A Cornucopia of Ideas for LW2!

For requests, ideas and general mod talk
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AngelOfIron
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:59 am

A Cornucopia of Ideas for LW2!

Post by AngelOfIron »

Hello there, Commanders! Bill "Clutch" Rizer here from YouTuber Mal's XCOM Long War Let's Play and its many sequel seasons, lookin' for members of this blessed community with moddin' experience who're in need or want of work to help us produce some material for future installments of our Long War 2 Let's Play!

I actually submitted a very similar post last year, but it didn't generate the response that I was expectin' it to. And that's fine. I get that people here have better things to do than to gawk at the audacity of some newbie askin' them to perform a minor miracle of computer programming for little more than a grandiose "thank you" from the XCOM community. But now that Long War 2 is now live, I think there'd be renewed interest in what I'm pitching. So without further adieu, I give you my (very unorganized) list of most wanted Long War 2 mods!

Celestials (New Enemy!)
Last year I made a thread where I talked about how much I'd love to see proper Ethereals tossed into the mix. At the time I was unaware of the truth behind the Avatar Project, and that its whole reason for being made it impossible for Ethereals to exist as a unit. Well, that's where the Celestials -- who would like this -- come into the picture. *ahem* Celestials would be portrayed as a sort of technorganic construct through which the Elders / Etherials operate, in a sense acting as a hyper-advanced equivalent to the modern day drone. These bodies, however, are almost as every bit as fragile as their real ones, which means that they must to rely on their minions to soak most of the damage while they focus on bolstering their ground forces from a safe distance away. (...) A Celestial will have the same health bar as one of the "boss aliens" from the Alien Hunters DLC, and appear on the battlefield through the same type of portal that said bosses are known to generate upon arrival and exit. Unlike the traditional boss aliens, a Celestial wouldn't incapable of moving after every action taken by the player, nor would they be in the habit of generating a portal through which they could retreat. This is purely for the sake of helping keep things balanced.

When it comes to battlefield tactics, the Celestial relies on one of two sources...

1.) It's own abilities, which include Teleport, Mind Control, Dimensional Rift, Null Lance and Psi Fortress.

and...

2.) It's two Avatar bodyguards.

In the case of the latter, it's worth noting that the Avatars do not possess the same psionic abilities as their Celestial master. In fact they would function very differently from the Avatars that you're all familiar with. Y'see, unlike the vanilla Avatars, these units would essentially operate like high-functioning Psi Zombies. They would come out of the portal already Mind Controlled by the Celestial, and after bein' put down have a chance of being revived with full health, cognition, and motor function as a single action on the Celestial's part. So, in short? You kill the Celestial, you kill the Avatars -- permanently!

Avatars versus The Commander's Avatar
I for one think that these two units should be separated as much as possible in terms of design. In the vanilla game we see in cutscenes that the Commander's Avatar has a distinctly different color palette than those who're under the thrall of the Elders. I think that this should remain exclusive to the unique in question beyond the game's in-engine cinematics, right down to the hair. The Avatars that I talked about before? They would have to be a stark contrasts; showing not an ounce of humanity. Their heads would have to be completely encapsulated by a helmet of some sort, which doesn't allow a single inch of skin to show.

Completely Unique ADVENT Weaponry
A minor gripe, really, but I would really like to see a completely new tier of weaponry designed specifically for the ADVENT. I find their pension for using the same grenade launchers and mag cannons that the XCOM operatives do to be something that's capable of shattering the fragile sense of verisimilitude that the game provides. Given what people can do with armor, and what Pavonis managed to do with SMGs and laser weaponry, I find it difficult to believe that it'd be impossible to make this happen.

P.S. I already know that this has been done in the Total ADVENT Weaponry and A Better ADVENT mods. I just think it'd be nice to see them effortlessly incorporated into the mix without the need of having to worry about mod overlap.

A Different Plasma SMG
I mean absolutely no offense to the Long War devs when I say this, but... I hate how the plasma SMG looks. It feels so out of place when compared to the other weapons of its kind. The same could even be said for the conventional SMG, but at least that looks like a gun. Would it be possible for someone to create a new plasma SMG model based off the THOR A1 concept? Or at the very least modify the existing SMG model so that it looks closer to it? There's just somethin' about that thoroughly unnecessary hole that serves as the weapon's stock that bugs me to no end! (And before you tell me it can't be done? Just remember that one of the first mods ever produced for XCOM 2 was a Corgi Gun.)

P.S. I would honestly love to see different models for two of the other SMGs present in the game, preferably something like this for the base version and something like this for the mag version. I'm not expectin' anyone to go out of there way to make this happen, mind you. I just wanted to put that out there. :P

"Traitor!"
ADVENT spies have been present since vanilla XCOM 2, but it wasn't until the release of Long War 2 did they actually become a tangible threat. But I believe that the mod would benefit even farther if this ability to interact with them on the battlefield were taken to a whole new level. What if it were possible for one or more of the haven-based resistance fighters that you've assigned to recruit people to either...

A.) Be bribed by ADVENT to become a double agent?

or...

B.) Be killed off-screen and surreptitiously replaced with a Faceless?

Whatever the case, this mole would have a 5% chance of activating during a battle and turning against the player. However! However... in the case of the Faceless, they wouldn't simply reveal their true nature right away. These Faceless would be unique, and have a "respawn" mechanic that's very similar to the one utilized by the Andromedon. Faceless Moles will make a point of maintaining their cover for as long as possible, which means that they will be as threatening as the average ADVENT Trooper. But once they've had their four bars of health depleted, they will transform and enter the fray again!

Unpredictable Andromedon
I for one think that the Andromedon would be a far more interesting enemy if the player didn't know whether or not its suit's built-in A.I. was going to activate, and thus signal a restart on their fight against it. What if there were only a 25% chance of such a thing happening?

Heroic Moment (New Officer Ability!)
This ability would come as a bonus to officers who've survived long enough to make it all the way to the "bottom" of their build tree. It triggers when the officer is dealt either a mortal or lethal blow. In many ways it serves as a variation of the vanilla Faceoff ability that becomes available to Sharpshooters once they reach the rank of Captain, although unlike Faceoff this ability is passive in nature. In short, just before the officer collapses to the ground, they will receive a 25% bonus to hit, a 75% bonus to crit, and then proceed to open fire on every enemy within their visual range. It's meant to give squads who're in dire straits a chance to even the odds, and to guarantee that your veteran soldiers never go out with a whimper.

...And that's all that I have for now! If I come up with any more ideas, then there's an awfully good chance that I'll submit them in the form of a reply! But until then, keep on fightin' the good fight, my friends! (^-^)ゝ
AngelOfIron
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:59 am

Re: A Cornucopia of Ideas for LW2!

Post by AngelOfIron »

Hello there, PI community! I'm back with another disorganized jumble of ideas!

Consistently Weaponized Recruiters
After watching the latest episode of my buddy Mal's Long War 2 Let's Play, I realized that all of the people that he was tasked with rescuing lacked the weapons that they were using in earlier missions. I'm not sure if that was meant to serve as a way of balancing things or what, but I personally don't think it makes any sense! Why would they suddenly abandon their only means of defending themselves directly? The XCOM operative that they were working with got to keep his gun, so why couldn't they? That's somethin' that I think needs to be changed.

More Peacekeepers, Less Military
It wasn't until the release of Long War 2 that made me realize how odd it was that ADVENT decided to "retire" their civil defense forces and replace them with full-fledged soldiers. I was thinkin' it might be neat if the stats and abilities for the Sentries and Troopers, as well as the coding that dictates when they appear in the game, were swapped. That way things would play out a bit more realistically, with XCOM initially dealing with what essentially amounts to police. Of course the Troopers would always be present during train missions, as those are always set away from a city, outside of the Peacekeepers' jurisdiction. However, in order to make sure that the Peacekeepers are properly represented, we would need to... "reassign" some units to their ranks. To be precise, we'd need to...

1.) Rename the ADVENT Guardians to ADVENT Judicators and assign them to a tier of their own which is meant to represent a subdivision within the Peacekeepers that's equivalent to a SWAT team. Pods of Judicators would deploy in squads of either four, six, or eight, and most of the time will only appear as backup for other Peacekeeper pods.

and...

2.) Transfer the mantle of Guardian over to what's presently referred to as an ADVENT Scout, and subsequently assign them a position within the ranks of the Peacekeepers that essentially makes them an "alternative" to the ADVENT Sergeant.

Uniform ADVENT
While I understand the need for color coordinating the ADVENT units, I've been thinking that they might benefit from a "less is more" approach. As today's theme is grounded in the concept of realism, I'm going to continue along the trail of thought by proposing that the Shieldbearers, Grenadiers, Rocketeers, Engineers and Gunners eschew their bright colors in favor of the same color scheme as your average ADVENT Trooper, reason being that they're a part of ADVENT's dedicated military. All ADVENT MECs would similarly lose their alternative color schemes in favor of the sterile white one that the default model gets, as it helps spread the idea of ADVENT's immaculance. Peacekeeper units, like the Guardians, the Sentries, and the Lancers, would all share that same black, blue & red scheme that we're all already familiar with. (Alternatively, I was also thinking that it might be kind of neat if someone took the Scout's color scheme and made variations of it for the Lancer, Guardian and Sentry. It's got a very Robocop feel to it that I think would work great for the Peacekeepers' general aesthetic!)

Realistic ADVENT Ranks & Command Structure
I'm not sure that this particular idea would be possible, as it's admittedly pretty ambitions and thus likely would require a bunch of additional programming to make possible. First, I'd like to see the vanilla ADVENT Officer units retconned into ADVENT Captains. Secondly, I'd like to see them elevated to a position somewhere near the top of the proverbial ladder upon which all ADVENT units exist. That'd mean that where you'd normally see an Officer, you'd get a Sergeant instead. Thirdly, and somewhat in conjunction with the previous idea, I'd like to see the Peacekeeper and Military units always be separated into different pods, just so that they're better distinguished from one another. This means that players would never see a Guardian, Sentry, or Lancer working in the same pod as a Trooper, Sergeant, Captain, Gunner, etc., and vice versa. The only exception to this rule would come in the form of the typical ADVENT Drone, which are essential to both parties.

Truly Strategic ADVENT Scanners
So if you're at all familiar with XCOM 2 then you'll know how absolutely useless the ADVENT's scanning towers are. I'm proposing that they be given a complete overhaul that'll not only make them more practical, but hopefully cut down on some unnecessary strain on a computer's processor and graphics card. Basically, the scanning towers would be tied directly to the ADVENT checkpoints and the blacksites. Their scanning animation would be removed almost completely, only activating when someone steps into their cone of vision. Seeing as how players are spotted most of the time either by a patrol or by "going loud," it makes it pointless to have these things installed randomly on every other street corner anyway. So why not have them where they would be realistically, and in turn have them operate just as realistically?

...And that's all I've got to offer for now! As always, if any more ideas strike, I'll be sure to add them to this thread! But until that happens, keep on keepin' on, Commanders!
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