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I just watched my Templar catch a sectopod's beam and throw it back in it's face. This is the best turn based, mad max'd, anime'd, super powered, sci-fi tactical milsim of all time.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:22
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| # ? May 21, 2024 10:40 |
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Oh man.... I feel like I'm really gutting it out on the tactical layer but the strategic is kicking my rear end. I dunno if its gotten harder, or I'm just getting obscenely lovely luck, but this campaign has been one wreck after another. The game gives me one engineer at the start, then refuses to give me a single one more for like a month. Then a Dark Event cuts my monthly income in half. (Actually, is this thing bugged or something? I don't have that Second Wave enabled for permanent Dark Events, but I'd swear my income never got even halfway decent even with a good 5 regions under my control now.) Then another dark event shuts down the black market so I can't sell anything. It only JUST now came back online actually - that motherfucker stays gone for what feels like forever, and even when it does show back up you need to do the scanning event to unlock it again. The real problem throughout all of this is the doom clock. Learning that the Black Site now only reduces the counter by 1 was a nasty disappointment, and by freakishly bad luck every single alien facility they've built has been on the opposite loving side of the globe from me; I started in Russia, and all of the facilities wound up being in western Europe, South America, or North America. I'd be happy to go fight Snake Dick to take the clock down a few pegs, but I can't GET to him. I've heard people say there are also Covert Ops that can reduce the doom clock, but again.... maybe it's just pure bad luck, but Ive never seen that Op come up. Right now the final two week countdown has started, and I estimate I should just barely have enough time (like, by a couple of days) to make contact in South America and attack Snake Dick before it expires.... assuming nothing goes wrong. poo poo is stressful. Again, I'm winning my battles.... but I am just perpetually resource-starved and can't tech up or build out the Avenger like I desperately need to. EDIT: On an unrelated note, loving the Templar. She doesn't have the utility of the Reaper, but all that mobility is a thing of beauty. She's like a blade ranger that isn't automatically hosed by an accidental pod activation or unlikely enemy survival. Backhand fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Sep 1, 2017 |
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Sep 1, 2017 04:27
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Aw man, on the new supply mission type where you steal individual crates, you don't get any resources unless you complete the mission. I stole 3 crates and had to evac but got nothing. Now I have to spend intel on alloys to get mag weapons. lovely!
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Sep 1, 2017 04:27
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I wonder if the permanent dark events option means the black market closes down forever.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:28
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Backhand posted:Oh man.... I feel like I'm really gutting it out on the tactical layer but the strategic is kicking my rear end. I dunno if its gotten harder, or I'm just getting obscenely lovely luck, but this campaign has been one wreck after another. The game gives me one engineer at the start, then refuses to give me a single one more for like a month. Then a Dark Event cuts my monthly income in half. (Actually, is this thing bugged or something? I don't have that Second Wave enabled for permanent Dark Events, but I'd swear my income never got even halfway decent even with a good 5 regions under my control now.) Then another dark event shuts down the black market so I can't sell anything. It only JUST now came back online actually - that motherfucker stays gone for what feels like forever, and even when it does show back up you need to do the scanning event to unlock it again. I, uhh, feel like I should tell you that fighting the chosen does not reduce the avatar project.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:29
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Basic Chunnel posted:It should be obvious why the resistance hangs out in Lost cities. It's like any rebel group hanging out in caves or mountains or where the weather sucks. You hide where the cops hesitate to go. Well yeah, that goes for the Reapers, but the flavour has ADVENT and Resistance sending troops and supplies in rather than establishing cordons. That's the bit that doesn't get particularly explained.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:30
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The heck is going on here, just got to the first chosen encounter with the assassin, and I get they have random traits but she can move across the entire map, knock out a dude, then go all the way back to somewhere impossible to hit. Combined with the can't be hit by overwatch trait, this seems impossible? Am I missing something here?
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Sep 1, 2017 04:31
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BigRed0427 posted:So is anyone pre-making characters to use? With their own backstories and histories? When someone moves past rookie they get renamed to be someone famous from history, books, video games, or movies. Then I give them a unique look to reflect that character and put them in the pool. This gives me an instant mental shorthand for who they are that the random mooks could never have. So, this game... Abe Lincoln is a sniper. Isaac Asimov and Beverly Crusher are bonded buddies. Theodore Roosevelt had a grenade launcher, a cigar, a fedora and got killed by the hunter chosen. Napoleon Bonaparte is done up in red, white, and blue, has curly hair, a cigarette dangling from his mouth and speaks French. Gunther Hermann from Deus Ex looks a lot like Duke Nukem, has cool shades and got killed cause I misclicked in iron man. Its always so nice to see all my old pals show up in a new game. The character pool is the greatest feature in games history. 
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Sep 1, 2017 04:32
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Helion posted:I, uhh, feel like I should tell you that fighting the chosen does not reduce the avatar project. The Viper King, not a Chosen. He's guarding the Avatar research facility in South America according to the tooltip.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:33
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Gotcha. Sorry, I thought that was some weird shorthand for the assassin chosen.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:34
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The Butcher posted:The heck is going on here, just got to the first chosen encounter with the assassin, and I get they have random traits but she can move across the entire map, knock out a dude, then go all the way back to somewhere impossible to hit. Combined with the can't be hit by overwatch trait, this seems impossible? Spread your squad out enough to cut down her escape paths, but not so much that you can't pick someone up out of the dazed status. From there, just wait until she leaves herself open, or hides behind a piece of cover you can destroy with a grenade. For me, she hid behind the wall of the train car on the bridge, so I just blew it open and had her wiped in one turn.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:35
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The Butcher posted:The heck is going on here, just got to the first chosen encounter with the assassin, and I get they have random traits but she can move across the entire map, knock out a dude, then go all the way back to somewhere impossible to hit. Combined with the can't be hit by overwatch trait, this seems impossible? That's not random, that's just a thing she does every turn. She doesn't actually go far into the fog; scout her out with a Reaper or battlescanner if you want to be sure. You'll take the hit, but waking your dazed soldier up won't cost an action. Then chase her down and pour the damage on.
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Sep 1, 2017 04:40
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Ok, appreciate it. Difficulty curve just shot way up for me with that bit.
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Sep 1, 2017 05:05
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The Butcher posted:Ok, appreciate it. Difficulty curve just shot way up for me with that bit. Yeah, she ended my campaign before so if it happens again I'm just doing integrated whatever and hoping I start somewhere else. 
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Sep 1, 2017 05:18
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Hunter's probably the easiest starting out. He hangs back for a while and does a big MMO 'don't stand in the marked area' thing versus a single soldier, and once he abandons that he mostly runs and shoots alternating between rifle and pistol. No big AOE daze wave, no invulnerability sphere, no invisibility, no exploding summons...
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Sep 1, 2017 05:22
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Game's fun. I enjoy using the partially-broken uniforms mod to make my redshirts into something resembling a cohesive unit: (Cosmetics are a mix of MGS Sneaksuits and Capnbub's helmets) Also this photo/poster maker is the best drat feature I never asked for 
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Sep 1, 2017 05:25
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So, Mindshields are still the sexiest things ever. It's great watching the Chosen attack a dude and still have them standing.
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Sep 1, 2017 05:38
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Normally when I'm really bad at a game I don't like it and I quit playing it. I've started and failed 5 different campaigns within the first three months since the expansion came out and I just keep right on trucking having a blast until a chosen shows up and obliterates everyone, or the reaper gets mind controlled and remote starts the everyone to death, or I never get any engineers other than the first one so I can't excavate new space and run vital functions at the same time, or whatever other dumb bullshit kills everyone in all of my games. Why do I enjoy a game that I am so absolutely abysmal at?
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Sep 1, 2017 05:41
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Chosen can show up on the black site >_< Oh and the next mission I decide to skulljack my first commander. Not only did I forget that spawns a Codex, but the Hunter made his first appearance on the same turn. Good thing he missed all his shots and got dogpiled or I could have a had a bad night. Resulting poster:  And more:     (that last one was a hacking mission with a Lost swarm - I know it's "bytes") Shumagorath fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Sep 1, 2017 |
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Sep 1, 2017 05:52
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So, I don't have permanent dark events on, but early on I got a "lost swarm can spawn in any mission" dark event. Four months later and that event is gone from the "active dark events" list but lost swarms are still spawning in every single mission, even ones with no other lost on the map. I assume this is a bug.
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Sep 1, 2017 05:54
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Shumagorath posted:Chosen can show up on the black site >_< That, uh, ended my current game! Because I took care of the bloody Assassin that showed up, but the Advent MEC and squad hosed me up afterwards.
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Sep 1, 2017 05:57
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Well, War of the Chosen dragged me right back into my XCOM addiction. Just had two Rangers getting ambushed on a Covert Ops. SitRep was the Lost being present and lowered ADVENT numbers. What resulted was tow Rangers running pell mell through a ruined city with ADVENT on their heels, never not spending two actions moving each turn, while behind them ADVENT and the Lost get tangled up with each other and a gigantic clusterfuck ensues. The only kills were two single ADVENT schmucks who got in the way and got sworded, and a pack of Lost eating point-blank shotgun blasts on the way through. Both Rangers jump on Big Sky while behind them half a dozen ADVENT are tangled up in like two dozen Lost. The whole thing was more like something out of a Jackie Chan movie than anything else. 
Magni fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Sep 1, 2017 |
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Sep 1, 2017 05:58
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Cosmic Afro posted:That, uh, ended my current game! Because I took care of the bloody Assassin that showed up, but the Advent MEC and squad hosed me up afterwards. Oh, one more PROTIP: Don't upgrade to the next weapon tier while a solider is on a covert op. Remember how I said my team I sent on an op when I hit Mag weapons still had to fight with Ballistics? Well their weapon mods also appear to have gotten stuck on their Ballistic variants rather than move up to the next tier. Luckily all I lost was a laser sight. Magni posted:Well, War of the Chosen dragged me right back into my XCOM addiction.
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Sep 1, 2017 06:12
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So scanning protocol will in fact NOT reveal where the assassin is hiding. Maybe unless you're right on top of her when you do it. Another fun fact for you guys: Just because it says they're immune to grenades, doesn't mean they're immune to grenade effects. Poisoned the assassin, but not sure how that fucks with her movement as she stood still so I could blow her cover out and shoot her in the chest. Also, tagging them with a nade if they have blast shield will not break their overwatch.
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Sep 1, 2017 06:17
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So as it turns out letting an Archon complete its pinions attack on a map with The Lost is a very bad idea and also crashed my game. Presumably due to all the Lost that spawned in...
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Sep 1, 2017 06:34
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SmallpoxJenkins posted:So scanning protocol will in fact NOT reveal where the assassin is hiding. Maybe unless you're right on top of her when you do it. If she's in the radius, it'll reveal her. At least it just worked for me? (she was ~16ish tiles away from the specialist, within dash radius) That's sort of been my go-to for dealing with the assassin. I try to estimate if it'll take her two turns or three to get to me from wherever she spawns, then pop scanning protocol. So far I've killed her twice like this without taking any damage due to having a good ambush set up.
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Sep 1, 2017 06:40
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Game owns a whole lot, but heads up: the missions that say Very Difficult are
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Sep 1, 2017 06:51
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Bladestorm owns hard as gently caress. I put everyone on Overwatch then my Templar blew our concealment by charging into the thick of an advent squad. When we were discovered and the Advent tried to run for cover, the Templar and the overwatch'd squad killed every single loving one of them.
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Sep 1, 2017 06:58
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The defense matrix is surprisingly useful against the new chosen assault on the avenger. The enemies don't rush for the avenger itself on this one, but if the terrain is flat enough they can quickly destroy the generators and the trucks once they are under squadsight. Plus eight low-chance shots at enemies all over the map per turn. Dunno if that's enough to make the building worth it, but at least it's got more opportunities to be useful now.
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Sep 1, 2017 07:12
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It took me ages to give a poo poo about my bonds but recently I started decorating my dudes to look similar to one and other and it SERIOUSLY helps me out. Duel bonded snipers are great.
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Sep 1, 2017 07:25
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Bonds and free actions are pretty busted. I feel that the most dominant strategy in the mid to late game so far is to just get either a templar or a ranger with reaper and just keep pumping them with free actions from bondmates/psi soldiers/skirmishers. There are so many ways to instakill anything once you get your squad to that point.
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Sep 1, 2017 07:35
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Infinity Gaia posted:So as it turns out letting an Archon complete its pinions attack on a map with The Lost is a very bad idea and also crashed my game. Presumably due to all the Lost that spawned in... This is hillarious and good advice. Anything involving rulers and The Lost is a bad time waiting to happen.
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Sep 1, 2017 07:41
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do i always want to negate ambush risks if the costs are low? does it auto-fail the op or cost anything else, or is it just another thing i can get money and experience from if my A-team is on it
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Sep 1, 2017 07:44
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I kinda wish the photo center was available outside the campaign like in the Propaganda center. I want to play with it with my character pool 
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Sep 1, 2017 07:46
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Verviticus posted:do i always want to negate ambush risks if the costs are low? does it auto-fail the op or cost anything else, or is it just another thing i can get money and experience from if my A-team is on it Ambushes so far for me have been missions where I have 2-3 troops and they have to leg it across the map to extraction, chased by Advent/The Lost and the Chosen, or all three.. They're not very fun and you won't get mission rewards outside of kill xp. The covert op presumably succeeds as long as you survive the ambush.
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Sep 1, 2017 07:47
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So turns out if you use the lost lure on the NPCs you need to talk to for mission objectives, the current swarm of lost including new spawns will just harmlessly swarm the poor guy.
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Sep 1, 2017 07:49
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Enemies keep getting "inflicted with Tactical Advantage" and I can't tell if it's a boon or a bane or where it's coming from.
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Sep 1, 2017 08:08
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SulphagneSocialist posted:Ambushes so far for me have been missions where I have 2-3 troops and they have to leg it across the map to extraction, chased by Advent/The Lost and the Chosen, or all three.. They're not very fun and you won't get mission rewards outside of kill xp. The covert op presumably succeeds as long as you survive the ambush. As long as you get at least one soldier out the covert op continues Ask me about multiple andromedons and their acid bombs on an ambush
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Sep 1, 2017 08:16
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Bruceski posted:Enemies keep getting "inflicted with Tactical Advantage" and I can't tell if it's a boon or a bane or where it's coming from. It's a continent bonus you have where if xcom reveals a pod, their action points are reduced by 1 for the next turn. It's pretty strong.
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Sep 1, 2017 08:52
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Sep 1, 2017 09:06
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