l'm confuse about the canon story in XCOM 1.

[Agosaxv1.22474487139]

In this game (XCOM 2) your base people talk like they have fough an elder before but then they told you that XCOM 1 operation didn't last very long. So canonically the elder appeared very early in the invasion? Also did human fought elder class alien with normal guns or what?

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

It's entirely plausible that original XCOM forces could've faced an Ethereal. If I remember correctly, the "canon" game over that leads to XCOM 2 occurs after XCOM lose the base defense. The base defense has way over leveled enemy units, and depending on when it occurs, you can even get Ethereals that spawn before you ever take down the Overseer UFO.

[Weezer]

SPOILER ALERT... since you asked

In XCOM: UFO Defense (aka XCOM v.0) you had several land bases and (been a while so forgive errors) your first class of troop transport was called Avenger Class which you use to go to UFO crash sites, landings and urban terror sites. You reserched the heck out of alien tech. You eventually get to fly to Mars to strike at their FOB in the Solar system. I don't recall an Elder race, but it has been a long time since I played XCOM 0.

What you call XCOM 1, I assume you mean XCOM: Enemy Unkown with its add-on Enemy Within. This is a total revamp of XCOM 0 where you have a lower number of troops you can carry on any given mission. Here you DO absolutely meet up with the Elders and you have researched all kinds of Alien tech and developed other new ones that were not in XCOM UFO Defense.

[Been a while since I watched all the intro speeches in XCOM 2 so forgive the errors.] Years after your 'victory' in XCOM:EU you, as Commander, are liberated from an Advent-run facility to learn that all your hard work has been tossed out the window.
[Real answer to you question is>>] Peace has been declared, XCOM was dismantled and you have to hide as an outlaw. No more underground bases but a repaired Alien Craft. And all that cool technology you helped develop in XCOM:EU is GONE!

Yup, you got to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. But Hey, all sequal-type games do that. If you started XCOM2 with all the tech from XCOM:EU, you could probably send just one Rookie out on early game missions.

[Torus]

Originally posted by Bonedry:

SPOILER ALERT... since you asked
I don't recall an Elder race, but it has been a long time since I played XCOM 0.

X-COM with a dash if you feel picky :) And you do face off against Ethereals in that game as late-game terror units.

Originally posted by Bonedry:

[Been a while since I watched all the intro speeches in XCOM 2 so forgive the errors.] Years after your 'victory' in XCOM:EU you, as Commander, are liberated from an Advent-run facility to learn that all your hard work has been tossed out the window.

Not true. Official story behind XCOM 2 is that humanity *lost* in the first alien war. It follows from the bad ending of XCOM:EU where all countries decide to withdraw funds from XCOM and surrender to the invaders, presumably after XCOM had their main base trashed. What remains of XCOM gets scattered. All the fancy tech you get in XCOM:EU's late game ? That never had a chance to happen.
Skip forward 20 years, and see that Bradford kept trying to find ways to get back into the fight. (and if you have the DLC, Shen sr. and Vahlen also kept resisting in their own ways). Finding the Commander is a key point in that.

[76561198140695998]

There are 2 timelines, apparently.

Victory - The Ethereals tested us with "waves" of increasingly difficult aliens. The Ethereals lost because humanitys strength snowballed out of control and the Ethereals thought we were going to join them.

Loss - The Ethereals attacked in full force. XCOM was able to take down 2 ufos and to the Ethereals surprise, survive some of these "impossible" battles with ballistic weaponry all thanks to the Commander (You). XCOM was betrayed by someone and XCOM base assault happened before we started researching Lasers and Carapace (Also Spider vests).

The lore is pretty inconsistent, multiple devs and the official novel saying different things. Like apparently the "Volunteer" from XCOM 1 is alive in the victory timeline, but how can that be if XCOM 1 victory was a simulation in XCOM 2? Did the war end in 2 weeks or 2-3 months? Was it the council who betrayed us first, or the governments? Avent Burgers vs CORE, The Lost vs "Contagion", Etc.

[KaffeeKup]

The canon ending for XCOM into XCOM2 is basically the ironman playthrough you did for a laugh and then got murdered before you even got to laser weapons

[SamBC]

The canon story of XCOM:EU that links to XCOM 2 isn't one you actually face in the game - the alien tactics and such were different, you never got as far as attacking the alien base, they brought out the big guns early on, the council betrayed XCOM to the aliens giving them access to the base, and they came and kidnapped you (the commander).

[Weezer]

I sit corrected but the idea is that no sequal gives up past work rewards {AC line anyone? Guy can jump into a little pile of hay and kill ppl with a wry look by the end of one iteration and the next sequal, he can bearly walk.} Only those with a Game+ let you run through a second time and keep stuff. {Witcher comes to mind, but even Witcher III starts you off for the first playthrough with only basic potion knowledge and crap gear.}

Unless you use cheats

[Tamiore]

I'm not sure there is one "canon" loss timeline.
Just as every campaign plays out differently, every campaign might have had a different loss timeline.
Also, in some of them the void that is after the elders might be a psionic imprint of the volunteer that ascended at the end of XCOM EU and hopped timelines.

[Aleera]

Originally posted by Jaimsta:

There are 2 timelines, apparently.

Victory - The Ethereals tested us with "waves" of increasingly difficult aliens. The Ethereals lost because humanitys strength snowballed out of control and the Ethereals thought we were going to join them.

Loss - The Ethereals attacked in full force. XCOM was able to take down 2 ufos and to the Ethereals surprise, survive some of these "impossible" battles with ballistic weaponry all thanks to the Commander (You). XCOM was betrayed by someone and XCOM base assault happened before we started researching Lasers and Carapace (Also Spider vests).

The lore is pretty inconsistent, multiple devs and the official novel saying different things. Like apparently the "Volunteer" from XCOM 1 is alive in the victory timeline, but how can that be if XCOM 1 victory was a simulation in XCOM 2? Did the war end in 2 weeks or 2-3 months? Was it the council who betrayed us first, or the governments? Avent Burgers vs CORE, The Lost vs "Contagion", Etc.

The lore is not inconsistant.

Victory storyline, means Xcom 2 never happens. We removed what little remained of the Ethereals.

Loss storyline. They overwhelmed Xcom. Countries abandoned, joining the aliens in hope of survival. The base defense mission started and with just balistic weaponry we stood no chance.
Bradford made it out.
Vahlen made it out, she continued research and we face her escaped research as Rulers.
Shen got captured and was forced to work for Advent. Those MEC's you face? That's his handiwork. Notice how glaringly similiar they are to the MEC troopers you could have had.

The commander, you. Got captured and was being used as the driving force to make their militairy tactical. So far they relied on sheer overwhelming force. It's strongely hinted that in time, you would be just like the Chosen. Afterall, 2 are former humans and the third a clone of a human.

The volunteer is hinted at to being Geist, the leader of the Templar faction.

Advent burger is basicly a "SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OF PEOPLE" joke.

Lost are clearly explained to be humans that mutated due to continued exposion to unshielded Alien energy sources.
Afterall, the Aliens in Xcom 2 are not just after the commander, but also the ship. It is a experimental one.

[SamBC]

Also, Jake said the Volunteer survived by way of clarifying what should be visible in the ending sequence, not as some sort of meta-plot-thing. He just said that he was surprised that people hadn't noticed the Volunteer vanishing in the video.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Originally posted by Aleera:

The volunteer is hinted at to being Geist, the leader of the Templar faction.

I must have missed this. Source?

[Aleera]

Originally posted by SunDrippedDevil:

Originally posted by Aleera:

The volunteer is hinted at to being Geist, the leader of the Templar faction.

I must have missed this. Source?

Let me clarify, in XCom 2 noone volunteers. Because Xcom never got that advanced. But Geist is hinted at to be the first psionicly gifted soldier Xcom had. Vahlen tested it.
Might be presumptious, but the first soldier tends to be the Volunteer.

You go to captains quarters and read the Xcom archives there.

[SunDrippedDevil]

Originally posted by Aleera:

Originally posted by SunDrippedDevil:

I must have missed this. Source?

Let me clarify, in XCom 2 noone volunteers. Because Xcom never got that advanced. But Geist is hinted at to be the first psionicly gifted soldier Xcom had. Vahlen tested it.
Might be presumptious, but the first soldier tends to be the Volunteer.

You go to captains quarters and read the Xcom archives there.

I haven't read the archives yet. Thanks

Since XCOM was taken out in the first few months, I don't think that they got to the point where they even acquired the Gollop Device for there to be a volunteer.