XCom2 opinions

That sounds like a good one Greywolf. It's actually what happens in UFO investigation missions.

There's one kind of mission you probably won't be able to change: defend the do-dad missions. Some device on the other side of the map has X hit points and those darn aliens keep shooting at it.

The new Perks mod from the Long War guys adds new skills and classes, including the Ranger class. Somebody else made a Minsc voice mod. Time for some butt kicking for goodness!

(If I can survive. I've got a lot of so-called soldiers lying around in beds, belly aching about 'grave wounds.')

The Long War 2 mod is out! http://steamcommunity.com/games/268500/announcements/detail/512683056167677579

It's BIG and it's free, same as the first Long War mod. You'll want to uninstall any other Long War mods from XCOM2 plus any mods that mess with gameplay at all.

PC Gamer has a review: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-long-war-2-mod-is-a-must-play-reinvention-of-xcom-2/

XCom 2 is the featured game in the next Humble monthly. So you can get it for 12$ together with a few unknown other games.

Jeez, the Long War mod is neat but it's EXTREMELY hard! Been playing for hours tonight and I haven't even gotten close to finishing a mission (after Gatekeeper). Even when I infiltrate the resistance down, reinforcements can show up and flank me! Maybe I should restart down at Rookie level...

No way to stop reinforcements? Aka… Endless trashmob respawns appeared in a game that's against such design?
I'm not touching that mod.

Endless? I doubt it. Trashmobs? Definitely not - they are VERY capable of killing you dead.

It is only Joxer being Joxer again

No I'm just drawing conclusions - in the game you can stop reinforcements unless you screw up, they don't appear just because.

I expect it's an infiltration thing. The more infiltration you get, the later reinforcements will show up.

The long war indeed.

Ok, so this game is harder than the first one.

I dislike playing games on the easiest difficulties, because I feel like I am cheating.
I dislike playing games on the hardest difficulties usually, because I feel like the AI is cheating.

So, I decided to go for a veteran run.

I am doing well, several missions in. I finally manage to research mag weapons and I am so glad for it. Just in time for a mission with mutons who have lots of health and armour. Unfortunately, I end up triggering two groups of aliens and lose one of the most experienced members of my team.

I tell myself, it's ok. I can still do this. Two minutes later, I miss a shot on the muton and the muton grenades my team. So I lose a second member. I tell myself, I can still do this. I kill the muton and move forward to the last alien group.

Another muton. I grenade the muton and then with my super-strong (but wounded) sword-wielder, I go in for the kill.

Well, I learned that mutons can deflect melee attacks and he pulverised my ranger. Two units left in the mission, one wounded.

I kill them muton, expecting the mission successful screen. Instead a faceless appears and runs towards me. I need four shots to kill it of 3-4 damage each, otherwise I am dead.

First shot. 4 damage ! I am ecstatic.
Second shot. 3 damage. I think I'm ok.
Faceless regenerates 2 damage and I think; "What the fuck ?!"

Third shot. Missed! Well, fuck!
Fourth shot. 4 damage.

Faceless regens and 4th soldier dies.
Fifth soldier dies.

Ok, all of my best troops are dead. I am restarting my campaign.

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Second try.
I play a few missions and all goes well, not one casualty and only one wounded soldier.

I start a new mission and notice the objective is far out with only an 8 turn timer, so I ask myself, can I reach it without alerting anyone ? Does hacking a system remove concealment ? I don't know. I need to try, otherwise I will fail the mission.

Ok, first move, there's a turret, so I need to take a longer route even.
I get all the way to the objective with 3 turns remaining in concealment.

I hack the objective. And lo and behold, hacking does remove concealment.
Not one, not two but all three alien groups attack me at the same time.

I knew it was over but I still fought to see how much I could do. I ended up beating all the aliens except for a sectoid, his psi zombie and the turret.

All good fun.

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I think the conclusion is that I either need to use the mod that adds four turns to all timed missions, or the mod that stops timers from starting until concealment is over.

What do you guys think ?

I have yet to start playing this mod. I've read some discussions telling the major problems are balancing issues and the infiltration system.

Use the mod (in fact IIRC you just need to edit ini file) that stops the stressful red ticking timer - a game is supposed to be fun, not copypasted rush into everything or else workplace.
Also, DO NOT install at least in the first run the bosses DLC, those are overpowered, not impossible to beat, but unbalance the game completey and I'm not sure why are not separate content like Last Gift.

As I wrote here (by the time XCOM 2 was released), all missions in the base game are doable within the time limit set to them. I cannot say the same for the LW2, since again, I have yet to play it.

Is the mod not supposed to let the player slowly shift the balance in power, getting trashed at start to finally emerge as victorious?

That means taking quite a lot of beatings at start.

ChienAboyeur said:

Is the mod not supposed to let the player slowly shift the balance in power, getting trashed at start to finally emerge as victorious?

That means taking quite a lot of beatings at start.

Click to expand...

I don't know, Chien. Maybe the mod should also focus on keep a balance between frustration and joy after each victory. If you care to read Steam discussion threads, there are a lot of people talking about balance.

henriquejr said:

As I wrote here, by the time XCOM 2 was released, all missions in the base game are doable within the time limit set to them. I cannot say the same for the LW2, since again, I have yet to play it.

Click to expand...

I really enjoyed the time limits in the base game for XCOM 2. Sometimes I did run out of time, but not often, and the failure was rarely a disaster. But there were so many other times when my soldiers would complete missions by the skin of their teeth, racing through enemy laser fire to evac the zone at the last possible minute, it lead to some pretty amazing stories.

Pladio said:

I think the conclusion is that I either need to use the mod that adds four turns to all timed missions, or the mod that stops timers from starting until concealment is over.

What do you guys think ?

Click to expand...

I think you need to stop playing Ironman. Make a save when you start the mission and, if you get devastated, re-load and try again. Beats the tar out of starting the entire campaign again. Or, if you're worried about knowing what's coming, save frequently in the base. If you re-load from the base then the whole mission regenerates and you'll be playing blind again.

And do NOT turn off the timer! Talk about a cheat! No timer means you can just turtle along in everything but the terror missions.

P.S. One of the big things lowering difficulty does is add turns to that timer. Maybe you should just try normal difficulty?

I'm getting the hang of the LW2 mod now that I swallowed my pride and set it on Rookie. I still got beat on pretty hard in my second mission but now I've got base operations concentrating more on intel than anything else, which gives more time for infiltration, which makes the odds a LOT better.

Had reinforcements show up and only two guys jumped out of the chopper. Ha! This is going to be cake! Turns out that the little surveillance drones don't show up in that animation and there were three of the buggars. I survived but it was a lot more interesting than I expected.