fys

I've also had such surprising pod spawn lately with increased pod numbers in abduction missions, before I removed these changes again. I'm sure it also happened after killing another alien pod because I had a clear vision on this spot and visited the location shortly before. It was on the tiny shop map with the warehouse and truck in the backyard where you sometimes disarm bombs. There, you can't hardly a miss a pod moving past you. I've reduced the patrol distance from 45 to 10, instead of 20. Maybe this can also help preventing aliens from moving/warping too close to player characters. I think it’s more plausible if they normally do a slow stroll/sneak/patrol move and then get the extra dash move when encountered. No reason to make them dash around like crazy on many of these small maps, so you stumble upon all of them right on the first turns. old: 0F 01 7a 2F 00 00 1E 00 00 34 42 new: 0F 01 7a 2F 00 00 1E 00 00 20 41

Thanks a lot for sharing!

I've never hex-edited anything in the exe so far. The best alternative besides a modpatcher is using ResEdit and insert your DefaultGameCore.ini and DefaultLoadouts.ini content in XComGame.exe. DGC.ini goes to 10\1020. Right-click on 1020 and open with plain text. Then you should see the familiar lines of the DGC.ini. Delete anything and copy your own DGC content there. DL.ini goes to 10\1040. Same procedure. Save and have fun!

The camera views have nothing to do with this. Have you never noticed that the game speed slows down when your soldiers fire onto aliens? This also happens in normal iso-view. Good example of normal firing speed is when Heavies suppress targets. There seems to be a random factor involved how much the firing animation is slowed down. It's particular noticeable with sniper weapons to possibly pretent the snipers are aiming. It's less noticeable with pistols, assault rifles and shotgun variants. There is typically a noticeable slow down with reaction fires. I'd like to get rid of all slow motions to watch soldiers quickly do their normal firing animation. Possible that the camera goes a bit crazy then and snipers quickshot all the time, but I don't care. I simply want to have real-time action!

I’d like some fast pace to the gameplay during fights. The constant slow motion quite ruins the action and flow. When you increase the encounters per month, the time you waste watching shots miss unfortunately increases too. Sooo, how to get rid of this horrible feature? Possible with a few hex changes? I would be really, really thankful for a deliverance there!

Ah sorry, I've already forgotten about these settings since last year when I modified the game the last time. Now I also know why I got confused with that: Even if it takes 6 workers by default at beginning, there is a hidden substraction of 1 from this minimum of 6 afterwards. E.g. if you set the minimum to 5, you only need 5, 9, 14, 19, 24,.. labs or 5, 14, 24, 34, 44,... workshops. The guide above isn’t explaining that correctly. Still too bad you can't set scientist or engineer requirements for other facilities besides radars.

Revived this topic because I'm also looking where to change the engineer requirement of facilities. Adding iEngineers=x there doesn't seem to work. Maybe someone has figured out hex-codes to easily edit each facility.

Does someone think it's feasible to reserve an extra squad slot specifically to SHIVs? During normal gameplay, training of soldiers is essential and makes you typically reject SHIVs; at least I feel that way. The idea is to have always one SHIV in the team as addition to the 4-6 human soldiers to avoid this dilemma. The specific "Add SHIV" slot would need to pop up an alternative soldier list. This list only contains soldiers that are checked for SHIV gear, like eItem_SHIVDeck_I.

Yes, I've deleted the small "uncompressed_size" files. The modified upk procedure is clear to me, and the game still launches after my current 29 changes. Still collecting more here. I only hope everything will run smoothly later while playing. :D

It's fine, thanks. Still good to know what exactly has been changed in the code there. Toolboks most likely changed the upk file once. I've been surprised that the archive was already decompressed when I started to do my first change on XComGameStrategy.upk. I'm already doing a reinstall now and backup all upk file this time to prevent such confusion for the future. Heh, that's why I don't like hex-editing and such patchers. It lacks the oversight compared to ini files, and you never know what has been already changed.

Will do. Are you sure about the satellite coverage code above? I can't find it in XcomStrategyGame.upk. I haven't figured out hex codes by myself yet, but I guess this change is about following lines?: arrAbductionTargets = DetermineBestAbductionTargets(); // End:0x70 if(arrAbductionTargets.Length >= 3) { arrMissions.AddItem(2); } Or is it here? arrAbductionTargets = DetermineBestAbductionTargets(); // End:0x28 if(arrAbductionTargets.Length < 2) { return 0; } PS: I've found the "Long War upk changes" topic. From there, I find the other changes in XComGameStrategy.upk, like Reduce base abductions per attempt or Change number of Abductions per month. Nice! However, no luck with your ef 00 07 c0 00 19 00 88 code for satellite coverage. Typo or changed by latest official patch? PPS: Oh, I just found the ef 00 06 c0 00 19 00 88 hex code there. Was it already changed by official patch or did you mix-up new with old code? Ehm, possible that ToolBoks has changed this file already when I messed up with the tool and couldn't make it run properly. Forgot to make backups there. Nevermind then.

Thanks a lot, mate! In earlier times, I refrained from hex-editing the game, but I guess there is no way around for code fixes and other cool features. I've already gathered as many AI fixes and such from other topics. Very nice work of you crack coders here!

I’m interested in the hex codes of single features from ToolBoks: Remove Overwatch and Hunker-Down Delay Disable Disappearing Corpses Display Soldiers’ XP Skip Revealed Aliens Cutscenes/Revealed Aliens Only Move After XCOM Turn Abductions in Nations with Satellite Coverage I'd like to integrate them permanently into my private mod without need to use other mods. Maybe there are also others who would like to do the same.

Unfortunately, you need to hexedit such settings. I've bumped a topic with a modding tool bundle. Maybe you have already seen it, otherwise here.

Bump. A very nice collection of modding tools and first-steps instructions that shouldn't be forgotten!

XGTacticalGameCoreNativeBase.uc has more or less all const(ant)s. const STUN_I_HP_THRESHHOLD = 3; const STUN_II_HP_THRESHHOLD = 6; const STUN_BASE_CHANCE = 70; const STUN_MAX_CHANCE = 95; const STUN_MIN_CHANCE = 1;

Better do with unicode as the game demands. More work but less trouble and complains later.

I’ve also given all weapons, except LMG ones which are fired unaimed, offense/aim and related crit bonuses and lowered aim progression per rank of soldier classes. The aliens got the same bonuses on their weapons with adjusted character base offense values. I'd also like to see more weapon and armor upgrade foundry projects like the pistol ones. It's disappointing how few armors and weapons are in the game but upgrades could at least add more variants. What’s missing that the upgrade versions should have different pictures and models for more flair. The SCOPE, for example, turns into a simple assault and sniper rifle upgrade not benefiting pistols at same time. If you keep the bonuses small, it shouldn’t throw anything too much out of balance but simply adds a nicer upgrade feeling.

From XGTacticalGameCoreNativeBase.uc: var config float PSI_GIFT_CHANCE 0.1 works fine for Will >=10 soldiers. I tested that myself. You could lower that to 0.01 if you want to let zombie soldiers with Will 1 become psionics too. I haven't tortured a soldier so far that the Will dropped to hell. The Will penalty is -15 per deathblow, by the way. No idea if Will stops at 1 or 0. Anyway, that's the easiest way to make anyone desirable become a psionic. Anything else is unnecessarily complicated coding work.

The whole "inventory" system looks indeed quite pitiful, but on the other hand it’s a simply balanced system for either more hit chance, more hp, healing, or destruction. In my own mod, I’ve also moved the Arc Thrower to the sidearm slot because this item is something what can be often a total waste in missions if you don’t need to capture aliens, while the other features (hit chance, hp, etc.) are typically useful all the time. What I find ridiculous is that my medics with medkit are typically killed more often than any other class which typically wear vets or plating. AFAIR there is an AI behavoir code that makes aliens keeping targeting the weakest enemy, in particular used on the high difficulty levels. Troll, I recommend starting to mod the game yourself with the mod patcher here. Or take whatever other mod found on Nexus and modify its DefaultGameCore file. It's not that hard, really, if you only edit this core file. It's a lot more satisfying than just hoping that someone else realizes your own ideas one day (what will usually not happen anyway, trust me on this).

Try in DefaultGameCore following settings: ; Maximum number of aliens that can be attacking you at one time. -1 == no limit. MaxActiveAIUnits=-1 MaxActiveAIUnits=-1 MaxActiveAIUnits=-1 MaxActiveAIUnits=-1 ABDUCTION_LURK_PCT=0 SMALL_UFO_LURK_PCT=0 LARGE_UFO_LURK_PCT=0 You should see more roaming alien patrols then. It was too crazy on Impossible sometimes that I went back to the vanilla LURK settings. I've once tested SightRange settings on a battleship and maybe pressed too quickly Esc canceling the landing cutscene. Whatever went wrong this time, the result was that *all* aliens on that ship were waiting behind the first door. Hordes of Mutons, Sectoid Commanders, Chryssalids, Floaters, etc. cramped together. I should have made a screenshot of this spawn accident. It was a hilarious action with two Heavies rocket launching them to shreds. Wish I could reproduce it somehow.

That's why I prefer modifying only setting file like DefaultGameCore. You can easily get lost in such code madness which you can't change and test as easily. It's still nice to know though that there is more than just getting XP for kills. :) Maybe some hardcore coder will make some decent changes and fixes one day of the mess here and there.

I first thought a SightRadius increase from 27 to 31 works fine but unfortunately, I first noticed in a large battleship much later that the game crashes in the lowest level. Maybe you remember the room with the many gravitation lifts at beginning there. Down there on the floor, the game sadly can’t handle ranges of 30+ anymore. I’ve tested new radii with a fresh recruit and restarted this battleship map several times. Alas, the sight radii are stuck with previous veteran soldiers, so can’t be change anymore afterwards once they are recruited…as long as you don’t know how to hexedit the saved games. The lowest level there could be avoided as player, but the aliens moving down there can also cause these crashes. If someone is interested in increasing the SightRadius of characters (and weapon ranges) then 29 looks stable down there and most likely in all previous maps too, but I haven’t tested this in the Temple Ship yet. It's only a marginally increase compared to vanilla but better than nothing. Can't imagine removing the fog of war can be done so easily if the game is so sensitive about the SightRadius alone.

All info is from XComGame.upk\XGTacticalGameCore

XP gain is not only about kills. The game currently supports following event cases that reward XP: eGameEvent_Kill: 30 or 60 if lower thank Lieutenant rank and aliens of high rank eGameEvent_Wound: - eGameEvent_Heal: - eGameEvent_Turn: - eGameEvent_MissionComplete: 60 or 90 if not seen any better aliens before eGameEvent_SpecialMissionComplete: 120 or 180 if not seen any better aliens before eGameEvent_ZeroDeadSoldiersBonus: 20 eGameEvent_TargetResistPsiAttack: 10 eGameEvent_KillMindControlEnemy: 0 eGameEvent_SuccessfulMindControl: 0 eGameEvent_SuccessfulMindFray: 20 eGameEvent_SuccessfulInspiration: 30 eGameEvent_AssistPsiInspiration: 30 eGameEvent_Sight: - (case only checks at beginning if seen any better aliens before) eGameEvent_SuccessfulPsiPanic: 30