The makers of XCOM 2 have already promised mod support fresh out of the gate when XCOM 2 releases on Feb. 4, but some modders aren’t waiting until then. The crew of XCOM 2 fans at Dragonpunk already has a mod for co-op mode listed on their website.
FEB. 5 UPDATE: Mod Studio Dragonpunk Tweets About Progress On XCOM 2 Co-Op Mode Mod
The details:
“Version 1 will add an additional button under the "Select Soldier" button, "Invite Player". This button will allow you to access your Steam friend's list and invite a friend of your choice to take ownership of that soldier on the upcoming mission. Once invited, your friend will control the soldier menu in order to outfit their controlled soldier.
After the mission is complete, your friend will return to their own game along with any XP and loot they've earned from the mission.”
The golden standard of XCOM mods remains The Long War mod, an incredibly detailed and comprehensive mod that adds “hundreds of changes, large and small, to the vanilla version of the game.” While the mod’s page on the Nexus explains that “it is harder and longer than the vanilla version,” it also adds that The Long War “gives you many more tools to combat the alien threat.” The team behind the mod has ventured into game development themselves as members of the newly-formed Long War Studios.
But unlike XCOM: Enemy Unknown , XCOM 2 has been created with modding in mind from the start. The game will ship with a suite of tools that “works kind of like the mod tools for Civilization,” according to lead engineer Ryan McFall.
What that means: XCOM 2 players will not only have access to a Visual Studio isolated shell app for building mod projects, but they will also have access to the Unreal editor Firaxis used to build the game as well as the script source code and roughly 50 GB of game assets.
A response to a fan question confirmed the possibility for a modder-created co-op mode is there, with tools “robust” enough to make it happen as long as players provide their own matchmaking server.
So will there be a new mod that will be to XCOM 2 what the Long War mod was to the original XCOM? Only time can tell, but it’s clear from Dragonpunks’ page that they intend to be first boots on the ground in the co-op mode mod space. (Now say that five times fast.)
Do you have any idea what mods you’d like to see in XCOM 2 ? Feel free to discuss in our comments section below.
