X-Com 2 - Announced

PinkFloyd said:

I can't fathom why they'd lock it in. I don't see what it gains. If people want to save scum (I do it a little) so be it. Anyone who doesn't do it is completely unaffected by it as they aren't going to reload things anyway!

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Artificially increases longevity, by forcing restarts.

Probably saw the popularity of "rouge-likes", and decided that people having to start a new game over and over, getting a bit further each time, was a good idea.

Turns a 15 hour game into a 40 hour game

Didn't know it had a term! Yikes.
PinkFloyd. I agree, it's not like it hurts anyone in a single player game.

Wonder if it's to do with some underlying engine changes and the way things are calculated rather than any malice towards players. I've noticed a couple of achievements have popped up the second I hit the end turn button but before we see it play out. I just got the kill a sectopod the same turn you find it achivement pop up before I knew there was a sectopod out there, I hit end turn, it moved into range and the overwatch shots piled up and killed it, ditto the kill 500 aliens one.

Not really enjoying it at the moment. Too many things in it that feel unfair. Not the RNG, well used to that, just some of the cheap moves and tactics to force you into rushing, and some insane abilities - stun lancers covering half the map to knock you out just isn't entertaining.

Sleepery said:

stun lancers covering half the map to knock you out just isn't entertaining.

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Couldn't agree more.

The timers are so harsh in places. I had a mission where I had to get across a huge map, kill/pick up a VIP then get out. Failed miserably on the first attempt, managed it on the final turn the second time around after my first 3 actions being full sprint double move actions for the entire squad to get to the target area and have enough time to actually kill anything!

FoxEye said:

Artificially increases longevity, by forcing restarts.

Probably saw the popularity of "rouge-likes", and decided that people having to start a new game over and over, getting a bit further each time, was a good idea.

Turns a 15 hour game into a 40 hour game

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Roguelike works on games where you can play the entire thing in 1-2 hours, here it sucks I've played huge amounts of Faster than Light for example, it drives me nuts at times but I know I've only lost a small amount of time, not a soldier I've been training up for 10 hours!

Jonny2284 said:

Wonder if it's to do with some underlying engine changes and the way things are calculated rather than any malice towards players. I've noticed a couple of achievements have popped up the second I hit the end turn button but before we see it play out. I just got the kill a sectopod the same turn you find it achivement pop up before I knew there was a sectopod out there, I hit end turn, it moved into range and the overwatch shots piled up and killed it, ditto the kill 500 aliens one.

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Yeah, ive had a few event spoilers like that. The most noticeable was for 'Cause an enemy to die in a vehicle explosion', i had 3-4 guys on overwatch, up pops the achievement, and then about 30+ seconds later after everyone has missed the shot, the car they were hiding behind explodes and kills them.

Also, in terms of events being pre-determined and not malice, im calling BS on that one. I regularly tab out of the game to respond to messages, i have 3 screens so the game stays put in the middle and i'll respond on one of the side screens. I have this nasty habit of going back to the game by clicking on the screen, and sending them off on an unwanted trek across the scene. When i go back to the start of my go and do a hack, i've had the mech which previously went to about 80% across, with only around 12-15% needed to pass/stun, always fail on every single reload, it does about 5% and says FU.

I also think the mission i did early hours this morning must have been bugged out. It was a VIP mission, i managed to take down the first small group on my 2nd turn, which was right where the exit point was, took out another 3 on the next turn without really going anywhere other than revealing them, sent 1 person to the VIP who was pretty close which activated a group quite far away, and with the 4th turn i'd sniped 2 of them from absolutely stupid distances (using squad view perk), and it was at that point where i realised each turn, i'd seen none of them move. They never ran forward when revealed, didnt move on the turn.
It must have happened on the previous map though, because with about 3 left to kill i noticed i wasnt seeing their action, it was just a long 'aliens moving' screen, no screen panning around etc. There had been some destruction, which made me think that one had missed a shot, but it was probably just the building destruction. So i dont know (cos ive not gone back in yet) if thats my whole save knackered or if it was just a flawed exe issue and loading it up will go back to normal. I'd been so impressed that my solders were nailing shots (they were mostly 90+% sniper shots though) as well.

edit - just loaded the previous mission (where i think it started) and skipped my turn and they moved straight away, so fortunately its was just in that particular running instance. Although im probably going to be screwed soon anyway, simply wasnt paying enough attention to the checklist and im on a countdown i doubt i can come back from.

I just did a few good misions in a row. Was wondering why I enjoyed them more than the others, then I realised none of them had a timer!

Unfortunately this ridiculous Avatar thing will probably go all the way down before I can do much more. I've hardly seen any missions to get it down.


It is a good game, just too unfair in areas and much less strategic which is not what I wanted at all. There are areas of improvement but unfortunately tactics have been dumbed down with a focus on rushing everything.

just had a flawless mission, my first \o/

congratulated myself, started next one accidentally un-concealed myself with first guy i moved, one of those white balls fired it's fart bomb into my other 5 guys BOOM 9dmg a piece

Pighardia said:

I just did a few good misions in a row. Was wondering why I enjoyed them more than the others, then I realised none of them had a timer!

Unfortunately this ridiculous Avatar thing will probably go all the way down before I can do much more. I've hardly seen any missions to get it down.

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You have to unlock the areas where the Avatar projects are currently in progress, by contacting the local resistance

Pighardia said:

It is a good game, just too unfair in areas and much less strategic which is not what I wanted at all. There are areas of improvement but unfortunately tactics have been dumbed down with a focus on rushing everything.

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I don't think it's been dumbed down at all, it's a logical development from Enemy Within which had the MEC container timers.

Turtling along and going on overwatch every 6 tiles wasn't exactly amazing tactics.

Loving this game.

Just had a nail biting escape on a VIP mission. Accidently triggered 2 big groups. Lots of using grenades to collapse the floor underneath super-dooper mechs and those glitchy things. Couple of my guys went down, but managed to stabilise them. Ended up carrying out the 2 wounded and the captured VIP using the others in the squad, running from reinforcements dropping behind me and another cluster of aliens spawning near to the extraction point. Was heart pounding stuff... barely made it out. Never leave a man behind!

Really enjoying this game

For people annoyed by the timers there is a mod in the work shop that add's about 5 or so turns to all non-story missions so a mission that was 8-11 turns normally goes to 14-16 and it doesn't effect the achievements.

I never failed with the normal timers but just felt to rushed now I have some turns to plan ambushes and such.

On my second attempt last night failed to prevent a UFO hunting me & got wiped out in the following mission GAME OVER! seems a lot tougher then the first game at least in the early stages.
I'm not sure how I feel about all the timed missions it does prevent me from overwatch creeping across a map & makes the stakes seem higher, but I think they are a little too harsh! I ended up leaving a uninjured sniper behind on a mission because I accidentally right clicked on the wrong square & missed the evac area by that one square! I picture him dying like the guy from platoon arms raised to the skyranger as it flies off!

Divinious said:

I picture him dying like the guy from platoon arms raised to the skyranger as it flies off!

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Although I'm sure his hands were clenched together with his middle digit extend up towards the ship, unlike Willem Defoe in Platoon

Finished it last night and for the most part I enjoyed it, Just sempt a little lacking compared to the previous game for me.

I only seemed to have a issue with rescue missions. Once they started to port out my game would randomly crash. Had to keep saving it before going into each box in the hope that it wouldn't crash.

Haven't played at all since last post, but looking forward to tackling the UFO mission tonight. When I did first attempt it hough before having to quit, it seemed real hard - to the point where I think I'll encounter the first death of one of my soldiers I might just take out a bunch of low-level snipers to slowly poke down the objective.

The only really "unfair" moment I've encounter in this game thus far was when I was running towards the LZ, but the enemy called re-enforcements on it too. Usually wouldn't be that bad, but this time the LZ was located on a pile of rocks you had to climb up. So of course when the enemies did drop they just sat on the rock and overwatched, basically camping the objective By that point I had already moved up all my solider to the base of the rocks, so any move I made resulted in getting shot

And as for people complain about the Stun Lancers, don't you have an equally or even more OP unit at your disposal that does essentially the same thing? I know it's not wise to send your ranger (?) out sprinting into the middle of the battlefield, but they can pretty much 1-shot the more common enemy types. Codex's are a bit of a joke though

I'm sure that most of us will know this but if you use a mod in your game then you will need to continue to use it throughout the game. Firaxis made it this way.
You can go back to your saved game prior to the mod but the game, as it is now, will fail to load if a mod is removed which it had previously used.

What some might not know is that if you download your mod through Steam and the author removes it from the workshop it will also then get removed from your used mod list in the game. This will mean your game will no longer work.

I have just noticed that Nexus have updated their NMM to be compatible with this game and there are mods over there now, many duplicated from the workshop. If the authour pulls them from there at least they will still be there in your game as they are managed locally.

Some have reported being able to disable a mod from Steam and install the same mod through NMM and their saves have worked fine.

Cities Skyline is a bit like this but removing mods does not prevent the game from still loading - albeit sometimes it will not work correctly depending on the complexity of the removed mod.

Hi all,

Well I'm 32 hours into my first run, just got to the point of no return, so think i'm about to finish the game. It defo gets easier as you go on, had many timed missions that i evac'd on the last turn. Had the avatar clock go into countdown but got it all the way back to 5 blocks, so well under half way. It's tense at times but i like it, makes each choice tough, "lesser of two or three evils" whilst putting out fires

Few things that are a must for me,

Sniper on high ground = one of the best units in the game, reaper skill can take out countless units in one go, fit A.P rounds and its death across the map time.

Hack everything the bonus you can get from the lamp posts can be a game changer, had one which gave me random control of an enemy unit, it happened to be the best unit they had, so they focused on that unit, until i got my troops into better positions.

Always take two grenade launcher troops with exo suits which have the rocket launchers, need line of sight just make a hole.

Just stated to send out a psi troop to replace the ranger, had two in training for ages they both have every skill and to be honest its the most OP troop in the game, gatekeeper pops out take total control of it with domination

it has issues but over all its a great game, really enjoy it...

My normal squad, Sniper, 2 Grenade, 2 specials (1 hack, 1 heal), Psi or ranger

Divinious said:

On my second attempt last night failed to prevent a UFO hunting me & got wiped out in the following mission GAME OVER!!

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I was so lucky on that, just before the ufo hunted me down, i had built the ship gun turrets and upgraded them, after reading the notes about the building options and thinking that seems like something is going to happen why would they write that note. few turns later they where ripping the hell out of the enemy while my troops focused on the mission

EL_JOCK said:

Sniper on high ground = one of the best units in the game, reaper skill can take out countless units in one go, fit A.P rounds and its death across the map time.

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Yeah, that's pretty much spot on. One of the first things I do is get my snipers up to high ground with a good overview. The 'Serial' skill is really good if you can use your other soldiers to get the Aliens health down low, as you can literally finish off 4-5 in a row on one turn and you can use it with Deadeye as well.

Both sniper tiers are viable but the other tier favours pistols, and I do have another Sharpshooter with that skill tree, but you tend to have to put him in more danger than you like to make use of his skills.

Hack everything the bonus you can get from the lamp posts can be a game changer, had one which gave me random control of an enemy unit, it happened to be the best unit they had, so they focused on that unit, until I got my troops into better positions.

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Again, another good point. You can even send your Gremlin up to 'Hack' to see what the bonuses are and cancel if they aren't really of much use.

On a VIP extraction mission I had activated a lot of Alien Troops and though everyone was on high ground and I had plenty of turns left, their concealment had gone. I caused as much damage as I could and my Specialist was the only one with actions left, he hacked one of those lamp post things and had a 45% chance to put the whole squad back in to concealment, which worked a treat. I extracted the VIP with no damage and 6 turns to spare on that one!

Always take two grenade launcher troops with exo suits which have the rocket launchers, need line of sight just make a hole.

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Again, this is good advice. The Rocket doesn't have the explosion area of a Plasma grenade, but the range is much better and it's good for Shredding armour/destroying cover. Use it with 'Salvo' as your first move and it doesn't even use any actions.

Just stated to send out a psi troop to replace the ranger, had two in training for ages they both have every skill and to be honest its the most OP troop in the game, gatekeeper pops out take total control of it with domination

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26 hours in and I've not even constructed a Psi chamber thing!

My normal squad, Sniper, 2 Grenade, 2 specials (1 hack, 1 heal), Psi or ranger

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Mine is normally 2x snipers instead of 2x grenadiers. A fully upgraded medic with a Gemlin 2 and upgraded medic kit is pretty handy as well. He even has an OP ability which can heal every soldier on the battlefield without moving a muscle.

EL_JOCK said:

I was so lucky on that, just before the ufo hunted me down, i had built the ship gun turrets and upgraded them, after reading the notes about the building options and thinking that seems like something is going to happen why would they write that note. few turns later they where ripping the hell out of the enemy while my troops focused on the mission

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Last night I did the Avenger defence mission. I had a defence nexus fully upgraded and manned by an engineer, so it gives you 4x armoured turrets with 2x shots each at the Avenger ramp. This meant that any time an Alien did get close (in the first few moves) I at least had something to chip away at them with, even though they missed a lot with a 60% hit chance.

Evacuating was the hardest part, as the Aliens literally drop re-enforcements after every turn and often it would be 3 Heavy MECs per drop. Still didn't have anybody die though