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

[ArchAngel]

My hostile interview questions for Solomon would be getting him to explain the thinking behind the dodging mechanic (and not doing the arithmetic for the player in the to-hit calculation too), why they switched to one-die-roll for to-hit instead of conditional rolls, and why they removed the armor HP mechanic, because all that shit is inexplicable to me. That's not me complaining that they're stupid, I just literally can't figure out why they did any of it.

Armor HP mechanic was removed so your soldiers spend time healing and you are forced to use more than 6 soldiers. In Xcom EU/EW it was super easy to keep everyone out of sickbay as soon as you got access to mid game armor.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't want to be "that guy" but I see the people that are calling the game "easy" are not playing Ironman. Sorry, but that defeats the whole point. Even the feeling of "if I do a wrong move here I'm fucked for good" changes the whole experience a lot.
I would like to ask an honest estimation of how many times you people reloaded a failed mission/turn in your campaigns but I can understand non-disclosure.

Check my spoilered image above and you'll have my answer re: reloads.

Truth is XCOM 2 has a weird difficulty curve that doesn't change much on the respective difficulties, L+I after first few months really isn't very different from C+I. To be fair, this problem was also there in EU, but if devs talk a lot about fixing a problem and then make it worse one has to wonder what the hell is going on.

Incidentally, just saw this on the XCOM reddit. It's a good read:

http://www.pentadact.com/2016-02-25-solving-xcoms-snowball-problem/

That was a cool link, someone needs to send that link to Jake Solomon on twitter or at least to some overhaul mod makers.

 

[veevoir]

As of armor mechanics - it is still a retarded solution. It would be better to keep armor as armor and rule a minimum 1 damage if shot would do less damage than armor rating.

 

[Bliblablubb]

This game can be surprisingly fun at times.
After pinkpowerranger Volourn's shamefur dispray in my first attempt, I decided to replace him with Codexia the potatoranger. Because if there is one thing potatos know, it's bringing a potato slicer to a gunfight, amirite?
And boy did that wingless hussar on foot rock! Thanks to untouchable and bladestorm she sliced her way through one pod, the adding second and the faceless trying to hug her in the end, without ever being in danger. With a little help from Kaiserin's killzone of course. And now she haz RAEPer.


Yeah I know, on higher difficulties it would have probably ended in a horriburu gangrape. Just leave me my short moment of triumph.

 

[ArchAngel]

I find it hilarious how with rapid fire you can fire twice even if you only have 1 ammo left :D

 

[Vault Dweller]

All special attacks bend the system rules (you can reload your sniper rifle for free during overpowered Serial attacks and then use a pistol).

 

[ArchAngel]

All special attacks bend the system rules (you can reload your sniper rifle for free during overpowered Serial attacks and then use a pistol).

Well Serial does not say you have to do a kill with Rifle so I don't see that as bending rules. But firing a shot with non-existing ammo is stupid. Even in Xcom EU/EW that didn't work.

 

[Raghar]

All special attacks bend the system rules (you can reload your sniper rifle for free during overpowered Serial attacks and then use a pistol).

It's bug. It should be darkened with tooltip it needs at least two ammo. Then again, you see using burst of shots...

 

[Vault Dweller]

All special attacks bend the system rules (you can reload your sniper rifle for free during overpowered Serial attacks and then use a pistol).

Well Serial does not say you have to do a kill with Rifle so I don't see that as bending rules. But firing a shot with non-existing ammo is stupid. Even in Xcom EU/EW that didn't work.

Reloading is not a free action (unless you have a proper upgrade), thus it should end your turn.

 

[ArchAngel]

All special attacks bend the system rules (you can reload your sniper rifle for free during overpowered Serial attacks and then use a pistol).

Well Serial does not say you have to do a kill with Rifle so I don't see that as bending rules. But firing a shot with non-existing ammo is stupid. Even in Xcom EU/EW that didn't work.

Reloading is not a free action (unless you have a proper upgrade), thus it should end your turn.

Not in Xcom 2. Reloading is now 1 action and does not end turn.

All special attacks bend the system rules (you can reload your sniper rifle for free during overpowered Serial attacks and then use a pistol).

It's bug. It should be darkened with tooltip it needs at least two ammo. Then again, you see using burst of shots...

Not with shotguns. There is only one shot and one ammo bar is used.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Shooting always ends your turn, unless it's a free action (which is a retarded and contradictory mechanic, but that's not the point). So you can either walk and shoot (2 actions) or shoot and end your turn because while walking & shooting is ok, shooting & walking is not, unless it's a special ability (which is another retarded and contradictory mechanic but again, not the point). Since Serial is not a free action, it's the last action you should be allowed to take (sniper shooting first always ends his turn; he can either walk and use a pistol or use a rifle which would end his turn). Instead you can reload, which is a very valuable action for a sniper as reloading during his next turn would not allow him to use the sniper rifle on that turn, and then shoot a pistol, which isn't something you can normally do.

 

[ArchAngel]

I had plenty of situations where I reloaded my sniper rifle and then shot a pistol. Serials returns all spend action points before using it. It does not care what weapon was used (you can get serial on other classes and it works the same)
Everyone in Xcom 2 can first reload and then use another action. Well except snipers as snipers need two action points to work.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I had plenty of situations where I reloaded my sniper rifle and then shot a pistol.

Sure, because that's all you can do after reloading if it's your first action.

Serials returns all spend action points before using it. It does not care what weapon was used.

Which is what makes it a ridiculously unbalanced ability.

 

[Bliblablubb]

I have read good things about a gunslinger, abusing serial and his other abilities to fire 5 or so times per turn. Is it really worth making "Kingcomrade the Texan cowboy", or should I stick with a second long range sniper instead? Two flying snipers were my proven strategy in XCOM 1, but XCOM 2 has a lot more buildings preventing unlimited LoS...

 

[Cyberarmy]

A hybrid of both sniper tree is better. Long ranger is good but new changing maps mostly limits LOS and gunslinger is mostly effective in close range but its very risky.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I think that one sniper is enough because you don't always get a clear line of sight, which makes the sniper a useful unit but not in every situation. Basically, every now and then (once or twice per mission) the sniper will really come through and save your ass but you'll need other characters' abilities as much. My suggestions:

- grenadier to strip armor (both the grenade launcher, meaning you have 3 grenades, and the machine gun)
- sniper (long range) for tricky shots and serial (basically take out an entire pod in a single turn, if enemies are tough, soften them up with a grenade first)
- specialist (hacking can save your ass plenty of time when you run into tough mechs, either control it or disable it for a couple of turns while you kill its entourage; capacitor discharge is a powerful attack that can wipe out an entire pod); the downside is the weakest damage
- 2 rangers because they have the reach and the damage, the only unit that can use both actions to close the distance then either do a melee attack with extra damage if flanked or unload that shotgun in someone's face (I use rangers to kill avatars and codex things aka enemies that should be killed with a single attack)
- a mage or two because they can permanently control an enemy (hacking wears off after 3 turns so your new buddy can turn on you when you least expect), which throws balance out of the window, and do all kinds of other useful things.

 

[veevoir]

Sniper is useful for the most uneven combination of all - long watch + phantom ranger. The ability to have advanced knowledge of enemyu location and superior tactical positioning of your squad, then activating aliens on their turn (a longwatch shot) and see them running into overwatch of your squad (aliens always run towards you on long-range activation) is really OP.

And then it's your turn and mop up.
Rinse, repeat with whatever 4 remaining spots you have used on.

In last missions this is just a good opener, but it is always strong. Bonus option is using kill zone.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Why waste time on ambushes when you can simply advance (1 action at a time), activate a pod, then kill the aliens when they take positions (they never attack when activated unless you get too close). When you get 6 squaddies, it's 6 against 3 and usually you need 4-5 squaddies to kill 3 aliens without taking any damage.

 

[veevoir]

Advance by 1 is exactly what it is. Sniper in position overwatches, concealed ranger advances to see the nearest pod, rest of the squad advances 1 move and overwatch. The only time it is not an advance move is downtime to reposition sniper.

Activating a pod on own turn leaves an opening for something to go wrong, where in this scenario pods are culled or killed outright before players turn. If anything it speeds up the advance (especially if you're lucky enough to get a run&gun for sniper).

Full squad concealment ambushes, now that is a waste of time.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Guess I need a new specuhlist too. Crispy went down the medic tree, but considering that the key is not to get hit at all and healing doesn't even reduce downtime after the mission, it seems to be a waste and points are better spent on being a l33t hax0r. Since I have no armor pockets yet, it's either skullfuck or medkit anyway. A new challenger called Infinibro will rise!
I haven't build the psi lab yet, so the medbay (and therefore respeccing) has to wait a little longer. Again. Too bad for the free perks on levelup.
My ranger doesn't have the concealment skill, since the extra 2 potatoslicer damage have saved my bacon a lot of times.

 

[ArchAngel]

I had plenty of situations where I reloaded my sniper rifle and then shot a pistol.

Sure, because that's all you can do after reloading if it's your first action.

Serials returns all spend action points before using it. It does not care what weapon was used.

Which is what makes it a ridiculously unbalanced ability.

What does this have to do with Serial bending the rules?

 

[veevoir]

Crispy went down the medic tree, but considering that the key is not to get hit at all and healing doesn't even reduce downtime after the mission, it seems to be a waste and points are better spent on being a l33t hax0r

Time to respec in AWC. Dear Sir, have you heard about healing through superior firepower?

 

[ArchAngel]

Healing medic is super useful in early game. Less so later. The Revival protocol was especially good to save panicked dudes but useless later.

 

[Galdred]

Why waste time on ambushes when you can simply advance (1 action at a time), activate a pod, then kill the aliens when they take positions (they never attack when activated unless you get too close). When you get 6 squaddies, it's 6 against 3 and usually you need 4-5 squaddies to kill 3 aliens without taking any damage.

Activating aliens on their turn is much stronger as you get to shoot twice in a row. It basically makes non timed missions a joke. It works from the beginning and does not always take time : you cannot always advance your whole squad as far as your ranger and you certainly don't want to activate a pod by double moving to it. It can basically save you a grenade. But it is not always very convenient to set up when time is short, especially when you can simply toss a mimic beacon if you failed to one turn kill the pod.

 

[veevoir]

Healing medic is super useful in early game. Less so later. The Revival protocol was especially good to save panicked dudes but useless later.

How so? Panic is actually pretty manageable (at least on commander) an d better than being shot at By a sectoid.

And in the start your soldiers either get killed outright or survive the shot. Healing them up doesnt increase their chance to survive another shot by much and additionally I never had a situation in which I allowed a wounded soldier to be fired upon again - a question of proper fallback and/or evac.

Adx to that combat protocol is of immense use the whole game, same as haywire.