Scientist in demand

Phaseless
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:06 am

Re: Scientist in demand

Post by Phaseless »

Had a Situation yesterday where I triggered a faceless after most of my Units turn.
I had the choice between firing at it and killing it with a below 50% Chance, or aid protocol my assault which it was to most likely attack.
You always have sure fire Tools like nades and aid proc but if you choose to roll the dice you really can't complain when it goes wrong, and the game even tells you your Odds.

You complain about everything tac1. You complain about inconsistency and you complain about the Tools that help you to deal with that inconsistency (grenades). What would be your Suggestion to make Long War 2 better? Sure fire hits? That would make the game lame in my Point of view. And you even have skills that give you sure fire hits, or at least increase the Odds dramatically.

The idea of the game is spontaneous Story telling triggered by bad rolls. If you take that away, you are left with nothing.

(ironically, the faceless still hit my assault but did 4 damage of which 3 were blocked by armor. But the Point is, you can go for the juicy Chance of killing the faceless - or make sure you at least have SOMETHING from your specialist and aid proc the assault. It's the sure fire meh choice which is much safer than rolling dice and potentially be left with Zero gain)
Tac1
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Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:49 am

Re: Scientist in demand

Post by Tac1 »

Then why bother with any sort of consistency? Forget gameplay, let's just attach randomness to everything.

Throw a grenade? 30% chance the soldier drops it and dies, instead. That'd make for some interesting gameplay I'm sure nobody will hate. 12% that a reload fails and wastes a turn. Jump through a window? Better hope they don't get sliced up by glorious RNG. Even 'sure fire' tools in this game have chance attached. Have fun throwing three grenades to kill a 5 HP target, but don't feel too bad, at least you can have the grand variation of unpredictability to spice up a game about tactics. Because everyone knows gameplay always comes second to replayability.
Phaseless
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:06 am

Re: Scientist in demand

Post by Phaseless »

Tac1 wrote:Then why bother with any sort of consistency? Forget gameplay, let's just attach randomness to everything.

Throw a grenade? 30% chance the soldier drops it and dies, instead. That'd make for some interesting gameplay I'm sure nobody will hate. 12% that a reload fails and wastes a turn. Jump through a window? Better hope they don't get sliced up by glorious RNG. Even 'sure fire' tools in this game have chance attached. Have fun throwing three grenades to kill a 5 HP target, but don't feel too bad, at least you can have the grand variation of unpredictability to spice up a game about tactics. Because everyone knows gameplay always comes second to replayability.
Most tactics games have chances attached to many actions because otherwise it becomes a 100% predictable chain of events.
Banner Saga, old XComs, good old Wesnoth, Fallout, etc.

It's a demanding challenge to fight for consistency in a game that give you slightly underwhelming tools to do so. Otherwise you get something like Dragon Age 2 where all you do is wait for cooldowns on abilities and healing potions. That's boring as hell.

Why bother with consistency? For the same reason why bother with inconsistency. Because it makes things interesting. You can gamble if you want to, or you can take the safe middle road. You can pick skills that let you minimize rng. Or you can take skills that give you greater returns when you decide to roll the dice. If all was inconsistent, there would actually be no tactics because decisions barely have any weight.
But if all is consistent, as I said, it becomes predictable and boring. If every shot connects, you have to change the entire game.

Aim percentage is the main factor in tactical gameplay. You have to work around situations that by default give you bad chances to hit and manipulate the playing field to your advantage. Eliminating chance eliminates the major problem you have to solve every mission.

You will be left with an empty shell of a game. You will have to spice it up. And when you're done, you will have an entirely different game. Might be a great game. But it won't be anything XCom.
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SonnyWiFiHr
Posts: 416
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:57 pm

Re: Scientist in demand

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Chances for Scientist are lower .
That's all
RND will give you them sometimes or not (usually is NOT).

For planning - this is must important information. This is why I started this thread . To get info.

Because I had save scum and found problem , reported , made more save scumming, confirmed then decided to change plan
No Scientist = Basic research 2x
Now I m in situation to rush 3 regions and Basic research.
I m insane because I will start Heavy mission with rookies to save time (Time + Scientist = Research) and trigger more missions

There is chance that I will get 2 mission with scientist (RND) I must have them before April.
I have all excellent mods for LW2 but they require more research.
Can't have LIB missions in first month so I want to know my chances.
The Preacher
Kamikaze Samurai
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 10:31 pm

Re: Scientist in demand

Post by Kamikaze Samurai »

I always buy the one in the Black Market.
You can get 2 in March that way.

Go full intel + scientist + scan in your starting region to get the Liberation missions with good infiltration time. Boost if necessary.

Get a scientist from Liberation 2 and you will have 3 by the end of March, which is enough for mag rush.

If you need more then put them in a fancy laboratory for a total of 5.25.

If that's not enough then research Basic Science as your first project.

All of that combined gets you 6.25 scientists by the end of March without any realistic possibility of being thwarted by RNG.

(Edit to acknowlege that those brave souls who play on legend can't get Liberation 2 in March, which cuts it down to 4.5).
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: Scientist in demand

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Rushing 2nd and 3rd region ASAP is another way.
Better spawning chance is worth trouble. 3rd region is tricky if you don't have enough intel.
But it is manageable and profitable.
Good start (early detected missions) is must have (go full squad and suffer). By 6th March you should start scanning second region - it is priority. 3 men mission is fastest way to rush everything. It is hard to afford 4 men mission

Run from everything and run for everything and bomb everything.
New way to play if you consider that squad wipe is normal thing. I wish that I can put rifle on that eng-s and fight with them.
Vigilance is skyrocketing and fast mission spawning is so huge bonus. I m getting tons of stuff including rookies and scientists and troop columns are constant. This I call resistance 3 men GOP s.

P.s. I will have to buy new PC.
There is big chance that I will throw current trough window
The Preacher
Dwarfling
Posts: 524
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:16 pm

Re: Scientist in demand

Post by Dwarfling »

You don't need to do 3-man missions, you just gotta set a pace so that you're not pulling excessive vigilance all over your few regions, instead pulling them towards a single one and have a lot of intel gathering going. Having three 5-6man squads out during the early game is perfectly fine. The way I do it is by focusing all the missions on the home region (intel + scan), and on the 2nd and 3rd region you do a mix of recruit and intel and you only very important missions, but you're still checking for them.

Say:

Home: 1 recruit, rest on intel + Avenger scan.
2nd: 2 recruit, rest on intel. Full recruit if contacted as a 3-strenght region.
3rd: 2 recruit, rest on intel, or full recruit if a small haven.

That way on the home region you're still getting a tiny bit of recruit but you're detecting missions to the max, cuz that's where the supply raids are headed, and your other regions are still growing but you got an ok chance of detecting rescue missions, or intel missions for an expansion, you be the judge.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: Scientist in demand

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Legendary - everything is on intel and there is less missions to pull excessive vigilance (12 V still gives missions).
After few Vipers this strategy is questionable ( 3 man GOPs and less) but works very well for few weeks. I think that I managed to double missions spawn.
By 10 march I finished 4 of them, after 10th March (second region) I m still doubling missions but RND detection is not big issue with low inf times. 3rd region is hard but it is worth of trouble
If you playing on Veteran / Commander there is no need for rushing campaign - Lib 2 is enough but you will get more scientists. Much more. This will make research very cheap. Before April you can have more than six of them up to twelve. You can buy 2 of them, get 3 from Lib 2 (RND) and same amount by doing more missions (RND ).
I have more rebels by doing more missions and more rookies. Before April you can have heaven of 10+

Other way to do that is 8 man missions. Infiltrate to moderate and pray.
It seems that high risk strategy pays off quickly but it is high risk strategy and I do not recommend it
The Preacher
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