melkathi

My cheesing experience continues. Open the door to reveal 1 Archon and 1 Sectoid. They run for cover, triggering the other group: 1 Shieldbearer, 1 Stun Lancer and 1 Gatekeeper. Eeek! Gatekeeper! My Psi Ops opens a Void Rift hitting the Archon, Sectoid and Gatekeeper. One of them triggers Insanity. The Gatekeeper. Which Insanity effect? Mind Control. I think I need to start streaming this. The audience would get a completely wrong impression of the game

The game really is about ganging up on enemies. 4 or 5 xcom operatives vs a standard 3 person advent patrol should result in a kill, and then 2 to 1 odds. It gets easier once you have some key skills.

No spoiler really: there is no second plot structure. That spot really is for the useless lab I am just putting off going on the final mission sequence, while doing stuff (build a lab for the steam achievement, grabbing the last countries I am missing etc). Also just goofing around in missions now trying out various things for silly screenshots.

Thought I'd just share the reason why I can cheese everything by hiding behind a Sectopod. "Breaker" is my first Specialist, and was my main goto guy for healing and hacking until he got gravely wounded. Then "Crypto" took over. A dedicated healer she quickly replaced "Breaker" as the main specialist, though often both would join the squad on runs. Then both got wounded. So my third specialist, who hadn't seen that much action got a shot. "Rogue" - who's main claim to fame had been his attempt to drive the aliens off earth by confronting them with his fashion sense: Now that he has gotten two permanent increases to his hacking skill, who were those other two again?

Restarting the PC cleared XCOM problems for now. Engineers are ok. Scientists are pretty useless and the lab is pointless. So little to research. If at least you could staff the Psi Lab with a scientist instead of an engineer, then one of them would have something to do. All I have left to research is Facility Information, but... I blew all of those up. -7 AVATAR Progress in one month.

Last VIP mission I ran a Sectopod into the building, past the VIP and out the other side to the EVAC zone. All my squad had to do was run through the holes it had opened, grab the VIP and leave My Psi Ops is currently training Schism - her last ability - she has all the rest. Her chance to Mind Control enemies is now at 100% for Archons and Andromedas. Played a story mission earlier were only my ranger ever got shot at (and wounded), and that only because I was careless. Hacked a Sectopod on turn 2 and mind-controlled an Andromeda. Ran the Sectopod across the bridge, past two ADVENT patrols and into a Black Site Facility and the arms of a waiting trio of Archons. They all were very surprised when their Sectopod started charging up its cannon. The survivor was probably less surprised when he found himself being chased by the Andromeda But game has become unplayable now. Crashes, graphic corruption during cut scenes, negative day counters (which result in Dark Events triggering right away instead of the 3-4 week warning), etc etc.

3 crashes since yesterday. Performance of the game is getting worse even as the performance of my squad is getting even better.

The Purple Toe was ambushed by another cult. No honour among the damned! But wait, who is that helping them? A Clan Skryre Poison Wind Globadier has joined the Purple Toe as part of an Equal Opportunity Program!

I play Mordheim. I think that counts And I got very lucky: managed to get a permanent +20 hacking for my specialist while hacking a mission objective early on. It made hacking very easy.

I completely forgot about the Guerrilla Training thingie! Also, I think I just hit the point where difficulty dibs. While trying to sneak past one patrol, I got caught out in the open by another. Both groups activated and came rushing towards me. One MEC went on overwatch, the other fired at my sniper and missed (lucky!). The rest of them moved to surround me. Queue: Melkathi's turn! 1) Specialist haywires the overwatching MEC - stupidly high chance to take control. Success. Bonus: MEC stays in overwatch! 2) Psi Ops attempts to Dominate the Archon on the hill above us - 64% chance to succeed. Success 3) Grenadier starts shredding armor of the second MEC. 4) Sniper shoots the MEC and gets the action points refunded because of her hair trigger. Shoots him a second time and kills him. 5) Gunslinger fires on the Shieldbearer. And again, and again, and again. 6) Ranger shoots her grappling hook to get onto the hill, then empties her shotgun into the Trooper still crouching up there. This leaves one stun lancer. Enemy turn triggers, he moves and gets taken out by the hacked MEC's overwatch. Upgrade equipment and try the next mission. Let's see if last time was a fluke! Spawn almost next to 3 Archons. 1) Psi Ops attempts to Dominate the furthest away Archon. With the new Psi Amp: 85% chance! 2) Mind Controlled Archon reveals the next patrol: a Sectopod. 3) Haywire the Sectopod. 43% Chance to take control. Let's live dangerously! Success! 4) The rest of the squad empties all their guns into the remaining two Archons, while the ADVENT troops try to seek cover from their Sectopod. 5) Sectopod rampages towards the extraction point and my team strolls after it. I can't shake the feeling that I'm in for a nasty surprise...

I use a grappling hook armour on my dedicated sniper. The hook does not count as an action, so she can get onto a roof and start sniping right away.

I am giving up on making ammo and grenades. I use the acid one I got, as it is nice for shredding. The rest of the cores are better used elsewhere though.

My Ammo so far is: Tracer (aim +10) Talon (crit chance +20, crit damage +1) Venom (damage +1, poison organics) Dragon (damage +1, burn enemies)

What really ruins the whole "guerrilla" atmosphere is that too many missions have a Neutralize All Enemies objective. If my objective is to steal some datafiles or something similar, then once I have what I came for, I should just be able to extract, not have to hunt around the map and risk jeopardizing the mission.

Firaxis. With an "i" And yeah, I get the memory leaks as well Also, whenever someone complains about companies, I have my favourite Firaxis Dev quote (though from the Civilization team, not the XCOM one): "Every product is iterative with us. I think our audience, and rightfully so, has a pretty short memory. When Civ V came out it was pretty rough and it took two expansions to get that game to the place that people have in their heads. The game that people have in their heads is the result of lots of patches, lots of iteration and two expansions." It is part of their business model to make games that need two expansions to be a finished product

Gunslingers are great to take out all those enemies who had their armor broken by the grenadier first. Grenadier lobs an acid grenade - takes off two armor of the ADVENT patrol. ADVENT start shouting, and run for cover. Sniper shoots them all with Kill Zone (or what it's called). Gunslinger finishes them all off with Lightning Hands, Quickdraw and Face Off/Fan Fire. Best thing that has happened to me in this game though is Hail of Bullets on my dedicated sniper. She can use it after moving to still fire with her rifle (and at 100% accuracy). Though the best thing might also have been getting a permanent +20 hacking on my specialist. Two best things.

My sharpshooter just got Chain Shot and my Heavy got Implacable. Good thing I hide behind an army of hacked and mind controlled minions. Otherwise I'd be taking a hell of a lot more damage.

Blew up my second ADVENT facility. Now I need to establish contact with the american continent. There must be two facilities there that I'd like to pay a visit. On another note: been trying out combat protocol, which I had originally ignored in favour of better heals. The double damage to mechs while ignoring armor is actually awesome. My gremlin can one-shot turrets and seriously weakens MECs. With my Psi-Op ignoring armor on human enemies, last mission was quite a breeze.

My gremlins are running comms and advanced warfare at the moment.

My power coil is middle right. Currently still ok power wise by having upgraded my starting power thingie with an elirium converter. I need some rookies as well, for when the Psi Ops is completed. But right now I am playing with my Untouchable ranger. Kill something with her getting the killing blow. Then park her in front of a Viper/Berserker/Archon/Whatever. The enemy will waste their go trying to hit her and miss. Of course the idea is to not have someone else try to kill her as well

Hunting for Collaborators Taking out the bodyguards and the random patrols Persuading the target to come quietly very quietly getting out before more of their friends show up Showing them their new home

Did you guys do any kidnapping missions yet?

Keeping Avatar at bay is now working out. Build a relay and staffed it with Gremlins. That let me contact two regions with ADVENT Facilities. Blew one of them up. Heading for the second one. I still haven't build a Psi Ops though

Fall back in the opposite direction. If all ADVENT are there, there must be civilians completely safe. But mostly: ragequit.

And once Mutons start counter-attacking your sword attacks, swords become even less appealing. Charge Muton, sword attack misses, Muton gets free counterblow, Ranger dead. Advanced warfare so far has given me a Specialist with Aim and a Sniper with Hail of Bullets. It's on my overwatch, death from above sniper. So I guess she can get a guaranteed hit anywhere on the map now if she empties her magazine, then reload for free if it's a kill.