Wha? While I may have been able to MC star gods, I never did. While I don't doubt that I benefited MASSIVELY in terms of psi resistance, I've always found psi combat in classic XCom a little cheesy, both as the giver and as the receiver. Making an alien blaster bomb themselves is amusing once, but after that it permanently destroys the sense of tension and obviates practically all other forms of weaponry. I did use it on a few base defenses, but I had a Sectopod present and would have won anyway. Mostly that was to try and capture a Raider Humungous to see what cool stuff that unlocked.
Honestly I sort of think the Dark Ones should be psi immune.
Crap, I forgot to mention an incident that I found fascinating. My first major engagement with the star gods was a pogrom. I rolled out my troops, didn't make a lot of contact, enemy phase I got three troops mind controlled and after that there was nothing left to do but cry a lot. I tried again, and had success with a VERY odd tactic. I ran out just two soldiers - and I had NO idea if they were psi-strong or psi-weak, my voodoo school hadn't gone online at this point. And the Star Gods didn't make psi attacks against anyone in the Thunderhorse. So two soldiers ran across the map, discs-o-death in hand, and went house to house and took out the entire pogrom themselves. While it was a cool moment, I can't help but wonder: is Star God psi-targeting being restricted just like explosive targeting is?
The reason I brought up LW was not to say "LW does this therefore it is obviously the one true path", more that "LW has a large player base that has been able to handle the stress of lose-lose terror missions and trap UFOs". I personally enjoy LW and recommend it to all X-com fans, but that's completely tangential to this thread beyond saying that folks can handle a few missions that don't contain a possibility of total victory.
For the Imperial Probe? Well... considering it looks like a giant mind probe, has an anemic engine, and is unarmed and unarmored, I imagine it is relatively cheap and perhaps a large psionic sensor. Considering the Star Gods hand out cruisers and heavy gunships like party favors to the Factions, they've obviously got a massive industrial base that could support throwing those probes away. My gut says that other Governor-level entities would be using such a device to psionically explore other systems in the Empire for pure entertainment purposes. I'd say it's less "spying on themselves" and more "bored elite members of the stellar empire driving psionic quadcopter". The bootypedia states they're dispatched to survey potential activity sites, so I would expect the Imperial probe to be a precursor to Star God feet touching the Earth. Are they the precursor craft to Messenger landings? I only ever remember Imperial Probes spawning Dark One and Deep One sites. To turn my confusion into a straightforward question: Is it intended behavior that all non-crackdown dark one and deep one activity is spawned by Imperial Probes?
I think the whole idea with the probe, was to use it as an 'excuse' of a ufo to follow up and actually find out the hideouts/bases/whatever it is those factions operate without having to add another base raid mission on the map. The stargods (as far as I progressed) have no presence and installations on earth, they only make rare appereances personally.
The 'problem' with melee, is that it is an answer to early problem. That is the lack of good weapons and ammo. Once you get your operations up and running and secure a supply of good munitions, via varius means ranged combat becomes again a priority. That is not to say that you forgoe melee all together, but if the enemy carries top notch gear, and you try to close the distance without reloads....yeah thats gonna end badly.
Reading Pilot00's comment: Ohhhhhh that makes some sense. It's less that the Dark Ones are operating an Imperial Probe, and more that the Imperial Probe is going to go hover over a Dark One place for sometime? I wonder if their bootypedia entry might be altered to state "The probes themselves are worthless but they may be able to lead us to something the Star Gods consider interesting..."
MAG Assault Pistol vs Eagle: I actually got nowhere near enough Eagles in my campaign to make them a regular sidearm. I think I had four. I
did get my first one deliciously early, and appreciated it greatly. I don't at all dispute your point that obsolescence happens in Piratez, merely wanted to say that the invisible hand of RNG precluded your example in my campaign. I'm just arguing for more lategame ammo for pretty weapons like the CAWS and the Autogun and the LACC because I think they're pretty.
Mecha suits
- No X-Sectopods. They will be replaced with 2x2 armor suits WORN by soldiers, and equipped with custom weapons.
Hyperbole Mode: Oooh, HWP Mechasuits sounds totally awesome WAIT NO WHAT
BUT
SECTOPODS
NOOOOOO ;_______; Reasonable response: Welllllllll I'll reserve judgment until I see the mechasuits. I'll miss the Sectopods though. It was amazingly fun to get to use many of the classic X-com terror units in my PirateZ run, and I'll be sad to see my favorite of the lot go. I spent many hours of my youth mind controlling all four sections of a Sectopod in the vain hopes I'd get to keep it, and fielding the X-Sectopod in PirateZ was the first time I've been able to realize the dream.
