X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[Moink]

Payday 2 has goat simulator dlc so I can see anything happening.

 

[Moink]

Can I make my soldiers look like 8th century Asturian-Visigoth warriors and 16th century bandeirantes?

Uh, no reason.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=616824432

This has a Morion, so I guess that kinda could work.

 

[Ironmonk]

PAtch just released

The first major patch for XCOM 2 is live! This patch will automatically install when starting the Steam client. If it doesn’t install automatically, restart Steam.

This patch introduces new fixes, balance tweaks, and several performance optimizations in the game that should improve framerates and in-game delays overall. Players can also opt into the new “Zip Mode” option by pausing the game at any time and activating it under gameplay options. Zip Mode will create a faster paced experience that speeds up animations and some delays in gameplay.

After installing the patch, we recommend all players to go into the graphics tab under options and select “Auto Detect Graphic Settings.” Installing the patch will not rewrite your graphic settings. Players must do this manually.

The XCOM team has been working hard to improve performance, balance, and stability issues reported by our fans. A big thank you to anyone who took the time to provide feedback and submit reports. We will continue to improve the XCOM 2 experience with additional updates and patches over the coming months.

Spoiler

*Required User Action:If you have mods enabled after installing the patch, launch it once, close the game, and launch it again. Players will only have to do this once. After the restart, the game will have initialized the patch to work with mods. While the majority of mods will operate in harmony with the patch, some mods may conflict with patch updates and will need to be updated to take advantage of the patch improvements.

Performance

• Added Zip Mode gameplay option. While Zip Mode is enabled animation (like step outs & gremlin movements) speeds are significantly increased. Normal movement animations are moderately increased
• Fixed an issue where shadow rendering during glam cam shot transitions was slowing down performance
• Support for nVidia SLI and AMD Crossfire
• Removed MSAA options from default presets and adjusted autodetect to target 40FPS instead of 30FPS
• Reworked Light Clipping Manager
• Particle Vertex Buffer Reallocation
• Optimization to shadows in the Avenger
• Enable triple buffering to fix VSync performance
• Shadowed light fade out within Avenger; Disabled Post & Pre Mission cinematic lights not being used
• Disabled shadow casting from character lights w/in Avenger
• Reduced High Shadow Resolution - Reduce shadow resolution when set to HIGH to 1536, instead of 2048
• Reduces the impact count of the Avatar Rifle
• Removed a hitch that occurs when the camera enables/disables building visualizer
• Deferred profile saves to next tick. This prevents multiple calls within the same frame from creating multiple requests to save the profile
• After changing graphics settings, based on the selected preset, extra crew will be capped
• Character head mesh optimized

Balance

• Mimic beacon rebalance: Price increased to 75
• Mimic beacons can no longer take cover, and are guaranteed to be hit by enemy shots
• Wet Work is no longer retroactive
• Graze is no longer a chance for 100% shots. Targets being shot by a concealed attacker cannot dodge

Gameplay

• Added a new recommended Steam Controller configuration with support for additional actions
• Fixed an issue where VIP units would take damage when their origin location was damaged
• Fixed an issue where Promotion Earned text appeared before action is seen on screen
• Fixed an issue where civilians pathed to the base of ladders and blocked XCOM units
• Fixed an issue where Character Pool choices like Class, Attitude, and props did not save
• Fixed an issue where weapons did not keep names and customizations upon tier bump
• Fixed an issue causing some scan timers to go into negative time
• Engineering items that are full squad upgrades are now designated in the UI
• Fixed an issue where strategy project timers reset if players started building a radio relay immediately after making contact with a region
• Fixed an issue with POIs not spawning when first visiting the Geoscape if Beginner VO is turned off
• Removed start-of-turn hang during certain missions where enemy units had fallen out of the world. Auto-saves (and ironman saves) made in these situations should now be playable
• Minimized action camera obstructions
• Minimized camera look-at hopping during AI abilities
• Fixed an issue where Psi abilities did not trigger death cams
• Kill Zone now respects concealment status
• Fixed an issue where the Ever Vigilant AWC perk did not work for Sharpshooters
• Buildings don't cut down when tabbing through units
• Fixed an exploit that skips the AI turn by spamming the END/BACKSPACE button while the Player's last action is being visualized
• Rapid Fire and Chain Shot visualization optimized to get the second shot to fire faster
• Fixed an issue where shot HUD wings would fail to re-open after taking an action that required the wings to close
• Fixed an issue where crit chance would be negatively affected by shots with a success chance greater than 100
• Optimized Return Fire hits causing long delays
• Optimized AI reveals causing long hangs
• Optimized Wait actions causing long timeouts
• Optimized falling unit visualization to timeout faster
• Updated the Geoscape save description to use the localized HQ time, instead of previously used GMT game time
• Fixed an issue with an invalid spawn point on a specific Retaliation mission plot
• Destroyed cover does not take reduce % to-hit on enemies

Systems

• New option to only use Character Pool creations until the pool is exhausted
• Bulletproofing bad saves from causing main menu crashes
• Fixed an issue causing hitches in strategy
• Fixed an issue where armor customizations did not save


Graphics

• Unit Highlighting Flash when targeting units

Multiplayer

• MULTIPLAYER: Fixes slow communications with internet players resulting in delays between actions, turns, and end-of-game screen.
• Added camera rotation to MP

 

[Zombra]

No official sword buffs? A little disappointing. Hope these performance fixes work.

 

[typical user]

Mimics nerfed due to ability to waste enemy turns/draw them to dangerous position. Guess Jake Solomon had enough of bullshittery where enemies couldn't even hit Beaglerush and if they did he would toss a beacon.

I would rather make mimic take cover and have chance to hit, but it should have 1hp and enemies should take into account soldiers position before making any aggressive moves.

Is the bug with no animations after falling through destroyed floor fixed?

Swords should have 10% or 15% accuracy bonus on top of current one. When I unlocked Run n' Gun I stopped using swords as Shotgun has higher chance to hit and crit than sword in CQC.

 

[ArchAngel]

That Mimic nerf is stupid, it didn't do much. At least not for players that know what they are doing. I never had enemy do more than two attacks vs a Mimic and mimic can survive first shot.

What needed to be done is mimic being a consumable item that you need to keep making new ones when you use those that you have. Then they would be a tactical choice and not I spam them in every remotely dangerous situation because I can.

 

[Zombra]

Apparently the patch also enabled the ability to continue playing a save after turning an undesired mods off. Of course this might mess with a file's stability, but it's nice that we can decide for ourselves whether to try it. I have mod regrets.

By the way, for those of you who advocate sword buffs, what mod(s) do you recommend to make them less worthless? Seem to be quite a few out there.

 

[Ironmonk]

Apparently the patch also enabled the ability to continue playing a save after turning an undesired mods off. Of course this might mess with a file's stability, but it's nice that we can decide for ourselves whether to try it. I have mod regrets.

By the way, for those of you who advocate sword buffs, what mod(s) do you recommend to make them less worthless? Seem to be quite a few out there.

After thinking about it I decided to change my ini files instead of using a specific mod... to make it worth the disadvantage of being most of the time exposed to enemies, activating pods, being susceptible to flank, etc I decided to double the base damage, increase Crit Damage bonus and add some Armor Piercing.
At DefaultGameData_WeaponData.ini

RangerSword_Conventional_BaseDamage=(Damage=4, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=2, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Magnetic_BaseDamage=(Damage=5, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=2, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Beam_BaseDamage=(Damage=6, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=3, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")

to

RangerSword_Conventional_BaseDamage=(Damage=8, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=2, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Magnetic_BaseDamage=(Damage=10, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=3, Pierce=1, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Beam_BaseDamage=(Damage=12, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=4, Pierce=2, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")

I didn't play a campaign with these change yet, just a few tests, so I can't say if its balanced or OP in the long run. IMO this makes me consider using the sword more as it's strong enough to make it worth. And I kept the hit chances as normal, so you can still miss.

 

[Galdred]

That Mimic nerf is stupid, it didn't do much. At least not for players that know what they are doing. I never had enemy do more than two attacks vs a Mimic and mimic can survive first shot.

What needed to be done is mimic being a consumable item that you need to keep making new ones when you use those that you have. Then they would be a tactical choice and not I spam them in every remotely dangerous situation because I can.

I would have prefered them to be consumable too, but the problem with mimics is that we don't really have other tanking options :
smoke grenades are still bugged (or is them adding zero defense a feature?), unless they were silently corrected, late game armors still let you get one shot by several enemies (Andromedon +), so you cannot really sustain much damage with any soldier the way MEC or SHIV used too (or even defensive specced heavies in XCOM).
So we are left with mimic beacons or poison/flashbang to make damage manageable (but neither work against the most dangerous enemies).

 

[Ironmonk]

Yeah... I saw some mods to fix things that this patch didn't address at all like the Hazmat Vest (Acid Resist not working), Smoke Grenade (no defense bonus), Skulljack Feedback, etc.

At least the Smoke Grenade is easily fixable by adding the changes below into DefaultGameData_WeaponData.ini

[XComGame.X2Item_DefaultGrenades]
; ***** Grenade Damage Arrays *****
GRENADE_SOUND_RANGE=28

to

[XComGame.X2Item_DefaultGrenades]
; ***** Grenade Damage Arrays *****
GRENADE_SOUND_RANGE=28
SMOKEGRENADE_HITMOD=-20 ; NOT VANILLA, TEMPORARY FIX
SMOKEGRENADEMK2_HITMOD=-40 ; NOT VANILLA, TEMPORARY FIX

Since we don't know the vanilla value for the defense bonus, you can just add the amount you are comfortable with.

 

[Moink]

Nice that they nerfed the mimic beacon but didn't fix the fact that Pecktoids can revive them as zombies.

 

[Alienman]

Digitalized zombie. Get with the age man!

 

[Lerk]

Beacon nerf is barely noticeable. Smoke grenades are still useless. Swords remain unbuffed. Sectoids can still be ignored for a turn.

Sure all this can be modded/has been modded, but still curious that Firaxis ignored some of the most egregious balance issues.

Did they fix demolition setting the trooper on fire?

Performance does seem better at least, I can now max everything on my 970. It's most noticeable during the post mission drop ship debrief; that load time seems to have been slashed by around 80%

More work needs doing on the balance side of things, but I guess fixing performance was the priority this go around.

Finally: fuck that juggalo dlc. XCOM:Saints Row does not seem thematically apropos.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Has anyone noticed performance improvements on low end machines/lowest settings? Or is this mostly for people who weren't getting full use out of their gaming rigs?

 

[Galdred]

Apparently the patch also enabled the ability to continue playing a save after turning an undesired mods off. Of course this might mess with a file's stability, but it's nice that we can decide for ourselves whether to try it. I have mod regrets.

By the way, for those of you who advocate sword buffs, what mod(s) do you recommend to make them less worthless? Seem to be quite a few out there.

After thinking about it I decided to change my ini files instead of using a specific mod... to make it worth the disadvantage of being most of the time exposed to enemies, activating pods, being susceptible to flank, etc I decided to double the base damage, increase Crit Damage bonus and add some Armor Piercing.
At DefaultGameData_WeaponData.ini

RangerSword_Conventional_BaseDamage=(Damage=4, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=2, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Magnetic_BaseDamage=(Damage=5, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=2, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Beam_BaseDamage=(Damage=6, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=3, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")

to

RangerSword_Conventional_BaseDamage=(Damage=8, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=2, Pierce=0, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Magnetic_BaseDamage=(Damage=10, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=3, Pierce=1, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")
RangerSword_Beam_BaseDamage=(Damage=12, Spread=1, PlusOne=0, Crit=4, Pierce=2, Shred=0, Tag="", DamageType="Melee")

I didn't play a campaign with these change yet, just a few tests, so I can't say if its balanced or OP in the long run. IMO this makes me consider using the sword more as it's strong enough to make it worth. And I kept the hit chances as normal, so you can still miss.

The blademaster skill would also need to be reworked, as it is puny right now, and there is zero reason to take it over phantom. Making it 2 dmg/tier would work better, or a flat +4.

 

[veevoir]

-Kill Zone now respects concealment status
- Graze is no longer a chance for 100% shots. Targets being shot by a concealed attacker cannot dodge

This is pretty big change.

By the way, for those of you who advocate sword buffs, what mod(s) do you recommend to make them less worthless? Seem to be quite a few out there.

100% accuracy. No joking, that is the only thing that can make it worth despite all other flaws of using a sword (extra pod activation, being in shit position after attack).

 

[Zeriel]

Well, the wait was worth it I suppose. This is the most impressive difference I've seen from any "performance" patch, the game now runs about as well as I expected it to on release.

Now the wait for total conversion mods begins in earnest.

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

I have strange problems with xcom 2. If I don't lower graphic settings like shadow, AO, and AA my game crashes after finishing a mission or when picking soldiers at the beginning. Performance has improved with the latest patch but there's more to be done.

 

[agris]

for those playing XCOM 2 in english on PCs and want to remove the intro videos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6DwH_A-Myuwdkc3SFN6UE5WcHc/view?usp=sharing

extract to your root XCOM 2 folder, launch nointros.bat, enjoy not having your time wasted.

 

[Raghar]

I have strange problems with xcom 2. If I don't lower graphic settings like shadow, AO, and AA my game crashes after finishing a mission or when picking soldiers at the beginning. Performance has improved with the latest patch but there's more to be done.

How much GFX RAM do you have?

 

[Ironmonk]

for those playing XCOM 2 in english on PCs and want to remove the intro videos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6DwH_A-Myuwdkc3SFN6UE5WcHc/view?usp=sharing

extract to your root XCOM 2 folder, launch nointros.bat, enjoy not having your time wasted.

You can also easily edit the ini file associated with it by commenting (with ;) the lines of the movies or deleting it:
DefaultEngine.ini

+StartupMovies=X2_2KFXS_Logos
+StartupMovies=X2_Logo
+StartupMovies=UE3TechLogo_XC2
+StartupMovies=XC2_LegalScreen
+StartupMovies=Black

to

;+StartupMovies=X2_2KFXS_Logos
;+StartupMovies=X2_Logo
;+StartupMovies=UE3TechLogo_XC2
;+StartupMovies=XC2_LegalScreen
;+StartupMovies=Black

 

[Lerk]

...or just add the switch -nostartupmovies to your shortcut/steam launch options

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

How much GFX RAM do you have?

I'm using a reference 4gb R9 290.

 

[Lerk]

Okay so getting a strange bug since the patch - after I complete a mission the game "hangs" for about a minute before the result slate pops up and allows me to continue. Sometimes happens during overwatch too. Anyone else?

Also - failsafe way to uninstall a mod completely? I`m not talking about unchecking the box in the launcher, I mean scrubbing it from my HDD. Net seems to have conflicting info on this, and in Codex I trust

 

[Galdred]

I have unchecked the box, and then unsuscribed from steam, and it never nagged me again, but I am not sure it is not on my HD anymore, though.