It's almost as if the two skills are actually well balanced and just depend on a player's particular playstyle and squad makeup.
Shut your filthy mouth. Game balance died long ago, and any attempt to rekindle that hope needs to be swiftly dealt with.
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mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
I roll 2 assault, 2 heavies, 1 support, 1 sniper and I generally try to use my sniper as the first line of attack on a group then reorganize the rest of my squad around taking cover or taking down the enemies. Usually it works out pretty well because I'm not encountering more than 1 group at a time. On Impossible, I think that would be a lot harder.
Also, I am consistently flabbergasted at the Aliens' propensity to massacre civilians first rather than the armor-clad-plasma-blasting soldiers launching all sorts of nastiness in their direction.
Also, I am consistently flabbergasted at the Aliens' propensity to massacre civilians first rather than the armor-clad-plasma-blasting soldiers launching all sorts of nastiness in their direction.
Well, those aliens are on a terror raid, after all. There's a reason CT operators train specifically in techniques meant to divert the attention of 'tangos' from the hostages onto themselves.
Plus, in the story,
I think it's made fairly clear that, while the ETs would certainly prefer if XCOM were just de-funded and went away, the organization doesn't really seem to be interpreted as much of a threat. Your operative and that civilian are just one squishy human and one somewhat less squishy human in their field of view, so the soft target eats a bolt of plasma.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
I think what archangel meant is that you don't get the bonus accuracy/defence when you're hovering, you actually have to go up an elevation? I could be wrong though.
I think what archangel meant is that you don't get the bonus accuracy/defence when you're hovering, you actually have to go up an elevation? I could be wrong though.
"hovering" doesn't mean what you think it means. If you're at the same elevation as the ground, you're not flying. You will notice in your screen shot you have "height" and not "flight" listed on your bonuses. This is because you are, despite the animation, not flying.
I thought flight just meant "being in the air" - technically on the same elevation plane, but aerial. With Archangel you can go up multiple elevation planes, and so get the height bonus.
It's almost as if the two skills are actually well balanced and just depend on a player's particular playstyle and squad makeup.
More than squad makeup I'd say enemy makeup.
For example, I tend to bring my ITZ sniper to terror missions, and my DT sniper to UFOs and so on. Because ITZ is invaluable when dealing with "lol suddenly nine Chryssalids" or removing all the drones on screen. But when it's time to take down Sectopods and Berserkers and Ethereals and so on, having a DT sniper is a goddamn godsend.
Every time I swear that THIS time I'm going to build a closeup sniper, and it'd prolly work out pretty OK, especially once you get plasma sniper rifle which is less accurate at range.
But then I go naaah, need more assaults! And I never bring along another sniper except for that one dude who's camped every mission since the beginning.
I finally got around to building a snapshot sniper in my current playthrough and I can confirm that they are in fact freaking awesome when ranked up, but getting them to that point is extremely painful. And then they'll die, because unlike squadsight snipers they have to put themselves in harm's way to get their shots in.
Give them Arch Angel armor, they can float above the enemies. They draw a ton of fire, but they seem to miss a lot! (I'm on Normal, can't speak to higher difficulties). I was doing one mission on a highway and I had two snipers flying above giving cover. They wasted a lot of enemies!
Jesus fuck what is it with Sectopods and teleporting.
All other enemies are fine, but lose track of a Sectopod and then for no reason it's suddenly at point blank range.
I'm shedding squaddies like no tomorrow in this iron man game due to it.
I would just try never to lose track of Sectopods. They seem to like to not move very much when you can see them, and if you can't see them they could be readying a missile barrage.
So I'm trying to assault the Overseer craft, and this has already gone badly once. My roster of promoted mans is basically non-existent, so I'm rolling one Major and whole ton of squaddies, but with top of the line armor.
After dueling with a damn Sectopod (which my Major puts down at point blank with the Alloy Cannon), I move in on the craft. I mean, how many aliens can be left right? I've done this before, so alien grenade the entrace to put me right on top of the Ethereal. Should be a cakewalk right?
Wrong. Oh god so wrong.
The basic plan was blow the room open, kill the Ethereal and then take out the Elite Mutons.
This goes wrong right away. Firstly - there's no cover. I've got a narrow ridge right on top of the room, but no real angles to hit the Ethereal from. The Mutons go nuts with suppressing fire, and blow out the sides of the alien craft. The Ethereal mind controls my sniper, and I figure I'll alien grenade it and maybe it'll back off. No dice. The Ethereal proceeds to Psi-kill my two other squaddies, leaving the Major and a mind controlled trooper all alone.
I flank around with the Major since the command room is now more of a command platform and hide - I figure 2-3 alloy cannon shots and the ethereal goes down. Aliens turn, then I have my major get in good cover with a beautiful 83% shot to the Ethereal. She fires...and the ethereal does something whacky. Then I see a message "Ethereal reflected the shot".
A wall of supersonic alien alloy slugs pull a 180 degree turn and cut my major to pieces.
Yeah, I still dont grasp the reflected shot mechanic of those enemies. I feel like the only way to take them out is explosives or ghosting up behind them. Every other shot i fire just hits my own dude.
Yeah, I still dont grasp the reflected shot mechanic of those enemies. I feel like the only way to take them out is explosives or ghosting up behind them. Every other shot i fire just hits my own dude.
they just reflect a set percentage of shots fired at them back but only do 2ish damage. aoe attacks are not subject to this. Not entirely certain if the shotgun has a special set of rules...
Well, I just very nearly lost the final mission of my CI game due to a mixture of the computer cheating and my own stupidity.
I was planning to use my normal SWAT tactic on the Ethereals, and to give myself an additional challenge I was going to kill off all the Ethereals, not just the Uber one. I bunched up all my soldiers just outside the corridor in preparation to take them on, and once they were set up I sent my two Ghost Assaults up towards one of the Ethereals. The cutscene then plays, but I have still not been spotted by any of the enemies and they don't seem to be triggered. In order to be able to fire my missiles and sniper rifle I send my sniper up into the air and inch my Heavies forward, out of cover but beyond the vision range of the enemies.
It turns out that the cutscene had triggered all the incoming enemies into combat mode though, so three ethereals and two Muton Elites got a free round in against my squad, three of which were out of cover. My heavy, a veteran of 20+ missions, eats two psionic blasts and dies while the volunteer takes a salvo of plasma fire that brings him down to two HP (pretty happy I gave him Chitin Armor for that mission).
In the end I had enough firepower to bring down the Uber in a single round, but if the other Muton had chosen to target the volunteer instead of the sniper it is likely I would have lost right then and there.
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Iron WeaselDillon!You son of a bitch!Registered Userregular
I thought flight just meant "being in the air" - technically on the same elevation plane, but aerial. With Archangel you can go up multiple elevation planes, and so get the height bonus.
Flight means "on an elevation plane one higher than the ground you're on". This is why floaters can take cover, if they're on the low elevation plane they're not flying. (flying units cannot take cover) You can certainly land on a high elevation plane with AA armor and get the bonus, and its easier to get there with AA than grapple armor, but the flying bonus and elevation bonuses are different.
Make Snapshot have no aim penalty.
Make Rockateer/Grenadier like Bullet Swarm in that you can fire a rocket and move or you can move and fire a rocket.
Make Rapid Reaction do 2 reaction shots regardless of first hit
Make Executioner do +10% aim on any wounded enemy andor any enemy in low cover
Make Covering fire have a +20% to aim on reaction shots
All good ideas, here are some more
1. holo targeting is applied before the heavy takes his shot
2. supports automatically get extra smoke grenades and medkit uses as they level, +1 at sergeant, +1 at major
3. change support sergeant talent to be a: always has a medkit that does not take item slot or b: using a medkit does not end the turn
4. change covering fire a lot, a: covering fire is always on, no overwatch needed (maybe make it a free action to apply it for that turn if you need to conserve ammo), or b: covering fire gives an aim penalty, or c: covering fire does not get a penalty from enemy cover
5. add the option to hunker down after dash to run and gun
Any word on dlc release date? They are taking a really long time for just a few maps.
I am still hoping for a surprise reveal of "we were just kidding with the first announcement, here, have 200 maps for a buck". either that or JSGA is pulling some Bond villain shit on us and will release no new DLCs unless we hand over the world's gold reserves to him.
Posts
Shut your filthy mouth. Game balance died long ago, and any attempt to rekindle that hope needs to be swiftly dealt with.
:rotate:
...with a double tap?
http://www.xcombat.net/xcom-enemy-unknown/xcom-tactics/combat-math/
Real handy reference.
So the map spawn, there is a peculiar out-of-bounds area that forms a hard corner.
As it turns out, the game will path that Archangel soldier and cut that corner.
Guess what happens when that happens.
I did not feel bad about intentionally killing the xcom process before the game could autosave the ironman game because that was straight-up WEAK.
Well, those aliens are on a terror raid, after all. There's a reason CT operators train specifically in techniques meant to divert the attention of 'tangos' from the hostages onto themselves.
Plus, in the story,
My assault girl reaction two-shots a Muton berserker coming over the ledge above her and kills it while it's in the air on the way down.
Of course in the previous mission she got mind controlled and murdered half the squad but...ups and downs.
Yes it does:
I think what archangel meant is that you don't get the bonus accuracy/defence when you're hovering, you actually have to go up an elevation? I could be wrong though.
More than squad makeup I'd say enemy makeup.
For example, I tend to bring my ITZ sniper to terror missions, and my DT sniper to UFOs and so on. Because ITZ is invaluable when dealing with "lol suddenly nine Chryssalids" or removing all the drones on screen. But when it's time to take down Sectopods and Berserkers and Ethereals and so on, having a DT sniper is a goddamn godsend.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Give them Arch Angel armor, they can float above the enemies. They draw a ton of fire, but they seem to miss a lot! (I'm on Normal, can't speak to higher difficulties). I was doing one mission on a highway and I had two snipers flying above giving cover. They wasted a lot of enemies!
All other enemies are fine, but lose track of a Sectopod and then for no reason it's suddenly at point blank range.
I'm shedding squaddies like no tomorrow in this iron man game due to it.
Approaching that map in any way besides "alleyway to the left, get behind the building" is a chump's game.
So I'm trying to assault the Overseer craft, and this has already gone badly once. My roster of promoted mans is basically non-existent, so I'm rolling one Major and whole ton of squaddies, but with top of the line armor.
After dueling with a damn Sectopod (which my Major puts down at point blank with the Alloy Cannon), I move in on the craft. I mean, how many aliens can be left right? I've done this before, so alien grenade the entrace to put me right on top of the Ethereal. Should be a cakewalk right?
Wrong. Oh god so wrong.
The basic plan was blow the room open, kill the Ethereal and then take out the Elite Mutons.
This goes wrong right away. Firstly - there's no cover. I've got a narrow ridge right on top of the room, but no real angles to hit the Ethereal from. The Mutons go nuts with suppressing fire, and blow out the sides of the alien craft. The Ethereal mind controls my sniper, and I figure I'll alien grenade it and maybe it'll back off. No dice. The Ethereal proceeds to Psi-kill my two other squaddies, leaving the Major and a mind controlled trooper all alone.
I flank around with the Major since the command room is now more of a command platform and hide - I figure 2-3 alloy cannon shots and the ethereal goes down. Aliens turn, then I have my major get in good cover with a beautiful 83% shot to the Ethereal. She fires...and the ethereal does something whacky. Then I see a message "Ethereal reflected the shot".
A wall of supersonic alien alloy slugs pull a 180 degree turn and cut my major to pieces.
If you get it as a first month map you can be cheap and toss 2 grenades over the bin on the right side guaranteeing you kill a sectoid spawn.
Yeah, I got my AA guy stuck in some geometry in a battleship once. It sucked.
they just reflect a set percentage of shots fired at them back but only do 2ish damage. aoe attacks are not subject to this. Not entirely certain if the shotgun has a special set of rules...
on another note: still no DLC? le sigh...
Edit: Whoops! Looks like @Distrupter is running into the same problem.
It turns out that the cutscene had triggered all the incoming enemies into combat mode though, so three ethereals and two Muton Elites got a free round in against my squad, three of which were out of cover. My heavy, a veteran of 20+ missions, eats two psionic blasts and dies while the volunteer takes a salvo of plasma fire that brings him down to two HP (pretty happy I gave him Chitin Armor for that mission).
In the end I had enough firepower to bring down the Uber in a single round, but if the other Muton had chosen to target the volunteer instead of the sniper it is likely I would have lost right then and there.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
well that sounds a lot better than the rubbish I put out there.
.... teacher's pet!
But that seems wrong.
I LOVED that game...
Preorder, reordered and cancelled.
It's the sequel to the Half-Life games.
Flight means "on an elevation plane one higher than the ground you're on". This is why floaters can take cover, if they're on the low elevation plane they're not flying. (flying units cannot take cover) You can certainly land on a high elevation plane with AA armor and get the bonus, and its easier to get there with AA than grapple armor, but the flying bonus and elevation bonuses are different.
All good ideas, here are some more
1. holo targeting is applied before the heavy takes his shot
2. supports automatically get extra smoke grenades and medkit uses as they level, +1 at sergeant, +1 at major
3. change support sergeant talent to be a: always has a medkit that does not take item slot or b: using a medkit does not end the turn
4. change covering fire a lot, a: covering fire is always on, no overwatch needed (maybe make it a free action to apply it for that turn if you need to conserve ammo), or b: covering fire gives an aim penalty, or c: covering fire does not get a penalty from enemy cover
5. add the option to hunker down after dash to run and gun
I am still hoping for a surprise reveal of "we were just kidding with the first announcement, here, have 200 maps for a buck". either that or JSGA is pulling some Bond villain shit on us and will release no new DLCs unless we hand over the world's gold reserves to him.
if so, well played, sir. well played.
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