1762

Yeah, I’ll probably be in for the gameplay changing dlc. This month’s I could take or leave.

1763

Patch is live!

1764

Important note:

Wet Work is no longer retroactive

1765

This is awesome:

Added Zip Mode gameplay option. While Zip Mode is enabled animation (like step outs & gremlin movements) speeds are significantly increased. Normal movement animations are moderately increased

This is going to make my soldiers pucker their rectum ;-)

• Mimic beacon rebalance: Price increased to 75
• Mimic beacons can no longer take cover, and are guaranteed to be hit by enemy shots

-Todd

1766

My load times have been better since the patch and most things are a bit snappier. I’m very glad they altered the price and functionality of mimic beacons. They’re still incredibly useful, which is nice, but less of a dominant strategy.

No changes were made to the Avatar countdown functionality – which is a shame – but I have no doubt they’ll get to that.

I’m finishing up my Legend run and starting to lose steam (pun intended). Even on Legend, it’s much easier at end game which makes the journey’s final stages feel like a bit of a slog. I think I’ll put it down for a bit after I mop up this run. Boy, have I gotten my money’s worth. I hope someone is able to give this the same treatment XCOM 1 received from the Long War folks.

1767

Honestly, I think that they hit the mimic beacons with the nerf bat a little too hard. Maybe make the AI not make killing the beacon PRIORITY ONE. But making it not take cover AND raising its price is a bit much. Not all of us are Legend ironman players.

1768

I think the mimic beacons are still super strong. It is still going to waste some alien moves. But the beacon behind full cover + gremlin III defense bonus was one of the most broken things I’ve ever seen so I think this was a good nerf.

1769

If you think of it like a magic shield that is applied to any soldier that might get hit the next turn, plus a way to get a free flank on some enemies who move out of cover to go for the shot, it’s still a good item.

1770

That’s my take as well. To me this feels a bit like devs attempting to drive down the road by hitting the guardrails on each side.

1771

If the mimic beacons only power was: “Causes one alien to miss one shot” it would still be useful. And the new nerfed version is better than that.

Even if you think that XCOM is too difficult, balancing it out by giving the players access to an OP and compulsory piece of equipment isn’t the right way to go about it. Balance the mimic beacon so that taking one is a decent option, and NOT taking one is also a decent option, then go back and do any wider balance changes that might be necessary.

1772

I dunno about that. I never used one in my ironman campaign, only heard they were super good after the fact.

1773

Yeah looking back at my post, my language was too strong. Must have been wearing my cranky pants. :)

To make my point more calmly. I like each skill and piece of gear to be balanced against each other, so you have a variety of equally attractive options to choose from. If one option seems “too good to pass up, unless you want hard mode” I’d prefer that option to be nerfed, and the game be balanced in other ways.

1774

Yeah I don’t understand why they didn’t have the AI treat it like any other soldier. That way if you put them in hard cover, the AI will shoot someone else.

This game is full of weird design decisions.

1775

So about the final mission, I’ve got some questions. since I need to redo it
final mission questions

I killed to Avatars but my squad pretty much died trying to take 3rd one out.
I made some mistake, bring the wrong guys and I need to level up a 2nd Psi guy. Plus I think I need to get a wraith suit and another War suit.
But my fundamental question, is there a finite number of reinforcement or do you get one batch of reinforcement every turn forever.

1776

final mission answer

I’m pretty sure a new group spawns every turn. :/ One hint – if you can mind control a viper, if they can grab an avatar, it makes things a LOT easier.

1777

another answer

When I played it, there was one group per portal, and that was it. I didn’t really start picking them off until they had all spawned. (Not necessarily a recommended strategy)

1778

Going to have to fire this back up this week. I’ve played this game in nothing but Ironman mode since it came out and have still not beaten it, I think this next campaign will be number 5.

I’ve been avoiding strategy tips/articles as I like to stumble my way through games for a while and see what I can come up with, but I just saw that mimic beacons are big in most peoples strategies. I supposed i’ll have to give them a try, I had been avoiding them due to their one shot use (I think?)

Which leads to a question, when you research ammo in the proving grounds, it stays in your inventory and can be used mission after mission, this is not true for the grenades correct? You only get one when you research it and when you use it is gone? That is how it “seemed” to work to me in my first play through, but it is possible I misunderstood.

1779

Grenades like diamonds are forever.

1780

The only thing I know of that gets consumed is Overdrive Serum.

1781

Interesting ship attack. I have ten troops out. Lost one rookie. Advent keeps throwing groups at me and I keep shooting them down. It’s almost funny. One time they dropped a trio front and center, overwatch fire shredded them all at once. I know I have to take out their transmitter, but this is fun. Pretty sure I killed at least 30 of them so far. Do they run out of troops?