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[RAM]

I will say though the Long War 2 has a miscommunication problem

The IMMEDIATE instinct of a player when seeing that they don't have to get to 100% is that they can chose to end it early for a harder, but sooner, mission. Yet the reality is that you should always go for 100% no matter what.

I feel that this somewhat defeats the purpose of implementing the mechanic...

[Neonivek]

It kind of does I won't lie.

[EnigmaticHat]

Regarding the Ability Points System, here's a quote from a firaxis employee (the community manager?):

Yes! The Faction soldiers all gain Ability Points (AP) when they rank up, so you can always purchase at least one ability from their new rank.
Each soldier also has a new "Combat Intelligence", which modifies how much AP they earn at each rank. Smarter soldiers earn more AP, so they can buy more abilities.
And on top of that, you can then choose to spend any extra AP you've earned from combat (listed as "XCOM AP" on the promotion screen) to purchase additional abilities.
TLDR: Very possible to unlock all of the abilities if you really invest in one soldier, or if they're super smart.

The Training Center (replacing the AWC) can be built to allow regular XCOM soldiers to also use AP as well. AP is in addition to XP and is the primary (if not only) way for Faction soldiers to improve.
Also, apparently according to Solomon's twitter, one of the three branches for Faction soldiers - the "XCOM" Branch - is populated with randomly chosen abilities from the standard classes.

So all classes are like psi ops now?  Can we give every soldier both top level perks?

[GiglameshDespair]

From twitter:
Someone asked "Regardig Wotc, will it be possible for an xcom operative (excluding psi) to be as strong or stronger than the neww hero unit?"

Solomon replied:
Sure. If you spend a lot of AP on your favourite soldier through the training centre, and give them Chosen weapons: Demigod


No link because I'm on mobile, but it's encouraging that hero troops aren't necessarily always more powerful than an ordinary soldier.

[askovdk]

EuroGamer put up a 20 minutes list with '112 new things in XCOM 2'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpLcPIWqK18

It was a very good list of what is known, - almost too good as some of the information would be better to experience as 'emeny unknown'. 

[TheDarkStar]

I picked this game up while it was on sale ($25 for the base game + a few DLCs). What are some good mods for it? What are some non-obvious things to remember when playing it?

[EnigmaticHat]

Some common pearls of wisdom:
If one squad member is in partial cover the entire squad is in partial cover (because the enemy are all going to shoot the partial cover guy).  Better to have one guy uselessly hunkered down than one guy dead.  Roofs are very good tho, against a small number of enemies you can endure partial cover if it means taking the high ground and killing them quickly.

You can ambush from concealment by throwing everyone on overwatch and shooting or tossing a grenade into the enemy squad.  However you risk not killing all the enemies so try to leave one guy with his move still up (2 or 3 once you have squad size 6).

Stealthing missions never goes well.  View concealment as a way to scout. get good terrain and avoid bad reveals.  Not a way to win without fighting because you wont.

If the shot is less then 90% plan around it missing.  Exception: if things are already desperate sometimes you just have to hope.

Moving forward into undiscovered areas can reveal alien pods.  This makes Rangers a bit underpowered (further worsened by melee weapons being able to miss in vanilla).  If you want to use close range weapons you can retreat so that the enemy will come to you, and then rush forward into the ground you used to occupy.  This has its own risks tho and takes up time.  Common mod to mitigate this is increased melee accuracy.  If you ranger gets stuck out in the open you can use gremlin support and/or smoke grenades to help him out.

If you get a mission where you have to get to the evac zone or your soldiers will be left behind (like a prisoner rescue), fucking rush the mission.  Seriously you always have less time than you think.  "True Concealment" is a common mod to mitigate this problem, by making the timers not go down until you reveal yourself.  There's also a timer rebalance out there that adds I think 4 turns to the clock for all missions.

[nenjin]

Roofs are very good tho, against a small number of enemies you can endure partial cover if it means taking the high ground and killing them quickly.

Depends. I've had snipers picked off regularly because they were too far forward in partial cover on the high ground. Maybe it's the LW2 AI, but I swear it has it out for snipers if they're even marginally a good target. I'm gonna try baiting the AI to shoot at my least covered soldier in partial with Hunker Down though. Probably going to be way better than overwatch or a shitty % to hit unless it's a do or die moment.

You can ambush from concealment by throwing everyone on overwatch and shooting or tossing a grenade into the enemy squad.  However you risk not killing all the enemies so try to leave one guy with his move still up (2 or 3 once you have squad size 6).

Sitting in overwatch and letting them path in to LOS is vastly superior to launching an ambush on your turn. You also get the benefit of almost point blank range too. Just sayin'.

Stealthing missions never goes well.  View concealment as a way to scout. get good terrain and avoid bad reveals.  Not a way to win without fighting because you wont.

Without a fight? No. Fighting 1 of the 3 to 4 pods on the map instead of having to grind through all of them? Yes. Were it not for the auto-reveal when you complete the main mission objective, you could absolutely do some missions without ever being seen or fighting.

Moving forward into undiscovered areas can reveal alien pods.  This makes Rangers a bit underpowered (further worsened by melee weapons being able to miss in vanilla).  If you want to use close range weapons you can retreat so that the enemy will come to you, and then rush forward into the ground you used to occupy.  This has its own risks tho and takes up time.  Common mod to mitigate this is increased melee accuracy.  If you ranger gets stuck out in the open you can use gremlin support and/or smoke grenades to help him out.

This is like the #1 most annoying thing in XCOM2. Revealing new enemies on your turn makes every fight in the game x2 as deadly.

[DolosusDoleus]

UI Mods:
Shut Up Bradford!
Evac All/Others
Stop Wasting My Time

Gameplay Mods (I recommend you wait to use these until you finish a vanilla campaign):
A Better Advent
Grimy' Loot Mod
True Concealment
Long War Alien Pack

Overhaul Mods (DEFINITELY finish a vanilla game before playing these):
Long War 2
XCOM: Total War

[Rince Wind]

I was going to say you can win missions without fighting, then I remembered that it is more of a Long War 2 thing.

As in XCOM:EU/EW attack>defence when it comes to research. Lasers are more important than better armor, as killing the enemy before it hits you is vastly superior to surviving badly injured, if at all.
Psi Ops are very strong, but it is still not the best idea to rush them. SPARKs are  - not so strong, you should to Shens mission when you have lasers.

XCOM2 is about controling the enemy so he can't shoot you (well). Flashbangs are your friend, as a lot of special abilities don't work when disoriented, and the reduced movement range is a godsend against melee foes.

[Twinwolf]

-snip-

I'm not sure you can compare Long War 2 with standard XCOM 2, from what I've looked into they are vastly different. The high ground thing's worked for me as well. Letting them path into LOS runs the risk of them just shooting the person that's exposed - that was specifically patched in after someone (Beaglerush, I want to say) found that.

[Aklyon]

UI Mods:
Shut Up Bradford!
Evac All/Others
Stop Wasting My Time

Gameplay Mods (I recommend you wait to use these until you finish a vanilla campaign):
A Better Advent
Grimy' Loot Mod
True Concealment
Long War Alien Pack

Overhaul Mods (DEFINITELY finish a vanilla game before playing these):
Long War 2
XCOM: Total War

A Better Advent 2, the original is outdated.

Also, get Accurate Swords if you don't just edit the ini to give swords perfect accuracy yourself.

[Sanctume]

XCOM2 vanilla, the AI kinda cheat as it knows where you are concealed, and moves  or patrols close to you, or just stays in the perimeter of you range. 

XCOM2 LW2 has a code to divert from this vanilla behavior.  Meaning, all pods will not cheat and patrol towards you but follow a set of patrol way points, and only adjust based on sounds / alerts.

[Rince Wind]

In which file would I change the number of med kit charges? If that is possible.

[ArchAIngel]

I only use one mod, but I will endorse it VERY highly.


Numerical. HP.


You will value it beyond all others after a pure vanilla game.