https://xcom.com/news/en-long-war-studios-preparing-three-xcom-2-mods-for-launch

Since they're being made available at launch and Firaxis is working with them I'm sure they'll be balanced with the rest of the game. Just seems like some cool little upgrades.

I probably won't. I usually don't use mods in games anyways and having mods at launch isn't going to be changing anything. This set of mods doesn't seem like they're necessary for the experience.

Me. I wanna play the game the way it was intended to be played, at least the first time.

The new muton sounds cool though. They position it as a kind of mini-boss, which I think would be quite nice to play with. So I might use that one, we'll see.

Mods come after I finish it the first time, yeah :D

I might use the SMG and Leader mods to start. It really depends on the percentage of shots the soldiers miss that I feel they should have hit and if there's already something similar to the leadership. The muton mod is something for later after I've got a handle on the specific tactics the game's asking for.

I"m definitely using the SMG mod as more variety in weapons the better. I'm not sure about the leader and Mutton mods though, i may need time to get adjusted to the new enemy strategies and solider leveling first before adding a whole new enemy and class function.

smg + centurion

leader seems like it might mess too much with the balance

The way I see it is using these initial mods still falls under the "intended" way to play since they are going to be available at release and were developed in partnership with Firaxis.

I don't ever really run mods on games, and definitely not on the very first playthrough. I don't know why someone would install mods before even trying the vanilla experience, except if it's like a Bethesda game and the mod is actually just the first unofficial patch.

I didn't even know the Long War mod existed for Enemy Unknown until a couple weeks ago, so I'll probably do some "clean" runs before Moddin it up.

Firaxis is being cool as usual. I love their philosophy towards game design and their communities.

I will be playing without mods.

Mods developed in conjunction with the base game seem kind of silly to me. Good way for Firaxis to offload work, I guess.

Thanks for drawing attention to this. Didn't know there would be official mods at launch. They sound pretty neat, I will definitely install for my first run.

absolutely doing a vanilla run. i want to see firaxis' original vision of design- i'll mod after.

Honestly they don't seem like huge mods so why not. Leadership is neat and seemingly the 'biggest' change so I could see why some wouldn't go for it, the centurion could be 'just' another enemy or a complete bastard, though, and the SMGs are just another gun to use.

I wouldn't do a re-balance or total conversion though, not yet.

Definitely vanilla. I'd rather see what is in the base game before I mess with it.

I'm sure I'll use the SMG, and I'm debating on the Muton, but I'm not going to use the Officer class. That's too much of a change versus the other two.

None of it looks to be off? Like its X-com post long-war. There is no 'pure experience' in the sense that the developers have essentially said "This is all the stuff we created before we decided to stop, and sell it'. All there is is "The stuff that was ready and balanced on day one vs the stuff that was balanced/ready on day 50 stuff.

Like sure, if you wanna keep it 'pure' go ahead? But its not like this is "No x-com storyline, your now chaos marines attempting to over-throw the emperor" level of re-creation. Its just some guns, a new enemy, and a system from the long war that was always of minor use.

So uh..no clue if I am gonna bother, it depends on how easy it is/how much I wanna dive right into the game. but I don't have the same resistance to first-time mods with this game as some others seem too. Yah, like has been said, a total conversion? Nah I'd like to play through this games story once..but adding what is essentially plug and play elements that the developers of the game are themselves marketing? Something tells me it won't be any worse the the paid DLC they might add, and I question the value/balance of the smaller x-com 1 DLC as it is. Can't be worse then that.

Nah I mean they sound super official so why not have more options? I like options.

I prefer to get a feel for the game sans mods first before deciding if it needs anything added in. None of these seem like they would benefit the game greatly so I'd hold off on them. I'm hoping controller support gets added in fairly quickly as I played Enemy Unknown on the 360 so that's how I'd like to approximate playing XCOM 2.

Yes, that is precisely what I intend to do.

Yes to SMGs, maybe to the centurion and squad leaders.

The baffling thing to me is where exactly these fit into the game balance. Were they developed to be used in tandem with one another to create a specific meta, and therefore using one without the others would create an imbalance? Were they intended features of the final game left out and developed jointly with a well-known modding team to demonstrate the capability of the tools? Are they simply something created late in the game's development cycle to be released alongside it to get people hyped for the mod tools?

It's a mystery.

No. I only use mods if:

1. I've played the game to death and wouldn't play it again/won't have a lot of fun if I played it again, without them.
2. The game is broken or borderline poor without them.

For examples: I started playing Long War after I had beaten Enemy Within somewhat like 8 times. Couple times on Classic, once or twice on Impossible, then messing with various Second Wave options and so forth. When I felt like I was just going through the motions, I installed Long War. As for number 2, Fallout 4 is a good example of a game that is just bad without mods. Generally it boils down to me not playing the game with mods at least the first two clears (different difficulties). For XCOM though, it will take longer. Since I'll start on Commander I think it's called (second highest), then I'll replay it on that difficulty to see if I can do a very smooth playthrough. Then I'll move to Legend. Then mess with Second Wave options and so forth. Afterwards come the mods.

Eh? If they miss shots you feel like they should have hit? What does that mean? Unless you miss a 100% shot, I don't think you can say they should have hit it. Additionally, the SMG's have worse aim, so that doesn't solve your issue.

@keichan it's not a mystery. XCOM's options are all straight forward. They always have been (at least for the reboot). SMG's are pointless in that philosophy. They aren't straight forward, they are trade off guns. Firaxis wants it to be clear this is tier 1 weaponry, this is tier 2 etc. They want weapon classes to be things like the distinction between an assault rifle and a shotgun. Not an assault rifle and a worse assault rifle in most cases, but better in some others. They want to avoid that stuff. Therefor, mods for people who want it.

I only look for mods if theres something frustrating in the game i think it can fix or if i have already been satisfyed by the game and are looking for more. Neither applied for Xcom 1 but who knows for Xcom2. It wont be at day 1 though.

SMG-series Weapon Mod

This mod adds three new Submachine Gun-type weapons, one for each of XCOM 2’s three weapon tiers: conventional, magnetic and beam. SMGs offer bonus mobility, concealment and close-range accuracy when compared to the Assault Rifle, but at a penalty to damage output and long-range accuracy.

In Long War, I typically give my rocketeers the SMG class weapons both to offset the extra weight of the rockets and to help reduce rocket spread. If there are soldiers who have well below average aim, I'll probably give them an SMG. The biggest factor would be where the line between close-range accuracy bonus and long-range accuracy malus is. I'm of the theory that it's better to hit every time and do half damage than miss half the time, but do full damage.

I never played Long War but it sounds good. I will probably just play it as is at first but I will check it out for sure. I am not against mods off the bat so if it seems like the SMG stuff is recommended I would be willing to roll with that.

I don't plan on playing XCom 2 this year at least. But when I do, I always play a new game without any mods whatsoever. I don't start adding mods until my second playthrough.

@user_undefined: I found the accuracy buff up close is not worth the accuracy nerf at range. Especially if you consider damage will always be lower than standard, regardless of distance. Lower damage output often limits your options. I'd rather take a 50% bet that kills an enemy, than an 80% one that doesn't do anything on its own if it hits. Not to mention you're more often skewed to have even lower chance to hit.

To each his own. My 'Eh?' was directed at what you consider 'they should have hit but they missed' though. Not that you want to use SMG's.

@zevvion: Ah. bad phrasing on my part. I was talking about hit percent chance. Ideally, I'd like a fresh recruit aiming at a someone in half cover at optimal distance to have 50~60% chance to hit. Actually, I want every soldier to hit 100% of the time, but that would make a boring game.

You can just mess with the ini file and change bonus aim on all weapons to 15. Which would make a rookies aim 80 so enemies in half cover would be 60% chance to hit.

Also, you should train your Rookies in the Avenger before you take them on missions. Only takes some time, but it's better than bringing Rookies along.

These mods are super surface level, except for maybe the leader.

Also for those saying mods are dumb for a game just released, one of the main reasons these are getting out earlier is so other modders can get an basis of an idea for how to mod XCOM 2.

I like the SMGs so far. They are only 1 min/max damage down from Assault Rifles and give a mobility bonus, it's a nice tradeoff.

I wonder how much work it would be to put in a small chance that one of your soldiers has been kidnapped and replaced by a faceless.

I'll add the SMG mod but nothing else to start with.

Let the Vanilla game kick my ass before the Long War does

Yeah that was kinda my point

I'm probably not going to play the game for a while, but if I were I'd probably turn on the SMGs and nothing else. I'm usually not one for putting a ton of gameplay-altering mods on a first playthrough.

Except the topic is "Who is going to play without mods"...and you said "Me"? Maybe I misunderstood you.

@mike: The person who said Me isn't well me.

I'm playing without right now but was thinking about subscribing..