mairsil1

Yzaxtol Thanks, but didn't work. Copied what you did precisely and still see no change to any class when I launch the debugger. I may go to the uninstall the SDK and reinstall path as I'm just not seeing anything that could be causing this issue.

Wait, I'm not following. I thought in order to make changes to existing classes or existing INI file entries, your mod INI file had to match the default file's naming convention. If it doesn't, how does the game know where to apply the changes? For example, I'm trying to make changes to the Ranger skill tree, if I don't apply those changes to XComClassData [Ranger X2SoldierClassTemplate], how would the game know I wasn't building a new class or doing something else completely random? Edit: I have looked at another mod, RangerRebalance, which does exactly what I'm trying to do and ostensibly works. The INI file in that mod does keep the name XComClassData and the first line declares [Ranger X2SoldierClassTemplate] then performs the subtraction of the old/addition of the new skills, so I'm not sure why your changing the INI file and section names worked for you and why me keeping the originals fails for me.

Yeah, I got that order matters and all that. I have the same number of abilities in the same order and while I've seen the -,+,-,+ method in other mods, I've also seen the subtract them all then add all of your own method in working mods. I think this goes back to a post I saw from Amineri that said when subtracting (instead of using !) the game looks for the item and value, so if you had Ability 1-7 and you tell it subtract 1, then add 8, subtract 2 then add 9, etc, since it's matching values you would still end up with 8-14 the same as if you tell it subtract 1, subtract 2... subtract 7, add 8, add 9... add 14. That's my understanding of the actual INI manipulation and why I think both methods work. However, what I'm saying is that my debugger literally makes no changes to the Ranger ability tree at all. I could just not have my INI file in the solution and it would look identical, it perpetually fails to recognize it, and I don't know why.

I'm certain I'm missing something simple here, but after pouring over a million mods that work with abilities and reading every post on the topic I can find, I cannot understand why mine will not work. I think I have the ability I would like to add built correctly and I would love to start testing, but when I go into the debugger the class never has the ability I've added. The config file in my solution is named XComClassData.ini, but I have tried it named other things with a "basedon" value set to that ini as well. I have tried using "-SoldierRanks" for each of the default values as well as just "!SoldierRanks" in my INI, then my add in code is just like this (I don't know how this could be wrong, it's identical to what I see in other working mods). Is there some initialization step I'm missing somewhere else that is causing the debugger to ignore my new ability tree?

If you haven't figured this out yet, I stumbled on this after some experimentation. The DefaultGameData.ini item m_iMaxSoldiersOnMission seems to set the true upper bound for your campaign. Then the GTS upgrades for squad size are subtracted back out, so you'll get 4 to start with assuming you have 2 GTS upgrades to squad size and that value is set to 6. If you want the start size to be 6 expandable to 8, set that value to 8.

It seems like your issue might be that you've kept the default Sharpshooter level progression definition intact and just added your desired level progression after it. That may be trying to input multiple values into the template where it's only expecting one. Have you tried building your config file to have only your abilities (deleting the first squaddie through colonel definitions in your class template)? To be fair, while I'd like to do some of this as well, I'm not even this far into modding, so I'm just going from what I think sounds logical and could be completely off base.

Hadn't been able to check this forum in several days, but I did manage to find this on my own... kind of. I thought this INI setting was what allowed me to start with 6 soldiers in my squad (I had it set to 6) and I did start the campaign with only 1 extra guy. However, after some digging I did find NUM_STARTING_SOLDIERS in a .uc that seemed to be initializing the original game state, so I went back and changed that number to 15 and I did have more. However, the number in the barracks after Gatecrasher was 16 total, including the 6 that survived, which makes little sense with the value set to 15 (as either it's total including the squad, where it would be 15, or it's in barracks only and doesn't count the squad so it should be 21). The number of starting scientists and engineers is hard coded to subtract 1 on initialization for Tygan and Shen (this I found in XComGameState_HeadquartersXCom.uc). That .uc file treats all crew as a single variable (Crew) with objectids to differentiate between scientists, engineers, and soldiers. I'm wondering if the code is set up to pull the starting soldiers from the config file but scientists/engineers were hardcoded to 0, then someone went "we need to add one to crew values for Tygan and Shen so the HQ code won't start the Avenger without those guys." So they just throw an increment to the starting values for the Crew variable across the board (didn't find code to back this up, just brainstorming). Then someone else went "Well ok, but we have to subtract it back out after initialization so the display doesn't tell you that you have 1 of each when you only have Tygan and Shen" so they implemented that code I found specifically for engineers and scientists so the display is 0 of each (and probably uses the same variable for Shen nagging you about unstaffed engineers which would be annoying if you didn't have any). But when they put in the code to start those guys at -1, they didn't do the same for the soldier objectid, so your actual total starting soldiers is NUM_STARTING_SOLDIERS + 1. Anyway, that settles my initial question regardless, I have the ability to mess with barracks size now. However if that's the case then is the starting squad size governed entirely by the m_iMaxSoldiersOnMission variable in DefaultGameData.ini? Because I have that at 8 and start with 6. Maybe the starting squad size is just that variable minus the number of size upgrades you can buy? There's a mod out there which gets to the 8 maximum by adding 2 more purchasable increases to the GTS, so I'm guessing if you put 8 there with that mod installed, you'd be back to a 4 man starting squad.

So still don't know how to boost the soldiers in barracks out of the gate, but found a mod that only messed with INI files and got the missing piece to the weird starting/max squad size behavior I was seeing. The DefaultGameData.ini element m_iMaxSoldiersOnMission does need to be 6 or when you get the GTS it will boost to 8 without the upgrades. The problem I had when I had that value in place was that I didn't find the UI element. In DefaultUI.ini there's an element called MaxDisplayedSlots that if you don't bump that up, when you buy your upgrades the new slots won't show because the UI still thinks the max slots are 6.

Update to this, although I found the starting and maximum squad size in the INI files and thought I was good to go, they don't appear to actually work correctly. I began my campaign with 6 squad members, but when I completed the GTS, the first mission I had after that showed the "Upgrade squad size in GTS" for the 7th and 8th slots as it should, but when I launched the mission it had thrown 2 rookies in those slots and I had 8 squad members suddenly. I couldn't equip them, but they went on the mission without actually buying the squad size updates. I know setting the starting and max to 6 wouldn't fix this because when I reached the point of buying a squad size upgrade with those settings on a previous campaign, the message about buying the size upgrade went away, but I couldn't send a 7th unit out. This is beginning to get confusing for what should be a pretty simple change.

I know, it's not really a complex mod to just edit INI values, but I can't find the value I'm looking for and hoping someone knows. Also, if there's a better place for strictly INI value discussions, let me know, but the modding forum seemed like the most sensible place here. I have set the starting soldiers to 6 and max to 8 (because I always liked those sizes better after playing Long War) and found those settings easily enough. I find, though, that having 6 guys and more aliens (found those as well) on legendary leads to more soldier churn in the early game unless I save scum shamelessly (which I try not to, but Ironman is not an option while the restart mission button is still buggy and you could lose your whole campaign on the final mission due to a lucky crit). I figure since the pool in vanilla is about 3x the size of your starting squad size (or 2.5 at least), I'd like to increase the number of soldiers that are in the barracks at the start to 15-18, but I can't find that value in the INI files. I've looked through DefaultGameCore and DefaultGameData searching for "soldier", "barracks", and "armory" and haven't managed to find a value that sounds correct, so unless it's hidden in one that has a completely random name (I know that sometimes happened in EU) I'm not thinking of how to search for it further. If this isn't an INI configurable item, does anyone know of a mod which messes with the barracks size that's already out there somewhere? Thanks