Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

[fowlJ]

The additions you guys have added to the strategy layer sound awesome, it's difficult to not sound like a giddy fan boy
a few quick questions though

1. Can enemy reinforcement drops be anything other then just Advent troops? as in can troop transports now drop aliens? (they can't in vanilla) I found Advent troops to be boring as mud and tediously over used compared to the colourful varied bunch of aliens that only appear as part of pods and not drop down reinforcements

4. Have you guys done anything with (or, god willing, removed entirely) the "Line of Play" mechanic? In case I'm getting the term wrong I'll explain myself. The mechanic where the enemy tracks your position relative to the missions objective and constantly shadows your squad as the move around the map even though your whole squad is concealed and the enemy isn't meant to know where you are. I found it obnoxious :/

5. How much support will you guys give after the mods release and bugs have been fixed? I have no idea the terms of 2K commissioning you guys to do LW2, but what i mean is, Long War 1 was a massive effort of to-ing and fro-ing of features being implemented to create a balanced environment. If Long War 2 looks like it needs a major feature added to fill a balance hole, will 2k continue to commission you guys to do it, or can fans offer donations as continued support?

1) I don't know whether they will show up for reinforcements period, but I can say that unless they made new animations they probably don't show up in transports. (Without them they try to use the ADVENT animations, which looks like this.)

4) Technically the mechanic you're looking for is 'upthrottling' - Line Of Play is how enemy pods are placed on the map relative to a straight line between your spawn and the objective, which is also something I personally find bothersome.

5) JL has stated they intend to support the mod and respond to balance feedback more than they did with their stand-alone mods, and from this thread we know that they intend at least content-adding update (with new psionics changes).

[deaconivory]

The additions you guys have added to the strategy layer sound awesome, it's difficult to not sound like a giddy fan boy
a few quick questions though

1. Can enemy reinforcement drops be anything other then just Advent troops? as in can troop transports now drop aliens? (they can't in vanilla) I found Advent troops to be boring as mud and tediously over used compared to the colourful varied bunch of aliens that only appear as part of pods and not drop down reinforcements

4. Have you guys done anything with (or, god willing, removed entirely) the "Line of Play" mechanic? In case I'm getting the term wrong I'll explain myself. The mechanic where the enemy tracks your position relative to the missions objective and constantly shadows your squad as the move around the map even though your whole squad is concealed and the enemy isn't meant to know where you are. I found it obnoxious :/

5. How much support will you guys give after the mods release and bugs have been fixed? I have no idea the terms of 2K commissioning you guys to do LW2, but what i mean is, Long War 1 was a massive effort of to-ing and fro-ing of features being implemented to create a balanced environment. If Long War 2 looks like it needs a major feature added to fill a balance hole, will 2k continue to commission you guys to do it, or can fans offer donations as continued support?

1) I don't know whether they will show up for reinforcements period, but I can say that unless they made new animations they probably don't show up in transports. (Without them they try to use the ADVENT animations, which looks like this.)

4) Technically the mechanic you're looking for is 'upthrottling' - Line Of Play is how enemy pods are placed on the map relative to a straight line between your spawn and the objective, which is also something I personally find bothersome.

5) JL has stated they intend to support the mod and respond to balance feedback more than they did with their stand-alone mods, and from this thread we know that they intend at least content-adding update (with new psionics changes).

1) Aliens can show up in Reinforcement pods, but you are correct, not from a drop ship.

2) The pod mechanics have been completely remastered in LW2.

3) Support for LW2 will continue as long as it is required.

[fowlJ]

2) The pod mechanics have been completely remastered in LW2.

Good to hear - if you can say, does that include removing the limit on alien species (where all followers of a pod had to be the same type of alien)?

[deaconivory]

2) The pod mechanics have been completely remastered in LW2.

Good to hear - if you can say, does that include removing the limit on alien species (where all followers of a pod had to be the same type of alien)?

I'll let someone who knows more than me speak to this in detail, I don't want to give out bad info.

[gimrah]

@joinRBS

When you're running a mission with one or two soldiers who are trying to achieve an objective and evac it's more likely that points in aim are going to feel wasted than points in will. There's so much flexibility in the infiltration system that a lot of conventional LW1-thinking starts to break down.

So does will affect infiltration and/or detection distance and stuff like that now?

[johnnylump]

Exciting stuff!

About the multi-mission quest lines, is there one where the resistance investigates the secret behind those damn, juicy Advent burgers?

Some things man was not meant to know.

[johnnylump]

ok so with all the talk about stat's
that brings up a question that i hope you can answer
Will stat's be randomized by default or will they be fixed at a certain amount be by default like the base game?
and if they are randomized be default can we turn on an option that keeps them fixed similar to strict screening?
also i apologize for my poor grammar

Not created equally is on by default. You can turn it off in the options menu. (There are restrictions as to when you can turn it off -- not mid-mission basically).

[johnnylump]

2) The pod mechanics have been completely remastered in LW2.

Good to hear - if you can say, does that include removing the limit on alien species (where all followers of a pod had to be the same type of alien)?

Yes, that's gone.

[mattprice516]

Exciting stuff!

About the multi-mission quest lines, is there one where the resistance investigates the secret behind those damn, juicy Advent burgers?

Some things man was not meant to know.

Advent burger mission for SPARKs only confirmed.

(this is a joke)

[That_Derpy_muton]

1:does the playable aliens mod work with long war 2?
2:Do you guys like the idea of defecting aliens? (don't have to answer)

[deaconivory]

1:does the playable aliens mod work with long war 2?
2:Do you guys like the idea of defecting aliens? (don't have to answer)

So, I was never able to get it to work, but I never used it in vanilla so I am probably missing something. I know that most of the squadmate mods work, and the Allies Unknown mods work to some degree so I am hopeful that it will work eventually (or I will have time to actually fully test it out on a late game save).

[JoINrbs]

@joinRBS

When you're running a mission with one or two soldiers who are trying to achieve an objective and evac it's more likely that points in aim are going to feel wasted than points in will. There's so much flexibility in the infiltration system that a lot of conventional LW1-thinking starts to break down.

So does will affect infiltration and/or detection distance and stuff like that now?

it has the normal effect of preventing your soldiers from freaking out and hunkering down five tiles from the evac zone until they get captured if something goes slightly wrong. Things tend to go at least slightly wrong.

[mmCion]

One of the things I loved about LW, is that you were expected to not win every mission available. (assault carriers on the first few months, trap missions, etc).

Are you guys going to have a similar approach on LW2, on being expected to not take every mission or even expected to fail some missions?

Thanks again! you guys rock!

[Gallion]

2) The pod mechanics have been completely remastered in LW2.

Good to hear - if you can say, does that include removing the limit on alien species (where all followers of a pod had to be the same type of alien)?

Yes, that's gone.

Are most specifics on the new pod mechanics secret for now or is there anything else you can tell us about them?

[That_Derpy_muton]

1:does the playable aliens mod work with long war 2?
2:Do you guys like the idea of defecting aliens? (don't have to answer)

So, I was never able to get it to work, but I never used it in vanilla so I am probably missing something. I know that most of the squadmate mods work, and the Allies Unknown mods work to some degree so I am hopeful that it will work eventually (or I will have time to actually fully test it out on a late game save).

Why what happened that caused it to not work? And what do you mean Vanilla?

[That_Derpy_muton]

Johnnylump and co. will interrogation be a thing in long war?
Like maybe you interrogate a muton and you get Intel or a advent base location or something like that.

[gimrah]

@JoINrbs

OK thanks. I'm still a little sceptical that's enough but I guess I'll have to play it to see how it pans out.

I mean sure, I always used to take the no-panic perk on my covert operatives but I didn't have to give up movement and HP to get it.

[johnnylump]

One of the things I loved about LW, is that you were expected to not win every mission available. (assault carriers on the first few months, trap missions, etc).

Are you guys going to have a similar approach on LW2, on being expected to not take every mission or even expected to fail some missions?

Thanks again! you guys rock!

Yes.

[tekronis]

Johnnylump and co. will interrogation be a thing in long war?
Like maybe you interrogate a muton and you get Intel or a advent base location or something like that.

Would love to know if live capture has become a thing again. That was a pretty anxiety-inducing but satisfying goal in EU/EW/LW1.

[That_Derpy_muton]

Johnnylump and co. will interrogation be a thing in long war?
Like maybe you interrogate a muton and you get Intel or a advent base location or something like that.

Would love to know if live capture has become a thing again. That was a pretty anxiety-inducing but satisfying goal in EU/EW/LW1.

I wish they had live captures in just normal xcom 2 i wonder why they did not have that feature.

[mattprice516]

@JoINrbs

OK thanks. I'm still a little sceptical that's enough but I guess I'll have to play it to see how it pans out.

I mean sure, I always used to take the no-panic perk on my covert operatives but I didn't have to give up movement and HP to get it.

Many alien attacks (psi, some stuns) can be resisted with will. Also note that NCE does know how to value stats differently i.e. you're not giving up 1 hp for every extra 1 will.

[Mickey -renraw-]

"1) Aliens can show up in Reinforcement pods, but you are correct, not from a drop ship."

Wait what? please explain i don't get it deaconivory, what kinds of Reinforcement pods are there that don't arrive via Drop Ship? :S


Also YES PLEASE bring back alien interrogations, capturing aliens alive has been a key component of the XCOM franchise until XCOM 2 and is sorely missed... I like to sit in front of the holding cells tapping the glass with a stick while i drink Meld, it tends to make our guests quite upset

also thank you to everyone that replied to my questions, much appreciated

ALSO lastly, whoever thought of the operatives being able to perform tasks in the Geoscape must have been a real Evil Genius... no? nobody? just me then

[deaconivory]

1:does the playable aliens mod work with long war 2?
2:Do you guys like the idea of defecting aliens? (don't have to answer)

So, I was never able to get it to work, but I never used it in vanilla so I am probably missing something. I know that most of the squadmate mods work, and the Allies Unknown mods work to some degree so I am hopeful that it will work eventually (or I will have time to actually fully test it out on a late game save).

Why what happened that caused it to not work? And what do you mean Vanilla?

I did not use it in XCOM2 so understanding how it was supposed to work was challenging, and testing it in LW2 was harder because I didn't have time to run a full campaign for each mod, so I tried each mod on various saves, with this mod I couldn't seem to get the right combination of advancement in-game and proper rookies to promote at the right time. My gut feeling is that it will work, with some hopefully minor tweaking.

[fowlJ]

Wait what? please explain i don't get it deaconivory, what kinds of Reinforcement pods are there that don't arrive via Drop Ship? :S

There are two animations that can be used for reinforcements - there's the ADVENT dropship, and then there is the Psi Rift that is used for the Skulljack enemies and on the final mission. Aliens can arrive via Psi Rift without weird animations, so they use that instead of the ship.

[Mickey -renraw-]

oh ok brilliant, thanks fowlJ, as much as I'd love to see a Sectoid jankily jump out of a Dropship with velociraptor face, at least psi reinforcements is something