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.
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.
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.
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.![]()
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)![]()
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.
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
![]()
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.![]()
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;
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![]()
And just had my firstmoment.
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.![]()
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.
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![]()
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:
Anyway, chaps. We only went and made it.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.![]()
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![]()
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 levelThankfully 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![]()