commander campaign and... well, I'll be honest - I am physically incapable of not save-scumming. It's basically boiled into my blood at this point. I just get so frustrated every time I have a serious screw-up that I just can't restrain myself from hitting that "load game" button.
And I noticed that I'm doing it a lot more often compared to my Veteran campaign, though I'm sure a large part of that is because I did not integrate the DLC this time around (largely because I never played through the Alien Hunters mission and didn't have context for all the incidental dialogue, something I wanted to correct at least this once). Having the Archon King show up during a VIP capture mission right at the extraction point (a situation that obviously makes full extraction pretty much impossible) rendered one mission in particular an extreme chore, forcing me to drop the VIP and kill an entire wave of Lost, a wave of Advent reinforcements, and the Archon King himself one after the other.
It was incredibly bemusing when a stray shot, after several save-scumming cycles, ended up executing him on the spot thanks to repeater RNG.
And then there was a faction VIP rescue mission earlier on where I had only just finished researching basic mag weapons and still only had 4 soldiers per squad, where the Warlock showed up with his BULLSHIT health regen and I had absolutely no way to do enough damage to kill him. I ended up cheesing the mission by hiding everyone in a corner with the VIP until extraction was available, which conveniently allowed me to avoid the Warlock's BULLSHIT mind control and all the Advent reinforcements that accompanied him. Seriously - the early game was hard enough already. It really didn't need another layer of BULLSHIT on top of it!
All that aside, I'm glad the game isn't becoming entirely trivial at this point the way my veteran campaign did. The difficulty feels much more balanced in that regard, even though I'm constantly struggling to preserve my troops (hey, that's XCOM, right?). I find myself pausing to consider my actions far more this time around, even holding myself back from engaging alien facilities despite the lack of mega-aliens just because I'm constantly short on high-level troops to run them with.
I really hope the tactical layer remains engaging once I finally hit up plasma-tier gear this time around. Last time it became such a cakewalk that I was pretty much sleepwalking my way through missions. I just want to at least be forced to consider my actions, even if that means save-scumming my way to victory like I've been doing.
And I noticed that I'm doing it a lot more often compared to my Veteran campaign, though I'm sure a large part of that is because I did not integrate the DLC this time around (largely because I never played through the Alien Hunters mission and didn't have context for all the incidental dialogue, something I wanted to correct at least this once). Having the Archon King show up during a VIP capture mission right at the extraction point (a situation that obviously makes full extraction pretty much impossible) rendered one mission in particular an extreme chore, forcing me to drop the VIP and kill an entire wave of Lost, a wave of Advent reinforcements, and the Archon King himself one after the other.
It was incredibly bemusing when a stray shot, after several save-scumming cycles, ended up executing him on the spot thanks to repeater RNG.
And then there was a faction VIP rescue mission earlier on where I had only just finished researching basic mag weapons and still only had 4 soldiers per squad, where the Warlock showed up with his BULLSHIT health regen and I had absolutely no way to do enough damage to kill him. I ended up cheesing the mission by hiding everyone in a corner with the VIP until extraction was available, which conveniently allowed me to avoid the Warlock's BULLSHIT mind control and all the Advent reinforcements that accompanied him. Seriously - the early game was hard enough already. It really didn't need another layer of BULLSHIT on top of it!
All that aside, I'm glad the game isn't becoming entirely trivial at this point the way my veteran campaign did. The difficulty feels much more balanced in that regard, even though I'm constantly struggling to preserve my troops (hey, that's XCOM, right?). I find myself pausing to consider my actions far more this time around, even holding myself back from engaging alien facilities despite the lack of mega-aliens just because I'm constantly short on high-level troops to run them with.
I really hope the tactical layer remains engaging once I finally hit up plasma-tier gear this time around. Last time it became such a cakewalk that I was pretty much sleepwalking my way through missions. I just want to at least be forced to consider my actions, even if that means save-scumming my way to victory like I've been doing.
buy teh haloz
Banned
Are the names of the Chosen randomly generated?
I might be revealing my scrub-ness here, but I hate challenge mode.
Every run seems to hinge almost entirely on whether or not you game the stupid pod system. If you can get one pod at a time you're golden; if not, bye-bye score. Every single time.
I didn't even realize how much of a crutch reapers (and, to a lesser extent, concealment rangers) are until I tried to run these stupid one-shots. Always having to bank on whether or not the route you're taking is THE ONE that will let you pull a single pod at a time or if you'll just end up activating every pod simultaneously and may as well just hit the "Quit Game" button because it's fucking pointless. Every single time.
Reapers and rangers mitigate this by letting you at least try to figure out the positions of the enemy beforehand. Otherwise, you're just making educated guesses and sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. Fun. I guess.
Even today's run in which we had rangers I thought I could pull the lone pod attacking the objective on its own, but NO, for some reason I ended up pulling all three pods in a single turn and just... fuck you, game. If you're going to make pod activation THE single metric by which games are decided then at least give me some indication that the move I'm making is going to activate another pod. Otherwise, I quit. I fucking quit. This is too much bullshit for me to bear.
I know this is old hat - like, XCOM Enemy Unknown-type old hat - but damnit, Challenge Mode puts this stupidity to the fore like none other before. I just can't stand it anymore, man. It's just not for me.
Every run seems to hinge almost entirely on whether or not you game the stupid pod system. If you can get one pod at a time you're golden; if not, bye-bye score. Every single time.
I didn't even realize how much of a crutch reapers (and, to a lesser extent, concealment rangers) are until I tried to run these stupid one-shots. Always having to bank on whether or not the route you're taking is THE ONE that will let you pull a single pod at a time or if you'll just end up activating every pod simultaneously and may as well just hit the "Quit Game" button because it's fucking pointless. Every single time.
Reapers and rangers mitigate this by letting you at least try to figure out the positions of the enemy beforehand. Otherwise, you're just making educated guesses and sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. Fun. I guess.
Even today's run in which we had rangers I thought I could pull the lone pod attacking the objective on its own, but NO, for some reason I ended up pulling all three pods in a single turn and just... fuck you, game. If you're going to make pod activation THE single metric by which games are decided then at least give me some indication that the move I'm making is going to activate another pod. Otherwise, I quit. I fucking quit. This is too much bullshit for me to bear.
I know this is old hat - like, XCOM Enemy Unknown-type old hat - but damnit, Challenge Mode puts this stupidity to the fore like none other before. I just can't stand it anymore, man. It's just not for me.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Having gone back to finish my EW Commander campaign, I must agree with that. The pod system really does suck ass when you have no idea of knowing how many will be triggered by what move. It's already significantly better in Xcom 2 where it's far less likely to occur, but having three pods activate in one poor move in EW is basically just 'fuck you, game'.
It's worth noting that the game (Phoenix Point) being made by the original xcom designer, Julian Gollop, claims not feature a pod system.
I would think Xcom 3 will no doubt take a lot of hints from that project, in as far as it can get away with it. Considering the ending of WotC, I do think they're probably going to be a lot more similar than either developer assumed they were going to be. Either that or Gollop has the worst possible (legal) timing on the planet.
It's worth noting that the game (Phoenix Point) being made by the original xcom designer, Julian Gollop, claims not feature a pod system.
I would think Xcom 3 will no doubt take a lot of hints from that project, in as far as it can get away with it. Considering the ending of WotC, I do think they're probably going to be a lot more similar than either developer assumed they were going to be. Either that or Gollop has the worst possible (legal) timing on the planet.
Yeah, you see how the factions were a starting point to what could possibly become XCOM 3 and then all the terror from the deep teasers + Jake Solomon saying he didn't cared for TFTD because he didn't like the underwater scenario and what you have is a game where creatures come from the sea, but attack the land, while you have to juggle 3 factions that dislike each other.
And phoenix point is... creatures that come from the sea, but attack the land, while you have to juggle 3 factions that dislike each other.
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But I do like the pod system. It's one of those things that do exactly what sets out to do: it limits your movement so flanking isn't always the obvious answer, it makes sure you are neither facing one enemy with a squad of 6 nor an entire map all at once (tho that does happen sometimes).
I understand that people dislike when they find out that this game really is 90% about pod activation (which is what makes the Reaper near-cheating), but I think it was one of those genious design moves that solved every kind of problem at once.
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Oh man, Xenonauts on sale on GoG.
So, anyone played it? I don't like retro stuff for the sake of being retro. Does the game hold up as a game?
And phoenix point is... creatures that come from the sea, but attack the land, while you have to juggle 3 factions that dislike each other.
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But I do like the pod system. It's one of those things that do exactly what sets out to do: it limits your movement so flanking isn't always the obvious answer, it makes sure you are neither facing one enemy with a squad of 6 nor an entire map all at once (tho that does happen sometimes).
I understand that people dislike when they find out that this game really is 90% about pod activation (which is what makes the Reaper near-cheating), but I think it was one of those genious design moves that solved every kind of problem at once.
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Oh man, Xenonauts on sale on GoG.
So, anyone played it? I don't like retro stuff for the sake of being retro. Does the game hold up as a game?
Poodlestrike
Banned
I think that Apocalypse is a more likely endpoint than TFTD, just due to Solomon's stated distaste for the game. Plus, it feels like a more natural escalation in terms of scope and threat. Tho the end game scene literally taking place in the titular Depths does send other messages.
As to Xenonauts, I've given it a few swings but I really prefer Firaxis XCOM. It just feels so damn fiddly. LW and LW2 basically added all the depth I was looking for when I got Xenonauts without the weird retro concessions.
Yes. Xenonauts is a different beast than nu-XCOM. It's much more strategic-based, with more base management and with large soldier rosters. The air combat is unparalleled, easily better than 1994 X-Com's and 2012 XCOM's (and LW's, too). Tactical battles are less about individual soldiers and more about group tactics. Soldiers die easily, but the game is balanced around that.
Alien designs aren't as good, and the game isn't as polished as nu-XCOM, but it's absolutely worth your time.
TC McQueen
Member
I tried it way back when it was in beta and gave up on it like many other X-Com clones - the time units system made the game unbearable for me, and from what I remember, there's literally nothing distinguishing the soldiers from each other besides gear loadouts. And this isn't even getting into how much less dynamic it is in presentation, since it's all 2D.
I much prefer the Firaxis XCOM games, even if they have mechanical quibbles and design choices I'm not super enthused about (ffs, put Suppression on guns, not soldiers!).
Incendiary
Banned
I hate Mutons. Had a retaliation mission where every enemy was either a Muton or a Berserker, which sucked. Three different Mutons walked right up to my guys and crit killed them on three different turns, one of which was in full cover w/ Aid Protocol.
Then the game crashed and my save got completely deleted so I guess that Ironman run is done now.
Then the game crashed and my save got completely deleted so I guess that Ironman run is done now.
I'm more curious than hyped for Phoenix Point tbh, but that's probably because all the footage so far is from alpha.
Still, and this is ironic given the people involved, it really feels like XCOM:EU/2 are the standard and the norm. They are what the genre is and every game is "so, can they change something to the formula without breaking it?"
So a game like Phoenix Point comes and this is the questions, "how they deviate from this game that is the standard and why that change doesn't make the game worst?"
Still, and this is ironic given the people involved, it really feels like XCOM:EU/2 are the standard and the norm. They are what the genre is and every game is "so, can they change something to the formula without breaking it?"
So a game like Phoenix Point comes and this is the questions, "how they deviate from this game that is the standard and why that change doesn't make the game worst?"
TC McQueen
Member
Well yeah, XCOM:EU basically revived the entire genre and put it back on the map. Of course people would use the Firaxis games as the touchstone for the genre. They basically solved most of the user experience problems that kept people from getting into X-Com and its numerous clones and pretty much nailed how to handle the tactical layer.
Why Templar? They have shit aim in comparison to the original pistol slingers who can do anything a Templar can in that regard, and more, with far better success rates.
TC McQueen
Member
Somebody put out a mod allowing them to use the Training Center/Faction Hero level up menu.
CecilRousso
Member
Some random thoughts about War of the Chosen.
*Why is the sectoid still worthless so quickly? After just a few hours, they're replaced with other enemies and are pretty much never to be seen again. Would they perhaps had been more useful if Firaxis hadn't introduced three other mind control enemies?It was kinda weird for them to add the priest unit as yet another advent soldier, instead of improving the sectoid.
*And isn't the viper still underutilized?
*30h+ played, and the new soundtrack feels very bland. It works, and serves it purpose by that I guess, but there really isn't a standout track, that you've had in the previous games.
*Like with my first playthrough of the basegame, I'm still to really use the psi lab and psi ops. The introduction of the templars didn't really help that.
*Would have liked a bit more meat to the factions.After 30h, I still only have my first templar (which I regularly use though), and some of the faction bonuses are so good, that I pretty much never change them, just add new when slots are given.
Other then, it's fantastic though.
*Why is the sectoid still worthless so quickly? After just a few hours, they're replaced with other enemies and are pretty much never to be seen again. Would they perhaps had been more useful if Firaxis hadn't introduced three other mind control enemies?It was kinda weird for them to add the priest unit as yet another advent soldier, instead of improving the sectoid.
*And isn't the viper still underutilized?
*30h+ played, and the new soundtrack feels very bland. It works, and serves it purpose by that I guess, but there really isn't a standout track, that you've had in the previous games.
*Like with my first playthrough of the basegame, I'm still to really use the psi lab and psi ops. The introduction of the templars didn't really help that.
*Would have liked a bit more meat to the factions.After 30h, I still only have my first templar (which I regularly use though), and some of the faction bonuses are so good, that I pretty much never change them, just add new when slots are given.
Other then, it's fantastic though.
I swear Challenge Mode is just pure masochism.
Make one tactical mistake, fail the entire objective because the VIP is a squishy little shit, get a final score of 3900.
I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it. Why do I keep subjecting myself to this?
The only thing this mode is good for is destroying my ego and ruining my mood.
I get the idea, but I think the whole thing is completely ruined by the one-shot nature of it. Not letting me go back and try again without points counting would make this mode FAR less infuriating (though still infuriating, because let's be honest - it's very, very easy to cheat just by watching other players go through the mission beforehand). Just... bleh. I haven't had a game make me rage like this in a long, LONG time.
Make one tactical mistake, fail the entire objective because the VIP is a squishy little shit, get a final score of 3900.
I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it. Why do I keep subjecting myself to this?
The only thing this mode is good for is destroying my ego and ruining my mood.
I get the idea, but I think the whole thing is completely ruined by the one-shot nature of it. Not letting me go back and try again without points counting would make this mode FAR less infuriating (though still infuriating, because let's be honest - it's very, very easy to cheat just by watching other players go through the mission beforehand). Just... bleh. I haven't had a game make me rage like this in a long, LONG time.
My issue with this mode is that I need time to look at the special abilities of the enemy troops I'm controlling but time is ticking while I read the descriptions, because I never played with enemy troops before
Pretty weird bug. If I dominate a chrystallid, and manage to kill an enemy and create a cocoon, it'll auto-end the turn! Can anyone confirm this?
CecilRousso
Member
Encounterd the warlock on a "main quest" mission, where he mindcontrolled my, lets say maxed out, ranger, who started wielding down my A squad, at the end of mission where I had already killed 20+ enemies. Yeah, noh. Raqe quit there, and reload later.
With all these added features, game mechanics, abilities and missions, the game is absolutely more fascinating and grander in scale, but it's also moving further and further away from Iron Man being tempting to play. Everything is just so much harder to predict, more difficult and takes so much longer to play.
With all these added features, game mechanics, abilities and missions, the game is absolutely more fascinating and grander in scale, but it's also moving further and further away from Iron Man being tempting to play. Everything is just so much harder to predict, more difficult and takes so much longer to play.
Yeah, the only thing I can say is to not attempt main story missions until all three Chosen are taken out. It's pretty easy to stay in one or two regions and not expand until the first Chosen has been taken out -- the game literally inundates you with missions early game so your soldiers should level up quite nicely.
True, I just didn't even have a sharpshooter at all on that mission, and I usually don't spec them for pistol skills (except with AP now).
Sharpshooters went from my favorite class to my least favorite with the expansion I think.
Yeah I really love the idea of daily/whatever challenges.. until I played one. Too stressful.
Kaffeemann
Banned
Install Enhanced Steam and it will show the current lowest price.
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/xcom-2
https://www.wingamestore.com/product/7617/XCOM-2-War-of-the-Chosen/
Wow, i'll have to lookup that Addon. Amazing finds, thanks a ton!!! Went and bought, keys worked.
EDIT: Installed the Addon, but keep getting API errors and no price info on the store pages.
Quick question for PS4 owners- going back through XCOM 2 before jumping into this, and for some reason now anytime I upgrade armor, it removes all my options and really only leaves those shitty anarchy options. I'd just remove them, but I actually like some of them; is there a reason why this happens?
TC McQueen
Member
IIRC, the Anarchy's Children stuff is allowed to persist through armor tier changes, while other stuff changes based on the armor you pick.
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