History Headscratchers / XCom2

** They also have teleporters

*** My headcanon is that the wearing of national flags is a way of flipping the alien-controlled world government the bird, and demonstrating loyalty to the way the world was, with humanity in control of its destiny. As for why Bradford kept the callsign "Central"... it's his callsign. Those things are like a name. You don't just change it. Besides, Bradford may have wanted to keep it as a reminder of happier times.
*** That, and Firebrand's Skyranger could be the prototype or a different model than the one we used in the first game, sacrificing range for speed and maneuverability (how else do you think she's capable of safely escaping ADVENT interceptors and anti-air when she's extracting you?).
*** Alternatively, XCOM relied on Council nations to provide Skyranger with aerial refuel for intercontinental missions.
*** This is the correct answer. The novelization reveals that the Skyranger we have in the game is a prototype version of next-gen Skyranger that was planned to replace the one we see in EU. However, because XCOM lost, it was abandoned and only later recovered by XCOM to serve as a new means of inserting troops.
*** If you look closely, the Skyranger appears to be a heavily modified version of the same transports ADVENT used to land reinforcements. Presumably at some point they stole one, retrofitted and repainted it, and named it after the old Skyranger because they couldn't exactly keep calling it 'ADVENT Dropship' without confusing everyone as to which was friend and which was foe.

*** Or they could be gathering them to take to a workshop where the failsafe can be disabled.

*** Also, in order to get to the Point Of Divergence, you had to get pretty far and do pretty well in ''Enemy Unknown''.
*** Not quite, since in this continuity, XCOM didn't even develop laser weapons (i think) it's pretty clear the aliens attacked the base way earlier than in Enemy Within.
*** XCOM was wiped out earlier than the base assault in Enemy Within, that's true; however, [[spoiler: XCOM was only wiped out because the world leaders defected, and presumably, gave away the base's location because XCOM didn't accept their surrender]]. The Commander, by the way they are spoken of by Bradford and Shen Sr., put up one hell of a fight against the invasion. XCOM may have lost soldiers, and it may have failed missions -we don't know all the details. What we do know is that the Commander was highly respected for their tactical mind and leadership, by friend and foe alike. [[spoiler: Enough that the Ethereals, haughty, arrogant, and prideful as they are, were willing to offer the Commander a spot in their circle for the Commander's feats. It may have been a last-ditch attempt to persuade the Commander, but whether through fear or respect, they did NOT want to be on the business end of the Commander's war machine any longer.]] Not to mention how XCOM goes from a hopeless rebellion to an alien ass-kicking machine mere months (if that) after the Commander is rescued and takes charge...

*** It's also implied that the natural state for a muton is closer to a berserker. Therefore if you reverted the wrong part of an archons DNA you could end up with an archon with the extra strength, endurance and aggression of a berserker.

*** The game actually [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on that last fact itself: Upon encountering the Archon King, Bradford says something along the lines of. "So she was tampering with their genetics, but why the ''hell'' would she develop more potent weaponry for them?!" It points towards Vahlen being too much of a MadScientist to know where to stop without the commander's oversight

*** The ones you see/fight are repeatedly stated to be incomplete, even the commander's.
*** Yeah, your death squad managed to kill one lone Avatar. Congrats. Now go fight thirty of them at once and see how well you do.

*** should also be pointed out.... trying to hit the part of the target that moves the most, and isn't carrying a team-slaughtering RAPID-FIRING MAG CANNON and an even larger BFG is probably not the smartest decision.
* Almost every type of alien can be explained with Enemy Unknown. The Sectoids are here, although changed, the Thin Men are the Vipers, the Outsiders were probably upgraded to or replaced by the Codex, the Floaters are now the Archon, Mutons are here, Berserkers are here, Chrysalids are here, Sectopods are here, the Cyberdiscs were propably upgraded to the Gatekeepers, and the Avatar is basically an Ethereal in a human body. The only exceptions are the Faceless and the Andromedon. What about them? How did they join the party?
** They were likely either not viable for the Ethereals' plans in the first invasion, since the Faceless probably needed more extensive conditioning and training and the Andromedons feel more like some kind of heavy support or engineering machine that happens to be able to kill humans well. Alternately, they were new forces either engineered or brought in after Earth fell. The Ethereals and ADVENT had twenty years to occupy Earth, that's more than enough time to develop new weapons and designs and bring in new troops from elsewhere.

* Almost every type of alien can be explained with Enemy Unknown. The Sectoids are here, altough changed, the Thin Men are the Vipers, the Outsiders were propably upgraded to or replaced by the Codex,the Floaters are now the Archon, Mutons are here, Berserkers are here, Chrysalids are here, Sectopods are here, the Cyberdiscs were propably upgraded to the Gatekeepers, [[spoiler: and the Avatar is basically an Etherial in a human body.]] The only exceptions are the Faceless and the Andromedon. What about them? How did they join the party?

* Almost every type of alien had some role in Enemy Unknown. The Sectoids are here, altough changed, the Thin Men are the Vipers, the Outsiders were propably upgraded to or replaced by the Codex,the Floaters are now the Archon, Mutons are here, Berserkers are here, Chrysalids are here, Sectopods are here, the Cyberdiscs were propably upgraded to the Gatekeepers, [[spoiler: and the Avatar is basically an Etherial in a human body.]] The only exceptions are the Faceless and the Andromedon. What about them? How did they join the party?

*** should also be pointed out.... trying to hit the part of the target that moves the most, and isn't carrying a team-slaughtering RAPID-FIRING MAG CANNON and an even larger BFG is probably not the smartest decision.

** In the real world, soldiers are trained to shoot center mass at any target, even tanks and IFVs. Heck, even ATGMs will aim for the whole tank and not go for specific parts of the tank. Sure, it'd be easier to punch through a hatch, but a Javelin isn't that accurate, and it's a OneHiteKill anywhere it hits anyway. The point is, it's better to score a garunteed damaging hit, than waste ammo going for something more vital that you might not hit anyway.

** Who said they aren't? The game's combat is an abstraction. You think everyone's really just standing around letting each other take turns killing each other?

** Your soldiers miss point blank shots to the center mass, do you really want to rely on them being capable of hitting the much thinner legs?

* So the plasma weapons in the game are stated to be able to melt through at least a few inches of alien alloys, but why doesn't anyone ever consider shooting at a sectopod's legs when its in the high stance mode? I feel like losing a leg would be extremely detrimental to a bipedal robot, especially of that size.

*** The ones you see/fight are repeatedly stated to be incomplete, even the commander's.

** honestly I don't really get what is supposed to be so powerful about the avatars. My death squad killed one, and [[spoiler: in my own avatar I managed to kill 4 at the same time.]] I mean, as I understood it, the avatar was never really about making the ethereals MORE powerful. They are already psionic gods. [[spoiler: The point of the avatar project was to genetically engineer a physical form sturdy enough to contain the immense psionic power of an ethereal mind/soul, since their own bodies were slowly being destroyed by their immense power. its a cure, not a weapon]]

** honestly I don't really get what is supposed to be so powerful about the avatars. My death squad killed one, and in my own avatar I managed to kill 4 at the same time. I mean, as I understood it, the avatar was never really about making the ethereals MORE powerful. They are already psionic gods. [[spoiler: The point of the avatar project was to genetically engineer a physical form sturdy enough to contain the immense psionic power of an ethereal mind/soul, since their own bodies were slowly being destroyed by their immense power. its a cure, not a weapon]]

### The Ethereals [[spoiler: having found their cure]], choose to make their final stand on Earth. If they're unable to convince X-com and any resistence to stand with them, X-Com and the rest of humanity would be wiped out easilly by the [[spoiler: ''Ethereal-controlled'' completed]] Avatars so they wouldn't have to fight a war on two fronts. In neither case, humanity survives as we know it.

** It's possible that it can be a "training ground" of sorts for Thin Men/The Speaker(s), by getting them immersed in a human environment before sending them out into the world. Either that, or the enclosure is for [[LesCollaborteurs some human scientists working on the Avatar Project]], [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere who either ran away]] [[YouHaveFailedMe or were executed]] by the time to play gets there.

** The sheer psionic power of a [[spoiler:''completed'']] Avatar would be enough to wipe out anything humanity can muster against it. Its psionic abilities are off the charts, as seen by how [[spoiler:The Commander, a human[[note]]with psionic augmentation, but still, human[[/note]], is able to fight off the psionic assault of '''5''' ''ethereals'' and ''win'' in an ''incomplete'' avatar]]. "Alright", you may say. "But how is that the end of humanity?" Two cases can be made for that:

* exactly how does the avatar project = the apocalypse? Everyone is so sure that if the project is completed, it will be "the end, for all of us" but why? HOW? Alright so [[spoiler: millions of people were melted down into soylent green.]] But thats not the apocalypse....

** There's an indication that they took some time to win, going by how the Muton who took the Commander was an XCOM 2 Muton. They would have needed time to integrate human DNA into the Muton to make that.

*** Alternatively, XCom relied on Council nations to provide Skyranger with aerial refuel for intercontinental missions.

** It's likely that the aliens in XCOM 2's timeline just didn't bother playing the same game they did in Enemy Unknown, where they gradually leak out their technology to see if humans can create an immensely powerful psychic like the Volunteer. In the XCOM 2 timeline, they just attacked with overwhelming conventional force and crushed all opposition.