Soldato
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Try 6 of them for the ultimate lolz
Because the many, many users who would rate the game highly are missing from those statistics - they're busy doing something, can you guess what?
X-Com 2 - Announced
- Thread starter elmarko
- Start date
Try 6 of them for the ultimate lolz
Because the many, many users who would rate the game highly are missing from those statistics - they're busy doing something, can you guess what?
So basically, it's a game for people who thought X:EU on Classic/Ironman was too easy. Not a game to introduce people to the franchise, but a game for vets of the previous game to be even more challenged.
And having a drastic change of heart "very late in development" has never, ever, ever worked well for any dev that has tried it. Seriously, it's one of the major "don't do this!" points that should be drummed into your head in game dev school
Basically because you cannot turn a ship around in a couple weeks. Release what you've got.. add a higher tier of difficulty in a patch.
People who re-work their game just before release never get it right. Seen it sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many times.
Caporegime
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In a way I trust critics more than gamers.
It's so easy to go on Steam/Metacritic and give a bad review for one thing you aren't happy with rather than give the game fair critical appraisal.
It's so easy to go on Steam/Metacritic and give a bad review for one thing you aren't happy with rather than give the game fair critical appraisal.
Fair enough.
My personal strategy is to look at the negative reviews, and see what issues people are highlighting. If there are some things there that I would also take issue with, I avoid the game.
No game is without flaws, but it's important that none of the flaws would ruin your enjoyment. Which is something only the individual can decide.
Having 8 turn limits I would find very limiting. Don't know about you, but I remember some of the missions in UFO lasting more than 25 turns... You are super limited as to what you can explore and accomplish in 8 turns.
Frankly I can't think of /any/ turn based game that has such a limited number of turns to win. Eight. Eight turns. It's barely begun before it's over, surely...
Caporegime
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The turn limit varies. It tends to be 12 for VIP escort/Elimination
Soldato
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Maybe I'll try putting it in bold this time...
The modding support for the game is phenomenal and there already exist countless mods that either simply increase the turn timers, or disable them completely
That is all... The turn times, whether good or bad, personal preference or no, are a complete non-issue
I found 'Veteran' Ironman (ie normal) difficulty too easy.
Hate to admit it but I've struggled with 'Commander' Ironman's (ie hard difficulty) early missions. It gets easier as the campaign continues until you can manage to get a lot of level ups in one go on the ufo attack.
I think of all the Commander Ironman (and Impossible) final score sheets I've seen show 0 mission failures. With my games I will usually try to continue after a partial wipe and this leads to a really tough campaign until you are past the mid way point. I wonder if the people paying those 'easy' Commander runs played the first 3/4 missions until they had 3/4 x flawless runs before continuing.
But I am a bit mistified with people complaining that normal (Veteran) difficulty is too hard.
Hate to admit it but I've struggled with 'Commander' Ironman's (ie hard difficulty) early missions. It gets easier as the campaign continues until you can manage to get a lot of level ups in one go on the ufo attack.
I think of all the Commander Ironman (and Impossible) final score sheets I've seen show 0 mission failures. With my games I will usually try to continue after a partial wipe and this leads to a really tough campaign until you are past the mid way point. I wonder if the people paying those 'easy' Commander runs played the first 3/4 missions until they had 3/4 x flawless runs before continuing.
But I am a bit mistified with people complaining that normal (Veteran) difficulty is too hard.
Caporegime
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The only mission I replayed on commander/Ironman a few times was the very first one where you blow up the statue, and that was to ensure I had at least one of each class of soldier.
Can't remember if any made it to the end but I don't think they did.
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Soldato
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I went straight in on Commander Ironman, got through the first few missions surprisingly easily then eventually got wiped out by stuff I couldn't have predicted (think I gave up sometime after the first retaliation)...
Then I replayed the beginning mission what felt like 8 - 10 times because I just couldn't seem to get all 4 soldiers through it alive... and when I finally managed it that turned out to be the game I'm still in now and closing in on the end. I think I've lost about 3 or 4 soldiers - 2 on random missions (one was a high-ranking sniper who got absolutely wrecked by a sectopod
) and another 2 on the same mission where I was forced to evac and fail it (it was a supply raid mission). Pretty much once you get to the Tier 2 stuff and onwards the game gets fairly easy - by the time you get Tier 3 gear and Psi troops you don't even really need to make an effort to play sensibly!!
Found the same.
This game really annoys me and the more I play the more it annoys me. Don't get me wrong relay enjoyed it, but it should be more.
And most if the issues is down to the pod mechanics.
Imagine on some missions timer only starts if you're uncovered. And that you had aliens patrolling, and you could silently slice them with the sword and remain hidden.
And when you're uncovered, all aliens on the map respond.
Other missions like trying to destroy one of your relays should have a hard time limit.
I really don't understand why they went with pods and approximated alien movement.
They made/make Civ games, so they aren't inexperienced at making computer opponents.
Yet they somehow failed to improve upon alien movement from a '93 game. As such in X:EU you had patrols teleporting into the middle of your squad. And here again the alien movement uses a similar abstracted alien movement, instead of giving the aliens a proper turn.
They had all the time, money and resources to have full 3D, mo-capped soldiers, full voice acting... yet they couldn't spare the time to have proper alien turns, with proper patrols, etc.
It's one of the big reasons I didn't like X:EU. The aliens were never really there. Like some kind of weird reverse quantum mechanics, they were only real once they warped to a location within your line of sight. If you couldn't see them, they weren't actually anywhere. They were just "potential" aliens until the game decided where to put them.
It was bizarre then, and if X2 still has this system I'm still not impressed.
Caporegime
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Lead designer says they were worried people would feel like they failed or were being punished if their concealment was broken, and would save scum to prevent it happening.
Can't help but keep getting the impression he has an idea of the way his game should be played, and people not doing exactly what he wanted made him lock down the game until only his preferred playstyle was even possible.
Not sure if that's the sign of a great designer, to be frank.
In design terms, it's the polar opposite of what the Gollop brothers did with UFO, and then Apocalypse. They gave us a scenario, loads of tools, and let us decide the strategy. Fast or slow, rocket launcher mayhem or sharp shooting snipers. "Take your pick!", they said. Firaxis have basically streamlined away all the choice, and even what small tactical choice remained they deigned to be too much, because players did something the lead designer didn't consider the "one true way" to play.
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So the second major complaint here (I'll not mention names but it seems to be the key point of a couple of folks) is "they stopped us being able to creep forward on overwatch every turn".
I'd consider it a fairly solid design decision to remove an option that basically allows every map to be cheesed to a crazy degree. The games infinitely more satisfying when you get dealt a bad hand and more is required from the bag of tricks than "I'll sit here with the overwatch firing squad line strolling forward".
Yelling about the timer as "they stopped us being able to use tactics and now we have to rush" can basically be paraphrased as "I don't get to overwatch cheese every map". It's almost the exact opposite as tactics ARE now required. Not just overusing the same crutch.
I've got my complaints with the game, like shock lancers running most of the map to crit stun a guy no alien has yet seen, the long pauses at certain points, ignoring line of sight obstacles on abilities that SHOULD be direct (like the snake pull). There's a whole heap of other complaints though, that seem really baseless and down to bad gameplay. The timers one especially is irritating (even more than "it's TOO HARD!") as it's encouraging more engaging play AND is about the easiest thing to mod it to exactly how mindless someone needs it to find the game fun.
I'd consider it a fairly solid design decision to remove an option that basically allows every map to be cheesed to a crazy degree. The games infinitely more satisfying when you get dealt a bad hand and more is required from the bag of tricks than "I'll sit here with the overwatch firing squad line strolling forward".
Yelling about the timer as "they stopped us being able to use tactics and now we have to rush" can basically be paraphrased as "I don't get to overwatch cheese every map". It's almost the exact opposite as tactics ARE now required. Not just overusing the same crutch.
I've got my complaints with the game, like shock lancers running most of the map to crit stun a guy no alien has yet seen, the long pauses at certain points, ignoring line of sight obstacles on abilities that SHOULD be direct (like the snake pull). There's a whole heap of other complaints though, that seem really baseless and down to bad gameplay. The timers one especially is irritating (even more than "it's TOO HARD!") as it's encouraging more engaging play AND is about the easiest thing to mod it to exactly how mindless someone needs it to find the game fun.
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^^
For me it has nothing to do with it being to hard or forcing a change in tactics. That's the exact opposite, due to game mechanics it doesn't force a change in tactics, it's pretty much pointless all but one map, the timer might as well not exist. It's pretty much impossible to remain concealed, there's no such thing as a silent knife kill, only single pods activate. Even commando 2 had better enemy Ai and that's 14 years old. It very much feels like a half made game. You can see what they were trying to achieve, but then totally broke it. I'm hopping they dine this to sell the expansion, as the expansion on xcom is normally a pretty bug upgrade.
This makes no sense. Atm you have no choice but to break concealment.
on a plus side, finaly a mod that reintroduces damage affects aim and movement
think a modded replay is in order.
Evac All - This mod adds an "Evac All" ability to soldier ability bars when they are in an active evac zone.
Overwatch All/Others - Adds the ability to put all/other units with action points on Overwatch
Flank Preview - This mod adds the ability to preview if a move will flank an enemy, as indicated by a yellow line of sight icon.
True retroactive AWC - this mod change the requirement to be exactly on the rank to higher or equal to the required rank, so even if AWC rolls a lower number than the rank, you still get the perk.
Engineer2Scientist - Changes the Engineer slots in the AWC and Psi Lab into Scientist slots to make Scientists a bit more useful, it also seems to make more sense
Experimental Item Unlock - This mod unlocks items that are created in the proving grounds via experimental projects.
They cost an elerium core and a small amount of supplies
Hidden Potential - The stat growth at each level should be randomized now, with the original stat growth being the median value and possible caps removed. There are some exceptions for balance reasons though
Show Health Values - Shows the value of HP on top of cover icon, no more counting sectopod's HP
Wound Recalibration - This small mod adjusts INI values which determine how soldiers' wound times are calculated, with the intent of making recovery durations more closely related to how severely wounded a soldier was
Stop Wasting My Time - Speeds up the game by removing pointless pauses and other time-wasters.
All changes are purely cosmetic.
Advanced Modular Weapons - Adds a project to the Proving Grounds that unlocks an additional upgrade slot for your soldier's primary weapons upon completion. Removes the Armed to the Teeth regional bonus from the game, which has its functionality replaced by this.
Show All Perks - Makes all perks visible regardless of the soldiers rank, allowing you to plan out your builds more easily.
Mission Time Remaining - Adds mission remaining times on the sites list at the bottom of the geoscape. Also displays scan time remaining in hours below a certain threshold.
Leader Pack - This mod adds a development path for XCOM soldiers in the Guerrilla Tactics School, allowing them to train special perks that benefit the entire squad. But only one leader at a time can go on a mission, so be careful whom you select for the training!
Engineer - This is the Combat Engineer. They can serve as demolitions support or close quarter’s fighters. They equip the shotgun and grenade launcher and have their own GTS skill which is biggest booms but it’s separate from the grenadier one.
Quick Start - Bypasses Operation Gatecrasher, the first non-tutorial mission of the campaign. It gives the soldiers on the Skyranger a promotion and the Advent/Sectoid corpses from the mission.
Elerium Grounds - A mod to try and alleviate the mid to late game Elerium Core shortage, it allows crafting of Elerium Cores in the Proving Grounds once Elerium has been researched, as well as allowing upgrading of Spider Suits and EXO suits to their Powered Armor equivilant once the required Tech has been researched.
Ammo as weapon mods - Makes ammo a weapon upgrade instead of a utility item.
Additional PCS - Readds the Psionic PCS, and adds a new Hacking PCS
Slower Avatar Project Progression - This mod rebalances the progression speed and total progression needed for the avatar program based on your difficulty.
Rifles for All Classes - This mod allows all of XCOM2's default classes to use a rifle as their primary weapon.
This does not prevent soldiers from using earned skills like holo-targeting or suppression.
Second Wave Reborn
1)Not Created Equally is back and it's better than ever, with more stats to roll and a larger range.
2)Epigenetics is a new Second Wave option- enemies get randomised too now, all balanced around the muton
3)Red Fog is now back, every unit (both friendly and hostile) that gets hit will suffer lower mobility and aim!
4)Commander's Choice walks among us once more! this ability lets you to change the class of any squaddie to any other class, It's On by default but it'd take a couple of seconds for the UI to show up, be patient.
5)Absolutely Critical is here, quite easy to put in, it's now effecting both XCOM and the aliens- Watch the flanks!!
a lot of them just make more sense than the base game.
For me it has nothing to do with it being to hard or forcing a change in tactics. That's the exact opposite, due to game mechanics it doesn't force a change in tactics, it's pretty much pointless all but one map, the timer might as well not exist. It's pretty much impossible to remain concealed, there's no such thing as a silent knife kill, only single pods activate. Even commando 2 had better enemy Ai and that's 14 years old. It very much feels like a half made game. You can see what they were trying to achieve, but then totally broke it. I'm hopping they dine this to sell the expansion, as the expansion on xcom is normally a pretty bug upgrade.
This makes no sense. Atm you have no choice but to break concealment.
on a plus side, finaly a mod that reintroduces damage affects aim and movement
think a modded replay is in order.Evac All - This mod adds an "Evac All" ability to soldier ability bars when they are in an active evac zone.
Overwatch All/Others - Adds the ability to put all/other units with action points on Overwatch
Flank Preview - This mod adds the ability to preview if a move will flank an enemy, as indicated by a yellow line of sight icon.
True retroactive AWC - this mod change the requirement to be exactly on the rank to higher or equal to the required rank, so even if AWC rolls a lower number than the rank, you still get the perk.
Engineer2Scientist - Changes the Engineer slots in the AWC and Psi Lab into Scientist slots to make Scientists a bit more useful, it also seems to make more sense
Experimental Item Unlock - This mod unlocks items that are created in the proving grounds via experimental projects.
They cost an elerium core and a small amount of supplies
Hidden Potential - The stat growth at each level should be randomized now, with the original stat growth being the median value and possible caps removed. There are some exceptions for balance reasons though
Show Health Values - Shows the value of HP on top of cover icon, no more counting sectopod's HP
Wound Recalibration - This small mod adjusts INI values which determine how soldiers' wound times are calculated, with the intent of making recovery durations more closely related to how severely wounded a soldier was
Stop Wasting My Time - Speeds up the game by removing pointless pauses and other time-wasters.
All changes are purely cosmetic.
Advanced Modular Weapons - Adds a project to the Proving Grounds that unlocks an additional upgrade slot for your soldier's primary weapons upon completion. Removes the Armed to the Teeth regional bonus from the game, which has its functionality replaced by this.
Show All Perks - Makes all perks visible regardless of the soldiers rank, allowing you to plan out your builds more easily.
Mission Time Remaining - Adds mission remaining times on the sites list at the bottom of the geoscape. Also displays scan time remaining in hours below a certain threshold.
Leader Pack - This mod adds a development path for XCOM soldiers in the Guerrilla Tactics School, allowing them to train special perks that benefit the entire squad. But only one leader at a time can go on a mission, so be careful whom you select for the training!
Engineer - This is the Combat Engineer. They can serve as demolitions support or close quarter’s fighters. They equip the shotgun and grenade launcher and have their own GTS skill which is biggest booms but it’s separate from the grenadier one.
Quick Start - Bypasses Operation Gatecrasher, the first non-tutorial mission of the campaign. It gives the soldiers on the Skyranger a promotion and the Advent/Sectoid corpses from the mission.
Elerium Grounds - A mod to try and alleviate the mid to late game Elerium Core shortage, it allows crafting of Elerium Cores in the Proving Grounds once Elerium has been researched, as well as allowing upgrading of Spider Suits and EXO suits to their Powered Armor equivilant once the required Tech has been researched.
Ammo as weapon mods - Makes ammo a weapon upgrade instead of a utility item.
Additional PCS - Readds the Psionic PCS, and adds a new Hacking PCS
Slower Avatar Project Progression - This mod rebalances the progression speed and total progression needed for the avatar program based on your difficulty.
Rifles for All Classes - This mod allows all of XCOM2's default classes to use a rifle as their primary weapon.
This does not prevent soldiers from using earned skills like holo-targeting or suppression.
Second Wave Reborn
1)Not Created Equally is back and it's better than ever, with more stats to roll and a larger range.
2)Epigenetics is a new Second Wave option- enemies get randomised too now, all balanced around the muton
3)Red Fog is now back, every unit (both friendly and hostile) that gets hit will suffer lower mobility and aim!
4)Commander's Choice walks among us once more! this ability lets you to change the class of any squaddie to any other class, It's On by default but it'd take a couple of seconds for the UI to show up, be patient.
5)Absolutely Critical is here, quite easy to put in, it's now effecting both XCOM and the aliens- Watch the flanks!!
a lot of them just make more sense than the base game.
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Caporegime
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- 30 Jul 2013
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From the RPS interview
Risks are what lead to loss and what lead to triumph, however the downside is that if you feel the game is just pushing you into risk, then it’s how you perceive the necessity of the risk. Some of them, maybe there’s a clumsy thematic wrapper on the turn-timer. There’s a mod right now where the turn timer doesn’t start until concealment is broken. Thematically, that’s much stronger, no question.
Definitely, definitely that was the first idea that we had, but mechanically there are number of issues with that, I would say. It can be seriously exploited, and it also leads to the player use stealth instead of using Concealment as an ambush system. That’s what we saw, is that people thought that “if a turn-timer popped up at the end of stealth, that means I just ****ed up. If I get detected, I really ****ed things up.” And we could not get past that mindset; “no, no, you didn’t **** up. We don’t want you to play this as a stealth game.” We didn’t build this as a stealth game, it doesn’t work as a stealth game, but when players were Concealed and then the turn-timer didn’t start until they’d lost Concealment, then obviously it felt like falling off a cliff when you lost Concealment. It just felt like, “**** this, I’m reloading. I didn’t want to get seen then because I don’t want the pressure of this turn-timer.”
So instead, the mechanical solution was that turn-timers start from the beginning of the match. Use Concealment however you want, don’t feel like you fell off a cliff when you lose it. Mechanically, I think it’s a much better system, however thematically maybe it sticks in some people’s craw, coupled with the fact that some people just don’t like turn-timers. They don’t want to be pushed into risk, which I certainly understand, so now the question is how to address that in a way that doesn’t lose the fact of pressure and risk, forcing the player to make suboptimal decisions, perhaps. And at the same time not just beating them over the head with a turn-timer. So I will say that one surprised me, but it doesn’t mean it’s in any way incorrect.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/02/25/making-of-xcom-2/4/
How to address it, is to actually make it work. At the doesn't seem to understand the issue. It is utterly pointless, where it should be used in conjunction with other things.
Nearly all off us have no issue completing the mission in our own time. In top of that under the current system, it does not add to the game play, concealment and stealth can not be utilized with the current mechanics. It's a massive missed opportunity.
The only thing concealment adds is fir the first move or two, I yellow move. Making the game easier.
Nearly all off us have no issue completing the mission in our own time. In top of that under the current system, it does not add to the game play, concealment and stealth can not be utilized with the current mechanics. It's a massive missed opportunity.
The only thing concealment adds is fir the first move or two, I yellow move. Making the game easier.
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