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[Incendiary]

Is there any way to speed up recovery if someone is shaken? Just did the Avenger Defense and dumb AI sent out a bunch of tired people as reinforcements, and now Mox is shaken and out of combat for 20 days, along with three others for less time. Super annoying since I didn't have a choice in the matter (and had non-tired troops in the wings as well).

 

[Sulik2]

Is there any way to speed up recovery if someone is shaken? Just did the Avenger Defense and dumb AI sent out a bunch of tired people as reinforcements, and now Mox is shaken and out of combat for 20 days, along with three others for less time. Super annoying since I didn't have a choice in the matter (and had non-tired troops in the wings as well).

There is a reaper card that increases will recovery by 20%, thats probably your best bet.

 

[Naar]

Followed the recommendation of not integrating the dlc
Went into Shen's Last Gift as soon as it opened, with basic weapons and no sergeant whatsoever, not even knowing what it'd involve.

Get to the final floor.

see the final pod

"well.... shit"

either imma have to savescum the fuck outta this thing or go back to the map save and come back later, cuz even with heavy savescumming aint seeing no way to clear the thing without losing at least 2 guys.

That happened to me last year. I didn't even know it was a dlc mission and then took me almost 2 hours to finish because i went in unprepared but somehow managed to win without any of my guys deadv(but severely injured)

Is there any way to speed up recovery if someone is shaken? Just did the Avenger Defense and dumb AI sent out a bunch of tired people as reinforcements, and now Mox is shaken and out of combat for 20 days, along with three others for less time. Super annoying since I didn't have a choice in the matter (and had non-tired troops in the wings as well).

Build the infirmary

 

[johancruijff]

Is there any way to speed up recovery if someone is shaken? Just did the Avenger Defense and dumb AI sent out a bunch of tired people as reinforcements, and now Mox is shaken and out of combat for 20 days, along with three others for less time. Super annoying since I didn't have a choice in the matter (and had non-tired troops in the wings as well).

infirmary and staying at templars HQ

 

[Baalzebup]

There is a reaper card that increases will recovery by 20%, thats probably your best bet.

Ain't limited to Reapers. In my game, it is in the Templar pool.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Is there any way to speed up recovery if someone is shaken? Just did the Avenger Defense and dumb AI sent out a bunch of tired people as reinforcements, and now Mox is shaken and out of combat for 20 days, along with three others for less time. Super annoying since I didn't have a choice in the matter (and had non-tired troops in the wings as well).

Do you have an Infirmary?

 

[Incendiary]

There is a reaper card that increases will recovery by 20%, thats probably your best bet.

Ah, cool. Don't think I have that card as an option but I'll keep an eye out in covert ops for it, maybe.

Do you have an Infirmary?

Yeah, infirmary's already built and I have an engineer in it. Still 20 days of recovery which is why I was annoyed.

 

[Laiza]

after trying 2/3 campaigns i can say that the Chryssalids are the hardest counter against Reapers

Meanwhile, bladestorm rangers, templars, and retribution skirmishers eat them for breakfast. Whether or not burrowed chryssalids are a problem is pretty much 100% dependent on whether or not you have one of the above on your squad.

Always fun to flush out burrowed Chryssalids with a ranger with the Chosen Assassin's katana (which never misses).

 

[johancruijff]

Meanwhile, bladestorm rangers, templars, and retribution skirmishers eat them for breakfast. Whether or not burrowed chryssalids are a problem is pretty much 100% dependent on whether or not you have one of the above on your squad.

Always fun to flush out burrowed Chryssalids with a ranger with the Chosen Assassin's katana (which never misses).

True true

just saying that they're like a mine for the reapers when they are burrowed in the "fog of war"

lose concealment + 5 melee damage + 3 poison damage = EVAC EVAC EVAC

 

[OKK]

Yea it's basically the same game but with various additions sprinkled in. The ending is just slightly different, extra scenes from the new factions basically

Well, hmph. I guess I won't pick this up :/ Thanks for answering.

Very disappointed that Firaxis didn't re-done the final mission. This was easily the worst aspect with the XCOM (2012) and XCOM 2*.

*aside with the technical problems.

 

[Grimsen]

Well, hmph. I guess I won't pick this up :/ Thanks for answering.

Very disappointed that Firaxis didn't re-done the final mission. This was easily the worst aspect with the XCOM (2012) and XCOM 2*.

*aside with the technical problems.

I mean, it's just one mission. Disregarding such a good expansion because of it seems silly in my opinion.

 

[johancruijff]

i'm goin to be blunt, but playing XCom for the story is missing the whole point of the game

like someone said a more sandboxy mode with less narrative roadblocks would be greatly appreciated

 

[CecilRousso]

VIP rescue mission in Lost territory.

First turn, my ranger activated two pods with 5 Archons on his first steps. And as soon it was the aliens turn, a pod with a Sectopod, a shieldbearer and a stun lancer joined in.

The result? A big f*ck you to Advent. When the mission was over, only my sharpshooter was injured, shot by the Sectopods second actions.

 

[Branson]

Followed the recommendation of not integrating the dlc
Went into Shen's Last Gift as soon as it opened, with basic weapons and no sergeant whatsoever, not even knowing what it'd involve.

Get to the final floor.

see the final pod

"well.... shit"

either imma have to savescum the fuck outta this thing or go back to the map save and come back later, cuz even with heavy savescumming aint seeing no way to clear the thing without losing at least 2 guys.

Why is there a recommendation of not integrating it? Curious.

 

[Incendiary]

VIP rescue mission in Lost territory.

First turn, my ranger activated two pods with 5 Archons on his first steps. And as soon it was the aliens turn, a pod with a Sectopod, a shieldbearer and a stun lancer joined in.



The result? A big f*ck you to Advent. When the mission was over, only my sharpshooter was injured, shot by the Sectopods second actions.

I had a mission like this where 3 pods were activated on the first turn, and then on top of that a Chosen dropped in. Made it out of the mission with one injury after initially thinking I was headed for a team wipe. XCOM is great for those moments.

 

[Coriolanus]

Why is there a recommendation of not integrating it? Curious.

cuz you lose the plot/cutscenes, apparently

and i gotta admit, the plot was pretty good.

 

[Grimsen]

Why is there a recommendation of not integrating it? Curious.

You don't get their introduction missions like in vanilla. Sparks just become available and the leaders are inexplicably in alien bases.

 

[Basileus777]

Why is there a recommendation of not integrating it? Curious.

If you haven't played the DLC before integrating it removes much of the content. On replays I would integrate.

 

[OKK]

I mean, it's just one mission. Disregarding such a good expansion because of it seems silly in my opinion.

Believe me, I'm not happy either. I have started playing numerous times XCOM 2012/Enemy Within campaign but I have finished the game only once if I remember correctly (max twice). The other times I have stopped playing soon after I have started the last mission. The final mission in XCOM 2 was just as bad. I have very little motivation to spend ~40 hours on strategy game if I already know, that I won't beat the game. Especially nowadays when I don't have as much time to play video games as I used to :/

 

[Akuun]

You don't get their introduction missions like in vanilla. Sparks just become available and the leaders are inexplicably in alien bases.

That's pretty disappointing. Those intro missions were really cool and were obviously crafted with a lot of attention to detail.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

If you haven't played the DLC before integrating removes much of the content. On replays I would integrate.

You don't get their introduction missions like in vanilla. Sparks just become available and the leaders are inexplicably in alien bases.

As they said, you cut out some of the experience.

More importantly however, when it comes to the alien rulers, you can choose when to start them by choosing to do the mission where if it's integrated you can't. Trust me, you don't want to encounter one unless your at magnetic weapons at least

 

[Naar]

Believe me, I'm not happy either. I have started playing numerous times XCOM 2012/Enemy Within campaign but I have finished the game only once if I remember correctly (max twice). The other times I have stopped playing soon after I have started the last mission. The final mission in XCOM 2 was just as bad. I have very little motivation to spend ~40 hours on strategy game if I already know, that I won't beat the game. Especially nowadays when I don't have as much time to play video games as I used to :/

What about the final mission is turning you off from playing the whole game?

 

[Poodlestrike]

I didn't really like all of the Shen's Last Gift content all that much, so leaving that off is fine, but that first Alien Ruler mission at least was SUPER DOPE so idk. Might turn that on in a future playthrough.

 

[Grimsen]

Believe me, I'm not happy either. I have started playing numerous times XCOM 2012/Enemy Within campaign but I have finished the game only once if I remember correctly (max twice). The other times I have stopped playing soon after I have started the last mission. The final mission in XCOM 2 was just as bad. I have very little motivation to spend ~40 hours on strategy game if I already know, that I won't beat the game. Especially nowadays when I don't have as much time to play video games as I used to :/

XCOM and XCOM 2 are meant to be replayed multiple times. WOTC multiplies the replay value by a wide margin. How far you want to go in a campaign is up to you. You don't need to finish it if you don't want to, but there's a hell of a lot of enjoyment to be had regardless.

That's pretty disappointing. Those intro missions were really cool and were obviously crafted with a lot of attention to detail.

They're still there, you just need to check a few boxes when you start your campaign.

As they said, you cut out some of the experience.

More importantly however, when it comes to the alien rulers, you can choose when to start them by choosing to do the mission where if it's integrated you can't. Trust me, you don't want to encounter one unless your at magnetic weapons at least

100% this. Reposting my advice on that from a few pages ago, which was pretty identical

For someone's first playthrough, I recommend disabling the "integrated" dlc and checking each mission underneath that option to get both story missions.

The important thing to remember (it was the same in vanilla) is that you can choose to do those two missions whenever you want.

I usually wait till I have a squad of 6 and tier 2 weapons.

 

[Sblargh]

The story missions also makes the game easier. They give you the ruler weapons for free before the second mission and if you do Shen's tower right away, you get a free spark at a time he absolutely destroys.

As formas the Julian fight, it is not as scary as it seems.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

Any advice on handling the Beta Strike modifier (2x HP to all units, 50% longer timers) in the early game? I really like the way it moves the gameplay away from one turn kills, but I feel like the timer extension doesn't fully cover the difference. I've had several missions where I can barely get in range of the objective before time expires but I'm still dealing with stragglers from the pods I've already engaged with, let alone the objective pod or reinforcements. Do I just need to accept that I'm going to be failing a lot more missions or is it case where the difficulty change from this modifier just really front-loaded and it flattens out in the mid to late game?

 

[Branson]

Ok thanks guys. I'm still a little confused but it seems like if you integrate them you dont get the story in the missions and if you dont you get to choose when to start the missions with the story attachments? I played them before the expansion and I havent gotten the new one yet, but they had missions tied to them and a pretty ok story with them when I played.

 

[BeesEight]

Any advice on handling the Beta Strike modifier (2x HP to all units, 50% longer timers) in the early game? I really like the way it moves the gameplay away from one turn kills, but I feel like the timer extension doesn't fully cover the difference. I've had several missions where I can barely get in range of the objective before time expires but I'm still dealing with stragglers from the pods I've already engaged with, let alone the objective pod or reinforcements. Do I just need to accept that I'm going to be failing a lot more missions or is it case where the difficulty change from this modifier just really front-loaded and it flattens out in the mid to late game?

What difficulty are you playing on?

I'm going through Beta Strike Legendary at the moment. Had to restart about four times due to being destroyed in the beginning. Beta Strike kind of exacerbates elements of the original design and shows that the game isn't balanced without allowing the player to "alpha strike."

But, yes, you're probably going to suffer more losses at the beginning. The Chosen (regardless of who you roll) are unbeatable when you first encounter them if you aren't playing Lost and Abandoned. Just give up knowledge from your soldier because it's far more important to win that retaliation strike. It might be doable against the Hunter but I've only ever rolled the Assassin and Warlock. The Assassin will squad wipe you through her unavoidable 4 damage and daze strikes. The Warlock is perhaps doable if you're extremely lucky but if he mind controls one of your soldiers the mission is pretty much done.

If you get a timer mission in the first month and reinforcements are called, you're probably losing the mission. Sucks if it's the mission giving you an engineer as a reward.

But this also means that once you do get your footing, the game becomes way easier than without Beta Strike as well. I've almost researched mag weapons and the last couple of missions are starting to become one-sided for me. Early rangers are key to killing the Chosen when they show up with those close ranged crit shots. You need to beeline squad size upgrades (but that's a Legendary requirement regardless) and once you start getting promotions on your soldiers and several medics online, it just becomes near impossible for Advent to chew through your massive health pools. Flashbangs are great stop gaps before you can get predator and mag weapons since mind control is far more threatening now that you can't kill sectoids in one turn. (Note: they don't work on the Warlock. For him just move a soldier with an empty clip closest to him as he'll waste a turn moving that soldier and loading their weapon if he controls them - but make sure it isn't a grenadier with any grenades left.)

Don't be afraid to leave Advent survivors though if you need to get objectives. Wiping pods is less important when it's a lowly advent grunt taking sub 50% shots for 3-4 damage against your beefy Xcom troops. Evac low health soldiers or abandon early missions that go awry is fine too.

I don't know, I find the mode fun but after I beat it once I personally won't play it again. I'll just grab the A Better Advent mod instead.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

What difficulty are you playing on?

I'm going through Beta Strike Legendary at the moment. Had to restart about four times due to being destroyed in the beginning. Beta Strike kind of exacerbates elements of the original design and shows that the game isn't balanced without allowing the player to "alpha strike."

But, yes, you're probably going to suffer more losses at the beginning. The Chosen (regardless of who you roll) are unbeatable when you first encounter them if you aren't playing Lost and Abandoned. Just give up knowledge from your soldier because it's far more important to win that retaliation strike. It might be doable against the Hunter but I've only ever rolled the Assassin and Warlock. The Assassin will squad wipe you through her unavoidable 4 damage and daze strikes. The Warlock is perhaps doable if you're extremely lucky but if he mind controls one of your soldiers the mission is pretty much done.

If you get a timer mission in the first month and reinforcements are called, you're probably losing the mission. Sucks if it's the mission giving you an engineer as a reward.

But this also means that once you do get your footing, the game becomes way easier than without Beta Strike as well. I've almost researched mag weapons and the last couple of missions are starting to become one-sided for me. Early rangers are key to killing the Chosen when they show up with those close ranged crit shots. You need to beeline squad size upgrades (but that's a Legendary requirement regardless) and once you start getting promotions on your soldiers and several medics online, it just becomes near impossible for Advent to chew through your massive health pools. Flashbangs are great stop gaps before you can get predator and mag weapons since mind control is far more threatening now that you can't kill sectoids in one turn. (Note: they don't work on the Warlock. For him just move a soldier with an empty clip closest to him as he'll waste a turn moving that soldier and loading their weapon if he controls them - but make sure it isn't a grenadier with any grenades left.)

Don't be afraid to leave Advent survivors though if you need to get objectives. Wiping pods is less important when it's a lowly advent grunt taking sub 50% shots for 3-4 damage against your beefy Xcom troops. Evac low health soldiers or abandon early missions that go awry is fine too.

I don't know, I find the mode fun but after I beat it once I personally won't play it again. I'll just grab the A Better Advent mod instead.

Thanks for the great advice and suggestions. I don't mind having no-win missions or having to restart, just wanted to confirm that was normal to expect. I've never even thought about using an 'empty' soldier as bait for the Warlock but that's such a clever idea. It's too bad that it sounds like the modifier swings things too far in the other direction once you get stabilized with key upgrades though. I'll check out the mod you mentioned and see if that might be a better way to mix things up.

 

[Sblargh]

Ok thanks guys. I'm still a little confused but it seems like if you integrate them you dont get the story in the missions and if you dont you get to choose when to start the missions with the story attachments? I played them before the expansion and I havent gotten the new one yet, but they had missions tied to them and a pretty ok story with them when I played.

It's like this:

Integratd box checked:

- No story missions
- Ruler Weapons are researchable on the proving grounds
- Sparks are built on the proving grounds for a good chunk of resources.
- Rulers first appear tied to a facility (and the game will warn you which one), then, after escaping, they can appear anywhere.

Integrated box unchecked; DLC boxes checked:

- Story Missions
- Ruler Weapons are given to you after completing the post-gatecrasher mission as something you scan on the map. They can only be upgraded to tier 2 and 3 aftr doing the story mission.
- The first ruler (the Viper King) is tied to its story missions, the others will appear anywhere after he is defeated.
- The Spark is a reward for Shen's Last Gift

Everything unchecked:

- No Story Missions
- Ruler Weapons are bought from day one from the engineering.
- Rulers start appearing anywhere following their unit's schedule (Viper King when Vipers are a thing; Berseker Queen along with Bersekers and Archon King with the Archons).
- Spark is researched on the proving grounds, but the first one is free (I think, it was how it worked on vanilla)

--

Why I think the story missions make it easier?
The ruler weapons on month 1 make the earlier game a lot easier allowing for that snowball to get going early one.
Being in complete control as to when to fight the rulers also is a big nerf to them (the integrated option is the best balance between difficulty and control, imo, since you have ways to postpone doing the facility, but there is risk and opportunity costs involved).

Shen's Last Gift is very easy as soon as it appears even with the fatigue system. Having a Spark for free on month 2 is worth shaken and tired troops. The Spark dominates the early game. He scales kind of horrible, which is why it usually makes no sense building it when the integrated box is checked, but on early game? Against regular troopers and such? Dominates. Powerful rocket that can kill entire pods by itself. Is a target that can get hurt without consequences. Doesn't get tired.

--

Walkthrough on Julian using a squad of 5 on conventional weapons (assuming ruler weapons):

Move everyone close to the stairs, do not go up:
When going up:

Sniper rushes to a building. Specialist with bolt cast ditto.
Spark goes up the building and overwatch.
Grenadier with frost bomb and shredder just go up the stairs and overwatch.
Ranger up the stairs overwatch.
Lily up the stairs and aid protocol on the grenadier.

Now julian appears and he will be greeted by 2 overwatches from the grenadier, one shot from julian and one from the ranger. That means 3 opportunities to start shredding some armor.
Grenadier goes up to a building and freeze julian with frost bomb.
Spark overdrive: shoot twice and rocket. (his armor is now probably gone)
Lily, not having military training on how to stay in cover, goes to open space and shock Julian with her gremlin.
Everyone else just shoot.
(ranger throw the axe now, too)

Julian unfreezes and shoot once at Lily.
Everyone just shoots from where they are.
Lily heals herself and try and hack it. If hack works, the fight is already one, if not, it will last a turn longer.

Julian shoots Lily twice. Hopefully she survives, if not, you just re-do the thing (if you don't want to cheese like that, just have her in cover and Julian will probably target the spark).
If hacking worked, have every mech blow up Julian.
Lily uses her AoE attack.
Everyone shoots. Julian is now probably dead.

If hacking didn't worked. The same thing, but a turn later.

Anyway, and I'm talking Legend here, this fight should never lasts more than 3 or 4 turns.

 

[Branson]

It's like this:

Integratd box checked:

- No story missions
- Ruler Weapons are researchable on the proving grounds
- Sparks are built on the proving grounds for a good chunk of resources.
- Rulers first appear tied to a facility (and the game will warn you which one), then, after escaping, they can appear anywhere.

Integrated box unchecked; DLC boxes checked:

- Story Missions
- Ruler Weapons are given to you after completing the post-gatecrasher mission as something you scan on the map. They can only be upgraded to tier 2 and 3 aftr doing the story mission.
- The first ruler (the Viper King) is tied to its story missions, the others will appear anywhere after he is defeated.
- The Spark is a reward for Shen's Last Gift

Everything unchecked:

- No Story Missions
- Ruler Weapons are bought from day one from the engineering.
- Rulers start appearing anywhere following their unit's schedule (Viper King when Vipers are a thing; Berseker Queen along with Bersekers and Archon King with the Archons).
- Spark is researched on the proving grounds, but the first one is free (I think, it was how it worked on vanilla)

--

Why I think the story missions make it easier?
The ruler weapons on month 1 make the earlier game a lot easier allowing for that snowball to get going early one.
Being in complete control as to when to fight the rulers also is a big nerf to them (the integrated option is the best balance between difficulty and control, imo, since you have ways to postpone doing the facility, but there is risk and opportunity costs involved).

Shen's Last Gift is very easy as soon as it appears even with the fatigue system. Having a Spark for free on month 2 is worth shaken and tired troops. The Spark dominates the early game. He scales kind of horrible, which is why it usually makes no sense building it when the integrated box is checked, but on early game? Against regular troopers and such? Dominates. Powerful rocket that can kill entire pods by itself. Is a target that can get hurt without consequences. Doesn't get tired.

--

Walkthrough on Julian using a squad of 5 on conventional weapons (assuming ruler weapons):

Move everyone close to the stairs, do not go up:
When going up:

Sniper rushes to a building. Specialist with bolt cast ditto.
Spark goes up the building and overwatch.
Grenadier with frost bomb and shredder just go up the stairs and overwatch.
Ranger up the stairs overwatch.
Lily up the stairs and aid protocol on the grenadier.

Now julian appears and he will be greeted by 2 overwatches from the grenadier, one shot from julian and one from the ranger. That means 3 opportunities to start shredding some armor.
Grenadier goes up to a building and freeze julian with frost bomb.
Spark overdrive: shoot twice and rocket. (his armor is now probably gone)
Lily, not having military training on how to stay in cover, goes to open space and shock Julian with her gremlin.
Everyone else just shoot.
(ranger throw the axe now, too)

Julian unfreezes and shoot once at Lily.
Everyone just shoots from where they are.
Lily heals herself and try and hack it. If hack works, the fight is already one, if not, it will last a turn longer.

Julian shoots Lily twice. Hopefully she survives, if not, you just re-do the thing (if you don't want to cheese like that, just have her in cover and Julian will probably target the spark).
If hacking worked, have every mech blow up Julian.
Lily uses her AoE attack.
Everyone shoots. Julian is now probably dead.

If hacking didn't worked. The same thing, but a turn later.

Anyway, and I'm talking Legend here, this fight should never lasts more than 3 or 4 turns.

Thank you for typing all of that. Its kind of crazy they integrate it like that. I understand now though. So for me I think I would not integrate and check the DLC boxes. Maybe. Damn theres too many options lol.

 

[SRG01]

Followed the recommendation of not integrating the dlc
Went into Shen's Last Gift as soon as it opened, with basic weapons and no sergeant whatsoever, not even knowing what it'd involve.

Get to the final floor.

see the final pod

"well.... shit"

either imma have to savescum the fuck outta this thing or go back to the map save and come back later, cuz even with heavy savescumming aint seeing no way to clear the thing without losing at least 2 guys.

I thought Shen's Last Gift was somewhat soloable with Shen only, or am I mis-remembering things? IIRC, you can actually stun using her Gremlin and she can self-heal too.

 

[Coriolanus]

I thought Shen's Last Gift was somewhat soloable with Shen only, or am I mis-remembering things? IIRC, you can actually stun using her Gremlin and she can self-heal too.

i eventually restarted the final section of the level, healed the team, tore armor, awaited until 5ish robos had arrived and the secto was in position, triggered haywire and went to town finishing that section with 0 dmg taken, so sure, might be doable solo if RNGesus colaborates by making the secto miss every shot (which it tends to do when targetting spark)

 

[OKK]

What about the final mission is turning you off from playing the whole game?

In typical/everyday mission the map resembles a square shape, which means that there is a possibility that the enemies might attack you from right, left or front. This is great because this kept the tension high. Also, a hefty amount of the missions included a timer, which ramped up the pace of the game & created memorable situations where the player had to make risky decisions to finish the mission on time.

Now, with the final mission,

Spoiler

all of these aspects are forgotten. Just like in the XCOM 2012, the final mission in XCOM 2 is just one long tunnel, where enemies came from one direction. This made playing the mission very dull & predictable. Also, because there was no timer, the pace was very slow. The firefights went like this:
- Gradually (i.e. slowly) move soldiers in a row, until you activate an enemy squad.
- Because I have already positioned my soldiers in a good manner, the enemies are killed without too much of a trouble.
- After winning the fight, the following ~2 rounds are dedicated to a) reload the weapons and b) healing squad members if necessary.
- After that, gradually move soldiers in a row, until you activate an enemy squad.
- Rinse & repeat.

All in all, it took me 3 hours to finish this. The mission was never challenging and I never lost a single soldier. The only challenge came from the sheer number of enemies, but this was easily handled by moving slowly and not making a risky decision - after all this was possible since there was no timer. Granted I was playing on a normal difficulty, but this doesn't change the fact that some of the random XCOM missions that contained 9-15 enemies provided more tense moments than the final mission.

Lastly, I might be wrong, but I assume that the final mission is not randomly generated (?) If this is the case, then the mission is even more tedious for the second playthrough.

XCOM and XCOM 2 are meant to be replayed multiple times. WOTC multiplies the replay value by a wide margin. How far you want to go in a campaign is up to you. You don't need to finish it if you don't want to, but there's a hell of a lot of enjoyment to be had regardless.

I hear you. Earlier today I was listening to a podcast where people had only good things to say about WotC. The expansion definitely sounds good. But for me, the final mission was/is a deal breaker.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

One thing about the integrated box and Rulers is wrong in that post though: on Normal / Veteran Rulers encountered at facilities will NOT show up in random missions (that's for the Chosen to do, which freezes the timer when engaged, whereas rulers do not), but rather specifically in resistance retaliation mission. I specifically had to wait for one to pop up so I could finally deal with the Viper King, who had gotten away twice before.

It's possible they have the 'normal' behavior of showing up everywhere on Commander though.

Also, the additional weapons like the throwing axe first come up as a science breakthrough, then as proving grounds projects. The axe is worth it on account of being a free ranger action once every mission. The pistol won't miss and as such is good as an early pistol for the sharpshooter. The bolt thing is powerful, but useless later on.

I don't see how you would be able to deal with a ruler like Berserker Queen (bye squad) on a random timer mission though (without using timer extension), so integrated is definitely better if you've never played any XCOM before and have no idea what you're in for.
To players that do have the experience, unchecking that is worth the risk-reward, but if this is your first time on any of these games, unchecking integrated would be a very poor playing experience.


Btw, on the final mission: they removed the tunnel section, instead putting up a loading screen and dumping you right into the arena without being able to set up a killzone in that tunnel area. Thankfully, it also dumps less enemies on you than the vanilla version or I was just more able to handle them (ranger with reaper + chosen sword = yippy-ka-yay on viper, mutons, etc). That said, the pods on that mission just sorta randomly appear and can't be bombed from orbit anymore.

With the small addition at the end, I do wonder what they're going to do for XCOM3.
Obviously the resistance thing is out, so attacking and defending bases from various attacks would make more sense for a sequel. More like how Long War 1, except with the parties from this one.
I do hope they improve the engine or ditch particle effects, because rain in this game brings the fps to a crawl, as does the sectoid 'swirl' and some other very specific effects. There's really not much reason why a strategy game should run that poorly, particularly with multiple platforms in mind.

 

[MrCompletely]

It's possible they have the 'normal' behavior of showing up everywhere on Commander though.

On Commander (with DLC integrated) the rulers only show up on facility missions, and there's yellow warning text on the "begin mission" dialog that warns you that a "powerful alien has been detected here" or something like that.

 

[SRG01]

On Commander (with DLC integrated) the rulers only show up on facility missions, and there's yellow warning text on the "begin mission" dialog that warns you that a "powerful alien has been detected here" or something like that.

Yep, and once the Ruler escapes from those, they appear on random missions. I had the Berzerker Queen appear on a VIP rescue mission, which I abandoned and reloaded from earlier.

 

[MrCompletely]

Yep, and once the Ruler escapes from those, they appear on random missions. I had the Berzerker Queen appear on a VIP rescue mission, which I abandoned and reloaded from earlier.

Ah yes! You reminded me that I encountered the Berzerker Queen on a guerilla op. I've encountered her, plus the Archon King in my current campaign - who I executed with a repeater proc.

 

[Naar]

In typical/everyday mission the map resembles a square shape, which means that there is a possibility that the enemies might attack you from right, left or front. This is great because this kept the tension high. Also, a hefty amount of the missions included a timer, which ramped up the pace of the game & created memorable situations where the player had to make risky decisions to finish the mission on time.

Now, with the final mission,

Spoiler

all of these aspects are forgotten. Just like in the XCOM 2012, the final mission in XCOM 2 is just one long tunnel, where enemies came from one direction. This made playing the mission very dull & predictable. Also, because there was no timer, the pace was very slow. The firefights went like this:
- Gradually (i.e. slowly) move soldiers in a row, until you activate an enemy squad.
- Because I have already positioned my soldiers in a good manner, the enemies are killed without too much of a trouble.
- After winning the fight, the following ~2 rounds are dedicated to a) reload the weapons and b) healing squad members if necessary.
- After that, gradually move soldiers in a row, until you activate an enemy squad.
- Rinse & repeat.

All in all, it took me 3 hours to finish this. The mission was never challenging and I never lost a single soldier. The only challenge came from the sheer number of enemies, but this was easily handled by moving slowly and not making a risky decision - after all this was possible since there was no timer. Granted I was playing on a normal difficulty, but this doesn't change the fact that some of the random XCOM missions that contained 9-15 enemies provided more tense moments than the final mission.

Lastly, I might be wrong, but I assume that the final mission is not randomly generated (?) If this is the case, then the mission is even more tedious for the second playthrough.

I hear you. Earlier today I was listening to a podcast where people had only good things to say about WotC. The expansion definitely sounds good. But for me, the final mission was/is a deal breaker.

If that is your only complaint I say go ahead and get the expansion. Maybe you will like fighting the Chosen, although they share some traits with the final mission, it is much tougher to overwatch and move

 

[SRG01]

Ah yes! You reminded me that I encountered the Berzerker Queen on a guerilla op. I've encountered her, plus the Archon King in my current campaign - who I executed with a repeater proc.

The Archon King is so annoying.

I hate Archons in general, even when my squad is fully upgraded.

 

[Rex_DX]

Is the rate at which you receive alloys and elerium cores diminished? I'm about to launch an assault on my first blacksite and have yet to receive any of either.

Had to buy the plated armor instant research from the black market for 100 intel. Hoping that decision isn't going to bite me in the ass.

 

[BlackJace]

During a normal Guerilla Op, one of my soldiers was the last to evac and got mind-controlled by a Priest and therefore captured.

I'm basically at endgame now, should I just abandon any hope of encountering a rescue mission and start prepping a replacement Ranger?

 

[Sblargh]

On Vanilla the Archon King was the only enemy that was actually dangerous after a certain point, so I welcomed it.
I think the very last campaign I played on vanilla, my only soldier death was fighting the Archon King (this with the DLC mission turned off, so I had no control as to when to fight him).
-
Now, with the integrated option on, you can delay the Archon King fight until you have the chosen weapons, at which point, you are practically only collecting your armor.

 

[Jintor]

The Archon King is so annoying.

I hate Archons in general, even when my squad is fully upgraded.

I hate dodge

 

[Incendiary]

I hate dodge

Dodge is the worst.

 

[Dick Justice]

Game seems to be taking absurdly long to boot up with a lot of mods installed now. Not sure why, wasn't this bad on my previous playthrough.

 

[Tacitus_]

With that amount of mods there has to be some conflicts going on.

 

[Dick Justice]

With that amount of mods there has to be some conflicts going on.

The mod launcher doesn't seem to show any.

 

[TC McQueen]

Might just be memory leaks or the game not being able to handle all this stuff at once.

That said, WOTC has problems with reading .INI files consistently, so that's par for the course.

 

[Sblargh]

Yeah, mods alter the loading times.
Which it didn't happened in Vanilla, but then again, there loading times were always horrible.