XCOM’s - Long War Mod

[JasonPratt]

Sounds daunting. I am having a hard enough time with Enemy Within on iron man mode!

Ditto. I don't know that I would even bother unless lasers are closer-to-codex (so to speak), i.e. weaker than plasma but never runs out of ammo (just needs an occasional cooldown recharge maybe via "reload".)

[JasonPratt]

OTOH, up to 12 soldiers on missions with the right upgrades...  :o

Incidentally, the install instructions do warn that the first attempt at playing may CTD: "Start the game once. You may receive a crash to desktop (CTD) error; this appears to be some aspect of the mod completing installation and then making nice with Steam. Start it again, and it should run."

I don't understand how turning off Steam updates for EW doesn't prevent patches from loading anyway (thus breaking the LW mod).  ??? ??? ??? ???

This looks helpful for players wanting the new hotness but not the crazy levels of hardness: "Q: Okay, I get it; it's hard. But I'm a casual player without a ton of time or Grognard levels of strategery. What starting settings would you recommend?A: Play normal difficulty with only the Not-So-Long-War and Cinematic Mode Second Wave options activated. This is probably somewhere close to vanilla classic levels of difficulty and duration."

This looks helpful, too: "Many, many game settings are contained in the file XEWConfigDefaultGameCore.ini, which can be edited with a text editor, and your changes will take effect the next time you load the mod (no other changes are necessary!). In-game text is in INT files in the localilzation folder. If it's not in either of those files, you'll probably have to make hex changes to the game's *.upk files, which is considerably more complicated."

[Rayfer]

"The easiest mode will have you screaming for mercy and cursing the gods that you ever became a gamer."  That quote alone is enough for me to say thanks but no thanks. The vanilla game is hard enough as is for me.

[dukedroklar]

I'm guessing since it's a mod you could changes to numbers if you wanted? I don't even like the thought of fighting 50 aliens in XCOM!

No, that is the easiest setting playing on "cinematic mode". Keep in mind that is on the larger transport type ships. On small and med sized saucer landings you'll encounter roughly 15-18 aliens. Most abduction missions have 15-18 with the exception of missions that say "swarming" which have 20-25 or so.

The mod is different in the regard that you are not expected to accept all missions and are certainly not expected to win all missions. It is designed to be a long back and forth war where our victories are so much sweeter due to the times you had to retreat with your tail between your legs. The first time I played and encountered a "swarming" terror mission and went in not knowing I was woefully unprepared. I lost half my squad in the first couple rounds and the tried to withdraw. By the time we made it out only 2-3 of my squad survived. I should not have went in the first place but was still of the old xcom mentality.

Losing countries is not that important since you can regain them by doing alien base assaults in lost countries to "liberate" them and return them to the fold so to speak. It's all part of the back and forth and soldiers are far more valuable than a country.

The mod contains hidden routines working in the background of what the aliens overall war strategy is and each mission or saucer landing has an actual purpose for them. They may be weakening a country for eventual takeover or more often than not they are gathering resources to fuel their research and improvements of their soldiers.

Sounds daunting. I am having a hard enough time with Enemy Within on iron man mode!

I played the hell out of EU and EW beating them both eventually on classic ironman but this is far harder than that but also far better imo.

Ditto. I don't know that I would even bother unless lasers are closer-to-codex (so to speak), i.e. weaker than plasma but never runs out of ammo (just needs an occasional cooldown recharge maybe via "reload".)

Lasers are much better than vanilla and give substantial aim enhancement (don't recall if vanilla gives +aim on lasers). They will be a mainstay weapon for far longer than in vanilla and actually serve as a viable and desirable upgrade. I bypass gauss weapons simply because the slight damage increase doesn't justify the loss of the aim bonus of lasers and the lasers have foundry projects to improve them substantially keeping them viable even longer. I only ditch the lasers as soon as I can research and produce pulse lasers which merits losing the aim bonus of normal lasers.

Everything has ammo including side arms which now include single burst sawed off shotguns, little mac 10 type machine pistols  and of course pistols, each with pros and cons to offset the differences between them. There are so many new pieces of equipment you have to see it to believe it. For example, "large mags" gives you extra ammo at the cost of an equipment slot. Especially important item no infantry can leave home without since their starting skill is two shots per turn... burns ammo quickly but makes them a real force multiplier for your squad.

As JasonPratt pointed out, turning on the "not so longwar" option will tone down the number of alien encounters and speed up things like research. Without it everything takes a much longer time and you will encounter far more alien incursions per month.

[Windigo]

The LW Mod [B14] rocks. Its a rollercoaster.

I hate this mod so much... my soldiers are falling like flies. "Sydney I am sorry, I should have ordered you into full cover instead of partial cover."
I love this mod so much... those bastard aliens are getting it now! Eat my laser bursts.
I hate this mod so much...  aliens regen 3+ health per turn? EXALT now throw gernades/shoot rockets at the drop of the hat?
I love this mod so much... 

Seriously, I have been on this mod for weeks now, as frustrating as it can be, the play is very rewarding.

[Capn Darwin]

Beta 15, Camo texture mod,  date night Vallen mod and I'm enjoying the heck out of Long War. Also worth checking out Beaglerush on Twitch with his Tuesday Long War broadcasts. He is fun to listen to and knows the game.

[Nefaro]

Nice avatar Windi.   :)

[Windigo]

Beta 15, Camo texture mod,  date night Vallen mod and I'm enjoying the heck out of Long War. Also worth checking out Beaglerush on Twitch with his Tuesday Long War broadcasts. He is fun to listen to and knows the game.

I know I am into a game when I watch game feeds from youtube.

[KyzBP]

This deserves to be Necroed.  I can't believe I just now started playing this.  This is the first game in a long, long time the begs for "One more mission."  I am digging everything about this!