The Firaxis XCOM Series

Even if they die on their first mission

Especially if they die on their first mission. They gotta look good on their In Memorium poster, after all, inspire those Resistance fighters with the tale of a Rookie who missed a target standing in the open and got one-shotted with a crit through full cover. Those Haven guards need to know just how little they can rely on XCOM to save them, and how much they need to train to keep themselves alive.

It's not like those Resistance Haven guys aren't good enough on their own. I've had mission they basically won on their own, no help from me. Makes me wonder what the hell they called me for.

Someone's gotta bring the beer and clean up the bodies.

Reading up on the soldier bonds feature, I feel like somebody at Firaxis really loved Fire Emblem. Teamwork is pseudo-Dance/Sing for the pair, Spotter is one part Rally Accuracy (+10% Aim when the pair are on adjacent tiles), and Dual Strike is pretty much Pair-Up Attack. Not that I'm complaining, however.

I'm still taking in all the new stuff WOTC is throwing at me, so I'll check back here later. Thanks for the information, however.

At first it seems like a lot of complicated stuff, but all these mechanics synergize really well, so they wind up making things a lot simpler by the endgame.

All right, now that I've cleared my first WOTC campaign, I suppose I should share my thoughts on it.

• I'm not sure if this is indicative of the bigger picture regarding game balance, but I feel that The Chosen's threat level significantly drops off toward the endgame. I'd say the exception to that is the Assassin, which is always tricky because of her concealment, and fucking Harbor Wave.
• Covert Actions do add a small bit of extra complexity to the strategic layer, which is nice. Though I feel like it could be better improved by having covert actions that lead to, say, optional supply raids - or more rarely, an extra guerilla op.
• For what seemed to be a big amount of hype for the Skirmisher (judging by YT comments on their trailer), for me they feel the most underwhelming. Their skills feel somewhat awkward to use (Justice/Wrath is neat, but if you can't kill the target swiftly in the same turn it could turn into an ultimately suicidal move), and what is presumably their centerpiece skill (Battle Lord) has janky triggers concerning line of sight. I say Reapers are most useful overall (since their scouting capabilities are always needed throughout the game and enables easier tactical planning), followed by Templars (their melee game do fall off late game since the Psycho Blades (tm) don't punch through or rip apart armor, but damn, they're by far the most fun faction partner to play).
• Performance. My God, performance improvements - it's almost criminal how Firaxis improved it this much and then lock it behind a paywall. The average FPS for me has improved so much that with moderate-high GFX settings I can still hit 60 FPS in certain locales (most notably subterranean maps) and maintain 40-50 FPS for the rest, only dipping back to 30 in the most GFX intense maps (e.g. resistance haven assault).
• I'm sad that some major mods such as Long War 2 and Grimy's Loot has basically no chance of getting ported to WOTC, and on the whole there's still some (mostly cosmetic) mods I extensively use for vanilla that has yet to be ported to WOTC. But overall, there's enough new stuff for mods and modding to counterbalance that.

The Skirmisher class is the subject of a few mods that are solely about fixing a lot of its underwhelmingness.

There are, though. I got a few of those in my first playthrough, and they were really helpful. You ight have just been short on luck on the draws.

Wait, what? All I got were mostly stuff like adding new resistance orders, stealing supplies and equipment, improving support ranks soldier bonds, Avatar Project sabotage...well, you get the idea.

Oh, speaking of resistance orders, I do like how it's used to expand the continent bonuses - and a way to get picky with, or even get rid of the more shitty ones.

Yeah, those are rare covert mission to get. There's also one that gives you another Hero from one of the factions, which I think is the rarest of all, but it can spawn. I've fielded double reapers once because of that, it was great. But it's all a luck thing. Me, I never get any mission to interfere with the Chosen, at least not when it matters.

And yes, the Resistance Orders are a great system.

I think there's also a bug with the mission to recruit additional faction soldiers. Apparently you won't ever get one for the factions you didn't initially make contact with, or at least there's a mod that claims to fix such a bug.

Huh, I thought it wasn't a bug at first. It sorta makes sense, because going by the plot, I see their logic as "This is the best representative we have for you, and we can't spare any more manpower to give while we're dealing with our own problems". I thought only the first faction to make contact with XCOM would be sufficiently trusting enough in them to offer a second operative's services.

Oh, and before I forget, I think I might have spent an inordinately long amount of time with after-action photo ops at the end of most missions. Too bad the Avenger trio (Bradford, Shen, Tygan) don't comment on it as often as I expected, though I did burst out laughing when Bradford compliments himself on his solo photo after the Viper King mission.

Edited by DarkDestruction on Aug 27th 2018 at 11:00:22 PM

https://clips.twitch.tv/UnusualShyLadiesSuperVinlin

Bradford's a narcissist confirmed.

Thank you for making my day brighter.

The pleasure's all mine.

So, an interesting thing I've observed between XCOM EW and XCOM 2 WOTC is what I believe is a "mismatch" of sorts regarding the overall game atmosphere. XCOM EW presents quite a grim tone with the worldwide panic level control, an unsettling depictions of the Chryssalids and what they did to Newfoundland, the implications of what XCOM's MEC troopers will have to endure, and a desperate escape ending that concludes with the Volunteer's near-miss Heroic Sacrifice. Even the narratives in the final level has the Uber Ethereal being more visceral and sinister in his exposition about all of the aliens as opposed to the Angelis Ethereal's (obviously fake) soft persuasion.

In contrast, we have WOTC: the existence of the Chosen (One-Man Army-esque elite enemies that constantly respawns again and again to keep harrying and taunting XCOM operatives until XCOM discovers and storms their own HQ in a climactic showdown), the hero factions with their quirks (the Reapers' eat-anything-that-moves policy, the Skirmishers' single-minded vengeance, and the Templars' obsession with psionics), the increased flashiness of psionics (-cough- Ionic Storm -cough- Null Lance -cough -cough- Super Saiyan-esque Avatar design and the final cutscene feat. Commander vs. Elder ghosts), and the overall "resistance rising" motif paints a tone that I feel evokes Saturday morning shows. However, the visual designs for both games would've been more apt if they were swapped - EW has retro-futuristic (Zeerust?) weapon designs, some alien designs look somewhat cartoonish (old Sectoids and Outsiders, the latter of which looks kinda like a stylized Mecha-Mook), while XCOM 2 has the Uncanny Valley "pectoids" and things like skinless Berserkers and Gatekeepers.

Mind you, I'm not saying one is better or worse than the other because of all this. I just found it intriguing.

Edited by DarkDestruction on Oct 1st 2018 at 6:30:25 PM

Probably has to do with XCOM2 helping series find more of its identity. XCOM tries to import a bunch of stuff from the rather cartoony, 60s-idea-of-aliens X-COM, approximately 90% of the way, then put its own spin on it.

Edited by KuroiTsubasaTenshi on Oct 1st 2018 at 9:01:01 AM

Edited by VutherA on Oct 1st 2018 at 6:31:36 AM

Nah. Just saying modern XCOM was working out some growing pains and some of its inherited ideas brought some dated baggage with it.

I'm really just making a "WHY DID THAT MISS" joke

And, ironically.... It didn't land.

All hail our overlord Jake 'Teardrinker' Solomon - FREE DLC for WOTC owners!

Edited by DarkDestruction on Oct 3rd 2018 at 12:00:30 AM

Oh, Solomon, you wonderful man...

Any word on a date? I can't see the video right now.

Oct. 9th

Well, it's not the remaster of EU/EW I was kinda hoping for, but I can't really complain given that price tag. Hopefully the ported armor looks as good as the ones from the mod I was using to recreate my team from Enemy Within.

I'm guessing the pale Chryssalids are gonna be found in the recreated Site Recon mission. I'm also holding out hopes for appearances by Classic Sectoids, Thin Men, and maybe a certain scientist with an unhealthy interest in xenobiology and disdain for explosives.