Modding EXALT

[AzzoD]

Eh, would work, but lose wise EXALT hates aliens but loves alien tech.

 

 

Mind control or misguided worship, either could thematically justify it. Mainly I just thinking having exalt units outside of exalt maps would add some interesting gameplay and situations. I wonder if AI use smoke grenades on aliens and so on or would that require additional work.

Edited November 27, 2013 by AzzoD

[Krazyguy75]

Of course they do, all enemies are the same for the AI's sake. The harder part would be to separate them.

[cattlekiller]

I like Exalt , but like most here think they are pretty weak.

Not so much from a weapons and or ability standpoint(late game I could see them being no issue as well), but mainly from a AI standpoint.

It seems too many are focused on trying to capture a zone and seem to ignore most of our troops outside that zone.

 

Looking around here I have not seen many posts that have any information about editing AI, is this something that cant be done or much harder to change?

Looking at the individual AI for each unit , there is quite a few lines that are devoted to exalt capturing zones.I guess I need to do a lot more research to find out what can and cant be changed in .upk's.

[saxap]

This organization, given the hint at its lengthy history, should be massive. It should recognize XCOM as a threat and build up an appropriate response.

 

To this end I suggest, in conjunction with previously mentioned buffs to their comm system and units in general, increasing the strength of certain variables either after each month or after each successful covert op. Randomly or simultaneously, depending on balance, increasing the following variables should help with the (lack of) difficulty getting stale:

 

The frequency of missions against XCOM.

The magnitude of these missions.

The number of reinforcement waves in a covert op.

The number of units in each wave.

The number of pods starting on the map.

 

I don't know how plausible it is, but would it be possible for reinforcement waves to come simultaneously from a single direction instead of scattered? I'd really like for the reinforcements to be pods of six units that enter in strategically away from the player's location. Not particularly aware of the feasibility of that but if it is at all possible it would make their reinforcements a lot deadlier.

[wghost81]

The number of pods starting on the map.

Maps have limited spawn points, so this won't be possible. Other changes are possible, but I still can't find where EXALT waves are defined. :sad:

[Anbar]

After a lot more gameplay on impossible its clear that the Exalt stats are not the issue, its behaviour.

 

1) as already stated the EXALT behaviour on entering the map needs fixing (all mission types)

2) they need to attack more and rush to their hacking objective less (Xcom "defending")

3) the entire "hack this and they cant shoot" must be abandoned (its nonesence and it totally screws any attempt at balance)

 

They really dont need any esoteric assistance in stats (not saying dont do it, just saying they dont NEED it)

 

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in my current impossible run-through giving Exalt a +1 damage on all weapons works well for both them and XCOm (the availability of captured exalt weapons comes before laser weapons)... but i dare not increase their personal skills pending a "fix" on their behaviour (as i think a fix on their behaviour combined with the +1 damage weapons will make them lethal).

 

I think the heli-drop insertion of exalt needs the numbers increasing from 1 to 3, preferably each pod being a mixed-bag of types... and then use the "hack" process to delay the insertion of new pods.

 

For the XCOm missions (xcom defending transmitter) if there is a weighting for Exalt to "attack" the designated areas it needs lowering with a higher emphasis on just killing XCOM, preferably on killing the xcom operative (not just any xcom member). If Exalt pods can be given alternate weighting then describe one set to hunt the XCOM operative and another to go for the xcom transmitter/decoder.

 

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obviously, unless where and how exalt waves are defined can be found we're not going anywhere!

ghost - is there anywhere in particular one should be looking? (potentially a very dumb question I know).... is it a case of slogging through code within a upk or finding the relevant upk in the first place?

[saxap]

I also had a thought, in the missions where the operative's objective is to hack the relays there are plenty of relays on the map. I suggest looking for a way to increase the number from 2, especially later in the game.

 

Also, is there a way to make the EXALT units already on the map active and/or in overwatch? I felt the concept was supposed to be that the operative ran into difficulty during the mission, yet the EXALT units aren't actively searching for him.

[Tycus]

After a lot more gameplay on impossible its clear that the Exalt stats are not the issue, its behaviour.

Agreed on that, yesterday I checked their AI and it is... very lacking, to say the least. First, game has no different behaviors for Elite and normal EXALT units; second - medic only has functions to define heal and how to use smoke (not the most intelligent functions either), heavy has targeting code for suppression+holotargeting, and sort of enabler for use of AoE weaponry for Rocket Launcher (as all use of AoE damaging abilities is defined by general for all AI-controlled units special function), and Sniper has some sort of tweaked scoring for positioning, and operative... has nothing, like at all. That's it, folks. EXALTs cannot do anything, because they are literally programmed to be braindead enemies (or not programmed, to be more precise in this case).

 

A little excursus on how AI works: there is general AI, that handle most things, like positioning, movement, taking basic shots and use of most common abilities (Overwatch, Reload, Hunker Down etc.); then there is predefined behavior, that handle use of unit-specific abilities (like use of Sectoids Mind Merge), which sometimes can completely override general AI (Chryssalids); then special functions, that control use of all psionic abilites, or use of AoE damaging abilities (ie grenades), special Team Attack code (launches itself only when there is >2 active enemies; also got improved in expansion) for dealing with flanking and suppressing units, also there is randomized (within specific limits, that are individual for most alien types) aggression modifier, that affects scoring. So it all works like this: first AI builds list (through iterative process) of all actions alien can do, eliminates invalid options, then scores all valid options, and randomly choses one of those chance-based (ie which action has more score - higher are chances that action will be taken), unless there is condition-specific behavior override (like Team Attack code or some predefined behaviors). Also most aliens have some tweaking for their scoring system to make them behave more intelligently; and on top of all that there is difficulty modifiers to scoring, that are applied to all enemies based on selected difficulty (ie, in EU on Impossible aliens were behaving more defensively).

 

<..>

1) as already stated the EXALT behaviour on entering the map needs fixing (all mission types)

What kind of fixing? As I have seen functions, that are responsible for AI behavior after spawn (there is two different spawn types: drop in and walk in, which can be individually tweaked).

<..>

2) they need to attack more and rush to their hacking objective less (Xcom "defending")

This is possible to tweak their scoring to not over-prioritize getting into hack zone (though I would not mind some help on figuring out exact values).

 

<..>

3) the entire "hack this and they cant shoot" must be abandoned (its nonesence and it totally screws any attempt at balance)

Totally agreed. Too bad I am not that familiar with mission scripts to fix it right away.

 

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As for defining waves - haven't found them myself :unsure:. But I like to ask if somebody have seen code, which controls thinmen drops on Council missions? This is only assumption, but it would be logical, that code, which controls thinman drops is the same (or at least nearby) code we are looking for.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Tycus

[wghost81]

ghost - is there anywhere in particular one should be looking? (potentially a very dumb question I know).... is it a case of slogging through code within a upk or finding the relevant upk in the first place?

XComGame.upk handles the tactical layer of the game. Relays are there: XComRadarArrayActor.

 

I usually export ue-scripts with UE Explorer and do context-search for key-words, like EXALT. When I try to follow function calls, search for variables of certain type... this is highly heuristic process, for me at least. :smile:

 

So far, I found XComWaveSystem class (and its children classes, plus XGAISpawnMethod classes), which supposedly handles dynamic aliens placement on missions. I can see how it is updated in XGOvermind, but I can't find where its parameters are set. I tried context search, mission type specific scripts — no luck so far. :sad:

Edited November 29, 2013 by wghost81

[Anbar]

 

<..>

1) as already stated the EXALT behaviour on entering the map needs fixing (all mission types)

What kind of fixing? As I have seen functions, that are responsible for AI behavior after spawn (there is two different spawn types: drop in and walk in, which can be individually tweaked).

 

 

they appear to enter the map (from heli-drop or walk-in) and have a single "2nd movement" to find cover. i.e. they can't move+shoot, or shoot, they can only "move to cover"..and not even "Move to cover & enter into overwatch"....even thin-men can drop-in and go into overwatch.

 

the result being that the player gets an uncontested shoot or move+shoot after they appear.. if Exalt can go into overwatch and perhaps be able to react upon fire (not just movement) it would radically ramp up the level of difficulty: far too often I am able to kill the Exalt pod before they ever get a shot in.

 

I must admit that I am not surprised by their lack of AI coding - prior to release of EW I had a discussion that Exalt would be a horrific enemy to face if they had a decent AI and were "Unshackled" - clearly Firaxis thought the same and so shackled and neutered them. :confused: