galgus Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 They seemed like a sort-of threat early on when the game is at its hardest, but their missions became disapointingly easy. I'll confess that I am a casual Normal mode player who left Classic after losing some good men to crits, so I probably don't have the best grasp on top-level Xcom tactics. Exalt was advertised as another human enemy that thinks like Xcom and fights like Xcom, but not much really separates them from the aliens. I was hoping that, just as Xcom grows more capable and dangerous, they would continue to scale throughout the game, but they never really got beyond Laser tech. They use the same needlessly risky tactics as the Aliens where they do not coordinate movements well and tend to get picked off. I was expecting them to be a more cautious and tactically mindful enemy, with possibly a few hallmarks of how an Xcom player operates. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Keeping to good cover and moving in a loose formation, so soldiers can cover each other and they are difficult to outflank. Loose formation is, of course, important to avoid area damage. I wouldn't mind seeing a battle grind to a stalemate with both human factions keeping to good cover, with both sides making plans to break the other line. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Exalt soldier classes and experience mirroring that of Xcom. Exalt Soldiers of every class with varying levels of experience marked by a rank indicator, making knowing the classes and their strengths important to fighting Exalt. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Self preservation with safer positioning of soldiers and more organized retreat and regroup tactics. When one of my soldiers gets severely wounded, they get sent to safety behind a wall of guns to be healed. I have never seen Exalt successfully rehabilitate a soldier in such a way. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Scaling threat and stolen tech. I'd like for Exalt to have their own research going on behind the scenes, and field full veterans with plasma weaponry and titan armor if you drag things out. They could also insidously research techs that you have already researched faster by intercepting information shared with other nations, hacks, and spies. Exalt would gain support and progress faster when threat levels are high, and stall when everything is under control. Nations dropping out of the Xcom project would give Exalt a significant boost in resources. (I'd also like an extremely difficult chain of missions to come up that, if successful, restores a country as an Xcom member. It would involve everything going to hell in that country, and you essentially needing to keep it from being completely overrun.)___________________________________________________________________________________ 5. More unique gene modifications and technological advancements. When I played and focused on MECs, there was a bit of a fun contrast between my machine-backed Xcom troopers and the gene modding Exalt forces. Sadly, Exalt never got very far in their gene program, and were really never impressive technologically. I'd like to see Exalt research its own unique line of gene modding based tech, carrying on the theme of extreme augmentations with side effects that Xcom finds unethical. Aside the basics such as using some gene mods available to Xcom and more unique to them, they could have special heavily mutated units: like a human disturbingly infused with Muton DNA or that of other aliens. The number of gene modifications that they field their operatives with should keep increasing as the game goes on, to the point where you are fighting superhuman freaks. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Psionics. I wouldn't actually mind if Exalt was allowed to get the jump on Xcom in harnessing Psionics, and I feel that needing to face psychic human forces in middle to late Exalt missions would make them much more interesting. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Active sabotage. Imagine the chaos if, in the middle of a mission, there was a slim chance that Exalt operatives would drop in to sabotage your attack. They would try to drop into a zone not occupied by aliens and try to focus on Xcom, but the Aliens would attack them and they would retaliate when neccessary. Personally, I'd like to see more surprises like that which change how I need to handle a mission. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8. A more glorious end. The final effort against Exalt, while enjoyable, wasn't a challenge. It felt like delivering a killing blow to an already weak defeated enemy. I'd like to see them do a better job at defending their base and go out with a bang.____________________________________________________________________________________ Anyone else have ideas for making Exalt a more interesting opponent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OC39648 Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 EXALT Anti-XCOM satellite maneuvers, i.e. sending jets to try to take down XCOM satellites. You could reply with your own interceptors, but it'd turn in to a bit more of an aerial dogfight rather than the 'chase' battles with the traditional alien UFO's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunnarArne09111998 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 I'll be honest, by the time I faced Exalt, I had just gotten a shipment of Alloy S.H.I.Vs, and I kind of just slaughtered them with only using Alloy's on all Exalt missions, it seemed they were bad, even the Gene's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts