I plugged
XCOM: Enemy Unknown before. Lately I've been playing a lot of the Long War mod, and this game feels more and more like a legendary game in its own right. So here is what will probably turn into a long-ass post about this awesome mod. These modders need to get hired by Firaxis for XCom 2, they've done amazing things with a game that was never meant to be modded. It's really a full-fledged expansion. Key features, for those already familiar with Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within:
- Much higher mission density, longer research/build times. A LONG war. Expect 100+ missions before the end of the game. (there's a "Not So Long War" second wave option to shorten it)
- Fatigue system. After a mission, a soldier will be fatigued for a number of days. No effect on the soldier's stats, but if you re-deploy a fatigued soldier they will receive a wound status at the end of the mission and spend time in the medbay. (about double the fatigue time) The result is that you no longer have a single A-team of supermen, you need to train and field several full teams. (my current run through has 45 soldiers who have gotten past rookie status)
- Base team size increased from 4 to 6. OTS upgrades available to increase to 8. "Super skyranger" foundry project can increase this further on a couple special missions. (EXALT HQ raid, alien base raid, final mission)
- New classes. Eight instead of four, and the default ability much better reflects the class. Heavy splits into Gunner (starts with suppression) and Rocketeer (obvious). Scout splits off from Sniper, highly mobile and starts with lightning reflexes. Infantry splits off from Assault, core ability is being able to fire twice. Engineer splits off from Medic, grenade specialists. MEC trooper classes based on each of the 8 base classes, although somewhat less distinction among MEC abilities.
- New perks, and reworked old ones. "Paramedic" allows medic to use a medkit as a free action once per turn. "Sapper" increases grenade damage and greatly increases grenade cover destruction. Troops will have three perk choices at each rank instead of two.
- More aliens, larger pods, random spawns, mixed pods. Late-game, I've seem pods as large as 8 aliens.
- Tougher aliens. They will grow over time, gaining more health/will/aim/damage, so no longer will you laugh at Thin Man Spam council missions in the late game. Aliens even learn perks, and pods will have squad leaders with additional health and abilities.
- Much, much more gear. "Human" gear is available from the start in unlimited quantities, at no charge. HE and Frag grenades, medkits, ceramic plates, flashbangs, laser sights, battle scanners, smoke grenades, etc. Makes for a versatile team. Each weapon tier has new variations: carbines that increase aim and mobility at the expense of damage, heavy rifles that increase damage but decrease aim and mobility, SMGs for greater mobility but no aim bonus. LMGs split into SAW and LMG variants. Marksman rifle added for scouts/snipers. Allows move-and-shoot, but reduces squadsight range and crit chance. More armor types (usually a "light" and "heavy" type at each tier) Special psionic-only gear.
- Revamped panic system and economy. Panic increases more slowly, but have fewer options to reduce it. More of a rising tide feel than whack-a-mole and satellite rush. You can retake a nation that has left the council and bring them back into the fold, via additional alien base raid missions. (in fact, you must do this at least once to advance the story, one nation will automatically leave very early on) Abduction missions occur only one at a time, and are no longer the primary method the aliens raise panic with. (comes more from terror missions and air raids - they bomb countries)
- Challenging air game. You have to be careful about expanding to new continents, because you can only afford to maintain so many interceptors. Early game, you are losing the air war. Your goal is to slow down the aliens until better technology is available. New UFO types at each tier, like "Fighter" UFOs whose main job is air to air combat and bombing runs.
Probably the biggest part of the entire mod is how radically changed the alien strategic game is. The aliens aren't just spitting out missions randomly at you until the game ends. They're basically a full-fledged player in their own right. The aliens have resources to gather and research to conduct. They gain research points over time, and use it to upgrade their troops with more health/damage/will, and adding special abilities to troops. (Muton squad leader with opportunist and covering fire, thin men with regeneration, crysallid squad leaders with lightning reflexes, sectoids with a frigging cloaking device) The aliens gain bonus research points from launching research missions. (usually in the form of a landed abductor, raider, or transport) They also gain a research boost from
you. If you leave troops behind on a failed mission, the aliens capture them and gain a research boost. Aliens have to spend resources to launch missions. They'll automatically gain a minimal amount, but gather extra resources via harvest missions and transport ships. They spend these resources on additional troops, or bombing runs to increase panic, launch terror missions, or do satellite hunting missions. (you will lose satellites, always have a spare) If they have a ton of resources, they can even launch a battleship that will straight-up take over a nation regardless of current panic status. The nation will immediately leave the council. (but can be retaken as normal) If they have the resources and you've pissed them off enough, they'll launch an attack on XCom HQ directly. (this is no longer tied directly to the alien base raid like enemy within, and can actually happen more than once in theory) If low on resources, you'll actually see alien missions with smaller pods, and weaker pods. (i.e. muton squad leader with only sectoids as buddies)
Alien resources can be indirectly tracked via meld captures. The more resources they have, the more meld will be in these canisters. (to give you a little boost) If you're getting only 3 meld per can, you're doing good. If you're getting 5-7, the aliens have gained some ground but this can be beneficial. If you're getting 10+, the aliens are whooping your ass and you need to do better in the air war.
All alien missions are delivered by a UFO. If you have a satellite over the country an abduction or terror mission pops up on, you'll detect the UFO that brings in the troops. Theoretically, you can shoot down any alien mission, but until late-game the large UFOs that deliver abduction/terror missions are way too tough. The aliens will launch bombing runs and harvest/transport missions over nations you don't have satellite coverage over. They'll gain resources and increase panic this way. So once you get the resources, you need to spread out.
Overall, the strategic game is a "dig earth out of this hole" situation. You start off behind the curve and need to catch up. But the tactical game actually inverts Enemy Unknown's silly difficulty curve. Especially on high difficulties, Enemy Unknown was really hard at first and became trivial once you had an A-team of plasma-equipped supermen. Now, the early game is easier. Sectoids will be weaker, drones will pop up earlier but they can't hit the broad side of a barn until later. But it will get harder. When Mechtoids and Cyberdiscs start showing up regularly, you'll be asking yourself why you didn't take HEAT ammo on that gunner. (seriously, take HEAT ammo on gunners and HEAT warheads on rocketeers) Late-game actually manages to stay scary. Have you ever seen a 30-foot tall Crysallid with more health bars than the game can display?
Get here:
http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88
Can register for free. (don't pick payment option)