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Newest Update Link  Welcome back, Commander It's been roughly four years since I finished the LP of XCom 2. During the LP Firaxis put out a big DLC expansion called War of the Chosen. At the time I was midway through the LP and was skeptical that a DLC would add enough content for me to want to redo the whole LP. So I finished the LP without it, bought the DLC and played it for myself. There was a lot to it and I questioned my decision but I had a lot of other things to look forward to LPing. However I've gone back and played XCom 2 time and again, streaming a playthrough at least once a year on my twitch page. Now it's four years later, I've completed some of the projects I had been looking forward to, I'd burned out for a year and took a break, then came back with a little low effort but revitalizing LP of Deep Sky Derelicts. I feel the time is right to get back into things like I used to. So here we are, back at XCom, bigger, badder, and slightly more Canadian than before.  So what's changed in War of the Chosen? The short answer is a lot. There are 3 new resistance factions in the world, the Reapers, Skirmishers, and Templars who will aid XCom and even lend them one of their unique soldiers to control. And they are pretty awesome. The longer answer would require me to remember what the original vanilla limitations were, but it's been 4 years and I'm just so used to Wotc now that it's hard to remember everything the way it used to be. The covert action ring is new and lets you send soldiers out on missions to disrupt advent, find loot, or train your soldiers. Old content has been streamlined into the new narrative, optionally with a checkbox when starting a new game. For example Shen's Tower isn't a thing if you choose, nor the Vahlen snake lair mission. Instead these features will be integrated with the normal flow of the gameplay. Oh yeah, and the biggest thing, the fricken Chosen! Three 'uplifted' humans chosen by the Elders to oversee the large territories of earth, and most importantly, charged with destroying XCom and returning the Commander back to their goo tank to continue using him for their own means. The Chosen provide a constant threat and source of antagonism throughout the course of the game as each of them interferes with your missions, tries to hunt you and the Avenger down, and crackdown on resistance operations across the globe. Whichever of the three captures the Commander is promised to rule Earth after the Elders leave.  I still have the giant pool of soldiers from the first LP, and it's about 200 people strong. If you signed up for the first LP 4 years ago then I still have your soldier in the character pool. If you would like to sign up and add your character to the pool then please make a character .bin file and send it to me. This can be done two ways; if you have the game, just load it up and make a character in the character pool and export it. If you do not have the game and want to make a character please download the XCom 2 Propaganda Center on steam and make a character, export it, and send it to me. The propaganda center can be found here, for free; https://store.steampowered.com/app/433050/XCOM_2_War_of_the_Chosen__Propaganda_Center/ War of The Chosen adds 3 new hero soldier types, the Reapers, the Skirmishers, and the Templar. Naturally I have zero custom soldier files for these new people. They all have their own unique outfits and equipment so I would like to get a few of these signed up as well. Additionally the propaganda center will let you make a file for a SPARK, which i also have zero premade characters for, so a few of these would be welcomed as well. Otherwise I paint the first mech I make like a yellow jacket and give it Julian's voice. Once you have made your .bin file please send it to me at TheXComCommander@gmail.com The .bin files should be very small so send as an attachment, or if that's not possible a dropbox or other link to download will work. About the LP If you watched the first LP you know what to expect. If you haven't then let me explain once more. My original XCom and XCom2 LPs were meant to be informative, targeting people newer to the game or the genre, to aid and help them grapple with the difficulties the game presents. Long ago lots of players found the advanced difficulties too hard. Some even found the default normal too hard. My first LP was made to showcase the game and show that things were not as difficult as they seemed, and specifically I wanted to help players up their game so they could go from normal to veteran difficulty level with ease. There is a lot of tips and things you can do to mitigate risks in XCom and I hoped to point all these out for people. It's four years later now and I'm going into this LP with the assumption that the majority of my audience knows the game or has seen my previous XCom LPs. There will probably be less 'strategy guide' kind of talk between Guava and myself, and more focus on all the new and cool things Wotc adds and changes to the game. Of course I don't want anyone left out, so if there are people new to XCom or new to Wotc and have questions about things I don't cover right away then please post and ask in the thread and I'll cover it during a video if I can demonstrate it during a mission or I'll cover it in a post.  Mods There are a lot of workshop mods for Xcom 2, and I have many of them installed. However very few of the mods I have installed do anything mechanical, most are cosmetic or UI related. The few mechanical changes I have is a Skirmisher balance mod that changes a few of their abilities from being limited to once or twice a mission into a cooldown timer. The overwatch all mod is technically a mechanical change, but it's mostly there to save clicking time. I'll cover the one time it actually does something that makes a difference. Fair Lost Targeting makes the Lost just as likely to attack other things as they are to attack us. The last one I can think of is the HackPlus mod. If you watched the first LP you know hacking is a thing but not something I used a lot. Hacking skill was so hard to come by and really you needed to get a Enemy Protocol +20 skill bonus to get a hacker started. HackPlus lets your people earn hacking skill by actually hacking. +1 for a failed hack, +3 for a minor hack, and +5 for a major hack. I'm a really big fan of getting the skill up through use and Guava wanted me to hack a lot more in the first LP so this is in here to help showcase hacking a bit more and keep Guava happy. The rest of my many mods are UI changes like numeric health displays, flank preview icons, Evac all, an absolute ton of cosmetics and voice packs, changing the default promotion screen, and so on. Someone asked me for the file to get the mission name list the LP is using so grab it here; https://ufile.io/y7rfokw3 the file is Xcomgame.int under whatever your steam install folder is/steamapps/common/Xcom 2/xcomgame/localization/INT                                               Intermission Streams  #1 - This doesn't seem space worthy #2 - The raddest way to die #3 - Feed the fish #4 - Dangerous and irresponsible science #5 - The Shy Moon #6 - gently caress giant space fish #7 - Not one redeeming quality #8 - Teleport Troubles #9 - Sand Column O'Clock #10 - The Eye of the Universe #11 - Echos of the Eye #12 - The Marshmallow should have worked #13 - Why the Dam Breaks #14 - Waiting for the Spookyness #15 - Starting to understand #16 - I knew it! #17 - Sneaking Mission #18 - Ow My Bones #19 - The End, Again  #1 - The Mysterious Death of Kate Vine #2 - If I did...THIS... Would it mean anything? #3 - Plant Science and Magic Mint #4 - Jenks gets Black Bagged #5 - What if... DEMONS #6 - Not a sex cult #7 - Who Murdered Kate Vine Jade Star fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Mar 10, 2023 |
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Dec 17, 2021 03:08
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Christmas has come early!  I'd be lying if I didn't say I didn't miss this somewhat.
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Dec 17, 2021 03:19
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Hope you can top having the repeater activate on the Archon King
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Dec 17, 2021 03:21
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Just you watch I'll use that dressup app to recreate the whole cast of the Red Green Show, to make this LP significantly more Canadian.
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Dec 17, 2021 03:39
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Please tell me one of the mods you have is the re-boosh robot melee ragdoll physics mod?
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Dec 17, 2021 03:40
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Bootcha posted:Please tell me one of the mods you have is the re-boosh robot melee ragdoll physics mod? I've got a bigger SPARK punches mod, yes. If there is a specific one among many, then I can't be positive i have the one you're thinking of.
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Dec 17, 2021 03:44
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My favorite root beer review series is back!
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Dec 17, 2021 04:00
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Yeah templar are great, but do you have a dirty bomb-ceasefire combo anymore
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Dec 17, 2021 04:13
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So will you have the Star Trek Appreciation squad on, or will it depend on if there are many signups for those classes?
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Dec 17, 2021 04:34
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It's been a while since I played 2. I forgot about the throwback update with the alternative soundtracks. E: I forget, did storytime with Bradford make it into the last lp? FoolyCharged fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Dec 17, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2021 04:40
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Soylent Pudding posted:My favorite root beer review series is back! 
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Dec 17, 2021 04:44
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FoolyCharged posted:E: I forget, did storytime with Bradford make it into the last lp? Legacy missions were not in the old LP and I'll figure out if I can work them in as intermissions or do them all together at the end of the LP
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Dec 17, 2021 04:47
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If no one dies or anything lucky happens in general, I'm getting skeptical about your "manuals"  That Archon King...
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Dec 17, 2021 04:52
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This’ll be good. I’ve wondered whether I should get WOTC or not.
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Dec 17, 2021 05:36
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If you got any pleasure out of a previous version of XCOM I think WOTC is worth picking up. It's just transformational; totally unrelated to this I just did a playthrough last week and kind of remembered just how much I enjoyed it. It adds a bit of character and grit to Xcom 2's relatively bland setting. Also mark me down as someone who learned how to play xcom2 from the original LP. 150hrs in now.
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Dec 17, 2021 05:50
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WotC is really loving good and nobody should have to play OG XCOM2 if they have access to the expansion.
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Dec 17, 2021 06:00
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Did a double take when I saw an Xcom 2 video on my feed posted today. Excited to see WOTC!
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Dec 17, 2021 06:24
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Guess we can look forward to elevated levels of Operation 3 2 1 Let's Jam Operation
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Dec 17, 2021 06:42
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Great to hear from the pronunciation power hour again, but it's very sad that this episode is only a normal amount of special.
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Dec 17, 2021 07:47
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silentsnack posted:Guess we can look forward to elevated levels of Operation 3 2 1 Let's Jam Operation Ah poo poo, I love a good Tank! in the middle of anything, gonna have to go edit that one in.
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Dec 17, 2021 07:51
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VIGILO EXCORDIS
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Dec 17, 2021 08:06
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Suffer not the alien to live! So drat hyped for this, the original l.p. was one of my absolute favorites
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Dec 17, 2021 08:30
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Hell yeah, a new Jade&Guava Xcom LP!
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Dec 17, 2021 09:32
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So excited for this! Btw, has Jake fixed his game?
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Dec 17, 2021 09:33
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Oh boy! Time to get mad at how bad I am at xcom once again!
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Dec 17, 2021 10:30
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The Propaganda Center is almost 3Gb so I'm going to pass, but I really hope someone submits a soldier named Bonus Aires.
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Dec 17, 2021 10:42
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Jade Star posted:
I hope you have the International Voices Mod pack! 'Cause I did the Scottish voice
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Dec 17, 2021 11:48
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So hyped for that. Both your XCOM1 and 2 LPs have a special place in my heart (and on my Kodi NAS). I need to buy root beer.
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Dec 17, 2021 12:17
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Oh poo poo, this should be good. The original commanders guide's the reason why I was able to pull through Ironman on both 1 and 2 (with WOTC) - the biggest challenge being the constant risk of game breaking unrecoverably.. combined with a save file that might just decide to vanish.
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Dec 17, 2021 14:16
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 Say, is this the first time in the XCOM LPs that you've had a soldier go into bleedout outside of forced tutorial death?
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Dec 17, 2021 15:48
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Splorange posted:Oh poo poo, this should be good. The original commanders guide's the reason why I was able to pull through Ironman on both 1 and 2 (with WOTC) - the biggest challenge being the constant risk of game breaking unrecoverably.. combined with a save file that might just decide to vanish. This is precisely why I don't play Ironman, but rather Honestman: I use save files, but I don't reload if a mission (or a turn) goes badly, only if the game glitches or breaks on me somehow.
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Dec 17, 2021 16:37
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Mikl posted:This is precisely why I don't play Ironman, but rather Honestman: I use save files, but I don't reload if a mission (or a turn) goes badly, only if the game glitches or breaks on me somehow. I totally lucked out in WOTC, I did avoid the heavily scripted tower mission. Vanilla XCOM2 just never completed without any game breaking bugs. Also if I remember correctly, for XCOM 1 I had to recover a soft locked state by tabbing out and yoinking the save file away. I had floaters stuck in the geometry of a downed UFO and something broke in the end turn feature. I don't recommend trying to "honestly" do Ironman, the rage becomes too real when a glitch does you in.
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Dec 17, 2021 16:53
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Samovar posted:I hope you have the International Voices Mod pack! I know a scottish server that considers you a genuine hero then, for giving the scottish units an actually good voice 
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Dec 17, 2021 18:11
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Jobbo_Fett posted:WotC is really loving good and nobody should have to play OG XCOM2 if they have access to the expansion.
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Dec 17, 2021 21:05
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Samovar posted:I hope you have the International Voices Mod pack! You may have to link this, because I searched the workshop for International Voices and the pack I saw was mostly russian and polish. It made no mention of a scottish voice pack.
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Dec 17, 2021 21:31
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Jade Star posted:You may have to link this, because I searched the workshop for International Voices and the pack I saw was mostly russian and polish. It made no mention of a scottish voice pack. Sadly I think the remake for WOTC died in the process of bringing it over. I think there might be a Long War of the Chosen version in the works somewhere.
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Dec 18, 2021 01:17
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You maniac.
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Dec 18, 2021 01:29
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I wish only to say that Space Marine Dreadnought Voice Pack on a SPARK is *chef's kiss* and I hope Jade Star does the needful with what he has been given.
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Dec 18, 2021 02:11
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Jobbo_Fett posted:I wish only to say that Space Marine Dreadnought Voice Pack on a SPARK is *chef's kiss* and I hope Jade Star does the needful with what he has been given. Jade Star posted:Additionally the propaganda center will let you make a file for a SPARK, which i also have zero premade characters for, so a few of these would be welcomed as well. Otherwise I paint the first mech I make like a yellow jacket and give it Julian's voice.
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Dec 18, 2021 02:46
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 20:03 |
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VolticSurge posted:Sounds like somebody has a job to do (possibly me if the game finishes downloading this century). I may or may not have provided a SPARK in conjunction with that post.
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Dec 18, 2021 02:49
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