Sounds reasonable, I think this was a transport ship. Spawn was directly outside the massive opening with the cross-shaped second level with the grav-lifts. And it was loaded with pods such that, when trying to take any of the limited cover between me and them, several outdoor pods from the decks on either side were activated.
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XCOM: Long War | A mod for XCOM: Enemy Within
- Thread starter Sober
- Start date
Sounds reasonable, I think this was a transport ship. Spawn was directly outside the massive opening with the cross-shaped second level with the grav-lifts. And it was loaded with pods such that, when trying to take any of the limited cover between me and them, several outdoor pods from the decks on either side were activated.
Sentenza
Member
It's worth noting that they promised it at first ("Yeah, mod support is not here at launch but it will probably come later") and never delivered it.
Anyway, back to the topic, I'm really on the fence for this mod. On one side it changes few things in pretty interesting ways and I have no problems with additional challenge as far as it feels fun and rewarding to master, but on the other hand I'm a bit afraid it could turn out to be one of these needlessly masochistic experiences some "hardcore" modders seem to love, sometimes making things more hard just for the sake of it without any thought about how they could make the game more entertaining.
Maybe I'm being unfair toward the creators of Long War, but I've experienced this happening with several other "community mods" over the years, so I'm growing a bit wary of some of those ideas like "more hard is always more fun".
Dick Justice
Banned
Well with some of the second wave options that they added, it's been a step up from the base game for me, but still not pointlessly hard. At least so far.
Sentenza
Member
I don't think it was ever officially announced... And I don't think it was even openly hinted at any point so far.
If you can snag EW on a Steam Sale it's definitely worth a playthrough or two.
Long War is also something worth looking at. (EW or EU)
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Long War works with both versions?
It's not a "bullshit" free move turn. Any sensible player advances cover to cover; as such, any aliens you reveal would be stuck out of cover for the player to take a free shot at them. This would obviously be unfair to the aliens (lol), as you would just steamroll them getting free shots at them all the time. The best way to think of it is that the aliens actually start behind cover, the scatter animation is just there to look cool.
Long War was a thing way before EW. I don't believe the vanilla version is still in active development but it's there.
(I do remember it having some major issues, don't get me wrong)
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Cheers, man. I'll see if EW will work on ye olde laptop.
Long War looks great. I loved the original and this mod seems to try to recapture some of that old magic.
Honestly I never like fighting inside the actual UFO on a supply barge map, those are horrifying to me. Especially if the command pod is not in the bridge and you trip it early, they'll call for reinforcements. I've had more luck just snagging patrolling pods while doing a lap around the perimeter of the UFO.
I might check out one of Beagle's videos to see how he does a landed Terror Ship/Transport, but the way that ship is laid out versus the aliens you'll encounter (and the density) don't make for much of anything except possibly getting you slaughtered.
Fragamemnon
Member
Long War is exceedingly fair on normal/classic difficultly and is definitely cut from a different crop than xXxRealism420BlazeItxXx's elite hardcore PLUS mod for whatever game , seemingly every game has one of those. Long War's developers do a lot to tweak and tune the balance of the mod, with an eye on preventing player overuse/reliance on tactics that are so effective that other strategies aren't viable.
I always clean out supply barges with a permieter sweep. With the way that patrols will investigate deaths of nearby aliens, you generally get most of them well before you come close to the command pod.
Fragamemnon
Member
Council missions, where the scripted enemies were baked into the mission, are now much more random as well as featuring different enemy compositions. The big exception is the Site Recon mission in Newfoundland.
Play vanilla first-One merely does not walk into Long War. Even if you had a mastery of the mechanics, committing to playing a Long War campaign is a significant undertaking of time. Note that the "Not So Long War" 2nd wave option in Long War still results in a campaign about as long as a Marathon vanilla campaign.
petran79
Banned
I started playing Enemy Within on Normal but game turned out very difficult just before the Alien Enemy base event appeared. Even on easy I struggle.
Tried to play Long War and cant even beat the first mission. Tired of playing cat and mouse with aliens thrice my squad number. Usually I am the mouse...
Back to EW again
Tried to play Long War and cant even beat the first mission. Tired of playing cat and mouse with aliens thrice my squad number. Usually I am the mouse...
Back to EW again
Okay, getting the hang of the tactical side of things again. LW is not that different, just need to consider everything a threat and be super-paranoid. And use grenades much more. Got some Beam Laser rifles incoming which will make my troops really happy, especially if the "highly accurate" part is true.
But my air-force is awful. Not a fan of how LW changes that. Their accuracy is just horrible compared to vanilla, if they could actually HIT the UFOs it might be better. Any tips on holding the air early on? Obviously, I'm going for Laser Cannons for the entire armada if this keeps up.
But my air-force is awful. Not a fan of how LW changes that. Their accuracy is just horrible compared to vanilla, if they could actually HIT the UFOs it might be better. Any tips on holding the air early on? Obviously, I'm going for Laser Cannons for the entire armada if this keeps up.
Before laser cannons you need to pick your battles. Also thinking about having a full fleet before you expand is usually a rough idea. Be sure when you expand you're ready to put up most the interceptors to keep the satellites safe too.
You also have to pick your battles. With Avalanche/Stingrays, you can only possibly unreliably shoot down small craft anyway, medium if you're super lucky. Biggest priorities are usually fighters on a mission (flashing when high or NOE). Anything else NOE is extremely likely to land anyway (short of fighters on a bombing run), so try not to waste fighters on them. You have to be careful of craft wizzing around in your airspace but not doing anything, because that means they're scouting; they might spawn a larger ship if you're also not careful with them, either to land and start a mission, or hunting for your satellites.
You might also want to start investing in the aircraft foundry projects, if those are available. They might be locked behind some pretty deep mid-game tech like alien computers or something.
At 50% health or less, you're likely to have scared them off. It's when they start flashing with explosions everywhere
You also have to pick your battles. With Avalanche/Stingrays, you can only possibly unreliably shoot down small craft anyway, medium if you're super lucky. Biggest priorities are usually fighters on a mission (flashing when high or NOE). Anything else NOE is extremely likely to land anyway (short of fighters on a bombing run), so try not to waste fighters on them. You have to be careful of craft wizzing around in your airspace but not doing anything, because that means they're scouting; they might spawn a larger ship if you're also not careful with them, either to land and start a mission, or hunting for your satellites.
You might also want to start investing in the aircraft foundry projects, if those are available. They might be locked behind some pretty deep mid-game tech like alien computers or something.
At 50% health or less, you're likely to have scared them off. It's when they start flashing with explosions everywhere
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Watching a lot of Beaglerush's videos makes me want to at least give it a shot. Can you just copy over the install folder to another directory and install the mod over that copy of the game, or do you have to install over your original Steam install? I'd like to preserve a copy of the original game if possible.
Yeah, I pretty much had to sacrifice my air coverage last session as a UFO showed up hunting for my satellite. That is a battle I cannot choose to NOT pick at this stage. Got it to 50% HP and it flew off, with my poor Interceptor limping home with one and half wings left. But the satellite was saved. And that is really what mattered there.
Planning on expanding to Brazil from the US next Council Meeting, spend some of the monthly on Interceptors to get three in Brazil as well and transfer the fifth US one there to make it four. Then maybe the third satellite goes to Canada, or something.
I so need to get some aircraft stuff researched soon... When I finally get the Firestorm, it will be awesome. But that's a long war away still.
Planning on expanding to Brazil from the US next Council Meeting, spend some of the monthly on Interceptors to get three in Brazil as well and transfer the fifth US one there to make it four. Then maybe the third satellite goes to Canada, or something.
I so need to get some aircraft stuff researched soon... When I finally get the Firestorm, it will be awesome. But that's a long war away still.
Oh thank God. I remember a mission in EU that had a supply ship which spawned so many guys behind me after I got to the control room... or was that the Newfounland mission? It's been a while.
There's an uninstaller provided with the mod, but yes, you can copy a version of vanilla EW if you want and swap it around with the LW version as well.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Ah, that sounds easy enough then. I'll probably give it a shot at some point.
NOE is nap of the earth which means a UFO flying pretty close to the ground. It'll likely land or if it's a fighter, conduct a bombing run.
lol. How are we supposed to know that?
How is this indicated in XCOM? I don't think I've ever noticed it...
You can cheese the hell out of the Newfoundland map to the point of it becoming a relatively simple XP farm: http://youtu.be/YAIctku3O0s
RandomSeed
Member
I played through vanilla a couple of times and had a blast, and I just installed LW to play a mission here and there between other stuff. Now, I used a controller the first time, but I'd like to take advantage of the mouse now...its just...wow. Is it just me, or is zooming a nightmare at first? Everything seems reversed to me. Fighting the camera is harder than fighting aliens. 
There's two zoom options, one is to actually change the elevation you're at (mouse wheel scroll or T/G keys) so you can manage multilevel structures. The other actually is just good old fashioned zoom-in/zoom-out. LW also adds some camera options in the menu to change the controls but those are really wonky to me.
RandomSeed
Member
Damn. I'm in the first month and I check out a UFO landing site. First move into full cover and 3 thin men and 3 seekers spot me. Next turn, add 3 more thin men and a sectoid. I try to save a solider in a bad position by hiding near the UFO and it triggers 4 chryssalid . Of course a rocket meant to save my ass goes off target and hits my sniper. Not a single upgrade to weapons or armor.
This could be good. (after I practice, remember how to play, then probably start fresh)
This could be good.
(after I practice, remember how to play, then probably start fresh)EricTheCleric
Member
I love it
shame about it crashing long after you saved last
might try it again in a few months if it is more stable by then
shame about it crashing long after you saved last
might try it again in a few months if it is more stable by then
If you run away do you keep the meld?
When you move the last unit of your turn and accidentally discover a pack of alien, you can't think like that at all as they can place themselves into flanking position during that "cool" free move turn. And then proceed to shoot you to death during their immediate turn while you can only watch it happen. Hence the "bullshit" and my "more tactical approach" wish. Anyway, you can avoid that situation by exploring only at the start of your turn, but it forces you to slow down things a lot.
I still need to try this mod, brb reinstalling the game.
Got EW
Started a game but got sidetracked. Need to start again then I may consider this mod.
Even without the free move, that's a shitty place to put yourself into. You still wouldn't be able to support that trooper very well, and they'd still get the majority of their turn before you. Maybe they wouldn't get into perfect firing positions, but they'd still get their choice pickings.
I learned that "Last soldier discovers aliens, gets murdered on alien turn" thing the same way everyone else did.
Then I started doing blue moves only unless I have a REALLY good reason to sprint. Like an alien on Overwatch needing to be triggered as safely as possible. Or simply covering already exposed ground. Because if you move blue, you can go back where you came from. Which hopefully has less aliens in it.
Then I started doing blue moves only unless I have a REALLY good reason to sprint. Like an alien on Overwatch needing to be triggered as safely as possible. Or simply covering already exposed ground. Because if you move blue, you can go back where you came from. Which hopefully has less aliens in it.
lol. This. Also, make sure you move the soldier who is going the furthest forward or away from the group *first*. This way he/she can run back and everyone else will be set-up.
Some sweet sweet dev updates for the next beta version, stuff like separate country bonuses, mission timers, balance changes and all that.
Shake Appeal
Member
Long War always looks really silly and unbalanced when I look at it, but I guess vanilla EU/EW are pretty silly and unbalanced in their ways.
Sigh.
Sigh.
Well, just started building the Officer Training School, and get satellites going to Canada and Brazil. So far, so good. Need more uplinks. Also unlocked the Genetics Lab. Going to place that next to a lab for the bonus.
Lost another rookie, though. Ah well, rookies are a renewable resource. And now Slingshot started up. Man, I want that pistol. It took out a Long War Sectoid in one shot.
It's about time for EXALT to show their ugly faces, though. Not really looking forward to that. Guess I should make a Laser Pistol for the agent. Or just use a bunch of grenades.
I need to get dissecting, too. Thin Men seems like a good place to start.
Lost another rookie, though. Ah well, rookies are a renewable resource. And now Slingshot started up. Man, I want that pistol. It took out a Long War Sectoid in one shot.
It's about time for EXALT to show their ugly faces, though. Not really looking forward to that. Guess I should make a Laser Pistol for the agent. Or just use a bunch of grenades.
I need to get dissecting, too. Thin Men seems like a good place to start.
Autospies are super important on the tactical end these days because you can't be sure where alien research is, and sometimes a navigator will have just as much HP as a run-of-the-mill version of an alien. Knowing if a floater has say, covering fire, is a huge deal IMO. Or knowing if a muton can fire twice or something.
Thin Man gets you improved medikit foundry and chem grenades, which you will probably sorely need when mechtoids and disks start coming into play.
Thin Man gets you improved medikit foundry and chem grenades, which you will probably sorely need when mechtoids and disks start coming into play.
Yeah, I want the Chem Grenades. I think the plan of research is finish Alien Materials, Advanced Beam Lasers, Thin Man Autopsy, and whatever I need to get the Arc Thrower. then start figure out a plan from there. The Meld stuff seems like a good place to go, or a Sectoid Autopsy. Or better armor, of course. Rookies may be renewable, but the ability to take a hit and not be down a month is useful.
Should get me interceptors who can fight their way out of a wet paper bag, chem grenades to make capturing easier and then I go hunting.
Should get me interceptors who can fight their way out of a wet paper bag, chem grenades to make capturing easier and then I go hunting.