Long War mod discussion

[johnnylump]

I forgot, the other very nice thing is that there is only ONE city where the Alien abductions happen instead of the THREE. So instead of selecting from one of the 3 simultaneous abduction spots, you just go to the place of the abduction.

 

Thank you for the feedback, and glad you are enjoying it! You seem to be hitting all the things I was going for, a longer, more sandbox-like game.

 

The one-abduction thing is about as close as we can get to simulating multiple Skyrangers.

 

The funny thing is, I haven't done much to change soldier panic during battles. All I've done is made very, very unlikely the troops will shoot (friendlies or enemies); instead they almost always run to cover and hunker down. The rest (chain panic, etc) is the vanilla game engine doing its thing.

 

I suspect it may be more noticeable in this mod because while your troops would often shoot each other when panicked in vanilla, they would often shoot the aliens as well, sometimes ending the current skirmish with a kill and giving everyone a breather (chance to come out of panic, reload). Now your guys almost always just hide. It can get particularly nasty when Mutons come along and do their intimidate ability, as I'm experiencing in my current playthrough.

[drake8888]

The one thing I do like about panic (which is the way I would think Panic would work in real life), is that about 90% of the time the soldiers first panic, then find some cover and then hunker down. The other 10% of the time they wig out and start shooting things.

 

Very nicely done.

 

Last night I had 3 troopers all panic one turn after another and an Outsider, came up and assassinated each in turn. :(

 

The Outsider ran up to each panic/hunker down trooper and shot them each in the head.

 

Speaking of the Outsiders, what did you do to make them so aggressive? They really come after you now. I did not see that in my previous 2 play throughs. (this time on Classic the other 2 were on Normal).

[johnnylump]

The one thing I do like about panic (which is the way I would think Panic would work in real life), is that about 90% of the time the soldiers first panic, then find some cover and then hunker down. The other 10% of the time they wig out and start shooting things.

 

Very nicely done.

 

Last night I had 3 troopers all panic one turn after another and an Outsider, came up and assassinated each in turn. :(

 

The Outsider ran up to each panic/hunker down trooper and shot them each in the head.

 

Speaking of the Outsiders, what did you do to make them so aggressive? They really come after you now. I did not see that in my previous 2 play throughs. (this time on Classic the other 2 were on Normal).

 

I'm not sure if they behave differently between Normal and Classic, but it's possible (I didn't change any settings in this regard, but there may be something in vanilla). Only thing I changed on them was give them 10 hit points and make them sort of a mini-boss for inexperienced squads. I suspect that they usually die before getting a turn in most vanilla games (b/c of low hit points), now they really go for the throat.

[drake8888]

I like the 10 hitpoints for the Outsiders, it really does make them tough. As I said earlier, they really act like terminators now. They come right after you...actually, the seem to act like the Chryssalids. Very cool and very scary...

 

I don't have the ArcThrower yet....I can only imagine how many rookies are going to die trying to capture an Outsider...hehehe

[johnnylump]

Version 1.03 is up!

 

Overhauled interceptor combat; it's not nearly as deterministic now.

[MrMoe777]

Your mod sounds very interesting, but when theres only 1 abduction mission at a the time isnt the panic level system pretty obsolete? Given that you not botch a mission (should be doable with the slower progression)

[johnnylump]

Your mod sounds very interesting, but when theres only 1 abduction mission at a the time isnt the panic level system pretty obsolete? Given that you not botch a mission (should be doable with the slower progression)

 

It's true panic ramps up more slowly via abductions, but

1) Abductions are harder with more aliens, and you're more likely to lose sometimes.

2) Terror missions are monthly instead of every other month.

3) Several ways to control panic are nerfed.

 

I'm not sure, but I suspect it's more likely you'll lose the game by getting all your veteran fighters killed mid or late game, and then be unable to win abduction missions, rather than the "panic clock" running out on you.

[drake8888]

I am in the middle of May right now in my playthrough. Lost around 5 soldiers in April, again I had 11 encounters with the aliens.

 

The balance between what money you have and what to buy is very tricky. My guys still have regular rifles, combat vests and we are working on Carapace armor. The hard part is that we are now coming up against Mutons.

 

I think I did read a previous post by JohnnyLump that you are working on increasing intercepters to 5 now (instead of a max of 4). This would certainly be needed because with so many encounters each month, it is better to have your intercepter destroyed than being repaired for 28 days. I actually had to release one that was very badly damaged because I needed to have at least 1 active to fight whatever showed up (yes all 4 were damaged). Releasing fighters or letting them be destroyed costs extra $$$ but you always need to have 1 ready because a UFO shows up every 3-5 days.

 

Otherwise, very fun!!!

[johnnylump]

I am in the middle of May right now in my playthrough. Lost around 5 soldiers in April, again I had 11 encounters with the aliens.

 

The balance between what money you have and what to buy is very tricky. My guys still have regular rifles, combat vests and we are working on Carapace armor. The hard part is that we are now coming up against Mutons.

 

I think I did read a previous post by JohnnyLump that you are working on increasing intercepters to 5 now (instead of a max of 4). This would certainly be needed because with so many encounters each month, it is better to have your intercepter destroyed than being repaired for 28 days. I actually had to release one that was very badly damaged because I needed to have at least 1 active to fight whatever showed up (yes all 4 were damaged). Releasing fighters or letting them be destroyed costs extra $$$ but you always need to have 1 ready because a UFO shows up every 3-5 days.

 

Otherwise, very fun!!!

 

Thanks for the continuing feedback. For now, it looks like more than 4 interceptors per continent are impossible to do cleanly (see the Editing UI thread if you want the gory details). But risking not having enough interceptors to face all the UFOs is meant to be part of the challenge, as, without the multiple abduction mechanic, it's one of the ways the aliens still have to beat you via increasing panic. So keep replacement satellites on hand and don't expect to get every UFO (or, if you do, plan to lag somewhere else because you're paying for so many interceptors). I may make some adjustments in future releases if it's just too capricious.

[Xaxyx]

Thanks for making this mod. I am *tremendously* enjoying the game again.

 

I noticed a peculiar aberration. When I first completed Sectoid Autopsy, I was permitted to construct Uplink Targetting (Aim) modules for $20 each (I had 10 engineers at the time). After completing a workshop (taking me to 15 engineers) the cost was then listed as $25. My expectation was that the price would go down. I'm not certain, admittedly, whether this is a native bug to XCOM:EU or something introduced in your mod. Just figured I'd bring it to your attention.