LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

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Arcalane
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Arcalane »

Alketi wrote:Turn timer increases mean you can handle more aliens or it's slightly easier for a given level of aliens.
That just means you have more time to get fucked by reinforcements, which will be in the air the moment you break concealment. Doesn't do anything for quantity or quality. In fact if anything it means quantity is likely to go up.
Alketi wrote:Lowering vigilance levels mean you get fewer aliens on the missions.


Maybe. Pods are typically still 4-8 either way, with the occasional faceless, chryssalid, or lone surveillance/hunter drone.
Alketi wrote:Sooner detection means more soldiers are allowed.
...but the point is to lean towards making squads of 5-6 troopers more viable, so "more soldiers allowed" defeats the point as well. There are maybe one or two edge-cases where you could flip stealth to small-loud, like Dark VIP kidnapping, but otherwise... no. It's still more beneficial to go in with 1-3 stealth ops if the window is small.
wei270
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by wei270 »

i think the best benefit from the smaller squad is the fact that you have a much lower infiltration time. why don't we then make a small change in the infiltration time so that the first 3 guy you take have a slight higher infiltration time that diminishes as you increase squad size to 6 or 7

so essentially what i am saying is increase the infiltration time for a 1 to 3 man squad would have compare to what we have now and decrease the infiltration time for 4 to 6 or maybe 7 man squad compare to what we have now and see how it plays out
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8wayz
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by 8wayz »

A simple change would be to increase the infiltration penalty for 6+ squads. On the other hand that will just make you try harder to go for tag team stealth missions.

What I would like to see is the following :
- nerf the design of Stealth missions a bit. Have a patrol pod to stay close to the objective and make it a point to always put as a leader some crowd control unit. This will force you to either bring more firepower or be reckless when going for the objective.

- Modify having a lower infiltration score instead of just flat out increasing the number of pods and aliens to simply improve them. Instead of ordinary ADVENT troops they will get a pod of 2 Lancers, 1 Rocketeer and 1 Officer. Some players are reporting that on Enemy Material missions it is better to go gun ho at 0 Infiltration for more Aliens and loot. With better aliens against you this would make them think twice.

- Add new hacking events for Sentry Towers and possibly other objects on the map, like a security terminal. For example
* Cause a distraction - you get 1/2 turns on the timer.
* Jam signal - delays enemy reinforcements by 2/4 turns.
* Memory wipe - Soldier/ Squad enters concealment

In essence, make the hacking skills usable for stealth missions as well. A good part of the rewards currently are related to Geoscape and thus have little to do with the mission itself.

To sum it up, you will be able to do little with just tinkering with numbers. A slight adjustment to the design of missions will be needed as well.
mattprice516
Long War 2 Crew
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by mattprice516 »

Quick few comments on smash n grab:

* Only one cache per soldier allowed, so you have to bring at least as many soldiers as chests to get full benefit

* Timer is indeed a "soft timer" with crazy rnf once it runs out

* That mission is very much still in the "initial balancing" phase, and might see some changes before it deploys publicly (or might not, hard to say)
Tuhalu
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Tuhalu »

8wayz wrote: * Memory wipe - Soldier/ Squad enters concealment
There is actually already a concealment hack in LW2. There are just so many different hacks that you rarely see it.
Jacke
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Jacke »

To eventually move away from so much stealth, I run some resource mods to pay for the fighting. To handled Infiltration and Timers, I run the mods A Better War: Infiltration and True Concealment for LW2. ABW:I shifts infiltration to make the early game sweet spot at 6 troops instead of 5, and going under 100% isn't as bad and going over 100% is a bit better. I adjust TCLW2 so there's a chance for turns count to count down before breaking stealth, based upon how well you infiltrate: 75% and up to have any chance of stopping the clock, 125% for 80% chance of stopping the clock.

On a Jailbreak I just did, went in with a Shinobi, Specialist, Gunner, Grenadier, and a Rookie at 136% done in 7d 3d. I think the timer went down once from 12 to 11 during the stealth part, about 8 turns. Finished off with 4 turns of violence. Then some of the bodies to the evac. The Gunner, who was stunned by a Drone and hadn't woken up, was knocked out (thanks to mod Knock Them Out) by the Specialist, who carried him to the evac. Had 7 turns and there was another pod of 4 enemy out there, but the Grenadier had fired both her frag grenades and the Gunner was doing the dirt nap, so evacced.

A bit more fun than just stealthing it. If I'd fought better (let the pod get too close before setting up the ambush), would have been better.
nightwyrm
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by nightwyrm »

I find that even having a pod standing right next to a VIP doesn't mean I have to fight. I just use a support grenadier to carpet bomb the place with Sting/Frost grenades and grab the VIP.

Maybe a "King of the Hill" mission type like those old Exalt missions where you have to take control of a location for a few turns. You need enough men to fight for a few turns but not so many that you can't infiltrate well.
trihero
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by trihero »

Another approach is just to increase the duration on missions in general.

I think what happens with 5-6 man squads is you are triply punished:

1) it is hard to find missions with enough infiltration time to get to 100% for 5-6 man squads
2) they are usually out of commission for a week or so due to infiltration time
3) they have a really rough time bringing enough firepower to finish off whatever comes within the timer as the game progresses, and using the officer extension ability is an easy way to lose because intel is precious and hard to come by in the late game

Increasing the duration on missions is a simple solution that addresses point 1) so there is more variety of possibilities. I think points 2) and 3) are already enough punishment. Being out infiltrating for such a long time is inherently the point of infiltration to begin with, we don't need the additional burden of not having enough time to infiltrate properly happen so often (that it happens sometimes is fine).

I think we really want to avoid the meta where all you do is stealth missions or huge man missions, and this situation is indeed the meta not according to me but people like joinrbs.
Napalm292
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Napalm292 »

I think the only way to encourage 5-6 soldier squads is either create a new mission with no infiltration time/ turn limit/ reinforcement or make the 5-6 man infil bonus project much cheaper. Every aspect of LW2 pushes the player towards a 1-2 or max soldier squad.

No supply from evac missions and vastly reduced killing xp is a shove toward the 1-2 squad. Short turn limits is another push toward 1-2 squads. Infiltration times to do a mission is another push to 1-2 squads. Enemy numbers tied to infil bonus is yet again another push toward 1-2 squads. If that isn't enough, the reinforcement aspect ensures you don't stay and fight by eventually making the mission impossible for the player to stay and win.

The game starts as the resistance being incapable of fighting Advent head on. Basically being a tiny guerilla uprising. Once the resistance starts liberating areas, increasing numbers etc.. it should morph into a direct head to head fight. The missions never do though. As a successful resistance gains strength, areas will change from covert quick strikes to full engagements. This is the part LW2 lacks for me and all the mechanics in the game are actively trying to prevent it from happening.
Napalm292
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Napalm292 »

Maybe instead of Headquarters strength being based on infil to liberate a area, base it on several missions to take over outpost control, destroy staging area, kill town guard, etc.. Loot possible, 5-6 size squad max, no turn limit/ reinforcements/ infil timer and set amount of enemy units.

I am not sure that is all possible with the mechanics built into LW2 though.
trihero
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by trihero »

Napalm292 wrote:I think the only way to encourage 5-6 soldier squads is either create a new mission with no infiltration time/ turn limit/ reinforcement or make the 5-6 man infil bonus project much cheaper. Every aspect of LW2 pushes the player towards a 1-2 or max soldier squad.

No supply from evac missions and vastly reduced killing xp is a shove toward the 1-2 squad. Short turn limits is another push toward 1-2 squads. Infiltration times to do a mission is another push to 1-2 squads. Enemy numbers tied to infil bonus is yet again another push toward 1-2 squads. If that isn't enough, the reinforcement aspect ensures you don't stay and fight by eventually making the mission impossible for the player to stay and win.

The game starts as the resistance being incapable of fighting Advent head on. Basically being a tiny guerilla uprising. Once the resistance starts liberating areas, increasing numbers etc.. it should morph into a direct head to head fight. The missions never do though. As a successful resistance gains strength, areas will change from covert quick strikes to full engagements. This is the part LW2 lacks for me and all the mechanics in the game are actively trying to prevent it from happening.
Well said. I like the variety of stealth missions, but at the end of the day they should generally be low risk + low reward. The meat of the game should be 5-6 man engagements which provide your troops with experience and loot and there should be a LOT of these so you can train up multiple squads and get those officer bonuses going, while the 8+ engagements are either response to retaliation or epic firefights that are the end of questlines (or the golden path objectives).

You might say well: troop columns but they don't happen that often, often times they are not that well balanced for 5-6 man squads because they tend to have 8 man pods, and they are only one mission type at the end of the day so we need more variety.
DariusWolfe
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by DariusWolfe »

Caveat up front: I didn't read all of the responses. Some of y'all got wordy. Consider this a response primarily to the OP.

I consider the Extractions and Dark VIP missions to be "middle-class", and send 4-5 troopers on these. I'll send 1-2 on Dark VIP if I don't have troopers to spare, but in that case, I'm grabbing the VIP with a bullet, rather than a fist. I've successfully done Extractions with a single trooper, usually a Shinobi, but they're too risky for me to do on purpose; On the occasions that I've done an Extraction solo, it's because I didn't read the mission description thoroughly, and I thought it was a jailbreak.
lilyophelia
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by lilyophelia »

I edited the infiltration modifiers so that stealth missions aren't really a great idea in my game.

The thematic/lore reasoning is that a small squad has fewer resources/skills.

Gameplay-wise, it encourages keeping a larger roster (when each mission has a 6-soldier cost attached to it) and it also makes tactical combat more fun and the norm. Personally, stealth missions were fun for a few days and then I got sick of how gimicky it was to do them.

These changes make me happy. Maybe they'll make you happy too. Adjust for happiness.

With these settings, the ideal squad size is set to 6 members (which is exactly how many custom classes I run in my game). There are smaller penalties for 4-5 members and 7-8 members. 1-3 members and 9+ members aren't usually feasible.

If you are interested, you can try the changes out for yourself.

Code: Select all

[LW_Overhaul.XComGameState_LWPersistentSquad]

;SquadSize factor, explicit for each possible squad size
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[0]=6f 
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[1]=5f 
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[2]=4f 
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[3]=3f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[4]=1.5f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[5]=1f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[6]=0.75f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[7]=1f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[8]=2f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[9]=3f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[10]=4f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[11]=5f
+SquadSizeInfiltrationFactor[12]=6f 
This works out (with no infiltration gear) to roughly:

1: 29 days
2: 23 days
3. 19 days
4: 9 days
5: 6 days
6: 4 days
7: 6 days
8: 12 days

I should also mention that I dropped the True Concealment mods I'd been playing with, and just added +10 turns to each timer and toned down the reinforcement rate a little bit.
Napalm292
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Napalm292 »

Thanks lilyophelia. I was going to try and edit the bonus from suppressors, but that change would be easier and more direct.
lilyophelia
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by lilyophelia »

Welcome. <3
Jacke
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Jacke »

In the first months of a campaign, you're busy building up everything: troops, resistance havens, Avenger, research, and Engineering and Science staff. Winning the missions is vital to advancing all of these. 3-troop squads maxes out regular experience. Running them as stealth helps avoid injuries and death when they would be extremely crippling.

To eventually switch to larger squads and more fighting, a number of things needs to mod with LW2. One I've not done yet is pod size. To make things good for 5-6 troop squads, the pods can't be eights, they should be 3 to 5. One mod I'm not using right now is An Easier War: Pod Sizes. It caps non-story mission pods at 5. This would work well with the mod Guerilla Job which generates Troop Column missions.
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3tamatulg
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by 3tamatulg »

So as we all agree, this is the problem:

Image

I think the solution is twofold:

1. Add some mechanic which punishes the 1 man and 2 man squads, ideally by making a tradeoff where more soldiers is better.

2. Rein in the silly hyperbolic rewards of maximum squad size supply raids (ideas here).


Brainstorming for 1:

Idea A: There's a chance for a "pre-mission fight", where if you don't have enough soldiers, one of your operatives gets captured. Fluffwise, it's the team getting caught at a checkpoint or something and having to fight their way out, but only against a few guards. Ideally it would be presented as "The team has encountered 2 Mutons and 1 Engineer while infiltrating. Should they fight [100% chance of success], or pull out?

Formula for success in the pre-fight would be something like (5*total soldiers)/(d20 + advent strength) - you bring 5 soldiers, you're generally guaranteed to beat these, but below that you start risking forcing yourself to choose between aborting the mission or risking a capture. You bring 2 soldiers and you're going to have to abort the mission about half the time.

Idea B: There's a chance that the mission will "turn hot" - when you go in the aliens are at full alert, but there will be no timer. Maybe based on vigilance or strength in the region. Fluffwise, the aliens have decided that the thing they're guarding is too valuable to deny you by destroying it so they're going to fight you instead.

Idea C: There's a chance of bonus objectives which only get given to you after landing, such as killing a specific alien or blowing up specific piece of terrain. Doing these objectives could extend the timer/delay reinforcements making them viable only if the squad's big enough.
RXTXK
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by RXTXK »

Idea B please +1
JulianSkies
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by JulianSkies »

I see a lot about trying to make the current missions being less viable for small stealth teams (not even about making them viable for medium teams, just about punishing stealth).
How about we talk more about designing some for mission types specifically for medium teams and how the medium size can be enforced there?
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Shadow86
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Shadow86 »

3tamatulg wrote:2. Rein in the silly hyperbolic rewards of maximum squad size supply raids (ideas here).
I keep reading this, and some people keep implying these missions are exploitable when in truth it's a risky two-hour slog with proportional rewards. It is an option to infiltrate with a smaller squad, trading rewards for safety.

So on the one hand you have a select group of Legend players who can reliably tackle these missions largely unscathed. Just because a tiny elite can do so doesn't mean they're broken. Especially in the case of joinrbs, an LW2 tester with hundreds of hours played and inside-out knowledge of the mod. If there's really an issue and the majority of Legend players think this is a walk in the park (I doubt it), the solution is to tweak things for Legend and Legend only.

If it's really necessary, a finite amount of large reinforcements to mess up your positioning would spike the difficulty: even if some would have an easy-ish time, dealing with many enemies at once means maintaining control, riding the knife's edge knowing that if you allow the enemy to act you expose yourself to losses. Dropping a pod on your flank while you're engaging another one on your front should lead to some hair-tearing experiences.

If there's lower difficulty players routinely wiping the floor with 45-50 enemies with little consequence, then they're probably playing on the wrong level and can't really complain things are too easy. 45-50 enemies are going to be 45-50 enemies no matter the mission type, and if the opposition consequently needed a buff (I don't think so), it'd have to be across the board.

If save-scumming is involved in any capacity, any criticism in said context is largely invalidated given you can cheese most anything with it.
3tamatulg wrote:Idea B: There's a chance that the mission will "turn hot" - when you go in the aliens are at full alert, but there will be no timer. Maybe based on vigilance or strength in the region. Fluffwise, the aliens have decided that the thing they're guarding is too valuable to deny you by destroying it so they're going to fight you instead.
If the aliens are on full alert, you can expect frequent reinforcements, to the point a handful of operatives just wouldn't make it. The whole idea of infiltration is that ADVENT's an overwhelming enemy and you have to hit them when they're relatively weak and unaware. Might as well just abort if they're tipped off.
3tamatulg wrote:Idea C: There's a chance of bonus objectives which only get given to you after landing, such as killing a specific alien or blowing up specific piece of terrain. Doing these objectives could extend the timer/delay reinforcements making them viable only if the squad's big enough.
This I like. It'd require some balancing, but it'd be nice if calling for reinforcements were an actual action by some unit types instead of an automatic, timed thing. Or sensor objects, too. Say, a "lamp post" could technically keep its detection range even past the concealment phase: stepping on it once you've been spotted either draws on-map enemies to your location or calls for reinforcements if there's no ADVENT currently on-site.

There could also be a hacking challenge somewhere in there (not necessarily on the lamp posts), which could either delay or disable reinforcements for the mission entirely.

However, I don't see how squad size would have anything to do with these options being available or not. It's not unreasonable to have these mechanics at all times. In small infiltrations, they just wouldn't be necessary for the most part, but would be an interesting wrinkle if things go sour and you need some breathing room.
LordYanaek
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by LordYanaek »

JulianSkies wrote:I see a lot about trying to make the current missions being less viable for small stealth teams (not even about making them viable for medium teams, just about punishing stealth).
How about we talk more about designing some for mission types specifically for medium teams and how the medium size can be enforced there?
+1
Stealth missions have advantages (i'm not talking about strategic benefits for the player but conceptual benefits) like
  • They bring some variety. With the number of missions in a typical LW2 campaign fighting each and every mission can become boring.
  • They are quick, at least much more than a fight, allowing more missions to be placed in a campaign while maintaining the total duration somewhat under control.
  • They fit nicely the "small guerilla just started" theme unlike the basic XCom2 where you would just start killing every visible alien each mission with advent totally unable to stop you (laughable reinforcements)
With this in mind, i think punishing stealth is not the way to go. What we need are missions for all 3 categories of squads : the small stealth teams, the medium guerilla squads and the large 10 men squads.
Some missions can certainly be tweaked from infiltration towards 5-6 men squads but infiltration should stay an option in some missions.

Mid-size missions
A few ideas to change some existing missions :
  • Extraction (VIP missions starting out of concealment). Advent is on alert as they know you are here and trying to escort the VIP so they have drones patrolling the streets with good detection radius no matter your infiltration. In addition when a Drone spots you it will try to warn the nearest pod. Chances to go unnoticed with just a few shinobis would drop and make fighting your way out much more likely. Drones can be really dangerous to a very limited squad with their stun. To compensate, make the forced timer longer. Pods composition should be adjusted to work for a 5-6 men squad if infiltration is at least 100%.
  • Prisoner transfer (i'm talking about the "van" VIP mission). Advent is guarding the VIP and will have 1 or 2 pods patrolling close to the van making shinobi stealthing to the door unlikely (it's already sometimes the case, not always). Don't get a fixed evac zone, call Firebrand after you have the VIP (with a delay preventing you from just stunning the guard pod and running away). On the other hand, you are taking Advent off guard so the timer doesn't start until you break concealment, but will be much shorter to avoid pre-calling the evac. This effectively turns this mission into a half-stealth, half King of the Hill mission where your goal is to reach the van unnoticed and then stand you ground with the VIP until you can evac.
  • Destroy the relay Anything that would prevent squadshight sniping the relay would turn those into a small fight near the relay. Slightly increasing the timer might be fair then.
  • Ambush (small town/slums ambushes, not supply convoy). Tweak pods composition towards smaller 5-6 men squads, make them easier to detect (though i heard they are already easy if advent str rises) and punish 0% infiltration on those missions by really bad reinforcements making it really hard to finish (and thus get the loot) if you go all guns blazing.
  • Network tower is already a mid-size mission
In addition, a few new missions might be designed to work well for 5-6 men squads.
  • The new "smash and grab" could work if enough containers are placed (more then 3) so you'd want more soldiers to grab everything (high risk, high reward), or if you're short on men and/or firepower, you could go stealth for a low risk, low reward mission instead.
  • Add a skirmish mission where you are basically ambushing smaller patrols (different from the ambush) in quick skirmishes (so no corpses on those missions). They could take place in wilderness maps for more map variety. The goal would be to quickly destroy a few pods before reinforcements show (similar to the soft timer of smash and grab). Each pod leader could drop a loot that would be either an advent datapad (more intel at the cost of some research or some supplies) or on one of them an "Advent orders" loot which would give you a large bonus to detect (or possibly force the detection) of advent troop movements, giving you chances to ambush a troop column or a full convoy.
Full squad missions
We need some of those to bring all the men and get nice synergies from all the 8 classes.
  • Advent HQ can stay as it is.
  • Golden path missions can fit large squads. The blacksite was redesigned as a stealth mission for reasons i can understand and is the first mission in the golden path so it's OK, later ones are a good opportunity to bring large squads.
  • Supply convoysThose could be made entirely for large squads. This would make them different from troop ambushes and would make sense as we are attacking a large number of advent troops. Since the usual strategy is to go all guns blazing at 0% infiltration anyway, why not change the infiltration. Rather than have it depend on squad size, make it a fixed number of days (we know the convoy will take this route and the squad is waiting a few days there) to fill the infiltration timer strategic purpose (LW1 fatigue) and enemy strength be fixed (no gaming the infiltration to grab more corpses)
Infiltration missions
Finally keep some missions for small squads trying to sneak inside some advent installations and out possibly without being seen. Bringing a larger squad could become an option once you have GTS boosts to compensate higher advent strength but the transition should be natural as you become stronger as a guerilla.
  • Hacking/item recoveryThose are really made for small "burglar" like operations
  • JailbreakAlso works well for sneak-in sneak-out operations as you are not assaulting a high security advent prison but small local installations with much lower security
LordYanaek
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by LordYanaek »

Not sure why the forum didn't warn me of a new post while i was typing mine.
Shadow86 wrote: I keep reading this, and some people keep implying these missions are exploitable when in truth it's a risky two-hour slog with proportional rewards. It is an option to infiltrate with a smaller squad, trading rewards for safety.
You're missing a point here. Most of the time those missions (at least Supply Convoy) show with very short timers, rarely more than a few days, sometimes less than one. Infiltrating with anything but a skeleton squad will require about one week. There is simply no way to run those missions without going "10men all guns blazing" most of the time so you must ignore them (big loss of opportunity) or go loud and get more corpses.
I really think (previous post) we need 2 different ambushes balanced for medium and big squads respectively.
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Shadow86
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by Shadow86 »

LordYanaek wrote:Not sure why the forum didn't warn me of a new post while i was typing mine.
Shadow86 wrote: I keep reading this, and some people keep implying these missions are exploitable when in truth it's a risky two-hour slog with proportional rewards. It is an option to infiltrate with a smaller squad, trading rewards for safety.
You're missing a point here. Most of the time those missions (at least Supply Convoy) show with very short timers, rarely more than a few days, sometimes less than one. Infiltrating with anything but a skeleton squad will require about one week. There is simply no way to run those missions without going "10men all guns blazing" most of the time so you must ignore them (big loss of opportunity) or go loud and get more corpses.
I really think (previous post) we need 2 different ambushes balanced for medium and big squads respectively.
My point was to comment against the notion supply raids are too easy and too rewarding, allegedly making it a no-brainer to go in guns blazing with a full squad regardless of infiltration potential.

The mission discovery chance can be tweaked if it's too low. That's a different matter. I haven't seen many on my current Veteran playthrough, but those that appeared had between 3 to 8 days remaining on their clock. Still, I can't conclude anything without more experience.
lilyophelia
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by lilyophelia »

Please don't let me distract from the interesting conversation going on here.

---

For people who want a simple incentive to kill lots of aliens, I'll share a change (maximum fun for the least amount of effort) I made for my own game.

I went ahead and gave all my officers the Collector perk as soon as they train their first level. This means that it makes sense (a small reward) to routinely fight/kill aliens instead of always trying to avoid them.

You can check out the details here and adjust (or ignore) the whole idea to increase your own happiness.

---

Please continue with the prior discussion.
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3tamatulg
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Re: LW2 needs more "middle class" missions

Post by 3tamatulg »

That's a cool idea lilyophelia

I've come up with another suggestion - add a new class called 'Infiltrator' or 'Spy' or similar. Make their basic skill something like the Tradecraft perk, but where they actually have a negative weight for the mission, enough to bring along their self and, with perks, an entire additional soldier. They're not able to carry a weapon or wear armour, only 3 or 4 utility slots.

Then again, maybe that would make the meta to bring 3 of these guys on every mission to squeeze more people into the squad. Food for thought though :D
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