The XCOM Thread: HOW DOES SNEK KICK DOOR?!

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Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 21:09

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 14:53

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

The Kins posted:

My favourite part of the thread so far is Americans being culturally unable to cope with the sheer horrifying concept of not being able to play a videogame before a country that historically has to wait six months extra to pay fifty bucks more.

My favorite part is playing it 10 hours early and paying $50 less than Australia

# ¿ Feb 4, 2016 19:49

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Kitchner posted:

What's everyone's build orders at the moment?

I've found myself building:

1) Guerilla Tactics (gotta get that increased squad size ASAP)

2) Advanced Warfare Centre (100% bonus to heal is just too good)

3) Power relay (because you need to)

4) Resistance Comms

Anyone do something much different?

-Advanced Warfare Center

-Resistance Comms

-Power Relay

Workshops are also insanely good

You really don't need the squad size upgrade immediately. I didn't get the first level until around right after I saw my first Muton.. The Advanced Warfare Center however is immediately useful, maximizes chances to get bonus skills, and provides a nice buffer in case an Advent MEC ends up grenading half your soon to be extracting squad.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2016 15:22

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Man the Plasma Blaster is really loving disappointing, especially since I got the Shredstorm Cannon and Blaster Bomb before it. I haven't tried the Hellfire Projector, but I don't see how it can compete with a space blunderbuss and a big goddamn bomb

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 07:26

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Deuce posted:

Caught up on the thread finally and I'm going to slap the next motherfucker who compares pectoids to Ethereals.

Do you remember ethereals?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsCPUJLUbuc

Had a goddamn Gatekeeper kill the VIP I was supposed to abduct/assassinate and turn him into a zombie :argh:

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 02:31

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

SkySteak posted:

I've just hit The Avatar project with no plot tech researched (or the Contract resistance) one either. I havent instantly hosed myself over have it?

All told if you do everything you have about 1 in game year to beat the game. That's if you delay the avatar project at every opportunity and counter every dark event that further progresses it.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 00:54

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

splifyphus posted:

Nah. I took my sweet rear end time on my first successful commander campaign and built everything/conquered every continent etc. I was well into the second summer when I finally beat the game, and I still had two leftover avatar facilities that I knocked out just for completions sake right before I did the last mission. At that point I was making 1200+ supplies a month and had nothing to spend it on.

Reminder that letting the 'Immanent Victory' timer go as low as possible before doing something that reduces avatar progress literally conjures extra campaign time out of thin air.

I finished in January 2036, I had only 1 Blacksite left available, and had 2 pips left before I stepped off on the final mission. I had everything done tech and geoscape wise as well.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 01:03

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

splifyphus posted:

Oh ok. I never bothered using bluescreen rounds because why shoot mechs when you can hack them to shoot for you?

Did you ride the timer? My timers kept starting at 14 days and I was able to consistently get it down to under a day before doing an avatar project mission. That's 2 weeks of free time every time the timer starts, and I've seen the timer start as high as 22 days on streams. Maybe the length is tied to difficulty.

The timer starts at 21 Days for Veteran I think, so probably 7 for Legendary?. I never really bothered riding the timer because there wasn't ever a need for it.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 01:18

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Kin33 posted:

Is hail of bullets the dumbest skill in the game right now? Saturation fire at the next rank is better in pretty much every way as it does what hail of bullets does but in a cone and destroys cover. It also competes with salvo which is probably grenadier's best skill even if you are going a gunner build.

Saturation fire tends to light the ground underneath you on fire for some reason :psyduck:

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 04:56

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

How difficult is the SDK to work with? I kind of want to add an item that replaces the heavy weapon on the EXO/WAR suit with boosted servos or something like that. It would boost sword damage by +1 and add +1 armor penetration for each tier of suit, coupled with a minor mobility bonus.

Combine this with buffing sword tiers to +2 for each tier, keeping in line with the projectile weapons, and buffing blademaster to +3.

It would probably help a ton for late game viability of the assault branch skills

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 05:25

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

The beret mod is cool and good

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 05:59

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Segmentation Fault posted:

Big stupid wall of speculation coming.

I believe there's two different types of Ethereals: The ones seen in The Bureau that are made up of almost entirely energy, and the ones with frail physical bodies we see in EU.

It's my belief that the Bureau Ethereals and EU Ethereals once co-existed (and even had the same form). The Uber Ethereal during the final fight in EU states "Behold the greatest failure� of the Ethereal Ones� We who failed to ascend as they thought we would. We who were cast out..." The Ethereals we fight in EU and XCOM 2 were part of a race that failed to ascend to a higher form, while the Bureau Ethereals managed to ascend. The EU Ethereals probably believe the Bureau Ethereals to be the greatest threat in the universe and all of their efforts are focused on stopping them. They recognize that the commander is being controlled by a Bureau Ethereal and wish to tap into that power, just like how Origin tapped into his own Bureau Ethereal in The Bureau. However, the EU Ethereals are handling the commander with kid gloves compared to Origin since they know firsthand the power of the Bureau Ethereals and do not wish to "let the genie out of the bottle."

XCOM 3 is going to be about the Bureau Ethereals, possibly using some sort of underwater race to fight the humans from below.

I was kind of hoping they'd pretend The Bureau never happened but

I guess that explains why every time some poo poo fucks with your consciousness you see that ethereal dude pop up and do some psi wizard poo poo

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 21:38

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Oh nice a Russian voice pack already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YECBJsO6pls

:greencube:

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 01:41

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

So do the Faceless ever show up in non-Retaliation missions? I beat the game and never saw a single one outside of them.

Also the groups that have Sectopods in them seem to be bugged and don't actually seek out the player?

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 04:57

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

CapnAndy posted:

Everyone keeps saying Bladestorm falls off but I haven't seen that yet and I'm pretty sure I've seen at least the majority of the enemies in the game. Between ADVENT, Berserkers, Chrysalids, Archons, and dead Andromedons, something is always trying to make melee attacks, and punishing them for that is never a bad thing. Two half-dead Archons in Battle Fury and just trying to punch something turns into two completely dead Archons who never got a chance to hurt anyone real quick with Bladestorm.

Melee in general becomes a whole lot less useful by the time you're rolling with Plated Armor/Mag Weapons/EXO Suits. Bladestorm triggers post attack so it doesn't prevent melee damage and is mostly a shittier version of return fire that will only kill the most severely weakened enemies by end game.

Implacable on the other hand will actually save your life more than once since you can kill someone from a very dangerous position then immediately gently caress off.

The hardest talent choice for the Ranger is really Conceal or Run and Gun. Conceal does let you do dumb stuff like picking up the VIP or someone wounded then immediately concealing so the enemy can't shoot you, and run and gun is just plain useful

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 18:05

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Kenshin posted:

Seems like it, yeah.

I don't know why, either, it's both lower hit chance than a shotgun, and if you've got ammo equipped you have a 100% chance of the effects.

Swords need:
+5 or +10 aim per tier
tier 2 and 3 need higher damage (especially tier 3)
75%-100% effect proc

The tier 3 sword always light people on fire iirc. Or at least it did in my experience. I've never seen the arc blade do poo poo though.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 18:07

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

UberJew posted:

If your sword attack is 100% hit then you know ahead of time whether it is a risk or not and you just don't do it unless it will work. It would get more and more disgusting as you get additional skill synergy with sword attacks (extra move so now you know you'll get an automatic kill and can withdraw to a position out of los, or untouchable so you know you can't be hit, or god forbid Reaper which now just becomes a grenade with a radius of 'basically every enemy on the map') which are all good skills already without that

As it exists, the sword is just a really poo poo version of run and gun. With run and gun and implacable you can flank a dude, blow him away with a 100% chance and like +50% crit chance then retreat. At late game you have untouchable and goddamn rapid fire with no turn cooldown as well. The sword on the other hand stops being useful the instant advent start rolling out elite tier enemies and is pretty much relegated to loving up the errant sectoid/viper.

Swords do less damage per tier, scale like poo poo, and are more inaccurate than the shotgun.

Also Reaper only grants an extra action ON KILL. So unless all the enemies are nearly dead you're not going to mow through the entire map of dudes barring some extraordinary luck

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 19:15

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Fangz posted:

Yes, swords are a weaker version of Run and Gun, and Run and Gun competes with Conceal, the best skill in the game.

The situation where Reaper is useful (and by almost dead, we really mean less than about 8 hp) comes up pretty drat often because of the availability of grenades, Face Off, Void rift, the fact that killzone stops one shotting enemies, and so on. There's a lot abilities that practically fill your screen with reaperable enemies.

Conceal has like 4 neat little gimmicks to it and that's it. About the only thing it really excels at is trivializing Blacksite missions and honestly run and gun is better at that once you get the Wraith suit. Killing those weak enemies is still predicated on actually hitting them in the first place, one gently caress up and your rear end is left hanging out in the open and at best you'll be able to complete negate one attack. Otherwise you'll need to burn a mimic beacon or stasis to keep him alive.

Phantom is actually the best talent in the ranger tree though :ssh:

Fangz posted:

If you're using shotguns like that, why not just use a rifle instead?

Because a Rifle doesn't hit for 15 damage crits with 100% hit rate and a 50% crit rate at point blank range

Bolow fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Feb 12, 2016

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 19:48

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Phantom lets your dude start concealed at the start of every mission. Concealment just means you can do it later, which if you're actively engaged means gently caress all because detection ranges are like 12 tiles in range, or it grants you +25 Aim/Crit once a mission, which you're giving Shadowstep up to do it

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 19:56

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Fangz posted:

Um, no? A concealed scout lets you cruise around the map in essentially total safety and always initiate with say, the one two combo of a grenade launcher strike and killzone.

You can do this with Phantom as well, like I literally do this with my Phantom ranger every loving mission

# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 20:02

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Dr Christmas posted:

What are the differences between fire, acid, and poison?

Burning prevents the use of any action, acid strips armor, and does a damage over time. I think poison is just a damage over time with no extra debuff attached to it

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 02:55

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Brainamp posted:

Poison lowers accuracy. Maybe will as well, but I'm not sure.

I think venom rounds also have a higher overall chance to inflict poison, while drag rounds have a fairly low chance on inflicting burning

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 03:03

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Fangz posted:

Well, I can certainly understand that perspective. But personally I sort of feel like the early game in Commander is 'pleasantly difficult', so I kinda want to retain that level for a bit longer.

Controversial idea: what about nerfing ordinary grenades and making (special) grenades into single-use, deleted when activated items? Like berserker stim packs. Too painful?

You'd have to cut the resource cost by like a 1/4th. A tenth of your income every time you lob an incendiary grenade would suck real loving hard

Internet Kraken posted:

EDIT: I mean maybe the 6 grenadier squad can roll maps but 6 heavies did the same thing in EW and nobody seemed to think they needed a nerf there.

Salvo is a pretty big game changer and the Grenade Launcher is much more versatile than the rocket launcher. If we're talking OP poo poo, the Shredstorm Cannon is insane, you can level an entire building and it has an absurdly long range. Whereas the Plasma Blaster is just a steaming pile of poo poo not worth the elerium core you wasted on it

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 03:59

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

In general I probably saw more Archons than I did Mutons my entire play through

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 07:54

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvIgzYBL2Z8

# ¿ Feb 14, 2016 21:53

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

oswald ownenstein posted:

Some of the mission balance is pretty hilarious on legend

You get your usual 3 packs of aliens but sometimes you get to deal with 2 +3 armor turrets, or a random reinforcement drop so you have to deal with 12 aliens total

Combat Protocol is your friend for Turrets/MECs, especially early game

# ¿ Feb 14, 2016 22:58

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Abu Dave posted:

spoilers I think?

is there a reason why when i try to do the avatar autopsy it says "complete all active researches first" but i'm not researching anything??? is it a bug?

Go do the other story missions.

The Forge and the Codex Source ones

# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 00:18

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

monster on a stick posted:

Remember the Ranger who got the Guardian skill?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkd6ppDP6yI

I think my record was 5, on a ranger with a Storm Gun and extended mag. He mowed through like 3 advent and dropped an Andromedon before running out of ammo.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 01:42

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

terrorist ambulance posted:

In a retaliation mission - http://imgur.com/sD4XAjG

In that one building, there's 2 mutons, 2 muton berserkers, 2 commanders, a shieldbearer, and a trooper. I think one of the civs scanned as a faceless too.

My guys are on a bridge in the open just to the right, and there's no real way to hit all of it with a flashbang. I think it'll all trigger at once if I approach.

bkgkg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ibnHGWR9pU

# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 18:49

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

SynthOrange posted:

And it's up.

If you keep planning on adding poo poo. I have a wonderful idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8be9yLkT2mM

# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 23:21

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Psycho Landlord posted:

404 Fig not found, nice.

I am glad there's at least something happening with that game, given that a couple of weeks ago I was posting about how silent everything had been since announcement. I'm still not positive it's going to produce anything fun, but that feeling could easily be the result of the proc gen buzzword getting thrown around when it was announced and my own cynicism regarding that. Still, should be interesting. The art is great, either way.

Here's the video from it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTKPBNuTmwM

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 22:30

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

I haven't played this in a long time and decided to replay it since AT&T decided to gently caress my internet up for a week. Doing the Shen's Gift mission as my actual 3rd actual mission in the first month was a bad loving idea. Took me like basically 2 hours and really only worked because I hail mary'd a 66% chance hack on the "boss" at the end and got effectively a free 9 more damage from self destructs. Thank god Lily apparently has every single Specialist ability because she did like 90% of the heavy lifting in that level.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2017 17:37

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Is there a way to filter out certain types of mods in the workshop? I really don't want to look at 500 pages of voice packs from other games

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 21:44

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Furism posted:

You know, for a company that makes so much money, Steam really is an imperfect product. I love the features but the UX is very clunky, it's hard to believe (not even loving tab browsing).

I'd be less annoyed if 90% of the mods on the workshop weren't some goddamn port of random bullshit from Mass Effect, Titanfall, or Call of Duty

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 02:40

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Hope the expansion doesn't set back the Guerilla War dude much, because I'm far more interested in that.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2017 02:48

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Internet Kraken posted:

*beheads sectoid while screaming incoherently*

# ¿ Jun 9, 2017 05:59

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Is there a mod that increases the appearance of Muton's and Vipers, kind of like Elite versions, like the ADVENT mooks have? It's just super weird that those 2 enemy types just drop off the face of the earth in the latter 1/3rd of the game.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2017 06:55

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Cythereal posted:

Wish granted. Here's your Lobsterman King.

He only spawns during cruise ship terror missions and never actually moves until you find him hiding in a closet on the 2nd floor

# ¿ Jun 10, 2017 01:48

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

Alehkhs posted:

I'm curious if we will see a Terror from the Deep from Firaxis (despite the XCOM2 ending teaser) given that 1) Jake Solomon has spoken against the idea in the past, and 2) Julian Gollop's Phoenix Point just got funded (even if the "undersea missions" stretch goal hasn't been achieved yet )

If it is, then it has no where to go but up because Terror From the Deep sucked rear end :colbert:

# ¿ Jun 10, 2017 02:10

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 14:53

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

It'd be nice if the late game was more than a victory lap as well

# ¿ Jun 10, 2017 05:44

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