Hi, after playing the mod for two months i must say i love this mod, normally i am XCOM 2 player but i decided to buy the old games and after scrolling for mods from get go i got this and maybe i should have played vanilla first to get used to the game but i say fuck it, sometimes trial through failure is the fastest way to learn the game but i had no idea what i got myself up to. And i am a Long War 2 player with 1171 hours of XCOM 2 clocked in so i was like " Well how bad it can be ? Long War of the Chosen is my daily butter" but this mod makes it look like the easiest difficulty in comparison.
This will be a long post,
the mod did really impressed me.... And this post is more or less a colection i wrote over time rather than "in the moment" thingy.
I knew before hand that the old XCOM has a cheap difficulty system and that troops die like flies from stupid shit but what i get to see is
monstrous. So me chosing non-ironman and the second easiest difficulty was a good idea.
The first mission ever was a monster hunt, during night. First of all i was like "Why is everything so damm dark" before i realised maybe using those flashlights should be a thing so my two guys started pouring lead to a gorrila from Diablo 2, i do recognise that sprite. After it one shot my agent the other one managed to finish it off.
I was like "What the hell was that crap ?".
Skipping ahead to some note worthy event.
1) Zombie infestation that takes like an hour to mop up with 4 people but gives lotsa of points
2) Major zombie infestation
I was like " Well, more zombies".
But after an infestor one shot my dog (and turned him to a zombie ?) and my agent while the entire squad was shooting it was like " Alright, i need more men or better weapons for this one".
Somewhere in the middle of my first campaign i realized i should abandon using non-shotgun weapons because atleast the shotguns could one snap shot things like spiders or rats and two snap hits even zombies at surprising range for a shotgun. And after that all missions started to be somewhat tolerable.
3) Human v Human combat
A somewhat refreshing change of pace, where my agents can actually survive being hit, even multiple times. Shotgun is like one hit KO for something like cultists but alas i simply used hunting and nitro express rifles for long range snipes. One issue i have is the whole capturing enemies to progress being really hard at the start, not only the more higher standing officers have more powerful weapons you have either blunt weapons, tazers or stunsticks to do it so doing so requires save scumming. Only after really good armours (Like heavy tritanium suit) and the dart rifles it becomes less of a hassle. The dart rifle says that it works against aliens but it works on people just fine.
Its also somewhat satisfying once you get tanks to assault their compounds and listen to the symphony of bullets deflecting of its armour.
4) Enemies surrendering
I didnt expected this one to be in a game like this but boy its nice to have enemies that will simply surrender instead of fighting to death 24/7. It also helps with the hunt of a single person somewhere stuck on the shitter.
5) Night missions in general
I avoid them like the plague unless i have to. First of all i have no idea which enemies respect the darkness and which dont so i rather say fuck it and shoot at them across the map during daytime. For missions i had to do at night i simply made a system that one carries a shotgun and one carries a flashligt and a one handed sidearm. And if i need maximum firepower i simply give the shotgunners the flashlight and simply drop it to the ground once enemy is spotted.
6) Being unable to promote to rank II, undirectly failing my first campaign.
I couldnt find Exalt to unlock the military officer staff member so when 2 years passed i was fucked already.
7) I failed the second campaign because - 1000 ratings, so after reaching 2 years but this time i did manage to promote i failed because i was getting -1500 or like -1800 ratings per month for no reason.
8 ) I would have lost the third campaign (my current) if i wouldnt cheat and edit the monthly score out of shere frustration.
After getting "XCOM is cancelled" again despite me working my ass off to do all missions i lost it and started googling wtf is going on and after editing my save i did find the reason, like alien activity 1370 on one entry....
And then i got the message, too bad the aliens have like 6 large UFO's around the world, 2 in Australia, 3 in Europe (Where my main base is) and one in South America so i guess the mere existence of this ships cancels XCOM, but what am i suppose to do when my largest craft is Dragonfly ?! I will get chopped up if i decide to besiege them ? Mutons and Sectoids will rip my men a new one.
So after artificially keeping XCOM alive via file edits i managed, by a fluke capture some high standing Red Dawn personal and i could destroy a cult. So i could get a promotion.
I was like " Alright, in the next playthrough, destroying any cult is number one priority". And so after furthermore cheating the score system i managed to build Skymarshall and after that i could destroy the landed UFO and all its nasty inhabitants. So i decided to land and i was getting peppered by bullets, not plasma bolts.
" Wait a second, these aint aliens ?".
And so began my slugfest of massacring MiB troops, even their tanks and sectopods ?!. And to this time of writing i can actually get a good rating without cheating because only like 2 Alien embassies exist and i can make it up somewhere else. But i really dislike this aspect that if you lag behind you are left in it with no warning and you are only watching a lost campaign going to shitter and starting over is the only way forward.
9) The "Covert" missions are mostly total sheite with absurd difficulty.
I ignore them whenever possible, way too hard. The only missions i do are out of necessity (Like looting something to get Chief Engineer from Osiron smugglers on the beach) boiled down to 1 human and 3 dogs, human hides and then dogs proceed to die or maul the enemies. Thats like the only way i found for this mission to be atleast playable.
10) The Osirion cruiser mission is epic, human enemies, lots of high tech goodies from Osirion crates, short corridors.
11) Hybrid clinics boil down to if i get a plasma grenade thrown across the map to a group of my troops or if i can actually scatter. I would like to be able to make my own laser weapons but i cant find the tech that would let me so these clinics are my source of all laser weapons and ammo. Also how do i get rid of these hybrids ? Do i have to do the covert mission about their stockpile ?
12) Getting a mortar, holy shit
*Bam*
*Yargh dying sound (from Deus ex) * *Alien scream* * Alien Scream* *Alien Scream* .
" Its not usual to get 4 kills with one attack" - Award
Ever since that, there is always a siege trooper in any open spaced battle, being able to frag multiple people at once, across the whole map and destroy terrain is invaluable, i should have discovered that earlier. Also that i can do some serious damage to even things like tanks or cause mass panic with incendiary shell.
13) Being able to repurpose enemy armours.
After freaking out after seeing a flying MiB trooper i swatted him out of the sky by minigun i discovered i can repurpose their armour so now some of my troops can fly and other wear some sort of energy armour suit thingy, since i dont have the tech i have no clue what it protects from but so far i discovered a trooper wearing it can get hit by a sectopod and only lose like a quater of his health, when a laser tank nex to him is destroyed in a single strike. So lasers and plasma ?.
14) Some things look like from a black comedy or something.
Enemies shooting rockets in close quarters
Capturing high priority target boils down to surrounding him with 6 people and gangbanging him with fists and stunrods. Also during base defence capturing Sectoid Commander boiled down to having 3 troops surround him, dog biting him 2 times exactly before agents started to kick the living shit out of him and then stuff him in their backpack, smuggle him to a closed room and there whenever he would wake up they would give him a beating while the rest of my troops are fighting with a sectopod in the hangar.
Someone tries to walk past my troops and gets KO in a single reaction melee attack.
Enemies throwing explosives at melee range at my agents. Getting blown up while wounding everyone. Looking at you MiB commander !.
Enemies shooting each other in the back.
Red Dawn HQ, the great staircase camping trip, dont mind those 8 dead bodies, there aint a guy waiting with a laser pistol and balistic shield above with 2 buddies armed with shotgun and a minigun.
15) Morozov mission even after Red Dawn is no longer around ?
16) Chupakabra DPS, alright it pretty much one/two shots my troops and it sounds like Zergling from Starcraft 1
17) Prison break by the Cult of the Apocalypse, at this point my troops look absolute badass and the entire mission looked like the ordinary Socialism regime running over protesters with tanks and gunning them down with firearms. I seen people climbing to the roof only to be smited by a laser tank down there, my flamethrower operative with Stormtrooper armour was roasting these barely armed civilians one by one, landing on the roof so they climb up to attack her in melee only for her to lift of and smite them. Everyone who poked their heads out were one shot by laser rifles. I've sent my elite troops here, i should have send noobs here since it was easy for a change...
18) Horrors in artactica, i always carry flamethrowers with me, for this occasion when bullets are useless. My preparedness paid off, only if my captain would have survived...
19) Crawling through caverns to find the black orb thingy of the Apocalypse, only to find some sort of dimension
When the music from Doom started to play.... ahh yeaaaaaaah.
20) My own sectopods, now this is an overkill, weapon that hits hard as a truck, massive armour, 50% damage resistance towards plasma. Laser tanks were quite something already, infinite ammo, powerful attack but this is just up to eleven.
21) Hunt for Meridian and Master Hon Zhu (Or however he is called)
I was kinda expecting that by capturing Meridian alive i would get some rare, one off- weapon or something. I should have just splattered his organs on the pavement from a rocket strike and not bother beating him to a pulp with stunsticks
Master... oh boy, he one shot both of my sectopods.
Me :" No you didnt"
*Reload save*
Master * Two shots the first sectopod before getting one shot by random reaction fire across the map*
Me :" What sort of boss is this ? He annihilates a massive mech that can survive multiple rockets and plasma blasts with one strike, does he like have damage over 9000 or something ? Is this some sort of joke character ? Well i guess i must capture him alive "
5 minutes later i realised he cant be captured, after my soldier, with 95% melee aim missed him multiple times (While 5 other dudes and gals were missing constantly) i got the message so i just ordered the soldier to shoot him at point blank. Problem solved.
22) So by a fluke i managed to destroy MiB base while it was flying, my aircraft was going after something but i send it and it managed to intercept it and destroy it. So it crash landed and i sent my troops in, but the mission is absolutely the same as if i would besiege a regular base. Why ? Like not sure if it had even reduced garrison, 9 Humans and 2 Tanks.
I made this list to showcase the highs and lows of this mod. The moments of despair, the moment of sheer awesomness..
To make it short, what i like on this mod.1) The whole supernatural being enemy for XCOM, i would actually like the early period to be longer before it devolves to normal XCOM gameplay. The whole fighting with close ranged enemies changes the game considerably, encourages mobility and defence.
2) The sheer amount of weapons, good lord. I am getting lost when i am choosing what to use... and that is a good thing !.
3) The massive variance of enemies
4) Mission variety, from hunting monsters in the forest to raiding underground facilities and smuggler ships i cant say i am not satisfied with what i can do.
5) The gradual transformation of XCOM to the para-military org of the base game.
6) This mod has portrayed XCOM as real as it can get in a computer game, instead of being some discout super heroes, they are a shadowy organisation that fears not of doing evil actions to archive victory, kidnapping people, selling alien tech to corporations, stealing tech from military, silencing those who have something bad to say about XCOM.
What i dont like (I'll separate things that are the problem of the whole XCOM so no getting fragged by a missile the moment i step out)
What i dont like that much1) Game can fuck you over and you dont even know your campaign is lost. The whole of these massive UFO's perma landing and causing insane negative rating is just ridiculous. Also if you somehow dont discover Exalt and some alien tech you also lost. The third (current) campaign was barely saved because i raided Osirion traders on the beach and i got the acid gun so chief engineer could be recruited but it was a close shave.
2) Autopsies and capturing of monsters is mostly pointless. I am acustomed from XCOM 2 that autopsies tend to be beneficial, unlocking upgrades, grenades, ammo types etc... but so far, from top of my head i can remember only 2 life captures that benefit me more than just "This thing is vulnerable to fire" and those two are Rats (For XCOm rats ?!) and the zombie boomer for some sort of grenade i never used.
And fighting these enemies is no science whatsoever. Its always just "Shoot them till they die with shotguns or rifles". With a good chunk of the enemies being vulnerable to choking and fire.
3) The covert ops where you can bring limited weapons, yeah its fun charging people with crowbar while they can nuke your guy with few bullets from a pistol. No its not, the existence of these missions seems to be displaced and way too hard for its reward.
4) The capturing of critical personal to progress is a problem on its own and is extremely RNG dependant for my liking and to do it safely...
5) I am getting lost in the tech tree constantly because there is so much to do and XCOM staff doesnt help by like saying what i need to get something. If for example there was a tech research that takes no time but is like "Laser weapon manufacturing know-how" that would give me a staff input that would vaguely suggest what i should research to be able to make these breakthrought weapon types.
6) For the massive variety of weapons you have access to, frankly bunch of them have no real usage for XCOM. Especially these WW2/WW1 weapons. And some weapons are simply inferior. For example the rifle weapon type vs SMG. The BlackOps rifle is a perfect example, its clearly superior to all rifles once you get access to it. Its snapshot has considerable accuracy and you can still go full auto in close quarters, why should i use the SMG which has crappy range and its full auto wont hit shit unless i shove it in the enemy face. Blackops rifles were my main weapon (And still is actually alongside laser/blaster rifles) to use because its that good. Sniper rifles have their place too but too bad like they do almost the same damage as blackops rifle but require massive TU to use.
7) Usefulness of doggos is questionable, they only work on covert ops because they like 1-2 shot everyone in melee, its actually quite amazing that a dog bite does as much damage almost as much as a sword slice. And maybe i picked them up if i dont have enough troops when i am about to raid a faction HQ where there will be lots of indoor fighting. However there i noticed that aside from the fact that enemies can bust through any door at any time and shoot, the dogs fall like a sack of shit when hit, even if i made tritanium vest for them. Also they have somewhat low energy. And while their melee is lethal... at this point my agents are in close range just as dangerous with knifes and swords and they are multiple times more durable, have better reactions and dont tire as quickly.
What i would suggest to be improved/be added1) Auto-promotion failsafe to III if you managed to reach the previous rank but failed to reach the third one in 99 and you did somewhat well in the previous months.
2) The option to start the game earlier so you get to enjoy the paranormal monster and cult fighting for longer. In the settings where other customizable features are located.
3) Live captures being more rewarding than just giving you more cash if you sell them or telling you that this creature is vulnerable to fire/Choking/Lead poisoning.
For example capturing live quillboar from Diablo 2 will give you a new crossbow ammo type that has high chance to cause bleeding via fatal wounds.
4) Repair kits so it is possible to repair heavy weapon platforms on battlefield.
5) Bioaugmentations of alien DNA to dogs, pumping them full of steroids and turning them to discount Panzerhunds, ok maybe that wouldnt fly with Council but the concept of dedicated XCOM melee unit is interesting but their usefulness is debatable although i see the potential. XCOM rats sound like a joke and i didnt even bother with them, dogs are better.
6) Ability to hire higher standart troops in the late game so losing troops isnt as traumatic.
7) Abit of a nitpick but laser weapons shouldnt cause fatal wounds, i assume fatal wounds are the simulation of bleeding out but lasers would cauterize the wound to a crisp.
Mass accelerators and Gauss weapons have very odd aquisition. For a good chunk of the game i had just giant piles of these weapons from raiding MiB bases yet i couldnt research them and it was really frustrating me, until i raided Osiron freighter and looted something which opened everything.
Bugs1) I seem to miss +100% hit chances abit too often, is this an engine quirk ? I would take if bullets hit an object but i have troops just missing someone standing on a rooftop and i have +100% accuracy
2) Black Sun troops cannot be captured for some reason, i mind controlled one of them and marched them up to Kitsune while my sectopods killed the rest. Also Sectopods seems to take absolutely no damage from warp rifles.
3) The robot brain enemies cannot be mind controlled, even if they have a brain.
Other than that, at this point this post is outdated since i see another version has been released ? I'll upgrade once i actually finish this mod, but impressive work regardless.
Also how do i destroy MiB and Cult of Apocalypse ? I Stopped Samael already yet there are ocassional riots, and MiB base missions are way too abundant and actually boring at this point.
