Finished L/I campaign, some thoughts.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:45 am
Started in 1.3, had a pretty solid experience, difficulty seems about right for legendary. Took my time, done 217 missions, final mission on 15th of February. Surprisingly, lost only 3 soldiers (2 of those were rookies in the very beginning, third one was one-shot by a sectopod in Blacksite. That 100+ hp monster took me like 7-9 turns to kill.), however I played extra carefully. All missions were overinfiltrated, did not do a single mission lower than 100% infiltrated. Used intel-boosting on most missions. In my previous commander-campaign I did not care about strategy layer at all, just put 5-6 rebels on intel in every haven and attempted all missions with good timer. I liked how Legendary difficulty forces you to make important startegic decisions and mind your play on strategic layer also. Picking missions, controlling vigilance and so on.
Now some notes.
- Mech-pods were too common IMO. Sectoids, on the other hand, were strangely rare sight. Constantly found lacking their corpses.
- Kubikiri totally rules. Starting from November you basically HAVE TO take a kubikiri-specced sniper on every mission, even extremely-light jailbreaks. Because it's common to face a sectopod or gatekeeper on those lategame. Halobots are very good in this role BTW. Stock+HT+talon+plame lance = 100% crit chance on most enemies. +Mind merge, if neccessary
- Flashbang nerf ended not mattering much. Lategame I ended up using hard control like fire grenades, as mk3 advent routinely hits you in high cover, while flashbanged or/and suppressed.
- Speaking of cover, I think defense value on cover should be increased. When you have aim over 90 (like most mk3 enemies) cover just does not matter. Who needs to flank when your MSgt ranger has 50+ chance to hit enemy in high-cover million tiles away?
- Psi seem a bit over-powered now. I suggest putting 2-turn cooldown on insanity and make Stasis turn-ending at least.
- On the other hand, SPARKs were just... meh. Early they are okay, but mid-late... they even have less HP than most my soldiers (in warden with vests)! I suggest adding a lot of HP on their advanced armors and some aim/crit on weapons. And more aim with progression. Msgt SPARK with best weapon should have 100 aim, not 80. Alternatively allow weapon upgrades on their cannons.
- Alien Rulers turned out to be an easy prey. Well, I waited for COIL before activating them, but still... 25% reaction chance is too big a nerf, IMO.
- 2-day PoI scan is too long. I suggest reducing it to 1 day, as in most cases rewards just don't justify the time.
- There might be a bug with mini-retaliations. I used to have a mini-retal almost every week in july-september, but once I contacted most regions and liberated a few, there were no more mini-retals till the very end. Not that I complaining, but it does seem a little strange.
Now some notes.
- Mech-pods were too common IMO. Sectoids, on the other hand, were strangely rare sight. Constantly found lacking their corpses.
- Kubikiri totally rules. Starting from November you basically HAVE TO take a kubikiri-specced sniper on every mission, even extremely-light jailbreaks. Because it's common to face a sectopod or gatekeeper on those lategame. Halobots are very good in this role BTW. Stock+HT+talon+plame lance = 100% crit chance on most enemies. +Mind merge, if neccessary
- Flashbang nerf ended not mattering much. Lategame I ended up using hard control like fire grenades, as mk3 advent routinely hits you in high cover, while flashbanged or/and suppressed.
- Speaking of cover, I think defense value on cover should be increased. When you have aim over 90 (like most mk3 enemies) cover just does not matter. Who needs to flank when your MSgt ranger has 50+ chance to hit enemy in high-cover million tiles away?
- Psi seem a bit over-powered now. I suggest putting 2-turn cooldown on insanity and make Stasis turn-ending at least.
- On the other hand, SPARKs were just... meh. Early they are okay, but mid-late... they even have less HP than most my soldiers (in warden with vests)! I suggest adding a lot of HP on their advanced armors and some aim/crit on weapons. And more aim with progression. Msgt SPARK with best weapon should have 100 aim, not 80. Alternatively allow weapon upgrades on their cannons.
- Alien Rulers turned out to be an easy prey. Well, I waited for COIL before activating them, but still... 25% reaction chance is too big a nerf, IMO.
- 2-day PoI scan is too long. I suggest reducing it to 1 day, as in most cases rewards just don't justify the time.
- There might be a bug with mini-retaliations. I used to have a mini-retal almost every week in july-september, but once I contacted most regions and liberated a few, there were no more mini-retals till the very end. Not that I complaining, but it does seem a little strange.