After roughly 20 rage quits of my game, I decided to write some thoughts on the long war 2 mod.
First, this is a damn good mod. New liberation missions, colony management, new enermies...they add so much refreshment to the original game. Especially the art work. The coilguns' desgin is so immersive that it dwarves the original game design. It is actually the reason i downloaded this mod in the first place.
However, this mod has so many issues that I finally decide to uninstall it. The biggest problem: imbalance. LW2 has huge imbalance between new mechanics and long compaign missions.The original game has a compaign of about 40 missions, which is a balanced number that players enjoy the gameplay but do not get bored by too many repeated missions. LW2 has more than 150 missions in one run, but adding a few new classes does not introduce siginificant new mechanics of the game. Instead, changing enermy numbers and hitting chances make every mission much longer thus redundant. Liberation missions become so boring after the fisrt continents, and we got 16 of these missions. This is imbalance number 1.
Then there is an imbalance in the enermy strength. People have been complaning LW2's difficulty ever since it came out. The original game's difficulty setting has a tolerence for aggresive or defensive gameply. That's why not only the players who play "set and overwatch" love the game, but so do those who play "run and gun". In LW2, the only result of a 'run and gun' style is to run into dozens of enermies that obliterate the small squad and bring the framerate to a single digit. It is all right to set challenges but it is not right to completely deny a playstyle. This is 2017, a game (or a mod) that has only one way to play is not bond to thrive.
There is also an imbalance in the soldiers. LW2 brings in big changes in the classes and skills. The changes are good, but they made every single class not unique. Now tearing down covers can be done by Granadiers and Technicians, close quater incounters can be done by Shinobis Rangers and Assults. I do understand every single new class is different, but they are also less memerable. Meanwhile, a player can remember the skills, names, apperences and strategies of squad of six; but a squad of 10, that is moo point. And since the missions are more difficult, players need more squads than before, custmizations and emosion attachments to a single soldier seem meaningless. This goes directly against the developers' vision. If I really want to play game where I have 50 units and run a 10 units VS 30 units battle, I would play Civilization.
Besides the imbalance, I find that the new mechanics are not properly introduced to the players in game. I constently google questions like "LW2 when does nest mession show up"''LW2 how to start liberation missions''''where can i find alien facilities''. The moder may have put these information somewhere in the game, but they are not so obviously presented to me, at least not as well as the original game.

In conculsion, the LW2 is a good presentation of Pavonis Interactive's imagination, dedication, artwork, innovation as moders. It also shows that the moders' limited experience of creating an oganically functioning gaming environment. LW2 is a large set of great ideas shoved at players' faces instead of a well-rounded game which we can enjoy.
Yet, I have faith in the LW team, wish you guys a nice future where you can present perfect gaming master pieces to the gamers.