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Slashrat posted:Think bigger. Mecherials. Think bigger. Mech"that-weird-giant-alien-from-the-box-of-the-original-1994-game"  Actually, it looked to be a mech already!
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Oct 25, 2013 14:19
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Has there been any hint as to a limit on how many medals a unit can have? Somehow I get the impression that there are only so many different kinds of medals, and once you award them you can't award the same medal again to the same unit (to stack the bonus or get the bonus you didn't pick), so the limit may be how many different medal types there are.
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Oct 25, 2013 14:48
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Andre Banzai posted:Think bigger. Mech"that-weird-giant-alien-from-the-box-of-the-original-1994-game" If this thing doesn't appear in the rebooted series at some point I'm going to be very upset.
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Oct 25, 2013 14:58
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That would be perfect for a set piece in a country that has already left the council. Depending on how you want to present it, you could fight in a place that has been perverted by the green sludge to the point that thing has grown up to be the size of a building, or alien collaborators have been melded together to create that green death machine. It has huge HP pool and carries anti-aircraft weapons. You could call in an airstrike to soften it up so you can make an approach without risk to your foot troops, but you'll be damaging your aircraft as it fights back. Once you're within the minimum range on its AA guns, you have to fight off its support and lesser appendages and perforate the vitals in its underbelly. Success means the country comes back to the council; failure is planet wide panic.
marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 15:04
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toasterwarrior posted:Only if you can deploy katana-wielding cyborgs to counter them. Well actually, the Enforcer from XCom Enforcer becomes a kickass cyborg ninja in between Enforcer and Enemy Unknown.
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Oct 25, 2013 15:04
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Hahaha wow. So the GMG 25% off voucher that let you pickup an EW preorder for $20.25 just expired and, hey look, they're running a new 25% off voucher all week. I'm not mad though, I'm pretty sure there are $20 worth of hats in EW. If anyone wants to pick up a copy of EW on preorder through greenmangaming here's the voucher code for this week, it drops the price to roughly $20. a (p)redditor posted:Use voucher GMG25-3P6V5-3Q850 at checkout for the additional 25% off! Also works on these titles, valid until October 28th 1500 UTC
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Oct 25, 2013 15:18
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Lotish posted:Has there been any hint as to a limit on how many medals a unit can have? From the TotalBiscuit review: there are five medals that you unlock and get more of by completing missions well. Each medal can be renamed and has two different small buffs to choose from. You can probably give someone every single medal, as his troop lists have soldiers with at least four. edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vbj0C1KKwE&t=772s Welmu fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 15:32
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I watched that video but didn't hear him say that. Did he say you can only award a medal once?
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Oct 25, 2013 15:43
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Looking at the wiki, some of the new items look really interesting. I especially like the Mimic Beacon,quote:An item which tossed similar to a grenade that emits a signal that tricks aliens into thinking it's human, drawing them towards it and away from any nearby player units; the beacon won't fool robotic or psionic aliens. And Reaper Rounds might, depending on how cheap/early they're available may make heading for armor first more interesting, quote:Adds 20% to critical chance against organic targets. Doubles the weapon's range penalty. Only affects conventional weapons.
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Oct 25, 2013 15:45
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Lotish posted:I watched that video but didn't hear him say that. Did he say you can only award a medal once? It sounds like you're given medals to award based on how well you do in missions. So if you come home with no casualties you get more medals to hand out than if you lose mans. I'm totally renaming my sniper medal to xXxMLg360nOsCoPexXx or something equally annoying.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:00
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Yeah, I'm intrigued by Reaper Rounds, but the range penalty doubling makes me think they're going to be a hard sell to someone like an Assault. Snipers can overcome that with their naturally high aim and scopes, of course, but Shotguns at any range they can reliably hit will already reliably crit. Also, increasing range penalties on a Heavy seems like a bad idea. Unless I'm overestimating range penalties.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:14
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Lotish posted:Yeah, I'm intrigued by Reaper Rounds, but the range penalty doubling makes me think they're going to be a hard sell to someone like an Assault. Snipers can overcome that with their naturally high aim and scopes, of course, but Shotguns at any range they can reliably hit will already reliably crit. Also, increasing range penalties on a Heavy seems like a bad idea. Unless I'm overestimating range penalties. The strange thing about this is only Sniper Rifles and Shotguns have range penalties. So if I take the wording literally there would be no penalty except on these weapons.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:44
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Lotish posted:Yeah, I'm intrigued by Reaper Rounds, but the range penalty doubling makes me think they're going to be a hard sell to someone like an Assault. Snipers can overcome that with their naturally high aim and scopes, of course, but Shotguns at any range they can reliably hit will already reliably crit. Also, increasing range penalties on a Heavy seems like a bad idea. Unless I'm overestimating range penalties. They could be useful in combination with gene mods, that's about the only time I think I'd want them.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:51
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o muerte posted:Hahaha wow. So the GMG 25% off voucher that let you pickup an EW preorder for $20.25 just expired and, hey look, they're running a new 25% off voucher all week. I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to pick up EW and I think now's the time. If only they had Deadly Premonition on GMG as well.
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Oct 25, 2013 17:27
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I would honestly love to see some kind of chryssalid spore grenade. Affects a wide area, sticks around for about 5 turns, if you don't get your squad the gently caress out of the way in like a turn or two they're infected and you have to either medkit them or finish the mission before they burst. It would force you to think about having to displace in the middle of a less-than-ideal situation, and it would bring back the idea of serious consequences to the late game. Basically I wish XCOM had a couple more true dick moves up its sleeve once you get to plasma.
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Oct 25, 2013 17:50
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Have we seen any bad guys using Shotguns, like Exalt? And why do Aliens never use Alloy Cannons? Course that would explain why the Alloy Cannon looks nothing like the other plasma tier weapons, if it's strictly an XCOM invention. edit: Give alloy cannons to Berserkers and instead of just charging when shot they approach and fire an alloy cannon for free. They prioritize melee on their turn but fire back with the gun. marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 17:53
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heckyeahpathy posted:I would honestly love to see some kind of chryssalid spore grenade. Affects a wide area, sticks around for about 5 turns, if you don't get your squad the gently caress out of the way in like a turn or two they're infected and you have to either medkit them or finish the mission before they burst. It would force you to think about having to displace in the middle of a less-than-ideal situation, and it would bring back the idea of serious consequences to the late game. Eh, that would be too annoying to deal with. The Sectopod getting free overwatches and 50% damage resistance is kinda enough, I think.
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Oct 25, 2013 17:55
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You know what would be fun? Sectopods with the movement speed of Chryssalids. Think you're all alone on that terror mission? Not when three Sectopolids show up from halfway across the map!
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Oct 25, 2013 18:34
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Lotish posted:Have we seen any bad guys using Shotguns, like Exalt? And why do Aliens never use Alloy Cannons? They said that giving Exalt shotguns turned out to not be very fun in one of the previews, hence why their Assault class is the Operative instead.
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Oct 25, 2013 18:35
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Unhappy Meal posted:They said that giving Exalt shotguns turned out to not be very fun in one of the previews, hence why their Assault class is the Operative instead.
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Oct 25, 2013 18:39
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zylche posted:Yeah I could imagine that being a major balance issue with the damage potential. They're meant to outnumber you already so you'd get boxed into a corner and shredded by close-range shotgun blasts.  So the Exalt mirror-class is the "Operative" who gets an AR plus a grenade and no known special abilities at the start, which sounds kinda lackluster. Basically a rookie instead of an assault. Maybe the Elite version will pick up a nasty ability like reflexes or rapid fire, or a good gene mod. Lotish posted:And why do Aliens never use Alloy Cannons?
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Oct 25, 2013 18:54
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Klyith posted:The alloy cannon seemed to me like a improvised human thing. "We couldn't figure out how to make a plasma shotgun that worked by pump-action, and every Assault we talked to said that was a deal-breaker. So instead we just made a high-tech blunderbuss by pouring a bunch of leftover scraps of alien alloy down the barrel of this superconducting coil-gun. Plus, using plasma at point blank range tends to burn off your eyebrows so this is just better." The best thing about the X-COM series (that mainly comes from Apocalypse and Interceptor) is that after spending most of the game reverse engineering Alien tech, the very pinnacle of the tech tree is something that's an original human design based off everything that's been learnt. In Apocalypse you get the ridiculously good X-COM armour and toxiguns, in Interceptor the response to an alien death-star that destroys planets is to build a missile that blows up suns, in Enemy Unknown it's Alloy Cannons and Ghost Armour and Psi Armour. It's something that's thematically quite pleasing; it isn't just that humanity's soldiers fight harder than the aliens do, the scientists and engineers take what the aliens have and make it better because we're humanity and we kick rear end.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:06
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Alchenar posted:The best thing about the X-COM series (that mainly comes from Apocalypse and Interceptor) is that after spending most of the game reverse engineering Alien tech, the very pinnacle of the tech tree is something that's an original human design based off everything that's been learnt. In Apocalypse you get the ridiculously good X-COM armour and toxiguns, in Interceptor the response to an alien death-star that destroys planets is to build a missile that blows up suns, in Enemy Unknown it's Alloy Cannons and Ghost Armour and Psi Armour. I wish the modding tweaks they did would be enough for new weapons to pop up. Kinetics beat energy weapons any day in my book; hell, I would've rather had it gone so that X-COM never actually gets to use Plasma weapons. Instead, you turn those super-light alloys and laser batteries into a sick-nasty railgun so that the world will know that green phlegm bad, badass smoke trails good.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:18
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Even in UFO Defense, the Avenger is superior to anything the aliens can throw at us =)
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Oct 25, 2013 20:18
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I still feel that the Alloy Cannon should have been in anentire weapon tier of it's own, preferably after plasma. It would have suited the whole "reverse engineer alien tech and make it our own" angle that XCOM is going for.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:20
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toasterwarrior posted:I wish the modding tweaks they did would be enough for new weapons to pop up. Kinetics beat energy weapons any day in my book; hell, I would've rather had it gone so that X-COM never actually gets to use Plasma weapons. Instead, you turn those super-light alloys and laser batteries into a sick-nasty railgun so that the world will know that green phlegm bad, badass smoke trails good. Well, to be honest, I think we could see new custom weapons from mods down the line--there's gonna be more weapon models floating about because of EXALT. They have their own version of Laser Weapons, possibly even Plasma Weapons. Just takes a mod to adjust the stats.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:30
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BenRGamer posted:Well, to be honest, I think we could see new custom weapons from mods down the line--there's gonna be more weapon models floating about because of EXALT. They have their own version of Laser Weapons, possibly even Plasma Weapons. Just takes a mod to adjust the stats. That's assuming that the alternative weapons aren't just handled like alternative models for armor, where the only thing being changed is the mesh and texture being referenced but they're all connected to the same single "item".
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Oct 25, 2013 20:40
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Cream-of-Plenty posted:That's assuming that the alternative weapons aren't just handled like alternative models for armor, where the only thing being changed is the mesh and texture being referenced but they're all connected to the same single "item". The exalt stuff looked like reskinned versions of standard equipment in the TB LP. Though it is sellable through the grey market, so it's probably a different base item at least.
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Oct 25, 2013 21:14
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Cream-of-Plenty posted:That's assuming that the alternative weapons aren't just handled like alternative models for armor, where the only thing being changed is the mesh and texture being referenced but they're all connected to the same single "item". edit: Though I guess you could give the exalt weapons +1 stats and then bake an identical penalty into the unit stats of the exalt guys themselves. It doesn't work out to a perfect balance due to how some things like crits get calculated, but it'd be close enough. Klyith fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 21:26
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o muerte posted:Hahaha wow. So the GMG 25% off voucher that let you pickup an EW preorder for $20.25 just expired and, hey look, they're running a new 25% off voucher all week. Thank you for this. I'm on the pre-order train! Firaxis is really the only company I pre-order anything from anymore. They're the only ones that deserve it.
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Oct 25, 2013 22:45
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Zigmidge posted:Thank you for this. I'm on the pre-order train! Firaxis is really the only company I pre-order anything from anymore. They're the only ones that deserve it.
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Oct 25, 2013 23:17
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At man-portable scales, with possible exception of the Heavy's rocket launcher, gas and rail weapons are going to be pretty much identical unless you want bullets passing clean through targets without a wound channel and the shooter being thrown back a few tiles. If the Heavy got a rocket replacement that hit a single target like an APFSDS tank shell and then fused all its wiring, then we might have something worthwhile. Alchenar posted:It's something that's thematically quite pleasing; it isn't just that humanity's soldiers fight harder than the aliens do, the scientists and engineers take what the aliens have and make it better because we're humanity and we kick rear end. Shumagorath fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 23:58
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Unhappy Meal posted:They said that giving Exalt shotguns turned out to not be very fun in one of the previews, hence why their Assault class is the Operative instead. I was kind of hoping for an EXALT shotgun skin because I like ballistic shotguns, but if they don't even have them I guess I can forget about that. Kind of curious why people didn't think fighting assaults was fun. The whole point of them is they close the gap and punish you for letting them get close. We already have plenty of monsters that can just take your head clean off without having to be nearby to do it (THIN MEN!  ), so I'm not sure what the problem was.
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Oct 26, 2013 00:03
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iOS chat - can someone give me a little more in-depth idea of how the multiplayer work? As far as I can tell you can just efit and make whichever team you want regardless of how many points it ends up taking. I'm guessing it then tries to match you with similar cost teams? Oh yeah I guess if anyone wants to do some MP my GC: Jacs. Oh Jesus Christ this thing just teleported right on top of me  
Happy Noodle Boy fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 00:22
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Lotish posted:Kind of curious why people didn't think fighting assaults was fun. The whole point of them is they close the gap and punish you for letting them get close. We already have plenty of monsters that can just take your head clean off without having to be nearby to do it (THIN MEN! Think thin men levels of bullshit but with run'n'gun and shotguns. Now with More Mobility and More Crits(tm)!
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Oct 26, 2013 00:56
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Shumagorath posted:I like to think that, for all the awfulness of 5000 years of killing each other, when that combined experience gets turned on alien invaders it's quite a loving thing. Honestly, I really get the feeling that the whole reason XCOM succeeded was simply because the aliens had never met a race that was as smart, as advanced, and as war-like as us. The Ethereals themselves lived as sort of a telepathic hive-mind community. Until apparently some ascended and some didn't, which set off the latter potion of the population and made them obsessed with ascending other races for their own good. At least that whole ascending thing was what I got from the Uber's end-game rant as he eats plasma. Still, not very war-like and generally solved conflicts with debate or psychic powers. Interstellar academics if you will. The Sectoids were the first alien race they came across in their search to find new races to uplift until they ascend. The Sectoids were brilliant, psychicly powerful, but they just didn't have the right psychology. They were neither alpha predators nor harvesters, they were opportunistic predators and scavengers. They didn't see the point in fighting unless they had to, they'd rather run and hide. The psychically stronger ones became middle management for the Ethereals "society", the weaker ones became mechanics, scientists and technicians. Next came the race that became Thin Men. Again these were brilliant, and if not war-like I got the feeling they were more aggressive as a whole than Sectoids. However while incredibly mentally and genetically flexible, they just seemed unable to develop the psychic powers the Ethereals wanted. The third race was what eventually became the Muton and Floaters (I assume Floaters have the same start point due to size/shape similarities). The Mutons were aggressive and in many ways intelligent, especially mechanically as mentioned in the Muton interrogation where Dr. Vahlen mentions surprise and delight at how well the Muton knows his weapons and equipment. However the lacked much of the brilliance and intelligence either the Sectoids or Thin Men displayed, and of course the big kicker was they had no psychic potential at all. The species was converted into enforcers, less because of any Etherial fighting but because of their experience with aggressive "lesser" species. The more aggressive ones become either Floater Scouts or Berserkers. The upgrade from normal Floaters to Heavy Floaters incidentally suggest the aliens themselves are learning and starting to increase their own weapons and armor in response to Human aggression. The Cyberdisks and Chrysalids were both horrible failures for the final goal but were useful for stressing lesser civilizations which is how the Ethereals tested. Then the Ethereals came upon Earth where they start their usual campaign of terror to stress the new species while also disorienting them and allowing infiltration and abduction. Humans are intelligent and curious about their universe, good. Humans are aggressive and warlike, not great but not horrible either and avoids the same pitfall that Sectoids had. Early testing shows that Humans possess impressive psychic potential in at least a percentage of their population, gently caress YES! Humans are using all of these advantages to start attacking us, capturing technology, and reverse engineering it to hit us harder. Wait, what was that last one again!? No, seriously, WHAT WAS THAT LAST ONE AGAIN!? In other words, quite the nasty culture shock for the Ethereals, who n their incredulity never seemed to ramp up their assault to be quite strong enough to overwhelm XCOM and in the end the cultural mis-understanding and disbelief ended up with the leader of the expedition taking plasma rounds between their head. I doubt they would have brought the Temple Ship into Earth's atmosphere if they suspected that XCOM would actually shoot them instead of accepting the Ethereals' gracious offer to be uplifted into the psychic network. The fact that the other Ethereals actually warn the volunteer makes it apparent that it wasn't a trap intended to actually destroy Earth. Anyways, that was me musing and sperging on the "story" of a game that doesn't really have a story, only cutscene events. Edit: Happy Noodle Boy posted:iOS chat - can someone give me a little more in-depth idea of how the multiplayer work? As far as I can tell you can just efit and make whichever team you want regardless of how many points it ends up taking. I'm guessing it then tries to match you with similar cost teams? Ah, sounds like the old teleporting glitch. I thought they fixed that one a while back. You still have aliens teleporting across the map instead of walking, but used to be that aliens had a nasty habit of falling through the map and then being teleported onto one of your dudes.
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Oct 26, 2013 00:58
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Lotish posted:I was kind of hoping for an EXALT shotgun skin because I like ballistic shotguns, but if they don't even have them I guess I can forget about that. 1) The numbers that Exalt throws at you, and the fact that their class selection seems to be semi-randomized. Gupta said at one point that drawing a lot of Heavies could be nasty; shotguns would be worse. 2) Your target selection in Exalt missions is not purely about threat assessment. They're attacking the mission objectives, so a dude on the cap point / threatening your covops guy will be higher priority than the most dangerous damage-dealer. Having to take care of that and let a guy be killed by a one-shot shotgun sucks, and doesn't feel like a failure of tactics. It feels like an unwinnable situation. 3) If they had shotguns they'd kinda need run-and-gun, which would seriously suck to go against. But without run-and-gun a shotgun might actually be too weak I think. 4) Exalts classes are only mildly visually distinct, but they also look like they're balanced enough that no one class is the stand-out threat. It lets you concentrate on the objectives and deal with the flood of guys you're fighting. I wouldn't want to constantly look through the enemies for the one guy that I have to kill before he gets close. Or catch a glimpse of one guy running between concealment positions and try to ID the gun type in 3 squares of movement.
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Oct 26, 2013 00:59
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I'm beginning to respect how mercilessly Classic will punish you for being just a little too risky. I move my heavy just a little out of the way of overwatch cover on the alien base mission and he immediately gets surrounded by 3 Chryssalids. Dead to rights. Might as well shoot a rocket at his feet and make his death mean something. Its gonna make those sprints to meld interesting, for sure.
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Oct 26, 2013 01:12
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Thin Man poisons soldier for a single point of damage. Entire squad freaks out and hunkers down beside a burning car, also inside the gas cloud. 
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Oct 26, 2013 01:27
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New amusing observation: When a new weapon is developed, the X-Com science and engineer leads are obviously involved in the final testing phase... Safely behind a pane of reinforced plexiglass. While Science Redshirt gets to actually go inside the chamber and pull the trigger. We get to observe the successful test. But what happened in the days or weeks of research? How many scientists are on the memorial wall?
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Oct 26, 2013 03:40
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