Too early to be sure what the optimal build order is imo, but holy shit the reapers have a resistance order called 'between the eyes' that makes any hit on a lost an instakill. Sharpshooters and the psionic hero effortlessly mow down hordes of lost with pistol fire. I'm thinking it's between GTS and Resistance ring for first build. Probably still GTS so you don't delay your first squad size increase, but you want a resistance ring up asap regardless.
I wouldn't really call any of that spoilerish at all - not story related.
I went with workshop, Resistance Ring, Power, Infirmary, Proving Ground, Workshop so far. GTS isn't really vital at the start anymore with how they do fatigue now. Four man squads keep the kills concentrated enough for everyone to level quickly, and fatigue means not using larger squads until you build your stable a bit.
Too early to be sure what the optimal build order is imo, but holy shit the reapers have a resistance order called 'between the eyes' that makes any hit on a lost an instakill. Sharpshooters and the psionic hero effortlessly mow down hordes of lost with pistol fire. I'm thinking it's between GTS and Resistance ring for first build. Probably still GTS so you don't delay your first squad size increase, but you want a resistance ring up asap regardless.
With the woman playing next to me, and one restart because I spent my first XCOM pts stupidly not realizing how slow they came, I can tell you the orders are randomized - I did get that one first time, but my game #2 and woman's game #1 neither of us have it.
I'm quite fond of the Training Grounds as an early one though - being able to spend AP early seems really nice (plus accessing the equivalent to the old GTS bonuses)
I went resistance right fairly late, about 2 months in. Waited with a workshop until I could get it in the middle second slot for optimal gremlins. Wish I built resistance earlier though considering the great boosts the soldiers on covert ops can get too.
Some of the research boosts you can get are fairly great too, like the next excavation being instant which is great when you start getting deeper. Can shave off 15-30 days on a dig. Tempted to get a laboratory now for increased chance of research boosts.
Killed the Assassin and Hunter; starting on the Warlock now. She never used it in a fight, but sweet jesus that shotgun is nice! Did the Assassin with four (pre-gts) and then hunter with six for a definitely easier fight. 'Shadow' is fairly OP - had a couple of missions where I used my reaper to completely cheese the objectives / scout routes that wouldn't activate pods. Doing stealth runs is certainly fun, makes me wish regular concealment / phantom rangers were this good and that they implemented LW2's infiltration system. Make my ops black again, Pavonis - fix your shit!
Also, ran into my first crashes last night. Seem to be a memory leak that eventually leads to a crash for me. Looking at some modding discussions though and it seems like there's a couple of graphical scripts that were corrupted in the release version and mods that use particle effects etc are causing the game to crash when those particular scripts activate. I think there's a mod on the workshop that uses old scripts/ fixes the new scripts for those of you having mod irregularities.
First time I faced the assassin with an ability that gave her shields whenever I missed a shot. Good god was that a long fight. Especially seeing as how far she can move.
I've currently got two playthroughs going now, one for my twitch stream and a regular one. My twitch stream I didn't do the tutorial, and on the regular one I did. A few people died (they were supposed to die) but man oh man. Am I discovering a ton of research perks on my regular save.
I mean, at one point, I was doing nothing but researching discovery perks. Think I had like three - five of them in a row.
Using the photobooth for post achievement-cheesing is pretty fun.
Finally got the Rookie achievement:
Hopefully someone mods it in, but the photo booth needs some better filters and some smudge / sticker mechanics / write-on features. Being able to put some sharpie 'handwritten' notes on the bond photos would make'm feel a little more real.
In actuality, yes. WOTC has some memory leaks, corrupt scripts, and some other things going on right now - not to mention not a lot of mods have updated yet for the expansion.
If you're going to just be playing the base game then there are loads of things I would suggest.
{Insert your favorite franchise) Voice / Model Packs
Cpn Bub's Accessory Pack
Longwar 2 / LW2 Modules (either or, not both)
Shut Up Bradford
Evac All / Overwatch All
Mod Everything + Grimy's Loot Mod
True Concealment
Hack Plus
Katana Pack Reloaded
True Retroactive AWC
Yeah I meant that literally, as in you must have none. Only one I run is Capnbubs accessory pack because it was already updated for WotC. Without a WotC update, basically any mod crashes the game instantly.
Killed the assassin, glad she (it? xir?) is finally gone because she's by far the most annoying of the chosen to fight. Final fight was a bitch, took a lot of wounds but didn't lose anyone. It's a shame that (presumably) something bad happens if you leave a chosen at maximum knowledge because if you have the balls to deal with the risk of them constantly showing up in missions, they're a steady supply of ability points.
So when the elder is chastising the two remaining chosen, she mentions something about the chosen having humanity. My guess is that the chosen were the first attempt at splicing humans together with the ethereals, and while they fell short of what the elders were aiming for with the avatar project, they were still very powerful tools.
It does seem like they've taken the problem that X-Com has always had, the game getting steadly easier as you go on, and made it even worse. Resistance orders really get kinda nutty once you start accumulating them.
Killed the assassin, glad she (it? xir?) is finally gone because she's by far the most annoying of the chosen to fight. Final fight was a bitch, took a lot of wounds but didn't lose anyone. It's a shame that (presumably) something bad happens if you leave a chosen at maximum knowledge because if you have the balls to deal with the risk of them constantly showing up in missions, they're a steady supply of ability points.
So when the elder is chastising the two remaining chosen, she mentions something about the chosen having humanity. My guess is that the chosen were the first attempt at splicing humans together with the ethereals, and while they fell short of what the elders were aiming for with the avatar project, they were still very powerful tools.
It does seem like they've taken the problem that X-Com has always had, the game getting steadly easier as you go on, and made it even worse. Resistance orders really get kinda nutty once you start accumulating them.
I'm just wondering where the fuck they'll take this next. It plays like an XCOM3, TBH. All of the pluses of XCOM2, none of minuses.
I mean, it used to be where I'd sit back and have nothing to do for long periods of time. Now, I sit back and watch two or three things expire because I just don't have time to get to them. I can't tell you how many supplies/rookies/soldiers I've watched go down the drain just because I'm sitting on an alien data vault which gives you alien alloys (can't remember the name of them right now, because I'm drunk) and elerium cores.
Story wise it seems pretty obvious where they're going to go next. The real question is how do they get there in a compelling way. How do you get to XCom3 that involves a tech/experiences reset or what do you do to continue the arms race/fight again time? We "lost" the first game in order to get to the second. We can't lose again?
Not sure I agree with the previous DLCs being balanced for this expansion. The Alien hunters being able to pop up on timed missions, even along with chosen is just basically you being xcomed at the start of a mission without knowing it until you encounter it. Think I might restart and disable it until a mod comes that actually balances it, either by disabling the ability to spawn on timed missions or at least show that they will spawn in the sit rep so you can somewhat prepare.
