Xcom 2

The Infiltration mechanic(s) look quite interesting. I like this little intro to them (and the rest of LW2’s strategic changes): https://youtu.be/Mn78E_7ZJes?list=PLkr09O8z61-oQlwmtjnczgQTccjbZP_9n

So much else to digest to start getting a handle on LW2. The Archives section in the Commander’s Quarters (on the Avenger) seems to have some pretty good documentation on the LW2 changes. I’ve only played the opening mission so far, so I can’t really comment on the accuracy of the documentation or the video.

Played the first mission in LW2.

Seemed pretty hard on commander. I lost one person who was one hit from across half the map while in light cover by a heavy gunner. It was a pretty bullshit shot but i guess xcom is infamous for that. Height still seems to have little meaning without the mod. A character ambushing an enemy below her while shooting from a 3 story building still has almost no chance to hit and gets easily hit by return fire, even in cover.

I like that they gave everyone armor but lower health. It feels like it works better than what i remember.

i was kind of shocked when i started the mission up and had something like 8 people (i did not change this with mods previously), but it worked pretty well.

LW2 probably means i will play this over Fallout 4 after i finish my witcher 3 Blood & wine playthrough.

According to Xavier Wynns (QA on LW2, Author of the previous video I linked and the following playlist), height accuracy advantage is toned down in LW2. He says nothing about defense bonuses.

Anyway, the aforementioned and subsequently linked playlist is really good. The guy knows the mod inside and out, showcases a few really cool features and implications of the new structure (one man hacking mission, etc.). It’s got me pumped to put some time in.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkr09O8z61-oQlwmtjnczgQTccjbZP_9n

Also, purportedly the difficulty has been raised significantly. Not sure it’s wise to start on Commander unless you’re willing to accept many defeats before you figure things out. Time will tell, I suppose.

Why the heck would they tone it down, it was already low enough that height calculations seemed broken in the vanilla game.

I just want smart positioning to have a significant effect and it still seems like it does not going by the first mission.

Scuttlebut. A ship’s water keg. Often a center of gossip, much like a water cooler. Thus the slang term ‘scuttlebut’ meaning gossip.

/annoying pedantry

Does 10% chance to graze default in LW2 seem high for anyone else? This game tilts me like no other.

It is xcom after all.

What are essential quality of life mods besides Showmetheskills and Bleedoutmod?

Blackmarket Usage tells you when in the black market screen what certain items can be used to build.

Stop Wasting My Time removes a bunch of the slow motion effects and random pauses in the game.

Quiet Bradford stops Bradford from talking/reprimanding you so much mid-mission.

Overwatch All/Others gives you buttons allowing you to place an entire squad on overwatch at once (or everyone but the selected soldier).

Evac All gives you a button that lets you evac all soldiers in the evac zone at once instead of one at a time.

Gotcha is the most important, imo. With Long War 2, you might also look for a mod that shows which enemies are carrying loot – although some might consider this cheating.

Regarding @DantesWitness’s recommendations, they seem good to me – although, I don’t think you need “Stop Wasting My Time” anymore. I’m pretty sure the LW team has incorporated its functionality. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Perfect Information is a good mod, too. It shows you all the squad and enemy hit percentages (as well as other stuff), which can be really helpful in the long run.

Long War 2 fixes the XCOM mechanics to match the game thematics. It’s amazing. You will very often have very successful missions that were completed by running for your life without killing more than a pod or two. You will find yourself sending just 2 or 3 soldiers sometimes and trying to avoid combat entirely. You will find yourself sending a lone soldier ot the other side of a map to throw a nade and draw the patrols away, so your main squad can make a run at the objective. You will find yourself hunkering down and throwing flashbangs in a fighting retreat for 3 turns just trying to survive until evac arrives. You will find yourself saying fuck it and sending 10 soldiers to brute force another mission. You will find yourself choosing to not to do certain missions because Advent is paying way too much attention to that region and you need to draw them away to preserve your vital supply income. So much more variety in the game play!

Strongly recommend setting the difficulty one lower than you played regular XCOM. So vanilla normal, pick Rookie. Vanilla Commander, pick Veteran. If you’re unsure which difficulty, default to the lower one, the new mechanics will stuff you enough as it is. Two important concepts:

  1. The infiltration mechanic. The mission difficulty listed, like ‘light’, will only be accurate if you get 100% infiltration. There are diminishing returns after 100%, so you generally want to aim for 100. If the highest you can get is like 20 or 30, there’s no point in even trying to send a small squad. Expect to skip about half the missions offered. If you have only have a day to prepare it’s almost certainly a skip. If you really have to do the mission then send 10 of your best and fight like hell, because having a large force will be more helpful than going from 0% to 20%. You can find missions with more time on them by setting more Haven workers to work on intel, and Scanning in that region helps too.

  2. The majority of mission types you don’t have to kill everything the map. Even the missions that seem the same as vanilla don’t have this requirement any more. And you aren’t expected to be able to clear the entire map.

Another good series of quick intro vids:

For LW2 mods, going from deaconivory’s recommended list, just some of the basic QoL mods. Nothing that changes gameplay.

  • Gotcha
  • Evac All
  • Overwatch All/Others
  • Perfect Information
  • Free Camera Rotation
  • Stop Wasting My Time
  • Show Health Values for a tiny tweak, or Numeric Health Display for a larger one, pick one
  • Capnbubs Accessories Pack just for more high quality junk

That’s it for me. I am probably going to also add Quick Soldier Info to get soldier icons on the edge of the screen, like character portraits in an RPG. Easy to see that 4 soldiers have already moved, etc, at a glance.

You can play with or without the official XCOM DLC as it’s not much a factor either way. The items have been somewhat balanced in LW2 but there are no changes to the narrative missions from the DLC. Most of the beta testers said they played mostly with no DLC, or just Alien Hunters. Also note that you can choose to play with the DLC items/mechanics, but skip the missions, at campaign creation. So you can research how to build a Spark and it’s just part of the game.

Any chance The Long War 2 mod will be made available for consoles?

Certainly not anytime soon, but since 2K was involved in this mod it’s not impossible in the long run. I doubt it though, I bet adding hooks for mods is a certification nightmare.

I also like the following QoL mods:

I use all of these. Great list.

Those look nice, thanks.

Is it worth me even playing the game without the long war mod initially? I’ve had it for a while but never played it.

No.

I haven’t played much of LW2, but based on xcom1 vs LW1 and available information for LW2 vs playing xcom2, No.

I’d disagree just as I always do with this same question for Total War games.

For whatever reason most mod makers think making a game harder necessarily makes it more interesting.

I don’t happen to agree with that sentiment. I want decisions that are enhanced due to deeper layers or more nuanced, not just harder (or as in the case of LW1, excruciatingly long).

Where LW2 makes for deeper decisions, it’ll be great, but if it’s like every other mod for me at least, I’ll find it to be a case of 2 steps forward followed by one step back in terms of game modification decisions. For example, I’m not interested at all in playing xcom2 as a stealth game. So that game design modification alone means I’m never likely to think much of LW2.