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Page 666, hail snakeman Edit got dang it
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Feb 28, 2017 00:19
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| # ? May 10, 2024 03:44 |
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On my first vanilla xcom2 play through, am a xcom vet so it's going relatively well, except in the month I just finished the avatar meter jumped from 2 pips to seven or 8, did I miss something big, or is it just 
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Feb 28, 2017 00:34
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Advent bases accumulate points over time.
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Feb 28, 2017 00:36
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I dumped long war 2 and put together a collection of mods that has made for a challenging but fun experience. The More Mission Types mod has been interesting so far. I had a VIP extraction the other night that took place during a riot that had distracted the garrison. It meant there wasn't much on the map at the start but once I broke the VIP out Advent reacted by rushing back to the prison and I had to endure eight turns of escalating reinforcements until Firebrand could make it to pick us up. Some of the rioting civilians came onto the map as rookies and there was an added challenge of getting them to link up with my team so that we could all extract at which point they all leveled up and joined my roster. Also had a different type of retaliation mission where I had to keep Advent busy while the rebels evacuated. It wasn't as exciting as I was mainly just camping reinforcement spawns but I can see it getting harder later in the campaign as I am only in month 2. Also you can make the game more challenging simply by limiting yourself to one of each class (including sparks) in your squad and not speccing gunslinger.
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Feb 28, 2017 01:12
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I missed a 100%. I missed a god drat 100% shot. Not grazed, MISSED.
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Feb 28, 2017 02:13
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xxEightxx posted:On my first vanilla xcom2 play through, am a xcom vet so it's going relatively well, except in the month I just finished the avatar meter jumped from 2 pips to seven or 8, did I miss something big, or is it just Yea the advent meter spikes up to near-max almost instantly, don't worry. Completing story objectives will lower it, as will exploring into the areas where facilities are located then blowing them up. These actions are also known as 'playing the game'. It's all for the better though, it really drives home the sense of urgency they where going for.
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Feb 28, 2017 02:29
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Whats a good difficulty to start LW2 at? I have beaten the vanilla on legendary multiple times.
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Feb 28, 2017 02:42
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Captain Gordon posted:Whats a good difficulty to start LW2 at? I have beaten the vanilla on legendary multiple times. Veteran if you're going in mostly blind other than reading about the changes, maybe Commander if you watch a good number of LP videos/read some in depth guides on the new strategic system. There's just a lot of new stuff, particularly on the strategic map, that the game expects you to have a good handle on for the higher difficulties. Bremen fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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Feb 28, 2017 02:53
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Backhand posted:I know he's playing on Legendary, but I watch xwynns do LW2 and just cry. Sectoid Commanders mass-raising psi zombies and instantly surrounding the entire squad with a fresh army of things, in addition to all the enemies he was already engaging? So much bullshit. But SLICEY-DICEY YEEAAAHHHHHHH JOHNNY MAPLLLLLEEEEE Captain Gordon posted:Whats a good difficulty to start LW2 at? I have beaten the vanilla on legendary multiple times. As someone who started on Legendary I can say . . . I switched it to baby mode (Veteran). And still had to cheat because I didn't get any facility leads. So...I lost. I suck. It's hard. KaiserSchnitzel fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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Feb 28, 2017 03:08
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After beating the base game on Veteran, I went on to Commander and thought it was pretty easy. I never had any disasters. So then I tried Legend, and Operation Gatecrasher gatecrashed me right in the face. Ouch.
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Feb 28, 2017 04:52
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Captain Gordon posted:Whats a good difficulty to start LW2 at? I have beaten the vanilla on legendary multiple times. LW2s difficulty is mostly in understanding the strategy layer. The tactical layer isnt substantially changed except for stealthing missions being much more prevalent. If you were playing on Legendary you're probably fine for Commander, especially if you take some time to watch some youtube videos or find a tutorial to unmask the obtuse horseshit that makes the strategy layer seem complicated. Apoplexy posted:ABA2 isn't bad at all, I'm kinda curious to try out the LW2 version of it, but I feel like LW2 itself is enough for the time being. Once I get to an xwynns level of dominance of the game, then I'll give ABA2-LW2 a shot. Seriously considering doing an ABA2 playthrough. Does it just adjust ADVENT forces, or does it add anything else to the game?
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Feb 28, 2017 07:25
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What does "Avatar progress slowed by X%" actually show in Long War resistance management screen? Apparently I'm currently crushing it, because it's at 108%, does it mean Avatar counts in reverse now?
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Feb 28, 2017 08:43
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No, just means the project's progress has been slowed (by a lot, in your case). If you've caused ADVENT vigilance to exceed its global strength, the project's progress slows.
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Feb 28, 2017 08:45
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I think he's asking what the scale is. If I'm slowing Avatar progress by 100%, what is that 100% of?
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Feb 28, 2017 09:03
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Jabor posted:I think he's asking what the scale is. If I'm slowing Avatar progress by 100%, what is that 100% of?
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Feb 28, 2017 09:04
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Jabor posted:I think he's asking what the scale is. If I'm slowing Avatar progress by 100%, what is that 100% of? The AI generates a point of AVATAR every X days. If you slow progress by Y the AI generates a point of AVATAR every X*(1+Y) days. The ocean palace and the facilities all make their own points, with facility points having a chance to transfer to the ocean palace every few days. Points on the ocean palace can only be removed by plot events, and once youre out of plot events nothing can remove them. This means you can destroy every facility that pops up (AI builds a new facility every couple of months til it has 3, then builds more if the total vigilance level - how noisy XCOM is being with missions - is low enough) and still eventually lose the game due to AVATAR points being made by the ocean palace. This is why if you aren't doing a reasonable amount of missions AVATAR has a tendency to take off in late summer/early fall as the 4th and 5th facilities get built, and once the facilities get built its difficult to track them down to destroy them. Its quite easy to ignore facilities entirely and win around February without AVATAR ever being an issue if you can keep the AI down to 3 facilities by making noise.
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Feb 28, 2017 09:56
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Not a Step posted:
The name's a bit of a misnomer, it also adds additional alien variants , along with upping pod counts (though it comes with reduced and vanilla pod count .inis) on most missions, and adds a couple mission variants; faceless everywhere retaliations, zombified city VIP extraction, etc.
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Feb 28, 2017 18:26
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PlasticAutomaton posted:I missed a 100%. I missed a god drat 100% shot. Not grazed, MISSED. In LW2 it is possible as I understand it. Base 10% graze chance, and then dodge / crit are rolled.... and if dodge is rolled successfully on top of a graze, it becomes a total miss.
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Feb 28, 2017 18:50
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Regardless of the reasoning behind it, that's a lovely decision to display a 100% chance to the player but actually not be a 100%. like mechanically behind the scenes whatever, UI, that's a total failure
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Feb 28, 2017 20:50
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The graze band is an idea that might work if any amount of effort had been put into integrating it into the game at all. But since they didn't graze band = 0 is the way to go. Also, 1.2 introduced clamping crit and dodge between 0 and 100. Stacking crit over 100 is now worthless, and apparently the formula is constructed such that you can't effectively negate dodge with lots of crit anymore. None of this is relayed to the player in any way
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Feb 28, 2017 22:01
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Not a Step posted:The graze band is an idea that might work if any amount of effort had been put into integrating it into the game at all. But since they didn't graze band = 0 is the way to go. My impression from that patch note was that stacking crit or dodge over 100 was never useful (what would it even do?) but could cause overflow issues.
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Feb 28, 2017 22:05
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Commander is too easy, Legend is impossible. Is there a mod that adds an inbetween?
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Mar 1, 2017 07:18
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I've seen a ton of mods that do that sort of thing, but none seemed good. I really recommend you try LW2 out with the knowledge of everything you read in this thread. It might click with you, as it has with a bunch of us.
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Mar 1, 2017 07:41
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Apoplexy posted:I've seen a ton of mods that do that sort of thing, but none seemed good. I really recommend you try LW2 out with the knowledge of everything you read in this thread. It might click with you, as it has with a bunch of us. It sounds like a kitchen sink, whole new type of game. I might try it some day, but until then, I really wish there was a difficulty not ridiculous like Legend is. There are a couple "Longer Commander" mods on the workshop but the comments are all filled with bugs and woes about the mod being abandoned. That'd be ideal for now, at least. Unless I can figure out some way to make Commander harder on my own.
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Mar 1, 2017 08:32
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Hey so I've had experience with turn based tactical games but am new to xcom so I'm kinda confused how aggro/overwatch works in terms of who gets to act and how. What's the best way to trigger an ambush? Have everyone on overwatch and try to let someone get spotted? (I've been starting ambushes with someone taking a shot, but the overwatch shots are pretty underwhelming) Can I leave some of my melee soldiers with action points or am I missing out on a "free" turn?  It's kinda hard to experiment when I can make a sandwich while loading, and I can't really find anything online to explain this stuff clearly. Is there an explanation of the rules somewhere? The in-game explanation of overwatch, for example, is just a vague description of the idea.
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Mar 1, 2017 20:51
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mellowjournalism posted:Hey so I've had experience with turn based tactical games but am new to xcom so I'm kinda confused how aggro/overwatch works in terms of who gets to act and how. What's the best way to trigger an ambush? Have everyone on overwatch and try to let someone get spotted? (I've been starting ambushes with someone taking a shot, but the overwatch shots are pretty underwhelming) Can I leave some of my melee soldiers with action points or am I missing out on a "free" turn? If you mean a conceal ambush, then leaving someone exposed is dangerous; enemies have a chance to just shoot someone they spot on their turn instead of moving to cover. Overwatching everyone and shooting with one soldier is valid but not necessarily the best tactic. If you do that, it will go: Aliens scramble for cover -> Squad takes overwatch shots -> Aliens take a turn. If you have some overwatch but some not, then instead it goes Aliens scramble for cover -> Overwatching soldiers fire -> Remaining soldiers can act -> Aliens take a turn.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:00
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Ambush by placing everyone with a gun that you want to take a shot at an exposed enemy. I recommend not doing so with Rangers (or Shinobi), because shotties are kinda inaccurate at range. It's often not the wisest thing to do, though, unless everyone is in cover.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:02
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Are the DLCs worth picking up?
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Mar 1, 2017 21:18
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mellowjournalism posted:Hey so I've had experience with turn based tactical games but am new to xcom so I'm kinda confused how aggro/overwatch works in terms of who gets to act and how. What's the best way to trigger an ambush? Have everyone on overwatch and try to let someone get spotted? (I've been starting ambushes with someone taking a shot, but the overwatch shots are pretty underwhelming) Can I leave some of my melee soldiers with action points or am I missing out on a "free" turn? Overwatch shots on an ambush (that is, an overwatch shot taken immediately after the squad breaks concealment) happen at the soldier's full normal aim bonus and are a good way to catch enemies exposed and out in the open. After the squad is revealed, overwatch shots take an aim penalty, but that first shot coming out of concealment is free so by all means, enjoy yourself. It's not necessarily the best course of action though. In the early game your soldiers tend to have absolute poo poo aim, as you've seen, and sometimes miss even those really easy shots. Overwatching also consumes all of your actions for the rest of the turn, so if you overwatch with all your guys, you will attack and then they immediately get to counterattack. Not overwatching lets you attempt to go for flanking movements, use items, et cetera, but this also has some dangers: enemies generally are not dumb and do not scatter to easily-flanked positions, and they'll always scramble into cover when revealed if they can possibly help it. There's also always the ever-present risk that attempting a flank will accidentally have you stumbling upon another pod and winding up with twice the enemies to deal with, which is pretty horribly bad. The best course of action is probably, usually going to be some combination of the two. If you have a REALLY good firing position and are confident in the strength of your guns and aim of your guys, then just go ahead and overwatch the gently caress out of them. Otherwise, you will probably want to do something like have your highest-aim guys overwatch, while your rangers / assaults / shinobi stand by to immedaitely try and flank the enemy after breaking concealment, and your lower aim guys (or just guys with useful gadgets) stand by to maybe throw a grenade or two. Generally speaking, I would say to try and have at least one guy with a flashbang or smoke grenade standing by just in case things go poorly in the initial ambush.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:36
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Bremen posted:If you mean a conceal ambush, then leaving someone exposed is dangerous; enemies have a chance to just shoot someone they spot on their turn instead of moving to cover. Ah yeah sorry to be clear I meant making the best of full squad concealment. Thanks for the explanation. So it sounds like when a patrol gets aggro'd, it gets a "scramble" turn to make movements only, and then you finish your turn, and then it begins it's first turn? It's starting to sound like I should just get everyone as close to the patrol as possible, and then either let them get spotted, so I get a full turn, or just attack on my first action (so they get spotted, patrol scrambles, and I kill them with my entire remaining turn)? The game seemed to imply overwatch was the hot thing for ambushes. Is it more of a covering fire/defensive thing than a strong ambush tool?
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Mar 1, 2017 21:41
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mellowjournalism posted:Ah yeah sorry to be clear I meant making the best of full squad concealment. Thanks for the explanation. So it sounds like when a patrol gets aggro'd, it gets a "scramble" turn to make movements only, and then you finish your turn, and then it begins it's first turn? The advantage of an overwatch ambush is the overwatchers get a shot when the enemy isn't in cover. So it really depends on what you're losing by not having an action for them; if they're just a rookie with a rifle, I find it's usually best to overwatch, but if they have a shotgun and can get a good flank, or abilities to fire more than once in a turn, it can be better to wait. Also, since the enemies are usually all clumped together it can be useful to break concealment by tossing a grenade into the middle of the group. Either frag or flashbang.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:45
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Backhand posted:Overwatch shots on an ambush (that is, an overwatch shot taken immediately after the squad breaks concealment) happen at the soldier's full normal aim bonus and are a good way to catch enemies exposed and out in the open. After the squad is revealed, overwatch shots take an aim penalty, but that first shot coming out of concealment is free so by all means, enjoy yourself. Ok so the whole time I've been setting up an entire squad on overwatch, and then having the last guy take an actual shot to start the ambush (and break concealment)...all those overwatch shots got zero bonuses? That explains a lot. I'm still not clear on what you mean. Do you mean an overwatch shot triggered by being spotted?
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Mar 1, 2017 21:47
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No, all those shots will have no penalty. It's all the overwatch shots on subsequent turns that are penalized.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:54
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Huh. So how come they aren't nailing the 100% or whatever shots I had set up for them when I hit 'overwatch'?Bremen posted:The advantage of an overwatch ambush is the overwatchers get a shot when the enemy isn't in cover. So it really depends on what you're losing by not having an action for them; if they're just a rookie with a rifle, I find it's usually best to overwatch, but if they have a shotgun and can get a good flank, or abilities to fire more than once in a turn, it can be better to wait. Alright, I get it, and I think I'll probably end using overwatch when I'm pressed for time. If there's no turn counter and I can set up a perfect ambush, I probably get in close so they can't scramble far enough from my attacks. Yeah I opened a few ambushes with grenades. It's tricky because then I got caught pants down by this insane viper king at the end of a mission with no ordnance left and they all died. Another time I opened with a frost bomb and my entire squad on overwatch just...sat there. 
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Mar 1, 2017 21:58
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edit: doublepost
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Mar 1, 2017 21:59
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mellowjournalism posted:Ok so the whole time I've been setting up an entire squad on overwatch, and then having the last guy take an actual shot to start the ambush (and break concealment)...all those overwatch shots got zero bonuses? That explains a lot. If you overwatch while the soldier is concealed (it will say something like "Overwatch - Concealed") then the overwatch has no penalty. You get the penalty only if you overwatch on a soldier that isn't concealed at the time you start the overwatch. mellowjournalism posted:Alright, I get it, and I think I'll probably end using overwatch when I'm pressed for time. If there's no turn counter and I can set up a perfect ambush, I probably get in close so they can't scramble far enough from my attacks. Ah. Yeah, the frost bomb keeps enemies from moving, and it's moving that triggers the overwatch. The Viper King is from the DLC and pretty nasty if you aren't prepared for him.
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Mar 1, 2017 22:00
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let me try to put it this way: overwatch is an ability that grants a free shot if someone moves in your LOS. this ability will remain in effect unless your soldier PERSONALLY is affected by some sort of damage or stun. it lasts until the beginning of your side's next turn. under normal circumstances, this shot is taken at a -20 Aim penalty. while your squad is in concealment, instead of using the normal overwatch ability, you use overwatch (hidden) instead. this functions precisely like the normal overwatch in that only damage or stunning will cancel it before it naturally expires at the beginning of your next turn. the only difference is that the shot allowed to you by overwatch (hidden) is not taken at a -20 Aim penalty. it is instead given to you with no penalty.
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Mar 1, 2017 22:01
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Ok then I can only assume that the game decided to move the furthest alien first, so all my guys forwent their perfect 100% shots for 30% shots on some rear end in a top hat in the back. gently caress overwatch ambushes lmao
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Mar 1, 2017 22:07
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mellowjournalism posted:Huh. So how come they aren't nailing the 100% or whatever shots I had set up for them when I hit 'overwatch'? The alien rulers cheat like crazy, to the point where even a lot of veterans don't like the way they work. They are definitely too much for you if you're still learning the mechanics. However, due to some rear end-backwards design, NOT encountering them requires you to either enable the DLC at campaign startup and then just never do the first mission where they are introduced, or uninstall the DLC entirely. If you don't enable the DLC when you start the campaign, they show up anyway, just without a mission introducing them. It's pretty dumb.
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Mar 1, 2017 22:14
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| # ? May 10, 2024 03:44 |
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Toebone posted:Are the DLCs worth picking up? Depends on if you want MEC-lites or moderately bullshit special extra bossfights that randomly appear in missions.
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Mar 1, 2017 22:23
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