Legendary difficulty is more of a puzzle game than strategy game

[Houd.ini]

Sadly i cant enjoy legendary because it becomes too much of a puzzle game. You have to strictly build, research and choose what to do in a really specific way and also use boring tactics, in order to minimize risks, that xcom becomes a puzzle game on what to do first. I always play on commander/ironman to allow more carnage and so that more soldier die and more risks can be taken. It makes the playthrough more like a realistic movie about legendary rebellion instead of a typical marvel superhero rebellion movie Where all have to survive and everything has to go right or the playthrough is done. honest mistakes dont instantly hurt the whole playthrough on commander.

Just my opinion for xcom 3 developers.

[Houd.ini]

 @LegionXIV  the +1 pod only works if the xp then is lowered. Because +1 pod could gibe to much experience to soldiers and make the game easier as you get more experienced soldier much sooner. I tried it with mods and it makes your soldier level up after each mission which is progress breaking. Slightly higher life, 1 more pod/ slightly bigger pods and slightly less xp for killing aliens. The longer research time just drags the playthrough on. And it is unfair if research time is longer but the aliens still grow the same in research as in commander while we habe to wait double the time. What makes xcom fun is that you grow in strength just like the aliens and turns become much more complex to play/ calculate. My problem with Legemdary is either you kill the pod before they can harm you or its you who will loose with big disadventage if not completely. It becomes a who kills who first. The more random things are added the better. For example ot would be cool if aliens sometimes would surrender / you would get random reinforcment mid battle and turn the tide on key missions / alliens get better way of reinforcement instead of a pod that will die instantly on overwatches. Would be cool if civilians would join / you fight during a protest and cam make your soldiers disapper during battle. Also would be cool instead of having a mobile center that you would ha e mutiple bases you can defend and move in a certain region only. The base mechanics of xcom are good but not good enough.

The best thing they could add is not a 1 soldier 1 turn system but whole squad 1 turn system. The squad all do your commands at the se time aswell as the aliens. It could make for cinematic gunfights.

[HazardHawk]

Game is balanced around Commander level. My best advice is Use the Alternative Mod Launcher from github https://github.com/X2CommunityCore/xcom2-launcher add map and advent unit mods with more difficult opponent design to simulate difficulty.

[psychotron666420]

No you don't. I've played legendary a bunch of times and every time did things in different orders.

[fewerjungle]

@Running chicken

Isn't that a good thing?
You have a difficulty were you can play how you want and one above that forces you to optimize a bit more.

Consider the following: you can have a terrible player do the strategic layer and a very good one do the tactical one and the campaign will still be finished (provided the avatar project isn't neglected) but if you switch roles it probably won't, which means xcom2's tactical layer has a bit more weight.
If you could choose whatever abilities, research order etc. you wanted in legendary (aka playing as you like, aka everything works) the strategic layer would suffer and the game would as well.
Most of the buzz generated around these forums tends to be about abilities and classes.
Game developers like to throw expressions like "choose your own tactics" around, but truth be told, lots of players get a kick of finding what's optimal.
In terms of tactics I guess it could be a bit more open ended, but again, it's a case of finding the optimal vs giving you freedom.

[Yellowdragon]

Not really, It's not strict at all. There are varieties of optimal play and builds.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by HazardHawk:

Game is balanced around Commander level. My best advice is Use the Alternative Mod Launcher from github https://github.com/X2CommunityCore/xcom2-launcher add map and advent unit mods with more difficult opponent design to simulate difficulty.

yep that's what I do. Commander feels perfect

[sick duck]

I saw a guy beat legend ironman despite doing all sorts of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. He went almost 2 whole months on 0 engineers, and researched the most useless things. I remember he is on youtube and the name starts with the letter Z. I think his greatest advantage is that he seemed to keep calm. It is easy to react in stupid ways out of anger from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ random stuff the game hits everyone with.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by sick duck:

I saw a guy beat legend ironman despite doing all sorts of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. He went almost 2 whole months on 0 engineers, and researched the most useless things. I remember he is on youtube and the name starts with the letter Z. I think his greatest advantage is that he seemed to keep calm. It is easy to react in stupid ways out of anger from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ random stuff the game hits everyone with.

did he lose many operatives? rookies?

[sick duck]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Originally posted by sick duck:

I saw a guy beat legend ironman despite doing all sorts of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. He went almost 2 whole months on 0 engineers, and researched the most useless things. I remember he is on youtube and the name starts with the letter Z. I think his greatest advantage is that he seemed to keep calm. It is easy to react in stupid ways out of anger from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ random stuff the game hits everyone with.

did he lose many operatives? rookies?

Permanently lose? One that I know of, though he rarely gets through a mission without at least 2 casualties. I am still watching the series, and I know enough about the popular youtube idols to see that this guy is not an A-tier commander. It's more fun watching the struggle than it is to see the best players dominate the game imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwLCAAlsLCo&list=PLvqxe4XbcSiFp23VUioIjXAT5216uyGmx&index=24&ab_channel=Zemalf

[khumak]

The biggest difference I noticed with legendary is at the beginning. Unlike the easier levels, on legendary you pretty much have to put a heavy focus on guaranteed damage options even if it means you consistently destroy all the loot for a few missions. That means grenades, rockets, flamethrowers, etc.

Once you start getting a reasonable number of soldiers past corporal then you don't have to rely so much on blowing everything up and can actually start getting some loot and some corpses.

[A Pebble]

Maybe you should try long war then? A lot of room for mistakes to be made without instantly ending a playthrough because 1 or 2 soldiers died.

[Houd.ini]

Originally posted by sick duck:

I saw a guy beat legend ironman despite doing all sorts of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. He went almost 2 whole months on 0 engineers, and researched the most useless things. I remember he is on youtube and the name starts with the letter Z. I think his greatest advantage is that he seemed to keep calm. It is easy to react in stupid ways out of anger from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ random stuff the game hits everyone with.

True that.