Mod: True Concealment

[Vitaeus]

I am using this on Veteran Difficulty and am curious, how many folks find that the mission ends up being doable inside the original time limit?
I find the lack of pressure actually is improving my game play.

[fowlJ]

Well, in a way the timers exist specifically to hinder your gameplay - the whole point is to sometimes rush and make mistakes, like it was with MELD back in Enemy Within.

As for actually completing missions within the original time limit, well, I'd say part of the reason the timers hurry you along so much is psychological (part of why they don't really get in the way for some people) - it's not necessarily that you literally don't have enough time on many missions, is that you always feel like you're running up against the clock, and removing that pressure maybe helps you think about things more carefully, even if it isn't actually taking you less time?

That's just my theory, at least.

[Goumindong]

I am using this on Veteran Difficulty and am curious, how many folks find that the mission ends up being doable inside the original time limit?
I find the lack of pressure actually is improving my game play.

I play commander or legendary without the mod.

For the most part every mission is doable in the timer. Some of the short timer ones can have some issues but are generally do-able. If you're playing missions without some of the more uhh "powerful" stealth techniques and/or not stealthing then the timer could be pretty tight.

Generally though; I finish 12 turn timers with 5+ rounds to spare (pure stealth) and 8 turn timers turn of(either)

Edit: I will only not run a 12 turn timer anything but pure stealth except very early additionally very late I may avoid running 8 turn timers in combat unless the advent strength is very low. But I prioritize running combat in general.

[JM01]

If you are playing with just the maps that come with LW2/Vanilla then the timers shouldn't be too bad most of the time especially if you have an officer with Intervention. If you are playing with customer map packs however, you may want to use this mod as some maps are freaking HUGE and the timers don't scale with those. Also some of the generated maps generate parcels in weird ways which would require you to move around in ways you wouldn't normally. You can actually choose which missions get the True Concealment behavior and you can even go so far as to change the behavior to make it only a chance to not lose a turn at the end of a turn when in concealment.

[LeaderEnemyBoss]

If you are playing with just the maps that come with LW2/Vanilla then the timers shouldn't be too bad most of the time especially if you have an officer with Intervention. If you are playing with customer map packs however, you may want to use this mod as some maps are freaking HUGE and the timers don't scale with those. Also some of the generated maps generate parcels in weird ways which would require you to move around in ways you wouldn't normally. You can actually choose which missions get the True Concealment behavior and you can even go so far as to change the behavior to make it only a chance to not lose a turn at the end of a turn when in concealment.

I had the same fears, but honestly... if you dont use the "suffer" mappack, you probly will have no issues with timers at all, even with most mappacks out there activated. Almost all of the mods only change parcels anyway.

@OP True Concealment is a crutch imho. LW2 is very well playable and beatable with its normal timers even with most mappacks activated. If you want to take it easy thats okay, but it's not like its impossible or "unfair" without.

[KevlinTallfellow]

The way I look at True Concealment is that it gives me direct control over the last few turns of my mission infiltration. Also, I use many of the larger map packs, including Suffer!, so this fits the idea pretty well.

[Veneficus]

I used true concealment prior to LW2, I think it was a near requirement when the game forced you to power through every enemy on the map.

With the viability of stealth missions in LW2, I think it becomes too overpowered, unless your play style is to try to power through every enemy on the map. I have since stopped using it.

However, I think we will have to see the adjustments made in version 1.3 to the stealth missions, because if they are no longer viable, small squad missions in forced combat with the 8 turn mission timers on some mission types will become impossible for all but the most skillful of players.

[LordYanaek]

I never played with the mod but i'm read the description and considered it several times. I think it could be interesting if

• You change it so that it works only on Guerilla (Hack) missions, or even some of those missions. It doesn't make a lot of sense that some self destruction is active before ADVENT even know you are there. However on Timed Evac missions the timer is there because Firebrand is trying to rendezvous with you while some ADVENT fighters are chasing her and for Relay missions the transmission will complete whether you act or not so it's mostly out of your control and you just have to be quick.
• The effect is tied to infiltration (there is an option but i don't know exactly how it plays as it's partially random)
• You reduce the timer so once you go loud you have to be quick

This would offer a different gameplay for some missions to allow different tactics to be used without being overpowered (making missions too easy) so i think it could be interesting. The only missions currently you can infiltrate as long as you want but then have a hard timer are UFO missions and they are really rare. Other missions (Facilities, Blacksite and Forge) have soft timers in the form of RNF but the time is rather long after you go loud. Having some missions where you can take the best position you want but once you get into action you only have something like 4-5 turns to complete the objective could really be interesting.
It would also differentiate the different "hack" missions from one another as currently there is virtually no difference between Hack and ADVENT terminal, Hack a resistance terminal or Recover a an item missions.

[fowlJ]

You can actually achieve all those things using .ini edits - the LW2 version of the mod is pretty flexible in that regard.

[TechnoMage]

I use the mod but I find I always end with more then enough that I would succeed without the mod, I just like it because it makes sense for the self destruct type missions, there are a few I agree shouldn't be extended which are but it fixes more then it breaks and if I feel like it I could change it to only the ones i want.

[darkerevent]

From day one of playing LW2, I've wondered from why this functionality isn't baseline for self-destruct/network lockout missions. It just doesn't make sense that ADVENT knows exactly when to destroy/lock the thing that they don't know I'm coming to steal. Their doing it within a very short timeframe in response to my squad getting spotted would make a lot more sense.

When I get around to trying True Concealment (I haven't yet), I'll definitely be using it to make the hack/steal types of objective timers feel a bit more logical. It's good to hear that so much can be done by editing its ini files too.

I'll be waiting for 1.3 first though, to see how those GOps play, since it sounds like GOps in general will be getting tweaked a lot.