209: Is XCOM 2 Better Than XCOM: Enemy Unknown?
The Escapist staff shares some initial thoughts on XCOM 2.
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The Escapist staff shares some initial thoughts on XCOM 2.
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I think the answer to that lies in the Sectoid of Xcom 1 and the Sectoid of Xcom 2. Largely, the first sectoid was just a fun bullet sponge that you didn't think twice about shooting.Spyre2k said:Of course the problem with this is the Sci-Fi universe this takes place in then has to invite some reason why Earth is special or has some rare resource not found else where. Even though there is pretty much nothing on Earth that is rare except life it self. And even then you can harvest all the components to get a farm going from lots of places in the solar system seems the elements are very common. After that you grow food to raise live stock and grow your population. Short of a quick labor source, which poses the question why such an advanced race doesn't have automation since even we are getting more and more automated, there is nothing on Earth that would really be worth something to a race only 1,000 years more advance than use let along 10s of thousands of years more advance... Well besides the unique forms of life that have evolved here and could go nicely in their Alien Zoo.
The purpose of Concealment is to allow you to move more or less freely in the initial turns, to spare you the drudgery of having to inch slowly all the time. Secondly, it's there to let you scout out the enemy positions, determine who's where and decide who you want to fight (stealth-specced Rangers are great for this). Also, it's there to give you the opening shot - a well prepared ambush will wipe or severely weaken a single pod of enemies. It is NOT intended as means to let you stealth through a mission. While some missions will allow you to extract without killing all the enemies, for the most part you'll have to wipe them out.ObsidianJones said:Also, what is the purpose of freaking concealment if every enemy is just going to instinctively walk to where ever I am. Every enemy combatant is at the middle of the map for this Hacker Mission. I've moved to the top right of my map, bypassing the enemy outpost that a Soldier and a Sectoid is stationed. There's a roving Red and black soldier that's covering the store I need to get into.
And once I get my entire squad into position... Both the pair at the outpost in the middle of the map and the roving guards just walk top right to my position. For no reason. Other than I'm there. If the AI senses where I am and just moves there because, Concealment is a freaking joke. I might as well just go loud all the time if there's no real point to try to stick to the shadows just to get boxed in and fight in a horrible position.
This is one of those times I wish I were a streamer. I could point you to my youtube page to show exactly what I'm talking about.Jandau said:The purpose of Concealment is to allow you to move more or less freely in the initial turns, to spare you the drudgery of having to inch slowly all the time. Secondly, it's there to let you scout out the enemy positions, determine who's where and decide who you want to fight (stealth-specced Rangers are great for this). Also, it's there to give you the opening shot - a well prepared ambush will wipe or severely weaken a single pod of enemies. It is NOT intended as means to let you stealth through a mission. While some missions will allow you to extract without killing all the enemies, for the most part you'll have to wipe them out.
As for the enemies breaking your Concealment, that means you're positioning your troops poorly. Aside from going loud there are three ways to break Concealment:
1. Walking into a visible square. Regardless of cover, moving into or through a red-marked square during your turn will break concealment.
2. Ending your turn while in a visible square. This is mostly tied to enemies getting close to you. When they walk up to your troops, they won't spot them if they are hidden; but if you end your turn while in their vision, they'll figure it out and trigger.
3. Getting flanked by the enemy during their turn. This means that you picked your cover poorly and the enemy managed to get into a flanking position while patrolling and therefore spotted your soldiers.
And you generally want the enemy groups to walk towards you while you're in concealment - it brings them into range helps your ambush go off better.
Then I honestly don't know what to tell you. Sure, I've had patrols move towards me. I've also had them move away from me just as I was getting into ambush position, forcing me to waste a turn repositioning, which directly contradicts what you are telling me. Also, I've had situations where I'd sit in concealment, waiting for two groups to go their separate ways so I don't pop two of them at once. This shouldn't be possible if they simply move towards you. Recently I had an extraction mission where my concealed Ranger scouted a nasty pod (Archon and two Codices, ugh) and the rest of my squad went around it to the extraction point, avoiding the patrol entirely.ObsidianJones said:This is one of those times I wish I were a streamer. I could point you to my youtube page to show exactly what I'm talking about.Jandau said:The purpose of Concealment is to allow you to move more or less freely in the initial turns, to spare you the drudgery of having to inch slowly all the time. Secondly, it's there to let you scout out the enemy positions, determine who's where and decide who you want to fight (stealth-specced Rangers are great for this). Also, it's there to give you the opening shot - a well prepared ambush will wipe or severely weaken a single pod of enemies. It is NOT intended as means to let you stealth through a mission. While some missions will allow you to extract without killing all the enemies, for the most part you'll have to wipe them out.
As for the enemies breaking your Concealment, that means you're positioning your troops poorly. Aside from going loud there are three ways to break Concealment:
1. Walking into a visible square. Regardless of cover, moving into or through a red-marked square during your turn will break concealment.
2. Ending your turn while in a visible square. This is mostly tied to enemies getting close to you. When they walk up to your troops, they won't spot them if they are hidden; but if you end your turn while in their vision, they'll figure it out and trigger.
3. Getting flanked by the enemy during their turn. This means that you picked your cover poorly and the enemy managed to get into a flanking position while patrolling and therefore spotted your soldiers.
And you generally want the enemy groups to walk towards you while you're in concealment - it brings them into range helps your ambush go off better.
The short of this. I tried the map again, not wanting to let my disgust defeat me. About 5 turns in, I saved after I moved my squad to the only clear way to move and sat my damage dealers in a bottleneck position. I moved my specialist to flank from the shadows as they went loud so I could sneak her in while the rest of the enemies focused on my DPS. My specialist was behind a fence at the edge of the map, granting full cover.
And the enemy started to walk towards her.
The disgust came again, because an enemy that always knows where I am is no different than cheating, so I decided to do a test. Like I said, I already saved beforehand, so I reloaded and I didn't move my squad in full concealment for three turns. The AI never moved from it's position.
I reloaded and moved my specialist behind the same cover again, full concealment at the edge of the map. The first AI stationed at the entry point to where the data was being held moved towards my specialist once again. And not only that, a new Sectoid and Trooper came out of no where walking towards my Specialist again.
Without flippancy, I believe further conversation about this is fruitless. You're telling me my personal experience is something it's not. I replicated such an incident three times in different maps. There's no further understanding to be had, so let's just end it like gentlemen.Jandau said:Then I honestly don't know what to tell you. Sure, I've had patrols move towards me. I've also had them move away from me just as I was getting into ambush position, forcing me to waste a turn repositioning, which directly contradicts what you are telling me. Also, I've had situations where I'd sit in concealment, waiting for two groups to go their separate ways so I don't pop two of them at once. This shouldn't be possible if they simply move towards you. Recently I had an extraction mission where my concealed Ranger scouted a nasty pod (Archon and two Codices, ugh) and the rest of my squad went around it to the extraction point, avoiding the patrol entirely.
I'll grant that you may have been a victim of some bad luck, and/or that some patrols might seek you out more than others, but it's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.