Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

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

Post by Gallion »

johnnylump wrote:
Krylos wrote:It's great to see that the XP system has been overhauled. That way, people who choose to run small, stealthy squads don't get punished.

What does the "Vega" stand for in this screenshot: https://cdn.2kgames.com/xcom.com/XCom2+ ... -12-32.jpg ?

Is that the name of the squad doing the infiltration? And what is that XCOM-looking symbol to the left of it?
Sorry I missed this q till now. Vega is the name of the squad doing the infiltration. The symbol is the symbol for that squad.

We've got a squad manager where you can build and save permanent squads and give them a symbol, name and a short bit of text. In squad select you can assign them to missions all at once. It makes managing the leadership mechanic a lot easier. (We have a display for who has gone on missions with each officer, but it's a lot easier to organize them this way). We've got a bunch of symbols to choose from and it's pretty easy for modders to add more.
Man you're just making me unhealthy levels of hyped for this.

If infiltrations are picked by squad, do the soldiers from that squad left behind (when you send less than 10) get any kind of passive xp?
Tyroki
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Tyroki »

johnnylump wrote:
DeGei wrote:Officers got a makeover. In addition to the Command ability (we converted the psi ability "inspire"), Officers can also spend intel to delay mission timers from expiring. Soldiers serving under the same officer on multiple missions begin to accumulate leadership bonuses, including to infiltration times.
Heh... heh heh... HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

YEEESSSS!

Rasczak's Roughnecks, HUAH!

(And yes, I literally signed up to the forum just to say that. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting some Long War on again)
Last edited by Tyroki on Wed Jan 18, 2017 2:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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johnnylump
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

Frozen Shepard wrote:
johnnylump wrote: We've got a squad manager where you can build and save permanent squads and give them a symbol, name and a short bit of text. In squad select you can assign them to missions all at once. It makes managing the leadership mechanic a lot easier. (We have a display for who has gone on missions with each officer, but it's a lot easier to organize them this way). We've got a bunch of symbols to choose from and it's pretty easy for modders to add more.
How much is a "short description?" A paragraph or so? Also, this may be one of my favorite new features you've added.
Yeah, I think about four lines, maybe? It defaults to the date the squad was created. The manager also tracks how many missions that squad has gone on.
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rifleman
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by rifleman »

What will hapen sending 10 man squad to battle too frequently?
dethraker
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by dethraker »

johnnylump wrote:Our XCOM2 stuff is "free for noncommercial use." In terms of packaging various files to get at it, we can post them on the Nexus if necessary.

There aren't reinforcements for XCOM during tactical missions (except in the Avenger mission, like vanilla.)

Last question can't answer yet.
That would be extremely helpful for those that want to continue on their own projects in their current state, hopefully you can do this as a separate download on nexus shortly after you launch Long War 2!

So no reinforcements in the form of XCom operatives, but considering you can't answer the last question just yet I'm wondering if they get support from the rebel forces in the area. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised with what's coming!

As far as your art assets, will people be allowed to modify the assets without prior consent from Pavonis so long as credit for the basic design is given? Sorry about all the modding related questions I just want to make sure I can "borrow" all your hard work so long as you are named as the creator lol.
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

rifleman wrote:What will hapen sending 10 man squad to battle too frequently?
They'll probably get shot a lot.
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

dethraker wrote:
johnnylump wrote:Our XCOM2 stuff is "free for noncommercial use." In terms of packaging various files to get at it, we can post them on the Nexus if necessary.

There aren't reinforcements for XCOM during tactical missions (except in the Avenger mission, like vanilla.)

Last question can't answer yet.
That would be extremely helpful for those that want to continue on their own projects in their current state, hopefully you can do this as a separate download on nexus shortly after you launch Long War 2!

So no reinforcements in the form of XCom operatives, but considering you can't answer the last question just yet I'm wondering if they get support from the rebel forces in the area. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised with what's coming!

As far as your art assets, will people be allowed to modify the assets without prior consent from Pavonis so long as credit for the basic design is given? Sorry about all the modding related questions I just want to make sure I can "borrow" all your hard work so long as you are named as the creator lol.
Yep, modding our assets is fine as long as credit is given. Can you start a separate thread if you have additional questions?
Tyroki
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Tyroki »

Is it at all possible for you guys to set up an option to put timers in stasis while stealthing?
It never made much sense to me that the timers were on at all times, even when enemies had no clue you were there.

It kinda got in the way of the stealthing, and personally I really enjoyed trying to go as far as I could unseen.

By the way, really looking forward to the infiltration mechanic.
I LOVE the idea of turning some soldiers in to 'agents'.

There is no way in hell one of my soldiers is not going to be named Tanya.
tekronis
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by tekronis »

johnnylump wrote:
Krylos wrote:It's great to see that the XP system has been overhauled. That way, people who choose to run small, stealthy squads don't get punished.

What does the "Vega" stand for in this screenshot: https://cdn.2kgames.com/xcom.com/XCom2+ ... -12-32.jpg ?

Is that the name of the squad doing the infiltration? And what is that XCOM-looking symbol to the left of it?
Sorry I missed this q till now. Vega is the name of the squad doing the infiltration. The symbol is the symbol for that squad.

We've got a squad manager where you can build and save permanent squads and give them a symbol, name and a short bit of text. In squad select you can assign them to missions all at once. It makes managing the leadership mechanic a lot easier. (We have a display for who has gone on missions with each officer, but it's a lot easier to organize them this way). We've got a bunch of symbols to choose from and it's pretty easy for modders to add more.
I am psyched.

As an aside, is LW2 introducing any new ways of gaining Intel, other than the vanilla mechanics of scanning or researching ADVENT Data Caches?
teemredd32
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by teemredd32 »

The Hype is immense! Definitely looking forward to playing this, as much as I was back in the LW EU/EW days.

A few questions:

1) Has there been any alterations to "Not Created Equally" SW option in the LW toolbox. I've noticed that the majority of my soldiers with this option on have 3 hp or either 11 mobility more or less inferior to generic soldiers. I'm a big fan of this option even if it does gimp most soldiers early on though.

2) In terms of difficulty, can we get an idea of what changes from a veteran --> commander difficulty line? Eg. in vanilla Xcom 2 legend difficulty not only increases enemy HP , but also increases research time and all facets of development.

3) Are there separate classes/roles for the Sparks similar to what we saw in EW? and can we talk a bit about psionics if it's not too early

Thanks again :D
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

Tyroki wrote:Is it at all possible for you guys to set up an option to put timers in stasis while stealthing?
It never made much sense to me that the timers were on at all times, even when enemies had no clue you were there.

It kinda got in the way of the stealthing, and personally I really enjoyed trying to go as far as I could unseen.

By the way, really looking forward to the infiltration mechanic.
I LOVE the idea of turning some soldiers in to 'agents'.

There is no way in hell one of my soldiers is not going to be named Tanya.
We actually tested that but found it wasn't fun for us -- missions became an eternity of inching forward. I don't remember why but we didn't do a toggle for that kind of play, I'm afraid.
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

tekronis wrote:
johnnylump wrote:
Krylos wrote:It's great to see that the XP system has been overhauled. That way, people who choose to run small, stealthy squads don't get punished.

What does the "Vega" stand for in this screenshot: https://cdn.2kgames.com/xcom.com/XCom2+ ... -12-32.jpg ?

Is that the name of the squad doing the infiltration? And what is that XCOM-looking symbol to the left of it?
Sorry I missed this q till now. Vega is the name of the squad doing the infiltration. The symbol is the symbol for that squad.

We've got a squad manager where you can build and save permanent squads and give them a symbol, name and a short bit of text. In squad select you can assign them to missions all at once. It makes managing the leadership mechanic a lot easier. (We have a display for who has gone on missions with each officer, but it's a lot easier to organize them this way). We've got a bunch of symbols to choose from and it's pretty easy for modders to add more.
I am psyched.

As an aside, is LW2 introducing any new ways of gaining Intel, other than the vanilla mechanics of scanning or researching ADVENT Data Caches?
Mission rewards. Rebels on intel job generate a little, too.
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johnnylump
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

teemredd32 wrote:The Hype is immense! Definitely looking forward to playing this, as much as I was back in the LW EU/EW days.

A few questions:

1) Has there been any alterations to "Not Created Equally" SW option in the LW toolbox. I've noticed that the majority of my soldiers with this option on have 3 hp or either 11 mobility more or less inferior to generic soldiers. I'm a big fan of this option even if it does gimp most soldiers early on though.

2) In terms of difficulty, can we get an idea of what changes from a veteran --> commander difficulty line? Eg. in vanilla Xcom 2 legend difficulty not only increases enemy HP , but also increases research time and all facets of development.

3) Are there separate classes/roles for the Sparks similar to what we saw in EW? and can we talk a bit about psionics if it's not too early

Thanks again :D
1) I've worked on it some but it's mostly similar. Psi score is invisible at first but contributes to stat trades. Some new mechanics make up for low mobility -- in particular, you just take less utility items.

2) It's a long, long list. Probably the biggest is the baseline infiltration time is shorter.

3) No, Sparks are just Sparks -- one class. Our main pass at psionics, which we are testing now, will be in our first big update.
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by No1currz »

Speaking of second wave, is there any plan for a training roulette?
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by MaxAstro »

Oh man so much hype. :D

Being able to individually name and assign squads is definitely the thing I am excited most about out of all the changes. Really pairs well with the multi-mission system, which I agree is a huge improvement over fatigue.

Not sure if you can talk about this, but will we be seeing normally retaliation-only aliens outside of those missions? My first playthrough of XCom2 I saw exactly one berserker ever...
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by mattprice516 »

I didn't use the squad management system that much.... until the officer leadership mechanic was added. Now it's one of my favorite features. :)

I'll even record particularly epic missions a squad has in the squad history field (the paragraph JL mentioned).
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

Image

This is the Squad Manager in action. (Not the best pic as some of the best part of the UI isn't shown on this particular screen, but it's the one I got approved)
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by rifleman »

What class icon is on the left of Vega squad, or on the right of Menace squad?
tekronis
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by tekronis »

rifleman wrote:What class icon is on the left of Vega squad, or on the right of Menace squad?
That looks like the Technical
Matanui3
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Matanui3 »

mattprice516 wrote:I didn't use the squad management system that much.... until the officer leadership mechanic was added. Now it's one of my favorite features. :)

I'll even record particularly epic missions a squad has in the squad history field (the paragraph JL mentioned).
I haven't used the Officers from the LWS Offcer Pack much, because of the opportunity cost of sticking a guy in a corner for a few months for some abilities I rarely use. Were they made more worth it?


@devs: It sounds like you may have changed a few of the perks from the Perk Pack iteration of your classes. Will class mods made for the Perk Pack still work with Long War 2?
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Thuraash »

Holy hell, Johnny, that squad and officer system... that's genius! You lot are putting new notches on my hype dial today!

I've got about a million questions, but I'll try to pare it down:

1) Does a squad accrue squad loyalty bonuses as to each member, each officer on the mission, or only as to the officer leading the squad? (can you have more than one officer on a mission?)

2) Have you reintroduced the "Wear and Tear" mechanic so weapons and equipment can fail or be destroyed through fatigue or by the carrying soldier having taken damage on the mission?

3) Does infiltration give any insight as to the enemy force composition? Is there any other way to get some idea as to what you're sending your squad into before you commence the infiltration?

4) Did you consider a feature like the awesome-but-kindof-abandoned Grimy's Morale Mod, where willpower functions as a proxy for fatigue, and soldiers lose willpower by going on a mission, being shot at, seeing each other shot, getting hurt/ciritted, failing a mission, etc., and need time between missions to recover their full stats? It could be really compelling to have more fleshed out debuffs, like defense and aim penalties in addition to willpower to capture the feel of a squad running itself ragged, making mistakes, and just grinding through a mission because it's got to be done.

This one's more of a feature request, but did you consider allowing the player to station groups of more than one soldier in havens? The player would lose access to those troops and their equipment except when the Avenger visits that haven, or maybe as off-map reinforcements in a mission in that district. The perk of stationing troops would be that those XCOM troops (and ONLY those XCOM troops) will participate in defenses against surprise retaliation attacks that the player doesn't detect in advance, with the remainder of the defensive ranks filled out with undertrained resistance fighters. Essentially, the player may want to "park" a squad in a really hot zone to hold down the fort and pitch in on missions with a slightly reduced infiltration rate penalty. They'll be on the ground and at the ready to help deal with the shit as it hits the fan.

Thanks for all your hard work! You folks literally made XCOM:EU/EW for me, and by all appearances you're going to bring me sprinting back to XCOM2 as well!
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by johnnylump »

Thuraash wrote:Holy hell, Johnny, that squad and officer system... that's genius! You lot are putting new notches on my hype dial today!

I've got about a million questions, but I'll try to pare it down:

1) Does a squad accrue squad loyalty bonuses as to each member, each officer on the mission, or only as to the officer leading the squad? (can you have more than one officer on a mission?)

2) Have you reintroduced the "Wear and Tear" mechanic so weapons and equipment can fail or be destroyed through fatigue or by the carrying soldier having taken damage on the mission?

3) Does infiltration give any insight as to the enemy force composition? Is there any other way to get some idea as to what you're sending your squad into before you commence the infiltration?

4) Did you consider a feature like the awesome-but-kindof-abandoned Grimy's Morale Mod, where willpower functions as a proxy for fatigue, and soldiers lose willpower by going on a mission, being shot at, seeing each other shot, getting hurt/ciritted, failing a mission, etc., and need time between missions to recover their full stats? It could be really compelling to have more fleshed out debuffs, like defense and aim penalties in addition to willpower to capture the feel of a squad running itself ragged, making mistakes, and just grinding through a mission because it's got to be done.

This one's more of a feature request, but did you consider allowing the player to station groups of more than one soldier in havens? The player would lose access to those troops and their equipment except when the Avenger visits that haven, or maybe as off-map reinforcements in a mission in that district. The perk of stationing troops would be that those XCOM troops (and ONLY those XCOM troops) will participate in defenses against surprise retaliation attacks that the player doesn't detect in advance, with the remainder of the defensive ranks filled out with undertrained resistance fighters. Essentially, the player may want to "park" a squad in a really hot zone to hold down the fort and pitch in on missions with a slightly reduced infiltration rate penalty. They'll be on the ground and at the ready to help deal with the shit as it hits the fan.

Thanks for all your hard work! You folks literally made XCOM:EU/EW for me, and by all appearances you're going to bring me sprinting back to XCOM2 as well!
1) The relationship is officer to soldier, so the bonuses are applied to the soldier (it's infiltration, will and dodge) if the soldier goes on additional missions when that officer is leading the mission. You can take additional officers on mission, but they don't get officer abilities and don't apply bonuses to squadmates.

2) No. The purpose of that mechanic was to get you to build more than enough gear to equip a single squad. The infiltration mechanic now requires it, so it's no longer needed.

3) You get numbers, but not composition. The Shadow Chamber no longer provides information on composition either.

4) No, but it sounds like an excellent addon :)

5) We talked about stationing multiple soldiers per Haven but it seemed fiddly for not too much extra gameplay gain. The rest of your post I'll have to wait to address.
tekronis
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by tekronis »

Question from Reddit:
If you do a mission in a region you have stolen MECs in, could you have them show up in that mission, similar to how Resistance soldiers already do?
Frozen Shepard
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by Frozen Shepard »

When we have a mission where the objective is to get to the evac zone, will we get corpses now or no?
deducter
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Re: Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

Post by deducter »

Exciting stuff!

About the multi-mission quest lines, is there one where the resistance investigates the secret behind those damn, juicy Advent burgers?
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