Looking at the number of balance issues that XCOM 2 has, I am pretty sure their balancing of the game was a secondary consideration. Legendary was kludged a bit with "Well, just make it take longer" and I think some core balancing issues - like mimic beacons and grenade spam - were never thought of/addressed. As I've mentioned before, the sheer power of explosives and grenades, combined with how every piece of cover melts at the vaguest idea that something might go boom around it. This greatly increases the power and value of grenades, combined with the AIs utterly incompetent habit of bunching up as much as they possibly can every single mission, while simultaneously devaluing every piece of equipment that isn't an explosive.
It's honestly a very tricky situation Firaxis have put the game in, because to fix the above problems will make the game substantially harder by a large degree. I'm not convinced that some of the mechanisms they have in place, like injuries, soldiers being shaken and such will allow the player to cope with the aliens shooting more. I think Firaxis have somewhat built the game with the aliens just not shooting that much in mind as well, which is why DoT and defensive items like vests are so worthless. If the game lets you never get shot at all, why would you bother?
Coincidentally, it's not surprise that the biggest single difficulty spike in all of XCOM 2 is the last mission. The last mission completely defies all of the hours of gameplay before it, because it's the one mission that punishes an all-in grenades and explosives strategy, because they simply won't last long enough. Then shockingly, players are finding it immensely hard when they have to actually engage in firefights with aliens, take wounds and maneuver instead of "Blow cover, shoot exposed pod: Rinse and repeat".
Hopefully there is going to be some serious attention to balance, because I feel that first patch might make XCOM 2 a new game. Mimic beacons are being nerfed, explosives erasing all cover is also being looked at, the avatar project will put consequences on players who let it fill up and so forth. Honestly tempted to just leave the game even if I do get a new computer, so that when I do start playing it they'll have fixed the core issues with the game and many of the more annoying to gameplay breaking bugs.
In a lot of ways I built my most recent squad for the final mission. My two heavies were set up to use their cannons. I used a psi op, gate keeper, and avatar for AOE until the last room.
As far as mission names go, I got a few really filthy ones that I can't remember. My best one though, was Operation Witch Slap.
+7
WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Re: balance, I'm not saying you're wrong. But I have a hard time picturing what game Firaxis could possibly have released that wouldn't seem wonky to us in some way. I think we're jaded after a few years of watching Beaglerush and Long War. We're like that one guy who can't even get an erection unless you tie him up in a closet with a pit bull, wee on him, and post pictures of the whole thing to George Takei's Facebook page.
Meanwhile, it seems like a lot of people are playing XCOM 2 and saying, "Doesn't matter; had sex!"
That said, I am looking forward to a good, solid Long War-style overhaul mod.
Honestly, I've found bluescreen rounds more useful for Gatekeepers and Codexes. A Sectopod, I usually just shut it down for 2 turns with my Specialist while I mop everything else up. But shit, Gatekeepers are fucking action sponges with their defense, and Codexes' cloning and ammo-depletion too.
IMHO, Bluescreen Protocol is a trap tech.
AP ammunition is strictly better. The +5 damage and bonus to hack is irrelevant when you're likely to 1-shot the target regardless, and Bluescreen does not apply against Gatekeepers, the first half of Andromedons or Avatars.
The only upside of Bluescreen is that sometimes Rapid Fire AP won't crit twice in a row against a Sectopod, and so AP will leave it at 1-2 HP whereas Bluescreen would've still killed it outright - and that's a pretty small situational upside given how easy it is to knock 1 HP off of an enemy without spending a tempo by that point in the game.
Bluescreen rounds definitely apply against the Gatekeeper. Kendrik's pistol shots do 9-11 damage against a Gatekeeper.
For Rapid Fire Rangers you should go Talons all the way. Getting in there and hitting for 17+ damage twice is better than bypassing some armor.
With Shadow Strike, you'll cap your crit chance via Superior Laser Sight and range bonuses. Talons will have you sitting at a redundant 125% chance to crit.
So, you can either bypass 5 points of armor (total of 10 lost damage when shooting twice) and also crit, or you can crit and deal +1 bonus damage via Talon Rounds.
I only put Talon on a non-Phantom Ranger, to compensate for the loss of Shadow Strike.
Given that I've yet to see anyone filled with rage over this, I'm going to assume it the mod's fault (stop wasting my time).
I started a commander ironman run, and the cpu has this infuriating habit of interrupting actions. It will hit a character who panics, but interrupts the panic to queue up an overwatch right before the panicked character starts moving. Complete horseshit. I don't want to lose the mod, but this is brutal.
Honestly, I've found bluescreen rounds more useful for Gatekeepers and Codexes. A Sectopod, I usually just shut it down for 2 turns with my Specialist while I mop everything else up. But shit, Gatekeepers are fucking action sponges with their defense, and Codexes' cloning and ammo-depletion too.
IMHO, Bluescreen Protocol is a trap tech.
AP ammunition is strictly better. The +5 damage and bonus to hack is irrelevant when you're likely to 1-shot the target regardless, and Bluescreen does not apply against Gatekeepers, the first half of Andromedons or Avatars.
The only upside of Bluescreen is that sometimes Rapid Fire AP won't crit twice in a row against a Sectopod, and so AP will leave it at 1-2 HP whereas Bluescreen would've still killed it outright - and that's a pretty small situational upside given how easy it is to knock 1 HP off of an enemy without spending a tempo by that point in the game.
Bluescreen rounds definitely apply against the Gatekeeper. Kendrik's pistol shots do 9-11 damage against a Gatekeeper.
For Rapid Fire Rangers you should go Talons all the way. Getting in there and hitting for 17+ damage twice is better than bypassing some armor.
With Shadow Strike, you'll cap your crit chance via Superior Laser Sight and range bonuses. Talons will have you sitting at a redundant 125% chance to crit.
So, you can either bypass 5 points of armor (total of 10 lost damage when shooting twice) and also crit, or you can crit and deal +1 bonus damage via Talon Rounds.
I only put Talon on a non-Phantom Ranger, to compensate for the loss of Shadow Strike.
Good luck getting into melee range without breaking concealment.
+3
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
Given that I've yet to see anyone filled with rage over this, I'm going to assume it the mod's fault (stop wasting my time).
I started a commander ironman run, and the cpu has this infuriating habit of interrupting actions. It will hit a character who panics, but interrupts the panic to queue up an overwatch right before the panicked character starts moving. Complete horseshit. I don't want to lose the mod, but this is brutal.
Actually, it is entirely allowed to do that and nothing to do with your mod.
90% of the time when I see a unit panic, it tends to work to my advantage as they run somewhere and often execute whatever panicked them in the first place.
Weird that it was 4 characters my first time, but only 3 my second. Is it a function of difficulty? I could've sworn I'd played on Commander both times. The mission also seemed shorter this time. Regardless, I sent Jane and two Magi, and they, and their friends Andromedon and Archon, cleaned the place up pretty handily. Now doing the last mission with Jane, Banana (pistolero), @Smurph (medic), and three psykers, @Corp.Shephard , @Berylline , and some random extra that hasn't seen the outside of the psi lab since she was a rookie. Decided against bringing a grenadier since the length of the mission favors rechargeable powers over consumables.
But the Etherials are going to have to wait. Need sleep, for one, and I still have to write up the Gamma World session I'm running on Wednesday.
Given that I've yet to see anyone filled with rage over this, I'm going to assume it the mod's fault (stop wasting my time).
I started a commander ironman run, and the cpu has this infuriating habit of interrupting actions. It will hit a character who panics, but interrupts the panic to queue up an overwatch right before the panicked character starts moving. Complete horseshit. I don't want to lose the mod, but this is brutal.
Actually, it is entirely allowed to do that and nothing to do with your mod.
90% of the time when I see a unit panic, it tends to work to my advantage as they run somewhere and often execute whatever panicked them in the first place.
Are you sure? I'm not talking about enemies going into overwatch, and then the enemy shooting and subsequently panicking one of my units. I mean there were no enemies in overwatch when my unit panicked.
XBL GamerTag: Comrade Nexus
0
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
No they do that. They panic a dude and any enemies around see it and go into overwatch. It is a 100% deliberate thing.
Has anyone ever used fortress? Single most useless ability ever.
You don't use it, it's a passive ability.
No it is a war suit ability. Turns you into high cover, but the unit that enabled it gets no buffs at all.
I'm pretty sure there's also a psionic passive called Fortress. It's the one that makes you immune to fire, acid, and poison.
Ugh, yeah I think you are right. No clue what the war suit ability is called.
Shieldwall.
Which is obviously what you meant from the beginning, because the Psi ability Fortress is super-useful (immune to fire, poison&acid? Good. Immune to explosive damage? Great).
Fortress and Solace are two of my top picks for Psi operatives, and only Domination ranks higher (as long as I have at least one damage skill).
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Honestly, I've found bluescreen rounds more useful for Gatekeepers and Codexes. A Sectopod, I usually just shut it down for 2 turns with my Specialist while I mop everything else up. But shit, Gatekeepers are fucking action sponges with their defense, and Codexes' cloning and ammo-depletion too.
IMHO, Bluescreen Protocol is a trap tech.
AP ammunition is strictly better. The +5 damage and bonus to hack is irrelevant when you're likely to 1-shot the target regardless, and Bluescreen does not apply against Gatekeepers, the first half of Andromedons or Avatars.
The only upside of Bluescreen is that sometimes Rapid Fire AP won't crit twice in a row against a Sectopod, and so AP will leave it at 1-2 HP whereas Bluescreen would've still killed it outright - and that's a pretty small situational upside given how easy it is to knock 1 HP off of an enemy without spending a tempo by that point in the game.
Bluescreen rounds definitely apply against the Gatekeeper. Kendrik's pistol shots do 9-11 damage against a Gatekeeper.
For Rapid Fire Rangers you should go Talons all the way. Getting in there and hitting for 17+ damage twice is better than bypassing some armor.
With Shadow Strike, you'll cap your crit chance via Superior Laser Sight and range bonuses. Talons will have you sitting at a redundant 125% chance to crit.
So, you can either bypass 5 points of armor (total of 10 lost damage when shooting twice) and also crit, or you can crit and deal +1 bonus damage via Talon Rounds.
I only put Talon on a non-Phantom Ranger, to compensate for the loss of Shadow Strike.
Good luck getting into melee range without breaking concealment.
Trigger Phantom by shooting from a flanking position just outside the extent of maximum vision range. Shadow Strike's aim bonus compensates for the fact that you're not right in melee range.
After Phantom is spent, you can do whatever you want with Conceal (as long as you don't intend to use it to scout), because it only cares if you're flanked or not.
Move into a point blank flanking tile that isn't flanked by an alien (usually this is not a hard spot to find), Conceal, Rapid Fire. Dead anything (except maybe an Avatar).
Honestly, I've found bluescreen rounds more useful for Gatekeepers and Codexes. A Sectopod, I usually just shut it down for 2 turns with my Specialist while I mop everything else up. But shit, Gatekeepers are fucking action sponges with their defense, and Codexes' cloning and ammo-depletion too.
IMHO, Bluescreen Protocol is a trap tech.
AP ammunition is strictly better. The +5 damage and bonus to hack is irrelevant when you're likely to 1-shot the target regardless, and Bluescreen does not apply against Gatekeepers, the first half of Andromedons or Avatars.
The only upside of Bluescreen is that sometimes Rapid Fire AP won't crit twice in a row against a Sectopod, and so AP will leave it at 1-2 HP whereas Bluescreen would've still killed it outright - and that's a pretty small situational upside given how easy it is to knock 1 HP off of an enemy without spending a tempo by that point in the game.
Bluescreen rounds definitely apply against the Gatekeeper. Kendrik's pistol shots do 9-11 damage against a Gatekeeper.
For Rapid Fire Rangers you should go Talons all the way. Getting in there and hitting for 17+ damage twice is better than bypassing some armor.
With Shadow Strike, you'll cap your crit chance via Superior Laser Sight and range bonuses. Talons will have you sitting at a redundant 125% chance to crit.
So, you can either bypass 5 points of armor (total of 10 lost damage when shooting twice) and also crit, or you can crit and deal +1 bonus damage via Talon Rounds.
I only put Talon on a non-Phantom Ranger, to compensate for the loss of Shadow Strike.
Good luck getting into melee range without breaking concealment.
You still get the bonus if you initiate the melee attack from concealment. It doesn't matter that you break cover on your way to hit them with your sword.
Edit :
I see now that getting in close with a shotgun was what was being discussed. Humorously, getting to litteral melee range is easier than getting to point blank shotgun range.
Heh, my Ranger had one of those brilliant XCOM moments.
He was moving up to flank a Sectoid, and I was fairly confident that it was going to waste its turn on raising a zombie. Nope, panic on my Ranger.
So he freaks out, and... runs up to flank the Sectoid, and blows him away with the shotgun, which is exactly what I wanted him to do anyway.
The fact that I gave this particular Ranger the Deadpool voice pack made it funnier, as that feels exactly like what Deadpool would have done.
"Aaaaaahhoh it's dead, never mind."
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
+8
Orphanerivers of redthat run to seaRegistered Userregular
my top XCOM mission name was Operation Sweaty Anger
Faceless having 10 square melee reach and full health lethal is still bullshit.
They actually don't have a move and attack though (AKA Muton Bayonet, Lancer Rush, Ranger Sword etc), so if you're outside of their blue move they can't attack you at all that turn (they only transform by themselves if they have a valid move and attack - but if they have to go even one square they will not be able to hit you). Additionally their AI is terrible, they have no inbuilt melee counter, they only hit 60% (or possibly 70%) of the time with their melee attack and they don't always deal enough damage to kill. They are a threat, but they're not the worst melee alien by miles and their corpses yield the most overpowered item in the entire game (at least until the next patch nerfs it anyway).
Chryssalids are far worse and actually break fundamental aspects of how the game works in the way they operate, plus you absolutely HAVE to hard counter them or they are mission ending.
Also the Two Best Friends have been playing XCOM 2 and Woolies reaction to the sectoid was utterly priceless:
"He's got some shit on his arm too. He's naked, but he's TACTICALLY naked. You see a naked guy, you go he's crazy. But if you see he's naked but he's got a really high tech arm band, you know that nakedness is DELIBERATE."
Faceless having 10 square melee reach and full health lethal is still bullshit.
...They can lethal you from full health?
If they crit or roll very high on damage, yes.
Otherwise they are mostly dangerous if you encounter them on high places like a roof top. Their swing is AoE and will wreck everything around you... including the floor...
Weird that it was 4 characters my first time, but only 3 my second. Is it a function of difficulty? I could've sworn I'd played on Commander both times. The mission also seemed shorter this time. Regardless, I sent Jane and two Magi, and they, and their friends Andromedon and Archon, cleaned the place up pretty handily. Now doing the last mission with Jane, Banana (pistolero), @Smurph (medic), and three psykers, @Corp.Shephard , @Berylline , and some random extra that hasn't seen the outside of the psi lab since she was a rookie. Decided against bringing a grenadier since the length of the mission favors rechargeable powers over consumables.
But the Etherials are going to have to wait. Need sleep, for one, and I still have to write up the Gamma World session I'm running on Wednesday.
I'm curious to know what determines how many people you can take too. I played on Veteran and only got to bring three duders.
Faceless having 10 square melee reach and full health lethal is still bullshit.
...They can lethal you from full health?
If they crit or roll very high on damage, yes.
Otherwise they are mostly dangerous if you encounter them on high places like a roof top. Their swing is AoE and will wreck everything around you... including the floor...
I always enjoy that they can miss but get the AoE cover destruction anyway
I've had a soldier taking cover inside one of those little market stalls get attacked by a Faceless, which proceeded to miss my dude but completely obliterate the entire building he was standing in, leaving him standing in the open, mysteriously unharmed
+1
Gabriel_Pitt(effective against Russian warships)Registered Userregular
Am I the only one who wishes they would put a Zoidberg voice on the Faceless?
Or have a Faceless do the zoidberg Wubwubwub crabmove.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
+2
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
Given that I've yet to see anyone filled with rage over this, I'm going to assume it the mod's fault (stop wasting my time).
I started a commander ironman run, and the cpu has this infuriating habit of interrupting actions. It will hit a character who panics, but interrupts the panic to queue up an overwatch right before the panicked character starts moving. Complete horseshit. I don't want to lose the mod, but this is brutal.
That has happened to me. And I have that mod installed. I've also had a panicked character overwatch and shoot another panicked character who ran to new cover.
Faceless having 10 square melee reach and full health lethal is still bullshit.
They actually don't have a move and attack though (AKA Muton Bayonet, Lancer Rush, Ranger Sword etc), so if you're outside of their blue move they can't attack you at all that turn (they only transform by themselves if they have a valid move and attack - but if they have to go even one square they will not be able to hit you). Additionally their AI is terrible, they have no inbuilt melee counter, they only hit 60% (or possibly 70%) of the time with their melee attack and they don't always deal enough damage to kill. They are a threat, but they're not the worst melee alien by miles and their corpses yield the most overpowered item in the entire game (at least until the next patch nerfs it anyway).
Chryssalids are far worse and actually break fundamental aspects of how the game works in the way they operate, plus you absolutely HAVE to hard counter them or they are mission ending.
Also the Two Best Friends have been playing XCOM 2 and Woolies reaction to the sectoid was utterly priceless:
"He's got some shit on his arm too. He's naked, but he's TACTICALLY naked. You see a naked guy, you go he's crazy. But if you see he's naked but he's got a really high tech arm band, you know that nakedness is DELIBERATE."
I had a retaliation mission on my Legend run last night where I was untouched until the last Faceless popped after killing the last pod. It ran up to my rookie, who successfully overwatch shot him, but it didn't have any actions to attack him. But the rookie was out of ammo now. This began a 3ish turn exercise in frustration as the Faceless chased people around the map. Anybody who had both ammo and a line of fire missed the Faceless on 70-80% shots. All my grenades were spent (it was very early game, so only 4 people with almost no upgrades). Everybody else had to reload and back up as the Faceless chased them. It kept regening health so I kept people in situations where people had a decent chance to hit it, but couldn't guarantee the kill, so I had to move them. I did a pretty good job avoiding damage for a while, because it kept pointing at the next soldier it would attack. Eventually I screwed up because I had 2 soldiers standing in a line and guessed wrong which one it would pursue.
Honestly, I've found bluescreen rounds more useful for Gatekeepers and Codexes. A Sectopod, I usually just shut it down for 2 turns with my Specialist while I mop everything else up. But shit, Gatekeepers are fucking action sponges with their defense, and Codexes' cloning and ammo-depletion too.
IMHO, Bluescreen Protocol is a trap tech.
AP ammunition is strictly better. The +5 damage and bonus to hack is irrelevant when you're likely to 1-shot the target regardless, and Bluescreen does not apply against Gatekeepers, the first half of Andromedons or Avatars.
The only upside of Bluescreen is that sometimes Rapid Fire AP won't crit twice in a row against a Sectopod, and so AP will leave it at 1-2 HP whereas Bluescreen would've still killed it outright - and that's a pretty small situational upside given how easy it is to knock 1 HP off of an enemy without spending a tempo by that point in the game.
Bluescreen rounds definitely apply against the Gatekeeper. Kendrik's pistol shots do 9-11 damage against a Gatekeeper.
For Rapid Fire Rangers you should go Talons all the way. Getting in there and hitting for 17+ damage twice is better than bypassing some armor.
With Shadow Strike, you'll cap your crit chance via Superior Laser Sight and range bonuses. Talons will have you sitting at a redundant 125% chance to crit.
So, you can either bypass 5 points of armor (total of 10 lost damage when shooting twice) and also crit, or you can crit and deal +1 bonus damage via Talon Rounds.
I only put Talon on a non-Phantom Ranger, to compensate for the loss of Shadow Strike.
Gatekeepers are mechanical-lite. They take the extra damage from Bluescreen rounds and EMPs, but they can't be Haywired nor do they take extra damage from combat protocol or suffer the secondary effects from Bluescreen and EMP.
Also, for me virtually all my rangers have shadowstep instead of shadowstrike, so having Talon Rounds is pretty much mandatory on anyone who isn't going to be reapin' at Colonel.
Spending the intel on the extra person for the tower assault is so pointless. I have never been attacked on that mission. Just give everyone wraith armor and run to the objective.
Posts
In a lot of ways I built my most recent squad for the final mission. My two heavies were set up to use their cannons. I used a psi op, gate keeper, and avatar for AOE until the last room.
Meanwhile, it seems like a lot of people are playing XCOM 2 and saying, "Doesn't matter; had sex!"
That said, I am looking forward to a good, solid Long War-style overhaul mod.
That's weird. They're not mechanical enemies.
With Shadow Strike, you'll cap your crit chance via Superior Laser Sight and range bonuses. Talons will have you sitting at a redundant 125% chance to crit.
So, you can either bypass 5 points of armor (total of 10 lost damage when shooting twice) and also crit, or you can crit and deal +1 bonus damage via Talon Rounds.
I only put Talon on a non-Phantom Ranger, to compensate for the loss of Shadow Strike.
@Tube , what's the going rate for adding a "That's XCOM!" button right next to "Lovely Day"?
--Mark Twain
It is not impossible.
I still can't get over when in a preview build video I saw an operation called "Sweaty Snake".
That had to be deliberate.
I swear by the time I can play this fucking game myself again there will be multiple expansions out.
I started a commander ironman run, and the cpu has this infuriating habit of interrupting actions. It will hit a character who panics, but interrupts the panic to queue up an overwatch right before the panicked character starts moving. Complete horseshit. I don't want to lose the mod, but this is brutal.
Good luck getting into melee range without breaking concealment.
Actually, it is entirely allowed to do that and nothing to do with your mod.
90% of the time when I see a unit panic, it tends to work to my advantage as they run somewhere and often execute whatever panicked them in the first place.
But the Etherials are going to have to wait. Need sleep, for one, and I still have to write up the Gamma World session I'm running on Wednesday.
Are you sure? I'm not talking about enemies going into overwatch, and then the enemy shooting and subsequently panicking one of my units. I mean there were no enemies in overwatch when my unit panicked.
Origin: KafkaAU B-Net: Kafka#1778
Someone made a JC Denton voicepack for the game. It's amazing.
workshop link
Featuring such things as "A bomb." as he throws a frag, and "What a shame" as a kill quote.
Shieldwall.
Which is obviously what you meant from the beginning, because the Psi ability Fortress is super-useful (immune to fire, poison&acid? Good. Immune to explosive damage? Great).
Fortress and Solace are two of my top picks for Psi operatives, and only Domination ranks higher (as long as I have at least one damage skill).
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Trigger Phantom by shooting from a flanking position just outside the extent of maximum vision range. Shadow Strike's aim bonus compensates for the fact that you're not right in melee range.
After Phantom is spent, you can do whatever you want with Conceal (as long as you don't intend to use it to scout), because it only cares if you're flanked or not.
Move into a point blank flanking tile that isn't flanked by an alien (usually this is not a hard spot to find), Conceal, Rapid Fire. Dead anything (except maybe an Avatar).
You still get the bonus if you initiate the melee attack from concealment. It doesn't matter that you break cover on your way to hit them with your sword.
Edit :
I see now that getting in close with a shotgun was what was being discussed. Humorously, getting to litteral melee range is easier than getting to point blank shotgun range.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
He was moving up to flank a Sectoid, and I was fairly confident that it was going to waste its turn on raising a zombie. Nope, panic on my Ranger.
So he freaks out, and... runs up to flank the Sectoid, and blows him away with the shotgun, which is exactly what I wanted him to do anyway.
The fact that I gave this particular Ranger the Deadpool voice pack made it funnier, as that feels exactly like what Deadpool would have done.
"Aaaaaahhoh it's dead, never mind."
exactly my status while playing XCOM
They actually don't have a move and attack though (AKA Muton Bayonet, Lancer Rush, Ranger Sword etc), so if you're outside of their blue move they can't attack you at all that turn (they only transform by themselves if they have a valid move and attack - but if they have to go even one square they will not be able to hit you). Additionally their AI is terrible, they have no inbuilt melee counter, they only hit 60% (or possibly 70%) of the time with their melee attack and they don't always deal enough damage to kill. They are a threat, but they're not the worst melee alien by miles and their corpses yield the most overpowered item in the entire game (at least until the next patch nerfs it anyway).
Chryssalids are far worse and actually break fundamental aspects of how the game works in the way they operate, plus you absolutely HAVE to hard counter them or they are mission ending.
Also the Two Best Friends have been playing XCOM 2 and Woolies reaction to the sectoid was utterly priceless:
"He's got some shit on his arm too. He's naked, but he's TACTICALLY naked. You see a naked guy, you go he's crazy. But if you see he's naked but he's got a really high tech arm band, you know that nakedness is DELIBERATE."
...They can lethal you from full health?
Yeah, that is kind of BS then. I've never taken more than 3 damage from them.
I still think it's sort-of reasonable, though, because you're supposed to play around the civilians as best you can. Every civvie is a Faceless.
If they crit or roll very high on damage, yes.
Otherwise they are mostly dangerous if you encounter them on high places like a roof top. Their swing is AoE and will wreck everything around you... including the floor...
I'm curious to know what determines how many people you can take too. I played on Veteran and only got to bring three duders.
I always enjoy that they can miss but get the AoE cover destruction anyway
I've had a soldier taking cover inside one of those little market stalls get attacked by a Faceless, which proceeded to miss my dude but completely obliterate the entire building he was standing in, leaving him standing in the open, mysteriously unharmed
I'm eagerly awaiting the day we're greeted with Chicken Stank.
Or have a Faceless do the zoidberg Wubwubwub crabmove.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Just straight up replace the faceless with Zoidberg.
I think that one of the things you can spend intel on in the second to last mission is sometimes an extra slot to bring a person.
That has happened to me. And I have that mod installed. I've also had a panicked character overwatch and shoot another panicked character who ran to new cover.
I had a retaliation mission on my Legend run last night where I was untouched until the last Faceless popped after killing the last pod. It ran up to my rookie, who successfully overwatch shot him, but it didn't have any actions to attack him. But the rookie was out of ammo now. This began a 3ish turn exercise in frustration as the Faceless chased people around the map. Anybody who had both ammo and a line of fire missed the Faceless on 70-80% shots. All my grenades were spent (it was very early game, so only 4 people with almost no upgrades). Everybody else had to reload and back up as the Faceless chased them. It kept regening health so I kept people in situations where people had a decent chance to hit it, but couldn't guarantee the kill, so I had to move them. I did a pretty good job avoiding damage for a while, because it kept pointing at the next soldier it would attack. Eventually I screwed up because I had 2 soldiers standing in a line and guessed wrong which one it would pursue.
In my game it gave me an option to spend intel to take an additional team member.
I forget, disemboweling in your species, fatal or no?
Gatekeepers are mechanical-lite. They take the extra damage from Bluescreen rounds and EMPs, but they can't be Haywired nor do they take extra damage from combat protocol or suffer the secondary effects from Bluescreen and EMP.
Also, for me virtually all my rangers have shadowstep instead of shadowstrike, so having Talon Rounds is pretty much mandatory on anyone who isn't going to be reapin' at Colonel.