Okay, so, it's not an armor deco.

[Rox]

So, we all thought and were told that the "survivor of the old war" was just an armor deco option that comes by default on one of our units.

Well, watching a recent gameplay video, it seems that it's not an armor deco, after all. It's an entirely different piece of armor. The basic armor is called "Kevlar Armor" and then there's a "Resistance Warrior Kevlar Armor".

[HoroSaga]

Well, it might still have the same statistics of a normal suit of Kevlar Armor, just with a unique appearance. That would be a natural way to make it a limited customization option that you can only give to a single soldier, since otherwise you'd be able to just use the customization options to give it to everyone.

[|(๏̯͡๏ JλςҜ♣Ҳ̸λnO]

I'd say the survivor of the old war armor deco is used as a way to create a soldier who fight during the alien invasion. Say, you have a soldier named Keith. Keith was at the start of the game, or made it to the end, and you want him back in XCOM 2. Well, you can use the survivor of the old war armor deco to make it look like the guy went trough hell and back.

While the new kevlar armor you saw in the gameplay footage may just be just that. New shiny kevlar armor. Not kevlar armor you had from the beginning of the invasion and kept it since.

[Milk]

It's essentially horse armor.

[HoroSaga]

I'm guessing it's the bulkier vest with the XCOM logo on it, and the symmetrical, rounded shoulderpads. It's visible in the Resistance Pack promo image, on the second soldier from the left (the one with the skull facepaint).

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

It's essentially horse armor.

Not really. The horse armor was sold purely as a piece of cash-DLC, which was why people were so critical of it. This is a free pre-order incentive, being offered as a bonus for pre-ordering.

You may not agree with the concept of pre-order incentives, or with pre-ordering in general, but that doesn't make it the equivalent of cash-DLC. Not yet, at least. It will be a more valid comparison if the Resistance Pack is later offered for sale as a conventional piece of cosmetic DLC.

[Milk]

Originally posted by HoroSaga:

I

Not really. The horse armor was sold purely as a piece of cash-DLC, which was why people were so critical of it. This is a free pre-order incentive, being offered as a bonus for pre-ordering.

I'm saying it's horse armor because it's just a single cosmetic for incentive instead of actually adding a customization option, which Elite Soldier did for EU. I'm not saying either is better or worse, but this is essentially horse armor. It provides no real benefit, unlike Elite Soldier.

[HoroSaga]

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

I'm saying it's horse armor because it's just a single cosmetic for incentive instead of actually adding a customization option, which Elite Soldier did for EU. I'm not saying either is better or worse, but this is essentially horse armor. It provides no real benefit, unlike Elite Soldier.

Well... I can understand where you're coming from, but I'm not sure if I completely agree.

It's worth keeping in mind that the unique kevlar armor isn't the only item in the Resistance Pack. There are several other new customization options that are being added by that pack as well. It's hard to guess exactly how many new options are being added by this particular pack, but from looking at the promotional image I'd probably guess that it's about fifteen or so new options.

The Elite Soldier Pack added one new hair style, three alternate armor decos, three alternate helmets, and the ability to change the color of your armor to thirty different shades.

Changing the coloring of clothing and items is a basic part of XCOM 2's soldier customization system. So that means that, comparing the Resistance Pack and the Elite Soldier pack directly, they're actually rather close in terms of content. The only thing that makes the Resistance Pack a little weird is the decision to make the oldschool XCOM Kevlar a unique equippable item instead of a customization option.

[Milk]

Originally posted by HoroSaga:

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

I'm saying it's horse armor because it's just a single cosmetic for incentive instead of actually adding a customization option, which Elite Soldier did for EU. I'm not saying either is better or worse, but this is essentially horse armor. It provides no real benefit, unlike Elite Soldier.

Well... I can understand where you're coming from, but I'm not sure if I completely agree.

It's worth keeping in mind that the unique kevlar armor isn't the only item in the Resistance Pack. There are several other new customization options that are being added by that pack as well. It's hard to guess exactly how many new options are being added by this particular pack, but from looking at the promotional image I'd probably guess that it's about fifteen or so new options.

The Elite Soldier Pack added one new hair style, three alternate armor decos, three alternate helmets, and the ability to change the color of your armor to thirty different shades.

Changing the coloring of clothing and items is a basic part of XCOM 2's soldier customization system. So that means that, comparing the Resistance Pack and the Elite Soldier pack directly, they're actually rather close in terms of content. The only thing that makes the Resistance Pack a little weird is the decision to make the oldschool XCOM Kevlar a unique equippable item instead of a customization option.

What I was trying to say is that in XCOM 2, one could create or download a user created version of the armor(s) (and you know people are going to do this), making it somewhat token and worthless. Whereas in XCOM EU/EW, you didn't have any customization choices whatsoever beyond naming unless you had that Elite Soldier DLC. In XCOM 2's case, it's not worth much, if anything. It doesn't add anything significant because massive user customization already exists in the base game.

It's like if Skyrim added an official Sword DLC for 5 dollars. It'd be pointless, modders could do the same thing for free. It'd be different if modding didn't exist.

[HoroSaga]

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

What I was trying to say is that in XCOM 2, one could create or download a user created version of the armor(s) (and you know people are going to do this), making it somewhat token and worthless.

Oh, yes, that's true. I didn't think of it like that. The new soldier-import system will make the special "XCOM Kevlar" item much less useful.

But at least the pack still comes with a chunk of additional customization items, so that mitigates the disappointment somewhat.

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

Whereas in XCOM EU/EW, you didn't have any customization choices whatsoever beyond naming unless you had that Elite Soldier DLC. In XCOM 2's case, it's not worth much, if anything. It doesn't add anything significant because massive user customization already exists in the base game.

Well, I would still say that it's worth something. Modders will certainly come up with additional material, but it will be some time before they introduce high-quality material onto the nexus. With the Resistance Pack, you would gain immediate access to several new professionally made customization options immediately.

However, yes, it's the sort of bonus that will become less and less valuable over time, as additional user-made content is introduced.

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

It's like if Skyrim added an official Sword DLC for 5 dollars. It'd be pointless, modders could do the same thing for free. It'd be different if modding didn't exist.

I would disagree with this assertion, but only because the Resistance Pack isn't being sold for five dollars. Yet.

For the time being, at least, it's a free (with purchase) pre-order incentive. That makes it slightly better than the example you gave. It will be more debatable if and when the Resistance Pack is offered up for sale officially, though. If the Elite Soldier pack is any indication, the Resistance Pack will probably go on sale roughly one month after the game launches.