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Tae posted:What the gently caress, androdema show up in july in commander That's ok, you're supposed to win the game by then already, according to Exquisite Timing achievement. To me this looks impossible in strategic game. 
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Feb 15, 2016 21:48
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Pyromancer posted:That's ok, you're supposed to win the game by then already, according to Exquisite Timing achievement. I was thinking about how you'd tackle this a) Abuse stealth Rangers heavily to tackle key objectives and don't hesitate to Evac out once goals are complete b) Ignore missions that have non-critical failure penalties, particularly if they're too dangerous c) Abuse explosives d) Abuse mimic beacons e) Play like a little bitch on missions with no time limit Not sure what else you'd need to do. I definitely need a research tree infographic, figuring out what to beeline for is key.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:00
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Swords are useful sometimes for when a shotgun is out of ammo, or in certain situations where moving to attack puts them into a useful forward position, or when they can't get a flanking angle on somebody with their first move, or once you get a T2 or T3 sword and the stun/fire effect on hit can shut some enemies down entirely. And against sectoids. And against packs of Chrysalids - can't 1-shot them, but a grenade and then a Blade-storm guy out in front can go apeshit ninja on all them. I had my winning hit of the game with a sword ranger. The final jerk I had to kill teleported to a distant, fully-covered corner, and had my top-tier psychic mind-controlled, which was surely going to gently caress something up on the next turn. Wraith armor, Reaper and Implacable (with a codex clone out in the middle to execute and goomba-jump a whole extra turn's worth of actions) cover a whole lot of distance. I mind-controlled an adromedon in the last level, and he was a champ. I want to believe that he wasn't trying very hard to resist the mind control when he landed a plasma cannon critical on a jerkass alien overlord.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:01
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Rangers are good but lately I've stopped bringing them. They kind of start to get lackluster all around compared to everyone else.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:04
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Zomborgon posted:Better than losing the mod, though. I was really paranoid about using mods on ballistics until I was informed that they carried upward. I've been holding back on adding weapon mods to any of my lower level weapons because I assumed they'll be lost as soon as I research an upgrade.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:05
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So I just met my first Gatekeeper and goddamn those things are terrifying. Luckily repeaters aren't as useless as I thought. 
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Feb 15, 2016 22:09
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Coolguye posted:If you get a mission to rescue him/her please post about it I love those stories I will, I'm really hoping she shows up in a rescue mission. It was really terrible having everyone make it, knowing she wouldn't be able to move far enough in time. I had such a hard time with that mission already, it was definitely my biggest hit so far. I feel like I'm not playing very well overall. I'm doing the first blacksite mission in early May, I've contacted two regions besides the starting one, and supplies are scarce. Every time I try to do something (like the obj to contact the first region outside your HQ) a mission or some kind of drop happens and I get waylaid by it.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:09
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WhiteHowler posted:Well, son of a bitch. They do not carry back down if you do Who Needs Tygan though.  and here I carefully stockpiled six advanced/superior repeaters, then plonked them on plasma rifles in the interim
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Feb 15, 2016 22:11
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RBA Starblade posted:Rangers are good but lately I've stopped bringing them. They kind of start to get lackluster all around compared to everyone else. Same; I've been running a a shred grenadier, demo grenadier, both specialists, a sniper, and a psyker. The grenadiers can smash most armor into nothing while damaging enemies just as well as a ranger. Anything that survives gets chain-headshot or shot by a Dominated andromedon. The specialists are left to run backup with guaranteed damage, overwatch, and hacks. e: GreyjoyBastard posted:They do not carry back down if you do Who Needs Tygan though. Get the mod-swapping continent bonus, PSI up (maybe? dunno what counts as "conventional"), wreck 'em. Zomborgon fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 22:11
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StringOfLetters posted:Swords are useful sometimes for when a shotgun is out of ammo, or in certain situations where moving to attack puts them into a useful forward position, or when they can't get a flanking angle on somebody with their first move, or once you get a T2 or T3 sword and the stun/fire effect on hit can shut some enemies down entirely. And against sectoids. And against packs of Chrysalids - can't 1-shot them, but a grenade and then a Blade-storm guy out in front can go apeshit ninja on all them. I feel like so much of the Ranger debate is framed really weirdly because of comparing swords to shotguns as "primary weapons" when it really should be comparing swords to stealth as "situational gimmicks to use as plan B". Sure, swords could use some buffs (that rebalance mod that gives them armor-piercing and some extra damage is pretty much perfect except I don't think the accuracy buff should be quite so high) but they aren't competing with shotguns as the primary damage source, they're competing with stealth as a trick for those situations that somehow aren't resolved by "shotgun one guy in the face".
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Feb 15, 2016 22:14
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Zomborgon posted:Same; I've been running a a shred grenadier, demo grenadier, both specialists, a sniper, and a psyker. The grenadiers can smash most armor into nothing while damaging enemies just as well as a ranger. Anything that survives gets chain-headshot or shot by a Dominated andromedon. The specialists are left to run backup with guaranteed damage, overwatch, and hacks.. That's exactly what I'm doing except both grenadiers are in power armor, one has a rocket launcher, and the other has the shredder cannon.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:18
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Zomborgon posted:Same; I've been running a a shred grenadier, demo grenadier, both specialists, a sniper, and a psyker. The grenadiers can smash most armor into nothing while damaging enemies just as well as a ranger. Anything that survives gets chain-headshot or shot by a Dominated andromedon. The specialists are left to run backup with guaranteed damage, overwatch, and hacks. My game didn't have the mod-swapper, because random continent bonuses. Not that it probably matters, I am slogging through with 6x psiops assholes (with the basic amp).
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Feb 15, 2016 22:19
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If you execute a turret, it just turns off.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:19
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Gyshall posted:Specialists are probably the best class, imo. Why do you say that? I hated them on my first play through
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Feb 15, 2016 22:23
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GreyjoyBastard posted:My game didn't have the mod-swapper, because random continent bonuses. Not that it probably matters, I am slogging through with 6x psiops assholes (with the basic amp). Really? I knew they were random, but I had no idea that there's a larger pool than then number of continents. I'll have to look into the list.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:25
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How many engineers do you guys go for? I'm weighing between a 5th engineer but a lackluster dark event prevention or a 4th scientist and a slightly better prevention...
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Feb 15, 2016 22:26
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mastershakeman posted:Why do you say that? I hated them on my first play through I don't know about best but healing, hacking (when it starts to not suck), guaranteed 2 to 4 then 4 to 8 damage, defensive boosts with overwatches, double move and overwatches, and more make them extremely handy to have.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:28
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Dallan Invictus posted:I feel like so much of the Ranger debate is framed really weirdly because of comparing swords to shotguns as "primary weapons" when it really should be comparing swords to stealth as "situational gimmicks to use as plan B". Sure, swords could use some buffs (that rebalance mod that gives them armor-piercing and some extra damage is pretty much perfect except I don't think the accuracy buff should be quite so high) but they aren't competing with shotguns as the primary damage source, they're competing with stealth as a trick for those situations that somehow aren't resolved by "shotgun one guy in the face". Yeah, but there is one important point where the sword doesn't compete with stealth, it competes with a direct buff to the shotgun at the final level with Rapid vs Reaper. I mean, yeah, I once had a Ranger with Chain Shot, but that has a 3 turn cooldown and you lose the second shot when the first misses. Rapid Fire has no cooldown and is always two attacks at -15. Do I want to fire my shotgun twice every round from now until I beat the game or do I want to sometimes line up crippled enemies just right to clean them up with Reaper instead of a grenade or a Void Rift from one of my other guys? I'm a huge fan of Bladestorm and Blademaster makes it better. I can deal without stealth to buff my sword but like hell I'm giving up Rapid Fire  Actually I guess I kind of agree with you in general! I always take Rapid Fire, on every other level I get to decide whether I'm increasing one situational gimmick or the other. Except that level where I chose between Conceal or Run and Gun. Suddenly it's stealth or making my shotgun use better? Huh? Psykmoe fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 22:30
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Oh god the facial rig.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:30
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RBA Starblade posted:I don't know about best but healing, hacking (when it starts to not suck), guaranteed 2 to 4 then 4 to 8 damage, defensive boosts with overwatches, double move and overwatches, and more make them extremely handy to have. Yeah, Specialists own pretty hard. I can't bring myself to retrain my main Specialist away from Medical Protocol to Combat Protocol, but it's extremely tempting. He has Restoration, too, but that's mostly because I didn't take Revival Protocol and I want some option available in case someone gets knocked unconscious. But I do love having him around, especially now that he's gotten a couple of hacking bonuses and has taken control of a Sectopod more than once. At this point, I pretty much always have an eight-soldier squad because my Psi Op can 100% Dominate most things (including Andromedons) and my Specialist has a decent shot at hijacking mechanical enemies, especially once they're softened up with a Bluescreen Round pistol shot.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:33
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SynthOrange posted:Oh god the facial rig. We have such sights to show you
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Feb 15, 2016 22:33
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Harrow posted:Yeah, Specialists own pretty hard. Honestly I'm kind of tempted to try an all Specialist gimmick run. One medic, the others all take combat protocol. With the exception of the Gatekeeper all the really high armor enemies take double damage from Combat Protocol anyway, and later on you can bring EXO/War suits for more demolition options. RBA Starblade posted:I've gotten Dragon Breath and Tracer Rounds so far, both are really good but drat do I want those bluescreens. You buy bluescreen rounds from Shen. No gambling or elerium cores involved. I forgot which autopsy/research unlocks them in engineering, though. Psykmoe fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 22:35
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Harrow posted:At this point, I pretty much always have an eight-soldier squad because my Psi Op can 100% Dominate most things (including Andromedons) and my Specialist has a decent shot at hijacking mechanical enemies, especially once they're softened up with a Bluescreen Round pistol shot. I've gotten Dragon Breath and Tracer Rounds so far, both are really good but drat do I want those bluescreens.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:37
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RBA Starblade posted:I've gotten Dragon Breath and Tracer Rounds so far, both are really good but drat do I want those bluescreens. Aren't bluescreens from a different research project?
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Feb 15, 2016 22:39
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How big of a jump is it from Veteran to Commander? I played on Veteran this time because my first campaign was such a disaster, but I've been utterly steamrolling since about the first Blacksite mission, with one exception (a total dumpster fire of a mission in which my best Grenadier got murdered). I think I'd like to play Commander for my next campaign (I probably don't have the patience for Legendary's longer research/build times). I'm also finally getting into mod land. Not a lot--I don't really want to get into the early versions of the big gameplay mods like expanded squad size or larger pods--but you bet I'm putting berets on my soldiers and installing a numeric HP display mod. Also Evac All, but for some reason that doesn't seem to be doing anything for me. RBA Starblade posted:I've gotten Dragon Breath and Tracer Rounds so far, both are really good but drat do I want those bluescreens. I got the continent bonus that makes experimental ammo/grenade Proving Grounds projects instant around mid-game so I just dumped a bunch of Elerium Cores into it. I've got a bunch of great special ammo to spread around, it's awesome. GreyjoyBastard posted:Aren't bluescreens from a different research project? I vaguely remember that might be the case, though I don't remember the tech tree that well.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:41
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Aren't bluescreens from a different research project? They are. They are not an experimental round. You can buy them after completing a research project although which one exactly escapes me. It might be the sectopod autopsy.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:44
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Beat the game! Yeah! Got a little easy on Veteran at the end, but that's why Commander exists. Also holy poo poo that last mission. Took 3 psykers and felt like it wasn't enough. I'm taking 6 with WAR suits and blaster bombs next time. Did feel good to murder the final Avatar with a lucky Execution
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Feb 15, 2016 22:44
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Nah its eay earlier. Turrets or mecs.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:44
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I'm a dirty, uncultured American, what are some good non-American action heroes I can plug into my character pool?
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Feb 15, 2016 22:45
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tarbrush posted:Beat the game! Yeah! Got a little easy on Veteran at the end, but that's why Commander exists. I managed to get through the last mission with no losses, and only got wounded in the very last room. I threw an acid bomb at the last Avatar and it teleported right next to my rapid fire-crit ranger.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:46
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SynthOrange posted:Nah its eay earlier. Turrets or mecs. I looked it up because things like this bother me. You do the ADVENT mec breakdown, then you get a proving ground project called "Bluescreen Protocol" and then you can buy them at will.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:46
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My gunslinger has had Bluescreen Rounds equipped since I got them. Now that I finally got Venom Rounds I might take them away and give them to my Ranger or something (but then again, he has AP Rounds now and can loving ruin stuff with them), but it's been nice to have such an unerring shot be my complete mech-fucker.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:46
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I just published my first XCOM2 mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=625258949   It's exactly what it looks like. As it's an item you get from researching "Experimental Armor" it will slot right into existing saves just fine. Now that I've figured all this stuff out I can start working on other mod projects.  If you're messing with the dev console (or just cheating!) the item name is 'ShieldVest' code:
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Feb 15, 2016 22:48
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When evac-ing you can press tab to skip the animation.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:51
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The real difficulty of the game (on Veteran) is the Geoscape. You have so many tools you don't have to sweat too much. Like in EU you were hosed without a medic or without a heavy, here you can make do without a sniper, without a ranger, don't need to hack if you don't want, etc.Ice Fist posted:I looked it up because things like this bother me. Well poo poo I haven't looked in the Proving Grounds lately then.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:51
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So i don't know if this is a glitch or not, but I was under the impression that Domination only worked once per map, not once per Psi-op per map. But well, two chrysalids and a beserker on my front lines tanking hits says otherwise.
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Feb 15, 2016 22:52
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You know what's exciting? Standing around for north of ten turns chain-stasising a Gatekeeper so my three dudes without pets can keep trying to dominate it.  Edit: Wait, Gateway reanimates already-dead organics in addition to the ones it kills?    Edit edit: When it says humanoid, it means humanoid. Archons and vipers need not apply. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 22:53
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Dallan Invictus posted:I feel like so much of the Ranger debate is framed really weirdly because of comparing swords to shotguns as "primary weapons" when it really should be comparing swords to stealth as "situational gimmicks to use as plan B". Sure, swords could use some buffs (that rebalance mod that gives them armor-piercing and some extra damage is pretty much perfect except I don't think the accuracy buff should be quite so high) but they aren't competing with shotguns as the primary damage source, they're competing with stealth as a trick for those situations that somehow aren't resolved by "shotgun one guy in the face". Unless you're out of ammo or an enemy is encircled by cover, the sword only comes out against Sectoids. If you get Bladestorm, you give the blade a lease on life against Chryssalids (or so people say, I only took it on one Ranger and it never did anything), which is one other enemy type that doesn't show up that often. This comes at the cost of Implacable, which is a good ability and far less situational. If you get Reaper, the blade finally gets something to really set it apart from the shotgun, but then you're not picking up the ability that makes the already great shotgun pretty much twice as good. That huge overlap in functionality is something that, say, sniper rifle and pistol don't suffer from. They both get abilities doing similar things, but they still differ a lot. The main difference between blade and shotgun is that the blade needs you to be in melee range and as such is much riskier. Wizard Styles fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 23:01
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Swords are good when you park the ranger at a door and wait for people to come by. Still haven't seen the +20 hack reward btw. Starting to think I'm not going to.
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Feb 15, 2016 23:02
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RBA Starblade posted:Swords are good when you park the ranger at a door and wait for people to come by. I've seen it once... and naturally failed the hack.
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Feb 15, 2016 23:06
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