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 We all know XCOM. Heck, we even know the Long War mod for XCOM. But what if we played with a weird set of restrictive rules and leaned into builds that nobody ever uses? Would that provide enough new material to be worth watching? Let's find out. Don't know XCOM? Here are some good refreshers: My 3-year-old LP of XCOM Long War which was largely a pandemic project. Chaostime's screenshot LP of XCOM vanilla. We're going to assume some level of familiarity here. I'll explain stuff as we go along, especially my thought process as to why I do certain things in the geoscape. Feel free to jump in if you have questions, though! XCOM: Long War is a overhaul mod for XCOM 2012 (with the Enemy Within expansion pack). It makes the game, well...a lot longer. A ton of new complexity gets added in, mostly for the better. 8 soldier classes instead of 4, expanded perk trees, 8 MEC classes instead of 1 with 4 small differences, tons of new items, alien units that get better as the game goes on so that even sectoids and thin men remain relevant, etc. It's great. If I were stranded on a desert island with only 1 game to play, this would absolutely be it. Despite the fact the maps are pre-generated unlike its successor game, it's Long War that has the most replayability for me. It's awesome. It's also very much an acquired taste--if you're not willing to think about spreadsheets and stuff you're probably going to have a real bad time with it. One of the features of Long War includes expanded bonuses on a by-country basis. Whereas in vanilla you could just start in South America and say "I do autopsies and interrogations instantly now," that's not how Long War works. Each country gets its own bonus once it joins the XCOM project, and you can choose to start in any of the 16 countries for a unique bonus. The starting country bonus is frequently just a more powerful version of the "what if I gained this country later on in the game" bonus. For example, You can get the perk "Xenological Remedies" if you gain China to the XCOM project. It gives you +33% money when you sell corpses/wrecks on the grey market. You can get the perk "Xenological Remedies" if you START in China, which gives you +100% money when you sell corpses/wrecks on the grey market. A lot of these bonuses just hasten things that'd happen later in the game anyway--an additional slot for a small item, a project to make your interceptors better, etc. But some of the bonuses really just change the flavor of the entire game. I am thinking of the "Deus Ex" bonus in particular. That one reduces the cost of gene mods (including the time it takes to make them) by 50%. Such a bonus could mean an entire roster of soldiers enhanced Adam Jensen/JC Denton (I guess more Denton; poor Jensen is just a frankenstein) style. Especially if I forbid myself the use of MEC troopers, which are the other research progression in the game that requires the precious resource that genemods use. So that's what we're gonna do here. We're gonna do a LP of Long War on Classic difficulty (I'm turning it down a bit from my normal Brutal/Impossible; I don't want to have to restart the game!) showing off all the well-thought-out genemods the Long War developers put in place, but that basically nobody sees because 99% of Long War players just go for MEC troopers with their incredible firepower. Seriously, gene mods are fun as hell--on paper, anyway. They include: Complete Immunity to Acid via the Smart Macrophages brain mod Enhanced Aim After You Miss a Shot via the Hyperreactive Pupils eye mod Jump tall buildings in a Single Bound via the Muscle Fiber Density leg mod (aka jumpylegs) Regenerate HP and Recover From Wounds Faster via the Adaptive Bone Marrow leg mod Buff the Crap Out of Your Allies When You Kill Something via the Adrenal Neurosympathy chest mod Don't Die or Take Penalties When You Go to 0 HP via the Secondary Heart mod Detect Aliens from Behind Walls/Above Ceilings via the Bioelectric Skin body mod Consistently Take 1 Fewer Damage When You Get Shot via the Iron Skin body mod In theory, all of these combined will allow us to humiliate the aliens without needing giant robots with flamethrowers to do it. I'm excited about the possibilities! One hitch here: we won't see gene mods until probably month 3 of the campaign! And until that point, it's gonna look pretty much like any other XCOM campaign. Further, month 1 is incredibly boring--it's just a bunch of redshirts having low-accuracy gunfights with sectoids and drones.  Nobody wants to watch that. So I'm going to start us in April after a successful March. I know the rule is "don't post a log of videos," but: 1.) I figure between my completed video LPs of XCOM and XCOM2 folks should realize I'm not trying to get attention to a channel and just trying to fast forward to the good parts, and 2.) The videos are linked only from here. They're not public. They're here only for the weirdos that want to see what happened as a bunch of redshirts took on March before the campaign gets interesting, and So there you have it. Next post I make in this thread will contain all the March videos for those who particularly care about 'em, but we'll pick up from April. How you can participate: Same way as the usual XCOM thread! Want a soldier? Post here. Lemme know classes too and I'll do my best to match 'em. Soldier options: Medic: closest thing to vanilla's "support" class. Focuses on healing, suppression, and smoke grenades. There are overwatch versions of it too but I tend not to use 'em. They make good officers (we'll talk about officers when we get 'em). Grenadier: the unit that relies on consumables, for the most part. They can huck grenades (Long War adds different types) longer than the average troop, carry more of 'em, and get free ones as perks. They're also important when it comes to capturing aliens. Assault: very similar to the "assault" class from vanilla, except run-and-gun is their basic perk. They don't get lightning reflexes until their final rank (and I probably won't take it). Get up close and personal with a shotgun. Make for good tanks. Rubbish in extended firefights. Infantry: a class that gets "light 'em up" as its innate. It can fire with both actions on its turn. They can get some amazing DPS perks, but none of that matters if they're not in position to shoot--or to connect with their shots. Gunner: very similar to the "heavy" from vanilla. Gets suppression, carries a big gun, and can carry an EVEN BIGGER gun that gives them limited squadsight. They don't get the rocket launcher, though. That belongs to the... Rocketeer: all rockets, all the time. Can mess up huge groups of enemies, destroy cover, shred targets...or miss horribly and nuke its own squad. Pretty garbage once they've run out of rockets, but they have their uses. Sniper: VERY similar to the vanilla sniper. Gets unlimited squadsight with sniper rifles, and limited squadsight with the Long War-only Marksman Rifle. Scout: The class that gets lightning reflexes. Can be specced for stealth and recon, or can be absurdly strong with a shotgun or rifle. Fragile as heck, though. You want lots of scouts. The game will take a lot of them away from you. FairGame fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Apr 15, 2023 |
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Apr 15, 2023 17:54
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A modded XCOM LP, with some crazy gene mod action. I'm interested to see the variety on offer. Sign me up for a solider. Edit: Changing the class request to Sniper. BraveLittleToaster fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Apr 15, 2023 |
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Apr 15, 2023 18:28
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I remember the absolute bullshit which were the UFOs in your first LP so I think you're loving crazy for trying this. Good luck man!
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Apr 15, 2023 22:32
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Sure, why not. Sign me up, Gunner preferred.
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Apr 15, 2023 22:46
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Sign me up commander as a Medic
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Apr 15, 2023 22:55
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Sign me up as a Sniper - Scottish Background, if you're going for personality - go for weary. If you're looking for preferences for Gene MODS: Neural Damping Depth Perception Secondary Heart Mimetic Skin Muscle Fiber Density
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Apr 15, 2023 23:52
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So glad to see you back commander! Sign me up as Infantry!
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Apr 15, 2023 23:53
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Hell yeah, Long War rules. I was e: I went back and looked and apparently I was a gunner before! Must've been thinking of a different LP. megane fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Apr 16, 2023 |
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Apr 16, 2023 00:38
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Sign me up as a Rocketeer
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Apr 16, 2023 01:05
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I request a Sniper position.
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Apr 16, 2023 01:22
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Requesting Scout named Leroy Kenny Jenkins
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Apr 16, 2023 03:43
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Make me whatever you need. I see there’s no Grenadier requests yet, so that would be fine!
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Apr 16, 2023 08:03
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Oh boy, here we go again! In the spirit of XCOM I'm happy to roll the dice on class, unless there's a particular niche that needs filling.
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Apr 16, 2023 09:44
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I'm...incredibly confused what happened to the audio quality between the March eps I recorded and this first update where I'm barely audible. It's literally the same setup; I changed nothing! But I'll work to get it fixed. Unfortunately since we're playing Ironman, I can't go back and do the mission again for better audio. Bear with me. This'll probably be 200+ episodes; < 1% having low quality is pretty good even if it sucks that it's happening at the start... This post will also function as our table of contents. MARCH, YEAR ONE We're starting with these already "in the bank" because March is incredibly boring! No screenshots, no previews. Just a stack of links if you really want to see how we got where we started. Ep 0-1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RzFNHEeg_Y Ep 0-2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT6-YU0TnK4 Ep 0-3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SxgKV4LLJI Ep 0-4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LHV_Tm85eA Ep 0-5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roKEeqPSX-0 Ep 0-6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o06No5gBEe8 Ep 0-7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk7Yxc1SiTA Ep 0-8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyYVlE0glq4 APRIL, YEAR ONE NEW CAMPAIGN AFTER GAME BREAKING BUG March, Year 1      
FairGame fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Apr 27, 2023 |
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Apr 16, 2023 15:30
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The trials and tribulations of Team Rookie is never boring!
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Apr 17, 2023 23:10
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Sign be up as a Scout and spend his life wisely.
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Apr 18, 2023 20:31
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Ready to die as Infantry. More attacks per turn = more dakka.
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Apr 19, 2023 12:14
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We're gonna have to restart. Campaign has glitched and now all missions are at the north pole. Which fucks up air game and country panic. I guess we're gonna get our red shirt army after all
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Apr 19, 2023 13:40
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The alien’s true target is revealed: Santa Claus!
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Apr 19, 2023 14:17
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This looks like fun. Sign me up with a preference for Assault
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Apr 19, 2023 15:56
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Put me in as a Grenadier or Medic coach.
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Apr 19, 2023 23:19
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They love to code these games so that bugs just start putting things at the north pole. XCOM2 had a famous bug where sometimes when the UFO intercepts you, it just chases you to the north pole and you're stuck there orbiting each other forever.
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Apr 20, 2023 00:03
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I guess the glitch is such that's like save scumming a shot in that the same thing will happen every time? Lame.
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Apr 20, 2023 04:41
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Medic me please
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Apr 20, 2023 09:04
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FairGame fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Apr 22, 2023 |
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Apr 20, 2023 23:00
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Would you consider muting discord the next time you record? Kept making me think people were PMing me on my own computer.
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Apr 21, 2023 00:11
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Cythereal posted:Would you consider muting discord the next time you record? Kept making me think people were PMing me on my own computer. gently caress, I didn't even realize. I don't hear it. I've played most of March already but I'll fix it.
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Apr 21, 2023 01:16
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Throwing my name into the list but happy to be whatever you need at that moment in time.
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Apr 21, 2023 01:57
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Apr 22, 2023 13:01
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Summary: 
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Apr 22, 2023 14:42
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Weight of fire, baby
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Apr 22, 2023 14:58
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Oh yeah you can throw my name in the list too wherever it fits. Don't worry about pronouncing it, I don't know how either.
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Apr 23, 2023 02:41
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Apr 23, 2023 15:50
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XCOM knew you were doing too well before. It always knows. Probably should relish in these short missions while we have the chance too 
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Apr 24, 2023 20:24
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Aw poo poo, I was slowly watching through the first set of March videos thinking "wow, this is a masterclass in getting the early game done". Then I refreshed the thread... Well, I guess I get the excitement of seeing if I survive the first outing assuming I've hit the new roster already.
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Apr 24, 2023 22:58
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Crazy Achmed posted:Aw poo poo, I was slowly watching through the first set of March videos thinking "wow, this is a masterclass in getting the early game done". Then I refreshed the thread... I'm struggling to get everyone into the LP but you're in. Saying "use whatever" makes it easier 
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Apr 25, 2023 02:56
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Now we're getting some level shots. Just a matter of time till someone dies because of it.
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Apr 25, 2023 03:07
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Apr 25, 2023 20:00
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signing up as another 'whatever'
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Apr 26, 2023 02:12
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I normally love shotguns but I'll roll the dice and see what I end up as a "whatever." E: Comedically large helmet, please. Malah fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Apr 26, 2023 |
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Apr 26, 2023 02:21
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