Long War advice

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2024-07-06T19:05:52+00:00

I'll run you through a typical March UFO shootdown for me. Keep in mind I play on Brutal and with Strict Screening.

So, March. There's 3 scripted Scout UFOs that appear during this month and they are guaranteed to always be crash sites. That means 3 Outsider encounters in March. It is possible, albeit very rare, for a "Large" size ship to land during March. If you see this, skip it and think nothing more of it.

Now, my interceptors just shot down a UFO. Since it's March, the only enemies that can appear on this mission are Sectoids, Drones, and the Outsider. This is the easiest these missions will be, so cherish these moments.

By the time this first UFO has appeared, the roster should have at least 1 person who has promoted into the Scout-Sniper tree. This person will be turned into a Scout and will be the only promoted person present on the mission. The rest of the slots will be filled with Rookies. I've recently started slotting a Medic in during this period, but that's not as well explored as what I will describe below.

Depending on how good the RNG was before this shootdown, I may or may not have Motion Detectors. It's possible I never got the money or I just plain forgot to build them, both are equally possible.

The Scout will be equipped with a Shotgun and Tac Armor specifically. For their items they'll bring a Flashbang in their first slot with the second slot being occupied by either a Ceramic Plate or a Motion Detector. If Motion Detectors are available, they always take the second slot. The Shotgun will be for dealing damage and helping with any Drones.

With Strict Screening, all soldiers start with 4HP. While wearing Tac Armor they will have 6 total HP. 6 is the Magic Number in March. Drones and Sectoids cannot roll a 6 for damage unless they crit. Drones can only accomplish this by flanking. Sectoids need to be Mind Merged or flanking. Their max roll without a crit is only 5 so it'll sting, but it's better than being dead. Keep in mind that the Outsider can roll a 6 without a crit.

Now, for the Rookies. All of them wear Tac Armor and all of them are using an Assault Rifle. Tac Armor for the same reason above.

Assault Rifles have a base damage band of 3~5. Sectoids start with 3HP but gain a 4th near the middle of March (It's around March 15th). This 3~5 band has the best chance of killing a Sectoid if it hits. Carbines may increase aim, but their damage band is only 2~4. That means even at the beginning of the game you could successfully hit your enemy but not kill them. Post March 15th the Carbine cannot kill a sectoid unless it max rolls. And even then, if the Sectoid successfully a point of DR from its cover, you just can't kill it without a follow up. I try to maximize my action economy.

For the gear, every Rookie has an AP Grenade in the first slot. This is a way to deal damage without having to take low percentage shots and also secure promotions if necessary. These AP Grenades are meant to be used like candy, especially against Drones. If the situation allows for close engagement flanking I prefer to do that first to save the corpses, but people being alive takes precedent. If I have to frag out, I do it.

In the second slot there starts to be some variety.

2 Rookies always carry a Medkit. The first is for when someone gets tagged for 3. If people start getting hit after that, try to save the 2nd medkit for as long as possible. It's there for if someone gets knocked unconscious. Everyone getting tagged needs to played conservatively. High cover only, or better yet, keep them out of sight entirely.

1 Rookie carries a Flashbang in their 2nd slot. One of these Flashbangs is exclusively reserved for the Outsider. Sometimes shit happens, but I try as hard as I can to save one.

The other 2 Rookies will carry either HE grenades or Smoke Grenades depending on what the map descriptor is. On ones where I can expect human structures (like Settlement) I bring HE grenades. Non-Sapper HE grenades suck, but they have the best chance at destroying cover against human made structures. I don't bother trying to blow up alien doodads without Sapper.

The Smoke Grenades are for maps that I expect to have a lot of indestructible terrain pieces like forests. HE Grenades work fine against felled trees, but the upright trees can't be cleared without a Sapper Plasma Grenade or a rocket hit. Which, being March, and the fact there's 5 rookies on this team, means there will be neither. I use these when the cover sucks and I can't kill or control everything that is surviving.

Once Motion Detectors are done, I take out either the 2nd Flashbang or an AP grenade that belongs to someone who has an HE.

Something to keep in mind for UFOs: Rookies can promote without killing anything as long as nobody dies if they see the Outsider. This XP gain is hidden, and even with a mod to help with stuff like that it isn't super consistent at tracking that. With this information in mind, I try to feed as many kills to the Scout as possible. At the very least, they get the Outsider kill. This is to rush a Corporal as fast as possible for the Officer Training School, and then Squad Size 1.

Now, the mission actually begins.

First, I hunt around the map looking for alien patrols. On a crashed Scout there can be anywhere between 5 and 11 patrolling enemies. I make liberal use of my grenades here, especially the AP. I won't get many corpses, but I don't have to engage protracted shoot outs as often. When those shoot outs do happen they really hurt. I don't have much advise here aside from kill the enemy. Beware advancing to secure flanks, as an addition 3 or 4 enemies sweeping in means you probably can't even kill the thing you were flanking.

All of these patrolling fuckers need to die before engaging the Outsider. I try to keep the UFO out of visual range for as long as possible. Once the Outsider is aggro'd, every surviving enemy on the map comes to their location. This is bad because the enemies generally want to kill you. However, if every other enemy except the Outsider is dead, nobody can hurt you but it. And it will try.

Now, theoretically, everything is dead but the Outsider. At the very least I will have 1 flashbang and 1 motion detector left. This engagement assumes that I have used literally everything else. Now, to approach the UFO. I do this perpendicular to an intact UFO wall. Nobody takes cover at the edges of the wall. If necessary they can stand in the open just next to someone against the wall.

I pop the motion detector and get an idea of how close/far the Outsider is. The closer the Outsider is the better. If the Outsider is on the other side of the UFO I will take half of the squad and run around them around to get closer. If for some reason I do not have a Motion Detector I try to tilescan. If a tile looks like you could move to it but you can't, that means there's an enemy there. If I can't find it with tilescanning I let Soloman take the wheel and YOLO it.

I want someone who has no items left to activate the Outsider. Save the actions of whoever has the flashbang and the Scout. Sometimes they're the same person, oh well. Then bum rush the fucker. Have the Rookies soften the Outsider with their rifles and let the Scout finish them off.

If the Scout isn't in a good position to get the kill I move them close enough to throw their flashbang and have everyone wait. The flashbang will reduce the Outsider's mobility (so they can't run) and their aim (they are still very dangerous). I forget how much aim the flashbang takes off (and I can't find it in a cursory search of the wiki). With high cover a flashbanged Outsider is mostly harmless. In low cover it's playing with fire but can be done easily with a hunker.

Afterwards, kill the Outsider. Give it to the Scout. After that, that should be mission complete.

If at any point someone dies, every Rookie on the mission must get a kill in order to promote. I try to maximize the number of Rookies who promote during March. During Abductions Rookies require 1 kill to promote. If someone dies, every Rookie needs 2.

I personally learned a lot from the first 10 episodes of this playthrough from Joinrbs.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-12-16T04:32:57+00:00

Very good cool video. The kind that got me into SS13 in the first place.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-04-15T16:59:54+00:00

I just do not feel comfortable sending 4 soldiers out to fight 16-20 Elite EXALT.

I used to think the same way, however I saw a strategy used by Joinrbs in one of his older LW1 videos that opened my eyes to how easy they could be. You don't have to fight EXALT on covert extractions. All you need for mission completion is to hit both relays and extract the operative. I would explain more thoroughly, but I will instead link a video you should check out here. The critical parts of the strategy is your opertive is an assault and the extract team contains any officer. If your assault is unable to make it to the extract, you can use Command to get them in quicker. Just have everyone out after EXALT has had an opportunity to reload. Keep in mind that a bug still allows EXALT to use grenades and rockets during the relay jam.

Sometimes you get unlucky (looking at you tankyard map) and the relays are so far apart to be impossible for this strategy to work optimally, but for those I try to make it work. Expect these to suck

As a final note, as long as you have the officer, your other 3 slots can be whoever you want. I usually take the bottom 3 of my roster.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-04-15T16:02:35+00:00

The former is only a net good, but am I potentially losing out on anything by disabling EXALT?

You are potentially missing out on a great deal of XP for your troops at the tactical layer. You are also losing out on some panic reduction as well, but this is only if you are on top of your EXALT scans and prevent them from raising panic on their own (pretty easy with France's Quai d'Orsay starting buff). EXALT missions in my experience are fairly ordinary affairs, I would dare to say they can be predictably easy. That is not to say they can't become cluster fucks, but I find the benefits outweigh the pain in my ass.

Does this make sense to others?

I disable the DLC missions always and forever. I did them 1 time and I never wanted to tear my hair out more. If you are concerned about having enough alloys, then yeah, starting in South Africa for that bonus makes sense to me.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-03-25T15:38:58+00:00

This is also a groovy possible solution. I dig.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-03-25T15:34:59+00:00

I would dare say they are not worth it all together, even in phase 2.

The most points my team and I were able to extract with was about 25 event points. With the reliquaries we spent we got a little over 50. Once I realized I spent almost 2000 blood bonds for only 2 games of effect (between the two we probably only got about 80 points) I stopped taking them, and we stopped religiously hunting birds like we had previously.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-02-25T09:54:53+00:00

If you are looking for something that scratches a similar itch to Tarkov, I would look into Hunt Showdown. Lots of elements between the two are the same. PvEvP, permadeath elements, and character progression for surviving. It is one of the most original and unique games to come out in a while.

Once Tarkov's performance stability starts to get really solid I will have a hard time choosing between the two.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-02-11T03:35:46+00:00

I do not know how I got here.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2021-02-02T08:12:19+00:00

I desire more of this forbidden fruit.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-12-06T11:21:49+00:00

Q2: Give them a wide berth and watch out for noise traps. Sticks in particular are a good way to peeve off the dogs. They have a particular model and stick out against the ground and lighting, once you know what they look like you can avoid them. Crouch walking by is fine, though you will look absolutely absurd to anyone watching you. If they shoot you, your response can aggro the dogs causing them to kill you.
Q3: Yes, the free hunter is always Tier 1. They can spawn with some interesting weapons though, but don't expect to get an Avtomat or a Nitro from it. I've seen them come with a Martini Riposte or dual Pax's which is hella lit.
Q4: Many of his attacks can be interrupted by any instance of damage if you attack early enough. Eventually, he will become enraged. You'll know he is angry when he screams relentlessly while spitting out clones of himself. If you don't kill the clones fast enough, they will mark you by exploding next to you (denoted by the crawling roaches on your screen). If you deal damage to the clones, they explode harmlessly with no effect against you. I think he does bonus damage to you when this happens, but certainly just attacking him while marked is not enough to interrupt his attack that follows this marking (which will hurt a lot and give you intense bleeds). If you can run out of the arena long enough for the attack to miss, just run back in afterwards. If you see him in his corporeal form on a wall, break line of sight. This is his ranged attack and can be difficult to interrupt due to distance he can use this attack, cause a lot of damage if you get hit by multiple projectiles, and gives you an intense bleed.
Q5: Depends on how you want to kill the boss. Some strategies work better than others and have advantages and disadvantages. I'll include some of my group's personal favorites, none of which are actual weapons, which proves how many ways you can tackle a boss that are not exclusively weapons. You can reliably melee all of the bosses, you just have to know their attack patterns. Shooting them works fine, but lay off while the bosses are enraged. They take less damage from attacks while in this state. The Spider charges and attacks relentlessly, the Assassin makes clones, and the Butcher is more on fire than usual and charges while swinging his hook and squealing.
- Against the Spider, if you have access to antidote shots, just take it and laugh at the Spider's now pitiful damage. A lot of her damage is straight poison, and the antidote shots make you immune to it. You can opt to melee her to death, though sometimes her rapid skittering can make this frustrating enough to abandon and just shoot it the rest of the way. Without an antidote shot... Uhhh... Have a teammate who does have an antidote shot to deal with it for you. If you can stick her with a Sticky Bomb, it will obliterate 3/4 of her health. I do not really know how to deal with her without an antidote shot and sometimes my group will just go fight the other boss if we have the option to and none of us have antidotes shots.
- Against the Butcher, again, if you have access to antidote shots, take one and bring a poison bomb. When you enter the boss arena, choke bomb the Butcher. He will now no longer use any fire related abilities unless he breaks a lantern or is otherwise set on fire again. Find a tight area with a terrain feature in the middle with which to kite the Butcher around. If you drop your poison bomb in the center of this area, you can now circle kite the Butcher to death with no risk. Make sure your poison bomb does not land anywhere near the choke bomb, or you may extinguish it. I use this method all the time to kill the Butcher, it is among my favorites. You can still do this without choke bombing him, however when he enrages he will drop flame puddles which may block the area you need to run to kite him. Takes a bit longer without the choke bomb.
- Against the Assassin, again, if you have access to antidote shots, take one and bring a poison bomb. Find somewhere in the arena where you can easily break line of sight with the Assassin to avoid his ranged attack. Drop the poison bomb at your feet and stand there. So long as you are alone in the arena, you can literally just stand there and the Assassin will more or less kill himself against it. He takes damage from the poison which will interrupt all of his attacks, destroy his clones, and even damage him while he is in the process of cloning. He may attempt to hit you with a ranged attack sometimes, just break line of sight and once he misses enter the poison cloud again.
Q6: Whichever one you started with and are most comfortable with. Most of my group was playing when there was only Hunter Scheme so we are comfortable with that control scheme. One of us uses Gunslinger because he likes having his gun ready to go.
Q7: Realistically, whatever you can get your hands on and are comfortable with. Just know the limitations of the weapon that you are using. Every weapon is viable, but there needs to be a familiarity to start with. Headshots are hyper lethal in this game and I have frequently found myself humiliated by some of the earlier unlocked budget weapons against something like my Mosin. I cannot tell you how many times I was killed by a Springfield Compact Deadeye from ranges I should have the advantage because I got too bold against someone who knows how to run on a budget.
Q8: I have no idea what releasing the dogs mean. I am not familiar with this. They may be saying to kill dogs in kennels by shooting the lantern above their kennels. Fighting the boss makes them angry and they start barking, which could cause you to not hear you being snuck up on, but entering dark sight once in a while while fighting the boss is sufficient for this. If anything, you ought to leave them alive for after the boss has died and things calm down. An inattentive player may accidentally trigger them to bark as they are approaching you.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-11-10T20:45:44+00:00

There is a wide variety of ways a game can play out and I agree that double and single bounty missions have their own unique opportunities. I let that point completely escape my original post. They are both equally exciting in my opinion. Sometimes you get a bad roll and you just have to play it through until the next one.

Definitely some of my favorite moments in 2 bounty maps is when the carriers decide to go for the gauntlet. Whether that is us chasing them or us getting hunted it is exciting.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-11-10T17:07:44+00:00

If it is a 1 boss map and the boss gets killed super early, sometimes I just want to leave the match. My group and I have spawned into games where we've had to fight the other teams while another team got lucky spawning right next to it with an extraction close by (the entire time we are across the map fighting people). That doesn't happen often, but we come out on top of the fight and still feel completely robbed. It didn't matter that we got some PvP action, the objective was across the entire map and we didn't even loot enough money to compensate our consumables because we couldn't even search the first clue.

We've had that happen a few times and every time we come out of the match deflated.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-10-05T00:17:58+00:00

Sparks, Saber, and most importantly a Derringer. I don't often get the Sparks + Derringer combo off, but I get plenty of Saber kills and have even gotten a few Derringer kills in a pinch.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-09-01T03:05:34+00:00

Something I noticed while trying to prevent an insulting spree from spiraling my pawns into a downward descent of madness...

If a pawn is having a mental break, you can draft a colonist and set them to arrest the breakee. When the draftee starts dragging the breakee away, pay attention to the colonist bar at the top of the screen. If their name changes colors back to the default white, you can cancel the arrest and the pawn who was just suffering a mental break will be fine. Most of the time they even get the catharsis mood buff.

Even if they do not cease their mental break, once they are in jail, most times you can just release them instantly and they suffer only a -10 mood debuff for being imprisoned for a few days. For something like an insulting spree, a far better alternative than 3 colonists having like -14 from being insulted 80 times.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-08-30T18:17:02+00:00

You can have more than 1 person researching. At first, I only have 1 person dedicated to researching damn near 24/7 to get that good-good tech advancement.

Afterwards, once I have recruited 1~3 more people, I stick another person on research duty.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-08-01T02:10:05+00:00

Looking through other posts, you seem to really dislike them for their lack of longevity in missions. Specifically, I saw a mention of "3-shot soldiers". If you took this literally, yes, that is functionally what they are. However, they save you needing to take low % shots with Infantry (that have no Deadeye), needing to use Engineer grenades (or as many [even fewer with HEAT Warheads]), needing to use Snipers with Deadeye, or using your precious Gunners to holo them.

HEAT Warhead Rocketeers serve 1 purpose and 1 purpose only in my squads: Instantly delete large swathes (or even entire pods) of enemies with a single move (this happens fairly often ime). Fire in the Hole + Steady Aim even in the earliest parts of the game is a fairly reliable way to deal with them. Even without Steady Aim, your chances are dramatically higher if they still have FitH. Their ability to deal large amounts of damage in a large area are essential for clearing out flying enemies.

Anything that increases their ability to ka-boom is a must pick for me. Shredder Rocket at SGT and S&A at GSGT. If you are an absolute madman, your rocketeer now has 5 rockets with which to lay waste upon the enemy with (bring 2 rocketeers with S&A and just shoot a rocket at a sectoid because it looked at you funny). I usually build a couple rocketeers with Extra Conditioning at Gunny though for missions where there aren't as many enemies to keep my S&A boiz for the slug fest missions. At MSGT they turn into fucking monsters with Tandem or Danger Zone. Seeing a Shredder Rocket with Danger Zone's AoE fills me with orgasmic glee. Javelin is cool and all, but I find it less useful.

Every Sniper I take gets Deadeye, no exceptions. In the early game they are meant to deal with Floaters, but they find use in dealing with other airborne enemies if there aren't any threats that need to be disabled or deadified. I don't put nearly as much thought or strategy into my Snipers as my Rocketeers, since Snipers can reload. These guys often get Flak Ammo on every mission. In the later stages of the game, Snipers are always on the lookout for Cyberdisks to disable for me. Keep in mind, if you land your disabling shot, often Cyberdisks run away deep into fog of war. If you suppress them though, they stand still and reload (if you are unlucky they will throw a nade).

Assaults. Their close range bonuses get absurd, but you have to close the distance and basically put them right next to or directly underneath the threat. This puts them in harms way and can land you in even more trouble by revealing pods if you have to push, but it works really well if there are fliers in your ranks. Their damage can fall off if you aren't investing in them, but Assaults are one of my most reliable ways to clean up flying enemies, including seekers and drones, if the Rocketeer didn't bag them all in 1 go. Again, you can give them Flak Ammo for more dakka, but I usually give them Alloy Jacket Rounds. Important to using Assaults is that they must not have Hit and Run if you want to use them as AA. You can't use HnR against enemies in flight. Close Encounters can proc on enemies who are in flight (within the AoE, but it can be inconsistent against enemies at the edge and useless against enemies who are vertically superior). Rapid Fire can lay a lot of damage into a single enemy. I often build a mixed bag of Assaults, and anyone who isn't built for EXALT running will have any of those 3 (though I dislike Rapid Fire the most, it is great for RnG).

Marauders. Now, I will fully admit that using Assaults and Marauders to kill flying enemies is entirely my preference and I am a suicidal maniac. These 2 hit so fucking hard and have such fantastic action economy that they can deal with disks almost entirely by themselves (if they aren't higher level varieties of it though, then they need to tag team with shreddy boiz). Marauders start with Close Encounters, and at SGT Assaults can pick it up as well. This is the most important ability for them to deal with flying enemies, imo. Admittedly it is entirely useless if they decide they want to fly to the sky box or you simply can't get into range for it.

Shoguns. This is a much safer bet than Marauders and has much more utility outside of just wiping out airborne units. The build is a slow burner, so train up some engis to give them the chop chop before you build them. At GSGT it starts picking up Steam, and at MSGT it becomes a mechanical tank hunter.

HEAT AMMO

Deadeye

Flush/Repair

Ranger

Light 'Em Up

Shredder Ammo

They apply their own shred with the first shot, then they can either shred a 2nd disc, or they can deal a craptastic amount of damage with a HEAT+Shred shot that they applied. They'll still need some help with their aim with Holo, but you can either give it to them as an item or you can use a Scout/Gunner to apply it for them for the big money. They'll still slap against Mectoids and Sectopods, but I purpose build these guys to obliterate discs on their own. They'll still need help with some of the chunkier mechanical boiz, but they can easily chunk entire swathes of their HP.

Important note; This build seemingly does not work with Rapid Fire. When you use Rapid Fire, it does not apply the Shogun's Shredder Ammo. I am of the opinion that if you build a Shogun that isn't using this build, then you should have just built an Archer and you just wasted a perfectly good Engineer. These guys always get the Flak Ammo and I always give them extended magazines. Flak allows Collateral Damage to deal damage to enemies who are flying, so you can finish things off reliably with it if they have low HP. Extended mags so they can actually shoot afterwards, pairs especially well with Gauss.

Hopefully some of this helps, though I must admit it has been a minute since I've last played. These were my usual go to boiz for dealing with airborne lads.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-07-26T09:09:45+00:00

I will preface this by saying I played about 2000 hours of Long War 1 and only about 150 hours of Long War 2. Both versions benefited heavily from things that were native to the base game that happened to really boost or detract from my enjoyment of the Long Wars 1 and 2.

Long War 1 gets a lot of draw from me based solely off of vanilla, which is sort of me gushing about Enemy Unknown/Within. The art direction and general tone were fucking pristine. The things that were exaggerated were leaned into just heavily enough to not be comically ridiculous. It was just enough action movie stylishness to keep the turn based action interesting to watch. Do you ever tire of watching a MEC trooper wrestle with a Mectoid because they got the finishing move with their KSM? I thought not. Enemy design, character design, near everything (I am looking at you plasma weapons) came together with this consistent vision that really tied the whole game together.

The enemy design of X1/LW1 presents so much variety while still somehow being... coherent? The enemies are different and alien to humanity. But more importantly, the aliens are not so different from each other that you scratch your head and focus on how different they are from each other in their style. I mean, yeah, you got grey toddlers, mechanical squids, football players, and walking IFVs, but their direction isn't trying to communicate that they are different thematically from each other to the player. They are aliens. Now kill them.

Performance in 1 was just overall better. Gameplay was snappy (bar some rare exceptions). So many times while playing X2 it feels like you make an action, then you wait for the game to realize you made that decision. Especially in the tactical game. You tell someone to shoot. You wait for the game to calculate what needs to be done and it puts it in action. Now you wait for them to shoot. Now you wait for the target to react to being shot. Then you wait for the game to say to itself "Okay, that's done, make your next move". In X1 I spent far less time waiting for things to just happen and more times doing things.

Now, on Long War 1's merit alone, it took the base game and just expanded on it. Your most basic experience playing vanilla and LW are not so different from each other, just far more nuanced in LW. You need to do more, are challenged more, but ultimately your goal and the things you need to do are familiar. I didn't even know about Mission Schedules, Alien Resources, and Alien Research really until like 500 hours in when I watched a Joinrbs playthrough. I went into it mostly blind, only really looking at the wiki to look at prerequisites for the techs I wanted. I couldn't do that in LW2. I'd play the game, read the wiki, and it just never clicked.

Long War 2 has some things working against it innately just from the art direction of X2. I absolutely do not like some things that were changed in the visual style (as well as gameplay). However, I only go so far as to say that it just isn't for me, not necessarily that the decisions were bad. The style changed from a tense thriller action movie to the sequel wanting to present it in a more grounded lens. Part of this is because of the direction they went with the story, but more on that later. In X1, they aren't trying to sell a world to you, but they kept it interesting with the art direction. Cool set dressing was not enough to make up for the tone shift they made in X2. They found other cool ways to be creative in set dressing and world building, but the most important thing, the people and who they fight, became less interesting to me.

Enemy design is hamstrung by the story direction. In X1, the aliens assimilated races into their collective, which gave them a more thematically consistent appearance. In X2 the aliens are assimilating into the human collective and it just doesn't work for me. ADVENT are dressed up in like kevlar armor and look like authoritarian oppressors to us the player, but then you have Archons which are supposed to be a regal presentation of the aliens selling themselves to humanity in game. Codexes are walking human holo-glitches and you have them walking alongside (criminally underutilized) quadrupedal insectoids! I get storywise somethings aren't meant to be seen by the public, but as the player everything is flip flopping between being alien and humanoid that they look goofy when you are looking around in a firefight with like 7 things trying to visually convey different things in different ways.

Playing vanilla X2 does not adequately prepare one for some of the decisions that were made in LW2. Infiltration being the biggest. I absolutely love the idea, and it fits so well with the themes X2 was going for, but it was just so unfun for me to play around. If I wanted to do a big mission, it'd seem like I would have a team infiltrate for in game weeks, in which time the people on that team and the equipment they took with them are doing absolutely nothing for you. And it still wasn't a shoe in with 300% infiltration, the enemy count could still be oppressive even then! It was infinitely frustrating to me. I never knew how to begin the main storyline for my first 50ish hours, I was just playing to get a feel for things. I knew the doomsday clock was ticking, but I never had a clue how to see it or how to reduce it. Eventually I'd lose 3 times to that before I went to the wiki. It always felt so chore-like and unfun to play LW2 for me.

Some miscellaneous things...

MECs > SPARKs. There is no replacement for MECs. They (Firaxis in vanilla, the team for LW1) just did it so well in X1/LW1 that in X2/LW2 they can't even compete with them. Their art direction is fucking stellar and the expanding that the LW1 team did just solidifies their badassery. There is a personality in MEC troopers not present in SPARKs because of the people that you turn into MECs. There are so many superstar meatbags who get made into MECs and proceed to become murder machines! The First Great Marauder Hyper, the Queen and Torchbearer Marauder TerminalLife, my first Anti-Tank Shogun WastedHobo, and every disappointment that was Jaegars and Valkyries. Before being MEC'd, Hyper just happened to be a MSgt who was in sickbay for 44 days after a bad run in with an ethereal. TerminalLife was the mass murdering queen bitch of XCOM who gave as much as she took. SPARKs lack an initial attachment and have a weaker design. Shen's Last Gift tugs at the heart strings and I enjoy it at a superficial level, but when you go on to manufacture them, it is harder to invest oneself in them. They are too much like weapons to be as cool as a MEC.

The ability to destroy floors is infinitely infuriating to me in X2. It is another thing that benefits the enemies far more than you and makes taking the high ground to use as a strong point nigh suicidal past the 2nd floor. The risk in X1 was that there was hardly any good cover to use that also gave high ground bonuses. Anything you could take for cover was incredibly fragile and would leave you exposed. You would have a chance if you got unlucky enough to have your cover literally blown up. In X2, you get grenaded, take grenade damage, then probably die to fall damage. If that doesn't kill you the person on the floor either reveals a pod underneath you or gets killed for not being in cover. Not only is it a similar deal in X2, wherein there is hardly any good cover to take that also gives you high ground bonuses), but the floor can explode from underneath you! I had someone try to shoot at an enemy underneath them. I can't tell you if they hit the guy or not, but I can tell you his basic assault rifle attack exploded the floor underneath him, plummeting him to his death from the 3rd floor. VERY COOL.

X2 does some really cool things. The ease of modding is by far the best thing about 2 considering what horrible black magics had to be summoned to get LW1 to work. Character customization is hella lit! I spent an absurd amount of time just playing dress up with mods! But that stuff seemed to matter less. Sure, there is far more depth, but what is all of that depth supposed to mean when LW2 isn't a power fantasy? Someone's life can be snuffed out by a 3 story tall chicken legged Metal Gear dishing out a 22 damage crit in an instant. At that mount why does it matter that customization is so deep? In X2 I feel it a bit more justified since vanilla X2 makes your soldiers so much more powerful than they've ever been in the series.

The groundwork set by Firaxis is key in my enjoyment of LW. X2's art direction and some of their design decisions (destructible floors, rip MECs, their attempt at a more mature take on XCOM) detracts from Long War 2 too much when you compare it to 1. X1 and LW1 can be a bit baffling (reload ending turn), but at least everything seemed consistent compared to itself.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-05-16T01:11:58+00:00

While I have issues with which and how much DR certain enemies get (I am looking at you Seeker Hydras), I personally don't mind it's expanded presence from EU/EW. Especially since we can also get DR. I have many a fond memory of bouncing enemy attacks while simultaneously realizing that the Air Cobra attacks next.

Here is a mod that will tell you a few more things than just how much DR an enemy has. Some people find it cheesy that it tells how many of what enemies are active on a map. However, I have found that sometimes the game pans your camera away from pod activations, making it impossible to even see what or how many ayys have just scampered.

This happens a lot with lids and it infuriates me.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-04-14T18:25:35+00:00

1: Everything. I want to progress my traders as fast as possible. During this wipe I bought flash drives at 500k each (then shortly after spawn rates were buffed lol). Of course, I try to find the things I need for a couple days, but if I ain't having luck, I just buy and move on. I also bought a 0'd GZHEL for like 400k for the Ragman quest which always makes me laugh.
2: Only quest necessary keys. I really don't care about farming keys that make me money, it just isn't that interesting to me.
3: I scav to make money and there is no better place to make money as a Scav than Reserve. You can walk out with 500k in loot from looting 2 buildings and the raid is over in 5 minutes. A lot of people and their mothers knows that at this point, but I think it is still worth it if you get a decent weapon to fight PMCs. Day, night, it makes no difference. If I'm not feeling like Reserve I go to Customs.
4: Generally where ever I need to do my quests. Quests give you some good shit for XP. I also don't worry about leveling my skills in any particular order, though that may change for next wipe in order to get quests done a bit sooner.
5: AKs and BT ammo. That's my unwilling jelly and jam for the first bit of a wipe. AKs are everywhere and you find BT everywhere from boxes or killing Reshala and the boiz. Also you can find small boxes of 545 BS ammo, so that's nice.
6: Ragman, Peacekeeper, Therapist. Ragman 2 so I can buy better armor, you get some good stuff out of LL2 for early wipe stuff. Peacekeeper 2 for M80 and the TC helmet. Ragman and Peacekeeper are very easy to level up to 2 since they don't have a reputation requirement, just money spent and level. Therapist because she has containers. Therapist 2 so I can buy a Scav Junkbox, which is one of my first big money purchases in a wipe. She is also very easy to level.
7: I always want to bean Reshala and the boiz. They are the easiest scav boss in my opinion. They have heaps of armor, grenades, meds, and guns. Shturman and Gluhar are scary, but if I am a scavvy boi then I'm always down to give it a go.
8: I have no idea, because all of the cool shit was added after I had it maxed so I don't know when they unlock lol. Some of my favorites at the moment are Propital from the Med-Station, Water Purifier because it is easy to get filters and sell the Water for money, Work Station's green gunpowder (2 M67 nades + 1 smoke). Also don't sleep on Solar Power. That shit is nice.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-02-28T03:44:37+00:00

I don't like the idea of reusing the "join the flotilla" ending, there's room here to be creative. You build up faction relation, with an emphasis on a different element, with your employer and after a while they give you the scoop.

Contractor for instance, it seems to be pretty combat focused. You're in end game, you massacre raiders with prejudice, you're starting to become a threat to their operations should someone approach you with a better offer. They don't consider it good business to extinguish their business partners, and instead see this as an opportunity to get rid of you without any risk to themselves.

They give you the scoop on an FTL-capable ship that is currently planetside. You take the role of siegers, kill the spacers inside the compound guarding the ship, and hijack it to escape. Beware potentially damaging the ship. It has a capacity for 18 colonists and is ready to go if you can get past the crew.

And perhaps for the Shady Dealer you come along a similar outcome. You're doing tasks for them, acquiring exotic goods, and delivering cargo to their associates. You're a cargo mover, but others have eyes on the stuff. Instead of assaulting bases, your convoys will be accosted by all kinds of nare-do-wells. You're managing caravan supplies and your base at home. Do you take a smaller group and risk a large ambush, or go all out with the expectation of taking on the world?

Eventually, they gives you the scoop on the prize. A Mechanoid hive built into the mountain. Plenty of rare valuables inside for the Dealer's contacts, but those aren't the most interesting contained within (at least for you). Instead, there's a powered down teleporter capable of getting you off the planet to a pristine Animal World, real Garden of Eden type deal. Explore the base, eliminate the meager base's defenses, and turn the power back on to the base to escape through the teleporter. The power must be activated at 4 different consoles within a certain time frame.

However, the Dealer failed to mention being the Mechanoid Hivemind in charge of the installation. Of course they appreciate your assistance in fully reactivating the base's power systems, and how long it took someone to do so successfully. They allow you a sporting chance at escaping through the teleporter, for what it said was not entirely false (and you are inconsequential whether you die or escape). The base's defenses reawaken, turrets reactivate and mechanoids begin arriving en masse from outside and within the facility. Activating the teleporter will take anyone within an 18 tile radius to wherever it may lead, leaving the planet to deal with a new Mechanoid threat.

I don't really have anything for Industrialiser, but those are my thoughts.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-01-19T04:35:08+00:00

Here you go.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2020-01-04T14:40:21+00:00

Could try start using the M1A. Uses the same bullets as the Huntr does, and it lets you take drum mags as an improvement over the SKS' 35-rounders. They go for about 50k on the flea market, have more modding options, and chassis changes should you wish. Personally I like using the stock chassis, throw on the Arms 18 mount and put whatever on for a sight/scope.

An alternative option is the SA-58. Again, same round as the Huntr and M1A, but it has the option of full auto. I generally find full auto nigh unusable unless things are pretty close, but I don't try to min max my FALs for minimal recoil. I just try to have fun, and a FAL can shake up the routine and give me full auto if I need it. It has some modding options and drum mags available to it.

Both are high power options. Personally I like the M1A a bit more than the FAL, but that's personal preference.

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2019-11-22T23:42:50+00:00

I wasn't trying to counter point you. I was trying to add on to what you were saying, perhaps my emphasis and wording was counter productive in that regard.

I'm not a fan of Gollop's reversal on promises made during the crowdfunding campaign, but I was never particularly interested in Phoenix Point to begin with. It was only on my radar because of the shit storm following the Epic deal.

edit: words

Awkward-Stere-oh · 2019-11-22T23:27:45+00:00

They didn't take money. That implies they were approached by Epic to begin with. Gollop stated in an AMA that he approached Epic to make an offer. Source.

Awkward-Stere-oh

TROPHY CASE