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It's also possible to avoid the rulers by never starting the mission that introduces them (unfortunately our LPers weren't informed of this in time), which means you can just play with the toys and never fight a boss if you prefer.
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Mar 6, 2019 07:14
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Bremen posted:It's also possible to avoid the rulers by never starting the mission that introduces them (unfortunately our LPers weren't informed of this in time), which means you can just play with the toys and never fight a boss if you prefer. I believe that if you have the mission enabled you don't get the new weapons until you complete that mission. On the other hand, I think it gives them to you for free instead of a cost. It's worse in the xpac where they require research and foundry projects.
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Mar 6, 2019 08:22
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Qrr posted:I believe that if you have the mission enabled you don't get the new weapons until you complete that mission. On the other hand, I think it gives them to you for free instead of a cost. Nah, there's a preliminary scan site that just gives you the weapons for free and sets up the real mission. That said, you can't upgrade the free weapons until you do the mission and unleash the rulers. I love the rulers myself; it's fun to alpha strike something with that much hp into running away before it can do much.
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Mar 6, 2019 08:32
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It should also be noted we haven't seen the full extent of alien ruler dickery yet; they've managed to scare it off really fast. Plus it's nowhere near the worst one; Archon King and his instahit missile barrage can go gently caress straight off.
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Mar 6, 2019 10:04
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anilEhilated posted:It should also be noted we haven't seen the full extent of alien ruler dickery yet; they've managed to scare it off really fast. Plus it's nowhere near the worst one; Archon King and his instahit missile barrage can go gently caress straight off. Yeah that guy is the loving worst teamkiller. archons overall are the worst enemies to fight in my opinion
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Mar 6, 2019 10:40
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Mar 7, 2019 00:13
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I'm so glad you finally got the shard gun because the sound it makes tickles my brain in the best way 
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Mar 7, 2019 00:26
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Read your debuffs!
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Mar 7, 2019 01:21
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I expect something to go horribly wrong on this coming mission, I just don't know what.
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Mar 7, 2019 01:23
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My word, that last turn. Incredibly tense viewing. Very well played!
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Mar 7, 2019 01:32
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The frost grenade can go in the grenade slot if you want, though it looks like you found that out during deployment. Also, it's not a huge deal but it kind of bugs me every time, but you can have Shen build new equipment from the mission deployment screen. There's a button marked "build items." Also the advantage of the ionic axe is you can throw it *and* fire the shotgun in the same turn.
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Mar 7, 2019 01:33
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Bremen posted:The frost grenade can go in the grenade slot if you want, though it looks like you found that out during deployment. Basically better sword.
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Mar 7, 2019 02:35
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That was quite the rollercoaster of emotions - she can't make it, we can skulljack, she still can't make it, and then you realized you can heal the poison! And the game doesn't tell you this but you can see what debuffs do by mousing over the little red down arrow in the bottom left by the rank marker.
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Mar 7, 2019 05:45
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Whew, nothing like a minimally-guided blind LP with at least decent tactical chops to demonstrate XCOM as a razor-edged dance with death, loss, and failure.
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Mar 7, 2019 07:47
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
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Mar 7, 2019 08:41
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You guys really are having the purest XCOM experience, going from “what the gently caress, this is impossible” to “good god, we’re technically winning but everyone’s dying constantly” to “ok... kinda getting the hang of this” and on to smug satisfaction to be carrying around a loving rail gun and wasting aliens with it. The early game really is brutal but that’s also where a lot of the satisfaction of making it out of the early game comes from.
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Mar 7, 2019 10:40
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And then it moves straight to "what is the point of having ranged weapons on Rangers" and the irony becomes overwhelming. That being said, I think you will find out the answer to that question within a couple missions at most.
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Mar 7, 2019 11:20
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I'm not going to lie. I'm giddy with excitement over what's going to happen next episode.
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Mar 7, 2019 17:14
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Yeah me too because I really think you're acing the missions. Impressed. The game will gently caress you up more times though! Also would love to read your reasoning re utility items and which ones are good or not!
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Mar 7, 2019 18:57
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Natural 20 posted:I'm not going to lie. Is this foreshadowing because you’ve played it, or are you just psyched up to take on a serious mission?
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Mar 7, 2019 19:10
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Slight correction at the end of the video: You've been sleeping on at least one utility item. Well done on figuring out the end of that mission!
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Mar 7, 2019 19:22
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Lprsti99 posted:Slight correction at the end of the video: You've been sleeping on at least one utility item. Yeah the end of the mission with the poison. I wouldn’t have figured it out myself probably. flashbang and mimic is so good
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Mar 7, 2019 19:49
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Akratic Method posted:Is this foreshadowing because you’ve played it, or are you just psyched up to take on a serious mission? As a rule we've played everything that airs on the Sunday prior. Affi posted:Yeah me too because I really think you're acing the missions. Impressed. I have to consider utility items in the context of other items. Specifically the frost grenade which is to me, trivially the best item in the game since it often will just kill a pack when used. The flashbang, mimic beacon and smoke grenades are all bad to me. When the calculus was "do you want more damage" against them I went in favour of more damage and now that we're using frost grenades the difference is even more stark. They potentially remove a set of effective alien actions where for the frost grenade that's guaranteed. My deep suspicion is that flashbang grenades have some sort of resident evil 4 property where they're super effective against sectoids but i'm not willing to nerf the team to test it. The mindshield has its place in enabling a willpower promotion, but one is more than enough. The battle scanner isn't very good because its utility is emulated both by shadow ranger and by hacker specialist. The medkit is good because it has an entire class that plays around it. Dragon rounds and acid grenades are excellent.
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Mar 7, 2019 20:12
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I see something missing from your detailed breakdown 
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Mar 7, 2019 20:47
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I feel like the strict limit on soldier inventory slots means that you can’t afford to not bring these kill-confirm items, since leaving an enemy alive with 1 hp vs them being dead can cause a soldier to be injured for, like, a month Which is incidentally really stupid and the injury system in this game seems utterly arbitrary, not even in a fun way
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Mar 7, 2019 21:03
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That Italian Guy posted:I see something missing from your detailed breakdown Oh body armour? The game is based around alpha striking as hard as you physically can. Defense is nice but i'm never taking it over guaranteed damage and terrain manipulation.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:10
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GeneX posted:I feel like the strict limit on soldier inventory slots means that you can’t afford to not bring these kill-confirm items, since leaving an enemy alive with 1 hp vs them being dead can cause a soldier to be injured for, like, a month Mimic tricks every activated enemy to shoot at it for one turn. It saves your life if you activate the wrong pod or you need to run away or if you just want to not take damage for a round. And it has enough health to take at least 2-3 shots no matter the enemy type. But you’re right kill confirm items are awesome and so is the next level or armor that gives you one extra slot.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:11
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Affi posted:Mimic tricks every activated enemy to shoot at it for one turn. It saves your life if you activate the wrong pod or you need to run away or if you just want to not take damage for a round. And it has enough health to take at least 2-3 shots no matter the enemy type. Wait, mimic baits multiple shots? That’s ridiculously good, goddamn.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:23
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just caught up with this lp, watching you guys play is fun! thanks for sharing your struggle with the internetGeneX posted:Wait, mimic baits multiple shots? That’s ridiculously good, goddamn. re: this dumb thing everyone's talking about it lasts for one turn or until it runs out of health, whichever happens first.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:30
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Natural 20 posted:Oh body armour? Reading this I'm actually a bit worried that you don't know that the Armor Upgrade isn't a utility slot item, it improves your base armor, giving your soldiers more health and utility item slots I haven't watched the most recent episode yet so maybe you've touched on it.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:47
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GeneX posted:I feel like the strict limit on soldier inventory slots means that you can’t afford to not bring these kill-confirm items, since leaving an enemy alive with 1 hp vs them being dead can cause a soldier to be injured for, like, a month The injury system adds a few things, I think. In many ways the game is a 'this isn't ideal but...' simulator, with injuries being one way this comes about. You may think your ideal squad is two grenadiers, two specialists, a ranger and a sharpshooter. Ok your two grenadiers got injured, now who do you bring? How are you going to change your tactics? Another thing is tension. If you could just yolo yourself into the aliens faces treating your soldier's health as ablative armour rather than something with long term consequence then the atmosphere of the game would be very different. On the subject of kill-confirm items: Firstly you're largely right, at least in the first half of a campaign. As you get better armour and better skills, a grenade for every man no longer feels as important. Flashbangs are situationally great but like many things this is never well communicated. They disable enemy special abilities (like the codex clone ability), can free soldiers from mind control and disable overwatch, all the while reducing enemy aim and mobility. As discussed Mimic beacons are amazing, even more so on harder difficulties. Some ammo types are excellent such as blue screen rounds, which do extra damage to mechanical enemies. But I've yet to see a reason to build any of the item-slot armours and several of the grenade and ammo types are sub-optimal.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:57
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IcePhoenix posted:Reading this I'm actually a bit worried that you don't know that the Armor Upgrade isn't a utility slot item, it improves your base armor, giving your soldiers more health and utility item slots In the video they’re talking about the nanoscale vest, and correctly noting that it occupies an inventory slot for a small HP bonus. No idea whether they get that plated armor research leads to a squad upgrade. I think yes but hey I’ll spoil this just in case there’s ignorance to spoil on their part.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:59
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Nat is broadly correct to prioritise offense over defense, especially when it comes to those measly nanovests taking up a whole item slot. But man, mimic beacons are loving amazing how does he not see it? Prolly cause he's spoiled on frost bombsGeneX posted:I feel like the strict limit on soldier inventory slots means that you can’t afford to not bring these kill-confirm items, since leaving an enemy alive with 1 hp vs them being dead can cause a soldier to be injured for, like, a month I like the way the limited inventories make each item such a meaningful decision. When you get an extra item slot later it feels like such a huge deal. The injury system is cruel but hardly arbitrary,  you get hit, you go on the bench, you get hit harder, you're benched longer! If you heal someone up in the field, getting their hp back up will help protect them from getting picked off now at low hp in the short term. But in the long term, the damage has still been done and it doesn't actually undo the recovery time required after the mission.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:59
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Fwoderwick posted:On the subject of kill-confirm items: Oh yeah one other nice thing about the flashbang is it has a bigger range. When a grenadier launches one instead of just throwing it by hand, it has an even bigger range. So if you got yourself facing a whole bunch of enemies, or just two who are pretty far apart, you can launch one of those puppies and often debuff the whole map.
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Mar 7, 2019 22:16
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Bifauxnen posted:Nat is broadly correct to prioritise offense over defense, especially when it comes to those measly nanovests taking up a whole item slot. But man, mimic beacons are loving amazing how does he not see it? Prolly cause he's spoiled on frost bombs I'm not talking about the nanovests though, I'm talking about the plated armor he skipped over when assigning research recently
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Mar 7, 2019 22:30
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IcePhoenix posted:I'm not talking about the nanovests though, I'm talking about the plated armor he skipped over when assigning research recently Nah he's actually skipping it because it takes a long time to research. Which is true, and honestly as long as he gets it next its going to be fiiiine.
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Mar 7, 2019 22:35
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Bifauxnen posted:
I meant more that the actual time spent out seems pretty arbitrary, and in a game where you're so pressed to get things done at the same time, 2 extra days out can probably make a big difference. Also that it makes the only strategy that's really viable killing or disabling everything in one turn, since getting hit at all is such a problem.
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Mar 7, 2019 22:48
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GeneX posted:I meant more that the actual time spent out seems pretty arbitrary, and in a game where you're so pressed to get things done at the same time, 2 extra days out can probably make a big difference. Also that it makes the only strategy that's really viable killing or disabling everything in one turn, since getting hit at all is such a problem. It's not arbitrary, it's based on the amount of damage the soldier took, though I never bothered to look up the actual calculation. And it's there to make sure people diversify their portfolios and recruit enough people for at least two squads.
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Mar 7, 2019 22:57
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Natural 20 posted:Oh body armour? I can't really point it out without being super obvious, but I'll repeat there is one item that you have not built yet that is so broken a lot of people self limit themselves to 1-per mission to avoid spoiling the fun at normal difficulty level.
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Mar 7, 2019 23:00
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If nothing else I want to give thanks to this thread for all the gameplay advice I've been getting. It's made my first playthrough a lot easier.
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Mar 7, 2019 23:12
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