ysbreker

XCOM 2

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I've had two corrupt saves (both on the same mission, so likely from the same thing), and a variety of minor but annoying bugs.  But even with that, I'd give it an enthusiastic recommendation. 

 

 

I got to the final mission last night, but decided to quit rather than pushing on through it because of the time, not knowing how long it would take.  Tonight, the aliens fall!

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 I read a bunch of guides on how to get started with the strategic stuff before starting the campaign. This did not spoil the experience for me, and I will probably do the same in XCOM2 too. 

This is how I approach all games.  I find it part of the fun.  I try not to spoil things for myself too much, but I'm old enough to remember when games came with manuals the size of phone books. I used to really like sitting down with the manual for a good long read before I started play.

 

As for this game, I can wait.  Any news on a big patch yet?

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There have been a couple of small ones that haven't fixed anything I've noticed. I assume they've been fixes specific to certain computer setups or something.

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So do we all take the post credit's sequence to mean the next expansion is going to be a Terror from the Deep remake (that or Pacific Rim :D )?

 

I am pretty sure it might actually be a thematic remake of Apocalypse... (Things From Another Dimension come and invade in a post-horribly-devastated rebuilding Earth with Alien crossbreeds on it?) Even if they come from Beneath The Oceans.

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I agree with Tom wholeheartedly on that, and think at least a couple of his solutions are petty smart design. 

 

Spoilered thoughts on a very late game mission.

 

Like the mission he talks about where you are restricted to 3 people and can spend Intel to boost them was brilliant, and I was a bit sad to see that was only going to be used on a single mission.  There's a ton of potential there to mixup the mission to mission experience.

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His solutions will work, but it works by removing lot of the 'progressions' so... if you really like building up a squad then it removes a chunk out of those aspects of the game.

 

Something like this was done in LW where mod team realized defense/aim scaled so high that terrain in late game became more and more trivial... so they flattened defense/aim gain a lot and that has its ups and downs.

 

That's neither good or bad, just different kind of game.  To stick to the analogy, it's like solving snowballing problem by replace all the snow with sand.

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I actually disagree with Tom there. Both Firaxis XCOM games counter the snowball effect with the number and types and increasing power of the aliens you face. In every game of XCOM I've played, taking your eye off the ball during the tactical game, whether because you get impatient, take too much of a risk or just have the RNG mission from hell (hello Nuffle) the game will slap you down here regardless of the power or level of your squad.

That said I do I like the sound of some of his 'solutions' more stealth based missions (which I think the concealment ability would allow) or missions which only allow certain classes (I always thought there was a mission type in XCOM:EW where you only controlled the agent sent to counter those EXALT missions for example) would certainly give the game more variety. I would imagine it would need a fair bit of balancing though.

Edit: Posted this link in the 3MA forum but thought I'd post it here too.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/02/25/making-of-xcom-2/

Great interview RPS have done with Jake Solomon. Worth a read.

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I disagree with Tom somewhat. I thought I was hitting that smooth curve, because the way I was approaching story and balancing research I got two armor upgrades before the aliens got two "upgrades" from their previous difficulty. I thought I was about to punch cruise control, and then the game started throwing more and harder enemies before I finished all my weapons research. I am behind on psi soldiers, so I don't have anything to compensate in other ways. My ladies all look cool as hell, but I feel like I'm actually in a power trough right now. Even though they're all combat encounters, I feel like I'm "brute forcing" my way through fights as opposed to having clean solutions, and I know there are even harder enemies still lurking out there.

 

Maybe when I finish the game I'll feel differently, but it's not just an extended victory lap at this point.

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I dunno, the victory lap phase for XCOM 2 feels way longer to me compared to XCOM 1. Maybe I dragged things out too much with the strategy layer?

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His solutions will work, but it works by removing lot of the 'progressions' so... if you really like building up a squad then it removes a chunk out of those aspects of the game.

 

It mostly just removes squad size as an upgrade, which I ultimately do think is the single most valuable upgrade in the game, bar none. 

 

I think the idea of disempowering the player periodically is really interesting though, and could be done in ways beyond squad size.  You could have mission parameters that limit or remove certain equpiment:

"Advent has deployed an electronics suppression device.  Mimics, battle scanners and Gremlins will be unusable unless the device is disabled."

 

"The Advent base you're infiltrating has large concentrations of volatile chemicals.  Explosive and fire ordinance will be unavailable on this mission.  Gas and acid grenades will still be available."

 

"Advent has developed a device that can disable our plasma and beam weapons remotely, the research and prototype must be destroyed.  Standard weapons, grenade launchers and melee will be the only options for this mission.  The good news is the device also affects Advent weapons.  The bad news is that you can expect a large concentration of alien close combat troops defending the site (ie, berserkers)."

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Oh man, I don't know how random the hack bonuses are, but I saw the absolute best one I had ever seen in the next to last mission (which, it could be scripted being that's when it showed up, and it showed up on a mission objective device?)  It was a permanent increase of +20 to the soldier's hack score.  If that can randomly show up, holy shit. 

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Never seen that, though I've mostly given up on on environmental hacking at the bonuses rarely outweigh the penalties and my hack percent seems to be around 50%.

 

I've gotten a couple clutch 20% change robot take-overs though.

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Oh man, I don't know how random the hack bonuses are, but I saw the absolute best one I had ever seen in the next to last mission (which, it could be scripted being that's when it showed up, and it showed up on a mission objective device?)  It was a permanent increase of +20 to the soldier's hack score.  If that can randomly show up, holy shit. 

 

lets just say ive seen it a couple of times.... with the same guy...

 

post-24580-0-85173500-1456519561_thumb.jpg

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Never seen that, though I've mostly given up on on environmental hacking at the bonuses rarely outweigh the penalties and my hack percent seems to be around 50%.

 

I've gotten a couple clutch 20% change robot take-overs though.

 

I'd say you've had a generally poor draw in hacking objectives then, as starting around mid game (Gremlin 2 and a Skulljack to boost hacking), my soldiers had a very high chance to get the first bonus and by the time I got Gremlin 3, the first bonus was always guaranteed. 

 

For first bonus ones that we easy to guaranteed, I saw things like:

 

Refill all soldiers AP pools immediately (this made that mission a cakewalk, it was a mission with an 8 turn limit and we basically got a free turn)

20 Intel

Increase income from region permanently (free supplies, basically)

 

There are plenty of ones that are of little value (solider gets extra crit chance, soldier gets concealment), mostly because I considered the squad chance (the second, harder option) to not be worth the risk, and those bonuses don't really do my specialist a lot of good. 

 

 

lets just say ive seen it a couple of times.... with the same guy...

 

Wow (nice image name)!

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Hmm, interesting. I haven't been touching the skull jack much, and even then it's been with my Ranger. I didn't know they boosted hacking skill. I have Gremlin 2s, that's what boosted my typical hacking chance from 20% to 50%, but maybe I was slow on the research and I should have 3s by now? 

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Yeah, just having a Skulljack equipped is worth...either +20 or +25 to hacking?  I think it may be a project you have to make in the Workshop before it gets that bonus though.  But it definitely does have a bonus.  That's why it always goes on my Specialist.  I just put more movement on my Specialist to make her more able to get a Skullmine off now and again (and the value of an 70+ percent insta-kill on a wide variety of enemies can't be overstated, even if you fail the hack). 

 

Gremlin 3s don't become available until a certain enemy shows up and you research it, so I don't think there is any particular way to rush that (but I would consider it one of the autopsies well worth doing right away rather than waiting for it to auto-complete). 

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I, um, never paid for skull mining. The description didn't give me enough info to know what it did and now I'm out of Elyrium cores. I never seem to get more either, even though I'm fairly careful not to blow guys up for the kill and I'm generally pretty successful at grabbing loot when it does drop/

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Ah, yeah, that would explain it.  I understand that thought process though, Elerium Cores are definitely rare and worth their weight in gold.

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Oh man, I don't know how random the hack bonuses are, but I saw the absolute best one I had ever seen in the next to last mission (which, it could be scripted being that's when it showed up, and it showed up on a mission objective device?) It was a permanent increase of +20 to the soldier's hack score. If that can randomly show up, holy shit.

.

Yes I had that on my first play through. Happened to the same specialist twice. By the end of the game he was blithely hacking sectopods and turrets with abandon.

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Ah, yeah, that would explain it.  I understand that thought process though, Elerium Cores are definitely rare and worth their weight in gold.

might I recommend picking up vulture asap to get swimmin in cores+weapon upgrades

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might I recommend picking up vulture asap to get swimmin in cores+weapon upgrades

 

I think that might depend on what level you are playing on? My current Commander campaign even with Vulture I've only had about 4 drops in the last 8 or 9 missions, and only one of those had one core. You definitely get more at the start which tails off later in the game. And yes, I have Vulture - it was my second unlock after the squad size increase. 

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I am liking this game so much, that last days I spend way too much time planing a lof of original characters for my own character pool, even writing down a quick bio/description of each one... which is something I often do while playing elder scrolls game, I created a main character and with some mods I created a custom made party for him.

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