First, I love the game! In essence I consider it to be better X-COM! I love the mechanics!
But some very important things is completely destroying all of the good for me. And has stopped me advancing… I know its Early Access so I reccon theese things will get corrected SOON since so many talk about it.
The skillevel required atm is just insane. Even at rookie I give up when:
Sirens … They can MC 2 people and can take FUCKLOADS of damage. And no way to break MC other than killing them. Getting 2x Sirens … ./quit
Chirons - LOS? Lol … Screw that… They ruin the game at theire current design.
Shoot back - Its way WAY to op atm. Especially when the effing Sirens MC two of your mates. Its almost always game over.
Graphics when fighting in “cities”. This really needs work. It looks terrible. And viewing is a nightmare. Trying to pivot and correctly look and point your guys is often very hard. Missclicks happen.
On a positive note!
The core mechanics of the game is far superior to Xcom.
I would love a bit better research overview. BUt its ok atm sincce its early access.
The story is interesting
A new “X COM” ish game makes me happy
So, keep up the good work, but reading the forums there are some things you guys really need to adress asap.
Actually there a several options how we can deal with it.
Keep your distance - they can MC your troops only in close so keep that in mind.
Snipers your friends ! Especially with Sinedrion gear - with lvl 3 sniper (and 6 will point) you can easily blow their heads.
Virus based weapons and skills - its your friends ! With each hit it will decrease their will rapidly so they fall into panic mode quickly. Armor is problem though.
If you are not in caves - armor is your friend. But unless you have 2 squads in the same location its limit you a lot.
In some cases I might use assault troopers with close ranged weapons - bash and their heads blow. But it sooo dangerous.
If you face with average Chirons (with worms) they shoot only 5 times and then gonna rush your position for close combat. Your snipers suppoused to blow their heads as quick as possible and after that they be in constant panic (esp. if you attack them with virus)
And armor
My first Chirons and Siren we killed by armored vechile.
fact, I myself did not really understand viral weapons - at least where it suppoused to be used.
I have a troops with the skill of “biochemist” and each bullet gives 1 point of the virus - so they may use basic assault rifle (or anu shotgun - i didnt check it yet but it theory it can gave you 10! virus point per shot).
In my strike group there is a “priest” Anu with viral weapons, but these weapoin is not very effective on huge distances without buffing solder in accuracy, because It has a huge spread and low armor penetration.
For all major and important operations, I send a full team of 8 soldiers or 5 soldiers with the support of armored vehicles.
I rely on two snipers who must secure the path by blowing up the heads of sirens and chiron (since they are not armored).
A headless siren has 0 points of will and will panic after each kill. If infected with a virus - with a probability of 90%, it will always run away.
Chiron - after the destruction of the head (only 100 hp without armor), he will have 10 points of will. A few good hits with viral weapons and he will not pose a threat until the end of the game.
The main task of viral (and paralyzing) weapons is to disable the target for a sufficient time, allowing you to fulfill the mission goal (in my case, the destruction of xenos bases or the capture of prisoners)
It can work effectively even against targets such as Scylla. The main thing is to destroy the head with the help of heavy weapons (or snipers) and make sure that all bullets with the virus hit the target.
Thus, I even captured Scylla, and this can talk about something.
But be that as it may, there is no single right decision. My version is not perfect and there are many more successful tactics, the main thing is to try.
As you said, you apply 1 virus with every bullet (if you have the biochemist perk).
A Siren has 30 will. That means that if you apply 10 as you said (from very close range), you still have to wait some turns for it to panic. In the meantime it can scream or MC someone, or melee attack. It’s a threat.
If what you meant is:
disable its head so it has 0 WP
apply some virus and it will panic for that many turns
then it’s OK.
For me it is the (at times) missing thought that has gone in to levels being fun and a challenge.
I’m sitting here looking at the last battle. I set my squad up, moved an infiltrator/sniper out, killed a smaller alien. Aliens turn, big thing comes around the corner and I am getting gloo shot twice and explosives twice.
I have a tech with me but he is going to run out of willpower eventually (adding armour etc, he’s also glooed) and way before the 4 aliens flinging this stuff will.
Even if I had the anti-goo stuff I can’t get past the wall of aliens and have two explosive things per turn coming over and the aliens in front of me are two of the huge ones.
Just feels like creature spam to make things difficult.
