-Played it with same main character build as before (I have this tendency to default to builds that are some variant of burglar-shotgunners)
-My main strike team consisted of Sam (baton+shotgun (gotta love that assault variant)), Ray (mainly heavy blunt weapon user, carries pistol too), Edgar (grenadier, bladed weapon, carries pistol just in case) & Emilia (medic/fire support with revolver and sniper rifle)
-Pretty much everyone on the strike team has maxed out body armor, smoke & damage dealing grenade & some medikits.
-Arcadi has assault rifle + knife, Elena SMG + bladed weapon (bought her a katana that didn't see much use) and Caia is pistol wielder. I didn't really use these characters (except on character story related missions) much on combat missions after 14th game day or so.
-Trio of leftovers did mainly intel and later loot gathering (had to heavily respec Arcadi and give him lockpics for this purpose.)
-I managed to max out all facilities.
-During my current play I took out all lieutenants (4 because extended campaign). Two rackets from mafia and church, survivalists didn't spawn second one by the time I stopped playing. 1st church racket was particularly satisfying hornets nest to take out.
-Those missions where gang members try to escape with loot are nice distraction from usual combat missions, at least close combat oriented team have to approach those slightly differently.
-There is now some tension on protect the NPC missions. I actually failed to save the restaurant keeper.
-Got ambushed once during early game; managed to retreat in good order thanks smoke grenade cover.
-This time church was the hardest gang to deal with, probably thanks to their leveled up racket. They also kept causing some damage, probably because my close combat orientation meant that I kept fighting on their terms.
-Survivalists were, with the exception of early game, probably the easiest to deal with. Things that might factor to this might include their smaller squad sizes, my better cover and smoke usage (I didn't consider those too precious to use this time), build that put emphasis on bypass, mobility and initiative also added "interrupt" -mechanic makes putting dude with a melee weapon next to couple gun wielders a viable tactic. I could also swear that weapon loadout that their basic troopers wield went actually less effective as the game progressed; I saw 2*snapshot pistols on them on game day 10, but on day 25 they come at you with tier 1 pistols or revolvers and low tier close combat weapons (hammers and such). I probably didn't see a single basic mook with assault rifle or other long arm, those seem to be reserved for specialists.
btw. Their equipment level is currently 4 (whatever that means.)
-Mafia was the usual middle ground holder on difficulty, sometimes their combination of close combat fighters with some staying power combined with specialist/lieutenant fire support caused some problems.
-I think I reached the point where my power outpaced gangs on 16th day of campaign, before that I had to do some team member rotation. After that increased resting bonus and plentiful healing supplies meant that I could recover quickly even if some of my team went down during mission.
-Facilities seem to give guaranteed items now instead of X% change to get something like it was before.
-One thing I didn't pay much attention is that all injuries seem to be equally difficult to heal; I don't think I've never seen anything that would require more resources to heal.
-There seem to be now portraits for both genders for specialists.
-Lucky lighter occasionally goes to characters backpack form utility slot after missions, re-equipping it is no biggie, but still lightly annoying busy work.
-Encountered few bugs, most of those should be fixed by release version. There's one possibly game freezing one on which fix is still uncertain.
-If there ever is a sequel Phantom Doctrine might be a good game to take inspiration from.
-I probably had more, but I forgot.
-Good luck with release Daithi.
e.
-It would be nice if character could be picked from a portrait on healing screen too.
e2.
-There were couple occasions where I wasn't certain if attack of opportunities worked as intented.
1. I saw loot carriers, on missions where gangs were robbing things, making AoO's against my units. Gang members that carry loot have the same white flag symbol as fleeing enemies, though I've yet to see actual deserter make any attack against anyone
2.On one occasion gang member that was wielding a pistol, put his weapon away and made unarmed AoO against my team member that was moving around him.
e3.
-Game now offers a choice between close and far deployments. Close deployment gives extra AP (and perhaps initiative boost). I pretty much could always use close deployment after first 10 days. These don't seem to take effect in boss fights or racket raids.
-Events seemed mostly happen in first 12 days or so. Though those might now be bound to map tiles. I'm pretty sure that I didn't see any cemetery events during my time with V29. Only a couple normal fights in cemeteries too.
Probably low threat blocks that I didn't have much reason to visit.
-Now player can see which weapons are upgraded and how many upgrades those weapons have. Excellent.
e4.
-I've played the game enough that I can see if melee hits or misses just from how animation aligns in first couple frames.
e5.
-It seems that now post-mission looting screen tells what loot you got from downed criminals. Welcome improvement No more backpack cleaning from random team member that got 10 pistols and hammers into it.
Funny you should mention the Joker, the voice actor (Anthony Ingruber) is the Joker in Telltale's Batman games.
