Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 06:08:28 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Search:     Advanced search
we're back, baby
*
Home Help Search Login Register
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  Topic: XCOM 2 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Pages: 1 ... 3 4 [5] 6 7 ... 17 Go Down Print
Author Topic: XCOM 2  (Read 178948 times)
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #140 on: February 08, 2016, 07:13:51 AM

Yeah the rng isn't bugged, people just have a lot of confirmation bias.

The engine is buggy and very slow, and there are a lot of animations I wish I could skip past. Otherwise my experience is completely different to you Merusk.
Jeff Kelly
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6920

I'm an apathetic, hedonistic, utilitarian, nihilistic existentialist.


Reply #141 on: February 08, 2016, 07:23:46 AM

Yeah, generally I'd also say that it's probably confirmation bias. In case of the two X-Com titles though I'm inclined to blame it on something else.

I've seen this sentiment being expressed a lot with the first title and also with the current re-release. Which might still be confirmation bias even if it is expressed by a lot of people. Since the game is doing a whole lot of 'hidden' stuff though - like for example pre-determining all of the rolls before turn starts - I had always assumed that the game is doing more than it lets on.
Zetor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3269


WWW
Reply #142 on: February 08, 2016, 07:52:40 AM

Thing is, games like XCOM (or... Blood Bowl) are essentially just different variations of Risk Management Simulator 2016. Yea, you'll be missing 98% shots ever so often, and if you take five 70% shots at an enemy, you may just miss all of them. You'll be getting double skulls every 36 blocks, too. Essentially, the game expects you to prepare for the worst and have backup plans (through positioning and guaranteed damage like grenades and combat protocol) ready in case the RNG decides to screw you. Of course the RNG may STILL screw you really bad after that, too... welp. :xcom:

If there's any fudging of the RNG, it's actually in favor of the player, just as in XCOM1 (at lower difficulties you'd get a better hit% than the UI showed to you, get scaling bonuses as you lost soldiers, etc). Current unsubstantiated rumors about XCOM2 are:
Quote
Currently on Commander and below:
Added aim for Xcom after consecutive misses.
Reduced aim for aliens after consecutive hits.
Added aim for Xcom if squad reduced to <4 soldiers.
Reduced aim for aliens if Xcom is reduced to <4 soldiers.
Extra hit chance multiplier on all Xcom shots (not on Commander difficulty).
XCOM1 eventually added the "Save Scum" second wave option that allowed you to reset the seed for attacks when loading a game, I expect this will happen for XCOM2 too.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 08:14:21 AM by Zetor »

Jeff Kelly
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6920

I'm an apathetic, hedonistic, utilitarian, nihilistic existentialist.


Reply #143 on: February 08, 2016, 08:17:06 AM

Well you somewhat proved my point that they have mechanism to fudge the RNG in place.
Ceryse
Terracotta Army
Posts: 879


Reply #144 on: February 08, 2016, 08:20:35 AM

You can, actually, save scum a bit. I know this from experience during a "fuck, that's bullshit!!" moment that led to my squad of 6 missing 5 90%+ shots in a row, and would have led to at least 4 squad members dying. If you do the same actions again in the same order? Almost always the same result. However, when I did them in a different order (the same actions, exactly, but having the firing order, but not targets, swapped around) I got different results; 2 crits, 2 normal hits and 1 miss instead of the prior 5 misses. I haven't, thankfully, been seeing too many instances of missing a lot of high percentage chances.

Also, I'm not finding resources to be that big of a problem to get together. Sure, I've been hard pressed on supplies now and then (in part because I build pretty much at least 1 of everything, and partly because my mission options/scanning targets were more intel based than supplies, or 'here's some more utterly useless rookies to scan for, again'), at least on Normal. Once you unlock the Black Market and get even just a couple engineers together.. you can catch up decently (though I've been forced to delay going to the first black site for awhile because of it, and saw my Avatar meter get close to triggering the count-down).

Amusingly, my Specialist (who is mainly going down the combat hacker route) is my second highest for kills (by a decent margin!), and is only out-paced by my long distance sniper with godly aim. With the exception of a mission here or there (due to injuries; my first grenadier, the specialist and long range sniper missed 1-2 missions each), I've been using the same squad for everything just because they get shit done. Been enjoying my 2 grenadier, specialist, ranger, sniper make-up a lot (sixth spot is generally another sniper I'm slowly training for Gunslinger, or a second ranger if the mission type isn't likely to be sniper friendly).
Jeff Kelly
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6920

I'm an apathetic, hedonistic, utilitarian, nihilistic existentialist.


Reply #145 on: February 08, 2016, 08:26:50 AM

It was the same in XCom 1. The RNG pre-rolls everything but it only has the same outcome if you use the exact same orders and targets.
Zetor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3269


WWW
Reply #146 on: February 08, 2016, 09:20:30 AM

Yea. It's not a new concept, btw: Jagged Alliance 2 used the same system (pre-roll a bunch of numbers from a fixed seed), so you could 'waste' the bad rolls by having guys fire in a different order... but if you reloaded just to try the shot again, you got the same result.
Well you somewhat proved my point that they have mechanism to fudge the RNG in place.
Well, they only use that power for ~good~  awesome, for real

Seriously though, the RNG is fair (except on lower difficulties where it's cheating in favor of the player). If you really want to get into it, some guy has decompiled and analyzed the actual code and some other guy did a statistical analysis round-up. EDIT: of course this is for XCOM1, but I seriously doubt they'd make the RNG unfair just to spite players for XCOM2

As for what it means in gameplay, eh, it is what it is. I've had some clutch 32% hits that saved my bacon, but also had a 99% attack miss on a 1 hp enemy... so I made sure to have someone with an upgraded weapon that does at least 2 damage even if you miss ('Advanced Stock' upgrade) for situations like that. Overall I think games like Invisible Inc with their fully-deterministic outcomes can be much more interesting tactically, but those approaches wouldn't really work for a game like XCOM. All you can do is stack as many guaranteed damage sources as possible, and pray RNGesus doesn't decide to screw you for 3 turns straight.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 09:27:10 AM by Zetor »

WayAbvPar
Moderator
Posts: 19268


Reply #147 on: February 08, 2016, 09:26:21 AM

Broke down and bought this. Having a lot of fun so far. It IS very frustrating at times, but I like the new storyline and approach a lot.

When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM

Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood

Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
Khaldun
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15157


Reply #148 on: February 08, 2016, 10:11:23 AM

One tactic that I am enjoying a lot is having a concealed Ranger spot a turret, then having a non-concealed trooper take control of the turret with Haywire, then using the turret to rip into a pod that was beyond the visibility range of my squad. Even better if I have two Haywire squaddies and two turrets. The enemies waste a lot of effort trying to kill the turrets, the turrets end up dead, then the aliens generally try to come after me but I've already set up a kill chute for them.
Teleku
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10510

https://i.imgur.com/mcj5kz7.png


Reply #149 on: February 08, 2016, 10:42:27 AM

Purchased this at full price because of the good reviews of you all.  Not that far in, but really loving it.  It's an improved version of the first game, which is one of my favorites of all time, so I am a happy man.  So much fun!

I also find it hilarious to play a game where its assumed you fucked up and lost the first one.  Warcraft 2 is the only other game off hand that I can think of that took that approach (but still not the same since you could choose to play as either side in Warcraft 1.  It was just unique for the time in that they went with team evil winning for the sequel).

"My great-grandfather did not travel across four thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean to see this nation overrun by immigrants.  He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumor."
-Stephen Colbert
Threash
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9165


Reply #150 on: February 08, 2016, 10:44:55 AM

So if you hit caps lock after a mission it finishes loading a lot faster.  Like near instantly when i do it.    Head scratch

I am the .00000001428%
Threash
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9165


Reply #151 on: February 08, 2016, 11:02:36 AM



You can just call her Terminator Kelly.

I am the .00000001428%
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #152 on: February 08, 2016, 03:00:01 PM

Yep, it's just absurd what serial rangers they can do.

I got new upgrades for the gun, first 3 reloads free, +15% crit, etc.

Shredder rockets and then the ranger does the rest.
Threash
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9165


Reply #153 on: February 08, 2016, 06:27:37 PM

Yeah i was just in a "pull off a miracle or this is a full party wipe" situation and she dropped a full health shielded muton, full health shielded snake thing, full health snake thing, and then finished off a hurt advanced officer with a wrist rocket because i forgot i needed shotgun kills to keep the serial streak going.  At this point i just keep her in stealth as an ace in the hole when shit gets real.

I am the .00000001428%
Sophismata
Terracotta Army
Posts: 543


Reply #154 on: February 08, 2016, 07:25:31 PM

I don't really agree. You can avoid the timers and kill all enemy elements on nearly all missions just by calling an early evac.

I didn't realise this was an option on all missions. It opens up some new bugs, but it's a lifesaver and makes ironman actually enjoyable. Only lost one squad so far, but I've now had quite a few close calls (evac-ing out while under fire and flanked after hitting the objective).

If you don't kill all enemies you get a mission failed debrief, which is weird. But the councilman treats it as a successful mission, so as far as I can tell there's no long term strategic issues with bailing after securing the objective (aside from not looting the corpses).


The engine is buggy and very slow, and there are a lot of animations I wish I could skip past. Otherwise my experience is completely different to you Merusk.

The constant pauses are very annoying. Animations don't flow into each other, there's very noticeable lag between commands and actions and it gets worse the longer you play the game. I haven't encountered the issues Merusk described regarding background processes — load times for me are ok, but I'm running this on a new system that's only about 3 months old.


Things I really don't like in X2:
They touted that "enemies will patrol now." While they do, you run into the situation where a patrolling enemy coming into the combat and suddenly knowing where all of your units are. More realistic, but also a bigger headache overall.  Plus the enemies still get the, "They saw me, run for cover!" free turn. That was obnoxious in the first game, it's more obnoxious now.

The stealth mechanic that was added is only a thematic thing. As others have pointed out, scouting a location is actually punitive, not helpful. If you see three groups then you're going to have to take-down all three groups at once. Find a group, kill it, then advance.

The idea that some of you are putting out there that stealth and scouting is not just useless, but actually punished is a head-scratcher to me.

If I'm sending my Phantom Ranger out to scout, and he sees a patrol? My still-stealthed squad goes the other way around. When we meet a pod we want to make contact with, the crew sets up an ambush and either the Ranger (who goes back into concealment after engagement) or the Sharpshooter triggers it, and the patrol we bypassed never shows up. Any time a patrol does show up as soon as I engage a pod, it's been a failure on my part to properly maneuver my squad 100% of the time.

I've even avoided engaging roughly half the enemies on a VIP escort mission through thorough Ranger scouting, and that's with 4/5 of my squad out of concealment. And a Ranger in stealth can trivialize the otherwise extremely brutal base defense event by booking it around and to the generator you have to destroy, and letting your Sharpshooter squadsight it down over a couple turns.

Stealth is extremely handy, and stealth-focused Rangers are a massively useful asset.

Scouting is absolutely a liability, and for me the optimal play route has been to ignore the stealth mechanic entirely since it doesn't do anything aside from get you overwhelmed. Engage each patrol one at a time and never scout ahead because if you accidentally reveal a second patrol you'll need to deal with two groups of enemies. Even if you're concealed and have found 2+ patrols, you need to somehow lose LoS to one of them before engaging or they both know exactly where all of your soldiers are on the map. It feels weird. Once I realised that placing my soldiers into positions with low visibility was better than high visibility, fights changed from large scale clusterfucks into small, easily managed slaughterhouses.

XCOM1 tactics of setting up in high cover, sending a guy ahead and then running back remain very effective. It's actually faster in many cases than running to an objective because you kill patrols in one or two turns a pop. There is much less risk involved, and you won't get broadsided by ADVENT reinforcements.

The bigger issue is that enemy patrols follow fundamentally different rules to your own soldiers which undermines the game's verisimilitude.

I absolutely agree with Merusk on this.



Regarding the RNG, at first I thought it was a little frustrating but I've firmly come to believe that, at least in Commander difficulty, it's actually lenient (errs in favour of the player). I've had numerous situations where soldiers have survived what would have been certain death were it the other way around (especially regarding codex flank teleport attacks and general enemy melee attacks missing a LOT). The problem is, because each squad member is so vital to your performance (given the way the action economy works), losing even one to RNG is a big blow. In UFO Defence it wasn't too big a deal because you could have 12 or more troops on a mission.



Regarding skills, there are some very good potential synergies from the AWC, which was the first facility I built and I recommend the same to everyone else. It can change the priority of certain skills. For example, I got the skill that adds +20 to aim when you hunker down on my ranger, so I took the skill that gives you a free hunker if you didn't shoot. Now every time I overwatch, I have the cover bonus from hunker, and +20 aim on my next shot (continuing into the next turn). Better than untouchable given that most soldiers caught out of position take 2+ shots.

The strategic layer - constantly in need of intel, supplies, or time - has been excellent and managing it has been lots of fun. Probably the strongest element of XCOM2 by far, aside from the theming (which as I said before works remarkably well).
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 08:47:04 PM by Sophismata »

"You finally did it, you magnificent bastards. You went so nerd that even I don't know WTF you're talking about anymore. I salute you." - WindupAtheist
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #155 on: February 08, 2016, 08:31:59 PM

Yeah, AWC first is my go to next run. I only have a few troops with the random bonuses, and they're so much better than the other guys.

I'm looking forward to playing commander difficulty. Legendary is a challenge, but possibly not as much fun. I still haven't been able to find the time and space to build Psi lab, and I'm near the end of the game now, so I'll probably only get a Psi troop on the last couple of missions.

(Granted I've done a few things wrong, like not sold anywhere near as much stuff on the black market as I could have. I think I could have sold about 300 alien alloys earlier on without missing anything, which would be 2700 supplies worth, which could have bought me more engineers, which could have got more of the base cleared. Also a lot of the autopsies are useless and I wasted lots of research time on those when I should have been charging up the guns and armor tree.)

I'm also at the point now where I'm avoiding a few of the missions that pop up, as I'm sick of doing one every two days. The cost of losing a comm or some supplies isn't huge, I can just rebuild them or sell stuff on the black market.
Sophismata
Terracotta Army
Posts: 543


Reply #156 on: February 08, 2016, 08:50:37 PM

I went straight down the Psi tree, it's my first facility after the essentials (AWC, more contacts, etc). It's time intensive though, which means I've been hugging the Avatar Project countdown (generally waiting to the last day or so before hitting a facility).

Unlike your other troops, Psi ops get all the skills, eventually. So far I don't really have any missions feedback, so I'm not sure if they'll measure up to Rangers in effectiveness.


In XCOM: Enemy Unknown the poor balance of Impossible difficulty (complete with easy, but tedious and obnoxious gameplay) led me to start off at Commander this time. Legend will be next.

"You finally did it, you magnificent bastards. You went so nerd that even I don't know WTF you're talking about anymore. I salute you." - WindupAtheist
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #157 on: February 08, 2016, 09:09:31 PM

I very nearly lost legend on the strategy layer, without knowing anything at all. But having had any experience I think it will be almost impossible to lose there unless you're losing soldiers.

On the tactical level it's pretty well turned, but mimic beacons are overpowered good still. With them and research optimization (I hit pretty much the hardest enemies in mission before I had the final weapons and armor researched) it should be fairly likely for a patient player to finish ironman on it. In a less 'gamey' way than the first game.
Megrim
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2512

Whenever an opponent discards a card, Megrim deals 2 damage to that player.


Reply #158 on: February 08, 2016, 11:37:43 PM

I very nearly lost legend on the strategy layer, without knowing anything at all. But having had any experience I think it will be almost impossible to lose there unless you're losing soldiers.

On the tactical level it's pretty well turned, but mimic beacons are overpowered good still. With them and research optimization (I hit pretty much the hardest enemies in mission before I had the final weapons and armor researched) it should be fairly likely for a patient player to finish ironman on it. In a less 'gamey' way than the first game.

Does it still have the same difficulty curve like the original, where once you survive to 1st tier weapons / armour it become a progressively easier cakewalk?

One must bow to offer aid to a fallen man - The Tao of Shinsei.
Jeff Kelly
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6920

I'm an apathetic, hedonistic, utilitarian, nihilistic existentialist.


Reply #159 on: February 09, 2016, 01:50:24 AM

I've played a few missions last night.

The tutorial is pretty obnoxious in it's "no, you have to do what we think you should do now" way of making you play. It's actually worse than the one in XCOM. Especially since it is forcing you to do objectively bad or at least counterintuitive moves (shoot at an alien with a much lower hit-% than other available tragets, forcing you to move a soldier out of cover just so that the game can kill him next turn).

It's the first tutorial that actively wants me to kill team mates just so that it can show me the death animations and advance the plot. At least in the previous game the "we'll now kill your squad' part was less obvious and felt more 'natural'.

As for the new tactics layer. They should have scrapped a few of the mechanics from the previous game. The game doesn't reward active play even though it forces you into an more active role due to the turn timers. If you don't properly scout and 'train' patrols you will end up in a resonance cascade of uncovering patrols that uncover patrols which leads you to having to fight multiple sets of enemies. They should have scrapped the surprise round move of the enemies or found a different way of uncovering additional enemies.

Since all uncovered enemies instantly know the location of all of your toons once concealment ends you will end up in undefendable positions if you accidentally uncover more than one patrol. Which makes scouting an active liability and actually leads you to want to play as conservatively as possible given the turn limits.

This makes me hate the turn timers even more.
Sir T
Terracotta Army
Posts: 14223


Reply #160 on: February 09, 2016, 05:50:01 AM

I can understand the free move to an extent, but if they are detected by a stealthed character they should just continue the patrol as normal until they are seen by a non stealthed unit.

Of course, that would require extra coding and we are up against the release date. Fuck it.

Hic sunt dracones.
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #161 on: February 09, 2016, 06:01:36 AM

I very nearly lost legend on the strategy layer, without knowing anything at all. But having had any experience I think it will be almost impossible to lose there unless you're losing soldiers.

On the tactical level it's pretty well turned, but mimic beacons are overpowered good still. With them and research optimization (I hit pretty much the hardest enemies in mission before I had the final weapons and armor researched) it should be fairly likely for a patient player to finish ironman on it. In a less 'gamey' way than the first game.

Does it still have the same difficulty curve like the original, where once you survive to 1st tier weapons / armour it become a progressively easier cakewalk?

Hard to know, as I've not replayed and gotten ahead of it. Certainly even at max research the missions aren't sleepwalk easy, but if you're fully geared and prepared with top level soldiers (I only have three, they level slowly when they spend half the game injured) I expect you're at about the same difficulty at the end as at the start. It's just the middle where you can get behind or ahead I'd guess.

Armor upgrades are marginal compared to the rank bonuses, IIRC. Weapons are more significant, but you can probably finish the game with mid armor provided you get the right support items.
Threash
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9165


Reply #162 on: February 09, 2016, 06:52:45 AM

I very nearly lost legend on the strategy layer, without knowing anything at all. But having had any experience I think it will be almost impossible to lose there unless you're losing soldiers.

On the tactical level it's pretty well turned, but mimic beacons are overpowered good still. With them and research optimization (I hit pretty much the hardest enemies in mission before I had the final weapons and armor researched) it should be fairly likely for a patient player to finish ironman on it. In a less 'gamey' way than the first game.

Does it still have the same difficulty curve like the original, where once you survive to 1st tier weapons / armour it become a progressively easier cakewalk?

It's not really the weapon/armor tiers that make a real difference.  Things become much easier once you get the "completely trivialize a fight" items like flashbangs, mimic beacons and specially psi troopers.  If i manage to mind control or hack control an enemy i pretty much won the map.

I am the .00000001428%
tmp
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4257

POW! Right in the Kisser!


Reply #163 on: February 09, 2016, 08:49:18 AM

You can just call her Terminator Kelly.
Jane got "wolverine" as the random nickname in my game. I gave her the self-heal vest and talon rounds, and she definitely lives up to that name Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?
Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449

Badge Whore


Reply #164 on: February 09, 2016, 11:23:05 AM

I very nearly lost legend on the strategy layer, without knowing anything at all. But having had any experience I think it will be almost impossible to lose there unless you're losing soldiers.

On the tactical level it's pretty well turned, but mimic beacons are overpowered good still. With them and research optimization (I hit pretty much the hardest enemies in mission before I had the final weapons and armor researched) it should be fairly likely for a patient player to finish ironman on it. In a less 'gamey' way than the first game.

Does it still have the same difficulty curve like the original, where once you survive to 1st tier weapons / armour it become a progressively easier cakewalk?

It's not really the weapon/armor tiers that make a real difference.  Things become much easier once you get the "completely trivialize a fight" items like flashbangs, mimic beacons and specially psi troopers.  If i manage to mind control or hack control an enemy i pretty much won the map.

Yes. Very true.

I had a critical success on my combat-hacker support that won me +20 to her skill. Combined with the level-up bonuses, now that she's a Lt. her Hacking skill is 150+. 

Last night I got caught by the chasing UFO finally (I let it happen, I wanted to see the fight.)  I took over the MEC unit they sent against me and ripped two platoons to shreds with the Micro-Rockets it had because they were clumped. It was glorious.

That plus the Kill-Zone sniper, +4 runspeed Stealth ranger, and a no-action-reload clip on my heavy made the fight pretty damn trivial.

So I'd say the combat CAN be trivialized at lower levels. As I said I'm playing normal. I tore them up so bad it was almost disappointing.

Also - fire ammo on a sniper is a good thing.

The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #165 on: February 09, 2016, 01:24:39 PM

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed at how good the mimic beacon is, they need to tune it a little. Currently it can trivialise quite a few things. With a few of them and some emp rounds/bombs you can go gung go in to a large number of battles.
Zetor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3269


WWW
Reply #166 on: February 09, 2016, 01:40:55 PM

Yea, mimic beacons are insane. That said, they aren't as overpowered as ghost grenades and mimetic skin were in XCOM1 (the mimic clone can die, for one) and getting a good psi operative with reliable mind control is like having an infinite-use mimic beacon on a stick.

I also agree that flashbangs fill a similar role in the early game, though at least they allow enemies to shoot (ineffectively) at your soldiers.

lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #167 on: February 09, 2016, 02:49:00 PM

The problem with mimic beacons is that the aliens will shoot at it above anything else if they can see it, even troops in the open or flanked, and so it causes them to rush up together on one spot, leaving easy flank shots, grenade clusters, etc for you next turn.

It need to be changed so they just consider it like any other troop, so you need to still pay attention to soldier positions. At the moment you just put a mimic in cover with aid protocol where all the enemies can see it, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Everything else is much more situational and needs to be used cleverly, but the mimic beacon is almost mindless. I think it can still be powerful and useful, but at the moment it's almost broken.

A more basic mimic beacon could still be used to flush out chrissalids, to take the point, or to draw away that one nasty enemy, without also meaning you can throw the rest of your tactical play out the window.

Edit: Grappling hooks dont count as an action. You can grapple and still sniper fire. There are a lot of things like this...

I'll just link this, I know most of them already, but I've probably played more and watched more preview stuff than others. Might be some handy tips here.

 https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/comments/44xs8y/psa_lesserknown_pro_tips/
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 05:27:06 PM by lamaros »
Sophismata
Terracotta Army
Posts: 543


Reply #168 on: February 09, 2016, 05:32:01 PM

Agreed on the mimic beacon, I've used it to set up flanks, save panicked soldiers that ran out into danger, distract Chrysalids, and protect someone that's run over to save a disguised Faceless (which I wouldn't risk without the beacon or something else as a fallback, if anyone's being judgemental tongue ).

Good new is, it's looking like mod support is excellent this time around (and there is a full post-production DLC rollout planned) so I expect the blatant balance issues will be addressed. Hopefully the performance troubles will be fixed in time and the modding community can correct the stupid scouting / general enemy behaviour issues (features!) that I know Firaxis won't ever change.

Beacons need to be treated like a regular troop, or only attract 1 or 2 enemies. Still, it's nice to have these cool utility items — reminds me of using nightsticks and smoke grenades in UFO Defence to help control encounters.

Edit: Also, re hackers, it seems to be not that well known that every time your specalist gets a successful hack on a mission they get +5 to hacking. So do those towers, even if they seem trivial. Oh, and grappling hooks dont count as an action. You can grapple and still sniper fire. There are a lot of things like this...

This I did not know! That's actually pretty important, and unfortunate as I lost one of my older specialists recently and this kinda thing exacerbates the discrepancy between a newer recruit / squaddie and an experienced trooper who's been on many missions. (Got a save where this specialist dies to a bug; she's killed by successfully hacking a tower. I have a save file of it, it's repeatable, every time she hacks this tower immediately afterwards she takes repeated damage until she dies, during her turn, before she gets her second action. It's weird.)


From that linked reddit post, here are some things that I wish the game made clear (though computer game mechanics in general are almost always stupidly murky):

Quote
  • Placing proximity mines does not break concealment.
  • Reaching LoS (and therefor gaining control of) a “hidden” VIP will break a unit’s concealment, regardless if there are any enemies in range. In addition, capturing any objective will also break concealment.
  • Unconscious units that do not make it to the Skyranger will show up as “captured” and can be reacquired as the VIP in rescue missions.
  • Knocking the floor out from under a turret is a guaranteed kill.
  • The insta-kill from a repeater can proc off the guaranteed damage from a stock and/or venom rounds. (A grenadier's saturation can apparently proc the repeater as well - thanks /u/C4ptainR3dbeard)
  • Enemies in the fog of war can still be damaged by AoE effects such as the EXO Suit’s rocket launcher. And as long as you don’t have LoS on these enemies after attacking, the pod will not “activate” until its turn begins. [Note: this is actually untrue, if you don't have LoS the enemies will never react to you blowing them apart turn after turn with explosives. Source: I've done this myself.]
  • [The big one] Specialists gain 5 to their tech (hacking) score at the end of a mission if they successfully hacked something. (Thanks /u/rankzerox)
  • Detonating a vehicle to kill an enemy without first damaging the enemy awards no XP or kill count. (Thanks /u/Grimy_Bunyip)
  • Walking over a water/liquid tile while burning will remove the effect. (Thanks /u/Grimy_Bunyip)

"You finally did it, you magnificent bastards. You went so nerd that even I don't know WTF you're talking about anymore. I salute you." - WindupAtheist
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #169 on: February 09, 2016, 06:18:44 PM

Hmm, I'm not as sure about the specialists now, I took it at value after a few people said it, as my best specialist is way higher than my others, but I might have just been forgetting a bonus and the range differences. Might need further testing.
Threash
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9165


Reply #170 on: February 09, 2016, 07:55:55 PM

Hmm, I'm not as sure about the specialists now, I took it at value after a few people said it, as my best specialist is way higher than my others, but I might have just been forgetting a bonus and the range differences. Might need further testing.

My specialist just went up 5 points in hacking after a mission with a successful hack.

I am the .00000001428%
lamaros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8021


Reply #171 on: February 09, 2016, 10:29:32 PM

Another thing I just found out, some missions have chests you can access for extra drops.

This game is very good, but it still feels like they've cut half the features (scientists and engineers leveling, etc) and left a few things unexplained to get it out in time. When/if it gets the bugs fixed and the first expansion I think it'll be really really good. Especially now they have good mod tools to borrow ideas off.


Anyone seen a mod gat makes the special ammo armor, etc not random?
Threash
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9165


Reply #172 on: February 10, 2016, 08:27:51 AM

Just saw this on reddit.  I think it perfectly captures the essence of this game.

I am the .00000001428%
Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449

Badge Whore


Reply #173 on: February 10, 2016, 08:38:10 AM

Yup, that's pretty accurate.

The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
Khaldun
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15157


Reply #174 on: February 10, 2016, 11:11:16 AM

Yeah.  Love the moment where the soundtrack shifts.
Pages: 1 ... 3 4 [5] 6 7 ... 17 Go Up Print 
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  Topic: XCOM 2  
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.10 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC