Sectopods got massively buffed in this expansion, anyone who hasn't met them yet, be careful. It seems they only take half damage from all sources now so you really need to tread carefully around them.
It's reduced damage, but I'm not sure exactly how it works - my MEC's grenade (normally deals 5) deals 4 to Sectopods, and a shredder rocket from my blaster launcher (normally 9, with the Heavy's buffs) dealt 7, so it seems there is some damage reduction against explosives, but not as much as against other sources - it seems it nullifies buffs from promotions (I don't think I got the bonus for having autopsied a Sectopod on the MEC with that promotion), but doesn't affect base damage from explosive sources. Kinetic Strike did deal exactly half damage (there aren't many other fixed-damage non-explosives).
Probably the hardest enemy in the game to be honest. Also, what the HELL, Mind Control? I have literally never ever seen this ability miss when aliens use it since installing the expansion.
I have now seen it fail, on a high-Will soldier I augmented with Neural Damping, but Sectoid Commanders do now seem to have much more effective psi powers than in vanilla.
Makes Sectoid Commanders a little bit more scary, so that's good I guess, but damn is it ever annoying.
They can be found in fairly large numbers, since they eventually replace Sectoids as Mechtoid companions, so they are now very scary - appropriately so, I'd say. They die easily to the more powerful plasma weapons, though.
Alright...I'm thinking of I/I and activating Not created equally and Hidden Potential to add more spice into the game as well as Randomized Skilltree. The only question is whether to have Damage Roullete so late-game snipers don't make it too easy. Losses need to happen to keep things interesting otherwise it becomes a surgical mop-op every mission.
I always activate all three - Damage Roulette, Not Created Equal and Hidden Potential - because that's closer to the classic XCOM experience, and because the latter two add sorely-needed character to individual soldiers. The latter two are potentially abusable, in that you can hire-and-fire to get the best soldiers, but in general you won't have the funds to do this early in the game, and because the main reason to use these abilities is flavour I tend to work with what I'm given (moreso in EW than EU I seem to find I get soldiers with suboptimal stats - Will below 45 and/or Aim below 65 - more often).
In Impossible this can make the game significantly harder on the first mission (where of course you don't have any choice in who you bring along), since soldiers with low Will are very prone to panicking; past that you have more flexibility, but in Impossible it is very important to promote your soldiers as quickly as you can, so a poor soldier from the first mission who gets a promotion is often better to keep than a stronger rookie.
Damage Roulette is pretty much exactly that in terms its impact on difficulty - it can be harder or easier depending on what you roll. Aliens get the Roulette effect as well, which can contribute importantly to keeping your soldiers alive in the early game, and against some of the more dangerous later-game units. In general it seems more likely to make the game slightly harder than easier, since taking down tougher aliens like Berserkers, Mechtoids and Cyberdiscs is much less reliable.
Also does marathon make the game better or super tedious? I like desperation but I'm worried about it making the late game drawn out.
Haven't re-unlocked Marathon in EW yet, but in EU the sense I had was that the game was designed to be played in Marathon mode - more of the upgrade and promotion options are useful, you'll often want SHIVs to stand in for wounded soldiers, labs and early scientist missions are more important in the early game, money and other resources were meaningfully limited, and the extended timeframe made things like wounded soldiers and slow research times actually meaningful (in the standard game the difference between 'fast' and 'slow' research is usually only a few days, and by the time you've finished researching all the laser weapons you're already replacing them with plasma). Many of these changes have made it into the main game in EW (such as slower promotions and some more viable options, and the greater frequency of missions makes it more important to avoid getting wounded).
Aiming angles as well? Does it make positioning and flanking more effective?
These are effective anyway, particularly with Damage Roulette, but I haven't used Aiming Angles because it looks designed to make the game easier (like the 'always critical' SW option in vanilla). Yes, aliens will get the boost as well, but while XCOM's alien AI is pretty good, it's still not as good as a human player at exploiting flanking (and I imagine that it will struggle with 'nearly flanking' angles).
gene mod that cloaks a soldier (a heavy) when they move into a position of full cover
Haven't used it on a Heavy (I'd planned to, but she died), but I find this a very good combination with an In The Zone sniper, since you can often set up a position where you can fire and then move, recloaking as a result.
I'm pretty sure you always get your six best-trained soldiers as well as some base defense personnel. Three veterans will show up at start, and the remaining three will show up later, though not all at once.
No, seems to be just the top six in the roster. I have four surviving levelled soldiers - three colonels and a lieutenant. The other two were just the next two squaddies in line, never mind that they weren't the best-suited to the mission.
Still having a lot of trouble getting through this, due to the sheer number of Mechtoids in the final stage (I had 8 in play at one point, and that's even without the final reinforcing Cyberdisc and Sectopod being in a position to attack) - I may well have to revert to an earlier save and resurrect my Heavy colonel and second MEC.
Most of the new equipment are weak. I'm still to build a set of Reaper Rounds and a Gas Grenade.
Reaper rounds seem good with assaults, who will be up close anyway, and I suspect will be more important in Marathon. I've bought a gas grenade but pretty much never used it (I threw it in an EXALT mission, but it seems everyone was a medic since my targets were all immune). I still carry a flashbang with one of my supports, but its radius is much too small - it has niche uses to disable someone you want to stun, but that seems to be about it, and the fact that it doesn't work on mechs limits its usefulness.
MECs are OP in the early game, but I'm starting to think that a big part of that is that they're the opposite of Snipers. While Snipers start weak and eventually become the greatest class, MECs start strong, but don't gain as much as the other classes as the game progresses. So by choosing to use MECs the player gives up more promising opportunities to gain instant benefit. This, of course, doesn't work as it should because of the game's difficulty curve. But I think it's what Firaxis has aimed at.
No, I haven't found that at all. I have a fully-upgraded colonel MEC trooper who's my best soldier, moreso than my In the Zone sniper colonel. The particle cannon's base damage seems to be the highest in the game, the Major promotion allows it to be used twice per turn, and electro pulse is extremely powerful. A MEC starts out being tough but having a weak gun and very short-ranged, if any, area effect attacks (other than by fully discharging the gun to deal 1 damage plus an exploding car with Collateral Damage) - I find the earliest MECs almost a liability, and in the playthrough where mine didn't survive long enough to promote they consistently underperformed even compared with other classes who I also had difficulty keeping alive. A few promotions and a grenade launcher in, however, and the MEC was winning me battles.