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Also I don't think you can evacuate from the Blacksite; it's a mission where the Evac zone is placed *for* you, and only after you achieve the objective.
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Jul 3, 2022 20:37
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The Lone Badger posted:In NuXCOM isn't that the core plotline? Humans have terrifying psychic potential. Not so much in XCOM. In XCOM 2, the Ethereals' plan is to put a huge amount of humans in a juicer to basically concentrate their latent psychic potential into new bodies for themselves.
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Jul 3, 2022 21:02
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Kanos posted:Not so much in XCOM. In XCOM 2, the Ethereals' plan is to put a huge amount of humans in a juicer to basically concentrate their latent psychic potential into new bodies for themselves. Even in the first game it's a major plot point that the whole invasion was basically to force humanity to bootstrap themselves up to their full potential so they'd be ready for the real invasion from the aliens that even the Ethereals were terrified of.
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Jul 3, 2022 21:12
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Yeah I think in XCom 1 the general plan is to assimilate humanity into a psionic slave army as part of some other interstellar war. In XCom 2 the aliens experiment with hybridization, discover that it's actually working pretty well (tougher Sectoids, obedient ADVENT troops, and the Chosen all being notable success stories), and think, "poo poo, why bother conquering these assholes when we can just harvest their genes or whatever using our weird alien pseudoscience? gently caress unlocking their potential, lets just steal it!"
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Jul 3, 2022 21:37
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BlazetheInferno posted:Also I don't think you can evacuate from the Blacksite; it's a mission where the Evac zone is placed *for* you, and only after you achieve the objective. Exactly! Which is why my three survivors carting two buddies slowly and exposed towards the exit was such a sight.
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Jul 4, 2022 07:06
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deep dish peat moss posted:Apropos of nothing and with my full apologies today I drew a very buff sectoid, or a pectoid if you will I wish him well
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Jul 4, 2022 11:37
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BlazetheInferno posted:Also I don't think you can evacuate from the Blacksite; it's a mission where the Evac zone is placed *for* you, and only after you achieve the objective. From what I remember you can call in an evac on that mission up to the point of grabbing the vial. There are only a couple of missions where you truly can't evac, and it's the hostage rescue where you have to hold out against waves of respawns, and the ones where the spawn is already preplaced. The black site doesn't have a preplaced evac until you grab the vial. E: or maybe it's the forge that doesn't have the preplaced? If so, ignore everything I just wrote.
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Jul 4, 2022 16:29
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A holiday inspired theme for today's terror mission:  rocketeers and grenadiers level several blocks of a foreign city while a  scout runs through the rubble to Happy  day!
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Jul 4, 2022 23:05
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I'm trying to get back to a good start on my legendary run. Is it easier to run with lost and found on or is it beneficial to run with it off and start with a hero? Normally I use the lost and found mission to safely get more squaddies.
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Jul 5, 2022 22:01
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L&F off : start with a hero, no pre-scripted mission you have to go through, random starting hero, random first encountered Chosen. L&F on : harder no-hero gatecrasher, easy but possibly boring pre-scripted mission introducing heroes/chosen. Guaranteed to start with a reaper with first chosen being Assassin. Pick whichever combo meal you prefer.
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Jul 5, 2022 23:39
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Mzbundifund posted:L&F off : start with a hero, no pre-scripted mission you have to go through, random starting hero, random first encountered Chosen. I think having it on makes for slightly easier missions after the two first. Because you don't get the chosen on the retaliation mission. But off really makes the first two missions a breeze. I was about to turn on shens last gift and alien rulers missions. But I think choosing to not activate rulers until you're ready (or never) makes it too easy? Shens last gift would be rough as heck conversely. Sure you get a mech at the end but it's such a long mission and you'd exhaust your dudes too fast. _____ Also just semi whining on :thatsxcom: I never have issues with lost missions. I think lost almost always hurt the enemies more then me. On this one mission I'm on though. Every shot is missing and every missed shot is hitting a car that blows up and brings more lost. Even with two shotguns I'm probably going to lose a guy if I decide to go for the bonus objective. And let's be honest I will because I have no self control.
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Jul 6, 2022 09:27
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Eh, I found that Shen's Last gift just meant that the A-team sat out one more mission than normal to recover, which was fine. Absolutely worth for one of the best missions in the game.
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Jul 6, 2022 10:37
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New to Xcom 2 and I have questions. How does the action economy work on the geoscape? - Every time I land in one spot and start scanning, I get a couple pop-ups for other new sites and missions before it's done. If I accept a mission, it seems like I have start from scratch if I go back to scan the previous site. It feels like I'm wasting a ton of time every time I get interrupted since the avatar timer is ticking away. Follow-up: Are there any particular sites or missions I should be prioritizing? Is the ranger's phantom ability underwhelming or is it one of those things like Mimetic Skin in XCOM 1 where the description is bad and its actually ridiculously powerful when used correctly? "Supply" is money, "income" is money received at the end of the month and I actually have to fly to a drop point and spend a couple days picking it up, correct? For a while I thought it was a logistics system and was carefully hoarding supplies so my dudes didn't starve to death  Weapon mods are locked to a specific weapon - is that weapon tied to the soldier or can I give it to another? Otherwise I'm digging the game despite being a little confused by some of the mechanics and UI. Actual missions have been going well with E: Biggest factor in my losses is the mission timers - Strategic retreats are my winning tactic for regaining control if poo poo goes south, but the timers force me to go full aggro. Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Jul 6, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 10:45
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Fruits of the sea posted:New to Xcom 2 and I have questions. -Time passes smoothly on the geoscape. Half-scanned sites stay half-complete until you come back within a reasonable period, but you're right in that the overhead of traveling around means you usually want to commit to a location. There's generally enough time to get everything done, but usually not in the order that you'd prefer. The avatar timer is an overdramatic alarm, you actually have plenty of time despite seeing it rocket up early in the game. As long as you're slowly chugging towards a place that knocks it back, you're fiiiine. -Picking up your monthly paycheck is probably top priority? Other than that just see above, mix&match to your taste, as long as you don't totally ignore progress towards an anti-avatar-meter site. -Ranger's phantom is strong, as the advantage of having a scout who can safely locate pods is invaluable, making fights start on your terms and lets you sprint through empty parts of the map safely. Totally worth keeping one member in the shadows for once you get the squad upgrades. N.B. that the WOTC xpack introduced the Reaper, who totally stole that role, rip. -Yes, supplies = money, and you actually have to go pick up your paycheck. -Don't be afraid to take losses. The game cheats outrageously behind the scenes in favor the the player, constantly trying to bluff you into thinking that you're about to lose everything. You have more leeway than you think.
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Jul 6, 2022 11:04
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Fruits of the sea posted:How does the action economy work on the geoscape? - Every time I land in one spot and start scanning, I get a couple pop-ups for other new sites and missions before it's done. If I accept a mission, it seems like I have start from scratch if I go back to scan the previous site. It feels like I'm wasting a ton of time every time I get interrupted since the avatar timer is ticking away. I'm fairly sure that time doesn't actually pass on the geoscape unless you are doing something, or sitting staring at the map for minutes at a time. The clock in the corner ticks away while flying from place to place but if you pay attention it jumps back sometimes so I think that's just for effect. One thing is that while scanning sites have an expiration date, starting a scan on something delays that, so you have a little leeway for stuff you've put on hold, though they'll still dissappear eventually. quote:Follow-up: Are there any particular sites or missions I should be prioritizing? Story missions are good for reducing your Avatar Progress by a notch or two if you need it, outside of legendary, the bar filling up just starts a three day countdown to failure and doing one of those missions can bring you back from the brink, so you can really ride the line of failure if you want. I like to do the codex part of the questline early to unlock Alien Encryption tech, since I find what you get from that useful. For guerilla ops I'd prioritise missions that reward engineers early, otherwise missions that have what you need, supplies or Intel. I pretty much never pay attention to which dark event they prevent unless it's something I find really irritating, but that's up to you. Don't do "Protect the Device" missions in late game. quote:Is the ranger's phantom ability underwhelming or is it one of those things like Mimetic Skin in XCOM 1 where the description is bad and its actually ridiculously powerful when used correctly? I went from always taking a phantom ranger on every mission for scouting in vanilla to basically never using them at all in War of the Chosen. Like has been said, the Reaper is just that same niche but better. quote:Weapon mods are locked to a specific weapon - is that weapon tied to the soldier or can I give it to another? It can be a pain to do but yeah you can swap weapons around no problem. PCSs are soldier specific obviously. There is a continent bonus and (in the expansion) a resistance order that let's you freely swap them but its just luck whether you have access to that or not. quote:E: Biggest factor in my losses is the mission timers - Strategic retreats are my winning tactic for regaining control if poo poo goes south, but the timers force me to go full aggro. I too used to slowly blue move crawl my way around the maps in Xcom1, that took some getting used to.
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Jul 6, 2022 14:31
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Time does actually pass if you’re looking at the map! Way, way slower than the accelerated rate when scanning or flying, but it does tick onward. I’ve had a mission expire because thought it was stopped and I could go to the bathroom. Which is probably the only scenario where it matters, because it really is slow. But yeah, don’t get up and have lunch or whatever while on the geoscape. But if you’re looking inside the ship, or you click the mission and get the menu to go or not, then time is stopped. Basically, if you see the clock and it’s moving, time is passing.
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Jul 6, 2022 17:48
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God loving DAMMIT 2% LIGHTNING REFLEXES ROLL ON A MSGT
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Jul 7, 2022 05:05
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No, that's just long war.
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Jul 13, 2022 05:35
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Been playing the hell out of X-Com Files, and I am just about to wipe out the four cults. Dagon Cult went down easy, landed at night, made a circle of flares and shot anything that moved. 40 dead mutants later, done, 2 injuries. Exalt was a pain in rear end, I forgot I needed to capture their boss, so had to punch the thing into submission, then close quarters fighting in that goddamn hotel tileset. Red Dawn was.. Smooth as poo poo. The base commander holding the red card goober was in view of my offramp and got sniped on turn one. Turn two, armored car rolls up and gets taken out by my rpg. run over, pick up card, leave. 4 rounds. Doing Lotus now. It occurs to me that for the price of 4 rookies, I could have 15 dogs and a pilot in my Osprey. This amuses me a lot.
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Jul 13, 2022 21:09
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Red Dawn is considerably harder if you uh, try to kill absolutely everything there like I did and do them first. I think they were the toughest of the 4 cults to me.
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Jul 13, 2022 22:47
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They got good armor, grenades, and what feels like bullshit nightvision on their higher ranked dudes. I am so glad that Red Dawn was dumb nad put their goober right there in the open for me.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:21
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Night10194 posted:Red Dawn is considerably harder if you uh, try to kill absolutely everything there like I did and do them first. I've had to retreat from the assault three times now. It's really annoying because it popped pretty much right next to my main base, and they send out helicopters to intercept everything coming and going from my base.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:35
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When attacking Manors rather than the actual setpiece HQ mission, I've found a good strat is to throw dynamite against the wall of the actual manor house's basement. For some reason, if you blow that open the cultists will swarm out of it into the yard. Where you can throw *more dynamite!* Throwing dynamite is a great martial art early.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:37
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Liberal use of explosives is the best way to get through the Manor/HQ stage. Also fire. Turning the entire map into a raging fire hellscape with grenade launchers is A+
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Jul 13, 2022 23:41
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A strong dog can carry a pre-primed dynamite bundle in durathread, or a standard dog in combat gear. set it to 4, have the dog run up, drop it out of the inventory, have the dog gently caress off.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:45
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Rynoto posted:Liberal use of explosives is the best way to get through the Manor/HQ stage. Also fire. Turning the entire map into a raging fire hellscape with grenade launchers is A+ I had to take out a couple Manors that had spawned right before I terminated the cults, and by god, they did not like facing Promotion 3 firepower. The T-T Grenade Launcher with gas rounds is a horrible warcrime against cultists. Not to mention flamethrowers. I also like using the TT grenade launcher with blunt rounds if I don't care if I kill someone. DONK.
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Jul 14, 2022 00:07
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The best thing about gas/fire is that you can cause chain reaction morale breaks and capture 20+ dudes at once. And yeah the blunt grenade launchers are hilarious for capturing scary melee/short range targets.
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Jul 14, 2022 00:11
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They're also good for getting Monster by donking ordinary human foes and smashing their skulls with grenades.
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Jul 14, 2022 00:20
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winterwerefox posted:They got good armor, grenades, and what feels like bullshit nightvision on their higher ranked dudes. I am so glad that Red Dawn was dumb nad put their goober right there in the open for me. They don't have super nightvision, all their pioneer+ ranked troops are "snipers" and all their troops except the lowest rank are "spotters". Snipers have a chance to target any unit that has been spotted regardless of line of sight. Spotters mark a unit as spotted for a number of turns if they see or are hit by that unit. So basically as soon as you start shooting all the dangerous enemies on the map can target you regardless of darkness or smoke, it's kinda bullshit. I use a nerfed version that got released earlier this month and now night missions and camo are actually worth something against Red Dawn.
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Jul 14, 2022 07:47
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I feel like including the actual Invasion in X-COM Files was a mistake on the part of the mod; the fun part is dealing with all the prior weirdness and stuff, playing the normal air and ground games on top of that just feels off.
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Jul 14, 2022 21:33
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Dire Lemming posted:They don't have super nightvision, all their pioneer+ ranked troops are "snipers" and all their troops except the lowest rank are "spotters". Snipers have a chance to target any unit that has been spotted regardless of line of sight. Spotters mark a unit as spotted for a number of turns if they see or are hit by that unit. So basically as soon as you start shooting all the dangerous enemies on the map can target you regardless of darkness or smoke, it's kinda bullshit. I use a nerfed version that got released earlier this month and now night missions and camo are actually worth something against Red Dawn. That explains a lot about them. like how im getting grenades fired at me from way out of visual range at night through smoke.
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Jul 15, 2022 21:18
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winterwerefox posted:That explains a lot about them. like how im getting grenades fired at me from way out of visual range at night through smoke. Grenades are actually the worst part of 'sniper' behavior, for exactly the same reason they're so great for you: They don't really suffer penalties for being used outside of LoS.
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Jul 15, 2022 21:26
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For XCF around the time you hit durathread there's a piece of equipment called Carapace Plate which reduces concussive (explosive) damage by 20% before armour which greatly helps against grenades.
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Jul 15, 2022 21:40
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Honestly, it's never really the normal grenades that are the problem. They hurt, but they don't usually kill units in one hit. It's the loving gas grenades, since you don't have any armor with breathing protection for a long time and can't just wear a gas mask like Piratez.
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Jul 15, 2022 22:43
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Night10194 posted:Honestly, it's never really the normal grenades that are the problem. They hurt, but they don't usually kill units in one hit. Grab the arsenal additions submod. It adds some much needed equipment to round out various points of the game like armour and weapons but also has a gas mask. Gas Mask + Heavy Riot Armour lets you set up proper close range squads where you dump smoke and gas from a launcher or two while the rest run into it and just start blasting. Rynoto fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Jul 15, 2022 |
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Jul 15, 2022 22:57
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Unlucky7 posted:Question on XCOM2: How long do investigation spots stay open? I got one for avenger power that I want but I spent 3 days finishing up a radio tower and when I got to actually scanning it I got a mission when I was half done. I do not want it disappearing when I am not yet done with it. (Well, I got it scanned anyway but I still would like to know how long they last if I stop in the middle of one) a) the duration PoI stay before disappearing is actually somewhat variable and probably affected by difficulty to (I play with mod that makes timers on Commander be the length of those on Legend and seen anywhere from 13 to 17 days on spawn) b) if you scan a site, even for a second, it's duration might get extended (not exactly sure what's the exact requirement for the extension, but if current lifespan is less than remaining time to completion it's guaranteed, so that site doesn't run out mid-scan) and sometimes by quite a lot (seen sites go from 10 days to over 20) c) last and perhaps most important thing is that you can install "Hours Instead Of Days" mod to see how long you have until a site or mission expires ----------- Points of interest aside, does anyone else play with increased squad sizes and bigger pods? There ain't quite a feeling like sending 8 troopers to deal with 40+ enemies during Gate mission  
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Aug 3, 2022 10:54
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Malek Deneith posted:c) last and perhaps most important thing is that you can install "Hours Instead Of Days" mod to see how long you have until a site or mission expires
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Aug 3, 2022 11:43
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TychoCelchuuu posted:This mod reliably crashes my game when supply drops spawn (and this happens to other people too - I figured out it was this mod by Googling a bit and seeing others with the problem).
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Aug 3, 2022 12:07
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For my current playthrough I decided instead of making the usual posters for my troops, I'd take a different approach.  Tried going for a mugshot vibe with this one.  
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Aug 4, 2022 01:18
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Rescue Denmother is a good mod.
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Aug 4, 2022 08:12
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