I prefer WOTC’s handling of sending units on (usually) non-interactive extra missions for handling that. The game is arguably a little bit too long as it is; I don’t want to waste time basically grinding up backup troops in missions I will probably never lose.
Ragan
2992
Long War from Xcom 1 is the only mod/game that has ever made me rage quit. After one really frustrating mission, I deleted all my Long War saves and uninstalled the mod.
I tried it again about 6 months later. After my first mission (capture an alien transport ship) I knew I was in for a “long war” because there were 40+ aliens on that mission.
I know the mod author said that you were not meant to do every mission, but I did anyway. By the time I beat it, I was on UFO-400+. It took me over 4 months of playing it solid, multiple hours a day to finish it.
For me, XCOM 1 Long War pushed the game way beyond what the limited UI was capable of and made what should have been trivial housekeeping into a major chore. I’d finally had enough by the time I’d got EXALT under control and left it, never to return. I meant to check it out in XCOM 2 but they kinda snagged a bunch of the major plus points anyway and I… never bothered.
I do find that after the first playthrough of these type of games, once I get over the midgame hump I find it difficult to want to continue. LW just felt like one long drawn out hump.
Quaro
2994
There’s actually 4 other difficulties BELOW the 4 you see normally. It’s been a long time since I’ve played so I forget how to toggle those, but I think it was the README? Edit: Looked it up:
We’ve actually included an alternate config file with far easier settings that should be pretty easy to plug in – basically four more difficulty levels. In your version of
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config
Rename DefaultGameCore.ini to something else and then rename DefaultGameCore - Training.ini to DefaultGameCore.ini.
You might need to delete your My Games/config files (see troubleshooting file for details) to finish the install.
EDIT: I should add that this doesn’t change the localization text, so the 4th difficulty level is still called “impossible” – but it’s not.
And yes, you are not supposed to take on the giant sized UFO that shows up in the first month or whatever. That’s supposed to show you that you have to pick and choose your fights, and even retreat (trap missions), this isn’t like XCOM where everything you face will be just the right challenge level.
Note the changes to cover and how it’s more effective and reduces damage. Make use of stuff like flashbangs to end turns if you can’t be sure you finish off the last enemy. There are also a lot of ways to avoid accidentally activating enemies. Motion scanners let you flank without worry! (They cost no actions.)
Edit: I guess I’ll bump the last 24 hours of the Long War developers Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terrainvicta/terra-invicta/ since I’m in here.
I did watch a video or two showing some ways to play LW, and it did help me see how to be a lot more tactical and proceed a lot more slowly. I still think the Second Wave option for better accuracy is something I will need, because jeez, stock troopers SUCK.
Papageno
2996
Anyone tried to reproduce the one-turn battle victory glitch that The Spiffing Brit covers in this video? I tried reproducing it but it appears that it may have been patched out.
No, but if you’re going to go that far, why not just use a trainer?
Spiffling Brit things are fun
Actually, as it turns out, it only works with vanilla XCOM 2, and not with War of the Chosen. I tested it on an old save game of the former and it worked like a charm. Triggered all kinds of pods simultaneously and dispatched them with no problems. Kinda fun, but silly.
BTW, what’s the deal with the Teamwork ability for bonded soldiers? It seems like sometimes it uses up one of the grantor’s actions on his turn and sometimes it doesn’t.
Is that the one that gives back an AP if you spent one?
No, it’s the one where XCOM soldiers who are bondmates can give each other one shared extra action point per mission at a critical juncture. What I’m not clear on is if the grantor is giving up one of his/her regular two action points on the current turn or if the one extra action point per mission is a bonus one, a product of their being bonded at level 1. Maybe it requires being in relative proximity (some level 2 bond stuff does).
There are times when I think the grantor still has a point to spend, and then he/she uses teamwork, and suddenly the grantor has no more actions, but other times it doesn’t seem like that. Maybe I’m just losing track of available action points.
Papageno
3003
Hoo boy is that “Surgical Sitrep” mission where you have to take out the comms relay BS, and I’m just playing on normal. Not only are you supposed to destroy the relay with only a three-soldier squad, facing at least 12 enemies (including 2 Mutons, 3 Codexes, an Andromedon, a Priest, a Shieldbearer, and Gatekeeper (is that what those ball things are called?) plus at least one wave of reinforcements with an Officer and its own Shieldbearer, but you’re supposed to kill all hostiles before GTFO-ing. If you don’t do that last bit and you have wounded (which I just managed to eke out by not triggering the pod with the Gatekeeper and 2 Codexes, and much savescumming) you get a Poor rating. Honestly. My squad was Dragunova at Colonel and my starting Sniper and Ranger at Colonel as well, all wearing the armor level that costs 300 Supply + whatever for the squad upgrade.
Vanilla or skip it and go straight to WOTC? Does WOTC basically do everything better and supercede Vanilla? Targeting a normal playthrough with some simple QOL mods.
My take would be WOTC, once I played with it I would never play Xcom 2 again w/o it on.
Quaro
3006
Unless you plan on replaying many many times, go right to WOTC. Otherwise it’s kind of weird how the new story beats are interleaved with story stuff you already saw in Vanilla.
If you really want to replay, you can go with Long War 2.
WOTC. It’s not really much of a decision.
There is A LOT of stuff going on with WOTC, especially if you’re also playing with the alien rulers and robot DLC, it can be overwhelming on a first playthrough. An endless stream of tutorial messages and notifications about new stuff you need manage.
By the way, if you are playing WOTC with all the DLC, you are given an option to “integrate DLC”. What this actually does is disable the story missions that introduces them because the those story missions don’t balance optimally with some of the new WOTC mechanics. So instead the rulers and robots are just thrown into the game without much gating or introduction. If you uncheck “integrate DLC”, that stuffis activated when you decide to do the relevant story missions.
Grifman
3010
So which do you recommend. There seem to be pros and cons with each option.
