XCOM: Enemy Within DLC (EU2012)

On August 21st, Producer 2K revealed during Gamescom 2013 a new expansion/DLC for XCOM: Enemy Unknown called XCOM: Enemy Within. It will be available also for consoles and has a release date of November 12th, 2013 on the US, and November 15th internationally. There are more surprises coming according to the producers other than what's revealed so far.

A list of details of was revealed on August 21st on this video, along with these articles from Polygon and IGN:

PC/Console Versions

• The PC version will cost 30$ and the Console 40$.
• The PC will be sold as traditional DLC through Steam but the console owners will have to buy the Commander's Edition, consisting of Enemy Unknown, plus the Elite Soldier Pack, Slingshot and Enemy Within DLCs.
• Currently Firaxis has no plans to launch Enemy Within for iOS, due to the already large file size of the original game for the device.

The Meld

• The Meld is a new resource that will be present in containers on several maps (Abductions and UFOs).
• The 2 Meld containers need to be captured during a certain timeframe, otherwise they will self-destruct forcing a player to move swiftly to find and capture them. 1 canister will be located on a location easy to reach, another in a hard location. The canisters can be hidden to force a player to look for them.
• The Meld can be used to create either Mech Troopers (a new class) or to genetically increase any class abilities (including Mechs).
• The Meld also brings 2 new base facilities: Genetics Labs and Cybernetics Labs. There's also a mention about a "single, very low-cost new tech to power both" on this interview.

Gene Mods

• Alien Autopsies will reveal genetic modifications ("Gene Mods") for your soldiers.
• Gene Mods can apply to the following categories: Brain, Eyes, Chest, Skin, Legs, with 2 options available for each (and that can be swapped at a cost)
• Brain: Neural Feedback (damages an alien attempting mind control but doesn't reduce its chance) or Neural Damping (soldier immune to panic, becomes unconscious if enemy manages to MC it).
• Legs: Muscle Fiber (a soldier can climb walls without a Skeleton Suit) or Adaptive Bone Marrow (limited health regeneration for wounded soldiers).
• Chest: a double heart ability to protect your soldiers from death.
• Skin: a type of stealth skin that turns your soldiers invisible.

Mech Trooper

• Mech Troopers can be created from any soldier but they'll lose all abilities they previously had. For example, if player sacrifices a sergeant-ranked solider, he/she would get sergeant-ranked MEC, along with the ability to purchase skills from the first three ranks.
• According to the developers Mechs are very expensive to purchase.
• Mech Troopers have the Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit or MEC Suit which can be damaged and need to be repaired.
• Mech Weapons: Minigun (starting weapon), Railgun and an energy weapon, along with a Kinetic Strike Module, which allows to punch aliens in the face.
• Mech's skill tree is divided into two categories: Fire Support (offense) and Survivability (defense)
• Mech Abilities include: Shock-Absorbent Armor (starting ability); Collateral Damage (allows to target terrain), a high powered firing attack that uses a full clip of ammo, Damage Control (which reduces the damage taken for one turn), and Cover & Squad Healing abilities to protect and heal other soldiers. Other abilities provide weapons and include a Flamethrower (deals 6 damage on an arc), Proximity Mines (which are smart not to detonate upon friendly units and a Grenade Launcher.
• Mech Troopers "remember" the original soldier class and "inherit" perks. For example Sniper-turned-MEC gains the Platform Stability perk, which grants it additional damage for a turn if it doesn't move.
• From the available footage it seems Mechs do not require Cover (they can't be flanked) since the cover shield is never seen. This mean that they probably have the Hardened ability present on SHIVs and alien robotic units that gives increased protection against critical hits.
• As per GameSpot article, Mech Troopers get monotone, Robocop-esque voice.

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  The Mech Trooper

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  The MEC Suit

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  Burn baby burn

New Aliens

• Aliens also have two confirmed Mech versions, including the Mechtoid (Sectoid Mech version). The Mechtoid can fire twice in a turn and Sectoids can mind merge with it and give it a damage reducing shield (but it won't die if the merger is killed).
• Another report mentions 'several' new aliens. Wait and see...

Class and Weapons Changes

• Two new grenades: Needle Grenade (after researching Chryssalid Autopsy), with a big blast radius but doesn't affect enemies in cover; Stealth Grenade, provides allies with a invisibility paint. Another report mentions also a Poison Grenade.
• New item: Mimic Beacon - can be thrown on the map into a square within the player's moving range. The mimic beacon will send out a signal that tricks aliens into thinking it's human, drawing them towards it and away from any nearby player units.
• Reaper Rounds gives ballistic weapon a bonus to Critical Hit chance.
• Assault's Close and Personal now gives a free shot when within 4 tiles of an enemy.
  • You can run up to an enemy shoot it and then run back into cover.
• Support's Covering Fire now fires before the enemy uses its weapon.
• Sniper's Snap Shot aim penalty reduced from -20 to -10.
• Sniper's Squad Sight only gives Critical Damage if Headshot is used.
• Support's Deep Pockets now gives twice as many charges to Grenades, Arc Thrower, Medikits or any other item with limited uses.
• Foundry upgrade that gives all classes the ability to use twice an item.

Gameplay Changes

• Flanking system has been reworked with Aiming Angle (new Second Wave option): the closer you get to flank an alien, the more its cover bonus declines (works also against your soldiers).
• Critical bonus of stealth attacks reduced from 100 to 30.
• Panicked soldiers will have chance to hit decreased, so friendly fire will be less deadly.

Interface Changes

• New Second Wave options.
  • Non-cover aliens (Mechtoid and Sectopod) have a 50% chance of firing at your soldiers on sight.
  • Randomize all Class abilities sets. You may have Heavies with Lightning Reflexes and Squad Sight.
  • Save Scum – Saving a game will reset the RNG seed for the shots.
  • Aiming Angles – The closer you come to flanking an enemy the more their cover bonus declines
• There will be an inventory button to strip away all items from soldiers not in the squad lineup ("Make items available").
• You can now personalize your soldier's voice according to its nationality (French soldiers can speak in French or any other language) using the available audio packs for the current language editions (following languages were confirmed: Spanish, German, Italian, French, Polish, Russian). The personalization applies to soldiers nicknames as well. The game footage released has nicknames such as Tirailleur (French for skirmisher), Unruhe (German for Restless) and Maestro (Italian for Master).
• There's an option to shut up Drs. Vahlen and Shen.
• Memorial (place where you see fallen soldiers) will have additional information shown: cause of death

New Maps

• Maps: some maps have been "tweaked", some to address exploding cars issues and to add Meld containers.
• The old and new maps will be mixed together but the game is set so that you'll see more of the new maps during a gameplay.
• There's now at least two new map settings that deal with crashed UFOs in a destroyed city and in a Farm.
• According to this Polish article, there will be 47 new maps.

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Modding

• In one of the interviews there's a mention by the lead designer that they moved more settings to the game's .INI files rather than the Unreal script to help modders.

Multiplayer

• You can now edit your squad on offline mode.
• 8 more maps for Multiplayer.

Unrevealed Features

• The Enemy Within trailer now has a new version that includes a brief glimpse of a new symbol. Wait and see...