A little help with things I'm not understanding

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crimsonsun
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 1:27 pm

A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by crimsonsun »

I have a few questions about various gameplay elements either I'm not fully understanding and need some help with please.

Armour piercing rounds don't seem to work if the ammo isn't bypassed entirely. I keep finding myself shooting a armour 3/4 target with these bullets and still having 3/4 armour deducted from damage. Is this working correctly or is something going wrong?

What's the trigger for Alien Ruler Reactions? Every time I think I've got this one figured I get messed up by a reaction I'm not expecting.

Is there a way to stop the game stripping my equipment when I'm injured or doing leadership training? This annoys the hell out of me, especially when I come back to the game after a break as I don't really remember who's got what. Injuries I can understand somewhat but stripping my leaders is just mean and drives me nuts. If it was just utility items it wouldn't be so bad having your Armour and Weapon put into the general pool because you choose to train is so frustrating as it results in your leader finishing training to find I can't use them as there armour and weapon are off on a infiltration somewhere. My most recent discovery was I've got no gun better than an assault rifle to give to my Ranger Captain/MS which basically means I'm not using him which has the knock on effect of taking his squad out of active duty. Now I get a drop in 2 days so its not the end of the world but it is super annoying and surely there has to be a work around.

Why am I constantly grazing with 100% hit chance? I don't get it and the number of times I left down a creek without a paddle because my flanking 100% hit chance caused 2-3 damage instead of 10.

What determines Resistance fighters equipment? SMG's are useless at the stage of the game I'm at and I'd need 4-5 guys hitting with them to take down a single faceless, I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't an either or situation with shotguns which are overwhelmingly more useful at this stage of the game because of there damage output.

Thanks in advance, I know I've got more questions I can't remember right now so I'll add more when they pop into my head. Thanks again. Crimsonsun
crimsonsun
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 1:27 pm

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by crimsonsun »

Another question;

The Muton Melee parry doesn't always activate, what's the trigger? At a guess I'd say it wont trigger if I'm attacking from concealment at the start of the action but I'm not sure and being as it kicking in is a sure bet to get your Shinobi killed I'm not going to risk it.
trihero
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:01 am

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by trihero »

Armour piercing rounds don't seem to work if the ammo isn't bypassed entirely. I keep finding myself shooting a armour 3/4 target with these bullets and still having 3/4 armour deducted from damage. Is this working correctly or is something going wrong?
AP rounds work fine to me. They pierce 2 damage. Maybe if you had a screenshot/save of the exact situations so we could try to explain it. I remember I was once really confused for instance that muton centurion seemed to be taking less damage even though it had the same armor as something else next to it, then I hovered over the centurion and it has some sort of damage reduction ability.
What's the trigger for Alien Ruler Reactions? Every time I think I've got this one figured I get messed up by a reaction I'm not expecting.
The last time I checked in 1.2, alien rulers have a % chance to react on every one of your non-free actions. In vanilla it was 100% to react, but in LW2 as long as things haven't changed in 1.3, it's simply a chance to react. There is no specific trigger, it's random and therefore
unpredictable. The last time I checked the reaction chance was 25%.
Is there a way to stop the game stripping my equipment when I'm injured or doing leadership training?
Unfortunately I don't know of any way. I think the devs said it's intentional the way it is now, but that they might think more about it as a QoL change down the line.
What determines Resistance fighters equipment? SMG's are useless at the stage of the game I'm at and I'd need 4-5 guys hitting with them to take down a single faceless, I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't an either or situation with shotguns which are overwhelmingly more useful at this stage of the game because of there damage output.
The type of weapon they get appears to be random (like smg vs shotgun vs assault rifle, etc). I don't know if there are non-equal weights assigned. I don't think there is a way to "force" them to have certain weapons. It's like the alien rulers reaction, it's a %.
Why am I constantly grazing with 100% hit chance? I don't get it and the number of times I left down a creek without a paddle because my flanking 100% hit chance caused 2-3 damage instead of 10.
Some enemies have dodge chance, and the default graze band makes it so 10% of your 100% shots will graze. Note to self to check more into grazing; I turned off the graze band entirely and yet grazed against a shieldbearer at 96% hit, who was flanked and stunned and doesn't have dodge. There could be something weird going on, but try to see if the default graze band and enemy type is the cause of your issues first.
The Muton Melee parry doesn't always activate, what's the trigger? At a guess I'd say it wont trigger if I'm attacking from concealment at the start of the action but I'm not sure and being as it kicking in is a sure bet to get your Shinobi killed I'm not going to risk it.
It's % based, and I'm sorry I don't know what the % is. They do have to be fully awake (aka not stunned, disoriented), but things like attacking from concealment or being "behind" them don't change the chance to hit back.
Tuhalu
Posts: 433
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:02 pm

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by Tuhalu »

crimsonsun wrote:Another question;

The Muton Melee parry doesn't always activate, what's the trigger? At a guess I'd say it wont trigger if I'm attacking from concealment at the start of the action but I'm not sure and being as it kicking in is a sure bet to get your Shinobi killed I'm not going to risk it.
Muton parry is a 50% chance. It is deactivated when the Muton is stunned or disoriented.
Plockets
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:58 am

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by Plockets »

crimsonsun wrote:Is there a way to stop the game stripping my equipment when I'm injured or doing leadership training? This annoys the hell out of me, especially when I come back to the game after a break as I don't really remember who's got what.
From the very last entry in the patch notes:
- Add two new config vars to XComUi.ini in [XComGame.UISquadSelect]:
NoStripWoundedInventory - If set to true, utility items will not be stripped from all wounded soldiers when entering squad select.
AutoStripWoundedAllItems - If set to true (and NoStripWoundedInventory is not true), other equipment slots will be stripped from all wounded soldiers when entering squad select. Variables are intentionally using different senses to ensure all false values retain base game behavior.
So, setting "NoStripWoundedInventory=true" in the LW2 XComUI.ini should be the fix you are looking for (and be sure to regenerate your inis after making the change, so it gets applied).
crimsonsun
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 1:27 pm

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by crimsonsun »

trihero wrote:
Armour piercing rounds don't seem to work if the ammo isn't bypassed entirely. I keep finding myself shooting a armour 3/4 target with these bullets and still having 3/4 armour deducted from damage. Is this working correctly or is something going wrong?

AP rounds work fine to me. They pierce 2 damage. Maybe if you had a screenshot/save of the exact situations so we could try to explain it. I remember I was once really confused for instance that muton centurion seemed to be taking less damage even though it had the same armor as something else next to it, then I hovered over the centurion and it has some sort of damage reduction ability.
I'll try to grab one but this has happen on multiple occasions, I'm wondering if its overwatch based causing the Ammo not to trigger but I'm not sure. There's no specific enemy type as I've had it clearly show full armour being deducted against a range of enemies from drones and mechs to Muton's. When I do notice it I will try to grab a screen shot but being as I don't know the exact trigger its not something I can just instantly simulate.

Thanks for all your replies however. they have been very enlightening. :D
crimsonsun
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 1:27 pm

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by crimsonsun »

Plockets wrote:
crimsonsun wrote:Is there a way to stop the game stripping my equipment when I'm injured or doing leadership training? This annoys the hell out of me, especially when I come back to the game after a break as I don't really remember who's got what.
From the very last entry in the patch notes:
- Add two new config vars to XComUi.ini in [XComGame.UISquadSelect]:
NoStripWoundedInventory - If set to true, utility items will not be stripped from all wounded soldiers when entering squad select.
AutoStripWoundedAllItems - If set to true (and NoStripWoundedInventory is not true), other equipment slots will be stripped from all wounded soldiers when entering squad select. Variables are intentionally using different senses to ensure all false values retain base game behavior.
So, setting "NoStripWoundedInventory=true" in the LW2 XComUI.ini should be the fix you are looking for (and be sure to regenerate your inis after making the change, so it gets applied).
Wonderful, I'll give that a shot! Thank you! The only part of the patch notes I didn't read was the modding stuff because I'm not a modder. lol
Last edited by crimsonsun on Wed May 17, 2017 4:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Plockets
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:58 am

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by Plockets »

crimsonsun wrote:What determines Resistance fighters equipment? SMG's are useless at the stage of the game I'm at and I'd need 4-5 guys hitting with them to take down a single faceless, I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't an either or situation with shotguns which are overwhelmingly more useful at this stage of the game because of there damage output.
The type of weapon is a random % based, but the tier of the weapon is influenced by your tech progression. I don't know the exact percentages, but basically your rebels have weapons which are 1-2 tiers behind your current tech progression.
crimsonsun
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 1:27 pm

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by crimsonsun »

Plockets wrote:
crimsonsun wrote:What determines Resistance fighters equipment? SMG's are useless at the stage of the game I'm at and I'd need 4-5 guys hitting with them to take down a single faceless, I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't an either or situation with shotguns which are overwhelmingly more useful at this stage of the game because of there damage output.
The type of weapon is a random % based, but the tier of the weapon is influenced by your tech progression. I don't know the exact percentages, but basically your rebels have weapons which are 1-2 tiers behind your current tech progression.
Yeah I'd noticed that the weapons upgrade sometimes but its more the composition that I was concerned with because if I get weapons upgraded then the issue becomes moot but if not then having SMG's is a nightmare.
fowlJ
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:45 pm

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by fowlJ »

crimsonsun wrote: I'll try to grab one but this has happen on multiple occasions, I'm wondering if its overwatch based causing the Ammo not to trigger but I'm not sure. There's no specific enemy type as I've had it clearly show full armour being deducted against a range of enemies from drones and mechs to Muton's. When I do notice it I will try to grab a screen shot but being as I don't know the exact trigger its not something I can just instantly simulate.

Thanks for all your replies however. they have been very enlightening. :D
I believe this is actually a UI bug, where it displays the full armour value even if the armour is actually being pierced correctly. If the actual damage numbers you're getting don't seem impossibly low, it's probably working correctly.
mattprice516
Long War 2 Crew
Posts: 265
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2017 12:49 am

Re: A little help with things I'm not understanding

Post by mattprice516 »

I believe FowlJ is correct. If you don't pierce all of the armor, the little armor popup still shows up with the full value, but in reality the pierce still applied. UI bug, basically.

For example, you might have AP rounds and shoot a dude with 3 armor and roll a 7 on damage. You'll see (3 armor, 6 damage) in the popup. The full armor value showed up, but only 1 armor actually applied since you pierced 2.

I'm not sure if we've 100% confirmed that's the case, so it'd be useful to have a screenshot or save proving one or the other. But that's the current best theory as to what's happening.
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