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Now that this has had time to marinate in some sweet sweet DLC/mods...anyone else still playing? I've gotten way more mileage out of it than Total Warhammer, which surprised me a bit, but not unpleasantly so.

Alien Hunters was a bit of a disappointment for me. The new story mission was great and all (anyone else catch those hissed sibilants in one of the recorded messages? SOMEONE'S taken alien gene-tech maybe a bit too far...), but I'm not a huge fan of the weapons - especially how they totally eclipse regular weapons - and I can't stand the art direction. The rulers themselves are kinda hit and miss. I like the base mechanic, but I hate how their appearance can all but automatically mean a squadwipe on some missions. I think I would have preferred toned-down versions that showed up more frequently and weren't expected to last more than a mission or two. Alien commanders, if you will. Seriously considered uninstalling it for my next playthrough, but decided to go for it anyway. If Anarchy's Children gets to stick around...

Shen's Last Gift has been great so far; the voice acting on the new mission is awesome, and it's good to see another little salute to Julian Gollop. I'm not sure if I like the SPARKS more than I like MECs; the MECs had a great flavor to them, especially because I usually 'volunteered' soldiers who were really badly injured just to get them back in the field. The SPARKS are a lot of fun, though, and they provide a similar dynamic on the field.

Currently trying to wrap my head around a Classic/Ironman campaign (my standard) with the new Long War classes. It's not easy. I added the Long War toolbox and bumped squad size up to 6 for the full LW experience...and then I decided to balance things out...was already playing with A Better Advent, so I figured why not add Better Pods Plus and Additional Dark Events (casual! Not looking for triple sectopod groups!) to make things more interesting?

That was early this morning. I might be about to lose my third campaign since then. That's XCOM, baby!

Also using True Concealment (it just makes more sense and lets me set up a proper ambush), EU Crit Rolls (to make flashbangs useful and combat in general feel less swingy), various map, quality of life, and cosmetic mods (Capnbubs is a fashion god!), the new Laser pack from the Long War guys as well as their Muton Centurion and SMG (which I'm finally getting mileage out of with their melee class rebalances, Shinobi with SMG seems to do some serious work), Heavy Weapons Tweak (a reason to use the flamethrower would be nice, right?), Engineer2Scientist (why would an engineer be helping people unlock their psychic potential), BleedOutMod (I like to make the hard choices), Squad Cohesion (for that truly tragic feel when they die), and Additional Mission Types. That last one seems determined to kick my ass this campaign. In the past, I've used the Rioting City extraction and Haven Siege to get new rookies.

Just left a rioting city with three surviving members of the deployed six and no new recruits, except for the scientist we grabbed. Now I have to defend a haven with four rookies and two people who are actually useful. I hope you all like eating Advent burgers, because I think this might be it for the Resistance.

I think i played a little recently. Keep in mind i've been playing lots of other games 'total war: warhammer', vermintide and skyrim. I think this is what i played when i got bored of the first two. I may go back but have no dlc yet.

I will see about shen's gift. The first dlc is the one i cared least for but the rest seem ok. That special freeze grenade sounds like something that should be in the base game though as another type of grenade rather than one grenade that when you lose it it's gone.

Long War 2 is out! Anyone else shoving rookies into the meat grinder? There's got to be one or two other die-hard commanders out there...

I cleared out all my non-cosmetic/QoL mods to do a vanilla run that hopefully gets completed. So far, it's been a blast. I love the Infiltration mechanics and the way you have to manage Resistance havens; it feels like you're playing more with the strategic layer now. Prison break missions are a blast, as are the Rendezvous missions you get if you have a guy keeping an eye on your Resistance cells. Taking armed Resistance volunteers to tag along with your XCOM advisor really makes it feel like your guys are the best humanity has to offer, after it's all been said and done.

And then you miss an 80% shot and you realize they just get better gear than the rest of the rebels

Things I've learned so far: being bound by a Viper doesn't mean you won't get shot, but does mean you won't have cover; under no circumstances should you accept a mission if you can't infiltrate your squad in the required amount of time; sectoids will zombify people from offscreen; drones are and always will be Satan Incarnate.

Oh! I'm a big fan of the new loading screens and updated artwork.

Not yet playing Long War 2 but never completely stopped playing xcom 2 which is rather impressive i think. I'm doing a bunch of Twitch streams of xcom 2 and have most of the achievements.

I'm trying real hard not to just play like crazy. I've done just one
mission and am figuring out the strategy layer.

Trust me when i say this the game is insane. The first mission is totally unlike much of the game. Far as i can tell you have to remain hidden until you get to the objective then do that objective and maybe kill a few guys and get the **** out. That's the best way to put it. It's ridiculously hard. That is the only way i can imagine winning the turn based missions.

The other interesting thing to note is that, since you have to evac out of the vast majority of missions, you aren't going to collect corpses or other resources.

This means there's really no reason not to blanket the area in explosions.

The missions where you get to keep that sort of stuff typically aren't timed, but also have a lot more enemies, so it's a give and take. Sniper/shinobi combo works well there; have the shinobi stealth up while the sniper hangs back and pops heads.

Yikes. I might have to dial back the difficulty to "not veteran"

 malfred wrote:
Yikes. I might have to dial back the difficulty to "not veteran"

I'm doing it on 2nd hardest difficulty on ironman but i had no idea it was so hard.

You have no clue. I just played a mission where my one shinobi decided to pass right by a window with some civvies next to it (after i knew they were there i thought said soldier would maneuver around the sight range but no). At the start of the mission. That mission is f'ed. Also if a mission has too short of an expiration time DON'T do it. The less concealed your squad the more enemies and the harder it is to maneuver around the patrols. It's just not fun. I need a break. Seriously i think i'll have to turn off ironman mode. Once the shinobi did that in my game i quit out of game and dropped my headphones on the floor. I'm not trying that specific campaign again. Maybe a new game of it but i dunno.

On the subject of drones i hate them too. They're like a robot version of a stun lancer except it's a gun rather than a melee beat stick and if you're flanked it almost always stuns you 1-2 turns which generally equals death with the heavily outnumbered xcom soldiers.

Pardon the stupid question, but what is Long War 2? I'm assuming it's a mod since I don't recall 3/4 of the stuff a lot of people are discussing about Xcom 2 here from when last played it

It is indeed a mod. Long War was a popular xcom: enemy unknown mod. Not entirely sure why the gaming outlets were so thrilled about it though. I'm just guessing they're all full of **** again.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
It is indeed a mod. Long War was a popular xcom: enemy unknown mod. Not entirely sure why the gaming outlets were so thrilled about it though. I'm just guessing they're all full of **** again.

Because it's not just hard; it's deep.

Seriously, though, it's a difficult mod, just like the predecessor, but it's a truly impressive piece of work that gives you the tools you need to succeed once you work out how the game plays. You won't win every mission, but it's incredibly immersive, and for the most part, the game's not super unfair -

Long War 2 Patch 1.1 Notes wrote:- Removed possibility you can spawn two of the same ruler on black site mission

Dear and fluffy Lord, that was a thing?

 Spinner wrote:

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
It is indeed a mod. Long War was a popular xcom: enemy unknown mod. Not entirely sure why the gaming outlets were so thrilled about it though. I'm just guessing they're all full of **** again.

Because it's not just hard; it's deep.

Seriously, though, it's a difficult mod, just like the predecessor, but it's a truly impressive piece of work that gives you the tools you need to succeed once you work out how the game plays. You won't win every mission, but it's incredibly immersive, and for the most part, the game's not super unfair -

Long War 2 Patch 1.1 Notes wrote:- Removed possibility you can spawn two of the same ruler on black site mission

Dear and fluffy Lord, that was a thing?

I'm starting to see what you mean now that i'm getting the hang of it.

It's actually not a stealth game but in some cases you can free some contacts and evac them while going the stealth route with just a few rookies.

There's a class with a sawed off shotgun (secondary weapon) and another (technical) with a flamethrower. I'm finding both classes do well when given smg's as the primary weapon and given only armor upgrades. Same goes for the shinobi (sword dudes) with their smg's. The point behind this is it makes them super fast so they can get to where they need to be and melee, shotgun or flamethrower some fools. Shame the smg is crap damage-wise but it's nice for mobility.

You also have to work the game globally (get hard on intel to increase mission expiration time and making a mission have less enemies) and make sure you get plenty of loot drops. Suppressors are really nice esp. when you have several in your squad as it decreases mission time a lot. Some of the global rewards are also pretty good (more staff or rebel base recruits).

Still having a massively hard time esp. at the first supply raid. I always get trashed in it.

Ugh if i didn't have to sleep i'd keep trying to play it as i think i'm starting to get it. It's massively complex though probably a lot more than xcom 2's normal game.

Stupid Question again (vanilla Xcom 2), but in the final mission all your soldiers make it through the exit portal right? I got rather attached to most of these men and women

 War Kitten wrote:
Stupid Question again (vanilla Xcom 2), but in the final mission all your soldiers make it through the exit portal right? I got rather attached to most of these men and women

The video is on YouTube if you want to rewatch it.

 War Kitten wrote:
Stupid Question again (vanilla Xcom 2), but in the final mission all your soldiers make it through the exit portal right? I got rather attached to most of these men and women

That's what I really like about this game. You want your guys to make it, even though you're playing a game where odds are...they won't. The character pool (or Valhalla, as I prefer to call it) is one of their best design choices.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

I'm starting to see what you mean now that i'm getting the hang of it.

It's actually not a stealth game but in some cases you can free some contacts and evac them while going the stealth route with just a few rookies.

There's a class with a sawed off shotgun (secondary weapon) and another (technical) with a flamethrower. I'm finding both classes do well when given smg's as the primary weapon and given only armor upgrades. Same goes for the shinobi (sword dudes) with their smg's. The point behind this is it makes them super fast so they can get to where they need to be and melee, shotgun or flamethrower some fools. Shame the smg is crap damage-wise but it's nice for mobility.

You also have to work the game globally (get hard on intel to increase mission expiration time and making a mission have less enemies) and make sure you get plenty of loot drops. Suppressors are really nice esp. when you have several in your squad as it decreases mission time a lot. Some of the global rewards are also pretty good (more staff or rebel base recruits).

Still having a massively hard time esp. at the first supply raid. I always get trashed in it.

Ugh if i didn't have to sleep i'd keep trying to play it as i think i'm starting to get it. It's massively complex though probably a lot more than xcom 2's normal game.

Hadn't thought about giving the rangers SMGs, since so much of their build is focused on firing their primary weapon, but it might be worth it if they need to support someone on a 'stealth' mission! Their secondary is incredibly nasty against close-range enemies. Shinobi always get SMGs from me, though; the synergy they have with Phantom and Fleche is intense. The current thought I had was to train one as a gunslinger in the AWC, have them stealth up to an enemy pod, and then use Faceoff.

Since so much is changing in the new patch, I'm just kinda sitting here waiting for it to launch before I start a new campaign. It is...frustrating.

I asked because I sent all my best (aka favorite) soldiers on the mission and it would have sucked to have lost them. Especially my Ranger, Colonel Cassandra "Ice" Taylor who killed the last Avatar with a lucky axe throw

 War Kitten wrote:
I asked because I sent all my best (aka favorite) soldiers on the mission and it would have sucked to have lost them. Especially my Ranger, Colonel Cassandra "Ice" Taylor who killed the last Avatar with a lucky axe throw

I just rewatched the win video. It's not explicitly stated, but imo it's implied that they all survived.

Been playing long war. My previous game i lost due to some hidden campaign timer or something. It was rather stupid. I'm kinda getting the hang of the game more. I will need more land grabs though and a lot of this is still really hard. Right now i'm in a solid game.

Apparently you need to scan supply bases on resistance havens to gain income (the issue with people only having a few credits is explained here). Intel sites gain more missions with slight intel boosts. The more intel resistance sites the more missions and the more rolls for good missions (ones with super long infiltration times). Recruit sites just mostly add more recruits but more importantly more resistance members which can make a site more valuable. Finally you gotta watch out for advent defense ratings of certain areas as the higher it gets the more chance they will attack a resistance haven and these fights are usually super hard and you will lose guys and possibly resistance members. The type of defense is usually based around what you gather or what you gather most at a site.

Anyway not sure what all else to say. Having a good amount of intel sites is good for several reasons. The more you have the more types of missions you need (alien material, intel, staff, etc. type missions). Right now i could use all of them but alien material is probably one of the most valuable as of the moment as these alloy you to collect enemy supplies and corpses which is super needed to progress in the game.

Just got the game, having an XCOM itch and finding that Enemy Unknown won't work on my computer. Bladestorm seems like a completely busted trait, the first Berserker I ran into ran through a door flanked by my two assaults and got cut down instantly. Did I just luck out?

Possibly, iirc, bladestorm is still subject to hit chance (but iirc it can also cause them to free themselves from a viper)

Isn't there that other trait that increases melee hit chance though? I don't think I've seen a less than 100% melee hit chance the entire game so far.

Bladestorm is really nice against injured or lower-tier melee-focused enemies, especially when you get sword upgrades. Doesn't do a thing against people shooting at you, though, unless you're up in their face already!

XCOM 2 Berserkers are actually your best friend. All you need to do is shoot them enough to make them mad, then make sure some poor Advent goon is standing closest to them and watch the fireworks...

On my third try at Long War 2. This time I've got it. MECs are the devil. Send rookies.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Isn't there that other trait that increases melee hit chance though? I don't think I've seen a less than 100% melee hit chance the entire game so far.

there is a skill that increases crit and hit while concealed, and there's reaper which makes the first attack in a chain of attacks a 100% hit chance.

 Spinner wrote:
Bladestorm is really nice against injured or lower-tier melee-focused enemies, especially when you get sword upgrades. Doesn't do a thing against people shooting at you, though, unless you're up in their face already!

XCOM 2 Berserkers are actually your best friend. All you need to do is shoot them enough to make them mad, then make sure some poor Advent goon is standing closest to them and watch the fireworks...

On my third try at Long War 2. This time I've got it. MECs are the devil. Send rookies.

Guessing you haven't fought the muton centurion yet.

I think i'm doing better but i will be gone 2 weeks to a month so today is the last day i get to play the game. I'm sure you'll have all the chances in the world to surpass what i've done in the mean time. I'm doing ok in 2nd highest difficulty on ironman so far.

I thought stun grenades will mess up berserkers? I don't remember shooting doing that to them but something like disorient seems to.

Bladestorm is kinda nice period. If you put the gremlin shield up (where you expect your enemies to melee you) generally melee enemies suck at hitting you. In fact you will find melee opponents chance to hit you plummets with any kind of defense boosts even the smaller tier 1 gremlins having an effect on this.