Long War 2 feature announce: Strategy layer changes

[ShockmasterFred]

Fantastic. It seems that roster management is going to be a huge part of this game and that excites me more than anything.

Will soldiers sent out on infiltration still be accruing XP to gain levels/perks?

@Krylos... I enjoyed your post so much. You sounded like a kid at Christmas furung out excited rapid fire questions. "And what about... but what about?....and how about...? Just great posting.

To the guy who thinks taking back a region is "extreme". That is literally the purpose of the game. So taking back a region is not only not extreme, but intuitively feels like it was missing from vanilla.

[johnnylump]

And what about continent bonuses? Have you guys touched it?

Only a little. Mostly the same.

[johnnylump]

What about Continent Bonuses? Have you guys touched it? And how placing radio towers affects the infiltration mechanic?

Radio Towers: They help all your rebels work better, including the intel section, so you are more likely to detect missions with additional time left to infiltrate.

[Torquemada]

Everything here sounds awesome and I can't wait to play this. A few questions to satisfy my curiosity:

* Are you using the same binaries for XCOM2 as us mortals currently have? (no need to go into detail, if you prefer a yes/no it's fine)

* Is this design for the resistance management somehow inspired by 1992's Dune by Cryo Interactive? Can we draw some parallels to other existing games, to get a general idea?

* What is "Enemy Materiel"? Will there be additional currencies to manage besides supplies, intel, elerium, alloys and corpses? If so, can you talk about what is their purpose?

* You mentioned that upgrades no longer work on your entire gear and you have to create each piece individually. Is this also true for basic gear like grenades and rifles, i.e. you no longer have an infinite amount of those?

* I'm not sure if I got this right: is the Avenger required to be on a particular region in order to perform the mission after infiltration time is elapsed? What if you need it somewhere, can you leave a team simmering in that region until you go back to it? Or are infiltration missions cancelled when you move away?

Thanks in advance.

[johnnylump]

So you can completely liberate region from the Advent? Isn't that kind of... extreme? I do not think that the resistance can actually overcome the legions of Mutons and sektopods which aliens disposes.

It's basically what happens in the end of vanilla, except all at once. We break it into parts. You really only have to liberate one region to win the campaign; the rest are optional (but still useful to do).

[mattprice516]

Will soldiers sent out on infiltration still be accruing XP to gain levels/perks?

So, when you send soldiers out on infiltration it culminates in a mission, where you'll get mission and kill XP based on how you do (like in vanilla). Kill XP is significantly less important in LW2 though - mission success matters more.

[rloutlaw]

You mention that there's some degree of control that XCOM can gain over map regions and that fighting for control of an area is a thing. Is there any concept to the player (via bonuses or penalties to strategic layer mechanics) or to the AI (smarter to build facilities far away from regions where there is trouble) of operating away from ADVENT controlled territory?

Long way of asking if there's a "front" to this war of resistance, or if it is more of a diffuse/widespread thing.

[johnnylump]

1) You got it. And, yes, it works better than fatigue because it also ties up your gear while you are infiltrating. We've calibrated unique gear costs because of it (and it's also why we dropped the schematics system).

@JL, does that mean "Fatigue" factor is out of the game? Because fatigue + multi-mission may be too intimidating

Yeah, we don't have fatigue as well. I kicked around something like a 24-hour fatigue period after a mission, but that ultimately seemed too fiddly on top of the infiltration mechanic and normal wounds.

[johnnylump]

Everything here sounds awesome and I can't wait to play this. A few questions to satisfy my curiosity:

* Are you using the same binaries for XCOM2 as us mortals currently have? (no need to go into detail, if you prefer a yes/no it's fine)

* Is this design for the resistance management somehow inspired by 1992's Dune by Cryo Interactive? Can we draw some parallels to other existing games, to get a general idea?

* What is "Enemy Materiel"? Will there be additional currencies to manage besides supplies, intel, elerium, alloys and corpses? If so, can you talk about what is their purpose?

* You mentioned that upgrades no longer work on your entire gear and you have to create each piece individually. Is this also true for basic gear like grenades and rifles, i.e. you no longer have an infinite amount of those?

* I'm not sure if I got this right: is the Avenger required to be on a particular region in order to perform the mission after infiltration time is elapsed? What if you need it somewhere, can you leave a team simmering in that region until you go back to it? Or are infiltration missions cancelled when you move away?

Thanks in advance.

1. We're using the same exe and other binaries.
2. Hrm, hard to say. We didn't set out to emulate other systems, just went with what seemed good in the X2 storyline.
3. "Materiel" is just shorthand for supplies, elerium and alloys.
4. Conventional gear you have in infinite quantities.
5. Infiltrations remain active when the Avenger leaves a region. The Avenger will fly there automatically when you need to drop off or pick up a squad.

[johnnylump]

You mention that there's some degree of control that XCOM can gain over map regions and that fighting for control of an area is a thing. Is there any concept to the player (via bonuses or penalties to strategic layer mechanics) or to the AI (smarter to build facilities far away from regions where there is trouble) of operating away from ADVENT controlled territory?

Long way of asking if there's a "front" to this war of resistance, or if it is more of a diffuse/widespread thing.

So regions can either be liberated or not. If it's liberated there are very few things Advent can do there, plus you get resource bonuses. Advent regions have a 'strength' value that represents how many troops they have there. This value determines the baseline mission difficulty in each region. The aliens will move around troops from one region to another in response to XCOM activity. The AI also makes other decisions based on XCOM activity and strength in a given region.

[No1currz]

Everything here sounds awesome and I can't wait to play this. A few questions to satisfy my curiosity:

* Are you using the same binaries for XCOM2 as us mortals currently have? (no need to go into detail, if you prefer a yes/no it's fine)

1. We're using the same exe and other binaries.

I don't know if this has already been asked, but just to clarify... will LW2 be released as a mod, DLC or a standalone installer?

Thanks

[johnnylump]

Everything here sounds awesome and I can't wait to play this. A few questions to satisfy my curiosity:

* Are you using the same binaries for XCOM2 as us mortals currently have? (no need to go into detail, if you prefer a yes/no it's fine)

1. We're using the same exe and other binaries.

I don't know if this has already been asked, but just to clarify... will LW2 be released as a mod, DLC or a standalone installer?

Thanks

Free mod on Workshop and Nexus.

[Sevireth]

XCOM2 must have been the first game in the series - and the spinoffs, too - to not have the option of proper flight in tactical gameplay. Do you have any intention of reintroducing it?

[No1currz]

1. We're using the same exe and other binaries.

I don't know if this has already been asked, but just to clarify... will LW2 be released as a mod, DLC or a standalone installer?

Thanks

Free mod on Workshop and Nexus.

That was my first instinct, considering your past releases. But, once the scope and depth of this hit me, I suddenly realised that DLC would not be out of the question.

Thanks for your quick response

[johnnylump]

XCOM2 must have been the first game in the series - and the spinoffs, too - to not have the option of proper flight in tactical gameplay. Do you have any intention of reintroducing it?

You mean an interceptor game? Nope.

[ZutCorp]

I still can't believe this is going to be free. Thanks to everyone involved!

How is the difficulty going to be? Will there be a gentler intro difficulty or is it going to be lw1 hard?

[Badman_bacon777]

XCOM2 must have been the first game in the series - and the spinoffs, too - to not have the option of proper flight in tactical gameplay. Do you have any intention of reintroducing it?

You mean an interceptor game? Nope.

I think they were referring to soldiers and aliens flying: Archangel suit; Floaters etc.
It was a great mechanic and a strange thing to take out from EU/EW

[rifleman]

If I send 6 soldiers to infiltration. When the mission spawn, I could only control this 6 soldiers to battle or I could seend Skyrangers bring more soldiers to support them?

What is Chameleon Suit foir? Increase Infiltration or reduce enemey detect range?

[No1currz]

We break it into parts. You really only have to liberate one region to win the campaign; the rest are optional (but still useful to do).

In vanilla you were encouraged to develop a worldwide network as it would keep spawning missions that progressed the story line in undiscovered(?) regions. Are you saying that we could win the game by just focusing on one region? is that viable and/or encouraged?

[No1currz]

If I send 6 soldiers to infiltration. When the mission spawn, I could only control this 6 soldiers to battle or I could seend Skyrangers bring more soldiers to support them?

OMG that would be an awesome leader perk. shoot off a flare and a dropship comes and brings your squad back to full strength with random people from your roster

[johnnylump]

I still can't believe this is going to be free. Thanks to everyone involved!

How is the difficulty going to be? Will there be a gentler intro difficulty or is it going to be lw1 hard?

We left in a rookie difficulty this time around. Veteran is probably a good starting point for most players; it took several campaigns but our testers have gotten pretty good at it. Commander and Legend are increasing levels of nasty.

[johnnylump]

XCOM2 must have been the first game in the series - and the spinoffs, too - to not have the option of proper flight in tactical gameplay. Do you have any intention of reintroducing it?

You mean an interceptor game? Nope.

I think they were referring to soldiers and aliens flying: Archangel suit; Floaters etc.
It was a great mechanic and a strange thing to take out from EU/EW

Ah, no we didn't reintroduce flight armor like that.

[johnnylump]

If I send 6 soldiers to infiltration. When the mission spawn, I could only control this 6 soldiers to battle or I could seend Skyrangers bring more soldiers to support them?

You're stuck with those six.

[johnnylump]

We break it into parts. You really only have to liberate one region to win the campaign; the rest are optional (but still useful to do).

In vanilla you were encouraged to develop a worldwide network as it would keep spawning missions that progressed the story line in undiscovered(?) regions. Are you saying that we could win the game by just focusing on one region? is that viable and/or encouraged?

You definitely need to develop a worldwide network.

[rifleman]

Thanks for reply!
I have another questions:
What is Chameleon Suit foir? Do it increase Infiltration and reduce enemey detect range?

How many turns will the Skyranger fly in when infiltration on 100% and 200%?

Thank you!