Annette and Zhang HP/Accuracy/Will nerf

[Amineri]

I really want to upgrade Sectoids so they can use psionic abilities when mind merged. A +1 HP bonus and +25 crit is okay but feels out of character.

 

I imagine mind merge more as a "wonder twin powers, activate!" kind of thing. I think making the receiver of a mind merge able to use Psi Panic would be pretty "fun" in the early game. Later on they could upgrade to get Mindfray, to help keep them relevant.

 

The thing I have to do is figure out how to add new abilities to the list built by the native function XGUnitNativeBase.BuildAbilities. I might be able to statically give Sectoids a psi ability but making it conditional on receiving a mindmerge will be trickier :)

[FlyingHigh10000000]

 

 

I made a very frustrating discovery - when making the changes you have to be aware of the character's rank like:

 

Rank 4 Liutenant

 

Why? Well the stats for Aim and Will which are set in the heroes personal stats start to grow with new levels only after the new rank is gained. So if you set aim it at 66 it will stay at 66 until you get rank 5. So when my other soldiers who reached rank 4 had about 85 aim Zhang only had 66. So you have to set aim and will for previous ranks.

 

I so need to do more testing :S anyway I hope this info helps someone with the same problem.

 

To be fair, Zhang and the other special soldiers are just that: special. Could always fire them, if you really don't like how powerful they are. They get the stats that they do, because they're very special people. Zhang shows just how adept he is, when he uses a pistol to kill a Sectoid as it runs behind your squad of soldiers, none of which heard it scampering around behind them. He's depicted as better than your guys, because he /is/ better than your guys. He's been in the Triads for a long time, and has seen a lot, judging by his scars, and the lines he says in battle. That's also the reason why he's just brought in on the X-COM project with no real questions. He's proven himself to be more than capable in the field. Heck, he even has unique textures and a unique voice. If he's that big of a problem, just...don't use him, maybe? It seems like a lot of work for almost no payoff, when you can just ignore or fire him, instead of trying to go in and force the game to not make him as good as he actually is.

 

On the positive side, you wanted to keep Zhang from making the normal troops feel bad for not being as awesome as him, and by crippling his aim by setting it to an inaccurate 66, you've at least done that, though maybe not in the way that you intended.

 

 

My problem is that a tough guy brought up from the streets with only gang fighting experience could detect a sectoid THAT A TEAM OF ELITE AGENTS GATHERED FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO ARE TRAINED TO HUNT AND KILL ALIENS COULD NOT FIND! WTF MAN?

 

Anyways, enough on why I don't like him, resume original topic now.

 

 

You do realize that the Triad organizations are not normal "gangs," right? They're organized crime, much like the mafia, yakuza, etc. Their soldiers tend to be pretty well-trained, because they do a lot more than just fight in the streets like common thugs. If anything, a good triad soldier would be MORE adept at hunting and killing in an urban environment than a vast majority of people. Zhang. Is. Special. If you really hate him that much for being canonically better than the rest of the soldiers, you have quite a few options for not having him on your squad. MEC him, fire him, let him sit in the Barracks for the entire game. Heck, you can even just let him die in Friends In Low Places, and skip the entire Zhang thing. It ends up just being a cheap shortcut to tech that you shouldn't have at that point, anyway, by the time you finish the third mission. I'm trying not to just be a jerk about this, but you seem to be taking the longest route possible to fix a fairly simple problem. You seem to really, really not like Zhang, or any of the other special soldiers, but...you don't want to fire them, and are instead going so far as to delve into the UPKs to change their stats, one at a time. Why? That's like not liking one of the countries, and instead of just ignoring that country, going into the game files to remove it entirely from the game. You're putting more work on yourself than necessary. :P

Edited December 19, 2013 by FlyingHigh10000000

[Krazyguy75]

 

 

 

My problem is that a tough guy brought up from the streets with only gang fighting experience could detect a sectoid THAT A TEAM OF ELITE AGENTS GATHERED FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO ARE TRAINED TO HUNT AND KILL ALIENS COULD NOT FIND! WTF MAN?

 

Anyways, enough on why I don't like him, resume original topic now.

 

 

You do realize that the Triad organizations are not normal "gangs," right? They're organized crime, much like the mafia, yakuza, etc. Their soldiers tend to be pretty well-trained, because they do a lot more than just fight in the streets like common thugs. If anything, a good triad soldier would be MORE adept at hunting and killing in an urban environment than a vast majority of people. Zhang. Is. Special. If you really hate him that much for being canonically better than the rest of the soldiers, you have quite a few options for not having him on your squad. MEC him, fire him, let him sit in the Barracks for the entire game. Heck, you can even just let him die in Friends In Low Places, and skip the entire Zhang thing. It ends up just being a cheap shortcut to tech that you shouldn't have at that point, anyway, by the time you finish the third mission. I'm trying not to just be a jerk about this, but you seem to be taking the longest route possible to fix a fairly simple problem. You seem to really, really not like Zhang, or any of the other special soldiers, but...you don't want to fire them, and are instead going so far as to delve into the UPKs to change their stats, one at a time. Why? That's like not liking one of the countries, and instead of just ignoring that country, going into the game files to remove it entirely from the game. You're putting more work on yourself than necessary. :tongue:

 

 

Yeah, but organized crime and gangs are not really that different when it comes to training. It is simply scale that makes the difference. The mafia families are basically glorified gangs, as are the triad organizations. I understand that there are methods, but this I had a colonel squadsight sniper by the time I did that mission. The guy could detect a thin man in full cover from across most of a terror map, but couldn't find a sectoid 3 feet away..? That's what I don't get. And I don't dislike Annette, I just don't like that intro cutscene. That's it. If Zhang started with an ability to detect cloaked seekers and had 50% reaction, then that's one thing, but he doesn't, so I dislike his backstory.

 

But you are entitled to your own opinion.

 

EDIT: OOH SHOULD TOTALLY GIVE HIM THAT ABILITY!

Edited December 19, 2013 by Krazyguy75