-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
XCOM: Long War | A mod for XCOM: Enemy Within
- Thread starter Sober
- Start date
Ah, well it does make more sense to have everyone yell for satellites than for a bunch of corpses. I mean, not that a Sectoid rug doesn't look awesome, and is one heck of a conversation piece, but when there's an alien invasion going, I can see why people want anti-UFO stuff more. And Elerium because that stuff is awesome.
The aliens are being complete hardasses right now.
Remember that Landed Abductor (?) I took on that Medbay'd 2 of my A-Team? Not only did the aliens send another Landed Abductor on the same map as the first one. Sidenote: This one had only one Berserker and no Mechtoid. Really weird composition. But not even two days after that, they sent a Landed Medium. Literally, as the Skyranger hit base from the Medium, an NOE Abductor shows up. What, the, hell. What is going on right now? It's barely the 8th of the month.
Should I just exhaust some of my more replaceable A-Team and bank on the fact that the aliens are frontloading the hell out of this month? My Airgame all got Laser Cannons, have been on for 2 weeks now after an entire month of repairs, and have only gone in the air once. I have 1 SGT, 4 CPL's (two of which I just got because I got a Muton Capture offer from the Medium as I hit base), a LCPL, and some SPEC's.
EDIT : Or is that another Landed Medium? I honestly can't tell. Lemme to a quick save scum scout because I can't read this stuff. EDIT 2 : Nope, Landed Abductor. I'm gonna take a break and think about it.
Remember that Landed Abductor (?) I took on that Medbay'd 2 of my A-Team? Not only did the aliens send another Landed Abductor on the same map as the first one. Sidenote: This one had only one Berserker and no Mechtoid. Really weird composition. But not even two days after that, they sent a Landed Medium. Literally, as the Skyranger hit base from the Medium, an NOE Abductor shows up. What, the, hell. What is going on right now? It's barely the 8th of the month.
Should I just exhaust some of my more replaceable A-Team and bank on the fact that the aliens are frontloading the hell out of this month? My Airgame all got Laser Cannons, have been on for 2 weeks now after an entire month of repairs, and have only gone in the air once. I have 1 SGT, 4 CPL's (two of which I just got because I got a Muton Capture offer from the Medium as I hit base), a LCPL, and some SPEC's.
EDIT : Or is that another Landed Medium? I honestly can't tell. Lemme to a quick save scum scout because I can't read this stuff. EDIT 2 : Nope, Landed Abductor. I'm gonna take a break and think about it.
Sounds like your aliens are resource starved. That can make them send out a bunch of relatively lightly staffed UFOs to get as many resources as they can. How much Meld do you get per can? Or, if you get a large amount of Meld... sounds like they're up to something big. Expect visitors.
They're attempting to gather resources, at least. If you keep foiling that, they'll get less. Landed Abductors in those numbers is interesting, though. Why not just do an abduction instead?
They're attempting to gather resources, at least. If you keep foiling that, they'll get less. Landed Abductors in those numbers is interesting, though. Why not just do an abduction instead?
PeterVenkman
Member
That's really useful. I'll probably keep playing and try to make the best of my current mistakes, but next time I come at it I'll really avoid that front ledge so as not to aggravate anything. That and hope, unlike this time, that at least one of my rocketeers is set
How do you time those screenshots so well, anyway? Do you record it on video and go frame by frame afterwards? Or do you just have superhuman timing in getting all of the grenade shots like that?
The one time I played that map on LW I camped the back left area. Since the drop-ins start out activated it's feasible if you're smart with your reload/overwatch timing to just annihilate them whenever they charge at you.
Unless it randoms a thin-man into your flank.
lol you asked me the same question two years ago and i'll give you the same answer: i screencap the replay. (Even a turn-based game like XCOM it's impossible for me to play and hold an emergent story in my head at the same time)
Unless it randoms a thin-man into your flank.
lol you asked me the same question two years ago and i'll give you the same answer: i screencap the replay. (Even a turn-based game like XCOM it's impossible for me to play and hold an emergent story in my head at the same time)
I wish I could tell you how much Meld but between the
End of July Landed Abductor > August 4th-ish Heavy (?) Abduction w/ a Mechtoid > August 8th Landed Medium > August 8th Landed Abductor unfortunate series of events, I haven't exactly had time to go crack out a Meld canister. I think I got 1 during the Mechtoid Abduction that had 11? Anyway, I just fatigued half my A-Team w/ an EXALT mission in 3 days that I'll have to do with basically my Sergeant Squad.
This Abductor was a complete ass.
Me - "Hey look, roof Sectoids" *pew pew* "Two out of four down"
Aliens - "Hey Sectoids I heard you needed help!" *Enter, 2 Floaters, 2 Mutons, 2 Berserkers*
Meanwhile, the Sectoids are navigating heavy cover LoS blockers trying to get an amazing flank on me but I have to deal with these Berserkers.
Me - *pew pew* Floaters down in two shots somehow. I use my Engineer to blow up Muton cover and somehow handle the Berserkers in a single turn.
Aliens - "Hey Floaters I heard you needed help!" *Enter, 5 Mutons !!*
Me - "MORE ALIEN GRENADES!!"
This continues for 2 more waves of me taking out half of a pod before another pod shows up. I ended up taking out ~3-4 aliens a turn for 6-7 turns. They just didn't freaking stop! Turns out, every pod on the map was really upset that I interrupted their tea party with the Outsiders at the barge door turned patio (The Command Pod was handing out on both sides of the mega-doors closest to the opening to the Abductor). I swear, every pod in the game has an Outsider call now. It's probably best to just find good heavy cover, activate, and Overwatch Wall during every mission now. I was really proud of my breach though. I set up an Engineer on the left side of the barge opening, my MSGT Assualt on the right along with a Gunner, my Scout, LMG, Sniper on some logs in the front, and the Infantry went covert and activated them from the Interior.
6 Berserkers, 5 Floaters, 4 Sectoids, 8 Mutons, 4 Outsiders.
Actual relevant question: How many Alien Flight Computers do I really need? I have 23 and they're worth some moolah. I also have 15 Alien Power Supply but I know those get rough to find as you go on in the game. Can I sell a reasonable amount of either?
hooijdonk17
Member
So.. As someone who owns XCOM but not EW.. Do I get the Long War(EW) or Xenonauts?
There isn't really a difference, each of the large ship types use the same visual/maps. You're more likely to tag a harvester if you finish a landed abductor map because those will land to do resource/research missions while an abductor generally won't and prefers to go NOE to start an abduction mission.
You generally won't know until you build the hyperwave relay, I think.
Imperfected
Member
Where are you at in terms of satellite coverage? The main things you need them for are Satellite Nexuses (Nexii?) and Firestorms. If you're still mainly on one or two continents, you probably need all of those and more. If you're already comfortably covering as much as you want/need to, you've got more than enough for Firestorms.
As far as Abductors go, I just had one land where - while doing my standard cordon-and-sweep of the perimeter - I ran into a pack of five Muton Elites and two Mechtoids, only to have a pack of six Chryssalids and another pack of two Mechtoids plus two Sectoid Commanders and a smattering of normal Sectoids all blitz me while I was entrenched fighting them.
I mean, I brought three MECs on that mission, so it was doable, but it was pretty dumb considering I had barely moved from the LZ and hadn't activated the command pod.
There's only ever one graphic for LW Abductors/Harvesters (EW Abductors) and one graphic for LW Transports/Terror Ships (EW Supply Barge). Is that what you mean?
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=UFOs_(EU2012)
Most of the time if it shows up on the hologlobe, and you haven't raided 1 of either, you send a ship up to check on the large (unknown) ship to give yourself an educated guess. 99% of the time a NOE abductor is a LW abduction ship about to spawn an abduction mission. And 99% of the time a NOE supply barge is a LW terror ship about to start a terror mission. Again, you could be wrong and for each it could be the latter for each category and they're landing to do research/collect resources instead (or even rarer, the abduction/terror ships creating a landing site to do research/resources).
LW also splits the EW battleship for battle ship/assault carrier, but the latter is usually for base assaults/terror missions and the former is to shoot down satellites.
Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I?
My own game made it to April. Alien Materials researched, and then I realized... no Foundry. Well that was stupid. But I have four Phoenix Cannons incoming which should look very nice on my Interceptors. Next step is find out how to fit in my OTS and get a seventh soldier on the team. And then, when armor, Foundry and OTS is in place, then I will look into Xenoneurology and worry about catching one.
Still wondering if I should go lasers soon, but if I can catch a Sectoid, maybe that would help. If Sectoids are still available by that time. When's a good time to start my Pokémon collection in Long War, anyway?
At least you have one. My items started breaking and I didn't have anything. I just finished making a round of extra laser weapons before I turn it up to Gauss. Or should I forgo that precaution and just go Gauss? God knows I need way more ammo. Don't know how much longer I can keep rolling Scopes + Hi Cap Mags on my Infantry so I can go two turns without reloading.
Let's put it this way.
The moment I got my second Muton Captive (first was for research) I got an offer of double CPL's for it.
I should probably move out to more continents... Still in Asia. I'm gonna break down my Satellite array and replace them with Nexi. I know for a fact pods beline for each other. I once pulled a seeker pod from a Battle Scanner, and the stationary Muton pod behind it started following the turn after. I've adopted the King of the Hill strategy. Set up in an elevated corner of the map, Scout activate, hardcore camp.
Fragamemnon
Member
I start going for captures in June/July or so. I don't even bother with them until I get chem grenades, which really help with captures (a chem'd alien at 1HP will not do anything on its turn, sometimes allowing you two turns of repeated captures). You want chem grenades in July because you can start seeing berserkers and Mechtoids on landed UFOs that month.
You get Chem Grenades off the Thin Man autopsy, correct? And then process a bunch of Thin Men into one handy grenade.
I kind of want to see how that works. Dr. Vahlen may be he mad scientist, but you probably don't want to see what goes on in the back of Dr. Shen's workshop.
Also, aliens take cover behind a fuel pump. I have a grenade. I know I don't get the corpse if I do it, but come on. You pretty much have to. It's like an XCOM law.
"Hmmm. This bile duct is kind of like rubber. I bet you could... Johnson, hand me that duct tape. And if you're going to throw up, do it outside, there's sensitive material in here."
One of the more subtle jokes in the game is to open the XCOM Database ingame and let the audio play for Dr. Shen's entry. He might seem like the sane man on the crew, but you have to have that feeling that XCOM as a whole is slightly unhinged.
I suppose it would have to be. They're the people who jumped up and yelled "Pick me!" when the Council asked who wanted to fight a vastly superior foe both in numbers and technology. You don't get the sanest of people for that, you get the ones who are just crazy enough to pull it off.
If you're playing Long War then yes... but don't expect everything to work out exactly as you remember. You may run into more kinds of aliens than you expect.
Every run through I've done of EU/EW I've had Slingshot/Progeny activated so it was a nice change doing Site Recon with ballistics instead of it being delayed until June or whatever. Apart from that there's at least two other Council missions I've never seen before LW and a bunch of maps that I sort of recall from EU but not EW (poking around nexusmods suggests there's some issue with EW prioritising its own new maps).
So new maps, new missions, new SPECIAL SURPRISE in Newfoundland, lost all my satellites for the first time ever and the British guy's voice isn't anywhere near as bad as I expected when I read they'd added their own voice packs. This mod is ace.
Mister South Africa could say 'prawn' less though.
So new maps, new missions, new SPECIAL SURPRISE in Newfoundland, lost all my satellites for the first time ever and the British guy's voice isn't anywhere near as bad as I expected when I read they'd added their own voice packs. This mod is ace.
Mister South Africa could say 'prawn' less though.
Wow you're right. I'm barely halfway to the boat and I'm in no position to set that up. haha.
Extra Conditioning (for the +4 aim) or Vital Point Targeting (for the +2 damage) on my Damage Infantry? I even gave her both Ranger and Deadeye (because I couldn't remove Ranger). Maybe I should just give her both by saying neither are as good as Sentinel. Which is exactly how I validated giving her Ranger / Deadeye instead of Suppression.
I can do that can't I. I mean, she has Squadsight for gods sake (it doesn't do anything).
And, done. Feels weird, I didn't plan this out. What next? Am I gonna take Lock N' Load on a Disabling Shot Sniper?
Fragamemnon
Member
Little late here, but Extra Conditioning is probably tied for best perk in the game alongside In The Zone. It gives a significant amount of HP with endgame armors (+4 to corsair in particular) and allows you to run loadouts full of goodies with tac rigging and still get around without having to resort to walker servos.
I take EC on every class as a rule, except that I have one medic with Savior, one rocketeer with Shock and Awe, and one Engineer with Packmaster. These troops are for long slog missions where I need the extra item cooldowns.
Flash has a bigger AoE, but otherwise, yes. Also Chem Grenades can break, so make a spare.
I believe flashbangs also force an enemy out of overwatch. I don't know if chem grenades do the same.
ProvostZak
Neo Member
Just had my first experience with Long War Gangplank...shudder. I really hope that first room contains most of the pods -- I can envision getting past the
with some planning and a little luck, but if that's only the first third of the mission I'm going to be in trouble. Even after I'd taken them out (at the expense of my medic and with two other soldiers down to 1-2 hp), a four-muton pod with a high-HP leader came in to squad-wipe me. It's going to be worth it to get the spoils, but wow am I glad I'm not playing Ironman
double cyberdisc pod
I feel like I'm playing a real person in the high level meta.
Deluge council missions
, crashed Destroyer two days after, Terror Mission, Terror Mission (within 12 game hours of each other, the day after the Destroyer), EXALT mission 2 days after the Terror (that I hope is covert extraction). I had to use the A team for the for Deluge, the B team for the first Terror, exhaust half of the A Team for the second Terror, and when I make it through this hell hole, exhaust the other half of the A team for the EXALT mission. The only thing that might save me fatigue wise is that I can wait 48 hours to do the extraction and maybe get some guys back that are on the good side of 2 days fatigue on their timers.
The terror missions themselves are another paragraph entirely. The first one was in a low panic country and I handled it by saving 14/18 people but they only sent a Crysallid pod, a Muton pod, a floater sectoid pod, and a seeker pod. Sadly, my Gauss Autolaser got damaged which is biting me in the ass so hard right now. All I have is my Gauss LMG. here's the kicker, the second terror is in a high panic country, on the terribad (for this purpose) bar and grill map with a really nice intricate roof. It has a room that's one big stairway, you know the one. This terror mission has a sectoid commander pod with 3 outsiders, a Crysallid pod, a Mechtoids pod, and two Seeker pods with Daddy Seekers. I'm actually thinking about letting the aliens have this one. I can't afford them having a research boost but people are going to die if I go through with this. Both soliders and civilians alike. Additionally, I'm pretty sure they only need to kill like 10 civs to make America withdraw. I brought 9 scanners but it take 3 just to cover all the civilians for two turns. Can't take the roof, they'll just go for the civs. Can't take the ground floor of the building, I'll get flanked and I need all guns facing forward. If I let the aliens have this one, I won't have to exhaust anybody and I'll have the people I need for the EXALT op. I really want to understand the alien commander AI. It's fascinating.
Deluge council missions
aliens airdrop 3 mechtoids, 4 mutons and 6 sectoids.
The terror missions themselves are another paragraph entirely. The first one was in a low panic country and I handled it by saving 14/18 people but they only sent a Crysallid pod, a Muton pod, a floater sectoid pod, and a seeker pod. Sadly, my Gauss Autolaser got damaged which is biting me in the ass so hard right now. All I have is my Gauss LMG. here's the kicker, the second terror is in a high panic country, on the terribad (for this purpose) bar and grill map with a really nice intricate roof. It has a room that's one big stairway, you know the one. This terror mission has a sectoid commander pod with 3 outsiders, a Crysallid pod, a Mechtoids pod, and two Seeker pods with Daddy Seekers. I'm actually thinking about letting the aliens have this one. I can't afford them having a research boost but people are going to die if I go through with this. Both soliders and civilians alike. Additionally, I'm pretty sure they only need to kill like 10 civs to make America withdraw. I brought 9 scanners but it take 3 just to cover all the civilians for two turns. Can't take the roof, they'll just go for the civs. Can't take the ground floor of the building, I'll get flanked and I need all guns facing forward. If I let the aliens have this one, I won't have to exhaust anybody and I'll have the people I need for the EXALT op. I really want to understand the alien commander AI. It's fascinating.
GAF, who do I Mech-i-fy? And why? I know they lose a level upon Modification so you want to do MSGT. But I have a Mech Suit just sitting here now. It needs to be used. What's the process behind determining who needs to be mech'd?
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415147133
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415146930
Nevermind. I made my OG MSGT "Septic" a Mech. I didn't like his build anyway. And Mech means FIREPOWER. I'm just gonna buy one of everything for right now.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415147133
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415146930
Nevermind. I made my OG MSGT "Septic" a Mech. I didn't like his build anyway. And Mech means FIREPOWER. I'm just gonna buy one of everything for right now.
Pretty sure it's mostly because he doesn't think to much about characterization and I imagine having something written about yourself is very flattering. Oh wait, I don't have to imagine that ;].
Fragamemnon
Member
I strongly think that the best "first MEC" is probably a high rank Infantry chopped to a Valkyrie. Marauders are one of the best late game due to their ability to deliver damage+secondary system activation but really suffer without the upgrades to the MEC secondary systems, which are super expensive to get early on.
My Fire In The Hole > Platform Stability Rocketeer gets 0.1 Scatter without Steady Aim or a Scope after a Dash. It's like Snap Shot Rocketeer Advanced. And dear god if he gets a Steady Aim in... 100% Rockets all day eer' day. He's a few kills off Javelin but he'll be a monster when it happens. He also carries an Assault Rifle that gets Steady Aim'd most of the time. Meanwhile, my Snap Shot Rocketeer gets off 11-13 Snap Shot Rockets with Tandem Warheads with ~2.3 scatter.
Look, if you wanna give up one of those amazing builds, go right on ahead. I would just recommend you don't sidetrack your true Rocketeer leveling that trooper up.
Meanwhile, my 1 mission old Master Sergeant Engineer got 1 HP wounded during a Landed Abductor. Guess who's becoming a Mech?~ Any good builds for the guy? I can't spot anything attractive just from the list. I mean, unless VPT and Mayhem stack on top of HEAT for Collateral Damage that is. Regardless, GET IN THAT TUBE!!
Oh wait... he's a PSI-Tropper. Can I fix that? Make him Mech anyway?
Van Dorn has his own voice pack too.
Yup. Just tried a save editor. He's locked in.
Oh well. Guess I'll just not have an Engineer Mech for a very long time. Or a MSGT Engineer for a very long time. He survived with 1HP. He wears Aurora Armour and has Bombard specifically so he can do each one. I don't have another Damage Grenadier like him just quite yet. I'm training her to be though but it'll take another 2+ months.
You should cut up your explosive engineers into Shoguns, keep the support engineers as psi just to carry the psi grenades. But that was mostly ghost grenades which got nerfed hard, so making support grenadiers seems a little wasted in b15, especially when the only other thing you throw is psi grenades (kinda meh) or mimic beacons (put it on someone with higher will for better effectiveness). Basically I don't see the need to psi engineers in beta15 anymore.
Also if you need HEAT on a MEC, you still have Archers as an option, or Valkyries can get HEAT ammo (vs. shredder).
Also if you need HEAT on a MEC, you still have Archers as an option, or Valkyries can get HEAT ammo (vs. shredder).
You guys have to see how goddamn beautiful this is.
https://youtu.be/0fgCMAEiFvM?t=22m
Never thought of using CCS this way until Beaglerush basically.
https://youtu.be/0fgCMAEiFvM?t=22m
Never thought of using CCS this way until Beaglerush basically.