The Firaxis XCOM Series

Modding the Alien Rulers would make things too easy. I already beat them in a previous non-APA playthrough. I'm super curious how hard they'd be if they were active from turn one. Besides, I'm already using a mod that allows me to increase my squad size to 8.

Flashbangs aren't all that useful against Rulers, since its ticks down after just one of their reactions. There's some moments where it's very situationally helpful for, say, prevent a Berserker Queen from charging in and meleeing, but as far as I'm aware, it doesn't even shut down the rest of her abilities (she used the ground pound, even after I'd Flashbanged her). Incendiary Grenades seem to be the way to go, since Burning actually shuts stuff down (which is kinda surprising, since it seriously inhibits the Archon King).

All pods active from turn 1 would most likely just end in the Rulers beelining XCOM. The big exception would be the Berserker Queen. She has that map-wide CC roar, which could potentially make the map unwinnable from the start. There's also the ground pound, which I'm not entirely sure on the range of, but it's at least big enough to hit people about one screen away. Viper King will have to close the distance, but since the AI really cheats with its ability to know where soldiers are despite them being out of LoS, expect freeze attacks out of nowhere. Hilariously, the Archon King will probably change the least, since he needs to be close by and in LoS to use all his abilities.

Also, having 8 soldiers will probably work against you with the Rulers (unless they're all elite super soldiers).

So I just killed the Berserker Queen in one of the more buggy and messed up VIP extraction mission I've had. It was one of those where the walls and floors were see-thru and you have the VIP activating before you open the door of his prison vehicle and now the aliens can take pot shots at him in his car cage....and also triggering a reinforcement pod to drop in the middle of my squad.

But it seems that if you stack a bunch of acid/gas/fire on the BQ, she will basically not be able to do anything and will stand around and die like a chump. Don't know if it's a bug or something else, but I'll take it. Liberal use of explosives and Danger Zone wiped out the rest of the aliens. The mission was completed with 8 turns left on the counter....

Viper King is super easy to kill in the Vahlen mission if you bring the right soldiers and items and remember to overwatch most of your dudes before triggering the cutscene.

The Archon King is actually the one I most have trouble with due to his mobility and his use of Blazing Pinion really fucks up my preference for high ground and having my soldiers in a compact formation.

edited 13th Dec '16 9:55:16 PM by nightwyrm_zero

That's rather unsurprising, since Burning shuts down any action that isn't shooting. Since Berserker Queen can't shoot, she's kinda screwed. Try doing the same with Archon King, as his shot isn't especially threatening (at least, not when compared to Uber Blazing Pinions).

There really should've been a "punch Vahlen in the face for making these things" mission.

I love that most of the NP Cs' comments on the alien rulers come down to variations of "What the hell, Vahlen."

My favourite is Tygan's "I would like to see the logic behind her decisions, but I doubt logic was ever a factor" (paraphrased) jab.

Idea for a fun campaign mod: Vahlen succeeds in bringing the Rulers over to fight for the Resistance. However, XCOM is, unfortunately, routed at Gatecrasher. The campaign is then the player leading the 3 Rulers in combat to defeat ADVENT (with some modifications, since stuff like Skulljacking wouldn't be able to fit in). The catch? The Rulers obey the same persistent HP and armour rules as when they were on the aliens' side. Also, only a single Ruler would get a reaction turn in response to an alien unit's full turn (as opposed to 1 per AP). Therefore, it's a race to finish the game before ADVENT fully techs up to the stuff that can actually do serious damage to the Rulers.

I just wish she actually showed up. But I know they don't want to overshadow Tygan. That man of mystery.

Clearly we should have used more explosives, forcing her to come out of hiding to whine about them.

edited 14th Dec '16 10:01:46 AM by Rotpar

I think the lack of Tygan's protests against using explosives, or failure to incapacitate a particular enemy and instead kill them already makes Tygan the better man, let alone the whole Alien Rulers debacle.

Plus the whole "Did open brain surgery on the back of his own skull"

Dude's badass as hell.

How badass can he be if he doesn't want to capture aliens alive to stick probes into their brains?

He invented the skulljack, which is like 300% cooler way to do the same thing.

Too bad its hit rate is ass compared to the Arcthrower.

Plus the benefits aren't as awesome. All you can get from a Skulljack is some measly intel and maybe early access to a facility. With the Arc Thrower you can steal the aliens' weapons and get research done faster.

Luckily there is a mod that improves the performance of the Skulljack.

edited 14th Dec '16 3:16:32 PM by RainingMetal

Since I'm playing Stellaris quite a bit, I've checked out the wiki a bit, and found this◊. All hail the Chryssalid empire!

Much better than Long War's arc thrower, though.

edited 17th Dec '16 2:29:31 PM by Medinoc

Anyone encountered a PCS bug where the PCS installed on your soldiers would just disappear? They left behind their bonus though....

I think I've heard of it, but don't remember why it happens. What happens if you put in another PCS? Does it overwrite or stack?

edited 17th Dec '16 6:39:30 PM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

I think these are actually inspired by the Shadows.

edited 17th Dec '16 5:43:25 PM by DrunkenNordmann

Yeah. the head shape is very much like the Shadows.

I'm not sure what happens if I put a PCS of the same type in, but if I put in one that boosts another stat, the old stat boost remains.

Seems to happen most often with perception and agility chips...

edited 17th Dec '16 9:39:24 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Anyone ever get a glitch that makes it so you get the HQ scanning bonus everywhere? I got so much intel that playthrough.

I did notice that the DLC scan sites were set to 2 days instead of the default 3 a few times.

Yep, that happened to me once.

Trying to tackle Legend/Ironman again, in case anyone wanted to watch.