XCOM2 A mod suggestion

[JohnSmith82]

A mod suggestion

I am by no means an expert modder. I wouldn't try to say I'm great with programming, especially not with XCOM 2's codes (even though it's supposed to be easier to modify). But I would say I'm pretty good at seeing balance issues in a game and thinking of interesting ways to rectify it. So, without further ado, adoo, ad... without further explanation, here's my suggestions for a Mod!

Aggressive gameplay

Realistically, discovering your enemies first should be an advantage. Instead, in this game if you accidentally trigger too many enemies by accidentally seeing them, you have more people to fight which makes the game harder. While fundamentally rectifying this would be almost impossible, there are some ways I feel you can patch the gameplay.

An arbitrary ticking doomsday clock in the corner that just makes you lose if you aren't aggressive enough doesn't fix the fundamental problems with gameplay that cause people to play defensively in the first place. In fact, it just exposes these problems even more and makes gameplay more tedious and teeth grinding. Defensive gameplay is all but required by the game, and while the creators might see themselves as being creative for requiring that you do things faster rather than being able to slowly work your way through the game, it just makes things feel broken. Games should be fun, and while difficulty is appreciated, there needs to be a sense of strategy. Walking on hot coals with your bare feet may be difficult, but it's not fun. Making a game engaging and hard should be the goal, not the equiviliant of taping razor blades to a steering wheel to make driving more difficult. People appreciate a realistic challenge, that tests skills, not patience. It should only be harder because the strategy is harder, not for random things like health is higher or you have less time to complete a mission.

-Re-engaging stealth- If all enemies who can see you are dead, the entire squad re-enters stealth mode. Therefore, killing men covers back up your position. Sort of speaking, "Dead men tell no tales", so if you can disappear after killing a group of soldiers it becomes a game of cat-and-mouse again where you seek out another group of 3 to ambush first and hope you don't run in to any patrols.

-Specific movement- rather than aimless wandering, patrols actually move towards you in the game. This is not an arbitrary feature like in the original game (moving enemies in name only), but one where if they hear shooting (or if you start shooting), they go towards the sound to engage you. This means that the ticking clock in the game is hoping not to be accidentally found by the enemies all at once, not instantly losing for missing the deadline. You can still win, but it will be at great loss and muchharder. The goal is basically to kill the enemies as quickly as possible so they won't kill you (just like real life!), rather than to meet an arbitrary deadline that only exemplifies the problem with the core mechanic of the game. Also makes stealth more useful rather than a one-off thing in the game. Quick ambushes of small squads allow you to move to one unit to the next. Patrols will move to the area they last heard and keep moving in the last direction there was shooting at. Only some of the groups will be moving, while others will essentially be on guard duty.

-Removal of or extension of game-timers; like 50% to 100%. Less timed missions. You don't automatically lose if the timer is met, but reinforcements are called in every 2-3 turns instead. Not meeting the timer means an endless wave of enemies, which will eventually kill your men, but not instantly. Timers don't start until you are first revealed in a game.

-Bigger maps would help with all of this, since aliens could see you more easily in close quarters and therefore it makes it easier to accidentally "trigger" them. A little less cluttered and easier to exploit cover would make it so you could engage them anywhere ,rather than having to wait in specific places. It also makes the stealth aspect a little more realistic and gives you more time to allow the enemies to sneak up on you.

-Every time aliens do see you, your characters who've exhausted all their moves gain one extra move. So if you sprint quickly across the map and accidentally "trigger" the alien group who immediately gains a bonus move to seek cover or move twice, you also gain the same bonus extra action or move. This way, you aren't forced in to moving defensively in fear of triggering aliens, and you get extra shots off which rewards or compensates for aggressive playing styles.

Medicine

Obviously, nobody likes waiting. A game about watching paint dry or standing in line at the DMV is not going to be any fun. It's particularly brutal when the punishment for being injured is you can't play your favorite characters. It's a pretty vicious way to punish a player "No, you can't have fun for a while!" if your guys get injured. While I realize there needs to be *some* kind of mechanic to make getting injured a bad thing, I think it makes more sense if, every time they're injured they take some kind of penalty to will or what have you (just like the normal penalty) unless they get back up to full health, and as well they simply have, less health. Imagine starting off the game with a guy with half health. You'd likely choose to bench him rather than be forced not to have him for 6 missions for 12 days. And if you really needed him, you could have him (or her), rather than only being able to do this in specific missions that allow you to do this. Doesn't break gameplay mechanics, still punishes the player in a way, but you aren't forced in to not using them, it's just a good idea.

-Injured soldiers can always be in combat irregardless of missions, but take penalties to will. The obvious drawback is that soldiers start with less health and eventually you may choose to bench your own soldiers, but don't have to.

-Soldiers always go to critically wounded rather than die. 3 turns to stabilize.

-Healing times are halved in general

Classes and soldiers

Have no real idea of how to add extra classes, but I'd like to see more than four, maybe going back to the original a bit. More options, perhaps. Maybe the ability to "multiclass" and choose perks from other classes, to an extent.

-Can choose your soldier's class rather than it being chosen at random, and rather than needing to retrain them

-All training is instant, but there is a cooldown to wait until your next guy can be trained (such as with the guerrilla warfare or psychic training powers). This way, you don't have to stop playing your favorite characters (which is an arbitrary and quite frankly brutal punishment- the game basically says "you'll have less fun if you choose your own squad type!", which is B.S.), but there is still a cooldown timer in there, somewhere. It's after, not before.

-All or most weapons available to most classes

Gameplay in General

The game is SO freaking slow but then tries to make you do things in a timely manner which just makes everything feel rushed and, quite frankly a bit broken. It takes forever to balance these dozens of things and every cost in the game is time. Go and hover over this for 7 days in order to receive abonus! Oops, 12 guerrilla battles in that same time frame? Guess you have to balance all of that! It just makes it tedious and quite frankly teeth grinding to keep up with all the s#*!. The game has a ticking clock in the corner but forces you to wait an arbitrary length of time before you can build most the buildings, communication centers and so on. "Hey, beat the game in this amount of time... but the first 3 months are completely wasted! HAHAHA!" It just makes no sense. There's no encouragement of aggressiveness. The gameplay mechanics weren't fixed that caused players to play that way in the first place. It's mandatory due to the ticking clock, but not due to actual gameplay reinforcing it. Which just makes it feel broken.

-Supply drops are instantly received rather than needing to hover over them for 3 days

-Most scanning times are shorter and/or, flying between places consumes less time

-The chance to choose a mission, such as a guerrilla mission, is much longer (maybe a few days?)

-The Avatar ticking clock isn't as quickly pacing; perhaps twice as slow

-Losing the avatar thingy doesn't start a count down timer of doom for 21 days, but rather really hard enemies start to pop up throughout the game. Mostly avatars. This doesn't mean you instantly lose, but you will have incentive to reverse the effects of the project as it means the production of more powerful enemies rather than a "you instantly lose the game!" maguffin (by the way, you've just lost the game. ;) ), which, kind of makes sense anyways to the story.

-"Proving ground" projects faster

-Start with a few engineers and scientists (probably 3-5, depending on difficulty). Start with a few facilities built. Start being able to build resistance communications, workshops and labratories. This is designed to speed up gameplay rather than making you wait a long time for no reason while the avatar project progresses. Basically, the opening moves are already there.

Weapons and Equipment

I'd like to see more weapons, maybe a uh, battle rifle or something? But, that's not the biggest issue.

-Greater ability to obtain weapon modifications, and mods that you want (perhaps you can make them in engineering, for a cost, like smoke grenades)

-Greater ability to obtain the soldier modifications, or PCS upgrades

-Ability to carry two grenades!

-Extra item slot always available (honestly, it's a HUGE change logistically that basically completely changes gameplay so it should always be available imo)

-All classes able to choose all weapons (or more weapon options, at least. Maybe able to choose 4/5 weapons, like a ranger can't have a sniper, and a sniper can't have a shotgun etc., or machine gun. Sort of a rock, papers scissors thing).

-All classes can have a sword, and can choose between it or a pistol (rather than just rangers). Swords do more damage, are more accurate (like 95% or more), and are just overall should be better options to have.

-Aiming bonuses should be increased at close range

-Invisible-stealth like armor to be added

-Overwatch misses less often (couldn't say how much exactly)

-Genetic mods (a lot like upgrading weapons, only impacting gameplay slightly differently)

-Mech mods (obviously less likely to occur due to inherent mechanical difficulties in coding)

[JohnSmith82]

So, thems my idea.

 

Tell me what you think!

[JohnSmith82]

Is there anyway someone could move this to the mod suggestion forum? .-.

 

Sorry about that.