Xcom 2 Overhaul Mods
In my nearly 300 hours of playing XCOM 2 and two long, Long War 2 campaigns, I’ve gone through the Steam Workshop several times over and gone through all of the mods available. I decided to make a quick list of mods everyone definitely needs to be using while playing LW2.
All of these mods are compatible with Long War 2 according to the official LW2 Mod Compatibility List and I have personally tested them in my own campaigns and played many long hours with them.All of these mods are available in the Steam Workshop and installation is as easy as clicking “subscribe” then waiting for it to download. The next time you start up XCOM 2 the mod should appear in the launcher. Make sure it is checked in the launcher so that it is enabled. Must Have Long War 2 Compatible Mod ListInformation / Gameplay Clarification mods that are basically must-haves in X-COM 2 and LW2. These mods provide information that you really need to know before making a move or attack. These are so vital that they really should be included, at least as toggle-able menu option, in base XCOM 2.
Maybe we will see these in XCOM 3 by default. LOS Preview Ability – When activated it shows the sight lines and range wherever you put your cursor. Useful to see if you will activate a pod, or to check if your move will give you the sight line you want. Trees and buildings etc will block view sometimes and this shows that. It also will display the movement range of each enemy in sight so you can predict where patrols will stop.
NOTE: When you activate this it will tank your framerate, but only when you turn it on. It is still very useful, but that issue makes it not quite perfect. Also using this on different elevations is sometimes confusing, but its still better than nothing. Perfect Information – Displays the actual hit, dodge and crit chance whenever you or an enemy takes a shot.
Very helpful for seeing what% chance the enemy had to hit you, also shows overwatch hit chance which otherwise is never shown. Blackmarket Usage – In the blackmarket you can see what items are used for what research, or engineering projects so you can decide whether or not to sell them. A minor improvement, but it can be handy. Additional Icons – Nice little addition – shows damage, aim, and movement range of enemies above their health bar. Also shows if they are carrying loot which I like, although that could be considered a slight cheat. Gotcha (Flank Preview Evolved) – VERY useful.
Easily see if the tile you are currently hovering over will let the currently active soldier have a shot, no shot, or a flank on all enemies by changing a small icon over each enemies head as you scroll around. Evac All – simply adds a button on the ability toolbar when a soldier is in an EVAC zone that lets you evac everyone standing in the zone at once. Without this you might have to individual click Evac for 10 soldiers plus like 13 civilians/resistance members on some missions. True Concealment for LW2: (make sure to get this one – the original True Concealment is not compatible with LW2). The mission timer will not count down until your squad is first revealed from concealment.
Not only does this just make sense story-wise in most missions, but it also allows you to carefully scout and plan out a mission even if it has a timer. Alternate option: increase the default mission timers by manually editing the ini file. This is a personal preference. I generally played on veteran difficulty and found the mission timers to often be a few turns too short.
Some missions would require your whole squad to fully dash every turn just to reach the evac zone. While it was rare for it to be that bad, I did find far too often that I had to give up on any strategy and just head straight for the objective.
Rookie difficulty probably has the right amount of turns. For Veteran and harder difficulties I found adding 3 to 6 made the game much more strategic and enjoyable. To manually change the mission timers go to the following folder on your computer: Steam Install LocationSteamappsWorkshop74609configXCOMLWOverhaul.ini Ctrl +F to search for “MISSION TIMERS” Adjust as you like. Optional Mods that I recommend:. Armor mods – I avoided them at first but after finding a few good armor and soldier customization mods I really like the extra soldier customization. These are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay balance.
Here are a few I like:. More clothes options (and other stuffs). Stenchfury Modular Helmets.
Best Xcom 2 Wotc Mods
Stenchfury Modular Armors. Capnbubs Accessories Pack.
Jsleezys Repurposed Gear. Heroes Pack (some of these actually look really bad, cheesy, or dumb, but if you combine some of these with other armors you can make some interesting characters). More Armor Colors. XCOM EU/EW Ports: Helmets.
Uniforms Manager (note this seemed slightly buggy. It may have been the cause of a few crashes and it definitely caused a problem that breaks the “make utility items available” on the squad select screen.
Mod List Xcom 2
However it is useful for saving base outfits that you can then apply quickly to other soldiers. Character Pool Mods and Packs – add customized soldiers that other people created to your game. They will randomly appear as soldiers you can recruit. Make sure you turn on the option in the menu to use custom soldiers from your character pool. Some people understandably may not like these because most character pools don’t fit into the XCOM universe.
I like them because its easier to get “attached” and remember a new Nicolas Cage recruit than some randomly generated John Smith default soldier. Aliens Character Pool. Game of Thrones Characterpool with House Sigils. Save your own customized soldiers to the character pool whenever you make them. Then they can reappear in future campaigns.Mods to avoid for Long War 2:. Sopa de caracol acordes.
Avoid new map packs: While Long War 2 is actually fully compatible with them, I noticed that some of the map sizes in some map packs make certain missions like timed missions basically impossible in Long War 2. Unless the map pack specifically says it is tested and designed to be balanced for Long War 2 I would avoid it. Avoid new and customized enemies. Again this is a balance issue, if you have a bunch of new enemy types appearing at the wrong times of the game it could make it too hard or too easy in LW2.
Avoid new weapons and items mods: again a balance issue and this can interfere with some of LW2’s changes. LW2 has plenty of new weapons and items already.
Custom classes – once again a balance issue. Long War 2 already has new, unique classes so I don’t feel this is needed. Check the official XCOM 2 Mod Compatibility list for any other mods you’re interested in.Important note: before adding any mods always make a separate backup of your XCOM 2 save game. Once you install a mod, then save the game, usually you will need to have that mod always installed in order to keep playing that save game. If you don’t like the mod or it crashes that result in your campaign being lost. I’d recommend testing out mods for stability and to see if you like them before even starting your real campaign.
I'm excited for LW2. I loved the first one. But it's timing makes me worried.This is around the time that EW was announced for EU. Instead, xcom 2 has been devoting resources to help the LW team with their new overhaul mod. Which makes me sad because I'm 99% sure that means there will not be an expansion.They would not release an overhaul mod just to have it not work with the expansion to come out around the same time. And if it was compatible with both, they would have announced both.What's even worse is that most people didn't even play long war for the original game. It's total downloads are less than 20% of number of copies sold of the game.
On top of that, overhaul mods are incompatible with most other gameplay mods. Or they just break the balance. Sorry, but this is much ado about nothing.
LW is great, but very very much a niche experience for XCOM players. Contracting an independent studio to create a free mod that mayyybe 5% of the playerbase will really enjoy - and taking that as an excuse to halt internal development on something with far wider market penetration and actual profitability - would be very silly indeed.I dont know why people want to depress themselves into believing that Firaxis doesnt want to nurture a massively successful franchise and continue making money from it, but trust me: they do. Well, the makers of long war wanted to work on their own game instead of LW 2. They need money to make that game. So, when Firaxis said 'Hey, make LW 2 and we will help you fund your own game' they understandably agreed. You act like they committed some ethical breach by taking money and creating LW2.Also, people 'circle jerk' over it because it made EW a better, more challenging game. Most of the people who didn't like it, disliked it because it wasn't the easy walk over that EU/EW was.
Yeah, well, then they need a better PR person that doesn't make stupid statements that are later recanted because of money. First of all, they never promised anyone they weren't going to make LW2, they were asked before the game was released and said it wasn't in their plans at that time, not 'We swear on all we love we aren't making LW2'. How does it fuck over the rest of the mod community that you claim have spent 'blood,sweat and tears' on mods (and JL and company didn't do the same on the original LW? They worked as hard or harder on that mod that any mod for X2)Nobody cares if you don't enjoy Long War or its sequel.
Don't download it if you don't want it. Stop whining about cheesy meta strategies being countered by mods though. Your such a hypocrite, you throw yourself around like a 5 year old crying 'good forbid if I don't enjoy this (difficult) game!' While hating on others because they DO enjoy it.No it's not an ethical breach slugger. Time to grow up and join the adults okay? That's like saying 'that band taking a recording contract just screwed over all the amateur bands out there! What a breach of ethics!'
LW studios isn't charging for the mod, and you want to know why Firaxis is willing to pay for their work? Because they are really good at it Sparky, that's why.Your last paragraph gives away the true reason for your butthurt though, because if you lost a campaign, or your A team due to not getting one damage point, or because you moved to the wrong space, it means you are awful at XCOM. So, what it comes down to is, you don't like it because it's not easy, and you're bad it. Suck it up Buttercup, the real world doesn't give a damn. If you don't like it, don't get it, simple as that.
Of course that won't be enough for you because you will come to this sub to continue to cry like a baby about made up 'ethical breaches' and the fact that others might not agree with you. That will of course come from you feeling left out, because it's too hard for you. Either grow up or go back to the kiddie table slugger, either way, how other people earn a living, and the 'ethics' of it, isn't any of your business. They would not release an overhaul mod just to have it not work with the expansion to come out around the same time. And if it was compatible with both, they would have announced both.You could be right, but remember:. Long War 1 was released without mod support and without Firaxis help.
Long War 2 will be released with mod support and Firaxis help.So, while the timing is bad for a expansion, they still can release something without affect the new mod.But yeah, its hard to imagine Firaxis releasing a expansion while a big fan base is occupied playing LW2 ('should I play the expansion vanilla, expansion+LW2 or just LW2?' Or maybe release later. This post is nothing more than baseless speculation.
First, it assumes that LW2 eliminated any possibility of an expansion. That doesn't hold up at all. It assumes that if an expansion was released it A) wouldn't be compatible (why would this be the case? The 2 companies are working together, I imagine, if an expansion is released, they will work seamlessly ) and B) an expansion would have to be released around the same time. They may be extending the development cycle on this game longer than the one for XCOM:EU/EW. It's possible that they aren't planning on XCOM 3 for some time and plan on releasing an expansion 9 months from now.
Considering the revenue this game made, (per recent Kotaku article) I imagine they are confident in their ability to continue to make revenue from this game for some time.As to your point on the download numbers, while they will still be a minority most likely, I imagine they will be significantly higher than the original for several reasons. First, it will have the marketing machine behind it which LW 1 did not, and second out of all the people who came to this game without having played EU/EW there are going to be many who want to try the mod. Third, there are plenty of people on this sub alone who say they with they had gotten around to trying LW before X2 came out. Fourth, it's not the same pain in the ass to get that LW was.
You don't have to go to a 3rd party website (Nexus) to download it, you can get it straight from Steam. Lastly, I would be pretty sure Firaxis did some market research to make sure a sizable number of players would be interested enough to get the mod.As far as compatibility with other mods go, why should they care? If you want to use other mods, go ahead. If mod X not working with LW 2 is a deal breaker, don't get it. I imagine they will make some effort to either make it compatible with most of the popular UI mods (gotcha! Etc.) or provide their own solutions for those issues anyway. Keep in mind this has been in development for some time now.While I have concerns about its release (mostly that no matter how good it is, the entitled whiner/rose colored for the past glasses part of the player base will never accept it, no matter what and that it will be to small in scope) to this kind it's release precludes an expansion is pretty much without reason.