Pavonis Interactive Forums

The "Protect the Data Tap" style missions don't scale properly. In the start of the game, they're 30 hp. By the time I'm researching coil guns and have 18 hp mk2(3?) enemies, that stupid machine is still just 30 hp. But now instead of doing 2-5 damage, they get to do 8+ a shot. Their alien relay machines scale (40 hp right now for me) but xcom's doesn't.

I'm playing on 1.2, Legendary. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the other issues with these missions. Turn zero pod activation is annoying. I hate seeing a wimpy squad take on berserkers (whose rage mechanics is broken beyond stupid. Sometimes they hit their own pod turn zero, sometimes they attack their own while enraged, other times it does absolutely nothing). I dislike how far you spawn from the datatap. You aren't supposed to win every mission, fine. There are many, many things I don't like about these missions but all I would really want fixed if anything, just give that tap some more HP please. Turn zero and it's down 16 hp? Turn one/two and it's destroyed? Or you are actually 15 turns in and suddenly the enemy takes a quick blast at the tap because it's their "best shot" and BAM you lose.

Chances, percentages, statistics, losses, strategy, difficulty, fine okay that's xcom. Losing because of not taking scaling into account? Now that's not xcom, baby.

From my own experience I'v found that protecting the datatap itself is forfeit. You go on the mission to rescue the intel personal.

Ethereal Commander wrote:From my own experience I'v found that protecting the datatap itself is forfeit. You go on the mission to rescue the intel personal.

bring reaper shinobis, and high mobility grenadiers + scanning protocol (to avoid pods near the starting position, you only want pods near datatap), and rush the datatap -> aoe enemies -> reap

also the datatap caps at 30hp, if you want to scale more there's http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =634951246

bountygiver wrote:bring reaper shinobis, and high mobility grenadiers + scanning protocol (to avoid pods near the starting position, you only want pods near datatap), and rush the datatap -> aoe enemies -> reap

also the datatap caps at 30hp, if you want to scale more there's http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =634951246

Thanks for that mod I'll check it out. Though I don't think balance issues should just be solved with "use a mod"; by that logic there shouldn't be any balance discussion or patches at all. By that same thinking, your suggestion of a rush team sounds valid, but again the answer shouldn't be "just bring a squad of end-game everything".

If only your SPARKS could repair the data tap...

callmewoof wrote:

bountygiver wrote:bring reaper shinobis, and high mobility grenadiers + scanning protocol (to avoid pods near the starting position, you only want pods near datatap), and rush the datatap -> aoe enemies -> reap

also the datatap caps at 30hp, if you want to scale more there's http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =634951246

Thanks for that mod I'll check it out. Though I don't think balance issues should just be solved with "use a mod"; by that logic there shouldn't be any balance discussion or patches at all. By that same thinking, your suggestion of a rush team sounds valid, but again the answer shouldn't be "just bring a squad of end-game everything".

you can tweak the datatap hp in LW2's own ini config as well, but it only have 3 levels, my mod will allow you to add more intermediate tiers. Regarding using end game squad to rush them, you don't actually have problem defending datatap with haven personnel's before you get end game squad, as the power difference between them and your squad/advent are still small back then, they only get slaughtered when advent outscales them so you'll need your op end game squad to save your personnels.