XCOM 2
[WOTC] Proxian Soldier Unit
BadNeighbour 28 Jun, 2023 @ 1:16am
Balance
I was writing out a post for the modpage, but as it was getting very long I thought it might be better here. I've been playing this with LWotC, which is worth keeping in mind for the balance feedback I'll give below.

I'd echo what a few people seem to have said - very fun, wildly overpowered, for a few reasons;

Too flexible - the class can do pretty much anything, which only gets worse as you level up. It can tank for most of your team (early game I don't even bother with cover), it has a rocket launcher, dash melee for one action which shreds, light em up and an extremely potent self heal if the unit ever does take meaningful damage.
I'm around the end of midgame at the moment with the T3 melee weapon (meaning I also set enemies on fire) and I've noticed the rocket scales to add even more damage and rupture. Dread to think what the T3 handblaster will do. I took Total Combat from the Xcom skill row, meaning I also have single action grenades and a free grenade slot (though I'm not sure whether that's part of the mod out of the box).
I see in the Perks and Points thread that there's an emergency teleport ability. Is this still a thing? It's definitely not required - this guy has never come close to getting killed and I'm not exactly careful with him. This implies I could have been even more reckless.

Overpowered rankup abilities - A 1 turn cooldown single action teleport, a single-action guaranteed perma-haywire mech takeover with 3 charges, better Overdrive allowing 3 actions in one turn even if they're melee dash actions (it's insane how much you can get done with this), secondary melee attack to disable weapons, electro psi-lance (another devastating skill when combined with overdrive)... honestly, it says a lot that I went with the massive AoE cluster missile at the last rank and I almost never use it.

No weakness - I suspect the low mobility was the intended downside of the class. However, the teleport skill is more than enough to move around faster than other soldiers, and you can use the overdrive + melee combo to get around it low mobility too (3 movement + melee attack for one action). The only other downside I've found is I can't use command on the Proxian, but with its insane action economy I don't really need to. As a robot, the Proxian also has fire, bleed, psi, KO, crushing and poison immunity.

A few suggestions:

Hyperdrive should be last rank ability. It doesn't work well with the missile barrage (a two action ability) so it makes sense to have them on the same tier, and it's far too powerful to be obtained so early. This makes many of the Proxian's other abilities far more balanced until top rank, and creates more of a trade-off.

The rocket launcher should not be built in - make this a perk instead. The melee, durability and light-em-up abilities are good enough at the low ranks.

Nerf or remove teleport - it's just too good at circumventing weaknesses, and I don't know why anyone would pick anything else at the tier. The longer cooldown shockwave teleport might be safe to keep; I haven't tried it because all you need out of a teleport ability is the movement.

Nerf Nano Construct - even with one charge, this is a crazy ability due to guaranteed success. I'm going to be genuinely happy when I run into sectopods with this. It should have one charge, and some success chance based on enemy hack defence, since the perma-control is so powerful. It perhaps should be a two action ability - it certainly should if it has a guarantee on success and works with overdrive.

Nerf to raw stats - it should have the same health as a regular solider at best if it's going to have built in armour - it will still be durable, but you may actually have to consider defensive small items instead of ignoring them. There's also no reason for it to have aim and hack stats superior to most/all other soldiers. In a pinch, I can teleport to the objective. hack it and have a very good chance of getting a reward, on top of everything else the Proxian does.
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
RustyDios  [developer] 6 Jul, 2023 @ 10:58pm 
Thank you for the detailed write-up and well explained viewpoints.
we will look into your concerns.

Hyperdrive is exactly the same as SPARK Overdrive, in the same rank! The difference here is the perks that can be used with it ... maybe we can make it so the melee-dash can't be used "too much energy powering the hyperdrive to be able to dash" ??

Rocket Launcher is the default heavy weapon, it shouldn't be that strong imo. I feel this is being overhauled by LWotC to be stronger than it should be? It's no different from taking a fresh Spark Unit, or Rage Suit/Exo/War suit unit.

Missile Barrage is even better btw, it's not a two-action perk, it's all in one action ....

Nano-Construct can't be used on large robotic units (like Sectopods), and it should have a Hack vs Hacking Defence Special Aim calculation (We might need to bugfix this?! or make sure it even works)

You have something else buffing Total Combat for the free 'nade slot. Proxians are only ever suppose to have 1 slot. Which LWotC might also be throwing off balance with Ammo/Vest/Utility slot options, and LWotC Ceramic Platings etc.

Health, Ablative and Armour stats are certainly something we have eyes on ...

Low general mobility (but with bursts to catch up) was indeed suppose to be one of the nerfing/limiting factors. So yes maybe the melee-dashing and teleport perks need longer cooldowns.

-Thanks again for your detailed analysis. We're glad you enjoyed the mod and we'll see what happens in the future :)
silverleaf1 20 Jul, 2023 @ 2:46am 
Just to add to the above. Proxian soldiers are not able to go on covert operations, at least not in Covert Infiltration. Such a powerful unit could be handy in some of the ambushes.
RustyDios  [developer] 20 Jul, 2023 @ 3:04am 
Try either the Extended Robotics Repair Facility .. or the Robots On Covert Actions mods ....
silverleaf1 20 Jul, 2023 @ 3:44am 
I don't mind the limitation on covert operations. Since I use the Hive I would not want the Proxian solider unavailable for that long.
silverleaf1 20 Jul, 2023 @ 3:45am 
With the Hive poison immunity is a huge asset.
RustyDios  [developer] 23 Sep, 2023 @ 12:27pm 
v2.0

BALANCE PASS: The long awaited balance pass is now coming to the workshop.
  • exposed normal melee to config
  • normal melee cooldown is now 3 turns
  • shredstorm ammo down to 1
  • shredstorm rupture removed
  • bluescreen missile Action Point cost to 2, but range 1.5x (35 from 26)
  • Proxian defensive setup reduced for all three ranges (HP, Shield, Armour)
  • base health dropped to 6 from 8
  • HP per rank reduced and respread
  • made some other stat changes
  • given a -15def malus so they are easier to hit for enemies
  • def stat slowly increases to be -5 at Colonel rank
  • combat repair points reduced by 2, Action Point cost increased to 2
  • combat repair charges is now 2 for all tiers of armour
  • CV Palm Blaster given an upgrade slot
  • enable Ability Point costs by default

I was going to remove the option to use PCS, but found it rather buggy to not have PCS'

Balance pass inspired by feedback and comments from after this 2man playthrough by RatherIncoherent.
Hartman 28 Mar, 2024 @ 10:05pm 
playing on LWOTC, the nano construct (hacking perk) was able to 100% take over a super heavy mec from pretty far away, maybe it needs to be a close range (8 tiles or less) perk? having the animation as a grapple/whiplash you can make the excuse the nano machines can't travel too far or something.

an attempt to not be able to use them as often idk how hard to code but since cant't get tired and having special adimantine exoskeleton have injurys take twice as long to recover?

shooting out of your palm might need smg range calculations..? the 33% overwatch perk is pretty strong

just a thought for a mastergunnery perk a combat fitness perk for a raw stat upgrade. or resilience (the -30 crit against the unit) or shuffle them into the ranks
the unit is definitely strong, i always send them out on the most important CI, even under infiltrating and they carry the rest of the team.

an elite muton DID put him in bleedout once, didn't tele back to avenger for some reason...
had serial as a bonus AWC perk one time, able to get 4 kills after a dash and flanks for days.

just my thoughts, enjoying the mod immensely!
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