COMBAT
- Shotguns are less accurate at medium and long ranges
- LMGs are less accurate at point-blank range
- Pistols and SMGs are between shotguns and assault rifles in terms of accuracy at range
- On Veteran+, enemy reinforcement flares do not appear to XCOM
- Reinforcements on many missions will appear at more regulated intervals, based on regional ADVENT strength. They will start out somewhat stronger than in vanilla and end up far stronger.
- Enemy pods may have up to 8 enemies. Larger all-alien pods will almost always have more than two species.
- Enemy pods will now employ certain tactics before they engage XCOM. This may include going to protect the objective or attempting to flank XCOM. They also have a broader set of options if they become aware a battle is underway, typically from hearing weapon fire/explosions or seeing dead allies.
- Enemy AI will generally be more careful about cover and moving. They will order their turns to put units with certain ability types ahead of others.
- Enemies who activate on their own turn will have a chance to take a ‘reflex’ action. If the unit was previously aware that a battle is underway, this may include firing at XCOM if they are unharmed after their scamper move.
- Throwing any grenade has a one-turn cooldown before you can throw something else. Launching a grenade does not.
It now takes the Skyranger multiple turns to arrive after you throw the evac flare. Certain factors like Squad Size and infiltration status affect the number of turns. Throwing the evac flare reveals the squad. - When receiving a potentially fatal wound, soldiers are more likely to bleed out in general rather than die immediately.
- Mission timers may be extended by officers using the “Intervention” ability. Using this ability costs intel.
- Absent certain grenadier perks, grenades rarely destroy all but the most fragile of cover or induce vehicles to immediately explode.
- Minimum explosives damage falls off from the center of an explosion. So a grenade that does 6-8 damage at the center will do 1-8 at the edge of the area of effect.
- Rockets scatter based on a soldier’s aim, distance to target, perks, and whether or not the soldier has moved yet.
- Loot drops are more common, but contain less loot.
- All armors have three utility slots. Pistols now go in utility slots.
- Each full utility slot reduces your mobility by one. Base mobility is 15 for soldiers.
- Soldiers may equip vests (bonus hp + a special bonus) and plating (ablative HP that functions like shieldbearer shields) at the same time in utility slots.
- Most items, including weapons and armor, must be constructed individually. The schematic system of upgrading all weapons at once is largely eliminated.
- Proving Ground projects are now tied explicitly to single items and generally enable mass production of a given ammo, grenade, vest, weapon mod, etc. in engineering.
- All primary weapons have at least three slots for upgrades.
- Repeaters are gone. They now function as suppressors and reduce infiltration time as well as the range at which enemies can hear your fire.
- Stocks now provide the “Steady Weapon” ability (turn-ending action to provide bonus aim and crit on the next turn) instead of doing damage on misses.
- Hair Triggers now provide to-hit bonuses on reaction fire. Scopes now only work on non-reaction fire.
- Sharpshooter: Primary: Sniper Rifle; Secondary: Holotargeter
- Shinobi: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Sword
- Ranger: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Sawed-off Shotgun
- Assault: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Arc Thrower
- Gunner: Primary: Cannon; Secondary: Combat Knife
- Grenadier: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Grenade Launcher
- Specialist: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Gremlin
- Technical: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Gauntlet
- Psi Operative: Primary: Rifle, SMG or Shotgun; Secondary: Psi Amp
- Spark (DLC): Primary: Spark Rifle; Secondary: Bit
The following hit mechanics in Long War 2 have been modified:
- Critical chance is no longer an absolute chance
- In base XCOM 2 a 10% hit and 10% critical chance would land 10% of the time, and if it hit would always be a critical. This is no longer the case.
- Dodge no longer supersedes crit. (In base XCOM 2 if dodge + crit chance was greater than hit, crit chance would be removed in favor of dodge.)
- Soldiers can graze even if the target has no dodge (In base XCOM 2, grazes were only possible if the target had dodge stat)
- These changes apply completely symmetrically to both sides
- All units will now graze if their to-hit roll is “close” to the required to hit
- This is referred to as the “Graze Band.” The measure of “close” is configurable in-game, and defaults to +/- 10%.
- Example 1 : Base 70% chance to hit results in 60% chance of a normal damage hit and 20% chance of a graze. The displayed to hit is 70%.
- Example 2 : Base 20% chance to hit results in 10% chance of a normal damage hit and a 20% chance of a graze. The displayed to hit is 20%.
- Critical Hit Chance is now a chance to “promote” the damage type. A successful critical roll will:
- Promote a graze hit to a regular damage hit
- Promote a regular damage hit to a critical damage hit
- Dodge Stat is now a chance to “demote” the damage type. A successful dodge roll will:
- Demote critical damage hit to regular damage hit
- Demote a regular damage hit to a graze
- Demote a graze into a miss (configurable)
- Consequences:
- Low % shots are generally more likely to do something, but that something results in less damage, and is very unlikely to deal critical damage
- 90% to-hit and above won’t entirely miss enemies (unless they have dodge)
- Dodge and Crit counter each other, so a high critical chance helps counter high dodge units, while a good dodge helps protect against critical hits
- When using Not Created Equally, soldiers may have negative dodge, increasing the chance hits against them will be promoted
- Example 1: 90% to hit, 50% to crit
In base XCOM 2, this will result in Critical damage 50%, Normal damage 40% of the time, Miss 10% of the time.
In Long War 2, this will result in Critical damage 40% of the time, Normal damage 50% of the time, Graze damage 10% of the time. - Example 2: 20% to hit, 10% to crit
In base XCOM 2, this will result in Critical damage 10% of the time, Normal damage 10% of the time, Miss 80% of the time
In Long War 2, it will result in Critical damage 1% of the time, Normal damage 11% of the time, Graze damage 18% of the time, Miss 70% of the time