Fighting Fascism and Xenophobia wherever it lurks, Let's Play XCOM: Chimera Squad

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Fighting Fascism and Xenophobia wherever it lurks, Let's Play XCOM: Chimera Squad

«‹›2 »

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Regallion posted:

Well, the Chimera squad isn't really police, they are more of a paramilitary outfit, which makes sense if they descend from Xcom which was a straight-up army.

They're most analogous to a Gendarmerie, right down to being a military unit that got into the police business to maintain public order while notionally pursuing a non-law enforcement mandate. Which is arguably a good idea in this case, since guys with pepper spray and handcuffs aren't going to do poo poo to swarms of chrysallids turning the citizenry into eternally pregnant cocoon sacs.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2020 06:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:32

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Akratic Method posted:

Hilariously, the lore for their post-war lifestyle is "they all live in one area outside the city. No one goes there. Every Thursday we hear a lot of gunfire."

TBF it's a little difficult to integrate into society when every aspect of your physiology is incompatible with the rest of the planet, and you can't survive outside your armored war suit.

Andrea wouldn't need her own locker, but equal opportunity regulations would require XCOM to install an Andromedon bathroom.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2020 05:24

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Section Z posted:

Were they trying for some "There is no WRONG choices, scaling difficulty will make it all the same in the end!" and then hosed it up?

I think it was this one. You'll note that Bellus Mar's health scales and they actually dealt with his bullshit pretty handily. I can't tell if the Gatekeeper's does, but at the end of the day, it's a goddamn Gatekeeper, and unless the player has found AP ammo and is prepared to manipulate its AI into Gatewaying the bad guys, that's a tall order for this point in the game.

It appears really only one viable strategy for the last encounter as well, (barring various Level 5 Agent powers they don't have access to) which is to commit to a breach of both doors so that you can get an agent to each generator and use one of your various initiative manipulation shenanigans to make sure they can overload them in order before the reinforcements show up. I don't know if the reinforcements are random, but a pod that heavy on top of the Gatekeeper is nearly impossible to deal with.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2020 02:01

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

starbucks hermit posted:

I don't really know of a reliable way to get it to keep attacking the enemy though. Maybe it will go after the largest number of bunched up units? Maybe it wants to kill weaker people as soon as possible to raise psi zombies?

Unless they've changed the Gatekeeper AI (and every indication is that they haven't,) Gatekeepers will almost always open by dropping Gateway on the largest number of bodies, friendly or enemy, alive or dead. You can bait them into going after their allies by avoiding bunching your agents up, but I don't know how the designers expected players who hadn't mastered XCOM 2 to know that. I think their intent with this mission was that the Gatekeeper would blast the overwhelming number of Coil enemies and Chimera squad could clean up the chaos, but in practice it doesn't really work.

Clarste posted:

My understanding of this mission is that the Gatekeeper is technically a 3rd party and therefore adding it to the battle is supposed to make things easier since it'll draw enemy fire and possibly kill them, but this was incredibly poorly handled by the game design so it doesn't work like that at all.

I think you're right. In the various iterations of this mission I've played, Mar's dialog indicates that the Gatekeeper isn't doing what he wants it to do. But I can't ever recall seeing it target Coil members (aside from the initial Gateway) or seeing Coil members target it. Although on one of my runs I brought the rifle that gives you Banish and used it to nuke the Gatekeeper turn 1. Always buy Impetuous Spire the instant you see it.

Chuu posted:

So people who are actually good at this game (i.e. not me), is it actually possible to beat this missing given the research/training/purchase decisions that we're locked into?

I wouldn't say I'm great at this game, but this looks doable. I wouldn't want to try it half in the bag though. Multi-encounter missions are a damage marathon. Going into a boss with agents at half health is a recipe for a squad wipe, so your goal is to get through the first two encounters with most of your HP and one use items intact. The way I handled this and a similarly brutal Emergency mission was to bring Terminal and Cherub. After breach, I basically didn't move them: they used their first action to either Safeguard the person who got shot last turn, or bubble shield whoever was going to get attacked this turn, and then shot whoever they could with their second action. The overall goal is to minimize the amount of damage being hung on your agents while you decrement badguys' health bars to zero. You have to be very efficient with your action economy, never ending a turn early if you can do something with your other action. For the final breach, set up so you can pop a cease fire bomb off of your 2nd person, and deploy any holo-targeting or other once-per-mission gimmicks.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2020 16:53

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Great job, Dan. Getting into the final fight with most of your HP intact makes a huge difference

# ¿ Oct 12, 2020 20:05

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Zephyr is one of the, if not *the* best agent for the first two investigations. But her punches kill people unless you take the right-hand side of her upgrade tree that locks you out of her best and most useful abilities :ohdear:

# ¿ Oct 12, 2020 21:31

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

W.T. Fits posted:

She doesn't get a direct damage upgrade, but one of her promotions does give her the ability to just straight up ignore enemy armor, which can help offset the difference somewhat.

Her nonlethal upgrade adds +1 damage, and I think she also gets an automatic buff at level 3. But taking the level 2 damage boost and level 4 armor pierce means she's *almost* as good as your firearm-toting heavy hitters during the 3rd investigation, at the expense of her area control abilities that are the main reason to take her over another agent during the first two.

Her level 5 ability is pretty good, but there is equipment that can sub in for it, and it honestly pales in comparison to some of the absolutely insane and game-breaking abilities others get at level 5.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Oct 13, 2020

# ¿ Oct 13, 2020 06:03

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

The second half of your post is why I don't think Zephyr needs any buffs on her breach ability. Being able to turn off Aggressive is incredibly powerful, and giving her that on top of damage would make her breach ability objectively better than both Cherub's and Verge's.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2020 01:12

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Zephyr is a strong, Australian woman who just wants to kick snakes in the head, and nothing makes her angrier than living in a world of doors and windows between her and snakes.

Also, Cherub's pistol is just a sideshow for his real job of providing invulnerability and area-of-effect shield slaps.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2020 20:22

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

A surprising number of medicines are derived from animal or other biological sources. None of them are that offensive once refined. Though XCOM just handing out aerosol cans of liquefied Viper alien would be extremely on-brand for the organization whose idea of armor development is, "skin the biggest, baddest alien you can find, then wear it into battle."

The portrait of the fat man is what Central ended up looking like once he let himself go.

Also, just casually taking a pass on Untouchable, the power that makes you invulnerable :stare:

# ¿ Oct 17, 2020 08:28

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Watching Dan blind LP is like a movie where everyone who has played before is sitting on the edge of their chairs saying, "Noooo, don't go investigate the noises in the basement!" and then Dan decides to go investigate the noises, drunk, by himself, but still somehow manages to find a way to survive it.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2020 20:39

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

IIRC, the nerf from EW is that, instead of triggering on any enemy movement within ~3 tiles, CCS in Chimera Squad only triggers on enemies that move or attack directly adjacent to Godmother.

E: CS also doesn't have the pod movement mechanic from earlier games, so you can't abuse that for Bladestorm/CCS/Lockdown shenanigans.

CCS is a good power, but I personally put a huge premium on being able to "nope" enemy attacks on a character as aggressive as Godmother when interleaved turns mean you can't necessarily use your sharpshooter to pick off aliens on the flanks.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Oct 18, 2020

# ¿ Oct 18, 2020 00:48

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Yay, you got Zephyr's key ability: nope-ing the next attack. Makes face-punching much safer!

Demolition is like Ventilate: it auto-hits and destroys any destructible cover. Unlike Ventilate, it doesn't do damage. If the AI was smart, it would use it against your agents who are taking cover behind explosive/acid/gaseous barrels, like you did to that Hitman the earlier encounter. Fortunately, the AI is not smart, and uses it against agents irrespective of whether their cover is actually destructible.

Crane Fist posted:

All of the voices are really good but Zephyr is definitely the funniest one, it's such an incongruous choice of accent

I actually think I like Cherub's voice acting the best. Not really sure why, maybe it's his earnest lust for life. In terms of banter/dialog though, I love Torque's for her unashamed honesty about her past fighting & eating humans, her pride in being an "earthling", and her relationship with Kelly.

Shelter's thirst for Zephyr is hilarious though. He just likes big, strong Australian women, and shouldn't be ashamed of it.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2020 08:33

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Actually, I take it all back: Floyd Tesseract, the talk radio sectoid, is my favorite character.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2020 18:03

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Floyd going from being literally a member of the secret cabal that mind controls world leaders to a talk radio host who rants about messiahs and social control because he "knows it from the inside" and eventually has to be saved from a squad of cult assassins is a :discourse:

character arc. Mirror world Ollie North.

W.T. Fits posted:

I think Terminal is also a fan of his.

True, but I'm not sure even Terminal knows what level of irony she's working on at any given time.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Oct 26, 2020

# ¿ Oct 26, 2020 19:59

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Terminal actually got her call sign for being terminally online, to the point of installing a twitter client on her gremlin and wearing dasharez0ne t-shirts under her body armor.

She's still my favorite terrible employee.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2020 20:53

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

I'm surprised Dan didn't take lockdown on Zephyr, because punching someone and then punching them again when they try to do anything seems right up his alley. Although for his liver's sake, unconscious enemies are better.

Also, the enemies seem to have weirdly low health: I didn't think Zephyr could one-shot people during the second investigation. Maybe I'm just remembering the endgame more.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2020 02:32

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Crane Fist posted:

Torque was right, humans are the real aliens

Wait until he finds out that if Torque is binding the last enemy on a map, she snaps their loving neck for the sake of expediency.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2020 21:15

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Agreed. Claymore is cool, but the guy whose theme is "grenades for everybody" isn't exactly conducive to bringing in bad guys alive.

Crane Fist posted:

It's great that when they were doing the character concepts for this they were like okay we'll have friendly shield guy, big punchy guy, robot nerd, comedy medic, murderous literal monster who can leap out of vents like an actual loving nightmare and suffocate you to death, cheerful demolition guy,

Yeah, Torque's back story is honestly dark as hell. Unrepentant enemy combatant who probably did at least one serious war crime, got paperclipped into XCOM's post war tactical development unit, and now transferred into their Gendarmerie and let back out on the street to poison and strangle citizens who haven't been charged with any crime. That's a little too Cold War realpolitik for an organization who are supposed to be the good guys.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Nov 1, 2020

# ¿ Nov 1, 2020 07:12

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Crane Fist posted:

This is actually the perfect way of putting it and I absolutely love the idea of XCOM doing Operation Gladio during the reconstruction, that's incredibly dark

Can't wait for Italy to launch into the Years of Plasma

"Remember that extremely questionable poo poo most governments have at least dabbled in at some point IRL? Welp, XCOM did it too after they won the war. Cherub loves nachos!"

I mean, resistance XCOM itself was a deniable, unaccountable direct action network, whose methods could often be described as "terroristic", being funneled guns and money by a senior administration spokesman, and descended from an organization whose underground lair literally contained a chamber for torturing and dissecting captives. So old habits die hard, I guess?

Some reporter looking into why a Senior Agent of the Reclamation Agency bears a striking resemblance to the snake lady who ran New Arctic Human Liquidation Black Site #7 is going to be found crushed to death in a steamer trunk, and Godmother is going to No Comment when City 31 PD files it as a "death by misadventure."

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Nov 1, 2020

# ¿ Nov 1, 2020 08:29

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Crane Fist posted:

I want to see the XCOM version of the truth and reconciliation commission. Imagine the questions that would be asked. Does it count as a war crime if you were mind controlled at the time? Is "I thought he was a faceless" valid grounds for a self-defense plea? Did you let the Lost overrun major cities because you, quote, "hate those missions"? Imagine getting called in front of a panel of snakes and asked did you kill their king, follow up question, are you wearing his skin right now?

The radio broadcasts do make reference to a "Global Truth and Reconciliation Commission", but their biggest achievement seems to be getting Advent Burger to change their name and start labeling the mind-altering chemicals they put in their food.

I think the humans and aliens could probably agree to forget about the "I was fighting mind-controlled gene slaves of the Elders/I was a mind-controlled gene slave of the Elders" stuff. The more awkward questions are going to be about, for example, whatever happened to all those human Advent VIPs who were snatched out of city centers, brought to the Avenger, and then never heard from or spoken of again?

# ¿ Nov 1, 2020 19:42

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Danaru posted:

Depends on how easily they talked, either we dumped them naked in the woods a kilometer from the closest city, or we swept whatever's left off the Avenger while flying over the ocean.

This is off the record, right?

Of course, Commander Kelly. Now, tell me about this room decorated with severed heads...

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Nov 2, 2020

# ¿ Nov 2, 2020 00:45

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

starbucks hermit posted:

snake lady themed strip club

Naming snake strip clubs must be a pain in the rear end.
"Hey, we goin' to the Viper Pit for Shelter's bachelor party?"
"The snake youth hostel? Why the heck would we go there?"
"I thought Viper Pit was the strip club?"
"That's Adders' Den, bro."
"No, Adders' Den is the snake food restaurant on Broadway."
"Cobra Club? Where did we buy Torque a no-lap dance last month then?"

# ¿ Nov 3, 2020 20:22

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

evilmiera posted:

The snake food place is just the local pet shop.

You gotta have multiple revenue streams when your primary customer demographic only eats once a week.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2020 07:43

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

W.T. Fits posted:

Protip: when it comes to breach points that have "The first/last unit through this point is rooted/has their weapon disabled" effects on them, use Zephyr in that spot. She has built-in immunity to being rooted, and since she punches/kicks people in the face, her weapon can't be disabled either.

It's... situational. Sending Zephyr through last greatly increases the chance that, unless you cover rush, you'll have to burn teamwork or other initiative powers to move her up the timeline before she gets shot to pieces.

E: Also glad to see Dan is a very smart and good dude who immediately recognized that you should

Dead Reckoning posted:

Always buy Impetuous Spire the instant you see it.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Nov 8, 2020

# ¿ Nov 8, 2020 01:58

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Crane Fist posted:

Wait, she can't be rooted? I never figured that out

It's in the tool tip on one of her abilities, easy to miss. Like Dan, I figured it out after she got hit with rooting and shrugged it off.

Also, yes, if Torque is binding the last enemy on a map, she snaps their loving neck for the sake of expediency. Fun fact, Vipers would do this in XCOM2 as well! :eng101:

# ¿ Nov 8, 2020 07:10

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Crane Fist posted:

That's almost too good

I just started up a new run and I'm forcing myself not to take Zephyr just so I have to use the other agents on their own merits instead of just going "okay who will assist her in punching better"

To be fair, I tackled Progeny first on my initial playthrough, so by the time I regularly saw enemies that could inflict rooted, I'd forgotten she was immune.

Shelter is actually an interesting agent with good timeline manipulation if you're willing to carry him past his incredibly lovely early levels. Hard counter for a lot of Gray Phoenix nonsense once he hits Senior Agent too.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2020 09:51

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

bunnyofdoom posted:

Go for assembly first. Two agents cuts research time in loving half.

I've never felt behind on research even without double-teaming it. Two agents on spec ops is where it's at IMO, in order to control anarchy/unrest and keep STAR operations rolling.

kaosdrachen posted:

Cherub is such a precious boy.

Cherub is top boy. (Terminal is S+++ girl.)

Kinfolk910 posted:

And that's why I'm not so much into Verge. Berserk doesn't always go after your enemies. If they can't see an enemy your own people are just as viable as a target. Some, I think, are hard coded to never go after enemy teammates. Either way they can still miss their allies and confirmation bias always has them hit you.

On the flip side Stupor is a coin flip. Either it stuns an enemy for a turn or they get one action anyway. Which they generally use to screw you up.

As a topper once you use it on an enemy you can't use it on them again.

The only enemies I've seen attack your agents are melee-only units like chryssalids and faceless. Gun enemies always shoot their friends if they have the option, and you can choose the one flanking their buddies, or the ones with the heaviest weapons. With stupor, forcing the enemy to choose between repositioning and shooting means they usually end up taking shots at agents in full cover instead of flanking. With the healing & shooting upgrades, Verge gets better the longer battles go on, getting positively tanky with a large network, and he can use Mindflay or his not-yet-seen Principal Agent power to turn the tide in big fights. A+ agent, I always bring him on boss missions for reasons we'll see later and to carry Impetuous Spire. None of the other assault rifle users can match him.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Nov 12, 2020

# ¿ Nov 12, 2020 08:04

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

I rest my case.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2020 08:27

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

They don't do a good job of explaining it, but: all of the breach items are "bombs", all the items you can use in combat are "grenades." So Cease Fire Bomb is a breach item and the Cease Fire Grenade can be tossed mid encounter.

The text box for Praetorian's duel that disappeared too fast said that, when duel is active, the Praetorian and their target cannot miss each other.

To bind, Torque needs to be directly adjacent to the target; she can't be on a diagonal. (Tight bind was a prime pick, BTW.)

Patchwork does a lot of murders because all(?) her abilities do lethal damage.

Honestly, Torque's dialog in HQ is much better than her combat dialog. I feel like they finished her battle lines before they fully fleshed her character out.

Clarste posted:

The main problem with Verge is that he needs time to set-up his Neural Network and by that time everything is already dead.

This is not the case on higher difficulties, and in any case Banish is such a ridiculously good ability that it's worth picking a favorite assault rifle carrier and leveling them up.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2020 06:29

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

My theory on faceless is that moving in human form is like walking around crouched down and hunched over. Feels good to stretch out.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 23:18

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

bunnyofdoom posted:

Ffs my brain. I did mean Torque

Verge is the one who can unhinge his jaw and swallow an enemy whole at Principal Agent, easy mistake to make.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 08:59

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Yeah, tight squeeze is pro strats.

Phalanx only covers other agents coming through that breach point. Sending everyone through different breaches means it only works for him :/

I think subdue attacks pierce all armor, including Cherub's.

"Help" grenades like kinetic screen and motile inducer aren't area of effect, they target an individual agent.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Nov 23, 2020

# ¿ Nov 23, 2020 06:44

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

As I noted earlier, XCOM has some shady activities of their own from the war years and immediate post war period, so it's probably for the best that everyone agreed to forget and let bygones be bygones.

Also, as Dan said, the other timeline is Muton gulags or death camps, which is maybe a little more grimdark than most people want.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2020 03:20

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

E: Dan, all those guys' guns were unloaded because you threw a cease fire bomb on them.

bunnyofdoom posted:

.....can we not do this?

Something Awful in the Chimera Squad universe has a cursed deviantart thread with a bunch of goons saying, "What if, instead of tails, snake ladies had hyper-detailed feet? Haha, that would be a weird thing to see pictures of."

Flesnolk posted:

Also after the whole "killing everyone's pets and livestock" thing they can shut up and get on the dinner table as far as I'm concerned.

Settle down, Leona Helmsley.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Nov 25, 2020

# ¿ Nov 25, 2020 07:19

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Honestly I find dominators more worrysome, because the AI seems really smart about how it uses mind control in this game.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2020 07:24

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

They're glass cannons: annoying when they hit, but simply lacking the toughness of Praetorians or Sorcerers.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2020 23:37

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

Way to clutch that first mission out, that was awesome.

Praetorians get an armor pip every time they get hit, and they go away on the Praetorian's turn.

When you want to bind someone with Torque, she has to be directly adjacent to the target, not on a diagonal. She and the target form a two-square wide object, so she isn't in cover unless she and the target were both in cover before the bind.

Giving her the impact frame is choice, because she can pull a target over and then smack them. Also, if you don't want to kill someone with a bind, you can bind them for a turn and then smack them with the impact frame for a total 9-10 damage.

You keep listening to Floyd because Cherub and Terminal like him, and he's my favorite character.

Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Dec 7, 2020

# ¿ Dec 7, 2020 07:06

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

It's great that you've had Patchwork on covert ops duty since wrapping up Sacred Coil and she still has the highest body count.

Cherub is a good boy, and his Principal Agent power is *staggeringly* good. I seriously think taking the left side of his upgrade path is worth it to maximize charges, because if you pop Overcharge with a full meter, you basically win that encounter, no questions asked.

Verge was in favor of the extermination of humanity before he was against it. Best not to dwell on whether he might change his mind again.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2020 08:31

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:32

Dead Reckoning: Sep 13, 2011

The sectopod is such a huge disappointment in this game. You poo poo your pants when it stomps out, but it turns out that it has a fraction of its normal health, doesn't get three actions per turn, and only has two pips of armor. The biggest threat is getting your CQB characters wounded by its death explosion.

Mikl posted:

Like you said, this was entirely unnecessary. Just go to xcom and tell them "We wanna fly spaceships, we'll take you wherever you wanna go." Bingo, situation solved.
...
Honestly I just kinda wanna slap whoever Atlas is in their stupid face. I bet it's some kind of political ploy, using minorities (as well as Actual Fascists) to try and gain power.

IDK, I feel like a group of disaffected and poorly reintegrated former combatants who have been doing organized crime asking for the keys to their own air force would have been a non-starter.

Also, I am sad to report that Atlas' plan is far dumber than that.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2020 22:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Fighting Fascism and Xenophobia wherever it lurks, Let's Play XCOM: Chimera Squad

«‹›2 »