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

[cvv]

There are no more announced Dlcs but on november they should announce the first big expansion pack

And there will be only one, just like in the first XCOM? Thinking about getting the game, it's 50% off on G2A right now, but I guess the Christmas sale is just as good and I'll grab it with the expansion too.

Btw curious about the expansion, there are already so many mods for this game I can't imagine what else they can add :D

 

[anus_pounder]

There are no more announced Dlcs but on november they should announce the first big expansion pack

And there will be only one, just like in the first XCOM? Thinking about getting the game, it's 50% off on G2A right now, but I guess the Christmas sale is just as good and I'll grab it with the expansion too.

Btw curious about the expansion, there are already so many mods for this game I can't imagine what else they can add :D

More stuff for mods to build upon?

Long War did use the EXALT Weapon skins to flesh out two more tiers of tech, did some shit with the new MEC Soldiers, etc. etc.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Finished it now on Commander ironman.
And I liked it. A lot in fact.
Some things I didn't like:

1. Perk trees aren't balanced, a lot of choices are objectively inferior. But I already wrote that earlier itt.
2. I want TUs back. Now.
3. Camera is wonky at times, game is a bit unstable (4-5 hour intervalls between crashes were exaggerated, but it still crashed a lot) and there are serious framerate drops esp when zoomed out.
4. Base building got dumbed down to a degree that they could scrap it entirely. It might give you an incentive to go for engineers or supplies rather than more harmless dark events but that's about it. Workshop in the middle, power relays and resistance comms adjacent to it and the rest is unimportant.
I want multiple bases with dedicated purposes back. Either that or scrap that shit entirely.
5. Difficulty curve is weird. It starts ridiculously hard, then becomes too easy when you get all the good equipment and skills no matter what new alien type they throw at you (lol at chryssalids being hard) and then in the final mission it goes completely bonkers again. That final mission was a lot of fun exactly because of that though, tough as nails and forcing you to actually think. Half my squad was down to a few HPs by the end but they all survived.
6. Avatar hair looks like stupid animu crap.

The only thing Eyestabber wrote about the Alien Hunter DLC I can agree with is that Valen's motivations are not explained well enough. Storywise that was all pretty stupid. Other than that it's a great addition to the base game. Armors are useful with interesting new tactical possibilities (Icarus + gunslinger, Rage armor for the Rage skill - not because of the attack but because it's a free action and allows insane mobility 1x per mission) and weapons are not OP. The pistol might be better than the basic one but that's about it. The axe doesn't have the stunning ability and the bolt caster is handicapped by not being moddable. I still used both but it was a difficult enough choice.
And alien leaders are a welcome difficulty spike.
It helps to delay that first investigation mission until after your team leveled a bit and has better equipment though.
But it's still doable if you don't since the Viper King is the weakest of the bunch and after that fight you get the frost grenade.

Anyway, I had fun playing this, satisfying and quite deep tactical squad combat game even though the balancing could be better.

Will buy the next one too.
I guess that one will have an abo tranny scientist and Rov-R / Julian as engineering lead and Jekyll&Hyde homage, trying to build himself a human body so he can be a real boy. We need to be inclusive to artificial lifeforms too afterall.

On to D:OS 2

 

[ArchAngel]

Hey guys,

So I recently finished Xcom 2 on Veteran difficulty. Having finished the "original" NuXcom on Impossible Ironman and played a lot of Long War, I think I'm ready to share some thoughts on the changes X2 brought. Here we go...

What are you doing playing Xcom 2 on Veteran then ?! Lol

What ed:

- Whoever came up with "yeah, free flight is bad. Let's remove the Flying Armor" deserves to be shot.
- Squad-wide upgrades AND instant production? Wow...guess the whole "PC exclusive" thing was too good to be true, eh? I hope mods make upgrades cheaper, but individually produced. AND actually take time to produce.
- No more interceptors. An entire layer of the game was simply removed. Fuck that! I don't care about excuses, we got nothing in return. It just feels like the game got dumbed down even more.
- Free actions. Free actions everywhere. DERP!
- Alien Hunters. Everything about this DLC deserves to die in a fire. Ruler reaction is a terrible mechanic that forces you to cheese, the new items are OBJECTIVELY better than their vanilla counterparts and the new armors look very, VERY silly. And on top of that we never get an explanation for Vahlen's actions other than "she did it for teh lulz".
- LOLRANDOM continent bonuses. And a lot of them are p. useless.
- Smaller tech tree. Three tiers of weapons instead of four.
- Still no real character development. Why? Perk trees need to die in a fire...Also PCS is such a lazy way to add some extra depth. I hope they release an EW-like expac with some cool new options.
- So now, apart from the usual multikult-gay-shit squad we get a magical science negro and a stronk womyn engineer? LOL. The propaganda is heavy on this one. OH and races can't be named anymore. Dat be racist, boi. Seriously, that's like half the reason why I won't buy this game until it's like 66% off. AAA needs to understand tumblr is NOT their target audience. Period.

Don't compare it with Long War instead compare it with EU/EW. Also decline means it is worse than NuXcom 1. And perk trees exist in both.

 

[ArchAngel]

Finished it now on Commander ironman.
And I liked it. A lot in fact.
Some things I didn't like:

1. Perk trees aren't balanced, a lot of choices are objectively inferior. But I already wrote that earlier itt.
2. I want TUs back. Now.
3. Camera is wonky at times, game is a bit unstable (4-5 hour intervalls between crashes were exaggerated, but it still crashed a lot) and there are serious framerate drops esp when zoomed out.
4. Base building got dumbed down to a degree that they could scrap it entirely. It might give you an incentive to go for engineers or supplies rather than more harmless dark events but that's about it. Workshop in the middle, power relays and resistance comms adjacent to it and the rest is unimportant.

1. They are actually well done for Snipers and Assault. Snipers can be both run as Pistol experts or long range experts and Assaults can be run as stealth scouts or combat specialists and then you can also go for Melee or rifles/shotguns and both are valid. Specialists has good choices as well depending on if you want to play more support Specialist or more Hacker type. Only Grenadier is kind of set into certain path because grenades are so good in this game, it is a waste to not specialize in that.
2. Check out Shock Tactics, it will play similar to new Xcom but actions will use TU and you will be able to not get into stupid shit with uncovering new enemies but not being able to do anything about it like in Xcom.
3. Camera and engine are bad. Some mods help a bit with camera (LW Toolbox lets you set rotate to 45 degree instead of default 90)
4. Actually there are multiple builds you can go for, it is not as clear as you think. On my first run I did what you say here but later when you experiment you can do lots of stuff like rush Psi (in that run I didn't even make a Workshop) or build Lab first and rush Plasma or rush Proving Grounds so you get Plasma grenades and bluescreen rounds and special grenades early.

 

[NotAGolfer]

1. They are actually well done for Snipers and Assault.

I know.

My favorite 2 man combo so far is gunslinger with bluescreen rounds and Faceoff ability + ranger with Reaper and the DLC axe.
Close second would be one phantom ranger plus a sniper with Kill Zone.
And third Psi Op's stasis ability plus one grenadier in RAGE armor and with saturation fire or shredder gun.

 

[cvv]

Anyone tried the new modded classes (Headhunter, Bruiser and a bunch of others)?

 

[ArchAngel]

Anyone tried the new modded classes (Headhunter, Bruiser and a bunch of others)?

I only played with LW added classes.

 

[thesheeep]

I've been playing with some of Long War mods installed (and of course Stop Wasting My Time).
Probably, I'll just be repeating what others said already.

What I found most retarded so far is the inventory.
So, I can equip a grenade (a single one) or wear a west... or a medpack.
What the heck? That is so absurd, I don't really know what else to say about it.

I like that they removed the nonsensical micromanagement with having to buy basic ammo (best mode is unlimited basic ammo, but more sophisticated stuff requires buying/producing it), and I also like that some upgrades are just applied globally, but they might have gone a little bit overzealous with the inventory simplifications here

I also like the character development with the Long War Perks mod (no idea about vanilla, don't care). Sufficient for such a game, and I usually find perks far more interesting than "+2 skill here for 7.893% effect".
Swords... erh. I like them, but they are really only useful if an enemy is the last one around (as usually going into melee otherwise makes you a perfect target).

Another thing really annoying is that on the world map you are CONSTANTLY being interrupted.
Hell, I just want to scan this area, but no, just a couple hours into doing that, a handful of missions pop up, the Avatar counter increases by two and many more sites appear, all of course wanting my immediate attention.
This feels less like XCom and more like Wario Ware.

Other than that, I would say a mixture of this game and Apocalypse would probably be heavan.

 

[Mazisky]

There are no more announced Dlcs but on november they should announce the first big expansion pack

And there will be only one, just like in the first XCOM? Thinking about getting the game, it's 50% off on G2A right now, but I guess the Christmas sale is just as good and I'll grab it with the expansion too.

Btw curious about the expansion, there are already so many mods for this game I can't imagine what else they can add :D

Leaks showed water, postapocalyptic towns, and underground environments

 

[Zeriel]

There are no more announced Dlcs but on november they should announce the first big expansion pack

And there will be only one, just like in the first XCOM? Thinking about getting the game, it's 50% off on G2A right now, but I guess the Christmas sale is just as good and I'll grab it with the expansion too.

Btw curious about the expansion, there are already so many mods for this game I can't imagine what else they can add :D

If you don't mind waiting (and hey, if you haven't gotten it yet, clearly you don't), I'd say hold off for another year. End-of-year sale after the final expansion has been out for a while will probably see the total package being dirt cheap, like EU/EW was. That's where the real value is.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Copy Pasted from another thread, because reasons.

Notes on XCOM 2 DLC.

- Play the Shen DLC mission once, then leave the option off when starting a new game. You still get the Spark if you leave the mission off, its just instead of doing a mission that kills your squad, you can get the spark by doing a simple Proving Ground project that unlocks Spark construction. You even get a free spark upon completion

- Always leave the Alien Hunter mission option on. As long as the mission isn't completed, it seems that Rulers will not spawn. On the other hand, you won't be able to upgrade the Hunter weapons, but it beats a bad Ironman run getting worse due to Rulers appearing when you aren't ready.

If you do want to tackle the rulers, some pointers

- Take the hunter weapons and upgrade them. With the possible exception of the pistol (which is still really good), they all have a feature that helps greatly; the axe throw doesn't cost an action, the bolt caster has an increased stun chance against rulers (apparently), and the frost bomb renders them immobile, allowing you to wail on them a bit

- The Rulers all have something called a ruler reaction, where every action spent by a soldier gives them an action during your turn. Its a bit bullshit, especially with the archon king's devastate ability which can't be avoided as you probably won't have any actions to avoid it, but it also means that anything that gives free actions is ideal, as they don't trigger the reaction. So take auto loaders, the axe, lightning hands, ect.

- Whilst the shadow chamber doesn't outright tell you that there is a ruler, it does leave a hint; missions that have a ruler tend to have fewer enemies then they normally would. A difficult mission, for example, usually has 10 enemies. If a ruler is present, it would be 8; 2 pods of 3 + ruler + ruler's follower.

- Rulers keep the damage you've inflicted upon them the last time your encounter one. Once you reduce it to half health it will try to escape. If it succeeds, it will show up in a later mission with a follower; Archon King will have a Archon, Viper King will have a Viper and Berserker Queen will have a muton

- The Berserker queen as an odd habit of freaking out and attacking nearby enemies. It was funny.

- Rulers can appear on story missions. Keep that in mind when raiding the Psi-gate and the Forge

- Damage over Time effects tick every time the ruler as his reaction, and they seem to last their full duration ie over X complete turns. This makes them really powerful, and can knock the Archon King and Viper King out of their grabs.

- For some reason, the Frost Bomb counts ruler reactions as a turn. So if it says frozen 1, it really means that it will be gone after the next ruler reaction. I'm not sure if that's intended, but keep that in mind.

- Berserker Queen and Archon rulers are bullshit. They both have AoE abilities that deal little damage, but destroys cover and have a chance of rendering a soldier unconscious (so basically one hit kills), as well as having a chance of inflicting stun and disorientation. Take revival protocol.

Some notes on the weapons

- None of the hunter weapons can receive attachments, though you can upgrade them to the next tier.

- Bolt Caster rounds cannot be dodged. So fuck you Elite Stun Lancers.

 

[ArchAngel]

While Frost Bomb work on actions and not rounds (Frost Bomb also is weaker vs Sectopods and Gatekeepers because both have 3 actions and not two), Stasis is 1 round always, even vs rulers. So if you meet that nasty Archon King, Stasis him as your first action, kill all other aliens, spread your units so his devastate is not as effective and then fight him next round. Same works vs Berserker Queen except you can also fire a shot or two to get some shots on her before she closes into melee.

Also another trick vs rulers that works well is to have a Concealed soldier and make sure you don't waste that if there is a chance a ruler might be around. When you find one with that soldier, put everyone else in Overwatch and fire on ruler with that one soldier. Ruler will get one action only as your last guy just used his action and will 90% of cases run forward into the overwatch (99% for BQ and Archon King) and then you will get another full turn. Basically you get a full turn of shooting while Ruler only gets one action.

Also that weapon upgrade that gives you 5-15% to Execute enemy you hit works on rulers as well

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Ah, is that how the Frost Bomb works? The game could have been clearer on that.
I thought about using stasis, but I wasn't sure if they were psi resistant. By the time I got psi I was done with most of the rulers anyway.

Yeah, I forgot mentioning that the Repeater attachment works on Rulers. Which is hilarious. :D

 

[Galdred]

While Frost Bomb work on actions and not rounds (Frost Bomb also is weaker vs Sectopods and Gatekeepers because both have 3 actions and not two), Stasis is 1 round always, even vs rulers. So if you meet that nasty Archon King, Stasis him as your first action, kill all other aliens, spread your units so his devastate is not as effective and then fight him next round. Same works vs Berserker Queen except you can also fire a shot or two to get some shots on her before she closes into melee.

Also another trick vs rulers that works well is to have a Concealed soldier and make sure you don't waste that if there is a chance a ruler might be around. When you find one with that soldier, put everyone else in Overwatch and fire on ruler with that one soldier. Ruler will get one action only as your last guy just used his action and will 90% of cases run forward into the overwatch (99% for BQ and Archon King) and then you will get another full turn. Basically you get a full turn of shooting while Ruler only gets one action.

Also that weapon upgrade that gives you 5-15% to Execute enemy you hit works on rulers as well

This is brillant!
I always found alien rulers immersion breaking, but now, thanks to your post, I imagine them as psychically enhanced supercreatures, fueld by the minds of the enemies.

 

[rado907]

Guys, what's with this game?

Spoiler

I was minding my own business, flying around and doing mission and stuff, and then we heard from Dr. Vahlen (who I believe was my researcher in the first game), and I was told to immediately investigate.

So I go there, and kill some stupid 2HP snakes.

Then this boss comes out of nowhere, has like 50 hp, has armor, moves every time one of my character moves, has a massive AoE freeze, can grab my guys from 6-7 tiles and incapacitate them, and on top of that he summons some shitheads.

Then the boss teleports away just as I have savescummed enough to nab him.

So then afterward he appears on a random timed mission that was tagged "easy". Nothing easy about that shit! Especially since one of my guys got knocked out by some fag who ran from a million screens away to 1-shot me with an electric sword.

Given the doom clock, I get the impression that if I lose too many soldiers, and I will simply never be able to get the end-game elite soldiers one needs to beat the game.

I mean I don't mind a reasonable amount of savescumming (though I'd rather not have it than have it), but wtf is this?

Kind of a fun game other than that. The one thing I really hate about it is the way enemies spawn. Makes for very weird gameplay.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

That's a DLC thing. 'Alien Hunters'

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Guys, what's with this game?

Spoiler

I was minding my own business, flying around and doing mission and stuff, and then we heard from Dr. Vahlen (who I believe was my researcher in the first game), and I was told to immediately investigate.

So I go there, and kill some stupid 2HP snakes.

Then this boss comes out of nowhere, has like 50 hp, has armor, moves every time one of my character moves, has a massive AoE freeze, can grab my guys from 6-7 tiles and incapacitate them, and on top of that he summons some shitheads.

Then the boss teleports away just as I have savescummed enough to nab him.

So then afterward he appears on a random timed mission that was tagged "easy". Nothing easy about that shit! Especially since one of my guys got knocked out by some fag who ran from a million screens away to 1-shot me with an electric sword.

Given the doom clock, I get the impression that if I lose too many soldiers, and I will simply never be able to get the end-game elite soldiers one needs to beat the game.

I mean I don't mind a reasonable amount of savescumming (though I'd rather not have it than have it), but wtf is this?

Kind of a fun game other than that. The one thing I really hate about it is the way enemies spawn. Makes for very weird gameplay.

That was the alien hunter dlc. Don't do that snake mission until you have at least magnetic weapons and captain (I think? Which ever rank gives sharpshooter face off). Also, give your soldiers those unique alien hunter weapons. They are pretty much designed to help take out the ruler types.
Note that the ruler only takes an action whenever you spend an action point. So anything that doesn't use an action point is very useful (ie Lightning Hands)

 

[Alienman]

That mechanic sounds like a pain in the ass.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Note that the ruler only takes an action whenever you spend an action point.

Does working for Firaxis nowadays mean participating in competitions for the most retarded arbitrary rule that can be put in their games?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

That mechanic sounds like a pain in the ass.

It is, which is why you need to have a very specific build to deal with it. DoT effetcs, for example, proc whenever the ruler takes an action, meaning that you can damage them very quickly. Abilities that can attack multiple times with a single action are likewise very effective, and cyro is just broken. Its like stasis, except you can hurt the fucker.

Alternatively, you could just not do the Alien Hunter mission and ignore all of that bullshit. I think they only start spawning when you complete the mission. I'll have to make start a new playthrough to see.

 

[rado907]

Thanks! Will start a new campaign and take it reaaaaal easy with them bosses.

 

[Raghar]

Guys, what's with this game?

Don't play DLC. They don't have clue about this type of game. (Thought they repaired original imbalance of EU in EW. As long as you disabled advent you played decent EU.)

 

[Mazisky]

I'm pretty sure they will announce the expansion next week at game awards, for those interested.

EDIT: it's only my guessing, i have no info, but EW came out 10 months after EU and now we are 10 months after X2, so game awards seems the perfect place\time to announce.

 

[nil]

Some of the new features:

- A new alien, that only ends its turn after a kill. Has a lot of debuff abilities, and poisons all soldiers within 5 squares (can stack)!
- A new category of random events: freak accidents. Fighting aliens is one thing, but can you save the Earth when your soldiers can die at any moment?
- Traitors! Every Xcom recruit has a 5% chance to be an advent sleeping agent!
- Supply drop ambushes! Collecting supplies is no longer safe! Whenever you are collecting supplies, you can get attacked, triggering a 4 stage defense mission.
- Alien hackers! The aliens can hack your database, deleting a random research project. You can defend against this with a special building (requires 2 engineers stationed there to work)
- Booby trapped rooms! Excavations can trigger explosions, destroying every adjacent building, and killing the engineers.
- Weapon jams! Unjamming weapons requires a whole turn, and a special utility item.
- A new enemy modifier: Reflective shield. Whenever damaged, the attacker takes the same amount of damage. (When there is no attacker, a soldier is chosen randomly)
But the aliens aren't the only ones getting a buff:
- A new type of grenade that combines the frag and smoke grenades! (1 damage, 2x2 smoke area, doesn't damage buildings)
- The BB Gun! Sharpshooters can equip this classic weapon. While it does reduced damage (1-2), and has shorter range than other sniper rifles (5), it can be fired 3 times in a single turn, opening up entirely new tactical possibilities! (can't use special ammo)
- The Holographic Marker Stick! A new melee that does no damage and has a reduced chance to hit, but doubles the damages of the next melee attack on the target (lasts 1 turn)
- The Analyzer! A special item that only does 1 damage and has 1 range, but whenever you kill an enemy with it, your current research project is advanced by 1%!
- A new type of special armor that slightly reduces the chance of panicking at the cost of reduced defense and accuracy.
- A new special mission that can only happen once, but if won, a random stat of a random soldier is incresed. (winning the mission also advances the doom counter by 3)