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Exodee posted:Ahh, I see. My main issue is when an Andromedon (it's always an Andromedon's cannon that does it) causes a random fire to erupt next to the device on the very first turn, though. Usually the fire will engulf the device after a couple of turns, which will instantly destroy it. And those bastards are immune to the poison cloud, anyway. Bluescreens apply to Gatekeepers? Is it only when the shell is closed?
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Feb 22, 2016 18:58
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RBA Starblade posted:Bluescreens apply to Gatekeepers? Is it only when the shell is closed? Gatekeepers have the weaknesses of both fleshies and robots!
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Feb 22, 2016 18:59
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dogstile posted:If their cover is destroyed enemies stop "stepping out".  Is this also the reason for the "cover-busted a dude your sniper has LOS on only for him to immediately disappear" bug which both this game and EU have?!PantsBandit posted:I have yet to see Dominate as a training option on either of my psi units. Just lovely luck I guess. They all get everything, eventually. However, I won't take a psyker out if they have fewer than three abilities, unless they happen to roll early dominate (or I just need bodies and somehow can't take on a rookie for that empty slot), so I'm basically with you on this. Personally I find it kind of weird that PSI folks can unlock every single one of their abilities; yeah it's great to have all of that poo poo on call, but every other class would be even more abominably beastly than they already are if they could fill in their entire ability tree, too. I also found equipping them with rifles to be a little odd; seems like giving them a pistol instead would be more thematic (balanced too maybe, but considering how infrequently I have them actually shooting it's effectively a balance nonissue).
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Feb 22, 2016 19:02
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poptart_fairy posted:Gatekeepers have the weaknesses of both fleshies and robots! Thank you for solving my Gatekeeper problems when Dominate fails.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:03
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What exactly is the base aim/crit on a Stun Lancer? I've basically stopped flashbanging them since a sword hit seems both less damaging and less accurate than even a disoriented gun shot. A particularly egregious example from my last mission: my best Ranger was elevated, behind high cover, far away (edge of dash range), no officers on the field so she wasn't marked, and had an Aid Protocol on her, and yet the disoriented Lancer still crit her into the hospital for 40 days.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:03
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I don't like Andromedons very much. In their first form they're just obnoxious, with a ton of armor, a ton of health, and a AOE acid that means you have to make a point of not leaving your units anywhere near each other. Then once you take out their first form they come back as a non-threatening damage sink. I don't think I've ever actually had one damage me in that form. Fighting them is just kind of an annoying waste of time.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:03
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Exodee posted:Yeah, I didn't think much of them at first, but bluescreen rounds are quickly becoming my favorite ammo type (next to talon rounds on shotguns). When every late-game mission has a Gatekeeper or Sectopod, that +5 damage is easily worth the slot. I'm pretty sure Bluescreen rounds also bypass the shields from a Shieldbearer, so they can be handy whenever one of those guys pop.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:03
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toasterwarrior posted:Jesus, gently caress no. Take Grenadiers, ensure they got Volatile Mix, pack Proximity Mines, and you got dudes that can gently caress up a reinforcement wave on their lonesome. Antti posted:Volatile Mix proxies are ludicrous, they are doubly ludicrous in concealment. I ignored prox mines after the autopsy. Should I be replacing all plasma grenades with them or something? They don't blow until someone moves in it's radius right? PantsBandit posted:I don't like Andromedons very much. In their first form they're just obnoxious, with a ton of armor, a ton of health, and a AOE acid that means you have to make a point of not leaving your units anywhere near each other. Then once you take out their first form they come back as a non-threatening damage sink. I don't think I've ever actually had one damage me in that form. I've never seen an Andromedon fire/acid/punch/anything, because they're prime dominate targets. Massive bullet sponges, aoe acid kicks rear end and their gun is something like 9-11dmg. All that with tiny psi resist (whatever it's called) and yay who, where's my pet andromedons boys.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:04
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Fister Roboto posted:That's not very reassuring when I've got 20 berserkers and a dozen codices on my rear end. Because I played with the added aliens mod I figured out that the correct tactic is pretty close to one that worked in XCOM1: 1. Pull back to the entrance (where the cinematic triggers) after killing the first pod+Avatar, put your troops on the other side so that the enemy is funneled into that corridor with poo poo cover if things go pear shaped next. 2. Put your super dude at the entrance (on the enemy side even) in heavy cover by the pillars, he heals like 5 HP a turn so use the gently caress out of that (and his psi nuke, mind control etc) - the enemy will not come at you in some great lump either and the commander can deal with most of those that do come, aid protocol and a ranger to bail you out if need be. Your snipers should be placed so they can cover the approach to the commander with the multi-overwatch skills. 3. The tricky part is getting the enemy Avatars to follow you, so you might have to do some careful kiting with the commander. Because the enemy Avatars regen and hit-teleport it's best to hit them with a sniper shot, plasma shotgun or psi nuke (and have them all ready in one turn). I managed to get the last one to hit-teleport through the wall and over the chasm to the side where my entire squad was waiting for him. Didn't even have to kill more than like 2-3 pods.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:13
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MorsAnima posted:I ignored prox mines after the autopsy. Should I be replacing all plasma grenades with them or something? They don't blow until someone moves in it's radius right? Oh my god yes. They do much more damage in a much larger area, you can place them without breaking concealment, and the AI has no way to know they're there, so you can do nice things like lay down a prox in a mob, hit mob with something--anything!--and then when they scamper they all blow up, taking any of the cover they were about to use with them if they don't die. By the end I was using nothing but proximity mines on Commander, because there's always at least one creature in a mob--be it a lancer or an archon or something--that is going to move and trigger the mine.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:13
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MorsAnima posted:I've never seen an Andromedon fire/acid/punch/anything, because they're prime dominate targets. Massive bullet sponges, aoe acid kicks rear end and their gun is something like 9-11dmg. All that with tiny psi resist (whatever it's called) and yay who, where's my pet andromedons boys. Yeah I mentioned it earlier but I haven't been able to get dominate yet :/ I did manage to luck into dominating one with void rift though so that was cool.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:16
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I've never been sure why you guys are so nuts for bluescreen rounds. I felt like I got much better use out of AP ammo. Just about all the enemies that I'd want bluescreen ammo against also have 4-5 armor, so ignoring that armor seems pretty similar to adding 5 damage to each hit. There are also a bunch of organic enemies that have armor too, so it always feels useful, and not like ammo that's only really good for Sectopods and Gatekeepers. By the way, are you sure they work on Gatekeepers? I just tested Saturday night, and Gatekeepers don't take extra damage from Combat Protocol.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:17
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Circling back on ambushes, I start opening with a grenade/heavy weapon when I get salvo on a grenadier. I spec specialist for guardian, leave them and my sniper on overwatch/killzone, then have one grenadier open with an appropriate grenade leaving myself with a lot of options when they scatter. Before salvo, I usually open with gun fire unless it's too good to pass up the grenade. Hopefully they'll buff grenadiers aim when they inevitably nerf grenades.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:19
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PantsBandit posted:Yeah I mentioned it earlier but I haven't been able to get dominate yet :/ I did manage to luck into dominating one with void rift though so that was cool. Insanity works rather well too, and null lance ignores armor and does insane damage. Push comes to shove, acid grenades work too. You really need psychic damage, or heavy armor shredding to deal with andros. Just make sure to always keep your distance, especially in an ambush. If you manage to kill it in the round of overwatch fire, it will immediately its face-punching acid-leak mode. Once you do get dominate and sufficient psyamps, andros become a free shotgun-toting supertank complete with goop-launcher and hazard suit. I've never had one die under mind control. What happens to the automated suit? Does it turn on you? Phenotype posted:I've never been sure why you guys are so nuts for bluescreen rounds. I felt like I got much better use out of AP ammo. Just about all the enemies that I'd want bluescreen ammo against also have 4-5 armor, so ignoring that armor seems pretty similar to adding 5 damage to each hit. There are also a bunch of organic enemies that have armor too, so it always feels useful, and not like ammo that's only really good for Sectopods and Gatekeepers. You're forgetting turrets, codexes (easy one shot kill with a sniper), heavy mecs, and androshells (which love to run up close. If you reduce a sectopods armor, even by only 2 points with a plasma grenade, you have suddenly made a massive increase in damage as you can pump out 5 shots with a pistol in one turn. On top of that, every hit reduces hack difficulty by 5, so even if you are only scratching a sectopod with armor fully intact, it suddenly becomes very easy to disable, or even control, for a turn or two. Just remember, bluescreens are a SOMETIMES ammo. Cpt_Obvious fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 19:24
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Phenotype posted:I've never been sure why you guys are so nuts for bluescreen rounds. I felt like I got much better use out of AP ammo. Just about all the enemies that I'd want bluescreen ammo against also have 4-5 armor, so ignoring that armor seems pretty similar to adding 5 damage to each hit. There are also a bunch of organic enemies that have armor too, so it always feels useful, and not like ammo that's only really good for Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Phenotype posted:By the way, are you sure they work on Gatekeepers? I just tested Saturday night, and Gatekeepers don't take extra damage from Combat Protocol.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:27
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Phenotype posted:I've never been sure why you guys are so nuts for bluescreen rounds. I felt like I got much better use out of AP ammo. I played a game for 50 hours and never got AP ammo, while bluescreen ammo can be had reliably and then widely purchased. It then also makes mechanicals easier to hack if that's what you want to do (and I do!)
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Feb 22, 2016 19:30
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Today I discover that XCOM 2 handles mods like KSP does it, ie loading them straight into RAM. Which explains why XCOM 2 now wants more memory than my computer has, now that I've installed almost all of the customization mods that are out there. Why must I love playing Soldier Barbie so much? LonsomeSon posted:
In the sense that it's effectively working behaviour if the only reason your sniper could see them was because of them stepping out, yes.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:31
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I am absolutely in love with the Shredstorm Cannon.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:32
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I ended up beating the game yesterday, and the playthrough was far from ideal, I had a ton of corpses I was afraid to sell just in case they were needed and so I kept finding myself having to wait for supply drops or missions so I could build critical hardware. I was super cautious about the story missions and managed to end up with a corpse I couldn't autopsy because I had 2 other story missions and supplemental research to do first. There were several scripted lines from characters who apparently knew the results of the autopsy before we could even start it. Regardless, thoroughly entertaining, but now I have 20 hours of gameplay to edit into videos.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:35
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ROCKET SCIENCE
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I fell in love with AP rounds when my Ranger did over 30 damage to a Sectopod in 2 crits from rapid fire. I have yet to try blue screen rounds but I'll have to soon. AP on those shotguns does some serious work though.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:39
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Zomborgon posted:I am absolutely in love with the Shredstorm Cannon. I hacked a robot on top of a very tall building and his pod scampered to the various cover spots on the roof. I then moved my ranger up and used Shredstorm cannon to remove the roof and all the floors underneath the scamper pod. Shredstorm is love.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:39
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PantsBandit posted:Yeah I mentioned it earlier but I haven't been able to get dominate yet :/ I did manage to luck into dominating one with void rift though so that was cool. This is a shame, because you are basically the Primaris Psyker of my army in my Veteran playthrough and you dominate Andromedons like nobody's business.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:41
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16 hours in and this is my summary of the game in screenshot form. I mean how the actual gently caress. strategery fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 19:43
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LuiCypher posted:This is a shame, because you are basically the Primaris Psyker of my army in my Veteran playthrough and you dominate Andromedons like nobody's business. Haha, awesome! The goonpool is the greatest 
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Feb 22, 2016 19:45
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Phenotype posted:I've never been sure why you guys are so nuts for bluescreen rounds. I felt like I got much better use out of AP ammo. Just about all the enemies that I'd want bluescreen ammo against also have 4-5 armor, so ignoring that armor seems pretty similar to adding 5 damage to each hit. There are also a bunch of organic enemies that have armor too, so it always feels useful, and not like ammo that's only really good for Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Are you insane? Why would you take one "one guy ignores armor" vs "one guy totally and completely murders a mech (if that person is a gunslinger)"? AP rounds are overrated as hell. Doing more damage baseline is better than just doing normal damage. Which is what AP rounds do. So, don't use AP rounds. Just lob some acid bombs instead! They're ridiculous. (They do damage on throwing AND do dot damage on the alien turn, PLUS melt 4 pips of armor when upgraded). Triggering pods with acid bombs is almost as good if not better than doing a phantom ranger-sniper combo overwatch trap. Often, you'll just bloody downright MELT the advent goons quite literally, with them dying from the dot, plus the armored unit is now armorless and if it's a mech your gunslinger can just murder them with some short cooldowns. If they even need em. Yami Fenrir fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 19:50
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Yeah AP rounds are about as good as bluescreen rounds against Sectopods, but a bluescreen gauss rifle can reliably 1-shot a MEC. Advent MEC's are cool and I want to keep one. Or I want somebody else to ever show up for multiplayer. Or the 'Shen's last gift' future DLC which is almost definitely going to be xcom mecs. Cpt_Obvious posted:Once you do get dominate and sufficient psyamps, andros become a free shotgun-toting supertank complete with goop-launcher and hazard suit. I've never had one die under mind control. What happens to the automated suit? Does it turn on you? Yes, it re-activates and attacks you in the normal way. It can be hacked, though! PantsBandit posted:I don't like Andromedons very much. In their first form they're just obnoxious, with a ton of armor, a ton of health, and a AOE acid that means you have to make a point of not leaving your units anywhere near each other. Then once you take out their first form they come back as a non-threatening damage sink. I don't think I've ever actually had one damage me in that form. Their bad thing is that they trash all sorts of cover by walking by it, and the Fist of Andromeda attack has very low accuracy, but it always demolishes cover around the impact site even on a miss. They have been super deadly to my xcoms by leaving them exposed to muton crits. StringOfLetters fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 19:53
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Zomborgon posted:I am absolutely in love with the Shredstorm Cannon. Shredstorm Cannon and Blaster Launcher are amazing. No other heavy weapon can come close to them.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:56
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I would love to see a mod that modified the AWC to allow a soldier to sit and gain ranks, like psi soldiers work. It would help out when you're losing guys and end up with only squaddies and the missions are all Difficult or Very Difficult.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:57
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PantsBandit posted:I don't like Andromedons very much. In their first form they're just obnoxious, with a ton of armor, a ton of health, and a AOE acid that means you have to make a point of not leaving your units anywhere near each other. Then once you take out their first form they come back as a non-threatening damage sink. I don't think I've ever actually had one damage me in that form.  Pakled posted:Shredstorm Cannon and Blaster Launcher are amazing. No other heavy weapon can come close to them.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:01
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Is saturation fire supposed to set your grenadier on fire? I get why that would happen, the gun is overheating, but you'd think they'd warn you about it in the tooltip.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:13
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Exodee posted:The flamethrower never seems to work right, either. It won't hit units in full cover for some reason. But that's not why you get it. You get it for berserkers, avatars, chrysalids and faceless who don't use cover and like to get all up in your business. When they are on fire, they only get one action, effectively making melee units such as themselves useless. Very limited in its capability, but useful for terror missions.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:15
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StringOfLetters posted:Yeah AP rounds are about as good as bluescreen rounds against Sectopods, but a bluescreen gauss rifle can reliably 1-shot a MEC. Not at all. Stop looking at them in a vacuum. They're flat out better. You've got 6 guys. With just some shredding of any kind, blue screens just win. The thing with AP rounds is: They only affect the person using them. Everyone else will still do poo poo damage. So you got 1 dude doing, say, 9 damage to a sectopod with a plasma lance plus a 4 damage lightning hands beam pistol. Your team can't influence those damage numbers at all, because you don't need shredding against anything lower than a gatekeeper anyway. 13 Damage total. Nice amount of damage, but doesn't really kill a sectopod. So, you still need of your team to shoot the sectopod (likely 2-3 more shots, unless you take yet MORE AP rounds with you). This uses a cooldown, and still leaves the sectopod's friends are still around! Instead, let's dedicate a gunslinger to mech killing duty with bluescreen rounds. Let's do the same thing to a sectopod. Roughly the same damage (3-4 damage higher, probably?). But, you can increase that damage massively by shredding. In fact, something like the Shredder perk or acid bombs increase the damage massively. The thing that makes bluescreen rounds absurd is gunslingers, guys. The other ammo types, while they're pretty good, just don't end up doing too much for gunslingers. (They already got pretty high accuracy, and don't need tracers which fit on snipers far better, talon rounds go on rangers, and so on) Don't bother putting them on rifles, give it to the man with the pistols. It applies every single shot. Ten bonus damage without any cooldowns (using the perk quick draw) is nothing to scoff at. you can rack up to 25 bonus damage if you go full ham with your gun. No single mech has that much health to begin with! Bluescreen gunslingers can easily kill multiple mech units in a turn! In fact, a gunslinger using Fan Fire can pretty much shoot a sectopod without any shredding whatsoever and kill it straight up if they roll well! (Fan fire does something like 19-33 damage against mechs with bluescreen! Not even counting Quick Draw. If you don't want to use a cooldown or can't, just shred the sectopod in some fashion. 2 soldiers is pretty much all you need to kill any mech in this fashion, maybe 3 if your gunslinger rolls lovely for damage. But you still got the rest of your squad available to deal with the other aliens! ... Assuming they didn't die from, say, the acid bomb you threw at them beforehand. 
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Feb 22, 2016 20:16
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I put my flamethrower on my phantom ranger. That way I can position myself for maximum flank-steak cooking 
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Feb 22, 2016 20:19
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I used the flamethrower exactly once before getting the shredder gun.Then I blew a building apart and never went back.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:19
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Fister Roboto posted:Is saturation fire supposed to set your grenadier on fire? I get why that would happen, the gun is overheating, but you'd think they'd warn you about it in the tooltip. Technically yes because there's a bug in the code that sets the location of the grenadier on fire instead of the location of the target.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:21
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monster on a stick posted:Technically yes because there's a bug in the code that sets the location of the grenadier on fire instead of the location of the target. That's hilarious. Honestly think the game should have been delayed another month, there are so many annoying bugs.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:25
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Another nice thing about bluescreen rounds is they reduce hack defense of a target. So a fun combo is to pop a sectopod with one then hack it and just go nuts - sure you can hack them without the debuff, but it helps a lot of you've been unlucky with hack skill boosting objectives.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:28
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monster on a stick posted:Technically yes because there's a bug in the code that sets the location of the grenadier on fire instead of the location of the target. Fix here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=627325499 quote:Q: Could you please tell what/where exactly you changed?
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Feb 22, 2016 20:29
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Who would have ever thought that Blaster bombs might have a challenger for most destructive weapon in the XCOM ground arsenal? That is the beauty of Shredstorm. It's the next best thing to a drat air strike.Yami Fenrir posted:*Bluescreen on gunslingers* The Cheshire Cat posted:Another nice thing about bluescreen rounds is they reduce hack defense of a target. So a fun combo is to pop a sectopod with one then hack it and just go nuts - sure you can hack them without the debuff, but it helps a lot of you've been unlucky with hack skill boosting objectives. necrobobsledder fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 20:35
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Cpt_Obvious posted:It won't hit units in full cover for some reason. But that's not why you get it. You get it for berserkers, avatars, chrysalids and faceless who don't use cover and like to get all up in your business. When they are on fire, they only get one action, effectively making melee units such as themselves useless. A resistance base is under fire? Traumatized civilians watching as their homes burn and possibly in danger of being caught in a crossfire? Arm the entire squad with Hellfire Projectors. 
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