Long War 2 feature announce: New mission types

[Tyranniac]

Well, considering that there are several billion humans, I imagine that in any region they have a massive manpower advantage. Story elements aside though, is this really an issue? Would you rather have a more complex, and challenging strategy layer or have the PI team nitpick every change to death because of plausibility? I mean barking about "realism" in a game about aliens taking over Earth is crossing from pedantic to silly.

Well, just because Xcom 2 has some SciFi elements doesn't mean that some mechanics / story bits of the game can't have a sense of "realism." For Example; If the Xcom universe wants to present a world that is supposedly under Advents control and then suddenly has a group of Rebels shooting down UFO's left & right with little to no resistance, that'd be kinda contradictory & silly. If elements of a game are seemingly breaking the rules or setting that the game presents then that's considered Immersion breaking. The mechanics & story still should behave in a realistic fashion, even though the setting itself is ludicrous when compared to reality...

With that said though I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, I mean being able to dismantle UFO can simply be explained by saying that even though Advent is in control of "most" of the world, "most =/= all" and it's certainly feasible in my mind that there are pockets of the world that Advent just simply doesn't have the means to control. And Xcom is here to broaden/strengthen those Pockets into a force to be reckoned with.

Thanks, you pretty much covered what I was going to say. I hate the argument that sci-fi/fantasy shouldn't concern itself with realism (or rather, staying true to the rules of the setting, I guess). But yeah, I don't think it's a huge deal or anything, the whole liberation thing just sort of stuck out to me as being potentially at odds with the way the situation is portrayed in XCOM 2, so I figured it was worth asking about. I'm looking forward to seeing how it feels when playing.

[Sentenryu]

I don't think it's a huge deal or anything, the whole liberation thing just sort of stuck out to me as being potentially at odds with the way the situation is portrayed in XCOM 2

Let me give you some real life examples of a similar situation:

• 2012-present: Central African Republic conflict (2012–present)–François Bozizé, president of the Central African Republic, is overthrown by the rebel coalition Seleka, led by Michel Djotodia.
  2012-present: Rojava Revolution in Syrian Kurdistan.
  The 2011 Libyan Civil War in which rebel forces gradually take control of the country, and kill leader Muammar Gaddafi.
  2009-present: War in Somalia (2009–present)

If you have the time to read them (the page is gigantic) there's many more examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_r ... rebellions

You might think it's Inconceivable that XCOM could take the world back region by region, but it's actually just as likely as what happens in vanilla. It's all out war now, just because XCOM starts at a disadvantage, doesn't mean it can't take territories back, specially when those provide support for it's cause.

[Tyranniac]

Let me give you some real life examples of a similar situation:

• 2012-present: Central African Republic conflict (2012–present)–François Bozizé, president of the Central African Republic, is overthrown by the rebel coalition Seleka, led by Michel Djotodia.
  2012-present: Rojava Revolution in Syrian Kurdistan.
  The 2011 Libyan Civil War in which rebel forces gradually take control of the country, and kill leader Muammar Gaddafi.
  2009-present: War in Somalia (2009–present)

If you have the time to read them (the page is gigantic) there's many more examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_r ... rebellions

You might think it's Inconceivable that XCOM could take the world back region by region, but it's actually just as likely as what happens in vanilla. It's all out war now, just because XCOM starts at a disadvantage, doesn't mean it can't take territories back, specially when those provide support for it's cause.

I'm curious to see when in the campaign that liberation starts to become an attainable goal. I suppose it'll make more sense in the late game when the tech gap starts to even out. I'd really like to know if the rebel forces will be gaining access to higher tiers of weapons as the campaign progresses, or if that's restricted to XCOM.

[deaconivory]

I don't think it's a huge deal or anything, the whole liberation thing just sort of stuck out to me as being potentially at odds with the way the situation is portrayed in XCOM 2

Let me give you some real life examples of a similar situation:

• 2012-present: Central African Republic conflict (2012–present)–François Bozizé, president of the Central African Republic, is overthrown by the rebel coalition Seleka, led by Michel Djotodia.
  2012-present: Rojava Revolution in Syrian Kurdistan.
  The 2011 Libyan Civil War in which rebel forces gradually take control of the country, and kill leader Muammar Gaddafi.
  2009-present: War in Somalia (2009–present)

If you have the time to read them (the page is gigantic) there's many more examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_r ... rebellions

You might think it's Inconceivable that XCOM could take the world back region by region, but it's actually just as likely as what happens in vanilla. It's all out war now, just because XCOM starts at a disadvantage, doesn't mean it can't take territories back, specially when those provide support for it's cause.

This is a very good point, and I agree 100%. I've noticed that people often lose sight of the XCOM2 narrative when they discuss "realism" in the game. The Alien's purpose (and by extension Advent's purpose) isn't to maintain a global military regime, it is to ensure that the Avatar project proceeds unimpeded. Therefore, in LW2 the Aliens and Advent must weigh the return on investment for battling XCOM at every turn, or allowing some regions to fall if it doesn't impact the AP. In a very general sense their entire goal during the late game is to get every human into a gene therapy clinic, so they want the all of the humans alive. A long bloody battle with XCOM over a region that they feel is less important goes against their plans.

Excellent conversation everyone.

[Amineri]

On the matter of liberation and the narrative, remember a couple of key points, presented even in base XCOM 2.

ADVENT has concentrated it's efforts into the City Centers. There are the slums and shanty-towns. So ADVENT is hardly maintaining any sort of blanket global control over a region.

Also, don't forget the whole narrative element of the psionic network, which is the mechanism by which the aliens exert direct control over their military forces. In the game's narrative, the player (Commander) was hooked up to the psionic network and providing Command and Control to these forces (now removed). Further, this psionic network can represent a weak infrastructure point that can be attacked, allowing disruption within a region.

[Tyranniac]

This is a very good point, and I agree 100%. I've noticed that people often lose sight of the XCOM2 narrative when they discuss "realism" in the game. The Alien's purpose (and by extension Advent's purpose) isn't to maintain a global military regime, it is to ensure that the Avatar project proceeds unimpeded. Therefore, in LW2 the Aliens and Advent must weigh the return on investment for battling XCOM at every turn, or allowing some regions to fall if it doesn't impact the AP. In a very general sense their entire goal during the late game is to get every human into a gene therapy clinic, so they want the all of the humans alive. A long bloody battle with XCOM over a region that they feel is less important goes against their plans.

Excellent conversation everyone.

On the matter of liberation and the narrative, remember a couple of key points, presented even in base XCOM 2.

ADVENT has concentrated it's efforts into the City Centers. There are the slums and shanty-towns. So ADVENT is hardly maintaining any sort of blanket global control over a region.

Also, don't forget the whole narrative element of the psionic network, which is the mechanism by which the aliens exert direct control over their military forces. In the game's narrative, the player (Commander) was hooked up to the psionic network and providing Command and Control to these forces (now removed). Further, this psionic network can represent a weak infrastructure point that can be attacked, allowing disruption within a region.

Good points from both of you. Can't wait to play through myself