I think LW2 is an extremely solid foundation at this point, conceptually I think Pavonis hit it out of the park in maintaining the spirit of xcom2, while introducing a significant number of new mechanics and generally improving upon xcom2. However I feel like there is still room to go (and Pavonis definitely know this, unfortunately it seems like the community often times over looks this. LW2 is still new people remember the late stages of LW1 and forget that there were growing pains with LW1 if you compare early versions to later versions).
Things I like
- I enjoy that the strategic layer has a lot of overall strategy to it. I enjoy that how I play the strategic layer impacts how easy/hard missions are at given times, and lets me shift around priorities. I enjoy that there are still multiple ways to play the game based on what you go for first.
- I enjoy that the RNG of the airgameis out. On some levels I miss it, but realistically it won't be missed that much by me.
- I enjoy the length of LW2 it is a little shorter than LW1, but I think the rough amount of missions is pretty solid.
- I enjoy the AI of Advent, they tend to do much more productive things compared to the EU/EW/LW AI so there is far less cheese on that end.
- I enjoy that overwatch camping isn't pushed into the forefront of every mission. I like that you can stealth several missions and use different squad sizes. Sure in LW1 you could play more aggressively but that often times means sacrificing the health and success of your campaign, so it wasn't really an option. It is kind of like having a giant frosted chocolate cake with ice cream in front of you, and some one telling you that you could have peanut butter cookies instead if you want. Sure you could have peanut butter cookies...but you and everyone else is having chocolate cake and ice cream. It was an option, an option you like and enjoy, but compared to other options it just isn't a good one.
- I enjoy the feel of the game. I feel like LW2 captured the essence of xcom2 and made it better.
- First and foremost and arguably the most important thing that needs addressing. CLUNKY STRATEGIC LAYER I LOVE the strategic layer, it maybe my favorite thing about LW2, but there is so much clunk that shouldn't be there that it makes it annoying. Specific complaints, come from the AWC, the GTS, Haven management, and squad set up.
- Mission diversity. I feel like the balance is out of whack, early on stealthing missions is just way better than fighting aliens. Early on all missions feel like they are timed. The end result is that you NEED to play a specific way in order to be successful in the campaign. This is just as problematic as the overwatch crawl being so prevalent in LW1.
- Balance of classes. Part of this is due to mission diversity, but a large part of this is that some classes are really REALLY brokenly strong (gunners, gunners, gunners, and grenadiers) and some of that power needs to be shifted around a bit to other classes or just around within the class.
Clunky strategic layer This to me is the highest priority of things to be addressed, more than balance, more than levels, more than game play, reducing the clunk. It is unfun stuff to think about and fix but all the little things add up, waste time and contribute to decreased satisfaction in the game. By fixing the clunk and not having those little annoyances in the background it would help ease criticism of other aspects of the game.
- AWC/GTS: When a soldier finishes have the option to go to the respective building. Currently it gives you the option to "view soldier" this is worthless no one cares. Currently it gives the option to "carry on" this is worthless no one cares about the map. It NEEDS a button to take you straight to the AWC/GTS there are ZERO instances where a soldier finishes in either of these and you don't immediately want to go to them and see if you are putting a soldier in them.
- AWC : When you are selecting a soldier to train for the AWC you should have arrows that let you toggle to the next/previous soldier available so you don't have to back out, click a new soldier, see what they have, back out, click a new soldier, see what they have, back out, click a new soldier, see what they have, back out, clic...you see the point, that was probably really annoying to read, everyone also knows it is annoying to do in game, it is like the whine of a tube TV, it isn't a big deal but that whine really gets annoying after awhile, like in class when the teacher won't turn it off and you just lose your ability to concentrate.
- GTS: Training rookies should give you a list of your rookies with their stats. You shouldn't need to go out of the GTS, over to the armory, over to your soldiers list, figure out which rookies you want for what class, then go back to the GTS and remember their names. They are rookies no one remembers their names.
- Squad set up (for missions): Give us a strip ALL weapons option, that would strip all non-saved weapons currently available of their upgrades. This would make building squads way easier and less of a headache as you often times want to shift things around depending on the soldier and the mission, in particular early when you don't have enough mods to go around.
- Squad set up(for missions): The filter resetting is annoying and goes to the most worthless filter first, at minimum it should not reset for ever.single.soldier.you.place.in.the.squad. Filter priority: AVAILABLE FIRST...followed by anything else. Ideally you could pick the filter order (available first, class second, rank third or available, rank, class). If I clicked available to get all my available soldiers to the top, select a soldier, and go to grab my second solder WHY DID THE FILTER RESET.
- Squad set up: (for missions) scumbag ESC key. You just spent 10 minutes setting up your squad...It would be a shame if something happened to it! In particular when you get to go through and set the filter for every.single.soldier.you.add.to.the.squad. Oh you want to change someone? Let me just reset that filter again. Reducing repetitive motions is one of the best ways to improve satisfaction.
- Haven management: Give us little arrows to flip between the regions.
On to the less important things, thoughts and suggestions on class balance.
Class balance Two classes specifically are problematic, gunner and grenadier.
- Gunner has the best control, the highest damage, and the most versatility. They are hands down broken. That you can have a gunner control multiple people, or destroy cover consistently, or ensure a high damage hit on a target, or just blow up a priority target, or deal high damage to multiple targets at long range AND have all those options available in the SAME build is a problem. That power should be spread out to other classes, shifted around in the perk tree so you DON'T have all those options available on a single soldier, or they need more inherent weaknesses (bigger hit to mobility, or not being able to move and fire, or reloading ends turn).
- Grenadiers: My specific beef with Grenadiers is that they very quickly become better technicals, only with more explosives, more versatility, and more consistency. The simplest solution would be to let technicals have different payloads in their rockets. After you get access to a special grenade (gas, acid, incendiary), you should have the option to swap from regular rockets to rockets with a specific payload, or the option to use the flame thrower as an acid sprayer. The technical would still be limited in the number of rockets it has, and the range of the flame thrower, but it would increase the utility of them a bit later on.
- Sharpshooter: Bring back the strike rifle. This would give shooting sharpshooters the ability to do things early in missions, while not really kicking out holo sharpshooters, and just like in LW1 sacrificing power and range for mobility.
- Punch through: Take three shots in rapid succession at the same target, the first shot deals minimal damage but shreds 2 armor, the second two shots act like regular shots. All three shots have a chance to miss, requires three ammo and both actions. Something that focuses on the ranger taking accurate shots (unlike the gunner that just throws bullets at a target until it is a pile of meat), while also giving the ranger some utility.
- Spray and pray: Blindly fire your gun at all enemies in a general direction (roughly 120 degree) then hunker. Uses 2 ammo, has a 25/33/50% chance to hit each unit within the cone (25% against full cover, 33% against half cover, 50% against no cover), ignores suppression, flashbang, and doesn't trigger covering fire overwatch, can hit friendly targets. Basically give rangers some uniqueness and some scrappy abilities that promote being up in front and in the think of things, along with their trusty sawn off.
Mission Diversity I think fixing mission diversity, or really just balancing out the frequency of certain missions would help a lot. It would allow players that want to stealth play more of those, it would allow players that want to take their time play more of those.
Timers: I don't have a super big issue with timers, except for the HARD timers where you lose your squad if they don't hit the evac point in time. In some cases the maps you get for these are ENORMOUS and require multiple turns of dashing. I agree with the idea that not all missions should be winnable, but losing a mission due to an inability to run in a straight line is just poor game mechanic design. There are a couple easy fixes to these missions, to turn them into soft timers. Before unwinnable missions you had the option to go back and abort, with these missions you basically are hoping you can maybe reach the evac point. This seems like a good tension building mission idea...but unfortunately it causes the wrong kind of suspense, it is a question of whether you just got fucked by a map and a timer, it isn't the xcom kind of suspense you get every time an enemy shoots at one of your soldiers. It is RNG but a fuck you RNG rather than a "That's xcom baby!!" kind of RNG.
- Heavy reinforcementsHave advent drop in every single turn starting on turn 11. This would effectively mean you have +8 new advent on turn 13 and that number will increase rapidly the longer you hang out. This is easy to implement and fixes the issues with the hard timers.
- Call for a new evac zoneRemove the hard timer and if you can't make it to the evac zone, you can call for one that takes "X" turns to arrive (while they shake interceptors), and you deal with reinforcements that drop in every other or ever 3 turns. Slightly more complex to add, still addresses the issue and still punishes the player for not keeping to the timer.
- Otherwise I think timers are fine they push for difference in play.
- Ambush the Advent scouting party: Give us some more haven action! A Advent scouting party was located near a haven there isn't time to call for reinforcements you have teh option of ignoring them (increases advent strength in the region by 1) or making them...disappear (sweet sweet corpses). Haven advisor + resistance members. Not a timed mission, basically a rendevous mission only without the faceless(es). Benefits of this: More action for haven advisors (frequently sharp shooters early) which would help with the experience they can earn, more action for haven personnel (level ups), more corpses (in particular early on). They are still tricky and risky missions you can lose resistance members but I think it would be a solid addition as well as a break in the monotony that happens both early (chain running stealth missions), and later (chain running large squad beat em up missions).
- Distract the advent: Kind of like smash and grab JL mentioned except totally different. Once a month YOU can initiate a mission in a region of your choice. The reward of the mission is to draw advents attention to that region from adjacent regions (thus making things like liberation in those adjacent regions easier). You get dropped off in a city and you need to hold out for ~12 turns before you are picked up in the same spot. Advent saw you arrive and they know pretty much where you are and they are coming to get you! You could add appeal to the mission and uniqueness by adding small bonus objectives around the city that you could collect, maybe an item in a box, maybe little intel or supply on a computer terminal, maybe a prisoner you could help escape, you don't know what is out there or where they are, you would have to risk venturing out to find out. Advent strength for the mission would be based on Advent presence in the region. It is timed but no movement is really necessary. Requires at least 4 soldiers. I like this mission idea because it is completely different compared to almost any other type of mission and it helps give you a little more direct control over the enemies forces and it has several different ways that you could play it.
- Random idea that popped into my head but I have not really thought about: Plant a spy/bait/false information. Exactly what it sounds like but I have put no thought into how to do it.
- Evade: Same as it currently is, you escape? Great! you get caught? Better fight or you lose the campaign.
- Fight: Screw flying around, we can take it, same as the current fight when you get caught, you get to use any soldiers you have on the Avenger and if you don't have enough for a full squad resistance personnel fill in the rest.
- FLEE...for help: Rather than flying in circles when you have no soldiers, Bradford does the smart thing, he flies to the biggest group of soldiers so someone can defend the Avenger. You choose which mission to interrupt (cancels the mission) you get to use that squad AS IS to defend the Avenger. The set up is slightly different your squad doesn't start at the Avenger. The Avenger has a door with health (like the defend the relay missions). You need to stop Advent from breaking through the door AND then occupying the space behind the door for 1 full turn. So it is a soft timer, they can get inside they just can't stay inside.
I feel like balance in the late game (defense stacking on enemies) has the same flaws it had in LW1, but it is kind of tricky to balance that out as your soldiers ramp up in strength, there isn't a great answer to this. MAYBE things like have more shield bearer style units, or a unit that actually heals enemies, or more mind merge like abilities, or just bumping up the armor on even standard units to make them slightly tougher to get through, a unit that gives nearby units armor (dampening like field), or an advent unit that starts pushing through some of the officer abilities (like a leader using the ability that reduces explosive damage taken by a squad for a turn upon activation). In particular making use of officer perks on advent leaders I think could be enough to up the difficulty in a lot of situation that you wouldn't need to up the RNG to make the game harder.
Sorry that was so long. Just some thoughts I have after playing.
TL;DR Pavonis I think you hit it out of the park with LW2. That doesn't mean it is perfect, nothing is perfect, I mean heck even now you are tweaking LW1 still. There is always more that can be done, and I know you know this, but don't let the criticism that has popped up frequently get you down. LW2 is awesome and I know you will continue to make it better. Here is some external feedback regarding LW2. Either way I know full well I will continue playing this for a long time. (PS fix the clunky Avenger strategic layer stuff, like AWC/GTS/Squad set up for missions). You guys did awesome.
