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Zore posted:They're static difficulty. The Nest is fine with conventional weapons once you hit squad size 5 because Bradford clowns on everything there. Shen's Last Gift is much rougher since its swarming with enemies that have armor and ends with a boss battle. I'd recommend squad size six minimum and also bring at least 2 shredding grenadiers. Cool, thanks. I don't think it matters anymore. The Avatar Project is 3 boxes away from being completed and I don't even have the contact room available to search for the alien facilities.
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Jan 15, 2017 06:36
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Node posted:Cool, thanks. Yeah you hover around that mich Avatar completion all game. Once it fills you have a month to lose some blocked before you lose and you can lose blocks doing any story stuff or attacking a facility.
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Jan 15, 2017 06:39
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Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:Oh word. I didn't know Guerrilla War was a goon project. I was doing a "load all the mods" run with no configuration balancing and just 4 squad members. Thanks mate! Yeah, I think you're better off upping the squad count to 6. I do better that 3 missions early in testing, but you have to play quite aggressively to pull it off. Recommend some configuration. A thing I haven't done yet, but absolutely agree with, is making the map pods not follow you around if you keep it quiet, but there's a lot of tactical stuff that needs to be done to pull that off well. You can alter the reinforcement schedules in the configuration, maybe drop the cooldowns on evac stuff, again in config, to fit your balance taste a bit better.
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Jan 15, 2017 06:43
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Zore posted:Yeah you hover around that mich Avatar completion all game. Once it fills you have a month to lose some blocked before you lose and you can lose blocks doing any story stuff or attacking a facility. Okay another question. I'm spoiling the game for myself here, but I'm playing Ironman, so gently caress it! I'm about to attack the Alien Blacksite. I have a squad size of 5, predator armor, magnetic rifles, the soldiers in the squad range from a couple squaddies to a sergeant. And of course, Lieutenant Arnold "AHNOLD" Schwarzenegger. Launch/abort? I feel like I can't lose with Arnie, but then again, Squaddie Duke Nukem is but a picture on a memorial wall.
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Jan 15, 2017 07:26
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It's possible, but if you've never done the blacksite before then UHM...
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Jan 15, 2017 07:29
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Node posted:Okay another question. I'm spoiling the game for myself here, but I'm playing Ironman, so gently caress it! I'm about to attack the Alien Blacksite. I have a squad size of 5, predator armor, magnetic rifles, the soldiers in the squad range from a couple squaddies to a sergeant. And of course, Lieutenant Arnold "AHNOLD" Schwarzenegger. Launch/abort? I feel like I can't lose with Arnie, but then again, Squaddie Duke Nukem is but a picture on a memorial wall. That mission scales with story progress. You're definitely prepared for it, I usually do it in conventional gear. Its longer than any other mission you've done so save your cosumables and don't blow them all early. Also no timer so you can go all XCOM 1 degenerate overwatch camper if you want. Zore fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Jan 15, 2017 |
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Jan 15, 2017 07:30
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Basic Chunnel posted:Wait til LW2 adds red fog back in the game red fog was kinda mediocre tbh the optimal playstyle has always been frontloading damage & guaranteed damage to try and geek everything before it can shoot back. getting into a multi-turn firefight was always worst case scenario. then red fog basically adds another layer of punishment on top of that. it's nice for alien captures and poo poo, like ignoring the almost-dead muton b/c he aint gonna hit poo poo through fog, but it affects the player disproportionately.
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Jan 15, 2017 08:18
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LW Toolbox mod had Red Fog, so I highly expect it to be rolled up into the main mod, at least an option for it.
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Jan 15, 2017 08:41
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Mission 'Difficulty' is just a code for number (and type?) of enemies. It doesn't take much else into account. If you are close on the avatar bar your fast options are to hit a story objective, or to try and obtain a Facility Lead item that you can research for a free avatar site attack no matter where it is.
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Jan 15, 2017 08:55
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Zore posted:That mission scales with story progress. You're definitely prepared for it, I usually do it in conventional gear. Well, it was going fine. I avoided two turrets and killed three squads without taking any damage. Then I took the thing I was supposed to steal. With the evac zone in sight, I spotted a squad of a viper and two sectoids. The viper binds one of my troops. The sectoids mind control two more. The two remaining, snipers, missed every shot they had, then eventually died. I don't know what I could have done to prevent that. This game is over.
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Jan 15, 2017 08:56
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Node posted:Okay another question. I'm spoiling the game for myself here, but I'm playing Ironman, so gently caress it! I'm about to attack the Alien Blacksite. I have a squad size of 5, predator armor, magnetic rifles, the soldiers in the squad range from a couple squaddies to a sergeant. And of course, Lieutenant Arnold "AHNOLD" Schwarzenegger. Launch/abort? I feel like I can't lose with Arnie, but then again, Squaddie Duke Nukem is but a picture on a memorial wall. you're probably gonna turn that mission into a lounger chair for a luxurious bubble butt with that loadout enjoy the catharsis. e: Node posted:Well, it was going fine. I avoided two turrets and killed three squads without taking any damage. Then I took the thing I was supposed to steal. With the evac zone in sight, I spotted a squad of a viper and two sectoids. The viper binds one of my troops. The sectoids mind control two more. The two remaining, snipers, missed every shot they had, then eventually died. I don't know what I could have done to prevent that. man i feel like an rear end in a top hat now so for next time, one flashbang on all of the x-rays would have completely neutered that situation. a disoriented sectoid immediately drops his psi powers, and it also forces vipers to drop whoever they're hugging. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Jan 15, 2017 |
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Jan 15, 2017 08:58
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The obvious answer is "been more cautious about revealing new territory, so you at least have most of a turn to deal with the viper/sectoids instead of letting them get the first move".
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Jan 15, 2017 08:58
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Node posted:Well, it was going fine. I avoided two turrets and killed three squads without taking any damage. Then I took the thing I was supposed to steal. With the evac zone in sight, I spotted a squad of a viper and two sectoids. The viper binds one of my troops. The sectoids mind control two more. The two remaining, snipers, missed every shot they had, then eventually died. I don't know what I could have done to prevent that. Should have brought flashbangs. Or grenaded the bound guy.
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Jan 15, 2017 08:59
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Jabor posted:The obvious answer is "been more cautious about revealing new territory, so you at least have most of a turn to deal with the viper/sectoids instead of letting them get the first move". the blacksite vial was in-hand, which means that there's heavy reinforcements incoming and the map is loud. you do legitimately have to haul your rear end at that point.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:01
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Mind control does eventually wear off on its own. Its not often you'll need to resort to that, but maybe that could've helped? Having taken the vial though I'm pretty sure it becomes a reinforcement spam session
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Jan 15, 2017 09:01
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Coolguye posted:you're probably gonna turn that mission into a lounger chair for a luxurious bubble butt with that loadout  quote:and it also forces vipers to drop whoever they're hugging.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:03
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yeah, looking over your posts in this thread over the last day, flashbangs as a whole are something you might want to look into more for your next game. you do have to move very aggressively in this game at times, and a flashbang is basically a 'get out of crap free' card that you can play during vulnerable situations. advent has spent quadrillions making the world work for them, but know that all of their work can be undone with 30 bucks of aluminum powder and potassium chlorate. you do not want to wholly replace frags with them, but bringing one or two to a mission will let you get away with so much bullshit.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:04
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In general, flashbanging is best used when the most dangerous thing the enemy can do is NOT use their guns. I feel like I get more bullshit lucky shots off disoriented ADVENT than anything else. Like, if you have the choice between letting a Codex use their 'nobody gets ammo lol' ability and shooting? Flashbang 'em. (This also keeps them from dividing.)
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Jan 15, 2017 09:06
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dyzzy posted:I like to put 3/4 (4/4 if enemy patrols are nice) soldiers on a rooftop and draw the enemy in. You can typically afford to get shot once/twice while unloading shots. Usually leaves me with a healthy amount of grenades left for the inevitable hunt to find the last pod. I know how to do it and I've done it plenty of times before. I'm still entirely at the mercy of the RNG when I actually engage, which seems to love making 25% ADVENT shots hit and 85% XCOM shots miss. I'm just venting.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:21
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I really hope XCOM 3 actually starts you out on the geoscape like it should.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:24
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Fister Roboto posted:I really hope XCOM 3 actually starts you out on the geoscape like it should.
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Jan 15, 2017 09:32
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Not-Too-Spoilery-Tips as I start out my first game of this on Ironman?
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Jan 15, 2017 12:49
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You're gonna cry
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Jan 15, 2017 13:06
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Accept your losses. Don't worry about the Avatar meter, it'll be fiiine. Also, rush guns and/or armour, never sell ANYTHING to the black market until spoilered, carry flashbangs early, grenadiers are an amazing early crutch, for facilities get a fast AWC to heal guys and GTS to buy more grenadiers and squad sizes. Do not gently caress around with lancers, flashbang them immediately. Accept your losses when you find out what a faceless is. I did, and I laughed. If you can make it into midgame with some veteran troops, good for you, you just beat the difficulty hump.
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Jan 15, 2017 13:27
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Flashbang grenades are your entry-level 'oh poo poo' button, they inflict a 'disoriented' status that renders most enemies unable to use special abilities - after you've seen those abilities in action you'll realise why this is really necessary. There's a UI feature that lets you check whether you'll have LOS on an enemy from a tile before moving there. Don't worry overly much about conserving grenades/consumables for the last pod. Much better to have all living soldiers to tackle them. There are various abilities/upgrades that do a small amount of guaranteed damage. These are the tools of the gods; learn to love them.
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Jan 15, 2017 13:59
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I AM BRAWW posted:Not-Too-Spoilery-Tips as I start out my first game of this on Ironman? You're gonna cry
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Jan 15, 2017 14:36
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I AM BRAWW posted:Not-Too-Spoilery-Tips as I start out my first game of this on Ironman? I just beat the game for the first time (it was on veteran ironman), so there's surely a whole lot of people who play this better, but off the top of my hat: - Ironman is the way to go for the first playthrough  You might fail, but you'll learn a lot for the second try- not sure how to be non-spoilery about this, but things will get a lot easier once you have upgraded armor and upgraded weapons for at least half of your squad. So keep that in mind when you ponder what to research next - another way to beat the initial difficulty hurdle is to get your squadsize to 5 and then 6 asap. That's in a facility called Guerilla tactics school - there's an item that creates a hologram image of your soldier and the aliens are apparently stupid enough to prioritize it as a target. It WILL save the lives of your most important soldiers if you take a habit of carrying one or two. - don't play ironman if you're tired or unfocused or unhappy - don't rely too much on RNG, MAKE IT SO that you're having 90+% shots or blade swings or 100% granades or 100% to take 1HP or 2HP whenever you really need them
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Jan 15, 2017 14:47
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Oh I'm so stupid being confused by the term "specialist."? I never noticed that is what my gremlin dude is called. My mind has been reading it as "support."
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Jan 15, 2017 14:56
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Just...focus on mag weapons and resistance coms early on and y'all should be mostly fine. Also seriously, get a flashbang. I've become convinced that a flashbang is legit a better value than a medpack for the early game. Medpack heals a dude once, which would be lovely if you weren't flipping a coin on if your low-health rookies will even survive a shot. Flashbang disorients 2-3 enemies at once, shutting down their nastier abilities and giving them an aim penalty. Though you may want to look up the "EU Rolls mod" to decouple crits from the "to hit" roll.
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Jan 15, 2017 15:07
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Fister Roboto posted:I really hope XCOM 3 actually starts you out on the geoscape like it should. Probably not because Firaxis likes taking cues from the Long War devs. I say that because I distinctly remember one of them posting on reddit about how Gatecrasher is actually a really good mission because you have to focus on exclusively ~tactics~ instead of relying on the cheap stuff you get later in the game. Also x-ing the "get a flashbang" suggestions, not super great at gun-based enemies without a crit chance mod, but if you're getting boned by alien abilities, it's a really good tool at stopping that for...most of the game, really. Exposure fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Jan 15, 2017 |
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Jan 15, 2017 15:27
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The flashbang sounded like a good idea to me and was the first item I bought. On the first mission against snake ladies one of the bound my then favorite ranger. I flash banged the snake and then the ranger blew her away at point blank. Unfortunately a few turns later I learned that enemy sword users don't just stun my dudes, they can actually cut them up bad. RIP former favorite ranger. I have gotten over the loss and I still love my flashbang.
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Jan 15, 2017 15:57
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Alkydere posted:Also seriously, get a flashbang. I've become convinced that a flashbang is legit a better value than a medpack for the early game. Medpack heals a dude once, which would be lovely if you weren't flipping a coin on if your low-health rookies will even survive a shot. Flashbang disorients 2-3 enemies at once, shutting down their nastier abilities and giving them an aim penalty. Though you may want to look up the "EU Rolls mod" to decouple crits from the "to hit" roll. I've never built a medpack in anything past my first campaign. I think they're a huge waste of money and an item slot in the early game when both are precious. It's better to try to kill everything before they can shoot at you, and medpacks don't help you with that at all.
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Jan 15, 2017 17:28
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Fister Roboto posted:I've never built a medpack in anything past my first campaign. I think they're a huge waste of money and an item slot in the early game when both are precious. It's better to try to kill everything before they can shoot at you, and medpacks don't help you with that at all. Agreed completely, supplies are always kinda tight and if those 30 (35?) supplies mean I might lose a low rank soldier but can get AWC or GTS up almost a month earlier I'll take the facility any day. Besides fewer grenades means less blown up cover means harder shots for my awful rookies which results in more dead or gravely wounded rookies. Can never have too many grenades, I love them and they are my friends
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Jan 15, 2017 17:54
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also as a reminder: the viper special move is known as the 'tug n hug'
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Jan 15, 2017 19:41
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I did Shen DLC on legendary as soon as possible and it wasnt TOO bad. If poo poo goes south you can have shen get killed and restart Legendary gatecrasher wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for that nightmare officer pod that seems hardcoded to take unbreakable heavy cover every single goddamn time
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Jan 15, 2017 20:32
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I'm in my first playthrough (Commander, Ironman), by which I mean eight playthrough but first playthrough to get off the ground, and the game has hit peak XCom with the introduction of 1x Andromedon, 2x Conduit pods. Is there some trick to dealing with these high defense + passive dodge ability that halves damage + clone ability that makes the first 2 infuriating + AOE that disables guns and they're smart enough to put on the panicked guy + teleport ability that completely negates cover assholes? Martout posted:Agreed completely, supplies are always kinda tight and if those 30 (35?) supplies mean I might lose a low rank soldier but can get AWC or GTS up almost a month earlier I'll take the facility any day. Besides fewer grenades means less blown up cover means harder shots for my awful rookies which results in more dead or gravely wounded rookies. Yeah, I don't see the appeal of medkits at all. Actions are tighter because of the clocks, I haven't seen a single soldier go into bleed out like in XCom2012 (locked behind the GTS ability?), and at least into the mid-game, attacks almost always kill or almost kill: I've seen very few missions where a soldier got hit 4 times and would have lasted 5 with a medkit or whatever.
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Jan 15, 2017 23:19
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DoctorTristan posted:There are various abilities/upgrades that do a small amount of guaranteed damage. These are the tools of the gods; learn to love them. This is really good advice. Combat protocol has saved my rear end so many times. Avasculous posted:I'm in my first playthrough (Commander, Ironman), by which I mean eight playthrough but first playthrough to get off the ground, and the game has hit peak XCom with the introduction of 1x Andromedon, 2x Conduit pods.
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Jan 15, 2017 23:23
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Avasculous posted:Is there some trick to dealing with these high defense + passive dodge ability that halves damage + clone ability that makes the first 2 infuriating + AOE that disables guns and they're smart enough to put on the panicked guy + teleport ability that completely negates cover assholes? First of all, I can barely read this. Codex active abilities are entirely negated by flashbangs (they cannot teleport or divide, and all PSI abilities are prevented on every alien). Use flashbangs. Dodge has been patched so that 100% shots or shots from concealment cannot graze. Blow up cover and use snipers. Cloning them and then using multi-hit abilities like Faceoff will allow multiple hits against weaker codex units, likely finishing them off.
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Jan 15, 2017 23:28
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DoctorTristan posted:There are various abilities/upgrades that do a small amount of guaranteed damage. These are the tools of the gods; learn to love them. I love the stock, particularly for grenadiers and Psi ops or specialist's with rifles if there's something on low health that needs to die but isn't worth using an ability on. Also if you're not setting up your ranger with the best grade of laser sight you have and talon rounds as soon as they're available you're demonstrably doing it wrong. If you like gunslingers (I think they're a little controversial due to the low per shot damage of the pistols) then get AP rounds on them too, DoT ammunition will do until you get them.
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Jan 15, 2017 23:35
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Bleedout is functionally impossible on units with less than, I think, 50 will. And Rookies start with 40 in the base game without mods/Not Created Equal. That said, medkits kick rear end on a Specialist with the ability to spend their GREMLIN all over the entire map to deploy the charges of them as need be.
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Jan 16, 2017 00:05
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