Xcom Long War Mods

1. Xcom Enemy Within Mods
2. Xcom Long War Mod List
3. Long War Mod Download

First impressions of the Xcom: Enemy Within Long War mod. If playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within haven't satisfied your turn-based tactical alien battling itch. If the 'marathon' and 'ironman' game modes haven't filled enough of your days. If all of the various upgrades, items, enemies and abilities unlock able in booth of those games don't quite keep your mind busy. Jan 19, 2017  Long War 2 is a significant overhaul of XCOM 2 aimed at giving players the feel of running a worldwide guerrilla war against ADVENT and offering them a greater variety of strategic and tactical experiences. Many of the mod's new mechanics are described ingame in the XCOM archives. XCOM 2's Long War mod will also cater to casual players. The original Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown transformed the game's campaign into something much longer (surprisingly) and offered a whole range of new toys, abilities and enemy designs to play around with. 'In the most general terms, our goal is to tell the XCOM 2 story in our own way,'.

'We are frequently in touch with the XCOM team at Firaxis,' said Lumpkin. 'They've been a great help to us when we're sorting through the code, making new maps, that sort of thing.'

Xcom Enemy Within Mods

So what's different this time around? The original Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown transformed the game's campaign into something much longer (surprisingly) and offered a whole range of new toys, abilities and enemy designs to play around with.' In the most general terms, our goal is to tell the XCOM 2 story in our own way,' explained Lumpkin. 'Taking the game in the direction we took XCOM: Enemy Unknown - going for an extended campaign that keeps you on the knife's edge between victory and defeat for the duration. And as with the original Long War, we added lots more problems for the players and also lots of new tools to solve them, but this time they are heavily influenced by the game's guerrilla war theme.' But let's be honest, when we talk about the Long War mod, we inevitably talk about its difficulty. Very few people have completed a full campaign on Impossible difficulty, as it requires such consistent, smart play over such a gruelling number of missions.'

The original Long War's DNA was that of a hardcore mod,' said Lumpkin. 'And while we made plenty of effort to open it up for a wider playerbase once its popularity grew, it kept its reputation as being very challenging. This go-round, we've tried to broaden our appeal by keeping the lower difficulty levels of Long War 2 more accessible to casual players who would still like to take part in an extended campaign experience.' Those difficulties probably still harder than the unmodded game in the sense that we've added a bunch of mechanics for the player to figure out and master, but the gameplay is set up to be more forgiving to players as they learn the ropes. And make no mistake, the higher difficulties are still things even experienced players should very much lose.' Our testers have finished campaigns in roughly 100 to 120 missions.

The strategy layer is also quite a bit more involved than XCOM 2 players may be used to. That mission count is not quite as long as Long War for Enemy Unknown, but we feel like we've hit a good number where every mission matters and moves things forward but without it becoming a grind.' We don't have any word yet on when to expect this mod's release, although Lumpkin promises it's 'coming soon'. As for the team's own strategy game, it's still being worked on in the background. For the time being, however, Long War 2 is the focus.

In my nearly 300 hours of playing XCOM 2 and two long, Long War 2 campaigns, I’ve gone through the Steam Workshop several times over and gone through all of the mods available. I decided to make a quick list of mods everyone definitely needs to be using while playing LW2. All of these mods are compatible with Long War 2 according to the official LW2 Mod Compatibility List and I have personally tested them in my own campaigns and played many long hours with them.All of these mods are available in the Steam Workshop and installation is as easy as clicking “subscribe” then waiting for it to download. The next time you start up XCOM 2 the mod should appear in the launcher. Make sure it is checked in the launcher so that it is enabled.

Must Have Long War 2 Compatible Mod ListInformation / Gameplay Clarification mods that are basically must-haves in X-COM 2 and LW2. These mods provide information that you really need to know before making a move or attack. These are so vital that they really should be included, at least as toggle-able menu option, in base XCOM 2.

Maybe we will see these in XCOM 3 by default. LOS Preview Ability – When activated it shows the sight lines and range wherever you put your cursor. Useful to see if you will activate a pod, or to check if your move will give you the sight line you want. Trees and buildings etc will block view sometimes and this shows that. It also will display the movement range of each enemy in sight so you can predict where patrols will stop. NOTE: When you activate this it will tank your framerate, but only when you turn it on.

It is still very useful, but that issue makes it not quite perfect. Also using this on different elevations is sometimes confusing, but its still better than nothing. Perfect Information – Displays the actual hit, dodge and crit chance whenever you or an enemy takes a shot. Very helpful for seeing what% chance the enemy had to hit you, also shows overwatch hit chance which otherwise is never shown. Blackmarket Usage – In the blackmarket you can see what items are used for what research, or engineering projects so you can decide whether or not to sell them. A minor improvement, but it can be handy. Additional Icons – Nice little addition – shows damage, aim, and movement range of enemies above their health bar.

Xcom Long War Mod List

Also shows if they are carrying loot which I like, although that could be considered a slight cheat. Gotcha (Flank Preview Evolved) – VERY useful. Easily see if the tile you are currently hovering over will let the currently active soldier have a shot, no shot, or a flank on all enemies by changing a small icon over each enemies head as you scroll around.

Evac All – simply adds a button on the ability toolbar when a soldier is in an EVAC zone that lets you evac everyone standing in the zone at once. Without this you might have to individual click Evac for 10 soldiers plus like 13 civilians/resistance members on some missions. True Concealment for LW2: (make sure to get this one – the original True Concealment is not compatible with LW2). The mission timer will not count down until your squad is first revealed from concealment. Not only does this just make sense story-wise in most missions, but it also allows you to carefully scout and plan out a mission even if it has a timer.

Long War Mod Download

Alternate option: increase the default mission timers by manually editing the ini file. This is a personal preference. I generally played on veteran difficulty and found the mission timers to often be a few turns too short. Some missions would require your whole squad to fully dash every turn just to reach the evac zone.

While it was rare for it to be that bad, I did find far too often that I had to give up on any strategy and just head straight for the objective. Rookie difficulty probably has the right amount of turns.

For Veteran and harder difficulties I found adding 3 to 6 made the game much more strategic and enjoyable. To manually change the mission timers go to the following folder on your computer: Steam Install LocationSteamappsWorkshop74609configXCOMLWOverhaul.ini Ctrl +F to search for “MISSION TIMERS” Adjust as you like. Optional Mods that I recommend:. Armor mods – I avoided them at first but after finding a few good armor and soldier customization mods I really like the extra soldier customization. These are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay balance.

Here are a few I like:. More clothes options (and other stuffs). Stenchfury Modular Helmets. Stenchfury Modular Armors.

Capnbubs Accessories Pack. Jsleezys Repurposed Gear. Heroes Pack (some of these actually look really bad, cheesy, or dumb, but if you combine some of these with other armors you can make some interesting characters). More Armor Colors.

XCOM EU/EW Ports: Helmets. Uniforms Manager (note this seemed slightly buggy. It may have been the cause of a few crashes and it definitely caused a problem that breaks the “make utility items available” on the squad select screen.

However it is useful for saving base outfits that you can then apply quickly to other soldiers. Character Pool Mods and Packs – add customized soldiers that other people created to your game. They will randomly appear as soldiers you can recruit. Make sure you turn on the option in the menu to use custom soldiers from your character pool. Some people understandably may not like these because most character pools don’t fit into the XCOM universe. I like them because its easier to get “attached” and remember a new Nicolas Cage recruit than some randomly generated John Smith default soldier. Aliens Character Pool.

Game of Thrones Characterpool with House Sigils. Save your own customized soldiers to the character pool whenever you make them. Then they can reappear in future campaigns.Mods to avoid for Long War 2:. Avoid new map packs: While Long War 2 is actually fully compatible with them, I noticed that some of the map sizes in some map packs make certain missions like timed missions basically impossible in Long War 2. Unless the map pack specifically says it is tested and designed to be balanced for Long War 2 I would avoid it.

Avoid new and customized enemies. Again this is a balance issue, if you have a bunch of new enemy types appearing at the wrong times of the game it could make it too hard or too easy in LW2. Avoid new weapons and items mods: again a balance issue and this can interfere with some of LW2’s changes. LW2 has plenty of new weapons and items already. Custom classes – once again a balance issue.

Long War 2 already has new, unique classes so I don’t feel this is needed. Check the official XCOM 2 Mod Compatibility list for any other mods you’re interested in.Important note: before adding any mods always make a separate backup of your XCOM 2 save game. Once you install a mod, then save the game, usually you will need to have that mod always installed in order to keep playing that save game. If you don’t like the mod or it crashes that result in your campaign being lost. I’d recommend testing out mods for stability and to see if you like them before even starting your real campaign.