Infinite Gameplay Cycle?

[Gerardatje]

Hey ya'll,

I played and finished the game at release back in 2016 (wow, so long ago already..)

But my question is, is it possible to in essence keep on going forever? As long as the Avatar project is being "kept down", shouldn't it be possible? Or is there a mission or (hidden) time limit apart from the Avatar project that forces the game to eventually end? (since now I have all DLCs/and I can't remember a whole lot back from when I played it in 2016, and updates/the DLCs might have changed the game a lot).

I recently played 'Aliens: Dark Descent' but sadly there is no infinite gameplay. At least, not with the same session. Although it did recently receive an update that gave it a New Game+ option it's not what I would prefer, as in, "infinite gameplay" in which you keep playing endlessly with the same session you started with.

GREAT game though, I highly recommend it to all XCOM/strategy players/fans.

Since won't missions keep popping up or? And if Avatar is being held down/low,
isn't it possible to have a playthrough in which you can keep on playing "forever"?

Thanks ya'!

[Crypto Gamer]

(Alien Dark Descent has a custom difficulty timer option for NO/removed death clock timer but difficulty can be chosen only at a start of a NG or NG+.)

In Xcom2 vanilla you likely have a finite time and can only delay it.

But in War of the Chosen you have more tools so with those you can delay timer forever if you keep using them with slight alternative cost.

1 is a resistance order that removes 1 bar per supply cycle.
Second is a random Skirmish covert op that can remove up to 2 bars.Can be rolled many times.

And of course killing Avatar facilities and completing primary options also delays it as in vanilla.

In addition at the start only of WOTC you can select double avatar timer so it goes from 12 to 24.

And of course Xcom2 is highly moddable you can simply download mod which removes the avatar timer.

[Amanoob105]

In the base Xcom2, not really. Sooner or later the ways to stop the avatar clock from ticking over just don't come in fast enough to keep up.

In WotC? You can keep that thing going until you get bored or die of old age, whichever comes first.
One of the region bonuses/faction orders (one can easily turn up as the other) can even, literally, make it impossible for the aliens to win and the longer a game goes on for the more chance of you getting it, at which point you don't even have to try to keep it down.

[Gerardatje]

Originally posted by Crypto Gamer:

(Alien Dark Descent has a custom difficulty timer option for NO/removed death clock timer but difficulty can be chosen only at a start of a NG or NG+.)

In Xcom2 vanilla you likely have a finite time and can only delay it.

But in War of the Chosen you have more tools so with those you can delay timer forever if you keep using them with slight alternative cost.

1 is a resistance order that removes 1 bar per supply cycle.
Second is a random Skirmish covert op that can remove up to 2 bars.Can be rolled many times.

And of course killing Avatar facilities and completing primary options also delays it as in vanilla.

In addition at the start only of WOTC you can select double avatar timer so it goes from 12 to 24.

And of course Xcom2 is highly moddable you can simply download mod which removes the avatar timer.

What is a resistance order precisely ?? Can't recall it at all, lol.
Was the double length Avatar project option only available with Wotc ?
I did consider using the mod at the time but it felt like cheating (a tad too much).

Thanks for the reply!

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

In the base Xcom2, not really. Sooner or later the ways to stop the avatar clock from ticking over just don't come in fast enough to keep up.

In WotC? You can keep that thing going until you get bored or die of old age, whichever comes first.
One of the region bonuses/faction orders (one can easily turn up as the other) can even, literally, make it impossible for the aliens to win and the longer a game goes on for the more chance of you getting it, at which point you don't even have to try to keep it down.

So in combination with the double length option of the Avatar project that WotC apparently added to the game, it is possible to really infinitely play? I have a tendency to love such things as it will mean I can come back to it whenever I desire (and I usually re-package the mods into my own merged folder/back up folders just in case I want to do so, it's why I hate multiplayer games because they will die at some point and all progress/time/money is lost..).

Thanks for the reply!

[Crypto Gamer]

Avatar double bonus is WOTC only.

'Sabotage"is the Skirmisher resistance order the one that removes 1 avatar block per each supply drop.

They are also the ones who might offer covert options to reduce avatar project by up to 2.

[megansweden]

You can get Avatar Project sabotage covert ops from all 3 factions, not just the Skirmishers. They are the only ones that have that faction card for the monthly reduction, though. (@OP - covert operations is another thing that is added with WOTC.)

[Gerardatje]

Originally posted by Crypto Gamer:

Avatar double bonus is WOTC only.

'Sabotage"is the Skirmisher resistance order the one that removes 1 avatar block per each supply drop.

They are also the ones who might offer covert options to reduce avatar project by up to 2.

So that it reduces it by 2 is only through the Skirmishers?

Originally posted by megansweden:

You can get Avatar Project sabotage covert ops from all 3 factions, not just the Skirmishers. They are the only ones that have that faction card for the monthly reduction, though. (@OP - covert operations is another thing that is added with WOTC.)

Faction card? What is that exactly, haven't heard of it/can't recall it lol.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Gerardatje:

Originally posted by Crypto Gamer:

Avatar double bonus is WOTC only.

'Sabotage"is the Skirmisher resistance order the one that removes 1 avatar block per each supply drop.

They are also the ones who might offer covert options to reduce avatar project by up to 2.

So that it reduces it by 2 is only through the Skirmishers?

Originally posted by megansweden:

You can get Avatar Project sabotage covert ops from all 3 factions, not just the Skirmishers. They are the only ones that have that faction card for the monthly reduction, though. (@OP - covert operations is another thing that is added with WOTC.)

Faction card? What is that exactly, haven't heard of it/can't recall it lol.

Ok, I'll start from scratch to try and cover all bases.

When starting a game in WotC, there's a bunch of advanced options to pick from found on this part of the menu.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2261671392
In there is the option to double the avatar clock, along with a bunch of others that mostly do what they say on the tin.

When you first get to the avenger screen there's a new room type you can make (and is generally strongly recommended you build first) called the Resistance Ring.
https://xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Resistance_Ring_(War_of_the_Chosen)
This lets you do two main things.
First off is send people, typically two of them, on Covert Ops. This both nets exp for these troops and also nets a reward for doing it. Though can also come with risks. They all typically take about 5 days to complete, though some can be longer or shorter.
All depends on which of them you pick.
As you meet up with more of the three factions more options for these Ops become available.
All factions can potentially offer Ops that can lower the avatar clock and at the start of each new month all Covert Ops are reset and a new list of options are presented, though if you still had one active from the last month it will complete as normal.

The second thing it's good for is that at the end of each month you can pick from a number of Resistance Orders to be in effect for as long as you keep them, with the option to swap out what you picked at the end of each new month.
You will always have more orders available to pick from than how many you can have active in total.
https://xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Resistance_Orders
(It's a LONG list.)
It may also be worth noting that a lot of these Resistance Orders are things that used to be region bonuses or upgrades from the GTS. A lot of them can also (or still) turn up as region bonuses.
You can get more by doing the "hunt the chosen" Op for each faction (which also lets you pick more to be active at once) or from random Ops who's reward is another order to pick from.

Of the possible orders (assuming it doesn't turn up as a region bonus) the skirmishers have one called Sabotage.
This is the one that will automatically remove one point of progress from the avatar clock at the end of every month effectively neutering the aliens ability to ever win.

[megansweden]

Originally posted by Gerardatje:

Originally posted by Crypto Gamer:

Avatar double bonus is WOTC only.

'Sabotage"is the Skirmisher resistance order the one that removes 1 avatar block per each supply drop.

They are also the ones who might offer covert options to reduce avatar project by up to 2.

So that it reduces it by 2 is only through the Skirmishers?

No, it reduces by 2 regardless of which Faction is offering the covert op. However, if the Avatar meter is low and you don't have facilities with multiple Avatar pips stacked on them, the op will reduce from the "main" avatar hidden location in the middle of the ocean. And then it only reduces 1 pip. But if the project is low you're better off to ignore it for a couple months to let it build, and then go for whichever facility has the most pips. Presumably if you're going for a "forever" game you will have contact with the whole map by then and ready access to any facility that gets built.

[Azure]

Play a game, get bored/annoyed with a mod or few and restart ~ that's the infinite cycle

[Cyber Von Cyberus]

In vanilla the Avatar project will eventually force you to end the game since facilities will spawn slower than the timer will increase.

In WOTC thanks to the addition of covert operations you have the ability to decrease the avatar via those and spawn new facilities to wreck too, so it can go on forever.

[NO]

there is no guarantee that you get the faction order that reduces avatar project in a run

[Vathek1]

Originally posted by NO:

there is no guarantee that you get the faction order that reduces avatar project in a run

If I'm not mistaken, if you run enough Covert Ops, won't you eventually get every single Resistance Order which doesn't overlap with a particular Continent Bonus? Because after a while, the Resistance Order ops stop appearing in the Resistance Ring--and I always presumed this was because one had obtained all of the Resistance Orders possible. To me, it seems quite similar to how you don't see any Sabotage operations if the Avatar Project meter has 0 pips in it (because what are you going to sabotage if the aliens haven't even had a chance to conduct any research for your merry band of dissidents to destroy?

What is random is exactly when in your campaign (after making contact with all there factions) the Skirmishers will offer a potential covert op to get the Sabotage resistance order. It could be very early in your campaign, which is great, as it means you can pretty much ignore the Avatar Project--because at the end of each "month," the Sabotage resistance order will effectively take you out of the danger zone even if the final countdown has begun.

That said, you don't actually need that specific resistance order at all in order to complete a game or even to drag one out for an interminable amount of time. I'm curious, however, what would happen if you were to allow more days and years to pass in game than could be reasonably expected for your soldiers to still be fighting fit... or even still alive. I'm talking about if you managed to drag out a campaign until 2085--if that's even possible.

Would the game encounter errors since your supplies value may possibly reach its maximum value then overflow? Because after a certain point in the game, you really don't need supplies for anything--you have all the facilities built and upgraded; you have enough weapons and armour to fight a major interstellar war, and you don't need any new recruits anymore.

[Cyber Von Cyberus]

You could test that theory out via console commands, by adding billions of supplies over and over we could see how the game handles a stack overflow.

[Gerardatje]

Originally posted by Cyber Von Cyberus:

You could test that theory out via console commands, by adding billions of supplies over and over we could see how the game handles a stack overflow.

Wouldn't you be able to reduce the stuffsies via CheatEngine or any trainer?
To prevent a possible overflow or such? I do really want a long run this time =D

And really, many thanks all for the great responses you guys!

[Cyber Von Cyberus]

Originally posted by Gerardatje:

Originally posted by Cyber Von Cyberus:

You could test that theory out via console commands, by adding billions of supplies over and over we could see how the game handles a stack overflow.

Wouldn't you be able to reduce the stuffsies via CheatEngine or any trainer?
To prevent a possible overflow or such? I do really want a long run this time =D

And really, many thanks all for the great responses you guys!

usually those overflows occur when you reach the billions, so I really wouldn't worry about it unless you have a way to make millions of something each month.