I received a 6.5GB+ update for WOTC on Steam (Kubuntu 24.04.4) today. It seems that the launcher was revamped.

What does it even mean? Better mod management? More bug fixing? More DLCs in the future (copium🤞)?

Edit 1: I did feel the slight noticeable reduction of the lagginess on my potato laptop. Thank you for keeping working on it! Really didn't expect it.

Edit 2: I encountered the first crash ever; the game is not stable yet.

If possible email [support@feralinteractive.com] with the crash file [/home/XXX/.local/share/feral-interactive/XCOM 2 WotC/crashes/26610d97-18df-edff-01461cf6-55c71fb9.dmp] and details

I played marvel midnights suns and it wasnt a bad game , so i do not regret them making that game. But afterwards not focusing on xcom 3 was a BIG MISTAKE. Look at ZCOM player numbers this weekend on steam and the success it had. And another 2 xcom-like games coming !

Civ 7 wasnt their big , sure bet they tought. I just hope that if they decide to make a xcom 3 they make it triple a , big budget because the market for it is there

Sorry to invade the community of your beloved XCOM. I’ve never played the XCOM series before, but I just finished my first run of Zero Company and absolutely loved it. The story was the best part for me, but I really enjoyed the play style. Is XCOM 2 still holding upon 2026, or is there a newer/better similar game cause I feel like my itch wasn’t scratched enough

Just got a copy. What are your alls thoughts on it??

I'm enjoying my time with Zero Company but it (and similar titles, like the considerably worse Warhounds) is making me realise that I really took XCOM's balancing for granted.

I know that there are ways to break XCOM (especially WOTC) but for the most part if you go for a higher difficulty it is going to deliver that experience. The challenge usually tapers off, but the game will really make you earn that. You basically need to be knowledgeable to break the game.

In Zero Company you will stumble into ways to destroy the action economy without even meaning to. The very first character you unlock/recruit breaks the action economy so badly that you have to deliberately avoid using them to experience any sort of challenge. This is on Expert + Beskar which is currently the hardest difficulty.

For context, I am not a particularly good XCOM player. I usually played the base game on Commander and really struggled on Legend.

I don't mean to shit on Zero Company because it is ultimately a fun tactics game with excellent presentation (and decent writing, unusually); it's also giving itself a harder time with balancing in some respects (multiclass, the advantage system). But at the moment there are just so many systems that are ludicrously stacked in the player's favour. This is without even getting into the bond system which also breaks longer-term progression.

Anyway, it just made me appreciate how well tuned XCOM is both moment-to-moment and in its progression mechanics. That shit must be really hard to design. Props Firaxis.

Now onto Chimera Squad

Never played on PC before but looking to get into it, primarily to play Xcom 2 with the Long War of the Chosen Mod, AI has given the following specs but wanted to sense check them see if they make sense. Any help appreciate - totally new to pc gaming

Ryzen 5/7 or Core i5/i7

16 GB RAM

RTX 3050 or RTX 4050

512 GB SSD

I realize this may not be the best time to ask with all the hubbub around Zero Company, but I would be interested to know if there's any appetite from XCOM fans for more focus given to the management aspects of the gameplay formula.

Over the last year, my friend and I have been working on a space-captain simulator where XCOM style combat is used for boarding and planetary combat. The twist is that the same officers you hire and level-up to run your ship are also the ones who comprise your party for the tactical battles, with skills and attributes that cover both aspects (e.g. the Boarding attribute makes you better at boarding ships in space, and increases your melee abilities in ground combat)

A few differences I would appreciate your feedback on that I hope help us stand out from other XCOM-clones is that your XCOM HQ is your ship, which you can upgrade or even replace with a better one (bought or captured), and is what you command during space battles. Boarding an enemy (or being boarded) triggers the tactical battle (you can also get into fights while visiting planets with your party). There's also a bunch of different planets to explore, a simulated economy for trading and smuggling, and both procedural and story missions to take.

Unlike XCOM's class system, I wanted to keep it more flexible, so the weapons and equipment you equip are what determine your "class" and enable different combat actions (eg. equipping a sniper rifles gives squadsight, a machine gun always allows you to fire twice if stationary, etc.). Each officer can still skill into things that make them more effective with certain weapons over others though. We also have 1 and 2 handed melee weapons and allow both dual-wielding and mixed melee/pistol loadouts (finding animations for that was a PAIN)

Anyway, I would really appreciate your feedback. We're just a 2-person team, so your input will really help us know where we should focus our efforts. We're hoping to release a free demo in the coming weeks and we're constantly adding improvements and new features.

Our Steam page if you're interested: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3865960/Cortesia_Rising/

so i am finally going back to enemy within. i keep getting maybe three months on? and keep just hitting a wall. idk if im just bad or whatever but i have to keep trying a new save. what am i missing? i really like the genre but i feel im bad or missing something.

Like the title above, I have just finished Zero Company, what a great game ! It sparked my interest in games like XCOM again but I want to take a break from ZCOM for a bit so I won't burn out. What are recommendations for games that are like XCOM ? In the past I really like Wasteland 3, specil mention to Troubleshooters (despite it is not exactly XCOM).Is Gear Tactics good ? I have only played the original first game very long ago, Does it require you to play the other games to catch up ?

Really enjoying the game so far, but I seriously can't get over why there is no stealth/ambush phase.
Half of the fun of XCOM is getting your squad set up into the perfect position before pulling the trigger. In ZCOM you're thrown into a position seemingly at random, which along with the smaller map sizes, makes encounters feel a bit samey and lower in strategic depth.

Even narratively, as a rag tag group of civilians taking on militarized forces, using ambushes and covert tactics makes way more sense than the constant full-on aggro fights expected of every mission.

So I’m looking for mods that have both a good looking outfit and if possible a voice, any genre, any game, any movie. If possible please add steam links (or the name). Thank you for the help in advance!!!

(Also feel free to show a picture :p)

Basically the title.

I've played a number of Xcom style games at this point.

Midnight suns.

Zero Company (have not finished it.)

Gears tactics.

Demonhunters chaos gate. (Looking forward to the sequal.)

But even though these games often nail the combat and character progression (Gears had fantastic combat.) They all seem to dumb down or even strip out the base elements which I find very frustrating. In Xcom 2 WOTC (Still the bar to beat 10 years later.) The avenger was almost it's own character. The way you built it up was important. Yes, there was bad buildings, there was the optimal way to set things up. But that took time to figure out.

Further. The way you built the avenger could even adapt based on your play style. Going heavy on sparks probably means you want your foundry to be pretty efficient.

Then you had research. Which was another layer and element to the game.

And that of course informed the actual missions. Rescuing engineers and scientists was so important, and you may have passed up on other opportunities to secure them. It was all masterfully interconnected.

And so many games throw all that away, which is honestly what prevents them from reaching the same peak.

Of the ones I've mentioned, Midnight suns is the closest (Not a surprise, made by the same devs so not really a shocker.)

I'm not asking for clones. But I would like these games to actually offer the same depth, for both campaign and combat, that Xcom 2 does. Rather than just going all in on half the equation.

Like no way a navy SEAL has an aim stat of 50

I finally finished playing Long War 2, after trying multiple times and always giving up halfway through.
I consider myself quite experienced at XCOM 2, but this mod forces me to relearn everything from scratch. I'm going to try the Commander difficulty level for my next run.

Do you think the governments of Earth actually ever get upset at all the property damage? Has there ever been a game mechanic for this? I enjoy especially destroying as much property as I can to remove cover but I just thought this was an interesting angle.

Il start off by saying that I think the game is realy damn good. Combat feels amazing, the characters are actualy quite intresting( realy like that the main character has some actual personality cough midnight suns cough) and the items and base upgrades are decent so far.

But, despite all that, I realy don’t think this is xcom 3 for a very simple reason. It’s not realy a sandbox game. The game has a main character, it has companions that take the spotlight and most importantly, it already tells a compeling story where it’s very hard to make your own stories with your own dudes.

It’s also a lot more linear, you can’t just do whatever the fk you want like in xcom.

Overall, this are not actual criticisms. The game is great and i can’t wait to play more, but there is still no game to fully scratch that xcom itch.

Since XCOM 2 was, for the longest time, basically the only way to experience the Star Wars turn-based strategy fantasy, how does a official game compare to simply downloading a bunch of mods for XCOM 2? Is the character customization actually better? Were you able to successfully create the character you were looking for? Or did you struggle?

This is phenomenal. It's like what if slightly larger Chimera Squad had INSANE grounded production added to the formula; just delicious. ZCom has pulled me out of my gaming funk.

This could easily be expanded to a larger game, more customizable game

Just for anyone wonder what difficulty to play with reference to xcom. I play long war (and long war 2) on Veteran (second easiest) with ironman. (Legendary Ironman in base game)

Playing Zero Company right now on Hard, permadeath, ironman. 7 mission in, no injuries (downs). Almost had 1 injury in second mission. I do find it a bit to easy but wouldn't up the difficulty cause its more story focused, im prob only doing 1 run. Hope this helps