IGdood presents: XCOM ENEMY WITHIN - IT IS DONE - XCOM 2 PREVIEW IN LAST POST

[Sifer]

NOOO! Rikku is not gifted :(

I recall reading that the lower rank the unit is the more likely he/she is gifted :(

Also depends on # of gifted units you have already.

I regret not picking shredder rockets.

[Rehab]

A couple minutes into every session, I get lag that would make most real-time games nigh-unplayable, despite starting off seamlessly. A couple times (when I've fucked up), a single mission has literally taken over a day to finish. This old workhorse is starting to show age

Anybody got any indepth recommendations/sources that for soldier build ideas?

(key part of that requestion being builds plural, I've a minor fixation for making my squaddies really effective at serving weirdly specific [differing] purposes that make for different playstles. like, for example, happy camper sniper offense sniper versus run-up-and-flank-or-whatever sniper, scout/assasin assault versus, say, crowd control/I HAVE MANY CONTACTS AND I MUST RELOAD assault, hold-our-line/overwatch god mech versus break-their-line/YOU'RE GETTIN READY TO BURN mech, etc.) (and I'd like to pretend I'm at least creative enough to not just pick one side of upgrades all the time)

(as opposed to "the most_tier god of all situations fill the entire team with this spec exactly" kind of builds) (*imagines self shaking my petty fist at gamefaqs*)

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

There is a possibility of making pretty sweet kaboom type of heavy that puts its skills on massive amounts of grenade dmg and/or rockets. The fact that heat ammo applies to them alone makes it useful :P

I have yet to see any reason to actually use any other Sniper build than the camping sniper. Snipers kinda are terrible in mid to close range no matter what you do and squadsight alone optimizes long range. I suppose the gunslinger skill has some merit for covert operative but supports sprint is infintely more useful for what covert is supposed to do and Assault's Rapid Fire out-damages Gunslinger anyway.

Speaking of assaults I tend to use Close-Combat build focusing around getting stupidly high crit rates with flank(run and gun to the tile next to the alien) + aggression and then using rapid fire. Close combat specialist does good things with that build as you tend to be inside enemy lines by the time turn ends and Flush has pretty limited utility anyway. Choice between lighting reflexes and "close and personal" is up in the air as the crit build is absurdly reliant on run and gun, greatly reducing the use of close and personal outside missions with very small areas, granted close and personal makes you absolute gore machine in those maps.

[IGdood]

Slow update. I blame it on a 3DS and that I got Awakening not too long ago.

PREVIOUSLY WE WERE GETTING FUCKED BY A SECTOPOD

EXPLODING CAR

OH GOD WEIR, NOOOOOO

HEALING MIST DOES NOTHING ON BLEEDING

NO MORE MEDKITS

FUUUUUCK

PrincessK runs up, gets overwatched, survives, and weakens the fucker enough for Petrosino to kill.

There's 2 more mutons hiding out on the map but luckily I get to them just as Weir was about to die.

I seriously am considering gene-modding Weir because if he keeps "dying" like that his will is going to drop so low. I want to give him a Secondary Heart.

I should really make use of SHIVs more often

MEDALS FOR WEIR AND EXCELLEN because they're too valuable

Awww

FUcking Overseer. Looks like I need to collect weapon fragments for that Firestorm.

Repair cost is so high...

ELECTRO PULSE WILL LET ME FACE SECTOPODS WITH EASE (not)

PrincessK gets even more gene mods.

A UFO has landed. Time to harvest weapon fragments.

OVERWATCH SPAM IS KING

>Automatic 4-tile overwatch

>Repairs self for 2 health every turn

I should just field a full squad of SHIVs for shits and giggles.

I heard 6 Hover SHIVS makes the Temple Ship a total cakewalk.

PSI Panic is much better than Mind Control.

Retarded mind control is much better than regular mind control.

A triple Sectoid Commander squad is fucking annoying.

REIN SLAMPAGE IS PROMOTED

Annette Durand is a guaranteed psionic.

More operatives and cash? Mission accepted.

There's snow, and there's insignificant thin men. Gotta find a console in 8 turns and shut it off/destroy it.

A SINGLE BERSERKER MEANS NOTHING TO THE SLAMPAGE

JETBOOT MODULE BEST UPGRADE

Shade will define the true meaning of combat support.

3 new guys rescued

Awww

HERE WE GO

THE MISSION STARTS OFF WITH A DEAD CHRYSALLID

FUCK A SECTOPOD ON A ROOF

After retreating, IT POPS A CORNER

ALloy cannon barely manages to damage it despite PrincessK's special triple shot. Kathleen Ferguson misses both shots despite being at point blank range.

Thank you RNG for not killing either of my assaults.

Other than that, the mission proceeded quite smoothly.

Oh yeaaaa

The presence of Sectopods always troubles me

Until I can just abuse invisibility and use area of effect to kill it without direct line of sight.

So many heavies, so many rockets.

I'm not sure how Excellen manages to shoot through the floor to destroy enemy cover, but I won't question her on such a useful ability.

Shade and co. are moving pretty quickly up the ladder. It's like a promotion every mission.

FUCKING FINALLY

Jaysus.

AWW HOW CUTE

It's like a Tachikoma.

Now to wait for the Overseer UFO to spawn

Shen is happy

Firestorm OP

[Rehab]

There is a possibility of making pretty sweet kaboom type of heavy that puts its skills on massive amounts of grenade dmg and/or rockets. The fact that heat ammo applies to them alone makes it useful :P

I have yet to see any reason to actually use any other Sniper build than the camping sniper. Snipers kinda are terrible in mid to close range no matter what you do and squadsight alone optimizes long range. I suppose the gunslinger skill has some merit for covert operative but supports sprint is infintely more useful for what covert is supposed to do and Assault's Rapid Fire out-damages Gunslinger anyway.

Speaking of assaults I tend to use Close-Combat build focusing around getting stupidly high crit rates with flank(run and gun to the tile next to the alien) + aggression and then using rapid fire. Close combat specialist does good things with that build as you tend to be inside enemy lines by the time turn ends and Flush has pretty limited utility anyway. Choice between lighting reflexes and "close and personal" is up in the air as the crit build is absurdly reliant on run and gun, greatly reducing the use of close and personal outside missions with very small areas, granted close and personal makes you absolute gore machine in those maps.

Admittedly, part of the reason why I asked is because I've heard 3 different squad recommendations for dealing with ironman impossible in Enemy Within so far that were all "one kind of unit per team." As in, one all-assault team for the aggressive, one all-sniper team for the defensive (though how exactly they played and the builds suggested weren't elaborated on), and one all-heavy team for anybody who doesn't want to risk taking a shot with under 90% hit. Was kinda wondering what exactly those people had in mind.

And also whether anybody had come upon any builds that incorporated gene augmentations and medals to build any particularly nasty-looking fucklords from scratch

*last minute of Iron Man builds to a crescendo*

[Verdant Shade]

So strangely enough the post I made about the system for calculating a soldier's chance of psionics disappeared. And thus, HERE you go.

Yes, hover Shivs give the alien invaders very, very bad days. I think the only advantage which alloy Shivs have over hover Shivs is that "half-cover" bonus, which can be used to bait aliens out into the open because they like to take cover behind hostile shivs.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Verdant Shade

[Sifer]

the last mission awaits... who will go?

what hapens to the lives of those mech soldiers though.. they certaintly can't walk around society without a few looks.

The genes people have it better, but what are the docs going to think when they see titaniium legs? That is going to raise questions. Or will they have special healthcare somewhere else?

[IGdood]

the last mission awaits... who will go?

what hapens to the lives of those mech soldiers though.. they certaintly can't walk around society without a few looks.

The genes people have it better, but what are the docs going to think when they see titaniium legs? That is going to raise questions. Or will they have special healthcare somewhere else?

I don't know who will go as the volunteer, but the "old guard" definitely will go. You raise good questions, and that is what Ananda Gupta wants us to think as we turn our soldiers into MECs.

As for the last mission, this update does not have it. We're almost there.

The Ethereal must be here. We have new toys too. Snapshot penalty be gone, Rikku has a jetpack!

Hahahaaha! Eat plasma, alien scum!

OH GOD 2 SECTOPODS AND SHIT COVER

GUYS PLEASE STOP MISSING

*STOMP* *STOMP*

FUUUUUUUUU-

That fucker is still standing, and the other Sectopod and Muton in the back aren't making things easier.

Excellen lets off the EMP. DISABLE THAT SUCKER. PAIN IS BETTER THAN DEATH

The death of the disabled Sectopod reveals the Ethereal. No healing for the heroic, we have to keep fighting.

Of course Weir would get mindcontrolled.

Weir fails to kill his friends

Shock 'em. If they don't submit, shock 'em again.

The alien device is ours!

OOh yeaaaah

Weir can use one of these, but I need another ethereal corpse. Vahlen turned the previous one into puree.

Ordering more Firestorms just in case

Wat

Very OP

Since when did you give a shit about risks, Vahlen?

Alright, another chance to kill an Ethereal.

I like how In the Zone RIkku just lets her kill off 2 Sectoids and 1 Mechtoid in a single turn.

Elite Mutons? PSI POWERS UNLEASH followed by Excellen double-tapping = all dead in a single turn

Found the VIP. Time to exact justice.

Reflect this, you shit.

Dammit, another 7 days!?

More toys!

Some UFO landed so we'll send our secondary forces to go take care of it.

I can almost imagine the Tachikoma.

Why are SHIVs cute?

N-no! Not the original!

I like how NOBODY can hit a hovershiv. NOBODY.

HAHAHAHA, fuck you too muton.

DIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE

*reflected*

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

More to come. Happy New Year!

[IGdood]

Hello all.

The end is nigh.

However the earlier SHIV death has been retconned because I booted up the game only to find an autosave from before the SHIV died, which is weird.

Anyways....

Moving on.

It's funny how flamethrowers can panic Ethereals.

Wh-what

Oh, I just need to equip this Psi Suit.

I was torn between choosing PrincessK and Verdant Shade.

If I chose Shade, PrincessK wouldn't...you know... (Don't want to spoil it because there may be people who didn't play yet)

If I chose PrincessK, then I can't finish the final mission with the original 6 guys/girls.

I went with the latter choice.

Every ending needs to have a WHAM moment.

What did she see

All those experiments

11th Hour Superpowers when? PrincessK automatically unlocks the 3rd tier abilities. She goes with Mind Control because that's XCOM, baby!

Let's do this.

Let's end the pain and suffering and send those aliens back to the hell they spawned out of.

The Ethereals liken themselves to gods, uplifting and searching for the ultimate creature with which to mold into the deadliest warrior.

Fuck your shit, Sectoids.

I still remember Golubev's death.

In the Zone and HEAT ammo turns Cyberdiscs into smoking wrecks.

One got a shot off though.

Floaters used to piss me off thanks to their height bonuses granting them increased dodge.

Doesn't matter, everyone's aim is so high.

I wish XCOM had its own "animal units"

Thin Men used to give me nightmares because they always had an ungodly chance of delivering critical hits.

An alien grenade is all you need now.

Mutons a shit. In the Zone from Rikku just kills them. CCS from PrincessK takes care of the berserker.

Sectopods are another story. Sort of.

New one this, new one that...

The more i hear him talk the more I want to punch his lights out.

It's almost sad when you can one shot Muton Elites.

There's that bastard.

The talk of the Ethereals being failures brings up a point I would like to discuss after I post everything.

Time to blow you to shit.

Also, Weir finally resisted mind control.

Taking care of the 2 Muton Elites.

Still have to watch out for the 2 Ethereals and the 1 UberEthereal.

Humanity will never submit. (Also, note where DaigojiExcellen is)

GOD DAMN IT WEIR

Integ survives a Hadouken to the face.

I TOLD YOU I WOULD PUNCH YOUR LIGHTS OUT.

Cap the boss, finish the game.

The Uber Ethereal was the only thing holding the ship together.

The Volunteer (PrincessK) sees what will happen if the current course of events continues.

She must intervene.

She must sacrifice herself and move the ship far from Earth.

A wave of psionic energy knocks our most steadfast heroes into the Skyranger.

;___;

Thanks for reading the LP.

I must ask though....why are there no Seekers and Mechtoids on the Temple Ship?

Ah, now to things I want to discuss.

I don't know if anyone here has played the Bureau (also known as XCOM Declassified), but the story there expands a bit more on this whole Ethereal business.

See, in the Bureau, the ethereals are like ghostlike beings that actually look ethereal. They are also very rare, and there is usually only one of them for each planet. They use their powers to uplift an entire species by bonding with one of them, granting that being immeasurable clarity in tactical command, leadership, and combat ability.

Pictured: What they look like

Some of them are pretty nice, they seek to protect the species of those they have bonded with. Others use entire species as tools.

I have come to the conclusion that the Ethereals in XCOM EW/EU are the "False" Ethereals. They have been cast out, rejected from uplifting albeit granted similar powers by the true Ethereals. They call themselves failures, yet talk about finding the perfect warrior to prepare for what lies beyond.

What does lie beyond?

Another alien threat?

Or perhaps there are actually many different groups of Ethereals that seek to assemble a collection of uplifted species as a sort of gladiatorial army that they will then pit against each other like the different districts from the Hunger Games?

Please offer your thoughts.

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

I think that this Princess K person is most valiant and delightfully awesome specimen

[Sifer]

[spoiler='my thought's on the XCOM story', This the only XCOM game I played though]

I always thought that that the 4th dimensional being or whatever was "beyond" was a/the (g/G)od and he felt rather lonely so he tried raising the ethereal into godhood with him. The ethereal were failures and so the 4th dimensional being tasked the ethereal to raise other species to godhood.

And so the ethereal experimented but, the experimentation made the other species unable to fully ascend since they were "tampered with*". So the new approach was with the humans was to have them develop naturally. Now, the best way to advance a civilization is to war with them, so they did. The humans just evolved way too quickly and killed the ethereal forces. Leaving the humans alone to ascend to godhood in their own way.

*The thin men were tampered with, that is why they cannot use psionics

Well, that is my take on the story.

Edited January 12, 2014 by sifer

[IGdood]

[spoiler='my thought's on the XCOM story', This the only XCOM game I played though]

I always thought that that the 4th dimensional being or whatever was "beyond" was a/the (g/G)od and he felt rather lonely so he tried raising the ethereal into godhood with him. The ethereal were failures and so the 4th dimensional being tasked the ethereal to raise other species to godhood.

And so the ethereal experimented but, the experimentation made the other species unable to fully ascend since they were "tampered with*". So the new approach was with the humans was to have them develop naturally. Now, the best way to advance a civilization is to war with them, so they did. The humans just evolved way too quickly and killed the ethereal forces. Leaving the humans alone to ascend to godhood in their own way.

*The thin men were tampered with, that is why they cannot use psionics

Well, that is my take on the story.

That's pretty cool.

If they stick with this XCOM game I wonder if they'll do Enemy Beneath (Terror from the Deep remake) and /or Enemy Beyond (4th god, the threat the ethereals were preparing for...etc)

[IGdood]

Next LP soon....

Looks like the canon ending to XCOM was the bad one. Also I don't know if it's just me but the youtube video version's audio isn't the correct one. If it isn't for you, check the vid in the ign link.

Get ready to make descendants of your characters. Maybe PrincessK is still alive.

ALSO MOTHERFUCKING SWORDS HNNNNGH

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/01/xcom-2-announced-ign-first

Also never found this article but from the words of Designer Jake Solomon himself: THE VOLUNTEER DOES NOT DIE.

http://www.gamewatcher.com/news/2014-20-11-jake-solomon-addresses-fate-of-ultimate-psi-soldier-in-xcom-enemy-unknown

Also can a kind moderator move this to the correct forum please?

Edited June 1, 2015 by IGdood

[Magical CC]

Here is my 2 cents on the trailer:

_It failed to show any kind of tactics or strategy despite being a trailer of XCOM. Really, you let your sniper go near the enemy like that? Enemies go out their cover and shoot while moving, really? And that guy with the sword? Is he supposed to be cool? Using a sword instead of...you know, shoot the hell out of the alien?

_The animation is really bad with all wacky animations and the quality of the trailer is like it comes from 2010.