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[XCOM] XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Announced - The Real War begins in August
Durinia
Evolved from Space PotatoesRegistered User regular
Evolved from Space PotatoesRegistered User regular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyw3aURYCU- PC Only
- Procedurally generated levels
- New mobile command center
- Drones
- Super-customizable soldiers ( You said what?)
- ...and more!
Release date: February 5th, 2016
Trailers and Other General Moving Visual Stimuli:
Launch trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIRDb_O6qXAAnnouncement trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_-2wIJIzQDecember hype trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qHZG1-rEgAlso, they let Beaglerush have a go at it.
TIPS & TRICKS
Confused about how Hits / Crits / Dodge are calculated? Check out this diagram to understand exactly how badly RNGesus is sticking it to you:
What things are safe to sell in the Black Market without messing with your research or builds?
Here's a list
What things are safe to sell in the Black Market without messing with your research or builds?
Here's a list
HEY YOU - want to send fellow Penny Arcadians to their horrific deaths as members of your XCOM 2 squads?
XCOM 2 adds the concept of "character pools", which allows you to customize soldiers and then share them. We here at the PA XCOM thread are collecting these soldiers as a PA pool, which will be updated regularly and (hopefully) automatically synced through Steam. Here's the details on how YOU can join!
Here is the CURRENT POOL
Ready to fight for Earth with other Penny Arcadians?
This is the form for submitting your willingness to participate in the various shenanigans that will result from this character pool being distributed to the denizens of the PA Forums G&T XCOM Thread.
If you've got XCOM 2 yourself, export your character in a character pool file and then head over to the Character Pool Upload Page, which will save both of us a lot of work.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXPORTING:
In game, go into the character pool -> select the character you want to send -> click "Export" -> on the next page click "create new pool" (at the top) -> name the pool -> THEN select the pool you just created to export.
Then, take the "whatyounamedyourpool.bin file (located in ...\Documents\My Games\XCOM2\XComGame\CharacterPool\Importable) and upload it to the site.
Don't have XCOM 2, but still want to see your name in lights? (Likely on a memorial wall...)
Then proceed with this survey. Good Luck, Commander.
For reference, you might want to peruse the different customization options visually on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOPsOjkT7x4INSTRUCTIONS FOR TWEAKING CHARACTER SELECTION
You want to go into \Documents\my games\XCOM2\XComGame\Config\XComGameData.ini (or the DefaultGameData.ini file in your install directory) and set it like this:
alingis wrote:The .ini settings were misreported in a few forums & on a few videos. There are 3 configuration lines to change:
InitialSoldiersCharacterPoolSelectionMode - starting soldiers
RewardUnitCharacterPoolSelectionMode - soldiers granted by completing vip missions & certain POIs
RecruitsCharacterPoolSelectionMode - soldiers available for recruitment
Setting these to eCPSM_PoolOnly will force the game to use characters within your pool first and then generate randoms afterward. RandomOnly means you only get random soldiers in the pool.
Because of <reasons> I'm not familiar with 20 year old strategy games. What was XCOM, and why is this a big deal?
Some XCOM History:
In 1994, Microprose released the original XCOM: UFO Defense. This game mixed real-time strategy with turn-based strategy. The RTS part, called the Geoscape, took place on a global scale. You started with one base (with the ability to build more) somewhere on the planet. You had to manage your resources, which included buying or manufacturing weapons, ammo, armor, outfitting your air force and troops, and directing research and manufacturing focuses. The money for all of this (including paying everybody's salary) could come from selling your supplies or manufactured goods, but mainly from the funding council of countries. If a country was happy with your performance, you'd receive more money from them the next month. If they were displeased (or infiltrated by the aliens) they would cut off their funding. Actually putting soldiers on the ground for a specific mission (UFO crash, etc.) triggered the turn-based portion of the game, called the battlescape. Missions in the battlescape started with your squad on the landing craft, ready to take on the alien menace. By directing your soldiers, you either killed the enemy or led your soldiers to their (permanent) deaths.
The point being the game was deep, hard, and brutal. High casualties and squad-wipes were not only normal, but expected. It has remain well-played to this day. In fact, you should really go read @Fishman's LP of the original right now. It's one of the best LPs in the history of forever.
UFO Defense had some sequels which some people have strong opinions about. There were other attempts to clone or revive the series, most of which failed in a spectacular manner. This is the first time that a dedicated, high-budget team has attempted to bring the classic into the modern age.
WTF is XCOM: Enemy Unknown Within?
Fast Forward to 2012: Our friends at Firaxis gave us a straight-up re-imagining/modernization of the original XCOM. We're going from this:
to this:
How is this all made possible? Jake Solomon, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER tells us.
XCOM: Enemy Within Expansion
XCOM: Enemy Within is the expansion pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, released 11-12-13 (I KNOW, WITTY AMIRITE?).
Similar to other expansions for Firaxis games (see: Civ V), XCOM: EW is not a "new campaign", but a set of significant changes/enhancements to the original game. The expansion introduces new mechanics both at the tactical layer (MEC and Gene Mod troops, new meld resource in missions, new mission types) and the strategic layer (introduction of new concurrent enemy faction, new resource to manage, new tactics for reducing panic).
The point being the game was deep, hard, and brutal. High casualties and squad-wipes were not only normal, but expected. It has remain well-played to this day. In fact, you should really go read @Fishman's LP of the original right now. It's one of the best LPs in the history of forever.
Fishman LP part I: The Bastards have landed
Fishman LP Part II: No, it's not tear gas. It's Catfood.
Fishman LP Part III: It's my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed- not with all of you.
Fishman LP Part IV: I'm in the mood for a little vivisection.
Fishman LP Part V: One does not simply walk into Cydonia
Fishman LP Part II: No, it's not tear gas. It's Catfood.
Fishman LP Part III: It's my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed- not with all of you.
Fishman LP Part IV: I'm in the mood for a little vivisection.
Fishman LP Part V: One does not simply walk into Cydonia
UFO Defense had some sequels which some people have strong opinions about. There were other attempts to clone or revive the series, most of which failed in a spectacular manner. This is the first time that a dedicated, high-budget team has attempted to bring the classic into the modern age.
WTF is XCOM: Enemy Unknown Within?
Fast Forward to 2012: Our friends at Firaxis gave us a straight-up re-imagining/modernization of the original XCOM. We're going from this:
to this:
How is this all made possible? Jake Solomon, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER tells us.
XCOM: Enemy Within Expansion
XCOM: Enemy Within is the expansion pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, released 11-12-13 (I KNOW, WITTY AMIRITE?).
Similar to other expansions for Firaxis games (see: Civ V), XCOM: EW is not a "new campaign", but a set of significant changes/enhancements to the original game. The expansion introduces new mechanics both at the tactical layer (MEC and Gene Mod troops, new meld resource in missions, new mission types) and the strategic layer (introduction of new concurrent enemy faction, new resource to manage, new tactics for reducing panic).
HEY YOU - want to send fellow Penny Arcadians to their horrific deaths as members of your XCOM:EU/EW squads?
You can drop this file into C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\Config
(if using Windows 7)
to use custom names.
Be sure to report on the exploits of fellow forumers! For example, Lanrutcon died twice in defense of humanity in the first 12 hours of EU.
That's him in the pink.
(if using Windows 7)
to use custom names.
Be sure to report on the exploits of fellow forumers! For example, Lanrutcon died twice in defense of humanity in the first 12 hours of EU.
That's him in the pink.
How Cover Works: A Tutorial
Videos!
The hottest (video) ticket in-thread these days is for the Ironman Impossible videos of one BeagleRush. Follow along as he narrates his pain in real time. As a bonus, you will definitely learn something about the tactics needed to win the harder difficulties.
Season One
Season Two
A bit of an introduction into the three special "Council Mission" types:
Escort Mission
Abduction Mission
Bomb Disposal
For business reasons, I must preserve the outward sign of sanity.
--Mark Twain
--Mark Twain
Durinia on
+5
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
--Mark Twain
I was on the first advent facility, no aliens or advent were visible, I ran to a closed door which was full cover and closed. Somehow, that gave me vision of what was inside, the enemy blew away one of my guys who was low health, who was in a bad position only because I believed my guys and the enemy couldn't see through doors. So if it was just one guy whatever. That causes a chain reaction of panics, my specialist runs, the ranger takes a reaction shot at him and blows him away. I've got two guys left, and one of them is panicked. Now it's time to start game number 11.
It is acceptable to all but the silliest people to "self-ironman" the game and reload only when one of the innumerable weird bugs hits.
The game is fun and challenging without Ironman, you just have to have a little discipline on your part with regards to the save scumming. =P (Don't we all?)
Yup. If and when they fix a bunch of things, I may someday try to play with the ironman mode turned on. But until then, I'm perfectly content with the cheevo in my heart.
I don't think it is as easy as you do to mathematically quantify such sweeping changes to an experience, because there are too many variables involved.
So I would playtest it a bit each time. I'm not saying you'd need bazillions of hours, or need to do that for every single change, some are definitely obvious, some aren't so obvious. I just think its a good idea to confirm your theory and mathematics by testing it in a couple of missions, just in case an exception comes up that may surprise you.
Because what you can't do with mathematics is quantify an exception you don't know about yet. What number do you assign to what you don't know? And changing how the AI behaves can create situations you don't know about yet.
If you don't think that is important, then sure, don't do it, it's just what I would do, and I meant to offer it as a suggestion rather than as something you should do. Sorry for wording it as if not doing it was the wrong thing to do, I wrote that soon as I woke up, when I'm not exactly the most subtle.
Use the mod launcher, located in install folder -> binaries -> launchers. You'll also be able to load replays using this launcher.
My Steam
I was v sad to discover the bulk of my A team missed out because it ranked at corporal
Definitely play with it on; the AWC is kind of borked if you don't.
...So I'm defending the Avenger right now. There is no timer, I have killed the objective... and they keep sending in transports piecemeal.
Don't take off, Bradford. The new plan is that we just sit here overwatching until we deplete the entire Advent military force.
Origin: KafkaAU B-Net: Kafka#1778
I had a map which had like a runway down the middle and 2 lower bits of ground on either side. Just set up firing squads and mowed folk down getting promos. Eventually they start dropping more dudes at once and it got a little hectic so I bugged out.
Origin: KafkaAU B-Net: Kafka#1778
The aliens achieved nothing and you've had nothing but success.
Mediocre!
http://i.imgur.com/tfHIUDG.png
The advent calendar is at 9/12, and your successes are all responses to alien aggression. You're not going on the offensive to knock down their Avatar facilities.
edit:
I'm sure there are reasons why you're not blowing up their stuff, but that's why Mr. Silhouette is disappointed.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Do not bother using the Leader training mod.
a) The abilities are garbage for what you have to pay for them in terms of time spent off of the field. Some take 3x longer than Psi training, and unlike Psi training you can't use the Leader in the field even while they're training. Also the abilities are nowhere near as good as Psi stuff.
b) If you assign a person to train as a Leader, and they had any items on them, or had any mods on their gun? All of it gets deleted. I think @Quid was asking about disappearing items earlier? This was probably the culprit.
It's harmless to just leave it installed I guess, but the mechanic needs a total rework & bug fixing pass.
and so are supply raids!
I just did that mission last night. It was one of the most intense game experiences I've had thus far. I got disgustingly lucky towards the start, and had something like three or four reinforcements drop in on almost exactly the same spot, so I didn't even have to reposition the troops to overwatch-meatgrinder the reinforcements as soon as their feet touched the ground. This was all in the approach to the beacon. Right after I destroyed it, things became more hectic as the reinforcements started dropping farther away. I was careful to keep everyone leap-frogging and overwatching back to the Avenger, but inevitably the team's shots started missing and damage started mounting. Wave after weave of lancers broke on our defenses, but eventually one slipped through and knocked one soldier out. Poor Yegor Morozov, still half-healed from the last mission, pulled off the hospital bed to defend the ship, had to run in and retrieve her. As the numbers mounted, I knew I had to pull the soldiers out, for the sake of their safety. Huddled on the ramp, they still managed to take lethal parting shots at the pursuers before we left that killzone for good.
Ten soldiers walked onto that field, and left 45 alien bodies in their wake. They all walked away heroes, almost every one wounded, every single one earning a promotion - even the two green rookies, for whom this was their very first mission. If it was filmed in real-time, it would make an incredible action movie.
(When I tried to take off when everyone was on the ramp, it told me that there was a soldier still on the field. Which there wasn't. I'd used up everyone's turn shooting lancers in the face, so I couldn't reposition. I decided to risk staying for another turn so I could pull the soldiers closer to the center of the ramp, but it STILL gave me that warning. "Eff this noise", I said, and took off. Turns out it was fine - I think it was reacting to one of my team's Gremlins, who seemed to get stuck near the beacon and refused to budge from its spot, even when its owner high-tailed it out of there.)
Never had the missing gear thing, but yeah, leader skills blow.
When the objective is to stop their Manhattan project, those sort of operations aren't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
You risk winning a bunch of battles and losing the war.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
So chuck those things while they're still hot yo.
I'll have to play around with this a bit more before I know whether this is a workable "fix" or even something I can publish as a mod, but its a start!
That is so dumb in a single player game. If people think they're too broken don't use them. Mod them. Don't fuck with the game for everyone. It's not like they were a surprise to the devs unless they're incompetent, it's not an obscure item or something.
I haven't even been using them on Commander, but if I want to break the game let me! Well, the Chrysallid bug crashing the game broke it for me, but once that's sorted out... guess I should go find the mimic beacon code in the ini's to restore it, maybe.
I guarantee someone will mod Classic Mimic Beacons back in approximately 20 minutes after they get nerfed.
Don't know if this got posted in the last thread, but I just came across this, so...
Needs a better sync for "First we gonna ROCK then we gonna ROLL."
Why I fear the ocean.
Yeah! Why even try to balance the game in the first place? Just do whatever, and if any of it is broken people who don't like it can just choose not to use it! Games are way easier to make when you expect the players to craft an engaging experience themselves instead of having to pay professionals to do it!
Creating a balanced play environment is a significant part of creating a compelling experience for players. It's literally the difference between what professional game developers deliver and what anybody with the mod tools can put together. If you want to break the game, they are letting you - you can change whatever you want in the ini files just like you're advocating other people should have to do.
But the whole point of having a development team is that they should be using their expertise to create the most compelling gameplay possible for the largest number of players possible. For most people interested in tactical and strategy games, a significant part of that is maintaining game balance so that there are interesting choices to make with more than one 'right' answer and avoiding stagnant, solved games where there is always only one right thing to do. From there, the minority of players who don't like that and want to return to the original poorly balanced experience are free to do so via mods.
The idea that the poorly balanced experience should remain the default forever, and that any actual balance patches should only be performed on an ad-hoc basis by amateurs, with the 'stock' game deliberately left in a state that is unappealing to the majority of its target audience is just...weird.
To be honest, the power level of mimic beacons probably was a surprise to the development team - it is much easier than you think for dumb things like that to be missed in development, for a whole variety of reasons - not least of which is the open secret of game design: Game designers often aren't actually very good at the games they make.
I am blowing this out of proportion, I grant you. And it'll be fixable, as said. But they also have waaaaaaay bigger problems then mimic beacons being over powered I hope they get to first and I'd rather not have to mess around with the game we have I enjoy as is.
Sure it seems ridiculous that something "this obvious" wasn't picked up earlier, but at the same time you do need to have comprehensive data before you make a change which will have an impact on how people can enjoy the game.
That said, I'm probably going to give the AI a bit of a tweak inline with Beagle's changes before I give Commander level difficulty a shot and see how that pans out. I didn't abuse Mimic beacons, but they did save my ass the three times I deployed them so I could reposition or fake out that one target I know I can't account for in an engagement.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
The thing is, they also didn't apparently think of things like "What if we took four grenadiers every mission?" and Beaglerushes original ambushing tactic of letting aliens patrol into your units then shooting them on overwatch while concealed, or the later development of the killzone freeze (which I'm not 100% convinced it still works?). You're also not really bearing in mind that they were balancing this game right up until the last hour, as Legendary was (for example) only really implemented at the last second. I actually feel the balance is off across the board, with some things being too unforgiving (shaken for example) and other things being too ridiculously OP (Melee aliens are just ridiculously more efficient and scary than those with guns, especially when it decides this pod of Chrysalids you never saw is actually active so runs out of nowhere to attack you). It's clear that XCOM 2 didn't really get that final bit of balance and polish it probably needed at the end, ironically enough, the mimic beacon demonstrates this most aptly.
It literally breaks the games AI. It's not just functionally overpowered, it's overpowered in ways every other defensive item simply isn't. The AI charges towards it, attempts to use abilities on it that should not work (resurrecting it as a psi-zombie is a hobby of the aliens), they still seem to think it is there even on turns where it "dies" as they move towards the location the beacon was and so on. It's actually not only overpowered, it's also ridiculously buggy and poorly implemented. It's the triple whammy of bad things that can happen to a single item in the game.
This doesn't mean Firaxis are lazy or incompetent though, because mimic beacons being broken doesn't break the game. It makes it much easier than it should be and it's buggy as fuck, but it's not game breaking as in "Will this prevent the player from finishing the game?". There are quite a few bugs in XCOM 2, some of them pretty bad, but I am more than certain the priority wasn't "Is this overpowered and OMG we need to fix it" over an example bug like "This bug renders half the map completely invisible and anything that spawns there instantly falls to their doom". Even though I think the mimic beacon really needs to be fixed, it's a much lower priority than the second one and Firaxis don't have all the time/money/development manpower in the world to fix everything.
Mimic beacons break the gameplay but not the game. It's easy to see if you're not prioritizing balance - again, balance was a secondary consideration when 1 week before the game was released they were still working on it - that something like 4 grenadier rolls or mimic beacons gets into the game. If you gave me a choice right now of fixing "burrowed Chrysalids will not corrupt your save file" vs. "Mimic beacon being toned down", I'd know what I'd rather see. It's the one that could potentially completely end my playthrough instantly if it happens.
And if I listed all of the - after the fact - exploits that games had that nobody in months of internal playtesting figured out, we wouldn't have many competent developers left if this is our metric.
This is obviously intentional though, because the aliens only try to kill wounded soldiers if they have a kill shot on them. The code is actually pretty clear that they try to spread wounds around and given how heavy a penalty wounds are, this isn't actually a bad thing for the aliens to be doing. They could shoot (and maybe crit) your soldier to death after hitting them once, but it's actually much more efficient use of their time to shoot multiple soldiers and put them out wounded.
Also adding some kind of consequence to letting the avatar project hit maximum pips and starting the timer to encourage more offensive operations, as opposed to delaying it as long as possible for experience/equipment.
no, I find it has not
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Holy flaming ballsacks that last encounter was hard. I guess they didn't like everyone telling them how trivial the final fight in EU/EW was. :P
Soldiers lost were 2 Agent Smith hosts and, during the last fight, Frank Castle.
TFTD here we come I guess.
Hopefully with cruise ship missions that don't suck ass.
Overall would rate my experience 7.5/10. Game's too hard for me pretty high, even despite the buggy presentation. I managed to discipline myself into not reloading except when bugs happened, which was nice.
I did most of the run without a Psi Op (got one up just to use as a stand-in for my Specialist while I tested out the Leader training), and made extremely liberal use of Mimic Beacons (3+ per mission), which saved my bacon during bad activations countless times. A Team was 2 Grenadiers, 2 Rangers, 1 Sharpshooter and 1 Specialist.
Total number of mods used, with no regrets:
- Accurate Swords
- Captain Bub's Accessories Pack
- Disable Timers
- Katana Mod
- Long War Alien Pack
- Long War Officer Pack
- No Squadsight Penalties
- Retro AWC
- Slower Avatar Progression (Before anyone calls foul, though: I did beat the game without using the bonus pips! I just wanted this active as a safety buffer so I could see the end game content in case I screwed-up the Geoscape again)
- Stop Wasting My Time (<--Greatest Mod EVER)
Next run I'll see how hard I can tech up my shit without dying to the Avatar project, and also probably run a primary Psi Op character for fun & profit.
When exactly are the aliens trying to res the mimic as a zombie, before or after it "dies"?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
4/6 instantly dead.
All the aliens equipment and strange technology was nothing compared to an ordinary gas tank. Or possibly the roof falling in and then us landing on something that exploded. I'm actually not at all sure what happened, but it was utterly hilarious.
They try to resurrect the dead mimic beacon, so it's like it leaves some kind of corpse or similar (this would explain why they become obsessed with the square it died on). They also love using abilities like micro-rockets and tongue grab etc on the mimic beacon.
The 'if they missed this obvious thing they must be stupid' line is silly and hyperbolic.
It also overlooks the effect of simply having a much, much larger number of eyes on the problem - sure, mimic beacons are obviously problems now. But how many people actually found the problem on their own, and how many only found it because someone else who found it was talking about it? You only have to look through the early parts of the last thread to find plenty of people insisting that beacons aren't that good and posting mission loadouts where they're taking nanoweave vests and medkits and talking about how the new sectoids are super powerful threats. The balance problems that the game has, while significant, aren't actually so obvious that only an idiot would miss them - they're things we've all figured out and discussed because thousands of people have each poured hundreds of hours into playing the game already (and many of them had also poured hundreds of hours into EW, which is largely transferable experience), and that amounts to a far more rigorous test than anything internal possibly could.
Threw another Mimic Beacon into battle, landed two squares from an Andromedon. In plain sight. It tossed a goop grenade to hit two of my troops rather than attack the beacon. My fault for leaving them within 3 squares, but there was no good cover. ;_;
Anyone tested to see if Beacons are ignored in favour of hitting multiple Xcom operatives with AoE?
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Just FYI, Saturation Fire (and sometimes Demolition) setting fire to the tile the unit is on is a bug, and can (strangely) be fixed by reloading after using the ability. It will not ignite the tile the shooter is on from that point on for the rest of the mission.
So, immediately after popping out of the skyranger, use Saturation Fire to proc the bug. Then reload. Now it will work properly.
Well look, I agree with this as a general rule, but I'm kind of fed up with Firaxis at this point:
They clearly have a very, very shitty QA process. It's been real bad ever since Civ IV.
I don't know if it's a lack of dedicated testers and/or focus groups, or whether the programmers just phone it in at the end of the day, or if projects always go deep into the red and so deployment has to happen before the product is ready (...RIP Sword of the Stars), but I think enough is enough as far as apologia goes. It's not acceptable for a development house to keep doing this with products it sells at such a high premium.
If consumers just keep letting it slide, it's only a matter of time before we end up with the Civ or XCOM equivalent to Rome II (...or another release like Beyond Earth.
No reloading here mate, this was set on ironman and as such there was no taking it back.
But honestly, after deliberately abusing and exploiting the game for so many missions, I am not going to knock it giving me my just desserts. Besides it's not my computer/profile or anything, so I can see it as being purely funny. Now if it had happened on a playthrough I actually did care about I might be saying something really different now :P