XCOM EU "balance, streamlined gameplay, and realism" mod

[Levgre]

Right now I'm working hard on publishing my first major flash game, so work on this will be sporadic at least for a couple months. This thread will help me develop and track goals until I can start on it, though. If anyone can contribute and wants to join in on the project, that'd be great. Or just give your input, if you wish.

 

 

Features

 

Soldiers now start with a number of upgrades. The idea is to make soldier deaths not snowball into failure, let soldier deaths be a balanced game aspect, and increase strategy depth, especially from the start of the game (as opposed to rookies who can only shoot or throw grenades).

 

Rifle suppression, Deep Pockets (or just an extra slot)

 

Other possible starting abilities (for all soldiers, or some classes)

 

Rapid Fire, Bullet Swarm. Holo-Targeting, Grenadier, Will to Survive, Snapshot, Squadsight, Smoke Grenade, close combat specialist, Sentinel

 

Whatever level progression they have beyond this (they may simply start at a high level) will occur quickly, i.e. at least one level up per most missions.

 

Trade offs for the extra capabilities include:

 

Soldiers will no longer gain health as they level up, or very little. Advanced tech armor will only add a slight amount of health.

 

Stat progression overall will be low, i.e. +2 to Aim and/or Will per level, depending on class. However starting stats will be higher than current.

 

Medkits will be less effective. If possible, all wounds, at least of higher damage, will inflict 'bleeding' (perhaps just represented as poison). Med kit use will be required each time to simply stop further damage. There will not be insta-healing of wounds in the field, except perhaps as a medic upgrade(1-2 HP)

 

Soldier hirings will be more expensive, perhaps 20$-40$. Soldiers may require upkeep, depending on rank.

 

 

There will also be more distinguishing between the classes, more weaknesses, as opposed to vanilla where classes can pretty much do everything well. Some classes will simply not be good/viable on some mission/map types. More careful selection of the team makeup will be required. It's possible that some maps will dictate a nearly full assault team, perhaps with 1 heavy and 1 support.

Over watch will not be available to all classes, or the penalty will just be much greater for some classes. Snipers will be the over watch specialists, perhaps assault will have oversight at close range.

 

 

Sniper Class: Will be made weaker in short-distance combat. A penalty with the sniper rifle will be added for a shot within a certain distance. They will not be able to do incredible damage with 2 shots in 1 turn. They won't be the 'nuker' for the team. Their role will be to enable/support the other soldiers, by either suppressing distance targets or taking out pesky enemies.

 

Assault Class: Assault classes will be made the primary class for close range combat. They will have slightly more movespeed, be the only class able to do 2 shots in a turn (at a larger penalty, to make it not the obvious choice even at long range), more will, and more health.

 

Support Class: Support will now be less bonuses in combat, thus truly embracing the 'support' role. They will not get move speed bonus.

 

Heavy Class: The heavy class will be the best at suppression, and doing damage to large targets. Machine guns will no longer be usable after moves, although more sidearm options will be available, such as a sub-machine gun, so they have the choice to forgo a rocket launcher for better close combat. They will have slower movement and lower accuracy compared to other classes, but this is compensated for now having the highest damage potential weapon (at least slightly surpassing sniper rifles).

 

General Gameplay

 

Cover will be at least twice as effective, for both humans and aliens. Proper military strategy will be required to remove an enemy from cover, i.e. flanking (aided by suppression), explosives, and so on.

 

Accuracy against open targets will also be greatly increased, as even from a large distance this is an easy shot for a trained soldier.

 

However, all alien weapons will become more effective at destroying cover (i.e. alien weapons with current environmental damage of 125 will be increased to 175). The soldiers will have to be more mobile, as a result. Human weapons will be slightly more effective at destroying cover, in particular the LMG and Sniper Rifle, to partially simulate their ability in real life to penetrate barriers.

 

Units (soldiers, enemies if possible) will receive stat penalties after taking wounds in battles.

Sight range will be increased, perhaps more for aliens than for soldiers. The goal is to eradicate the "move as little as possible as to not trigger enemies" core strategy. Knowledge of the battlefield should be a benefit, not of harm. Soldiers may receive a will/defense bonus per active enemy group (or perhaps +1 or +2 per enemy), to simulate the benefit of knowing where your enemies are, and balance the player's ability to fight larger groups.

 

Aliens will be of a harder difficulty, in general, whether that is higher stats, more per battle, more UFOs, so on. I want the mod to highly accessible for a newer player, but to retain a challenge for veterans, as much as is feasible.

 

SHIVs will be cheaper, and less effective. They will generally be there for taking hits and risky battle positions. An elite soldier can cost a million ore more to train, the purpose of military robotics research is to reduce the cost of injured/killed soldiers.

Base Balancing

 

While the majority of this mod is currently focused on battle, there will be some changes to the other aspects of the game. Much of this will link directly into combat, as really that is the part of the game with the most depth and player control.

 

Continent bonus rehauls. Currently none of them really facilitate different strategies. They just save you time and money in a different way, but if you are a skilled player you typically always want to pick the one that saves a good amount of money early, since you can leverage that into later gains.

 

Elite Training

 

All soldiers start at a a higher level, and/or with higher stats.

 

(Benefits a basic, versatile approach to the game)

 

ET Exhibitionism

 

You start the game with Arc Thrower tech (or boost for the research), and an alien containment. Whenever you capture an alien, you receive 10$, perhaps different amounts for different aliens.

 

(promotes a more subtle/precise strategy, where you capture a number of live aliens)

 

Military Tradition

 

You can buy new soldiers at a discounted price, and their maintenance is decreased. Officer school upgrades are cheaper.

 

(allows certain more risky squad makeups, attack strategies, etc.)

 

Will add more as I think of them.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Levgre