tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post2493611562360270084..comments2024-03-28T10:31:45.644-07:00Comments on Vigaroe: XCOM 2 Item Analysis: Experimental ArmorsVigaroehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02405424233776571308noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-72501795429924159922022-01-30T20:59:28.614-08:002022-01-30T20:59:28.614-08:00Chimera Squad's Item tuning is overall more un...Chimera Squad's Item tuning is overall more uneven than XCOM 2's, but yes, most of its Items are something plausible to end up using in a run simply because you can end up looting a thing and slotting it in because you don't yet have anything good for that section.<br /><br />I definitely agree Ammo really ought to have its own slot -damage on primary weapons is simply too centrally important, where it's very difficult to justify doing without an Ammo Item of some kind once you have access to them. Further sub-division making sense would really depend on the direction the game went -Chimera Squad has as many sub-types as it does to essentially turn filling out Item slots into a secondary level track, where you take a while o have each agent reach even 'minimum peak' ability. (ie every slot filled, but probably mostly with junk you'll replace with better stuff later) XCOM 2 was pretty clearly imagining Item choice being a thing where most everything was equally valid and you'd use different sets for different strategies and/or situations, with individual choices being high-impact; it doesn't execute it as well as it could have, no, but my point is XCOM 2 would have to have come from a fundamentally different place for tons of Item slot sections to be a coherent part of the design.<br /><br />I think Tranq Rounds mostly suffer from being too obviously optimal to rush for. I suspect the CS devs underestimated how optimal it is to max out Intel income as fast as possible -if you're playing efficiently, you can be basically done developing just about everything before the second Investigation is even done, where I'm pretty sure the game is targeted at the expectation that a player is only going to be wrapping stuff up like maxing Field Teams sometime in the third Investigation. So I'm pretty sure Tranq Rounds were imagined as, like, a mild convenience feature (You can already KO people with Subdue, after all) or to support certain agent combinations or whatever, while in actuality they're hugely important because initially a lot of enemies are going down in the Breach Phase and early missions are short, where you literally can't get the capture Intel boost reliably unless you use Tranq Rounds, and the mechanics heavily reward getting tons of Intel really quickly.Ghoul Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15165232279081041131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-37521486773638155212022-01-30T20:10:10.349-08:002022-01-30T20:10:10.349-08:00I remember on my first playthrough, after Hybrid M...I remember on my first playthrough, after Hybrid Materials being researched I bought a couple of Nanoscale Vest items. I then went to the loadout screen trying to find it in Armors, and wondering where my vests went, since they show up in my inventory in Engineering. As to why they didn't show up, I chalked up to a bug. It wasn't until way late into the campaign that I found out that they were actually considered to be a generic utility item, and I was like, WTF, that does not make sense. And by that time I had more slots but also ammo and grenades and other items competing for those slots. I ended up selling the vests to the Black Market, and never ended up using them.<br /><br />Chimera Squad separating these items into Armor Mods finally made them actually relevant. Even for the weak starter items like the Extra Padding - in the Tactical layer +1 HP isn't really that useful even in the early game, but if I had a vacant slot I can stick it into, why the heck not? The game still suffers from XCOM 2's problem of having a bunch of super good items (Motile Inducers - even the Loading Screen help tip says so!), a bunch of generally good items, and a bunch of trashy items you hardly use. It's attenuated by the fact that access to many of the good items involves getting lucky with items and mission rewards, but it's still rather unbalanced. Like in the first investigation I always buy Tranq rounds for the entire squad, the dividends from the Intel rewards come really quickly.<br /><br />It was a big step in the right direction though I think Chimera Squad was a bit too conservative in just separating out the armor mods. I would definitely have had separated out the other items into Ammo, Offensive items (those that cause damage or debuff the enemy - Grenades, Flashbangs, etc.), and Support items (those that buff you and/or your squad in other ways - Smoke grenades, Medikits, etc.). I mean, XCOM 2 is totally incoherent about this, considering like Grenadiers have an extra "Grenades only" slot, and Heavy Armors have a Heavy Weapon slot. In this system, there should always be an ammo slot, Light Armors should only have a Support Item slot, Medium Armors should have a Grenade/Support slot (with the Predator upgrade making those slots distinct and allow you to carry one of each), and the Heavy Armor should have the additional Heavy Weapon slot.<br /><br />In XCOM 2, the only reason why you don't carry Overpowered Ammo X all the time is mainly because its slot competes Overpowered Item Y that does something completely different that you might also need. Like how Bluescreen Rounds are the Answer To All The Most Annoying And Powerful Enemies, and the Mimic Beacons are basically a Get Out of Jail Free card. If Ammo was separate from other items, then you might just carry Bluescreen rounds all the time... but not if were reduced from being a +5 to a +3, let's say, which then makes them equivalent to Venon Rounds in extra damage to susceptible units susceptible (+1 damage and a delayed 2 minimum damage). Frankly let's get rid of Mimic Beacons altogether, and instead buff Smoke Grenades to give extra defense to its AoE and maybe even dodge even if it's kinda nonsensical (or at least have it prevent crit damage. Mindshields instead of totally cancelling out mental effects should make them highly resistible instead and make them only last one turn, etc.<br /><br />P.S. As for Tranq rounds in Chimera Squad, I would have instead made them totally free, interchangeable with conventional rounds at the beginning of the game, but with -1 damage. It's kinda ridiculous that there's really no penalty to just taking them in the early game besides the initial investment in Supplies. Aside from being a continuously relevant tradeoff, it would make intuitive sense that they don't hit so hard - why is a shotgun to the face that does the same damage suddenly putting you to sleep just because the rounds were full of some magic sleep inducing pellets?!Carlos M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00724030488394241024noreply@blogger.com