XCOM: Chimera Squad |OT| Alien Nation

[Spacecowboy]

Just finished on Expert, good game!

Overall really enjoyed it. Guess I was lucky to not encounter any bugs, outside of 1-2 crashes and a weird issue that duplicated all my medikits (I had like 28 in the end and bought only 1)

Tried to change all of my roster according to the faction I was fighting. Last mission I had Blueblood (insane damage!), Terminal (must), Patchwork (love the stuns and hacks) and Cherub (main tank). Cherub's fully charged ultimate plus Fan Fire from Blueblood's epic pistol make short work of the big bosses. Last encounter was finished with maybe one enemy actually doing something.

High hopes for XCOM 3. The breach mechanism is really enjoyable but I'm not sure I would want the turn-initiative in the main game.

 

[Buttzerker]

Got the game breaking bug that ate my epic weapons. I'm done until a patch.

 

[Pico]

Is it me or does the godmother skill that grants a free reload only does it when you kill strictly one enemy? Killing two with the scattershot will not activate it, it seems.

 

[Xeteh]

Shelter just decided he doesn't use weapons or armor.

 

[SarcasticRobot]

Shelter just decided he doesn't use weapons or armor.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that literally just happened to me five minutes ago...

 

[Xeteh]

Lol for some reason my Nanomedikits are multiplying. I noticed earlier I somehow had 7, now I have 32.

Yeah, that literally just happened to me five minutes ago...

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The fix is pretty simple but it doesn't work flawlessly. I have Mastercrafted armor so when I gave Shelter armor it gave him 2 more utility slots on top of the 2 he already had. Frustrating but I just won't put anything on him.

XCOM: Chimera Squad - Replacing Missing Weapons & Armor - naguide

Replacing Missing Weapons & Armor Note: Backup your save before trying this, I'm unsure if there are any long term side effects from doing this, as

www.naguide.com

 

[Jag]

How does agent XP work? Is it only earned for agents that go on missions or are there additional ways to earn XP. Can't seem to figure it out.

 

[GeoGonzo]

I'm pretty sure only combat missions give experience. Anecdotally all eight of my agents reached the final rank on their 20th mission, which could be a coincidence or it suggests XP might be shared instead of going towards the one who gets the kill. Or certain ranks require certain number of missions. Who knows, haha.

 

[Pico]

Lol for some reason my Nanomedikits are multiplying. I noticed earlier I somehow had 7, now I have 32.

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Haha I had the same bug. I ended up with 17 of them.

I finished the game a few days ago in the 3rd (expert?) difficulty level. Some impressions:

-This is a very good game. Incredible value for 10 bucks.
-Coming from 230h+ of XCOM2 (WotC), the strategic layer was a bit too easy.
-The interleaved turns and breaching are very interesting and fun variations of the classic formula. I'm happy the devs took this initiative. As to what should go to the next game, I don't know but not having to deal with activating pods was very refreshing.
-The game is buggy as hell. I must have had 10 crashes at least. Some animations took like 20 seconds to load (Patchwork). I really hope they fix it for the next game or even better start from scratch because it is flawed.
-I did not like the artistic direction at the beginning but got used to it in the end. i believe they need to improve on that to broaden their audience.
-I really liked the characters and their banter. I hope this can transfer somewhat onto XCOM3.

 

[Xeteh]

Haha I had the same bug. I ended up with 17 of them.

I finished the game a few days ago in the 3rd (expert?) difficulty level. Some impressions:

-This is a very good game. Incredible value for 10 bucks.
-Coming from 230h+ of XCOM2 (WotC), the strategic layer was a bit too easy.
-The interleaved turns and breaching are very interesting and fun variations of the classic formula. I'm happy the devs took this initiative. As to what should go to the next game, I don't know but not having to deal with activating pods was very refreshing.
-The game is buggy as hell. I must have had 10 crashes at least. Some animations took like 20 seconds to load (Patchwork). I really hope they fix it for the next game or even better start from scratch because it is flawed.
-I did not like the artistic direction at the beginning but got used to it in the end. i believe they need to improve on that to broaden their audience.
-I really liked the characters and their banter. I hope this can transfer somewhat onto XCOM3.

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Had that happen constantly with Patchwork. Almost thought it was a memory leak kind of thing because it'd always seem to happen after playing for a while but I had it happen on the first mission of a session one time so no idea. Its also a real bummer because it makes her chaining jolt attack take like 5 times longer to happen.

I agree with you on your last two points. The portraits kind of irked me at first but then I remembered I paid $10 for it so I stopped caring too much, by the end it was fine. I'd really like to be able to play as aliens in whatever full game they put out next, they were super fun but it did feel like they made the game easier but the AI also felt really stupid this time around.

I wish there was a way to speed up the Breach animations, they seem to take forever especially when missions have you going through 4 points.

 

[Sulik2]

Hell of a game for ten bucks. Love how the final mission changes based on the order you do the investigations. Though the sacred coil over is weird, by far it's the hardest final mission if you do it first.

I can't handle the constant desktop crashes anymore though. Finished all the facility missions and variants and I'm done.

 

[Nif]

I finally beat it after 26 hours. One of the best games I've played so far this year (if I ignore the bugs). It's crazy that it was only $10 at launch. I would have paid $40 easy.

 

[Anustart]

All they've done is awaken my hunger. Here's hoping they stealth announce xcom 3 next week and it releases week after.

 

[Jintor]

All they've done is awaken my hunger. Here's hoping they stealth announce xcom 3 next week and it releases week after.

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lol

my hope is that jake solomon is leading it since he's been head down on an unannounced project since xcom2. might listen to a bunch of the design casts back when xcom 1 first launched and everything blew up

i'm telling you, as a big x-com fan (who has nonethleess never actually finished an x-com one game) i marked the fuck out that xcom came back, was by firaxis, and was fucking good as hell. incredible success story.

 

[Anustart]

lol

my hope is that jake solomon is leading it since he's been head down on an unannounced project since xcom2. might listen to a bunch of the design casts back when xcom 1 first launched and everything blew up

i'm telling you, as a big x-com fan (who has nonethleess never actually finished an x-com one game) i marked the fuck out that xcom came back, was by firaxis, and was fucking good as hell. incredible success story.

Click to shrink...

What's these pod cast you speak of? Wouldn't mind giving those some time!

 

[Jag]

I finally beat it after 26 hours. One of the best games I've played so far this year (if I ignore the bugs). It's crazy that it was only $10 at launch. I would have paid $40 easy.

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And Gears Tactics isn't worth the $60 or so they are charging for it. Much better to play it through with Gamepass.

 

[Mobius and Pet Octopus]

One thing I like about this game is I can play a couple rounds at leisure and I do not have to focus heavily on the meta layer between rounds. Plus it is only like 18gb compared to xcom2 70gb and there is not 10 minutes of swapping equipment around like gears tactics has at times, plus that game just is not replayable... can barely get through 1 playthrough. Whereas with xcom I am sometimes thinking about the next playthrough before the current is even done.

 

[ExInferus]

Missing equipment bug. I'm done with this shit

 

[GungHo]

I am waiting for patches before jumping too far into this, but looking forward to the jump.

 

[Rosur]

Keep having issue with this game today, Loss of sound mid mission, soft-lock after activating an ability (hunker down and happened the other day on another one). Though quite enjoy the mission structure so far and want to play more but can see myself giving up until patches happen for it. Which I hope they do.

Anyone know if turning settings help here?

 

[Hella]

Patch!

XCOM®: Chimera Squad - XCOM: Chimera Squad Patch Notes - Steam News

Today's patch includes fixes for the following issues: Performance Improved stability/performance while loading. Improved stability in Tactical. Tactical Fixed a bug that could cause units to sometimes float above the ground. Fixed a bug allowing conflicting modifiers on breach points. Fixed a...

store.steampowered.com

Today's patch includes fixes for the following issues:

Performance

• Improved stability/performance while loading.
• Improved stability in Tactical.

Tactical

• Fixed a bug that could cause units to sometimes float above the ground.
• Fixed a bug allowing conflicting modifiers on breach points.
• Fixed a bug causing breach items to display incorrect usage text.
• Fixed a bug allowing Psi-Zombies to attack from too far away.
• Fixed a bug causing Shrapnel Grenade targeting to display incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug causing an inaccurate Encounter count in multi-map missions.
• Fixed a bug allowing a Sectopod to spawn too early in the Gray Phoenix Takedown.
• Fixed a bug that could allow Patchwork to take infinite actions.
• Fixed a bug preventing hit/miss VO from playing.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent Cherub from moving.
• Rebalanced the Sacred Coil Takedown and fixed a Gatekeeper bug during the Takedown.

Strategy

• Fixed a bug that could cause equipment to disappear from the Armory.
• Fixed a bug preventing Scavenger Market NPCs from showing up.
• Rebalanced Mach Weave.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a bug causing the end-of-game stats to disappear on lower resolutions.
• Fixed a bug causing game audio to end before game credits.
• Updated the audio listings in the game credits.

Launcher Update

• We have released a new update for the 2K Launcher today. The update should download automatically; if you are having trouble, restart your Steam client and it should download automatically.

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Somehow 1.8 GB but whatevs.

 

[Pico]

I caved in and started a hardcore ironman impossible run (with full HP between encounters, come on). Going well so far, and I welcome this patch!

 

[Jintor]

Rebalanced Mach Weave??? Noooooo! My dodges!!!!!

 

[Hella]

(as a snake person)

I will miss you

 

[SRG01]

OH NO They rebalanced Mach Wave :'(

edit: They still didn't rebalance all the mechs in Sacred Coil? What's up with that?

 

[Hella]

OH NO They rebalanced Mach Wave :'(

edit: They still didn't rebalance all the mechs in Sacred Coil? What's up with that?

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They rebalanced the final mission, which was the problem.

 

[RandomSeed]

Hmm, fix all the game breaking bugs...or avoid patching and keep mach weave amazing. 🤔 Tough choice!

 

[Mobius and Pet Octopus]

Hmm, fix all the game breaking bugs...or avoid patching and keep mach weave amazing. 🤔 Tough choice!

Click to shrink...

Fix the game breaking bugs and then mod the game to revert the mach weave change. It is probably a pretty easy file edit and you can probably do it on your own tbh.

 

[Jintor]

whats the nerf specifically?

 

[RandomSeed]

whats the nerf specifically?

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Looks like 30 dodge versus 50. I was just joking before, but now seriously...I'm not a fan of nerfs in single player games. Just tweak the other items to make them an attractive option I say, but oh well.

 

[Jintor]

50 dodge was kind of nuts considering most characters have no inherent dodge skill at all. It basically eliminated critical hits. In fact there was almost no other reason to take any other armour mod lol

 

[RandomSeed]

Just did a quick mission with the patch. Terminal got her weapon back, but she still has no armor.

*edit* Used console to fix it, so the patch will probably prevent it from happening from this point on, but still may need console to fix issues that already happened.

 

[TC McQueen]

There'll be a mod to restore Mach Weave, if there isn't one already.

 

[Miletius]

Just finished the game. Had one restart due to the

Spoiler

Sacred Coil prepatch

but otherwise my experience was smooth. The game is really good fun and I do anticipate playing through it more times, but it doesn't approach XCom2 levels. I played on veteran/hardcore or whatever it's called (one below impossible, have to restart mission if units die). Overall I found the game a lot easier than XC2, mostly because your units are just that much stronger. Everyone can take a few hits and everyone has abilities that make them useful. Other than that, my major complaints would be that, aside from the few collect the box missions mobility is a non-factor. I found it most efficient to play your units like turrets, and only move when absolutely necessary. In contrast, X:Com2 rewards you for flanking units and also by keeping your fragile units healthy. That changes of course if you

units spoiler

Spoiler

Use Zephyr or Big Muton

But of course that's for obvious reasons. My second complaint is that the solution for difficulty seemed to be to throw more units at you. This really brings down the value of utility characters a lot and ups the value of damage dealers, particularly ones that can do damage to multiple units in one turn, way up.

On the positive, breach is superior to stealth I think, and I would like to see it incorporated and expanded into any Xcom sequel, as long as the mission structure warranted. I also like the idea that units are more unique and I really like the variety of abilities. It would be great to find some way to balance that while preserving their fragility in a sequel.

Below are a few observations on individual units. I'd caution against opening it unless you want to be spoiled.

Spoiler

My final team was:

Claymore, Blueblood, Zephyr and Terminal

Claymore and Blueblood are the best units in the game. Claymore is just really a beast by endgame. He has multiple ways of doing AoE damage and also has an AoE rupture if specced, helping you against heavily armored units. He regenerates 1 grenade per encounter, another source of AoE damage. He's easily the best unit in your team.

Blueblood is just crazy good at doing damage as well as long as you make sure to keep pace with pistol upgrades. His default ability to fire twice in one round is great, but there is a special pistol that gives him a free shot every couple of turns as well. His line up shot is situational, but can be powerful. And Face off is ridiculous in the right circumstances. In the lategame though, BB needs armor pen rounds and +ammo mags to go wild. Too many armored units and the pistol is pretty weak to them as far as I can tell. In the early game I gave him tranq darts to collect extra intelligence.

Zeph was good for me but she wasn't the standout. She does a lot of damage and can be specced for armor pen, which is great against Preatorians and MEK's. And causing status effects to enemies is pretty neat. Reaper is good in combination with other AoE abilities, but it requires more setup than Gernade spam or Face-Off. On top of that, he damage is only ok. Only one option to upgrade her damage all game. And she's more fragile since she's in the crowd a lot.

Terminal was the only utility character I had. Her main job was to keep people healthy and to get in a few hits here and there. Cooperation was good to get a big hitter to take a 1/2 turn every so often. She also has an amazing top level ability. Guardian is absolutely bananas. It might even be bugged. I've seen her fire at the same person over and over again during their round until they just keel over. So she has a lot of damage dealing potential as well as long as she has lots of ammo. No reason not to use over watch on her every turn unless you can't wait until somebody triggers it once you get guardian.

Bench Warmers

Verge
Torque
Cherub
Shelter

I really liked Verge at first but often times MCing enemies or stunning them is not as good as using your own abilities or killing them. Encounters are short, it takes too long to connect people to the Neural Network to zap them for 3 or 4 damage. His usefulness goes down as more enemies appear on the field as well.

Torque's poison is nice, but it's slow and most missions are over before you can really take advantage of it. Squeeze really helps at the start since it's a disable and damage dealer, but it being the only thing you can do per turn hurts it. Tongue is nice, but mobility and flanking are non-issues at the difficulty I was playing at.

Cherub's AoE is pretty awkward to aim. Pistols do low damage and he can't offset it like Blueblood does. I could see him being better but I never got to the point where he was good for me.

Shelter's Soulfire doesn't really do enough damage for it to be only usable every other turn. I recruited him pretty late too, so not really enough time to see him shine. The mobility of switching places is really nice, but mobility wasn't really needed in my game.

Not Recruited

Axiom
Godmother
Patchwork

My first failed attempt Axiom was recruited but his miss chance in melee really doesn't help him. He has a gun, which is nice, but he doesn't want to use, which makes him unfocused. I would probably take him if I got him next game to see what he can do

Godmother -- she's on your team auto if you do the tutorial, but she doesn't really bring anything special to the table. She does high damage, but it's single target damage for the most part.

Patchwork -- really good against the robot users, really mediocre against anything else. Chain jolt is really good though, but it can only be used 1 time per turn unlike Shrapnel Gernades (when upgraded).

 

[Deer]

So your remaining crew can be bleeding out and you still 'win'?

I was on an 'escape' mission. The VIP had escaped as had two of my crew. Last two were killed and I still won? 'Fair' score, expert difficulty.

The escaping and timing when to run to the green squares was not really fun in XCOM2 for me and is still not haha. Glad to know I can just screw it and still go through, I guess.

Overall really enjoying my time with the game. Gonna check for a 'Stop wasting my time' mod again tho. ;)

 

[Hella]

So your remaining crew can be bleeding out and you still 'win'?

I was on an 'escape' mission. The VIP had escaped as had two of my crew. Last two were killed and I still won? 'Fair' score, expert difficulty.

The escaping and timing when to run to the green squares was not really fun in XCOM2 for me and is still not haha. Glad to know I can just screw it and still go through, I guess.

Overall really enjoying my time with the game. Gonna check for a 'Stop wasting my time' mod again tho. ;)

Click to shrink...

None of the core crew can die; if they do it's a game over and you need to restart the mission.

For whatever reason, XCOPS doesn't follow XCOM 2 rules: abandoned characters--that is, anyone downed but not carried to evac--are immediately recovered so long as you finish the mission. No one is ever 'left behind' like in other XCOMs, even when escaping a hostile location.

There's a few weird design choices like that. I have to imagine it was a budget thing preventing them from expanding the scope at all.

 

[Deer]

None of the core crew can die; if they do it's a game over and you need to restart the mission.

For whatever reason, XCOPS doesn't follow XCOM 2 rules: abandoned characters--that is, anyone downed but not carried to evac--are immediately recovered so long as you finish the mission. No one is ever 'left behind' like in other XCOMs, even when escaping a hostile location.

There's a few weird design choices like that. I have to imagine it was a budget thing preventing them from expanding the scope at all.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it was just a bit weird, they may have said all this in the tutorials somewhere? But I think XCOM in general has a small issue of just not telling you like it is.😅

Finished on Expert with maybe one loss? One time where they actually for once TRIED to kill the VIP.😉

Replaying now on Impossible! Tried an Ironman run but encountered a bug a few missions in lol. Going to avoid that headache, but try to save-scum less.😎

How does the I'll Let Myself In achievement work by the way? Use every type of breach point? What can I have missed in a playthrough?🤔

Didn't find a mod equivalent of 'Stop wasting my time' :( Not even a Zip Mode, wasn't that a thing in XCOM2?

Overall it feels a bit snappier than XCOM2 but still, these are things MANY players want to have. Shouldn't be hard to implement, right? For replays and some characters (Patchwork gets 0 use from me because she is SLOW lol) it would be so much better.

edit: It's impossible to find save files, have to scroll through so much autosaves and the size of the saves in the UI are humongous so only a few are visible at a time. 0 overview.

 

[Miletius]

Because nobody can really die without a loss there isn't a ton of reason to reason to reload anyways. It's one of the flaws that make the game much easier than the other XCOMS.

As far as the "Let me in" achievement goes, some people online say there are rare breach points that you'll need to encounter before it triggers. Seems like things like ladder entry (which I've never seen), grappling hooks, dropping down from the skylights are all potential breach points that you may not get during a campaign.

 

[Deer]

Because nobody can really die without a loss there isn't a ton of reason to reason to reload anyways. It's one of the flaws that make the game much easier than the other XCOMS.

As far as the "Let me in" achievement goes, some people online say there are rare breach points that you'll need to encounter before it triggers. Seems like things like ladder entry (which I've never seen), grappling hooks, dropping down from the skylights are all potential breach points that you may not get during a campaign.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, difficulty is definitely one place where this game bungles it up. I mean, I remember in XCOM2 after some early/middle parts feeling as if I might have changed back to an easier setting. And it's so much worse in this.

Losing 'my people' in XCOM2 was something I tried to avoid. Here it just won't happen.

Can't understand the difference between Impossible and Expert. Up to the last battles now on Impossible and it's so easy. Once in the campaign one of us was downed and an Android had to join, that was it.

And thanks, I haven't seen ladder entry either. Only vents vents vents and the ones you mentioned. I probably won't go for a third playthrough until I find some good mods to make the experience different.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot even though I'm annoyed at some things. Was a fun ride-along with XCOPS. 👮‍♀️👮‍♂️️

Can't believe animation-skipping isn't a thing in every TB strategy game with this much repetition.

 

[Deer]

For anyone interested I managed to find the ladder entry on a side-mission (yellow) called Essential Personnel right before bringing down the last organization (Progeny in my case). So it's a fucking ladder to climb to a rooftop. Great missable achievement 🧓

The last battles were ridiculous. I waited a turn for reinforcements on the last map because I wanted to incapacitate Bossman and we barely took damage. I used the OP crew tho. First Expert run I had Snek, Bombs, Godmother and Terminal. Now Pistols(as everyone has stated in the thread, wth? Balance? What even is that?), Shields(same tbh, Supercharge+Pistols shoot everyone? Umm? 😂) and Terminal.

Maybe next time through, I'll try without Terminal (I did do large chunks of the game without her, and I think one of those times we had to use an Android) and with some other goons, maybe Verge and Axiom?

Battle before last you are REWARDED for staying put and only shooting/defending through the whole battle. The AI behaviour works against itself constantly. 4 of them had defensive AI and stayed put and everyone else SLOWLY pressed forward so I could pick everyone off with almost zero damage.

I have one more achievement to go, the one for All Timelines. Going to do one playthrough more so I can expound more completely on what the game misses 👩‍🦳

All this said, it's a really charming XCOPS adventure and a lot of the AI/balancing issues were in place in XCOM 2 as well.

Anyone know any good mods for difficulty/AI? I think I saw one earlier in this thread that helps the AI actually try to kill you a bit 👸

👮‍♀️👮‍♂️👮‍♀️👮‍♂️👮‍♀️👮‍♂️👮‍♀️👮‍♂️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♂️

One of the issues is that FULL-ON DAMAGE is rewarded because of A: it's faster (fewer animations to wait through), less time/chance to get hit and get a wound. So you're actively rewarded for looking for people/skills like Blueblood.

Animation skip would REALLY improve the actual strategic layer, because the game could me more about oh will this work? And less about oh damn Patchwork has really slow animations damn it, let's use someone else. 👧

edit: Btw, is Zephyr inspired by Bobbie from The Expanse? Seems highly likely? Love the accent (maybe they are not even the same? I'm not english 🧓)

 

[CampFreddie]

She reminds me of Bobbie too but I think Zephyr is Australian, Bobbie is a New Zealander. The accents are a bit different, according to people that live there. I'm not sure I can tell the difference though.
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