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

[Raghar]

How much GFX RAM do you have?

I'm using a reference 4gb R9 290.

If it was NVidia 2GB, it might be RAM limit, but AMD handles RAM differently and I don't have much experience with it.

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.

Blademaster is awesome, it handles wounded aliens that are rushing into melee with ease. (if it hits)

 

[Galdred]

How much GFX RAM do you have?

I'm using a reference 4gb R9 290.

If it was NVidia 2GB, it might be RAM limit, but AMD handles RAM differently and I don't have much experience with it.

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.

Blademaster is awesome, it handles wounded aliens that are rushing into melee with ease. (if it hits)

nah, this one is bladestorm, which I find great actually.
A bonus application is to un to the red flare and have fun with reinforcements.

 

[Raghar]

A bonus application is to un to the red flare and have fun with reinforcements.

I didn't try to stay on red flare, because I try to play realistically, even with the mess the game is. So I often activate second pod by an accident and stuff. Yes I mixed bladestorm and blademaster.

Blademaster is the difference between swords not better than shotgun, until it runs out of ammo, and blades having some advantage. (Mostly in running to enemy and activate another pod.)
Do you known you can plot route, and stay behind cover?

 

[Galdred]

A bonus application is to un to the red flare and have fun with reinforcements.

I didn't try to stay on red flare, because I try to play realistically, even with the mess the game is. So I often activate second pod by an accident and stuff. Yes I mixed bladestorm and blademaster.

Blademaster is the difference between swords not better than shotgun, until it runs out of ammo, and blades having some advantage. (Mostly in running to enemy and activate another pod.)
Do you known you can plot route, and stay behind cover?

You cannot play realistically with the pod mechanism

 

[Raghar]

A bonus application is to un to the red flare and have fun with reinforcements.

I didn't try to stay on red flare, because I try to play realistically, even with the mess the game is. So I often activate second pod by an accident and stuff. Yes I mixed bladestorm and blademaster.

Blademaster is the difference between swords not better than shotgun, until it runs out of ammo, and blades having some advantage. (Mostly in running to enemy and activate another pod.)
Do you known you can plot route, and stay behind cover?

You cannot play realistically with the pod mechanism

But, I try.

(You wouldn't believe how much more difficult is veteran difficulty.)

 

[Mazisky]

I'm waiting hard the next two announced dlc's with new maps and gameplay for starting a new playthrough

 

[ArchAngel]

A bonus application is to un to the red flare and have fun with reinforcements.

I didn't try to stay on red flare, because I try to play realistically, even with the mess the game is. So I often activate second pod by an accident and stuff. Yes I mixed bladestorm and blademaster.

Blademaster is the difference between swords not better than shotgun, until it runs out of ammo, and blades having some advantage. (Mostly in running to enemy and activate another pod.)
Do you known you can plot route, and stay behind cover?

You cannot play realistically with the pod mechanism

It is not only pod mechanism fault, but two moves as well. Both need to be changed into original Xcom system for a better game. I really hope someone does it with Xcom 2 being so much more moddable.

 

[Galdred]

A bonus application is to un to the red flare and have fun with reinforcements.

I didn't try to stay on red flare, because I try to play realistically, even with the mess the game is. So I often activate second pod by an accident and stuff. Yes I mixed bladestorm and blademaster.

Blademaster is the difference between swords not better than shotgun, until it runs out of ammo, and blades having some advantage. (Mostly in running to enemy and activate another pod.)
Do you known you can plot route, and stay behind cover?

You cannot play realistically with the pod mechanism

It is not only pod mechanism fault, but two moves as well. Both need to be changed into original Xcom system for a better game. I really hope someone does it with Xcom 2 being so much more moddable.

I don't really miss the AP. I used to move 1 tile and keep everything for reaction fire in UFO Defense, and I now move 1 tile, and overwatch not to activate a pod. It is pretty similar in the long run.
The Auto/Snap/Aimed usually came down to basic maths, so it was not a particularly interesting decision either. What I like with the 2 move system is that it makes it clear where you can move your whole squad before committing.
What I dislike is that it is quite messy (as the two actions are not really equivalent, and there is no clear distinction between what counts as a "move" or an "attack" action.
Most RPG use a move and attack action after all. The accuracy benefits of not moving (or moving a little) could as easily be added as an accuracy bonus that would depend on the number of tiles moved, and that would reduce micro management while still proposing a trade off between moving or staying in position.

On an unrelated note, at last :

Spoiler

 

[ArchAngel]

You played Ufo Defense wrong then lol. I could finish superhuman/ironman without playing like that.. twice (second time without psionics and minimal use of blaster launchers).
Being able to move square by square without need to commit to a move is even more important if you find yourself face to face with aliens in good positions behind the corner (in case of no pod system). Current move system kind of works with pod system because you know as long as you only move once and see aliens they will not shoot at you and you can move back with second move. This is why I always take my first risky one move first so I can full round with everyone else if aliens appear. also none of my other squad members move farther way than the first guy.

 

[typical user]

You played Ufo Defense wrong then lol. I could finish superhuman/ironman without playing like that.. twice (second time without psionics and minimal use of blaster launchers).
Being able to move square by square without need to commit to a move is even more important if you find yourself face to face with aliens in good positions behind the corner (in case of no pod system). Current move system kind of works with pod system because you know as long as you only move once and see aliens they will not shoot at you and you can move back with second move. This is why I always take my first risky one move first so I can full round with everyone else if aliens appear. also none of my other squad members move farther way than the first guy.

Oh they will shoot you if you are in no cover and really really close to them. But I know what you mean, I played XCOM:EW and XCOM:2 like that too.

The best system was actually in Jagged Alliance 2 which again amazes me how ahead of it's time was. If you move you have less action points left but the more experienced soldier the better the chances for "overwatch" interruption. Still Wasteland 2 had nice little detail showing you how much you can move and still have ability to fire. Combining both could lead to really nice turn-based strategy game combat system. But then cheesy abilities would look even more ridiculous like Rapid Fire, Grapple, etc. as they would have to cut AP costs by half or be free of charge.

 

[Galdred]

You played Ufo Defense wrong then lol. I could finish superhuman/ironman without playing like that.. twice (second time without psionics and minimal use of blaster launchers).
Being able to move square by square without need to commit to a move is even more important if you find yourself face to face with aliens in good positions behind the corner (in case of no pod system). Current move system kind of works with pod system because you know as long as you only move once and see aliens they will not shoot at you and you can move back with second move. This is why I always take my first risky one move first so I can full round with everyone else if aliens appear. also none of my other squad members move farther way than the first guy.

I also finished the game in superhuman. Of course, you don't have to move a single tile at a time, and sometimes, you need to go faster, but it remains the best way to scout the map, as dull as it is.

But actually, with the options we have for scouting now (concealed ranger, battlescanner, specialist scanner), not having pods would not be as big an issue as in 1.
Having unlimited Line of Sight range would help, though (because you would more or less know where you would be likely to be shot at, ie mostly around corners).

I tried the all pod active mod btw with the one giving you +2 squad members), and it works just fine, with one exception :
gameplay wise, it is much better, as it results in more intense fights on smaller maps, but on larger map, the complete lack of map wide grand tactical AI can turn it into a slaughter fest, with the aliens breaking formation to engage you piecemail, as they never were given formation AI, because it was assumed they would only engage in small number.

So basically, I suspect it is one of the reasons they went with the pod activation system : it makes it redundant to have grand tactical AI as aliens never have to travel far to engage, and don't need formation as they will start in shooting range.

 

[Zeriel]

For anyone who's finished (and played the game enough to have an opinion on game balance):

Spoiler

How do you feel about HP/damage scaling, particularly in the early game? I feel like HP starts too low, and the game only starts to feel "give-and-take"-y once you hit Tier 2. This applies to the enemies too, which leads to the dominant "kill or disable everything" strategy. Do you think just increasing HP across the board would be a good thing?

I'm asking because I've tried adjusting stats to just increase HP a ton off the bat and it's... well, I think it's an improvement in some ways, but it also feels weird having more lengthy firefights with starting grunts. Or having flank trades with the enemy where flanks are no longer guaranteed kills. I'm not sure if that "weirdness" is just that it feels different from vanilla, or that it's a bad idea.

 

[Galdred]

For anyone who's finished (and played the game enough to have an opinion on game balance):

Spoiler

How do you feel about HP/damage scaling, particularly in the early game? I feel like HP starts too low, and the game only starts to feel "give-and-take"-y once you hit Tier 2. This applies to the enemies too, which leads to the dominant "kill or disable everything" strategy. Do you think just increasing HP across the board would be a good thing?

I'm asking because I've tried adjusting stats to just increase HP a ton off the bat and it's... well, I think it's an improvement in some ways, but it also feels weird having more lengthy firefights with starting grunts. Or having flank trades with the enemy where flanks are no longer guaranteed kills. I'm not sure if that "weirdness" is just that it feels different from vanilla, or that it's a bad idea.

Spoiler

I actually like the high lethality of combat. The problem I have is the consequences of losing someone are too harsh. I would rather mod that by allowing training beyond squaddie level to the GTS (and adding another GTS slot), allowing the player to manufacture his own PCS (but I think a mod already takes care of that). Having also just replayed UFO defense, I think the disposable grunts work better than the elite soldiers you cannot afford to lose, but still die in 1 shot. Even lategame, a single crit from an andromedon will one shot kill a soldier reliably.
I think making armor more useful would also help, though (as it is a choice). I would give nano vest 1 armor, and the next tier armor 2 armor so that it is not always stupid to bring one.
Reworking crits so that they are not rolled at the same time as hit/miss would also help mitigate it, as there would be much less crits against soldiers in cover (as it is now, if you have 20% crit, and 60% to hit chance, you'll get 60% to hit, 60% crit in the open, and 20% to hit, 20% crit behind heavy cover, so 100% hit are crit in both case, which is off, and might be one of the reasons so many people get killed behind cover).

 

[Zeriel]

There's a mod out there that reverts rolls to the way they were in EU (rolls hit first, then crit, then dodge).

I dunno, I'm still on the fence about it. I do like enemies being able to survive the turn more regularly, perhaps as a revamp that brings the game back to their initially advertised "aliens are a miniboss" idea. Even after playing the whole game and being past the learning the story part, I really don't like how Advent troopers are described as having drastically better tech but their stats being exactly the same or worse than your starting guys.

 

[Jimmious]

I would like an option to train squaddies to higher levels in the base. Maybe using an experienced one as a tutor. That would mitigate the loss pain..

 

[Galdred]

There's a mod out there that reverts rolls to the way they were in EU (rolls hit first, then crit, then dodge).

I dunno, I'm still on the fence about it. I do like enemies being able to survive the turn more regularly, perhaps as a revamp that brings the game back to their initially advertised "aliens are a miniboss" idea. Even after playing the whole game and being past the learning the story part, I really don't like how Advent troopers are described as having drastically better tech but their stats being exactly the same or worse than your starting guys.

I plan on using the larger pod mod and the all pods active mod for that. Not sure I can still win with both of these enabled, though, even with larger squad size.
All pods active make it certain some aliens will get to you on smaller map (but it works pretty badly on larger maps, making all the aliens charge piecemal). Maybe with the improved AI mod...

That would still not address the "feel" of the aliens being too weak individually, though.
Isn't there a mod that already give more HP to everyone? I think it was called extended firefights or something.

 

[Zeriel]

I would like an option to train squaddies to higher levels in the base. Maybe using an experienced one as a tutor. That would mitigate the loss pain..

Later on the game tends to throw high-rank soldiers at you as recruitment opportunities, the only downside is the ridiculously high cost to recruit stuff on the higher difficulties. Buying either a Colonel soldier or Beam weapons is a bit of a non choice.

There's a mod out there that reverts rolls to the way they were in EU (rolls hit first, then crit, then dodge).

I dunno, I'm still on the fence about it. I do like enemies being able to survive the turn more regularly, perhaps as a revamp that brings the game back to their initially advertised "aliens are a miniboss" idea. Even after playing the whole game and being past the learning the story part, I really don't like how Advent troopers are described as having drastically better tech but their stats being exactly the same or worse than your starting guys.

I plan on using the larger pod mod and the all pods active mod for that. Not sure I can still win with both of these enabled, though, even with larger squad size.
All pods active make it certain some aliens will get to you on smaller map (but it works pretty badly on larger maps, making all the aliens charge piecemal). Maybe with the improved AI mod...

That would still not address the "feel" of the aliens being too weak individually, though.
Isn't there a mod that already give more HP to everyone? I think it was called extended firefights or something.

I might change my opinion later, but I don't think "more pods" really changes how people approach the game. More pods packed into the same amount of space will just dial up the usefulness of explosives--and the "avoid triggering more enemies" mentality. From (very brief) testing I find having enemies you absolutely cannot kill the moment you trigger them to be far more interesting than twice as many enemies you can one shot if they're all clumped together.

Now all pods active is definitely a huge difficulty spike.

What I'm thinking of doing currently is dialing up the HP of enemies (XCOM gets a boost too, but not as much), and adding more equipment tiers, ending up with 5-6 instead of the current 3. XCOM starts off with inferior equipment, but larger squad sizes. As they get better equipment force levels start to give the aliens more units to even out with XCOM, but really the larger starting squad size is just there so XCOM doesn't get blown apart by Advent troopers. I've tested the HP change, it's pretty interesting to fight sectoids with 14 HP, you see them use all their abilities and snipe people pretty frequently, which is a massive change.

 

[Jimmious]

Yeah and also you can't choose the class which sucks. For example in my current campaign Id love a new high level Grenadier but 2 months now I only got offered a Sharpshooter and a Specialist

 

[Zeriel]

Yeah and also you can't choose the class which sucks. For example in my current campaign Id love a new high level Grenadier but 2 months now I only got offered a Sharpshooter and a Specialist

Honestly, I think it would have been nicer for the "monthly recruitment" stuff at the HQ to be freebies they give to you, maybe in exchange for another scan X days interaction, and rebalance the game around that. Getting 1-2 soldiers and 1-2 base personnel per month would have been a nice safety net for people who get screwed on RNG. Of course I'd want it to be implemented in a way that doesn't lower the overall difficulty of the game, but XCOM 2 is filled with too many non-choices like that, ostensible things you can buy which you never will. "Hmm, I can buy Predator armor for ALL my squads... or a scientist."

 

[Galdred]

Yeah and also you can't choose the class which sucks. For example in my current campaign Id love a new high level Grenadier but 2 months now I only got offered a Sharpshooter and a Specialist

Actually, it might be because of the wonky way the game decides what you need :
In the campaign I just finished, I had 4 colonel grenadiers : 1 with run and gun, 2 with serial, and 1 with double shot. Needless to say, I didn't feel like I needed another one, so I did not train another grenadier after that, and used the Run and Gun to babysit soldiers in training.
According to a friend of mine, the game seeing that I didn't have as many grenadiers as the other classes kept offering me new ones, and I never got any high level ranger with good ACW skill (holo targeting and covering fire, hardly very good choices on a ranger. At least holo comboes well with double shot).
I don't know wheter it is true or not, but I got offered a lot of grenadiers indeed, 1 single sniper, and zero rangers (as I had a lot in training).
So basically, if that is true, the game requires you to fire your low level soldiers of the desired class to be offered some, or train lots of soldiers in the classes you don't want...

 

[Zeriel]

Yeah, that's how the randomly generated ones work. Promotions try to keep your class ratio even. Honestly I don't mind that, it's a huge improvement over EU where you could have 12 snipers and 1 heavy, but some users are always going to want more and more control.

My only issue with the idea of removing class/high-rank soldier power and putting it on items or gear is that a HUGE part of your motivation to play missions in nuXCOM is those big, juicy soldier levelups. I think that's why late-game missions when you're all maxed out get so tedious: the reward loop is broken. Making it more like UFO Defense would bring that problem into the early game.

 

[Galdred]

Yeah, that's how the randomly generated ones work. Promotions try to keep your class ratio even. Honestly I don't mind that, it's a huge improvement over EU where you could have 12 snipers and 1 heavy, but some users are always going to want more and more control.

My only issue with the idea of removing class/high-rank soldier power and putting it on items or gear is that a HUGE part of your motivation to play missions in nuXCOM is those big, juicy soldier levelups. I think that's why late-game missions when you're all maxed out get so tedious: the reward loop is broken. Making it more like UFO Defense would bring that problem into the early game.

I didn't have this problem late game as I was still fishing for some exceptional ACW perks, so I used a lot of non colonels until the mission before the last, but you have a very good point indeed

 

[Infinitron]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/433080/

This rebellion-themed content pack introduces more than 100 new exotic customizations for the entire arsenal of armors available to your XCOM soldiers. These options are purely cosmetic and do not alter the stats of a soldier.

 

[orcinator]

bravo firaxis

 

[Black]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/433080/

This rebellion-themed content pack introduces more than 100 new exotic customizations for the entire arsenal of armors available to your XCOM soldiers. These options are purely cosmetic and do not alter the stats of a soldier.

On one hand, it's just cosmetic crap. On the third hand, it's still dlc.