The Top Ten list of Best Mods

[davidlallen]

Well, that should get your attention. I'll update this post as people give their own choices.

 

Most useful, not cosmetic, not changing gameplay:

Instant Avenger Menus

Stop Wasting My Time (partially superceded by March 10 patch)

Evac All

Free Reload

Gotcha (aka Flanking Preview)

Free Camera Rotation

 

Best enemy additions:

Muton Centurion (Day 0)

A Better Advent

 

Best new playable soldier classes:

(I don't really use them, let me know your suggestions)

Leader Pack (Day 0)

Playable Advent (self-promotion warning)

 

Best cosmetic:

Capnbubs Accessories

Uniform Manager

Free The Hood

 

Other categories?

Edited March 12, 2016 by davidlallen

[Zyxpsilon]

Most useful;

-- ShowMeTheSkills + ShowMeThePersonel

-- Mission Time Remaining + Upcoming Events in Hours

-- Upgrade Reminder

-- Lifetime Stats

 

Best Gameplay (Second Wave);

-- SWR Not created Equal + SWR Hidden Potential

 

Best Gameplay (Change to Ruleset);

-- More Squad Size Upgrades

 

Best Cosmetic;

-- More ..Armor + Skin + Hair.. Colors

-- DiverseFacePaints

Edited March 12, 2016 by Zyxpsilon

[Lucubration]

Definitely agree with many of the ones up there right now, so I won't repeat them.

 

Overwatch All - It not only cuts down on the time to Overwatch your squad but avoids that annoying bug where your UI gets stuck if you press 'Y' too quickly when cycling through your team.

 

Configurable Mission Timers - This one might just be people like me who dislike them timers.

 

Ignore Missing Content - Really useful, especially when you're loading and unloading mods to test stuff.

 

Save Scum Roller - Really useful when you want to try out different hit/miss results for testing abilities (I swear, guv!)

[DerBK]

I got two nominations that i love:

 

- Quick Start

Such a simple mod, but oh so convenient. Sadly, it hasn't made its way from the Workshop to the Nexus yet, which is a real bummer.

 

- All Pods Activate

Another fairly simple change, but this one completely changes how the game is played. Without having to worry about pod activations, gameplay improves a lot in my experience.

[Dragon32]

OK, I'll bite :smile:

 

Narrowing this down to just 10 has been very hard. I've 115 mods loaded at the moment, I haven't had to use Remove Missing Mods / Ignore Missing Content yet, I'm sure if I do they'll teleport onto this list.

 

Breaking the mods down by the categories I use to organise them:

 

Customisations

Capnbubs' Accessories Pack. Well, duh.

More Armor Colors. Allows for more customisation of my troopers. Particularly as I'm running a bunch of camouflage mods.

 

Enemies

Muton Centurion. Added this into my first play through and it's a baddie which fits right into the game. Excellent.

 

Fixes

Hazmat Vest Fix. Added into my first play through when I realised my blade ranger couldn't run through acid. Wuh..?

 

Maps

More Maps Pack. Whole new levels to fight aliens in? Whole new scenery to fight aliens on? Yes please.

 

Soldiers

Immersive Names. I like my soldiers to feel like real people. This really helps.

Uniform Manager. City centre mission? Couple of clicks and everyone's dressed for the party.

 

Tweaks

Stop Drop and Roll. Stops one of my ultimate bad arses from running around screaming for an entire mission. I mean, c'mon.

 

UI

Evac All. A time saver and it looks fantastic when they all leave at once. It saved my bacon on a hack the terminal mission yesterday, one turn to go and only one blue square the Specialist could move to to get eyes on the objective. Phew.

Free Camera Rotation. First mod on Nexus. First mod I installed. Essential.

 

 

Honourable mentions

Mods which didn't quite make the top ten...

 

Customisations

Military Camouflage Patterns. Helps me create my team of ultimate bad arses.

More Skin Colors. OK, there's some weird colours in here, but the colours it does provide give so much more flexibility in setting up my soldiers' skin tones.

New Hair Mod. Again, some weird colours (yay, punks!) but so many more shades than the default choices.

Starship Troopers Tattoo. Would you like to know more?

 

Enemies

ADVENT Officer - Call Reinforcements. This just makes me prioritise them even more but I just love the idea (and the scene of them screaming into their radio which plays out in my head)

 

Fixes

Smoke Grenade Fix. So needed in the early game. At least for me...

 

Maps

World Expansion Project - ADVENT. Sadly appears to have been abandoned. More variety in the places I get to die, yay!

 

Soldiers

Nicknames Extended. Helps my soldiers feel unique, customisations are the obvious thing but a whole set of new nicknames, making them even more unique? That'll do me. Also helps with writing their back stories.

Rookie Armor Mod. Welcome to X-Com, trooper, have the shitty armour.

 

Tweaks

Fix Deadeye Aim Penalty. Steam. Makes Deadeye worth using.

True Retroactive AWC. It just seems fairer.

 

UI

Always Show Shot Breakdowns. Means I don't have to fold out those wings every few seconds? Yes, please.

Gotcha! AKA Flank Preview. Only been using this for a little while but so far it's fantastic.

Mission Time Remaining. Too many times in my first play through did those little rumour boxes disappear. Not this time.

Show Health Values. Before this mod: "How many dots of health left? One, two, three, five, eight... s***. One, two... s***"

Better Tactical Zoom Out. Before this mod I went through all sorts of screen rotations and other contortions to see if I could get eyes on a particular enemy, not any more with this.

 

 

These I haven't tried (they're loaded, just not got to the bit of the game where they kick in) but look good:

 

Advanced Modular Weapons

Better Shieldwall (as it's absolutely bloody useless in vanilla)

Elerium Core Crafting and Suit Upgrading

Experimental Item Unlock

 

 

[Edit:

 

Oh, and I should say that using Solariz' Mod Manager makes managing all my mods an absolute breeze. More people should really check it out. See this thread: Looking for a way to skip the launcher]

Edited March 14, 2016 by Dragon32