XCOM 2

[zerofiftyone]

Wow, I waited way to long to research plate armor.  I just bumblefucked my way through a mission without even really meaning to.  I was going to quit for the night, but wanted to play with all the new toys I just built to load into the second utility slot at least once (mimic, flash bang, viral rounds and battle scanner).   The new Battle Scanner is rad.  In EU it was pretty much trash due to it's limited throwing range and size.  I just spent the first round that I found aliens throwing all my new toys on the ground to see what they do, and by the time it was done the pod was dead and no one was so much as scratched (even though I finished half my people's turns out of cover just to have the range to throw stuff out).  Just went ahead and finished it after that. 

 

ProTip: Viral Rounds on a sniper applies to her pistol as well.  With up to 3 shots a round, that means that she can put out 12-15 damage plus any poison damage the next round on anything not dead.  I hadn't checked, do the weapon upgrades on the sniper rifle apply to the pistol?  It wouldn't make sense for them to, but that doesn't really mean much in this game.  It also says they can't ever be removed from a gun, then they get automatically transferred between guns when you upgrade weapons. 

 

The ammo types carry over to the pistol, but the weapon upgrades do not (I use dragon rounds for my sniper).

 

One of the continent bonuses does let you freely swap weapon upgrades.

[Wooben]

help god help this is too much

http://puu.sh/n2MfD/94894e1272.jpg

its been a rough couple of rounds

this mission is down to just that guy

and that troop is on overwatch

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

WHAT DO I DO THERES TWO MORE ADVENT BEHIND ME

 

edit: he missed

thank christ

my heart cant take this

[Bjorn]

One of the continent bonuses does let you freely swap weapon upgrades.

 

I just got that!  Asia was my starting position, but it's taken me forever to get all the regions contacted (longer than it should have, honestly). 

[Badfinger]

My first game I started basically in Capetown, South Africa. This new game I started in Mexico. I knew that it will randomize that, but I'm still a little surprised and quite pleased with how that changes your build up phase experience. People managed to play hundreds of hours of unmodded EU so I never doubted that the game would have legs, but I suspect this will go even further.

[Gormongous]

One of the continent bonuses does let you freely swap weapon upgrades.

 

Not quite "freely;" you can't remove a weapon upgrade, only replace it, which is annoying and doesn't seem to serve a purpose

[zerofiftyone]

I chose my words carefully, haha.

[Gormongous]

I chose my words carefully, haha.

 

No worries, it's just another little bugbear of mine, because I have a few ownerless guns floating around my base with mods that I can't remove, even though I have the NA continent bonus.

[Gwardinen]

For the record the continent bonuses are not set. In my game the NA continent bonus is "All In".

 

I'd be curious to know whether that is always on the continent you start on, though?

[Dewar]

I think I need to re-think my choices on the world map. I've been pretty quick to research the tech and then contact new areas as soon as I have contacts available. However, I'm always late to get the com towers, and I've only put a couple down, so I don't have any continent bonuses yet.

[Bjorn]

For the record the continent bonuses are not set. In my game the NA continent bonus is "All In".

 

I'd be curious to know whether that is always on the continent you start on, though?

 

Oh wow, I totally didn't realize it.  Looking some stuff up, it appears there are 14 possible bonuses that are randomized (spoilered for people who would prefer to just discover them over time)

 

#01- Spy Ring ......................... ** (+25% for Intel rewards)

#02- Hidden Reserves ............... ** (+5 Power for the Avenger)

#03- To Serve Mankind ............. ** (Recruits only cost +10 Supplies)

#04- Lock and Load .................. ** (PCS & Weapon Upgrades may be re-used)

#05- Pursuit of Knowledge ......... ** (+20% discovery speed if you have a Research Lab facility)

#06- Spare Parts ...................... ** (-50% costs for all "Proving Grounds" projects)

#07- Armed to the Teeth ........... ** (All primary weapons gain an additional upgrade slot)

#08- Under the Table ............... ** (Black Market pays 33% more for items)

#09- Suit up! .......................... ** (All Armor & Vest experimental projects finish instantly)

#10- All In ............................... ** (Resistance sends 20% more resources)

#11- Quid Pro Quo .................... ** (Black Market Items cost 25% less Intel)

#12- Fire When Ready ............... ** (All Ammo, Grenade, and Weapon experimental finish instantly)

#13- Future Combat ................. ** (All GTS Tactic costs reduced by 50%)

#14- Helping Hand ................... ** (Workshops provide an additional Engineer when built)

 

It's neat that there are so many more potential bonuses, but that also means you can't really plan and time things to take advantage of certain bonuses the way you could in EU. 

[Badfinger]

They stressed in pre-release marketing that they were trying to spice up the game by making experienced players play with the hand they're dealt rather than optimizing a build path, and I appreciate that in many aspects they appear to have made good on that. You can't always have acid grenades, dragon rounds, and 10 supply soldiers.

[sclpls]

Yeah I am all about that change. Once it became an option in XCOM:EU I always played with the money from different countries and the rewards randomized. When those rewards are randomized it makes the strategy layer feel like a very fiddly deck building game.

[Bjorn]

Oh, fwiw, there doesn't appear to be a penalty for murdering civilians.  Caught a couple in a grenade blast last night and no one mentioned it.

[Badfinger]

Speaking of that, is there a way to reduce the amount that Central scolds you on terror missions? It's set up so that at least one dies every turn. Between the tuning issues of waiting too long between turns and the way he nags you almost every turn that IT'S A MASSACRE OUT THERE I am annoyed enough to just let them die.

[sclpls]

Oh, fwiw, there doesn't appear to be a penalty for murdering civilians.  Caught a couple in a grenade blast last night and no one mentioned it.

 

Oh cool, was wondering if there was a way to murder people you suspected of being shapeshifters in terror missions.

[Sorbicol]

Oh cool, was wondering if there was a way to murder people you suspected of being shapeshifters in terror missions.

Just throw a battlescanner at them!

[Gormongous]

Speaking of that, is there a way to reduce the amount that Central scolds you on terror missions? It's set up so that at least one dies every turn. Between the tuning issues of waiting too long between turns and the way he nags you almost every turn that IT'S A MASSACRE OUT THERE I am annoyed enough to just let them die.

 

This is what I was complaining about with Tgyan's clips, too. Every discovery is "unprecedented" or "beyond even what he would have expected." The sense of drama and stakes in the writing is dreadfully overplayed with almost every voiced character, as if the developers were too insecure to let the complex interaction of gameplay systems communicate to the player the tension and wonder of the game's world. It's a strange place where I find Shen the least skippable of the talking heads, considering that her "you have unassigned engineers" bark is both annoying and confusing.

[Badfinger]

Yep. Tygan's specifically don't bother me because they're short enough and generic enough that I can ignore the fact that everything is SO SCIENCEY, but I can 100% understand how they would.

[sclpls]

The real offense is just all the stuff that happens during the tactical combat because those sequences are unskippable. All the commentary that happens in the spaceship is fine because it cuts out as soon as you jump to a different screen, so it is easier to tune out and get on with your life. So I agree with Badfinger that the terror mission scoldings are the worst just because there is so much of it, and it adds a lot of extra time of doing nothing.

[Bjorn]

Tygan at least once should just be like, "mmmm, that's interesting" and then not explain anything.  Because that would be like every scientist/doctor I've known irl.

[Vulpes Absurda]

So it sounds like you can speed up the loading by... wait for it... hitting caps-lock. No really.

[dium]

This game really makes me feel how my current PC is a budget build from 7 years ago with a brand new graphics card shoehorned in it. I can boost the graphics as high as I want and basically don't miss any frames, but man oh man do I spend a lot of time watching aliens standing still before they attack. 

[Vulpes Absurda]

I have a pretty nice Intel CPU but it still does that for me. I wouldn't say it's your PC that's the issue here. It might be, but I'd wait on a patch before I worry too much.

[dium]

That's good to hear!

[sclpls]

So it sounds like you can speed up the loading by... wait for it... hitting caps-lock. No really.

 

yeah I read about that and that is ridiculous! I had assumed that the loading screens were longer because of procedurally generated levels, but I guess that wouldn't make any sense for when you are returning to base. Definitely will have to try this out. But I am definitely looking forward to an optimization patch because this game could really use it.