[XCOM] Aliens have defeated this thread. Find the resistance movement in the new one

The Escape Goat

Well, ghost armor has a grappling hook, right? ghosting then slingshotting behind the enemies is a perfectly valid strategy! if only assaults could get in the zone.

Morninglord

Oh that reminds me.
If you are ever out of scanners and there are seekers stealthed about and your assault has close quarters and can one shot seeker (even if they can't it's still worth it).
Surround the assault. Move a scout first in case they are on overwatch. Then drop smoke and wait.
The seekers can't eat the assault cos he's surrounded on all four tiles and they can't do diagonals.
As each seeker uncloaks to strangle someone next to the assault, they'll trigger close quarters.

Spectrum

Saw this old but good Beaglerush video reposted elsewhere, felt like relinking it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlUM4VwLQzI&feature=youtu.be

Smaug6

I re-installed Long War and fired up a new game recently. I still love it and think its one of the best mods for any game in recent memory, but I realized why I stopped playing it before (around version 11), it just takes so long to do anything. Like I played for 3 hours last night, and in that time I advanced the clock, maybe 10 days. Its rare getting 3 hours to play games, so while it was fun damn do these games take a looong time. I suppose I should try out the shorter long war option.

Mr Ray

Morninglord wrote: »

Oh really? I honestly don't remember being hit by a rocket or a grenade from exalt in enemy within. I must have been killing them too fast or something.
I thought it was something long war added. I actually did enough missions on classic enemy within ironman to wipe out the exalt base and never saw a rocket!
O_o

Definitely happens in vanilla, but of course since they can't move and shoot with rocket launchers (except in Long War) you're not all that likely to see them use one. Nevertheless, I always target heavies as a priority. First time I encountered EXALT I had them fire a rocket at my best medic who was in full cover until the rocket destroyed it. Then she was shot to death by assault rifles in the open. I was pretty mad, like what's the point of even putting your dudes into cover if the enemy can just blow it up whenever they feel like? Its a good example of a game mechanic that's fun when you get it, but feels like complete bullshit if the enemy can do it too.

Smaug6 wrote: »

I re-installed Long War and fired up a new game recently. I still love it and think its one of the best mods for any game in recent memory, but I realized why I stopped playing it before (around version 11), it just takes so long to do anything. Like I played for 3 hours last night, and in that time I advanced the clock, maybe 10 days. Its rare getting 3 hours to play games, so while it was fun damn do these games take a looong time. I suppose I should try out the shorter long war option.

Yep, I'm finding 0.7 to be a good setting if you still want a "long war" but want to feel like you're actually making progress.

Burnage

Welp, Classic/Ironman done and dusted. After the first few months things became incredibly easy (it helped that I was in no rush whatsoever to pursue the story's research chain), and I was a bit disappointed with the final mission. I think if I play through again I'll disable Slingshot and Progeny, the fixed layouts are only troublesome the first time through and the super soldiers you get from them seemed a little bit like cheating.

The base defense mission definitely felt like the climax of the game.

Spectrum

Beagle's Tuesday stream this week is hilarious. He has a breakdown a couple hours in when people in his chat are trying to recommend Steadfast over Suppression for the 5 Will for Psi, giving up the Suppression+LNL combo on b15 Medics.

Mr Ray

Gah. Covert operation was going really well until my 11 move heavy slowed the entire squad down; we could have extracted 2 turns earlier if it weren't for him, and then my operative and best scout wouldn't have taken wounds either. Then the heavy himself took a critical hit and died on the way out. I could have restarted the mission, but frankly the useless piece of shit got what he deserved. I don't usually speak ill of my men, but fuck you Michal. And the fucker also had the gall to take a perfectly good set of carapace armor with him. He was with me from the beginning so he was pretty highly ranked despite his terrible stats, so it really felt like a betrayal, you know? Like he was private Pyle lagging behind all the other marines because he ate too many jelly donuts in the mess hall.

Haaaaaate.

I guess the lesson to learn here is that covert extraction squads should be built for speed first and foremost, no room for slowpokes.

Morninglord

strangely enough my best (and most reliable) assault is still that 11 natural move slowpoke

she doesn't get to carry anything but a shotgun tho

she doesn't need to carry anything but a shotgun. laser shotgun now.

i built her for pure damage

she spends most of her time lurking and then i send her off like a bomb to 100% murder some poor alien

or some idiot seeker/chrysalid gets too close to her and she blows it in half

OnTheLastCastle

@smaug6 dynamic war is great. i thought LW regular was too much of a slog so i just turned on default dynamic war and am enjoying it much more

my air game is shit though. all my fighters are in the shop foreverrrrrrrr.

Morninglord

interestingly, dynamic war has a different mission structure.
in long war normal the ai plans all its missions at the start of the month and executes them over the month, based on its current research level and xcoms threat level.
in dynamic war its probability based. the ai will evaluate whether it will start a mission day by day.
so even if you set it to 1.0, or the same as normal long war, it will still feel different.

OnTheLastCastle

That might explain why I've had such long stretches without seeing any UFOs at times.

Morninglord

On 0.5, the default, a lot of stuff actually gets extended. You see less missions per month. Fatigue is longer, wound times are longer, but it ends up roughly equal. But you get more money from council payments since the months themselves don't change in length. So you get a boost that way.
I think research wasn't scaled as well? I can't remember. I think it was the same time for the first research in default dynamic and normal long war. So you'd get a boost there too if that's the case. I wouldn't trust my memory there though. I only played it for the first month and a bit then restarted and turned off all second wave options.

That does not mean you aren't going to see multiple missions per month though, so don't relax. It does mean that the default long war schtick of four terror missions back to back because 2 were at the end of one month and 2 at the start of the next is less likely.

You can adjust it to whatever you like. You can have twice as intense as normal long war, for example. With reduced fatigue and wound times to match. That's why it's dynamic war, since its customisable.

Goumindong

The big thing is that research stops when you're on deployment, so the breakneck pace of normal LW effectively reduced your research speed more than the "multiplier" because fewer missions means you're researching. Larger % of the time.

Spectrum

Goumindong wrote: »

The big thing is that research stops when you're on deployment, so the breakneck pace of normal LW effectively reduced your research speed more than the "multiplier" because fewer missions means you're researching. Larger % of the time.

This is extra hilarious because alien missions DON'T stop while you're on deployment, so you can come back from a mission, go to the mission control screen and immediately see another active thing out there.

Mr Ray

Spectrum wrote: »

Goumindong wrote: »

The big thing is that research stops when you're on deployment, so the breakneck pace of normal LW effectively reduced your research speed more than the "multiplier" because fewer missions means you're researching. Larger % of the time.

This is extra hilarious because alien missions DON'T stop while you're on deployment, so you can come back from a mission, go to the mission control screen and immediately see another active thing out there.

I'm picturing the Skyranger dusting off, the mission control team solemnly watching it go from the command center, then a scientist pokes his head round the door.

"Are they gone?"

"Affirmative science team, Skyranger has left visual range."

"FUCK YEAH LETS BREAK OUT THE BEEEER, WOOOOO!"

And then the whole base devolves into a massive party while the A-team is away. Bradford sighs inwardly and clutches his sobriety coin morosely.

Morninglord

i never have enough everything

on the bright side by the end of the month i will have three labs up and my research will be flying

except i don't have enough of everything

i just realised, like today, why i dont have enough sectoids for the autopsy

i keep blowing them up

i have learnt the ways of the rocketeer you see

it involves steady

and then you get a pinpoint shot the next turn

cos its based on aim

so carbines and scopes = accurate rockets

i have an australian female rocketeer.
she's got 6 natural health, started out with ridiculous aim, and has pretty high movement.
game called her "king"

i agree

NotoriusBEN

Beagle's Thursday Night session was pretty hilarious today. One of his Mec's dunked a sectoid so fucking hard it bounced off the pavement and *still* exploded a cop car behind it.

electricitylikesme

If you were perfecting Long War, I think the thing you'd do is make the air game play like the Xenonauts airgame. If you were a game company then I'd make a tactical engine overlay which was like the satellite track of your interceptors engaging a UFO. Add some options to go for shootdowns or destruction.

Burnage

So I think I can handle Portent. Everything's going swimmingly until I reach the convoy survivor. Overwatch obliterates one of the Thin Men that teleport in, but everything either misses or doesn't do enough damage to kill the other one.

With one hit point left, it runs towards the hunkered-down survivor and instantly kills him through cover.

God damn it, Portent.

Spectrum

Burnage wrote: »

So I think I can handle Portent. Everything's going swimmingly until I reach the convoy survivor. Overwatch obliterates one of the Thin Men that teleport in, but everything either misses or doesn't do enough damage to kill the other one.

With one hit point left, it runs towards the hunkered-down survivor and instantly kills him through cover.

God damn it, Portent.

The survivor should have enough movement to run straight up to the roof when you activate them IIRC, which is infinitely safer than leaving them hunkered on the street.

Spectrum

Well, one of the other threads I visit has once again descended into a useless circle jerk about OMG LONG WAR BALANCING after some supposed rumor that Hover SHIVs are getting hit with the nerf bat in b15c. In the hopes of getting some useful discussion, anyone have a good b14 Pathfinder build?

The tree from back then:
Jet Boot Module ( mob aim will )

---

PlatformStability ( 0 0 0 )
AutoThreatAssessment ( 0 0 0 )
BodyShield ( 0 0 2 )

---

AdvancedFireControl ( 1 0 0 )
Flush ( 1 0 0 )
DamnGoodGround ( 1 2 0 )

---

DamageControl ( 0 0 0 )
Executioner ( 0 3 0 )
Lone_Wolf ( 0 2 2 )

---

ShredderRocket ( 0 0 0 )
Ranger ( 0 0 0 )
ReactiveTargetingSensors ( 0 0 0 )

---

Vital_Point_Targeting ( 0 0 0 )
Squadsight ( 0 0 0 )
AbsorptionFields ( 0 0 0 )

---

LightningReflexes ( 1 0 0 )
Hit_and_Run ( 0 0 0 )
InTheZone ( 0 0 0 )

---

I'm currently leaning towards:
Body Shield, Flush, Long Wolf, Ranger, VPT, and ItZ but I'd love to hear second opinions. Flush vs DGG or even AFC is a choice I'm waffling about, for example.

cB557

Ahahaha holy shit. I just got a council mission as my second mission in the game. I just immediately went nope and started a new game.

SummaryJudgment

Can anyone tell me why the meld "ping" - i.e. the yellow trail leading to a meld canister at the beginning of a turn - doesn't reliably show up every turn?

Garthor

electricitylikesme wrote: »

If you were perfecting Long War, I think the thing you'd do is make the air game play like the Xenonauts airgame. If you were a game company then I'd make a tactical engine overlay which was like the satellite track of your interceptors engaging a UFO. Add some options to go for shootdowns or destruction.

The air game in Xenonauts sucked. There's no tactical depth because it always played out the same exact way because it's just an empty board with 1-3 of your things and 1-3 of their things. Even if it were executed better, it would still be unbearably shallow.

Luca72

In a strange way I'm growing to like the air game in LW. It's brutal but I'm balancing whether or not it's worth engaging based on the UFO type and behavior, and biting my nails every time I do. It feels like actually being a commander issuing orders remotely rather than being handed actual control of the air combat or playing some minigame.

The repair times are ridiculous though. I'm starting a new run and reducing the time is one of the changes I'm going to test out

Spectrum

SummaryJudgment wrote: »

Can anyone tell me why the meld "ping" - i.e. the yellow trail leading to a meld canister at the beginning of a turn - doesn't reliably show up every turn?

Because XCOM hates you and doesn't want to make it easy.

heenato

SummaryJudgment wrote: »

Can anyone tell me why the meld "ping" - i.e. the yellow trail leading to a meld canister at the beginning of a turn - doesn't reliably show up every turn?

Because Xcom is a perfect, flawless game with no bugs at all.

Phyphor

heenato wrote: »

SummaryJudgment wrote: »

Can anyone tell me why the meld "ping" - i.e. the yellow trail leading to a meld canister at the beginning of a turn - doesn't reliably show up every turn?

Because Xcom is a perfect, flawless game with no bugs at all.

I'm pretty sure that not pinging every turn is not a bug. Just like you don't always get an alien direction indicator

Jintor

What

meld ping only triggers every two turn or something, just like alien sounds visual cues (they always drop sound cues and you can position based on them if you have a good ear)

Mr Ray

I thought it was just that you had to be within a certain distance of it before you started getting pings, but honestly I have no idea.

I'm annoyed by how much I had to save-scum my last mission. I have a habit of severely underestimating medium ufo shoot-downs and treating them like they're small ufo shoot-downs and then suffering the consequences. Had a team consisting of mostly A-team and a few rookies and specialists that just died repeatedly until I gave up and sent my A-team. And even then I lost one soldier and had another 3 sent to the med-bay for 60-70 days each. The worst injured was my new favorite soldier, Helen Boyd, who was injured for 81 days, and had the perfect nickname chosen by the game; Android. Helen "Android" Boyd. Fantastic. I'd been thinking of converting an assault into a MEC anyway, so she was an obvious candidate, and now her nickname seems even more appropriate.

Morninglord

My full support shooty medic, all left side tree, is named Angel.
Always makes me chuckle.
Still love my kick ass stats australian female rocketeer named "King"

I also have a rather badly statted rocketeer (shit aim) that got chosen when I hit random.

He got named "Collateral"

I lolled.

Spectrum

I wonder what it says that when I needed a break from raging and being on tilt at Bloodborne, I went to play XCOM for a couple nice relaxing missions of killing aliens.

I'm sorry Cyberdisc, but you're just not scary any more after dealing with Father Gascoigne for however many times I ran my face into a brick will until I beat him. : (

That said holy god fuck mission tempo. Covert Extraction, Scout (destroyed), Raider (crashed), Fighter (crashed), and Scout (landed) all within 3 days of each other. Aliens please have mercy...I know it's like August 5th so you decided to launch all your missions now at the start of the month but geeeez.

Morninglord

Uh please don't spoil things about bloodborne in completely unrelated threads.
I don't want to have to just leave the damn forum completely to avoid it.
I don't want to know anything.

Spectrum

Morninglord wrote: »

Uh please don't spoil things about bloodborne in completely unrelated threads.
I don't want to have to just leave the damn forum completely to avoid it.
I don't want to know anything.

Is that really a spoiler? I mean, okay, I'm sorry I told you there was a boss with that name but trust me when I say that doesn't mean very much. : (

Morninglord

I'm not mad at you for dropping a name or anything mate, don't worry. I'm just saying, like, let's keep bloodborne stuff in one place eh?
Easiest way to not accidentally drop something you shouldn't is by not saying anything at all.

Smaug6

Does anyone know if psionic training is buggged in LW 15? I trained up two non officers and they haven't been able to use the tier 1 abilities on any mission yet. Any advice?

Spectrum

Smaug6 wrote: »

Does anyone know if psionic training is buggged in LW 15? I trained up two non officers and they haven't been able to use the tier 1 abilities on any mission yet. Any advice?

Did you actually select their ability? Beyond that, two of the level 1s are actually passives, so if you didn't pick Mindfray they have nothing to 'do'.

Goumindong

Also I think you still have to unlock them by research.

Mr Ray

You know what? Why don't we just give Outsiders all the perks and be done with it. There is absolutely no reason anything at all should be able to have close combat specialist, opportunist, lightning reflexes, muscle density (they don't even have muscles!), opportunist and ready for anything.

Its not that its overpowered, I'm used to random aliens having super-powers by now, its that I can't tell at a glance what flavor of bullshit a particular "boss" alien is going to have. I mean I could see this outsider was bigger than normal so that probably should have been a tip off (it was apparently an Outsider Captain), but I really don't have the patience to check every random alien in case they have an ability I'd otherwise have no way of knowing about.