Too much stuff happening all the time

[Regen7]

Sometimes I feel like too many events are always happening. I literally can't scan a supply drop for 3 days without a hundred dark events, resistance camp attacks or some other nonsense happening that requires me to leave.

What's the rush? I think it needs better pacing.

[Astasia]

I don't think the frequency or variety of events popping up is the problem, it's more the way the game presents them. Instead of constantly pausing/interupting one thing to show another that you have to do right away, I wish the game just keep running and let me do what I'm doing and present the other options on the map with a reasonable and clearly displayed time limit. So instead of interupting your collection of a supply drop 15 times and dragging you all over the map each time, you could instead finish gathering that entire supply drop then look around the map for the next thing to do. Maybe even plan ahead and strategically plan out your month, instead of just random chaos spam.

[Uottafac]

I am trying a Lenghty Scheme campaign for my second run.

[PeaceMaker]

There are always people who can`t handle pressure. This is nothing to the reality of the daily grind of work, get used to it.

[Belhedler]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Instead of constantly pausing/interupting one thing to show another that you have to do right away, I wish the game just keep running and let me do what I'm doing and present the other options on the map with a reasonable and clearly displayed time limit.

Unless that changed, the point of interests actually remains for a bit of time which is usually enough for you to finish the current activity. There is a mod in the workshop showing this hidden value although it's unclear whether the mod works with WotC.

[Lord Doober De La Goober MXI]

wasn't this the same before WoTC?

I'm pretty sure I had to skip scanning mulitple PoI because either a resistance base was being attacked or an timed mission poped up

[PeeWrinkle]

I like the pacing of the game. I will say early on it does seem hectic with all the new stuff in War of the Chosen. After the first few months, if you turtle a bit like I do, it does slow down a bit.

Recently I was playing and trying to scan to make contact. I scanned for less than one day and had at least 8 interrupts.
Started scanning immediately the following happened:
Bonded Solders Training Finished
Research Finished
Dark Event
Proving Ground Project Finished
Retaliation Site
Dark Event
Covert Mission Finished
Target Review

So in less than a day of game time I had two missions, and had to start scanning to make contact 8 times at least.

That is a bit much. Luckily at that time I also completed a covert mission and was able to add the make contact instantly option. I did so because it may have taken till next year to scan for 5 more days.

Not to mention the annoying repetitiveness of the different people who pop up in the top right corner in the command center to tell you the same things repeatedly is just a drag. After you hear some thing once, maybe twice those need to stop triggering. Especially when all you wan to do is scan or move around the map!

[crossmr]

I've had this in my library forever and just got around to playing it now.. it's just annoying early on, with the constant missions that you have to do. I don't know how far in I am now, but some of the missions, especially with these rulers, are really annoying, here is a super important mission you have to do, no choice, drop everything, and then, despite most of your guys only taking 2-3 damage, they're now all laid up for 3 weeks. So, your B squad has to step in while they heal and bam here is another super important mission you can't skip, and oh look at that a ruler that kills you every turn. You barely scraped out of that, everyone is gravely injured, so you've got like 8+ guys with 15+ days healing time, 3 of them easy to panic now, and here is another super important hard mission you can't skip because that avatar counter is really skyrocketing. And on top of that, all of the countries where there are facilities are at least 2 countries removed from you, so you'll have to clear a space, build a facility and staff it in order to be able to make contact with country before you can even think of attacking it. Oh yeah here is another mission you can't skip, and it's got ruler part 2.

[Scorrp10]

Make sure 'nest' mission is enabled at start. When it does show up (skulls on spikes icon) you can ignore it till forever. As long as you ignore it, rulers will not appear. Same about that tower mission that has Lily joining in.

I also really love the exact remaining times mod. The game has a nasty habit of popping a mission when you only got a few hours left on a scan. With the mod, you can check exactly if you can finish that scan. If you need 7 more hours and mission expires in 19 and your ETA is 4 hours, finish that scan!

[Pherdnut]

It's the game's biggest flaw, IMO. It could get annoying even in the vanilla pre-DLC version. In the original '90s X-Com, weeks could go by before you spotted a UFO.

One thing the new X-Coms never topped over the old is that sense of it being an actual simulation where things don't just happen out of nowhere. There's always a UFO dropping aliens off for the terror mission. Once you got hyperwave detection you could spot them 100% of the time and shoot them down. If you wiped out multiple battleships attempting to set up an alien base it could set the aliens back for a solid month before they sent any more UFOs. And you could see what mission types they were on.

Likewise with missions. You didn't randomly run into pods of aliens. Alien movement was tracked whether you saw it or not. It had to be for the reaction mechanic which could get really brutal (cyber discs were nasty in that regard). If you reloaded a mission, the aliens wouldn't suddenly get discovered in a completely different area of the map and they didn't confine themselves to clutches of 2-3.

[frdnwsm]

Long War 2 lets you create and manage multiple squads of troops. If you have 4 squads, you can have 4 missions running at once. You do still occasionally have to pick and choose, mind you; sometimes 2 or 3 new missions pop up while 3 of your 4 squads are still out in the field.

Be warned though, the difficulty level ramps up as the game goes on and new, more powerful alien types appear.

[crossmr]

Originally posted by Scorrp10:

Make sure 'nest' mission is enabled at start. When it does show up (skulls on spikes icon) you can ignore it till forever. As long as you ignore it, rulers will not appear. Same about that tower mission that has Lily joining in.

I also really love the exact remaining times mod. The game has a nasty habit of popping a mission when you only got a few hours left on a scan. With the mod, you can check exactly if you can finish that scan. If you need 7 more hours and mission expires in 19 and your ETA is 4 hours, finish that scan!

Unfortunately I've already got it.. I got the first 2 rulers..they weren't so bad..well the viper was, because I had no idea wtf is was. The second wasn't so bad. Archon..it took me 15 reloads just to get a strategy that worked to evac. No way I could kill it, I was already beat up from the mission. It was an item retrieval mission and I killed everything but the archon (got the item) but still "failed" because of the stupid archon

[Richard]

Originally posted by Regen752:

Sometimes I feel like too many events are always happening. I literally can't scan a supply drop for 3 days without a hundred dark events, resistance camp attacks or some other nonsense happening that requires me to leave.

What's the rush? I think it needs better pacing.

Too little stuff is happening at the same time. Game is too simple! I love complexicy, more decisions you can make makes the game feel alive. Like that you really are commander of Xcom!

[Abrakadabra]

Thats the setting though.

Earth has been invaded and occupied. Not only that, aliens are looking for an end solution, bio-engineering super soldiers that earth resistance has no hope of defeating once they have reached this end goal.

Naturally, you wont have weeks and months of tranquility where you dont do anything.

I really like it that you have to choose which ressources to get, where to scan, depending on what you need at the moment. And that your soldiers dont get much rest before the next mission. That everybody wants and needs your help. Its a last ditch effort against all odds to somehow pull through.

I couldnt envision such a setting with ultra slow and forgiving gameplay.

That would just kill immersion on a massive level.

It has to be stressful and unforgiving.

Thats xcom darlings.

This is an xcom game afterall.

Im glad the devs came to the same conclusion and did exactly the opposite of what so many threads here demand and cry for:

Make it easier.

Make it more accessible.

More forgiving.

Less complex, less stressful.

Dumb it down.

Theres a kazillion games and then some out there which were developed along those very fundamentals. Easy, dumbed down, accessible, no depth, no complexity.

I mean, theres literally an endless list of those games.

And you truely wanne turn xcom into another of those dumbed down games???

No

Just no.

100 % no.

If they do what you ask here in this thread, im gone and I wont buy or play other xcom games if they do that. Dumb it down, make it easy and accessible for the masses no matter if tetris, super mario or cod players. Evybody and their children should have fun playing it.

No. Just no.

This is xcom. And im glad the devs did not do what soooo many other devs did.

They stayed true what made xcom great. Xcom games were never just easy. You had to learn and adapt and overcome. Thats what made it great.

Why does evybody always want the easiest possible experience.

I dont unerstand. Wheres the original gamers that love challenges, eh?

Where are they.

[Tamiore]

The user above is 100% on the money: this situation is literally inalienable from the setting.
Resistance wouldn't need THE commander if there was no need for someone capable of winning even when odds start to get stacked against XCOM.

[TamTroll]

check out Sensible Mission Penalties if you can.

it makes some missions more optional, such as the supply-raid missions where resistance forces take down a train or something without your knowing or approval, and then expect you to come clean up the mess and collect the resources.

without "Sensible mission penalties", skipping this mission causes you to loose contact with that region, wasting time and resorces because you didn't want to waste time and resources.

WITH SmP though, skipping the mission causes nothing to happen. if you don't want to do it, you don't have to do it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130972839&searchtext=sensible+mission