Octopus Overlords

coopasonic wrote:Green man has a coupon that works on this through 7/19, 2017E318OFF will get it for $29.51.

coopasonic wrote:Green man has a coupon that works on this through 7/19, 2017E318OFF will get it for $29.51.

Greybriar wrote:

coopasonic wrote:Green man has a coupon that works on this through 7/19, 2017E318OFF will get it for $29.51.

That's not bad. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is priced at $39.99 U.S. on Steam.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Ever since we announced XCOM 2: War of The Chosen, people have been fascinated by the introduction of Soldier Bonds. With the upcoming expansion, you’ll see soldiers bond in the heat of battle and if they make it out alive, come out stronger – and closer than before. That’s saying nothing of how soldiers can now develop additional abilities.

HOW SOLDIERS BOND
Each soldier has a compatibility level with each other, the higher the compatibility, the more likely they are to bond while on missions together. But there are also incidents that can occur, mid-mission which can boost a soldier’s compatibility. Whether one solider rescues an unconscious squaddie from the battlefield or if more than half the squad is lost, the survivors bond. In watershed moments like these, two soldiers’ compatibility will shoot up.

When two soldiers are ready to bond, you will see them on the Avenger getting a drink together, practicing at the range as pals and more. Once two soldiers have bonded, neither soldier can bond with anyone else unless their bondmate dies…til death do us part. If a soldier’s bondmate dies, the survivor might not take it well and fly off in a berserk rage and suffer penalties. But they will recover and eventually be able to bond again.



Besides personalizing your in-game experience, there are some inherent benefits to sending bonded soldiers on a mission together

SOLDIER BOND LEVEL I

Teamwork: Grant an additional action point to a bondmate.

SOLDIER BOND LEVEL II

Spotter: This soldier is granted a bonus to aim when their bondmate has attacked or been attacked by the soldier's target. An extra bonus is granted if the bondmate is adjacent.

Stand By Me: When this soldier ends a move adjacent to their bondmate, the other soldier will be automatically cleansed of any negative mental effects.

Covert Operators: When deployed on a Covert Action together, the duration is reduced by one day.

SOLDIER BOND LEVEL III

Advanced Teamwork: Grant an additional action point to a bondmate.

Dual Strike: A combined standard shot attack by the soldier and their bondmate.

NEEDING SOME R&R
Whether or not your soldiers are bonded, though, they will need to rest. The more missions you send a soldier on without a break will start to take a toll. Exhaustion and stress, as well as bad encounters in the field, could lower a soldier’s Will and develop negative traits. This can include a fear of certain types of enemies. For example, after a fight against Mutons that ended poorly, the soldier might panic when they see Mutons again. It could lead a soldier to constantly reload a weapon on their second action, a nervous tick, instead of listening to your orders. These negative traits can be cured by setting a soldier to heal in the infirmary.

Needing to rotate your squad makeup between missions does come with a couple benefits as well: You’ll have to make some interesting choices while selecting who deploys. The other notable perk is that your entire roster will benefit from being more evenly-powered.

NEW SOLDIER ABILITY POINTS
The Training Center – replacing the Advanced Warfare Center from the base game – is an essential facility that XCOM can build. Not only is the Training Center there to enhance soldier bonds in War of the Chosen, but this is where you’ll spend Ability Points earned in combat to buy additional skills and abilities for the regular XCOM troops.

According to Senior Producer Garth DeAngelis, the design team wanted to offer a new way of soldier leveling with War of the Chosen. “Since XCOM: Enemy Unknown, progression has been a binary choice: Which of these two skills do I want,” says Garth. “This was an opportunity to allow more meaning to squad capacity overall. Will I dump most of my Ability Points into a promising hybrid XCOM recruit through the Training Center, or save those points for a balanced approach across multiple units? The AP system is also far more comprehensive by being a direct result of smart decisions by the player.” You earn AP by pulling off maneuvers like flanking and taking shots from height. Gaining a resource from intelligent combat play gives progression an entirely new feel.

This also allows the player to execute on a non-linear approach to spec’ing out Faction Heroes, since the tree now offers more than two choices at once. You can rush for the later abilities, or go for breadth and grab a number of low-cost abilities, up front.

This also impacts the original XCOM soldier classes. Take the Specialist, for example. With Ability Points, you can select previously passed-on abilities from either the Battle Medic or Combat Hacker skill paths. Or, you can opt for a third path made up of abilities from the other XCOM soldier classes. The assortment of available abilities is random for every individual soldier. Only a few of these abilities show up for each soldier.

Essentially, every soldier class gets more powerful in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen and we want you to have more of them in your ranks. And then, of course, are the even-more-powerful Faction Heroes joining the cause.

The Chosen are going to be in for one hell of a fight.

The new Factions in XCOM 2: War of The Chosen aren’t just single heroic units you use in battle, they are part of a larger organized force. You’ll work with each of the Factions, perform Covert Actions and use Resistance Orders to improve your odds of success. It’s a whole new addition that resonates in both the tactical and the strategic layer and will shake up your decisions on each playthrough. And it was inspired, in part, by collectible card games.

Today, we’ll explain how it all ties together into the larger Geoscape in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen’s expanded campaign...

NickAragua wrote:Well, now you can get that reaper guy that lets the timer not tick down until you leave stealth.

That being said, I generally prefer "soft" time limits, rather than hard ones, e.g. increasingly tough reinforcements or mortar attacks or something.

In any case, it looks like they took a bunch of ideas from the various mods and ran with them. Free game design! I'm definitely looking forward to playing through this again now.

Sectoid wrote:

coopasonic wrote:

NickAragua wrote:Well, now you can get that reaper guy that lets the timer not tick down until you leave stealth.

That being said, I generally prefer "soft" time limits, rather than hard ones, e.g. increasingly tough reinforcements or mortar attacks or something.

In any case, it looks like they took a bunch of ideas from the various mods and ran with them. Free game design! I'm definitely looking forward to playing through this again now.

There is also a new game option to double mission timers.

ChristopherOdd (and presumably other YouTubers) is doing a playthrough with the expansion. I have watched through the first three missions and I like what I am seeing so far.

GreenGoo wrote:Please check out Xcom 2 propaganda tool on steam.

Haven't had a chance yet, myself.

coopasonic wrote:it would be more genius marketing if 30% of my soldiers didn't show up lacking legs. I have to open the editor and reassign the legs and then they are fine.

GreenGoo wrote:

coopasonic wrote:it would be more genius marketing if 30% of my soldiers didn't show up lacking legs. I have to open the editor and reassign the legs and then they are fine.

Fair enough. It's genius in the boardroom, less so on implementation.

edit: Holy crap it's 3 gigs. That seems excessive.

jztemple2 wrote: Has anyone considered started a new War of the Chosen thread? Or will we expect that most folks to just only be playing the new expansion?

Kraken wrote:

jztemple2 wrote: Has anyone considered started a new War of the Chosen thread? Or will we expect that most folks to just only be playing the new expansion?

We had a Long War thread, and we ought to have a Chosen thread too IMO.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:52 am 1. Is this advice still valid?

2. Are there any 'ease of use' mods that are must-haves? I'm not looking for things that rewrite the campaign, just things that ease the headaches. I believe I used a timer increaser and a camera mod last time.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 1:14 pm
1. Yes, all still valid. War of the Chosen replaces the Stealth Ranger with the Reaper, but every thing else is correct.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 1:14 pm Stop Wasting My Time - WotC
Blackmarket Usage
Overwatch All/Others WotC
Instant Avenger Menus - WotC
[WOTC] Faster Reload Animations
[WotC] Gotcha Again

coopasonic wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:28 pm I've beaten XCOM2 on every difficulty and on the N-1 difficulty on Ironman. I don't find any part of XCOM2 frustrating. I see each combat situation as a puzzle to be solved and have spent enough effort solving these puzzles and honing my toolbox that I can generally get it right on the first try, making Ironman possible. The puzzle, to be clear, is how to kill every revealed enemy on the turn it is revealed without risking revealing any more enemies. I have spent literally hundreds of hours getting to this point and have enjoyed almost every minute of those hundreds of hours