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XCOM 2 |
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Developer: Firaxis Games This game has unused animations. |
This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. |
Hello, I have a number of soldiers, classes, voices and game play alteration mods that I've subscribed to and the soldiers and voices simply aren't appearing in the game. Is there an extra step I have to take for them to do so? For example: I subscribed to the Noble Team voice pack for XCOM2 but when I go to customize a soldier, the voices do not show up in the voice option area. So I’ve played XCOM 2 wotc for a long time and decided it was time to try our commander. I was NOT ready for the difficulty spike at all. I went from having so many soldiers some never see the battlefield to literally having 8 on my roster and having to skip missions.
This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically:
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- Jun 15, 2018 from what i read on OP's post, it seems that he got a 'missing x com 2 file' or 'a corrupted xcom 2 file' before he go verify integrity of game files. In other words, there is this suggestion i can recommend 1) unsubscribe to all the mods you using currently and then re-subscribe to them again.
- Jan 07, 2017 This is a small showcase of the XCom EU Russian and Polish voices edited to fit almost all voice lines in XCom 2. New voices yet to come.
To do:
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This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. |
The aliens have taken over the world! Politely convince them to jog on.
- 2Unused Animations
- 3Unused Models
- 4Unused Sounds
- 4.2Enemy Intros
- 4.3Alien Autopsy
- 5Unused Sprites
- 5.6Other Things
- 6Unused Textures
- 8Other Strange Things
Unused Easter Egg
Present in the SDK is an audio file named 'S_Alt_Valhalla_Council', with an accompanying audio cue ('S_Alt_Valhalla_Council_Cue'). It's a voice clip of the Spokesman reciting a particular line of dialogue from Mad Max: Fury Road.
'I myself will carry you to the gates of Valhalla, Commander... you will ride eternal, shiny and chrome!'
Unused Animations
MEC Melee Attack
ADVENT MECs have an animation for a melee attack. It's similar to the Andromedons' animation, but not exactly the same.
Kinetic Strike
Chryssalids have an animation of them being punched back far, far away, as if they were hit with the Kinetic Strike module. This is even referenced in the animation's name.
Default Animations
The Andromedon has an animation of it in a T-Pose, with the only thing moving being its air compressor. Probably used for testing.
Unused Models
Rendering Models
The ADVENT MEC has an unused model located inside AdvMEC_M2_SF called AdventMEC_RenderPose. It's the model for the MEC, but posed for its rendered image. Obviously it was used for making said rendered image, but why it was left in the game?
Andromedon and Chryssalid both have preposed models though their names don't mention 'Render' at all. Andromedon is split into a model for each material on its combined model, Body, Alien, Glass Clear, Glass Green and Weapon. Interestingly, Andromedon's weapon here isn't the same as the weapon it has in the final game, suggesting these renders are from earlier in development.
Chryssalid has two models unlike the MEC and Andromedon; Chryssalid_Attack and Chryssalid_Idle. While the idle pose was used for the final render, the attacking pose was left in probably because it was a choice between which one would be rendered.
Muton is the same as Chryssalid, having two models, one idle and one attacking. The idle pose is used for the final render. However, the Muton doesn't have a pre-posed weapon here.
Viper also has three static models dedicated to rendering. An attack model, an idle model (Simply called ViperPose) and Viperbits, which consists of the Viper's head with her tongue out and her eyes above her head. It may have been used for switching over the pre-posed Viper's head without having to re-pose the rigged model again with its tongue out. Like Muton, Viper doesn't have a weapon here.
Den Mother
Technically used in-game, Den Mother's model can be found in the game files under the name DenMother.UPK or CIN_DenMother_SF.UPK. Although she does appear in a pre-rendered cutscene, her model and textures are still present within the game despite not actually being used during gameplay.
Unused Weapon
The .UPK file for the Magnetic Pistol contains a model and textures for a SM_AdvPistol (which can also be found in AdvPistol_SF.UPK). implying that ADVENT Forces could use pistols. Interestingly, a render for the ADVENT Officer on Feral Interactive's website shows it holding said pistol!
Mod_Cryssalid
A directory listed as Cryssalid_SF.UPK (Notice the lack of an 'H' in Chryssalid) has a static model called Mod_Cryssalid. It's the same model as the Enemy Unknown Chryssalid but with 'whiskers' coming from the side of its head. Due to the whiskers and the different texture of the Chryssalid, it resembles the concept art of the Chryssalid in Enemy Unknown by Piero McGowan.
ADVENT ACV
There's an unused enemy in the files called the ACV. It's a large tank with a turret on top that was likely supposed to be used for 'retaliation' missions. The model has stationary and destroyed versions and even bones! However, the rigging seems to be incomplete. The ACV has animations. Mostly of it moving around and shooting. However, it has animations for it entering and it exiting, suggesting that the ACV could have been used as a land version of the ADVENT Dropships.
The Speaker (sort of)
The Speaker has a model under the name of CHR_Speaker_REF. While the clothes somewhat resemble the Speaker's, its head and hair look nothing like the final Speaker model. It also lacks textures and eyes as well, not to mention its high polygon count.
Unused Sounds
The real Enemy Unknown is just how much sound is unused inside of the game.
The Commander speaks!
The Commander (yes you, the mute) actually had lines earlier on in the game! He sounds quite a bit like Shen from EU. May have been removed to allow the player to fit their own role as the Commander than to have the game define who the Commander is.
Enemy Intros
Advanced/Elite
Advent Troopers, Officers, Shieldbearers and Stunlancers have audio for encountering their upgraded versions. The audio is never used, perhaps due to how useless introducing the same enemy again is. Curiously, Shieldbearers have three audio files like the other enemies but in-game, Shieldbearers only have one upgraded form instead of two.
There's no new audio for the ADVENT MEC however.
Turrets also have additional audio for upgrades, with it suggesting that the upgraded turrets would shoot two times in a row.
Other Aliens
Drones, Synthoids and ACVs all have audio files introducing them. Just a few sentences said by Shen.
Witches
Lines for Tygan talking about 'Witches' can be found in-game. While 'Psi Witch' is the working name for the Avatar enemy, this suggests that at some point, Witches would be a common enemy, complete with upgraded versions of themselves.
Codex and Avatar Intros
While the Codices and Avatars have their own respective intros, they also have audio for formal encounters instead of for when they appear after skulljacking.
Alien Autopsy
Kings and Queens
Autopsy lines for Archon Kings, Viper Queens, and Berserker Queens can be found in older versions of the game's SDK. Archon Kings could pick up soldiers and drop them, Viper Queens can shoot fire instead of poison and Berserker Queens are described to be 'armored' and emit pheromones which possibly boost surrounding aliens' stats. These aliens do later appear in Alien Hunters, although the Viper Queen has been replaced by an ice-breathing Viper King instead.
As of the release of Alien Hunters, these files are still listed, but no audio data seems to be present.
Leftovers
Certain sounds from Enemy Unknown are still in the game, perhaps for testing. It's mostly confined to soldier voices, but interestingly, MEC Trooper voices are leftover as well!
Music from EU is also leftover, possibly before an actual original score for XCOM 2 was made.
Unused Sprites
To do: More information about other unused images here. |
UILibrary_StrategyImages_SF.UPK is filled with all sorts of oddities removed from the game.
Leftovers
Many graphics from Enemy Unknown can be found within said file. Room previews, autopsies, research and interrogations are present, although any enemy that shares the name with an enemy from Enemy Unknown has their autopsy image replaced with the one used in XCOM 2.
Officer Training School
ChooseFacility_OTS is a render of an unfinished room with headless soldier models using equipment at the back of the room. The name OTS refers to the Officer Training School in Enemy Unknown where squad upgrades could be purchased. The OTS may have served the same purpose here but was replaced by the Guerilla Tactics room.
Additional Rounds
This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: What are the Flechette, Needle and Stilleto rounds intended for? |
There are five inventory icons for unused ammunition in the game. The items are inaccessible, even when trying to add them into the game with the command console, implying that they're not coded into the game.
Xcom 2 Voice Actors
Falcon Rounds: Unknown purpose, though its sprite was used to represent Venom Rounds in the XCOM 2 Avenger preview.
Flechette Rounds:Unknown purpose.
Needle Rounds:Unknown purpose.
Redscreen Rounds: The name suggests it was most likely an upgrade for Bluescreen Rounds.
Stilleto Rounds:Unknown purpose.
Additional Armour
There's less unused armour than ammunition, but most of the possible uses for them are used by different armour in-game.
Flame Sealant and Heat Absorption: Both very likely reduced fire damage, a role which is taken in-game by the Hazmat Vest.
Scorch Circuits: Probably the same as Hellweave considering Hellweave's effect is 'Scorch Circuits'.
Additional PCS
Only one additional PCS is in-game. A PCS that was used for boosting your soldiers' Psi stat. May have been removed because of how 'overpowered' the ability to easily boost your soldiers' Psi was.
Other Things
Embryonic Advent?
Under GOLDTECH (Story progressing research), there is a bizarre graphic called 'Embryonic Advent'. It resembles nothing aside from a strange, patterned marble, and the graphic itself doesn't even match any other GOLDTECH image. It may have been used for researching the origins of the ADVENT Troops but was scrapped somewhere along the line.
Disabled ADVENT Rifle
An icon for a broken Magnetic Rifle can be found, but the same image for the broken Magnetic Rifle can be found again under the name 'Inv_Disabled_Advent_Mag_Rifle', suggesting that ADVENT Troopers could drop broken versions of their rifles. For what purpose this was intended is unknown. Strangly, the item here has barely any resembelance to the Magnetic Rifle and looks more like the Mag Cannon.
Dust and Slag
Elerium Dust and Twisted Slag can also be found. They may have been used as 'destroyed' versions of Elerium Crystals and Alien Alloys, but it's currently unknown if this was their purpose.
Heavy MECs
ADVENT Heavy MECs have their own corpse sprite, suggesting that heavy MECs would be standalone from the regular MECs.
Unused Textures
Juvenile Chryssalids
Chryssalids have an unused texture inside Chryssalid_SF.UPK. The texture is what a newborn Chryssalid would have looked like; presumably it would have been used for when Chrysallids are born from their cocoons but it's never seen in-game. A similar (though not identical) appearance was used in the Tactical Legacy Pack campaign 'It Came From The Sea' under the similar name of Neonate Chryssalids.
Commander's Avatar and Damaged Avatar
Like Den Mother, the Commander's Avatar and Damaged Avatar textures are technically used in-game, but only for pre-rendered cutscenes. It's strange that the texture for the Commander's Avatar isn't used in-game, but perhaps it was an oversight.
Gore Texture
A texture remains in-game of the wound that could be seen on the ADVENT Officer during one of the cutscenes early on in the campaign. Its name obviously makes sense since it's a texture of an ADVENT Head with a massive gash at the back of their skull.
White Stunlancers
An unused material in the SDK has ADVENT Stunlancers with white colors instead of their dark denim blue colors seen in the final game. Likely would have been used for the scrapped third tier of Stunlancer mentioned above in the Enemy Intros section.
Forged Sectopod
Sectopods also have a white material. Under the name 'Forged', the white Sectopod could have been an upgraded form of the Sectopod or a special version used for the ADVENT Forge. Either thought is equally terrifying. Interestingly, the Forged Sectopod has its own MSK texture with more blue being in the areas where it's white on the model.
Icons
Strange, useless icons of enemies remain in-game. Enemies from Enemy Unknown are just in-game screenshots but enemies new to this game use their concept artwork. Strangely, there's an icon for a Drone that resembles nothing from any game. Perhaps it was to be the design for the Drone in XCOM 2?
Unused Videos
There are a handful of cinematics inside of the 'Movies' folder of the game that are unused.
1080_PropLoad_001.BK2: A loading screen depicting an eye watching over a city like the posters in-game. Unlike the other loading screen videos, this one actually has sound!
CIN_CouncilLoop.BK2: A video of the council spokesman from Enemy Unknown. Obvious leftover.
CIN_TP_BroadcastTruth_Engineering.BK2: A video of Shen using a computer saying 'Closing to be within range, attempting access!'. Shen doesn't have any facial movement in this video. It was probably supposed to be used for the ADVENT Network tower mission.
CIN_TP_DarkVolunteer_pt2.BK2: Copy of CIN_TP_DarkVolunteer_pt2a/b. However, this one uses generic pre-rendered soldiers instead of your own in-game soldiers.
CIN_TP_WelcomeLab.BK2: An earlier version of the normal welcome video for the lab. It uses different shading and for some reason has numbers constantly ticking at the bottom left of the screen. Tygan's facial movements are nonexistent during this video, although his voice is present unlike the normal version.
CIN_TP_WelcomeResistance_Short.BK2: An entirely different version of the resistance introduction video. The Spokesman has different clothing, and it takes place in an entirely different room. The audio from this video is the same as the audio used when introducing the Spokesman in the XCOM 2 Avenger trailer interestingly enough.
CIN_TP_WelcomeResistanceSpokesman.BK2: Copy of CIN_TP_WelcomeResistance without any music and only the Spokesman's voice.
Other Strange Things
What's my name again?
The ADVENT Officer seemed to have had an 'identity crisis' earlier on in development. The Officer is referred to in the game's file system as the 'ADVENT Captain'. Even the additional introductions and unused autopsy blurb refer to the Officer as the Captain!
The X-COM series | |
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DOS | UFO: Enemy Unknown • X-COM: Apocalypse |
Windows | X-COM: Apocalypse • XCOM: Enemy Unknown • XCOM 2 |
I have put dozens of hours into playing a single game of XCOM 2, the turn-based tactical strategy game from Take-Two Interactive’s 2K Games label. I have tried to turn back the alien conquest of Earth in a last-ditch guerrilla war by humanity. And now I am surrendering. The game is too hard, and I’m in so deep that I can’t make more progress unless I start over.
I’m going to get a lot of flak for this from hardcore gamers who want their games to be difficult. But I started playing this game on the “normal” setting and had to ratchet it down to “rookie” in order to continue with the game. This raises a question about the wisdom behind the game industry’s spiraling quest to make games more engaging by making them harder to play for a smaller group of hardcore gamers. If a game is too hard, a lot of more casual gamers like me are just going to give up. I’m here to testify that it is possible to make a game too difficult.
We’re seeing a new obsession with “permadeath” and high difficulty in games such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Necropolis. Those games can make you feel like you’ve climbed a mountain when you beat them, but they have a pretty big downside. The completionist in me wants to keep going, but I’m giving voice to my shame. I’ve tried to beat some of the harder missions against the alien facilities in the title more than a dozen times. And I’ve been playing for the better part of a month. I’m not sure I like this trend all of the time. I loved it in Total War: Attila, which was really difficult. But I always felt I was making progress. In XCOM 2, I hit a wall.
Certainly, this made me feel inadequate. After all, the critics gave this game an 88 out of 100 on Metacritic, the review aggregator. But it’s noteworthy that players only rated the game at 6.9 out of 10. That’s about where I would rate it, given my troubles. If I didn’t run into the difficulty wall, I would have rated it much higher myself. Overall, it worked mostly fine on the Lenovo Ideapad Y700 entertainment laptop that I played it on.
I actually brought this up in an interview with Sid Meier, the founder of Firaxis and the legendary game designer of the original XCOM and the Civilization titles. He wasn’t much help.
Above: I wish every soldier I had was a grenadier.
“Yeah, it’s definitely challenging,” he said. “That was one of the things that got a lot of discussion during development. The first level is very achievable. It gets tough after that.”
In XCOM 2, a sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you are part of a special forces unit dubbed XCOM. The aliens have conquered Earth, and some humans working for the Advent Coalition are collaborating with the aliens in a quest to wipe out all opposition. You are now part of a resistance force and must rebuild the XCOM organization. You play a high level strategy game on a global level, and then it moves into a purely tactical, turn-based battle when you execute the missions. These missions are the part that gets really hard late in the game.
As the commander, you have to build up your base ship, the Avenger, and acquire resources. You have to acquire new recruits for science, engineering, and soldiering. On the engineering side, it takes a long time to get the Avenger in good condition because you’ve retaken this mobile base from the aliens and have to clear out the debris. Then you have to spend resources on securing communications with other regions and powering up the areas that you have cleared. Then you can start getting some real work done.
On the scientific research side, you have to stay busy doing autopsies on aliens and decrypting their communications. Then you find out they are building some kind of Avatar project that is going to be a disaster for humanity. You have to expose that project and renew humanity’s will to fight. Meanwhile, you have to set the scientists loose on designing better weapons. All of this takes time, and you are in a race to stop the aliens from completing the Avatar project. In other words, the game designers have figured out ways to completely slow down your progress in building up your strengths.
The combat itself is also difficult. It seems simple enough, as you land a team of four soldiers at the mission location. You move one square at a time until you run out of movement points. You can either move halfway so you can have weapons ready, or you can move as far you can without weapons ready. The soldiers start in a concealed area at first, but they have to blindly go out to find the location of the objective. If they move too fast, they can be ambushed at any time. If you move too slowly and try to ambush the enemy, you may find that you run out of time on completing the mission.
When you run into the enemy, you have to try to concentrate your firepower. But the enemies are quite strong. The Sectoid leaders can manipulate minds and make your soldiers panic and run away. The squad leaders can target you and make it easier for others to hit you with shots. If you go in with rookie soldiers, they may panic more easily, or they may miss easy shots. And if you miss some shots, the enemy can close on you and just take you out at close range.
The initial mission is pretty easy, but as soon as you move into the second mission, it gets hard. One of the horrible design decisions (at least from the mere mortal’s point of view) is that you can’t really catch the enemy in an ambush. Your first soldier can toss a grenade at three aliens. But the grenade doesn’t kill them. Once they are alerted, they scatter. Your second soldier (even if he or she is on Overwatch, where they fire at anything that moves) cannot throw another grenade and catch all three at once. Later on, one of your grenades can become powerful enough to take the weaker enemies out all at once, but the more difficult, stronger enemies you encounter later will survive. You can get multiple shots at enemies through Overwatch during an ambush, but that’s not nearly as good as multiple grenades.
Above: The slum map in XCOM 2 had a lot of vertical challenges.
You have many ways to improve your soldiers’ survivability. You can customize your soldiers with upgraded weapons. You can give them accessories that help them resist alien mind control. You can run scientific experimments that give you more powerful guns and grenades. But you’re always running behind.
The deck is stacked in favor of the aliens. They have badass aliens, whereas you have grenade launchers or rocket launchers that cannot take the aliens out with a single shot most of the time. They outnumber you. You have to get through them to reach objectives on a timetable. And they get reinforcements.
Xcom 2 Voices Not Working
One of the problems is that you can dig yourself a hole if you can’t execute a perfect mission every time. In XCOM 2, the aliens get tougher and you have to beat them with better weapons, more resources, and veteran soldiers. But your veterans can die in the missions. And once they are gone, you are stuck with wimpy rookies. When this happened to me, I had to bring the game’s difficulty level down from “normal” to “rookie.” That was like a humiliating retreat.
I figured out a trick to getting the veterans to survive. I could send in one rookie and three veterans. The veterans would be able to take out the enemies from afar. The rookie could rush in and hit the objective. This made the rookie vulnerable. The rookie might barely achieve the goal, such as hacking an alien computer, before the enemies closed in on him or her. After the objective was achieved, the rookie would die, and then the veterans could escape.
That was fine until I started going into missions where the enemies were protecting the Avatar project. They had these gigantic robots projecting the enemy base, as well as a bunch of other aliens. My four soldiers would have to go up against nine enemies, many who were better than my soldiers. I managed to blow up one base by sending in four rookies who sneaked their way to the objective. Then I airlifted three of them out.
Xcom 2 Voice Pack Creator
Above: You have to pick the right team in XCOM 2.
But the next base was even harder, with a bridge over a canyon guarded by heavily armed aliens. I could find no way to get through that even when I sent in four leveled-up veterans. After fighting that battle a bunch of times, I concluded it was unwinnable. And so I’m hanging up. I could start over and play every battle perfect or restart it. But the game makes restarting hard. It doesn’t automatically save at the point where you made a bad decision. You have to save the game manually if you want to head off trouble. And when you revisit some of the maps, they will regenerate in a way that they are not the same anymore.
The aliens will be in different places on the map, and you have to learn how to fight them all over again. That makes the missions replayable but also very hard to complete without any losses. In other words, it would just take too long to replay the game in a perfect way to preserve your veterans for the important fights late in the game. I’m sure I could figure out how to cheat and read a bunch of tips, but I feel like the game is just too unforgiving. I’ve seen a lot of other complaints about it, and Meier’s own comments really hit home.
The XCOM 2 lead designer, Jake Solomon, at Firaxis acknowledged that the team feared the game was too easy, so they made it more difficult late in the development cycle. The problem is that they got that feedback from members of the team, who were all expert XCOM players.
I don’t think they rebalanced the game properly when they did that. Laughably, a bug helped me out. In two missions the aliens did absolutely nothing. I was able to kill them and hit the objectives without any alien interference. It was as if the A.I. went to sleep. But that only earned me a temporary respite.
It’s too bad because, for all of my complaining, it really is a fun, cinematic game with a lot of strategic thinking required. Steam says I have put 78 hours into the game, but I figure it’s about half of that since I left it running idle a lot. And I’ve only unlocked about 40 percent of the game’s achievements so far. Sadly, I’ve spent enough time trying to survive my first playthrough, and I’ll have to leave this game in my pile of shame.
I played the game on Steam on Windows 10. Take-Two Interactive Software’s 2K Games label provided me with a copy of the game.
Above: I spent a lot of time building out the Avenger mobile base in XCOM 2.