Kind of surprised they didn't add Seekers and Mechtoids to the Temple Ship. It plays out the exact same as before other than the health buffs for the Elites and Sectopods.
What do the Seekers do again?
Archived M2K2 Forum
Seekers are the cloaking squid things that are supposed to go after lone units and strangle them so they can't move or attack until they're released. Doesn't really get executed that well though unless you end up losing track of them during a larger firefight. Otherwise you can just sit your team close together on overwatch until they eventually try to attack someone and get blasted in response.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Popped back in after having not played for entirely too long.
On my Impossible game.
Missed an ~87% shot on a flanked Muton, flanked Muton missed a Heavy I left out in the open to just huck a grenade over to blow up some enemy cover because I was considering reloading the mission anyway due to playing like a doo doo head. XCOM.
Coming back and looking at the strategic layer after so long is pretty funny because I'm looking at it and just amazed at how bad I am at it. Two countries away from losing, moderate panic levels in Europe and Argentina, no Foundry; getting Cyberdiscs in missions without having done the Alien Base and having only just finished Heavy Laser research. No armor to speak of. Good lord.
I did open up the Base mission but I don't think I have the gear to take it, Carapace armor does fuck all for you against Cyberdiscs and Mutons and my Lasers are only just getting the job done on them, I think.
Blood for the Blood God, I suppose.
On my Impossible game.
Missed an ~87% shot on a flanked Muton, flanked Muton missed a Heavy I left out in the open to just huck a grenade over to blow up some enemy cover because I was considering reloading the mission anyway due to playing like a doo doo head. XCOM.
Coming back and looking at the strategic layer after so long is pretty funny because I'm looking at it and just amazed at how bad I am at it. Two countries away from losing, moderate panic levels in Europe and Argentina, no Foundry; getting Cyberdiscs in missions without having done the Alien Base and having only just finished Heavy Laser research. No armor to speak of. Good lord.
I did open up the Base mission but I don't think I have the gear to take it, Carapace armor does fuck all for you against Cyberdiscs and Mutons and my Lasers are only just getting the job done on them, I think.
Blood for the Blood God, I suppose.
Yeah I think if you storm the base early enough you can avoid seeing Cyberdiscs and above if you get lucky. (Minus the Commander of course) There will still be at least Chryssalids and a few sets of wandering Drones at the very least. Not sure if Mutons are mandatory or not, either.
Regardless that has to be an awesome feeling, especially on Impossible. Great job!
Regardless that has to be an awesome feeling, especially on Impossible. Great job!
One shall stand, one shall ball.
I felt MAXIMUM SMUG when I got to that last room and saw it was the one where you're up above the Commander since it meant I could run my Sprinter Supports all the way around the back, activate the Commander with my Assault, pin him with suppression from one Support while the Arc Thrower one snuck up behind the boss to nail the stun on the next turn. Being able to rub total victory in the game's face is juts fantastic.
It was the smoothest an early Commander capture attempt has ever gone, I usually try some kind of Skeley Suit shenanigans that don't pan out because I did something dumb like forgot to bring a second Arc Thrower in case the guy carrying the one gets MCed or got the other room set up that makes it basically impossible to sneak up on the guy.
I am left with a Heavy out of commission for 9 days though, and I've been really bad about rotating Rookies into the line up for experience in case of this exact situation on account of not trusting Rookies on Impossible. Hoping for a quiet week.
Are Impossible Heavy Floaters scary? I feel like they're going to be scary. I don't want to even think about Muton Elites. Oh god I'm going to be seeing them both very soon, aren't I? With Light Plasma Rifles and Lasers.
It was the smoothest an early Commander capture attempt has ever gone, I usually try some kind of Skeley Suit shenanigans that don't pan out because I did something dumb like forgot to bring a second Arc Thrower in case the guy carrying the one gets MCed or got the other room set up that makes it basically impossible to sneak up on the guy.
I am left with a Heavy out of commission for 9 days though, and I've been really bad about rotating Rookies into the line up for experience in case of this exact situation on account of not trusting Rookies on Impossible. Hoping for a quiet week.
Are Impossible Heavy Floaters scary? I feel like they're going to be scary. I don't want to even think about Muton Elites. Oh god I'm going to be seeing them both very soon, aren't I? With Light Plasma Rifles and Lasers.
I seem to remember Heavy Floaters being the absolute worst on Impossible due to their maneuverability. Those things will pop up out of nowhere if you activate them and try to go around or avoid the situation. Or in the most likely scenario, have multiple pods activated and can't take them down right away because of having a higher priority target. (Such as the potential for multiple Sectopods on standard missions!)
But don't forget Berserkers come first though. Judging from your results screen either you didn't see any in the base or it's still too early for them. I'm hoping it's too early because that means you should still have some time before the Heavies appear.
But don't forget Berserkers come first though. Judging from your results screen either you didn't see any in the base or it's still too early for them. I'm hoping it's too early because that means you should still have some time before the Heavies appear.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
No Berserkers yet. But I'm kind of not worried about them at all, devastating at melee attacks are in this game they have to catch me first. And I've got a Double Tap Squadsight Sniper waiting for them when they try. 
Plus Assaults just love it when people try to close in for hugs!
Plus Assaults just love it when people try to close in for hugs!
One shall stand, one shall ball.
It's possible that I'm underestimating Berserkers since it's been awhile since I've last dealt with one. But I was able to hold off a Terror Mission's full complement of Chryssies pretty well and Mutons rarely appear in such numbers. I'm more concerned about the Mutons that escort the Berserker to be honest.
Still, Berserkers with only Lasers and having their Muton allies and everything else the game throws at you might get you backed into a corner at some point. They buff up their HP to 25 on Impossible so that might play a part in it too. I have bad memories of this one crashed UFO mission I had to play over and over again in my Impossible run due to every squad being either full Mutons or having a Berserker in tow. Having multiple Berserkers coming at you is not a pleasant thing if you have no way to separate them from one another and can't kill them fast enough. (Partially thanks to Damage Roulette, but you get the idea.)
Haha, you just reminded me of the EW version of Close and Personal: The first standard shot you take within 4 tiles of your Assault doesn't count against you.
An interesting scenario would be to have someone else behind your Assault shoot the Berserker and watch it close in, only to activate the auto reaction shot from Close Combat Specialist. Then switch to the Assault himself and fire at point blank range, triggering the freebie from Close and Personal. Two shots and you still get your full turn afterward, leaving you with plenty of room to backup and wait for the Berserker to charge at you and trigger the auto reaction shot again on its turn or else just get into a better vantage point and take a shot yourself!
As you can see I had a lot of fun with that redesign in EW.
Quote from tomatobob:
Plus Assaults just love it when people try to close in for hugs!
Haha, you just reminded me of the EW version of Close and Personal: The first standard shot you take within 4 tiles of your Assault doesn't count against you.
An interesting scenario would be to have someone else behind your Assault shoot the Berserker and watch it close in, only to activate the auto reaction shot from Close Combat Specialist. Then switch to the Assault himself and fire at point blank range, triggering the freebie from Close and Personal. Two shots and you still get your full turn afterward, leaving you with plenty of room to backup and wait for the Berserker to charge at you and trigger the auto reaction shot again on its turn or else just get into a better vantage point and take a shot yourself!
As you can see I had a lot of fun with that redesign in EW.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Quote from Prime Hunter:
Still, Berserkers with only Lasers and having their Muton allies and everything else the game throws at you might get you backed into a corner at some point. They buff up their HP to 25 on Impossible so that might play a part in it too.
Yes I, uh, I noticed that. That is a very large HP bar. On the plus side I learned that Suppression shuts them down completely and is very nice when you are somewhat lacking in firepower.
Quote from Prime Hunter:
An interesting scenario would be to have someone else behind your Assault shoot the Berserker and watch it close in, only to activate the auto reaction shot from Close Combat Specialist. Then switch to the Assault himself and fire at point blank range, triggering the freebie from Close and Personal. Two shots and you still get your full turn afterward, leaving you with plenty of room to backup and wait for the Berserker to charge at you and trigger the auto reaction shot again on its turn or else just get into a better vantage point and take a shot yourself!.
That first part is my old standby for Zerker killing, great fun when you have an Alloy Cannon on hand. That modification by E sounds just lovely.
I also ran into my first Heavy Floaters on a crashed Supply Ship. Something like nine of them. They also have a lot of HP on Impossible and are not fun to see when you're engaged with Mutons from two sides wit hat least one Berserker running loose somewhere and oh god how are still more Heavy Floaters.
Too bad for them I'd just finished research on Alloy Cannons.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Muton Elites have 18 HP, 100 Aim. Good lord. I think they're worse than Sectopods.
Worse than both is the Heavy Floater because the game seems to just spawn shitloads of them on every mission just to drive me out of my whole damn mind. UFOs are just Heavy Floater Clown Cars and getting caught by them in the cargo bay area of a Supply Ship is my personal XCOM Hell.
Worse than both is the Heavy Floater because the game seems to just spawn shitloads of them on every mission just to drive me out of my whole damn mind. UFOs are just Heavy Floater Clown Cars and getting caught by them in the cargo bay area of a Supply Ship is my personal XCOM Hell.
Quote from tomatobob:
Heavy Floater Clown Cars...
At least you haven't spawned the entire crew in the back room all at once like I did that one time. Remember to watch out for where the command crew is stationed in those crashes.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Nah I haven't had things get quite that crazy yet, but having every Heavy Floater in the galaxy pop up while I'm in the exact worst position on the Supply Ship was pretty close. Impossible is kinda fun but also incredibly frustrating with all the minor durability tweaks to the enemies, feels like there's always one or two hit points more than your people can reliably deal out.
I'm just about to the end and let me tell you I am going to enjoy blasting that Uber Ethereal into a fine mist before he gets to do a damned thing so much more than I normally do.
I'm just about to the end and let me tell you I am going to enjoy blasting that Uber Ethereal into a fine mist before he gets to do a damned thing so much more than I normally do.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Haha, those two guy were one shot kills because lol Impossible Rookies. Once people started promoting I decided I was going to get scummy as hell because no way was I dealing with Rookies again after some of those early missions where you're getting like 20% chances to hit an enemy behind half cover or whatever.
Overall I like Impossible as a challenge difficulty, it's harsh and unforgiving and blasting through those tougher missions feels great. but on the other hand it's sort of exhausting and often just frustrating even when you win. I mean you have things where Muton elites have 100 aim and 30 defense so if you get more than one group of them or get them mixed in with another group of enemies (or a Sectopod) you might as well hang it up because they'll tag you behind high cover and you've got to dedicate all you have to taking them down thanks to the defense bonus plus whatever cover they've got and ugh look at all that HP if Heavy Floaters pop up I'm flipping this desk.
I'm glad for the experience but I have no intention of ever playing on Impossible again. Have you tried it with the expansion? I'm betting it's extra miserable.
Overall I like Impossible as a challenge difficulty, it's harsh and unforgiving and blasting through those tougher missions feels great. but on the other hand it's sort of exhausting and often just frustrating even when you win. I mean you have things where Muton elites have 100 aim and 30 defense so if you get more than one group of them or get them mixed in with another group of enemies (or a Sectopod) you might as well hang it up because they'll tag you behind high cover and you've got to dedicate all you have to taking them down thanks to the defense bonus plus whatever cover they've got and ugh look at all that HP if Heavy Floaters pop up I'm flipping this desk.
I'm glad for the experience but I have no intention of ever playing on Impossible again. Have you tried it with the expansion? I'm betting it's extra miserable.
I've only done "two" complete runs of EW so far which includes that one where I lost days before attacking the Temple Ship. Both on Classic. I've debated on trying to get through Impossible and if I want to do that to myself again or if I want to hold out for the supposed patch that will register my EU Impossible victory and unlock those SW options for me again. Once I finally give XCOM another go I might try it then if I feel brave/stupid enough at the time.
Of course, I'd have MECs and Mimetic Skin (free ghost mode if you move to high cover from a position where the aliens can't see you! Stacks with Low Profile!) to try and even the score but that might not be enough. Although now I'm seriously dreading that base defense on Impossible...
Of course, I'd have MECs and Mimetic Skin (free ghost mode if you move to high cover from a position where the aliens can't see you! Stacks with Low Profile!) to try and even the score but that might not be enough. Although now I'm seriously dreading that base defense on Impossible...
One shall stand, one shall ball.
For shits and giggles after my Impossible win I started up a new Classic game with the random stats Second Wave options for pretty much the sole purpose of sending someone to solo the first UFO had a Squaddie Assault with ~75 aim pick up an Assault Rifle and clear it out. Took a few tries since it was that swamp map and two alien groups spawned really close to my stating point but I got it so good job Corpral Wang.
I've also decided that once another soldier promotes a couple more times he's getting the nickname "The Objector" because if you fire three times on your first mission, hit three times, and manage to leave eyour target with 1 HP three times you've got to be an extremely dedicated conscientious objector.
Or filthy Xeno Sympathizer but I don't have EW so that's impossible. :v
I've also decided that once another soldier promotes a couple more times he's getting the nickname "The Objector" because if you fire three times on your first mission, hit three times, and manage to leave eyour target with 1 HP three times you've got to be an extremely dedicated conscientious objector.
Or filthy Xeno Sympathizer but I don't have EW so that's impossible. :v