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[Poodlestrike]

So should I play the original XCom 2 as it is before jumping into War of the Chosen?

Idk how this work. I heard WotC is a lot smoother on PC in term of frame rate.

WOTC is just such an overall upgrade I can't really recommend playing the original release. Much faster load times and way better performance. Plus, huuuuge changes to the tactical and strategic side of things. It's more complex, but honestly, with XCOM if you're not prepared to get your head handed to you at first you're gonna be savescumming or setting the difficulty super low anyway.

 

[Sinh_Magnus]

Is there a way to get more reapers, skirmishers and templars to add your team?
I still have the two story related npcs for reapers and skirmishers, who I don't feel like customizing too much. I do think I got a random templar who I already customized.

I thought I maybe could find them in the black market, but so far no luck.

 

[Erheller]

Is there a way to get more reapers, skirmishers and templars to add your team?
I still have the two story related npcs for reapers and skirmishers, who I don't feel like customizing too much. I do think I got a random templar who I already customized.

I thought I maybe could find them in the black market, but so far no luck.

Covert actions. I think you need to have high influence for the mission to pop?

 

[Sinh_Magnus]

Covert actions. I think you need to have high influence for the mission to pop?

I still haven't reached high influence with any faction, so that's probably it. Thanks.

 

[Mr Swine]

So do the Alien Hunters in the Alien Hunters DLC appear in the WoTC expansion or is it just vanilla? I can research their weapons but I haven't meet any of em

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

Mox almost died in my avenger defense mission yesterday. He was bleeding out and I had to carry his body over to the platform and stabilize him. A tactic I use in that mission is to use Dragunova as a spotter and get a sniper to shoot the device from all the way across the map. Wasn't easy though. Lost 2 people that mission, and was barely holding on against the relentless hordes of enemies.

 

[Facism]

So do the Alien Hunters in the Alien Hunters DLC appear in the WoTC expansion or is it just vanilla? I can research their weapons but I haven't meet any of em

afaik, if you integrate the DLC, they only turn up guarding specific blacksites or facilities. The game lets you know this with a prompt on the world screen. You don't get the story mission this way. Once you meet them, they can interfere with your missions from then on.

Wish i knew, i integrated all the DLC and all that's really happened is that the related story missions aren't available.

Next run, I won't integrate and have all dat content available.

-----

My first Ranger hit max rank and jesus christ is he overpowered. Serial and Reaper abilities are mental, plus that auto-attack melee just means you can throw the guy into Lost swarms and he'll just single-handily cut them down on their own turn.

 

[Dina]

I feel like the expansion is somehow harder than the main game. I had to drop down from Commander Ironman to Veteran Ironman to just survive the first two-three missions.

 

[Sentenza]

So do the Alien Hunters in the Alien Hunters DLC appear in the WoTC expansion or is it just vanilla? I can research their weapons but I haven't meet any of em

It has been said several times already, but to recap:
you can decide at the start of each campaign if you want to play these DLC in their typical "story driven" form or if you want their "simplified" version naturally merged into the expansion.

I picked the second option for my first campaign, and the more I try to compare the two the more I'm getting the feeling that the former would probably be the easiest.
For one, you wouldn't have rulers randomly appear guarding blacksites until you "activate" them by doing the appropriate mission (which would give you a hellish time if you are still with magnetic weapons or worse) and all the low tier alien hunter weapons now require each several days on the proving ground, when they used to be a simple loot pick up on the strategic map.

 

[Mr Swine]

afaik, if you integrate the DLC, they only turn up guarding specific blacksites or facilities. The game lets you know this with a prompt on the world screen. You don't get the story mission this way. Once you meet them, they can interfere with your missions from then on.

Wish i knew, i integrated all the DLC and all that's really happened is that the related story missions aren't available.

Next run, I won't integrate and have all dat content available.

-----

My first Ranger hit max rank and jesus christ is he overpowered. Serial and Reaper abilities are mental, plus that auto-attack melee just means you can throw the guy into Lost swarms and he'll just single-handily cut them down on their own turn.

It has been said several times already, but to recap:
you can decide at the start of each campaign if you want to play these DLC in their typical "story driven" form or if you want their "simplified" version naturally merged into the expansion.

I picked the second option for my first campaign, and the more I try to compare the two the more I'm getting the feeling that the former would probably be the easiest.
For one, you wouldn't have rulers randomly appear guarding blacksites until you "activate" them by doing the appropriate mission (which would give you a hellish time if you are still with magnetic weapons or worse) and all the low tier alien hunter weapons now require each several days on the proving ground, when they used to be a simple loot pick up on the strategic map.

Ah ok, didn't even know that. Oh well I will do that just for the sake of fun XD

Oh is this a bug? I seem to have a extra guy with me on my missions, a heavy lancer dude. So I have my team upgrade maxed out of 6 but it's 7 with the heavy lancer

 

[Pheace]

The base game stressed me the fuck out. I loved the first one, and this one is better in many ways, but somehow the map and management aspect done me in, I found it so hard to keep up. Does this address that at all?

FYI, while there's even more to do on the strategic layer now you *do* have an advanced new game option now to make the avatar project take twice as long to complete, significantly easing the stress on the strategic layer.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I don't like the enemies in this game. It's missing this mysterios/UFO feeling from the first one. It's more like a superhero XCOM and I am not really into that...

I do think that is generally an issue I have with XCOM2 and even more so with WOTC. I think they're mechanical improvements on the previous game—and even where they're not, they're more interesting—but I miss the unease and mystery and dread of XCOM, which is also more faithful to X-COM. The Saturday morning cartoon vibe is way too pronounced now, as much as I'm enjoying every other aspect of the game.

In my ideal XCOM, the aliens wouldn't have personalities and wouldn't speak any language humans understood. Everything would be depressing and scary. But I guess Xenonauts is out there if you want that.

 

[TC McQueen]

Fuck, the mod I really wanted to get updated for WOTC has hit a roadblock. It causes the debug game to crash and I don't know why.

 

[epmode]

I do think that is generally an issue I have with XCOM2 and even more so with WOTC. I think they're mechanical improvements on the previous game—and even where they're not, they're more interesting—but I miss the unease and mystery and dread of XCOM, which is also more faithful to X-COM. The Saturday morning cartoon vibe is way too pronounced now, as much as I'm enjoying every other aspect of the game.

In my ideal XCOM, the aliens wouldn't have personalities and wouldn't speak any language humans understood. Everything would be depressing and scary. But I guess Xenonauts is out there if you want that.

I agree with all of this. The expansion is incredible but it really changes the atmosphere that I loved from the very first X-COM. The same thing applies to the reboot, although not to the extent of WOTC.

BTW, you may be interested in Phoenix Point. https://www.fig.co/campaigns/phoenix-point

 

[Shake Appeal]

I agree with all of this. The expansion is incredible but it really changes the atmosphere that I loved from the very first X-COM. The same thing applies to the reboot, although not to the extent of WotC.

BTW, you may be interested in Phoenix Point. https://www.fig.co/campaigns/phoenix-point

Yeah, I'm aware of and looking forward to Phoenix Point, although I forgot to actually back it.

 

[Grimsen]

I would LOVE it if XCOM 3 retreaded the original setting and themes of UFO Defense, with an evolution of XCOM 2's gameplay mechanics.

Spoiler

and have 4 be TFTD

 

[Jintor]

We need to get our ass to Mars

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

Titanfall armor mod is amazing. Really fits in the XCOM universe too.

 

[TheThunder]

I still think making both the hit and the crit being one role a baffling decision, it makes using flashbangs borderline retarded.

 

[Lister]

What's going on, I'm getting wrecked on Normal difficulty and on misisons rated "easy".

Am I that rusty or is WoTC that much harder?

I think I'm goign to restart my campaign as I've lost 5 guys total now and faile dtwo missions in a row!

 

[Poodlestrike]

I would LOVE it if XCOM 3 retreaded the original setting and themes of UFO Defense, with an evolution of XCOM 2's gameplay mechanics.

Spoiler

and have 4 be TFTD

3 I want to be built more on Apocalypse. The faction stuff they've got in WOTC is cool, I'd love to see more of it.

 

[Sentenza]

What's going on, I'm getting wrecked on Normal difficulty and on misisons rated "easy".

Am I that rusty or is WoTC that much harder?

I think I'm goign to restart my campaign as I've lost 5 guys total now and faile dtwo missions in a row!

I'm playing on Commander (not ironman though, I didn't feel confident enough since I'm not familiar with WoTC).
So far I always survived, but I can't deny I'm getting the impression that the game is becoming harder and harder as missions go on.
Just had a mission with tough enemies+lost and a Chosen showed up.
I had to pull my hair to keep the team alive.

EDIT - Also, HOLY FUCK if the assassin isn't the most annoying one to deal with.

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

Had a nightmare 'Moderate' difficulty mission where a Chosen showed up and started destroying me by sending in reinforcements and swarming me with zombies. Also there was a Spectre who wreaked havoc. I had to get out of there before I got squad wiped. Still haven't beaten a Chosen on the battlefield. I've hurt them, but they always went invisible and came back several turns later. Spectres are the worst new enemy in the entire game. They can knock someone out with one hit. At first I thought they did one hit kills and I was all 'WTF THIS IS OP'.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I still think making both the hit and the crit being one role a baffling decision, it makes using flashbangs borderline retarded.

There's a mod that restores them to being separate rolls, but I've never looked into it too much, so I don't know if it's preferable.

Also, I lucked out with my first non-scripted Chosen mission on this second run; it was an outdoor train mission with no timer, a total-map-vision sitrep, and I'd brought my Reaper and sniper. So I was able to just scout/squadsight everything and deal with the Chosen by herself.

 

[Pikelet]

I continue to not enjoy the authored story in any of the modern XCom games.

The weakest aspect of this expansion is the addition of yet more cartoon characters chirping away at me. I do kinda enjoy encountering the Shadow of Mordor - esque boss characters, but certainly not because of the dialogue.

I have two thumbs up for the overall gameplay improvements though. There's just so much new stuff! Loads of new mechanics and features, and loads more variety. It definitely feels more substantial than the original game's expansion.

The Geoscape side of things is holding my interest more, and I feel like I have a lot more viable options as to where to go, what to build, and what to research. This may change as i get more experienced and settle upon a hyper-efficient build order, but for the moment i enjoy weighing my options and deciding where I'll expend my effort.

On the tactical side there's a noticeable increase in the number of abilities that are being thrown around, both from the player and from enemies. It does increase the Power Rangers vibe, but it's fun from a gameplay perspective.

It's also a blast fighting alongside other factions. It's always cool in games when you can use your enemies against each other.

I also love that they've added heaps of character customisation options. All these extra stats (combat intelligence, ability points, bonds etc) serve to increase the uniqueness of each soldier, which makes me care more about keeping them alive.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the state of this game now.

 

[DarkStream]

This is quite challenging for me on default difficulty.
I have played the X-Com Reboot and X-COM 2 Vanilla before this (Was never any good).
I hate letting soldiers die, so I admittedly did some save scumming. I must have done dozens of missions with no man down.

I made it work for a a while. Now, the Avatar Project is almost maxed, and the missions get really hard. Even with my "experienced" soldiers and decent gear.

I plan to start over with an extended Avatar Countdown, just to reduce the pressure.
Sadly, I'm already kinda burnt out - It takes a lot of focus to do well.

Something that annoyed me: Early on I managed to "kill" one of the Chosen. It seems they don't die and just teleport away until you meet them in their "real" mission. Shame, I thought it would be cool to let me get them early on.

EDIT: I also think the game suffers from too many NPCs barking at you. It's hard to pay attention to everything,

 

[Jintor]

Kinda sounds like I should disable the scripted missions for LP purposes

 

[RedlineRonin]

Well, I'm on re roll number 3.

The language used to describe how the inclusion of the existing DLC (shen's last gift, alien hunters) works is so incredibly obtuse.

Checked the box the first time, wrong. Second time, unchecked the box and then checked the box for the individual pieces like "yeah, include these", but that's apparently the same as having the box checked.

So here we go....

Kinda dumb, but the mechanics of these games have always been so good I don't mind a restart

 

[CmdBash]

In the north american region at the moment, I can't seem to fly across to europe or asia to make contact with those regions. The lines tell me that I have to go through south america and then australia to get there. Is my memory failing me, was this always the case?

 

[RedlineRonin]

In the north american region at the moment, I can't seem to fly across to europe or asia to make contact with those regions. The lines tell me that I have to go through south america and then australia to get there. Is my memory failing me, was this always the case?

Do you have capacity in contacts (top right of the screen)?

you should be able to do both.

 

[CmdBash]

Do you have capacity in contacts (top right of the screen)?

you should be able to do both.

Did some googling apparently connections are random? pretty weird.

 

[RumbleHumble]

Question: I'm playing through OG XCOM 2 for the first time right now and really enjoying it. Playing on PS4Pro. Does WOTC enhance performance on PS4 similarly to PC?

 

[RedlineRonin]

Did some googling apparently connections are random? pretty weird.

Weird.

I can't remember when I haven't been able to go from one to any other one, but maybe I just haven't been paying attention.

Question: I'm playing through OG XCOM 2 for the first time right now and really enjoying it. Playing on PS4Pro. Does WOTC enhance performance on PS4 similarly to PC?

I don't think anyone definitively knows yet, since it isn't out for a couple weeks. I'm guessing at a minimum the load times are better though.

 

[Sblargh]

In the north american region at the moment, I can't seem to fly across to europe or asia to make contact with those regions. The lines tell me that I have to go through south america and then australia to get there. Is my memory failing me, was this always the case?

The allowed routes are different every campaign.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Another Vanilla-WotC question: did they change the continent bonuses? I don't remember them being so **awesome** in vanilla.

The allowed routes are different every campaign.

Huh. I had no idea.

I have much to learn.

 

[Sblargh]

Another Vanilla-WotC question: did they change the continent bonuses? I don't remember them being so **awesome** in vanilla.


Huh. I had no idea.

I have much to learn.

The continent bônus are different every campaign.
Now there is a pool of a lot of bonuses and the game randomly distributes them between continent bonuses, breakthroughs and resistance orders.

 

[BlackJace]

It feels like the series might be reaching bloat in all of its systems/characters/lore/etc., so I wouldn't be surprised if post-XCOM 3 is another reboot. Most like one that is thematically similar to the old games/ Xenonauts.

 

[AWizardDidIt]

The Chosen are a terrifying addition to the game. Had the assassin show up on a retaliation mission and it completely changed everything. I no longer could balance moving forward carefully and taking out advent pods while accepting a few civilian losses to keep my own team safe. Now in order to complete the mission I had to recklessly run forward in a mad attempt to finish off the Advent to stem civilian losses taking run moves just about every turn just to keep ahead of the assassin. Lost 2 of my best soldiers that mission and another one was gravely wounded. Didn't even get a shot off against the assassin before she did her mind warp thing to steal some knowledge and warp away. Saved 7 civilians and beat the mission though... one of the most tense missions I've had in a while.

I really wish the Chosen would shut up though. I'm downloading the first mod I see that cuts out their chirps. They'd be so much more intimidating if they just showed up, did their damage, and then left without a word.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

So do we know if the actual endings are different between OG X-Com 2 vs the expansion?

I was about 2/3s of the way through a campaign a while back I've been meaning to resume at some point. Seems like the general consensus would just be to dump it and start over.

I've never beaten the original so I'm debating finishing that game as a refresher.

 

[grandwizard]

The Chosen are a terrifying addition to the game. Had the assassin show up on a retaliation mission and it completely changed everything. I no longer could balance moving forward carefully and taking out advent pods while accepting a few civilian losses to keep my own team safe. Now in order to complete the mission I had to recklessly run forward in a mad attempt to finish off the Advent to stem civilian losses taking run moves just about every turn just to keep ahead of the assassin. Lost 2 of my best soldiers that mission and another one was gravely wounded. Didn't even get a shot off against the assassin before she did her mind warp thing to steal some knowledge and warp away. Saved 7 civilians and beat the mission though... one of the most tense missions I've had in a while.

I really wish the Chosen would shut up though. I'm downloading the first mod I see that cuts out their chirps. They'd be so much more intimidating if they just showed up, did their damage, and then left without a word.

Same thing happened to me, had the Assassin show up in a retaliation mission and it was one of the most intense missions I've ever had. Totally threw a wrench in how I was planning to play it. Had to use my reaper and concealed ranger to run behind enemy lines stealth rescuing civilians while everyone else set up a defense position for the Assassin and enemy pods.

 

[Facism]

The Chosen are a terrifying addition to the game. Had the assassin show up on a retaliation mission and it completely changed everything. I no longer could balance moving forward carefully and taking out advent pods while accepting a few civilian losses to keep my own team safe. Now in order to complete the mission I had to recklessly run forward in a mad attempt to finish off the Advent to stem civilian losses taking run moves just about every turn just to keep ahead of the assassin. Lost 2 of my best soldiers that mission and another one was gravely wounded. Didn't even get a shot off against the assassin before she did her mind warp thing to steal some knowledge and warp away. Saved 7 civilians and beat the mission though... one of the most tense missions I've had in a while.

I really wish the Chosen would shut up though. I'm downloading the first mod I see that cuts out their chirps. They'd be so much more intimidating if they just showed up, did their damage, and then left without a word.

I had a timed mission to abduct an Advent VIP. Had the Lost Swarm Dark Event active and the Chosen shows up. Things got out of hand extremely quickly haha.

 

[samn]

Question: I'm playing through OG XCOM 2 for the first time right now and really enjoying it. Playing on PS4Pro. Does WOTC enhance performance on PS4 similarly to PC?

Very possibly but no one knows. The console version hasn’t been previewed

 

[Ont]

I no longer could balance moving forward carefully and taking out advent pods while accepting a few civilian losses to keep my own team safe. Now in order to complete the mission I had to recklessly run forward in a mad attempt to finish off the Advent to stem civilian losses taking run moves just about every turn just to keep ahead of the assassin.

This is the reason why I thought mission timers were great addition to XCOM 2. The Chosen and the Lost further push me from my comfort zone and I love the feeling of rush that comes with that. Removing or increasing the mission timers feels wrong to me.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

So the general consensus for those of us with all the DLC missions is to not integrate it with WOTC and allow them to stay in their original forms?

 

[RedlineRonin]

So the general consensus for those of us with all the DLC missions is to not integrate it with WOTC and allow them to stay in their original forms?

I think it's preference.

If you just want the stuff like the gear and class and don't care about the actual story related missions involved, check the box.

If you're like me, and you actually like those missions, uncheck the box (and don't check any of the individual boxes underneath either).

 

[AWizardDidIt]

This is the reason why I thought mission timers were great addition to XCOM 2. The Chosen and the Lost further push me from my comfort zone and I love the feeling of rush that comes with that. Removing or increasing the mission timers feels wrong to me.

I think that mission timers can be good design but I also think vanilla XCOM2 relies on them too much. I really like that WotC has a lot more variety in the missions and less binary timers.

 

[Basileus777]

I think it's preference.

If you just want the stuff like the gear and class and don't care about the actual story related missions involved, check the box.

If you're like me, and you actually like those missions, uncheck the box (and don't check any of the individual boxes underneath either).

You need to check the individual DLCs underneath if you want the story missions.

 

[Decado]

This all sounds good. I will pick it up a little later this year. Hopefully the improved performance means I can crank the resolution when I get a 4k tv :3

 

[Omnicent]

Got my second Templar. He has Reaper and Bladestorm (can't remember the 3rd Xcom skill he has. Think it's Untouchable).

My first Templar was meh (got mostly pistol skills), so I didn't use him much, but this one? He murders multiple pods by himself.
He ranks with my savant sharshooter (she got some really good xcom skills).

Hopefully my 2nd reaper can get some good stealth damage boosting xcom abilities. I imagine a well rolled Reaper could probably assassinate some pods solo while still in concealment.

 

[RedlineRonin]

You need to check the individual DLCs underneath if you want the story missions.

I believe you need to uncheck them, actually.

I ran the first time with integrated checked, and you just get to build the spark when you build the foundry and the snow viper (or w/e) just randomly starts showing up. I literally just this morning had the exact same thing happen when i restarted by unchecking the integrate box but checking the individual two boxes.

This also makes sense because when you uncheck the "integrate DLC" box, by default, it unchecks the two boxes below.

Have you had a different experience? I've yet to see either of the two story missions and when you get to the mission where the snow viper shows up for example it's just like "that must be subject gamma from vahlen's experiments" and it's completely apropos of nothing.