grenademagnet

After my first impossible game I found the Geoscape AI to be pretty tough, basically taking Africa away from me in the second month, even with full satellite coverage (they shot down a satellite and then South Africa left the project). I was thinking of tweaking the panic settings as minimal as needed to give myself a better chance of keeping a continent in the first few months. I was considering setting the parameter STARTING_PANIC_CLASSIC to zero from 16. I had already set this parameter to 8 but that still resulting in losing two countries by the second month. Would setting STARTING_PANIC_CLASSIC=0 give me a better chance at Impossible, or would it make the game too easy? I'm open to other suggestions as well.

That I don't know. I assume it's something hard-coded in the game EXE or supporting UPK files, as on Normal difficulty I believe you start with the OTS, while on Classic and Impossible you do not. There is no specific setting in the DefaultGameCore.ini file that indicates at what difficulty level the OTS is to appear, though the individual rank requirements for the upgrade abilities are listed (and can be modified).

Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to point out two things: 1) In the primary mod file for Implassic, this is not an issue, as I left all the panic settings alone. So the PANIC_UFO_IGNORED=2, which is the game's default, is still found in my base mod file. I assume most people would want to use the base mod file. 2) The PANIC_UFO_IGNORED=1 is only available in a secondary mod file I included that can be optionally used, if desired. I referred to this additional mod file as an "optional hack" in my original post on the subject. I just now updated my original post to make it clear that this modification is in a stand-alone, optional mod file. If people use the default patcher_implassic_v01.bat file to apply the mod then they will get all the game's default panic settings. I hope this clears things up.

Alright, got my new mod up; Implassic version 1.0 http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/17 If you choose the Impossible difficulty then it uses the Classic settings from the DefaultGameCore.ini file. I also included a hack of my mod that contains a few personal gameplay preferences. But that hack is optoinal. Here is what the optional hack contains (EDIT: NOTE: this is in an optional patcher included, and not in the base Implassic mod) SHOOT_WHEN_PANICKED=0 ;Eliminated - so you don't shoot your own troops ;Elite troops are not going to accidently shoot their own buddies ShowUFOsOnMission=1 ; Detect the UFOs that are carrying out abductions and terror missions (from the original INI file) SKYRANGER_CAPACITY = 6 ;start you off with more troops PANIC_UFO_IGNORED=1 ;reduced from 2 to 1 ;OTS: Since the SKYRANGER_CAPACITY makes these parameter redundant, I lowered the cost ' and made the upgrades cheap in case building the OTS resets the skyranger squad size (not tested) OTSBalance=(eTech=eOTS_SquadSize_I, iCash=1, eRank=eRank_Sergeant) OTSBalance=(eTech=eOTS_SquadSize_II, iCash=1, eRank=eRank_Sergeant) Enjoy, and I'll accept any feedback.

I think the AI settings are strictly the same between Classic and Impossible, unfortunately. Number of enemies per map seems a safe bet for a difference that is not in the ini. There probably are others, but none I can think of right now... Thanks for that info. What do you think the enemy count difference is, on the average? An addition three or so? Or do the enemy counts get crazy?

Thanks for all the replies. I'll respond to them shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to throw out this idea, especially to those who have tried and given up Impossible, and or have finished the game on Classic: What would the results be of changing all the Impossible game settings that are modable with all the Classic settings? There are some settings that can be changed by modding, and some settings that are hard-coded to the difficultly level, like AI agression and the number of enemies per map. I assume enemies on impossible will also patrol more rather than sit in place waiting to be discovered (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm guessing the primary side effect of modding the Impossible game to Classic would yield more enemies per map, which would be desirable by some. But what other effects would there be? I'm thinking now of changing my plan: instead of making Classic easier, just use the Impossible difficulty slot with Classic settings. The program EXE will think it's running in Impossible mode, so the hard-coded impossible settings will be used. I'll call this new difficulty setting, "Implassic", as that sounds better than "Classopible".

That's a pretty good list of items I had not thought of. I'm thinking of taking KristmasKthulhu's advice of setting the skyranger count to 6, then also implementing the following: * Your suggestion: increase starting health slighty (perhaps 1 point) * Your suggestion: increase the starting money (perhaps by 50%, as I heard you can get a lot of money as the game progresses) I like your ideas of the experience changes for soldier ranks and bonus increases for end-game opponents. But at this point I don't have a feel for the proper values to set. I'll have to try a game to see what levels make sense, unless anyone has any suggestions. Other changes I will make (just personal preference) * Soldiers don't shoot when panicked. * ShowUFOsOnMission=1 (to give aircraft more things to shoot at) * Adjust country and/or continent panic levels slightly - since I will detect more UFOs I should probably reduce the ignore penalty by 1 i.e. PANIC_UFO_IGNORED=1 instead of 2.

Well, you are correct! In Classic mode, just setting the Skyranger_Capacity to 6 started off my game with 6 rookies, and I was able to equip 6 in the Skyranger in the next mission, so the parameter change still works. In my first modded game I had set the parameter to 6, but I could only equip four. I believe the reason is that I had started the game with the capacity =4, then later modded it to 6 along with a few other changes. I assume the game just went the Skyranger_Capacity parameter I started the new game with. That's fine, so now if I want to test starting with 6 in the Skyranger it's easy to do. Thanks for pointing this out.

Yeah, I also prefer having the option for larger squads, back when I played the original X-Com and the sequel, Terror from the Deep. I'm in the same boat you are, trying to adjust the game to make it feel more like the original. There are a number of limitations, but I think we can all collectively get some better gameplay from our efforts (I hope)... On the skyranger_capacity, I knew of that parameter, and thought I had tried that first, but for some reason the game didn't give me four slots. Perhaps due to the fact I was playing the game on Classic? I know in Normal Difficulty you start with a OTS, so thought that was the reason it worked on earlier skill levels. I'll try again with a fresh, game default INI file and only modify the skyranger_capacity parameter to 6, start a new game in Classic, then will see if it works. I'll report back shortly...

Thanks for all that, but I just wanted to know if modding the game to start with six soldiers instead of four is an adequate balance for the first few months of Classic gameplay without making the game too easy.

Right, I was thinking of making the tactical part easier in the first few months of the game, as in the default Classic mode the game is easier to lose initially than later on, since the four-man squad is very weak at the start. But I wanted to make tactical easier a first without making it easier for the rest of the game, as would come with reducing the alien troop bonuses on Classic. I've already modded the panic levels down, but I'm concerned that will make the Classic game too easier later on. For example, I got through the first month and already got an A rating from the council and the highest panic level from the countries is 2.

* Summary: I had a few questions regarding adjusting the classic difficulty, so will appreciate any feedback to my text below. I'll also share the results of my mod-file with whoever wants it: I've modded my first game to make the strategic layer of Classic a little bit easier, by reducing many of the panic penalties, as I wanted to have more time to learn the game as my underpowered soldiers struggled the first few months. However, since I have read that people are getting through the game on Classic, my mod will probably make the game too easy once my troops are built up in power. So I was considering the following mod to Classic Difficulty, to make the starting tactical missions more survivable: 1) Start the Classic game with the OTS like with Normal difficulty 2) Make the squad-size upgrades available immediately, so you can start the game with six underpowered rookies rather than just four. Then I could leave the country's panic at the Classic defaults. I don't know if I can get the OTS to appear in the base immediately but I can lower the cost and rank requirements so it would cost just $1 to build. And I would reduce the minimum rank for the squad-size upgrades to rookie (and make the cost of those $1 each). I figure this squad-size increase would help balance against the bonsuses the aliens get on Classic Difficulty, such as the +10 to-hit and critical bonuses. For those who have gotten comfortable with the unmodded Classic, would this squad-size adjustment make the Classic beginning more manageable, rather than having bad luck from the RNG end the game early? I know some would say "stick with the unmodded difficulty", but I don't have a lot of time to play the game each week, and don't feel like having to restart the game multiple times just hoping I'll get lucky to make progress into the mid-game timelines. Any feedback would be great, thanks.