The Firaxis XCOM Series

I think only the breakthroughs add to the facilities (aside from construction completion generating one block from thin air). From what I've observed, anything outside of that gets added to the ocean base.

And yeah, the counter can burst up so quickly that XCOM's never really safe unless the progress bar gets shoved down under half (something I've only achieved on Legend maybe once). The first time gives such a big time buffer that it's not a big deal. After that, if I've taken advantage of the timer as much as I've can (such that it's resetting to the random 7-10 days left on subsequent occurrences), I try to keep a access to a facility (whether lead or physical) or a story objective in my back pocket. It's also best never to take anything for granted. There's too many events, especially when stuff outside of the Avatar Project is accounted for, that can pop up and throw a wrench into things. Assume that at least one mission will pop up before a soldier finishes training/retraining. Assume at least one mission will pop up 1.5 days before that construction/research finishes (this makes up about 80% of my experience with milestone research/Proving Grounds projects).

Oh, and a trick with UFOs: keep a hand on the space bar when doing things. As soon as the UFO appears at the edge of the screen, pause. If the Avenger moves immediately, it shouldn't get caught (expect to lose at least 12 hours of game time shifting, though). With this technique, I was able to evade the UFO that automatically spawns after jacking the Codex, when I'd previously thought that particular Avenger Defense to be mandatory.

edited 7th Dec '16 8:10:30 AM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

I wish I could just get rid of the Avatar Major Breakthrough event from the game, there's pretty much nothing to distinguish it from the Minor Breakthrough in terms of appearance mechanics.

Could maybe look around for a mod?

I've honestly reached the point where I downloaded a mod to stop all Avatar progress, because I just get so annoyed with it interrupting the game to fill up the bar while Bradford yells about it. Even the Stop Wasting My Time mod doesn't get rid of how long you have to watch it. It's technically cheating, but I've never actually been so pressed that I couldn't stop it from filling up and it's just infuriating every time it increases.

What about the quick menu mod?

Doesn't seem to work with the latest version.

I just want to express my love for the new Icarus Armor. I have a ranger who lucked out with Serial from the AWC and it's just sick to have her fly behind the enemy line and murder her way thru two pods of flanked Advent soldiers in a single turn. She's got at least twice as many kills as any other soldier.

The best thing? I had made her Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl.

She's my big red panic button and when I get into trouble with bad pod activations, I can say, "This looks like a job for Supergirl!"

edited 9th Dec '16 7:01:06 AM by nightwyrm_zero

All three Ruler suits are really good for Rangers because they have abilities that give free movement (and the Serprent Suit has infinite charges). I've had similar success with the Icarus Suit, but with a Serial Sharpshooter. Re-position to high ground on their flank and tear straight through them. The whole thing with being able to jump like a Thin Man also helps when there's a bit more time since it helps a Sharpshooter get to high ground more quickly without having to use a cooldown, or even get to high ground that normally can't be accessed (due to lack of ladder).

Beaglerush just spent 2 hours slaughtering ADVENT mooks during the Avenger Defense after sniping the Beacon within the first couple of minutes and cracking up at Bradford's instruction to just pack up and leave.

The 2 hour rampage

Ayypocalypse Now, a digest of the carnage from above

And his computer didn't crash from all the corpses?

Nope. 2 blaster bombs at the spike, then he says "I'M STAYING!" and it's 2 hours of heavy MEC slaughter.

That's actually a smart move if you have a lot of troops that you need to level. The trick is a) make your starting squad the guys you need to level b) survive the swarm until those guys get out and upgrade c) blaster bomb the spike d)BAIL!!

Beagle only got one promotion out of that 2 hour slog, but he started with his main crew, so.......

Are they going to fix the markup help anytime soon?

Once XCOM hits a certain power level, there's pretty much nothing ADVENT can bring in by drop ship that would pose enough of a threat with them streaming in one pod at a time. Maybe if they brought Sectopods, but a couple Plasma Shredder Grenadiers could laugh those off the map.

Yeah, if you're at the point where you've got two Blaster Bombs to go around, holding out for two hours is pretty much just a matter of being patient enough to play for two hours.

There was a gatekeeper on the map. Not dropped in, Beags did some exploring.

One Gatekeeper still isn't going to pose too much of a threat that kind of power. Now, if the reinforcements could include multiple Gatekeepers, that'd be a different story.

Man, how does Beaglerush not have his own page yet?

...He asked, having little intention of doing the work himself. I mean, I haven't even been following him all that long, I wouldn't have much to add.

Nutshell

edited 12th Dec '16 5:41:28 PM by VutherA

Well, that is a sniper rifle, they get aim penalties when the enemy is close.

By in-game logic, yes, missing that is completely expected - it's more in the humorous graphical bug that had the round and tracer hit what he was aiming for but the game says NOPE.

Maybe the Lancer just so happened to have a hole installed in his chest, which the bullet perfectly passed through. You never know with these insane ADVENT scientists.

Saw some other folks just say "Well of course, Lancers are heartless."

Beags FINALLY finished uploading his XCOM 2 preview build run (aka Season One).

Landing that Rupture in the final battle was pivotal to victory.

Anyone used the All Pods Active mod before? It's quite an intense experience. I'm now looking forward to the Alien Rulers...

edited 13th Dec '16 5:12:49 AM by nightwyrm_zero

No, you're not.

Word of advice, bring a Flashbang and those frosty grenades. If need be, you can always mod the game to make the rulers fight fair; nobody's judging you.