I see you failed to read the xcom archives like everyone else ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about so many enemies in the mission. 100K subscribers to this mod and there are bound to be a few hundred of you who come in here to whine about game mechanics that exist for a very specific reason. I've been playing missions for months of in game time and have an average of 10 enemies per mission. But then, I read the archives.

Perhaps if you took the time to understand the new mechanics you'd actually enjoy it. I'm not even going to point you in the right direction as you obviously failed to read the description of the mod.

Regarding RNG. No idea what you guys are talking about. Cover is better, flanks are more important, and there is a new graze mechanic. If you took a few minutes to look over the long war forum (the nice link at the start of the description), maybe it would make more sense. But no, just come on this discussion board to vent your frustrations about changes you obviously don't understand. Uninstall this mod and go away.

^^^ this

1. Don't go into a mission on less than 100% infiltration. No ifs no buts (at least until you're much stronger mid-game).
2. Do the objective, and get out. Most missions the goal is not to clear the map. You're not there to kill everyone, you're there to do the mission. It's guerilla warfare at the start. If you're playing LW2 like vanilla, you're doing it wrong. Can't stress this enough. This is a total conversion mod, it's not the same game.
3. Don't go charging in a straight line, use concealment as long as you can and go around to the objective. Again, only fight if you have to. And when you do, execute them quickly and get out.
4. Drop the evac before you complete the mission. It will take 1-4 turns depending on your infiltration (or more, if below 100%. See point 1).
5. You have three classes that can pretty much one-shot enemies from the start of the game: shinobis, rangers, technicals. These classes make the game a walk in the park.
6. Everyone gets multiple utility slots, and fully upgradeable weapons mods from the start. Don't hoarde upgrades, lots of loot drops in LW2, so kit out your weapons and fiil up on nades.
7. Flasbangs. Flashbangs, flashbangs, flashbangs. Use them liberally. Take extras. They can't hit you, can't use abilities, breaks mind control, etc. Did I mention Flashbangs?

I started a campaign and was getting stomped. Felt like you did. Then realised point 2 above, started a new campaign, am about 14 missions in and haven't lost a mission yet. Again note point 2 above -- you win a mission by doing the objective, not killing enemies (unless that is the mission, but these are rare). And so far, the game is freaking awesome! Love everything about it. Just needs a few bugs fixed, and there's a long list of fixes on the Pavonis boards for the first patch.

A bit of fair advice to you Sebastein:
I get all your frustrations with LW 2. I really do. But let me say, with utmost and all due respect, that I don't think you're playing the mod as it was intended.

The first thing you need to understand is how infiltration and mission expirations work: At set times during a month, a number of missions will spawn across the geoscape. These are all hidden but will be revealed depending on how many resistance grunts you have on the Intel job in a given region (having Avenger scan at a resistance haven will greatly improve the odds of that happening). When a mission is revealed, you'll only have a certain amount of time before it expires- anything from 10 days to a few hours and you can tell how much time you have by hovering over the mission indicator on the bottom of the geoscape.

Then comes infiltration: you can send squads of anything from 3 to 8 soldiers on any mission but larger squads build infiltration slower than smaller squads. Shinobis with SMGs also build infiltration quicker than gunners with machinegues. Before you launch a mission, you'll see a nice breakdown of infiltration times and such on the right hand side of the squad select screen. This info should inform your every decision regarding whether or not you go on a mission- them ost crucial being how long it'll take for your squad to get to a 100% infiltration. That's your 'critical' point beyond which a mission becomes MUCH easier. You'll have fewer enemies, weaker enemies and reinforcements will be less likely. That right there is the key to success at LW 2

In general, I'd say that if you cannot get to a 100% infiltration before a mission expires, don't go on that mission or take a smaller squad so that you can get to that 100% infiltration before the mission expires (but in general I'd not recommend going with less than 5 troops). You shouldn't hesitate at all to skip a mission. There are very rarely any negative consequences to doing so. I know XCOM 2 conditions us all to jump to every mission we come across but LW 2 is quite different in that regard. Skip missions if you must. If you get a guerilla op that only has 18 hours before expiring, don't go on it. You'll never get to that 100% infiltration and the drawback of losing your squad is not at all worth the meager reward.

Tl;DR: Get to that 100% infiltration before going on a mission!

I hope that this helps you a bit with the new mechanics. I really want people to appreciate LW 2 for what it is: A whole new game wearing the skin of an older game.

Good luck, Sebastien!

eldiabs pls don't be a fanboy lol, i played more than 800 hours to long war 1, loving long war 2 and playing it, but you can't not see the problem with the RNG. Com'n there is no reason for a soldier to miss a shot at point blank, there is no damn reason, that is bs and nothing else, also those penalities for being too close, really ? being at the side of a enemy makes me more difficult to shoot him in the face with a damn gatling gun ? i hoped that long war 2 could have changed the way the game was played but they exacerbated the problems. You shoot at point blank range with a sniper rifle ? you hit at 100 % for a ton of damage. That's the logical conclusion. that would have given also the trill of not going in like a madman in the middle of a group of enemy to kill with a shotgun, sure that they will not hit you with anything as you have flashbanged them and suppressed them, making their chances to hit you right there in the open and flanked at 1 block distance like 1%. You wouldn't do it because you know that they would have 100% chance even if flashbanged and suppressed. I mean ... really ? there is a guy shooting over your cover and you have been flashbanged and you can shoot the guy standing next to you ? It is BS. A more appropriate thing imo would have been that flashbangs DESTROYS your mobility as your equilibrium is crap and your aim is exponentially lower the further you aim. You can have like 2/10 of sight but you can aim at a person next to you. same for suppression. It could be more believable if the problem for the suppressed was to shoot in the direction of the suppressor, as there are bullets comng that way, but what is the problem at shotting the other way ? you simply shoot without leaving cover. Those are the problems that make you rage.

Originally posted by eldiabs:

I see you failed to read the xcom archives like everyone else ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about so many enemies in the mission.

So, A LOT of people do the same mistake and the only conclusion you can get is their fault and not a flaws in the way LW2 deliver information?

Damn, don't ever produce a videogame man.

Originally posted by Jeancly:

also those penalities for being too close, really ?

WHAT ?! Their's close range penalties?
So that explain why even at mele range some of my guys got 60% chance to hit !

Who the hell thought that would be a good idea ? This is the most retarded choice I've ever heard in my life !
The all point of the fight is to get the good angle or get right in their face and shoot them point blank witht he disadvantage of puting you most of the time in a bad spot, how the hell did they think they need to put penalties to point blank shot ?

hell-nico there are penalities for being too close for the gunner weapon and the sniper rifle, not for the others, but it is BS either way, also nice catch, the sword that has only 60% chance of hitting. really ? and the best happened on a mission yesterday: Charche a turret to slash it, miss. WTF ? i mean, i get a viper, rapid reflexed, sinous body, but a turret ? wtf ?

A hundred or so complaining is nothing when considering 100K are using the mod. That's around .1 - .2 % of the users. Seeing as how 1 in 100 people in this world are probably complete morons (and that's a optimistic made up statistic), it's actually a super small minority that failed to read the description of this mod. But this super small minority have completely filled up this discussion thread and the comments section with complaints that are useless to the community. You feel the need to complain about game mechanics you don't understand while doing nothing to understand them. Go away, please. Or you know what....I'll go away, to the forums. Where there appears to be less of this .1%. Amusingly enough, those forums are probably where you would get the most clarification for your complaints.

Originally posted by eldiabs:

A hundred or so complaining is nothing when considering 100K are using the mod.

Yeah because "the silent majority" is a myth right ? EVERYONE use steam forum, right ?

What a stupid arguement you just made.

Let's be a bit more honest here and look at the ratio of people complaining compared with the blind fanboys spaming that everything is perfect and you should just go away !

Originally posted by Le Sebastien (One Love ✌):

Let me start by saying I love what you guys are doing with this mod, and I appreciate the effort, but this has a LONG WAY until it can be considered anything but a keyboard smashing exercise in frustration.

First of all, XCOM itself is a very problematic game. It's a game that pretends to be a smart turn based strategy, when in reality it's just 30% player decisions, 70% RNG and how well you roll a dice. Soldiers missing impossibly stupid shots, enemies coming out of nowhere, whole campaigns ruined because the game just decides "♥♥♥♥ you". We all know this.

All of those bad game mechanics and frustrations shine in a whole new light in Long War 2, because this mod does nothing to alleviate those problems, but instead just makes every flaw shine more glaringly. Every time you lose it just makes you feel like you just got robbed. It never feels like you lost fair and square, but instead the game AI exploiting the broken game mechanics.

The biggest problem for me personally is, the mod is not nearly well balanced enough, and doesn't take into consideration the enlarged scope of the mod. Every fight is larger, but it just feels like the mod added more enemies, and didn't actually balance anything gameplay-wise.

After the first mission, you'll get a VIP/Jail Break time limit mission, and in the mission description it says "MILD RESISTANCE" but in fact you'll be facing 30+ enemies. I mean what the ♥♥♥♥? The problem isn't the enemies alone, but the fact that the round limit isn't balanced at all, and you'll end up rushing to the objective, only to be engaging 2-3 groups of enemies at once and you get your ♥♥♥ blown to smithereens.

I get it that this is supposed to be a mod for hardcore XCOM fans, but you can't take an already broken game and make it even more broken, instead of balancing it and making it more enjoyable. You shouldn't have to be an XCOM savant to enjoy this, but right now I can't recommend it to anyone because it just makes the game a totally unfair challenge.

TL;DR Long War 2 is an unbalanced luckfest, instead of an enjoyable mod with fair challenge.

longwar 2 hasnt been a problem for me so far, it requires skill. and yes. the RNG is annoying at times, but you should never balance your RNG in such a way, that it can destroy your keyboard.
This is the way the game is made, do you expect the mod to make a new aiming system or what?

what the game actually requires you to get better and is actually harder on a fair level is that you need a better surrounding carefulness, also you need to be better at planning every single move, aside fro that it is RNG mumbo jumbo. AND I REPEAT: i love to play the mod and have over 800 hours on long war 1. So: as i said the mod has a lot of pro but there could have been better ways to improve it rather than making your expert at shooting ( RANGER) have a 30% chance to hit someone in alf cover

@Hell_Nico There is currently a bug in LW2 which leads to enemy pods magically patrolling to your hidden squad's position. This is fixed with the next (still unreleased) patch http://www.pavonisinteractive.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23646

Originally posted by Zorfmorf:

@Hell_Nico There is currently a bug in LW2 which leads to enemy pods magically patrolling to your hidden squad's position. This is fixed with the next (still unreleased) patch http://www.pavonisinteractive.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23646

I image you are refering to that : - Fix bug causing AI to adjust their patrol paths in response to XCOM's movement without any direct knowledge of them.
I've encountered that bug only once (you can clearly identify it because they really RUN instead of walking) and it I wasn't talking about it anyway.
I'm talking about the just the normal pods and the random drops.

Then I'm not sure what you mean. If your squad is still in conceilment you should be able to avoid getting surprised by aliens. If you already triggered the alarm (by attacking or interacting with the objective) the other pods will be coming to get you, but it's time to leave anyway. Sure, from time to time you will be caught in a bad spot, but that shouldn't happen very often. And drop-ins shouldn't be that many, especially if you leave soon/right after triggering alarms.

Are you making sure to only deploy to missions with 100%+ infiltration?