XCOM2 Incremental Squad Size increase

[WanWhiteWolf]

Hello folks,

 

I've been playing on legend with with IESS(increase enemy squad size) and IESS+.

 

Unfortunately, no matter how you slice it, the game will be unbalanced in either early or late game.

 

Let's say you play with 6 starting soldiers, +2 from GTS :

 

IES:

Early : OK

Mid Game : AI rarely takes a shot

Late Game: Complete snowball

 

IES+:

Early : A lot of RNG - Pain

Mid Game: OK

Late Game : Almost complete snowball

 

I try to balance things by giving the aliens bufs on late game:

 

Muton Centurion Alien Pack LW_AlienPack 577474474

Improved AI v1.45 ImprovedAI 618390218

ADVENT Commander AdventCommander 620528981

Smarter Sectoids SmarterSectoids 622133088

Fearsome Sectopod FearsomeSectopod 625914499

Additional Dark Events AdditionalDarkEvents 626109271

ADVENT Officer - Call Reinforcements Reinforce 626617018

Advent PSI Operative AdventPSIOperative 628352640

ADVENT Sniper AdventSniper 628401700

A Better ADVENT ABetterADVENT 628891110

Elite Viper EliteViper 634377972

Muton Demolisher Mutontest 637434617

ADVENT MEC : Breacher ADVENTMECBreacher 647998839

ADVENT Priest AdventPriest 648839877

[iESS+] Increased Enemy Squad Size Plus IncreasedEnemySquadSizePlus 625780621

Advent Reconnaissance Unit AdventReconUnit 632036075

ADVENT Titan AdventTitan 654518307

Sectoid Commander SectoidCommander 655821827

It doesn't make to much difference.

So what I would - and probably not the only one- is an incremental squad size upgrade for enemies:

0 - 30 days : IESS (+1 enemy / pod)

31 - 61 days : IESS+ (+2 enemy / pod)

61 - 90 days : IESS++ (+3 enemy / pod)

90+ days IES+++ (+4 enemies / pod)

Does anyone have any plan for a such / similar mod?

Thank you.

[Zyxpsilon]

There's always this https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=650667838&searchtext=more+pods

 

... or the multitude of other mods that add any new Aliens individually like "RiftKeeper" or various kinds of "Advent troop".

Edited April 12, 2016 by Zyxpsilon

[WanWhiteWolf]

There's always this https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=650667838&searchtext=more+pods

 

... or the multitude of other mods that add any new Aliens individually like "RiftKeeper" or various kinds of "Advent troop".

 

The mod will not help much. It will just make the early game more difficult ; because you have to trade shots. But the late game won't be affected. I finish the missions with half of the nukes (shreder, blaster) unused. I am looking for the oposite thing: Not affect early game to much, but impact the late game.

 

For the riftkeeper, you only need to use Aid protocol on your best shooter. This gives him covering fire so that he will take down the Riftkeeper whatever he decides to do after he comes out of stasis.

 

Advent ascension is the only one that is missing from the above description, because it was conflicting with a Better Advent and it was only making the early game more difficult with little impact on late.

 

I pretty much enabled all enemy mods that I could find. I don't want to snowball in lategame.It's boring / not challenging.I am 9 months in the game in the current campain. The last 17 missions were flawless. Not because I am good; but because 8 top-notch soldiers will mop the floor against a 5 man pod.

 

Only way to achieve this is to increase enemy pod sizes based on the month you are in.

Edited April 12, 2016 by WanWhiteWolf

[Zyxpsilon]

Or, just restrict yourself into bringing LESS troops of your own!

 

But i get what you'd wish for. Scaling the curve of difficulty by ADDING more enemies from mid-to-late game is one way to raise the bars... yet, this is artificial in a sense that ""More-Bullets required == Longer missions time to complete == Inevitable need to Win or Lose!""

 

Once you are satisfied with more Aliens and played a few games under these new conditions (thus, finding a regular winning pattern), i'm willing to bet -- you'd find another rational reason to keep stacking the odds even further for more complex challenges. Make a choice -- pure XCom2 (with or without external interventions by Mods) or some form of hybrid Long-War copy/cat!! :)

[WanWhiteWolf]

Or, just restrict yourself into bringing LESS troops of your own!

 

But i get what you'd wish for. Scaling the curve of difficulty by ADDING more enemies from mid-to-late game is one way to raise the bars... yet, this is artificial in a sense that ""More-Bullets required == Longer missions time to complete == Inevitable need to Win or Lose!""

 

Once you are satisfied with more Aliens and played a few games under these new conditions (thus, finding a regular winning pattern), i'm willing to bet -- you'd find another rational reason to keep stacking the odds even further for more complex challenges. Make a choice -- pure XCom2 (with or without external interventions by Mods) or some form of hybrid Long-War copy/cat!! :smile:

 

Vanila XCOM 2 is horrid for me. Basically is almost pure RNG first month. Once you have predator and gaus you almost won. Once you have plasma ....it's only a matter of time. So I could play the first 2-3 months and restart the campaing to feel "the challenge", but I think that's not the best way to go.

 

I am ok with a Long-War copycat , but .... there is no long War. This is what I am trying to achieve.

 

And you might be right that after X campaings, I might need a new challenge. But it will take X campaigns of having fun.Or it might be that I add a few tweaks and I have my holy grail.

 

I would do it myself, but I have no programming experience and the little free time I have, I prefer playing the game. It doesn't seem to be something very complicated - considering the mods out there and the fact there is an example IESS,IESS+, but again, I might be wrong.

Edited April 14, 2016 by WanWhiteWolf

[Zyxpsilon]

Good news is -- some people are already trying to mimic a few LW gameplay rules -- including the difficulty curves provided by its Alien pods mechanics. I guess the most important trick would involve their awesome 2ndWave option; Dynamic War!! By far, it's the ideal solution for a fine campaign re-scaling tuner.

 

I'd say be patient a bit more before giving up on XC2 apparent relative easiness. :wink:

 

In the meantime, i'd have to suggest Yzaxtol's "Spectrum" (( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=637300728&searchtext=Spectrum )). It's in the early stages of development... but it already has many cool variations that might fit your urge for a somewhat better challenge than Vanilla.

 

AND... i know you'd probably have a lot of fun with this too; https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=665546898

Edited April 15, 2016 by Zyxpsilon