Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, I was watching some twitch streams of Beaglerush using that a while back. Looked cool.

Seems it has been split up a bit for compatibility reasons. Based on the most recent comments if you grab all three parts it should still work ok.

[Egan_BW]

Did they say if long war 2 is a mod or an actual DLC?

Yes.

Just in case anyone was wondering, Long War 2 is not going to be a paid expansion, Pavonis' website calls it a "free mod".

[Twinwolf]

I kinda hope it ends up treated as a free expansion, least gets a similar treatment to the game itself in regards to consoles so I can get to play it eventually

[Neonivek]

Honestly if the quality is up there, I wouldn't even mind paying for it.

But it is free

[Chiefwaffles]

I am worried that LW2 is going to be to XCom 2 what EW was to XCom EU.
As in, I'm worried that we'll be getting Long War 2 instead of an actual substantial expansion pack for the game. Not that LW2 is a bad thing, but I just really want an actual expansion pack.

[Neonivek]

I am worried that LW2 is going to be to XCom 2 what EW was to XCom EU.
As in, I'm worried that we'll be getting Long War 2 instead of an actual substantial expansion pack for the game. Not that LW2 is a bad thing, but I just really want an actual expansion pack.

I don't think we will honestly be getting an expansion pack. It is also impossible because of the season's pass

[Rolan7]

Justified cynicism aside, Shen's Last Gift and Alien Rulers Fuck All The Things were fairly substantial.
Enemy Unknown was much better, yes, but we shouldn't blame Firaxis for putting too much in one expansion.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I would suspect we're going to see a repeat of the EU/EW cycle. Original Game -> Small Expansion (Slingshot/Shen's Last Gift & Alien Hunters) -> Long War -> Full Expansion (Enemy Within/Ayys Underwater).

I'm happy with Firaxis' progress against shit, though. The cosmetic DLC doesn't make me happy, but at least this time it wasn't exclusively a preorder bonus. Shen's Last Gift and Alien Hunters together is about as big as Enemy Within was. As long as that full expansion comes out and doesn't suck ass, I'll be satisfied.

[Flying Dice]

TBH both of the expansions were pretty good, and LW2 basically just needs to include the existing LW mods to completely overshadow them.

[Chiefwaffles]

Both "expansions" (I see them more as DLC, though that's basically saying the same thing and it's all semantics), while they add plenty of content in their own right, still aren't as substantial as Enemy Within was.

Combined, Alien Rulers and Shen's Last Gift may be around the same amount of content as Enemy Within, but it lacks the cohesiveness of a single expansion pack which I feel is one of the most important parts. Both just added some new things which were cool, but didn't feel like they really changed the game. Enemy Within was just... better.
That and I'm not a huge fan of any of the three DLCs. Anarchy's Children just does not fit with what I expect and want in aesthetics at all. Alien Hunters changed gameplay too much in what I personally feel in a negative way and made Alien Rulers just too powerful and random; some may like this but I definitely don't. And Shen's Last Gift doesn't really sell the SPARKs enough - they're kind of mediocre. Though Shen's Last Gift's mission was pretty fun to play through.
It was already a long shot that we would have an EW-type expansion, but as MSH pointed out, we did have a similar-ish cycle in Enemy Unknown. But our DLCs this time around are much bigger than Slingshot.

And @Neonivek's season pass comment:
That doesn't really have any relevance since it's not unheard of for companies to have "temporary" season passes only covering a portion of content or a limited amount of time. They're called "Season Passes," after all. Not "Infinite Passes." Firaxis was very clear on what the Season pass would entail, even going as far as to provide a brief summary of each DLC it would cover (Anarchy's Children, Alien Hunters, and Shen's Last Gift) before the base game was even out.

[Neonivek]

Alien Rulers was a very good bit of DLC content in theory.

It definitely had quite a bit to be desired when it came to execution... From how much of a drain it could be on your resources for what is often not a big deal stat wise (the final armor especially)... To just how the alien leaders functioned and their backstory which is once again "We can't have you be a terrorist or anything!"... So instead of you making strike missions against some alien leaders to sort of take down their leadership at the risk of having them take a more proactive role against you... They are just some sort of uber alien completely unrelated to the actual aliens. (The only good part is it HINTS that the aliens aren't inherently indoctrinated and that they could, in theory, be freed... setting it up for the Apoc timeline)

So... it is like 50% of a good DLC... It had nothing that couldn't be fixed or that was aggressively bad... It just needed to be pulled off better.

That doesn't really have any relevance since it's not unheard of for companies to have "temporary" season passes only covering a portion of content or a limited amount of time. They're called "Season Passes," after all. Not "Infinite Passes." Firaxis was very clear on what the Season pass would entail, even going as far as to provide a brief summary of each DLC it would cover (Anarchy's Children, Alien Hunters, and Shen's Last Gift) before the base game was even out.

I agree with you... But it is VERY VERY looked down upon... In fact I think even Steam suggests you not do it.

It is why Borderlands 3 (The Presequel) didn't have DLC outside its season pass and why most games never attempt to.

Basically if you have a Season pass you are expected to... Only have 1 and not to have any other DLC unless it is somehow extremely on the side.

[Chiefwaffles]

Spoiler: Squad Management UI! (click to show/hide)

Long War 2 will also have the ability to send out multiple squads at once and play out their missions consecutively. This is from the link I posted earlier, so anyone interested should really read that. There's an infiltration mechanic where you send in squads before the mission actually starts, and their equipment, perks, and squad size will determine the time required before the mission starts.
It looks like squad size limits have been removed and instead the size of the squad will affect things such as XP gain. So a smaller squad means more XP for your soldiers in that squad.

The AI is now going to be more strategic and will move forces around to try and crush resistance, build facilities where it thinks it's safe, and more. Apparently there will also be multiple mission plot lines as well.

[EnigmaticHat]

I wonder if you're rewarded for keeping a squad together.  That could reduce micro/add a nice narrative attachment.

[scriver]

Long War 2 will also have the ability to send out multiple squads at once and play out their missions consecutively.

Yes. Yes! Yeeeesss!!!

[Mephansteras]

I wonder if you're rewarded for keeping a squad together.  That could reduce micro/add a nice narrative attachment.

It's quite possible. There are stats already tracked by the game that could be used. A mod I was using for one playthrough used it to buff squads that had soldiers who regularly went on missions together.