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Neddy Seagoon posted:And again; During that time you're stuck playing catch-up on other missions OR ELSE and sticking your guys back in the hospital with fresh injuries. There's an absolute razor-thin margin for keeping a fully-capable squad available for missions that needs fixing/balancing. Buy more loving soldiers then, do you only have 5 or something? They're only $25 in the recruit tab. The Avatar Project feels really stressful but if you stop and think about it you'll realize that you actually have a ton of time. The Project gains one pip every month, and then every 1.5-2 months a facility is built that increases it another 2-3 pips. Then after it's full you have yet another month before you actually get the game over. You have plenty of time to catch your breath, even with the monthly guerilla ops and bi-monthly raids/council missions.
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Feb 8, 2016 04:54
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Harrow posted:This is exactly what happened to me. I sold down to 5 because I thought that would be safe and I really needed some supply and it's been about five Avatar Project pips since I've gotten an Advent Trooper corpse. Predator armor is going to be my very first research rush next game, because of the extra item slot. That means a grenade and some utility item on all troops instead of grenades on three of them and one flashbang, one medkit, and one mimic beacon spread over the rest of the squad. EDIT: Maybe Mindshield would have been worth taking if I didn't have to choose between it and winning the mission. 
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Feb 8, 2016 04:54
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Not sure if this is a bug, but I had the soldier carrying a dark VIP get killed, and the VIP was suddenly back on the ground by the vehicle where he started out. That's some bullshit and cost me the mission. In the same mission I had a MEC that was at 1 health and covered in acid and took no damage anyway for some reason, and it killed somebody. Basically that mission sucked big time. Other than that I'm really enjoying this. My legendary ironman game was on the ropes but I seem to be making a comeback now that I have gauss weapons and predator armour. I lucked out and found an acid grenade at a rumour site as well, which has been instrumental in my comeback. I really love how soldiers can get scars after being wounded, it's awesome. edit: Forgot an amazing Retaliation mission I had. Berserkers can go crazy and will attack their own units now! I had a berserker wipe out at least 4 advent for me. Without that happening I would probably have lost all of my soldiers. Blisster fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Feb 8, 2016 |
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Feb 8, 2016 04:55
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Yep, Crysallids being burrowed and auto-attack when you approach is where I end this run officially. RIP Jane Kelly. I'm skipping any civie rescue missions after I get 2 mimic beacons because they are NEVER worth it otherwise. It also seems like speedrunning the game is the only way to beat it because the progression of the enemy groups get to a point where you have to pray your high-tier skill characters survive long enough.
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Feb 8, 2016 04:58
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Poking around in AI files, it appears the internal name for the Viper's grab, is indeed "GetOverHere".
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Feb 8, 2016 04:59
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suction posted:Commander is very balance in terms of difficulty. If you're a good player, you'll shine through by managing your RNG. Legendary Ironman, however, is completely loving insane. It is completely depends on RNG. There is no more guarantee kills that you can rely on in the early game with grenades. If you get a timed mission for the second mission, you're pretty much hosed. You can no longer rely on those turtling tactics since there are timed missions everywhere. In XCOM 1 Impossible Ironman, if you make it through the first month, you're looking good. If you pass the 3rd month, you pretty much won the game. As someone who beat EU/EW I/I don't think Legendary Ironman at its current stage is even possible. However, I was able to have 4 straight flawless tactical missions on Legend Ironman for my first set of missions, no joke - that's not RNG there. I think that the timed missions on Legend early on are potentially fatal though with a single extra pod showing up at the wrong time. If it wasn't for me completely screwing up the strategy layer (Solomon was right, you can completely screw yourself over if you don't know wtf the mechanics of region control are at all) and losing my squad to a presumption that there can only be one Faceless on your first retaliation mission, I could still be riding that game. So, I believe that Legend is absolutely possible to beat as-is. I'm not saying I'm that great either (far from it - that's the crux of my argument, actually). But the way that you beat Legend in XCOM2 likely resembles nothing like how I managed to get a zero deaths run in EU I/I, and the strategy layer is nowhere nearly as easy to cheese. It's easier to understand how to win by seeing the mistakes made in Legend. The increased build times really change everything and make it more like Long War right away.
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Feb 8, 2016 04:59
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So there are two enemies referenced in the ini that don't seem to appear in the game at all. The Advent Psi-Witch and the Cyberus. They have some neat looking abilities too, I wonder if they're just leftover DLC fragments?
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Feb 8, 2016 05:03
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Kenshin posted:I'm guessing by the name you had it backwards, you want a higher interval between force upgrades. Use a higher number? I'll have to test it more tomorrow. it was just curious that it's higher on Legendary, perhaps to compensate for all the increased build and research times a little bit. If you want fun go ahead and lower it!
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Feb 8, 2016 05:06
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Do I just not remember, or was it a lot easier to stay on-curve with equipment in XCOM: EU? It took me ages just to get magnetic weapons in this last run and an early-game mistake ensured I'd never get predator armor. Even then, I never had the supplies to actually build every type of magnetic weapon.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:06
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I met my first Gatekeeper outside of the mission that introduces them and it unleashed its full psychic abilities on me. A massive aoe explosion that resurrects all corpses inside of it.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:07
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Hunter Noventa posted:All right, I think I found the INI value that controls how fast the aliens upgrade their forces. Oddly enough, it was set higher for impossible, you'd think that it would be lower. But when I set it even lower I got Vipers and Advent MECs in literally my second mission. Just tested this out by setting it to zero on Rookie difficulty and hitting go. This was the result on the second mission (i.e. first mission post-gatecrasher):  So, yes, that's the interval between the time the enemy is allowed to upgrade its forces/threat levels. Lower means the enemies upgrade faster, higher means they upgrade a bit slower. This means that Legendary is actually modded to have enemies upgrade slower...which is probably necessary to make it beatable/players not kill themselves.  MarquiseMindfang posted:Poking around in AI files, it appears the internal name for the Viper's grab, is indeed "GetOverHere". yeah, I saw that too and laughed.  Zore posted:So there are two enemies referenced in the ini that don't seem to appear in the game at all. I think the Cyberus is an old name for the Codex, and the Psi-Witch is maybe the Avatar? Alkydere fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Feb 8, 2016 |
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Feb 8, 2016 05:07
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Tier 3 weapons are plasma, right? Cause if they are, I took way too long. What month did you beat it, for those that beat it?
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Feb 8, 2016 05:09
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Alkydere posted:So, yes, that's the interval between the time the enemy is allowed to upgrade its forces/threat levels. Lower means the enemies upgrade faster, higher means they upgrade a bit slower. This means that Legendary is actually modded to have enemies upgrade slower...which is probably necessary to make it beatable/players not kill themselves. I can confirm this. My friend is playing a Legendary campaign and he was encountering aliens for the first time 2-3 months after I was on commander.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:09
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Elliotw2 posted:Buy more loving soldiers then, do you only have 5 or something? They're only $25 in the recruit tab. Except you've forgotten the Dark Ops that can increase it by one or even two blocks, which you pretty much have no choice but to take regardless of difficulty, and the guerilla ops are nowhere near "monthly". I can't even complete a single scan 5-day without getting jumped with a mission that puts half a squad in the hospital for weeks. You also start off with all of maybe eight rookies instead of twenty-odd in the original, and are kept hard-pressed to spend your money on other things if you want your game to not descend into slow death. Harrow posted:Do I just not remember, or was it a lot easier to stay on-curve with equipment in XCOM: EU? It took me ages just to get magnetic weapons in this last run and an early-game mistake ensured I'd never get predator armor. Even then, I never had the supplies to actually build every type of magnetic weapon. I actually just played a bit of XCOM:EW to make sure it wasn't just me and it's waaaay more fair. You get multiple missions with just a handful of 4-5 Sectoids before even seeing anything else, and even then it's a single Thin Man to give you pause about what the gently caress is this guy and what's he gonna do? You also get entire weeks early on where nothing happens so you can get some drat research/construction done in peace for when the aliens DO actually pop their heads out.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:09
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Thanks for that earlier tip about line of site gremlin hacking, really saved my bacon just now. Blew off the side of a van, managed to hack the thingy inside with only a couple turns left there. I'll say one thing these games need is John Woo style, some double gun action. Though I think I did see a bird fly by one time.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:10
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Tae posted:Tier 3 weapons are plasma, right? Cause if they are, I took way too long. What month did you beat it, for those that beat it? i just won in mid-November with everything researched by about early/mid October.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:13
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I'm pretty sure Legendary is balanced around everything being slower - if you want the player to have to play more missions before finishing the game, you could make missions appear more frequently, but you could also do it by slowing down both the player and alien progression. Somewhat ironically, if you play on Legendary but mod the build and research times back down to regular speeds like some people were talking about doing, it probably is easier than playing on Commander.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:13
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I don't even want to imagine the final mission on legendary.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:15
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I actually just played a bit of XCOM:EW to make sure it wasn't just me and it's waaaay more fair. You get multiple missions with just a handful of 4-5 Sectoids before even seeing anything else, and even then it's a single Thin Man to give you pause about what the gently caress is this guy and what's he gonna do? You also get entire weeks early on where nothing happens so you can get some drat research/construction done in peace for when the aliens DO actually pop their heads out. Okay, cool, because that's how I remember it. There's just way too much going on at any given time in XCOM 2. I'm sure some people love how hectic it is right away but it just isn't doing it for me, especially when it's so easy to "win" a mission in such a way that it feels a lot more like losing.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:15
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So North America isn't linked to South America, but Australia is?
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Feb 8, 2016 05:15
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Hunter Noventa posted:All right, I think I found the INI value that controls how fast the aliens upgrade their forces. Oddly enough, it was set higher for impossible, you'd think that it would be lower. But when I set it even lower I got Vipers and Advent MECs in literally my second mission. Any ini values where there is a 'U' shape to the numbers across the 4 difficulties, that's what's going on. Pay more attention to the progression from 0->1->2 (recruit, vet, commander) than 2->3. So in that case higher will slow the alien progression down. Klyith fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Feb 8, 2016 |
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Feb 8, 2016 05:16
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Finally doing the first retaliation mission. First move activates advent, first shot they take does four damage to my sarge. The faceless reveals later and also does four damage. In fact nobody has ever taken less than four damage on any hit from anyone ever. Should I just assume every attack will always do four and be a grave wound for the rest of the game? Also it's cool how when I go to where the shots that killed civilians come from there is nothing there, making investigating and not just revealing as much as possible worthless. e: If it's under 80% the sniper will miss. These guys suck with their rifles. On the contrary, they know how to actually shoot their handcannons. RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Feb 8, 2016 |
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Feb 8, 2016 05:17
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Blisster posted:Not sure if this is a bug, but I had the soldier carrying a dark VIP get killed, and the VIP was suddenly back on the ground by the vehicle where he started out. That's some bullshit and cost me the mission. In the same mission I had a MEC that was at 1 health and covered in acid and took no damage anyway for some reason, and it killed somebody. Basically that mission sucked big time. Your soldiers demeanor changes in the dropship after a mission based on how you did too Lose some squad mates and everyone is somber. Ace the mission and everyone has a cocky smirk on their face. The game is seriously amazing but holy poo poo I wish someone had a loving clue what they were doing from an optimization standpoint. I'm on an i7 4770k and a 980 ti and it runs like poo poo.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:17
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Alkydere posted:I think the Cyberus is an old name for the Codex, and the Psi-Witch is maybe the Avatar? This is correct. The assigned abilities match the capabilities of those enemies. Psi Bomb is the weapon disable thing, and interestingly they differentiate between offensive teleportation and defensive teleportation. Offensive teleports will attempt to place as many enemies in view as possible, while defensive ones attempt to flank someone. Psi Witch is the only enemy with straight-up Mind Control as an ability (rather than Mindspin). It looks like they'll always attempt to use it first, but won't bother checking if they target is Mindshielded or under the effect of Solace. Matches what I saw on the final mission. Speaking of the final mission, I decided not to engage with the final room at all and Dominated a Gatekeeper, which then rustled me up some zombies. I sent one zombie into the room to activate the boss pod, and camped everyone else out in the prior room with overwatches. Since the pod leader moves first, once the zombie died it was always the first thing to come charging into the room where all my overwatches were waiting.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:17
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oswald ownenstein posted:Your soldiers demeanor changes in the dropship after a mission based on how you did too The post-mission dropship music changes, too. If you suffer a particularly pyrrhic victory (like say, only the VIP escapes in an extraction mission and the rest of your dudes are KIA/capped) you get basically the same tune but in a minor key instead. It's really good and very 
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Feb 8, 2016 05:19
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MarquiseMindfang posted:This is correct. The assigned abilities match the capabilities of those enemies. Psi Bomb is the weapon disable thing, and interestingly they differentiate between offensive teleportation and defensive teleportation. Offensive teleports will attempt to place as many enemies in view as possible, while defensive ones attempt to flank someone. That sounds hilarious. I ended up playing whack-a-mole with the three psykers I had (the Macguffin you get plus my two home-grown ones) screaming and panicking as they kept teleporting away. Thank gently caress for Null Lance being a guaranteed hit and hitting for a fuckton of damage (9-14 with max rank psi-amps). Also, between the snektits, the anime waifus and avatars I find it hilarious how much the Ethereals enjoy the female form.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:22
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Does the Avenger Defense mission happen more than once? I haven't had it pop yet and I've hit all research projects, running around in tier 3 armor/weapons/etc. Or does it only happen after I have done the Codex Installation/ 2nd Black site
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Feb 8, 2016 05:22
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Seems like I've run into some kind of bug. Whenever I'm in the base menu or looking at the geoscape the screen constantly scrolls to one side. Anyone know of a fix to this?
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Feb 8, 2016 05:22
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Ciaphas posted:The post-mission dropship music changes, too. If you suffer a particularly pyrrhic victory (like say, only the VIP escapes in an extraction mission and the rest of your dudes are KIA/capped) you get basically the same tune but in a minor key instead. It's really good and very Quoting myself because now I want to find the song that plays in this case on my filesystem, but I have no idea what or where to look. Anyone know where I can find the music files / what I need to extract and play them? Is it these .wem files in XComGame/CookedPCConsole?
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Feb 8, 2016 05:23
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Horsebanger posted:Does the Avenger Defense mission happen more than once? It happens as many times as Advent sends a UFO out to hunt you down.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:23
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Alkydere posted:It happens as many times as Advent sends a UFO out to hunt you down. Human-built Fighter jets could kill a basic UFO, why the gently caress can't you mount plasma turrets (or any turrets) to the hull of the Avenger and shoot them down instead?
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Feb 8, 2016 05:24
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Is there any way to tell how long disorientation lasts? It's been between one and three turns on enemy units and mine (usually one turn for them).
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Feb 8, 2016 05:26
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Human-built Fighter jets could kill a basic UFO, why the gently caress can't you mount plasma turrets (or any turrets) to the hull of the Avenger and shoot them down instead? You only have one Avenger, it's made from a cargo vessel and then filled to the brim with the entire resistance's everything and likely flies like a particularly arthritic whale. The aliens likely have effectively endless UFOs. Also, the UFO doesn't really do the hunting, it just carries the team that sets up the tractor-beam beacon that grounds you and fucks you over.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:27
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Alkydere posted:It happens as many times as Advent sends a UFO out to hunt you down. Though I got chased by UFOs 4 times and only once did Bradford fail to avoid them. Having them on your tail isn't an automatic defense. Also you can trivialize them by bringing two Sharpshooters and a Ranger with Conceal or Phantom. Take out the first pack, sneak close enough for your Sharpshooters to get squadsight on the jammer and kill it. It has like 15 HP and no armor. Run the Ranger back and take off. 3 turns max.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:28
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So I lucked into Death from Above on my specialist. Yeah, I don't know if it works like this in snipers, but when it says "does not end your turn" it means it. She killed three troops in one turn the first time out. 2 missions, 11 kills. Yeah, I am going to like this. Also, specialists. Hackers seem way better early, but medics seem like better value once you start getting some armor. I've been using a high-level medic since all my other specialists died (well, until DFA lady) and so I'm checking out hackers. Any thoughts? I only saw one +hack skill so haywire is mostly only good for shutting something down for a turn or two, and my skulljack is getting upgraded as we speak. But combat protocol's value drops once you start getting more and multiple cover-removal skills and your aim improves.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:28
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Alkydere posted:You only have one Avenger, it's made from a cargo vessel and then filled to the brim with the entire resistance's everything and likely flies like a particularly arthritic whale. Also, the UFO doesn't really do the hunting, it just carries the team that sets up the tractor-beam beacon that grounds you and fucks you over. Which seems all the more prudent to slap some guns on the hull. Again; Fighter Jet-sized craft could carry the ordinance to sink battleships by endgame in XCOM. It doesn't seem unreasonable to get some armor plating and weapons onto the only thing uniting the global resistance. The only way keeping it stock would make sense is if they were using the fact it's a cargo vessel as cover to get around the world hidden in plain sight, and we know that's not the case.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:29
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Doctor Spaceman posted:So North America isn't linked to South America, but Australia is? Links, much like the continent bonuses, are randomized with each game.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:30
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Doctor Spaceman posted:So North America isn't linked to South America, but Australia is? I think the connections are randomized. My first campaign I could get to Northwest US from Asia, second campaign the closest route was through South America and Oceania.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:30
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Please game give me a ranger, I don't need more lovely snipers and Kelly's still on break from being shot in the tutorial.Alkydere posted:You only have one Avenger, it's made from a cargo vessel and then filled to the brim with the entire resistance's everything and likely flies like a particularly arthritic whale. The aliens likely have effectively endless UFOs. Also, the UFO doesn't really do the hunting, it just carries the team that sets up the tractor-beam beacon that grounds you and fucks you over. I get the impression that despite being Shen's life's work, the Avenger is mostly a piece of poo poo that XCOM really hosed up that is only barely working.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:31
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Ravenfood posted:So I lucked into Death from Above on my specialist. Yeah, I don't know if it works like this in snipers, but when it says "does not end your turn" it means it. She killed three troops in one turn the first time out. 2 missions, 11 kills. Yeah, I am going to like this. Combat Protocol stays viable until late game because it ignores armor, is a guaranteed hit, and can do 8 damage to mechanical enemies with just the tier 2 Gremlin. Is there a tier three? I imagine that would do 12 damage to mechanical targets, which is a shitload for something that literally can't miss and you don't have to expose yourself to do.
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Feb 8, 2016 05:32
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