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IDT Modding Hub / Re: Reaver's Harmony Megamod - A Massive X-Com Expansion
« on: March 30, 2023, 09:07:19 am »
Note: my observation is made as a person who has never really played xcom, I have only played this mod. My opinion may be unreasonable due to how unexperienced I am with the game. Maybe this issue is also present in vanilla and isnt simply an issue with the mod.
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After playing ironman genius and superhuman the main issue I find is that use of psionic mind control is beyond a doubt the most optimal way to ensure your soldiers are safe and min maxxed. You are basically forced to use it to play optimally. It changes the dynamic of the game and removes tons of stress/tactics. It makes it kind of boring due to how safe everything gets. It doesnt even make things more fun, if anything it is tedious at best and borderline as bad as save scumming at worse.
Take for example attacking an alien base: no longer do you need to use tactics to move through the compound feeling stressed about getting ambushed the entire time. Just mind control a unit and scout with him. Unload and drop his weapon and he probably wont even move from where you placed him so you can use him again next turn. Find the control room with MC'd alien and MC one in the control room to shoot a deut pod and kill all of the aliens.
You can get to the point of MC everything easy by spamming fear projector for a few UFO recoveries, buying the illegal psi combat armour to augment your ability until you unlock the psi attack power suit. 2 psi soldiers was all I needed to trivialize almost all encounters on genius. I never even used the psionic disruptor, I could MC most things most of the time with the normal amp.
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How to address this problem? I am unsure. Nerfing it by making it harder to land MC on a xeno would just make you be forced to end turns spamming MC until it worked. Maybe there is no way to fix this issue aside from the player choosing not to use psi at all? Is that something the mod envisions and is balanced for though? I am not sure nor am I an experienced enough xcom player to be able to answer that. Just stating my opinion and still enjoy the mod regardless!
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After playing ironman genius and superhuman the main issue I find is that use of psionic mind control is beyond a doubt the most optimal way to ensure your soldiers are safe and min maxxed. You are basically forced to use it to play optimally. It changes the dynamic of the game and removes tons of stress/tactics. It makes it kind of boring due to how safe everything gets. It doesnt even make things more fun, if anything it is tedious at best and borderline as bad as save scumming at worse.
Take for example attacking an alien base: no longer do you need to use tactics to move through the compound feeling stressed about getting ambushed the entire time. Just mind control a unit and scout with him. Unload and drop his weapon and he probably wont even move from where you placed him so you can use him again next turn. Find the control room with MC'd alien and MC one in the control room to shoot a deut pod and kill all of the aliens.
You can get to the point of MC everything easy by spamming fear projector for a few UFO recoveries, buying the illegal psi combat armour to augment your ability until you unlock the psi attack power suit. 2 psi soldiers was all I needed to trivialize almost all encounters on genius. I never even used the psionic disruptor, I could MC most things most of the time with the normal amp.
-------
How to address this problem? I am unsure. Nerfing it by making it harder to land MC on a xeno would just make you be forced to end turns spamming MC until it worked. Maybe there is no way to fix this issue aside from the player choosing not to use psi at all? Is that something the mod envisions and is balanced for though? I am not sure nor am I an experienced enough xcom player to be able to answer that. Just stating my opinion and still enjoy the mod regardless!