KyanMehwulfe
Member
that's awesome.
-
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
Everyone should watch Beaglerush's Live and Impossible LW campaign.
In the latest episode, he captures some aliens in a UFO landing. The best part is when he gets back to base and continues on. Immediately, a bomb disposal pops up. He checks out his roster to see who is coming out of fatigue in time for the mission, because bomb disposal missions can be quite tough in Long War.
He scans to pass some time but then a Terror Mission also shows up. Now he has to split his few remaining best men on two missions and has to spread himself thin with more lower ranked men lead by higher ranked guys on two relatively tough missions. That's Long War for ya!
In the latest episode, he captures some aliens in a UFO landing. The best part is when he gets back to base and continues on. Immediately, a bomb disposal pops up. He checks out his roster to see who is coming out of fatigue in time for the mission, because bomb disposal missions can be quite tough in Long War.
He scans to pass some time but then a Terror Mission also shows up. Now he has to split his few remaining best men on two missions and has to spread himself thin with more lower ranked men lead by higher ranked guys on two relatively tough missions. That's Long War for ya!
Wait til you run into UFO command pods that have mixed Sectoid commanders and outsiders!Been playing it on recommended Normal. So far it's quite easy, to be honest, but I've only done 3 or 4 missions so far. No casualties yet
Well, got Long War installed, it's up and running fine... and I barely got through the opening mission. Those are the new Sectoids? Seriously? Oh boy, this is going to be tough. Two KIA, two wounded.
Then again, when the game starts me off with six soldiers, each using a variety of weapons, grenades and medkits, I should probably be suspicious about the sudden generosity.
Well, time to dig in and start planning out a base. I've heard that satellite spam is no longer the way to victory. Any Long War strategic tips for an XCOM vet, but Long War newbie?
Then again, when the game starts me off with six soldiers, each using a variety of weapons, grenades and medkits, I should probably be suspicious about the sudden generosity.
Well, time to dig in and start planning out a base. I've heard that satellite spam is no longer the way to victory. Any Long War strategic tips for an XCOM vet, but Long War newbie?
There is a strategy sub forum on nexus site.
Delta Assault
Member
Been playing it on recommended Normal. So far it's quite easy, to be honest, but I've only done 3 or 4 missions so far. No casualties yet
Ehhhh... it gets worse later on lol.
IIRC, the Newfoundland mission was pretty much impossible.
Wait til you get sectoids with low profile, gunslinger, 7+ hp, can psi panic your men or mindfray (roll for panic, does 1 dmg, reduces aim and movement over 2 turns) and they can shoot you for as much as 8+ damage. They don't disappear or babysit mectoids like EW. They sometimes also come with sectoid commanders or just you get a pod of them.
I would also check out the wiki to get more info on stuff you want to aim for but a quick starter guide would be:
-go to the hangar, select each bird and go to rename them, as they can now rank up and get bonuses to aim and damage, it helps you figure out who to send up in the air.
-swap out half your birds with Stingray missiles, which do more armour damage. If you come up against a fighter (also a small sized UFO but with better guns), they are better than Avalanche missiles.
-as long as you have enough sectoid corpses, start with Xenobiology research, as this let you trade sectoid corpses for scientists or engineers. This is important because abductions no longer give anything but cash, and the only way to get ahold of engineers and scientists is from council requests.
-after you're done with xenobiology, most people rush for lasers, as this gives you a big leg up in the tactical side, since laser weapons give +7 aim and +1 damage over conventional weapons.
-If you aren't starting in NA, think about expanding there, because interceptors are STUPID expensive now (200 xbucks) but even a simple small UFO can shoot them down with no trouble. Advanced lasers give you laser cannons, which drastically help the air game. But rearming a ship with anything except the starting missiles takes 7 days, so be prepared to go without them for a long while (and laser cannons generally take ~9 days to build)
-You don't need to satellite rush anymore, but you do want to expand, because then you can get early warning for even abduction missions or UFOs.(since in LW they have to fly a ship and generate the mission rather than the game just generating them). You also want to know where more UFOs are because then you have more chances to shoot them down (or assault landed craft). Later on in the game, most of your item construction will be limited by Alien Alloys, which you get mostly from UFOs, whereas you only get a few if you recover mechanized UFO corpses.
-Make sure you send as many rookies as you can out on the first month, because you'll pretty much only face sectoids, so feed them the kill they need to level them up to SPEC to start them down a class, because soon after you'll want to have ~25 soldiers on call at the very least to tackle missions. The largest squad size for 99% of most missions is 8, so having at least 3 teams ready to go without having to pull anyone out of fatigue is a safe minimum.
-You can safely pull your fatigued SPECs from the first mission in the first month out if you absolutely can guarantee them more kills to level them up while leveling the rookies (mostly in turn so you can unlock the officer training school to open squad sizes and officer promotions).
I wrote more here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=143044249&postcount=84
You can cheese that mission these days.
What do you mean "wait"? The opening mission Sectoids did have Mind Fray and Low Profile. Did the RNG just decide to hate me extra much?
I did start in North America, though. Always liked that Air and Space bonus. It's not flashy, but it comes in handy while expanding early on. Usually, late game doesn't really need anything.
So, Stingray missiles for big ships, Avalanche for small fast ones?
I'll admit, losing two rookies trying to fight off some Sectoids feels... nostalgic... but I didn't really expect the opening mission to be that mean.
Stingray has better armour penetration and Avalanche has better damage. UFOs in LW have more classes, so a scout and fighter are both small, but have different weapon/armour/hp values. You might only know the size of a UFO from the start and you have to either shoot it down or assault it to have it ID'd properly on the geoscape later on. That's for starters. You'll need better weapons later on and even then firestorms need a lot of boosts, warming up or an experienced pilot behind it to even start half of a sliver of a chance against bigger UFOs.
XCOM's interceptor and weapons stats
Alien UFO stats
Also pods are different in LW, notice not all the sectoids probably did not have low profile or mind fray. Pods now feature squad leaders (which in your case start with low profile, mindfray, etc.) and navigators ("scouting" versions of an alien type, I think they also might start with low profile), both of which have slightly more perks than usual to the regular pod members. Later on, as alien research moves up, even the regular sectoids in a sectoid pod will pick up more abilities, hp and damage.
Ah, hm. Well if the first month of this mod is a show of things to come, this mod has potential. When even a lowly Sectoid or Drone is a danger, I am looking forward to seeing what fun Muton Beserkers and Secotopds are. And Ethereals. Not so much looking forward to those...
Of note, all the little things you can customize your soldiers with are neat, and some of the classes make perfect sense to me. splitting up Rocketeer and Gunner in particular. Not entirely sure what to do with Scouts yet, but I bet they'll get something nice.
Also happy to see that the aliens are playing by their own book now. Just learned the hard way that UFOs in flight are not tailor-made for me to shoot... At least I stopped after it sent two Interceptors limping home for three weeks in the shop. Then a Scout showed up and now three of my interceptors are down for the count. the fourth sent the UFO to the ground, it's raiding time. Kind of looking forward to a rematch with the Outsider. I was warned, so I came prepared. Flashbang, go! Now everyone, shoot the glowy man, point blank! It must die! Capturing one of these is going to be entertaining. But I don't even have an Alien Containment yet. Or much of anything in the base. This mod really takes the slow path. Which I kind of like. The panic thing is much less frantic, but I should begin doing the Satellite thing soon...
What month does a Long War game usually end at, anyway?
I'm playing this way more carefully than vanilla EW, though. Overwatch traps are still good stuff, but a good flanking is nice, too.
Of note, all the little things you can customize your soldiers with are neat, and some of the classes make perfect sense to me. splitting up Rocketeer and Gunner in particular. Not entirely sure what to do with Scouts yet, but I bet they'll get something nice.
Also happy to see that the aliens are playing by their own book now. Just learned the hard way that UFOs in flight are not tailor-made for me to shoot... At least I stopped after it sent two Interceptors limping home for three weeks in the shop. Then a Scout showed up and now three of my interceptors are down for the count. the fourth sent the UFO to the ground, it's raiding time. Kind of looking forward to a rematch with the Outsider. I was warned, so I came prepared. Flashbang, go! Now everyone, shoot the glowy man, point blank! It must die! Capturing one of these is going to be entertaining. But I don't even have an Alien Containment yet. Or much of anything in the base. This mod really takes the slow path. Which I kind of like. The panic thing is much less frantic, but I should begin doing the Satellite thing soon...
What month does a Long War game usually end at, anyway?
I'm playing this way more carefully than vanilla EW, though. Overwatch traps are still good stuff, but a good flanking is nice, too.
This is why you want a large roster. It's absolutely hilarious because you could either let it go (and give the aliens a research bonus from it) or you could gamble it by sending literally the only 7 people left, 2 of them green as hell rookies on a tough landed UFO (small is still hard) for hopes as the rewards are good. You can even scroll back earlier and watch a SUPER TERRIFYING terror mission.
I would also recommend maybe occasionally watching Beagle's Live and Impossible series, especially at the start to see where he goes from there.
Later on you can cut up your scouts and turn them into pathfinders, which you can also spec to work like a MEC version of a scout to some extent.
I can't give you an ETA on how long LW might take, but Marbozir's LP campaign ended in August 2016, so over a year of in-game time, which sounds about possible if you're really punching it. I'm probably not going to make that, because he's going into the temple ship with full Titan, MEC-3s, and almost everyone loaded with plasma weapons (plasma weapons in LW are actually hard to make). Do expect to at least roll into the next year though, at least for a regular-length LW campaign.
I would also recommend maybe occasionally watching Beagle's Live and Impossible series, especially at the start to see where he goes from there.
Scouts are pretty versatile because they can use most of the weapons. There's certain ways to build them but I prefer generally bringing them as a point-man that can do recon. Lighting Reflexes can help break stalemates (it's not perfect, but yeah). Battlescanners as a skill gives you 2 of them, and later on possibly more. Holotargeting I feel is a must-have perk too. If you make a strike/precision rifle (a 'mini' sniper rifle), a scout can use them to about the same effect as a sniper as could, giving it some decent long range capability. Otherwise even with a regular rifle or a shotgun, a scout can be used to good effect, since you have good mobility and relative safety for running for the flanks, or sitting at mid range for fire support.
Later on you can cut up your scouts and turn them into pathfinders, which you can also spec to work like a MEC version of a scout to some extent.
I can't give you an ETA on how long LW might take, but Marbozir's LP campaign ended in August 2016, so over a year of in-game time, which sounds about possible if you're really punching it. I'm probably not going to make that, because he's going into the temple ship with full Titan, MEC-3s, and almost everyone loaded with plasma weapons (plasma weapons in LW are actually hard to make). Do expect to at least roll into the next year though, at least for a regular-length LW campaign.
Hero of Legend
Member
How about a horror mod and call it XCOM: Evil Within.
This is reminding me of the oldschool X-Com in a good way.
Just had my first mission abort, not entirely sure if it was warranted, but right now, soldiers are my most valuable resource, and when I take two steps off the landing zone and get 8 Sectoids and 3 Floaters convening on me, I smell a trap. Blew up the Floaters with some rockets to get out of Suppression, Suppressed the melded Sectoid, treated the wounds of the guy who... found... the Floaters and then all six men back to Big Sky ASAP.
Killed some aliens, got away with everyone, didn't get the UFO. An intact medium sized UFO sure would have been nice, but... intact soldiers are better still. I'll have more chances at UFO Power Sources later.
So, heading up on mid-April. My Terror Mission sense is tingling... I'm thinking Engineers and Gunners for that. Suppress the Lids, and toss AP Grenades at them. Then hope there are less than 20 of them. The Snipers get to sit that one out. The Rocketeers might be allowed to come, packing two extra rockets. AoE damage and Chryssalids sounds like a good idea.
Also, I love that the scanners are items now. And the flashbangs. Those are so good.
I think it's safe to say that Long War has rekindled my interest in XCOM. Looking forward to seeing what EXALT are like now...
Just had my first mission abort, not entirely sure if it was warranted, but right now, soldiers are my most valuable resource, and when I take two steps off the landing zone and get 8 Sectoids and 3 Floaters convening on me, I smell a trap. Blew up the Floaters with some rockets to get out of Suppression, Suppressed the melded Sectoid, treated the wounds of the guy who... found... the Floaters and then all six men back to Big Sky ASAP.
Killed some aliens, got away with everyone, didn't get the UFO. An intact medium sized UFO sure would have been nice, but... intact soldiers are better still. I'll have more chances at UFO Power Sources later.
So, heading up on mid-April. My Terror Mission sense is tingling... I'm thinking Engineers and Gunners for that. Suppress the Lids, and toss AP Grenades at them. Then hope there are less than 20 of them. The Snipers get to sit that one out. The Rocketeers might be allowed to come, packing two extra rockets. AoE damage and Chryssalids sounds like a good idea.
Also, I love that the scanners are items now. And the flashbangs. Those are so good.
I think it's safe to say that Long War has rekindled my interest in XCOM. Looking forward to seeing what EXALT are like now...
Didn't sound like a trap, if you only got sectoids and floaters. You might a mixed pod of like 3 thin men/1 muton or something similar, but if it was the first month or two, you shouldn't worry unless you start seeing full pods of mutons or something you wouldn't normally see in a regular landing.
Oh? That's just how they usually are? Well, spent most of my resources just surviving the first few turns, so I cut my losses and ran. It's not like Long War is low on missions.
I find it more difficult to get in close with the aliens in Long War, anyway. But standoff situations are a problems since my soldiers are doing well if they can get over 50% To Hit, it's usually below 30%. So yeah, still adjusting to this. I should look into making some +accuracy stuff for my Infantry guys, at least. Standoffs seems like what they were made for. Shoot, Steady Weapon, repeat.
Actually does Steady Weapon last long enough that I can do it one turn, then Overwatch the next and get the bonus?
Newfoundland is actually free xp.
The wiki I linked in the OP is as good as it gets, as it gets updated pretty quickly. Tech tree in XCOM has always been a mess, but you can check the Research page for what you need and you can kinda track it back from there with some effort.
95% of the missions you get will tell you the general map layout you'll get during squad gear up (roadway, settlement, riparian, urban close quarters, etc.) in the top-left corner that give you a vague idea what maps you might get. There are sometimes less of certain ones (UFO crashes/landings) and more some other (settlement can mean quite a few maps with varying sightlines).
Break the standoff either by retreating and making them come up, throw some flashbangs, blow up their cover or something. If you absolutely need to break an OW without a scout (or even with), drop a smoke onto where you think the reaction shots will trigger and then hope for the best. Start building SCOPEs, they go so well with infantry, snipers and rocketeers for starters.
Steady Weapon is only good for the next shot on the next turn if it's used as the next action. SW falls off if you do anything else other than shoot or reapply SW. Steady Weapon does not apply the buff to anything else. Basically it falls off when your turn ends and only applies if you steadied weapon last turn. Generally you use it on a sniper (better aim) or a rocketeer (reduces scatter), or if you are about to breach (since no point in OW'ing against a closed door).
Fragamemnon
Member
So the alternative to that is that they are all waiting activated on the map and as soon as they see you they shoot you in the face. This is the way the older games worked, and it worked OK in that designs, but XCOM 2012's adoption of less expendable troops, cover/flanking bonuses, and such make this request seem kind of crazy.
People ask for this, but it's like playing a first person shooter and wanting the boss to stare blankly at you while you fill it full of lead.
Well there is the itchy trigger tentacle second wave option which means on discovery they might just shoot you in the face.
But yeah, it makes no sense for them to just stand out there in the open if you get full LOS on them. There are tricks like revealing them with a scanner than hitting them with a rocket to get started, if that's what you want.
But yeah, it makes no sense for them to just stand out there in the open if you get full LOS on them. There are tricks like revealing them with a scanner than hitting them with a rocket to get started, if that's what you want.
Fair enough, I just think its a turn base game and the AI should follow the same rules as your troops, Overwatch is fine but having a free movement turn into cover is not.
This is kind of a perception problem, since the way the computer plays is not the same as the way humans play. This was also the source of the teleport bug back in the day (might still exist actually).
Basically, in the fog of war, to avoid rendering and computing actual unit draw for computer units that aren't actually seen, they just teleport between set positions and don't do any actual tactical computation. Only once a player 'activates' them do they start to take into consideration unit positions, cover, fire, flanking etc.
So it's not so much that they have a free move-turn into cover as it is the units actually become active on the board.
It still looks shitty to a player though.
ANuclearError
Member
Question, if I want to catch up on Beagle's twitch campaigns (fell out of the loop for a good while now, not fully where when at this point), what would be the best starting point now for his Long War streams?
anyone know how to apply the patch at this link? The one that, for some strange reason, is presented entirely in code. Even with PatcherUI I can't find/open the file it refers to.
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.p...uit-repair-and-accidental-temple-ship-aliens/
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.p...uit-repair-and-accidental-temple-ship-aliens/
Open up PatcherGUI
point it to <your path here>\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\
Copy all the code in the window into PatcherGUI's main frame, save it as a .txt file if you wish. Hit apply, it should patch your Long War game properly.
To play? Unless you were playing say b13 or something I would maybe recommend starting from the top on Normal, unless you think you are an XCOM god and can prove otherwise.
They move around, at least perhaps if you have vision on them (not LOS) or within a certain # of tiles from you or something. Pods still occasionally teleport because they patrol around on maps and I guess if they don't bump into you they teleport after a while and try elsewhere. Teleporting pods happens very rarely these days. But yeah, the pod pretty much moves together mostly to cover space rather than trying to make tactical decisions, so they don't always default look for cover or spread out, they just kinda move in a diamond formation or something until you make contact.
Did a Terror mission. Lost a Shiv. Now I'm out of Shivs. Don't think I'll build another until I get Alloy ones.
Also... the modified Chryssalids are hilariously mean-spirited. Not insurmountable, they die easily enough, but giving them THAT* skill is just the perfect degree of "Hey player? Fuck you." for an XCOM game. Of course, I went in with two Rocketeers each carrying a spare and a shredder, so... Chryssalids go boom. (And a civilian. And my Shiv.) The town is shambles, over half the civilians dead and Bradford chimes in "Everything by the numbers!" ...I need to speak with him about that.
Got a Foundry coming online, and the first Beam Lasers in production. Need more cash and alloys now, could really go for a landed Scout soon. Should probably start worrying about armor and catching aliens soon. But next up, Abduction mission in a graveyard. I seem to remember bad things about those...
* Spoilers for those who want to be surprised:
Also... the modified Chryssalids are hilariously mean-spirited. Not insurmountable, they die easily enough, but giving them THAT* skill is just the perfect degree of "Hey player? Fuck you." for an XCOM game. Of course, I went in with two Rocketeers each carrying a spare and a shredder, so... Chryssalids go boom. (And a civilian. And my Shiv.) The town is shambles, over half the civilians dead and Bradford chimes in "Everything by the numbers!" ...I need to speak with him about that.
Got a Foundry coming online, and the first Beam Lasers in production. Need more cash and alloys now, could really go for a landed Scout soon. Should probably start worrying about armor and catching aliens soon. But next up, Abduction mission in a graveyard. I seem to remember bad things about those...
* Spoilers for those who want to be surprised:
Lightning Reflexes! Overwatch? Chryssalids care not about such silliness, they charge right through. Wonderfully mean spirited.
ANuclearError
Member
Na sorry, I meant for Beagle's Long War streams. Apologies for being ambiguous.
Chryssalid pod leaders are the only ones that can get Lighting Reflexes anyway. Wait til you get those big momma ones! Besides, you can still hit with LR. It's only -90% for the first shot at -75% every subsequent shot. I've had plenty of time where my own scouts eat an OW shot through LR. And wait 'til they add run and gun to Chryssalid pod leaders!
Always be prepared to kill chryssalids on the turn they get revealed, or you need to flashbang them and put some distance while still putting damage on them. Same goes for Berserkers when you encounter them later.
Always be prepared to kill chryssalids on the turn they get revealed, or you need to flashbang them and put some distance while still putting damage on them. Same goes for Berserkers when you encounter them later.
You can watch from whenever, but you know they are long as hell. If you want, you can go like 3 or 4 weeks back where he suffers a crippling loss of all his Aegis armours, pulse weapons and high-end MEC armours in a failed UFO landing mission and has to fight his way back up with pretty much only beam lasers, ballistics and one or two MEC-1 suits.
Fragamemnon
Member
The Long War powers that be have kind of decided that if they do implement that, it will be on an ability that give lids a much reduced damage attack (but still apply the acid). It'll also be later on in alien research, likely as a high percentage ability in the navigator upgrades, so you won't get hammered with it right from the start.
Also Thin Men of all sorts and Exalt Elite Operatives also get Lightning Reflexes as the campaign progresses. The real issue with overwatch builds later on isn't Lightning Reflexes but actually Heavy Floaters-the leaders with flying, Tactical Sense and innate defense make overwatch shots really poor, and heavy floaters are the most numerous of the endgame enemies.
edit: I second the recommendation of going back 3-4 weeks for after Beagle wiped on that medium UFO crash. He's honestly learned more from that about LW (speaking from someone who has a two b13 and one b14 campaign completed) than he had his entire twitch campaign to date.
Rushing to the ufo without encountering any pods = bad idea.
This was discussed to hell back in the day and the consensus was people wanted the aliens to play as if they were already on alert, jumping from cover to cover even before contact, which would then negate the necessity for a free turn to get into cover.
That design concept introduces a whole bunch of its own issues, the least of which being either the AI cheats and knows which direction you're coming from to make intelligent use of cover, or really intricate AI to attempt to predict, otherwise half the time the cover is useless and the end result is exactly the same as if aliens just stood out in the open with no free turn.
Or just adapt to it. I get it's not the old games (and I never played the older X-COMs myself), is there really a need to make it play like them?
People have also learned time and time again to just adapt to it. Learn to take half steps, try not to accidentally reveal on a gold move, bring items or classes to help scout ahead, listen for the sound cues. Yes, the pod patrols in short steps or rarely sometimes outright teleporting elsewhere is a little goofy but you learn to live with it. The entire premise of XCOM was asymmetrical forces fighting anyway, a free move on reveal is not gonna end the world.
People have also learned time and time again to just adapt to it. Learn to take half steps, try not to accidentally reveal on a gold move, bring items or classes to help scout ahead, listen for the sound cues. Yes, the pod patrols in short steps or rarely sometimes outright teleporting elsewhere is a little goofy but you learn to live with it. The entire premise of XCOM was asymmetrical forces fighting anyway, a free move on reveal is not gonna end the world.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Man, this game sounds amazing... but I also don't think I have the constitution to play it. Watching the stream is enough. lol
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
I dunno about in Long War, but in base Enemy Within I find EXALT missions extremely dull. They're just not fun. Mostly they just spam loads of dudes on you (which do have slightly better AI than the Aliens), but the missions have minimal rewards in comparison. And I had to look up exactly what disrupting the comm relays do (disables weapons for one turn.)
I can't remember EXALT in EW, but yes, they are stupid clown car missions regardless. The transmitter/encoder one is slightly more fun but it's still a bit of a grind.
You get bonus xcom bucks for a successful action (getting the intel) and even more on the missions where you can defend the encoder until the end.
In Long War, since you have more men in the encoder/transmitter missions, it becomes more of a puzzle if your covert operative is an assault because of run and gun. It turns into a puzzle because 95% of the mission is finding a way to chain disabling EXALT's weapons and killing them without letting them fire a shot.
On the other hand, the extraction maps in Long War, those are hell, because you can only bring 4 men to extract, the maps are usually harder to manage, and the clown car-ness of EXALT is really exacerbated by the fact you don't have many men to fight, so it's more of a smash and grab mission. They are planning to make an alien version of that in Long War too. (send help)
You get bonus xcom bucks for a successful action (getting the intel) and even more on the missions where you can defend the encoder until the end.
In Long War, since you have more men in the encoder/transmitter missions, it becomes more of a puzzle if your covert operative is an assault because of run and gun. It turns into a puzzle because 95% of the mission is finding a way to chain disabling EXALT's weapons and killing them without letting them fire a shot.
On the other hand, the extraction maps in Long War, those are hell, because you can only bring 4 men to extract, the maps are usually harder to manage, and the clown car-ness of EXALT is really exacerbated by the fact you don't have many men to fight, so it's more of a smash and grab mission. They are planning to make an alien version of that in Long War too. (send help)
Don't get me wrong, I'm with you in that I'm totally fine with the design decisions Firaxis made in the base game other than the binary cover system (0 or 20, 0 or 40) which aiming angles addressed. XCOM its is own experience and making it play like the original just runs counter to how the game was designed from the ground up. Most of the legitimate issues people have with the game are things that would have made it more interesting, rather than things that would have made it like the original. And Long War does go a long way to doing that.
Just refreshing memory on discussions (especially over at 2k forums). If I wanted the original game, I'd play the original game (or Xenonauts).
Fragamemnon
Member
EXALT missions are balls to the wall in Long War, and play out very, very differently than any regular mission type with the aliens in the game. The Data Recovery missions are more or less DPS races to see if you can take eight bad enough dudes and slaughter a huge pile of high HP enemies given that they can't reliably shoot back for a few turns (since you can chain hit the encoders, behavior that the missions are designed around).
Covert Extraction isn't about killing at all, it's how to get your operative to the two relays and escape with your lives.
In LW, both mission types are cool, and with the b14 changes to mission cash and Exalt Elite meld drops, the missions are super rewarding.
I think I just made a huge mistake.
My first Large UFO sighting ever, and it happened to land, so I sent the 'ol Skyranger. Turn 1 reveals 6-8 Outsiders inside the ship, and barely enough half-cover in sight for half my squad. Luckily I think I can save scum my noob-ass out of this one, as I have a Covert Extraction also waiting for me, which from what I can tell, are super difficult. Any tips? It's the 4 member sqad type. I was thinking of prioritizing mobility and flashbangs to GTFO.
Otherwise, I think I've been doing ok, for someone who only played EU/EW on Normal. It's mid June, and I just got my advanced beam lasers manufactured. I captured a floater, but I'm not sure how to activate the interrogation - do I need a different species? The facility is constructed.
My first Large UFO sighting ever, and it happened to land, so I sent the 'ol Skyranger. Turn 1 reveals 6-8 Outsiders inside the ship, and barely enough half-cover in sight for half my squad. Luckily I think I can save scum my noob-ass out of this one, as I have a Covert Extraction also waiting for me, which from what I can tell, are super difficult. Any tips? It's the 4 member sqad type. I was thinking of prioritizing mobility and flashbangs to GTFO.
Otherwise, I think I've been doing ok, for someone who only played EU/EW on Normal. It's mid June, and I just got my advanced beam lasers manufactured. I captured a floater, but I'm not sure how to activate the interrogation - do I need a different species? The facility is constructed.
Dick Justice
Banned
Playing this on normal with the second wave options that make things easier (not really a hardcore player), and I love the extra depth that's added, like inventory weight affecting mobility, double the number of classes, larger squad sizes, greater emphasis on building up rookies, etc. The lowered emphasis on rushing for satellites is a good thing too, makes things less predictable. Really hope they add in unique models for the new weapons though (e.g. the SMGs and carbines), having them just be smaller versions of normal rifles is laughable.
Fragamemnon
Member
I always give any large UFO that looks like it might land a flyby before it does so. If it is an abductor ship, it is reasonable to assault. Transports have those massive outsider pods and terrible cover so I generally don't take those missions until I get ghost grenades.
You can only do so much without actual mod support. Hopefully Firaxis will correct this in the sequel.