X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[Mazisky]

If they are gonna make an expansion, i hope LW2 will be updated for that, unless they wanna people stay on LW2 and avoid xpack at all.

 

[agris]

How is LW2 not an expansion? Because it's free? Because it's optional? That only makes it differ from a regular expansion by being free.

 

[Zombra]

How is LW2 not an expansion?

Expansion implies a content addition to the base game, and possibly a few new mechanics. Long War is a foundational change to how XCOM plays, with essentially no new content but tons of fundamental systems changes - it isn't quite XCOM any more. Looks like LW2 does the same thing to XCOM 2. It's not an expansion, it's a (huge) mod.

 

[agris]

How is LW2 not an expansion?

Expansion implies a content addition to the base game, and possibly a few new mechanics. Long War is a foundational change to how XCOM plays, with essentially no new content but tons of fundamental systems changes - it isn't quite XCOM any more. Looks like LW2 does the same thing to XCOM 2. It's not an expansion, it's a (huge) mod.

That seems to be splitting hairs, but ok. If systems change and the fundamental way you approach underlying content changes as a result, that seems like fresh content if not new. LW2 will certainly make the game and missions play differently, requiring new strategies and tactics. Seems like an expansion to me, but carry on.

 

[agris]

LizardWizard that's fine that you disagree, but why? Do there need to be new units and maps for it to be an expansion? I think of those as shiny things. Gameplay impacting changes are far more meaningful in terms of novel experiences, which is what I expect an expansion to yield.

 

[Zombra]

To me what defined Enemy Within as an expansion was the story content. Not just new missions, but a whole new storyline to pursue. Maps and classes are great, but still "just DLC".

Long War was the same campaign. Played in a whole new way to be sure ... but still the same campaign. That's not an expansion.

 

[Mazisky]

Expansions generally add "production expensive" features a mod can't, like new maps, assets, buildings, mechanics and storyline elements (plus voice overs, cutscenes).

I'm very excited for LW2 but i'm also thrilling for an official expansion because i know which kind of content i should expect from both

 

[Grunker]

Expansion = focused on content

LW = focused on systems

 

[ArchAngel]

In case anyone wants to look at the images of how some of the new features will look in addition to info already pasted here: https://xcom.com/news/xcom-2-long-war-2-mod-brings-big-changes-to-the-strategy-layer-on-pc

Also:

 

[Mazisky]

I have to say Firaxis is getting credits after this move.

Not only huge free content, but even officially supported: this means updates after release, and full localized in all languages.

And i said "content" because there are also new assets, new items, weapons, etc. with full models and new art.

 

[cvv]

I have to say Firaxis is getting credits after this move.

Not only huge free content, but even officially supported: this means updates after release, and full localized in all languages.

The level of official support for LW2 is indeed mindblowing but trust me, whatever the reason is it's not altruistic. In this mad world of dozens of new games coming out every day the ability to attract attention and not fade into oblivion a week after launch is everything. And LW absolutely put a fresh spotlight on a game nobody cared about anymore. I'd guess that is the value Firaxis sees in modding efforts like this.

 

[Mazisky]

I have to say Firaxis is getting credits after this move.

Not only huge free content, but even officially supported: this means updates after release, and full localized in all languages.

The level of official support for LW2 is indeed mindblowing but trust me, whatever the reason is it's not altruistic. In this mad world of dozens of new games coming out every day the ability to attract attention and not fade into oblivion a week after launch is everything. And LW absolutely put a fresh spotlight on a game nobody cared about anymore. I'd guess that is the value Firaxis sees in modding efforts like this.

Sure, but it's still a win for everyone. They could have done expansion instead and getting paid for that

 

[Mazisky]

LONG WAR 2 BRINGS NEW MISSION TYPES:

• Jailbreak – XCOM must infiltrate an ADVENT jail and rescue key Resistance members. Success increases the strength of the Resistance in that region.
• Haven Defense – A variation on Retaliation missions where XCOM must defend Resistance members against an onslaught of ADVENT forces until the Skyranger can get into position for extraction.
• ADVENT Base Assault – XCOM must deploy to and overtake a well-defended regional military headquarters.
• Invasion – ADVENT attempts to retake a liberated region by assaulting a city center. XCOM must destroy a psionic relay that summons continuous reinforcements, then eliminate any remaining forces.
• Rendezvous – A Faceless disguised as a member of the Resistance is detected as it goes to meet with its ADVENT handlers and XCOM must hunt it down.
• ADVENT Supply Raid – XCOM must defend a supply convoy and its Resistance personnel from ADVENT attacks.
• ADVENT Intel Raid – ADVENT attacks a Resistance listening post and XCOM must repel the attack.
• ADVENT Recruiting Raid – ADVENT forces attack Resistance recruiters within a region. XCOM must extract those Resistance members.

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Jaedar]

Expansion = focused on content

LW = focused on systems

Systems are content.

I will say though, a lot of those mission types seem rather similar.

 

[sser]

Whoa, Firaxis is officially supporting the mod and slapping it on their main site? That's definitely very cool. Might have to actually give XCOM2 a try now.

 

[Alienman]

Whoa, Firaxis is officially supporting the mod and slapping it on their main site? That's definitely very cool. Might have to actually give XCOM2 a try now.

If you don't own it, you can get it for 12 dollars here:

https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly

 

[sser]

Whoa, Firaxis is officially supporting the mod and slapping it on their main site? That's definitely very cool. Might have to actually give XCOM2 a try now.

If you don't own it, you can get it for 12 dollars here:

https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly

Yeah that's where I got it (I'm already subbed to that dealio).

It's just been sitting pointlessly in my library for awhile now because ... I dunno why.

 

[Mazisky]

For those interested, they found what causes any of the LOS issues like shooting through walls, ceilings and all those stuff who was the biggest complain beaside optimization.

It's related on how the game doesn't use multithreads properly while building the map. They will probably fix this with the next patch, altough you can fix it now (if you don't wanna wait) by a simple ini edit.

Basically it forces the game to use a single thread while compiling world, it means increased loading times but no more issues. It's on the the workshop in recents

 

[Mazisky]

COMBAT

• Shotguns are less accurate at medium and long ranges
• LMGs are less accurate at point-blank range
• Pistols and SMGs are between shotguns and assault rifles in terms of accuracy at range
• On Veteran+, enemy reinforcement flares do not appear to XCOM
• Reinforcements on many missions will appear at more regulated intervals, based on regional ADVENT strength. They will start out somewhat stronger than in vanilla and end up far stronger.
• Enemy pods may have up to 8 enemies. Larger all-alien pods will almost always have more than two species.
• Enemy pods will now employ certain tactics before they engage XCOM. This may include going to protect the objective or attempting to flank XCOM. They also have a broader set of options if they become aware a battle is underway, typically from hearing weapon fire/explosions or seeing dead allies.
• Enemy AI will generally be more careful about cover and moving. They will order their turns to put units with certain ability types ahead of others.
• Enemies who activate on their own turn will have a chance to take a ‘reflex’ action. If the unit was previously aware that a battle is underway, this may include firing at XCOM if they are unharmed after their scamper move.
• Throwing any grenade has a one-turn cooldown before you can throw something else. Launching a grenade does not.
  It now takes the Skyranger multiple turns to arrive after you throw the evac flare. Certain factors like Squad Size and infiltration status affect the number of turns. Throwing the evac flare reveals the squad.
• When receiving a potentially fatal wound, soldiers are more likely to bleed out in general rather than die immediately.
• Mission timers may be extended by officers using the “Intervention” ability. Using this ability costs intel.
• Absent certain grenadier perks, grenades rarely destroy all but the most fragile of cover or induce vehicles to immediately explode.
• Minimum explosives damage falls off from the center of an explosion. So a grenade that does 6-8 damage at the center will do 1-8 at the edge of the area of effect.
• Rockets scatter based on a soldier’s aim, distance to target, perks, and whether or not the soldier has moved yet.
• Loot drops are more common, but contain less loot.

GEAR

• All armors have three utility slots. Pistols now go in utility slots.
• Each full utility slot reduces your mobility by one. Base mobility is 15 for soldiers.
• Soldiers may equip vests (bonus hp + a special bonus) and plating (ablative HP that functions like shieldbearer shields) at the same time in utility slots.
• Most items, including weapons and armor, must be constructed individually. The schematic system of upgrading all weapons at once is largely eliminated.
• Proving Ground projects are now tied explicitly to single items and generally enable mass production of a given ammo, grenade, vest, weapon mod, etc. in engineering.
• All primary weapons have at least three slots for upgrades.
• Repeaters are gone. They now function as suppressors and reduce infiltration time as well as the range at which enemies can hear your fire.
• Stocks now provide the “Steady Weapon” ability (turn-ending action to provide bonus aim and crit on the next turn) instead of doing damage on misses.
• Hair Triggers now provide to-hit bonuses on reaction fire. Scopes now only work on non-reaction fire.

CLASSES

• Sharpshooter: Primary: Sniper Rifle; Secondary: Holotargeter
• Shinobi: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Sword
• Ranger: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Sawed-off Shotgun
• Assault: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Arc Thrower
• Gunner: Primary: Cannon; Secondary: Combat Knife
• Grenadier: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Grenade Launcher
• Specialist: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Gremlin
• Technical: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Gauntlet
• Psi Operative: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Psi Amp
• Spark (DLC): Primary: Spark Rifle; Secondary: Bit

TO-HIT MECHANICS
The following hit mechanics in Long War 2 have been modified:

• Critical chance is no longer an absolute chance
  • In base XCOM 2 a 10% hit and 10% critical chance would land 10% of the time, and if it hit would always be a critical. This is no longer the case.
  • Dodge no longer supersedes crit. (In base XCOM 2 if dodge + crit chance was greater than hit, crit chance would be removed in favor of dodge.)
  • Soldiers can graze even if the target has no dodge (In base XCOM 2, grazes were only possible if the target had dodge stat)
• These changes apply completely symmetrically to both sides
• All units will now graze if their to-hit roll is “close” to the required to hit
  • This is referred to as the “Graze Band.” The measure of “close” is configurable in-game, and defaults to +/- 10%.
  • Example 1 : Base 70% chance to hit results in 60% chance of a normal damage hit and 20% chance of a graze. The displayed to hit is 70%.
  • Example 2 : Base 20% chance to hit results in 10% chance of a normal damage hit and a 20% chance of a graze. The displayed to hit is 20%.
• Critical Hit Chance is now a chance to “promote” the damage type. A successful critical roll will:
  • Promote a graze hit to a regular damage hit
  • Promote a regular damage hit to a critical damage hit
• Dodge Stat is now a chance to “demote” the damage type. A successful dodge roll will:
  • Demote critical damage hit to regular damage hit
  • Demote a regular damage hit to a graze
  • Demote a graze into a miss (configurable)
• Consequences:
  • Low % shots are generally more likely to do something, but that something results in less damage, and is very unlikely to deal critical damage
  • 90% to-hit and above won’t entirely miss enemies (unless they have dodge)
  • Dodge and Crit counter each other, so a high critical chance helps counter high dodge units, while a good dodge helps protect against critical hits
  • When using Not Created Equally, soldiers may have negative dodge, increasing the chance hits against them will be promoted
• Example 1: 90% to hit, 50% to crit
  In base XCOM 2, this will result in Critical damage 50%, Normal damage 40% of the time, Miss 10% of the time.
  In Long War 2, this will result in, Critical damage 40% of the time, Normal damage 40% of the time, Graze damage 20% of the time.
  
• Example 2: 20% to hit, 10% to crit
  In base XCOM 2, this will result in Critical damage 10% of the time, Normal damage 10% of the time, Miss 80% of the time
  In Long War 2, it will result in Critical damage 1% of the time, Normal damage 11% of the time, Graze damage 18% of the time, Miss 70% of the time

 

[Ivan]

MY BODY IS READY, as is my F5 key

 

[Cyberarmy]

DEFCON 3 Shredder

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Whoa, Firaxis is officially supporting the mod and slapping it on their main site? That's definitely very cool. Might have to actually give XCOM2 a try now.

If you don't own it, you can get it for 12 dollars here:

https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly

what about the countless dlcs?

 

[ArchAngel]

Whoa, Firaxis is officially supporting the mod and slapping it on their main site? That's definitely very cool. Might have to actually give XCOM2 a try now.

If you don't own it, you can get it for 12 dollars here:

https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly

what about the countless dlcs?

Only one worth getting is the SPARK and only because I am sure LW2 is going to fix them and make them useful. For vanilla you might as well not use DLCs. SPARKs are weaker than standard classes, SPARK mission is irritating.
Alien Hunters are unfair to new players but once you know what you are doing, access to weapons you get make the early game easier and armors you get from rulers make the end game even easier.
Alien Rulers only make mid game more interesting but you can control when they start showing up so you can be prepared for them and that makes them trivial.

 

[Mazisky]

Personally i liked both Alien Rulers and Sparks altough they are small Dlcs with little content.

What i'm waiting for is a proper, real expansion like EW. I have pretty good leaks about that, but i don't know if they are still working on it, if it will come soon or if they scrapped it at this point.