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[Leafsnail]

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/4473/20121211/xcom-enemy-unknown-slingshot-dlc-review-lead-designer-last-mission-went-wrong.htm

"Solomon said that he wanted the final mission to serve as a victory lap for the player where the gamers could just "plow" through all of the invading forces. But that isn't what gamers wanted, according to Solomon.

[majikero]

Damn right we don't want a stupid victory lap. We want an epic battle of survival with the best of humanity against the best of the aliens.

[MaximumZero]

Finished Ironman Classic with Second Wave options turned (most notably: Damage Roulette and Not Created Equally) on last night. I lost one soldier, two missions before the last one. No battles lost. No countries lost.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Damn temporal anomaly siphoning away all of my luck to you. Red Fog and Damage Roulette are the most brutal of the options I've seen so far. The former appears to only effect your troops and makes them useless if they get hit at all. Damage Roulette has this funny way of giving Sectoids 18-point criticals and Heavies with plasma 1-point hits.

The Impossible options are just plain evil, but at this rate I don't see myself unlocking them. Not to mention I can't even play at college...

[MaximumZero]

Damn temporal anomaly siphoning away all of my luck to you. Red Fog and Damage Roulette are the most brutal of the options I've seen so far. The former appears to only effect your troops and makes them useless if they get hit at all. Damage Roulette has this funny way of giving Sectoids 18-point criticals and Heavies with plasma 1-point hits.

The Impossible options are just plain evil, but at this rate I don't see myself unlocking them. Not to mention I can't even play at college...

Oh, man, I hadn't seen those ones. Vanishing Elerium because of half-life? War weariness? That's fucking brutal.

Also, Slingshot looks very, very meh.

[Neonivek]

Also, Slingshot looks very, very meh

It is, it truely truely is... It is just a cash in created to hopefully take some money from people who either must have the completed game or who want the game to be easier.

I have no idea why it was made. I mean I guess in theory Slingshot was a mission they didn't finish in time for the release... but it is just really not worth it.

[MaximumZero]

I, personally, would kill for a way to teach "the gift". Neurological implants, a training center that requires a soldier with it to teach it to those without, SOMETHING. Training centers to raise will and aim, as well as possibly something like mobility would be priceless, too. They would be balanced by the time (and money) it takes to train the soldiers, of course.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The Gift takes the difficulty of the game and breaks its spine as is. Being able to give it to every solider would be insane. (And this is also why there is a Second Wave option to make the Gift very rare.)

Once a solider has the Gift, they can do an almost-guaranteed five damage against any non-mechanical enemy but Elite Mutons and Ethereals every two turns. In this game, that is madness alone. That isn't even getting into being able to cause the enemy to panic on command, keep your troops from panicking and super-charging the psi of both the user and all psionics on the squad, a giant shield that can let you go toe-to-toe with Sectopods, and motherfucking mind control.

Lore wise, the Gift is just as it sounds: you either have it or you don't. If it could be induced artificially, the Etherals wouldn't have a reason to come to Earth. Though, granted, humanity's hat in all X-Com games has been rapid technological growth and a stubborn refusal to die in the face of overwhelming odds. X-Com's research totally separates from the alliums at the very top of the tech tree (Alloy Cannon, Fusion Lance, Blaster Launcher), so it isn't totally unreasonable that we could find a way to induce the Gift.

[Neonivek]

Lore wise, the Gift is just as it sounds: you either have it or you don't. If it could be induced artificially, the Etherals wouldn't have a reason to come to Earth

That isn't exactly true. The explanations for why human beings are starting to show the gift is because of adaption.

Now when I say not exactly true I mean it is true but not the full truth.

Since you can have a latent gift that can be brought to the surface and further enhanced. Hense why the Gift is based off of willpower at all and a few other details.

This is of course excluding an acceptible theory that the "Gift" can in fact be learned but that if you do not learn it, it will never be learned.

---

What I do find silly is that the people who can have the "Super gift" can just be people in Psyarmor or with Mindshields. It is actually a rather gaping hole in the game. It wouldn't have been in the original Xcom where you do in fact improve further then the aliens.

[Sirus]

I'd have to get a new game up to that point again, but is the Gift really that useful? I remember being rather underwhelmed by it, especially when every offensive power had terrible hit odds in comparison to my awesome weapons that would do more damage anyway. Then again, I suppose my memories could be a little colored given that for a long time, my only psyker was a sniper who was never close enough to use his gifts anyway.

[Neonivek]

I'd have to get a new game up to that point again, but is the Gift really that useful? I remember being rather underwhelmed by it, especially when every offensive power had terrible hit odds in comparison to my awesome weapons that would do more damage anyway. Then again, I suppose my memories could be a little colored given that for a long time, my only psyker was a sniper who was never close enough to use his gifts anyway.

Well with it you can possess a unit, essentially killing them, and run them ahead to scout ahead essentially leaving your soldiers behind in perfect safety.

Or you can get shots on enemies behind cover, or distract enemies from shooting your units, many other things.

Essentially imagine if a one hit kill weapon could get more then one kill in a single shot. As well Psy ignores cover and range. Something only Snipers with upgraded Scopes and high levels can do.

[Sirus]

Except Mind Control's hit odds were always terrible, like in the 25% range or so. I think the only time I ever successfully controlled an enemy was at 45%, and that was against a Berserker. Which proceeded to get one-shot by an Ethereal.

[Neonivek]

Except Mind Control's hit odds were always terrible, like in the 25% range or so. I think the only time I ever successfully controlled an enemy was at 45%, and that was against a Berserker. Which proceeded to get one-shot by an Ethereal.

You can easily get them much higher. Just make sure you arn't using a low will soldier for it.

[Sirus]

Kinda hard to do when you've only got one soldier with the Gift.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Except Mind Control's hit odds were always terrible, like in the 25% range or so. I think the only time I ever successfully controlled an enemy was at 45%, and that was against a Berserker. Which proceeded to get one-shot by an Ethereal.

Mind Control requires you to dedicate the solider to psi. Wear Psi Armor and a Mind Shield, choose and use Psi-Inspiration, have another solider carry Combat Stims to use on them for the very difficult rolls. With this, and a Psionic who has been touched by the RNG, you can consistantly mind control Ethereals.