XCOM 2 Catch-All

Yeah. I liked the iPad version but, I'd rather just play it on a PC instead. Especially with the mod scene the way it is.

The Spiffing Brit is at it again with XCOM 2.

Mobile version for me was more about getting some game time in when I'm away from my gaming machine

It say something that after 40+ complete campaigns in this game, it is still possible to see something you've never seen before.

I'm playing a Commander level Ironman, and storming the Forge site. It's pretty late in the game, and my crew is pretty leveled up. Early on, I have my Psi Op mind-control a Sectoid, because I figure it'll be fun to have it run around mind-spinning troopers and animated psi zombies. And it was; I had three zombies running around at one point, and one even killed a Priest.

I get the statis suit and fight my way to the evac point, and evac all my squad (Psi Op last so that the Sectoid can't cause any trouble when it is released from mind control). The Sectoid returns to its own free will, and I expect the mission recap screen to pop up.

But it doesn't.

Did I forget to evac someone? I'm not overly worried, there's just one Sectoid running around, and a reinforcement incoming, so I think I'm OK.

Aliens move - the Sectoid runs over to a tree and takes cover

XCom move - my remaining psi zombie did not remain under the Sectoid's command - it remains loyal to XCom! It's just a few feet away from the Sectoid, so I stumble it over there and take a swing. Sorry about that melee vulnerability, Sectoid - he drops, and then the psi zombie drops, and then the mission ends.

I had three soldiers listed as dead on that mission - all of them psi zombies. Sadly, XCom did not appreciate their sacrifice, and they were not added to the Memorial Wall.

I've had this in my backlog for some time and decided to finally give it a go recently. I totally bounced off XCOM: EU and it's starting to happen a bit here as well. I think it's mostly down to the fact I'm just not good at losing! It's made me think that I'm probably just not playing the game in the right way. A lot of people say you're supposed to lose soldiers, but I guess my big worry is that it'll trip me up later in the game. This has made me save scum a lot to keep my soldiers alive, particularly as I've had a few problems with the enemy just rushing me with loads of units, all because I make one move to expose them all.

I'm basically managing to get through every mission with at least 2 soldiers gravely wounded, but I'm still not able to just let go and carry on to see soldiers die. Am I doing this all really wrong? What's an acceptable level to lose? Will losing soldiers trip me up late game or is it easy enough to recover from a few losses?

Clusks wrote:

I've had this in my backlog for some time and decided to finally give it a go recently. I totally bounced off XCOM: EU and it's starting to happen a bit here as well. I think it's mostly down to the fact I'm just not good at losing! It's made me think that I'm probably just not playing the game in the right way. A lot of people say you're supposed to lose soldiers, but I guess my big worry is that it'll trip me up later in the game. This has made me save scum a lot to keep my soldiers alive, particularly as I've had a few problems with the enemy just rushing me with loads of units, all because I make one move to expose them all.

I'm basically managing to get through every mission with at least 2 soldiers gravely wounded, but I'm still not able to just let go and carry on to see soldiers die. Am I doing this all really wrong? What's an acceptable level to lose? Will losing soldiers trip me up late game or is it easy enough to recover from a few losses?

Losses are expected in your first play throughs and (in my experience) in early missions at higher difficulties even for more experienced players. One of the keys is summed up in a loading-screen tip from EU: level up as many soldiers as you can rather than focusing on one team... it makes the game less brittle.

So, yes, a death mid-game can be campaign-endangering, but only aren’t balancing out the workload and building a healthy roster. My typical plan is to take as many lower-ranking soldiers as I think the mission difficulty will permit, saving my elite force to work as a team on major story missions.

Having guys wounded will happen quite a bit, but ideally you can keep from losing too many soldiers.

As Aretz says, try to bring along lower-ranking soldier so that you have a broader skilled roster to work from.

Strategy-wise, it's critical to limit the number of pods of enemies that you activate a once; I use Reapers or scouting Rangers to move ahead and identify pod locations and then try to tackle them from positions where I won't alert more enemies unintentionally. Be careful about having Rangers melee enemies near the edges of your vision, as that is a great way to unintentionally bring down a world of hurt on your squad. I keep Specialists towards the back of the squad, protected as they are key to saving everyone else.

Build the Guerrilla Training School and train your rookies rather than letting them gain classes randomly - you'll end up with too many sharpshooters if don't. I like to build a roster into the low to mid-20's with a roughly even split of classes, except fewer sharpshooters and more rangers (rangers will get injured and killed more often as they on the front lines). Building the Infirmary (if you're playing WoTC) early can also be a big help if you're running into issues as it will allow you to heal faster.

Feel free to ask any specific questions! I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses. Keep in mind, you'll probably have a couple of trash-can fire campaigns early on while you get used to things. Don't be afraid to say "well this is going badly" and start over with your new-found knowledge.

Great responses and good advice there.

I would also add that for me, it took quite a lot of tries to get used to playing the game. Lot's of quitting a campaign and applying the knowledge I gained in the failure toward the next one. It also helps that I kind of enjoy the early game a lot. Like, it's super hard, sure, but the potential is limitless. Of course, once you start rolling it's fun too, but that early game with all the "what ifs". I guess I dig the guided emergent storytelling aspect.

On another topic:

In my current campaign I cannot, for the love of all things, find repeaters. They are not dropping in loot and they're not showing up in the black market. It's late August and I only have one advanced repeater I found early on and the repeater for the special resistance weapons we got from DLC.

War of the the Chosen is much more forgiving of soldier losses than vanilla XCOM 2. It is not uncommon to lose, for example, a captain and find a mission (or operation, vendor hire, etc) that rewards a captain or lieutenant several mission sets later.

Tactically, XCOM 2 is often reduced to not biting off more than you can chew.

Starting out, really be mindful of pod activation and try to get to cover (with elevation if safe and possible) in your "blue" move.

Try not to activate pods unless your soldiers still have actions available. Activating a pod on your last soldier's last move or action of a turn is not ideal.

Another xcom tip is some missions like assassinate/capture the VIP or rescue the prisoner don't require you to kill all the aliens. I have had good luck just sending in the reaper and staying out of sight then hightailing it out of there

fledermaus wrote:

Another xcom tip is some missions like assassinate/capture the VIP or rescue the prisoner don't require you to kill all the aliens. I have had good luck just sending in the reaper and staying out of sight then hightailing it out of there

Yup. One of my favorite moments was when I realized (spoiler for War of the Chosen mission):

Spoiler:

That I could rescue Mox with just Dragunova and a scouting-build Ranger by sneaking past the guards, blowing up the wall to the cell, grabbing Mox and running to the extraction point.

As mentioned above, if you've got War of the Chosen, the game really tries to make sure you don't lose. There are a handful of ways to get leveled-up soldiers and the Resistance Ring gives you a bunch of options for managing the game, so don't worry about losing a few soldiers at the beginning.

I got XCOM 2 on a freebie with PS+ ages ago on PS4, but when I got WOTC for free as well I fell off the bandwagon for a while because I had to restart the campaign.

Now I decided to give it another go, but since that last time I upgraded my PC and now the PS4 version feels extra slow. So I double dipped and got the Collection on Steam

Installed a voice pack mod, extra female hairstyle mod (because in 2035 my daughters will be at fighting age and they're effin' badass), and the flanking preview mod. All ready to go after work is done!

dejanzie wrote:

I got XCOM 2 on a freebie with PS+ ages ago on PS4, but when I got WOTC for free as well I fell off the bandwagon for a while because I had to restart the campaign.

Now I decided to give it another go, but since that last time I upgraded my PC and now the PS4 version feels extra slow. So I double dipped and got the Collection on Steam

Installed a voice pack mod, extra female hairstyle mod (because in 2035 my daughters will be at fighting age and they're effin' badass), and the flanking preview mod. All ready to go after work is done!

Wait until the first one dies. Then you’ll have them as VIPs who stay safe and sound on the Avenger all the time. I speak from experience.

Sorbicol wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

I got XCOM 2 on a freebie with PS+ ages ago on PS4, but when I got WOTC for free as well I fell off the bandwagon for a while because I had to restart the campaign.

Now I decided to give it another go, but since that last time I upgraded my PC and now the PS4 version feels extra slow. So I double dipped and got the Collection on Steam

Installed a voice pack mod, extra female hairstyle mod (because in 2035 my daughters will be at fighting age and they're effin' badass), and the flanking preview mod. All ready to go after work is done!

Wait until the first one dies. Then you’ll have them as VIPs who stay safe and sound on the Avenger all the time. I speak from experience.

In my vanilla XCOM2 play, I restarted the first mission five times to avoid their demises. When in the WOTC playthrough I started on PS4 my youngest daughter was assigned as a scientist, I was one happy camper

So yeah, you're right. But they just cannot side on the sidelines while the planet goes to sh*t, can they now?

I hate Gatecrasher, so I installed a mod that just skips it as if you played it (corpses and loot are collected).

mwdowns wrote:

I hate Gatecrasher, so I installed a mod that just skips it as if you played it (corpses and loot are collected).

Gatecrasher is an incredibly difficult mission.

If you play WOTC with a random hero, it can be really rough.

The templar is situationally one of the strongest heroes for that mission but is also quite weak due to not having parry yet.

The skirmisher is decent but the short range, low hit, and low ammo can be big liabilities.

The reaper is probably strongest due to scouting and accurate damage but once shadow is lost, they are very fragile.

Thus the mod. I mean, I can beat the mission but it's just not very fun.

Played some more last night and still no repeaters. Annoying!

Though I was able to take out the Viper King with a nice combination of overwatch trap, free moves, and a frost bomb. Not looking forward to the Berserker Queen or the Archon King, though. I think it might be one of those things where you need to set up an overwatch trap where the first overwatcher will apply shred and some sort of debuff (fire or poison) and then the second overwatcher will be a Specialist with the "multiple shots on overwatch perk". And then just use free actions from there.

At a point now where we're starting to roll.

It's a different perspective to me to be seeking out repeaters. I think I've mostly used the mod to turn them into extra crit damage or something.

Not in this new game though so maybe I will try that. I think I am going to try making more stealth line rangers and gunslinger line sharpshooters as well. I have usually ignored these trees in the past but time for a change.

I've only been able to play 90 minutes the last 2 days, but the difference between the PS4 and my newish PC is gigantic. I'm playing the PC version in 1440p maximum detail, and it's not only looking way crisper (obviously) but loading times are near-zero and it runs like butter (4K was a bit too much though).

I underestimated how much difference in enjoyment a technical upgrade brings.

Upgrades to beat down loading times always bring me back to the PC in the end.
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Of sep note, HP beefed up lost + bladestorm with fair lost targeting has been fun, but current AI adjustments just don't account for it well on the Advent/alien end; it seems too cheaty to turtle up in a building and have them slaughter each other.

My friend will have her kids over this weekend (toddlers) so it will likely be late night Fri/Sat before I can remod, but I think I'm going to go back to ~ 'no headshots on the lost" + having them just raise whatever they kill to zombies and leave it at that for challenge balance for the lost. I figure the Hive is enough to maul me if the lost changes don't. Plus those 10HP giant lost, that burst into poison boil on hit -- often at the third mission in, are enough pain to go around.

I made the mistake of buying too many upgrades at the very beginning, resulting in a lack of funds for my first facility. It was only a few days away from the end of the first month though, so not too much worries. Then the end of the month came, I supposedly received 167 monies, but than my total was still the same?

So much happens now when a month ends. I remember the Dark Events stuff, but sending soldiers on a mission, giving orders to the other rebel factions, that's new. Maybe I inadvertently spent all my money there, without realizing it? Or is it just a bug?

Because on other month without being able to build facilities would be murder.

You need to scan to pick up the monies. But it's only a 3 day scan. There's a Resistance Order that lets you instant collect later on.

mwdowns wrote:

You need to scan to pick up the monies. But it's only a 3 day scan. There's a Resistance Order that lets you instant collect later on.

Thanks, found it. I forgot how much goes on in this game at any given moment. I got interrupted thrice for random events while harvesting these resources.

^ Yeah, that can get tedious. One thing I do miss from LW2 was the idea of taking on active missions to "raid supply convoys" (IIRC in RE to name).

I was messing with a megamod that takes this approach, and it was fun, but needs to bake a bit longer before it lands on Steam Workshop. Having three to four squads out in the field, at any given time, was also a nice change to just juggling squad A and Squad B. Felt more old school XCOM then just shuffling supersoldiers in and out of drained willpower/fatigue rotation.

Once that gets refined, and there's more documentation on extensive compatibility, I'll probably go that route and entirely forego Long War of the Chosen when it, officially, lands.
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In current news, I need to get some lightning reflexes or shadow step going. The advent snipers + sentinels I have in right now are proving brutal. Pathfinders and hunters, while low damage, are also PITA flankmeisters as always.

I have range tables tweaked and modded weapon mods also in the mix that help to self guard me from cheesing the enemies -- Grenn's video is fairly spot on. On that note, 'Run and Gun' is pushed back a rank or two (need to check exact tree ) as that's fairly easy to abuse early on.

Lastly, someone finally has two of my usual go-to mods smashed together as one "Diverse Aliens By Force Level WOTC". Essentially Diverse Alien Pods WOTC + [WOTC] Increase Pod Size By Force Level in one.

Between the above and Yellow Alert gameplay v2 the Pain Train is full steam ahead!

I've seen a rumour that this is coming for Switch. That may tip me into being a Switch owner.

Just keeps scratching an itch in my brain. Last night I had 8 Chrysalids active at one point and the Hunter in the back putting his mark on my squad. But I puzzled my way through it, got lucky with a miss from one that got through, and finished the mission Flawless. Had a couple more good missions and strong month and went to bed feeling very satisfied with the session. Feels good man.

I love it when a plan unexpectedly comes together better than anticipated.

The PSI Chosen guy dropped into my rescue mission, and was doing his PSI-opsy things while hiding on the first floor across the street. As it would take two more turns to position the team for a clear shot, I decided to grenade blast the building in the hopes of blowing his cover and softening him up a bit.

It didn't only do that for 5 damage, the floor dropped from beneath him causing 4 falling damage. And he fell in between three Lost, who caused 2 additional damage in between turns. I was able to slice him to pieces with my Ranger the turn after, breaking the mind control on Mox before he could do any damage.

Nice.

I've caught the Warlock a couple of times with overwatch fire when he first shows up, taking him out fully before his opening rant even finishes, so that he's still boasting about how he's going to kill me while his dead body is getting teleported back to his stronghold already.

Bruce wrote:

I've seen a rumour that this is coming for Switch. That may tip me into being a Switch owner.

I would wait to see just how badly it runs on Switch before getting at all excited about it.

Yeah, a Switch version would be cool, but I've read that it doesn't not play so well on the PS4 and the Switch hardware isn't any better than the PS4, right? But I still want to get a Switch for the XCOM of soccer, a.k.a. Football, Tactics, and Glory.

I've had enough face rolling with my current campaign and am about to storm the castle. I've been playing with a Spark for the past few months of missions. It's not too bad. I'm debating on whether to take it along with me on the final go, but I don't think it will make the cut. I'm trying to remember what I took on previous playthroughs...but I think I'll be taking my 3 bonded pairs...Ranger/Specialist, Ranger/SS, Grenadier/Reaper. Might switch out the G/R for a Grenadier/Templar.

Next after that might be trying my hand and Legend, but I could just do another Commander since I'm not the strongest or most patient player and Legend might make the game not fun.

mwdowns wrote:

Yeah, a Switch version would be cool, but I've read that it doesn't not play so well on the PS4 and the Switch hardware isn't any better than the PS4, right?

Yeah, this game doesn't play great on the PS4 or even the PS4 Pro.

I should say that the base game doesn't play well. I've been told that War of the Chosen improves on a lot of the technical issues of the base game, but you don't see those improvements without buying the expansion. It's a catch-22, though, because I haven't been willing to buy the expansion because the base game has so many technical problems.