@Sagaydachniy
Ahh yes I see your point, I guess I viewed these ludo-narrative elements as part of the base game and my collections merely intensifying those elements, though I see the potential for a mission failure to translate to the player as "you are playing incorrectly" rather than poor luck or a call for a new approach against emerging alien counter-measures. I shall consider blending these considerations into the collection descriptions.

Understood, thx.
Would still recommend communicating this to the player better. Ideally, in-game. Or else on the collection page.

You see, LWOTC encourages players to be as greedy as possible in the early game. As well as the vanilla X-Com 2.
And games in general usually, if not explicitly teach that failing/skipping quests should be avoided, at least often imply it. Mechanically. And players expect it.

[ducking comment length restriction]

It's ok if a game tries to defy general expectations, but it then needs to communicate the fact to the player. Or else they might get frustrated by playing "wrongly" and not understanding this.
And when a player visits a collection page, they might not know the peculiarities of the core mods. That's why i think the collection owner should include such explanations, as they are the ones responsible for the overall experience.
And, of course, "should" and "responsible" are a bit exaggeration. I understand that such collections are created for free and often for fun. So consider this rather as a friendly advice from a fellow game developer.

Anyway, thanks for your work, will definitely take a look at the updated version!

@Sagaydachniy
XCOM, especially in the beginning, is an under-manned and under-equipped force trying to gain a basic foothold in the war. The goal is not to defeat everything (unless you really want to), but to find ways to advance the Resistance and stay alive, which can mean retreating as necessary. I have actually found success in all of the strategies you have listed, as well as untimely death, it's all about important strategic decisions and risk management.

Though I do share the concern over the sheer number of enemies on the board and how long turns take, which is where I have fine-tuned and quality-controlled the tactical battle layer a bit more in my 2025 modlists.

I believe this collection should be exactly what you are looking for:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3520611714

I don't understand the new dynamic. Don't understand how this should be played.
The first mission after the gatecrasher seem to be a complete chaos. Crowds of lost fight crowds of advent forces. Up to 30 enemies simultaneously. Whereas player has mostly rookies with basic gear. I just don't understand.
Should i skip first 10 rounds waiting for them to finish one another?
Rush head on?
Advance very slowly?
At what point should i start marking crates?

Already spent ~4 hrs on experiments, but still no answer, and no desire to continue.
Love what i see so far on the strategy layer of the game, but... dunno how to play this (and i just refuse to lower the difficulty below Commander).

Really liked it, but the balance was all over the place in the denmother, it was like a last mission. Anyway the other core is balanced. Thank you for your nice work.

Really enjoying this so far. There's a lot of depth. Was wondering if I could ask what purpose the medipack serves in relation to the medikit? The medipack seems like an all around downgrade to the medikit, but I start with unlimited of both.

i'm using the Covert Infiltration Version

So i get Red messages when the game enters the Main Menu. One a Mod Conflict between "Iridar's Scatter Mod" and "[WOTC] Remove Scatter". Is that the conflict of the Collection Description?

The Second message is about how Proficiency Plugin: Drone Pilot v1.2 is missing some perk dependencies. rustycloistaperks???

As the Description only speaks of one conflict i decided to ask if i'm missing something.

I'm ignoring the missing dependencies in the alter-launcher as ordered.

NEW RELEASE

[NevikTheStoryteller's XCOM 2024 Modlist - Gameplay (Optimized)]
-- Sacrificing content for stability, this modlist fleshes out the game while prioritizing balanced gameplay.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3165178980

if i load into a battle my game crashes nearly everytime, any fix for this?

NEW RELEASE

[NevikTheStoryteller's XCOM 2024 Modlist - Gameplay (Core Enhanced)]
-- A consolidation of the Covert Infiltration and LWOTC modlists built around core WOTC. Without the restrictions and experimental features of the other overhauls, I have made this into one of my largest yet most stable and content-packed modlists yet.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3151750146

I have to ask, This collection is working better than long war one buuuuut, and big but, mission 4 I got Sundowner with 50+ HP 4 armor, and can one tap almost all of my guys, is that normal?

Hi i use this collection and the cosmetics too but after the first mission is quit the game

Is the advent balanced? just that the enemies I end up facing were a lot more harder then even the LWOTC list

@Gaia
If I remember right, you can play RPG Overhaul with either Covert Infiltration or LWOTC without problems, no edits to the game needed and no changes to the modlist required.

I am currently playing the "LWOTC" mod list, but I am considerring changing to this one, mainly because I read and here that Covert infiltration is compatible with mod like RPG Overhaul. Is it true ?

Do I need to edit or change things on your list if I add RPG Overhaul and his related class mod ?

I have crash on EVC also the area of evc is invisable and you can see only flashlight of skyranger

Thank you for your reply

@YJ
The functionality of Yellow Alert Gameplay is actually already emulated within mods in this modlist, meaning that YAGv2 is both unnecessary and would cause problems if added.

Hi Nevik, can this collection be used with [WOTC] Yellow Alert Gameplay V2.0 ?

Thank you so much for the response and putting so much time and effort into creating and sharing your mod lists!

The character pool and the Gameplay Alternative modlist are now complete! For those experiencing crashing with this modlist or want to try something different, the Alternative modlist has been made for you. All related modlist descriptions of mine have been updated to include a link to the Gameplay Alternative modlist.

@Negative.
This modlist is built around Covert Infiltration, which is like a Long War Lite, but doesn't require anything to do with Long War. The Alternative modlist I just finished however is indeed centered around Long War of the Chosen.

This is a very extensive mod list and I’m excited to jump in and experience it! Is it for war of the chosen only or does it work for long war of the chosen as well?

I've experienced a crash or two in later months now as well. It might have something to do with the game's garbage collection, that is its process of cleaning up all tactical battle assets when returning to the avenger, possibly being overrun with too many variants of assets to process properly. Either way, I have found myself longing to try Long War once again (especially now that it is being freshly updated), and so I have started putting together a further simplified variant of this modlist based around Long War of the Chosen. It should release soon after my upcoming character pool mod sometime hopefully within the next week or two.

crashes anfter 4 months Dx
Content are realy good. Xcom feels far more alive than vanila. Thx for your coll

Just curious if the difficulty is suppose to be so high on assault missions with the lost, even on easiest difficulty I am getting unrealistic destroyed. Any suggestions?

hi mate any tips to play this mod list but whit rpgo?

i really like this collection, in early game the game seem fine with no crash, but in mid - late game, its rare to find mission that do not crash the game

Same with advent, they just stand still getting killed from resistance NPC´s. Making the game very easy ^^

Really really nice list, thanks for this!
Not to far in but the mercenarys who spawn instead of the lost does not aggro when attacked from resistance NPC. They only "activate" when my guys get into range. is this how it suppose to work?

Ooops not firebird,....... skyranger. wrong game

@Archimagirus
Thank you! I am not sure about guides as I usually learn through trial and error (AKA 200 failed campaigns) but you may have luck seeking out some community made guides for most of the included classes such as the Proficiency Classes.

@Relenzo
I'm so glad others are enjoying the modlist, thank you for the kind words. I don't remember any incompatibilities with Not Another F1 or variants, I think I just cut it from the list for efficiency. It should be safe to add in!

Only a couple missions in, but this is great! This is exactly the kind of modlist I would want to build myself if I had anywhere near the time; you've done God's work.

One question, is there any reason for not including Not Another F1 or Not Another F1 -- Autopsy Required? If there's not an incompatibility reason I might try to add that to my game.

my game keep crash everytimes i try load save games ongoing battle

Successfully started the list. Yay! So far works well and looks very interesting and challenging. Great job putting it all together. Is there a guide to this somewhere? Especially to all the new classes. I previously played LWOTC and the new classes there where basically tweaks and improvements on vanilla. But the ones in this collection are extremely different.

running into an issue where at random completing any kind of operation whether it's crafting, building, covert, etc. results in a geoscape freeze, restart does not fix it nor does clearing my config files.

@Arcanant
Recruiting aliens was indeed cut from this modlist, it should be more to your liking.

Does this one still let you recruit Aliens and the like? Because I didn't like that from your massive collection of 800+ mods. If yes could you let me know which mod is the one that allows that so I can unsub from it and if other steps needed to be taken into account? That would be amazing.

Was counter dark event mission designed to be impossible to complete? I got one mission that end with 106 kill and 1 out of 6 came out alive, shaken. It take few hours to complete. Maybe I'm just not good enough with this game but it was absolute nightmare.

Alright, I tried. I really did, but there is still a content overload for me :p
The lost are replaced by a mix of Resident evil monster, Orcs, wraih and other monster I don't recognize and it makes lost mission impossible. On the 2nd month the lost have brought 5 hulk with 15 hp and rocket launchers. I've met the serpent king on a random mission with no warning as well. I added a single mod to it, the bowcaster mod, and without its 100% hitchance at range I would have died much earlier. That weapons is busted early game and it's still not enough

That is way too much for me. I hope people have more luck with it than I did, but too much stuff interact with each others I'm probably going to take a pass and remove some stuff and try again later.

@Elgate
It may be a case then of needing to clear the config files accumulated from other mods, as I know those can sometimes still have an effect on a game. Using Steam's Check Integrity of Game Files should do the trick in removing those.

It's weird cause I can confirm I do not have Global occult faction installed, nor the SCP mobile task force. I also restarted the game, obviously, I did not keep my save.

@Elgate
Something definitely seems wrong, half of the sitreps in that screenshot aren't included in this modlist (the MTF Eta-10 and GOC factions). You may need to unsubscribe to all mods and resubscribe to this list after all, or at least check that the unsubscribed mods are truly deleted and not activating in your game.

Also I can't seem to see the current status of the avatar project.

https://imgur.com/a/MwDHLoQ
So, for some reason, the mission started without a single crate.

As a bonus, when time permits, I intend on publishing a detailed 60+ soldier Character Pool utilizing the Cosmetics portion of this modlist. I have already carefully customized each character over years of playing and adding more, I just need to add backstories and maybe fill in a few more characters and then I will look to publishing.

@Elgate
Very clever! I wouldn't have thought of that, well done.

Thanks for the help. I found a solution by stopping Steam, logging on my browser and make the unsub/sub on the browser. Since the app is not started it cannot delete anything until I start it again. A bit tricky but it worked.

So far, I have had much less issue than previously. Game is much faster. Thanks for the upgrade ;-)

@Kashino
Thank you for the feedback, I am glad to see it is working optimally for more than just me. For dealing with factions, at least the more difficult ones, I like to maneuver around so that Advent is put inbetween me and them, which makes Advent an easier target for them to attack. Otherwise there is stealth, defense, or retreat to utilize in the trickier situations. Overinfiltrating on missions may also help grant an edge over them by either giving you additional boons to work with or avoiding some threats that would otherwise come with the mission.