Differences from Long War 2 (LWOTC)

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Enemy Changes

• Mutons no longer have 1 armor pierce (it was strange that basic ones did and centurions/elites did not)
• Mutons base damage is 5-7 from 5-9 (greatly decreases one shot potential)
• Mutons melee attacks now have a 3 turn cooldown (prevents combatives abuse)

Havens

• There is now a "recovery" mechanic for low rebel count havens. The recruit job becomes significantly more effective and is guaranteed to provide a rebel when the haven count is less than 6.
• The Recruit job retaliation now requires at least 6 rebels on the job to spawn. Faceless in the haven can lower the minimum requirement. (Note: having 6 rebels on a job can trigger a haven retaliation)
• Rebels have generally better stats, abilities and now gain an hp bonus whenever armor research has completed
• Rebels can now carry up to coil weapons from magnetics
• Rendezvous now has a force level modifier of (FL*0.67)-1 from (FL/2)-2 (Makes up for the fact that rebels are generally better)
• Rendezvous can now spawn aliens (makes these missions much more valuable with the ability to gain alien corpses)
• Base alert level (enemy count) for all retaliations slightly increased
• Haven Defense reinforcement drops begin weaker but scale more quickly. Do not expect to be able to rescue every single rebels depending on how many there are. (Makes it similar to the haven attack where it was effectively guaranteed to kill a couple rebels and relies less on rolling the right haven retaliation type to preserve rebels)

Item/Equipment Changes

• Redscreen rounds no longer stack and now inflicts -30 hack defense (Prevents cheesing hacks to be efficiently guaranteed)

New Overwatch Rules (if revert overwatch mod is disabled)

• Overwatch now triggers on a single tile move. Can no longer perform "single steps" to avoid overwatch. (Not always consistent, may be able to step a single tile and avoid overwatch depending on factors such as line of sight). Overwatch should more consistently trigger as targets move or step into range.
• With this change, it may be easier to gain cover defense against overwatch and thus overwatch now reduces cover defense by 25.

Not Created Equal Changes

• Defense is no longer a part of NCE (still INI configurable in the LW_toolbox). Did not make too much sense and became frustrating when some soldiers are much easier to hit and more prone to injury.
• A soldier's Combat Intelligence (WotC Mechanic) is now a part of NCE.
• The Psi and Combat Intelligence stat are now linked together. No longer have "useless" stats (regular soldiers can't use psi and psi can't use ComInt).
• ComInt is listed as Very Low, Low, Average, High, and Very High. Very Low grants 4AP per rank (except squaddie) and each level grants an additional AP per rank. The following Psi values correspond to the respective ComInt.
  • Very Low : 5-9
  • Low : 10-14
  • Average : 15-25
  • High : 26-31
  • Very High : 32-35

Perk Changes

• Locked On and Executioner grants +20 aim and crit from +10 aim and crit
• Bring Em On now properly applies to explosives
• Needle grenades now grant +1 bonus damage against unarmored targets (must initially be unarmoured for the bonus to take effect)
• Boosted Cores now properly applies to damage over time effects
• Kubikiri is now replaced with disabling shot. Fire a shot that stuns a target for a turn and an additional turn if it crits (does not deal critical damage)
• Full Override options reworked. First option stuns the mechanical target for three turns from mind control for the rest of the mission (Still a strong effect but stops making missions significantly easier from just controlling an enemy). Second option remains the same. (It is now significantly harder to master a sectopod as it previously trivialized missions when landed)
• Rescue Protocol now also grants 15 dodge and 5 mobility from just a movement action
• Lockdown now grants +20 aim
• Deadeye can now be used with snapshot
• Shieldwall (WAR Suit ability) now grants 5 armor from 3
• Lone Wolf reworked : Gain +3 aim/defense for every tile away from an ally up to 12 starting from 4 tiles away (Prevents the very binary effect in triggering and buffed)
• As AWC was removed in WotC, all soldiers now have a specialized "xcom" row of perks separated into 4 tiers. T1 perks costs 10 AP and costs an additional 10 for each tier
• Similarly to lw2, all soldiers can equip and learn pistol perks which now costs ap due to AWC changes. (Scroll down the promotion screen)

Psi Changes

• Insanity massively nerfed to have lower mind control chances. Common result is now panic (This prevents the "one trick pony" nature of psi)
• Psi soldiers have a new perk tree with various new abilities that should expand variety in builds.

• Soul Steal now grants temporary ablative for 3 turns instead of additional ablative if at full hp. Now also heals for 100% of damage dealt.
• Phase Walk : teleport to a location within 18 tiles in sight. 2 Turn Cooldown
• Fuse is now a free action but with a 5 turn cooldown
• Stasis can no longer be used on large units (bigger than 2 tiles). Prevents locking down boss units very easily.
• Null Ward : grant everyone within the area a shield. Basically shieldbarer ability
• Soul Storm : Rain down meteors against enemies around the user dealing damage and high environmental damage
• Void Rift now also ruptures targets with a higher chance to also cast insanity
• Soul Merge removed but mind merge has a slightly higher divisor to bonuses
• Schism is now removed
• Stasis shield is now removed

Shinobi Changes

• Fleche damage bonus is now capped at +5. This does not have an effect for most cases but prevents exploits such as being at the other side of the map and using the archon suit to jump in for a massive increase in damage.
• Graze now properly applies to fleche where previously fleche bonus was applied after graze. (Graze only affected the base weapon damage)
• Fleche bonus no longer applies to the burning effect. (Bug Fix)
• Stun/Burn chance of T2/T3 swords is now 5%/10% respectively
• Hit and Run and Hunter Instincts has swapped places on the perk tree.

Weapon Changes

• Rupture no longer stacks
• Sawed off shotguns, grenade launchers, and knives now have a 3rd tier
  • Plasma shorty : highest damage sawed off, basic and mag shorty damage adjusted for this
  • Beam Grenade Launcher : In addition to the advanced grenade launcher bonus, it now has blaster launcher targeting, avoiding walls
  • Advanced Vibroblade : more damage and more crit chance