Veteran → Commander difficulty jump is too big

[Mmm]

Didn't finished Veteran, it was a little bit too easy for me. Started Commander campaign. I am playing almost Ironman, only missclicks and unknown mechanics can be reloaded.

So, it is too harsh. I looked up stats and found out that Veteran→Commander is much bigger jump than Rookie→Veteran and Commander→Legend.
Troopers 3to4 hp is most known one, but almost every enemy has this bs:

Assassin stats (watch for jump between 2nd and 3rd columns):
Aim 65 65 75 75
Crit-Chance 0 0 10 10
Defense 0 0 5 5
Health 12 15 22 27
Mobility 12 12 15 15

Yah, Legend is even more brutal, but going from Commander to Legend is not as big as going from Veteran to Commander.

I think that they forgot to add one more difficulty between Veteran and Commander.

Just whining

[Aranador]

I think you have not looked at the other changes that occur from commander to legend. It is a much more brutal jump than what just those stats suggest.

Remember, Commander is the 'expected' difficulty of the game. Oddly enough, the easier difficulties are intentionally, well, easier. And again, the jumps you are complaining about, are only a small part of the over all changes.

[Amanoob105]

Same was true of the last game. The jump from easy to normal was barely noticeable.
The jump from normal to classic? Yikes! You felt that one.

[ArkAngel]

I agree with you. I feel that Veteran is way too easy, and that Commander can get really hard. The change from 3-4 HP for ADVENT Troopers is probably the most significant change early game, as you can no longer rely on grenades to one-shot them.

And the chosen gaining 50% more health and more mobility is another really tricky obstacle. And tbf, I see this in literally every single game there is. If you don't mind modding, may I recommend something like A Better Advent? Or a lot of the enemy expansion/enhancement mods? Because they can raise the difficulty, and give you that Veteran/Commander bridge that you're looking for.

[Stardustfire]

well, the most glaring change when you go commander and above is that the game no longer helps you behind the curtains, and that is the real trap for ppl who played lower diffcultys before.
thats also why player who know higher difficultys speaking about "learning bad/wrong ropes" in lower difficultys. at commander and up you must forget things that worked in lower diff, and must learn other tactics instead.

[ArkAngel]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

well, the most glaring change when you go commander and above is that the game no longer helps you behind the curtains, and that is the real trap for ppl who played lower diffcultys before.
thats also why player who know higher difficultys speaking about "learning bad/wrong ropes" in lower difficultys. at commander and up you must forget things that worked in lower diff, and must learn other tactics instead.

Very much this. You form a lot of bad habits on the lower difficulties, which isn't inherently bad, but it definitely makes the transition to higher difficulties more difficult.

[PsychoDino]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

Same was true of the last game. The jump from easy to normal was barely noticeable.
The jump from normal to classic? Yikes! You felt that one.

part of xcom

[MechBFP]

What is making it "difficult" exactly? Is it the fact that you cant just flawless every mission?Because if so, then I am not sure why you are playing on a harder difficulty to begin with.

[ElPrezCBF]

Apart from the Chosen lair missions, I think Commander difficulty is still ok. 3 things made it easier for me: fast teching up, exploiting stealth abilities and positioning your soldiers out of enemy LoS and ambushing them where possible, not running into them but letting them run into you. This even applies to timed missions.

[Mmm]

Here we copmare this difficulty to previouse one, not by itself. The problem is that the step is a little bit too big, nothing in between.

I'm sure you can overcome it if you go full meta.

I am not too far into it, hopping that this difficulty is good one after some more learning on my side.

[Barrelz]

I only play Commander + Ironman in Vanilla, so for me thats just what the game is. I imagine playing lower difficulties is a crutch and once you lose that crutch it can be daunting and intimidating. Keep hammering away and you will do fine. I have failed many a playthrough. Thats XCom baby.

[ElPrezCBF]

Originally posted by Mmm:

Here we copmare this difficulty to previouse one, not by itself. The problem is that the step is a little bit too big, nothing in between.

I'm sure you can overcome it if you go full meta.

I am not too far into it, hopping that this difficulty is good one after some more learning on my side.

You don't need to go full meta. I'm not saying Commander is a cake walk but all it took was for me to change my approach to gameplay and focus more on calculated risks in moving and attacking for me to find that Commander really isn't as far from Veteran as you think. Tbh, I think Commander should have been called Veteran difficulty because it's the first difficulty that truly makes you think before you build or make your moves, unlike the current Veteran where you can get away big time for being reckless.

[Glitch]

The first time I played the game was vanilla at normal diff.
It was a pleasant experience, smooth, campaign finished and I moved on.

Then I retstarted the game years later in vet or commander (can't remember). I restarted the campaign probably 10 to 20 times in a row, because the first mission was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥/disaster.

Thats not what I remembered from my first Xcom2 experience. So i went online read about the tricked RNG in easiest difficulty, and I felt robbed from my first successful campaign. I don't like to cheat :)

I decided to go the hardway, so I started a legend campaign, without ironman, savescum inside. I reloaded almost every combat turn of every damn first 10 missions. This is how i actually learnt the actual intended game mechanics. And it is... way different than the easy/normal diff, tactically and strategically speaking. It's not "better" or "harder" its just a totally different way to think & play. As example, I barely used "hunker down" in normal diff. like almost never. In harder diff, its a common element of any tactics.

It might fit your gamestyle or not. Choose whatever you want and what is fun for you.
Doesn't mean you're bad at the game if you pref to play in normal mode. It's a game, so fun comes first :)