Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Flying Dice]

The only EU character I cared about is the only one who hasn't had a presence in nuCOM 2.

Shen's last gift is getting regifted until it gets a facelift.

[Urist Imiknorris]

So Christopherodd has a video on the SPARKs. They are not giant shivs. They'll be pretty much robot MECs once someone makes them look better, might even fix itself if the better armor tiers look any good.

There's a gallery of its customization options here.

But there's one question that remains: How long until we get modded voice packs for them?

[RAM]

I can't help but feel that shivs would be better than mecs. Mecs were little more than an additional character class. They certainly had their own interesting quirks, but really, they were just another member of your roster. I think that shives were always handled badly. They ended up being just another member of your roster(stealing experience from people who could use it, taking away a valuable roster spot, and not being particularly cheap or replaceable), but they shouldn't have been. Had shivs been weaker, but only required an equipment slot instead of a whole character slot, then they could have been the expendable bonus unit that they were meant to be. Or they could have been twice as durable with less armament and been a moving-wall/durable-scout. Or they could have been much more expensive and not taken a roster spot, thus taken a role as an expensive, if bland, upgrade to your squad. Or perhaps you could bring more than one per slot, so you could use them to replace quality with quantity. As it was they were just uninspired. Either they were better than your squad, in which case you really needed the experience and probably couldn't afford to waste coinage on something that would become obsolete, or they were inferior to your squad, so you were better off taking an expendable rookie that might turn into something valuable.

So much as I would rather see mecs-as-they-were than shivs-as-they-were, I think that is only because shivs were done badly...

[KingofstarrySkies]

I liked mecs because I like big stompy robots that are good for certain tasks but not all of them. The biggest issue I had with mecs, in fact, was that they felt way too open-Didn't matter the original class, a mec was a mec. Specialized versions would be niiiice.

[EnigmaticHat]

I really liked the *feel* of MECs.  Nothing like punching a sectoid through a wall onto an exploding car.  And from a gameplay perspective, if SHIVs are baby tanks, MECs felt like baby IFVs.  Or more accurately, like a pickup truck with a machinegun welded to the bed.  Great firepower, technically more durable than a human but in practice doesn't hold up under fire.

Kinda weird that the enemy gets them and you don't this time around.  I guess MECs never were Soloman's babies.

[Sonlirain]

I really liked the *feel* of MECs.  Nothing like punching a sectoid through a wall onto an exploding car.  And from a gameplay perspective, if SHIVs are baby tanks, MECs felt like baby IFVs.  Or more accurately, like a pickup truck with a machinegun welded to the bed.  Great firepower, technically more durable than a human but in practice doesn't hold up under fire.

Kinda weird that the enemy gets them and you don't this time around.  I guess MECs never were Soloman's babies.

TBH in long war Goliath MECs were built for tanking and several other MEC classes could take a few tanking skills as well making htem much tougher than their vanilla counterparts.

Plus i'm not sure if people noticed but from waht i played i must say... survivability got buffed through the roof for the humans.
Higher rank people just get so many hit points even without armor it's... pretty funny actually. I had people tanking plasma rifle crits to the face and standing... usually on 2-3 hp but still.

[RAM]

I liked mecs because I like big stompy robots that are good for certain tasks but not all of them. The biggest issue I had with mecs, in fact, was that they felt way too open-Didn't matter the original class, a mec was a mec. Specialized versions would be niiiice.

This! This so much. They were just another class. A different class, with the whole "no cover" thing really differentiating them, and a completely different set of abilities but... "a mec was a mec"... I feel they would have been better if the underlying class was more integrated or something and the mec abilities were less distinctly mecish...
 I don't fault people for liking mecs, it is a good class, I just don't really feel that they have the same potential as shivs did for being something really different. Of course, even if shivs had that potential I see in them, they certainly never lived up to it... So yeah, totally, rah rah rah, mec is teh awesomes!!!

[Aklyon]

If the shivs had more use, then sure, they might have potential. They never were more than armed scouts that leech xp though, from what I remember.

[EnigmaticHat]

Beagle used the EW buffed Shivs to stabilize an I/I caimpaign after a near squad wipe.  It was with the modifier that made everyone's perk choices random regardless of class; he had a little narrative going where an assault was a SHIV's buddy and would hide behind it with low profile and use rifle suppression.  With a shotgun.  It was pretty funny to watch.

Their main niche seemed to be an expendable soldier that doesn't need EXP and can be replaced more easily if they die.

[Digital Hellhound]

Also, you don't get as attached to SHIVs, so it's less crying yourself to sleep over your fallen babies.

[Culise]

Plus, they're kinda cute in that "rolling brick" or bulldog sort of way.

[Sonlirain]

If i'm to  be honest if Xcom didn't absolutely need a PSI gifted soldier on the last mission i'd just roll with Shivs.
Lots and lots of shivs...
Mainly because Hover shivs have like... 30 or 40 inbuilt defense making them literally always in cover (unlike Mecs that only get around 10 defense)
And SHIVS get to heal 2 points of damage per turn unless their repair module is damaged in combat... which is pretty unlikely.
So in EW a squad full of shivs is actually pretty damn ridiculous probably the second best thing you can get that's not a full squad of psi troopers since the only real danger to them is an ethereal with a rift.

[EnigmaticHat]

Better watch out!

[nenjin]

Guys in XCOM2 are more durable because they get health as they level up, and the enemy steadily gets health increases too. I suppose I don't hate it, but XCOM2 lacks the surety of XCOM in knowing how much damage you need to deal and how much damage you can take because those numbers are constantly changing.

[EnigmaticHat]

That's been true for every Xcom game I've played including the original game.  You always get more health as you level up.