Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

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rifleman
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by rifleman »

What stats is on the right of Hack stats on squad manager screenshoot? Is that infiltration or dodge? :?:
fowlJ
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by fowlJ »

rifleman wrote:What stats is on the right of Hack stats on squad manager screenshoot? Is that infiltration or dodge? :?:
Dodge. I don't think Infiltration is a 'stat' in the same way as things like Aim and stuff, though I could be wrong.
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johnnylump
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

Frozen Shepard wrote:When we have a mission where the objective is to get to the evac zone, will we get corpses now or no?
No. Corpses are going to be harder to come by.
ShockmasterFred
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by ShockmasterFred »

A minor question, but a pertinent one for me, I run a mod that adds lots of countries not included in the base game as countries of origin for my soldiers. In the original LW, you guys added a ton of countries, did you do so this time around, or should I keep that mod on my hard drive?

Also, thanks so much for all the hard work. Every new detail is better than the last. From what has been revealed so far, you have kept the spirit and intent of the original LW, while making a very different overhaul for (despite outward appearances) a very different game. I think there are so many of us that hoped this would be a reality, and I can't thank you guys enough for the time and effort. I'm glad you guys are getting paid this time around (at least, I hope 2k is paying you.) I can't wait to see what Terra Invicta is like down the road. Thanks again for all the time and effort invested.
fowlJ
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by fowlJ »

johnnylump wrote: 1)Psi score is invisible at first but contributes to stat trades.
So, Psi Power is going to be a relevant enough stat to be tracked for normal soldiers? Interested to see how you do psionics if that's the case.
johnnylump wrote:3)Our main pass at psionics, which we are testing now, will be in our first big update.
And the implication that the release date is soon enough that something you are currently focused on isn't going to make the cut is exciting.
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johnnylump
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

ShockmasterFred wrote:A minor question, but a pertinent one for me, I run a mod that adds lots of countries not included in the base game as countries of origin for my soldiers. In the original LW, you guys added a ton of countries, did you do so this time around, or should I keep that mod on my hard drive?

Also, thanks so much for all the hard work. Every new detail is better than the last. From what has been revealed so far, you have kept the spirit and intent of the original LW, while making a very different overhaul for (despite outward appearances) a very different game. I think there are so many of us that hoped this would be a reality, and I can't thank you guys enough for the time and effort. I'm glad you guys are getting paid this time around (at least, I hope 2k is paying you.) I can't wait to see what Terra Invicta is like down the road. Thanks again for all the time and effort invested.
We didn't add any countries -- looks like there's a healthy selection of mods that already do that. And thanks for your kind words.
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johnnylump
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

fowlJ wrote:
johnnylump wrote: 1)Psi score is invisible at first but contributes to stat trades.
So, Psi Power is going to be a relevant enough stat to be tracked for normal soldiers? Interested to see how you do psionics if that's the case.
johnnylump wrote:3)Our main pass at psionics, which we are testing now, will be in our first big update.
And the implication that the release date is soon enough that something you are currently focused on isn't going to make the cut is exciting.
Nah, it just means that everybody has a psi offense score. It only is relevant if they go psionic; the idea is that some are better than others, and if you have a rookie with terrible stats but haven't researched psionics yet, they may have an undiscovered talent. Our current plan for psis (again, not in the initial release version) is to 1) start them with 3 psi perks; 2) require them to gain XP to train additional levels and 3) only allow them to train 7 additional levels. This will hopefully even out their utility.
Matanui3
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Matanui3 »

fowlJ wrote:
johnnylump wrote: 1)Psi score is invisible at first but contributes to stat trades.
So, Psi Power is going to be a relevant enough stat to be tracked for normal soldiers? Interested to see how you do psionics if that's the case.
johnnylump wrote:3)Our main pass at psionics, which we are testing now, will be in our first big update.
And the implication that the release date is soon enough that something you are currently focused on isn't going to make the cut is exciting.
I believe he was saying that in the already-existing Perk Pack, the Not Created Equally option can add to psi offense at the expense of other stats, which is why the poster he was responding to felt that so many soldiers started with lackluster stats.

Unless they balance psi in such a way that this actually helps, I feel it's a pretty bad idea, though...
fowlJ
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by fowlJ »

johnnylump wrote: Nah, it just means that everybody has a psi offense score.
Ah, okay. Sounds like an interesting way to do it.
mmCion
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by mmCion »

I wanted to read everything before posting a question, and now it looks like everyone is gone :/.

Question: Have you guys given any more depth to the Avenger room building part of the game? New rooms, functionality, adjacency bonuses?

Comment: Thanks for your devotion to making LW and LW2. I'm so glad 2k is paying cause I'd love to but cannot. I've spent hundreds of hour on LW and hope to keep that up onLW2
wadeanthony
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by wadeanthony »

For Psi Operatives, I like the change to limiting perks. Were any perks removed or new ones added? And are they still randomize, I think it would be cool if not every PSI Operative can get Null Lance/Stasis/Domination and calling it a day or making what they can learn based on Psi Strength.

Was there any thought to putting charges on the stronger Psi abilities, like Fuse being unlimited but Null Lance can only be used twice per mission? Or buffing some of the "weaker" ones like Fortress to apply to all soldiers within a limited range (like Solace)?
please delete my account, I know long use it.
Amineri

Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Amineri »

mmCion wrote:I wanted to read everything before posting a question, and now it looks like everyone is gone :/.

Question: Have you guys given any more depth to the Avenger room building part of the game? New rooms, functionality, adjacency bonuses?

Comment: Thanks for your devotion to making LW and LW2. I'm so glad 2k is paying cause I'd love to but cannot. I've spent hundreds of hour on LW and hope to keep that up onLW2
No entirely new rooms, but we have made some adjustments (similar to what we did with the Guerrilla Training School with the Leader Pack).

We spent more of our effort in rounding out features for the Havens instead of expanding the Avenger.
Amineri

Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Amineri »

wadeanthony wrote:For Psi Operatives, I like the change to limiting perks. Were any perks removed or new ones added? And are they still randomize, I think it would be cool if not every PSI Operative can get Null Lance/Stasis/Domination and calling it a day or making what they can learn based on Psi Strength.

Was there any thought to putting charges on the stronger Psi abilities, like Fuse being unlimited but Null Lance can only be used twice per mission? Or buffing some of the "weaker" ones like Fortress to apply to all soldiers within a limited range (like Solace)?
We have done some rearranging of the psi tree, although nothing quite as drastic as with the other classes. We did add some requirements so that it's not quite as easy to go straight to the "super powerful" stuff.

There were new Psi Perks available in Perk Pack -- Bastion, Mind Merge, Soul Merge.
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rifleman
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by rifleman »

Mind Merge & Soul Merge are good PSI peaks. Mind merge give a soldiers a little shield for 1 turn. PSI number and PSI AMP level result in how many shield you could get. They are very unique peaks for your soldiers to take damage without losing HP.

Although they only last for one turn, that PSI smoke effect would last forever. I hope this could be fixed. :lol:
Tyroki
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Tyroki »

Seeing that there isn't too much being done with the Avenger right now, are there plans to expand on the Avenger in the future, or is what's been done plenty?

I ask because it seems like more is to come post-release, what with the Psi changes not being ready to roll on release. I'm curious about whats possibly in store.
Tyranniac
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Tyranniac »

Wow, this is more extensive than I was expecting! Sounds like some really awesome changes! Excited to try it all out!

There are a few things I'm wondering about:

Will it ever be beneficial to send a 10-man squad on a mission, or is it one of those "you can do it, but it's not a good idea" things? Have testers been gravitating towards a particular size or does it vary a lot depending on the mission?

Why has the force composition information been removed from the Shadow Chamber? Reading about all the other changes to the strategy layer I kind of expected there to be more ways of gaining that information, rather than none, to be honest. It seems like never knowing what kinds of enemies you will be facing greatly limits the ability to make use of some of the more specialized items and perks, and just generally limits tactical choice by making it so that you can't adapt your team/loadout for the mission.

If psi offense is included in the randomized stats, but does nothing for non-psi ops soldiers, doesn't that mean we'll be getting a lot of soldiers with crap stats?

How does 'liberating' a region fit in with the story of XCOM 2, considering the overwhelming strength of ADVENT and the guerrilla nature of the conflict? Does a liberated region still have an ADVENT presence?

Thanks for all your work ::)
Jesterofgames7732
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Jesterofgames7732 »

ok so with all the talk about stat's
that brings up a question that i hope you can answer
Will stat's be randomized by default or will they be fixed at a certain amount be by default like the base game?
and if they are randomized be default can we turn on an option that keeps them fixed similar to strict screening?
also i apologize for my poor grammar
ZutCorp
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by ZutCorp »

The squad management sounds cool.

Will a soldier be able to be a member of several squads? Maybe a Beta grunt to act as a "sub" to Alpha Squad, if (when) someone is injured...
Will he be able to build loyalty with more than one officer?
gimrah
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by gimrah »

1) So if Not Created Equally is in, and there is a 'stat pool' concept, and psi offence remains a separate stat, have you added more use for will? I mean obviously panic defence is a thing, but in general having a soldier who never panics but is terrible in every other respect is going to be pretty useless (unlike LW1, when they were just useless until psi).

2) NOT asking for release date but... if your psi overhaul is not going to be in the release version, how complete will the release version be (cf LW B10, B15, 1.0?)? To what extent do you expect to continue adding features / balancing over time?
JoINrbs
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by JoINrbs »

Tyranniac wrote:Why has the force composition information been removed from the Shadow Chamber? Reading about all the other changes to the strategy layer I kind of expected there to be more ways of gaining that information, rather than none, to be honest. It seems like never knowing what kinds of enemies you will be facing greatly limits the ability to make use of some of the more specialized items and perks, and just generally limits tactical choice by making it so that you can't adapt your team/loadout for the mission.
The infiltration system doesn't really allow this; you'd need to know what enemies were there as you sent your squad out, but the game still doesn't know how long you will infiltrate for when you do that, so it doesn't know what the enemies will be.
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by JoINrbs »

ZutCorp wrote:The squad management sounds cool.

Will a soldier be able to be a member of several squads? Maybe a Beta grunt to act as a "sub" to Alpha Squad, if (when) someone is injured...
Will he be able to build loyalty with more than one officer?
Yes to both. There's a lot of flexibility built into the squads system. If you don't feel like using it you can just do mission loadout as you would in vanilla and the game will create a temporary squad for you which is just used for that mission. On the other hand if you want to use it there's a lot of room to customize the names of squads and their icons (you can even easily add your own icons via config edits), and the game supports sending squads on missions with temporary members to replace soldiers who are wounded, in training, not suited for the mission, etc.

All Officers remember how many missions all soldiers have been on under their command for purposes of loyalty bonuses.
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by JoINrbs »

Tyranniac wrote:Wow, this is more extensive than I was expecting! Sounds like some really awesome changes! Excited to try it all out!

There are a few things I'm wondering about:

Will it ever be beneficial to send a 10-man squad on a mission, or is it one of those "you can do it, but it's not a good idea" things? Have testers been gravitating towards a particular size or does it vary a lot depending on the mission?
We've been giving a lot of feedback on when certain squad sizes feel too strong or too weak. On Legend, where xwynns and I have been giving balance feedback, beating a mission is usually difficult enough that it requires bringing the right type of squad to it, but there's a huge amount of variability in what the "right" squad looks like. Many missions are also just not going to be feasible to attempt at all, especially if you detect them with little time remaining to infiltrate them.
JoINrbs
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by JoINrbs »

gimrah wrote:1) So if Not Created Equally is in, and there is a 'stat pool' concept, and psi offence remains a separate stat, have you added more use for will? I mean obviously panic defence is a thing, but in general having a soldier who never panics but is terrible in every other respect is going to be pretty useless (unlike LW1, when they were just useless until psi).
When you're running a mission with one or two soldiers who are trying to achieve an objective and evac it's more likely that points in aim are going to feel wasted than points in will. There's so much flexibility in the infiltration system that a lot of conventional LW1-thinking starts to break down.
rakoon79
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by rakoon79 »

On Legend, where xwynns and I have been giving balance feedback,
Guess we know which Twitch channel to visit for a riot when Legend difficulty kicks people in the nuts Kappa ;)

Quick question. Have you ever beat Legend difficulty? No spoilers intended/wanted obviously
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Mickey -renraw-
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Mickey -renraw- »

The additions you guys have added to the strategy layer sound awesome, it's difficult to not sound like a giddy fan boy
a few quick questions though

1. Can enemy reinforcement drops be anything other then just Advent troops? as in can troop transports now drop aliens? (they can't in vanilla) I found Advent troops to be boring as mud and tediously over used compared to the colourful varied bunch of aliens that only appear as part of pods and not drop down reinforcements

2. Have you guys added any unique weapons?

3. Can you evac enemy corpses (physically pick up and carry out with you) on missions where you HAVE to evac?

4. Have you guys done anything with (or, god willing, removed entirely) the "Line of Play" mechanic? In case I'm getting the term wrong I'll explain myself. The mechanic where the enemy tracks your position relative to the missions objective and constantly shadows your squad as the move around the map even though your whole squad is concealed and the enemy isn't meant to know where you are. I found it obnoxious :/

5. How much support will you guys give after the mods release and bugs have been fixed? I have no idea the terms of 2K commissioning you guys to do LW2, but what i mean is, Long War 1 was a massive effort of to-ing and fro-ing of features being implemented to create a balanced environment. If Long War 2 looks like it needs a major feature added to fill a balance hole, will 2k continue to commission you guys to do it, or can fans offer donations as continued support?

Thanks again for all the talented effort you guys have made and are still making, big hugs goes out to everyone on the team (FYI no worries if you can't answer any of the questions)
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