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[XCOM] XCOM 2.5 is XCOPS
Durinia
Evolved from Space PotatoesRegistered User regular
Evolved from Space PotatoesRegistered User regular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZnpl3hWfVM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39fhpegVBQQ
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).
XCOM 2
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-rEgXCOM 2 Bebop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyw3aURYCUTIPS & 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
How Cover Works: A Tutorial
What things are safe to sell in the Black Market without messing with your research or builds?
Here's a list
How Cover Works: A Tutorial
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.
XCOM: EW version
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.
(if using Windows 7) to use custom names.
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
A duck! on
+3
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
--Mark Twain
To be honest, though, I'm not sure what approach I'd take to make those suits more palatable in my eyes. For the Berserker Queen, I'd start by giving the suit actual boots instead of literally having the Queen's feet as shoes (for some reason, that's what crosses the line between "using the spoils of war as a weapon of war" and "wearing another person as a suit, like a serial killer" for me). For the Viper King, I'd probably lose the snake-hood (which looks dopey to me). I haven't unlocked the Archon King armor yet, but based on screenshots online, it actually seems pretty reasonable.
https://www.thesilverninja.com
Maybe if you want to try and work on all the achievements before? *shrug*
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Yeah, you can change the colors and helmet to make them less creepy or dumb; gotta say the Archon King suit is totally badass looking and I never change it.
Yes.
You keep the crazy scarf, though.
I wonder if, post-nerf, they will trigger off of entering Overwatch. If not, it might turn out that the most efficient way to fight them is to just have your entire squad Overwatch. Unless, of course, they will earn extra actions upon being attacked via Overwatch.
Once you realize that you can just tag the alien rulers with acid and fire round DOTS, they are less fearsome. Especially with the DLC active, you can choose when to have them spawn in your missions. So if you want to wait until you have plasma rounds, fire nades, acid nades, and delta strike a ruler, you can do that. The Archon King was the most BS of them all with his devastate attack able to hit your defenseless characters once the turn had expired.
And I also want to note, I'm not that good at X-Com. I'm an advanced player at best, but beating the Alien Rulers isn't that terrible once you know the trick.
https://www.thesilverninja.com
One thing the Rulers do make you do is re-evaluate how you're playing the game. When every action counts, you have to make sure that everyone can contribute in a pinch. You also need to learn to keep your powder dry in some cases; you can use your Acid Grenade to take out a pod of ADVENT, or you can wait until the Berserker Queen is rampaging towards you and hit her with a serious DOT that will trigger on each of her (many) actions.
https://www.pcinvasion.com/xcom-2-war-chosen-trailer-spotlights-arrogant-warlock
--Mark Twain
Honestly I'm a little bored by the Warlock. The fanatic thing doesn't do it for me. Next week's video should be the Templars, and then Nolan NorthThe Hunter, which should at least be fun. I bet there'll be a Lost video after that... then it's anybody's guess what they'll put up to keep the hype train rolling.
Seems like a little too much pre-defined plot for my taste (the specific two factions for the escort mission seem to be fixed, as well as the Chosen involved). But I'll reserve judgement.
It's super long and just gone up but I am sure it is solid gold.
Reapers countering the Assassin who are hunting the free Advent dudes is cool as shit
I am 100% hype for the expac
More on that spoiler
Reaper>Assassin who's hunting Advent Bros
Templar's>The Undying(?) who are hunting the Reapers
Advent Bro's>The Warlock who's hunting the Templar's
https://www.thesilverninja.com
On the one hand, it gives people "incentive" to live in the safe areas that ADVENT protects.
On the other hand, it's like... just where did the zombies start coming from, right? People gotta figure that it's a bit convenient they started showing up after the aliens did.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The xenos arrived just in time to save us from a pre-existing zombie apocalypse.
Hey, Bradford is a sword ranger, and he rocks!
I expect there to be some seriously good poster entries in this thread come release.
--Mark Twain
Makes sense given he already did the "English Warrior" SPARK voice. I'm also hearing that Johnathan Frakes is going to be involved somehow. So that's what, three star-trek actors confirmed?
Somebody @ me if Stewart gets on board to voice act.
As far as the mission itself, I'm reasonably certain it'll be like Lost Towers or the Alien Nest; active and static the first time you use the DLC, optional afterwards. They've mentioned that the faction counters are randomized for each Chosen before.
Yeah, I hope that is accurate. They already have the mechanism in place to activate or deactivate the DLC missions.