The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[XCOM] You can't parry a shotgun. The Resistance is Live!
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.
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.
(If you plan on having XCOM 2 on release day, please just wait and upload your character pool file on Friday.)
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
+6
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
I wasn't quite content complete on this thread yet, but you guys blew out the last 4 pages of the old one in record time.
I'll keep adding/editing the OP.
--Mark Twain
Nor should they shoot AND move to cover, its one or the other.
The key factor is standing out of cover in order to be deliberately discovered, make it so there is a risk associated with that.
The risk should be the same risk as leaving your soldier out when enemies know they're there: your operative should have a very high likelihood of dying.
A special cheat rule isn't exactly the most elegant way to accomplish a thing but regardless of what the solution is, I think the fairest way is for the exposed operative to be fired upon that turn.
Like when they stumble upon you in the open, they then all can either duck into cover or shoot you.
So then overwatch from concealment makes sense only in the case that you all conceal and alert the enemy by firing on them.
*e*
(It was a sort of prologue thing before the show started properly, so I don't know if it's going to come up again)
With that arrangement, I think people will just be able to subscribe to the "mod" (which is just the pool file) and then will need to do an in-game re-import out of the file whenever it updates, but there should be no need to go manually download anything once it's set up/subscribed.
--Mark Twain
From Jake Solomon's Twitter, in that alternate universe: "Oh, your cheesy strategy didn't work in the final release? How...interesting. Jenkins, fetch my tear goblet."
--Mark Twain
Also Civilization: Beyond Earth and the Exoplanets map pack if you pay $15 or more.
Could be a good chance to catch up if you haven't played them already.
This bundle's on Firaxis! Is it hot in here, or is it just this Firaxis bundle? Whatever it is, with Civ V, Beyond Earth, loads of XCOM, and more, we recommend getting this bundle while it's hot and fresh out of the bundle kitchen!
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Pay more than the average price to also receive Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Sid Meier's Starships, XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Elite Soldier Pack, XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Slingshot Pack, XCOM: Enemy Within, and 10% off one month of Humble Monthly.
Pay $15 or more for all of that plus Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Exoplanets Map Pack, and a coupon for 33% off Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide DLC in the Humble Store.
Choose the price. Together, these games usually cost as much as $211. Here at Humble Bundle, though, you choose the price!
Cross-platform and on Steam. All games in this bundle are available on Steam for Windows. Most titles in this bundle are also available on Steam for Mac and Linux. Please check out the full system requirements here prior to purchasing.
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Turn 1 activated a pod of crysalids all within face-eating range, just managed to down them all.
Turn 2 activated a second pod crysalids right near my teams insertion point. Then some doors open from a cargo container and zombies just come pouring from it. 5 of them at first, then another group of five.
cue much backtracking and frantic firing of guns before their all down
My team then goes through the cargo container to the other side, straight into 10 more zombies. Said zombies are standing in a 5x2 line which means grenades absolutely wreck them.
Mission won, but because of how Long War makes panic rise for every civilians death in a terror mission, I still lose America.
Story wise im assuming America got overrun by a massive zombie/crysalid horde. Sadly there is no option to nuke America.
For those just tuning in, it basically gives the aliens Itchy Trigger Tentacle from EU/EW. So if a patrol wanders into a unit on their turn, some may run for cover like normal, but some may shoot.
Yup. There are also pods on rooftops that can just drop down & surprise you, through no real decision faults of your own; if they drop into a flank and open fire, that's probably worse than OldCOM's 'sometimes spawn skyranger in the middle of alien kill team' flaw.
That said, according to Firaxis, it's a feature you can turn off with a trivial .ini edit - so everyone can see how it shakes out and turn it off if it's creating too many BS squad wipes on their end.
This doesn't really sound like much of a problem. I don't think concealment is supposed to be risk-free until you choose to trigger the enemies.
...If you're moving conservatively? I would argue that it should be risk free, yes. 'Risk' doesn't actually mean anything if absolutely every state of the game is dangerous.
EW/EU are also entirely risk free until you trigger a pod, which in turn is what makes your decisions regarding movement around the map actually interesting.
In what way? I mean, this implies that the player necessarily made a poor decision and the game therefore punished said decision.
I watched the stream in question (it was the same stream where an ADVENT member bugged out in the level geometry). Beagle, as always, was respecting his sight lines - but he couldn't check absolutely everywhere. You never can. In this case, the patrol was in the one spot that Beagle's position could not reasonably scout while maintaining concealment: directly underneath him.
It was not bad decision making that put the pod there, nor was it bad decision making that led to the pod going undetected, nor was it bad decision making that led to the pod patrolling into the flank. The game accommodated the string of bad luck, though, by having the aliens simply run to cover rather than opening fire.
So... why would he 'deserve' a squad wipe for circumstances that he had extremely limited at best control of?
XCOM is not a perfect information game, and so there will sometimes be potential for you to be blindsided. Not everything that happens in XCOM is the result of player choice, sometimes it's the result of alien choice, or the result of imperfect information.
Sometimes you just weigh the risk and come out broken. Thin man somehow hit your dashing lightning reflexes assault? Yeah, that's bullshit, but sometimes that's how the cards are dealt.
The slum maps are densely urban. You can't advance on these maps without at some point turning your back to a building (and some missions compel you forward with a timer or vulnerable objective).
'Blue moves are safe'. That is is a general rule for nuCOM that is easy to explain to new players & that you can build a foundation for a much more complex experience on. It's not 100% universally true in all circumstances, but the basic premise is something you can take to the bank & then experiment with. Blue moves will not get you killed if you haven't yet made contact.
Aliens shooting you after stumbling into you makes that general rule no longer true. So, one might then ask: what can I do that is safe? If the answer is 'nothing', then fuck it - you may as well just Gold move everywhere because risk/reward has been binned and blue moves can also result in squad wipes when you get jumped from a bad LoS line.
Welp see you later.
The aliens aren't making choices. JFC, they're an automated obstacle, not another player with some agency. They can't win or lose the game; they are there to facilitate the player's experience.
I mean, note that Lightning Reflexes can't actually be hit with overwatch. It's totally deterministic rather than a die roll. The deterministic elements of the game are what allow the player to manage the risks they are taking, and often use some kind of resource (LR requires that you spend a move, and can only trigger once per turn, for example).
I really don't know why you're fine with, say, the percentage chance to hit, or randomized loot, but are so strongly against there being any element of chance in an otherwise generous mechanic. It's like an extremely niche scenario of nested failures is ruining the game for you: IF you don't account for enemy routes to your completely exposed dudes and IF they choose to shoot instead of going to ground and IF the shot hits and IF the damage is enough to take out your guy, then squad wipe gg game over man game over. And saying things like "if this scenario can occur, then I might as well just sprint everywhere all the time" is kind of extreme.
Slow down dude.
The aliens are, in both XCOM and XCOM2 and in also the vast majority of games with good AI, making decisions based on some level of randomness applied to the current game state. To say the AI does not make choices is extremely misguided. Under any reasonable definition of choice, the AI makes choices just like the human player does.
Also, I was talking about the LW version of lightning reflexes, which was a 90% aim reduction on the first shot, which, my bad for not mentioning specifically.