XCOM2 - Glorious PC Exclusive (for now)

Shiminay

Yea, I use the same mod as Kiith (timer stars when you're revealed) as it also rebalances a bit by shortening the count of the timer by a turn or two, so I feel it's a better balance for both story and mechanics.

degrassinoel

Firaxis are doing a "special livestream" tonight with most of their devs, it's looking like either another big expansion or XCOM3 is about to be announced, that or a mobile version of X2

anyway, should be interesting, it's on the official XCOM group on steam tonight from 6pm local time. if ye miss it, it'll be up here later https://www.youtube.com/xcom
and on here https://www.facebook.com/XCOM/ etc..

degrassinoel

up there now
https://store.steampowered.com/app/268500/XCOM_2/

update : 2K says no announcement

Mike Litoris

degrassinoel

yeah, disappointed with that myself. They were just cashing in on the steam sale, sorry if i got anyone elses hopes up

Remouad

Started my first proper campaign a couple of days ago.

I've played the XCOM Enemy Unknown and X-Com: UFO Defence so Veteran seemed like the right difficulty.

Chose to do Ironman. (Said to myself "I don't do save scumming. Ironman will be like a normal playthrough!")

I was so naive!!

Most of the missions have been complete failures.

In fact I consider it a success if anyone comes back alive!!

does ironman sneakily increase the difficulty?

Any survival tips?

Think I've bitten off more than I can chew...

Zulu

Remouad wrote: »

Any survival tips?

Think I've bitten off more than I can chew...

Never use both action moves. Never leave a man in the open. Use grenades in early game where possible.


And I always have at least one sniper with squadsight on overwatch.

Digital Solitude

Zulu wrote: »

Never use both action moves. Never leave a man in the open. Use grenades in early game where possible.


And I always have at least one sniper with squadsight on overwatch.

Use grenades in general, they're op in XCOM2.

Half cover isn't cover, unless you're mopping up, use full cover or hunker down. A longer fight means a shorter war.

Zulu

Zulu wrote: »

Never use both action moves. Never leave a man in the open. Use grenades in early game where possible.


And I always have at least one sniper with squadsight on overwatch.

So I started up a new round last night. Haven't played it in ages and you prompted me.


I rage quit after the 4th battle after:
Leaving my only ranger in the open (who got killed).
Using both actions with my only sniper (who got killed).


:mad: I hate XCom






Fuppin XCom



:rolleyes:


I love XCom

Shiminay

I just finished a play through using the "A Better..." series of mods which made it quite fun. Tough and frustrating in places - Gatekeepers are a pain in the hoop and caught a few people out in the open badly. Also, A Better Advent has "Prime" enemies who work a little bit like the Alien Leaders in that they can act after you take an action against them, so you *really* have to be careful when you decide to take a shot at them. Very enjoyable though and well worth installing the mods if you're thinking about another play through any time soon.

Zulu

Shiminay wrote: »

I just finished a play through using the "A Better..." series of mods ....

Cool. I'm going to restart tonight. I'll do that. Are they on Steam Workshop? Or Nexis Mods or something?

Shiminay

Yea, Steam Workshop will sort you out.

[edit]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1157986904

That's all of them in one handy collection. The creator's included a few other Quality of Life mods he recommends to get the best experience.

Kiith

Been trying to find something else to play, so might give this a go with those mods.

Rage quit in 3...2...1 :P

degrassinoel

Probably false hype/hope again, but there's some XCOM news being bandied about tonight on a livestream to commemorate the 6 year anniversary of Enemy Unknown. Jake Solomon himself is leading the charge with it apparently

XCOM: Enemy Unknown turns six years old on October 9. We're kicking off the celebration this Thursday at 8pm CET / 3pm ET / 12pm ET with the first in a series of XCOM retrospectives. Join Jake Solomon and other devs at twitch.tv/firaxisgames! We may even have a few surprises to come.

http://twitch.tv/firaxisgames at around 7 tonight

ancapailldorcha

I'd say it'll be a port for Switch or something similar.

degrassinoel

could be, i'm still gonna cross my fingers and toes for X3 though

ancapailldorcha

degrassinoel wrote: »

could be, i'm still gonna cross my fingers and toes for X3 though

I wouldn't say no to more DLC to be honest.

Shiminay

Given the success of Mario & Rabbids on the Switch, they'd be mad not to port it over there. I'l set myself a reminder to watch it when I get home from work, you never know...

ancapailldorcha

Seems a bit early for XCOM 3, no? I'd be concerned that such an announcement would be overreaching on Firaxis' part which would be a tragedy given how they've handled the licence to date.

degrassinoel

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Seems a bit early for XCOM 3, no? I'd be concerned that such an announcement would be overreaching on Firaxis' part which would be a tragedy given how they've handled the licence to date.

Xcom enemy unknown was released in October 2012,
Xcom2 was released in early 2016,

If there was to be a sequel announced, it's roughly around the 3 year mark between release and fullscale development/completion of their next game (historically anyway), an announcement may not be entirely outside of the realms of possibility if they projected a release of early-mid 2019.

Shiminay

I think they know they're on to a winner as long as they don't fk it up, cause with the other games in the genre having sprung up, they'd want to be careful about not killing the cash cow. Has Pheonix Point released yet? Battletech's out and that's kinda similar and there are 2 of those Xenonauts games and then there's Phantom Doctrine which seems to be a good looking twist on the theme. There's even a Gears of War tactics coming out.

I mean there's an obvious place to go with the third given the way the second one finished, so I see no reason it shouldn't work well if they just build on the good work they've done with the last 2 (and I'm sure they'll have a game changing DLC for it too like we had with Enemy Within and WOTC).

ancapailldorcha

I'm judging them by Creative Assembly's standards which might be unfair. CA churn out a fair few Total War games in a period of time and it can feel like they're sometimes a bit rushed or there isn't enough time to digest them.

degrassinoel

Enjoyable stream, some new old stuff from EU,
they teased something verbally a few times, but didn't reveal anything solid yet,
"it's a really special time to be a fan of XCOM", and
"something really special will be announced on the 9th October"
"deep diving" mentioned by Garth could allude to a TFTD type dealy
The 6 year anniversary is the 9th. So if it's happening, it'll be announced officially then

There's already been rumblings of an expansion and sequel codenamed TLE aka the latest expansion, google it for yourself and see the crappy sources but apparently it's legit, just not official.

degrassinoel

Official, finally -
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Tactical Legacy Pack DLC Launches on Oct 9 for PC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=2bkTJAZM4i4


We’ll have more videos to come, going into greater detail on specific pieces of the Tactical Legacy Pack DLC, so be sure to subscribe to XCOM on YouTube and tap the bell to receive all notifications from the channel. In the meanwhile, here’s the full feature list:

NEW GAMEPLAY MODES:

Legacy Ops – Command a squad of soldiers through a series of linked consecutive tactical missions:

- Central’s Archives – Central Officer Bradford, and other key members of XCOM, recount the pivotal operations that led to the rise of the resistance between the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2:

- Blast from the Past – After the fall of XCOM HQ, Central Officer Bradford begins his journey to build the resistance by returning to where it all began.

- It Came from the Sea – The broadcast of a fledgling radio DJ is reaching an audience he didn’t intend. It’s up to Central to save the DJ from an endless horde of hungry listeners.

- Avenger Assemble – Join Lily Shen as she works to retrofit the Avenger into a new home for the growing forces of a reinvigorated XCOM.

- The Lazarus Project – ADVENT is kidnapping key members of the resistance, and it’s up to Central to rescue some of XCOM's most renowned operatives.

Resistance Archives - Engage enemy forces in series of tactical missions increasing in difficulty.

Skirmish Mode – Create and play your own custom XCOM tactical missions using the included editor that allows you to modify various settings (map, squad loadouts, objective, enemies, and more.)
NEW MAPS: Engage in battle across 28 new maps including remastered maps and scenes from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within. These new maps will be featured in Central’s Archives.

NEW WEAPONS AND ARMOR: Equip your soldiers with reimagined versions of the conventional, laser, and plasma weapons, as well as Kevlar, Carapace, and Titan armor from XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Complete Central’s Archives to unlock these new additions for use in the main single player campaign.

NEW CUSTOMIZATION AND PHOTOBOOTH OPTIONS: Customize your soldiers with new attitudes and helmets. Create new images in the Photobooth with additional backgrounds, colors, and character poses.

NEW SOUNDTRACK OPTIONS: With the new Soundtrack Selector you can choose to play the XCOM 2: War of the Chosen campaign with the existing score, the score from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, or an all-new soundtrack inspired by the music from the original X-COM: UFO Defense.

OFFLINE CHALLENGE MODE: Play through all 100+ War of the Chosen challenges as often as you want.

The Tactical Legacy Pack DLC requires ownership of both the base game XCOM 2, as well as the XCOM 2: War of the Chosen expansion. The DLC will be free on PC for all owners of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen until 12:59pm ET on December 3, 2018. After this point in time, the DLC will go on sale for $7.99. The Tactical Legacy Pack will also be added to the XCOM 2 Collection, though this will have no effect on the price of the XCOM 2 Collection.

Dcully

I have never finished any of the xcom games as i dint really enjoy the whole base aspect of the game.
Different story out on the battlefield however so the legacy and skirmish mode look very interesting to me.

Shiminay

There's a bit of a formula for the bases that once you know what you need and in what order, you don't really need to think about it too much again. I agree that it can be a bit of a distraction, but you need elements of it to upgrade your squad size and heal people more quickly (and train psychic troops if memory serves).

I'm really looking forward to this new content, nice way to tackle the time between each game.

CiboC

If they would only bring the MECS from XCOM over....

I've tried warming to those Sparks but they just don't cut it for me....

Captain Obvious

CiboC wrote: »

If they would only bring the MECS from XCOM over....

I've tried warming to those Sparks but they just don't cut it for me....

Yeah, I'm not even sure why genetics and mechs were removed under the lore. Maybe because Vahlen was the only one who could do it.

CiboC

Captain Obvious wrote: »

Maybe because Vahlen was the only one who could do it.

I suppose being willing to amputate all a soldier's limbs just to get them to fit into a armoured suit takes a certain amount of moral flexibility, which ties in with the
Alien Rulers storyline later on.....:)

Captain Obvious

CiboC wrote: »

I suppose being willing to amputate all a soldier's limbs just to get them to fit into a armoured suit takes a certain amount of moral flexibility, which ties in with the
Alien Rulers storyline later on.....:)

Considering the level of decay of the bodies in that mission, I wouldn't be surprised to see Vahlen in this one. The timing would be right.