Print

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

[Draignean]

Oh man, I've been loving the WotC upgrades so damn much. Supply raids feel good, stressful, but good. The glee of looking over the payouts reminds me of crashed transports in XCOM: Long War. Trains are easy enough, but the damn crate ones give my conniptions.

Killing the first Chosen was likewise difficult and satisfying, though the reward is almost too amazing. It's a rare thing when a boss weapon gets more powerful when the player gets it. The assassin shotgun is a death machine, and the sword... Well, the sword is obscene. My ranger colonel reaper'd A MEC, an Auto-turret, a purifier, a codex, an advanced officer (admittedly wounded), two vipers, and then used the last move to shotgun a muton.  Granted, the Chosen Assassin would be incredibly (stupidly even) frustrating if she actually operated on the same level as a ranger.

Reapers are still my favorites, by far, over Skirmishers and Templar. Mox is a colonel, and he's neat and incredibly useful for undoing your own fuck-ups,  but he feels like he's still playing the same game as the rest of X-COM. Same for the Templar- neat bugger, love the soulknife thing, and fun to use on missions, but he obeys basically the same laws as everyone else. The Reapers give no fucks. They're peerless scouts, invaluable spotters that let your snipers rain death with impunity, and saboteurs that can take out entire pods without ever being revealed. You only need one or two, but they're a helluva force multiplier for the way I play.

Got a bit lucky on this run, but I'm also just feeling good. Only thing I don't like is the campaign 'integration' of Shen's last gift. It's rather lackluster.

[umiman]

Got a bit lucky on this run, but I'm also just feeling good. Only thing I don't like is the campaign 'integration' of Shen's last gift. It's rather lackluster.

You're referring to how XCOM just magically knows about the SPARKs and the Alien Rulers? Yeah, pretty dumb.

If you try and leave the missions on things get fucky. For example, if you actually try and do the Last Gift mission you'll end up with all the guys taking part basically crippled for eternity. This is because the mission is super ultra long and in multiple parts with so many enemies. Fatigue goes through the roof.

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

I intentionally let the Chosen attack the Avenger. It was.... interesting. Not what I was expecting though. But then I have three colonel Templars, two max psi troopers, and everything else. Game is basically over. The Templar ghost ability is frigging hilarious. You can summon a clone of yourself, then ask it to run up and do ionic storm for free 10 damage on everything. Or do all sorts of the other shit you want your Templar to do.

Also, PSA for anyone planning to mind control aliens when attacking a Chosen stronghold. Your mind controlled guys don't follow you into the final room, so save domination for the final area. Also if fighting the Warlock who loves to spam mind control every time he appears, use stasis or a freeze grenade. It's way easier.

[EnigmaticHat]

I want newcom 3 to start with the gameplay and then figure out the aliens.  They need a strategic game that actually feels like a game not just a very slow menu system.  And the reveal system needs to be pulled out by its roots.

Aside from that... I don't want TFTD or Apocalypse.  And if we go Lovecraft, I want full lovecraft.  Recurring super-enemies that are impossible to kill, research projects that inflict permanent debuffs on Xcom just for knowing the terrible secrets within.  Maybe even some nods to ancient tomes and tommy guns.  But like, I'm not sure I even want that.  Mostly, I want to see what the team comes up with from scratch.  The alien designs in Xcom 2 were genuinely original, but slightly spoiled by being references to the original.  The resistance factions feel interesting as well, I thought the reapers would be generic but having their own interface does add a lot.  I really do feel like the team could come up with some genuinely creepy and menacing aliens if given free rein.  Acid bath martians and data ghosts were pretty spoopy.

[Chiefwaffles]

Well, good news and bad news.

The developers have a strict "design/gameplay first, setting/plot second" philosophy for the game. I believe XCOM 2's setting came from a want to have the player start most engagements on their terms - hence the concealment system.

Mechanics first, always mechanics first. Sometimes, of course, that can go hand in hand with the theme, and when it does, that's always the best design of all. But initial ideas always come out of mechanics first. Theme is easy enough to find or create, but if an enemy doesn't have interesting mechanics then they aren't successful (in a game like XCOM anyway)

But they also said in a recent reddit AMA that the pod system is integral to NewCom. So the general idea of pods probably won't be going anywhere.

Pods are fundamental to nu-XCOM. We need to ensure that when the player is in combat, they have multiple targets to engage with. Multiple targets/threats deepen the tactical decisions the player gets to make, and if the enemies don't travel in packs, then there's no way to guarantee multiple enemies. Sometimes I'm surprised by player reactions, sometimes not. Player feedback is a huge driver in our decisions about what features to add, how we design future elements, etc. It has to be, the loyal players are the real owners of this franchise, the development team are just the stewards.

[EnigmaticHat]

I agree with them about pods being needed, absolutely.  In oldcom you had 14 dudes versus one poor floater and if you were cautious with moving and scouting it could get kind of ridiculous.  As in, "I'm in my first mission and I just fired 84 shots in a single turn."  And its oldcom, so you needed all 84 shots to kill the one floater.

But like, all this crap where we're afraid to use the close combat class because we'll cross a magic reveal line and boom double the enemies, its just.  Its janky.  I once lost an I/I mission (and thus the campaign) in Xcom 1 because after religiously observing the rules to never trigger a pod, the grenade throwing animation triggered a pod.  That's a one tile location difference ending an entire campaign.  They ripped the reveal system out of the Space Hulk board game, and it worked in that because you always knew where the pods were (but not what they were; some were even fake).  I think the concealment system is a clever way of handling that absolutely, but.  If they could find a cure for the whole disease, I'd appreciate it.

[Egan_BW]

The risk of attracting more pods should really be more tied to how much noise you're making, rather than where you're standing.

[umiman]

There is a cure now.

I've gone really gung ho with melee classes since the expansion with almost no detriment. And don't forget I was practically yelling at people over how Rangers sucked dick back when the game came out.

See, they basically made it way easier to scout the map and escape trouble caused by overzealous melee.

We have:

1. Reapers, giving invincible vision. Hard to trigger pods when you know where everything is.
2. So much easier to go into stealth now, with multiple skill options and even items.
3. Maps are more diverse with better cover systems. It's not as insane to do the cross map slash.
4. Melee classes have lots of ways to be invincible. Also their skills got buffed.
5. Your soldiers are just a lot stronger now due to so many ways to buff them including even base stats. It takes more than just an alerted pod to wipe them.

It's not so bad any more.

--------

It's an interesting shift in dynamic. In the past, the difficulty of the game mostly came with managing the unknown. You never knew what was waiting a single tile ahead.

Now it's more like managing known threats. Things like the Lost and the Chosen are very overt. All it takes is a single scan and you know where everything is. So how do you deal with it seems to be the new challenge.

[Mephansteras]

Anyone else have issues with the alien rulers being super buggy? Or at least the Berserker Queen? I haven't seen the others yet in wotc, but she's caused me no end of grief this campaign. And I don't just mean the normal ruler go-everytime-you-do-something pain. I mean stuff like wigging out and ignoring things like overwatch (sometimes) or bladestorm (sometimes) or just running around crazy and making the game weird? Oh, and crashing the game. Can't forget the crashing of the game.

Although it was really funny watching her get super annoyed that she couldn't see any of my people to rush so she beat her muton guard to death.

I'm kind of ambivalent about the rulers in general, but if they're going to make my game crash or bug out they can just go away.

[EnigmaticHat]

There is a cure now.

I've gone really gung ho with melee classes since the expansion with almost no detriment. And don't forget I was practically yelling at people over how Rangers sucked dick back when the game came out.

See, they basically made it way easier to scout the map and escape trouble caused by overzealous melee.

We have:

1. Reapers, giving invincible vision. Hard to trigger pods when you know where everything is.
2. So much easier to go into stealth now, with multiple skill options and even items.
3. Maps are more diverse with better cover systems. It's not as insane to do the cross map slash.
4. Melee classes have lots of ways to be invincible. Also their skills got buffed.
5. Your soldiers are just a lot stronger now due to so many ways to buff them including even base stats. It takes more than just an alerted pod to wipe them.

It's not so bad any more.

--------

It's an interesting shift in dynamic. In the past, the difficulty of the game mostly came with managing the unknown. You never knew what was waiting a single tile ahead.

Now it's more like managing known threats. Things like the Lost and the Chosen are very overt. All it takes is a single scan and you know where everything is. So how do you deal with it seems to be the new challenge.

The feel of the gameplay has changed for sure.  My squads used to move as six and react to contact by settling in heavy cover and blowing up the enemy cover.  Now... my squads flow over the enemy like water, barely caring if an enemy gets stuck in their midst.  My reapers and skirmishers often rush through the level faster than a dashing pace.  I'm still playing cautiously, its just like you said, I have so much more info and tools.

Not sure I would have wanted the base game to be this.  War of the Chosen is very... dense.  There's a lot of shit going on, I can barely remember my plans on the strategic map with some kind of pop-up message every single in-game day.  To say nothing of the 5 factions that can all take turns (I think theoretically you can have all of them on the same map, 4 is easily possible).  Both you and the aliens have so many insane abilities right off the bat too.  I'm enjoying it but I think a new player could be put off.

[Tack]

Well my Reaper who is pretty late game and has had some tinkering re: speed is at a mobility of 18- compared to the standard which is 12.
Shadow is said on the wiki to increase mobility by 50%, not sure if that's before or after buffs and PCS's, but either way that's moving further in one action than anyone else can do in two.

If they could only banish objectives, I'd find it ridiculous to take anyone else.

[scriver]

So I think I have my first heavy issue with WotC: It seems they've reverted to having static maps again in some cases.

[umiman]

So I think I have my first heavy issue with WotC: It seems they've reverted to having static maps again in some cases.

yup. Really noticable after awhile.

[Ultimuh]

Hmm.. Should I get the DLC.. or should I wait until it is on sale or something..

[umiman]

Hmm.. Should I get the DLC.. or should I wait until it is on sale or something..

Probably best to wait for a sale. The DLC is good, but not life changing. It's also fecking expensive.

There's also more benefits to waiting. The patch for all the bugs will probably be out and the mods will be better.

[Mephansteras]

Hmm.. Should I get the DLC.. or should I wait until it is on sale or something..

Probably best to wait for a sale. The DLC is good, but not life changing. It's also fecking expensive.

There's also more benefits to waiting. The patch for all the bugs will probably be out and the mods will be better.

Yeah, unless you've been itching to play but wanting some new content it's not a must-have. I enjoy it, and don't regret my preorder, but I'm more excited for the mods that'll come from all the new hooks in the game than I am the vanilla experience.