How good are the MELD options?

[Rosario]

I'm pretty much at the endgame, but have never used the meld for anything, despite having the facilities, research, foundry upgrades, etc. Reason being essentially for RP, Shen has this line about fearing that in the pursuit of leveling the playing field they may go too far and become like the invaders, which pretty much parallels my thinking, in that by altering genetics or becoming MECs the soldiers are sacrificing their humanity for battlefield victory. That said, I am curious how good it is, I have been collecting MELD, and now I'm sitting at around 1,000, give or take 200 or so.

[WickedRequiem]

They're overwhelmingly good.

[pauloandrade224]

The Meld that restores Hp is Op the heart one is Essentially immunity of death for your soldiers the Eyes one is amazing for snipers and the skin one is wallhacks in xcom basically.

Oh and the brain one is "Fook ur mind control shenanigans ".

TLRD : They are all overpowered GET them.

Especially the adaptive bone marrow one .

[Guilliem]

LoL. Everyone has their must have meld or laser ravens etc.. Most of the meld has uses, depending on how you play.

One really useful meld is jumping. As opposed to reduced healing. You plan on being shot?

If you jump down from a roof & land on one square. That is not moving from the landing spot. You do not get shot at. I.E. immune from auto-shot.

This makes sniping targets easy, then you return to the spot above. Again not moving in any direction other than up.

Also it is a good way of moving about to get the meld, or just escape. Especially useful for the operatives on Exalt missions.

The end mission is always the same. there are videos on steam showing the Temple Ship Attack. And then you get options for the Second Wave. There are also videos showing the first mission when you move up a level.

[Master Gnocco]

My favourites are immunity to mind control, jumping and invisibility, and adaptive pupils for heavy and assault troopers with multiple shots.

[MrWatsyoname]

If your wondering if using MELD will affect the story/ending, it won't. Meld just opens up MECs (<-love these) and gene modding. Both are power ups to your soldiers and definetly worth the investment

[Rosario]

Originally posted by MrWatsyoname:

If your wondering if using MELD will affect the story/ending, it won't. Meld just opens up MECs (<-love these) and gene modding. Both are power ups to your soldiers and definetly worth the investment

Oh I knew it wouldn't effect the ending, not using them was really more an RP thing. I was just wondering how good they were, and by the sounds of it, pretty OP. I think I'll finish this run without using MELD, try not to become reliant on it, and then use it on a new run on Classic or Impossible.

[Buuh]

Especially early on I find a MEC extremely useful. I play on classic difficulty atm and that 1 MEC made the difference in my favor when my other soldiers were quite weak compared to him in early game. Even on first MEC level he was good since he had a flamethrower and doesn't care about poison and was tougher than normal soldiers.

Gene modding is quite powerful too, but early on when soldiers are still weak and are more likely to die than a mec, I find MEC is early on the cheaper and better investment. Later on I gene mod my soldiers of course, though the MEC is still extremely fun and powerful in late game.

[Master Gnocco]

I find MECs horrible. Seriously, taking a perfectly healthy soldier, chopping off most of the body and sticking the head onto a machine? What will happen when the war ends? An acceptable alternative would have been using the augment option only on severely wounded soldiers, something like Robocop or Space Marine dreadnoughts, as an extreme measure to prevent death. Genetically modified soldiers, on the other hand, will look like superheroes. Just some weird rant to explain why I don't use MECs.

[Rosario]

Originally posted by giovanniferal:

I find MECs horrible. Seriously, taking a perfectly healthy soldier, chopping off most of the body and sticking the head onto a machine? What will happen when the war ends? An acceptable alternative would have been using the augment option only on severely wounded soldiers, something like Robocop or Space Marine dreadnoughts, as an extreme measure to prevent death. Genetically modified soldiers, on the other hand, will look like superheroes. Just some weird rant to explain why I don't use MECs.

So like me, technically RP reasons. You'd think they'd do something more akin to Fallout Power Armor than mutilation. Though if they make an XCOM 3, would love to have a sort of 'limb health' system implemented so that you could make prosthetics.

[WickedRequiem]

Originally posted by giovanniferal:

I find MECs horrible. Seriously, taking a perfectly healthy soldier, chopping off most of the body and sticking the head onto a machine? What will happen when the war ends? An acceptable alternative would have been using the augment option only on severely wounded soldiers, something like Robocop or Space Marine dreadnoughts, as an extreme measure to prevent death. Genetically modified soldiers, on the other hand, will look like superheroes. Just some weird rant to explain why I don't use MECs.

Wow, someone else who didn't use MEC because of that reason.
I couldn't bring myself to use it, either.

[Insert Name]

Victory at any cost?
Lack of imagination!
I tend to agree, MEC goes too far.

[Rosario]

Originally posted by Sci-Fi Geek:

Victory at any cost?
Lack of imagination!
I tend to agree, MEC goes too far.

I find it funny that it's Shen who pitches the idea in the first place, considering the line he has in the base. My guess is Firaxis forgot they had him say that line when they came up with it.

[Master Gnocco]

I used them in a game just to get the achievement. Some kind of "meld life support" item which activates when the soldier is not stabilized and dies in battle, giving the chance to "live" again as a MEC, would make the idea more tolerable.

[Buuh]

Originally posted by Sci-Fi Geek:

Victory at any cost?
Lack of imagination!
I tend to agree, MEC goes too far.

Considering the threat of total annihilation by angry space people, I consider MECs as sacrifices to be made are justified.

The Aliens are so overpowered and I'd argue with such an existential threat governments and X-COM speficically would happily agree to use any option available to fight back.
(Talking from an ingame universe pov)

[WickedRequiem]

The thing is, aliens may have powerful technology, but humans aren't exactly losing (despite what the game's storylines say) in presentation.

We "lose" a nation after a certain panic level but, realistically, a nation is going to prepare going to war after a panic (if only to lash out in fear), not fracture. And we really don't see that horrid of a damage to cities from an alien attack compared to a real war.

So I guess I don't "feel" the urgency.
I feel the "oh, we need to hunt down these terrorists" type of need, but not "oh no, we're doomed" feel.