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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen |OT| Mario + Rabbids + Autopsies

Nijo Nerd

Neo Member
I finally finished the game in default difficulty in Ironman mode. It became somewhat easy somewhere after the first Chosen I killed. Now I failed around 3 campaigns in Ironman commander difficulty... This shit is brutal but I love it.
 
Just beat the Assassin with mag weapons, and boy, did some of my mods really come in handy. First, my 2x Ability Points mod allowed me to get some ideal abilities on some of my soldiers (Tactical Rigging for Dragunova, Ever Vigilant on my Specialist, Sharpshooter, and Grenadier), and Loot Pinatas let me outfit Mox's gun with a Superior Expanded Mag and Dragunova with an Advanced Stock. Second, putting Suppression on all sorts of guns helped mitigate a few of the adds in the Sarcophagus room proper, since there were more than a few times when enemies would be in that shitty "stupid low chance to kill, but overwatch isn't reliable" zone.

Probably my favorite moment of the mission was Dragunova remote starting some fuel tank in a hangar and killing a pair of Vipers and a pair of Chrysallids, plus damaging an Andromedon. The most frustrating things about the mission were not being able to use Banish on the Sarcophagus and the absurd amount of time it took to get a soldier close enough to the Sarcophagus to trigger Squad Sight.

That said, thank God I was running the No Fatigue mod for the mission, because there's a Council mission right after beating the Assassin.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
OK, 20% chance to execute is crazy. I put my guardian specialist on overwatch everytime the Chosen respawn, and she procced execute 3 out of 4 times.
 
Hoo boy, just finished my Beta Strike (2x HP) campaign and the last mission was appropriately epic and ridiculous. Made it out by the very skin of my teeth, nearly all my squad dead, and no one above 10 hp. One more turn and it would have been a complete wipe, hell just 2 more damage and I would have lost given how the last turns went. I also chose not to play with repeaters, mindshields, or lvl 2 melee weapons because they all felt gameplay breaking in different ways, so that accounts for a good portion of the difficulty. If I was going to do it over again I might use mindshields on the last mission if I didn't have bonded soldiers but otherwise I felt those restrictions were absolutely necessary for the regular campaign missions to have the intended difficulty.

Spoiler tags in case people don't want to know about any last mission mechanics:
I had forgotten how quickly the waves of enemies kept spawning so I was not at all anticipating how difficult it would be with beta strike on. I realized pretty fast that trying to keep any sort of pace was hopeless and changed tactics to bursting the avatars down. Unfortunately some spawns of Advent Priests and Spectres completely threw that plan for a loop as they basically ensured half my squad started turns in mind control, stasis, or shadow bound. It was basically a complete cluster-fuck for the whole mission but somehow I managed to keep everyone alive way longer than I expected and slowly chipping the avatars down.

In the second to last turn I only had my psi-ops soldier and the commander avatar available for actions. I had two Avatar's left to kill, one with a little under 20hp and the other with I think 28 hp. The psi-operative had just come out of his 1-HP prevent-death stasis and was surrounded by chrysallids. Thankfully he was in range to soulfire and kill a Spectre which freed my shadowbound specialist, who was then within range to skull-jack the Advent Priest mind controlling my pistol-whipping sharpshooter who was in range of both avatars.

I used the sharpshooter's free pistol abilities to hit each avatar once and luckily the low hp one teleported within range for my gunslinger to use triple-tap for the kill. To try to kill the last one I had the commander avatar mind control a viper which had bound my second specialist with only 2HP left. Thankfully I had a revival protocol left which got my previously incapacitated ranger back in the fight. Unfortunately they were too far to attack the avatar so I had them try to hole up close to the middle of the map in hopes I could run and gun the next turn to burst them down with deadshot.

On the aliens turn they quickly slaughtered everyone, leaving only my ranger and the commander avatar alive with 8 and 10 health respectively. Amazingly, the aliens also left my mind-controlled viper untouched which proved to be their undoing. Because while the remaining avatar would have been too far away and tucked behind cover to kill, they were just close enough for my viper to have a 65% shot at yanking them in. With RNG in my favor, my viper pulled the last avatar into range and bound them up, giving my ranger the perfect opportunity to score a run-and-gun deadshot flanking critical strike.
Victory was ours, but at the cost of every soldier save one. ;_;7
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
When you guys use the Reaper skill Banish, does it only show the first two shots and then skip over the rest, or is it only doing that on my game because I'm using the stop wasting my time mods?
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
When you guys use the Reaper skill Banish, does it only show the first two shots and then skip over the rest, or is it only doing that on my game because I'm using the stop wasting my time mods?


I've seen all of them fire once or twice, but I have also seen it bug out like crazy. When I fought the Warlock he had the ability that makes him move when he takes damage and his character model turned into some terrifying noodle man after the first hit. I've also seen the damage number/miss message appear before the shot animation fires off.

OK, 20% chance to execute is crazy. I put my guardian specialist on overwatch everytime the Chosen respawn, and she procced execute 3 out of 4 times.

Weapon upgrade card/continent bonus, plus repeater, plus increased mag=Reaper has a kill button with banish for any enemy you want to see go bye bye. I'll take any cheese the game gives me.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
It’s a common bug for everyone I thought

I've seen all of them fire once or twice, but I have also seen it bug out like crazy. When I fought the Warlock he had the ability that makes him move when he takes damage and his character model turned into some terrifying noodle man after the first hit. I've also seen the damage number/miss message appear before the shot animation fires off.



Weapon upgrade card/continent bonus, plus repeater, plus increased mag=Reaper has a kill button with banish for any enemy you want to see go bye bye. I'll take any cheese the game gives me.

Thanks, yeah, it turns out the game just bugs out when too much shit is going on.

I just cheesed two of the alien leaders with that tactic. The first time, I setup an overwatch trap with 4 specialists with threat assesment/guardian, and repeater rifles. lol.

The second time, I put superior mags, and a superior repeater on the reaper rifle, and used banish. looooooool
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
For some reason, one of my snipers can move and shoot his rifle on the same turn. Is that a property of the snake armor? I'm not sure how he does that.
 

Nijo Nerd

Neo Member
I believe it's because you use the Sniper Chosen's weapon.

By the way I said earlier I was trying to ironman in commander difficulty and I meant legend. I had a good walkthrough last night, but made some bad decisions and stupid mistakes only to lose many good units... I believe I'll use this experience for another run. This is pretty addictive once you want to take on the challenge.
 
For some reason, one of my snipers can move and shoot his rifle on the same turn. Is that a property of the snake armor? I'm not sure how he does that.
Are you using mods? The Halo Weapons Medley and Titanfall Weapons packs have sniper variants that only take 1 action to fire.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Is there a particular reason that Reapers/Skirmishers/Templars can't go on the combat intelligence improvement missions? That seems dumb.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
One thing that I haven't mentioned is that I'm very very thankful for the improved load times. That shit in vanilla XCOM 2 was ridiculous, including the "press capslock" fix.

It's a bug.

Ah I see. I hope someone made a fix in the workshop. Thanks.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
New patch is out:

https://xcom.com/news/entries/fall-2017-xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-update-deploys

Gameplay – Strategy Layer

Beta Strike now is applied to XCOM soldiers if the tutorial is enabled
Scientists and engineers can no longer be used while deployed on Covert Actions
Fixed base game soldier promotion abilities not being free in the Training Center if a cross-class ability is purchased first
Fixed a visual issue with the inventory menu after selecting a Grenadier's utility item or grenade slot in the Hangar.
Fixed Resistance Order card duplication
Fixed a navigation issue caused by empty Resistance Order card slots
Tutorial: Players can now re-enter the Research screen if they’ve tried to exit during the tutorial.
Fixed an issue that prevented soldiers from being dismissible after completing Lost and Abandoned with the Tutorial enabled
Fixed the conventional weapon breakthrough tech causing "+1 Damage" to display on the claymore when viewed in the Armory
Soldiers in the Character Pool now generate with a background
Scavengers Resistance Order now only applies to resource-based POI rewards
Weapon color defaults to 20 now instead of -1 to prevent mismatched color previews
Camera outline and poster display update on screen change
Fixed an issue with SPARKs getting permanently stuck in a wounded yet "Available" state after going on Chosen Stronghold missions
Fixed the Lost World Dark Event to expire correctly

Fixed lingering cohesion glow after creating a new bond
Fixed an issue where faction soldiers in the Training Center promotion screen would not appear when cycling through soldiers
Removed references to Resistance HQ from strategy notifications
Removed the ability for soldiers to gain positive traits as part of the AWC post-mission negative trait recovery mechanic
Soldiers on Covert Actions no longer drop their equipped items when the player enters the squad select screen
Fixed Rescue Soldier missions sometimes appearing with no reward if you fail it the first time
Adding additional text to the Reaper's Silent Killer ability description
Fixed weapons with mods attached not upgrading to the next tier for soldiers who are deployed on ambush-able Covert Actions


Gameplay – Tactical Layer

Chosen will be activated only if someone on XCOM team has been revealed
Fixed a bug where the fog of war fails to update or disappear when the player's Codex creates a clone during a mission
Fixed an issue where detection tiles would disappear for faction soldiers after loading a save while in concealment
VIPs using hunker down no longer break concealment
Berserk Rangers no longer attack squadmates
Fixed visualization of Archon patrol pathing
Units now take claymore damage when a claymore is detonated underneath them while on a destructible floor during tactical gameplay
ADVENT Priests triggering Sustain while standing in the evac zone no longer fails the mission
Alien Rulers get a 1.5X HP boost when Beta Strike is enabled
Fixed an issue where Purifiers became unresponsive after their clone made from Shadowbind was destroyed
Bladestorm and Retribution excludes teammates as valid targets
Enemy reinforcement visual indicator no longer disappears
Chosen can no longer turn into cocoons from Chryssalid poison
Spectres hit with Stasis will no longer prevent shadowbound units from recovering when the Spectre is killed
Fixed missing flyover for Lightning Reflexes
Gremlins only reveal hidden units after a hack attempt is made
Changed Skirmisher Ionic Ripjack stun chance to 25%
Darkclaw now gains the effects of equipped ammo
Brutal Chosen strength temporarily decreases soldier Will
Fixed ambient lighting not being applied in some non-tactical areas
Targetable enemy indicator refreshes correctly after navigating tactical menus
Fixed an issue where help text and other pop-ups would not trigger during the tutorial
Units provided by the Volunteer Army & Double Agent Resistance Orders will no longer count as units lost during a campaign
Updated Mimic Beacon behavior for Purifier, Priest, Spectre, and shadowbound units
Added AI AoE finder updates to enable AoE attacks on Mimic Beacons
Fixed an issue preventing Mimic Beacons from being attacked more than once by purifiers
Skulljack now kills units instantly if Beta Strike is enabled
Shredded armor no longer reappears after reloading a save
Fixed an issue where Skirmishers could use Wrath to move to an area, but not perform a melee attack
Fixed infinite visualization hang when X2Action_WaitForAnotherAction fails to receive the event trigger it is registered for
Fixed issue with claymores not being immediately targetable by the Reaper
Reduced Chosen Hunter pistol range
Skulljack no longer prevents a unit from becoming concealed
Supply Extraction loot now recovered if XCOM evacs from the mission
Fixed a loss of functionality caused by simultaneously entering a rescue circle and triggering a Lost pod during a Rescue Stranded Resistance Agents mission
Fixed crash caused by too many Lost on screen at one time
Restricting spawns in the corners of some parcels to prevent Chosen from being stuck if they spawn in the corner of a map
Slightly reducing the aim of Retaliation civilian militia and Volunteer Army soldiers
Shadowbound units don't get abilities granted from Sustaining Spheres. This matches up with shadowbound units not getting built in Sustain ability from units either
Prevent Chosen Kidnap / Extract on special units that come from HQ via Double Agent or Volunteer Army
Fix for an indefinite hang when a unit gets the burning status effect when moving for a Skullmine action during tactical gameplay
Holy Warrior effects no longer persist after the Priest is removed from the mission(evac)
Chosen Sarcophagus health displays correctly after loading a save game while the shield is up
Bluescreen Rounds no longer affect destructibles
Updated Shadowbind to remove the Parthenogenic Poison from the target
Decoupled GameStateUnit and asynchronous pawn load requests to prevent hung levels and crashes on level load Fixed crashes related to GetAllViewersOfTarget
Fixed crashes related to GetAllVisibleToSource
Fixed crashes related to GetAllViewersOfLocation
Fixed crashes caused by for large block of LoadMap crashes
Fixed GetWorldInfo crashes on RenderThread
FixedProtection against IsAudible crashes from effects


Challenge Mode

Added new event notifications: 5 Enemy Kills, Concealment Broken, First Soldier Wounded, Killed a Sectopod or Gatekeeper, Lost a Sectopod or Gatekeeper, and Completed Mission
Challenge Mode replay improvements: show the reaper roll, skip challenge points banners, disable mission narratives
Added user score and total players to Challenge Mode squad select screen
Changed Challenge events to display completion percentages of total players for an event
ADVENT soldiers now take an action when their shadowbound clone is killed
Enemy units will now move or take actions when the player Shadowbinds another enemy unit in the same pod
Challenge Mode replays will now automatically start playing
Fixed an issue where Focus drops were not occurring in Challenge mode
additional score break down and stats to leaderboard
Consolidated the objective and enemy score decrease messages into one message when appropriate
Fixed an issue causing Challenges to auto-complete


Misc

Modding - Added files to improve compatibility between the game and uncooked content
Character Pool now checks base game and expansion directories for available pools
Fixed Character Pool lighting when on Stronghold shell screen
Fixed a crash with the Character Pool trying to access a version of a unit that no longer exists
Added a button to open the local Photobooth directory from the game
Class pose filtering is skipped when doing a memorial shot
Additional crash and bug fixes
 

epmode

Member
I waited a month for this stupid patch and they still didn't fix the bug where controller dpad input occasionally skips over menu options. I can replicate it 100% of the time and it sounded like many others were familiar with the issue. How do you even report this to Firaxis? I couldn't find an official bug report feature.
 
Apparently Julian Gollop has been doing a playthrough? I'm not familiar at all with this streaming service. Trying to find if there is an archive of any of it. Doesn't seem like it.

https://twitter.com/Phoenix_Point/status/918515529035501569

https://twitter.com/caffeine/status/921073052972023808
Gaming with Gollop is canceled today!

Well shit, I was keeping an eye out for a tweet and thought I missed it. Had to dig around to find it was cancelled today. I guess next week it is then.
 
I thought about asking whether a patch was coming just a few days ago, nice to see it was worth the wait.

Kinda weird how they title it as a fall update, though. Necessary patches shouldn't be considered quarterly updates, as though this was some sort of GaaS game.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I'm not sure if I like the Ionic Ripjack nerf. Skirmishers seem on the weak side to begin with, especially with Battlelord not working properly. Or am I just not using them correctly?
 

Foffy

Banned
Just as I was about to start XCOM 2 proper, too . ;)

Would anyone recommend most have mods for WotC that aren't changing too much? I figure I'd likely not go deep on the "expand the game in h u g e ways" until Long War 2 is brought over.

I was considering to just go with the "Start Here" selection from WotC from this Google Doc. Anybody know if they have conflicts with the game? Prior to this patch, I mean.
 
Kinda weird how they title it as a fall update, though. Necessary patches shouldn't be considered quarterly updates, as though this was some sort of GaaS game.
I think the Challenge Mode is why it's got the weird name. They'll probably update it periodically over the next year or so, since it's the closest they've got to GaaS.
 

BlackJace

Member
Hrm.. That makes sense.

At least it's not lootboxes, I guess.


They have like 95 aim. They'll still be OK with a slight decrease.

SUPPLY CRATES

Gold -- 3 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed + Customization Items

Silver -- 2 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed

Standard -- 1 Superior Weapon Upgrade guaranteed

Please ignore me, 2K
 

Foffy

Banned
SUPPLY CRATES

Gold -- 3 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed + Customization Items

Silver -- 2 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed

Standard -- 1 Superior Weapon Upgrade guaranteed

Please ignore me, 2K

Aren't there loot crate mods already?
 
SUPPLY CRATES

Gold -- 3 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed + Customization Items

Silver -- 2 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed

Standard -- 1 Superior Weapon Upgrade guaranteed

Please ignore me, 2K

I mean, there's a mission type in the game where XCOM and ADVENT race to collect loot boxes. It's very meta already.
 
SUPPLY CRATES

Gold -- 3 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed + Customization Items

Silver -- 2 Superior Weapon Upgrades guaranteed

Standard -- 1 Superior Weapon Upgrade guaranteed

Please ignore me, 2K

Grimy's Loot mod actually adds Loot Boxes. They're actually pretty cool, usually gives you a weapon with built in attachments and even a special name, colour and even design if you have some weapon mods installed.

I prefer it to just installing weapon mods actually.
 
How big is this patch? I went to download and was confronted with a 7.7Gb download. There may be a few Workshop mod updates in that but it still seems large (I was on my laptop and tethered connection so I couldn't download).
 
Good news on patch, hopefully it will smooth some issues.
I’m waiting for a sale on the PS4 edition. One might assume that it could be in included in the sale of the dead weeks?
 
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