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[Urist Imiknorris]

2c. Before lasers. In April I've usually got battle rifles on most of my troops, and Steady Weapon is my default action when there's no contact.

[BFEL]

So yeah, just got an idea for a way to make a "Long War Lite" type thing, might be spectacular, might crash the game immediately.

Will keep posted once steam redownloads all my things.

[timferius]

I'm finding I'm often using steady aim instead of over-watch when there's no aliens in range. With an average to hit aliens in cover of 20-30 percent at longer ranges, that boost is a real boon. 

[forsaken1111]

Does anyone know why the long war mod sometimes just freezes for 10 seconds or so between turns when autosaving? Sometimes it doesn't, mostly it does.

[scriver]

Very likely large save games and save game... I forget what it's called when you do the thing to files that make them take up lesser space.

[forsaken1111]

Very likely large save games and save game... I forget what it's called when you do the thing to files that make them take up lesser space.

This happens at the very beginning, in the very first mission. And sometimes DOESN'T happen. I'd think it it were down to save game size it would be consistent?

[BFEL]

Yeah, that thing I mentioned? Literally did nothing.
For the curious I was hoping replacing the vanilla GameCore.Configs with the LW version would replicate things like the new classes and items, but alas, nope.

Currently just trying to get sniper squaddies to take squadsight instead of headshot like in LW and hopefully expanding the psionics tree in a LW fashion. Anything else (and possibly these things) is just beyond me now.

[puke]

If you are trying to copy the extra classes and items, a better question is what parts of LW do you not want? 

I think the LW team used an Unreal Engine development kit to decompile some of the game files and used hex editors to directly hack the EXE.  It's not really something you can take apart as an amateur.

You can edit the config files though, they're pretty well documented. 

To shorten the game:  You can play Dyanmic War with any sort of multiplier you want, which speeds up the campaign game and reduces (or increases) various resource requirements appropriately. 

To tweak classes: perk trees are well documented in there, you can totally edit what each class gets at each level.  Make your guys a bunch of close-encounters / ITZ monsters, if you want.

[BFEL]

Ok, so vanilla Xcom is pretty much literally unmoddable without said tools. Config editing? Literally does nothing. Pretty sure I could full on delete the file and have the game run fine.

As for what I don't like about LW, basically the LW devs massively improved every area of STRATEGIC gameplay, but then they said "Lets remove all difficulties but Impossible, because clearly what everyone wants is to reload literally every move they make until they make one that doesn't hand the aliens an instawin in tactical."

I mean, I CAN do okay-ish in it, but I just don't find that level of pure fuckery fun in any way shape or form. I love everything about LW until I actually have to PLAY IT, and then it just turns into a slogfest, which a game shouldn't do.

[umiman]

?

LW's normal and classic difficulty isn't even remotely close to vanilla's impossible. Sure there's funny moments like outsiders having 10hp and regenerating but it's a problem easily solved with rockets or run n' gun assaults or whatever. Or maybe you're referring to how some things like super early battleships or countries mysteriously leaving the program are too hard? As far as I know you're not even supposed to try and fight those. Hell, I'm playing a normal campaign right now and it's been 5 months and I haven't lost a single person.

I used to think this mod was brutally difficult because when I played there was a bug that made all your soldiers be permanently fatigued. Now that I'm playing again and that bug doesn't exist it's a frigging cakewalk.

I'll probably be restarting this campaign on classic or impossible. I shouldn't have believed this:

Q: I'm fairly new to XCom. What difficulty should I start with?
A: Normal.

Q: I'm an XCOM veteran. What difficulty should I start with?
A: Normal.

[scrdest]

The problem is, you are *not* getting Run and Gun Assaults or Rocketeers from day one. You do get 10 HP regenerating Outsiders from day one. And on default settings (well, Aiming Angles), trying to take on a small UFO with early game squads can only be summed up as 'Lolnope'. Sectoids get +1 health after a couple days without warning, so it's not like they couldn't bump it up after the player has at least a couple Specialists in rotation.

[umiman]

You can totally get run and gun assaults on day one. Right after finishing the first mission which you have to win. It's a level 1 skill. Same with rockets.

[scrdest]

You can totally get run and gun assaults on day one. Right after finishing the first mission which you have to win. It's a level 1 skill. Same with rockets.

Not guaranteed - Praise Random Number God. You simply don't have the opportunity to train enough assaults to have one on hand for the first UFO reliably.

[scriver]

You're guaranteed one of each class for the first four recruits, and I don't think I've ever gotten less than four level ups on the first mission in Long War.

[Mephansteras]

You can totally get run and gun assaults on day one. Right after finishing the first mission which you have to win. It's a level 1 skill. Same with rockets.

Not guaranteed - Praise Random Number God. You simply don't have the opportunity to train enough assaults to have one on hand for the first UFO reliably.

But you do have flashbangs. And smoke grenades. I've taken out plenty of Outsiders with a few rookies and flashbangs. You can also give Engineers and Scouts shotguns. Or you can use Gunners, a machine gun at close range is nearly as effective. And a suppressed Outsider is pretty easy to take out since you can freely move the rookies around to flank/flashbang.

It's all about using the tools you have available and recognizing that the Outsider is by far the biggest threat in any early game UFO and making sure you save resources to take it out.