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Xcom 2 pod activation system: :: XCOM 2 General Discussions

Xcom 2 pod activation system:

It sucks.

I like it, it's pretty straightforward to deal with once you understand it. The only thing that bothers me is when you accidentally run into an Advent civilian who was hiding around that corner, and they break your concealment.

So far into my campaign I'm finding the phantom ability to be a little Op. Locating Pods without triggering them is OP. One of the games check/blances was that when one guy runs ahead and triggers an untimely pod you were forced to make hard decisions. Now I just locate pod while concealed, setup fireteam, rince repeat. This is always an advantage, even with timer missions.

It's... the same as XCOM 1? Punishing for less skilled players, relatively easy to accommodate/abusable for skilled ones. Not even that big of a problem if you activate two or three, since the pod sizes are so low. Hell, as mentioned above, you get a free conceal unit extremely early into the game to guarantee at least one pod goes down to plan.

The vanilla pod system is boring. I'm really liking the All Pods Activated mod.

It already feel like all pods are activated at the same time since all the pods actually move towards your squad's location on their own after a number of turns. I really hated this "feature" because its so abusable. Right now, I simply dig in my squad and wait for all the pods to turn up on their own eventually and die to my ambush... well well...

Fits perfectly for XCOM 2. The game is entirely built around it with the ranger's concealment skills and the narrative context of a small group of guards patrolling. The game wouldn't exist any either way. Would've preferred free roaming and organized aliens in Enemy Unknown, though.

I would much prefer if my troops had a larger sight distance, enemy patrols didn't get a free turn to run into cover, and I was actually able to set up ambushes while still being in control of the battlefield meaning let me attack with all my soldiers before the enemy can react and let me choose who is shooting which mook.

Except for when they spawn on top of a watchtower, shack, or billboard and can't move lol. Then you have to go find them.

I like the all pods activated mod too, although I think it needs some tweaking for missions where you start unconcealed. I don't the system of killing one pod at a time in vanillaxcom 2- makes it way too easy. A noise system would be good, sice aliens seem to be deaf when part of an untriggered pod, which kills any sense of realism. I also noticed that ruler alins aren't that tough to beat when you encounter them alone, which is often.

Pod system is not perfect but it is a good way of trying to create a system which players can use to their advantage. Concealment definitely is an interesting feature which comes from using the pod system and shows how the system evolved from XCOM to XCOM2. Allowing players to control the rate at which enemies attack by pod activation means that players dont get overwhelmed by large numbers. Anything which you trigger you need to be prepared to deal with. If there is all activated or enemies come running from all the way across the map the instant one of your squad farts, the way the enemies abilities work will drastically increase the difficulty to overpowering levels. That said if we were able to implement some kind of noise or similar system with sound radius on different abilities which will tell you which enemies will be able to detect you and come running then I can see all activation working

I think that explosives are prevalent in xcom 2 (as they were in xcom 1), one way of countering this somewhat would be to make explosives really noisy (alert most aliens on the map. On the other side of things, you could have silencers on rifles (to make assault rifles and pistols more usefull). Silencers would work for 1 or 2 shots and would give a shot that dosen't break concealment. Aliens in that pod would still detect you though. On maps where you aren't concealed silencers would attract less attention from pods that haven't yet been triggered.

I dont disagree. Adding a noise factor would potentially make it seem like a less artificial system. That said I don't see it happening anytime soon and I can definitely be happy with pods as they are.

I hear you all on the noise thing, it crossed my mind but I'm not sure it would be the correct solution as it would quickly change the way the map plays out and comes with negatives of it's own. In theory every pod on the map should come running or go on high alert and hunker down on first contact. I'll start by saying one thing for sure, I really like what concealment adds to the game, I like setting up the ambush and trying to stealth into that factory, or setup a snatch and grab on an intel target. It all feels right, but also it buts heads with some of the mechanics that the game relies on to stay right and it's more game warping on some missions more than others, and let's not forget you also get Scan abilities and those scanning grenades that I like to launch with my Heavies. One problem with the noise response idea is that it displaces enemies from parts of the map where they should be present which could wind up warping the game in it's own way. I'd consider how Payday 2 handles whacking targets before SHTF, where you have a chance to recover the targets radio within a short ammount of time and signal that everything is fine and prevent a detection/response. But I'd personally rather set the noise thing aside and mess around with safer/simpler idea's first. I'd mess with the idea of off map patrols that come in and out of the borders of the map, and also get rid of that stupid flare that tells you where the ADVENT reinforcments are going to land. Also I'd unlock "Stay With Me" automatically from the start of the game. If you need to increase recruit costs to balance it fine, but let the noobs have a chance to save their favorite characters while also provoding incentive to take chances. Then Id have dark events accumulate, to address the complaints I've heard that the games difficulty peters out when you finally get enough strong troops, which seams to be about where I'm arriving in my game.

Moved my guy way up to try and find something. Nothing. Move all but one of the rest of the team up a little but not as far, still ok. Move the last person right next to the first person but one space closer to my team ( not the "fog of war" ahead) and somehow it activates a pod right in front of where I moved the first person but he didn't see $#%$! Dead soldier. I call BS lol. The very first guy who was moved up the farthest to get LOS should have popped it.

Eh. My main point has been that the pod system is artificial but allows players to control flow and prevents you from getting snowballed when every enemy on the map suddenly turns and charges you when you rush through a door. No way, PD2's radio/pager system was bloody retarded. So the guard which you headshotted and dropped instantly to the ground somehow managed to activate his radio on the way down? Or somehow even more stupid all the guards of EVERY building in the world have some kind of drop switch on their radio/pager triggering an alarm? No thats even more artificial and doesnt fit the in-game lore/universe of XCOM. None of these really have anything to do with the pod activation though. -All enemies within the map all suddenly being on alert (bringing you out of concealment) when you fairly quietly deal with a small group of enemies on the other side of the map doesn't make a huge amount of sense. -Enemies standing stock still until one of your soldiers is able to see them doesnt make sense. I know why it happens (see my earlier post) but it doesn't make sense. A sound based system would potentially be the exact same except instead of being visual range its also auditory range. When it comes down to it though it makes sense for the aliens to come running when you start lobbing grenades or firing off heavy weaponry and they don't hence the discussion for sound based triggers Disagree. The game isn't about taking chances. It's about trying to be tactical and careful with your placement of troops and their advance. Rewarding or providing 'incentive' to take chances is poor training for future gameplay. The game teaches you to be careful and NOT take chances. Once you get tier 3 weapons/armour and colonel rank troops you tend to be able to fairly easily (provided you learnt not to 'take chances') deal with almost any situation which arises. Having dark events accumulate could help but is ultimately false difficulty. Making enemies more numerous or bulletspongey or giving them buffs to damage or such is not true difficulty increase. True difficulty increase is by creating more challenging scenarios through new abilities, encounter types, new creatures (not HARDER but different). Time limits are also a false difficulty