Xcom 2

Zero-Cool

Said I'd quit spamming the general thread and didn't see a dedicated thread for this so said I'd start one, I'm only 5 years late to the party...

Downloaded it as was free on PS Plus and was interested in the rumour of the Xcom-like Marvel game to be shown soon (I'm guessing at the next Playstation event).

I absolutely love it! I'm only 3 missions in but I'm already getting angry at my real friends because they keep missing point blank shots in the game

I haven't come across the timed missions yet which don't seem too popular so maybe my opinion will change but so far I'm just loving it. I'm playing on Rookie as this is my first time playing this kind of game and heard it can be quite hard but at least you can increase difficulty on the fly.

Any starting tips welcome. Currently building a Guerilla Warfare center to increase squad size

Nody

I honestly prefer XCOm 1 over 2 because it feels less frantic and more tactical. The timed missions are annoying, the global timed counter is annoying and it simply becomes a case of running towards your goal every turn basically. Don't know about PS but if you have access to mods removing the global timer via mod is something I'd highly recommend.

Zero-Cool

Nody wrote: »

I honestly prefer XCOm 1 over 2 because it feels less frantic and more tactical. The timed missions are annoying, the global timed counter is annoying and it simply becomes a case of running towards your goal every turn basically. Don't know about PS but if you have access to mods removing the global timer via mod is something I'd highly recommend.

No mods I don't think on PS but if it does start being a negative for me, I think I'd spring for PS Now as that has the 1st Xcom game.

Azza

The mission time limits in X-Com 2 where very decisive among the players. Believe the developers went for this option to counter overly defensive play. In X-Com Enemy UnKown by far the most effective tactic was to sit back in cover with overwatch enabled and let the enemy come to you which they would do in the vast majority of cases, this slowed the pace of a game and made it less tactical when one tactic was all you needed 95% of the time.

With X-Com 2 I found once I knew how to handle the opening moves the timer no longer became an issue. If the enemy is visible on screen and your still in the undiscovered phase, if they discover you they get to attack you on the same turn. However if they are not visible at the start of their turn and then go on screen and discover you, they won't attack you the same turn but instead run for cover. Knowing this you can advance one solider to max range of his first movement, if no enemy is found move up the other soldiers. Then move the first solider as far forward as you can with your second movement but make sure he's in cover, if an enemy is sighted on screen, move all your soldiers to the best cover possible, if no enemy is sighted, stack up your soldiers behind the first and don't worry about cover as you won't be attacked even if found. You can do this to quickly advance forward towards the objective without worrying about finding cover which reduces the distance you can advance. I found in my play through on the 2nd highest difficult I had had plenty of time to get into position at low risk and then engage on favorable terms. If I recall the mission timer was maybe an issue only once. Once you start winning more missions the overall story timer becomes less of an issue.

Zero-Cool

Man this is addictive AF. I keep saying one more mission but that turns into 4 missions. Such a satisfying feeling of taking out an enemy or relief when they miss. Missions so far have been nice and quick, i play a bit aggressive, night bode well for me on timed missions but they are still Easy difficulty so will see when that starts to rise.

Really hoping now they release a marvel game next as it would be so much more interesting than square enix avengers game.

Zero-Cool

Just had my first black site op, moderate difficulty. Now that was intense. Lost my first soldier, feels bad man . Rest of my squad either wounded or gravely wounded. Fought a hell of a battle. Very hard to stop playing this.

Edit: went into the next mission to hold off an alien attack and rescue civs. 4 innocents killed and 2 of my best squad killed until i rage quit :pac: Will tackle that again tomorrow.

Kiith

Zero-Cool wrote: »

2 of my best squad killed until i rage quit :pac: Will tackle that again tomorrow.

Ahh, brings back memories. Welcome to Xcom

Nody

Azza wrote: »

The mission time limits in X-Com 2 where very decisive among the players. Believe the developers went for this option to counter overly defensive play. In X-Com Enemy UnKown by far the most effective tactic was to sit back in cover with overwatch enabled and let the enemy come to you which they would do in the vast majority of cases, this slowed the pace of a game and made it less tactical when one tactic was all you needed 95% of the time.

I'd argue that X-Com 1 had better missions over all, the fisher village, skull key base invasion, floating base invasion, home base invasion, EXALT etc. offered more unique missions. I found basically every X-Com 2 "special" mission to be bland and samey, oh this is a base invasion which is looking pretty much the same as every other map (exception for the final mission) with a known "enemy will send a human reinforce via air". As for sitting back and waiting in overwatch? Bomb defuse, Chryssalid terror attack, Exalt mission extract etc. gave you the variation that you could not always do that, however unlike X-Com 2 it was not every damn mission (and don't get me started on the difference in home base invasions; X-Com 2 is a joke by comparison) and that's before adding the meld gathering into the picture...

On the best tactic; you've just described the exact same tactic except of waiting for the enemy to come to your location you run to the enemy and do the ambush tactic waiting for the enemy to spot you on their turn while the rest sit in ambush mode to take the reaction shots on the enemy turn and then finish them off on your turn. How exactly does this somehow drastically change the tactics by comparison when you use the same tactic over and over again in X-Com 2 yet complain about X-Com 1 having "one tactic"?

Azza

Its been years since I played either game, so I can't recall all the missions in either game, I do remember the fishing village and home base invasion invasions being pretty good. However both the home base invasion and EXALT missions came with the expansion and if your including expansion content then its only fair you factor in War of the Chosen for X-Com 2. From what I can recall EXALT missions didn't really play any different in general to the regular missions and where generally easier.

Yes there was some missions where you effectively had a timer like Terror missions and bomb defuse, but they made up only a relatively small percentage of the missions. And if you liked these type of missions then I'm not seeing what the problem with X-Com 2 is.

I'm not describing the same tactic but I should of been a bit more detailed. I'm talking about the initial stealth phase of X-Com 2 missions, where its much easier to remain undetected and move into position to set an ambush. in X-Com 1, as soon as you see an enemy they see you, but that's not the case in X-Com 2, they can be on screen and not see you, as they have to be in a certain range to detect you. The biggest issue for players new to X-Com 2 and dealing with the timer, is they they are too cautious in their opening moves during this phase. They advance moving each of their units into cover as they go, but that slows them down too much and takes too many turns to get into position hence the timer because a issue. If you know how the detection system works you can advance pretty far towards objectives quite quickly with out having to worry about getting the best cover until you want to trigger the first attack. If you do stumble across and enemy, it doesn't mean your instantly detected, so you can then move your men to cover and overwatch but I'm not saying you should sit here permanently and wait until the enemy detects you. If the enemy detects you next turn, that's fine and dandy you can fight them from a good position, if he doesn't you can opt to move to a more optimum position to attack them or move your men so the enemy is no longer on screen and therefore not a threat on the next turn. Or the enemy may simply have moved off screen by themselves, again freeing you do what you want next turn.

Another difference from X-Com 1, is that yes overwatch is still effective and has its uses but its not the dominate tactic in regular missions, you can't sit back with most of your squad set up in full cover with overwatch on for a dozen turns and just let the enemies come on to you. You have to play aggressively and take calculated risks or run out of time, I just found that gameplay to be more pro-active and exciting and believe me I do love to camp and turtle in games every now and then

I enjoyed both games but I found X-Com 2's game play better once I got my head around dealing with the timer.

Dcully

There are mods that remove the timer i believe or atleast extend it to be less annoying.

Zero-Cool

Jesus, this went from 'walk in the park' to 'stop, he's already dead' levels very quick. I had to quit and ignore the attach on a village as the aliens were wrecking me and killing civilians in no time. Chief not too happy i skipped it but **** him. My avatar project bar is 3 from the top so I'm trying the alien blacksite in East Asia. Right i had already done it but that was something else. I need more time to craft armour and guns for my squad. What's the worst that happens with the avatar project bar fills up? I feel i need more time to upgrade the squad.

Nody

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Jesus, this went from 'walk in the park' to 'stop, he's already dead' levels very quick. I had to quit and ignore the attach on a village as the aliens were wrecking me and killing civilians in no time. Chief not too happy i skipped it but **** him. My avatar project bar is 3 from the top so I'm trying the alien blacksite in East Asia. Right i had already done it but that was something else. I need more time to craft armour and guns for my squad. What's the worst that happens with the avatar project bar fills up? I feel i need more time to upgrade the squad.

You lose the game; no not joking. No final battle, no reset to lower it, you simply outright lose the game. Fun game mechanic; makes it "more tactical".

Azza

Nody wrote: »

You lose the game; no not joking. No final battle, no reset to lower it, you simply outright lose the game. Fun game mechanic; makes it "more tactical".

The concept they where going for with X-Com 2 is that earth lost the war and you're no longer defending earth against invaders but you're now fighting an occupying force as an insurgency, fighting a gorilla war where you need to get in fast, strike hard and get out fast before the enemy far superior in overall strength can retaliate with overwhelming force.

In many games, there is an over arching storyline where the enemy has some plot to take over or destroy the world, but in the vast majority of cases, they are running to your time schedule, they can't win and can only progress so far as the story mandates it too as you progress through the game. In X-Com 2, they are running to their own schedule and can actually win depending on their success or your failures, whatever way you want to look at it. Its certainly a novel approach to gaming and while I can understand why it can cause frustration I can see merit to it as well. I've seen the opposite criticism with games, where people say how utterly ridiculous it is that you can go off and spend dozen of hours doing 50 side missions while the main story just stays absolutely static until you back to it. You effectively can't fail. You die, you just reload a save a few minutes back, but in X-Com 2 if you fail enough you can fail permanently. Its part of X-Com's appeal, it adds meaning to your decisions.

The Avatar Project time table has got nothing to do with making it more tactical and you are probably deliberately conflating it with mission timers so you can act dismissive without actually having to rebut the points I was making.

Its actually an interesting debate. The developers are in a way forcing you to play a more fun type of game, but gamers seem to be hate taken out of their comfort zones and are not willing to spend time adapting and rather than adapt they just complain about the game being too difficult. Doom Eternal is anther example of this.

Retr0gamer

It's actually a strange dilemma. It's why I find the darks souls easy mode debate so stupid. Because as a game developer you learn that a person playing a game will always take the easy route to the win, even if it makes the game less fun or breaks it.

The problem with xcom 2 is that time limits are an arbitrary way of taking the overwatch trap away from players. The overwatch trap is really compelling because it empowers the player and makes them feel clever as it's the tactically best way to approach a situation.

Time limits might make the game more fun but it artificially takes the overwatch trap from players and adds a level of anxiety to the player.

It's a catch 22 because the other side is to let the player break the game asich as possible but make it very very difficult ala final fantasy tactics but then that alienates players that are late to figuring out how to break the game.

Nody

Azza wrote: »

The concept they where going for with X-Com 2 is that earth lost the war and you're no longer defending earth against invaders but you're now fighting an occupying force as an insurgency, fighting a gorilla war where you need to get in fast, strike hard and get out fast before the enemy far superior in overall strength can retaliate with overwhelming force.

Yes, it's so overwhelming that when the enemy shuts down your flying HQ you can sit there and farm endless waves of enemies that will spawn every two turns for ever at the exact same spot over and over again without ever becoming stronger, send in more reinforcements or artillery strikes etc. The same enemy that's incapable of attacking more than three locations at the same time in the whole world that supposedly control and have magical portals to send people around in and can mind control people, except only do that to your soldiers instead of all the rebel camps they know the locations of. If you want realism then make it realistic accordingly; XCom-2 is anything but, every single time they send reinforcement you know what's coming, how many and where. This is a purely arbitrary addition to force people to rush more and was one of the first mods added was to disable it; calling it realism is a joke.

In many games, there is an over arching storyline where the enemy has some plot to take over or destroy the world, but in the vast majority of cases, they are running to your time schedule, they can't win and can only progress so far as the story mandates it too as you progress through the game. In X-Com 2, they are running to their own schedule and can actually win depending on their success or your failures, whatever way you want to look at it. Its certainly a novel approach to gaming and while I can understand why it can cause frustration I can see merit to it as well. I've seen the opposite criticism with games, where people say how utterly ridiculous it is that you can go off and spend dozen of hours doing 50 side missions while the main story just stays absolutely static until you back to it. You effectively can't fail. You die, you just reload a save a few minutes back, but in X-Com 2 if you fail enough you can fail permanently. Its part of X-Com's appeal, it adds meaning to your decisions.

No it does not; it adds an arbitrary time line in what's suppose to be a game, you know something you play to enjoy. The punishment is you simply outright lose it because you did not play at the speed the developer decided you should finish the game. It's one one of the more stupid additions to the game, it adds nothing to the enjoyment for a large pool of people and if people wanted it then they should add it in an Ironman mode or similar.

The Avatar Project time table has got nothing to do with making it more tactical and you are probably deliberately conflating it with mission timers so you can act dismissive without actually having to rebut the points I was making.

No, it fulfills exactly the same function that you call tactical. It's an arbitrary time limit added to force you to rush through it rather than take your time and play the game as you want. It's the game developer telling you that you can't take your time and build things up, you can't have a few bad games because hey if you do you've lost. It's not adding an interesting new boss, new tactics or interesting challenge, it's run the optimal way or you lose basically.

Its actually an interesting debate. The developers are in a way forcing you to play a more fun type of game, but gamers seem to be hate taken out of their comfort zones and are not willing to spend time adapting and rather than adapt they just complain about the game being too difficult. Doom Eternal is anther example of this.

Funny that; you are telling me what I should find as fun to play and if I don't like it then I'm lazy and staying in my comfort zone. How about I get to decide what I find fun? How about I actually play the games the way I want to play them and enjoy them instead of you telling me what I should like and tell me to stop complaining? How about I, as a paying customer, get to decide that? Novel concept that idea that I want a game to play like the game I liked previously in the same series and when they add things I don't like that reduce the interest in the game play and makes it boring that I voice my opinion about it.

Then again; your argument is exactly why the likes of Dawn of War 3 or final C&C failed so horribly as well; for some odd reason developers telling people what they should like and not listening to your customers telling you it's a ****ty idea meant people did not like the final game. If they continue this route in X-Com 3 i expect it will sell badly accordingly exactly like Chimera squad did as well.

Zero-Cool

I still haven't come across timed missions yet, maybe I'm just too early in the game for them but not for it to be game over i Just read once the avatar project bar fills up, you get 3 weeks to reduce it.

Now I'm thinking of starting a new game as i spent supplies in stupid **** and wasted time resourcing non important items. Learning what i did in my short time, i could definitely make a better start for myself and wouldn't lose that much playtime.

riffmongous

Zero-Cool wrote: »

I still haven't come across timed missions yet, maybe I'm just too early in the game for them but not for it to be game over i Just read once the avatar project bar fills up, you get 3 weeks to reduce it.

Now I'm thinking of starting a new game as i spent supplies in stupid **** and wasted time resourcing non important items. Learning what i did in my short time, i could definitely make a better start for myself and wouldn't lose that much playtime.

Always well worth restarting these kinda games, otherwise you'll struggle on till about half way with your under powered squad and then be able to go no further.

I didn't mind the timer, found it a very refreshing change from Xcom1

Zero-Cool

Started again and I've a much better handle of what's going on now. Saying that, i got a someone killed in my first mission and 2 gravely injured in my second so it's still a challenge. It is great how the locations and missions seem to be random as I've had all different ones in this new game so far.

Azza

Nody wrote:

Yes, it's so overwhelming that when the enemy shuts down your flying HQ you can sit there and farm endless waves of enemies that will spawn every two turns for ever at the exact same spot over and over again without ever becoming stronger, send in more reinforcements or artillery strikes etc. The same enemy that's incapable of attacking more than three locations at the same time in the whole world that supposedly control and have magical portals to send people around in and can mind control people, except only do that to your soldiers instead of all the rebel camps they know the locations of. If you want realism then make it realistic accordingly; XCom-2 is anything but, every single time they send reinforcement you know what's coming, how many and where. This is a purely arbitrary addition to force people to rush more and was one of the first mods added was to disable it; calling it realism is a joke.

Ah here its a video game, they have to work with the constraints of it being a video game with what they technically capable of doing and balancing the game. I could knock pretty much every game on the similar grounds if I wanted too. For example why in virtually every RTS single player campaign does the enemy give you time to build up your base, why do they attack you piece meal and why do they scatter their forces into smaller pockets across the map that you can overwhelming individually, why do they not simply just pool all their forces together and attack you in force as soon as they detect. I wasn't calling it realism nor were the developers, I was just describing that was the concept/theme they where going for with their game design.

No it does not; it adds an arbitrary time line in what's suppose to be a game, you know something you play to enjoy. The punishment is you simply outright lose it because you did not play at the speed the developer decided you should finish the game. It's one one of the more stupid additions to the game, it adds nothing to the enjoyment for a large pool of people and if people wanted it then they should add it in an Ironman mode or similar.

People enjoy different things. Some people enjoy a challenge and find overcoming a challenge rewarding. True not everyone is like that and some just want to experience the game story/world, but they are catered to on the lower difficulty levels. But that leads to a psychological issue people have selecting lower difficulty levels.

No, it fulfills exactly the same function that you call tactical. It's an arbitrary time limit added to force you to rush through it rather than take your time and play the game as you want. It's the game developer telling you that you can't take your time and build things up, you can't have a few bad games because hey if you do you've lost. It's not adding an interesting new boss, new tactics or interesting challenge, it's run the optimal way or you lose basically.

Tactics are what you employ during the actual missions not outside it in the strategy and management section. From what I can recall of play play through which is probably 4/5 years ago at this point, I was basically required to play a mission every couple of hours of game play to slow the Avatar Projects progress down. But I don't recall having issues with having inadequate resources or tech. I did fail on my first two playthroughs but on my third successful play through neither the mission timers or Avatar Project timer where an issue for me. I also don't recall feeling being particularly rushed. The campaign length was still pretty long and I was able to progress my tech and solider levels along at a decent rate and was well teched up for final missions. Like X-COM Enemy Unknown, X-COM 2 has a reverse difficulty curve, the game gets easier the more you progress.

Funny that; you are telling me what I should find as fun to play and if I don't like it then I'm lazy and staying in my comfort zone. How about I get to decide what I find fun? How about I actually play the games the way I want to play them and enjoy them instead of you telling me what I should like and tell me to stop complaining? How about I, as a paying customer, get to decide that? Novel concept that idea that I want a game to play like the game I liked previously in the same series and when they add things I don't like that reduce the interest in the game play and makes it boring that I voice my opinion about it.

I wouldn't call you lazy but what I find common among gamers is that they have no tolerance for failure, if they find anything frustrating, they call it bad game design and don't look at other perspectives. Believe me I do understand people want to enjoy games and often only have limited time to play and just don't have the time to spend out figuring out how things work. I didn't tell you what you should like and your entitled to complain about a game if you want, but we are on a public discussion forum so people can offer different views. You seem to mostly complain that the game rushes you too much but you also state that you find the game boring, I find that abit of a contradiction.

Then again; your argument is exactly why the likes of Dawn of War 3 or final C&C failed so horribly as well; for some odd reason developers telling people what they should like and not listening to your customers telling you it's a ****ty idea meant people did not like the final game. If they continue this route in X-Com 3 i expect it will sell badly accordingly exactly like Chimera squad did as well.

Developers makes games. You as a gamer get to decide which ones you like and which ones you want to buy, but you don't speak for all gamers nor can developers appease all gamers at once. I liked what they did with X-COM 2, so did many others. Others have expressed opinions similar to your own. The lead developer has acknowledged that and said people who complain about the timer are not necessarily wrong and as a developer he wouldn't try to justify the timer if people found it frustrating but he is still of the opinion that it makes X-COM 2 a better game.
If we where to take the view that developers can't mix things up, we would never have got a classic like say Resident Evil 4 (lol some people would say that's a good thing) or for that matter the DMC series. As for X-COM 2 I don't know how well it did overall but it did very well at launch and successful enough to warrant an expansion and console releases. As for Chimera Squad I haven't played it but its considered more of a spin off and from what I've read about it the most common complaint is that the game is too easy, which shows the developers can often be caught between a rock and hard place.

Zero-Cool

It's kind of annoying how addictive this is. I have 5 new games i at least want to try but anytime the PS5 goes on, that alien skull face is staring at me like i better not even think of playing a different game. Making much better progress on my 2 campaign attempt, still some hairy situations though.

Zero-Cool

Have upgraded squad weapons and armour, making the harder missions much more manageable. Completed my first difficult blacksite and raging to have lost my most experienced soldier. Lost my other 2 most experienced since, real sickner but it does and to the world so much.

My avenger was downed and had an epic battle to get it airborne again, just about managed to get everyone back with about 6 aliens chasing me down.

One thing I'm still unsure of, the alien dark events. I'm not sure how to counter them. Sometimes i get missions popping up and i can choose which one to counter but then nothing and the events take place. Avatar project near the top again and i don't know if I'm missing something to slow it down. Should my goal be to make contact with as many sites as quick as possible?

Edit: just found you can't actually counter all dark events, just 1, sometimes 2 per month and it's not just those, other things stop the Avatar project so dark events not the end of the world...

nullObjects

Sounds like you figure it out, also note to expand the squad size the requirement is having an experienced soldier so you definitely want to try to keep them around so you can up the squad size to the max!

Zero-Cool

nullObjects wrote: »

Sounds like you figure it out, also note to expand the squad size the requirement is having an experienced soldier so you definitely want to try to keep them around so you can up the squad size to the max!

Yupp got my squad to 7, the extra crew really helps!

Zero-Cool

I see war of the chosen getting great reviews but it's 40 quid which seems a bit steep for dlc. I see it's gone down to 12 euro before on psn so will add it to my watch list.

Retr0gamer

Zero-Cool wrote: »

I see war of the chosen getting great reviews but it's 40 quid which seems a bit steep for dlc. I see it's gone down to 12 euro before on psn so will add it to my watch list.

It's kind of essential. Makes the base game even better. You'll have to start a new game to experience the content.

Zero-Cool

Xcom 2 full collection out on Android 13th July for 28 euro.

https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/1407343766734770181?s=19

Zero-Cool

Okay so I'm chugging along and hit the Avatar Project timer. Turns out I spent too much time building my squad (Warden Armour and Beam Weapons across the board) and not enough time gathering Intel so haven't been visiting much other sites. Now I had to hightail it to an Intel spot and move 2 regions to get to an Alien Facility and a Blacksite story missions. 7 hours to spare so cutting it close! I believe the blacksite will stop the timer and the alien facility will reduce it.

I've had to ignore supply raids and Guerrilla Ops though so not ideal. I know now just to pelt into other regions and take on the facilities finally. At least I know my squad is decked out for it anyway.

I have lost 5 of my most experienced soldiers though which is a bollox.

Lastly, I read the AWC will assign random abilities to your soldiers when they level up but I've only ever had the class choice. I checked again and none of them have the extra abilities. Am I missing how to activate that? I saw there is a retrain class option but I haven't tried that yet.

Zero-Cool

Spent an hour on the Blacksite mission, the one where you first encounter an Avatar. Jesus, tense from start to to finish. Lost, 3 of my squad, other 3 on the last legs. Beat the reinforcements and got 2 of my guys to evac. My last soldier who happen to be carrying the target was one space shy of evac.... 1 ****ing space... And got killed by the 2nd reinforcement. Absolute sickner but gonna start again anyway and try keep more people alive this time.

I only have a couple of snipers but they seem useless, 1 in particular who misses every shot, i mean every single one. Here she is in all her glory. This was a 98% chance shot

https://twitter.com/Sheehy_83/status/1408537323323658242?s=19

Retr0gamer

Enjoying the updates. The series is great for creating emergent storytelling like that.

I played through the very first xcom (1994) a few years ago and still remember some of the crazy stuff in it. My squad going house to house in a suburb while my rocket drone was in the street firing rockets into the buildings causing massive collateral damage.

Sending my backup squad in to a fight to get experience only to have it be the first mission I encountered an ethereal. They got a few lucky shots and took him out but could have gotten real messy. And then my base getting invaded while my main force was at the other side of the world and not able to get back in time so had to defend the base with a group of unarmed rookies scrambling for equipment to barely repel the invasion.

Still remember some of the character in the squad. Called one arnie as he was kicking major ass and one sandbag as he seemed like the red shirt of the group. Sandbag managed to hang in there until the psychic project and turned out to be an insanely powerful psychic. The rest of the missions were him turning the enemies against each other while Arnie with bigger all psychic ability was left to defend him.

NoLuckLarry

Would love to see a remake of Terror From The Deep or even Apocalypse, I shudder to think of how many hours both of those games got from me

P.S Zero - there are some cool cheats available as well if you fancy doing a just for fun run at any stage, involves renaming your squad mates to certain names. A squad of 6 super psychic Sid Meiers is ridiculously OP and fun

Zero-Cool

Absolutely wrecked the Blacksite last night, stopped the timer and pushed the avatar project back 5 notches, i can breathe again I have 3 or 4 alien facilities to hit next as well as Shadow chamber projects to complete so chugging along nicely.

Finally unlocked 2 extra abilities from awc after that mission as well, about time. My main character, me, just met highest rank and as a specialist can send the gremlin to heal and revive all squad members in one go, i feel my rookie days are over.

Shiminay

It's one of those games that you'll play through 4 or 5 times and streamline your build order and know what skills you want on your team ahead of time.

nullObjects

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Lastly, I read the AWC will assign random abilities to your soldiers when they level up but I've only ever had the class choice. I checked again and none of them have the extra abilities. Am I missing how to activate that? I saw there is a retrain class option but I haven't tried that yet.

No it just happens at random, think from memory you'll get the normal little popup that informs you they've levelled up and it'll say on that somewhere they "gained ability X through the advanced warfare centre"

Just for clarity it's a bonus ability that you may or may not unlock and you don't get to pick the bonus ability, you just pick the ability that's next for that character as normal if that makes sense

Zero-Cool

Completed the avatar autopsy and infiltrating their network is my next mission which I'm told it's a point of no return so i decided to do some alien bases and guerrilla ops. Last 2 missions wrecked me, i was going to clear up some more stuff but think I'll just plough on with the story before i lose any more soldiers. I did make a psi ops build and they are savage, wish i started working on those sooner.

Zero-Cool

One thing I've had ZERO issue with is timed missions and tbh, the only timer I've noticed is the avatar project which once i figured out, could kepp to 4 notches with very little effort. When people talk about timed missions here, do they mean the ones with counters? I don't mind them, makes you push forward and be a bit bold. Now saying that, I'm still playing on rookie so maybe it doesn't affect me as much as others. If that's the case, I'd highly recommend people playing this on rookie of they didn't Luke the timed aspect.

Shiminay

Yea, those are the ones people mean - they become a much more difficult prospect as you ramp up the difficulty - it's usually a case of not being able to do enough damage per turn to carve your way through the pods which means you have to risk making someone run ahead to get to an objective and then getting stranded and surrounded Reapers are great for counteracting this as they're a lot harder to spot. There's a really good mod I use that prevents the timers from starting until you've been spotted, so you can get a few turns of scouting and moving and I feel like that gives a more balanced and still challenging way of doing it.

Zero-Cool

Just cleared it, maaaan that last mission was ****ing tense! Started with 7, down to 2 surrounded by about 7 enemies and my rangers sword strike finished off the last Avatar, cutting it fair close!

Absolutely ABSOLUTELY loved it but it sounds like playing on rookie actually added to my enjoyment. I'm finally gonna get back to my backlog but i definitely look forward to getting PS Now down the line and playing Enemy Unknown. Fingers crossed for a marvel game by the devs in the PlayStation showcase on Thursday.

Thanks for all the tips and advice lads, damn that was fun!

Penn

Started playing this just before the Big Boards Shutdown of 2021. Ended up having to start a new game about two nights ago because I didn't understand half the shite the game was throwing at me in my first playthrough. Particularly as it seemed everytime I opened the map and tried to progress something that took 3 days I'd get about 10 popups during it for other missions, advent stuff, research stuff... not knowing what or how I was meant to progress things. Also didn't help I bought the version with all dlc and ended up in one or two missions I should definitely not have been in.

Final straw though was a UFO missions which just kept sucking the life out of me. Had figured out enough by that stage that I said I'd start a new game.

The game is all sorts of bullshit at times and can be incredibly infuriating. And some of the enemy powers and health levels are ridiculous so early in the game. Thinking of dropping the difficulty just to plow a bit through the game.

nullObjects

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117611571#Comment_117611571

I think play through without the extensions first. Don't want to spoilt anything but there's an enemy type that pops up every few missions that's quite difficult, might be more fun if you play through it in the "vanilla" mode first and get used to it

I played with extensions the first time and got absolutely wrecked

Grumpypants

There is so much in the game to discover on your own but it moves at such a pace that it is very hard to keep up. The DLC missions are really hard but well worth it as the rewards really stand to you in later missions. If you can do "Shen’s Last Gift" first it will be a huge help.

But I agree, play vanilla first. Then replay with the DLC as it adds so much it is like a new game, then play it for a third time with the War of the Chosen 😀

Whatever you don't skip those annoying pop-up missions. I know what it is like when you just want to expand and research and they keep popping, but they are the key to holding back the enemy dark events and making the game even harder. You can also get yourself loads of free scientists and engineers that will speed up the research and building too.

Each mission will tell you the reward but also what you are likely to face. Pay attention to the type of enemy and bring the right weapons and ammo once researched. If it is Mech heavy bring your Blue Rounds, lots of fleshy enemies use the incendiary or poison rounds, sniper keeps missing? give them the tracer rounds to improve accuracy.

Zero-Cool

I'd definitely recommend dropping to Rookie until you at least get a feel for it, still gonna be tough. I had to restart after a few hours and definitely had a better sense of what i had to do 2nd time round. Research squad armour and weapons when you can, boosts everyone's killing and surviving permanently, definitely makes the levels easier to get through.

I only got the UFO mission once. Was tough but a great mission all the same.

Penn

Shens Last Gift was the dlc mission I tried (without knowing it was a dlc mission). Got to the final rooftop stage but since I didn't know how many stages etc there were, I was low on health, ammo and patience and there was no way I was going to make it off the roof (the robot alone was destroying me, never mind the adds that kept popping up on each turn too), so ended up rolling back saves to before the mission.

Think I'm setting myself up well enough on this playthrough, but after 3 of my squad missed overwatch shots in one go on a low-health Sectoid, I ragequit for the night.

Retr0gamer

I had to reset my first attempt at xcom 2 as I attempted a dlc mission to early. Got absolutely swamped in it by snake guys

nullObjects

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117614255#Comment_117614255

Seeing a common theme, think everyones done that!

Penn

Think I'm done. Getting creamed in random missions by Viper King. From reading online, he's part of a DLC and should only appear after doing and Advent mission. I haven't done any advent missions yet and was sure I disabled all dlc before starting this playthrough.

Unfortunately, just kinda fed up of it at this stage.

Outkast_IRE

I always tell people to go 100% vanilla on first okay through. With the dlc and add ons it adds alot of complexity which is overwhelming on a first play through .

J Mysterio

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117625748#Comment_117625748

You can disable the viper king stuff.

BurntAsh

LWOTC with the recommended add ons is a significant upgrade on Xcom 2 WOTC. Similar in many ways to LW (infiltration, soldier types, extra enemy types and additional abilities) and is integrated well. Something to try if you're finding WOTC stale after a 20th play-through...

Penn

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117625770#Comment_117625770

I thought I did, when starting this playthrough. But from reading online, it seems by disabling the mission, the alien rulers appear randomly in missions. Whereas if you don't disable the dlc, there's a specific mission you have to do that triggers them appearing, so you can just avoid that mission and they won't show up.

I'm not starting another playthrough anyway. That's for damn sure.

Grumpypants

He is a giant pain. You need to fire everything at him. And bring as many of the guys with swords, especially if they have the perk unlocked that slashes anything that steps near them.

Stock up on stun ammo. You have to drive him off the map as quickly as possible.

Wait till you meet the Archon king

You do get class gear for killing them.

Retr0gamer

Getting a hankering to try this again reading this thread but I promised myself not to play anymore long games until I'm done with Yakuza Like a Dragon and then Tactics Ogre.