XCOM 2

Seananigans · Feb 28, 2016

I could definitely do with an option to toggle off the intentional techy-UI-flicker nonsense they included. Does nothing for me, and is quite obnoxious. In fact, I am fairly sure my PC/GPU have some artifacting issues of their own with this game, but I can't tell them apart, so who the fuck knows.

Also, beat the campaign finally (haven't had much time to play really). As predicted, the game is a fantastic core, but in severe need of SCOPE++ and tweaks to some of their strange design decisions. I really hope the LW team reconsiders doing a Long War type mod for this (even paid, perhaps, I'd gladly pay ~20 bucks for one) rather than skipping and going directly to trying to make their own game. This game's assets and theme/flavor are fantastic, and for a new "studio," that will be one of the hardest things for the LW team to pull off, I'd wager.

Overall, a very solid A- game, but can (and hopefully will) be A++ with the right "massive sweeping re-design" style mod package ala Long War.

Gavinmad · Feb 28, 2016

Well shit, the screenshot was fucked up, but I just finished a very difficult guerrilla op in 5 turns averaging just over 3 kills per turn. First time I've even gotten close to 3 a turn, much less gone past it.

Gavinmad · Feb 29, 2016

So I started a new game to playtest Grivy's diablo style loot mod. You get loot coffers from missions which you have to research to unlock. Very early in so the research is quick, dunno if the rarer ones take longer. Gotten a shotgun with advance expanded magazine and a one per mission use of run & gun, and a sniper rifle that increases aim by 5, damage by 1, reduces crit chance by 100%, and gives +5% hacking and psi strength. Seems novel so far.

Joeboo · Mar 2, 2016

Goddamn the quasi-timer is pissing me off. Currently have a mission to protect a data upload center or whatever, and the mobs are doing enough damage to it per turn that it gets destroyed in 4 turns. Takes me 2 turns just to get in range to even SEE the enemies and start attacking.

The only way to win it is to put my own troops into poor coverage situations by turn 3 to bait the enemies into attacking me instead of the data center I'm protecting. So, to win I basically have to gravely injure my entire squad. That sucks.

Pyratec · Mar 2, 2016

joeboo_sl said:
Goddamn the quasi-timer is pissing me off. Currently have a mission to protect a data upload center or whatever, and the mobs are doing enough damage to it per turn that it gets destroyed in 4 turns. Takes me 2 turns just to get in range to even SEE the enemies and start attacking.

The only way to win it is to put my own troops into poor coverage situations by turn 3 to bait the enemies into attacking me instead of the data center I'm protecting. So, to win I basically have to gravely injure my entire squad. That sucks.

I really hate those protect the device guerilla ops, the hack and vip escort ones are so much better. Unless the dark event associated with the protect the device mission is one I MUST prevent, I avoid those missions like the plague.

Crazily · Mar 2, 2016

I beat rookie, jumped to commander and I gave up about 6-7 missions in.

Had a Sgt in Full cover, advent officer halfway across the map is flashbanged/disoriented.....what happens? Crit, 1 shot, dead.

F that!

Gavinmad · Mar 2, 2016

Disorientation is only -20 aim. It's more for limiting the alien actions than it is for debuffing their aim. Hell sometimes it's actually better not to flashbang. I had a ranger end up flanked after revealing an enemy pod in an unexpected place and without thinking about it I flashbanged them in an attempt to protect him. The Viper shot and killed him. If I'd actually stopped to think, I would have saved the flashbang in the hopes that the viper would grab him instead of shooting. Same thing applies to sectoids when you'd rather they used a psychic power instead of shooting.

Mist · Mar 2, 2016

I really hope they patch this soon. I want to start a legendary ironman playthrough but I want to wait for them to fix the annoying little bugs first.

Seananigans · Mar 2, 2016

So I think I've debunked the +5 hack for each successful hack in a mission. I've never gotten it (tracked it 5+ times w/ successful hack and no promote), the only time I get +5 hack is if they promote. That also seems to cap at 20 after 4 promotes, so your Specs should be 80 hack at Major+, with possible +20hack for the jackpot hack result if you stumble upon it. At least from what I can tell.

Second, I'm seeing an occasional "Miss Streak" bonus to my aim on my soldiers after my squad misses a few times. Is that vanilla, or is one of my mods doing that? I don't like it, and want it gone.

Vaclav · Mar 2, 2016

Seananigans_sl said:
Second, I'm seeing an occasional "Miss Streak" bonus to my aim on my soldiers after my squad misses a few times. Is that vanilla, or is one of my mods doing that? I don't like it, and want it gone.

It's part of how they fudge the numbers in the vanilla design to prevent you getting "too unlucky" after a while.

Seananigans · Mar 2, 2016

Gay. WTB mod that removes that nonsense. We already play by different rules, enemies don't get range bonuses. I don't need miss-streak horse-shit on top of that!

Vaclav · Mar 2, 2016

Seananigans_sl said:
Gay. WTB mod that removes that nonsense. We already play by different rules, enemies don't get range bonuses. I don't need miss-streak horse-shit on top of that!

There's some similar mods that effect enemies too - I think one helps them hit more if you're owning the hell out of them... forget the whole list.

Seananigans · Mar 2, 2016

Yeah I'd just rather that shitty mechanic be gone than give it to both sides. No big deal, the mod community will flesh itself out soon enough. Game is still a blast in the mean time.

(WTB Long War)

Gavinmad · Mar 2, 2016

Don't hold your breath. From what I've read, DeAngelis lied his ass off, the game isn't actually very mod friendly at all. Sure, minor shit like creating classes, tinkering with loot, cosmetic stuff, that's trivial. But any significant gameplay changes, like the stuff done with Long War, would require just as much pain in the ass work as Long War did with EW. And that's a secondhand quote from Amineri. I'm probably going to uninstall the devkit, because the kind of mods that I want to do would probably take me a helluva lot more than a few months just to learn how to do, much less actually complete.

Apparently the only real difference in XCom 2 is that they give you the devkit to work with, instead of having to build your own tools like Johnny and Amineri did for Long War.

Sulrn · Mar 3, 2016

While that makes me sad to hear, that's still better than 95% of every other game out there.

wamphyr · Mar 3, 2016

Perfect for this thread... Mimic Beacon included...

Joeboo · Mar 3, 2016

Anyone else think this game possibly has an anti save-scumming code built in? I'm a filthy casual and just playing on the normal default difficulty and I was in the middle of a mission and attempting to take control of a robot, I had a 50% chance to succeed but failing would basically get one of my guys killed, so I saved before attempting it. Failed, reloaded, failed, reloaded, etc.

I failed 17 times in a row before just giving up. If the odds are calculated correctly, getting the same result on what is basically a coin flip, 17 times in a row, is ASTRONOMICAL odds.

Gavinmad · Mar 3, 2016

Or maybe the seed is determined at the beginning of the turn, so if you carry out actions in the same order they will always occur the exact same way.

*edit*

although I do suspect hacking might be on its own seed, so regardless of what you do with your other rolls, your first hack of the turn will always be X

Vaclav · Mar 3, 2016

Yes, all Firaxis games to my knowledge "seed" a turn's random actions to prevent extreme same turn save-scumming. There's a Mod that looks to reset the seed though, not that I'm keen with using such things myself.

Sulrn · Mar 3, 2016

Gavinmad_sl said:
Or maybe the seed is determined at the beginning of the turn, so if you carry out actions in the same order they will always occur the exact same way.

*edit*

although I do suspect hacking might be on its own seed, so regardless of what you do with your other rolls, your first hack of the turn will always be X

Mist_sl said:
If you do the same actions in the same order after loading a save, you will get the same results.

You can blow that 'low roll' on some nonconsequential action then try.

Unless they patched it, you just have astronomically bad luck. I had a similar situation in my first run. Took 11 reloads at 65% for it to work. Fuck you Xcom RNG. The reload that actually worked was me saying fuck it and doing exactly same sequence of events as the original failure. Fails 4-10 were me playing around to see if changing order changed the results.

[Edit] Anecdotally refuting Mist.

XCOM 2

Honorary Shit-PhD

Mr. Poopybutthole

Mr. Poopybutthole

Molten Core Raider

Golden Knight of the Realm

N00b

Mr. Poopybutthole

REEEEeyore

Honorary Shit-PhD

Bronze Baronet of the Realm

Honorary Shit-PhD

Bronze Baronet of the Realm

Honorary Shit-PhD

Mr. Poopybutthole

Deuces

Molten Core Raider

Molten Core Raider

Mr. Poopybutthole

Bronze Baronet of the Realm

Deuces