I love the character customization in this game.
[t]https://i.imgur.com/4wiQKSE.jpg[/t]
You know, getting into the late game in my second WOTC campaign, my opinion on reapers and Templars has changed a bit. Templars are incredibly good when maxxed to colonel, but are almost useless early game. Meanwhile reapers are useful from very early on, just due to the sheer damage and infinite uses of the car detonation ability. Everything else is icing on the cake, their stealth is a bit better than rangers, but that carbomb ability makes them extremely useful.
I've spent faar too much time in chracter pool making characters and their backstories, especially the ridiculous ones trying to make them feel serious.
[t]https://i.imgur.com/ySENcX8.jpg[/t]
[t]https://i.imgur.com/Z7YeIFe.jpg[/t]
[t]https://i.imgur.com/3L10jdY.jpg[/t]
Edit: Now I realize I have to change those two date of birth.
Man, I’m still about midway through my first play of XCOM 2. I have the alien rulers on but not WotC, and the rulers are the least fun things I could imagine. Being able to attack after every single action is insane and seriously compromises your tactical options because you can’t do things like reload or reposition troops without having the rulers able to massively close the distance on you or just outright ruin your troops.
It’d be so much better if they only reacted to actions that target or harm them, rather than absolutely [I]every[/I] action, even as simple as a reload or Aid Protocol.
[QUOTE=Trekintosh;53126298]Man, I’m still about midway through my first play of XCOM 2. I have the alien rulers on but not WotC, and the rulers are the least fun things I could imagine. Being able to attack after every single action is insane and seriously compromises your tactical options because you can’t do things like reload or reposition troops without having the rulers able to massively close the distance on you or just outright ruin your troops.
It’d be so much better if they only reacted to actions that target or harm them, rather than absolutely [I]every[/I] action, even as simple as a reload or Aid Protocol.[/QUOTE]
I'd highly recommend getting a mod that changes that. There's few that range from completely disabling the ruler response mechanic to only triggering on certain actions so you can still do things like reload.
Also most can be cheesed if the mission timer isn't an issue. Pulling all your troops out except one makes it much easier.
The Behemoth Queen is extremely easy to beat if you've got a grapple or rockets to climb without a ladder since you can just jump up and down while it has to run all the way around the building to the nearest ladder as you shoot at it. Likewise the Archon won't even use most of its attacks if there's only one soldier deployed.
The rulers DLC is the biggest mistake the devs made with 2. The number of new players’ comments about how they’re busted and making people quit playing in this thread and elsewhere is ubiquitous. It should be spelled out in big red letters somewhere that it’s the very last DLC you should buy for the game, if at all. I also think the cosmetic component of alien hunters doesnt get enough calling out. It’s just so awful in every regard.
[QUOTE=Kommodore;53126963]The rulers DLC is the biggest mistake the devs made with 2. The number of new players’ comments about how they’re busted and making people quit playing in this thread and elsewhere is ubiquitous. It should be spelled out in big red letters somewhere that it’s the very last DLC you should buy for the game, if at all. I also think the cosmetic component of alien hunters doesnt get enough calling out. It’s just so awful in every regard.[/QUOTE]
Some of the design choices in the game pretty much just force you into certain playstyles. When all enemies have tons of armor and HP you bet I'm going to be bringing 3 Grenadiers with acid and fire grenades every mission. The only option against Rulers is to nuke them into the ground on your first encounter turn or someone is dying, god forbid they are activated with other pods.
Making a diverse squad really feels like it doesn't get necessary until late game.
My early squads are just grenadiers and rangers since melee is still really effective early.
Late game it's usually 2 snipers, one with AP rounds, one with Bluescreen, one Spark, one psi-op, a specialist, and a ranger with maxed out dodging and untouchable that just serves as a distraction.
Nah dude, Specialists are where it's at. Aid protocol is super useful at times and healing/reviving people from a distance then having another action is super handy. Not to mention guaranteed kills with combat protocol + ez MEC/ turret busters early game.
I'll agree with rangers though. They're easily my favorite class and can save your ass in the early game.
XCOM 2 out of the box is a worse game due to some really baffling design decisions. Thankfully they're easily modded out or fixed with WotC.
The best way to play XCOM 2 is to have all the DLC (cosmetic bullshit not withstanding), play War of the Chosen and make sure the Alien Rulers DLC is OFF in the start up options.
That way you still get the alien rulers and the new gear but you don't have to deal with them randomly appearing and fucking your day up, they're just on a couple of blacksites instead.
I just finished XCOM 2 vanilla. Gordon Freeman (with the freeman's mind voice pack) was by far my beast soldier, a Grenadier who never seemed to miss.
Time to dive in to a WotC game now. I'm gonna add tons of voice packs to just make it ridiculous and silly. Any must-have mods I should install? I kinda felt like the vanilla game was a little short, fwiw.
[QUOTE=Trekintosh;53129320]I just finished XCOM 2 vanilla. Gordon Freeman (with the freeman's mind voice pack) was by far my beast soldier, a Grenadier who never seemed to miss.
Time to dive in to a WotC game now. I'm gonna add tons of voice packs to just make it ridiculous and silly. Any must-have mods I should install? I kinda felt like the vanilla game was a little short, fwiw.[/QUOTE]
[URL="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1124288875"]Gotcha Again[/URL] - Updates the LoS indicator to also tell you when the position you're moving to can achieve a flanking shot, and whether you can see via squadsight.
[URL="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1123174832"]Show health values[/URL] - Shows a target's health as a number below their regular health bar. Good for calculating kill shots.
[URL="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1122974240"]Robojumper's squad select[/URL] - New pre-mission loadout UI. I don't know what it actually changes specifically because I've never not used it, all I know is that it's some good shit :v:
Also, do consider [URL=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1132835147]Resistance Firearms[/URL] by our own resident E3245 which adds a ton of real-world (and some fictional) guns.
Resistance firearms is a must. I don't know if its on purpose or not, but all resistance defenders on haven raid missions use AK47s which is just awesome.
Why do all these awesome mods only add guns for the short ballistic phase of the game
The only gun I wish we had in XCOM 2 was a Garand. I'd love to dress my dudes up in WW2 looking gear (which I sometimes do already) and basically make it Alien Wolfenstein.
Yeah the ballistic weapons is something I wanted to bring up. Since I just started a new game, I was reminded how satisfying and brutal the ballistic weapons are, especially the assault and sniper rifles. Losing the bolt action once you upgrade to Gauss is a real shame, and the magnetic and plasma assault rifles seem incredibly wimpy and lame compared to the initial ballistic rifle.
Legend difficulty needs to tone it the fuck down sometimes. On my very first Guerilla Op that was marked as "Easy" difficulty, there were two sectoids, 5 advent troopers, an Officer, and there were reinforcements that brought a Priest and two Stun Lancers. On the first goddamn mission, and I only had three rookies and a squaddie Ranger. I managed to win partially because I got lucky with the dice rolls and managed to not take several shots that certainly would have killed my soldiers.
XCOM 2 difficulty is tough for me right now since on Veteran I start out normally with missions that can feel a little challenging but soon enough I just end up raking in supplies with fully upgraded colonel squads and just steamroll aliens from then on which is boring, but on Commander it's the exact opposite: Missions start out kind of tough but manageable, but the more time goes on the more I'm faced with impossible odds.
I'm totally cool with the game ramping up to impossible odds, I just don't like it when the very first missions are bone-crunchingly tough.
That being said I'm on the same playthrough as I mentioned before and I'm doing great so maybe it's not so bad after all.
Long War 2 really nailed impossible odds. 5 man squad taking on like three Andromedons, a Gatekeeper, two Sectoid Commanders, etc..
Granted, it only really gets that bad when you let the strength get too high or aren't keep a thumb over their R&D, but it's situations like that that remind me of Marbz's playthrough's ending. Shit is ridiculous.
Just like the first game, XCOM 2's impossible difficulty has the same issue where it's just hard as nails in the start and you have to keep to a certain strat, but then you get to the point where you've developed plasma and you're stomping enemies every time and it has little challenge.
Okay I’ve just killed the assasin but it feels like so much is happening so fast in WotC. I’m a little overwhelmed. My people are leveling up like crazy, I rushed magnetic weapons and predator armor, and now I’m fighting berserkers and codexes already and I only have three regions. I only just did the black site immediately prior to killing the assasin. It’s so fast!
[QUOTE=Trekintosh;53135305]Okay I’ve just killed the assasin but it feels like so much is happening so fast in WotC. I’m a little overwhelmed. My people are leveling up like crazy, I rushed magnetic weapons and predator armor, and now I’m fighting berserkers and codexes already and I only have three regions. I only just did the black site immediately prior to killing the assasin. It’s so fast![/QUOTE]
Doing story missions ramps up the difficulty faster. You'll reach peak difficulty around month 4 or 5 as opposed to month 8 doing no story missions. You can sort of control the game's difficulty growth by avoiding story missions until key points.
I feel like the higher the difficulties should have less random chance and instead be reliant mostly on your strategies.
[t]https://puu.sh/zoNvr/ead5801509.png[/t]
Christ The Lost are boring to fight. I just held my ground by the extraction point on a 'recover resistance VIP' mission and eventually I got bored and just left. Everyone had leveled up by that point.
Grim horizon fixes the difficulty curve. I'm not kidding, it all but removes the whole "hard early/midgame easy late game" shit you normally get. Only do it on difficulty levels you've beaten already though, because it does make the game harder.
How do you guys feel about Beta Strike? I get mixed reviews on it and I don't want to risk however many hours on a playthrough using it to find out it's gets grindy late game.
I personally prefer delta strike, it gives a slight health boost but combos in shields and armour to top enemies off. You still need grenades for armour shred, so everything feels more relevant.
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XCOM V5: Grazed shots still count as hits
