Tapcat also seemed to really dislike the forest maps early in the campaign because of how it wrecked LoS. 1 soldier would be able to see, and the rest of the squad would be nearby but unable to take any effective action lol.
@@jd177 True, but I didn't associate it with the mod when I was playing. It was only once I watched the series as it went live that I made that connection
Absolutely enjoyed the clash between playing styles and seeing TapCat hassle for the first time with this game since I follow him. It was entertaining to witness your misfortunes from those gameplay novelties while maintaining your usual composure amidst the chaos. This series brought me back to XCOM and helped to keep my Memorial crowd lighter than usual on Legendary. Additionally, made me realize a 2016 mid-range computer might struggle with all those mods when the Lost hit the fan with Chosen and Advent as well. Thanks for the content!
You're more than welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I do think that this was probably the most difficulty I've had in the late game since I started playing XCOM 2... and that was precisely the point of some of the mods we added so it all went according to plan!
Super interesting to see two people I’ve watched separately come together to do a collaboration run . The two different styles of play I think speaks to a broader audience pool and I think that hopefully whenever Xcom 3 comes out we can see the first play through done as a collaboration run because interest in the new game would be super high and a wide range of audiences may also appreciate this venture . You both rock
Wow, playing XCOM 3 for the first time like this would be pretty bonkers! Don't know that it will happen (we need Firaxis to cooperate for starters) but it's one hell of an idea!
Hope you're doing well. It's been a while since your last upload, and while I haven't followed this one b/c I just don't like WoTC, your vanilla Xcom2 playthroughs were a great comfort watch for me earlier this year during a rough mental/emotional patch I was having. There's a lot I could mention in terms of things I've appreciated in your content, but really this comment is just to say hope you're alright!
Thanks TapCat and Syken for an enjoyable and entertaining campaign. It was a novel idea having the 50/50 split which I think worked out well. Hearing your thoughts on the new classes and new enemy types in this video was interesting. I liked the map mod myself! Look forward to your next project.
The map mods were funny because even when I was struggling in the super-thick forests I never thought about WHY they were so thick! Only once I was watching each episode as they went live did some of that click into place. When I'm playing, I really do just focus on trying to solve the puzzle.
You are correct, although he seemed to have forgotten that by the time we recorded this. In fairness to him, he had used them in a previous campaign and I have a feeling that the memory of this encounter probably got muddled up with that earlier campaign.
Thank you, I think Ray's fanbase is big enough now that I could just turn the camera on and record him sleeping and it would probably get more views than I do!
Much thnx to the both of you for a highly entertaining campaign. I hope you two do some more of this kind of tag team campaign in future. Maybe with a different game. Maybe more Xcom. In either case I will be here to watch. Good vid
It is quite a bit of time for an entire campaign (almost like creating a movie in itself, it runs in a few minutes, but the production takes ages). It is a fantastic experience though.
What a campaign, loved all of it. Favourite bit was seeing the ethereal as well as the various Primes during the campaign. Awesome content from both of you❤
Really enjoyed following this campaign. You both make extremely high quality content and I enjoy it every time. Thank you both so much. One of the things I especially enjoyed with this run, was you guys not beeing on top of the game all the time (like you ususally are). One of the final points in your discussion really rings true for me. I am often impressed with your ability to talk at a meta level while playing, and at the same time make it entertaining. This run i saw both of you "out of your comfort zone" which is a bit more like how I feel when playing, that was a real treat getting to experience you trying to figure out what had happend since last mission, and trying to strategize but not quite knowing where you were coming from or how the other one would play it out. So for me: 1. the back and forth 2. the constant tactical problemsolving and figuring out what to do and 3. you being challenged just enough that it seemed more like I feel (being far less skilled than you) made it a fantastic letsplay to watch. can't wait for the next one.
I really enjoyed the collaborative run. You two are who I always recommend people to watch to get better at the game. I really enjoy that you both have such vastly different play styles, as it demonstrates just how versatile you can be in this game. Tapcat, you have made me so much better at this game. Teaching patience and methodical gameplay has been very helpful in my own gameplay. Syken, you are absolutely insane at this game. I consider you god-tier when it comes to xcom 2. I love all the tricks and game mechanics you teach as you play, as those have also made me a lot better at this game. Think the collaborative run was a great idea and would love to see more of it. You both are so skilled, that although passing it back and forth cost you some efficiency, you both handled it extremely well. I also found you two were, quite often, more in sync than it may have felt like you were. You both tried your best to never leave the other player with an impractical squad and even looked out to make the other player’s typical hero class better by sending them on the proper covert ops. Very well executed and I really hope we can see another collaboration some day. I know it was difficult though, so I respect if it doesn’t happen. Thank you both. Now I have to figure out what I’m watching next.
loved this campaign, excellent work from both of you! Tapcat if you want an idea for next year run you can try vanilla impossible with the worst abilities - meaning no run and gun, shredder, holo targeting etc, only getting by with the abilities no one ever uses
That would be an interesting challenge, I like it. Some good abilities would still be on the table... some promotions offer 2 really good options. But having to take Blast Padding over Shredder is enough to make me physically ill and I'm sure there are others that would be almost as painful.
I appreciate you both commenting on the mods themselves, which provides a more realistic expectation of what was good and bad about how things were balanced. During the campaign it was obviously of no practical benefit to complain or be too salty, but being honest about what you liked and didn't like after the fact is really nice.
Hey, really cool collaboration. There wasn't anything I didn't like. For improvement, maybe a little more extrapolation on compare/contrast of play styles. That was really cool, when when you talked about each other's plans. Thanks.
The challenge with that is that I hadn't seen any of his missions when we recorded this and likewise he hadn't seen any of mine. It's a good idea, though.
It was a great experience, i've been following tapcat for a long time, so i know his strategies to a certain extend, and before this i was subscribe to syken's Chanel for about a week at most, so i was able to understand his tactics as well and that was entertaining as hello, and i will definitely revisit the whole campaign again. The only thing that i would've love seeing both of you use it's the psionics, sure with the amount of classes that was going to be hard, but other than that, it was really fun
I don't know when I'll do an XCOM 2 series again, but I'm determined that I'll used psionics in that one. I tried once before and was too slow, but I would try to do some research in advance to find out how other people get it up and running early enough to be useful.
It was fun to see how how each of you dealt with campaign when you got it passed to you. I hope you do something together another time - it don't have to be XCOM. I could be fun if you found a game that supported co-op better 🙂
I really enjoyed this collab and hope to see you guys working together again. As much as I love XCOM2 perhaps a different game with actual multiplayer support. Thank you both for a great series!
We will for sure find an option to work together again, the multiplayer option would not be a bad idea. There are a couple of good games that could allow for that.
One of the most entertaining bits of this campaign for me was the lack of joined up thinking. The fact that Syken and Tapcat didn't always know what the other was working on or the overall strategy at points. It was very entertaining and I felt like it added an extra level of difficulty.
I agree. While we were often pulling in the same direction even without discussing it, there were also times when that wasn't the case and I do believe it makes the campaign more interesting.
Hey guys! Thank you so much for putting this campaign on UA-cam! I have enjoyed practically all your videos! I absolutely enjoyed the diffferent gameplay styles you both have. Tapcat more conservative while Syken is much more agressive. It is true that the general audience (including myself) does not have any idea the massive work there is behind the scenes. I truly understand that, specially the change of timezone between both of you. I would agree that while producing this campaign, a general overview of your strategy and goals while playing would have been nice to see. It was clear that you played as how things turned out and in this sense it was an additional setback to win the game. Nonetheless I'm also aware that this would translate in having you 2 meet to discuss internaly before recording it, and thus it would have taken more time. I would also like to point out that sometimes, or most cases, there was no explanation on the add ons of the weapons you used. It was mainly the load out before each mission in a 10 second explanation, but it would have been nice to explain this more thorough. Again, this is more of a constructive commentary. In all cases, I think everyone learned from this series. I learned a lot of your tips and tricks and I loved that it was made very coherently while deciding what to do. Thank you guys I appreciate all the effort you made!
The reality is that there was no overall strategy. We were both just rolling with things as they came and there was very little communication between us. That actually became part of the fun for me. I would try to divine his intent by looking at the map or the covert op and go from there. There wasn't much to say about the loadouts because we didn't have enough items to make for any real options for most of the campaign. The Proving Ground was built very late so it was just equipping a few medkits and grenades for each mission and I was lucky if there were enough to fill the empty slots. I guess that by the time we finally got more gear, I was just in the habit of not talking about it.
I loved having an Xcom video to watch everyday, instead of every other day. I think that it would be interesting to see a collaberation like this where you could not communicate at all. Only send a save file. I can't believe Tapcat didn't complain more about that enemy that could shoot 3 times in a turn with what looked like a sniper rifle. It also had sustain so it would come back everytime and get one more round to shoot. Very unbalanced.
I was pretty salty about it in that ambush but I learned a long time ago that I'm more effective if I focus on what's still in front of me rather than on the thing that's happened and made me unhappy.
I've just discovered your channel and it's helping me a lot. I've been really struggling on Veteran as a fairly new player but i'm definitely improving learning. There's so many different mechanics to learn in this game.
There is a TON that you have to learn, especially if you're playing with War of the Chosen. Glad to hear that you've found my videos helpful, good luck in your campaign!
I don't know. I've had a series of health related issues that aren't life threatening or anything, but have kept me from being able to play strategy games, let alone record them.
I think the field medic was under utilized in this campaign run. I too have loaded up a campaign with the mod list shared, took a bit to get it functioning, and the field medics arc thrower has come in clutch many a time. Stunning a mind controlled ally can save you from taking major damage, not to mention stunning or disorienting Advent when you just can’t quite finish them. None the less, enjoyed the show, hope to see more.
I don't think so. I accomplished what I wanted to in the game and I really disliked the structure of the game at that point. Literally every quest that was offered to us was on the far side of the map from wherever I was at. So we'd have to travel for something like 2 weeks and burn through all of the gold that we earned (or more) and it felt like a really cheap way to keep players under duress. I loved the game and enjoyed the tactical challenges... it was probably the most difficult game that I've ever played. But I felt like it jumped the shark a bit in the endgame... although I'm sure someone more expert would tell me I'm wrong (and they might be right).
... and now I am sad! Thank you so much TapCat and Syken for a wonderful run. Your "Saving your disaster campaign" was awesome, but "Two against Overlords" was ... awesomer :)
Finished! That was a fun play through and very interesting to see the slightly different approaches. Now off to keep working on my campaign with many of the same mods.
Hi TapCat...Really enjoyed this series. Thx for doing it. Would it be possible to list the mods you used in the game. I know I have some of them but not all and would like to add them if possible. WOTC mods that is. Thanks!
If you check the description for any of the videos, you'll find a link to the whole list on Steam. I believe you can even subscribe to them from that page.
I think Proximity Mines will work as long as they detect any kind of tileset movement within their range, so you could feasibly throw one down near a Sustain-state Priest and then just let it take them out if they move when they get outta the bubble
As long as the priest moves, I think it would work. But, of course, you have to get your sapper up near him as a prerequisite. I do like that it's a 100% chance to kill as long as he moves, though.
firstly, well done chaps personally i would like it if you used the mod that shown how many baddies are remaining, but also that you would take the time to add in the psi aspect. I feel that you ended it so quickly that the big baddies did not get the chance to join in.
I didn't know about that mod at the time but would gladly add it to any future campaigns. As far as the length of the campaign, this one was pretty typical compared to ones I've done in the past. I believe that the bigger issue was that we had so many mods trying to introduce new enemies that some just got crowded out. We probably would have done better to use fewer but focus on the ones we really wanted the most and then those enemies would have had more opportunities to do their thing.
Very interesting chat, I have been trying a similiar play through and I am having major problems with Etherals, they have apperared in three consecutive maps and are super hard especially when on timed missions. I had started thinking you guys had disabled the mod as I had never seen you fight them. I have seen the comment below and will watch that particular Syken episode. Well done gents, superb play, I have beaten Ironman legendary prob over 40 times but these mods are kicking my ass at the moment. Loving the challenge but you guys made it look easy, missing my sparks a bit with those primes.
I felt a bit cheated at never having gotten a chance to try my hand against the ethereals but after hearing you and Syken talk about them it makes me think that maybe I dodged a bullet.
Thank you gentleman for a terrific playthrough I really enjoyed it! I may have missed it but how did you feel about the primes? I'm not sure that I'm a fan of the extra actions they get every time you take a shot or use an ability against them. I lost two soldiers in one mission without the opportunity to act! The prime walked into overwatch which most if not all missed then proceeded to take three shots killed one soldier his bondmate went beserk shot a couple of times then got nuked by the prime! I had to walk away from my computer I was so mad!
I'll be honest, I hated the alien rulers and their extra actions when that DLC launched. And I wasn't much more fond of primes. But I've learned something about action economies since then and how important it is for enemies to actually have a chance to do something before you can gang up on them with a full squad and kill them. The other alternatives to increase the threat level are things like doubling/tripling their health or cranking up their defense to force misses. So, I've learned to appreciate the extra actions as a way to add to the enemy threat level in a way that still opens the door for tactics on your side to mitigate the situation.
They were okay, my personal take is that I wish the ABA mod would introduce producable ice weapons / grenades, because that is the known counter to the primes. Unfortunatly the author forgot that there are only 2x items in the game that give you the option to do that.
@@SykenPlays I think that would go a long way in solving that problem. I found a mod that allows you to build ruler items instead of the suits. I tried it and it works for the beserker queen( rage vest) and the viper king ( frost hook ) but it doesn"t work with archon ( icarus boots) so I'll just go back to the vanilla version lol. I hope the two of you do another clab together I for one would look forward to that ! Thanks guys!!
Medics were great for stunning primes to prevent their reactions. The way I see it, having completed two runs with these mods, specs and grenadiers got split into two classes. Assaults are pretty much just rangers. Marksman are a straight up nerf of sharpshooters. We lost gunslingers, which is my main issue with the mod.
In my proficiency campaign I slept on the assault for the first half of the campaign. Then I realized it was actually potentially stronger than a vanilla ranger. Gettiing an action point AND partial movement refunded after a melee kill allowed me to finish off an enemy with my sword and then move into cover and go into overwatch. Anither perk then allowed that character to take overwatch shots on every enemy within their COB...which with increased pod size combined with arashi/extendsd mag was, on average, 3 or 4 shots on the thickest turns of battle! Also I just realized I completely didnt take advantage of the sniper side of the tech specialist haha. Any thoughts on the combat engineer?
Syken used the assault a lot more often than I did so I really don't feel like I got a good sense of the capabilities. I know that he came away pretty impressed, though.
Agree, the assault is super good. The Combat Engineer is a difficult class to assess. With the right talents, it is a good sniper with a lot of support from the protocols, but in order to get there, you need the right gear and and the right talents - and even then it can be hit or miss.
Hey TapCat, I hate be getting in touch here but I fear that I don't know any other way 😅 I was watching some of your tips and tricks videos and come to the realization that your "Base Layout" one doesn't adapt (which of course, the series is 7 years old lol) to the fact that the Advanced Warfare room gets replaced by two separate rooms in the War of the Chosen DLC. Could you possibly make an updated video or rather give me some personal insight here? Thanks a bunch!
I love your content, but don't have the time to watch every episode. Are there a few missions that stood out, either because of drama, decisive moments or anything?
I think Xcom2 is a very problematic game, and the fact that you (TapCat) have spent so much time playing it only serves to prove me right. I'm new to the game, I got it for free on Epic and have been playing it for about a month now, and I have to say that the demands of the game are completely unreasonable and anti-fun. Anything under 80% is almost guaranteed to fail when attempted by a human player even if the target is flanked. Having a unit get hit for even 1 hp of damage takes them out of the action for up to a month. A short-ranged mind-controlled unit will hit and kill across the map in spite of full cover and range penalties. And yes I know these are issues that are frequently brought up by newer players such as myself who don't "understand" how the game is supposed to be played. Sure, you can say "skill issue lol" all you want, but the point of a game, any game, is to be a fun and worthwhile diversion, especially for adult gamers who have limited time to spend playing games. The whole conceit of Xcom2 appears to demand its players to spend hours and hours trying to figure out the "right" way--and therefore the only way--to play the game, rather than to provide an interesting and compelling squad based game about guerilla tactics where you, the Commander, can go about finding your own way to win the war against an enemy who dominates an entire planet. Xcom2 is not the only game that suffers from this problem. Developers are so creatively bankrupt that they either make "roguelikes" to save themselves the trouble of coming up with interesting levels, or they make games so straightforward that if you don't follow the "right" way of playing the game then you will fail. I'm sorry that you spent so much time in this game.
Syken fought an ethereal guy in some tunnel mission maybe around ep 35? he fucked xcom up
edit: it was 36
True, I think he had forgotten that by the time we recorded this.
Tapcat also seemed to really dislike the forest maps early in the campaign because of how it wrecked LoS. 1 soldier would be able to see, and the rest of the squad would be nearby but unable to take any effective action lol.
@@jd177 True, but I didn't associate it with the mod when I was playing. It was only once I watched the series as it went live that I made that connection
It is a super hard enemy, really a challenge. And probably a bit overtuned.
Absolutely enjoyed the clash between playing styles and seeing TapCat hassle for the first time with this game since I follow him. It was entertaining to witness your misfortunes from those gameplay novelties while maintaining your usual composure amidst the chaos. This series brought me back to XCOM and helped to keep my Memorial crowd lighter than usual on Legendary. Additionally, made me realize a 2016 mid-range computer might struggle with all those mods when the Lost hit the fan with Chosen and Advent as well. Thanks for the content!
You're more than welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I do think that this was probably the most difficulty I've had in the late game since I started playing XCOM 2... and that was precisely the point of some of the mods we added so it all went according to plan!
Super interesting to see two people I’ve watched separately come together to do a collaboration run . The two different styles of play I think speaks to a broader audience pool and I think that hopefully whenever Xcom 3 comes out we can see the first play through done as a collaboration run because interest in the new game would be super high and a wide range of audiences may also appreciate this venture . You both rock
Wow, playing XCOM 3 for the first time like this would be pretty bonkers! Don't know that it will happen (we need Firaxis to cooperate for starters) but it's one hell of an idea!
Hope you are well TapCat! Stay healthy!
Loved the campaign and this epilogue was really interesting!
Glad you liked it :)
Hope you're doing well. It's been a while since your last upload, and while I haven't followed this one b/c I just don't like WoTC, your vanilla Xcom2 playthroughs were a great comfort watch for me earlier this year during a rough mental/emotional patch I was having. There's a lot I could mention in terms of things I've appreciated in your content, but really this comment is just to say hope you're alright!
Thanks TapCat and Syken for an enjoyable and entertaining campaign. It was a novel idea having the 50/50 split which I think worked out well. Hearing your thoughts on the new classes and new enemy types in this video was interesting. I liked the map mod myself! Look forward to your next project.
The map mods were funny because even when I was struggling in the super-thick forests I never thought about WHY they were so thick! Only once I was watching each episode as they went live did some of that click into place. When I'm playing, I really do just focus on trying to solve the puzzle.
Bro do more xcom videos! Love them. Hope u ok.
Thank you! I am playing on Commander difficulty now and it's all thanks to what I learned watching you gentlemen
That's awesome, glad to hear it!
Good job, keep on going for it :)
I believe syken fought ine ethereal. It summoned three different pods of enemies (some arriving even after death) unless im mistaken :)
You are correct, although he seemed to have forgotten that by the time we recorded this. In fairness to him, he had used them in a previous campaign and I have a feeling that the memory of this encounter probably got muddled up with that earlier campaign.
@@TapCat Most likely repressed the memory due to P.T.S.D.
You are right, I encountered one, but I also encountered one in my own series, so things were merging together in my memories :)
Loved the campaign, I would love to see another collaboration, go Ray!
Thank you, I think Ray's fanbase is big enough now that I could just turn the camera on and record him sleeping and it would probably get more views than I do!
This was great guys. Thank you for this unique playthrough
Glad you like it.
I love this run. Brought back my love of xcom for me. Thank you both of you
That's awesome!
Cool, that is a great feedback and glad that you found your love for xcom again.
Congratulations to both. It was a very entertaining campaign!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Glad you enjoyed it
Much thnx to the both of you for a highly entertaining campaign. I hope you two do some more of this kind of tag team campaign in future. Maybe with a different game. Maybe more Xcom. In either case I will be here to watch. Good vid
We'll see, this was quite an undertaking for both of us!
It is quite a bit of time for an entire campaign (almost like creating a movie in itself, it runs in a few minutes, but the production takes ages). It is a fantastic experience though.
What a campaign, loved all of it. Favourite bit was seeing the ethereal as well as the various Primes during the campaign. Awesome content from both of you❤
It was cool to see Syken fight the ethereal, sadly I never got the chance myself.
Glad you liked it.
Really enjoyed following this campaign. You both make extremely high quality content and I enjoy it every time. Thank you both so much. One of the things I especially enjoyed with this run, was you guys not beeing on top of the game all the time (like you ususally are). One of the final points in your discussion really rings true for me. I am often impressed with your ability to talk at a meta level while playing, and at the same time make it entertaining. This run i saw both of you "out of your comfort zone" which is a bit more like how I feel when playing, that was a real treat getting to experience you trying to figure out what had happend since last mission, and trying to strategize but not quite knowing where you were coming from or how the other one would play it out. So for me: 1. the back and forth 2. the constant tactical problemsolving and figuring out what to do and 3. you being challenged just enough that it seemed more like I feel (being far less skilled than you) made it a fantastic letsplay to watch. can't wait for the next one.
Thank you, I was definitely out of my comfort zone so I'm not surprised that it showed!
Very good feedback, thanks!
It was fun👍 would watch again
Very nice, thanks for the kind words.
Neat!
I really enjoyed the collaborative run. You two are who I always recommend people to watch to get better at the game. I really enjoy that you both have such vastly different play styles, as it demonstrates just how versatile you can be in this game.
Tapcat, you have made me so much better at this game. Teaching patience and methodical gameplay has been very helpful in my own gameplay.
Syken, you are absolutely insane at this game. I consider you god-tier when it comes to xcom 2. I love all the tricks and game mechanics you teach as you play, as those have also made me a lot better at this game.
Think the collaborative run was a great idea and would love to see more of it. You both are so skilled, that although passing it back and forth cost you some efficiency, you both handled it extremely well. I also found you two were, quite often, more in sync than it may have felt like you were.
You both tried your best to never leave the other player with an impractical squad and even looked out to make the other player’s typical hero class better by sending them on the proper covert ops.
Very well executed and I really hope we can see another collaboration some day. I know it was difficult though, so I respect if it doesn’t happen.
Thank you both. Now I have to figure out what I’m watching next.
Thank you for all the kind words, I really appreciate the positive feedback!
loved this campaign, excellent work from both of you!
Tapcat if you want an idea for next year run you can try vanilla impossible with the worst abilities - meaning no run and gun, shredder, holo targeting etc, only getting by with the abilities no one ever uses
That would be an interesting challenge, I like it. Some good abilities would still be on the table... some promotions offer 2 really good options. But having to take Blast Padding over Shredder is enough to make me physically ill and I'm sure there are others that would be almost as painful.
I appreciate you both commenting on the mods themselves, which provides a more realistic expectation of what was good and bad about how things were balanced. During the campaign it was obviously of no practical benefit to complain or be too salty, but being honest about what you liked and didn't like after the fact is really nice.
I agree with you on all counts and am glad you enjoyed the discussion!
Of course, that is what a good de-briefing is for.
Great video editing, its good to see the epilogue come together. Well done!
Thank you, I really enjoyed the discussion!
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Precisely :D!
Many thanks!
:)
It was a fun and interesting run, but for that algorithmic sake I was never able to catch Syken on time
Hmm, okay, that is unfortunate. Glad that you liked it though
Curse you, algorithm!!!
Hey, really cool collaboration. There wasn't anything I didn't like. For improvement, maybe a little more extrapolation on compare/contrast of play styles. That was really cool, when when you talked about each other's plans. Thanks.
The challenge with that is that I hadn't seen any of his missions when we recorded this and likewise he hadn't seen any of mine. It's a good idea, though.
For that we would have needed to see each other's videos in advance, which is difficult to pull off. But I like the idea.
It was a great experience, i've been following tapcat for a long time, so i know his strategies to a certain extend, and before this i was subscribe to syken's Chanel for about a week at most, so i was able to understand his tactics as well and that was entertaining as hello, and i will definitely revisit the whole campaign again.
The only thing that i would've love seeing both of you use it's the psionics, sure with the amount of classes that was going to be hard, but other than that, it was really fun
I don't know when I'll do an XCOM 2 series again, but I'm determined that I'll used psionics in that one. I tried once before and was too slow, but I would try to do some research in advance to find out how other people get it up and running early enough to be useful.
Good point, that might happen in the future.
It was fun to see how how each of you dealt with campaign when you got it passed to you. I hope you do something together another time - it don't have to be XCOM. I could be fun if you found a game that supported co-op better 🙂
I agree, I don't see us doing XCOM again anytime soon no matter what but another game... who knows?
If we find the right game, it might be very much possible.
I really enjoyed this collab and hope to see you guys working together again. As much as I love XCOM2 perhaps a different game with actual multiplayer support. Thank you both for a great series!
We will for sure find an option to work together again, the multiplayer option would not be a bad idea. There are a couple of good games that could allow for that.
Hey TapCat, have you played Capes yet? It's a fun superhero turn-based strategy game. I think you'd enjoy it! 👍
I would really love to watch another collaboration like this. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you both so much for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it. We don't have any plans at the moment but who knows what the future holds?
Thanks, duly noted! :)
One of the most entertaining bits of this campaign for me was the lack of joined up thinking. The fact that Syken and Tapcat didn't always know what the other was working on or the overall strategy at points. It was very entertaining and I felt like it added an extra level of difficulty.
I agree. While we were often pulling in the same direction even without discussing it, there were also times when that wasn't the case and I do believe it makes the campaign more interesting.
Yes, and an extra level of entertainment :)
Great discussion, and well done on a compelling series!
Hey guys!
Thank you so much for putting this campaign on UA-cam! I have enjoyed practically all your videos!
I absolutely enjoyed the diffferent gameplay styles you both have. Tapcat more conservative while Syken is much more agressive. It is true that the general audience (including myself) does not have any idea the massive work there is behind the scenes. I truly understand that, specially the change of timezone between both of you. I would agree that while producing this campaign, a general overview of your strategy and goals while playing would have been nice to see. It was clear that you played as how things turned out and in this sense it was an additional setback to win the game. Nonetheless I'm also aware that this would translate in having you 2 meet to discuss internaly before recording it, and thus it would have taken more time.
I would also like to point out that sometimes, or most cases, there was no explanation on the add ons of the weapons you used. It was mainly the load out before each mission in a 10 second explanation, but it would have been nice to explain this more thorough. Again, this is more of a constructive commentary.
In all cases, I think everyone learned from this series. I learned a lot of your tips and tricks and I loved that it was made very coherently while deciding what to do.
Thank you guys I appreciate all the effort you made!
The reality is that there was no overall strategy. We were both just rolling with things as they came and there was very little communication between us. That actually became part of the fun for me. I would try to divine his intent by looking at the map or the covert op and go from there.
There wasn't much to say about the loadouts because we didn't have enough items to make for any real options for most of the campaign. The Proving Ground was built very late so it was just equipping a few medkits and grenades for each mission and I was lucky if there were enough to fill the empty slots. I guess that by the time we finally got more gear, I was just in the habit of not talking about it.
Thanks for the insights, that is helpful.
I just beat XCom2 WOTC on legendary (not Ironman). Big thanks to you and Syken for being great teachers in addition to great content creators.
That's awesome, congrats on the big win!
I loved having an Xcom video to watch everyday, instead of every other day.
I think that it would be interesting to see a collaberation like this where you could not communicate at all. Only send a save file.
I can't believe Tapcat didn't complain more about that enemy that could shoot 3 times in a turn with what looked like a sniper rifle. It also had sustain so it would come back everytime and get one more round to shoot. Very unbalanced.
I was pretty salty about it in that ambush but I learned a long time ago that I'm more effective if I focus on what's still in front of me rather than on the thing that's happened and made me unhappy.
the schedule was quite tight, it is a lot of recording to go through.
I've just discovered your channel and it's helping me a lot. I've been really struggling on Veteran as a fairly new player but i'm definitely improving learning. There's so many different mechanics to learn in this game.
There is a TON that you have to learn, especially if you're playing with War of the Chosen. Glad to hear that you've found my videos helpful, good luck in your campaign!
When are you coming back...
I don't know. I've had a series of health related issues that aren't life threatening or anything, but have kept me from being able to play strategy games, let alone record them.
@@TapCat hope you get well..
I think the field medic was under utilized in this campaign run. I too have loaded up a campaign with the mod list shared, took a bit to get it functioning, and the field medics arc thrower has come in clutch many a time. Stunning a mind controlled ally can save you from taking major damage, not to mention stunning or disorienting Advent when you just can’t quite finish them. None the less, enjoyed the show, hope to see more.
Much love
GG COMMANDER(S)!
Congrats to you and Syken for finishing this campaign.
So, have you any idea of what you going to play next?
Enjoyed the series man! Hope life is good and look forward to seeing what else you put out!
Appreciate it!
Hey Tapcat, I was wondering if you ever plan to doing another Battle Brothers campaign?
I don't think so. I accomplished what I wanted to in the game and I really disliked the structure of the game at that point. Literally every quest that was offered to us was on the far side of the map from wherever I was at. So we'd have to travel for something like 2 weeks and burn through all of the gold that we earned (or more) and it felt like a really cheap way to keep players under duress.
I loved the game and enjoyed the tactical challenges... it was probably the most difficult game that I've ever played. But I felt like it jumped the shark a bit in the endgame... although I'm sure someone more expert would tell me I'm wrong (and they might be right).
... and now I am sad!
Thank you so much TapCat and Syken for a wonderful run. Your "Saving your disaster campaign" was awesome, but "Two against Overlords" was ... awesomer :)
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words!
Thanks Lena!
Finished! That was a fun play through and very interesting to see the slightly different approaches. Now off to keep working on my campaign with many of the same mods.
Good luck, commander!
You guys should do a season of Long War of the Chosen. At least to liberate one region. Should be fun!
Hi TapCat...Really enjoyed this series. Thx for doing it. Would it be possible to list the mods you used in the game. I know I have some of them but not all and would like to add them if possible. WOTC mods that is. Thanks!
If you check the description for any of the videos, you'll find a link to the whole list on Steam. I believe you can even subscribe to them from that page.
@@TapCat Thank you!!
Would the defensive mine work on a priest coming out of sustain?
I think Proximity Mines will work as long as they detect any kind of tileset movement within their range, so you could feasibly throw one down near a Sustain-state Priest and then just let it take them out if they move when they get outta the bubble
As long as the priest moves, I think it would work. But, of course, you have to get your sapper up near him as a prerequisite. I do like that it's a 100% chance to kill as long as he moves, though.
Proximity mines work, normal mines maybe.
firstly, well done chaps
personally i would like it if you used the mod that shown how many baddies are remaining, but also that you would take the time to add in the psi aspect. I feel that you ended it so quickly that the big baddies did not get the chance to join in.
I didn't know about that mod at the time but would gladly add it to any future campaigns. As far as the length of the campaign, this one was pretty typical compared to ones I've done in the past. I believe that the bigger issue was that we had so many mods trying to introduce new enemies that some just got crowded out. We probably would have done better to use fewer but focus on the ones we really wanted the most and then those enemies would have had more opportunities to do their thing.
Good point, will add that in the future.
Very interesting chat, I have been trying a similiar play through and I am having major problems with Etherals, they have apperared in three consecutive maps and are super hard especially when on timed missions. I had started thinking you guys had disabled the mod as I had never seen you fight them. I have seen the comment below and will watch that particular Syken episode. Well done gents, superb play, I have beaten Ironman legendary prob over 40 times but these mods are kicking my ass at the moment. Loving the challenge but you guys made it look easy, missing my sparks a bit with those primes.
I can see that - they are a problem and there is no way around it, maybe take the mod out of the pack if you struggle too much.
I felt a bit cheated at never having gotten a chance to try my hand against the ethereals but after hearing you and Syken talk about them it makes me think that maybe I dodged a bullet.
Thank you gentleman for a terrific playthrough I really enjoyed it! I may have missed it but how did you feel about the primes? I'm not sure that I'm a fan of the extra actions they get every time you take a shot or use an ability against them. I lost two soldiers in one mission without the opportunity to act! The prime walked into overwatch which most if not all missed then proceeded to take three shots killed one soldier his bondmate went beserk shot a couple of times then got nuked by the prime! I had to walk away from my computer I was so mad!
I'll be honest, I hated the alien rulers and their extra actions when that DLC launched. And I wasn't much more fond of primes. But I've learned something about action economies since then and how important it is for enemies to actually have a chance to do something before you can gang up on them with a full squad and kill them. The other alternatives to increase the threat level are things like doubling/tripling their health or cranking up their defense to force misses.
So, I've learned to appreciate the extra actions as a way to add to the enemy threat level in a way that still opens the door for tactics on your side to mitigate the situation.
They were okay, my personal take is that I wish the ABA mod would introduce producable ice weapons / grenades, because that is the known counter to the primes. Unfortunatly the author forgot that there are only 2x items in the game that give you the option to do that.
@@SykenPlays I think that would go a long way in solving that problem. I found a mod that allows you to build ruler items instead of the suits. I tried it and it works for the beserker queen( rage vest) and the viper king ( frost hook ) but it doesn"t work with archon ( icarus boots) so I'll just go back to the vanilla version lol. I hope the two of you do another clab together I for one would look forward to that ! Thanks guys!!
Medics were great for stunning primes to prevent their reactions.
The way I see it, having completed two runs with these mods, specs and grenadiers got split into two classes. Assaults are pretty much just rangers. Marksman are a straight up nerf of sharpshooters. We lost gunslingers, which is my main issue with the mod.
I really missed having gunslinger abilities in this!
In my proficiency campaign I slept on the assault for the first half of the campaign. Then I realized it was actually potentially stronger than a vanilla ranger. Gettiing an action point AND partial movement refunded after a melee kill allowed me to finish off an enemy with my sword and then move into cover and go into overwatch. Anither perk then allowed that character to take overwatch shots on every enemy within their COB...which with increased pod size combined with arashi/extendsd mag was, on average, 3 or 4 shots on the thickest turns of battle! Also I just realized I completely didnt take advantage of the sniper side of the tech specialist haha. Any thoughts on the combat engineer?
Syken used the assault a lot more often than I did so I really don't feel like I got a good sense of the capabilities. I know that he came away pretty impressed, though.
Agree, the assault is super good. The Combat Engineer is a difficult class to assess. With the right talents, it is a good sniper with a lot of support from the protocols, but in order to get there, you need the right gear and and the right talents - and even then it can be hit or miss.
Hey TapCat, I hate be getting in touch here but I fear that I don't know any other way 😅 I was watching some of your tips and tricks videos and come to the realization that your "Base Layout" one doesn't adapt (which of course, the series is 7 years old lol) to the fact that the Advanced Warfare room gets replaced by two separate rooms in the War of the Chosen DLC. Could you possibly make an updated video or rather give me some personal insight here? Thanks a bunch!
Will you play Manor Lords?
Thanks for reaching out, I hadn't heard of it before but I've added it to my list of games to check out.
@@TapCat -Maybe I will buy it, but it is a City builder which may not be up my or yours interest
I love your content, but don't have the time to watch every episode. Are there a few missions that stood out, either because of drama, decisive moments or anything?
I think Xcom2 is a very problematic game, and the fact that you (TapCat) have spent so much time playing it only serves to prove me right. I'm new to the game, I got it for free on Epic and have been playing it for about a month now, and I have to say that the demands of the game are completely unreasonable and anti-fun. Anything under 80% is almost guaranteed to fail when attempted by a human player even if the target is flanked. Having a unit get hit for even 1 hp of damage takes them out of the action for up to a month. A short-ranged mind-controlled unit will hit and kill across the map in spite of full cover and range penalties. And yes I know these are issues that are frequently brought up by newer players such as myself who don't "understand" how the game is supposed to be played.
Sure, you can say "skill issue lol" all you want, but the point of a game, any game, is to be a fun and worthwhile diversion, especially for adult gamers who have limited time to spend playing games. The whole conceit of Xcom2 appears to demand its players to spend hours and hours trying to figure out the "right" way--and therefore the only way--to play the game, rather than to provide an interesting and compelling squad based game about guerilla tactics where you, the Commander, can go about finding your own way to win the war against an enemy who dominates an entire planet.
Xcom2 is not the only game that suffers from this problem. Developers are so creatively bankrupt that they either make "roguelikes" to save themselves the trouble of coming up with interesting levels, or they make games so straightforward that if you don't follow the "right" way of playing the game then you will fail.
I'm sorry that you spent so much time in this game.
Now what do I watch on my lunch break?
We need an Xcom 1 modded Co-op
I lost my bedtime treat :(
:)