A message to the LW2 team

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Sigeasol
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Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 1:02 am

A message to the LW2 team

Post by Sigeasol »

I must say, having now spent a moment playing WoTC and reflecting on my many LW2 campaigns, what the team did with LW2 is just absolutely fantastic. WoTC, while shiny and new, doesn't hold a candle to the enjoyment I've had out of LW2. Honestly, XCOM 2 is my most played Steam game (and I have quite a few) purely because of this mod. Between theorycrafting, trying new builds, seeing how others play and trying those tactics - it's just a fantastic, immersive experience that is miles ahead of the vanilla experience.

I hope development continues on LW2, whether or not to bring it up to date with WoTC or just stay with the vanilla build. But even if it stops here, I will still be playing LW2 for a long time yet.

A big <3 to the devs, the playtesters and all those posting here that make this mod the best single-player gaming experience on PC today.
cryptc
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by cryptc »

+1

I tested WotC a little, then returned to my current LW2 campaign (which looks like might be the first one I actually win).

Frankly the only feature WotC has that I really, really wish I had is the performance improvements.
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8wayz
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by 8wayz »

Frankly speaking, both are good. I find the War of the Chosen retaliation missions, where almost always one of the Chosen is leading them, a lot more fun than the relations in Long War 2.

Also the one on which you get resistance members to fight with you is great.

The new enemies also make for a great challenge. No being afraid to have soldiers captured is also something I think Long War 2 can benefit from - there are so many enemies that you often die before they get to you. Same goes for bleeding and unconscious soldiers - we need more enemies that can put out a soldier and make you think twice of whether you would like to continue with the mission.

Long War 2 has some parts that do not gel well with the rest of the mod, but that it its charm as well - there is so much under the hood that you can not get to all of it. War of the Chosen is better fine-tuned in more ways than one.
Exquisitor
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by Exquisitor »

I agree with Sigeasol. LW2 is very immersive compared to WotC. I also find the complexity of LW2 much more engaging. I hope the Pavonis team can spin their magic on WotC in the future! <3 to the LW2 team.

8wayz, you do realize that captured troopers show up again in LW2 missions, right? I've had this happen on several occasions.
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8wayz
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by 8wayz »

I do, but for about a couple of hundred hours of Long War 1 and 2 I have never had a single soldier captured. All of them found a gruesome end before I could even escape with the remaining soldiers (if any).

There are too few stun/unconscious effects at the moment and too much focus on killing you outright.
Last edited by 8wayz on Wed Sep 06, 2017 5:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
maikk
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by maikk »

agreed

also if there will be a wotc update for lw2 i'm very curious to see how they will implement the fatigue system introduced with wotc, since basically the infiltration system is the evolution of it.
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johnnylump
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by johnnylump »

@OP, Read and thanks.
Exquisitor
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by Exquisitor »

8wayz wrote:I do, but for about a couple of hundred hours of Long War 1 and 2 I have never had I soldier captured. All of them found a gruesome end before I could even escape with the remaining soldiers (if any).

There are too few stun/unconscious effects at the moment and too much focus on killing you outright.
I noticed that the captures only occurred on missions where the timer ran out or when I didn't respond to a haven retaliation.
Frankee
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by Frankee »

Forgive me PI for I have sinned too. Back to LW2 after halfway through the Legend campaign in WotC. Great DLC, creative ideas, enjoyable tactical layer, huge performance boost... Yeah, will come back to it once it's flagged LW2 compatible.
cryptc
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by cryptc »

8wayz wrote:I do, but for about a couple of hundred hours of Long War 1 and 2 I have never had I soldier captured. All of them found a gruesome end before I could even escape with the remaining soldiers (if any).

There are too few stun/unconscious effects at the moment and too much focus on killing you outright.
One mod I use that you can consider (not sure if updated to WotC), is the Surrender mod. It lets you surrender the rest of your team to be captured instead of playing out the rest of a mission letting them get killed. I admit I've only ever used it once, but I like that it's there.
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8wayz
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by 8wayz »

Thank you for the mod suggestion. I just wanted to point out that Long War 2 in particular could benefit from some of the ideas in War of the Chosen, especially the one about letting a soldier get captured to get rid of the Chosen that is attacking you on that mission.

Same can be reproduced for certain aliens, like Sectoids, trying to capture your soldiers instead of killing them. After all the Elders are looking for good gene material and those soldiers can provide good intel or just be "processed" in the gene treatment facilities.

During the first game, there was an invasion and it made sense that the aliens will try to pacify any opposing forces. But now, with the Avatar project at hand, it will be much more thematic if there were more attempts by the aliens to stun or render unconscious your soldiers and try to capture them.
Phaseless
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by Phaseless »

I just started playing Long war 2, I was playing Long War 1 for hundreds of hours in the original XCom: EU and finally, after many fresh starts because of updates, finished the campaign for the first time.

I stopped playing XCom 2 halfway through some years ago because Progress was too fast for me, just started and bam, suddenly everybody got Plasma weapons, I disliked that and decided to wait for Long war 2.
And now, I see, it was the right decision. So much more to do, so many choices... it's just great. Thanks from me as well.

I like how jake solomon put it: the vanilla game is the tutorial, Long war is the real game :D
Andronimus
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by Andronimus »

I'll add to these posts and say that I consider Long War and Long War 2 to be *the* way to play XCOM. While I don't want to speak for anyone else, I can say that, for me at least, they are FAR AND AWAY the best mods I've ever had for a game, the only mods I consider to be an *essential* part of the experience, and add so much to both the tactical and strategic layers that I cannot imagine going back to playing vanilla. I have booked hundreds and hundreds of hours with LW and LW2, and they have helped to create more stories than the base game could ever do on its own.

I have actually hesitated in buying WotC -- despite, in the past, buying every single XCOM expansion pack on release day -- because I just don't know if I could deal with returning to the vanilla (even upgraded) systems. Even the new features, which generally sound cool, sound like they would be a bridge too far if it means losing all of the additional LW flavor and upgrades.

So, I'll add my voice to those hoping that one day we end up integrating LW and WotC. When that happens I'll be a buyer on day one. Until it does, I'll stick to LW.

And to echo the sentiment above -- even if it never happens, or takes months, credit deserves to be given to all on the LW team for creating this mod and supporting it relentlessly. To my mind, this is the best gaming experience out there and far and away the best way to play XCOM. So kudos to all and again, thanks.
hildissent
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by hildissent »

I agree! ..although when I look at WotC (I *hate* that my mind says "Wizards of the Coast" every time I see that), all I really see is a love letter to Long War 2. It feels like they've given Pavonis so many great hooks and tools to flesh out LW2 (at some point.. no rush).

The sitreps, resistance orders, research breakthroughs, and the new mission types scream for long-warification. I could easily see cohesion/bonds being reworked for squads instead of duos, and officers might get abilities that further enhance those bonuses. That's before we even get into the possibility of additional factions/chosen.

It's nice.. but mostly it's a great big toybox that I'm eager to see Pavonis rummage through and play with. :)
dethraker
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by dethraker »

I agree, Pavonis did some amazing work on Long War 2 and it's always great to see fans showing their support of that. I would love to see the standalone mods by Pavonis get officially ported over to WotC, at least, even if there is never a reworked version of Long War for it. Though I must admit I would love to see further improvements on top of what Firaxis already did with the resistance, so great to see a resistance that actually resists!
Sparky79
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Re: A message to the LW2 team

Post by Sparky79 »

LW2 is great. It introduced some awesome ideas that I am sorry Firaxis didnt implement in WotC (like infiltration and squads for example). And WotC introduced some excellent ideas like covert ops and orders that I hope will be in LWotC.

Right now, if I would have to pick ... LW by slimmest of margins. :D
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