XCOM 2

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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50,696
How was EU any different? If you didn't have Slingshot the only special missions were the base assault, downed overseer,and temple ship. EW added a hell of a lot more mission variety with Progeny, EXALT,base defense, and site recon, but EU was pretty bare bones.
 

sakkath

Trakanon Raider
1,674
1,062
Finally finished this. only on normal difficulty so in general far too easy. Completed the final mission without any injuries. Had one ranger in stealth for the whole mission until the end. In general I think rangers are too strong. Rapid Fire is ridiculous.

All 3 Avatars died in the turn they spawned. Activated the first one, mind controlled both of the Archons, stealthed ranger finally unstealthed and Rapid Fire'd Avatar 1 dead. Enemy turn, to gates activated, spawning a group of Sectoids and a group of Chryssalids. My turn 2 flew both Archons over to Blazing Pinions those two pods and tanked both pods until the end of the game. Gate activated spawning Avatar 2, 2 mutons, 2 faceless. My turn, I Dimensional Rift'd that pod, which caused the Avatar to teleport into fatal range of one of my Rangers who responded with a Rapid Fire. Another Gate activated spawning Avatar 3, 2 Sectoids and 2 Andromedons. My Psi Ops Void Rift'd that group, causing the Avatar to teleport into fatal range of one of my Rangers.. Another Rapid Fire and game over.
 

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
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How was EU any different? If you didn't have Slingshot the only special missions were the base assault, downed overseer,and temple ship. EW added a hell of a lot more mission variety with Progeny, EXALT,base defense, and site recon, but EU was pretty bare bones.
I didn't think EU was a particularly good game, I didn't bother finishing a campaign until EW came out.
 

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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50,696
Anarchy's Children might not have any extra missions in it but Alien Hunters and Shen's Last Gift will. The mediocrity of avenger defense is my only real complaint with the game
 

Mures

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,014
511
Just about to finish the last mission and thinking I made it through the game with no game breaking bugs to screw me over when I do ironman and when I'm about to kill the last avatar it never reappears after I hit it. I didn't realize anything was wrong so I kept fighting on thinking maybe the avatar moved out of my vision, nope. And autosave only goes back 3 turns where there is still no avatar. Annoying I have to do the 2nd half of the mission again(luckily I had to go in the middle of it so I made a hard save), but thank fuck it wasn't ironman.
 

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
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I am very confused on how PSI soldiers operate. Why was my first one given Soulfire as his start ability, but my second one was given Inspire. Not only that, but my first guy has Stasis and it's not even in the ability hierarchy for him anywhere at all. My second one's Inspire is duplicated directly below it at the "Squaddie" (PSI equivalent) level, whereas my first dude's Soulfire is not anywhere but at the top on his free "Rookie" level perk. And yet second one can train Soulfire.

Wat? Terribly confusing and not explained at all in-game. Also from discussion in here I gather that they don't even gain experience and level up normally, they can ONLY gain ranks via PSI training? My first dude is a "Colonel" equivalent without going on any missions.
 

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yes. The order in which you select their abilities is completely random and they only gain new abilities while cooking in the PSI lab. It's better than the OG system, but I'm conflicted about how it compares with EU/EW. Training PSI seemed much more natural in EU, but PSI abilities were pretty insignificant. Here PSI training is counter-intuitive and wonky, but PSI is much more powerful.
 

sakkath

Trakanon Raider
1,674
1,062
Around half of the psi abilities are fairly mediocre but having dominate, void rift and inspire make them pretty strong all around.
 

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
42,502
50,696
I don't think they're mediocre, they just can't compete with the top tier abilities.

BTW for people complaining about mission timers, try the true concealment mod. Timers on VIP missions don't start until you break concealment. I think it makes things too easy, but some of yall might like it.
 

Lithose

Buzzfeed Editor
25,946
113,035
I found PSI to be underwhelming given the hype I heard. They are slightly more powerful than any of the base classes, but I don't think they are nearly powerful enough to justify a strategy where you push any early resources into PSI, given the time and money it takes to cook one up. And by the time you hit end game, your base classes are so strong it's really not massive.

Honestly, I think PSI would actually be helped a lot by being 'random' (Which is odd because they made everything else in the game very random. but then made this consistent). Make it much cheaper to get Psi training set up, and slightly quicker to train than now. (I would recommend that going on missions rushes the current training, maybe a mission knocks of a day, plus a few hours per skill used in the field)...BUT make it so Psi Talent is only discovered at Sgt+ of a normal rank, and somewhat rare. So you have to give up a decently trained soldier already and if you want Psi you have to rotate soldiers more regularly. (So a hybrid of EW Psi+Mech soldiers, you give up a soldier to get a Psi soldier. Maybe even have small bonuses depending on the class+rank of the soldier you gave up, like Psi Snipers would have a special Psionic Shot, and Rangers can Psi-Conceal for a couple turns heh.)

This way it's like getting special items in the foundry; if you get lucky and get a Psi soldier, it's a path you can take. And your strategy can even be different depending on which type of psi soldier you got. If not, it's not a huge deal, they won't make your play through significantly easier--just different.

Right now though, essentially for me they are strictly an end game class, good for the final couple missions. (Mainly because they effectively give me another squad member). But otherwise? As said above, I can't imagine wasting resources on them on a Legendary play through during the dicey months.
 

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
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I'm really hoping the inevitable expansion does more with Psi and adds some more interesting missions.

I also think all scientist/engineer acquisition should be done via VIP missions. As it is, most VIP missions are pretty meaningless.
 

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
I just started playing, is there any way to skulljack a captain or whatever for the quest requirement without getting skull fucked by the glowing yellow god of assrape that spawns?
 

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
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Na, that's part of the objective.

I almost forgot how brutal those things were the first time you see them.

Every other new unit in the game I was already prepared for by the time they started showing up. That first Codex was just unreal.
 

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
<Gold Donor>
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My first codex (hadn't spoiled it, had no clue it was coming) came from a first-activation-of-the-turn Ranger's skulljack. She chose to stand by a car. Grenadier >> double explosion one-shot codex. LOLOL~
 

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Yeah, I'm on a map where the thing just warps inside a 2 story building and rapes my whole team from the windows while I can't do jack about it. Almost killed it once and then it split into two...and then killed one of those and then the one left split into 2 again. AAAARGH
 

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
Yeah, I'm on a map where the thing just warps inside a 2 story building and rapes my whole team from the windows while I can't do jack about it. Almost killed it once and then it split into two...and then killed one of those and then the one left split into 2 again. AAAARGH
Flashbang to stop splitting and most of their abilities.
 

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
42,502
50,696
and lead off with your strongest attacks too. A shotgun crit or deadshot should do enough damage that it can only clone once.