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That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Submitted a character with all the details needed, left the class blank as I'm good with everything you need

Good luck

# ¿ Jan 3, 2019 16:35

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 02:14

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Soul Reaver posted:

Might keep an eye on this but I feel you're missing out by not playing with WotC. It adds a ton of really great stuff.

I, on the other hand, am happy that this run is without WotC. I feel that, while the expansion adds a lot of content, not everything is tone/gameplay consistent with the base game. WotC feels similar to the "Crimson Court" expansion to Darkest Dungeon: I like both games more without it, even if I like some elements of the expansion pack.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2019 14:42

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Yeah, even in a Blind LP, you won't probably lose more than an handful of soldiers - barring catastrophic :xcom:

moments.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2019 00:37

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Don't blame yourself too much, the tutorial mission is scripted and you always lose Peter and Ramirez

# ¿ Jan 8, 2019 01:40

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Natural 20 posted:

Oh ho. Okay.

I've disabled the DLC and it lets me load the save but warns of potential instability. That said I'm not seeing anything going wrong on load so maybe we're okay?

If you have not already recorded additional content, you can start a new campaign without losing anything: the tutorial is 100% scripted/fixed content. You wouldn't even need to re-record it.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2019 15:27

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

If you were wondering why that truck has blown up, it's worth noting that stray bullets can and will set vehicles on fire: smoke and sparkles are a good sign that something is about to blow up, like here:

You can't have your soldiers shoot on the vehicles on purpose, but a well placed AoE attack (like explosives) will do the trick.

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jan 10, 2019

# ¿ Jan 10, 2019 19:42

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

I was wondering how the hell I was still alive after 5 8 shots, including 2 flanking ones until...well. Also, that clutch 49% shot before dying has probably saved Snorlax since he would have been flanked by the dead Advent otherwise.
EDIT:

EDIT2: also, appropriately enough, Snorlax got promoted into a Grenadier...the class with the lowest accuracy in the game, but the highest resilience. May his portable distortion field keep him safe for evermore.

Spoiled since the video is just out!

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Jan 12, 2019

# ¿ Jan 12, 2019 00:24

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Natural 20 posted:

It took me an embarrassing amount of time to edit that stuff in. Totally worth it though.

I hope someone will play the Mario death jingle for my irl death too.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2019 15:20

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Blast Hardcheese and Karl-Heinz Liebling are eager to join the ranks, I bet.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2019 11:31

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Commander Keene posted:

I think that with the armor you researched, that you just unlocked the ability to make it; you don't actually have the armor yet. Check your production facilities the next chance you get.

Almost correct yeah: they have unlocked an item that needs to be fabricated, but it's something you can equip (like grenades or medkits) instead of a new type of armor.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2019 01:05

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Gantolandon posted:

I think this cutscene was supposed to be dramatic, but the way the Denmother and her camp ignore the warning and let an entire swarm of ADVENT transports catch them unaware always cracks me up. It's like seeing Gargamel finally finding the Smurf village.

It is a bit silly yeah.

Bradford is all frantic and he's all "RUN! RUUUUN!"
And she's "I'm so sorry Central, could you repeat? It's hard to hear you over the sound of all these alien engines"

# ¿ Jan 22, 2019 09:13

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Woah. Blast was lucky to have survived (twice), since flanking shots can and will crit you (same as you have critted the aliens - yellow "damage box" around the number, higher damage number) and can easily kill a full health fresh character. The first time the lone advent has retreated, the second time Blast just dodged the proverbial bullet.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2019 01:42

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Affi posted:

Jesus gently caress I didn't know that. I thought it was a "they will see you next turn so pull of that ambush now " sort of thing.

If you are in cover, an enemy will spot you (when you already are in a tile marked with the red eye) only if they scamper in a flanking position. Also, as we have seen in the video, you don't get a preview of the enemy detection tile if it is the outer limits of it and you can't see the enemy. As a general rule of thumb, roof edges are the schoolcase for this kind of things unless the tile is behind high cover; half cover won't protect you from detection in that case

# ¿ Jan 29, 2019 12:06

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

GeneX posted:

And here we see this week's edition of "Emi is likely to die because Nat made a positioning error"; I wonder if she'll slither out of this one , too

She has a Mindshield! What could possibly go wrong!

# ¿ Jan 29, 2019 13:26

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Paingod556 posted:

Mindshields don't block bullets. Or explosions. Or gravity

I was joking! I don't think I've ever built a Mindshield. Actually it's interesting to see a blind LP take on prioritization of items/buildings.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2019 15:58

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Natural 20 posted:

There's some discussion of Mindshields, but there's some stuff behind spoilers so I thought I'd put down my thoughts here.

As far as I can tell mind control is the most devastating thing that an enemy that's readily available can do to you since the action economy change behind it is huge. So I place a lot of value in stopping that from ever happening.

I'm unsure what we have aside from guaranteed damage from grenades that rivals that protection. Decoys and probes seem like cute gimmicks but I'm somewhat unsure of their value.

One thing in this post is inaccurate, but I won't tell you which one :science:

# ¿ Jan 29, 2019 19:49

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Fangz posted:

You can get a mindshield and protect one soldier from being mind controlled. Or you can bring a flashbang and protect every soldier from being mind controlled, plus a wide range of other stuff.

You don't really get any indication of what's good/what's less good - aside from a generic description of the items, so it's not surprising that in a blind LP you may wildly under/over estimate the importance of a given item of building. But I've cracked up when I've heard the mimic beacon, AKA the most broken item in the game to the point that I've never brought more than 1 (or it would have felt like cheating) as been described (blindly) as "gimmicky". I'm actually curious to see N20 and Yorkshire Tea's reaction if they ever decide to build one.

Hey N20, please let me know if the constant use of spoiler tags is getting annoying! We're in this weird state were most of the stuff being discussed is fairly basic/common knowledge for anyone with a few hours of gameplay but it would definitely be a spoiler for you guys at this point in the LP.

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jan 31, 2019

# ¿ Jan 31, 2019 15:58

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Natural 20 posted:

In our defense this game has a lot of really unintuitive parts of its UI that we'd reasonably suspect that we might be being trolled.

In particular, why can you aim at this but not aim at a car to make it explode?

You have to research the "Wanton destruction" tech tree for that.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2019 13:19

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

"We're going to build the sword before next mission...NOT"

:v:

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 00:25

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

anilEhilated posted:

Doing the blacksite mission will push the Avatar project back slightly, IIRC. On the other hand, it's a slightly bigger mission and now that Mutons have started showing up you might really need some upgraded guns...

Mutons are your friends! Especially when you try to melee them! Blast Hardcheese has almost discovered this the hard way :black101:

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 11:21

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Bruceski posted:

They didn't make an acid grenade with the supplies, they made an acid grenade synthesizer but the process is so slow it can only supply one person per mission.

Also if you don't throw it, Shen sacrifices it to the appease the Machine Spirit or something.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2019 21:41

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

GeneX posted:

Okay I guess I, uh, gave the devs less credit than they deserved.

Oops. My bad.

I think it all depends on expectations. Darkest Dungeon tells you immediately that the game is "about making the best out of a bad situation" and that you will lose people; XCOM doesn't, but I believe it's mostly cause the name of the game itself acts as a disclaimer.

New XCOM has toned down the "this is bullshit" dial quite a lot, usually giving you some way to react to the unexpected BS. That said "your soldiers are a resource and not a measure of success" is a mantra that is still somewhat alive in New XCOM too, although the loss of soldiers is less frequent and more usually tied to errors or unexpected events. The subtitle "Enemy Unknown" is by far the best this series has ever had because it's exactly what is says on the tin.

The reason I've liked XCOM2 less than the previous one is cause it shifts the tone and the agency of the XCOM organization a lot from "we are being invaded by an enemy whose powers we don't comprehend" to "We are the ones with the upper hand" - even if you should be the underdog: you have concealment, you are the one calling the shots and the aliens are reacting to what you do, instead of the other way around...So it feels more jarring when the balance of power is reversed, while it felt more natural in the first game (and in the old ones). To give you an idea of how "unfair" old XCOM was, the first time you encounter aliens with Mind Control abilities you don't know:
1) That this ability exists;
2) That it doesn't require LOS;
3) That there are several aliens with that power at the same time.
And you are going to run into that, blind, with a squad of high tier soldiers. With the immediate result that, while approaching the downed alien craft, without any evident cause/effect aside from a "mind controlled!" popup, your crackshot rocketeer will suddenly turn 180� and kill half your high-experience squad with a single rocket, triggering panic cascades and so on; then on the following round, another one or two of your dudes will go berserk and start shooting at everything that moves. This was, ofc, bs; but at the same time, it made for a memorable game experience, since you knew from the beginning that you were fighting a losing fight against a superior enemy that was just toying with you - you simply didn't know what to expect at first with everything new...then you would "science the poo poo out of it", reverse engineer it somehow and kick those aliens asses. You would then be lulled into a false sense of security until the next big "THIS IS BS" MOMENT.

TL;DR: XCOM2 is bad at setting expectations if you are not already familiar with the game universe since, from a gameplay perspective, it gives you the idea that you'll be fighting a somewhat "fair" fight (and actually you are the aggressor and the one with the cool surprises most of the time), so that when stuff more in line with the previous/old XCOM happens, the surprise is waaay more jarring. Old XCOM (and XCOM1 to a degree) clearly shows you as the underdog from the start and tells you that the aliens will be unfair, so when bs happens you are bound to expect it and it doesn't feel this bad.

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Feb 16, 2019

# ¿ Feb 16, 2019 14:41

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

tarbrush posted:

I feel like XCOM2 does a pretty good job of showing what an underdog you are with all the talk of rickety old systems, the lack of uniforms, the scars on Bradford etc.

I mean, thematically the resistance is the scrappy underdog that is hiding from a superior enemy. Normal game-play-wise, though the story is reversed: YOU are the aggressor, YOU have concealment and strike from the shadows, YOU have the cool gadgets and weapons. While XCOM1 terror missions were "evil mastermind trying to separate XCOM from its founding members", XCOM2 retaliations feel more like "Enemy with enormous resources lashes out blindly at smart but smaller opponent". You are the Road Runner to the Alien's Wile E. Coyote.

The aliens still have tricks up their sleeves and the game still throws you a few curve balls, but most of the time you are the one in control and you just need to solve the puzzle. This was also true for new XCOM1, to be honest, but I think this is amplified in XCOM2 by the amount of gear and character abilities you unlock.

EDIT: to be clear, all these considerations should be read under the "XCOM2 compared to XCOM1 and old XCOM"optics.

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Feb 16, 2019

# ¿ Feb 16, 2019 17:33

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

FoolyCharged posted:

Eh, as long as you aren't going to fall for the trap skill at tier one and take the pistol skill that requires getting shot at to work, a pistol sniper is still really solid at sniping. You can easily dip between the two and have a functional dude that shifts between close and long range as needed.

Also I would normally go Dead Eye, but the way Nat20 is playing Sharpshooters it feels like an hybrid build could work. Ma's Shadowkeeper has been used quite a bit already in this LP, having Lightning Hands could very well mean having an extra Combat Protocol-lite ability.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 13:36

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Hey Nat20, you can just hit ESC (twice if needed be) while zoomed into a section of the Avenger to get to the "Build Facilities" screen

(in fact, you can navigate through each section of the ship by hitting ESC to get to the zoomed out view and then click on the part you want to interact with).

Also, I've just realized that with Znorelag's death, the entire Mission 1 crew is now dead :rip:

EDIT: also also, upgrading a Power Relay has a secondary benefit it allows you to staff a second engineer into it to squeeze out more power!

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Feb 19, 2019

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 14:28

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Mordja posted:

I think you're s a bit hung up over the idea that the game's full of "trap choices" since more things are viable than not. I also put off building the Guerilla centre in favour of the AWC and ran with four troops for longer than most.

By the way, if I recall correctly, special ammo works on pistols as well main weapons and yes, that includes Lightning Hands...

It really depends on what you consider as "trap" choices.
Are some choices "optimal" compared to others, when it comes to the increase in "power level" versus the new content and min/maxing? Yes.
Does this mean you won't be able to win, or that it'll be very difficult to do so on a Normal difficulty (albeit blind) play through? No.

It's the same thing as having a sub-optimal build in an RPG or a MMORPG: it will only affect your gameplay massively when you're playing on high difficulty; otherwise you'll just struggle a little bit more, maybe. Psionics VS weapons/armor probably has a clear answer on a mix/max scale, but a psionic unit is a very powerful tool that you wouldn't otherwise get. GTS as a first build is kinda the exception to the rule since (as Nat20 mentioned when talking about Frost Grenades) XCOM2 is a game about action economy, and an extra soldier is a flat +25% (or +20%) actions per turn (not to mention extra specialized items, extra targets for the enemy, extra eyes, etc). And even then you could definitely win a full Normal run with 4 people, if you really wanted to.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 16:20

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Affi posted:

Also let�s be real here. Psykers are really loving cool and I hardly ever get them until like the endgame so I love that you prioritised them.
They are also in between good and stupidly good. A fully levelled psyker is probably the best unit you can have in the game.

Yeah, this. +x average damage or +x Hit Points are not as entertaining as the stuff you can pull off with a psyker, and this is a LP after all. They're just applied to everyone instead of going all in on a single character...but let's be clear: we've already seen what's Nat20 philosophy on that regard

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 16:58

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Mr. Vile posted:

You have completely overlooked an item you've had since the beginning that is incredibly powerful: The humble flashbang.

There is at least another one the broken mimic beacon. So broken, it could have single handedly saved their bacon in the codex situation, if they had someone to throw it with. Of course in a blind LP there is no indication of what is good and what is bad aside from a generic description.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2019 23:21

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Bremen posted:

Flashbangs. Though admittedly their penalty to aim is smaller.

Every time I've tried to suppress a sectopod they just ran the suppression, though?

They still get the aiming penalty.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2019 00:46

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Bremen posted:

I'm like 95% sure this isn't true.

Edit: Google says it isn't. If you suppress an enemy and they move as their first action, you get the shot but if they survive their attack doesn't suffer the -50 aim.

Woah had no idea about this! I guess I've mostly used it on stun lancers and other melee enemies or it's just confirmation bias on my side.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2019 09:50

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

On top of that, new XCOM SPOILER FOR AN HIDDEN MECHANIC I WASN'T AWARE OF EVEN AFTER PLAYING BOTH NEW XCOM 1 AND 2 TO THE END silently "cheats" so that high % shots are even more probable, while low% ones are even less likely to hit - the n% shown is almost never the true one. Which makes "real %" games seem like bullshit when you keep missing 80% shots, while you would normally fail 1 in 5 times anyway.

Also I believe there is some kind of compensation so if you miss a shot you are more likely to hit next; the opposite is also true, so that if aliens hit one of your dudes, they get a penalty to follow up shots - one of the ways Znorelag was able to survive being shot so many times and why mission 1 advent troopers were able to miss flanking shots on other xcom rookies out of cover as well.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2019 11:00

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Count me in the bandwagon for option 1! Definitely don't cut geoscape cause it's half the fun, especially in a blind LP. You could consider cutting/skipping repeated content (like assigning equipment to soldiers) and do a small "this is what we are going in with" to shorten things down though! Also if there is a super long geoscape section, you could split it up the same way you did last time.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2019 09:47

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

StoryTime posted:

Isn't that a Priest that they zoom in on and try to figure out in the latest video? It dies to overwatch shots before it can do anything, but it seems to have the white armor of a Priest.

I think it's a Shield bearer - which is also bad news when acting as an unknown factor. Priest are from the expansion afaik.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2019 10:56

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Nat20 you and Tea may be unaware, but Shen's comment during the Viper autopsy ("...this reptilian creature with such distinctive human features is surprisingly unsettling..." is a funny snipe/nod to the community's reaction at large when Vipers were revealed in a trailer for the game (Snakemen were an enemy in the original XCOM, but were lacking some of these...features :females:

).

More details:

(more goon reactions to snake tits can be found in the Games thread, which may contains spoilers for the blind LP, so you may want to avoid it until later.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2019 21:16

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

I see something missing from your detailed breakdown :v:

# ¿ Mar 7, 2019 20:47

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Natural 20 posted:

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.

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.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2019 23:00

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Bremen posted:

It sounds like you're talking about the mimic beacon, but that wasn't missing from his detailed breakdown, so I'm kind of lost.

He mentioned it at the beginning, but then when he went through the items one by one he mentioned in details flashbangs but not smokes or beacons; I tried to keep things a bit fuzzy since I didn't want it to be super spoilery. And yeah I'm talking about mimic beacons, cause they are broken af.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2019 23:53

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Commander Keene posted:

I'm assuming it's not Skulljacks, because he said "an item you haven't built yet" and you have a jack sitting in Emi's inventory.

Tbf, I don't remember Nat having built this item yet, but I may be wrong. I'm sure he has not used it yet though. Also I may have tried to partially obfuscate things a bit outside of spoiler tags to avoid "hints" from becoming too obvious.

Or did I?

:iiam:

# ¿ Mar 8, 2019 00:14

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Lprsti99 posted:

God, the first sectopod or other enemy they face that can shrug off lots of damage is going to loving rinse them.

E: Oh poo poo, or the first Chryssalids

Eh, Chrysalids in normal are not that scary in new XCOM, but yeah the "kill everything before they can shot at you" mentality is great up until you start running into Andromedrons or Archons + high HP Advent pods, not to mention the real bastards like Sectopods or Guardians.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2019 00:30

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 02:14

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Natural 20 posted:

Amazing

Not an emptyquote.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2019 00:21

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > This is Fine - Let's Play XCOM 2 - Blind

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