DLC Support

[Sines]

So, I'll be the first to admit that the DLC for XCOM 2 is... underwhelming. While Pavonis did do a good job of making the SPARK a useful unit, they pretty much haven't touched Alien Hunters, and with so many active soldiers and only 7 unique items to go around (once completed) the rewards just don't feel worth it. Now, this wouldn't be so bad, except for one major problem. In Vanilla, you can just enable the story mission, and then completely ignore it until the end game, where you can easily kill all the bosses, if you so desire. In Long War, however, if you enable the story mission... then the story mission 'eats' one of your Points of Interest. Instead of getting Avenger Power or an extra Contact or something useful, you get a mission you intend to ignore. Sure, you get the Hunter Weapons from it, but you still have to pay a lot to upgrade them, which means they're a VERY temporary bonus at best.

There's also the issue that the Alien Rulers were balanced around the idea of using your 6 best soldiers (maybe with one or two on the bench) at all times, rather than maybe some missions with your top fighters and some with your C or D team, who make up for a lack of skill with sheer numbers (like my Trial By Fire Boot Camp, love that skill, by the way), which really just makes things worse. Granted, soldiers are stronger in general in Long War, but the rulers showing up against a C-team is really painful, unless you put the mission off until much later in the game.

Honestly, I'm just tempted to ignore all my Alien Hunters content, find a table of Points of Interest rewards, roll a die, and console myself in the reward. I wish I had actually uninstalled the DLC, like Xwynn did.

Shen's Last Gift is a little bit better. While a mission to win a free SPARK isn't exactly a good reward, SPARKs are expensive, and they do require a Proving Grounds (not usually a high priority for me) as well as time spent building in it, rather than something more useful. However, since SPARKs don't get Shredder for free anymore, and Shredding is just rarer in general, a debuff to Julians Armor would be warranted. Especially given that I'm giving up a 'proper' POI for this. Alternatively, I could just turn the story mission off and build one for myself, if I don't think the 'deal' of the story mission is a good one. Both are much better than the 'better off uninstalled' status for Alien Hunters.

[8wayz]

Concerning Shen's Last Gift, equipping everyone with Armor Piercing rounds makes the mission a cakewalk.

You have to also keep in mind that not everyone owns all of the DLC so it is not that too high of a priority to try and improve upon them at the moment.

If anything, we need a way to unlock more repair slots for SPARKs in the Engineering bay, as their repair time is long.

The Alien Rulers do follow some rules though - they should not appear on timed missions, so in general you should be able to field a larger and better-trained squad when you do face them.

[Sines]

I can certainly understand why not paying too much attention to the DLC isn't a big priority. Since it wasn't popular, a lot of people aren't going to have it. However, if Pavonis would just add a "Disable Alien Hunters Entirely" button to the new campaign options, that'd be a nice temporary fix. Or if they made it so that the Vipers Nest (and possibly Lost Towers) didn't 'use up' a POI, that'd work too. I'm not sure how easy an option to disable Alien Hunters would be, but I'd imagine not tying the story missions to a reward-POI would be fairly easy (or perhaps making them a bonus POI reward, so you get a regular one, and then a story one).

Just calling attention to things, so maybe there can be some quick fix for the next patch, before they decide to really take the time to work with the DLC.

[Tuhalu]

You can uninstall any DLC in your Steam library. Just go to the entry for XCOM2, find the DLC list and click the tickbox to unselect the DLC. It will uninstall and you can start a new campaign without the DLC at all. Obviously, it's a bad idea to do that in the middle of a campaign.

[Sines]

Oh, I know, I mentioned how I wish I did that in my original post. I just mentioned a UI button to uninstall it would be a nice quick fix as an option next to the more favorable "Is a free POI" option.

[moroniccinamun]

I actually made a post wondering more or less the same things, but put not-so-well I guess (no responses, rip).

I'm a total noob but I too find the Alien Hunters pretty bad (in the imbalanced/not worth it way) like you said, I was wondering if 1.3 in anyway made it easier with the general more combat less stealth orientation.

I gotta say though at least in my multiple attempts in 1.2, I did not struggle on Lost Towers at all, even with little to no lasers: just bring plenty of frags and use Shen's zaps against Julian liberally. Having done the mission many times also helps because you know when you can just end turn to refresh your cooldowns a bunch of times, if you must.

[sarge945]

So wait, what's the point of uninstalling the Alien Hunters DLC when I can just disable it in the New Game menu?

#uninformed

[Tuhalu]

So wait, what's the point of uninstalling the Alien Hunters DLC when I can just disable it in the New Game menu?

#uninformed

In the New Game Menu, you can only turn off the Mission associated with the DLC. All other features of the DLC are still there.

So for Alien Hunters you'll get the POI for the Hunter weapons and the Alien Rulers will turn up. For Shen's Last Gift, you'll still be able to build SPARKs by doing a proving ground project.

[Sines]

So wait, what's the point of uninstalling the Alien Hunters DLC when I can just disable it in the New Game menu?

#uninformed

If you turn off the story mission for the Alien Hunters DLC, the Rulers will show up on their own, making the game harder. If you turn on the story mission, the Vipers Nest mission will 'eat up' one of your Points of Interest, effectively wasting a resource if you didn't want to activate it to fight the Rulers.

It's not a problem for Shen's Last Gift, because you can turn off the story mission, and then not build any SPARKs at all if you don't want to.

However, since Long War 2 isn't balanced for Alien Hunters (the one-of-a-kind rewards fit much better when you're fielding a single squad of 6 than several squads of 5 to 10) then it's going to be common player choice to not want to do it at all. However, in order to do that without uninstalling, you need to waste a POI and leave a mission stuck on your bar forever.

[saroscycler]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/comments/ ... ched_to_a/

[sarge945]

It would be really nice if Long War 2 could be balanced around Alien Hunters. It kind of sucks not being able to play a DLC I paid for properly

Of course all balancing would have to be optional so as to not punish people who didn't buy it.

I think making the alien nest an extra poi that doesn't waste your poi slots would be good. Also, maybe find a way to balance both the rulers and the rewards.

The alien Hunter weapons get bad as soon as you get laser. Maybe they should upgrade with your weapon tiers.

Although the conceal ability on the pistol is pretty much always useful

[Sines]

The Boltcaster needs the most help. In Vanilla, it was a weapon for Specialists and Psi-Ops, who didn't use their gun often, and even then it was kind of underpowered once you got Mag Weapons. Now that weapons are stronger, and SMGs exist for those non-shooting classes, it's just not worth it at all. Throw in that you now get three weapon mod slots from turn one, and you still can't mod the Bow Caster, and it's garbage.

The Axe and Flintlock are good, although I do think the Axe could stand to be cheaper, since with less +Aim, it is a side-grade. The Axe Throw is great, but it's once per mission, making it most useful in Guerilla Ops, which aren't life-changing anyway. Again, not bad, but probably more expensive than it's worth.

The Flintlocks main problem is that it has to compete with five tiers of basic pistols. Ballistic Pistols are pretty crap, so the un-upgraded Shadowcaster is only good for concealment (and given that it no longer guarantees a hit, and you have to kill with a 1-3 damage weapon, that's questionable). Lasers take over for a while, but it may be worth purchasing the Mag Flintlock. But it falls behind again with Gauss weapons, and the lack of Rupture on Faceoff means that a standard pistol might be better. The Shadowcaster cost so much given what it has to compete with. I think it's conceal ability should at least be given it's Clutch Shot status back.

Frost Bomb needs something too. It's competing with Incendiary and Sting Grenades. Sure, the Frost Bomb is 'free' with the other three weapons, but it really should stand out as a one-of-a-kind weapon. Maybe you could be able to upgrade it to do damage as well as freeze?

The biggest problem with the suits is that you have to devote both research time, and proving grounds time, to produce a single piece of armor that is only modestly better than the alternatives. When you consider all your other research priorities, there's really no reason to trigger Vipers Nest until you're near the end of a campaign, when you'd be able to spare the time on these suits. That it makes the Rulers easier to kill helps too. Production time on the suits needs to be drastically reduced, or the effects need to be strongly boosted.

I can definitely see why all of this isn't really a priority. Even if they do a good job of adapting the stuff, they're still working with a hit-or-miss DLC. Unless they do an overhaul on the content, people will still not be super-excited.

[Jacke]

The Axe Throw is great, but it's once per mission....

There's a mod, "Reusable Hunters Axe", that allows the thrown axe to be picked up the turn after and later in the location of the target it was thrown at.

I like the Alien Hunters weapons, although I do imagine they're less of an improvement in LW2 than in vanilla XCOM 2. I've made good use of the Frost Bomb in early LW2 play, freezing whole Advent pods on Green Alert. Even with smaller pods, it can be a good tool to lock out an enemy or 2 during battle.

[stefan3iii]

The alien hunter weapons are interesting I find. The hunter's axe is really strong, particularly early game, and is worth upgrading throughout the game. Frost bomb is very strong, though is replaced a bit by incendiaries.

Shen's last gift, I like SPARKs thematically and they're the only real "tank" in this game, because they can take damage without going into the infirmary. That makes them very distinct from the other classes. The real problem with the DLC is the mission, which is fun the first time (I didn't have any shredder\AP for the boss), but is then a really tediously long trivial mission once you know how it works.

I kind of wish the alien rulers could only specifically appear on a Ruler Mission, rather than any mission in the game. This new mission type would have to be detected/infiltrated/etc, and you'd know you have to expect one of the rulers and come prepared.

[Sines]

I kind of wish the alien rulers could only specifically appear on a Ruler Mission, rather than any mission in the game. This new mission type would have to be detected/infiltrated/etc, and you'd know you have to expect one of the rulers and come prepared.

That would be interesting. Make the Rulers not run away, and design more missions akin to Vipers Nest. Then, make each Ruler mission function like a supply raid, where the Ruler Suit is just one particularly notable benefit, alongside the treasure trove of supplies available in whatever place the Ruler has setup shop. Perhaps the Berserker Queen has attacked a Muton Cloning facility to 'free' it's subjects. And the Archon is trying to repair a UFO for itself.