Empyrean Mod

[PaxEmpyrean]

So, I've been poking around to see what I can change and what I can't, and I've decided to make my mod publicly available using the Modpatcher instead of just changing my own executable with Resource Hacker. I've got a solid decade of modding experience (including the original X-COM), so I fully expect to be able to manage all of this and come up with a more varied and better balanced game than what we have currently. I also have a ridiculous amount of free time and expect to use most of it to work on this mod, so expect fairly rapid progress. Here is an overview of what I plan to change, including what I know I can change and what I still need to figure out how to do.

 

Overview of Mod Goals:

Make shotguns and assault rifles available to all classes.

Rebalance weapons to make everything viable throughout the game, regardless of tier.

Add inherent abilities to weapons where appropriate.

Normalize stat progression across classes.

Rebalance abilities and aliens in light of other changes.

Minor tweaks to the strategic layer of the game to better balance strategic options (making South America not suck, etc).

Other misc. changes

 

A little more detail on each of these goals:

 

Make shotguns and assault rifles available to all classes.

I can already do this. Getting Heavies to use some weapons took an extra entry in the weapon properties, but that's working fine. Class abilities are typically tied in with the weapon type the class was intended to use, and will need to be adjusted to make them usable with other weapon types where appropriate (no Suppressing Fire with shotguns, etc). I can't edit abilities yet, but when someone finds out where that information is stored and how to change it, I plan to make changes there as well.

 

Rebalance weapons to make everything viable throughout the game, regardless of tier.

This is a sweeping change that will seriously disturb the balance of the early game if I don't modify aliens to compensate for it. I want all of the weapons have their own role. That includes the basic weapons you start with. I'm using the plasma weapons as a baseline; they'll have the fewest changes, and I probably won't touch the aliens' weapons at all (the plasma rifle a Muton uses is not the same weapon as the plasma rifle you can use). The approach I've decided upon to accomplish this is an inherent accuracy boost for laser weapons, with a smaller accuracy boost for ballistic weapons combined with a damage boost that puts them midway between laser and plasma weapons. I can do all of this already, and I've got it all set up in a spreadsheet for comparison purposes already. I'm balancing damage output against an assumed 60% hit rate; for more difficult shots, lasers will give more damage in the long run, while plasma weapons will be better if you've got a target flanked or otherwise have an easier shot. Ballistic weapons are a balance between the two. Plasma weapons that currently do 9 damage will be reduced to 8. There are a number of other buffs being thrown around for the XCOM side, and taking the heaviest hitters (sniper rifles, heavy plasma rifles, alloy cannons) down a peg will help keep things in line. Alien weapons still do their damage as normal.

 

Add inherent abilities to weapons where appropriate.

All automatic weapons (Assault Rifles and LMGs) will have the inherent ability to use Suppressive Fire. LMG-type weapons will no longer have to reload, allowing them to keep up suppressing fire, as LMGs are meant to do. If I can edit the abilities themselves, I'll increase the ammo consumption of Suppressive Fire to encourage using LMGs (which won't have to worry about ammo) while still letting you suppress with an assault rifle if you have to. I can already add Suppressive Fire to the various automatics.

 

Normalize stat progression across classes.

This is another big change. Currently, advancing a Sniper to Colonel rank gives +40 Offense, while Supports get +25, Assaults get +24, and Heavies get +10. This is presumably how they wanted to make some weapons more accurate than others, but they decided to tweak stat progression rather than the weapons themselves. That approach works when weapons are class-restricted, but without that restriction the modifiers need to be applied to the weapons themselves. That means Sniper Rifles will get a +15 Aim bonus (a total of +35 for the laser variant). LMGs will have a corresponding penalty to hit. This is effectively just keeping the same chance to hit with various weapons without making Heavies inherently awful at aiming any weapon and Snipers inherently awesome with any weapon, which is how things would be if I didn't adjust stat progression. I can already do this.

 

Rebalance abilities and aliens in light of other changes.

When ballistic weapons are a viable alternative to plasma weapons, the early game will need to be adjusted. Increasing Sectoid and Thin Man hit points from 3 to 5 is a start. When all LMGs have inherent Suppressive Fire ability, that makes the Heavy ability to use Suppressive Fire redundant and in need of modification or replacement with some other ability. I can already modify alien attributes, but editing abilities isn't something I can do just yet.

 

Minor tweaks to the strategic layer of the game to better balance strategic options (making South America not suck, etc).

I plan to slightly adjust a few things here, like have South America give +3 Engineers and +3 Scientists when you get the whole continent. That would make it the best return on staff per satellite in the game to help compensate for its poor continent bonus. No other changes are planned at the strategic layer just yet, but if I think of something that could use an improvement I'll do it. This is something I can already do.

 

Other miscellaneous changes.

This includes things like 100% Psi-talent for all soldiers, increasing default backpack slots to 2, boosting the accuracy of SHIVs to make them worthwhile, or whatever else I can think of. If I could find a way to have all soldiers who haven't used all of their actions to automatically enter Overwatch when I hit "end turn" I'd do that in a heartbeat. If I can add weapons to the list of sellable items on the gray market I'll do that as well; not at a profit, certainly, but at least as an incentive to take aliens alive for the extra cash you could get from selling their guns.

 

Feedback is appreciated and will be taken into consideration, but ultimately I'm making the mod I want to make, so we'll see how it goes.

Edited October 16, 2012 by PaxEmpyrean

[PaxEmpyrean]

TO DO:

Nothing but testing at this point, unless somebody figures out how to edit abilities.

 

DONE (untested):

Panic UFO_ignored reduced from 2 to 1

 

DONE: (tested, confirmed working)

Buff SHIV base HP from 10 to 15, increase accuracy, alloy and hover get +5 HP instead of +8 (they shoot as well as good soldiers, but that's about all they can do)

100% Psi-talent, training takes 24 hours

Make South America not suck (3 scientists and engineers with 2 satellites on easy/normal, 2 scientists and engineers on hard and impossible)

Normalize stat progression (snipers have same HP progression as other classes, all classes have aim bonus progression at +5, +5, +3, +3, +3, +3, +3)

Rebalanced weapon damage and accuracy (accuracy bonuses with pistols don't work; they inherit bonuses from the primary weapon instead. I gave crit bonuses to pistols; bigger crit bonus for lower damage pistols)

Modified environmental damage values for human and alien weapons. Rifles and pistols are less likely to destroy terrain. Heavy plasma weapons are unchanged. Bullets are the least likely to destroy terrain. Lasers are midway between ballistic and plasma weapons for destroying terrain. Frag grenades do 4 damage and have a larger radius (same as rockets) and alien grenades do 6 damage with a shorter throw distance. Aliens can still chuck them for days, but not quite as long as before.

Add 2nd backpack slot to all armors (high level supports get 3; the UI is wonky and only shows half of the item, but it works)

Buff early game aliens (+2 HP Sectoid and Thin Man, +1 HP Floater)

All OTS upgrades available with a Squaddie, larger squad size upgrades cost $10

LMG-type weapons and SHIV weapons do not need to reload

Make shotguns and assault rifles available to all classes

Add suppression to all LMGs and ARs

Increase base armor to +2 HP instead of +1

Blaster launchers and rocket launchers still do the same damage as before, but rocket launchers can be fired after moving to make them a more competitive option with blaster launchers

Edited October 21, 2012 by PaxEmpyrean

[James009]

Sounds fantastic and like your plan is off to a good start. Edited October 16, 2012 by James009

[Kaerar]

With ya right up to the changes to 100% Psi etc...

 

Don't think you need 100% Psi. Means more cherry picking of troops, which is half the fun :)

[PaxEmpyrean]

The idea with 100% Psi is that you don't handicap yourself if you take your original squad all the way through the game. I get attached to my guys, but I'm also nuts for optimization. I don't like game mechanics that put my desire to optimize on a crash course with my sentimentality.

[Kaerar]

Fair enough but that's part of the choices in XCOM. You have your original guys who got you so far then all of a sudden they are redundant and have to assist the psi guys to increase in capabilities before the finale...

 

TBH I tested out most of your theories above and they work well. Only issue I have atm is incorporating squadsight on assault rifles for the Sniper. Can't quite work out how he managed that, though I have a theory :D

 

As for making SA suck less, well that's tough as you'd need to either increase rewards or increase cash. Both of which are potential mine fields for balance corruption.

 

I was thinking most automatic weapons should apply a certain amount of suppression anyway. Most of the AI guns do, even the Sectoid pistol has an inbuilt suppression value of 20. This leads me to believe that there is meant to be a negative for a target under fire, but I don't know if it works 100%.

 

If you want to have a look at the figures I used for weapon/panic setup then PM me and I'll send over the files :)

 

Had me a lot of fun on an impossible start with 8 starting dudes (usual 4 dispatched) and a 8 sectoids in the first map :D

Edited October 17, 2012 by Kaerar

[PaxEmpyrean]

"Ditch the guys you've used from the start or have a crappy squad" isn't really a very fun choice. Thanks to modding, I don't have to abandon the familiar faces to be most effective; I can keep the squad I like as long as I can keep them alive. I have more fun playing with soldiers who have history; a lot of battles, some close calls where they probably shouldn't have survived but some did, stuff like that. I don't like for their story of fighting the alien threat since the very beginning to end with them being unceremoniously benched because they didn't have brain-magic. At the same time, I don't like being handicapped by my desire to play with the surviving soldiers that I've been using since day one.

 

TBH I tested out most of your theories above and they work well. Only issue I have atm is incorporating squadsight on assault rifles for the Sniper. Can't quite work out how he managed that, though I have a theory :D

On a hunch, I added eWP_Sniper to the assault rifle's properties. This enabled Squad Sight as well as Precision Shot for my sniper only, who had those perks. While it seems that eWP_AnyClass allows all non-Heavy classes to use a weapon, if you want them to be able to use their class abilities with that weapon you'll need to add the corresponding class specifically.

 

I noticed the suppression values listed for various weapons as well. They don't seem to do anything.

 

I was a little disappointed that pistols seem to inherit whatever accuracy bonuses you have on your primary weapon. It means that snipers are still more accurate with pistols than other classes are, which was something I wanted to avoid. I also wanted to balance their damage with accuracy bonuses to differentiate them, but since I can't do that I added critical hit bonuses to them instead. Pistols that do less base damage have higher critical hit modifiers, making them somewhat more useful for snipers with the Gunslinger perk. With the full suite of pistol upgrades and the Gunslinger perk, an attack with a pistol is about as good as an attack with an assault rifle, although not as good as a character using Rapid Fire or Bullet Swarm.

Edited October 17, 2012 by PaxEmpyrean

[Kaerar]

I agree ditching your main squad isn't really viable, it's pretty poor IMO actually, but setting the Psionic multiplier to 1 instead of 4 seems to result in a 50% hit rate of Psionic Gifts. 0.1 is 100% while 4 would be around 1 in 8 maybe less have the gift.

 

I'll give that Sniper idea a go. See if it works. Though I didn't notice the pistol getting the accuracy bonus of the Primary weapon. I reduced the Sniper's Aim bonuses and stuck them on the Sniper rifles via the Offense ability and it evened it out without making Snipers OP in the early and late stages. Pistols work about right with my settings so far. I set them to be similar to light plasma rifles with Foundry Bonuses.

[Anbar]

On a hunch, I added eWP_Sniper to the assault rifle's properties. This enabled Squad Sight as well as Precision Shot for my sniper only, who had those perks. While it seems that eWP_AnyClass allows all non-Heavy classes to use a weapon, if you want them to be able to use their class abilities with that weapon you'll need to add the corresponding class specifically.

 

I noticed the suppression values listed for various weapons as well. They don't seem to do anything.

 

 

funny that ¬_¬

[PaxEmpyrean]

On a hunch, I added eWP_Sniper to the assault rifle's properties. This enabled Squad Sight as well as Precision Shot for my sniper only, who had those perks. While it seems that eWP_AnyClass allows all non-Heavy classes to use a weapon, if you want them to be able to use their class abilities with that weapon you'll need to add the corresponding class specifically.

 

I noticed the suppression values listed for various weapons as well. They don't seem to do anything.

 

 

funny that ¬_¬

What you described in your post involved adding eWP_Sniper and eWP_PreciseShot to a weapon. You don't actually have to add eWP_PreciseShot for a character with that perk to use it with the weapon in question. I'm not just retreading something you already posted about, so spare me the patronizing comments.

Edited October 17, 2012 by PaxEmpyrean