LWS announces partnership with Firaxis and 2K Games for release-day XCOM 2 mods

[johnnylump]

(From our news page)

Long War Studios announced today that it has partnered with Firaxis and 2K Games to provide multiple mods for XCOM 2 that are planned for release when XCOM 2 launches on Feb. 5. Details on mod content as well as XCOM 2's modding tools will be available when LWS design lead John Lumpkin appears at the Firaxis Megapanel at PAX South in San Antonio at 12:30 p.m. CT on Jan. 30. The panel will also be webcast live here.

... We can't say anything more just yet, but we're planning to use this forum space to relay information and technical help to modders once the game is released.

[Silver]

Read it on FB, excellent news, looking forward. I except this will inevitably delay your own project though... can't have both I guess

[RedTieGuy]

That is absolutely amazing! As a lifetime fan of Xcom (played the original back in the day - TFTD still one of my favorite), I'm super excited to see what is ahead for the studio. Congrats!

[johnnylump]

Yes, TI has had to slow down while we worked on this, but it's ultimately made us a *lot* smarter about the ins and outs of game development.

[Drakous79]

Hello guys

Stopping by to say wow again and to congratulate you on creating LWS.

Is modding XCOM 2 easy? Can you create new models, textures, maps? Is possible to create new or modify existing scripts and put them to the game?

[johnnylump]

Hey Drak, great seeing you again. We can't say anything else until Pax South at the earliest, but I'd point you to and endorse this preview from Firaxicon a few months back: Link. I think the modding-specific stuff is around the 22-minute mark.

[Drakous79]

Hey Johnny! Nice to see read you too.

Aw, that is another 9-10 days. But thanks for the link, going to watch now.

*presses scan button to speed up the time*

[boysunshine]

hey congrats! Are these mods only going to be available for the PC launch or for consoles as well? Thanks!

[Andor]

Well, you know you did good when the games primary developer boasts you are doing mods for them on their main site, pre-release.

Congrats! Now if only I had the money to buy the damn game.

[johnnylump]

hey congrats! Are these mods only going to be available for the PC launch or for consoles as well? Thanks!

To my knowledge, they haven't announced they are doing a console port of XCOM 2.

[Wargate]

I was going to wait to buy the game...until today...when I read this on Kotaku. Brilliant to see you guys being recognized for all the work you put into EU.

[boysunshine]

hey congrats! Are these mods only going to be available for the PC launch or for consoles as well? Thanks!

To my knowledge, they haven't announced they are doing a console port of XCOM 2.

You just ruined my whole day. lol. I think there is a saying about 'assumptions'. Thanks though.

[Capid]

I'm very glad to read about this, Firaxis is already doing an amazing job advertising the game, but getting you as official partners for Long War 2 is the icing to the cake

[advkow]

Wait...I get an original game from you guys AND you're going to make more content for Xcom 2 so that I have awesome stuff after I've played the campaign on 2/3 difficulties?

You guys just made my list of favorite game studios.

[lordserb]

Huge congratulations to you all! I've suffered much pain with the long war already and look forward to a good bit more.
Wishing you all the best with the new mods and other projects in the future!

/we will be watching, commander...

[RedTieGuy]

I've made a not to check out the stream on the 30th as it's probably the biggest reason I want to check out Pax

Off topic - you guys need to delete these spam messages like the one above. The aliens are invading these forums already!

[NinjaJediSmurf]

I love this news. I hope your mods inject some much needed menace into the game. So far in all the footage I've seen the soldiers seem quite overpowered. I'm fearful we will be able to steamroll through the game like EU/EW once troops level up. LW ramped up the emotion of the game by ramping up the risk vs reward decision making. I hope your new mods cause me to rejoice and panic at alternating 5 minute intervals just like LW. Congrats on the huge vote of confidence shown by the devs in giving you this opportunity. You really deserve it.

[raydeft]

I wanted to congratulate the team on this. I think that it shows what I really like about Firaxis and the community, and at the same time is a well-deserved reward for your efforts. I don't think many developers would have reached out like this and I don't think many teams have put such an amazing effort into a mod.

Well Done!

[Skyblade]

Congratulations on the fantastic job with the mod, and on getting to work with Firaxis.

I do have one big question, though:
Are your mods for XCOM 2 going to be total conversions?

Although I've watched playthroughs, I've never played Long War specifically because it blocks access to the original game. I don't want to have to roll back every time I want to switch versions. I'm not really blaming you guys for that, I understand why it worked that way, and I do really respect the job you did. But hopefully working with Firaxis let you integrate it a little smoother? Or am I just dreaming?

[fowlJ]

While I'm not in a position to speak on the nature of the mods they are creating, I will say they probably haven't had enough time to create anything of that complexity.

That besides, XCOM 2 will, as far as I am aware, allow you to enable or disable individual mods from the game's launcher, making the installation/uninstallation process of Long War unnecessary - even if they did make something big, you could easily choose whether to play it or not each time you loaded the game.

[Skyblade]

While I'm not in a position to speak on the nature of the mods they are creating, I will say they probably haven't had enough time to create anything of that complexity.

That besides, XCOM 2 will, as far as I am aware, allow you to enable or disable individual mods from the game's launcher, making the installation/uninstallation process of Long War unnecessary - even if they did make something big, you could easily choose whether to play it or not each time you loaded the game.

That is fantastic news, thanks.

[emikochan]

Congrats LWS on the partnership! Can't wait to see what you come out with

[Plockets]

I was happy about XCOM2, but didn't expect much longevity from the vanilla game based on how easyish the play looked from the prerelease LPs I have seen. Now that I know LWS is an official mod partner for XCOM2, I am actually excited that I might find another 1k+ hours of rewarding struggle to immerse myself into!

[Drathmar]

First off just wanted to say hey, and really glad the announcement of you guys doing the XCOM 2 release mods reminding me to sign up as I am looking forward to your game.

Second, after watching the panel at PAX South and reading this thread, there was one question I was curious about that was not answered that I wanted to ask. That being, are you going to make more mods for XCOM 2 after release? I know you won't have a ton of time with your own game, but hoping you do release some. Either way, good luck with TI and looking forward to it.

[RedTieGuy]

Great panel at Pax today! Really looking forward to those Day 1 mods as well as other things you've got cooked up. As someone who isn't really experienced in coding, I'm so glad to see the way they're implementing mods into Xcom2 to. The interface is very user-friendly and it looks very easy to use. The key, as you said, is to start off basic and work from there