X-COM Firaxis - XCOM: Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within Expansion

[mastroego]

Gentlemen, XCOM 1 Complete edition is now on GoG at a discount (80%)

1. Everybody owns it already.
2. Nobody is playing it anymore.

I will play Long War 1 again sometime.
I'm trying LW 2 right now, but with less enthusiasm, so far.

 

[cvv]

Gentlemen, XCOM 1 Complete edition is now on GoG at a discount (80%)

1. Everybody owns it already.
2. Nobody is playing it anymore.

I will play Long War 1 again sometime.
I'm trying LW 2 right now, but with less enthusiasm, so far.

LW1 is the only way to play XCOM1.
LW2 is the primary XCOM2 mod to be avoided.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

LW 1 IS the only way to play XCOM1. Owning it on GoG now makes my heart warm so i can have one more reason to skip Steam.

 

[Ironmonk]

Anyone that bought it tried it with mods to see if they are compatible with the gog version?

 

[mastroego]

I am now playing Long War again.... this time with the LW Rebalance mod.
The last time I saw this, it wasn't updated to the last version of LW, but now it is.

We're basically talking about the overhaul OF an overhaul.
One would be excused for being skeptic, right?
But I got interested and read through the list of changes.
More times than I could count I found myself nodding in agreement: "hey that makes sense. nice change".
That wasn't true for ALL the changes I saw listed but at this point I'm willing to try and trust someone who obviously played LW a lot, and spent a lot of time devising ways to improve upon it.
Not to mention, a lot of QoL changes and mods that come with the package.
It may well be the definitive version of LW, if unofficial (or unofficial, squared?). In fact, I'm thinking it is.

So I started a new campaign, on BRUTAL.
I allowed myself to use the Friendly Skies Second Wave setting, since Air Combat grew tiresome in my last playthrough.
Yet Air Combat was overhauled too, so perhaps I could've done without it.
Will see.

I play with a sort of self-imposed Bronzeman. Reloads are allowed for misclicks, and I'll replay a whole mission when it ends in too big of a disaster.
At mission n°3, I can see the mod seems to be working as advertised indeed.
The overhauled pod mechanic works nicely, Sectoids use their PSI powers a lot more, and so on.
Mission 3 has been brutal indeed.
Best I could do was to accept the first casualty and one major injury, and move on from there.
So far, I'm having fun again.

 

[Jaedar]

I am now playing Long War again.... this time with the LW Rebalance mod.
The last time I saw this, it wasn't updated to the last version of LW, but now it is.

This modmod sounds pretty great to be honest. Sadly I don't have 300 hours to put into an LW campaign.

 

[not an artichoke]

I wish someone would make a quality mod for XCOM 2 using the rebalance's core pod mechanic. It's just so tiresome playing the game around whether or not one more tile will wake up a bunch of doom.

 

[mastroego]

I am now playing Long War again.... this time with the LW Rebalance mod.
The last time I saw this, it wasn't updated to the last version of LW, but now it is.

This modmod sounds pretty great to be honest. Sadly I don't have 300 hours to put into an LW campaign.

I thought the same but then I spent 600+ hours on it, and now I am here again.
It really is a good gaming experience, and this modmod seems to have fixed the most significant of the remaining issues. Also it attempts to push the player towards an earlier finishing move, while reducing the snowballing effect common of the later stages of the campaign (for those who got that far, at least).

Obviously one doesn't need to complete it in a week.
You just start the campaign and see where it goes.

I wish someone would make a quality mod for XCOM 2 using the rebalance's core pod mechanic. It's just so tiresome playing the game around whether or not one more tile will wake up a bunch of doom.

It really feels different and more realistic.
I preferred LW to XCOM 2 already, the reworked pod mechanic is the killshot.
Now enemies are dangerous because they can summon one another, not because I accidentally activate the second pod with the wrong step.
Moving around is dangerous, but my actions are allowed to make sense and to have more freedom.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I have not touched LW in a long time, have they managed to figure out how to add some new maps? Even a couple more would help, doing the same maps over and over really drained my will to continue playing.

 

[mastroego]

I don't think so, no.
Besides, LW is still at version 1.0.

The LW Rebalance, on the other hand, is still being worked on and I assure you it changes the way LW feels and plays.
For now, it's enough for me not to notice (terribly) the problem with the known maps. You have to face them with a new approach after all.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Well, I may give it a shot anyway. I remember LW alone being far superior to anything that came from the sequel.

 

[Average Manatee]

Those improved pod mechanics look really appealing. Does it imbalance different maps though? It seems it would be very easy in relatively small, open maps to have a pod activation chain that summons the whole map immediately.

 

[Jaedar]

I have not touched LW in a long time, have they managed to figure out how to add some new maps? Even a couple more would help, doing the same maps over and over really drained my will to continue playing.

I don't know when you played last, but sometime in LW they added randomized map spawns, so there's 2 or 3 different places to spawn on each map, and doing them "in reverse" does actually make it pretty novel. Spawning right outside the ufo plays quite differently to spawning on the other side of the map, even if it is the same map.

It really is a good gaming experience, and this modmod seems to have fixed the most significant of the remaining issues. Also it attempts to push the player towards an earlier finishing move, while reducing the snowballing effect common of the later stages of the campaign (for those who got that far, at least).

I read/skimmed the patch notes. One thing that irks me is the reduced squad sizes. 4 dudes is just not enough to be very fun, and then they reduce it even more for some missions.

 

[mastroego]

Those improved pod mechanics look really appealing. Does it imbalance different maps though? It seems it would be very easy in relatively small, open maps to have a pod activation chain that summons the whole map immediately.

I suspect the opposite might be true.
There's a range limit on the "summoning" so on large maps you could avoid being swarmed, if the other pods are far away.
I'm not too sure about the balance here, keep I'm mind that I've only just passed mission #5.
The one casualty I had to suffer had to happen precisely because of this mechanic, there was no way to avoid multiple contacts on 3 sides.
I *will* say, though, that it felt like shit happening in the field instead of the pod-activation gimmick, which I could tolerate but, we all agree, is retarded.

I read/skimmed the patch notes. One thing that irks me is the reduced squad sizes. 4 dudes is just not enough to be very fun, and then they reduce it even more for some missions.

I can relate but it only applies for abduction missions, and before upgrades.

 

[Average Manatee]

I meant it would be very easy to get screwed on small maps, not that small maps were very easy

Like I recall that one map with just a single warehouse with a bunch of glass windows on the docks. An alien pod at the center of it can basically see the whole map. Would that basically summon the whole map?

 

[not an artichoke]

It might, but even if it does - so what?

The key here is that they can rebalance the entire game around the new mechanic.

 

[mastroego]

I meant it would be very easy to get screwed on small maps, not that small maps were very easy

Like I recall that one map with just a single warehouse with a bunch of glass windows on the docks. An alien pod at the center of it can basically see the whole map. Would that basically summon the whole map?

Oh sorry, I misread.
Well, they can summon pods that they can see.
Even if LOS isn't blocked, there's still a range limit on sight. Isn't it?
I guess I'll check when I get that map.

Anyway, the new Air Combat is cool.
It's actually a whole different mod incorporated (and reworked for) into the Rebalance mod.
Bonus points for effect because, like the new pod mechanic, it increases the "realism" factor of the game.
How can puny humans, with a crude technology, take down UFOs on 1 vs 1 commitments?
They don't in fact: they send squadrons of jets when they happen to see a lonely UFO they can swarm!
A "simple" change that alters the feel of the skirmishes significantly.
And the implementation is as seamless as it could possibly get, given how the original game portrayed air combat.
Kudos to the mod authors.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I have not touched LW in a long time, have they managed to figure out how to add some new maps? Even a couple more would help, doing the same maps over and over really drained my will to continue playing.

I don't know when you played last, but sometime in LW they added randomized map spawns, so there's 2 or 3 different places to spawn on each map, and doing them "in reverse" does actually make it pretty novel. Spawning right outside the ufo plays quite differently to spawning on the other side of the map, even if it is the same map.

Those I've seen. They helped for a while, but with enough missions (and in LW there are a lot of missions) eventually you learn those as well. This game was always badly in need of map pack, the vanilla count is way, way too low. Or even better, a map editor.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Barely related, but here's some comedy gold from Jake Solomon:

 

[Average Manatee]

Funny joke, but if you look at the video it does look 100% exactly the same down to the UI and stuff. I mean jesus, make SOMETHING look different. Move some kind of UI feature somewhere. Make the health bars slightly different. Maybe change the blue/yellow color of movement to something else in the ~17,000,000 colors supported by modern monitors?



If you told me this was an official X-COM 3 developed by Firaxis I'd believe you. I'm not sure on exactly how much you need to change to evade copyright laws but given that X-Com is a fairly unique game the fact that they look so similar is probably skirting the limits of legality.

 

[Galdred]

If you told me this was an official X-COM 3 developed by Firaxis I'd believe you. I'm not sure on exactly how much you need to change to evade copyright laws but given that X-Com is a fairly unique game the fact that they look so similar is probably skirting the limits of legality.

I doubt it: a lot of Diablo clones lifted entire elements of the UI too (health/mana pool representation, inventory, quick access bar...), without any problem from blizzard.

 

[ArchAngel]

Funny joke, but if you look at the video it does look 100% exactly the same down to the UI and stuff. I mean jesus, make SOMETHING look different. Move some kind of UI feature somewhere. Make the health bars slightly different. Maybe change the blue/yellow color of movement to something else in the ~17,000,000 colors supported by modern monitors?



If you told me this was an official X-COM 3 developed by Firaxis I'd believe you. I'm not sure on exactly how much you need to change to evade copyright laws but given that X-Com is a fairly unique game the fact that they look so similar is probably skirting the limits of legality.

PP is to nuXcom what Path of Exile is to D2 .
Both games take the base game and improve it a lot and in different directions than the original.

Wait until you play it before complaining so much.

 

[dextermorgan]

So I finally picked this up on a GOG sale. Just noticed I lost continent names in my current savegame (on the Hangar screen). Names of locations in missions (abductions, etc) are also not showing. Anyone know how to fix this, besides restarting at the last non-corrupt save?

 

[ArchAngel]

Uninstall.exe

 

[ArchAngel]

Ok, I finally installed LW Rebalanced and started playing on Normal/Ironman. And like a noob I am I got Van Dorn killed by moving him next to a burning vehicle :D

I might restart on Classic difficulty, Normal is way too easy atm. So far I like the air combat and ground combat with more than one pack being activated (but I didn't see new tools that let you deal with that easier except that aliens have crap life and damage while your guys are bullet sponges). Abduction missions still force only 4 characters for some reason.

Game feels more like UFO but you playing as aliens. You have more life than sectoids and can one shot them. They do less damage then you, got 0 chance to one shot you and swarm you. They completely turned the original masterpiece on its head. It is even more like that than vanilla Xcom 1 was.