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

[mutonizer]

Also, question for those who have played far. Do you even shoot down UFOs in this game? That's one of the most fun parts of the previous games, (the infiltrating part at least) but I'm guessing since you don't have interceptors in this game it doesn't have them.

Spoiler

No, you don't shoot any down, but you do have some landed UFOs mission with that infiltration part you mention.

So I was right that veteran ironman is the most enjoyable.

I must be getting old and senile but even Veteran Ironman's kicking my butts sometimes, though yea, most enjoyable so far, at least for my first run. 2-3 months in, some enemy/pods combos can really fuck up your team fast. Feels just on par with Classic Ironman XCOM:EU so far, at least for people like me who just play without much cheese/ultra-meta.

Love (and fucking hate) the pressure timers bring to the table on missions with them active. Really fits the concept (and make me appreciate missions without timers). That, random maps and mission variety completely remove any of the "been there done that <yawn>" feeling from XCOM:EU and even hours into the game now, every single mission keeps me ultra on edge, which is great, but also really tiring. One little fuck-up and bad luck had 4 out of 6 of my big guns captured just a while ago on a so called "easy" mission. No idea how to get them back yet but that's gonna make things even harder from now on since all their gear is gone as well...

Slowdowns/Pauses still drive me crazy here and there but really good game so far, way above XCOM:EU. Long term, the replayability is gonna be really cool too.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

What are aiming angles?

You are aware of the marker that shows you if you are going to have a shot in the square you want to move to, right? I find it amusing how many people are not, and then complain.

Aiming Angles was a EW second wave option that gave you a bonus hit chance if you were close to flanking


made the visual representation of the battlefield slightly less retarded since being at an angle where there is nothing shielding the alien's body but you're like one degree away from properly flanking them didn't give them a full cover bonus.

That should already be built into the main game. They mentioned a mechanic like that several times.

 

[Jimmious]

What are aiming angles?

You are aware of the marker that shows you if you are going to have a shot in the square you want to move to, right? I find it amusing how many people are not, and then complain.

Aiming Angles was a EW second wave option that gave you a bonus hit chance if you were close to flanking


made the visual representation of the battlefield slightly less retarded since being at an angle where there is nothing shielding the alien's body but you're like one degree away from properly flanking them didn't give them a full cover bonus.

That should already be built into the main game. They mentioned a mechanic like that several times.

While I agree that it would be a good addition, I can already imagine the hordes of anger about how hard the game is. Because this would apply for aliens too and people won't be able to accept the fact that even though they are in high cover, they get shot at because of the angle the alien shot from..

 

[Vault Dweller]

Playing on Commander difficulty, enjoying it so far. The timer thing is great. It gives you a gentle push without forcing you to rush forward. The difficulty's pretty good too. Do stupid things and you'll start losing men left and right.

 

[Jimmious]

I just had my first wipe
Time to learn to not activate two pods that have 2 lancers each...when you're down to 3 men. Shit.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I once activated 3 pods at once, like 4 meters from the start of the mission. Resulted in the most entertaining battle I had there... followed by 10 minutes of boredom when looking for the last pod.

Those pods have to be the most retarded idea ever, as you can wander the map for 300 years without anything happening, until you finally trigger it so the aliens can jump out and make actiony poses. And instead of coming up with something better, they put in a timer. Together with the equipment system where armor (mostly) just gives you extra hitpoints, intead of reducing damage. The moron who invented it probably thought he can destroy a tank by shooting it with a pistol 200 times because it runs out of hitpoints.

Grr.

 

[FuriousGamer87]

Hmm, it seems sniper build sharpshooter works really well with grenadiers blowing the shit and cover out of everyone since serial is just another version of ITZ.
Retraining one of the ranger as a scout seems to work really well since she helps a lot in making sure only one or two pod is activated or setting up overwatch ambush the enemies just walk in stupidly on their own turn.

Spoiler

Apparently advancement of the enemy is not tie to the avatar project or your story progression, but to the time.
So if you delay even for a day, you going to get ass rape by the aliums

 

[Korgan 2.0]

I'm fuckking loving this . Commander difficulty is just right to make you feel amazing when you win. Nothing like hacking an MEC to flip the odds in a big firefight, or your sniper pulling out a huge revolver with dragon rounds to drop a charging muton, or strategically blowing up cover to get a 85% deadeye shot.

Some for early game: 1) always take a flashbang or two, 2) sectoids are support units who are usually safe to save for last in a pod as they often don't go for direct damage; killing one insta-clears all his psi effects including panic, 3) a semi-dedicated hacker is mandatory, 4) get experimentals in the proving ground, they are nice.

People who are complaining about muh timers:

 

[Jimmious]

I'm pretty sure in XCOM 2 armor mitigates damage. As in having 1 armor means that if you take a 4 damage shot, 3 will be actually applied.

Also for the angles and percentages, the Tips during loading mention something about having better percentages when closer to flanking. So it seems its in.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

What are aiming angles?

You are aware of the marker that shows you if you are going to have a shot in the square you want to move to, right? I find it amusing how many people are not, and then complain.

Aiming Angles was a EW second wave option that gave you a bonus hit chance if you were close to flanking


made the visual representation of the battlefield slightly less retarded since being at an angle where there is nothing shielding the alien's body but you're like one degree away from properly flanking them didn't give them a full cover bonus.

That should already be built into the main game. They mentioned a mechanic like that several times.

While I agree that it would be a good addition, I can already imagine the hordes of anger about how hard the game is. Because this would apply for aliens too and people won't be able to accept the fact that even though they are in high cover, they get shot at because of the angle the alien shot from..

Except its already an addition.
If you are really close to getting a flank, you get a good angle aim bonus. Increases aim by 10 I think

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I'm pretty sure in XCOM 2 armor mitigates damage. As in having 1 armor means that if you take a 4 damage shot, 3 will be actually applied.

Also for the angles and percentages, the Tips during loading mention something about having better percentages when closer to flanking. So it seems its in.

I think he meant actual suits of armor, not the stat.
The tank comparison is wrong anyway; in-game a vehicle like that would have armor points which reduce incoming damage by a certain amount.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I'm pretty sure in XCOM 2 armor mitigates damage. As in having 1 armor means that if you take a 4 damage shot, 3 will be actually applied.

Also for the angles and percentages, the Tips during loading mention something about having better percentages when closer to flanking. So it seems its in.

I think he meant actual suits of armor, not the stat.
The tank comparison is wrong anyway; in-game a vehicle like that would have armor points which reduce incoming damage by a certain amount.

Of course I meant the suits of armor... and the fact that power armor actually gives you a sinhle point of damage reduction doesn't really change the point.
The comparison is right, as it points out the retardedness of "armor increases hitpoint, duh". Nothing to do with in-game vehicles.

Angles are a welcome addition, but that bonus should be doubled, as it only removes a small part of the cover penalty even when your units have a near-clear shot at the enemy.

 

[Space Satan]

Game is ok gameplay-wise, with rather balanced difficulty curve. So far no sign of immortal ubersoldiers we saw in EU and EW.
Biggest issue is technical performance and godawful optimization. Should they fix it, game will be great.

 

[Alienman]

Popular alien fighters

 

[Notorious]

How do these grumps see. Like seriously. With those stupid fucking helmets on. It's like someone took a challenge on how to design a helmet that covers 100% of your eyes. USE A VISOR THAT COVERS YOUR GODDAMN UGLY ALIEN EYES WHERE YOU CAN STILL SEE SHIT. Do they have cameras outside of the Helmet or something? Will this shit ever get explained?

Seriously though the Advent ticker is way too fast at least on Commander difficulty. The rest is super easy so far, am curios if it will get more difficult (Advent might still screw me)

 

[Jasede]

Interestingly, the really, really good players are saying Legendary is a bit too easy for them as it's more 'fair' than Impossible used to be. If you remember, in Impossible Thin Men had basically 100% aim and Sectoids were pretty liable to wipe you on the first mission if you ever trigger two pods. This doesn't really happen anymore, and there's a lot more tools to mitigate the difficulty.

For average players, though, the game has become harder. My friends who beat it 1 on Classic have to go down to normal difficulty and are still challenged. A big issue for them is how much smarter ADVENT are compared to 1's sectoids. They're not very cowardly and will flank aggressively, while moving surprisingly far. If you haven't mastered flanking this can be a significant difficulty increase.

 

[vean]

Reading the steam reviews, lots of people are very hurt over the timed missions

 

[Jasede]

"git good"

 

[Daedalos]

Man does this game run like shit.

With all AA, SAO and shadows to static and mostly off, im getting mostly solid 60 fps

on i74970 and gtx 970.. lel

Still some maps that run like shit and cutscenes jitter abit.

Dat optimization. The game is awesome, though. Fucking hard, too. Playing on second easiest, and im still having hard fights :D

can't imagine what LEgend is like

 

[Moink]

I have no idea what's up with the stun lancer guys, are they meant to have some form of down syndrome or something? They run into your entire squad, poke one of your guys for 3 damage and then get gunned down by everyone.

 

[Jasede]

Well, on Legendary they are a source of grief and tears as they systematically reduce your squad from six, to five, to four, to three soldiers...
While sprinting across half the map in 1 turn. Maybe you should consider yourself blessed.

 

[Mr. Pink]

I usually make fun of people who justify shitty games with "mods will fix it", but since everything in xcom 2 can be edited in a text editor, including enemy AI, I'm so goddamn hype for my second play through with the inevitable " better AI and balance tweaks" mods.

Modding timers that don't start until detection
Modding AI to be more conservative in combat
Modding more patrolling units
Modding units that get smarter/dumber tactically depending on the presence of a leader
Modding swords to be not dogshit



the future is so bright

 

[Daedalos]

It looks like a walrus.. lel

 

[Jasede]

I really love the game so far, warts and all.
It reminds me a lot of old DOS games, like the league of Master of Magic and Master of Orion 2 or Syndicate. I really, really like all the random things that happen in the Geoscape. It reminds me so positively of the games I grew up with and that, to me, is worth a special endorsement.

 

[FuriousGamer87]

I have no idea what's up with the stun lancer guys, are they meant to have some form of down syndrome or something? They run into your entire squad, poke one of your guys for 3 damage and then get gunned down by everyone.

Wait till you see the elite version several months later who wrecked anyone they can reach for ridiculous amount of damage.