X-Com 2 confirmed...trailer

[baelthazar]

Something I found out in the last mission - Psi Ops can be mind controlled. And it sucks. A lot.

[coopasonic]

Encountered Andromedons (initially in a crashed UFO mission), Sectopod and Chryssalids for the first time last night.

I have yet to see a single UFO in this game, crashed or otherwise. 85 hours of play, not a single one.

I have had two in this playthrough. All three that I have done total have played out absolutely identically (including identical UFOs). It's a bit disappointing.

[Paingod]

Encountered Andromedons (initially in a crashed UFO mission), Sectopod and Chryssalids for the first time last night.

I have yet to see a single UFO in this game, crashed or otherwise. 85 hours of play, not a single one.

I have had two in this playthrough. All three that I have done total have played out absolutely identically (including identical UFOs). It's a bit disappointing.

They may have a limited number of "UFO Map Pieces" and you rolled the same one three times. I've been enjoying the differences in every map I see. I've yet to get the feeling of "I've been here before... many times before..."

[NickAragua]

I had two UFOs in my campaign. Thankfully, they were relatively early on, so I didn't see any gatekeepers or sectopods hanging around. The first one was all advent guys and reptiles, the second one had Codex and Mutons. The time limit was a bit annoying, but it's one of those easy objective hacks, so it's possible to get a permanent hack boost or something else cool out of it. I do wish they'd at least re-use some of the other UFOs from Enemy Unknown. I mean, the textures don't look that much different for this particular object...

[blackjack]

In my crashed UFO mission the other night, two mechs showed up on top of the UFO while we were inside. This made for some comical struggles to get a bead on them but it worked out OK. Mine have been in rural environments, and land has seemed pretty different.

I think twice these crashed-UFO missions have come up when I was really struggling to build up enough supplies at the base. So sometimes I wonder if there's scripted behavior -- " this player sucks, let's spawn a mission with intel, supplies, an engineer, etc., whatever the player's struggling with." I thought I read Solomon or the producer suggest as much in an interview, though I suspect this helpfulness doesn't extent to the higher difficulties (I'm on Veteran).

So if it's not happening for a player, chances are that player is better at the base stuff than me. That's my theory anyway.

[Lassr]

You'd think the aliens could program the sectopod not to destroy their facilities. I get a kick out of sitting there in concealment and watching the sectopod patrol and tear down fences and walls for no reason. A few times it has opened up some nice gaps for me to exploit getting into some of the facilities i have to destroy.

[Paingod]

I think twice these crashed-UFO missions have come up when I was really struggling to build up enough supplies at the base. So sometimes I wonder if there's scripted behavior -- " this player sucks, let's spawn a mission with intel, supplies, an engineer, etc., whatever the player's struggling with." I thought I read Solomon or the producer suggest as much in an interview, though I suspect this helpfulness doesn't extent to the higher difficulties (I'm on Veteran).

You might be right. I was on the brink of disaster and in dire need of Intel. What should crop up but two solid Intel missions almost back to back. I'm playing on Commander difficulty, so I can't imagine it's supposed to be too nice to me.

You'd think the aliens could program the sectopod not to destroy their facilities. I get a kick out of sitting there in concealment and watching the sectopod patrol and tear down fences and walls for no reason. A few times it has opened up some nice gaps for me to exploit getting into some of the facilities i have to destroy.

Same for Andromedons and Gatekeepers. They just plow through whatever is in the way. It's another little benefit to hacking/controlling these big guys - you just walk through walls and create good combat cover for your other soldiers.

[AWS260]

I think twice these crashed-UFO missions have come up when I was really struggling to build up enough supplies at the base. So sometimes I wonder if there's scripted behavior -- " this player sucks, let's spawn a mission with intel, supplies, an engineer, etc., whatever the player's struggling with." I thought I read Solomon or the producer suggest as much in an interview, though I suspect this helpfulness doesn't extent to the higher difficulties (I'm on Veteran).

You might be right. I was on the brink of disaster and in dire need of Intel. What should crop up but two solid Intel missions almost back to back. I'm playing on Commander difficulty, so I can't imagine it's supposed to be too nice to me.

I saw this extensive list of behind-the-scenes "assists" linked on QT3 yesterday.

It includes "The chance you'll get given a reward you 'need' (e.g. a Scientist or Engineer if you're low on them, or soldiers of a particular class, etc)." It's a really interesting list overall.

[blackjack]

Julian Gollop's Tweet is both ironic and somewhat reassuring. I bet he's playing on Iron Man

https://t.co/aE3Qxwn8Ob

Finally getting somewhere on my 5th attempt at an #XCOM2 campaign - awesome game - but brutal, unforgiving, stressful!

Operation Ice Hand guerilla ops proved to live up to Very Difficult, throwing pretty much every enemy but Gatekeeper. I reached this point with an Insectopod, two Mutons, an Andromedon, Shield Advent and others where it was like WTF. But the Heavy Weapons really do even the odds. After a few gamesave reloads, I also found that doing one "outside the box" move -- dashing a Grendadier through a house to try to flank -- worked wonders in dividing the enemy group for a couple precious turns. Even if said grenadier spent the last 4 turns bleeding out (lived, just barely):

So we ended up like this...


But that cleared up and the supplies reward enable us to finally transition to plasma cannon and rifles. The Shredstorm (Experimental Powered Armor Heavy Weapon i think) is awesome btw.


Psi Ops was cool for sure. Even with just a couple Psi Ops abilities in place, he was vicious and useful right away. While I dig mind control, I didn't find mind controlling an Andromedon for a turn or two as useful as controlling a lesser enemy and forcing the Andromedon to focus on that ("taunt" it if you will). That gave squad some precious time to wear it down. Although I actually needed said flanking grenadier still to bait him away and keep him from tossing that brutal acid bomb at us.


While I'm still having a blast, I'm gradually pulling back from my 2 a.m. gaming marathons, been really making me a mess at work.

[Paingod]

Some thoughts on Mind Control... spoilers on enemies in the game.

Spoiler:

• ADVENT soldiers in all forms are pretty mundane, but do offer bite-sized allies that don't get in the way and can be used to soak incoming fire. Shields are the most advantageous boost from them for the team, but it means keeping the shield-bearer alive or they collapse.
• Andromedons are slow, but they are ideal meat shileds. Their acid bomb is good for damaging tight groups of enemies. They have the armor and health to stand up to almost any punishment the enemy can dish out in in any given turn. Their slam attack works well to eliminate enemy cover, and they can run through walls when needed. As an added benefit, if your Andromedon is defeated, he comes back as a Haywire Control target for your Specialist.
• Archons have good health and mobility thanks to their inherent flight ability - sadly, this means they also can't use cover. Flight gives them the means to scale to the top of any surface quickly, with or without a ramp or ladder up. They can shoot or attack in melee range with equal efficiency. Their big draw is a massive AoE attack that takes a turn to fire off and enemy AI doesn't seem to know how to react to it properly, often sitting in the middle until detonation.
• Berserkers have massive movement capability and make wonderful scouts. They can run out quite a ways and back safely, and even if they're not wholly safe, they can take a beating. Their single attack mode isn't very accurate, but it can stun or shutdown almost anything. Setting waypoints through suspected/detected Chryssalid burrows and then back to a waiting squad can give you a lot of breathing room when they come running.
• Codex units aren't great, but they do have respectable health bars and massive mobility with Teleport to provide good flanking support. Their single Psionic attack can force enemies to spend a turn reloading their guns and moving out of existing cover and into Overwatch fire.
• Chryssalids aren't great allies, but they offer fair mobility and modest damage; better than nothing. Sadly, if an enemy dies of poison, the new spawn aren't your friends. I don't generally bother with them and prefer to kill them with fire as quickly as possible.
• Gatekeepers are the perfect controlled allies - but so far have proven to be the hardest to actually acquire. A Psi Ops agent with 100 Psi and +40 through the Alien Psi Amp only has a 70% chance to mind control the Gatekeeper in Commander difficulty - but if it succeeds, you've got a potent ally. They have naturally good defense (with their shells closed) can plow through walls, drop AoE attacks, create Psi Zombies, and consume units to heal themselves in melee range. If you're done with them, they can be parked next to hostiles to act as a bomb when they're killed.
• Mutons are marginally better than ADVENT soldiers, and if an enemy (say an Andromedon shell) hits them in melee, they fight back.
  
  I've yet to try Mind Control on a Viper or Sectoid, but I imagine they'll be on par with Mutons in terms of usefulness.

[blackjack]

When my new Psi Ops guy mind controlled an Andromedon, only saw "fire" and "overwatch" options, and "fire" was just a basic weapon attack, was disappointed I couldn't use his "major" attack (I'm being vague ). I'll check the gamesave around that time to be sure I'm remembering it. I certainly dig the idea and plan to make lots of use of it. I didn't even think about the ADVENT shield guys. On this last mish we just weren't quite close enough to reach him.

While I love bringing two specialists (one medical; one more hacking/offense focused), maybe I can reconfigure one as kind of a hybrid. Then replace one of the specialists with Psi Op guy on a regular basis. I think also the attack that ignores armor and attacks organic health directly is awesome and useful.

Hey I'd talked about wishing I could have a cosmetics system, where you can get the look you want while enjoying the higher tier armors' features/benefits.

This guy's Uniforms Managers mod seems to do that:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =626291285

Q. What happens if I import a different tier of Armor?
A. You would cosmetically use imported armor, while getting the bonuses from your previous armor.

[Paingod]

When my new Psi Ops guy mind controlled an Andromedon, only saw "fire" and "overwatch" options, and "fire" was just a basic weapon attack, was disappointed I couldn't use his "major" attack

I don't think their "Acid Bomb" attack has a usage limit (like one shot and done) ... but I when I control them, I get Fire, Overwatch, Acid Bomb, and Smash as options.

I know Commander opens up enemies to use more tactical options with more frequency ... maybe harder difficulties add attacks to enemies for them to use? Maybe Andromedon's don't even have special attacks in lower difficulties? I only know that if I don't kill, incapacitate, control, or give the thing a soft target (Mimic, Dominated ally) on the turn that I meet it, it's very likely to lob an acid bomb at my soldiers at large distances. When I Dominate them, I get access to that same attack. The same goes for their fist smash - they might use it on someone in heavy cover if they're close enough to melee. When they reactivate, all they have left is a fist smash and they leave a trail of acid as they walk.

While I love bringing two specialists (one medical; one more hacking/offense focused), maybe I can reconfigure one as kind of a hybrid. Then replace one of the specialists with Psi Op guy on a regular basis. I think also the attack that ignores armor and attacks organic health directly is awesome and useful.

Yeah - I want to retrain my "Hacker" Specialist to a hybrid as well. I don't use all of their combat abilities regularly and could easily slide in a couple Healing options there. Mostly my Specialist performs scans for Chryssalids/Faceless, Haywires robotic units, and hacks terminals.

I loved using two Psi Ops units - a lot - and have really been enjoying using 4 of them as well. Dominate is a pure force multiplier for your team. You encounter something big and nasty - like a Gatekeeper. Normally it would take concentrated fire, two grenades and maybe 2-3 heavy hits to destroy it. That's more than half a sqaud's attacks in a given turn, leaving other aliens potentially unscathed to shoot at you next turn. Instead, you Dominate it (70% chance, I've missed once or twice) and that's one attack - freeing up your squad to hose down the other hostiles while providing any survivors a new target to shoot at AND giving you another unit to use for the remainder of the mission. It's awesome!

I'm in the middle of a story mission from last night and am currently sitting with a squad of 4 Psi Ops, 1 Specialist, and 1 Ranger... and 1 Gatekeeper, 1 Berserker, and 2 Codexes. A team of 10.

The only caveat to Dominate is that you need to Evac the mind controllers last. Evacuating them first un-Dominates the hostiles and bad things happen for anyone who doesn't make it out that turn.

[blackjack]

RPS update per technical issues:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/0 ... framerate/

...technical problems are “the first thing we talk about about when we come in in the morning”, claims lead designer Jake Solomon. “We take it incredibly seriously. Me and all the leads, that’s what we work on all day and that’s what we’re committed to right now.”

While very well-received critically, XCOM 2 has run poorly for a significant number of players, this correspondent included (though it ran well for our reviewer Adam). Speaking to RPS yesterday, project lead Solomon stated that Firaxis were unaware this would be the case when they shipped the game. “I can honestly say that we didn’t know it would be this way at launch.”

While a small hotfix, released yesterday, did not address the major framerate issues, larger fixes are “coming soon”. Solomon also revealed that the post-animation pauses some have criticised XCOM 2 for are being worked on.

Hopefully if they adjust pauses, it won't gum up the various mods that are already trying to help with that.

I'm slow, and actually feel the various pauses give me time to recover or to think/ponder. Although I do reach the point sometimes of exclaiming, "Is this thing STILL ON???"
----------------------------------
I think for this campaign go-around since I'm hopefully building towards the endgame, I'll probably use Psi Ops more as a secret sauce. And then maybe next go-around I might use them more as the main course of my squads as early as I can.

[blackjack]

Reduced the Avatar Progress by 3 blocks.

Take that, you damn Tetris progress blocks!!!!

[Paingod]

Campaign complete, Commander/Normal ... and I opted to go for the "Who Needs Tygan" achievement as well. Earning that was a save-scumming festival, but I'll never need to do it again.

Missions won: 52
Aliens Killed: 625
Soldiers Lost: 3
Flawless Missions: 17

[Turtle]

Just so you guys know, you can look at the blocks underneath each avatar project site to see how much of the bar they're worth. If you hit that site, it'll drop the meter by that much.

[blackjack]

This morning had a bout of "unable to quite finish off aliens on one turn, and then they butcher my squad on the ensuing."

My funniest moment was leaving a sharpshooter up on a billboard sign. A not-quite-finished Andromedon rushed up the ladder, ending up next to the sharpshooter. Takes a swipe that missed the sharpshooter and instead collapsed the entire billboard so both of them went rag doll crashing to the ground but took no damage.

I have to say so far that while i like Psi Ops, Dominations and the like are consistently missing... well OK that's like everything in the game until you glom on attachments and PCS upgrades. Is there any PCS that improves Psi Ops ability accuracy?

[coopasonic]

Is there any PCS that improves Psi Ops ability accuracy?

This is just a guess but +Will might help psi-ops.

[Turtle]

Nope, Psi Ops now use the PSI stat, increased only in the PSI Lab. Just stop letting them take fire on missions and they'll rank up quickly.

Will does at least help prevent them from panicking or being mind controlled themselves.

[blackjack]

About that finale, which I was unable to complete at the wee hours this morning...

And this is a serious spoiler so don't read unless you finished the campaign.

Spoiler:

I think my problem is that final map is soooo long, and I use up most of my key abilties (including the squad-saving Restoration) and heavy weapons before I even reached the final area past the bridge.

The first batch I could sort of deal with but once it starts hurling the kitchen sink from every waygate, I eventually just couldn't figure out what to do. I'm wondering if I should "bull rush" to get waygate spawns down asap. Or "turtle" back towards the bridge and kind of lure the aliens back to a choke point of sorts? Eventually there's not much cover in that final area because they're coming in from all sides.

I may just have to reload from sometime before the final mission to see if I can bring some different equipment or something.

I saved in several places during the missions so I might replay and see if I can conserve some stuff for the finale.

[coopasonic]

This was my first campaign on Veteran difficulty:

18 soldiers saw action
39 missions
11 flawless missions
481 aliens killed
1 soldier lost
69 promotions
8 colonels

Humanity has been saved. You are all welcome.

I just finished the campaign on Commander(not Ironman):
37 missions
20 flawless missions
447 aliens killed
0 soldiers lost (Untouchables achievement - at this point my most rare achievement ever at 0.75%)
49 promotions
7 colonels

[blackjack]

Done. My winning squad (cropped the mission name out):
Does this "obtaining world stats" screen always take forever? It's still animated, so I don't think it's locked up per se. It's been like 10 minutes now.

I found it fitting that my Corporal Hicks Sniper made the final kill.

I maybe cried a little as the closing cutscenes played. Or maybe I had something in my eye. Just such an amazing and also grueling game, and just so attached to my squaddies.

Random thoughts:
-I really should've brought mindshields on the late game stuff, but figured I'd need some heavy artillery first.
-EMP bomb is freaking awesome, and I should've developed and built it much, much sooner.
-Actually all the upgraded special "grenade bombs" (smoke, incendiary, EMP etc.) are great, I should've gotten 'em all sooner.
-I never was quite able to build the Plasma sniper gun (Lancer). It's expensive, and was busy on other things. I think everything else I used I was able to get to Plasma models.
-Specialist's Restoration was such a squad lifesaver (not just healing everyone but removing conditions including unconsciousness).

[Newcastle]

About that finale, which I was unable to complete at the wee hours this morning...

And this is a serious spoiler so don't read unless you finished the campaign.

Spoiler:

I think my problem is that final map is soooo long, and I use up most of my key abilties (including the squad-saving Restoration) and heavy weapons before I even reached the final area past the bridge.

The first batch I could sort of deal with but once it starts hurling the kitchen sink from every waygate, I eventually just couldn't figure out what to do. I'm wondering if I should "bull rush" to get waygate spawns down asap. Or "turtle" back towards the bridge and kind of lure the aliens back to a choke point of sorts? Eventually there's not much cover in that final area because they're coming in from all sides.

I may just have to reload from sometime before the final mission to see if I can bring some different equipment or something.

I saved in several places during the missions so I might replay and see if I can conserve some stuff for the finale.

re: finale

Spoiler:

kill the 3 avatars and once the last one goes down its game over.

I just finished yesterday for the first time. I really liked it a lot. The one down part is i was underwhelmed with the type of armor and options they had. Seemed limited compared to the last go around. At least in utility slots (spider & wraith only are standard). Thats my big beef right now. I played with timers off on rookie just to get my feet wet. Started up a new one with veteran and a timer tweaks. Will see how it goes. Overall very fun game and very worthy sequel.

[Lassr]

That was a long last mission and it is much better than the originals end mission. Started it at 11:30 last night and finished about 1:00. I really like this game.

Spoiler:

Yep, hold onto your grenades, rockets and any one use abilities as long as possible.

[AWS260]

Victory, at long last!

The final mission was a lot of fun, especially at the very end, when I went from "I'm screwed" to "OK, I can do this" to "holy crap, I'm actually doing this."

The final stats screen says that I had 14 solider deaths, although that feels high. In any case, most of them were rookie/squaddie cannon fodder. Only two truly memorable deaths: my best long-range sniper had to leave cover in order to save a junior squadmate and paid the price; and my favorite ranger willingly charged into certain death in order to destroy an alien relay. That last one hurt, because it was such a deliberate choice -- either sacrifice her to complete the mission, or retreat and accept failure.

[Paingod]

The final mission was a lot of fun, especially at the very end, when I went from "I'm screwed" to "OK, I can do this" to "holy crap, I'm actually doing this."

I went in with 'conventional' weapons for the achievement - meaning basic arms, kevlar, and flashbangs without weapon mods - and only survived because I had mind controlled 4 hostiles. The AoE I collected in my three Archons and Gatekeeper were essential, and these mind controlled allies did more damage in the last fight than my "A Team" squad did.

I did a Hail Mary in the last turn using my only useful character and backed him up with two Psi Ops whose sole purpose was to Inspire him and give him enough actions to move halfway across the map and still shoot at the end. That last shot was the win, and I don't think I could have survived another turn.

My 3 deaths were certainly high. I can verify one death, but the other two never happened. I think the game glitched a couple times and assumed dead Dominated allies counted against my death toll. I want to say it was probably ADVENT soldiers that I had mind controlled, as I recalled one of them leaving behind a 'corpse' that I had the option to interact with, but nothing happened when I did.

[Jag]

Just started playing and have a question about injuries. Does healing players to full before mission end have an effect on their recovery time?

I had a solider with one health bar left. Got him healed up to max but he was listed as critically wounded with 22 days recovery (which I know you can speed up with station upgrades). So it appears that battle healing the wound has no effect on recovery?

[coopasonic]

Just started playing and have a question about injuries. Does healing players to full before mission end have an effect on their recovery time?

That's just battlefield medicine. It's temporary. The recovery time should be based on the lowest health the soldier had during the mission. Sometimes it doesn't seem to match up, but it's hard to be sure unless you are taking notes.

[Jag]

Just started playing and have a question about injuries. Does healing players to full before mission end have an effect on their recovery time?

That's just battlefield medicine. It's temporary. The recovery time should be based on the lowest health the soldier had during the mission. Sometimes it doesn't seem to match up, but it's hard to be sure unless you are taking notes.

So is reloading after a valuable solider takes a bad hit a cheesy move?

[coopasonic]

Absolutely cheesy and a good idea if you want to win at any level higher than Veteran.

[Paingod]

Absolutely cheesy and a good idea if you want to win at any level higher than Veteran.

My Commander run involved a lot of having to accept that I was going to be roughed up - but I drew the line at permitting deaths. I frequently came back with 2-3 Gravely wounded soldiers and at least one Wounded soldier. It was very rare to come back with any Lightly Wounded soldiers - even people that were clipped for 3-4 damage sometimes came back Gravely Wounded. It made the AWC healing bonus essential and was cause to keep an Engineer in there.

[coopasonic]

Yeah. I went further in the cheese, reloading before the injuries ever happened, basically rolling back moves to manage my encounters. In Enemy Unknown I would play Ironman tot prevent myself from doing this. Now that I know the game better, I will probably do that here as well (on Veteran for the first try). That will wait a while though. 69 hours in a couple weeks is enough for a while.

[blackjack]

On veteran, here's what worked for me late Sunday morning once I recovered from my Saturday marathon through 5 a.m (on the mission finale)....

Spoiler:

-I pulled 5 of my 6 squaddies to cover behind the initial entry bridge.
-I used a sharpshooter to scout to the final area just enough to "activate" the aliens there.
-I scrambled the sharpshooter towards bridge, but he was eventually mind controlled.
-One aggressive avatar moved towards the bridge. When shot the first time, he teleported to our side of the bridge. Subsequent teleports were in this area before the bridge, and we gradually took him out.

The other two avatars wouldn't fall for that "turtling" trick.

-We gradually (baby steps ) moved in to the final area around the left side (all my attempts to move in around the right side ended in squad doom)
-2nd Avatar was too aggressive, and whenever he teleported it usually brought him behind us and a sitting duck for shots.
-3rd Avatar was bunched up on a platform to the right side of the final area. My Ellen Ripley thankfully still had her heavy rocket, which destroyed/heavily wounded most of that group.
-3rd Avatar's teleports eventually brought him up to a platform on left side where Corporal Hicks sharpshooter finished the Avatar and completed the game. Whew.

While I totally saw the value of Mind Control and some of the powerful Psi Op attacks late, I could also see just putting everyone but maybe Sharpshooters in heavy armor and just going to town on the advanced heavy weapons. I think with those and some Grenadiers' armor shredding abilities, there's little in the game that can withstand that.

That's on Veteran mode of course, don't know how my thinking would fair on the tougher settings.

Of course an army of Psi Ops or any army of Skulljack-wielding Hacker Specialists, a half dozen rangers, a half dozen sharpshooters, etc. might be able to Go to Town just as well. The beauty of the game I guess. A playhouse of possibilities. I do feel after 70 some hours I need some rest and recovery from XCOM2.

Save scumming, or not, I definitely felt some sort of guttural "vanquishing of determined foe" as the final cutscenes played. I was pumping my fists and otherwise acting like a complete fool at my PC. I haven't felt that way in years gaming-wise.

[hepcat]

Sigh...so I screwed around and didn't concentrate on expanding my contacts, and now there's a blacksite mission I need to get to...and I can't. I need to make contact with Chile first, then I can get to it. The Avatar project is two pips from finishing. I think after 33 hours, I'm going to have to just suck it up and restart. Methinks I'm screwed.

[AWS260]

Sigh...so I screwed around and didn't concentrate on expanding my contacts, and now there's a blacksite mission I need to get to...and I can't. I need to make contact with Chile first, then I can get to it. The Avatar project is two pips from finishing. I think after 33 hours, I'm going to have to just suck it up and restart. Methinks I'm screwed.

You're probably not screwed. The game doesn't end immediately when the Avatar bar fills.

[Paingod]

Sigh...so I screwed around and didn't concentrate on expanding my contacts, and now there's a blacksite mission I need to get to...and I can't. I need to make contact with Chile first, then I can get to it. The Avatar project is two pips from finishing. I think after 33 hours, I'm going to have to just suck it up and restart. Methinks I'm screwed.

You're probably not screwed. The game doesn't end immediately when the Avatar bar fills.

Indeed - you might have a month to realign and finish successfully. I had two pips left and had to get through two contacts to get to a base, and managed to score two intel missions that let me push to the base and go on to victory.

[Lassr]

Sigh...so I screwed around and didn't concentrate on expanding my contacts, and now there's a blacksite mission I need to get to...and I can't. I need to make contact with Chile first, then I can get to it. The Avatar project is two pips from finishing. I think after 33 hours, I'm going to have to just suck it up and restart. Methinks I'm screwed.

You're probably not screwed. The game doesn't end immediately when the Avatar bar fills.

Indeed - you might have a month to realign and finish successfully. I had two pips left and had to get through two contacts to get to a base, and managed to score two intel missions that let me push to the base and go on to victory.

true, I was also in panic mode when the countdown timer started for an alien victory, I rushed to build a radio tower near where I needed to make contact thus lowering the intel cost so I could afford to make contact. Managed that with about 10 days left on the timer and then attacked the advent site in that newly contacted country. Knocked two pips off the timer and cruised to victory not long afterwards.

[Paingod]

I like the extra difficulty the Steam Achievements can throw in the mix.

My current Commander/Normal run is designed to try and hit the 4-man team, no deaths, and - if possible - beat the game by July 1st. Given that you start in March, that's a tall order. I'm not sure what that takes... probably a very specific course and a pile of luck...

[hepcat]

Sigh...so I screwed around and didn't concentrate on expanding my contacts, and now there's a blacksite mission I need to get to...and I can't. I need to make contact with Chile first, then I can get to it. The Avatar project is two pips from finishing. I think after 33 hours, I'm going to have to just suck it up and restart. Methinks I'm screwed.

You're probably not screwed. The game doesn't end immediately when the Avatar bar fills.

Indeed - you might have a month to realign and finish successfully. I had two pips left and had to get through two contacts to get to a base, and managed to score two intel missions that let me push to the base and go on to victory.

Okay, I got a bit of a reprieve last night. I reloaded from a bit earlier and it put the enemy base in an area nearer to me. Also, I built up some radio towers (something I...well...forgot about ) and was able to get into the region with 1 pip left on the avatar project. Now if I can just stay a few steps ahead, I should be fine.

[Paingod]

It takes two Comms rooms to cover the whole world, one upgraded and the other not. It takes a few days to grab each new zone if you have the intel, and a few days to build radio towers to minimize your Intel costs. The further you get from a radio tower, the higher the intel costs get.

I ended up building radio towers on every continent, sometimes two of them to collect the region bonuses. Basically, every third zone became a radio tower zone.