(Apologies if this is in the wrong section)
So, I was wondering for those veteran long warriors who have had experience with LW1 (I didn't personally), and possibly the devs and their personal thoughts.
One of the things that LW1 was widely known for was its difficulty, and from my initial experiences LW2 is the same case. Some missions are downright brutal, some unwinnable, and an important part of the strategy is realizing a no-win scenario.
But for those who have played both, even if not as much experience with LW2 (obviously, it did just come out after all), how do they compare? Both have a big difficulty increase from vanilla, but which one is harder from your experiences so far?
Difficulty Comparisons
Re: Difficulty Comparisons
Thusfar, LW2 has remained more 'consistently' and 'fairly' challenging, in my experience. I've had some tough situations, but the expanded tools at my disposal + some careful planning means that the missions I've considered winnable have been winnable through a little strategizing.
Though this may just be because we don't have thin men and their nonsense 99%-to-hit regardless of how many defense buffs their target has.
Though this may just be because we don't have thin men and their nonsense 99%-to-hit regardless of how many defense buffs their target has.
Re: Difficulty Comparisons
Long War 2 feels a lot smoother due to several reasons:
- It is past the beta phase. Long War 1 was for almost 2 years in beta and there were some rough spots, for example alien progression did not have any limits and people playing up to 3-4 years in-game (yes, there were such players) reported that the aliens received absurd stats. Later Johnny decided to put a hard limit to how much aliens may advance.
- The Infiltration mechanic allows for a lot more flexibility than the Fatigue one. It also allows you to use smaller and less heavy-handed squads, unlike Long War 1 which pushed you to go bigger and more brutal as the game advanced.
- Haven management gives you a lot more control on Geoscape affairs, for example if you focus on Intel gathering, a lot of the missions in that region will be detected earlier and you will have more time to infiltrate. Compare this to Long War 1, where you could only move Interceptors around and change their armament. Geoscape management here has direct effect on Battlescape difficulty.
- Concentration of numbers. In Long War 1 the team went overboard with alien numbers compared to the absolute size (in tiles ) of the Battescape maps. From midgame onwards missions could have 30+ aliens, but there wasn't enough space, neither cover for both XCOM and the aliens. This resulted in activating 2 pods on turn 2 for up to 15 aliens against you with almost no cover. Here maps are bigger and they seem to have put some emphasis on the Reinforcement mechanic, so you do not get swarmed in the first 3 turns.
They did put a Second Wave option that reduced alien numbers by 60% just before launching Long War 1.0, but that was after a lot of brutal testing.
- Psions are now a separate class, which works a lot better since they can learn all psionic skills if need be. In Long War 1 just to get to the last rank in the Psion's ladder you had to have around 30+ missions on that soldier, as Psi XP was gained only via missions and not using abilities. Take this with a grain of salt though, as I have yet to use PSI in Long War 2.
All in all, Long War 2 seems to be a lot more polished and handles better, both in Battlescape and Geoscape.
- It is past the beta phase. Long War 1 was for almost 2 years in beta and there were some rough spots, for example alien progression did not have any limits and people playing up to 3-4 years in-game (yes, there were such players) reported that the aliens received absurd stats. Later Johnny decided to put a hard limit to how much aliens may advance.
- The Infiltration mechanic allows for a lot more flexibility than the Fatigue one. It also allows you to use smaller and less heavy-handed squads, unlike Long War 1 which pushed you to go bigger and more brutal as the game advanced.
- Haven management gives you a lot more control on Geoscape affairs, for example if you focus on Intel gathering, a lot of the missions in that region will be detected earlier and you will have more time to infiltrate. Compare this to Long War 1, where you could only move Interceptors around and change their armament. Geoscape management here has direct effect on Battlescape difficulty.
- Concentration of numbers. In Long War 1 the team went overboard with alien numbers compared to the absolute size (in tiles ) of the Battescape maps. From midgame onwards missions could have 30+ aliens, but there wasn't enough space, neither cover for both XCOM and the aliens. This resulted in activating 2 pods on turn 2 for up to 15 aliens against you with almost no cover. Here maps are bigger and they seem to have put some emphasis on the Reinforcement mechanic, so you do not get swarmed in the first 3 turns.
They did put a Second Wave option that reduced alien numbers by 60% just before launching Long War 1.0, but that was after a lot of brutal testing.
- Psions are now a separate class, which works a lot better since they can learn all psionic skills if need be. In Long War 1 just to get to the last rank in the Psion's ladder you had to have around 30+ missions on that soldier, as Psi XP was gained only via missions and not using abilities. Take this with a grain of salt though, as I have yet to use PSI in Long War 2.
All in all, Long War 2 seems to be a lot more polished and handles better, both in Battlescape and Geoscape.
Re: Difficulty Comparisons
Yeah, I would say that LW2 is more fair. There seem to be fewer opportunities for bad RNG to punish you, and you aren't pushed to make a great start out of the gate or have the whole run blown in the first few missions. (I would say that LW2 is an easier early game then vanilla Legend, not because it lacks challenge, but because it doesn't just wreck your run if you lose one guy.) You get SOOOO much more feedback on the state of the tactical mission you are entering, and even an aborted early mission will level your rookies.
Even though choosing your battles was supposed to be a thing in LW1, I found myself constantly pressured to take every possible mission because I desperately needed resources and XP. LW2 makes me feel much better about aborts and outright ignoring missions.
Generally Long War requires you to think about your approach. Vanilla tends to be about leveling up six OP soldiers who kill everything on contact, while LW is about building and using cohesive squads who synergize with one another. In LW1 such a squad could be devastatingly effective, and I expect the same from LW2.
Even though choosing your battles was supposed to be a thing in LW1, I found myself constantly pressured to take every possible mission because I desperately needed resources and XP. LW2 makes me feel much better about aborts and outright ignoring missions.
Generally Long War requires you to think about your approach. Vanilla tends to be about leveling up six OP soldiers who kill everything on contact, while LW is about building and using cohesive squads who synergize with one another. In LW1 such a squad could be devastatingly effective, and I expect the same from LW2.