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[DolosusDoleus]

Also, not sure if it's been mentioned but the story and cutscenes have been seriously grinding my gears.
Some really good gameplay brought low by absolutely shockingly weak attempts at depth.

Yeah... the story missions are pretty weak.

Turns out the game is just straight up better when you turn off Lost and Abandoned.

[Tack]

Oh wow I've only just realized that's possible.
Not sure if I want to continue on this game now that I'm past most of the cringe, or start again so I don't have to deal with gatecrasher and L&D tanking my stats

[DolosusDoleus]

Oh wow I've only just realized that's possible.
Not sure if I want to continue on this game now that I'm past most of the cringe, or start again so I don't have to deal with gatecrasher and L&D tanking my stats

You still have to do gatecrasher, but if you disable L&D one of your soldiers is replaced by a random faction soldier. So that helps a bit.

[Tack]

I feel I need to illustrate just how much you've completely changed my gameplay experience.

I hated Having 'set' characters like Outrider and Mox, and am super glad to see that it's optional.
Tutorial gatecrasher is the grab on the commander- with two free losses and one free levelup, and no way to change any of it.

[umiman]

Oh wow I've only just realized that's possible.
Not sure if I want to continue on this game now that I'm past most of the cringe, or start again so I don't have to deal with gatecrasher and L&D tanking my stats

Boy do I have the mod for you.

This skips Gatecrasher while giving you everything you would have gotten if you cleared it perfectly.

-----------

I just had the most spectacular failure I've seen yet in WotC.

Defending against Warlock's haven assault.

Code: [Select]


1. Run up to defend the civilians right in front of me, skirmisher hooks up to the roof a building right next to it. Sniper runs up one floor below him (three story building). Things look good. Rest of squad move into various cover.
2. Spot a MEC and a sectoid, no big deal. I have railguns anyway because it was my first breakthrough tech (though it took 12 days to research).
3. Sectoid doesn't do shit and misses a civilian. I laugh.
4. MEC shoots rocket barrage. Hits two of my guys, since that's what the AI for it is programmed to do. But it also clips the edge of a fuel tank in the gas station where all the civilians are huddled up.
5. Basically every single civilian dies. Central yells at me and tells me to go to the second bunch of civilians further north.
6. At the same time, a muton and a lancer come up the right flank.
7. Warlock summons a zombie next to my skirmisher from across the map. Amusing trick, but the zombie only has 4 health so I just laugh.
8. I use the skirmisher's first turn to kill the zombie. Zombie dies. Explodes. Blows up the roof my skirmisher is on.
9. Skirmisher falls down three stories, then dies from the zombie explosion as well as the fall. Warlock tells me I'm a dipshit.
10. I clean up the enemies this round with my remaining guys, then move forward to the second clump of civilians.
11. Civilians are held up in a big building, I head in through the rear.
12. Alert 3 pods of enemies, who were surrounding the building from all sides. Warlock still sitting at the edge of the map summoning suicide zombies at me.
13. Suicide zombie blows up next to a giant fuel tank inside the building. Blows up every single remaining civilian.
14. Advent purifier throws a flame grenade into my ranks and incinerates two of my guys.
15. When it comes to my turn, all the fire collapses the roof where my sniper and last remaining guy are standing on. Both die.
16. Complete and total failure. Warlock laughs at me, even though he's a corner camping arsehole.

[thvaz]

snip

Great read, thanks! I totally know the feeling when everything goes wrong in XCOM 2. I think I just got lucky and killed the Warlock in the first time he showed up. The Assassin continues to be a complete pain in the ass, though.

[DolosusDoleus]

Just found out that Chosen weaknesses and strengths are pretty much hardcoded in if Lost and Abandoned is enabled. Also, your first couple of missions are guaranteed to be similar maps with the same mission types. So, more reasons to disable the story missions.

[umiman]

Just found out that Chosen weaknesses and strengths are pretty much hardcoded in if Lost and Abandoned is enabled. Also, your first couple of missions are guaranteed to be similar maps with the same mission types. So, more reasons to disable the story missions.

Yup. I highly recommend it.

It's way harder though, as your first Chosen fight will likely only be with 4 guys instead of 6 and it'll be in a regular haven assault.

[Majestic7]

So what does unticking the box do? Only removes story missions, nothing else?

[umiman]

So what does unticking the box do? Only removes story missions, nothing else?

It removes the one single story mission.

So now your first Chosen is random.

Your first resistance faction and hero (it's a random person) depends on you.

It's probably better, unless you like having Outrider and Assassin. But it is harder now, like I said. Every time I fight a Chosen for the first time now, the battle is always really difficult.

I've gone through it twice and each time I lose people and barely win on the skin of my teeth. Fighting Chosen is really hard with basic equipment, only 4 guys, and all the other Advent to deal with as well.

[Tack]

Not sure if outrider is a specific VA but having generic reaper is a great time.

[Aklyon]

Oh wow I've only just realized that's possible.
Not sure if I want to continue on this game now that I'm past most of the cringe, or start again so I don't have to deal with gatecrasher and L&D tanking my stats

Boy do I have the mod for you.

This skips Gatecrasher while giving you everything you would have gotten if you cleared it perfectly.

I dunno if its gotten better recently, but the last time I tried to use that with any amount of mods that add aliens the game would crash. All the time.

[Rolan7]

NerfNow did a little comic about the DLC.  Well, technically three.  http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/2151

[Chiefwaffles]

Now wait just a second...

Spoiler: Chosen Fortress Spoilers (click to show/hide)

Once you enter the Ascension Chamber, you see and get an objective to destroy the object supposedly keeping the Chosen alive after you defeat them in the field.

Its name?
A "sarcophagus".
A device that can heal people from what's practically death repeatedly and easily? And it's called a Sarcophagus?

There's no way this isn't a Stargate reference. I refuse to believe otherwise.
(For reference, Stargate SG-1 the TV series also has a Sarcophagus used by the antagonists to heal themselves from [near-]death and to have longer lifespans.)

[umiman]

Right here's the thing, the Lost mission you enable in the starting menu basically acts as a tutorial for dealing with the Chosen assassin. You get 6 soldiers, two of which are hero units, only have to fight the assassin, etc. etc.

Basically it gives you a bunch of free shit and exp and loot and powers you up for any real encounters with them in the future.

------------------

But if you turn that off, then your first encounter with the Chosen will always be a retaliation mission. And you will only have 4 guys.

Every single time I get the Assassin on that, I will automatically lose. To the point where I don't even bother bringing any experienced soldiers into the first retaliation any more. I can deal with the Hunter, he's a massive pain but he doesn't disappear off the map every turn. Not to mention he likes to do that stupid tracking shot thing that doesn't do anything. I can deal with the Warlock, he doesn't kite at all and is more like a Berserker with psi powers.

But the Assassin is impossible. She shows up, kills two people, then vanishes or runs out into the FOW. Every single turn you have to hope you stumble across her (as you won't unlock any abilities to detect her before this), then you need to do enough damage to actually be able to win as she kills your team one by one. Or two by two depending on her mood. If you can't find her, then she'll appear, kill some dudes, then go invis or run off into the distance again.

So you basically have 3 turns to kill her, each turn losing one or two guys. How is this remotely possible?

And if she's immune to explosives, you're pretty much boned.

It doesn't matter if you bring the hero counter, she kills him straight out. I seriously have no idea how to do this battle. Do you just automatically lose if you get the Assassin as your first Chosen? Just let her get her free scan and let her teleport out?

All this completely disregards the fact that she shows up in the middle of a goddamn retaliation mission with all the other Advent forces there to deal with.