Hey guys, I'm finally getting serious about doing a playthrough of the Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Within and decided to invite TL along for the ride as a way to give some content back to a site that I've gotten a ton of enjoyment out of over the years. Since I have no real artistic background and am terrible at SC2 I decided to share me making an idiot out of myself in video form with a let's play.
What is Long War? It's a mod that adds more tech, items, and difficulty to the game. It adds some new features, and fixes more bugs than it adds. Sadly there are no new maps added because Firaxis refuses to release any sort of mapping tools.
You can follow the action either on my stream or the VODs on my Youtube channel, or just follow along here. I normally stream mid-day or after 9 PM (CST). I don't have a set streaming schedule, but I do play/post at least 2-3 episodes per week.
If you want to get horribly murdered join our glorious defense of Earth, just ask. I'll generally grant all requests and have plenty of worthless rookies valuable soldiers in need of new names.
On January 07 2015 06:07 TerranHwaiting wrote: The Ideas are great, but there should be a light version of this Mod. I seriously can't be asked to play a 200hr playthrough.
There is a second wave option "Not so long war" that reduces the number of missions in the game (and the cost of projects/manufacturing). I'm not sure exactly how much shorter it makes them though.
that reminds me that i really wanted to play long war some time ago, but couldnt bring myself to doing the (in my eyes) terrible unfun interceptor minigame. maybe i will give it another try because you can indeed never have enough xcom.
Good game. I've wanted to play that mod for a while but I've still not finished my runthrough of Enemy Within (I'd already completed XCOM before the expansion pack came out so finishing it a second time around, whilst fun to play with the new stuff, just feels like retreading old ground towards the end).
Maybe I'll give it a go now I've got more time. But if you're LPing I'm up for being one of the soldiers.
On January 07 2015 16:22 hfglgg wrote: that reminds me that i really wanted to play long war some time ago, but couldnt bring myself to doing the (in my eyes) terrible unfun interceptor minigame. maybe i will give it another try because you can indeed never have enough xcom.
my interceptors suck ass in the original game as well
Terrible planes are what pushed me to go for an asia start, even knowing NA is probably better all around. I really really want to upgrade my planes ASAP.
Episode 2 is up, with our first council escort mission.
Names have been added, but they don't show up until the next episode. I tend to wind up recording/streaming in spurts, then releasing a VOD every 2-3 days so I release regular videos instead of posting a ton of videos over a couple days and then nothing for like a week.
You can use my name as well. It will be funny to see, if "I" can kill some aliens before I hit the floor. Just asking: Is long war and "enemy within" compatible? If so, can I be a mech?
On January 10 2015 04:04 Elizar wrote: You can use my name as well. It will be funny to see, if "I" can kill some aliens before I hit the floor. Just asking: Is long war and "enemy within" compatible? If so, can I be a mech?
Yep, long war is compatible with EW. It technically exists for Enemy Unknown, but only as an older build that isn't undergoing further development. I'll make a note you want to be a MEC, but it'll be several more months in game before I unlock that tech.
Well, at least you have above average mobility and aim, and decent will? Maybe you can pull some weird combo of braining things and shotgunnery. I really wasn't sure which class to send you towards.
After beams lasers, carapace armor, and aerospace concepts, and capture tech I was thinking of unlocking psionics because it's relatively cheap (just need a psi lab to start) and a short research and it takes a long time to train them up. The problem is that building the psi labs triggers Deluge, which requires killing a lot of mutons/mechtoids/cyberdisk in a hurry (skipping/failing it is also an option I suppose). Other options would be to go for gauss or MECs, and start building at least one or the other to have at least some in play before unlocking psi.
Poll: Which major tech should I get first?
MEC - Let's show them some REAL mechanized fighters (3)
100%
Psi - Bring it on, let's brain them to death! (0)
0%
Gauss - If gauss rifles are good enough for marines, they're good enough for us (0)
0%
3 total votes
Your vote: Which major tech should I get first?
(Vote): Psi - Bring it on, let's brain them to death! (Vote): Gauss - If gauss rifles are good enough for marines, they're good enough for us (Vote): MEC - Let's show them some REAL mechanized fighters
That car repair garage with exalt is always an interesting map. It doesn't really play out like the other exalt maps because the exalt always spawn right next to the capture area, and you just have to bull rush every exalt on the map if you want to save it within the 3 or 4 turns you have based on the transmitter towers you can hack.
Data recovery maps are kind of interesting in Long War, they're really the only mission type you play differently depending on the map. On the rooftop one, you go full camper mode. The garage is full aggro (unless you want to just be safe and only defend the transmitter), and the rest tend to fall somewhere in between. Most other map types play out generally the same on all maps, with only a slight shifting on how aggressive/passive you are based on the map.
On March 17 2015 08:56 Capped wrote: Its a shame i dont have the time to watch these, they're just too long
Yeah, I've been bad about my session length and trying to keep it to 1-2 hours. I should eventually start doing some actual editing and making my VODs more viewer friendly.
Normally I'd agree about the length, but well, it's a Long war *makes bad pun* Shorter Sessions just means you'll have to make more uploads, which would kinda result in the same problem: A LW campaign just takes ~150-200h, so thats either a ton of small VoDs or a few fewer, longer ones. =/
Perhaps when you are finished, and still crave LW, you can do one with the NLSW or now called Dynamic war setting on b15.
PS: If you really want to cut stuff, you could edit out stuff that adds not much to the actual game, like reskinning the Irish guy in your last VoD or perhaps skip an easy mission --- but then again, I guess everybody can just skip over those 10minutes of reskinning or 30-45mins of an easy mission manually.
PPS: Which 2nd Wave setting are you using (if any) ?
On March 18 2015 06:48 Dranak wrote: I was thinking more like cutting squad setup/loadout than actual mission stuff.
The only second wave I'm using now is New Economy.
I have to admit, that for my part I like the pre-face decision making more than the actual missions ^^; It's interesting for me to see what you research, when/how you engage UFO and what your Soldier setup(and skills) are. Missions are fine, too, but kinda get repetitive after the first 100 for me - well, unless get a fun to watch mission like the Rooftop of Destiny one *g*
This isn't meant as a complaint, more as an "I'll take everything I can watch, and please dont cut the equipment part just to shorten vods"
Thanks for the comments, they're always helpful to see what people actually enjoy watching. Hehe, I've got some interesting missions coming up in the next few episodes. Or at least, they felt really interesting to me when I played them.
I'm sure some of you have noticed that updates have been coming slower for the past few weeks. I have a new daughter, which is great but until she starts sleeping more at night my gaming time has been cut pretty harshly. I plan on finishing this campaign still, but I'm dragging out my updates to try to delay going radio silent for a prolonged period.
On July 05 2015 02:34 Capped wrote: Congratulations on the daughter! I admire your commitment to this series, to be honest i really just dont have the time to watch them all
Thanks, and no worries. Even a relatively slow Long War campaign is a massive amount of hours to watch. I try to give better names to the episodes where something interesting actually happens instead of just more mission grinding. My next big project will probably be a more bit sized XCOM 2 campaign.
EPT![[image loading]](http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starshiptroopers/images/c/c5/ST_MI_Join_Now.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20121210144858)
