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Ornamented Death posted:I played through the game at launch and hacking was bullshit. I then waited until all of the first wave of DLC was released for another go, and hacking is still bullshit. I'd have thought 6 months was more than enough time to unfuck it, but I guess not. It just really pisses me off that to have any hope of being good at hacking, you have to ignore one of the central tenets of XCOM and focus on a special snowflake soldier that soaks up all the +20 boosts you can find. Try this mod Seriously, for every complaint there's usually a mod or 3 to fix it (and two more to make it worse). You just need to surf the workshop.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:19
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Ornamented Death posted:I played through the game at launch and hacking was bullshit. I then waited until all of the first wave of DLC was released for another go, and hacking is still bullshit. I'd have thought 6 months was more than enough time to unfuck it, but I guess not. It just really pisses me off that to have any hope of being good at hacking, you have to ignore one of the central tenets of XCOM and focus on a special snowflake soldier that soaks up all the +20 boosts you can find. On this current campaign I've seen one enemy protocol which I've failed to get so I guess I'm in for a repeat of the first run where hacking didn't matter at all.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:20
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Ornamented Death posted:I played through the game at launch and hacking was bullshit. I then waited until all of the first wave of DLC was released for another go, and hacking is still bullshit. I'd have thought 6 months was more than enough time to unfuck it, but I guess not. It just really pisses me off that to have any hope of being good at hacking, you have to ignore one of the central tenets of XCOM and focus on a special snowflake soldier that soaks up all the +20 boosts you can find. Download the Hack Plus mod. It gives any one that successful hacks something between 3 to 5 point to hacking so it possible to give a ton of people decent hacking or create one super hacker.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:20
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I really wish this said dodge. I have no idea, he was on the roof. Carecat fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 15:28
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Also consider the Safer Hacking mod, which removes the huge downsides that most hacks can result in. This might not be necessary with the skill gain from Hack Plus, but I always thought the penalties for failure were way harsher than the chances for success for most things.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:32
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Solarflare posted:Also consider the Safer Hacking mod, which removes the huge downsides that most hacks can result in. This might not be necessary with the skill gain from Hack Plus, but I always thought the penalties for failure were way harsher than the chances for success for most things. Its mostly just that its so variable. A reward for success can be anything from restoring every action point your squad spent this turn to squadsight for your specialist for 2 turns  And some of the penalties are insane. Like the one that gives all enemies +20 aim and dodge for the entire mission on failure. Contrast that with the one that just breaks concealment.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:42
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Ornamented Death posted:Edit:^^^^ I found the frost bomb to be particularly useless on rulers since it only stops one ruler action rather than freezing them for a whole turn. Stasis is way better because, while you can't damage the ruler, it does take them out of play for an entire turn so you can position your guys. That's particularly important if the Archon ruler surprises you and you have a bunch of guys grouped up. When I froze the viper king, it lasted longer. It lasted for three reactions before he defrosted. I think freeze bombs are a bad mechanic mostly because of how early in the game you get them. Psi troopers are also super broken especially with statis, but by that time you're usually running plasma tech and already very powerful. If they gave you psi and stasis in month 1 or 2, it would be bad balancing.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:42
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Are there any mods that give sparks a bit of a buff?
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Jul 6, 2016 15:44
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TescoBag posted:Are there any mods that give sparks a bit of a buff? Theres a mod to let you modify autocannons and some really cheaty stuff. Also Grimy's loot mod has some good boosts like an armor afix that adds +3 punch damage I'm probably going to try to mess with them a bit this week. I'm thinking of upping autocannon damage by two base points and giving them an ammo slot. Also might rework the perk treee a bit but the number tweaks should be really easy to get out quickly.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:50
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 Anyone else still getting consistent crashes? Every 45 minutes or so I'm seeing a crash followed by 'GI=Running' or something like that.
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Jul 6, 2016 16:31
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Honestly, I'd like a mod that makes the overworld "timer" more like EU/EW in that you can eventually nullify the time limit entirely in much the same way you could eventually "win" the panic game and then be free to farm missions at your leisure, but without removing the pressure it applies to the early game.
BlazetheInferno fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 18:41
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BlazetheInferno posted:Honestly, I'd like a mod that makes the overworld "timer" more like EU/EW in that you can eventually nullify the time limit entirely in much the same way you could eventually "win" the panic game and then be free to farm missions at your leisure, but without removing the pressure it applies to the early game. I'm playing EU on a big dumb Xbox One right now since XCOM 2 isn't out yet on the Premier Gaming System. It appears all the EU threads got archived long ago so I'll ask it here. Is "winning the panic game" in EU being that you have satellites on all the countries and you did the alien base assault to lower all panic levels? I think that's the part on my second walk through that things got easy.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:09
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moist turtleneck posted:I'm playing EU on a big dumb Xbox One right now since XCOM 2 isn't out yet on the Premier Gaming System. It appears all the EU threads got archived long ago so I'll ask it here. Is "winning the panic game" in EU being that you have satellites on all the countries and you did the alien base assault to lower all panic levels? I think that's the part on my second walk through that things got easy. Pretty much yeah. You can even keep one country uncovered so you can grind abduction missions.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:13
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Exactly that, yes. Abduction missions are what cause panic to rise faster than it can be lowered. Once you get full (or all minus 1) Satellite coverage up, panic no longer goes up. Panic game has been won.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:19
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First mission on new game, final pod: Move Specialist to see the hack objective, reveal a pod of 2 troopers and a Sectoid. I decide to take an easy (75%+) shot on one trooper with the Specialist because I've got a few more turns and I feel things will go easier if there are less aliens on the board ASAP (my general tactic). Well turns out the RNG was out for my blood no matter what. Sectoid mind controls Rookie, trooper shoots through a wall to flank my sniper and crit-kill her. Both remaining soldiers panic. Aliens get free turn to crit-kill panicked Specialist through high cover. Ranger flashbangs Sectoid to remove mind control and zombie trooper, freed Rookie flanks and kills remaining trooper and is in position to grab the objective next turn. Flashbanged Sectoid kills the Ranger (again through high cover), Rookie panics...and the objective self destructs. 
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Jul 6, 2016 19:27
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Wow people on Steam reviews really hate the Alien Hunters DLC. They also comparatively love Shen's Last Gift. Is the first really so terrible, and the second so good? (Trying to hold out for some type of discount in a sale, just curious.)
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Jul 6, 2016 19:43
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The Alien Rulers are absolute assholes to fight, so a lot of people get their asses handed to them, or otherwise find them unfair or not fun to fight. It's an entirely fair assessment. They do, however, add a great degree of challenge to what could otherwise be a rather routine mission. Add tension, and really make you rethink how you're going to approach the next turn or two. In short, some people appreciate challenge, some people can't adapt to it. As for Shen's Last Gift, the mission it comes with is long, provides a neat challenge without being ball-bustingly hard, and is frankly sprinkled liberally with hilarity and a small dash of feels at one point, and the SPARK soldiers themselves add a very interesting variety in giving you a whole new soldier class to use. BlazetheInferno fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 19:49
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The rulers are also a massive curveball and likely Code Black if you go into it blind and aren't prepared for them (mainly the Ruler Reaction thing). I spoiled myself so it wasn't too nasty of a surprise, but I can see people getting upset at the Viper King dickslap out of nowhere. Especially if you do that first mission as soon as it pops up, and only have ballistic guns and Kevlar armor.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:54
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Yeah, the Alien Leaders are good in the same way the timers on missions are good; they force you out of your comfort zone and encourage different tactics. A lot of people loving hate anything that takes them out of their comfort zone even in the base game. See: the 'True Concealment' mod which basically rips out the point of timers and lets you go back to your slow creeping overwatch/perfect ambush like in EW. Or the dozen that double/remove timers, give you a ton of resources, relax the doom clock etc. Shen's Last gift is really cool and rewards you with a cool robot class. Also it has the best villain. Zore fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 19:54
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I like how Julian takes time out of being a jerk to Lily so he can poo poo on Bradford.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:57
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RBA Starblade posted:I like how Julian takes time out of being a jerk to Lily so he can poo poo on Bradford. "With insight like that, its no wonder it only took you 20 years to find your Commander"  He's also the best SPARK voice. Every line is just dripping with condescension
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Jul 6, 2016 20:00
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SlyFrog posted:Wow people on Steam reviews really hate the Alien Hunters DLC. They also comparatively love Shen's Last Gift. Yeah. I posted about it the other day but basically: Alien Hunters: gives you powerful unbalanced weapons early on. Gives you a new mission (The Nest) that's only so-so. Then introduces new alien hunter enemies who are bullshit. They have a bajillion health (they flee partway through a given encounter, damage persists for next time), get to act during your turn after every action you perform, have big unavoidable attacks, and generally don't add much positive to the game IMO. They were also outright broken in some ways when they first released - if they appeared during an avenger defense, they could just book it to the landing zone and make you lose instantly (this has been patched). I think it's an interesting thing to do, but I will never do The Nest on future playthroughs now that I know what they're about. Shen's Last Gift on the other hand gives you access to a new mission (The Tower) that's really fun. Lily is a lot more fun to play than Bradford, it's well-written, and the dialogue is on-point. The mission is long but still feels mostly fair (at least if you have mag weapons), and ends with an awesome fight. Halfway through the mission you get the new Spark unit, and then afterwards you can even build more of them. Sparks are the new robot units, and even though they're not as overpowered as MEC Troopers were, they still have a lot of neat tools to play with. Shen's Last Gift is A+ stuff. Personally I think they should buff the Sparks a little (give them access to ammo, maybe some new research projects) but they're still cool. many johnnys fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 20:01
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I'm still somewhat confused people think the tower mission is fun. The elevator crap is probably the least fun thing I've had to do in the whole game.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:09
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botany posted:I'm still somewhat confused people think the tower mission is fun. The elevator crap is probably the least fun thing I've had to do in the whole game. I liked it, but then the shard gun and the bolt caster combined with a couple miniguns means you're never in too much danger unless more than one person misses.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:11
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My game has come to a stand-still with the Archon ruler encounter... my first time dealing with him. I generally don't cheese it, (and will absolutely let squaddies die when I make a bad choice), but I do like to experiment with different options in tough situations. In this particular case I feel like my only choice is to let my squad + VIP wipe. I can't even flee because there are regular aliens blocking the evac. It's unfortunate because I had some favourite colonels in it, as everyone else is injured hah.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:17
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Lily can almost solo the tower by herself, especially when tag-teaming with the SPARK you get at the end. Just make sure to bring a Grenadier (ranked up once for Shred) and then two Rangers(esp. w/Blademaster). If you have Alien Hunters, the Harpoon gun, Freeze Grenade and Axe help absolutely trivialize the fight at the end. But seriously, Lily has infinite-use Combat-protocol that can one-shot any enemy, infinite-use giant AOE attack that can one-shot any enemy, medkits and the ability to hack robots which are the only kind of enemy you fight. I really don't get people who have issues with it.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:17
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Alien Rulers are a garbage mechanic (their turn cycle - not appearing in missions randomly, the latter can be fun see Codex and Avatar) piled on top of a game already burdened by some really bad core mechanics. But because they are "hard" some people will love them and defend them to the death. Shen's Last Gift on the other hand adds a new class - that's always welcome even when it's a pretty low effort class.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:18
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I'm sorry, I didn't realize that difficulty in a series infamous for its difficulty was a bad thing.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:31
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Zore posted:"With insight like that, its no wonder it only took you 20 years to find your Commander" "Please order me to reload now!" "STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!"
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Jul 6, 2016 20:32
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botany posted:I'm still somewhat confused people think the tower mission is fun. The elevator crap is probably the least fun thing I've had to do in the whole game. I think it's boring, buggy garbage.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:32
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DatonKallandor posted:Alien Rulers are a garbage mechanic (their turn cycle - not appearing in missions randomly, the latter can be fun see Codex and Avatar) piled on top of a game already burdened by some really bad core mechanics. But because they are "hard" some people will love them and defend them to the death. Shen's Last Gift on the other hand adds a new class - that's always welcome even when it's a pretty low effort class. The previous encounters were honestly fine even though I lost a guy or two. The problem specifically with the Archon is that when he's in the air, with two ultra-powerful attacks, he gets a major bonus to defence. So great, you get ONE opportunity to shut him down with a like 30% chance to hit.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:33
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I don't think sparks are low effort myself. I though SLG was great, from the mission to the content. Mods fill the holes in my heart I have.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:35
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BlazetheInferno posted:I'm sorry, I didn't realize that difficulty in a series infamous for its difficulty was a bad thing. You know this isn't what people are saying, I don't know why you posted this.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:39
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The rulers would probably be better if triggered by weapon research tier rather than just showing up one right after the other. As it stands now, if you do the Nest early enough, you can conceivably be trying to tackle the archon king with ballistic weapons and I don't want to imagine the kind of hell that is. It'd also add a bit more randomness if you did the Nest fairly late because you don't know which, if any, of the rulers will spawn on a given map.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:42
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The Rulers are governed by force level, it's just that the Archon King is just pretty out of whack because he's clearly designed for a squad around majority Captain to Major rank, but can appear much earlier than that (Force Level 12, so around when Heavy MECs start appearing, and Archons are still set to leader-only and you probably only have a couple Captains on hand.) Like if he came in around Force Level 17 (when Sectopods have appeared and Archons are now allowed to be "followers" in pods), he wouldn't be as frustrating since by then you have a much better chance of having a squad capable of taking his poo poo without it being a complete blow out (and you may even have a med spec'd Colonel Specialist lagging behind the main squad with Restoration on standby.) I mean I'm the guy who made Additional Dark Events so I don't mind the masochistic Archon King placement as it is currently, but I can totally get people wanting a more delayed variant. Exposure fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 20:46
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I'm just saying, people are looking at these mechanics and focusing on how powerful or "broken" they are instead of looking at how to get around it. For example, the massive defense bonus for being in the air during the one turn you have to avoid the slam? Oh hi there Shadowkeeper! That's a nice GUARANTEED HIT you have there.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:47
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The worst part of the tower is you don't get a hundred mec and turret wrecks to sell.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:49
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BlazetheInferno posted:I'm just saying, people are looking at these mechanics and focusing on how powerful or "broken" they are instead of looking at how to get around it. For example, the massive defense bonus for being in the air during the one turn you have to avoid the slam? Oh hi there Shadowkeeper! That's a nice GUARANTEED HIT you have there. I'm pretty sure it's actually spelled out in the game that you need to figure out how to best use the new weapons to counter the rulers.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:50
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BlazetheInferno posted:I'm just saying, people are looking at these mechanics and focusing on how powerful or "broken" they are instead of looking at how to get around it. For example, the massive defense bonus for being in the air during the one turn you have to avoid the slam? Oh hi there Shadowkeeper! That's a nice GUARANTEED HIT you have there. I'm the only one who referred to them as "broken" on this page, and I specifically meant on the avenger defense (which Firaxis patched). They are still pretty unfair though, and it would be better if they at least showed up in the shadow chamber info (a mechanic that works for every other enemy). Ornamented Death posted:I'm pretty sure it's actually spelled out in the game that you need to figure out how to best use the new weapons to counter the rulers. Of course, you only get one of each and no idea when they'll appear.
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Jul 6, 2016 21:01
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Ornamented Death posted:I'm pretty sure it's actually spelled out in the game that you need to figure out how to best use the new weapons to counter the rulers. It'd feel pretty bad if you get wiped once and lose all that stuff, though. One of the things I quite like about xcom 2 is that it's awfully hard to lose; you have an infinite supply of whatever tech level of guns/basic armor you've researched and while rookies are worthless you can train squaddies without sending them into combat and a bunch of squaddies with grenades can do work even in the late game. Irreplaceable gear the game is balanced around is less good.
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Jul 6, 2016 21:02
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