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Vib Rib posted:Wasn't that also due to how promotions work? If you just kept the same squad of 10 or so alive you'd never get higher ranked soldiers? My memory is fuzzy but I seem to remember there had to be a number of new recruits for promotions to happen, because I did savescum the original around the time that TFTD came out, and I remember getting almost no promotions despite my squad getting flawless missions one after another. It had a lot to do with any breaching action being an utter blood bath early game, especially if you were trying to take things like power cores intact. That and the need to have like 50+ dudes to garrison your fighter bases spread across the world. The initial scarcity of upgraded gear would also leave you giving your higher ranked dudes the best equipment while your Rookies and Squaddies will still be using mostly default poo poo. By the time you can start equipping predator armor and laser weapons on everyone is around the time your casualties start to drop off significantly. At least until you have level up a whole new crop of dudes once you discover psi and find out 2/3rd of your guys are now completely useless for anything but live capture and mind control bait 
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Jun 15, 2017 03:58
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Captain Gordon posted:Was it mentioned how the new expansion (hella excited for it) will interact with others? Not exactly looking forward to a mission that has alien rulers + chosen + lost + advent/aliens. Sparks get buffed in the HP/Armor and AIM departments and innately modifiable weapons like normal soldiers so now they're actually walking tanks and are more on par with Mecs. Rulers got nerfed so they only trigger on damage/actions done within their LOS. Reloading no longer gives them a free turn. They also all go to individual facilities on the map and are quite content to sit in their pads and deal with the nightmares of a childhood under Vahlen on their own until XCOM kicks in the door, only then do they go a-hunting. Rulers and Chosen are mutually exclusive and cannot show up in the same mission.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:00
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Bolow posted:I mean the best character I ever had in OG XCOM survived a failed terror mission by pure dumb luck and rode back to base unconscious while the rest of the platoon was liquefied from a blaster bomb that flew up the ramp inside the skyranger. He eventually became a god tier psi soldier who a mind controlled ethereals and flayed aliens minds apart. I like to think the traumatic brain injury and horror of being trapped for 12hours with the slurry that used to be friends caused him to just hulk the gently caress out The last game of old X-COM that I played. The very first mission of the campaign. The first guy out of the Skyranger, during the first turn, spots the very first alien ever seen by an XCOM operative. The alien fires the very first shot of the war, hits him square in the face, guy is miraculously unharmed. Guy keeps trucking along while old companions and rookies alike keep falling around him, and by the time I quit playing he has like four times the amount of missions compared to the next most veteran guy alive. Actually I think I'm gonna fire up either OpenXcom or Xenonauts while waiting for this expansion.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:11
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Bolow posted:Shen I'm declaring Martian Law! Want a Sparks unit that yells POWER VACUUM when superior officers get killed
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Jun 15, 2017 04:14
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I want to like Xenonauts but it feels so lifeless. To sound like a pretentious fuckhead, game aint got no soul of its own.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:15
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Bogart posted:Hey buds. Here's the list of mods I run, put in a Collection for your pleasure. They all work pretty well together. Tended toward adding content in lieu of changing the old (though I did beef up Rangers and make Scientists a little more useful). New classes, more options, idle suppression, evac all, Spark Pugilists, and Random Appearance all make an appearance. Suggestions appreciated. pay attention to bogart
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Jun 15, 2017 04:16
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Everything will run, I'm 90% sure.
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Am I mis-remembering or wasn't the idea that the majority of Aliens and I guess most Advent (since some early ones appear to have gotten away) were basically automatons at this point outside of combat instinct and fight or flight responses thanks to a combination of chemical lobotomization and and the overwhelming control of the Ethereal's psionic network? And this was basically a thing going back to EU? Like, you wouldn't be able to magically make a muton like you after all was said and done, because it was no longer a sapient individual at the end of the day and was basically running on an incredibly aggressive autopilot once you took the Ethereals or Elders or whatever out of the equation. Did I accidentally make something up after the fact? Because I thought this was sort of an established thing in the series. EDIT: Bolow posted:I want to like Xenonauts but it feels so lifeless. To sound like a pretentious fuckhead, game aint got no soul of its own. Xenonaut's soul rests entirely in it's Head Scientist's dialogue. But no, for real, this is a valid criticism and if you don't dig the ultra-oppressive Cold War atmosphere on it's own merits, there's not a whole lot there to keep you invested.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:20
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Mutons, at least, specifically had the suggestions of a culture thanks to scarification and tribal stuff. Stuff like floaters, yeah, they were almost entirely brain dead.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:22
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Hey, uh. A class mod (Infantry Class) that I was using in my current campaign got deleted. Would anyone happen to have a backup of it handy? Mod # 625497769 on the Workshop.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:24
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Psycho Landlord posted:Xenonaut's soul rests entirely in it's Head Scientist's dialogue. I love the hell out of Cold War stuff but the Aliens feel so, I guess bland? The aerial combat gets tiresome real quick since auto-resolve will ruin your day more often than not as well.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:26
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Bolow posted:I want to like Xenonauts but it feels so lifeless. To sound like a pretentious fuckhead, game aint got no soul of its own. A) How far have you gotten? B) Have you tried "more explosives" C) Or using the (M)elee key to have your soldiers beat alien greys unconscious like they were minorities found with an ounce of pot? D) Or ultimately read the science logs? Those things are loving golden. Seriously, best Science Log I got was the Live How did I get an unconscious Reaper? It ran out of move trying to eat my rocket-soldier...so I panicked and had him beat the Reaper senseless with his bazooka. I will admit the aliens are very much copy pasted from the XCOM games with a find-replace done for Sectoid-Ceasean. However it does have its own charm in the lore...and the ability to bring actual tanks to the battle which current XCOM doesn't allow. It also has some interesting twists in that it's the only XCOM-like where humanity very much does NOT get psionics, we're not gifted with that power. HOWEVER...we're gifted with the power of blowing poo poo up really good and figure out how to make even better weapons than the aliens. Alkydere fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Jun 15, 2017 |
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Jun 15, 2017 04:27
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IIRC I got to the second tier level of armor/weapons and I was researching a more advanced plane, and then XCOM 2 came out and I never really bothered to go back
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Jun 15, 2017 04:28
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Sounds like you were getting to the point where the air game was about to get less tedious if you were getting new planes up. As said, it has its charm, and its flaws. I rather liked it but I won't blame you if you don't feel like going back. It's entire niche was basically calling itself "Classic XCOM but with a modern/non-poo poo UI and graphics! But not because we don't have access to the IP and we're just some indy developers!" and I think it did that reasonably well.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:31
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I mean I am very fond of Xenonauts - I made the old thread for it and all - but I won't deny that the battlescape's audiovisual presentation is pretty bland (except for the fantastically creepy night mission ambience). Personally I have no trouble overlooking that and appreciating that the game underneath is every bit as magnificent a bastard as the original, but I can't in good conscience fault anyone for getting turned off by it.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:45
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I don't remember there being any implication that the aliens were controlled via psionics in EU. What the game did tell you was that the ethereals had "uplifted" each species in an attempt to make them the perfect vessels for pisonic power. Each one failed to meet their standards though for different reasons. So they instead used them as soldiers in their conquests of other planets. That doesn't mean they had to be under the psionic control of the Ethereals though, they could of just been forced into service because they had been completely crushed. The Psionic Network sounds like something setup in XCom 2 entirely to improve the effectiveness of the vast Advent force. If it had been around in Xcom 1 it likely would of been a target of your research there. Bogart posted:Mutons, at least, specifically had the suggestions of a culture thanks to scarification and tribal stuff. Stuff like floaters, yeah, they were almost entirely brain dead. Their autopsy notes mention that they appear to have ritual scars and tattoos, a remnant of their warrior culture from before being conquered. The muton hybrids in Xcom 2 still have those. So they most have a significant degree of mental freedom to indulge in a cultural tradition.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:47
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Bogart posted:Mutons, at least, specifically had the suggestions of a culture thanks to scarification and tribal stuff. Stuff like floaters, yeah, they were almost entirely brain dead. Thin Men/Vipers are also intelligent in some major way: they were the ayys that could speak and understand Earth languages as noted in the Thin Man interrogation. (There's even cut content for MOR BALATEN style lines for Vipers in addition to their standard combat hisses.) There's also cut localization for XCOM 2's multiplayer indicating Berserkers are female Mutons who prove themselves into combat to the point they get the honour of becoming Berserkers. Would fit with the Berserker interrogation having Vahlen go "we had to do impromptu brain surgery to calm them down long enough to do an interrogation", compared to the Floater interrogation being the one to have Vahlen question how intelligent they are.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:56
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I might just be collating the Floater autopsy with literally everything else then. Still, given how much effort the games go to point out that nearly every alien species is super heavily modified/straight up clones, and I doubt people humanity is capable of (much less willing to, after everything that's happened) starting up the sort of infrastructure necessary to keep those species going, I'm not sure Alien defectors are terribly likely at the end of the day. And that's even assuming they're capable of it, since being intelligent doesn't necessarily preclude "We also hosed around in your brains so you're undyingly loyal at all times. Love, the Ethereals." That said though, I would love an XCOM Berserker 
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Jun 15, 2017 05:11
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Canuck-Errant posted:Hey, uh. A class mod (Infantry Class) that I was using in my current campaign got deleted. Would anyone happen to have a backup of it handy? http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632648555 Not this?
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Jun 15, 2017 07:14
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Nope, not that one. I know it's specifically 625497769 because I have an empty folder for it in the XCOM 2 mods directory and because it's listed as deleted on the Workshop. :/
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Jun 15, 2017 07:28
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Random question: does anybody have an edited EU ini (or guide to ini modding) for a difficulty that doesn't have any bonuses for the player or the aliens? I find normal too easy and I suck at classic, I kind of want to try a difficulty where the game isn't cheating in anyone's favour.
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Jun 15, 2017 09:02
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mk3 engineers are absolute fuckers
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Jun 15, 2017 09:23
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What was a floater before it became a floater? They have arms, so I doubt they were bird-people. Something like a frog, so the transition from giant hops to flying was a pretty easy concept to grasp for them? Can you teach a lobotomized rage-monkey new tricks?
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Jun 15, 2017 10:13
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jfood posted:What was a floater before it became a floater? They have arms, so I doubt they were bird-people. Something like a frog, so the transition from giant hops to flying was a pretty easy concept to grasp for them? Can you teach a lobotomized rage-monkey new tricks? From what I can remember the game implies that they are derived from Mutons. The fact that their heads looks similar (or at least has a similar texture) lends credence to this.
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Jun 15, 2017 10:50
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Parenthesis posted:From what I can remember the game implies that they are derived from Mutons. The fact that their heads looks similar (or at least has a similar texture) lends credence to this. I think the Muton autopsy even directly states "Hey yo we think these are what Floaters would look like if the aliens hadn't decided to channel SHODAN on them."
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Jun 15, 2017 10:55
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I started another EW game on Normal this time, was utterly cautious always remaining in full cover and I still got a sniper headshotted from across the map. gently caress this, I'm save scumming.
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Jun 15, 2017 10:59
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I just hope Vahlen and/or Big Sky are in the expansion.
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Jun 15, 2017 11:06
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By 'utterly cautious' do you mean you sat there and traded shots with them and assumed that being in cover meant you can't possibly be hit? When you're fighting (I'm guessing) thin men?
Fangz fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Jun 15, 2017 |
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Jun 15, 2017 11:09
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Psycho Landlord posted:I think the Muton autopsy even directly states "Hey yo we think these are what Floaters would look like if the aliens hadn't decided to channel SHODAN on them." Also the Uber Ethereal in Avenger explicitly says becoming a floater is a punishment for mutons. gently caress up, space orc, and you get turned into a floater.
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Jun 15, 2017 12:24
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Some of the guys in the alien defector faction should be thin men and EU sectoids.
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Jun 15, 2017 13:31
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I'd love a Mr Wibbles mod but he looks like a Smol Sectoid 
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Jun 15, 2017 13:59
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AceOfFlames posted:I started another EW game on Normal this time, was utterly cautious always remaining in full cover and I still got a sniper headshotted from across the map.
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Jun 15, 2017 14:18
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Thinking about it more I'm glad that the Chosen are more about disabling and stealing your troops because the rescue missions where the goal is to save your captured buddies are great. My last campaign a guy got stunned a turn before evac. I had to leave him or lose the whole squad. He managed to survive a whole turn of getting shot in the face, and everyone else was critically injured due to some very tragic los bugs (please fix this Firaxis). I hired a replacement merc and moved on. Eventually the rescue VIP mission pops up and it was my guy! The squad that left him behind busted him out, but he still had to heal up. Another mission went south (no deaths) so the A-team was again in medbay, and oh poo poo, it's the chryssalid retaliation mission! But everyone's in the medbay! Everyone but a low-level guy, four rookies, and my rescued soldier who just got out. Those loving rookies got their rear end beat but they held the line, no fatalities and almost no civilian deaths, despite a sniper getting hit by a faceless and falling through a building and a chryssalid trying its hardest to eat the rescued guy. That said they really loving need to fix the los on building parts.
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Jun 15, 2017 14:25
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Ravenfood posted:Utterly cautious means nothing but overwatch creep and LoS fuckery. But that's boring. Also, so what? Your sniper died. There will be more. Roll with it, its more fun.
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Jun 15, 2017 14:41
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RBA Starblade posted:Some of the guys in the alien defector faction should be thin men and EU sectoids. Also lobstermen
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Jun 15, 2017 15:03
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Eagerly anticipating the release of the expansion because goons finally shut up about LW
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Jun 15, 2017 15:13
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Vib Rib posted:I'm pretty sure they did? I was definitely under the impression all the aliens in EU were under the thrall of the Ethereals, even then. The available ranks were determined by the number of soldiers you had world wide. Rank was also divorced from 'level' in the traditional sense. A Rookie will always eventually be promoted to Squaddie if they survive, but Squaddies continue to improve as they gain experience and do things, even if they're never promoted. I'm pretty sure the number of available slots increased with soldiers, so if you had 8, you'd have a Sergeant slot (or whatever, I'm making this up on the fly), but if you had 16, you'd have 2 Sergeant slots and a Lieutenant slot. Eventually you'd have a Commander slot when the organization got big enough, but there was only ever one of those. I believe rank had some effect on morale during missions and seeing a senior officer or NCO get killed increased panic more than a rookie getting blown away. It's been a while since I last played and the rank system was never explained very well. AbsolutelySane fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Jun 15, 2017 |
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Jun 15, 2017 15:26
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AceOfFlames posted:I started another EW game on Normal this time, was utterly cautious always remaining in full cover and I still got a sniper headshotted from across the map. Vib Rib posted:Just to add, I see lots of posters on multiple sites as well as various LPers add the qualifier "from across the map" but (especially in EU) most weapons don't have a range falloff other than their max. So not counting the close range bonus, a shot from a moderate distance and a shot from an extreme distance have the same chance to hit. How exactly is the AI even placing shots 'from across the map' in the first place? Barring an exalt sniper, they're not actually allowed to place a shot beyond the shooter's normal LOS limits. Rifles have minor accuracy falloff for shooting at edge of LoS, but that's hardly something I'd trust to keep my men alive...
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Jun 15, 2017 15:31
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Mans posted:Eagerly anticipating the release of the expansion because goons finally shut up about LW lw good. suck my balls
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Jun 15, 2017 15:48
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It's like what xcom would have been if it had 500% more autism
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Jun 15, 2017 15:54
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RBA Starblade posted:Some of the guys in the alien defector faction should be thin men and EU sectoids. Oh come off it, we all know that all anyone wants are allied, romanceable snake tits.
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Jun 15, 2017 16:10
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