This is kind of a preface to the story, some notes, and things. The first actual chapter should be uploaded within a day or 2 (barring any technical or mod difficulties). And following parts should be one every week or 2 (and if I miss a week I'll put up some more quickly afterward if possible).
I decided to stick with my Journey vibe for titles since the only other names I could think of were things like, Taking Earth Back, and a bit cliche, and probably already have storied with those titles on this site.
DLC:
I'll be playing with all of the DLC now. I was originally going to not do the Alien Hunters, but i like the weapons it gives and from what I've read it tells you when you're going to encounter them, or you can just not start the mission that activates them until later, so I'll be able to manage their instant-kill stuff.
And the Tactical Legacy Pack was released just before I was about to start the first chapter, so the stuff from that'll be included. Just the items and the like, not the actual missions. Probably a Chapter of Bradford telling the tale to someone.
Mods:
I've also got some mods, mostly Cosmetic and UI things, but there's a few that change gameplay, so I'll pop them here so it's not really confusing to someone who's only played Vanilla:
First thing is WOTC Even More Backstories. Not any gameplay effects, but i really recommend this mod, adds a ton more backstories to the random generator, all really good, and some are just absolutely amazing. If you like to give your guys personalities, grab this mod.
Fair Lost Targeting. This just makes the Lost target the closest creature to them, so they'll attack ADVENT as often as XCOM. Makes it a bit easier, but it kind of kills immersion to see a Lost run past a dozen ADVENT soldiers to chase down 1 XCOM guy on the other side of the map.
Simple True Concealment. Mission timers don't count down while the squads in concealment (entire squad) but reduces the turns a bit to compensate. Since if ADVENT don't know we're there, they're not going to be in as much of a hurry to do their thing.
Grimy's Loot Mod. Changes up the loot stuff, just generally makes loot better.
Ballistic Shields. Lets you swap your primary weapon for a Shield, i really like the shields, and it's mostly just for one character.
XCOM 2 RPG Overhaul. Which removes specific classes, instead letting you pretty much select any skill from any tier to build you guys how you want them. It also re-does most of the weapons, changing ammo amounts and giving abilities for specific weapons.
The rest are map packs, Cosmetics, Quality of Life, and UI things.
Characters:
Most of the characters in this'll be made by me, but some specific ones (Bradford, Tygan, Shen, Dragunova, and Mox) are from the game, some things will be describing cut-scenes or recorded dialogue, but a lot will be me interpreting their characters from what I've seen from them, so apologies if i end up going a different direction with some characters than what you thought.
A lot of how i do the characters will depend on what happens in the game, how i end up using them in the fights, things i'v e seen them doing on the Avenger, and who they happen to form bonds with.
Once all of the starting characters have leveled up to get their classes (and so have the right weapons available), i'll be putting up a poster from the game's poster-maker thing just to show what all the characters look like properly for if you need a refresher on what they look like.
Story Stuff:
I don't have a ton planned for the characters to start with, a lot will develop during the game, though i do have a few bits already planned, a lot will just happen as things happen in the game.
In this story, some things in cutscenes will be slightly different, just little details that i prefer to how it is in the cutscene. Mostly slight differences that won't really affect the story.
Any deaths or injuries will just be based on what happens in the battles. I'm playing on Hard, but no Ironman, since i have mods, and crashing, glitches and misclicks happen. But if i mess up and someone dies, that's on me or RNGesus.
This is a continuation of my other story, A Gamer's Journey, which was originally continued in A New Journey, but my save for it was accidentally deleted, and WOTC adds more narrative stuff
It'll be set up like A New Journey. Coming from the perspective of multiple characters rather than just one. To give more details to more characters, and show more interactions among them. I probably won't go from the perspective of any XCOM original characters, but i might end up doing so if the situation calls for it, in which case, i'd like to apologise in advance if i ruin your favourite character.