XCOM 2

[SupremacyKing2]

Long War 2 is now available to download for free from Steam!! Yes!!!

 

[Sonereal]

Long War 2 is so good. 10/10

 

[ls612]

Does the long war 2 mod incorporate in the two gameplay DLCs?

 

[sherbz]

Does the long war 2 mod incorporate in the two gameplay DLCs?

Yes. Although i have not got that far yet. Just downloaded it this morning. And wow is it different. Its like a totally different game. One thing i totally messed up is that you really need to get your infiltration to 100%. Otherwise the map is really really difficult. So on some missions you want small squads. Theres a lot to learn. I know what im doing this weekend

 

[SupremacyKing2]

And wow is it different. Its like a totally different game. One thing i totally messed up is that you really need to get your infiltration to 100%. Otherwise the map is really really difficult. So on some missions you want small squads. Theres a lot to learn. I know what im doing this weekend

Yeah, it really is a different game. The overall strategy seems to be different. In the base game, the overall goal is to grab as much supplies and intel on the strategic map as possible, level up your squad, and complete the special missions. Now, the goal is to infiltrate regions, manage the resistance and liberate as many regions as possible.

Infiltration is one of the big changes that took me a second to figure out. You no longer launch missions immediately. Instead, you have to infiltrate with a squad and wait. And now, you will have several missions being infiltrated at the same time. Yeah, you definitely want the infiltration level to be over 100%. I am still not sure how many soldiers a squad should have. I am going with 6. It feels right. I tried a mission with the maximum number and I feel that the squad was too big. It was unwieldy.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I do have a question: what happened to the sharpshooter? In the base game, even the squaddie had ok aim and you could perch it on top of a roof and snipe enemy soldiers. In LW2, it seems to have gotten a major nerf. The sharpshooter has a hit chance of like 10% now unless it is close to the enemy. The sharpshooter feels kinda useless in the beginning.

 

[sherbz]

I do have a question: what happened to the sharpshooter? In the base game, even the squaddie had ok aim and you could perch it on top of a roof and snipe enemy soldiers. In LW2, it seems to have gotten a major nerf. The sharpshooter has a hit chance of like 10% now unless it is close to the enemy. The sharpshooter feels kinda useless in the beginning.

I have been installing sharpshooters in my havens. Their holotargeting ability is useful on the resistance warriors. As when you hit a rendezvous mission, they will be on the map with all the rookies. So I would try that.

I'm liking it so far. I think the new mechanic of infiltration is great. You just need to appreciate that about a third of missions are not even worth attempting. You need about 6 days minimum to infiltrate. Unless you have an über squad. So just skip them unless you want to spend Intel and beef up your infiltration score.

 

[sherbz]

So, general strategy thoughts for long war 2. You could call them my 10 tips of success:

1. If you do attempt a mission at less than 100 infiltration, then make sure you have a decent crew. Otherwise prepare to get pasted. And work out roughly where you will be before you commit to infiltrating.
2. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, try every mission. If it has a good reward - like a scientist or engineer, then its ok to try a mission at a 4 day expiry. Otherwise ignore them.
3. Squad size should be at least 5 or 6 for all missions. Depending on infiltration time. 4 is sometimes ok, but you need a high infiltration score.
4. Conversely, at the beginning at least, if you have loads of time to infiltrate (like 9 days) then you can send a bunch of rookies and still be ok
5. Try and get 3 havens up ASAP. And when you do, turn all of the members into either intel, supplies, or recruits. Probably best to put supplies in your home base as they deplete later in the campaign, so may as well get them now. The reason for this is that you can assign either a scientist, a soldier, or an engineer to a haven to boost either intel, recruits, or supplies - so it maximises your profitability doing it this way. In all cases you want 1 scientists, 1 engineers and then later, 2 soldiers staffing these havens. The other engineer (you need 2) should be clearing stuff at home.
6. Save intel burns on dicey missions for either scientists or engineers. They are worth 100 odd supplies, which is a lot in LW2.
7. Hacking is more valuable now. Watch out for alien alloy caches. They are worth either 20 or 40 (i think) and thats massive for the early game. It makes the risk worth it now if your tactical situation is ok.
8. Corpses are valuable - dont sell them unless you have to. From what i can tell, you only get corpses from supply raids and haven assaults. So they are fairly rare. And dont sell resources unless you luck out on an a hacking raid. Early elerium means you get laser weapons earlier which is huge.
9. GTS is still the best pick first for facilities. AWC is also nice, but choosing which class someone is best suited to is unmatched IMO. And you can still get everything the AWC has to offer anyway, although that should be the second pick. Next get power relay and then either resistance comms or proving ground (or workshop).
10. Early doors your best classes are probably Shinobi's. They have a high hit % with their sword, and can do a lot of damage. They are vulnerable though. It switches what was a problem in XCOM 2 (swords were weak) and makes them good now, especially with the grazing mechanic. Gunners are also really good as they get hail of bullets early and that 100% hit basically makes mince meat out of most enemies.

 

[Sonereal]

It could be because they changed how aiming angles work. Specifically, they do not work anymore. Combine that with Not Created Equally and mobility-heavy missions and you have a recipe for problematic sharpshooters. With that said, I find sharpshooters on high ground to be really really really useful. My sharpshooters tend to be my personal favorites beside my shinobis.

Does the long war 2 mod incorporate in the two gameplay DLCs?

Yes. SPARKS are about to get pretty substantial buffs, and the Alien Rulers stuff is there as well. I haven't encountered rulers or done the Nest yet.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I tried Long War 2 for a little bit but went back to playing a standard campaign in the regular game. I am sure I will give LW2 another try when the mood suits me but I kinda like the base game a lot. The base game feels just right to me. LW2 is cool but boy does it make the game long and difficult, a bit too much for my taste.

 

[Barathor]

I tried Long War 2 for a little bit but went back to playing a standard campaign in the regular game. I am sure I will give LW2 another try when the mood suits me but I kinda like the base game a lot. The base game feels just right to me. LW2 is cool but boy does it make the game long and difficult, a bit too much for my taste.

A designer knows they have achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away... and LW2 is pretty bloated. Firaxis just plays along because it renews interest in the game for some of their fans.

I prefer to wait for the official expansion as I play the base game with the third DLC (I pretend that the first two don't exist). An announcement should probably be "soon".

 

[SupremacyKing2]

A designer knows they have achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away... and LW2 is pretty bloated. Firaxis just plays along because it renews interest in the game for some of their fans.

I prefer to wait for the official expansion as I play the base game with the third DLC (I pretend that the first two don't exist). An announcement should probably be "soon".

"bloated" is the right word. LW2 seems to throw everything and the kitchen sink into the game. There is too much in the game. I too hope to see another official DLC. The alien rulers DLC and Shen's Last Gift DLC were great. They added something meaningful to the gameplay without messing with the core of the game. So I really look forward to seeing what Firaxis comes up with next. And of course, I really hope to see a XCOM3 at some point. I can't wait to see where Firaxis takes the XCOM story next.

 

[sherbz]

"bloated" is the right word. LW2 seems to throw everything and the kitchen sink into the game. There is too much in the game. I too hope to see another official DLC. The alien rulers DLC and Shen's Last Gift DLC were great. They added something meaningful to the gameplay without messing with the core of the game. So I really look forward to seeing what Firaxis comes up with next. And of course, I really hope to see a XCOM3 at some point. I can't wait to see where Firaxis takes the XCOM story next.

This is true in some respects. The original Long War was like this too. They added an option called "Dynamic war", which was like a Long War lite. The whole premise on it though is that it is supposed to simulate an attritional conflict. And on that score it does it very well. I just kind of wish they had added a whole bunch of second wave options so that you can tailor it to your tastes.

I fully expect Firaxis to launch an expansion for XCOM2. Hopefully it will be a proper expansion unlike enemy within (which was exactly the same campaign only with the addition of gene mods and meld). Based upon the ending cinematic, it may well have something to do with the oceans.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Based upon the ending cinematic, it may well have something to do with the oceans.

That would make sense. The aliens had that huge underwater facility. Maybe there are more such facilities yet to be discovered. The sequel could start a few years after xcom wins, earth is slowly rebuilding and the aliens launch a counter attack from another underwater facility. And, I know XCOM has always been about earth but I would love to see a space based xcom game where you use the psionic portals and travel to other planets to fight the aliens.

 

[coanda]

I know XCOM has always been about earth but I would love to see a space based xcom game where you use the psionic portals and travel to other planets to fight the aliens.

X-COM: Interceptor was primarily space combat. X-COM: Apocalypse eventually had you using portals to take the offensive. So your idea isn't that far out there compared to what's been done in the past.

Although my personal opinion is that the best game along those lines wouldn't even technically be an XCOM game at all. There's an amazing Stargate game just begging to be made; it would be an even better setting.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Although my personal opinion is that the best game along those lines wouldn't even technically be an XCOM game at all. There's an amazing Stargate game just begging to be made; it would be an even better setting.

WOW. I think you are on to something big. The XCOM mechanics would fit a Stargate game really well. The turn based tactical mechanics would work really well with a SG1 mission. You could move your SG1 squad, takes actions just like XCOM etc... The strategic layer would work too. You could have a map of the galaxy and pick the planet to travel to, do a tactical mission to sabotage a goauld installation or protect a planet. You could gain supplies and gear to level up your squad with the ultimate goal of defeating the Goauld. It would be amazing. Unfortunately, the only Stargate game we got was a poorly made first person shooter.

 

[sherbz]

So apparently its possible to complete a swarming and impregnable mission on LW2. I saw it on youtube last night (I cant link it as im at work). For info, he loaded up 8 soldiers when the infiltration timer was at 1 day and something hours. And he went in there with about 17% infiltration. And he managed it. I think that sort of strategy is high risk and high reward. He didn’t lose anyone though. So seems as though it is a viable strategy to attempt those sorts of missions when the timer is low. I think in large part because theres no timers. So it doesn’t actually matter how long you take. He killed 40 enemies though, and used a sh1t storm of explosives. So if you do attempt then be prepared for that.


I think I have mostly sussed Long War now. Have not been able to play that much. But im just about to hit the facility. I really like the reversed supply raids (when ever increasing numbers of Advent spawn in and you have to set up a series of ambushes). Thing is the game keeps throwing in curve balls that you have to deal with. And it makes the campaign more interesting over a longer period. Much like the original in fact.


Regarding the other point, I kind of think for the expansion they should do a reverse avatar project. So in this situation you need to do something or research something before you get overwhelmed by enemies. So envisage hordes of enemies coming out of the sea, and attacking relentlessly. And over time they conquer the territory you won in the first campaign. You initiate a project in retaliation that aims to stem the tide of the aliens, and if you succeed, then you do so before you are overwhelmed. That would be pretty cool I think. And fits in with the defensive mechanic that sort of embeds much of XCOM.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Regarding the other point, I kind of think for the expansion they should do a reverse avatar project. So in this situation you need to do something or research something before you get overwhelmed by enemies. So envisage hordes of enemies coming out of the sea, and attacking relentlessly. And over time they conquer the territory you won in the first campaign. You initiate a project in retaliation that aims to stem the tide of the aliens, and if you succeed, then you do so before you are overwhelmed. That would be pretty cool I think. And fits in with the defensive mechanic that sort of embeds much of XCOM.

That actually would be very cool. It's is always interesting to flip the script and let the player do things from the other perspective. So instead of stopping a project, we are not the ones that have to complete a project before the aliens take the planet back. I like it.

 

[BvBPL]

I’ve been playing Long War 2. I played Xcom, but while I had heard about Long War I had never played it.

I’m not sure how much better Long War 2 makes Xcom 2. There are a lot of fiddly changes, but I’m not really seeing how it so great. I’m told Long War was the best thing since sliced toast, but I’m not getting the same feeling from Long War 2.

By the way, when does Shen’s Last Gift fire in Long War 2? I’m months in and I haven’t gotten the offer for it yet.

 

[Maniacal]

I'm going to wait on LW2 for a year or two, it's going to need time and polish but it will be amazing I'm sure.

I think Xcom 2 would be perfect for a few total conversions, Mass Effect 3 retaking Earth for example. I'm sure some Star Wars story line could be easily whipped up to fit the game design too.

I'm most of the way through Xcom 2 now and plan on finishing it today, it's got some great improvements but overall I don't think it's quite as good as Xcom EW's setting and how the game plays out. But it's a good sequel for sure. The Long War for Xcom EW is great, though I'm not a fan of everything in it and am not looking for the super hardcore have to game everything style it encourages. Luckily there are plenty of options to make it a little easier (or harder) and you can manually tweak stuff so it becomes a longer, harder but a little less gamey playthrough that I quite enjoy.

Also Xcom EU/EW doesn't have very many utterly pointless extra animations, way too long or slow animations (what the hell is the point of one enemy pointing in your men's direction at the end of the enemy turn? It's a waste of time), random cutscenes that really don't serve any purpose (showing you the building where the target of the mission is when you get close to it, yes game I KNOW WHERE IT IS. ITS BEEN MARKED AND VISIBLE THE WHOLE TIME).

Even with a mod to reduce or get rid of a lot of that there is still tonnes of it and it's really annoying. Also Bradford needs to shut up (another mod I also installed, still doesn't get rid of a lot of his repetivie and pointless interruptions).