Forgot we didn't have a thread. Inspired by RPS posting some screenies.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...ss-screenshots
Looks lovely. Want it very much. I'd love it if the different weather played a part.
Printable View
Forgot we didn't have a thread. Inspired by RPS posting some screenies.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...ss-screenshots
Looks lovely. Want it very much. I'd love it if the different weather played a part.
Loved the original X com on the PS1 so fingers crossed for this.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...com-2-preview/
So much to like there. I'm glad it's not just "Enemy Unknown but you're nominally the aggressor."
More stuff:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...ombat-preview/
That should be a good change. As said in there, it was frustrating in EU/EW when you'd painstakingly haul your team across however many yards of cover and short hops only to suddenly have a swarm of mutons suddenly know you're there and swoop down on you. That was part of what made the mechs and MELD so satisfying in EW, gave you more of a feeling that you were actually the aggressor for a change.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...customisation/
I'm going to spend way too much time farting about in that. But the thing I really liked in that article is:
Quote:
The terrain and buildings react to damage far more this time round and I actually managed to destroy a third turret that was firing down on my squad from a rooftop by blowing the roof out from beneath it. The device fell right through and shattered into pieces on the floor.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...m-2-preview-2/
A month left. :drool:
And a more in-depth video showing the customisation options.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cBdCpfNfn8
Swords! I'd forgotten there were swords.
My laptop is JUST short of the minimum requirements. I'll be damned if I don't try it anyway.
The concealment stuff just sounds so good, for two reasons. Of course for being the aggressor but also for the "Oh FUUUUUCK" moments when all your careful minutes of planning immediately unravel.
I'm also going to enjoy the soldier dress-up far, far too much. Think I'll name all my dudes and dudettes after TTHers.
I think I'm due another play of the original game.
Didn't realise it was out on Friday. Shiiiiii. My weekend sorted.
Bought and installing. :drool:
If the post-work pub-chat is shit today it's definitely getting sacked off for this.
So, as well as two I've already taken on missions so I won't be renaming I have four TTH recruits ready to go on my next mission. The four who've posted in this thread: Ian Welby, Ital Aussie, Hfs Wjyr (no New Zealand nationality :( ) and Andrew Thirdhalf (anybody with a name less easily split up will be from the Thirdhalf clan.) Appearances will be semi randomised, as will nationalities if I don't know where you're actually from, ethnicities, etc.
They'll be rolling out (without any experienced soldiers due to injuries....) for the first time later this afternoon.
I've only done the tutorial and the first scripted mission so far which didn't throw up anything exciting but I can say the concealment stuff is really cool and I'm definitely going to spend far too much time dressing my soldiers up.
I'm about to give this a first go.
My mate claims they've made this harder than the last one, which is worrying as I was fairly bad at that. They've apparently made the snipers worse, and they were pretty much 100% of my strategy.
Still, at least I get to give everyone a pink hat now.
This does look rather good, shame I'll have to get around to playing the previous one first.
https://i.imgur.com/bJWIvAo.jpg
The Lads. :cool:
If any of you even look vaguely similar to real life then that's purely by chance. If anybody has posted mugshots on here before and wants to link it in here so I can get you a bit more accurate for when I report your pitiful death feel free.
We all look a bit similar gear-wise just now because I tend to colour-code by squads by soldier class (might change that in this one with so many more options) and I used to keep rookies in white in EU so I could immediately spot them if I wanted to protect or sacrifice them.
I also appear to have forgotten to give the rest of you helmets. Favouritism, clearly.
EDIT: Technically I was the first TTH casualty but I failed the mission and it made me replay it, so a reprieve.
Finished it at the second attempt without a casualty. Ital took a pasting though.
Promotions all round.
Ian Welby - Promoted to sharpshooter. :cool:
Ital Aussie - Promoted to grenadier, so he gets a BFG and a grenade launcher.
Hfs Wyjr - Promoted to Specialist, so he gets a little flying droid thing that I can use to turn him into either a "combat hacker" or a specialist medic type. Which at this point I'll probably do when I get the chance.
Andrew - Also a grenadier.
I have also recruited Cord Uroy, and styled him as a cheesy action movie star as we share a liking for crap action films. Had I been making it how I imagine him to look he'd probably have had a big beard.
Toggle Spoiler
EDIT: Cord promoted to Ranger, so he'll be cutting fools up.
Also, I'm going to get annoyed if every bloody mission has a timer on it.
The swarthy complexion on that :drool:
I'm being fairly rubbish at this, and it keeps giving me completely bald Frenchwomen as new recruits. Other than that, I'm enjoying it.
I will be getting this at some point.
Keep me posted on the dressing up part. Somehow I always end up spending to much time on those parts of games.
I swear at least half of the original game was spent on inventory management.
New recruits!
S.Disco, a man the randomiser has given a very large forehead indeed:
Toggle Spoiler
Pat Patje, who's black because the randomiser values racial diversity in my otherwise caucasian sausage-fest.
Toggle Spoiler
And Ma How, who had a beard in that mugshot, right?
Toggle Spoiler
I downloaded this earlier. Never played the last one, will that matter?
Sign me up Ian. I'll be happy enough to polish the boots and do the laundry. I'll leave the fighting to the big boys.
You haven't downloaded it really, have you? You just want to be on Ian's game. :D
(I'm looking forward to seeing my likeness. If you can be arsed chasing up a mugshot, base it on Leighton Baines)
Ha, I have actually. Though it's the main reason I asked my question, much like why you've replied. ;)
It's not necessary to have played Enemy Unknown, the story isn't very deep.
Disco gets promoted on his debut mission, he's a sharpshooter now.
Patje..... Patje's gone, lads. :cry:
Killed two aliens in his first mission before being shot in the back while heroically running away from some others in fear.
Typical Dutchie.
Firaxis not pulling the punches, my hairline isn't quite that bad...yet. Although in for a penny and all that, give him a huge flapping combover.
Cord has expressed his utter regret at stopping Mahow being constricted to death by a big alien megasnake.
Mahow has been promoted to specialist.
I really need to work on unlocking more spaces in my on-mission squads.
Specialist :cool:
Clearly they know what they're talking about.
Get me involved Ian, I'd like to see if I can survive more than a few seconds.
Tempted to run out and get this, loved the original game on the PS1?!?!?
The Third Half massive are humanity's last and only hope!!!!
Thirdhalf Mike has volunteered to join the crew and has already got sufficient skills that he will immediately become a Corporal in the ranger (sword-dude) class.
EDIT: New picture, partly because I've researched some new armor to show off. Mostly because I've taken Mike's bandana off and learned that the game has given him a sweet 'tache.
Toggle Spoiler
It's really shit that the game lies to you about how good you're going to be at hacking a turret or mec and then punishes you when you fail. All the time.
That picture of me could easily be a photo. Its uncanny.
I want to get in on this game so bad.
Experienced grenadier, Sergeant Pee "P_3" Three, has joined the ranks.
Toggle Spoiler
You're a big, cigar-chomping black dude, right?
He looks high af.
Yeah, I noticed after I posted it that I've somewhat caught him blinking.
Or high. :uhoh:
EDIT:
I'm going to do a proper rundown of what all the TTHers look like, are up to, etc. later this afternoon but he's a sneak preview of 80s action b-movie star Cord Uroy brooding on the title screen:
Toggle Spoiler
So you don't have to edit them in after.
Yeah, I need to go and delete the ones I have and save them back in again because I've saved some duplicates and I can't be arsed working out what's what.
Anyway, a roundup of where the TTH gang are so far.
There would have been more dead but my only actual deaths have come in missions it made me replay. Lucky.
The Dead
Toggle Spoiler
The Team
Toggle Spoiler
The Alien Murder Premier League
1 - Lt. Cord - 15 kills (4 missions.)
2 - Lt. Andrew - 13 kills (6 missions)
3 - Lt. Aussie - 12 kills (5 missions)
While I am obviously the best there, I am slightly worried by the sword specialisation.
The amount of 90%+ sword hits I've missed leading to my ranger sat directly in front of an enemy just waiting to get murdered. I suspect it's a short but glorious existence twatting giant carniverous ray-gun toting aliens with a sword.
The only time the sword has proven to be an error in judgement so far was when I tried it on a completely healthy muton, who'd have laughed in my pathetic face were it not for the fact that they're bred only for violence and rage.
2nd place....
Story of my life so far.😢
This is brilliant "Old Man" Welby. And you've clearly got it spot on, I am obviously a nerdy looking black man.
Hoping to get playing this soon. Praying my laptop will run it.
I have to say it is quite performance issue-y. Playable on my very low end of the specs laptop, but the frame rate can be a problem and the loading times can be excessive.
Hopefully they can improve that in a patch, because otherwise this is top stuff.
The loading times are pretty shit even on my fairly swish machine. Though oddly the only issues I have performance-wise are on the loading screen, oddly, when it pans in to those otherwise really cool menu screens. Otherwise I'm fine. The camera is wonky as fuck sometimes, panning through walls during "dramatic" mid-level cut-scenes and the like.
Anyway, Vowels, see what CanYouRunIt says:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri
Incidentally it says a lot that a few of you are right into this and I'm not even really reporting on missions much, let alone posting video AARs or anything. Just dressing up avatars with your names who don't look especially like you. :D
If I owned a gun, I would 100% name it "Science". Not even a joke.
I just can't be bothered putting up whole missions, I should be doing more mini-AARs and amusing anecdotes though.
For example, in a mission I played there was a train carriage made up of some sort of explosive container which I had the option to shoot and blow up, but didn't. I forgot this was basically a giant explosive barrel until I had Mahow perched atop it, with about four aliens drawing beads on him.... :rosebud:
Yeah, select missions is the way to go, I intended to do highlights depending on how much interesting stuff happened. Same with CK2, roundup videos would be the way to go as there would be massive amounts of tedious footage.
So I decided that since I'm recruting pre-levelled people sometimes anyway I might as well transform these two gimps I've had with me since the start into TTHers.
Firstly is the story of an Irish bird called Jane Kelly, who it turns out had been a man masquerading as a woman all along. But thankfully the XCOM doctors have managed to solve her identity crisis and revealed "his" true persona...
Lt. "Banned" Baz, who for the purposes of this photoshoot is also modelling my new "EXO" armor, which includes a wrist-mounted rocket launcher and is the business.
Toggle Spoiler
Be thankful you're here, Baz. Mahow had to carry your previous, womanly incarnation through basically an entire mission after you immediately got knocked unconscious by a muton. This probably also means he copped a feel while you were knocked out.
Similarly, what was previously thought to be a small Polish woman named Lena has in fact transpired to be a large, ginger man with a ridiculous haircut/face/fashion sense by the name of:
Lt. Slaven "Hammer" Byron, who calls his rifle Big Sam.
Toggle Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCgTKv7NHLc
Fred Dineage, its good to see you.
Time for the Akehurst Boys to mess some shit up!
Love the mullet on Baz!!
For anybody who played Enemy Unknown it's worth pointing out that they've done wonders with the procedurally generated maps in this. No more rocking up to the exact same petrol station for the 43rd time. You'll obviously get some where they're based on being the same sort of area but they've generally mixed them up really well.
Can I be in this?!
Anybody who posts in here will get a shot as I recruit more soldiers. Currently Shinners and Phonics are ahead of you but there'll be plenty of death to come, no doubt. Might actually buy some recruits, I could probably do with them.
I've got this running. It's amazing.
Where are you up to Ian? I'm just past the black market and starting to figure out the comm links.
Had one mission where all but 1 rookie died. The last rookie took out 4 alien scum by herself and finished the mission with 2 bars of life. By far the most intense and closest XCOM win I've had. She looked fucking sad and alone on the Skyranger trip home too. Really short of leaders in my team at the moment, just hanging on with squaddies.
I just had a nice and useful bug where the enemies stopped moving or attacking me.
Still only completed the mission on the last turn :face:
I think this save is ballsed, possibly due to the bug, and also because I've now got only 3 Avatar project bar things to go. All I'll say to people is build a comms room thing early. The game doesn't tell you that, but you're screwed if you don't, as far as I can tell.
I've taken my first Black Site and have built a comms room so I can head to Australia for the next one because my Advent bar is looking worrying. Got magnetic rifles and shotguns, plated armour, that EXO armour I showed off and now a set of Spider armor which will be for the use of snipers. Mostly through luck I think I'm in slightly better nick than Cord.
I've taken 2 Black Sites and am aiming for a third but I have almost no upgrades or supplies so I think I've fucked this run tbh.
One thing the developers have done very well on (being massive bastards), is that unlike Enemy Unknown, there are now absolutely no enemy types that I'm happy to see appear. On EU, there'd always be a sigh of relief if you saw some Sectoids or Thin Men taking up some of the enemy force, whereas on this every enemy type has some sort of unique ability that makes them troublesome.
Sectoids basically have the same abilities as the bosses from EU and since the ADVENT troopers on mine have gained the heavy armour with the deeply, deeply irritating ability to give everyone around them an armour boost, they've gone straight up in my estimation from the mookiest mook to ever mook to the ones I look to kill ASAP.
Yeah, I think as I went through EU I had a pretty firm hierarchy of what had to die first in a given group of enemies (FUCK YOU, CHRYSSALIDS) but now it's way more situational.
And the second TTH death is............
Toggle Spoiler
And here's what happened.
Tasked with destroying a transmitter so as to disrupt the aliens' network and slow down their progress on the "Avatar Project", I had snuck through a run-down urban area and set up the perfect ambush. Spotting a trio of armored infantry patrolling on an overpass, the squad carefully scaled the pillars ("Old Man" Welby grappling his way up courtesy of his new Spider armor) and set up the perfect ambush of the three. And it worked. But A touch too much caution meant that by the time the armored soldiers were dealt with (two dead, one had fled half-dead) there were only moments to spare to take out the transmitter before they completed their transmission and the moment had passed. The two specialists, Corporal Mahow and Lieutenant Byron, rushed to the edge of the overpass to get line of sight on the transmitter. Between them and their shiny new magnetic assault rifles they took it down, but not without drawing the attention of two snakemen, a codex, a muton and three new armored infantry brought in by dropship as reinforcements.
Realising that we were never going to kill them all without taking serious hurt, the Avenger was called in to provide an emergency evac from the overpass.... but just as the squad were making their way to safety Mahow was tongue-grabbed and hauled down to surface-level, far out of reach of his comrades, to die in the coils of an 'orrible snake twat. Whilst also being shot by the other aliens. Ouch.
RIP, Mahow.
Fuck :(
But despite, or possibly even because of, Mahow's gruesome death XCOM continues to recruit.
Shindig, a rookie sharpshooter has joined the ranks with his porno tache and a braided ponytail I forgot to include in this shot. He is also wearing the Spider armor, for showing-off purposes.
Also in is MF Phonics, who will be sent for further training before he goes out on any missions as a medic and specialist to fill Mahow's gamer chair in the mess.
Toggle Spoiler
I'm wearing a hat so that's my character nailed.
Relax, Ian. I've done Movember so I know what I look like with a suspect mustache. Ponytail, though. Those days are long gone. :(
Forgot to post Shinners:
Toggle Spoiler
Also just hit a bug Cord mentioned where the enemies randomly stop moving or attacking you, which made my first encounter with the new (fucking huge) berserker an anti-climax.
Still, Vowels and Cord became the joint-first Captains among my ranks, meaning I can start taking six people at a time as soon as I have ANY MONEY.
Just quit after some massive bullshit. Ran into yet another group of 4 people activating them as usual. They all ran past the guy who activated them, slid across the entire map (I assume it was a bug) and killed 3 people in one turn. I quit.
I think I've lost this save. Advent bar is about 70% full, and I've only just got enough soldiers to make a squad. Worried about taking the Black Site, and have just failed to stop a Dark Event (missed it by 1 turn!).
I've only reloaded once when I completely failed the mission. I'm going to carry on until I lose, but after that I'm not sure if I should go back to a previous save point, or restart altogether.
I've got two or three Advent bars left but I've now also upgraded my heavy cannon things, I'm up to 6 chaps per mission and another set of EXO armor so somebody else gets a) a free rocket-launch per mission and a bit more armor. I've also got access to a Black Site in Australia so hopefully I'm on the road to bringing it back a bit.
On the flipside I've now encountered archons and muton berserkers so shit's getting real. :(
Some RPS XCOM diaries:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201.../xcom-2-diary/
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...com-2-ironman/
For players having performances issues (#oioi). Mine's actually running fine 95% of the time so I'm loathe to fiddle with it. But here it is:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...rformance-fix/
And some stats:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...1/xcom2-stats/
Me and Cord were discussing the slight rubbishness of grenadiers before I then totted up the stats and learned that two of my biggest hitters are grenadiers. I think in part this is because they have more armour and are thus able to take more hits and be in more missions, etc. but still, I think they're better than they actually seem early doors. I know that now a well-placed grenade can make or break an engagement with a group of enemies, whether it be shredding armor or destroy cover for the other lads to take their shot.
Oh, and what's the deal with hacking? I haven't done it since basically the first 2 missions. Am I missing something in the environment? When do you get the chance to hack (other than mission objectives obviously).
I haven't found anything to hack outside of the surveillance towers if you don't have the Combat Protocol Perk.
There are mission-specific chests and things as well. The game suggests there will be other supply chests and things but I don't know.
The game also lies even more about your chances of hacing success than it does about shooting, Lies to you and then punishes you when you fail.
I think I need a moment to celebrate just how fucking mad my hair is. How the aliens won't spot me a mile off I've no clue.
You get to hack robotic enemies as well, either to disable them or sometimes to take control completely. I'm quite a big fan of my techie fella.
I'm going to have to start again though, which I'm slightly struggling to find the enthusiasm for at the moment, despite really enjoying the first go.
Well this has convinced me to break out the copy of XCOM Enemy Unknown I got as a gift for Christmas.
You should definitely do that. It's still ace. Even if, given you got it for free, it ends up as you deciding to jump up to XCOM2 when we tell you about some of the EU gripes which have been fixed.
A satisfyingly flawless (and therefore slightly anticlimactic) sabotage mission to an alien facility sees me knock them off their stride for the Avatar project and no less than FOUR promotions for the six soldiers who completed it.
Specialist Vowels becomes Major, Byron makes Captain along with my best sharpshooter, Disco. Rastafarian grenadier P_3 becomes Lieutenant.
Major. I like it.
What difficulty are you playing on? I'm about to turn mine down to easy - I'm really struggling to keep my team alive.
This thread has made me dust off Enemy Unknown. Disappointingly I never finished a run I had back in 2014 and haven't a clue what I'm doing.
Just on normal, Vowels. I've been fortunate in that my biggest losses were in early missions where it made me replay them because absolutely everybody died. I've been uber-cautious quite a lot of the time.
Anyway, welcome to the newest recruit. Raoul Duke, who has been trained in grenading things and terrorist headscarf-wearing skills.
Toggle Spoiler
And more news! I had a mission where
Toggle Spoiler
Picked up a few injuries but everybody lived. I rode my luck hard early on and now my squad is really very handy.
For their heroics, there were promotions:
Slaven @Byron who becomes a Major.
@Cord also makes Major
@ItalAussie makes Captain
As does @Andrew
Also introducing a new recruit and first psi ops soldier Laurent Robert, who will of course be nicknamed @Samadini once he's progressed enough for a nickname to be available. He currently has the ability to put enemies briefly in stasis but I'm going to keep training him and have him able to mind-control aliens as well. :cool:
Toggle Spoiler
Aww yiss. I look fucking badass :drool:
You actually do. That pose looked better than I thought. I just got bored of waiting for you to look at the camera and took the shot.
Me and Cord tried a multiplayer game there. It went... hm. So it took us ages to a) fix our voice chat (team speak and in-game clashing) and b) disconnects. We eventually got in and got started and it was fun and tense and all that and then.... yeah, it disconnected. Dunno if the issue was at one of our ends or if it's the game.
We'd also done a bit of a shit job at making the most of our aliens. I couldn't work out how to get my berserker to hit anything, neither of us made the most of our snakeman skills, Cord had started to abuse his sectoid before I ran it through with a sword.
My Codex was doing quite nicely and ruining Cord's day but then the game dropped. I think we'd both got three soldiers left at that point.
Hero of the hour but no promotion.
As far as I can tell you only get promotions for killing aliens. You didn't do much of that. Which is a bit wank, really, I'd say anything that's a mission objective should get you XP.
The game clearly thinks your luxuriant barnet is it's own reward.
El Capitano. :cool:
Much like real life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GCzwXkhPbw
More promotions!
Old Man Welby and Mike promoted to Captain, Phonics to Sergeant, Duke to Corporal.
And because I've got the AWC some of those got extra free skills that aren't normally part of their class. :cool:
Something else worth noting that the game doesn't make clear, you can "fail" a guerrilla mission and still stop the Dark Event you were setting out to stop, or so it seems to me. So you might fail because you evac because you don't want to risk your squad trying to kill the remaining enemies BUT if you complete the primary objective and then fuck off you'll fail the mission but stop the Dark Event from happening. It means you won't get loot or the main mission reward but it'll help your overall progress.
EDIT: Got your promotion, Baz, by cutting an alien's face off with a sword. :cool:
Shinners up to Lieutenant as well.
Sure, this is XCOM EU, but I've just discovered you can switch weapons mid-battle. I was pleasantly surprised when I pressed square (PS3) whilst planning an attack with a heavy only for him to pull out a great big bazooka. :drool:
Also I'm sure I've asked this on the old board, but is there anything stopping me from collecting lots of money and whooping the occasional UFO before progressing with the story? I have to build a skeleton key and I'm just putting it off in pursuit of maxing my squad. Is that alright?
You want a bigger squad but you also want satellites before it all comes crumbling down.
Anyway, TTH Alien Force updates. First up MORE promotions.
Cord becomes a Colonel, Disco a Major and Phonics a Lieutenant.
I've also done some videos!
First up, Disco showing off the grappling capabilities of the spider armour:
Toggle Spoiler
Cord executing a fellow he'd just stunned with his electro-sword:
Toggle Spoiler
Cord again, this time just hacking a dude to death:
Toggle Spoiler
And finally Sama showing off his psi-ops skills:
Toggle Spoiler
The guy who panics at the end of that last one went on the shoot one of his own alien chums in fear. Sama then mind-controlled another who and used his abilities to give Team TTH shields. Sama. :cool:
Mods!
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...t-xcom-2-mods/
I would consider the True Concealment one on a future playthrough.
Also the explanation doesn't stop this amusing me:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...2-load-faster/
tl;dr version is that people found that hitting caps lock during the lengthy loads would finish the game loading things much quicker.
EDIT: Lads. Lads. :(
Toggle Spoiler
And with the sad news above, I needed to bolster the ranks. Welcome @randomlegend to the ranks, who becomes our second psi-ops chap. He is also showing off the new power armor we've developed in a lovely shade of psi-ops purple.
Toggle Spoiler
A big gay man (presumably to drive a big gay van) :cool:
Sadly we travel about the place in a shitty futuristic plane but rest assured, for any ground infiltrations the van will be a large, gay Rocket League van.
Last update of the night, we've made a set of armour called the WAR suit. Modelled here by @Andrew, it has swish armor stats and for the forthcoming mission I shall be mounting a flamethrower to it. There shall be videos of things coming once I get chance to play the next mission.
Toggle Spoiler
Unlike the power armor showed off by Randrew above, this one isn't a general upgrade it's a special individual suit. Andrew shall be setting fire to many an alien, I hope.
No.
This is totally unacceptable. I was raised fighting Australian wildlife just to get to grenadier school. No sectopod is going to kill me where emus, stingrays and snakes failed. Dammit.
Am I the highest ranking officer? What're my abilities?
Gotta say, going out to a sectopod is a bit of an anti-climax.
Scratch that. I thought it was a sectoid. Sectopod death is worthy.
I shall reign fire upon the alien scum, in memory of the fallen Ital!!!!!
I had left Ital in a somewhat compromised position because I needed to use his attack to ensure that not everybody else died because he knocked a massive hole in the sectopod's armour. In hindsight I could perhaps have used my two specialists a bit more aggresively with Vowels stopping the alien SOS transmission remotely and Byron hacking the sectopod (which he did, to temporarily shut it down, the turn after it wasted Ital.) I thought Ital would be safe to survive one attack before we hit the sectopod again next turn. :(
If you're not highest you're joint-highest. And you are a healing machine. You can do a bit of hacking with your GREMLIN bot but not enemy robots. You're geared towards keeping everybody else alive, though you do a fair bit of damage yourself. Your final skill-up gave you the ability to send your bot round healing, reviving and removing debuffs from the whole party, though I assume it is either a one-off or has a killer cooldown.
I died so that my team would live? I'll cop to that.
http://www.quotehd.com/imagequotes/a...ied-a-hero.jpg
The bards will write songs of my sacrifice. Don't let this be in vain, you lot.
So it wasn't a good mission for sharpshooter Ian "Old Man" Welby. Tasked with extracting a VIP we were warned in advance that it was going to be a strong alien force standing in our way, including a Gatekeeper. An enemy I encountered briefly on the last mission right before I called in an emergency evac and escaped an ambush before I could find out what it actually does.
So things were off to a hectic but manageable start, right up until an archon brought down half of the roof of a building we were perched on. Everybody escaped both the blast and the fall but it left Welby in a bit of a sticky position. After a grappling-hook powered escape to a slightly less precarious foothold he was shot at from afar by ANOTHER archon.... which sent him flying off the building. He survived the fall but would bleed out if not attended to pronto. While the rest of the squad fended off the surviving enemies, Captain MF "Admin" @phonics sent his Gremlin droid over to stabilise Welby. And then Colonel Slaven @Byron, fresh off executing the Gatekeeper (he has a 5% chance to one-shot an enemy) carried my useless arse to the evac (only briefly dropping me to disable an enemy MEC droid.)
Toggle Spoiler
:wub:
How much progress have you made, do you feel? What are the maps like? Mainly city ones or are there plenty of wide open areas like in EU? How bad are my 'nade-cooking skills?
I've finally completed EU. Thought I was a don ensuring everyone survived to the end, but turned out I was playing on Easy the whole time. Just started again on Impossible and am getting my ass handed to me in the introductory mission. I miss my Plasma weapons and Titan Armour. :(
The Avatar bar is constantly hovering around the "nearly full" mark because I keep dithering for supply drops and letting research and stuff finish but I'm about ready to start hitting black sites and story missions harder and more regularly to start pushing back against the aliens a bit. And I've got a lot of good gear. One thing I would like to get if I can build up the supplies is the alien psi-amp because I'm enjoying my psi ops dudes very much (@randomlegend's guy has the ability to detonate any grenades or whatever that an enemy might have on them, or lingering on the corpse of a dead enemy amongst other things) and that'd give them an extra boost.
I'm running out of things to research though so unless there are more enemies to come I must be at such a point where I'll end up pushing through the story stuff now.
Map-wise it's a vast, vast improvement on Enemy Unknown. There are four or five base types of map, randomly generated, and some of them can have different weather effects and stuff as well. In EU you'd find yourself on identikit maps but while you'll encounter ones on this which are thematically similar I don't recall hitting one and finding it to be basically the same as one I'd done previously.
I'm a fucking boss evidently.
You are a bit. With the "bluescreen" rounds which fuck up robots' defenses your guy is now pretty swish at hacking the buggers once somebody's shot them when those bullets. Trying to take control of them is still a gamble but disabling them for a few turns is now a safe-ish bet.
Sama is a bit of a hero as well. Psi ops guys are so good.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...st-class-tips/
There's no particular eye-openers in here if you've played a fair bit already but if you're starting and like hints and tips there'll be some good stuff in here.
EDIT: @Disco makes Colonel. :cool:
I'm starting to think Overwatch is actually awful. It always misses.
My specialists are pretty much the overwatchers of my team. They get that +10 aim when they take a shot from overwatch.
Overwatch is a reduced aim shot so on average I think you're down to a60% or so chance, not counting your skills or enemies which are harder to hit. I've taken to moving everybody once then going round the squad and moving a guy or two further forward so if enemies are nearby I can take some proper shots.
Risky but if you're cautious and don't stretch too far it can work a treat.
I've taken the plunge lads. What mods are worth it and do I start on Hard from the off?
Go on the one above easy. This games so hard you might end up turning it down anyway.
Get the 'Stop Wasting My Time' mod and you're fine.
Putting this on Hard mode may have been a mistake. Can't even get past the first proper mission, on account of that generator being on a fucking timer.
So move it down to normal. They've said themselves that they feel they made an error in calling the lowest level Rookie.
My top tip for the timers, by the way, is not to try and use them as an invite to stealth the game. You WILL die. Use them as a means of setting up your first encounter(s) as well for yourself as you can.
There is no greater feeling than this;
https://gyazo.com/17577d501f0ec78b98896a75886dc119.png
That said, it took some serious badassery from Jane Kelly, who not only killed an officer on Overwatch but had to run into range of a burning building, knowing that if she failed to kill the Sectoid, she would be torn apart by the reanimated soldier and the mind-controlled Astrid. She fucking donned it however :cool:
And just had my first :( moment.
Simple enough mission, move forward to a vehicle, extract the VIP and EVAC via the rooftop. Charlie's Angels (as all my recruits thus far have been women due to RNGesus) moved forward, quickly dispatching enemy forces and without Jane who was gravely wounded in the last mission. All looking good until I rescue the VIP and realise I'm going to be very tight to make it in time.
My Belgian demo expert moves through, dodging Overwatch fire, and my British rookie follows, with the Swedish specialist not far behind.
I then realise my clutch soldier for the mission, Cpl. Hughes was only one square from the EVAC zone but obviously couldn't make it. I like to think she fought off the Advent scum long enough for others to escape, but I'll miss her and her brilliant sniper rifle :(
Hughes captures, and Taylor also gravely wounded. I'm burning through rookies at this rate.
RIP my Jane Kelly. Killed in the 3rd mission.
The difficulty levels make a HUGE difference. Too much in my opinion (i.e I was finding normal too hard, but easy too easy).
Some more tips, that I shall spoiler because they are a little spoilery not of the story but of your build order.
Toggle Spoiler
I just want the squad to know I believe in them. :nodd:
Well new game required. Turns out my PC had been running slowly, and my old man figured out it was because my laptop wasn't using the Radeon, but Windows 10 wouldn't allow you to switch from the onboard Intel card. Basically I've had to reset to Factory settings and fuck Windows 10 in the ass.
Andrew may have a new, fancier cannon but he's named it 'Science' in your memory.
Just had a good mission going into a downed UFO. @randomlegend is now an ample alternative to Sama when I want some psi-ops action. He just loves exploding grenades in alien pockets.
I'll let you decide if that's a euphemism.
So new game started and I've lost 4 people so far, with my Sniper Suleiman and Ranger Kelly both dying when we tried to rescue civilians from an Advent attack, only for a fucking Faceless to ambush us. We killed it eventually, but because Sniper Kobayashi missed the shot, neither could retreat and they ended up dying in a hail of crossfire in order to kill the Faceless.
Still, got a halfway decent crew coming on. Got my Medic/Specialist, Sophie 'Pincushion' Neumann, named as she gets shot up in every fucking mission and then a Ukranian mad fucker, who has twice charged into enemy ranks in an effort to sacrifice himself to buy time, and survived both times, the mad bastard. The second time was amusing, as he was a Ranger and rushed into a burning building to stick his sword into a Sectoids face, only to be rounded on by two troopers outside the walls and survive. Finally I have two Grenadiers, one reserved and one with the full on sleeveless Aviators and cigar look.
I fucking love the Grenade Launcher as well, nothing more satisfying than setting up 3 lads on Overwatch, lobbing a Grenade in the start the party and then bringing everything else down.
Phonics gets himself into a spot of bother:
Toggle Spoiler
Luckily the team, and Disco in particular, we able to help him get out of that mess of enraged alien muscle unscathed.
And now I head into the final mission, with these guys being the team who are going to do the necessary.
http://images.akamai.steamuserconten...F1C3A76AF080D/
Colonel "Sergeant" Disco - My best sniper, who now 48 kills from 16 missions and has an ability that can see him get multiple kills per turn.
Magus "Sama" - A very handy psi-ops chap. Can detonate enemy explosives, send them into mad panics, mind-control aliens, the works.
Colonel Cord Uroy - A whopping 64 kills from the 19 missions he's taken part in. A one-man alienophobic killing spree.
Major Pee Three - Andrew would have had this spot but got injured on the penultimate mission. Will be in charge of exploding the shit out of things.
Colonel "Vowels" - Healing machine.
Colonel Phonics - Has only over the last few missions ousted Byron from the starting VI with his superior hacking skills.
Let's go.
I look like an old woman :cool:
Godspeed gentlemen. See you on the other side.
Go on lads you can do it!!!
That's uncanny because I do often wear a skull mask and orange wraparound shades.
You're not wearing any shades, that's just a combination of your tan and the shadow from your hat.
You look like this:
http://images.akamai.steamuserconten...CFD270ACE4968/
Anyway, chaps. We only went and made it. :cool: The last mission gets a bit hectic at times but it's actually not as bad as it looks as long as you don't do anything daft.
Luckily Phonics and Vowels kept up the heals to tide us over.
Were you playing on Normal? Are you going to attempt the hardest difficulty?
Being part of the game-winning team. :cool:
Just normal. I may play harder difficulty at some point but I dunno, I reckon I'd enjoy it more on a harder level than I did with EU because this doesn't have the satellite rush bullshit. That said, there's DLC to come in a few months so I'll probably wait for that first anyway.
Do it for the fallen.
Right, getting the hang of this now. I got my A-Team (well 3 members), comprised of Finn 'Cowboy' Olsen, Manuel 'Wildman' Rivera and 'Duchess' who is a not totally racist Asian with the sword and various stabby perks.
Without wanting to copy Ian, might bring some TTH'ers in to give that true 'NOOOOOOO' experience when Ital dies again.
Incidentally if anybody fancies the multiplayer speak up.
Cord and I's game disconnected but I'd like to try again.
Decided to try out the game before buying it, played the tutorial level as well as the first level.
Surprised by how much I actually like it so I'm going to buy it now.
Undecided whether to get into another save on XCOM 2, finally get back to Phantom Pain (didn't stop enjoying it, just went away for over a week and never started up again when I got back) or make a start on Pillars of Eternity.
Tempted to crack on with this new XCOM 2 save because I've gone for the AWC early and fancy the chance of extra skills on weird classes.
I turned my game back up to normal difficulty, and the avatar bar went up 4 blocks in 2 days... I then got my entire A-squad wounded/gravely wounded (but no one died - hey!).
Back to easy for me.
Third mission (well second excluding the tutorial) and I've had one killed and two mortally wounded :moop:
Gordon Ross bossed it with 4 kills in his first mission though with my useless sharpshooter missing two enemies that had over a 70% chance of getting hit.
Nice one.
Edit: Gordon Ross dies in the next level :( Thankfully the aptly named Scottie Hunter from Scotland killed 5 people in his first mission.
Failed my first mission :(
Galina 'Butcher' Zinchenko put up a valiant effort as she was the only soldier left facing 3 enemies. She killed them all but that bastarding snake type thing poisoned her when she had just 2 health. The turn after she killed the snake she also perished :(
0 soldiers with fuck all intel or supplies :uhoh:
This hasn't been a good day.
Aliens won, fuck sake. Time to start again, shit.
Was all going quite well until the aliens targeted the ship.
Spent far too fucking long killing enemies rather than attacking the pylon thing.
Had 3 active soldiers left and 1 who was unconscious. I sent one to the ship (she had 1 health), one was sent to pick up the unconscious guy and bring him back (he was halfway there and I used an aid droid to give him more defence) and the other was in enemy territory so I decided to let her die.
The wankers took the bait and the guy who was carrying someone so I had to leave the unconscious one (he was a Polish grenadier too :() one behind.
Edit: Aliens win again, ffs.
http://i.imgur.com/7xj7No9.png
My greatest achievement in gaming (probably life too as that is so fucking huge) by far. Putting my whole team in overwatch the turn before reinforcements arrived was the most satisfying thing I've ever seen. Three troops land, move away and they get absolutely fucked over by my 4 man team. The fist pumps were aplenty.
Only on easy and it's one of the first missions on my third attempt but my word, what a feat.
Decided to go aggressive in building this time. The first go round I didn't build a GTS, the second time it was my fourth building but the third I fucked the proving ground for later. GTS first and I've got Advanced Warfare centre building now with a power relay and finally the proving ground fourth. Haven't lost a single person yet having gotten in five people quick sharp and have managed to get quite a few engineers and a shit ton of rookies.
Edit: A second flawless, I AM GOD.
Yeah, GTS and AWC early are crucial. Not quite so much AWC but the extra skills and healing speed are really handy.
Finally managed to do a fucking blacksite, 3 killed though including my favourite ranger Ryo Ito :(
Most hated aliens?
Spoilered for Mahow.
Toggle Spoiler
I don't think I've taken on a ball thing or a big metal knobhead but codex's are indeed absolute cunts.
'Oh they've just taken my ammo, reload, shoot. Ha, eat that dickheads. Oh fuck every single person who was inside that purple shit is dead :\'
And yes stun lancers are annoying as fuck, especially when it's on the medic/the medic is fucked/not on the mission and you have to carry them around :(
Oh wait, are the big metal knobheads those that have guns on their shoulders? I've been fucked a few times by those grenades they fire :(
Tried a blacksite one time when I was on the roof and it took 3 people out with it by demolishing the roof.
I somewhat inadvertently took the roof out from under an enemy once and was very pleased with the results. Once you know it's a very nifty tactic.
Me and Cord were discussing one day that unlike Enemy Unknown there aren't really any enemies in this that you can totally disregard other than perhaps the basic trooper.
Gatekeepers are probably the biggest pain in the arse because even early doors you should have enough grenades to deal with your weapons being disabled by a codex if you're in a bit of a pinch. Of course the answer is to spread out as much as you can without exposing anybody as soon as you see one of the fuckers.
Yep, I found out about it a few missions before being on the wrong end of it.
The joy at seeing those psi wankers be flung down and losing extra health was amazing.
Still need to build armour but the mag/gauss weapons are so good.
I can't decide which is my favourite though, the shard gun or the mag cannon.
http://i.imgur.com/aJQm6KK.jpg
I think that's probably my favourite rookie ever.
He's a Taz/Mert hybrid
RIP in pieces to the wonderful Taz/Mert hybrid.
Died really fucking early in his first mission :(
Suicide vest?
Indeed, he was meant to go in and blow some aliens with him.
Sadly he got distracted by a female with low self esteem and accidentally pulled the trigger.
Taking down a big facility :drool:
Only lost 1 person, got my first captain (a sharpshooter), 2 avatar blocks removed and just a general all round great feeling.
6 in my squad now, woof. Well I will when I have the supplies, most of my squad was injured so had to recruit more for the facility. Have to take 4 on my next mission too :\
Oh and I met a new enemy:
Toggle Spoiler
Edit: Hacked a heavy mec in a mission :drool: Christ that's fun.
http://i.imgur.com/WdyYsGH.jpg?1
@Pepe when he gets his green card.
Just failed a mission because one of my team got EVAC'd on the last turn, fuck off.
Edit: Skulljacking a codex, jesus fucking christ.
Wish I could grow a mustache like that. :(
Archons are a pain more because of their mobility. Their blazing pinions move when your team are huddled on a roof can see things get a bit hairy as well.
Came across a Beserker for the first time. Or more appropriately;
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT.
Also, is the Avatar meter meant to rise that fast? I'm scraping to remove it as fast as I can but I can't help shake the feeling that I'm doing something wrong.
I let mine rise quite a bit (I think it was 3 or 4 bars from completion) whilst training my squad up by doing little missions etc. Started hitting it hard by going after the blacksites and I've got it to under half now.
Sometimes the dark events make it inevitable that it's going to up.
One dickhead gets panicked and decides the best course of action is to throw a fucking incendiary grenade not at aliens but at two on his own team.
WHAT THE FUCK.
Met that ball thing.
Fucking hell :\
The stupidity of the team sometimes, fucking hell.
UFO finally caught up to us (about a day before I had built the defence thing :moop:), wasn't going too badly.
Had everyone pulled back to the ship (the last one went to the area on their last turn), an alien shot at us. Most of the squad got panicked, one ran away from the ship and another decided the best course of action was to lob a grenade. Where do you ask? Right to the feet of four of his 'friends'.
Because of this the squad is shit on health and I had to leave the gimp behind as she was panicked and didn't have a specialist to comfort her. Well played love, I hope your panicked arse gets plenty of joy by being fucked by a shit tonne of aliens.
One of those that was killed (2 in the main party and 1 left behind of the reserves) was a major that I just rescued the mission before.
I know what the big metal dickhead thing is now :\
Edit: And now I've actually found the ball things :(
Oh my fucking lord, put a ranger on overwatch to end a turn, those massive metal dickheads popped up. The ranger shot him and got an execution on him :drool: Repeater, I love thee.
I did it right at the start and it fucked me over, I've decided not to do it until I'm further along and have an actual shot at defeating it.
I didn't either, it was fucking glorious though.
Edit: Finally got a colonel and it's a specialist too (thank you council for allowing me to hire him) and the restoration skill? So damn good.
Finally did some of the Shadow Chamber stuff and unlocked the Psi Ops. Problem is that they're only 3 bars away from the Avatar Project and I need to save up enough Intel to make contact with the Forge region (as I stupidly ignored a supply raid meaning the contact was lost)
Also lost my main Grenadier in the last mission, which sucks. I replaced her from Resistance HQ but still.
Missed the news that mimic beacons have been weakened a bit.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...c-beacon-nerf/
Probably the right move, but still... :uhoh:
I waited until mine was filled up yesterday as I had a bad run and had no intel or supplies (I needed my drop), got them and then took on a facility and destroyed it.
I almost cried when I lost my main sharpshooter the other day, 18 missions she went on.
http://i.imgur.com/ABJfgBN.png
She was a proper hero.
http://i.imgur.com/mAOXx9G.png
Got lucky but that's the first alien site I've done without losing someone.
Took one of the round metal things in one turn (a colonel grenadier with rupture and blue rounds absolutely fucking dicked it) and it was surprisingly swift. Grenaded the crap out of the building so I was even able to call the EVAC inside the joint.
Edit: The most annoying thing in the game? Hunting a rogue chryssalid.
Stop burrowing away you twat.
Chryssalids aren't the horror that they were in Enemy Unknown.
Cunts.
It seems that every mission I have now I have to hunt one down across half the fucking map though, they don't do any damage to my team but I take out what seems to be every single person on the map and then realise there's one burrowing away across the other side. It's really fucking annoying, the last level I did I spent 3 or 4 turns just moving along to get close to it.
I hated them in EU. They were particularly frustrating on the save the civilians missions. They would ignore my troops and run around turning all the civilians into zombies. Cunts.
Serial with free reloads on a sharpshooter almost feels like cheating.
And, I haven't tried it yet but one of my grenadiers got serial too. That's going to be fucking bonkers.
Did the skulljack successfully.
Was on a retaliation mission with a specialist (with the upgraded medkits and restoration skill), two rangers including one who I've trained to be a sword wielding maniac, a beast of a sharpshooter, a grenadier and a brand new psi operative.
Killed all enemies bar one codex, then shoved a skulljack in it, almost killed it that turn (two people missed) and it only had time to mind control one person but went down before it could hurt us.
Here are my sergeants or better:
http://i.imgur.com/pC1AQFK.png
Might as well just call ourselves 'Team Asia' :cool:
I'd actually cry if I lost Ma Dong.
Executed a gatekeeper now :drool: Best thing that's ever happened.
I think it was Colonel Byron who executed a gatekeeper in one of my missions and it was perfectly timed as well becauseit was in position to do some serious damage.
You had much fun with the psi ops yet?
EDIT:
Even outside those they were awful though. They were, for me, a proper "Drop everything and kill that RIGHT NOW" enemy.
Yep, they're brilliant fun.
Playing the last mission, got lost, went the wrong way and in my attempt to find aliens I pushed one up so far that he was alone with 3 trooper people. Sadly he didn't 'bleed out' :(
Took fucking ages to traverse the fucking map and I ended up going right round the whole thing, somehow missing those troopers and I'm guessing others :\ Have to wait a few hours before I keep playing now :(
I'm done, it flies onto my 'favourite games of all time' list too. I fucking loved it, I'm not sure if it's genuinely brilliant though or not because I don't usually do turn based games. I'd like some recommendations to similar games though.
50 hours in under a week though, fucking hell and only about 3 or 4 of those were me just leaving the game open.
Toggle Spoiler
My recommendation would be to buy Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within (dunno how cheap they are as a pack, might be better waiting for a sale.)
It'll definitely show some flaws given you've started with XCOM 2 BUT by getting it with Enemy Within and playing that way you get:
- MECs
- Gene mods (for example, you can give a soldier the ability to jump onto rooftops)
- Some more scripted missions (the fishing village :drool:)
- And I stress again: MECs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zHmpEDCjW8
Kinetic strike. :drool:
£25 for the pack, think I'll hold out until a sale.
Yeah, there's no need to be spending that on it.
As for others, Invisible, Inc. is somewhat different but also a good game. Jagged Alliance 2 is, I think, the other famous non-XCOM one in the genre though I didn't really get on with it.
http://www.dlgamer.co.uk/download-xc...SuoaAvZY8P8HAQ
£5 on DLGamer but it's out or
http://www.kinguin.net/category/6491...vOYaAgQ48P8HAQ
£6.15 on Kinguin who I've never heard of.
It's a pity I'll probably never play Enemy Within again (unless I just go in for an afternoon) because smashing a chryssalid through a wall simply never got old.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...dlc-out-today/
I do like a bit of gaming dress-up but... nah.
I saw that and was instantly glad I didn't buy the deluxe edition with all future DLC.
£3.99 alone too, proper lol and that's coming from a person who spent £1.59 to drive the batmobile around a rocket league pitch about 4 times.
DLC adding what might as well be called ragequit monsters because they sound fucking horrible.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...-dlc-released/
Christ alive, whoever thought of those is seriously depraved.
I've just got this, very impressed with how much more moddable the game is than the EU. So far I've got mods that add more voices and a plethora of new nations.
Anyone got any other mods they recommend? I'm hoping to find something that lengthens the time I can get away with using ballistic weapons and kevlar armour as I don't like the plasma tech and sleek armour.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...lien-pack-mod/
This appeals to me more than the super alien ruler bastard things in that official DLC.
Well, now I know how terror missions work. A complete impossibility but it happens to my most wealth nation. Funding and man power decimated so fucking this game clean off.
I think the heroic bots bumped this to save me having to find it for this story.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...ng-war-2-mods/
I'll be getting some of these when I eventually try Long War 2.
WWE squad icons. :drool:
Anyone currently/still playing Long War 2?
Also an old school expansion "War Of The Chosen" has been announced for release in August. Looks superb.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...hosen-preview/
I'll be using Long War2 when I eventually start another save. And the expansion does indeed look pretty swish. May need to bust out the TTH lads again for a second crack at the alien menace. :cool:
This time you're seeing it through to the finish, @ItalAussie.
...,maybe.
I'm willing to join the cause...
Toggle Spoiler
I'll play.
Christ knows where my microphone is though.
If that lesson is "Don't take on the giant alien deathbot by yourself" then I'd say that's a sensible policy.
Can recommend some good mods if your getting back into it. I've subbed out the LW2 classes in my game and replaced them with the Field Medic, Tank, Jackal, Operator, Spec Ops and the Shadow Ops Hunter, Combat Engineer and Dragoon.
You might not want to replace the lot if it's your first save with LW2 but I'd give the ones I've named a look to see if you fancy adding them in, Field Medic is probably the highlight.
Got the new Jaeger soldier class on the go. Goes well.
Any other bros hyped for War of the chosen?
I shall certainly be getting it. Can get the TTH squad back out to murdlerise some more aliens. :cool:
I've installed Long War 2, I've bought Shen's Last Gift. My TTH squad will soon ride again in XCOM2.
Undecided yet whether to try and give people the same / similar classes and appearances as they had last time. I didn't save them to the character pool so I'll need to redo the appearances anyway.
:wave:
So, with new classes and stuff and it giving you shitloads of rookies at the start putting the squad together has taken me a while. Fortunately I love dress-up in video games.
Here's the gang.
Ital "Girl" Aussie @ItalAussie
In an alternate XCOM 2 reality he died a hero to save his teammates from a giant robot. He's BACK! Complete with nerdy glasses and shit nickname. This time he's a new Long War 2 class, the "Technical", who come with a thingy that gives them both a rocket to fire and a flamethrower to wield.
Toggle Spoiler
Ma "Claw" How @Sir Andy Mahowry
He's an "Assault" in this run, which means he's a bit shotgunny and has a stun gun thing too. Adorned in bright yellow to reflect his co-op gaming subtlety, and with a shaved head to celebret his home-barbering skills.
Toggle Spoiler
"Runner-Up" Andrew @Andrew
In the interests of racial diversity and given I have no clue what he looks like, Andrew (nicknamed "Runner Up" for his being second only to Cord on the alien murder league table in the first run) has been reborn as a man of uncertain racial heritage. With mutton chops! He is a "Gunner", which means like last time he gets to carry a BFG. And in Long War 2 also a big-ass knife fer stabbin' stuff.
Toggle Spoiler
Ian "Old Man" Welby
The sharpshooter/account is back, baby! This time with a "holotargeter", which lets his chums get an easier shot at an enemy because of science reasons.
Toggle Spoiler
Cord Uroy @Cord
The first playthrough's 80s action star and one-man alien genocide is a sword-wielding nutjob once again, in Long War's "Shinobi" class, which also allows him to use a SMG this time round.
Toggle Spoiler
"Slaven" Byron @Byron
He's back, and he's brought his amazing hairdo with him. This time he's a Ranger. Which means rifles, but also a nifty sawed-off shotgun for close-ranger messes.
Toggle Spoiler
Hfs "Vowels" Wjr @hfswjyr
Once again cast in the role of nerdy tech dude, with a little robot buddy who can heal and hack and stuff.
Toggle Spoiler
Rookies - More info to come with promotions
MF "Admin" Phonics @phonics
In this incarnation he is a totally different person. This time he wears his baseball cap backwards, the mad bastard.
Toggle Spoiler
"Sergeant" Disco @Disco
Goodness me, I decided before I looked at this rookie that this one would be Disco and the game has once again given him an unfortunate hairline.
Toggle Spoiler
Pea "P_3" Three @P_3
Disgusted by TTH XCOM recruitment still being far too caucasian-centric, the first save's blackest, dreadlockiest, cigar-chompingest soldier has jumped through a rip in space-time to join the new team. But it turned his hair white. Blimey.
Toggle Spoiler
Pleb Roll @Pleb
A mysterious, unknowable lunatic, the greatest fear of the alien overlords now ruling Earth is this strange individual and the rumours that he has an unstoppable weapon, known in the hushed conversations inside rebel enclaves as the "Pleb Roll"
Toggle Spoiler
Haystacks Horace @Haystacks Horace
A new recruit. Denying any accusations that he isn't who he claims to be.
Toggle Spoiler
Shin "Shinners" Dig @Shindig
Now with 100% less ponytail, 100% more ginger but the same amount of iffy facial hair.
Toggle Spoiler
Raoul Duke @Raoul Duke
Was justifiably pleased with how cool he looked in his previous life, the cruel lottery of reincarnation (i.e. me) has made him look a right dweeb this time.
Toggle Spoiler
Mike @Mike
Contributing some much-needed sideburns to the resistance effort.
Toggle Spoiler
Baz @Baz
Once again bringing some seriously well-looked-after hair to the table.
Toggle Spoiler
Patje @Patje
After a shambolic early death last time out, Patje is trying to garner some good karma by representing the ladies in this second XCOM2 playthrough. Still has the orange shades, mind.
Toggle Spoiler
Laurent "Samadini" Robert
Decked out in orange, as a tribute to the all the fires he so loved starting in Left 4 Dead.
Toggle Spoiler
Random Legend @Migraine
Covered in scars that he claims are from a life-or-death battle with a nasty alien but were actually caused by his mum twatting him with a ladle.
Toggle Spoiler
Fuck's sake, got Vowels' name wrong. Will have to fix that.
Also this time I'm planning to get more videos and stuff done to show the glory / disaster.
My guy :cool:
Loving Pleb and Randrew.
Also you're making me want to fire the game back up.
Mine looks like a roided caricature of local radio personality Alan Robson.
I feel like I should lodge a complaint.
Mine looks like a mid-life crisis
So fairly accurate then?
Alright radical cleric, wind it in
Save the fighting for the aliens, lads. :(
That's a conclusive coolness win for me and my eyepatch.
Ergo I get to use the others as a human shield.
I look like some kind of Space-Costanza, I'm pretty sure I'm fucked.
I'm deffo growing sideburns
Pleb looks amazing. :D
I look like a photo of me; good job.
Let's hope my shades protect me this time.
I'm plebrolling these aliens lads.
Believe.
I look how I imagine Pavel looks.
Pleb died on the very first mission. :face: Despite Baz and Vowels attempting to drag his sorry carcass out of there. However there are things that either the mod doesn't explain very well or I've just failed to understand that made the first mission harder than it needed to be so Pleb may saved yet as I may go back to when I had to do my "infiltration" bit and start that again so I'm better prepped for the mission.
The thing about infiltration being that I totally didin't fucking understand it and sent my squad in on a hiding to nothing and then had to sit and wait for the counter to go down wondering how much the error was going to cost me.
So yeah, I think I'm going to treat that one as a practice run and reload from after I'd finished creating everybody and try that once more.
Pre-ordered War of the Chosen for £25.82.
Fuck you, Ian.
Pre-ordering. :sick:
Send Mahow in first. :nodd:
Says the one whose hairline is running firmly away from the battles.
What would you know about running?
I did it once.
Phonics will be the one tweeting out randomly to win 'hearts and minds'.
I'm sure his 4 followers will appreciate it.
Meanwhile Magic will be watching our demise on liveleak.
Only if the aliens rape the corpses.
Right, did a new first mission and now that I know how I'm meant to prep for it it went a bit better!
No deaths, certainly.
Cord is promoted to Lance Corporal, and obviously I improve his sword skills. He is also wounded and will be out of action for about 10 days. Byron and Andrew also make Lance Corporal and some nice skill boosts.
Phonics is promoted from being a rookie and becomes a grenadier, which... is hopefully pretty self explanatory. Disco, full of admiration for Phonics (or possibly just his hat) follows suit.
P_3 goes into the assault class, Pleb becomes a Ranger and Raoul Duke becomes a sharpshooter.
Hooray!
Where was I? :(
Somebody has to hold our jackets, presumably.
How the fuck did I get a promotion? :D
Grenades eh? Nothing can go wrong here.
Haven't died yet. Calling it a win.
Pure heroics. Shot an alien right in the noggin, you did.
So with Long War 2 you have this infiltration business I've already mentioned, and you can set this up for multiple missions at a time. So no sooner had I done that one than another infiltration was finished (or rumbled, I guess, as it only got to 80% or so) and I went into the mission. So you've got multiple squads prepped for a mission at a time presumably. And the higher your infiltration counter before you're forced to launch it the less enemies you should have to face.
So I've just done said second mission.
Vowels is promoted to Lance Corporal and will be going down the hero-medic route I had him as last time, hopefully.
Mahow also becomes a Lance Corporal. Now his class gets a gizmo that can stun enemies, so for his skill up I've upgraded it so that even if he misses it'll still disorient them. Now Mahow had a fairly glorious end to the mission. Mike had got himself shot spectacularly in the back by an alien wrong'un and he was seconds from bleeding out when Mahow picked him up, slung him over his shoulder, climbs a drainpipe and gets to the rooftop evacuation point, getting Mike airlifted out. This was the last turn where this could have happened or Mike would have bled out and died.
it wasn't all bad for Mike though, he managed three kills before he had to get Mahow on white knight duty and was promoted to technical. That's like Ital, so he'll have rockets and flamethrowers.
Ital gets to Lance Corporal and I improve the accuracy of his rockets because fuck me, by default you may as well fire those bastards with your eyes closed. Baz gets his first promotion and becomes a gunner. He also copped a sore one and will be out for about a month. It wasn't a good day for the Baz / Mike tag team.
Old Man Welby joins the others in Lance Corporalhood and gets the Death From Above skill. Pew pew!
Patje doesn't die on his (her) first mission this time and becomes a specialist, which means he has a little robo-chum and hacks and stuff.
And lastly Shindig becomes a Shinobi, which I suppose makes sense given they share some letters. Him and Cord will hopefully become murderous swordbros.
I must say that in Long War 2 shit escalates really quickly. You can quite easily find yourself swamped by enemies even if you're being relatively cautious. They have done other things to balance that out (grenades seem to be on cooldowns rather than one-and-down, you have more soldiers of your own,in your squads to start with, I'm sure others will become apparent) but it's really tricky. I'll be interested to see how grindy I end up finding it and whether I end up completing this save and / or how many TTHers die really quite soon.
It's all incredibly polished though and of all the new classes, weapons, mechanics, etc. there's nothing I've seen yet that's seemed to be of a lesser quality than the stuff Firaxis made.
Eat shit, Cord.
I'm a real hero.
Also, I can't wait to play this mod possibly tomorrow.
Only DLC worth it is Shen's Last Gift?
I didn't buy the others because I wasn't bothered enough for the price, whereas I am more than happy to pay for big robots. The Alien Hunters sounded nightmarish and the cosmetic stuff I'd be all over if it were about £2.
Okay, Shinobi's on my list of alternative usernames. Rad.
Why no Townsend :(. Any custom classes in use Welbz?
You'll be next, just didn't have enough rookies to fit everybody in.
No custom classes other than what Long War adds and my robots once I get to those missions. Decided to trust LW for now and not go mental with the mods.
Towns 'The Downs' End.
Special skill, chimping out.
Also:
http://www.pcgamer.com/long-war-2-guide/
Jesus Christ I've been massively underthinking this. Thank goodness I'm only two missions in.
I just played the opening mission before I get balls deep into Long War (thanks for that link btw) and the rustiness is real.
It's also nice to see that percentages still mean shit.
I put 3 in good positions and on overwatch to deal with the sectoid. First one misses, second gets a graze and the third only does like 3 damage. Glorious.
At least I have a job rather than being a contemptible sponge.
Glad to hear Welby. You should do one of these let's play things, I don't know if you have a velvet voice but I'm sure you have the wit to entertain us.
I'm using a whole raft of extra mods on mine. Also made some of my own custom classes which are on the workshop and also rather scarily among the ones recommended by Haystacks Horace...:uhoh: high praise indeed. Got a new class pack in the works for when War of the Chosen is released also.
I did consider doing some recorded missions in full but I didn't know how easy that would be without paying for software. I don't have Disco's smooth tones, as anybody who's multiplayered with me can attest.
That mission I did there was fucking flawless. partly through stuff I've already learned and partly because of a nifty trick I picked up during that mission.
Firstly, now I know how infiltration works! And that sometimes you just need to ignore a mission, even if the rewards look tempting.
Secondly, a strategy. So I had Cord (a fast-moving Shinobi) in my squad where I had to get to a data cache and collect it. The map was essentially three big buildings. One further away, where the cache was, one in the middle, and the one I started behind. I spied a patrol making my way between the first two but managed to avoid it. When sizing up the gap between the second and the third I had a problem. There was another small patrol and some civilians who'd give the game away if they saw me, and the odds of my getting all eight of my guys across this gap without being spotted and ending up in a favourable position seemed very slim. However, Cord could make a circuitous trip around a big truck, behind the civilians and into the cache building in just a couple of turns I could get the rest of my guys set up across various levels of the middle building (rooftop, ledges, ground floor, both inside and out) so I'd have a good point to adapt to any attacks without being all clumped together in a mess waiting to happen.
My first bit of good luck was that the data cache building was empty, so Cord could open the door to it and slip inside and get the objective, meanwhile the patrols got roughly into the middle of the gap between him and the rest of the team. The second bit of luck also taught me something (that I may or may not have forgotten from the base game.) When I activated the cache with Cord it alerted all the enemies to me despite me not being in their line of sight. So they started moving but I had the rest of the gang on overwatch so they started dishing out the damage, a couple of other dudes I was oblivious to came inside with Cord (who soon exited the building to attack shit with his sword) and while I had some luck in the ensuing gunfight I got them mopped up without too much drama and gave me some ideas for strategies on future missions.
It also totally made me understand how with a Shinobi there are certain mission types you could totally solo, like exfiltrating VIPs. And I may well try that in future, because those would make your initial infiltration an absolute doddle, meaning you had less enemies to avoid and if you were careful you could probably breeze through.
Not gonna lie though, if / when I try one of them I'm totally going to savescum it the first time.
Anyway.... Promotions!
Cord is up to Corporal, and gains an ability that lets him (at a percentage chance, I assume) parry melee attacks and counter with his sword. And also makes him more dodgy. In every sense.
Sama gets his first promotion and also becomes a swordy, Shinobi type.
Randrew gets his first leg up too and is a Ranger, meaning he's a rifleman but with a sawn-off shotgun too.
P_3 makes Lance Corporal and gets an ability to make a shot that ignores two sets of armor. That could really help when it comes to clearing out weaker foes.
Horace (is he dead?) is promoted to sharpshooter duties.
Phonics is yet another Lance Corporal. I've improved his explosiveyness and given him a chance to start destroying cover.
Hmmm, I think I've just sent my WHOLE SQUAD out on infiltrations thinking that they were normal missions :\
They are, you just need to decide carefully how you're going to approach missions (once you've got at least a promotion on enough people to have classes and the associated tactical decisions) and make sure you can complete the infiltration.
So over on the right hand side you've got the time remaining to launch the mission in days and hours and then as you build your squad you'll see your infiltration time change. If it's less than the time remaining your infiltration will be 100% complete and the enemy will be weaker. The lower the percentage complete, the stronger they'll be. So especially early doors any mission where you can't complete infiltration will be a big risk, potentially.
My main tips would be:
Build a lab early and don't turn your nose up at the basic research project. When your in for the long haul these early investments pay off.
Don't bother putting your reaistance members on supplies until you've assigned a soldier to the region and cleared out the faceless who will otherwise steal a %. Keep the rebels tasked on Intel and you will detect missions earlier giving more time to infiltrate.
Yeah, I'm mostly going for the intel at the moment. Might have a look at basic research soon.
Did a mission (was about 88% or so infiltrated) and everything was going great.
Then, when I was a turn away from EVACing everyone (I had done about half or so, included the 3 I rescued) and bastard reinforcements turned up.
I did have a hearty lol at a sectoid mind controlling one of my guys then the aliens took a turn to try and kill him. After failing they sent him to a soldier who was just outside the EVAC zone and made him drop a grenade at their feet.
They went out, in pieces, together.
Timing your evac flare is something else I'm learning to worry about quickly, and again I can't remember if it works differently to the base game. Did it have a timer originally?
The flare? I don't believe so.
If it was a set area it was timed.
I also downloaded the true concealment thing which is boss.
Timers don't start until you're discovered.
I considered getting that one It would certainly turn the opening of missions into a more pure stealth thing.
Use this: https://obsproject.com/download
It's an absolute piece of piss.
http://i.imgur.com/wjZQKVG.jpg
Complete with red tomato and green pepper themed gear.
http://i.imgur.com/gfGZIRl.jpg
Poor William.
Also, I absolutely love 'Fleche'.
I have a link to an easy setup guide as well if you need it Webly.
Don't ask me you absolute bastard.
As if the Akehurst Boy's got shot :(
In hospital in my new Arsenal top. :cool:
Not only is Patje still not dead, he's been promoted to allow his robot buddy ("Byte") to go and zap enemies. What a time to be alive. That sex change op did him the world of good.
Some other promotions as well but I'm only going to mention notable / interesting stuff henceforth. Everybody at least has a class now. I've got both GTS and AWC now so I can start to get some bonuses on the go.
Anyway, until if/when I decided to do anything more substantial here's a video of Ital using a flamethrower.
http://youtu.be/-8kargYSMJ4
Ital :drool:
It's the shades Ian. They protect me.
http://i.imgur.com/z69atJU.jpg
First mission higher than 'acceptable' on LW2 :cool:
Even Ainsley picked up a package.
Seriously feared that my best Shinobi was going to get fucked up. I did a fleche with him and he ended up getting flanked by 4 or 5 unseen guys including a sectoid who made him spaz out. Luckily I put the revive protocol on my specialist who removed that status and he went back to killing aliens with his sword.
Shouldn't have gloated.
Next mission I lost 5 of the 8 I took (including Ainsley :(), largely because everyone was missing like crazy.
Sharshooters missing 75% or so shots, ugh.
@Sir Andy Mahowry You being careful with your infiltrations? I dunno if I'll pay for it but I'm still early doors and being seriously picky.
Was thinking of doing a proper video thing this weekend but have a last-minute parental visit to deal with so that may be off the cards. :(
Not entirely.
I was just jumping into everything. Now that I'm running low on troops I'm having to start being a bit more picky.
Yeah, I've rejected quite a few and the missions have, so far, been pretty forgiving because I've been on 100%+. Not that I know if your infiltration keeps getting better over 100%.
Generally there is no benefit in going in to a mission with less than 100% infiltration. This is because unlike the vanilla game your soldiers will gain more experience from successful mission completion than from kills. Best way to level up your rookies is to send out lots of four man squads and infiltrate to 100% or more which will cut down the number of enemies and make completion easier. There is also little point killing all the enemies either, as the difficulty ramps up you'll be happy just getting in and out. The smaller squad size also means that the mission completion experience is divided amongst four rather than 8 or however many. At some point it will probably be too dangerous to send out small squads though but it's a good tactic early on.
You also don't get to keep the corpses from dead enemies so racking up the kill count serves little purpose. Though there are a couple mission types where you can keep the corpses and going in under infiltrated will mean more enemies and a tougher mission but more corpses at the end of it.
Horace (who definitely hasn't just disappeared) has removed his concealing headscarf and turned into the behatted Townsend.
Toggle Spoiler
http://i.imgur.com/qq8Opnr.jpg
I wish I could 'drool' or 'cool' it but for some reason the enemies weren't moving.
It was a 200% infiltrated mission though and there was a clear path to the evac zone so I reckon I could have gone past even if they were moving.
Taken a while, but this has just caught my eye. Can I have a tldr about the thread and the game please?
Tl;dr the game: turn-based alien shooting.
Tl;dr the thread (or the size of it, which is why I imagine you ask): Me naming my squad after people who post in this thread. And potentially soon doing let's-play style things.
How am I doing @Ian?
Plebrolling some alien booty I hope.
You're up to Corporal now, I believe. Gonna struggle to get much more of this played until next week, I think. :moop:
Am I dead yet?
Nah, you're still there, shooting aliens in the face. You might also be a corporal.... I may soon reward you with slight de-nerdification.
I think I might have to start again.
I've been moving so slowly and the aliens have moved so fast.
Fuck viper rounds, burning grenades, mechs etc.
My squad (outside of like 5 guys) just get mashed.
Stuck at it and managed to get a bit of a break, managed to be less shit and get some luck.
Pushed through a lot of sciency stuff too which has helped and was on a good run. Just cocked up though by sending a 4 man team with average soldiers but forgot to euip new weapons/gear on them. Mission didn't last long when my fairly vanilla warriors ran into heavily outfitted advent soldiers.
So I thought I'd get the chance to play this tomorrow but I'm away with work tomorrow / Tuesday. Plan is some TTH Alien Resistance updates back end of next week and then a video thingy next weekend.
Started a mission, saw my first Chryssalid of this run and decided to quit.
I'm not prepared to deal with one of those bastards at 1 in the morning.
I'm thinking of getting this soon.
Should I start off with Enemy Within/Unknown before jumping to 2?
I went straight into the second.
I heard that Unknown is a little dated now but it's fun for mech suits.
I've not actually got to the Shen's Last Gift stuff in this yet but there are robots in this if you get that DLC so you're probably as just dipping straight into 2.
Anyway, did my first mission in fucking ages and it was a near fucking disaster.
Disclaimer: it would have been an actual disaster without a reload. The game surprised me in two ways. One with another little quirk of LW2 that I was unaware of and cost me dearly, secondly my first muton surprised me by doing absurd amounts of damage. This mission felt like a massive difficulty spike even though my infiltration score was ace.
Tasked with rescuing four resistance bods (one named Haystacks Horace, because even though I rejigged my Horace as Townsend he was still in the character pool unused) from an Advent cell. Things were going swimmingly and I got to them without being detected.... when I discovered that hacking the cell will 100% of the time break concealment and alert nearby enemies to you. This was the first surprise. So after the disaster which followed and a heroic couple of reloads, I was making a dent in the alien defence force and managing to save the soldiers who went down and risked bleeding out with medkits. Mahow, Byron, Phonics. All took horrible hits and would have died a slow, unpleasant death if not for their comrades. And if not for Shindig charging into a building to take on a stun lancer and a half-smashed robot with little more than a big sword, a stern glare and a snappy haircut.
Sadly, in the melee.... Pleb died. Sorry @Pleb. :(
He died trying to get to the muton holed up on the second floor of a building drawing fire for two of our VIPs, though two of those died during this firefight too.
We did, eventually, with reinforcements swooping in manage to escape with two of our VIPs, three men nursing grave wounds, Mahow traumatised and taking a hit to his Will and Pleb tragically lost.
Although....
Just days after this mission a new recruit turned up at XCOM HQ calling himself "Kid Pleb", wearing a hockey mask like the legend himself always did, and sporting a 'Death' tattoo in the great man's favoured shade of hot pink.
Toggle Spoiler
Who is the mysterious stranger? is it a fan? An imitator? Pleb's long-lost baby brother, out for revenge? Did Pleb himself somehow survive the battle?? Only time will tell.
At least I died trying to get two VIP out other than getting plebrolled by ailens etc.
My kid should hopefully tear the place up in future missions :drool:
So Ironman mode doesn't fuck about.
I move two soldiers into a position where I feel I could flank the aliens only to be shot straight in the face and that's only the second mission :moop:
Ironman mode for your first run :D
I admire your balls / self-loathing, Pleb, but you don't Ironman your first run you mad bastard.
:D
To be fair I've been using it as dummy runs trying to get a feel of the game. Maybe I should play the game without ironman on :sherlock:
Just lost :moop:
I thought I had managed to salvage the world though as I had just donned their Network Tower and was infiltrating a mission to fully liberate my first area as well as the Codex mission.
Edit: Rolled back a bit and completed a quick mission to counter a dark event.
First TTH XCOM video should be upon you tomorrow, chaps.
Done some test runs and sound quality seems okay though one of the ones seems a bit jittery. My PC doesn't run the game perfectly but I dunno if that was the issue in this case or if it was the recording software. Will play about with it some more.
Did a mission, recorded it.... now a bunch of my save files have corrupted. :face:
If I have to start again I'm turning off Long War. I like it but I haven't seen any of Shen's Last Gift yet and a LW2 save is, as the name implies, loooong. I don't want to burn myself out on it before the next DLC comes out.
Ugh.
I wondered what the multiple 'Webly is now playing...; pop-ups were, never a great sign.
So now that I'm on an ACTUAL non-ironman run as suggested by you guys (:baz:) and reading up on tips on RPS and other sites I take it I should focus on getting Intel more than supplies or the other way around?
Tell me you're not doing a LW2 run first though.
Nope. I'm only doing a bog standard xcom2 run with no mods etc.
Good.
Did you get the save back Ian? I hope it's not OBS, a similar thing happened to my CK2 save but I just blamed the game because it regularly mulches everything with updates.
I didn't. So I've binned Long War (even though there are things I miss) and gone back to vanilla so I can have a go with Shen's robots.
There are enough reports of other people having similar issues that I'm not worried about it being OBS. Might not be Long War but I never had an issue previously and as I said, I don't want to burn myself out on the game before the DLC comes out.
I didn't even post the big video I did because I broke it into two bits and the second bit died on it's arse. :moop:
Might have another crack tonight before I watch Game of Thrones.
First TTH alien kill squad video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg6TQM6KJqE
I probably pause a bit too much and interrupt myself at times but I don't loathe it too much for my first attempt at talking over me doing a thing. Sadly I lack Disco's newsreaderly voice but then those of you who've played any multiplayer stuff with me already know that. There's also a bit of glitchy wibbly jerkiness near the end where I tabbed out to check the recording but otherwise I think the quality and sound are decent, let me know if I'm wrong and something other than my voice is grating like a bitch.
This video stars: @Pleb, @ItalAussie, @Shindig, @Mike and @Baz
I've also done this one, just going through who / what we've got so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSDhvx2obiw
Be gentle with me lads. I shall endeavour to be more interesting with practice.... and once the missions get more brutal.
Needs more Third Hard promotion.
We need new blood in the group.
We'll worry about hooking people with the politics chat first.
They'll come for the politics but stay for the religious debates.
Getting the plug out early doors. #Engagement
Not dead yet. That's a win.
Looks like I'm using the operating table to my advantage. If I'm on the shelf, I'm surviving. Like Owen Hargreaves.
I liked that Ian (even though your squad roster has a glaring omission), I feel like we should giving Mike some shit for not pulling his weight.
I just need training up. Though being called Mr Sniper Man and not my name has affected my moral. Plus I had to watch my brother die. :cry:
There's no greater motivation. Even if it was Baz.
Good to see I'm still donning procedures even as a medic :cool:
I saved everybody when I built them in Long War 2 to the character pool but I think I may end up having to make people AGAIN anyway because the game tried to give me some fucking random as a recruit. :moop:
You're all there though, just as soon as I stumble across more recruits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O822t7dOqVk&ytbChannel=ianwelby
They're BACK.
Now with 100% less death than on the last mission.
"This video is private."
:sherlock:
Ah shite. I do that first to make sure they've uploaded properly.
Should work now.
I refuse to watch a video all the way through until I'm put into the squad.
I'm on strike!
Sounds like alien talk to me.
Obvious alien trick to deflect from yourself.
:sherlock:
So next mission should be a good'un and I shall record. it's a blacksite, I'm gonna have some upgraded magnetic weapon shit, there've been promotions and I'm probably gonna get hit with some sort of dreadful enemy that I'm totally not ready for. :drool:
I say we send the traitor Mahow in first.
I've just realised, in a mission, that I put a increase damage/reduce aim upgrade on a shinobi.
He now has no ammo whatsoever in his gun.
Glad I gave him an upgraded sword.
So I'm not going to recruit new people for this mission (because that would be idiotic for a variety of reasons) but I definitely will be once I have some supplies after that. Disco and Mahow shall be up first.
This will probably all happen on Tuesday or Wednesday. Which I'm a bit gutted about to be honest, I've upgraded our robot chum some more. Now he acts as high cover wherever he's standing. :drool:
Oh, but never mind using the big metal bastard as cover. I've also unlocked the ability for him to run up to enemies and smash their faces in.
I'm going to be crushed if the little animations for when you use this to kill an enemy aren't at least as nifty as the ones in Enemy Within.
Also, just saw this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpLcPIWqK18
Fucking hell. It sounds like it could feel like a totally different game.
Well, I just shat myself:
Toggle Spoiler
Genuinely had no idea it was coming and it scared the hell out of me.
That a Long War 2 special?
Indeed :(
And now I can't find the last enemy(ies).
I swear I've covered the whole map.
Review codes (I think) for War of the Chosen have been released and having just seen the footage I fear I maybe fucked if I get the DLC too early.
An exit and restart of the game sorted it.
Clear bug though as the guy who was left was in a room that I went through about 4 times.
Edit: Finally got the avatar project bar and I didn't think it was going to stop. Only 3 squares empty :\
Long War 2 - A shinobi with a vortex sword (gives void strike which lets him teleport to enemies and fucking ignores armour) and reaper is fucking amazing.
My main guy just dropped 5 guys in one round and took a chunk out of a 6th.
Edit: Every fucking time I equip a skulljack on someone the mission includes no codex. When I forget to give it to someone at least 1 codex appears. Infuriating.
I will definitely give Long War 2 a go again at some point. Just worried about my stamina ahead of WotC.
Main shinobi now has 68 kills in 19 missions.
He's a fucking one man army.
Finally unlocked mec units.
My spark :wub:
Blacksite mission megavid.
Though sadly, in terms of entertainment value, it wasn't a colossal disaster during which I flooded the battlefield with my angry tears. Didn't realise until now that it's over a fucking hour. Unless my wittering is more entertaining than I imagine there may be some merit in skipping between the fighty bits..... and missing the bit I had to savescum because I accidentally shortcutted a grenade at my own feet (actually it missed but I was still annoyed and reloaded.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ZN3i3cqb8&ytbChannel=ianwelby
Meanwhile I'm gonna have to hit my next site pronto because the avatar bar is still suffering despite my blacksite mission.
Disco and Mahow have now been recruited so soon they shall be appearing in videos.
Soon? ffs.
We're the two highest posters in the game thread after you.
We deserved top billing.
Well I think we all realise how important post count is.
Harsh on Ian, he's adding a lot here.
You're the first people I've actually chosen to recruit. Everybody else is who I was given at the start. If you think I'm choosing a fancier gun over you Mahow then I think we both know you should know better.
Anyway, in future if a mission is running on like that I think I'll break it down into two videos.
Turns out that a shinobi doesn't need to hack a locked door.
I was on an extract VIP mission, killed some Advent troop outside a cell and the sword cut through the wall allowing the VIP to leave.
I was really expecting it to chuck a new horrid enemy any me. Big muton or sectopod or something.
I've unlocked the final mission after finally finding a codex when I had a skulljack equipped.
I'm going to string it out though as I want to finish most of the research so I'm doing small missions still until I manage it.
Operation DOOM FACE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LeCVtERTKk&ytbChannel=ianwelby
Video debut of @Sir Andy Mahowry
Also featuring: @Pleb , @Andrew , @phonics , a bigass robot and.... me!
Also preceding the off-screen death of @Shindig during a mission to try and protect civilians that I didn't record. He got murdered by a berserker. :(
Coming up next time: The debuts of @Disco (who has been in a mission or two but none I've recorded yet) and @Cord who I've trained up as a ranger but hasn't been involved in a mission yet.
I'm in a better place now. :(
In several better places. :(
@Disco and @Cord make their video debuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDm462vnEUk
If you want to see me failing to find some aliens then this is the video for you!
EDIT: Oh god, and right at the start I pronounce lieutenant the wrong way. DISASTER.
Seems harsh that you can't just put the robot back together, although I'm perfectly happy for it to tank damage instead of us precious meatsacks.
Especially given on that mission type I can collect all the loot and stuff you'd think you could at least use the remains to get a discount off your next SPARK or something. It also seems daft that I can't just immediately program the next one to have the same abilities, but okay.
Like in the original where as long as you'd researched the tech you could buy tanks with whatever weaponry you liked.
I'd even take it if it was like, "You can rebuild this advanced one for a cost but it'll take longer than building a new one" or whatever.
Loads of progress this afternoon. :drool: New soldiers, a second SPARK, armor upgrades.... all sorts of goodies. About to hit one of the story mission blacksites too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIs5YifCeHs
Just an update one, rather than a mission. New recruits discussed, as well as new robots, are @Raoul Duke and @Patje.
Huzzah.
EDIT: And the video's image even shows @Disco with his new hairline-covering headgear.
Yes Ian - I look badass and am loving the psi-ops thing. Can't wait to unleash MIND GAMES on some alien space weasels :drool:
Perhaps if you mentioned it less often I wouldn't be so self conscious and, maybe, the hat wouldn't be necessary. :mad:
I simply love my orange shades.
So I'm 99% certain I won't be buying War of the Chosen in the immediate future. Question is whether to plough on with Shen's Last Gift save or not. I do have two robots now....
I have my key, won't play until the 4th though.
Almost definitely getting killed the first time I step out the door :cool:
Am I dead yet?
You cried off with a hurt head and went to have a magnesium bath.
Bringing out the new material tonight I see.
As always I'm on the cutting edge.
I just ladle out insults.
Cunt.
How am I doing @Ian?
Still the ranking officer at Colonel and healing bitches all over the place.
Gonna do a mission just now, I think.
Another one I probably ought to have stopped it halfway through and done a second video but whatever, I assume people are just flicking through for the bits with their named soldier anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=254&v=Sp_zmA_3TrY&ytbChannel=n ull
Starring: @Pleb, @Mike, @phonics, @Andrew and @Raoul Duke (who I need to give a new nickname to.)
Featuring: A mistake I should probably have been punished way harder for near the start and MIND GAMES near the end.
Damn, I think I'm near the end of this save.
I'm gonna try and wipe out all the remaining facilities and get enough money to unlock all the guns for the final missions.
Fuck my life. I had missed the RPS review of WotC and just read it. He basically directly countered my biggest reason not to buy it, "They could have called this XCOM 3."
The temptation is real.
First up I need to finish this save though. @Raoul Duke now has basically every psi power and he's a fucking monster. A sweet, beautiful monster.
Forgot just how long that final mission is.
War of the Chosen will have to wait until Monday.
I'm trying to resist, despite the deal GMG has for it. I'm definitely buying Divinity 2 next week to play with my mate so I should really hold off on WOTC.
Anyway, moar vids. And these ones are shorter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSavtrZNSxU
Featuring: @Raoul Duke , @Sir Andy Mahowry , @Disco , @Patje, @Migraine and a robot.
And another!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbxP8eHhzXo
Starring two robots, Duke, Randrew and Disco again, along with @Mike .
@Byron is also a thing and I'm getting him trained up as a mega psi-ops chap too.
Throwing a grenade to reveal the container and shooting an enemy out of the air, lovely. :cool:
Good couple of vids Ian. The psychic stuff is pretty swish :cool:
Byron is all trained up on that too. I've nearly got two fully-levelled squads worth of people and robots ready for the last two missions.
Mahow and Mike are a bit beastly as my snipers now too. Murdering dudes all over the shop.
This games brillo. Still janked as fuck but still brilliant.
However, I think I've left it a little too late to attack the avatar project. 3 blips left and I haven't even made contact with the place that contains the base. I thought I had to attack the blacksite so was prepping for that :(
If you take down a blacksite it'll reduce the avatar counter. I had the avatar counter at about the level you're at for most of my first playthrough. Should still be salvageable.
Lol my Captain died before I had the resources to get 6 squad members and it all went downhill from there. I'm going to go back from a save somewhere in the middle.
Enjoying War of the Chosen a lot so far.
Free on PS+ in June
So WOTC definitely isn't like being XCOM3 but it's very good and adds a lot of stuff. I really hope that whenever we get XCOM 3 it doesn't just ignore this like 2 did with Enemy Within, though. The factions definitely need to be involved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il6GoZR1IIk
I am very excited. Not released until September sadly.
Yeah it looks ace. Should've moar freds'd it though.
I still need to finish WOTC but I've pre-purchased Chimera Squad as it's 50% off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZnpl3hWfVM
Pre-ordering. :nono:
That's come seemingly out of nowhere though unless I'd just missed it.
Pre-ordering is still unequivocally a terrible idea. if anything 50% off a pre-order off just sets even more alarm bells.
Three years for another random little expansion with a bunch of new mechanics is..... odd. I wonder if this is setting up some stuff for an XCOM 3.
Also the discount is up for a week after release anyway. So plenty of time to not encourage pre-ordering, wait for reviews and get it at a bargain if it's not shite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39fhpegVBQQ
I don't like the look of it being XCOM2 but more cartoony though I suppose I'll get over that. Breach Mode feels like a natural follow-up from the "stealth" bits they had at the start of missions in XCOM2 and a little like how Mutant Year Zero starts fights so I'm into the idea of that. And I'm also not against this appearing to be a smaller-scale story than OMFG THE WORLD ENDS IF YOU LOSE. I'm sure the lack of permadeath will make XCOM diehards very cranky though.
I had forgotten how much I loved this game.
Started on WOTC finally today and it's great.
Annoyingly though I had downloaded loads of soldier packs which have carried over but the voicepacks have not. Thus, I have people like Hodor running around but using a basic voice.
Just look at that squad list:
https://imgur.com/a/9rRD33R
:drool:
WOTC is XCOM2 at it's most power-fantasy-y but it is great fun.
Really like the mental new assassins.
Can imagine they're right bastards nearer the end of the game. Especially for me as I'm quite conservative and use a lot of Overwatch.
Is that the three main ones? Yeah they can be quite tricksy. Satisfying when you off one though.
Yeah, in the last mission I did I was introduced to the first one (had a fight but she left before death) and then saw all 3 in a cut scene.
My sharpshooters are better at long range with their fucking pistols.
80% shot with a sniper rifle miss, 40% with a pistol no fucking problem boss.
Also, lightning reflexes is a bit of a chest code when it comes to dealing with the lost.
See, I'm doing the DLC for Mutant Year Zero and it's a relief to be reminded that in those games it doesn't lie to you about the chance of hitting.
It's actually pretty game breaking in all aspects. Especially if you couple it with Psi Operatives using their inspire skill and the whole bonding granting extra turns thing.
I can take out as many enemies in my sharpshooters LOS, move take them out and I haven't tried it yet but I could just tab to a Psi guy inspire the sharpshooter so he can move again and then use reflexes again and finally I could tab to a bonded teammate who gives him another action.
I took down one of the Chosen last night pretty much solo with the Sharpshooter.
Edit: It's actually called Lightning hands.
Maybe one of the mods has fucked it because I can't imagine that an ability should grant basically unlimited shots.
I don't remember that but then I didn't mod the game.
However there are more than a few opportunities in the game for you to be overpowered and killing lots of enemies in one turn by combining the right abilities.
Lol Mahow, the whole mechanic wit the lost is if you kill them then you get a free shot. You don't need to use Lightning Hands.
Digging into my recollection of the game here but doesn't Lightning Hands help you with reloads?
And second post he's not talking about the Lost is he?
Not talking about the Lost in the second post. With the lightning hands right now I can shoot as many times as I want with a sharpshooters pistol at any target, even if I miss or hit.
The skill is that a pistol shot does not use an action point but for some reason it is never in cool-down.
Happy enough with the reviews for this that I might get it over the weekend.
If they don't write all this out by declaring something else as canon like they did with XCOM / Enemy Within (RIP MECs :() I'd be quite interested to see them push this idea of humans and the leftover aliens uniting to face another enemy in XCOM3, whenever we get that.
I got this.
I absolutely hate the whole Breach mechanic. It's stupid.
I hate the upgrade/strategy level mechanic. It's stupid.
The fights are really small with very little decision making required. It's stupid.
Anything above a tenner is a rip off.
I'm undecided on the price but I like the breaching a lot and it would make sense to have it in certain missions in whatever XCOM 3 looks like. I think the escort missions make it clear how it wouldn't be suited to more open missions but for some of the ones set in interiors (or for those bits of missions where you attack a facility) I don't see why not.
Have you put the difficulty up? It makes a difference in that you're not just murdering whichever enemy's turn is next.
This is fair and my criticism is probably tempered with the fact that they invented a cool little game mechanic and based an entire game around it without developing it further.
Imagine if you could see through the door, enemy placements etc. and decide where each character would finish in cover etc. I think you can do this with powers but it's like 'once per battle' and you have no idea how many breaches you'll do in one battle. Lots of annoyances like that.
I think having that for every breach would be OP but I see your point that it'd be nice if they found a middle ground.
I just hope this gets well received and they go "Cool, yeah, more of this and better in XCOM 3" because it's a very nifty idea and when you nail a breach first time it's very satisfying.
A stun of 1 not actually being a stun is bullshit btw.
I stun the enemy who is next in the turn and the stun is cleared instantly and he can attack straight away.
Stun just makes the enemy lose one action point. So for example, they won't be able to move and shoot, and they can only move or shoot. Sometimes Verge can Stun 2, which makes the enemy lose both their action points, in which case it acts like a proper stun.
I quite like the breach mechanic, as well as the turn initiatives. Dislike the city-map, research and upgrades as they feel like dumbed down XCOM. Quite like having "characters", but I do miss being able to just train and customise operatives.
Playing on Expert is decently challenging for me. Most missions are relatively close with lots of people coming out gravely wounded and scarred, and have failed a couple so far.
Gears Tactics is coming out this week, so will be an interesting comparison.
So, more Chimera Squad thoughts from what I've played so far.
Want to see in XCOM 3:
- Breach mode. As I've said I really like it and would want either full Breach missions to be in XCOM 3 OR for it to be a feature at certain points during missions. I don't want it to be how every mission starts as the VIP evac ones in Chimera squad where you're "breaching" a big open street are balls. Outdoors bits probably need to just start as they did in XCOM 2. (I actually think there are things they could steal from Mutant Year Zero on this front but that's a ramble for another day.)
- The main story. Don't XCOM 2 me and say "lol j/k we lost the first game and MECs / gene mods never happened" (:() I like this story idea and there are plenty of directions you can take it. If you want to see Firaxis do a take on Terror from the Deep you can still tie it into this.
- Further to the above, don't tickle my balls with alien team mates in this one only to take them away from XCOM3 like you did with MECs/XCOM2 you total bastards. Even if their Murican accents are a bit jarring. But it's a nice progression of things and recruiting aliens to help defend Earth against whatever comes next would be fun.
- The new turns system. "We all take our turns then you take all your turns" is less good than this. Though I would caveat that by saying that they need to work on it a bit because on default difficulty for this it's literally just a case of piling on whoever has their turns the soonest, whereas on Expert at least I'm finding my decisions a touch more nuanced than that.
- Other activities for inactive squad members. I haven't unlocked any more interesting stuff yet as I haven't upgraded my field teams but the Spec Ops stuff for example is an interesting idea.
Don't want:
- Set characters. It's fine for a smaller game like this but for my full-fat XCOM sequel I want the aliens but not for characters that can't die without a game-over. For it to be worth a punt in a full XCOM3 Firaxis' writing would have to be a lot stronger than it is here. With this going you'd go back to classes and more varied / interesting level-up choices.
- The research / upgrade system. It might be a slight downgrade on what we had in XCOM 2 as hfswjyr and Phonics but I don't want that back either. Researching what new shit you find in a mission is fine but the idea that I'm having to spend most of my current resources just to have one smoke grenade with which to help me defend the Earth is nonsense. XCOM / XCOM 2 largely failed on this front too. Just not enough interesting decisions which is what these things should be.
Looks like my game froze (probably due to no internet but it was fine before) when I had 1 member of the team waiting to be Evaced.
Sigh.
Does it not do fairly regular autosaves?
Yeah it will have.
Just annoying as I can't close it down and load it back up as my internet is down I don't think.
Might hotspot it for a bit maybe.
It's crashing every mission right now.
Edit: 2 crashes in the exact same spot :uhoh:
Edit: Got past it. I killed enemies before doing an objective and it seems like the game didn't know what to do.
Other than the tactical part of the game, the game itself is unbelievably unpolished to be honest. The UI is crap with popups often covering important information making it impossible to read. And then the amount of hilarious graphical glitches on breaching is just incredible. Half the time my squad breaches through windows without breaking the window. When they throw grenades through doors, it lands about a metre from the door itself. When enemies kick down doors, the door closes again, and the enemy then melds through the door to enter.
You would have thought this would have all been picked up during a playtest.
Those popups are so annoying.
I had someone bleed out on me earlier which meant I was able to select an android if he was selected or unselected (I couldn't actually tell if he was selected) a pop up would tell me he was not active and that I might struggle without it.
A popup also covers up the name of the third faction.
I also beat the first faction I selected earlier today. Can I unlock more slots for training/spec ops or is it 1 per throughout the game because I hate being told that a member of my squad is inactive constantly.
Also, initially I did not want to use Verge's mindflay ability as it showed 2 red bars when I went to use it thinking that he'd take self-damage but after a couple of missions I just thought I might as well try it. Did absolutely no damage to him.
Yeah I can't work that out either.
Firaxis can't do UIs though. The UI outside of how the fights are presented and the Avenger view was balls down to weirdly common things they never spot / fix in testing and shitty inventory systems and it's not much better now.
Though they did at least finally add a button themselves to un-equip items from inactive squad members.
I encountered my first Chryssalids last night. Seems they're the XCOM2 chryssalid-lite variety rather than Enemy Unknown's nightmare fuel.
Yep, I've seen all the glitches mentioned above as well. They Dev team would have definitely noticed these problems too, but chosen to just rush the product out the door instead.
I'm guessing they deperately wanted to beat Gears Tactics to the market.
And yes, you can eventually have more slots for research and training. Not sure about Spec-Ops yet on my playthrough.
I dunno if it's specific to Vent entries but I had a weird one yesterday where I sent Verge through a vent and for the next shot afterwards it didn't change perspective so (unless there's an obvious marker somewhere telling me who's shooting during a breach) I was having to try and remember what order I'd put the breach team in.
Another plus is that I'm finding there are agents who when I first look at their skills I feel pretty meh but are usually quite useful when I actually put them in a mission. Last night's example was Claymore and his shrapnel bomb.
This is a smaller scale room clearing type thing right?
Have they solved the problem all the new ones had (ambush the first set of enemies then try your hardest not to trigger the next two groups until you're ready)?
Is this standalone or an expansion/DLC?
Standalone.
Enemy Within / War of the Chosen (I may be telling you something you already know here, I can't remember what bits you played) both did the same thing of adding a bunch of stuff to the existing campaign. I mean WOTC was basically XCOM 2.5 but it was still doing that.
Chimera Squad is a standalone mini-sequel.
EDIT: I am right about Enemy Within aren't I? I'm doubting myself now. I know it added some extra mission types and story bits but you were still going through the same campaign, ultimately, right?
I just Googled it and I was correct. Phew.
So canonically it's Enemy Unknown > XCOM 2 > Chimera Squad.
And I think from a few things that get mentioned WOTC did actually happen, or some of it. I'm sure I heard one of the factions get mentioned.
No I bounced off the first one and never felt the need to go back, especially with stuff like Open Xcom and Xenonauts iterating on the originals. This new thing is also on about £9 for the next few days, can't really go wrong with that.
And despite it very obviously being a testing ground for some different ideas there's a fair amount to it. I'm 10-12 hours in at a guess and I've only dealt with one of the three city factions the game tasks you with giving a good hiding.
The Chimera Squad are a bunch of dickhead Police officers though really aren't they?
You pick a faction and then they breach the fuck into a place they have intel on with no warrant or anything and then shoot first before asking questions later assuming they've not killed everyone.
Barging in at the drop of a hat and blowing everything up with too many explosives is the Xcom way. I would stock the ship with high explosives in case the map had snakemen on it.
It's fairly clear the government are sending them in to do this, I think the "Warrant Acquisition" stage of the strategy layer is probably better implied than implemented.
And anyway, how would you propose they try to resolve things peacefully with a chryssalid, out of curiosity?
When you first start on a faction they have no knowledge at all.
"These are bad guys, right?"
Wait, chryssalids in tight confined spaces? I may have to re-consider.
Here was my twist on the XCOM story that I thought up while high.
The third game should be you trying to take over the planet and installing yourself as God Emporer. You've been the only one saving the world for decades now, have it all go to your head and make you the bad guy shutting down revolutions against you and causing them against the countries.
Become the bloke on the TV that goes "...Commander."
It's "here are the factions we think capable of [doing the spoilery thing]."
You then get told about when they're up to stuff that's reet dodgy.
If you want there to be 28 possible factions and only three up to no good but you have to whittle them down then maybe you should write to Firaxis with this proposed Admin & Red Tape layer you seem so keen on.
Meanwhile I'll be here stopping chryssalids eating your family and shitting all over your gaming chair.
Thus far they've been gimpier XCOM 2 chryssalids rather than the "THAT THING NEEDS TO DIE RIGHT NOW" chryssalids of Enemy Unknown.
But I've only had one fight against them so far. I had the same reaction as you when I saw them though.
Phew. I've levelled towns to get rid of the fuckers in the original, I feel like that's what the blaster launcher was put into the game for.
Red tape simulator :drool:
Absolutely nailed a couple of "Very Difficult" missions last night. Even on Expert I'm actually not having that much trouble with the missions themselves now I have some decent abilities (though I'm still only a little way into my second faction so it might be lying about difficulty) but I'm having to spin plates to keep districts in check.
I'm starting to get some of the elite weapons too or whatever they're called.
In Enemy Unknown you had Terror Missions which was basically just a town mostly full of chryssalids and civilians and you had to kill as many of the former as you could before they could kill too many of the latter so you had the nightmare scenario of having to push aggressively when you knew there were fucking chryssalids everywhere.
Then in Enemy Within we briefly got MECs and their glorious kinetic strike, a big fuck off melee attack that if directed correctly would see your big metal lad punch a chryssalid through a wall.
Gloriously cathartic.
I'm regretting not giving War of the Chosen a go, but I remember not feeling up to replaying the XCOM 2 campaign again.
I'm a bit stuck on the last mission of Sacred Coil. Playing on Expert.
Zephyr <3
Despite her horrible accent ofc.
I've not picked her yet. Am I doing myself a bad turn?
She's my favourite thus far as she's basically a ranger minus the sword.
Just got her promoted enough to get reaper which is brilliant.
I threw a shrapnel grenade between two enemies then lobbed a sticky grenade at one of them who ran right by the other guy.
Blew himself to pieces which triggered the shrapnel which finished off the other guy :drool:
My best kill(s) by far on this game.
I think the ones I've not picked so far are Zephyr, Shelter and.... Blueblood? Dunno if there are more it hasn't offered me yet.
Cherub has turned out to be one I like more than I expected and I've now taken Patchwork who's really useful against all these Sacred Coil robots.
Assuming we all started with the same four, who have you guys picked up?
I've got Torque, Patchwork, Shelter, and Axiom so far. Listed in order of usefulness.
Started with:
Godmother
Verge
Cherub
Terminal
As you say, I assume that's the same. I've since picked up:
Torque
Claymore
Axiom
Patchwork
Pleasingly I'm finding all of them pretty good when you get used to them.
I'd say my first choice squad just now is Terminal, Axiom, Cherub and Godmother. Though Axiom / Godmother I'm happy to switch out for Claymore and I think Patchwork will become more and more useful as I get her level and I plan to use her alot against Sacred Coil.
I've not levelled Torque as much as I'd like purely because of how my rotations have fallen when I need to put members into Spec Ops or Assembly.
Just read up a bit on Zephr and I wish I'd taken her already.
I've picked up Zephyr, Claymore, Axiom and Blueblood.
Generally running Zephyr, Claymore, Blueblood and then one of Godmother or Terminal.
Godmother wasn't in play for me for ages but I picked up two epic shotguns which are so OP.
Blueblood is also great because he can take 2 shots a turn (3 when lightning hands is off cool down). He's shit during breach though because his damage is so low.
Godmother doesn't need one of the shotguns to have OP powers. "Ventilate" fills that role very nicely.
Everybody playing on Expert too?
Yeah but she's coming in over Terminal (and her healing gremlin) because the shotguns I have are amazing.
High damage, range doesn't matter as the encounters are in smaller rooms than normal Xcom and they get an extra ability.
One shotgun (which Godmother has) gives her run and gun and the one that Claymore has gives him rapid fire.
I play on hard.
Range is irrelevant but the ability to ignore cover is good.
I mean if she's in the team I'm giving her one of the shotguns anyway because I'm never putting three shotgunners in one mission but I think I've had less cause to use run and gun than either ventilate or rapid fire so far.
I only just realised that "Ventilate" also hits the enemy.
I thought it was just a cover shredder.
Fucking game changer ffs.
Fucks sake Mahow. :D
Campaign done.
I enjoyed it although there are some slight niggles (mainly the fact that it seemed to crash for me on the regular) but I do hope they bring breaches into a few missions for Xcom 3.
Crashy for me too, definitely issues on that front.
Do you get all agents in one campaign? I've started the third lot and still don't have three of them.
I don't believe so. I must be on the last mission now, and I've only got the initial four and another four.
I was wrong about Axiom. He's an absolute beast.
I played the new Gears X-COM game. I absolutely hate the 'walk to your next mission' parts of the missions.
You don't get them all.
I didn't like Axiom tbh.
I only used a pool of 5 near the end (Zephyr, Blueblood, Godmother, Claymore and Terminal) because they're all tremendous.
I'd currently be happy going into any mission with pretty much any combo of mine. I'd always want Terminal if at all possible for the heals but pretty much everybody else I'd be comfortable with. Patchwork being able to potentially stun or disorient an enemy just by running near them has been a surprise lifesaver a couple of times.
Just played through the first level of Gears Tactics and early impressions are good.
By the time you get to the endgame of Chimera Squad even on whatever the 2nd hardest difficulty is called (Expert?) it's fairly straightforward. And I don't think I've had the city crisis meter thing get even to half way.
I didn't even have districts get near their own anarchy because I always had someone (Axiom) doing the spec ops that reduces them by 1 every 5 (IIRC) days plus the little bonuses for having X field teams.
I have them hit it fairly often because I didn't want to waste somebody on doing a spec-ops for that but it's so easily manageable anyway that it wasn't even really an issue.
Were utlity items free to use in their previous XCOM games? I can't honestly remember but I think my last few single-encounter missions I haven't taken any damage by the time I've spammed my grenades and abilities that stun opponents and whatnot.
Once you bought them then you just equipped for free.
I worded that badly, I meant did they cost an action to use in a mission?
IIRC there are skills to negate it.
Some grenades ended your turn completely though but there were skills for that too.
That being the case all those thing being free to use as you please and to still have all your actions left is a bit OP especially for single encounter missions.
Abuse that, a motile inducer or two and Team Up and you can mop up what should theoretically be a strong encounter in short order.
Also, unrelated, but I loved the alien cage fight arena I came across earlier.
Finished it last night.
Yep, I agree with all the above. Having a bunch of free action points and powerful skills made the last third of the campaign a breeze. Towards the end I was working on making sure everyone in the squad was maximum level with all their training complete, which meant sending out the newbies. Still easily completed with zero city anarchy.
I was sort of hoping the final final battle would have had a whole bunch of "boss" monsters from the three chapters. But instead, it was just a hitman.
Just finished it too.
It's a bit cheap in a game all about prepping for what's ahead that it chucks a couple of extra encounters on the end of that to what you'd been told to expect. I assumed something like that was coming so I was very sparing with my 1-use stuff.
Also Patchwork by the end is ludicrous. Using the AOE zap thing and the one you can use once per turn with the chain effect I was stunning groups of 6+ enemies at a time at the back end of the Sacred Coil mission and that final story quest.
Good game though. Difficulty curve needs some work to keep the challenge up but I'd still agree that there are things from this that I'd definitely want to see in XCOM 3 in some capacity.
So Chimera Squad is worth waiting for a sale on? Just reinstalled XCOM 2, havent got any DLC yet. My elite MILF squad is cleaning up, Lisa Ann averaging 2 xenos a mission: truly the GOAT.
I'm on a massive XCOM hit at the moment, been playing 2 on the PS4 but also squeezing in some EW on the iPad when the wife is watching tv. Doing a practice run to get familiar before going for Impossible Ironman on EW, following some nutter's guide which boils down to 'fuck off all the new tech just build SHIVs and throw as many grenades as you can' :D
Simultaneous XCOM2 and EW runs. Madman.
You not got War of the Chosen yet?
Nah only seen it priced at £35 so hanging on for now.
Ah fair enough.
If you haven't looked into it much and in case this affects the price you'll be prepared to pay for it at, War of the Chosen is like.... not quite XCOM3 but XCOM2.5 at least. There's way more extra stuff added than EW added to EU and it feels pretty different in the missions.
Ah fair enough, at a glance it just seemed like factions and mega twats spawning in missions randomly. Still the complete DLCs cost a total of £50 right now while Chimera Squad is £16 on steam.
You were right about simultaneous runs being madness, burning out pretty hard on the fun factor. Gonna stick with 2 for now because feel like I have got quite far.
Yeah I love XCOM and XCOM-likes but running two games simultaneously would be a bit beyond me. XCOM 2's great though.
I really just wish we'd get some news on XCOM3. I wanna know what they're working on.
Having just completed 2 on veteran, is it not heavily implied? Restarted on Commander Ironman, only on second retaliation mission already lost two soldiers.
Just unlocked predator armour, had magnetic and gauss weapons, things going well. Sent me A team on a supply raid, accidentally aggro two pods after the map starts with the camera facing the map corner rather than the actual game area. Butcher the two pods with only a trooper remaining, move a soldier five yards and suddenly another pod aggros and I lose my best Grenadier, best Sniper and best Assualt in one round. Restarted :D
Yeah the really high difficulties are too unforgiving for me to find it fun. Especially when the game lies about percentages.
Glanced at my bank account post payday and decided I have enough to justify spunking for the War of the Chosen and all DLC stuff. I think I got the base game free on PS Plus anyway so not the end of the world. Not doing an ironman for a while though :D
War of the Chosen is bangin' so I imagine you'll enjoy it.
Yeah I have only just managed to sneak a little bit in this afternoon but already liking the little touches like the changes to how status effects are shown to you, as well as the promotion info.
Yeah now I am into WOTC a bit more, christ, it's the same game except it totally isn't! Definitely worth the money for the amount of extras and changes.
Just nailed a Sectopod in one overwatch hit on a facility mission, god bless the repeater.
@Lofty Chimera Squad is under £8 on Green Man Gaming just now, FYI.
How's your WotC run going?
Good shout that. Killed two of the chosen but yet to encounter the third. Think my killing the Assassin first really helped as my top ranger is now an absolute machine with the assassin weapons and basically rapid fired the hunter to death in the kill mission. Just have to actually bother skulljacking a codex to move the story on now :D
For you Xcom fans, Aliens: Dark Descent is getting great reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWgYo55oOQk&ab_channel=FocusEntertainment
The reviews I've read have been pretty mixed and it's got either bugs or stuff that just doesn't work properly needing patched. Steam sale job for me.