So far I played several campaigns, only one finished though. Did not play vanilla xcom 2 at all. I only bought the game 'cause of the LW2, actually, as vanilla had really bad reviews. I enjoyed LW1 a lot, so I expected a good revision, and I was not disappointed.
First campain I played on veteran for a few in-game months, just to get hold of the mechanics. So it was kind of a tutorial for me.
Restarted on Commander (not ironman, with both AH and SLG DLC, no mods) right after patch 1.1, with the intention to fully unlock everything (all researches, all PG projects, read all lore etc... yes I am that kind of a player, a full completionist
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Difficulty-wise it was OK in the beginning, was really struggling with supplies. But then Black Market was interested in viper and sectoid corpses, and I had lots of those from 0% supply raids/columns. Raised around 3k in one day, built facilities, upgrades, towers, items... steamrolled after that. Finished campaign way after patch 1.2 arrived. Avatar project had 1 or 2 pips, 5-6 liberated regions, global resistance threat over 200%.
Started second campaign, this time 1.2, legend/ironman, with a number of QoL mods (like gotcha again, etc). That was way more fun. Especaially 0% supply raids. After a second squad wipe decided I am not doing these anymore
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
1.3 thoughts
I know it's kinda wierd to critisize before the patch is actually out, but please humour me.
Conceal changes
Just moving it to hier rank solves nothing (just postpones), but really hurts shadowstrike builds. To fix it just make it unusable while there are active enemies and while carrying bodies/quest items.
Serial changes
Funny, but I thought that serial was the same as LW1 "in the zone". I used it as if it actually had damage debuff, i.e. as if it was 1.3 version already
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Flashbang changes
I'm okay with some enemies like Avatars or High Archons or Elite Mutons being completely immune, makes sense actually. I'm not okay with partial immunity. 20% chance of not working?.. That's really bad randomization of outcome. After all, flashbangs are 1-use limited items! You missed a shot? Well, reload and shoot again next turn. Your flashbang did not work? Too bad! No second chance for you. I guess, we'll have to rely on suppression now. Please reconsider
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif)
Also, Avatars should be immune to fire and explosives, just like our own PSI
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
0% raids
The real problem with them is you get lots of corpses that you can then sell for lots of money, which kinda breaks the game. Maybe instead of making raids harder or imposing minimum infiltration level, solve the problem with the market? How about a diminishing returns on selling items? For example, first 10 corpses of a particular species sell for 200% price, next 10 corpses for 150% (that will give extra so-much-needed supplies early game to help with the start), next 10 for 100%, next 10 for 50%, next 10 for 25% and all rest for a 1$ per corpse. Or there may be a system similar to supply gain from regions. Market will only have a limited amount of supply per month for you to earn. After you reach it, prices drop dramatically.
Unused engineers
Unused scientists still contribute to your research. Engineers without a job just sit there doing nothing. How about +1$ per day for each free engineer? It's logical lore-wise and it offers another strategic choice to a player, which is always nice.
Hier-tier enemy bodies
I really wish for a new type of mission that will let you get hier-tier enemy bodies reliably. For example, "Ambush enemy general". Mission spawns only in high alert regions (giving you reason to do intel jobs in them). It's like a mini-column. You can only take 6 soldiers, and must infiltrate to 100%. The map is small and contains only 1-2-3 large pods, including a special command pod with an ADVENT general and a hier-tier enemies as bodyguards. Reward are corpses, a guarantied data cashe, and a high spike in vigilance.