The Commander's Field Manual to The War of the Chosen - Let's Play Xcom 2

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Commander's Field Manual to The War of the Chosen - Let's Play Xcom 2

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Soylent Pudding posted:

My favorite root beer review series is back!

# ¿ Dec 17, 2021 04:44

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 02:28

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Jobbo_Fett posted:

WotC is really loving good and nobody should have to play OG XCOM2 if they have access to the expansion.

Yeah, WoTC just adds so much depth to the game, both strategically and tactically that I've actually tried to go back to original XCOM2 (a game I loved when it first came out) and just can't.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2021 21:05

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Random comments on the video:
-I just love that the WOTC resistance faction voice acting is basically a Star Trek TNG reunion. It's subtle enough that you can miss it, but it's a cute little Easter egg.
-I find the Lost to be kind of hit or miss. Sometimes, they're incredibly interesting, adding tension to the mission or just flavor as they hassle both you and ADVENT. But I found they'd often be more of an annoyance than really impacting my ability to get the mission done. They're probably a net positive in terms of being added to the game, just that sometimes in missions, they seem to fall flat.
-By comparison, the Chosen are a freaking awesome addition to the game. I hope you write up a nice post about each of them along the way because I'd love to understand more about how they generate their strengths/weaknesses, how to address said strengths/weaknesses, and just generally reading your thoughts on handling them.
-Since you mentioned I Am Legend: The movie didn't really go into their ability to reproduce, but the original book storyline did have them forming a society and learning to reproduce. In fact, this is kind of the entire point of the book's title - Neville eventually realizes that the vampires are not merely mindless undead but are effectively a new race that's going to replace humans, and he's going to end up being the monster of their legends.

Bruceski posted:

Bundaberg (I pronounce it boondaberg) does make good ginger beer. I got it regularly until I discovered Fentimans, which goes straight to the sinuses.

I can't speak for Bundaberg's ginger beer because ginger beer is basically the only type of craft soda I don't like, but their root beer is quite tasty.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2022 04:22

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Cythereal posted:

I like Total Combat, personally. I find it very handy for when I need the skirmisher to do a full move, but this lets them also throw a grenade in that turn as well. It's part of how I use skirmishers as hyper-mobile utility characters.

Total Combat is kind of a C-tier ability to me. It's has some uses but isn't stellar - but it's competing against a poo poo ability in Reflex, so I'll often end up taking it if there's no good X-Com option rolled in the tier.

Also, it wasn't mentioned in the video but Reflex is actually worse than you were describing, because it only triggers once per mission. So you get one bonus action point over the entire course of a mission and you can't really control when you get said bonus action point.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2022 16:16

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Cythereal posted:

What I think Enemy Unknown/Within missed most was uncertainty beyond the dice. I thought it was a real shame that every enemy had one pre-set list of stats and abilities, if you see them you know what they'll do or at least what they're capable of. I think the game desperately needed a feeling that you could never be completely certain of what's in front of you and what the aliens can do.

I think this would be a pretty cool addition. Obviously you can't make infinite options and it needs to be balanced, but even just like every alien breed having a couple potential bonus abilities and then it's a dice roll which one an individual alien on the map rolls, so every combat is a little different rather than firmly knowing every single Sectoid can do X and Y.

quote:

X-COM 2 also missed that, but it's a ways down my list of issues with the COMMANDER SOMEONE STUBBED HER TOE ON DECK FOUR YOU NEED TO GET DOWN THERE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

Outside of the first hour or so of tutorial where they send you from place to place within the ship specifically because it's a hand-holding tutorial, I never really felt like this was an issue myself. Also, Bradford needs to shut the hell up in terror missions because yes I got it, we're here to save people, let me work dude.

Besides that, there's always too much to do with the tactical map but that's intentional: You have to make choices with your scanning time to balance between long-term benefits (scanning new regions, radio relays, etc) versus the instant benefit of spending those days scanning for supplies/rookies/whatever, all while also staring at the Avatar Project's slowly ticking doom timer.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2022 23:57

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Bruceski posted:

...um, Guava? The Hoover Dam is between Nevada and Arizona, not New Mexico. But you got closer than most folks do to figuring out where we are..

It's southeast of New Vegas near a couple of Vaults, c'mon, everybody knows that. :smuggo:

# ¿ Mar 28, 2022 01:58

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 02:28

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

I don't know if I've ever used EMP grenades when playing this game. Just always struck me as kind of a pain in the rear end since they were so limited - am I sure there are even mechanical units on this mission? how many are there? will they be in the same pod or is it basically one dude per pod so there's never a great use? etc.

But it definitely makes a lot more sense if you know in advance that it's going to be a target-rich environment like in this case.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2022 14:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Commander's Field Manual to The War of the Chosen - Let's Play Xcom 2