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  1. - Top - End - #31
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by ShneekeyTheLost View Post
    Not really. Overwatches were mostly, except under certain circumstances and with certain specific character builds, a sucker's bet and trap. Particularly in higher levels of difficulties, moving to partial cover and going into overwatch is absolutely a BAD idea compared to making a sprint to full cover and no overwatch. The overwatch penalty alone is effectively giving enemies at a minimum partial cover. This gets exasperated under conditions such as distance penalties (because overwatch triggers the moment it is possible, not when it is optimal), already existing cover when overwatch triggers, and other factors. In many cases, you actually have a BETTER shot had you NOT gone into overwatch, but simply Hunkered to deny an enemy a good shot at you, then fired in response.

    The primary example when overwatch is appropriate is a) Longwatch Sniper, because his job, when not directly plugging aliens, is to find a good sniper's roost that has a commanding view over the majority of where the team is moving and respond in the event a pack either 'self activates' by patrolling movements or someone activates a pack prematurely, or b) someone with the ability to apply a useful effect even if they miss, such as when the soldier has the perk that gives an aim bonus to subsequent shooters at that target.

    The overwatch crawl is a 'newbie tactic', and very rarely optimal in nearly any circumstance. It often places the soldiers in greater danger than moving without insisting on being on overwatch every turn due to availability of full cover vs partial cover and 'discovered packs', and survivability.
    I'm almost certain you're talking about something else entirely. No one's suggesting Overwatch is a good idea if you've activated any pods and are engaged in combat; it's what you do while no pods are active that's the issue. The optimal strategy, sans timer, is a slow crawl across the map, hoping to catch the aliens patrolling... unless the mission happens to have a turn limit.
    Last edited by Silfir; 2017-08-27 at 09:07 PM.
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  2. - Top - End - #32
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Another issue is of course that the implication here is that only noobs play "lower difficulties". Although I have heard enough complaints that Overwatch was the Win All tactic (by seasoned players) on all difficulties (that's the main reason for the timed missions in X2 after all; to force players to stop using their favorite tactic).

    And yes, Overwatch can work on already triggered enemies. That's after all the main defense for the strangler-squid thingies.

    Edit: Not that I would try it, I don't care for achievements, but apparently there was a huge stink because you couldn't play with Tutorial if you wanted a zero death run since those two soldiers counted even though the screen said "Dead soldiers: 0" at the end.
    Last edited by Avilan the Grey; 2017-08-27 at 11:36 PM.
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  3. - Top - End - #33
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey View Post
    Another issue is of course that the implication here is that only noobs play "lower difficulties".
    That is pretty prevelant everywhere though, in every game that HAS difficulty settings; but I suppose that games with a slightly higher fail-state maybe attract slightly more of it.

    (And somewhat therein lies the problem, since it seems to be a point of pride or something for some people to play at the hardest difficulty automatically, regardless of whether they are actually any good at it and then complain that it's too hard if they are not; or to look down on anyone who plays the game not the ssame wya they do) or (in other games) take screaming umbrage that someone who is Not As Good As They Are can play it and/or get the, in the grand scheme of things, meaningless reward of an achievement or something. I hasten to add, I am not tacitly accusing anyone here would fall into any of those categories, because the majority of people who post on the playground are, y'know, reasonable people, by and large!)

    Me, personally? The last time I played a game with a setting above Hard was TIE Fighter, when I play me let's play (a game with which I was quite familiar and consider one of the top three best games of all time) and that was a pretty frustrating experience, not one I'd care to repeat. Normal at most (and often easy) is the limit I'm prepared to play at. (Heck, I'll never get a single achievement on any PDX grand strat, since I refuse point-blank in any game to turn ironman mode on.) I am generally happy to Staiy Baad, for my own entertainment...

    So, like with the first one, if I do get/play this, I'll be firmly on Normal, tops.

  4. - Top - End - #34
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    IIRC, You're gonna want to play on Commander level for Xcom 2.

    The reason for this is that Commander and Legendary level allow all enemies to get critical hits on soldiers in cover, when most can't do this on Veteran level. This changes the dynamic of the game pretty radically, giving a small chance that taking any shot is fatal in the majority of situations whereas in Veteran you can "tank" the shot and there's a certainty of your soldier at least surviving.
    It always amazes me how often people on forums would rather accuse you of misreading their posts with malice than re-explain their ideas with clarity.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Vitruviansquid View Post
    IIRC, You're gonna want to play on Commander level for Xcom 2.

    The reason for this is that Commander and Legendary level allow all enemies to get critical hits on soldiers in cover, when most can't do this on Veteran level. This changes the dynamic of the game pretty radically, giving a small chance that taking any shot is fatal in the majority of situations whereas in Veteran you can "tank" the shot and there's a certainty of your soldier at least surviving.
    Not sure if I agree with your reasoning; the main reason to go up in difficulty for me in XCOM was that the AI was unshackled to a huge degree when you got above Normal.
    In comparison "Critical Hits" seems like a much cheaper way to up difficulty.

    Oh I have not started yet btw; I am in an odd place trying to decide if I am to use the Character Pool or not. Part of me wants to make all these characters based on celebrities, heroes and protagonists and part of me really don't want them in my game because the idea of training up a bunch of nobodies and get attached to them because of what they do and not because her name is "Gal Gadot" or "Emma Frost" is also very very appealing.
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey View Post
    Not sure if I agree with your reasoning; the main reason to go up in difficulty for me in XCOM was that the AI was unshackled to a huge degree when you got above Normal.
    In comparison "Critical Hits" seems like a much cheaper way to up difficulty.

    Oh I have not started yet btw; I am in an odd place trying to decide if I am to use the Character Pool or not. Part of me wants to make all these characters based on celebrities, heroes and protagonists and part of me really don't want them in my game because the idea of training up a bunch of nobodies and get attached to them because of what they do and not because her name is "Gal Gadot" or "Emma Frost" is also very very appealing.
    Is not creating your own characters a fair chunk of the fun? I mean, I'm not exactly a hard-core X-Com person (I came in late to the franchise (just before the re-reboot) and I got about half-way through the proper first one before I got a bit bored with the repetativeness of chasing down enemies before the new first one came out, which I have played through once), but being able to create my team was half of the fun.

    (In the very first one, where it was feasible to do so with the large squad count, I named a chunk Peon [Number] and sent them around unarmed, with the explicit point of being murdered as a form of recon. If anyone of those survivec a mission or few, they were allowed to have names and become part of the proper squad. That was fun...

    Or in the reboot, of specifically having pink-Guile-haired, pink-armoured Rafale Fancyheire from the get-go to be used as a Parody Idiot with which to sacrifice at the end of the game (after participating in about two missions...))

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Creating your own characters?

    Na. that's the simple way around.

    Having characters come into existence by themselves, and having them get more unique and have a "personality" of sorts that just came into be without you ever making a decision, based simply on the abilities they got unlocked, and how missions went-now that's the highlight.

    You care not because you "made" them, you care because you saw them grow from yet another rookie to a special and irreplaceable soldier. and losing one of your aces who has a unique set of skills you cant replicate with the looks that are special to him and him alone, now that's a real heartbreak.


    Anyway, war of the chosen is now widely available. time to go over my mods and scrub away what no longer fits.

    And get more voicepacks...
    Alot more voicepacks...

    Seems like the soldier rooster in a LW2 WotC game is going to be huge.
    Last edited by boomwolf; 2017-08-29 at 05:57 AM.


    Quote Originally Posted by Cormag81 View Post
    2117: No matter how good a debater I am out of character there is no way to logically get out of falling after your paladin kills his patron god.

  8. - Top - End - #38
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    I have reached a conclusion:
    I let the game create them, but if two conditions are met I will save them to the character pool for future use:

    1. They survive the entire game
    2. I like them

    It's that simple.

    I had a... beneficial bug already.
    I started on the second hardest difficulty just for fun, and it was well.. hard.
    Since it's my first run I am not above light savescumming though (reload a mission if a non-rookie dies). Second time I did that the game bugged and no enemies could move or take action.
    SO, that was an easy run.
    I think I will lower the difficulty though; I am not sure yet.
    Blizzard Battletag: UnderDog#21677

    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    That's...a really weird bug...

    Got any mods running or something?


    Quote Originally Posted by Cormag81 View Post
    2117: No matter how good a debater I am out of character there is no way to logically get out of falling after your paladin kills his patron god.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by boomwolf View Post
    That's...a really weird bug...

    Got any mods running or something?
    Nope.
    After googling it seems it's rare, but not unheard of. Most people get it if they change resolution mid game, but I didn't do that. I did however alt-tab out a few times.
    The next mission has the same bug, but it seems quitting the game completely and restart fixes it. I hope so, I will try it now.
    Blizzard Battletag: UnderDog#21677

    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

  11. - Top - End - #41
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    How does the balance over time shift for the game?
    one of the things I didn't like about original XCOM was how the hardest part was the first couple of months; and if you hadn't been wiped out by then (this was for the higher difficulties), you tended to stabilize and the game got easier and easier as your tech caught up, and your troops leveled.
    Last edited by zlefin; 2017-08-29 at 08:13 AM.
    A neat custom class for 3.5 system
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94616

    A good set of benchmarks for PF/3.5
    https://rpgwillikers.wordpress.com/2...y-the-numbers/

    An alternate craft point system I made for 3.5
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...t-Point-system

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by zlefin View Post
    How does the balance over time shift for the game?
    one of the things I didn't like about original XCOM was how the hardest part was the first couple of months; and if you hadn't been wiped out by then (this was for the higher difficulties), you tended to stabilize and the game got easier and easier as your tech caught up, and your troops leveled.
    From what I recall, especially with the DLC, is that the game's basically a huge arms race. When you first start, looking at the abilities and weapons you can get, you'll probably be under the impression that you'll have the same issue - there are some really lethal options for you to take.
    Then you'll unlock those options, use them to wipe the floor with a battle or two, and discover a new type of alien or alien ability that's pretty radical too.

    It has a lot more tactical flexibility, on both sides. Maybe I just suck, but I think the game kept pretty balanced the whole way through.
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    I have discovered that I role play with the cusomization. Basically it's based on Attitude. The more "By The Book" attitude, the less wild they dress. My Blademaster (yeah, I am not further into the game than promotion #2) is an Irish girl who is By The Book. She has full standard armor. By contrast my German grenadier is "Laid Back" and has quite a heavy custom outfit (still black though, still somewhat armored. No leather shorts and bra only).

    ...So; yes it worked to reload restart the game.
    I know this is tutorial missions still (more ore less) and meant to be easy... But damn. The second mission was SO much easier than the first (before it bugged out). "Protect the device". I steamrolled everything in a matter of seconds.
    It helps that you now know where the enemy's field of vision ends. Much easier to get absolutely as close as possible before going into overwatch.
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    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by zlefin View Post
    How does the balance over time shift for the game?
    one of the things I didn't like about original XCOM was how the hardest part was the first couple of months; and if you hadn't been wiped out by then (this was for the higher difficulties), you tended to stabilize and the game got easier and easier as your tech caught up, and your troops leveled.
    Well, considering the aliens have their won "win condition" in the strategy layer beyond "terrorize everyone" means you can and probably will be pushed to the brink a few times, and forced to take missions you really don't want to just because if you don't, the aliens win.
    Basically, they got something called the "avatar project" going on, and if they fill up a progress bar, a timer start and if the timer finishes before you manage to take out a facility or the sorts relating the the project, they win. and that's on top of them hunting you down, and taking out resistance cells you have to defend (terror missions)
    Beyond that, they scale FAR better than the first game. their armies upgrade both on unit level and on unit composition. most early game enemies will continue to be at the very least a bother, if not an outright threat, well into the lategame-and some of the lategame enemies are just brutal, either by raw power, of by the nasty tricks up their sleeves.
    Not to mention, this is their planet now. yes, missions to take out all enemies in the map are a common thing, but on many missions-you are on a clock to get the hell out of there, because your evac has a limited window of opportunity, or alternately they have literally infinite reinforcements to drown you in.
    And there is a "dark event" mechanic, every month they have 3 sub-projects running. you can stop one if you want to dedicate the effort, but not all three. and they do bad stuff from getting their forces extra armor, extra detection radius, inserting infiltrators into future missions, getting the avatar project faster, etc.
    Overall-they have just so much more going on than you can ever hope to handle. you don't have the time or manpower to do every missions, and take everything that's up for grabs on the map-you gotta chose what's important. at the higher difficulty levels, this becomes even more stressed out.

    So far for the base game.
    Enter the new War of the Chosen expansion, now there are three "chosen", the alien's elite agents, each with his own unique skillset that is semi-random, and evolves as the game goes on, and until you manage to take them out (not easy at all, if you kill him in a mission he'll come back. you gotta for through some hoops) they will keep pressuring you on the strategy map, show up to missions to attempt to kill/kidnap your dudes, run sabotage that directly hurts your base/forces, and if they gather enough intel, launch outright assault on your base that CAN destroy it, ending you in one bad mission.
    And your soliders also get tired now. can't take them on every missions-their will will brake.


    Overall, there is still a possibility to ramp up enough power that missions become a breeze if you get way ahead of the curve, but it's not easy. and every "small" loss (such as a good soldier getting nabbed) can be a serious blow to your effort.


    Quote Originally Posted by Cormag81 View Post
    2117: No matter how good a debater I am out of character there is no way to logically get out of falling after your paladin kills his patron god.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    So, I remade the Irish woman from the tutorial into an Australian blademaster. The reason of course is that with no Irish voices (as bad as they tend to be in games) it is still better than having an Irish woman speak A) in American or B) Cockney.
    Blizzard Battletag: UnderDog#21677

    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    So far I am liking this game, thought I still think the timed missions are usuall 1-2 rounds too short (more often than not I am sacrificing (potentially) a trooper to get on the mission objective on the last turn).

    ALso, it seems this game is still not bug free enough to do an Ironman run. I almost never do anyway, but I have so far experienced: The "Non attack bug". the "Um... can't figure out what to do" bug (when the AI just keeps rotating between its troops never deciding on an action forcing me to ALT-F4 out of the game) and of course the "For some reason this time it took 11 minutes to load the "flying home" animation bug.

    That said the biggest problem for me is that the world map is so full with things to do that I have NO CLUE if I am doing good or not. I constantly am afraid that I am forgetting an objective and I will fall behind enough to never be able to recover.

    Anyway I will definitely get the expansion when it comes out.
    Blizzard Battletag: UnderDog#21677

    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey View Post
    Not sure if I agree with your reasoning; the main reason to go up in difficulty for me in XCOM was that the AI was unshackled to a huge degree when you got above Normal.
    In comparison "Critical Hits" seems like a much cheaper way to up difficulty.
    Really? Because I am extremely certain this was the way difficulties worked in Xcom: EU.
    It always amazes me how often people on forums would rather accuse you of misreading their posts with malice than re-explain their ideas with clarity.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Vitruviansquid View Post
    Really? Because I am extremely certain this was the way difficulties worked in Xcom: EU.
    Up to and including Normal the AI in EU / EWI was shackled so it for example almost never used grenades, not playing as aggressively in general as it "could" (I know, if you cut it lose completely it would annihilate you because the computer knows everything that happens in its own game it just pretends not to) etc.
    Add to that the shift in damage and hitpoints. Oh and not having certain rooms pre-constructed.

    If the AI is not shackled in Normal on XCOM 2 I see that as a good thing, but it is a little weird that the only thing I see about difficulty is "Less Hitpoints for you, more hitpoints for them" and "They can now crit you as well".
    Blizzard Battletag: UnderDog#21677

    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    When it's out?

    The expansion is already out mate, I'm playing it.



    And its odd you face so many bugs, I have yet to encounter even one, despite sometimes running heavy mods (the expansion seems to be unhappy with mods though, so I'm running the expansion game without it though.)


    Anyway, Xcom just reminded me something-ragequit moments.
    As i'm playing ironman (feels cheaty not to) a ragequit means a new campigen.
    Luckly I'm not too deep in, and my start wasn't very good...
    Why ragequit?
    Because I'm on a supposedly easy mission. got my troopers in position to end the missions while still concealed, however three of them are out of actions.
    Then the forth moves into position.
    Get revealed, got no actions left so the aliens get move->turn. with a purifier right on top of me, and a sectoid, captain and lancer nearby
    Que a quick loss of my templar, reaper and two others.
    Yea, two months in, losing two hero classes with a bad run anyways? (no engineers) I'm out, thank you.



    As for AI shackling, AFAIK the "normal" AI is not shy of using nades and such, when appropriate.
    He's not brutal in the "I know my troops are expendable and going to die anyway so I'm popping all my abilities right off the bat", but it's not shy of hitting you where it hurts the most...
    Last edited by boomwolf; 2017-08-30 at 08:03 AM.


    Quote Originally Posted by Cormag81 View Post
    2117: No matter how good a debater I am out of character there is no way to logically get out of falling after your paladin kills his patron god.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Starting over. I feel lost at sea with all the missions and research. I am also lowering the difficulty this time to Commander Veteran. The combination of being under-"leveled" (due to researching the wrong things in the wrong order) and better detection and HP from enemies... I ended up with too many wounded all the time.

    Also, thank god I wasn't doing Iron Man; not being able to go back and load when you unwittingly started super-hard DLC missions... would have killed me.

    I have saved all the soldiers I liked in the character pool. I only have to enable "Random & Pool" when starting over.
    Last edited by Avilan the Grey; 2017-08-30 at 08:27 AM.
    Blizzard Battletag: UnderDog#21677

    Shepard: "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
    Wrex: "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    From what I've seen so far, War of the Chosen is a fair bit harder than Vanilla - at least in the early game. They've improved the AI quite a bit, and the Chosen can really wreck you. I had to restart my Ironman campaign when a Sectoid and a Chosen together both decided to Mind Control in the same turn. Yeesh.

    Beta strike (doubles all health) is kinda interesting, but it seems to break the game a bit - your early damage just doesn't scale well enough to deal with the Chosen in a reasonable time frame, and in other cases it makes enemies not threatening. I had a few cases where I put soldiers into bad positions to nail a flank shot because I knew they could soak the damage coming the other way. I like the idea conceptually, but I think I'll wait for a mod that adjusts the numbers to make it evenly distributed.

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Well, here's a few starting tips.


    Crew members (engineers and scientists, and to a degree soldiers) are very important. other resources like supplies, elirium, alloys and whatnot are good, but only when you actually got things to do with them. you want crew to tech up and excavate (and go on missions) especially with the expansion-you need manpower.


    Teching up-don't rush the "objectives" too much, they can wait a bit. you need tech to make you stronger first. any "passive" upgrade is worth a lot more (mainly an expansion thing) as it costs nothing to benefit from it. unlocking new rooms is pointless if you can't actually build anything at the moment, and unlocking new gear isn't helping if you can't afford said gear.
    Basically, when choosing a tech you should think "does it help RIGHT NOW?", and "is fast to get?" if both answers are yes, take it. if not, then don't, unless nothing qualifies-then you can go for something that takes longer.
    Do not bother with autopsy unless you really need them, once you rank enough kill of that type they turn into instant research.


    Building up your avenger-you got 3 types of things to excavate, regular debris, machinary and power coils.
    Teh important ones are power coils-they actually do stuff other than giving stuff when you excavate them.
    Any room on it takes no power, and a power relay built on one is greatly improved. the only rooms that take more power than the improvement to power relay provides are the upgraded versions of shadow chamber and the improved psi labs-two really late game rooms.
    So just rush to the power coil, build a relay on it-and you'll have a healty supply of power for any rooms you want to build.


    Get the guerrilla tactics school up fast. it has upgrades to squad size-and you REALLY want these.
    Proving grounds (unlocked after officer autopsy) is pretty darn good, but it takes a lot or resources to feed to it in order to gain the benefits, so I would not bother rushing it.


    I'll say it again-do NOT rush "objectives". they sometimes trigger alien escalation, and if you are not ready for it, it will be painful.
    You have more time than you think. avatar progress can be pushed back later.


    Quote Originally Posted by Cormag81 View Post
    2117: No matter how good a debater I am out of character there is no way to logically get out of falling after your paladin kills his patron god.

  23. - Top - End - #53
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Thanks for the tips
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  24. - Top - End - #54
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey View Post
    Also, thank god I wasn't doing Iron Man; not being able to go back and load when you unwittingly started super-hard DLC missions... would have killed me.
    Yup. I take it you're talking about the Alpha aliens, or whatever they're called?
    Yeah, they're a nightmare. But super satisfying to kill.
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

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  25. - Top - End - #55
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    A tip on the Avatar Project as well - it looks like a hard lose condition, but isn't. Once they fill out their bars, that kicks off a timer of around 2-3 weeks (depends on difficulty). Knocking a single bar off the project resets the timer completely, meaning that you can "ride the timer" by letting it fill out, clearing off a bar or two with a few days to go, letting it fill out again, etc. This lets you focus on more important strategic development rather than rushing into missions you're not prepared for. Once you have an endgame squad you can smash the timer all the way down in a hurry by doing the story missions and eliminating Black Sites in rapid succession.

  26. - Top - End - #56
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    Aotrs Commander's Avatar

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Anybody playing the new expansion yet (or have played enough)? It looks like it's getting good reviews, and I'm considering (in the time left) whether towards sinking pennies into getting the whole lot (which is a fair lump nearly £60, even with the sale on the first) or whether to just wait for the expansion to go on sale later. Recommendations?

    (For the record, I waited to get X-Com 1 until after the expansion was long out.)

  27. - Top - End - #57
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    GnomeWizardGuy

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    Anybody playing the new expansion yet (or have played enough)? It looks like it's getting good reviews, and I'm considering (in the time left) whether towards sinking pennies into getting the whole lot (which is a fair lump nearly £60, even with the sale on the first) or whether to just wait for the expansion to go on sale later. Recommendations?

    (For the record, I waited to get X-Com 1 until after the expansion was long out.)
    The Good

    They've really souped up the strategic layer. It's night and day with regular X-Com 2. Random research bonuses, picking bonuses from your chosen factions, the ability to make Dark Events permanent (which is really scary), and the Chosen running around doing their own thing at the same time.

    The additions to the X-COM soldiers are also welcome - haven't really gotten into the Bond mechanic yet, but being able to add abilities via earned points rather than the total RNG of Vanilla is already great.

    The missions are improved as well - new maps, and the ones already there have interesting new chunks available to them. New mission types which actually play differently than the umpteen variants of "search and destroy" that make up Vanilla. Mission modifiers that make things interesting, like getting a Concealment bonus that stops the timer from starting until combat is initiated.

    An example of the difference:

    Vanilla Supply Raid - Roam the map at your own pace, trigger the alien pods and kill them. Be careful when shooting near the supplies or you might destroy them. Supplies are otherwise an afterthought.

    Chosen Supply Raid - Supply crates are spread out throughout the map and must be manually tagged so they can be skyhooked. Over time, ADVENT will tag the crates themselves and if you don't get to them in time, they steal them. The crates can still be destroyed by gunfire, and since you're often using them as cover this is not a minor concern. On my mission, I also had Lost swarming all over the place, which made the firefight frenetic. Then things really went to hell when a Chosen showed up and began shooting both XCOM and the Lost indiscriminately.

    The Bad

    Not much in the way of new enemies thus far. There's the Chosen, the Lost, and a couple of Advent units. They may add more later in the game, but since I don't recall them advertising any more than these I'm not hopeful.

    The expansion breaks all mods. All of them, even the cosmetic ones. Losing all my custom enemies hurts. Losing the Long War Toolbox and modified classes hurts more. Losing "Shut up Bradford" is about to drive me insane.

    ----------

    Verdict:

    If you've only played Vanilla, I recommend it unquestioningly. It's simply better across the board.

    If you have a ton of mods like I did, it's a harder sell. I think I would still recommend it, but I can definitely see waiting for a few weeks while modders get to work converting everything to the new expansion. And of course, some mods may just die since the original modder has moved on. Ultimately, I think the core improvements are still worth it.

  28. - Top - End - #58
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    Aotrs Commander's Avatar

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    The Good

    They've really souped up the strategic layer. It's night and day with regular X-Com 2. Random research bonuses, picking bonuses from your chosen factions, the ability to make Dark Events permanent (which is really scary), and the Chosen running around doing their own thing at the same time.

    The additions to the X-COM soldiers are also welcome - haven't really gotten into the Bond mechanic yet, but being able to add abilities via earned points rather than the total RNG of Vanilla is already great.

    The missions are improved as well - new maps, and the ones already there have interesting new chunks available to them. New mission types which actually play differently than the umpteen variants of "search and destroy" that make up Vanilla. Mission modifiers that make things interesting, like getting a Concealment bonus that stops the timer from starting until combat is initiated.

    An example of the difference:

    Vanilla Supply Raid - Roam the map at your own pace, trigger the alien pods and kill them. Be careful when shooting near the supplies or you might destroy them. Supplies are otherwise an afterthought.

    Chosen Supply Raid - Supply crates are spread out throughout the map and must be manually tagged so they can be skyhooked. Over time, ADVENT will tag the crates themselves and if you don't get to them in time, they steal them. The crates can still be destroyed by gunfire, and since you're often using them as cover this is not a minor concern. On my mission, I also had Lost swarming all over the place, which made the firefight frenetic. Then things really went to hell when a Chosen showed up and began shooting both XCOM and the Lost indiscriminately.

    The Bad

    Not much in the way of new enemies thus far. There's the Chosen, the Lost, and a couple of Advent units. They may add more later in the game, but since I don't recall them advertising any more than these I'm not hopeful.

    The expansion breaks all mods. All of them, even the cosmetic ones. Losing all my custom enemies hurts. Losing the Long War Toolbox and modified classes hurts more. Losing "Shut up Bradford" is about to drive me insane.

    ----------

    Verdict:

    If you've only played Vanilla, I recommend it unquestioningly. It's simply better across the board.

    If you have a ton of mods like I did, it's a harder sell. I think I would still recommend it, but I can definitely see waiting for a few weeks while modders get to work converting everything to the new expansion. And of course, some mods may just die since the original modder has moved on. Ultimately, I think the core improvements are still worth it.
    I haven't got the base game, so mods are not an issue. It'd likely be a week or two before I'd get to playing it anyway (I've got a lot of games on sale recently!) so even then if I decided I wanted to mod around the turn times or something, I imagine they would up fairly soon.

  29. - Top - End - #59
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodin View Post
    Knocking a single bar off the project resets the timer completely, meaning that you can "ride the timer" by letting it fill out, clearing off a bar or two with a few days to go, letting it fill out again, etc.
    No, they changed that a while back.
    The timer will pick up where it left off, unless it was below 1 week - in that case it'll reset to 1 week.

  30. - Top - End - #60
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    Hunter Noventa's Avatar

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    Default Re: XCOM 2 is on sale 60% off...

    A lot of the major mods are getting updated pretty quickly (like EU Aim Rolls) and a lot of the cosmetic mods are just fine, though some need to be updated.

    I played a good chunk last night and I'm having a good time, but then, I play on easy sooooo...
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