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[Mephansteras]

Helmets work without problems at all as well?

Helmets seemed to be hit or miss, for me.

[Taricus]

Right, I'll need to note that in for character transfers then once War of the chosen finishes downloading here. I appreciate the heads up on that.

[Mephansteras]

Right, I'll need to note that in for character transfers then once War of the chosen finishes downloading here. I appreciate the heads up on that.

To be honest, I'm seriously considering restarting with a voice-only set of mods until stuff gets upgraded. Had one set of legs that took so long to load the textures I was sure the game had crashed. I've only done Gatecrasher and messed around with my soldiers, so it's not like I'd lose too much. And it's not too hard to add stuff in later once the modders have had chance to fix the various issues.

[umiman]

I think it would be wise to simply play without mods for the time being. Even cosmetic mods could be unintentionally affecting systems that they weren't meant to due to changed location of files or whatever.

[Aklyon]

Sheesh. Firaxis really outdid themselves here. I definitely see what Firaxis meant when they said that War of the Chosen was originally intended to be XCOM 3. There's so much content. Almost unbelievable.

$40 worth of content?

[Chiefwaffles]

$40, actually. And yes.


The following is kind of sort of spoiler-y. Don't open it if you really care about going in blind or something like that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Every single mission I've played so far has been a new type, and I'm really liking the new mission types. They even have proper stealth missions now! With set patrols to avoid, stationed guards, and security levels. Not something I'd want to do for most of the game of course, but it's definitely a rarer type. The new Haven Defense mission is definitely something new, where you and NPC resistance fighter allies protect large groups of civilians at a time. And surprisingly, the NPC allies are surprisingly competent. The scripted mission introducing the factions

The new map types are awesome. The abandoned city type has a really nice atmosphere and general gameplay, along with the Lost element. The underground maps are pretty sweet. The xenoscaped wilderness is a nice occasional change, though not groundbreaking. They've also added new patches/tiles/whatevers to the existing map types which have shown to be really well done.

The Chosen are pretty fun so far. Though early game they seem to have quite a bit of insta-kill opportunities. But despite this, they're still manageable and provide a challenge that isn't nearly as frustrating as the Alien Hunters DLC. I really like their integration in the geoscape, too. With the occasional operation against you, their perma-dark event plans to stop, and more.

Covert operations are quite cool as well, though I've only played through one (the stealth mission) so far. They're basically the Covert Ops from Enemy Within scaled up by a ton. Multiple different missions usually with multiple personnel requirements that have a lot of purposes like rescuing captured soldiers or hunting a Chosen.
The Resistance card-system-thing is a nice addition and gives more avenues to the game. Though it's definitely not exactly groundbreaking. Same thing as the Culture thing in Civ 5/6, Stellaris' ascension stuff, etc. etc.. Though the bonuses are really nice.

The fatigue system is well done - not as punishing as Long War but still very present. I'm finding myself keeping a much larger roster of soldiers without feeling particularly frustrated about.
The Bond system is also a great system for putting more consideration into the choosing of soldiers.

The new classes are great. They're a bit more powerful than the standard XCOM trooper but I haven't unlocked the Training Center that upgrades standard troopers yet. But the strategies, oh my god. Each one (haven't tried the Templars yet) has a unique playstyle and their abilities give you a ton of choices.

I'm really enjoying the Lost too. I just finished a Supply Raid in an abandoned city where I had two Lost hordes fighting with me and two ADVENT pods and the Assassin Chosen. I love the three-way combat. The Lost harass ADVENT, and I have to consider both the Lost and ADVENT while fighting. The Headshot system (if you kill a lost you get a free action) makes the Lost usually pretty easy as long as you have ammo, but it's the interaction with the rest of the game that makes it.
The Sitrep system is pretty cool so far, though I've only seen it in play twice.

Performance improvements are quite frankly insane and almost unbelievable. I can't speak for stuff like FPS because that was never a problem, but the loading times are now practically nonexistent.

New soundtrack's cool. Definitely feels like a notable improvement over vanilla. Of course, the music still doesn't match Enemy Unknown's, but it definitely feels better.

There's a lot more, too. Really, I like this quote from the Rock Paper Shotgun review of the game:

I said right back at the start that ‘DLC’ desperately undersells War Of The Chosen, this fat and bursting sausage of turn-based splendour. I think I might have found ‘XCOM 3’ a mite more appropriate.

[umiman]

Anyone want to share characters?

Here's me, if you've ever wanted to kill me.

Can you guys share some peeps so I can kill you guys populate my game?

[Aklyon]

I'd need to actually redownload the game first to do that. Could throw some of my old squad at you though if I get around to it.

[umiman]

I'd need to actually redownload the game first to do that. Could throw some of my old squad at you though if I get around to it.

Does your squad include you?

[My Name is Immaterial]

Apparently the performance updates aren't coming to the base game. 

[Aklyon]

I'd need to actually redownload the game first to do that. Could throw some of my old squad at you though if I get around to it.

Does your squad include you?

It includes a guy with an obviously edited-in name I like to use for wizards, but I never made a dude for myself since they were doing just fine themselves.

[Mephansteras]

Apparently the performance updates aren't coming to the base game. 

Wow, that sucks. The load times are considerably improved in WotC. As in, if you want to see the stats after a mission you have to sit around and read them for a bit after you could have gone back to the Avenger.

[Rolan7]

Apparently the performance updates aren't coming to the base game. 

There are performance updates?
Fricken heck, that actually makes me upset.  My biggest issue with XCOM 2 from day 1 has been the absurd loading times, even from my SSD (which *really* doesn't have space, even before this newest bloat).  I've never appreciated high-detail textures, so XCOM2 looks about the same as 1 to me, but with more interesting mechanics and *minutes* spent loading...  Which, remember, caps-lock can *usually* bypass.  In other words, they could have optimized.

And now they finally have optimized, but not updated their product I preordered?  Hell with this.
(Aside, I love that people are STILL complaining about "paid mods" in Skyrim and FO4, and this will be forgotten in a week.  Maybe two.)

[My Name is Immaterial]

I figure I should actually link the article that I heard this from.
Apparently they made serious changes for this, but I'm still pretty frustrated. I was really looking forward to a decent FPS, without having to pay $40.

Eh. I guess I'll just wait for a sale.

[umiman]

It looks like it's because they revamped the engine and basically overhauled the entire game. They probably decided it's way too much work to try and fit all those things into the base game as well.

But yeah, performance is incredible in this expansion pack. Loading times on my SSD are about... 0.75 seconds. It loads before Central can even open his mouth. No exaggeration. Not to mention constant 60fps.

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I finished my first Lost mission. Shit was pretty intense. I also managed to unlock +1 to all assault rifle damage early on through a secret tech. Then I played a sewer level. Wasn't expecting an underground level at all.

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So far I don't know if I'd be so generous as to call this XCOM 3. It feels more like XCOM 2.4 to me. There's a bunch of stuff, but it's still basically the same game but they made it a bit more complicated (in a good way).