Pavonis Interactive Forums

Some new changes subtley posted by JL:

- Shredstorm Cannon requires War Suit instead of Exo Suit technology
- Bluescreen PG project no longer requires items
- Advanced Grenades PG project no longer requires many resources
- Alien Facility leads now only cost 5 intel to research, and the research cost to research additional leads ramps up more slowly
- Stiletto Rounds PG project now unlocked by Shieldbearer Autopsy and require Shieldbearer corpses
- Needle Rounds PG project now unlocked by Faceless Autopsy and require Faceless corpses
- Reduced costs for chitin and carapace platings

Various items\techs being cheaper looks good, curious if this means fewer corpses required? Because that's usually the bottleneck.

Not sure the needle/stiletto thing fixes anything with ammo. Just means I'll be using Needle rounds for 95% of the game. This may even be a buff to XCOM, not really sure, probably about the same or very close in any case. There tend to be more advent, but aliens tend to have more HP. Either way, +1 damage against everything is better than most ammo types.

Shredstorm nerf! Not my preferred nerf, I think the result of this is that after Coil, I immediately bee-line War Suit, but don't actually build any War Suits because I'm not going to be able to afford them while I build 15 Shredstorm cannons. At least it will make Sept harder. Really want the Shield Wall ability, or whatever it's called, on War Suits to be buffed. Maybe make it a free action? Or only make it break on movement, allow us to shoot from Shield Wall. Would make for lots of neat tactics, and I really don't think it'd be OP.

Would much rather have seen shredstorms get some nerf to effectiveness, like using 2 actions and -1 mobility, rather than just moving them to the very end game.

stefan3iii wrote:Not sure the needle/stiletto thing fixes anything with ammo. Just means I'll be using Needle rounds for 95% of the game. This may even be a buff to XCOM, not really sure, probably about the same or very close in any case. There tend to be more advent, but aliens tend to have more HP. Either way, +1 damage against everything is better than most ammo types.

At the moment Advent are more common early game, aliens more common late game, but Stiletto arrives long before Needle, so there's little reason ever to buy Needle Rounds. The hope is that this'll give some reason to use both ammo types. I'll give it a test.

I can respect this response to the "we never play with half the toys" criticism. Access to Stiletto before even building a PG is an interesting earlygame mutator. Relatively cheap Adv. Grenades might make plasma grenades more attractive depending on PG priorities. Basically opens them up at mid-game for an aggressive economy.

Given the other pushes to buff the grenadier, this warrants experimentation: is it feasible to rely on grenadiers to dispatch M2 guys in 1.5?

That's quite a big buff to ammo. Making it available so early lets ballistics and lasers stay relevant a bit longer. Centre Mass Rangers with Needle Rounds are going to tear through ADVENT like crazy.

Buff aside, one good thing is that the ammo types are now better matched to the kind of enemies that occur. Stiletto used to come online around where aliens get a power spike with Mutons+. By the time Needle Rounds appear, you still want to be killing aliens harder. The new order means that a lot of new strategical decisions become relevant.

Interesting to see a change to Facility Leads, but not the change I was hoping for. I feel like it's still very random and hard to get these in the first place, and the fact that they randomly unlock a Facility, which can include Facilities that have not generated any pips yet, feels really frustrating.

Which facility you get is weighted by how many pips it has, plus one. So you are most likely to get the one with the most pips. Empty facilities are least likely.

I guess in that case I'm just THAT lucky. Thanks for the reply

-Shredstorm Cannon requires War Suit instead of Exo Suit technology
- Stiletto Rounds PG project now unlocked by Shieldbearer Autopsy and require Shieldbearer corpses
- Needle Rounds PG project now unlocked by Faceless Autopsy and require Faceless corpses
- Reduced costs for chitin and carapace platings

Glad to see changes in chitin and carapace armors. The stiletto rounds will be frustrating. I've had exactly one shieldbearer autopsy in my latest campaign and I'm in mid August. My shinobis are almost useless in terms of damage. Nice to see a use for Faceless ones. I don't really use camouflage suits so this will give some potential ammo, although I'm still pretty much stuck on armor piercing, tracer and shredder.

Exquisitor wrote:

-Shredstorm Cannon requires War Suit instead of Exo Suit technology
- Stiletto Rounds PG project now unlocked by Shieldbearer Autopsy and require Shieldbearer corpses
- Needle Rounds PG project now unlocked by Faceless Autopsy and require Faceless corpses
- Reduced costs for chitin and carapace platings

Glad to see changes in chitin and carapace armors. The stiletto rounds will be frustrating. I've had exactly one shieldbearer autopsy in my latest campaign and I'm in mid August. My shinobis are almost useless in terms of damage. Nice to see a use for Faceless ones. I don't really use camouflage suits so this will give some potential ammo, although I'm still pretty much stuck on armor piercing, tracer and shredder.

Wait, you mention Shieldbearers and Shinobi damage. Are you sure you aren't thinking of Stunlancers? Shieldbearers at the moment unlock the Stasis Vest project. What increases Shinobi damage are the Arc Blades you get from Stunlancers.

Exquisitor wrote:

-Shredstorm Cannon requires War Suit instead of Exo Suit technology
- Stiletto Rounds PG project now unlocked by Shieldbearer Autopsy and require Shieldbearer corpses
- Needle Rounds PG project now unlocked by Faceless Autopsy and require Faceless corpses
- Reduced costs for chitin and carapace platings

Glad to see changes in chitin and carapace armors. The stiletto rounds will be frustrating. I've had exactly one shieldbearer autopsy in my latest campaign and I'm in mid August. My shinobis are almost useless in terms of damage. Nice to see a use for Faceless ones. I don't really use camouflage suits so this will give some potential ammo, although I'm still pretty much stuck on armor piercing, tracer and shredder.

You should totally be turning Faceless bodies into Stiletto rounds. Most people believe them to be super powerful right now, as they kinda are. ALIENS are the assholes with the most hitpoints, and, thus, the most in need of extra damage.