Oh yeah. But he was asking "Is warden armor even worth getting" and yes, when the alternative is 6 elerium cores and 1200 supplies.
No, the alternative is sticking with the Predator Armor, EXO Suits, and Spider Suits you already have until/unless you can gradually phase them out for WAR or Wraith suits over time.
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
Advent MECs don't have pilots though.
So new MECs would be like SHIVs from EU, except better.
Possibly, but it feels like they're taking a very pure human approach to your team this time around. And after all the effort they've spent making soldiers customizable and memorable, I doubt they'd let you replace them with faceless robots. Even if the robots do have sweet flames painted on them.
give a ranger a heavy suit (exo/war), this gives them a massive, 2 handed sword. they lose the shotgun, they get a bitchy little sectoid-esque wrist mounted ballistic weapon.
this would totes make them a competitive pick!
That still doesn't do anything to help with the fact that if you're not executing the last member of a pod, melee places you in a position where you are extremely vulnerable.
Doubly so if you happen to trigger more pods when you charge forward.
Don't melee enemies that would put you in a bad position, and don't melee enemies that are too far away from your squad. Not that hard.
The sword is a useful tool when used in its extremely specific niche; executing enemies that are where you want your ranger to be.
I know how to use the swords. What I'm saying is that a bigger sword does absolutely nothing to fix a swords problems.
I've decided I will play Commander difficulty without Ironman on for two reasons.
Firstly, to learn the difficulty before playing without backup saves. But more importantly, I don't want to be Ironmanning and doing well only to have a bug ruin the campaign.
I've decided I will play Commander difficulty without Ironman on for two reasons.
Firstly, to learn the difficulty before playing without backup saves. But more importantly, I don't want to be Ironmanning and doing well only to have a bug ruin the campaign.
if it is your first run, do not ironman. the game has many, many pitfalls you will experience. good luck!
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OnTheLastCastlelet's keep it haimish for the peripateticRegistered Userregular
edited February 2016
also bugs, yes. i'm still bitter about when blowing up the ground under a turret didn't destroy it and it floated there majestically raining death
but also have had one bug where a soldier just couldn't move....... oh and where enemies stopped moving or attacking.
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Orphanerivers of redthat run to seaRegistered Userregular
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
Advent MECs don't have pilots though.
So new MECs would be like SHIVs from EU, except better.
Possibly, but it feels like they're taking a very pure human approach to your team this time around. And after all the effort they've spent making soldiers customizable and memorable, I doubt they'd let you replace them with faceless robots. Even if the robots do have sweet flames painted on them.
the andromedons pilot robot suits though....
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
All they would have to do is turn the MEC troopers into soldiers specialized to ride them.
Basically turn the MECs into vehicles instead of something the pilots themselves have to hook up to.
All the fun of kinetic strike without the guilt of chopping everything from the neck down off.
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
All they would have to do is turn the MEC troopers into soldiers specialized to ride them.
Basically turn the MECs into vehicles instead of something the pilots themselves have to hook up to.
All the fun of kinetic strike without the guilt of chopping everything from the neck down off.
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
All they would have to do is turn the MEC troopers into soldiers specialized to ride them.
Basically turn the MECs into vehicles instead of something the pilots themselves have to hook up to.
All the fun of kinetic strike without the guilt of chopping everything from the neck down off.
It wasn't everything from the neck down. It was just those useless squishy bits like arms and legs. Who needs those when you have a boosh?
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
All they would have to do is turn the MEC troopers into soldiers specialized to ride them.
Basically turn the MECs into vehicles instead of something the pilots themselves have to hook up to.
All the fun of kinetic strike without the guilt of chopping everything from the neck down off.
You say "guilt", I say "fun".
...I miss Vahlen.
Yeah...
(Story spoilers)
I thought that for sure she was going to be in the suit found at the Forge facility, but instead of tactical data simulation she was a genetic atrocity system. I was disappointed and..relieved in equal measure.
And then mind controlled it. That mission was easy.
I'm cranking along in Veteran Ironman now. Seems like there's an early hump to get over but now that I have some levelled up troops and tier 3 armor/plasma rifles, it's gotten a lot easier.
Also, fuck Chryssalids. Again. But yeah, I have tons of health so they haven't been an issue yet. Story wise:
I finished the blacksite and the second blacksite, and now I'm headed to the codex brain location. Gotta be getting close, I've finished researching EVERYTHING else!
I found that my troops stopped dying when I got Predator armor. It happened occasionally, but not often (4 extra hitpoints really makes a difference). I didn't lose anyone after I got Warden armor.
Is Warden armor actually worth it? It adds one more HP than the EXO suits that I have and an inventory slot but is missing the armor and the heavy weapon. I was pretty disappointed when I finally built it and then immediately shelved it again. Everybody needs rocket launchers. Everybody.
It does have armor. +1 armor.
edit: whoops totally beated
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
I doubt Shen's last gift will be MECs, given the view XCOM 2 takes of messing around with humans, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an exo-suit variant with a rocket punch or something.
All they would have to do is turn the MEC troopers into soldiers specialized to ride them.
Basically turn the MECs into vehicles instead of something the pilots themselves have to hook up to.
All the fun of kinetic strike without the guilt of chopping everything from the neck down off.
You say "guilt", I say "fun".
...I miss Vahlen.
Coming to a DLC near you!
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited February 2016
You can get elerium cores as random drops from killing dudes, which you wont get if you kill them with explosives. :rotate:
Downsides!
Also supply raids. I just started a downed ufo mission, I suspect that will also gimme some. Basically loot missions I guess.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
And then mind controlled it. That mission was easy.
I'm cranking along in Veteran Ironman now. Seems like there's an early hump to get over but now that I have some levelled up troops and tier 3 armor/plasma rifles, it's gotten a lot easier.
Also, fuck Chryssalids. Again. But yeah, I have tons of health so they haven't been an issue yet. Story wise:
I finished the blacksite and the second blacksite, and now I'm headed to the codex brain location. Gotta be getting close, I've finished researching EVERYTHING else!
I found that my troops stopped dying when I got Predator armor. It happened occasionally, but not often (4 extra hitpoints really makes a difference). I didn't lose anyone after I got Warden armor.
Is Warden armor actually worth it? It adds one more HP than the EXO suits that I have and an inventory slot but is missing the armor and the heavy weapon. I was pretty disappointed when I finally built it and then immediately shelved it again. Everybody needs rocket launchers. Everybody.
It does have armor. +1 armor.
edit: whoops totally beated
not only that, but by that point in the game you'll have plasma grenades. the plasma grenades are barring some very rare situations better than the rocket heavy weapon.
give a ranger a heavy suit (exo/war), this gives them a massive, 2 handed sword. they lose the shotgun, they get a bitchy little sectoid-esque wrist mounted ballistic weapon.
this would totes make them a competitive pick!
That still doesn't do anything to help with the fact that if you're not executing the last member of a pod, melee places you in a position where you are extremely vulnerable.
Doubly so if you happen to trigger more pods when you charge forward.
Don't melee enemies that would put you in a bad position, and don't melee enemies that are too far away from your squad. Not that hard.
The sword is a useful tool when used in its extremely specific niche; executing enemies that are where you want your ranger to be.
I know how to use the swords. What I'm saying is that a bigger sword does absolutely nothing to fix a swords problems.
VICTORY! Veteran Ironman defeated. That was hard. One soldier was bleeding out and one actually died in my final mission. But basically once I got the third tier armor everyone was fine.
not only that, but by that point in the game you'll have plasma grenades. the plasma grenades are barring some very rare situations better than the rocket heavy weapon.
Nothing is ever better than a Blaster launcher bomb. Whenever I equip it I hear Tony Stark going all "Jericho Missile" in my head.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
And then mind controlled it. That mission was easy.
I'm cranking along in Veteran Ironman now. Seems like there's an early hump to get over but now that I have some levelled up troops and tier 3 armor/plasma rifles, it's gotten a lot easier.
Also, fuck Chryssalids. Again. But yeah, I have tons of health so they haven't been an issue yet. Story wise:
I finished the blacksite and the second blacksite, and now I'm headed to the codex brain location. Gotta be getting close, I've finished researching EVERYTHING else!
I found that my troops stopped dying when I got Predator armor. It happened occasionally, but not often (4 extra hitpoints really makes a difference). I didn't lose anyone after I got Warden armor.
Is Warden armor actually worth it? It adds one more HP than the EXO suits that I have and an inventory slot but is missing the armor and the heavy weapon. I was pretty disappointed when I finally built it and then immediately shelved it again. Everybody needs rocket launchers. Everybody.
It does have armor. +1 armor.
edit: whoops totally beated
not only that, but by that point in the game you'll have plasma grenades. the plasma grenades are barring some very rare situations better than the rocket heavy weapon.
the rocket launcher has basically infinite range
a plasma grenade thrown by a non-grenadier will get about as far as a fart
not
even
close
to equivalent
let alone better
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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scherbchenAsgard (it is dead)Registered Userregular
I totally love how this game is doing to me the same thing the first part did.
start out "ME BIG MAN. ME IRONMAN TOUGHEST BIT!"
transition to "hmmmkay. let's do some missions and reload the bad bits where we are just learning the game!"
back up to "nonononono! I screwed this up so badly! I do not deserve to see a Chryssalid yet! start over you fucking moron! your early game is all shit!"
I think the Acid Bomb is actually much better than plasma as far as attacking from ambush is concerned. 4 armor shred, you don't care that it doesn't destroy cover because you're ambushing, and the DoT is actually fucking insane. I've seen it tick for 6 damage.
Fire Bomb seems like total garbage, though.
Also the Flamethrower, which I had been looking forward to. Cover obstructs it and I have never once seen it actually light a target on fire (whereas Dragon rounds consistently light targets ablaze). The Heavy Weapon project at the Proving Grounds is basically, "Do this until you get a Shredstorm Cannon. Sell the junk Flamethrowers which are strictly worse than the default Rocket Launcher."
I think the Acid Bomb is actually much better than plasma as far as attacking from ambush is concerned. 4 armor shred, you don't care that it doesn't destroy cover because you're ambushing, and the DoT is actually fucking insane. I've seen it tick for 6 damage.
Fire Bomb seems like total garbage, though.
Also the Flamethrower, which I had been looking forward to. Cover obstructs it and I have never once seen it actually light a target on fire (whereas Dragon rounds consistently light targets ablaze). The Heavy Weapon project at the Proving Grounds is basically, "Do this until you get a Shredstorm Cannon. Sell the junk Flamethrowers which are strictly worse than the default Rocket Launcher."
Kind of disappointed about that.
Fire bomb has the biggest radius and burning shuts down enemy abilities besides shooting. It's handy for parts of the game but loses some of its punch when you see more Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Otherwise they're a nice FU to vipers and shieldbearers.
I think the Acid Bomb is actually much better than plasma as far as attacking from ambush is concerned. 4 armor shred, you don't care that it doesn't destroy cover because you're ambushing, and the DoT is actually fucking insane. I've seen it tick for 6 damage.
Fire Bomb seems like total garbage, though.
Also the Flamethrower, which I had been looking forward to. Cover obstructs it and I have never once seen it actually light a target on fire (whereas Dragon rounds consistently light targets ablaze). The Heavy Weapon project at the Proving Grounds is basically, "Do this until you get a Shredstorm Cannon. Sell the junk Flamethrowers which are strictly worse than the default Rocket Launcher."
Kind of disappointed about that.
Fire bomb has the biggest radius and burning shuts down enemy abilities besides shooting. It's handy for parts of the game but loses some of its punch when you see more Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Otherwise they're a nice FU to vipers and shieldbearers.
...But why would you want to limit the AI's actions to 'only' shooting?
Shooting at you is arguably the best thing they can do for themselves. Abilities are a nuisance (most of the time) - shooting actually kills people.
With Love and Courage
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I hope if the nerf the cover destruction of regular grenades, that this brings the DoT area of effect type grenades back into the game as feeling far more viable.
I think the Acid Bomb is actually much better than plasma as far as attacking from ambush is concerned. 4 armor shred, you don't care that it doesn't destroy cover because you're ambushing, and the DoT is actually fucking insane. I've seen it tick for 6 damage.
Fire Bomb seems like total garbage, though.
Also the Flamethrower, which I had been looking forward to. Cover obstructs it and I have never once seen it actually light a target on fire (whereas Dragon rounds consistently light targets ablaze). The Heavy Weapon project at the Proving Grounds is basically, "Do this until you get a Shredstorm Cannon. Sell the junk Flamethrowers which are strictly worse than the default Rocket Launcher."
Kind of disappointed about that.
I think the 6 damage tick is only if you're using it from a Grenadier with Volatile Mix. Apparently the +2 damage bonus applies to every tick of a grenade's DoT!
Is Warden armor actually worth it? It adds one more HP than the EXO suits that I have and an inventory slot but is missing the armor and the heavy weapon. I was pretty disappointed when I finally built it and then immediately shelved it again. Everybody needs rocket launchers. Everybody.
1. Warden armour gives you +1 Armor. So no. It's +1 HP and +1 Slot (Warden armour) vs Heavy weapon (EXO). W.A.R. Suits however give you TWO pips of armour and just as many hitpoints as the Warden armour while retaining the heavy weapon option from the EXO suit.
2. The big saving grace for warden armour though is that it exists in infinite amounts. Build it once and it's available to everyone.
Also that it completes instantly, while war suits take time.
However
if you get the continent bonus that lets your proving grounds armor projects complete instantly
fuck paying for warden armor, just buy six war suits instead and save the elerium for shadow projects so you don't have to dick around waiting for an extra supply raid to be able to finish the game.
if you can get six war suits online instantly, you'll never need to wear a suit of warden armor unless you let one of your war suits get captured/killed without recovering the body, which...just don't do that? if you're at the stage of the game where you've got t3 armor it's probably not a realistic risk.
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Curious, does loot automatically get picked up if you finish the mission before it disappears or do you have to grab it?
Curious, does loot automatically get picked up if you finish the mission before it disappears or do you have to grab it?
If it's a mission where you have to evac, You have to pick it up. If it's a mission that involves killing all the aliens to finish the map, You get it when the mission ends, if it didn't pop.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I think the Acid Bomb is actually much better than plasma as far as attacking from ambush is concerned. 4 armor shred, you don't care that it doesn't destroy cover because you're ambushing, and the DoT is actually fucking insane. I've seen it tick for 6 damage.
Fire Bomb seems like total garbage, though.
Also the Flamethrower, which I had been looking forward to. Cover obstructs it and I have never once seen it actually light a target on fire (whereas Dragon rounds consistently light targets ablaze). The Heavy Weapon project at the Proving Grounds is basically, "Do this until you get a Shredstorm Cannon. Sell the junk Flamethrowers which are strictly worse than the default Rocket Launcher."
Kind of disappointed about that.
I think the 6 damage tick is only if you're using it from a Grenadier with Volatile Mix. Apparently the +2 damage bonus applies to every tick of a grenade's DoT!
That would be a strong and interesting sounding combination to use. If DoT was ever worth it over blowing up cover and simply shooting the crap out of the exposed aliens. Area denial grenades causing the aliens to move out of cover and similar would really boost them up.
I'm wondering if by the time I'm getting my new computer, if there will be a balance patch that fixes some of the grenade/explosives issues and nerfs the mimic beacon or not. Minding, Firaxis are incredibly slow at patching....
Multiplayer has no surrender button and it's reaaaaally laggy. So despite winning and the other guy leaving, I got no achievement. Curses! I'll wait for a few patches I suppose.
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
There are actually a lot of incredibly baffling design decisions in XCOM 2 frankly. For example, why make aliens so insistent on running into your face every mission, where they gain no benefit and don't get range bonuses to accuracy? They basically put themselves at a gigantic disadvantage for no reason. Likewise, the Mimic Beacon feels like it's designed for an entirely different game, instead of one where players are shot so rarely you only need 1-2 of them to trivialize the entire mission (as you will be able to stop that one or possibly two rounds of shooting you need). Aliens aim bonuses, crit chances and such also feel entirely designed for a game where they shoot regularly at the player, with injuries (not permanent death) being the core mechanism that you need to manage/juggle soldiers around*. This mechanic doesn't flatly work because aliens never shoot if you bring the rain of explosives down on them.
Alien reinforcements not getting their whole turn makes them an irrelevant threat to anything. They're frequently farmed for experience on a regular basis by nearly all of the players I've watched and myself (even Northernlion, one of the most clueless XCOM players from a tactical point of view, will hang around to shoot reinforcements for the experience). Reinforcements absolutely need to get their whole turn, not show up so obviously, or come in pairs so that one group at least has a chance of doing something.
I don't get why they have mechanics for fiddling with the RNG on commander difficulty (You get a +15 aim bonus for every shot you miss over a certain percentage). It shouldn't be fiddling with the RNG at all, ever. This is one of their worst design decisions by far and one I disagree with immensely. I'm not even okay with them messing with the RNG in the players favor on normal difficulty either, because this caused huge issues in EU/EW.
XCOM soldiers scale ridiculously, with anything that trivializes the early game content (EG Grenadiers or Mimic Beacons) snowballing so hard late game, that even some of the most powerful enemy units in the game have essentially no real challenge or threat to them. Late game XCOM colonels are so powerful, I'm not sure what I would even do to challenge them using the current games mechanics or enemies. I feel that Firaxis' design was that it was a challenge to get here, especially considering wounds and similar delaying promotions. On the other hand, such a safe early game (due to grenade spam and beacons) means you're not taking anywhere near the injuries I feel they anticipated the player doing. So getting that death squad of highly ranked soldiers that are practically invulnerable feels a lot easier than it perhaps should be. The aliens tech progression is quite slow, so it's actually not that hard to keep ahead of them once you have mag weapons and decent armor up (especially if you're also routinely not getting shot often).
A lot of this I feel comes from Firaxis not playing the game internally the way people who got the full thing actually are. In my own fiddling, this game on Legendary is much more fun when you don't spam grenades, can't bring 3 mimic beacons to every mission and you actually have to engage in shootouts with aliens as a result. I think this is probably why Firaxis thought the game was difficult, because they weren't just throwing 2-3 grenadiers into every mission with mimic beacons as equipment on others, then trivially rolling over the opposition. When I was exploiting the game to demonstrate for my friend - 20 flawless missions consecutively without being shot BTW** - it occurred to me that it was ridiculous to celebrate/deliberately try to hope that the "Faceless appear in every mission" event occurs. Their corpses can be rare and you need 2 per mimic beacon. 1 Faceless per mission for a month early on is another 2-3 mimic beacons and the game broken in half from the start.
*Evidence for this is in the AI files. Aliens prioritize non-wounded soldiers, over your guy with 2 HP they could easily kill this turn. This suggests to me the goal is to spread damage around your squad and cause injuries, but not create artificial challenge by having the aliens just pick off every wounded soldier that they can to reduce your squad. I agree with this and think it's excellent design, because they've obviously intended wound management and cycling soldiers to be a major part of the geoscape management side of the game.
**This is abusing the piss out of the game deliberately. I take a minimum of 3 grenadiers, most of the time 4, every mission. I have a specialist and a phantom/conceal build range for everything else. Specialist and Ranger both have mimic beacons. I have a third mimic beacon on one of the grenadiers. This group is practically invincible.
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Not to mention the Shaken system, which encourages players to exploit imbalances even more. I liked the Shaken thing at first, until getting hit once or twice in a mission meant one or two soldiers getting Shaken. Then getting rid of it makes it a burden by making you take the weaker soldier with you, let them kill something, and keep them perfectly undamaged the whole mission.
Much like the Dodge trait, it's of no real benefit to the player and is also a punishment for taking any kind of risk. I'd be fine with Shaken if it applied to soldiers who get downed but not killed outright, but having it as on ongoing risk when no permanent damage is done gets old.
We shouldn't see the enemy reinforcement's LZ ahead of time. Additionally, Bradford's warning should only be a general warning that it is inbound sometime soon. We shouldn't know exactly when they're dropping in.
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Possibly, but it feels like they're taking a very pure human approach to your team this time around. And after all the effort they've spent making soldiers customizable and memorable, I doubt they'd let you replace them with faceless robots. Even if the robots do have sweet flames painted on them.
I know how to use the swords. What I'm saying is that a bigger sword does absolutely nothing to fix a swords problems.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Firstly, to learn the difficulty before playing without backup saves. But more importantly, I don't want to be Ironmanning and doing well only to have a bug ruin the campaign.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
if it is your first run, do not ironman. the game has many, many pitfalls you will experience. good luck!
but also have had one bug where a soldier just couldn't move....... oh and where enemies stopped moving or attacking.
the andromedons pilot robot suits though....
Basically turn the MECs into vehicles instead of something the pilots themselves have to hook up to.
All the fun of kinetic strike without the guilt of chopping everything from the neck down off.
You say "guilt", I say "fun".
...I miss Vahlen.
Why I fear the ocean.
Yeah...
(Story spoilers)
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
I really don't give much of a crap about preserving our humanity when the first game presents the alternative as so more awesome.
MEC troopers and gene mods were my jam.
It does have armor. +1 armor.
edit: whoops totally beated
Fuck it. Put the chip in.
Coming to a DLC near you!
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Downsides!
Also supply raids. I just started a downed ufo mission, I suspect that will also gimme some. Basically loot missions I guess.
not only that, but by that point in the game you'll have plasma grenades. the plasma grenades are barring some very rare situations better than the rocket heavy weapon.
You're not thinking big enough.
Based on the ending
Nothing is ever better than a Blaster launcher bomb. Whenever I equip it I hear Tony Stark going all "Jericho Missile" in my head.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
the rocket launcher has basically infinite range
a plasma grenade thrown by a non-grenadier will get about as far as a fart
not
even
close
to equivalent
let alone better
start out "ME BIG MAN. ME IRONMAN TOUGHEST BIT!"
transition to "hmmmkay. let's do some missions and reload the bad bits where we are just learning the game!"
back up to "nonononono! I screwed this up so badly! I do not deserve to see a Chryssalid yet! start over you fucking moron! your early game is all shit!"
gonna have a lot of fun with this game
Fire Bomb seems like total garbage, though.
Also the Flamethrower, which I had been looking forward to. Cover obstructs it and I have never once seen it actually light a target on fire (whereas Dragon rounds consistently light targets ablaze). The Heavy Weapon project at the Proving Grounds is basically, "Do this until you get a Shredstorm Cannon. Sell the junk Flamethrowers which are strictly worse than the default Rocket Launcher."
Kind of disappointed about that.
Fire bomb has the biggest radius and burning shuts down enemy abilities besides shooting. It's handy for parts of the game but loses some of its punch when you see more Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Otherwise they're a nice FU to vipers and shieldbearers.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
It does 7-8 damage, shreds 2 armour, prevents ability use and does another 5 damage every turn.
Advanced ADVENT soldiers can be killed with a single bomb's damage and the initial DOT tick at the start of their turn.
...But why would you want to limit the AI's actions to 'only' shooting?
Shooting at you is arguably the best thing they can do for themselves. Abilities are a nuisance (most of the time) - shooting actually kills people.
I think the 6 damage tick is only if you're using it from a Grenadier with Volatile Mix. Apparently the +2 damage bonus applies to every tick of a grenade's DoT!
Also that it completes instantly, while war suits take time.
However
if you get the continent bonus that lets your proving grounds armor projects complete instantly
fuck paying for warden armor, just buy six war suits instead and save the elerium for shadow projects so you don't have to dick around waiting for an extra supply raid to be able to finish the game.
if you can get six war suits online instantly, you'll never need to wear a suit of warden armor unless you let one of your war suits get captured/killed without recovering the body, which...just don't do that? if you're at the stage of the game where you've got t3 armor it's probably not a realistic risk.
That would be a strong and interesting sounding combination to use. If DoT was ever worth it over blowing up cover and simply shooting the crap out of the exposed aliens. Area denial grenades causing the aliens to move out of cover and similar would really boost them up.
I'm wondering if by the time I'm getting my new computer, if there will be a balance patch that fixes some of the grenade/explosives issues and nerfs the mimic beacon or not. Minding, Firaxis are incredibly slow at patching....
Really want to try it but don't want to spoil any of the new enemy types for myself.
Alien reinforcements not getting their whole turn makes them an irrelevant threat to anything. They're frequently farmed for experience on a regular basis by nearly all of the players I've watched and myself (even Northernlion, one of the most clueless XCOM players from a tactical point of view, will hang around to shoot reinforcements for the experience). Reinforcements absolutely need to get their whole turn, not show up so obviously, or come in pairs so that one group at least has a chance of doing something.
I don't get why they have mechanics for fiddling with the RNG on commander difficulty (You get a +15 aim bonus for every shot you miss over a certain percentage). It shouldn't be fiddling with the RNG at all, ever. This is one of their worst design decisions by far and one I disagree with immensely. I'm not even okay with them messing with the RNG in the players favor on normal difficulty either, because this caused huge issues in EU/EW.
XCOM soldiers scale ridiculously, with anything that trivializes the early game content (EG Grenadiers or Mimic Beacons) snowballing so hard late game, that even some of the most powerful enemy units in the game have essentially no real challenge or threat to them. Late game XCOM colonels are so powerful, I'm not sure what I would even do to challenge them using the current games mechanics or enemies. I feel that Firaxis' design was that it was a challenge to get here, especially considering wounds and similar delaying promotions. On the other hand, such a safe early game (due to grenade spam and beacons) means you're not taking anywhere near the injuries I feel they anticipated the player doing. So getting that death squad of highly ranked soldiers that are practically invulnerable feels a lot easier than it perhaps should be. The aliens tech progression is quite slow, so it's actually not that hard to keep ahead of them once you have mag weapons and decent armor up (especially if you're also routinely not getting shot often).
A lot of this I feel comes from Firaxis not playing the game internally the way people who got the full thing actually are. In my own fiddling, this game on Legendary is much more fun when you don't spam grenades, can't bring 3 mimic beacons to every mission and you actually have to engage in shootouts with aliens as a result. I think this is probably why Firaxis thought the game was difficult, because they weren't just throwing 2-3 grenadiers into every mission with mimic beacons as equipment on others, then trivially rolling over the opposition. When I was exploiting the game to demonstrate for my friend - 20 flawless missions consecutively without being shot BTW** - it occurred to me that it was ridiculous to celebrate/deliberately try to hope that the "Faceless appear in every mission" event occurs. Their corpses can be rare and you need 2 per mimic beacon. 1 Faceless per mission for a month early on is another 2-3 mimic beacons and the game broken in half from the start.
*Evidence for this is in the AI files. Aliens prioritize non-wounded soldiers, over your guy with 2 HP they could easily kill this turn. This suggests to me the goal is to spread damage around your squad and cause injuries, but not create artificial challenge by having the aliens just pick off every wounded soldier that they can to reduce your squad. I agree with this and think it's excellent design, because they've obviously intended wound management and cycling soldiers to be a major part of the geoscape management side of the game.
**This is abusing the piss out of the game deliberately. I take a minimum of 3 grenadiers, most of the time 4, every mission. I have a specialist and a phantom/conceal build range for everything else. Specialist and Ranger both have mimic beacons. I have a third mimic beacon on one of the grenadiers. This group is practically invincible.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Only the primary weapon sadly.
Much like the Dodge trait, it's of no real benefit to the player and is also a punishment for taking any kind of risk. I'd be fine with Shaken if it applied to soldiers who get downed but not killed outright, but having it as on ongoing risk when no permanent damage is done gets old.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012