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I'd imagine having the weapon upgrade where you always hit for low damage even if you miss would be good for any sort of specialty weapons like poison or dragon rounds.
@Silent Puffin: I think I could one up that one. I heard there's an ability where you take your pistol out and shoot at every available target. Basically have your squad ambush a ton of guys and open up with a pistol wielding sharpshooter with a repeater (instant kill % or a free action %). Suddenly that percentage skyrockets the more enemies are there. That said you'd probably get overwhelmed but anything with lots of attacks would be good for that.
Btw I have mostly stuck to one path per skill tree myself. I run specialists as medics mostly because of stun lancers and because hacking a mech tends to not work for me. I may use it again but I generally don't have the hacking skill for it. My sharpshooters are always snipers so far. My heavies are normally on the grenadier side of the tree (except for suppression). Lastly my rangers are usually the concealed variety.
You'd be surprised the usefulness of a concealed ranger. In missions where you begin outside of concealment they are super helpful with one or two of em. Very great spotters so you can be in the right position wherever you go.
Proving grounds research is deadly slow, I mean literally if I do not get my stuff fast enough.
There's a continent bonus just for that giving you instant 'proving grounds' items. The bonuses are the same each game but change continents every game. Find out where it is and get full coverage on it.
Skinnereal wrote: I am about to go wild with fire.
There is the flamethrower I got from the proving ground. A range 24 cone of roasty goodness.
And, there's the spiky flame vest. I'm waiting to use it with a Ranger, and to get a Muton to hit me back.
I'm torn on explosives.
They are guaranteed hits, but negate accessory drops, IIRC.
Get the experimental heavy weapons at the proving ground. The first I got was a junky flamethrower but the 2nd was a shredder gun/cannon. It is possibly one of the most amazing guns I've seen in the proving ground (up till now anyway). One shot but it does like 7-9 damage, removes all cover in a cone and takes off a lot of armor as well. Basically you can approach dudes in cover with it and hit them even if they're behind a wall for full damage and armor peeling. In fact I'm willing to say it puts the flamethrower to shame with the exception of making enemies take burning damage or perhaps prevent some from moving through a wall of fire (if they're melee or have bad cover (or were ambushed).
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Maybe it's just me and sometimes heavy cover can ruin 'line of sight' but normally I'm not finding being spotted to be as bad as it could be. The concealed turns work very well if you know how to do it and the terrain is ok. The trick is you generally want to find cover that is cover on 2 of the 4 sides. I basically had an enemy patrol move right passed one of my rangers in concealment just because of his cover and they walked right near him so that if I moved they'd spot him. So yeah sometimes losing concealment can suck but there are some tricks to it. It's just very different because you don't always need to worry about hard cover in concealment to my knowledge.
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Is it me or is 'intel' possibly one of the most important resources in the game? With intel you can get weapon upgrades, PCS, alloys, elerium, rush research, supplies (money), get scientists and engineers and get new experienced soldiers all on the black market. Also you need 'intel' just to get from one country to another. It's almost as important as money but in some cases more so. The only way to get 'intel' is with some mission rewards, hacking rewards, possibly supply drops in some areas and esp. enemy loot drops (you need to research it but alien data caches and advent data caches). Seriously high amounts of 'intel' means you probably can get about half or a third of what you'll need in a game.
This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 2016/02/17 00:45:40
The shredder is amazing. That's all that can be said. In the game I'm currently doing very well. I have about 4 territories and the avatar level is at about 3 or 4 now.
I liked all the various ammo types but I have to say AP rounds are amazing! Seriously it avoids 5 armor so I put in on my snipers so I could snipe some jerks. It's ridiculously potent and helpful for what I took it with. Dunno if I even need stuff like bluescreen ammo or anything. Speaking of all the armor these bullets avoid it pretty much instant kills turrets since it goes through all their armor. Turrets can't move so if you need you can use the ranger to spot and the sniper to shoot.
Also I may be wrong but I think only one enemy on the map drops loot per mission you're on. I could be wrong though. I haven't seen it enough. Oddly I haven't seen much in the way of data caches if at all in my 5th game. I did get a ridiculous number of elerium cores though and coupled with some ability I must have (country bonus perhaps?) that lets me make experimental ammo and grenades instantly it has been awesome. I'm wondering what I managed to unlock to get this actually. I made at least 4 ammos and 4 grenades and then exo suit armor and 3 experimental heavy weapons (sadly 2 rolled up flamer but one was shredder gun).
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/02/17 05:19:32
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
Yeah, it seems loot drops are limited to one per mission.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
flamingkillamajig wrote: Also I may be wrong but I think only one enemy on the map drops loot per mission you're on. I could be wrong though. I haven't seen it enough. Oddly I haven't seen much in the way of data caches if at all in my 5th game. I did get a ridiculous number of elerium cores though and coupled with some ability I must have (country bonus perhaps?) that lets me make experimental ammo and grenades instantly it has been awesome. I'm wondering what I managed to unlock to get this actually. I made at least 4 ammos and 4 grenades and then exo suit armor and 3 experimental heavy weapons (sadly 2 rolled up flamer but one was shredder gun).
It's a bonus for having scouted out all of the resistance groups on a particular continent.
Heh yeah I see it was the one I mentioned before. I thought it used to be all of the 'proving grounds' gear not just grenades, ammo and weapons. Guess it leaves out some things then. Oh well it's still a super great bonus to get.
@Silent Puffin: I think I could one up that one. I heard there's an ability where you take your pistol out and shoot at every available target. Basically have your squad ambush a ton of guys and open up with a pistol wielding sharpshooter with a repeater (instant kill % or a free action %). Suddenly that percentage skyrockets the more enemies are there. That said you'd probably get overwhelmed but anything with lots of attacks would be good for that.
I prefer the Killzone skill due to its ability to wipe out entire reinforcement waves at once. A dedicated gunslinger may be quite useful with the right ammo though due to all the extra shot skills they have.
Poison damage triggers the firing weapons repeater kill chance so its possible to execute enemies with poison damage (probably a bug but its funny).
EM ammo and grenades are my friend. Effective stop of codex mirrors, gatekeepers, sectopods and mechs. A grenade can in a need also remove shields, ammo can make a mech easier to hack.
Armed to the teeth must be my favourite bonus. Adding another upgrade to the weapon is very beneficial. Had some luck with hair triggers.
The last level was rather underwhelming, I've re-loaded few times to get the most out of shots or better angle on the boss, simply because I wanted to be done with it as soon as possible. Wonder when the sequel will be announced.
Has anybody seen a gif of the glitch or gotten the glitch where when you skulljack an advent soldier they hover over above the normal spot they're in and your soldier uppercuts them in the balls with the skulljack and lifts them up with a hack system popping up over it?
I saw the gif and wasn't sure if it was a glitch till it happened in my game. It's too ****ing hilarious but it's very real.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/02/19 00:20:57
OMG are they really going to do a remake of Terror from the Deep? Squee!
I liked that sequel.
It seemed even harder and scarier.
Though I am already calling Andromedans "BigDaddies", they just need a more appropriate diving helmet (I know, different game).
That's because it was.
Fun little story - the original version of XCOM : UFO defense had a bug where all the difficulty settings defaulted to the easiest difficulty. As such, Superhuman difficulty, the hardest difficulty, ended up being easier than it should have been.
This resulted in complaints that the game was too easy after a certain point, so for the sequel Microprose took steps to up the ante, which is why in TFTD you start off with gakky weapons (even by xcom standards the harpoon weapons are rubbish), a harsher damage system, a convoluted research system and lobstermen.
Fortunately, this bug has been corrected in the steam and modded versions, but these did not exist back then.
On Terror From The Deep:
What I would very much like to see is not Terror From The Deep as a standalone game, it's an expanded version of EW. Make a new XCOM game, but with support for simulating submerged and half-submerged terrain, generating levels with same, and with some added equipment for operating in those environments. So you'd basically be playing XCOM: Enemy Within, but sometimes you'd have to wade across a stream to get to your target, and sometimes you'd shoot down a UFO and have it crash in a lake, so you have to kit up with scuba suits and underwater rifles (or Titan Armour and sonic cannons) to go get it.
"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
-C.S. Lewis
I think it would be helpful if people mentioned tech trees, item costs (or at least requirements to make an item like advent trooper corpses) and other helpful tips so we can all benefit.
It seems the advent mech autopsy increases gremlins to tier 2 and sectopod autopsy increases gremlins to tier 3. Turret research gave the building for the turrets. Mutons give upgraded grenade launcher and plasma grenades (have to build plasma grenades in proving ground and the launcher is a straight up buy in items). Sectoid of course gives psychics and that sort of thing. Not sure what viper gives other than venom rounds. Same goes for chryssalids. Most make sense but it's a little different like to upgrade all your armor to tier 2 you need advent trooper corpses.
Anyway it's fairly the same but a lot more complicated and fairly different too. It's gonna take some getting used to and time to learn everything.
The viper allows you an upgrade to a battlefield medicine.
Curious thought, on the first play I preferred taking shredder on my gunners. Now I see a merit in taking the alternative perk, doing damage is all well, however there will be times where you cannot kill everything within your LoS. Having some extra protection did make a difference between a soldier seeing another day or not. You do need to find an alternative solution for the enemy armour. I'd guess this is why the game gives "proving grounds" as one of the early buildings to build.
Building a workshop was one of better early game decisions I've made. Considering how starved you are for manpower at the beginning it seemed like a good idea. For an attached operator you get three drones that you can assign to adjacent buildings or order them to excavate adjacent room.
Just got it a few days ago, I'm amazed it can run on my toaster of a laptop, although I use a lot of mods to make it possible.
The "stop wasting my time" mods pack is amazing for upping performance. It cuts out a lot of unnecessary camera effects, pauses, and pans like switching rooms in the avenger. In addition, theres a ton of amazing great customization packs out there like the military camo pack and a ton with special ops helmets, baklavas', hats, etc. Also found a mod that lets me set up default uniforms for all classes and even save presets for different environments, which is awesome.
Also, I got the "balljack" glitch too, absolutely hilarious. I run the skulljack on my assault all the time now just to see if I can do it again.
Not very far into the game, I've been putting off the blacksite missions for a long time so I can get captains, mag weapons, exo suits, etc. I've got maybe 3 ticks left to go and I'm just now getting around to my second blacksite.
Also, the spider suit is incredible on snipers, to the point of feeling disgusting. The grapple doesn't count as a move, so I've pulled crazy stuff like grapple, lightning hands, then headshot some scrub across the map or even set up a killzone on all the guys I just flanked. A guy specced into pistols would be insane with it. Even without pistol skills, I once grappled, ran across a roof, and popped two pistol shots into a viper from above. He made it further than my run and gun ranger could!
Finally, specialists are OP as hell, I love them. I've got two excellent ones already and they just cannot be stopped when you go all combat abilities. Combat protocol alone is incredibly useful, I swear my capt specialist has as many kills on his gremlin as he does his main weapons
'I've played Guard for years, and the best piece of advice is to always utilize the Guard's best special rule: "we roll more dice than you" ' - stormleader
"Sector Imperialis: 25mm and 40mm Round Bases (40+20) 26€ (Including 32 skulls for basing) " GW design philosophy in a nutshell
MrMoustaffa wrote: Just got it a few days ago, I'm amazed it can run on my toaster of a laptop, although I use a lot of mods to make it possible.
The "stop wasting my time" mods pack is amazing for upping performance. It cuts out a lot of unnecessary camera effects, pauses, and pans like switching rooms in the avenger. In addition, theres a ton of amazing great customization packs out there like the military camo pack and a ton with special ops helmets, baklavas', hats, etc. Also found a mod that lets me set up default uniforms for all classes and even save presets for different environments, which is awesome.
Also, I got the "balljack" glitch too, absolutely hilarious. I run the skulljack on my assault all the time now just to see if I can do it again.
Not very far into the game, I've been putting off the blacksite missions for a long time so I can get captains, mag weapons, exo suits, etc. I've got maybe 3 ticks left to go and I'm just now getting around to my second blacksite.
Also, the spider suit is incredible on snipers, to the point of feeling disgusting. The grapple doesn't count as a move, so I've pulled crazy stuff like grapple, lightning hands, then headshot some scrub across the map or even set up a killzone on all the guys I just flanked. A guy specced into pistols would be insane with it. Even without pistol skills, I once grappled, ran across a roof, and popped two pistol shots into a viper from above. He made it further than my run and gun ranger could!
Finally, specialists are OP as hell, I love them. I've got two excellent ones already and they just cannot be stopped when you go all combat abilities. Combat protocol alone is incredibly useful, I swear my capt specialist has as many kills on his gremlin as he does his main weapons
If you think grapple is amazing on snipers it is but it's even more godly on rangers. If you combine it with 'implacable' and 'untouchable' your ranger becomes godly. You use the grapple to grapple onto a building far in front of you where enemies are, then you move to flank them from the high ground, shoot one dead, get a free move to go hide with implacable and then in their turn get untouchable so the first attack on that ranger fails even if a sectopod shoots at him. Sometimes I just kill off weak dudes when a sectopod is around and bait the sectopod to shoot at the ranger as the only one that can shoot at it.
Currently I'm trying for the 4 man commander run and doing so on ironman mode. I honestly am getting too frustrated doing it. Somewhere in july or august in the game it just gets too hard. It's usually about when you start facing the archon. They just do too much damage with just 4 guys fighting them and the fact 4 men can't handle more than one pod/patrol at a time late game is just frustrating. Once the sectopod comes around though it's just too tough. Farthest I got was having to face down 2 sectopods. I managed to kill both but then the reinforcements that came in on that alien base were just too tough.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/03/25 04:55:14
This resulted in complaints that the game was too easy after a certain point, so for the sequel Microprose took steps to up the ante, which is why in TFTD you start off with gakky weapons (even by xcom standards the harpoon weapons are rubbish), a harsher damage system, a convoluted research system and lobstermen.
Lobstermen! I had totally forgotten those guys. I actually missed XCom originally and started with From the Deep. Lobstermen were awesome. Later on I went back and played the original XCom.
The first DLC came out recently. It's strictly cosmetic options for the troops, though. There are at least two additional DLC still planned, and they should have non-cosmetic stuff.
Apparently Xcom 2 just got 10 new Steam achievements and seem to be doing their 2nd of 3 DLC (the first being 'anarchy's children').
ALIEN HUNTERS introduces new soldier customizations and gameplay themed around XCOM as an elite alien hunting unit. Face off against “Ruler” aliens with new, more powerful weapons and armor. Experience a new dramatic mission & confrontation. (To be released in Summer 2016)
Considering the new achievements are based around killing ruler aliens (viper king, berserker and archon) and there are ruler armors apparently with abilities you can wear. Also sounds like there will be hunter weapons whatever that is. I'm guessing they're a new specialist weapon to take down ruler aliens but it may just be a new tier of weaponry or just special weapons.
Anyway I'm somewhat interested. It sounds like a it'll have more content than the xcom: eu Slingshot DLC had.
flamingkillamajig wrote: Anyway I'm somewhat interested. It sounds like a it'll have more content than the xcom: eu Slingshot DLC had.
Slingshot was originally supposed to be the first of multiple DLCs. But Slingshot's poor reception led the developers to abandon that plan. The only things known about the other DLCs are the descriptions that were in the Achievements that were posted up on Steam when XCom was released... and then removed shortly after Slingshot's release.
So I think it's safe to say that Firaxis learned from Slingshot.
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