How should I play this game for the first time?

[Gergely]

About half a year ago, I bought XCOM 2 with all dlc packs on a (quite large) offer but never really had the time to play the game.

Now as that time is slowly approaching I wonder what's the setup for the best blind experience. (Mostly regarding which DLC packs should I use.)

I have 100% completed a game by Ubisoft that has a similar combat system so I think that makes me good enough to go with the 'normal' difficulty.

I won't be installing War Of the Chosen and it's own expansion because that doesn't affect the base game as far as I know. What about the dlc packs that enhance the base campaign? Those are why I'm making this thread. Not all of them have positive ratings. Which ones should I install?

[Gergely]

Originally posted by Mein Swag:

the fak u talking about? war of the chosen does affect the basegame lol!

Uhhh... that's why I mentioned it here. To have someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Why does it have a separate start button on the launcher then?

[gimmethegepgun]

WotC makes much more substantial changes to the campaign than the other DLCs do. It's still mostly the same story though.

[Mrvecz]

Originally posted by Gergely:

Originally posted by Mein Swag:

the fak u talking about? war of the chosen does affect the basegame lol!

Uhhh... that's why I mentioned it here. To have someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Why does it have a separate start button on the launcher then?

Separated launchers enables you to play either vanilla or WOTC at will. WOTC is pretty much a base game but with more of everything and is less buggy and more stable.

The only reason (i started with WOTC from the get go) to play vanilla is for the famed Long War 2 mod which only works on vanilla (Though you should be quite experienced with the game before trying the mod).


Regarding DLC's
Shen's gift gives you access to mech XCOM troopers ("Sparks"), these are tanky frontline robots with heavy machineguns and various heavy weapons. With WOTC in particular they are more useful due to larger number of psionic enemies.

Alien Hunter DLC
Great in concept, awful in the actual game. It adds cool unique weapons but it also adds unique alien boss like enemies. These enemies are tanky af and they get free action whenever your soldiers do something. This makes any fights against them a clown fest thats not very enjoyable.

Tac. leg. pack
SP mission pack with few cool features thrown in and its more or less a lore plug between the XCOM 1 and XCOM 2.

Rest are cosmetic mods, i wouldnt ever pay for them since workshop is filled with cosmetic items.

[Gergely]

I guess I do instanll War of the Chosen and the Tactical Legacy Pack then.

I also put in Shen's last gift.

Originally posted by Mrvecz:

Alien Hunter DLC
Great in concept, awful in the actual game. It adds cool unique weapons but it also adds unique alien boss like enemies. These enemies are tanky af and they get free action whenever your soldiers do something. This makes any fights against them a clown fest thats not very enjoyable.

You mean these enemies have a high health pool and do an action whenever my soldiers do an action? Are these in their own missions or something? If they can appear randomly, I don't think I'd enjoy fights against them. I like challenges, but not the half-baked types. Do these enemies appear in their own optional missions only?

Edit: Do they still get their share of actions when it's the enemy's turn?

Originally posted by Mrvecz:

Rest are cosmetic mods, i wouldnt ever pay for them since workshop is filled with cosmetic items.

You mean the Resistance Warrior Pack and Anarchy's Children? They got a really bad rating. Is that only because of the price? Do they even affect gameplay?

Remember: money is not a problem here because I have every dlc served on plate.

Also I'm not planning to mod the game with steam workshop mods for now.

[Mrvecz]

They are cosmetics, they dont affect the gameplay.

Aliens from the Alien Hunter DLC are one of a kind (3x) and once you visited the nest they can spawn at random at any mission. If you dont integrate the DLC though, you will get the weapons from early on and they only appear as part of the garrison of Avatar facilities so normal missions are fine.

If you hate cheap enemies, then you are in for a treat with them. All have AOE, hard to hit, large mobility, stuns all in one package. They get their own turns in enemy turns too and without mods Rulers (as they are called in game) are not hostile to Advent by default. And they are like Chosen, they have more than two action points so they can happily waltz through the battlefield, flank your troops and kill someone... or stunlock him.

To defeat them, you first need to stack DoT's ASAP as they get burned/melted everytime they get a free action. Or use the broken repeaters (% chance to instantly KILL THE TARGET). And of course you could try to force them to flee by damaging them enough... so you can fight them again in future ! They dont regain HP btw so if you manage to kill one of them, they are permamently out of the game. Your skill will dictate how hard will that be and at what cost will it be done.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Gergely:

You mean these enemies have a high health pool and do an action whenever my soldiers do an action?

Whenever your soldiers use an action point, they get an action (there are some free actions available that don't use an action point, and thus don't cause a ruler action). WotC nerfed them so that they only react to actions that they can see, which allows for more options, including cheesily using squadsight to kill them without giving them any actions.

Are these in their own missions or something? If they can appear randomly, I don't think I'd enjoy fights against them. I like challenges, but not the half-baked types. Do these enemies appear in their own optional missions only?

They can appear in any mission, but depending on your campaign settings you have control over when they gain the ability to do that. If you enable the AH mission (Viper's Nest) then they won't appear until after you complete that mission, which can be delayed indefinitely, after which they'll appear after their base unit appears. If you use the WotC Integrate DLC option then they will be placed at alien facilities on the map, and won't appear until you do their associated facility. If you have the DLC installed but disable both Integrate and the mission then they'll appear once their base unit appears.

Edit: Do they still get their share of actions when it's the enemy's turn?

Technically yes (as in, they get 2 action points like anyone else would get normally), functionally no. They retreat after taking enough damage, which rarely takes more than what your soldiers can accomplish in one turn. They don't heal between fights so any damage you deal to them is permanent, as you're intended to kill them over the course of several fights.
Also they frankly aren't THAT difficult, it's mostly a matter that you'll usually get some soldiers injured against them.

Originally posted by Mrvecz:

Rest are cosmetic mods, i wouldnt ever pay for them since workshop is filled with cosmetic items.

You mean the Resistance Warrior Pack and Anarchy's Children? They got a really bad rating. Is that only because of the price? Do they even affect gameplay?

They have a bad rating largely because they're cosmetic-only and that's pretty lame considering the slew of cosmetic mods available. They have no gameplay impact.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Mrvecz:

hard to hit

The only one that's difficult to hit is the Archon King, which is the same difficulty to hit as normal Archons.

[Mr. Nice]

A possible reason to do a non-WotC campaign, or at least start one first, is that it's less overwhelming, there's a lot going on from the get go with WotC, since it implicitly assumes you have some familiarity with the base game mechanics.

Originally posted by Gergely:

You mean these enemies have a high health pool and do an action whenever my soldiers do an action? Are these in their own missions or something? If they can appear randomly, I don't think I'd enjoy fights against them. I like challenges, but not the half-baked types. Do these enemies appear in their own optional missions only?

Bit of both. "Alien Hunters" and "Shen's Last Gift" have an optional "Narrative" story mission, which the content is gated behind. For Alien Hunters, that means no rulers (of which their are 3, and once they are dead they are dead, they flee when injured badly, and don't heal between missions) until you do "The Nest" mission if it is active. If it's not, then the rulers can just appear as soon as the base type they are the enhanced version of starts appearing in missions. WotC adds an "Integrated" option, which instead starts them guarding Alien Facilities first, and you are warned which, so again you can put of engaging them.
WotC also slightly tones them down, since they no longer respond to actions they can't see, and also not to reloads and few other "non hostile" actions.

Originally posted by Gergely:

Edit: Do they still get their share of actions when it's the enemy's turn?

Not once they are activated/triggered. Before that, they do patrol/move on the enemies turn.

[Mr. Nice]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

The only one that's difficult to hit is the Archon King, which is the same difficulty to hit as normal Archons.

Doesn't the Berserker Queen have some defense too? (but of course she can't take cover).
The Archon King feels like it is harder to hit than a standard Archon, because you tend to be further away (since you don't want to waste an action and have him respond to blue moving closer).

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Mr. Nice:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

The only one that's difficult to hit is the Archon King, which is the same difficulty to hit as normal Archons.

Doesn't the Berserker Queen have some defense too? (but of course she can't take cover).

Ah, yes, you're correct. I didn't really do due diligence on looking at the different difficulties with her. 10 defense on Commander and 20 on Legend. There's none on Veteran though, which is what OP is intending to play.

[Gergely]

I'm in the middle of installing all DLC packs to see what are my options in-game.

Is the "Integrated" option recommended?

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Gergely:

Is the "Integrated" option recommended?

Integrate will disable the story missions from the DLC (so if you're interested in that then you don't want to use it) because WotC adds the tired mechanic, which doesn't play nicely with the missions because there are a LOT of enemies in them, so anyone who goes on the mission is guaranteed to be tired for quite a while, or possibly even shaken.
If you're not interested in the story, then the gameplay things to be aware of for the decision are:

The SLG mission will give you one Spark for free upon completion of it, and allows you to build them in the Proving Grounds for a rather hefty expense. If the mission is disabled or you use Integrate, then you can build them immediately in the PG but don't get one for free, and due to the heavy expense makes it pretty likely that it's not worth it to make one. The mission itself will be quite difficult if you still have ballistic weapons, but once you get magnetic weapons it's not that bad any more, and if you get Bluescreen Rounds then everything dies horribly without any difficulty at all.

The matter of when the alien hunter rulers will arrive based on selection has already been described, so what remains is the weapons. If the mission is enabled, then there will be a short scan on the map that will give you the weapons for free, not long into the campaign. This scan is required to be done in order to access the Viper's Nest mission. The weapons will be unable to be upgraded until after completing the Viper's Nest mission. If Integrate is used, then the weapons can be built in the PG after researching Experimental Weapons. The research doesn't take all that long and the weapons aren't all that expensive, but it's still much more than it costs to get them with the mission enabled. The weapons don't have any limitation on when they can be upgraded, except for getting the necessary techs. If you disable it I don't know what the weapon status is, but I'd assume it's the same as Integrate.


Basically, I'd say that if you're interested in the story then don't use Integrate, and enable the missions. Otherwise, Integrate frankly makes the AH content a good deal better, but doing anything other than enabling the mission for SLG means you probably won't even use the content it involves at all.

[Mr. Nice]

Meh, I play LI and usually build a Spark when I get the Proving Ground (but that's rarely in my first 3 facilities so that's not particularly early). I do use a mod which buffs Sparks a bit though (my own of course!), but that just gives them what other classes get anyway.... (trainable abilities, PCS slot, an ammo pocket in lieu of a full utility slot, mild hacking buff so they aren't completely useless at lamp post hacks).

[edit]From just this afternoon, showing that even the Archon King on Legend goes down fast enough to high level soldiers...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHF_qthupco&feature=youtu.be

[Gergely]

I installed all dlc packs for now. Let's see my options:

Options -> Gameplay
-Anarchy's Children? [0% default]
-Alien Hunters? [~10% default]
-Tactical Legacy Pack? [~10% default]

New Game>>>>
-Difficulty: Veteran
-Advanced Options
--Lengthy Scheme: Double the length of the "avatar project". [Off][On]
--All other adv. options: Off.
-Tutorial: On
-Reduce Beginner VO: Off
-Subtitles: [Who cares whether or not I use them?]
-Choose game soundtrack:
--XCOM: UFO Defense []
--XCOM: Enemy Unknown []
--XCOM 2: War of the chosen [Selected]

Ironman mode: Disabled. Can't enable with tutorial.

Next>>>>
-"Lost and Abandoned". Forced on.
-Integrate DLC: [off]
-Alien Hunters: "The Nest" [on]
-Shen's Last Gift: "The Lost Towers" [on]

Soooooo........

What are the three slider in options -> gameplay? What do they do? How are those soldiers different from normal ones?

If I first do a Wotc campaign, someone mentioned it might be overwhelming. Doubling the length of the avatar project (As far as I know, the amount of time I get before I straight up lose.) might be a good idea... However, I don't think I want to do that if it would make the game too easy. I'm in for both the story and the challenge.

Soundtrack. Which one does the base game even use? It's not even listed! I guess I use XCOM 2 Wotc for now. Since I didn't play the previous xcom games I don't think I'd like that soundtrack better. I leave it at that for now.

Integrate DLC. After some thinking I decided I disable this and enable the dlc missions instead. Feel free to change my opinion on that.

I'm not planning to start playing the game today or tomorrow. Maybe next weekend or so.

[4rrakis]

Turning off the dlc integration and keeping the other dlc checkboxes active is the right decision for a first playthrough if you want to see all the story missions and cutscenes.