A bug in another mod made my LW2 experience better (about PCS)
Posted: Mon May 22, 2017 6:14 pm
Shadow Ops Long War 2 Class Pack http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... shadow+ops
Had a bug until a recent fix (tested, it's fixed now) that allowed soldiers to stack PCS. The class pack contains a perk that adds a second PCS slot, and the bug was on soldiers who only had one. http://www.pavonisinteractive.com/phpBB ... 17&t=25993
I went ahead and played most of a campaign with this bug, and leveraged it strategically. What I got was: There's no more "throwaway" PCS, or placeholder "until I get damage control for this guy" PCS. "Acquire common PCS" becomes a meaningful hack reward instead of just being "Acquire a small amount of supplies" re-worded. I ACTUALLY CARED ABOUT IRON SKIN AND BODY SHIELD.
Even with all the PCS obtained in a campaign, it isn't enough to outfit everybody with everything. Sure hyper reactive pupils could add value on just about any soldier who isn't a concealed holotargeter, but even with buying all I could at the black market I barely had enough for all of my shoot-twice soldiers. They became a meaningful resource like alloys or elerium, and I was actively trying to fight people on stealth missions for the loot drops despite the threat of overwhelming RNF. Aim PCS still mostly went to snipers, but often I'd throw a bunch of common PCS on a newly acquired soldier before sending them out to fight just to make sure they could pull their weight. The way the bug worked, I couldn't place more advanced PCS of the same stat onto the same soldier, so it was a sacrifice of their potential for becoming gods among men after acquiring more superior PCS.
Did it break the game balance? OH yeah. That isn't hard to fathom. I abandoned that campaign because it felt really solved toward the end, and 1.3 / other mods I wanted to try came out so I wanted to start a new one rather than fiddle. I think game balance is a bit beside the point though: now that the bug is fixed I find myself once again saying "How many of these 5 combat awareness PCS should I sell?" and seeing them as a failed roll on something good being in the black market. If I pick up modding (have been considering it), I'll probably look into making a mod that does this bug on purpose, at least for myself.
Had a bug until a recent fix (tested, it's fixed now) that allowed soldiers to stack PCS. The class pack contains a perk that adds a second PCS slot, and the bug was on soldiers who only had one. http://www.pavonisinteractive.com/phpBB ... 17&t=25993
I went ahead and played most of a campaign with this bug, and leveraged it strategically. What I got was: There's no more "throwaway" PCS, or placeholder "until I get damage control for this guy" PCS. "Acquire common PCS" becomes a meaningful hack reward instead of just being "Acquire a small amount of supplies" re-worded. I ACTUALLY CARED ABOUT IRON SKIN AND BODY SHIELD.
Even with all the PCS obtained in a campaign, it isn't enough to outfit everybody with everything. Sure hyper reactive pupils could add value on just about any soldier who isn't a concealed holotargeter, but even with buying all I could at the black market I barely had enough for all of my shoot-twice soldiers. They became a meaningful resource like alloys or elerium, and I was actively trying to fight people on stealth missions for the loot drops despite the threat of overwhelming RNF. Aim PCS still mostly went to snipers, but often I'd throw a bunch of common PCS on a newly acquired soldier before sending them out to fight just to make sure they could pull their weight. The way the bug worked, I couldn't place more advanced PCS of the same stat onto the same soldier, so it was a sacrifice of their potential for becoming gods among men after acquiring more superior PCS.
Did it break the game balance? OH yeah. That isn't hard to fathom. I abandoned that campaign because it felt really solved toward the end, and 1.3 / other mods I wanted to try came out so I wanted to start a new one rather than fiddle. I think game balance is a bit beside the point though: now that the bug is fixed I find myself once again saying "How many of these 5 combat awareness PCS should I sell?" and seeing them as a failed roll on something good being in the black market. If I pick up modding (have been considering it), I'll probably look into making a mod that does this bug on purpose, at least for myself.