X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[Zombra]

I was hoping to see LW's fatigue system, great for forcing you to build a substantial roster instead of just a dream team of your top 6. Oh well.

That's baked into the base game. Fatigue timers are a lot longer in XCOM 2 across the board to promote a deeper roster, though not to the extent of Long War.

Oh shit, CHOO CHOO hype train picking up speed!

 

[Zeriel]

I was hoping to see LW's fatigue system, great for forcing you to build a substantial roster instead of just a dream team of your top 6. Oh well.

That's baked into the base game. Fatigue timers are a lot longer in XCOM 2 across the board to promote a deeper roster, though not to the extent of Long War.

Oh shit, CHOO CHOO hype train picking up speed!

Recruits are more of a resource this time around, too. There are missions early on (and by "missions" I mean places you go to on the world map and spend a few days to activate for free boost) that reward you 4 rookies instead of having to pay for them, you can hire experienced soldiers later on, etc, so they are trying to address how some people would restart if they lost high-ranked soldiers in EU/EW, now you can just go out and buy a new high-ranked soldier, which I guess turns it into a heavy financial loss instead of just having a shitty roster forever.

 

[Zombra]

I know it's bad to be enthusiastic or complimentary on the Codex, especially of "nuXCOM" compared to the sacred cow of the original ... but it's wonderful to see that they really punched up the lackluster strategic elements of 2012. These guys are sincere about making a better game.

 

[Ironmonk]

Really looking forward to play this game.
After watching some let's play videos I got so hyped that I had to play XCOM again last week... it has its flaws but its entertaining anyway. I can hardly wait for February 5.
To me, it seems that the PR is going very well and the game really is promising, with this level of mod support, maybe it can beat Skyrim regarding number of mods available on nexus.

 

[Zombra]

Fatigue timers are a lot longer in XCOM 2 across the board to promote a deeper roster, though not to the extent of Long War.

Wait, so do they have an actual fatigue system for going on missions, or is it just that injuries take longer to heal? I don't like the idea of a guy being able to do 10 missions in a row because he didn't get shot or wears lots of armor.

 

[Zeriel]

Fatigue timers are a lot longer in XCOM 2 across the board to promote a deeper roster, though not to the extent of Long War.

Wait, so do they have an actual fatigue system for going on missions, or is it just that injuries take longer to heal? I don't like the idea of a guy being able to do 10 missions in a row because he didn't get shot or wears lots of armor.

They still have to be injured, but that includes 1 damage. I dunno, my personal take on it is if you are having most soldiers go through a mission without taking any damage whatsoever you're probably playing on a difficulty too low for your skill level, especially with all the timers they put in to make people rush and make inoptimal moves more often.

 

[Zombra]

Blah, OK. Less hyped

but still an improvement.

 

[Mozg]

Are there armor points like XCOM, where if you take damage < your armor HP it doesn't count as an injury?

As in, say a colonel with a suit of titan armor + a carapace pocket item, you have 12 points of armor HP + 10 points of regular hp. If you take exactly 12 HP of damage over the course of a mission without being healed, you don't get any injury timer.

 

[Zeriel]

Are there armor points like XCOM, where if you take damage < your armor HP it doesn't count as an injury?

As in, say a colonel with a suit of titan armor + a carapace pocket item, you have 12 points of armor HP + 10 points of regular hp. If you take exactly 12 HP of damage over the course of a mission without being healed, you don't get any injury timer.

Yes. It's nowhere as bad as Long War though, the highest armor value I've seen on enemies is 5 and there's an item that pierces 5 AP. I think overall the new system is a net nerf to aliens and a buff to players.

Don't expect to get absurdly high AP for your own soldiers though either.

 

[Zombra]

If you are having most soldiers go through a mission without taking any damage whatsoever you're probably playing on a difficulty too low for your skill level, especially with all the timers they put in to make people rush and make inoptimal moves more often.

Yeah. I'm conflicted. I read that the gap between Veteran and Commander is pretty steep again so I'll probably be playing on Veteran/Ironman. Classic in the first game was way too much for me, fucking cheating Thin Men. But in my Normal campaign, once I got past the first few upgrades, I never lost any more soldiers. Took hits, sure, but no deaths.

 

[not an artichoke]

With the exception of unwounded fatigue, this is all easily modded balancing. There should be a "hard mode" available within a day or two of release.

 

[Zeriel]

With the exception of unwounded fatigue, this is all easily modded balancing. There should be a "hard mode" available within a day or two of release.

Some people don't like having to dig into the files to mod the game just to have a suitably challenging experience on their first playthrough. I can see the argument, even as an enthusiast for replayability and modding. A game shouldn't HAVE to be modded--it should be a luxury.

For what it's worth, XCOM 2 looks easier than XCOM 1. I'd say old Classic is somewhere between Commander and Legendary, and Impossible (at least early game) is above Legendary. It might be that mid and late-game Legendary does the trick and ends up harder than late game Impossible was (not hard considering it got trivial once you teched up).

 

[Perkel]

Are there armor points like XCOM, where if you take damage < your armor HP it doesn't count as an injury?

As in, say a colonel with a suit of titan armor + a carapace pocket item, you have 12 points of armor HP + 10 points of regular hp. If you take exactly 12 HP of damage over the course of a mission without being healed, you don't get any injury timer.

Yes. It's nowhere as bad as Long War though, the highest armor value I've seen on enemies is 5 and there's an item that pierces 5 AP. I think overall the new system is a net nerf to aliens and a buff to players.

Don't expect to get absurdly high AP for your own soldiers though either.

Don't forget that part where you can mod completely how HP and armor works in game !

Imagine instead of vanilla armor DT/DR system. Which is now entirely possible.

 

[Zombra]

I'm glad that modders will be able to do stuff easily, but I have no intention with monkeying with the numbers myself, definitely not on my first playthrough.

zombra game balance expert

 

[not an artichoke]

Some people don't like having to dig into the files to mod the game just to have a suitably challenging experience on their first playthrough. I can see the argument, even as an enthusiast for replayability and modding. A game shouldn't HAVE to be modded--it should be a luxury.

Hate to break it to you, but most developers aren't going to balance to the taste of the average codexer. How we suffer, those of us who have a normal complement of chromosomes and are capable of not sucking at games!

If the game mechanics are good and modding is well supported, balancing should be a non-issue. It's a matter of taste, intelligence, and time commitment. It's something about which reasonable people can disagree, and it shouldn't be surprising that most developers balance on the easier side. Are you really so petulant that you refuse on principle to open up a text editor and change a few characters, or wait a couple more days for something you've already waited months?

 

[Disgruntled]

Day1 mods from the long war guys is pretty neat. I was a bit cautious at first with the thought of them doing a complete balanced overhaul in that little time. But I see its been a sensible approach with just 3 small ones as a start. The officer addition is one im really excited about, though i hope we can switch off leadership perks rather than be forced to sit them out when theres 2 or more in the squad.

 

[not an artichoke]

It appears not, but I don't have a problem accepting that as a cost of the increased power granted.

 

[Mozg]

Yes. It's nowhere as bad as Long War though, the highest armor value I've seen on enemies is 5 and there's an item that pierces 5 AP. I think overall the new system is a net nerf to aliens and a buff to players.

Don't expect to get absurdly high AP for your own soldiers though either.

No, I'm not talking about DR or DT, I mean like some portion of your HP in XCOM is "armor hp" which doesn't count towards injury if you get damaged. An attack has to go through all your current armor HP to reach your "real hp" that does lead to injury timers. Since aliens don't have injury timers, all their HP is effectively armor hp (or effectively real hp). In vanilla there's no easy visual indication distinguishing armor HP from body HP, but LW IIRC makes armor hp a brighter cyan color. That was one of the big reasons why it's a good idea to use the armor plate pocket items that give you +2 or whatever HP, because it's armor HP, and being able to take a shot in an earlyish mission and only be down 1 body hp is a huge difference from a near-fatal wound that puts you out for a month.

 

[Zeriel]

Yes. It's nowhere as bad as Long War though, the highest armor value I've seen on enemies is 5 and there's an item that pierces 5 AP. I think overall the new system is a net nerf to aliens and a buff to players.

Don't expect to get absurdly high AP for your own soldiers though either.

No, I'm not talking about DR or DT, I mean like some portion of your HP in XCOM is "armor hp" which doesn't count towards injury if you get damaged. An attack has to go through all your current armor HP to reach your "real hp" that does lead to injury timers. Since aliens don't have injury timers, all their HP is effectively armor hp (or effectively real hp). In vanilla there's no easy visual indication distinguishing armor HP from body HP, but LW IIRC makes armor hp a brighter cyan color.

The way it works is that if you have armor (not every armor item has this), you get armor pips. Every pip reduces 1 damage on any shot. There are abilities that "shred" armor, removing it for the mission. You only take health damage if there is still damage left after the armor pips reduce it.

Advent also have a shield ability, which operates like the Mechtoid psi shield in EW, just straight bonus HP that is removed first.

 

[Mozg]

I know about the DT system, I just wanted to know if there is also the old armor point system on top of it.

 

[Space Satan]

 

[Zanzoken]

every time I see the Titty Snake

who in the actual fuck would think that was a good idea

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Why the fuck is the tail split to give the appearance of legs though?

 

[laclongquan]

But good idea~ I support human-looking tittied aliens~

 

[Alienman]

Why the fuck is the tail split to give the appearance of legs though?

Beause it's not only boobs she have