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

[Trash]

Anyone know of a way to increase the chance of getting a guerilla mission? I heard that scanning at the Resistance HQ should increase the odds but I kinda doubt that. Those Dark Deed events are driving me nuts.

 

[Daedalos]

PSI ops seems just the easymode option. I prefer to go without psionics, maybe for 2nd or 3rd playthrough.

 

[Parabalus]

When using a tier 2 psi-amp in the late midgame (where psi operatives can realistically come into play), mind control was 60-70% for me against enemies worth capturing (archons, andromedons). By the endgame, my maxed-out psi mage could have an 80-90% chance of MCing a Gatekeeper. This is all on Commander difficulty btw, the odds may be worse on Legend.

Thing is, though, a psi operative doesn't just get mind control; they also get a shitton of armor-ignoring AOE damage, various crowd control abilities, and random bullshit like becoming immune to explosion and fire/acid/poison damage. Random example: the null lance ability hits almost as hard as a plasma blast heavy weapon with a similar AOE... but you get to use it multiple times on a mission, plus it ignores armor.

This PSI discussion made me try out just how overpowered it is.

I just replayed the last mission with only 2 maxed out Magi (+ yourself) on Commander. I dominated 2 Gatekeepers, combined with Avatar MC + Void Insanity Schism AoE CC the finale was as easy as with a full squad. Triple Null Lance decimated enemy avatars, you use it to kill one avatar then kite back defensively untill CD comes up. It was actually easier than my first run, less people to worry about and faster turns.

I really hope Legend is much more difficult or the replayability of the game would be severely diminished for me.

 

[Zeriel]

When using a tier 2 psi-amp in the late midgame (where psi operatives can realistically come into play), mind control was 60-70% for me against enemies worth capturing (archons, andromedons). By the endgame, my maxed-out psi mage could have an 80-90% chance of MCing a Gatekeeper. This is all on Commander difficulty btw, the odds may be worse on Legend.

Thing is, though, a psi operative doesn't just get mind control; they also get a shitton of armor-ignoring AOE damage, various crowd control abilities, and random bullshit like becoming immune to explosion and fire/acid/poison damage. Random example: the null lance ability hits almost as hard as a plasma blast heavy weapon with a similar AOE... but you get to use it multiple times on a mission, plus it ignores armor.

This PSI discussion made me try out just how overpowered it is.

I just replayed the last mission with only 2 maxed out Magi (+ yourself) on Commander. I dominated 2 Gatekeepers, combined with Avatar MC + Void Insanity Schism AoE CC the finale was as easy as with a full squad. Triple Null Lance decimated enemy avatars, you use it to kill one avatar then kite back defensively untill CD comes up. It was actually easier than my first run, less people to worry about and faster turns.

I really hope Legend is much more difficult or the replayability of the game would be severely diminished for me.

Legend has very similar (identical?) statlines to Commander, the major difference is everything takes 1.5-2X as long as to do in geoscape, costs 2X as much, soldiers likewise take 2X as long to level up, and most crucially, every mission has more pods. And you'd better enjoy WOUNDED 50 DAYS before you get the AWC.

Like every other difficulty, the challenge is frontloaded. Once you get 5+ squaddies and a proper class comp the game is basically over.

 

[Grotesque]

This game has too many drawbacks so that the "improvements" (which are highly debatable of being such) in the combat department alone would make it a good game worthy of the X COM title.
I can't really say that this game is so abysmal in regard with the franchise the same as Fallout 4 was for the Fallout franchise, but they managed to dumb it down further from the previous X COM title.
The random map generator and those events choice simply doesn't cut it when talking about bringing real substance to the game.
The lack of real base management and feeling of being railroaded and constrained by the game design philosophy is ever present.
The music is shittier and the atmosphere is bland, to the point where when watching the outro I didn't knew if I am watching the ending of what should be a X COM game or a Dragon Ball Z game.

 

[Jimmious]

I disagree with almost every point in the post above.

 

[Zeriel]

I have opinions.

 

[ArchAngel]

This game has too many drawbacks so that the "improvements" (which are highly debatable of being such) in the combat department alone would make it a good game worthy of the X COM title.
I can't really say that this game is so abysmal in regard with the franchise the same as Fallout 4 was for the Fallout franchise, but they managed to dumb it down further from the previous X COM title.
The random map generator and those events choice simply doesn't cut it when talking about bringing real substance to the game.
The lack of real base management and feeling of being railroaded and constrained by the game design philosophy is ever present.
The music is shittier and the atmosphere is bland, to the point where when watching the outro I didn't knew if I am watching the ending of what should be a X COM game or a Dragon Ball Z game.

It is dumbed down a bit, by removing some fun random elements from Xcom Eu like rockets spread. Base management is better than Xcom 1 (the adjacency bonuses were crap anyways and the engineer minigame is more interesting) but still worse than Xenonauts or UFO. The geospace part feels less railroaded to me.
I don't even remember the music from either game and atmosphere is equally shitty for me. Lacks the terror feel from UFO both in atmosphere and how you can lose lots of soldiers per mission but not lose the campaign because of it.

 

[Mazisky]

I would play Xenonauts if only it doesn't have that shitty art and graphics...if they stayed to the original concept and just do a straight remake instead of creating bland 1950\70 stuff

 

[Stompa]

Legend has very similar (identical?) statlines to Commander

Only thing that differs is HP and armor, Legend's Sectopod has a whooping 40HP + 6 armor compared to Commander's 30HP + 5 armor.

And you'd better enjoy WOUNDED 50 DAYS before you get the AWC.

Biggest wound timer I've seen was 37 days though

 

[Ivan]

So, spent the weekend away at my lady's. Any news of a patch?

 

[veevoir]

I have opinions.

You should see a doctor about it, maybe get fuckitall prescribed.

 

[baturinsky]

How do I train Will of Psychos? And Psi? And is Will affecting their psi attack chances/power?

 

[Moink]

I have opinions.

bullshit

 

[Monocause]

Anyone know of a way to increase the chance of getting a guerilla mission? I heard that scanning at the Resistance HQ should increase the odds but I kinda doubt that. Those Dark Deed events are driving me nuts.

The way I picked up the design while doing my Vet playthrough - each month you get a set of 3 dark events coming up, and a set of 3 guerilla missions to choose from that counters one of them. Then one of the two remaining dark events gets randomly chosen and the other one is discarded (but still may be drawn for the next dark event setup)

Essentially, the design works so that you cannot prevent 100% dark events from happening. This works as an incentive to make a tough choice (say, do I want the mission that gives supplies which I need a lot, or the mission that gives me a useless soldier/scientist whatevs but counters a dark event I really don't want to become active).

It's kinda like a nod towards X:EU where you had three abductions going on but could do only one at a time, meaning two countries would always get a panic boost. In a sense it's about making the best of a bad scenario. So if your question is if it is possible to prevent all the dark events from happening, or even 2 out of 3 - no. You can stop only one.

This game has too many drawbacks so that the "improvements" (which are highly debatable of being such) in the combat department alone would make it a good game worthy of the X COM title.
I can't really say that this game is so abysmal in regard with the franchise the same as Fallout 4 was for the Fallout franchise, but they managed to dumb it down further from the previous X COM title.
The random map generator and those events choice simply doesn't cut it when talking about bringing real substance to the game.
The lack of real base management and feeling of being railroaded and constrained by the game design philosophy is ever present.
The music is shittier and the atmosphere is bland, to the point where when watching the outro I didn't knew if I am watching the ending of what should be a X COM game or a Dragon Ball Z game.

I totally disagree with pretty much everything you said, except maybe for the music which could be better (but then again, music wasn't a strong point of X:EW as well so not sure what's the point of reference here is).

Would vastly prefer if you presented a critique of the game on its own merits, rather than referring to a nonexistent XCOM franchise comparison framework. No one debates that the XCOM reboot series is a very different game from the original XCOM. I still enjoyed both X:EW and XCom2 a lot.

Re: "The random map generator [...] doesn't bring real substance to the game" - I'd say that, if anything, your post lacks real substance

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Anyone know of a way to increase the chance of getting a guerilla mission? I heard that scanning at the Resistance HQ should increase the odds but I kinda doubt that. Those Dark Deed events are driving me nuts.

The way I picked up the design while doing my Vet playthrough - each month you get a set of 3 dark events coming up, and a set of 3 guerilla missions to choose from that counters one of them. Then one of the two remaining dark events gets randomly chosen and the other one is discarded (but still may be drawn for the next dark event setup)

Essentially, the design works so that you cannot prevent 100% dark events from happening. This works as an incentive to make a tough choice (say, do I want the mission that gives supplies which I need a lot, or the mission that gives me a useless soldier/scientist whatevs but counters a dark event I really don't want to become active).

It's kinda like a nod towards X:EU where you had three abductions going on but could do only one at a time, meaning two countries would always get a panic boost. In a sense it's about making the best of a bad scenario. So if your question is if it is possible to prevent all the dark events from happening, or even 2 out of 3 - no. You can stop only one.

There is a rare supply drop though that gives you a guerilla mission.
You can theoretically stop 2 dark events that way.

 

[Monocause]

There is a rare supply drop though that gives you a guerilla mission.
You can theoretically stop 2 dark events that way.

Interesting - don't think that happened to me, or maybe it did but I never registered it. Will keep a look out once the patch is out and I start my commander ironman playthrough, thanks!

 

[Jimmious]

Finally doing a bit better mainly due to 3 pieces of advice that I picked up in here:
a) In missions where you start concealed and you have a timer, try to reach the goal in hiding, secure it and then deal with the aliens. I couldn't get rid of my alien extermination habits easily
b) Try to have the aliens find you in their "turn" when concealed
c) Utilize a Ranger with extra concealment for scouting. Helps immensely in "terror" missions with saving civies too

 

[Monocause]

Finally doing a bit better mainly due to 3 pieces of advice that I picked up in here:
a) In missions where you start concealed and you have a timer, try to reach the goal in hiding, secure it and then deal with the aliens. I couldn't get rid of my alien extermination habits easily
b) Try to have the aliens find you in their "turn" when concealed
c) Utilize a Ranger with extra concealment for scouting. Helps immensely in "terror" missions with saving civies too

Another protip - it's worth it to rush faceless autopsy as the Mimic Beacon is basically a trump card. Whenever you use the beacon, all the enemies immediately target it except for some very rare circumstances. It's saved my ass plenty of times and, to be frank, is quite exploitable. Most powerful item there currently is in the game. Try bringing 6 of these to a mission and see what happens. Put the beacon away from melee-using enemies and in high cover for extra survivability.

Firaxis should limit the squad to 1 beacon per mission; it really does get silly when you bring in a lot of them.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

Yeah mimic beacon is amazing the amount of bullshit they have saved me from is impressive to say the least.

Also while the gunslinger is not as good as a pure sniper. I have found it very fun to play around with especially because the handgun works with ammo so watching a gunslinger gun down a sectopod is great fun.

 

[bonescraper]

my Vet playthrough

 

[Orion]

Welp, a single Viper poisoned 4 of my dudes in 1 shot in an advent mission while there was 5 days left until game over. The poison lasted about 4 rounds, causing panic chains and running into fire, ruining any chance I had. I learned something valuable that day (that I suck at this game.)

 

[oneself]

How do you people get through the second month of the game on legend? Stun lancers are just trading with my squad and every pod has at least 1 or 2.

 

[Mangoose]

Somebody forgot this is a game with ALIENS, HUMANOID VIPERS, PSI POWERS, not Swat real life tactical simulator. Lmao

That is same stupid logic people try to use in fantasy games because those games have Fireballs. Sorry but it does not fly there and it does not fly here. But you retards can keep thinking you can use your faulty logic... lol

Good gameplay is priority #1.

Illogical aspects of setting is not anywhere near top priority unless you're playing an adventure/exploration-centered game.

Is the illogical choice of technology gameplay balanced? If so, good, discussion over.

 

[Mangoose]

Actually, I do have a complaint about realism.

If aliens attacked, Japan should have sent out their secret fleet of mecha so we shouldn't be having infantry combat at all.