History VideoGame / XCOMLongWar

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: XCOM needs an entirely new building, which you don't start out with, just to repair small objects. May be partially justified as you only use it to repair alien technology.

As of January 5th, 2017, a sequel mod to ''Long War'' was announced, simply titled ''Long War 2'', which is created by Pavonis Interactive, formerly known as Long War Studios.

As of January 5th, 2017, a sequel mod to "Long War" was announced, simply titled "Long War 2", which is created by Pavonis Interactive, formerly known as Long War Studios.

As of January 5th, 2017, a sequel mod to Long War was announced, simply titled Long War 2, which is created by Pavonis Interactive, formerly known as Long War Studios.

* [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577474474 Alien Pack]]
* [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=712967878 Laser Pack]]
* [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577517577 Leader Pack]]
* [[http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=719109968 Perk Pack]]
* [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577409322 SMG Pack]]
* [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=674832831 Toolbox]]

* AscendedExtra: As of beta 14, General Van Doorn will join XCom if he is successfully extracted during the relevant council mission.

** Surprisingly [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] for the infamous [[DemonicSpiders Chryssalids]]; they're still fast, durable, and hit like a truck, but their overall damage output has been [[{{Nerf}} nerfed]] slightly which, along with the generally-increased toughness of XCom operatives, means their attacks aren't quite the OneHitKill they used to be; they're still a major threat, but you can survive a hit or two with sufficient armor, meaning no more fears of sudden, unexpected FinalDeath.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Somewhat infamously, Outsiders. In the original, they were dangerous thanks to high mobility, good aim and decent damage, but they were also {{Glass Cannon}}s possible to kill in one flanked shot. Here, they retain all their strengths, but their health is now boosted to 10, and on top of that, they regenerate 3 health per turn. Taking one down in early game often requires round of concentrated fire from entire squad. This is the first sign that Long War doesn't pull any punches.

* ArmorIsUseless: Now that it's a choice, averted. While tactical vests grant mobility, higher tiers of armor offer significant survivability against their lighter counterparts, and once the enemies start bringing their big guns to bear, the extra HP will be much appreciated.

* EarlyGameHell: Unlike the base game, this trope is alleviated in ''Long War'' with a much greater breadth of starting options - your Rookies might still have no abilities, but at least they now can carry two items at once from a much greater list of starting items to deal with their [[ATeamFiring unlikeliness to hit things]] over just tossing frag grenades all the time. Additionally, plasma weapons no longer reliably destroy cover they hits and stops even the Aliens missing your soldiers being potentially quite lethal, and more starting weapons have been added, notably the "Carbine" line of weapons which are assault rifles with less damage and critical chance (A big penalty if the soldier using it is accurate), but grant an aim and mobility bonus to its user (A big bonus if the soldier using it ''isn't'' because doing some damage is more than doing none!).

** In the original game, [[TheQuisling EXALT]] could be a challenge early on, due to starting with decent gear and some unique powers, and the [[ScrappyLevel Covert Ops missions]] could occasionally be a pain, but whereas the player started developing better equipment and more capable soldiers, EXALT [[CantCatchUp never grew beyond their initial level of power,]] meaning that they quickly became MoneySpiders and little else. In ''Long War'', they grow and gain upgrades at the same rate as the player, and can even field their own versions of your super-elite top-tier soldiers; watch in awe as EXALT Snipers OneHitKill you from beyond your visual range, EXALT Heavies demolish entire swaths of cover with Blaster Launchers, and EXALT MECs run down your squishy fleshlings. [[FromBadToWorse They also get larger numbers]], AND [[UpToEleven can appear alongside aliens in any missions they'd normally appear in - including Terror Missions!]].

* PrestigeClass: To a degree. Beyond the standard classes, a soldier can become either a MEC trooper, gaining a modified version of their original class with greater firepower and durability, an Officer that grants the entire team buffs, or Psionic, gaining a whole new set of spell-like abilities. Interestingly, each is limited differently. You can only have so many officers, and many are rank-limited, Psionics are based on RandomNumberGod, and MECs are simply very resource-intensive.

XCOM: Long War is a GameMod for the tactical strategy game [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown XCOM: Enemy Unknown]], more specifically its ''Enemy Within'' DLC. The mod serves as a significant expansion of the base game, adding more classes, more loadout options, a wide variety of addition perks, skills, and equipment, and rebalances several of the base game's more notable {{Game Breaker}}s.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Somewhat infamously, Outsiders. In the original, they were dangerous thanks to high mobility, good aim and decent damage, but they were also {{Glass Cannon}}s possible to kill in one flanked shot. Here, they retain all their strengths, but their health is now boosted to 10, and on top of that, they regenerate 3 health per turn. Taking one down in early game often requires round of concentrated fire from entire squad. This is the first sign that Long War doesn't pull any punches.

** Floaters are a bit tougher in general, but now you can encounter [[EliteMook ''Heavy Floaters'']], who have effectively twice the health and firepower, and are much more mobile and accurate.

* WakeUpCallBoss
** Somewhat infamously, Outsiders. In the original, they were dangerous thanks to high mobility, good aim and decent damage, but they were also {{Glass Cannon}}s possible to kill in one flanked shot. Here, they retain all their strengths, but their health is now boosted to 10, and on top of that, they regenerate 3 health per turn. Taking one down in early game often requires round of concentrated fire from entire squad. This is the first sign that Long War doesn't pull any punches.
** The game has an even more infamous example in the [[spoiler: [[GiantMook GIANT]] [[OhCrap CHRYSSALID.]] This beastie can show up in any Terror Mission from the second onwards, is about FIVE TIMES the size of a regular Chryssalid, has [[DamageSpongeBoss THREE times the health]], [[LightningBruiser moves just as fast]], [[OneHitKill and deals upwards of 15-20 points of damage per hit]]. As soon as it appears, the entire squad will need to concentrate their firepower to take it out, or it WILL rush the squad down within a single turn and begin dealing out [[FinalDeath casualties]] left right and center. Seeing one of the franchise's most infamous DemonicSpiders scaled up so dramatically is enough to make even ''hardened veterans'' of the series [[FreakOut freak out]] the first time they see it, and will still cause plenty of panic on subsequent appearances.]]

XCOM: Long War is a GameMod for the tactical strategy game [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown XCOM: Enemy Unknown]], more specifically it's ''Enemy Within'' DLC. The mod serves as a significant expansion of the base game, adding more classes, more loadout options, a wide variety of addition perks, skills, and equipment, and rebalances several of the base game's more notable {{Game Breaker}}s.

XCOM: Long War is a GameMod for the tactical strategy game [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown XCOM: Enemy Unknown]], more specifically it's ''Enemy Within'' DLC. The mod serves as a significant expansion of the base game, adding more classes, more loadout options, a wide variety of addition perks, skills, and equipment, and rebalances several of the base game's more notable [[GameBreaker GameBreakers]].

Additionally, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title suggests,]] it's long. [[MarathonLevel ''Really'' long.]] Whereas the average game of ''Enemy Within'' could be completed in around 20-30 hours based on difficulty, ''Long War'' can ''easily'' take upwards of 40...and that's on the ''easiest'' difficulty.

* GameMod: One of particular note is the Long War mod, which the game's own developers have said takes the game "to a whole different level." In short, it adds another 4 classes that're variations of the original classes, gives all classes 3 different skills per level instead of just 2, changes the [=MECs=] so that every class has their own type of MEC with its own skilltrees, massively complicates the functions of every type of alien assault so that each successful mission from their POV gives them more resources, changes the panic mechanics completely so that fulfilling the country's requests raises their resistance and even if a country is taken over, it can still be recovered by taking over the alien base in that country. It also replaces medals with officers that give their benefits to all squad members. Soldiers also get tired after missions, must rest afterwards and if not let to recover, will have a longer, forced recovery period. The revamped science tree is so big and intertwined that its flowchart is only readable as an A1 printout. Finally, there are a lot more Psionic skills and everyone can ultimately become one (although it's easier with soldiers with high will) but using them adds to the soldier's fatigue and they must be learned via training, which takes time. Together with fully revamped weapons and items which bring dozens of new, carefully balanced mechanics into play, all of these features push the tactical layer of the game to the limit. Even lowest difficulties demand perfect form and unerring calculations from an experienced player; every mission becomes a constant streak of potential disasters, averted only by intimate knowledge of the game's mechanics. The late game difficulty fall-off from the vanilla also disappears: even with elite soldiers and cutting edge tech, the scale of the opposition is immense, often pitting a squad against two vanilla missions worth of aliens in a single throwaway skirmish. And, of course, the War is definitely Long: to beat it, one has to put in upwards of 100-150 hours.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Somewhat infamously, Outsiders. In the original, they were dangerous thanks to high mobility, good aim and decent damage, but they were also {{Glass Cannon}}s possible to kill in one flanked shot. Here, they retain all their strengths, but their health is now boosted to 10, and on top of that, they regenerate 3 health per turn. Taking one down in early game often requires round of concentrated fire from entire squad.

** LMGs. Heavy guns that can't be moved and fired in the same turn, they have huge range, essentially making them mini-Sniper Rifles, and MASSIVE damage output. While their accuracy is a bit low, this is easily compensated for, and Gunners can get a variety of perks that make them even more deadly. Properly-deployed LMG Gunners can wipe out swathes of enemies on their own.

** SHIVs were pretty underwhelming in the base game, due to having limited loadouts, utility, and falling short of soldiers in nearly every way by the lategame. Now, they get a much wider range of weapons and support modules, and can be anything from a mobile death turret to a portable stealth-detecting radar that doubles as hardened cover.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Somewhat infamously, Outsiders. In the original, they were dangerous thanks to high mobility, good aim and decent damage, but they were also {{GlassCannon}}s possible to kill in one flanked shot. Here, they retain all their strengths, but their health is now boosted to 10, and on top of that, they regenerate 3 health per turn. Taking one down in early game often requires round of concentrated fire from entire squad.

* RedShirt: [[InvokedTrope Literally!]] [[CannonFodder Rookies]] get red-colored armor by default, and only get bumped up to the standard olive drab on reaching Squaddie status (barring the player's customization whims, of course.)

* Simple Yet Awesome: Scouts, an offshoot of the Sniper. Take the Sniper's long-range headshotting OneHitKill potential, combine with the Assault's high mobility and propensity for flanking, and add on SuperReflexes resulting in copious DodgeTheBullet, and you have a high-speed, high-kill-count murder machine. [[GlassCannon Just don't leave them hugging cover on the front line.]]

* LMGs. Heavy guns that can't be moved and fired in the same turn, they have huge range, essentially making them mini-Sniper Rifles, and MASSIVE damage output. While their accuracy is a bit low, this is easily compensated for, and Gunners can get a variety of perks that make them even more deadly. Properly-deployed LMG Gunners can wipe out swathes of enemies on their own.

* AwesomeButImpractical: High-explosives, especially if used recklessly. Explosives are powerful, dealing great damage, and they obliterate cover, meaning survivors will usually be Exposed and thus easily taken out with a follow-up shot. However, overuse of them can destroy cover ''your'' squad could have used, and you can potentially wind up needing to advance through a killing field of enemies with no cover locations. Additionally, enemies killed this way don't drop any loot; while the larger number of missions and aliens in general makes this less of an issue, overuse can still leave the player short on needed materials later on down the line.

*** Oh, and remember those [[ScrappyLevel Covert Ops?]] EXALT get to keep all their nifty toys for those missions, while the player is still limited to an unarmored, undergunned Covert Operative (that starts on the far side of the rest of your squad, and [[EscortMission MUST survive or the mission is a failure]]) and a fraction of the troops you could normally bring. These can EASILY be some of the hardest missions in the game.

* AwesomeButImpractical:

** Battle Sensors and the Motion Detector. The latter also take an equipment slot, but have drastically-boosted radius and throwing range compared to the base game, and they last for a whopping two turns. The latter adds a radar only for the using unit and only for a single turn, but it can detect ''anything'', including enemies you haven't seen. Between these two, it can become trivial to get the drop on the aliens nearly every time.